Lucas watched in complete darkness as Simon was panicking, trying to find a way out.
'You were right, he's smart but stupid at the same time.'
'Mages rely on magic, when that is taken away, anyone would panic, even we would be scared.'
'Sure buddy, be ready to change the darkness again though, I don't wanna die because you're reckless.'
'Don't worry about that, I've gotten better at ordering the darkness, if only we could take it with us.'
Lucas was fine, unlike Simon because of a single reason. While Simon attracted the most attention of the darkness, making it a lot easier, the command that Lucas gave the willpower-fueled darkness was to consume mana. So Lucas could avoid being in danger as long as no mana was ever used. He created the array and activated it before changing the darkness to confuse Simon into thinking that mana wasn't the issue.
His core had mana, but his body shielded it from being detected. Simon never bothered to hide his energy, making him an easy target. Once the darkness got too deep in his body, the darkness found the core, devouring it in an instant.
Once Simon was dead and the core was consumed, a final pulse of magic released. A small sparkling light that fought against the darkness as it approached Lucas. It's power wasn't something that the abyss could absorb, something was preventing it. Lucas tried to alter the darkness again, but was too preoccupied with the spark that he lost focus.
The spark did no harm, but Lucas could instantly tell that it wasn't meant to hurt.
'Shit! Is this what I think it is?'
'It's already too late, we need to get out of here, before we're also consumed.', the mana had left a mark on him, making the abyss look his way next.
'Dammit, now we carry a beacon as well? I thought we needed to be at least a bit discreet.'
Lucas already had a lot of enemies and would bound to make more in the future. He already had every single noble hate him, he killed a mage from a powerful family back at the mansion, and now he got rid of a prominent mage. He got lucky with the Order of Light, but a ring wouldn't always keep him safe.
'Time to change our tactics then.'
Grabbing the slate from the pile of clothes, Lucas crushed his own jade and disappeared from the cave. A sickening feeling brought him back to the plains, where they all started.
Lucas tried to balance himself as he scanned his surroundings. The shock was a little too much, making him bend a knee. There were quite a lot of students already present, the jade was an absolute success if it saved that many lives.
"Welcome back, I assume you succeeded?", a dark blue haired man stood in front of Lucas, a wide smile plastered all over his face. Even Lucas couldn't help but be excited. They had won. It was a strange competition that required a lot of flexibility, yet they came out as survivors.
Asta held out a hand, which Lucas gladly accepted. Standing back up, Lucas looked to the sky. His eyes locked with the director. Dean had a gentle smile on his face, before turning around to face his other colleagues.
The other directors were talking about the possible results of the competition. Kael and Fiora were standing next to each other, both clearly leading the conversation and gaining the admiration from the others.
Kael had spent a lot of time molding the Ice Princess to become a powerhouse during this competition, so he had absolutely no fear that things might go awry. Fiora's academy didn't produce a Rank 2, but she had plenty of students that were on the cusp of it.
The director of Simon's academy was standing more to the side, not really involving himself in the conversation, but not backing out of it. He preferred to be a quiet but contemplative man. He had a slight smirk on his face as he felt that out of everyone, he had the biggest chance to win.
Carl was the only one, like Dean, who would rather not get involved in their self flattery and little theater. Keeping his voice quiet, Dean approached the black bearded man.
"Carl, do you mind if I ask a question?", the old man had a very light smile on his face, which was already a rare sight, but Dean initiating a conversation might've been even weirder. Carl simply nodded, as he didn't really want a talk with the other directors, but Dean seemed to be genuine enough.
"What would you do if one of the directors tried to kill one of your students?", leading with such a heavy question, Carl had to double-check if he was being serious. The old man didn't change his smile as he awaited a response.
Stroking his beard, Carl thought for a second. They had been floating for almost 5 hours, the competition was about to be over, yet only now did the old man approach him and ask it.
'Is he thinking of going after some random student? Does he want to gauge how others will react?'
"The rules state that no students may be harmed when they enter this field. If any director is going to show his killing intent against the weak students, they must be stopped."
Dean smiled a bit brighter after that answer. "Great, I hope you can keep true to yourself.", and with that, the old man floated back to his original position. Carl didn't know what to think, but prepared himself for whatever would happen next.
Every competition there would be some small dispute, but outright killing the students never occurred. Carl felt like he should be on edge and ready, even if the old man was just asking a single question, it put enough doubt into him to survey the other directors.
"Ah Dean, it's rare seeing you come out to talk to one of us, come join us, we would love to hear about your students.", Kael had a mocking smile on his face, the other directors, excluding Carl of course, chimed in with the most fake laugh they could conjure.
Dean wasn't impressed, but felt like he should, for once, engage in their theatrics. For years of being belittled and ridiculed, it was time for him to get the last laugh.
Fiora looked behind the old man and saw that a lot of his students were already back here. "It looks like you taught them to be careful, I think this is the first year so many survived."
"Now that you say that, Fiora, this is indeed a pleasant surprise. It looks like a lot of them had to run away.", Kael said, as if he wasn't directly insulting Dean. Luckily, Dean's skin was as thick as an elephant's, nothing really came through.
"We don't give any specials lessons to prepare them for the competition, although I know that some of you do. A lot of my students just know their limits and can tell when things aren't going well.", Dean spoke softly, but the hidden insult he threw their way wasn't unnoticed.
From every academy present, only Dean's had a lot of students already on the field. The others had them still on the island. Kael knew how these talks went.
"That must mean that all our students haven't met their limit yet, since they should know the same thing. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something, before we started this year's competition you said it would be interesting. What did you mean by that?"
Kael tried to steer the conversation to a certain place, he just had to place the bait. Before one of the other directors could jump in, Dean explained.
"We had a special member among our student body. Someone who is quite special. Someone who showed everyone how great their potential was and that no matter who you are, greatness can be achieved with hard work."
"Do you mean that commoner who won the local competition? I do have to wonder how he cheated his way through to first place, or are all the others just that... uneducated?", Fiora wanted to be more direct, but she knew she couldn't be so unrespectful. Still, she went a step too far and couldn't take her words back. She had to either completely back off or stand behind her words.
Kael didn't correct her and looked at Dean, the others followed their example. Even Carl was curious enough to listen in.
Dean stroked his long beard before looking Fiora in the eyes. "What is the main difference between commoners and nobles? That one has more financial power than the other, that one has been blessed by the Goddess or other deity?"
Kael had a slight smile on his face and couldn't help but reply. "I won't deny those things, but if you're going to turn this into a 'commoners know how to struggle'-argument, then I'll stop you right there. All nobles suffer from expectations and have to struggle to meet them. We struggle an equal amount. So, I do wonder where you're going with this."
Making his point, Kael gained the approval of the other directors. They were all nobles from birth and knew how bad some struggles were to get to where they were now. Only Dean had a different perspective.
"Not quite, noble's struggle, yes, quite true. But do they fear for their life when a sickness spreads? Do they feel threatened when a guard is corrupt? Do they abandon hope when a noble puts them down? When the water put is empty, do they despair or do they move on."
"When there's a public execution because a commoner made a single mistake, do nobles think they quieted the masses, instilling fear. Or do they realize that such an act will only fuel the anger of the common man? When you put a commoner's mindset in the body of a powerful mage, would they have a higher survival rate than a nobles?", Dean felt happy saying what he did.
For far too long had he felt that commoners were looked down upon. Yet now, change was finally visible. Because in the end, all that mattered was determination and discipline, no matter the background, anyone could flourish if they put in the time and effort.
"What kind of argument is that? Do you think our nobles can't adapt to their environment?", Kael and some of the other directors felt insulted. Dean thought back to Gilbert and understood his strange joy.
"How about we make a bet. I bet my student of low standing will win this competition by a landslide, outperforming your so-called royalty.", Dean felt very comfortable saying such an outrageous idea. His school never had a winning student, yet now they would be better than the rest?
"Then I'll bet that my Princess will do better than your commoners, no matter which one.", Kael knew that her chances of winning weren't the highest, second place was the most likely outcome, so twisting the bet into something he did have confidence in, placed Dean in a though spot.
"Great, the loser has to gift the academy of the victor 500 high magic crystals.", Dean didn't even think twice before raising the stakes a ton. He was already looking forward to receiving his pile of resources, but Kael thought the exact same.
"Hahaha, I didn't know you had such a big gambling spirit! Fine, we'll do it!", shaking hands, a contract was sealed for the loser to gift the winner an enormous amount of resources. Dean floated back to his original position. The other directors talked and laughed for a bit longer before the competition was about to end.
Kael looked over the field and started to count down in his head. 'Only a few more seconds and everyone should be back. I can only hope my Princess makes it. Getting such a fortune from that old fox can only help my academy. With that, I could buy so many materials! Although, does he even have enough money?'
A blinding light started to appear from the field, dozens if not hundreds of tall columns of light showed up as the students all got teleported back to the starting point.
"Huh?"
The word hung in the air, many directors had to double-check their students. Blinking and rubbing their eyes, they questioned the very fabric of reality, half-expecting some illusion to shatter before them. Every time there were a lot of casualties, but most of them came from the poor performing schools.
Kael looked over his school and from the 100 students he sent in, only 31 came back. But most importantly, his Princess was nowhere to be seen!
Still, that was nothing in comparison to the academy Simon came from. The director, Clayton, had been silent as if he was a quiet observer, but now, his face was in complete shock. Despair rose from the bottom of his heart as only 4 students survived the competition.
In the midst of escalating chaos, Carl hastily checked the status of his own academy. Relief washed over him upon finding Mino safe, but the casualty count surpassed the usual, leaving an uneasy pit in his stomach. The only odd one out was the Blue Fire Academy, who retained most of their students. Dean glanced at his school and as always there were some casualties, but far less than normal.
'It seems he really showed everyone to be a lot more cunning and careful, what a great find!'
Dean felt extremely proud but kept his eyes on the other directors, who, as he thought, didn't hold back anymore.
"What happened on that island! Where's my Princess! Where are my students!", Kael yelled for the entire field to hear. Even Fiora wasn't happy seeing most of her students dead. They all looked towards the director in charge of the event. Kael might be the host, but the actual person in charge of providing the island was actually the one who taught Simon.
"Clayton! What happened here?" The directors' anger erupted, a collective demand for answers. Amidst the rising panic, only Carl and Dean maintained their composure, sharing a knowing glance as they anticipated the storm about to unfold.
Clayton had been gifted the island by someone of Royal descent, with that he also gained all the info about it, he had the complete upper hand in this since he kept all the important pieces of information for himself. His mind couldn't comprehend why they suffered the most. There had to be a reason for this.
"Clayton!", Olivia chimed in, her school didn't have a powerhouse, but she also lost a ton. All the time and resources put into them had all gone to waste.
As everyone started to get increasingly more panicked, Carl spoke up. "Kael! This is what happens during these competitions, it might be a large blow, but that just means our students had trouble with this challenge. Let's continue as normal, to honor the ones who survived and keep up our image of True Mages."
Kael felt anger simmering, but he understood what Carl was trying to say. The results of the competition were going to be distributed to every city as well as other countries. He had an image to keep up, even if the results were disastrous. If he were to make a big scene now, their reputation would plummet to nothing. They still had the second and third years, there were still survivors of the first year.
Clayton had been blankly looking at his school as Kael and the others tried to search for their calm.
'Was I tricked?'