-----

”Well, this is a weird situation. Since when have the Sentinels started taking in feedback from us?” Wolfgang wondered out loud as he pondered on the suspension of the first phase of the tournament.

His words were overheard by two people approaching him. “From us? I’ll do you one better. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about the format of the tournament. Some people mentioned in passing that things were dragging out a bit with the arena being so large and the last participants so scattered, but that kind of thing was only just now starting to come up. It wasn’t a real complaint yet.” Queen Amaranthine’s companion, a feline beastwoman with bright red hair and a long bushy tail stated.

The woman was clearly a warrior with pronounced muscles showing through her relatively thick and surprisingly nondescript clothing. It seemed she had tried to dress to blend in, but her hair made that rather difficult. That and the fact that she was only tall enough to reach his waist. “There’s more. You heard that the Sentinels want to run a poll about the finals, but have you been asked for your opinion?”

“No.” Wolfgang realized the implications immediately. “I’m guessing you haven’t either. So was the whole thing a lie?”

“That’s not the part you should be worried about, though still worth considering. The Sentinels have been doing things arbitrarily so far, so them continuing to do so isn’t so bad. Sure, the fact that they could’ve lied has rather bad implications about the whole thing. But here’s the really interesting possibility. If we’re not the observers in this case, then who is?” The red-haired woman posed a question with a clever look on her face. She even had a single finger pointing up for theatrical emphasis, which Wolfgang found rather adorable. But she posed a good question.

“Now that you mention it, this whole setup does seem kind of suspicious. It’s been a long time since the last Expansion so it’s hard to know anything concrete, but has there ever been something like this created? Something like the Sentinels I mean.” Wolfgang nodded as his mind started working.

“That we can’t answer right now, but one thing is for sure. The three of us aren’t among the observers the Sentinels mentioned, and I haven’t heard of anyone else being polled either. I even asked the other high-ranking powers that are involved, and they seemed just as confused. If we aren't the intended audience, then who is? And if there is some other audience, then that would explain the Sentinel's reticence about providing information." Amaranthine outlined the problem.

“Great. Another thing to worry about.” Wolfgang released a breath of frustration.

“Another?” Amaranthine asked, slightly surprised there was an issue she had missed.

“That chick using a large sword that was facing Karna at the end. She’s a real danger. I haven’t been able to see too much of her, but even I have trouble seeing through all the secrets her techniques hold. Whoever trained her is beyond anything I’ve seen before. Now, I already told you before that I don’t think anyone in this age bracket can match Karna. Well, I might have been a bit hasty. That one is a contender, and she seems to have something against our girl.” Wolfgang gestured towards the screen that showed the Kensei Karna had been facing earlier. Before, when the tournament had been a more open affair, he had been confident in Karna’s ability to at least escape if things turned hairy, but if the format was changed into something that was all about direct confrontation, then things became a lot riskier.

“My, my. And you were so confident earlier.” Amaranthine covered the lower part of her face with her wide sleeve to hide her amused expression.

“This isn’t a laughing matter Amaranthine. I’m not entirely sure I could beat that one myself.” Wolfgang stated with full seriousness.

“That’s…” Amaranthine knew how powerful Wolfgang was, so his words carried a lot of weight when he admitted something like that. She knew Wolfgang wasn’t modest by nature, so he wouldn’t say something like this without a good reason.

“You’re underestimating the other competition.” The red-haired beastwoman suddenly piped up. “It’s good to have confidence in your representative, but those remaining are among the best of the best of this generation. My niece isn’t one to go down so easily either.”

“Your niece?” Wolfgang asked a bit dumbly.

“Oh, come on! How many feline beastwomen are there in the competition!” The small woman stomped her feet a bit in another adorable display.

“There’s no way…” Wolfgang took a look at the white-haired and quite a lot taller beastwoman on the screen showing the participants, causing the woman in front of her to walk away in a huff, cursing as she went.

“That wasn’t the most diplomatic thing you’ve ever done.” Amaranthine actually giggled at Wolfgang’s faux pas. “I’m sure your wife would like to hear about this.

“What? No, she doesn’t need to know! Besides, you can’t say I’m wrong. The only thing those two have in common is the ears. They’re barely even the same species! Actually, are they even the same type of beastwoman? She looked more like a house-cat while that one on the arena is…well, something bigger and more dangerous.” Wolfgang defended himself.

“Yes, they are. Though I would assume there’s something interesting in the parentage of either of them. Getting more serious though, I wouldn’t be that worried about Karna. Even if she doesn't win, I'm sure she can withdraw in time. As you said, she's not stubborn enough to stay and fight a battle she can't win. And if this whole thing is really as questionable as it seems to be, then I'm not entirely sure we want to win." The elven Queen posited.

“Yes, but she doesn’t know that.” He pointed out.

Amaranthine gave a deep suffering sigh. “Really? You can’t be that forgetful” She pulled out the communications artifact Karna had created and given everyone during the operation to save Mayumi and the Yuki-Onnas.

“Oh right. That. Assuming it works.” He cleared his throat. “Moving on, let’s assume for a moment that this whole thing is organized by some third party. What’s the point? Trapping us here seems like a really bad idea, considering the amount of power gathered at this world currently.”

"That I can't say. I'm not all-knowing." Amaranthine shrugged.

-----

“Wait, so are you trying to tell me that I shouldn’t try to win this thing?” Karna sent back a silent mental message. They had been left to float in this empty space for almost an hour now.

“Not exactly. The offer of the Sentinels could still be entirely genuine, and we’ve seen no real evidence against that. The only thing that we have at the moment is pure conjecture combined with some suspicions. What I'm saying is that winning is now less important than before. As the nominal commander of this mission, I'm giving you official permission to bail out at the first sign that it's too much to handle. Do still try to win though. At least we’d get some bragging rights.” Wolfgang responded with a message of his own. His voice was somewhat unclear and mixed in with some static, showing that the communication artifacts had to either work over a too-long distance or through some obstruction that should be preventing this kind of communication.

“Well, that’s spectacularly unhelpful.” She muttered. Try to win but not too hard. A mixed message if there ever was one. The message from Wolfgang had disturbed her in the middle of meditation.

“Kakaka. You should give up girl. You’re out of your league here.” The one covered in illusions warned her suddenly. It seemed that Karna’s mutterings had broken the silence that had reigned ever since the last announcement.

“While I hate to agree with the witch on anything, she’s not entirely wrong.” The gently shining knight in shining armor added his opinion.

Karna was debating if it was worth answering but was spared the trouble as she got support from the oddest of directions. The Kensei’s mocking laughter made it clear how much she looked down on the opinions of the two in question. “I rarely see worry that’s more misplaced. If anyone should throw in the towel, it’s you.” The Kensei added. "There's no place for a man of god in this fight. We're not interested in moral lectures."

“You obviously disagree vith zem.” The devilishly handsome man in a white uniform stated with a curious tone.

“Who do you think was responsible for most of the eliminations in our part of the battlefield.” The beastwoman with white cat-ears helped the other part of the group understand where the Kensei was coming from. Her words weren’t entirely accurate though. While Karna had done her part, she’d hardly rampaged through the competition. The fact that she didn’t suffer from power starvation had given her an unbeatable advantage, which she’d used, but she’d only eliminated about 70 participants personally.

“You’re not wrong kitty-cat, but that’s not why I was laughing. Numbers don’t mean anything. She was able to stand against me in a direct confrontation. Something I doubt any of you will be able to accomplish.” The Kensei scoffed. “Which reminds me. Our fight was interrupted just as things were about to get good. I don’t like leaving things unfinished like that.”

“I’m sure we’ll get the opportunity to rectify that. I doubt the Sentinels will change the format into a dance-off, as interesting as that might be.” Karna said quietly while not even bothering to open her eyes. She’d totally win a dance-off though. She had moves.

It seemed the argument would’ve gone on for longer, but the Sentinels once again interrupted their fun. “The observers have reached a consensus. We will be conducting a team event, but to split you into teams equitably, we need to get a better handle on your power and abilities. Each of you will now find a power measuring orb on your platform. We need all of you to grab a hold of them, and the orbs will do the rest.”

Karna noted that there was indeed a very familiar crystalline sphere floating near her. Her eyes flashed with blue as she took a better look at the enchantments. “Oh, these are well done. They’ll actually give a very accurate reading of a person’s actual strength and not just their rank, even if they can’t measure skill or technique. In fact, they seem a lot like the ones I created for the Crossroads back then.” She thought to herself.

"Rank eight holy power user and a mage of the fifth circle. Holy power at the level of a standard ninth rank and mana at the standard level of a sixth circle.” A neutral and genderless voice announced as the smiling knight laid his hand on his orb.

“Oh, this thing is good.” The knight’s smile didn’t change even with his information being outed to everyone.

The others followed the example of the knight, with only the person covered with illusions refusing to cooperate. Obviously, she had something to hide. "If you refuse, you will be given a disadvantage when selecting teams." The voice announced, but the witch, if that was indeed what she was, stuck to her decision. Interestingly, while her words had been disguised with mocking, Karna felt that the witch had genuinely tried to warn her against taking part further. Something to think about.

Some of the results were rather expected, with the beastwoman and her ally both getting announced at eighth Qi rank, with the strength to match a standard ninth rank. The ones that stood out the most were the Kensei and the man in the white uniform getting early ninth rank in Qi and magic respectively, both bordering on the early tenth rank in actual strength. The real surprises were the very ordinary-looking human man being evaluated as an eighth rank magical beast, while a woman hiding herself with heavy clothes getting ranked as a seventh rank psion.

One thing was blatantly obvious. There were almost certainly multiple reincarnators in the group. There was no other way so many people had reached such a high ranking at such a young age. Even for people with unparalleled potential and resources, reaching the ninth rank before the age of sixty was nigh impossible. For a reincarnator that knew the best techniques from several universes and who was rushing? Still extremely difficult but doable.

With so many reincarnators in a small space, the only reason they hadn’t started probing for True Names was that it wasn’t a good idea to get on the bad side of someone that could decide if you were removed from this competition without taking your life. While all of the reincarnators taking part in this competition had confidence in their abilities against nearly all opponents, they were also realistic enough to know that only one of them would actually be victorious. Losing didn’t have to mean death though.

As Karna was the last one aside from the witch, they all turned to her next. With a slight hum, she grabbed ahold of the device. "Sixth circle mage and a sixth rank Aura user. Mana at the standard level of an upper eighth circle mage and Aura impossible to quantify exactly. Rough evaluation somewhere around the ninth rank." The voice announced. She was the only one where the measure seemed uncertain, which caught everyone’s attention.

The holy knight gave a small whistle. “Jumping three ranks in strength. My apologies for earlier. I clearly underestimated you. Someone has been working on their foundation.” Something in his voice implied that he knew more than he was saying, but it was impossible to read anything from his unchanging smile.

"Teams will now be selected based on your results." The neutral voice announced once again, just before they were all given small amulets in the primary colors. Karna was apparently in the blue team, and she took a quick look around her to see who else had been assigned to the same team. The cat-eared beastwoman, the holy knight, and the handsome man in white uniform had the same pendant, along with the man that had gotten the result of magical beast.

Their platforms were separated into and grouped with their teams around a much larger central platform that appeared in the middle. “I suppose that could’ve gone worse.” The holy knight commented, looking at their team, and especially the man in white.

“Could’ve gone better as well.” The beastwoman shook her head a bit and gestured towards the group that had both the witch and the Kensei. The others in that group were not as impressive, but those two alone could carry their team pretty far.

"The rules of the next part are as follows. Each team will send one or two members to take part in a three-way confrontation in the central arena. Each person can take part in a single confrontation, and there will be three bouts in total. Any person that loses their pendant or dies is disqualified. The team with the most remaining participants in the end will be the winners, and the remaining people will decide the victor among their team. The three bouts do not need to be fights, as you are free to come to a conclusion via other methods. The final decision will also be up to the winning team. You can fight it out if you so choose, or you can use another method, as long as there's a winner at the end." The voice explained.

“There’s a surprising amount of both depth and leeway in those rules.” The Holy Knight commented immediately.

“Do you truly think that any of the bouts will end up being anything other than fights?” The beastwoman asked skeptically.

"Ve shall see. It might turn out different than you expect." The white-uniformed man posited.

“Should we have some introductions?” The magical beast that had been quiet so far asked.

“Yes, let’s.” The beastwoman said with a wry look, and Karna suddenly felt three people probing for her True Name.

She returned the favor at the same time, and it quickly became obvious that the magical beast was the only one that wasn’t a reincarnator, as his True Name was simply Thickscale. The other Names in the group caused Karna to burst out in laughter while the others were making rather blatant faces. The white-uniformed man, whose vampiric nature was suddenly clear, looked sick as he noted the kind of people he was mixed up with. He still had a very powerful Name of Tremere, referring to the same blood magic that Karna had gained access to with her vampiric bloodline, which obviously meant he was a true expert in the field. It also implied that he might have been the originator of the clan in the first place, which meant he was old indeed.

Karna looked at the holy knight and beastwoman while her laughter still echoed in all their ears. “Envy and Valor. Fancy meeting you two here.”

“Wrath. It’s been a while. Not long enough though." The beastwoman replied with visible displeasure, while for the first time the smile on the Holy Knight's face fell from those words. Clearly that wasn't the Name he'd seen, and in fairness, it wasn't likely that Envy had seen that Name either. The two sins simply knew each other by many Names.

“So. We have two sins and a virtue in a single group. I dread to think what the other groups hold.” Valor said a little ominously before the smile returned to his face, though it looked a little crooked this time.