Through the window, I could see the other teams arriving. Carriages from every corner of the continent, each one bearing the colors and crests of academies that had been training their best fighters for months. The competition was real — these weren't the academy's internal ranking battles. These were the Empire's elite. The best students from the best schools, backed by the best resources their Ducal sponsors could provide.
Nihil's perception — significantly broader than mine, operating at a range that made my twenty-meter bubble look like a keyhole — was scanning the complex.
"Seventeen competitors within the building who register above Adept rank," the sword reported. "Three at Warden-equivalent. The strongest signatures are from the Western Academy — their team includes a dual-element user whose output suggests Sovereign-adjacent capability."
"Sovereign-adjacent? In a student?"
