Shattered Essence

Chapter 2- The Teacher

"Peace is just an illusion, we're all living in the dread of another war."

The moment when I entered the campus, we were introduced to a young, tall, slender but muscular man who called himself the teacher. Dressed neatly, he glanced upon us with his Byzantium eyes through his medium sized hair of the same colour.
The Byzantium eyes were the most enticing feature of his face. While his smile hid the sorrow, his eyes couldn't hide the darkness beneath.
Furthermore, his bandaged arms underneath the long-sleeved overcoat piqued my curiosity. We were warned before, both by the government and my intuition, about the monsters present in the campus.
The campus was built in a vast area, mostly because it was located on the outskirts of the city, near the beach. Although the facilities provided by the school were outdated, the curriculum was set by our teacher, the "reckless dragon", Ka. There was no sign of digital technology present in the campus, because we did not want them to learn our ways, however Ka seemed well versed with our world.
The infrastructure of the school was a replica of the last generation's highschools, but it was equipped with hidden CCTV cameras placed around the building. The school was a one storey building, due to the lack of students and staff, yet it felt quite humongous compiled with the fields and the pool.
Ka was not the only I had to be careful of, there were a plethora of both, new and old faces in the class. The grey haired wizard, Soul; the crimson haired Vampire, Axen; the silver haired werewolf, Tetsu, were all leaders of their respective factions. However, only the Vampire and the Dragon faction survived. The rest had either one or none survivors.
The Dragon faction, led by Ka, consists of just one member other than the leader. It was the cyan haired dragon, Maki. However, both of them together were immensely powerful, which was the reason I was advised to be careful while interacting with them.
The Vampire faction was led by the crimson haired Axen, and consisted of two members except him, the cherry haired Cindy, and the blonde "Mind Eater", Yui. However, due to her passive state, the "Mind Eater" decided to not be a part of any faction, and exist isolated from others.
There was another unfamiliar face, Stella Darnis. Although we didn't have any information on her, her background check proved to be a matter of concern. We classified her under the category of a demon, even though she was born as a human.
There was no need of introductions in the class, everybody knew each other, but the teacher still insisted on introducing ourselves.
Our first lesson was on how the Astral Gate worked, and that allowed me to gather information on the work process of their world.
It didn't took me much time to mingle with the others, except for the few who had a certain animosity towards the human race.
The next few months passed with nothing major happening, yet I always noticed that the teacher would lock himself in his office after class with a magic barrier. I was gifted the ability to visualise magic after it is activated, hence I figured out his element- Darkness.
"A dark elemental dragon. Things are getting pretty interesting." That's what I thought during that time, but little did I know that his past with Soul would prove to be even more interesting.
Seasons shifted, the warm loo was replaced by the cold breeze, and with each passing day I suspected the monsters to be planning a revolt soon, but these all were empty accusations unless I had solid evidence. I did notice a few irregularities in the curriculum. For example- It mostly taught about the basics of magical and physical combat, and teacher himself questioning me on how the human society performed, but I could do nothing and follow his lead. I was in an illusion, the illusion of having fun. I almost managed to deceive myself to enjoy, but then the massacre at my previous school woke me up. I still remember the voices of my schoolmates and the noises of the monsters still haunt me. I realised the reason why I chose to risk my life and find a cure to this disease on the face of the Earth known as "Monsters". I'm fighting this battle, not for myself, but to avenge the innocent civilians who were massacred during the Astral War, and AlphaTech, the MNC that took over the government, gave me that opportunity to prove myself.

Next chapter: Perspective Shift- Soul's Past