A few more attacks were sent toward Sofia, but as she was no longer moving, Sonia quickly changed her focus to the destroyer instead, her attacks chipping away at its lifetime.

I might not get the full twenty seconds, but close enough… Sofia watched her mana climb up by roughly twelve thousand points a second, slightly aided by her demon form breathing in more than usual. It almost reached three hundred thousand, while the destroyer only had a few seconds left.

Just about enough.

Sofia stored the asterite chest, un-blessed the cube and stored it as well in a single breath. Sonia immediately noticed but couldn’t attack with the light destroyer in the way.

The runes on Sofia’s chest and wings glowed, and she flew straight toward Sonia.

I have four seconds of third tier Runeforged.

Four seconds during which her strength, agility and speed were almost tripled.

It only took two seconds to close the distance, letting the destroyer profit from the bonuses as well. Another mithrium arrow was shot Sofia’s way as a last resort, piercing through the destroyer, but it had lost enough momentum that way that Sofia could catch it mid flight with her armguard.

This desperate attack left Sonia at the destroyer’s mercy. The beastwoman’s appearance flickered out of existence several times to avoid the relentless attacks. Sofia cast a low-power piercing bolt, aiming it at Sonia’s head just before the destroyer was about to attack again. Sonia flickered out and in again to avoid the bolt, and two huge mandibles of light closed around her body the instant she reappeared.

[ROUND 8/13 - WIN]

Sofia’s mana hit zero again as the battle concluded and the destroyer disappeared, the mana maintaining it completely exhausted.

“Well… Interesting fight. Still though, I didn’t get to see the hidden explosives.”

Sofia looked around, trying to find Love, but she couldn’t see the colorful garments of the goddess among the gray ruins of the city.

As long as she keeps talking, though, I might have a bit of extra time.

Sofia let herself fall to the ground, and started giving strong kicks into random piles of debris.

It took her a total of four kicks, before she found the explosives, and was blown back up into the sky, missing a leg.

From above she observed the bright explosion she had just triggered. It wasn’t that far from the bigger bolts she’d thrown.

And they do this shit instantly, with no mana?!

This put a frown on Sofia’s face. A full year of mana debt to pay… I need to upgrade my bolts before they become useless. I’m just like Ezerid in the end, rushing through things like an idiot.

As Sofia was already going through possible ways to rework the explosive bolts in her mind, she was teleported to another waiting room along with Crowie.

“Oh, I’m back. Ice arena this time?” she said out loud, looking at the waiting room carved in some kind of dense blue ice reminiscent of midenicite.

Bookie ran up to Sofia, “Did you progress?!” he asked her.

Sofia grabbed Bookie in her arms, “Hmm, let me check.”

[Current Mana heart Awakening progression: 51%]

“Oh, it actually went up by a whole two percent,” she noted.

“Only two?! That’s bad…” Bookie said, worried, “There are only five battles left…”

“Six,” Sofia corrected, “Don’t forget the ‘Grand Finale’, I’m also still waiting to hear the bell for my ‘increased difficulty surprise’, so with a bit of luck, things will be fine. Can’t complain about getting two percents, Tartaros in the casino was only 8% after all…”

“What if we don’t reach the finale?” Bookie asked.

“That would mean we encountered someone so strong we couldn’t beat them, I’m sure a duel that serious would be enough to push my heart over the edge, don’t you think?”

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“Hmmmm… I’m still worried… At least brother Pareth is almost done…”

“Don’t worry about me, alright, Bookie? Worst case there’s a full week after the tournament before the Ark closes, chances are I could just have Pareth and Pestle beat me into awakening.”

“That probably would not work,” a voice commented out of nowhere.

“Cake thief?!” Pestle immediately jumped up from the table, a fork and knife in hand.

“Ahah, I am not here for any cake this time,” Nex reassured her, still only a voice lingering in the air, “I came to inform you that the high-scribes have made an exception for you.”

“And that would be?” Sofia asked.

“They modified the tournament brackets to give you better chances at awakening. Your last two duels were the result of that already,” he explained.

“Really? I ought to thank them for giving me an opportunity to study the Oracle’s skillset then. Not doing great in terms of awakening though, don’t you have another Leviathan to throw at me instead?”

“... No, you almost broke the toybox getting that much of the damned thing to load in the first place, we are not doing that again.”

“Huh. Were you not busy with the Phageid?” Sofia asked, “Still got time to spectate and comment like this?”

“Worry about your own issues, will you? Although—I think you will not have to worry about the awakening too much, in all honesty. Even if the high scribes had done nothing, I personally believe you would have been fine. Your actions during the trial have had… Some interesting consequences on some of the imprints. Speaking of which, you should check the list of eliminations again. Now, I’ll see myself off before Love notices anything, see you later.”

Raising an eyebrow, Sofia checked the list of defeated trialees again. One name in there jumped at her face.

“What…”

“What’s going on? Are Kuli and Mornn eliminated?!” Bookie asked with a worried voice.

“No… They… They’re both still going… But…” Sofia said nothing more and just shared the list with her skeletons, aside from Pareth who was already looking at his own list.

Pestle read faster than Bookie and grabbed her skull in her tiny hands, “Gah! Tatatos is kill!” she shouted, before letting her bones fall messily to the floor. “Pesle missed Tatatos kill TWICE! Noooooo…” she complained, her skull rolling on the icy floor.

Sofia chuckled, let Bookie down and scooped up Pestle’s bones. “You wanted to fight him that bad? I didn’t even know.”

The mess of bones built itself back up into a coherent fairy in Sofia’s palms, “Everyone fun kill Tatatos with not Pesle!” she accused.

“That couldn’t be helped, your mission was to rob the lich, that was more important, you know? Nobody else would have been capable of stealing that book.”

“Hmmm…” Pestle sat in Sofia’s palm calming down but visibly still unhappy, only for her mood to switch completely a few seconds later, she jumped back up radiating energy. “Someone kill Tatatos… Pesle can kill killer!”

“Yeah we’re probably going to have to do that,” Sofia confirmed, “And you will absolutely have to participate, so don’t you worry about being left out… With sis and Sonia already being out… The only ones who even stand a chance against Tartaros… Two people. Ezerid and Sen.”

“Sen is scary,” Bookie chimed in, “I think it’s him!”

“You find him scary?” Sofia asked, “We never really got to see him fight seriously… But he did survive that planetary hit in Gakk’s event. There’s a high chance we’ll get to fight him now so… I’m curious to see what he’s got.”

It was soon time for the ninth round, and the entire team left the waiting room, because the skeletons were bored. Sofia couldn’t even hear or see Love nor the spectators, the arena was nothing but a straight ice field, in the middle of a blizzard. A strong, constant wind blew snow and chunks of ice in Sofia’s face, so she quickly put her helmet on.

Can’t see two meters ahead in this thing…

Sofia closed her eyes and probed the surroundings with her mana senses.

I see… Vast open plains, kind of. A few protruding rocks here and there. Or are those chunks of ice? And the opponent this time… Hmm… An elf? Oh no the ears are a bit droopy I think. Vampire. He’s got a long weapon but I’m not too sure what it is… I’m getting better at seeing details from a distance but still a long way to go before it becomes better than regular sight in normal conditions.

Without any further introduction, Love announced the fighter’s name and the beginning of the duel.

“The bone squadron against Icemaster Velenir, BEGIN!”

Icemaster? That’s part of his name? Hmm, well, maybe not, she’s been taking some liberties with my name… Still, Icemaster, in this weather?

Everyone stay back for now, alright? Make an ice statue or something. Sofia told the skeletons as she walked up to the arena’s barrier.

As soon as the barrier was lifted, Sofia’s legs froze over in a flash.

Well. I’m immune to cold damage…

Forcing on her legs a bit, Sofia shattered the layer of ice, as a series of spear-shaped ice spikes crashed and broke against her helmet.

… I can’t even [Heat Death] them because I’m immune to the magical part…

As Sofia’s right hand scraped off the thick layer of ice that the spears had left on her helmet, her legs froze over a second time.

I see how it’s going to be.

Alright, sir Icemaster. Let’s see if your cold can withstand my heat.

Breaking the ice around her legs again, Sofia turned her staff into the [Spine of the Black Sun]’s sword form, and began channeling a piercing bolt over it.