"Can a single entity be formed from the amalgamation of all Aeons?" Lua read aloud, holding the crumpled piece of paper in her hand.
"How utterly foolish!" A student stood with their arms crossed.
It was one of the rowdy boys. He punched his friends as they tickled his sides while he was trying to look nonchalant.
"Such a being could never exist, nor should it ever be allowed to exist." He stood defiantly, confident in his thoughts on the question.
Lua gently put the paper down onto the desk and started to fiddle with one of the gems on her finger.
"Though it is an interesting question nonetheless. An amalgamation of several Aeons would be a bit far-fetched, but there have been documented records of two Aeons existing within the same host."
Lua gave a satisfied smile before clapping her hands together.
"That's it for today, students! Have a good afternoon!"
No one left their seats. No one wanted to leave. Everyone wanted to know what the teacher had just said. A documented record of an individual being the host to two Aeons?
The clueless, blue-haired teacher leaned back against her chair and started to sip her coffee. She looked up toward the class and saw that no one was leaving.
With a grin, she slammed her cup of coffee down. She was about to throw one of her crystals up into the ceiling, but as she raised her arm, the door opened and the head professor entered.
"Professor Devina, good afternoon," Lua said with an awkward smile and pose.
"Good afternoon, Lua, and to all students present."
Devina entered the classroom, and the whole room went quiet. It was rare to see the head professor in the main building. You would usually only see her during important conferences. Lua positioned herself properly and coughed before asking if the head professor needed anything.
Devina's gaze froze the class to the point where I could hear my own heartbeat.
"I'm checking if the curriculum is adequate for the students."
"Adequate in what way?" Lua asked.
"Who was crowned King of Nautilus but also revered as a hero?"
The whole class raised their hands, seemingly trying to look better in the head professor's eyes. But I didn't raise my hand and instead gazed out the window toward the shining ocean.
"You, in the top right corner," she snapped her fingers.
I looked down at the teacher's podium and saw Devina staring right at me with her head tilted, waiting for my answer.
"Hectima," Aylin whispered to me, covering her mouth.
"Hectima, Professor."
"Of course. Every citizen of Nautilus knows about the hero who shaped the very foundation of this city. Now, how about something you all might find a bit more interesting?"
Devina snatched one of Lua's crystals and shattered it in her hand. She then held up chalk, and the dust infused itself into it. The sound of the chalk hitting the board matched the beats of my heart. Devina wrote onto the board, Ergo 9-7.
"Now, can anyone tell me what this is?"
Not a single hand was raised, and even Lua had a perplexed expression on her face.
"Let the canvas be painted inside your minds," Devina said while writing more onto the board.
The words written on the board somehow ingrained themselves into my mind, as if something was taking over my thoughts. It felt like I was being told what to think.
Ergo 9-7. Ergo 9-7. Ergo 9-7.
My consciousness began to blur. I saw everyone had their heads resting on their desks. Even Aylin had her head resting on her arms, her eyes closed. As the words echoed again, I too closed my eyes and heard the sound of chalk finally snapping under the strain the professor put on it.
I was awakened by the sounds of groaning and cries of men. Loud explosions echoed in the distance. The sky above me was brown, and the air was thick and smelled of decomposing corpses. I was in an underground bunker. Soldiers lay beside each other with missing limbs and bloody bandages wrapped around where those limbs should have been.
Exhaustion filled my body as I dragged myself up and exited the bunker. As I did, artillery rained down on the trenches I was in. A soldier threw himself over me as shrapnel flew throughout the trenches. His heavy, muscular body crushed me, and after the ringing in my ears stopped, I pushed him aside, only to see his body riddled with holes. He had been completely torn apart, and on his last breath, he gave me a piece of paper.
"Give it to the Hero…"
His bloody eyes stared right at me, his mouth filling with crimson red blood. I gently closed his eyes and rushed toward the Hero's position.
More artillery rained down as I ran through the narrow trenches filled with mangled bodies. Then I finally saw the Hero. He stood amidst enemy fire, bullet holes riddling his armor. His crimson hair burned as the Aeon of Ember roared violently while clashing with another Aeon.
Volleys of bullets were fired at the Hero.
"SCORCH! THIS ISN'T WHERE YOU INTERFERE!" the Hero screamed as the sound of his raging crimson blade clashing against the "King."
Fire scorched the earth and engulfed every soldier too close to the battle. The air was unbearable to breathe as oxygen started to thin out. Sweat poured down my face as I tried to get closer to the Hero.
The fires suddenly stopped. The battlefield went quiet. The sound of something dripping could be heard.
"You are… truly a king." The Hero Hectima spat up blood before violently throwing up liters of blood.
The blade of Ergo 9 had pierced the heart of 7. The sounds that followed were abhorrent, the gruesome cracking of ribs and tearing of flesh. The hand of Ergo 9 was inside 7's chest cavity. What he pulled out was the Heart of Ember. Blood puddled beneath Ergo 9's hand as it held the heart. The Hero Hectima lay soulless on the battlefield, the flower on his cheek completely gone, and the burning fire that had kept him going for so long extinguished.
The heart miraculously continued beating without any blood. That was when the "King" took a bite out of Ergo 7's heart.
—Redacted—
Ergo 7 was —Redacted—
Ergo 9 acquired two —Redacted—
End of documentation.
My eyes fluttered open. The head professor stood in front of the board filled with symbols and notations that I had never seen. The whole class seemed to wake up all at the same time.
"The Hero Hectima… I knew he died a valiant death, but for his death to be this brutal…" the boy solemnly muttered to himself.
I looked at Aylin, who, with half-closed eyes, scribbled down what Devina had written on the chalkboard. That Lox incantation could induce a dreamlike state where memories could be seen by multiple people. Even after witnessing a gruesome experience like that, she was still writing down notes.
"Aylin, are you alright?"
She dropped her pen for a moment, and when she looked at me, tears flowed down her eyes.
"I was scared, Vivshi… I thought it was real. That it was I who was standing on that battlefield, watching my leader die."
The images of Hectima's chest being pierced by a hand haunted my mind. The sound of his bones cracking as the hand forced itself in lingered.
Aylin leaned toward me, still sobbing. My arms reached out to embrace her, stopping for a second before touching her trembling body. She suddenly leapt from her seat and hugged me herself. That was when my arms finally wrapped around her. Her trembling slowly stopped, and her ragged breathing returned to normal.
"I'm sorry, Vivshi, for hugging you so suddenly… I just thought it was the safest place I could be to calm down."
She pulled away and wiped her tears.
The head professor turned to face the traumatized class, now in disarray.
"For history, it is of utmost importance to portray the truth without leaving out any detail. Therefore, in this institution, we will teach you the truth and only the truth. Now, who can tell me their interpretation of Ergo 9-7?"
Aylin's hand still trembled a bit, but she raised it.
"I believe it refers to… an Aeon taking another Aeon's life."
Devina smiled before turning to Lua.
Lua's usually cheerful demeanor had completely changed, and she solemnly shook her head.
"Close enough. I entrust Lua to teach you the full meaning of Ergo."
The head professor then left the classroom, and everyone was quiet and gloomy.
From the corner of my eye, I saw how Emovi's eyes were fixed on the words Ergo 9 on the chalkboard. She could not take her eyes off those letters.
Lua told us that we could return to our dormitories for the day and skip the remaining two classes. She would write to the teachers holding those classes about the situation and told everyone that class was truly dismissed this time.