There are two recognized academics. Regis Academy accepts people from all over the universe with talent as the only condition, except for the AVALOR, a world ruled by dragons. They have their own educational system and strict roles; they never share their techniques with others—it's their bloodline secret and pride.
Regis Academy is a flying mountain range forming an island the size of a country located over the sea.
Apart from the middle area; school property, all other places on tops of the mountains around are residential areas where people do live, but the prices are legendarily expensive, first because of REGIS Academy, of course, and the fact that it welcomes royals who's live styles aren't exactly cheep. Most royal families have at least a big residence nearby since the academy has a dorm system, and not all the royls could be comfortable living within.
But second and most importantly, the mountain area covers a huge amount of high-purity mana that formed the base of the flying island ; actually, it's safer if we say that half the mountains are made of mana stones, which makes cultivation a lot easier, since it's mana is roaming throught the air and it can't be removed from the ground.
in short, it's impossible for someone to take a home nearby—that is, for generations to come.
Serenity was walking down a mountain road after leaving her brother's villa on top of the mountain, she didn't even give it a second glance and kept walking forward .
A heavy salty smell suddenly felt the air making her stoop and turn her head to the vast sea on her left unconsciously opening her palms staring arpt them in daze.as a golden twilight attempts to break through the horizon, but creeping mist-like clouds lazily swallowing the fading light.
The floating island becomes trapped in a humid, silver cage, isolating it completely from both the sky above and the sea beneath,
The heavy stillness breaks and the sky opens up with ferocious intensity, driving vertical sheets of water that flood the island's peaksand cascade over the cliffs into the ocean below.
-drop....drop....drop-
-splash~-
"Raining afterall...."
The freezing water completely drenched her clothes, pinning the heavy fabric to her skin like a crushing weight, her long black hair clings to her shoulders like a dark, drenched cloak, heavy with weight of the downpour
While shivering rack her body, but standing perfectly still, she removed her glacess and tilted her head upward into the stinging downpour
She kept her eyes closed as the cold numbs her skin, water streams down those darck strands; gradually, the sharp, physical sting of the rain replaces the agonizing ache in her chest.
'Ten years wasn't enough!!' Her lips moved resonating with that one thought that formed in her mind ," If time couldn't heal them can it really heal me?!"
Her thoughts resembled the weather around her; just desperately wishing for the rain to wash everything away...
"It's suffocating "
Serenity stood still surrounded to the sky till that cold sensation on her cherks suddenly faded away and a male deep voice like the hum of shifting earth, not so loud yet it effortlessly cuts through the noise,
"It's okay now." He said
The man in black was holding an umbrella, shielding her from the heavy rain even at the cost of his shoulders beeing soacked.
A moment of silence covered the mood between the two till Serenity lowered her head opening her eyes, calmly staring at the raging storm,
She coldly asked ,"You heard them , didn't you Ash?!"
Ash stood holding the umbrella making sure he doesn't make a sound. Just carefully watching after her,
"..."
Serenity didn't press him any further cause she knew silent in itself is an answer, instead she turned around to face him ,
"do me a favor" she said
He quickly answered without a second of hesitation ," depends ."
He gave her such a steady answer, making her lips twitch ;she was about to say something but her lips sealed imprisoning all her words, leaving her unable to convey anything,
She released a helpless sigh and took out a small square box from her pocket and extended it twards him ,saying,
"hold this for me."
Almost without a second thought his palm was open for her and she didn't hesitate in placing it open on his free hand, making him question his life choices.
'Why did i obey her again?!!' He kept staring at the box in his hand full of confusion as to why he didn't resist and wondering why the box in his hand was empty. but what she did next shocked him greatly,
Serenity tilted her head up, while removing her gloves, showing her fair long fingers, and just as her right silver tweezers made contact with the edge of the lens, the illusion shattered instantly.
The fake iris dissolved ,and the horrific realkty was laid bear; underneath, her true eye was milk-white and entirely dead but laced with a beautiful, terrifying web of brilliant blue lightning. It was the magical glue tapping her eyes together.
The lightning fought back. It snaked up her silver nails, sending visible bolts through her arms, her emotionless face stayed still but her body seemed to react to the process as visible symbols of ice folks spread all over her skin .
The marks on her body lit up like a lamp opening a void in her iris, and with that last pull the lense flew out of the void as if being held by a magnetic field stuck to her indix closing the void behind.
-rumble-
The lens in her glowing hand was throbbing like a dying star, a glassy marble of pure, trapped thunder trying to tear itself out of her grib . The moment she placed it into the box it turned into a harmless normal pice of glass, leaving her body to go back to It's normal state.
He held his breath not understanding what was happening right before his eyes, Ash decided to quietly observe her as she repeated the same process once again with her other eye, only when she placed the other lense in the box closing it for good did he dare to breath,
-rumble -
-fwish-
-drip....drip...drip-
Ash with his calloused fingers ,he gently brushed aside the wet black strands of her bangs, looking strainght into her empty eyes from behind his eye band. Drawn to her eyes his hands moved trying to touch them but serenity took a step behind avoiding his touch .
Ash finally realised what he was doing and retrived his hand apologizing on the spot
"a magical artifact isn't worth all this fuss" she said and pulled his arm, tightly wrapped his fist around the box
He looked buzzled as to why she handed it to him so he asked,
"Why?!"
"Safekeeping."
After saying that, Serenity bent on her knees, unzipping her black heels stepping on the soacked floor ,her bare feet slap softly against the cold slowly merging with the storm,
-step-
-step-
-Splash-
-step...step...step-
Her long black dress is completely drenched, clinging heavily to her frame like a secon skin. With every turn and spin , she sprays s trace of water into the darck
-splash-
Her long black hair lashes across her shoulders and wraps around her arms like darck silk ribbons before snapping outward, heavy with the trapped weight of the downpour .only when she opened her eyes did he finally see.
The empty , rain silked street acted as her private theater .the only music is the deafening roar of the rumbling sky , and the only audiences is the cold wind rushing past.
-splash-
-rumble-
-splash-
Amidst the violent cheography of the rain and her spinning body , her face remaind completely frozen like a marbel statue, her lips are locked in a flat ,neutral line , revealing absolutely nothing.
the moment she stood her ground the falling rain dripping on her face ceased to be anything but tears dropping from her lifeless eyes.
Untill the moment she suddenly stopped dancing and slowly turned her head twards him , Strands of her long black hair framed her pale face ,but her gaze pierced right through those darck shadows to lock into him. Her cloud-white ,sightless eyes looked like two glassy spheres that allowed light to pass directly through them , completely ignoring his existence.
Her lips suddenly parted freeing a wave of coldness completely different from the usual cold,she asked,
"Do my eyes look scary?!"
A sickening feeling ran beneath his skin, making him feel as though her gaze were stripping away his flesh and bone to read his moves from the inside out . His expression remained emotionless though
He tilted his umbrella her way asking, "…why ?!!"
Serenity took a step closer and pointed at the box in his hand saying,
"A magical artifact as you call it or as i prefer calling it by a useless tool;this is the exact one that took three years of my lifetime to be completed by two people who absolutely hate each other, and maybe that'sthe only reason why iam still keeping it untill this moment despite beeing absolutely useless."
Ash turned his gaze twards the box in his hand feeling puzzled, but according to his understanding he said a single sentence,
"I get they are not as perfect as they appear to be?!"
"Bingo!" She said and walked closer placing her hand over the box in his hands while saying, "Appart from goving me a bounding head their only use is the illusion barrier that hides the truth"
Ash remembered the terrifying, suffocating sensation he felt when she stared at him with those eyes of her ;it felt as though an old , eternal entity was staring at him from behind the mask of her pale face, completely bypassing the boundaries of time and physical space, at the thought of such idea he couldn't help but smirk.
" you didn't really need it, so you just kept quiet about it....maybe!?" He said but tilted his head upon saying that last word making the meaning sounds completely different with abit of arrogance
When Ash said those words, a thin, knowing smirk curled her lips, as she closed her eyes, coldly saying,
"I knew it ... you did feel it back then?"
Ash released a lazy breath showing how easy it was for him,
"Huff~"
He placed the box in his bocket and advanced towards Serenity, fixing his umbrella to sheild both of them saying,
"You made it so obvious it's hard to pretend not to know."
"But you're wrong…" The smirk on her face faded as she recalled her memories. "Beeing a curse that wasn't supposed to ever exist was the kind of life i lived in the celestial realm...i had to be strong in order to survive, and along the way i developed a habit of counting to three."
She took a few steps back leaning on the walls while ash followed closely behind , "i don't care who you are or were you are from ;pass me three times and you're dead. It was all good untill that day .....because of what i used to be i unintentionally left a scar on my family"
She turned her head twards the gloomy sky ,"i originally thought; scars made by the time should heal with it , but that wasn't the case if ten years aren't enough then how much more do they actually need? "
Serenity turned her head twards ash asking with a sour face ,"how much longer till those feeling fade away?!!"
The rain was coming down in brutal ,heavy sheets and he stood beside her trying to sheild her , holding the umbrella like a fragile sheild between her and the roaring sky, but as he saw the terrifying surrender in her brocken fragile eyes his mind short circulated
'She is not talking about her family!....what in the world does a little kid who didn't even begain her life want to forget??!' Ash found himself speechless in front of her especially those eyes that engraved a deep impression on his chest ,'that sadness and helplessness in her eyes !...why di i feel it all piercing through my hear?!....why does it feel like it's my fault?!'
He stepped into her space and pulled her hard against his chest, wrapping his arms around her cold frame in a fierce, desperate embrace,
"Don't!" He said
Surprised serenity was speechless looking at his arms around her ,"What the??!!"
Serenity was taken a back by his sudden move and wanted to push to him away, especially when he was tightening his embrace as time passed by .
"Don't! "
-hold tight-
'What is wrong with him?!' ,As she was about to grab his hands ,his next words left her stunned,
" i can't let you forget!"
"Huh!"
"Even though i can tell you are desperate to forget but i ... i just can't allow you to" he said but inside his mind a completely diffrent thought was slowly taking over his mind ,'why is this fear feels so rooted within my heart?!....iam not afraid of her forgetting a feeling but afraid she would forget me !...but why!?..i don't even know her so why am i even afraid?!...why am i reluctant to let go?!!!'
Serenity finally snapped out of her daze, her body stopped resisting and her tone of voice turned cold as she stood still asking ,
"Give me a reason?...if i should still remember a pain that is tormenting me from the inside out , why would i still be living my life as if nothing happened?...will it be erased by time?....if so then can you tell me when?"
Serenity's continuous asking for questions that are so subjective made him genuinely stunned that his brain felt stuck for the first time,
'A 16 years old kid .....why would she be asking such questions?....what in the world happened to her?!'
After waiting for an answer but ending up faced with complete silence she shoved him away saying
"See! You couldn't come up with an answer yourself "
Ash kept staring at his hands in daze but his lips didn't forget to talk for him,
"Time cannot heal....."
He looked up at serenity saying with a confident voice ,
"if time really have such miraculous effect there would be no villains in this world"
Only by hearing his voice serenity seemed to have reached a definite answer and turned her head away staring at the road ahead,
"You know i for once agree with you....if time really could heal it would've healed my parents'wonds long ago ,if it heals mmy family wouldn't have ended in such state and i wouldn't always be stuck trying to fit in between."
Serenity took a deep breath tilting her head to the sky,
" why does time even exist?...all i saw from it is a tormenting pain in every time i think It's finally over...is it really healing me or take pleasure in my misery?!!"
"I wouldn't call it like that if i where you" ash said and moved ahead pocking her thrown heals from the fround while saying, "time doesn't really wait for anyone, It's an unyielding ,merciless force that only moves in one direction ,a single minute spent in intense emotional pain or anticipation can feel like eternity and messing with that mysterious force is a taboo ever since ancient times"
"What's your point?!" Serenity asked
ash put her heals in front of her leg and placed his umbrella in her hand while he himself squatted on the ground,
"If you feel imbalanced lean on me" he said and started putting her legs inside her heals using his bare hand
"!!?"
-zip-
After finishing with her shoes and took the gloves and glasses from her hand putting them again on her hand and kept the glasses in his bocket then he placed his warm big hand over her head saying,
"Deep longing or grief are the same, you can't stay focused on your grief and avoid what happiness you owned before or forget what is left for you after, even if time cannot heal our wonds at least it will give us a reason to cherish what we own at the moment"
The warmth coming from his hands made her recall a precious memory about someone from the past,
'Strange why does this man feels so familiar ?.....just like him!'
"Let me ask you this.."she shoved his hand away and asked with a stern voice ,"what if there is a possibility for retaliate do you think i should take my shot, or should i just stay away?!"
Ash suddenly felt a shiver in his bones after hearing that question that he had a weird feeling of satisfaction,
'Why do i feel like my answe will determine someone's life or death?!...but why am i so not against any of this?!'
Ash looked in her eyes and saw no trace of emotions he knew right away,
'Oh! She will kill him.!'
Ash smiled and said ,"as long as it can ease your pain, just do Whatever makes you happy "
Serenity tilted her head asking, "aren't you going to ask what am i going to do?"
"I don't, and i do have a feeling it will be something special ."the big smile on his face didn't fade away as he leaned closer to her face ,"you're born special yourself; you don't need to be like anyone. All you need is to be yourself doesn't matter whether It's bad or good, a star they envy but can never reach.''
'A star...more like the star of death!' Once she thought of the word death ,streams of brilliant red blood paint cruley stuck through a man's stark white hair, looking like crimson rivers cutting through a frozen , snowy mountain
His body has become a graveyard of iron. the numerous swords protruding from hie chest resembles the jagged metal wings of a fallen angel, sealing his tragic fate.
Seeing that picture flash through her mind her body tensed and she bit her lips hard; they bled. Ash, who smelled it, gently let go and started to wipe the blood from her mouth.'what in God's name was she thinking that her face shifted like that? '
-wipe-
"Just cry if you feel like it ... Why hurt yourself?" he said
Serenity pushed his hand away and wiped the rest of the blood away herself but she didn'tforget to answer his question,
"It's not like I don't want to, but I can't...I've always been like that, unable to cry even at my worst."
Those words were unexpected. He paused for a moment there,thinking, 'a special lady is a special lady, even when crying she is still special'
He shoke his head feeling so helpless while saying right to her face,
"Why don't you just say that your tears are too precious?"
She heared his flattery words and replied bluntly ,
"You're a smooth talker."
"Not at all; I am being truthful." Ash denied
He took the umbrella from her hand and paused for a second Judging his actions,
'i myself am confused by how natural those words are coming out of my mouth....it's not like iam beeing encouraging which is not like me at all but with her it becomes so natural like my tongue is used to them...strange...'
Although he didn't stay confused for long but Serenity still felt the change in his movements and somehow she couldn't bear to see him so lost like that ,'for God's sake why does he keep reminding me of the dead!!?'
She crossed arms asking him ,
"You said I am a star, but have you ever seen a blind star?... and you still didn't answer me...aren't my eyes scary?"
Ash said without hesitation, "The moon!"
That answer was totally unexpected leaving her stunned that she couldn't keep her stone like face anymore ,
"Huh?!"
He turned around pointing at the sky saying,
"Isn't the moon a blind star , it's blind yet shines brighter than any other under the night sky "
His words took her off guard; she couldn't help but laugh at his words breaking her usual calmness,
"Pfft...hahahaha...You're a big liar. Saying I am a star is one thing, but saying I am the moon—you have gone too far...way too far"
"Not at all; your eyes do shine as beautifully, and the words couldn't help but Express them out loud, and.....at least when it comes to scary eyes, I am way ahead of you." He replied with full confidence
Serenity caught onto his words and asked him right away,
"What does that mean?"
He avoided the questions by saying,
"Something uninteresting...come on, let's get out of here."
He reached out to grab her hand but she didn't resist him this time and tightly held onto his warmth this time her chest felt so light and free for the first time in a while.
' why does this man keep reminding me with him?...is it becose they both are dominating that crown.!.....i don't know but at least .....at this moment ;i feel like he is by my side...maybe ash is right after all .....a deep loonging that feels like eternity 'and just like that serenity was trapped in her train of thought for a long time
as all the negative emotions seemed to fade away. The heavy rain that seemed like it was never going to end stopped , and as the night sky appeared, they moved forward not knowing when did the rain finally gave up on them
Ash just took her hand and walked her away without words, two peole guided by fate into a road that was their destiny...
An hour later Ash suddenly stopped walking and asked,
"So.....where are we going?"
Serenity was surprised by the question , she tilted her head and asked ,
"The academy…why?"
"I don't know the way." He replied bluntly
Serenity stood her ground, trying to process what she just heard.
"Huh?"
"I am bad with directions." He explained
"Huh?!" She was absolutely dumbfounded by his iconic answer and couldn't help but recal their first meeting thinking ,'same, same for sure!'
"Oh...come to think of it you were lost when we first met... it was so obvious... Why didn't you remind me?" She said
As she stayed silent, not knowing what to say,
"..."
hearing no response, she pulled his hand, asking,
"Do you happen to have a phone on you?"
Ash denied it instantly,
"No, I didn't bring mine, and you?"
"Mine is dead." she replied
Ash looked around them searching for anything useful but found nothing.
"Nothing around us seems to be helpful either."
"Then ask someone if there was any herbal shop nearby." She said
Ash fixed his gaze on a big gate on the other way ,"No need for that...there's one right across the street, but what's that for..."
"Let's go there first, then talk later." She said ans was about to move forward but ash stopped her
"Okay, but first…"
Ash put his hoodie on , placed her glasses back on and covered her eyes with her hair, then he held her hand tightly .
"There are a lot of people ahead of us. Hold onto me tightly and don't let go no matter what."
He started moving between people, but since the road was so crowded, people were bumping into each other, and one of them bumped into Serenity, disturbing her balance. She almost fell if Ash hadn't catch her waist, pulling her up in time.
"Are you okay?"
"I...I am fine." She said
They kept walking, but Serenity couldn't forget what just happened. When he bumped into her, she definitely felt something familiar in his pocket, a butterfly mark appeared glowing on the wrist of her right hand, and the next second a small void opened releasing acrystal butterfly that blended into the crowd.
Although the small void disappeared ut the butterfly mark on her wrist kept glowing but thankfully it is under her clothes so nobody can see it.
'What are they doing here?!!'she wondered and her brain kept playing many scenarios
Ash stood in front of the door and said ,
"We're here ... but why exactly did we come here?"
Serenity was deep in thoughts that she didn't hear him ,
"..."
'What's wrong with her?' Hearing no response, Ash turned at her, wondering why she suddenly became so calm. Seeing her so deep in thought, he looked around him and saw an empty seat. He helped her sit on it. Looking around them, he felt anything but comfortable.
"Those people's gaze feels quite disgusting." He said with clear discomfort
"The area at this mountain base has a place full of bandits and illegal activities..." serenity finally started responding back to him ,"my brother's villa is on top of the mountain. If we wanted to reach the academy, we needed to go inside the mountain, not outside. I never expected getting lost would end up in this place...how can someone be really this awful with directions?"
Ash looked at her with no trace of regret on his face saying,
"No comment...but how did you know we are at such a place?"
Serenity started explaining ,"No matter who you are, the way you look at someone determines how you see him, and along the way, those people's gazes weren't exactly innocent... full of greed and lust. For that many people with such traits to gather in one place, it only means we're at the abandoned city."
He started mocking Regis for allowing such a place to exist: "To think such a place exists that nearby from the academy...this is actually a huge scam...but your senses are no joke for real."
"Stop with the sarcasm; not everyone is like you...full of old rules." she said
He didn't know if he should take her words as a compliment or an insult, so he just let go. "Is that so...sometimes knowing too much isn't exactly a good thing."
"Back to you, some knowledge is forced on people ... they just have no choice but to know." She said , yet her voice had a hint of laziness in it.
Ash kept staring at the woman in front of him, a complete mystery. He was absolutely curious about her.
"Interesting."