CHAPTER 02

After obtaining the third golem core, we were brimming with excitement and a renewed determination to press on with our quest, we defeated golem after golem. The total cores per Houses were announced, Phoenix House had secured 10 golem cores, Hydra House had also obtained 10 golem cores, Arion House had slightly edged ahead with their 13 golem cores, and Empusa House held the leading position with an impressive 16 golem cores.

Finally, the much-awaited moment had arrived - the last and most challenging test, a cooperation challenge for all Houses together.

The teachers began their chant of "Corneum," and the moment they completed it, something extraordinary happened. The very cave itself seemed to come alive, restructuring and transforming into an enormous and imposing golem.

As panic spread among us at the sight of the colossal golem, a brave student from Arion House took charge and shouted at the panicking crowd.

"Use Gravith! If all of us use it together, we can force it to stop moving!"

With no better plan in mind, we followed his lead and unleashed a barrage of Gravith spells upon the giant golem. The combined force of our spells intensified the pull of gravity on the golem, weighing it down several times more than usual. Struggling to maintain its balance, the giant golem eventually succumbed to the immense force and collapsed to the ground. Its massive body began to crack under its own weight, and before long, it crumbled into pieces before our eyes.

However, our victory was short-lived. Instead of finding a core inside the golem, we discovered another golem—a hellstone golem, infamous for having the sturdiest body among all golems.

"Now what? There's no way we could beat that thing," Chrom asked, visibly shaking.

Lazarus hastily responded, "Of course, we keep attacking until it's defeated!"

With determination, Lazarus unleashed his assault spell, "Agnithium," and a torrent of searing flames shot out of his wand.

However, his attack proved useless. Instead of burning the golem, the fire was absorbed, enhancing it even further. The golem opened its mouth and released a blazing blast of hellfire towards us.

Ellen acted swiftly, shouting "Glesrium," and creating shields made of ice to protect us.

The shields instantly evaporated upon contact with the hellfire, but they succeeded in stopping the blast, saving us from certain doom.

Ellen glared at Lazarus, her eyes filled with frustration. "You idiot! You've only made things worse for us. Use your brain for once!"

Lazarus gritted his teeth in defiance. "I don't need your lecture!"

Ignoring Lazarus's retort, Ellen turned to the rest of us, determination in her eyes. "Edward, Chrom, Rein, follow my lead. Ice and water magic on my mark!"

We nodded in unison, ready to execute the plan.

"In one, two, now!" Ellen shouted, and we chanted in perfect synchronization. "Grandine!"

Ice spikes formed in the air, soaring towards the golem. However, our efforts proved ineffective as the ice melted before causing any significant damage.

Undeterred, we regrouped and chanted once again, this time louder and with intensified focus. "Hydroos!"

A massive flood surged forth, crashing into the golem. To our horror, the hellstone golem barely seemed affected, and its body even began to evaporate the water around it.

"It's no use! This bastard is too strong!" Rein shouted in frustration.

Just as despair threatened to consume us, a student from Arion House stepped forward. "I'll take it down, but I need some time to prepare my magic."

Ellen nodded, determination shining in her eyes. "We'll buy you some time."

Together, we bombarded the golem with relentless ice and water magic, creating a barrage of attacks to distract the formidable foe and buy our comrade the needed time.

The Arion student's voice rang out, filled with determination. "It's ready! Div Hydroos!"

Another flood of water surged towards the golem, but this time, it was different. The holy variant of Hydroos proved to be the key. It slowly extinguished the flames engulfing the golem, tore into its body, and flooded its insides. It didn't take long before the golem burst from the inside out, defeated.

Confusion filled Chrom's face as he questioned, "Wait, I thought Hydroos wasn't effective against this golem?"

Rein joined in, seeking answers. "Yeah, we tried it before. What makes this one different?"

The Arion student smiled, pleased to share his knowledge. "That wasn't the regular Hydroos. It was the holy variant of the spell."

Raising an eyebrow, Rein asked curiously, "How do you know that?"

Ellen chimed in, shedding light on the matter. "You know, you can easily find books about variant spells in the library, right?"

The Arion student nodded, confirming her words. "Exactly, I read about it in the library."

As the conversation continued, I couldn't resist joining in. "By the way, what's your name?" I asked, curious to know his identity.

He returned the smile. "My name is Hudson Maverick. And yours?" he replied, turning to ask all of us.

"I'm Edward Jackal," I answered, introducing myself.

"Sup, I'm Chromium Krys, but just call me Chrom," Chrom chimed in with a friendly greeting.

"I'm Reinhard Romulus, but you can call me Rein. Nice to meet you," Rein added warmly.

Ellen concluded the introductions with a polite nod. "I'm Ellen Cooper, pleased to meet all of you."

As we continued to get to know each other, I couldn't help but notice Lazarus giving secretive instructions to Ernesh and Alastor, seemingly about summoning a chaotic monster.

Knowing this I acted swiftly, then i whispered the spell to conceal myself "Ageth."

Ernesh and Alastor attempted to cast their spell, "Resucitar antig-,"

"Otomena," But i countered their spell thwarted their efforts.

Infuriated, Lazarus unleashed his anger on both Ernesh and Alastor, hitting and kicking them in frustration.

However, Freya, with her keen senses, sensed that something was amiss. Worriedly, she spoke up, "Lazarus, someone canceled our spell just now. I can feel the magical energy."

Furious and demanding answers, Lazarus demanded to know, "Who was it?!"

Calmly, Freya replied, "Someone from Phoenix House."

With a determined expression, Lazarus ordered, "Find them and bring them to me!"

"Yes"

Feeling anxious, I quickly left the scene.

Later that night, I gathered my friends to share the incident that had happened earlier. We decided to cast a privacy spell, "Dorrium Minamum," to ensure our conversation remained confidential before I began recounting the events.

After explaining everything in detail, my friends were genuinely concerned about my safety and urged me not to get involved in Empusa House's business anymore. They were worried about the potential risks and consequences of meddling further.

The next day, we assembled in the hall for our broom-flying lessons. It was an exciting and enjoyable session, as everyone soared on their flying brooms. Our instructor then proposed a friendly competition - a broom-flying race to the forest.

Each of us was assigned an opponent, and I found myself paired with Lazarus. As soon as the whistle blew, we shot off, vying for the lead. Initially, I managed to gain a bit of an advantage.

"Agnithium!" Lazarus shouted, attempting to slow me down with his fiery attack.

"Egius!" I quickly summoned a shield to protect myself from the flames, maintaining my position.

We continued to exchange spells, trying to outmaneuver each other. Lazarus was visibly frustrated, and his anger fueled his determination. "Get away! Thundrum!" he cried out, sending crackling thunder towards me.

Reacting instinctively, I swiftly dodged the attack, but it allowed Lazarus to gain the lead.

Annoyed at falling behind, I decided to try a different tactic. "Grandine!" I chanted, conjuring ice spikes to overtake him.

Lazarus scoffed and countered with "Mul Egius!" His variant of Egius created a series of shields that deflected my ice spikes, preventing me from regaining my lead. It was a tough race, but in the end, I lost, and Lazarus emerged victorious.

Next lesson was about griffins, and we were tasked with taking one feather from the magnificent creature. The teacher demonstrated the process: approach the griffin calmly, gently rub its neck until it sits down, and then carefully point your wand to flick the feather up and catch it.

Me, Chrom, Rein, and Ellen were able to complete this task quite easily.

"Well, I'd be damned, the griffin isn't as wild as I thought it would be," Chrom remarked.

Rein pondered, "Maybe this one was already tamed by the school."

"That, and if you show respect to a griffin, it'll respect you back. Seriously, read some books," Ellen huffed.

Suddenly, we heard someone screaming for help nearby.

"Help!!"

The shout grabbed everyone's attention. It was the same kid who had been possessed by the fae a few days ago, now under attack by the griffin.

"Isn't that the guy who got possessed?" one student asked.

The teachers swiftly intervened and helped the injured student. Rein watched the scene from afar and suggested, "Hey, want to check on that kid? I'm worried about him."

"Why not?" Chrom shrugged.

I nodded in agreement, "I'll be happy to go as well."

"Sorry, can't do," Ellen said.

"Why?" Rein asked.

"Library duty," she simply replied.

"Oh, is that so? Well, I guess it can't be helped then. The three of us are enough," I said.

We went to the Nurse's Office to visit him, but he wasn't there. Confused, we asked the nurse, and she informed us that the kid had already left. Not knowing how to find him, we decided to go to the library to tell Ellen about it.

"Oh, him? He's there," Ellen pointed to the east corner of the library, and sure enough, there he was. "That kid just went up there and is reading several books about magical creatures," Ellen said nonchalantly.

We walked towards him and greeted him warmly. He seemed startled by my sudden greeting but returned it politely "Hello..? can i help you?".

Rein then spoke, "Nah, we're just here to ask if you're okay. Must have been nasty to get possessed by a fae and then kicked around by a griffin."

"Yeah, we're just kinda worried," Chrom added.

The kid shook his head, reassuring us, "I'm fine, got a bit hurt, but it was fine now. Thanks for worrying about me, though."

I glanced at the books he was reading, "Introduction to magical creatures and Bestiary?"

The kid sheepishly smiled, "Yeah, I just wondered why the mystical kind hates me at the moment. Not sure if I somehow treated them wrong, so here I am, trying to figure it out."

"Well, we can help," Rein said.

"Yeah, we have nothing better to do anyway. What about you, Ed?" Chrom asked me.

"Sure, I would love to help," I replied.

The kid was taken aback, "Sure...? I mean, thanks, but you don't need to really."

"Nah, it's fine," Rein reassured him.

"Right, thanks again. By the way, my name is Ethan Atticus from Hydra House," the kid introduced himself.

"I'm Edward Jackal, nice to meet you," I said.

"Reinhard Romulus, just call me Rein," Rein added.

"Chromium Krys, but everyone calls me Chrom," Chrom chimed in with a friendly smile.

We spent time reading books about various magical creatures and the mysteries surrounding them. Sometimes we exchanged information, and sometimes we simply joked around, laughing softly to not disturb others in the library.

But our library adventure came to an end when Ellen had enough and kicked us out because it was already late at night.

The next day, during our potion-making lesson, our task was to create an elixir. We needed fae essence, which we slowly stuffed inside the golem core using our wands. Then, we placed the griffin feather below the core and submerged them in a pot of water.

The water should turn into a pinkish-red hue, and at that point, we were supposed to immediately remove the core and feather from the pot. We were warned that if our potion turned greenish-yellow, it was a sign of failure.

Everyone else's potion turned out to be the exact color it should be. I glanced at mine, wondering why my potion's color was bluish-purple.