Sofia slowly advanced through the icy storm, waving her piercing bolt around. How hot were the Angel bolts, really? That was the kind of question Sofia thought she would be better off not knowing the answer to. She had been accumulating enough protection that unless she pushed the bolts to the maximum, the heat barely bothered her anymore. But that did not make them any less hot.

At first it was like a small bubble formed in the blizzard, like it stopped around the bolt, and in just a few seconds, that bubble grew until even the ice Sofia stepped on was quickly melting. Another salvo of ice spears rained upon Sofia. At first, she tried to block them with the bolt, but she discovered it was already futile. The thin magical ice spears were melting fast enough in the bolt’s vicinity that by the time they would have reached their target, [Dodge me] just curved their path around Sofia.

Ah, yeah, it’s starting to really get hot. That took, what, twenty seconds? Well, that’s more than half a million mana already.

Is this one really supposed to help me awaken faster? she wondered, tracking the vampire through her mana senses.

He moves pretty fast and erratically, hard to aim for but not impossible. I doubt I could be precise enough to kill him.

Maybe his signature skill is worth something but… I’d rather get done with it at this point. Let’s get rid of this shitty weather.

A calm music started playing around Sofia as [Sixth melody] reserved a fifth of her mana. The blizzard’s howling winds started to calm down somewhat, but it still kept going.

Not enough… Should help Remia at least. But I want some sun!

Doing back jumps to dodge ice spikes that started continuously erupting from under her, Sofia started channeling another skill.

Two million should be fine.

[Saintomancer’s Star]

A blinding star of burning holy light formed a few meters above Sofia. The heat transformed the blizzard into a sudden rainfall, then into steam. Knee deep in a water hole mostly created by the bolt melting the ground, Sofia now could not see more than an arm’s length away with her eyes.

I think this is my first time having a bath in the middle of a fight.

Since she couldn’t see, Sofia monitored the magic around her, the vampire had actually come a bit closer, and seemed to be preparing something.

Using a lot of mana? Let’s see what you have.

Pestle unexpectedly ran up to Sofia from behind. “Sofia!” she called out, “Sofia am melting Bokie’s snowman!”

“Ah! My bad,” Sofia answered, dispelling the star right away.

“Thank thank!” Pestle said noticing the temperature dropping at once, running back to the direction she came from.

Wait… This is supposed to be a serious fight…

Oh, he’s finally done with his casting?

Noticing the mana movements looking like a spell about to resolve, Sofia let her bolt go, simply opening her hand after aiming her staff at the correct direction.

[ROUND 9/13 - WIN]

Huh?! No way, I directly hit his mana heart?! I didn’t even mean to do that!

A tall, tan-skinned lady with pointy ears slouched back on her throne, holding her belly laughing, “Ahahah, lucky you Velenir, she didn’t humiliate you too badly! Just killed you in one hit before even getting to see you! Bahahahah!”

“Ahah… Yes, very funny your majesty… Shall I take some time off of your schedule tomorrow to reserve a ‘relentlessly mocking my chancelor’ spot?” the real Icemaster Velenir answered.

“Tssk tssk. Always so serious… Have you seen Agran recently? How’s our little duke doing?”

“He passed by my office earlier today. Lady Astelia is still in a sour mood over being unable to watch with us, but she is being diligent with her training nonetheless.”

The Queen fixed her posture on her chair, taking a sip out of a mithrium goblet filled with bright blood. “She really takes after her mother… Have Agran force her to take breaks if he needs to, all that stress is not good for her. I’ve lost enough of the family to the curse already.”

“Agran would not let such a tragedy happen again. Not to mention, she has the Moon’s protection.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

The queen’s pointy teeth showed through her mad smile. “It’s not enough,” she grumbled, “Not nearly enough!” The Mithrium goblet creaked and started to bend in the queen’s palm, “I’ll make her immortal if I have to!”

Velenir sighed, “I only wish you had such adamant determination toward your own survival, your majesty…”

“Ahah… And what for? You better pray to the moon every night that Ishka and the child do not see the afterlife before I do, or I will end this cursed race myself,” the queen grumbled through her teeth.

Rolling his eyes, Velenir used his ice magic to freeze over all the blood the queen had spilt from her goblet and clean up the mess. A third person entered the spectator room at the same time.

“Marina, we have the next two opponent. All-in on them again?”

The queen’s mood instantly improved upon hearing the voice of her last remaining cousin, who had been her prisoner on a tight leash ever since he had come back from one too many near-death experiences involving a malevolent God. She turned around on her throne, bending over its top back.

“What do you think, Nyse. Do I look like someone who changes her mind so easily?”

“Absolutely, yes,” Cardinal answered with a deadpan face, “The next one is a no-name dwarf, but they go against Happy Cloud after that, Sun’s executor. You are aware of how nasty that elf can be.”

The queen raised an eyebrow, “And you believe he would have what it takes to kill her five times in a row?”

Cardinal shrugged, “His imprint did manage to assassinate both Tartaros and Sen once.”

“You know just as well as I do that this won’t be enough. All-in all rounds,” she ordered, “We might actually make decent enough profit from the last three rounds to reimburse the finale tickets.”

“As you wish,” Cardinal answered with a smile, before disappearing as abruptly as he came.

“Are you that confident in the girl and her skeletons, your majesty?” Velenir asked, now that Cardinal had left.

“Ahah… I’m not,” she answered, “But he is. And Asty will be happy about this, too. Worth more than whatever we ought to gain or lose with the bets anyway. Still, they have a good chance to reach the finale, in my opinion.”

“And after that?” Velenir asked.

“After that… That will depend. We shall know when the bell tolls, watching from a front-row seat.”

Sofia’s next battle was against a rather tall dwarf. As it was round 10, there was a coin toss to decide on the arena. The dwarf won, and picked some kind of underground volcano as the arena, the name of which Sofia had never heard before. According to Love, the arenas used to be fixed but now almost any location could work, as long as either the system or the trialee knew it well enough. It was changed simply because people were starting to get bored of always seeing the same place.

As for the dwarf, what his abilities were? Sofia had no idea. What his mistake was? Staying too close to the arena’s central barrier. The duel started, Sofia summoned herself forward, and the dwarf’s skeleton promptly excused itself from his body, provoking the sighs of many people who had paid for their seat in the audience this round.

[ROUND 10/13 - WIN]

At least the arena was very pretty with all that flowing magma. Would love to actually visit that, Sofia thought as she was teleported back to the waiting room.

“Has your awakening gone up?!” Bookie asked, full of hope.

“Not at all. Still at fifty one.”

“Oh…”

“I still have three rounds. Don’t worry about it. The high scribes are even helping. They’ve never failed us before, right?” Sofia sarcastically asked with a smirk.

“But… It’s not funny if you really lose!” Bookie complained.

“If even Nex says that it is going to be fine then it probably will. Just focus on your role, alright? We should actually start tp get into really serious battles from now, considering just how few people are left. So you might have to step in.”

“What about Pesle?! Can Pesle has leg?!”

“Yes, everyone. Someone in there killed both Tartaros and Saria. We can’t afford to keep playing around forever. Take every battle seriously from now on. Even if it slows my awakening a bit, hopefully the finale will make up for it. Just imagine if we lost now, so close to the perfect run pin!”

The waiting room from round 10 onward was a relatively sleek-looking place with electric lights, reminding Sofia of a mix between the Admins’ hidden Cerberus home and Richard’s underwater base. The thirty-minutes wait between rounds was starting to feel like an eternity, but it at least gave Sofia some time to think of a proper strategy against all the relevant remaining opponents, with the limited data she had on them. Finally, the eleventh round started, and as Sofia and her skeletons entered the white void that served as a decor for the coin toss, she discovered her eleventh opponent.

Mister Cloud… Hmm, even after seeing me he’s still looking confident. Finally a real fight?

Love appeared in the middle, a golden coin with her face on one side and a Kleptra on the other rolling between her fingers.

“Well well! As usual the person with the most points gets to decide, soooOo, sir Pareth! Face? Or Zoth?”

Pareth summoned a weird Z-shaped sword of light, for the second time.

“Zoth again? Understood! Let’s see how my cutie treats you this time!”

Love cocked her shoulder back and threw the coin so high it disappeared from view.

Twenty seconds later, it fell back with a loud bang, landing perfectly on one side without bouncing back a single time. Clearly visible on it was the nightmarish figure of a Kleptra.

“It’s ZOTH! Pareth wins! What is the arena this time going to be? Everyone is watching!”

Sofia glanced at the elf again.

Well. Let’s see if this works.

After she cleared her throat, she named a place that raised more than a few eyebrows.

“The skin plains.”

[ERROR]

[DATA INCOMPLETE]

[DO YOU CONSENT TO A TARGETED MEMORY SCAN; YES/NO?]

Go ahead.

[DATA RETRIEVED]

[ARENA ACCEPTED; LOADING NOW]

The white void suddenly turned dark.