Professor Chestnut's words began ringing in his mind. The class which he had been scolded by him and Ermand paid attention to. If he's an Odistte, there are plenty of reasons that could be solved.

"It's worthless talking with you," Odoeris hissed. He took the orbuculum and whispered something near it.

The orbuculum showed Ermand and not the powerful object, the Potestum, he was looking for. Odoeris glanced at him in bewilderment. He vanished the orbuculum in his hands and stepped closer to Ermand.

"You are the Potestum?"

"You're crazy."

In the meantime, Charlie and Edwin, together, produced a charm and stealthily shot it on Odoeris, who casted a protection barrier immediately that pushed the charm against its source. It hit Charlie and Edwin. On seeing this, Timothy, unknown about how to use his Aslehm, pulled out an arrow and aimed it at Odoeris while Emile thought of a powerful spell.

"Enough!" He shouted, making a flickering flame in his hands that flew through all of the gaps of the closed windows high above them. He threw the spherule of flickering flames onto Emile and Timothy,

"Ernatio pullanto!" Ermand shouted, pulling both his arms forward, covering his friends behind him by stepping in front of them. A repulsive fiery light emerged from his hands that hit against Odoeris' flame and shoved it in the direction of Odoeris. Before Odoeris could even realize that it would hit him back, he was thrusted with both the spherules hitting him.

Odoeris vaporized into the air and flew through the gaps of the window of the ceiling. "I will get my Potestum, even if it means it's you!" He shouted while the last air of his disappeared through the window.

The material on the cube has also gone. It wasn't there, all of it has vapourised along with Odoeris, the Odin they believed as their friend.

Ermand fell on his knees upon the realization that he was an Odistte, the son of some Protectors. He knew he didn't want to know who his parents would be, but at that moment, he wanted to know. He wanted to hate them for what they had made him dive through. If he had been raised as their child, the Odistte, he wouldn't have suffered all of it.

Just when realization hit him, yellow orange light beamed before him and later, a warrior sword shone before his knees. His Aslehm.

He took it in his hands and stared at it. The sword's golden hilt had an amber gem embedded into it and the blade was sharper than any sword he had seen in his life.

"Your Aslehm," Emile whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You've got it Ermand."

Timothy sat near him and gazed at the sword.

"Wow. It looks mighty," he gasped.

"It is right, they're here!" Professor Chestnut shouted, slamming open the doors. He glanced all around the room, fear filled in his face.

"Where is he? Why are you students here?" He bawled at them in a mix of worry and anticipation.

"Odoeris?" Ermand asked, standing up and turning at the Professor. He noticed that the High Professor was just behind him.

"You saw him?" Professor Chestnut mused, not daring to look anywhere but Ermand.

"All of us did," Timothy replied, nearing Ermand.

Professor Chestnut shook his head in disbelief and slanted on the door frame. The High Professor walked around the room, he glanced at the sword in Ermand's hand and then at the three students lying on the floor.

"Professor Chestnut, call Ms. Altha Logge and the rest of her team admit these students immediately to the Healers' Health care and Casualty.

"Yes, Professor Lewcent," he replied before exiting out of the room.

"You have earned it, finally," he said in a low voice that no one outside the room could hear. "What did he seek from here, or... from you?"

"Odoeris?" Ermand asked. The Professor nodded while his eyes wandered through all of the ruined walls.

"You know him?"

"What did he come for?" The Professor asked, tying his hands to his back.

"He called it something like the Potestum. He said he needs it and Ermand has it with him," Emile said.

"Potestum?" The Professor's face changed. He looked grave and worried. "And what happened?"

"He said the Potestum is Ermand or something like that and Ermand produced some charm against Odoeris' and it hit him. He vaporized and escaped," Timothy answered.

"How can a person be a Protestum?" He thought to himself. The boys shrugged at him while Ms. Altha and others came to take Charlie, Edwin and Alfreda to the Healers' department.

"Did you come to know that you're an Odistte, Ermand?" He asked after setting himself in deep thought.

It took a while for Ermand to reply with a yes. The Professor pursed his lips.

"How did you know that I'm an Odistte, Professor?" Ermand enquired when Ermand thought of the High Professor's question for the second time.

"If I didn't know that. You'll never be here, Ermand."

"Why didn't you tell me that? How did you come to know?"

"Maybe, I'm not the right person to tell you this but I'll give you a clue. Think, if I selected you to join in the college despite the disagreement of most of the Professors and you without a magic school experience, it'll be only because you're special. An Odistte requires no magic schooling, Ermand. If any other boy had joined like you, it'll be beyond impossible for him."

"Why can't any student lie that he or she's an Odistte as an excuse if they didn't go to magic school like me?"

"That's a good question. Wait," he dug his hand in his pocket and produced a small bronze coin.

"A coin?"

"Not any ordinary coin. This is called the clan detectors or the Odiones, anything you'd like to call. All that matters is how one uses it."

He showed one face of the coin that was etched with the symbol of a person's hand with two palm creases. He turned the other side which Ermand guessed would be the back of the hand engraved on it, since it didn't have the palm creases. The Professor gently pressed his thumb against the side where the back of the hand was engraved. Ermand gasped when he saw the palm at the other side illuminating bright light from it.

"It is used to detect which clan one actually belonged to if he or she is lying. Mostly used to detect Odisttes and hence the name Odiones. The intensity increases when an Odistte is nearer. The white light is that of an Odistte. One would feel a slight burning sensation as well," he explained.

Ermand nodded.

So I'm actually an Odistte.

Then a thought occurred to him.

"Professor, I need to tell you something that I couldn't express to anybody," Ermand looked at him with a gleaming eye, his eyes of hope expecting an answer from him. The Professor nodded, smiling.

"A pain, a pain that seared through the whole of my body. It would feel as if the pain wouldn't leave, eventually it left as far as now. And it was happening every time, the same intricate way. The pain."

The Professor turned to Emile.

"Perhaps, there's a better teacher who could answer you, Ermand," he smiled to a confused Emile. He didn't understand what he meant.

"When I was left behind in the dorm while the rest were attending their exams, I didn't know that the destruction that happened were the works of Odoeris," Ermand said.

The Professor turned his attention back to Ermand.

"I should consider this to a deeper level, Ermand, because Odoeris is not somebody no one knows of. In the restricted sublevels of our library, he is infamously known to all books."

Ermand nodded, partially consuming his words.

"You know who my parents are?" He asked.

The Professor chuckled.

"Remember what you told me when I asked you, if you get a chance to know who they are, would you? You told me you wouldn't want to know."

Ermand remembered it, and slowly, everything started making sense to him. It wasn't just a mere conversation he had with the High Professor. Ermand bent his head down, feeling embarrassed.

"All of us are hypocrites, Ermand. We say something and we do the opposite, I shouldn't blame you. It is the human nature," the High Professor said, smiling through his deep and dark eyes.

"Still, I won't stop admitting how I hate them," Ermand muttered, clenching his fist.

"What if you're having misconceptions about them?"

"No. No parents would ever leave their children alone despite how the situation is worse to them."

A long moment of silence was followed then.

"I see. So that is your point. You have heard countless times about your parents. The sad truth is that you never knew they were your parents," the Professor said, breaking the silence.

"So, who are they?" Ermand asked. He never thought he would ever be curious to know who his parents were. After all, he hated them that they left him. His heart pounded every fraction of a second for the revelation.