9:25 A.M.
Tournaments were continuing starting today. Arenas were crowded. Other parts of the campus were empty and quiet, apart from a few staff and security guards.
Students were hyped—cheering and screaming—and the academy itself was under pressure to get it over as soon as possible. East-Wing was behind schedule after all.
Apart from the occasional patrolling guard, only two students occupied the academy training grounds.
Shiori chained relentless swings with a wooden katana, determined, sweat dripping down her chin. Zen sidestepped and dodged every swing with hands clasped behind his back.
"We've been doing this same thing for four days now. When will you teach me something useful?" she asked without stopping.
"It is useful. Your defense is exceptional. Your attacks are average at best," he replied as he continued to dodge. "You're already better than when we started. You can't say it isn't working."
"You call yourself a defense strategist…"
"Yeah, that does sometimes dictate my attack plans to the good old 'run it down' method, but at least I know how to manage."
Shiori finally stopped and caught her breath. She walked over to the bench and grabbed a water bottle. "You don't realize how horrifying it sounds coming from the strongest Warrior on the planet." She unscrewed the cap as she slumped down.
Zen sat down beside her.
"I'm not the strongest Warrior out there. There are a lot of variables to determine who really is." His expression turned thoughtful.
"I'm the most versatile elemental, since I have four of them and Null. But if you strip that away, my raw skills will fall short compared to Sayuri or Kaisen."
Shiori's eyes narrowed slightly with suspicion.
"Aren't black designations outside of the global leaderboard system because they're the strongest?"
Zen shrugged. "Yes, but that's measuring your overall strength, and even then, Protocol is the last in rank among the higher-bracket five."
She took another sip and briefly glanced at his left arm. "I assume it doesn't account for that, since Protocol is documented as a Null class Warrior and multi-elementals are a myth."
He nodded with another shrug. "That would be correct. Honestly, you've dug too deep into my records. I'm surprised they even let you access that kind of information."
"Shinrin no Tami, also being an ancient clan like Fūryūno Senshi, holds the same level of respect and political power in Lady Harukaze's eyes. So, even if we joined the Legion only a few years ago, she allowed me access to some of the classified information, if not everything," she replied with quiet pride, glancing at him sideways with a small blush and a satisfied smile.
He sighed. "You know the saying, 'knowing too much for your own good'? You're really going to risk so much?"
Shiori wiped her face with a towel and regained her usual composure. "Everything I do, I deem necessary if I am to become your bride and walk the path of a Warrior alongside you."
Zen raised an eyebrow.
"We haven't agreed on that yet."
She stood up, turned to him, and extended a hand with a small smile.
"I've already convinced you to teach me, haven't I, sensei?"
His brain took a second to process, and he let out another long sigh.
"God damnit…"
He grabbed her hand. She pulled him up.
The arena corridors were fairly crowded, making it a pain to even think about passing through. However, the crowd parted just enough for Kyoya to walk through alongside his friends and a few acquaintances.
His hands were in his pockets, and his face didn't have its usual flair. Part of it was because of all the chaos he had been through. The other part was because of the whispers that hit his ears.
"He really forfeited?!"
"Yeah! I told you!"
"Haha. Coward. I knew he was a chicken behind that bravado."
"Hey! He fought with everything he had to defend the academy. Cut him some slack!"
Kyoya closed his ears and kept moving.
In the Arena Two preparation room, Cassie was geared up and waiting at the corridor entrance.
Saya reviewed her gear stats one final time. Viara was standing right beside her.
"Everything seems normal," Viara observed.
"Technicians reported no issues. I checked twice anyway. Don't want gear defects to cost any matches," Saya said.
Cassie smiled.
"Can't thank you enough, Saya."
Saya gave her a thumbs up.
"I wasn't joking when I said I'd help. Just focus on winning."
Viara mirrored Saya.
"Best of luck."
Cassie nodded confidently.
The arena system chimed.
"Attention: Three minutes until the first match begins. Combatants, please enter the arena."
Cassie's attention shifted back to the corridor. Her twin-blade staff deployed. She gripped it harder, getting a feel for it. "Can't lie, I'm feeling a little nervous."
She took a deep breath and marched forward.
But she wasn't the only one who felt that way. Over the next two weeks, Finn, Madoka, Julianna, Max, Edric, Alex, and Justin—all of them found themselves walking the same corridor.
Justin cracked his neck as he entered the field. Madoka's mind drifted back to early morning when she was rope-skipping to warm up. Finn bounced on his heels while stretching his arms. Julianna spun her lance as she walked down the corridor without hesitation.
Cassie stood five meters apart from her opponent. So did everyone else.
Max took a stance and pointed his longsword at the opponent with a double grip. The countdown went off. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… FIGHT! The crowd roared.
Finn dashed at his opponent. Cassie's blades instantly flared with fire infusion. The very first upswing of Justin's hammer sent dust through half the arena.
Edric's opponent charged at him. He stepped forward, shaking the ground, knocking his opponent off balance, and spun into a heavy strike with his Great Axe.
Max's eyes widened as his opponent jumped at him with a packed strike. The air around him exploded. Cheers exploded too. The buzzer went off. Eliminated.
Julianna rapidly traded blows with her opponent mid-sprint, spear and lance clashing. They both crossed one final time.
CLANG!
Julianna slid to a stop, instantly turned, and fired a water orb. Her opponent jabbed his spear forward, and the sharp blade shot out like a bullet with a chain attached behind. The blade tore through her orb. Julianna jumped high, dodging the blade, gripped her lance with both hands, and lunged at them.
Her opponent's expression tightened. The commentator's jaw dropped open. The entire crowd held its breath.
Julianna gained a point on the table that match.
Nearly a week in, two matches down, Finn threw punch after punch aggressively at his opponent with an amused grin.
"Come on! Hit me where it hurts!"
He slammed a punch into the stomach, spun for momentum, and followed with an uppercut to the jaw. The momentum lifted his feet a solid thirteen inches off the ground as he sent his opponent flying.
Justin punched a hole into the dressing room pillar, face dark, jaw clenched, breath ragged. He had lost.
Alex circled an ice elemental martial artist at full speed as trails of raining ice shards chased her down. The crowd was cheering.
Only one faint voice out of thousands cheering her name reached her ears. She glanced at the perimeter gate only for a fraction of a second. Max was there, cheering her on at the top of his lungs—and her eyes snapped back to her opponent. "One voice of faith is all I need."
Her heel instantly switched direction. She closed the distance with one pivotal move and slammed her Claymore. The buzzer went off.
Madoka moved with maximum efficiency against her S-rank opponent. She blocked and parried everything they threw at her with her katana, slashing right to left, then left to right, staggering them and shredding away at their shield.
One and a half weeks in, her reputation for beating up S-ranks without using her element had every other opponent in her group studying her match footage intensely. Her combat profile statistics calculated her countering with three slashes on average while dodging.
Cassie's final opponent fell to their knees, shield exhausted. She stood in front of them, pointing her blade, as she had done in every match she had won. And she had zero losses.
Sure, Kyoya had forfeited. But from the crowd, he quietly watched every fight until the first group stage concluded.
At the center of Arena One stood twenty students chosen for the second group stage.
Finn, Madoka, Cassie, Julianna, Alex and Edric had made it.
In the private server rooms of a public research institution, Null energy flashed. Kuroha appeared, undetected by security.
She walked around at a leisurely pace, hands clasped behind her back, eyes scanning through each server computer until they landed on the wall-mounted security camera. She gave a peace hand gesture while sticking her tongue out, but sure enough, Hector had already done his job and frozen it.
Kuroha pulled out Hector's pen drive and plugged it into one of the server units.
In the warehouse's dark basement, Hector's fingers moved on the keyboard like second nature.
They got what they needed and left before anyone could notice anything suspicious. No alarms were triggered, thanks to all the insider credentials The Foundation had. This was one of the many they had quietly struck in less than two weeks.
Meanwhile, at the academy training grounds, the practice sessions never stopped. Shiori's attack chains were faster. More precise. Three left-to-right diagonal slashes, vertical strike, immediately spin to generate momentum for the next attack—Zen was dodging harder now—partly because she was improving fast, partly because he had been quietly exhausting himself every night.
From high above the buildings, under the night sky, three pairs of eyes watched a small company van deliver material.
On one side of the road was Zen—hands in pockets, walking on the railing at a relaxed pace as he gazed down. No weapon, no gear.
On the other side, Kageri and Andreas were standing steady on the railing, geared up as always.
The delivery service was on both sides' radars. Umbra and Tessa were already high up in the sky, tracking the van's route with Ravynne's jet.
Lucia and En waited patiently in an elevator that seemed larger than necessary as it descended. They had been summoned.
The elevator was approaching ground level. Lucia adjusted her katana strapped to her waist, expecting to step off shortly. The elevator operator had other plans. The elevator kept descending, going past ground level and entering restricted territory. The ride lasted a little longer.
When the elevator finally stopped and the doors opened, they weren't greeted by the clean, polished interior of a typical underground facility, but by a corridor lit by rays of light escaping through the cracks of the doors, shut and locked.
"We're in a horror movie now. I'm convinced," Lucia deadpanned, observing the walls.
En stepped forward and walked in without hesitation. Whether he was used to this or simply didn't understand the implication, only God knew. Probably both.
Lucia took a few quick steps to fall into step beside him.
"So… You've been here before?"
En briefly glanced at her as they continued.
"A… few times."
Lucia smiled to herself
"That actually makes me feel better."
From deeper within, a man in black appeared, his posture refined, like every other staff member Lucia had met so far. He silently greeted them with a polite bow and gestured to follow.
The walk continued. The corridor now had small ceiling lights, illuminating only part of the center of the path.
Shortly after, they reached a hydraulic door as large as the corridor itself. The man tapped his ID. The doors parted with a hiss, revealing a large room full of people in white coats, moving to complete their assigned tasks. At the center of the room was a large console with four screens facing each direction.
The man gestured at them to enter. The duo walked in. En stopped in front of the console and looked up at the blank screen as if expecting something to happen. Lucia's gaze kept shifting between En and the screen.
The operator at the console got to work and, within seconds, they connected to a call with two other people mid-conversation.
The two voices coming through the speakers made every worker in the room straighten their posture and at least pretend to focus.
The first was an adult male voice, amused, laughing.
"Tell me something money can't buy."
The second voice was an adult female, resigned, efficient. "You can't buy your way out of every problem. You failed thrice to capture those heirs. Next time, leave it to the professionals. I'll go in personally."
The first voice laughed harder.
"Really? Then I wouldn't want to miss the show. Looking forward to it."
The second voice suddenly paused.
"Oh? So, you're the recruit?"
Lucia blinked.
"They can see us…?" she muttered.
The second voice continued. "Black Helix holds you in very high regard because of your… incredible potential. Time to put it to the test, I suppose."
"I had orders to provide her with the best service there is," the first voice chimed in.
"Lucia, was it? Did you like your new abode?"
Lucia shrugged.
"Eh… it was a little bit of an overkill."
The first voice went quiet, then burst into laughter again.
"'Overkill,' she says! Haha. I like this one!"
The second voice sighed.
"Let's get down to business. I have a simple task for the two of you."
She cleared her throat. "The situation on the eastern island is becoming increasingly unstable. We can't risk our projects, so we'll be moving them to another location. I need you two to make sure there's no trouble. Got it?"
En took a few seconds to process.
"Understood…"
Lucia nodded.
The second voice spoke again, addressing the staff in the room.
"And someone, get this girl a combat gear. The lack of competence in this room is pissing me off."