The ridge of the mountain extended far enough into the sky that clouds concealed its peak. Evenso, Sol understood where she was, or at least had an idea. Her eyes grasped several excavated segments of the mountain with signs of civilization inside them.

‘Plausa Mountain? This must be the far side of Plausa city then…’ Memories of flying into Plausa city with Jay reflected across her memory. At the time, even from the back of the majestic beast, Sol was unable to see the far end of the city.

A frail sense of awe creeped over her once again as she felt the relative size of herself to the world she found herself in. Such realizations and introspections were tossed to the back of her mind a second later as she focused on her goal.

Sol closed her eyes and The Unchained Queen Beast Model floated in the back of her eyes. The silvery model showed signs of wear and tear, specifically around the components Sol suspected were responsible for her control over magic.

Stress cracks ran across the material and she could feel blips of pain whenever wisps of magic escaped through the fractured seams. She cycled the model with a gentle nudge in order to understand her limits and discovered her condition to be less than favorable.

‘Not well enough to go all out, but not broken enough to be concerned?’ She concluded her state before setting a mental limit on herself. Her body was healing abnormally slowly and the mental model was recovering itself in a way Sol could only describe as recycling.

Magic cycled through her system and Sol's eyes flickered open. She imbued the magic into her spiritual awareness to extend it as far as possible. Her consciousness followed the burst like a wave and parsed all the information it came into contact with.

Immediately, Sol was able to detect two other children near her. Seconds later, she found another three stuck in a standoff. Her brows furrowed until she found other instances of children fighting each other as they scaled the mountain. 

Some were direct, attacking their counterparts without mercy, while others chose more sneaky approaches. As her spiritual awareness reached its limits, she caught the sight of a familiar girl using magic to dislodge the ridge another child leaped to. 

Unable to see the conclusion, Sol’s awareness snapped back to her position bringing with it a migraine. She rubbed her temple for a few seconds before consulting the terrain map she just built. Fighting a fellow contestant wasn’t required, as such, Sol injected magic into her limbs and accelerated towards a mountain valley that crawled up the side of the mountain.

 Actively avoiding the other children enabled Sol to avoid conflict for the first half of her journey. Unfortunately, Sol wasn’t alone in her thoughts to avoid others. The moment she crossed the ridge and entered the valley Sol found herself under attack.

A young boy appearing the same age as herself launched an assault as soon as someone fell inside his range. Sol barely had time to dodge the first strike. She allowed her body to collapse and roll down the ridge into the valley in order to dodge the strike.

As she rolled, Sol extended her spiritual awareness once more only to discover the boy was hidden from her senses somehow. She clicked her tongue in frustration after regaining her footing. “Hey kid, there’s no need for us to fight. We’re both just wasting time by doing this.”

Sol twisted her head to find the boy, yet her senses revealed nothing. For the first time, a hint of fear tinged her mind. Despite her weakness and being on the back foot since awakening, this was the first time Sol’s spiritual awareness failed her.

“We can work together and make it together. Nothing stops us from both being accepted.” Sol continued to talk into the void while scanning her surroundings. Magic flooded her body and with each cycle of The Unchained Queen Beast, she felt her sight, hearing, and smell sharpen.

The only hint of an attack that alerted Sol was the brief whisper of a stick trailing through the air. Sol threw herself to the side as soon as she heard the noise. Upon restoring her stance, Sol caught the tail end of the strike blasting a tree apart.

The young man clicked his tongue in response, yet he remained focused. Not for a moment did his gaze leave Sol’s figure, even when she avoided his strike. Sol’s pupils constricted in disbelief. No matter how much she focused on the boy in front of her, her spiritual awareness claimed nothing was there.

The boy dropped the shatter limb he used to attack with and Sol suddenly felt the object spring into existence, confirming the boy had a means to conceal himself from her senses. Though equally terrifying, Sol found herself sighing in relief. Humans, she could deal with. Ghosts though? Debatable.

Sol’s foot kicked the ground below her to launch a series of rocks into the air. Magic flooded her system and without removing her gaze from the boy, her hands reached for and injected her magic into the stones.

Though not performed well enough to be considered a Temperamental Betty, Sol found the results agreeable enough. Her study of runes were mediocre at best and her Divine Refiner Arts had barely progressed since her fight with the Cathis.

Despite that, she found her magic flowing into the stones with an ease she hadn’t expected. She immediately linked the breakthrough in understanding to Elder Zhao’s trial. Her magic settled in the stones a moment later breaking her from her trailing thoughts.

Her body leaned forward and her legs kicked off sending her like a shuttle towards the young man. The boy found her charge surprising, yet he only sneered at her assault. His hand opened and from a nearby tree, its limb was torn from the trunk just to land in his hand.

Sol caught the entire sequence and found to her expectations that the makeshift bat disappeared the moment it reached the boy’s hand. Evenso, a smile stretched along her face as she started to understand the boy’s uncanny ability.

As soon as she entered the range of the boy, she found the limb accelerating towards her. Magic flooded Sol’s eyes and she felt the world slow to a crawl. Her body struggled to adapt to the speed of her thoughts, yet she forced it through sheer will and magic.

Her hand reached to intercept the makeshift bat and used it as a lever to flip over and avoid the swing. The moment the swing passed under her, Sol felt the world accelerate to normal. Exhaustion rippled through her system, yet she ignored it and pushed on.

The loaded stones fell from her grasp to the boy’s feet while Sol continued her sprint past him. Rather than remain and see the results of her exchange, she turned her gaze towards the mountain top. There was no time to delay. Behind her, Sol heard the screams of  the boy along with several explosions.

Sol continued her ascent until she found a small excavated cave. She entered the cave and extended her spiritual awareness into its depths to scan for other occupants. Sensing nothing, she heaved a sigh in relief and collapsed to her butt.

Her eyes closed and Sol felt at peace as she cycled her model. The magic churned through her limbs clearing the exhaustion and pain built up from the run. In reality, she was recovering from exertion she made when the world slowed down.

Sol reviewed the memory of the exchange in her head trying to both decipher the boy’s ability as well as her own. ‘Considering the items he holds disappear along with him, it’s clear he either deflects, deceives, or steals control over my spiritual awareness. The moment when the branch left his grasp and entered it are the most interesting moments.’

She focused on the memory of her spiritual sense while honing in on those two particular moments. The slightest perturbation of her spiritual awareness allows Sol to figure out the trick. ‘As soon as the branch entered his hand, my spiritual awareness was lured around it without me realizing. Is this special to a mental model, or is this an exercise in spiritual awareness control? It’s hard to tell…’

Unable to discover more, Sol regained her awareness.  She refused to allow her reflection and discovery for more than  a few seconds of time. Her situation was too dangerous for her to allow stray thoughts for very long.

Rather, Sol found herself questioning the battle itself. Was there a reason for it? A foreboding feeling nagged at her thoughts. She reflected on her situation since the moment the challenge started. Nothing felt out of place until she included the fact that Elder Zhao  was determined to fail her.

If she thought from that perspective, then there were a few suspicious moments. For instance, why did Elder Zhao send all the students off right before finishing his instructions? Was there a need to finish after they arrived? Why did the spatial lock last a few moments longer than it should have?

At the time, Sol thought it was a result of space stabilizing, but thinking again, there were no signs of that. The moment she started following that train of thought, Sol felt her face turn red in fury. “That bastard! I was left out!”

Indeed. Sol understood that all the contestants but her received the final part of the instructions. The part that likely stipulated the need for combat. Potentially the most critical part. Sol could feel her lips twitch from the anger and helplessness colliding. Her gaze turned cold as she considered her options.