Manifest War: The Weapons Within

On the opposite side of the dilapidated arena, Mariah began her fierce battle against Linus. He extended his arm as he stepped forward, exerting his Core Energy with a chilly burst.

“Come forth, Dio and Sol!” He yelled as his arm glowed a bright white color that traced along multiple lines and symbols. Suddenly, two large white and blue wolves appeared next to him. Linus gave them a gentle pat on the head before looking at Mariah.

“Sic em!”

With a single howl, they accelerated towards Mariah while snarling and leaving behind a trail of frosty ice. Mariah ignited her spear and swung it at Dio, striking his snout and sending him backwards. However, within her single swing, Sol maneuvered to Mariah's blind spot and bit her on the back.

The oversized wolf sunk her sharp fangs deep into Mariah’s shoulder, causing her to yell out in pain. Mariah quickly ignited herself in flames and shook Sol off, forcing her to back away. Mariah gripped her bleeding shoulder and grimaced from the pain radiating through her arm.

‘Damn it, how did that one even get behind me? I never sensed its presence.’

She quietly gathered herself and focused on the two wolves circling her, growling deeply with each step. Mariah clutched her Manifest and intense flames began rushing out of it. The heat emanating from her was absurd, causing even the tiles to melt and buckle from the temperature. Dio and Sol slowly backed away even further, whimpering and barking as though pleading for her to stop.

“What’s she doing? Is she trying to cook us alive?” Linus muttered with great annoyance, starting to sweat profusely from the sudden change in temperature.

Moments later, Mariah dashed forward with a fiery vengeance and swung at Linus with her Manifest. Linus swiftly leapt upwards to dodge the attack, but once he landed, Linus noticed that he was now separated from his creature Manifests by a massive, circular wall of fire.

“Now it’s just me and you, babe!” Mariah yelled with a confident smile, her plan to isolate him working out perfectly. Linus scowled as he got to his feet, but once he steadied himself he began to feel a bit lightheaded. The surrounding heat levels had now risen to impossible heights and it was beginning to disrupt Linus’ ability to concentrate.

‘Tch, what the hell kind of ability is this!? If she keeps this up, she could kill someone!’’

Linus continued to drip sweat all over the ground as he panted heavily, slowly losing the strength to stand. He dropped to one knee and started seeing double images, however in the knick of time, his two wolf companions leapt through the flame wall and hopped in front of Linus to provide protection.

When the wolves landed, Sol and Dio started to howl loudly. Their fur glowed bright blue until a huge burst of cold energy shot out of their bodies, causing Mariah’s flames to be completely extinguished. The area was now icy and covered in thick frost.

“What!? There’s no way!” Mariah exclaimed, shocked that her intense flames were put out so easily. Linus wiped the sweat from his forehead as he got to his feet and sent Mariah another cheeky smile in the process.

“Great job guys! This is much more like it.”

Linus happily gave Dio and Sol gentle scratches under their chins, making sure to show his appreciation in full.

Strangely, once he ended his show of affection, another of the twelve runes on the floor briefly glowed a subtle, light blue hue. Linus and Mariah looked over with confused expressions until the rune turned back to normal. It was as though his Manifest had activated or triggered something unknown.

‘What was that?’

Mariah cocked her head to the side until Linus began to speak up with a confident voice.

“Anyways... Now, where were we?”

Dio and Sol growled deeply at Mariah as they resumed their original positions, circling her in a cautious manner. Mariah skillfully spun her spear around and eventually aimed it at them. They dashed towards each other and clashed, continuing their match in dramatic fashion.

Bridgette and Carmen were locked in battle, but similar to their previous fight, things were incredibly one sided. Carmen had been on the defensive for this entire fight, trying to block or dodge Bridgette’s constant barrage of sandy rocks and stone pillars. Carmen’s movements weren’t as graceful as usual either, since she was still bothered by her previous blunder against Olivia. No matter how hard she tried, Carmen was unable to shake the constant negative thoughts attacking her mind.

“Why are you just running? This is so boring…” Bridgette said, sending a near endless volley of rocks and boulders at her. Carmen annoyingly glared back and tried to find an opening. She used her gravity manipulation to send some rocks flying and bolted closer to Bridgette, thinking she had finally found her moment.

“You have got to be kidding me…”

Great disappointment came across Bridgette's face as a stone pillar flew up from under Carmen, striking her in the stomach with devastating speed and force. Carmen had fallen for the exact same trap she fell for in their first duel.

She gasped for air as she was sent upwards into the broken ceiling, spit flying out of her mouth. Carmen eventually fell down and landed face first on the floor, her body bruised and scuffed already.

“You couldn’t possibly have gotten weaker since our last fight. There’s just no way… You sounded so confident before, what happened?”

Bridgette was in disbelief that this fight was going so easily. She hadn't been challenged at all in this midterm and she hoped that this match would be the one that could cure her boredom. Unfortunately that wasn't the case as Carmen slowly got to her trembling feet, panting heavily and gripping her stomach tightly.

‘Ugh, c’mon Carmen, get your head in the game! You can’t change what happened eariler, so just make a move already!’

Carmen shook her head and tried to focus up. She forcefully held her Manifest upwards and exerted her Core Energy. Her body glowed a deep purple as the sky started to darken. The once yellow light peaking through the open ceiling, was now completely shrouded in purple darkness.

‘Hmm, this is the move she tried to use during our first duel. I wonder what it does.'

Bridgette braced herself and assumed a more defensive position for the first time this battle, cautiously awaiting her opponent's next move.

Suddenly, an unreal amount of gravitational force was thrust upon their immediate area. The ground cracked and crumbled as the weight within Carmen’s gravity field grew to incredible heights. Once the gravity reached Bridgette, she was immediately forced down to one knee.

‘Tch, I guess she isn’t as useless as I thought she was.’

Bridgette sneered as she tried to lift her arm, struggling to fight against the terrifying amount of gravitational weight on her body.

Once Carmen finished activating her Manifest’s special ability, she gripped it tightly and rushed towards Bridgette with a newfound speed. Carmen reached her location in record time and started sending a volley of rapier jabs at Bridgette, not holding back on her strength at all.

After a few of her blows connected, Bridgette was knocked backwards multiple meters. She tumbled and rolled against the floor as the gravity continued to press her downwards.

Bridgette slowly lifted her head and mustered enough strength to raise her right arm, aiming her palm at Carmen while she prepared for her next round of rapier attacks. Carmen raced towards Bridgette, but suddenly felt the ground shake all around her. She slightly stumbled and looked down, now noticing the cracks quickly filling with sand.

Before she could even think to retaliate, sand burst forth from every hole, crevice, and crack around her. A literal sea of sand rushed towards her with a violent pursuit, as though it were angered from the harm she had caused Bridgette.

‘How the heck is her sand moving through my gravity field!? That’s not possible!’

Carmen had no words while she tried to get out of the way, but the sand moved too quickly for her to dodge. The earthy wave crashed down and swallowed her whole, immediately ending her Manifest’s ability and releasing Bridgette from the gravity’s immense hold.

The sand slowly receded and revealed Carmen laying on the ground, gripping her arm tightly and grimacing from the pain. Bridgette simply stood by with a slight smirk, crossing her arms and patiently waiting for Carmen to get back up.

‘This is impossible. How do I even beat someone like her? Do I finally reveal my second affinity?’

Carmen looked at her arm as she slowly got to her feet, and began weighing her options.

‘Guess I don’t have much of a choice, do I? I really wanted to keep this under wraps for a bit longer, but at this point I don’t really care anymore. People are going to treat me differently regardless if they know about me being a dual type or not.’

Carmen tightened her fist and noticed that her hand was completely numb at this point, a side effect from using her Manifest’s special ability. However, this realization didn’t stop her from forcing out her Core Energy. Within a few seconds, she began glowing a deep black color as a sinister amount of energy pulsed from her body.

‘What? Did her energy pattern just change? But how?’

Bridgette looked perplexed as to how her opponent shifted their power in such a way.

Carmen slowly knelt down and placed her palm onto the ground. A black shadow formed around her hand, growing and pulsing with great intensity. The shadow slowly shifted into a black inky liquid with needles emerging from it. From a distance it looked as though black blades of grass were growing from Carmen’s shadow.

“Wait, what!? That’s not Void energy!” Bridgette exclaimed, stunned by the sudden change of Carmen’s abilities. However, before this unknown power was fully revealed, the ground beneath them glowed brightly. The entire arena started to brutally shake, knocking everyone to the ground.

Seconds later, the giant circle in the center of the arena started rotating. The twelve runes adorned on the floor lit up brightly, each symbol shining a different color one after the other. Then the final rune glowed a deep black color, causing the circle to make a loud unlocking noise.

As soon as it finished, a blinding beam of white light shot from the center and engulfed the entire arena. Both teams were completely stunned by the light and unable to stand as the ground continued to shake violently.

Great panic took place inside of the royal viewing room as instructors and coordinators scrambled. They were desperately trying to figure out what caused a sudden spike in Core Energy.

“Sir! The plane we’re using in the Core Depths is becoming unstable! Core Energy is shifting too rapidly.” One of the coordinators exclaimed with great concern, trying to keep up with all of the negative readings racing across his hologram screen.

“What do you mean?! How bad is it?!” Headmaster Quinn asked, his face filled with fear and worry.

Everyone in the room looked on as the many holograms around the room went blank, losing their connection to the Core Depths. Azhane caught a glimpse of a screen with Carmen, taking notice of the massive white light and crumbling ruins in the middle of their fight. She quickly stood up, sensing that something was terribly wrong.

“Sir! We need to get the students out now! Once the plane collapses, we won’t be able to transport them out!” Another instructor said, looking at a simulation of the Core Depths falling apart.

“Well, get them out of there! End the exam this instant!”

“Headmaster Quinn, take me to the portal.” Azhane suddenly said with great authority.

“Oh Your Majesty, we can handle this. No need to dirty your hands.”

The Headmaster nervously laughed as he motioned for her to take a seat. Azhane stared coldly at him with her vivid red eyes, feeling extremely annoyed by his words.

“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. Don’t make me repeat myself…”

Azhane’s voice had zero patience and the coldness of her tone sent shivers down his spine. The room went quiet as everyone looked at the Queen with great surprise. Headmaster Quinn cleared his throat nervously before nodding.

“Ah y-yes, my apologies. Right this way, Your Majesty.”

They quickly made their way to the lower chambers, eventually ending up at the Grand LaVeda portal. When they approached the double doors, Azhane pressed her fingers onto the crystal pendant around her neck. Immediately, her casual dress changed into an intricate black, combat outfit with a cape donning the Belouis crest.

“Felicity, assist the school with getting students out safely. I’ll go and get Carmen.” Azhane demanded as she adjusted one of her black leathery gloves.

“As you command, Your Majesty.” Felicity replied with a deep bow. Azhane stepped through the golden portal and disappeared from the room.

Meanwhile, the blinding light continued as the wind blew heavily from the circle. Moments later, the students began to feel an ungodly amount of Core Energy leak out from the center.

“Just what is that!?” Mariah yelled out, feeling terrified by the amount of energy radiating towards them. Sol and Dio whimpered loudly before unsummoning themselves, returning to Linus’ body out of sheer fear. The light finally started to fade, revealing something quite peculiar within the middle of the circle.

Standing there was a woman with a fairly petite build. She looked to be in her late thirties, her pale skin having no wrinkles or visible blemishes besides a tiny mole under her right eye. Her short hair was jet black and perfectly cut, the bangs impossibly even as they sat above her gray eyes.

Curiously, she wore a simple, knee length white dress with long sleeves and exposed shoulders. Besides her otherworldly entrance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary about her.

The woman began to stretch her arms above her head, as though she had just woken up from a comfortable nap. After she yawned deeply and got accustomed to her new locales, the whole arena became incredibly silent. Everyone marveled at this mysterious woman’s power, having never felt this much Core Energy before.

Once Carmen got a good look at the woman, she suddenly started having an all too familiar headache and reaction. Images of the Boundless raced through her consciousness as her head pounded and pulsed with pain.

‘What? Why am I having these headaches again!? Didn’t Homura fix this?’

She grimaced and winced while she gripped her forehead from the pain. The woman looked around the arena until fixing her gaze onto Carmen, noticing the negative reaction she was having. As soon as their eyes met, the woman smiled deviously, sending a terrifyingly grim shiver down Carmen’s spine.