For a moment, the heavy, almost suffocating silence hung over the pitch-black obsidian of the massive round table. The spiral-shaped, bright blue-and-gold magical fire that flared up from the depths of the ravine cast sharp, moving shadows on the walls of the sunken amphitheater. The light reflected brightly in the stunned, wide-open eyes of the group. The chill of the rock seemed to penetrate through the black hides on the benches while everyone tried to process the weight of Athena's and Kamelo's words.
Then, like an explosion that had been trapped underground for too long, the madness broke loose.
Instead of the paralyzing fear that a normal person would feel upon hearing such threats, a wave of pure, adrenaline-driven energy shot through the rows. The youngsters sprang up from the benches almost simultaneously. Their bodies tensed, their facial features taut with a mixture of excitement and the urge to prove themselves.
"Two and a half weeks?!" Beat bellowed, while he rammed his heavy fists onto the obsidian with a dull thud. The silver runes in the stone lit up brightly from the impact. "Two and a half weeks is an eternity! That is more than enough time to take our powers to a completely different level! Let those Monkeys come! If they want blood, they can get it too!"
"A guy who can create black flames and teleport through them?!" Vulkan shouted over it with a raw, thirsty grin. The flames in the ravine almost seemed to react to the heat in his voice. "A guy with a burning face? That does not sound like a threat, that sounds like the ultimate test! I would like to see whose fire ultimately burns hotter when it really comes down to it!"
"And those elites of Thung Zu are going down anyway!" Ren screamed, while he jumped over his bench and flailed his arms wildly to add force to his words. "I do not care how many eyes they have or what kind of tricks they pull! We will kick them all the way back to the darkest corner they crawled out of!"
Miki jumped on top of her stone seat, clenched her small fists in the air and screamed with a voice that cracked from the tension: "Yes! The Goats are going to break them completely! No mercy!"
The underground amphitheater turned into a boiling cauldron of voices shouting over one another, cheering, wild gestures and pumped-up battle cries. The echoes bounced hard against the high, moss-overgrown rock walls and made the purple leaves on the ancient trees tremble.
Faustus, who until then had been leaning calmly and unperturbed against one of the massive rock pillars, closed his eyes for a long moment. He took a deep breath, let the air slowly escape through his nose and rubbed a heavy hand over his forehead. He looked sideways at Leonardo and shook his head very slowly, with a look of slight pity and deep seriousness.
Leonardo remained standing all this time like an indestructible statue at the head of the table. His chest went up and down calmly, but his sharp, dark gaze slid tightly and inexorably over the ecstatic, chaotic group. He allowed the noise. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
Then he moved.
With a calculated, devastating force Leonardo slammed his massive hand flat onto the obsidian table.
BOOM!
The blow did not sound like a hand on stone, but like a devastating thunderclap that echoed through the entire depth of the complex. A visible shockwave of pressure moved through the air. The blue and gold magical fire in the ravine shot up in a wild, meter-high flare and then almost completely died down to a small, flickering flame.
The Goats fell instantly silent. Some remained stuck halfway through a movement; others clenched their teeth. The sudden silence was so heavy that only the dripping of water along the rock walls could still be heard.
"You think this is a game," Leonardo spoke. His voice was not loud, but lay so deep and icy in the room that it sent a chill down their spines. It extinguished every trace of the bravado that had just arisen. "You hear 'power', you hear 'tournament' and your blood immediately starts boiling as if you are going to knock down a couple of street fighters in a village square. But listen very closely to what Athena and Kamelo have just revealed here. These are no simple opponents. These are seasoned murderers, trained elites and creatures who do not hesitate to break you from the inside out."
He let the words sink into their heads slowly, like heavy hammer blows. The young warriors began to avert their gazes one by one and sank slowly, much quieter and more somber, back onto their benches covered with black hides.
Leonardo looked at them one by one. His facial features softened very slightly, although the tight line around his mouth remained. "We have no time to lose with aimless screaming. If you want to survive this, if you do not want to be slaughtered like cattle on that stage in front of the whole world, you are going to get to work in a tightly structured and ruthless manner from this exact moment on. Everyone look under your seat."
With furrowed brows and a sudden wave of curiosity, everyone leaned forward. Beneath each stone bench was a heavy copper tube wrapped in dark leather and clamped into a recess in the stone. With the scraping sound of metal on rock, they pulled the tubes out. They unscrewed the caps and took out thick, stiff parchment scrolls.
The dry, loud flutter of unrolled parchment filled the hall. Everyone stared at the tightly drawn lines, complicated grids, times and strange designations that were printed on the paper in deep black ink.
Silarias furrowed his eyebrows deeply. He rested his scroll on the table, stroked the palm of his hand over the curling edges and then looked tightly up at Leonardo. "Uhh... Leonardo? What exactly is this layout? Goat 1, Goat 2, Goat 3... And why are only the first day and a half completely scheduled down to the hour?"
Jane leaned with her elbows on the table, pursed her lips and stuck out her chin while she let her nail scrape over the paper. "Yeah man, what are these weird, fossil names above those boxes? Who talks like that?"
Nyx sat slouched, twirled a lock of her dark hair around her finger and rolled her eyes conspicuously towards the ceiling. "So we just get homework on paper as if we are back in primary school? What nonsense. Why is Goat 2 scheduled with those boring guys from the Chameleons?"
Aurelius leaned back nonchalantly, threw his arms over the armrest and let out a short, mocking snort. With a crooked grimace he looked at the scroll in his hand. "Sounds like someone had too much free time to make this. But honestly, Leonardo, what are we supposed to do with all these vague names? Who came up with the idea that we have to name our days after this?"
Lila leaned so far forward that her nose almost touched the parchment. She fiddled nervously with the hem of her sleeve and looked up with large, doubting eyes. "And uhh... how does it work with those hours then? Nicola has actually only taught us how to read the position of the sun and how a clock works so far... Do we really not get more explanation, or do we just have to understand all this immediately?"
Nicola turned deep red right down to behind his ears on the spot, pushed his chin deep into his collar, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
Leonardo could not suppress a short, low laugh. The muscles in his face relaxed for a brief moment. "That is nothing to be ashamed of. Time and world order are more complicated than most people think. Let me explain it to you."
He reached out his arm and pointed with his broad index finger to the top row of the parchments. "Those names that you see above the columns there... Those are the official designations of the days, as they are recorded in the books of this world."
He started to list them, while his voice sounded rhythmically through the room:
SUN — SUNDAY
MOON — MONDAY
EDEN — EDENDAY
OLYMPUS — OLYMPUSDAY
SHAMBHALA — SHAMBHALADAY
ATLANTIS — ATLANTISDAY
TARTARU — TARTARUSDAY
Silarias leaned forward again, rested his tense forearms on the edge of the obsidian table and looked at Leonardo piercingly. "Okay, nicely thought up. But Leonardo... Where in god's name do those names come from? Who has the right to name the days of the week like that?"
Leonardo's gaze changed instantly. The slight relaxation disappeared and his eyes became deep, dark and silent. He stared tightly for a moment into the bright blue fire that slowly started to flare up again in the deep ravine. It seemed as if he was bringing up memories that he would rather have left buried.
"Once in a while," Leonardo began with a voice that sounded muffled by the weight of the past, "the most powerful entities of this globe come together. The highest scholars of the most distant faculties, the oldest bloodlines, the leaders of the great academies and the shadow leaders of the hidden realms. They gather behind doors that remain hermetically sealed to the rest of humanity. They make the decisions from above. Decisions that determine the fate of entire nations, without the common people ever having had a voice in them."
He fell silent for a moment. The silence in the amphitheater was so intense that one could hear the crackling of the golden fireflies between the purple leaves.
"They call themselves The Nurakh Order," Leonardo continued, while his fingers balled into a fist for just a moment. "I once sat at those round tables myself... I was part of their decision-making. But I stepped out of it. That Order decided hundreds of years ago that humanity should no longer live disconnected from one another under different calendars. They chose the old worlds, the forgotten dimensions and the planets and wove them together with the days of the week. Those are the names printed above the columns on your scrolls."
A wave of awe and alienation went through the hall. The idea that the days they lived were formed by an invisible elite of power holders brought a strange cold reality close to them.
Leonardo cleared his throat, shook the weight of the past off of him and took a step closer to the table to dissect the schedules content-wise.
"Regarding the division of your subjects and the hours," he spoke in a tight, businesslike tone, while pointing over the parchment with his copper tube. "This academy is built around eight fixed, fundamental Faculties. And indeed Solomon has said this often enough, but you really have to remember this. Each is focused on a specific domain of battle. The Arcane Faculty is there for pure magic and elemental mastery. The Combat Faculty focuses exclusively on physical martial arts and weapon mastery. The Beast and Biological Faculty covers mythical creatures, biology and genetic experiments. Tech and Generation Netix focuses on advanced combat technology. The Occult Faculty dissects demonology and the mysteries of the Hellverse. The Spiritual Faculty looks into soul powers and frequencies. Anomaly and Cryptid investigates unexplainable entities. And finally the Research Faculty, reserved for the most profound studies, runes and ancient texts."
He leaned over the table, planted his hands on the stone and looked tightly at the divided class.
"Listen closely to how your schedules are divided," he spoke, dictating the times with precision. "Every first-year student begins Monday punctually at half past eight on the Combat Field. That opening block lasts until half past ten and is mandatory for every first-year class and every alliance. All of you will be there. After that, your schedules split."
He shifted his attention toward Goat 1.
"For the members of Goat 1: from a quarter to eleven until a quarter to one, you move on to a combined block of the Combat Faculty and the Arcane Faculty. After the break, from a quarter to two until a quarter to four, Goat 1 has an intensive block at the Combat Faculty. The day concludes from four o'clock until half past five with a large mandatory overlap for all Goats at the Research Faculty and Anomaly Faculty. On Tuesday, Goat 1 has class from half past eight until half past ten at the Combat Faculty and Beast and Biological Faculty, together with the Behemoths. After that, from a quarter to eleven until half past twelve, Goat 1 is scheduled as its own class again at the Combat Faculty."
He shifted his gaze to the next group.
"For Goat 2: after Monday's joint opening on the Combat Field, you go from a quarter to eleven until a quarter to one with the Vipers and Chameleons to the Occult Faculty and Anomaly Faculty. From a quarter to two until a quarter to four, Goat 2 has class on its own at the Occult Faculty and Beast and Biological Faculty. From four o'clock until half past five, you join the mandatory Goats overlap for the Research Faculty and Anomaly Faculty. On Tuesday, Goat 2 has class from half past eight until half past ten at the Anomaly Faculty and Beast and Biological Faculty, together with the Chameleons. After that, from a quarter to eleven until half past twelve, Goat 2 is scheduled alone at the Occult Faculty."
Finally, he focused his eyes on the last row.
"For Goat 3: after Monday's joint opening on the Combat Field, you dive from a quarter to eleven until a quarter to one into the Spiritual Faculty and Tech and Generation Netix together with the Phoenix. From a quarter to two until a quarter to four, Goat 3 has class on its own at the Arcane Faculty and Tech and Generation Netix. From four o'clock until half past five, you join the rest of the Goats for the Research Faculty and Anomaly Faculty. On Tuesday, Goat 3 has class from half past eight until half past ten at the Spiritual Faculty with the Phoenix. And from a quarter to eleven until half past twelve, Goat 3 is alone at Tech and Generation Netix and the Research Faculty."
Leonardo lowered his hand and pointed to the large, empty box at the end of the schedule.
"From half past one on Tuesday afternoon, and during the entirety of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, nothing else is scheduled on paper. That is entirely Open Practice. Free, unrestricted access to all arenas, fields and faculties to eliminate your own weaknesses and to train where you need it most."
Leonardo looked up at the large, mechanical wall clock that was mounted deep into the rocks and let a deep, heavy sigh escape. He saw the dull gleam of exhaustion on the faces of the class under the magical light. The emotions of the past hours were taking their toll.
"It has been a long, grueling day," he spoke, and his voice sounded calmer again. "You have received the information from Athena and Kamelo, you know what is at stake and you have your schedules. The first day and a half is theory and mandatory basics. The rest of the week is Open Practice... And take my word for it, you are going to need those practice hours more desperately than you can suspect right now."
He clapped his hands once powerfully. The sound rang out like a command. "Everyone to bed. Go to your rooms, look at that scroll until you can dream it and let all of this sink in. Tomorrow, at half past eight, I expect every one of you sharp and ready on the Combat Field."
The students slowly stood up. The enthusiasm from earlier had been transformed into a cold, focused seriousness. With the parchment scrolls clamped tightly under their arms and talking in low tones about The Nurakh Order, the strange days and the upcoming battle, they steadily left the underground space via the spiral staircase.
Leonardo remained waiting motionlessly until the final pair of footsteps on the stone had faded away. Only then did he turn around to Athena, Kamelo and the mechanical figure of Ponich, who waited faithfully in the background with a heavy bowl of steaming food in his hands.
"Are you coming?" Leonardo said curtly. "Let us go outside."
Together they walked up the spiral staircase, stepped through the secret passage behind the rock wall and emerged into the fresh, cool night air of the Goated Outcasts domain. The night wind blew softly through the crowns of the gigantic trees and a deep peace lay over the grounds.
Ponich placed the heavy bowl of steaming food onto a wide stone bench near the entrance. With a series of quick mechanical clicks, compartments opened along his arms and three smaller bowls slid into his hands. He divided the food evenly and offered one to each of them.
Leonardo accepted his bowl without looking away from the countless stars scattered across the dark sky. Athena sat down on the edge of the stone bench and quietly began to eat, while Kamelo immediately took an enormous bite.
For a brief moment, only the soft scraping of utensils and the rustling of the gigantic trees disturbed the deep peace hanging over the grounds.
Kamelo swallowed, took another quick bite and then looked at Leonardo from the side. His chameleon eyes briefly turned independently from each other before he crossed his arms, the bowl still balanced in one hand. "You know it could become a bloodbath, Leonardo. You know the stories. That guy from Thung Zu... He does not fight to win. He breaks people for his own amusement. He leaves nothing of them."
Athena slowly lowered her spoon into her bowl. Her cool gaze remained fixed tightly on Leonardo's profile. "And the Monkeys have not come for a fair tournament," she said with biting calm. "They are out for blood. They see this tournament as their only chance at revenge for what has been done to them."
Leonardo finally took a slow bite. He chewed in silence, swallowed and handed the empty bowl back to Ponich. Then he turned his head very slowly towards the pair. There was no trace of doubt, fear or hesitation on his battle-scarred face. There was only a dangerous, deep and indestructible calm.
"Let them come," Leonardo spoke softly, while an icy smile briefly tugged at his lips. "They truly have absolutely no idea what kind of monsters we are breeding down here."