By now, the battle royale had grown noticeably quieter. Nearly half the applicants were already out. Some lingered at the arena's edge, tending to their bruised pride, while others stared off into space, questioning every choice that had brought them to the Holy Empire Academy. Silva, June, and Julie stuck together near the center of the arena.
David was still on his feet, having taken down several opponents with unnerving precision, never wasting a single move. Then there was the hooded girl, Nella. She had done almost nothing, yet somehow remained. Silva thought it was suspicious. Julie found it insulting. Most applicants avoided Nella—not because she seemed dangerous, but for the opposite reason. She looked small, quiet, and utterly disinterested in the chaos. Still, whenever someone moved toward her, they hesitated, then picked someone else. Silva noticed it too. It was as if their instincts told them to stay away.
One particularly confident boy finally broke the pattern. Fresh from defeating another applicant, he seemed to think the hooded girl would be an easy win. He charged, wooden sword raised, but Nella didn't budge. At the last moment, she shifted half a step, letting the blow miss, and the boy stumbled past. A subtle foot extended—he tripped and hit the ground face-first.
The arena fell quiet. Julie blinked. "That's it?"
The boy sprang up, furious, accusing her of tripping him. Nella tilted her head—technically true. He attacked again and again, each swing missing as she moved with small, precise, almost lazy motions. Growing desperate, he overextended, lost his balance, and tumbled across the ground. Nella watched him roll away before finally stepping away from the wall, drawing unexpected attention. David turned, June's expression shifted, and even Julie stopped joking. Something about Nella had changed.
She slowly raised her hands and pulled back her hood.
Long hair spilled free, cascading over her shoulders in smooth waves. Golden-blonde locks were interwoven with strands of deep black, the two colors blending together in a striking contrast. The darker strands seemed almost like shadows woven through sunlight, giving her hair an unusual, almost otherworldly appearance.
Silence swept across the nearest section of the arena.
Silva stared, while June's crimson eyes widened.
Julie whispered, "An elf?" Elves were rarely seen in the Holy Empire, yet there was no mistaking those ears. Nella calmly glanced around the arena, seemingly unbothered by the attention—if anything, she looked a little bored. Her gaze settled on Silva again, making his eye twitch.
"Maybe she likes your face," Julie suggested, earning a silent stare from Silva and a quiet laugh from June.
Before he could reply, David stepped forward, showing no surprise at Nella being an elf—only interest. Finally, someone worth fighting. As David approached, the other applicants instinctively moved aside, the tension between the two children enough to clear the space. Stopping several meters away, David met Nella's eyes. They stood motionless for several seconds before he raised his training sword, golden-white light slowly gathering around him. Silva noticed the change immediately.
"That's Aura."
June nodded as a faint glow wrapped around David's arms and chest, quickly spreading into a translucent armor over his whole body. Several instructors leaned in, intrigued. At just seven years old, most kids were still stuck in the Mana Gathering Stage—but David had already moved past it. Aura Manifestation. Even the principal seemed impressed. David gripped his sword tighter, light shimmering along the wooden blade.
Julie let out a low whistle. "Okay." She folded her arms. "He's actually decent."
Silva shot her a look. "Actually?" Julie winced, realizing she'd said too much. "I mean… for someone our age." June arched a brow, and Julie responded with an innocent smile. Then David moved—fast.
His light-enhanced body crossed the distance in seconds.
Nella raised a hand, and mist began to spill from beneath her feet.
At first, it seemed harmless—a thin white fog creeping along the ground—but it spread quickly, ten feet, twenty, fifty, until it swallowed Nella, David, and half the arena.
Shouts rang out from the obscured fighters:
"I CAN'T SEE!" "WHO HIT ME?!" "That was me!"
"WHY?!" "I THOUGHT YOU WERE SOMEONE ELSE!"
"You were on my team!" "Oh." A wooden sword shot out of the fog, caught by an instructor who simply stared at it before sighing.
The battle royale had somehow gotten even more chaotic. Silva gripped his staff tighter as the mist reached him, June and Julie vanishing from sight within seconds.
"Of course." Inside the fog, David stayed calm. His glowing Aura lit the space around him, but even that couldn't cut far into the haze. He listened—no footsteps, no breathing, no movement—until a shape appeared behind him. He spun, slicing through nothing, as Nella's voice drifted from somewhere else.
"Too slow."
David turned, but saw nothing.
He squinted. This fog wasn't normal. It messed with more than just his vision—sounds warped, distances felt off, and even his sense of direction slipped away.
He took a breath and steadied himself.
Then smiled.
"Interesting."
He raised his sword.
Light exploded outward.
The surrounding fog was blasted away.
For several meters, visibility returned.
Nella stood directly ahead as David charged, his glowing sword slicing down. She sidestepped, but he instantly shifted direction, keeping his balance unlike the boy before.
His second strike followed right on the heels of the first, then came a third, fourth, and fifth—each quicker than the one before. Nella kept backing away until David suddenly thrust his free hand forward. A burst of light flared, and she raised her arm just as the blast hit, but nothing happened.
David's light vanished into a thick wall of white.
From the observation platform, the principal rose to his feet.
"That fog…"
One instructor frowned.
"Water affinity?"
"No."
"Wind?"
The principal stayed silent.
He couldn't make sense of it, and it left him uneasy.
This fog wasn't just appearing—it was being directed, with remarkable precision, by Nella.
What's more, she wasn't even showing her full strength.
The principal knew it.
In the thick fog, David halted, his Aura armor glowing brightly around him. Nella was nowhere in sight, so he stopped looking. Closing his eyes, he listened, waiting. A faint sound came from the right—he struck, but his sword sliced only mist. Wrong. A touch grazed his shoulder. He spun. Nothing. Then a brush on his other side—again, nothing. Nella was toying with him. Jaw tight, David's Aura flared to life.
Light flooded the mist.
For a brief moment, everything turned white and gold, but the fog spread quickly. Silva shielded his eyes, and even June and Julie glanced toward the source. As the brightness faded, David stood bathed in a radiant aura, with the faint outline of a shield forming behind him. Julie stared. "That's..." June nodded. "Light Aura." David raised his sword, and the glowing shield moved with him.
Nella finally stopped retreating.
Her expression shifted.
For the first time since stepping into the arena—she smiled, just a little.
David charged forward.
Nella lifted both hands.
The mist surged ahead.
Light clashed with fog.
BOOM!
A shockwave rippled through the arena, knocking several nearby applicants out of bounds.
Silva drove his staff into the ground.
Julie caught hold of June.
For a few seconds, nothing was visible.
Then the fog began to thin.
A figure emerged—David.
Still on his feet.
David's Aura armor flickered, his wooden sword splintering in his grasp as he struggled for breath. Across from him, Nella stood calm and composed. He tightened his grip and stepped forward, but his leg gave out, dropping him to one knee.
The arena fell silent. Staring at the ground, he tried to rise, but his body wouldn't obey. Nella approached, stopping a few feet away. "You've used too much Aura. You should step outside." His jaw tightened—he hated hearing it, but she was right.
As his Aura faded, the instructor raised a hand. "David is eliminated!" Murmurs rippled through the crowd—one of the strongest had fallen. Nella turned away as the mist in the arena slowly cleared, and Silva, Julie, and June all fixed their eyes on her.
Nella slipped her green hood back over her head. Then, as if beating David was no big deal, she started walking—not toward another opponent, not toward the instructors, but straight toward Silva.
Silva watched as she approached. Nella stopped right in front of the three of them, and he met her gaze. Beneath the hood, he could see her eyes—not on June, not on Julie, but fixed solely on him. He adjusted his grip on his staff.
"Can I help you?"
She studied him for several long, uncomfortable seconds before speaking words that made his expression shift.
"I entered this examination because of you."
Silva blinked.
Julie turned toward him, and June followed. Silva pointed at himself. "…Me?" Nella nodded. He stared back, certain he'd never seen her before—at least, he didn't think he had. Her eyes narrowed as she studied him, not his face, but something deeper. Something hidden.
For just a fraction of a second, her calm expression cracked.
Recognition flickered, then disappeared. Behind Silva, Julie leaned toward June and whispered, "See?" June glanced at her, and Julie grinned.
"I told you, all the strange ones like him."
Silva caught her words. "Julie."
"What?"
"This isn't helping."
Nella kept staring.
Then, almost too quietly for anyone else to hear, she whispered,
"So it really is you."
Silva's grip tightened around his staff.
"What does that even mean?"
Nella didn't respond. She moved faster than before, knocking the twins outside. The twins were surprised, as they were both in the Elemental Aura Stage, close to becoming Aura Masters. In this group of kids, they were considered the strongest—or so they thought.
Nella proved to be far stronger. June and Julie thought she reminded them of their Master, exuding the same kind of strength and presence. Mist filled the entire arena, and Nella's voice came from behind Silva as her fingers touched Silva's forehead.
"Let's have a little chat."