Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Like Bella said, the nobles and the Cosmics finished their meals and everyone walked out of the dining hall and towards the Carew mansion battle grounds. The students looked used to the occasion, but Evin could see how their parents were excitedly glancing between Decatur and him, whispering to each other with curious smiles. They were most likely wondering who was this commoner who attracted the attention of the Chairman, the Cosmics, and the Carew's second son.

<So, what are we going to do?> Evin asked inwardly, mostly because he was bored, rather than nervous. Ever since he learned how to send thoughts to the Voice without using Thought energies or mana like the Voice had taught him, he started to occasionally have conversations inside his head sometimes.

<We fight, since everyone wants us to,> the Voice said back.

Evin was sure the Voice was shrugging inside his head, or shaking his head. After he began to communicate more with it, he started to distinguish the Voice's mood much better than previously. Evin also started to suspect that the Voice had a body of some sorts, and that it lived inside Evin's head like a normal person would live inside a house. He didn't know how such a thing was possible, but he was very confident in his guess, because of the few dreams he had lately where he saw a young male of maybe about Aran or Leanne's age living inside a dome shaped house on an infinitely wide lake, looking very comfortable.

<Do you think the Cosmic wants us to fight, just because he's curious?> Evin asked.

<Probably. It's hard for me to guess what the Cosmics are thinking from the expressions, because I've never interacted with one before, but I agree that they're probably just curious. But I'm sure that Abe definitely sees much more about the situation than he's showing on the outside, he's just playing dumb… We should be careful, I think.>

Evin was a bit surprised by the Voice's opinions on the Cosmic, as it never took anyone around Evin so seriously and solemnly before. His father, the mages, Decatur and the other nobles… even the Chairman turned into the butt-ends of its jokes after a while.

<I've never heard you be wary of someone before,> Evin said.

<Hmm?> the Voice exclaimed, sounding surprised by Evin's words. <I guess it's just because they're not humanoids…> it explained. <I'm very confident in my abilities to judge people, but it doesn't work on Abe since he's a feline. That should be why I'm feeling weirded out… Argh, whatever. We should focus on the fight.>

When Evin arrived at the battle grounds right outside the mansion, he saw an arena almost twice as large as the one the Academy had (which was 15 meters wide). But this one was circularly shaped and had a very peculiar dome shaped roof. The first thing Evin noticed was its gigantic size. It looked like an upside bowl, held above the ground with a few beams; and at the edge, the roof was only a bit taller than the average male, but in the centermost area it was as tall as a three-story building.

Evin also noticed that the roof had numerous gaps. Some areas, like in the center of the 'bowl', it was completely covered, but most other areas had various gaps of different sizes or shapes. If there was some kind of artistic beauty to it, then Evin didn't find one. He looked towards the ground and saw that the sunlight that fell through these gaps looker much brighter than the sunlight that fell on the ground normally. Evin knew that it was just a trick of the mind, but it was very annoying to look at.

"It's designed for users of the World of Light and the World of Darkness," Phel explained from the side. "Decatur said that it was made for his brother, Gehenne, who's a strong user of both Worlds. I heard that he would try to light every dark spot so it looks like the place is lit evenly, or he would try to turn every bright spot so it would look as if the place is evenly dim."

Evin looked at the Arena again and realized how that could be challenging. As he had absorbed Shards of both Lumiaris and Exivear, he knew how hard it was to affect areas which have a high contrast of light and darkness. Evin could turn himself nigh invisible in the darkness with some effort, by using the Dark energy to change the shades and colors of the shadows that fell on him to match his surroundings.

But that was assuming that he wasn't standing in the open, with sunlight falling on his body. Evin was never able to turn brightly lit places into darkness. Leanne said that in the future, he could turn large areas of a town or a city into complete darkness even during the day, effectively turning invisible inside those areas. But of course, that would take a huge amount of mana and Evin's core wasn't so well-fed yet.

'Why am I so distracted today?' Evin thought to himself suddenly.

Clearly, there were more important things to worry about, but every time he found an opportunity, Evin's mind wandered off to the most random topics.

Shaking off his thoughts, Evin went towards the center of the arena where Decatur was standing and saw the rest of the people standing around in a circle.

A servant came towards Decatur and handed him a waistbelt. It came attached with a pouch for containing lodestones; a specially made leather holder for Talismans; and a small, tube-shaped glass container. Decatur took off the Talisman pouch from his waistbelt, but kept the two other items.

<What's inside that glass?> Evin asked inwardly.

<I don't know, but I sometimes see it dangling from inside his bag,> the Voice replied.

The Chairman walked between the two combatants without much ceremony and said, "Well, I suppose it's fitting that I be the judge for this match."

"Oh, since the time limit's five minutes, here you go," Abe suddenly said and brought out a small hourglass from a Spatial Ring. "That one spills for exactly five minutes."

"Thank you," the Chairman nodded amiably and turned his head towards the two combatants. "Well, aside from the special rules that the two here agreed upon, the Academy's mock battle regulations will apply, is that alright?"

"Of course."

"Yes," Evin and Decatur replied.

The standard regulations included stuff about starting at a certain distance, not leaving the premise of battle, to not attack the spectators – either willfully or accidentally, and a few other technicalities. It also said that one mustn't aim at the enemy combatant's head, neck, or chest with a lethal spell. One was also not allowed to try dismember someone's limbs, but breaking them was apparently fine. If the Chairman judged a spell to be illegal, he would dispel it and disqualify the user. Evin didn't want to trust the Chairman with anything of his, so he was going to try his best to survive by himself.

"Alright, gather your mana and turn it into World energies. No casting spells yet," the Chairman warned, "I'll know if you do."

<Take as much Dark and Thought energies you need to make yourself invisible towards Decatur and convert the rest to Air energy with a touch of Fire,> the Voice dictated. <And when the fight starts, pick a suitable spot and turn yourself invisible.>

'No earthen walls today, I guess,' Evin thought and reached into his waist pouch, feeling the five lodestones he'd obtained during his Academy days. He turned one of them into Air energy, and turned half a lodestone into the energy of Thought and a little bit of Fire and Darkness. His body felt light due to the vast amount of Air energies that flowed through his bloodstream now, but he could definitely feel calming sensations of the other World energies as well.

He looked at Decatur and saw the boy casually emptying five in a row. Evin didn't know what World energies they turned into and there was only one way to find out.

"You may begin on the count of three," the Chairman said and after counting to three in an overly dramatic way, he flipped the hourglass.

Most battles started with two sides regarding each other's moves, but since there was a time limit on this one, both sides immediately started working on their spells. Evin did as the Voice ordered and dashed towards a darker spot of the Arena.

He then created a layer of Thought energies which were ordered to make himself invisible and then wrapped a layer of Dark energy around it. If he only used Thought energies, he could make himself invisible even in light, but Evin knew that Decatur was capable to seeing through illusions if he tried hard enough. Every mage was expected to become proficient enough at the World of Thoughts to be able to discern illusions with unfailing precision. After all, a mage who couldn't tell real from false was more of a liability, rather than an asset.

But that didn't apply to the World of Darkness, the energy of which was naturally very difficult to distinguish in the dark, even if one knew what to look for. So Evin could use it to keep himself invisible to Decatur, provided that he stayed in shadowy areas. But he knew that some of the spectators could still see him, as he was more focused on looking invisible from one direction. Evin simply wasn't talented enough to make himself invisible from all sides like the Voice was capable of, but it was the best he could do.

And it didn't matter too much, as it was considered extremely unbecoming if a spectator intervened in a mock battle in the kingdom.

Finished with his task, Evin focused on what his enemy was doing and what the Voice's response would be. He saw moisture gathering around Decatur's body, slowly turning into streams of water. Decatur wasn't shining in any way, so Evin guessed the latter was just trying to drown him in one of his aquatic prisons.