So Begins Tartarus

(Tuesday, 13th of Marching Legion Moon, 2021)

It was now the begining day of Tartarus, and the day where all of the students will be assigned their instructors for the duration of Tartarus. Jack was in the gymnasium with the rest of his class, waiting for the announcement. Not too long ago, he finally received the last 11 artifacts from the pigs he sent out. Lindwurm is armor that resembles that of a dragon. Hyperion is more complex, taking the form of a yellow bike that had machine guns on either side of it. Death Bride is more simple, just a pouch that can create any explosive that is no larger than the pouch. Bamboo Forest is a katana with a sheathe, and the katana had a black blade. Joker was a silver handled scythe with a crimson blade. Basilisk is a Sabre that emitted flames at the blade. Cinderella took the form of a golden harp with golden flowers decorating the frame. Grateful Beast was mildly terrifying, because it was a chest with very human arms and legs. Fastest Thing took the form of a shortsword paired with a green sheathe with intricate designs. Flower Queen was a set of six javelins made of different colors from one another that formed a rainbow. Sparta took the form of a bronze spear and a heavy shield that was Jack's size with red paint on it to depict a lion. Take Five By the Hand was an oddball, and took the form of a golden ladybug.

"Should we not have told everyone?" Juana asked while Jack looked around the room. "They look kind of distraught?"

"I think most of them are just dreading Tartarus." Catherine observed before her eyes landed on Alice. "Jack, can you go talk with Alice real quick? She looks bothered by all of this."

"Yeah, sure thing." Jack agreed to go check on Alice, since she was his best friend. 

Alice looked a bit gloomier than usual cheerful and optimistic self. Alice didn't have her usual make-up on her face, and Jack saw something surprising as you walked up to her. Alice had freckles. Normally Jack couldn't see it because Alice often wore makeup to cover them up, and it was likely that the makeup had magic to not melt off when she sweats. Alice had dark circles around her eyes from not sleeping well, and she was thinner than usual. Alice noticed Jack walking up to her, and forced a smile and waved at him.

"Hey Alice, are you doing alright?" Jack asked the girl, who was putting away her phone after doing something on it.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Alice answered in a tired voice while looking down. "I just don't understand why Grandpa would keep something so important a secret from me. Especially since it might involve these voices I've been hearing, and how he asked you to monitor me...say, how long have you been monitoring me?"

"Oh I never agreed to monitor you or anything, just making sure you were okay was enough for me." Jack answered Alice's question honestly. "Besides, I only joined this 'other side' at the beginning of school."

"So you were my friend from the beginning, before we came here?" Alice asked, and her lilac eyes looked up at Jack with hope in them.

"Well, I don't remember anything before the accident, but I promise you, I was always your friend." Jack may not remember everything perfectly, but he had a feeling that was the truth.

"Thanks, can I ask you for a favor?" Alice requested, and Jack answered without giving it a second thought.

"Sure thing, what do you need?" Jack asked the goth, and she suddenly outstretched both her hands.

"Please hold the fuck up." Alice requested, and her friend was confused for a moment. "I'm the fuck up, please hold me."

Jack rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around Alice, and she wrapped her own arms around her friend's torso. Due to the height difference, Alice had to stand on her toes to rest her chin on Jack's shoulder. After a couple moments, Alice broke the hug as Herakles walked up onto the stage in the gymnasium. Both Jack and Alice turned their attention to the stage where Herakles was preparing note cards in his hands as he walked towards the microphone.

"Students, each of you have made quite a bit of progress thanks to the training regimens assigned to you by your instructors." Herakles congratulated each of the students while looking in the gymnasium. "Some of you joined us late, but have made considerable progress. Today marks the beginning of Tartarus, during this period of time, training will be intensified tenfold to resemble a more traditional military than a school. You won't go on any missions during this time, instead focusing on training your own unique personal attributes."

"Personal attributes?" Hel asked before looking at Ned. "So you're gonna enhance Ned's love for tits?"

"I'm an ass man, you ghost." Ned scowled at the woman, who chuckled to herself.

"I mean attributes that make each of you special." Herakles looked around the room. "While there are only three official kinds of roles, tank, DPS, and support, they're ultimately umbrella terms. Not very helpful ones at that. Take Gaia for example, they're a tank just like Galahad Lake, yet the two couldn't be more different. Yet they fill the same role. It's an odd coincidence in life, isn't it?"

"Get to the point, old man!" Robin shouted, and Herakles shot the tactician a glare.

"Fine, I was just gonna say that you all should learn not to oppose each other in this class, but learn to put together your strengths to become invincible." Herakles pouted before pulling out a massive roll of paper and unfolding it in front of all the students. "Here's the list of the people who will train you all, have fun."

Herakles tossed the paper at the crowd, and Adrian was the person who grabbed the paper. The class crowded around Adrian to look at the paper as Herakles walked off and exited the gymnasium. The door closed, and in the corner of Jack's eye, he saw Herakles stop pouting and let a smile slip. The door closed before he could turn his head for a better look. Jack looked at the paper with the rest of the class.

West Gymnasium, Maui: TJ, Bruce

Science Room, Nikola: Leia, Robin, Zane, Molly, Eve, Othelia

Forest, Titania: Medea, Caroline, Damini, Gaia

Training grounds next to forge. Mansa: Thor, Galahad, Mifu, James, Hassan

Infirmary, Elizabeth: Lorelei, Saorise

Docks, Cheng: Ned, Luna, Mary, Goliath

Ritual Room, Vedmak: Rasputin, Freya

Magic Lab, Domovoy Brothers: Nico and Rico

Clearing in the Forest, Eddy and Maria: Juana, Angelo

Waterfall, Sobek: Hel, Valerie, Iris

Tip of Noon Mountain, Herakles: Matt, Catherine

In Dark Dark City, Geppetto: Alice

Sanctuary Tower, Everyone except Librarian: Hero

Sanctuary Library, Librarian: Jack

James examined the list. "Looks like I'm working with Mansa."

"What's the deal with these locations next to the names?" Freya wondered out loud.

"I guess that is where we are supposed to meet them?" Mifu made her guess known to the rest of the class.

"If that's the case, I'm heading over to the library." You opted to start walking to the library.

"Wait, Jack, before you go, before any of you go, let's all make a promise." Alice gathered everyone's attention while she clasped her right hand into a fist, then she stuck out her pinky. "Let's pinky promise each other that no matter how hard things get here, that we'll push through and defeat those threats."

"Wait, so normally pinky promises require us to hold onto each other's fingers, so do we all have to hold pinkies with everyone in here?" Galahad asked, and Alice shook her head.

"Nah, let's just all stand in a circle and aim our pinkies in the middle of it." Alice ordered, and everyone did just that. With everyone in a circle, they all bawled their right hands in a fist and stuck out their pinky fingers before aiming their fingers towards the middle. "Great, now, let's all graduate from this college together, not as a class, but as a team."

"Alice, that was so cheesy."

"I'll stab you, Jack."

(Later)

Jack pushed open the wooden doors to enter the library. The inside of the library was completely empty aside from the books lining the shelves and the various desks scattered around. Normally there were 1 or 2 students in these halls, but now there was no one there. Walking towards Jack was a lone figure dawning a gas mask like usual. The librarian walked towards Jack and Jack alone, because his companions weren't with him. The librarian used sign language to begin a conversation with Jack.

"Hello Mister Grimm, are you ready to begin your training?" The librarian asked you without so much as a dagger on him.

"Yeah, I never took you for the combat type though." Jack replied honestly, and now that he began noticing minute details on the librarian, Jack began to wonder why he used sign language to communicate. Maybe he was mute?

"I consider myself more of an intellectual than a fighter, but back in my hay day, I used to be quite the dangerous opponent." The librarian signed before he began to lead Jack towards the back room of the library. "Unfortunately, I had to remove my magic from my body during a certain set of events that took place 9 years ago."

"I guess with magic, anything is possible?" Jack looked at the bookshelves around him. "So what kind of magic did you possess anyways?"

"Me? My magic was one of the strongest out there." The librarian appeared to reminisce about his past while he guided Jack through the library. "So powerful in fact, I desired a simple life, and I got a simple life when I gave up my magic. If I hadn't, then maybe you could have absorbed it from me due to it fulfilling all the criteria of your 'Power of Ancients' ability."

"Well darn, there goes my opportunity to learn a new kind of magic." Jack whined sarcastically. "Speaking of magic, is 'it' done yet?"

"The potion to restore your power?" The librarian asked Jack to confirm, and he nodded. "It's completed, and I hope you've been getting stronger without relying too much on the promise of the potion."

"I've gathered all the slayer weapons except for the ones Mansa and Hokusai own, plus I'm also missing the last two that are missing." Jack informed the Librarian, and it was hard to tell because of his mask, but he looked impressed.

"Well done, now tell me, which one are you most proficient in using?" The librarian asked Jack.

"In all honesty, I'm most comfortable using Storyteller, but I think I'm best at using London Bridge." Jack answered as he reached the door leading to the back room of the library.

The librarian opened the back door to reveal a room that was much larger than what should have been reasonably possible, nah, it looked like it led outside. The place behind the door looked like the underwater world of a mangrove forest, where the wooden floor of the library was replaced with wet sand. Jack saw fish, lemon sharks, and even sea turtles swim through the long, stilt-like roots of the mangrove forest. Jack was in awe of this, and the librarian walked through the door, and amazingly, he looked unaffected. Sure his clothes swayed and behaved as though he was in water but other than that, he looked unaffected. Jack followed behind the librarian, and was surprised to feel the water all around him, making his hair and clothes float with the current, yet Jack could move just fine. Jack looked at the door frame he just came from, and it was like the door was just propped up in the middle of the water. There wasn't even a building behind it.

"Come now, Jack, don't get distracted." The librarian beckoned the student as he continued to walk on the marshy ground towards the sandy bank of land. "This is a kind of pocket in space that I made for the conservation of most prehistoric species. This island we're approaching is the only neutral ground without any extinct species."

Jack continued to follow the librarian through the mangrove forest until he noticed how the sandy floor began to slope upwards. Jack followed the librarian up the sandy bank until the two of them were out of water. Amazingly, neither of them were wet from the ocean. The place where the two of them arrived at was an island with something taking up most of it. In the middle of the island was a massive square made up of what looked to be sandstone. This massive square of sandstone stretched itself over 20 meters on each side, and in the middle of this was a green triangle.

"The archeologist has three skills; Power of Ancients, Bone Collector, and History Maker." The librarian pointed out. "Each representing Mind, Body, and Soul respectively, these are the three forms of Archaeologist magic, or as it's called in official records, Temporal Necromantic magic. Necromancy magic that possesses the time element."

"Fancy." Jack commented in a relaxed manner. "So what exactly am I gonna focus on training on?"

"Half of your training will focus on making you more proficient in the use of Slayer Weapons, while the other half will try and enhance your Temporal Necrotic magic." The librarian answered before pointing at a nearby table, and on that table lie the Tempest, Michael, Bael, and Camelot. "Hokusai and Mansa gave you their weapons for the time being to train."

"So I'm gonna have to Master 70 weapons?" Jack asked in mild fear, now regretting his decision of coming to this school.

"Oh Heavens, no, that's impossible."  The librarian denied the idea. "Instead, I'll teach you the bare minimum of each weapon so you can defeat anyone with the opposing weapon type. When it comes to melee, there is a simple weapon triangle for the basics: Swords beat axes, axes beat spears, and spears beat swords."

"What about bows, magic, and random bullshit like whatever the fuck Three Little Pigs is?" Jack asked the Librarian.

"I said 'basics', not a complex list." The librarian answered before reaching into his pocket, and he handed Jack a mossy green vial filled with a glowing silver liquid. "This is the potion to your powers, it's safe, but the moment you drink it, we enter a training frenzy. So ask any questions you have now."

"Oh yeah, what's your name?" Jack just remembered that he never learned the librarian's name, which was pretty awkward. For the first time ever, he heard the librarian speak.

"My name? It's Solomon."