3D's

Chapter 1

I see myself in the mirror. With only an identification card hanging on my plain shirt, I brought out a sigh. I'm always a terror that is correct. Reminiscing what happened yesterday and the other day and last week and last Monday, it's endless on how I made things bad. From simply slicing the cake to helping decorate a wedding, both of them gone really tragic.

Now is not much different, another day to spread badly luck and make things anything worse because of the so called Bad Luck Magnet. And this day is not the fitted day to spread that kind of luck.

Slowly, I reached out for my usual jacket which is plain grey made of cotton. I've got tons of it in my cabinet, if not tons then just a dozen. I've been collecting pale or plain coloured clothing - it really helps divert attention.

Hanging in the hangers hanged on some kind of wood are my boring and simple outfits. I don't like skinny jeans because one thing I hate is exposing some of your particular skins that almost let anyone see towards your soul. By saying that skirts and other sexy things are out of my closet and if there were like my Mom's gift last two years, I've kept in a separate box that was originally for keeping keepsakes for remembrance though I forgot where I put it but I'm particularly sure that it was just right here, hidden in one corner of my room.

"Kaelyn?" a voice croaked behind my door. It must be a shout but it appears no less than a little louder than a whisper. Her voice must be obscured by the thick, made of chunks of metal that are welded parts together to form a door. Well, at least it's not rusty.

"The Factioning will begin in one hour," informing me about a certain event. Just by hearing it sends a couple of chilling streaks in my spine.

I gulped a handful of saliva before noticing that my mouth can hardly speak and my voice is barely stable. My lower lips are shaking alright and this just means one thing: fear.

"I'll be over in a minute!" I tried to muster a sturdy voice of mine as much as possible.

Yet the door opens with a creak and reflected on the mirror in front of me is a woman around near thirties with hair slightly drawn back in her back and with an eerie smile towards me. That is my mom.

Wrinkles appear as she squirts or widen her eyes so as beside her mouth whenever she opens and pursed her lips. "Are you ready?"

"No!" I speak flatly trying to keep my fear and anxiousness behind my calloused face as much as possible.

"Where's Kile and Kite?" I added as quickly as possible to change the topic because one more dialogue about me being scared then tears will start to flow.

"They're in the Ceremonial Circle."

"I thought so."

"Before I forget, I want you to have this." She handed me a beautiful yet simple necklace. Dipped in some kind of glittery red paint that does not dissolve when wet but what lies in the center is the breath-taking thing that I have ever seen in my life. A Dangling Bells with embedded Amethyst. "It's a gift from my grandmother that came from her great, great grandmother handed down to my mother then to me. Apparently, we aren't picked for many years for the D's just by wearing that."

There's some kind of humour that she desperately want to tell me but I couldn't detect it or sense it whether it was the beginning, middle or ending part but I can observe that she really wants to lighten the mood up. It may be a silly thing that the heirloom grants good luck to not be picked by D's but I still hang onto it.

She slowly unhooks the necklace to be able for me to wear it. She then clipped it securely once it encompasses my chest. "It looks beautiful on you," she said wearily.

"I'm not just beautiful." I said staring for a moment on the mirror, sliding my eyes from my mother then to me and then repeat again for three times before adding "I look dashing wearing it."

My mother smiles again but this time the desperation is imminent and traceable but I really don't know why she had that smile or have the guts to ask her. I just replied back with another smile, forcefully fake.

As we walk towards the Ceremonial Circle, past towards a couple of blocks away from our little and weak home that will about to crumble in dust if blown by a strong gust of wind but luckily covered by strong trees of sorts that prevents the wind from doing the exact thing, I kept reassuring myself that I won't be selected for the D's.

I want to cry, to run, to escape and on the farthest corner of my mind, to kill myself before reaching the Ceremonial Circle. I was busy calming the tempest of anxiousness that is swirling inside me that I didn't noticed that we were already at the entrance of the Ceremonial Circle and maybe I wouldn't notice at all if a single loud pat behind me that forces my lungs to spit out a bomb of air had not happened.

"How's your day Lyn?" asked by the eyesore man I've ever met and ever had and ever knew in my life.

Noticing him, my mom pretends to be called in the direction where a couple of ladies around her age gather. If it's not announcements, it would be gossips. Strangely, my mom is not into that things but there's no other way to excuse herself but do that.

"Aside from the fact that this is my first time Factioning, I'm bright as a sunny day, Celt." I said sarcastically making face as I turn towards him. Factioning is may be not enlisted in the dictionaries, at least in the past ones, but it has become a popular term for us living in this scarred planet. It means that someone will be going through the Faction.

"How's Kile? Is he showing progress in his academics?" he asked trying to pat my head.

"No." I said as my mother signals me to enter the Ceremonial Circle already. Then I started walking leaving Celt in there without an explanation.

"Hey, Lyn! Where did you get that beautiful amulet?" Celt said as he tries to cope up with me. He must be really trying hard to calm me down but, frankly, he's just getting on my nerves.

"This is an heirloom and probably a good luck charm or amulet as you say so." I keep giving him direct and straight answers keeping the important details unknown to him because as much as I wanted to, I want to get away from him. But he's head is so hard that it won't crack a detail that I want to get rid of him.

I pushed the clear glass doors and entered the Ceremonial Circle. For once, I'm finally happy that Celt wasn't on my side anymore but instead quietness accompanied me but I think the silent comrade was far more dreadful than having Celt that I can honestly admit that I regret getting rid of him.

I get different things in my mind as I walked through the big spiralling staircase and one of these is the worst case scenario. There's only one worst case scenario possible in this day and that is to be picked as a D's participant.

Death, Despair, Destruction that's what the 3D's stand for or simply the D's and just by reading it, you can get a gist that it's not really good and it's true, it was never good. Who would be sane watching others killing each other in television? That's us - we are used to it but participating in it is a whole different thing that's where the death and despair comes. Participating in it means inevitable death and with you in the hands of Death only mean despair. The destruction is way too off because it's mired with the chaos that happened thousands of years ago.

As I sat there in one of the scarlet chairs with padded cushion, I can't help but to think that I'll be the one selected and acknowledged to participate in it. And it's not entirely impossible because as they say I'm a Bad Luck Magnet. I wish I haven't born in this time.

I waited patiently for the others to arrive and it seems I was early because I'm the first one to appear. I looked at the empty seats around me knowing that one of them who occupy that seat will be chosen and mine is not an exception. Despair looms already.

Across, I see Kile and Kite - they appeared just in the columns where the Ceremonial Circle will takes place. Both of them bloodied and for certain reasons about to collapse. Barely walking, each of them relied on each other to reach me.

"Kile? Kite?" I said calmly before bursting into a shout as I confirmed their faces. I caught both of them in my arms and landed them on my shoulder before dragging them and letting them sit on the chair.

"We failed," muttered Kite who was critically in danger in dying of a blood loss. His left eyeball was missing and most of his blood came from in that wound. "We're sorry."

"What happened?" I tried to keep him awake by shaking him. I fear they might die if they dozed off. I turned my gaze to Kile who was also weak "What happened?"

He struggled to speak words but the spasms in his face shows that he's really in pain. "We.... were..... defeated..... You..... was....." Before he could finish right off, he completely gone knocked out.

Adrenaline shot through me as I quickly carry both of my little brothers in two arms. I don't care what happens to my pale jacket as long as I can save them, I can sacrifice anything even my dear boots that was the only remembrance of my missing father. I shouted topmost of my breath muttering dozens of help dialogues before a woman found me and helped me guide the puzzling hallways and bring me to a hospital.

In there, the doctors and other nurses took care of my little brothers as I desperately open the door to follow them on which was locked. I kicked and punched real hard not knowing that my arms are already wounded. But in this situation, I can barely feel the pain. What's inside of my head is my two little brother's condition. What happened to them? What are they talking about? There are so many questions that popped up in my head but nothing can answer and no one knows what they've been through but themselves.

"Mom, Kile and Kite!" I panic as I gave her the information but there's just a rigid expression in her face. It's as if she's more worried about me than my little brothers. There's a slight intuitive feeling that something has gone wrong.

I can barely spoke of it and I can barely say it but I know that there's a great chance that I was. Reading the expression of my mother, it's as if a solemn look that something dire will about to happen to me sooner or later just then I realized something. Something I really don't want to realize.

I've been chosen to participate for the D's.

Chapter 2

"You've been chosen, Kaelyn!" My Mom calmly said but fear and pain is still seeping through in that sturdy fade she wanted to eject. She can barely even keep it intact and alright. Tears start to well in her eyes but mine is already dripping in my blood-stained clothes.

I can't believe it. Hearing the word 'chosen' is already activating my nightmares one after another. I will now face death and I will now become a bet and whoever will be betting on me might have a lot of money just in case but that's not the case in here. Despair isn't really a thing to be meddling with because it can do a lot of damage both physical and mental.

Right this time, I don't know how to respond, react or do. But my body just moves on its own without my permission and before I know it, I'm charging on one hall after another. I don't really care where direction I ran but at least with the running, I can divert this unbearable feeling by tiring myself out.

I can observe people eyeing on me while I ran past them but all of them have one thing in common. Those eyes felt sorry for me - for me who was picked - for me who will be now facing death - for me who had befallen in despair - for me who will be punished by the destruction who I didn't participated into. Instead, I wished for them to stay strong just for me and let me cry all alone and them to endure the pain I will be undergoing.

But one thing becomes a mystery to me - why have I been chosen when the Factioning has not yet occurred? I come to a halt as I ruminate about that question. It does have a certain point. Then another question comes "How come they know that I was picked?"

It doesn't make sense. Is my Mom playing a joke on me or is there something I missed? If my Mom was playing a joke on me, I'm going to be so mad that I can bomb this whole place out and choke her to death but there's one thing that I can't deny and that she was not and it was her serious and concerned look. Then there's one thing sure ------ something's amiss.

I tried to find my way out of the Ceremonial Circle ---- I was desperate to get out of it. It's just if I stay there any longer, I would suffocate. I can even barely breathe. I'm about to lose my mind.

After a couple of minutes, good luck favoured me for the very first time. I navigated myself out of those halls that connect like mazes. I finally reached the spiral staircase. The one I took when going up. I look down and there in the edge of it I could make a woman dressed in white and scarlet red spots. She's actually wearing our district's military uniform.

Behind her were dozens of others, lining up vertically against the door. It seems they were blocking me to go outside or at least from my point of view and the way I comprehend it. Are they going to transport me immediately?

I didn't even bid a proper and formal farewell to my loved ones. There's my Mom, my two brothers, Celt and others. I must do anything, I need to do anything but in the end it was all like I can't do anything. Every possibility to get out is invalidated by the army around me. I'm outnumbered by ten to one and I feel like a trapped prey right around the snare.

In that time, all I could do is smile before tears again formulate and finally fall in my face. I never imagined that crying so much can be weary and now I am on the verge of keeping my eyes stay open just before something stings in my chest. There's a red and black feather while it sticks in my flesh and I finally rested.

For such a first timer to be hit directly with a bad luck, that's quite unbelievable. But I'm not the only one who have been like this, there are far more others. Others who died in that D's and won it but nothing else matters now, nothing else. I just turned on eighteen last week ago and I even mess my own cake just by slicing it. Well, that were a few days ago but it felt already like years.

How would my death look like? Will it be slow and painful or would it be swift that I didn't even know that I'm already dead?

When I woke up, there's nothing but silence greeting me. I blinked my eyes for a moment just in case I may be dreaming then I pinched my arm and felt the awful pain and concluded that I am already awake. One part of me knows that I'm drugged and the second one is still desperately picturing me in D's dying.

It's funny though that I supress a laugh, I may even lose my right mind when I do it, there's just so many ways to die in that battlefield but since I'm chosen better to participate in it wholeheartedly of course. Maybe, if by sheer luck, I can win the D's and bag the handsome money or beautiful prize and start anew but that is if I win it. I don't know what kind of humanity ravages I'll be confronting in that game.

But I'm from the faction named Dimn, a faction that can manipulate people's mind through illusion. If I can just train well for the given time, I can finish them off one by one. The imagination of me feeding nightmares on my contenders and manipulating them to think I'm an innocent animal before forcing them to kill each other is hilarious but it could be my only weapon once I'm transported in Hell.

The door slams open with the woman very familiar to me stands in front of my bed. I'm pretty sure that I'm in an establishment that my family can't get through or my friends. "Kaelyn Acoureg," she said my name forcefully like every authority was hers.

I've been waiting for this time. Someone to say it in front of me. This is the moment I barely tried to evade and escape but I think it's not possible already. For a moment, what comes right the next moment of her mouth is soundless terror. I decided to censor it in my hearings but I can really make out the words she just used just by seeing and she says "You've been chosen to represent Dimn for the 776th D's."

I might faint. It's no joke. I get the feeling that I've been pulled out of consciousness and I really wished that I will never get back again. Never ever. I'll be forever unconscious and literally dead. I really wished for that so hard.

"You'll be transported to the Central Death three days from now." She said as I uncover my ears. She said so many things but I didn't hear and forced myself to not witness it because the more I hear about me chosen to participate in D's, the more my heart breaks and my sane get-up tore away from me. I know her from our district that was the Elder of our Faction called Dimn and her name was Dilemma.

Dilemma is a totalitarian and disciplinarian. Everything she says must be acted. In this sector we were no more than her puppets and she is the puppeteer. She's fierce never show a feminine side like a soft spot for the one she loves. She rules us in here and every word that comes out from her tongue must be followed and luckily, she uses her brain and not her heart to do it so. As far as everyone knows, she's doing it well. Judging crimes without showing any interruption and punishing us correctly on how dire we violated the laws. It's the least we get from a ruler who never use her heart but sometimes she gets rash because the brain can be cold.

She's one of the personas that actually won the D's. She granted us the blessing to drink every day. I can still remember how Mom exemplifies her how a tragedy perfectly change a person. She and my Mom were friends, best friends even, so she knows every inch of Elder Dilemma's personhood.

I can still remember her saying "Dilemma is a sweet girl once. Just like the other normal girls around, she was also like that in the past. But unlike them, she was gentle and reserved and the most prominent feature we know of her was selfless. That was before she was Factioned and picked to represent us for the D's. She got through hell in it and fight with her bit of sanity to rationalize the hellish nightmare she just undergone. She allied someone in there, her first and last love. They helped each other until the numbers thinned out. Then there are only two of them left and one must arise as the winner." I never got the ending because Mom is already crying before she can finish it and is in the verge to collapse.

I tried asking the others what it was but they never answered either they pretended on not hearing me or just handing me a cold shoulder. It seems I will never know the answer. But I'm pretty sure that the ending is not pleasant because the Dilemma I heard from the tales is completely opposite to what I just saw now. It must be very painful to drive such an innocent person to a fierce one, I think so.

The next day, I was instructed to put on the dried clothes. The clothes that I wore yesterday a pair of plain white shirt and loosed jeans with the grey jacket but I found one thing is missing and that is the identification card I just wore yesterday. Instead, I found the old necklace, the heirloom, which my mother gave me.

Then I remember "Apparently, we aren't picked for many years for the D's just by wearing that." That thought of it sends thousands of needles into my body like I was punctured but every needles sends a deadly poison and that is anger.

Right now, I want to scream and I even grabbed the necklace and throw it as hard as I could against the wall of my confined room. Then I let go an angry scream. I screamed and shouted at my topmost breath. I didn't stop until my lungs burned and my throat hurts. Irritated, discouraged, and scared - I can't deny all of them because I really felt them at once. Hopeless? That's the word I'm finding for hours even before I slept. Such beautiful word without the suffix and such ugly when added with less. It's no more than a twin of the word 'desperate.'

After a moment of inhaling and exhaling, which is a great therapy, I've calmed myself down. As I breathe out, I tried my very best to at least lessen the burden of my piling frustration.

I've exhausted my voice enough that it is already hoarse. Who would not after all of those screaming? Still, the thought of my participation in the D's never got into my head and I can't just convince myself so easily to believe that I am chosen. All of this is a dream ---- it must be dream, please.

I pulled my legs and quickly wore the furry slippers beside my hospital bed. The warmth and the tickling feeling of the furry slippers tell me that this is not really a dream. It will never be a dream but at least I've think of it that way so that I wouldn't lose my mind entirely.

Most of my mind had already been invaded by fear and I will have a hard time restoring it especially moments after I drew my last breath. I just wanted to die happily and contented. It's all I want for now and I doubt that it will change because for me, dying in the D's with your mind intact is already an immeasurable blessing.

I scanned the spacious room and yeah, it is really spacious. There's only one door and that must lead to the bathroom. I need to use it. I wonder how Kile and Kite is doing now.

I grabbed the recently cleaned clothes of mine. It's identical to mine so it must be really mine. I wear what I wore yesterday although the stains of blood from my little brothers were gone now. I stare on my reflection and realize this is torturous for me. One is that I wore this when I was picked in the Factioning and two is that it was also this that was soaked by my little brother's blood. Yeah! I was attempted to burn it but what am I going to wear? Toilet paper? Or the blanket?

Wearing this means reliving the nightmare yesterday and reviving the unbearable emotion that goes along with it. Shockingly, I look fresh for a girl who was picked to face her demise except for the bloody red eyes that won't stop crying. Oh! And it's swollen too.

"Look at you, participating in the D's so frail and weak," Just by looking, I can already pin-point my weakness and disadvantage against my contenders. I would be an easy kill with that thin arms and slender figure of mine. "What are you going to do in the D's?"

Another bomb ticks off as I realized that my helplessness is another factor that makes the win impossible for me. I can't help but to shout on the mirror "Sit pretty and wait for someone to slash your throat or burn you in flames!" I could have gone paranoid. That's not quite right. I am really a paranoid.

My frail figure can't even run a mile. No doubt that I'll be the first blood in the Bloodlust. By the time I knew it, I was again gasping for air and tears started to fall in the sink. How can I win? I don't want to die.

I stare again back to myself and instead of frustrating myself on my weaknesses, I began searching for my advantages. I tried really hard, desperately hard, to search for that edge but nothing comes to me. Physical prowess is a no-no judging on my looks and built. Mental maybe one but there's someone participating more intelligent than I am and besides my I.Q is just average. Survival skills, unfortunately, I don't know a lot about them except for starting a fire. Instincts, I had to admit, mine is rusty. Intuition... is it mine that sharp?

I've come again to a dead end - a really cornered corner. There's no strength in me exception is that I knew how to knit and crochet. Then I start questioning myself 'What's in you that the others don't have?'

Thinking about that, I noticed my well-endowed breast but that does not prove an advantage to me, does it? Besides I'm really bad at seduction and before I may be able to seduce someone, I have already an arrow in my chest.

And the art of Dimn. That's it! I learned the Art of Dimn that is strictly exclusive just in this Faction, the power to generate images - the art of illusionism. It may be my only defense and I can finally fight for my life but how long?

I conjured the power and a scarlet smoke starts to come out from my palm. This is the original and untainted form of illusion but all of us call it here as the Fog. Looking as it floats in air reassures and changes my chance of winning but still the outcome is not favourable but at least from 0, I had now 15% chance to win the game.

Yet with it changing a little bit of my status, I'm still irritated on myself and seriously frustrated too about being helpless in the D's. I can picture out myself in the battlefield either crying or cowering in fear. Let me say it, I'm vulnerable, soft and harmless and that is exactly the perfect image of a normal girl and not the ideal one of a girl that will about to enter a slaughter.

Normal girl. Yesterday, I'm one of them giggling and nothing to worry about but today, I'm no less than a warrior that will about to engage in combat and a normal girl does not have a place in the barbaric battle. Perhaps normal will never be applicable to me.

Ever again.

Chapter 3

After dressing up completely and a moment of self-criticizing and self-indulgence, I'm ready to go. Yet my question how I was chosen left unanswered so I better have the guts to ask about it later. Perhaps with my life on the line, it's necessary for me to have guts all the time. Anytime and anywhere.

Before I left up to what seems my confinement room, I cleaned little things and arranged also a few things such as the bed. What have I've been doing here?

I slammed the door and room shut as I walk out from the unusual wooden halls. I've got an order earlier ago in a piece of small rectangular card. It says that I'll be to report immediately after I cleared my mind a bit and dressed up to the Command Room. At the back, it shows direction to where I was and towards the Command Room. Cleared my mind a bit? They must have predicted this because all of the chosen ones got into what I've been through.

I entered the room exactly what the map says. Before me is a white door with silver-coated doorknob. This must be the room that I'm being reported to. With a gulp of saliva and gasp of air, I finally mustered up the courage scattered inside me to switch the doorknob open and what awaits me inside is a big screen and a couple of sofa paired with a table each.

"Good morning, Kaelyn!" Elder Dilemma greeted by always with a hard and cold voice. "How's your day?"

"Completely confusing." I said flatly because it's true. My day is a mix of reality and delusions.

"Don't worry, we all felt the same way," replied by a man just around the age of Elder Dilemma. With the catchy red hair, he must be Elder Bloodless.

He's one of the chosen participants for the D's and earned his win a couple of years ago. Its ten years ago, I think. Though I may not remember it but I watched his fight. It's a miracle he had survived. I don't know how he spent his prize after winning the D's.

"Have a seat!" he says.

We occupied a spaced sofa each of us very far apart. I'm in the middle, Elder Dilemma on the left two sofas away from me and Elder Bloodless on the right one sofa away from me.

They must have been here quite a while because they just have eaten their breakfast.

"Eat your breakfast," said Dilemma. "You won't have the energy to watch the screen."

"What is it all about?" I asked.

"Just a recap of the selection made by every Faction." Bloodless said dismissively. He's bored - that's a real fact. It's completely readable in his face that he is getting bored. It's just his nature that he wanted to engage in some sort of excitement. He's always aggressive and by it he won the D's with sheer willpower though he got the highest kills in the duration of the game which is 10.

I uncover the cellophane that was attached on my meal tray. It's to preserve the heat of the foods because the room is heavily air conditioned. Just a cup of rice and a juicy steak was there with a bottle of purified water. Okay, it may be not purified but still its water.

The screen is really big in front of us. It's like a mini-theater in here.

"You'll be seeing all of your contenders here and now and how they're picked," Dilemma said as she pushed a button in the remote and the screen goes alive.

It's blindly hurting at first since because the room is dark. But one by one I can see it ----- my contenders. And believe me, none of them are weak, not a single one.

Since our Faction is numbered as 10 that mean my recap would be the tenth one. But I still didn't know what I did because all of the time I cried and cried. Wait! I cried! The recap will be aired nationwide!

Anyway, the order goes around like this:

1. Dorswel

2. Adre

3. Dimpleblutter

4. Saxterphono

5. Trotechass

6. Cadent

7. Gattlegre

8. Otheremone

9. Villistress

10. Dimn

11. Yterfrost

12. Zenhr

13. Lettrom

14. Uo

15. Waithre

When it's my turn, I turned out to be completely pathetic. I cried and run and whimper and finally staring in the stair into nothingness as the edge is barricaded with army.

When it was all gone and done, the ones that were glued in my mind are the districts of Dorswel, Saxterphono, Trotechass, Gattlegre, Lettrom, Uo, Cadent and Zenhr. They are the most vicious one that their terror seeps through even in the screen. You could see in their built and body that they really trained hard to prepare themselves for the D's.

The Dorswel guy is five times stronger than I am and just by looking in his muscled arms, he could pack a painful punch. Colored with hazel brown eyes, it seems he is hungry for blood. Definitely, he's both charismatic and deadly.

The Saxterphono girl was much shorter than I am but still looking on those small and slippery hands decorated with scars that already healed years ago, I knew she's been throwing sharp things and by this time, she must have mastered it already.

The Trotechass is also a problem. She's with amber eyes and blonde hair but just by looking on those eyes you could see the same what the Dorswel guy needed. She is also addicted to blood.

The Gattlegre and Uo women participants are of the same build. Medium and a little taller and fatter than I am but not to the point where do you could call it obese but something bugs me about their muscles in the legs. Have they been running because those well-trained muscles could run as fast as a cheetah?

The Lettrom maybe little and much more thinly than I am but just by looking on how he handles flame can be compared to their Elders. In his footage, he was shown practicing directly after being chosen. The power of his unleashed flames and how well he manages it can unleash a hellfire immediately.

The Cadent is a woman not much older than the Lettrom whom I suspected as the second to the youngest participant with glittery green curly hair. She uses a staff to fight but nonetheless impressive as she can turn to ash anything she swings that stick upon.

Finally, the Zenhr man who also uses the same weapon but his staff can unimaginably stretch with a couple of chains and had a long elongated bendable sharp blade in the edge. Apart from he's handling it like a master, nothing much is known to him.

These are the dangerous participants in the D's and there's a great chance that one of them will kill me and in their hands I'll die. I looked there petrified as Elder Dilemma shut it down. Though my breakfast is eaten but I can feel it going upwards towards my throat.

"So that's all of your contenders," Elder Bloodless said as if he was not worried at all. Why would he be worried? He's not the one who'll going to face the slaughter. I should be the one since I'll be facing those lethal opponents two days from now.

"You have your free time now until afternoon because you'll be oriented and be practiced with illusionism make sure you're a fast learner because our time is short," Dilemma said. "But before going out, why won't you show us how well can you project an illusion?"

I extended my arms and projects the smoking purified form of the illusion. It flickered at first before it bursts. It was still seeping in the center of my palms.

Bloodless stared on it, unimpressed. He then diverted his attention on the screen. "How about flood the entire room with anything you like?"

I strived hard to do what he asked. I formulate the very image of what I wanted the room to be like. This is basic of the Art of Dimn - picture out then project.

Flaming, burning, and blazing. I wanted this room to be engulfed in flames. With the different smell of burning products from fabric to plastic to leaves. The crackling of woods as the flames devours them. The smokes that muster and trapped in this little room. I picture all of it vividly and end it when everything is thought of.

I open my eyes in the blurry room. Flames glistening everywhere from the sofa where we sit to the four corners of it. The crackling of woods as the fire contacted them. The different disgusting smell that almost suffocate my lungs.

Yet Dilemma and Bloodless looks on me still unimpressed. They can see everything I made them, can they? But what's with the intimidating and disappointing eyes staggering at me? They're scary, really scary.

"Is that all Miss Acoureg?" Dilemma asked with unsatisfied looks.

"That's not even near!" Bloodless added.