The two upset victories by Team Heart had shattered the academy's complacency. Fayea's elegant defeat of Raiden Shough on Day 1 (by disarming his rage) and the unified tactical win in the Elemental Maze on Day 2 had proven that the Crest of Outcasts was not a joke. Their presence in the Arcane Relic Games was now viewed with hostile intensity, particularly by Oblivion Draventh, who had retreated from public view to observe the unexpected threat.
Day 3 was the Scholars' Trial, a challenge designed not for brute force, but for intellect, intuition, and knowledge. The challenge was held in the vast, spiraling Library of Lost Records, a place shrouded in silencing runes and scented heavily with ancient parchment and dry ink.
The objective was to solve three complex, magically secured riddles tied to the historical use and nature of the Heartstone Relic fragments. Today's opponent was Team Diamond (♦️), the Crest of pure Strategy and Intellect, led by the cool, mathematically-minded Captain Veridian.
In the Library's central observation chamber, the tension was palpable. Veridian and his Diamond mages were armed with glowing data-slates, ready to process volumes of historical information. Team Heart, meanwhile, gathered around Nova Starling, the team's disgraced strategist.
"This is our territory," Nova stated, her silver eyes blazing with cold confidence as she mapped the library's archive layout. "Diamond relies on rigid patterns and known data. The Relic riddles always contain a flaw—a piece of knowledge that was strategically erased from official texts. My job is to find the erasure."
"And mine is to keep them from panicking when the erasure proves the impossible," Fayea murmured. She knew this was the ultimate test of Faith over Facts.
The first two riddles fell quickly, thanks to the perfect synergy of the team. Nova calculated the formulaic pattern of the historical obfuscation, Aero used his air magic to create a perfect, silent vacuum to locate subtle acoustic clues, and Terra sensed the structural changes in the archives. They worked like a well-oiled, mismatched machine, earning Nova the begrudging respect of the watching Diamond Captain.
The Third Riddle
The final challenge was guarded by a shimmering field of chronomancy—a spell designed to distort time and memory. Beneath it sat the third Relic Fragment: a small, pulsing shard that radiated a sorrowful, ancient warmth.
The riddle appeared in glowing script above the shard:
The Dragon seeks the power of the core,The Mage seeks the knowledge of the lore.Yet what feeds the Relic, though never fed?What is consumed by the Living, but mourned by the Dead?
Veridian, the Diamond Captain, immediately scoffed. "A recursive paradox. Classic chronomancy trick. It must be a self-sustaining energy source. Eternal Magic or Cosmic Dust."
Nova quickly shook her head. "Statistically irrelevant. That's a textbook Diamond answer. Too obvious. The correct answer must be something that exists outside the elemental system, something that is immeasurable."
She looked at Fayea. "Captain, your magic is based on the spiritual, the unquantifiable. You are the only one here whose Origin is powered by the immaterial. What is the essence that the Relic is built upon?"
Fayea stepped forward, her celestial pendant pulsing softly. She placed her hands on the protective chronomancy field, closing her eyes. She ignored the riddle itself and focused on the Shard's energy. She channeled her Celestial Magic: The Whisper of Truth, not to break the defense, but to read its intent.
Her starlight wasn't a weapon; it was a lens. She felt the Shard's past, its fear, and its intense, enduring loneliness. She realized that the Relic was not a stone; it was a vessel.
She saw fleeting visions: ancient mortals looking up at the sky, believing in salvation, pouring their desperate hope into the Relic. She saw people sacrificing their entire lives to a single ideal, a dream they knew they would never see realized. She saw the emotional energy—the unwavering belief—feeding the stone, making it pulse.
"The Relics are not power sources," Fayea whispered, opening her eyes, which glowed with crystalline understanding. "They are vessels of collective conviction."
She turned back to the riddle, the answer now perfectly clear:
What feeds the Relic, though never fed?Belief.
What is consumed by the Living, but mourned by the Dead?Hope.
"The answer is not a thing, Captain Veridian," Fayea announced, her voice ringing with the authority of spiritual truth. "The answer is Faith."
The chronomancy field immediately dissolved, and the Third Relic Fragment floated down into Fayea's hand. It wasn't cold or hard; it was warm, thrumming like a shared heartbeat. Team Heart had won the Scholars' Trial with an answer that no elemental mage would ever have considered.
The Shift in the Dragon Prince's Attention
The victory was complete, leaving Captain Veridian sputtering, his data-slates flashing red with "Error: Unforeseen Variable." Team Heart had just proven that Faith was a strategically superior weapon to Facts when dealing with the unknown.
In the highest tower of the Academy, cloaked in the shadows of his private observatory, Oblivion Draventh was watching.
He had expected the Heart team to fail. He had accepted the physical loss in the Duel of Power—Raiden was prone to rage, and rage was inefficient. He had grudgingly acknowledged the team's tactical win in the Maze—unity could compensate for a skill deficit.
But this—a victory based on ideological truth—was different.
Oblivion watched the playback of the scene, his cold, ember eyes locked on Fayea. He saw how easily she pierced the veil of elemental complexity to reach the core, human essence of the Relic. She was an anomaly he could not calculate.
"A weapon of sentiment," Oblivion muttered, his voice low and dangerous. He crushed the armrest of his obsidian throne, the material turning to ash under the pressure of his focused magic. His initial scorn had dissolved entirely, replaced by a cold, concentrated fury.
He finally understood the true threat: Fayea was not trying to win the games; she was trying to prove his entire worldview wrong. She was not attacking his power; she was attacking his foundation.
He finally gave an order to his lieutenant, his voice flat and absolute. "Stop monitoring Team Heart's location. Start monitoring their intentions. And ensure that the next trial is one where pure belief is not enough."
The Dragon Prince, having witnessed the power of Faith, was no longer simply annoyed by Fayea. He was genuinely, ruthlessly threatened. The stakes of the Arcane Relic Games had just escalated from a school tournament to an ideological war.