Palm Academy

The small light of fear quickly morphed into hostility. It was blatantly apparent the officers were not a jury. Instead, they were a judge that had already brought down their hammer.

With this quick realization, the blessed raised his hand, holding the small metallic item, and pointed it in the direction of the guards. Flicking his thumb, a small light appeared at the top of the shiny object, revealing it to be your average lighter. While this action seemed docile, they were not at a concert. Instead, it was an all-out attack. The air oscillated around the small flame as an unknown gas was introduced to the air, shooting at an astounding speed towards the line of unprotected FBI agents. The gas materializing thanks to the man's unknown blessing, was extraordinarily flammable, and in the blink of an eye, the hurtling ball of gas ignited on the flame and turned into a small sun.

Terran could feel the heat pressing against his face, and worry entered his heart. He was standing only a few meters behind the guards, and next to him was Sophie. If things continued, they would be hit in the crossfire. While he was confident that he would survive, he was afraid that Sophie would not. She did not have his god-like regeneration, nor any form of defense for that matter.

However, after glancing at her face, he found that she wore not even the slightest bit of worry. Did she not care that they would both be burned alive? This question led Terran to wonder, "are those with suicidal tendencies normally drawn towards each other?"

Terran's passing thought did not linger for long as everything was happening in a mere second. It was hard to notice, but a slight glint of purple flashed around the blessed's neck. Before the blazing ball of gas could even reach the officers, it suddenly dispersed, as if its source of fuel had been cut off.

"No-no-no! This cannot happen to me! Work! Dammit, just work!

The only flame that remained originated from the metallic lighter. The blessed had long dropped his broken bottle, his empty hand now trembling. His fingers extended out around the now pitiful flame. He looked like a kid that had discovered a lighter for the first time, pretending to use fire magic.

The man was broken, stuck in a loop of disbelief. So much so, he did not make any moves as the officers walked up to him, restricted his hands in cuffs, and disappeared from the street just as fast as they had materialized.

Terran's mind was also a little bit broken. He had found an answer to one of his questions from the other day, and he had many mixed feelings about it.

"That viscus purple substance they inject into every registered blessed. It's actually a dormant weapon that can nullify a blessing?"

While things were not certain, this was the main theory rampaging through Terran's mind.

"I hope you can forgive me for not telling you! I should have! I just didn't want to scare you away from getting registered! I can assure you that it's a hundred times better than trying to hide your blessing. I did it in your best interest! Please believe me!"

Terran turned to meet Sophie's gaze. His facial expression was deadly serious as he tried reading her. Sophie's eyes were red as if she was on the verge of crying.

Seeing her red eyes made his face melt. "What are you talking about? I wouldn't be going to school now if it weren't for you Miss Sophie! If it weren't for you, I would still be out starving in the wasteland! Just promise to be upfront with me in the future. I trust your judgment!"

While the part about the wasteland was not necessarily true, Terran felt he needed to add it to extenuate his point.

He would be lying if he said he wouldn't have liked to know about the effects of the serum before it entered his body, but at the end of the day, it had been destroyed by his healing. No harm no foul.

His serious expression had not been due to anger at Sophie. Instead, it originated from a feeling of disgust he felt towards such a method of control used by the Federation of Blessed Individuals. While it had certainly shown its merits today, possibly saving many lives. Something about it just felt wrong. It made his stomach feel sick.

Even though he wanted more information on the viscous serum. He decided to not ask Sophie about it. For starters, he wasn't sure how many details she even knew. But more importantly, something else seemed to be biting at the back of her mind. Terran was no psychologist, but he could tell something was wrong. Even though this was the second time he had seen her so sad, he thought of her as a strong-minded person.

With this in mind, he decided to steer the conversation away. Eventually, they moved on and continued on their way toward Palm Academy.

The two passed by countless storefronts during Terran's short time in the Oasis, and along with the storefronts were advertisements. One advertisement, in particular, Terran had seen over and over again, and he would be lying if he said it had not caught his attention. "Not a chosen blessed? Don't worry, we got you covered! The era of pseudo blessings has arrived! Choose yourself, because you're worth it!"

"Hey, Miss Sophie, what's a pseudo blessing?"

"Ah those, recently a method has been discovered to copy down a blessing, making it so other people can learn them. Only, they are cheap imitations, with a fraction of the original power, and having extremely long cooldown periods between activations. You shouldn't concern yourself with them. Unfortunately, they are way out of our price range."

With Sophie's explanation, Terran temporarily moved this tempting product to the back of his mind.

A few hours later, the two finally reached their destination. They had taken their time looking around the city. Although they had only known each other for a few days, they had quickly grown close. For Terran, these were the only days he had ever spent with another person. As for Sophie, she had her own reasons that were still unknown.

"Goodbye, I'll call you and check in once I return to the city. Make sure to avoid trouble but don't forget to enjoy yourself! Save some of the girls for the other students!"

Terran rolled his eyes at Sophie's joking farewells. Then, after giving each other one last hug, he headed through the front gate of the academy.

It was currently Sunday, and no classes were in session. Nonetheless, the campus was still very lively as most students resided in dorms.

The grounds were like a botanical garden; even the buildings had trees growing on top of them. The campus buildings seemed to have an exterior made of 90% glass, many connected by hallways high up in the air.

As he walked, looking for his dorm room. Terran couldn't help but notice that all of the students seemed to be in groups of at least five. The few that weren't stood out like a sore thumb. Because of this, Terran noticed that all the loners walked with their heads down. If he had been in a rush, he might have overlooked this oddity, but he had been taking his time viewing his surroundings.

It had not been five minutes when a group of teenagers walked up in front of him and blocked his path. Around each of their necks was a lanyard holding their blessed ID badges. Now that he looked closer, he realized that most of the students on campus wore their ID badges around their necks.

"Wow, the people at this school are so nice! Coming to offer new students directions, how considerate!"

"Can I help you?" Terran asked, a little intrigued by the actions of the students blocking his path.

One of them, who had a girl around his shoulder a second ago, stepped forward. On his badge was a large letter C.

"I noticed that you're alone. As the kind man that I am, I wanted to extend a hand to you and invite you to join my group." While the guy in front of him used nice words, his tone, body language, and the fact that five people stood behind him made it feel more like a command.

"Oh, that's it? No thanks. I thought you needed help with directions or something. You see, I'm an expert in that department!" Terran didn't know where his words came from, but they felt natural. Clearly, though, he had forgotten that he was the one needing directions.

Before the guy could respond, the girl hugging on him a second ago stepped forward. "Tch, this kid is retarded. Why even waste our time? He'll get what's coming to him soon enough."

The leader shot her a glare. Clearly, he had not been done talking, but she had shut down his road of negotiation while trying to suck up to him.

"Watch your back, kiddo. If you change your mind, here is my number."

Terran took the small sheet of paper and continued on his path, walking directly through the group standing before him while brushing a few of their shoulders.

One of the men was about to grab Terran when he felt a hand stop him.

"Benny, why? Don't you see how many people are watching? Now we'll lose face!"

"Dumbass, he doesn't have his ID out. He's a new face, and we don't know his rank, not to mention his blessing. But, based on his confidence, he was probably strong! The embarrassment we suffered is nothing compared to if we got our asses handed to us."