[Meeting at Noon | Location: Central Spire]

  At precisely 9:00 I exit my room, all armored up and ready for the big meeting. I find that everyone else is already waiting for me, perhaps I should figure out how to get ready faster.

  Perhaps if you didn't ensure every strand of hair was perfect, you would be faster. Lemon remarks. I ignore her, it's not like she is wrong after all.

  “Maka!” Stephen exclaims when I come into view, “Finally, why the heck do you take so long to get ready?”

  “Oh you know, gotta look good for the ladies and all.” I flash a smile at Violet, and she doesn't react in the slightest. Perhaps she really is just going to ignore me for the rest of eternity.

  Liv slides up next to me. “So, I hear you got to meet the headmaster yesterday. What was he like? I bet he was super cool and awesome.”

  I think about it for a moment. “He is definitely a strange guy, but far more normal than you would expect. I really don't know how to describe him, you simply have to see for yourself. Though do brace yourself, apparently he like scares people or something.” Moxie flinches at my last statement, remembering her embarrassment.

  Without further ado, we depart for the central spire. Now, where exactly is the central spire? I’ve got no clue. I do not remember seeing anything resembling a spire on the designs for the station. We are guided to get into a transport tube, but it gives us a strange message.

  “Thank you for using the Velcorp Transit System. Please wait for a moment as authorization to launch is confirmed.” Some light music starts playing.

  “Wait, what does it mean by launch?” Liv asks.

  “Fun times.” Moxie says, then refuses to elaborate. Sometimes I do wish she would say just a little bit more.

  “Authorization has been received. Now delivering passengers to: portal hub.” We speed off, and after about ten minutes we come to a stop. “Passengers, please disembark and enter the launch tubes, one person per capsule.”

  I step out of the transport tube and am immediately greeted by a truly bizarre sight. We are in a large room, and along the walls are several dozen tubes, just large enough to fit a single person inside.

  In the room are several hundred other Dragon Guard, none of them cadets. They are all stepping into or out of various tubes. “What the fuck is this place?” I ask no one in particular.

  “Portal Hub.” Moxie answers. “Links places together by portal, but very stressful and too small for dragons.”

  I stare at Moxie. “How do you know about this? I do not recall being told about a portal network.”

  She smiles brightly. “Read in book, of course.”

  Damn, perhaps I should read more books. It seems like there is quite a lot we aren't explicitly told. Also I get a strange feeling that cadets don't ever use this area, mostly by the fact that just about everyone is staring at us. A side note, being stared at by hundreds of people that have the power to destroy us several dozens of times over is quite disconcerting.

  Stephen takes a step forward. “Well, guess there is nothing else to it. Let’s go, we don't want to be late.

  I wait in a line for a few minutes and then finally it's my turn. I step into the tube, which has a large harness inside that seems designed to seal around me. Other than that, it is a small capsule that seems barely large enough to fit any Dragon Guard.

  “Welcome passenger, thank you for using the Velcorp (Mana Branch) portal network today. The coordinates have been retrieved for: Spire Complex. If you are below Rank 10, please press the button on the side of the capsule to engage safety measures, lest you go splat. Travel Distance: 3 portals, moderate shock expected.”

  It is not very calming when the vehicle you just got in warms you about going splat. Then makes it even worse by saying ‘moderate shock’ expected. But it's too late now, the harness seals me in. I can feel a thick barrier of mana settle over my body and the air gets a bit colder.

  I watch out the tiny window of the pod as people wait in line. Some point at me, probably remarking how it's clearly my first time.

  I hear a wooshing sound, and then I am suddenly jerked forward. It feels like my entire body is smashed against a wall, yet I remain perfectly intact. I get a brief glimpse out the window and I can see the station quickly getting smaller as I fly away.

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  At some point I scream.

  The smashing sensation stops just as the world seems to start bending, to a very painful degree. Outside I can only see a weird rainbow of colors, I must be inside a portal right now. I haven't studied teleportation magic much, but the longer the distance of the entrance and the exit, the longer the ‘tunnel’ of the portal is. Though I don't recall it mentioning anywhere that it is nearly this painful.

  The bending stops, and a vision of normal space returns. This time I can vaguely see a planet in the distance. But just as I am pondering where I am, I enter into another portal.

  After all three portals are over, I feel like I am being slammed against the wall again, but opposite from when I started. I guess at first I was accelerating, and this time I am decelerating.

  It is all over as I get a glimpse of a truly magnificent structure.

  It consists of a double helix structure, anchored to a large cylinder in the center. It looks odd, almost too smooth and yet it has spikes jutting out absolutely everywhere for seemingly no purpose. By my estimations, it is around five hundred kilometers long. It hangs in empty space, in fact, I don't even think we are in a star system. I can see the glow of hangars opening and closing, and flashes of light as dragons and ships come and go in the thousands.

  I have heard of this place, known as the spire. Supposedly it is designed using Dragon architectural principles. Which makes sense, with how strange it looks compared to normal human structures.

  The spire serves as a hub of sorts for the Dragon Guards, a strictly non-millitary one. Basically the only true ‘home’ that a Dragon guard knows. It also facilities various services like the exchange for augments and gear pieces, as well as a general information and job hub.

  I was under the impression that cadets never got the chance to see it. I guess we are just a super special bunch or something.

  My capsule glides into some tube or other and I come to a gentle stop. A stark contrast to the absolutely terrifying ride I just had. If that was ‘moderate shock’ I struggle to think what severe or an extreme would be.

  The harness disengages and the door opens. I stumble out of the pod and nearly trip. But luckily a very nice and strong dude catches me and stabilizes me. “First ride, eh? Well, it doesn't get any easier, so you better get used to it.” He says, and then walks away without even letting me thank him.

  I suddenly feel an urge to dodge to the left, and a Liv goes soaring past me and faceplants into the ground. “Ow, Maka, you are such a meanie.”

  “Well you see, I just had my everything crushed by whatever the fuck that contraption was. I would rather my ribs stay intact.”

  “One day, I'll get you.” Liv lets out a very evil sounding laugh. I should be careful around her from now on.

  “Alright folks, let's not be late to our meeting.” Stephen says, now that we are all together. By the way, Violet looks completely unfazed by the whole portal thing. But I bet she is just putting on a strong mask.

  We enter into a network of normal tubes and are quickly taken to the center of the spire. I say quickly, but it takes like half an hour, this place is gigantic. I step out of the tube and am greeted by what I can only describe as ‘opulence.’

  Literally everything is just gold. Or rather some gold alloy that has been strengthened of course. While gold isn’t rare or expensive, it still carries connotations of wealth from ancient times for some reason. Guess humans still like shiny rocks, no matter the age.

  Immediately, a servant walks up to us and bows deeply. “Please follow me, the director is waiting for you.” Did I forget to mention that Lucien is also the director of the entire Dragon Guard? Because he does that alongside the headmasterly duties. It's probably not that hard realistically, his mental processing speed must be off the charts from how high his stats are. Though I suspect Bellaris is actually doing a fair portion of the work instead of him.

  We are led to a door, and we are motioned inside. We enter a large room, it is very tall and the walls are absolutely lined with data books. There must be tens of thousands of them. They rise high into the air and I cannot even see the roof. The floor is made of some sort of partially transparent crystal, and I can see that the bookshelves descend down as well.

  “Greetings cadets and honored ones!” Lucien says as he gently floats down from above, wearing the same outfit as when he came to meet me. “So, what do you think? Is my grand archive cool? Or is it super cool?”

  The instant Lucien appears, Liv, Stephen and Moxie seem to instinctively shy away from him and shake a bit. But they don't collapse, I guess being warned helps. Violet is as stonefaced as ever, at least I've gotten to see lots of her cute scowl as of late. Though now that I know how wonderful her smile can be, it doesn't hit quite as hard.

  Lucien lands just in front of us, then waves his hand and a bunch of chairs and a large table appear in the center of the room. It is piled high with biscuits, cakes and all sorts of strange looking deserts. “Please take a seat. We have quite a few things to discuss. Bel should be around here somewhere, maybe. I hope she didn’t get lost again and forget which floor she was on… hold on, let me go check.”

  Lucien Blinks away and we all just stand there, mouths slightly agape. Stephen turns towards me. “Maka, I think you need to reevaluate your definition of strange. That guy is a complete and utter wackjob.”

  I remember how to walk and make my way towards the table. “Oh come on, he isn't that bad. By the way, you’ve gotta try these biscuits, they are absolutely divine.” I plop down in a chair and immediately start stuffing my face. Portal travel is hungry work after all.

  The others stand there for a moment and give me a strange look like I am just as crazy as Lucien. Eventually Violet moves and sits down at the table, as far away as possible from me of course. She takes a biscuit and for the briefest moment I glimpse a smile on her face as she revels in the deliciousness. The others quickly follow behind Violet.

  Lucien reappears, with Bellaris in tow. “Alright then, now we can get started. But first, a quick biscuit.” He reaches to grab a biscuit, but then Bellaris immediately slaps his hand.

  “Idiot, now is not the time for biscuits. Where did you even get this display?”

  “Oh, this is one that I saved several years back. It's important that I have a stash in case.. Wait.”

  “You have a stash!?” Bellaris seems quite angry. She notices our presence and then immediately changes direction. “Ahem, that shall be a problem for later. Thank you all for coming today, I hope the portals weren't too rough.”

  “Damn I have been caught. Anyways, as she said, thank you for coming. Now, so as to not waste time, let me just jump right to it.” He pauses and takes a breath. “Very simply, we want to form a new branch of the military, and we want you cadets to be the first squadron to join it. Got any questions?”

  Next Chapter: You Will Be Broken

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