After an exhausting trek, the girls are finally getting their much deserved rest inside the City’s Entrance Facade. Both Gallian and Ashlin immediately dozes off the moment they sat on the ground, while Selica had some more time all on her own to rearrange her bags in order. While reorganizing she keeps taking mental notes on all the people surrounding them, trying to pick up some distinct traits she might find curious to look into during her rest.

"I hope Shellon was able to get here." Selica worries about her other new friend while she stares at the sea of mages in front of her. In the span of a few hours, she has befriended more people than she has ever had in her life, and the toll of all these new experiences have also humbled her about her dream. When she first planned to be a part of Magecraft City, Selica imagined herself being in a dorm surrounded by same age kids learning and studying magic in some kind of an academy. Instead, she was magically-choked by some old bastard, almost forced to walk through a treacherous terrain alone, and had to intervened between two of her new friends from trying to murder each other.

Selica sighs as she laments on her journey while she decides to lie on the floor. She pulls out a familiar blanket from her bag, fortunately her mom was able to pack a blanket inside her already stuffed backpack. Its design is a decorative portrait of crowns and tiaras; it was Selica’s favorite princess blanket that her mother made herself. Her eyes puffs and swells as she remembers her parents and their home again. Selica pulls the blanket closer to her, and cherishes them for a bit as she lies on the ground. "I miss you mom and dad." It’s been quite a journey but now that she’s inside the city, she’s thankful to have surpassed all the trials she’s been through and is slowly becoming more optimistic. Selica grazes her hands on the rugged dirt, at first the ground seems normal enough, but after a few moments, she can feel a faint presence of magic radiating underneath the soil. ”Even the ground here is magical” Selica lies underneath the open ceiling while still being impressed by the magical soil. Her eyes lazily gazed upon the sky, at first glance the grey clouds forecasts a heavy rain coming soon, but there is something different with the clouds.

The sky is growing darker and ready for a downpour at any moment, but there is something off about it. In between the heavy clouds Selica can see a faint glittering spark between them. It’s like a silver current coursing through the cloud's crevices. At first she thought it was just the sun peaking through the clouds, but she remembers by this time the sun would not be where the silver coursing is at right now.

"That's strange." She slowly slides to her backpack and tries to look for a specific book, "What name does that book have again? Geography of something?" Selica scours through her stacks of books inside her bag until eventually she grabs a medium-sized catalog book. She pulled it out of her backpack and starts reading through its dusty contents. The book is a bit older compared to the rest of her collection, the leather has started to turn yellow at the edges and some of the paper inside has started to chip off.

A Self-Document Guide of the Geography of Medara Region

Ugh what mouthful, Selica says to herself, "I should really learn how to name these things properly." She carefully opened the leather-bound book and browsed through its contents. Selica had to be careful in reading since during her younger years she loved make sure every space available in a page is pack with as much content as possible. "Ughh Selica..." She groans as she squints for information she's needs underneath the wall of texts she's created. "Geography? No, Limnology? No not that? Fauna? Nope." After a few scans on the initial pages, Selica's hands starts to move faster and faster.

While Selica immersed herself in her book, Gallian slowly waked up from her quick slumber. Still groggy from her sleep, she tries to wipe her face, but a jolt of pain immediately wakes her up as she accidently tries to used her injured arm to do so. "Ouch." She grabs her arm in pain, immediately bringing her back to the real world. The first thing Gallian sees after waking up is Selica engrossedly turning her own book. "Studying while relaxing? Girl, you don't really take a rest at all." Gallian calls out her companion with a hoarse voice.

"Oh, Gallian, you're awake." Selica perked up at the sound of Gallian's voice. Her hand instinctually placed over the book's spine to prevent it from moving away. "Sorry, there is just something bothering me about the clouds." Selica points up to the open ceiling as Gallian follows her hand with her eyes. For Gallian's untrained eye, she can only see the imminent downpour in the sky. "Yeesh, it's gonna rain hard. Where's my damn coat?" Gallian reached out to her backpack and tries to look for her rain coat inside. "Well, yes, but also there's more." Selica imposes something else wrong about the sky for Gallian. "Don't you see that?" She pointed at the silver current flowing between the clouds, "What do you think that is?" Gallian tries to carefully put on her rain coat while looking up, At first she didn’t see what her friend was talking about but after a few minutes she is able to finally get what Selica is talking about. "Huh, that is weird. You sure that's not the sun?" "It's around 4PM now. the sun is way pass that point by this time." Selica gave Gallian a firm response, before returning back to browsing her book. "For some reason, I have a faint recollection whatever that phenomenon is, but I just can't pinpoint out what."

"It's probably just some mountain weather or something." Gallian brushes it off. "The mountain caps around here are pretty white after all, it's probably making the same effect or something, I don't know." Gallian does her own surveillance of the facade as well, she immediately notices that the people inside have doubled in number, a few more and this huge venue will actually be crowded. She scratches her eyes after she has strained them from looking at the vibrant colors of the other mages around them. "Serpent’s Sails, my eyes hurt just looking at them." Gallian suddenly curses. Though irritated by the spectacle, she notices that the gates are ushering in fewer and fewer people inside. "Seems like we're about to start the test." She concludes.

However Selica didn't respond as she is nose-deep on her book. Gallian sighs while being ignored and walks back to Ashlin instead. She places her good arm on Ashlin's shoulder, but before she connects, Ashlin's immediately grabs her by the wrist. "Yes?" Ashlin speaks, she slowly opens her eyes and when she notices it was Gallian she immediately lightens her grip. "What is it?" "Wake up princess, I think we're about to start." Gallian is surprised for a moment, but then composed herself. She didn't want the princess here to see she's afraid of her after all. "Really?" Ashlin stands up and looks around the facade and at the gate. She closes her eyes and took a slow meditative breath. "I'm honestly not sure if I am ready." Ashlin surprisingly spoke truthfully. Gallian stares at her as she does her morning routine. "I'm guessing you have this all on your back, right?" Ashlin suddenly remarks as she gives Gallian a mischievous smile.

Gallian blushes for a moment, but shakes it off and stares back at Ashlin with a serious gaze. "Don't play coy with me." She answers back, then sighs back as well. "Even I don't know what's going to happen. To think that I actually held on to what Selica said to me before regarding the test as real shows how much I'm really prepare for all of this." Gallian, too, answers in all honesty.

"Ehh, that's no fun." Ashlin answers, "I was hoping you would bite back by ridiculing me. You know, to show how tough you are." She walks pass the surprised Gallian from her answer. "Wasn't expecting you to answer as lame as me as well."

"Ugh shut it." Gallian tries to follow Ashlin to her backpack before she felt a rumble. Everyone starts to panic until they trace the source of it all at the entrance gate.

The gates begins to close, the acceptance of applicants for Magecraft City's new district is over. From a quick glance, the facade is housing quite a number of people, Ashlin guessed that there’s at least a thousand of people here right now.

The moment the iron gate sealed shut, a sudden white flash envelopes the entire chamber for a moment before it disappears.

"Wait. Is this?" Though most of the mages seems to have shrug the light as some sort of a parlor trick, one hooded individual seems to think otherwise.

Before the crowd begins chattering, a booming voice echoes from the central monument. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Magecraft City district application test. We would like to begin with our fondest congratulations in reaching our humble city to participate in our long standing tradition" Suddenly a small glass chamber showed itself on top of facade, just a few inches below the open ceiling.

"I will be your host for today." Inside the chamber is a silver haired woman wearing a silk emerald dress. Her features resemble a lady in her prime and the sheer confidence she carries dwarfs even the most arrogant of mages' the girls has encountered today. "My name is Threshold, or Lady Threshold if you prefer. And today we will have a special kind of test."

Suddenly the ground begins to shake and starts to take shape, once simple rocks magically turn into buildings, and pebbles swelled up becoming into human-sized barricades. The once flat surface has also started to elevate into a hill-shaped mound in the center. Stairs starts to form from the loose dirt around the mound as they all spiral up towards the top where the central monument is placed. Within less than a minute, the entrance facade has become a fully realized battleground complete with all the cover and elevation one could find in any conflict.

Ashlin’s worst expectations has happened. She didn’t want to warn her friends about it before, but it seems like the rumors were true. "I knew it." she speaks up as the tall barriers obscures her vision from everything aside from the monument at the top of the newly created hill. "The test is a deathmatch." She looks at her hands and recalls the white flash from earlier. "So that was that, huh?" She finally realizes that the white flash was indeed a resurrection spell. She recalls having seen the same white flash before when she used to watch adventure shows in the TV. To think they will cast such a powerful spell to so many people at the same time.

"R-really?" Gallian nervously responds, "But I thought these tests of theirs lasts month in deliberation on who is to be accepted as their new tenants." Ashlin scans her surrounding area and her hunch is correct, the mages around them has began sizing each other up the moment she utters the word "deathmatch".

"Yes, that is normally how they would conduct applications." Ashlin confirms Gallian's presumptions. "However, I've picked up some rumors about regarding this new district. I keep hearing it to be something special. So a special test such as this would not be too far off the course." Thanks to the sharp ears of Bigz, Ashlin and him were able to pick up what was up within as they were traveling towards Magecraft City. Stories of an unusual discovery kept spreading under hushed tones even down below in Silicon City that has both motivated and deterred mages into joining in today's application test. Ashlin looks around her immediate vicinity, she studies their posture and body language. She calculates that she could easily take out these other mages easily if she gets the initiative. She's just worried what might happen to the injured Gallian and Selica during the process.

Speaking of Selica, Ashlin looks at her friend again and she is still immerse in her book. "Selica stand up already," Ashlin urges her with her hand. "Wait, wait. I almost have it." But Selica is still not moving from her place. Ashlin watches as Selica's eyes starts to dart back and forth searching and scanning every text she could read. "I just-I feel like those clouds has something to do on what's happening right now." She flips the pages faster and faster, ignoring how some of them starts to crumble as she reads right pass them. "Well we're in a middle of some kind of happening as well," Ashlin answers back, readying her fist. "We might need to fight for our lives, soon."

"However!" Threshold's voice continue to boom as the girls are getting ready for a fight. "Though this may be a deathmatch. I've decided to add a small twist to it." She continues. "You see, instead of having the match be a last-man standing competition. Our test will instead have a different goal." The ground shakes once more, this time the epicenter is located at the elevated monument at the center of the once-facade now arena. A small opening starts to open until each corner of the monument has a gaping entrance on it. "For this test, the objective is simple. Enter the chamber within the hill and you can pass the test. How you ask? Well through the monument’s entrances of course!"

As the Threshold woman continues her speech, Gallian has been noticing something strange amongst the crowd after Ashlin pointed out the quickly spiraling situation they are in. While every other mage is eagerly sizing each other up for the upcoming battle, Gallian decides to focus more on those people in between them. She has been well known among her peers back in Dangal as having a good eye for detail especially during dire situations like this, and right now, her eyes is telling her something is about to go very wrong. She has grown accustomed to the other mage's extravagant formal wear that she was able to see the cracks between. At first she only saw a ragged man carrying a iron hilt on his belt. It was odd sure, but not out of the ordinary, but when she started to scan her surroundings, she keep seeing the same iron blade neatly hidden and holstered on other people as well. Some are wearing rags like the first guy, the others are wearing the flashy kind of clothes like a usual mage does. And every single one of them are staring at each other, hand on the blade and ready.

"Isn't that unfair?" Ashlin's motivation starts waver, it seems like the princess has not noticed what she has been seeing. "Teleporters would finish this in a breeze. How-!" "Ashlin," Gallian's stops the ranting princess, "They’re not telling something to us."

She points at one of the people holstering the sheathed sword. "Silencers." This isn't the first time for Gallian to encounter and fight a Silencer. She has had her fair share of them as they chase her up and down the streets of Dangal when she was a kid. But the only difference is in her hometown she had a whole breath of space to avoid and out maneuver them. But being trapped here inside this place and is forced to go towards a specific direction-two very dangerous situations to be in as a mage being hunted by a Silencer-spells only disaster for them. "We're surrounded, not just us, but everyone." "Oh no. No no no no!" Gallian quickly looks at Selica as her friend's face twist in horror as she immediately scrambles to find something else in her bag. Is it a book? Selica this is not the time. Gallian wanted to say to her, but her gut instinct is telling her they're both at the same wavelength. "What is it, Selica?" Ashlin, now visibility confused at her friends’ reactions, tries to ask Selica what she has found. "That's not an ordinary rain." Selica immediately grabs a book and opens it at the center, frantically skipping pages upon pages looking for a specific spell. "Gallian is right, this is not just an ordinary deathmatch." She stops on a page, smiles, then closes it. "It's a death trap." She closes both her eyes and the book starts to glow as she start casting a spell.

A young mage stares gleefully as the announcer finally begins the deathmatch. Finally, he thinks, he can prove himself to others using the magic he has learned throughout his journey. "Now then. Good luck everyone! And see you on the other side!" The moment the Threshold lady signs off, lightning crackles on the sky as the rain started to fall. The go signal ushers everyone to immediately fight one another, The male mage immediately tries to cast a lightning spell towards his neighbor. In his eyes, a quick and fast spell is enough for him to get the upper hand.

But when he tries to focus the mana on his hands, nothing came out. There were a few jolts here and there, but it seems like his body can't seem to focus the mana properly and direct it out of his body, as if the mana within the spell is being washed away by the rain. He looks down and sees his whole body soaking wet, normally weather like this would not have affected a mage and their magic, but something about this rain is different. The rain covers their bodies, their equipment, everything. neutralizing any form of magic he tries to cast.

Suddenly a sharp pain pierced him from behind, he looks back and sees a mage, or a man dressed like one, holding a sword straight to his chest. He clutches his hand trying desperately to cast a spell to push off the enemy back, but nothing comes out. The rain is stopping their magic, and as he turns around, he sees his fellow mages being massacred one-by-one helplessly without their magic by the same kind of man swinging and cutting them down with their iron swords.

"Please, no." He tries to reach out and claws at his murderer's face, but he pushes him down to the ground showing the bloodied sword full of his blood. How could it have it ended like this? The man's dying thought rack its head for an explanation. I was the greatest mage in my city. How? How can I die here powerless and pathetic with nothing to show for?