"How has the information leak about my consort been?" asked Selene, her voice echoing through the council chamber.
"Controlled, as requested, my queen," replied Valerius, bowing slightly. "Lyra can provide more precise details."
"Lyra?" Selene turned to the elder, who was seated at the table, her fingers interlaced on the polished wooden surface.
"We took precautions to avoid making it seem like a fantastical tale," explained Lyra, her voice calm and measured. "The royal decree added credibility to the story, and the unexpected success of the 'queen's pawn,' which wasn't part of our plan, was the cherry on top."
"So, will this accelerate the visitation schedule?" asked Cassian, leaning forward, his curious eyes fixed on Lyra.
"All signs point to yes. The story of Elian's new disciple defeating genius after genius, even those a level above, must have been more than shocking news," replied Lyra, a slight smile on her lips.
"How much do you think the humans will believe? I'm concerned that so many have been blessed by deities in recent years," questioned Isolde, her voice laden with worry.
"If everything goes as planned, the information planted in human territory will soon reach Drakk's ears," added Lyra, her confidence unwavering.
"But will we succeed? After all, he is a mage," pondered Cassian, crossing his arms.
A question mark hung in the air, reflected in the faces of all present in the council.
"I don't think that matters," said Marius, breaking the silence. "Inspiration can come from anywhere. Just remember how many times we've faced blocks that were resolved in the strangest and most atypical ways."
"I agree," added Cassian, nodding.
The only elder who hadn't participated much that day was Master Silas. His typical black blindfold over his eyes, bald head, and crossed arms suggested his attention was elsewhere.
"What's the current score?" asked Cassian, interested.
"Eighteen victories, eleven draws, and six defeats," said Silas, his expression unreadable.
Everyone in the room furrowed their brows.
"Haa... sorry. My senses have been quite sensitive lately," added Silas, with a playful tone.
"Were you spying on Glenn's fight?" asked Lesley, who was seated beside Selene, her voice filled with curiosity.
"What scares me is knowing that this wrinkled old man can discern what's happening from such a distance. My daughters are forbidden from bathing near you," stated Marius, eliciting a light laugh from those present.
"Even so, it's madness bordering on insanity," added Isolde, shaking her head. "Did our scouting system not find a talent like him before? Shouldn't we be worried that we're missing talents?"
"The Shadow Unit has been reviewing documents from the past six months, looking for inaccuracies. According to the latest report I received, some families seem to be camouflaging data on young talents, but nothing worth mentioning. One of them is linked to the ancient Carborex family," reported Lyra, her voice serious.
"But even so, Glenn's case seems more like an outlier than anything else. His reports indicated that his body genetics were largely inclined towards becoming a warrior," she added.
"Well, so be it. At least you found this anomaly in time," replied Valerius, contrasting with his always respectable demeanor.
"So, just one fight left?" questioned Silas, leaning forward. "Shouldn't we watch? Although the Lunaris Argentum don't care much about these recognition things, it would be good to show respect to the two final candidates who made it to the ring."
"Yes," agreed the elders in the room.
Selene, seated on her throne, silently observed the progress of the meeting. No one knew for sure what was going through her thoughts.
In contrast to the queen, Lesley, on the other hand, was easily readable as a book by the experienced observers in the room.
A small expectation to see her student fight was evident in her actions. It had been two weeks since she last saw him in action. And although she always trained with him in the morning, duels were a completely different world.
Whenever she saw him fighting, she could noticeably see the advancement in his skills. What truly fascinated her was his ability to refine things he had already built.
This was a characteristic that differentiated good mages from geniuses. Usually, a mage would think of an idea and practice until they reached that ideal. After that, few would continue refining the same skill for long and would move on to focus on others.
Glenn had a good repertoire, but what caught attention was how quickly his skills progressed with each fight.
The best example was those two rays shot from his eyes. A few weeks ago, it was just a meaningless idea; today, it was his trademark, with power, adaptability, and destruction.
**
The cold cut like invisible blades.
Aeloria raised her hands, and the world around us shattered into spirals of snow and sharp ice. The ground cracked under my feet, freezing in icy patterns as blue crystal stalagmites emerged from nowhere, trying to impale me.
I moved at high speed.
My electricity roared through my body. I dodged the deadly spikes, the icy wind whistling in my ears as I advanced.
He reacted instantly.
An ice spear shot straight at my chest, spinning like a hurricane of blades. With a snap of energy, I compressed gravity around me, and the projectile veered off at the last second, embedding itself in the ground with a thud.
Aeloria didn't even blink.
He slid across the battlefield like an arctic shadow, his steps gliding over the frozen ground at high speed, freezing everything in his path.
With a fluid motion, he raised his arms, and a white storm exploded around us.
A wall of snow took my vision.
My instincts screamed.
I spun in the air, and then, ice stakes came from all sides, trapping me in a structure resembling a medieval torture instrument, the 'iron maiden.'
The structure closed as fast as a blink, trying to impale me.
I stomped the ground with all my strength, shattering the stones around me, and applied a repulsive gravitational force in the form of a sphere.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The trap collapsed before my attack.
But he was already pressing me again.
His hand glowed with a icy blue light, and a giant fist of pure ice tried to crush me against the ground.
'Come on, give me a break, you bastard!'
Aeloria was a mage on the border to the upper champion rank. And the amount of prana he converted into ice was simply abnormal. Each of his movements affected an area of almost fifty meters.
My movements began to be limited by the slippery terrain and the rain of simultaneous attacks. Although I could counter and destroy most of the area attacks, I understood what he was doing.
The same as Dália.
The moment the entire field was under his control, it would be my end.
'I've been beaten too much in this style, it won't work as easily as you think!'
My Nexus shone brighter than in any other fight I had used it. Above my head, six large electric spears appeared, floating. My legs exploded with electricity as I shot towards him, destroying everything in my path.
Barrages of stalagmites continued to appear, but before they could hit me, one of the spears floating around me advanced, destroying everything in its path.
Aeloria began to move, trying to get further away from me. One of my hands rose towards him, and with a pulling motion, his movements were sealed.
He used his own ice magic to slide over the frozen floor; applying an opposing gravitational force, his movements ceased.
Instinctively, an ice dome began to form around him.
'There it is, the anti-gravity pull tool.'
How many times had Dália done the same? I couldn't even count.
The globe covered his entire body, and he began to slide over the frozen floor again. The sphere momentarily blocked his view of me.
That's when I merged all six rays floating around me into a single colossal spear.
I stopped advancing towards him and channeled even more energy. The spear reached almost six meters in length. When Aeloria finally stopped, deactivating part of the dome surrounding him, my attack advanced.
Caught off guard, he defended in the most instinctive way possible. His body was again covered with the ice sphere, while a huge wall formed in front of him.
Before my attack was contained by his defenses, the entire spear exploded into a rain of lightning.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The ice sublimated instantly with the shock, a huge wave of steam expanded, destroying everything within a radius of more than fifty meters.
Taking advantage of the shock wave that formed, I used my gravitational power to further expand the area affected by the steam. The result was that the entire battlefield Aeloria had frozen fell into ruins with the violent clash of our magics.
The sphere had been partially destroyed, and inside it, part of Aeloria's body had suffered light burns from the steam expansion.
For the first time, his face showed an incredulous expression. His hard work, trying to dominate the arena, had been destroyed by his own defenses.
'That's right, you bastard! This was a case where you should have reflected the attack elsewhere, not defended with a wall.'
My prana levels entered a critical state, and now all the electricity I produced was with mana. But guess what? Since I received my Nexus, I no longer had to worry about anyone noticing my mana.
"Isaac, you're a genius!!!"
Attached to the functionalities, there was one dedicated solely to energy camouflage. It would be useless for anyone else, but for me, it was perfect.
Resiliently, Aeloria continued to advance, restarting his strategy.
'He still has much more energy than me!'
Trying to circumvent the situation, electric attacks were poured by the thousands, clashing with spikes, fists, ice weapons, and pillars that focused on keeping me as far away from him as possible.
A last desperate strategy came to my mind. Quickly, I looked at the stands and found all the council elders, the queen, and the Lunaris family.
'It has to be well done!'
My body shimmered with lightning, forming a protective film. And again, I shot forward.
Every three steps, I exploded gravitational pulses, destroying everything in a five-meter sphere around me.
The energy expenditure was high, but it was the only idea that came to my mind.
The intensity of the ice barriers increased. Walls began to appear in front of me, being destroyed by the pulses and launching pieces of ice in all directions. When I was about thirty meters from Aeloria, my pattern changed.
My arms moved in a forward motion, bringing both hands in front of my body. Suddenly, all the pieces of stone, ice, and debris moved on the ground, accelerating at high speed towards Aeloria.
He just raised one hand, and all the ice being thrown at him stopped. The stones were intercepted by a huge wall in front of him.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
**
Two colossal rays shot towards me.
'He finally used his trump card.'
The double rays from Glenn's eyes had become famous.
Aeloria felt all the ice in a straight line being destroyed by the intensity of the attack. Raising both hands and landing on the sphere, freezing energy began to reinforce his main shield. The ice became denser and recovered every second.
A thunderous tremor shook his sphere, which soon began to crumble. Manipulating the ice from the structure, Aeloria focused all his strength on a single point. The sphere transformed into an oval shield, mainly protecting the part where the shock was happening.
Blood slowly oozed from his mouth from the strong bite on his lips and intense concentration.
'It's truly remarkable. What a powerful attack.'
The shock lasted almost five seconds before finally ending.
'I won!!!', he thought confidently.
Aeloria had defended Glenn's ace in the hole. The attack recognized as the most powerful he had. Even within the steam cloud that had formed, Aeloria knew it was only a matter of seconds to grasp victory.
That's when an almost imperceptible sound of glass breaking echoed in his ears, and from his front, close to his chest, a second ray appeared from behind his shield.
And then everything went black. Aeloria fell into the abyss of unconsciousness.
**
As my double rays clashed with his ice shield, steam covered me, enveloping me in the unknown.
Raising my hand, with two fingers pointed towards Aeloria, as soon as my trump card ended, a second ray was shot from my fingers.
But before it hit the shield that had resisted the first attack, the ray simply passed through it as if it didn't exist, finding my target.
Aeloria was violently thrown out of the arena, falling straight into Elian's arms, who looked at me with questioning eyes.
I panted, my body far from the best condition. After all, Dália wasn't available to heal me. I had to settle for Hera's potions, but they weren't enough in the time I had to recover fight after fight.
So, in the last fight, as a last resort, I used my third affinity.
It was discreet. So discreet that even Elian was trying to understand what had happened. And the best part: as soon as Aeloria fainted, all the ice in the arena collapsed. There was no proof about my ray having passed through his defense or not.
Panting, I placed my hands on my knees, waiting for the verdict of this infernal month.
"Victory to Glenn, who achieved the incredible feat of: nineteen victories, eleven draws, and six defeats!"
From the stands, Lesley looked at me with a smile on her face. The elders, with shocked looks, and Selene, with a brief and subtle trace of happiness.
"With this fight, I consider the dueling event with the royal crown's representative concluded."