33 Risen#re

Mordred slammed a jar down on Lirian's desk, distracting him from the audio he was listening to about the Uldwin rebellion.

"Smell the brains of a fifth-grade body cultivator, that didn't train his mind," Mordred laughed and blew the awful smell of the preservation solution, that mixed with the brain goop, onto Lirian.

Lirian grinned at him and grabbed two pencils, and started to use them like chopsticks, "How about I make you experience what 800-year-old brains taste like."

'Ah, crap, evil Lirian is already out,', Mordred complained internally and shoved the lid back on the jar.

They were looking at flesh samples of people that didn't cultivate properly as part of today's lesson, Lirian didn't bother to pay attention it wasn't anything new to him anyway, so he spent more time researching Telamon.

He could vaguely hear miss Hira yelling at Mordred at the top of her lungs, he just opened up an 800-year specimen, with the current education system it was rare for anyone to make such a mistake in their cultivation and it cost a small fortune to acquire one.

Lirian got a sudden feeling that something was about to happen, he trusted in his intuition and got to his feet in a hurry.

Mordred just finished receiving an earful from miss Hira when he saw Lirian get up, "Come on," he complained, ", it was just a joke, no need to go-devil, monster or demon Lirian on me," he cried out, as Lirian walked past him he sighed in relief and watched Lirian curiously, most of the class did.

Since Lirian went blind he rarely ever moved around unless it was necessary, "Hey, what's going on?" Lucas called out behind him.

"Something... not... right," he said with a slight frown, the system wasn't detecting any danger to him at all, but he knew to trust his gut.

"What are talking ab...." a sudden siren stopped his words and a slight tremor travelled through the academy, making everyone get up in alert.

{Attention, all students are to form a proper line and evacuate the school under a teacher's guidance}

The announcement repeated several times and competed with the wailing siren for the student's attention.

Under miss Hira's guidance the entire class began to move she came to Lirian and grabbed his hand, "You're staying close to me."

"I can walk on my ow...." Lirian tried to complain but was cut off by miss Hira before he could string a full sentence together.

"I have no time for your attitude Lirian, you'll stay close to me or I'll knock you out and carry out over my shoulder," she said hurriedly.

When some of the boys saw her holding his hand they did wolf whistles and laughed at his expense, another announcement started to play and Lirian just barely made out the words over all the noise.

{All guardians report to the portal room immediately, this is an order from the headmaster.}

When she heard it miss Hira released her gripped on Lirian's hand and sighed in relief, 'It's just a breach,' she told herself, it happened occasionally when a candidate got killed, it wasn't completely uncommon for people to eventually find the portal and try to use it.

The portal room could be considered as a type of prison, it is the most solid place on the entire planet and it would take a team of seventh-graders to bust through the defences set up.

When Lirian heard the announcement, it made him think of the intel he got from Edith, amongst all the things pertaining to the candidates, the most important thing that the headmaster had was sole access to the portal room, the only ones other than the headmaster that have direct access to the room is the emperor and empress.

While every portal had a function for only a single time usage, they still held the coordinates of the worlds the candidates went to, if someone was able to retrieve that data it would give away the candidate's position.

It was with this that he came to understand Telamons goal in becoming the headmaster, it gave him the access he needed, there were only two things left for Lirian to figure out, he really couldn't figure out the motive, and the last one was how the paragon family restriction not punishing him for committing treason, he had a feeling that the two answers he was looking for were very closely related.

---

The patriarch and matriarch appeared in the portal room and three others appeared behind them, when they looked back to see the rest of the army, they prepared they gritted their teeth in anger.

It was just the five of them that made it through and when they looked back the portal started to crumble, they walked off the portal platform and saw a room filled with similar devices in every direction.

One of the subordinates gasped as he looked at it, "Patriarch, could it be that all of these belong to the other spies they have planted on our world,"

The matriarch had been thinking the same thing and hissed, "We must destroy all of them we cannot allow them to return and share the secrets of our world,"

At that moment several alarms began to ring and they heard words in an unfamiliar language.

{Authorization failed... the princess candidate Ilma Eden is not detected}

{Intruder alert}

{Initiating defence protocols}

"Quickly, destroy the gates," the leaders shouted, they all gathered their energy and released the most devastating attacks they could muster, but before the attacks could travel more than a dozen feet it struck an invisible barrier and rebounded smacking all of them down.

Then a series of contraptions appeared binding them all down and locking them in place leaving them without the ability to retaliate.

---

On the bridge Telamon stood with the guardians of the school and watched the intruders, they had no real ability, "D-class combatants at best", he said turning to one of the guardians a pure Ent and tossed him a translator, "Go and deal with them Galatros," he ordered.

"Do feel free to call on us for help," one the guardians Kristen called out to him.

The Ent shook its head and looked at him, it seemed as if he was looking at him deeply, but all Ent's were like that; their way was slow and prolonged.

"Don't patronise me," Galatros's voice rumbled like thunder, it was always like that whenever he spoke, he steadily made his way down to the portal room and put the translator on.

---

The demi-Ent's heard the sound of loud steps as they tried to break free from the contraptions in vain, and when they looked up, they thought that were dreaming, it was a pure breed Ent the type from legends that they had worshipped and that even the great ancestral tree had never seen.

"Great master Ent please help us, the people of this world seek to invade our home and take what is ours for themselves, if you help us, our people will welcome you and sing the song of the leaves in your honour, I shall gladly offer my role as patriarch," the patriarch began to speak freely in the presence of an ent, he believed that it came to save them and he could feel the incredible aura on the ent before him.

The patriarch had no doubt that he was in the presence of a godly Ent from the legends there was no shame in lowering his head to such a being.

Galatros paid no heed to his words and approached, his rumbling breath echoing in the ears of the demi-ent's, he casually slipped of all their storage device with a quick spell and began looking through it.

The patriarch looked at him in surprise, "Why are doing this, we are of your race why do not help us," only silence answered him as he was about to say something again he heard the matriarch hiss at him.

"Do not waste your words on him, he is a traitor to his own kind, just like the others they brainwashed," she spoke with extreme hate in her voice.

One of their subordinates gather up energy in his mouth and shout a beam of thick lighting at Galatros.

He didn't even bother dodging it, as it came in closer when it looked like it was about to hit the lighting seem to change its mind and begun circling around his body spinning at a blinding speed.

Galatros checked the contents of their rings and eventually pulled out the severed head of a woman and he sighed, "She was such a pleasant child to talk to," his voice rumbled as he looked at Ilma's cold and lifeless head and reminisced, he had taken the girl under his wing at one point.

"She had the greenest of hands, I once suggested that she go visit the rain forest of my home, I thought that she would be excellent at raising the young entlings," he sighed pitifully and with a casual flick of his long fingers, the lightning returned with a hundred times its original power killing the three behind the two leaders.

"I take it that you are the ones that killed Ilma," he said in a rumbling whisper.

"We have nothing to say to you, you traitor to your own kind," the matriarch hissed at him.

She only heard the rumbling laughter that sounded like an avalanche coming from Galatros, "The universe is so vast..." he said thoughtfully, "I'm so used to the empire that I've forgotten how foolishly ignorant uneducated beings can be," he looked at them like the sad creature that they were in his eyes.

"In the empire, the stupid notion of racial superiority does not exist, it's a concept that most have long since forgotten, the only thing that matters in this world is one's ability, even a beggar in the streets could one day become emperor if they possess the talent, strength and wisdom to do so."

"Do you have any last words? I believe that the Eden family will be happy if I send them your complete corpses so I'll make it quick and painless," he said putting Ilma's head away.

"What happened to our army we had over a million warriors marching behind us, why are they not here?" the patriarch asked.

Galatros looked at them and some of the anger in his eye's vanished, "To have the courage to lead your army from the front you have earned my respect," he looked at them in contemplation, "You needn't worry about your people, the portals of the candidates only have enough energy for them to bring four servants from the trial world."

"Now farewell," he swiped his hand and severed their heads, the cuts were identical to the ones on Ilma's head.

He strolled out of the portal room while masquerading the heads of the two demi-ents.