Mana churned around her as she jumped down the gorge, landing with relative ease. As expected, the battle paused around her. Althea was a mana bull after all, and you didn't ignore a mana bull. The cost was far too high.

The wind whistled above her head, responding to her call. The earth rumbled, coming to her aid even without her calling for it. Fire had already begun to sweep through her enemies.

The enemy army fell before she even had to lift a finger, fire burning through them and their defenses with ruthless efficiency. Perhaps she should have a good talk with her new 'friend'. The show of power was nice, but she hadn't wanted it.

Althea ignored the Crown Prince, focusing on the one behind him instead.

"Explain yourself." she demanded.

The Crown Prince frowned. "This is a competition-"

"Not you." she said, turning to the person behind him.

"Destroying the Air trees and doing lasting harm to the island is a violation of international treaties and punishable by death. Explain yourself before I have you teleported out." she looked at the attacker, finding it hard to place her face. The features kept shifting slightly, irritating her and making her even angrier.

Mind magic. An artifact most likely, this magic was far beyond Journeyman level. Not to mention useless. The artifact must have a limit to its range, cause she had seen through it from afar.

But just because she couldn't see him did not mean she couldn't trap him. Earth came to her easily here, aiding fire as the two unlikely companions surrounded the attacker and kept him trapped.

"I fear you must be mistaken, your grace. I am simply a commoner-" The attacker went flying into one of the gorge walls as Althea exerted her power. Even without mind magic, she could see she was lying. A commoner did not have a precious artifact like that. The Duchess of Leria was not so kind as to give it to her.

"Why do you have an Adept stage Mind artifact then?" she asked. "An artifact that is also clearly against the rules."

"That is enough, Countess." the Crown Prince interrupted, his mana erupting and falling right back as she surprised him.

Not to be intimidated, he continued. "There is no proof that he, or anyone was responsible for-"

"I have testimony from the protector of this island." she said. A protector, she hoped, would chime in now.

The protector did not bother.

"Crown Prince please! The Countess has gone insane! There is no protector. Please, save me from her, she will kill me!" the attacker yelled.

Althea laughed as the Crown Prince frowned.

"Kill you? I will do no such thing. I do not have that power." she smiled. "Killing you here will simply teleport you outside, to our superiors that have been watching the whole thing. If you are really innocent, then you will naturally be safe. Just an eliminated candidate really."

The attacker's face paled as he once again looked at the Crown Prince pleadingly. So they had done something with the teleportation? That was worrying. That meant there were likely deaths with how fearsome the battles were. Althea knew that she hadn’t been careful about what she did.

This time, the attacker did not get any aid. Althea called on her mana, but did not attack, simply staring at the attacker. If the beast was right about something being wrong with this person, there would be some kind of reaction now.

There was none.

The attacker's continued to face her with her blurred face. The Crown prince was frowning beside her. The battle had reached a standstill. The contestants were staring at her.

Althea could feel them judging her. Feel the sharpness in their gazes. But she did not act. Not yet. If she was correct and the attacker died instead of teleporting out, it would become complicated. At least a few people would point fingers at her.

“Why are you so afraid?” Althea cocked her head, pacing in front of the attacker.

The Crown Prince moved behind her, the battlefield shifting as contestants tried to get a better view of what she was doing without making it obvious.

“I- you are terrifying our grace.” the attacker replied. “I truly feared for my life when you came for me. I apologize if I have offended you.”

Althea had to give it to her, she was good. That statement had to be one of the best things to say in this situation. Now if Althea attacked and killed her, it would look like she was pursuing a vendetta.

“Not at all. I do not even know you. If anything, I should be on your side. After all, we are from the same Empire.” she replied nonchalantly.

“Will you let me go then, your grace?” the attacker replied, her voice full of hope. If this were Earth, she would be recruited by some acting company in a heartbeat. But this was exactly what she was waiting for.

“I fear I cannot.” Althea sighed. Even if she wasn’t particularly talented, the old Althea had spent years training. “As the ranking noble from the Solerian Empire, it is my duty to handle any issues that arise here. The violation of several treaties, not to mention the destruction of the Air trees is not something I can ignore.”

The attacker paused. Althea couldn’t see her face, but she had to be calculating her next move.

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“If I may be so bold to ask, why is your grace so convinced that I am to blame?” the attacker asked.

Althea pursed her lips. “The protector is an Adept stage guardian of this island. I fear I must take his word over yours.”

“This protector- I have not heard of him before, your grace.” the attacker said. “If there was someone like that here, wouldn’t he have shown himself?”

“How do you know he hasn’t shown himself?” Althea suppressed a smirk. “The protector could have shown himself before, the information could have simply not passed down to you.”

How would she react now? This was a trap. The attacker could still decide to talk some more. But if she had been experimenting with faulty magic, she would not be able to play word games with her for long. And when words failed…

As expected, she was not disappointed.

"Oh, how foolish you are.” the attacker said in a mocking voice., her body beginning to morph. “A protector.What protector? What you met was simply an apparition, a power source. Look how it fooled you! To think you are the greatest threat to the Master’s plan. What a fool."

Althea did not respond, waiting for the attacker to attack. And she did. A strange, spiraling mana shot out at her, blasting anyone close to her away. Mana receded from the area, not completely, but by a significant enough amount that she could feel it.

A shaking took her body, trying to suck mana out of her body. Althea fought it, succeeding, at least for now.

"How do you feel now, Countess?" the attacker laughed, her entire body contorting as scales and spikes began to form over her body. What the heck had this idiot been experimenting with?

"So dependable on your precious mana. The lot of you are the same. A bunch of vultures feasting on a carcass-"

Althea grew more puzzled as she listened to the attacker’s drivel. Was she talking about nobles? Was this an elaborate way of taking revenge? How strange, she would expect the attacker to go against the people that had wronged her.

"The Master shall kill you and bring this world under the rule of its true masters. Just you wait-"

So, the people in charge had dreams of world domination. This was actually good, she was actually giving useful information.

"I will ensure that he kills every one of you. I shall feast on your bones then. I shall eat your blood. I shall drink your eyes. I shall-"

Ok, now she'd officially gone insane. Althea decided that she had heard everything the attacker could share reliably. An insane thing was unlikely to give true information.

"Are you done?" she asked. "If not, hard luck. I am done with it."

Althea took a step forward, calling on her mana. And then stopped. For the first time ever, mana did not respond to her. No, it couldn't. Whatever the insane idiot had done denied mana to her. A barrier-no, a drain, a wrongness surrounded her. Mana avoided it, like it would infect mana somehow. Perhaps it would. Althea was out of her depth here. There was no record of anything like this in any thing she had read.

Of course, she did the next thing she could. An easy enough next step. What any mage did when calling on the surrounding mana wasn't enough.

That was when she realized she hadn't actually used her core mana before. Oh, she had practiced with it, used it against the Steward in battles, but not in real combat. There just hadn't been need to.

Althea hmmed as she called on her core mana. A condensed, powerful mana that was far more powerful than the surrounding mana. A lot more condensed and likely to follow her too. This mana did not have emotions, or a personality. Just power. A purity that dissolved the strangeness around her.

Taking a deep breath, she shut her eyes for some reason. Athea didn’t think, she just did. Mana resonated with her through the strangeness, using her core mana as a medium. The sky turned white. Then the earth followed. Althea felt herself swimming in a white sea, somehow ‘seeing’ it despite closing her eyes. The image simply showed itself to her. The strangeness trembled but did not dissipate. Even with all the resonance, strange power that she could exert, the strangeness was more powerful.

But she knew what to do. The strangeness might be powerful, but her mana seemed to be made to fight. A frown stretched across her face as the realization struck her. Druid mana was made to fight whatever this strangeness was. Then this ‘Master’ had to have a very, very old legacy. Another old power. Perhaps even an ancient enemy. But this was not the time to think on this.

"Fire." she said, letting her intent out into the air and into the mana, and in an instant, the pure mana turned into fire mana, and then into fire.

Fire burnt towards the sky.

The air was on fire.

The land was on fire.

The insane idiot was on fire.

Althea was on fire.

Well actually, no. The fire clung to her skin, but did not burn her, or her clothes. Was this what you called a clingy friend?

Althea called the mana back into her core, before she died of suffocation, and looked around her. The earth had been charred black. The air was unbreathable, making her call on the air to clear it around her. This time, it responded.

The Crown Prince of Zun Empire was staring at her. Vanessa was staring at her. Isa and everyone that knew her was staring at her. The entire gorge seemed to be staring at her. Even that hawk was flapping its wings in the air as it stared at her. What was it looking at?

"I realized I hadn't used my core magic in battle before and...got a bit carried away." she said, trying to break the awkward silence.

The staring did not stop. The entire gorge was staring at like she was some kind of monster. Come on, it was a decent reason!

Thankfully, she was saved by the bell.

"The trial is over." the Sel Empire's representative blasted his voice around them. "The successful candidates will be announced later."

The trial usually did not end until only ten people were remaining, but apparently this time would be different.

Althea found herself teleported back to the ship, where people were once again staring at her. The stares were similar, but also different. In the eyes of these Adepts, she saw cautiousness, threats...and hope?

What was this? How was it that her education had completely failed her at this moment? The threat she could understand. Even she could understand that her talent was abnormal. But hope? What were they hoping about?

"What an excellent show!" the Sel Empire representative said, not acknowledging what had happened. Not even indicating if anything had gone wrong. As if the entire endeavor had gone exactly as they had planned.

Althea doubted they would without some serious prompting. Empires and large nations weren’t exactly known for owning up to their mistakes. Or disclosing their true opinions.

"Yes, I am sure you enjoyed it." the Empress said. "Now if you will excuse me, I have some business to take care of."

Althea once again found herself teleported, this time to the Diery garden.

"What happened?" she asked.

The Empress just looked at her.

"What happened? What happened? Althea, you know very well what happened."

"I dealt with the attacker according to the laws." she said. "The Sel Empire should have them in custody by now."

"No they don’t. And you know that full well.” The Empress let out an angry breath. “I am sure I do not need to warn you not to reveal this, but we lost our ability to interfere for a large portion of the event. There were many casualties. What we did see was how it ended. The powers you used then…were not things that a Journeyman should have.”