The sun scorched over the wide, expanse plain, stretching endlessly in all directions. The terrain was unnaturally flat, surrounded by trees in a perfect rectangular form, which made it look as if it was constructed rather than formed naturally.
Everyone stood, waiting for the test to begin while Maxwell, still standing on the floating board in the high above them, observed them like some sort of supreme overseer.
A smug smirk formed on his lips as his eyes roamed over the field.
"Okay then..." He yelled descending from thle heavens on his board, stopping only four feet above the candidates.
"Before we begin with the practicals, you guys should know of this—" He lifted two fingers.
"The practicals is divided into two parts. The first one is a test to assess you on how well you're able to use your flow of pure energy. The second part, you'll know once it begins."
Desmond stood, rubbing his temple nervously.
Rexford, noticing it elbowed him lightly.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
Desmond turned to him, worry plastered on his face.
"I... I'm only good at controlling energy flow within me. Not any other purposes."
Emmanuel smacked him at the back of his head.
Desmond turned to him, one hand on that spot, teeth clenched, brows furrowed.
"What the heck man?!"
"You're an idiot, you know that?!" Emmanuel said with a bite to his tone, making Desmond flinch.
"You should have just asked me and I would have helped you."
"Yeah, but... I didn't think it'd be important."
"And now, you're going to face the damn consequences." Emmanuel clicked his tongue, averting his gaze. "Seriously Des. You can be careless sometimes!"
Desmond lowered his gaze, still rubbing the spot Emmanuel hit.
Maxwell clapped from where stood—
"Okay. Let's begin the first test."
He said, taking a remote out of his pocket. He pressed a button on it and the ground ahead of the candidates suddenly split open. A platform carrying eight gigantic doors rose.
Most of the candidates jumped back, startled as they watched the doors rose from underground. Once the doors were up, Maxwell spoke again.
"These doors you see here aren't normal doors you can open with brute strength. Even trying to break through requires a very high level of strength. Like the strengths of three divine warriors."
Gasps erupted from the candidates.
"Not even three master warriors but three divine warrior?!"
"Just what the heck was this door made with?!"
Maxwell cleared his throat to get their attention and continued.
"But that's not even possible because we only have two divine warriors. And one of them is even a healer with no attack power."
He flew over to the door and knocked on it.
"This just goes to show how strong our defense system is. And the only ones who can open them are those granted permission."
He lifted his left arm, showing them a wrist band on his wrist.
"I suppose you were all given this on the ship, right?"
Almost everyone lifted their left arms, showing the wrist bands on them.
"Here." Emmanuel threw a similar one to Desmond who caught it.
"You didn't take yours before leaving the awaiting hall. We're lucky we were given ours at the door before getting out."
Then he scoffed. "You should be grateful I begged to get one for you."
Desmond groaned before putting it on.
"Now..." Maxwell continued.
"All you just need to do is infuse your energy into the plate at the sides of the door. The output will allow the door to open on its own. And the more stable your energy flow is, the faster the door opens."
Everyone listened closely, absorbing the instructions.
"You're going to be called according to the number on your band."
Everyone looked down on their band to check their numbers. The number on Desmond's band was 77.
"And to make myself clear..." Maxwell added. "Your band shouldn't be taken for granted. 'Cause it's the one going to record all your marks in this test. Don't think you break into the system. You'll be disqualified once you make a move to do so."
Maxwell, cleared his throat lifting both hands into the air. "Now, the first eight candidates should step forward."
The first eight candidates stepped out. Rexford was amongst them as they walked to stand behind a door each.
Maxwell lifted his hands into the air as the students positioned their palms on the plates.
"Now start!" He clapped his hands for them to start but immediately, before even a second could pass away, one of the eight candidates, a snow haired guy, exhaled as his door opened—
Smooth. Silent. Effortless.
Maxwell's eyes widened and jaws dropped comically.
"WHA—WHAT THE HECK?! SOMEONE OPENED THE DOOR WITHIN A SECOND?!" He added as his jaws closed, clenching into an excited grin.
Rexford was the second person to open his door and the other six slowly opened theirs, one after the other.
The snow haired guy turned around, a confident smirk labelled on his face.
"I finally got to show off." He murmured, digging his hands into his pocket, before walking back into the crowd.
[Royal Koree]
[Age:15]
[Ability: Freezing Point]
All the candidates watched in awe as Royal made his way into their midst.
Rexford, despite finishing in second place with a time of three seconds, grinned as he walked back into the crowd.
"What an interesting guy." He mumbled.
"Okay." Maxwell called to catch everyone's attention again. "Ninth to sixteenth places, step forward."
The rest of the candidates followed up, group after group, eight at a time.
Some doors opened cleanly. Others creaked or stuttered under unstable flow.
Emmanuel was part of the sixth group called and opened his door within a time five seconds.
Desmond was amongst the last group called.
Ten seconds had gone by, seven had opened their doors, but Desmond couldn't open his. He was sweating buckets, eyes furrowed, drowning in frustration.
"Isn't it enough? How much energy do I need to pour in? How did that guy do it so easily?" He thought to himself as blue energy began surging out of him, through his hand and into the plate.
Maxwell looked down and noticed something wasn't going well. He widened his eyes in alarm and spoke up.
"Umm, there was something i forgot to say!" He yelled but Desmond wasn't paying attention.
What he doing right now was the only thing that had his attention. He started pouring more as the energy poured violently from him into the plate.
"The more unstable the flow of energy is and the more you pour out your energy..." Maxwell continued but Desmond was so caught up in his situation that everything fell on deaf ears.
"The higher the defense system is likely to throw the energy back at you in an..."
Deep into the woods on the same island, a snake was facing off against a mongoose. Both opponents gazing intently at each other.
Once they lunged at each other, a huge, blue explosion occured. And instead of attacking, they hugged each other, panicking, eyes widened, jaws dropped.
"... explosion." Maxwell finished his sentence in a low voice and a dull expression.
The candidates looked on in anticipation as the smokes cleared little by little.
Once the smokes cleared completely, everyone's jaws dropped.
"S— Seriously?!"
"He was right!"
"The door didn't break apart!"
One would have thought they were alarmed at Desmond's situation, but they were rather amazed at how impenetrable the door was.
Meanwhile, Desmond stood, hands on the plate, clothes and his face blackened. He exhaled smoke and dropped to the ground with a dull thud.
"So he couldn't open the gate huh?" Maxwell sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Then I guess that means he failed this part, although it seemed impossible."
Emmanuel rushed over and carried Desmond back into the crowd as a small group of healers among the candidates gathered around to heal him.
The gates along with the platform they stood on started descending and the ground which opened earlier closed back in.
Maxwell groaned and he bent down with the remote in his hands, still hovering on the floating board.
"To think one of my candidates would fail such a simple test! And out of all the candidates, it had to be this kid?!" He sighed in disappointment and got back on his feet.
"Okay, now to move on to the next text!" He yelled, pressing on the remote again.