Akari woke sometime later—she couldn’t say how long. Her body was curled up in a ball with her cheek pressed against a rough carpeted floor. Gusts of cool wind ruffled her hair, carrying the scents of smoke and destruction.

She steadied her breathing, using the pattern she’d learned from Master Nightfang in Survival Tactics class. She needed every possible advantage against her attacker.

Not just any attacker … Sozen Trengsen. He’d hit her with a stunning Missile—some sort of force mana that shut down her body. That was technically the safest way to knock someone unconscious. Especially an Artegium combat student with no existing medical conditions.

But why? What did he want with her?

Akari activated her Silver Sight, but saw no clear mana source nearby. She strained her ears for more clues, but the only sound was a pair of heavy doors blowing on their hinges.

Finally, she pried open her eyes and took in more of her surroundings. It looked like the back of a conversion van, and the doors hung wide open to reveal an empty city street. Akari drew in a deep breath and pivoted her head to look at the van’s front seats.

Empty.

She shifted her hands next, expecting to find them cuffed or bound. But they moved freely as she shifted her body into a sitting position. Even her mana flowed just fine, with no signs of tampering.

What the hell? Why would he kidnap her just to leave her alone, at her full power? She’d seen his face, for Talek’s sake. He couldn’t get away with this.

Akari felt her pockets next, but her cell phone was gone, along with her watch, and her winter coat. Her clothes were different, too. Last night, she’d been wearing a knee-length skirt, dark leggings, a hoodie, and combat boots.

She wore the same boots and hoodie now. But instead of her skirt and leggings, she wore a pair of dark jeans—the same pair she’d bought with Relia at Faeland Mall. She also seemed to be wearing a combat bra instead of her normal one. Like the jeans, this had come from her closet at the Darklight’s Estate.

Shit. This was getting even creepier.

However, she had a distinct memory of changing her own clothes in a private room. In fact, that was her only real memory after the attack. Almost as if Sozen wanted to make her as comfortable as possible.

Naturally, that only made things worse. Being kidnapped was one thing, but now he was messing with her memories? And if he’d tampered with her memories, then …

Akari’s blood turned to ice, and she scrambled to look out the front of the van.

Talek. What if he’d sent her back to Arkala?

No … a quick glance outside revealed the truth. This was still Koreldon City. In fact, this looked like Green Street—home to a loose collection of restaurants and shops, less than two blocks from campus.

But something was wrong.

Several inches of snow had covered the ground before, and Midwinter lights had decorated the storefronts. Now, there wasn’t a snowflake or decoration in sight. What’s more, the larger moon hung full in the sky. Hadn’t that one been waning before? Did that mean several weeks had passed?

Many of the shop’s front windows had been smashed in with their displays picked clean. A Jumpstart Cafe had a broken neon sign with the last two letters burned out. Blue graffiti covered the front of a manatronics store, and an abandoned car stuck out from an alleyway with smoke rising from its engine.

Akari’s heart pounded faster as she struggled to make sense of all this. She didn’t feel hungry or thirsty. She also didn’t feel any pressure on her bladder. And when she rolled up the leg of her jeans, she found her legs smooth from when she’d shaved them the night before her attack. That all seemed to suggest she hadn’t been unconscious for long.

Unless someone had screwed with her memories.

Don’t just sit here, she scolded herself. Do something. Sozen Trengsen was long gone, but the entire street felt like a war zone. Getting to safety was a bigger priority than unraveling the story behind that.

She made a quick search of the van, but there wasn’t much there. Just a few maintenance records and registration papers in the glove box. However, she did find a few esper coins on the floor which she pocketed, along with a small flashlight and screwdriver.

With that done, Akari crawled out the back door and into the dark street. She crept in the shadows for several paces, staying out of the light and putting some distance between herself and the abandoned van. As she walked, she spotted several giant holes in the upper levels of the buildings.

Talek. This really was a war zone. Only Masters could do that kind of damage.

Her instincts screamed at her to move as a burst of fire closed in Akari slid right, taking cover in a nearby alley. The fire Missile tore passed her face, close enough to feel the heat of it on her cheeks. It struck the wall behind her in an explosion of broken stone.

Akari took several deep breaths, cycling her mana and examining the small crater. Her attacker was probably an Apprentice, judging by its depth. She emerged from her cover a second later, raising a Construct of pure mana in front of her body.

Three weeks ago, Akari would have been helpless in a long-range fight with no equipment. Now, facing a strange Apprentice felt as natural as lacing up her boots.

Her shield absorbed two more blasts, and she cycled more mana to keep it active. Then she glimpsed the man in another alley across the street. He wore a simple pair of jeans and a dark hoodie.

Just a civilian, then. So why would he attack her?

Akari took a few steps into the street and threw a pure Missile around her own shield. She’d expected her opponent to raise his own defenses or launch more Missiles. Instead, he retreated farther down the alley from where he’d come.

Yeah … he probably had a whole group of friends waiting to ambush her back there.

Akari waited a few more heartbeats to make sure he was gone, then she headed the opposite way, cutting through the alley toward Market Street. From there, she had a clear run to the Artegium Ring.

Akari had barely taken two steps into the alley before she came face-to-face with another figure. She Cloaked her muscles and prepared another Missile, but the man held up his hands.

“Hey!” he said. “It’s just me.”

Akari shuffled back, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness of the alley. “Nico?”

“Yeah,” he replied with a nod. Like her, Nico wore some of the same clothes he’d worn in the cafe, including a gray sweater and a black knitted hat.

“It’s okay,” Nico shouted over his shoulder. “It’s Akari.”

“What?” Nimble’s voice hollered back as he appeared in the alley’s opposite end. “She’s here, too?”

“What the hell’s going on?” Akari asked them.

Nico shook his head in defeat. “I was about to ask you that. Some guy attacked us when we left the cafe.”

“Shokenese?” Akari asked. “Short black beard?”

“Yeah,” Nico said. “He got you too?”

She nodded. “But what happened to ... everything?” She gestured around at their surroundings. Splashes of blue and orange graffiti covered the alley’s brick walls and piles of garbage filled every corner.

Nimble stepped closer as they talked, and Sadie and Jax followed close behind.

“We just woke up,” Nico said. “Three minutes ago. We came this way when we heard the fighting.”

Three minutes. It had been the same for her; that couldn’t be a coincidence.

Nimble and Jax took up defensive positions as they talked, but Sadie stepped toward Akari.

“You know the guy who attacked us?” she asked.

Akari glared at the other girl’s accusatory tone. “Why ask me?”

“You’re the one with the shady past.”

Well, Sadie had her there. They’d all probably gotten roped into this because of her.

“His name’s Sozen,” Akari admitted after a short pause. “He’s my boyfriend’s older brother.” She normally kept personal things to herself in this group, but now wasn’t the time for secrets. Not if this was an actual war zone.

“What’d he want with you?” Nico asked.

“Or us?” Sadie added.

“No clue,” Akari said.

The other girl raised an eyebrow beneath her blue bangs.

“I’m serious,” Akari said. She’d met Sozen a few times now, but they’d hardly talked for more than a few minutes. Sure, he’d seemed distant, but that made sense with everything he’d been through. And even if he wanted to kidnap her for some crazy reason, why take her entire group? That seemed like way more trouble than it was worth.

“We should get to campus,” Nimble suggested. “It’s just a few blocks away, and we might find a teacher who can help us.”

Talek. Now Nimble was the voice of reason.

With no better plan, her group eventually headed back through the alley toward Market Street, which they followed toward the campus proper. Market Street looked just as bad as the street she’d come from, and the campus itself didn’t look much better. The sounds of battle echoed in the distance, but they didn’t run into anyone else on their way.

“This is too weird to be real,” Nico muttered as they walked.

He was right. This was, quite literally, unbelievable. Being kidnapped by Sozen was one thing. Waking up in a war zone was one thing. But what were the odds she’d wake up here with her group from the Artegium?

Besides, no one could have destroyed Koreldon City this much—not even Grandmasters. The Mystics would have stopped them before things got this crazy. And if the Mystics themselves were fighting, then there wouldn’t be a city left.

There was still the issue of memory loss, but her clothes were too clean for any passage of time. They even smelled clean. No way she’d been wearing them for weeks.

Her team stepped toward the Artegium Ring, and Akari’s thoughts raced as she remembered the beginning of the semester. They’d all signed papers in Raizen’s class, acknowledging that the qualifying rounds could start anytime and in any manner. They might even be taken by surprise, depending on this year’s theme.

And Sozen wasn’t just Kalden’s older brother. He was an Artegium staff member—the sort of person they might send to retrieve students for the events.

Talek. That was it, wasn’t it? There was no kidnapping, war zone, or long passage of time. This was all dream mana—one massive arena, even larger than their midterms exam.

The qualifying rounds had started, and this year had an apocalypse theme.