The Academy 3

It was rather from the nose. Lu was bleeding from his nose!

Yano didn't want to follow up after his 'Oh' and Lu didn't pay him much attention. He turned around and searched for something until he finally found the small fridge and held a cooling pack to his nose.

Lu and Yano just stared at each other.

"Doesn't it heal?" Yano thought he had a wound.

Lu just shook his head, "It's from stress, not physical," he added as Yano didn't quite catch on.

"Oh," Yano said, he really wanted to tease Lu but thought he suffered enough from Holn.

Also, he actually spoke! Yano was even more surprised, his voice was pleasant to hear. He should talk more.

"Do you need help?" Yano sincerely wanted to get closer to Lu and reassured him he shouldn't let Holn bring him down.

Lu shook his head. There was another awkward pause between them.

"I'm not used to so much exercise... like you."

"Oh," Yano really didn't know what to say because he wanted to be as friendly and nice as possible. He was afraid Lu would think he was another Holn and ignore him.

"With time, you'll get better too. I trained since I was young, so there's an unfair advantage."

Lu nodded and slightly smiled. Another awkward silence.

Lu felt happy Yano was talking to him but on the other side he would much rather keep a low profile but it was ruined by Holn who relentlessly chased him.

On the other side, he felt Yano was a nice person and someone as strong as him would be a great teammate. So, Lu was torn if he should continue practising his quiet life or if he should take a step and take the hand Yano was holding out to him.

Lu wasn't sure, all this thinking got him a headache. He wasn't used to exercising but more than that, he was just lazy.

Extremely lazy.

Lu wanted to go to sleep.

"Till next time," he said and left Yano perplexed behind.

Yano didn't know if Lu disliked him or not. It was really hard to decipher. Yano sighed.

***

The distance was so small yet so far. Lia has endured for another 83 years, silently, painfully crawling her way towards the statue amidst the million of rotten corpses that seemed to mingle with her own flesh.

The stench was horrible, nose-assaulting but Lia didn't have time to think about it as she was just one step away from the statue. Through half-lidded eyes, she could finally detect the small crack in it.

She already had thought of a plan during all these years she had to suffer through. It wasn't a bulletproof one and she wasn't sure if it was going to work but she had to try.

It was only her, who constantly died and resurrected again, so she guessed it might have something to do with the green light Min had her absorb because the corpses around her weren't affected by the statue.

It was a relief when she noticed that. She could use the corpses to block and deflect the light.

She held out her hand and it crumbled to pieces. She closed her eyes, waiting for her death and when she revived again, she focused all of her energy to grab a corpse and hold it against the statue within the one-second time frame she had.

After hundreds of years, she got used to her body even when she was just reborn. She looked for a way to keep the corpse on the crack as she saw how the green light slowly melted the flesh. She was shocked.

She didn't expect that if exposed directly to the core of the green light, even the corpses which remained intact would fall apart.

Lia had to quickly come up with a new idea. As the corpse disintegrated in her hand, she grabbed another one and held it against the light. This process repeated itself five times during which she slowly recovered her strength and enjoyed the delight of having a normal body.

However, she couldn't relax too easily. The crack was in the lower half of the statue, so it could be covered by a standing corpse.

She lined up a corpse horizontal against the statue and since the light penetrated through, she had to act swiftly. Soon a huge line of corpses like dominos originated from the statue.

The rate of the light was frightening. The corpses disappeared but didn't get reconstructed again like her. She couldn't spare the time to view the fruits of her plan and instantly sought to escape the place.

Somewhere far away from the statue.

Out of breath after exhausting herself and barely used to walking again, she made it far from the cursed statue where the eyes and hopefully the light couldn't reach.

The abyss spanned over a long distance. At some places it was narrow, in others it was as a wide as a mountain, yet everywhere her eyes fell, she saw a huge amount of corpses.

She walked and walked for at least a few years until she was sure she was far from the statue, but the abyss still showed no signs of an end. Just what was this? What was its secret and what loomed behind its origin?

Immortals could go on for 100 of years without food and water but it didn't mean they mentally didn't need it.

Lia thought about eating the flesh of the corpses as her body could detoxify it but she involuntarily gaged at the thought. She was also fairly dehydrated so she couldn't even drink her own pee, not that it was helpful anyway.

All of a sudden, she arrived at a change of scenery. In a wide space, there were no corpses, only three tombstones. The area was a circle that was led into and led out by narrow passages which then were littered with corpses again.

The moment she took a step into the circle void of any corpses, her body vibrated and she could feel her bones resonate. With each step, the sensation got stronger until she stood in front of the tombs.

Then she felt oddly at peace.

There was nothing written on the tombs yet what was this feeling? This deep and cavernous ringing that pounded in every vein of her body?

She held her hand over the tombstones but they were fairly normal and somehow in the middle of all death, she didn't feel lonely, instead, she felt she had millions of companions.

***

Class A was also compromised of 15 students, however, four of them were from the families C, G, H and L.

Leo being one of them. In truth, the pupils of the families felt degraded being in an academy treated as dumb children and especially being grouped together with immortals from unknown and low families.

On the first day of class, their eccentric personalities caused a bit of an uproar but also admiration and respect from the other students.

Leo knew Kil from the C family, the only son, a fairly tall and brute individual with a mocking smile, Zayn from the G family, the youngest out of three, a weak-looking guy with a thin frame with glasses and Eri from the H Family, the older daughter of 3 siblings, since they were children.

They more or less grew up together but weren't as close as both Kil's and Zayn's family belonged to the pro-faction while Leo and Eri belonged to the neutral faction.

Kil and Zayn also weren't exactly close just like Leo and Eri weren't.

Behind them in the last row, sitting all alone was Timo, a fairly good-looking guy with dead eyes that however made him even more intriguing to the females.

"Don't cause troubles!" Leo forced Kil to sit down as he was ready to fight the teacher.

"Why waste your damn time teaching us things we already know?" Kil was unbending.

The teacher wanted to shrink back but remembered his position and had a weak attempt at being confident.

The other students were gushing about how they were able to see the families in person.

"Sit down," Eri coldly said, "you might know about it but others don't."

"Huh?" Kil was ready to charge at her as Eri stood up and her icy eyes conveyed her killing intent,

"Don't waste my time here and just zip your mouth or else I'll use it as a toilet bowl for everyone to shit into. Don't test me."

Eri's voice was calm and indifferent but hidden behind it was a powerful chill and rage. Kil retreated a bit and Leo managed to sit him down.

This incident established Eri as someone who couldn't be messed with. Despite her fair and fragile appearance giving her the aura of an ice queen, she was seen as quite cruel.

However, Eri couldn't care what others thought of her. She just wanted to finish this meticulous and bothersome task. It wasn't her intention to become an exorcist nor attain power. Her family, H, has always held themselves out of matters.

It was the same with the incident of the K family, they didn't participate yet they also didn't prevent it. They kept to themselves. Eri would've preferred this, however, the Ghost King, the damned Ghost King forced her family to send her.

She didn't want to choose a side but she had no other choice than to follow the Ghost King or else her family would end up the same as the K.

She hated him. She hated the Ghost King with all her might but she couldn't show it and only silently endure.

All sorts of strong and emotional thoughts flashed through her mind but she looked as indifferent as always and turned to the teacher waiting for the class to start again.

"Ok, erm, so..." the teacher nervously pulled himself together to start the class.

He avidly avoided eye contact with Kil who seemed more than annoyed but kept his distance from Eri.

Zayne watched from the sidelines and actually took notes. He didn't want to get involved in any arguments or fights. He wouldn't win them anyway since he was so weak.

He didn't have much confidence in himself and wasn't really outstanding or regarded in his family, so it was surprising to him that he was chosen to attend the academy.

His brothers were much more capable than him, however, he swore to himself that he would work as hard as he could to not disappoint the Ghost King.

And so a year went by and the day where they would receive the powers from the Ghost King drew closer.

Yet there was someone else who would also receive powers.