Chương 75: The Most Brilliant

She had known this was going to happen. Ophelia had known, since the moment this stupid battle had started, that the foreign Mage Knight was going to get himself humiliated at the hands of Marionys Ryland. And that was exactly what was happening. To an untrained eye, it had appeared as though their battle was, well, an actual fight between if not equals, then at least mages who could consider themselves on a similar level. What a load of crock.

The way Solverfel's slashes had left no mark on Ryland's barrier was proof enough that he didn't have even the faintest inkling of the difference in their strengths. That he had "broken" said barrier was a little surprising, but it was obviously a clever trick at best, and one that Ryland had an appropriate response to, so it didn't even help to begin with. That said, it was rather funny how Solverfel had slashed through Ryland just for his slices to ineffectually fly out behind the enigmatic mage.

And then the chains had appeared. Ophelia had dutifully gasped and stood in awed shock just as everybody else had done when the shackles had shimmered into being. Ryland had already cast them at some point earlier. Hearing his explanation of how a spell based on a Soul Glyph of Time had hidden the chains transformed her awe into something more akin to dread. Not only could he cast magic that could trap divinities, he could do so without alerting anyone that said magic had been cast in the first place.

If that wasn't frightening, Ophelia wasn't sure what was. She really needed to wring that foreign Mage Knight's neck. Hard. So stupid to land himself in a mire like that.

"I can't see!" he cried out. His eyes had turned into those gold-edged black rifts. There was real panic in his voice now, his struggles against the chains now turning frantic.

"What did you do to my eyes? Let me go, you coward!" There was no point in trying to goad Ryland. Ophelia could tell that the enigmatic mage's patience was almost as unfathomable as he was. It had limits, naturally, but it was also highly doubtful that any of them would ever reach said limits.

"I did offer you a chance to surrender," Ryland said mildly.

"You can still exercise that option."

"Screw you." Solverfel was panting now.

"This is nothing. I can bear this any day. I can take… this… Wait. What is that?" His struggles started anew.

"What is that?"

"It's merely a comet travelling through the cosmos," Ryland said like he was talking about what he had for breakfast. Ophelia's mind boggled. A comet? That… didn't even make sense. What had Ryland done to Solverfel? The foreign Mage Knight was screaming and blabbering now, desperately trying to break free of his binds. He wasn't the only one. Everyone else was muttering and mumbling too. Ophelia shared their excitement, could hardly breathe at the prospect of Ryland's power manifesting in truth. A comet.

Right here in Arcoryx Academy. This was insane.

"Enough," Solverfel said all of a sudden.

"Enough! Please stop it before I… before it gets here! Please, stop it."

"Are you certain?" Ryland asked.

"You were quite willing to continue the duel."

"Stop! It's almost here. It's going to obliterate me. I surrender! I—""As you wish, then." The rifts in front of Solverfel's eyes just disappeared. One moment, they were there. The next, they were gone, the elvhenan blinking and squinting against the light. Wherever his eyes had been transported to, it had clearly been significantly darker than the battlefield. It wasn't just the rifts. The chains fell away too, clinking away before slithering back into the rifts like serpents who no longer cared about their prey.

Solverfel wobbled where he stood before falling to his knees. His face was paler than stale milk, the wide state of his eyes refusing to return to normalcy. Ophelia swallowed. Just what exactly had Ryland done to him? Because it had been merely minutes ago where the foreign Mage Knight had been all fired up and unwilling to stop the fight. Now, he looked terrified. Almost as bad as that poor graduate student who had challenged Ryland before his duel against Solverfel.

"The winner of this bout," the official said, weirdly sounding somewhere between bored and awed.

"Is Marionys Ryland." There was no polite clapping, no cheers, certainly no congratulations or anything of the sort. Besting a Mage Knight who proudly proclaimed himself to be Primordial-ranked would have been the accomplishment of a lifetime for practically everyone within the academy. Yet, for Ryland, for the man who had destroyed a Primordial-ranked Incursion with hardly any effort, this was almost par for the course.

"Well, that was rather illuminating," the elder elvhenan said. He was looking at Ryland politely offering a helping hand to the Mage Knight with a very critical eye.

"Illuminating how, Your Worship?" Headmaster Alaric asked.

"Well, if Arcoryx Academy and the rest of the Vyrd are to send their best to Rhel, then I suppose it should naturally include that man over there, should it not?" Alaric paled ever so slightly. Ophelia frowned as well, and her confusion was matched by her fellow Vyrdian Mage Knight. What was this about Arcoryx and Vyrd sending their best to Rhel? This was putting things in a very interesting perspective. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"I'm not quite certain that's the best idea," Alaric slowly said.

"We don't want to make it look like we're sending in a…" A declaration of war? Ophelia shook her head. Rhel wanted to join the Accorded Realms, and one of the stipulations was to do nothing that could be seen as an act of aggression. This went both ways. Ryland… was a living, breathing potential act of aggression. She was starting to understand this stately, noble elvhenan's presence here at Arcoryx now. But what was his angle? Why did he suddenly want Ryland on Rhel?

"Perhaps we can discuss the matter in more depth later, Headmaster," the elvhenan said as his Mage Knight companion slowly trudged back towards them, now trying to get a grip on his shellshocked expression.

"I'm certain Ryland will have his own thoughts on the matter."

"Oh, I'm certain he will," Alaric muttered. Then he straightened.

"But you're correct. The duels must continue." He stepped forward and clapped his hands together.

"Let's keep going. Chop, chop! We don't have all day to gawk, come on now." At the Headmaster's poking and prodding, the duels continued on. Solverfel had returned to his master, the older elvhenan, like a beaten dog. They had pulled themselves away and were speaking in hushed murmurs, which a Titan-ranked Mage Knight like Ophelia heard easily. The problem was, she didn't understand any Rhellian languages at all. But her attention wasn't on them anyway.

Instead, she had noted her target and was now arrowing straight for him before he disappeared or something.

"Hold a moment please, Ryland," she said as she hurried over. Despite the Headmaster doing his best to move things along, quite a lot of people still had their eyes on Ryland. Consequently, they now had eyes on her for accosting him. She decided against paying it too much attention.

"You know what happened during the Incursion, don't you?" Ryland turned to her with a more serious expression than she recalled ever seeing on him before.

"Do you mean the Flourinus Order?"

"The what?" He considered her for a moment, like he was debating how much and how exactly he was going to reveal information about whatever that was.

"The Order are a nefarious group bent on one thing only—the resurrection and ascendance of Calamities." Ophelia blinked. Things weren't exactly making sense, but they didn't really have to. Calamities. That made enough horrifying sense on their own.

"So that mage," she said.

"That imposter. He was part of this Order? He sought to bring about a Calamity through the last Incursion?" It had been growing powerful very rapidly. Who was to say that, left unchecked, it wouldn't have become a Calamity in its own right? Had Ryland not been present, would all of Androvia—maybe all of Vyrd—be dealing with an apocalyptic tide of fleshy horrors?

"In a sense, yes," Ryland said. Their voices lowered as they walked away from the duels. It seemed he was being mindful of who exactly learned about the Order. It left Ophelia curious about who and who were already in the know.

"I believe it's part of their greater plan, which I haven't fully figured out yet. That said, I suspect it has something to do with the theft of the Vestige."

"They're responsible for that too?"

"Indeed." Ophelia's mind was starting to race. A shadowy organization was behind the whole mess of the last Living Mana Incursion? One that had targeted her directly for some reason? Ryland went on to intimate that the Order had clearly seen that she had presented a dire threat to their plans, and had taken a direct hand against her. The bastard in question had been dealt with, though. By Ryland's own hands. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. A conflicting array of emotions were vying for her attention.

She hadn't fallen to the Living Mana itself during the Incursion. Rather, she had been directly sabotaged. By this Flourinus Order. But the relief that came from that knowledge felt so… selfish. What was her relief against the fact that there existed a greater foe she needed to tackle? Would anyone even believe her? It was clear Ryland had taken steps against them, had already encountered them, had likely informed others about them too. Ophelia wasn't chasing shadows and phantoms.

Nevertheless, it sounded like she had her work cut out for her.

"Thank you, Ryland," she said.

"You're welcome." He smiled at her.

"It's clear I've put your mind at ease, so I'm glad for that."

"You've given me… direction, something I was lacking a little after the Incursion." Ryland nodded, clearly aware of the importance of purpose. After they parted, Ophelia didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the duels. She did her duties as was expected of her, but her mind was on other things. On this Order she needed to find a way to pursue and bring to justice. Ophelia really did have a purpose now, and no matter who or what stood in her way, she would reach the end of her road.

Ryland was glad he was able to get away from the duels after his double-showing. He hadn't planned for the Mage Knight, of course. Dealing with his first victim should have been enough to ward off the rest of his would-be challengers, but of course, a Primordial-ranked Mage Knight was not to be deterred in the same way a bunch of Gold-ranked academy students would. But while he was allowed to leave just like that, he certainly didn't slip out without anyone noticing.

If anything, he was the subject of nearly everyone's scrutiny inside the duelling hall. This was unsurprising. It was one thing to leave a student laid out flat on his back. It was wholly another to defeat a Mage Knight while expending hardly any effort at all. In their shoes, he'd probably have stared a lot too. Ryland didn't mind. He certainly wasn't paying much attention in the first place because of his neat little achievement.

[Achievement Recognized: Outstanding Duellist You have beaten an opposing Primordial-ranked duellist despite being merely Adamantine-ranked. Rank up from Adamantine [50] to Adamantine [53]. Reward: Defeating opponents awards Glyph Prints, contingent on the rank of the defeated opponent.] Hmm. A very interesting reward. So defeating any opponent was going to award him with Glyph Prints now? That was what it read like. Did that mean he could go around fighting people willy nilly just to earn some Glyph Prints?

Surely ambushing unsuspecting academy students and wiping them out wouldn't count as "defeating" them… would it? That sounded so ridiculous. Then there was the rank requirement. Clearly, his opponents needed to possess a certain level of strength before he was allowed to defeat them. If he wanted to earn Glyph Prints, that was. Ryland pushed it out of his mind. The whole thing was a silly consideration anyway.

"Sir!" Viren came running over, eyes alight with excitement.

"You were brilliant!" Acrypha came up alongside him, but as usual, she was a lot more reserved.

"Of course, he was. He's the most brilliant person we've ever seen." Viren gave her an odd look." We?" Acrypha deadpanned back at him.

"Well, have you seen anyone else that qualifies?"

"No…" Ryland chuckled.

"I appreciate your votes of confidence. Soon enough, it will be time for you to give your showing too." Viren and Acrypha exchanged quick glances.

"I'm ready to kick Kohn's butt," Viren said with a fierce scowl.

"Although, once I get him down, I think the rest of them are going to come after me…" Acrypha sighed.

"I doubt I'll have any challengers after the first day." Ryland considered both their cases and what he had seen so far of their abilities. Then he nodded in agreement. In Viren's case, his bullies wouldn't give him the time of day. Even if he defeated one of them, others would be waiting in the wings, determined to wear him down over time and beat him that way. And it wasn't like he could refuse their challenge without feeling bad about himself. And as for Acrypha…

she had a case that was strangely similar to Ryland's. But where he was using his considerable prowess to ensure he wasn't going to be pegged back, it would backfire for her. Because once she defeated a few of her peers, none of them would be willing to continue duelling against her. She was possibly a bit too strong for her age.

"Not to fear," Ryland said with a smile.

"I think I know how to make sure neither of you suffer any real problems. Come on."