The damp night air flowing through the wide-open windows of the Goated Outcasts Hideout brought a pleasant coolness to the room. The massive wooden door fell shut behind Silarias and Nyx with a dull, heavy clack.
On the edge of the robust oak desk, a lonely magical candle burned. The amber flame stretched out slowly, danced in the draft, and cast long, jagged shadows across the ancient stone walls. Nyx let her heavy travel sack drop to the floor with a dull thud and sat on the wooden table in one fluid motion. She let her long legs dangle calmly and looked straight at Silarias.
Silarias pulled a heavy oak chair back, the wood scraping loudly over the stone floor, and sat directly opposite her. He rested his elbows on the tabletop, laced his fingers together, and focused his gaze sharply on her.
“We are officially seventeen and eighteen,” Silarias began. His voice carried a raw, deeply cutting edge as he stared intently at the dancing flame between them. “But those numbers mean absolutely nothing to me anymore regarding where we stand. The time of simple survival is over, Nyx. We need to formulate a battle plan. How we are going to handle things at this academy from here on out.”
Nyx leaned back slightly, rested her hands on the edge of the table, and looked at him with a calm, analytical gaze. The golden glow of the candle reflected in her deep pupils.
“Each of us has our own specific path to walk, Sil,” she answered in a calm, measured voice. “You have that fiercely flaring sun heritage and those absurdly heavy visions that you need to tame. I have my own steps to take in the shadows. Building the foundations, the structure that this whole crew can lean on. You are the spark, but I am the architect who raises the walls.”
She paused for a moment. The only sound in the room was the soft crackling of the candle wax. She leaned forward slowly, slid her hand across the oak, and laid her cool fingers on top of his clenched fist.
“But at the bottom line,” she continued, her voice lower and more intense, “our goals land on the exact same point. Learn as much as possible. And get absurdly stronger as fast as humanly possible.”
Silarias looked down at her hand on his. The amber flames behind his own eye sockets began to pulse calmly and rhythmically. He let out a short, dark chuckle that came from deep within his chest.
“Not wasting another second,” he said softly. “Not leaving a single millimeter of room for doubt.”
Nyx kept her eyes locked on his. As the amber light in his eyes began to burn brighter, she felt a sudden, hot surge rush through her veins. The raw, untamed intensity surrounding Silarias, the pure, focused energy of a Liberator who had dismissed death itself to the realm of fairy tales, touched something deep within her. Her breathing instantly quickened. A flaming, excited tingle shot like an electric shock through her spine.
I am in control, she thought to herself while her heart pounded fiercely against her ribs. But when he looks like that… when he has that indestructible glow in his eyes… then there is nothing stopping us. Absolutely nothing.
Without saying a single word more, she grabbed him tightly by his collar. With a powerful, unexpected jerk, she pulled him off the chair, straight over the wooden desk. The glass of the candle trembled violently as she dragged him along and pulled him directly into the massive bed.
Within a fraction of a second, the ancient wooden bedstead slammed echoing against the heavy stone walls of the room with a hard, rhythmic thud, while the amber light outside the door slowly faded away.
Outside the Hideout, in the pitch-black, covered courtyard where the gigantic stone pillars cast tall shadows across the floor, two figures stood motionless side by side. The wind blew softly through the thorny brush on the grounds.
Solomon leaned against a dilapidated column with his arms crossed. He looked straight up at the starry sky above them. Beside him stood Faustus, his hands buried deep in his pockets, calmly chewing on a small piece of straw.
“You were actually supposed to pass your exam this time…” Solomon said with a slightly mocking yet deadly serious sigh. He turned his head slowly toward the young man. “At least give it a chance, Faustus. You’re not here to just warm the benches.”
Faustus shrugged indifferently and stared sideways into the darkness.
Classic Solomon with his wise speeches, Faustus thought to himself with a faint chuckle. He thinks a title or a piece of paper makes you a legend. He conveniently forgets who will actually be standing when the whole place collapses.
“You know how I feel about those standard routines, tests, and protocols, Solomon,” Faustus answered in a lazy, raspy voice. “That whole conditioned nonsense isn’t for me. I’ll learn on the streets, or in the middle of a fight. Not from a dusty hundred-year-old book.”
Suddenly, the air around them discharged. An intense, liquid wave of golden scanwaves shot out from the ancient wall and enveloped the entire courtyard in a blinding, ethereal glow. The static charge made their hair stand on end, while the floor vibrated heavily beneath a swelling shockwave.
Above Faustus, a gigantic, floating seal of a majestic goat exploded. The pure, compressed Ether shot into the night sky like a golden-yellow pillar, driving the clouds apart.
“Hmmm… GOAT…” echoed a deep, ancient, and piercing voice that resonated straight through the stone floor and into the marrow of their bones. “But you… and that strong boy from earlier… you two are inextricably bound to one another, are you not?”
The pressure dropped and the darkness snapped back into the vacuum with a sharp suction.
Faustus and Solomon slowly turned their heads toward each other. They stared at one another in the dark with wide, fixed eyes. Solomon raised a single eyebrow very slowly.
“Well…” Solomon began with a dry, low chuckle, straightening his back completely. “To begin with…”
The perspective rose slowly, away from the two men in the courtyard. The dark contours of the alliance halls and the massive walls of the Hideout grew smaller as the viewpoint elevated higher, past the overgrown support pillars and straight through the large open roof. Eventually, the entire academy grounds stretched out beneath the golden-black night, where thousands of tiny magical lights flickered across the paths and towers. The journey had been long, the roads had been heavy and blood-soaked, but the true adventure was only just beginning.
The next morning broke with a bright, golden-yellow sunlight streaming through the high, arched windows of the wide hallways. Dust motes danced in the broad beams of light shining across the dusty wooden floorboards.
Ponich floated a few meters above the ground in the central corridor. He had his wooden arms spread wide and spun graceful pirouettes in the air as he orated to an imaginary audience.
“Mm, you must be exceptionally strong…” his aristocratic, silky-soft voice boomed loudly through the wide hallways and rooms.
In his room, Silarias’ eyes snapped open instantly. He sat up calmly, threw the heavy blanket aside, and heard the words of the mechanical servant echoing down the floor. But at that exact moment, a whole series of loud, consecutive wooden clacks rang out.
In multiple places at once, the massive doors of the sleeping quarters swung open. Silarias was by no means the only one awakened by the theatrical performance.
The doors of Silarias, Aurelius, Nicola, Ren, Izamaro, Lila, and Kaelid slammed open almost in complete unison.
Aurelius stuck his head around the corner of his doorframe first with a messy bedhead. Nicola stepped out dressed sharply in his suit, his glasses already sitting straight on his nose. Izamaro and Ren looked down the hall with wide, curious eyes. Silarias stepped out calmly, leaned against the frame, and looked down the long row.
At first, they all began whispering and murmuring like a bunch of clumsy, curious teenagers, looking at each other. They pointed back and forth, asking out loud who on earth was shouting in the hallway this ridiculously early.
Until Aurelius suddenly blinked, pulled his eyebrows way up, and a grin spread across his face. “WAIT a minute…”
Silarias began to chuckle broadly and unmistakably. He looked toward the end of the hall. “Lila… I heard your name dropped pretty clearly just now, didn't I?”
Lila stepped forward with a faint pink blush on her cheeks, but carrying an extremely composed, confident smile.
Silarias and Aurelius went wild right on the spot. They began giggling and laughing out loud like a pair of teenagers. Silarias gave Aurelius a hard shove against his shoulder, while they sought out Kaelid, who was leaning against his own doorpost with a stone-cold, unbothered expression.
“Kaelid… man… say something!” Aurelius called out, bending over with laughter and holding his hand over his mouth. “Speak up, bro! Tell us what's going on!”
Look at these guys messing around uselessly again, Kaelid thought with a quiet sigh behind his closed lips. They have no idea how hard we’re going to have to work later.
Before Kaelid could utter a single word, a lightning-fast, golden-yellow charged figure flashed through the hallway. Beat blurred past at an absurd speed. The displacement of air made everyone's clothes flap wildly, but he stopped mid-air completely motionless on his heels.
He spun around in mid-air, looked at the line of laughing people, and dived down with a crackling flash, landing right in front of Kaelid's face. Within a single millisecond, he circled him three times.
“Yep! Nice one, man!” Beat shouted with a massive grin on his face, giving Kaelid a heavy slap on the shoulder that echoed through the entire hallway. “Hope it was fun, haha! Really didn't know you had that in you, bro!”
And with a second bang, Beat flashed away at full speed once more, leaving a trail of sparks behind in the direction of the dining hall.
While the laughter still echoed through the corridor, a tiny, dry, and extremely serious voice suddenly sounded from the floor.
“Wait… what though?”
Everyone stopped their laughter on the spot. Silarias, Aurelius, Nicola, and Kaelid froze completely and looked down with wide, fully opened eyes.
Little Ren had been standing there the whole time with his arms crossed, staring at the older guys with a straight, unreadable face.
Aurelius cleared his throat loudly and quickly looked the other way. Nicola fixed his gaze tightly on an imaginary speck on the ceiling. Silarias shut the entire topic down immediately with a sharp hand gesture.
“Food! Toward the dining hall, now!” Silarias called out quickly with a stern face, after which the entire group marched in swift formation behind Beat's trail.
When they rounded the corner, the full dining hall came into view in all its gigantic grandeur. The immense space had been splendidly prepared. The massive glass windows let the morning light fall across the elongated, dark oak tables. Upon them stood a gigantic breakfast spectacle laid out: steaming roasted meat, oven-fresh bread, bowls full of fruit, fried eggs, and large copper jugs filled with juice.
Beat was already sitting at the head of the furthest table, stuffing his face as if he hadn't eaten in days. With his mouth stuffed full, he looked up at Silarias and the rest as they entered the hall.
“So… wait…” Beat mumbled, struggling to swallow a massive piece of bread and pointing a greasy finger to the side. “Did you already belong with us, or how does that work exactly?”
Silarias ignored Beat and looked past him to the end of the table, where Faustus sat eating beside Solomon with a faint, wide monkey-grin.
“Faustus…” Silarias began with sharply raised eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest. “Do I have you to thank for this complete, bizarre buffet?”
Faustus opened his mouth to say something, but was abruptly interrupted by a flying figure that shot into the hall with a floating sound.
Ponich drifted into the room. Above his wooden shoulders, he wore a deep blue, noble, and extremely satisfied mask with golden curls on the cheeks.
“No! That would be me! Ponich, the one and only Head Servant!” the mechanical puppet proudly proclaimed in a booming voice.
But not even a second later, the puppet's mood flipped entirely and dramatically. The blue mask snapped loose with a dry click and was instantly replaced in mid-air by a bright red, heavily blushing mask.
“Erm… after such a… highly active and turbulent night…” Ponich stammered, his silky-soft voice cracking completely out of pure embarrassment. “…you all must have gotten ridiculously hungry!”
Due to his sudden hysteria and embarrassment, three spare masks fell out of the sky with a loud clatter onto the oak floor. However, they immediately floated back up, and the red mask flashed away for a bright green, absurdly happy face.
“So GOATS! Eat well!” Ponich cheered delightedly, after which he drifted toward the ceiling in a spectacular spiral.
The entire group began to boisterously spread out across the gigantic tables.
Aurelius took a seat on the right side, along with Jane, Nyx, and Silarias. Miki and Ren immediately joined Apollo and Beat. Lila and Kaelid sat down somewhat awkwardly yet quietly beside each other, directly opposite Nicola and Lyn. Balamore and Izamaro took over the spacious corner together with Vulkan and Valeria, while Zax and Bonk sat brotherly next to the giant Uktar.
In the middle of eating, Miki jumped off her chair. She grabbed her wooden plate, slid right next to Uktar on the bench, and began teaching Zax and Bonk the basics of sign language with extreme precision.
Look at them, Nicola thought as he set his glass down and observed the scene. A prehistoric berserker, two mercenaries, and a little girl teaching them how to communicate. If someone had told us a year ago that this would be the elite of the future, I would have called them insane.
Zax pressed his fingers together awkwardly, while Bonk nodded heavily. Uktar let out a deep, satisfied rumble that made the plates and glasses on the table visibly vibrate.
Amidst the noise of the talking and eating crowd, Solomon tapped his glass with his heavy silver knife. The clear, sharp sound cut through the hall. The entire room fell dead silent in an instant.
“Men and women…” Solomon began in a deep, heavy voice that echoed through the entire hall. He pointed with his hand to the young man sitting beside him. “This is Faustus. He is Silarias’ cousin… and as of today, our newest official member.”
Faustus casually raised two fingers to the group without stopping his chewing.
“Now that peace has returned to the grounds,” Solomon continued, pacing slowly behind the main wall, “it is time to explain how this academy is actually structured. Normally, every alliance steadily works toward a point where the Guardian Spirit of the alliance accepts you or shuts you out forever. You only get to see the ethereal creature once in your entire life… Should that fail to happen, you are simply—”
Solomon stopped abruptly. The memory of the majestic, glowing goat that had already appeared without any effort at the gate for Silarias and Nyx last night flashed through his mind. He cleared his throat loudly.
“Mm… forget that part entirely. You lot apparently bypassed that step within a single second yesterday.”
Some soft, suppressed laughter echoed from the hall. Vulkan shook his head, laughing.
“The classes here are conducted jointly,” Solomon spoke further, his gaze growing sharper and more relentless. He looked everyone deep in the eye, one by one. “Every student has their own unique path. But you are permitted to help each other… and I intensely expect and hope that you will do so ruthlessly. Because alone, you may go faster. Together, you become indestructible.”
Solomon placed both hands firmly on the edge of the central table and leaned far forward. His eyes began to glow with a faint golden light.
“Because to officially and unforgettably kick off the academic year… the Founding Fathers of this University have organized a tournament. And believe me when I say: this is no ordinary test of strength.”
The tension in the gigantic dining hall rose to an absolute boiling point within a fraction of a second. Vulkan stopped mid-bite, Silarias leaned forward with a sharp gaze, and Nyx observed Solomon with an icily focused expression.
“It calls itself the Clash of the First Oath,” Solomon spoke in a captivating manner that sent shivers down the spines of the young fighters. “It was the ultimate measure of strength and the official, bloody starting signal of their very first existence in this world. As such, this has remained the highest, most brutal, and most honorable tradition these walls have ever known…”