66. Bow down to the Heavens!

I ran, ran between blue, pink, orange cactuses. I ran, fell into crevasses, got up, got lost, then finally realized one thing: running didn’t help me calm down at all. Probably because it didn’t make me tired in the least.

So, when I reached the cliffs that surrounded the island, I sat down and gazed at the blue sea for a long time. It was soothing. It was beautiful. It was…

Wait, was it me or was my core working slower than before? Was I running out of energy? In a way, maybe it was a good thing, since that would mean that the Heavenly Storm lifeforce had completely disappeared and that I wouldn’t have to refrain myself anymore. But…

A surge of energy went my way, and a voice whispered in my head:

‘Armen?’

I sprang to my feet.

“Ray! Where are you?”

‘On my way back to the academy. What are you doing by yourself? Did something happen?’

“… Nah. Not really.”

‘You were running low on energy, so I recharged you.’

“Wow. Like a cellphone?”

‘N-No! That wasn’t the right word—’

“How did you do in the race?” I cut him off, amused, as I began to walk along the cliff.

‘Ah… Well. When I arrived with my teammate, there weren’t any rewards left. Not that I need them, anyway. I’m entering the academy, just now. Say… You do know the way back to the academy, right? You didn’t get lost?’

“I just have to follow the cliff, anyway, and I’ll get around the island.”

‘So you did get lost.’

“……… Er… Hello? Hello? I can’t hear you, master. Oh my, it seems that there’s a problem of telecommunication—”

‘There’s not. Our bond is working just fine.’

“I can’t hear ya. I’m gonna hang up.”

‘You’re not even using a cellphone. What are you playing at? Bah, do your bes—I mean, may you find your way back before dusk.’

His weird rephrasing to avoid imperatives made me snort with laughter.

“May you rest and replenish your energies, master. Yours faithfully. Armen Moon.”

‘Now it’s a letter?!’

I laughed.

* * *

It was dusk when I finally reached the academy. As I passed the gates, the fox assistant with the black tail recognized me and greeted me.

“Sorry, what was your name again?”

“Oh, Armen Moon, and you?”

As I saw him check my name on a form, I noticed there was a good number of people that had still not made their way back. He answered:

“I’m Robert the Black Fox. People call me Rofox. Did you already get your things from the main building? If you didn’t, please do. Also, every trainee is allowed to go to the refectory, there, to eat diner or get the food and cook at your house, do as you wish. Good night.”

When I entered the main building of the academy, I searched for someone susceptible to give me directions, but the interior seemed empty. There was a magnificent statue of a flying phoenix at the end of the great hall, and hanging against the walls, I saw a bunch of group photos of past promotions. From what I had read, there was a special branch in the Phoenix Academy where regular students studied to become engineers specialized in building earthquake-resistant structures. The ever-moving Phoenix Island was undeniably a good place to test their skills.

I looked up at the ceiling as I kept walking. It was as white as milk, as were the walls. Beyond the hall, the corridor was barely illuminated. I was hesitating to go further, wondering what I could do, when I heard footsteps and a harsh voice calling out to me in Common Language:

“Trainee! What are you doing in here?”

A brawny man in a monkish, clear tunic was striding along the great hall. He was… a trainer, right? I couldn’t remember his name.

“Er… Sinior. My bag?”

I managed to say all that in Common Language. My manners made the trainer frown, but he waved me to follow him. He led me into a room and switched on the lights. The inside was nearly empty. I saw my bag and my violin’s case in a corner. It would seem I was the last one to take back my belongings. As I went to retrieve them, the monk trainer said something that I couldn’t catch.

“Er…” I put my bag on my shoulders and passed the violin’s case across my chest. Under the trainer’s increasingly frowned brows, I confessed awkwardly: “Sorry, sir, I don’t understand.”

He shook his head with irritation and clicked his tongue, then put a sheet before my eyes. It had my name and picture on it. Oh, was it some document I had to sign to officially become a trainee? The instructor indicated his cheek without a word. Was he telling me to put away my mask to confirm I was really Armen Moon? Well… I doubted I would be at risk if it was just for a moment.

I took off my mask and put it back as soon as he nodded. Good. As I skimmed through the text in Common Language, I remembered Zeeta had once told me: ‘do not sign anything before you understand it all!’ Ray had told me the same thing on one occasion. But they both had probably signed their own document already, so… I borrowed the trainer’s pen, thanking him as I took care not to touch him, and I signed.

The trainer babbled something. I could only catch two or three words, but from his tone, I knew what he was thinking: that a guy who couldn’t even speak the Common Language had nothing to do at their elite training, that I would soon regret coming here. I caught the contemptible look he threw at my violin. That pissed me off even more. Was he thinking I had come here to relax and play music? Well, and what if I had? Couldn’t Heroes be musicians?

Despite my bad mood, I said nothing, made a curt nod, and left the main building.

Almost all the houses for the trainees were flying on the orange crystal wings around the main building. The stairs that led to them were all escalators, stairs that moved in a single direction. And they moved quite fast. I ascended on the main escalator and soon arrived at a covered circular platform about five meters wide. From there, five staircases went up in different directions… I looked at each of them and paused.

Which house was it again? Since I had gone into Ray’s house unconscious and left in a hurry to attend the gathering, I hadn’t paid attention to the building’s exterior. Crap. I should have asked Ray.

I randomly chose an escalator to climb, thinking: Well, I have no badge to lose, so it’s all right if I knock on the wrong door, right?

Or maybe not. I would rather not have to deal with strangers right now, especially with the elite trainees. I had seen that glint, in the eyes of some of them, that reminded me too vividly of the Tiger Clan gangsters. Like my mom used to say: ‘Be it big or small, a shark is always looking out for prey.’

I reached the next platform and stopped, frowning.

I knew human nature. I was used to dealing with gangsters. True, those trainees were supposed to become figures of Justice and Good in the future but… I only had to remember there were people like Axel Sunclaw among them to know that quite a few trainees wouldn’t hesitate to play dirty, not even for a second.

I couldn’t afford to fall in their grasp.

“Straw Head? What are you just standing there for?”

Startled but relieved, I turned to Zeeta, as he was going up the escalator accompanied by the heavenly girl, and maybe some other guys hidden behind her massive body. My friend leaped over the last step of the stairs and landed before me, quizzical.

“Zeeta! I don’t know how to go back home!”

Zeeta widened his eyes… then burst out laughing.

“You sounded like a lost child just now! Hahaha! Boss!” he added, turning to the heavenly girl that was heavily stepping out of the escalator. “Can I show this kid the way back home?”

“This kid…? Who is he?” Cesarine asked.

I couldn’t help but see her walk forward as if she was some kind of Angel of Death. Standing, she was huge, over two meters tall. I instinctively took some steps backwards on the circular platform as I pointed at my mask.

“Sorry, I’m allergic to sponges cactuses. I’m the one who landed on your back yesterday. You know, on the beach, when you were doing push-ups.”

Her golden tail stopped flapping the air as her fox ears rose.

“Oh! I remember. The blond who passed out! Are you feeling better?”

She was being so kind that I was having a hard time keeping in mind that she was a walking poison to me. I grinned under my mask.

“I am. Thanks.”

My smile disappeared when I noticed the presence of Mackenzie, the kid in the lab coat. The four-armed Charles-Ping wasn’t there, but a sun-glassed woman in a suit was bodyguarding the princess instead. Who was the heavenly girl, really? Not even the Sunclaw had brought along their bodyguards. And she had three of them, at that.

“A… A…”

I looked at her, puzzled. A?

“Aston, was it?”

“… Oh, let me introduce myself again. I’m Armen Moon.”

“Armen, right!” She smiled. “I’m Cesarine Lovecryce. Though you surely knew it already. Everyone knows me.”

I blinked. Lovecryce? It rang a bell. Then my eyes grew wide.

“The Nyomin’s director! Are you the Nyomin’s director?!”

Everyone stared at me in shock. Zeeta hit his own face with his palm. The woman in a suit suddenly lunged at me, grabbed me by the neck, and made me bow very deeply, hissing:

“Bow down to the miss, kid. I was wondering who you were, acting so uppity, but it turns out you are nothing but an ignorant nitwit. Indie trainees…” she spitted out. “What a let-down.”

I could hardly hear her. My core was racing, my whole body was shaking with life-lust. Some maybe thought I was afraid, but in truth, I was eating. And, Holy Gods, it was so good. Even a random person’s lifeforce could be so good…!

I had to stop. I had to stop or Ray would be worried sick. My body intoxicated with Heavenly Storm lifeforce wouldn’t be able to stand it. I had to stop in order to survive. However, my body wasn’t responding to my commands. The instincts of a Fury were so damn strong! All I could do was stop myself from grabbing the bodyguard to increase the incoming flow…

I heard a crack.

“Let go of him!”

The lifeforce suddenly stopped being absorbed. Why?

Zeeta. He had punched the bodyguard in a suit and made her fall back. I couldn’t believe it.

“Zeeta!” I panted. “W-Wait—!”

“No one can touch the Straw Head!” Zeeta roared. His eyes were glowering, his fists were trembling. “Straw Head, run!”

Staying there was a bad idea, but I couldn’t possibly let Zeeta alone, could I? The woman in a suit had lost her sunglasses. She wiped off the blood from her lips and grunted:

“Now you’ve done it, you fools…!”

She charged at Zeeta. Much faster than I expected. I had intended to make her eyes shut, but she was so fast that I couldn’t do anything with my power…

Then Cesarine Lovecryce shrieked.

“Katya, stop!”

The bodyguard stopped with her fist a few inches from Zeeta’s chin. Zeeta was covered in a cold sweat, but he didn’t budge.

I turned to Cesarine. She was upset.

“Katya. We are all trainees here. I don’t want people to bow their heads to me. So… let’s forgive and forget.”

“Forgive and forget?” Katya echoed. She straightened up, picked up her sunglasses, and wiped them with her sleeve, then put them on saying: “I can do that for you, miss. Let’s go back to the house.”

“Y-Yes.”

As Cesarine stepped on one of the escalators, I noticed that other trainees had gathered and were watching the scene. Katya glared at Zeeta.

“Get going,” she said.

Zeeta didn’t let his fear show as he followed Cesarine.

“Oh, Straw Head,” he said without looking back. “Your house’s on the top of those stairs. Those. You’ll see the symbol of the Wind painted on the front of one of the two escalators. That’s the one. You can’t miss it.”

I felt as if my core was being torn. No matter how kind Cesarine could be, Katya wasn’t going to forgive Zeeta so easily. She would make him pay, and Zeeta knew it. And despite that, he was following her boss. I was about to cry.

“No.”

The word came out from my mouth in a huff.

“Zeeta, don’t go, come back here! Cesarine, please, give me his badge, and I will give you—”

“Straw Head, shut up! Don’t get all worked up, and get the hell outta here, you hear? I didn’t punch that witch in a suit for nothing, did I?”

He was already drawing away upwards with Cesarine and her group. I gave a glance at the trainees that were still watching, and I whispered:

“Thanks.”

I knew he could hear me even from that distance, and I could make out his smile. Then he disappeared from my sight.

Dammit.

If only I had managed to fight back my life-lust, Zeeta wouldn’t have been forced to step in.

“I will give you…” a voice suddenly purred in my ear, “… what?”

I flinched, saw a sinister, pale-skinned guy with long, black hair tilting his head beside me, and let out a snort. It was Gorka Soulberg, the creepy guy Linah and I had met at the bottom of the hill.

I didn’t wait for him to get any closer: I hurried backwards and flung myself onto the escalator, the one that Zeeta had pointed at.

“Wow, that’s what you call a coward,” someone chuckled behind me. That voice… I glanced back. It was Sean Bensaïd’s, the cocky Nyomin trainee that had passed the Independent exam for fun. “Gorka, aren’t you going to go after him?”

“Why would I?” the creepy guy yawned.

“He didn’t answer your question. Now I’m curious. What could he possibly have to tempt a Lovecryce?”

“Pff. He was just bluffing. Let’s go to our house. I’m tired and bored and sick of this training…”

“Already?!”

Their voices faded away as I ran up the moving stairs. I soon made it to the next platform. Nobody was pursuing me. Phew. I took a glance at one of the two escalators before me, nodded at the one with the “Wind” symbol, and stepped on it. As I ascended, I could see the small flying piece of land with the two-story stone house. I nodded again. It must be it.

At last, I was home.