Everything seemed to stop. She felt her blood freeze and recoiled as if she had just been slapped. She stared back at the core with stinging eyes, and it just glowed and remained shimmering in place.
"W-What?" Olivia asked hesitantly.
"Are you deaf as well?" The core let out a hum. "I said you failed. You're not suited for being a Knight."
"I—I failed the test?"
"It seems you are quite dumb." The core glowed with a faint blue light. "Yes, you failed. Please leave."
"W-Why did I fail?" Olivia yelled in frustration now. "What even was the test? You just showed me other versions of myself and asked me to pick? I gave you the answer I should have! Those other versions of me might be stronger, but they're not Arcane Knights! I want to be the version of me that becomes an Arcane Knight! How is that the false answer?"
The core's color changed, this time to a bright red. "Yes, you are correct in the fact that your answer was good. Trying to become a version of yourself from a different path isn't something the you that exists right now can do. That said, even if the answer was good, why would I let you in any of my guilds?" The core asked again, and its tone almost sounded mocking. "You have blood magic. You can only use three spells. You vomit when you use your magic. You can even die from it. You lack talent. You lack skill. You lack money, and you especially lack power."
Olivia bowed her head, feeling a wave of defeat wash over her. Her hands clutched at her side, and she fought back tears. "Why are you saying that? If you just wanted me to fail, then get it done with."
One of the tendrils suddenly slapped out at her, and she let out a yell as she was thrown back. She rolled across the ground made of white fire and grabbed her cheek, which stung now. "All I did was state how you feel." The core glowed with a bright yellow shimmer now. "Isn't that how you truly think? You know that deep down you're utterly useless. It is why your father got rid of you in the first place. Because you couldn't keep up. An Arcane Knight is strong. They're able to save everyone and are beacons of hope. Do you truly think you can be that?"
Olivia stood back up, and her look of sadness was gone, replaced with rage at having been hit. "You just showed me versions of myself that all reached a realm of power I never thought possible. They're all part of a group. If they can do it, then shouldn't I be able to?"
"Yet you're not, are you?" The core hissed. "You sit and wallow in your pity. You've said it over and over again, but do you think you can become an Arcane Knight? You are useless, are you not? Those versions of you were all ideal versions at the end of their story. Even if you have that same power within you, that is the you of tomorrow. I am not concerned with the you of tomorrow, though. The only thing that matters to me is the you that stands before me now. The version of you that calls herself useless and despises the hand she was dealt."
Olivia gritted her teeth, and her wand appeared in her hand, sliding down her wrist. "It's been my dream to become a Knight. You're right, Knights aren't useless, so if I want to reach that point, I have to stop being useless myself. I've been working my ass off trying to get better."
"I already told you, I don't care about the you of tomorrow. All that matters is the you that is here and now!" More tendrils stabbed out of the orb, and they suddenly stabbed toward her. "If that version is useless, then there is no point!"
"Row Blood Shield!" Olivia stabbed her wand out just in time as a shimmering red barrier formed in front of her. The tendrils stabbed into it and broke past it, but it gave her enough time to step to the side and dodge them. "Then I'll prove to you that I'm not useless! Here and now! Row Blood Scythe!" Her blade sliced out, almost on instinct, and it tore through one of the tendrils, slicing it off. Usually, it felt awkward in her arms, but strangely enough, it now felt right.
The core glowed with a mix of lights, and the tendrils pulled back. It let out a loud scoffing sound. "That was your second spell, was it not? Do you think you can actually win with one more? Of course you can't. You are useless, Olivia, are you not? You're already feeling tired."
Olivia gritted her teeth but didn't say anything. The core was right. She had one spell left, and then she'd be unable to move. Could she win with that? Could this thing even fight? Why was it being so hostile to her suddenly? What was going on?
"Even landing a single hit on me won't be possible." More tendrils jutted out of the magical core, and they began to hum and light up. "I have no need to move from this spot. Just try to hit me if you can. Of course, this goes without saying, but defend yourself as well." Without warning, more tendrils stabbed out and began to spear toward her.
Olivia forced her already tired body to move, and she swung her scythe around as if it were second nature. She still recalled the version of her that had a sword, and she copied it, using her weapon to cut through more of the tendrils. They kept coming, though, in a never-ending sea, and some managed to make it past her guard, lightly cutting into her side or her cheek. The wounds were shallow, but her arms were already starting to ache and slow while the storm of attacks didn't.
All the while this happened, the orb stayed floating off the ground, flashing through hundreds of different colors as it launched attack after attack out, hoping to overwhelm her with sheer numbers alone.
It just made her madder, and Olivia let out a yell, forcing herself forward. The orb was dozens of meters away, and the tendrils would never let her get too close, so instead she came up with a different plan.
Her scythe stabbed down, ramming into one of the tendrils, and she pointed the blade toward the orb. "Row Blood Bolt!" Without warning, her mana surged, and she launched her attack out, firing a thin beam of fast-moving blood. The other tendrils were still focused on her and had gone to strike since she let her guard down, meaning they had no way of stopping her attack, which surged forward. At the last moment, though, before her attack landed, the orb flashed again, and three new tendrils formed, easily blocking her attack. "No—"
Olivia was cut off as a wave of pain exploded through her. One tendril instantly punctured a hole straight through her stomach, and the others followed suit, tearing into her and cutting her up. The pain made her scream out, and the tendrils kept smashing at her, breaking bones and flesh, and by the time they were done, they left her body mangled and shattered.
She was lying in a pool of her blood, twisted and totally broken. Her vision faded in and out, and she knew that if her eyes closed, she'd be dead. Just like in the fight with Garon, she was out of blood, barely kept alive by her regeneration. She was at her limit.
"Three spells, and that was all you could manage." The orb hummed. "You can't even heal yourself, can you? Always viewing yourself as useless. Perhaps you're right. You've had the thoughts before, haven't you? You know that you're not worthy to be a Knight."
Olivia nearly cried out as she forced her body to move. Most of her bones were cracked and broken, but still she pressed her arms into the ground and began to struggle to pick herself up. More blood leaked out of her, and her eyes stung from the tears, but she fought through the pain and shook her head. "I'm not done yet."
"Oh? And what do you think you can do?" The orb hissed.
"For someone who saw my memories, you seem lost." Olivia managed a smile. "I got a new trait. Don't you know?"
Using a trait that was unlocked was like second nature. Her palm glowed with a golden light, and suddenly it began to dance along her flesh. It all came naturally to her, and she breathed in. The light flashed off of her, and just like the last time, she used the polymorph trait. Olivia stood up, fully healed, and now dressed in a familiar witch outfit. Her wand had changed as well, becoming a long wooden staff, which she twirled around her, a smirk forming on her lips.
"Row Blood Scythe." Her staff became coated in red, and the blood blade formed out of the tip of it. "I can keep going. Four spells in."
"So you managed to get back up? So what?"
Olivia frowned and placed a hand to her stomach. "If I have polymorph, I have unlimited blood since I can keep healing myself with it." She announced. "Check this out—"
She tried to use the trait again, but suddenly a blue box appeared in front of her and let out a loud beeping sound.
'Error: The trait polymorph can only be used after reaching its cool-down period. Time until cooldown: Twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and forty-eight seconds.'
"What?" Olivia's eyes went wide as she read that. "It has a cooldown? What gives?"
'Your core can only manage the mana required to use polymorph once before rest is required.' The box flashed again, its text scrolling out. 'Time until polymorph wears off: four minutes and—'
Like last time, there was a countdown on the polymorph skill. That told her something interesting. It was a buff spell and not a traditional healing spell, and when the timer reached zero, it would end. She also couldn't simply spam it since it had another time before it could be used again, which was insanely huge! A full day! So she'd have to wait twenty-four hours to use it again and could only manage staying transformed for five minutes.
"What happens when the count reaches zero?"
The system answered her with another box. 'Polymorph will end, and you'll revert to the form you were before it was activated. The toll of mana will also be taken.'
Shit. She figured it was something like that, but seeing it written out was still a slap in the face. So when the timer reached zero, she'd go back to being in her damaged state. That meant polymorph wasn't as overpowered as she first thought. Sure, it got her back up, and it allowed her to keep fighting, but only for a bit, and she'd be back to whatever state she was in before she used it, but even worse off since it would then drain a considerable amount of her mana. That also meant that in the fight with the fake Garon, she still died, as when the countdown reached zero, her body would have shattered and broken apart, being burned away once again…
Polymorph really just gave her the ability to use three more spells, one of which she already wasted on recreating her scythe since she had stupidly thought she could spam it over and over again. Her big trump card was just three more spells…
Of course, the core knew all of this, and its lights glowed and flashed again. "Well, are you ready to give up yet? You couldn't even hit me once, and you only have two more spells. How useless you are."
Olivia bit her lip but steeled her nerves and shook her head. "No." She announced. "I'm not done."
"And why not? You only have a few moments before you revert back to your broken form. Even then, you only have two spells left. Do you think you can win?"
"I don't know until I try." Olivia took another deep breath. "I'm not willing to stop yet, though. I'm going to become an Arcane Knight!"
"Knights are useful." The orb declared, and a swarm of tendrils began to stab out toward her.
"Then I'll show that I'm not useless!" Olivia yelled out. Her mana exploded and surged, being thicker than it ever had been before. Her eyes lit up, a red fury in them just like when Ken or Davi used their full power. Davi's mana looked like blue fire or shadowy hands, and it was cold. Ken's mana looked like golden flames and light and was hot and powerful. Her own mana looked like tendrils of red snakes, which filled the air and swarmed around her. "I'll show you everything I can do."
Davi had taught her how to increase her strength with mana, but instead of sending the energy throughout her entire form, she focused it all along her blade, a blaze of red coming out of the scythe. This was just like how the version of her in the armor used her mana. She focused it all into her weapon and swung out as hard as she could. Her strike was far stronger than it had ever been before and tore through the horde of tendrils. They were already starting to reform, and more were forming, but she used the opening she had and focused all the energy into her legs, shooting herself forward as fast as she could.
The tendrils sprouted out before she even made it halfway to the orb, and they all got ready to stab into her from all sides, but before they could, she took her scythe and focused more mana into it and rammed the hilt down into the ground, using it to pole vault up into the air with her weapon.
As she flew through the air, the lights shot up toward her, but before they could reach her, she swung her scythe out again, focusing her mana along it. Suddenly, the handle twisted and bent as if it were a rope, and it wrapped around one of the DNA strands. She used it to twist herself in the air and swing forward.
The version of her that was fighting the ninja had done something similar with her sword. The weapon was made entirely of blood, and she forced it to be in the shape of a scythe, but that didn't mean it couldn't be twisted or altered. After all, she had changed her bird spell into a snake, and this was the next step of that, learning to do it by watching the other her.
By swinging, she was able to avoid the other tendrils and use the momentum to get herself above the orb. She yanked her weapon again and reformed it into its shape, cutting through the tendril it was wrapped around, allowing her to fall toward the orb with her weapon. Its tendrils pulled back and wrapped around each other, but she focused her mana into her weapon again and swung it down as hard as she could.
"Row Blood Bolt!" Her energy came out as a wave this time, and it tore through the DNA strands below right as she came down and swung her weapon out. Before she could slice the orb, though, it glowed, and without warning, it fired out a beam of energy, which flew perfectly in a straight line across her right shoulder. She felt a wave of intense heat, and her arm was sliced clean off, her weapon falling to the ground. The wound was also instantly burned closed, and the pain made her lose focus entirely, and her weapon turned into a puddle on the ground, next to her missing arm.
"It's over." Before she hit the ground, the tendrils reformed and wrapped tightly around her. One forced its way around her throat while another one grabbed her by her remaining arm and her ankles, holding her up. "You lose." The core stated.
Olivia gasped and gagged, unable to speak as the tendril began to squeeze down on her throat. She couldn't move her arms and legs either. She was running low on blood, especially after losing a limb, but even without that loss, the hold that was around her was too intense. The squeeze on her body began to grow worse, and she gagged again, her throat starting to break.
Her mana flared out, but it did nothing. She couldn't break free or get past the power difference that was between her and the core. There was one thing she could do, though. Out of her body or not, it was still her blood, and her mana was still within it… It was worth a shot.
"Do you see now why I failed you?" The orb taunted. "You knew this would happen, didn't you? The one who hates you the most is you. You despise yourself above all. Isn't that right? You're useless. Pathetic. Weak. Everything a Knight isn't-" The orb stopped talking when it noticed her face. She was smiling. "Do you find something funny? You can't even cast a spell right now. You're helpless—"
On the ground, the puddle of blood still contained traces of her mana. Her core's energy was always in her veins, and just like how she could fire a spell out and it would survive outside of her body, so too did the blood she spilt. It began to change and slide across the ground, forming into letters. Three words were said.
'Row Blood Bolt.'
The blood flowed up and blasted out from the puddle, ramming into the bottom of the orb. It actually managed to catch the orb off guard, and its tendrils loosened, allowing her to force herself out of its hold. The blood she had used for that last spell had also been the one from the scythe. She honestly didn't ever consider that the blood would still be hers until she had seen the Cultivator version of her.
That woman had used paper with red ink on it. Of course, the ink was blood. Usually, writing a spell down wouldn't cause it to go off, even writing it in blood, but her blood was special. A blood mage, like a wind mage or a water mage, could mess with the blood inside of them naturally, as it was filled with way more drops of mana than a normal mage had. Just as Davi had been able to control the shape of his shadow without a spell, so too could she influence that blood. The mana in the blood was also so great that it had been able to awaken and force the spell to go off, as if she had said it herself, as the intent and words had been given to the world just through the form of writing and not verbal communication.
As she dropped to the ground, Olivia pulled her fist back and focused as much mana as she could into it. She let out a loud yell and stepped forward, striking out with her remaining fist and ramming it into the ball. Since the blood earlier had been recycled, that meant she still had at least one spell left.
"Row Blood Scythe!" Her weapon exploded into her hand, splitting through the orb and slicing it directly in two.
Meanwhile, far, far away, in another realm, a castle stood. A man in shadows sat upon his throne and slowly reached up to wipe the trickle of blood that leaked out of his nose.
"K-King Sini!" A servant exclaimed when they noticed the nosebleed. "Sir, are you okay? Are you feeling ill?"
A soft laugh filled the room. "Quite the opposite, actually." The king's hand balled up into a fist, and even in the shadows, the servant could see a thin smile appear on the man's lips. "This year's test. Truly, it has some interesting people."