Time passed quickly. One year. Two years. Three years. Four. In this period of time Reylor had become little less than a legend to teachers and students alike. He studied in the day, and trained at night. He took combat courses, in which eventually no one would want to spar with him. As for intellectual courses, he simply used his book knowledge to challenge the courses. He did not fail a single attempt.

Elany kept a low profile, though she did attract the attention of quite a few different guys. She wasn’t into that kind of stuff, though, so she stuck around Reylor outside of class, to avoid them. Everyone knew his name by then, so no one tried to mess with either him or Elany.

As for Aileen, she was definitely one of the top of her class. She studied hard, and practiced for long hours. Reylor would even have to stop her from practicing so she would not be too exhausted for the next day.

Both of the girls had matured as well. Elany’s features had refined to give her a more dignified appearance, even if her personality didn’t quite agree. Aileen, on the other hand, had changed from her childish appearance into more of a refined lady—and her personality had changed as well. Though still a bit shy, she had a notably greater amount of confidence. For a teen, she was one of the most beautiful, with fine features and inky black hair, which accentuated her smooth ivory skin. There were few young boys who would not want to be in a relationship with her. Sadly for them, she was uninterested, as her mind was on her studies and her brother was the next most important thing to her. Unlike Elany, however, she was willing to talk with the guys in her classes. She kept slightly aloof, however.

As for Reylor? His personality had grown slightly more colorful, but his appearance had not made an iota of change. He still looked like he was in his early twenties—just like he did one million years ago. Demigods didn’t age the same as regular mortals, apparently.

Right now, everyone from the same batch of students as them was congregated in a large auditorium.

A loud voice sounded, contrasting with the tired appearance of the man who spoke: Earlstine.

“Students, congratulations on passing your classes! At this point will now be moving to the next and final phase of your education: Squadron missions! And I’m sure you all know what that means. Time for the Annual Votran High senior tournament! This will have no effect on your mage class rating, however it is still of utmost importance. This is the opportunity to show off your skills and be recruited into the top squadrons! Keep in mind that there is limited space for squadrons. If you are not selected, then you will have to wait for another year to have your next opportunity, so do your best!”

After the assembly was ended, an instructor approached Reylor.

“Reylor, I need to talk to you for a minute.”

“Oh? What would you like to discuss?” he replied.

“You have been granted a squadron residence, which should mean that you have the right to select more squad members. There is one issue, however, which is that one must hold an A+-Class rank in order to be considered a squad leader. Would you be interested in attempting the ranking test?”

“I would, so how would I go about this?”

“Simple. Tell us what rank you would like to challenge, and we will set up a match for you. In order to receive an A-Class ranking, you must be capable of single-handedly surviving for 7 minutes against 5 Class-B opponents. As for A+-you would then need to survive against 4 Class-A opponents, or subdue 3 in the time allotted. Do you think you are capable of this?”

“While I do believe I am capable of this, I have a request.”

“What is this?”

I would like to take the S-Class challenge.

“Reylor! While I can certainly attest that you are quite a capable person, hence allowing you to take the A-Class test, do you understand what the S-Class test entails? 10 Class-A experts. You have to subdue 10 Class-A experts by yourself or subdue one person who is already S-Ranked. You can beat your classmates easily, but they are not experts. They are currently unranked, and I know that the best of them will not likely be even B+! I’m sorry, but I can’t do that to you.”

“Ok, I understand.” Reylor said, at which the instructor heaved a sigh of relief. “At least he can listen to reason. S-Class is way too strong for a new squad member to challenge.” She thought, unaware of what Reylor was thinking. “C’mon, do I seriously have to bully the weak?”

Yes, that was the whole reason why he wanted to challenge S-Class: He didn’t want to bully the weak. Nevertheless, A+ was sufficient for his purposes. “I guess I’ll just have to go with this, then,” he thought.

“Beep beep. Beep beep.” A short time later, all of the students received a notification on their badges, detailing that the positions for the tournament would be decided by the next day. In the meantime, there would be a few ranking tests they could spectate.

In truth, Reylor was not the only one taking a rank test. Needing to fill gaps from departing students, they had to promote more students to A+, if possible, to make sure they had enough captains to fill the slots for their official Votran squadrons.

“Reylor, what were you talking about?” Elany asked. “I’m taking a ranking test, to officially lead our squadron,” he replied.

“Oh, so you are one of the people the message was referring to?”

“Yes, precisely.”

“Oh, ok. We should get over there then!”

“Yep, let’s go!”

Elany was the one person who knew Reylor for who he was-a nearly god-like existence, hence she had full and complete trust in him. Meanwhile, Aileen simply said, “Be careful,” with a faint but sweet smile. “No need to worry, It’ll be pretty easy,” he said, ruffling Aileen’s hair a bit. “Hey, I’m not a kid anymore!” she said a bit embarrassedly. Reylor smiled at her. She was still adorable to him.

They finally made their way to the stadium where the exams would take place.

Surprisingly, the person conducting the exams was their first teacher: Helen. After the previous matches had been conducted, Reylor was place in the arena with three Class-A experts. Turning to them, he bowed, saying, “Thank you for coming to help me take this assessment. However, I elect to take a more difficult exam.” He turned toward Helen, who wore a confused look on her face, and disappeared.

“Bang!” Reylor appeared behind Helen with sparks flying off his sword. “Assassin! Alert!” Someone called out. Reylor had watched as a person with nearly perfect invisibility walked up behind Helen. Just as the man swung his saber down, Reylor transferred in front of him, blocking the strike. Seeing how an intruder had managed to make it into Votran unannounced, several S-Class mages leapt up to attack, but then froze before settling back down. They had received a message from the headmaster, who happened to be watching the whole situation unfold. He wanted to take this opportunity to see what Reylor was truly made of.

“Clang! Clang!” Reylor and the assailant both exchanged blows with their weapons, though Reylor was the only one besides the headmaster who could see the assailant. It looked a bit comical, but in the gravity of the situation, laughter was the last thing on anyone else’s minds.

“Headmaster, what’s going on? I can’t see the other person.” An instructor asked. “I believe it’s a mage of Hemlock, considering his techniques and garb.”

(Gasp) “Hemlock?! Why would they be here?”

I don’t know, but it appears to be something to do with Helen or her family. They do a lot of mercenary work, so we can’t be sure who truly is behind this. Nevertheless, this has presented an excellent opportunity for our star student to showcase his abilities. Of course, I’ll step in if things get too dangerous.

Earlstine was one of the few people who knew about Reylor’s access to the library materials. That being coupled with his knowledge of the entrance exam caused him to consider Reylor as nothing ordinary—hence him even being quite curious about this enigma of a person.

“Dang, brat. Who are you? Never mind. Matix of light. DIE!”

A matrix was not exactly an attack spell, but a support spell, creating an area with multiple points which a mage could easily teleport to, and/or launch themselves from. Basically, it was a high-level spell which boosted the user’s mobility.

“Void Matrix.” Reylor followed suit, but there were a few differences. The void arts had less raw power than many other kinds of magic, but it was much better suited for utility spells, such as the one now employed.

“Oh, my word,” the intruder thought, “I totally forgot this was Votran! Bad move there, now I can hardly keep up!” In truth, if Reylor had any more experience with this spell, the battle would have been over within an instant—such was the power of this utility spell when activated with void magic.

“Clang! Clang! Crash! Clang” the weapons kept flying, landing solidly on each other

“Breath of light!” The intruder’s saber took on a bright glow. “Void infusion!” The sword took on a purple glow.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!” A shockwave was emitted each time the weapons collided.”

“Starlight Summon, 3rd Tier!” Four wolves condensed from light energy.

“Earlstine! That’s a tier three summon! Reylor’s going to get killed!” Helen, who had since escaped from the arena sat next to the headmaster, but was now worried for Reylor. Only S-Classes can pull that off, and each summon is a strong as a Class-A mage!”

Earlstine lifted his hand. “Wait for a bit. Let’s see what he can do. If he can’t cope, I’ll step in.”

The battle continued.

“Wow, these creatures are really annoying. How can I get rid of them? Hmm. Oh, yes, let’s try that one out!” Reylor was not in grave danger, but he definitely was not having an easy time. He had fantastic control over magic, and his magic was exponentially more potent than that of his opponents, but close combat was usually more a matter of speed and reflexes, than of magical control and power—at least how Reylor was playing it. This was a fantastic opportunity for practice! Nevertheless, he was quite hard pressed with the light wolves joining the fight. They would have to be the first to go.

“Void Art: Abyssal Chains Tier 2!” Dark Chains appeared, wrapping around each of the summoned wolves.

“Trying to beat a tier 3 spell with 2nd Tier magic? Get a life!” The assassin sneered.

Unfortunately for him, there were three things he was ignorant of. First, base spells were not equal. Thus, the first tier of a particularly potent spell was capable of destroying even the fifth tier of a weaker type of spell. Second, void magic tended to have a rather strong resistance to other magics. Thirdly, this was Reylor. How could the spells of a Seldin be comparable to that of an ordinary human?

“Wait, what are you guys waiting for? Bust out and attack him!” The wolves didn’t respond. “Huh? What’s going on?”

“Shred!”

The chains constricted instantly, shearing through the masses of light.

The intruders face went pale. “What the heck? What’s with this guy?” He was starting to get nervous, but sadly, spectating mages had already enclosed the area. Escape would not be a possibility until the barrier was released.

“Oh? I knew the chains would hold, but the way they shredded the summons looked just a little too easy for a 2nd tier spell. This guy really is strange.” Earlstine said, as he watched with rapt attention.

“Fine then. We’ll do this the hard way,” The intruder said, as he pulled out a scroll and raised it to the sky. “5th tier, Brilliant Judgment!”

A blinding glow erupted from the scroll, and a powerful force blasted Reylor backwards.

The glow became brighter and stronger.

“Crud, crud, crud! Helen cried out. He’s using prime magic!”

Prime magic was a type of magic known for being overwhelmingly powerful. The caster would have to take a great amount of time to utter the chant to cast it, but once released, its effects were peerless in destructive power. It was said that one particular mage in the past had used a single prime spell to sink an entire continent. Prime spells were powerful that they were completely banned from organized competitions, and Vilnor would only let S-Class mages learn even the most basic of them.

Now there was a way to shorten the cast of a prime spell: One could use a scroll. This would weaken the spell a decent bit, but it would allow for a rapid cast, which is what had happened here.

Earlstine opened a portal. “All students below Class-S, get into the portal now if you care for your life! S-Class void mages, shield the others who are retreating then activate Void Shroud for yourselves. S-Class Ice mages, protect the other S-Class mages with Bulwark. Support mages, strengthen the Bulwarks!”

Earlstine was no dummy, he knew how to command a crew, and he knew just how strong this spell was: extremely powerful. Still, it was weak enough for S-Classes to counter it if they knew what they were doing.

“What about Reylor?” Helen looked at Earlstine. Not only was Reylor unranked, but he was also inexperienced with actual combat. “This is a prime spell!” Her face showed great concern, but Earlstine only shook his head. Helen, do you know what happened at the entrance exam?” Seeing she did not, he continued. “I don’t know exactly, but all the reports were the same. This kid activated some kind of technique. Single-handedly, he broke a dividing barrier like thin glass before proceeding to nullify Xeld’s Heaven Strike and the entire magical formation. This kid then walked up to Xeld and put a sword to his chest, threatening him not to even touch his friends. The others then stepped in to restrain Reylor, but there was a problem. They couldn’t use magic. Not a single spell! He then walked back to his other companion, said two words, and everyone had their magical power back, just like that. If he isn’t stupid, he cannot die from facing this guy. But naturally, I want to see just what Reylor’s going to do.”

Helen just looked at him blankly before turning back to the battle. She and Earlstine were both void mages, and so they activated Void shroud. This was an ability that could make them “invisible” to many spells while still allowing them to see what was happening.

Having regained his footing, Reylor looked at the man in front of him and the spell. Reylor moved, locking himself into a defensive stance. The pressure was already enough to make him sweat, but there was not a twinge of fright to be seen on his face. Instead, there was a slight savage smile on his face. “Wow, I never got to experience any of these kinds of things in the Spatial Hall. This is exhilarating!”

He lowered his center of gravity, digging his feet into the ground.

The glow of the Brilliant Judgment exploded, and an overbearing column of concentrated light magic descended from the sky over the intruder and shot toward Reylor.

Reylor raised his arm as if to shield himself from the light, but what happened next was not what anyone had expected.

“Void of the ancients, lend to me your strength: Arcane Aegis!

Earlstine’s pupils shrank to needles, as Helen suddenly felt sick. The spectating S-Class Void mages displayed shocked expressions. What the heck Reylor! Are you mental? That guy’s not going to have the chance to kill you—your spell is going to the job for him!”

Reylor had just activated an archaic spell. They didn’t have tiers, since they were from the days of ancient magic, before anyone knew how to modify spells into tiers. They had a different structure from tiered spells, too, which made it so that their power was not limited in any way. For this reason, archaic spells had the potential to be many times more powerful than modern spells. Still, no one in this time period would touch them for one reason—without sufficient control, it would suck all the mana out of the practitioner, cause their mana core to implode, and instantly kill them. The ancients had higher quality meridians, allowing most mages the necessary control. Now, there was not a single person who could use one of these spells without dying—guaranteed. Earlstine had even seen it happen once. It still gave him chills thinking about it. Yet now this Reylor was using an archaic spell! What was he thinking?

The aether trembled, and a purple glow took the form of a small shield on Reylor’s arm. Another, slightly larger void shield layered on top of it. The ambient magic began rushing toward Reylor’s arm. Some of the magic from the enemy’s spell even broke off and was consumed by the shield on Reylor’s arm. The shield was like some kind of ravenous magical monster! Seemingly unsatisfied with the energy in the area, the spell caused several rifts to form around Reylor, pulling more magical energy from them.

“Shoof!” The pillar of light collided with the shield. The surrounding mages prepared for the resulting sound concussion, but it never came. The shield, which was now twenty meters tall, was actually consuming the energy from the other spell, and converting it to void energy! The shield expanded to thirty yards tall, then fifty!

Finally, the prime spell wore off, revealing the Arcane Void Aegis: a spell so beautiful and powerful, it would cause one to lose their breath just looking at it. Notwithstanding, Reylor waved his hand, instantly dispersing the spell, and walked over to the ghostly white intruder. He reached out his hand and tapped the man’s forehead, causing him to faint in fright.

Helen just stood there, pointing at Reylor without having the words to utter.

Earlstine was still standing like usual, but he too was silent.

The S-Class void mages were stupefied.

At this time, the Ice mages withdrew their protective spells, leaving all with confused faces. What just happened? Why are the headmaster, Helen, and the void mages looking like they’d just seen someone use an archaic spell, or something?

“Hey, hey Kelter, what’s wrong?” a fire mage asked. “A-ar-archaic… Archaic… He—he used an archaic spell!” the mage named Kelter finally fumbled out. “Arcane Aegis.”

No, that can’t be right. Not even the headmaster dared to try one of those spells! The fire mage thought. Nevertheless, the appearances of all the spectators lent the explanation credibility.

Now everyone was on the same train of thought: Just who the heck is Reylor?