In the dead of night in a room shrouded in darkness two men at opposite ends of a table one wearing all black was sitting and sweating profusely while the other chose to stand while baring a cold expression on his face. “I’ll ask you one more time, did I or did I not give you the simple task of retrieve the black fairy from a sleeping boy?”, the man standing asked. “Y-yes that’s, that’s correct…”, immediately the one sitting was cut off. “Oh, good I wasn’t mistaken, so why do we not have a black fairy?”, he asked tone remaining cold. Desperate and scared the man in black explained, “It-it was that doctor she’s protecting the kid, no matter what I did when I was in her presence I-I couldn’t move it was like I was frozen with fear.” The man standing spoke again voice remaining cold as ice yet one look into his eyes and you can see the rage behind them, “So your saying that your fear over a single lady is more important than loyalty to the Quarus kingdom?” The man in black’s eyes went wide with fear and tried to speak but the one standing in the blink of an eye went the man in black’s end and put his hand over his mouth making him unable to talk. “I don’t think you truly understand what happened I directly gave you a mission. When doing that I believed you understood that taking on this mission meant completing it or die trying. Seeing as you did neither the only logical explanation is that you disobeyed a direct order from me the archduke, the one noble in this kingdom that has as much power as the king himself, to disobey me is to turn betray our very kingdom.” Quickly the man in black removed the others hand and spoke with more fear and desperation in his voice than ever, “No your wrong I would die for this kingdom, I would die for you! There’s I wouldn’t do if it meant this kingdom’s future!” The man standing put his finger to his chin then spoke, “Do you really mean that?”, the archduke asked. “Yes, of course!”, the man in black said. “Hmm alright then.”, the archduke said with a chuckle before turning around, “If you're so eager… then die.” Immediately the man sittings arms quickly went limp as silence fell over the room, blood began to drip down to floor followed by his head roll to the feet of the archduke. “Utter waste.”, he said as kicked the dismembered head across the room hitting the wall with a splat. Outside another man stood waiting, “We put together the squad you requested sire.”, the messenger said bowing his head. The archduke smirked, “Good tell them we're going through with the mission. ”
The next day came and went without incident true Claire’s words Ren and Noir both slept for the entire day. Whether to make sure they were both well rested or to make sure stress wouldn’t overcome them, either way with day of fate here all Ren and Noir do is have faith in themselves and everything they did for the past year in preparation for today.
As the sun shined through the window Ren and Noir began to stir to life. Giving a big yawn Noir awoke. As he looked at Ren and he noticed his new haircut when he asked Ren quickly explained how he woke up in the middle of the night and ran into Claire. “Yeah, I get it this whole thing is stressful for me too.”, Noir responded. “How about we get some practice in before tomorrow.”, Noir proposed to Ren. Suddenly the door opened, “I’m afraid we don’t have time that.”, said Claire walking in with a tray of food. “Eat up you two today’s the big day.”, she said passing the tray to them. “What are you talking about?”, Noir asked. “Well, you two actually slept through the whole day yesterday, so the exam is actually today.”, Claire explained casually. “WHAT!!”, Ren and Noir exclaimed, “How did this happen?”, Ren asked. “Well, you two were stressed so I used a little magic to help you sleep.”, Claire explained. Ren and Noir still looked at each other with a subtle look of shock, "Didn't realize life magic could control people too.", Ren said. “That's all life magic is, control over life essence.", Claire explained, "Alright lesson over, everyone up to speed? Good so eat up and get ready we gotta move.”
Ren and Noir quickly ate their breakfast and caught up to Claire waiting at a balcony room, “Looks like you two are ready, how do the clothes fit you by the way?”, Claire asked. Ren moved his body around seeing how it felt then, “Fits great and I can move really well in it.” A hint of a satisfied smile crept across Claire’s face, “Glad to hear it, it’s important for when taking these exams to have clothes that fit you well without hindering movement.” Claire stared out at the early morning sky for moment before heading towards the exit as Ren put Noir on his shoulder and followed.
Claire walked through the castle as Ren followed, they went through empty hallways and rooms for what seemed like no end until they arrived at a large pair of doors that when opened revealed set of stairs that spiraled downwards into a dark void. They all stood there for a moment and in the distance, they heard what sounded like footsteps coming from below. “This as far as I go.”, Claire spoke. Ren couldn't help but get lost in the darkness that stared at him, 'Was I really ready? What if I fail?', he thought. Suddenly he felt Claire's hand on his shoulder causing all the stress to vanish from him, "Hey you're gonna be fine. Just relax and remember your training." With a last boost of confidence Ren descended down the stairs with Noir still on his shoulder. Ren walked down the stairs for what seemed like ages with his only source of light being the flickering flames of the torches along the wall. Finally, he reached the bottom with the only path forward being a simple wooden door. With a deep breath Ren opened the door and was greeted to a big open area with dozens of men and women waiting as well. Ren looked around and couldn’t believe how many people were here, these people were all different in some sort of way from their hair, skin color, or height but they were all here for the exam just like Ren. Seeing how diverse the people here to put Ren at ease knowing that these people were just like him.
Suddenly a loud boom came from the front of the room causing everyone to look in that direction to find a pedestal with a man standing on top of it. A purple light started to glow next to him as he spoke with a loud voice. “Testing, testing, 1, 2, ok. Hello everyone and welcome to the Qarus Kingdom’s Knight Exam, before we begin, allow me to explain a few things to you. This exam is held once a year and is intended to find the best of the best our kingdom has to offer in order to protect our people. Which is why out all of the 3,065 candidates we only accept the top 100...” As he said that murmurs were heard throughout the room, ‘3,065 candidates…’, Ren thought to himself, ‘only 100 of them pass.’ As he contemplated that another thought popped into his head as he looked around, ‘There can’t possibly be that many people in this room.’ The man at the top continued speaking, “Now let us begin, as some of you may have guessed we will not actually be holding the exam here you all shall be sent to the real exam sight in 10, 9…”, as he started counting Ren noticed a beam of light coming out from beneath his feet as a magic circle formed around him, everyone around him noticed as well, some tried to move out of the circles way but the circle just followed him. “5,4…”, the man continued counting, Ren suddenly realized that he’s seen something like this before when he met the king and realized what was about to happen. “2, 1”, as the countdown finished everyone including him vanished from the room in an instant.
Suddenly Ren found himself in a large, forested area surrounded on all sides by large dark trees that seemed to stretch all the way to the heavens. Looking around more Noir pointed out that a few other people can be seen through the trees all of them as confused as he and Ren were. Suddenly a loud ringing came out of nowhere grabbing everyone’s attention. A voice different from the previous one spoke, “As we were saying before here is where you all shall be taking your exam. In order to get a good understanding of your skills, you all shall compete in this expansive area and widdle down the candidates until we have only 100. In this area you will find 8 unique biomes from the blazing desert to the freezing tundra as well as a few other surprises. Now the rules are as follows this exam consists of 3,065 candidates as you know and will not stop until we reach 100 survivors, if it takes a month to do so, so be it. A candidate is eliminated when it is deemed impossible for them to continue, give up of their own choosing, or are about to die, once eliminated they will immediately be teleported out of the area. The only other rule is no use of magic items unless you enchanted them yourself, we have a panel of judges watching you all very closely you won’t be able to hide anything from us.” Suddenly Ren saw something glow in the corner of his eye as he looked, he saw the ground another candidate was standing on start to glow, and in an instant vanished. These people were serious they really do see everything. The voice continued to speak, “Other than that anything goes use any tactic you can think of to be one of the 100 remaining people brawling, traps, deception, even stealth. We don't want the strongest we are looking for the best.” ‘If everyone resorts to hiding though this trial might go on forever.’, Ren thought to himself. “Alright now let the exam commence ready…”, the voice shouted. Noir looked around saw that two people were staring at them, “Uh Ren”, Noir said poking his partner trying to grab his attention unfortunately Ren was too distracted by the announcement. “Set!”, the voice continued, as Noir looked again around, he saw the glow of a fairy next to each of them getting brighter and brighter. “Reeeeen!”, Noir said again this time pulling on his ear, as he began to glow as well feeding Ren magic.
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“GO!”, the voice rang out louder than ever. Ren finally heard Noir’s pleads and saw the two other candidates as they fired off their magic at him at the same time. One was a large blast of icicles that flew through the air going straight through trees, while the other split the ground his feet as it rapidly approached Ren and Noir. Without a second to think Ren immediately used the magic Noir gave him and jumped at high speeds out of the way of both attacks landing himself in a tree several meters tall. He escaped only by a hair a moment later and probably would’ve failed the exam after the first second. One thing to Ren and Noir became very clear though if they want to survive, they can’t let their guards down even for a moment.
The knights exam has started and all across the trial grounds the sound of fighting can be heard. Some were fighting head on, some were laying traps, and others opted for hiding. Their approaches were different but all of them had the same goal, being one of the 100 remaining participants and becoming a knight.
As Ren looks down at the battleground as a fight between several candidates start to take place. Suddenly a candidate leapt straight at Ren tackling him out of the tree before they hit the ground Ren broke free of the guys hold, punching him several feet away, and landing on his feet. After he landed a girl with a sword ran straight at him slashing at him, Ren blocked the attack then jumped back, her sword then started to glow as it turned into several knives that she threw straight at him. Thinking fast Ren put his hands to the ground making a wall of ice catching all the knives. Ren sent the ice wall ramming right into her sending her flying, before she could even hit the ground she vanished. Just then two guys on opposite ends charged towards Ren one with his hands on fire and the other with lightning coming off him. Just before they reached Ren, he jumped into the air causing both of them hit each other instead. In the air Ren focused his magic into the ground as the ground opened up swallowing the two candidates, as the hole in the ground closed up the candidates started to glow until the hole closed up completely. Ren then opened up the hole seeing no trace of them and no blood either causing Ren to breathe a sigh of relief. Just then more and more explosions happened around them as more candidates started joining in the fight. He turned to Noir and said to him, “Let’s get out of here.” After saying that he jumped onto a tree branch and jumped from tree to tree quickly vanishing from the current battlefield.
Elsewhere in an observation a group of people wearing goggles sit focused intently on monitors just then they started speaking one after another, “Candidate 265 eliminated.”, “Candidate 1947 disqualified.”, “Candidate 221, 154, and 989 eliminated.” They continued listing off people as Claire and King Tyrell along with their fairies look at their own monitor. “Candidates are dropping one after another as usual.”, Tyrell commented. “These are the small fries, the more skilled candidates won’t drop out for a couple hours maybe even a full day.”, Claire responded. “True but you have to admit this year’s group looks extremely promising I mean when was the last time we saw this much mayhem right at the start.”, Tyrell responded. A smile crept across Claire’s face as she said, “Not for a decade or two that’s for sure.”
Just then a little boy in flashy clothes jumped in between them, “Calm down lady we still have who knows how long to go before this exam’s over don’t get too excited right at the start.”, the boy spoke with an enthusiastic and honeyed voice. “Caesar what are you doing here?”, Tyrell asked in a surprised by his sudden appearance. “The archduke sent me you absolute waste of space king!”, Caesar said with a fullhearted smile on his face. Lord Tyrell immediately went into a fetal position, “Come on man can you at least try to fix this ego problem you are the king after all.”, Treven said annoyed at his partner’s childish nature. “Anyway, why does the archduke care about the knights exam?”, Claire continued. “Come now this is a big moment for a lot of people a lot of noblemen’s children are taking part this year.”, Caesar paused for a moment and continued, “Oh yeeeah. Don’t you two have a kid or two taking part this year including the protégé of yours with the black fairy.” This statement caused both Claire and Tyrell to instantly get serious. “I wonder how their doing, why don’t we check on them?”, Caesar said his hand creeping closer to the monitor the two were watching. “Oh, sorry you can’t use this one.”, Tyrell said before punching the monitor shattering it, “It’s broken.” Tyrell said staring daggers at Caesar. “Geez no need to be hostile if you want me to leave just say so.” Caesar starts to head towards the room’s exit slowly facing towards them, “Well I’ll be off now. I just came to see how the exam was progressing.” Before he exited the room he stopped and said, “The archduke gets what he wants always doesn’t matter if it’s money, land, or even people. It doesn't matter that you’re the king.” with that he left the room leaving Claire and Tyrell with nothing but nerves. “Someone get me another monitor!”, Tyrell screamed. “Be careful Ren the archduke’s going to make his move soon.”, Claire said.
Two hours have passed, and the mayhem of the exam starts to slowly die down, out of the 3,065 candidates about 1,300 have already been eliminated. Somewhere in the forest biome Ren is seen running through the trees in pursuit of something. “Ren do you have any idea where we’re going?”, Noir asked. “Yes, I need to find a place to survey the land.”, Ren replied. “As it stands right now, we have no information about this area, so the best bet is to find a place high up to see as much of the battleground as possible.”, he continued. “Ok that makes sense but where are we going then?”, Noir asked. Instead of asking Ren pointed in a direction. Noir followed his finger and saw a giant tree that reaches several miles into the sky. “This is probably a bad idea you know that.”, Noir said in protest. “Maybe, but it’s our best bet.”, Ren said. Ren starts picking up speed until he runs at highspeed.
As Ren gets closer to the tree suddenly an arrow came out of no where piercing his leg, causing him to turn into tumble as crashes into a nearby tree with all the speed he built up. “Ren are you ok?!”, Noir asked startled. Ren slowly got up as his leg wobbles trying to get to his feet, “Y-yeah I just need a minute, and some magic.”, responded in quite a bit of pain. Noir began glowing as the cuts and scrapes on Ren slowly started to fade. He then focused on his leg where the arrow hit him and pulled it out slowly, causing him to grunt from the pain, until he completely pulled it out. “Look alive someone’s here.”, Noir said to Ren. Ren looked around trying to find where their attacker came from until suddenly, they heard the snap of a branch, as Ren and Noir turn their head they saw a guy emerging from the trees with a fairy indigo color. He had neatly kept blond hair, and rather fancy clothes considering this is a battleground. “Judging by the color of your fairy I take it your Ren?”, he asked with a voice showing hostile intent. “Yeah, and who are you?”, Ren asked staying on guard for an attack. “Doesn’t matter just give me the fairy and you won’t get hurt.”, he responded hostile intent growing in his voice. “Never.”, Ren responded showing he’s ready for a fight as Noir glowed Black. “So be it.”, he reached behind his hand grabbing a piece of rope with a quick yank, creaks were be heard throughout the forest as a barrage of arrows flew out of the trees at Ren. The arrows came one after another as Ren moved to avoid getting hit. Despite his best effort several arrows were still able to graze him. As the arrows stopped raining down Ren shot towards his attacker at incredibly fast speed punching him straight in stomach and sending him flying several meters. “Pretty good if I wasn’t wearing a steel chest plate I’d be done for.”, he said as he slowly got to his feet, “Alright time to get serious.”, he then breaks off a branch of a nearby tree. The branch then starts to glow as it shape changed turning into a pristine sword.
He charges at Ren readying his sword he then swings with a strong downward slash, Ren dodges the slash cutting into his shirt and the sword gets stuck in the ground. Abandoning the sword he continues charging forward, only to be met by Ren’s fire he jumps back but not before the fire hits his shoulder. He grabbed his shoulder in pain as Ren goes in for another attack with a fist of fire. With roll he dodged getting behind Ren. Quickly he grabs an arrow off the ground turning it into a knife before going to stab him. The knife lodged into Ren’s back as he let out a scream of pain, but as his enemy tried to jump back he realized he couldn’t. Looking down he saw roots have emerged from the ground wrapping around his legs. “Game over”, Ren spoke holding back the pain. He then placed his hands on his enemy's shoulders and in an instant froze him solid leaving him with an expression of fear but also a shimmer of hope. A moment later a familiar light appeared around him, and he vanished leaving behind an ice mold of him.
Ren struggled for a moment to get the knife out of his back, then applied healing magic to his injuries. “You good to keep moving?”, Noir asked. “Yeah, I just need to ngh…”, Ren couldn't finish his sentence as he suddenly dropped to the ground. “Are you alright, what’s wrong?”, Noir asked. “Ngh, my head fells like its pounding.”, Ren groaned trying to fight back the pain. “Good looks like my poison’s starting to set in.”, a mysterious feminine voice from behind a tree spoke. “Theo, you did your part, too bad you couldn’t last another minute, but oh well.” The pain in Ren started to get worse as the voice ringed in his head, “Wh-who’s there? Show yourself!”, he screamed. Out of the trees came a girl about Ren’s age with long bright blue hair along with six other people. “I’m gonna make this quick give us the fairy and I’ll give you the antidote.”, the girl in front spoke. “N-never.”, Ren replied trying to get to his feet while fighting back the pain. “Oh well, I wanted to avoid this, but we were given permission if needed. Everyone…kill him.”, as she said with a wicked smile.
