The shimmering glare of the sun was tearing the veil of the darkness, illuminating the magnificent buildings and beautiful landscape within the Magus Academy with its unrivalled brilliance.
The day is finally here!
[One hour till the games start, all participants are invited to gather in the great assembly]
After seven days of staying, Emery finally left Terra Kingdom along with his four friends.
Following the short rest that slightly relieved their exhausted body, Emery and the others immediately made a one way trip directly to the main academy’s Grand Assembly Hall.
All five of them arrived in front of the large stairs and saw the huge crowds that flooded the area. The objective of these people was naturally the same as the group, to enter the Grand Assembly Hall for the upcoming Magus Game.
Actually, as they made their way to this place, Emery had some reservations about this year’s Magus Game. That due to the current tense situation with the elves, the Magus Game would somehow not be as festive as its many predecessors.
But seeing the sea of people that threatened to cram the hall to the brim, it was apparent that Emery couldn’t be more wrong in his thoughts.
Emery threw his gaze around, stretching his field of vision as far as he could possibly do, as he tried to take in how many people were currently on the scene. All around him, just from what his eyes could see; there were at least ten thousand people filling the area.
As they climbed up the stairs and entered the Grand Assembly Hall, all five of them still couldn’t manage to hold the awe that was leaking out of their faces and gestures when they saw the architecture design of this place.
There was simply nothing on Earth that could be compared to such a place. It was a dozen times bigger than the pride of the Romans – the Colosseum Arena, it was more magnificent to look at than the Pyramids built by the Egyptians, and it filled with as many crowds as all of Brittania combined.
At the moment, more than half of the assembly had already been filled with people. Today was merely the first game of the Magus Game, but it already felt as if it was the final.
Different kinds of people could be seen everywhere in this place, once again expanding Emery and the others’ insight about the profundity of the human race as a whole.
While the group was having this once-in-a-lifetime experience, Emery was distracted by a voice calling out to them.
“Are you all surprised!?” shouted a young man with eye-catching red hair. “This is the third year’s Magus Game, so of course it’s crowded!!”
“Gerii!” A faint smile appeared on Emery’s face when he saw this unusual friend of his. But then, a thought suddenly came to his mind when he saw the latter approaching him with his typical easygoing look. “You.. have you got a team?”
“What kind of question is that!? Of course dude!” Gerri replied as he smacked Emery’s shoulder hard. “This is the last hour! How would I join the game without a team!?”
Honestly, Emery felt a bit terrible when he saw how relaxed Gerri was with him, knowing that the latter had offered to join his team previously.
But then, the Violet Flame quickly called out to his team. As Gerri’s teammates made their way toward where he was, Emery was surprised because he didn’t expect those people would join him in a group.
Seeing the expression Emery had on his face, Gerri put his two arms around two women that the former knew very well. They were Okoye and Aiko the Jade Flash.
“Look, Emery, here are my team beauties.”
Gerri had a wide grin on his face as he spoke those words. Emery glanced over to the two women, and his eyebrows couldn’t help but twitch when he noticed their expressions.
It was seen that the two women weren’t very happy with the treatment he was giving them, but the two didn’t overreact and just chose to ignore the red-haired man.
“Two beauties in my arms, and here are my two beasts.” Gerri said brightly, not forgetting about the usual smile perched on his face all day long.
Emery’s eyes were immediately attracted to the two figures with massive build that came approaching in their direction. These two figures were almost twice his height and had crooked horns on their heads; Emery was familiar with them.
“Igor! Ivan!!” spoke Emery excitedly. “You two made it!!”
Emery was certainly elated to see the two goat bloodline half bloods that had helped him during the previous Magus Game were in a good condition. Even though their time with each other could be considered short, everything that they went through together at that time had forged a close connection between them.
The trio quickly went into conversation as Emery asked why he didn’t see them on the first day. And apparently, the reason for them to be late was because most halfblood acolytes that came from middle or high realm worlds had to pass a certain screening process that took a few days.
Emery nodded in understanding when he heard that. Either way, he was happy that they could make it back to the academy.
Now that the two goat half bloods were standing in front of him, Emery couldn’t help but to ask about one certain person.
“Hmm… Do you have any news about Silva? Will she come back to the academy this year?”
Emery saw the two look at each other for a while before turning towards him and shaking their heads. Just like the news he heard, a day before the attack, all serpent bloodlines mysteriously went back to their home planet before deciding to cut off all means of communication.
This made Emery let out a bitter sigh, and this action of his naturally didn’t escape Klea’s eyes who had observed himattentively. The Egyptian Queen secretly smiled, inwardly hoping that crazy chick would never return.
Klea grabbed Julian’s right arm with her left while grabbed Chumo’s left with her right. She was clearly mimicking what Gerri had done to the two young women.
She then said, “Let’s go to our spot!”
Chumo could do nothing but accept his fate of being manhandled by Klea. He could only show a helpless smile on his face and looked at Emery with an apologetic look as his body was forcibly dragged by the Egyptian Queen.
Seeing the three people getting farther away, Emery quickly gave his best wishes to Gerri and his teammates before chasing the trio along with Thrax.
The group headed down toward the arena where the seven thousand plus acolytes had gathered. This gathering of acolytes naturally comprised those from regular class, elite class, and privileged class.
Like in previous years, they were all divided into ten divisions. Emery and the others quickly made their way to where hundreds of all division 7 had gathered.
The moment they arrived, Emery and the others instantly felt all the eyes that were looking toward them. Especially so for Emery, who was the winner of last year’s second game and also the one who managed to reach the final.
Emery took note of all the gazes he received, particularly the ones that came from those in white uniforms – the acolytes of the privileged class. Naturally as all the classes were divided throughout the divisions, there were a few of them assigned to the group seven where Emery’s group was.
Among them, Emery recognized one that immediately made his mood turn sour. A young handsome man with luscious golden hair and that arrogant condescending smirk on his face; Armand the Nephilim acolyte.
“That man has a screw loose on his head!” whispered Klea who had unknowingly stood next to him. “Don’t worry about him and just focus on the game.”
The words Klea spoke were intended to cheer Emery up, to lift his spirit. Looking at the relaxed expression on the latter’s face, it was clear that it was certainly effective.
Emery found that he missed Klea’s encouragement dearly, as it had been a while since she had last done it for him.
The two unwittingly stared at one another for a moment and time seemed to stand still between them, until it was suddenly interrupted by a soft voice that said, “Emery Ambrose!”
Emery woke up from his trance-like state, turned towards the voice that called out to him and saw a beautiful girl with long, straight red molten hair. His eyes were immediately caught by the white-colored privileged class uniform that covered her sensual figure.
Emery somehow recognized the girl but couldn’t put a name on her face.
“You are Emery Ambrose, aren’t you? Do you remember me?” asked the girl with a bright smile.
Emery didn’t even have a chance to speak as Klea immediately put on her defensive stance and asked, “Who the hell are you?!”
The girl, however, ignored Klea and quickly came close to Emery. She got so close that her skin directly touched his. “I am his… How to say this..”
Killing intent flashed across Klea’s eyes when she saw how intimate the other party’s actions were with Emery. As for Emery himself, he stood there frozen, overwhelmed by what was going on.
“His… martial aunt.”
Emery felt like he was doused with a bucket of ice water when he heard the girl’s words. The answer the other party gave bewildered him, to say the least.
Martial aunt, is it? If that was the case, then that meant… the sister of his master.
Before Emery managed to recall the girl’s name from the crevice of his memories, it was Chumo who spoke from the back. “That’s Annara, remember? The renowned number one acolyte of the Darkness Institute.”
Upon hearing that, Emery felt like everything that jumbled up everywhere suddenly connected together. He immediately turned to the girl again, and this time realized that behind her cute smile, there was a cold piercing gaze concealed within her eyes.
This girl was most probably the youngest disciple of Grand Magus Zenonia.