52 Heading up north
"I'm heading up to the stands, "James spoke as he strode out of the locker room while making his way towards the stairwell.
As soon as he stepped foot inside the inner colosseum, a deafening roar of screams and cheers assaulted his senses, like a thunderstorm of sound crashing down upon him.
Nestled in the heart of the colosseum lay Isgalr, a wondrous world unto itself, a vast expanse that stretched out for four miles in every direction. Though it was miniaturized to fit within the confines of the smaller arena. Space distortion magic had been employed to shrink the battlefield down to size, and the result was a breathtaking sight to behold. From the stands, it appeared as if a miniature universe had been captured and brought to life before their very eyes, with every detail and nuance preserved in all its splendor.
The people within its confines seemed like mere ants scurrying about in the face of a gargantuan landscape. But as they were small to see, their every move was magnified a hundredfold by the magic of holographic technology. Hundreds of screens were projected high into the sky, each one displaying a different angle and perspective, like a mosaic of images that shifted and changed with lightning speed.
And yet, for all the visual spectacle, each viewer saw the fight from their own unique vantage point.
But James wasn't here just to watch. So, he ascended higher and higher up the dizzying tiers of the colosseum until he reached the rarefied air of the V.I.P. booth. Here, he was greeted with the pungent aroma of cigars and the sweet, heady scent of liquor, mingling together in a heady, intoxicating mix. The room was a study in opulence, with plush velvet couches and gilded decorations that glittered in the dim light. At the front of the bar, a massive screen displayed a dizzying array of names and numbers, each one representing millions upon millions of credits that would soon exchange hands.
As of right now, the highest bid was twenty-eight million credits on an Everwhite student named Kai Alibert to win it all.
A derisive snort escaped James' lips as he shook his head in disbelief at the audacity of the bet that Layla had made. James could almost see the glint of challenge in her eyes, the way her lips curved upward in a sly smile. 'She had to be here, right?'
James moved up front and slammed his fist on the bar counter. "Thirty million of Ellia Arison!" James shouted.
In an instant, everyone inside the bar seemed to shift their focus to James, as if he were the center of some event. And then, as if on cue, the onlookers erupted into a deafening roar, a cacophony of sound that reverberated off the walls like thunder.
The holographic screen flickered to life with a sudden burst of activity, as if it were a living thing that had just awoken from a deep slumber. James watched as Kai Alibert slipped down to second place and Ellia Arison surged forward to take the lead.
And then, just as James thought he had seen it all, something caught his eye that made his heart skip a beat. The numbers on the screen were no longer in the millions but had skyrocketed to a level that James had never seen before.
"H-how many zeros is that..." James' eyes widened with shock and disbelief. The silence in the V.I.P. booth was palpable, like a thick fog that had settled over the group. James glanced around the room and saw that everyone else was just as stunned as he was, their faces etched with a mixture of awe and confusion.
1st Ellia Arison - 1,030,000,000
2nd Kai Alibert - 28,000,000
3rd Jessica Koiln - 26,000,000
"I-it must be a glitch!" Someone shouted within the silence, then suddenly, everyone else also began laughing.
"Yea! That's it!"
James couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, that this was more than just a simple glitch in the system. He gazed at the screen with a furrowed brow, his mind racing with a thousand questions. Why would there be such a glaring error in a professional setting like this?
He leaned in and asked the bartender in a whisper, "Who made that bet?"
"That is something that I cannot say as that person wants to stay anonymous." The bartender responded.
'I knew it!' James thought in delight but was met with another question. 'Just who has so much money and is willing to bet that much and Ellia?'
Unnoticed by everyone, the Empress of the Empire sat at the back of the bar, her casual attire allowing her to blend in seamlessly with the crowd. Her lips curved into a faint smile, like a crescent moon on a starry night, as she watched the chaos unfold before her.
...
Unknown to Ellia of the chaos going around her name, she slowly opened her eyes as she found herself in the midst of a winter wonderland. Around her, the landscape was blanketed in a layer of untouched snow. Delicate snowflakes descended gently from the sky while the frigid winds carried them past her in a flurry of motion.
"Ruth? Are you still there?" Ellia called out.
"Yes, I am," Ruth replied, presenting her presence.
"Good. I want you to tell me if there're any rules about teaming up." Ellia asked.
"No such rule states that someone cannot team with another person." Answered Ruth. "Are you planning to team up with anyone in squad 32?"
"Yea." Ellia nodded.
Then without even receiving an order, Ruth summoned forth the entirety of Isgalr's map, casting it in its full brilliance upon the glowing screen of the system. It was a sight to behold - a sprawling expanse of vibrant terrain with jagged mountain ranges and verdant forests.
As Ellia's eyes roved across the expanse of the map, she noticed that her current position was marked on the eastern edge, nestled amidst a flurry of snow-capped peaks. And as she scanned further northwards, her gaze alighted upon a tiny smudge of a building, which seemed to perch at the middle of the map. This, she realized with a start, must be where Aerie was located.
"The test examiner said to find weapons, but I can create them with the skill Almighty creation?"
"Yes, but I have saved some weapons," Ruth spoke as a horde of minuscule nanobots surged forth from the depths of Ellia's sleeve, writhing and wriggling like a swarm of metallic insects. They began to coalesce and fuse together, their tiny forms melding into the sleek and deadly shape of a rifle.
"Ragnarok?" Ellia spoke as she grabbed the rifle out of the air.
"The nanobots are able to consume weapons and save them into their data drive. So with this, you're able to conjure the weapon without much thought." Ruth explained.
Following Ruth's instructions with a sense of deep focus, Ellia raised her hand and, with a flick of her wrist, caused Ragnarok to disintegrate into a swirling cloud of nanobots. They swarmed and twisted around her, an almost ethereal presence, before merging and solidifying once more into the familiar shape of the rifle she had conjured before.
"Huh… it really was easy," As she held the weapon up to the light, turning it over and over in her hands, Ellia couldn't help but marvel at its craftsmanship.
It was as though the nanobots had somehow defied their very nature, fashioning a weapon that felt solid and weighty in her grip - not a shimmering, ephemeral thing wrought from metal and machine.
She ran her fingers along its smooth surface, marveling at the intricacy of its design, and couldn't help but feel a sense of profound respect for the tiny machines that had created it.
'This should be enough.' A sense of satisfaction filled Ellia as she nodded.
Ellia then caused the rifle to disassemble into a swarm of nanobots that seemed to hang in the air for a moment before being carried away back into the shelter of Ellia's clothes.
And with her weapon gone, she turned her attention towards the North. She drew in a deep breath, feeling the cold air fill her lungs, before strengthening her legs and launching herself forward in a powerful leap.
As she soared through the air, her body almost seemed to blur with the speed of her movement, leaving behind a plume of snow that was quickly carried away by the gusting winds. Ellia moved with an effortless grace that seemed almost inhuman.
