Silence as everyone looking at each other with sudden suspicion. Although she didn't say it, they all could guess what she was about to say

"Who?" Seraphina demanded instantly.

"I don't know. The probability threads blur, all I know is that It's someone here and someone we trust. But I can't identify who."

"Could be a mistake," Cipher suggested. "Probability magic isn't perfect."

"It's not a mistake," Aria said firmly. "Someone will betray us. I'm 73% certain."

"Then we watch each other," I said, I don't like that kind of situation. She should have seen the leaders later to discuss things and not just spew it out loud like that.

"Trust but verify and anyone acting strange, anyone making suspicious contacts, report it, no shame in healthy paranoia and its far better to be careful than not."

Reluctant nods goes all around.

The meeting dissolved shortly after.

As people filed out, Adrian approached me.

"That thing Aria said.....about the betrayal."

"What about it?"

"It could be me."

I blinked hard and did not know if I should laugh or what "Could it?"

"I don't know. The Baron and my backers, the....the...the Council, they all want me to destroy you. What if they find a way to make me do it? What if I'm the betrayal?"

"Then you fight it," I said simply. "You're not a puppet, Adrian. You're a person and you can make choices."

"Do I?" His expression was anguished. "Or have I been following a script this whole time without realizing it?"

I didn't have an answer for that.

He left, shoulders heavy with doubt.

I stared at his retreating back for a while and sighed.

I returned to my room. Checked the poison detection crystal to make sure everything's clear then I checked for magical surveillance and none was detected.

After that I checked the door and locks to secure everything. Then I sat on the bed and let exhaustion wash over me.

"Welcome to the Continental Tournament." I thought grimly.

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

The second day of rest passed in tense preparation. My team trained, studied Brightwing's matches from preliminary rounds and we work on our strategies.

Brightwing was Mystholm Institute's primary team. All five members were magical theory experts. Not the strongest physically, but their spell combinations were elegant and devastating, especially when used together.

Team Composition.

- Captain Brightwing- Light/Arcane dual-element mage, S-rank

- Elara Moonwhisper- Illusion specialist, A-rank

- Thomas Runekeeper- Defensive ward master, A rank

- Sarah Starweaver - Celestial magic, A rank

- Marcus... wait. I double-checked the roster. Marcus Goldscribe - Enchantment specialist, A+ rank.

Another Marcus. Great.

"Their strategy is layered defense," our Marcus explained, showing his analysis. "Runekeeper creates nearly impenetrable wards while he's protected and the others layer buffs and debuffs. Then they strike with coordinated spell volleys."

"Turtle strategy," Seraphina said. "Defend until opportunity, then alpha strike."

"Exactly, we can't let them set up, we have to pressure them immediately and prevent their defensive formation."

"Easier said than done," Lucille pointed out. "Those wards are high rank, I've seen some of the footage. They stopped a full Ss-rank attack for thirty seconds."

"Then we don't attack the wards directly," I said. "We attack their concentration and force them to maintain defenses while dealing with chaos then make them react instead of execute their plan."

"Disrupt and overwhelm," Ravenna nodded. "I can create void anomalies. Random spatial distortions. They'll have to constantly adjust ward configurations."

"I'll pressure Runekeeper directly," Seraphina offered. "Force him to focus on me. Can't maintain complex wards while dodging holy strikes can he?"

"I'll handle their illusion specialist then," Lucille said. "Elara Moonwhisper. She's dangerous if we can't tell real from fake."

"That leaves three for me and Marcus," I calculated. "The captain, the celestial mage, and their enchanter are anageable."

We refined the plan until midnight. Then forced ourselves to sleep.

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

The arena was packed again with ten thousand voices creating that same overwhelming roar.

"QUARTERFINAL MATCH ONE!" the announcer boomed. "RAVANA VERSUS BRIGHTWING!"

We entered from the west gate and Brightwing from the east.

Their captain, Aldric, was a tall man with silver hair despite being young, his team looked scholarly as well with robes over armor, they even carried books and foci instead of obvious weapons.

Don't let appearances fool you. Scholars could be terrifying.

We met at center and shook hands.

"I've studied your matches," Aldric said conversationally. "Impressive tactical coordination, I must say. You compensate for individual power limitations through superior teamwork."

"Thanks?" I said, raising my brows. I can't tell if it was a compliment or a slight.

"But it won't be enough." He smiled politely. "Our spell matrices are designed to counter coordinated assaults like your own. The more you work together, the more openings you create for our combination magics."

"We'll see."

We returned to starting positions.

The referee raised her hand. "BEGIN!"

Runekeeper moved first as we expected. He slammed his staff into the ground and glowing runes spread across the arena floor in complex patterns. "Ward Array—Sanctuary Configuration!"

A dome of shimmering energy formed around Brightwing's team as they created a complete battlefield control zone. Inside the dome, they could cast freely and outside attacks would be severely weakened.

"They've fortified!" Marcus called out. "That ward will take minutes to break through conventional assault!"

"Then we don't use conventional assault," I said. "Ravenna! Anomaly Pattern Delta! Just as we talked about!"

She understood immediately, and began tracing void symbols in the air. "Void Anomalie... !"

Reality started warping around their sanctuary dome. Space twisted and distance seems to became uncertain as gravity fluctuated.

The ward configuration flickered. Runekeeper's face showed strain as he had to constantly recalibrate to account for shifting spatial constants.

"Seraphina! Create pressure!"

She charged, at the edges of it ward. "Holy Blade!"'

She circled the dome at high speed, striking repeatedly from different angles. Each hit forced Runekeeper to reinforce that section.

His concentration split between spatial anomalies and kinetic assault.

Just as we wanted!

"Lucille! Find the illusion specialist!"

She vanished into shadow.

Elara Moonwhisper was already casting. "Mirror Army"

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