How do I store the dagger though? I need to actually wear it. Needs to be hidden… Oh I could do like that time with the saint headpiece, tie it around my thigh… Yeah. A bone sheath around the leg will do, I can completely close it too so it would be really hard to steal.

And we’re done here. Find the others yet?

Sofia switched to Pareth’s vision, he was in a large hall with no windows surrounded by students of the Academy. She only needed a quick look to spot Saria’s blonde hair and have an answer to her question.

It’s surprisingly far.

Sofia left the room, finding herself in a sparsely-lit underground tunnel. This direction, I guess.

It did not take her long to reach a first large hall full of Exidians, these were the citizens of the capital, all waiting in big groups in the halls, fully aware that this was a secure bunker, and that the reason they had been teleported there had to be a very big emergency. The atmosphere was tense but people were still as calm as the situation allowed.

Sofia quickly walked through this hall and the next few, until she reached the one hosting the people from the academy. Pareth was near the group who had been assembled in Astelia’s room before. It was Cardinal who noticed Sofia first.

“Look who has made it back in one piece,” he commented, drawing everyone’s attention to Sofia.

“Ahah. things happened. Maybe this isn’t the best place to talk about that, though,” Sofia told the group as she joined their circle, Pareth making some space for her.

Saria shook her head, “We figured things would happen when you grabbed Astelia’s earrings and left in a hurry. We looked for you in the bunker but of course you weren’t there. Beryl told us not to worry but that didn’t really help.”

“Yeah… Sorry. This whole thing evolved a bit faster than I thought it would. Everyone being sent here is my fault, I suppose, I made it out, though. We should be able to leave the bunker soon. This whole fish thing is over, the level 500s took care of it,” Sofia explained while also giving back the earrings to Astelia.

“And you were where and doing what while that happened, exactly?” Saria interrogated her sister.

“Well. You know; infiltrating a level 500’s home and stealing their shit while they were busy fighting. Business as usual,” Sofia ignored the weird looks thrown her way by her friends and family, “Oh, does anyone know how to refine Adamian steel slag?”

The last few months at the Academy went by in a flash. The whole affair with Hugo was buried, and the people of Exidia returned to their daily lives with the official narrative given for the bunker evacuation that the Emperor had fought off an invasion of migrating flying monsters. They had gone so far as to spread large flying monster corpses around in the city to make the story more believable, and Sofia had even managed to grab one under the pretext of helping with the cleanup.

Lola had forgotten all about what had happened after being led into Sofia’s room, and had successfully recovered from her mild soul injury. She went on to continue beating other students in duels and performing well in the competition’s events, building off of her previous lead. Despite the others’ best efforts, they couldn’t get past her, and with the teachers carefully protecting their token pouches until the end, not even Saria managed to close the gap, finishing second. Lola won the competition and got a hold of the First key, as promised by the Emperor, as well as becoming Empress Delivia’s apprentice. She thanked Sofia in her speech after receiving the sword.

Having learned that Sofia got the dagger, Saria wasn’t too upset about failing to get the sword, and jokingly swore to redeem herself by performing better than Sofia in the next trial, which Sofia knew was a very serious challenge coming from her sister.

Erian took his fourth place behind Opal in strides, and he, along with the rest of Sofia’s class except for Lola, due to her new obligations, formed a group to go together for their first trial. They left as soon as the school year was officially over, each inviting Sofia to come see them at their home if she ever wanted to.

Of them, Shaily in particular had special plans. She had spent most of the last month with Sofia, they worked together to find ways to upgrade the Angel’s bolts. Sofia had to admit that Shaily had a natural talent for tinkering with spells, and since Astelia spent a lot of time with them too, Cardinal ended up hearing about it. He ended up recruiting the young sprite-caller before the year was over, so Shaily would go straight for Vasperia after her trial. The Vampires apparently weren’t shy when it came to recruiting foreign talent, and they also somehow also convinced Zerei to open her own school in Vasperia rather than somewhere else.

Overall, Sofia was happy with where she left her students. She was confident all of them would get through the first trial without an issue, they were all much more prepared than she had been.

The matters of Hugo and Scripture both never resurfaced during that time, which actually allowed Sofia to relax a lot. Sofia never saw Empress Delivia again but she did get a letter from her informing her that she was welcome to change her mind and come work for the Empire if she ever wanted to.

When the time to leave Exidia was up, Sofia’s group all met up in Death’s cathedral. In the same room where Leverle had teleported Sofia and her students after the cabin incident.

Cinthia asked Sofia again, “Are you certain you don’t want one for Pareth?”

Sofia shook her head. “There’s no reason to make it more dangerous for you and Saria by getting a third essence. I have my plans, you can go ahead of me for the trial. Astelia is also going to stall for a while, since she has family matters to attend to, I’ll probably go with her. I also don’t want to ask more from Leverle, you know. I feel indebted enough as it is.”

“Well, no point trying to change your mind,” Saria said and shrugged, “I’ll be going first again, then. What about you Alith?”

“I’m coming with you, I think. The previous trial left a bad taste in my mouth, I’m ready to destroy this one. Unless Sof needs me for something?”

Sofia shook her head, “No, you can go, I’m mostly going to be working on sorting my items and making a new skeleton for Pareth. I know you’re impatient so no point in slowing you down if you’re ready to go. I can handle myself. Didn’t you need another storage item, though?”

“Oh, I found something in that shop you told me about with the Dragon lady, actually, so I’m good. Got all I need,” Alith answered, showing off her new storage ring.

“Great then. Since we settled the matter with Ihuarah too, we should be all set.”

“Your shadow guy?” Saria asked, “Wasn’t he gone all year? He’s come back?”

“No, but since we share a kill feed it’s not impossible to send ‘messages’ via the system, so we did that with a code we had established before separating. Long story short, he confirmed that he would head to the trial by himself.”

“Does he have an essence to wager?” Saria continued.

“I’m guessing Sorrow would probably give him one if he doesn’t already have it,” Sofia said with a shrug. “When I’m done with the trial I’ll go help him, I think, I’m still Sorrow’s Apostle, after all. You’re free to come too, or not.”

“I’ll be spending some time at the sect first, I think.” Saria answered first.

Alith took a bit to think over it, and decided that she was uncertain, “If I get new pills to replicate from the trial then I won’t come, else I’ll be here.”

“Could I come?” Cinthia asked meekly.

“You want to?” I didn’t expect that. “Sure, I’d love to have you around. I’m sure you would be very useful too. We could even keep going after that and go search for Domination’s secret temple thing. If you're up for it, I have a map to get there.”

“That would be great!” Cinthia approved, “And I always get more donations when I hang around with you so…”

Sofia smiled at Cinthia. “Sounds like a plan. But well. Let’s all get through the filter first. And remember, we can fail, but nobody’s allowed to die.”

Saria looked around then back at Sofia, “If someone here is reckless enough to die now, it would be you. So I hope you take your own advice to heart. I won’t forgive you if you never come out of the trial.”

“If I can’t make it, nobody can, honestly. Zerei said I should be alright as long as I’m not too greedy. I trust her judgment.”

“Yeah I do too, but I don’t trust you not to be too greedy, Sofia. Want to talk about how you got that dagger again, little sis?”

“Right… Well, Pareth will be with me so… If you can’t trust me, at least trust him.”

After a few seconds of silence, it was Alith who spoke next, “Sof, I hate to have to be the one to break it to you but… Pareth is just as bad as you are when you’re with him.”