The Temple

November 1st, 2066

On the outskirts of the city there existed a rather large temple. 

The temple was ancient and had been restored multiple times over the centuries to keep it functional. This temple was used as a popular tourist attraction and featured many carvings of various gods. It was run by various priests and shrine maidens over the years, who also functioned as tour guides and shopkeepers who sold various kinds of knickknacks and told fortunes to a variety of customers. 

The city board had allowed it to remain on the premises of the city, despite the lackluster response to religious institutions in the current society, due to the massive amount of ‘donations’ that were frequently presented to them. As a side note, they also used it as a pretense to avoid meetings with any other major religious groups by telling them they’d already found religion, which was also the excuse they made to avoid paying their taxes. 

Anyhow, moving on to the main point, this temple wasn’t just some random tourist trap. It was also the main headquarters of the secret organization of magical exorcists. 

Deep inside its depths was a secret training facility for young men and women. The organization recruited and adopted dozens of children into their ranks and trained them to combat the forces of the supernatural. 

The children were first taught 5 years of extensive melee and ranged combat, which was then followed by 5 more years of extensive magical training and research.The brutal and rigorous training process caused 90% of the candidates to die an early death. 

How tragic.

The main causes of these untimely demises was the incorrect use of magical powers. You see, the magical powers in this world are activated by using a device called a ‘breaker’ which is a metal wristband that when worn, collects the mana(or rather, energy) in the surrounding area and then allows the user to use the collected power to create magical patterns in the air that activate specific spells with various effects. 

The problem with this process was the fact that incorrectly executed magical patterns usually resulted in unexpected changes in the spells, which then would often backfire straight into the user causing them to end up a gory smudge on the walls.

Ouch.

There was also the problem with the breaker’s use of the user’s brainwaves to manipulate the highly radioactive energy it absorbed, causing massive brain damage, and even not functioning correctly if the user didn’t have the right brainwave frequency. But enough about that. Deep inside the temple, the remaining 6 ‘disciples’ were currently in active combat training.

“Hiyahh!”

The young woman swung down a bat into her opponent. She was Elusia Nulls, A.K.A ‘disciple’ No. 5. She was (as she would describe herself) a fair skinned, raven-haired beauty that looked like she had just graduated high school. She wore a slightly oversized yellow T-shirt she had stolen from the gift shop and a black jacket with red velvet inner lining over it. As for the rest of her attire, she wore deep blue jeans and a pair of black leather boots. 

In case you’re wondering, the facility did in fact have a dress code and a set uniform, but she never liked them and instead wore whatever she thought made her look cool(whether it did or not is pretty debatable).

“Heh. That’s all you got?!”

The boy nonchalantly swiped away the bat with his sword and smirked in defiance. The boy’s name was Frank Whinner A.K.A ‘disciple’ 6. He was a red haired young man slightly older than Elusia. 

Unlike her, he actually wore the uniform, a black blazer over a red buttoned shirt with a black tie in the middle. The rest of the uniform consisted of long black pants(skirts for the female ‘disciples’) and black dress shoes.

“You’re 10 years too early to take on the likes of me!”

Frank swung his sword diagonally towards her. Eulusia blocks the attack using her bat and kicks him in the stomach.

“Guffaw!? Hey that wasn’t bad!”

“Just shut up already!”

Elusia continues to slam her bat into his chest and then takes a big swing at his face.

“Damn! You’re really going for it! But that won’t be enough to beat me! () ultimate water dynamite explosion!”

Cringe. 

Frank forms a magical circle chain in midair and a torrent of water bursts out in front of him. Elusia tries to block the attack using her bat but the force of the water pushes her back and slams her into the wall.

“Annoying asshole!”

Elusia manages to recover and gets back on her feet, then puts her right arm out while glaring at Frank. She draws a magical pattern chain in the air.

“() take this!”

But nothing happens. Frank who flinched for a moment due to her intensity, recomposes himself and puts on a shit-eating grin.

“Haha! You still can’t use magic can you!”

Elusia grimaces at the comment, but then picks up her bat and tosses it straight into his face.

“Guffaw!”

“Enough! The match is over!”

A young girl who has been watching over the match intervenes before Frank’s face is permanently destroyed. She walks over to Frank and gently helps him up.

“That was amazing Frank! You totally annihilated her! Well, not like you’d ever lose to someone like her.”

“Heh. It was a pretty good workout.”

The young blonde girl links her arm around his and leans up against him. She is Amity Galsun, A.K.A. ‘Disciple’ 1.

She was the former top student before Frank beat her. You know the drill.

“Frankie! Are you okay!?”

“That looked painful.”

Two more girls run up to Frank and assess his condition. They are numbers 3 and 4.

“Heh, I’m fine girls. As if something like this could bother me.”

The young womanizer flashed his brightest grin at the two. The two girls sigh in relief and glare at Elusia.

“Why is someone this incompetent even still here?!”

“She can’t even form a single spell. She won’t last 2 seconds against a demon.”

The two girls mock her as she rests, sprawled out on the floor, but soon stop and avert their gazes. Elusia glares at the two girls with her blue half-dead fish eyes filled with despise.

“Just ignore her already. We’re going to get our first assignments any day now. If she doesn’t show any results, the temple will kick her out. More importantly what are your lunch plans Frank?”

Amity calms down the two and redirects the conversation.

“Heh. I don’t have any plans. Come on, let’s all head to the cafeteria. I’ll even let you feed me.”

This guy was definitely gonna end up getting stabbed one day. 

The 4 left the training room and headed towards the cafeteria. Elusia got herself off the floor and picked up her bat.

“Damn it!”

She slammed her fist against the wall, then sighed and dragged herself out to the hallway leading to her room.

There was also one more ‘disciple’ in the room, but he doesn’t really matter right now, so let’s just forget about him.