“What do you mean by that, Assistant Professor Gwyn?”

“Exactly what I said. I do not think you are a Candidate, Ari.” I say.

More than anything, I think she would be killing many more people if she were a Candidate. Only Examiners are restricted to Candidates if they want to avoid death.

Ari looks around, and because we’re standing in the middle of the garden, there are some students, servants, and even a few Assistant Professors passing by. So far, no one gives us much attention, but I can see how much it irks her to break her schedule this way and lose control.

Even then, she just smiles with her hands playfully put behind her back. “Let’s talk about this later, okay?”

As she moves to leave, I let my mana seep out until even the people around us begin to notice and start looking our way. That makes her stop.

She’s still smiling as she says it, but her voice is quiet and sharp. “We made a deal.”

“I would’ve probably kept it if you weren’t such a liar. So, Ari, if that is your true name, tell me. Was there ever more than one Examiner?”

Gradually, her expression changes from blank indifference to settle into a smile, and she sighs. “You know it’s pretty rude to meet me so early after the start of a loop without giving me the chance to prepare any countermeasures, especially for situations like this, right?”

"You’ve had a few days. Besides, I’ve been told by some pretty reliable sources that I’m what some people might call an asshole."

“Indeed,” she nods. “So what now?”

“I’m a curious person, so I’m going to let you continue preparing that array you want to kill me with or use to escape. In exchange, keep telling me interesting things about this record. If you lie, I will kill you.”

“So rude. You’d really kill a young girl like me?” She asks, flashing a cutesy smile and adding in a quick, playful bow that somehow still looks elegant.

“I don’t think you’re really that young.”

Her eyebrow rises, and I can almost hear her calculating how far she can push me and stretch this conversation. The entire time, she weaves arrays around her.

When it comes to skill levels, mana, stats, and traits, she has nothing that could compare to me. She doesn’t even have that many items on her, since we haven’t gotten all that far into the loop. I'm sure that if we’d waited just a bit longer, she would’ve acquired some fairly powerful ones. But so what, even if she did? I could still face her.

Instead of using items, Ari uses the little mana she has and years’ worth of knowledge and preparation to create an incredible set of arrays. Even now, I'm getting lost in them. They are stunningly mana-efficient, and I'm sure her skills are leveling up like crazy as she continues to weave them.

“Like you said, I’m an Examiner, the only one. My master sent me here. Just like the Ruler’s Candidates, I’m being tested too.”

“Oh?”

“Oh, yes. My master is the Absolute who worked with the Ruler to create this. Twisted little shit, isn’t he? But can even he compare to the Ruler who threw kids without proper training into a record like this for me to hunt? Wouldn’t you agree it’s a terrible way to find a successor?”

“I agree.”

At this point, some of the students begin to notice something strange, and even two Assistant Professors nearby seem aware of the arrays Ari’s been weaving. Still, they don’t react. To them, it probably looks like I’m testing one of the students.

“Did you find out who the remaining Candidates are? I didn’t lie about the number, but I think a few loops ago, someone killed the eighth. I promise it wasn’t me.”

I nod. “I think the remaining ones decided that they’d had enough and decided to push for an end to this.”

Ari sighs. “And you ruined it. Between me and them, we could’ve had a halfway decent clash of wits, even if I didn’t expect much, given that they spent most of their time hiding.”

“You think so?”

“Isn’t it true?” Two of her arms spread wide, while the other four twitch their fingers in a manner that seems to help her focus on the arrays she’s weaving. “I was the one who hunted them down like mindless animals.”

That wild smile stretches across her face. “Ah, if you knew how much fun I had. One tried to use a ‘bug’ against me, but I turned that same ‘bug’ back on them. Another one found out my identity and tried to connect with another Candidate he’d located. Only later did he find out I had found her first and cooperated with her. We killed him, and then I killed her as well.”

She giggles, and her speech quickens along with the twitching of her fingers. “Then there was that little piece of trash who kept hiding. I knew he was from my class, but I couldn’t tell who it was. And you know, I really didn’t want to die. Can you guess what I did?”

“I don’t. Please tell me.”

“I pretended to break down and started crying in class. I kept mumbling things only the Candidate would understand. I made myself look small and weak. Scared.” She laughs again. “It was a risk, but I’d become quite the risk-taker about a year into the loops. Still, it worked. He found me after class and revealed himself. He pitied me. After a year alone, he was just glad to find someone else like him.”

She steps from side to side, almost dancing as she remembers what happened.

“Back then, I wasn’t as strong as I am now, and he was careful even after revealing himself. But slowly, I made him fall for me. Would you believe that?” She chuckles out loud and covers her mouth with two hands. “THAT DUMBASS FELL FOR ME.”

When she puts her hands down, the smile is gone. “I killed him that same loop.”

“You seem to have had a lot of fun, Ari.”

“A bit,” she nods. “Do you enjoy my information, Assistant Professor Gwyn?”

“Somewhat. Anything else?”

“May I ask who the remaining Candidates are?”

“Oh? You think you might kill me and want to find them after?”

“Yes."

“Wouldn’t killing me kill you, too, as the Examiner? Or is that something you lied about?”

“Please don’t worry. Bugs are excluded from that rule. As long as you’re looping, you’re fair game.”

“That’s good for you,” I say.

“Yes. So, please? Who are your suspects?”

“I wouldn’t call them suspects. I’m sure of who they are. I also wouldn’t say I’m the smartest person, but it’s quite funny that I found them before you did, even though I did my share of messing around. But I guess I did have a lot of help.”

For the first time, the pace of her weaving falters, but she quickly recovers and continues as if nothing happened. But I noticed.

“Do you know Vance?”

Ari blinks. “I was fifty-fifty on him. What gave him away?”

“Well, he wanted to blow up the entire Academy to wipe out all the Candidates and you all at once. It's possible he was trying to set something up that would bring all of you into the Academy in case some of you were scattered around the region, but we forced his hand, and he had to rush.”

“That’s surprising. How was he planning to do that?”

“That’s partly my fault. The guy’s a kleptomaniac and couldn’t help stealing from me. Even so, it’s impressive what he managed. All this while acting like a cliche young boy just spying on the girls, all so he could keep making items to hide himself, sneak around, and track down the other Candidates.”

“I would have dealt with him.”

“I agree with you on that. And by the way, this is an impressive array. Honestly, even as it is now, it's probably enough to kill me. But I don’t get that other thing you're doing in the background. The part you're using the array to hide. Are you searching for something?”

“Thank you. I’ve been working on it for years and poured a lot of drachen, along with help from many people, to develop it. Yet, you seem confident. Are you not worried?” She ignores my question.

“Not really.”

“I think we could have been good friends if we had met outside.”

“I don’t think so.”

"So, who is the last Candidate?" she asks.

"You’ve been doing a good job of making me monologue."

“I know, but you're enjoying it too, aren’t you? Please, don’t lie. I can see that you're the same as me in that way. So, where is your pride? Show it to me. Give me all the cards. Allow me to try my best and still defeat me.”

"Which Ruler’s been messing around here?"

"I don’t know."

"I see. You know what’s funny, Ari? You would still lose in the end." Her eyebrow twitches, and the rhythm of her heart shifts a little. I continue, "It’s Tyven."

She stops entirely, no longer working on the array, and instead takes a step forward. "There’s no way."

It almost makes me laugh, and I can see she’s noticed it.

"There is no way," she whispers, her eyes hazing over. She snaps back to reality. "There is no way “HE” is a candidate. There is no way I would lose against SOMEONE LIKE HIM!"

She makes quick changes to the array. It becomes less stable and more dangerous at the same time. Damage starts piling up across her body.

Somewhere in the distance, I notice the Academy arrays twisting into a defensive cupola around the place where Vance had been working on the thermonuclear warhead. An alarm reverberates through the Academy.

The movement of mana around Ari stops, and she looks at me. "I finally found it."

Her killing array fires at me, and while I’m busy blocking it, she does something else. Then the loop resets, and I find myself back in the starting room with the rest of Group 4.

Without hesitation, I break the wall of the room in a blast of kinetic energy. As debris rains down to the ground, I fly through it and lift into the air. I send a pulse of detection through the Academy and push against the first attempts of the Academy’s arrays to suppress me. Within seconds, I locate Ari heading toward the library.

I form a javelin and shoot it at her, but it gets blocked by one of the Professors who appears to defend her. Ari continues heading toward Tyven, mana twisting around her and damaging her body as she overextends her limits, and prepares to kill him.

The Professor, one I haven’t met before, uses his skill, and I feel myself pushed back, constantly being restricted. Another Professor starts twisting the Academy arrays to aid them.

I create an [Empyrean Lance] and shoot it at Ari again, piercing through the barriers and nearly catching her. At the last moment, she turns her eyes toward me, and the loop resets again.

I send the message to everyone, break the wall again, and fly into the air. An orb of black mana forms ahead of me. I feed it a good chunk of my mana and launch it forward to distract the Professors.

I spot Ari again and start heading her way, but I stop mid-flight as pressure fills the area.

Slowly, I turn my head and look toward its epicenter.

In the air, near my orb, stands a figure. The selari Champion who moved there from miles away in less than a second. With curiosity, he observes the black orb that’s been sucking in surrounding mana and tearing apart the defensive arrays.

Then he grabs it in his hands and closes it into a tight fist.

An audible thump echoes through the academy, breaking all the windows and blowing away the arrays as if they were normal spider webs caught in a hurricane.

Champion Dion turns to me and opens his fist, from which tiny black particles fall like sand.

All of my defenses are blown away as if they didn’t exist. I watch that incredible mass of mana head my way.

Lily reaches Ari, and the loop resets again.

I blow the wall of the room apart once again and continue on foot, sending a quick scan to locate Ari. The rest of Group 4 follows. Tess acts as a distraction and flies to the tallest tower, her primordial lightning cracking around her.

Finding Ari, I notice she’s searching for something. The way she does it is extremely specialized, unlike anything I’ve seen before. I halt for a moment as her senses lock onto a small pen in one of the classrooms. She immediately places some sort of mark on it.

When I break through the window and come to a stop in front of her, Lulu appears nearby, flying in through another window. I hear the footsteps of the Vice Director behind me as her arrays and mana spread through the area.

My teleportation fails, disrupted before I can even move, and the Vice Director’s mana pins me in place. Tess’ lightning javelin then pierces through the wall and strikes near the Vice Director, and forces her to defend against the next one.

I push against the restriction and move toward Ari.

She triggers her mark and destroys the pen.

The loop resets.

We rush out of the room again, some toward Tyven, others to distract the Professors. I go after Ari. She once again searches for the item, which I realize must be the core of the Record. Her constant search for it must mean it keeps changing, and it does. This time, it is a necklace worn by one of the students, and she places a mark on it as well.

In an entirely different area now, Ari stands not far from where we appeared, but as I reach through the air toward the mark she placed, something disrupts it.

From behind the trees, Professor Elian appears. His Mana Wavelength Iris glows deeply.

"Assistant Professor Gwyn, what is the meaning of this?"

I ignore him and shoot an orb of black mana at him while simultaneously using Wraith Dance to reach Ari. Using speed against mana-specialized opponents like him should...

My body slams against a barrier in front of Ari, and it doesn't even budge as I throw the full power of my disruption against it. Ari grins widely from behind it.

"Student Ari, what are you grinning at?" Elian snorts beside her and keeps reinforcing his barrier as I turn to my left. "You have a lot of questions to answer. Both you and Assistant Professor Gwyn."

There, the black orb I shoot at him floats in the air, surrounded by a spinning square cage of multilayered mana.

An overload of information makes me stagger. My Mana Wavelength Iris deactivates, and I fall to my knees.

"What an interesting thing," sounds a voice from behind me. When I turn back, selari Champion Dion is standing there as well, placing me between him and Professor Elian.

A chuckle escapes my mouth at the insanity of the situation. Before my connection to Group 4 disappears, I send information about the necklace on one of the students.

"Dion, may I ask what you are doing here at this time?" Elian asks in his usual nonchalant, arrogant manner.

Instead of answering, Dion points at the black orb trapped inside the cage, “That orb.”

"All of this has happened on the grounds of the Academy, so please exclude yourself from the situation."

"In that case, keep that thing. I will be taking this guy with me," Champion Dion says, and the pressure around me disappears as he steps forward and counters the Professor.

Elian doesn’t even blink. The golden circles around his pupils seem to burn a hole into reality itself as mana rises around him, sending a shockwave through the area. Above him, three cube-shaped objects appear, glowing with a bright mix of golden and white light trapped inside each of them.

And I realize that any one of those cubes is enough to destroy not just the Academy, but the entire region the 8th floor encompasses.

Then Dennis catches up to the girl and breaks the amulet, and the loop resets.

Reappearing again, I search the area the same way Ari did. I mimic it. I remember those waves. That weird frequency spreads through the area, nearly undetected, and I locate an apple. I extend toward it, place a mark on it, and teleport it into my hand just as Ari finds it as well.

Her run slows into a walk, and she changes direction. Tears begin to fall from her eyes as she grabs a passing Professor by his jacket and points at me as I enter the same hallway.

Wraith Dance brings me closer. Before the Professor can even move, I slam my palm against his chest, releasing a blast of kinetic energy. His chest bulges open and explodes, spraying the wall with blood and his insides before he collapses.

Behind me, I sense more presences coming.

Ari opens her mouth to say something, but a shimmering blue lance with a core of white and golden light pierces her chest and pins her to the wall.

She coughs up blood, but as her eyes begin to lose their light, she says with a smile, "How rude of you, Assistant Professor Gwyn...."

I release thermal energy around me just to be sure. The entire hallway burns, along with the arrays and the mana in the air. My body takes damage in the process as I lift two seals on the Ignition Heart. Then I squeeze the apple.

The loop resets, and I appear in the same starting room, surrounded by everyone else.

Congratulations! You've successfully completed the 8th floor's main quest. An entrance to the ninth floor has been created.