The island loomed closer with its jagged cliffs jutting up from the ocean like the ribs of a leviathan.
Storm clouds clustered unnaturally over its peak, though the sea itself remained eerily calm.
By the time the ship docked against a stone outcropping, the entire deck was tense.
"Candidates!" Rolkav's voice cut through their anxiety like a blade.
He stood at the prow once more with his coat wavering in the salt wind.
"From this point forward, your fates are yours alone to determine. You have twenty-four hours. Enter Arcseal through the gate. Survive, and advance."
The four Supervisors didn't bother to wish them luck.
Vordera raised her hand, and with a flare of mana, the black monolithic Gate of Arcseal was pryed open on the cliffs ahead.
Its surface was riddled with glyphs.
Sable swallowed as she took a deep breath.
The closer they came, the heavier her bracelet felt.
Margaret tilted her head.
"Guess this is it. You ready?"
Sable forced a grin, albeit nervously.
"Ready as I'll ever be. Not like we get a choice."
Adelheid gave a sly look at the sea of candidates rushing to disembark.
"Don't think for a second that everyone here won't turn on each other once we set foot on the island. Keep your eyes sharp."
"Let the next stage of the exams begin." Shouted Rolkav.
The ramp clanged down, and the flood began.
Candidates poured onto the rocky landing like unleashed hounds.
Some broke into a sprint toward the gate, while others immediately formed tight clusters, talking about strategies.
A few loners stalked the edges, glaring at everyone.
Sable, Margaret, and Adelheid stayed together, though Sable couldn't help but notice the way other groups sized them up.
"They're already pegging us as a target." Sable muttered.
"That's the price of surviving a Nightgaunt," Adelheid replied smugly. "Your name will spread faster than wildfire. Some will want to recruit you. More will want to crush you."
"Awesome." Sable sighed. "Celebrity status in the worst possible way."
The rocky ground trembled as the candidates funneled toward the cliffs.
When the first wave of candidates passed beneath it, the glyphs shone blinding white.
A violent gust ripped across the landing, throwing cloaks and hair in every direction, and then the entire group was swallowed in a single flash; gone without a trace, as though the island itself had consumed them whole.
The sight made Sable's stomach twist.
She turned to face both Margaret and Adelheid.
Margaret gave her a reassuring grin that seemed far too steady for the tension in the air.
Adelheid, however, only smirked as her eyes narrowed like she already saw three moves ahead of everyone else.
"Stay close." Margaret said, stretching her fingers as if warming them for a fight. "No telling where we'll land once that thing spits us out."
Sable nodded, though her heart was racing.
"Yeah. Totally fine. Just jumping into a glowing portal to who-knows-where. No big deal!"
Adelheid glared at the Hasteheart.
"You really do talk too much."
The second wave of candidates surged forward, vanishing in another searing light.
Then the third.
Each time, the landing grew emptier, leaving only stragglers who hesitated, weighing their odds.
The supervisors stood unmoving, like executioners watching prisoners march to the block.
None offered a word, not even Sametara, whose amused grin never wavered.
When the crowd thinned, Margaret nudged Sable forward.
"Our turn."
Sable swallowed the knot in her throat and forced her feet to move.
With each step, the weight in her chest grew unbearable.
Then they crossed the threshold.
Agony surged through her like she'd been struck by lightning.
Her entire body convulsed as the gate ripped through her, scanning, and seemingly tearing at her body.
She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't even scream.
For a heartbeat, she swore her soul had been ripped from her chest, stripped bare, and dissected.
But then the world snapped.
Her shoes slammed into dirt and she stumbled, catching herself against a tree trunk.
Gasping, she blinked through the dizziness and found herself standing in a forest that felt alive.
The air was heavy with mana, immediately recognizing that this was a forest.
Margaret landed beside her, rolling her shoulders and scanning their surroundings.
"Still in one piece. Good sign."
Adelheid's expression was calm as ever.
"Welcome to Arcseal. A separate spacetime continuum, created by the Supervisors themselves."
Sable pressed a hand to her chest, still panting.
"I'm gonna kill the Supervisor who invented that gate!"
Adelheid smirked.
"Get used to it. This world doesn't play fair."
Already, sounds echoed through the forest. It was footsteps, voices, and the sound of crunching leaves.
Other candidates had arrived close. Almost too close.
The game had begun.
Margaret crouched before pointing to a line of boot prints pressed deep into the soil.
"They've already moved deep into the forest. More than one group."
Sable followed her gaze.
The footprints led deeper into the woods, swallowed quickly by shadows.
She tugged her sleeve back to glare at her bracelet.
"So we just fight and take their bracelets? That's the rule?"
Adelheid's sly smile didn't falter.
"That's the rule."
A branch snapped and all three of them froze.
From the treeline ahead, a figure stumbled out; a wiry boy with a scroll clutched in his hand.
His eyes lit up when they landed on Sable.
"That's her!" He yelled. "The one who defeated the Nightgaunt."
Three more stepped out behind him, forming a circle.
"If we take her bracelet now, then we're guaranteed to advance!" The wiry boy said with a desperate grin across his face.
Sable's stomach lurched, but she forced her face into a crooked grin.
"You think you can take my bracelet? Then go ahead and try your luck!"
Margaret stepped in front of her with her fists raised.
"Guess conserving energy's not an option after all."
Adelheid's smile only widened. Her eyes stared at them like a predator witnessing its prey.
"Perfect. Let's see if our little Nightgaunt killer can live up to her reputation."
Sable exhaled slowly, forcing her shaking hands to be steady.
"Fine. If it's a fight they want, then it's a fight they're gonna get! Bring it on!"
The wiry boy's grin twisted, and the scroll in his hand unfolded.
Glyphs soared into the air, spiraling into a crude shield of light.
"Shield of Athena!"
The others spread out with each clutching a different medium; one with prayer beads rattling in her fingers, another with a crooked wand, and the last cracking his knuckles as if raw muscle alone would win this fight.
Sable's heart pounded like war drums, but she kept her crooked grin locked in place.
"Four-on-three. How original!"
"Margaret, Sable." Adelheid said smoothly, already drifting to the left. "Do not hold back. This is a life or death scenario, we cannot spare any lives."
Margaret smirked.
"Wasn't planning on it!"
The wiry boy attacked first, chanting.
"Volley of 1,000 Spears!"
The air warped, and a volley of mana spears shot forward like glowing arrows.
Margaret slammed her fists together as mana surged around her body.
"Heed my call, Spirit of Strength, Adira!"
"Whoa!" Sable widened her eyes, witnessing an Elufray Spirit manifest into existence, fusing with Margaret's body.
Thus, she punched the air, and a shockwave detonated, scattering the spears in an explosive gust that scorched the trees.
Sable flinched at the shockwave's force, then snapped her head toward the bead-wielding girl.
She had started muttering rapidly with her beads rattling like teeth.
"Come forward, Hexbeast of Poison!"
A spectral serpent suddenly manifested above her shoulders with its jaws snapping toward Sable with a hiss.
"Shit!" Sable yanked a loose branch from the dirt and swung it like a bat.
The serpent lunged, and she smacked the branch into its open maw.
It shattered into splinters—but the serpent recoiled in pain as she dropped the broken stick.
"Okay! That worked!"
The muscular candidate thundered forward, swinging a fist the size of a brick.
Sable ducked as the blow grazed her hair before embedding into the trunk behind her, splitting it in half.
She stumbled back, gasping.
"If that connected, my head would've been mulch!"
"Move!" Margaret darted in with her arm lashing forward.
Her fist started glowing with the power of her elufray spirit, now slamming it into his chest, and sending him flying through the underbrush like a ragdoll.
Meanwhile, Adelheid hadn't even broken a sweat, nor had her beret hadn't even shifted once.
She danced through the battlefield with every gesture just shy of mocking, now raising her hand and lazily chanting.
"Bind."
"Hexbeast of Poison!"
Chains of mana snapped out of thin air, wrapping around the bead girl's arms.
As soon as she summoned another serpent, it collapsed into particles of mana as the girl fell to her knees, gasping.
Adelheid leaned down with her lips curling into a grin.
"My, how pathetic. You can summon Hexbeasts with prayer beads, but they're only lower class."
Sable found herself locked against the wiry boy's shield, jamming her fist into the barrier over and over with sparks flying with each hit.
He snarled.
"You cannot break it! This is the manifestation of Athena's shield from the Prime Sphere of Khaos! Home to the Twelve Olympian Gods! It is invulnerable to all harm!"
CRACK!
Her fist splintered parts of the shield like glass before it imploded around him.
Through pure willpower, she broke the invulnerable shield.
His eyes went wide with the scroll in his hands flickering in a bright light as it destabilized.
Sable bared her teeth in a grin.
"Guess Athena's shield didn't plan on me." She stepped forward and swung her fist directly into his jaw, knocking him into the ground with a deadly bounce.
The last candidate, the one Margaret had decked into the forest, groaned somewhere in the distance.
The bead girl struggled against Adelheid's bindings.
The wiry boy wheezed, clutching his broken scroll.
"I guess that's that." Margaret grinned at the display.
Adelheid released her bindings, letting the bead girl collapse.
"Now then, hand over your bracelets. Don't make this harder on yourself."
"W-Why should I?" Questioned the bead girl. "You'll have to kill me!"
"Oh?" Adelheid smirked. "Then I suppose I can grant you the death you so seek."
"Wait!" Sable stepped forward, intervening with Adelheid's decision. "We already beat them, there's no need to shed any more blood."
"Hm?" Adelheid turned to face Sable, frowning. "Do you have a death wish, girl?"