14th of Glace, year 20XX

Renee blasted apart the ice statue just as it moved to attack her. It crumbled apart in a violent explosion of ice shards and water. Before it could reform, Renee evaporated the water into vapor with a well-aimed mana attack.

“Well?” Renee asked, her hands on her hips as a few of the other saints surveyed the debris littering the training room. “What do you think?”

“You’ve improved a lot in the last five days.” Matthias nodded. 

Lirion glanced back at her from where he and Cassius laid sprawled on the ground. “But it’s not enough.”

In the last five days, the saints have been training her combat skills by offering to be her opponents. First, they created small nythrals to use as target practice to hone the accuracy of her aim, then Matthias created moving statues of stone, which were more solid than nythrals, for her to learn control over the strength of her mana attacks.

Now, her lessons were applied to a real mock-battle, where Cassius and Lirion teamed up to create fast, fluid opponents made of ice and water that alternated between solid and liquid form as they tried to corner Renee.

It took Renee a few minutes of attacking and dodging before she realized that she couldn’t defeat them the normal way. In fact, it was impossible to defeat them because as long as Lirion and Cassius were there, the ice statues would simply reform over and over again. 

Therefore, Renee created a strong barrier around herself and waited for the ice statues to weaken or reveal an opening. As soon as she saw one, she whipped out a stream of mana and knocked both Cassius and Lirion off their feet to break their focus before finishing off the statues.

Renee scowled. “What do you mean, it’s not enough?” She gestured to the remains of the ice attacks they had used, then to Cassius and Lirion, who were getting back to their feet. “I successfully defended myself against your moves, didn’t I?”

“Normally, yes, that would have been enough.” Lirion agreed as he dust off his pants. “But you forget, we’re not fighting against another human here. We’re fighting against a god.”

Renee sighed and slumped against the remains of an ice statue. “Any luck with Anise?”

Matthias shook his head. “No. Ardien and Jareth are trying their best, but she can’t use magic at all.”

Renee groaned. “So we’re down one saint, are we?”

Lirion and Matthias casted troubled glances at each other. 

“What is it?” Renee asked, noticing the look on their faces.

“You haven’t been able to break any of your seals either.” Cassius reminded her. “You might be able to use magic, but they are still restricting you from reaching your full potential.”

Renee hung her head, already aware of what he said. Despite all her hard work training herself, she had not made a single process in breaking her second and third seals. She wasn’t even sure how her first one broke. She told them not to hold back during training, hoping that she would feel endangered enough to break the second seal in the same way her first seal broke, but it didn’t work.

“Let’s have a water break.” Cassius suggested as he stretched his body. Lirion and Matthias both nodded in agreement.

“I’d rather not,” Renee shook her head. “The winter solstice is tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry, you can train with me.” Elias poked his head through the door. “I have some ideas I can try out.”

“Will it help me break my seal?” Renee asked dryly.

“I doubt it, but it might help in other ways.” Elias suggested as he stepped into the training room, moving aside a little for the other saints to step out. Now, it was just Renee and Elias.

Renee sighed, then adjusted her feet, ready to face whatever he would try to throw at her. It can’t be harder than facing the combined attacks of Lirion and Cassius.

However, Elias didn’t attack. Instead, with a flick of his wrist, something unexpected shimmered into view, like a rainbow appearing in the mist. It took on the familiar figure of a girl she knew all too well: her.

The girl had long black hair that fell in straight layers. Her eyes were gold and bright and full of determination. Her face was open and full of youthful joy. Her smile had a hint of playfulness in it. It looked so realistic that she might as well have been looking into a mirror.

Renee flinched and took a step back. “Is that a nythral?”

“No,” Elias answered. “It’s an illusion.”

She wondered if this was an illusion of her current self, or her past self. Did her past self look that similar to her current self?

“What am I supposed to do?” Renee asked, both bothered and fascinated by a mirror copy of herself. She examined herself from all angles, and was impressed to see how accurate it was.

“Kill it.” Elias’s cheerful answer was at odds with his morbid answer.

Renee whipped her head around to look at him again. “What?”

“It won’t attack you or try to hurt you in any way, so it shouldn’t be too hard physically.” Elias answered.

“Then what’s the point?” Renee was appalled. What kind of exercise was Elias trying to teach her?

“You don’t remember what it feels like to die. The fear of your own mortality is holding you back. Now, you get to watch yourself die to prepare for it.”

Renee rubbed her arms as goosebumps erupted along her skin. This was a very gruesome lesson that Elias was teaching her, but she can’t deny his words. It seemed that while the other saints prepared her physically for battle, Elias was preparing her emotionally and mentally. His lessons were more psychological.

“So, do I use magic for this?” Renee asked as she summoned mana to her hands again, ready to blast.

“You can, if you want. But I think it’ll be more effective for you to use a physical weapon.”

With that, Elias drew a knife out of some hidden pocket and handed it to her.

Renee made a face when she took it from him. “I hate this one so much.”

“I’m ready when you are.” Elias encouraged her.

Renee turned to face her doppelganger again, dread and guilt weighing her down. Even though it wasn’t real, the horror of the idea remains. Her doppelganger looked back at her with an innocent and expecting face.

Renee lunged forward and stabbed the girl right in the chest where her heart would be. She didn’t feel any resistance as her blade slipped in and out, as if she was cutting air. Because in a way, she was. Yet, her illusionary self’s eyes widened as blood poured from the open wound. 

Renee gasped and darted backward, nearly dropping the knife. “You said it was an illusion!” She shouted at Elias accusingly.”

“It is. The blood is fake too.”

That’s when Renee noticed that, aside from the sight, there was no other detection of blood. No metallic smell, no sound of blood dripping on the floor. She glanced down at her knife and saw that it was clean as ever. 

“That was a fatal blow, now what?” Renee grounded out through her teeth. 

“Strike another one.”

“When do I stop?”

“When you stop freaking out over it.” Elias answered. 

Is this jerk trying to teach her to get over her fear of mortality or morality? 

Gritting her teeth, Renee raised her knife again, but just as she was about to charge the bleeding illusion again, the door to the training room opened.

“I’m back—” was all she heard before a sudden gust of icy wind blasted through the entire training room, knocking both Renee and Elias off their feet.

Renee let out a small shriek as her body skidded along the floor, which was now frozen over. In front of her, her illusionary self winked out like a candle flame in the wind as Elias’s concentration was broken. Thankfully, due to her diligent training in the last few days, she recovered quickly, even faster than Elias. 

Before Elias could even sit back up, she was already back on her feet and assuming a battle position, her mana flaring protectively around her, ready to strike out any second.

Standing at the doorway was Lirion with a stricken expression that she had never seen on him before. He was staring in the space where the fake Renee used to be. His eyes flickered between the real Renee and Elias for a moment before she saw understanding dawn in his eyes.

Lirion coldly marched over to Elias, who was just getting to his feet, and grabbed him by his collar, yanking him upward.

“What. Was. That?” Each word came out cold and hard, striking like a heavy blow.

Elias had the grace to look a little nervous. “I didn’t think you would come back so soon. It’s just a little training for Renee to get over the fear of death.”

Lirion released him abruptly, causing Elias to stumble a bit as he almost lost his balance again.

“Who’s idea is this? It can’t be yours, because this went much beyond your usual pranks.”

“Lirion is right.” Cassius appeared at the doorway next, shaking his head. “This is too much.”

“I’m not hurt.” Renee spoke up. Well, she wasn’t hurt, aside from being knocked over from Lirion’s ice powers. Did it bother them that much to see an illusion of a fellow saint being injured? She imagined if she had been the one walking in to see Anise bleeding heavily, then she realized that she would have panicked too.

Lirion let out a deep breath and ran his hand through his platinum blond hair.

“Training is over.” He announced firmly, his eyes dark and still furious. With a passing glance at Renee, he turned and left the training room again.

“Is he alright?” Renee asked as she approached Cassius, who was still standing at the doorway.

“He will be soon.” Cassius answered, but she can tell from his eyes that he wasn’t completely sure either. “Come eat something.”

Glumly, Renee allowed herself to be led away to the dining hall to rejoin the other saints. For some reason, the dining hall is also the conference room for all group meetings. From what the saints had told her, the plates and cups in the dining hall were enchanted to create anything the saints want to eat out of magic, but with the World Tree growing weaker and weaker, that magic was no longer available. Now, the only magic that existed in the Court of Saints was there to maintain the building.

It saddened her to know that the Court of Saints, one of the last places where magic still exists, was also losing magic. Soon, the world will be completely devoid of magic.

She wondered if magic would return after Eislyn reawakened.

Renee barely had an appetite, knowing that she had to enter the aether plane tomorrow. She suddenly paused, remembering something, “Who created the seal on Eris? Was it Eislyn or one of us?”

“It was Eislyn.” Shen answered. “But we did pour all our mana into it so it would be strong enough to restrain a goddess.”

“And that’s how you burned out your magic?” Renee asked. Burning out wasn’t an uncommon way for magic users to die. It doesn’t matter how much magic someone has. If they channel too much of it at once, they will burn themselves out to death. “I don’t suppose any of us know the finer details of the seal, do we?”

A quick look around the table at the silent faces confirmed what Renee already suspected.

“Why are you asking?” Matthias asked.

“Have you all considered the fact that if we failed to wake Eislyn up, we won’t be able to recast the seal on Eris by ourselves?” Renee pointed out.

The saints paused whatever they were doing to contemplate. 

“We did think of that, which is why we’ve been trying to recreate the seal, or at least use a spell with the same impact.” Cassius answered. 

A naive answer. How can mortals like them dream of defeating a god on their own? However, she then realized that only the saints can transcend the limits of mortal magic. No wonder they were the world’s last hope against a destructive god.

“And what of Eislyn?” Renee tapped her cup, deep in thought. “The fact that she went dormant after the battle is peculiar. What if she sealed herself along with her sister?”

They all thought hard for a moment before Lirion answered with his gaze pointed elsewhere, “If so, I wonder if she did it to maintain a balance in the world. Perhaps Eislyn was concerned that her presence would upset the balance of the universe, so she voluntarily went dormant.”

“But who are we to try and understand the intentions of gods?” Renee sighed. She stood up from the dining table. “I’m going to my room now.”

Each saint had their own private quarters. Renee was shown to hers from her previous life, and she was amazed to see how well it was designed to her taste. It looked so much like her own room in her childhood home in Lorelia. That was the reason why she spent a lot of time in it when she wasn’t with the other saints.

Renee reached out to her copy of The History of the World, which she had taken from her home when Lirion took her to her hometown.

She wasn’t sure why she was reading it now. She had read it close to a thousand times in her life, but now, she was reading it with a new purpose. She wasn’t here to be entertained. She was here to find out if Eris had any weakness.

She knew the book probably wasn’t accurate since Matthias was borned many years after the creation of the Boundary, but he tried his best to gather all the historical information he could to write this book. However, this one was a modern edition. Another historian had added to it after Matthias died, recording the parts of history that Matthias couldn’t.

She flipped to the first page and started reading.