Chapter 4 The phenomenon

The next night, Aron was walking through the empty street of the school. His destination was the girls' hostel. His steps were heavy as he walked towards the location Julia told his yesterday, with slow steps. A lot of things were going on in his mind. Was this the right thing to do? Is he being too impatient? Should he have waited for a better opportunity to present itself?

Turning to look at the brightly lit hostel buildings, he shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. Reaching the garden, he found the blonde standing alone watching the star-filled sky.

Hearing his footsteps, she turned to look at him. "I take it that, you have made up your mind then?" With all his hesitation now gone, Aron nodded his head with conviction. "Follow me, then." She moved past him and began walking towards the school building.

"Ahem.. Ms. Julia, regarding that book.." Aron cleared his throat to bring up the matter of his compensation but she cut him off before he could continue. "I will give it to you tomorrow, same time, same place." Aron nodded as he followed behind her. He was certainly not expecting to receive it before the completion of his task, yet he had to get one last confirmation out of her. Getting his hands on the book was his end goal, right now.

They passed through the abandoned corridor and the fact that this was the necromancy department, made the place look rather creepy. Julia on the other hand didn't seem to mind the darkness, walking leisurely towards the laboratory.

*Krrrhh* Aron can see the lights were on in the room as Julia opened the door. There were already a few students inside. All of them were girls. Apart from Julia, there were 4 more girls. This must be her group, that was working on the potion together.

"Is this the boy?" The tall one among them asked Julia. "Yeah, he is ready to be the test subject." Getting the answer from the blonde, she called out to another girl. "Hera, bring that contract." The girl who was given the task, looked like a shy one as she refused to meet Aron's eyes.

She brought a thin sheet of paper and placed it on the table ahead of Aron. "Please place your thumb imprint here." He had a hard time even understanding what she meant as her voice was too low. Another girl with a muscular build signed as she came forward. "He is just a slave boy, do you need to be this shy even around him, Hera?"

The one admonishing Hera seemed to be a sporty type with well-developed muscles on her limbs. She came forward and took over, replacing the shy one. "Place your thumb here!" She pointed to the location and Aron nodded his head lightly, before placing his thumb on the ink pad and then pressing it on the contract.

In the time they were messing around he had made sure to read the contract. It stated that these students will not be responsible for any untoward occurrence with him, since they had paid him. Though he was a slave, the kingdom wasn't so ruthless as to not care about their life and death. If properly established, the charges related to a slave's death might create problems for anyone. Of course, the punishment was not as bad as, let's say, a proper citizen but still everyone was better off avoiding those charges anyway, if possible.

"I think we are ready to go now?" The muscular girl checked with Julia, who nodded in return. Getting the go-ahead she grabbed onto Aron's hand, pulling him towards the bed they had prepared previously. "Sit here." He did as told.

Beside the bed, the tall blonde girl from the start was sitting with a spectacled green-haired one. The latter one had a glass tube in her hand as she moved the liquid in it around. "Is it ready, Hestia?" The tall one asked, she looked excited. The shorter one was looking completely focused on her task. She took her time responding to the previous girl. "Yes. Now it's ready."

Julia heard her answer and called out to the other blonde. "Sophie, tell him the drill." Saying that she along with the other 2 girls from earlier, namely the sporty one and the shy one, settled around Aron's bed.

Sophie got up and began her lecture. "Listen, Aron?" Getting a nod from the boy she continued. "We need every detail that you can possibly provide us with. From the taste of the liquid to its texture, we need everything. Don't hold back and try to explain to us in detail what you feel. It might induce a little headache or cause some labored breathing but that's all normal. I am sure Julia would have already told what this potion does?" Getting another nod from him she continued once again. "Perfect. So it will work for a total of 10 minutes. After that, your body will return to normalcy. So, if you have any questions you can ask them right now."

Aron shook his head. They had already explained everything that he could have possibly asked for. "I got no question. We can begin when you guys want." Hestia called out to the short-haired, sporty girl. "Ava, keep the time."

Saying that she handed him the tube. "Just down it all at once. Make sure you are perfectly calm. The lower the heart rate, the better." Aron took the tube filled with purple liquid from the spectacled lady's hands.

Taking her advice he prepared himself by taking a few deep breaths before putting the tube over his open mouth and downing the content all at once. "Aheuu.. taste.. absolutely disgusting. Like spoilt meat. Smells like a dead rat...." He kept saying whatever he can think of and watched the green-haired girl write it all down at an amazing speed.

"Headache had begun. Can feel my feet getting a bit cold. Heart rate is slowing down... Feeling a bit.. drowsy.. wants to take a rest.." Under the intense gaze of the girls, Aron settled himself in the bed, like he was too tired to continue speaking.

"It's starting." Hera, spoke in her usual mosquito-like voice as all other girls nodded. "Hope you are keeping correct time, Ava?" The short-haired girl frowned at Hestia. "Come on, you guys can trust me with this at least." Everyone except Hera began laughing.

Hera was focused on the boy, she knew the potion involved many risks, and she was worried about the boy. Julia noticed her stiff face. "Is there something wrong, Hera?" The shy girl shook her head. "No. I was just a bit anxious, that's all." Julia placed her hand around the girl and pulled her closer to her. "Don't worry. Didn't we test so many times on the test animals? It will be alright." Hera gave a low hmm, in response.

After a few minutes, Hestia got up to check on Aron's heartbeat. Next, she checked the boy's pulse. A wide grin spread on her face as she turned around to give a thumbs up to the other girls as they cheered. But Julia stopped their celebrations short. "Wait. It's not the time to cheer. Sophie, use your spiritual sense to scan him thoroughly, can you sense his life force?" She had done the same and found that the boy showed every sign of being dead. Still, she wanted everything to be done verified thoroughly.

Sophie nodded and placed her hands on Aron's flat chest before releasing her spiritual sense. She too can't sense any life force inside him. Looking at her happy expression, Julia discerned the results as a smile finally spread on her face too. "Now the only thing left is for the boy to wake up. Let's hope we don't face any hurdles with this." Everyone nodded, anxiously waiting for Aron to get back up.

***

"Ahem.. don't want to spoil the mood, but are we going a bit over the time limit?" Ava saw the concerned look on everyone's face and she can't keep quiet any longer. It has already been 15 minutes and there was no sign of the slave boy waking back up.

"We too know that stupid, Ava." Hestia, hurriedly picked up her notes trying to search for something that can help them in this precarious situation. Ava knew this wasn't the time to fuss with her, so she kept quiet since she had nothing valuable to add.

Hera had moved to Aron's bed, trying to look for any sign of life in the boy. But alas, she can't sense even a bit of life in him. There was no difference between him and a dead person. "How can this happen? We had tested it so many times." She had begun panicking. For her, his status as a slave made no difference. He was a human for her, first.

"We got no choice. We have failed." Julia made the judgment after a full 20 minutes had passed since Aron had fallen 'asleep'. "Our priority now is to save the boy's life. Hera, you stay with me. The rest of you, go to teachers' dorms and call in Mrs. Yana. We can't handle this." Everyone nodded as they practically ran to get help. None of them was brave enough to see a life vanquish under them and not be affected by it.

"Will he be alright, Julia?" Hera felt like she was going to cry any moment now. Julia hurriedly sat beside her and hugged her tight. "It's nothing, Hera. Mrs. Yana can easily take care of this. It is not real death. It's just that the potion is not giving way for his life force to revive his body. Once Mrs. Yana removes the effects of the potion away, he will be fine." She herself was not much confident about that, but she had to make sure that Hera doesn't panic.

*Rumble* Rumble* The weather was clear outside just a few minutes back but now it was raining cats and dogs, along with heavy thunderstorms. But the girls were too concerned about Aron to have the luxury of thinking about the weather. *Rumble* Rumble* *Rumble*

**In the largest palace complex in the capital**

The weather had suddenly changed all over the capital. A man stood at the window looking at the massive apparition that had revealed itself. In the sky outside an enormous figure was taking shape. On his face, the man showed no expression but his heart was put in turmoil as the dark figure kept on coalescing over the Greenville magic school. It has grown in size and was now hundreds of meters in height and was still growing.

He can't feel any threat from the figure but that was because it was not actively trying to threaten them. It stood there hanging in the sky like it was aloof from this world. It had covered the whole capital in its aura, effectively suppressing each and everyone regardless of age or power levels.

The man looked down at his hands as he can't channel any mana. It seemed like the apparition had absorbed all the surrounding mana at once. Turning his gaze out of the window he can see his troops rushing in the direction of the figure, without even realizing what they were up against.

*Step* *Step* The room was silent enough that he noticed the footsteps of the woman behind him. "Is there a mage from the central plains, staying in the city?" She can see the death-reaper-like figure, hung from the sky. It had now grown to the size of more than two kilometers. The figure was completely covered in a slacking black hood that covered its face. In place of its eyes, there were two red orbs. It held onto a scythe, that was even larger than its own body, in his left hand.