Crimson Core

—Knock. Knock—

The next morning Kai woke up to Darcy’s knock on his door and discovered that his body was under his control.

As he attempted to move, he realized that something was terribly wrong. His body felt heavy and unresponsive, like an anchor that kept him tethered to the ground. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t muster the strength to even lift a finger. The fear and frustration that built up inside him were almost unbearable. He was at the tipping point.

When he wanted to get up from bed, he put in more effort to stand up and he was successful. It didn’t take long before he felt that something was wrong. He felt really light and instead of walking, he was floating and worst of all, he began seeing his face without looking at the mirror. He could feel himself leave his body.

Kai had never been so scared in his entire life, he hurriedly swam through the air back into his body. ‘Phew… That scared the shit out of me.’

A few moments later Darcy entered Kai’s room and the next thing she did was unexpected.

She bowed as deep as she could towards Kai as she greeted him. “Good morning, Lord Ashtaroth.”

Kai did not respond so she remained in her position.

It wasn’t as though Kai did not want to respond but his body was pushed to its limit—scratch that, Beyond it’s limit. Kai struggled to push himself to turn his next to face Darcy before he spoke. “Wh… What?” He managed to say.

Darcy raised her head to see that Kai was still lying down but his head was turned to her. “It’s in the prophesy…” That was all she said.

Meanwhile, in Kai’s mind, he was screaming, ‘What is happening to me?! Deity please answer me!’

‘Don’t worry it is normal. The power I exerted yesterday ripped you apart from the inside out, but you are healing now.’

Confused Kai asked, ‘Can’t you do something about it?’

‘No, I can’t do anything about it, if I did something, your potential would decrease,’ the deity answered.

‘So what do I do now?’ Kai asked the deity.

‘I have kept you in a wheelchair, it is close to your window.’ The deity said as he looked towards the wheelchair close to the window. Darcy followed Kai’s line of sight to the window and saw a wheelchair.

With all things said and done, after a few long moments Darcy pushed Kai out of his chambers in a wheelchair. At this time Kai had regained control of his face. Darcy pushed him to his class on the other side of the school.

It was a single classroom wide enough to hold at least a hundred students but when Kai was pushed into the room he saw eight seats in a circular arrangement with another seat in front.

Students were already seated in their seats when Kai was pushed in. “Ah…! Lady Dorchaidehe, what a pleasant surprise.” A masculine voice sounded from behind Kai and Darcy.

Turning around Darcy responded nonchalantly, “Good morning Tutor Lester, I brought Kai here to his class.”

Smiling Lester responded. “Oh! So very nice of you, he must be grateful to you.”

Lester was a lanky young man. His build was much like that of Kai, but he was taller and more toned; it was clear that he had spent a lot of time on his body. He had the eyes of a man who could kill without giving it a second thought, but his smile made him rather approachable.

His amber-colored eyes seemed to pierce into the soul. It was clear that Lester was a gentleman who liked to take care of his looks, his hair was clear evidence of that.

Darcy ignored him and walked into the classroom pushing Kai in front. ’Her name is Dorchaidehe? What type of parent gives such a name to their daughter?, Kai laughed silently within himself, although surprised at the eccentricity of Darcy’s name.

After Darcy has dropped Kai off she said a few words to him, “I will pick you up after class.” She smiled, almost skipping out of the room but her expression changed into that of utter disgust when her eyes met with Lester’s as she walked out of the class.

Lester walked towards the board to start teaching. “As of a norm, we have introductions before we start the class but we are already behind schedule so we would start with the lessons first…”

As the tutor taught, his students were silently discussing what just gone down. “Did you see what happened?” A student with black hair whispered to another student beside her.

With wide eyes she responded in a whisper as well, “Yes, lady Dorchaidehe looked at tutor’s letter with disgust, I thought they were dating…”

The student wanted to say more but was cut off by Lester. “Quiet!! I don’t want to hear a word from any of you. If you have a question ask me!” As soon as he said that a male student with red hair raised his hand. “Yes?”

The red-haired student stood up slowly as the class was quiet in anticipation of what question he would ask. He opened his mouth and the words rolled out, “Tutor, did you and lady Dorchaidehe break up?”

The class was already silent before the red-haired boy asked the question, but now the silence was deafening. Some of the students had even forgotten to breathe, others had their eyes dry out from not blinking for fear that they would miss what would happen next if they blinked.

Lester knew that he had some quirky students but he never expected this question. He was angry before but now he didn’t know what emotion to express. If he chose to be angry that would be damaging to his reputation and name… If he chose to answer the question, surely his students would laugh at him causing his heart wounds to deepen; or so it seemed.

After a few short moments of thinking, Lester finally made a decision. ‘I would just ignore it.’ Lester thought to himself then he opened his mouth and spoke, “We have had our laughs… Lets start from the top, can someone tell me what makes a mage, a mage?”

Lester tried to change the topic but obviously, most of his students wanted to hear the hot gist about what happened between him and the lady.

A student stood up to answer, it was the pink-haired one. “You still have not given us the answer to our question…”

Lester felt cold in his feet and grimaced a bit before answering, “That is your take-home assignment, it would make up for five per cent of your annual mage assessment…” Lester paused and looked into the eyes of the pick-haired girl and then into the red-haired boy. “I hope I. Was. Clear. Enough. Now who can give me the answer to my question?”

The student knew now that they better not push further as he, the tutor, Lester would not let them off if they pushed further. Whilst all these things were happening, Kai could not help but be bored. He knew why they were like this, he brought enmity between them but it was not his fault. On a different note, the students seemed to appeal to him. ’They look fun and exciting—’Kai grinned. ‘Fuck!, it hurts!!’ Kai had forgotten that he was in pain.

The class was silent again but not like the other time, there was no anticipation, no suspense. It was just a normal classroom silence when no one could answer the question asked.

It was that way until someone raised her hand, this time, it was a purple-haired girl. She was pretty, but not as beautiful as Darcy, she was just pleasant to look at. A mild appetizer for the eyes.

She stood up to answer. “A mage is a mage because he or she has his or her body imbibed with the essence of nature and can manipulate a particular affinity element. Every mage absorbs all the essence of nature through breathing, but the body filters off the other elements and seizes a particular element that has more affinity with the body of the mage,” she sat down after spewing her mind.

“Excellent answer…!” Lester was happy at least his star pupil did not disappoint him. “Why can’t you all be more like Astra here? She is so smart yet has such potential to become a great mage one day!”

“…”

“…”

The entire class fell silent for some time. Lester broke the silence with another question, “Who can tell me how the mage system is ranked?…” Lester had not finished his question when Astra’s hand was already in the air. “Uhm, not you Astra let another student try… Damien what about you? Give us the answer to the question.”

Damien looked like a normal boy, his black hair and dark skin. He looked so normal.

He stood up to speak. The words that came out of his mouth could only be described as words, they carried no light nor vigor. “The mage rank system is very complex and can’t be understood at a single glance…” He paused before continuing, “there are seven official ranks of a mage, the first is the Commoner, this mage has the potential to attain 10 per cent purity of any element of affinity. The second rank is the Warrior, this mage has the potential to attain a 20 per cent purity of any element of affinity. The third rank is that of a Count, this mage has the potential to attain a 40 per cent purity of any element of affinity…”

While Damien recited the ranking system of mages, Kai sat in his wheelchair thinking. ‘How is it that this guy does not rest or pause mid-sentence…the whole class is about to doze off but he keeps on going!’

Damien kept to his explanation, “…the fourth rank is the rank of the Lord, this mage has the potential to attain a 60 per cent purity of any affinity element. The fifth rank is the Baron, this mage has the potential to attain an 80 per cent purity of any affinity element. The sixth rank is the Nobel, this mage has the potential to attain a 90 per cent purity of any affinity element. Lastly…”

‘Finally!!’ Kai heaved a sigh of relief.

“…the seventh rank is the king, this type of mage has the potential to attain 100 per cent purity of any affinity element.” Finally, Damien’s melancholy voice ceased as he sat down.

It took some time for Tutor Lester to catch on to the fact that Damien was done with the answer to the question. Snapping out of it he responded. “good…Good! Very good!”

Lester still looked dazed but managed to pull himself together to continue his class. “Damien gave a very clear explanation, I will now elaborate more…” Lester continued with his class, periodically giving Kai a subtle cursory look.

After a few long moments in class, the only things explained by Lester that caught Kai’s attention were that: First; the rank and affinity element could be passed on from parents to their children. Second; there can be some weird phenomenon where the parents would be high-ranked mages and their offspring would be of a mediocre rank or no rank at all, or the parents would be of low rank giving birth to a high-ranked mage. Third; that mage’s rank hardly changes but there can be some abnormalities where the mages push up their ranks or when someone’s rank is taken away from them. Fourth; the parents of a mage could have different affinity elements from their offspring. Etcetera

All these things made Kai think about Chelsea. ‘Maybe I can make her become a mage, a powerful one so she would not have to be afraid of anything… But that would mean she would no longer need me… Argh!’

At the end of the class tutor Lester spoke up. “Before we call it a day; it’s time for introductions, starting with you Astra.”

The purple-haired girl known as Astra stood up and spoke, “My name is Astra from the family, Longhorn. My affinity element is lightning,” She said as she bowed then sat back down.

“Next…” Tutor Lester called out as a burly blue-haired boy stood up to answer.

“I am Bruce Wykes, My affinity element is water.” His words were short but his demeanour was and the greatest level of manly elegance.

“Next…”

The pink-haired girl from before stood up. “My name is Harley Shaw. My affinity element is Sound.” Harley sat down after she had introduced herself.

“Harley’s category is known as variants, these variants don’t control the four basic elements, their elemental affinity is something abstract or not tangible or entirely different. A popular example is the second prince, Prince Wilson, his affinity element is death, he can manipulate the dead…” Lester shuddered before he spoke, “Next person…” Tutor Lester called out.

The boy with red spiky hair with yellow ends from last time stood up to speak. “I am Banner Wykes. Son of Sir Elvis Wykes. My affinity element is Fire.” Banner looked and sounded arrogant. There was a semblance between him and Bruce Wykes.

With a trace of disdain, Lester said. “Yes… Banner we know who you are now. Next person…”

At this point, Damien, his eyes steady and focused, looked dangerously attractive. Standing he was a towering 192cm. He stood up and spoke. “I am Damien Nyx. My affinity element is the Essence of Night.” Damien’s aura was scary and emotionally dampening but Kai found this exhilarating.

“Damien here is also variant mage, Next…” Tutor Lester had nothing else to say except to call up the next student.

Another male student stood up, he had dark hair and black eyes but not compared to that of Kai. He was at least 185cm tall. “I am Adrian Nyx. My element of affinity is that of night, Night essence,” Then he sat down, he had a cheerful smile but it still sent chills down most people in the room.

Seated in the wheelchair Kai was excited within himself. ‘I don’t know why but I feel these young boys could be my underlings. So exciting!’

“Next…” It was Kai’s turn now. Tutor Lester looked at Kai with eyes that could kill if eyes could kill.

‘What do I tell them? Deity I need advice.’ Kai knew that his element was thoroughly unacceptable in the eyes of every other mage. The Blood mages were seen to be devils from the deepest part of hell.

The deity grunted before responding. ‘I wonder when I became your adviser? But the best option is to tell them the truth. You’ll have a surprise later if you do~’ The Deity advised.