“Don’t use your father’s move. I’ll teach you another simple move so you won’t be found out.”

Before the test, Burn took time to teach Yvain about Force, like he did in the previous loop. But Yvain hit a wall the moment he was just about to understand something.

Yvain dashed forward. The movements he learned from Burn and the days he spent in a futile attempt to scratch the surface of the man’s defense now seemingly paid off.

Well, Burn wasn’t a lenient teacher. Even though he told Yvain to try and scratch him, the man also occasionally pushed him to the brink and tested Yvain’s own defense.

And he was relentless.

So relentless that these arrows seemed slow—

TWANG! TWANG! SWISH! SWISH!

Yvain wondered if even Burn couldn’t force him to awaken with that ruthless training, would this elf princess be able to do it with her arrows? Even now, her arrows seemed slow compared to Burn’s attack.

But… the closer he got, the sharper and faster the arrows came. Twenty feet toward the flag, and she started to shoot two arrows at a time. Now, it had become comparable to his usual training.

But not enough!

“I understand why it takes years for Force Art users to master their body. There is a pattern to it, but there’s too much of it,” Yvain muttered after he finished his training with Burn.

“Why? Vision arts don’t use patterns?” Burn asked.

“Patterns in Vision arts are created to control it. Originally, it’s a free expression of pure energy. Without patterns or… spells, you can still use your Vision,” Yvain said. “But there’s nothing but rules and patterns in Force Art.”

“That’s because you’re using your body. Imagine your body as a machine. A mechanism. It can only function with certain rules and patterns. That’s why you can only reprogram it.”

Using mana.

Spells were the same. They were designed to program Vision into an easier-to-control form. But Vision specialties, the strongest form of Vision art, came straight from the soul, thus it wasn’t a program—but something unexplainable. Something beyond the law of magic, or any rules or patterns.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Oh, Yvain couldn’t believe he was still so imprinted with the idea of Vision that he got another enlightenment in the middle of trying to awaken his Force.

Why was it so contradictory? Why were Vision and Force such opposites that he could only advance on one side and not the other?

It was so frustrating. So—

CLANG! SWISH! SWISH! STAB!

“Ugh!”

Yvain’s immediate reaction was almost to use his Vision to heal himself, but he managed to stop it. Thirty seconds left, with a deep stab wound in his left arm.

Drip—drip…

As his blood tainted the ground and the people around widened their eyes, unable to turn away, Yvain hit an epiphany. In the end, both Vision and Force had the same goal.

And that was to achieve perfection—in their own point of view.

Control perfection, and freedom perfection. Which was it? Freedom using the soul, the blessing of God, or control from mortality, the curse of God? Which was the true perfection?

The answer… was none.

Because God’s blessing was what God intended to create, not freedom. And God’s curse was human’s tool to create its own destiny, not control. The soul was God’s design, destiny. And the body was a human's achievements, choices.

Awakening—

The moment Yvain felt his body allow Mana to course through it, Yvain understood.

“He’s using his Force?!” The participants, shocked by Yvain’s sudden burst of energy, started quite a commotion. Even the other groups started to notice them.

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“Hah—” Yvain smiled, his entire body ecstatic. “So this—this is Force?”

Balance.

It wasn’t control, but balance. Maybe it was for others, but for him, it was just that. It was what he wanted, and what his body could handle. It was his intention, and his limits. This, was Force.

“You… just awakened?” Nahwu couldn’t believe her eyes. The boy who bribed his way to the test intentionally broke his protection spell to force awaken himself?

“Senior,” Yvain called her, making her flinch. He broke the arrow in half, not immediately pulling it out from his wounded arm. “Let’s continue the test.”

Nahwu gathered herself together and realized that this must be a farce. Was it possible for someone to awaken their Force in the middle of a test like this? The timing was so perfect it was fake! It must be!

He must've already awakened before and just performed this miraculous awakening!

Nahwu drew her bow—three arrows at a time. Releasing them to the air, she had imbued her own Force energy to control them from three different directions.

It was a fact that this boy was bribing the academy to enter the test. He was still cheating! Now, she mustn’t let him pass. She had to show him what real power was—not something a cheater could achieve!

“Princess Nahwu! What are you doing?!”

“Are you trying to kill him?!”

She heard the examiners yell at her from above, but she didn’t stop. The three arrows whistled through the air, creating a sharp sound so loud it could cut a limb off.

But Yvain—

SWISH! SWISH! CLANG!

One arrow down as he dodged the two and destroyed one. Yvain dashed forward faster than ever, while Nahwu drew her bow once more with more arrows, with her two arrows still in the air.

“How many arrows can you control, Senior?” Yvain smiled, and it looked like a mock to her. “I wonder—which one will be a feint—”

Nahwu shot another three and Yvain found his answer.

One arrow flew straight at him, which he struck with his sword, while the other two almost slipped away as they bent their direction past him, and he let them go, observing all four arrows in the air as one lost its energy, slowing and falling.

Three at a time?

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Yvain prepared himself to destroy all three within ten feet of the flag. Ten seconds left.

CLANG! CLANG! SLASH!

He was able to stop all three when he saw a shadow from above him—CLASH!

Nahwu swung her bow at him, but Yvain met her with his sword, clashing both weapons just as he managed to stop all three arrows from skewering him.

“The thing is—” Yvain raised his wounded arm toward his left backside.

STAB!

The fourth arrow lodged itself hard into his wound, and Nahwu couldn’t believe he saw it coming.

“—even without using his Force, my Papa’s feint is more intricate than this,” Yvain slipped away from Nahwu’s attack, slashing her bow in half.

Five seconds left. And Yvain walked leisurely toward the flag four feet away, pulling two arrows lodged in his arm as he did.

Thankfully he hadn’t pulled the first arrow out yet. The second arrow was fueled with Force, so without another arrow lodged there, it would pierce past his bone and flesh straight to his vitals.

It was a neat trick, letting him see that the fourth arrow had lost its energy and slowed, gradually falling, then distracting him with her melee attack using her bow, only to pierce him from behind.

Yvain pulled his scarf from his neck and tied his wound tight. He couldn’t heal himself with Vision now in front of everyone, but he didn’t know how to heal himself with Force yet.

“Ah! Young Lord Mossflower, can you teach me how to heal your wound with Force?” Yvain thought asking wouldn’t hurt, but then he realized that everyone was still frozen in shock.

Even the examiners above still had their jaws on the ground. It was complete silence—the other group's test paused, and all heads facing toward the red flag.

“W…”

“WOAAAAAHH!!”

“Sir Sator!”

“Whaaaaaaaaat?!”

When hundreds of teenagers saw something cool, they couldn’t wrap themselves around it, and just started cheering.

“What is this? A new Force genius emerged?” one of the examiners asked.

“We have to quickly take him under someone. But you said he’s from that Sator family?” the other said.

“Then, this would be difficult.”

“ATTENTION!”

As the lead examiner’s booming voice echoed within the stadium, everyone started to settle. Yvain breathed a sigh of relief after his body got the treatment of a dirty mattress being slapped, pushed, and hugged all around under the sunlight.

“Evan di Sator, you pass.”

The lead examiner, a man in his forties, announced. He continued, “Go to the infirmary and treat your wound.”

“Thank you, sir. I will excuse myself,” Yvain said, bowing politely and walking away clutching his arm. He thought to himself that he would just use his Vision when no one was watching and go to the Vision department’s test.

He was curious about how they tested their participants without them needing to awaken their Vision.

“Wait up~!”

Yvain had left the stadium, and was about to heal himself when he saw both the red-headed boy from earlier and Alan Mossflower following him.

“You…” Yvain looked at the red-headed boy, asking, “You haven’t taken the test yet. What are you doing here?”

“Like I said, why are you following…” Alan asked.

“What? You’re worried about me? Haha, don’t be,” the red-haired boy said.

“I was forced to come here anyway. Even if I don’t take the test or fail, my parents will still enroll me.”

Alan frowned, and Yvain raised his eyebrows.

“My name is Matthew Padparadscha. You see, my dad, Duke Padparadscha, and my mom, Princess Bianca, the headmaster of this school, will enroll me no matter what.”

Matthew laughed. “Basically, I have no choice.”