Among gasps from all of the awoken that were dragged into this space, none were as loud as Avery’s. With a shout of joy, she exclaims to Ventus, “Did you just create a pocket space? Is it akin to the demiplane spell from TTRPGs?”

Ventus grins slightly at Avery, nodding very slightly as a planet forms beneath their platform, before the platform dissipates, leading to a very short drop to the planet’s surface. “I did and did not. I was more inspired by the feeling of my mana, though now that you mention it, this space is probably very similar. Let me do this though, before we start. That way the mana in this space doesn’t deplete over time as you all absorb it passively.”

Ventus then forms a large formation of multiple simple gathering mana arrays. She places it around the demiplane’s star, before opening a portal in the middle of said star. However, instead of linking it where she intended, which was where they came in, it links to the location, but far underground. The location is a bit below an as of yet undiscovered node. The dense mana there starts to flood into the demiplane as the formation draws it in, quickly filling itself to capacity. The mana then flows throughout the demiplane before equalizing with the pressure near the node outside of it. 

The awoken within sigh with relief as the mana within the demiplane becomes dense enough to feel comfortable. They start to clamber while waiting for what to do next before the mana continues to intensify, becoming slightly uncomfortable to the weaker awoken there, where it stops increasing in density.

Ventus smiles as she feels the density increase enough to feel slightly comfortable to herself, and closes the portal while dismantling the formation. “Well That should be enough mana for this test. Vina, before we begin, can you check if you can control… nevermind you can.”

Vina tilts her head at Ventus’ sudden pause, before giggling. “Is your sight getting better Ventus? Or was I going to do what you were about to ask within such a short amount of time?”

Avery sneaks over to Ventus, aiming to poke her space covered tails, but before she can, Ventus turns towards her. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try that right now Avery. Also, yes it seems to be further, Vina, though I could not tell you how much further ahead.”

Lamu smiles upon hearing this, before Avery speaks up. “How did you know I was going to try and touch your tails, Ventus?”

Ventus giggles slightly before gesturing all around them. “I can feel space much more clearly in general now, and while in this place, I can feel everything that’s going on. It’s a bit overwhelming with so many people here. I can feel all of your mana types, cycles, and even all of your biological processes. Thankfully I’ve been able to dial that sense back heavily using a method Echo taught me, but even with the sensation lessened, I can still tell where people are.”

Avery and Vina stare at Ventus, their jaws opening, while everyone else but Lamu Todd, and an anubis looking man step back, fear visible on their faces.

Lamu sighs before walking over to the anubis looking man, “Thomas, I’m surprised you didn’t back away with the rest.”

Thomas laughs before shaking his head. “Why would I be afraid? My ability is weight. One of its more abstract uses is to tell the balance of someone’s heart. While I cannot say it will never change, at the moment, Ventus at the very least has balance in her heart, if not being even lighter. There is no reason to fear such a person, at least in my opinion.”

Some of those that backed away straighten, their looks of fear dropping, though others became slightly more fearful, causing Thomas to grimace in disgust while pointing at them. “Those few on the other hand, have very heavy hearts. I cannot say why, but even so, they would be the ones I fear rather than Ventus.”

Ventus smiles as she walks over to Thomas, her tails flicking as her ears stand straight. Upon arriving, she touches his shoulder to get him to lean down, and then whispers into his ear, “Thank you. I’m actually rather interested in your ability, if you don’t mind working with me at another time to try to improve my own? I will of course do what I can to assist you.”

Thomas straightens before chuckling. He nods and then walks over towards the group of Avery and Vina. Ventus then gestures to Lamu and walks back to her group before  patting the ground of her demiplane. 

With the pat, a large training ground forms, similar to the one they had just left. “You’ll be sparring with each other instead of using training dummies, which was my original intention. The only one exempted currently is myself.”

Some of those that still look fearful start complaining. With shouts of, “Why?” “How come you get to be exempt?”, and “I should be exempt too.” the group of fearful people start to form a loose mob.

Shaking her head, Ventus just smiles at the mob before asking two questions of her own. “First, do you have any idea how much power it takes to ensure the safety of each one of you? Second, do you know that my mana is far denser than the rest of yours. I doubt those that have not changed upon awakening, nor felt the first crack could even damage me.”

Avery rolls her eyes at Ventus’ statement. “While that’s probably true for awoken. Beasts would have far less issue, so don’t get cocky Ventus.”

Vina and Lamu sigh before going over to the training grounds, dragging Avery with them. They say at nearly the same time, “Come along Avery, I very much doubt Ventus would let such a thing happen, given her other abilities.”

Blinking in surprise, the duo looks at each other before laughing loudly. Vina simply says, “I guess I’ve been around you too often sir.”

The rest of the awoken in Lamu’s squad start to approach, smiles on their face before asking Lamu, “Who’s the elf Lamu? Did you get a girlfriend?”

Lamu shakes his head before yelling at his squad. “How dare you be afraid of Ventus, she is going to be incredibly important to our squad’s delves. Not to mention her actions have saved all of you. Drop and do pushups until your arms give out.”

Ventus walks over, shaking her head. “Delay that order for now. Everyone, get in groups of two, and begin to spar. I’ll be watching you all, observing your mana flows and offering advice on how to improve. Thomas, before they start, would you like to spar with me? I have a few ideas on how to help, though I need to see the full extent of your abilities.”

Lamu grumbles at his orders being put off, before chuckling, and patting Vina’s head gently. He smiles at his squad before answering, “This is Vina, who you used to know as our scout and spear master. I won’t tolerate any misnaming, nor discrimination.”

The squad grin and a couple start flirting with Vina as Thomas nods lightly towards Ventus, getting into a relatively empty section of the training ground. “Sure thing, but do know I will not hold back, despite the lightness of your heart.”

Ventus chuckles before nodding. “Very well, I’ll hold back my mana output to your level. Although I can do nothing about the strength of my body, I will not use it to fight. Please begin.”

The crowd starts betting, which Todd collects. Many of them have seen Thomas’ abilities, and given Ventus’ statement of holding back her output as well as not using her body to fight, consider his chances of winning to be very good. Thus many start putting a few hundred dollars onto Thomas. A few smart ones, as well as Lamu’s squad and Avery all bet on Ventus however. They have seen her overwhelming power even before she had learned much about her abilities. Lamu puts five thousand on Ventus, while Vina puts two thousand, which are all of her remaining funds. Avery rolls her eyes at their antics.

“I won’t be participating in this, and you two should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Lamu chuckles and puts five hundred down on Ventus in Avery’s name. “You were saying?”

Avery sputters and then sighs. Muttering how she won’t have much for research, before putting ten thousand on Ventus. The bets for both parties are roughly equal given the sheer amount of awoken, and the few betting on Ventus.

Vina grins, before whispering to the star of the demiplane. “Shine brightly on those two for now, please. They need the spotlight so to speak.” 

With barely a speck of mana, The star does so, seemingly eager to shine brightly for its creator, even if the one who requested the light was not its creator.

Lamu steps forward with his arm raised, before swinging it down, “Begin.”

Thomas begins to channel his mana into his ability almost immediately, a wave of pressure pressing down in the area around Ventus, well around where she was, because Ventus had already moved just out of range of the pressure, the stars in her eyes glowing brightly, while the translucent celestial bodies falling from her tails twinkle. 

With a laugh, Ventus says, “You’re using your ability wrong Thomas. While weight may be a part of it in abstract terms, your ability is gravity manipulation. Don’t just think of the surface a person is standing on, you are limiting yourself far too much. Try this for example.”

Ventus then flicks a tail towards Thomas, and a small ball of gravity forms above him. The mana within is clearly less than most of the awoken who have yet to even feel the first so called crack, to which Avery shouts, “You’re limiting yourself too far Ventus. You’re overcompensating since your mana pool has always been higher than any other awoken.”

The crowd backs away upon hearing this, and many ask to change their bets, but are denied. While Lamu is not the one collecting the bets, he does walk over to the person and places an arm in front of Todd. “You won’t be attacking him. You all choose to spend your money on this, live with your choices.”

Todd sighs, the magma that was gathering at his feet dissipates

Ventus’ ears twitch as she hears this, shaking her head while smiling. “Well it, are you unable to fight, or do you want to continue Thomas?”

Thomas bares his teeth, mana erupting from him as a large bubble of gravity forms above Ventus’ head. The ground under Ventus’ feet starts to break away and fly into the bubble before she smiles even wider. “Good good, that’s a good use of your ability, though a bit too much mana spent, since you’ve nearly passed out due to being so low”

Despite this, Ventus does not fly into the gravity sphere, causing Thomas’ eyes to widen at the small yet precise use of mana at Ventus’ feet, binding her to the ground, and the ground nearby to the core of the planet.

Ventus waves her hand while sending a small portion of mana, small enough that most who sense it believe it is weak, though incredibly dense to where those more sensitive frown, and begin raising their voices, complaining that Ventus is using more mana than she should be.

Avery shakes her head, using her ice to cool everyone down. “Enough, I already said her mana was far higher than anyone else even though she’s been awoken for only a short amount of time. You need to realize how much her abilities must cost. If she had a normal amount of mana or mana intake capacity, she would be long dead due to overusing her mana.”

Lamu nods in agreement before Todd speaks up. “I can agree with this. She used solidified space to crush a beast, saving my life. She nearly passed out from mana exhaustion. Do any of you think you could have used your raw ability to capture a beast that could move near the speed of sound? What about crushing it using your raw ability and mana? With all of this in mind, could you have done it after only one day of being awoken?”

The crowd quiets down, suddenly incredibly grateful that Ventus is on their side rather than the enemy’s.

As the spark of mana hits the gravity well Thomas had formed, it bursts out, completely countering the gravitational pull that Thomas had caused, after which all ground that had been sucked up falls, nearly hitting Ventus, though she easily shifts it aside with a small burst of mana. “How are you holding up Thomas?”

Thomas sighs, using the last bit of mana he can without passing out to release himself from the well he’s in, having mimicked Ventus’ usage of mana opposition to disperse it. Upon hitting the ground he grins at Ventus, before charging her. “My head is killing me, but you did agree not to fight with your body, so I still have a chance.”

Ventus smiles before shrugging. “Very well, be bound.” 

Following her words, space solidifies in a cube around Thomas before shrinking down to fit snugly, but not causing pain.

Thomas sighs, before shrugging his shoulders and yelling, “I admit defeat. I can’t break through this with so little room to move, assuming I could ever break through it with physical force.”

Lamu smiles and claps his hands before patting Todd on his shoulder. “Well, I’ll be taking my money then.”

Todd chuckles and passes the money to those that voted for Ventus, though only giving 80% of the winnings in addition to the initial amount to each person. “The remaining is being split in half. Half goes to me, the other half goes to Ventus.”

Avery grins at that as Ventus waves her hand, the barrier disappearing. Ventus controls the nearby mana to flow into Thomas to help him recover, keeping the amount flowing into him just below dangerous levels.

Todd smiles as he walks over to Ventus. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders before handing her the two thousand that she had earned. With a whisper he adds, “Thanks for the easy money split, it would have been harder to get the cut for the winner and myself if it was Thomas that won.”

Ventus chuckles while rolling her eyes, giving Todd a light tap on his stomach that pushes him back a few feet, dragging his arm off of her and winding him, though doing no more damage than that. “Okay, so that was the first round, we’ll go one by one, basically tournament style. There are about a hundred of you left, so fifty matches for the first round, yes? I’ll fill in for any byes, so that no one lacks an opportunity to get advice.”

The majority of the crowd groans at this before getting shifted by Ventus into groups of two, the only ones excluded currently being Ventus, and Thomas.

Lamu sighs as he sees Avery is his sparring partner. “Come on Ventus, really? Even if I defeat Avery I’ll still lose.”

Ventus laughs while giving Lamu a wink. She had truly made it random by rolling fifty sets of dice made of spatial matter that was in the far corner of the demiplane. They were perfectly balanced, slowly reducing in number as the number of available matches lowered. It was truly Lamu’s misfortune that he had matched with Avery.

Meanwhile, Todd is matched with Vina, causing both to sigh, shaking their heads. Vina could vaguely feel that what happened was truly random due to what the wind told her, while Todd is just unhappy to be matched up against Vina, since he was always defeated in their spars back when Vina was Vincent.

Ventus waves her hands, and all of the groups, aside from the one fighting, are shown a zoomed in image from above the two fighting. One of these two are the red eyed, large fanged person that had changed forms just recently. “Begin.”