YM778.TV Chapter 87 - 35: 3rd Stage
"Saint Class Dark Magic: Magnify Cube tenebris" Translation: Dark Cube.
"Eh?" unintentionally let out Serena with a confused expression.
After he muttered those words, his shadow extended in the shape of a square, in an instant the area it covered managed to fit all four of them.
"Everyone fall back!" Shouted Serena as she tried to leap outside of the shadows range.
But right before they all tried to get away, the outer edges of the square shadow slowly rose up, as if it were creating a cubic room.
\'This is bad!\' Thought Ariel as she tried to look for a way out.
Ariel cast ventus at the dark wall, but it was unfazed.
"It\'s absorbing our attacks!" Shouted Serena.
The longer they took, the worse their situation would get.
\'If we\'re trapped inside this cube, it\'s all over! We won\'t be able to see anything and we\'ll be vulnerable to attacks from every direction!\'
"Think..."
The sides of the cube had been formed.
"Eleanor! Use light magic and create a path for us to escape!" Serena shouted.
The top of the cube walls were starting to extend at a moderate pace, at this rate a roof would be formed trapping everyone in complete darkness.
"It\'s too late. She won\'t finish the chant in time." Said the guy.
\'Crap... Is it really over?\' Thought Serena as she desperately tried to find a way to get out of there.
\'Fire and wind won\'t work... I could use velox to get out, but I can\'t leave Serena and Eleanor alone in here…\' Thought Ariel as she created a flame to light up the room.
Eleanor was too focused on chanting to think.
The amount of light inside the cube was getting smaller and smaller as the roof nearly closed off.
However, no one had given up.
"Advanced Light magic: Holy light!" Shouted Eleanor.
Eleanor\'s light glowed in the darkness, she concentrated the ray of light towards the wall.
"Why isn\'t it working!?" Eleanor shouted.
The wall wasn\'t showing any signs of opening.
"I told you, it\'s too late." His voice echoed around them.
The roof was about to be completely closed off.
"This is an announcement, 30 players remain, We are now moving on to the 3rd and final stage, I repeat, we are now moving onto the 3rd and final stage." announced the voice when only a small gap of light was left.
In that instant, light particles covered their bodies and glowed brightly inside of the darkness.
"Tch, saved by the bell." he muttered.
And just like that, they were teleported.
"Where there\'s darkness, there\'ll always be light, huh... I Think I understand what you meant now, dad." He said before he was teleported.
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"Oooh! The 3rd hidden stage is about to be revealed! The battles displayed in the 2nd stage were magnificent! Watching participants use the unique spells that they\'ve practiced for and honed is truly a sight to see!" Said the commentator.
"Oh!! Who passed!?"
"They must be really strong, right?"
"Of course!"
"The 30 who passed will be announced after the tournament, they will be teleported to a separate bracket from the rest," Said the advisor\'s voice which passed through the screen.
"Thats good!"
"I\'m looking forward to seeing who passed"
"Andrew, you better have passed!"
"Brandon Im counting on you!"
From inside of his carriage, Kurt along with the advisor continued to watch the screen and announcement.
\'3rd stage... What happened with Eleanor and John\'s group? The fights displayed barely showed them in it, and from what I could see, they were focused on their own fights…\' Thought Kurt.
"Well, I\'m sure it\'s nothing to worry about." He assured himself.
��What worries me is the cube that was showed at the end, a cube made of complete darkness... I never seen a spell like that... then again, I stopped researching the dark element, although I\'m sure the advisor might know something\' Thought Kurt as he looked at her.
"Is there something on my face?" She asked.
"No, nothing at all," Kurt replied.
"Looks like we\'ve gotten live footage of what\'s currently happening to the island, and you won\'t believe it!" Said the commentator.
"A platform?"
"What the cube became flat?!"
The cube was which all the players were fighting in had turned into a platform as if it had flattened down.
The sky was now visible along with the ocean and waves. There were no trees in sight, only a platform and little visible terrain on the platform edges.
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"Of course..." John muttered while he looked up, faintly shutting his eyelids to protect his eyes from the brightness of the sun.
At the same time, he could feel a cold fresh breeze travel through his body.
Perhaps it was from being stuck inside that cube with sounds of explosions going off every second or from the fact that the artificial lighting inside sucked, but either way, John felt deeply refreshed.
John took a deep breath and exhaled it while looking around.
Just like he had expected, all of the 30 participants were here, most people were surprisingly calm and no one was engaging in any fights.
"Looks like all 30 of you are here," Said a female voice.
The sound came from above, so John looked up and couldn\'t believe his eyes.
There was a woman floating above them, wearing a uniform.
"Levitation magic?"
"I thought that was lost..."
"No way, they have lost spells too?"
"That\'s amazing!"
"Looks like I chose the right academy..."
The tension around them had lowered after she appeared.
"I\'m sorry to disappoint but this isn\'t levitation magic, this isn\'t my actual body, I guess you could say it\'s an illusion," She said.
"Illusion?"
"What\'s an illusion?"
"Some sort of unique magic?"
"Illusion is something which you see but isn\'t actually there, it\'s when your eyes deceive you." Said a guy with glasses.
"Four eyes is correct, it\'s a unique type of magic that I learnt."
\'Learnt? You can learn unique types of magic?\' John wondered.
"I thought unique magic was specific to bloodline..."
"Me too..."
"I heard the same"
"I\'m sure you all have many questions, but please do not forget that we are in the middle of an exam. I will answer them all over time."
Her light words had a cold pressure behind them that caused everyone to become silent.
"Good. I\'ll start by congratulating you all on making it this far, I\'m sure it wasn\'t easy, but you\'ve made it, I look forward to seeing you in the academy."
Her words really hit home. Some people started to tear up.
"Now then, the 1st Part of the 3rd stage, the rule is simple, don\'t lose consciousness."
\'What?\' Everyone thought.
A split second after she said that, two people dropped to the ground, light particles surrounded their bodies, and they were teleported.
Those two were followed up by the majority kneeling with their hands on the ground.
"T-This pressure..." Muttered one of the guys before he dropped down.
\'Eh?\' John shirked inwardly.
He cast \'deprehendre\' and found inside of the group Serena, Ariel and Eleanor. Ariel and Serena seemed to be struggling to stand on their feet, but they stayed up. As for Eleanor, she was on her knees.
Including Eleanor, around 12 were on their knees, 8 were knocked out and teleported, and the remaining 11 struggled to stand.
John checked to see who the remaining 10 were, and he knew around half of them.
Including the three of them,, unsurprisingly the victor guy John had fought was one of them the long snow white hair and frost white eyes, he had the same confident air as always but you could tell that he was fazed.
Badge count under him had grown and was now 14.
The other six were Elora, the one who John had a truce with. She used advanced fire magic that took out 5 guys at once.
The spiky-haired guy with the buff looking physique, John wasn\'t too focused on how he looked before, but he wears pretty open clothes, a jacket or something similar without a shirt, and shorts with sandals. John wondered if he was immune to the cold.
\'Badge count under his was 3, Uwah... He probably got targeted so hard, he couldn\'t collect any more…\' John thought.
Next up was the long braided cyan haired girl who was chasing him. She wore a uniform, and looked elegant and dignified.
Badge count under hers was 4, John guessed that she was too busy chasing that guy.
\'What did he do..?\' John wondered.
A black-haired boy John had never seen before, he looked like he was around his age and was wearing a robe. The badge count under his was,
\'14?!\' John inwardly exclaimed.
\'The blue-haired girl water magic user girl and the red-haired fire magic user... There\'s not really much to say about them… Badge count 4 for both…\' John thought.
There was also a green-haired boy who John also hadn\'t noticed earlier. He wore a robe and the badge count under his badge number was 7.
And last person was a long purple haired girl and purple eyed. She wore a purple robe which matched her hair colour.
Badge count 8.
They all looked unique and strong in their own way, and yet they were all fazed by something. Of course, for some it was less apparent than others.
"You will be split into groups, those who have managed to keep standing up will be on one group and those who have fallen on their knees but stayed conscious will be put on the other. Are there any questions?" She asked with a cold tone.
No one said anything, yet the signs of the struggle didn\'t disappear.
"Good, I\'ll increase my output for the remaining 10 seconds, try not to lose conscious."
The instant she finished what she had to say, John felt a bit of pressure on the air, at the same time, Light particles started to form.
4 People from the ones that were kneeling were teleported, now there were only 8.
John hastily looked over and was relieved to see that Eleanor was still here, but she looked like she could fall over at any moment. Her arms were on the ground, trembling heavily as if there was some sort of huge weight over her.
The other 10 who were stood up, including Serena and Ariel, seemed to be struggling a lot more than earlier, and it was very apparent this time, even victor\'s legs were shaking as if they couldn\'t support the weight of his own body.
Yet none of them kneeled, they were all fighting.
"It\'s hard isn\'t it, those who are kneeling, you may as well quit now-"
"Um... excuse me, I think something\'s wrong on my side." John casually said while interrupting her in the process.
The attention of the 9 who were stood up, including the lady, turned to John/
With a scary surprised expression she just stared at him.
\'Is she mad that I interrupted her? That might have been the wrong move…\' John thought.
He wondered if there\'s probably some sort of error or mistake, since nothing was happening to John.