The ashen skies stretched endlessly above the horizon, tinted by the eerie glow of the bright purple sun casting a ghostly hue over the roofless coliseum—The grand hall.
Zach sat cross-legged on one of the upper seats with a book in his hands, reading. His ear twiched in irritation as the surrounding clamour grew louder.
"Ahh..damn I hate noise..", he muttered under his breath.
The ground hall buzzed with energy, battle cries, swords clashing and the metallic tang of blood and sweat in the air, a far cry of what the grand hall used to be like before.
"The juniors are at it again" a dry voice echoed behind him.
Zach turned to see a black haired girl standing nearby, arms folded, her gaze lazily fixated on the sparring group below.
"Why don't you go stop them...Erin?", he said, clicking his tongue in frustration.
Ever since juniors had been granted daily access Into the martial hall things had descended into chaos, the new policy had only been placed for 10 days(1 phase) and Zach was already sick of it.
"Why don't you?", Erin replied sitting herself gracefully on the bench beside him.
"I was about to", Zach grumbled, leaning back with a sigh.
A silence settled over the hall for a moment as Erin spoke.
"Zach.. can I ask you something" she spoke, her voice softened, Zach raised a brow as he dropped the book face down on his lap.
"What is it", he raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you think we need to get stronger", her eyes were distant as she just starred into the empty space.
"To protect humanity and the empire off course", he shrugged, "oh I see.." she smiled, "then you're just another native fool"
"Huh, did you say something".
"Nope" Erin smiled sweetly and stood up from her seat walking away at the exit.
Zach stroked his black hair as his grey eyes wandered around.
"I've had enough", Zach held the book in his hand snapping it shut with a loud thud, loud enough to echo around the entire hall, everyone fell silent.
"Who is that"
"I think that's the head discipline"
"The head discipline no way, I heard that they are crazy strong"
"We'd better scurry off"
Zach jolted to his feet and valuted over the railing, landing gracefully on the black jad floor of the coilesum.
That was their que the majority of the juniors immediately bagan hurrying for the exit.
Zach walked towards them his blue robed flutter as he mad his way towards the crowd more and more juniors left but there were a few remaining.
"Are you gonna leave or am I gonna have to force you" he snapped coldy.
"Sir with all due respect, I can't leave this area, the grand elder gave us permission we have every right to-"
*BAM*
*Gasp*
Eveyoneeyes widened as the red haired kid that spoke rolled on the ground, whimpering and clutching his stomach.
"I didn't even see his hands move"
"That's the head discipline for ya"
"I thought ash would at least last for quite a bit"
"Those seniors are really hot headed"
"He's looking our way, better make a run for it"
The disciples immediately hastened their steps towards the exit.
Hey Zach called onto one of the lesser disciples, pointing the wriggling junior on the floor.
"Well that's takes care of the noise at least", Zach stretched aas he walked to the nearby book shelves located on the walls on the collusum.
"Now I can study in peace".
The world ended 90 cycles ago ( 1 cycle= 3.1 years).
At least that's what we were taught, Before the astryx there was earth—our real home, but it was destroyed, but when humanity was about to be extinct a being showed up.
The angel of rest.
No one knows what exactly is the Angel of rest but he lead humanity in a broken realm—the astryx, time feels wrong, the spaces are distorted and the skies are broken.
People say the astryx wasn't always like this, it used to be a haven of rest but it was destroyed by a great battle, long ago.
Humans had been live in the astryx for more than 200 earth years now, and had made it there home, just like the saying, home is not a place it's a people.
Over the last 279 or-so years humanity had really developed their home with domes to protect us from the poisonous gas and monster attacks.
Zach was just grateful, the empire had chosen him from the orphanage when he was just five years old and he was admitted into the imperial oasis a school where brilliance shines bright, under the tutelage of the inspectors and instructors, with a little credit to hard work he became the head disciple.
Although this was a great achievement he knew he was just beginning the path to power.
But there was one question that always lingered anytime he heard the history of the migration.
Where is the angel of rest, he couldn't find a single doctrine about the angel of rest, over a thousand books on history none went into details about the angel of rest.
How were angels like, beings of superiority, how do they feel being so high up in the hierarchy.
*****
A few hours later
Zach stepped out of the hall, the heavy door creaking shut as he mad his way towards the winged infirmary.
"Hey Zach how are you?".
"How you doing Zach?".
Zach replied with curt nods as he walked standing straight with his hands behind his back.
"I should visit that poor kid ', Zach's mind drifted to the kid he beat up early this morning, "It's the least I could do after folding him like laundry" he smirked.
The roads around the campus was huge, fille with perfectly tiled obsidian roads, every square inch of his road was tiled, which was quite impressive considering how rare obsidian is, the buildings nearby were either residental buildings or traing buildings.
Zach stopped in front of a massive gate, the words "healing inn" boldly written on the edge he pushed the doors open to be greeted by a wide surface area, servant here and there, since people often got injured in the vicinity the empire had to pour resources into this place, Zach stepped inside l, to be greeted by the a man dressed as a butler behind a counter.
"Oh the head disciple", his eyes flashed with recognition.
"I'm hear to see someone", Zach indifferently replied as he ran his finger through the walls as of trying to find something.
"Found ya.."
Sir can you give a detailed description on the person your looking for the man send skimming through the records.
"No need I've already found him"
*****
"Ah sh*t ", a kid grimace whild lying in the hospital bed," it's just a punch why the hell did it hurt so much?".
Then a cream king sound was heard drawing the kids attention.
"It's about time the brought me food", his word died in his throat.
His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as his gaze fell on Zach.
"Hello I'm here to finish what I started..." Zach lips curled up maliciously.