6 The Price of Power

Persephone psyched herself up in front of the target dummy. Apparently due to the lack of magic casters with hatred traits being accepted into the academy, they had next to no knowledge about the exact specifics of hate magic.

"The previous hatred magic caster was able to concentrate red light into her hands and then expel them out like a bolt of a crossbolt... except the damage is far more severe."

The professor started to explain what little knowledge the school had about hate magic.

"She described it as pulling thoughts from her brain and giving it a theoretical physical form before actually generating it's physical entity from within her hands. When I saw it, it looked like there were red balls of light which enveloped her hands with red lightning that crackled around the red balls. Then she said that she imagined expelling that entity from her hands resulting a red beam of light firing in the direction that her palms were aimed at. Said beam of light would melt even steel and its range depended on how long she held the red ball in her hands."

Persephone grasped a general idea on what she need to do to unleash her magic, she began to follow the process described to her by the professor, clenching her right hand into a fist. After a short moment she could feel it. In her right hand she could sense her magic power circulating around. Looking downwards towards her hand, she could see red lightning beginning to crackle around her palms and fingers. Soon a tiny red ball of light formed in centre of her hand. Said ball of light quickly grew and her hand was swallowed by the red light.

"Before careful now, that beam of light has very high destructive pow-"

Before the professor could finish speaking Persephone already unleashed the beam of light onto the target dummy. The beam of light pierced through the dummy's chest, leaving a large fist size hole with the area around the hole has been burnt a pitch black . Filled the euphoria of the power she now wields, Persephone hurriedly charged another ball of light.

"Now now, please calm yourself and wait. We have yet to access-"

Once again, before the professor can finish, Persephone unleashed another beam at the same target dummy. The blast obliterated the dummy's head, leaving yet again another fist sized hole in the head. Filled with exhilaration Persephone went to charge another beam which she now named "Chaos smites" but before she could do so-

"Stop! This is an order!"

Persephone immediately pulled her hands back at the professor's order. The previous euphoria she felt also faded away too. Normally Persephone would continue to be excited after achieving something as discovering the tremendous power she wielded even if she was ordered to stop.

However, this time Persephone felt a bit... different. With the disappearance of her previous exhilaration can only feel one thing... hatred... Hatred at her professor for telling her to stop. Hatred at her classmates who gawked jealously at the power she alone wielded. Hatred in herself for believing that she could have and should kept her foolish promise with Kathina.

As she hatred build up she felt a hand softly hold onto her should.

"Persephone? You don't look very well... Are you sure you're alright?"

Kathina's calming voiced banished all the negativity swarming within Persephone and she was able to recompose herself. It was almost as if her swirling emotions of hate was merely a passing storm.

"Now I know that this may seem rude but I have something I have to immediately report to my superiors"

The professor spoke in a hurried and somewhat fearful tone, as if he's been in a similar situation before which scared him for life.

"I will leave you all to practice using your magic with with the test dummies. I trust you are all mature enough to handle yourselves."

With those words the professor quickly hurried of the courtyard and did a mild jog towards the administration building.

"Hey Persephone did anything happen to you when you used your magic?"

Kathina continued to question Persephone as the professor left.

"Ever since you fired that first beam of red light, your face showed some sort of insane delight and your eyes were filled with madness."

"And not the usual 'Persephone' kind of madness as in actual madness, madness."

Maximillian added on to Kathina's description, although in a blunt, serious tone which was rare of him. Normally Persephone wouldn't really notice and even care about the changes Maximillian mannerisms but after her previous ordeal she became a little bit more wary and aware of her surroundings. Even if it's just for the time being.

Looking around she noticed that the flaming eyes of a certain someone were still vigilantly watching her. [Damn... Looks like my genius scheme didn't work after all...]

That was when she noticed something... At the courtyard's front gates there seemed to be a small group of men. They were donned in black leather armour and armed with a sabre on their waste. On the left side of the chest there was a dog head in the form of a metal emblem attached onto their leather armour.

"Hey guys you can rest assured that I'm fine now. I just got a little excited that's all."

"We literally just told you about how you just looked a deranged maniac and you just shrug it off as just being 'a little excited' but..."

Persephone held her breath as she anticipated the next words to come out of the snake's mouth.

"Reasoning like that while still holding a straight face does prove to me that you're still Persephone and not some insane spirit that took over her body for a brief moment... wether that's a good or bad thing... is yet to be known."

Normally Persephone's face would redden but she had neither the time nor the energy to do that. Instead she asked him the question she wanted answered.

"Anyway moving on. Who are those men men at the gate? I didn't see them before."

"You actually noticed them? Well they're just warhounds, apparently there have been a lot of chaos beasts sightings near the academy recently so those fine gentlemen were hired to provide protection."

Chaos beasts. Even Persephone knew what they were. Millennia ago an alchemist tried experimenting with infusing normal animals with magic. The result were the grotesque and bloodthirsty Chaos beast which multiplied rapidly since then. They always attack humans on sight and are deemed the enemies of mankind and are immediate targets for extermination upon discovery. The records of what happened to the alchemist after his experiments are nothing more than an empty void and is left up to speculation.

The Warhounds on the other hand are a unique mercenary para-military organisation which lends out its members for hired jobs. Unlike typical rag-tag mercenaries, the Warhounds is a massive organisation that spans the whole continent and have a uniform and organised structure and policy. Most of their members are low ranking nobles who fell from grace or dismissed veteran soldiers who still longed for bloodshed. Needless to say, Warhounds are still a force to be reckoned with.

"With Warhounds guarding the academy's walls how could any chaos beast get inside the castle?"

At Persephone's careless remark, Maximillian sighed gravely.

"This is what I would call 'triggering a flag.'"