Changed Fate

*whoosh*

Beams, made from spatial magic, shot across the entire arena in a flash. Each attack carried with it the power of ten trucks, if not even more.

To my surprise, Donna was evading each and every one of them rather easily. With swift, elegant movements she leaped from one side of the arena to the other.

From the looks of it, she was preparing to finish it by relying on her trump card: the Chamber magic that allows her to control anything inside a radius.

It might sound like I'm making light of the efforts Percivale has made in this match, but to me, he doesn't seem to be doing his utmost best.

Like, something's stopping him from using his real powers.

Up to this point, he had only ever used his portals. This was the first time the spatial beam spell had made an appearance.

If I remembered correctly, Percivale should have access to a wider variety of spells such as Negative Gravity and Reflective Force.

The first allowed him to negate the center of gravity on a person or an object, causing them to float up. Kind of like Donna's Room, where she could control anything inside it.

I could understand him not using it since Donna's control over Space was most likely twice as great as his.

What I didn't understand was why he didn't even try using the Reflective Force.

The idea of the spell was basically this: he'd capture the enemies' attacks and send them back via a portal. It sounds simple on paper, but the process is nothing but easy.

I had already seen him successfully capture Donna's sword, but instead of sending the blade back at his opponent, Percivale allowed it to appear in a different location.

Hmm… I guess I should just keep watching. Maybe there are circumstances that even someone like me doesn't know.

In the meantime, I guess I'll try looking at the book that appeared in my hands.

***

Why couldn't I unleash my power?

I had been trying to end this battle in the last few minutes. Each time I was able to seize control of Miss Arison's sword, I desperately tried to redirect her attack back at her.

But something stopped me from doing so. Fluctuations in space that I could not explain forbade me from finishing the match.

It was like the space itself was rejecting me, something that had never happened once before.

With each failed attempt, my faith in my own power began to dwindle. The power that Percivale Eri had held for half of his life had now forsaken him.

I wasn't going to give up, though. If the space was going to continue dismissing me every time I tried, then I would do my utmost best to dominate it, the way my sister did with her Chaos Magic.

With Miss Arison steadily gaining speed over me, it was only a matter of time before she completely took advantage.

If that were to happen, then any hopes I had of winning this battle would be thrown out of the window.

The constant barrage of attacks was nearly impossible to guard against. The moment I tried to counter, my opponent would launch a few quick hits, taking away any chances to retaliate.

Her physique clearly outmatched mine, which was why I resorted to firing at her from a longer distance.

"The match has gone on for a total of… seven minutes. Please be wary, cadets. The arena will soon start shrinking, and the moment you step foot outside, it will be your loss."

No!

I… they probably did this because the match was taking longer than usual. If I didn't end this soon, then the arena would close in, and I would be inside Miss Arison's range.

I wasn't about to let that happen.

***

Through a quick skim of the book, I was able to identify it, to my surprise, as a physical copy of The Academy's Regressor.

The moment I opened the book, words that I remembered typing on my very first writing session started appearing.

The book listed the entirety of each of my story's chapters down to the T. Every letter, even every spelling and grammatical error was written down exactly like how I remembered it.

At the moment, we were probably at Chapter six, which was where Percivale's fight had taken place.

I read one of the lines inside my head.

"And with that, Percivale Eri had won against Donna Arison. His masterful display of Spatial Magic had allowed him to secure victory against an opponent many people thought he could not beat."

Hold on…this wasn't what happened.

Yes, Percivale did win in the original story, but the battle was long and hard. It was to the point that both of them were said to be on their last legs.

My finger felt something hard and cylindrical behind the book. I pulled it out, and a small pen rested in my grip.

The pen had an eraser on its backside.

Perfect, maybe I could use this to rewrite the scenario as Percivale winning, but only after a tough battle.

"Yo, what's that, Digni?"

"Ah, fuck!"

Wang Jin's sudden call made me flinch and momentarily lose control of the pen.

The pen flew off my grip and landed… on the book.

"Ah… damn, it's all dirty now."

The pen had somehow left a small line of ink on the paragraph, scratching it off. The whole thing was now covered in ink.

"Oh… sorry, bro." Wang Jin apologized after seeing what he did. "I was curious as to what you were doing."

"That's okay. But maybe warn me before screaming so loud."

Now that the whole section was covered in ink, I had no choice but to wipe it off.

And for some reason, only the pen's eraser was able to get rid of the stains.

Huh… why do I feel so weak? That's odd… the moment I wiped it off, my strength seemed to be sapped away.

"Leader? Leader!?" Rokas' voice resounded from beside me, but by the time he saw me, I was already close to passing out.

***

The time to move was now. Miss Arison seemed to be getting ready to wreak havoc on the entire arena.

From the looks of it, she would once again cast that humongous sphere and attempt to trap me inside.

I could not let that happen!

Concentrating mana into my fingers, I fired off a barrage of spatial energy beams. The beams shot far, slightly scarring Miss Arison.

While she was in the middle of dodging them, I dove backward into a portal I had prepared.

In the blink of an eye, I traveled to where my opponent was. The portal opened up, and I was there, already preparing another spatial beam.

"Please… hit!"

With all my strength, I fired the spell. My opponent was thankfully still repositioning herself, allowing me to aim more directly.

The beam instantly pierced through Miss Arison's arm, leaving a giant hole in her shoulder.

She groaned in pain, but I did not relent. Two more equally powerful beams shot out from my hands, leaving two marks on her legs.

"Ba–stard."

This was it. She had fallen to the ground, and I could now finally put an end to this.

I looked at my sister in the crowd. She had a smile on her face. I smiled back, speaking through my mind.

"I've done it, sister."

I then turned to my other teammates. Mister Dignitas was surprisingly asleep, although Alter didn't really care.

In the past week, she had been more attentive toward everything Mister Dignitas did. Her mood towards him was better, albeit slightly.

Something had happened while they were alone, I thought.

But it was good to see my sister finally warming up to someone else besides me. I wasn't going to be the frail little brother forever.

My other teammates seemed to be cheering me on, too. Mister Rokas was taking care of Mister Dignitas.

The man named Wang Jin seemed to have a weird look on his face. It was both a look of "congratulations" and "why did you win?" Maybe he really wanted Miss Arison to win.

Ah, but I have to end this now. Using the rest of my mana, I charged up one final spatial beam.

To my surprise, Miss Arison was still awake.

"Thank you for the match," I said.

But it didn't happen.

The beam didn't shoot out.

"H-huh? What's happening?"

I still had a sufficient amount of mana. I knew I could still fire one more beam.

And yet, why couldn't I shoot?

There was another, stronger force that was preventing me from sealing the final nail in the coffin.

"Shoot, please!!!" I screamed.

But by then, it was too late. While I was focused on my inability to cast the spell, I felt myself losing control over my body.

I suddenly started floating off the ground.

"The sphere!" I turned to my opponent.

"That's right. You should've ended it."

With a smile on her face, Miss Arison gripped her sword tightly.

No, no!

My vision blacked out soon afterward. The last thing I remember seeing was my sister's shocked face, as the sword's handle slammed across my face.