Abalax Sky Island, Espat.
The entire Sky Island was encircled by a massive translucent barrier that allowed it to blend in with the surrounding sky. From the outside, it was impossible to see inside or locate the island. The sky island had four gates via which one could enter and exit it. They were located in the east, west, north and south directions. Currently, 10,000 students were gathered in front of the North gate, which was a large black metallic door.
Except for the black gate, nothing could be seen in the immediate surroundings by the 10,000 students. They seemed to be standing in the midst of the sky, and anyone with acrophobia would have been trembling by shifting their gaze down at their feet. There was nothing below them but a few clouds and the blue sky, with no evidence of any life, buildings or mountains. The students were all elites, heights didn’t scare them and were all waiting quietly for the representatives of the academy to arrive and pick them up.
Even if some knew each other, nobody talked with one another. Their main focus was the opening ceremony, which had more of an importance than some pointless small talk. Talking would only serve to distract them, so they silently stood in their respective places where they were teleported. There were more students arriving by teleportation and the opening ceremony was still 10 minutes away.
…..
Royal Castle, Nightingale.
Lilith and Lucy dressed Lith up for the opening ceremony. He was dressed in a crimson tie and a white shirt with a black vest. Along with a black long coat, black trousers buckled with a black belt, and black shoes. On his chest was the Royal Clan’s Insignia, and he wore a white sash with black lettering engraved on it that read ‘Entrance Topper.’
The sash was delivered to him by academy officials a few days earlier, and he was supposed to wear it for the opening ceremony. He had part of his hair brushed to the side and the rest in a bun. It gave him a restrained and dignified appearance. Lilith and Lucy chose his attire, and they made sure Lith appeared calm, reserved, scholarly, and handsome. Although the clothes he wore were not very regal, the elegance with which he carried himself gave him the appearance of royalty.
Lilith corrected the position of his tie and got back. She and Lucy looked at him and nodded in satisfaction. She said with a smile
“My baby looks very handsome. Come let’s take a picture before you go.”
Lilith pulled him in between her and Lucy and Lith wrapped his arms around their waist. Lilith had set up the camera beforehand, she snapped her finger and
Click!
The shutter made a clicking noise and the photo got captured. It was printed out at the same moment. Lilith raised her two fingers and the photo flew in between them. She looked at the photo and gave a satisfied smile.
She then grabbed a ring from her spatial ring and gazed at Lith. The ring was grey metallic in appearance and circular in shape, with no additional embellishments. It was etched with black roses in a circular pattern. She made him wear it in his pinky finger of left hand and said
“This is the protective artifact that you asked me a few days ago. If there’s any attack on you that you are not capable of fending off against, you will have a barrier set up that could not be broken by any Emperor rank. If the attack on you is more than that, the ring will detect it and teleport you to me directly.”
“*Gasp* Mom, isn’t it a bit overkill?” Lith asked after gasping.
‘Mom could make such a high level artifact so easily?’ He thought to himself.
“That’s only natural. Mom is very protective.” Lucy added from the side with a smile.
She was going to say that the reason for such drastic measures were due to her experiencing a near death situation and their mom didn’t want to repeat it again but she didn’t say it because she didn’t want to ruin the good atmosphere.
Lith nodded at his sister’s words. He looked at the ring and then at his mother and gave her a kiss on her cheeks and said with a smile
“Thank you, mom.”
The space started fluctuating around Lith and he knew it was time to teleport now. He said hurriedly
“See you soon, mom, big sis.”
“See you soon, baby.”
“See you soon, dear.”
Lilith and Lucy said in unison with a smile.
Abalax Sky Island, Espat.
Lith teleported in front of a large metallic gate. As he looked around, he noticed a large number of students of various races dressed formally in a variety of fashions. He also saw that he was standing in front of them all and guessed that their positions were determined by their exam scores.
After a short while, the enormous metallic gate opened, and a group of adults wearing purple armbands marched out towards the students. There were 100 people in total, and the person leading them was a beautiful bluish silver haired lady wearing opaque black circular glasses. She was dressed in a white shirt tucked into black pants, a black belt, a black tie, and black high heel shoes. She wore a purple armband with the black letters ‘A-1’ on it.
The bluish silver haired lady had a flawless physique with all her curves being just the right size. Behind her was a brown hair and eyed lady with curves a bit bigger than her. She looked pretty but in comparison to the lady in front of her, she seemed average. The brown haired lady was in a black and white business attire and she too had a purple arm band with ‘A-1’ written on it in black.
The bluish silver haired lady stopped a few meters in front of Lith. Others who were following the lady stopped too. The bluish silver haired lady said
“Instructors, please move towards the batch of students that is assigned to your class.”
All the people behind her nodded and charged forward. The brown haired lady stood still in place. The bluish silver haired lady said
“Class A-1.”
Her voice was heard loud and clear to the 200 students who were present, Lith included. These students felt a slight tug on them and in the next instant, they realised that they were standing in front of the two ladies with purple armband. The students were standing in 10 rows with 20 in each row. The bluish silver haired lady then said
“Class A-1, I am your class teacher, Arya Relgar. This is, Sel, your second class teacher. As of now, this is the only thing that you should know. Let’s move on to the auditorium for the opening ceremony.”
Arya introduced Sel to the 200 students in front of her mid sentence. Sel just gave a small wave with her hand as her introduction and didn’t say much.
The other instructors got to their respective batch of students and introduced themselves in the same short way as Arya.
The 10,000 students were divided into 50 classes with each class having 200 students in them. The classes were from A-1 to A-50 with A-1 being the highest in hierarchy and A-50 the lowest. The students were allotted their classes according to their examination rank.
Arya and Sel walked inside the gate and class A-1 followed after them. After A-1, it was A-2 that walked inside and then A-3 and so on until A-50 did. The gates closed automatically once everyone entered inside and in the midst of the sky, there was only one large metallic black door that stood. After a few more minutes, the door vanished too.
Even though it was on a neutral continent, the academy was carefully guarded and camouflaged. It was supposed to be a secure refuge for youngsters of all races and a place where they could be groomed. As a result, security was tight, and it never hurts to be extra cautious. The academy gates would only be visible when someone attempted to enter or exit, and their placement in the air would be random. Thus, nobody could locate it even if they tried.
Though the gates are visible when someone enters or exits, there is a lot of security measures that are taken during such times and the academy is in a battle ready states when opening or closing the gates. Therefore, to enter and exit was also a tedious process and one needed to go through various processes for the same as a lot of things are taken into consideration.
…..
Liam was walking with his classmates and teachers in a peaceful manner. He appeared cool on the outside, but he was raging on the inside. It was excruciatingly painful to be at the tail end of the entire batch. He would have been disqualified for not placing in the top 10,000 in the Combat Test if it hadn’t been for his performance in the other tests. He was well aware of it, and as a result, he cursed the Vampire Prince every day. He’d made up his mind to kill him as soon as the opportunity arose.
…..
Like everyone else, Lucas was walking peacefully. He didn’t say anything to anyone or do anything that would attract the attention of those around him. He appeared to be an average student. He was also in class A-23, which was neither too high nor too low in the hierarchy. He, too, had plans, but he wasn’t thinking about them right now. According to him, now was not the proper time.
