*Date: 33,480 Second Quarter — Chalice Theocracy*
Aris once again charged his spells to their fullest, preparing to cast Featherfall to carry Sliver forward. But her eye pupils were moving right and left beneath closed lids, darting frantically like she was trapped in a nightmare. He checked her heartbeat. The rhythm was off, skipping beats, but it was there.
Aris didn't know what to do. He pulled out another health potion and was about to administer it when the voice cut through.
"Don't."
Aris turned his head, searching for the invisible speaker. "What?"
"Don't give her another. There will be no effect other than choking hazard. Just finish the dungeon and give her to the academy officials. If you win and she survives, she won't be kicked out. Keyra can heal her."
Aris cast Featherfall on Sliver and rushed toward the next room, her body drifting behind him like a pale ghost.
To reach the next chamber, Aris passed through dark moldy tunnels. The walls wept moisture, and strange fungi pulsed with bioluminescent patterns that made the shadows dance. After five minutes of walking, he reached the new room.
Four figures waited at the back, silhouettes in shadow. The room's aesthetic was almost the same as before, but this time the ring was twice the size. Wide enough for multiple combatants to maneuver without crowding.
"No," Aris thought, but two figures already walked up to the stage.
They spoke at the same time, voices overlapping in perfect synchronization. "Win one 2v2 duel to advance."
"No, I am alone! Come one by one!" But the figures didn't answer. "Of course, why would stupid Chalice be considerate? You might lose your companions or they attack you and die to an earthquake. Fucking idiots."
Aris sighed and looked at his potions. He downed another mixed stat potion and felt the familiar surge of power through his body. He still had another force and manifest potion and two resistance potions remaining.
"If this goes like this, the last room should be a 3v3 fight. I should keep one resistance potion for there." He poured reflect potion on his shield, watching the surface shimmer with defensive magic. Then he readied the unstable potion to throw. The unstable potions were basically grenades, but he had no idea how strong they were at tier 3. He hadn't had any convenient place to test them.
He took his place at the ring. The duo had already revealed themselves. One was a copy of number seven templar Fae, Sliver's right-hand man Thoulak. The other was rank six Seafolk Azure. But she'd been copied to a human form. Any other race other than Chalice's approved races must have been copied to an available race, Aris thought.
Aris cast Radiant Convergence. The sphere of light manifested above the staff, ready to attack.
Azure started blasting frozen balls at Aris while Thoulak lunged forward, closing the distance with practiced efficiency. Aris expected that, but he had no idea how to fight 2v1.
"This is not fair!" he shouted.
He tanked the ice balls. Two of them reflected back at Azure from his enchanted shield, but she easily dodged them and produced new ones. Thoulak had already reached him, circling to force Aris between them both.
Aris tried to remember how he'd endured the five fae students. But then they hadn't had weapons, and it was three months ago. They weren't really sharpened from constant sparring.
Aris fended off Thoulak's shield bash but couldn't escape Azure's new frozen ball attack to his back. Cold exploded across his spine, numbing his lower body for a crucial second. Before he could turn to Azure, Thoulak swung his sword through the opening and grazed Aris's shield-holding hand.
Blood welled from the wound, but Aris kept his composure and both concentration spells active. He sent a mixed wave of radiant flare and light missiles blinding and hurting Thoulak. But Azure was charging a new spell while Aris occupied himself with the templar.
She produced a giant ice ball. The sphere was massive, larger than Aris's torso, spinning with compressed cold that made the air fog around it.
"There is no way she can send that with good momentum at me," he thought.
But she did.
The giant ice rock came at Aris with huge force. Aris raised his shield and tried to block it, but the rock slammed into him with the weight of a boulder, sliding him across the ring and beyond its boundary.
Aris had lost the match. The duo beamed out from the ring, their forms dissolving. The other two entered the ring immediately.
They said at the same time: "Last chance."
Aris struggled to his feet, ice still melting on his clothes. "What if I lose this one too? Will they take us?" No answer came.
"Hey M. I am talking to you. If I lose this too, will they take us?"
The voice finally responded. "If you don't enter the arena, they will attack you outside of it. And if you lose once again, that means your whole squad is ineligible to advance in Chalice. You saw how they treat their own. How much will they care to take you outside as failed students?"
"Fuck you. Fuck this academy. Once I am out, I am leaving this school."
The voice paused, then spoke with something that might have been genuine curiosity. "Then who will protect Lyra? Bring her memories back?"
Aris felt like cold water had been dumped over him. All his blood seemed to drain from his face. How would this voice know about Lyra? Had he told anyone? He thought frantically through every conversation.
"Sorry, sorry. I didn't want to make you afraid." The voice almost sounded apologetic. "I didn't tell anyone. In fact, if you win, I can tip you the other relic's location you need. The one the engineers call Locke."
Aris gulped. He didn't want to continue shouting about Lyra and her condition for whoever might be listening. He stepped back into the ring, his eyes filled with cold rage.
The remaining two figures stepped onto the stage. They must be rank 4 and 5, Aris thought. A rank 5 human priest-mage and a rank 4 Fae priest-mage. They wouldn't act together in real life, and here they should collide from their conflicting magic styles.
Aris's boots hit the glowing circle again, the ring sealing with a thrum that vibrated through his bones.
Two opponents stood opposite him, both priest-mages. Their hands were already wreathed in opposing lights: gold and violet.
The human moved first, drawing sigils midair that burst into radiant chains, snapping toward Aris like whips.
He rolled sideways, dodging the first, but the second wrapped around his leg and seared through his armor. Pain lanced up through his thigh.
"Not this time." He slammed his hand to the floor, invoking Radiant Convergence. The sphere of light flared to life, flinging the chains apart. Flares and missiles shot out like a storm, slamming into both casters.
The fae retaliated instantly. Shadowlight rippled from his hands, merging into a pulsing dome that swallowed half the arena. Inside it, gravity bent wrong. Aris's body dragged sideways, his light flickering unstable.
Aris grit his teeth and hurled an Unstable Potion into the darkness.
The explosion tore through the dome, scattering the shadows and flinging both mages backward. Stone shrapnel flew everywhere, and the shockwave nearly knocked Aris off his feet.
Smoke filled the air. Aris leapt through it, shield glowing with reflected light, and struck the human's barrier dead-on. The reflection potion flared, and the priest's own holy burst rebounded, blinding him.
The fae recovered fast, chanting a tier 3 incantation. A spear of lightning energy formed and launched straight at Aris.
He barely had time to react. "Holy Defense!" he shouted, deflecting the flash. The colliding energies met midair with a deafening crack. The impact blasted him off his feet, but the reflected spell hit his opponent.
He hit the ground hard, but the fae fell harder.
When the smoke cleared, both enemies sprawled unconscious, and Aris stood bleeding, panting, barely upright. Burns and cuts covered his arms. His robes were singed and torn.
Light-filled etchings appeared on the walls. "Trial Room 2 Complete. Move on to next one." His opponents and the remaining silhouettes disappeared magically.
He spat blood and glared at the silent ceiling.
"Is that enough for you?"
No answer.
But in the corner, Sliver's body began shaking uncontrollably. Aris ran over to her, not knowing what to do. Her lips had turned blue, and frost seemed to creep across her skin.
Looking around, he saw the giant ice ball from the previous encounter. He broke it in half with the staff, the ice shattering into manageable pieces. He picked Sliver up and placed her on top of the broken flat surface. She stabilized a little from the cold, her shaking subsiding.
He cast Featherfall and picked up both her and the ice platform, floating them behind him like a bizarre stretcher.
He started casting Healing Touch to himself to wipe out effects of the fight. While walking with the ice-borne Sliver behind him, he began charging his skills for whatever came next.
"Fucking hell-shaped school. What was your job here?" He shifted from murmuring to himself to shouting at the voice. "Other than cloning kids to fight for Chalice?"
The voice returned, almost conversational. "Oh, I used to do much more than that. This closing of portals really took out my joy. So I am experimenting here."
Aris walked deeper into the darkness, wondering what horrors waited in the final trial.