Amongst a crowd of cheering people was a petite girl, standing upon a platform with her arms raised like she was some sort of messiah. All these men, women, and children were now whole, complete, despite being a shadow of their former selves just moments ago.

Those who were once blind could see again. Those who were once deaf could hear again. Terminal illnesses vanished like they had never existed when standing in the presence of their one, true savior.

Yet, not everyone could be saved. A kneeling woman shed tears of sorrow as she begged, over and over again with her hands clasped together. Desperation colored her face as she tried to grasp the sparks of hope that had lit up in the hearts of so many people here today.

But to no avail.

The little girl in the white hood sighed. There was nothing she could do.

Her powers could bring someone from the brink of death back to their healthiest condition, but that was it. She could not bring the dead back to life, nor could she restore what was never there in the first place.

You see, the kneeling woman had a skin condition, which caused her to itch so bad only the pain of tearing her skin off could help her relieve it. She was born with it, and thus, this was as healthy as she could ever be. Of course, there were other ways to clear her of this condition, but treatment isn’t cheap. The woman was going to have to continue suffering.

“I’m sorry… I wish there was more I could do to help.” The hooded girl hung her head in shame.

“I-it’s fine! I-I wasn’t expecting much anyway…” The woman stood up with difficulty as she wiped her tears away. “I’ll just go now…”

As she stumbled off the platform, the hooded girl began to lament as she stared at the retreating figure of the woman. Just why did her ability come with so many drawbacks?

Unbeknownst to everyone here except the other priests, beneath her feet held hundreds of corpses hidden under the hollow platform. Tied-up beasts and monsters who had been drugged asleep, only for them to suffer agonizingly as illnesses and injuries began to manifest on their bodies without warning.

Thanks to a magical barrier, their screams could not be heard, and the people benefiting from this were none the wiser. Sure, it was inhumane, but if hundreds of people’s lives were saved in the process, who would be willing to put a stop to it?

Cathy had long accepted this result. This was something she had done almost ever since her abilities manifested. No point in questioning it now.

She just hoped that with so many sacrifices… can’t her abilities just do a little bit more?

“Lady Black, the sun has set,” a fellow priestess behind her whispered, “It’s time to leave.”

Cathy gave a soft smile and nodded. Together with her entourage of priests, she stepped off the platform to cheers of oblivious people in the background.

Over the next thirty minutes, the crowd slowly dispersed and went on with their night. A couple of them tried staying back to thank Cathy personally, but her personal guards of sorts managed to push them back . It wasn’t until another thirty minutes later did the last one leave.

“Haa… If only they knew…”

The purpose of this grand ceremony had some ulterior motives, perhaps even more than what Cathy was privy to. Some of them she put together, and some that she was straight up told.

One of the reasons was to gather support for the church, especially now since many tourists all over the world were visiting. Cathy didn’t think this was bad or anything. It was only natural for organizations to want the support of more people.

The other reasons had more to do with the Solus Academy entrance exams. The church of Myona, the Goddess of Truth, desperately wants Cathy to be one of the academy’s students. This way, she could spread the teachings of her Goddess to the talented youths from all over the world, and if they were lucky, someone very powerful could join them, like that talented boy that could use all elements that she had been hearing so much about. Improving her reputation here meant more opportunities for her down the road.

The other reason had to do with inner church politics. The branch here at Solus Academy wasn’t a great force due to the policies here. To make the most of her time here, they were going to use Cathy as much as possible until she inevitably leaves for the main temple. If a particular branch rose in fame, the archbishop in charge of it will rise in power as well, and that came with many benefits.

And so, the church had every reason to make Cathy pass the entrance exams. The longer she stayed, the more beneficial it is for them. Thanks to that, she was given a plethora of magical artifacts for her to pick and choose from, but in exchange, she had a tight schedule that had her using her powers constantly.

She wouldn’t be able to do it as often anymore once she got into the academy after all…

As these thoughts ran through her head, she soon spotted a familiar person chugging some unknown liquid a few blocks away.

“Ah…! It’s Kayden…!”

Cathy had seen him an hour or two ago, but he didn’t seem to have noticed her. It hurt her self-esteem a bit to see him leave without so much as a greeting, but she figured that he simply didn’t recognize her under the hood.

She raised her arm and tried calling out to him.

“Kay—!”

But the rogue vanished into thin air before she could finish.

“—den…”

***

It was a brand new day at six in the morning. Kayden had just awoken thanks to his trusty alarm clock named ‘Hel’ because for some reason, the academy didn’t want him to sleep much. Now he had to travel super far and climb the world’s longest staircase.

But it wasn’t all bad. The archbishop wasn’t lying when she said that he would recover in one night. Already, he could the flow of mana in his body restored to its best condition. In fact, he even felt like it was both smoother and faster than before.

“Haha… my mana’s back to full… Welcome back, old self.”

“[Good for you. You can finally start practicing your spells again.]”

“Yeah yeah, I know…”

Kayden quickly got up and got dressed in the one outfit he had, and proceeded to make his way to Solus Academy. He didn’t see Tami on the way out, but that was to be expected. Apparently, there was going to be a public showing of the exams taking place, and people were free to come watch.

To be watched by hundreds, if not thousands of people is an extremely gut-wrenching experience. Perhaps he should have gotten better clothes? Oh wait, he could freely use his illusion spells again.

The road to the spiral tower wasn’t as crowded as he was expecting, and it was all thanks to it being early in the morning right now. People were just starting to rise, and the majority of the people on the road were workers.

Kayden arrived at the tower thirty minutes early because of that.

“More time to climb the tower, I guess.”

The place where he was supposed to arrive in was located on the tenth floor. That means nine flights of stairs that he would have to traverse, something he was very much not looking forward to doing.

Alas, he had to. In the end, he barely reached the third flight of stairs before his legs already starting to tremble. Any more and he would collapse from knee pain. Seeing the endless rows of steps that lay before him, Kayden decided to take a break.

“Haha! Loser!”

A sudden gust of wind blew by as a boy sitting on a flying carpet came into view. Just as quickly as he appeared, the boy then zoomed past him and up the flight of steps, laughing all the while at Kayden’s expense.

Now, only the echoes of his laughter remained ringing in Kayden’s ears.

“Well, that was rude.”

“[You could probably just fly too, you know? Must be easier than… whatever this is.]”

Kayden sighed.

“Yeah, I thought that this could be a test of endurance of some sort, but I just can’t give a damn anymore. I’m flying.”

Standing in the middle of the flight of steps, Kayden suddenly shrunk into some grey bird and gave a mighty chirp, right before taking off with a flap of his wings. The rest of the journey was comparatively far easier, and by the end, Kayden was actually less tired than before.

He arrived at a set of two open doors, rapidly transforming back into a human as he landed on his feet. Looking around, he discovered that he was definitely not one of the first to arrive. Plenty of applicants arrived here before him, including that boy on a magical flying carpet. At a glance, he counted about fifty.

A middle-aged man dressed in plain-green robes, who was presumably a teacher of sorts, approached him with arms wide open.

“Welcome!” he said with enthusiasm, “Please stand with the others. I’ll start the briefing once everyone arrives.”

Kayden nodded, and silently went to stand in a corner as the man found other applicants by the door to usher in. He soon found himself right between the carpet boy, and a rather short, but muscular girl with orange hair… A dwarf.

“Sup, old man!” greeted the dwarf.

“Loooser…” whispered the boy.

Kayden decided that he wasn’t going to speak to these two.

However, that dwarf certainly brought a problem to his attention. Did he actually look old? He knew he was tall, but this wasn’t the first time he was mistaken to be much older than he actually was. Kayden hoped this trend wasn’t going to continue, but already he could see that plenty of other were giving him weird looks.

And to that, he uncomfortably stared back.

‘Mind your own business, damn it.’

It wasn’t long before the final applicant arrived and got the ball rolling. The middle-aged man welcomed him before standing before the crowd of applicants, and quickly starting his speech.

“Cough… Okay, we’re going to need to do this quick, so let me be extremely brief. All of you will be given one minute to showcase your abilities to me and two other judges, and we’ll decide whether or not you get to continue. Now, let me say this before anything else…” He paused, and took the time to make eye contact with every single applicant here.

“Do your hardest. Yes, the purpose of this exam is to weed out the weak. While all of you here are dual-types, this does not make you special. There are hundreds of you and dozens of triple-types, yet only one hundred students are chosen every year. That doesn’t even factor in the rare talents among the thousands of single-types.”

The man then smiled.

“I’ve held this particular exam for over a decade now, and if the trends tell me anything, it is that among the fifty of you…” he paused for dramatic effect, “Only about ten of you may pass.”

The applicants froze for a second, and for a moment, the room was dead silent. However, very quickly, many of them burst out laughing.

No more than ten? That meant about a twenty percent chance of entering! Surely with how powerful they are, they would make it within the top ten no problem! Their abilities were unmatched, after all.

But that was the problem. Every single one of them thought that. Only a few remained silent, knowing the unspoken implications in their heart.

Kayden was one of them. More than forty were going to fail, and that meant being average wouldn’t cut it. Heck, being above-average wouldn’t cut it either. Only the best of the best stood a chance, and this was only the preliminary exam! Even though he also felt he stood a good chance, he wasn’t about to become cocky. The last time he did that, things didn’t turn out very well. The only thing he should do right now was focus.

In this exam room, only the truly strong can remain.