Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Smoke rose from a small crater. The ground was cracked and smoldering. Laying several feet away, shattered into pieces was the remnants of a target dummy.

"Excellent work Lady Petra. I daresay you will have an excellent showing at the Exhibition."

"Not Lady Petra. I am just Rena, professor."

"Apologies Miss Rena. Either way, you have a fine set of skills with four magical Compatibilities no less. I am surprised you chose to fight this year! Of course you are not representing any of the departments, but to put your name in the general contestant pool was not something I expected." The professor continued while analyzing the damage.

"Yes, well. I have something to prove to myself." She answered plainly, stepping over to another target.

Rena took a moment to think about how she wanted to attack this one. Her specialty had become Metal Magic and of her Compatibilities, Water Magic had fallen far behind. Of course, since it was Elemental Magic, while Metal and Ice were the superior Transcendent Magic. Light Magic was a class of its own. Basically, all her other skills were stronger than Water, inherently so.

With a heavy sigh, she pointed on hand lazily at the target. "[Ferrum: Iron Needles]"

Dozens of small metal needles formed in the middle of the air and shot towards the target, turning it into a pincushion. Rena squeezed her fist, forcing the needles deeper until they forced the target to explode to pieces.

"Yet another excellent showing Miss Rena. However…"

"What's the problem?"

"I don't believe that spell will be allowed for usage in the tournament. Purposefully attempting to kill your opponents is forbidden in the rules, you know."

"Unfortunate. And here I was hoping to use that trick against my dear cousin…" She said a little louder than intended, prompting a look of horror to appear on the professor's face.

"Relax, I was only joking." She relented, though only partially telling the truth.

After she finished assisting in cleaning up the training room, the door to the room open and in walked two young women. Her friends Lyrah and Natali.

"Gods! You two! I haven't seen you in nearly a week! Are you alright?" Rena shouted as she ran towards her best friends, tightly bringing them both in for a forceful hug.

"Yes, Rena. We are fine. We ran into a little trouble with one of those psychos people have been talking about lately. My mother was worried so I spent some time in the castle placating her." Lyrah answered with a giggle as she gently placed her hand on Rena's cheek.

"Enough of that though!" the girl continued. "I hear that in my absence you have decided to enter the tournament. What is that about?"

Rena shuffled her feet nervously. "Well… I was hoping I might have a chance to…"

"Beat Thomas' face in." Natali answered dryly.

All the red-head could do was nod shyly, having been found out. Though discovering the truth would not have been hard. Even she knew that she was a rather easy person to read. It's just as well though, since she was no longer a member of nobility, failing to hide her feelings was not something she needed to worry about.

Or at least it wouldn't be… she wrote the letter renouncing her title to her father… but things got away from her and she had yet to send it.

"Well, I cant say much." Lyrah began. "But your chances of winning are… not very good Rena."

Though the statement did deflate her ego a little, it was a truth that she was already aware of. She was talented with her magic, but there were other competitors that were more talented with magic. Also, she did not have a good track record for fighting against Arts at a close range.

So she was still rather vulnerable. Rena had no intention of winning the tournament outright. Her main goal was to simply go as far as she could, impress a few people while her father was in attendance… then publicly renounce her name in front of the other nobility. It was the biggest slap in the face she could think of that would hurt her father.

Never in a million years could she imagine herself being able to get a leg up on him in a fight, but this was something she could conceivably pull off.

"Don't worry Lyrah. I have no delusions of my victory. I only wish to do my best."

Lyrah gave her a gentle smile. It was a smile she had grown fond of over the last few years. It brought great comfort to her where little comfort was to be found. "I can promise you this, the tournament will at least be somewhat entertaining. Or it should be."

"Lyrah…" Natali mumbled.

"What?" the black-haired girl protested. "I cant be certain! I'm still working on these new visions. It's been four years since…"

Lyrah put her hands over her mouth as she realized what she was about to say. Rena smiled sadly and simply brought them both in for a hug again. She had been told about her friend's situation. That for some reason she could only have visions involving Lucius.

Since his death, Lyrah has reported visions of other things, though they are never as clear as her old ones were. Which, according to her, was saying quite a lot since even the ones with Lucius in them were reported to be quite difficult to understand.

"Any way. Let's get a move on. You need a shower after all that training and we should get dinner together. Let's go to the cafeteria? I am none to keen on getting out on the town at the moment." Lyrah offered.

The other two nodded in agreement and they went off to the academy's massive cafeteria. They ordered simple meals of a cream-based stew and bread. It was simple in flavor, but packed full of meats and vegetables. All the nutrients they could need were given in a single meal.

For some reason, Lyrah was extremely fond of cream- and milk-based treats and foods. Sometimes it made Rena chuckle because Lucius was like that too. Though he was part beastman with a feline heritage, so it was a lot more funny.

"You know, Lyrah… we know who your mother is… but who is your dad?"

"Hmm a good question." Lyrah answered thoughtfully while tapping her spoon on her cheek.

"So you don't know?"

"I did not say that." Explore hidden tales at m,v l'e-m|p y r

"So, you do know."

"I didn't say that either."

"Which one is it!" Rena nearly shouted, starting to get exasperated.

"One of those two…" Lyrah giggled. "Look. Every question deserves an answer, and your question will receive answers. Eventually. So just trust me that you will find out whether I know or not at the right time."