“Oh? And what If I do interfere? What can you possibly do about it?” Sophia says with a sneer.

The ice mist returns to her side and shrouds her body. It serves as her cloak and follows her wherever she goes. Accompanied by it, she takes a few steps, and fully enters the theater. Immediately noticing the rain, she forms an umbrella out of ice to protect herself. Under the acidic nature of the man’s [melody], however, it melts at an incredibly rapid rate. She quickly realizes that it will not last long, and glares towards the back of the theater. With a frown, she says:

“That’s annoying.”

She makes use of an ice platform emerging from the ground to launch herself towards the man with the mohawk. Startled by this sudden act, he quickly attempts to defend himself and fires blasts of acid at the approaching Sophia. In response, she breathes out, creating more of the ice mist, and a wall of frost is rapidly raised before her. It is far from enough to stop the powerful blast, but it is just enough to obstruct his field of view and allow her to twist her airborne body out of its path. She lands a few dozen meters away from the long-ranged combatant and immediately begins running in his direction. More ice pillars sprout from the floor as she makes her way towards him. I notice Ugo is on the verge of taking flight in order to go after her, but I immediately stop him in his tracks. I smirk.

“You won’t be going anywhere.”

He gives me a glare and our clash begins. From the corner of my eyes, I see Sophia approach the man at a frightening speed. In response, he fires more of the acid blasts towards her, but now, she easily avoids them without even needing to use her ice as protection. Her adaptation speed is truly terrifying.

With each passing moment, she nears his position. I can see the panic setting in the man’s eyes as the distance between them decreases. When she is but a few meters away, he stands from his shooting position and attempts to flee. Sophia, however, does not make it so easy for him to escape. An icicle forms on her palm, and she throws it at him with terrifying force. It whistles through the air and pierces his right leg, causing him to stumble and fall face first into the stands. She swiftly approaches her now immobilized opponent. Bringing my attention back to our confrontation, Ugo shares a few words with me.

“... You fool, what are you smiling for? Facing both of us would have been far better than being involved with someone like her!”

I raise an eyebrow.

“What do you-”

A blood-curdling shriek pierces the air. I immediately snap my head to look in the direction it is coming from. What I see leaves me quite perplexed. Sophia, whose hand is now placed within the man’s open wound, wears a sinister grin. Upon her command, the cloud of ice envelops the man. Starting from his wounded leg, he is slowly encased into ice, or at least that is what I initially believed. As I squint my eyes to get a better look, I realize that it is not that his body is being covered in a shell of ice, rather it is being frozen to its core. He is being made into ice itself.

Evident from his desperate screams, the process must be extremely painful. Slowly, the agonizing transformation reaches his chest, then his neck, and eventually, he has completely been turned into an ice statue. Satisfied with her work, Sophia strides through the stands and returns to the stage. The acid rain stops, but the ice sculpture does not disappear as is what should happen to the bodies of the dead in this virtual space. This could mean only two things: His body did disappear and what I see is only the ice that remains after having taken his shape, or he is somehow still alive, forced to suffer until the trial ends. Despite him being my opponent, I sincerely hope that it is the former.

Sophia pats down her attire and raises her head to look at both Ugo and I. Ugo jumps backwards, retreating from our confrontation, and now points his sword towards Sophia. I notice that he wants to say something, but before he can, Sophia speaks.

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“Why don’t we make this a two against one?”

I scoff. “I don’t need your help to defeat him.”

Ugo says nothing. Sophia tilts her head as she lets out a playful chuckle.

“You’re funny. I meant both of you against me!”

With a seductive smile, she declares:

“This situation is incredibly convenient, you both happen to be on my list. Let’s see… How about this? Whoever does best against me will be granted a reward!” She says as she blows a kiss in our direction.

She blows a kiss in our direction and winks. I glance at Ugo from the corner of my eye with a puzzled expression. He replies with a grimace.

“...Do you understand what I meant now?”

‘This… might be really bad…’

Sophia summons a sword made of ice in her left hand. “Both of you are using new tricks, so let me do the same to make it fair.”

In her left hand lies the ice sword, and in her right rests her sharpsong. In accordance with her will, the frost mist moves to condense around her. I am still unsure what exact purpose the mist serves, but I am well aware that her [melody] is much more powerful within it.

At first glance, it looks like she has adopted a dual-wield battle style, but I fail to see the use in that.

‘Could she not just grab another sharpsong instead? I don’t really see the point in using her ability like that.’

Shattering my skepticism, the sword transforms into a scythe, a spear, and then into a one-handed axe. Finally, it returns to the shape of a simple sword and Sophia inspects her creation with a smile.

“Come at me.” She says with a confident grin.

Ugo lets out a long sigh. “.. Always meddling in others’ affairs.”

With his blazing sharpsong, he charges towards Sophia, and her grin grows larger. Before they can clash however, the world comes to a stop, and a message resounds through the arena.

[One of the primary objectives has been reached, five participants now remain in the arena, as such, the trial has officially come to an end. The surviving competitors will now be listed in order of performance: Sophia Thunderblade, Ray Burst, Camille Starforge, Alden Thorne, and Ugo Brightscar. Congratulations to all of you, please await further instructions once you have exited the immersion pod.]

‘What?!? It hasn’t even been thirty minutes!!’

We are pulled out of our virtual bodies and the scenery displayed to me moves to encapsulate the entire arena. Unfortunately, due to my situation, I was unable to explore the rest of the battlefield. With this gesture from the DaiKar executives, I am given the chance to appreciate the entirety of this place’s design before being ejected, which I appreciate. As I glance at the different corners of the arena, something in particular grabs my attention. I notice pillars of ice littered across the uneven roads. I imagine they must be a remainder of Sophia’s fights, but the more I look at them, the stranger they appear. Curious, I inspect them closer, and realize that they are not pillars at all. From their sophisticated shapes, I quickly realize that every single one of them is a former participant. Dumbfounded, I count fifteen different statues spread across the arena.

A frightening realization dawns upon me: Sophia, by herself, has managed to incapacitate and petrify fifteen other participants, at the very least. Though I did wish to test myself against her, I am now somewhat glad our confrontation was cut short.

‘I guess she isn’t the first seat for no reason.’

I am returned to reality and my pod’s lid is automatically lifted. I exit, and make my way towards the entrance of the room in order to wait for Sylvia and the others. There, an older looking man stands wearing a joyful expression. His voice booms throughout the entire room.

“Congratulations to all of you for participating in this trial. Those of you among the top five, stay in this room until all of the trials come to an end, as for the others, you may leave.”

Indeed, as I look around, it is evident that our group was the first to finish. As such, there are only fifty or so other trainees to exit their pods. Half of them leave the room with a disappointed look on their faces, the other half however, wears one of terror, most likely Sophia’s victims.

I find a suitable corner, sit down, and prepare to wait for at least an hour or two, when a shadow is cast over me. I raise my eyes, and there she stands, Sophia Thundrblade. Her dark hair dances behind her head and her pale skin matches the white color of the room’s walls. I had never noticed before, but she is surprisingly tall. If I were to stand up, I do not doubt that she would stand taller than I, and I am by no means short. In fact, my height is a very respectable five feet and nine inches, which is average in Melodica! She leans down to meet my eyes and says:

“Can I sit here?”

She takes a seat without waiting for my reply.

‘Yeah sure, go ahead why don’t you.’

She sits next to me and remains silent for a while. I do not want to stare, but I cannot help but throw a few sideway glances. Finally, she turns her head to look at me and, after a few seconds, says something with a tantalizing look.

“I saw your fight against Ugo and his two goons, you’re pretty strong. Why don’t you marry me?”

If I had a drink to spit out, I would have.