House of Amarin

Lia was meditating in a classroom, and a transparent, orb-like sphere was rotating in her lap. Everything was going smoothly and without problems, but then the ball started to ripple and explode with a soft pop, dosing her in cold water and awakening Lia from meditation.

"Something is troubling you." Dayen's calm, kind voice traveled to her, making Lia sigh.

"My thoughts are elsewhere, teacher." She nodded, took out a towel, and started to dry herself, trying not to bother her classmates deep in their meditation.

"Would you mind sharing it?" She asked, beckoning Lia to come over and sit with her.

"It is about the telescope we have in our tower." She said, standing up and walking there, surprised that Dayen's eyes flashed with understanding.

"Oh? You opened it?"

"Wait… you know about it?" Lia gawked at her, expecting… well, she couldn't tell what did she expect.

"Of course!" Dayen chuckled, letting her body gently shake, ringing the bells around her horns. "I am one who has all the elements under her control! Even though I am not strong, I have the insight and understanding that many mages sorely miss."

"Oh?" She grinned, surprised by the proud words coming from her mouth.

"Every teacher who is like me knows about it. It is a test we have to pass before joining the Institute. The Headmaster uses the telescope, testing our strength and fishing out one object per element. I also looked into it once; it was… marvelous."

"Slowly, it seems only we didn't know about it…" Lia pouted, making Dayen smile.

"Few know about it. None of them are students, so great job! Now I get why your mind is not here… you looked into it, yes?"

"Um." She nodded, "With Opparu, I could gaze into No-Space for five minutes… but it drained him quickly."

"Its effectiveness depends on the mind that gets thrown into No-Space. It is solely up to your will to not let it empty its source in a flash!"

"Haaahh… another test, thrown onto my back!" Lia groaned, rubbing her head with two hands. "Go, Lia, learn magic. Oh? Combined spells? Train yourself! Wait, you formed a group; manage it! Here, have a seat on the student council! What? Water spells? Learn it! Ohohoho, that is not all; go, learn about different fires because you are going to be a judge soon! Ahahaha, sure, sure, here, have this No-Space lesson, and here is a telescope that you need to learn to use too!"

"What about showcasing your stuff?" Dayen asked, reminding her of what she was angry about last year, quickly turning Lia's pout into an embarrassed smile. "How many of those tasks were ones that you picked up for yourself? Who said to form your own group? To take up the Headmaster's course? Or mine?" She continued, further flushing her face with deep redness. "I also heard the Student Council leaves you alone because nobody dares to boss an Amarin around!"

“Okay… okay… I get it… no need to hammer it home so hard…!"

"Ahahaha~! You are young, Lia! You can deal with them all! Just take it step by step. Plus… one task can help you with the others!"

"Can it?" She whispered, looking at her, expecting some help or tips that could point her in the right direction.

"Start small. Start close to home." Dayen said, gently patting her head, "Which element you are best with?"

"Fire."

"Mhm. And I heard you have some fire seeds in your possession?"

"Some." She murmured, remembering that Jarrut sent over the first batch of his creations as her premium ones were all used up.

"Why not start with that then? With something you are familiar with~ Plus you could-" She spoke, but Lia's eyes already lit up like torches.

"Yes! I could feed my subordinates with fire seeds and make them rotate while I used the telescope! I could learn about different fires while also learning about using the telescope! I didn't think about that at all!"

"You wanted to go big from the start." Dayen flicked her forehead gently. "Start at small, girl! Break it into small pieces, and then you can eat it at your own pace. Don't go and try swallowing everything, a whole!"

“Ehehe… opsie… Yes, teacher! I will do so!" She stood up, finding herself in an excellent mood.

"Go! Your mind is not here." She chuckled, patting her back, excusing Lia from her lesson, letting her rush out, heading directly back to the Tower of Misfits.

…
…..
……

"Are you all ready?" Lia asked, watching her subordinates, all of them holding a little fire seed in their hands.

"I'll start, Boss!" Keily nodded, already eating it and sitting on the symbol of fire, starting to meditate while surrounded by a greenish-colored fire.

Lia wasn't hesitating; looking into the telescope, she was letting it carry her mind into No-Space. She could feel Keily's mana and his fire, now burning with the odor of antiseptic emanating from it, while she focused on it as hard as she could, trying to match it with her own mana. Even if she couldn't mimic it, she could slow the rate at which it was eaten up by the telescope.

"Ah…" Lia flinched, and to her surprise, she wasn't zooming around the clouds of No-Space this time. "This is… much better!" She chuckled, floating there.

It was much easier to focus on Keily's mana only. Previously she couldn't even distinguish the others, and it was overwhelming to her mind. It was making her propel forward without any concrete direction. Now, when she thought about it, her mind started to move, following her wishes, and she could accelerate and slow down quickly. A few minutes later, she felt a jolt, almost drawn back to reality, but then another, different flow of mana resumed fueling her weird adventure. Now it was hot, like being inside a blacksmith's workshop on a summer day. Lia immediately knew they switched Keily out as they were rotating the role of being her 'fuel tank.'

Not wasting any more moments, Lia tried to expand her consciousness, looking for something that felt familiar to the fire that was fueling the workings of the telescope. She was flying forward, passing through red, purple, and orange clouds, all mixing together in the vastness of No-Space. She couldn't tell where was east or west, up or down, so she just headed 'forward,' trying not to change her direction. She felt her subordinates change places outside four times and was about to give up when something made her stop. Closing her eyes and focusing on the faint feeling, she finally noticed it. Something was weakly resonating, pulsating, very similar to the mana she was surrounded with. Hurriedly, focusing on where it was coming from, she followed it, reaching its source after a minute or so.

"Ahahaha! Success!" She laughed, watching a red, floating, glowing box amidst the clouds. It was clearly carved out by someone who also had fire as his element. It wasn't big, only around two meters tall and a meter wide, in the shape of a rectangle. "It looks intact!" Lia murmured, going circles around it, thinking what to do next. She tried to get a feel of what may be inside, but her senses were utterly blocked from entering. It was sealed, and she could feel it was sealed by someone powerful. "Maybe… touch it?" She reached out and grinned when she knew she had guessed correctly.

When her transparent fingers touched upon it, she felt all the energy rushing in from the one currently sitting on the fire symbol at the top floor of their tower. It enveloped the separated space as a whole, and then with a loud pop, it was gone, and Lia was thrown out from No-space, back to reality.

"Boss!" Keily rushed to her, helping her up as she stumbled, landing on her butt.

"I'm good!" She gasped, standing up, watching Shishi do the same as she was the one who was drained from all of her mana.

"What happened?" Shishi asked after drinking a potion.

"We got something! Let's go down and check it!" Lia replied, close to jumping out of her skin from excitement, infecting them with the same enthusiasm after hearing her.

As they were rushing down from the top floor, everyone in the tower realized something must have happened, following them out to the door to Somia's Vault, as they started calling it. Lia was holding the stamp in her hand, entrusted with it, while Opparu was working on more copies. She didn't wait for everyone to gather around and pressed the seal on the door with excitement. She could feel its reaction was completely different this time. The moment she pressed it onto the door and the glowing veins appeared, she felt the mana fluctuations on the other side were the same as the lost space she just found. When the doors slid apart, instead of the weird vortex, a new room was revealed behind them. It was small and looked like a stood-up coffin, and to everyone's horror, it was not empty. From the dark, unlit 'room,' a body fell forward, passing through the invisible barrier, landing face flat on the ground with a loud thud.

"What…?" Keily gulped, stepping back, same as everyone, watching the corpse land in front of them. It was a man wearing some kind of old, black, and golden, noble-looking clothes. His hair was white, faded in color, just like his skin which was preserved fully.

"A… body?" Sion asked, arriving with Koa in tow.

"Was he executed? We were told that anything living put in there would die, their souls ripped out…." She added, but before anyone could answer, Aurora rushed past them, wielding a sword, swinging with her full might, aiming at the corpse lying on the floor.

"...!" Lia reacted just then, jumping to the side and dodging the corpse that unexpectedly sprung to life, dodging Aurora's weapon and clawing at Lia. Being mages, the rest of the group quickly reacted, summoning their spells, all attacking the now-standing, green-eyed corpse looking at them with an empty gaze.

The moment the multitude of spells appeared, all flying at him, the unnatural 'stench' of the Undead blasted forward, erecting a greenish-black bubble around itself, blocking their attacks, turning its head towards Lia.

"Prime quality." It spoke, freezing them into place with such cold dread they didn't know something like that could exist. His voice was flat, frigid, and parched. As if he was someone who did not speak for eons and his throat was dry as a desert… which was technically the truth.

Aurora, ignoring the fact that the Undead spoke, meaning it was an Intelligent variant, slashed against its shield, landing her blow with a loud, sharp clinging sound, cracking both the protection and her blade. Sion followed suit, aiming directly at the cracks, shooting them and blasting a small hole into its defenses. Next came Raufon, his hands covered in rocks, grabbing into it, pulling, stopping it from regenerating, and keeping the opening wide enough for Ceiline's spell to go through. Thick, wooden roots grew from the ground, imprisoning the Undead, holding it in place while Keily popped a fire seed and unleashed the all-consuming black flames engulfing the Undead at once. Their teamwork was fluent and happened instantly, without speaking to each other at all.

On the other hand, the Undead was ignoring them, focusing its mind solely on Lia, who was just getting to her feet. She was watching its eyes, looking into that soulless gaze. No… it wasn't soulless… but the light in it was too distant to notice at first. As if what Lia was looking at was hiding behind a hazy, fogged-up window, looking at her through multiple layers of clouds. From somewhere far afar. Lia immediately knew, that the Undead was still in the middle of 'waking up' and if they wanted to kill it, it was now or never. She quickly shook off the mental pressure emanating from the Undead, summoning the blue flames that made the corpse, to everyone's horror, flash a smile, cracking its dried-out lips yet no blood followed suit.

"Begone from my Institution!" Arrived a booming, thunderous voice, and Lucian teleported straight into the bubble of the Undead, who was ignoring the black flames that were eating at its white flash.

"Mediocre quality." It spoke again, looking at Lucian briefly, who was directing a palm strike at its chest.

"Says the dead? Hmph!" He commented, his hand covered in black, swirling energy, flashing with crimson lightning from time to time.

His attack was quick and overwhelming, blasting the undead body into dozens of pieces. Its limbs were blown off by the force behind his palm strike. Its ribs and spine were shattered, their fragments exiting the collapsing body, tearing its flesh to shreds… yet there was no blood. Nothing came out of that dry, undead body, as if it was made out of wood and scraps and not living tissue. To everyone's horror, when the severed head landed, rolling a little and its defensive bubble was disintegrating, the green eyes of the Undead were still moving, scanning everyone before resettling on Lia.

"Recorded." It spoke a word with a voice that felt like coming from beyond life itself. Lucian didn't give it more chance and simply stepped on the head, smashing it to pieces and letting the brain in its skull be crushed into powder. It echoed out in their garden like crunching up dried leaves, missing any squishing sounds that others may have expected.

"Burn it! Burn it all!" Lucian ordered, and everyone present regained their clarity by the strength of his voice.

Alongside Lia, all those who wielded the element of fire blasted the remains without reserving any mana. Soon, roaring, four-meter-high flames were dancing before their tower, turning all the Undead's flesh and remains into ash which then was gathered by Lucian and stored in a holding bag. Nobody said anything, not until the Headmaster opened his mouth.

"You." He pointed at Lia, who gulped, "With me! The rest go and report to Lauron. Tell him everything that happened and tell him to come to my office after!"

Nobody protested, not even Lia, as they all hurried away while Lia was basically carried by Lucian, teleporting away with a loud cracking noise.