Chapter 283 - 281 : The outcome and selections for death
Meanwhile, as all the teams were teleported back from the virtual subspace, the atmosphere inside the stadium had changed completely.
The academies that had failed to reach the final round stood in their designated sections with grim expressions. Many of the students were trembling, their faces pale as they remembered the white-haired woman’s announcement.
They knew what was coming next.
One candidate from every academy that failed to win would be sacrificed.
The thought alone was enough to send fear through the students.
Yet the creatures filling the demonic stadium had an entirely different reaction.
The moment the teams began returning, the roar of the crowd grew even louder.
Demons screamed with excitement, vampires smiled hungrily, werewolves slammed their fists against the railings, and dark elves watched with cold anticipation.
They had been waiting for this moment.
They had come here to watch humans suffer.
And now, they were finally going to witness their first sacrifices.
Diana and the rest of her team were instantly teleported back into the real world.
The familiar stone floor of the stadium appeared beneath their feet, and for a moment, none of them spoke.
Aegon glanced around nervously before looking toward Diana. "It was us who completed the final round first, right?"
The others exchanged uncertain looks.
Nobody knew the answer.
They had been inside the final round until the very last moment, and there had been no indication of which team had finished first.
"We’ll find out soon enough," Diana replied, although even she wasn’t certain.
Her gaze soon shifted toward the leader of Glacier Peak Academy.
The amber-haired girl stood among her teammates, looking surprisingly calm despite everything that had happened.
"Did she say her name was Alia?" Diana muttered.
She couldn’t help but wonder how Alia had managed to accomplish something that had seemed almost impossible.
GLACIER PEAK Academy had reached the fifth round with only five minutes remaining, and even with their combined knowledge, identifying the artifact, understanding its purpose, and activating it within such a short period had seemed impossible.
At least for them.
Before Diana could think about it any further, another group of students was teleported back into the hall.
Swish!
The remaining teams appeared one after another, many of them wearing expressions of disappointment. As they noticed the three teams already standing in the hall, envy became visible in several of their eyes.
They had all fought through the same challenge.
Yet only three academies had managed to reach the final round.
Suddenly—
Clap.
Clap.
The sound of slow applause echoed through the hall.
Every student turned toward the source.
The white-haired woman stood at the front of the hall with a huge grin on her face, looking far too excited about what was about to happen.
"Welcome, welcome, my dear students!" she exclaimed. "I must say, I am absolutely thrilled with how well you all performed in Match 2!"
"But who won?!" a student from Cherry Blossom Academy impatiently shouted.
"Oh, yes!" The woman laughed. "That is the question, isn’t it?"
She paused deliberately, clearly enjoying the anticipation.
"The winner of Match 2 is..."
She stopped again.
Then her smile widened.
"Ahhh! What an exciting match that was! Not one, but three teams were able to complete the Clash of Intellectuals!"
The students immediately began whispering among themselves.
The white-haired woman raised one finger.
"Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone was quite as exceptional."
Her smile became strangely sinister.
"And some of you will now have to face the consequences."
A wave of uneasiness spread through the hall.
"However, before we get to that," she continued, "let me show you the results of all the academies that performed so spectacularly."
She flicked her finger.
A massive holographic screen materialized above the hall.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ TIME TAKEN BY THE TEAMS THAT COMPLETED THE FINAL ROUND! ]
#1 GLACIER PEAK ACADEMY — 59:00.0
#2 CHERRY BLOSSOM ACADEMY — 59:00.3
#3 CELESTIAS ACADEMY — 59:00.4
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The moment Diana and her teammates saw the results, their blood ran cold.
The difference between the three teams was almost nonexistent.
Glacier Peak Academy had finished at exactly fifty-nine minutes.
Cherry Blossom Academy had finished only 0.3 seconds later.
And Celestias Academy had finished merely 0.4 seconds after Glacier Peak Academy.
Diana’s hands slowly clenched into fists.
Her nails dug so deeply into her palms that blood began to trickle between her fingers.
They had been that close.
So incredibly close.
Clarice noticed the blood running down Diana’s hand and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"If only I hadn’t hesitated during the first round..." Clarice whispered, her voice trembling as tears began filling her eyes. "If I had just pressed the buzzer..."
Diana turned toward her.
"Don’t worry, Senior Clarice," she said softly. "It’s not your fault."
She forced a faint smile.
"As captain, I’m responsible for the outcome."
Diana’s expression became determined.
"So I’ll tell Arthur to sacrifice me instead."
Clarice’s eyes widened.
"But—"
"It’s my responsibility," Diana interrupted.
Yet despite her disappointment, something else occupied Diana’s mind.
Glacier Peak Academy.
They had somehow completed the final challenge in only a few minutes.
Diana’s eyes shifted toward Alia.
’How did they do it?’
They had arrived at the fifth round with almost the same amount of time remaining as Celestias Academy.
Yet while Celestias Academy had struggled to understand the artifact, Glacier Peak Academy had solved everything almost immediately.
It was a result Diana couldn’t comprehend.
For the first time in a long while, she realized something.
’The world really is much bigger than I thought.’
There were people out there who could surpass even her own abilities.
The thought wasn’t discouraging.
It was humbling.
Then the white-haired woman suddenly spoke again.
"Well, it seems like we have a clear winner for Match 2!"
She pointed toward the holographic display.
"Glacier Peak Academy!"
The students of Glacier Peak Academy immediately erupted into cheers.
Their victory had been decided by less than a second, but that tiny difference had been enough.
The other academies could only stare at the results in despair.
The white-haired woman continued, "Glacier Peak Academy arrived at the final round in third place, but they completed the final challenge in less than five minutes."
She smiled brightly.
"Because of their exceptional performance, they will receive three additional bonus points, bringing their total to twenty!"
The students of Glacier Peak Academy cheered even louder.
"Celestias Academy and Cherry Blossom Academy both completed all five rounds, so they have each been awarded seventeen points."
Her finger moved down the list.
"The academies that reached the fourth round have been awarded ten points each."
Then her expression became amused.
"Except for one unfortunate academy."
The Iron Fortress Academy students immediately lowered their heads.
"The Iron Fortress Academy only managed to reach the third round, earning them six points."
Another holographic screen appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ MATCH 2: POINTS TABLE! ]
#1 GLACIER PEAK ACADEMY — 20 POINTS
#2 CELESTIAS ACADEMY — 17 POINTS
#3 CHERRY BLOSSOM ACADEMY — 17 POINTS
#4 BLACK STAR ACADEMY — 10 POINTS
#5 MARTIAL STAR ACADEMY — 10 POINTS
#6 LUMINA ACADEMY — 10 POINTS
#7 MIRAGE CROWN ACADEMY — 10 POINTS
#8 RAVEN ACADEMY — 10 POINTS
#9 STORMVEIL ACADEMY — 10 POINTS
#10 THE IRON FORTRESS ACADEMY — 6 POINTS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Glacier Peak Academy students immediately celebrated upon seeing the final ranking.
Meanwhile, the remaining academies could only stare at the display with grim expressions.
The white-haired woman glanced toward Glacier Peak Academy.
"Well... look at that."
Her eyes settled on Alia.
"Not bad at all."
Everyone’s attention immediately turned toward the amber-haired girl.
Alia’s cheeks reddened slightly as she realized that everyone was staring at her.
She awkwardly lowered her gaze.
Despite her modest reaction, there was no denying it.
Alia possessed a monstrous level of intelligence.
She had managed to complete the final challenge in less than five minutes—a challenge that had taken the other two teams nearly the entire allotted time to solve.
Diana could only stare at her in awe.
’So there really are people who can surpass me.’
The realization quietly settled inside her mind.
The white-haired woman suddenly clapped her hands together.
"And now..."
Her grin widened.
"Let’s see the overall standings."
Another holographic screen materialized above them.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ OVERALL POINTS TABLE! ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
#1 CELESTIAS ACADEMY — 36 POINTS
#2 GLACIER PEAK ACADEMY — 24 POINTS
#3 CHERRY BLOSSOM ACADEMY — 21 POINTS
#4 BLACK STAR ACADEMY — 17 POINTS
#5 MARTIAL STAR ACADEMY — 14 POINTS
#6 LUMINA ACADEMY — 14 POINTS
#7 MIRAGE CROWN ACADEMY — 13 POINTS
#8 RAVEN ACADEMY — 12 POINTS
#9 STORMVEIL ACADEMY — 12 POINTS
#10 THE IRON FORTRESS ACADEMY — 7 POINTS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For a brief moment, everyone stared at the standings.
Then the white-haired woman’s expression changed.
The playful smile disappeared.
Her eyes sharpened.
"Alright."
Her voice echoed through the hall.
"Now it’s time."
The students immediately became tense.
"Every academy except Glacier Peak Academy must choose one person to be sacrificed."
The atmosphere instantly became suffocating.
Before anyone could respond, several figures suddenly appeared at the entrance of the hall.
They were the representatives of the other academies.
Christopher of Black Star Academy.
Brian of Martial Star Academy.
Amaya of Cherry Blossom Academy.
Ranga of Iron Fortress Academy.
Karina of Lumina Academy.
Several other representatives entered alongside them.
Diana immediately noticed something.
Arthur wasn’t with them.
Her heart tightened.
"Where is Arthur?" she whispered.
The white-haired woman seemed to notice the same thing.
She slowly licked her lips before smiling.
"I take it you’ve all made your decisions about who to sacrifice?"
Christopher, Brian, Amaya, and Ranga exchanged glances.
Then they laughed.
"It wasn’t difficult at all," Christopher said.
The others nodded.
"Of course," Brian added. "We already discussed it."
Several other academy representatives nodded as well.
The white-haired woman smiled.
"Wonderful."
She looked around the hall before her gaze stopped on the entrance.
"But where is Arthur?"
Her smile widened.
"He has to make a decision too."
She tilted her head.
"Or perhaps..."
"He has decided to sacrifice himself?"
Before anyone could answer, a voice suddenly echoed through the hallway.
"Why don’t you ask me yourself?"
Everyone turned toward the entrance.
The students of Celestias Academy were walking into the hall.
Arthur was among them.
The moment he appeared, the students instinctively moved aside, creating a path for him.
Diana’s eyes widened.
"Arthur!"
She immediately rushed toward him, followed closely by the rest of her team.
"I’m sorry," Diana said, her voice filled with regret. "We couldn’t win."
She lowered her head.
"It’s because of me."
Arthur remained silent.
Diana clenched her fists.
"You can sacrifice me. I’m the captain, so I’ll take responsibility."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"I should have done better."
"Have you gone insane, Diana?!"
Damian’s voice suddenly thundered through the hall.
He stepped forward, staring at her in disbelief.
"Diana, what the hell are you saying?!"
Diana immediately turned toward him.
"Brother, shut up!"
Her voice was unusually forceful.
"It’s the right thing to do."
Damian stared at her.
"You can’t be serious."
But Diana ignored him.
Arthur hadn’t said a word.
He simply walked past them.
His expression was calm.
Too calm.
He stopped directly before the white-haired woman.
The entire hall became silent.
The woman smiled.
"So, Arthur..."
She tilted her head.
"Have you decided who will be sacrificed?"
Arthur stared at her without answering immediately.
Then he slowly turned his head toward his teammates.
His crimson eyes passed over every member of Celestias Academy.
Diana.
Damian.
Aegon.
Liana.
Clarice.
And the others.
Nobody understood what he was thinking.
Then Arthur spoke.
"The student who will die from my side will be..."
He paused.
The entire hall seemed to stop breathing.
Arthur’s gaze finally settled on one person.
"Aaron Vale Valmont."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Every expression in the hall froze.
Aaron’s eyes widened.
For a moment, he couldn’t even comprehend what he had just heard.
Then his entire body went cold.
Julia stared at Arthur in disbelief.
Her face immediately lost all color.
"Aaron..."
He was her brother.
And Arthur had just chosen him.
Julia’s hands began trembling as she looked toward Arthur, unable to believe that he had actually made such a decision.
Around them, the other students stood frozen.
Nobody had expected that name.
Even the white-haired woman appeared momentarily surprised.
Arthur, however, remained completely expressionless.
His crimson eyes met Aaron’s.
There was no hesitation in them.
No guilt.
No explanation.
Only an unreadable coldness.
Aaron felt his heart sink as he stared back at him.
For the first time since entering the tournament, he understood just how terrifying the situation had become.
This was no longer a competition.
He was actually going to die.