Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Bella listened to Dagan's explanation, looked around at the 40 or so students and scoffed. "Let me guess. Evin?"

Dagan looked hesitant to speak, as everyone knew that Bella had good relations with Evin, but eventually decided to tell the truth. "Yes."

"Whatever," Bella shrugged, as if she couldn't be bothered to care about the matter.

"Thank you," Dagan sighed in relief, but Bella's next words reminded him that the matter wasn't over yet.

"But since you tried to ambush me like this, I can't really shrug off the matter with a few words. I demand a proper apology."

Dagan's eyes twitched, but he still maintained an amiable face. "What do you propose?"

"You all should've explored the other locations on the Island, so you should've gotten at least something from those places," Bella grinned widely. "Show me the cards you have and let me pick one out of them."

"That's..."

"Don't think and just obey," Bella said arrogantly. "And don't think for a second I'll believe that you don't have any cards on you."

The haughtiness of the words seemed to rub Dagan the wrong way, as his eyes quickly observed the area around him. Evin noticed how his eyes fell on the various Talismans that they set up previously, before he looked back at Bella, who was surrounded by it all. Then, as if nothing happened, he replied in the same amiable tone as before.

"Alright. Then, I'll bring the cards we've gathered for you, and you can choose one from among them. Let me fetch them from my tent."

But after he created a suitable distance between his enemy, he promptly ordered the students around to attack Bella. "Throw at her whatever you got! Activate the Talismans!"

Countless Chants went off in the area, and Bella was subjected to the same treatment that Evin received in the morning. Countless lesser spells were thrown at her way, but instead of dodging, or disrupting the spells like Evin, Bella made her mud armor inflate outwards and turn into a shell.

However, this shell wasn't a normal barrier that users of the World of Earth would create. Bella's barrier was constantly in movement and just like the turbulent currents of a river it easily took care of the hastily created spells. Fire didn't do any damage to it; water and earth would just get swirled up by the currents and turn into a part of Bella's spell. There wasn't even a need to talk about the effects of the Worlds of Air, Light, and Darkness. Why would they even bother attacking her with such spells was beyond Evin.

The only spell which had any kind of effect was Dagan's spells, which were long 2-3 meter icicles shaped in the form of a spear. They managed to penetrate the swirling layer of mud, but Evin was sure they weren't hitting their intended target. And ever after they penetrate the layer, they would still get swept away by the currents like nothing happened.

"What happened to the Talismans? Didn't we set up three dozen of them around here?"

"We're trying to make them work, but none of them are working!"

"Useless idiots!" Dagan cursed, but managed to calm himself down. "Try to create a stronger spell! I'll buy time for you!"

At this moment, the mud shell turned smaller and smaller, until it formed around Bella's body again.

"Since you dared to attack me, I was actually expecting a proper challenge, but I guess you're just to idiotic to think that students who barely studied for four months are actually capable of something."

Almost instantly, Bella created a two-handed longsword from the mud on her armor, but unlike the rest of her mud-based skills, her sword wasn't fluid or swirling. Using it, she began to hack at the nearby enemies, slowly but surely making her way towards Dagan. The fight quickly devolved into a one sided massacre.

Even without Evin helping the girl out, it didn't look like there was going to be much of a fight. But Evin needed to establish his stance, so he needed to do something.

<I guess we should also do our part,> the Voice said casually and unleashed his spell.

Evin felt the Weight energies starting to affect the ground beneath the combatants, indiscriminately increasing its pull onto them. Except for Bella, who was being excluded from the spell's effects due to the Voice's expertise, everyone on the ground stumbled uncomfortably, their feet and body feeling twice as heavy as before.

"Has Evin left the trial as well?" Dagan grumbled as he looked around.

Evin knew he was familiar with this spell, as they had fought each other in a mock fight beforehand, and Evin had used the spell against him. As far as Evin was aware, there was no one in the year who could comfortably change another's weight aside from him, so it was natural for Dagan to suspect that their original target was also attacking his side.

'Guess, it doesn't really matter if I'm visible at this point or not,' Evin decided and asked the Voice to remove the layers of illusions on his body, but asked it to mask the scar on his cheek.

"Hey, Dagan," he declared his presence.

The boy looked up and glared at him hatefully. "You were there the whole time?"

Evin grinned gleefully at his shock. "Of course, I was. Really, it was a refreshing experience to participate in the setup of a trap made for me. But I decided that the Talismans were a bit overkill, so I took care of them beforehand. Do pardon me for the intrusion."

At this point, Dagan realized that there was no hope for him to turn the situation. Even against Bella alone, his chances at victory were slim, so he could only grit his teeth and admit defeat. With placating words, he asked his subordinates to stop fighting and told Evin and Bella that he was willing to offer some of the cards they've collected to amend this misunderstanding.

Evin had no interest in fighting in the first place, so he was willing to accept these arrangements. He looked towards Bella and saw the other nod as well. Evin expected Bella to look back at him, but the girl seemed positively unconcerned by his presence.

'Hmm, I thought she'd be more happy to see me,' Evin thought in his head, but decided that he could talk with her later on.

A few moments later, Dagan showed Evin and Bella the cards he collected, while the rest of his entourage was tending to the few injured. His group possessed 4 unique cards in total: a Castle Card, a Find Person Card, a Skip Room Card, and a Find Card Card. Evin could guess that their uses were from their names, but Dagan was courteous enough to explain them in greater detail. Since the students could ask one question at the Shelter regarding the test, a big group like Dagan's undoubtedly had a big advantage over loners like Evin.

A Find Person Card was as its name suggested, a card that allowed the possessor to ask for the location of a certain student at the Infirmary. And surprisingly, it was a card that could be used twice a day for the rest of the Test.

A Find Card Card was also the same in the fact that it could be used twice a day every day, but to find specific cards instead.

A Skip Room Card was used by trial takers to skip a room that they deem too difficult to overcome by themselves. Apparently, there were hidden trial supervisors in each area, so the students just had to shout around a bit to get their attention.

Also, Evin learned some new info about the Castles as well. It was a fortified building made of ketricite, which also possessed 12 guards and supplies inside of it. And if a student possessed three cards on them, they just had to go up to one and claim it. There were three such castles on the map, so it meant that there were 9 Castle Cards scattered across the Island.

But there was a downside to taking claim of a castle. Basically, if one claimed a castle as their own, they couldn't undo this action later on. And also, if their castle somehow gets taken over by enemy factions, its original Claimer will be taken down with it, and be forced to part with every card they've collected during the test.

"Oh, I almost forgot to mention this," Dagan continued casually. "Apparently, if one student takes over all three castles, something very important happens."

"What do you mean?" Bella asked.

"Don't know. The teachers at the Shelter said they weren't allowed to talk about it."

"Do you think…" Evin suggested the obvious.

"Probably not," Dagan shrugged. "Obviously, it would help, but I don't think just taking over three castles would warrant becoming Helm."

Despite what happened previously, the three were sitting together in one of Dagan's tents, listening to him share information with them.

"Well, that's about it, concerning the Cards I have," Dagan shrugged.

"Are you sure these are all the cards you possess?"

"Yes. We had a few more, but we've already used them. You two can each check all our possessions in search of them, and you can keep whatever you find to yourselves. But honestly, I don't think you understand how rare these cards are in the first place. You two were lucky enough to hog two Trials all to yourselves, but us normal students have to compete against each other quite intensely just to get food and supplies."

"You know about me clearing the Tunnels?" Evin asked.

"Yes. There was a group who was in the Shelter, talking about meeting you in it. You don't have a very reputable image in many of the students' eyes, by the way," Dagan said smilingly.

"I can imagine…" Evin replied.

He knew something like this was going to happen, but there wasn't much he could do about this. It wasn't like he could control what the five said, and it wasn't like he could leave them beside the rats, so…

"In any case," Dagan continued in a serious tone. "In exchange for the information I provided, I hope you can pick one card each from the four we have."

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