CHAPTER 26 - THE PAST

The next day all the students of the academy woke up early as they had to go to the center of the city.

Daniel barely had any sleep last night, that brief feeling he had immediately as he left the pool had been clouding his mind, that was one of the goals he had set for himself.

He had tried every possible means to recreate that feeling, but everything failed.

When he heard the bells ringing, he knew it was morning already. He didn't feel tired after staying up all through last night, after the awakening he had a lot of energy in him.

He felt down because he hadn't recreated that feeling, he got up had his bath, and went to the cafeteria for food.

He was the first at the cafeteria, the place was seemingly empty except for the cooks who stood by the shelves.

He collected some bread and ate it as he drank tea, while he was eating other students entered the cafeteria.

He looked around but didn't see Micheal, he remembered Micheal was about to tell him something and then said he would tell him later.

After finishing his tea he left the cafeteria going back to his room to wear his academy clothes as it was almost time to go to the city centre.

Not long after as they gathered in at the gate he saw Micheal, but that boy was walking with his eyes closed and he didn't want to shout his name so he waited for him to open his eyes.

The two instructors stood at the front of the gate and waited for everyone to come.

Anita was the last to arrive, the moment she entered everyone turned to look at her.

She emanated a lofty aura, when she walked her footsteps weren't even seen on the floor, they felt like she could control the air around her.

Her blue suit mirrored her eyes, as she walked with an air of arrogance surrounding her.

The two instructors looked at her but didn't reprimand her, they had been told by the city lord about the powerful master hidden behind her, and they didn't want to provoke him just because they reprimanded her for being late.

"Let's be on our way, the city lord would be waiting for us," the instructor said.

That moment Micheal opened his eyes, he could subconsciously sense someone was staring at him blatantly.

He turned and saw Daniel staring at him, he returned it with a smile and said hi, then turned his face away.

Daniel felt annoyed but controlled himself.

Instead of entering different carriages, they were made to walk since the place wasn't far away.

After some time they reached the city center, standing there was the city lord and some guards in the surroundings.

He stared at them but didn't say anything, the two instructors at the front knew why he was staring, it was because they were late.

All the students bowed to greet the city lord and wait for him to speak.

"I am here today to tell you all some important news," the city lord spoke, and the academy students remained silent not wanting to anger him.

"This information is only told to those who had awakened, so it's guarded news in our city," he continued.

First let me ask you some questions, out of everyone who gets awakened yearly, have you seen some of them till now?

They are all about it, each year the academy has students who get awakened.

They weren't much, at most being seven in the academy, this year was different as they were eighteen who got awakened.

When they got awakened, sometimes either one or two students would disappear each year but the city lord wouldn't address the matter and it would be forgotten.

But now that they thought about it, it seemed very suspicious.

They all nodded their head meaning No.

"Did your parents tell you about the time a lot of awakeners left the city?" he asked.

Most of them didn't know, like Daniel who had lived in the outer city since young, while the others knew about it.

Seeing some confused stares among the crowd the city lord decided to explain.

Some years ago, our city had a lot of awakeners around. They were so common you could see them walking in the streets, it was a daily occurrence to meet an awakener daily until some had different thoughts.

They didn't want to stay trapped in the city, they wanted to explore the whole continent, they didn't want to stay in this small place and die one day, they wanted to live long and explore what this continent had to offer.

To prevent a fight from coming out, the former city lord accepted their plea, and from that a lot of awakeners left the city, both talented and untalented, as long as they were strong enough to leave the city.

Only some stayed back to protect the city from the surrounding dangers, leaving the city with barely any awakeners.

Years passed and the city was still trying to heal from their losses when some citizens and other awakeners defected.

This was the first case of an outside world attack on them, they started thinking there were some intelligent species that made all this people deviate for some resources.

Until they attacked, the people of the city usually fought with stone weapons and leather armours, but when their awakeners who defected attacked, they used iron weapons and armors.

It made them think there were other intelligent species out their beaacuse even they couldn't even create proper weapons, and these defectors left for just some months and came back with those weapons.

It was devastating, the meager amount of awakeners they had managed to build in this period died with most of them surviving.

They thought they were about to meet their end as a horde of awakeners were rushing to the city wall, while they had less than ten awakeners present.

They had all admitted defeat in their hearts, until a strange man floating in the sky arrived.

He spoke some strange words, and to their shock, a sea of fire came out of the ground burning the hordes of awakeners.