"It's so peaceful."
"So quite"
"It's so quite"
Thoughts surfaced Arthur's mind as he drowned deeper and deeper into blood red water.
"But where is this. How… how did I get here" Arthur didn't move a muscle to get up. It was more like he couldn't, like his entire body was beaten and worked till exhaustion. "Well it doesn't matter anyway. I… I am just so tired"
Arthur's heavy eyelids almost collapsed on themselves when suddenly a hazy silhouette entered Arthur's vision. The dark outline was not at all clearly visible, it appeared completely dark in that blood red moving water with sunlight entering water from behind him.
It swam to Arthur and tightly held Arthur's hand.
"arth..r"
"Arth.. ur"
"ARTHUR"
The silhouette screamed at Arthur as it pulled him towards itself.
Arthur jolted awake from his sleep panting heavily.
His entire body was sweating profusely. An unfamiliar room entered his vision. This time the room had no windows, lit up entirely with candles. He sat up, supporting his back with headboard.
Arthur noticed that he was completely naked with no clothes on him whatsoever, but he didn't mind much as his vision subconsciously drifted towards a large circle around his bed made on the floor with a chalk and weird symbols drawn intricately in it.
"So you are up" a voice came from behind but it didn't startle Arthur. It was like his body already knew of the presence standing behind him.
Arthur slowly turned around to find out that it's the same person from before who gave arthur a thumbs up and wished him good luck. Before leaving for mount Oros.
His black hairs this time were a bit messy but he still had that aura of a sophisticated early twenty year old around him.
"You are a handful huh? Well congratulations on finally becoming a mage." The man continued as he tossed a pair of clothes towards Arthur.
"Come on, get dressed up and come upstairs. Everyone is waiting for you."
Strangely Arthur finally became mage which he never thought he could, and instead of being happy or celebrate he got into deep thought and finally asked "what can I call you"
"Hmm? Me? Ohh, my name is Ben hebman. But you just call me just Ben" The man was a bit surprised by the question. He expected a more excited expression instead of a calm response.
"Thank you Ben, for saving my life" Arthur immediately bowed deeply as he addressed Ben.
A faint smile emerged on Ben's face.
"Thank you? Well I like people who show appreciation. Put on clothes and get upstairs. I will go on ahead"
The man spoke as he climbed upstairs with a pleasant expression on his face.
Arthur sat in silence for a minute thinking back on everything, everything that went down these past few days.
"Life is truly strange, people think they can never change when life itself can turn upside down in matter of days" he left out a soft chuckle as this thought surfaced Arthur's mind.
He puts on the large loose clothes but more comfortable than anything he ever wore in his lifetime with no patches on them either. The sleeves covered half his palm. The shoulders were loose like it was apparent that these clothes were given to Arthur by someone.
But finally he puts on the clothes and makes his way upward by the stairs.
At the end of the stairs Arthur stepped into a long dark hallway, just like before. He looked left and just like before he couldn't see any end of the hallway.
Arthur slowly makes his way towards the end with pitch black darkness as he moved more and more towards the end. But this time when it was completely dark suddenly all the darkness dissipated like smoke, revealing the large and bright living room where he first met Gideon.
The room hadn't changed a bit, same sofas in the corner, windows to the right and door on the opposite side of the room but it was a bit more crowded this time. Everyone from the team was present this time in the room.
Some faces were speculative, some were confused and some were even smiling.
"Everyone, this is the newest member of the group from now on. Now let's introduce ourselves to each other." Gideon said to start up the conversation and break the ice.
"I will go first, I am Gideon. Leader of our rebel group" Gideon said, gesturing at his members to start.
"Quints, I specialize in arrays" said the blue haired boy in an unbothered tone and arms crossed. He was a year younger than Arthur and the first person that Arthur met when he woke up here the first time.
"And you already know me, I am Ben and I am a mystic." Ben waved his hand in a friendly motion as he spoke politely.
Arthur was accepting Ben's introduction when his eyes suddenly drifted to the girl beside the sofas.
"I go by the name Emeliya Roswinter and I am an unnatural." the girl spoke with a smile as she noticed Arthur's gaze.
Unnatural are the people who don't use mana in the traditional sense and instead they are born with extra mana channels from their orbs which connect to their different organs, giving that organ unique abilities which differ from person to person.
Orb is the place inside a mage's body where all their mana is stored.
It is inside their body but doesn't interfere with organs at all. It's like the orb is inside the body yet not in the same plane as organs
"Emeliya" Arthur lightly murmured
Emeliya was the same girl Arthur saw on the pond side the day when he first woke up here. Her long golden hair seemed to shine even inside.
At last one person was left who Arthur didn't see the first time when he was here. She was a women who looked in her early twenties with fiery bright red hair.
"So, you are Arthur huh?" she wore a white top and a tunic which just reached her abdomen to show her six packs. Her body, well built with lean muscles for precision and flexibility that it was apparent she was used to close combat.
The woman walked forward and leaned in to examine Arthur more closely.
Left
Right
She looked from all angles before finally speaking.
"Come outside, Gideon might have approved of you but I need to see how strong you are myself."
Arthur was startled by her suddenly closing in the gap. It was like one second she was on opposite side of room and the next directly in front of his face. He stared in amazement before finally gaining back his attention.
"Yes" left his mouth as he moved his head back and forth in agreement to the proposal.
This time Arthur didn't hesitate, after dying once, these duels didn't intimidate him. Though he didn't have any confidence in winning either. He hasn't once drawn out or manipulated mana according to his will. Even though he was a mage now he cannot do anything yet, on the contrary he could tell that the woman in front of him was extremely dangerous. After experiencing the near death incident his senses have grown unnaturally sharp.
If they fought then there is no chance of Arthur winning in any way but by now Arthur had realised that sometimes you need to do things you already know the outcome of.
Both got out of the house and stood facing each other at a distance.
"Since this kid just cleared his mana channels yesterday he probably can't draw out mana yet. He probably can't even feel it. But seeing what he did on mount Oros to clean his mana channels, it even gave me chills." The woman thought to herself as she stood on the field.
In reality Matilda saw everything that happened that day. She was there for the whole 2 days with Gideon, Judging and inspecting Arthur all that time.
It was not just a matter of magic and blocked mana channels but of will power, commitment and reason.
"Listen here kid, you need to survive one full minute under my attacks and I will decide whether you stay in team or is kicked out" the woman shouted from across the field as air around her changed its direction.
She infact has already decided that Arthur will join the team. The woman had complete trust in Gideon's, their captain's decision. The only reason for this activity is to find out what is Arthur's natural aptitude for battle.
"I understand," Arthur shouted back to her.
"Just one minute. One minute on my feet is all I need. But this isn't going to be easy. I have to be extremely vigilant from the start" Arthur thought to himself as he took the stance by widening his feet and bending his knees slightly to increase surface area under his legs for better stability.
The women got ready too. She held out her hand and a low sound left her mouth "Arcus". Instantly a bow was formed in her hand. The bow was almost or slightly smaller in size compared to the woman's height. It was completely golden in colour and had an air of weight around itself but in the woman's hand it appeared as if it was light like a feather.
"She isn't joking around. Is she?" Ben commented on the spectacle happening before his eyes.
"No, she is actually going for a very specific test. If she wanted to throw Arthur off balance and instantly wanted to end the fight then she would have closed in immediately and ended it. But instead she is planning to use her bow from a distance. It seems like she is testing for Arthur's reflexes and his natural aptitude for fighting." Gideon replied to Ben's comment as his eyes narrowed at the fight which was almost about to begin.
The woman held the bow straight and almost instantly as she was drawing back the string, an arrow was formed in between her fingers and the string, perfectly in position. From head to tail.
Woosh…
As soon as the arrow appeared completely, she let go of it. Sending it flying straight towards Arthur at an incredible speed.
Arthur ducked and rolled over to avoid the arrow which was quite normal with nothing special to it.
He looked in front of him again to find out that the woman was gone.
He got back on his feet and paid attention to his surroundings to find her but the woman was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly two arrows were shot from behind at different elevations.
There was no time to turn or react, so Arthur decided to minimise damage by evading The one coming for his head and letting the arrow coming for his hand hit him.
But this still didn't gave the archer's position, for both arrows came from completely different directions simultaneously. One came from the northeast and other from the southwest.
It was like two different archers fired simultaneously.
Before Arthur could even react to pain another shot was fired from his left. Arthur twisted his body while keeping his lower body fix to avoid the arrow but this time it wasn't a normal arrow.
Boom..
The arrow exploded. The explosion was very small but it released a grey colour gas. Which caused extreme discomfort and irrigation in eyes and throat on inhaling.
Tears came out of Arthur's eyes on experiencing the burning sensation. Which blurred his vision.
"So, these arrows can be normal or with special properties. But I don't know what these properties are. Nor do I know how many more arrows she has left" Arthur thought as he tried to wipe tears from his eyes to see clearly but his eyes burnt like hell because of that smoke, preventing him from even opening it.
Suddenly a punch hit Arthur in the stomach, sending him flying.
Arthur slowly tried to get up when he heard a voice. It was that that same women who just punched him. "If you can't see it then feel it."
With the voice the attacks stopped, there was complete silence in the field. Arthur couldn't see anything because his eyes just wouldn't open because of the burning sensation.
Cold sweat broke from Arthur's head. Limbs tensed up as his heart beat heavily. But the voice from before calmed him down.
"If you can't see it then feel it, if you can't see it then feel it, if you can't see it…" Arthur murmured softly multiple times to himself.
As he was remembering the line, every hair on Arthur's body raised. Telling him of something dangerous coming his way.
"Arrows, above me!!" Arthur exclaimed but something was off. It felt like he couldn't avoid them. "One, two , three. Shit, I am dead. They are all over the field."
Just as Arthur felt it the arrow started falling resembling a rain of arrows, their number in hundreds.
There was nothing Arthur could do but as a last resort Arthur raised his hands pointing towards the sky. "Come on, do anything. I refuse to go down like this" Arthur shouted as he felt energy rising in his body.
Woosh…
With a large spectacle, incredibly large and bright red flames came out of Arthur's hand. Forming a large concave shield over his head spanning several meters.
All arrows instantly disintegrated as soon as they touched the hot flame shield. The rain of Arrows ended but Arthur couldn't control the flame shield and it kept on going for another full minute. Finally exhausted, Arthur fell to the ground, completely covered in sweat.
"Time is up" Gideon spoke as he clapped his hands together.
"Hmm, this kid has some incredible learning instincts. Although he still couldn't feel mana. His body reflexively released all the piled up mana he had in his body when it sensed a life threatening threat" The woman thought to herself as she walked over to Arthur.
"Good work kid. You can call me Matilda. Vice captain of this team" she stopped and extended her arm to help Arthur up.
"Welcome to the team."
Arthur took a deep breath in as he shouted.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch my eyes. They are burning."
"Ohh, yeah I forgot about them. Just wash them with water. It was just some pepper smoke." Matilda spoke as she scratched her head and laughed lightly.
This was the start of a new life for Arthur. With new people in it. But he wasn't the only one whose life took a different path.
Two days ago in a distant mountain peak inside a dark damp cave.
"Are you sure you want to choose this life?" A man completely dressed in black asked as he took off his hood.
"Yes" a firm voice of a boy resounded throughout the cave.
His fists clenched and eyes determined.
The face of the boy was completely disfigured from burns.
"I can't face Arthur unless I make everything right"
Sigh… "he is just a kid but his determination, hmm only few have determination like this." The man thought and contemplated with a complex expression on his face for a minute.
"He is just a kid. Am I doing it right by allowing him to enter this deadly battle of rebellion." The man thought to himself before he remembered something.
"Alright kid, you can follow behind. So what is your name"
The boy hurriedly opens his mouth "Ned…no" he pauses for a while and speaks again after a thought "I am Luke, Luke Arthur"
"Then listen here Luke, remember your past, remember the hatred, remember the reason you started. For there is no going back. This is point of no return"