On one side of the arena stood Sylvie and Siord, both completely prepared for what was to come.
Siord wore black armor—solid and functional, with small white details along her arms and legs that broke the monotony of the color, as well as her clan's insignia clearly marked on her chest. In her left hand, she held a short, slightly curved sword.
Beside her, Sylvie was a complete contrast. Her white plate armor was immaculate, without a single visible mark, crossed by fine golden lines that emitted a faint but constant glow. In her hand, she held a completely silver longsword.
On the other side of the arena stood their opponents.
Two women.
The first had a spear resting on her shoulder, her posture relaxed but ready to move at any moment. Her body was tall and muscular, easily approaching two meters in height, with a physical presence that was imposing even without moving.
She had brown hair tied back and eyes of the same color, and the way she held her weapon made it clear she had real experience. Sylvie couldn't help but notice the resemblance to Effie—not only because of the spear but also in the way she occupied space: solid and direct.
The other woman was completely different. Average height, slender figure, blonde hair, and golden eyes that never stopped analyzing every detail before her. Her weapon was a sword similar to a katana, and her posture was more closed, more controlled. She was the same woman Sylvie had observed earlier—the one who could manipulate the sharpness of weapons.
The four advanced until they stood face to face.
For a few seconds, no one moved.
Then, in the blink of an eye, violence exploded.
Sylvie launched herself directly at the woman with the Aspect, without hesitation. She knew she was the most dangerous. At the same time, Siord intercepted the spear-wielding woman, and the sound of the first clash of weapons rang out across the arena.
Sylvie's fight began, but she decided to hold back.
She didn't attack with everything immediately—instead, she tested first. A quick cut, aimed at the torso, was answered by the woman with a minimal movement of her sword, blocking the attack and launching a counterattack immediately.
Sylvie took a risk and let the counterattack graze her forearm. The woman's katana cut cleanly through her Transcendent armor as if it were two ranks lower.
'This is worse than I thought.'
If the woman's sword could cut through armor of that rank, that meant her sword was at least Ascended rank, with the possibility of being the same rank as hers. Combined with her Aspect's ability, that could cause her many problems.
She concluded that she could not afford to receive a single blow.
Even if she could heal herself, that Aspect was far too dangerous.
The woman attacked again immediately, launching a clean horizontal cut. Sylvie twisted her body at the last moment, feeling the edge pass dangerously close. It wasn't a fast attack due to pure speed, but due to precision. Every movement of her opponent was calculated to kill.
Sylvie began to move more seriously.
Using the movement of Mana in the environment to predict attacks, she decided to cycle her essence, distributing it precisely through her muscles. Legs, arms, torso—not all at once, but at specific moments, reinforcing each action at the exact right time.
At the same time, she began to rotate Mana within her body through the channels that branched from her Core.
Before, she could only circulate Mana through her body without generating any benefit other than widening the channels. But now, it was different.
Her control over Mana had increased exponentially—and not only that. Since she Awakened, she could also strengthen her muscles with it.
This meant that at this very moment, both essence and Mana were flowing through her body, strengthening her beyond what any Awakened could achieve—with the exception of Arthur and Nephis.
The sensation of Mana was different from essence. Smoother, more constant. More her.
The woman noticed the change in her posture, how she began to shift the rhythm of the fight. Her attacks started to escalate, seeking to end the fight faster.
But Sylvie didn't give her that opportunity.
While dodging another attack, she extended a thin layer of Mana in front of her—an invisible barrier, placed at an awkward angle. The woman's sword pierced through it without issue, but Sylvie felt something important.
There was a minimal resistance.
She repeated the process several times over the next exchanges, placing small barriers in different positions while dodging and counterattacking. All of them were cut, but each one slightly slowed the enemy's movement.
It wasn't enough to stop her, but it was enough to affect her rhythm.
In the distance, she managed to see the clash between Siord and the spear-wielding woman out of the corner of her eye. Neither was clearly dominating. It was an even fight, based on strength and technique, with no clear advantages.
Sylvie refocused on her own fight. Hers was the one that needed to end first.
In a moment of opening, she cast a spell at the woman's feet. The Mana became denser right beneath her, altering her balance at the precise instant. The woman stumbled slightly, her posture breaking for a fraction of a second.
Sylvie's plan was slowly coming together.
The woman recovered quickly—faster than Sylvie would have liked—and counterattacked with an upward cut. Sylvie stepped back, barely avoiding the impact.
As they continued exchanging attacks, Sylvie finished forming her plan.
Dodging an attack with a spin on her axis, she summoned a sword made of Mana behind her back, making it as dense and sharp as possible. The moment the woman was behind her, the Mana-formed sword extended.
The woman reacted with the same speed that had characterized her throughout the fight and managed to deflect the deadly strike, leaving only a deep cut on her cheek.
Sylvie smiled slightly, seeing that her plan was already in motion.
However, she decided to change her approach to the battle. Instead of continuing to dodge and counterattack, she decided to take the initiative.
First, she launched a vertical cut that was intercepted at the last moment. Then she dodged a thrust by stepping to her left. The woman recovered quickly, but at that moment, Sylvie repeated the spell at the woman's feet—this time with more precision.
The exact space where the woman tried to advance became denser, causing another stumble, even worse than the previous one.
Sylvie took advantage of the error.
Positioned to the woman's left, she brought down a cut from above, holding the pommel of her longsword with both hands, generating force from the base of her feet and the rest of her entire body.
The woman's reaction was exactly what Sylvie had expected. At the last moment, she used her Aspect to reduce the sharpness to a minimum at the moment of impact. But Sylvie wasn't relying on that.
At the last instant, before contact, she summoned a second sword made of pure Mana—completely visible. The sword appeared with a white tone, right in the trajectory of the woman, who was still leaning forward.
She had no time to react.
The Mana sword pierced her skin and embedded itself directly in her neck. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, and the sound of her knees hitting the ground echoed throughout the arena.
She was already dead.
Sylvie closed her eyes for a second as the Spell confirmed the woman's death.
[You have slain an Awakened human, Maeve.]
The rest of the woman's body hit the ground, and Sylvie opened her eyes again, immediately turning toward the other fight.
Siord was still fighting the spear-wielding woman, and although she was holding firm, the fight remained even. But now, it wouldn't be for much longer.
Sylvie sprinted toward the other fight. As she advanced, the applause from the colosseum erupted once again, as if everything that had just happened was merely part of another spectacle.
She clenched her teeth at the sound—the annoyance clear on her expression—but she didn't allow herself to be distracted.
Her attention was fixed on the fight before her. Siord was retreating at that moment, barely dodging a direct thrust from the spear-wielding woman, whose reach and strength were a real problem.
Sylvie arrived just as the woman was mid-motion, and without stopping, she cast a spell at her feet, trying to repeat the same tactic that had worked before. However, this time, there was no reaction.
The woman didn't lose her balance. She didn't even show discomfort.
'Strange,' Sylvie thought.
In that same instant, the woman turned her attention toward her, detecting the new threat, and that was enough for Siord to act.
From a different angle, she lunged forward, and with a clean, precise cut, she separated the woman's left hand from her arm. A cry of pain escaped her mouth, and her expression shifted completely—from concentration to pure rage—as she fixed her gaze on Siord.
Sylvie didn't miss that opportunity. She entered range immediately, bringing her sword in a direct, deadly cut, aiming to end the fight in that instant.
Yet even in that state, the woman reacted. With her remaining hand, she held her spear and blocked the attack, deflecting it just enough to avoid the fatal blow. In the same motion, she spun her spear, making its tip graze Sylvie's face, forcing her to retreat just enough.
Without wasting time, Sylvie summoned a small dagger made from the ambient Mana and launched it directly at the woman's eye.
Instead of dodging, she simply closed her eye and kept her focus on Siord.
The dagger struck… and produced no effect.
'Her Aspect is more similar to Effie's than I thought.'
Siord had already repositioned herself, moving away from close combat, and was now at a distance with a bow in hand, aiming with precision. As soon as she found an opening, she released the string.
The arrow—Ascended rank—crossed the space in an instant and embedded itself in the woman's thigh. The impact made her emit a sound of pain and destabilized her posture, forcing her to lean unevenly.
Sylvie advanced, taking advantage of the opening. She used her Awakened ability on her Transcendent sword, reinforcing it even further, and with a single descending strike, she shattered the spear in half.
The woman's eyes opened wide in surprise, but she had no time to react.
In that same instant, another arrow was released by Siord, and Sylvie—synchronized with her—reinforced it with Mana at the perfect moment. The arrow struck directly in the woman's forehead, piercing her skull and killing her instantly.
Her body stood motionless for a second before falling to the ground with a dull thud. The moment it touched the arena floor, the colosseum exploded in noise once more—applause and shouts filling every corner as the match came to an end.
Even after the fight ended, they both remained on guard, observing their surroundings. Everything around the arena was littered with lifeless bodies. The sand beneath their feet was stained with blood—not their own, but because of them.
Their hearts broke at such a level of massacre.
Sylvie had seen worse in terms of death during the Siege. But now, it was different. Now, these deaths were all human, and all caused by humans.
'I'm sorry,' she thought as she looked at the bodies.
With every passing second, more anguish and sadness filled her. The sound of the colosseum faded into the background of her mind—she didn't care.
Sylvie had opened her runes and was staring intently at Arthur's while a discomfort formed in her throat. Then, she felt a gaze that sent a shiver through her entire body.
She immediately unsummoned the runes and went back on guard. However, no amount of preparation would have helped her. From one moment to the next, a new presence was standing in front of them.
The General, Isceth, was standing before them with her Transcendent presence unleashed.
The pressure was so great that they ended up falling to their knees before her.
Sylvie cleared her mind of unnecessary thoughts. The General wasn't going to kill them—it wouldn't make sense. Hardening her eyes, she forced herself to try to lift her gaze through sheer willpower. She was not going to be less.
It cost her. It cost a tremendous amount of strength, but she did it.
Lifting her gaze from the bloody sand, her black eyes first focused on the General's white boots. Then, they rose to her knees, then to her thigh, where her military boots ended.
Then she saw movement and noticed Isceth crouching down in front of her, staring intently with her sky-blue eyes. A wide smile was on her face as she watched her.
"Oh… we have someone interesting here," she said in a playful voice. Then the smile disappeared from her face, and her eyes became completely devoid of any emotion. "I'm going to offer you a deal. Do you want to hear it?"
At no point did the General diminish her presence, and only at that moment did Siord manage to make a sound while she remained on her knees looking at the ground.
Sylvie understood the offer clearly. It didn't matter if they wanted to hear it or not. It didn't matter if they were going to accept it or not—they would have to do it anyway.
Otherwise, they would die.
She forced herself to nod slowly, and only then did the General release her oppressive presence, allowing them to breathe and move freely again.
The General stood up and said: "If you come with me, you will never be slaves again." A pause. "In return, the only thing you will do is work for me. But you will have far more comforts than if you choose the other option."
They both remained silent, processing the offer. Eventually, Sylvie asked:
"What's the other option?"
"You die," the General said dryly.
'I knew'
"We accept the offer to work for you," Sylvie replied, trying to stand up.
Even so, she never managed to do so. The next moment, the General's presence was felt again—this time even more powerful than before.
It was so great that they both ended up falling unconscious on the blood-soaked sand.
***
The next thing Sylvie perceived was something comfortable beneath her—very comfortable, she had to admit. Then, she noticed her body was covered by blankets, and her head was resting on a completely soft pillow.
Sylvie opened her eyes, and the first thing she noticed was that she was inside a room that left her completely astonished. The room was enormous.
Her bed was so large that five more Sylvies could easily fit with room to spare. Then, the room had a large window that occupied almost the entire wall facing the exterior. Outside the window, there was an enormous balcony as well.
On the wall in front of her were multiple desks and an enormous wardrobe that occupied the rest of the wall. The room finished with multiple armchairs and tables.
She had never seen anything like it—not even the rooms of the Jade Palace in Ravenheart were so… so magnificent…
After analyzing the room for a while, a knock on the door caught her attention. She didn't know what to do, but she didn't need to do anything, because the next moment, the door opened without her saying anything, and the General walked through it.
She carried a tray of food in her hands and, without uttering a word, approached her bed and left it on a shelf beside her. Then, she took a few steps and sat down in one of the armchairs with her legs crossed.
Isceth smiled and made a gesture with her hand toward the food.
"Come on, eat something before it gets cold."
Sylvie moved to grab the tray, and right then, her stomach growled. With her cheeks slightly pink, she placed it on her lap and went to try to eat.
However, as she did, her hand began to tremble as she remembered that the colosseum's food contained blood to put them under a mind hex.
What if the castle's food did too?
Before she could hesitate further, the General began to laugh, and the sound caught her attention. She turned her face toward that direction with both eyebrows furrowed.
"Eat peacefully," the General said. Then she added: "There's nothing strange in the food. And I know you need it."
'She knows I need it?'
'I'm not that thin, am I?'
She was about to check, but her stomach growled again, and she began to eat. Obviously, she first smelled the food and confirmed that it really had nothing strange in it.
The food was a piece of roasted meat with seasoning, along with vegetables and some rice. On the tray, there was also a cup of tea accompanied by a small piece of cake for dessert.
She was so hungry that she devoured everything in the blink of an eye, eventually letting out a sound of happiness once her belly was full.
"Now that you've finished eating," the General began to speak, "it's time to discuss our deal."
Sylvie tensed at the sound of her voice and turned toward her. However, she first decided to voice her doubts.
"You knew, didn't you? You knew they add blood to the food of the slaves in the colosseum so they won't escape."
The General grinned.
"Yes," she added, "In fact, it was my idea."
Sylvie swallowed and stared at her. She knew she was overstepping—that anything she said carelessly could lead to her death. However, she was already tired. Tired of witnessing so much death, so much cruelty.
"You're a sociopath."
The General began to laugh, and the more she laughed, the louder it became.
"You are right about that," she said between laughs.
Sylvie let out a sigh while shaking her head.
Then the General stopped laughing and added, "I like that you're so direct. The people in this place tend to speak in metaphors or similar bullshit. So tell me…" She paused and then continued in a serious tone: "Are you interested in naturally becoming an Ascended? I see potential in you…"
"What."