Rose returned to reality after a couple seconds, allowing her clone to dissipate and returning to her body.  She walked back to our group with a slight smile so she must be feeling better now that it was over.  When she got back I asked, "Rose, how do you feel?"

She energetically replied at first about the thrill but then drew back as she thought back on how scary it was to actually fight with someone else.  It was nothing like a spar.

After Rose finished explaining, Kylie looked eager for her fight.  She was by far the most high-spirited of our group about the duels, to begin with anyway.  I was wondering why she was so eager, but then again she is also one who loves rushing headlong into what she wants.  To be honest, combat didn’t and still doesn't really intrigue me. I will stay focused on the ways magic can be used.

The duels past by quickly and I started to get a strange feeling. I couldn’t quite place it ... what was this feeling... why does it feel like something horrible is going to happen...

As my contemplations continued, Kylie stood up and started striding to the arena, why didn't I hear Teacher?  What is wrong with me right now? Kylie entered her clone, and an extremely corrosive power started to emanate off of her clone.  Her eyes immediately glazed over.

Teacher yelled, "Match Start."

Kylie didn't move, but a haze started covering the entire field.  The other combatant felt something was wrong, so he cautiously sped toward her.  Right, when he was about to slash her, Kylie brought up her sword and the swords collided. Immediately after they made contact, his sword rusted very fast before just snapping

I felt my breath stuck in my throat as I saw her sword hit his skin and his clone started to age rapidly and the skin started to rot.  I didn't notice when, but Teacher had taken action and forcibly pulled her opponent out of the ring and back to his body.  She didn't regain her sanity from that and just stood there as the haze became thicker.

Before I could figure out anything, a group of officials convened around her original body and started to cast a large-scale light spell.  I can't even fathom what it requires, but the clone disintegrated and she must have returned to her original body because it just collapsed.

Just as I came back to my senses, Teacher shouted, "The rest of the duels are postponed and school is canceled for today, head back to your dorms now."

I tried running to Kylie before I was stopped by one of the officials.  Before I knew it, Rose, Kade, and Tristan were also with me.  My refute was stopped before I could say it by Tristan who demanded the official, "Let us see Kylie.”

When the official heard that, he wasn't fazed in the slightest and replied, "I'm sorry Prince Tristan, but this needs direct clearance from the emperor, please go back to your dorms and wait."

I couldn’t understand why, but I felt anger, extreme anger that he was blocking me. Maybe it was just because everything seemed out of my control, but I froze him without regret or hearing anything he had to say.

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His startled reaction would have caused me to smirk usually. I started running towards Kylie who was being hauled off on a stretcher before Ellie appeared out of nowhere and clasped me in her arms before whispering, "Ally, please calm down.  There isn't anything you can do right now, you just have to have faith in the doctors."

When I looked up at her face I just noticed that tears were welling up in my eyes.  I already knew what happened, but the outcome wouldn't be good whether or not Kylie wakes up.  She had death magic and a high affinity at that.  At best she would be constantly watched for the rest of her life, at worst she would be executed if she couldn't control it. Her situation was going to become worse than mine, so much worse than mine.

I choked out the words to Ellie, "Please Ellie, I think I can help, please let me try at least once... maybe luck will be on my side.  I don't want her to disappear."

She hesitated for a second before she responded, "I will ask your mom, and I can't make this decision since it is far above me.  If she doesn't agree there is nothing I can do.  I'm sorry Ally."

This was something I didn't want to happen, mom puts my safety as her number one concern.  She wouldn't let me go into a potentially dangerous situation like this. Even before I could think about running past Ellie, everything went black with only the soft words Ellie said echoing in my ear, “I’m so sorry Ally.”

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I woke up in a cabin in the middle of a forest to the words, “You sure are lucky… I guess being lucky means both good and bad luck in your case.”

My response was shaky, “Why, just why. I only wanted to have fun and enjoy my life.”

The chaos god just chuckled before responding, “No one can only have good things, that isn’t how life works. Even the most powerful person in this planet’s history cried, he cried when his wife had a miscarriage. He cried when his friends died, his mother died, and his father died. Nobody will be able to live a perfect life.”

Helplessly I spoke, “So why is the death god trying to kill my friend? Why does she want her to suffer so much, what did she ever do?” 

He sighed and gestured for me to follow. The only thing I could do was follow; he was the only one that could have any answers to this. When I arrived in front of the lake, it changed into a scene of Kylie dead. He before I could ask anything, Chaos God whispered, “Do you notice how old she is? Here she is 10; she died because the Death god church extracted her magic. This was her fate before you were born, the fate of Death’s chosen.” (Take this as Death’s church focused on Ally rather than Kylie because Ally was born, so Kylie lived.)

He continued after I processed the information, “You already came to know that you are special and have no determined fate, but you don’t know that not all fates are good. My fate is to live. That is my fate; I’m immortal and will never die unless something or someone disrupts fate. This is both my curse and my blessing. Fate can’t touch you, for you touch and manipulate fate, but fate will fight back. This is your curse and your blessing.”

After saying those words he vanished into the background. Really Chaos? You can be nice? So I’m the cause of this, but also the cause of why something didn’t happen. How should I feel? Happy? Sad? Maybe I should just continue to live and figure out what I should do as I continue on… With that thought, I left my dream world. 

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When I woke up, I was locked in my room. Not my dorm room, but my room at home. It seems that I won’t be able to leave home now or see Kylie. I summoned Misty and started petting her to calm myself. The biggest problem now is that I wouldn’t be able to help Kylie even if I wanted to. She is by far out of my wheelhouse in the current situation. I know almost no sealing techniques, and no healing techniques.

Emotions are a hell of a thing aren’t they; I hurt the official for no reason. He couldn’t stop me if I walked past, but I froze him out of anger. I already know that I don’t really use my emotions usually, but when they break out they are unstoppable. Maybe I should meditate or something…

Think Ally, think. What should I do now? What can I do now?