12 ADMISSION IV

PREPARATION

The students have been reduced to half, that explains the age gap that they noticed earlier, some of them attempting to enter the school. They are all gathered in the coliseum type instead of the theatre earlier. They have no idea what will happen, as everyone starts to prepare they hold on to their weapons. They start to grow weary as the nervousness takes up their consciousness, some manages to hide it pretty easy. Themis after writing something gets up and announces the second trial as Merlin appears before them.

"For this test we have taken your orbs, the challenge will be to gather both orbs, yours and your opponents'. There are 2 Conditions in order to be declared as the winner, steal the orb is one of them and the other is to incapacitate your opponents "

The students easily understood the mechanics of the trial, it was pretty basic; to get the other's orbs and beat them. The teams gathered up and started talking about their plan, none of them knew the other team's attacks, weapons, and the mastered element. All of them stood in the same position as everyone else, by possibility their enemies will be their weakness or not. They are given 24 whole hours in order to train, because they believe that they developed a new skill during the first trial, and the students did. They are given their own training area separated from the other triads but in the same place only separated by thick walls. They all start training harder and with a little help.

"So what do we do now?" Logan asked as they just stand there on the training area.

"You Logan, definitely need to train on your casting I guess, with the sword"

"Yeah" Logan agreed as he grabbed the handle and just checked it out. "Let's try that" Ava also got into it.

"How about you guys, I'll help you try to find your main element, you guys almost got hurt earlier"

"Yeah, trying the other elements almost got us killed right Ava?"

"Let' go then?"

All of them require the other's specialty in order to train. Logan has to understand and meet the condition on which his sword will appear, Ava and Harry to know what element they can control. Logan got into his position and held the stick in one arm and held it as if it was a baseball bat. He started to think of the blade that he created earlier. He focuses all Imperium into the stick. Imperium starts to shroud up from his heart and legs to the stick, and instead of creating a sword he only drained more of his Imperium and he almost fainted. He turned pale because of what he just did and his vision blurred out and he stumbled down. The 2 rushed down to get him.

"That...was ....definitely wrong" Logan weakly said.

"Well, you can try again later"

"We can try by ourselves, I'm sorry we asked you to"

"My head... feels light"

"Just sleep"

Instead of trying to attempt on manifesting a sword, Logan was forced to rest instead of practicing. He is worried that majority of the given time will be spent on him sleeping and he will not improve. Ava and Harry instead trained by themselves trying to find their main element, they would control the elements in massive proportions in order to see which element drains them the most to almost fainting. The results are bleaker than they expected, probably because they use it all at the same time instead of focusing on one.

"We need to approach this in another way right?"

"Well, it was pretty obvious this would hurt us more"

"Sorry"

"Its fine, let's try again" Ava pulled Harry up and started to heal him quickly.

Hans and his sisters also does the same. Hans now discovering that he can use 2 elements without experiencing fatigue he trains himself with the fire element. His time to create steam is faster than his sisters as being able to control fire, they spar 2 vs 1. Hans still cannot use the fire element properly because of what he did to himself earlier, he keeps singes himself and he is afraid so singe one or both of his sisters. Being afraid of what might happen he only creates and expend small jet of fire towards her sisters.

"Hey, Hans.. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, the fire that you casted earlier was much stronger than this"

"yeah.... I'm just... tired"

Being clouded with fear has made him severely weaker as the Imperium is quickly drained. Sofia decided to train with the water element instead, to which he agreed on practicing and he starts to move comfortably. They start to spar trying to knock one another down, Mila creates ice much faster and better than her siblings, Sofia can manipulate the water much better and on a bigger scale. Hans creates a water sphere that surrounds him and with every attack that they throw at him the water would destroy or absorb the attacks.

Mila attacks much faster with her icicles easily training the other 2's reaction time, she does not go easy even on her siblings. Hans and Sofia barely dodges the icicles and almost hitting them, but Mila is confident that they will come out unscathed. Sofia and Hans went and fight on another, with every hit that Hans deal to his sister she multiplies even more; creating clones with every hit. Sofia used her clones to make a giant wave and Mila freezes the both of them as they make contact. The 2 are stuck and Mila won the spar, or so they thought.

"Damn, I guess we lost"

Using his breathing he managed to change the temperature of his body and breathing and starts to melt the ice around him. After 10 seconds he easily breaks off the ice and attacks her sister, Sofia also unfreezes the water and creates a water bow and arrow and fires at Mila and Hans. As the water makes contact on their skin it immediately froze, Hans manages to break free and goes up against Mila. He creates a flail weapon that he throws around trying to knock Sofia down, but she dodges easily.

He moves the water under them and pushed them together into one place, like Hans Sofia permeates into water and strikes his brother's right hand and pins him down on the ground. "you're out" Sofia declared to her brother, "NOT ME SISTER!" He replied stoically as he breaks the ice holding him down. Mila continued with her onslaught of ice attacks and Sofia dodges by sliding across, they both created a wall of water trying to hit one another but they were disrupted by a powerful surge of power, and they bumped into each other. The impact made a loud noise, Hans suddenly felt heavy but he did not allow it to stop him.

"GIRLS! Are you guys okay" Hans screamed as them as he quickly moves towards them.

"Yeah, the water sorta weaken our bump" Mila shared.

"What was that?"

"That was, scary"

"That surge of power was not good"

They asked him why it was not good to which he replied, "it felt evil" he said. The sisters did not feel anything other than the pain that they are in because of them bumping into each other.

The surge of power was strong to enough to awaken Logan up but he feels different. He sat right up and he sat straightly and 'obediently' as if he was asked too. Ava and Harry prepared for their sparring, the 2 did not notice him until he falls down and his body hits the floor. Hearing it they quickly rushed towards him and they see his eyes moving around and his lips moving as if he is talking. Logan seems to be half asleep, they tried waking him up softly and asking him to turn around but something seems to suddenly hold them in place and they cannot move.

"What is happening?" Ava panicked as they cannot move, and this feeling resembles that of 'fear', but they are not afraid.

"Is this because of that surge earlier?"

"I doubt that"

"Oh... My head hurts" Logan got up and his color went back, he looks unbothered as if he just had a good sleep. Logan turns around and sees them frozen in place and they looked odd, they suddenly can move again.

"Oh, I'm glad are you okay?"

"Of course, It felt like something pushed me awake"

"Why are you sweating?" Harry pointed to him and he is sweatier, they never used fire right beside him and no water headed right towards him.

"Don't know" He checked his and only his top was sweaty. Logan is clearly shaking but he does not notice it himself. He is definitely okay, he looks for his stick which is tucked away on his pocket. As he puts on his jacket Ava notices a dark mark going retracting back behind his left ear, "Ava?" Logan called her and she snapped back to normal. Ava rushed towards Logan and checked out if there is something there.

"Nothing sorry, I'm scared you might have hurt yourself"

"I'm fine now, thanks for worrying"

"So you slept for almost not an hour. You think you can train?"

"Yeah"

He held his stick with a firm grip and a sword quickly manifested, he dashed instantly in front of Harry first and time seems to have slowed down for him. "This person does not feel right" Harry thought, Ava managed to react and threw a gust of wind to Logan knocking him down.

"You could have given a warning" Logan said. the way he said it was different.

"I know I'm sorry, I'll attack"

He appeared immediately above Ava and she managed to dodge his powerful attack, even destroying the Imperium imbued floor. Harry seems thrilled as he hurled boulders towards Logan but he easily destroys it, more and more came but Harry quickly felt tired. Logan using the fallen boulders as a stepping stone jumped on one by one and towards Harry.

"Oh no" He raised his arm as Logan had the intent to kill.

"HARRY!!!" Logan screamed maniacally.

Logan jumped towards him really wanting to hurt him. He panicked and trying to create a rock wall to defend himself from Logan he instead pushed wind out of his palm. Completely blowing Logan away from him but he managed to land safely.

"I'm sorry"

"Its fine"

*Wind feels light for me*

Logan continued to attack him and he seems to be not in control, it is the same feeling that he felt whilst fighting the Wendigos. He jumped Harry and he quickly dodges him. Using the wind element, Harry easily pushed Logan's sword away from hitting his person without hurting Logan. When Logan breaks Harry's attack he easily flies off.

"Awesome, Ava its your turn!" Logan with a big unnerving smile turned around to Ava with the same deadly intent. As Logan turned around a jet for massive spiraling flamed is already coming towards him, not having enough time to react he just fired a small ball of wind in the middle of the spiraling flame, the ball expanded and it disperse the flame outwards.

"Ow"

"Oh My.... Are you okay?"

"Uh huh.. that sucked"

"Well at least you guys have found-"

His chest starts to tighten. He stopped on his place and his sword fell off his hand. His body weakened and looked like he was just getting his air back.

"Yeah, mine is fire and...his...is.....a-"Everything slowed down for Logan. He blinks and suddenly he appears in an inferno of a castle. He looks down and the floor erupted into a roaring monstrous flames. He stands on top of the burning floor and someone climbs through, a tall being with malevolent force. It slowly rose and Logan starts to feel afraid.

"Traitor" The being spoke with a cold and overbearing presence made him fall on his place and tremble in fear. A fear that made his body ache, his mind go blank, his soul scream, and his bones scrape onto one another.

"You should have felt my presence and died!" An echoing voice coming from the burning chasm went through and shook Logan's entire being.

Horns starts to come out from its temples and its wings slowly sprout from the back and a surge of power is released. Its the same power they felt earlier, but this time it felt like malice. This being can see him and it grabs him by the throat, a small Nordic ruin burns and starts to appear from behind his left ear, the being turns his head and looks at it. It has the ruin 'ᛈ' meaning Secrets, Destiny, Future, Uncertain or Hidden.

"Mephistopheles"

The demon is aggravated and the whole castle is destroyed and engulfed in the flames. The demon grew a massive flaming skeleton behind him and he threw Logan down on the ground. Skeletal hands appear from below and held him down tightly, he can feel the hands sink into his skin as if they are holding onto his very soul.

"Behold my power. TRAITOR!" He pointed towards Logan and everything felt painful for him, even hearing the demon gave his ear a stinging pain.

"Die" The demon said softly. Logan snaps back then woke up to the moment earlier and sees everything play out. He is back from where he was and his body feels lighter. Everything he was feeling vanished, he looked at his hands and he looks okay.

"Are you okay?" Ava asked slowly as Logan looks bewildered.

"You started sweating again?"

"Yeah, I'm fine definitely fine, its from Ava no worries"

"Me? Oh Yes Me, my bad"

"Should we continue?"

As they check each other and preparing for their sparring they have a small help from someone familiar to them. Laughing, a familiar laugh that plagued them for almost a year broke the silence during their preparation. He started applauding seeing the progress of his mentees.

"Hello kids. You did not age"

"Hi Finn"

"Now, Shall we get started?"

Finn started to train the kids as the same as the first training, but this time he doubled the attack, the kids dodges every attack and he did not give them a chance to assess the whole situation.

"WHY!!!!"

"COME FORTH I AM THE ENEMY, AND THE ENEMY WILL NOT WAIT FOR YOU UNTIL YOU ARE BREATHING FINE!!"

Logan powered up a ball of Imperium on the edge of his blade, seeing this Harry creates an opening for it by blocking the attacks away. A strong wind tunnel is erected and it took all of the beams with it. As soon as there is a clear opening between them and Finn, Harry launched Logan as fast and strongly as he can.

"JUST LI-"

Ava created a wall of fire in front of him, not being able to see, Finn just attacks directly to where he last saw the 2. Logan broke through the wall of fire and the flames wrapped around the ball of Imperium, increasing quickly in size and heat. He landed firmly in front of Finn and he swung the sword along with the accumulated imperium directly to him. Its feels as if he is slicing through something extremely solid and heavy as he swing towards the man. Finn raises his arms bracing for the attack and suddenly bursting through the wall and flew across 4 different teams and ending up where Hans, Mila, Sofia, and Beowulf are training.

"Sir Beowulf" Finn asked calmly despite the massive attack, he was unbothered.

"Sir Finn, good to see you old friend. Where did you come from?"

Finn pointed at the 3 who look like a mess and cheering that they bested their teacher. Hans and his sisters laugh at them, the other 4 areas with the other triads and their Mentors are looking at them, amazed by what they have done and also knowing what they can do. Harry starts crying tears of joy while making fun of Finn and pinning him to the ground.

"That's 117 to 1, don't take it seriously Harry" Logan said to calm him down, but it did not work.

"That boy" Beowulf pointed to Logan, there is something strange about him that he thought.

"Yeah, the Reapers who called him gave me a heads up, we have to wait for the final trial"

"What's about Logan?" Hans entered their conversation, but instead of pushing him away they entertained him.

"If he can handle his own power"

"Well, oh I see it" Hans pointed to the massive path they have left.

"Well I and my students have to go back now"

"Nice seeing you old friend"

"Of course"

Finn ran back to their training area as the walls starts to rebuild itself slowly, the other 3 followed him as well. Finn feels worried for the final trial and all he can do is train Logan much harder than the other 2. Beowulf also has the same feeling as Finn, mentoring someone or something that has immense power, but unlike Logan this one gives off a feeling that means no harm. Finn looks behind Logan as he keeps scratching his ear, "Malice, an ally?" He thought to himself.

"Let us go back to training" Beowulf declared.

"Yes sir"

They all resumed their training after the disturbance and they spent the remaining hours training in preparation for the final trial.

"How are things here?" Finn started a conversation with the kids.

"Its incredible, we got to see each other earlier but not for long"

"Yeah, YEAH! Some of them had different weapons, gauntlets, massive hammers, even rifles that are used back in our world!"

"Are you fascinated by it?"

"We're all fascinated by everything, still this.... Everything feels, different as well"

"I understand, adjusting to this new world will be different, but do not worry, you will learn"

As the dusk came the hours given to them has ended. They are all transported along with their mentors to a massive empty coliseum. The walls from the coliseum go around farther as the eye can see. Themis floats in the middle of the arena and commences the 3rd and 4th trial.

Among those spectators sit at the top, covered by the light of the bright sun, the 14 Archangels watch over; or at the least their stand-ins. Fadil feels a familiar aura amongst the crowd and goes to it.

"Sister!" One of the Archangels stopped her.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't you feel it?"

"I do, and you do not have to worry as much, he cannot do anything"

"I'll talk to him, you do not have to worry"

She stands in front of Logan, Hans and his sisters bowed down to her, but she stopped them before doing so. Everyone seeing her for the first time are amazed by her beauty. Her gentle voice calmed everyone down and the nervousness melted away.

"Have we met before. The 3 of you I remember but you... There is a malevolent feeling that reeks off of you" One of her siblings overheard her and stood up but she was stopped.

"Sister, do not disturb the children, you will induce more nervousness to them" A command coming from the most powerful of the Archangels. The Archangel that stood up slowly sat back down.

"We shall see how powerful you are young one, I trust you know what to do"

"....."

"COME NOW!"

"Yes Brother"

She floats up back to their seat and quietly sits down.

"Why must you do that?"

"I have no ill-feeling towards the boy, but he might have some towards us"

She looks down to Logan who glares directly at them. Back down to their level Hans and Harry argues.

"She was just floating Hans"

"Right?"

Themis announces the triads that will fight, and right off the bat it was Hans, Mila, and Sofia up against the triplets Enola, Halona, and Istas. Both teams wished each other good luck. The 2 triads are teleported into different parts of the arena and they get to see it through a massive waterfall. Hans and his sisters are in a snow capped area, while the triplets are on a desert. The 2 teams looked up the sky and for the snow caps all they can see are the dark clouds, and for the desert the bright burning sun.