GALAXIA"
The appearance of the 'Galaxia' shocked the world about a millennium ago; it was the beginning of the world's greatest change.
Worlds that were once separated merge into one; civilizations we never knew existed came out to the light, or at least their ruins came to light.
Those who entered the Galaxia evolved new magical abilities, understanding and uncovering many secrets of the world. We called that a "Blessing," but that strange phenomenon only lasted for one day; after it was over, its light spread across the universe, turning into golden jewels.
Five years later the Galaxia reappeared again. Everyone was excited about it till they reached the gates; they couldn't enter.
Until those who got the golden jewels appeared; once the jewels came close to the door, it activated one of the door's functions: a warrior in white armor riding a huge golden dragon appeared from thin air, came, and stated the rules of that place.
Turns out the golden jewels are the keys to entering the Galaxia, but every jewel can take only five people maximum, and it's only open for a day; after that it will forcibly expel everyone and disappear, to be back again five years later.
With all that said, acquiring these jewels became everyone's obsession, but those who owned them got an extra chance to enter, so they are naturally stronger than most. Those from big families or with a huge influence were a big no-no, but those who were weak either got robbed or chose to get rid of them. As a result, most of them got lost, and only a small portion of people are known as their holders, but most of them are royalty, so it's impossible to get one. But one made way for people to compete over it in a fair fight; a seat among the five candidates was provided as the first prize in the 'Cup of Glory.'
Back to the arena, the fireworks that declared the end of the first selection, and the barrier was called off as the hostess landed on the ground and shouted,
"SILENCE"
She snapped her finger, and all sixteen people who were still standing flew into the air while those who failed got pushed back as a small arena appeared in the middle.
The hostess handed everyone of them a ring, then she flew into the air again and started speaking: "As you can see at this moment, only those sixteen people who are still standing in the middle of the arena have met the qualifications to advance to the next round. Congratulations to all of you; let's give them a round of applause, everyone."
All the audience started cheering and shouting in congratulations. The hostess then started speaking again: "Okay everyone, I know you are excited, but dear viewers watching from all over the world, we need to calm down for a little bit more."
"Let's go back to our participants. As you can see, everyone of them was handed a special space ring. Its use is simple: first, it's a storage for only the bracelets; first, you need to collect the ones you got from the fight before and place them into the ring. It will automatically read them and give you a number. The number is used to determine who gets to draw the lottery first. The second function is simple: if you press its top, a digital screen will appear in front of you. Use it to enter the name you are participating with. It can also show the level of your magic and your blood affinity, and this function is very important since it records the special mark of your power and it prevents anyone from impersonating your identity, especially this year."
"As you all know, the Galaxia will open at the beginning of next year, so per tradition, the prize of first place will be a seat among the five candidates."
The stadium exploded at the mention of the "GALAXIA"; everyone was looking forward to seeing who was going to take the seat this time.
"As for second place, the rumor already spread about this matter. Let me confirm it for you: this year's second prize is indeed the chance to enter the Black Tower. It's a very dangerous place but with many opportunities. It's the second one, not the third one, as rumors say. Be careful of what you hear," the hostess said playfully as she continued saying,
"As for the last prize of the third place, it's a chance to enter REGIS's treasures vault with a chance to get one of the amazing relics in there."
Lana flew closer to the ground and placed a huge box with a hole in the middle; she sat on its corner and called the sixteen players closer and started explaining.
"You see this box under me? It contains 16 small balls. Every ball has a letter A or B written on it. All the players need to choose one ball to determine which category you're placed under first, and then later we will get another two boxes. I'll hand each of you a paper; write your names on it and then place it into the box with the letter you pulled out to determine your opponent, but that's for tomorrow. For now, we will use the points you previously got from the bracelets to determine who goes first. Good luck, everyone."
The selection ended with group A: Eclipsa, Dem, Adam, Syrous, Manao, Bithon, Deric, and Phantom.
And Group B: Ray, Jarvis, Titan, Venous, Shen, Snow, Mina, and Balarc.
With that, the first day of the 'Cup Of Glory' reached its end at 6:40, and everyone headed to their homes.
NEXT DAY:
There were no classes, as it was the first day of Cup of Glory, and it's considered an educational course related to the school studies. Along your four years as a student, you attend at least one cup, so attending is also a part of education.
But as it's already the second day, the students will take morning classes, as the games will start in the afternoon.
Serenity woke up, changed into her black dress, took her books, and headed to the classroom. Along the way everyone was talking about yesterday's cup; it's becoming a trend now, but it's not because of the fights but because the number of points each player had was revealed earlier this morning.
Once Serenity pushed the classroom's door open, everyone in the class gave her cold glances as she moved towards her seat. She found a lot of mean words scratched on her desk but didn't care about it and took her seat. She used a tissue to remove the words from her desk.
A girl with long pink hair like candy, soft facial features with full cheeks, wearing the university's uniform black blazer along with a black skirt and a white shirt with a red tie,
She came closer from serenity and said, "Are you okay?"
"It's okay; I am used to it." Unlike the others, whose hatred clearly showed on their faces, she seemed genuinely worried about me, but I only gave her a glance, then looked away again.
Another girl with golden ponytail hair with a fierce look came pulling the other one in her arms, saying, "Mariana, stay away from such people in the future; don't catch their bad luck."
Marians softly replied, "Sylvia, I just came to take last week's assessment. The teacher asked me to collect them, but here's the last one."
Serenity took a file and handed it over to Marian without any sound and got back to her seat.
"What's wrong with her?" Sylvia asked in disgust, then turned at Mariana, saying, "Hey...since you got the assignment, then let's go back to our seats…"
"Um…"
Mariana replied, and the teacher got in, starting the class.
Teacher Vanessa is a seventh-circle magician, specialized in healing magic. She has a fragile personality; she is a kind, hurt person who cries a lot, but she is the principal's granddaughter.
So she is a natural red line for everyone, but that was never a problem; she is a popular woman with both looks and personality top-notch.
She always helps students in need and helped Serenity a lot when she was bullied; not to mention, she was the one in charge of treating her wounds over and over again. In short, she is a good person.
Teacher Vanessa started speaking. "Baial, come help me distribute these papers among you."
"Yes, teacher." Baial is the short, brown-haired girl with golden eyes who is the class president and one of the people who hate Serenity the most because of a man.
She dropped Serenity's paper on the ground and walked away with a smug face. Serenity looked at her in disgust. "I swear she has to have a few screws loose somewhere in her brain. That idiot didn't even know the man she was fighting me over was actually my fiancé; he was just using her to keep others in check. She will explode from anger once she knows the truth, but who cares? The engagement is over anyway." Let the dogs fight over the trash all they want.'
After Baial finished distributing the papers, she walked to her desk. "Teacher, already done."
Teacher Vanessa started explaining what was on the papers: "Since this is the last semester and the agreement reached its end, a special assignment was placed on you. The paper holds a total of eight assignments at the eight royal kingdoms. You'll be assigned work once you reach there; it could be anything—office work, fighting at the first lines, or maybe just simple chores. To go with this assignment, we reached an agreement with the royalty to carry on with this training program to compensate the students for the lost three and a half years because of the agreement."
"Hand over your wishes to the class president, and she will hand them over to me. The order of the classes we will be going according to will be placed for everyone next week, okay? This is all for today. See you at the Cup of Glory this afternoon."
Before she goes out, she calls upon Serenity. "Oh...right, meet me after classes; there is something important we need to discuss."
After all the students left, Serenity got to the teacher's room to see what she wanted from her.
"Knock...knock."
"Come on in," teacher Vanessa said.
Serenity entered the teacher's room, and she was browsing through a fairy tale book. She asked, "Teacher, are you looking for me for something?"
Teacher Vanessa said, "Let me ask you first: are you okay? It's been two days since I last saw you."
"What's wrong, teacher? Are you disappointed you didn't get the chance to heal me? You seem to really want to see me hurt, don't you?" Serenity said with a sarcastic smile on her face.
"It's not like that…" The teacher got flustered explaining, "It's just that yesterday a transferring school application came yesterday, and the name on it was yours."
"That was fast," Serenity said.
The teacher got confused, saying, "Why are you transferring now? It's not even a full semester that is left."
"My personal information isn't any of your concern; you are just my teacher, nothing more. Just make sure my application is finished." Serenity said,
Teacher Vanessa was stunned for a moment; that was the first time she saw her talking back. She was so confused as she got the application and started going through it. "There are a few mistakes in your application that need to change. For example, your family name is written wrong. Maybe the application got mixed with some other papers."
"It's not wrong," she suddenly said.
The teacher turned at her stunned "Pardon! Let me clear this first: are you saying you are an Alkana?"
"True"
"From what I know there is no Alkana in this year's students, and even if there is someone, it will only be Alkana's heir, and he is currently in Avalor," one of the teachers in the room said.
"What you said is also true since I wasn't using that name before," Serenity said.
"Can you explain what you said? I don't really understand, or tell me what your family name was before so I can get your file," teacher Vanessa said.
"Oh, okay... search the file for a Voldemort if that's the case," Serenity said.
"WHAT!!"
All the teachers in the room screamed in one voice, startling Serenity.
"What the hell just happened?" Serenity asked in confusion.
"Serenity...oh...no, Princess Serenity, if I am allowed to say, but do you really not realize what you just said? You just said you're an Alkan; the next second you said again you're a Voldemort," the teacher said. Vanessa drowned in her tears as she heard the shocking answer.
"My mother is Luna Voldemort, and my father is Jevon Alkana, so yes, I am both a Voldemort and an Alkana."
Serenity dropped those words, and the teachers in the room dropped their jaws from fear, but one of the teachers suddenly said, "There is no way you are an Alkana. Back when Jevon Alkana married Luna Voldemort, she gave birth only once, and her son is the current heir to the Alkana, so you are lying."
"You mean Aries; he is my twin," she said casually as if it meant nothing, but the souls of the people around her already ran out of their bodies.
Teacher Vanessa asked her the question they all wanted to hear: "Why hide your powers when you are a pure royal?" , why did you allow them to bully
"Because of the agreement you made me sign, if I am not the princess, there is no point in showing you my magic; my origin will be exposed right away. So, in order not to break the agreement, I tolerated this miss till now; that's all," Serenity said.
Teacher Vanessa said, "Ah, now I get it ... but your application will take a while to be approved, so you may have to stay in here till the end of the training program..."
"Okay, got it… anything else?" Serenity asked.
"Nothing much, but where do you want to spend your program training?" Vanessa asked,
Serenity said, "If I had to choose, I would choose 'VALERIA.'"
"Okay, I will consider your wish when preparing; you can take your leave."
Only after the door closed behind Serenity did the staff in the room finally take their breath; those five minutes were hell itself. They started discussing among themselves,
"That was a fucking huge bomb. Did any of you know about this?"
"Stop nagging. You think if anybody knew, they would let her suffer like that?"
"You've got a point."
"But she said all the bullying was because of the agreement—you heard it too, right!"
"We all heard it; just hope she is not the kind to hold a grudge."
"We are playing the victim rule in the royal mess."
Among them, Vanessa was still staring blankly at the door. She just realized that the moment that agreement ended, a monster awakened from its sleep. "The days ahead might not be this peaceful anymore."