The last ray of sunlight disappeared behind the walls of the box. Thin flames emerged across the inner surface, spreading in silent lines along the metal.
Xyana tossed a small pearl-like sphere forward. It stopped in midair and remained suspended.
«The conditions are simple. This sphere changes color based on how quickly Xer is being consumed within the enclosed space. Green means the consumption rate is within the expected range. Red means it's too fast. Orange means it's too slow. If it remains unchanged, there's no significant variation.»
As soon as she finished speaking, the sphere's color shifted slightly toward orange.
«Got it. So we just need to consume it through constant Xer use.»
«Correct.» - Xyana adjusted her stance slightly. - «But consider this a private lesson.»
«Hm? Why? I already know how to consume Xer constantly.»
«You do.» - Xyana nodded once. - «The question is whether you can keep observing while doing it.»
«Of course I can.»
«Good.» - Xyana took a step forward.
«Then let's make the consumption rate meaningful.»
Reema frowned.
«What do you-»
Xyana moved.
It was only a single step forward, yet the distance between them vanished instantly. One moment she stood several meters away; the next, she was already within reach.
The sword, now unsheathed, stopped just short of Reema's right eye.
«All good! You can begin the test now!» - Asra's voice came from outside the box.
Flames erupted across the blade in an instant, bathing the enclosure in a wave of heat.
Reema dropped on reflex.
The sword passed above her as she pushed herself backward, her shoes slided across the smooth metal floor. She lost terrain.
By the time she regained her footing, Xyana had already lowered the weapon and stepped back into position.
Behind her, the suspended sphere shifted from orange toward yellow.
Not enough.
Reema took a deep breath, keeping her eyes locked on Xyana and the flaming sword. Xer began to move around her in tighter currents, reacting to the pressure in the air. The flames along the blade trembled slightly as the surrounding air shifted.
The cold gray metal of the floor darkened under Reema's influence, turning almost black in a spreading line beneath her feet. From it, a pitch-dark spear formed in an instant and shot forward at high speed.
She threw it like a simple motion, as if releasing a ball.
Xyana shifted aside with minimal movement, letting the spear pass harmlessly past her position. Her red hair followed the motion in a slow arc as she turned.
Behind her, flames gathered and rose, condensing into the outline of a towering flaming titan. Splitting the room in two.
The crystal's color shifted again.
Light green.
Almost there.
The spear detonated on impact, spreading into a dense wave of dark Xer that swallowed the interior of the cube. The space became a near-total void of black, erasing depth perception entirely. Only the flames remained visible, suspended in isolated fragments of light along the walls.
From Xyana's perspective, the sense of distance collapsed no visible edges, as if the room itself had been flattened into darkness, with Reema with it.
The sphere shifted again, edging toward a muted purple.
Seeing the change, Xyana reduced several of the wall flames in a controlled motion, dimming the intensity of the enclosure. The flaming titan behind her dissolved and reformed, its structure reshaping into a massive serpent that coiled and circled her position, fire flowing along its length like living current.
Even hidden inside the darkness, Reema's position was clear to Xyana.
The serpent's head opened wide and struck straight through the void, appearing directly in front of her.
Reema tensed. Too late. How could that be, no one should have been able to sense her movements, she was blended in it.
She forced Xer into the surrounding shadows, condensing it into a thin platform beneath her feet and pushing off.
Too slow.
White flames brushed her right foot, searing the edge of her movement and throwing her off balance as she landed.
With the sphere restricting total output, Reema could not fully expand her control of Xer to stabilize or counterbalance the drain. The field itself was consuming too quickly under sustained use.
60%… 58%… 54%… 52%...
The rate dropped faster than she calculated.
And yet the crystal remained a steady, pure green.
...it's too fast?
Reema glanced to her left. The serpent's tail swept across the floor in a wide arc, cutting off her escape path and pulling her attention away from her thought process.
Still, she reached a decision.
Using a burst of Xer, she pushed off the ground and ran up the wall, redirecting her momentum upward with the intention of passing over the creature and reaching the empty area behind Xyana.
For a moment, her focus narrowed entirely on movement and evasion, reading angles, timing, distance. The pain on her ankle. And so... she forgot.
It wasn't a magical beast.
It was flame manipulation.
And the one controlling it... Where was she?
By the time she realized, an arrow of compressed flame intercepted her path, blasting into a lively flame upon contact with the metal. Reema dropped from the wall and landed back on the ground. Before she could react, a fist followed immediately after and struck her face.
No visible Xer surge. No warning motion. Just contact. Her head snapped to the side from the strike and she fell to the ground.
For a fraction of a second, everything stalled.
Was it only distraction? Or something else? One thing was certain: she had to react—quickly.
As she tried to push herself up, she saw her.
Xyana's gaze was fixed on her.
Not cold. Not aggressive.
Disappointed.
Reema felt it land heavier than the punch.
Was that really all she could do, even with such a limitation placed on her?
No.
Reema refused to believe it. To lose.
Then, something clicked.
32%… 30%… 29%…
The Xer she had spread across the wall thinned further, becoming harder to maintain. But in return, it became more precise, more efficient; less wasteful, less forceful, more controlled.
She adjusted instantly, not with power, but efficiency.
If she could not overwhelm the field, she would minimize cost until nothing unnecessary remained.
Now she only had one step left: Reach the far side of the cube.
If her assumption was correct, that alone would complete the condition.
Xyana looked down at Reema where she lay after the strike. The serpent followed her attention, lowering its head as well.
It moved in.
The moment Xyana's arm descended, Reema slipped beneath it, using the narrow opening in motion to break through both the serpent's line of pressure and Xyana's immediate reach.
For a brief instant, she was outside their direct control.
She crossed the space in a sprint and slid forward, clearing the final distance... She reached the opposite side of the room.
Reema checked.
50%… 49%… 48%...
She was right. Xyana had been interfering with the internal flow of Xer within the space. Now that Reema had reached the designated location, all conditions aligned for her to execute her plan.
With a determined look, meeting Xyana's briefly surprised expression, Reema withdrew all shadow coating from the surrounding surfaces.
The sphere, now centered in the air again, shifted back into a light green state.
Reema confirmed it. She had margin to work with.
Xyana, realizing what had just happened, couldn't help but smile in quiet amusement.
The room brightened for a moment, not from light, but from shadows compressing inward.
Two blinks.
The sphere shifted again, flickering between light purple and unstable green.
Behind Reema, a new presence formed.
A tall, thin-limbed being emerged from the condensed darkness, its mouth jagged and elongated, its height nearly reaching the roof of the cube. Its scale matched the construct Xyana had summoned, but its presence felt sharper, more unstable.
«An ancient nightmare.» - Xyana couldn't resist a brief chuckle.
Her serpent moved instantly, colliding with Reema's construct mid-air.
Flames erupted across the enclosed space as the two entities clashed. Dark scales of shadow rained from above like ash from an eruption, only to dissolve before touching the ground, consumed by the cube's isolation.
Both Xyana and Reema remained still, eyes locked.
No words followed, only understanding.
Reema believed she had secured victory.
Xyana was certain she had already failed.
A minute passes, and with it, the result arrived.
1%… 0%…
With a final flare, both constructs ran out of Xer.
For a brief moment, they held, then one of them began to break.
Reema's construct was the first to fail, its structure fracturing into thin strands of shadow before dissolving completely into nothing.
Xyana's serpent remained for a brief moment longer, its form holding steady amid the fading chaos, before the surrounding pressure finally neutralized it as well.
The sphere stopped shifting, its color settling into a stable state.
No fluctuations remained, leaving only silence suspended inside the darkness of the cube, and single, undeniable reading persisted.
Reema had lost.