Sarah started to get tired. That whole sword fighting stuff never really interested her. There existed better ways to kill your opponent, if you wanted to do that, and there were more entertaining sports out there, which didn't only consist of repetitive short exchanges. Well, she knew that she was wrong, with it being just repetitive exchanges, but since she didn't want to waste her time with it, she could only see it as such.

At least the other VIPs were very interested in the fight and didn't bother the still hooded girl. Her sister and that other guy waited. Though more precisely they waited for their opponent to make a mistake. Normal clashes wouldn't result in anything. They were getting exhausted and with both of them only one point away from the victory the pressure in the arena was increasing with each exchange. Knowing Sera, it would probably end with the next clash or the one after that. At least then Sarah could get back to her research. So... she better watched a bit closer. Otherwise her sister would get angry, when she wanted to discuss her fight and Sarah couldn't take part in it. Not as angry as when she didn't watch it in the first place, but it would still take time to calm the swordfighter down.

And it didn't take long for both fighters to attack again. Maybe it was the build up of mental pressure, maybe it was the physical fatigue or one of them found an opening, Sarah wasn’t sure, but she also didn’t care. Though both didn't seem to be interested in prolonging the fight. A long fight rarely seen even in the world tournament.

The fighters shortened the distance.

The swords drew closer.

The pressure was nearly tangible.

It was as if time itself slowed down in the moments before the swords met.

A spark.

...

...

No... time did stop!

The whole stadium was still. Nothing moved, except for the girl in the VIP lounge, some weird lines which started to appear in the air around her and sparks which were coming from her wrist. Or to be more precise the bracelet on it. A bracelet, which most likely was part of the reason for the current situation.

After quickly looking to her sister and confirming that similar lines were appearing around the frozen girl, the scientist looked back to her own lines and bracelet. A device containing the accumulated results of her research over the past years. Not that it was much time in comparison to other research institutes. Though years of work had a different meaning, when those were years of a genius who proved the existence of souls at the age of eleven.

The lines around her increased, got smaller and more intricate. They were somewhat similar to fractals, though by far not infinite in complexity. Lines, which Sarah knew belonged to a spell, though of a complexity far above anything she could create, at least as of now. But she didn't need to. The ever increasing glow in the ring on her arm proved one thing: this was magic which had crossed at least the fourth spatial dimension, maybe more, and contained vast amounts of mana, not from this world but from another. Mana, which was currently charging her own spell embedded in the accessory. A spell she was never sure would ever activate, though as it appeared it was more than a success, as even the additional time dilation part was triggered.

But Sarah tried to calm herself down. This would solve her world crossing issues. Though until now only three parts were a success, the most important step was still before her and probably the most dangerous. A statement, which was probably on the same level as tinkering with an active nuclear bomb, yet she couldn't really do much except observe. She had engraved it and it would resolve. She tested the parts which could be tested. Now she could only watch it resolve and memorize what would happen, in case something went wrong and she somehow survived. Or hopefully so she could replicate similar spells later, once she had access to more mana on the other side.

She was studying the slowly forming spell around her, not that she could move much or do anything else, creating a time dilation around her was already hard enough. Then her bracelet shattered with a high pitch sound and the fragments started to engulf her. Sparks from the pieces now surrounding her started to reach for the other spell. At first they were carefully, hesitant, as if alive, however in truth her magic was attuning the mana of both spells to each other and tracing the target of the main function of her spell: hacking.

Then after a few seconds, though seconds probably didn't pass in the frozen world, parts of the web of lines cracked, broke apart and reformed.

She had succeeded in attracting a cross world teleportation spell, adding another target and using excess mana to slow down her own time. Yet that didn’t mean that she trusted the attracted spell. Therefore she added a few security measures, which were currently written into the other spell.

Similar to her own spell, the one around her sister also changed. With less sparks and breaking, though it still changed as both parts of the spell were still connected. Sarah assumed that it was a similar phenomenon to quantum entanglement, however she had only run a few experiments and wasn't sure. She would put some more research into that topic, later, when she had time, but until then she could only use it to her advantage, where needed.

Before long the changes began to calm down. The glow of her own spell dimmed, while the original now modified spell got brighter, blindingly bright.

And then the twins were gone.

No explosion.

No sound.

Two girls simply went missing from one moment to the other.

An event, which would create waves on a similar scale to the discovery of mana.