Chapter 3: Prophecy

Barbados felt his dreamy imagination settle in as he twisted a piece of divine golden yarn that fell from his garnet-red tunic. He sat to the left of Adam and was waiting for the starving eyes of the other staff members to be quenched. The only sound that could be heard was the shuffling and creaking of his skeletal wing joints. He was only waiting for Adam to draw up an introduction to the teachers that were in the main building when he emerged from his stone asylum. While Barbados's mind was endlessly appreciating the rotund room, his pearl-white eyes met a familiar helmet, this time adorning the features of a lion. Although he couldn't see past the metal barrier, he could feel that the covered figure was giving him a warm smile, to which he awkwardly nodded at and quickly changed his wandering mind to look at Adam. He was using his mana to transcribe what he intended to talk about. 'Cool' thought Barbados, while witnessing that this entire room was full of inexplicable wonders.

When he entered the room he felt a cold environment around the circular table, but now he clearly saw that it was his old mind making assumptions. All the staff talked to each other about their day and their troubles, nothing about the weird ominous archaic creature with a colourless rusting Halo. The teacher to the left of him was writing a final report on the progress of each of his students, although Barbados could clearly hear under his breath the obscene world he was calling each of them, sighing harder when he moved on to a different student, imagining him as a more ancient being than him.

"May I ask what that report is about?" Barbados awaited every possible response, from yelling and shouting to tiredness. What he didn't expect was a detailed professional response.

"This is a review of each student in my class, a pain my … but my responsibility. Although I swear they will be the death of .. . I never did catch your name, was it Barndos? Pardon me if I got it wrong. These annoyances have been extremely hard on me today."

"Ah," said Barbados trying to stop his mouth from gaping in awe, "Close but it's Barbados. What class do you teach?"

"No, this isn't one of my classes that I teach. This is my tutor class which means I'm responsible for making sure they show up and don't cause any ruckus. I'm just finishing writing their end of term report. It's their Easter break next week. Which speaking of," the teacher turned to Adam, "Let me change my cla-"

"Nope." replied Adam in a beat. Never had Barbados ever seen a man get shut down that quickly.

"Adam, please they're seeping my life out of me. I'll look like an Elder Druid by the age of 30. I'm 29 Adam, I've got 1 good year left."

Adam just ignored the poor staff member and after finishing the introduction, he let Barbados host the meeting.

"Ahem, my name is Barbados. As you probably know, I am part Sinborn, and there are many superstitions surrounding this race but the most prevalent and truthful one is that they are prophets of destruction. I have awoken to warn you of an upcoming war." In reality there was no war, Barbados was just twisting the lie further and further to fuel his satisfaction.

"And that being?" asked one of the intrigued teachers.

Barbados smirked.

"A war between Angels and Demons. I have risen to prepare mankind to survive the oncoming slaughter. I swear on my name as a Sinborn and as a human."

Adam took over the stage to assign each teacher with new standards and assignments for the students to try and drastically improve their results. As the meeting ended, each person in the room looked ready to drop dead from foreseeable exhaustion. Barbados helped the teacher that sat next to him to carry his items back to his class.

"I know this may be late to ask, but I didn't catch your name either?"

"My name is Grog Deavron, just call me Grog. Would you like to join me for a cup of coffee after I finish tidying up my documents?"

"I don't see why not. Also, about your class, who would you consider to be the least headache-inducing one?"

"Simple, Jorvik. He's the peacemaker of the class. Likes to play the pacifist, but underneath that facade he is a formidable talent."

Barbados thought it was funny how that description contradicted the same student who so graciously helped him.

"Ah and another thing I wanted to ask about. How did you people come across mana or gain access to it? It wasn't a thing when I roamed the world."

"Not surprising, not even us teachers now when it first appeared. But we do know it was after bloodshed. Us humans were desperate, and in our lowest moments, we began consuming the fallen fighting creatures. There is no surviving description of what we ate but they allowed us to use mana. Well, no surviving human record, other races may know but they mostly keep to themselves."

***

Barbados couldn't sit on any of the chairs in the cafeteria and simply chose to stand by the counter looking outside. Grog had gone to order the strange drink named 'Coffee' and he was expecting it to be a savoury treat. But, what he didn't realise was that they needed to add sugar individually, so when Grog got back and gently handed Barbados his cup, he instantaneously took a large sip. His tongue and throat had never tasted such a dirty liquid in their life, crying to be burned than taste that terrible drink again. He coughed and gagged, his body reflexing and his face slowly morphing into a state of visible disgust.

"How can you drink this harsh and devilish drink?! It tastes like poison."

"Did you add any milk or sugar to it?"

"Hah??? They expect us to add extra to this brown poisonous liquid to make it drinkable! My how humanity has lost track of their way."

Barbados tried to finish his drink in peace. But the curiosity for how to use mana ate away at his mind.

"Grog how did you learn to use mana? I'm wondering if it's possible for a being much older than it, such as myself, to learn it. The possibilities would be endless."

"To be honest, I haven't got the slightest clue to that conundrum. Most people are born with it or show signs into their childhood. I say most but there is the occasional Recluse, who are walking mana erasers that are a mage's worst nightmare. I am not the person to ask about when it comes to the history of mankind and mana, that would be Professor Kans. Surprisingly he's also the biology teacher."

"What do you specialise in Grog?" asked Barbados with a surprised expression.

"Colour theory and application to mana. By unlocking one's colour they are able to fully utilise their entire mana by focusing on those feelings. Although it may seem pointless, it's what makes the students realise that mana is still something we know little of."

"So lets say I unlocked green mana, what would that mean? Would I be using mana more efficiently when I thought of memories that correlated to the emotion of that colour?"

Grog took his last sip of coffee and respondent. "No. Not at all. They would need to be experiencing that emotion at that exact point to fully utilise their power. This is all trial and error, and finding the exact type of happiness or sadness you must feel takes time. Each individual's colour may follow the trend but it may differ from the norm. Speaking of which, would you be interested in viewing the afternoon class, that is if you have nothing else to do."

"Ah, let me check my invisible schedule that I've had for a millenia. Uh Huh. Yep. Says I've got time." chuckled Barbados at the sight of Grog cracking a smile. "Which room will we be going to?"

"I think you've been there already, the training colosseum. Seeing as how you wield a weapon yourself you might even be able to test one or two of the stude-" but Grog didn't even get to finish the sentence.

"No. Too dangerous for the students. If I was to get annoyed I would easily be able to diagonally slash and fully separate the colosseum. All the weapons I've made are specifically forged for killing.

Grog felt shocked, but in the moment he blurted out the most worrying thing.

"What about the weapons you gave the children? Isn't that hypocritical?!"

"Not at all. Those are weapon cores. Think of them as unborn baby weapons, or leeches. They will feed off the host's dreams, aspirations or even faults and slowly grow into a weapon fitting for them to achieve those dreams or help with their faults, and die out." Barbados was going to mention another thing, but he decided that it was best left unknown and simply forgotten. Grog heavily sighed and felt relieved.

"I may be an abominable and decrepit old creature but I did have children, 2 of them," spoke Barbados in a soft tone as to pay respect for the dead, "They were born human without a speck of Sinborn in them. Good for them." And without thinking too hard about the past he stood and asked what time the lesson started at.

"Oh shit, 5 minutes. Let's hurry or they will most certainly start fighting each other." And so they ran. "Even with forcing all my mana on my legs, Barbados was easily keeping up with me, even with all that added air resistance" thought Grog and admiring him without any ulterior motive. He was the very first person who didn't question him for his protruding fangs and twirled horns. He was grateful for this new friend. They made it with a single minute spare as the students were just about to have a battle to the death.

"Alright class, we will have a special guest join us for this lesson. Please welcome sir Barbados," Grog said while waving at the Sinborn to enter, "and I suggest you guys keep the pestering to a minimum. Even better if there's none." Barbados enjoyed the pleasant and entertaining atmosphere.

"Don't mind me, I'll just be viewing the lesson and ask a question or two." The students split into their friend groups, some wishing to stay alone to practice. Most students took a …. from the display but there were those that picked up a black stone that had a marble texture. Barbados approached one of those students and raised the question to what the purpose of those were.

"This is to help us with controlling mana by making us force it through the deep engraving in the stone. Once it is fully filled it should shine." spoke the student adding "sir" quickly afterwards. Barbados walked to the container filled with the strange apparatus and took one. He rubbed his hand over and gave it a tight squeeze. "BOOM." The stone shattered and smoke rose from the debris pile in his hand.

"Grog these are bombs!" yelled in a discombobulated voice.

"Yeah and students are at a level where they shouldn't be able to activate them," he responded in a snarky tone, "also how did you set it off??"

"I gave it a good squeeze," replied Barbados slyly.

Before Grog could scold Barbados, he wandered off to a group of 3 students who all held a different type of sword. Those were a scimitar, a flamberge and what seemed to resemble a greatsword, although the handle had metal decoration and the blade curved from a regular double sided greatsword into a single-blade that resembled a crescent moon. "Interesting addition" he thought as he pondered why such a redundancy was made that reduced the practicality of the weapon. However, from an artistic point of view it looked phenomenal.

"May I ask what this added curve at the tip of the weapon is meant to be used for?"

"Uh yeah. It's… it's for applying mana and letting it be displaced from the weapon as a sort of projectile. You're meant to make your mana mimic the characteristics of air otherwise it would dissipate in the environment."

"Intriguing. Even such a trivial matter as a sword tip can become an essential part of a weapon when using man." The student holding the flamberge was the first to notice Barbados's manner of speech and decided to ask a question.

"Sorry to question you sir but do you know how to utilise mana? It's fine if you won't answer."

"No it's fine to have some curiosity from time to time, but have too much and you may sell your freedom away so be careful. And to answer your question, no I don't. well , it's not a matter of I don't, but I can't as mana came about after I sealed myself. But I do have to ask you, what made you choose a flamberge as your main type of weapon?"

"Sorry? How did you know it was my main weapon?" asked the child in astonishment.

"I specialise in the making and use of weapons. It's expected of me. So will you tell me or should I leave it at that?"

"I've always thought that a sword designed for penetration was cool. How the curve and the angles aid it."

"Not what I was expecting but at least it's not a generic answer. What about you?" asked Barbados, looking at the final student in the group.

"I want to join the Lion Guild when I graduate from the Academy. One of the main skills looked for is being able to skillfully utilise scimitars with mana."

"When do you graduate from the academy?"

"In 4 years. We're in the first year of Blossom."

Barbados went over to Grog who was preoccupied with keeping 4 students from fighting and asked about the years that students are placed in. He explained that from the age of 7 to 15, the students were called Bulbs, but from 15 and onwards to 20 they became Blossoms. "Flowers huh." thought Barbados wandering back to a different group of students. This time there was a wide variety of weapons there: a throwing javelin, a short bow with arrows made from small animal bones, a morningstar and a war scythe. He was intrigued especially by the war scythe and its majorly shorter handle, but decided to walk back to the stand and just wait for the lesson to end, thinking he had caused enough commotion today. One of the students that got injured came and joined and they talked about the weapon he used, which was a … a harp? Barbados starred in confusion.

"How do you use a harp as a weapon? A bludgeoning weapon? No, it's too impractical."

"Ah yes it would be strange from an outsider's perspective but it's actually to help me with my mana. My mana is irregular and tends to rupture when I try to control it. This is a tool that I use to try and stabilise it."

"Is this a genetics issue or are you an anomaly?"

"Genetics and it's only gotten more unstable with me."

"So why do you believe you should restrict that natural aspect of your mana?" spoke Barbados to the boy while shuffling through his pocket and pulling out a gem that turned into a Dadao sword.

"This is a weapon specifically meant for slicing through unarmoured bodies. But if you applied your rupturing mana to the sword edge, you would be able to easily slice through any material. Do not let the views of others restrict your potential. Also you may not have this sword, it's far too dangerous. There's one still on the display." said the Sinborn with a sense of pride for his outstanding knowledge of weaponry. However, he was still in disbelief at the variation in swords that were present. While lost in thought, class had ended and he left with the students being included in any relevant small talk. But then he had an epiphany.

"Grog, where do I stay? The thought just crossed my mind." he said, adding an "oops" while shrugging clumsily.

"Adam knew you would ask this so he is kindly letting you stay in one of the upper year's dormitories. I'm just shocked it took you this long for your 'superior' mind to realise." Grog teased him and emphasised how such a grand being forgot. The students all stared at the mocking between the 2 adults and chanted for a fight.

"Are you all stupid? He would easily kill me." replied Grog. "Also, don't you all have to go to your respective clubs? I know professor Okia gets mad easily." And as those simple words left his lips, the students fully disappeared, except for 3 who left to go and explore the darkening city.