I wrote my mother back that morning.
Just a quick letter. Nothing poetic. But I meant every word.
Of course I'll come to see you all.
I love you so, so much.
—Annie
I gave it to a runner before first light. Before breakfast. Before training.
Didn't want to wait. Didn't want to risk not saying it.
Week Three felt different the moment it really began.
Like a string had been pulled tighter through the whole camp. Even the wind sounded sharper.
The tents were louder at night now — more messengers arriving from the front. More names being shouted. The devil footsoldiers were swarming. They were still weak — the cannon fodder types — but they were coming in droves. Enough to tire out even great mages and swordsmen.
This month was a buffer.
A last breath.
Lincoln had made it clear: if we passed the test, we'd be permitted to venture deeper into the Devil Realm. Explore, map, engage. With that comes denser mana which will give us a boost to reach Finalis.
There was no mistaking it now. This wasn't practice. This wasn't theory.
This was war.
Everyone had gotten stronger — it was in the air, in the sound of their steps, in the way their mana held its shape even when they were exhausted. Raphos used to spark and stutter like a bonfire — now he was steady heat. Rōko's aura was always perfect yet it still felt like she couldn't decide what kind of prodigy to be — now it pressed outward, solid and wild and weirdly elegant for someone so hard headed.
Even Fay moved differently. Like her limbs finally listened to her soul. There wasn't clumsiness anymore, only her mindset needs boosting.
It wasn't just the training.
It was the Æther spirts.
Being around them… it changed you. It pulled you forward. Made you improve just by trying to keep up.
⸻
After breakfast, I stood in the center of the sparring circle. Everyone sat cross-legged in a ring, leaning forward. Mana shimmered around us — warm and crackling.
I didn't pace. Didn't raise my voice.
Just spoke.
"We're adding a new element this week," I said. "Sparring outside our circle."
Lirael's mana blinked upward in a curious manner. Fay's twitched with anxiety. Rōko and Raphos leaned in like I'd just handed them dessert.
"The best way to improve is by fighting someone who counters you," I said. "Not someone you can brute force. Someone who exposes your last weaknesses."
I felt Fay shift slightly. "So we're fighting randoms?"
"Other squads," I corrected. "But yeah. Don't expect them to have stayed idle. They're training too. Some probably harder."
"Some probably already have their finalis," Salem murmured, seated beside me.
"Exactly," I nodded. "Which is why we wanna spar with them."
I turned my head slightly toward the floor beneath us.
"I'll ask Shinobu and Nora's squad. They're right below us."
"You gonna use space magic?" Rōko asked, a smirk in her tone.
"Of course," I said. "Also… I'm gonna find Julius."
That got a reaction.
"He's still around?" Raphos asked. "Didn't think that guy'd survive past week one."
"Bet he's gotten stronger," I said. "Pretty sure he's on the lowest platform — first floor. I'll go check. You all eat. Stretch. Warm up."
"Real leader stuff," Rōko muttered. "You're living up to the Lincoln-replacement hype already."
"Yea yea," I said, smiling faintly. "I've always been a show-off."
And then I opened a portal under my feet and dropped.
⸻
The rush of falling through folded space was a silence all its own, like slipping between breaths.
I landed softly on the edge of the first platform.
Barley any wind here. Dimmer.
The mana here was quieter — less polished.
Not because of the people, just because of the air.
Julius was supposed to be here.
I scanned the space — mana outlines flickered, some sharp, some muddy. None were him.
Then—
A wind blast behind me.
Two sharp auras — high-speed. Fast and aggressive. Upperclassmen, by the feel of it.
I dropped backward through another portal — half a second before the attack hit. Reappeared on top of the war tent roof.
The two shapes came into view just as they landed on the wood behind me — cloaks flaring with momentum, swords drawn.
Their mana sparked with confidence.
I didn't know them.
But I didn't need to.
They were here to test me.
"Where's Julius?" I asked, standing at the edge of the roof.
"Down at the academy," one of them replied — male voice, flinty. "Getting food."
"Now fight us," the other said — a girl this time. "Ms. Prodigy that Julius won't shut up about. He already knew you'd show up to spar some time."
I smiled.
I reached for my weapon
Two daggers slid into my palms — their mana shape familiar. I clicked them together.
Steel whirred. My bo staff unfolded between my hands like an old friend.
I spun it once, tilted it forward — and dipped just the tip through a small, clean portal.
It reappeared behind them — and thwack, thwack.
Blunt strikes to the chest. Both of them.
They staggered, stunned.
"What the—?!"
"Careful, she fights like a rat, not a prodigy clearly."
Their blades came up — humming through the air.
I dropped down to meet them.
The spar command activated the moment my feet hit the platform.
"Come and get this rat."
⸻
They were fast.
But not faster than me.
I felt just the curves of their mana, the shift of weight before each strike. They we're amazing at reinforcing their attacks with controlled mana.
I fought clean.
Precise.
Made it a point not to show off too much — just enough to keep it honest.
1 minute later, they were both down. Not hurt. Just disarmed, breathless, and staring up at the tent above them like it had betrayed them.
I leaned on my staff that i slammed in the dirt.
Waited.
I felt him before I heard him — Julius's mana was jittery, but still somehow calm. He always had that weird contradiction about him.
"Hey there, Julius," I said, waving.
His boots thudded across the platform toward me — with two more steady auras beside him. Sir Myron, the kings guard who absolutely destroyed me in a spar last year… and the last member of his squad, someone I didn't recognize.
Julius stopped a few paces away.
"…Did you just—?"
"Yeah," I said. "They wanted a warm-up."
The two students groaned from the floor.
Julius huffed a laugh. "You're insane."
"Thanks."
Myron crossed his arms. "Didn't think you'd be the the ambush sort."
"I wasn't. They were," I said, jerking my chin toward the groaning students.
The third student — a girl, quiet, maybe a summoner by the shape of her mana — said, "Not everyone can beat two upperclassman that quickly on their own."
I shrugged. "Let's just blame Space magic ."
"No," Julius said. "It's just you. One terrifying little girl."
"Little!?" I huffed.
He stepped closer and smiled.
"You've gotten a lot stronger…again"
"I told you not to be left in the dust." I said.
And I meant it.
Before I could say anything else he pulled me into a tight, familiar hug. His arms wrapped around me like armor: heavy, practiced, and safe.
"You always hug people this hard or just me?" I teased, my cheek brushing the edge of his uniform.
"You're the only person I hug like they might disappear."
My breath caught, just a moment, before I smiled.
"Annabel," Julius said, "this is Lilly."
"Same mana as the other girl just less angry, twins?."
The girl — Lilly — laughed under her breath, almost a snort. "Yes that's Rosie, we are twins."
"I felt what you did when walking up here," she said. "And you beat Levi too?"
Levi groaned in the background. "She didn't just beat me. She humiliated me. I got wrecked by a blind prodigy, who's what? Like 18. I should feel ashamed as her elder."
I tilted my head in mock confusion. "Who's eighteen?"
Julius chimed in without hesitation. "She's twelve."
Silence.
Even the birds seemed to pause.
Rosie didn't move for a second, then took a dramatic step beside me, lining her outline next to mine.
"Okay hold on," she muttered, already annoyed. "Everyone shut up for a second."
I heard her boots scuff against the stone as she adjusted her stance next to mine, shoulder to shoulder — or, well, slightly below shoulder to shoulder.
"She's taller than me," Rosie muttered, her voice sharp with rising disbelief.
I raised an eyebrow.
She reached out carefully — polite, asking silently — and I offered my hand. She gripped it, closed her fingers around mine. Her mana twisted a little, like she was probing.
"She has more mana than me. Denser too. Seriously, how are you not combusting?"
"Good diet," I said casually.
She ignored me. Her outline turned toward me more directly — and then I felt her hands shift, one to her own chest with a loud, disgruntled sigh.
"Oh come on—"
Then one hand floated hesitantly, then pressed against mine.
I froze.
Even the air seemed to pause with me. Her fingers lifted again for a second… then returned for an even more obvious squeeze.
And then she exploded.
"She even has better boobs than me—!? This is NOT FAIR!"
A sound broke out of me — full-bodied, from the gut, helpless laughter.
"You hear that, Julius?" I wheezed between snorts. "I'm blessed."
"Absolutely not commenting on that," Julius muttered, walking away.
Rosie was still spiraling. "She's younger, taller, stronger, and even her chest is winning—what did I do in a past life to deserve this!?"
Lilly groaned somewhere behind her. "This is why I said don't compare yourself. You always lose your mind."
Sir Myron, ever composed, muttered under his breath, "May the gods preserve me."
I grinned. "Don't worry, Rosie. You'll bounce back."
She turned her head sharply toward me. "Easy for you to say — with those?"
She gestured vaguely at my chest like it had personally offended her.
"Gods, it's not fair."
I let out another soft laugh before regaining my composure.
"Anyway," I said, spinning my staff once behind my back and letting it rest on my shoulders, "I didn't portal all the way down here just to show off."
"I assumed not," Myron said. "Though that's clearly part of it."
I smirked. "Everyone's been training with their own squads these last two weeks. That's great. But it's not enough. You improve the most when you're forced to adapt."
"To someone who can counter you," Rosie finished, sighing.
"Exactly. Which is why I'm organizing cross-squad spars. I'm talking to Shinobu's group next. Maybe another from higher up."
Levi perked up. "So… we'd be in a rotation?"
"I was thinking a free for all," I said. "Fresh matchups. Unexpected rhythm. The kind of pressure we're actually going to feel in the devil realm."
Sir Myron tilted his head. "So you did hear about the test."
"Yup. Lincoln's giving us a month. That means they're preparing for something. Frontlines are being overrun with devil footsoldiers. Weak ones — just enough to exhaust us."
Rosie's voice turned serious. "Fodder tactics."
"And they work," I said. "Unless we're smarter."
Julius's core swelled faintly with approval. "You're a lot more commanding than last time we trained together."
I gave a half-smile. "Didn't have much choice."
Lilly nudged her twin. "We're in, right?"
"Of course," Rosie muttered. "I owe her a proper rematch."
"Food first," Levi added quickly.
"Obviously," I said. "Go eat. I still need to speak to Shinobu's squad. I'll portal you the time and place."
"Looking forward to it," Julius said, and I could feel the truth in it.
I spun my staff once, then tapped it softly on the platform beneath me. Space bent with a gentle pull — the ripple of a fresh portal forming at my feet.
"See you soon," I said, and let the world fall away beneath me.