The exhibition matches had been going well, the fights were okay even if some turned ridiculous, she had almost strained herself when that pair of idiots fought (The students that somehow seemed more at home when singing and streaming than when doing superhero work).

She almost tried to stop a fight when [The Avenger] asked for Akira as an opponent.

"Wait." Said Jhon as he grabbed her arm, "We can't act unless they break the rules, both the written and unwritten ones. Calm yourself Agatha."

She of course knew that!

"...I wasn't going to do anything." She said as she silently hid her constructed magical circle within her [Soulscape], usually she would hide it on her clothes or within her body. But Jhon could perceive anything within his area of influence.

And she wasn't even sure if her [Soulscape] was safe either. Either way, the fight didn't happen as Akira sent Rena to deal with the poor kid, of course, that didn't change his fate. Watanabe Rena was a B-Tier [Hero Trainee].

She wasn't something one could defeat, [Skills] aside, the girl had true skill with the sword, it was beyond the normal [Talent] the usual sword-type heroes had, and it was straight true talent. The kind you needed to break above A-Tier.

Really, that girl could go to great places...If she wasn't tied to Akira in such a disgusting and hideous bond.

"See, this is why we need more allowances to be granted to Mister Suzuki, if his followers are capable of such one-sided victory, imagine what he could make if we allowed his [Skill] to work unimpeded!" Said one of those who wanted to turn this school into a breeding ground for Akira.

He was among the new board of directors, those that came after the advent and were sponsored by the Italians after [The Prophet] and [The Warlock] started consolidating their powers.

"Under the [Divine Decree] no one should practice the kind of [Magic] you are suggesting." She said as the [Prana] that [Odyssey] leaked her way coursed her veins granting her the type of [Presence] that she couldn't make on her own. "Or will you [Violate] the [Divine Decree]?"

Her [Mana] pushed down on all of them, equally, she had found that [Odyssey] didn't have a problem with her using what should be a [Divine Right], so long she used it to humiliate those that thought better than the rest. Like these mages members of the board of directors.

"....No....He.....is....using....that....skill....even....with....the...[Divine]...[Decree]." The disgusting member of the magic council said.

It was funny really, he was using the [Divine Decree] as a shield while being pushed down by [Divine Mana] coming from the same [God] in question.

"That's enough Agatha, the students will notice something amiss," Jhon said as he placed a hand on her shoulder, she could feel the power of whatever [Skill] he used to influence the world around him. "Let's move the fights to the next one."

She released the pressure and instead focused on moving this along, with some luck she could get this over with without too many victims, "Fine... But we will speak of this after." So she went and checked the next fights, only for her magic to fight to be released into a spear of Prana.

"So?" Coughed the subhuman that was probably the evidence of humans evolving from animals, "Announce it."

The bastards knew that Elizabeth had a beef with Akira, and they moved her spot to the front, she planned to spread the fights so that she could put them in the Arena when the matches started being fought in several Arenas at the same time. This way they wouldn't fight each other.

Half the council wanted to make sure Akira got what he wanted to get him indebted to them, the idiots. The other wanted to use Elizabeth as bait and get him to use his [Mind Control Magic] under the monitoring spells of the Arena, so they could find how to use this kind of magic even after the divine decree of [Odyssey].

There were very few among the faculty who wanted to keep the students safe, and among those, she was the one with more power, so it was upon her to protect the students.

"[Stardust Weaver] vs [Warden of Justice]" But her hands were tied at this point.

So she just announced the fight and let her control of her magic falter just enough so that her [Shift] resurged. No one said anything to her, nor did anyone even try to tell her to cancel it, this wasn't even skirting the rules. This was outright forbidden, the teachers weren't supposed to use their [Shift] under any circumstance, since their mere presence made it harder for less experienced Mages to manipulate mana.

Since mana tended to follow their whims, not that she thought any of the good [Mages] among the students would have that kind of problem, Michael, Rossaline, and Elizabeth were prime examples of [Mages] that could rise above the rest even if they had lower level.

That was why she didn't want Akira to get his hands on them.

"If the magic that monitor the fight detect any attempt from Akira to tamper with Elizabeth's Starbright [Soul] I will [End] the fight, even if I need to [Put down] Akira." She said as multiple magic circles settled around the [Arena], all of them hidden from prying eyes from the students.

She did notice a glint in the eyes of Michael Shepherd, but he didn't say anything nor even turn his eyes toward her. Cheeky brat, pretending to not notice.

"If you have complains get on with them." She turned to those mages who wanted to use Akira's magic for their own reasons. No one answered, of course, not with all her magic permeating the area. Right now, at this very moment, only Jhon could maybe stop her among the faculty members.

And even then, he would have a hard time dealing with her, he wasn't blessed by [Framework], and he refused the [Gift] when it was offered. Claiming he wanted to retire earlier not later.

He still had enough Oomph to slow her down, but not for long, and it wouldn't serve any purpose, if she wanted to kill the council she could do it, maybe not all of them. And she suspected the [Prophet] or the [Warlock] would come for her. But they wouldn't be able to resurrect them unless they wasted a [Favor] from [Odyssey], and even if annoying. She wanted to believe that she wouldn't allow these disgusting human beings to be resurrected.

Not that she expected an answer from [Odyssey], she was oddly quiet in these types of circumstances, she would fuzz around about cute girls, about her love life (Or the absence of one), about if she could snoop around Elizabeth's apartment or whatever.

But when serious stuff happens?

She would only fork out mana and say nothing.

So for now she focused all her senses on the fight, it was...Average at best, granted they were a couple of brats fighting, they bantered, they exchanged turns for attacks. All standard stuff, it wasn't like the stories she knew about the world wars when the first Magical Girls arrived in Zanaam.

If all ended like that she would be happy, of course, it wouldn't.

"...Are you sensing this?" She asked to Jhon. "Is that...?"

The mages around them stared harder at the arena, as if that would make sense of what she was speaking, she of course didn't dignify them with an answer.

"Yes, it looks consensual," Jhon said while his knuckles turned white as he put more and more strength into his arms, he didn't like it either. "We can't do anything unless she stately asks [US] for help."

...Stupid girl, she managed to ask for help before, but instead of asking them, or even turning to look at them while speaking, the girl had obviously spoken to Elizabeth.

And now? Now she was leaking most of her [Mana], and [Soul] towards feeding Akira. And then there was Elizabeth, the girl who had created a dome made of shadows that somehow managed to block most monitoring spells.

Shadow users were tricky like that, "WHAT?!?" One of the disgusting mages turned to her when that happened, "TURN THAT OFF WE NEED TO SEE!"

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Could she break it? Probably, even if Elizabeth was quite good with her magic, she was still weaker than her in magic complexity, even if the girl was probably better than her at mana manipulation. She still had access to better magic than her, even if her magic was probably less optimized than Elizabeth's.

"Are the sensors still working?" She said aloud to no one, one of the other teachers answered "Yes."

So she used that to look at the member of the council, "The sensors are working. And by the stipulations agreed by the Magic Council we teacher can't affect the fight nor modify or cast any spell into the actual Arena floor...Unless you are removing that?" Of course, no one came forward to answer her request, they knew she would sooner prevent Akira from using the skill than to save him or help them.

"Well, then it seems you all will enjoy readings from the [Magic] since you aren't able to pierce that [Dome]." She smirked at them as she focused her [Senses] towards the dome trying to pierce without much success. Instead, she extended a sneaky mana channel towards Jhon "Can you pierce it?"

Jhon (Blessed be his soul), didn't answer aloud, instead using the mana channel she made he answered "No, my skill is bouncing back when I try to look too closely, as far as I can tell the Arena is empty. That girl managed to make an isolation barrier, wherever they are. They aren't on this plane anymore."

...The girl managed to pull out an [Isolation Barrier]? How the hell was she even able to pull that?

Did she own an alternate dimension or something?

"So what are we supposed to do then?" Asked one of the members of the council, more to their other comrades than her, but she still answered them.

"You can look at the graphics from the mana expenditure, you can go and eat something. Or you can shut up while other people work." She hoped they would leave, but instead, they all started ordering food and moving to the tables at the back of the VIP room.

Leaving the teachers to monitor the situation, she was getting some readings of the mana expenditure and how it had started going up, it seemed that Akira had used some self-buffing skill.

On the other hand, Elizabeth's mana had reached its peak and hadn't moved a single digit further up, it stayed at the top. The girl was fighting at her best and keeping it at that level, either she was using some spell to keep it at that or she was fighting for her life.

She hoped it was the first, "[She is doing okay.]" The voice of [Odyssey] resounded in her mind.

Closer than ever, as if the [Goddess] was standing at her side trying to comfort her...It was a nice gesture, even if she wasn't sure why it made her annoyed, she didn't understand what kind of relationship she had with the [Goddess] before her ascension for her to focus so much attention on her.

The fight seemed to continue like that, the only difference was how Akira's mana kept going up and up...And then at some point, the mana expenditure of Elizabeth plummeted down, she worried that the girl had been wounded or something. But the dome didn't disappear, and as far as her magic could tell her...

Elizabeth no longer seemed to be within the dome, and Akira was fighting something else, the mana reaction from whatever he was fighting seemed to be close enough to Elizabeth though. So had the girl used the [Shift] spell to create something else?

...Oh god, was Elizabeth also like Rossaline with an alternate shift that got her closer to a [Demon]? Elizabeth didn't seem to be closer to any of the [Cardinal Demons] like Rossaline though.

...Right, she needed to make sure that had been resolved, she hadn't had the time to check on Rossaline after their return, not with all the problems Akira was making and how she needed to get counselors to those girls and a new safe environment.

And she was ashamed to admit it, but dealing with Rossaline wasn't that important if the girl was behaving, and whatever Elizabeth fed the girl, it kept her calm and sedated. So she was too busy dealing with the fallout from Akira raping girls left and right to deal with her. It was funny, really, the fact that dealing with rape victims was more important than dealing with the girl who somehow manifested one aspect of a [Cardinal Demon].

At least it seemed to be a calm one, it was probably a [Misery] or [Sloth] demon, if it had been one of the other [Sins] then it would have caused more troubles after all.

Then while musing on what [Cardinal Entity] Elizabeth was closer, that happened. A [Ping] on their detection array showed a reaction, "ISOLATE THE REACTION QUICK!" She demanded as she rushed towards the station that had the information for that.

Sadly, the reaction hadn't come from the dome, instead it had come from the stands. "I'm sure it was a false positive." One of the mages from the council came and looked at the readings.

They didn't have the know-how about how to deal with these things, but they nonetheless checked the data, even if it was more of an attempt to look like they knew, a way to save face among the teachers that didn't know better and with the students that thought of them as the top of the school.

Really, it was meaningless. "Purge the data." Said one of them, the one that Rossaline had wanted to kill at the start of the year.

"What?" Said Agatha as she turned to look at them, "We need to investigate and make sure this isn't-"

She wanted to make sure that they could trace it back, only Akira was known to have this type of magic, if she could get proof of it, then...

"This is obviously some faulty spellcraft, perhaps one of the students cracked the magic circle and so we got a false positive. Either way, if it is true then...Oh look, one of the students is checking on them and they aren't calling for help. See? This is a false positive, no way could a student fix damage to the [Soul] right?" The same man mocked her as she turned to look at the seating in the arena.

The victim? Watanabe Rena, who else. She didn't even need to check to know, instead what she found was more...weird.

The one that came to help the girl was no one else but Rossaline Singh, as she walked towards Rena she was preparing a magic circle for scanning for wounds and another to [Heal].

"So? What are you waiting for? Purge the records of that false positive and send someone to inspect the spell...No wait, I will send someone." The member of the council said while he sent a message, that Magic Circle would be reported to have been found vandalized.

The mage that was monitoring her turned its attention towards her, waiting for instructions, so she just nodded thoughtfully, she wasn't sure what was playing Rossaline and Elizabeth.

No way would Rossaline help Rena without reason, but both girls seemed to be planning something, so she allowed them to do whatever they wanted. In the end, Rossaline dragged Rena to their seating area and used her as a stool to rest her feet, the girl was sending healing pulses toward Rena to keep her stable though, so she couldn't fault her. Even if her ways of helping left much to desire in the question of bed manners.

And while she was busy thinking of why or what their plan was, another more strange thing happened as the reaction for Elizabeth returned to one side of the arena, followed by a small reaction that seemed to be of another person, this one felt stronger even while contained to smaller amounts of mana.

If she was guessing it felt more like the amount a child would have...If that child was a prodigy, she had felt it once before when she was scouting new students for the [Council of Magical Girls], when they wanted to make a new generation of A-Tier Magical Girls.

This presence felt like those prospective students, but before she had time to focus on that, more and more mana presences started to show, unlike the two before, not a single one of those felt like they came from Elizabeth.

They didn't have her mana signature nor even felt [Human] unlike the previous two, instead they felt as if someone had opened a gate to one of the damned planes, they felt like evil spirits.

Most started to disappear as quickly as they showed, probably being defeated by Akira...Or Elizabeth, depending on who had done the summoning.

"Purge the records of the fight." She ordered the mage operating the station.

"What? You can't just-" The member of the council started saying "WHY ARE YOU DELETING THEM?!?"

He seemed angry because unlike when he ordered, they listened to her promptly, "You will request them be deleted anyway, why are you complaining?" She said to the mage from the council.

Chances were that they wanted to get a record first, of course, she wouldn't let them. If Elizabeth had opened a doorway to a damned plane she would need to find a way to protect her, and if it was Akira...Well, they wouldn't let her prosecute him anyway. So might as well screw them now that she could.

"I mean...We..." See? They were struggling to find an excuse right now!

She found this amusing enough maybe that was why [Odyssey] liked to look through her eyes?

...She still wouldn't like the idea of another person looking through her eyes, but since it was a [Goddess] it should be fine.

*crash*

And while thinking about that the sound of a sword crashing against stone resounded in the [Arena], a few dozen swords had pierced the shadow dome and suddenly she was aware of the presence of Elizabeth and Akira once more. Somehow the [Hero Trainee] had destroyed the [Isolation Barrier] that Elizabeth had created, which shouldn't be possible at his power level. Or at least it shouldn't.

And yet here it was, Elizabeth Starbright and Suzuki Akira...No, [The Stardust Weaver] and [The Warden of Justice].

The blonde girl's clothes were ragged in multiple spots, wounds on her fair skin, and most of the armor she should be wearing was missing, which was interesting. Usually when the mana in the [Shift] started failing then it would either cancel or prioritize the safety of the user.

In cases like Elizabeth's the [Shift] should have favored protection over comfort, so Elizabeth should have still have the armor plates and should be missing the clothing.

On the other hand, Akira wasn't wounded, at all. If anything his presence felt...weird. He felt more powerful than he should. "[Appraisal]" She intoned to make sure that her senses weren't lying. And sure enough, Akira had more stat points than before.

He felt at the cusp of peak A-Tier in power, way more than he should have any right to be. And if the fragments of metal around the arena meant something, then he had been on the advantage the whole time.

Then she could declare the fight ended? Even if Elizabeth didn't seem to be willing to admit defeat? Even if Akira didn't seem to be ready to claim his victory?

"See? [The Stardust Weaver] doesn't seem to be under the effects of any mind tampering or soul tampering." The council member said, "You worry too much [Witch]."

She was about to answer but the fight resumed before she could even say anything. How did it restart?

Was it with a new series of complex magic circles? No.

Was it with Elizabeth summoning more of whatever she had summoned while hidden within the shadow dome? No.

It restarted with Elizabeth chanting, she was feeling the mana climb higher and higher, and then [THAT] happened. The whole mana in the arena was drained away, focusing on the sky.

Every mote of atmospheric mana disappeared, most of the spells drained away, the magic circles broke apart, and all active spells dissipated, well, most of them.

Any A-Tier Mage worth their weight could keep his mana from draining away (Most of it anyway), she got scot-free because her mana was being provided by [Odyssey] and not from cultivation or from cycling atmospheric mana.

Michael seemed to have been cultivating a [Mana Core] since his [Shift] didn't break either. Rossaline...well, she wasn't going to look too closely on that one.

The problem wasn't that at the moment, the problem was that Elizabeth seemed to be using some variation of [Advanced Ritual Magic], if the magic circle she was seeing form between the folds of space was something to go by, that was the kind of magic that would need at least other five A-Tier mages helping!

And somehow she was doing it on her own, the complex magic circles embedded within the dimensional folds created a complex magic circle that iterated on itself and made a cascading mana effect that only increased the instability of the spell.

And yet, the spell didn't break, instead, it focused all its might on what it was made for.

It was opening a wall in the dimension and summoning [Something], "We need to stop that, summon [The Nine Stars]!" She said as she started to think what kind of [Thing] Elizabeth was trying to summon, or how she was doing that.

"[Its okay, she is just calling her pet. Trust Eli-Eli.]" The carefree [Goddess] in her mind said.

Her pet?

THAT WAS HER PET?

"[Descend upon the mortal world, Nyxfyre.]" Elizabeth said as the dimensional fracture was ripped open by a pair of monstrous claws made of obsidian.

Then as it ripped open more and more she could see a world made of shadows, a broken and destroyed ruins of what could pass as a capital city.

The sky was devoid of stars and only a blue moon seemed to hang in the sky.

"[You called and I answered.]" The deep voice answered with [Idea], she didn't even notice as her hands made complex sigils and cast multiple barriers around the Arena.

"[Sorry about that Gatty, but I took your body for a few seconds, can't let the pet kill the students.]"

The backlash from casting magic of S-Tier hit her like a truck, but she didn't mind it at all, instead, she turned to look around, a complex and beautiful lattice of shields had manifested to protect the students and teachers around them.

She did notice how the members of the mage council hadn't been protected and now were clawing at their ears, serving them right.

"[REJOICE MORTALS FOR YOU ARE IN PRESENCE OF NYXFYRE THE TWILIGHT DRAGON OF THE END.]" The dragon roared as his imposing figure landed in the Arena.

As he descended from the fracture in the sky that was busy being mended she did notice the Arena floor accommodate to fit the [Dragon], the world around them seemed to bend over to make it so the [Dragon] could move comfortably.

The arena grew bigger, and the stadium itself changed. The sky turned from a sunny day to night, and while all of this happened. Akira only stared at them, all the while Elizabeth smiled at the terrible entity she had summoned. Was she worried? Was she regretting it?

"Long time no see Nyx. I hope you can still transform into your normal form." The blonde girl said as she walked toward the [Monster].

Was she mad? Dumb? Was she really as smart as her appearance implied?

"[...]" The dragon seemed to ponder those same questions too. "*sigh* [Of course I can Mistress, all that you desire, all that you WISH. We loyal servants will always strive to achieve.]"

...What the hell?

"What the hell?"

...She didn't know who said that. But maybe...Just maybe...She would ask for vacations after this was dealt with.