201 THE ALARM
Siphonia gave a small smirk, flicking her blade clean of blood with practiced ease. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"
Hanna's lips curled into a sly smile. "Only because I've been planning this for years."
Before Siphonia could retort, a sharp hand struck her back, a jolt of energy seizing her muscles. In an instant, her body locked up, unable to move.
"What should we do with her?" a voice asked, chilling in its calmness.
Siphonia's eyes widened as she recognized the voice—it was one of the Selection Brides. Slowly, her gaze swept across the room, and she realized with a sickening twist. All the selection brides were here. Every last one of them. They were all in on this.
"We should kill her, she's seen us", one of them suggested.
Hanna paused to think.
"No, leave her here," Hanna said, her tone cold as she examined the Codex once more. "When Gubana comes back and finds the stone missing, it'll be on her. She'll be the perfect scapegoat."
Siphonia's body was frozen. She struggled to speak, her voice hoarse as she managed, "Why… why are you doing this to me?"
Hanna's smile flickered with something dark and dismissive. "It's your fault to meddle in our plans. You saved us so much time. I was having trouble getting you involved. Lucky me," she said, before turning on her heel and walking away, leaving Siphonia alone in the cold silence.
----
"It's been far too long since I've had a real fight. Do you think it's so simple to take on a peak-tier Svad?" Gubana's voice boomed across the arena, his eyes gleaming with arrogance as he faced Leo.
Leo shrugged, unflinching. "Less talk, more action. Let's fight."
The sheer disparity in power was staggering. Under normal circumstances, Gubana's magic was hundreds, even thousands of times stronger than Leo's. Yet Leo's confidence didn't waver.
Gubana sneered. "I could crush a thousand of you without breaking a sweat."
"Then start with one," Leo shot back, his stance ready.
Above them, the sky over Eoloth darkened. Clouds swirled ominously, heavy with the weight of summoned magic.
"A storm is coming," murmured a soldier in the audience.
"No," another corrected, eyes wide. "That's the magic of a peak-tier Svad."
With a deafening crack, a bolt of lightning shot down toward Leo. He leapt to the side, the searing energy missing him by mere inches, leaving the air charged and crackling where he'd stood.
"All you can do is dodge?" Gubana growled, his irritation mounting. He raised his arms again, summoning another lightning bolt.
The lightning struck, but once more, Leo evaded, his movements impossibly quickly. Though his magical power was leagues below Gubana's, his speed and reflexes kept him one step ahead.
"A single bolt can miss," Gubana roared, "but let's see you escape a storm!"
Dozens of lightning bolts surged from the churning clouds, racing toward Leo. His nimble maneuvers faltered under the sheer onslaught, each strike coming closer to hitting its mark.
Suddenly, a low hum resonated across the arena.
The training field's magic array—a network of glowing sigils and metallic chains—activated. The chains rose into the air, intercepting the lightning bolts. Electricity coursed through the chains harmlessly before dissipating into the ground.
"What sorcery is this?" Gubana's voice thundered with disbelief. "How are you controlling our magic array?"
Lord Kabana, watching from the stands, leaned forward. "Didn't he break the array moments ago?"
"It must've repaired itself," Leo said, a sly grin spreading across his face.
Leo had hacked the array disabling it initially when the array was used against him. Now all he had to do was activate it again and direct the magic chains against the lightning storm.
"How did you hijack our magic array?" Kabana demanded, his gaze narrowing on Rabama.
Rabama raised his hands defensively. "I had nothing to do with this!" he insisted.
Nearby, Gubana stood motionless, his expression cold. The crackling energy in his hands surged with renewed intensity as he prepared another attack.
With a sharp gesture, Gubana unleashed a barrage of lightning bolts, their brilliance lighting up the arena. But Leo was ready.
Pulling up his control panel mid-motion, he accessed the array again. Metallic chains erupted from the ground, surging upward like coiled serpents. They intercepted the storm of lightning, redirecting the energy harmlessly into the earth.
The arena fell silent, save for the faint hum of the array resetting itself. Gasps rippled through the crowd with disbelief.
"Dammit," Leo muttered under his breath, his brow furrowed. "That was the last of it. The array's on the brink of collapse. I need to fucking end this now."
Straightening, he addressed Gubana. "Do you want to keep fighting, or risk breaking your precious magic array? You know as well as I do that its power source isn't infinite, and it doesn't belong to me—it's tied to your Eoloth family. Your call."
Gubana hesitated. His hands, once crackling with energy, lowered slowly. Continuing the fight would be futile. If Leo could manipulate the array so effortlessly, wasting more magic would accomplish nothing and break their valuable property.
Rabama stepped forward suddenly, his tone almost casual. "Uncle Gubana, we're just messing around. Lilleo's my friend, and this was nothing more than a friendly sparring match. Father overreacted, as usual, and dragged you into this unnecessarily."
Gubana turned to him, disbelief and anger flashing in his eyes. "Are you telling me this entire spectacle was some kind of prank?"
Rabama shrugged. "Not a prank. Just… an overreaction. You know how Father gets about these things."
Kabana sputtered, his face reddening as he jabbed a finger at his son. "I overreact? You brought this chaos into our home, and now you're blaming me?"
Gubana snorted, crossing his arms. "Kabana, are you a damn fool?"
The arena's tense atmosphere shifted, the once-imminent battle fizzling into an awkward standoff. A prank.
-----
"Hanna, where have you been?" Lord Kabana's voice echoed through the chamber, sharp with curiosity.
"I was tending to the wounded," Hanna replied evenly. "Do you need something from me? Why did they stop fighting?"
"No, nothing urgent. I just wanted to see you, they decided not to continue the pointless fighting," he said, his tone softening.
Suddenly, a loud alarm blared, reverberating through the Eoloth fortress.
"WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO!"
Gubana stiffened, his expression darkening. "What's going on?"