It is early in the morning, and everyone in the palace is doing what must be done. The chefs are preparing breakfast, Cajur is carrying himself up the stairs in a daze, and the King is sitting on his throne. Elena knocks on the door and is let into the room. She walks with her head down as she approaches the King, taking a knee before asking to address him. "Elena, why are you here so early?" the king calmly asks Elena. Elena takes a deep breath before saying, "I cannot kill Hikari, my king. I've known his mother since we were children. I just can't bring myself to do it." The king coldly looks down on Elena as he stands from his throne. He speaks in a low, demanding tone saying, "Are you saying that you are ignoring my orders? Do you dare defy me?" Elena stays silent. She dares not to utter a single word. She knows that if she says the wrong thing she wouldn't just lose her status or job, but her life and family. "My king, please understand what you are telling me to do. You are telling me to kill a hero of the kingdom, a powerful asset in the war. Even if I were to put aside my love for the boy, I would still be committing a grievous crime. I would be breaking the law." When Elena looks up, her heart drops into her stomach, rage is plastered over the king's face. The king's face was as red as a beet. His eyes were filled with fury. "You speak of the law woman? I am the law, Elena! I am the king, and if it wasn't for the fact that you have served me loyally for fifteen years, I would have you executed!" the king bellows. He walks down the stairs and stares Elena dead in the eyes. With a mighty swing of his right hand, he slaps her with enough force to make her stumble. Elena quietly holds her face as the king says, "You have spoken enough. I will spare your life just this once. Hikari will die today, even if it is not by your hand. The next time you disobey my orders, I will have your head on a pike." After finishing his threat, the king returns to his throne. Elena quickly leaves the room holding her face. Elena knew that if she did not interfere, Hikari would die today.
Hikari walked down the halls of the palace refreshed and full of energy from a peaceful night's sleep. For the first time in a long time, he could walk with a smile. He had just eaten a warm breakfast and was walking to the training room to meet with Cajur when out of nowhere, he stumbles into Cajur. Cajur was holding his head and looked like a wreck. He had dark circles under his eyes and you could tell he hadn't gotten a good night's rest. "Cajur, are you ok? You look kind of pale." Hikari says the concern in his voice wasn't hidden at all. Cajur stretches out a little and groans a little. "I'm fine Hikari, I just have a headache. I'll live." Hikari walks with Cajur to the training room and finds that Agnimitra and Tiki are also there. The massive room was quiet, both of them stood as still as they could. Hikari notices something is off about Agnimitra, Hikari thought to himself. She was too stiff, she didn't radiate her usual cockiness and boastful aura. She was as still as a statue and timider looking than a small child. To sum it all up, she looked weak. Cajur walks over to both of them and whispers in both their ears and the two separate. Cajur Walks over to Hikari and puts his hand on his shoulder. "Hikari, in this one week I have given you the most intense training you can without dying, and under all of that pressure, you have grown and progressed extremely quickly. So quickly, I believe you are finally ready for your final test, the test to decide if you are on par with your fellow heroes. If you want to pass you must defeat both Tiki and Agnimitra in a two on one fight." Hikari's eyes widen in surprise and he looks at both of his opponents. Tiki's face is hardened, not even a shred of what we could call humanity was visible in her eyes and Agnimitra looked the same way. Cajur reaches out and summons a sword that looks something like Alduins' Greatsword. "Here Hikari, I had this sword made especially for you, It was created using your father's greatsword. I know he would want you to have this." Hikari takes his new sword and holds it out in front of him. He feels his chest heat up and smiles. He closes his eyes to calm himself down before opening them again and nodding to Cajur to signal he is ready. Cajur floats up to the podium looking over them and drops his hand. It was time to fight.
Tiki wasted no time, she rushed at Hikari while Agnimitra slowly circled them. Hikari and Tiki's blades clashed multiple times before Hikari pushed her away from him, causing a small shockwave. While she was pushed backward, Agnimitra quickly approached him, rushing at him just as fast as Tiki was pushed away. Her eyes were dark as she clashed blades with him. Agnimitra's strength was much greater than Tiki's. Hikari was forced to take a knee as Agnimitra was pushing him lower and lower. This girl was an entirely different beast when compared to everyone he'd met. Hikari pushed back at her but only succeeded in getting off of his knees. Hikari was being pushed back farther and farther until he finally hit the wall. Hikari tries to step out of the way to the right, but Tiki punches Hikari back into the way of Agnimitra's sword and takes a debilitating hit. Hikari bounces against the wall and loses his breath, but Agnimitra doesn't let up. Agnimitra grabs Hikari by his neck at the wall and chokeslams him on the other side of her body, causing a small crater to form. Agnimitra draws back her arm to deliver another blow when Hikari shoots red flames out of his hands to force her off of him. Agnimitra jumps off of him, dodging the flames with ease. A small stream of blood trickles down Hikari's forehead as Hikari breathes heavily. Hikari closes his eyes and focuses his mind. Hikari knows he can't beat Agnimitra as he is now. He needs to use magic. But how was he supposed to do that if at every moment they were breathing down his neck, pressuring him? Even now, he could feel the air around him changing as they moved toward him. His only hope was the mana cloak, but that technique was nowhere near perfected. At that moment Hikari gets a brilliant idea. Hikari opens his eyes and disappears right before both of them land a blow on him. Hikari uses a partial mana cloak to escape his attackers, but the effort from that level of mana condensation left him winded. Hikari breathes hard as the mana disappears from his legs. Hikari puts both of his palms together and focuses on all the mana surrounding him. Sparks fly around Hikari, and a shockwave pushes both Agnimitra & Tiki away from him. When he separates his hands, multiple fireballs appear behind him and his body is covered in electricity. Hikari had finally done multi-casting. His white hair stands up, and Hikari crouches low to the ground. "Now let's get this fight started.", Hikari states boldly before he rushes towards Agnimitra to knee her in the chest. Agnimitra dodges the attack but barely manages to. While Agnimitra is still recovering, Hikari sends a barrage of fireballs at Tiki to keep her occupied. While Tiki is busy dodging fireballs, Hikari focuses on the more dangerous of the two. Now that his speed and strength were amped he could keep up with Agnimitra more easily. While Hikari wasn't pushing her back, he was matching her strikes with his own. Hikari swipes at her head but she dodges it by bending over backward. While she's in this position she kicks the blade from his hands, disarming him. That's when Hikari noticed that he hadn't been attacked by Tiki for some time. That brief moment of thought allowed Agnimitra to grab Hikari and put him in a chokehold. No matter how much he struggled and punched her, she didn't go. Hikari's eyesight was beginning to get blurry, not having another option, Hikari tries to access his "Eye of the Sun", but a sharp twinge of pain shoots through his body, and another shockwave of mana is released from his body, knocking Agnimitra off of his body and into the wall. Before Hikari can try to catch his breath, he is hit with a powerful blast of mana, knocking the wind from his chest. His sight goes funny and his ear starts ringing from the impact of the blast. Hikari can't focus on channeling his mana and his electricity amp disappears. After that, he was hit with another blast, and another, and another, it was a rain of mana spears. He is blasted with mana spears over and over again until the mana visibly burns his skin, and he was taking every one of them. By the time the smoke cleared, his top was in smolders and his pants were now shorts. Tiki calls from above, "Do you forfeit the match Hikari, I really don't like doing this to you!" but even while she said this, she was charging more mana spears. Hikari looked to his right, and Agnimitra was readying her blade. Hikari drops his weapon and sighs in a defeated manner. Hikari closes his eyes and gets ready to surrender when he has a thought, "What would my father do?". Hikari opens his eyes, filled with determination, and summons his weapon to his hand. His eyes glow gold instead of blue, and the ground beneath Hikari began to crack and crumble. Hikari's wounds begin to heal as he is bathed in gold light. "Even in a sparring match, I won't surrender to anyone, not even you Tiki. My father didn't admit defeat and run away, even in the face of death. Neither will I." The golden energy is rolling off of him in waves and he is stronger than ever. Hikari begins to charge this power in his hands when Agnimitra catches him off guard. Hikari was solely focused on Tiki, who was charging her attacks, the immediate threat. What he failed to realize is that Agnimitra was still the stronger of the two and up until that very moment they still hadn't used their mana cloaks. Agnimitra punches Hikari dead in his chest, sending a mana pulse through his chest knocking him out cold. The golden energy left his body and his right hand stopped glowing, Hikari had failed the combat test. The last thing he saw before he fainted was Tiki running to his side. Hikari also hears the sounds of a muffled yell. It sounds like Elena's voice but, that wasn't likely, right?
Hikari opens his eyes and is surrounded by an open blue sky and water. "Arcadia, why have you brought me here!" Hikari shouts. Right on cue, Arcadia appears on her throne laying back quite relaxed. She has a smile on her face and her eyes are sparkling a little brighter than usual. "Why hello Hikari. It's good to see you again." Arcadia says while standing up. She walks over to Hikari and grabs his shoulder. Hikari flinches at her touch but he doesn't die like he usually would. "Hikari shrugs her hand off of his shoulder and backs away from her. Again he asks, "Why did you bring me here, Arcadia? You could've done your little torture games inside my dreams last night, but you didn't." Hikari stares Arcadia in her eyes, determined to have an answer. Arcadia sighs and summons her thrown, sitting down in the process. "Hikari, I summoned you here to warn you. Something terrible is coming, and it's coming for you." Arcadia leans forward, a concerned look in her eyes. Hikari is shocked by this news, so Hikari asks how she knows this. "Hikari, I'm more than just a holy sword. At my current level of power, I also have a very limited future vision. I saw something dark and terrible coming for you. I saw it take your life, Hikari." Hikari is surprised to hear this but what surprises him the most is that he doesn't feel scared of his death. "You saw me die? How, how did I die?" Hikari asks quietly. Arcadia hesitates a little before saying, "You are supposed to die on the mission the king is about to send you on. What seals your fate is that you couldn't use your eye of the sun. You would've died because of me." Hikari's eyes widen slightly. "Well, then undo to seal you placed on me so I can survive. It's that simple, right?" Arcadia shakes her head and says no. "Hikari, you don't understand how delicate the future is. Everyone has a preordained fate bestowed by the goddess. Only a select few, like myself, can mess with that fate, and even so, that doesn't guarantee the end result changing." For a while, everything is silent no one dares to say a single word. The silence leaves a chill in the air, almost as cold as the thoughts going through Hikari's mind. "So I have a slim chance of living. This could very well be my last day alive." Hikari lets out a small chuckle, sweeps his hair back, and smiles with a tear in his right eye. "Well, Arcadia, oddly enough, I feel at peace with myself. Maybe, it's because you killed me so many times. Who knows?" Hikari walks over to arcadia and asks her to undo the seal on his power. Arcadia undoes the seal on his "Eyes of the Sun" and says goodbye before sending him back to the real world.
Hikari wakes up in the infirmary feeling sore in his chest. He remembers his loss and failure, but what was to be expected of someone with only a week's worth of training? Hikari sits up as the king enters his room and takes a seat beside him. Hikari goes stiff as he sits because he has a rough idea of what is going to happen. "Hikari, I have some good news for you. Firstly, you passed the combat test with flying colors," Hikari is surprised by this, but before he can react, the king moves on to the second piece of news, "and secondly, I have a mission for you." Even though Hikari holds his composure together, his stomach gets a sinking feeling. This was how he was going to die.