Heleion Archives

As Tepin finished buttoning up her Academy issued dress shirt, two strong knocks stirred her drowsy mind closer to the state of full awakening – a process in which coffee helps a bit more. “Just a second.” She yelled while the skirt she chose for the day flew into her hands, and with a quite eloquent move, jumped into it. For a moment, she stared at the cloud white hair falling onto the mildly spreading crimson collars, then shrugged and walked to open the door where Yolanda and Tau’ria greeted her with worrying expressions.

She need not to ask why and her mood plummeted to the level of theirs. “This is bad. It has been three days.” Tau’ria said barely managing to keep her voice down as she and Yolanda entered the small dorm room. “We have to report it to Miss Felria or Liovara.”

Yolanda meagerly nodded her head while leaning against the corner of the wall near the bed, arms folded. “Fully agreed. We ought to report it to them, or the guards.”

Tepin walked over to her own desk, sat pondering, regulating her breath as fear and worry ailed her heart as she envisioned Wilhelmiira, Yasuko and even Karina’s lifeless forms before her eyes. The pain, the sorrow that born in that moment quickly sprouted the seeds of anger within her as she noticed her hands quivering mildly. “Or we could solve this problem ourselves.” She wanted blood, whether they were captured or worse.

The two looked at her with varying degrees of puzzlement. Yolanda less so as she fiddled around with one of her loose tresses. At first, she thought the idea foolish, knowing that whoever pretended to be Karina was capable enough to take out all three of their friends, the ones nearest to the top of their classes. But then she knew that such a feat would grant them hundreds of scores, bringing them to the top of their classes. A tempting notion it was for her.

“Have you gone mad?” Tau’ria was on the other edge. She fully believed if they try to take down the pretender, they would just end up the same as their friends. The feyfolken student was no coward, she simply realized the enemy was out of their league at that moment.

Before she continued, playing around with the blade of her necktie protruding from the metallic jaws of the small dragon head decoration, Tau’ria took a deep breath, calming herself. “If neither of them could take down her, even with the element of surprise, what chance do we have?”

Tepin looked at her, conflicted as she herself knew of this like them, maybe even more as she felt the killing intent of Agent 026, although only for a very brief moment. “We still probably have the element of surprise, but also we’re good on the numbers’ front, aren’t we?” Yolanda nodded while Tau’ria heaved another sigh while biting her lips anxiously.

“And in the worst case, we should at least write a letter for the teachers in the worst case.” Yolanda spoke up next before Tau’ria could retort. Hearing those words, she felt a defeated and stared down at the floor.

“So, when do we strike?” Tau’ria asked, still with a hint of hesitation drawn onto her face adorned with bark-like growths in a peculiar, triangular arrangement. The other two looked ponderous, touching their chins at the same time as if they were in sync.

“We should strike alone, but just in case in a time when and if things go south, we can call for aid.” Yolanda spoke up first and the other two agreed with soft nods. Then with her piercing, avian eyes focused on Tau’ria while her lips curved at the corners as her anxiety, fear turned into excitement. “Let’s strike after Miss Felria’s class is over. I remember seeing her retreat to the armory the since her… return.”

**

“Okay, Yolanda and Tepin – your turn!” Felria’s voice boomed through the training center on the 37^th Floor of the Academy’s west wing as her tapering jaw buried into the loosely buttoned up, snow silver collars of her dress shirt while her boreal eyes moved onto the approaching form of the two students.

The stygian teacher’s statuesque form was draped in Kennieth Type-IV Coat – an elven styled Tuxedo Coat with the trims piped in snow silver liquid palladium engraved in nairenthian runes – with the open, triangular collars reaching up to her cheeks almost pressed slightly outwards, their tips grazing the smooth, almost oily leather texture of the broad shoulders where the decorative snow silver stola engraved with ancient elven runes made its round in the shadow of the large leaves. The rest of it cascaded down the peculiarly designed front, occasionally shrouding itself beneath the bulky, double notched lapels framing the veiled zipper line that she preferred leaving open.

“Have fun girls!” She said whilst her naturally lustrous, plump lips curved into a vicious smile that matched with her infernal beauty. Yolanda could not help herself as she faced Tepin, her eyes wandered onto the bottom of their teacher veiled by the tailed hem of her coat. “Focus, and don’t over exert yourself.” Tepin whispered, her voice laced with magic to reach her clear through the murmurs of their classmates. Yolanda simply nodded in understanding and the two clad in their practice uniforms raised their hands and began to gently channel their mana through their anima veins.

The Hirnieth Type-III they all wore was a body-suit encompassing most of their forms, produced from a mixture of Vhalex and Dragonid Leather. The latter giving it a look of magnificence and formidability while the former enhanced the magnificence into a menacing territory as light from the ceiling glowstones created blinding patches – a way to introduce distractions that could happen on a battlefield. A lax piece of arcane leather garment which was an evolution of sorts to their corset-vests, except for the most part they wore it in a sleeveless state; a decorative laced band circled around at their waist and lastly the collar did not slide under their dress shirts’ leaves thanks to its somewhat bulkier look, resembling a turtleneck with ring zipper reaching up fully.

Tepin and Yolanda made several circles as they waited for the signal. Both girls tightened their grips around the shafts of their quarter staves made out of Uhar wood – one of the many native trees of far-north, within the basin. Around the edges of Yolanda’s, a yellowish crimson aura swirled, danced marvelously, highlighting her mild coffee tanned face still just a quarter elven looking. Tepin’s on the other hand remained in its polished, wooden look of a bluish black shade, instead she focused her mana into her soles, processing them into a wintry spell.

Beneath their feet, the metallic tiles remained unchanged on first look, but Felria chuckled a little noticing the miniscule layer of frost spreading across the oval elevation. Something that evaded Yolanda’s attention for the moment. “Ready? Go Sisters!” Then her voice boomed through once more the training hall and the grew tenser as for the moment, as they focused on the present, their woes faded from their mind.

Yolanda leaned forward for a moment, creating a faux image of her going on the offensive, a bait that Tepin seemingly bit onto. Instead of leaping forward as she originally planned, Tepin backed away, using her staff as medium to hurl hoary spheres at Yolanda who simply absorbed and broke them down to their passive state. An animalistic smile formed on her glossy full lips as she tasted triumph over her friend, making her move without noticing the slippery quality of the ground.

Within seconds she lost her balance and flailed around trying to gain it back only to end up on her bottom, emitting a soft, high-pitched yelp upon landing amidst a series of squeals. A series of sound Tepin found amusing and quite cute as she skated across the floor, pointing the flat end of her quarterstaff against Yolanda’s throat exposed as her crimson collars pushed against the body-suit’s.

Instinctively, she went through a series of motions to disarm Tepin, but then like her friend, she remembered their plan and simply raised her hands in the air – a motion that whirred the gears of her imaginations, picturing her opponent to be a legionary ready to secure her. A picture that created a warm twinging in her abdomen and below.

“I guess now I have to watch out for that trick of yours once more.” She said while wrapping her hand around Tepin’s forearm hiding beneath the snow silver sleeve, held out to her after Felria’s loud whistle signaled the end of the bout.

“Maybe.” Tepin answered shortly and jokingly as she cancelled the surreptitious ice spell. “You know, with tricks like that, I wonder why didn’t you join the daemor class.” Yolanda asked whispering as they climbed down the stairs and rejoined their class mates. “Maybe after today.” She said a bit indifferently as her gaze became solemn, aimed at the impostor masquerading as Karina. The one who encouraged her to attend the Academy of the Black Roses.

**

Tepin awoke with a twitch, confusion and pain washing over her as she tried to recall how she had ended up in utter blackness after the three of them tried to assault Karina. It took her a few seconds spent battling the aching of her head and neck to sense the clinginess of alchemical adhesive with a life of its own gnawing at her arcane points, sipping out her mana and stamina.

As the training class with Felria was their last one for the day, the trio stroke as they planned early in the morning. First Tepin used her freezing the ground, whilst Tau’ria – a quite excellent student of the Volvh class – supplemented it with her inscriptions, encasing Agent 026’s body in thick layer of opaque ice. Yolanda on the other hand, still holding onto her quarterstaff, pushed it against Agent 026’s throat, transmuted to have a sharp edge capable of easily cutting through skin, tendon and even bone.

All three of them were drunk on their seeming triumph. Triumph which lasted only for so long for Tepin to bring up the question of what happened with Karina. A question that still remained unanswered as the three watched as the face of their friend became bestial, infernal veins popping from beneath the faux skin; her blue eyes turned into a wicked shade of black and searing crimson with a slit, lupine pupil.

Though Yolanda driven by a primeval fear instilled into all mortals, tried to pierce through Agent 026’s throat with little to no success. The transmuted staff’s now sharp end shattered upon contact with the throat that proved to be sturdier or as sturdy as adramantyrium. Yolanda was the first experience the unseen force which shattered the ice and sent her across the armory, right into a set of crates knocking her out instantly.

Tepin herself fared a tad bit longer thanks to Tau’ria who achieved not scurrying away the moment their triumph withered down to atoms. Thanks to her sudden ward protecting the two, neither flew into the wall, door, racks and crates with a force and velocity as great as a soaring dragon’s spotting its prey after starving for a month. A ward that did little against the force behind Agent 026 fist as it crushed through it, and with a single strike landed on Tepin’s beautiful face, breaking her delicate nose and jaw. Which thanks to her uniform got back into their unhurt state.

The aching still remained and now paired with the tightening grasp of the silver sealing tape they brought themselves to restrain Agent 026 properly, to bring her to the teachers and the academy guard. Her echoing breaths; the pain of her shoulders pressed against solid, smooth metal and the dampened screaky noise of sealing tape coming through the door of the locker filled her with mild panic, lessened by the fact that she was still alive.

"Mrrrnnr? Hrr'rnr?" Trying her best to make as little sound as possible, she emitted a muffled, low groan trying to call out for her friends vainly. For a moment she believed that at least Tau’ria managed to escape, yet her instincts told her otherwise. Deep down she knew the sound of tape coming from outside was Agent 026 securing her fellow kindred and Sister.

Her uniforms squealing and rustling echoed within the narrow space as she determined herself to get free from her bindings. First, she wriggled her wrists meticulously wrapped and crossed four to five times with the silver tape melding in with her dress shirt’s sleeves. "Hhnh." A soft, muffled groan came from her as her nails scraped against the metallic walls after her hands grew numb. At the same time, the screaking of tape outside came to a pause, signaled by the harsh tearing and now she heard the faint thuds approaching.

Quickly she hung her head down, letting the tape scrape against the arcane silken collars and loosened her bound body which leaned against the door. “I can smell your fear.” Agent 026 caught her and whispered with a menacing tone, guttural, bestial intonations that deepened her voice.

“You know you guys are lucky that I managed to calm my searing nerves the moment I broke free from your pathetic spell.” Her clawed fingers caressed Tepin’s cheeks where the sealing tape ran its course around her head, just beneath her dense, cloud white hair. “Just a breath away were you all from having your necks broken, your spines torn out, your bowels torn out and wrapped around your necks…” As she continued listing the grizzly ways, she could have killed them, Tepin gulped while her breath became heavier, her heart beating faster as fear friskily tickled it.

“But I didn’t. Because in the end, all I can blame for this is myself.” Tepin let out a muffled yelp as she felt Agent 026 nose brushing against her as she sniffed her neck. “I became too careless. Too conceited at thrown into the shed of sheep.”

Then she felt her body lifted back into the confines of the locker, yet the warm breath with a fruity scent that eerily proved soothing remained, to be followed by the warm feeling of saliva coated, serrated tongue drawn across her taped lips, up to her sky-blue nostril. Leaving a sense of warmth only for a passing moment before the air turned into cold. “Usually, I’d play around you, maybe even bring you back to my territory. But that place is already filled with your friends.” Agent 026 stopped for a moment, drawing her hand across her body clad in the combat uniform, bound with tape tightly and widely.

“And now I definitely have to hurry. Time is now of the utmost essence.” One more surge of pain followed, heralding the darkness prevailing dreams brought forth by Agent 026’s hand chopping down at her joints between her neck and right shoulder. “He shall be definitely furious with me after this.” She said while closing the locker’s door. Then grabbed the tightly secured Tau’ria and placed her inside the third locker standing empty before leaving in a hurry, locking the armory and the three dreaming damsels in before scurrying off feeling excited at the notion of hunting proper prey.

Author's Note:

And another one. Closer to the ending, concluding the side of the students at least.

Speaking of which, whilst writing this, I decided to hate myself even more, and start coming up with occasional uniforms. Though these will be rare, and will be mostly tied to stranger sceneries, like the Maelstrom and its nearby areas having a cold that seeps through and overpowers the enchantments and such.

Lastly, the spooktober/kinktober stories are mostly done, just need to do some proofreading and editing/expanding before they go up into early access.

Thank you for reading this and have a nice saturday folks!

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