The rest of the wait was filled with meaningless talk. The only topics were about Julius or Luciana both of whom made a spectacular entrance with a bit of drama afterward. I went about greeting noble children of higher standing, introducing myself and generally making connections that could come in handy in the future. Lucannon was busy introducing himself to all the young ladies while Julius was being created by the other noble houses.

A good bit of fun and jokes were thrown around, the mood was very light. Everyone was taking but I could feel the underlying tension that spread throughout the crowd. Not everyone was going to make it into the academy, not everyone would make it into the class they wanted. For now, these light pleasantries only barely held back the horrible viciousness from bubbling out. Everyone here was an enemy, on the battlefield you shouldn’t expect mercy.

So when the gates started to rumble and pull open, the chatter died down and all eyes faced forward. For most of the people here, its do or die. Their future’s depend on getting into the academy, and from what I hear, getting into the upper classes. I had seen a lot of weaker students appear, commoners were also more plentiful. Higher tier magics are usually married into noble families leaving the commoners usually with less powerful magics to spread.

The gates slowly came to a halt when they reached the white marble walls and standing, perfectly centered and straight was a man. He wore a single spectacle and carried a book under his arm. His clothes looked very mundane, perhaps belonging to a librarian of such. Overall, he looked fit to be a bookkeeper back at home, he was very organized, a trait they seem to share. That’s what the other students assumed at least. A few snickers and crude remarks spread throughout the crowd. The man probably didn’t hear or didn’t care because his face showed no signs of movement.

I could tell though, he was no simple librarian. His magical power was unbelievable. I could see the mana around him, it danced and moved, something I had never seen before. It was then when I noticed his left hand. Covered in a clean, white glove, it was slowly moving back and forth, the mana around him following his finger like a conductor with his orchestra. Glancing over the crowd, I could only see a few students who noticed as much as I did. I could count them on one hand.

Julius and Luciana weren’t just show monkeys. I could see them following the mana in the air. The librarian was watching them very closely as well. Other than them, the only other two that noticed this was the boy who had tons of mana and the manaless girl. Both of which I couldn’t get the chance to introduce myself to.

I pretended that I couldn’t see the mana, I could see the librarian studying the crowd, looking for people. I could only assume he was testing the student’s abilities. His eyes focus on all four of those who were able to see his wonderous display, myself excluded. After maybe five minutes of standing in silence, his hands dropped and the mana stopped as well, returning to its liquid-like state, floating in the air.

Librarian: “As you all know, you select few hundred or so have been invited to… participate in the academy’s exam. Whether your invitation came from one of our staff or through your own power, congratulations, this will probably be the farthest you’ll get.”

He turned around, arms extended to both sides of his body as if he was presenting the academy to us. His words spread a chill over the crowd, each student rhythmically shuddering, one after the other.

Librarian: “Once you walk through these gates, you will be teleported to a random location in the arena. Once the portal opens, the exam will being. You’ll have two minutes to defeat as many other students as you can. After that’s done, the second trial will begin. I hope you remember the rules because I’m not going to say anything further than this.”

He turned around once more, a glint in his eye and a twisted smirk on his face made him look truly villainous. The long introduction was made to scare the meek off and inspire the brave. I could only find it bothersome and long. I maintained that serious expression I was supposed to have though.

Librarian: “Oh and one more thing. If you decide to cheat, you will be publicly humiliated in front of your family and millions of other noble families, including the king. We will know if you decide to gain an unfair advantage over your peers using some underhanded means. Trust me, I’m waiting for someone to screw up like this. It’s me who gets to dish out the punishment after all.”

His smile grew wider and a few of the students froze completely. Seems like his intimidation technique wasn’t that bad. Nothing compared to actually killing a comrade though. I find that works much better.

Librarian: “You may begin entering the gate in three… two…. One… now!”

The gate suddenly started to shift and a large portal opened up. Plenty of students rushed into the portal, their eyes frantic. There was no pushing though, it was unusually organized. The influence of the librarian perhaps. Only a few students stayed behind though, the same group as before.

The most powerful students didn’t bother rushing in, they must have had the same plan as me. Wait until the second part of the exam. There was no point in rushing in head first, unless you were Lucannon who had a clear advantage in doing as such.

No, if you waited until the second part, then all the students left will be worth 50 points, the easiest way to scoring points just opened up. As well as the fact that you won’t have to spend energy fighting in the first round, saving your strength to eliminate as many students in the second round. Although, my plan just goes a tiny bit further.

I plan to steal as many points as I can. Delivering the final blows on enemies, running around and avoiding as much attention as possible. That way, scoring 600 points should be easy. It should be easy…

The librarian’s eyes shifted back and forth between the students who remained. While Julius seemed to want to stay longer, I decided it was best to head out, don’t need to grab anymore attention from the librarian. But before I left, I created a celestial eye, deep inside the woods, far away from Luciana’s eyes.

Then, I took a step inside. I was immediately hit with a huge amount of force as the gate transferred my body to some, unknown location. When I opened my eyes, I saw bolts of lightning, blasts of fire and all sorts of iconic elemental attacks flying all around me. I quickly made myself invisible and placed a shield on myself.

I backed away from the fighting and released my invisibility when I felt no other presences near me. I took a moment to fully gather my surroundings. It seems like I’m inside a forest right now however, there were traces of other elements all around, it seemed to be made to be an equal playing field for all the students.

The sounds of battle continued without stop, stray spells flying towards my direction were all stopped by my shield. So far, I haven’t gained the attention of anyone yet. I took this time to study the other students, watching them intently.

I saw the large student again. When I took a closer look at him, I saw unnatural hair growth, all of it tipped with frost. He walked around the battlefield, smacking students away, often leaving them unconscious or paralyzed. He had far gone above the amount of points needed to gain entry, but he had no signs of stopping.

While I watched him with my body, I continued watching the group that remained in front of the gate with my eye. It was slightly difficult trying to see through all the trees, but I had found a good enough location for me to watch.

Most of the students had left and only three remained. Julius, Luciana and the boy with the large amount of mana. The librarian also stood watching, his eyes unmoving from their location. There seemed to be a conversation running between the four. I couldn’t hear it though, I don’t have any celestial ears.

I saw the librarian nod and magical energy start to flow around the three, the mana started to swirl around them in chaotic and odd shapes. This was often a sign of offensive magic which baffled me. They were fighting without going in the arena?

Suddenly, the gate flew forward, gobbling all three of them leaving just the librarian with his beautiful displays of mana control. He closed his gloved hand and the portal closed. He took one last look around, before he glared at my celestial eye, before returning to the gate.

I couldn’t tell if he was an actual celestial being or if he just felt the presence of someone looking at him or not. Either way, I knew I didn’t want to fight this man without the aid of my summons.

Moments after the gate had swallowed the trio, a large burst echoed outward before I started to feel that swirling vortex motion teleportation produced again. Counting the time that had passed, it did seem that 2 minutes had gone by. It seems the students would be fighting in a new arena.

With that, all of the students were teleported into a new area. This time, it seemed to be a colosseum with the spectators being the noble families of the country.

Battle started before we were even teleported with Julius, Luciana and the boy with lots of mana fighting already, I saw Lucannon here as well though he looked quite beat up.

I could sigh as thousands of spells started to fly around the arena. It’s time to begin my plan.

---

Around one-hundred students total had made it into the arena. That was 5000 points in total and only 12 S class positions available for people who had Aenios’s idea.

The battle was intense, 100 of the most powerful students in a tiny space like this started to fire without thinking, the first few moments of the battle were filled with huge explosions, loud noises and the cries of defeated students.

The few seconds afterwards were filled with silence as only fourteen students remained after the initial wave of attacks. Most of the other students lay groaning on the floor. A boy with sharp features and flashy clothes made the first move.

Lucannon blasted his way through five more weakened students, gaining a total of 250 points. A single scorched line appeared from where he was, running through the poor students. A large *ding* could be heard from above, labelling the remaining students left and their points. It seemed to be a magical projection on a flat surface far above the arena, several mages in hoods surrounding it. It showed the faces, names and points of the surviving students.

The four at the top of the list were, in order, Julius with nine-hundred points, Luciana with eight-hundred fifty points, Magna with eight hundred points and Lucannon with seven-hundred forty points. All of the students took time to observe the list before all eyes lay on the top four, who were the only ones who qualified for S class, all the other students had around four-hundred to five-hundred points.

No one moved for quite some time before one student dressed in reds rushed up to Lucannon, a flaming sword in his hands. His eyes started to glow a bright yellow and his body started to flame just like his body. His body burned with bright flames and an inferno started to form around him.

He had taken two steps before a massive thunderbolt emerging from Lucannon’s extended arm smashed into him, leaving a cloud of dust as his body was flung across the arena. Flashes of light briefly appeared in the dust cloud before the unconscious body of the flaming student was left.

The crowd, as usual, was quiet. In the upper-class society, no aberrant behavior was allowed. This did not stop the nobles from silently cheering for their children. The stadium was filled with eager anticipation, even if their child had already lost, everyone was waiting to see who would win the battle. The simple nobles watched for enjoyment, the smartest of the upper-class used this as a way to identify potential allies… or dangerous enemies.

Thirteen students remained and another stand-still emerged. A single thought stayed in their minds. Whoever moved first would get knocked out. In the middle of the arena stood the top four, Luciana, Julius, Lucannon and Magna and surrounding them were the other students, creating a large circle of eight students.

Minutes passed of this seemingly endless staring contest until a couple of nods from the outer circle alerted the attention of the middle four, who not only had to worry about the outer students, but about the students in their circle as well, there were no allies after all.

The outer students started to shift before they simultaneously leaped into action, two of each striking one of the inner four. The battle had lasted maybe only one-minute, large clouds of dust appeared as magic flew and students knocked unconscious.

At the start of the battle, the outer students seemed like they were going to win. Even if they weren’t as strong as the middle four, they were still some of the most powerful mages and their power together could definitely overpower the middle four. Hope had blossomed in the hearts of those students, before one of the students, who was fighting Luciana, suddenly blasted away his partner. Knocking her unconscious.

The traitorous student in question, had a tall but lithe figure, dark circles underneath his eyes and a large black cloak covering his entire body. A cruel smile had appeared on his face as the look of despair appeared on her partner’s face.

Another update appeared on the projection above. At six-hundred and ten points appeared the cruel face the hooded student, his position in S-class was secured. The name beside it, Anatos had drawn the attention of the crowd and the outer students in the arena.

This was where the battle started to turn. The four in the middle used this opportunity to instantly wipe out one of the students. Lucannon summoned a huge lightning bolt similar to the previous one except it had a blue colour. Julius drew his sword, and with a single slash, blasted other students backwards.

Luciana pointed her spear forward, and a beam of brilliant golden light bathed over Anatos, who fell to his knees after the ray ended, lastly, Magna, the boy with immense mana pools, started to gather more energy around him before a large rumbling filled the arena as numerous trees started to sprout from the ground, knocking up both of the students he was fighting and disrupting all of the fighting in the arena.

The battle between the inner and outer students ended quickly afterwards. Each of the inner students, systematically defeating the other students using quick, successive attacks that didn’t let any form of weakness show. Luciana, who had already defeated her enemies, only watched the others fight. Whether she was upholding the warriors code, or restoring her energy, it didn’t matter.

In the end, four students remained, barely visible in the between the leaves of the trees. Lucannon chuckled. Out of the four, he was the most beaten up, his clothes tattered and his movements slow and heavy.

Lucannon: “Well, it looks like my chances of winning are gone and I don’t really feel like getting beat up so… I forfeit.” As Lucannon said that, his form started to shimmer before he completely disappeared from the arena. His portrait on the projection turned grey, indicating his defeat.

All that was left now were the top three students. The positions were the same, they defeated the same number of students after all. There was no standstill this time. Only a few words of recognition shared before they jumped into battle, taking advantage of each other’s weakened states.

From a bystander’s standpoint, it seemed like anyone’s win, but for someone who was watching, the outcome seemed to be clear. The three combatants had shown most of their strength, and even if they had something under their sleeve, it shouldn’t have as much impact this late into the battle.

Going over all three, Luciana was sure to be the winner. In terms of fire power and defence, Julius comes out on top. However, Luciana has the element of light whereas Julius’s element is metal. While this doesn’t seem like much, it matters a lot when considering the environment these three are fighting in.

Mana is generally neutral but is greatly affected by the things around it. Oceans have a lot of mana with an affinity for water, making water elementals stronger, their spells more powerful and the amount of energy consumed is reduced. Every element has an opposing element, fire for ice, earth with air, light with darkness. Metal’s opposite is Nature.

Mana with an opposite affinity is much harder to use and only brings negative effects. If the affinity is strong enough, the mana could even start to drain away at opposing elements because mana is like anything else in the universe. Water, protons, electrons, molecules, mana seeks balance, using the opposing affinities to neutralize it.

So, when Magna created that forest, Julius was suddenly left at a disadvantage, not only because Magna is stronger in the forest, but because Julius became weaker as well. By this way of thinking, and assuming that they attack each other without making alliances, Julius should be the first to fall.

Normally this means that Magna should be the winner, but those watching the fight from the beginning know better. This comes from the fact that Luciana comes second in terms of strength and defence, but also carries many supportive abilities and can draw on mana with an affinity for light, simply by flying above the trees.

This versatility is very common among light elementals, often leaving them to be all-rounded and in a situation like this, with varying power levels, those with the most options come out on top. Based on the fights that have been occurring, Magna has a lower power level than both of them, him being the lowest out of the three and taking the longest time to defeat the outer students.

Even if he is more powerful in the forest, Luciana, from what was observed, could easily duel Magna, and after his defeat, Luciana would become the winner. Most of the crowd was sure that the battle would fair that way.

However, they lacked an ability that the highest tier of nobles, and the four students in the arena had. The ability to sense mana. As soon as the courtesies were exchanged, both Julius and Luciana attacked Magna at once. Julius ran towards him, cutting down trees as he passed them while Luciana blasted him from afar.

The blinding ray of light and the forward slashes from Julius left most of the arena covered in dust. Large gasps emerged from the crowd as the sudden alliance had formed between the two. All of the crowd was sitting on the edge of their seats, still maintaining their regal appearances however.

When the dust cleared, the forest was completely gone, and all three figures remained standing. That came as a shock to most of the crowd. They figured that Magna would have no chance from the incoming onslaught, but that wasn’t the half of it.

Along with Magna standing upright, he seemed unharmed, not a scratch anywhere on his body. The biggest shock came when the crowd looked at Julius and Luciana. Luciana had various dents and scratches on her armor, a few vines hanging off.

Julius however was in the most dismal state. His armor had been almost crushed, the heavy iron plating had been ripped apart, underneath lay a torn chainmail and a bleeding wound situated around his chest. He was on one knee, his sword plunged in the ground. His form moved up and down as he breathed heavily before finally collapsing.

His body shimmered just like Lucannon’s before disappearing as well.

Magna and Luciana. The two students looked each other in the eyes. Magna was smiling, it was full of confidence. Luciana however had a stoic, serious face, one that had not changed since her arrival to the academy gates.

The crowd had no time to process what had happened before Luciana rushed up to Magna, her golden wings completely stretched out behind her. Her golden spear extended out before her, she flew at incredible speeds towards Magna, who couldn’t even dodge.

A few trees sprouted up, in a feeble attempt to block the attack. Luciana only slashed upwards and Magna was sent flying, the trees having absorbed most of the impact were nothing more than shreds of plant fibre now.

Unrelenting, Luciana pointed her spear at Magna once again, the brilliant golden light emerged, and his form seemed like a black outline in all of the light pouring outward. She continued the beam of light while walking closer, various small plants and flowers bloomed to try and slow her approach, but she crushed them all underfoot.

Finally, she reached melee range with Magna, and looked upwards to the mages surrounding the magical projection. When they nodded, Luciana plunged her spear deep into Magna’s shoulder, a large brilliant light expanded outward, blinding everyone around momentarily before vision returned.

Magna, even after all that, had still clutched onto the spear. That confident smile returned to his face and before Luciana could react, Magna suddenly leapt up with the point of the spear still embedded in his shoulder and plucking a flower seemingly harmless.

With a single action, he presented the flower to Luciana, taking a gentleman’s stance. A strange orange gas emerged, and Luciana fell down. Her portrait turning grey on the projection. Her form, like all the others, vanished from the stage.

Magna, beaten and tired as he was, dragged himself to the middle of the arena and with his good arm, brought a fist towards the sky. The crowd cheered and Magna himself let a gentle smile of relief fill his face. For that one moment, he had let down his guard, for he had finally won. At least, that’s what he thought.

It was at that moment when a single chain, constructed out of brilliant light had whacked him in the side of the head. He slumped down to the ground and his portrait turned grey, indicating his defeat. Now, the one left standing was a boy dressed in golds and silvers.

Looking up at the projection screen, his face was displayed in first. Aenios Lumos, 10600 points. There were no words, no cheers, just absolute silence.

---

I had been running around the arena, trying to knock out people in the second round, but every time I did as much, someone else would secure the knock out. I was so incredibly annoyed I almost let my mana signature go.

I would dash into invisibility and out whenever I felt as if someone was close to finding me. I used the ability sparsely because it was another ability I wanted to keep secret, knowledge is power and the less my enemies know about me, the better.

I spent so much time trying to conceal myself that most of the students had been defeated, leaving only the strongest. I sighed in exasperation. It was going to be incredibly difficult to defeat eight students now. Especially since there were only thirteen students left, myself excluded.

Then, that one guy, the flaming one ran straight into Lucannon, probably the most stupid decision he could take. Lucannon has the strongest single target attack I’ve seen so far. Lucannon sent out his blast and the boy flew backwards. Perfect. Before he lost consciousness, I smacked him with my chains, using the cover of the dust to hide my presence. I had no time for extravagant attacks, I needed efficiency, and however crude “smacking” sounds, it was the most efficient way to attack.

It seems I’d been forgotten, despite my portrait being on the large magic screen that floated above the arena, everyone was only looking at the top four, them being the only ones in S class. I was at the bottom, with only 250 points.

That worked to my advantage though because I was still unnoticed by both the crowd and the combatants. Only the hooded figures around the projection seemed to realize that there was a student missing.

Then, the second battle began between the remaining twelve students, myself excluded of course. Luciana had unfortunately defeated both Anatos and Aqua, the girl she was fighting. Thankfully, I had managed to defeat the other six students, using the chaos and the forest as cover.

Now, only five remained. I was sure some people in the crowd had noticed there was a student missing but no one in the arena noticed. Lucannon gave that quick speech before he disappeared, leaving those three.

The battle they fought was intense. I have to admit, if one of them fought me, I would have a tough time fighting them. I mean, without my summons. I haven’t seen anyone capable of defeating even one of my angels. Especially Judgement, despite her behavior, she’s extremely powerful.

The battle ended very quickly, with people’s expectations being thrown out of the window. I knew that it would end like this but that’s only because I could naturally see how much mana the boy had. I think his name was Magna, I don’t really care but it might be good to remember it.

Finally, there was only him left. Me too, but that didn’t matter yet. He dragged himself to the middle of the arena and left his guard down. Suddenly, I realised I had two options. I could forfeit and allow him to have his glory or I could knock him out with a cheap-shot. I had to weigh the options in that short amount of time.

If I forfeited, I would be playing towards my persona more, upholding my extremely nice demeanor and maintaining the ability to blend myself in with the masses of weaker students, however, it’s benefits ended there.

Knocking him out brought me into the S class, allowed me access to the mountains which might be useful for plans involving the academy and allowed me to keep my pride.

I knocked him out. There was no decision needed. My portrait rose to the top and my points had updated. 50 more points for knocking him out and 10 000 points for being the last student standing.

The cheers that had come from the ignorant in the crowd had completely gone. Leaving only the silent nods of those who had noticed me in the leader boards. They had expected this outcome simply because they realized something wasn’t right.

The silence that had persisted for so long was replaced by rumors as my form started to shimmer and my perception of the world starting to twist.

Suddenly, I was in a different room. It was very quaint and tidy. Bookshelves lined the walls, books lining their shelves. A single glass window filled one wall, allowing a gentle light to flow in. The floor was wooden with a large rectangular carpet spread across the floor.

A single wooden table was placed near the back of the room, three chairs surrounding it. One tucked in and two in front. Sitting in the singular chair was a woman, wearing bizarre clothes that were straight and grey in manor, almost like a butler’s. Small, square glasses were placed on her nose and ears, her attire in its whole was almost satirical. I could tell that she wasn’t wearing those clothes as a joke though, so I made no comment about them.

She beckoned me closer and mentioned for me to take a seat. I did so. I had no reason not to. I could barely sense any mana anywhere hear, most of it coming from the room. She herself had almost no mana and I could sense no physical traps nearby. I also knew that she could not detect my mana signature and that she had no idea who I really was by her commanding, superior position.

Square Lady: “Hello…” She quickly looked down at some papers spread neatly over her desk. “Hello Aenios. It seems that you complet… survived the entrance exam. I won’t bother to introduce myself because I have no need to, for you, I’m the vice principal, Ms. Bofard. You’re here because you won and because of that, I have to congratulate you, however, I don’t feel like I should, so you are dismissed. The written exam is tomorrow, here’s your map for the school, follow it to your dorm room and goodbye.”

She quickly handed me a frail looking piece of parchment before a magical force opened the door and pushed me out.

Well. It seems I have made someone angry. I’ll be sure to brutally kill her if I ever find her alone in a place where no one can find her body. Until then, I guess I have to bear with the enmity. Other than that, I found her oddly interesting, especially her ability to spew out so many words in such a small amount of time.

I look down at the piece of paper, various arrows and symbols appeared and disappeared. Large swathes of mana flew in and out of the flimsy slip. I only sighed as I started walking forward. Maybe I should have forfeited after all. I had the feeling I hadn’t seen the repercussions the school had to offer just yet. Until then, I’ll continue to justify my reasoning, even if it caused some major damage to my plans.