Another stupid teleport. Well, better than walking by foot I guess.

  Night shook his head. What's with magicians and teleporting? I mean, I know it's fast and all, but can't they make portals where we can see where we're go-

  He stared forward. Oh shit.

  There were rumours that the castle was owned by a family of giants before they were exterminated by the Kingdom's soldiers.

  Now, Night was beginning to believe them.

  Before him lay a polished white-stone bridge, shimmering under the sun as it disappeared into the dark crevasses of a pair of looming gates. Did I see those in a postcard before? In the distance, a towering castle rose high, its spires stretching into the sky like chimneys to heaven. Each of the five towers loomed large, almost like they refused to let the landscape show it's own beauty. The gates... Well, they had to be the biggest things he'd ever seen. You could probably fit a 3-story house under those.

  "You made it!"

  Spinning around, Night saw Art shooting up off a nearby bench and leaping towards him. "Oh hey!" He made it? Of course he did. He's definitely not evil. Right?

  He cleared that thought out of his mind. Nah, he's not. "What is this place?" He glanced at the edifice. No way that-

  Art gave him the 'what the heck?' look. "Mate, that's Valour!"

  Night stared at the castle, then to Art, then back at the towering structure. "...Nah."

  Art threw his hands up. "Yessir! Jeez, being here in person is AWESOME! Y'know, sometimes when I look at massive buildings like this my heart beats really fast for no reason, but it stops really fast so-"

  Night flicked his gaze toward Art. "You mean palpitations?"

  Art stared blankly. "Palpa... Yeah! Yeah, that."

  Night couldn't move. He had heard about places like these where the super-rich went to study, but he had thought those pictures were just false adverts to get more people to pay up. How much magic did it take to make... "But seriously. What kind of school is big?!"

  His friend rolled his eyes. "First, it's an academy. Not a school. Schools are for no-magics. What were you studying at your old-"

  "Economics."

  "...What?"

  Night turned away. "I was studying economics at my old school. Also a bit of literature. And some math. Y'know, regular stuff. But mainly economics." He sighed. "Well, before it got blown up."

  It took a full ten seconds for Art to process this information and run back to Night, who had walked quite a distance away. "Wait, so you're telling me, you've never studied magic-"

  "Nope."

  "What about combat? Surely-"

  "Nada."

  "Weapon handling?"

  Night threw a look at him. "Weapon handling? Doesn't that fall under combat?"

  Art rushed in front of him. "So... Y-you're telling me... You're going to the most prestigious, competitive, biggest-" He pointed, "Academy in the continent, and you haven't been in a fight before?"

  Night flashed a sad smile. "Well, my brother used to beat me up a lot so-"

  "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN!"

  Night winced and tilted his head this way and that. "Eh... Effectively, yeah."

  Art took a deep breath. "Okay... Okay. Well- Yeah, I guess... Maybe you could get away with being a... Scribe? No combat for you, definitely. I mean your magic type... Oh yeah, there's that too. Hopefully... Perhaps..."

  Night just stared the whole time. "Are you okay?" I think I broke him.

  "Yeah! Just thinking." Art shook his head. "Anyway, about your magic type, what did you get? Okay, first, what took you so long?" Art changed his tone. "I saw a massive queue behind the reader you were at."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Well, the statue was..." Night coughed. "Broken."

  "Broken?" Art gaped. "What d'ya mean 'broken'? They're literally living things!"

  "Are they?" After seeing the other's furious nodding, Night turned around and continued to walk down the endless bridge. I hate it when they make long-ass bridges like this. "Well, it just, um, stopped working."

  Art threw his hands into the air, opened his mouth, closed his mouth, waved his hands about, before shaking his head and following Night. "Okay. Well, what magic type are you?" Art was beaming. "I'm a creation user!"

  "Creation?" It was Night's turn to be perplexed. He paused, confusion knitting his brow as he gazed ahead. A creature soared in the sky, its massive wings rivalling the size of the castle walls themselves. Was it a wyvern? He couldn't tell.

  The beast danced through the air, spiralling around the towering spires, diving sharply before climbing again in a graceful arc, disappearing into the background. So... Nobody's gonna say anything? "Wait, is that-"

  "Yeah, that's Divinus's dragon. Anyway, about Creation... Where was I? Oh yeah. It's self explanatory." Art walked a bit faster to get in front of Night, before walking backwards so he could face the no-magic. "Creation lets you, uh, make things!"

  Side-lining the question and not answering it? Okay. "Like, what kind of things?"

  "Y'know, walls, swords, stairs, anything! But the bigger the item, the more energy it takes, obviously." He looked about, before sliding closer to Night. "My parents were kinda expecting this, actually."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah! My grandfather was a creation user, my mom's a creation user, so we kinda figured it would get passed down or something."

  "So your dad also had magic?" Night asked. But this doesn't make any sense! If neither of my parents had magic... How did I get anything? Well don't know that yet, but... "I mean, neither my parents were-"

  "What?" Art chuckled. "No, my father doesn't have magic. He's a regular guy."

  "What does he do?"

  "My dad was a toolmaker!" Art replied. "So anyway, what did you get?"

  Seems normal enough. Night shrugged. "No idea."

  "Ha! Ha ha..." Art faltered. "You're messing with me, right?"

  "Mm, no. They literally said I have to ask the damn-"

  Art's finger shot up. "Language!"

  "-Teachers what type I am."

  Art stopped short in front of him. "So let me get this straight."

  "Yeah?"

  "No knowledge of magic."

  "Yeah."

  "No combat training."

  "Yeah."

  "No magic type, yet. And even if you get one, it's probably something you can't use to help you because all the other kids here are more experienced than you."

  Night shrugged. "Well, yeah. But there's over two hundred documented magic types, and the vast majority are combat-based, or orientated, so maybe I'll get one that helps me get through this-"

  "You're so cooked."

  "...Yeah."

  The two of them walked beneath the mammoth gates and disappeared under it's shadow.

  

  The massive courtyard, which could easily fit a hundred magicians, look just like the maps Night read in the days of his old school. Huge space to make the place look great. One-way window disguised as the stone wall to my left, spaces for enough magic-archers to take down an army concealed at the right. They could at least to keep the blueprints out of the public domain. But who'd take a few hours to stare at those?

  The whole space is shaped like an oval - not because it's a good design choice - and around a hundred... Candidates? Now they had passed the soul-reading test, he didn't know what they were called. He was going to call them 'students' from now on. Most of the students congregated in the centre, of the space, chattering amongst themselves.

  Night stopped suddenly. Wait, isn't this whole place- Ah. Yes.

  Best to keep calling them 'candidates', then.

  The expressionless guards lining the walls stared ominously as more students filed through, their suits of metal armour standing in stark contrast to the golden walls behind them. All the kids entering here had years of training and practice to prepare themselves for this. Night had none of that.

  Well, he had some knowledge. But that's about it.

  "Hey! Snap out of it!" Art jabbed Night on the shoulder. "You good?"

  "Y-yeah, I'm good." Night knew what was about to happen. "Have you trained for this before?"

  "...Trained for what?"

  "Nothing, then." Maybe we're all dead.

  In a burst of vivid light, a figure appeared. The large man stepped forward, seemingly... Levitating? Yes, the hem of his white robe floated above the ground. Night had to physically restrain himself from craning over for a better look. Magic.

  "Greetings, candidates!" His voice to reverberated throughout the rotunda. More magic.

  "You, are all pure of heart. Take a look around! Look at peers, for they may be your fellow magicians in the future. Well, that is, if you don't kill them in training."

  A hundreds of laughs and cheers went up, echoing around. Night didn't. "Art, do you know what'll happen?" He whispered.

  His beaming face turned towards Night. "What?"

  "You know its not over, right? This whole place... It's not a courtyard."

  "Each and every one of you have passed the first test. The power you must feel! You have been just taken your first step into a wider world. A world riddled with problems and evil, definitely, but the wider world nonetheless." He raised his hands. "Here, starts your journey to becoming Heroes. And for your sake, I wish you luck."

  More cheers went up. In the midst of it, Night whisper-shouted. "It's not a courtyard! There's a Demi-plane Constructor! Underground!"

  Art's smile melted away, like so much snow on the road. "Wait... A Demi-plane... My parents told me about those! Can't you create literal sub-realities with-"

  "HOWEVER!" The levitating man bellowed. The cheers stopped. "There is a reason why you shouldn't know your peers."

  "For the next time you see them..." A slow, sinister smile crept up the man's face. "You may have to kill them."

  As exclamations of confusion and anguish rang out, the scene shifted. The walls melted away into black crags. The sky seemed to fade into a hellish red.

  "Did you really think you would be admitted to our academy... With a simple reading?"

  1.1: WIP. Just putting this out cuz I don't want my story to seem abandoned. :b

  1.2: Definitely still WIP. Added a bit, though.

  1.3: Some minor changes.