"When you step into the room, the two minutes to prepare will begin. Do you understand?" Catherine asked.
"Yes, ma'am," Cecilia looked straight at the door. She could feel her heart beat pounding against her chest. She knew it was from the nerves. It had been a while since she had felt this way.
"Goodluck, Cecilia Purple," Catherine bowed her head and turned to walk down the hallway.
Cecilia took in a deep breath and touched the door with her palm. Everything she had worked for would be tested on the other side of this door. She was tired of being treated like a stereotypical middle child. She needed to prove to everyone, not only in her family, but in the Imaginary society itself, on how special she really was.
She pushed through the door.
The room was about the size of a human basketball court. The floors, the walls, the ceiling; all white.
She walked to the middle of the room. She held out her arms and the swirls on her arms started to move. The swirls jumped off her skin and manifested on the floor next to her. Four clones of herself were formed. When Cecilia touched them on the arm, their eyes opened.
Cecilia raised her hand to the ceiling and her clones mimicked. A long sword appeared in each of their hands. When Cecilia brought the sword down, she held the end in her other hand. She pulled the sword apart. Each halves transformed to twin swords. She formed one more helper, her tiger.
"You know what to do," she said to her creations. They formed a circle around her as if to protect her. The tiger was ready to pounce, the clones held their swords in position.
The two minutes was up.
The appearance of the seven sins was supposed to be random. One simulation could appear, or three at one time could show.
Envy, the snake, was the first to materialize. He was three feet in diameter and must have been several meters long. He came slithering fast to the left of her. She sent two clones to attack.
The closest one distracted the snake by throwing the sword in the right hand towards its head. The snake did as predicted and focused on her. The snake widened it's mouth to engulf her. Before it could, the second clone jumped on top of it and pierced it's head with both swords. The snake spasmed before disappearing.
"That was too easy," she thought to herself.
The snail and toad then appeared at the other end of the room. The toad and snail were the same height at six feet. The snail had poisonous toxins in their skin The swords in three of the clones hands transformed to spears.
The tiger let out a low growl as he exploded into acton, heading towards the toad.
The closer the snail got, the higher the chances it could spit poison on them. The clones sent spear after spear towards the snail that was approaching the circle. Even though the clones were made up of magic, there was a small biological factor. Though the toxins could not destroy the clones completely, it could damage them severely and Cecilia did not have time to recreate them.
Pride suddenly appeared in front of the circle. The clone in front of it was one that was using spears against the snail. She whipped the spear around and jabbed at the five foot bird. The bird dodged and bit down on the wooden middle of the spear, pulling it out of the clone's hands. Suddenly, a sword whizzed down on the neck and cut the head of the peacock off, execution style. The two clones returned to position.
The tiger was dominant to the toad. He had clawed his way to the toads back. She mentally told him to aim for the neck area where his spinal cord was. He bite down exactly as told. When he pulled away, he took the spine with him. The toad disappeared. The tiger returned to the circle.
The snail was originally pacing at walking tempo but was now barely inching towards them. It had taken twelve spears to pierce through the snail's shell but now it was completely exposed. One more spear to the heart finished it and it disappeared.
Only three more left and Cecilia had not lifted a finger.
The goat and pig came next. The size of these ones were the same as they are in real life.
She sent the tiger after the pig and two clones after the goat.
The two clones did the same strategy as one distracts and the other attacks. As before, it worked. They returned to the circle as the goat disappeared.
The tiger had the pig's neck in it's jaws. The pig disappeared.
The lion was supposed to be the hardest sin to defeat. The sin of wrath.
He appeared at the end of the room. He was easily two feet larger than the normal size of a lion.
He did not hesitate to attack. Her tiger growled loudly and ran towards the lion, meeting him halfway. The two clashed together. Cecilia sent three clones after him, leaving one by her side just in case.
The three clones surrounded the lion and would slash at him when exposed. The cuts would be deep but not enough to truly phase Wrath. Then the lion pinned the tiger to the ground and sent a fatal bite on the tiger's neck. Cecilia's hand formed into fists as she watched her tiger shrink and turn into swirls. The swirls returned to her arm.
Her clones continued to attack the lion. She used the same strategy she used with her brother; if the tiger could not grab her, he could not beat her.
Her clones danced around the lion, trying to stab at the lion when the chance arrived. His jaws caught one of the clones arm, tearing it off from the rotator cuff.
Cecilia looked at the clone to her side. She raised her own hand and touched the clone on the forehead. She filled the clone with all the hatred that she could think off. The exclusion from her family was the main root of her anger.
The clones eyes snapped open and revealed blazing red eyes.
"Go," Cecilia said.
The three clones that were once on the lion, retreated.
Sometimes to beat fire, you had to use fire.
Cecilia's own wrath was merciless as she sent blow after blow to the lion. The lion was covered in gashes and Cecilia wondered how it was still alive.
Wrath scratched the clone across the torso but this did not weaken her.
As soon as Cecilia saw the opening to the lion's head, the clone did as well. She stabbed the sword in her right hand in the lions ear. She let go of the sword and backed away. The lion started disappearing.
A time was shown on the wall across from her. Eight minutes and twenty four seconds.
Five minutes faster than her brother.
This had to be some kind of record.
The clones faced her and put a hand where their hearts would be. They turned back to swirls and returned to her.
Catherine stepped through the door with a slight smile on her face.
"You are needed in room 101," she said.
"Okay," Cecilia walked out of the white room and followed Catherine down the hall. They walked in silence, which Cecilia was grateful for.
Lila was waiting outside the doors.
"This is where I leave you," Catherine said. She bowed her head in the direction of Cecilia and Lila. She turned and started walking away.
When Catherine was halfway down the hall, Cecilia said to Lila, "She had shown me respect before I even stepped foot inside the simulation room."
"That is because you are a big deal now," Lila said. Her wavy purple hair was braided back. She wore a white laced shawl over a long white dress.
When Cecilia was younger, she liked to imagine how Lila was when she was in her prime. She knew that she wielded a spear so she must have had good upper body strength.
"I thought I should warn you," Lila started talking, "all the leaders are in that room."
"My father included?" Cecilia asked.
Lila chuckled, "don't tell me that is all you care about."
Lila's face then went serious, "don't tell me that you attracted all the leaders simply because you wanted to impress your father."
"And to beat my brother," Cecilia added.
"Child, all the leaders are in that room. Every single one," Lila said, "because of you."
"Why would they care about me?" Cecilia asked rather harshly.
"I don't think you realize what you did today," Lila said, "the test was meant to weed out students, leaving only the best. Students only barely pass the written test. Your brother had the highest grade with a 90%. You scored a perfect grade within the first hour of taking it. Your brother took the full two hours to take it. Then you win both games with your team with little to no damage to them. And finally, the simulation room. All you did was touch a clone on the forehead. That was you're only movement. Most of the leaders came right away when they heard about the written test. The rest came when you won the second test. I don't know what they will discuss with you."
She pulled open the door.
As Lila said, all seven leaders were sitting at a round table.
Cecilia had meet all the leaders already at her father's previous junctions. Yet, seeing all of them in one place with serious looks on their faces, made her nervous.
Four of the seven leaders were dressed in black. Her father, yellow, indigo, and purple.
The table was set up where three seats were at the long parts and one seat at the ends. Her father was sitting at one of the ends and the one across from him was empty. To the right of the empty seat was the leader of purple, James Purple.
James was the youngest leader out of all of them, only seven years older than Cecilia. It was perfect timing for him. When the leader of Purple was about to retire, James killed a demon by himself when he was on Earth.
Leaders are ultimately selected by the elders but are nominated by the people. When the people heard about his brave act, they selected him and the elders agreed that he would be a good leader.
He stood at 6', and was lean. He had loose curled hair that almost touched his shoulders. He was almost feminine looking with defined cheekbones and a narrow nose. When he was elected as leader, a lot of the girls in Cecilia's classes would rant about how beautiful he was and so forth.
Cecilia had never put too much thought into it.
"Please take a seat, daughter," her father said. She might have imagined it, but she thought that he emphasized "daughter", as if to make a point.
"Yes, sir," she sat down at the end of the table.
"Did Lila Purple tell you why you are here with us?" Her father asked.
"Yes, sir," she replied shortly.
"What exactly did she say," her father took a glance in Lila's direction. She was sitting in a chair against the wall. Important enough to be in the room but not at the table.
"She said that you all were in the room because I scored a perfect score," Cecilia said.
"Yes about that, you obviously cheated," the leader of green, Gerald Green, said, "especially on the written test. It is impossible to get it 100% correct."
Cecilia knew this would happen when she excelled that test. She even knew it was going to be the green section accusing her.
Envious little things.
She waited for her father to defend her. It was a little funny how even after all these years, she still held her breath for him to do anything remotely like a loving father.
Instead, he just looked at her with cold eyes, waiting for her to explain herself.
Cecilia stayed calm. She knew she did not cheat so she had nothing to worry about.
"You know it is impossible to cheat on the test," Cecilia countered, "the room is closely monitored and the questions change every year."
"She excelled at the other exams, GeeGee, meaning that she is just a really smart student," James Purple surprisingly came to her defense.
She took a glance at him and he smiled at her.
She looked away.
"Don't call me 'GeeGee'. You know I hate being called that," Gerald crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Gerald then mumbled under his breath, "it's too feminine."
James laughed out loud and just like that, the tension in the room was broken. The other leaders joined in and Monica Yellow, who was sitting next to Gerald, patted him on the back.
After the laughter died down, Gerald said, "I guess it is impossible to cheat. How did you manage to score a perfect result?"
When it came to learning, she was naturally good at it. It was as if all the lessons just "clicked". It also helped that she had a form of photographic memory. She could not just look at a paper and remember it's contents but if she reread the paper multiple times, the information could be remembered.
Cecilia had to refrain herself from shrugging. Instead she said, "I'm a hard worker and I have good study techniques."
"How did you choose your team members for the second exam?" Monica Yellow was the next one to ask a question.
"The twins, Tyler and Kyle, have good technique when it comes to visual magic. Lindsey is good with a bow and arrow, and you need a person with long range skills," she said.
"And Victor Purple?" James asked, "why did you choose Victor Purple. He barely passed the written test and when I say barely, I mean barely. One point, barely. He did manage to kill three of the sins. It seems like he was the weakest member in the team. The only thing he contributed on the team was being by your side and aiding when needed."
"Victor was the first member I choose and I would have been okay if he was the only member. He was and will always be, the only person I fully trust. You said he only contributed by being by my side. Well, Leader James, that is all I needed from him. To be by my side," she said.
She was not triggered that easily, but hearing James badmouth Victor struck a nerve.
James looked at her with his light purple eyes, a shade she did not see that often in her section. Her own were so dark they could be confused to be black. Granted, that was different, too. The usual was an average of light and dark.
"Who is this 'Victor'?" Her father spoke.
"My friend, Father," she said.
"Why would you associate yourself with someone who is...average?" Her father said.
Cecilia could feel her nails digging into the palm of her hands. She kept her neutral face on, hard as it was.
"Victor has always been there for me, Father," she said in a calm tone that was too forced.
She could see James studying her with those eyes of his in her peripheral vision but choose to ignore it. Instead, her body was burning with the ache to punch her father in the nose.
"I believe the subject has gone off topic. We came here to talk about Cecilia Purple, not Victor Purple," Luis Blue cut the tension in the room.
"That is right," Elyse Indigo added, "Cecilia Purple, there is an important request we have to ask of you." Leader Elyse looked at her father, John Red. All the leaders looked at him.
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