Decoding the runes on the barrier was harder than Elincia had thought it would be. She wasn't well-versed in ancient elvish. Her mother had been teaching her how to read it, but she'd never finished learning before the revolt that had caused her to flee from her home. Despite how difficult it was, Elincia still did her best.

Ancient elvish was a runic based language. Rather than letters, they used symbols which, when combined together, formed meanings and concepts. A good example would be combining the rune for fire with a conjunction rune, like the runic symbol for douse, and following it with water. In the native tongues of man, such a combination would mean "To douse fire using water."

As she studied the runes, Elincia picked out many that she recognized on sight. "Contain," "all," "power," and "people." There were only eight runes being used, and even though she didn't recognize the other four, she could use process of elimination and logic to figure out what they were.

"To indefinitely contain people with power over others," Elincia said as she finished analyzing the runes. "That's what these runes are designed to do."

"You're sure that's what they say?" Lady Aakarshana asked, sounding skeptical. "I don't wanna put a rain on your parade or anything, but if you're wrong, then all of us are going to die by messing with this, right? I rather like living, so I hope you're positive about this."

Runes were not something that people could mess with lightly. If someone didn't know what they were doing and tried to disrupt a runic array, there was a good chance that the backlash would kill them. As this particular spell was a barrier that kept them from leaving, should someone mess with it without knowing how to break it down, then everyone within the barrier would die.

In a situation like this, Elincia could not help the feelings of uncertainty that welled up inside of her. If she was wrong, everyone would be killed. Their lives were in her hands. That kind of responsibility was not something that she'd ever had, nor was it something she ever wanted to have. However, in this situation, there was no other choice.

"Yes," she said, "I'm sure."

"That is good enough for me," Lady Akane said, holding a hand to her lips and smiling.

"Agreed," Lady Aakarshaka said. "In either event, we have neither the time nor the option of deliberating further."

Lady Aakarshana clicked her tongue. "Oh, whatever. Fine. But, if we all die from this, I'm blaming you."

"It seems a decision has been made," Lord Fuzen Taiga murmured.

"Indeed." Headmaster Stratello nodded.

"Karen," Lady Sylvia said, "do you have anything that can break this barrier?"

Standing up from where she sat, Karen held out another object, which looked like a small metal sphere.

"This should work," she said. "It's a device made specifically for the purpose of disrupting magical spells." She tilted her head. "I had originally created it to break down the magic circuits used by magical technology, but I've just finished modifyingit based on Elincia's decoding to break down this barrier. I did so by—"

"Yes, yes," Lady Erica interrupted with an air of impatience. "We understand that you're very proud about your invention. Now, could you please use it so that we may escape from this confinement?"

Lady Karen glared at Lady Erica, but she seemed to understand the importance of haste. Pressing several buttons on the small sphere, she threw it into the air. Light flared from the object as it crashed into the barrier. The light, a dark blue, splashed across the golden energy like liquid, and soon enough, the entire dome was colored like the ocean.

Cracks began appearing on the dome. They spread across it like webs being spun from a spider, and where the webs appeared, sunlight could be seen. Then, with a sound akin to shattering glass, the world returned to normal. The barrier had been broken.

And it was just in time to see a massive wall of earth descending on Caspian and someone else!

"I command thee, Odin All-Father, pierce the darkness and reveal the truth!" Lady Sylvia intoned as if reading ancient scripture.

A spear then appeared within her hands, composed of gray matter that crackled with an inner light. It looked like nothing Elincia had ever seen. Power emanated from it in waves, causing the hair on her arms to vibrate. A shiver ran down her spine.

Lady Sylvia threw the spear at the wave of earth, piercing it and causing the wave to scatter as if a hurricane had slammed into it. Everything was blown away. A fierce wind kicked up. Elincia shielded her eyes to keep from having debris hit her. When the winds dispersed, the view became clear. The wave was gone.

Three figures stood on the arena floor. One of them was Caspian and the other was Christo. The third was... not human.

It looked humanoid, but one that had been created by the earth. Its body was that of a female, with misshapen arms and lumps protruding from her body. Whatever it was, it was clearly hostile, for it sent a spear of earth at them.

"Hya!" Derek roared as he swung his massive claymore down. The air in front of him raged and clashed against the spear, demolishing it.

"Good boy," Lady Erica said. "Remind me to give you a reward later tonight."

"I shall do so with great pleasure, Lady Erica."

"D'artagnan," Lady Sylvia said.

"My Lady." D'artagnon pulled the sword from his waist and leapt down to the arena floor.

The Nueva sisters looked at their knights. "You guys go, too."

Hiksath and Vash saluted before drawing their scimitars and leaping over the balustrade.

"Oh, my," Lady Akane murmured before turning to her knight. "Kiriya-kun, would you mind going down there and helping out?"

Kiriya smiled gently at his sorceress. "Of course," he said, drawing his katana and launching himself into the air. It was high enough that it carried him clear across the arena.

"Derek?"

"Already on it, Lady Erica."

As Derek lumbered over the balustrade and crashed to the ground, his amor preventing him from leaping like the others, Lady Erica placed a hand on Elincia's shoulder. The action startled her so much that Elincia almost shrieked.

"Come along," Lady Erica said.

"Along?" Elincia blinked. "Where are we going?"

"Why, we're going down to Caspie, of course." Erica's eyes gleamed. Elincia's eyes widened, causing the older woman to chuckle. "Now, come with me. We must hurry. I noticed that Caspie's friend appears quite injured."

Nodding, Elincia followed Lady Erica as they went down to the arena. She hoped they weren't too late to save Caspian's friend.

***

Christo had passed out, leaving him as the only one close enough to witness the battle taking place.

Caspian understood that there was a difference between knight candidates like himself and the genuine article. However, those differences had never been so starkly displayed than they were right then.

D'artagnan, his sword barely visible as a glimmer of light, sliced into the creature that, moments before, had nearly killed him and Christo. Spikes of earth shot from the ground and were mercilessly cut down like wheat before a scythe. He then returned his attention to the being that had launched them, lopping off large chunks of its body as he pushed it back.

That speed... it's like he's not even human!

Caspian had worked hard to be as fast as he was. While not the fastest knight in the school, he was proud to say that few people could launch attacks and combinations faster than him—and all those people used weapons that were lighter. Yet D'artagnan used the same type of weapon as him, a broadsword, and he was swinging it around at speeds that Caspian could scarcely comprehend.

So, this is the difference between us.

Seeing this made Caspian feel like he'd never measure up to them.

As D'artagnan continued fighting, the creature slammed its hands on the ground. The earth rose up all around him, threatening to consume him. Yet just when it looked like he would be crushed by the immeasurable weight of the earth, Hiksath and Vash darted in and sliced it apart, freeing D'artagnan.

Working in tandem, the three attacked the being, acting in synchronized harmony to foil the creature's every attempt at killing them. Their blades were like whirlwinds. Every swing sliced something apart. It was like a dance.

"Caspian!"

Elincia and Erica came running up to them. His best friend looked almost horror struck. Her eyes were on Christo, who was passed out and bleeding on the ground. She seemed unable to take her gaze off of the giant spike that had impaled his stomach.

"Ele..."

Dropping down next to him, Elincia immediately began checking for injuries as she spoke in a hurried voice, "Are you okay? You're not injured anywhere, are you? Spirits! There's blood all over your clothes!"

"It's not mine," Caspian said, turning to Erica. "Can you heal him?"

Erica smirked. "Who do you think you're talking to? I'll have him back up in no time!"

As Erica began to chant, Elincia pulled out a handkerchief from somewhere on her person, and she used it to wipe off the dirt and sweat from Caspian's face. "I'm sorry... I wish I could do more for you, but this is all I can do right now."

Caspian closed his eyes as he felt her soft hands caress his skin. "Don't worry about it. This is more than enough."

"Yakushi Nyorai, I call upon thee, come to my aid. Heal this man, so that he might rise again like a Phoenix rises from the ashes!" Erica chanted her aria.

Christo's body seemed to catch fire. Ethereal flames flickered as if caught within a breeze. The large stake stuck in his gut was pushed out as the wound on his body started to close up, hissing as steam wafted off his skin. Soon enough, the wound was gone, leaving pink, wholesome flesh in its place.

Clapping her hands, Erica looked most pleased with herself. "There. That should keep him from dying. He'll still need rest, though."

"Thank you."

"Ufufufu," Erica laughed, "if you really want to thank me, how about you tell me how magnificent I am?"

"Not happening," Caspian stated flatly.

"How harsh, and after everything that I've done for you."

"The help you've given me is nothing compared to the trouble you've caused me."

"It seems your claws have come out today. Ufufufu, how cute."

"Tch!"

"What are you two talking about?" Elincia asked, appearing completely baffled by their dialogue.

"Nothing," Caspian mumbled.

The battle between the creature and the knights had progressed. Massive spikes rose from the ground, pillars jutted from the walls. It was as if the entire arena had come alive to fight the knights, who did their best to avoid being killed. Yet it seemed that, where once they had been pushing the creature back, now they were the ones being pushed back.

Several pillars rose into the air, curving around and coming back down. It looked like they were going to crush D'artagnan, Hiksath, and Vash. Derek leapt out in front of the massive pillar and, the veins in his neck bulging as he roared, swung his sword. A catastrophic shock wave was unleashed from the tip of his blade. Shaped like a crescent, it slammed into the pillar and cut straight through it.

Even now, Caspian couldn't help but marvel at the technique, which used nothing more than pure strength and gravity to generate powerful shock waves. It seemed as if Derek could even turn the shock waves into blades that sliced through objects. He couldn't fathom how powerful someone needed to be to have that kind of ability.

Yet even as he marveled, more spikes and pillars shot from various parts of the colosseum, and not even Derek could defend against all of them. The group of knights was forced to scatter. Kiriya used his katana to cover their retreat. Swinging the sword around by using momentum to generate speed, he cut into the pillars and spikes that came too close to him. Likewise, Hiksath and Vash gracefully danced around several hands that rose from the ground and tried to smash them. Even D'artagnan was forced to stay on the defensive, his bladework impeccable as he cut through everything that came near.

"Is it just me, or is that thing getting stronger?" Caspian asked.

"It is not just you," Erica said. "That thing is definitely getting stronger."

"What is it?"

"It's a spirit," Sylvia answered as she and the other sorceress appeared on the arena floor. The Nueva sisters walked beside Akane, while Karen hovered in the background with her knight. "If I were to guess, I'd say that is the spirit Gaia, great mother of the earth and one of the most powerful Gaian Clan spirits."

Gaia was the spirit that the Gaian Clan was named after. According to those who worshipped the spirits as gods, Gaia was the creator of all life on this planet. It was she who had shaped the mountains, created the oceans, and gave life to the land. Supposedly, she was one of the most powerful spirits ever, standing on par with Odin All-Father, the great spirit of the Nordic Clan.

"This is going to be a hard fought battle," Aakarshaka said.

"Hard fought? It's going to be annoying is what it is," her sister replied sharply.

"It does look like we're going to have our hands full," Akane added, "so why don't we act quickly and send this spirit back to where it came from?"

"Heh." Aakarshana grinned, showing off a single fang in her mouth. "I can get behind that. Shiva! Freeze this jerkwad in everlasting darkness!"

A cool white mist spread from Aakarshana's fingertips. Everything it touched froze over. Frost gathered along the ground. Ice crept across spikes and pillars, freezing them in place. Not even Gaia, spirit of Earth, was left untouched. Ice quickly gathered on its legs and proceeded upwards towards its thighs. The spirit struggled to break free, but doing so only caused its body to break as cracks formed along the ice's surface.

"Ifrit, blast this monstrosity with your unholy flames! Consume it and turn it to dust!"

Like the roaring of a ferocious predator, fire blazed to life in Aakarshaka's palm. With nary a thought, she sent the fire straight at Gaia, who was unable to move and took the attack head on.

A massive explosion rocked the colosseum. Elincia screamed as everything in front of them was consumed in a pillar of fire that rose into the sky, so bright that Caspian was forced to shut his eyes, lest his cornea be burned to a crisp. When the pillar of fire died down, it was to reveal that everything within the arena had been devastated. The ground appeared to have been glassed, and the pillars and spikes that once moved as if they'd possesed a life of their own had shattered into crystalline shards.

Caspian thought it was over, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was not over.

The earth started to shake seconds before the ground underneath everyone's feet swelled like the beginnings of a wave. Elincia fell into him with a scream, and Caspian held her tightly to keep them both from falling.

"W-what's going on?!" he demanded to know, but no one answered him—or rather, they couldn't answer him.

Because in that moment, the earth itself tried to swallow them whole.