Soon, Luden and Seraph reached the end of the corridor. Shortly after, Luden saw what seemed to be a bubble; inside of it was a whole new world with people moving around. Luden turned to Seraph just as he was about to ask.
"Heh, I knew you would ask. Did you see that long corridor we walked in? This is called a buffer zone. Did you notice that there was no one around us and we were alone?"
Luden nods.
Seraph explains, "These are gates that lead to the main area, which is the academy. You see, the Academy is in a separate world that was created by expansion magic. The academy is very large, too large for the city to hold within its walls, so they used expansion magic to put it in a separate world that can be expanded to house more buildings. It's more secure as well, and people can't' come into it without a badge. Seraph points to his badge of identification. As a vindicator of the city, I was granted access to almost all buildings whenever needed. Now, back to a buffer zone; as I asked before, did you notice that there is no one with us? That's because I used my badge to bring you here, as we, as vindicators, have special privileges. Normally, if you come alone, you will be greeted by a lot of students who are using the buffer just like you now. These buffers are like gates that connect different cities that bring students from all over the world to the academy. as we finally finished all the procedures and made sure you joined the Academy. You'll get a student badge, and you will be able to come here too. The student's buffer area may be different from the Vindicators. So you see that the house we saw when we entered the academy – that house was just a gate. You really didn't think the Academy would be that small, huh?" asked Seraph with a smirk.
Seraph thinks for a minute and turns to Luden, "You know, the craziest thing you said so far is that you can feel mana even though we are not inside the academy. little light; even I can't feel the mana from here, so the fact that you can feel it means it's a lot about your mana sense."
"Is that bad for other people to know?" asked Luden.
Seraph smiled at Luden's smartness and the fact that he asked; that meant he trusts him now.
"Yes, tone it down a little," said Seraph in a serious tone.
and then continued, "You know. The more I talk with you, the more surprised I get. You bring something new to the table every time we talk. Now let's go," said Serpah while he went through the bubble.
Luden put his hand through the bubble and felt nothing, and soon he went through it too.
What greeted him was a world with sky and earth just like the normal world. Luden saw different gates where students were queuing up, with staff standing at machines scanning each student ID and body. Once the light turned green, he was allowed to pass through. He looked behind and saw different buffer zones that people were coming from, people of all ages, some old, some young; some were wearing what looked like staff clothes, and some were students. The staff wore long black coats with a golden phoenix on the back of them, while he saw the young ones wearing 3 different kinds of clothes: grey, green, and purple. It was a long coat with a white phoenix on the back. With numbers ranging from 1 to 8
The students were chatting with each other with different personalities. Some were cold, some were casual, others were afraid, and finally, some were arrogant. But as soon as they saw Seraph and Luden come through the gate, they all paused with amazement in their eyes. They are at the age where Victors are like mythical creatures that hunt bad people; they rarely see them; some have never seen one before. To see one here in the Academy, especially after they heard about the news about their movement this week and how many they killed, soon these guys started to talk between themselves, but it was all heard by Luden and Seraph.
"Omg, is that what I think it is?"
"If you mean a Vindcator, then yes, my friend, there is no doubt that is a special-issue battle headdress and sword, and look at that logo; there is no mistaking it; that is a real Vindcator at our academy."
"Ok, you're giving too much information, dude. Why are you so obsessed with them, man?"
"Hey, I heard Mink's father got killed by one of them a few days ago."
"Is he here to punish someone?"
"Maybe he is here for that old Kairos; he is definitely fishy."
"Seriously talking badly about the finance management head elder like that in the open, you will get expelled, man."
"Olivia, I have a total crush on these guys."
"Grow up, Yara; they are cold-hearted killers who only make love with the light."
Seraph and Luden started walking to one of the gates. The more Seraph walked, the more he was about to snap at these stupid kids. "These brats need the light," he muttered under his breath.
Luden giggled at Seraph and finally said, "I finally know why you need years of discipline training, Seraph."
Seraph turned to Luden and snapped, "Did you just finally laugh after a week and at my expense too?"
Luden ignored Seraph and looked at the students, who were a mix of old and young; some were his age, while others were much bigger.
The student made way for Seraph and Luden, but soon they noticed Luden was walking alongside Seraph. And they started to talk even more.
"Wait, there is someone with the Vindicator."
"Is he a student here?"
"No, he is wearing normal clothes."
"Maybe he is here to enrol."
"So cool, he is escorted by a freaking Vindicator."
"Man, I wish I had a Vindicator escorting me too."
"In your dreams, man. They might kill you for all the shit you will pull along the way."
"He is the same age as us; is he in our batch?"
"He looks pale as hell, man."
"No shit, he is missing an arm and an eye. Maybe the Vindicator beat the shit out of him before he brought him here."
Now it was Seraph's turn to almost laugh, but he had to keep his cool in front of those brats.
On the contrary, Luden ignored all the remarks and was amused by them.
Seraph noticed this and said, "I really feel sorry for these kids for being in the same class as you."
Once Luden and Seraph made it all the way to one of the gates, the staff working on the gate got up and walked to Seraph.
"Greetings, Lord Vindicator. May I ask, are you here on duty or on a personal visit? Is there anything we can do to comply with you?"
"Duty: I'm here to bring the student c00 to report to the academy. Here are the personal papers related to him." Seraph handed a file to the staff.
The staff took it and checked and looked at Luden once he confirmed everything was on order.
"Everything is in order, Lord; you may proceed. I shall grant Mr Luden a special guest pass for 12 hours, which is enough for him to get his student badge." He went and added a few pieces of info to the device in front of the gate, and a small badge came up, and he handed it to Seraph. "You may pass, my lord."
The guard opened the gate and let them through without a search.
"Seraph, what if someone comes to invade the academy?"
"That would be impossible. Firstly, the gate area wouldn't let him through or throw him into another area, and if he somehow managed to bypass it, there was a lord on guard all the time."
"Oh, is that who was watching? I felt him but couldn't see where he was, but I felt three; the other two felt weaker."
"Of course you did," Seraph said in defeat. Inside he was amazed and alarmed and knew he had to change a few plans now. "Here, keep this with you." Seraph handed Luden a badge that had a timer on it; it was now at 11:58 and was going down.
"Runes?" Asked Luden
"No idea," said Seraph, avoiding any relation to knowing what is on that card.
Soon Luden paused as he looked at the scene in front of him; in the distance, he saw very huge buildings, each built with an elegant style fit for nobles. Each building has a unique design. In the middle there was a building shaped like a phoenix; each building had a plate written in bold words like Library. Smithery arts, alchemy arts, rune arts, battle arts, strategy, general arts, etc. Each building is shaped like the arts they promote. On the west of the academy, there is a bunch of housing areas ranging from houses, villas, and apartments to malls, shopping districts, restaurants, etc., and on the far east, there is a forest with fences all around it. The forest was almost as big as the half of forest outside Sunset City. Luden could never have imagined there was a literal small city here. He turned to Seraph, who was looking at him proudly.
"Surprised? Right, this is the Phoenix Academy." said Seraph with a grin
"Wait, all this is the academy?" Said Luden with amazement.
"Yep", said Seraph.