SHADOW || The Catalysts Series, #2

XI || Improvements

Lena begins to question her previous excitement and curiosity about where Caelus was planning to take her to.

Now that she's in the Precision room, she feels the torture of hard training. She questions just then if she deserves to be here among the elites, in Arcane Academy, much less be training to be a professional Catalyst one day. Perhaps this is something every student goes through everyday, and she still isn't used to it—she fears she may never be.

True, this room secludes the both of them from anything else outside; yet the fact that this room provides extraordinary functions does not help ease Lena's mind. It only further strains and stretches her limits, forcing her to complete tasks that the outside grounds of Arcane Academy usually are unable to provide.

Before, for the past few days, Lena and Caelus spent their time in different areas of the Academy. Lena took those after class sessions as a tour more than anything else, discovering strange offerings of Arcane Academy.

On the first day they used the fields, where Lena's attention often wandered to the other students playing some sort of sport. It is probably because of this that Caelus brought her to the school's laboratories instead on the following days. That, and because the labs are where they can easily access glass in full disposition.

With that, it is rather obvious that she's had a good time the past few days merely standing still and observing her visions, trying to decipher something out of it. They never arrived to a conclusion, though. Besides, Lena has her suspicion that half the time, Caelus' mind was somewhere else. Whenever she asked him a question, he tended to give delayed responses.

It's rather obvious that despite his capabilities, Caelus has never really mentored someone. As this thought crosses Lena's mind, she thinks it's rather amusing Arcana assigned someone like him to someone like her. While her mind often tries to probe about the reason behind it—Arcana and Caelus sure did have a strange conversation she didn't at all understand—she finds herself enjoying the fact that someone is making her feel more like home. Caelus is introducing her to a more immersive experience at Arcane Academy by really showing her around and besides finally having the opportunity to explore the many wonders of the Academy, Lena is enthusiastic at a chance to discover more about her abilities.

That is, until today.

Almost getting carried away by drifting thoughts, her surroundings are giving Lena a major migraine. Her lost of focus nearly cost her as she trips, bumping into the side. When she comes into contact with a solid surface, it budges, shifting the entire plane of the ground. She curses under her breath for being too careless. Once the testing ground shifts, it'll be harder to navigate, since she will have to work through her steps from scratch through this maze of glass.

It is her third try, and still Lena struggles with the surprises this room can conjure. While she knows it is a mere simulation, the whole thing feels real enough. The random visions she sees aren't helping at all, either. In fact, they only burden her by giving her a spinning headache.

A loud ring sounds, and the glass maze falls away, melting into a plain room. Lena slumps to the ground tiredly, her legs bent in an awkward way. She settles for it anyway.

The robotic voice hums, "Time is up. Obstacle incomplete."

Lena doesn't care if it's some sort of super intelligent being that can do anything from providing insights to creating virtual realities. That voice—Caelus calls it Ruiko—is really starting to irritate her.