CH. 7 The beginning of the End

That night Alen walked into the dark halls of the mansion, it was late at night and all the others had already gone to bed. Alen was anxious his throat dry and his body sluggish, behind him was the maid appointed in assisting Alen with every possible need.

Lucy had offered to fetch a glass of water for her master, but Alen declined as he felt it was cruel to let the maids work throughout the day and night. But when he brought up the suggestion of rest to Lucy, she ignored him or sometimes gave him a half-answer and avoid the question.

The sound of falling waves of laughter could be heard echoing around the mansion, it was late at night, and everyone seemed to be asleep. But Alen walked confidently along the halls of the mansion seemingly heading toward the laughter, he had a smile plastered on his face and the dreaded feeling of anxiety seemed to have washed away.

Alen followed the sound of giggles and laughter throughout the dark mansion until he eventually came to a garden at the back of the mansion, sitting on a fountain was a beautiful girl with shining golden hair. The garden was filled with various flowers, each different in color and shape, and on top of this, the dim yet captivating light from the moon illuminated the garden.

Putting the finished touches to the beautiful scenery in front of Alen's eyes. Alen had secretly been meeting with Alice one of the great heroes in this garden since the latter usually train alone here, and ever since Alen and Alice had been meeting up in the garden to train, hang out, or simply enjoy the view whenever they couldn't sleep.

The only people who knew of these meetings except for the two of them were the two maids beside them, Alen suddenly sensed a sharp glare that caused goosebumps to cover his hands. Taking his gaze off Alice he was met with the gaze of the lady beside her, her gaze was intimidating enough but now that Alen could see the face of the curled face of the maid, he was sure she wanted him dead.

"Ooh, you finally arrived," Alice said as she closed the book she had at hand, "Penina Please!" Alice addressed the maid beside her.

"My lady, this trash has been staring at you since he arrived, I can sense his intentions with you."

Enough of that Alen is my friend and I'm helping him train. This had brought Alen back to his goal he needed to train hard so that when the heroes were separated and sent to different parts of the world, he wouldn't be a burden to whichever unit he was assigned to.

Alice's training was one of the things that allowed him to unlock his skill, she taught him how to detect mana in his body and how to control it, although Alice is the highest-level hero among the summoned right now her mana and skills were falls beyond that of his.

Alen hoped that he would be assigned to the same squad as Alice in the two days to come, but he could only hope.

"What do you say we continue with training now?" Alice asked as he placed her book on the fountain.

"I'd appreciate that," Alen said as he bowed down a little.

"I'll get a midnight snack prepared, Penina would you accompany me to the kitchen?" Lucy said to which Penina sucked her teeth letting her displeasure with the situation known.

Now Alice summoned five swords made purely from her mana, the swords hovered behind her back as they slightly rotated. Alen took this opportunity to strike first, he intended to lay a hand on Alice so he could copy one of her skills.

He threw out punch after punch trying his hardest to lay even a single finger on his opponent, but all his effort seemed futile as his opponent avoided every last one of the attempts.

"You have a useful skill but it's meaningless if you can't get your hands on your opponent, Alice said as she threw out a kick and hit her foe in the stomach sending him flying back. And before Alen could get his balance back Alice raised her hand and one of the swords disappeared only to reaper behind Alen causing him to slam into the sword.

The impact was enough to bring Alen to his knees as a sweet, yet metallic taste filled his mouth, looking up Alen was met with four swords hovering above his head. Alice clenched her fists as she swung her arm down and the swords went full force aiming for the final blow.

Alen ducked and evaded the swords by rolling out of the way, and now with her swords away from her Alen thought this would be a perfect opportunity to make a charge for Alice. But halfway through to Alice, Alen sensed the swords flying towards him, but that was when he noticed they were only four swords, and the last sword was no were to be found.

Looking up at Alice he could see the last of the mana swords in her hands as she swung the weapon aiming for Alen's chest, she knew Penina could heal Alen if she was to injure him, so she held back a bit making sure not to kill him. But as the sword made contact with him it completely went through his body and Alice felt no contact of her sword with anything.

With Alen right by her side, she summoned the other four swords which came crashing down from the sky, but unlike the last attack, Alice hadn't held back her straight on this one and had managed to destroy the fountain and the garden around it. Yet Alen was unfazed nor injured, He pushed on trying to land one attack on Alice before he completely ran out of mana.

Alice jumped back trying to avoid Alen's hands as much as possible while swinging her hands sideways causing all the swords to come rushing at Alen. And for the first time during this whole much, Alice could see the swords go through Alen completely and yet do no damage. One of the swords had gone through his head and the other through his chest, stomach, neck, and legs.

What had been done was slow Alen's advances a little as he seemed out of breath and was about to pass out any second, fighting to keep his eyes open Alen jumped towards Alice managing to touch her face slightly before collapsing to the ground. The commotion had woken the others up and now all the great heroes and some of the others summoned were watching the scene in front of them.

"DUDE!!" Quinn shouted as he charged toward his friend.

"Congratulations, this fight is yours," Alice said as her shocked expression turned to a smile. But Alen didn't seem to be in the best of conditions as he huffed and puffed on the ground struggling to get air.

"Do you two love bird minds keeping it down, some of us are trying to sleep?" Jack said as he turned around and walked away but his expression displayed anger and disappointment. Lucy came charging in holding a bottle filled with blue liquid inside.

Breaking it with her thumb she then placed the tip of the bottle on her master's mouth as Quinn sat him up. "You should be careful master, Mana depletion is a very fatal circumstance please keep that in mind," Lucy said as she gave Alen something to restore his spent mana.

"Be careful of how you use your mana Jackas*" Quinn scolded Alen as he dropped Alen back down after seeing he could support himself.

"We get separated on the day after tomorrow but tomorrow we get assigned to our units and different groups, although the group selection is random and for only those who wish to fight. I would prefer if you didn't join the battlefield just yet."

"I agree, I know it sounds harsh man but if you are not assigned to my group or Alice's group, please don't join the battlefield," Quinn said as he sat down next to Alen.

Alice joined them, as they discussed various topics and shared different opinions while they enjoyed the night sky. Although the garden was still destroyed, they ate their snacks and went to bed afterward.

The next day around noon all the five great heroes had been summoned along with everyone else, they were to be informed of which squad they would be in and depart the next day early in the morning. Some of the summoned who didn't wish to participate in the war had chosen to refrain from attending the summon, but to people's surprise, Alen had decided to join the group despite making his intention crystal clear.

"The groups will now be announced, and the leader of these parties will be the five great heroes in front of you. But to save time and allow you to prepare yourself for tomorrow we will project the group selections using magic, please take a look at the chart your names will be under a great hero's name." The great bishop of the church and some of the great figures of the kingdom were witnesses to this event.

As Alen looked through the list of names displayed on the magic panel, his stomach turned as his heart dropped bringing a heavy pain in his chest. His name was located under the group of the great hero Jack, and the bald masculine teen had figured this out as well. Now he was staring directly at Alen with a disgusted look on his face.