The principal finally unveils his true identity. It was a surprise to see the principal in a very different fashion. He looked rather cool if I were to be asked for an opinion about his outfit. I mean, he looked like a wizard that wears a knight helmet. Additionally, more points were given to his robe that looked ragged and torn all over the edges of his robe. It looked like he has seen a lot of battles. The principal steps forward while everyone was cowering in fear.

“I am no longer the principal you know and love. Because I am a Champion of Chaos! I am Escher, The Battle Mage!”

The Battle Mage. So does it mean that he is a mage that can also do physical attacks? Does that mean he is a war veteran? I’m not sure about that considering what The Battle Mage will say after announcing himself.

“Some of you might have noticed that the dome that is currently trapping you looked exactly like the dome that once trapped you several years ago. I’ll just be straight to the point and say that it was me! It was me all along! It was I, The Battle Mage, Escher who started the 7 Month War!”

After all these years, we finally figured out who was the one responsible for all those terrible things that happened years ago. I remember it alright. It was almost like yesterday. It was a normal and peaceful day.

I was still a first year in Soul Power High School that time. I was still getting used to the whole new environment. It was around after the school was over where the events takes place. Back then it was only Blax and Rulend who I knew the most since we came from the same middle school. There are some other people I didn’t mention there but for the sake of importance in this part, Blax and Rulend invited me to have a lunch at the cafeteria.

“So, what are we eating today?” I asked them.

Blax clapped once and suggested, “How about we eat some good old curry noodle?”

“Curry noodle? For lunch? I’ll pass.” said Rulend as he waves his hand to show his disagreement. “I’ll just eat some chicken rice.”

“Yeah me too, Blax.” I decided to eat the same food as Rulend.

“Suits yourself. I’m gonna eat some noodles and I’m not sharing it with you two.” shrugged Blax.

“As if we care about that, Blax.” I said it nonchalantly.

Once we got our food from the counter we made our way to a table near the entrance of the cafeteria. Once we finished eating the food, Blax decided to open up a conversation.

“Have you heard?”

“About what?” asked Rulend.

“The Magic Duel of course! Don’t you want to enter that?”

Rulend nervously responded, “I’m afraid my kind of magic type does not fit this ‘duel’ we’re having at school. You do know I’m an Utility type.

“It wouldn’t hurt to try, right? How about you, White?”

“Have you forgotten something, Blax?” questioned Rulend as he was cleaning up the plates.

“Oh yeah.” Blax realised and said, “I’m really sorry, White. I forgot that you still haven’t got your magic yet.”

It’s not that Blax was not sensitive about certain things its just that he can sometimes be rather oblivious of his surrounding. I don’t blame him for accidentally saying those things. I’m not even offended.

Blax sighed, “I guess that’s a no go then. Maybe next year?”

“I doubt that.” said Rulend. “Besides, only the 5th year students can enter it. We also need four other teammate if we include the three of us. Where can we find that anyway?”

“You’re right. Bummer.” Blax nodded.

Then after that, all of that peaceful and normal talk turned upside down. We wish it was a joke but it end up being real. And it was as real as it gets. Especially when it happened right before our eyes. We heard someone was screaming. We went to take a look and saw a monster was approaching one of our teacher. At first I find it rather odd. Why didn’t the teacher use their magic or something. But then I realised that the teacher was probably afraid. Why would the teacher be afraid though? Well it’s because a casualty just happened.

We saw a body next to the teacher. It was a student. We didn’t know the student unfortunately but it totally made the teacher stumped. The student was bleeding all over the place. They might just be dead at that point. This was also the first time the three of us ever see someone getting murdered right in front of our eyes. Yes. The monster approached the teacher and snapped the teacher’s neck. Then, instead of throwing the body, it went and pull the head apart from its body and went to eat it.

It was too gore for our young eyes to see but we couldn’t look away. We were too scared to even consider anything. Then, the monster noticed us and walked towards us. My body was shaking. My mind was telling me to run away but it seems that my body was too scared to even move. That goes the same for Blax and Rulend. We were all too shocked after watching the horrific mess. The monster stopped as it reaches right before us. As it was about to grab me, a shining light blinded the monster.

“What are you doing? Come on!” I heard a familiar voice. He went and grabbed the three of us away from the demon.

We ran and ran as much as we could. We stopped running once we reached the school square. After taking a calming breath, I looked up to see our saviour and realised it was actually my best friend, Sonozaki Wakana.

“Are you alright, guys? Jeez. What were you doing standing around in front of that thing?” Wakana was very worried about me.

“I…don’t…know.” I was still shocked.

“Just take a rest over here. I’ll need to rescue the others. Just stay here.” after that, Wakana went away to search for any remaining people in the compound.

What the heck is going on here? I heard that question multiple times on that day. Things got even worse when suddenly a glassy looking particle started to take form from the sky. The glassy particle then made a large dome. So big it trapped almost the whole city. The city was in a lock down and we couldn’t do anything about it. No one can get in or out. Everyone tried to use their destructive magic to destroy the glass but nothing happened at all.

All they could do was cower in fear of the monster that the adults called, Demons. These demons, they suddenly appeared when a large portal appeared at the top of the school rooftop. I don’t know why the rooftop but no one will ever get there that is for sure. More portals kept opening all over the place but the biggest one was the first one which was at the school rooftop that was mentioned before.

What about us? We went into hiding inside the school buildings. We made sure to close the window shut and obviously locked the door. We even blocked off the wall with many things we can find. The whole city was overrun by these demons and somehow we made it alive thanks to the leadership of some brave students which includes, Sonozaki Wakana. It was only about 60 of us that was at the square. We don’t know about the others. We stayed inside the school lab. We don’t really know why we hid here but at the very least the lab was big enough to fit all of us.

Wakana and a few other student were talking with each other. Probably discussing on what needs to be done. We stayed inside the lab for hours. The only thing that was lasting for us was the water tap that the lab have. But that wouldn’t be enough of course. In the long run, someone has to step outside and get something for us.

And that was what we did. The brave students went outside and looked for any foods at the cafeteria. Thankfully they managed to bring in some foods that could last for a few weeks. With all the materials we have inside the lab, we were able to cook the food.

It was okay at first, but things got tense once in a while. Once in a while someone would go insane and we had to calm them down. Mental breakdown was pretty common during that time. Our peaceful and solitary lives were completely destroyed once the demons came in and trapped us all. This event would last for the next 7 months. It was infamously known as The Seven Months War. War. Yes, it was a war. But why? Because, one day humanity decided to put a stop to these infernal demons. Sounds impossible if I do say so myself but you know what? I was a survivor. I survived the war for a reason. This was what happened in the first 24 hour of that fateful event.

TO BE CONTINUED