Blessing of the Seas

Luna knew her time was limited, as her head was starting to pound with the effort, but she needed to do something.

What can I do? I can’t move him, since his body would probably suffer a lot from the sudden movement, Luna thought, panic scrambling her thoughts. She’s fast, fast enough that she’s just barely moving, even as I’m in this state. I can’t kill her, though that would, to be honest, be the most effective option.

However, Luna then noticed the red lightning beginning to flicker around the two of them.

Ben’s… Bloodbolt? What will that do in this situation- Huh?

As the lightning began to flicker around them, Bennett began to move, shifting into a semi-lightning version, almost like…

***

___

You gained a new Skill!

NEW! Blood Dash - Level 1

Blood Dash (Universal)

By continuously draining HP, you enter the Blood Lightning state, increasing speed and perception by (Skill Level * 100, 200, 300)% + 500%, 1000%, 1500%*. In this state, you will consistently deal ramping Lightning/Blood damage in a 4 yard radius around you, increasing up to Moderate Damage per second. By spending up to 10% HP per 5 seconds, you can increase speed and damage by (Skill Level + 2)% Per 1% HP. However, while in this state, you cannot start any type of attacks, canceling the state when initializing attack while keeping momentum. After canceling, you gain (Skill Level * 3) + 20% Damage Bonus and enter the Blood Dash State, both for the duration you were in Blood Lightning state. While in this state, Blood Dash has no cooldown. When Blood Dash ends, the cooldown Begins again.

Max Duration : 20 seconds, reset when shifting in and out state.

Cooldown : (Current HP% * 20) * Duration, Not reset when shifting + 10

*Note : Every 3 Levels, the base value will increase by 500% (Additive) and the multiplier will increase by 100% (additive). Current speed/perception increase : 600%

___

Huh, Bennett thought. Now this is interesting. System, could you give me a timer representing real world time, outside of my perception, for when I am in this state?

Immediately, a timer appeared at the top right of his vision and he nodded before realizing the halberd in front of him was still swinging, albeit far slower. Right, overpowered Skill moment aside, I’m still being attacked.

He moved back and frowned. It was almost strange, both moving fast, but also being able to perceive just as fast. If he didn’t pay active attention, he would simply move quickly and react to things around him instead him having to debate on what to do. However, if he needed to think about his next action, the world around him would slow down and he’d have time-

No, it’s more like my thoughts speed up by a huge amount, I’m only perceiving it slower since it’s simpler to understand. Case in point, since the thing has moved up to my sternum and I’ve been thinking for what seems like a minute to me- wait.

Bennett suddenly panicked and moved out of the way of the glaive right before it hit him, moving back nearly ten feet in the span of half a second. A moment later, he heard a huff.

“You’re faster than I thought,” the same female voice from only ten seconds ago said. “Stand down.”

After another second debating, Bennett shifted out, finally looking at the wielder of the glaive. She was an adult Wolf-kin (Which he had to specify since it was notoriously difficult to tell the difference between adults and teenagers, since their body didn’t really change except for the size of their ears and tails, along with some coloring. How he knew this was because he’d read about it in a documentary book on most Races) and somehow balanced a glaive that was taller than Bennett on her shoulders. She wore what looked to be very maneuverable leather armor, with the occasional mythril plate in more vulnerable places. Compared to most Professors, she was far more casual, a stark contrast to the Headmaster.

“Weird…” Bennett muttered.

“The first thing you say about your teacher who just showed you the basics is ‘weird’?” She suddenly snapped, looking a bit annoyed. “Rude boy.”

Bennett blinked. “Huh? Oh, no, I was just thinking that it was weird that you’re a complete contrast to the Headmaster, but I’m now realizing that it makes sense. And I know it’s the basics, I’ve hunted those specific Earth Wolf-Beasts. They’re really simple, surprisingly.”

She gave him a skeptical look. “Uh huh. How do they have rock skin then?”

Immediately, Bennett answered, “It’s not actually rock skin, but more like their version of fur. They have a special organ that distributes oil around most parts of their body and when they absorb Earth Energy, it crystalizes. They produce the oil by eating lesser Earth Aligned creatures or plants where their Element is transferred-”

“Okay, I get the point, you know very well- wait, how do you know how they make it by eating things?” Their professor interrupted, clearly forgetting about the rest of the class.

“Er… there’s still the rest of the class-” Bennett started, gesturing to them, where most were watching with confused or bored expressions.

“I asked a question. Answer,” the professor suddenly said from directly in front of him.

Bennett nearly fell back, but stopped himself as Luna pulled herself back to her normal position, using his forearm as a seat while giving the Wolf-kin a stare. For a few moments, the Professor looked back at her before letting out yet another huff.

“Fine. We should get started anyways,” the Professor said. “First of all, you all are complete idiots. Only this student and his friend here jumped in to actually attempt to push the “Beast” back. How did you all even pass the Exam if you can’t even fight to save your life?”

Tyreese, who’s Lava Blade had finally finished forming, sighed before letting it cool down as he dropped it. “I tried… but I’m not the guy who keeps developing Skills out of nowhere.”

He deflated when the Professor, who didn’t seem very professor-like, glared at him.

“Doesn’t matter. You could’ve used another Skill. Anyways, I am your Beast Studies Professor, Hae. Professor Hae is what you’ll call me, got it?” Professor Hae said, hands on her hips as her glaive morphed into an armband.

Bennett noticed Luna looked at it with a strange expression, but shrugged as she looked at him. Luna gestured with a tentacle, wrapping it around his arm before straightening it out.

“Oh, you want to know what that is?” he asked her.

She shrugged, which he took as “I have a guess, but I want your explanation”. He suddenly frowned for a moment, noticing that he was completely confident in his interpretation, as if he had an idea of what she was feeling. He then shook his head.

Nah, I’m just trying to convince myself I do. “Most weapons with enchantments are like that. They’re usually able to warp like that and even change materials, like hers-”

“Oi! I’m the Professor here, not you!” the said Wolf-kin snapped.

***

Luna was a bit wary of the large Lightning Beast in the shape of a lion that was snuggled up next to Bennett, pressing its head into his chest while he pet it, letting out thunderous purrs as Bennett’s Lightning crackled over it’s fur, but once Bennett convinced her to pet it, she was very much fine with it and she’d even gotten on top of it, which Professor Hae had yelled at her for, but it was worth it.

Tyreese on the other hand…

“Why do all of them hate me?!” He complained. “Of course those two have the biggest thing acting like a kitten around them but half the things tried to bite my hand off!”

“Did you try looking for one that’s aligned to your Element?” Bennett asked him, lifting Luna off the top of the lion, to her slight annoyance.

As he placed her on the ground, he patted her head, not realizing that it was Luna and not the Lightning Lion. Against the primal urge to throw him across the grass, she let herself be pet, not making a noise. Naturally, two parts of her warred over this action, but, somehow, the human (Or Seaborn, she guessed) part of her won over the stubborn Goddess in her and she leaned into his hand, pleased. Tyreese gave her a flat expression before sighing.

“Of course I did! But they didn’t like me! And I sure as hell ain’t going near that flaming fairy thing,” he muttered, eyeing the literally flaming Spirit-like Beast (?) in the shape of a… strange thing that Luna couldn’t completely recall. It was a cross between an Imp and a Wisp, though she was very much confident it was not a fairy.

“I’m about 75% sure that’s a Flame Boon,” Bennett said, giving Tyreese a flat look. “I’m pretty sure that’s common knowledge, if you ever read A Intro to Beasts and their Siblings, which is literally required for any type of education and is in the first chapter-”

“Yeah, yeah, nerd. We all know you like anything Magical in nature,” Tyreese interrupted. “And don’t correct me if I said it wrong. That thing looks like it hates everyone around it.”

In Tyreese’s defense, every person who went near it basically got a second degree burn and Luna was already debating healing the last person who’d went near it and most likely got a third degree one. Bennett eyed the thing carefully, clearly planning on keeping a distance.

“Er… do you want to go help them, Lu?” Bennett asked, removing his hand from her head, to her internal disappointment. However, she nodded as he lifted her up, patting the lion again.

They approached the most recent person, who gladly accepted her Healing, which, seeing their satisfied expression as the pain fading away, reinforced Luna’s decision to pose as a Healer. After dealing with the last of the people who got burned, she noticed Bennett scoot slightly left as the Boon slowly began to approach him.

“I have a living water gun and I’m not afraid to use it,” Bennett muttered, earning a slap from Luna. Blowing his hair from his forehead, he shrugged. “If I asked, would you not?”

Damn it, he has a point, she thought, pouting while poking him with a tentacle.

“Quit flirting and pay attention to your surroundings!” their professor yelled at them, punching some sort of near-incorporeal bear into the ground as it attempted to attack another student.

“Man, this is chaotic,” Bennett mumbled, standing up and lifting her off his lap. “I thought this class would be more… like a class.”

Luna, at some level, agreed with him. After arriving and interrogating Bennett, their Professor had basically told them to get familiar with the beasts, and maybe befriend one. Of course, she hadn’t expected the most dangerous one to immediately sidle up to Bennettand begin purring like an atomic kitten. Because of this, she’d gotten in a bad mood and decided to insult Bennett every chance she got, and Bennett was clearly holding back as she had started to run out of ideas.

However, the part she didn’t agree with him on was that it wasn’t like a class. Being as old as she was, she knew that it was probably a good idea to get on good terms with any type of being, especially if you wanted to work with them, though that probably excluded most Gods.

Unless it’s Bennett, right? A small voice in Luna’s head said.

Her face slowly went red as she pushed the voice away, trying to not think about it. But of course, she did wonder what it would’ve been like if she weren’t like this and met Bennett.

Well, obviously, he’d have been terrified and would want nothing to do with me, She thought, shaking her head and resisting the urge to slap her cheeks, which she knew that Bennett would be unable to resist the urge to say was adorable.

Of course, this made her grow even more embarrassed and she nearly-

“By the gods, that thing is gonna burn me,” Bennett hissed, moving back more, almost crashing directly into their professor, stopping just in time.

She spun around and was about to complain when she saw the Boon speeding toward them and she sighed. “Seriously? Why are you always-”

“Oi!”

Tyreese, naturally appearing out of nowhere again, caught the thing out of the air and held it up to his face as it writhed in his grip, becoming an inferno of pure anger. Luna, who had already made a sheet of water in front of Bennett and her, slowly let it fall as she watched. Tyreese simply stared at the Boon as it grew even hotter.

“Really, annoying lady? I can take baths in volcanos and you think you’re gonna burn me?” Tyreese snorted. “Try again.”

Professor Hae blinked in mild confusion before shrugging. “Guess that problem solved itself. Don’t be stupid again,” she scolded Bennett, walking away toward another problem waiting to happen in the form of a bored Lightning Lioness staring at Bennett from afar.

Bennett and Luna watched Tyreese swing the Flame Boon around like a clock pendulum as it struggled for nearly a minute before finally giving up and letting him hold it. It then flickered angrily, shooting flames at his face.

Tyreese’s eyebrows rose. “Oh wow, this lady has some very colorful language,” he said.

Luna, who, being literally an amalgamation of elemental energy given sentience, understood everything the Boon said perfectly, had to keep herself from reacting at the sheer amounts of profanity it was throwing at Tyreese and everyone else in the near vicinity. It especially didn’t like Luna, since they were literal opposites.

(To be fair, Cthulhu didn’t like the Ancient Goddess of Flame and War, who’s name she’d definitely not purposely removed from memory many times. They’d always get into fights, destroying a few galaxies in the process, eventually having to be separated by the other Ancients, usually the Ancient God of Space, who was somehow weaker than Cthulhu, which she didn’t understand sometimes. Like seriously, he was a God of Space. Nigh infinity. How was she, a Goddess of Water (And Life, to be fair), stronger than literally everyone else there? Yes, she was about ten times older than them at the time, but she thought that even she had limits. Apparently, according to the Ancient Goddess of Earth (and Wisdom), Cthulhu had a much higher concentration of Elemental energy then any other God did and could, if she ever grew bored enough, could literally rip apart the multiverse and put it back together at will. That had completely baffled her back then.)

Luna blinked at the mental monologue, trying to make sense of the sudden memory.

Actually, that was less of a memory and more of the Cthulhu part of me waking up to comment, refuse to elaborate on the sudden awakening, and go back to sleep.

She shook her head as Bennett bent closer to the Boon, which promptly shot a line of fire at him that he dodged with ease.

She decided she’d think more about it after class.

~~~

Luna found herself in the dining hall, sitting on Bennett’s lap as she ate, as she was too short to sit on the bench properly. She faintly remembered the rest of the class, most of it being interesting to her, maybe except for the Boon that had nearly burnt her hair, which Bennett had to keep her from dousing the thing in a few dozen gallons of water. She could have done a few hundred thousand, but she felt that it would be a little bit unnecessary, along with completely giving away that she was leagues above the rest of the students, so she kept it to a minimum.

Well, I do like my hair, even if it’s a bit long at this point, almost to my feet.

She’d never really thought about it, and no one seemed to comment about it, but her hair was a strange shade of blue, sometimes shifting to be darker when she was annoyed, and shifting lighter when she was happy. Well, darker with more negative emotions and lighter with more positive emotions. She had also noticed that it would wildly shift when she was embarrassed, like when Bennett had touched the skin around her stomach earlier when picking her up, which was when he’d finally said something about her hair.

*“Did you know your hair changes colors sometimes?” he’d asked.

She’d shaken her head, a bit confused as she grabbed a handful of her own hair, which was currently in the process of growing a bit darker.

“You think it has something to do with your emotional state?”

She nodded, letting it go.

“Huh.”*

Nod.

That was basically the conversation, since they were both occupied with the lioness that was begging for attention.

Now, they were eating, Yelena next to Bennett and Tyreese also there, eating as much as he could.

Yelena poked her brother’s shoulder as he asked, “Hm?”

His sister blinked before shaking her head. “How’d you know I was going to ask something?”

“Twin Theory. Remember?” he responded, frowning as Luna pushed away the squid that he’d attempted to get a bit of, glaring at him. “What? It’s just squid- oh.”

Yelena rolled her eyes before continuing. “Right. Anyways, I invited a new… friend, I guess, to eat with us. She agreed. I just thought I should tell you.”

“Meaning you only just remembered now that you would tell me?” Bennett responded, taking a bit of salmon that Luna tried to steal from him, but he put it into his mouth too fast.

Yelena shrugged, going back to her food.

So, those two have Twin Theory? Makes sense to me, but I only recall snippets of what it is…

“You okay, Lu?” Bennett asked. “You look like you just ate squid or something-”

She interrupted him with a playful smack with a tentacle before gesturing to the two of them. For a few moments, he looked at her with a confused expression before understanding dawned on him.

“Oh, are you wondering what Twin Theory is?” He asked.

Firstly, how can I get you to stop reading my mind? She thought, frowning at him. As someone who’s used to doing that herself, it’s weird to have my own mind read… I also don’t know why I’m saying it’s mind reading. It’s really not. It’s more of-

“I think we lost her again,” Yelena said, interrupting Luna’s train of thought.

Luna blinked, looking at Yelena, who shrugged. “You had this blank look in your eyes and your hair started to become a muted blue, so I just assumed you lost interest.”

Luna shook her head and looked back at Bennett, who’d just stolen a piece of her salmon. In response, she grabbed his fork and pulled it into her mouth.

***

Yelena watched her twin interact with Luna, or whatever her name was, with a small sense of loneliness. She wasn’t sure when it started, but she was starting to feel more and more glum lately, and Ben knew through their bond. She could tell when he looked at her for a moment, concern evident in his expression before going back to struggling with Luna again.

He’s probably going to ask me about it later… she thought, her mood already starting to shift slightly upwards as she also snatched a piece of Luna’s salmon. A few seconds later, Ben and Yelena were both locked down with Luna’s tentacles wrapped around their wrists and waists and Luna very much pleased as she finished off what was left of her seafood, which she seemed to love, all except the squid, which Ben seemed to find funny.

One of Ben’s friends (apparently), Tyreese, snorted at the sight of Ben completely made immobile.

“Really? You’re acting like you couldn’t escape in a second and throw her over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes,” he snorted.

Ben shrugged, looking down at Luna who was now attempting to eat his food. “Hey!”

He nearly instantly, with a flash of lightning, untangled himself from Luna and lifted his plate off the table. “Nuh uh, this is mine. There’s still plenty of food around us-”

Yelena slowly looked in another direction, holding back a laugh at their display, scanning their surroundings.

She then noticed a familiar pair of horns sticking into the air nearby.

“Hey, my friend’s here,” she said to Bennett. “She’s part of my party, so you better be nice, Ben.”

He was too occupied shoveling food into his mouth, dodging Luna’s tentacle’s while being cheered on by Tyreese. At a certain point, an annoyed looking girl nearly as tall as Bennett, who’s name she remembered being Mia, slapped Tyreese on the back of the head before wrapping around the table and sitting in front of him, rolling her eyes at Luna and Bennett before pulling food onto her own plate, strangely avoiding meats while also eyeing them longingly.

Eventually, Juli made it to their table and stopped, looking slightly concerned, but otherwise emotionless.

“Hey, Juli! You made it!” Yelena said, waving to her.

The moment Bennett heard the name “Juli”, he nearly choked on the water he was now chugging, and Luna quickly put her hand to his neck, stopping the choking immediately. After thanking Luna, he looked between Juli and Yelena, concern evident on his face.

“I did not expect that reaction,” his sister mumbled. “Have you two met already?”

Judging from the slight panic emanating from Bennett, they had definitely met before. “Er…”

“No. I’ve never seen this boy in my life,” Juli answered, very much unconvincingly.

Tyreese stared at her. “I’ve never heard a lie so bad,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“I hate to say it, but I agree with you,” Mia mumbled.

Juli looked slightly miffed as she sat down in front of Yelena, who saw Bennett give Juli a wary look before watching Luna stuff herself, which she had already done, and immediately almost fall asleep on his lap.

He looked at her, concerned for a moment before shrugging and looking up at his sister.

“She’s part of your group?” Bennett asked. “I would have never thought- actually, based on my luck the past three days, I should have.” He interrupted himself, looking at Juli with a slightly judgemental look.

Juli ignored him, instead eating her own food with a faraway look in her expression.

This… didn’t go as expected. I thought they’d get along well enough, Yelena thought. But it seems more like they despise one another.

Suddenly, Bennett spoke again, awakening Luna from what seemed like the dead. “Oh hey, there’s pudding!”

Luna immediately sat up straight, looking at the bowl of pudding that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He pulled two bowls from the table and gave the both of them a generous amount before offering the bowl to his sister.

Eh. It can’t be that big of a deal, she thought, taking the bowl while watching Luna eat her pudding and various other sweets with vigor. By the way, how the hell is she able to eat so much?

***

Luna already regretted eating so much, as she was completely and utterly immobile, requiring Bennett to carry her back to the dorms… which was completely normal now that she thought about it.

“You good back there, Lu?” Bennett asked as they finally arrived back at the dorms.

She let out a noise of slight despair and he laughed. “Again, I told you not to eat too much. You still have your second class in an hour and a half; you’re lucky we ate quickly.”

She let out another noise as he set her onto the bean-bag looking chair that she sank into like it was some sort of weight being placed on a balloon. She sighed and curled up in the thing for a few moments while Bennett seemed to walk around aimlessly before sitting down somewhere next to her. After resting for a little while, she opened an eye to see him reading a book called…

Wait… that's an ancient script. It was the written language of the… what were they called? She thought for a moment, trying to dredge up memories from the endless abyss that was her mind. Right, the Aracne or Silk Weavers. It never really had a name, did it? It was also the language of Blood Aracne, or Blood Weavers…

(They… were formidable, even to me. Once they get to a certain stage in life, their chitin exoskeleton is nigh impossible to break by any conventional means, needing ridiculous force or an enhanced weapon. Of course, I could easily smash through them. But the bigger problem is their pure physical strength. Females… well they’re not much stronger than male Silk Weavers, but the males are where the problems begin. They are overwhelmingly strong, overpowering even century old Dragonborn at 25. Their carapace doesn’t help either, as it just lets them hit even harder with next to no damage dealt to themselves. Complete and utter bullshit.)

Luna stared into the air as the sudden voice disappeared just like earlier.

“Huh,” Bennett mumbled. “Guess you do learn something new every day.” He glanced over to Luna, who stared at him strangely. “Oh, yeah, I taught myself this script in my freetime. I can even write it! It took about a year and a half though to get anywhere near good enough to be passable. Not many people know it, and my sister didn’t think it was worth it. Do you know any?”

Honestly, I do and I somehow don’t remember how.

She, all of a sudden not tired, crawled onto his lap to look at the book herself. He looked a bit surprised, but let her sit there and read the page he was on. He was in a chapter about the Weavers and their biology.

“I guess you do… that’s cool! It’s a book only the two of us can read… and maybe Mia, seeing as she’s someone who seems like she’d know it for some strange reason,” he said, not weirded out in the slightest. “I’m sure she’d find it weird that you know it, but I’m used to you doing strange things, somehow. Like this, how you just crawled under my arm and into my lap to read this.”

Luna felt her face heat up and she let out a huff as she poked the book. Bennett laughed, something she’d grown to somewhat like over the past month, and looked at the book.

“Anyways, right here-” he pointed to a certain excerpt. “Explains that unlike what most people may think about their spinnerets, they’re actually at their hips, not their wrists, since they mostly use their other “legs” to manipulate them. It’s almost like your extra “arms”, but they’re shorter, though longer than their normal arms, and exceptionally strong-”

Bennett suddenly went quiet, thinking. Then he spoke again. “Oh. I never actually told you what this is about, did I?”

***

Melony wasn’t having the greatest of days. Firstly, the damned child, also known as Reah, had slipped out of her grasp, and, on top of that, she had to deal with two completely different classes, both with disrespectful students. Of course, she hadn’t been in her second class yet, but she was very sure that would be the gist of it.

However, she was currently slowly eating the food that had absolutely nothing on her son’s (naturally), while staring at her lesson plan for the Ice Focus she had to teach. She already knew that they would probably be all full of themselves, so she needed a way to humble them utterly and completely.

Melony, in a fashion very similar to when Yelena would watch her brother carefully, waiting for a moment to catch him off guard, mused on what ways she would humble them, eventually settling on putting the headmaster in a block of ice and showing off her ability…

Maybe that’s not such a good idea. Hmm, back to the drawing board it is then! She thought, a bit glumly.

As time went on, Melony was more easily able to see what personality traits her twins had gotten from her. For instance, her son was normally calm and happy, but he would never sit aside when someone around him looked like they were in pain. It had gotten him into multiple fights, most of which ended with him simply staring down his opponent with a cold stare that he had most definitely gotten from her. It was slightly off-putting to see such a look on his face, where it was most prominent whenever a noble was mentioned in a conversation and he wasn’t around his sister. She knew he’d seen what nobles in power did to people below them, seeing as Melony was a victim of it herself.

Yelena, however, was as bubbly as one could get, though she did have some very prominent mood swings, literally like a switch being flipped. You never knew what could piss her off (unless you were Bennett, of course). It was part of the reason she was one level above her brother, even though she had less experience than him in the wild. Of course, she most likely got it from her mother, who would probably get angry at anyone but her children at a moment’s notice.

Being a mother and horribly overleveled person at the same time is difficult… mostly the mother part. You can’t ever stop worrying, even when you know they’ll be okay.

Melony sighed, looking at the roof. “At this point, they probably know the truth… other than the fact that I’m teaching here. They would never recognise me in this… though to be fair, Illusion spells are quite good, especially mine-”

There was a knock on the classroom door and she quickly got out of her lounging position as it opened, revealing the headmaster, followed by a student, at least as far as Melony could tell.

“Ah, Ms. Leona, you are here,” he said, bowing his head slightly, to the student’s confusion. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

Melony frowned at the man, wondering whatever he could possibly ask her that wouldn’t make her throw him into the ocean later. “Depends on the favor.”

He looked like he wanted to sigh, but held it back as the boy behind him gave Melony a strange look. “Illusion spells? But they’re so strong…”

Melony immediately reinforced the spell with another two percent of her MP a second, though it was already straining her regen of 8% per second, which was completely insane, even for someone her Level, however, her equipment probably had 3% a second alone-

“-eona, have you spaced out again?” the headmaster repeated, giving her a flat look.

Melony blinked. “Ah. What was that again?” she said as if she hadn’t intentionally ignored him.

He was silent for a moment before continuing. “As I said, I wish for you to train this boy in a very specific art of Illusions… well, if it would truly be considered that…”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Which one?”

“Nightmare Summoning.”

She looked at him for a few seconds, which was already concerning as she could think many times faster than even Reah Justyce when she was in her Avatar and using her Skill that let her move faster than sound and increased her perception by some unholy amount. After finally debating, she spoked.

“Leave this room, child.”

The student looked slightly taken aback, but the Headmaster let out a sigh and led him to the door before closing it and looking at her again.

“Melony, look-”

“No. What the hell is wrong with you to be trying to make me teach the most dangerous form of Illusions to a student?” She hissed, staring at him coldly.

He let out a sigh. “He’s in his third year and has a talent for it-”

“He has a talent for creating unspeakable horrors? A talent for torturing a person’s mind? Explain to me what this has to do with your so-called ‘vision’ for this school that you started.”

He clenched his jaw. “Don’t test me, Melony.”

She laughed coldly. “Oh I’ll test you. We can take this to another planet and I’ll show you how much I can test you.”

He was silent.

“This better not be about some stupid war far below us. You shouldn’t even care about this war. We both are strong enough to crush them with our bare hands.”

“You are. You’ve reached Archon, haven’t you?”

“Reached? I’m well into Archon, aren’t you?” Melony asked in confusion. “Did you not take the Opportunity?”

“...”

Melony shook her head. “Of course. ‘The risks are too great,’ you would say. I spent nearly a thousand years there, y’know. It’s a hundred to one dilation.”

“Mmm. I know that. It’s ten years out here, but a thousand in there. Yet, you came back and all but disappeared until the Exams. It sent out a request, but you intercepted it, didn’t you? And then you somehow ended up all the way in the ocean. How?”

Shit. I can’t tell him about Luna… or whatever her name is, since her name is definitely not that. She’s at least the power of a Demigod, seeing as a casual backhand with a tentacle made me break the sound barrier four times over. But… I don’t think even she knows her actual strength, seeing as she was clearly more worried about Bennett than getting me away…

Some expression flitted across her face as she thought.

“The damned Prophecy, huh?” she muttered. “Of course…”

“Prophecy? What are you-?”

“There was a ‘Prophecy’ that was told about while I was in the Opportunity. About an ancient God that would awaken and cause mass destruction if the one they cherish were to fail their destiny and perish. It’s a bit ominous.”

“And you think this ‘God’ has awakened?” the Headmaster asked nervously.

“Yes. And I believe that I have already met this Goddess,” she responded, rubbing her chin. “I didn’t care to learn the whole thing, but I think there may be more info about it somewhere in the library.”

“Where do you think this God is now?”

“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you.”

“... I must leave now. This could be a huge problem later in the future. Additionally, you have a class coming up so I should leave you to set up.”

Before Melony could say anything else, he quickly left the room, at a speed no one but her eyes could keep up with.

…Ah, Bennett and Yelena also excel at diverting conversations quite well. Guess they got that from me as well, she thought smugly, with a small grin to match.