Castle of Mazeroth
While Michael was coming to Mazeroth on the train, Gaya had already reached the outskirts of Mazeroth. Mazeroth Castle was a large, nine-story high building supported by Celestial magic with two hundred and fifty-two staircases throughout its many towers and turrets and very deep dungeons. The castle was built four thousand years ago by a 6-star architect and the four most celebrated cultivators of the age: Archer Crooke, Ingrid Stenham, Qiu Jin, and Kargin Pavlovich. All of them were 6-star Warrior, Alchemist, Rune Master, and Blacksmith respectively.
The castle was the main building of the Mazeroth, regarded as the finest academy for studying wizardry in the world.
Mazeroth was built on the mother mountain in Akilan Realm. The mother mountain was said to be one giant mountain before something destroyed the mountain into pieces. The floating mountains were once pieces of the mother mountain. Mazeroth was surrounded by a fairly large lake to the south of the main building. The huge main oak front doors that led into the Entrance Hall faced west and opened up to sloping lawns. Endless forest extended around to the west of the castle. There were also exterior greenhouses and herbs patches on the school grounds for the Alchemy students.
Due to its ancient age and the sheer amount of Celestian energy present in or around it, the castle had developed a form of sentience though none could confirm this.
Gaya just came out of the forest to the west. She was stunned by the sheer magnificence of the castle. She always praised the castle of Nagaland and took pride in the castle her ancestors built. However, the castle of Mazeroth made the castle of Nagaland look like a poor shack.
"Ah miss"
Suddenly Gaya heard a voice from behind. In a split second, a long sword appeared in her hand. She turned around at lightning speed,
"GOD!"
The one who shouted seeing her sword against his throat was a giant of a man. His face was almost covered by a tangled mane of a beard.
"Miss, my name is Gilrine. The groundskeeper of Mazeroth" said Gilrine without moving an inch. The pointy edge of the sword was just an inch away from his throat and the girl looked as though she would send the sword through his throat if he dared to move.
"Prove it"
Gaya was the intruder yet she intimidated Gilrine without showing any hesitation. She trained herself to proficiently lie before meeting Ghost but after meeting him, he honed her skill of lying further. One of the lessons she learned from Ghost was; that the best way to lie was to believe the lie.
"Slowly" Gaya threatened when Gilrine tried to move his hand,
"My card is in my pocket" Gilrine slowly moved his hand inside his coat pocket. Gaya heard several sounds, she even heard a bird squeak.
Gilrine let out an awkward smile trying to find his identification card given to him by the Headmistress. It took him almost five minutes to find the card.
Gaya noticed Gilrine taking out a silver card with his picture on it. The words 'Groundskeeper of Mazeroth' was etched onto the card in gold.
"excellent," she thought to herself.
"Miss, can you please…" Gilrine gently touched the sword, pleading for her to take the sword away from his throat.
Do you want to read more chapters? Come to p a n d a - n ovel,c.o.m Gaya looked at Gilrine from top to bottom before finally moving the silver sword away from his throat. She put the sword into the sheath hanging on her waist.
"Sigh" Gilrine sighed,
"Miss, how did you get here? You should be with your batchmates on the train" frowned Gilrine,
"Batchmates? Who do you think I am? I am the new Combat professor, Nayla Steinmeyer" she exclaimed, flicking her wrist as a silver card similar to Gilrine's identification card appeared in her hand. She threw the card at Gilrine,
Gilrine was taken aback by surprise. At most, she would be thirty, and thirty was way too young to be a professor. Still, the identification card showed him that she was indeed Nayla Steinmeyer, the new Combat Professor.
If Headmaster recruited her to teach the art of combat to the students, Gilrine had no doubts that she was the best because Mazeroth accepted only the best of the bests.
"Professor Steinmeyer, you were hunting out in the woods?" asked Gilrine. The thought of Gaya killing another imposter and taking her identification card and pretending to be Nayla Steinmeyer never came across Gilrine's mind.
After being teleported by the system, she woke up in the forest. While she was searching for a way to get back to Michael, she ended up in the middle of a battle between two girls. They were equally matched and when Gaya saw them, both of the girls were badly injured by each other. She did not interfere. However, she wanted to contact Michael and ask him what to do when both the girls used the most powerful spell in their arsenal. Unfortunately, the two girls died on the spot. As usual, Gaya tried to loot their bodies. The spells destroyed their bodies along with all their belongings except for the identification card and the long sword in her sheath. The moment she picked up the card, she experienced acute pain in her face. Surprisingly, the mask Michael gave her transformed her face to look like the face on the identification card.
"Are you going to stand there or show me around the castle?"
"Yes yes, this way Professor Steinmeyer. We still have some time before the students arrive" Gilrine walked in front of her, taking the lead. While showing around the castle grounds, Gilrine went on and on about the history of Mazeroth. Gaya paid no heed to the history lesson.
"Show me the tree"
"Huh?" Gilrine was confused by her sudden question. They were at the training grounds which was a flat, short-cut grassy area and were located near the greenhouses. There was no tree in the vicinity so he scratched his bushy beard with a confused look on his face.
"Can you be more specific Professor Steinmeyer?"
"Never mind, I will practice my punches later" Gaya lied. She wanted to find the tree her mother talked about; the tree with the dark elf. She probed Gilrine because he seemed to know a lot about the castle grounds and the Akilan realm. Since there was nothing but a confused look on his face, she learned that the location of the tree was well hidden.
"Gilrine" they were on their way to the courtyard when Gaya met a tall, severe-looking lady in her late sixties. Her dark hair was tied up in a bun and wore round spectacles.
Gaya's heart skipped a beat as the woman was a level 10 Fusion Stage cultivator.
"Headmistress Martin" Gilrine bowed his head with the utmost respect.
The lady nodded in return before turning her gaze towards Gaya,
"Oh headmistress Martin, this is Professor Nayla Steinmeyer, our new combat professor. How stupid of me? You must have known this" Gilrine let out an embarrassed chuckle,
"New Professor? Wulfric did not say anything about getting a new Combat Professor"
"I checked her identification card headmistress," Gilrine said before Gaya could open her mouth,
"It must have slipped his mind"
Fortunately for Gaya, headmistress Kayla was on an urgent business and she trusted Gilrine and the security measure of Mazeroth. Hence, she did not think Gaya was an imposter.
In a blink of an eye, Kayla turned herself into a milky white eagle and flew into the dark sky. Gaya was stunned yet again.
"She is the best shapeshifter there is," Gilrine proudly said. Gaya could also notice a tear dropping rolling out of his eyes in pride. Through the oak door in the courtyard, they stepped into the castle. The corridors were as wide as a spacious hall. It was brightly lit with huge chandeliers and giant candles.
"Where is everyone?" Gaya couldn't help asking Gilrine looking at the empty corridors and halls. This entire time, she saw no one except Gilrine and Headmistress Martin. Once again, she looked around standing in front of the giant oak door.
Instead of answering, Gilrine just grinned. Then, he pushed open the oak door. The moment the door was opened, the silence she experienced disappeared. The buzzling sound and the chitter-chatter of people reverberated in the area.
"Welcome to Mazeoth Professor," Gilrine said proudly.
The buzzling large hall before her was the main hall of Mazeoth. It had enough space to hold every student, as well as the main staff and guests. The Hall had tall walls that reached up to the ceiling, which was covered with floating candles and enchanted to look like a starry sky.
At the front of the hall was the staff table, which was designed to house the entire Mazeroth staff. In the center of the table was a throne chair where the Headmaster sat. In front of the staff table were five six feet pillars. The pillar in the center was made of glass unlike the rest of them which were made of granite stone.
The hall was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets.
Gaya looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. It was nothing like the starry sky she had seen, it was more beautiful, more mesmerizing. She really had a hard time believing there was a ceiling there at all, and that the hall didn't simply open onto heaven. The students were busy gossiping and playing as they did not notice Gaya.