The Empress becoming an Ascended was definitely not a part of the demons' plans. And her ability to fend off the Tier V aesh, Xrykt, the moment she broke through was inconceivable to even her worshipful subjects.
That single breakthrough had turned the tides from a one-sided slaughter to a war that was as close to even as it could be.
Now the humans had an Ascended, they knew that their Arch-Mages could combat the aesh's Tier IVs, and they had access to the aesh's Imprints and alloys, which when cracked would give the humans a decisive advantage.
But as he heard of the imps blanketing the lands like a flood, leaving their caverns and mountains, Fate recalled the journal from the imp shaman that he had somehow gotten during detention.
He still didn't know for certain how it had appeared in his pocket. The shaman's motivations for the Spell within were impure, if his pre-death rant was anything to go by.
But the Empress had personally called Fate in for an over-the-crystal-ball audience with her to retrieve it.
Imps could not eat the meat of cows or chickens or digest plants. They could drink milk and water, which was one of the many reasons they raised goats, but their food was limited strictly to human flesh. Any other food would poison them.
This kept the imps and humans at war long after the Assimilation War, and was a major problem for small, nowhere villages like Brergan.
The uncompleted Spell within, according to the imp shaman, would change the diet of the imps so they would no longer require human flesh to survive, eliminating the need for imps to kill in order to live their lives.
So why hadn't Fate heard anything about this Spell ever since he gave it to the Empress?
Granted, it had only been a few months, but the Empress had the most talented Arch-Mages on Ziobrun under her employ. They should've made SOME headway by now, but Fate hadn't heard a peep about it.
Fate had neither the political leverage nor the power to demand answers from an Ascended, but the question still festered in his heart.
With no way of getting the answer, Fate could only throw the question to the back of his mind.
He didn't have time to think anyway, as every day he devoted more and more of his time to his training.
The second week was when the training wheels officially came off.
Freyn had started to feed them Mana-enriched food and drink that bolstered their energy, accelerated their recoveries, and focused their minds after the first week.
This food was what made their otherwise lethal exercises instead severely masochistic.
Every torn muscle mended in seconds, and they constantly teetered at the edge of collapsing from mental and physical exhaustion while always managing to just barely keep going.
Some days they weren't provided this food, and those were the days the rookies feared the most, as it meant they would be tested on their endurance in one of many inhumane ways.
How long could they fight hordes of imps, each fresh and well-rested, without any breaks? How long could they run before their legs turned to jelly? How many pull-ups before their arms were as responsive as a lump of wood?
Pethren's condemning stares vanished in the wind, as did those of the others. None of the students had the time to spare for such thoughts when every day was a struggle to keep up, to excel, or to maintain their position.
To foster competition and incentivize their students to work harder, two types of leaderboards were introduced. One was for those under a specific instructor, and the other was the Grevenich's charges as a whole.
For example, Fate and Ashla would be under Freyn's leaderboard along with Cait and Pethren, and all four of them would be on the general leaderboard along with every other trainee.
Each of these were based on what the Grevenich called G Points. Each student earned a certain amount of G Points based on their performance in the various exercises and activities they were put through on a day-to-day basis.
One's performance, in this case, compared the results of the student to what the instructor expected the results to be, as well as the drive the student showed to subvert those predictions.
In other words, one's raw power or honed skill wasn't the only influence on the G Points one would earn. You'd also earn G Points for pushing yourself and exceeding expectations.
Meeting the expectations of the instructor and finishing the tailored goals they gave you would award you G Points based on the strength you displayed in doing so, but exceeding them would earn you an extra five.
Falling flat would net you zero G Points, and repeated failures to do so would mean expulsion from the Grevenich family's program.
But many of the rookies knew what they were signing up for, and thrived under such conditions. The instructors were also experienced in determining the potential of their students, after years of doing their job.
The tenacity and willpower required to earn those five G Points was present in every student, which in turn meant that the expectations were raised as well, so it wasn't as major of a factor in the leaderboards as it would be elsewhere.
There were just over two hundred students under the tutelage of the Grevenich family this time around, and the leaderboard reflected that.
It was a chaotic list that fluctuated practically every second, but few students strayed far from their original position, and when they did they almost always fell back to or brought themselves back up to where they were previously.
By the third week, the students that had been kicked out for their lack of motivation and drive to be better brought the general leaderboard's number down to 149 and brought with it an adjustment.
After this adjustment, everyone was placed according to their current strength.
Fate was around 20th place, Cait was 5th, Ashla was 11th, Samantha was 23rd, and Venden was 43rd, mostly because only having one hand impeded the strength he could display.