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"Her form is excellent." A man dressed as a monk commented. “Her style allows her to fight against opponents significantly stronger than her without being at a disadvantage.” The brown-skinned Aasimar man’s voice was very complimentary, and his judgment was given a lot of weight due to his expertise.

“In addition, the fact that she’s an Aura user of what seems like some sort of Titan bloodline, that increases her strength way beyond what her rank and size would imply. I don't think she's even close to serious yet." The same man continued. Karna had continued dominating the arena for hours now. It was common for the battles to start from those that were the youngest and the weakest in rank, and then slowly go up in level. Karna had been the first to step on the arena, but no one had managed to dislodge her yet, and she had fought against representatives from all the institutes already. The first fights had been very quick and decisive, and it had become clear that no one on the same rank as her was able to match her.

“How far could she go if you trained her?” The older Aasimar woman asked while her hand played with the spell gem Karna had created. No one had asked for its return yet, despite several days having passed already, and it was clear the Luminous Sect would be the most interested in the spell inside the gem, seeing as using Qhaysh was their specialty.

“Very far. Extremely far. I’m quite confident she could become a true powerhouse able to influence battles between planes with just her presence.” The man stated without false modesty. “I’m quite certain that most of what we’re seeing is the result of her own talent and sheer ability. If she’s as young as the Academy claims, then there’s no way they could’ve trained her for very long, and judging by the badge she’s wearing, she’s still a first year. That means those skills were not taught to her by the Academy.”

The woman playing with the gem turned towards one of the Elders sitting close to her. “What did you manage to find out about her?”

“Sect Master, the girl is a bit of a conundrum. There are plenty of things that I could discover even without much effort, but much of her is also shrouded in secrecy. Some of the other students of the Academy apparently aren’t fond of her, so they were more than happy to explain some things to me. I also managed to pry some details from one of the teachers. Apparently, the girl was speaking the truth about her father being the Grand Medjai known as the Shadow Weaver, a fairly young and promising person almost certain to reach Ascension within a century or two. As such, her current skills aren’t that surprising, although there’s a distinct possibility of her being a Blessed Child. The girl herself completely crushed the entrance exams and when tested by the artifact the Academy likes to utilize to judge a person’s potential, hers was almost limitless.” The female Elder that looked like a human replied carefully.

“They don’t like her? Why?” The Sect Master asked with a frown. Their sect placed a lot of emphasis on having a certain kind of character.

“They were a little vague on the details, but from what I gathered from the teacher, it’s a combination of jealousy and her refusing some kind of an invitation to a group of prestigious students.” The Elder cleared her throat a bit. “Sect Master, if you’re considering poaching her, then I should warn you that Tsumi seems to have taken some personal interest in the girl. She would not look favorably on the attempt. Besides, the girl’s father is strong enough that we’d need to get his approval first.”

“I recognize that. However, even Tsumi must realize that someone with her affinity would be better served by joining our sect. Besides, I’m not sure it would be good for the Academy to gain another powerhouse like Tsumi. If the girl has even a fraction of the potential we suspect, not to mention if she’s a Blessed Child, then the Academy would be able to extend their lead a bit too much when compared to the other institutes. We’ll at least have to make the attempt.” The Sect Master explained her view. They were allied with the Academy, but that didn’t mean their views always coincided. The sect was a strong advocate of light and order, while the Academy was more of a neutral force.

“The fight’s about to end.” The battlemaster dressed like a monk suddenly stated.

As if to confirm his words, Karna seemed to flow around her opponent and twisted their body in a way that they had to surrender or lose an arm. As the bouts were friendly, such injuries would be frowned upon, but if the person refused to surrender when placed in a hold like the one Karna now had on her opponent, then it was their own fault. “And the winner is once again contestant Karna from the Academy!” The teacher from the Frostpeak Institute who had been chosen as a referee declared. “Any other challengers?”

Karna had been crushing the students of similar rank, so the number of willing volunteers had decreased heavily. Still, there was one person who had enough confidence to try. “I would like to challenge her.” Declared the blue-ish grey-skinned boy with glowing eyes. He also had glowing tribal tattoos the Djinns often used on his skin. The boy leaped over the railing of the arena and stood opposite Karna.

Normally the referee would’ve given Karna a bit of time to recover, but the whole thing had turned into a sort of king of the hill-type of scenario that she had dominated the entire time. Thus the referee gave the signal to start as soon as they were both standing on opposite sides of the arena. The Djinn boy almost lazily lifted his hand and pointed a finger towards Karna. A beam of pure ki was launched towards her, probing her defenses.

The beam of energy got halfway across the arena until it smashed into a barrier that seemed to be able to easily block it. The round barrier made of glowing Qhaysh didn't have a single scratch on it, which seemed to confirm what the Djinn boy had expected, as he simply nodded. "You are good with barriers. That much has become clear already. Let’s see how much you can resist with your turtle-shell.” He declared before making a grabbing motion towards her.

The palm strike made of green energy was much more dangerous than anything Karna had been faced with so far in this event. She could sense that the ki in the attack was very heavy and that the technique had been refined with what the boy had learned in other universes. It wasn't obvious, but something about the way the energy was woven together was foreign to the warriors of this universe. Karna had to give the boy some credit, he wasn't completely without ability. Not that it would matter in the end.

The palm strike crashed against her barrier and the barrier actually had some cracks form, but the smile on the boy's face was wiped as the barrier quickly repaired itself as Karna also put a bit more oomph into it. Her mana was so pure that the strength of a fourth-ranked warrior simply wasn't enough, even with a bit of help from past lives. Suddenly the Djinn boy seemed to disappear, only to appear within Karna's barrier with his own palm striking down at her face.

Karna swept the incoming attack aside with relative ease and retaliated immediately with her own counterattack. The boy wasn’t so bad as to be caught so easily though. He had fought against opponents with a similar style to Karna before. He knew pure power wasn’t going to be enough, and it seemed his speed wasn’t enough to just crush her either. The two soon settled down into a rhythm where dozens of attacks were launched, parried, blocked, and countered in a few breaths of time.

Suddenly several small blades of ki materialized around the boy and dashed towards Karna. The distance made the attack a lot more dangerous, but despite that, every blade ran into another tiny barrier floating around Karna. "Two can play that game," Karna said with amusement, and bolts of different elements flew towards the Djinn boy instead. He managed to conjure his own barriers to block them, but those barriers were clearly not quite as efficient as Karna's.

The battle quickly turned into one of attrition and multi-tasking, as kicks and strikes were intermixed with magical and ki attacks that tried to sneak by the other person’s defenses. A battle that the Djinn boy was soon losing as he was pushed back. To the people watching it looked like Karna was reading all his attacks and managed to counter them before they were even launched, while he was struggling to keep up.

With a small growl, the boy stepped back and his skin turned reddish grey, now clearly showing the Efreeti blood inside him. An odd mix to be sure, as Djinn and Efreeti were racial enemies. A wave of flames was suddenly swallowing the arena as the boy displayed the benefits of his race. The flames grew hotter and suddenly they swarmed towards Karna. 'Hoh, a battle of bloodlines is it?' Karna laughed in her mind. The fire that used to be under the boy's control suddenly seemed to halt and become docile as it all gathered into a ball above Karna's hand, which she then made vanish. It was foolish for an Efreeti to challenge a Phoenix when it came to fire.

“How..?” The boy managed to ask before Karna mimicked what he had done earlier and appear in front of him, striking at his face. The difference was that she seemed to have grown taller for some reason as her skin suddenly got an odd almost metallic sheen. The hands the Djinn used to defend himself were smashed aside as her strike connected with his face.

To the shock of everyone, she didn't just punch the boy though. She took a hold of his face. "Did I mention I hate those who target those weaker than themselves, thinking them as some sort of prey?" She asked quietly and glanced at the younger reincarnator girl in the audience. Then she twisted her body, spinning in place, and smashed the Djinn boy mercilessly against the arena wall. She had controlled the power perfectly, as the impact was just enough to injure the boy to the point of rendering him unconscious, but not enough to truly damage him.

As she let go and returned to her own size, the boy slumped down on the floor. The referee could sense that he was still alive and relatively intact, so Karna had not broken any rules. She had simply been more heavy-handed than in her earlier bouts. “The winner is once again contestant Karna from the Academy!”

Karna knew the boy was actually relatively skilled. He wasn’t some master that had reached the apex before, clearly, or he would’ve been a more dangerous opponent. He was skilled enough that if he controlled his mentality, he could go quite far in this life though. Some reincarnators were gifted enough to get to the top in all their lives, while others were less skilled and had to build up over several lifetimes. This boy belonged to the latter group, but he had started reaching the point where he was a contender for real power among the non-reincarnators. He wouldn’t be able to face the old monsters that had reincarnated countless times or the peerless geniuses that were not reincarnators at his current level though. If she had fought the boy before awakening her Titan bloodline, she might have been forced to get somewhat serious, but now? Not so much. This was a perfect display of reincarnation not being a guarantee of ability.

The Headmaster of the hosting Institute stood up from his seat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Well then. It has been an interesting day, albeit a little one-sided. I suggest we adjourn for now to get some rest and refreshments. In the evening we can give the Academy representative some rest and move on to the older students.”

His declaration was a tacit admission that Karna had done enough to crush the other institutes and it would be somewhat bad if the same continued. It was time to give others the opportunity to shine in turn. It was also a fact that it would be somewhat embarrassing for everyone involved if Karna was to be challenged by people much older and stronger than her, as there would be no glory in winning. And the embarrassment should Karna keep winning would be even worse. It was better to have her retire undefeated and move on using a simple excuse.

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“Good work. You’ve certainly done your part.” Tsumi complimented as soon as Karna returned to the table.

“Thanks. It’s a shame the other Blessed Child didn’t participate.” Karna was a little displeased. The younger girl from Frostpeak Institute had chosen to not fight her, and Karna had wanted to test her a bit. Now the other reincarnator wouldn’t be able to participate as the bouts would move to the older students.

Karna was especially displeased that the third reincarnator had disappeared on the first day and had not shown his face ever since. No one had left the world through the gateway, so Stormcaller was still on this planet, but it was clear he was avoiding her. The two other reincarnators were rather inconsequential for now, but Stormcaller could be a problem depending on which of her True Names he had discovered. The Head Judge had promised to hide her really inconvenient names, but clearly the other reincarnator had seen something that alarmed him. “Any word on my target?”

“No. He has either left the city, or he’s shut inside the rooms reserved for their institute. You never did explain why he escaped. He seemed stronger than you, so it feels a bit weird.” Tsumi had been rather patient on the issue, but she wanted to understand.

Karna had to think about how much to reveal. In the end, it came down to the fact that it would be useful to have someone with Tsumi’s strength and connections to confide in. It could be mutually beneficial. “How much do you know about True Names?” She asked.

"I know that they exist and sometimes carry great meaning. Some even confer abilities to those holding the Name. I see. You're suggesting he somehow found out your True Name, and that spooked him somehow." Tsumi was rather quick on the uptake, which was one of the reasons Karna preferred her as someone to confide in.

"More or less," Karna admitted.

“Which True Name, if I may ask?” Tsumi inquired. There was no special taboo about True Names, though it was rare that someone had a True Name with significance when it came to non-reincarnators.

“That’s the thing. I don’t know.” Karna shrugged.

“You don’t know your True Name, but he somehow found out? How did you come to that conclusion then?” Tsumi misunderstood.

“That’s not what I meant. You do know that a person can have more than one True Name, right?” Karna corrected her.

“That’s…I was vaguely aware of the possibility. You’re pretty much suggesting you have more than one, obviously. So how can you tell he discovered one?” Tsumi reeled a bit at the revelation, though she adjusted quickly.

“There’s a limited number of ways to discover someone’s True Name against their will, and I certainly didn’t tell him mine. The downside with most of those methods is that your target can feel what’s happening, if they know what to look for. I do, and I felt it happening. His True Name is Stormcaller by the way, so there’s that as well.” Karna explained.

“So wait. You used the same skill on him first, didn’t you?” Tsumi’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Yes, but he had no way of knowing it was me. The problem is that my performance on the first day was enough to prompt him to check.” Karna admitted without any shame. She had known it was a bit of a gamble, but she had relied on the Head Judge’s promise.

Tsumi rubbed the bridge of her nose a bit. “Right. I should’ve guessed. Well, there’s not much I can do if he’s being hidden by his institute, but I can see if I confirm if he is in their rooms or not. That should be doable at least.”

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With a heavy heart, Mayumi approached the quarters of the Academy. Today’s fights were over, and nearly everyone had withdrawn back to their quarters for the night. Mayumi’s master had considered this to be the perfect opportunity for a private duel. And now Mayumi was going to present her challenge. Her master had great hopes for her and considered her potential to be very high, but her lack of experience and opponents of a similar skill level was hampering her progress.

In truth, Mayumi felt like the great expectations that her master had for her were wasted. The only reason she had managed to progress so fast was because this wasn’t the first time she was treading this path. She had managed to hide the fact that this was her second life, but having previous knowledge was helpful, even if she was still horribly confused about the whole thing. Sooner or later that pre-knowledge would run out though, and then her progress would be no greater than anyone else’s. Anyone normal. She wasn’t some grand genius like the girl she was supposed to challenge now, so why? What was going on? Why had she been given this kind of opportunity? Why not the others?

It was clear that everyone wasn’t like her. She had been named something called a Blessed Child, and apparently there were others, but not that many others. She had never met anyone like her, and she was full of questions. Questions she was unable to ask anyone. That was another thing that bothered her. She would’ve liked to inform her parents and her master about her situation, but something was stopping her. Something she didn’t understand. And that made her horribly confused.

“Are you sure?” She heard a voice from beyond the corner. The voice sounded like the Sect Master of the Luminous Sect. Mayumi had always been great at recognizing voices, which helped her in many situations, and the clearly honorable and upright voice of the Sect Master was not hard to recognize. Aasimar all had rather distinctive voices that sounded a little otherworldly to Mayumi.

“I’m quite certain. The Academy is where I belong, at least for the time being. The Headmistress and I have a deal, and it is one I intend to honor.” Another voice she recognized replied. Something about that voice sent a shiver down Mayumi’s back, and she wasn’t sure why. If Aasimar sounded otherworldly, then this voice certainly had a mysterious quality about it as well, as if it had unknown depths that were currently hidden.

“I recognize that the Academy is the most advanced of the institutes gathered here, but even they wouldn’t dare to claim to possess the level of expertise in Qhaysh that we have. Even as a Blessed Child you must recognize the utility of having real experts teach you.” The Sect Master tried to convince the other person.

Mayumi's heart jumped in her chest. Another Blessed Child like her! Could it be? Was this her opportunity to find out more about what was going on? "I'm not sure what you could be referring to. Certainly, there's no reason to label me so." The other voice replied with a denial, but with a tone that wasn't really a true denial. "However, as a righteous sect, you too must understand my desire to keep my word. Besides, my familial ties are to the Academy as well. I will keep your offer in mind, but I'm afraid I must decline for now."

The Sect Master tried to make a last pitch but in the end had to return with a refusal. Just as Mayumi was thinking about going back, the other person called out. “You can come out now. Eavesdropping on a private conversation like that is rather impolite, but I recognize that we chose a bad spot for said conversation.”

With a small grimace, Mayumi stepped around the corner and found the girl called Karna leaning against an ornate windowsill. "Nevertheless I should apologize," Mayumi replied and made a small apologetic bow, though she could barely contain her excitement. There was something unreadable in the other girl's eyes as she looked at Mayumi.

It would’ve been polite to allow the other person to reply to the apology, but Mayumi couldn’t stop herself. “Is it true? Are you like me?”

The veil that the other girl was using covered most of her face, but Mayumi was quite certain that the girl was smiling from the way her eyes narrowed a little. There was something genuine about the way the girl smiled even with her eyes. “And how exactly do you think we are alike?” The girl asked with a teasing tone.

"You've also been born again!" Mayumi rushed to say and then realized that something was different. "Wait, how was I able to say that?"

The girl gave a small chuckle that sounded like the ringing of bells. At the same time, the air around her changed. For some reason, Mayumi got a very motherly feeling about the girl suddenly. In a single instance, she realized that the girl in front of her might have been a girl in body, but not in spirit. The girl must have lived longer than Mayumi. A lot longer. “This is your first reincarnation, isn’t it?” The girl asked with a warm tone.

“How did you….wait, first? So it can happen more than once? How many times?” Mayumi was filled with questions. Just a single statement from the not-really-a-girl had already revealed a lot more than she had managed to figure out on her own.

“Calm down. One thing at a time. To answer your first question, we cannot talk of our nature to others, not even if someone is eavesdropping on us and we’re unaware of that fact. No, it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the rules. And before you ask, I don’t know who made the rules either. There are many such rules, but that one is the first one we all run into. As to the other questions, you saw the River of Souls, right?” The woman, Mayumi was definitely going to label her as a woman from this point forward, asked almost rhetorically.

“The river of what now?” Mayumi had to disappoint her though.

“Ah, you didn’t even get that simple courtesy. Well, to put it simply, all souls no matter which universe they are born in return to the River of Souls when they die to be judged and washed clean of their memories. That’s with the exception of some religion with special afterlives, but explaining those would take forever, and it’s not important. Anyway, some souls don’t have to go through the last step of having their memories removed. In fact, many of us just get shunted off to the next life even without stopping to be judged on the way either. It seems your case was one of those. Unfortunate. The judges could’ve explained some things to you.” The woman explained.

“So there are more of us?” Mayumi asked eagerly, wanting to confirm what she had already heard.

"Yes, though not that many. This universe is a little different, and even for this universe, there's an exceptionally large number of us present. Once again, I do not know why, but I’m not sure I like it.” The woman sounded a little worried, and if she was worried then Mayumi should almost certainly be panicking.

“You sound like you have a lot of experience. How many?” Mayumi asked with a weak tone.

“How many lives have I lived? I can’t say. I stopped counting a long time ago. More than you ever will likely. To answer an earlier question of yours, there are no strict limits on how many lives we can lead, but time takes its toll. Most of us either go insane eventually, or we purposefully allow ourselves to be reset when it gets too much to bear. You will be given the opportunity to do the same at various points between your lives.” The woman gazed at the empty air and for a moment Mayumi could feel the weight of countless years pressing down on the woman’s shoulders.

“Can you teach me?” She blurted out. “I mean, you mentioned there are many rules, and I don’t know any of them. This whole thing is so weird and there’s no one I can talk to about it, and… I need help! Please help me!" Mayumi felt desperate and she almost sobbed out her plea as she feebly reached out towards the other person.

The motherly feeling was back. “I can and I can’t. I can tell you some of the basics, but our time here is limited. I also have my own goal in coming here. If you really want to learn, you’ll need to seek me out at the Academy. Or you can do what most of us have to do. Learn by experience, trial, and error. Some things you’ll need to learn the hard way anyway. However, I can give you a small tip that might help you a lot in the short run. Consider it a gesture of good will. Have you noticed the Djinn boy that seems to be fascinated by you?”

“The one you crushed in your last fight? I have. I thought he might have some sort of unhealthy fascination with me. He wouldn’t be the first.” Mayumi gave a small shudder. Yuki-Onnas were generally viewed as quite desirable by many races, and she had a healthy dose of that lineage.

“I’m sorry to disappoint, but his fascination isn’t because of your looks. It’s because he too is like us, more like you than me, and he knows what you are. Neither of you have figured out how to hide yourselves yet, so he spotted you immediately. And some of our kind take a rather hostile view of any ‘competition’. In that regard, we are much like any other people. There are good people and there are bad people among us, although with the added twist of experience and several horrible lives pushing us into madness.” The woman explained, and Mayumi wasn’t sure if she liked what she had heard.

“Horrible lives?” She asked with trepidation.

“You should’ve guessed by now. If we get reborn often enough, eventually we’ll draw a really short straw. And there’s sometimes little we can do about it. A life as a slave, for instance, is a good way to turn someone either insane, or at the very least cynical of others.” The answer didn’t really reassure Mayumi.

“I need to learn more. Please.” She pleaded again.

“Come then. Let us find some refreshments, and more private spot so that I can at least tell you the basics.” The woman suggested. The conversation they’d share would be very eye-opening for Mayumi.