Divinitas

014 - The Legend of Genesis


Phoenix glared. Stalking back to class from the Principal’s office with a note saying he had a ‘condition’ thus it was ‘necessary’ for him to wear the collar wasn’t something he was too pleased with. First he had been kicked out of class for wearing something that ‘wasn’t school regulation’, and now he was made to look like some retard by the Principal himself! As if it wasn’t bad enough that all the students were talking about him and Aether behind his back, now even the teachers were picking on him!

“What are you looking at!?” he snapped, waving his fist that clutched the note at the serene staring faces painted above him. In his fury the boy could have sworn the smiling figures were giggling at him.

A door slammed somewhere close by, followed by what was without a doubt Chima’s delighted giggle. Rounding a corner, Phoenix came face to face with the boy and to his horror, Casi. Both were stifling laughter as if an invisible feather was tickling their exposed stomachs. Their bright sparg eyg eyes never left the doors to the toilets they were standing suspiciously outside of.

Just then the bell rang, and a few seconds later, students poured out of the nearby classrooms and dashedo tho the toilets, it being the first break they had since breakfast. Loud groans soon emitted from both the male and female toilets, and complaints about how long some people were taking.

This sent both Casi and Chima into pearls of laughter.

Phoenix rolled his eyes and walked up to them, kicking them both in the shins. “Okay, what did you two brats do?”

Casi stopped laughing and grinned, latching herself to Phoenix. “Oh, we just thought it might be fun to lock all the empty stalls from the inside…”

“Why?” Phoenix asked, trying to pry her fingers off his arm. Over the past few days he had grown use to the annoying presence of the girl, and no longer freaked out over her overly blatant display of affection. But that didn’t mean he liked it any better than he did when he first met the hyperactive girl.

Chima shrugged. “We were bored. So we asked to be excused from class early to go to the toilet. Besides, I always wondered what that space between the floor and the door was good for… Now we know!”

Phoenix sweat-dropped. Giving up on trying to s Cas Casi off, the three entered the dinning hall, grabbing their lunch and sitting with Draco and Gryps at what had become their usual table.

It was Wednesday, four days since the Duel. And Aether had yet to show his face. Once again Phoenix found himself looking around the hall for any sign of the golden haired fiend and mentally slapped himself. This was the enemy he was talking about here! The enemy! He wasn’t supposed to miss the freaking enemy!

“Aww, are you missing your Master?” Casi piped up from beside him, looking most sly and devious. “Little Phoenix miss being Uke?”

“What?!” Phoenix exclaimed, almost dropping his burger that he held with both hands, halfway from the plate to his gapping mouth. “Uke?! Never in a million years would I be caught dead being on the bottom! Fuck! Why am I even talking to you about this?!”

“Huh… Well, Aether is definitely a Seme. So that would make you Uke. Don’t bother arguing, Little Phoenix! After all, you’re the one in a collar,” Casi teased, tugging on the tails of his black bandana.

The enraged boy threw down his half eaten burger and swatte her her pestering hands. “In any case, I am not missing Aether!” he growled.

“Oh, so you do admit you’ve actually slept with him?”

Phoenix narrowed his eyes, picked up a fistful of chips, and pelted them at Casi. The girl squealed, ducking behind Gryps. Each and every chip hit the icy boy in the face. Everyone at the table froze, waiting for the imminent explosion. It never came. At least, not in the fashion they expected.

Calmly, Gryps finished his meal and stood, raising cold eyes to Phoenix. “I will remember this. As I have and will do for every time you cross me. My payback will come in a form you never expect, and it will hurt you more than you can imagine,” he said in a deathly low tone before picking up his books and leaving.

“I think I’ve really made him mad this time,” Phoenix said quietly, watching Gryps leave.

The class they had after lunch was Mythology, run by a teacher that was highly emotional and somewhat bizarre. Despite that this class would be the fifth they had in this subject, Phoenix had yet to understand the reason for them to be learning stories of the past that were nothing more than vivid tales spun from some delusional imagination.

Sitting in the second row, Draco beside him reading up on the next chapter they were to study, Phoenix barely bothered to glance up as the teacher fumbled into the classroom. As usual, his arms were laden with rolled up maps, ancient books, and even the odd statue.

“Class? Ah, may I please have your attention?” The noise from the pointless chatter didn’t die down, but the Professor proceeded as he always did. “Um, I came across something quite interesting the other day… So I thought we might deviate from out set agenda and take a lesson or two to have a look at it…”

Here a paper aeroplane flew across the classroom and stuck in the Professor’s bushy hair. Either the middle aged man didn’t notice, or he chose to ignore it. Phoenix had the suspicion that it was most likely the former.

“What drew me to this particular legend was that it had certain parallels with the game you all so enjoy… What is it called? Ah, Metamorphosis, isn’t it?”

Draco raised his eyes from the page he had been reading for the first time since the commencement of the lesson. The Professor was placing four small statues of mythological beasts on his cluttered desk. A griffin, a creature that possessed the body of a lion and the head and wings of a hawk. Followed by a phoenix, the bird of fire and the symbol of death and rebirth. Then a chimera, a monster with the tail of a dragon, the body of a goat, and the head of a lion. And finally, a blue dragon with a serpentine body.

“Would you believe also, that this legend has the same name as this school?” the Professor continued, oblivious to the fact that the only student paying any attention was Draco. “ ‘The Legend of Genesis’ is how it was referred to in the text I came across. And it spoke of your Children and Divine Beasts.

“Anyway, the legend… Many year ago - I’m talking thousands here, by the way - there existed a divine society called Genesis. They ruled from the top of the world in an ethereal castle, which was controlled by a divine being called the God of Soul. This being was protected by four other gods. A God of Air, a God of Fire, a God of Earth, and a God of Water.h ofh of these four gods controlled their element and a Divine Beast. The Griffin, Phoenix, Chimera, and the Dragon respectively.” The Professor gestured to each of his little figurines as he said their name.

Phoenix opened one crimson eye, having heard his name. Seeing nothing amiss, the boy closed it again and continued napping.

“Now, something happened. There’s no reliable source that tells clearly what was the catastrophe that caused the downfall of Genesis, but fall it did. The gods and goddesses that were a part of Genesis were destroyed. All except for a mere handful who lost their powers and were scattered.

“The four Elemental Gods were destroyed in body, but not soul. They took on the shape of their Divine Beast and escaped into the world, and took on mortal form. The mortal form they undertook was human, and they were known as the Child of that god. For example, the Child of Air was the reincarnated form of the God of Air.

“As for the God of Soul, he retained his body, that of a golden youth, but was striped of all but the barest of his powers. He remained immortal, but aside from that, was little more than a human.

“The Legend of Genesis says that the God of Soul may regain his powers if he were to gather the four Children and awaken the Divine Beasts within them… Don’t you think that’s an interesting tale, boys and girls?” the Professor mused, fingering one of the little figurines he had brought along. “Gods who live as humans unknowingly, that have died and been reborn many times… Ah, what tales they could tell us!”

By now, the Professor was off in his own little daydream world. Draco, however, was deep in thought. Parallels with Metamorphosis… What exactly was the purpose of that game? All competitions and duels aside, it was to single out one player e the the Child… It couldn’t really be true, could it…?

The Legend of Genesis…

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