Scarlet

“By now I’m starting to question what the real purpose of this ascension tournament is,” Tar mutters, clearly understanding what I’m saying. “First it’s the void creatures from the Tower Defense competition. Then the dragon core you absorbed. And now a quiz that seems to be asking questions that aren’t known to the public. Or anyone, really.”

Yeah.

Not sure entirely what you mean by that dragon core though. Not that it matters right now.

Tell me about the core later, okay?

“Sure,” he says.

But the Fractures… maybe it’s similar to the hypothesis but different? That the System initiated the Fractures in preparation for the void invasion?

“Maybe?” Tar answers. “Wouldn’t the others think of that too though?”

As if on cue, another team buzzes, and another team gets it wrong.

Then maybe instead of the System initiating the Fractures in preparation for the void invasion, it initiated it in preparation for the Voided Overlord?

No, that’s not really much different.

Another team buzzes, and right as I’m expecting them to get the usual red glow, they glow green instead and a spotlight shines on them. The team in question actually being Leonidas and his fae Elara’s team.

My eyes narrow before I decide to just go ahead and try out my answer, buzzing myself before answering, “The System initiated the Fractures in preparation for the void invasion.”

And I find the red light immediately shining without Nyx even saying anything. Then our booth goes dark again, with Tar’s buzzer being the only one still glowing with a very faint light.

Damn. Wasn’t correct.

“Wait, what if…” Tar mutters, sounding like he’s figured something out.

Go ahead if you think you’ve got it.

He hesitates for a moment before reaching out with his paw and tapping the buzzer, making the light shine again before he answers out loud, “The System drove the universe into beginning the Fractures to prepare for the invasion.”

This time a green light shines on us, giving me a very pleasant surprise.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Nice job!

“Thank you,” Tar says while sitting up straight with a little pride on his face. A posture that has me almost laughing.

But I hold myself back as I begin to wait for the rest of the time to go by. A process that actually takes the entire five minutes, since about a fourth of the teams, in the end, don’t manage to answer the question correctly. With one team not even using up both of their guesses.

“Out of forty teams, twenty-nine managed to answer the question correctly, so you will all be given ten points,” Nyx answers in a monotone voice. “And by the end of the competition, whoever answered correctly first the most across the ten questions will win first place. So please do try to answer quickly.”

Hmm.

The audience is going wild right now, although a lot of it seems to be about what was just discovered. That the System did technically start the Fractures originally.

“To be clear about that last question, the System did start off the Fractures, but it wasn’t the System actually behind making the Fractures themselves,” Nyx answers a lot of the competitor’s unasked questions. “All the System did was initiate a process that would’ve started the moment the void invasion began. But that would’ve been too late, so I had the System give a little push to the universe to start the process early.”

I frown at her words. Not what she said, but how she said it.

Just something about it feels odd.

But I don’t get much time to think on it before she goes ahead and asks the next question, “Moving onto the next question. What magic runs the System?”

I frown.

Huh?

Everyone’s booths go dark again as we’re all left to answer the question.

It doesn’t take long before someone tries to answer though, following which a red light shines on them and their booth goes dark again. Proving that they got it wrong.

Hmm. And how exactly are we going to know the answer to this?

“Well, all fae use spirit magic,” Tar answers. “But the Fae Ruler has the power to use every type of magic. So if I had to guess, the one who got it wrong likely guessed spirit magic.”

Okay, that sounds like a good hypothesis. But then how are we supposed to guess which magic makes up the System… especially due to how powerful the System itself is. Just what singular magic could… make something… like that…

Wait a second.

“What is it?” Tar asks, looking up at me from his seat next to me.

I share a glance with him before staring at the buzzer for several seconds.

Hey, Tar?

“Yeah?” he asks.

Do you remember Amelia’s father? And, of course, Denise?

“Yeah- oh, wait, you’re referring to their magics, right?” Tar asks, quickly catching onto what I’m putting out.

Yep. My grandfather on Amelia’s side of the family has that special magic called eclipse magic. Which is both destruction and creation magic. And Denise has her inferno magic, which is both fire and ice.

So I’m betting that the magic composing the System is also like that. Where it’s more than one in a single magic.

In which case, we just have to-

Tar presses the buzzer, surprising me before he answers, “Eclipse magic.”

And just like that, his buzzer turns green and the spotlight shines over us, marking our answer as correct.

I awkwardly stare at the buzzer in front of me for a few seconds before glancing at Tar, who once again looks proud of himself.

Eventually I just start petting his head while focusing on the other competitors.

Guess it makes sense that the System would have creation and destruction magic…

Although, that does make me wonder.

Just what sort of magic do you think Titania specialized in herself, if she specialized in one? Was it eclipse magic as well?

Or something else?