Cardinal: God Spell

Standing at 5 foot 8, sporting a relatively thin build, boasting a head of flowing white hair held up in a ponytail, bearing a pair of dull silver eyes and soft cream skin that seemed as well-aged as the black robes the old man wore- Principal Elijah Momonga of the Interstellar magic academy was a man who bore profound prestige and carried himself as such, taking pride in his reputation of wisdom and benevolence.

He couldn't help but feel profound disappointment in himself, for choosing to put faith in such an arrogant brat who dared write his master off as a nobody. "Perhaps I was too Lax when dealing with you Seb", Principal Momonga thought out loud before suddenly appearing in the air in front of Sebastian and striking his Solar plexus with one sharp motion.

Sebastian's pupils dilated and disappeared as he lost consciousness, with the wings on his back dissipating as he dropped from the sky crashing a few yards away from Lima in the 50-foot-deep pit. Momonga appeared over the two unconscious students with a frown plastered on his face as regardless of disappointment, nobody liked hitting their students. The only possible exception to this would be an abuser or possibly someone with genuine ideological deficiencies. "This match is over, the winner is confirmed to be Sebastian Salvatore and as is his right he will be given the final pass to the Divine Tower", Momonga started.

"With that being said... We of the Interstellar Academy have no tolerance for abuse of the magical prowess we help you to develop", he continued in a stern tone, "As punishment for reckless endangerment of the student body as well as attempting to execute a beaten student... Sebastian Salvatore will be thrown in the disciplinary hall for 5 months and will have his elemental cores temporarily crippled down to the basic level", Momonga pressed on. Despite his tone and pacing never changing the gravity of his words grew as he continued to speak.

"Due to his inability to adequately represent the academy during the tenure of the Interstellar Magic academy any student will be able to challenge him for the next month freely and without restraint... should Sebastian keep his Trial pass for the next month he will be made free and have his charges dropped without hesitation or further consequence", Momonga finished off before disappearing with the unconscious bodies of both Sebastian and Lima. 

Sora remained silent as he witnessed Momonga's might resolving himself internally. Momonga was the final mage of this era who stood true to the standards of the old era- As such he swore that once he had surpassed Sebastian in strength he would set the Principal of the Academy as his next immediate goal to surpass. After all, even in the old era, it wasn't every day you came face to face with a bonafide Magic Sage.

This was someone who stood at the pinnacle of modern Human magic, an 8th-tier mage who was just below the level of those who formed the Ice Cap that currently protected humanity, the closest humanity came to matching the power of the other races without actually doing so. That was the kind of existence Principal Momonga was- It didn't matter that he was only an Entry Level sage with only 1 assimilated star, most people go their entire lives without getting half as far.

The final list of Pass holders was announced once more for the school to hear as they would be given a week where they were exempt from duels and challenges before the month-long open challenge on them would start. They would have to sleep with one eye open and meditate in whatever time they could to restore their mana, especially if they didn't leave a lasting enough impression to dissuade people from trying their luck with them in particular.

Sora left the stadium and waited next to his return bus before Momonga appeared before him out of seemingly nowhere, but as someone who had become vaguely accustomed to high speed, Sora realised that Momonga was using raw physical speed to move as quickly as he was, something that made him step back twice with a cautionary gaze. "Follow me brat", Momonga ordered after scanning his face passively, just for Sora to immediately turn around and take off in the opposite direction using his Thunder stride: Dash.

Since he overclocked himself this time Sora reckoned that he had at least put some distance between himself and the old man, reasoning that there would be no good reason to chase after some random first year if it wasn't important. If Momonga came after him specifically he would use that as a gauge of how attentive he would be, or at least how attentive he would have been if Momonga wasn't already hovering in his blind spot waiting for Sora to stop.

As soon as Sora stopped moving, Momonga struck the back of the boy's neck as he had done with Sebastian, knocking him out the same way before catching Sora's falling body and disappearing. Momonga brought Sora to the medical ward where an unconscious Mu Lima was being treated before he looked over to Yagi Takada and dropped Sora's unconscious Body. "You were right about this boy being able to use Lightning magic and fire magic despite being a basic mage", Momonga stated clearly, "What you failed to inform me of was the fact that this was a genuine double awakening Takada", Momonga carried on with his words having the same impact as before.

"Why should I keep you around if you insist on being a thorn in my side with your needless meddling in Political affairs", Momonga stated more than he asked, "Save your party tricks... We both know they don't work on me", Takada responded dismissively before getting to the point, "Besides, I failed to mention it so that when you realised it yourself you would that I have truly produced a gem for you with my efforts". "What makes you think this brat is the Scholar himself and not some random clan genius he trained back in the day", Momonga asked incredulously.

"Stop fucking around Momonga!!!", Takada demanded as he punched the wall in annoyance, blowing a hole clean through it, "You know my source can't be wrong no matter how much the big guy messes around, so stop dragging this out and remove your fucking restriction already", Takada ordered in annoyance as he slowly retracted and unclenched his fist.

"Acting out won't get you anywhere Takada, slowly live out the sentence our boss gave you and you will eventually regain your strength, mindless meddling will eventually come back to bite you later so collect yourself", Momonga sighed with pity in his eyes before turning to the still unconscious Sora. "As far as this boy is concerned I decided on how to handle him a long time ago, so long as you are right and he ends up being the scholar then everything will go according to plan and we will be able to move onto phase 2", Momonga said before disappearing with Sora once more.

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One Week had passed since the sentence of Sebastian Salvatore and the subsequent disappearance of Sora, with no reports being passed on either of the incidents the student body began preparing for the month-long period of conflict known as the challenge month, after all defeating one of the candidates didn't mean you were home free, quite the opposite actually, it meant that the target on their backs would immediately be switched to yours and that you too would now know the life of a celebrity with how people would stalk you down one way or another to challenge you.

As for the boy in question, Sora currently sat in the principal of the academy's office after his week-long disappearance. He had a concerned look on his face as he wondered if his strategy for the month would work in his favour, he was a strong first-year who showed promise, but that didn't change the fact that he was the weakest of the 5 candidates on paper and as a result the easiest target. Following his interaction with Principal Momonga the previous week, he was held for a day before he was released to spend the past 6 days preparing for the start of the challenge month.

Realising his desperate need for resources he stated verbatim that he would teach Sebastian and Mu Lima how to properly cast magic if the principal permitted him to keep training in the special Arena for the week until the challenge, Momonga accepted on the instant that he taught to a teacher instead of those two so that the school would be able to benefit from the knowledge long-term and Sora begrudgingly accepted.

He then spent the entire first day refining his cultivation process, now that he had completed his basic Mana core and perfected his basic fire elemental core was complete he needed 80 more stars to perfect his basic Lightning elemental core. However, because he only needed to improve lightning this time he was able to improve at a much faster rate than even previously projected, especially since there weren't hundreds of other students also meditating and lowering the quality of mana he was refining.

All in All, Sora's speed of star-making went from 1 star every 8 hours or 10 a week, straight up to 5 stars every 2 hours or in this case, In only 1 week he had the potential to form 420 stars in total. Unfortunately, that would be if he only cultivated for every waking second of the week which was advised or realistic. He needs to practice casting making, work out, strategise, and rest well to prepare for the next month where he would get practically none. Sora ended up getting in 10 hours of cultivation daily, accumulating to 80 hours yesterday, plus the extra 4 hours he got earlier today, adding up to a whopping 210 stars in total over the past week.

Sora then used 80 of his 210 stars to perfect his basic Lightning elemental core, leaving him with 130 stars left over from his previous meditation session. Sora wasted no time spending an extra 10 stars to upgrade his Mana Core from a basic Mana core to an Intermediate Mana core, making Sora an entry-level intermediate mage. The reason Sora had to stop cultivating earlier was to give himself time to awaken his next two elements, the Ice and Space elements respectively. 

As he sat now in Principal Momonga's office he saw two paths forward for himself. He could invest his stars in his intermediate mana core and gain the advantage of more energy than anyone in his year as well as most people in the second year, or he could invest stars in one of his new elements to give himself a secrete trump card for the upcoming month that people would have to be cautious of.

He was tempted by both but balanced them out with cons in his head while having more mana was good, there was every chance he would simply get overrun by challenges from second years and eventually run out of mana. While the latter would give him a secret trump card, but one that he both hand practised properly, hadn't developed any Sage Series Magic for, and hadn't mastered the manual casting for, especially with spells as complex as Ice and Space magic.

Sora considered it and chose so save his new elements for the divine tower trial itself, he had a working plan that he was confident in and refused to compromise that because of the potential of a new trump card, besides, he was much too weak to defend himself against the stronger students and staff at the moment and doubted that an intermediate mage with 3 elements would raise eyebrows. At least when he developed his intermediate mana core he could have an excuse for being able to use Lightning Magic against Xiao Fiefie in the finals of the Divine Tower Trial.