Whatever Gusion’s talents, searching a single spell and translations among hundreds of books was not.

He’d read thousands of books from his family’s library, sure, but it was for entertainment. He had never tried to study specific scopes for a test, since he’d read them all and ace it.

Natalia didn’t meet a better fate. She was still stuck on the bottom shelf, because she didn’t spend most of her time in libraries.

“Anything?” she drawled, flipping through a book that said, Spell Casting 101. “I am not particularly trained in this area of studies, I’m afraid.”

Gusion cussed so loud the doves that were pecking the classroom windows before might fly away. (Why were there doves? Why did no one say anything about it?)

“It’s fine.” Gusion closed another book. “This language is far too ancient. Anyone who understands it is six feet below for decades!”

“Should we ask Professor Estes?” Natalia suggested. “He’s immortal, after all. All of the teachers are.”

Gusion scanned through a parchment. “No — if they were deliberately keeping this from us, we can expect no assistance.”

Just how old is this library? Normally, Gusion would be thrilled to see such a library with a large capacity of books and information, but when he’s looking for a single sentence among pieces of pages in an unknown amount of books? Not so much.

Unfortunately, their best tracker was still missing, and their finest information searcher is going to be kicked out of this realm. Fantastic.

Even if they found scraps of the words in the spell required, there was a possibility it might be false. So they had to locate multiple books to ensure that it is indeed correct.

“Oh my God!” Gusion roared. “It’s a damn miracle that they hadn’t found us yet! Can we just destroy that thing with force?”

“Unless you want us to get kicked out,” Natalia snapped. “Isn’t there some tracking-spell of sorts? I’m not a mage, but I have heard of it.”

Gusion slumped in his chair. “I need to know what I’m looking for,” he soured. “What it looks like and what it means, which we don’t know, thank you very much.”

“Okay then.” Natalia closed her book. “Why don’t we just ask the teachers?”

“Fuck no.”

“Or we could just teleport to our friends themselves.”

Gusion stopped. “Actually, that would work if there’s no anti-magic barriers around them.”

Natalia applauded for him sarcastically.

He attempted a tracking spell. Didn’t work. Locating spells, failed. Whatever Gusion had thought of he tried, and failed.

Gusion rolled his eyes at Natalia.

She snorted.

“I could be of assistance.” A white-haired moon elf shuffled in. “I hear you are in the rescue of your friends.”

Gusion glared. “And you would help us why?”

Miya was unwavering under his cold glare. “It is my duty to help fellow students, is it not? I know of someone — some people that are familiar with this line of translations.”

The demon dude, a girl that looked like a ninja, another dude that looked like a robot and a tank made of stone all presented their presence proudly. Some more than the others. (Demon dude growled, “Why am I here?”)

“My name is Hanabi,” said the ninja- looking girl. “These fellow students are Moskov, Alpha, and Grock.”

“I have been the stone guardian for many years,” Grock said. “I am quite familiar with this line of language.”

Gusion showed him a piece of paper to make sure.

Grock squinted his eyes further as he leaned in warily to read it. “This is dechipered as, ‘Mama’s cheese is from the nightlands.’”

Natalia ripped it with her claws.

“These symbols are quite ancient.” Moskov studied the copy of the carvings that Gusion had jotted down. “Far, far more ancient than the destruction of the Moon Elves.”

Miya, who was already flipping through a book, glared at him.

“Nevermind,” he gruffed.

The number of people who were searching for translations had suddenly skyrocketed from two to seven. Progress was made, and after three days — classes were still canceled and Miya brought them their meals — they finally got the gist of it.

Gusion ran through it one more time. “Hope this works.”

He looked at the room, spacious, aglow with power.

“It will.” Miya patted his shoulder. “It has to.”

The remaining six students kept a well-respected distance from him. They didn’t know what secrets this place held or how the spell works.

Gusion inhaled deeply.

“I call upon thee, the Goddess of Twilight. Release thee wrath that doth upon thy right.” The room began to glow, reacting to his incantation. “Where light is amidst and dark is abridge, reveal what thy lost among the drift.”

As the spell was finished casting, an object began to materialize in the middle of the room. A wave of energy swept across him and the students, but he didn’t feel any different, which was good or bad.

It was a crystal capsule, large enough for a human. Inside that capsule, it was a figure with blood pigtails.

Miya gasped and ran up to it. She traced her finger on the glassy surface, trembling from either rage, resentment or disbelief.

“Layla,” she said. “Layla is inside it.”

Gusion knew who she meant. The lady who was part of the SABER squad that tried to kill him and her friends.

“Why is she here?” Gusion inquired. “Is this a prison?”

Grock’s rocky body rumbled. “An energy core. That capsule is a transmutor that transfers the battery’s energy to the main building…”

“And the battery is Layla?” Natalia poked the crystals. “Why? Isn’t she to be put in exile?”

“Should we get her out of there?” Gusion asked. “Where’s Lesley?”

A girl with rose-pink hair patted his back so hard he jumped. He made unmanly-like noise. “WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?”

Natalia looked startled as well, for she’d turned invisible. “Lesley!”

She looked exhausted and hadn’t slept in ages, but she managed to explain. After being controlled, she was sent here and set into camouflage. She stayed there for some time until they broke the control by chanting the spell.

Lesley bit her lip. “The SABER squad is innocent. This school… isn’t what we think it is.”