The bloody gate

When Aliana returned to the academy, it was around five o'clock in the evening. There are still two hours before sunset.

'Why don't I go look for others?'

The girl walked out of the training building looking for the others. The first place that came to her mind was the library and she did not think of anywhere else but the dormitory.

'I'll go first to the library, the dormitory is far away and I may not find them there. It is also still about three hours until closing. I may find a useful book about spirits as advised by the teacher.'

When she walked out of the building, she passed by the training yard, which was much more crowded than usual. I asked one of the students who were standing there why they had gathered.

'Would you allow me to ask a question?'

Aliana, who appeared next to the boy, suddenly confused him and then asked her:

'You don't seem to be a schoolgirl here from your clothes, what is your question, miss?'

'You're right, I'm not a student here but I have my reasons, I would like to ask you why the training grounds are so crowded today?'

'Ah, that. It's simply because the midterm competition is approaching.'

'What's this thing?'

'It's a traditional competition held twice per year, it’s where students participate to get points, depending on your points your ranking in the academy's list and teachers' preferences change and you're more likely to get recommendations when you graduate.'

'So the first ones are pretty strong and skillful. Thank you for the answer.'

Aliana left as soon as she thanked the boy going hastily to the academy's library, the boy seemed a bit surprised by her careless words but did not think much.

"It really seems that it's not from here since she knows nothing about higher rankers."

Aliana entered the building but did not quite memorize the road and got lost between the corridors for several minutes until she found the library.

'Have you come in?'

The library receptionist welcomed her after seeing the card Aliana was carrying. No matter how much she looked at it, this library is very extensive. Aliana searched between shelves and tables until she found the first comrade, Mira was immersed in reading a book about the magical theory of the formation of circles.

'The strength of the circle and the type of magic activated change according to the patterns used and their position, if we use three specific symbols in a given configuration it will give us a measure of power, if we change it to this configuration the power increases threefold and the efficiency improves.'

Her eyes moved briskly between the words and she read several pages in less than a minute. She spoke loudly and immersively, apparently not even noticing Aliana sitting opposite her.

'When did you come? Wait wait. Where were you originally?'

'You seem to be so attentive to the details, little girl, that you did not notice that I was in front of you for more than a minute. '

Aliana replied with a smile, and Mira quickly became agitated by these words. Mira is a sensitive girl with several words, the most important of which are little' and 'short', she hated these two words more than an eternal enemy.

'I'm not young; don't say that about me again, please.'

'But you're seven years younger than me; you're at my younger sister's age if I had one.'

'Let's get out of this. Where have you been?'

Mira returned to the main topic after Aliana changed the topic of the conversation... Sigh.

'It seems like I can't evade the answer. I was on a mission given to me by the teacher.'

Mira expressed a strange expression between curiosity and astonishment, and continued to inquire about the details in the hope that her strategy of obtaining information from Aliana would work.

'What kind of mission? Tell me about the details and what did you gain from it?'

‘Your stupid trick will not work on me, where are the others?'

Mira sighed after her plan failed miserably, she could not find anything to say so she answered Aliana's question without further twisting and turning.

'I thought this method would work but it failed. You asked about the others.... Yoon Hwa was with me but left two hours ago because she was bored with the books. Orion and Eric borrowed a book, took it to the room and told us they would train together for the rest of the day. Tai Min left a short while ago after stating that he would not neglect his own physical training. As for that Dante, he is sitting on the brace above, I guarantee you will not even notice it. He teases me, thinking he is better than I am! I'll show him who the best is.'

Aliana raised her head and silenced her laughter.

"That's really funny, who would notice him? She seems to be jealous of him... What a girl!"

'I'm leaving to find a good book to continue with for the rest of the day.'

'I'm still staying here. You can come and stay with me.'

Aliana got up from her seat and began wandering between rows looking for a book about spirits. It passed between the shelves and partitions until it found the section in question. It contained many books in various sizes and colors. Among the books, a small booklet-like book attracted her attention. It was titled 'Practical Guide to spirit summoner-related Artifacts'. The title was particularly interesting to her after the merges of spirits that took place on today's journey of both wood and fire.

This incident is uncommon, if it were not she would have known about it. Among the many pages of the booklet that contained models of many artifacts and some historical pieces associated with this domain. There was a note at the bottom of one of the many pages with a red pen, which said:

"Spiritualists’ artifacts generally allow either conjuring a spirit from its world or dwelling temporarily or to store spirits in the instrument and summon it when needed."

"There are some mutations where some pieces that store spirits may combine them to give spirits of higher rank. It may be beneficial to some and may harm others, the incidence rates of the phenomenon were low even for the pieces with which this phenomenon occurred, leading to the abandonment of more in-depth research into this phenomenon."

"Even after collecting all the information, research and observations that have discussed this phenomenon, it remains insufficient to prove or refute its validity. -Can be considered as extreme phenomena-"

After reading the notes, Aliana began to understand what had happened today, so she went to the librarian and took a loan for the book for more details.

"I have to ask the teacher about this tomorrow. He might know something about it."

Then Mira and Aliana spent some time in the academy garden until night fell and they returned.

----------------------------

Meanwhile, minutes after Aliana entered the library, Dante left after returning the book he had in his hands to the shelf where he took it.

'It looks like she was somewhere, nothing happened to her then. I would have looked for her if she had been absent for a longer period.'

As soon as he left the building, he sensed the faint presence of someone watching him from afar. He did not really feel the person's presence but it was his instincts telling him, it is the strange chill feeling that you get when someone stares at you strangely.

"The distance is about forty meters, it couldn't be closer."

His steps accelerated until he entered an uncovered place among a few trees, and moments after he entered, his presence became noticeably dim after hiding among the branches and leaves.

The academy headmaster who was following him came out from the rooftops and went down to where Dante was, laughing loudly from the bottom of his heart. Albus reassured him to make the conversation friendlier.

'Get out, young man. I am the headmaster of this academy and a friend of Maximus.'

Dante hesitated a bit at first but his instincts confirmed it. The director is a strong and dangerous person to say the least.

"He's insanely strong, fairly close to the teacher. This is a sufficient guarantee of his identity."

He went out for a moment in front of the manager and then asked him directly:

'What made you follow me, sir? I think it's curiosity if I'm not mistaken.'

'Good. It is even better than good. You have lived up to my expectations, boy.'

Director Albus applauded the young Dante's saying.

'Let me introduce myself. My name is Albus and I am the director of this academy. I followed you out of curiosity because you were the best of those my dear friend brought in. Better than my expectations. Maximus, you didn't disappoint my expectations.'

The headmaster stopped talking, leaned on his stick and pointed to Dante with his left hand.

'But the thing that struck me was that you could detect me.'

He started playing with his gray beard as he thought for a moment and then continued:

'Even experienced magicians can't sense me. Unless you reach the sixth circle or equivalent, it's almost impossible to feel my presence.'

Dante was a little nervous before answering this question but answered because he was a friend of the teacher.

'It's a skill of mine, because of the circumstances I've lived through so far. My skill in detecting the presence of people has become better than the majority; it is like a survival instinct. That is all. '

Dante finished his sentence and raised his hands showing that he had no more to say, Albus smiled at him.

'Learn well from Maximus, he's trustworthy and one of the best teachers you could find. Make a good use of his teachings. See you later, boy.'

'Thanks for your advice sir. May Safety accompany you.'

They turned around and continued on their way. Dante's left hand was trembling but it did not show up much and it talked to himself:

'Whoever would have thought that the academy director was the one who was following me? It would have been dangerous if he had been an enemy.'

He then returned to the dormitory and spent the rest of the day resting...