Another War

There might be magic involved too, Yule thought.

Then he felt that Zuna was slowing down.

"This is the entrance leading to Tawalisi," Sanna explained.

Yule noticed a metal runway in front of them.

The runway leads to a large tube connecting to the floating city. Zuna walked slower when his hooves touched the metal runway.

"There"s a station guard near the entrance," Sanna pointed her finger to a small square-shaped metal structure. If Sanna didn"t point out the square-shaped structure, Yule would never notice it.

The metal structure was like a giant box in the middle of empty s.p.a.ce. When they got closer, Yule could see some gla.s.s windows surrounding it. Then beside it, a lone tall person guarding the area.

Yule heard Sanna clicked her tongue when they inched closer to the guard.

"Of all the days, he"s the one a.s.signed tonight!" He heard the frustration in Sanna"s voice.

When Yule looked at the guard again, he could see a smirk plastered on his face.

"Well, look we have here," said the guard in a deep voice. Yule examined him and from their vantage, the man was towering them. His head was shaved, and upon closer look, there were some old scratches on his brown color cheek, probably acquired from past battles. The guard was wearing an unb.u.t.toned long black coat, covering partially his black shirt and pants. Behind him, Yule could see a large ax strapped on his back.

"Manu," Sanna nodded at him.

Manu placed his hands on his hips, making him more an imposing figure.

"You"re probably aware that you are beyond curfew hours from the academy."

Yule and Sanna climbed down from the white stag. Zuna quickly turned to a ball of light and returned to Sanna"s shard. The two of them tried to feel their legs and feet after riding the white stag for hours.

"I apologize for that. But you see," Sanna looked at Yule." While I was finishing my mission, I found a civilian on the Ground."

Manu examined the boy from head to toe, while Yule looked at him nervously.

"Hey boy, how the h.e.l.l did you end up on the Ground alone? Civilians are not allowed in this area. Do you, perhaps plan to kill yourself? And how you able to get pa.s.s through the security?"

Yule glanced at Sanna, looking hopelessly at her. He didn"t know if he can provide the same explanation he gave to Sanna.

Sanna cleared her throat, intending to rescue Yule from Manu"s interrogation.

"Manu, we are not mandated to answer your questions. We will provide the necessary explanation to the Academy and our cla.s.s advisor."

"I agreed. But this guy," Manu pointed at Yule. "He is a civilian, so he answers to me. A fully licensed slayer."

Sanna chuckled and pretended to slap her forehead. "Oh did I mention that he is a civilian? Silly me."

Manu looked incredulously at her. Sanna moved closer to Yule and started to unb.u.t.ton his shirt.
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Yule was surprised by Sanna"s action. He eyed her with a questioning look, but she just winked at him.

Sanna pulled the polo shirt, revealing the bare chest of Yule.

"H-he has a shard?" Manu said in disbelief. "But he is not familiar to me. I may not be familiar with all the names of the current students of the academy, but I"m pretty confident with my memory. I haven"t seen him on school grounds ever."

"Oh Manu, I haven"t told you yet my full mission. I have to escort this guy to Tawalisi. He"s from the neighbor island. Yule is a transfer student to the academy." Sanna faced Manu proudly.

"Which island?"

"Again with questions, Manu. If you want, you could call my advisor, Professor Fields. I"m pretty sure he would love to receive a call from you."

Manu stepped backward after hearing the name of Sanna"s professor. But he remembered his place and regained his composure quickly. Manu cleared his throat and glared at them.

"Very well, both of you may enter the Tube Elevator." Yule quickly b.u.t.toned his polo shirt and followed Sanna"s footsteps.

Then, Manu blocked their way using a left arm.

"You know the drill, right?" Manu looked happily at her.

"Please do it quickly," Sanna replied.

Yule tapped the back of Sanna. "What now?"

"He will just do a standard inspection and scan us."

"Drone A5!" Manu shouted to no one. Yule looked around expecting something to come out, but nothing happened or at least appeared.

When Yule was about to tap Sanna again, he heard a pop sound. It was the same sound when someone opens the cork of a bottle wine. He examined the ground and found a metal ball popped out from the metal runway. The metal ball floated from the ground and flew straight to Manu, circling him.

"Scan them," Manu ordered to the metal ball. The drone flew towards Sanna and Yule. When Yule got a closer look at the drone, it was just a simple metal ball and at its center was red dot glowing, serving as the eye.

"Scanning initiate," the drone said in a monotonous voice. Then the drone"s eye projected a red glowing line at the feet of Sanna. The red light quickly moved up, scanning the whole body of Sanna until it reached her face.

"Sanna Vlanco. Recognized."

The drone moved past Sanna and scanned Yule.

"Unregistered Human. Awaiting for next order," the drone stayed in front of Yule.

Manu smiled smugly at Sanna and moved aside, clearing the path to the Tube Entrance.

"You may go now."

Sanna rolled her eyes at Manu and marched with heavy footsteps towards the entrance.

*****

The Tube Entrance was just a huge gla.s.s tube connected to the floating city. When Yule and Sanna arrived in front of the tube, Yule didn"t see any visible doors so to enter it. Sanna walked closer to it and placed her palm at the gla.s.s. Then a small rectangular hole suddenly appeared where Sanna placed her palm. Slowly, the rectangular hole expanded horizontally and after a few seconds, it expanded vertically, accommodating the height of Sanna.

She stepped inside and faced Yule. "Shall we?" she said.

Yule stepped inside the tube and felt cold upon entering it. He thought there might be a hidden air conditioner inside. Then Yule heard a clicking sound underneath the circular metal floor where they were standing. The floor moved and started to ascend.

Yule amazed by what happened and smiled brightly at Sanna. When he tried to look back at the station guard area where Manu interrogated them but it became smaller as they ascend farther away.

"So what"s your deal with the guard earlier?" Yule asked. "I can sense that you"re not comfortable with him around."

"Am I that obvious?" Sanna replied then started crossing her arms between her chest.

"Let"s just say I"m not a big fan of him. I can"t discredit his skills as a good slayer, but he"s too proud of himself. Plus," she paused for a moment, "he was one of the people who accompanied my parents before they were killed." Then she looked through the gla.s.s looking at somewhere.

A long pause went between them, and Yule was thinking about how to break the silence when he remembered something Sanna said earlier.

"Um, Sanna you"ve mentioned earlier that there"s a neighboring island aside from Tawalisi. How many floating islands are out there?"

Sanna looked back at Yule and smiled at him. "There are only three floating islands in this world. One is," she pointed above, "Tawalisi. Second is the agricultural and forest island, Verde. It"s farther from here. But people can go there by riding an aircraft. And the last one is the Sanctuary. It"s a research facility for shards and other technology-related. This one is a bit near to Tawalisi."

"So there are also villages or cities on those two islands?"

"In Verde, there"s only one city, but there are scattered villages on it, while Sanctuary is just one big facility. It is the smallest island among the three."

"Would love to visit those two islands also," Yule said.

Then, their background started to change. They could no longer see the horizon as they ascend further. They were surrounded by soil and rocks.

"We"re near now," Sanna explained.

Yule heard another clicking sound, and the metal floor stopped moving.

While Yule was still looking at his surroundings, the rectangular door appeared again. Sanna moved first and stepped outside.

Yule followed her and was greeted by an explosion of colors and sounds.

There were a lot of people walking around on busy streets. Some are checking the colorful boutiques and stores. When he looked above, he was surprised to see flying vehicles up in the air headed to various directions.

"This world has flying cars?!"

Sanna just shrugged at him. Sanna was entertained on his surprise expression plastered on his face.

While still looking above, Yule could see tall buildings and towering skysc.r.a.pers. There were some buildings with landing platforms, situated mid-level of the structures. Further above, Yule noticed that there was a gla.s.s covering the city from the dark sky.

"Is this city enclosed by a gla.s.s dome?" he inquired.

"Of course! We"re 10,000 meters above the ground. Without the gla.s.s dome, we can"t breathe normally, and this is to protect us also from the harsh environment outside."

Yule nodded at her still amazed with everything he was seeing.

"Come on, we need to go to the academy quickly and meet with Professor Fields. He will know what to do with you." Sanna started walking ahead towards the crowded street.

When they were crossing the street, Yule caught by the attention of two tall figures walking against them. A tall man and woman wearing a white military-like uniform. Both of them had pale skin but their hair was very colorful. The man had bright green hair, while the woman had bright blue hair. Both figures stood out among the crowd of brown, black, blond heads.

Yule looked at the face of the woman where he was struck with how beautiful she was. He was captivated by her green eyes. She also had a small face and a sharp nose. But when Yule looked at green-haired man, his eyes almost popped out. He had emerald stones for eyes. And the weird thing, he had eyelids covering the emerald stone when he blinked.

Yule looked at Sanna to look for an explanation but she mouthed, Later.

After crossing the street and away from the two tall figures, Yule and Sanna stopped at a nearby store.

"Those two are Engkanto," Sanna explained.

"I can definitely sense that they are not human. And you"re right, they are beautiful creatures. But I didn"t expect that you are literal when you mentioned that they have emerald eyes!" He blurted at Sanna. "But if they are both Engkanto, why the tall woman has a normal set of eyes?"

"There are some Engkanto who show their emerald eyes proudly to everyone. It gives them distinction from us, humans. But there are also Engkanto who wear glamours to make their eyes normal to humans. I think this is the only magic left in them they can perform."

Yule tried to find the tall figures among the crowd. But he could no longer find them. Sanna beckoned to walk again when they were blocked by a huge crowd, cheering someone in front of them. Yule tried to stand on his tiptoe, so he could peek. Then suddenly Sanna grabbed his hand and walked on their left. They moved to an area where fewer people blocking the path. When they had a better view of the surrounding, they found the reason why there were so many people gathered. They were watching a large hologram video. It was a live stream of two people fighting.

"It"s a live feed of Tawalisi Battle Fiesta. If I remember correctly, the game is still in the middle of the Elimination round. It"s a compet.i.tion for Slayers." Sanna explained to Yule.

The hologram showed two people fighting: a young girl holding a staff facing a young boy also lashing his whip at the girl. But the girl avoided all the attacks.

Yule thought the girl was the underdog, since she was on the defensive end, while the boy was aggressive on his attacks.

After lashing several attacks that were all amazingly dodged by the girl, the boy started to breathe heavily. His attacks became slow which was also observed by the girl with the staff. The girl found the perfect timing and leaped from the ground. She mouthed some words and magic circles started appearing behind her. The boy froze when he saw the magic circles. He quickly unleashed his whip attacks, but pillars of white energy launched from the magic circles, targeting the boy.

The attack from the girl was a direct hit to her opponent. When she landed on the ground, the boy fell on his knees, unconscious on the floor.

The crowd yelled after the girl won the battle.

"Enough detour, we have to go now," Sanna interrupted Yule still hooked on the hologram screen.