Adamas

A new cramped room, new suffocating anxiety swelled and choked the small office I sat.

A wicker desk in front of me. It was cluttered with articles and paperwork. Reports and dossiers. Stuff that in all honesty I shouldn’t have been looking at; but I couldn’t stop myself from looking at it. Suddenly he entered slamming the door behind himself and staring at a piece of paper as he entered.

“So Headmaster Hanagaki, good to see you again!” He lifted his head from his paperwork and lifted his eyebrow in confusion. “Hanagaki you were older last I saw you”

“Oh no, i...I’m not Hanagaki...I’m Flaemis Scorpius Shingumi the new Headmaster”

“Shingumi eh?....tell me you aren’t related to Kumajiro Shingumi are you?”

“Oh, you knew my father?”

“Father?....” He gasped and started laughing, like heavy loud guttural laughter. He began to slap his knee and continue his uproarious laughter. His whole body shaking, his eyes welling. Finally, he stopped and caught his breath. He wiped his eyes and sighed. “No really are you related to Kumajiro”

“I just said I am sir?”

“Yeah yeah enough with the humor” He sat down and folded his arms. “Also what’s this about being the new headmaster? Hanagaki couldn’t have just disappeared?”

“That’s what Belthazar says anyway granted...I took it with a grain of salt”

“Anyway, what brings you to my office Mr. Shingumi?”

“Your officers obviously” I said, placing the letter on his desk. “I was told it was urgent”

“Look Headmaster...that Letter was meant for Hanagaki and you’re obviously not him”

“Why does it matter? It just said to the Headmaster of Yggdrasil Academy….not sure how your officers found me though” I blushed before shaking my head and standing up. “You owe me for ripping me away from my husband so rudely”

“Look, all you need to know is that there’s a dragon my dragoons are handling it….that’s it!”

“Tell me what you were going to tell Hanagaki! I deserve to know!”

“And what authority do you have? You’re just a nobody In my office, in my headquarters” He chuckled. “You don’t need to know! As the Headmaster don’t ya gotta prepare for that annual ball”

“Damnit listen to me”

A cacophony of officers talking to someone echoed. Phrases like “Sir you can’t be back here without an appointment” Or “Hey do you have an appointment!”

Followed as the footsteps grew louder and louder. They suddenly stopped ending in silence in front of the office door. The door was thrown open and Kin’emon entered barring his teeth and snarling.

“What reason was Flaemis removed from our home?”

“Oh just for business, we were done anyway, take him!”

“Oh no no no! We’re not done here!”

“Oh I do believe we are, you’re obviously not Hanagaki so I have no reason to continue this conversation!”

“Listen Mr.- uh”

“Shinomiya, Simon Shinomiya!”

“Shinomiya, you woke me up! Drug me out of my home and then expect me to carry on? Are you diluted!”

“No I’m Captain Commander Simon Shinomiya and I can and will withhold information Good day gentlemen!” Simon shot open and moved for the door only to be stopped

“Is there anyway Flaemis can earn the information!” Kin asked putting himself between Simon and the door. “Anything we can do to pry it from you?”

“My….My determined aren’t we….Alright why don’t we have a little sparring match if you can draw blood from me; you win simple as that”

“Wait….I...can’t use my magic within kingdom walls Bel’s orders”

“That’s cute” Simon chuckled “Just say you were fighting demons and got a little too excited”

“You want me to lie to my boss”

“While he lies to your face….Boy in this world you can only get far by lying!”

Simon pushed past us and lifted his hand in a guiding gesture. “I know a good spot not too far from here” We followed closely behind Simon as he walked on his way, hands shoved in his pockets. Down a monochrome hallway made of bricks, mortar, and rocks. The only color one could instinctively understand is grey. Drab and insipid like a tasteless morsel or a white plate. Simon threw up his arms in a grandiose display. He exclaimed and kicked open a large steel door ushering in a sea of sunlight into the hallway. It was as if Color had existed for the first time. Blues, yellows, and reds all lit up the hall. The way the walls all glowed it was like a wave of watercolors and paints washed over the room. Filling the world with ever most vibrant and alive colors. Simon held the door and we walked outside. A vacant vast sandy valley graced our eyes. Sparse sproutings of grass and on lonesome Joshua tree stood amongst a picturesque sky blue canvas with fluffy white clouds. All the while mountains loomed in the background like protectors of a silent world. Simon began to laugh, not a simple tee hee ha ha kind of laughter but the kind of laughter that you would hear being hunted by a sickeningly bloodthirsty beast. He threw off his shirt, and the man that stood before us was nothing more than a marbled pillar of peak muscularity. Rugged and expertly crafted muscles glistened with sweat and bulged with power. He folded up his glasses and began to limber up. Raising his arms above his head, he put his weight forward and stretched until a loud pop filled the air. He did the same for his legs and back.

I turned to Kin and he to I. We both nodded and drew our wands.

“Wands? You two need wands?” Simon tilted his head upwards and his mouth curled into a smile. “This is gonna be even easier than I thought” AXIUS!!: DIVINE AXE ESCANOR!!!” Simon clapped, and a wave of deafening silence broke into the air. A large ax appeared in his hand. Long and with a heavy crimson head. Decorated in large golden spikes and finished with a large feathery wing-like protrusion that acted as a secondary cutting edge.

“DEPLOYMENT SPELL: WHEEL OF FORTUNA!!!”

I screamed pointing my wand in front of me. . A large golden circular board appeared. Decorated with the twelve astrological signs and a smaller inner wheel for the major and minor arcana.

A memory faint, distant fuzzy played in my head. The image of a younger me, my father, and my mother or at least a headstone laid to rest. Rain drenching the world, or at least the man I saw as my world. My world was raining. Broken and shattered like a mirror. Mother stolen away and a will-less man to look after me.

Suddenly my father knelt down; his hand pressed into my shoulder. His lips quivering he spoke softly.

“Take a good long look!” His grip tightened. “A man dies when his will fades! Fight Flaemis Fight and Prosper!” The memory slowly faded out like reverb on a bard’s lyre. Furrowing my brow and raising my voice into a loud confident Scream. I can’t accurately describe it but it was that undeniable positive surreal feeling that builds in your stomach like a bubble before popping, No idea where it came from or what its use is. But you undeniably feel a sense of empowerment from its arrival and departure. I furrowed my brow, dug my heels into the dirt, and began a long sonorous war cry! Wrapping my hands around one of the large golden spokes. I pulled downward suddenly.

“ASTROGIUS: HOUSES OF ATHENA!!!” The larger wheel spun and spun around endlessly.

“Oh that’s a pretty trick but it’s no match for Escanor,” Simon said raising the large ax over his head. He suddenly bolted forward. With a powerful upward strike the ax ascended towards the sky. A large shadowy serpent recoiled backward melting into nothing but shadows. Simon grunted gathering his composure and taking aim once more with his ax. “Beast Magic eh? You ain’t from the Sarushi kingdom are you?”

“That is of none of your concern” Kin’emon spat earning him a quick sucker punch to the jaw.

“Well, that confirms it” Simon snickered and readied his ax his muscles bulging. With both hands clasped around the ax, he flipped it around. Kin pointed his wand towards the sky and placed a hand upon the ground.

“TENJITSU!: KAGEKERO!” With a frantic fluidity to his movement, Kin drove his wand towards the earth. Sticking his wand into the ground a large plume of smoke followed by a loud poof. A large brown and orange bipedal toad appeared from the smoke. Atop its head stood Kin’emon with a scowl. Lord Mumen Kero the toad mount in question. Covered head to toe in scars and other such abrasions. A large coin was placed over his right eye like some sort of eyepatch. His eye dried, cataracted and unusable was now nothing more than a glorified coin purse.

A pipe in his mouth, long wooden handle met a rounded end made of gold and decorated with a detailed ornate paneling depicting a myriad of froggy forms battling demonic horned spirits. A large blue-black and yellow accented haori covered his large mucus-covered body with a large archaic symbol on the back of the Haori. The toad rubbed his chin and suckled on the end of his pipe before taking a long drag and exhaling a large plume of grey smoke.

“You want me to draw blood from him?” The large toad spoke pointing at Simon. The toad started laughing removing the pipe from its mouth as it flew agape.

“Consider it done!” The toad suddenly stopped laughing and his face became sullen with a dreadful serious grimace. Brandishing its Pipe like a fearsome weapon the toad stripped himself of his Haori and prepared for combat. Kin’emon pointed his wand down at Simon.

“This will be over in a moment” Kin folded his arms and Mumen snickered.

TOADIUS!!! Mumen exclaimed a glyph appearing above his hand. A large green glowing glyph with the head of a large frog in the middle. The large cuboidal glyph spun around his hand for a few seconds before disappearing in an anti-climatic blip. Loud rumbling croaks emanated from somewhere. Shaking the world with their volume. A large pink tongue touched the ground. Mumen had opened his jaw, the origin of the boisterous croaking had been revealed. A swarm of small bipedal toads all pushed and shoved forcing their way out of Mumen’s gaping mouth. Simon bared down on his ax with a smile. The toads swarmed with a loud croaky war cry. The brown and orange toads rushed at Simon. Kicking, punching, and pushing whoever was in front of them in order to reach Simon at any cost. With an animalistic glee, Simon charged forward. Meeting the swarm in the middle he made the first move. Escanor cleaved body from bone, head from neck and arm from the socket. All under the command of the wild swings of Simon. Instead of staining the world a deep crimson instead the world was covered in thick murky green goop. It wriggled around before coalescing into a smaller swarm. They all croaked raising their webbed hands and scowling.

“So it’s one of those ain’t it” Simon shook his head. “No good”

Simon drove the ax into the dirt kicking up a massive dust cloud. It bloomed into the air like a large brown petal before quickly settling in the air. Simon emerged from the dust cloud, His ax ready to strike. In a flash of light Mumen’s head was separated from his body. It rolled on the ground for a few seconds before disappearing into a puddle of liquid shadows. Simon ducked back into the dust cloud and emerged again. An evil glint in his eyes, his lips pursed and with one arm his swing began descending upon Kin quickly.

“Fight and Prosper Flaemis!” My father’s advice echoed in my mind.

ASTROGIUS: VIRGO IRE!! I don’t know where the feeling came from, but I grabbed the ax. A scornful face and a new head of light pink-colored hair. Red eyes and chains wound tightly around my wrists. I wasn’t me I was simply a warrior controlled and puppeteered by my magic to fulfill its own whims and wishes.

“Ah, so this is the power of the Stars!!!” Simon retorted, he stepped into his swing and the ax didn’t budge.

“VIRGO DIES IRA!!!” Balling a fist I drew close. His face close to mine. His body glistening with sweat and then I let him have it. With a firm stance and a will of fire. My fist connected. Like a split-second sublimation and explosion leading to an intense implosion. As my fist move through the air where there was space before there wasn’t after my fist passed over it. Simon shot back staggering and dropping to his knees gasping. Looking down at his hand he noticed something peculiar. Blood smeared across his hand...furrowing his brow and growling softly.

“How’s that willing to give me that info now?”

He quickly wiped the blood away and sneered. “No! You don’t deserve it”

“How about we end th---” Beads of sweat formed on my brow, My eyes dilated and like a parrot only taught one phrase my mind screamed.

“DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH!!!!” Simon Shinomiya or whoever he is wasn’t human. Not in the traditional sense. Laughing with a fist-shaped dent in the middle of his face. Spittle running down his mouth as his eyes rolled back into his head in elation. He stood up and like a blood starved hyena he cackled loudly. “What’s a matter kid Reaper got your tongue!” Simon retorted with a wicked wheezy cackle. AXIUS: DEVIL’S AX: ADAM! Simon spoke softly his words casting into the void of open air. As I gazed at him his form began to change, as he stalked forward his muscular form slowly changed. When he walked forward there wasn’t a man. Nor human whatsoever as he stalked forward that accursed ax in hand. Pale purple scaly skin, large twin horns stood erect from his forehead and proudly pointed towards the heavens. While his eyes now multiplied to seven-pointed to the hell below. His main set of eyes were squarely focused on me and nothing else. each step he made filled my mind with a pulsing pounding intensity. Raising my wand I pointed to the large wheel behind me weakly.

“THAT TRICK AGAIN!!!” The demon roared delivering a kick to my jaw knocking me to the ground, my back slammed against the ground. Spit blood and teeth landed around me.

H….Houses O...f...Of Athena” I spoke wiping the blood from my mouth standing back up.

“Yet you stand again? Why do you want to know?”

“Because I’m the Headmaster!!!!” The wheel stopped. A snarling lion, fire shot out of the wheel and it cackled with joy declaring “Good roll”

ASTROGI--- before I could finish pain came in intense waves, stomping up my spine and dancing a jig with my muscles. Teeth ground against themselves and blood dribbled out of my mouth. Suddenly I collapsed to my knees and coughed blood. A mouthful slowly and painfully came out of me.

“If that’s all you have….THEN YOU ARE NOTHING IN THIS WORLD!!!!” The demon swung his ax. It drew close. Suddenly it stopped, nobody touched it, nothing snagged it. It just stopped. A man clapped his hands and sighed. Swept-back hair, a Glasglow smile carved into his face, and heavy bags under his eyes.

“That’s enough Mr. Shinomiya!”

“Oh of course the lapdog gets involved”

“I have urgent news from his eminence”

“Can’t you see we’re in the middle of something Luminosa!”

“I can but I must cut your fun short his majesty requests Flaemis in his audience and you remember the saying don’t you”

“Yeah, Yeah even the Devil wouldn’t upset our king”

“Good good now Clean up this mess and get back to work” The man Luminosa nodded to himself before grabbing me by the arm and dragging me away.

CHAPTER 4 END!!!!!!!