*Six Months Later*

Two men stood on an abandoned planet. They had fought many wars together and could've been great comrades had they not been on opposing sides. Two generals, one on his knees and the other standing, were surrounded only by bloodshed. Ciel felt the scene was more comforting than anything. Bloodshed was at least something she was familiar with.

"General," the man on his knees said to Ciel. He looked at her like she held his fate in her hands. Which, if Ciel thought about it, she did. It was just that she didn't care much when the game master was the one holding her fate. The man wore a bloody Technoid as he dropped his gun onto the grass below him. The two stood in a field, isolated with no one within a mile's vicinity. They were only accompanied by the dead.

"We can't keep doing this," the man said, "this war will never end."

Ciel raised her gun to meet his forehead.

"Do you truly believe that Aurelio?" she asked. She'd performed this scene more times than she could count.

"I can't keep letting my people die," Aurelio said, "for just a bit of land. At this point, they won't even be able to fill it."

Ciel felt the cold ridge of the trigger. She felt the urge to kill Aurelio, an urge she'd fallen victim to too many times. He'd been a pain in the ass over that "bit of land" for over three decades now. The game had warped time and allowed her to see how the world shaped itself. She'd played so many parts in this war, and on every front, her only enemy was the man who knelt before her. She couldn't stop herself from pushing the gun into his head a little more. Aurelio just closed his eyes.

Ciel sighed. She knew he meant what he said. Opening her hand, she let her gun fall to the ground.

"You're a good leader, Aurelio," Ciel said, "I don't want more of my people to die either."

The scene froze, a screen Ciel hadn't seen in the nearly twelve hours since the game's start popped up before her.

"Training Through the Arts Hell Mode: Completed."

The words shone in golden letters before her. Ciel let out a breath of relief. She'd finally won.

A familiar green setting surrounded her, and a less familiar man with an alligator head stood before her.

She hadn't seen Leonard in roughly five months, ever since he'd briefed her on what she'd needed to accomplish. He'd disappeared immediately after, only to appear now, five months later. His grin was still plastered over his face.

"Congratulations, Prince," he said, "your name's famous throughout the galaxy."

She rolled her eyes.

"Is that all you came here to say?"

Leonard ignored her attitude, "Not only did you top the charts in the level one rankings, you also topped the level twos. This isn't an accomplishment even Dragon's made."

"D-1s and D-2s aren't all that different," she said, pushing her freshly cut hair out of her face. Since they were so similar to her old body, she took no time at all to adjust. It was as simple as one sense at a time. Unfortunately, she'd tried level three but hadn't succeeded because of her limbs being restricted. Who knew that once she'd started directly feeling the energy she exerted with every move she'd barely be able to throw a punch.

"And you're the only one in the galaxy that thinks that," Leonard said. "Still, that's not the most impressive thing you've done."

She raised a brow. Other than going up another level, she didn't know what was all that impressive.

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"You beat the unbeatable game," Leonard said. "This is the first time Hell Mode's been defeated in the hundred years since Training Through the Arts' release. And not only that, you beat it a month before you had to."

"Didn't you say it was tested and proven to be the best way to learn the fifteen thousand facts?"

Leonard thought for a moment.

"Did I say that? Well, it's true for the most part. The game is completely historically accurate, but players only made it halfway through. If you don't believe me, why don't I test you."

Ciel nodded.

"What year did the Battle of Sulfran's Capital take place?"

"Year 462. Notable figures were Valten Franklin, Salton John, and Herbert Craw. They were heavily influenced by heavy metal and blasted it in order to disorient their opponents."

"Which character did you play?"

"The leader of that metal band, Brock Lawrence."

"Can you sing heavy metal now?"

"Well enough to win the Medleys."

"No wonder no one ever managed to pass through," Leonard said. "The Medleys are the most prestigious music award in the world."

Ciel didn't tell him she'd bribed the judges. They were very corrupt at the time.

"The game was created by a fairly notable historian," Leonard said, "it's was his magnum opus. Everyone who played it could recall nearly every detail of the events he put in, and in this game, he entered every notable scene in the Great War. So you'll be fine on the history exam. Now, how do you feel about everything else?"

"I'm confident in science, elementary mechanics, mathematics, history, and language."

"Alright, well the current middle school testing has just gotten started this week, so you have a month before the next testing session. Until then you can relax and brush up on any topics you need to. Once you have your acceptance slip you can register as a Void."

Ciel nodded.

"I'll see you in a month," Leonard said.

Climbing out of her pod, Ciel raised her hand to her mouth. Coughing slightly, red streaks of blood appeared on her palm. While Leonard had told her she had a month to do whatever she liked, there were still a few things she had to get done. She left the Community Center in Alice's car.

"Did you beat the game?" Alice asked. They'd gotten closer in the last few months, though not past small talk. Alice seemed to feel less comfortable after interrogating her that night than she did before.

"I beat it," Ciel replied. She hadn't told Alice which game she had to beat, just that she'd been assigned the task of beating a game over the last few months. Alice didn't know the specifics of her arrangement with Elias, so she assumed Ciel was just a gaming addict. Sometimes Ciel wondered if by letting Alice misunderstand, they were really growing farther apart.

They didn't speak again.

After Alice parked, Ciel told her she'd be off for a bit since she had something to do. This wasn't anything new as she'd been doing this same thing for a few weeks now. Alice just nodded and went into Elias's home alone.

As it happens, Ciel wasn't going to see the other neighborhood kids as Alice liked to assume. As soon as Alice disappeared behind the door, Ciel made for the workshop. But she didn't enter it. Instead, she circled it, going to the back where the pipes were. This was the water supply.

There was something Elias had opened up to her about once she'd lived with them for around three months: his blood disease. He'd told her it was a curse he'd gotten as a Void and that Alice had caught it too. The two were weakened and would occasionally cough up blood. Ciel had accepted this as fact until a month ago, when she'd found herself coughing up blood too.

Her first assumption was she was being poisoned, but after making her own food for a few weeks, the coughing increased instead. That was when she'd set her sights on the water supply.

After only drinking from plastic bottles for a while, Ciel had just about fully recovered from her coughing fits. The water was poisoned.

For Ciel, dispelling the poison was as simple as drinking different water, but for Alice and Elias, who'd been drinking it either since young or for decades, dispelling the poison was a different case. She'd thought of telling them, but after further consideration, Ciel had realized she had no proof. Since then, she'd been investigating, and finally, she'd found just who'd been putting poison into their water.

She remembered the path to the estate as she walked into the forest behind the house. The cause of the father and daughter's torment had been so close and yet so far. It didn't take long for her to approach the mansion's gates.

"Who are you?" a guard yelled. Ciel was wearing her D-1 Technoid, so the guard didn't notice she was the boy who'd been scouting around the mansion the week before.

Ciel didn't respond, instead raising her leg to kick the man. He dropped to the ground unconscious. She didn't stall at the door, throwing it open and walking through the halls. The mansion was silent -- vacant of life -- but that didn't stop Ciel. She knew where the rat was hiding.

Walking up the stairs of the mansion, she took her time. The mansion stood like its own ghost town, dull and quiet. The only part of the building that seemed alive was the bright oak door waiting for entry.

She turned the knob, it wasn't locked. Swinging the door open, a voice met her ears.

"I've been waiting for you," a man said. "Why don't you take a seat."