Night came quickly and so did the avid kroma sorcerers eager to enter the Nexus Coven. Each sorcerer wore their signature sorcerer cloak and had their tesseract tied around their necks with rope. The forest mountain was filled with the murmurs of the countless sorcerers hoping to take the exam. Trees are lined with unlit torches which made it hard to navigate to the forest. The Coven Exam began at the top of the Bjorn Mountain behind the village which warranted a tedious travel to the top. Yoven stood in the small crowd of people impatiently fidgeting his leg waiting for Persei to appear.
“I told you he wasn’t gonna come, Myun.” Yoven heard.
“Aw...I really liked him, Hyacinth.”
“What is there to like about that weakling?!?”
“Hey! Persei is totally gonna come! He’s just running late!” Hyacinth looked up and down at Yoven’s red tinted sorcerer outfit in disgust and scoffed. “I’m pretty sure he realized that being in the Nexus Coven isn’t for weaklings like hi-” Hyacinth’s insults were interrupted when Persei appeared from the trees and into the clearing.
“Why are these torches on the tree not lit?” Persei questioned as he approached the clearing. He didn’t wear a sorcerer outfit but instead came wearing the nicest thing he could find, a plain black t-shirt, some pants and his boots. He bumped into a black cloaked woman who made a soft grunt on impact. “Excuse me, miss.” Persei said as he treaded forward to Yoven.
“Ugh, this is a coven exam, not a tourist attraction!” Hyacinth said.
“Well boo hoo, I’m sorry I can’t afford a blue sorcerer cloak, plus those things are rare and expensive…” said Persei as he fumbled to try to tie the tesseract behind his neck. “Either way, he can just get one from the workshop when he gets accepted into the Nexus Coven” said Yoven.
“IF he can get into the coven, I highly doubt that though.” Hyacinth said before strutting away.
“Um, hi Persei! I’m really glad you came!” Myun told the black haired boy with a blush.
“Yeah...I’m pretty nervous.” said Persei.
“Well of course! This must be your first coven exam but don’t worry! This is also my first coven exam as well!” Myun said with a hopeful smile.
“Actually...hehe…” Yoven said in a bit of embarrassment. Yoven grabbed Myun aside from Persei and whispered to his ear: “This is actually Persei’s third! He failed the two previous coven exams last year…”
“Wait...do you mean the Pyarr and Gryshai coven exams?” Myun asked.
“Yeah…Persei hates talking about it so...” Little did they know, Persei could hear them talking about his failures. He started fumbling with his hands again and looked down in guilt.
Myun noticed Persei looking disappointed and fumbling with his hands. He went back to Persei and stared in pity at him.
“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know that topic is something you don’t wanna talk about.”
“It’s okay.” Persei muttered.
“Well, the exam is about to start so goodluck- OW OW OW!”
“Myun! Come on! Don’t hang out with losers!” Hyacinth yelled as she grabbed Myun’s ear and dragged him away into the crowd. Yoven and Persei stood there in silence as they waited for the exam to begin. The silence was broken when Yoven elbowed Persei and exclaimed “Hey, don’t sweat. You’ll get in this time.” Persei giggles as he gazes upon his twenty sided tesseract. Remembering his mother’s hands slapping his face and gripping his shoulders, he whispered:
“I hope so, Yoven. I really hope so.”
Not too long after, a red glyph appears above the sky and forest. Beams of fire shoot out from the circle and hit the torches which light up the obstacle course ahead of the sorcerers. Another glyph materialized after the red glyph dissipated. In an instant, the blue glyph creates a blue dome, encapsulating the obstacle course and the forest. On top of the blue glyph stood Proxima and Dizonia Nexus, looking down at the sorcerers.
“GOOD EVENING KROMA SORCERERS! Are you ready to take the Nexus Coven exam?!?” Proxima said aloud. The crowd of sorcerers cheered and roared as they heard Proxima’s voice echo through the entire forest encapsulated by the blue dome. “We’re ready!!!” shouted Yoven at the top of his lungs.
“You all may be wondering if having the coven exam outside of the forest at night is safe, and we guarantee you it’s safe. No outsider, husk or kromagoth, can enter or exit the blue dome,” Dizonia exclaimed. Persei let out a sigh of relief. Wandering in the woods alone at night was terrifying enough, the red eyes of the husks are at least one threat neutralized.
Dizonia waved her hands up. “We’ll be up on this glyph, above the forest so we can overlook everyone and everything here! Now, Proxima, what have we got in store for our sorcerers this fine evening?” Proxima pointed to the lit up path ahead of the crowd.
“We’ve got an obstacle course prepared for them! All you have to do is get through to the finish line which is at the bottom of the mountain, close to the southern entrance of Bjorn Village before midnight and show off your skills! Dizonia and I will assess each and every one of you by your performance as well as if you managed to reach the finish line! Easy right?” - Dizonia giggled at Proxima and said, “the task may be simple, but do not underestimate the course. You’ll be up against each other as well, here.”
Persei looked at Yoven shakily. Yoven noticed the glare of his and placed an arm around his neck. “Don’t worry, if we can work together, there’s nothing stopping us! Not even this obstacle course!”
Proxima noticed the blonde haired boy and shouted, “That’s the attitude I’m looking for! You can help each other out if you desire! Now everyone, form one horizontal line across the starting line!” All the kroma sorcerers lined up across the starting line. Persei breathed in and out heavily trying to collect his thoughts and send his prayers. Myun chose to stand beside Persei and Hyacinth soon followed Myun. The black cloaked woman Persei bumped into stood beside him in the line. Hyacinth side-eyed Persei.
“You’re going down, Persei Horiz.”
Persei ignored the remark of hers and focused his eyes on the obstacle course ahead. He once more held his special tesseract in his palm and prayed he would finally be accepted into a coven.
“Ready Yoven?” Persei glanced to his right.
Yoven smiled. “Hell yeah!”
“Let’s all do our best!” Myun said to Persei. Hyacinth ignored all this and cracked her knuckles. Proxima raised her right hand and Dizonia her left to the air. “We’ll commence in three!” Persei buried his foot in the ground.
“Two!” Yoven held onto his tesseract.
“One!” Hyacinth let out a grin.
“...”
“GO!”
DASH! Everyone started sprinting through the rocky ground, shoving and pushing each other along the process. Persei and Yoven shoved the other sorcerers and got ahead of the crowd. They looked at each other with smiles and high fived each other. Three people didn’t start running though. Myun, Hyacinth, and the black cloaked woman still stood tall at the starting line.
“Let’s do it, Myun.” Hyacinth said. Myun nodded along as he grabbed onto his tesseract. A green glyph appeared underneath all three of them and two green goats materialized from the bottom up. Hyacinth clasped her tesseract and summoned a red glyph in front of them. “GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Hyacinth shouted as she shot out a giant red spike made of glass. The kroma sorcerers ahead looked behind and jumped to the side to avoid getting hit by the giant spike. Persei grabbed Yoven’s hand and jumped to the side of the path.
Yoven looked in anger at the giant red glass spike.“What the-”
Myun and Hyacinth got on the green goats and Myun exclaimed, “Forward!” The goats’ eyes lit up with green light and started galloping over the red glass. Myun looked back and saw the black cloaked woman walk to the side of the path and wander off.
“Should we help her, Hyacinth?”
“Nah, that’s her problem now.”
Proxima and Dizonia stared at the red glass structure from the sky. “Wow! I guess we have excellent kroma sorcerers here at Bjorn Village, Dizonia. Who are they?” The blue-haired sorceress grabbed a scroll from the sling bag around her waist and opened it to check for the names.
“Sister, I believe those two are from the Myrrh family. The red kroma sorcerer must be Hyacinth Myrrh and the green one is her younger brother, Myun Myrrh,” Dizonia said. Dizonia looked at the side of the red glass and laid her eyes on Persei.
“I’ve got my eyes set on someone else, Proxima.”
“Oh, do tell!”.
Dizonia pointed down to Persei and Yoven who’ve continued to run around the glass spike back to the path.
“It’s that boy down there.” Proxima looked at the two boys and said, “What’s so special about that black haired boy?” Dizonia placed a hand under her chin and gave her sister a smirk.
“Not only does he have a twenty sided tesseract. He’s the only blue kroma sorcerer who applied for the Nexus Coven…and you know me, I advocate for blue sorcerers like myself.” Proxima rolled her eyes in delight.
“Of course.”
Yoven and Persei ran from the side of the glass and eventually came back to the lit path. They looked behind them and saw some of the kroma sorcerers got stuck under the red glass. Persei felt the urge to help them but he swatted his head back to the front. “Focus on the path ahead.” He repeated in his head as he and Yoven continued running down the torch-lit path.
Yoven started getting sweaty and said, “What do we do?!? Hyacinth and Myun are way ahead! They’ll definitely get accepted into the coven!” Persei bit his lip and started to turn the gears in his head. Yoven’s orange kroma magic won’t be useful in this situation. His fire and his blades will work wonders against Hyacinth’s glass.
“I-I’m sorry! I know your glyph can’t do anything but my glyph is even more useless! I’m sorry!” Persei started panicking and his breathing got uneven. Yoven noticed and placed his hand on Persei’s shoulder.
“Think outside the box, Persei! Go over what your glyphs can do!” Yoven advised. “Go over what they can do...let’s see…”
Persei thought for a moment. His own blue glyphs were small, he can’t make a glyph bigger than the size of his hand which is a massive handicap. “Ugh…” He delved deeper into his glyph’s abilities. Although small, the glyph can act as a platform as well as push and pull objects… that’s it!
“That’s it!” Persei shouted in excitement!
“Thought of something?” Yoven asked.
“Yeah but I need you to carry me.” Persei said in a bit of embarrassment. Before he knew it, Yoven scooped up Persei in his arms bridal style. The blue-eyed boy held his tesseract and created a small blue glyph underneath the foot of Yoven. He adjusted the arrows to point ahead of them. As soon as Yoven stepped on it, he felt his body get pushed ahead and the two boys shot ahead by two meters. Yoven looked down at Persei who was focused on summoning the glyphs.
“If we can keep doing this, we’ll eventually catch up to Hyacinth and Myun! You’re awesome, Persei!” Yoven exclaimed. “Hush, I need to focus.” Persei looked ahead of them and made a glyph under the foot of Yoven everytime they galloped.
Glyphs can only be summoned one at a time which involves a lot of concentration which is why Persei had to focus. They quickly galloped through the path. The crowd of sorcerers had begun to catch up to them. Some of the green sorcerers used their ability to summon animals to summon deer, bears, and flying birds to get across. Red sorcerers had less to work with, they could only summon weapons and sharp objects which are hard to navigate through the obstacle course.
An orange kroma sorcerer flew past Yoven and Persei using a glyph under their foot that created fire to propel them forward. Yoven watched them in awe as they did this and said, “Damn, if only I could concentrate my fire into a single point instead of making it spread...It would’ve been better. Right, Persei?”
“HUSH! I need to concentrate!” Persei said again in annoyance.
Yoven whispered. “Oops...sorry”
Yoven and Persei quickly galloped through the path and eventually they saw the small silhouette of Hyacinth and Myun who opted to run the rest of the way. The blonde looked down at the sweating boy in his arms and rubbed some sweat off of him with his shirt.
“Keep it up, Persei! We’ll get ahead of them now!”
“QUIET!”
“M-my bad!”
Hyacinth noticed the two boys in the distance behind her. “Myun! Grr they’ve caught up to us, can you do something about it?”
Myun smirked and said, “I’m sorry Persei but I need to get into the coven as much as you do.” as he grabbed onto his tesseract.
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