A World Of Decree: And The Seven Laws

Utter silence brimmed the Lore in an unpleasing way. Silence that shouldn't be there, and yet, here it was. Leo was smiling, staring at Atlas who was standing in the spotlight of the crowd.

Calvin proceeded to walk over to him, shouting, "Everyone please return to practicing! I will make my way to everyone as promised."

He apologized to Katie, reassuring her he will come back. However, Atlas was now struck with fear and reconsideration. Damn! That wasn't supposed to happen! What if i get suspended!? Expelled!? This cannot be good.

Panicking, Atlas said the first words as Calvin came over, "Professor, I'm really sorry! I had no idea that such a ruckus would be caused. All I did was say-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there!" Calvin interrupted before Atlas could cause the same commotion again. "I came not to yell at you. I wanted to congratulate you. Atlas my friend, you have just managed to learn your first voice-activated magic ability. Most of us call them spells though."

"Are you serious!?" Atlas said in confusion with a tip of excitement and relief, "But All I did was just say the word that popped into my head… Not sure how though."

Atlas quickly tried to say the other words that were mentioned before but no luck came this time. No change in atmosphere, no change in his surroundings, and definitely no change in the concentration.

"Atlas, Spells aren't going to work on demand. They require a great ordeal of practice, concentration, and patience. The fact that you were able to even muster out one is shocking to me. As a matter of fact, you might not know this but you resemble your father's magic quite well."

"WHATT!?" Atas screamed the same as when Professor Zelle mentioned his father before.

"That's right. Your father was a previous student at Princewood, harnessing the same magic as you did. He was one of the best, but made clear to tell your mother not to ever speak a word of it until you arrive at the school. Me and him were actually classmates at one point. Guilds were not in his interest, but I'm sure we would of made a promising one."

Atlas regained his control swiftly, now curious about where his father is, "Wait a minute! Where is my father now then? Is he off on some adventure? Waiting for me to see him in school maybe? Oh Oh, Or is he fighting some beasts or stuff?"

"Atlas." Calvin's tone quickly changed, "Your fathers current origins are unknown. There is still a lot more for you to know about this world. For now you need to focus on controlling your magic as well as your spells. We will talk about this later."

Calvin strolled off to the next person in line, leaving Atlas in uncontrolled thoughts of unanswered questions. For the remainder of the class, Atlas attempted to say those words countless times when standing, punching the walls, or punching the nothingness in the air before him. Nevertheless, the same event as before, never came back.

All is one, One is All. All is one, One is All. All is one, One is All.

Those words were probed into his mind, not being able to escape no matter how hard he tried.

"Atlas!" Leo screamed from the end of the stadium once class was dismissed. Atlas had completely forgotten that he actually had a friend in this class.

"Leo! Long time no see. What's up?"

"I saw you earlier do some cool shit, so I thought I'd show you what Calvin taught me as well." Leo said with a fearful smirk.

He proceeded to clash his hands together in order to produce sparks of flame from the impact. It took a few tries but a small flame appeared in his hand, ready for his dominance. Ascending into the air, with Leo's control he was able to move the mysterious flame in patterns of delightfully schematic figure eights. Curve after curve, line after line. It was perfect, everything from his movement to the flame in its footsteps. It was like he's done this for years, mastering the craft of his work.

Atlas was amazed, not by the perfection of the flame, but for how someone like Leo was able to get such tremendous control with just one class worth of practice. For someone who's so lazy, Leo was a true perfectionist at his given task.

The week flew through time as simple as a blink from one's eye. Classes after classes, nights of luxurious dreams, and delicious food galore for all. All nights have been particularly similar this week for Atlas. However, thursday night came, and nothing but countless thoughts of fear and excitement were rushing through his mind. Making him unable to fall asleep as easily as before. Having to also wake up so early to get the first catch at the tasks was yet another unfavorable aspect to add. In the midst of the bright oculus moon shining through his window, Atlas was at rest.

Although it seemed just a moment ago he closed his eyes. They were nearly forced open by an autumn light through the window, and Cartuja busting his door open with Faibel nowhere to be seen.

Atlas quickly realized it was half past 5am due to the circ.u.mstances of the situation, and the old wooden clock that hung on his wall he recently bought to add as a souvenir to his room.

"Yo, Atlas my guy. We ain't in the same group but I'd thought you'd owe me one if I helped you up. Pay me back later, let's go to the headquarters," Cartuja said without a single aspect of being tired or sleep deprived.

"Yeah, Yeah. Just give me a minute to tidy up and get ready."

"Alright princess I'll be in the lounge."

Atlas proceeded to the lounge after his morning routine, this time taking a little longer to get his mind set for the day. They both arrived at the headquarters 5 minutes before all the tasks were posted.

The lobby had dozens of wooden tables to sit and gather parties on their adventures. All were placed in symmetrical patterns across the floor, and yet still looked quite odd to the n.a.k.e.d eye. At the opposite side of the entrance was a large wooden desk, amazingly crafted woodsmanship was dealt to the table to present its importance in the lobby. Behind the desk was a large board, pinned to the wall it was covering, ready to take on the presentation of missions that were seconds away from being placed.

Atlas and Cartuja met up with the others. The only one that was missing was Faibel. Cartuja had the closest bond between them, and refused to speak of his absence and any knowledge of it.

As the time ticked down to the last second of that eager 6am stamp, a young woman approached the desk. She seemed no older than 30, with a tender and sweet expression on her face.

A group of what seemed like students, all dressed alike in bright yellow shirts mixed with a minty white pair of pants that grappled the shirts inside. The students had lists of numerous papers in their hands, which they proceeded to attach to the blank board. As more and more papers were attached, a similar concept was beginning to show between all of them. All papers seemed to have an image on the front, colored in black, outlined by a border of different colors.

The colors ranged anywhere between green, yellow, red, and an even darker black.

After a few minutes, the lady at the desk was now alone, with dozens of missions behind her ready to be harvested by the anxious students in the lobby.

"Welcome everyone! I'm so glad there are so many new students here today all ready to earn some points for their guilds!" She said with such a painfully confusing tone of excitement.

"Behind me are missions that are available to be done today and some that might take a little longer than the day's cycle. The borders on the missions are the level of difficulty each mission is, with green being the easiest, and black being the hardest. On the back you can find instructions and a date for your completion period. If you fail to either complete the task, or fail to deliver the mission back to this lobby by the given time you will not get any points! Now, everyone please make a line with your parties and pick your d.e.s.i.r.ed mission!"

Before she was even done speaking Trey, Griffin Blood and a few others were instantly at the desk, picking out a black bordered frame to add to their list. By the time Atlas was able to pick his mission, half were already gone. Cartuja, Rina and Paris were in front of them, deciding on a red border for their mission, this of course came after a slight argument from the girls of who was stronger to take on the deadly black colored task.

Atlas looked at Laena and Leo to see if they had any preferences on what to take. Laena was looking down at the floor, making sure to present the expression of not being called on. Leo on the other hand was all out ready to take on the black,

"The others took the red so we basically have to show'em who's better!"

Hesitant at first, Atlas agreed only because he did want a little friendly competition. Not just between his own guildmates, but Trey and Griffin as well.

Atlas put on his confident face, only to look like a little boy finally granted the role of line leader in the first years of school. "We would like the black border right there in the top left," Atlas pointed at a picture of what seemed like a mysterious plant, swallowed by the abyssal ink of the border around it.

The lady at the desk happily smiled, reached for the requested mission and happily gave it to Atlas. Before Atlas took off, she stopped him, "This mission is due back here at the headquarters by midnight tonight. You will receive more information on your task once you arrive at your destination, Thank you and good luck."

Atlas thanked the young lady, but was caught off guard when Laena decided to speak up from the shallow wisps of the ground she was staring at, "Uhm. Are you sure we should take the black boarder. I mean no offense, but I have no clue how much you two are able to control your magic. And I have no offensive magic in case we are required to be in combat."

Leo grabbed her shoulder gently, leaned in closely, and spoke in a quiet, cheerful voice, "You see this guy right here," making sure she was looking at Atlas before he continued, "This kid has done things I would never believe if I wasn't there to witness it myself... But I was there, and If I wasn't, I'd have your doubts in my mind as well. With my man Atlas with us, this will be a piece of cake."

She gave a nod of approval and completely forgot how close Leo was to her, making her startle in place, backing up a few inches in a way to not seem rude.

Leo followed her gesture, making sure to show no signs of taking offense. Atlas was now filled with praise, causing him to smile and turn the paper over to see the instructions that were mentioned to appear on the back. His smile quickly vanished when all that was written was, Travel north to Greensrow, Speak to the Town's guild, there you will follow instructions into the roots of the forest.

Not much to go on… Atlas was pretending to be in deep thought, with no real idea of what any of it meant.

Laena broke the silence between them, "I believe I heard that we can use rifts to travel to places outside of the school," she quickly grabbed both the boys' attention, "If we go to any rift, Uhm, I think most towns have one in place for ease of access. It's something that was implemented not too long ago."

"An absolute gem of an idea! I was of course thinking on how we can get to this Greensrow," Atlas implied, having absolutely forgotten about rifts in the first place. The group asked the young lady where the closest rift was located. Their luck quickly increased when it was the desk they were standing behind when asking the question. Leo put his hand on the desk, with no thought or preparation, spoke a random word that he was half sure would be the right one, "Greensrow?"

With a soft blink from one's eye, and a slight elevation of dust from the wooden floors, he was gone, with Atlas and Laena following suit. In a moment's time, the three were standing in the middle of a four way street, with each road leading to a different location.

Looking west was nothing but houses, stacked on houses, with no end in sight of broken road and willowed banks of treachery. Looking around, countless vines filled the street, like a virus creeping in before it's too late. Some houses were standing fine, not touched by the damnation and putred red vines that swallowed the ground. Some were completely abolished, no roofs and broken windows with black ooze spilling out from the cracks.

Looking south was no road left to see, only the ground, erupting in these wicked, long red tubes looking to cause trouble. Which seemed like they already have.

Looking east was the same as the west, except less broken, the east still had some structure and humanity left within the grasp of the time it had.

Looking North was the answer they needed. A few hundred feet away was the town's guild hall, standing tall with a sign that read, "Shallow Mysteria." A name clearly made by some kids their age at one point, despite its original reading sounding pretty lame, it actually sounded pretty cool.

"I guess we gotta go in there," Leo said with slight doubt in his tone, getting a little nervous after seeing the town in such despair.

"We can always back out right?" Laena stated before their continued path.

"No idea, but I'd rather try and fail rather than back out. We created our guild for the same purpose as they did," Atlas signaled to the guild they were approaching, "We won't back out, and we won't fail either, we're bringing those points home tonight!"

"I hope this is a fairy tale where the main character always wins and you're right, because this doesn't seem like an easy task."

Atlas agreed with a mask of his true emotions of this mission, leading the way to the mischievous doors of the Guild hall.

Upon their entrance, a lobby was greeted with their eyes, a large rounded table towards the back, and a few shelves filled with alcoholic beverages right behind it. Talk about a fun time.

It didn't seem like the drinks have been used in quite some time. No, they were being spared for a special occasion. Some floorboards began to creak from the back, more pridly with each step and a small boy, no older than them came running from the back, sweating profusely, with horror and worry written right on him.

"Ah! Thank God we finally got some help here!," The boy yelled in panic, "You're here to help us right?"

Atlas took the flier out of his pocket, showing it to the boy, "If you mean this then we are indeed here to help as much as we can."

"Listen to me! Go to the forest as fast as possible. The rest of the guild members are there." He took a moment to glance at Atlas, Leo and Laena, "No offense but I'm not sure how you will be able to help, this town is in dire need of help from more than some kids."

"Okay buddy calm down, We'll go. And you seem like a kid yourself to call us the same. No?" Leo questioned the boy, only to be put to shame moments later,

"Yes, that's why I'm not in the forest, I'd die if I was in ther-… I mean, best of luck."

The three hurried to the forest right after, now a little more frightened than before. Laena wasn't doing a good job in hiding her fear, the two could tell due to her nearly crying as she ran right behind them.

Hopping over the red vines, stumbling forward a few feet at a time, the entrance to the forest and the path was nearly a scarlet covered field of moss. The vines were easier to avoid, but the air was harder to breath. An uneasy, nauseous feeling dwindled in the group, taking lots of courage and determination to not pass out on the spot.

The further and further they went, the more fear began to rise. The entrance was no longer visible, Only black trees, as if all life has vanished from the forest. The bark of the oaks was peeling from dreaded corruption from the vines, causing a distinct feeling of What in the world have we got ourselves into.

Luckily, faint, but multiple voices were being collected in the distance. The three got a glimmer of hope to fuel them towards what could be their objective. Through multiple jumps and steps of bravery, a small narrowing to reveal monstrosity would shatter that bravery in a heartbeat.