After going to the school café, Cleia, Astrid, and Zeryan began studying the various rounds of the tournament. It was divided into three trials: the first was a kind of hide-and-seek, the second a capture-the-flag match, and the last a maze to complete.
Zeryan calmly explained,
"Hide-and-seek is simple. Mikey will create a field with his Aptarchia, Bubble: he'll recreate this entire castle inside it. Two classes will face each other—one will search, and the other will hide. After ten minutes, the roles switch. Also, Mikey will use his Singularity Removal, which blocks all our Singularities for the entire round."
Curious, Cleia asked,
"But what exactly does his Aptarchia Bubble do?"
Zeryan nodded and continued,
"Well… he creates a bubble of whatever size he wants—even infinite, if he feels like it. Inside the bubble nothing changes, except he becomes omniscient about everything that happens within. He can even create smaller bubbles inside the main one. And inside it, he can build whatever he wants, wherever he wants, and even rewrite the laws of physics. It's similar to omnipotence… but not quite the same."
"That's an incredible power," Astrid murmured.
"Yeah. Apparently he created a bubble that reaches the edge of the universe. Thanks to him, we know the universe is infinite."
"So he's omniscient now… and basically omnipotent?"
"More or less. He's practically a god. And yet he's only ranked number nine among the Thirteen Knights. We only know the Aptarchia of five of the original Knights… who knows what monstrous powers the other eight have."
Astrid continued,
"Okay, the second round is capture the flag, right? Two teams, three flags total, and one main flag for each team. Every flag has a special effect on its territory. We can eliminate each other, since Mikey gives us a kind of immortality inside his Bubble… but once eliminated, he kicks us out of the field. And he doesn't block our Singularities this time."
Cleia added,
"The third game is a maze with clues… and our Singularities will be blocked again."
Zeryan nodded,
"So basically: the first round is a test of survival and tracking skills; the second judges combat ability; the last tests our mental skills, right?"
"Yeah," Cleia and Astrid answered at the same time.
"Then why is it still called the 'combat test' if it's not only about combat?" Astrid asked.
"Apparently it used to be only a combat test… but after they changed it, they were too lazy to change the name." Zeryan shrugged.
---
Five days passed.
"Today's the big day, Astrid! The day of the combat tournament!" Cleia exclaimed, bursting with excitement.
When they reached the school courtyard, they saw the principal draw two slips of paper from a basket.
"Section C!"
Then another:
"Section H! These two classes will face each other first!"
Cleia went pale. It was her section… and they'd be the first to compete.
The principal continued drawing names; soon after, Mikey arrived and instantly created a gigantic bubble above the castle. Inside it, he placed cameras, a perfect copy of the castle, and finally teleported all the students inside.
"So this is hide-and-seek…" Zeryan murmured.
A screen materialized in front of the students: it showed a ten-minute timer and a single instruction—Hide.
Class H understood immediately: they were the ones hiding first.
Zeryan gestured for Cleia and Astrid to follow him. They walked through a corridor they had never seen before, then climbed elegantly decorated stairs until they reached the royal library.
He led them to a bookshelf, pulled a book… nothing happened.
"Damn, wrong one. Sorry."
He tried another. Nothing.
Eventually, after removing half the shelf, one book triggered a mechanism. The bookshelf slid aside, revealing a hidden passage to the underground.
Astrid whispered,
"How did you even know this was here?"
"Huh? I'm the king's son. This is my house," Zeryan said as if it were obvious.
Cleia froze.
"And why didn't you tell us bef—"
Zeryan covered her mouth.
"Shhh! Don't yell, they'll hear us!"
"You're right… still, it's kind of shocking to find out like this…"
Down in the underground room, Zeryan sat on an old table.
"This used to be my favorite hiding spot. What do you think?"
The place was dark and smelled rotten.
"I think you're stupid," Astrid replied flatly.
Zeryan's offended expression made Cleia burst into laughter.
"Pff—ha-ha-ha! Poor thing!"
Astrid remained stone-faced.
"No, seriously. You emptied half the shelf. If anyone heard Cleia scream and comes here, they'll see immediately that the shelf hides something."
Zeryan sighed,
"Oh come on… as if. Anyway, I know another hiding spot: the sewers. I can take you there if you want."
"Absolutely not," Cleia said coldly.
Astrid checked the timer.
"Eight minutes left. We can still find another spot."
Zeryan protested,
"Or we can stay here and look for a proper hiding place! We haven't explored everything yet! Look how huge this place is!"
"Fine, we can try," Astrid conceded.
As they explored, they heard a noise.
"Hey, are you sure you heard something here?" one girl whispered.
"Yeah… and that shelf was half empty. Someone's definitely here," Yuri said.
Astrid and Cleia shot Zeryan a deadly stare.
"Hide, now!" Zeryan ordered.
The three scattered: Zeryan slipped into a box, Cleia crawled under a table, Astrid vanished deeper inside the room. The timer showed four minutes.
While repositioning herself, Cleia hit her head.
"Ouch…" she whispered.
Yuri heard it.
"There! I heard something!"
She and her partner rushed toward Cleia. Cleia's heart nearly stopped.
But just as Yuri was getting close—
Bang!
A balloon popped.
"There!" Yuri pointed.
It was Astrid. Somehow she had found a balloon, blown it up, thrown it across the room, and popped it using a pair of scissors she had grabbed from a nearby table.
After failing to find anyone around the explosion point, Yuri growled,
"They tricked us…"
The timer showed two minutes.
"We have to leave! If someone's really here and there's so little time left, we can't waste it!"
They tried to run out—but Zeryan slammed the door shut from outside.
"Girls, I'm leaving them to you!" he shouted.
"You… bastard!" Yuri yelled.
They searched frantically, but the seconds ticked down.
Finally, the door unlocked. Zeryan stepped away pretending nothing had happened, and the two girls bolted outside… only to find Zeryan waiting at the top of the stairs, smiling.
"Good morning, ladies~"
The timer hit zero.
"Damn it… he tricked us!"
Zeryan tapped both of them—they vanished, eliminated.
Cleia and Astrid came up from the underground.
"You really fooled them," Cleia said.
"Nice job," Astrid added.
After restoring the bookshelf, they continued searching. After several failed attempts, the timer showed two minutes.
"Do we keep going?" Zeryan asked.
"We're tied… 13 to 13," Cleia noted.
"Let's give it one last try," Astrid said.
As they ran down a corridor, someone shouted,
"Over here! I found one!"
A boy from Section H was chasing a student from Section C. Cleia dashed forward, cornered him, and tagged him. He was eliminated.
Cleia's class won the first round.
---
Back in the courtyard, Section H was applauded and advanced to the second round—still against Section C. This time, Singularities were allowed.
Mikey created a massive bubble above the castle and generated an enormous battlefield.
"Starting already…?" Cleia murmured.
"Looks like it…" Zeryan replied.
The capture-the-flag match began.
---