Chapter Text
Every year the first night behind the defensive barrier of Moenia is usually exciting for most of the students. First years can't wait to hear all about the history of the Castle of Protection or better known as Moenia. The long speeches about how this place will help you find who you really are and teach you how to control your powers are something everyone is looking forward to. What they say isn't a lie. After becoming an adult you come to the Overworld and start discovering a whole new universe which the kids usually read about or heard stories from their magical parents. The stories about the paradise on Earth or about the three elements and how one element runs in every one of us, and even the story about our ancestors who used fire, wind, and earth to build the beautiful Moenia to help us all from the Creatures.
Most of the students are excited, except for Lee Heeseung who heard all of these stories a couple of hundreds of times and learned all about them from his teachers as a first-year student last year. So, instead of preparing for his classes, which are very early in the morning, he decided to wander around the school. He thought it was going to be just a quick stroll before going to bed, but it's 3 in the morning and Heeseung doesn't plan on sleeping any time soon. Last year he couldn't wait to meet all of his professors and see the magic happening in real life. Don't get me wrong that's exactly what happened the next morning, but Heeseung, being the smart and curious human he is, wanted to know more.
Heeseung wanted to know what was behind the barrier. Everybody knows that it's a dangerous place, or well at least it was hundred years ago when the Creatures appeared and attacked the whole Overworld. That was the reason Moenia was created. The barrier doesn't allow anything not human and not magical to come inside. No one his age has ever seen the Creatures. They do exist even though they are pretty rare now to wander upon.
Stepping outside of the barrier for the first time wasn't as terrifying as Heeseung thought. He could hear the birds flying above his head in the forest and numerous sounds that for some reason didn't worry him. In a way, he felt relieved, however, the disappointment was bigger. It wasn't like he expected something huge to happen, but he expected something to happen. Yet, here he was standing in the middle of a forest looking around waiting for whatever makes this place so dangerous to appear in front of him. Frustrated he extinguished the fire that was beaming out of his palms a few seconds ago and turned around ready to go back.
That's when he heard it. Growl. A low, deep growl that seemed few meters away from him. He turned towards where the sounds were coming from, but all he saw was darkness. It was almost 4 am by now and the sun wasn't coming up in few hours. The disappointment he felt earlier disappeared and for the first time tonight, he wished that nothing happens.
The sounds kept getting louder and now he could even hear the heavy footsteps over the autumn leaves. He summoned the fire in his palms again, nothing else left to do but fight. He was breathing heavily, eyes scanning every single shadow when it suddenly went quiet. Complete silence fell and not even the sound of birds or the wind howling was heard. For a second Heeseung thought he was safe. That it was all a false alarm meaning he could finally go back to his bed and forget this whole night.
But, that whole fantasy vanished when he saw it in front of him. The Creature just stood there looking straight at him. It was two times bigger than a normal human and he was completely black almost getting lost in the darkness of the night. The only thing that was shining bright were its blood-red eyes. There was no time to be scared.
The eye contact soon broke as the thing started running towards the scared human. Heeseung cast his strongest spell and threw it from his palms straight at the Creature. It slowed it down, but only for a second as it soon recharged towards him again. Heeseung soon realized that non of his spells will be strong enough to beat it. He started running backward still keeping his eyes on the thing. That was just one of the mistakes he made this night. Because he was unable to see where he was going, he tripped and fell to the ground. His ears started ringing and it all went in slow motion. He could see the Creature coming closer and closer while he was laying there on the ground helpless. He raised his right arm to cover his eyes waiting for the pain to overwhelm his whole body.
Strangely enough, the pain never came. He heard something moving fast right over his body towards the Creature and then it went quiet again. Heeseung removed his now shaking arm from his head only to see the beast laying on the ground. Millions of thought started running through his head. He looked around him trying to find the reason why the huge Creature was now laying on the ground with an enormous icicle in his chest.
Not wasting any longer, Heeseung ran straight to the headmaster's office. His mind was running faster than he was running up the stairs and through the empty halls. How is it dead? Is it dead? Who killed it? And how?
“Headmaster, in the forest... it's dead... I hit it, but it was big and..“ He tried speaking, but couldn’t make up a normal sentence.
“Calm down and tell me what happened? Who is dead?”
Heeseung raised my stare from the ground and looked at the lady who thought him how to use and control his magic. How could he tell her what happened when he doesn’t even know. The only thing that came out of his dry mouth was a single word.
“The Creature..”
Then it all happened so fast. Her eyes widened and she quickly called the guard telling them something the student couldn’t quite understand. In his head he kept going over the whole night, even after he was sent to go back to his room, already knowing he will have to talk about this whole situation early in the morning and will receive a long lecture about going outside of the barrier.
Thankful he didn’t have a roommate, Heeseung entered his room and with tired steps laid on his bed. He stared at the ceiling trying to piece what in the bloody hell just happened. The Creature attacked him and as he was about to get killed someone saved him. That’s not the part that was confusing him. The piece of cold ice in the beast’s chest did. Ice. An element that doesn't exist in the magical world. How could someone use it when it's not even real. Someone? Or Something?
With those thoughts, Heeseung noticed he wasn’t covered in the darkness of his room anymore. Sun rays were slowly creeping into his room making him realize a long talk with the headmaster awaits. And for the millionth time, he wished he never left his room last night.