Lucas tucked the paper with Elianna's number on it into his pocket, he walked over to the gate and saw a button on it, he pressed it and it let out a sharp ring.
The gates opened and a giant of a man walked out. "Yes?" He asked harshly, his brows curled up into a frown and his goatee complimenting the rest of his face.
"I wanna attend the Academy, I'm a Ranker." Lucas said to him as calmly as he could, he looked at the tag on the man's shirt and saw his Rank, Branded.
'The same rank as me, maybe Ruin Dominion would work on him.' Lucas said to himself, but before he could try it, the man spoke.
"Come in."
"Wait!? That's it? No test? Nothing?" Lucas asked multiple questions at the same time and all the man did was nod.
Lucas shrugged and followed him as he led him through the majestic gates of the Academy. Inside the gates were far more stupendous than Lucas had ever imagined, there were cards everywhere which Lucas suspected belonged to the instructors and maybe some students who's family were stinking rich, there were flowers at almost every corner which made the environment even more beautiful.
The building itself was huge, large enough to almost be called a skyscraper, Lucas could see that the government really put a lot of money into this.
There was a gigantic wooden door, with the same Eagle engravings on it, it measured about fifteen metres in length. The man who Lucas had by now discerned to be a security guard knocked on the door in a certain way, it immediately opened. Lucas's face was greeted by a gust of cold air from the inside, the security guard gestured to him to walk in, Lucas steeled his nerves and stepped forward, walking into the building.
He was met with an interior that seemed like another world on Its own, people walking up and down the place, his eyes scanned through every nook and cranny of what seemed to be the reception, he turned his attention to a big oak table that had a computer system upon it, he sighed and then walked over to it.
Behind the table was a man who seemed to be in his early twenties, his hair was made in dreads and he had bronze skin.
"Um hi." Lucas made himself known and the man raised his head, he gave a welcoming smile to Lucas and folded his hands together on the table.
"Hello, what can I do for you?" He asked, his smile still on his face.
Lucas hesitated for a bit and then breathed out. "I want to join the Academy."
The man raised one of his eyebrows in surprise, his smile vanishing for a single instant before it returned.
"Well, I believe you know that only those who have completed their First Imposition can join the Academy?" He asked.
"Yes, I know that." Lucas replied.
"Okay, we will have to confirm that later. I'm sure you know that lying about something like this would lead to life imprisonment." He started and then started typing away at his computer.
"I didn't know that, but I know now." Lucas replied once again.
"By the way my name's Leonard, but you can call me Leo." The receptionist said with a smile.
"I'm Lucas. Nice to meet you Leo."
Leo printed out a form and gave it to Lucas, and pointed at a door:
"Go through there, they'll confirm whether you're truly a Ranker and when they're done, you can fill the form and bring it back here."
Lucas nodded and walked off, he arrived at the door and knocked, he was greeted with a feminine voice from within that told him to come in.
He opened the door and saw what seemed to be an elevator standing by itself in the middle of the room.
"Are you here to get yourself checked?" The feminine voice that told him to come in spoke again, Lucas turned to the direction of the voice and saw a beautiful girl staring at him with a tired look in her eyes, her hair was unkempt and her labcoat was dirty.
"Hi my name is Lucas, I came here to get myself checked. I was told by Leo to come here before I fill out this form." Lucas replied.
The girl nodded and then made a gesture with her hand which told him to come closer.
"Drop the form over here." She said to him, pointing to her desk, he looked at her name tag, he felt something grip his heart, it was a name he was familiar with. Sarah.
Lucas dropped the form on the table, pushing out every bad memory from his head.
"What do I do next?" Lucas asked, She pointed at the elevator-like structure.
"Go in." She said, Lucas turned back to look at her in surprise but he didn't argue, he walked over to the door of the structure and it opened up for him and then he walked in.
Multiple lights focused on his chest, as if scanning for something. Lucas felt a slight tickle and suppressed a laugh. The lights disappeared and then the door opened once more, Lucas walked out and she smiled at him.
"Thought I would have to take you out, that is if you were lying." Sarah said to him.
"What makes you think you could do that?" Lucas asked with a look of confidence.
She showed him her tag properly, now he could see her Rank, Bound, she was just one rank above him but that meant she was stronger, but that depended on what Faculty Ability she had.
"What was that machine anyway?" Lucas asked, changing the topic.
"Well it's a machine that lets us check for Ruin Cores." Sarah began. "As you know your Ruin Core forms when you finish your First Imposition and so this machine is able to focus on it so we can know those who are actually supposed to be admitted into this prestigious academy."
"Well, that's alright." Lucas replied. "Can I go now?"
"Sure sure. Do come again." She smiled at him, handing him the form that Leo had given him.
"Maybe." Lucas replied, taking the form from her and then smiled back at her which caused her to blush, her expression shocked him cause he thought he wasn't someone girls would be interested in.
He walked out of the room with the form in hand, he went to Leo and asked for a pen. He filled everything that was required and then submitted it to Leo.
Leo then gave him an ID with his name on it, Lucas smiled as he held it in hand.
"Welcome to the Ranker Academy." Leo said to him. "Well, what classes are you going for? And are you going to be participating in our annual Ranker tournament?"
"Tournament?" Lucas asked.
"Yeah, this one is special. The top ten Rankers from this tournament will be taken to Tokyo for an exploration." Leo explained.
"Tokyo. I see." Lucas was mesmerized but also in a dilemma. He had two options, one would be to train his Faculty Ability till it could pretty much be the strongest so he could win the tournament and go to Tokyo, the other would just be to keep a low profile.
He remembered Elianna's words
'Don't tell them everything.'