2 HOURS UNTIL LOCK LEAGUE.
(Kai's bedroom)
[Kai, are you okay?]
"..."
[I think we should stop here.]
"No, not yet."
[But Kai…]
Alpha couldn't help but feel pity for her master, his hands were covered in blood, and even with the aid of the health potions, the room's bed was still drenched with his blood.
Kai's fingernails had long since broken off; his eyes were lifeless as he struggled to stay awake.
"One more time."
Kai fixed the thin threads of the seamstress's vesper onto his tattered hand gloves. Moving his hands up and down gently, a pattern began to form at the centre of the entanglement.
This was the pattern of a flame-type ability, and all he needed to do was weave it.
"Maybe I'm not getting something right?" Kai said, his words muffled.
[I think that's enough you have to go to school, or you might miss the league.]
"Why? Why can't I do it?"
The strange pattern began to break, and as the last string sparked and tore off, Kai flew to the edge of his bed, crashing into the wall.
Kai raised his gaze to meet another failed attempt. As he stood to grab hold of the strings and maybe try again, his body trembled, and then an unbearable pain surged through him, making his stomach twist.
Gripping his aching stomach tightly, he heard Alpha's voice filled with concern ring in his head.
[Kai, don't move; you're having a mana recoil.]
'Damnit.' Kai thought as his vision became blurry, his heart ached and blood rushed out of his mouth.
He was in the worst condition he could have been before a major match.
[Just stabilise your breathing for now and leave the rest to me.]
Adhering to Alpha's words, Kai began practising the arcane breathing technique over and over again. Soon a cool sensation enveloped him, making his tense bones release.
"Thanks, Alpha."
[....]
Alpha didn't know how to reply to Kai; she had never seen him fail at something after putting in the effort, but she weirdly had a feeling she had somewhere.
[You are welcome, but for now, let's prepare for the league.]
"Yeah, we are late, aren't we?" Kai said, resting his bare back on the cold wall of his room.
He exhaled as he stood up and headed for the shower; today was going to be the most stressful day of his life.
'Maybe I can continue it later.' He thought, staring at the sliver strings piled beside his bed, he was tempted to go back... but not now.
Around an hour ago the academy uploaded all details regarding the league and the first matchups to the NSA; maybe seeing his first matchup was the reason he didn't train or care much, but he still didn't let his guard down, not even a bit.
Soon Kai was done wearing his clothes since today was a Monday; all students usually wore different uniforms from other days.
Male students wore grey shirts instead of their usual white ones, and female students wore black.
Kai picked up a new set of gloves and a pocket watch he found inside Kaiser Vanguard's belongings.
And left the castle heading straight for the highest building in Noctis Academy: 'Xianan'.
*******
Xianan wasn't a building that housed any class or dorm; it was built solely for training and exams – midterms, finals, the portal gate used for outside missions – all that was located in Xianan.
And Kai thought it was magnificent. It wasn't like other buildings that were part glass, part brick.
The Xianan building was completely made out of glass, and not just any glass – the most durable glass found in the corpse of a tier 5 drifter.
And just to make it clear, there have only been seven sightings of a tier 5 drifter; three were killed, and two still roam outside the domes.
As Kai walked up to the garden that served as the entrance to Xianan, he heard a voice ring from right behind him.
"Can't you hear me?"
Kai slowly turned to face the figure who rushed over to him.
Stopping just a few meters behind him, Cordelia panted as she took in as much air as she could.
"Why didn't you wait?" She asked; her voice cracked.
"I didn't hear you."
She raised her gaze, meeting Kai's, and shook her head in disapproval. "You look like shit."
Kai sighed. "I know."
******
The Xianan building had a total of ten thousand floors if you include the pocket world that could be entered through the elevator, and the floor they were heading to was floor 1738, where the league would take place.
According to ICUWSA, the floors of the Xianan building were as large as a city, sometimes even making navigation almost impossible without a trained guide.
But the same didn't apply to Kai, who had Alpha in his head; he could enter or leave as he pleased, but he wasn't ready to expose his greatest trump card, not even to Cordelia.
A man who wore a tight purple shirt with black jeans walked up to the students who stood right after the automatic door at the entrance.
"Batch 37, follow me."
As the man spoke with his base voice, all the students, including Kai, followed.
The man made two turns to the left and another to the right before he found the elevator and soon boarded.
The ascension was rather short since the elevator moved nearly at the speed of lightning, if not faster, but no one inside could feel the shift in momentum.
And before they realised it, they were on the 1738th floor.
The floor was pure white like not even the largest amount of dirt could stain it.
The walls and the floor were made of the same material; it wasn't anything that Kai had seen before, so he instantly knew it was a byproduct of a drifter.
"Wow," Kai muttered.
The guide turned and quickly glanced at Kai before smiling.
"It's amazing, isn't it? It always finds a way to surprise me."
As the guide continued his reminiscing, a voice rang from the back of the students, who numbered close to 30.
"It must be too much for a commoner."
Another slightly crooked voice chorused. "This will likely be his last day seeing something so great."
Loud chatter and laughter soon erupted from the crowd; Cordelia, feeling furious, turned to voice her concern but was stopped by Kai's hands.
"What?" She asked, glancing at the hand that grasped her wrist gently.
"Please don't; I prefer not drawing attention on the first day."
Cordelia hesitated for a moment before sighing. "Ok."
Kai released his grasp before observing the large hall once more.
Sixty doors lay around the circular hall, each with its distinct colours, and three extra doors that seemed out of place.
Kai immediately understood what this meant: the sixty teams that were formed from the two hundred and ninety-nine surviving students had doors that were located at different corners; one of the odd doors was most likely where the stage of each match would happen.
The second door was where professors and other high-ranking people who wanted to watch the league live would likely stay, and then the last door was black with a symbol of a raven on it.
'They had to make mine not only odd but extremely small.'
[At least we have a room.]
Kai smiled slightly before facing the guide; the students were still waiting for their next set of orders.
Clearing his voice, the guide spoke up, his tone commanding. "Today will mark the first day of the league, and as such, all students are going to go through an evaluation process to determine their trait rank and the amount of mana they possess." He paused, pointing at the white door that had glowing LED lighting at its edges. "You will all advance into the lock room and go through the evaluation."
Murmurs started but were soon silenced by the man's next set of words. "Note: if you rank too low even if you have made it this far, you will be disqualified."
The once cheerful students were suddenly filled with panic.
They thought that they had survived, but another hurdle still stood in front of them.
Cordelia turned to face Kai only to see him just as panicked as the other students.
But his reasons for panic were different.
He had a high trait; no, even more than that, he had the highest rank a trait could have. He even possessed not just a title but a celestial code, and with the aid of the elixir of immortality, his mana pool was far more than any apprentice's.
Isn't that meant to be a good thing? No, far from it.
Revealing such information would ruin his plan of making the whole league underestimate him before coming back with a banger and ranking first place.
But this had completely disrupted his plans.
Unconsciously, he muttered. "Shit."