LUNA: The Invisible Princess

[Luna]

Today is the day of leveling, and we all gather in the auditorium. Suddenly, the ground shakes. An earthquake.

"What happened?" Everyone panicked.

I closed my eyes to feel the surroundings, but I didn’t feel any dark presence from Drazonian. Although, I feel strange like something happened outside. I ran out of the auditorium as fast as I can and looked up at the sky. It stunned me to see that something burst from the sky and I was not sure if my suspicion was correct. My eyes widened when I saw the portals in different parts of the sky. It soon vanished, and it made my heart race. There is only one way to know if my suspicion is correct.

I cast a spell, and suddenly a portal appeared in front of me. My portal-building power is working! But what happened? Why all of a sudden?

I looked at the portal. Even if I wanted to go back to Moondrous World, I couldn’t. I don’t know why, but something was holding me back, so I just closed the portal. At the same time, the earthquake stopped.

"Luna!" I saw Ereia running toward me with tears streaming down her face.

"Are you leaving? Are you returning to your world now? Please don't go... yet." she cried. The others were still dumbfounded. I approached them and smiled faintly. They were just quietly looking at me.

"Even if I want to go back to our world, I can’t yet because it seems like something was holding me back from leaving," I told them. Ereia suddenly hugged me while sobbing.

"Really?! You're staying? Huhuhu, don't leave yet, okay? I'll be sad."

"I'm not leaving without letting you know. This is not the right time yet." I said with a faint smile.

We decided to go back inside the auditorium because the leveling continued. The first to perform are those in the beginner section. There were many beginners and when lunch break came, I was still not called.

Everyone had a lunch break before resuming the leveling. So we all went to the wide cafeteria. My friends are all quiet while eating. They seem to be lost in deep thoughts. I didn't disturb them and just ate silently.

After eating, I could no longer restrain myself from speaking.

"Why are you all silent? Is there a problem?" They looked at me and sighed at the same time. What's with them?

No one was still talking, so I stood up and walked away from them, a little pissed off. Although I understand their feelings.

"Luna! Wait!" Venice shouted, and I felt her follow me.

My feet carried me to the garden and sat on the bench. Venice sat beside me.

"Luna, sorry about earlier."

"Why are you so quiet?"

"Because we can't stop thinking about you. You are so mysterious. Ereia said you are from another world." Tsk. Ereia just piqued their curiosity about me. That girl...

"And from what we witnessed earlier, you created a portal. Somehow, it scares me. Luna... are you really leaving? Are you leaving us? Me?" her eyes welled up. Damn it.

I let out a deep sigh and smiled sadly. "Venice... we’ve just known each other days ago, and I never thought we'd become closer. You have been a good friend to me and I was glad I met someone like you. However, I will not stay in this world for the rest of my life because my family was waiting for my return. And my world needs me too."

"I understand, Luna. It's just sad because of all the magic users I met. You are the only one I trust even though I don't know you completely yet, but I trust you wholly."

"Thank you for trusting me, Venice. Don't worry, I will visit this world when I have time. The portal works now, so..."

"Really? Do you promise?" I nodded.

"Yes, I promise! So let's go? Leveling is about to start." She nodded and smiled.

When we arrived at the auditorium, the leveling had already resumed. We saw everyone at our seats earlier, so we went there. I turned my gaze to the restricted area, where Alesia was with her parents, the King and Queen of Enchantreia Kingdom.

When I sat down, Ereia hugged me.

"I'm sorry about earlier," she said.

"It doesn't matter now. I understand,"

When I look at the others, they are looking at me.

"Luna, we’re sorry about earlier..."

"It's okay, I understand," I said and smiled.

We turned our attention to the stage. It’s now the turn for the average section to compete. It turned out that the match's scores also depended on the strength of a magic-user. The scoring system was displayed on the huge screen above the stage.

But what surprised me was I haven’t been called yet. My forehead creased in confusion. What are the odds?

"Wait, why haven't I been called yet?" I uttered.

"Yes, right? What’s going on?" they murmured.

"This must be the headmaster's doing,” Nicole said.

Their speculation must be right. I wonder what the headmaster was planning. He’s going to test me. That’s for sure. I smirked.

We just focused our attention back on the stage. I will just wait for my name to be called.

Two hours passed, and the average section’s matches were over. And now it’s the supreme section's turn. Venice was called first and her opponent was Misha, with a wand. A spell manipulator.

When the fight started, Misha attacked first and cast a spell. Venice dodges Misha’s water ball. Venice just avoided Misha’s continuous attacks and when Venice found an opening, she attacked Misha with her vines and Misha flew backward to avoid the raging vines.

Venice immediately released vines with thorns and attacked Misha again. Misha tried to avoid being hit, but it was too late. Now she’s wounded and gritted her teeth while cursing under her breath while wincing in pain. She casts a spell, and it’s a flame that burns Venice's vines, but Venice immediately releases new vines and wraps them around Misha's feet and hands.

Now Misha was trapped. She tried to cast a spell and cut the vines that trapped her, but the vines that tied her just tightened, causing her to weaken. And that made Venice the winner of the match. She got a score of 92 while Misha’s score remains 89.

The duel continued until it was Nicole’s turn versus Leemin.

Woah, this is exciting. Fire element versus thunder. What will be the outcome? Hm.

"Woah, I didn’t expect the two of them to fight today," Ereia exclaimed with excitement.

"This is exciting!" Venice exclaimed. Meanwhile, Claudette, Zaphe, and Zenon are watching seriously.

I saw Zenon avert his gaze at Alesia. But Alesia was looking directly at me because our gaze met. I turned my attention back to the stage where the duel started.

Leemin released a thunderbolt and Nicole avoided it but still got hit. Nicole grunted in pain, but she counterattacked using a purple fireball. They just exchanged attacks, and no one gave up even though they were catching their breath and wounded.

At the same time, the two unleashed an attack on each other together and that created an explosion. We couldn’t see the two yet because of the thick smoke. When the smoke disappeared, Nicole and Leemin were now lying on the floor unconscious. And the fight was a tie with a score of 97. They were immediately treated and taken to the school infirmary to rest.

The fight continued, but I didn’t know the students, so I just watched silently. Well, they’re not that bad. They’re in the supreme section, after all.

Finally, Ereia and Zaphe were called, and I looked at them with a smile.

"Good luck, Ere. Beat him!" I said, and she grinned.

"Thank you, Luna! Of course, I will beat that monkey!" She said smugly, and Zaphe snorted.

"Tsk. I will be the one to beat you, gorilla! Hahaha," Zaphe teased while laughing and walking toward the stage. Zaphe’s teasing annoyed Ereia. They were still arguing until they reached the stage and now everyone is laughing because we can hear their bickering through the speaker.

When the fight started, they wore serious expressions. Hmm, interesting. It’s a water element versus an earth element.

Ereia attacked first with her sharp leaves like daggers. Zaphe released water daggers as a counterattack. He attacks behind Ereia using a water whirlwind, but Ereia dodges his attack with an earth shield. Ereia cast an earth ball and threw it at Zaphe. However, Zaphe dodges it with a water shield and water daggers.

And then Ereia summoned a crossbow made of wood and plants and attacked Zaphe. At the same time, Zaphe drew two swords in both hands and dodged Ereia's continuous attacks.

However, Zaphe didn’t notice another arrow coming and hit his arm. He grunted in pain, and Ereia stopped attacking with a smirk on her face. Zaphe was catching his breathing while trying to ease the pain in his wound. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and then he lost balance and fell to the floor. He lost consciousness.

Woah, Ereia's arrow was dipped with poison. She walked towards Zaphe and injected the antidote. He was still unconscious, so the healers took him to the infirmary.

Ereia got 98 scores while Zaphe got 97.

Well, not bad. But their attacks still need some work.