Apostolic Assessment (2)

The pained scream of the afflicted scholar echoed through the hall, their entire face showcasing the immense pain they were currently going through. The victim continued to claw at their hair psychotically, their fingers sending strands of hair mixed with sweat and blood flying through the air.

The eerily painful sight evoked massive reactions of shock and fear from the crowd, as most of the candidates hadn't ever experienced such a dark and gruesome scene before.

Elias continued to gaze at the scene in shock, a look of confusion plastered all over his face. He looked around the auditorium with a dazed expression, making sure that everyone was seeing exactly what he was seeing. He genuinely thought he was seeing things again.

'I don't believe what I'm seeing right now. No, it's not that I don't believe it, but it's more like I can't. What type of unusual situation is this?'

Elias once again scanned the chaotic auditorium, his eyes capturing the expressions of the guards and the other True Scholars. He wanted to see how they were reacting to this creepy situation.

Elias's face suddenly morphed into one of confusion, as his eyes had captured yet another peculiar scene. The guards and all the other clergymen hadn't reacted at all! In fact, they were acting abnormally calm, as if it was a normal scene that was playing before their eyes.

Elias's sharp eyes narrowed slightly at the entire situation, as he suddenly felt like he didn't want to attend the academy anymore. Since he had arrived there, it had been one peculiar incident after the other, and he hadn't even gotten admitted yet.

'This is just my first day here and I've already had 2 different situational anomalies happen around me. Did I unknowingly offend the goddess of fate or something?'

While Elias was inwardly critiquing the entire situation, the guards around the hall finally moved to restore order. They gave commands to the candidates, asking them to maintain decorum while totally ignoring the wailing cries of the bloodied True Scholar. It even seemed like they weren't paying him any attention.

Elias was slowly pulled out of his musings by the guards commands, still not understanding why they had ignored the wailing cries of the afflicted scholar. What shocked Elias more was the fact that even the victims colleagues hadn't moved to help him, as he watched them calmly step aside to give him enough space to squirm around unobstructed.

'Why aren't these religious men trying to help their colleague at all? Their movements when he started to trash about also seemed to be in perfect harmony, as if they were even expecting it to happen.

'No way... Is this a weird religious ritual or something? But it looks too painful to be one, and even if it is, why do it here, in front of all of us. This type of scene can be very truamatizing to the weak minded!'

Elias glanced at some of the candidates beside him, shaking his head in pity as he observed their shocked and fearful expressions. He understood perfectly how they were feeling, since the main reason he himself could keep his composure was due to his past experiences.

Elias suddenly turned his head towards the location of the afflicted True Scholar, as he noticed the disappearance of the previously audible gasps and cries. The afflicted victim was finally offered an aiding hand by his colleagues, as they helped to steady him as he slowly rose from the ground. His disheveled and rough appearance looked gut-wrenching, an apparent contrast to his previously solemn appearance.

His face bore the signs of numerous scratch marks, with some places even missing it's outer layer of skin, while his face was also covered in numerous bloody marks. His neathly styled hair was now shriveled and disheveled, and his eyes looked as fatigued as a dying corpse, as if he could slump into unconsciousness at any moment.

The sight of the haunting scene caused the candidates at the front of the auditorium to step back in fright, as their eyes were glued to the bloody indentations on the clergyman's hands. They could clearly see small pieces of flesh stuck under his fingernail, which caused a few of them to almost throw up in disgust.

The True Scholar in question still had a calm expression on his disheveled face, as if the previous events had been a minor problem for him. He reached into his robe and pulled out a small green veil, before proceeding to throw it's contents into his mouth. After he ingested it's contents, he mumbled something to himself under this breath, before revealing a shocking scene to the crowd before him.

His entire body had slowly gone back to normal: his eyes no longer looked weak and frail, his face regained it's previous vibrancy, the empty patches of hair on his head had covered up and even the bloody marks on his face had healed. It was like the previous ordeal had been a pure illusion, as though it had never happened!

In fact, if it wasn't for the patch of fresh blood on the floor, the audience might have indeed concluded that they had been day-dreaming, the transformation was just too perfect. Elias looked at the small green vial in the hands of the now healed True Scholar, not showing the same amount of surprise as the other candidates. This was because he already knew what is was, as it was a special healing reagant made by the Grace Church.

He had heard Sister Marie talk about it in the past, and had even occasionally seen her carry a similar vial whenever she went out for missionary work. He just didn't know it's effect could be this potent, causing him to once again marvel at the supernatural authority of his church.

The scene of the True Scholar healing himself with the strange vial caused a lot of murmuring among the candidates, as the entire ordeal was simply just beyond their imaginations.

They then began to chatter endlessly among themselves, once again throwing the entire auditorium into a state of disorder and incoordination. Their endless voices started to spiral into a storm, causing a wave of noise to wash over the auditorium.

This caused the guards to spring into action, as they wished to maintain the decorum which they had previously established.

However before they had the chance to do so, a calm and collected voice reverberated around the auditorium's walls, it's tone representing a state of calming balance, as though it could convince even the most cruel of hearts to give up on their evil deeds.

The echo carried a singular statement, a statement which was more than enough to quiet the entire hall, once again placing the auditorium in a state of perfect equilibrium.

'Please behave…'

...

Within the secular chamber, the scene within it's walls still maintained it's previously chaotic state. The two royals didn't seem to notice what was transpiring within the main halls of the auditorium, as their main concern was with each other.

The heat and cold slowly started to eat away at the protective layers of the cubicle, making the rest of it's inhabitants finally shift in their seats. It seemed like if somebody didn't do something to subdue the altercation, the chamber would eventually collapse under the collective pressure.

An old man seated at the edge of the chamber lightly tapped the arm rest of his chair, his eyes totally fixed onto the main hall of the auditorium. He didn't seem to care about the discourteous display of the two nobles, making it quite obvious that he was more interested in the assessment process.

The strain on the protection wards of the chamber made him shift his attention away from the auditorium, as he furrowed his brows at the sight before his eyes. He lightly shook his head in displeasure, before issuing a command in a solemnly composed voice.

"Please Behave…"

Immediately his voice rang out, an aura of suppression fell onto the entire cubicle, bringing with it a subtle ray of sunlight. The aura of suppression rippled throughout the entire auditorium, with most of it's effects vastly concentrated on the infuriated pair of royals.

They then proceeded to struggle under the supressive sunlight gleem for a few moments, their faces communicating their reluctance and hesitation. They eventually ended up giving in to the comforting sunlight glow, with every thought of aggression in their hearts washed away as they calmy returned to their seats.

A light clap slowly echoed out at the end of the entire display, the applauder being an old man seated at the center of the chamber, with the area around him bearing not a single mark from the previously heated altercation.

"Thank you, Bishop Dufresne. I'm afraid that If you hadn't stepped in, the new students would have had to continue the assessment out in the sun, since the auditorium would most likely have been left in ruins."

Pleasantly amused chuckles broke out through the dimly lit chamber, a round of claps and praises issued to Bishop Dufresne for his valiant deeds.

Bishop Dufresne scoffed at the scene, clearly not amused at the obviously sarcastic display. He turned his head towards the previous speaker, his tone a bit straightforward and direct, as if to communicate his seriousness.

"If you were that worried about the altercation Professor Conti, why didn't you step in to handle it yourself? These royal hot heads just endangered the lives of all the assessment candidates, and you all just sat and watched them."

A young man with a pair of deep blue eyes burst into a hearty laugh, as though the question was a silly thing to ask. This lightly annoyed Bishop Dufresne, and he was about to speak up and reprimanded the young man, when he got an answer to his question.

"Well that's more or less obvious isn't it? We were all, including yourself, more concerned with what was happening in the main hall. A light tussle between two immature royals would hardly garner our attention."

The voices in the room all signaled their agreement, causing Bishop Dufresne to scoff and turn his head away. He felt like that was just an elaborate excuse, and the real reason was them wanting to see how the fight would play out. A fight between royal bloodlines was quite hard to come by.

Professor Conti smiled lightly at the annoyed bishop, before shifting his eyes back to the main hall of the auditorium. He calmly observed the now balanced and orderly scene, before stroking the top hat perched across his laps.

"Besides, it all worked out well in the end, since we were able to kill two birds with one stone. You stopped these two hot heads from bringing the roof down on us and in the process, restored stability within the main hall. I'd say that's a job well done, so there is no need for you to be so aggrieved."

Bishop Dufresne offered no direct response to the professor's light pacifying, his calm eyes shimmering with a subtle golden glow. His eyes were fixed on the calm and composed figure of a young man below, as he watched him wait to be called forward.

'This young man seemed to have unknowingly noticed the commotion that was caused up here by the Prince William and Princess Adele... Interesting.'

...

A few moments had passed since the previous odreal, and Elias still found it hard to believe that everything that had gone on had truly happened. He decided to wait until he was done with the assessment before running over all the details, since he would have Lars to brain storm with at that time. Two heads would always be better than one.

As Elias was waiting for his number to be called, he couldn't help but take one more glance at the hall. The number of candidates had vastly reduced since they were approaching the last batch of people.

Elias observed a lot of the entire process, and even saw Damian being pointed to the right door after he was called up. He had a bright smile on his face when he walked in, which made him look quite silly and uncivilised.

As Elias was engrossed in his inner amusement, he suddenly heard his number being called by the guards, which caused him to heave a sigh of relief. He calmly took his assessment pass and made him way to the front of the hall, subduing any feeling of nervousness in the process

He was told to stand in front of the Truth Scholar on the right, which was ironically the same scholar that had endured the earlier tumultuous episode.

Elias offered the man his sincere greetings, to which he was given a soft nod in response.

"Close your eyes and slowly free your mind. As long as you aren't too rigid and don't try to resist me, there won't be any complications with the process."

Elias respectfully nodded, signaling to the solemn and imposing True Scholar that he understood. He then proceeded to close his eyes, awaiting whatever process was attributed with the assessment.

He slowly felt a soft hand placed on his tussled hair, causing him to entire into a state of inner peace and quiet. His mind was free from every unnecessary thought, making him feel like he was floating within his own personal bubble.

However before he could properly enjoy the unusual sense of bliss, he suddenly felt his consciousness yanked and pulled down, as if he was submerged into the violent waters of a vast blue sea.