A person came flying in Gabriel's direction. Two beautiful wings made from the energy of light graced the back of the person.
'Another exam participant?' Gabriel frowned, gazing at the figure of the girl who was flying in his direction. 'No, she is coming from inside the core of the Academy. Is she already a student here?'
The figure seemingly belonged to a young girl who appeared as if she was just fourteen or fifteen, nowhere close to being an adult. However, that made things even more strange. If the girl was really a Mage of Light, then how could he be called the youngest Mage of Light to awaken the element of Light? Shouldn't that title belong to the girl?
It was evident that the girl had also awakened the element of Light as she was using a Flight Spell of Light.
"Such a young mage of light who already learned the Advanced Spell of Flight, which takes years to learn? Just how talented is she?"
The girl had beautiful long hair that appeared to be a mix of violet and a darker shade of silver. Her beautiful violet eyes appeared to have no emotions in them, just like her face, which was completely expressionless.
Gabriel didn't know who that girl was, but he was sure that she was the most talented person he had ever seen.
The young girl soon landed before the old lady.
"Where is he?"
"I imagine you're talking about the boy? He's right behind me," The old lady answered before explaining the test results of Gabriel.
The young girl gazed at Gabriel in the back, observing him from top to bottom. Her gaze finally rested on the back of his left hand.
"You are coming with me." She didn't speak more than she needed to, not asking any questions at all as she asked Gabriel to follow her.
"Who is this girl?" Gabriel asked the old lady. "I thought you said Eliana would come to get me."
The young girl's expressions flickered for a moment, noticing Gabriel use the first name, but she didn't comment.
"She is Eliana." The old woman smiled in response. "She will be taking you to give you more details. Don't worry. You'll be fine."
"That kid is Eliana?" Gabriel grew surprised. He had expected Eliana to be a middle-aged woman at least, not a kid. How could a fourteen-year-old child become the Head of the House of Light?
"Child?" Finally, Eliana couldn't stay silent anymore.
She placed her hand on the crystal orb. "Amongst the two of us, only you're the child here, young man."
The young girl placed her hand on the first orb, making it start shining brightly. A number appeared on the crystal orb.
Not only Gabriel but every youngster who saw that number on the crystal orb was also stunned. Even though the girl clearly looked to be a child, it showed that her age was thirty-two. This child… She was in her early thirties!
The revelation about the girl's age brought many questions to Gabriel's head, especially regarding her age. She was in her early thirties then how could she look like a child? Unless this was also an illusion, just like he was using?
'Is she using something similar to Ring of Apophis? But she doesn't seem to have any accessories on her. If there was really something like this which could create such impeccable illusion, then why didn't Elora ask for it instead of going straight to Lambard?'
"I understand your confusion. You're not the only newcomer who gets confused after seeing her." The old woman patted the shoulders of Gabriel. "But trust me, you don't want to know anything more than who she is."
She gently pushed Gabriel toward Eliana. "Now go with her and let me do my work. There are more youngsters who need to go through a test."
Eliana extended her right hand to Gabriel, who stood only a few meters away from her. Gabriel gazed at her hand, wondering what she was asking for. He didn't have anything to give to her.
"Unless you know the Spell of Flight, you need to give me your hand so I can take you with me. Or do you want to walk?'
"Oh."
Gabriel finally understood what she was asking for. However, since she had extended her right hand, it meant he also needed to extend his right hand to be in sync, but he didn't want to take the risk. His right hand had the Mark of Death and Necromancy. He wanted to keep that mark as far away from her as possible.
Just as a precaution, he reached out his left hand. Before Eliana could ask anything, he provided a made-up explanation. "My right hand is very weak. It has always been like that."
Eliana used her left hand as well, not questioning the explanation. It wasn't strange for people to be born with defects in their hands like that. Moreover, he was a Mage who was supposed to use his left hand, which had the mark, so it wasn't too bad either. He wasn't a Warrior.
She grabbed Gabriel's hand with her left hand. As soon as Gabriel's hand held the soft hands of Eliana, his mark of light shone momentarily before returning to its normal state.
Eliana cast the Spell of Flight once again. The Wings of Light once again made an appearance, spreading out as if they were the wings of a real angel. Each of the wings had a span of just over two meters.
Eliana's body started rising in the air, holding onto Gabriel. Even though he knew Lira, who could also fly, it was his first time actually being in the air since, with Lira, he either walked or traveled on the horse, which made it his first experience in the air.
As Eliana carried Gabriel to the inner parts of the Academy, Gabriel queried, "May I ask you a question?"
For now, he was known as a student to Eliana, so he didn't believe there was any reason for her to be suspicious of him. In that case, he could ignorantly ask her questions.
"What?"
"Why do you look so young? Is this some Spell of Light that makes you look young?"
"It's not a spell."
"Then?"
Eliana didn't answer this time. Instead, she started going down, landing before the doors of a beautiful building. "We are here."
Two Mages guarded the doors. The two respectfully greeted Eliana before opening the door for her and letting her in.
Eliana freed the hands of Gabriel as she entered the building.
Gabriel followed behind her, wondering where they were. According to what he was told, he didn't need to give any tests, so he had a feeling that it was the place where he was going to stay as a student. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.
As soon as he entered the place, he found himself in a massive hall. Unfortunately, he was all alone in this place with Eliana.
In the middle of the hall, there was a seven-foot tall mirror standing.
"What is this place?"
"This is where we'll see if you're truly as special or not," Eliana answered, walking closer to the mirror in the distance.
She stopped before the Mirror.
"This is the Mirror of Judgement. It's a really precious artifact of this Academy, which is used to test the students that pass through all the tests. It can measure the true extent of your talent and soul strength. Let's see how special you truly are."
Gabriel frowned, hearing her explanation. Another test? It was like they were asking him to expose himself as much as he could. It was already surprising that he awakened at such a young age, but if they found out his peak Talent, it was going to be even more dangerous.
"Go ahead. Place your hand on the mirror," she gestured before stepping back.
With hesitating steps, Gabriel moved closer to the Mirror, glancing at his left hand. If he were all alone here, he wouldn't mind testing his exact talent here, but in the presence of the lady, it wasn't the ideal situation.
Still, he had no choice. He extended his hand to touch the mirror.
Screech~
A sound echoed in the surrounding area. Gabriel stopped and turned around, looking back at the door which was opened again.
As soon as the door opened, two young men entered the hall as well.
"You?"
The two men were surprised to see Gabriel again, that too here.
Gabriel also recognized the two men. They were the same men who were staring at him outside the Academy.
"How could he get here so fast?" Lishen asked Rem.
"Look at the one accompanying him. You'll get your answer." While Lishen was still surprised by seeing Gabriel, Rem had already noticed the girl who stood behind him. If she was with him, it was evident that she was the one who brought him here.
"Eliana?" Lishen frowned, finally noticing the acting Dean of the Academy. Why was she with the kid?
" Didn't the kid have no talent?" Lishen asked Rem. It was Rem who had told him that Gabriel had no Talent since he had no aura after all.
Rem didn't respond right away. Even he was surprised by it. Last he saw Gabriel, there was no aura around him that could be seen, but now when he was seeing him, his blazing aura could be seen, screaming about his talent.
"It seems I was wrong. He has an aura around him. He is very talented, possibly the most talented out of everyone here."
He didn't understand how he couldn't see that aura before. If he could see it now, then he should've been able to feel that aura before. Everything was the same as before. Everything except one thing...
"Hmm?" He soon noticed that Gabriel's left hand wasn't covered by his gloves anymore. "Could that be it?"
That was the only thing that made sense for now. The only time different about Gabriel when he couldn't sense his aura was that he had his gloves on.
"There's something about his gloves..."
"What are you two doing here?" Eliana inquired, not liking the interference.
"We brought the first batch of Level Two Examination Winners. The last stage of their examination is to measure their exact Talent." Lishen explained, snapping his fingers.
Winds started flowing, following his movement. The doors opened even more, revealing five students standing outside.
"Only five?" Eliana muttered.
The first batch of examinations contained a total of thousand participants who managed to pass through the initial screening. Amongst the thousand, only five managed to pass through, it seemed.
"Don't ask us," Lishen scratched the back of his head. "We brought what Qin gave us. You know how stern he is. He only lets the best of the best pass through. We are lucky the number isn't zero this time."
"Just when I asked Qin to go easy this time. At this rate, will we even get a hundred people joining the academy?" Eliana grimaced. "I should've assigned the responsibility to someone else."
"You stay here and don't touch the mirror until I'm back. I'll be right back."
In the absence of the Dean, the responsibility of the entire academy was on her shoulders. She couldn't let anything go wrong, and what could be more wrong than getting no students just because she had selected a strict student who only allowed the top of the top to pass through
Even though they couldn't allow everyone to pass through the exams, selecting five amongst thousands was still very low. There was no way there were only so few people in the batch of thousand who had the potential.
She left Gabriel behind in the hall before leaving, not forgetting to instruct Rem and Lishen to keep an eye on Gabriel until she was back.
Eliana didn't realize that she was leaving Gabriel alone with a man who was more interested in the gloves of Gabriel and his true identity than the exams at the moment…
