Hall of Entity

While Ares now had enough magical energy within his core to cast numerous spells he still felt his understanding was lacking. He opened the magical book Mars had given him and began to digest the second spell.

Ares could feel himself chipping away at the lacking marks of the spell and felt himself to be on the verge of realisation. Unfortunately, nothing of inspiration came to pass and still a breakthrough eluded him.

A month passed and once more Ares's knowledge took a qualitative leap. After the initial few days when he had returned to the compound the others too had returned. There were no fatalities and everyone even succeeded in their missions. Victor was particularly smug about his success.

After classes begun again Ares once more submerged himself deeply in learning. His rapid expansion of his magical core meant that spells were far easier to cast however his lacking knowledge still somewhat limited his development.

He had become more resilient in battles; he wasn't quite at the level of Miles yet but Miles now used what he said was twenty percent of his ability in fights. Of course, this was only the raw strength of Miles and his various tricks and magic were not counted in this estimation. Ares had moreover made progress with his spells, he hadn't yet used it in a fight but he was confident in his ability to cast force numerous times without repercussions.

The void spell had developed and now he could cast this spell into the palms of his hands allowing him to use his gauntlets to channel the magic and disintegrate armour and walls. Today Ares had met Miles for a final lesson before the three-month assessment was carried out.

"Hello Ares." Miles said as Ares approached their training area.

Today instead of the clothing he normally sported Miles had adorned a silver robe.

"Hello Miles." Ares replied; it was strange to see Miles deviating from his normal clothing.

"Follow me, we are to go to the combat dome for the announcement of your mission." Miles then strode off towards the dome.

Ares ran to keep up. Miles led him to the combat dome where they joined an already formed crowd.

Quartermaster Iron was stood at the front of the group at a plinth and after a few more people arrived he smashed a huge mallet against the plinth.

"SILENCE" He shouted.

"You will all today be graced by the presence of our esteemed leader; Space warlock Solis." A hush fell over the group. The announcement that he was going to hear the Space guild leader made Ares feel great anticipation.

The air next to quartermaster Iron began to vibrate. A figure wearing all black appeared in the space. No one could tell where this figure appeared from as it seemingly came from nowhere. The face of the warlock was impossible to see, a deep dark pit with red fire like eyes was all that was visible from within the hood. If Ares didn't know better he would have assumed that this was a demon he was looking at.

"Hello students." Warlock Solis said his voice echoing around the dome.

"I am here to make an announcement. The normal mission assessment will be cancelled." The entire group began to murmur talking loudly about what was upcoming.

"Instead another challenge has been issued. You will be joining the primary and secondary guilds on an exploration task." At this point Solis paused; the entire crowd remained silent awaiting his next comments.

"The exploration will be of an old abandoned research centre several hundred miles away; only five of you will be chosen to participate. I will only allow the best from within your ranks to participate. Therefore I will conduct a simple test. You will enter the hall of entity and upon your release I will judge who will represent our guild.

The murmuring returned with several older students looking enviously at the first years.

Ares turned to Miles.

"Whats the hall of Entity?" He asked, even his regular visits to the library had not uncovered any information about this.

"Its a hall that was discovered by Warlock Solis during his travels. Apparently it was a remnant from before the demon wars; the hall is what many of the other teachers credit for Solis being the only Space Warlock in three generations. Its unknown what it contains but I heard that after Solis left it he sealed it in a space barrier." At this point Ares was astounded, why would he or any the other recruits get this opportunity.

Seeing Ares's eager expression Miles spoke again.

"It is not as it seems; Solis was a spellcaster when he entered the entity hall and even at that strength, he said it was barely been enough. Perhaps you are all doomed to fail before even getting a glimpse of what gave him his power."

Ares sobered up realising that it was likely another test of sorts.

"Come forth and enter the portal." Solis said while tracing a circle in the air next to him. Unlike the previous portals Ares had seen this one did not have a water like surface; instead, it shone with a mirror like quality.

"A dimension portal!" Miles blurted in a moment of disbelief.

Dimension portals did not cover distance instead taking the targets to an isolated world which had been created by a great magician. These worlds were rare and finding them rarer still. Ares had read that some even came from before the ancient era and had unimaginable secrets.

Not hesitating any longer he made his way to the plinth and walked through the portal following Joe who had stepped through directly in front of him.

Instead of the normal feeling of transportation the dimension portal gave Ares a feeling of nothingness. He could not see, he could not hear, he could not even feel his own body beneath him. What felt like an eternity but equally a few seconds passed until Ares felt his feet hit solid ground.

He was stood in a huge roundish room easily several hundred meters across. The room was grey with an ink like substance running down the walls.

Around twenty meters in front of Ares the ink like substance ran down the walls into a small puddle. It continued to drip until a large pool had accumulated. Figuring this had something to do with the test Ares waited carefully examining the steadily growing pool. There was squelching sound as the puddle suddenly stood in the middle becoming a column like figure. It then grew arms and legs. After a few seconds a body almost identical to Ares had grown. The features, height, size everything was the same. The only difference between Ares and the figure was the colour of the figure being ink black.

It finally dawned on Ares. After capturing a dimension space the owner would have partial control over the domain, this meant Solis was in control of what happened here. This figure was likely a test for Ares to prove to Solis why he should be selected for the challenge. The ink figure slowly began to step forward and advance towards Ares, a large black great axe materializing from its grasp.