Noreau Philitte instructed, “In any way, shape or form, send a sliver of your mana towards the wall of mana surrounding the arena.” 

The young noble, Novis drew mana to his right hand. Around his fingers, purple electricity crackled, while in his head, calculations were made to manifest a simple spell.

“Volt!” Novis yelled out, shooting purple electricity towards the wall in the form of a thin bolt of lightning.

 ‘Ooh, impressive!’ Roa clapped. Electricity required a more complex formula; Novis was setting a standard. The young noble was miles ahead of his younger self—at least, in terms of magic. 

Ripples formed from where the lightning hit the mana curtain—as the reaction of a lake would if one tossed in a small rock—and at the epicenter, an odd thing emerged, reaching out from within the curtain. It was someone’s hand.

Roa widened his eyes, fully alert. His mind quickly focused, his breathing sharpened, and his right hand inadvertently moved to reach for the hilt of his blade.

Ariene, who stood right beside him, felt surprised by the sudden appearance of Roa’s bloodlust. The once small fear she had of him resurfaced as he had shown nothing this ferocious in their earlier spar. 

Of course, Roa only ever showed aggression towards enemies. He would never do so against Ariene. In which case, what had emerged from the mana curtain, Roa deemed a target of his enmity. However, he soon lowered his guard when the hand emerged from the curtain entirely with its body.

“It’s not the same…” he muttered. The enemy that came out of the curtain of mana was not exactly the one he was familiar with. 

Shadows of the deceased causing havoc within the Spirit Domain—the concept of a ‘Shade’ had not yet been born. Had they known, the academy wouldn’t have continued with this kind of assessment.

‘Producing a shade of someone who’s still alive? So this is how they conducted the test?’ Roa fell into thought. ‘They made use of a knock-off shade to predict someone’s future? Never would have thought of it—this is more of that guy from Abertein, his area of expertise.’

The young noble, Novis squared off with a mirror image—a rougher-looking doppelganger; easily distinguishable from the original by its ragged clothing, a slight increase in age, and the ominous dark haze surrounding it.

‘If this were an actual shade, it would even emit a more sinister aura…‘ Roa carefully scrutinized Novis’ opponent.

“Volt!” The shade fired off a bolt of thin lightning at Novis, and Novis swiftly countered with the same spell. A thunderclap rang in between the clash.

With no delay, another bolt came, and then another, and then another. Novis resisted with the same spell, again, and then again. He could hardly keep up. 

Finally, a lull appeared between the shade’s quick casting. 

Novis thought he could catch his breath, but was unaware of the dark clouds that had accumulated around him, crackling with purple electricity.

“It’s over.” Roa declared. The shade had summoned the Yellow Tier Area Spell—Nimbus, which was two levels above the Red Tier Spell—Volt. 

The arena was soon saturated with arcing lightning, bouncing endlessly between the dark clouds. 

Ripples formed wantonly around the mana curtain surrounding the arena, but it showed no signs of breaking; the mana curtain seemed to serve more than just the purpose of blocking the attacks from the inside. 

‘It would appear that the academy has some countermeasures in place.’ Roa thought, as contrary to the ferocity of the shade’s spell, he noticed how Novis seemed to have only suffered minor injuries. The defensive array around the arena was dampening the shade’s mana.

After a while, the defensive array sapped whatever was left of the shade’s mana and the shade started to dissipate into its own smokey haze. On the other hand, Novis’ appearance was worse for wear, hunched over and heavily panting.

During that brief exchange, Roa gleaned a rough understanding of the defensive array around the arena.

‘Basically, whenever the student taking the test attacked, the shade would be fed mana, and the stronger it would become. If the student became incapable of resisting, the defensive array would begin suppressing the shade until it dissipated.’

Given a brief explanation, this was how the final assessment worked, Roa thought. However, he still felt apprehensive about the use of a shade. There was always some sort of unforeseeable danger that came when dealing with such malicious creatures.

While he was busy deliberating on the practicality of the assessment, Novis trudged out of the arena and the next person was called to take the test.

“Ariene Diadora.” The woodlands’ princess was set to enter the arena when Roa came over and held onto her arm, cautioning, “Ariene, be careful. Don’t go lashing your mana out against that thing.”

The future 1st, seat of Sirius. Ariene replied with silence as her hooded eyes raised with a look of skepticism. 

‘If she went berserk and fed the shade enough mana…’ Roa would rather not see that come to pass. After all, facing the threat of that kind of shade once more wouldn’t be good for his heart.