2009 Red Sun (Part 1)

"See you tomorrow." Friya sighed. "If Raptor is supposed the easy one, I don't want even to imagine what you have in mind for Trouble."

"Lith, do you mind coming with Kami to the tower to rest?" Solus asked. "If I take one step outside, I'll fade away and I don't feel like staying alone today."

"Sure. Be right back." Lith could sense and see how worn out she was.

Solus had used the Hands, Eyes, and Mouth of Menadion during the whole procedure and was now paying the price for it.

Even with the power coming from the mana geyser, both the tower and her core were still too weak to bear the burden of conjuring the three artifacts at the same time, but she had done it for him nonetheless.

The moment Lith Warped out of the Forge, even though he had used his own mana, the distance between them was enough to weaken Solus so much that her body crumbled and she was forced to turn into her wisp form.

'Shit! Let's hope that by tomorrow morning I'll be alright. Lith sacrificed part of his honeymoon for me and I don't want to be a burden for him anymore.' While she waited, Solus felt the tower trembling from the strain.

She let the wisp fade into nothingness in order to save as much strength as she could until Lith's return.

Just until a few years ago, being without a body had been perfectly normal for her. For over ten years she had been forced to be just a stone ring on Lith's finger and had considered it everything that life had to offer her.

After staying in the Desert for so long, always keeping her human form except for short intervals, even the thought of going back to such a condition made every second of wait feel like hours.

***

Gorgon Empire, Red Emperor academy.

After the first term's exams were over, Kelia Sunbry walked through the stone hallways of the academy with her head heigh, proud of her achievement.

Even though she had enrolled a few weeks later compared to the other students and was one year older than them, she had caught up with the rest of the class in less than a month and come on top of them all.

It had taken her to sacrifice her social life and study 24/7, using Invigoration to make up for the lack of sleep and resetting its effects solely when her focus started to slip.

She had practiced magic for just a few months but her grades at the academy were so good that her Professors had already proposed to her to skip to the second year. She had aced both the written and practical tests, ranking first in all disciplines.

People pointed at Kelia as she walked, either gawking at her score or dying of envy because of her record. It was the first time in the history of the academy that a commoner had achieved the S rank from the first year.

She replied to the scorn of the nobles with a huge grin, waving the middle finger to them in greeting.

"Enjoy it while you can, Sunbry." Velyma Rouner said. "This is just the first trimester and lots of things can happen until the end of the year."

She belonged to one of the most important magical bloodlines of the Empire. The Rouner Household had never lost its fief thanks to the family always having at least one powerful mage per generation.

It was a feat that in the Empire, where noble titles didn't exist anymore and political power couldn't be passed down unless the heir of the household possessed enough magical prowess as well, was considered a myth.

"Can you speak up? I can't hear you from up here. How's the weather down at the A rank?" Kelia didn't even bother turning around nor did she stop walking.

"Laugh all you want, jackass. It doesn't change the fact that you are alone and no one likes you. You'd better watch your back." Velyma said, her face red in embarrassment.

Her family had high hopes for her. Even though she was over twelve years old, her eyes already shone with bright cyan light. She had worked hard to master the basics of chore magic and everyone thought she might be the next Magic Empress.

Yet her reign as the first of her year had lasted a bit more than a month.

Velyma had studied magic since she was six years old, but no matter how much she practiced or how expensive the tutors her family provided her with were, the gap with Kelia only grew larger by the day.

Dusk had the wisdom of centuries and the subjects of the first year were so simple to him that he didn't hesitate to give Kelia all the pointers she needed during class. Then, once they were back into her room, he would explain the lessons again from an Awakened perspective, teaching her how to convert fake spells into true magic and vice versa.

Thanks to their mind link, explanations that would require hours of listening and demonstrations took merely a few minutes. The Red Sun would just share with her his memories, giving Kelia the opportunity to experience first-hand how she should make her mana flow.

When even that wasn't enough, she just had to give him control of her body for a while and let Dusk cast the spells for her. On top of that, even though most of the other students had a much stronger core than her, they still needed to rest, losing hours that Kelia spent practicing.

'I can't believe that the academy is so easy.' Kelia inwardly gloated. 'If it keeps like this, the next year we might skip to the third if not straight to the fourth year!'

Thanks to the time they spent together and the master-disciple relationship that they had established, Kelia had long forgotten about Dusk's deception to force her to bond with him.

Just like Lith with Solus, she considered now the Red Sun an integral part of her and had a hard time using "I" instead of "we" whenever she spoke.

'I can't believe that you are acting this dumb despite my warnings.' Dusk replied. 'What Valaria said is true. We are alone here and every other student is gunning for us.'

'First, her name is Velyma. I'm beginning to think that bonding to a Lich might have long-term side effects since you can't remember a name for your life. Second, so what? You don't need to sleep and can watch my back 24/7. They can't catch me by surprise. End of the story.'

'That's true but aside from that there's not much I can do to protect you while my powers still sealed.' He replied. 'This is still the first year and your ranking is temporary. Students can target you. Professors can try and ruin your score.

'On top of that, there's always the possibility that by showing so much talent, you might draw the wrong kind of attention.'

'What do you mean?' Kelia asked.

'A nameless commoner admitted with an S rank off the bat who also aces all of her exams is bound to arise suspicion.'