Chapter 28.2

"So, AKEERA blah, blah, blah. Onto the next part," Jason said as he stood up and walked to Alice.

The little girl was eating a small ice cream cup with a wooden stick and Jason used telekinesis to grab another spoon from her stash of snacks. He reached out to take a spoonful of ice cream from Alice but was taken aback when she glared at him and hissed while pulling her ice cream away from his reach. Without breaking eye contact, she reached out and pulled a packaged butter tart and stuffed it into Jason's outstretched hands. Jason, stunned, watched her return to eating her ice cream blissfully before looking down at the tart and walking away. Occasionally, he would turn to look back at her with a slightly muffed look before he focused back at the crowd.

"Where was I? Right, next part," Jason said to the crowd who watched Alice with admiration. She was able to defeat the strongest teach that no one else was able to handle with a simple glare. "The main reason why the AKEERA was streamlined to perform better. Can anyone take a guess why?"

Asami raised her hand and Jason nodded at her. "Asami, go."

"A wild Spellcaster appeared!" Asami said loudly and her reply elected a few laughs.

"Yep," Jason agreed as he sat back on his stool. "Spellcasters were able to defeat the first-gen AKEERAs almost effortlessly, forcing the Militaries to create a new generation of AKEERAs that were faster, stronger, and much more lethal than its predecessor. And that brings us to the next subject: Spellcasters. The Meteor Incident slowed the war's progress and before anyone realized it, the meteorites brought something new to Earth. Psionic Aether, the energy Spellcasters use to cast their spells. Now, what is Psionic Aether?

"Scientifically, the asteroid was a form of matter that contacted strange quarks and mutated. It turned into strange matter. Now, strange matter has been theorized to exist in neutron stars or quark stars. We didn't actually know much about strange matter until this meteor arrived and irradiated our planet. The radiation mutated all lifeforms, plants, animals, and humans. Some rocks have even mutated because of this, the most commonly known but rare Dragonite is the prime example," Jason explained and students quickly made notes on their holo-devices. His explanation was short, concise, and a lot less boring than the textbook version.

"We call this … new form of energy, radiation, whatever you wanna call it, Psionic Aether. Can anyone tell me why it's called Aether?" Jason asked.

A hand tentatively stood out and Jason looked surprised when he saw it was Daria, Silvia's younger sister who was two years older than Alina.

"Daria," Jason said with an awkward smile and the girl stood up.

Like her sister, Daria wore a pair of stylish rectangular glasses. Her black hair was in an updo styled bun with several strands leaking out, giving it a fashionable but messy look. Her fair skin contrasted well with her naturally red lips that had a hint of a bashful smile, especially when she met Jason's onyx eyes.

"Uh … it was named after the Aether theories, old theories that were replaced by both Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Quantum theory," Daria answered in a melodious voice.

"Right, what she said. Which I already knew …" Jason said in a low, slow voice and another wave of laughter came from the students.

"Psionic Aether allowed us to create quantum calculations that bends the fabric of our universe. And that is Spellcasting," Jason said. He then raised his railgun pistol so everyone could see it. "See this? It's a handheld railgun, the only useable railgun in the world that's as compact as a handgun. It also serves as a SEC device. Now, what is a SEC device? Alle, shoot."

Alina stood up and cleared her throat before speaking. "It's a, uh, computational device that calculates the quantum mechanics needed in casting a spell?"

"Correct," Jason said with a smile as he tapped the side of his head. "The calculations needed to manipulate the very reality of this dimension are impossible to perform in a human mind. That is why we use SEC devices to do it, they're computation devices that translate the calculations into a program before releasing it. That's why the magic circles are composed of 1s and 0s. Not literally, but you get the point."

Jason coughed a bit before continuing. "Of course, you still require the calculations to perform Spellcasting. These calculations are referred to as spells. That's right, folks. You're all wizards. And the SECs are wands."

Jason then leaned to Alina's direction and changed to a British accent, his voice sounding throaty and gruff. "Yer a Wizard, Harry."

"Well. you always did strike me as a half-giant," Alina muttered after rolling her eyes and Jason, who heard her with his sharp ears, winked at her.

"Now then…" Jason looked around and paused with contemplation. "Espers. What are Espers? Emily?"

Emily shakily stood up and Jason frowned. He noticed her pale face in the morning but assumed it was because she slept poorly during the night. Now, he could tell that she had a cold.

"You alright, Emily?" Jason asked. He then gestured at the exit as he continued speaking. "If you want, you could head to the infirmary."

"No, I'm fine, I'm staying," Emily answered and Jason acquiesced when he saw her determination.

"Espers ... are people who have special abilities that can manipulate the physics ... without the use of SEC devices. Scientists don't know how this occurs or why and they've theorized … that Espers use Dark Energy to power their abilities," Emily said before sitting down and nursing her dizzy head. Jason flicked a finger of green energy towards her. The bolt of energy entered her body and Emily felt a surge of heat warm and comfort her, easing her cold.

"Correct. We don't know much of Espers, only that there are 9 levels to the power measurement," Jason said. After a moment, he looked around and shrugged. "That's it, folks. I've got nothing else to teach. I'll be answering your questions instead."

Asami stood up and eagerly raised her hands, but Jason ignored her and answered the questions of several other students. Once he was done, he looked around when he noticed that Asami was the only one remaining with a raised hand.

"Any other questions? Any?" Jason asked almost imploringly when he noticed that no one else had a question. With a sigh, Jason nodded at Asami. "Fine, Asami, ask your question."

"Ahem," Asami stood up once again and cleared her throat. She fixed her clothes and pulled her pen shaped recorder and asked in her most serious voice. "Are the allegations involving your relation to the Student President, Melanie Sofia, true?"