What is this pain? My hands feel slashed open, my lower back aches… I remember. I was in the Garden of Black Roses when I opened the book. It looked like an ordinary fact book, so why did it glow? And why did I hear the words "Wandering Artifact"?
I only know two types: ordinary ones that higher-level students use, and ancient ones that are unusable.
He opened his eyes. His ruby pupils looked up from below, observing the hole in the building's roof. The moon hung in the breach of the ceiling, unnaturally large and bright. Its light wasn't just illumination—it seemed thick, almost physical, saturated with a quiet magical force that made his skin tingle. "It's different… My gut tells me something is wrong, but my thoughts insist, 'Everything is fine,'" Ernst noted doubtfully to himself.
Waking after the magical overload, he stood up, habitually brushing dust from his cadet uniform—deep black with silver accents. The movement was automatic, honed at Luke Academy. He instinctively reached his hands toward the moonlight, letting his long ash-colored hair spill over his shoulders. "Light like this… dark mages would grow stronger," a troubling thought flashed through his mind.
"But still, where am I? This doesn't look like Luke Academy, not even like Patrice's library… What happened? Where have I ended up?" Lowering his hands, he began to circle the wreckage and picked up the very book he'd found in Patrice's library, the cause of his journey to another world. "There's something about this book," he thought, watching as its appearance changed. The cover was now black with silver inlay and a lapis lazuli stone in the center, and the pages had taken on a blue-green turquoise hue.
"'The Book of Nemesis'… Named after the goddess from mythology?" Ernst stowed it in his small academy cadet pouch. And at that very moment, the door to the auditorium slammed open. Ernst decided to hide. "Someone's here. This place looked abandoned… Maybe there's someone in charge? Or just a guard?"
"WHO'S THERE?!" bellowed the headmaster, spinning a staff in his hand with a grip resembling that of a sword.
The elder walked to the center, inspecting the debris.
Just as he looked the other way, Ernst headed for the staircase. He almost managed to escape, but the old floorboards creaked, and in the night's silence, the sound echoed three times louder than usual.
"Fireball!" the headmaster shouted, launching a concentrated ball of flame.
Ernst instinctively took three steps to the side, stepped onto a higher stair, and dodged the fireball's trajectory. His glasses fogged up instantly.
"Hey, old man! What about the preludes? Where's the banter with your opponent before an attack?" Ernst protested.
"What preludes? You're on enemy territory right now!" the old man retorted, simultaneously making a slashing motion reminiscent of a sword strike, accelerating a new fireball. Again, on pure instinct, Ernst fell backward to avoid the blow. "I need to provoke him into using ice attacks. By reading his magical channels, I can feel he's capable of using all four elements," Ernst thought as he circled the headmaster. "As a last resort, earth magic. That would be a plus for me, since I could slow the flight by stopping time for objects…" Ernst smirked. "It's funny, really. My entire weak magic of stopping time for small objects might help. But how do I provoke this old man?" Ernst's thoughts were interrupted.
"Three homing fire whips!" Very thin, highly compressed tendrils of flame shot toward Ernst. He accelerated to ensure they wouldn't even touch him.
"Lucky they don't track continuously," Ernst thought, using a fraction of a second to wipe his glasses.
Now he could see the man and his attire clearly.
"I'm curious, are you the headmaster of this academy?" Ernst tried to feel out the possibility for conversation.
"This is the Academy of Barna—the hero who saved our nation in the year 300!" hissed the headmaster. "But someone like you wouldn't understand what a national treasure means! Fire Magic: 'Spiral of the Fire Star'!" Five fire stars began to rotate, forming a rapidly expanding spiral.
"Old man, I think you need to cool off!" Ernst pulled a small thermos from his pouch and hurled it into one of the stars. Using the resulting steam cloud, he dangerously closed the distance to the headmaster, attempting to strike his neck with the edge of his palm.
"He moved! For the first time, a refined mage of headmaster level took a step aside!" Ernst grinned.
"I've got more of those!" Ernst bluffed, knowing it was a low blow, but the headmaster showed no desire for conversation.
"You said 'cool off'? As I recall… Fine, you asked for it," the headmaster cooled slightly and began preparing a wind magic spell. "Wind Magic: 'Cluster of a Hundred Bullets'!" The wind took the form of hundreds of tiny pellets, all flying at Ernst at once. He realized he'd provoked him, but the headmaster, though cooled off, wasn't using what he needed. Ernst tossed up one of the tables as a shield but still received a through-and-through wound to his palm.
"YOU SON OF A—!" Ernst shouted, feeling the sharp pain. His thoughts scrambled from the shock.
"I should have studied healing magic when I had the chance at Luke Academy…" he hissed through the pain in a whisper. This made the headmaster wonder who stood before him.
The headmaster's thoughts: "Tonight was quiet, but while on patrol, I heard a distant explosion. The roof of Barna Hall was breached. I ran to my office for my staff—I usually manage without it, being a court-level mage, but someone dared destroy the roof! That enraged me. In the hall, I saw no one, only debris. But hearing a creak, I used a basic fire spell. I dominated the fight, but this boy never used magic. I thought he was just an intruder. But when he mentioned Luke Academy… What academy is that? I know all the world's academies—you can count them on your fingers—but Luke Academy isn't among them. That intrigued me. Especially after he managed to move me without magic. The kid is talented, but too arrogant and prone to emotion, even if he looks like an analyst. And what is this strange sensation coming from his pouch? I think I shouldn't let my guard down."
Overcoming the pain, Ernst tried to grab a few small objects: three splinters and a small stone. He threw the splinters, spinning them hard, and they stopped in the air one after another, forming a sort of corridor. Then he threw the stone, accelerating it with inertia. The stone flew right past the headmaster's ear.
"Darn, I'm almost out of magic…"
The headmaster's cold reason had already deduced that Ernst wielded non-elemental magic, but he knew nothing more. Seeing the halted movement and hearing the boy say he was almost out of magic, he decided enough was enough.
"Ice Arrow!" He understood: this youth was the cause of the destruction, an unknown intruder, and not to be trusted.
"Three ice arrows!" The headmaster wanted to kill him instantly, without torture.
Ernst smiled the smile of a player sensing victory.
"Time, stop!" The three ice spikes halted half a millimeter from his chest.
Furious, the headmaster began gathering magic from all four elements, but Ernst had already placed the stone between two frozen arrows, accelerating it to the speed of sound. The stone pierced the mage's palm.
"It worked!" Ernst thought.
"I returned the favor!" Ernst sprinted upstairs.
Emerging onto one of the upper tiers, he cast a quick glance through a panoramic window. The sight was mesmerizing: the academy's protective dome, once monolithic and unshakable, was now disintegrating. Huge magical fragments slowly settled downward, resembling pieces of a giant puzzle that no longer wanted to form a single picture.
Ernst continued running through the dark corridors. His breathing grew labored, but he skillfully navigated between the shadows, dodging patrols. The black uniform of Luke Academy blended perfectly with the nocturnal gloom, turning him into a barely noticeable silhouette.
Turning another corner, he abruptly stopped. From both sides, cutting off escape routes, guards with magical lanterns advanced confidently toward him. There was no choice left. Ernst glanced at the window at the end of the corridor—precisely where the density of the falling barrier "puzzle" was at its minimum.
"So be it…" he hissed.
Taking a running start, Ernst leaped through the window, breaking through the remnants of the energy net. The wind hit his face, and a second later, he was tumbling across the soft grass outside the academy. Without looking back at the grandeur of the destroyed Barna Hall, he vanished into the dense thicket of the forest.