Dtharmic Academy

Day One

Oliver's POV

(note that the image at the top is whoever is writing the story)

I hadn't slept much last night. Neither had Griselda. Neither had Flavia, and neither had Adam. We talked about nothing and everything, the irrelevant and relevant, everything.

It was around 6AM when I first heard it. A knock. Griselda jolted up in her seat.

"What was that?" she asked. Nobody answered. Nobody dared to really speak. 

We knew we had powers (which, technically, we didn't even know what our powers were). What were we supposed to do? Adam hugged his stuffed bunny closer to his chest. I would have laughed at his childish behavior, if the situation hadn't been rather frightening.

They had taken me from my home against my will. Well, it was to be expected. But still. I couldn't really tell. I didn't really know, what was actually happening.

My thoughts were flurries of emotion. Flavia made the first move. Her frizzy red hair shook as she twisted the doorknob. But it was just a man. A tired-looking man.

"Come along, come along." his voice sounded grumpy, but I could have just been imagining that. His clothing choice was rather flamboyant, in my opinion, pink and white mixed and many bright colors.

He led us to a room that held a capsule.

"Listen. I'm not going to waste our time here. Just get in the capsule." He shoved me in first. He wrote a couple things down, then handed me a card.

There were five classes on there, apparently arranged in order of power, he explained.

I was on the second-lowest class, which was Magic. 

He said that was technically the lowest class, because there was one class that was labeled Mortal, but he said nobody would get that unless they illegally enrolled into the academy. 

On the card, three symbols appeared out of nowhere. Raw power, intelligence, and strength, the man had explained. I had scored a 100 on intelligence and a 300 in raw power, but strength only gave me a 50. So a total of 450 put me at the very top of the Magic class, just below the Phoenix class. 

Griselda got a 350, and Flavia scored a 500, putting her in the Phoenix class. Apparently, the respective classes were not to interact, so they wouldn't be seeing Flavia for much longer. Finally, it was Adam's turn.

My brother. I was excited, but also nervous. The capsule seemed to whir and shake, and I knew that this was going to be good. After a triumphant final 'ding' , it was over.

The man's eyes looked up. A 1500 total score? He was directed away, to a rather gloomy, ominous looking shelter. But I hadn't had time to worry. I was sure he would be fine, in the end. After all, such power would basically enable him to do anything!

Despite being in the Magic class, though, not all of our powers pertained to the Class name. Later, I would learn, the class name was the surname of the teacher.

But even after finding out our classes, we still didn't know what our powers actually were. That was where the apparent simulation came in handy.

Me and Griselda were put into opposite rooms. Out of necessity, my brain knew that we would eventually become friends. She was the only class member in our dorm, and the other people didn't seem inclined to be friendly to us.

But for now, it was a mutual acquaintanceship. 

Something that seemed like a big, orange tiger appeared in front of me. I dodged and ducked, but it kept coming. I reminded myself that this was a simulation, and this wasn't real. But it seemed very real.

As it was about to hit me, a burst of blue fire erupted out of my hands like it had been contained for a while and froze the tiger. The person who was watching barely glanced, and then wrote something down on a small pad of paper.

"Room 103. Don't be late." And then he signaled for me to walk out of the door. Was it just me, or did the people have short tempers here?

It was a huge, wooden lecture hall-looking room. But clearly not. And it was. People were flying, blasts of energy ricocheted off the walls and exploded into sparks. I was taken into a small room with Griselda.

"Now, listen up, new students." said a teacher in a lab coat. I drowned her out for a bit and looked around the room. There was a blonde-haired boy and a girl with clearly dyed pink hair, but nobody else in the room.

"Vera!" the teacher snapped. The pink-haired girl shook out her hair. 

"What do you want?" her manicured nails clicked against the table.

"I asked you," the teacher sighed, "if you would like to demonstrate your power." Vera groaned, and then pink bubbles of pure energy formed in her hands. Her eyes were shut with the effort, and just as quickly as they came, the bubbles disappeared. 

I looked at the time. 8 PM. We had skipped lunch.

"Tomorrow's class, demonstrating your powers and focusing them!"

Thank god. I had been on edge ever since taking notes.

And then I heard it. A pure scream of terror.

"What was that?" Flavia looked around the dorm. She was moving out tonight, into a Phoenix-oriented dorm. Class had ended half an hour ago. 

"Adam," muttered Griselda. Flavia had an hour to move out. We could make it. We dashed along the hallways, trying to be as quiet as possible. Our first opponent was a boy named James. He was in Flavia's new dorm. 

Apparently it was his turn to be "watchdog," because he was being vigilant about not letting anybody into that ominous room.

"Stun him fast, make it last!" Griselda's hand waved circles. A blast of dark magic hit him square in the chest, and he crumpled.

As we walked down the stairs, a girl walked through the hallways. She wore the classic uniform of a Dark Phoenix, a subset of Phoenix that Flavia had explained was the Honors Level. 

"Stun her fast, make it-" but the girl heard it. 

Her head whipped around and her eyes glowed a terrifying green. And it happened. She summoned vine-like ropes, that no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't escape them.

Flavia glared at her.

"Flavia, is that you?"

"Yes, Karina, now let us go." but Karina couldn't, apparently. She was simply doing her duty. Flavia's hands burned with a scorching flame, and Karina winced. 

The ropes burnt, and Griselda had had time to prepare.

"I summon chains, they will not be in vain!" Karina was stuck to the floor, but she would undoubtedly escape soon. We had to hurry.

I looked around and saw five armed guards. And Adam. With five, carefully controlled yet imprecise bursts of flame, I stunned them all.

Adam was in the cell, crying, and periodically emitting powerful shockwaves that would lift us off of our feet.

He couldn't talk. Or at least, he chose not to. But as he handed me his power card, I figured out the problem. Intelligence was at 500, Raw Power was at 700, and Strength was at 300. 

He wore a different uniform than the rest, not the amethyst crown of the Magic, nor the bright orange flame of the Phoenix, but it was a yellow, blinding light of the Gods. My own brother was too powerful to be trained, so he was locked up here.

Adam wrote something quickly, and I looked at it. Energy manipulation. His powers. I was acutely aware of other gods in their own, respective cells. They contained light that was too powerful to look at, and it came in bursts. Adam suddenly tried to break free, but he couldn't. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Break this lock, break it now, free the chains, make him feel less pain!" Griselda strained as her magic attempted to pull off the lock. Flavia tried to melt it, while I battled Karina. 

Her vines were launched at me, and I held them off for as long as I could. But then I heard shrieks, and then, it happened. All I saw was blackness, darkness, and then, it was over.