Constructors: New Beginning

Chapter 14 Soul Remembrance Pt. 1

Julia focused on training her soul magic over the past year. She learned all the basics that every soul mage acquires at a certain point and also what her emotional foci was and how to control it by coordinating with it. Emotional foci is the mages' prominent emotion taking a form and becoming a power source of sorts to them. Usually most soul mages' will have one emotional foci, and in rare cases, two emotional foci, but not Julia. Due to her having immense soul magic, she actually has four foci. They come from her four strongest emotions: sadness, anger, joy, and determination. Once they appeared in front of her, she named the girls to help her distinguish who is who. Emma is her joy, Amy is her sadness, Ester is her anger, and Maya is her determination. The four of them each have their own personalities that correspond to their specific emotional foci. Their battle styles are also different, but they only come out to fight when Julia tags them into one, which she'll be doing a lot now that the Magus Exams have begun.

In the arena...

The arena fell silent as me and the other student entered, which didn't help with my anxiety. I stared down at my opponent as we were walking closer towards the center. She was a young student, no older than ten years old, who stared back at me with cold, blank eyes. That reminded me of Grandma Irene. 

How is a girl this young able to compete in the exam? She's the only one here that's fighting at such a young age. 

Julia, look at her aura, there's something wrong with her, Maya said. 

That's Maya, she is one of the four girls that took the form of my emotional foci. They each took the form of the doll I would play with as a little girl. 

I focused on the girl's aura and I was surprised. There was nothing, no emotion to be felt. It was as if this girl was dead, yet I could clearly see the girl breathing normally. 

You're right, I feel nothing from this girl, Maya. 

She's creepy, it's giving me chills. It's as if there's nothing there. Will you be able to deal with her by yourself Julia? Ester said. 

"Yes, I can handle her," I confirmed to Ester, but still, there was something I remembered. During my training, Grandma Irene told me that opponents who show no emotions to Soul Mages tend to be the most dangerous for them. A numbing shiver went down my spine just looking at this child, and I tried my best to hide it, but it seems that the girl noticed and she grinned. 

Finally, Alice came out, so the crowd went back to cheering again. The sound and the distraction of the audience eased my mind just a bit. "Hello everyone! It's time for the third fight of round one! On one side we have a regular; Abby!" Alice waved over to the little girl only for everyone to go silent once again. Alice didn't hide her uneasiness well, but then shook it off and looked over at me. "And it appears that we have a newcomer going against her. Go ahead and tell us who you are, what rank you're wanting, and what you're gonna do when you graduate!" 

Alice moved the mic towards my mouth, and I cleared my throat. "Uh, I'm Julia Kidd, younger sister of James who's also participating in the exam. I'm also wanting the rank of Battlemage, and just like what James said earlier, I'm going to explore Seraphim with him when we graduate." 

"Oh, so you're James' younger sister! Do you have the same level of confidence that you two will graduate?" Alice asked and move the mic back to me. 

I felt James' aura from his waiting room, feeling his emotions and desires. He was feeling nothing but absolute confidence in me, and that's all I needed. "I do," I replied, and the crowd cheered just as much as when James answered. 

"Julia Kidd everyone! Alright, you two go to your ends so we can begin." Alice told them, and just as I was about to walk away, Alice leaned towards my shoulder and whispered, "I wish you luck, girl." 

I didn't know how to interpret that, so I walked to my side and looked over at Abby. She had a still blank in her stare and I couldn't help but feel that something was still off with the girl. 

"Ready, and...BEGIN!" 

I summoned out a soul orb and waited for Abby to move, but she remained still. She was lifeless and only rocked from side to side. 

What is this girl planning? She isn't doing anything. Wait, I sense something. 

I took a deeper look at the girl's body, and a separate aura was attached by strings at the joints. Immediately, out of instinct, I ducked down and looked to the right behind me and saw the real Abby try and attack. I hurled my orb towards Abby, but she twirled away, and the orb went flying up, creating a massive soul explosion. 

"Oh my, that was close." Abby giggled as she watched the explosion and went back to her clone's side. "I shouldn't have underestimated you." 

"So, you're a Puppet Mage, I should've guessed that when I didn't feel anything from her. She's not even real." 

"She is real!" Abby shouted and turned her attention to her doll as she started talking to it. "She didn't mean that! I won't let anyone say that you're not real and get away with it." 

"I'm sorry you two, but I don't have time for this. I promised my brother that I would graduate with him!" I shouted as I sent another soul orb towards them and it exploded in their faces. When the smoke cleared, all that was left was a small crater, but I know they dodged it. I quickly scanned the area and somersaulted forward to avoid an attack from the doll. But just as quickly, the doll shot forward and bit down on my leg hard enough to draw blood. 

I slammed the doll's head down with my leg hoping it would let go, but it only made the doll bite down harder to the point that I could feel my femur start to crack. Out of panic, I punched the doll's head by bringing out my purple smoke and disintegrating its head. With the pressure gone, I tried to stand up, but the moment I did, the bone cracked even more, and I fell back down in searing pain. 

That stupid doll bit me that hard?! I need to heal my bones quickly before she can attack again. 

I began to heal my cracked leg, but as I did that, I could see the doll twitching and suddenly slide away. I followed where the doll was being slid to and saw the little girl saunter towards her. 

"You...destroyed her. You destroyed my only friend." She uttered, and Abby's demeanor changed along with the doll's shape. It changed into a long, sharp pin and she aimed the point right at me. "You deserve to die!" 

The long pin flew straight towards me, but my leg still wasn't done healing.