Chapters 96-97

Sorry about forgetting to post yesterday's chapter! The holidays got me...

Chapter 96 – Hearts in the Right Place

There were four major schools inside of the Water Rider Academy. The strongest ones belonged to Elder Krakatoa and Elder Kahua. However, that was because Elder Kawena had only just returned to the academy. Now for the upcoming academic year, there would be a third contender to the title.

Furthermore, in addition to Lady Naia’s school, which had snagged one of the most promising first-year students from last year, a new school had emerged and left everyone speechless with its momentous victory: Professor Iakopo’s school.

Usually, a new school would have started from the bottom ranks, and it would have taken years, if not decades, to develop into a powerhouse like Elder Krakatoa and Elder Kahua’s schools. That meant that Lady Naia’s school should have left behind the title of weakest school in favor of Professor Iakopo’s school.

However, after the events in Placid City, many students had scrambled to join the man’s school despite his infamous reputation for being the most rigid teacher among them all. They had all heard about Professor Iakopo humiliating the Sword Demon with a secondary Affinity and not his main one, Space Water.

Even after the filtering that the man had operated, he had gained enough students, including strong nobles, to surpass both elder schools and cement itself as the third most powerful and fearsome school there was. Furthermore, it was commonly believed that given Professor Iakopo’s extremely demanding requirements, but also relentless drive for training, that he would soon be challenging Elder Krakatoa and Elder Kahua’s hegemony as the strongest schools in the Water Rider Academy.

Truth be told, the fact that Lady Naia’s school was once again the weakest would have bothered Fiora in the past. Even though Lady Naia was Principal Kaimana’s main assistant and probably the strongest person her age, one generation after Professor Iakopo and Elder Krakatoa, the old Fiora would have still felt the weight of not being in the best school there was.

But the Fiora that had almost died to Apicalia’s poison in Placid City, the Fiora that had to swallow her pride and fight alongside Talia, that Fiora didn’t give a bullfish’s horn about which school was the strongest on paper. In fact, she was almost happy to be in such a weak school, knowing that people in the future would be underestimating her.

Plus, unlike the other schools that had many students, Lady Naia’s school was small enough in terms of attendance that she would routinely, alongside all the other students, get private lessons from the woman.

Point in case, Lady Naia had brought Fiora out to give her a brief lesson on something they had been working on for the past month, waiting for the Water Rider Academy school year to start again. While some people chose to sail back to their families, some just remained behind. Fiora missed her mother, but she also knew that she needed power and that this was a golden opportunity to get a jump start on all the nobles that had been training for their entire lives and had had access to all the best resources one could find.

“You have mastered the Overdrive Spiral,” Lady Naia said, “but you need to bring it to the next step so that you can have a strong single attack that you can use rapidly.”

Fiora had gained an extremely powerful Skill when she had killed Talia with it. However, Fiora had also given up several Skills and fused them into this one, which meant that her other attacks had been weakened. Lady Naia had told her that instead of just seeking power through Skills, Fiora needed to work on her fundamentals, which is what nobles would have done in her place.

Lady Naia had been very flattering, telling Fiora that not many nobles had her talent and that in another life, she could have easily been chosen if nurtured the right way. That had sort of depressed Fiora more than cheering her up. But Lady Naia told her that despite the nobles having a huge jump start on her, the progress one would make while having a Class was much larger than the progress one could make before having a Class, which meant that, in her own opinion, Fiora had still all the time in the world to become the strongest caster. A Chosen-level caster.

But Lady Naia had insisted that Fiora had to focus on refining her own control over magic instead of relying on Skills, which in the long term would cripple her magical control, not her magical abilities. And that’s why Lady Naia had explained to Fiora that a simple Sun Water spear was all she needed to focus on. Fiora needed to achieve utter perfection with that one simple Skill before moving on to anything else.

And that for the past eight months had been Fiora’s full focus together with a few dungeon dives alongside Agalei and other students from Lady Naia’s school, which Lady Naia herself had organized.

“Overdrive Spiral is the refinement of the casting cycle of a spell. Let me now explain for the umpteenth time. To use Overdrive Spiral also means to waste time, which a caster doesn’t have the luxury to once your aim is on point and your control is as well. Speed is something that every caster should strive for. If someone targets you during a fight and you cannot defend yourself while your teammates are busy, you’re as good as dead.”

Fiora thought back to when she had fought the Placid Cross Boss and how useless she had been when the extremely fast boss had attacked her directly.

“If you have mastered the spear, today I will teach you two more Skills,” Lady Naia said. “As I’ve told you, the casting process has to be perfected by focusing on the formation of the spell itself. Just recirculating the spell more times to achieve Overdrive Spiral isn’t enough. You have to work on the individual components of any spell. Once these components are perfect, once they’re flawless, even straining them by using Overdrive Spiral to its maximum efficiency, the spell should be cast in less than a second.”

Fiora knew these notions by heart, word for word. Lady Naia pointed at a target 200 feet from them, which Fiora had found absurd when she started training with the woman, but now was nothing but the normality.

“Go ahead,” Lady Naia said. “I only have half an hour before I have to teach a group lesson.” Lady Naia was relentless in her care for the students since she herself didn’t come from a noble family, but had grown up poor. And only Principal Kaimana had managed to extract her from the class she had grown up in.

Fiora’s arm shot in front of her, holding her four fingers extended vertically. She used them as a reference to aim and to cast a spell. In the blink of an eye, a hyper-condensed Sun Water spear shot from her fingers so fast she could barely see it leave her body herself. A second later, it impacted the distant target, making it explode on impact as the condensed energy of the Sun Water sphere was released.

“My, my,” Lady Naia said, taking Fiora by her shoulders and giving her a hug. Unlike the very formal and stiff elders, Lady Naia was very physical and very nurturing with her students. “Incredible, Fiora. Some of my students will never master their casting ability to this level until they graduate. It took you eight months, and you started very much behind where most nobles are once they arrive at the academy.”

“Thank you, Lady Naia,” Fiora said, bowing her head.

“This will help more than you can understand as you’ll need to cast more and more complex spells,” the tall, beautiful woman said. “Now, I would usually wait to teach these Skills until the last year, but since you displayed such an incredible talent, Fiora. I would make you, with your permission, a personal student of mine.”

“I would be honored to,” Fiora said. 

“You understand, personal students have greater duties toward the School and me? I understand that what happened last year with Elder Kawena might put you off such a proposition.”

“Milady, you’re not Elder Kawena,” Fiora said. “I would gladly be more involved with the School.”

“Great,” Lady Naia said. “Then, it is time for to explain how the [Chainmail Shield] and [Blink] work. Once you master them, expect to be able to take on a Boss roughly your level on your own.”  

  * 

Fiora wasn’t the only one who had been subjected to special training. 

Takai stood on his Mana Board in the midst of a storm—a real one, in the Deep, as he tried balancing over the large, swelling waves and holding his sword between his hands. 

“The Heavenly Heart Rending Technique doesn’t depend on your level. Endurance will help, young Takai, but your power will be fully dependant on the Skill alone. The first level, Tearing, is a rough tool.” 

Takai stood on his Mana Board in the midst of a storm—a real one, in the Deep, as he tried balancing over the large, swelling waves and holding his sword between his hands.

“The Heavenly Heart Rending Technique doesn’t depend on your level. Endurance will help, young Takai, but your power will be fully dependent on the Skill alone. The first level, Tearing, is a rough tool.”

Takai’s arms wildly trembled as he held onto the hilt of his sword, trying to stay still despite the disturbances surrounding him.

“Tearing will only allow you to reach the power of a Level 30 warrior. It is the first step into completely leaving behind notions of class levels and Skills. Those who practice the Heavenly Heart Rending Technique need not worry about anything else than bringing the technique to its higher levels. The moment you unlock Sundering, the second level, you will be able to defeat monsters like the boss that the students met in Placid City, and you should be able to kill monsters of Level 50.”

Takai’s entire body shook as he heard that.

“If you reach the 3rd Level, Cleaving, then no monster, not even the Kraken, at least in its first stages, will be able to resist your sword.”

Takai’s concentration finally fell apart, and he lowered his arms, breathing heavily. Principal Kaimana nodded to him and raised his hand, slashing at the waves around him. In a second, the water split and calmed. The clouds in the sky were torn apart, and sun shone widely around them.

“There’s a 4th level of the Heavenly Heart Rending Technique, Severing,” Principal Kaimana said. “Not even I could reach it, so I won’t be able to teach you anything about it. Sundering, however, the second level, requires you to be unconcerned with your surroundings. It requires the user to be completely detached from everything. You are much closer than I expected you to be.”

Principal Kaimana had been personally training Takai in the past 8 months nonstop after telling the boy that he thought his time would soon come to pass and therefore wanted to teach Takai as much as he could.

“Severing,” Principal Kaimana continued, “is beyond my understanding, sadly. But as far as Cleaving goes, it’s just the next step of Sundering. You will need to detach from the metaphysical component of your surroundings, the emotions, the care you have for others. The Heavenly Heart Rending Technique only cares about justice. Therefore, if Tearing is about the disregard for anything but justice, then Sundering is the complete focus on justice despite the external circumstances, and Cleaving is the complete focus on justice despite what you feel for the people around you. I have no idea what Severing is. Not even in my old age, not even after battling the Kraken 6 times, could I tell you, young Takai, about Severing. I am deeply sorry about that.”

Takai didn’t really understand why the principal thought he had it in him to unlock what such a legendary warrior had not managed to in his lifetime.

As usual, Takai just listened to the old man, not really knowing how to engage in a conversation, not really having anything of importance to say. Principal Kaimana extended his Mana Board, making it almost as large as a vessel and gesturing for Takai to get on top of it. The young man did, and they started moving again, probably going back to the academy since soon, the second year would start.

Principal Kaimana sighed. “Young Takai, I have not been talking about your father because I do not consider it proper for you to listen to his life from my mouth. However, I feel like before my time comes, I would like to say a few things about the man you know as the Sword Demon.”

Takai’s ears perked up.

“The day will come, young Takai, when you will meet your father again. And he will not recognize you. When a father thinks that their children will grow to become exactly what they are, and they face the stark reality of finding out that they are nothing like them, not even a broken reflection of who they are, they usually undergo the following thinking process. They might find themselves having to choose between finally recognizing that their child is not who they are, or they might try and force their life, the shape of their soul onto them.”

“Sometimes,” Principal Kaimana said, looking in the distance, “fathers have to make choices for the good of their children, that their children will never, in a million years, understand.”

Takai didn’t understand the last bit. The principal spoke in such a mysterious manner, so unlike the straightforward Cultist ways of the old man.

“I don’t understand,” Takai said.

“You will.” Principal Kaimana smiled bitterly. “We can never escape our own blood,” he said, seemingly speaking more to himself than to Takai.

Chapter 97 – Hardened Hearts

Riala had expected that, after going to Placid City to save her sister, Talia would have joined Elder Kahua’s School to be close to her. 

Riala had expected that, after going to Placid City to save her sister, Talia would have joined Elder Kahua's School to be close to her.

She had thought, perhaps naively, that the fact that she had saved her sister's life so spectacularly and against an even stronger senior student would have made Talia's first priority to be around her as much as possible, to learn from her, to finally give her the respect that she, as an older sister, deserved. However, the fact that Talia had been in a coma for 6 months and Riala had to attend other duties in that time meant that the two sisters barely had time to spend with each other before Talia went out first with Professor Iakopo and then alone for training. And Riala, taken by the duties of her school and as the champion of Elder Kahua, now in her final year before graduating as a full-time Water Rider, had a lot of things to take care of herself.

She brooded as she sat with crossed arms on the other side of Elder Kahua's desk. Meanwhile, the man was signing some documents and preparing for the upcoming academic year. As soon as he was done, however, he raised his eyes to the white-haired woman in front of him and spoke.

"Riala, you should stop brooding."

"I'm frustrated," she said petulantly. "I don't understand what happened. I thought that Talia would join our school. I thought that I would be mentoring her by now, and that after I graduated, she would take my place as the champion as a 3rd year. I thought she had all the potential in the world, and I thought—"

"Riala," Elder Kahua said with a frown. He cut himself off and looked around. He raised a hand, and a powerful shield of Mana encased the entire room, cutting it off from the outside world. "You understood what it meant joining our order."

Riala slowly unfolded her arms, letting her hands rest on her legs. She now had a completely serious expression.

"I don't think that it will be necessary to—"

"Riala," Elder Kahua cut her off. "I said that you knew what it meant. Your sister has taken the path we always feared she would take."

Riala refused to let go of her hopes. "No. She's with Professor Iakopo now. He's not a damn Cultist."

"He's not a Cultist," Elder Kahua said. "But I believe, and so do the others, that your sister is now on the path that your mother had gone through."

"That doesn't mean anything," Riala protested. "That doesn't mean we know what Talia will become."

Elder Kahua let go of the pen he was still holding and rubbed his face. "Riala, do not speak yourself into treason, please. You were told what it meant to join the covenant. We have a mission that is more important than anything else, more important than me, you, and even than your sister. The fact that she is going through what your mother went through means exactly that. Talia is going to fulfill Yelena's wish. And I'm not sure that even if she joined my school, you, me, or even the others would have been able to do anything to prevent it from happening."

Riala looked down, feeling tears starting to come out of her eyes and suddenly angrily slapping them away, trying not to cry as hard as she could because she knew what Elder Kahua was saying.

“Principal Kaimana warned you,” Elder Kahua said. “The man told you what it meant to join the covenant, child. You agreed. And now, your bound by its pacts. We’re above our ties, our families, and everything else that is material. We have a more important mission to carry out. You wanted to do what’s best for the Great Archipelago and now you know what that entails.”

Suddenly, a strong knock startled both and Elder Kahua dropped the cover of Mana. 

“Enter,” he said, frowning.

A man with red hair and rose-tinted spectacles, sporting a magma-made arm attached to his shoulder socket entered the room, immediately raising the temperature in it by several degrees. 

“Elder Krakatoa,” Elder Kahua frowned. 

The man looked at Riala and then at Elder Kahua.

“Kahua, I need a word,” the man said, looking tired and rather disheveled, far from his usual self. 

Elder Kahua gave Riala an emphatic look and the white-haired girl left without saying another word.

After she closed the door, Elder Kahua sealed the room once again with his Mana. 

“She’s worried about her sister,” Elder Krakatoa said, a statement, not a question.

“She is.”

“Is there no other way, Kahua?” Elder Krakatoa said, inhaling sharply and seemingly more distressed than even Riala had been. “I’ve received word from the Principal. The covenants’ plans… I can’t do it, Kahua. I can’t do it.”

Kahua reclined in his chair and turned toward the window at the side of his office.

“What do you want us to do, Krakatoa?” Elder Kahua asked in a low tone. “Do you have any ideas?” 

The truth was that Elder Krakatoa had no idea what to do, no more than Elder Kahua. He knew the Kahua, despite how hard he had gone on the girl, didn’t like their job any more than he did. But unlike Elder Kahua, Elder Krakatoa had been consumed by the latest meeting they had with the covenant. And after hearing what Principal Kaimana had said, Elder Krakatoa had probably had trouble sleeping for the past 17 years.

He had been Yelena’s shield. He had been the one supposedly in charge of her protection, of her life. But how could he have guessed what Yelena had really been trying to do? The day she faced the Kraken...

“I know this is bringing old memories back,” Elder Kahua said. “You know as well as I do that it wasn’t your fault.”

“If it wasn’t my fault,” Elder Krakatoa said, adjusting the rose-tinted spectacles on his face, “whose fault was it? Whom do you suppose we should blame for the death of the greatest Kraken slayer we have ever met, for the person that could have put an end to it all?”

“Krakatoa,” Kahua said, “I wish Yelena had made the right choice as much as you did, perhaps more. I wish I could have taught her. I wish she had listened to me. I wish she had told us all her intentions. I wish she’d joined the covenant. But for the Deep’s sake, you only did what every sane person would have done. You should stop blaming yourself. You’re an old man now. Get your bearings straight. Classes are about to resume.”

“I’m not teaching any classes this year,” Elder Krakatoa said. “I don’t have it in me. I will follow the orders, Kahua, but I’m done teaching for at least this year, maybe forever.”

Elder Kahua sighed. He knew that this was the least they could allow the man to do considering what was brewing under the surface.

“Seventeen years ago, you went against your orders,” Elder Kahua reminded him. “The Principal pardoned your actions because you did what had to be done in the end. However, the old man is near the end of his life. If he believes you’re not capable of doing what’s necessary for the Great Archipelago, he’ll take your life.”

“I know,” Elder Krakatoa replied with a straight face.

“Anyway, the Principal said we have to wait anyway, especially now that Iakopo is behind her.”

“How strong is he?” Elder Krakatoa asked, momentarily distracted from the main issue.

Elder Kahua fell silent, frowning. Then after a while, he started speaking slowly. “The principal believes that if we were to attack him, we would have to do it all at the same time to ensure he dies.”

“The old man fears Professor Iakopo more than he does the Sword Demon,” Elder Krakatoa mused, and then got up.

“Take care, Kahua,” the redhead man said. 

“Stay well, Krakatoa. I wish we could have prevented this. I wish that your plan to keep her on the island had worked.”

“Me too,” Krakatoa said, shaking his head.

They wouldn’t move just yet, but he knew that soon they might have to take Talia’s life before it was too late. He felt an immense weight on his chest. He had already taken her mother’s life, and he wasn’t sure his conscience would survive taking Talia’s as well.