No, their gazes and their attention were glued to one spot and one spot only, the empty area that Alec Dius had stood in only a few seconds ago, before he had disappeared in a flash of light. A disappearance so sudden and so unexpected that even the cloaked, clockwork entity hunting them down could do nothing but stare at the spot; the same as them.
“What….the hell?”
“ALEC!”
Olivia’s cry, for it could not truthfully be called anything except such, echoed over even the roaring flames and swirling winds. Surprise and horror so clear in her voice that it was a miracle that neither Glenn nor Callum fell to their knees in heartbreak just by hearing it.
Though, it’s not as if they were completely unaffected either. Their eyes wide and their breathing heavy as they stared at the spot where, as far as they could comprehend, their teammate had just been ruthlessly ripped away from the ritual’s simulation.
They had been going about their own business, so wrapped up in their own business that they hadn’t even thought about considering what Alec and Olivia had been dealing with. Callum had considered Grace, and helping her simulated self, the most important task for him and hadn’t given much thought to anything other than beating Glenn to her. Glenn, meanwhile, had been so absorbed with making sure that Callum didn’t get any kind of leg up on him that he hadn’t even spared a solitary thought for his two ‘teammates’ and whatever illusory threat that they believed they were dealing with.
And now the issue that they were dealing with was standing right before them, flexing all of its fingers experimentally and slowly turning to face the three of them, the clockwork comprising its ‘head’ beginning to spin ever so slightly faster.
None of the three of them wanted to move. Its gaze, despite not having any eyes, pinned the three of them to their positions, like a weighted blanket stabbed into the ground not with tent pegs, but full-blown cement blocks. Yet, seeing it flexing its fingers once more, the fingers that had just done whatever had happened to Alec, the sense of danger in Olivia’s head seemed to just…lighten.
She was a blur of pearlescent white and fluttering, smudged clothe. Her form passing between Callum and Glenn in an instant so short that had either of them blinked, they might have missed her movements entirely.
‘I don’t care where this thing came from.’
Her blade glanced off the clockwork of the entities head in a burst of sparks, its hand swiping through nothing as she circled her following foot around and twirled gracefully around the limb.
‘I don’t care why its here or what it wants.’
Three thrusts tore through the entities cloak, hitting what might have been a body on a normal creature. Yet no blood flowed out of the wounds or coated her blade, and her edge met not resistance, nor caught on any kind of muscle or flesh as she pulled back.
‘All I know is that it did something to Alec. Potentially even hurt or killed him.’
White mana swirled along the edge of her blade, chaotic and flaring at random intervals, yet carrying a certain danger about it that just a regular mana-enhanced weapon shouldn’t have carried. The entity swung a hand behind itself and twisted its opposing hand, rotating the world around itself to place Olivia into the direction of its seemingly wild swing with no choice but to be hit.
Olivia refused to play by this creature’s game.
Olivia had heard her friends whisper right before he had disappeared, had seen the sudden lack of fight in him, and knew that it came from somewhere of understanding. She knew that this entity hadn’t suddenly messed with his mind, nor had he snapped from the stress of the situation, he was of totally and completely sound mind.
Yet Olivia had no proof that Alec was ok. She could take a guess, she could hypothesize and guess until she went blue in the face, but she couldn’t prove it until she, too, got passed this Step.
That uncertainty, the lack of options she had to tie a proper answer to her questions, it aggravated her unlike very little else in this world could. And between her anger, and the very, very real adrenaline pumping through her veins like a lake of water being squeezed through a straw, her counterattack came to fruition before she even realized what it was that she was doing.
All people in this world had a Qualification, and their mana an Attribute. Both varied just as much as the people that they were attached to, and even if a qualification or attribute was shared between two people, the way that it manifested itself could be wildly, drastically different. Which was, perhaps, why very few people outside the Kio family had ever seen, or figured out exactly what Olivia’s attribute was.
All her life she had tried to follow her family’s teachings on how best to use and express the attribute of her mana, failing every step of the way. That kind of mana projection, especially sticking it to an enemy or object, just wasn’t something that she could ever wrap her head around or get down pat. Yet when expressing it naturally alongside how she already used her mana, just like how she had seen and experienced Alec using his own mana and attribute, expressing her attribute came so easily to her that it was almost insulting.
Her blade cut straight through the swinging arm of the entity, severing the creature’s arm like it was made of wet paper, not an ounce of resistance to be found. Olivia Kio, for the first real time in her entire life, awoke her mana attribute: Critical Point.
The slightly curled hand of the entity struck her in the face as it separated from its body, whipping her head back with the feeling of a sickening crunch, and an almost deafening snap. Pain flared through her nerves just as she watched the spray of grey blood fly high into the air, yet all she could do was grin ferally through the wince that overcame her features, a single eye forced open to stare at the creature as her feet left the ground.
‘Hah! There we go. Do what you will to scare us all, but without that mystique you’re just an overpowered phantom, aren’t you? Whatever. I don’t care what kind of entity you are. I got my revenge in the end. And that’s all I need.’
And with a brief shimmer, Olivia’s body hit the ground and exploded into bright, glittering golden sparkles.
XXXxxxXXX
Her surroundings were bright. Unnaturally bright. Painfully bright.
With a pained groan she cracked an eye open, only to wince silently at the glaring, obnoxious white that dared to greet her. Her vision blurred through a combination of her squinting harshly and the brief wetness that sprung to life to aid her poor, assaulted eyes.
Where was she? The last thing she remembered was getting punched in the nose –which didn’t hurt anymore, nice– by that entities arm and hitting the ground. Yet now she found herself in what she was pretty certain was some kind of liminal space.
Was she dead? She really hoped that she wasn’t dead. If she was, she was going to haunt that Kronethia follower until the day that death finally claimed him too.
“Oh hey, you got here too.”
Who? That voice sounded- That voice!
Her eyes snapped wide open from the pained squint that they had been in previously and with a quick tuck-in of her legs and a flex of her core, she was up off the ground and onto her feet. The young woman turning on the spot and finding her target near-on instantly.
“You idiot!”
The pearlescent-haired girl collided with Alec in a blur of motion and a snap of fluttering clothing, the both of them going tumbling as she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed like he would slip out of her grasp if she didn’t.
“Gah! C-Can’t….breath!”
Olivia’s grip on him only tightened, a phantom creaking echoing in Alec’s ears with such an ominous whisper that he wasn’t even sure if it was his mind playing tricks on him, or if they really were about to break.
“Bastard. You deserve it!”
“W-why!?” He choked out, tapping her back repeatedly in the hope that she would get the message, or just feel some kind of mercy for him, and release her grip somewhat.
“You made me believe that you’d died!”
“Y-You figured it out though!”
“That doesn’t change the fact.” She growled, finally releasing him and rolling away quickly.
By the time he got air back into his lungs and sat up, Olivia was already on her feet, staring down at him with a look halfway between fond and pissed off. Honestly it sort of reminded him of the looks that he’d seen Angelica shoot Peter before, which didn’t bode well for his general wellbeing, if she followed in Angelica’s footsteps.
“How did you figure it out? That that thing wasn’t…a fake.” She questioned, leaning down and offering a hand that he took without hesitation.
“It was something that Glenn said to me, actually.” Alec responded as he was pulled to his feet, an amused smile gracing his lips at the look of disdain that Olivia shot him in return.
“Oh, don’t tell me that you actually took something he said to heart. You know that he just says whatever he needs to, to tear down those around him.”
“He does,” Alec agreed with her easily, nodding his head, “And he was trying to do the same thing with me. Mocking me and insulting me.”
The way that he said it was flippant, a casual hand waved over his shoulder to emphasize just how little he actually cared for the words themselves. Unsurprising, considering that Olivia knew that he had very little in common with the more muscled boy, and no reason to care about him or what he did, unlike Callum.
“But something he said made something click. That creature was constantly chasing after us but only going after me. You’d think that if it really was an entity that had broken into the ritual, it would be a bit more unbiased, wouldn’t you?”
“Makes sense. If it was trying to kill one of us, it would also naturally try and kill all of us.”
“Exactly. But it didn’t. Because it was trying to keep me scared. This Step shows all of us things that would frighten us, and its up to us to move past it even if we are still afraid. That entity, at least what it was meant to be, must have been what I had to get over.”
As Alec explained, Olivia rested her weight on one leg and crossed her arms, a pensive expression on her face. Everything that he said made sense, and she couldn’t say that it was completely out of the ritual’s ability to do, they had seen plenty of strange stuff while watching all the other groups, but the idea that it would even go that far felt…odd, to her.
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“Meanwhile, for you it must have been seeing something out of your league hunting down a teammate like that thing was. And I think by facing it head on, even knowing you’d go out, that got you past.” Alec theorized, not fully sold on his theory just yet, but unable to think of anything else that would make sense.
Though, Olivia had to give him credit, he was close to the real fear. He hadn’t guessed it, but the proximity to the real thing had to be commended.
What she had feared wasn’t an entity beyond her strength hunting down her teammates. What Olivia Kio had feared was watching Alec become fearful and hunted. Watching her first real friend being closed in further and further by unfair odds and ridiculous teammates and being unable to do a thing to help. What had got her past the first Step wasn’t facing that entity despite knowing that it was above her in terms of strength, it was doing what little she could to help Alec, even if she knew that the outcome had already been determined.
It had been knowing the end and acting anyway.
“Probably.” She hummed noncommittally, refusing to confirm or deny his words even though she already knew the answer in her mind.
“Actually,” She continued, a metaphorical lightbulb going off above her head as she looked up at the blank white ceiling, and then back to him in short order, “How did you know what happened?”
This place between the Steps wasn’t something that was shown to those outside the ritual, a liminal space where they didn’t have to worry about prying eyes or judgemental gazes and could simply just relax between the arduous trials that they had agreed to undergo. A small mercy, all things considered, but a necessary one.
“Oh, just over there.” Alec pointed at one of the walls outside her field of vision, making her turn around.
There, taking up a fairly large space in the area of the wall, was a projection of Callum and Glenn. Both of them rushing through the streets chasing after the cloaked entity that both of the teens had already overcome. Only once she focused in on it did volume begin to filter into her mind, like a one-way telepathy that only started to work once she actually focused on it.
“So, you were watching the entire time?”
“I was, but our conversation distracted me. I don’t know what they’re doing now. Or why they’re chasing that thing.” Alec replied, hissing quietly as she punched his arm with a not-insignificant amount of force.
“So, our conversation was a distraction for you, was it?” She mocked him, getting an exasperated groan and roll of his eyes in return.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
She just grinned at the sheer annoyance and tiredness in his tone, tuning her attention back into the projection on the wall when she noticed both of her teammates talking.
“Don’t let that thing get to Grace!”
“Oh please! I won’t let a thing touch her! How about you just go sit in a corner somewhere and leave it to her real knight!”
Was what she was hearing right? There was no way. They had just watched both of them complete the Step and go on to the next stage. They had to have snapped out of this stupid, useless feud of theirs and realized that getting past the Step was the most important thing. They had to have realized such a simple truth after not just one but two reminders.
So, then, why was she staring at the both of them not realizing!?
“Are you fucking KIDDING ME!?”
XXXxxxXXX
Callum, contrary to Olivia’s beliefs, was actually focused on how to get past this Step. His mind running through everything that he could think of about how he could possibly get past this trial so that he could move on and continue advancing.
Yet his heart, his stupid, unyielding heart, refused to stay still whenever he heard the pained and terrified cries of Grace. He heard her cries and his heart lurched automatically, an instinct so ingrained into his very being that he found himself three steps into a full-blown sprint before he even realized he was moving.
He knew that, logically, what was keeping him here was likely something to do with Grace, but he hadn’t been lying to Olivia when they had been arguing earlier, either. He couldn’t live with himself, he couldn’t ever look her in the eye again, if he ever had a chance to save or help a version of her and turned it down.
He was stuck at a crossroad. An intersection between what his head knew he had to do, and what his heart refused to let him give up on.
The cloaked entity ahead of him and Glenn dashed down a side street between two buildings, the space behind it shifting and burying the path in unstable rubble and debris so that neither of the swordsmen could follow after it.
“Dammit! Where the hell was that thing headed?” Glenn growled, for once not even sparing Callum a singular glance as he looked left and right down the street, trying to calculate its destination before it could get there.
If only he could always ignore Callum like this, that would be nice and appreciated. However, the green-haired teen was too jaded by the stocky boys past transgressions to ever believe himself that lucky. No matter how idyllic it truly sounded.
“S-Stay away! What even are you!?”
Grace’s voice seemed to cut through the crumbling city and crackling flames like they weren’t even there. His heartbeat thundered to his ears and his feet pounded against the cracked and ash-coated streets, Glenn on his heels just as doggedly as he had been on the mohawked man’s a mere moment earlier.
He was being played a fool. He hadn’t realized it at first, but some of Olivia’s words had hit home. This ritual was toying with him, always shifting Grace around, keeping her just outside of his field of vision. Like someone in another room that you just kept missing, only seeing the swinging shut of a door or the soft fluttering of their clothing.
It was toying with him, dragging him further and further from his escape conditions with everything that it did, and he found himself stepping so willingly into his own descent that it made him feel sick.
He didn’t want to be stuck here, dragging everyone down! He didn’t want to be seen through and toyed with so cruelly. He didn’t want to be that same, idealistic idiot that had joined the academy and let both his determination and his confidence be crushed by the boy just a few steps behind him.
He wanted to be like Grace; always happy and upbeat, even if far more controlled than himself. He wanted to be like Olivia; calm, determined, and laser-focused on her goals and how to achieve them. He wanted to be like Alec; an anomaly that appeared like a meteor and soaked up information and techniques like a sponge, whose very existence seemed to be in a state of constant improvement.
Right now, he was none of those things. He was like none of those people. He was a nuisance, a deadweight, an impediment to his two friends’ improvement.
“Get back!” Grace’s voice, an uncharacteristically vehement bark, rung out through the streets once more.
At his side, Glenn shot him a sharp, cocky grin and poured on the speed even further, a look of pure concentration on his face as he rushed with everything he had to be the first of the two of them to reach Grace.
Yet Callum didn’t notice that at all, he couldn’t. The shout having roused a fresh-new memory that pinballed around his head at mach-speed.
“-we all need to pass this step so that you can actually help her in the future!”
He refused to turn his back on Grace, any version of Grace, that was in need of his assistance. But her shout, so loud and angry and defiant, shook something inside him. It reminded him of so many times that he had heard her rant about her siblings, her parents, the knights and servants around the castle. It reminded him of the memories that they had spent together, and the joy that filled him during each and every one.
It reminded him of the oath that he had sworn, to protect and aid her in anyway that he could. And with that reminder, came a realization so sickening that it made his throat burn and his stomach cramp that moment that he realized it.
Callum could help the Grace ahead of him, or he could help the Grace that sat, right this second, in yet another tutoring session in her castle, safe and unaware of the turmoil he was in. Yet he could not do both.
One of the Grace’s would have to be left behind, they would have to suffer and be without him. This was, he realized with dawning horror, the ultimate punchline of this first Step. A choice that forced him to suffer regardless of what he picked.
Which was more important to him? The Grace that he harboured in his present? Or the Grace that dwelled in his future?
As his foot hit the ground with a thud that reverberated throughout his entire body, he knew the answer before he could even give voice to it in his own mind. An intangible sensation, almost like being pushed from behind by two oddly familiar hands, spurred him forward and cemented his resolve.
“I’m sorry…”
He was sorry to the Grace that he had been so close to helping. He was sorry to the Grace that had to deal with that cloaked monstrosity. He was sorry to the Grace that had no one to rely on but Glenn.
He was sorry, because he couldn’t forsake his Grace for this Grace. To aid his Grace, the real Grace, he willingly turned his back on this one, and in a brilliant display of golden lights, the young man’s body shattered into thousands of motes of golden light.
“No. No. No…. Oh hell. Fucking. No!” Glenn ground his foot into the street and turned on the spot to stare at the few golden lights that remained before they, too, dissipated into nothingness.
He was the last of the four of them to get past the Step of Distress, and he could not have been more furious about that fact.
This was meant to be his opportunity to prove himself above not only that green-haired pest, but those two annoyances that he always hung out with as well. This was meant to be his chance to have all the glory!
Yet not only was Dius the first to get out, with his little tagalong two steps behind him, but now even Royal Boy had successfully cleared the Step. Which left Glenn, and Glenn alone, still standing within the suddenly far more suffocating confines of the simulation.
‘If we don’t get through to the Second Step, this is all on my head now.’ That was the only thought that passed through his mind.
A scream from Grace reached his ears once more, and he jolted in its direction, only to pause halfway through. His expression twisting into something that could only be called a hateful grimace, and his eyes burning with anger.
No. No, he was done chasing after this illusion. He had done so to finally prove that Callum’s oath was nothing but hopes and dreams stacked on loose sand when he not only got to her first but saved her too.
If he was the one to save her, it would prove that he was worthy of living up to his Qualification. It would prove that he was worthy of the Larstud name.
Without Callum here, without anyone else to compete against, it was useless to continue going after her. All it would do was fulfill his own sense of satisfaction; it wouldn’t prove anything to anyone or help in anyway.
His gaze slid between the street beneath him and the direction of Grace’s defiant screams and shouts. His expression morphing more than once as he tried to reconcile his feelings with what he had already decided the best course of action was.
He could save Grace; he could prove that he could do it. But without anyone here to see, without anyone to actively compete against and overcome, it meant nothing. It only held meaning if others saw it. If others awed at it. If others despaired over it.
He didn’t want to. He really, really, didn’t want to. Yet he knew that he had to do it. To get his ultimate victory and to give Callum his ultimate humiliation, he knew that he had to give up on this simulated version of Grace.
He was going to kill that green-haired pest for making him give up on his goal like this, he swore to whatever God cared to listen.
One flash of gold later, and he found himself staring at a painfully bright white ceiling, a pained and annoyed groan leaving his lips as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“Gods dammit.” The quiet, annoyed grumble from Olivia caught the burly boy’s attention and made him crack a single eye open to glare in annoyance at her.
Not that she even noticed, too busy handing a copper coin to Alec, who accepted it with a surprising amount of grace.
“How did you know?” The Kio girl questioned, only getting a knowing grin from the blue-haired teen in response.
“Because he’d never allow Callum to ‘beat’ him.”
It didn’t matter how correct he was or how seriously he took his own statement. Glenn swore that he would get his revenge on the blue-haired teen for that comment, just as soon as he knocked Royal Boy back down a few pegs to where he belonged.
Confetti apparated in the air above them with the sound of celebrations, making all four of them jolt in surprise and look around wildly. Which meant that it was only the matter of seconds for them to notice the words that appeared on one of the four walls, so large and bold that it was impossible to miss once you saw it.