??Chapter 28??

In a crowded city, many hooded figures could be seen converging into a rather normal looking building. They came from all directions, as if a good portion of the cities residents had decided to meet up at a certain time.

Whenever the hooded figures entered into the building, they pressed a rune formation and their hoods transformed.

From a once murky brown color, to a white robe free from any blemishes. They entered into a big room.

A man in a white robe with gold lines running down it, stood on a stage and was currently conducting a sermon.

"Many of you have asked, what are we to do with all the dark mages that have been showing up." He paused letting the question to sit in.

"Well to that, I say hold steady. Our god will deliver us from evil, so says his holy word." He said holding up a book with an emblem of a sun inlaid on it.

"Does this mean we should mingle and mix with them? No! They are a curse, a blemish to our society. Remember, if anyone walks at night, he will stumble. If anyone treads the path of darkness, their path of asking for forgiveness will be paved with a road of thorns."

"Amen!" The hooded figures said collectively.

The man continued his sermon for hours, the hooded figures listened intently taking every word he said in.

The man stopped suddenly as if he was listening, a smug smile hitting his face. "My fellow peers and followers of god, we seem to have a spy amongst us."

The crowd went into an uproar. They turned to each other ready to throw out accusations.

"Calm yourselves, our god has already shown me who it is." He said quieting the room.

"Head of the guard troop Rodriguez, would you mind telling us the reason behind your visit." The man asked his face showing that he was enjoying what was going to happen.

"I'm here to praise our wonderful god." The leader of the guards said. As he was screaming internally.

"You can't lie here, all things are laid bare before the eyes of our god. You plan to gather up information, and ask your superiors for support with handling us." He said with a smirk.

The man didn't respond, he only wrapped himself in a strong layer of lightning before he ran trying to leave the secret place of worship. He moved incredibly fast, but the man on stage glowed softly and in an instant he barred his path.

"Now now Rodriguez. You need to repent, after all I'm sure it was all a mistake, a simple moment of lack of thought. Don't worry it can all be made right, after all you must have known that your superiors were a member of our worship." He said motioning to a group of people.

"Fuck you Rodriguez. If you don't repent your fired. You are making a mockery of us." A group of people yelled amongst all of the curses being thrown his way.

Rodriguez looked over to the people the man motioned to. The hope leaving his eyes as he saw more than half of the guard guilds elites present.

"Take him and the rest of my worshipers into the 'training' facility. We have a peeping Tom that I will take care of." A voice said to the man with the fancy robe. 'Oh he can hear me now.' The voice thought.

"Come, let us help this poor man find his path of redemption." The man said while looking around trying to spot who was watching them

The room emptied as they dragged Rodriguez further into the building. He didn't even struggle. 'They have their influence everywhere.'

"So, what is your reason for coming to my temple." The voice said, seemingly to nothing.

"You know very well that this temple, this holy book, nothing here was yours in the first place. This is just a twisted version of the true true thing."

"Who are you?" the voice said audibly distressed. Very few new this truth, and all of them weren't human.

"Me. I'm just a storyteller. You should just worry about yourself. The time of your repenting is looming above you 'Devil'."

"Don't call me by that name! Where are you?" the voice screamed before a figure jumped out from nowhere.

A man who looked too charming for his own good was visible. A look of anger filled his face. He searched everywhere for the voice he had heard. When he couldn't find anything, he left just as quickly as he came.

——————

Alex woke up feeling refreshed. Usually he would feel tired, but he felt amazing he had more energy than ever before.

After getting ready for school, he packed his bag feeling like he was forgetting something. He looked through everything double checking. When he came to a list he had a look of realization. 'I never got the rocky cricket.'

He left the house heading back to the cave. Rather than opening the entrance he teleported through. Scanning the cave for the insect, he quickly found it. He took the insect and placed it into a bottle he had prepared to store it.

Alex walked part of the way to the school as he enjoyed a healthy breakfast. He felt invigorated as his body took in the nutrients quickly.

When he arrived, he his ability that hid him and walked up to clay who had just gotten off of his bus.

——————

Alex walked the building where the cafeteria was in. Clay and Raven accompanied him this time, as he walked. "By the way, did something about you change? You look different." Clay asked

"I don't know, I changed my diet recently." Alex said after some thought.

"You look better." Raven told Alex.

"Thanks I guess, I didn't do much though." He said with a gentle smile.

Alex and his friends entered into the cafeteria.

"Hey Alex!" He turned as he heard a familiar voice.

Alex smiled, Paul could be seen patting the seat next to him.

"You guys can take a seat as well." Paul said to Clay and Raven who were about to go into the line for lunch.

The nodded in confirmation.

Alex pulled out the some food from his bag making his way over to Paul.

"Are Tom and James not in this lunch?" Alex asked while setting his stuff down.

"No they are in the second group. Ha, they are gonna be jealous that you are in my group." Paul said cheerily.

"We aren't taking anyone else places are we?" Alex asked.

"No, occasionally people come and sit with me, but they usually leave whenever they find out how big of a nerd I am."

"So you can probably tell how excited I was when you entered. Don't worry I'll make sure everyone will see you as a bigger nerd." He said before chuckling.

"How much of the runes have you looked over?" Paul asked.

"I managed to look over all of them, although I've only had the time to imprint a few."

Alex had spent all of the spare time in his regular classes reading through the runes, and he was only able to imprint the ones that did nothing spectacular as he didn't want to cause a ruckus.

"That's good take your time, you don't have to get it all done in a done in a day."

Alex's friends joined him and Paul. "So Alex who is this?" Clay asked.

"This is Paul, he is the captain of the runes club. Paul this is Clay and Raven." Alex explained.

"You made friends with the captain of a magic club?" Clay asked.

"Oh he has made more friends than just me. There is the captains of the hunting club, Taylor, and I even heard a few of the instructor are planning on taking him in as their personal trainee." Paul told the pair.

'They are?' Alex thought. This was new news to him.

"You're so famous." Raven said half seriously.

The groups continued to eat in peace. Alex and Paul said their farewells when they had to split off from the other two.

"You've got some good friends."

"Yeah I know." Alex said a smile on his face.

'They don't know how grateful I am that they were just there when I felt like I could not hold on anymore.'

"I'll see you in a bit man."

"Yeah, see you." Alex said heading into the room with the podiums.

Alex could see many students had came in early and were sitting. A look of concentration on their face, Dylan was one of them. However he wasn't concentrating, he was tranquil and deep in his meditation.

'He really has been working hard.' Alex thought

Alex turned to see Taylor was just sitting down waiting for the instructors to show up. He motioned for Alex to go to him.

"Hey, Alex imma have to sit this part of class out. The fight yesterday gave me a significant boost to my light affinity, and while I was meditating last night I reached the limit of the beginner class." He said in a quiet voice as to not distract the busy students.

"Oh, that's very good congratulations, same for me." Alex said in a hushed voice.

"Thanks, who would've thought one fight would…. What do you mean same for you?" He asked a look of unbelief on his face.

"I reached the limit of the beginner class in one of my affinities. Don't worry I will give you some hints and tips later on." Alex said while alluding to what he told Taylor yesterday.

"Ohhh. I'll look forward to it." His curiosity was peaked. Before hand he thought Alex meant he was gonna help him with other aspects of training. 'He has something that speeds up the strengthening of his affinity. Is it a technique, a pill?'

The primary instructor Duncan, walked in. Taylor got up and walked up to him, Alex following closely behind. "Hey Duncan. Sorry to bother you, but we have reached the barrier between the beginner and adept class. Do you have somewhere we can breakthrough?"

"No, no it's perfectly fine we can't have you breaking through in here, imagine the chaos the would come from two rare affinities breaking through at once. It's good that you came to me before even trying." He said before searching through his belongings.

"Crap I left them in my office." He continued to search before pulling out a paper and pen. Writing a note for the two young men.

"This will have to do give this to Deb at the front desk. She will give you a temporary pass into a private training room. They are a lot more sturdy than the public ones. We had to upgrade them when a student with a rare affinity broke through to the Masters class a few years ago." Duncan said handing the two the paper with his signature on it.

The two left the room, and Taylor greeted Daniel who had just arrived outside the room. "Hey we were just headed out. We won't be meditating, the hunt we did yesterday left us at the limit to the beginner class."

"That's perfectly fine. In fact that's what we look forward to as your instructors. I'll see you guys later, and I'll have a pleasant surprise for you Alex." Daniel said to the pair.

'Oh is he one of the instructors who wanted me to be his trainee.' Alex thought, putting what he had heard together.

The two walked up to Deb, who was reading something on her phone. "Hi how can I help you." Taylor handed her the note.

"Oh breaking through already. It's been a while since we have had someone break through this early." She said after reading the note.

"Give me just a minute, I'll be back with a keycard."

——————

When she returned, she had a black card in her hands.

"There you go good luck. The private training rooms are down that hall, you can't miss them."

"Thank you." The two said as they headed off to make their first breakthrough.