The Hunter Academy

~Çhapter Sęvęnty-Twø~

He stared at me, his eyes calculating every possible word that could come out of my mouth, and every lie he could possibly tell me.

"I don't know what you mean, Chase."

I gave him a deadpanned stare.

He took one glance at me and sighed. "Okay, maybe I know what you're talking about."

I slipped onto the table and sat with crossed legs. "Remember when we wanted to test the range of the trackers."

Lucas nodded simply and placed the bookmark on the page, closing the book he had been reading.

"I reached..." I struggles to find the right words, if there were any, "It was like I had reached the end of the world, that we sit in a little pocket of existence."

He nodded. "I do recall you telling us that."

"That's why you need a Crystal like this," I pulled in the twining metal chain with the gem, light spun around the room and I quickly tucked it back into my shirt.

He nodded again, readjusting his reading glasses, "You must be invited and given an Infiltration Crystal."

I leaned closer and grabbed his chin. "And who gives out the Crystals?"

Lucas' eyes widened a fraction. "The Headmaster or Headmistress."

I let go and leaned back. "Which means, Victoria invited those Lycans in, gave them an Infiltration Crystal and Hunters started to die."

He nodded simply and I was about to continue, but a whisper caught my ear - and apparently Lucas heard it too - I sighed.

"Guys, if you want to spy on us you at least try to be quiet." I scolded.

Zac whirled around the corner of a shelf and gave me a cute, innocent smile with Julian and Amara doing the same.

Artemis' feet touched the floor with barely a sound and she simply pointed to the lights being emitted from above.

She could hide in the shadows and the light, I always forget since she's more partial to the darkness. If anyone was Op in this room - it would be Artemis.

She dragged a chair out and sat down, resting her head on her arms, resting on the back of the chair. "We're talking about fully fledged treason here." She yawned. "She would be executed by the future headmaster or headmistress, to show their strength and ability to 'overcome the past'."

"So..." Zac thought as I swung myself off the table and into a chair. "... you think it's bs."

Artemis shrugged as Amara hummed almost to a song. "I think the reasoning is as real as Victoria's smile."

"Completely fake." Amara stated.

I sighed and rested my head in my hand. "I think we have to go back to the Sub-levels."

"Well..." Amara started and pulled out her phone from her pocket," there isn't really any need to."

I grabbed her wrist and peeked over at her phone, I tilted my head. "You put cameras to watch that place."

"Yep." She have a cheeky grin. "However, I don't think anybody apart from Victoria ever walks through here."

As if in cue, Victoria walked into the frame. She placed a single finger on the door.

A dark blue glow was emitted and, suddenly, the door swung open.

The footage flickered, before the screen turned black.

We all saw the same thing.

Victoria smiling directly at us.

∞∞∞

I pressed a hand to my head, my hair loose while being choked in my tight grip.

There was the light chatter in the room of a miniature earthquake yesterday.

I stared at the pasta on my plate that I was constantly twirling on my fork.

My eyes glanced up and saw a handful of people sitting, just sitting there; not even eating, talking, laughing or... anything.

In fact, I haven't seen them eating breakfast, lunch or dinner for the past couple weeks.

"It is puzzling." Lucas stated and I sent him a glare.

"Stop digging in my head."

He simply shrugged. "Can't help it."

"Like hell you can." He shrugged again and I growled. "I'm going to slap you."

Amara laughed. "He totally deserves it after all."

"A punch would probably teach the lesson better." Artemis piped in while trying to catch Apollo as he skulked away.

Zac laughed. "Or maybe you should keep him tied up in his room all day."

"Or maybe you could all shut up." Lucas smiled mockingly.

I fiddled with the crystal in my hand, and looked down while laughing.

After that nobody seemed to have anything else to say.

My head turned to Lucas. "How does Victoria get Infiltration Crystals?"

Lucas swallowed and put his fork down. "Any headmaster or headmistress would get the Crystals from the Box.

"They must ask for some by stating the quantity and the reason behind having it."

"So they can't be made; but why do they have to ask for them?"

Zac spoke up this time. "The Box is magic and that's the only way; loads of people have tried to make Crystals that led into the school, but failed every time."

"What makes the Box so special anyway?" Amara asked and I almost sighed in relief, at least I wasn't the only clueless one.

Artemis sat up, she always liked to shuffle in her chair, and answered. "During the First Huntarius War, or Battle, the Box was set as the enemies encampment."

"See," Lucas began, "one side protected humans and wanted to let them evolve naturally; the other wanted to enslave humans and conquer realms as well as taking other species."

"We won," Zac states as he pushed Lucas out of the way so that I was looking at him instead. "So, humans lived on 'freely' and evolved: promptly destroying the only world in which they can survive.

"Hunters where then dubbed the Keepers and our job, quite obviously, was to protect."

I raised an eyebrow, there were many questions to be had. "What do you mean 'freely'?"

Amara spoke up and smiled. "It's like the world is divided in two, but it's not really. It's like a divide between our world and theirs.

"We can see our own world and theirs, but they can't see ours. A glamour, separating the world, it protects humans from magic and Creatures."

I nodded. "Okay, but, if we were the 'Peace Keepers' than how did we become... us?"

Julian shrugged. "Who knows? It was like someone had snapped their fingers." He clicked his fingers for emphasise. "All of a sudden; priorities changed, we started killing, we dropped like flies."

My eyes seemed stuck to the table and my half eaten chocolate cheesecake.

A hand slipped into mine, my eyes flickered to Zac who sat beside me as he gave me a slight smile.

I glanced up at Victoria.

She gave me a warm smile.