Chronicles of the True Wizard

Felix spent a couple days just jumping between The Construct Factory, the Mana Accelerator and working on some designs for items entirely for himself. He wasn’t needed anywhere as they hadn’t really gotten to that point yet with any of the projects but he was still a big part of them and he wanted to manually review the designs and help with the construction.

He then took a brief break from the lab for his Mana Control Mentorship with Fin, where they began testing various training methods.

Felix also made sure to have Grim and Mark coordinate the enchanting focused Mind Residents to go and work for Aldahn at Inscripticae. While they had more knowledge than he had had when he was working there full time two epochs ago, they had little to no actual experience. Even Felix had had some experience when he had started there, albeit limited from the Integration.

His Mind Residents only experience, was limited to the simulations in his Mind City. Having them work for Aldahn, helped Inscripticae and the Residents out now and in the future, Felix, once he had his own personal fleet of experienced enchanters.

After that, both Felix and Fin returned to the lab but Felix was only there for a few hours before Melody dragged him back out. The only reason he went with her, was that her reason for interrupting him was reasonable. Everyone had started arriving for The Abyss and the entrance would be appearing soon.

As they flew, Felix right next to Melody despite her trying to outpace him, he used a spell to make it easier for them to speak, “So when’s the door actually open?”

She spun herself around to face him with her entire body, flying along on her side, “Sometime in the next day… maybe two. Nobody has an exact time. Basically, Rhonan did everything he needs to to activate it now, we just wait till it… opens.”

“So there’s like… a boot up time?”

“A what?”

“Uh… Old world tech thing. It’s doing some kind of setup before it can actually open?”

“Could be. Or it’s just really old.” She shrugged, “Who knows.”

“So is everyone just… waiting around then?”

She nodded, “Well, yeah. More or less. No one wants to be caught on the other side of the planet when it actually opens.”

Felix nodded, “I take it that’s what the building around the arena is for? All the rooms inside of it?”

She nodded again, “Yes. Exactly. Those who are…”

“Important?”

“Sure. Important enough, can get a room in the building. All the teams with at least one student at Eramith get a room.” She offered an apologetic look, “I tried getting Mera and the other Residents a room too but…”

He nodded, “Don’t worry about it. I mean… if every Eramith student gets a room, couldn’t we just say we’re all on a team with them, get the rooms then just say we changed our minds on the teams right before we go in?”

“You could… try. They aren’t just going to let everyone enter at once though. They’re going to have the teams from the school walk out one by one to enter.”

Felix cringed, “And make a whole show of it?”

She tapped the tip of her nose indicating he was spot on.

“Nevermind then. Are they even going to be let in through that door?”

She nodded, “They’ll just have to wait for all our teams to go through. By the way, have you thought about what you want from potential sponsors?”

“Yeah. Rare raw materials, corpses, spells and magic items.”

Her face dropped into a you-can’t-be-serious-I-knew-you-were-going-to-do-this expression as she half sighed and half groaned, “Seriously?”

He shrugged defensively, “What? You think it’s better if I ask for something that’s useful and that I can’t do myself?”

“Of course not. Then you’d have to list out everything you can do.”

“Right so, what the hell do I ask for?”

She groaned again, “Ugh. You must have been a real blast to buy gifts for. I assume you had holidays before the Integration?”

He nodded, “A couple big ones. My city in the Integration actually tried to create a new holiday but… I don’t remember if it… happened again the next epoch…”

“Let me guess, you were too cool for school and spent all your time in your tower talking to the voices in your head?” She smirked and cocked a brow.

Felix snorted, “Yeah. Pretty much. Speaking of, are there major holidays in the multiverse?”

She tilted her head a little, “Nothing universal but like you saw with Ascension day, major religions, cultures and sometimes races have their own.”

He nodded, “I figured. I just thought there would be at least one universal one.”

“Not really. There is Loran Hallowguard.”

“What? Who’s that? What do they have to do with anything?”

“Loran. The party god. Well…” She spun around once in the air, “Not really. They’re an actual god, not of parties specifically it’s just… most people know them as the party god.”

“They throw big parties?”

“Yeah. Completely inconsistently. They’re… friends? I guess? with The World Tree and host the parties in it. Those are the biggest parties in the multiverse.”

“I see. You consider that a holiday?”

She snickered, “As big as The World Tree is, they only invite a few hundred thousand people. Everyone else who isn’t invited, throw their own parties, take the day off, basically whatever they want.”

“That’s… odd.”

“Meh.” She shrugged, “I think everyone just wants to have fun and be a part of it.”

“I… guess. It kind of sounds like it’s just an excuse and that everyone really just needs a day off.”

“Maybe.” Melody dropped below Felix and rubbed at her chin thoughtfully, “Who would mandate it though? If you have employees and run a restaurant, people want to go out, why would you let your employees take the day off?”

“I guess… we had governments that did that for us. Couldn’t the Telviras council do that?”

“Not in the way you mean. They don’t really control wages and can’t stop someone from firing their employee.”

“How is it that employees aren’t abused everywhere?”

She shrugged a little in resignation, “They are, sometimes. The only reason society doesn’t completely fall apart, are the gods keeping things in check and the fact that the multiverse is massive.”

Felix nodded along, “We had monopolies. I take it that doesn’t ever really happen in the multiverse?”

She frowned, “Whatever word you just used… was translated…. oddly. No, not really. Not for more than a few epochs at least. It’s not that hard to just reverse engineer something. There aren’t any truly unique materials or creatures…”

“No copyright laws either…”

“What?”

“Nothing. I guess you do have Professions and Classes unique to some Gods though.”

“That’s true. There’s a balancing act with that too. If you have a Rare Class but you don’t ever give it to anyone, it wouldn’t be Rare anymore it would be Legendary or Unique so… The System will create a Class that’s so similar, they’re essentially the same then give that out until the Rarity fits.”

Felix’s eyes widened, “Really? What happens to the original Class then?”

“It gets renamed.”

“Holy shit. So you can’t really hoard a Class then?”

She scoffed, “Of course you can. You can just only give it out to those who sign a System Contract with you.”

“Oh. There are enough people that would sign just to get the Class that it doesn’t really end up being an issue then?”

“Yeah. The System’s only stepped in a few times that I know of.”

“The more I learn about The System…”

She didn’t guess what he was going to say and simply waited for him to answer.

“The weirder it gets.”

“I don’t disagree that it’s weird but… How so?” She slightly cocked her head.

“It’s like it’s constantly trying to do multiple things… like it doesn’t have a purpose or a goal but it’s like…”

“A whole bunch of people arguing and compromising over things?” She smiled.

“Something like that.”

“Who knows. Maybe it is and all this is just one big simulation.” Melody smirked.

“You’ve been reading too much sci-fi.”

She punched him to no avail and in response, he sped up past her, much to her annoyance.

Flying towards the Mountain Range that separated them from the arena and the building around it, Felix began hearing the murmuring sound of a massive grouping of people. It was almost entirely deafened by the building, the material it was made of and the enchantments put upon it, but not entirely. He still heard the slight hum, the pitch lowered by the building, even over the mountain.

As he crested over it, the once unfinished looking building looked almost exactly the same, but felt completely different.

Now, there were thousands of people flying, walking, driving and teleporting in next to it. Some came in groups, others in pairs and others alone. There were no massive ships like he had seen dropping off students when he first arrived but it seemed that was a logistical restriction. Instead, there were portals siphoning hundreds through them and into the building.

As a result, the Aether was not only fluid and malleable, it was like it was statically charged. It felt energetic.

He and Melody flew down and entered through one of the doors instantly shifting from the quiet, base level of conversation from those outside, to the cacophonous sound of millions of people talking all at once. The once empty lobby, was packed, not only on the ground level but even flying through the room, Felix was bumping into people, weaving and shoving people aside.

Despite the construction and lack of decoration not having changed in the slightest, having people packed into the building made it feel lived in.

It also helped that everyone in the lobby was feeling some amount of excitement, nervousness and anticipation. That feeling, common amongst nearly everyone present, saturated the Ambient Anima. At least to Felix, it felt like it was impossible for anyone to feel anything besides excitement as the Ambient Anima seeped into their Souls. At least, for everyone except for Felix.

That excitement was instantly quelled though as one of the hundreds of doors into the lobby opened.

The Ambient Anima, previously rife with excitement felt like it was instantly replaced. In its place, was something akin to bloodlust, but not quite. It wasn’t a desire to kill, it was a complex mix of a desire to fight, a certainty of victory and a feeling of conviction. Of having faith in their beliefs and goals.

It was also the strongest Aura Felix had ever felt, bar none. Even, from half a kilometer away.

While Felix definitely felt the Aura, he was largely unaffected in the sense that it didn’t hinder him, it just surprised him. Not a single other person in the room though, seemed to feel the same way. Even Melody seemed to almost trip on the air next to him as they flew and likely would have plummeted to the ground, like the rest of everyone that had been flying in the room, had he not caught her.

It made them stand out quite a bit, being the only ones left still flying in the room, luckily no one was paying attention to them, instead, everyone was either bowing, prostrating themselves or desperately trying to move aside as Rhonan walked into the room.

No longer in the white silk robes that Felix now associated with a hospital gown, no longer with white streaks in his hair and no longer sporting a cavernous hole in his side, Rhonan looked exactly as Felix had once expected him to.

His Aura contributed greatly to his presence but his posture, the slight crackling and glowing of the arcane symbols across his body that seemed impossible to grasp and the echoing thumps of his steps also contributed. His gait and completely blank expression, his piercing gaze and complete disregard for everyone in the room also contributed. He even wore a nicer set of pants though remained without shoes or top to accompany it.

Felix knew this was only the start but, he had to admit Rhonan had definitely succeeded in announcing, he was back and as strong as ever.

At least, that’s what he wanted everyone to think. Felix wasn’t sure how anyone would doubt that fact, except him, who knew Rhonan still had some recovery to do.

As Rhonan walked through the middle of the room, the low level sentients on the ground desperately crawling out of his way to make room, they all slowly began to adjust and come to their senses and, they began to murmur. Felix could hear all of them, but even if he hadn’t, he knew exactly what they were all whispering about. The one addition to Rhonan’s look, the only one in millions of years as far as Felix could tell. A single hand print on his chest with fingers that looked like beams of light and twisting tendrils reaching out of it from every other direction.

That… didn’t quite heal the way I hoped it would.

Without saying a single thing, Rhonan passed through the room and disappeared down one of the halls. An entire procession had followed him too, but Felix wasn’t sure how many had even noticed them. No one seemed to have even noticed him and Melody still in the air. He had remained perfectly still just in case, but he honestly didn’t think it was necessary in hindsight.

Though he didn’t know where he was going, Felix carried Melody down a random hallway just to get out of the room as it erupted behind them in gossip, the Ambient Anima slowly restoring itself to something close to its previous state.

“I… Thanks…” Melody shook her head and winced, as if in pain.

Felix just nodded once and kept flying, hoping to distance himself from the entrance and the crowd.

“Did that… not affect you… at all?”

Felix shook his head, “Spirit Sage. Remember?”

She nodded, “Yeah… still.”

“I didn’t expect him to do something like that.”

She looked up at him, “Like what?”

“Oppress so many people like that just to make an entrance.”

“That’s not really what that was. Yes he was making an entrance but it’s not like he would have stepped on anyone if they didn’t crawl away. You notice him specifically step around a few ankles so he didn’t crush them?”

Felix nodded, “Yeah. Still, the Aura.”

“He could have killed most people in that room with his Aura alone, or at least driven them irrecoverably insane. That wasn’t oppression at least not purposeful. That was just him projecting his presence.”

Felix looked at her curiously.

“His presence, his Aura, his being… is just strong enough that it affects all the Souls around him if he doesn’t suppress it.”

“Wait… Could you literally change someone’s personality like that?”

“Yes. It would take you bathing in an Aura like that for days but you definitely could. It also depends heavily on your Soul strength. It wouldn’t ever really work on me but…”

Felix nodded in understanding as he followed the hall in essentially a straight line until he was forced to take a few turns and ended up back outside, in the arena.

He looked to the side and picked the nearest seat then carefully placed Melody down in it and sat next to her.

“Thanks.” She whispered as she slid into the seat.

Felix nodded again as he looked around.

There were others in the arena who had wandered in to check it out, possibly even hundreds of thousands. They were spread all throughout the arena though and it was nearly impossible to tell due to its size, and the fact that it still felt completely empty.

Looking down at the center of the arena, which could have housed entire university campuses within it, a part of him marveled at the size but no part of him wondered why they needed it. Even a single Caster’s Duel in the tiny cylinder he had fought in had felt constrained back when he was so much weaker. Now, especially after seeing Romar and Uphi fighting, Zeraxes on the battlefield not to mention the domain skills and the massive metal monstrosity from the followers of Thraverick the Forge God, he knew the arena was the right size.

What made it all possible compared to earth, above all else, was the fact that the average viewer’s Perception stat let them see what was happening. Everything else just involved better materials, more engineering and a sentient planet to help construct it.

“Any chance looking down there, you feel some burning desire to compete and a desperate need for glory?”

Felix snorted, “No.”

Melody sighed, “A girl can dream.” She stopped pretending and perked up just a moment later, “On the other hand, we aren’t exactly the underdogs but we definitely aren’t the favorites.”

“If I showed everyone what I can do in a Caster’s Duel tournament, an Aura contest, it would ruin that.”

“Uh huh. I mean yes but don’t make it seem like that’s why you aren’t participating.”

He smirked, “Guess that means none of can compete in the tournament.”

She slumped down a little further in her chair, “The others already said no too…”

Felix laughed, “What about Zeraxes, Romar and all of them. Are they signed up for any events in the tournament?”

She scoffed, “No. You think they’d waste time they could be spending in The Abyss on some random tournament event?”

He laughed again and she chuckled a little.

Once they had both calmed down a little, he looked over at her, “You good now?”

“Yeah. Let’s go to our rooms.”

Felix nodded and they both rose from the stands.

She led him through the halls and to one of the generic looking rooms with an identical door and, he suspected, layout to every other one in the hall.

It wasn’t very big. In fact, it had four beds and just enough room to walk around them and store some equipment. That was it.

Not that it mattered much considering most people would be spending their time in the training hall Romar and Uphi had been using or getting food, socializing, visiting Gods and friends. In general, no one was expected to spend much time in the rooms.

Once inside, Melody dropped a number of items from a spatial storage item onto a couple of the beds. On one, she dropped a set of armor. It looked similar to the one Adaline had tried on but it was evidently completely different, and much higher quality, even had Felix not identified it.

[B - Legendary] Leather Plate of the Unkillable Calamity

[Regenerative][Sapient]

A set of armor fashioned from the treated leather of a once fearsome monster that held dominion over an entire planet. Though their attacks were devastating, the real strength of the beast was the ridiculous resilience of their hide. Skinning the beast alone required the use of S grade tools and fashioning armor from the hide, required very specific and specialized crafting methods.

The result, is armor that is even more resilient than the creature it was created from and that is nearly indestructible within the B Grade. Bones were utilized where possible to enhance protection without sacrificing significant mobility. The remnant of the beast, once defeated, was also carefully imbued throughout the armor giving it a strong regenerative property and retaining some of its unyielding will, adding to the overall defensive properties.

The armor was darker, making the bones look that much brighter, but even more than that the entire thing was more elegant. The plates were smaller and more shaped, the torso was tighter and better fitting and the entire thing looked less like a barbarian’s armor and more like a ranger or an assassin’s armor.

“Woah. How much did that cost?”

She shrugged without looking at him, “More that it should have, given the timing… less than you’d expect though.”

Looking over at the other bed, she had placed a single ring on the bed. It was effectively made up of four identically shaped pieces, each of a different material looping over into the next like a wave, endlessly around the ring.

[B - Ancient] Ring of Natural Disasters

[Regenerative][Sapient][Dark]

A ring imbued over time with the Ambient Anima within natural disasters. The ring itself is split into four and each section contains the essence of a single disaster. The original use of this ring was lost to time and it has been mainly used for its effect of enhancing Auras.

“That’s… cool.”

She nodded, “It was my father’s. He was actually pretty happy to be rid of it. He never did find a great use for it.”

“So what now? We just wait around for the entrance to appear?”

“Well, people will start taking seats in the arena pretty soon to watch the whole opening and entry ceremony. We also need to collect the rest of our team and at least make some kind of appearance.”

“Appearance?” Felix cocked his head and his brow.

“Most of the gods in the entire multiverse are either here or arriving shortly.”

“I was kind of hopi-”

She shook her head, grabbed his wrist and started dragging him out of the room, “Nope. I won’t make you compete but I want the Gods to at least be aware of us.”

“You’re just gonna leave those on the beds?”

“We’re on Eramith, remember? No one can get into the rooms except Gods, even they would have a hard time and even then, why would they?”

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going to break into the upper floors and walk around bumping into people and pretending it’s a coincidence.”

Felix groaned, “Of course we are. What if Adaline or Peace show up?”

“The building will lead them to the room.”

Heading down the hallway they had previously used, just a few minutes later, and it was already noticeably more full. Where it had been nearly empty before, now there was at least a person every few meters all the way to the arena. They didn’t follow the crowd though into the stands to find seats, instead they followed the massive circular hallway around the outside of the arena where the various shop stands were setting up.

She led him over to one of the large open columns on the side and they flew up a few floors to the top of the column, where there was a small landing.

All the other floors they had passed through, here and before, had been completely open for anyone to wander through. On the landing before them though, there was a completely blank wall that Felix could tell was about a meter thick.

Approaching it, Melody leaned forwards as if she were listening though it then began whispering, “Hey. Open up for an old friend?”

A silent moment passed then the wall split down the middle and slid open, curiously without any Mana as far as Felix could tell.

She smiled and skipped through, still grasping Felix’s wrist to prevent him from escaping.

“Why did we have to break in and once again, how are you such good friends with the planet?”

“This is the floor with the all the booths for the Gods and large organizations.” She completely ignored the second half of his question.

“Isn’t your dad going to be here? Couldn’t you have gotten an invitation from him?”

She looked back at him with a disgusted expression, “Of course I could, but then I’d have to listen to him chastise me about my choice of team.”

“He doesn’t approve?”

“He knows little to nothing about any of you. He just wants me on Fyrden’s team.”

“Is Fyrden being trained to replace your father the same way Zeraxes and Romar are?”

She half shook her head, “Not quite. He won’t replace my father. He’d become a god alongside him.”

“Come to think of it, why don’t Romar and Zeraxes fathers stick around once they become gods too?”

“They will. They’ll just hand over their current holdings and domains.”

Felix’s face fell a little, “Are you telling me they just want to pawn off the responsibility so they can do whatever they want?”

She smiled wide, “Something like that.”

Where the other corridors around the arena held various shops, currently being set up, the top corridor held none. It was almost entirely empty, even from viewers wandering around ahead of the crowd. Instead, Felix saw a few processions of staff following some Gods and a few Demigods and A grade elites in the hall, but they weren’t wandering. They all moved quickly and with purpose.

As to what they were doing, he had no idea and no foundation to guess from.

Though he had no way of knowing when someone was coming, Melody did. Her Anima senses, being as naturally talented as she was, allowed her to sense especially gods from nearly halfway around the arena.

He followed along with her, flying at her top speed, until they were just close by then they slowed and pretended they were just walking down the hall as a pair of Gods walked across and towards a booth. One was a woman, a beautiful looking woman with overwhelming confidence and grace. The other essentially looked like a punk. He had wild hair that was blue, green and every shade between.

The man, with his hands clasped behind his head as he walked, noticed them and very casually saluted to Felix as they walked.

The woman maintained her composure but from the way her Aura tightened, Felix knew disapproved of something her brother had done.

As soon as they entered their booth, Melody spun on her heels to face Felix, “Why did it look like Nyrrasil knew you?”

Felix winced and shrugged a little defensively, “Let’s just say I ran into him in Osgard.”

She gawked at him, completely offended he hadn’t told her but whatever arguments she had were cut short as the feeling of another God approaching washed over the both of them.

Instead of running towards them though, Melody’s eyes widened slightly in fear and she tried to lead them away. She was far too slow though as the god appeared just a few moments after they both sensed them.

A tall and muscular Rhunar man with vibrant red horns sitting amongst long flowing blonde hair suddenly appeared from one of the floor entrances. He wore a fitted set of completely white robes that somewhat looked like a long, tailored suit for a butler.

[SS - Divine] Cassius (Lvl 5697)

Despite being at least a few hundred meters away and clearly moving away from the God, Cassius almost immediately noticed the two of them and transformed into a crimson liquid. The liquid moved like a laser beam and reformed his body just in front of them with a wide toothy smile.

“Why hello there… young ones.”

Melody forcibly washed away most of her aversion and smiled, “Cassius.”

“It is quite the pleasure to finally be able to meet you, Melody.”

She smiled a little wider in response.

“And you,” Cassius turned his head to look at Felix, “While I have heard much less about you, I must say meeting you in person, I am quite intrigued.”

“Why’s that?”

Cassius looked Felix’s body up and down, “You seem to be quite competent in areas most are lacking. That alone is enough for me to… pay attention. For it leads me to wonder, what other aspects might there be, that make you… unique.”

Felix wasn’t entirely sure what to say but that didn’t seem to matter. Cassius was more than happy to just continue talking.

“Now I must contend with my own curiosity. I am however, not a very patient being and whether or not I can wait to observe your descent in the Abyss is yet to be determined.”

“Well, you’ll just have to.” Melody smiled, “We’ll do o-”

Suddenly, a voice Felix didn’t recognized called out his name from down the hall, “Felix!”

All three of them immediately looked over and judging from their Auras and facial expressions, Melody was relieved and Cassius was annoyed by the interruption. Felix however, was just curious who the hell it was. Looking over a 4 foot tall man with a lithe build wearing thick furs approached, riding a large Icy Dire Wolf. He was some kind of race Felix didn’t recognized with thick white hair tied into a braid, pale-nearly translucent-skin with a blue tint to it and vibrant blue tattoos all over his face.

[S - Legendary] Thorin (Lvl 6249)

[S - Legendary] Blizz (Lvl 6247)

Luckily, it didn’t take them more than a second or so to reach them, Blizz the Dire Wolf, skidding to a stop just a meter short of their feet.

“Hey! Where’s Nova?”

Felix slightly cocked his head, “You… recognize me?”

“Course I do. You rejected my recruitment.”

“I…” Felix shook his head a little, “did.”

Thorin hopped off Blizz, patting their head as he did so, “Well, of course we recognize you. We picked you two out personally after all.”

Felix mentally noted the fact that Cassius was essentially scared off and slipped out without saying anything. In response to Thorin, he winced a little, “Sorry about rejecting you.”

The god quickly waved him off, “Oh, don’t worry about it. I totally get you had other priorities. You seem much stronger now than when we last scouted you so, something must have worked out, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy overall with my recruitment. If I had another slot, I would have taken you both up on your offer.”

He shook his head and waved him off, indicating there were no harsh feelings, “Where is Nova by the way?”

“I left her at a Professor’s lab. She is currently sleeping.”

“I see.” Thorin looked over at Blizz and began scratching behind his ears, “The familiar bond is one of the most fulfilling and unique experiences in the entirety of the multiverse.” He looked at Felix, eyes serious while he smiled sincerely, “Treasure it.”

Felix nodded, “I do. Nova and I are just fairly independent beings.”

Thorin smiled a little wider, like a concern of his had been assuaged, “Good. I can understand that. With Blizz and I-” He looked over and the two Gods met each-others gaze, “-I know it sounds corny but, I just knew. This was my partner for the rest of my life.”

He turned back to Felix, “We were so interested in you because you chose an exceedingly unpopular option in a Sprite but, you’ve made it work. The both of you seem to have thrived from your bond. Speaking of, why a Matter Sprite?”

Felix’s reasons were much less noble than Thorin’s so he tried his best to sugar coat things, “I got some advice that it would work out well and… help fill in my gaps.”

He smiled wide, “There’s nothing wrong with picking a familiar based on pragmatic reasons.” He gripped Blizz’s fur and hopped back onto their back, “I look forward to watching you in The Abyss and seeing your dynamic with Nova.”

He then looked at Melody with a smile and nodded before Blizz bounded off and they vanished into one of the booths off the hall.

Turning back to Melody, Felix smirked a little, “I can see why you said you love those guys.”

She smirked as well, “I’m impressed how quickly they noticed the situation and how quickly Cassius disappeared when they approached.”

“I’m impressed they scared him off so easily.”

“Anyways, on to the next!”

“Really? Even after…”

“Yeah. Not all the Gods are nice people. Some are just weird. A lot of them actually. You just gotta expect it.” She shrugged.

They ran around for a few minutes before running into Zerathus. Although they didn’t really interact, they just saw him arrive. Still, Felix was surprised by how young he looked.

With evolutions, people had a lot more control over their looks and there really was no reason they had to look their age at all. Still, seeing a man that barely looked 20 and realizing they were a God, was a little jarring. He had white hair, a young face and wore a vest that was open, exposing the majority of his chest and stomach.

Felix didn’t catch much else though as he only appeared for a moment before disappearing again in a bolt of Lightning. His entourage following along a few minutes behind him.

They managed to sense a few other Gods but didn’t catch up to any of them. Melody did manage to identify and avoid a few she didn’t want to see without Felix ever even figuring out who they were avoiding too. After Cassius, Thorin and Blizz, it felt a lot to Felix like they were just scrambling around the floor.

Once she was done and ready to leave, Felix was surprised how satisfied Melody seemed when they finally started heading back despite having talked to just two Gods in total, “Why do you seem so happy? We met three gods, one of them was Cassius and the other two are essentially one entity.”

She smiled, “For one thing, I didn’t need to talk to anyone, being seen is enough. Even more than that, Cassius being interested and Thorin chasing him off…”

Felix nodded, “Is going to at least create some kind of rumor amongst staffers.”

“Exactly. The point of that was just to have our names be a little more prevalent in their thoughts and conversations.”

“I guess we’ll see if this pays off.”

“It will.”

To head back down towards their room, they followed the hall back towards the same empty column they had used to ascend to the floor in the first place because it was closest to their room on the floors below. As she approached the door and whispered to the planet to open it however, another God appeared just on the other side, in the process of coming up.

[SS - Ancient] Akaroth (Lvl 7847)

While Felix knew very little about the God, what he saw was drastically different from what he had expected.

Akaroth looked a bit like a child. A lithe man, shorter than Felix by a hand or two with perfectly black hair and pointed ears that curved upwards. His skin was perfect and his cheeks slightly plump, despite his thin body, making it look like he still carried around excess baby fat and exacerbating how young he looked. His flickering red irises, intense glare and frown however, somewhat broke the illusion.

Flying behind him, barely fitting within the vertical corridor, was a massive humanoid demon with claws, wings, horns and an appropriately inhuman, demonic visage that looked like a helmet.

[S - Divine] Ruetherak (Lvl 6301)

The God being right there clearly surprised Melody, somehow and she froze for a moment as he just glared at her.

Felix lightly grabbed her robe and pulled her to the side to make room and Akaroth along with Ruetherak stepped out of the vertical hall. The entire time, his brow was deeply furrowed but Felix got the sense he wasn’t angry or contemptuous, it was simply his natural facial expression.

Once clear of the two of them, Akaroth turned, his hands clasped behind his back, and nodded to Felix in recognition, “Do you have my sword?”

“Your… sword?”

“Mecada.”

“Oh. That sword. I actually have no idea where it is.”

He nodded seriously then turned his head slightly to look at Melody, “Adaline’s research.”

She still seemed somewhat frozen so Akaroth turned to Felix a moment later.

“Going well… I think. Why?” Felix responded.

He nodded then turned and walked away, heading to his booth.

Huh. Seems… a little serious but… not outright mean or condescending.

Turning back to Melody, she still seemed a little shell shocked so Felix grabbed and dragged her back down through the vertical hall towards their room so they didn’t accidentally run into anyone else.

“Sorry. Thanks.” Melody pulled herself free of Felix’s grasp and flew alongside him.

Felix nodded as they flew down the hall, “I know he harvests Souls with Blood Rituals and all that but… he doesn’t seem as bad as Cassius for example. Why didn’t you feel him coming?”

She sighed a little, “I did. He’s so hard to pin down though because of the way he… You know that Blood Ritual with the Rakyt you tried to stop?”

He nodded.

“Most gods use afterlives and attract people by offering a paradise. He doesn’t really have an afterlife it’s more like a… prison.”

“So he has people send him souls then imprisons them?”

“Yeah, kind of. That’s at least part of it.”

“So someone Adaline cared about was imprisoned or something? What does her research have to do with this?”

Melody just hung her head a little further, “You have to ask her. As for why I didn’t sense him, it’s because Akaroth feels like thousands of people at once. To me at least, he feels like a crowd. I thought he was just some God’s staff coming up.”

“I see… Couldn’t you just… recognize his specific crowd?”

“It’s different every time. In size, strength, personality and everything. It’s something about the way his… well, Soul Prison, I guess… works. He’s not completely transparent about it but…”

“Why were you so frozen?”

“I just… I was focused. I haven’t been face to face with him ever. Across a room but, not like that. I was trying to see if I could sense anything…”

“To help Adaline?”

“Yeah. More or less. Don’t mention we ran into him to her. It’ll just ruin her mood.”

“Shouldn’t we at least mention he’s here at the tournament?”

“She’s a big girl. She knows he’ll be here.”

Felix shrugged and they flew the rest of the way back to their room.

Opening the door, the rest of their team had already arrived. Peace was in the process of shifting his hand and forearm from a vortex of wind to a solid cloud rife with Lightning while Adaline was stretching and walking back and forth, adjusting her new armor as she did so.

“Melody.” Adaline looked at her very seriously, “Thank you.”

“Of course. I fully intend on us winning this thing.”

Peace smirked, “This is… way cooler than what I managed to find at home.”

From a cursory sense of the new jewelry Peace was wearing, mostly metal and gems containing what felt like S grade beast Souls, Felix doubted that statement. Although, there was a certain level of cool factor to transforming into a hurricane that was different from transforming into really any beast.

“We should go grab ourselves seats before all the good ones are taken.” Melody gestured towards the arena with her head.

Peace rose from the bed and Adaline nodded, following Melody, along with Felix, towards the arena.

Even though Melody had said they should go early to find their seats, they didn’t have much trouble finding seats from which everything was visible, at least with Felix’s Perception.

There were millions of people filing into the arena but for the most part, they were on the other levels. The bottom level was completely packed with people, nearly every seat full. On the two levels above that, the seats were filling quickly but he spotted a few empty spots here and there.

The level Felix and his party were on was another three floors up and while they grew progressively less packed the higher the level was, their level was nearly empty in comparison to the level below them.

Above them, there were a few levels that were nearly entirely empty and on top of that were the booths. Some of them were simple balconies, others had massive windows tilted downwards to overlook the arena blow.

Felix chuckled once as he looked over the floors and how packed they were, “You were lying, weren’t you?” He turned to Melody sitting next to him.

She mocked offense, “Me? I would never lie. What in th-”

“This floor is reserved for participants, isn’t it?”

She shrugged a little, “Well… yes but that doesn’t mean the good seats wouldn’t be taken.”

Felix looked around at the plethora of empty seats all around them then down at their own seats, which seemed to be just random seats in the stands with no significance.

Melody obviously noticed but he didn’t bother calling her out and just turned his attention to the center of the field where the entrance would eventually appear.

In reality though, he wasn’t just staring at the empty ground. Instead, he shifted his attention into his own mind where he created a room and brought up screens so he could watch what his constructs were doing through Mark. He was mostly just observing Art, Rewdan, Eni and the construction bots at work. Ked and Fin had both left, likely to attend the opening ceremony of the tournament.

At times, he took direct control of the construct swarm when finer grained control was required. That was rare though and so for the most part, he had his mental copies of their plans in his mind and he ran simulations on and adjusted them as needed.

With the time dilation he experienced in his mind, not real dilation just his Perception moving faster when he disconnected his body, he spent a long time working through their plans. He surprised even himself though when he completely lost track of time and had to be pulled out by Melody tapping his shoulder.

He thought he would have definitely run out of adjustments to make and simulations to run but the plans were complicated enough and he had his Soul Space to fall back on when he couldn’t just mentally simulate something.

Coming back to his physical senses, he didn’t think it had been very long but looking around, the arena was nearly packed now. Around him, were all his Residents. Mera was sitting in the seat in front of him, or more accurately on the back rest facing them and chatting with Melody next to him. The other Residents had taken the seats all around them.

Mera immediately noticed his eyes open and turned to him, “Finally. We talked to Kairune and he said we should go down with you.”

Felix nodded, “Because you’re technically part of me? Kind of?”

She nodded quickly, “Yup.”

“I don’t think the other participants will be happy about that one.”

She nodded quickly, “Which is what I was talking to Melody about.”

“Gotcha.” Finally taking everything in, Felix noticed Mera’s clothes looked like a cross between wizard’s robes and a little girl’s sundress with a matching hat and everything. More interestingly though, was her Spell Book and wand. The wand looked simple, a wooden stick with white metal inlaid in runic patterns along its length, it felt however like it was a little more complex than that, though not much more. Her Tome also felt a bit lacking and looked like a normal book with little to nothing special about it at all.

Looking around him, all the Residents seemed to be geared out in rather impressive looking equipment which, was no doubt extremely expensive. He saw polished plate, fine leather and magical swords and bows. Each one at least Epic or higher.

Felix turned to Mera, “What’s with your wand and Spell Book?”

She smiled wide and looked at Melody, “Told you he’d notice.”

Melody sighed and handed her a ring. Mera snatched it out of her hands and immediately equipped it then turned back to Felix, “I was hoping you could make me some.”

“You want me to make you a Wand and a Spell Book?”

“And a familiar. Well, summon one actually.”

Felix cocked a brow, “That seems presumptive.”

“Maybe… I was hoping you could summon me an Elemental, something you were already going to test after this ceremony anyways.”

He nodded, “Okay. Fair enough.”

“As for the Spell Book, Rewdan was telling me there are Knowledge Spirits…”

Felix sighed, “What about the wand?”

She smiled wider, knowing she was getting what she wanted, “The crystals and a tiny piece of your Soul and also… make it a battery.”

“Ugh…” He sighed, “You are way too similar to Melody.”

She giggled a little.

He felt a little weird about making equipment for her and not the others but for the time being, everything she had just mentioned were things he was planning on experimenting with anyways. It cost him little to nothing in terms of time and materials to slightly adjust his plans and add a little polish to everything he did. The others, unfortunately would just have to wait because their Classes were too dissimilar from his own.

Eventually, he was hoping to have Residents that were talented smiths and tailors and tanners to make them equipment too but he didn’t have the knowledge or time to do anything himself right away.

“So those are loaners you’re going to just go in with for now then?”

Mera nodded, “First hundred floors or so should be bottom of the D grade so… pretty easy anyways.”

Melody nodded, “All the students will get through at least a few hundred just to make a good showing while everyone is here.”

“How long before the opening ceremony?”

Melody pointed down at the center of the arena, “Should start any minute now. The entrance just appeared so it won’t open for another hour or so.”

Following her finger, in the very center of the arena which had previously been a perfectly flat stretch of unmarred stone, now held a large doorway.

There was no door within it so it was really just a frame but it seemed out of place to Felix. Most things in the multiverse he had seen were stone or metal and looked ancient or forged. The doorway to The Abyss though, looked almost technological and futuristic.

It was made of some kind of polished metal in a perfect square, almost as if it had been assembled. All over it too, were flashing lights and what looked like wires with signals racing down them and giving off byproduct light. The pattern reminded Felix of a circuit board, more than anything else in the multiverse ever had.

From his distance he couldn’t be certain, but he was pretty sure it was just Mana in a complex enchantment.

Felix… Grim prodded him mentally to get his attention.

What?

Now that the arena is full, do you notice anything?

Felix looked around at the people in the arena but didn’t notice anything particularly wrong with them, No.

I didn’t either. Don’t look for what is there, look for what’s not there.

Felix looked around again and had trouble figuring out what Grim was talking about. The arena was nearly packed. The average level was high D grade to low C grade because of where they were. Some of them were wearing combat equipment. There were advertisements ranging from subtle to not-so-subtle. There were men, women and children. There were Humans, Elves, Rhunar, Frostmyre, Goblins…

He frowned when he finally realized what Grim was talking about, Where are all the Drakene?

It’s not just that. Look up at the booths.

Felix glanced upwards and noticed a number of them were empty.

“Hey Melody, all those empty booths… where are the Dragon Gods? And where are the Drakene?”

She frowned at him like he was crazy then looked up at the booths. Then she looked down at the crowd, “Huh… That’s… a great question.”

One of the Residents watching from here noticed it while you were working on the Mana Accelerator and Factory plans.

You think it’s the same reason Rainoth, Kordran and Krinitor are missing?

I suspect their related.

Melody was squinting now, looking all around her, “They should be here. I mean… I heard about Arthur but…”

Felix cocked a brow, “What about him?”

She sighed a little and leaned in, “Rumor has it he’s been hunting down Drakene Elites and he’s starting to scare the gods.”

Felix snorted, “He’s scaring the Gods?”

“Not him by himself. Rumor has it he’s got someone… scary backing him.”

“Someone scary enough to scare off Tekragoraxius and 30 other Dragon Gods along with every single other Drakene?”

“I know. I don’t know who is backing him. I looked into it a bit after Raidran’s and I just heard a rumor that the Dragons were scared. They’ve been spending fortunes on equipment and supplies recently and a huge number of Drakene have started to go missing.”

Felix shook his head a little, “Even then though, they still feel threatened here? Rhonan is here along with the planet, right?”

She shrugged, “You’re right. Which is why I said I had heard about the rumor but…”

Though he wasn’t worried for the Dragons, knowing there was no one hunting them, at least not Arthur, Felix was a little worried for himself. His Persona was all of a sudden enemies with a large portion of the Gods and numerous Elites not to mention an entire race. He had already debated consuming his rings now that they weren’t as useful as they had been but the fact that Tekragoraxius might need his Persona to appear somewhere had stopped him.

Now though, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to use his Persona again.

Suddenly, a giant explosion of fireworks in the center of the arena appeared along with a massive cloud of multicolored smoke. The smoke completely obscured everything, like a solid cloud, for just a moment before being sucked down and vanishing in a vortex into a man’s mouth.

The man smiled and threw his arms out, “WELCOME ONE, WELCOME ALL TO… THE TOURNAMENT OF THE ABYYYYYYSS!”

His voice was obviously projected through magic or some kind of skill and was perfectly audible, even a little louder than necessary.

[SS - Exotic] Loran Hallowguard (Lvl 6734)

“Thankfully for you, I will be your host, Loraaaaaan Hallowguard.”

There were cheers around the stadium as the God announced their presence. He let them go on for a few moments before continuing, “It is only right to begin today’s ceremony by acknowledging the only reason this is happening…” He swung his arm wildly to the side to gesture to one of the booths, an open balcony, “Rhonan!”

The cheers were even louder this time and he spoke over them, “Who I must say, is looking quite fine if I do say so myself, especially after the affliction he had to deal with.”

The crowd got a little louder at that and he waited for them to quiet down before continuing, “As for today’s event, as many of you already know, this-” He swung his arm back to gesture towards the entrance to The Abyss, “is the entrance to… The Abysssss… It will open exactly one hour from now at which point the contestant teams from the school of Eramith, our gracious hosts will be introduced and enter inside. After they all enter, the rest of the teams who have shown up will be permitted to enter.”

He looked around for a moment to make sure everyone internalized what he had said then nodded, “But enough of that. Let’s get to the show!”

Loran spun around and flew way up into the sky in a burst of speed that made him nearly impossible to follow.

In his place, the entire arena floor flashed to life with lights and sound revealing a performative dance taking place throughout the arena. It was largely what Felix would have expected to see on earth except that they moved fast sometimes, utilizing the entire massive arena floor and the effects were vastly more extravagant.

He didn’t get much out of it himself but Melody and most of the Residents seemed to be enjoying themselves.

At the end of the dance, Loran returned and called out the troupe by name, mentioning they were available for hire and that he had personally hired them many times before. After that, there was a concert like performance followed by a number of other events Felix didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to.

He had better things to do than gawk at various performances and so he spent his time observing the work in Ked’s lab and working on his Instinct Casts. None of them were instinctual just yet, but he was noticeably faster with every one he practiced and they required less focus from him as they were more deeply ingrained into him.

His attention shifted back to the arena a few times periodically and he managed to catch a number of advertisements. Shows where armor was put through extreme circumstances, somehow protecting a low D grade wearing it. A weapon that cut through a massive A grade beast like it was nothing and a other various items and materials from various crafters.

Checking in periodically he thankfully managed to miss most of the show, despite how much Mera, the other Residents, Melody and the crowd seemed to be enjoying it. It did however mean, he had didn’t really have any idea what was happening when he checked in and saw Rhonan along with an ancient looking woman in the middle of the arena.

He immediately looked towards the doorway to The Abyss but it hadn’t opened yet.

[B - Special] The Oracle of Existence: Estrea (Lvl 2047)

Ah, I was kind of expecting him to wait a bit for this.

“-reason this event had to happen now. Many of you speculated that it was my recovery that prompted this event. It was not.” Rhonan looked over at Estrea then took a step back.

Estra nodded to him then took a step forward that was so shaky, it looked like her bones were on the verge of falling apart. Then, her entire body began to glow, the light rapidly increasing until the entire arena was nearly blinded as she rose up into the air.

A voice that sounded like a thousand individuals speaking in perfect unison sounded out, deep and rumbling throughout the arena, “The universe is doomed… It is inevitable… Salvation lies in the Ascendants… Shepherd of the people… Conqueror of the Ancient… Chosen of the Gods… Sovereign Ruler of Destiny…”

The glow within her quickly dissipated in rays of light leaving behind, a young girl in Estrea’s place. He identified her just to make sure she was the same person.

[B - Special] The Oracle of Existence: Estrea (Lvl 2047)

I wonder if they completely made that up or if they just modified an actual prophecy.

Looking around, Felix and his Residents weren’t nearly as surprised as everyone else. Not only had the crowd erupted but Melody was on the edge of her seat, he eyes bugged out and mouth agape. Even Peace looked surprised, though less expressive than Melody.

Felix had suspected something like this would happen. After his conversation with Rhonan, he and his Mind Residents had run through various scenarios and plans. They essentially just thought through what they would do if they were running under the assumptions Rhonan was. It was why Felix was pretty sure there would be some kind of event that brought all the students together, The Abyss was top of his mind, but only because Melody had mentioned it so many times.

He did wonder if that was a coincidence or an unconscious reading of hers.

After that, although they had predicted it happening in the middle of the tournament, one of the events they thought was most likely, was to fake a prophecy or just create rumors if that wasn’t possible. None of them knew the logistics of prophecies and it didn’t seem anyone had a very clear idea when they read about them.

The prophecy, in Felix’s grand plan, forced the Gods to properly sponsor and help whichever participant they thought was the chosen one. All Rhonan had to do, was obscure things and make it seem like anyone was possible. Then, the Gods would simply compete with each-other and would accelerate their sponsorships instead of waiting millennia to make sure they had the right person picked.

With The Abyss ongoing, they would want their sponsorship to push their candidate as far as possible. That would net them more gains in The Abyss and other sponsors. Then if they did turn out to be the chosen one, their original sponsors would have gained a lot of favor.

“Do you know what this means?” Melody almost had to yell to be heard over the crowd as she leaned all the way out of her seat and halfway into Felix’s.

“One of our generation is going to save us? Who do you think it will be?”

She looked at him without moving for a moment then shook her head, “No. You’re confused. That’s not how prophecies work.”

“What do you mean?”

“There is no chosen one right now. In fact, the prophecy isn’t about anyone in specific.”

“What?”

“The prophecy will come true but the person that fulfills it, doesn’t matter. If Zeraxes gets the farthest in The Abyss, it will be him. If Romar does, it will be him.”

“Why The Abyss?”

She shook her head, “It’s just an example.”

“So… Whoever it ends up being, is just the person that becomes the strongest?”

“Yeah, probably.”

That makes this even more effective than we thought.

“Is it possible to fake a prophecy?”

She looked at him like he was insane, “What? No. I mean… it’s been so long so… no one really knows what they look like… Maybe? Why? You think it was faked?”

He shook his head quickly, “No no. Just a random thought.”

“Uhm. Okay then. So, I was being serious before about us winning. But now I’m even more serious. Can you even imagine what a universe would look like under Zeraxes rule?”

Felix chuckled a little, “I’m supposed to want to live under your rule instead?”

She scoffed, “It would be better than that. Anything would. Even the hellscape-” Melody leaned back and thumbed at Adaline, “-Adaline would create.”

She looked back with a smirk to show she was teasing but Adaline wasn’t paying attention at all. Her face contorted deep in a contemplative frown.

Melody reached over and snapped her fingers in front of Adaline, “You okay?”

Adaline came too, looking like her Soul had just returned to her body, “Yes.”

Enough

Rhonan’s single word was more than loud enough to instantly and completely quiet the crowd, carrying with it a whole bundle of intent that Felix could visibly see through his Anima senses.

“Now you know why I deemed it important to share. This is bigger than any one of us.” He looked around, mostly at the booths above, meeting the gaze of the Gods within, “May whomever it be, be successful. To everyone, and especially the participants today, good luck.”

Just as Rhonan finished speaking, the empty doorway behind him whirred to life as the flashing lights and lines all across it’s surface became faster and more active until finally, the center of the doorway opened. It looked like the popping of a bubble as space distorted into the center before popping with an appropriate accompanying sound.

Rhonan didn’t even look back and simply grabbed Estrea, placed her standing on one of his hands, then leapt back into his booth from the center of the arena.

Loran quickly replaced him and looked out at the crowd, “What a turn of events! Well, let’s not delay any longer. Our first team to enter is comprised of students many of you will recognize, despite their young age… Elias.”

Elias walked out from one side of the arena.

“Thomaex.”

Thomaex from another.

“Korxik.”

A small looking individual walked out next.

“And Nephraaaaroooos.”

A Rhunar woman walked out of the last side of the arena.

Instead of just walking, each of them did something interesting as they walked towards the center, showing off a little. Thomaex somehow crafted or summoned an entirely metal horse and rode it. Elias vanished, going completely invisible. Korxik began leaping towards the center with impressive leaps and Nephraros hovered above the ground, her feet dangling just above it with her arms out to either side, growing flowers beneath her.

Felix leaned over towards Melody, “What’s the order?”

“Average order of acceptance.”

He frowned, “So we have Adaline and I who were the last two accepted last dragging us down?”

“Yes but Peace and I were some of the first.”

“So on average, right in the middle. What about Uphi and those outside of the school?”

“They are counted as the exact middle.”

“How do we know when it’s our turn?”

“We should probably head down soon.” She gestured down to the center of the arena where the first team was still making their way to the entrance. Not that it was so far away, but just that they all seemed to feel the need to show off as much as possible, “This might take a while though.”

Felix sighed and rose to his feet, “Let’s just go now.” He turned to the rest of them, “Unless you really want to watch this?”

Melody smirked and leapt to her feet. Peace and Adaline both scoffed a little and stood.

“Are you coming with us?” Felix turned to Mera.

She shook her head, “Nope. Have fun.” She waved at him.

He didn’t question her and simply walked back into the corridor, his party behind him and a number of others going in the same direction in front of them.

“Why isn’t she just entering with us?” Felix looked over at Melody.

“Think about it. Now with the prophecy, they want to separate themselves from you as much as possible.”

Felix frowned, “They think they’ll get sponsors of their own? Doesn’t everyone already know they’re… constructs of mine?”

She smirked, “Some do, some don’t. Most importantly though, if they do well in The Abyss, people will begin to doubt that.”

“I guess… Really? Someone is going to doubt that?”

She cocked a brow and looked at him like he was stupid, “You don’t realize how impressive your constructs are, do you?”

Felix shrugged, “They aren’t that interesting.”

“Take it from someone who can pick out individual Souls from across a room. They all seem like real individual… beings.”

He cocked his head slightly, “They are. They just live in my head.”

“Yeah… Unless you tell someone tha- Actually, unless you prove that to someone, no one is going to assume that, let alone believe that.”

“Alright. I guess there’s a chance.” He shrugged.

Heading down the vertical halls, they were called out to not only from all the various stands offering to perform quick maintenance on their equipment for free, but also by spectators waiting on the lower floors and trying to get any information they could.

They weren’t quite celebrities in that no one really knew them but they were treated almost like them.

Felix also took note of a few Elites, standing in the back and just observing.

On the bottom floor, Felix followed some of the other teams heading in the same direction through the halls and finally through a doorway that the planet controlled into a room around the arena. Inside, he could see a bunch of teams standing around waiting and nearest the arena, Ellie the librarian.

She was directing and letting the teams through in order, calling them out when it was their turn.

“I take it we don’t have to walk out of separate entrances?” Felix leaned over to Melody.

“No.” She pointed just behind Ellie, “There are portals there if you want to but we can just walk out together.”

Felix nodded then walked over to a relatively empty spot, his party following behind him.

Looking around the room, he recognized a number of people, including Zeraxes, Romar, Uphi, Fyrden, Lemi, Aedur, Ayred and Strig along with just about every other student at the school. He didn’t have a list of names but he would be surprised if more than just a few of them were missing. Judging from the number too, about two thirds of the room consisted of non-students.

Ayred noticed them almost immediately and walked over as soon as they stopped, Strig following along behind him.

“Melody, Felix!” He smiled and waved as he walked over, “Peace. Adaline. Nice to see you all.”

They all responded with various levels of enthusiasm. Ayred barely seemed to notice though as he mostly wanted to talk to Felix, “Melody said you won’t compete? In the Caster’s Duels?”

He shook his head, “Not interested in competing if I know I’d win.”

Ayred looked over at Strig with an amused smile, “Oh come on, you can’t know that.”

Felix sighed, “I have enough Mana now to maintain the Omni-Shield for a stupid amount of time and enough focus to cast so many spells, I could just force anyone to maintain their own. It is literally impossible for me to lose.”

“If you’re that arrogant, prove it.”

Felix shook his head again, “Don’t need to.”

Ayred sighed and dropped the act, “Damn. I was really hoping to see you blast through the entire professional scene like it was nothing.”

Strig nodded, “The creds we could have made betting on you…”

Felix snorted, “That’s what this is about?”

“Kinda. It’s a little… weird watching the professional scene now and knowing you could probably obliterate multiple A grades in a Caster’s duel. At once.”

Felix nodded, “Kind of cheapens my victories if I don’t even have to try for them.”

“Yeah.” Ayred sighed, “I guess. Doesn’t matter though, how many floors you guys going to clear today?”

Felix looked over at Melody, unsure how to answer the question.

“Probably stop at C grade?” She looked at Felix for confirmation but he just shrugged.

“He means before we stop and take a break. We can leave whenever we want and for the first while, we’re just going to be blasting through D grade floors.” She explained.

Felix nodded, “How long do you think that will take?”

She shrugged, “Most of the day, probably. 20 hours or so.”

“Why not keep going? Low C grade is kind of a joke for most of us.”

She chuckled a little, “You have to stop somewhere, eat, sleep, maintain your equipment, talk to sponsors, go to class.”

“I guess. If your goal is to get as far as possible though, why waste the time?”

“Time is less important in this than your strength. Realistically, if we started a dekad late, we could catch up in a few dekads.” Ayred responded.

Melody nodded along and Strig crossed his arms, “Once the floors get hard enough, you need to start preparing for them. Resting between. You won’t just be blasting through the high B grade floors without expending anything.”

“Exactly.” Melody gestured towards Zeraxes and Romar with her head, “Even they’ll need to recharge between floors. Once that starts happening though, we’ll be able to see what the floors are ahead of time from watching them.”

Felix’s eyes widened, “The order is the same for everyone? What about key and door locations?”

“Doors and keys are placed randomly.” Strig shook his head.

“But you’ll know how to open the door. Whether it’s a key or some kind of switch or something else.” Peace cut in.

“Which is a huge time saver on the later floors.” Melody nodded along.

“I see. So we just blast through the D grade now then leave and come back later?” Felix looked around at everyone.

Melody shrugged, “If you want to keep going at that point, feel free. Most teams will have one person stay in and rotate them out to get through as much of the C grade done as they can as fast as possible. The B grade floors are where things become harder and more time consuming.”

“Gotcha.”

“Ayred! Strig!” Ellie called out.

They both looked back and nodded to her then Ayred turned back to them, “Good luck.” He turned to specifically Melody, “It goes without saying, I fully support your being the Sacred Super Sovereign Conqueror Queen Empress of the Universe or whatever. If you need anything just ask.”

She nodded, “Thank you. I’m not sure I’m the right person but, I appreciate it.”

He nodded, “I think you are.” Then turned and left to join his team in preparing their entrance.

Felix mostly just reverted back to practicing his Instinct Cast spells as he waited their turn.

A few others walked over to speak to Melody, none of them students and all of them trying to gain favor with her or her dad but Felix didn’t totally understand why her and not any of the other God’s children in the room. They were also being approached but Melody was being approached way more than anyone else. Just like when he first arrived on campus and was walking around with her except then, it was the students.

Their party was called up as the exact middle team based on Felix’s count and they walked over to stand in front of Ellie as the team before them made a show of things in the middle of the arena.

“Are you going to all go in from here?” She addressed them as a group.

Felix looked at the others and they all nodded.

Ellie nodded once, “That makes things easy. You have a limit of 15 minutes-”

15 minutes? No wonder this took so loooong.

“-so make sure whatever you have planed fits in that. If you go over, someone will remove you from the arena and you’ll have to wait to enter with the non-students.”

They all nodded in understanding then Ellie looked back to see if the other team was nearly done.

Felix turned to Melody and the others, “I take it we’re not going to pu-”

He noticed for the first time, Melody had completely changed her outfit in the last few seconds, “That’s… a little… revealing, no?”

She looked down at her new robes that were blue with gold patterns on it. It was tied in such a way to reveal about as much cleavage as possible and the bottom had slits running all the way up her legs. If she had tied it a little differently and the slits were slightly shorter, he would have said it was elegant. Frowning a little, she turned around, as if trying to determine if Felix was right but in reality, he knew she was just showing off.

“You think so?”

He gave her a look calling her bluff and she smirked, placing a hand on her hip, “Maybe it is. Is there something wrong with that?”

Felix shrugged, “I just didn’t think this was a tactic you’d use.”

She cocked a brow, “Well someone’s gotta try and attract sponsors.” She thumbed at Peace and Adaline over her shoulder, “It isn’t going to be the transparent baldy who’s already hard to see or grumpy face and you’ve already made it clear you don’t want to show off.”

He shook his head and changed the subject, “What’s the logo on your back mean?”

She turned to reveal the logo, imprinted with what looked like real gold, in the shape of an octagon with an ornamental design within it. In the very center of the logo, was a perfect circle containing an iridescent vortex moving towards the center.

She smiled as she looked back at him, showing off the logo, “Our first sponsor!”

Felix frowned, Peace snorted and even Adaline woke up, walking around to see the logo for herself.

“We have a sponsor? Who?” He looked over at Peace who just shrugged.

Melody looked at all of them, “Sublime Spirit Sweets.”

Felix’s expression relaxed completely, “Your bakery. Gotcha.”

“Peace, Melody, Adaline, Felix. You’re up.” Ellie interrupted them.

She stepped aside and Melody led them out into the arena, Felix behind her, Adaline behind him and Peace at the back.

As soon as Melody stepped around the corridor and out into the arena, the crowd erupted in a way Felix didn’t think it had for anyone of the other parties. The rest of them stepping out didn’t seem to have much of an effect and it was impossible to tell from right next to her but it seemed to Felix like everyone was looking at her. Her outfit wasn’t nearly revealing enough to warrant that though. He had even seen others in way more provocative outfits in the room that had left before them.

Once they were all in the arena proper, their line shifted and they all stepped up to walk next to Melody as she looked around and waved at the crowd, a wide smile on her face.

Though he hadn’t felt or seen anything suspicious with his Anima Senses, Felix still tuned into them and completely dedicated his focus as they walked to try and understand what was happening. He eventually found it but only barely because it was subtle. Melody was somehow embodying and projecting the Curse of Desire, or something close to it, throughout the arena.

He had no idea how she was doing it though but looking over, he noticed Peace smirk at him, aware of what was happening while Adaline, was unable to take her eyes off of Melody as her face grew slightly pinker every second.

The effect was subtle to the point that it was almost impossible to detect, even for Felix, and despite that, it was strong enough to affect the majority of the crowd. The way she did it too was fascinating to him because the Anima was almost woven within itself so it seemed like it was completely natural. It wasn’t consumed and transformed the way a curse would but it was just subtly affected.

Luckily for Adaline, it didn’t really take them more than a few minutes to make it to the center of the arena, at which point her cheeks had thoroughly reddened. Reaching the door, Melody stepped through first, offering a bow to the crowd as she did. Once she was gone, Adaline came to and jumped in to escape her embarrassment. Peace snorted and finally released a chuckle he had been holding back as he stepped through a moment later alongside Felix who didn’t want to waste anymore time.