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Frey and Doevm emerged from the Underground several minutes later. The ginormous light crystal was at its brightest, signaling midday had come, time for the initiation. As they hurried through the streets, Frey remained silent, his eyes staring at a far-off place. When he inevitably knocked into someone, he apologized and kept moving.

Doevm glanced back at him a couple times but didn\'t say anything. The building, like the clerk said, jutted out of the red-light district like a sore thumb. Doevm and Frey crossed the wide wooden drawbridge, suspended over a deep body of water with thick chains. Large white stone pillars held up a flat shingled roof which ended when it met the back of the mountain. There were no windows, only metal walls and a large doorway. A single man stood at the edge of the doorway, covered in scratches and plated armor.

"General Alexander said to give this to you." The man handed Doevm a leather scroll. "Open it after the initiation is over." He stepped out of their way and did a quick bow. "And thank you for your guidance. I might have been trained by General Alexander, but that didn\'t make me a good leader, nor is he to be honest. He is simply strong. You made a good call that saved my fellow graduates."

Doevm returned the bow before heading past him: "We all make mistakes."

Frey\'s hand closed and opened several times: "I have a lot of questions. I said I didn\'t care before, but now it is starting to get on my nerves."

"I\'m sure you do," Doevm smiled. "I\'ll tell you later."

\'How soon is later?\' Frey thought as they went through the doorway.

The first thing that drew their eyes was a massive chandelier made of carved light crystals which illuminated the enormous semi-circular room. The back of the room was a flat wooden door which served as the back wall. Standing in front of it was General Alexander, General Marble, and General Von Trike. Alexander at the front while Von Trike and Marble sat in wooden chairs a couple feet back.

Below the doorway from which Doevm and Frey emerged were hundreds of people around their age, resting on semi-circular seats, similar to the seats at the Colosseum. \'It looks like a theater.\' While there were no private rooms here, Frey could tell which side he should sit on simply by the clothes group wore, rags to the right and clothes he could never hope to afford on the left. Doevm took the lead, walking to the right side of the room, down one of two sets of stairs, and sat. Frey followed, failing to find Thomas on his way down with the single glance he took.

"Do you see Thomas anywhere?" Frey asked, nudging Doevm.

"I\'m sure he\'s fine," Doevm replied, leaning back into his seat. "He\'s got his new friends after all. Even if the Resistance is still in the Capital, he\'ll be fine." Doevm closed his eyes and yawned. "I barely got any sleep."

"You haven\'t been getting sleep since leaving the front lines," Frey said. "Are you homesick?" Doevm shook his head. "I\'ve been, and it sucks. I can\'t get Gwen out of my head, nor Arte. It was all just so sudden. I didn\'t even sleep in my own bed the entire time I was back. I need to protect her no matter what. I swore to her that I would. I just need to get through this and go back to her." As he spoke, he took off sections of his armor and put them into his spatial ring. The commoners staring at him, a giant in full armor, slowly peeled their gazes away.

"Family isn\'t everything in life," Doevm responded.

"Easy for you to say," Frey shot back. Doevm stiffened. "Sorry. I-I didn\'t mean it like that. I forgot about your mom. I meant that your parents didn\'t throw you away, making you have to look after your older sister alone. We helped each other out and watched each other\'s backs. When she was hurt, I took over her duties. When I got hurt, she took over my duties. That\'s how it goes for us mortals who dare to do anything more than train, read, or clean books. I protect her." \'She\'s all I got left.\'

"There is a difference between protecting and serving." Doevm chimed in.

"Welcome to the initiation!" Alexander announced before Frey could ask what Doevm meant, his voice carrying over the crowd. "As you all know, some stuff happened this morning. I\'m sure you\'ve all heard rumors. Know that the situation is under control and let\'s move on. I\'m tired of repeating myself so many times." Behind him, the two other Generals facepalmed.

"So," Alexander continued as if oblivious to the upset crowd. "This year there are going to be some changes to the usual initiation process. Mainly, once you are at the Knights\' academy, you may not leave for any reason."

"What?" most of the nobles and some commoners cried. Whispers filled the room, most of them filled with doubt.

"This is to tighten security after the attack," Alexander said, his unsympathetic voice hammered their sharp cries down with blunt authority. "I am just so, so, SO sorry about this. This is for the safety of all. But, on the bright side, you can still send and receive letters and items. They will however, be inspected. Nothing in or out goes unnoticed. This is an order directly from the king." The more he talk, the more whispers filled the room, which escalated in volume until Frey couldn\'t hear anything. Alexander raised two hands, surrounded them with a tiny amount of life essence. Both Generals behind him covered their ears. As the two hands collided, a loud clap echoed over everything.

"What the hell was that?" Frey asked, his ears ringing. He looked over at Doevm, who was unfazed. "Are you human at all? How can you stand there like you\'re used to this?"

"What?" Doevm yelled, leaning closer. "My ears have already been ringing all day. You have to speak up!"

"Nevermind!" Frey huffed before the ringing went away.

"Now," Alexander continued. "Shut up and let me talk. Goddess I\'m tired." He yawned. "You all may have gotten through the tournament, but now you have to prove that you possess the traits required of a Knight. Strength isn\'t everything after all. A Knight must use everything as a weapon. That is the Knights\' academy\'s motto. The academy is not just a place of learning. Life will not be easy."

"You will get dirty. You will complain. You will pass out. You will end up in the medical wing. If you\'re not careful, you might just die. Life will be rough, rough as a grindstone to a sword. This academy is here to challenge you and push you to overcome your limits in every way possible. So, in order to challenge you in every way possible, we created a private hell, reserved just for your suffering."

He gave a signal. The Generals at the back stood up, walked to each side of the vertical door. General Von Trike\'s silver life essence and General Marble\'s dark copper life essence swirled around their limbs as they threw the door upwards until it clicked. They dispersed their life essence and sat back down.

Through the now-open doorway, came a fog and a wave of inhuman noises. Then came the smell which made all the nobles cover their noses. "First, you need to get to the Academy, which is not here, but far down the mountain range. Unfortunately, there seems to be a swamp infested with deadly creatures in the way. Oh well, I\'m sure you\'ll all get through it. Because if you can\'t, you\'ll never last as a knight."

He drew a slip of paper from his spatial ring and read it aloud: "But we are not merciless, so we will let you all get into groups of four. Each member will have their own role. You were grouped together by us personally so that each group would have the best combat potential and therefore the highest chance of survivability. This will not be a cakewalk. This place, we found out a couple centuries ago, is where our country\'s magicians dump failed experiments."

If Frey didn\'t know better, he could have sworn that from the corner of his eye, Doevm started drooling. "So naturally, when we found out this information, we asked for more!" Alexander laughed at the grimacing crowd. "And then, those many failed experiments disappeared."

"No, they did not escape from this place. They were eaten. This place used to be filled with only beasts of the first tier. After the introduction of the failed experiments however, some other things appeared, things not seen anywhere else in the world. They are not magical beast, just different, bigger, stronger, and faster. Watch out for them."

"He can\'t be serious, right?" Frey looked to Doevm.

"Oh he\'s serious," Doevm said. "But I don\'t think he\'s seen much of the world if he thinks that these creatures are that much different from others. The place is just filled with the inhabitants it has always had. They may have some minor changes and new abilities, but that is all."

"Some minor changes," Frey sighed. "What else did whatever book you read about this swamp say about minor changes?" \'It\'s like you\'re not even trying to lie anymore.\'

"Some examples include, extra limbs, different skin color, violent and bloody deaths happening at random intervals, wings, strange and undefinable behavior. It is not anything big."

"How is that minor? Random deaths? They just die? That\'s sad." Frey resisted the urge to strangle Doevm.

"Oh that\'s not the sad part," Doevm responded. "It\'s the time before they die that\'s sad. These mutated creatures never last long. Their lifespans are typically shortened. They can\'t mate. They just die and become one with the rich soil beneath them. They live a life of constant pain, trapped in that place forever."

"Trapped huh?" Frey asked. "Being trapped in a place isn\'t so bad as long as you have someone to keep you company. If I had Gwen-" he cut himself off. "But she\'s happy living with Owen. She doesn\'t need me anymore. But when she does, I\'ll be there."

"Frey," Doevm said. "What do you plan to do in life?"

"B-become a guard permanently. I\'ll just continue to protect everyone in the Virility household." Frey shrugged. "What is with this all of a sudden? Why do you look so disappointed?"

"Because I am," Doevm said, shaking his head. "You\'re right. After the academy, you should go back to her. When you do, ask what she wants you to do. Ask yourself, as you sleep in the hay, if you\'re happy."

"I\'m happy now." As Frey said those words, he couldn\'t help but think back to the Underground, and the many bodies littering around it. \'So what if I get stronger,\' he thought. \'How would I defeat an army? Even a city this large has problems. I can protect her in that little house, but what about war? What if I have to leave her again?\'