Max’s perspective:
June 12, 989:
“Hey, Max. What do think about freedom or humanity?”
A person in the “Nexus Institution” asked me this question.
It was summer, mid June, 989.
And the person who asked this particular question is “Ichika Stones.”
Freedom and humanity.
Something I have never experienced in my entire existence, I wonder what it would feel like.
Within me, there is hole.
A deep hole longing for love, emotions, happiness, sadness.
I can’t fill it up but I want to give it a try.
“I can’t answer that. I have no clue of how it works, we may have to wait until we are taught,” I answered as honest as I could.
“I guess you are right. No one here have ever seen the outside world,” she answered.
“Hmm.” I eyes glaze on the pure blue metallic infrastructure that surrounded every corner in this place.
That is all I see.
The colour blue and while, the colour that represented purity: they have turned it into something unimaginable.
A place where children are taught to kill, hurt, destroy and heal with the countless magical spells we are taught.
There isn’t a single spell that exist that has not been demonstrated to us.
In this place, if you can’t climb to the up, you are released to the depth of the ground.
A place where you know nothing about.
A place where we call “The Outside World.” A living habitat of human beings.
I knew everything about losing.
I since my existence came about, I have seen people cry out help but got rejected.
I have seen children shout out for mercy, just wanting one more chance to prove themselves.
If only I were in their position, I wondered?
“What I would do?
What expression will I make?
Which emotions will stir up within me?
I wondered about all this, but.
But I knew one thing, the thing one that would keep me away from knowing the answers to this questions.
“As long as I am the victor, that is all that matters.
As long as I win, as long as I am the last survivor.
That is all I wanted deep inside, to me, people were nothing but helping keys whom will allow me to complete my goals.
And that is all that matters.
Moments later after my conversation with her had ended, the teacher walked in.
He held a white binder, wore an all white suit and glasses that made it impossible to view any facial expressions.
“Class, take out your note books. Today we are learning how mana is formed and how we use it to produce magic.”
Then he walked on the desk and opened an artifact.
The was a slim round object which could be used for researching.
It had all the alphabetical letters cut into smaller pieces, which when pressed could visualize on the screen that is connected on the keyboard.
He pressed on some keys, then started the lesson.
“Now, can anyone tell me what mana is?” He asked us.
A guy named Sammy, raised up his hand and begun to wait for the teacher’s permission to speak.
“You can speak now,” he told the boy.
“Mana is the energy of matter that flows in the air that gives us stamina and the ability to produce magic.” He answered.
The boy’s answer was right, but in an actual test, that would be 3 out 5 mark.
Mana in as a whole had many fundamentals terms which we as humans can not imagine.
Since it was created by the six transcendents, we aren’t ale to understand it well properly.
“Good, but that is not the answer I am looking for. Will anyone else like a try?” He asked with the same expression.
Ichika raised her hand up and waited.
“Go on.”
“Mana is an energy of matter, which many phenomenon are created by. It is a source of energy which humans can draw out and use it for many things.”
“Better, but I will write it on the board.” He said, then begun writing on the board.
Before long, the whole board were covers with notes which we had to write down and memorize, because if we don’t.
We do not want to know what lies beyond that gate.
The context of the notes answered the questions.
“What is mana? What are their uses? Are they beneficial to us? And finally if we are suppose use it or not?”
Mana is a technique or spiritual ability left behind by the seven pillars of the world (also known as the seven transcendents.) This ability was given to us as means to fight back on the enemy we once fought over 10,000 years ago, though on human fought in that war, people who were close by said, the transcendents combined their powers and destroyed the enemy.
Since this was done over ten thousand years ago nobody naturally known what went now.
The people who weren’t involved in the war but was close said that they heard great battle, a battle that went silent after many demons were seen being destroyed and killed.
The Nexus Institution itself doesn’t have any records that might help us but there is this strange book which surprisingly has a lot of information about the transcendents and their powers.
“The books of light,” that is the name of the book.
It is only produced by the nexus institution too.
Mana also have man forms or in simply terms, mana can used in different ways.
This include magic, and special eye activation.
Special eyes are also ability that has passed down through clans, and families.
They are special because each eye have ability that creates phenomenon which seems impossible at first.
Legends say; the transcendents went and had kids with woman and men of this world, which created the ability called special eye.
Of course, this is just a myth so we can’t directly confirm whether that is true or not.
‘Alright class, this period has ended.
You may go to your martial art class.” He said plainly.
Right after the instructions were even, we all went and walked the halls as usual.
The martial class was just one story building below us from our previous class; the magic class.
We walked into the martial art class and got dressed.
The normal clothing we wore was an all black robe that cover 90% of our bodies.
There were different types of ranks which was displayed by the belts we wore.
A white which represented the start.
A bronze which meant an amateur but getting good.
A silver which meant you are above the average.
You are of the top 10 percent of the world.
And finally we have the gold rank.
In the history of the Nexus Institution, only five people have been able to wear this rank.
One from the second generation, two from the fourth generation and other two from my generation: the fifth generation.
“Get in your stands and find a partner to combat with.” The instructor said.
In the Nexus Institution, there are two forms of martial arts: hand to hand fighting and swordsmanship.
“Care to spar with me today?” The boy from earlier asked.
I looked at him and nodded.
We walked several meters from the place, we both bowed our heads down and once again formed our stands.
“Go.”
Shiro dove at incredible speeds trying to close the distance between me and him.
My computer like mind begun thinking of ways to avoid his attack.
If I move side-ways he could just as easily close the distance again but if I keep moving back, then he still could keep the distance close.
I need to find a way to solve this.
My thoughts were running on streams at that point.
Without making any noise or making it visible, I activated my soul eyes but nobody could see it nor feel it presence.
This was a trick that have been lost for a almost five hundred years since the first king created peace among all nations.
Ever since then, conflict hasn’t been able divide us, which meant naturally all the techniques we developed as fight back was gone.
In short, ‘We didn’t have any use for it again.”
I moved six steps backwards and lowed my center of gravity.
Shiro extended his arms out and tried to punch but moved.
Since my lower center of gravity was activated, I was able to dive backwards and avoid his attack.
I then stretched out my foot and trip him. which caused him to fall.
In here, once you fall.
That means defeat.
And since the class was almost over, I chose to wait until the closing bell allowed us to go back inside the housing department.
“Cling. cling, cling.” The bell rang, which gave us permission.
From there, we went to out little rooms, got dressed and went back to the cafeteria for food.
These all transpired from six in the evening to eight.
Then an hour of reading time, from ten to six was our next eventful day.
This is the life of living in the Nexus Institution.
From tomorrow, we would do the same things again, and again.
Until finally the day came for us to be distributed to different nations.