an illusion of mind

Mid-terms were approaching, everyone was anxious and some had begun studying already, except for...

"Why aren't you studying?" Rica asked waving a hand in front of Regina who was spacing out with a weird smile on her face, she was shaken out of her stupor as she looked towards Rica.

"I don't need to?" She said simply tilting her head in confusion, why would she need to study when she was second in theory anyways?

"ugh, Here we go again with your arrogance! You still need to study even if you're second in theory..." Regina had tagged along with Rica, Arron and some of the others, She said she wanted to study but ended up just spacing out the entire time.

Rica was fed up with her careless and casual behaviour, she went on a rant about how Regina should care more about her studies and that her behaviour would take her nowhere, Regina was too busy staring at empty space while smiling to hear what she said.

"... Are you even listening?" Rica waved a hand in front of her.

"H-Huh?" Regina broke out of her stupor, looking at Rica with annoyance, "What is it?!" she asked glaring at Rica.

Rica put her hands on her hips gave Regina a scrutinizing gaze "I was just trying to figure out if you're paying attention or not when I'm explaining the lesson... what are you even thinking about?"

"I don't need to listen to your explanation I already understand it." Regina said, Adam and Arron looked at these two while they bickered.

"Why are you even here then?" Rica narrowed her eyes on Regina, "I was bored." Regina replied rolling her eyes as if it was obvious.

"Seriously why else would I just go with you and listen to your annoying voice?" Regina said as she leaned closer sneering at Rica.

Rica just huffed in annoyance and looked away, "Let's get back to the lesson guys, she can continue looking at the air instead of focusing." Rica said glancing at Regina who was now staring at empty space again.

"Seriously what is she even thinking about...?" Rica muttered under her breath before she went back to explaining the lesson to Arron again.

"So 500 years ago Ruphen the goddess of life sent a warrior who is now known as the hero king Alexander, he utilized the power given to him by the goddess to fend off the demon king and his army." Rica explained as Arron listened closely while nodding.

"After the defeat of the demon lord, the world was finally at peace, that's the basic history of it all, but of course the test is gonna ask more in depth questions like what gods aided in the killing of the demon king."

"There was Aros right? The god of death?"

"yes, along with Ezaldir and Phatar the goddess of nature." Rica said adding in to his statement.

"All of these gods aided in the final battle through different means each one of them, of course they couldn't fully interfere because if one were to do so, the battle would end before it even began." Rica said simply.

"Well why didn't they?" Arron asked tilting his head to the side confused.

"How would I know? do you take me for a religious person?" Rica shrugged.

"Because they're cowards." Regina quipped in from the side.

"Quiet down, if a priest of the Ruphean church were to ever hear you, you would be done for..." Rica whispered looking around cautiously.

"I'm not scared of those idiot fanatics." Regina just shrugged and Rica stared at her blankly, the Ruphean church was one of the many leading religious groups in the entire world of Arkhas.

The Ruphean church originates from the holy Ruphean empire, which resides north of the stellar empire, it is one of the many leading superpowers in the entire world, along with the stella empire the Varcan empire and one more empire that worships areus the god of cold, so insulting the goddess of one of these is an absolute death sentence...

"If they we were in their country of course haha!" Regina chuckled.

"even if we're not in the Ruphean empire, it's still very frouned upon to insult one of the great gods..." Rica glared at Regina, "Be careful where your tongue might get you Regina..."

"Yeah~ sure whatever~ as if they can actually do anything to me~" Regina chuckled to herself rolling her eyes and disregarding Rica's words who just sighed and turned back towards Arron.

"Anyways as I was saying, alexander the hero king managed to kill the demon king with the help of his hero party, many of which include, Melissa the ash witch, Theghon the steel hammer, Frigi the dragonborne, Martha the oracle of Phatar."

"Of all these individuals only two remain alive till this day, and they are Frigi the dragonborne and Martha." Rica finished.

Arron's brows shot up, "How could they remain alive for 500 years?" Arron asked a little bewildered.

"Well first off Frigi the dragonborne is like her title suggests, she's a human turned dragon via inheritance, so she does not die of old age or sickness, she can only be killed via physical damage, and Martha is a oracle of Phatar the goddess of nature, and we all know that goddess favours Elfs so one can only guess her oracle/incarnation is an elf who in turn have prolonged life and being an incarnation of a goddess only adds to her lifespan." Rica finished.

Arron nodded in understanding, "Let's move on to another topic, like the descent of an angel during the last battle between the demon king and the united human armies."

Arron hearing the word 'angel' focused as he leaned closer, Rica spoke up, "During the last battle, the situation was dire for the human armies, so the gods sent one of their loyal servants, an angel or a valkerie, they have been called many names, but angel is the most common." Rica spoke up.

"If not for the descent of this angel the human armies would have lost and Alexander would not have been able to deliver the killing blow to the demon king, this angel being Lofiel dubbed with the title of angel of hope by the armies, due to it appearing in the most dire moment shining a beacon of hope on the nether planes."

"This angel after it's arrival handed the divine weapon Spiris to Alexander, the weapon that felled the demon king and allowed for a new era of peace to begin, the weapon forged by the life goddess Ruphen's power along with the god of steel and forging."

"pshh~~ can we listen to something more interesting~~~" Regina spoke up from the side rolling her eyes.

"This is important! It's a very important piece of history, The dread days." Rica spoke up glaring at Regina while she whined like a child.

"That's soooo~~~ boring~~~" Regina rolled her eyes again as she threw her body on the table like a child that got no attention.

"Get off the table our notes are on it!" Rica said pushing on Regina's head which failed as Regina persisted annoying them.

Arron chuckled at the scene as he looked towards Adam who was simply shaking his head, Adam was there because he agreed to help tutor Arron in other subjects different from history which Rica was better at.

"haa~ she's so childish..." Adam said and Regina straightened up glaring at him while pouting, "I'm not a child you jerk!" She huffed as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"This is boring!" She pouted even more.

"You shouldn't have come then, you're the one who practically begged me to tag along don't complain now!" Rica said glaring at Regina who just met her gaze with defiance, "I didn't beg!"

"Yes you did, you went like, 'Please please let me come along! Pretty please!'" Rica tried mimicking Regina's tone as she mocked the blonde girl.

"Hey! I didn't say that!" Regina pouted as she turned away.

"Then shut up and let us study!" Rica said as she threw a piece of paper at Regina's face, the girl was bored out of her mind she just let the piece of paper fall on her head which was laying on the table and didn't bother to remove it.

Rica continued tutoring Arron with Adam helping out every once in a while, Regina just remained like that for as long as Arron could remember, before they knew it the sun was already setting, Rica got up and waved at them before leaving.

Adam pulled the piece of paper off of Regina's face to check on her only to find her fast asleep.

"I'll be going now too." Arron said as he got up and payed for their coffees, Adam just continued staring at Regina's sleeping face contemplating weather to wake her up or not.

He just shrugged and shook her shoulder waking her up, she rubbed her eyes as she looked around, "Is it time already?" Regina straightened as she noticed everyone was gone.

"Where did the others go?" Regina asked as she turned to see Adam's face close to hers.

"They left not too long ago, you should also get going because I'm leaving." Adam said getting up off his seat and walking out of the café.

Regina sat there for a few more minutes gathering her thoughts before she got up to leave, however before she reached the doorframe she stopped, she looked around the empty café and raised an eyebrow.

even the workers are gone... this isn't normal...

The café was barren almost abandoned no sound could be heard except for Regina's breathing, she looked outside and saw the students leaving and she shrugged before walking out, Not my problem...

a slash followed another as Bella's sword clashed against Arron's.

He was now moving fast enough to actually fight with her, Arron was getting better day by day, his speed increased along with his strength and reflexes.

He parried a strike before kicking her leg, she fell to one knee and he pointed his sword at her neck, she stood kneeling on the floor wide eyed before a small smile made it's way onto her face, Arron huffed and puffed as he realized he had won.

He smiled widely, "You finally did it." Bella's smile widened as she stood up, "You finally beat me..."

"I did, didn't I..." Arron smiled proudly to himself as he panted from exhaustion, "But I do need a break I pushed myself a little too much..." Arron smiled sheepishly as he sat down at a chair.

"Well, I think you should take the rest of the day off since it's a good accomplishment for now..." Bella said as she put her wooden practice sword back in it's place.

"I will leave first, I've got something to do..." Bella said turning around and exiting the training grounds.

Arron's eyes lingered on her back, his brows raised slightly as he pondered, what's up with her today? These past few weeks Arron and Bella trained relentlessly and his improvements could only continue forwards, in no time he had jumped up in strength, speed, stamina, and reflexes, he still couldn't hold complete control over that power though...

He remembered how he reached out for that white warm power in his core when he truly needed it during he fight with that drake, how he relied on it to tell him what to do, he still couldn't take hold of it and control it yet, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before he could do it...

"Look who's here~" A feminine voice spoke up from behind him and he turned slightly startled by the newcomer, and standing there was... Veronika?

he looked up at her ruby red eyes her short hair and her tall stature and he remembered watching the Tradition of trials, how she almost beat Regina to death, it was only a bad match for her because Regina specialized in illusion magic which was a close to perfect counter to Veronika's immense speed.

What was she doing here? Arron pondered as he looked up at his senior, she flashed him a cocky smile as she stood over him.

"It looked like your training partner was gone, do you need your senior to take over?" Veronika asked as her smile widened.

Arron raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Yes!" He immediately accepted, now that he was on par with Bella, he needed a stronger opponent to improve even more, and Veronika was perfect for that, Bella was strong, in fact one of the strongest in their class in terms of swordsmanship however compared to the seniors...

"Hooo~ looks like someone is eager~ I'll make sure to be as harsh as possible, you juniors have gotten a little too cocky after that unfair win..." Veronika's face turned cold for a second before her smile returned.

She threw a sword at him which he caught and stood up taking his stance, then he paused, Veronika had a hand on her hip without a weapon in sight, "Are you not gonna use a weapon?" Arron asked tilting his head.

"Did you not pay attention in the tradition of trials? I don't use a weapon, I don't need one to beat the likes of you." Veronika smirked once more.

Arron just took his stance again and prepared to lunger at her but then...

"What?" He found himself looking up at the ceiling as he felt a grip tighten on his wrist.

"How weak is that all it takes?" Veronika smirked as she let go of his wrist, I couldn't even see her...

in the blink of an eye Veronika made it all the way towards him and preformed an over shoulder throw...

"Get up we aren't done yet." Veronika forcefully stood him up on his feet.

"I'll make sure to go easier on you this time around." Veronika said sneering at him.

Arron scratched the back of his head as he pondered, How the hell am I supposed to win if I can't even see her when she moves???