Sidestory: Der Schnitter
2052, Earth, Akashik Academy Auditorium
It had been a long time. A very long time. Decades had passed since he’d entered this room, decades spent in silence as he and those around him stared at the far wall, not speaking, barely blinking, and if they’d had the required self control, they likely wouldn’t even have moved …
Yeah, okay, it hadn’t even been five minutes, Leon could admit that. But his stomach was twisting into knots, and judging by the fact that no one else was talking, the same went for every other person in this hall.
Just a bare handful of minutes before, outside, the crowd had been abuzz with nervousness and uncertainty, the chatter from a hundred teenagers and young adults building upon itself to reach an almost deafening volume even though no single person was being particularly loud … but the instant they’d entered the hall, they’d shut up. And the speech hadn’t even started.
It was that important for them all to make a good impression. And they were all ridiculously nervous to boot.
Leon did his best to untangle that twisted knot of anxiety and nerves that had seemingly replaced his very heart, only for something to finally change.
A portal flashed open behind the lectern on the podium, and a man strode out. Pale white skin, like someone who’d never seen the sun, hair so black it seemed to swallow the light, green eyes that gleamed like emeralds. He was clad in sturdy grey cloth pants and a black polo shirt, with a heavily enchanted bracer clasping his left wrist while a jagged inverted teardrop of bone, fang, and blue scales dangled from a leather cord around his neck, letting anyone who saw it know just what its wearer had accomplished.
There was only one person that could be.
Dr. Isaac Thoma. The Sage.