Flashes of purple caught my attention as the stands slowly filled with people. I could see Eli and Master Wilhelm looking down at us as they weaved magic in the air, and a blue glow surrounded me as Master Wilhelm cast his spell.

It felt comfortable. Like I was wearing a cozy sweater across my entire body.

A steady pattern of steps caught my attention. William had already entered his machine and walked towards me at a steady pace. His face was covered by a battle helmet, and he carried a blue sword in his right hand.

“I'm glad you accepted.” He stopped in front of me. “I was worried I was putting a little too much pressure on you too quickly.”

“I was getting pretty emotional. I got over it.” I showed him a smile.

No matter what happened today I didn’t want any hard feelings.

His machine looked different. I could feel waves of cool air coming off of it, and with the helmet and the sword it no longer looked like a robot. It looked like a knight.

“They’re all here to see a good show. Do you want me to hold back and let you show off a bit?” William asked.

“No need to hold back. It won’t be fun if I win too fast.” I waved at the onlookers. “They didn’t come here to see a baby crying on his birthday.”

William’s lips curled into a wolfish grin. “Excellent. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

He brought his sword arm forward and I looked at his weapon curiously.

“I've still got to show you some of the rules. After all, we’re not here to kill each other.” He gestured at me, and I held out my hand.

He tapped the edge of his sword against my wrist, and I bit my lip. Then, nothing. It didn’t hurt.

My wrist was fine. There was a thin blue line where the sword had touched me. It slowly disappeared in a spark of blue mana.

“The damage lines we make during the demonstration won’t disappear. They’ll let my dad know where we’ve been hit.” He smiled. “We can’t be hurt. It's like the nanny regent from when we first met. Except my dad’s full concentration and magic is needed to maintain it even for this short duration.”

I looked at the sky and Master Wilhelm floated up above us. His arms were spread out wide, and a thin stream of mana left his body continuously.

It was some sort of protective shielding. The amount of mana needed to supply was astronomical. Something splashed down onto the ground next to me.

It was a bead of sweat.

“Ten minutes.” William smiled. “Don’t go running away now.”

“Let me know when you’re ready to tap out. I don’t want to bully a child.”

We stepped away from each other and I strode through the arena’s terrain. I had a side designated to me, and it was filled with rocks and sand.

That suited me perfectly.

Most of the rocks were high enough for me to hide behind. Even some of the sand dunes could obscure my body. It would be harder for William with his machine.

Then again, I got the feeling that William wasn’t aiming for subtlety.

I felt a slight tug at my chest and turned towards the stands. Gerial was there, somewhere in the crowd. I couldn’t see him because a swarm of people in purple robes was obscuring him.

They were the guards from the church of Crijik. Each of them had masks on with a single eye.

A new group teleported in, Eli waving his staff in the air. Each one of them was covered head to toe in white robes, and their masks were solid silver, with markings I couldn’t make out from here.

The delegation from the church of Fue.

The Marked one of Fue, Alyssa, would be among them.

It was interesting, but not important enough to focus on. I didn’t want to give all of my cards away immediately, but there were some things I had to prepare.

I gestured with my hand and stones and rocks flew out of my inventory. I couldn’t manipulate them all at once, only five stone cubes at a time, each one my height in size. They slowly covered the area, providing me with a barrier and hiding places.

I saw a ripple of surprise coming from the stands. I couldn’t be sure if it was because of my manipulation, or that I was an earth magician.

I made sure to space out the earth I was distributing. I couldn’t get boxed in, and I didn’t want to lose access to precious materials.

When the last stone fell, I only had a couple of minutes left. The entire arena had changed, orange mana circling the area and swirling around me.

I weaved the mana into a web that would tell me about the slightest disturbance.

It danced and played at my request, and I smiled. Nothing would get past them without telling me.

Then there was the final preparation.

I gestured with my hands and five spears flew out of the inventory. They floated in the air around me, each one sharpened to a fine point. They could penetrate a metal dummy and my earth manipulation could reform them for further use.

I was ready.

I took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out, relaxing my mind as a staff member began a countdown.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1.

My mana screamed at me, an object colliding with it at the edge of my territory. Rocks shattered as William smashed through them with reckless abandon.

I drew the mana back and gestured with my hand. A platform grew underneath me. I could see the top of William’s head now, shining blue in the sunlight.

I shot a spear through it.

William’s sword moved faster than I could blink, slashing the incoming projectile in half.

It was too late. His distraction cost him time and the ground removed itself from underneath him. I clapped my hands together as he disappeared under the earth, the rock shards and dirt burying him six feet under.

I could feel him through my mana, struggling as I forced the earth to strangle him in its embrace. My broken spear quivered, and the shards of stone slivered through the cracks in the dirt towards the helmet he wore.

Checkmate.

The ground exploded and my earth cascaded into the air. William moved within the cloud of dirt and stone, and I tried to crush his body with it. He shrugged off my attack, and his feet glided over the quicksand traps I was forming. I could feel something blocking my ground from touching his feet.

He was levitating slightly above the ground.

I stepped back and switched tactics as he drew in closer. Stone and dirt swirled around him, blocking off his vision. William struggled in the cloud, and I repositioned myself away from him.

With a click of my fingers three of my spears flew towards him, rocketing through the air and straight into William’s torso. They stopped millimetres away from his body.

Something was wrong.

The spears trembled and cracked, shattering into pieces. Something dropped to the ground alongside them.

Ice.

William turned to face me, my position given away by my attack, and he bent his legs. With a powerful push he flew through the cloud of earth, smashing through its barrier and appearing before my eyes. William’s body hurtled towards me with his sword raised high.

He slashed down at me, and I waved my hand at him. A shadow crossed over my eyes and William’s body disappeared as a stone over three meters high shot out of the ground and smashed against him.

He flew back and crashed into the ground, stunned.

The ground underneath him trembled and collapsed as I manipulated it into covering him. I weaved the surrounding stones into a liquid-like state and forced them around his body, creating an inescapable tomb.

I coated his sword in stone and dragged it from his hand. It shot into the air and I commanded the earth to take it to the other side of the arena. Then I crushed the rocks around me and reformed them into new spears.

The stones trembled against William’s wrath, and another burst of power shot out of his body. His prison shattered but this time I was ready for him.

One by one my spears plunged into the earth, the element shifting out of the way at the last moment to let through the weapons.

William raised his hands to defend against the incoming barrage. It wasn’t enough. Stone cubes shattered and re-formed into a never-ending tsunami of spears rushing towards my enemy.

William’s armour dented, unable to keep up with the attacks. Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and my senses screamed at me.

I jumped back and a sword swung past my head.

The weapon turned back around and faced me. He was controlling it from afar.

I realised my mistake too late. My spear attacks had stopped, and William skittered along the ground towards me, his body entering my sight.

His sword returned to his hand, and I threw another wall of stone in front of him. He sliced through it without stopping, rushing through the broken stone.

“Okay.” I clapped my hands together.

William’s body was raised into the air as I created a stone underneath him. Before he could react, another stone materialised in the air and smashed into him. I drilled the two bits together, crushing him between them like a bug.

Shards of blue gemstones littered the air as William struggled to escape. Cracks formed along the stones, and I forced them back together. It wasn’t enough.

William burst through my trap, his body scraped but not destroyed. His sword stabbed at me, the tip hitting thin air.

The wind billowed through my body as I lifted myself into the air. A chair of stone flew by my willpower and raised me over the battlefield.

William skittered, his legs bent and the ground around him exploded as he flew towards me. I smiled. Dirt dropped out of my inventory like a waterfall and pushed against William. His momentum halted and his body crashed back into the ground.

My feet touched the ground as I repositioned myself. The wall of dirt provided me cover, and stones popped into existence and reshaped themselves into weapons.

I could feel William’s body pushing through the dirt. My spears shot towards him, and the moment they touched his body I willed stones into existence above him and underneath him, wedging him between them again.

The air filled with shrieks as the stone grinded against his armour.

His sword flew towards me, once again controlled remotely. This time I was ready. I created a stone in its path, coating the weapon in it and forcing the sword into the ground. It struggled against my will, and I was forced to split my attention between it and William.

There was no escape now. Every part of my attention was focused on keeping William contained, and his only defence would soon be destroyed.

My body lurched as something smashed into me from behind, and then pressed against my neck.

A dagger.

“I can’t believe you were that strong.” William spoke.

I looked to my side to see the toddler staring at me. His face was deadly calm, and his dagger clung to my throat

“You were never in the armour.” The realisation hit me.

It wasn’t just the weapon that was remote controlled.

“I never said I would be. I exited it the moment we stopped talking, and then made my way towards you slowly. The hardest part was making it look like my armour was blind, so that you’d think I was inside.”

“Once you had my full attention it was game over.” I gritted my teeth.

He’d already won, but the match wasn’t over. He wanted to hear me say it.

“You win.” I sighed.

The dagger released its hold from my throat. The sound of cheering echoed into the air from the stands, and I turned towards them, grabbing William’s hand and raising it into the air in celebration.

It had been a good win.

“So, you can see out of your armour’s eyes, or something?” I whispered to him among the cheers.

“I know where it is and how it’s positioned at all times.” William smiled. “It’s my dad’s technique.”

I recalled Master Wilhelm’s multiple bodies.

Dang it.

I looked up in the air with a smile. Master Wilhelm himself descended towards us. Then my expression fell as I got a closer look. He wasn’t floating. He was falling.

The cheers cut out as Master Wilhelm’s body crashed into the ground, and we stood in panicked silence.

“TO ARMS, WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”

The headmaster’s voice rang out across the stands. I took a hesitant step towards Master Wilhelm when William’s hand shook me out of my stupor.

“My father can fend for himself.” William grabbed my hand. “We must find safety.”

I nodded and the ground solidified underneath us as I willed it to provide us easier passage.

I waved my hand towards my side. “William.”

Blue gemstones filled the air as my earth brought William’s armour to him. He didn’t stop as the onze skittered beside him and scooped him up in its arms. He climbed into the helm and we rushed towards the headmaster’s stand.

Then we stopped. The headmaster, Gerial and the guard from the church of Crijik were under attack. A horde of white robed attackers assailed them.

It was the members of Fue’s congregation.

William and I shot each other a look, and the sky lit up as the headmaster exploded in a shower of light. My heart dropped, but then I saw his figure emerge.

He had transformed into a mass of pure white flames.

“They’re after the Marked one.” William seethed. “We have to find-”

A cloud of dust flew into the air beside us as a white robed figure fell from the stands. Before they could react, I opened the ground underneath them and buried them in a tomb of stone.

A mass of purple mist appeared beside us, and I raised my hands to attack.

“Younglings.” Eli’s voice called out to us. “Are you okay? I saw one of them land here.”

I sighed in relief as the elderly gold mask walked through the portal, his staff ready to attack.

“I buried him.” I reported.

Eli looked at me and then nodded. “We must get out of here. There are more coming. Defend me.” Eli commanded. “Do not allow a single interruption to the spell.”

He tapped his staff on the ground and we were surrounded by purple mist. William and I stood at the ready, prepared to hold back any incoming attackers.

It didn’t feel right.

“Something’s wrong.” My instincts screamed at me.

I stared at the stands and saw that the headmaster was mowing down his enemies. They couldn’t contend against his power. It was a lost battle.

Then I realised what was grating against my senses.

The body. I’d buried the attacker inside a stone casket, but the earth couldn’t find a body. There was nothing but metal underneath the robes. Its shape was familiar. I concentrated, trying to find out what I was feeling.

The attacker was a dummy. A metal dummy like the ones in the Zodiac compound. It wasn’t a real person.

My brain shot into overdrive to connect the patterns. This wasn’t a person. It was a fake. That meant that the Fue congregation hadn’t attacked us. They’d never arrived. I concentrated on my thoughts, allowing them to race and weave together the questions they’d found.

Why impersonate them? To get close to Gerial.

Why send a force that couldn’t win? As a distraction.

Why do you need a distraction? To get to William.

How had the assailants gotten in?

My body froze in horror, and I looked at the people beside me. Everyone else was focusing on Gerial and the headmaster. William stood with his sword at the ready and beside him was…

Eli.

The ground underneath the spatial magician erupted at my command, and he turned to me with a grim expression. His staff glowed, and I felt a force dragging against me, pulling me into its grasp.

The air warped around us and Eli hissed. “I warned you not to interfere with the spell.”

William raised his sword, but it was too late. A portal opened around us, and my body floated in the air, helpless against its pull.

… Beneath me was a world of purple. Crystals as far as my eyes could see…

… Eli’s staff shone with a brilliant purple light, and I heard a roar filled with pain. Below me the many-eyed nexus shifted, and liquid flowed from it as its shrieks filled the air…

… “I’m sorry youngling, I never wanted you to be involved.” …

… I drifted awake with a blanket draped over my body.

What had happened?

The memories slowly floated back to me. The battle. Master Wilhelm falling. The fake Fue followers. Eli.

I shot up.

Eli.

The old man had teleported me somewhere. My eyes scanned the room, and I felt something pressing into my wrists. I threw the blankets off me and stared at the metal chains underneath. They clamped against my hands and feet, and my heart dropped.

The old man had betrayed Zodiac.

I’d been captured.