Team Exercise
After flying for days, the lot finally arrived at The South Celestial Academy. Everyone had worn-out expressions on their faces, without a trace of happiness about the Celestials they got. They were full of worry about the Celestial Welcome that was about to happen.
As they arrived at the gate, a familiar face greeted Z. The lady with green hair and gold eyes left quite an impression on Z and Lea at the trials, after all.
"Lady Shevel, why do you look hurried?" Z asked.
Terror surfaced on her face when she heard Z's question, reliving the memories that just faded from her mind a moment ago when she saw them. "L-Libertia is under attack," she said in deep horror.
"What!?" Lea asked in shock, snapping out of her despair at the very instance. It was not just her, though. Everyone around except for Z was baffled by Shevel's claim. "How did the Abyssals get through the four fortresses?" she continued.
"It was not Abyssals. It was The Integrals," she replied with a gulp.
A cold breath was let out by everyone once more. After a few seconds, a burning rage escaped Anshth's eyes.
"We need to enter the academy now!" He ordered before commanding his Arcane to drag everyone, including Shevel into the Faculty Room.
"What happened?" Anshth asked Noel and Maktham.
"What do you think? Politics. Tsk, those rascals from The Quartet," Maktham sneered.
"What did they do?" Shevel asked, concerned.
"Since the inception of The Integrals, they had never successfully raided a continent! Only stray islands. Now, just two decades after The Divide, they are able to attack a country within Libertia. If those bastards from The Quartet deemed it so, they would have been annihilated before they could even touch an individual there," Maktham responded.
'How dirty. The Libertia continent must not have allied themselves with The Quartet during The Divide, so they are left to their own devices now,' Z thought.
"We need to protect them! Send reinforcement from the academy!" Shevel proposed.
"I agree. If The Integrals had the guts to attack, then that must mean that they know that they can overwhelm even The Knight Order," Henry added with a strong look in his eyes.
"The academy cannot publicly intervene," Anshth said with a sigh.
"Why?" Shevel asked with a wronged expression.
"We are under The World Force. We cannot act on a matter involving the affairs outside the academy without any orders or guidance from them."
'Tsk. Damned politics,' Henry thought while gripping the hilt of his sword.
"Then we will go!" Henry said with a valiant expression.
"Are you not listening? You are now students of the academy and you cannot involve yourselves with the affairs of the outside world. This young girl is lucky enough that we caught her by the gate since if she had managed to involve herself in that chaos, she would have had to answer to the academy," Anshth replied.
Shevel, Henry, Lea, and Yndrei were all caught in a large predicament. The raging waves in their hearts could never calm down, knowing full well that their homeland is being attacked. However, they could never bring themselves to go against the will of the academy as well.
Seeing this, Z decided to intervene, "What if we play it off as a team exercise A training for the upcoming Celestial Welcome."
The eyes of the lot glowed after hearing Z's proposition. Anshth and the other two professors also fell into contemplation for a while before it was finally broken when Anshth spoke.
"Fine, we will organize a team to send there," Anshth said. 'It will get me into hot waters but it would distract the students from training if I do not let them go there. I cannot afford to land our academy at the bottom spot again,' he thought.
"I will lead them. We can bring the six of you and Gale," Noel said after standing up.
"Shouldn't we invite other students who came from Libertia?" Lea asked.
"So they can die at the hands of The Integrals? It would already be difficult to protect this small group," Noel answered.
"That is right. Professor Maktham and I cannot accompany Noel as well as we have our own affairs to attend to. It will be chaos in the faculty after this event so you better come back without any deaths," Anshth said before looking at Noel, saying that he should take care of the rest.
...
The lot hurriedly got their affairs in order. Z even dragged Gale to ride Noel's Emerald Eagle without so much as a 'How do you do?' Despite this, everything went smoothly.
The giant Emerald Eagle was now darting through the sky as fast as it could to reach the Libertia Continent. It was closer to The South Celestial Academy than The Celestial Academy, so it would take them less than a day to arrive at full speed.
Everyone was holding tightly not because they were afraid of falling, but because the tension in their hearts was building up. Fear, anger, resentment, and pain were etching through the very fibers of their bodies as they imagined the gruesomeness that could be happening in their homes. They were not aware of where exactly in the continent The Integrals attacked, so they all had weary hearts. If by any chance it was by any chance in their country, it would be a bane for them.
'Maybe I can use this chance to redeem myself for what happened in the Celestial Selection. I am sure that by now, Father had already heard of my defeat. I cannot endure two consecutive humiliations!' Lea thought as she tightened her heart.
'I just hope that the attack did not happen in a country under the jurisdiction of The Knights Order. I cannot imagine the humiliation my clan would suffer if such a thing happens. Please, be somewhere else,' Henry hoped.
'Mom, Dad, be safe, please,' Shevel chanted in her head.
Everyone had different yearnings in their hearts but all of them crashed after they arrived at Libertia.