Warning: This contains both straight and gay sexual interactions, if you're not a fan of this, you've been warned.
Note: Sorry for the long wait on this next part! I hope you enjoy!
*****
I throw open the doors into the training hall, breathless, to my classmates all gathered in the center of the immense stone chamber. The chamber was fitted with target practice dummies, all forms of elements accessible from the large metal crates of burning fires, fountains of water, and the stone beneath us. Tall glass windows were against either ends of the grand hall, their panes spilling bright morning sunshine onto the students.
I jog over, and make sudden eye contact with Reckner, who stood instructing before the crowd of students. The silvery eyes of my teacher were almost leery, but within moments of that gaze, he turned back to his students and his expression was that of a lightly spoken instructor once more.
I settled next to one of my old friends, Gregor, who stood tall among our classmates. He gives me a light nod in my approach, his blue eyes almost white looking in the shine of the sun.
"Hey- Gregor, thanks for lending me some of your clothes last minute, I accidentally used a shrinking spell I was practicing on my clothes."
He smiled, whispering back:
"No problem."
I glance back over to Reckner, who's shallow voice belted over the students in his instruction.
"What'd I miss?"
I asked Gregor, who gave me a sharp side-glance look that scolded me to quiet down.
I offered him an apologetic smile, and he replies softy:
"Today's going to be basic spell casting training, he wants us to continue perfecting what we've learned in class."
I nod, trying to rummage through my memories of what we'd been going through in class.
In the back of my head I see Morgana and her cream eyes, her hand sliding up my leg.
She had been distracting me.
Suddenly the students dispersed, taking grouped positions at crates of fire, at the fountains, and near practice dummies.
Must be elemental manipulation.
I had read and studied plenty ahead in my spell book to know what was going on.
"Fuckin' nerd."
The beast inside me uttered quietly as he followed me over to a spot near a dummy, on my own.
A few yards away from me, a group of young female mages were trading banter, toying lazily with the flames that blazed from the metal crate, tracing the orange flames swiftly through the air. I could see Reckner walking about the groups of mages, stopping here and there to quietly critique their forms and spell pronunciation.
I pull out my spell book, but end up just holding it closed in my hand, staring blankly into the messily painted black spiral targets on the dummy before me.
I see the subtle silver glow of the Succubus' eyes. The Incubus trapped in me's solemn voice grumbling in the back of my head:
Your mother has been hiding something from you, Laizen.
My mother...
I think back to her small cottage in the poorer outskirts of the city, seeing her smiling face as she pulled weeds from her garden as I would play.
I hadn't properly seen her in years. The course of study of a mage and the admission into such a prestigious school left me little free time.
Suddenly, a sharp female voice drags me abruptly from my thoughts.
"So, just because you survived a demon attack, you think you don't have to train like the rest of us?"
I turned over to see that the group of women's attention was now focused on me. The woman who spoke, a rather short woman with her posture strained straight and proud stood glaring at me with her arms crossed, the not-so-subtle glint of annoyance clear in her black eyes.
I could have said anything, I could have articulated any sort of sentence, but instead I look at the woman in a speechless and numb stupor.
This succeeded in making her visibly angrier and menacing, which was ironic considering her petite form. Something about her vicious confidence beckoned me to step away from her.
"I've heard about your abilities with magic. They're next to none, all you have to your name is high test scores. So tell me, why are you still standing here?"
I attempted to spill out a fumbling sentence, but she continued speaking.
"Out of all of those powerful mages, why were you the one who lived?"
Her friends exchanged looks of concern that seemed to say that she was taking things too far.
A vibrant red head stepped towards the short mage.
"Lisa, it's alright."
The girl reached to press a hand onto the other girl's shoulder, but Lisa promptly and viciously swats the hand away, stepping from the red head, and towards me. Her black eyes looked pupiless and outraged.
"How come it was you. Lucy lost her life just for a useless mage like you to survive? What kind of fucking world is that."
I'm suddenly back in the dark halls of the Incubus infested house, following a young girl with black eyes much like the ones glaring at me now.
My throat felt raw and tight.
She was her sister.
She steps towards me, and I instinctively step back.
In the back of my mind, I see Seirna's gentle eyes as she tugged on my cloak sleeve.
Stay by my side.
I felt a rising heat press against my features.
Suddenly a glow of orange flames danced over Lisa's fingertips and palms, her eyes emitting pure hatred, her eyelids glinting with the brim of tears. Her voice is shaky:
"Luck... Won't save you from getting burned."
Before I could blink her hands were raised before her.
"Fiero Encarsas!"
Suddenly all I could see was red as an immense ball of fire hurdles towards me.
I'm thrusted from my frozen stupor. Muscle memory kicks in.
I raise my arms, guarding my face and chest, and shout:
"Teiro sheilus!"
The flame collides with a translucent barrier that was conjured before me. The force of the attack sends me skidding backwards, and the shield is shattered, its jagged shards falling in a wicked dance with her dwindling flames to the floor.
My arms shake before me, and I struggle to catch my breath and find my composure.
I stopped it. No protection spell I've ever conjured has been able to stop anything, let alone the product of a powerfully produced spell like the one she used.
She only stares at me, her concentration breaking for moments in her surprise.
Her features contort, she looked to be visibly shaking beneath her robe.
Flames spread up her arms, twisting like peculiar serpents up her forearms.
The fire from the crate beside her rises in the air, the flames spreading to an evil vibrance around her.
The red headed friend again steps forward.
"That's enough Lisa- stop-"
Suddenly the flames surge towards the young girl and she gasps in pain as she is pushed away, her cloak sleeves bursting to flames.
She glares at her friend in terror, but Lisa barely acknowledges her.
Her black eyes are set, unwavering, on me.
"You're HALF THE MAGE SHE WAS. She should be the one standing here with me!"
Flames race towards me, blazing in the air like crimson arrows.
I threw up another protection spell, but these flames burst through the barrier. I attempted to side step from the incoming flames, but all I could do was throw up my arms as they sear into my body.
The world jolts as I am knocked off of my feet and hit the ground rolling painfully across the concrete. My cloak was in flames, eating at my bare skin underneath. In panic, I toss off the garment, attempting to get to my feet as she charges forward, cradled in the embrace of her blaze of flame, her black eyes swallowed by the illumination, her aura rising around her like an earthly tremor.
She was feet from me, raising a scolding fist to strike me directly.
I desperately throw my hands and conjure a barrier into them, pushing all that I had into it, feeling my aura shake unevenly as the translucent wall shimmers to life, and Lisa strikes into it, screaming:
"Fiero scovuntus"
Black smoke and the snare of flame bursts outwards in the air, my arms stinging, feeling the impact of the magical blow reverate my body, as my shield cracks and dissipates.
We stand in a swirling ring of black and ash, my body shaking from the effort of absorbing her spell, sweat dripping from my brow, my shirt matted to my damp skin.
"Fight back."
I could feel the Incubus' clawed hand set on my shoulder, his deep voice bellowing in my ears, causing me to almost flinch. The demonic aura pressed against mine, filling my being.
I shake my head, barely feeling the motion.
No. She's just upset about her sister, I can't strike her.
"But you'll allow her to do so to you? You have the power to fight, Laizen, the demonic power inside of you. Give in to it. Let me take control, I'll show the bitch her place.
I felt the muscles of my body contract, as the demonic aura steadily rises through my being.
I grit my teeth, clenching my fists in effort to suppress the presence swelling inside of me, feeling my aura press outwards, thick and murky in the air. I lower my head, gasping for breath.
Stop- no- I don't want this-
Lisa leans forward, fire leaping from her arms, posed to attack once more.
Glaring down at my quaking hands, I see my fingernails darken, and the beginning points of claws stretching forward.
No. No.
The demon inside of me was smothering me, I felt that I could barely breathe. My chest heaved, my heart a beat that brandished the inside of my body with its pace. I couldn't suppress the part of me, despite every cell of my being that screamed otherwise, that wanted it. To have real strength. Power.
"Fiero encarsas!"
Lisa screamed, and I looked up to her.
And as the immense ball of flames burst from her palm, she looks to my face, and her expression of hatred vanishes. What replaces it is the eyes of a person who has seen a monster.
Suddenly a hand comes before the flame just as it is about to reach me, and I am once again swallowed by black smoke and an intense heat that bared against my skin.
I shield my face with my hands, coughing against the soot that crusted the insides of my mouth. As the black smoke clears, a woman stands before me, a familiar crimson cloak draped over her body.
Ash and the fading trail of Lisa's flames drip from Morgana's hand.
From the crowd of girls a distance away, I hear the faint sound of a voice.
"She... Blocked it with her bare hand..."
Suddenly a body breaks through the smoke, revealing Reckner as he runs towards the scene.
