Chapter cover: Dual stretching while his body basked under the morning sun, facing forward with his dagger in his mouth.

...

Date: 12/9/ X643
Time: 10:53:46

In one of the training grounds near Henesys, Dual cracked his knuckles after he tossed his jacket to his bag. For the first time, Dual never felt so grateful for a sparring lesson since enrolling the damn school. He needed something to relieve his stress. Wrapping the bandages around his hands to his forearms, he took a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly. It was cold outside, but his lots of stretching and movement warmed Dual right up.

Dual sneaked a glance at his opponent. His opponent was a guest; or that's what he claimed earlier. A veteran mage, only three years older than him – and the one who created the bounded field in the school's hunting ground for today's lesson.

Noticing his glance, the seventeen year old mage smirked. With a hairband in his mouth, he combed his jet-black hair with his bandaged hands before tying it into a ponytail. With his soft features and skin as delicate as porcelain, Dual had mistaken the mage as a female until he told his true gender to the class – to many boys' horrors and the girls' delights. Hell, even his long, slightly wavy hair misled them.

He was so lost in his own train of thoughts that he failed to notice his opponent's shouts – that was, until somebody dumped a bucket of cold water from who-knows-where.

"Hey!" Dual protested. His 27 classmates snickered at his reaction. He did a quick 180 degree turn and found there was nobody near him. He scowled at the teacher.

"Kid, you ready?!" The teacher had to raise his voice. It was calm and soothing like water when he talks normally, but like a waterfall when he shouted.

Dual stuffed his scarf into his duffel bag before turning around and nod. He realized his action was stupid and shouted back, "Yes, sir!" before hurrying to the middle of the sparring field, a blush forming on his cheeks.

They stood opposite each other. Damn, the teacher was tall. Dual looked up while his teacher looked down. Dual was surprised at the golden flecks in the teacher's eyes. He had heard of this condition before, but never seen it close up.

Until now.

Dual found himself mesmerized by the teacher's eyes. It was as if the sun was peeking out of the stormy clouds.

"Got a coin?" The teacher said; snapping Dual out of his trance. Dual frantically dug his pockets and found a bronze meso. With an approving nod, before Dual could blink, the meso was gone.

"My fifty-" Dual protested.

"I will give you back…if you manage to…pass this test," The teacher interrupted, his eyes gleaming mischievously, flipping the coin and snatched it back before Dual could. "If." He repeated.

"Filthy priest." Dual growled, his eyes twitching from rage. The priest clicked his tongue.

"It's Jake. You shorty." The priest let out a dramatic sigh, even fluttering his long lashes for a bonus. "Kids these days have no manners."

Dual felt nauseous. Jake is a boy, right?

Dual glared at Jake who tucked his shirt, it wasn't perfect as there were a few spots where the shirt was loose. "Says the person who has my fifty meso coin!"

Jake lets out a yawn, and waved the point off. "Yeah, yeah. Give me your best shot in the count of 3. You have ten minutes to do so and…" He grabbed Dual's right kick with ease. Dual narrowed his eyes.

Jake is fast.

"No weapons allow except for your body, I didn't say anything about magic, did I?" The priest continued as if nothing had happened. "You can use them – if you are confident you can control your mana flow perfectly. Any questions?"

Dual growled. He hated Jake's guts – whether he likes it or not, he had to admit Jake is adept in unarmed combat despite being a mage. "Yes, can you let my leg go?" Jake flipped Dual over, but Dual managed twist in midair and landed on his feet like a cat.

Jake pointed at Dual, and then with his finger, he motioned Dual to step back until there was a reasonable distance between them. When Dual fulfilled Jake's request, Jake went into an attacking stance.

"3!" Jake shouted. If it wasn't for his excellent kinetic vision, Dual wouldn't see Jake.

Dual gave the charging Jake a confused expression. "What the-"

That was all Dual had time to say before he was kicked upwards. He felt his lip bleed from biting it. He barely had time to prepare himself, oh that dirty, little-

Then again, people are cheaters in their own way.

Dual managed to twist his body and curled into a ball before somersaulting in the air once he hit the ground. Jake was whistling rather happily at his surprise attack. If he had a staff, Dual was sure Jake would have swung it at him, instead, he threw a right hook. Dual slid across the grass, dodging Jake's punch and used his hands to balance himself on the ground and spun with his hands as a pivot, allowing his kicks to land onto Jake's chest.

Yeah, it connected – right where Jake wanted. Jake was pissed as Dual had dirtied his clean T-shirt. Dual caught a glimpse of Jake's narrowed eyes and the small movement Jake was about to make.

Dual cussed as he did a backflip to put distance away from Jake. If he was one millisecond late, his movements will be halted again as Jake grasped the air with his right hand.

Jake didn't even flinch as he merely dusted off his pants, but his eye twitched a little when he saw another footprint on his pants and wiped the sweat of his brows with the back of his hand. "What kind of hair gel did you use? It's still spiky, even with that amount of perspiration."

That was so random that Dual felt the tension earlier was a lie.

He ignored Jake. He knew being short has its own advantage, he's nimble and a bonus, fast – and tall enemies hardly touch him.

But Jake…the movements he made was not what typical muscle idiots do. Dual felt Jake is used to fighting opponents shorter than him. He was tackling two major weaknesses of short people, one, they need to pull tall people down to their reach, second, without strength; speed is useless against people with good defense – worst, when the opponent is as nimble.

Dual hated situations like this. Sure, he has muscles – but, not enough power to penetrate Jake's defenses. If his assumption was right, Jake was only 170 cm to 175 cm tall. With 19 (minus his hair) cm to 24 cm difference and a few correct moves, Jake would lose the sparring match.

That is – if Dual can attack the chinks of Jake's armour fast and strong. Dual widened his eyes in concentration before scowling at Jake.

He saw Jake's mouthing: 'Come at me, shorty.' Then, Jake crouched down – a perfect way to underestimate Dual.

Not letting the opportunity go, Dual charged, and Jake swiped up dirt into Dual's eyes, temporary blinding Dual. Dual tried to knee Jake only to find his attack deflected with a wave of a hand. There was no barrier, nothing magical to protect Jake and yet…

Dual felt it. Jake had pushed it away by using the palm of his hand, gently to the other side.

Dual realized one more thing about his opponent. Jake is only fit, there's not much extremely hard and tough muscle in his body which was a surprise especially since his T-shirt hid his physique. Dual expected Jake to be muscular, but he was just fit.

Dual almost missed Jake's grin as he was blinking dirt away from his eyes, trying to get his bearings right. Jake grabbed Dual's collar and ran forward, forcing Dual to gag and wasted his energy trying to pull the cloth away to breathe.

There were gasps of surprise from the students. Dual knew it was rare for him to be at his opponent's mercy.

Shit. SHIT!

Once again, Dual was reminded humans fought differently from monsters. Except for their durability and predictable moves and oddball intelligence, humans excel in other aspects.

Left with no other choice, Dual stripped his shirt off, leaving him with his purple undershirt. Dual knew he was lucky, and Jake discarded Dual's white, cotton, shirt before stretching his back.

Dual felt he was being mocked although he knew it wasn't Jake's intention. It was the same thing as Lea.

Why Lea? He asked himself. It was weird. What did Jake do to remind him of Lea? The adrenaline pumped in his body made the gears turned faster.

Then, his eyes went wide as saucers. Was he right? Was he?

Dual looked at Jake with narrowed eyes. As if sensing the change of mood, Jake clapped his hands once, and turned around as he use is left heel as pivot, his sneakers were almost worn out – Dual noted. Jake gave him a knowing look. The priest was challenging him.

A breeze came, cooling Dual's hot body down. He got into a defensive stance, right foot forward and left foot backward; his arms were dropped by his side, giving Jake an opening.

It was on purpose.

And they knew it.

Jake chuckled to himself and focused his mana into his arms. Golden twirls of light coiled around Jake's arm, wrapping them. Whether it was for defense or attack – Dual couldn't tell. At least he knew Jake was reinforcing his arms.

It was the basis of magic. Reinforcement – the user can reinforce a weapon, like steel into a harder material. However, doing reinforcement magic wrong could potentially destroy the weapon itself. It was one of the main reasons why most people rarely reinforced their own bodies. A few people can take reinforcement magic to a higher level, but not everyone can do.

However, reinforcement is one of the best methods in testing the user's control in the output of mana. It has become one of the most popular training methods in mana output since without control, the user may end up killing himself or herself.

Dual felt a shiver down his spine. He never felt this thrill except for dangerous situations – right now, in front of him. Jake is the dangerous one. He was positive Jake has no rings on his fingers for a stopgap.

"Ha. Ha." Dual laughed. At first, it was just a small laugh, and then, a bigger laugh escaped from Dual's lips. He knew his laughter sounded insane, but what could he do? He never felt so alive, he needs the thrill to survive or else life would be boring.

Dual then beckoned and Jake obliged. The golden mana was dazzling in Dual's eyes as it came towards him. Jake twisted his body half way and his back slammed onto Dual, and Dual used his arms to grab Jake's neck as they collided and used the momentum of his body as he twisted to overthrow Jake.

It succeeded as Jake went down with a slam, but recovered quickly as rolled over to the side and got up. Dual was the only panting heavily. The wind was silent – no – he corrected himself – everything is silent. He could hear his heartbeat, thumping furiously in his chest that he thought his heart would burst out from there.

Damn. So close. Dual thought. His keen eyes were trying to grasp Jake's next movement. Jake's gaze, the part where his body tense and relax – Dual can see them all. Dual narrowed his eyes at Jake's arms – it was still enchanted. Normally, if a mage was distracted, the spell the mage was supposed to maintain will waver and if Dual is lucky, the spell will be broken and the mage will be defenseless.

It was one of the main reasons why a mage must have a protector. However, these days, mages can put up a good fight – even without partners. The priest opposite Dual is one of the best examples. Better yet, they must have a good durability to stand against a stronger opponent. Stamina and strength – they are very important to everyone. If they were fighting against monsters, they are valuable weapons they must hone.

Dual rushed forward and jumped when Jake tried to sweep his legs. Dual kicked twice to Jake's face, but met resistance which was Jake's reinforced arms. Dual felt as if he was hitting steel – and that was something, since his opponent is a human instead of a monster. However, a flash of pain was shown on Jake's face and Dual felt very proud of his strong legs.

It wasn't good as Dual noted there was no sound of broken bones.

Dual made his next move. He did a backflip and put a distance between him and used his hands to twist his body around in triumph to meet Jake's uppercut. Dual barely dodged it as he moved his body to the right, but Jake managed to nick Dual's cheek.

With his long legs, Dual was not surprised on how did Jake covered the slightly long distance. Although Dual flinched a little at the pain, he recovered quickly as he swept Jake's leg and later, using the back of his hand to wipe the bleeding cut on his cheek once he caught a brief break. Jake jumped his left leg, then his right as he predicted Dual's sweeping movement. Jake smirked.

Before Dual knew it, Jake's punch was an inch away from his face and Dual fell back on his bum, blinking the golden lights away as they danced in front of his eyes.

An alarm clock rang. It was so sudden that both Dual and Jake were startled. The students clapped, some even cheered for the amazing spar. Jake sighed as he put his arms down before releasing the reinforcement spell. The golden wisps of mana dissipated into the air.

Without another word, Jake offered a hand towards Dual. Dual hesitated, beads of sweats trickled down his face. He realized he had been sweating more than usual to the point his undershirt clung to his torso.

"Damn." Dual muttered, mostly to himself as he took Jake's calloused hand and felt himself pulled up to his feet from Jake. When Dual looked at Jake, he realized Jake was sweating, but not as much as Dual. Jake had dirt on his face, even if Dual wanted to see more of his fruits of his attacks – there were none, Dual noted disappointedly. No open wounds, nothing except for footprints on Jake's loose shirt and pants – personally by Dual. On the bright side, at least he made Jake pant heavily, although most of it came from the crazy concentration.

Dual had a feeling Jake was going easy on him, at least – until the reinforcement part.

They shook hands real quick before letting each other go. Before Jake could leave, Dual stopped him with a sentence. "You're Lea's brother."

It wasn't a question.

Jake blinked and laughed until his sides ache. He clapped a hand on Dual's shoulder and nodded.

Jake cleared his throat before removing the bandages and examined his bruised knuckles with his raised eyebrows. "Good job figuring it out. I didn't tell my name to your class. I want to see how good are their perception is." He eyed on Dual evenly. "That includes you…especially since my sister talks highly about you."

Dual felt his face turning red from the compliment. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, not knowing how to respond to it.

"You get a B though." Jake drew the alphabet in the air with his finger in case Dual haven't notice.

"A passing grade?" Dual asked hopefully. Jake's smile widened.

"B because you fail on getting my knees to the ground." Jake tapped the earth to emphasize. "Your battle judgment is correct, but you make a few wrong moves to be honest. For example, you rushed forward when I purposely let my guard down. It may be a cheap move, and I'm not into that chivalry stuff. Another, you use your sight too much. And that's not too good."

Dual gave Jake a confused look. "Sight?"

"Yes, like – in front of your eyes sort of thing." Jake replied, his tone sounded mocking. Dual shook his head.

"Isn't it important?"

Jake snorted at the question. "Of course it's bloody important. If you're blinded during the battle, can you tell where your enemy position is?" He silenced the impatient Dual as Dual was letting the emotions getting better of him. "I know your night vision is better than norm. However, there are times when you can't rely on your sight. Do you deny it?"

Dual clenched his fist as he remembered the horrible situation. A target, a former knight specialized in illusions managed to outwit Dual. The knight created a bounded field, his castle and Dual was supposed to scout it, only to find it was a trap as he had wandered away from the area. And using the time Dual was wandering in circles in the ruins, the knight escaped and the mission was passed to another team led by Ryden, his mentor who gazed at him with disappointment. It was a horrible feeling, to let down his mentor's expectations.

Ryden's lecture came back to Dual.'Let this be a lesson to you, never 100% trust your eyes.'

Dual slumped his shoulders in defeat and looked down at his shoes. "Yes."

"It's not just illusions you have to be wary about. Appearances can be deceiving." Jake added in a low voice. Dual managed to pick up Jake's guilt although Jake sounded calm. He looked up and admired the perfect structure of Jake's face. It was like a mask as it hid Jake's emotions if Jake chooses to.

Another thing to add on Dual's mental list.

"That's all." Jake added with a tone of finality. Then, he turned away from Dual and ordered a few medics to treat Dual's injuries. Dual was ushered into a tent where a medic was on standby. It was a few metres away from the sparring area as Dual can hear shouts and cheers of the students as the second match began.

At one point, the medic in-charge brought his stuff to him. Dual muttered his thanks before the medic bowed and left the tent.

After his treatment, he lies back down on the picnic mat and closed his crimson eyes, thinking about Jake's advices.

He should have thanked Jake earlier. He began to wonder about Jake, what were his reasons for bothering to come to teach for today? To search for his sister?

Dual snapped his fingers. He had forgotten about Lea's coma since the start of the sparring match. He was sure Lea would come about soon. But...the situation speaks for itself.

With a sigh, he turned and curled up as he prepared to sleep. Fortunately, sleep came to him easily as he was exhausted, as the adrenaline was no longer in effect.

And later that day, he found his muscles sore as he had forgotten to cool down his body.

…

…

Deep inside the grand temple of time, the glided Roman pillars surrounded the Transcendent of Time. The transcendent smiled sadly as she watched the current generation suffering from the floating mirror in front of her. Even the 'Counter Guardian' was weary of her journey. But for now, the Counter Guardian was resting.

"Milady, the length of the scrolls is getting smaller. Is it time?" One of her Temple Keepers said. The person in charge was an old man; his long beard held a telescope and was leveled to his right eye. Normally, he would be in his post, but for today he observed the present instead of the past.

The transcendent parted her soft, delicate lips. "My time is running out. I am afraid that's the case. There is a high chance I won't be able to help the Counter Guardian as I did three centuries ago." Her voice was as soothing as an angel; there was no trace of fear or panic in her voice.

"I see." She failed to notice the temple keeper's tightened grip on his staff.

The temple keeper sighed as he watched the transcendent's back. "Will the Fool's Journey ever end? Her journey is long, exciting, but tiring to watch even for this old man."

The transcendent did not answer. Instead, she smoothen the wrinkles of her chiton and averted her eyes away from the mirror in front of her.

"The future is unpredictable and I cannot change her fate – she was destined to walk forever in her journey. I can only help by taking the memories of her previous lives, so they wouldn't torment her in the present. Alas, she will eventually remember them when the time comes."

The temple keeper sighed again. "Let's pray for a good ending for her and her past."

And they did it together in their hearts.

They prayed for the World.

They prayed for the end of all suffering.

And last, but not least, they prayed for a better future.