The thirty minutes recess passed away too quick to be called a recess. The tension that hung in the air seemed to increase and faster time. The tension had only increased students anxiety. They all seemed to begin to doubt in their capabilities. Maybe they all painted a greater version of themselves, forgetting their actual selves.
Helium hadn't moved from his spot throughout the recess. He stood there, rooted for minutes, hands on his knees, looking deeply at his knees like he was in deep thoughts. He didn't notice the crowd of almost three hundred students had lined up again and that Shalet was out again standing on the frame podium.
Halor and Zera grazed from behind and tapped him on his shoulder. He blinked to look at them. "It's already time." Halor chuckled.
"Don't be too nervous." Halor said. Helium eased up as soon as he heard Halor's voice. They've come with sneaky words.
"I don't think you can awaken anything useful." He confessed. Halor's expression shifted to concern. He stared at him. He had wanted comforting words. He wanted to be there for him. He knew Helium had been nervous ever since he learnt to be a date of this Awakening Ceremony.
Zera stared at him. "You always fidget awkwardly, Helium looked at her surprised.
"You are a sore hype. I do not expect anything good from you. A tier 1 would be a great luck. What do you expect to get after your useless life? Four years!! Four years wasted in the academy. " Halor thundered in annoyance. "The Essence Orb doesn't work with luck. Just like you heard Shalet explain. This life is shaped by hardwork. It took humans 50 years to get to this level and in case you did not know. Hey! A good man once said, truth tumbles on and on. I think i just had to speak my mind."
Zera stared at them, tears hung in her eyes. She knew Halor was right but explaining that right now might just be wrong.
"Stop!! Don't feed him the truth that way !" Zera cried and Helium's eyes widened. Truth. So they actually viewed him as a trash. They felt him as a nothing. A dullard, a bore, a burden all along.
"Don't give me that look! The truth is harsh but we all have to face it at some point in life." Halor said as he gazed at Helium with anger.
The once so radiant ceremony transformed rottedly to a dark disguise of disgust. Helium stared at them trembling.
His mind was shattered apart. His had expected soothing words from him. He had always thought Halor as a brother. He had wanted as the one he never had. It's tragic.
He looked at them. Tears hung in between his eyelids.
Some students clung up behind to see them. A light chuckle escaped their lips as they noticed what the commotion was all about.
The looser as Helium was opened to by its mock was once again disgracing. Not just a heat drawn but one initiated by his very friend. Finally the little thread of hope which he had held for nearly two years had fallen off. That was it. They had come to realise his viability.
"Halor! What's! What's come over again?!" Helium called out to see if he could say his mind out if whatever was crumbling in him but Halor snapped at him.
"Do you know calling my name could make me get disqualified?" he snapped in mockery. "Don't you dear speak my name. The Super Guilds are out there. I do not want to make myself a shame."
Zera turned to see, she couldn't speak a word. Helium turned to her but she sobbed as she watched him.
He broke down. He couldn't hold his emotions. Tears streaked down his cheeks.
"Are you...Are you in support… support of this…?" he said in between sobs. Zera turned her face away. She couldn't imagine his current pain was caused by his own friends. Tears poured out more steadily from her.
"I… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" She said slightly with her emotions. "It wasn't my idea." She said as she sobbed more.
Helium's eyes widened. She had indirectly accepted the fact that she was part of the betrayal. She was with Halor directly or indirectly. Hooked hard. He collapsed on one knee as the heat in his heart, burnt like a heartbreak.
But he had expected his. Even then he hadn't wanted it this way. At least he would have been okay if they had denounced him after his awakening test. This only hurt deeper as he noticed that he had been friends with people who didn't believe in him. People who thought of him as a scumbag.
Tears poured from his eyes. He thought they friends he had spent time with but it was since he died of disaster three years ago.
"My last words would be this." Halor who backed Helium. Helium didn't look in his direction. He stared at the ground and the soil that had mocked him and his very existence.
"No matter how you try, peace is not for the weak. To gain pleasure and satisfaction from this world one needs to possess power. No one wants to associate with a loser. I tried to for two years and I must say it was fun at some point but then I was mocked seriously. Staying with you was the worst times of my life. This is the end of our ties as friends. We do not meet again after this moment." Halor said as he moved but paused.
Halor spoke again. "Do you know that there is a balance between luck and reality." He then walked away.
Zera stood for a moment and stared at Helium. She knew she was wrong but she had to do this just to be free. She walked away, following Halor to blend in the crowd.
Helium didn't move. His he was too weak, too emotional shattered to lift up a muscle. He just collapsed on the ground.