SSS-Ranked Summoner: Only I Summon All Heroes And Heroines Of Legend-Chapter 14: The Inter-House Trial

The hall was massive.

That was the first thing that landed when Altair walked through the doors with the rest of the Daeryion freshmen, the sheer scale of it.

The ceiling vaulted so high above them that the upper rafters disappeared into shadow, which made sense once you thought about it. If the academy was going to host battles between summoned creatures, the architecture had to accommodate the possibility that someone might call something large.

And loud.

The fighting floor was the centrepiece. It was wide and open. Around it, tiered seating rose on three sides in curved rows, colour-coded by house. Halo’s section was the loudest already, all white and gold, already three-quarters full with both freshmen and upperclassmen who’d apparently decided this was worth skipping whatever else they had going on.

Slykhar sat opposite them in black and ash, smaller in number but making up for it in attitude. Berdania’s forest green filled the section to the left, quieter, more composed in their conduct.

Daeryion red was closest to the floor, which meant the walk from their seats to the arena was the shortest.

The elite section sat elevated above the rest. With carved seating and better cushioning. Staff filled most of it. And at the center, the principal. Principal Baldwin Woxingthon. He sat with peculiar stillness, draped in a formal robe. His grey hair pulled back.

The hall hit its maximum occupancy, the collective chatter settling into a steady, low ;eve;;ed hum.

Then Baldwin stood.

The silence that followed was a sudden, sharp drop in frequency. That was the effect he had.

"Welcome," he said. His voice carried without effort, filling the hall immediately. "To your first trial."He paused for a second.

"You are freshmen. The trial you will participate in today is not a showcase, and not a performance for our benefit." His eyes moved across the seating, unhurried. "It is a calibration. For us to understand where you are. And more importantly, for you to understand the same."

"...."

"Fight well, learn your strengths and your weakness, and goodluck."

He sat back down.

Master Oz rose from the staff section and descended to the floor level, holding a clipboard in hand, he stood on an elevation at the edge of the fighting space.

"Right." He cleared his throat once. "A simple framework for this term’s trials," he began. "Representatives of the Great Houses are pitted against one another. Your bound summon will be your blade, victory is declared only by forfeit, a total knockout, or my intervention."He clicked his pen, the sound echoing like a snapped bone.

"And yes, I will intervene if I feel it necessary. You are permitted to bolster your summon through indirect arts. However," he leaned forward, his eyes narrowing, "if you choose to step your own feet into the arena, that is your gamble and your peril. The Academy bears no responsibility for your soul once you cross that threshold."

A few freshmen exchanged looks.

"This is a training exercise," Oz continued. "Nothing more. But performing well here will carry weight as you progress through your years at this academy, so take it seriously." He looked up from the clipboard. "And fight fair."

He let that sink, before proceeding.

"First match."

The hall sharpened. That crowd giving quality of attention as they realized it was about to begin.

"Of House Halo." Oz’s voice had shifted had become more formal. "Svenja Hohenzollern."

The reaction was immediate.

From the freshmen to the upperclassmen in the Halo section, and then spreading outward like a ripple reaching every corner of the hall. Murmurs layered over murmurs. Altair caught fragments of the murmur, he could make perfect sense of it, but the tone said everything.

She’d gathered a reputation fast. That was interesting.

She emerged from the Halo section without theatrics, she stood, almost like a stringed puppet, moved, and descended to the arena floor. Blonde hair styled into two tight pigtails. Halo uniform worn with the tie removed and socks pulled higher than casuals wore. She walked with her arms already folded across her chest.

Her aura hit the floor before she reached the center of it.

The freshmen all felt it, a pressure that preceded her, settling into the space and making the air quality subtly different. A few in the front rows adjusted in their seats instinctively.

She stood at her end of the arena. Arms still folded. Her expression showed exactly nothing, empty and hollow.

Oz cleared his throat. "Of House Berdania. Eric Galador."

A boy stood from a cluster of three. His friends reached out as he passed them. GIving shoulder taps and quiet words, their language showed they believed in each other and were slightly worried about expressing it out loud.

Eric walked down to the arena with his chin up. He stood at his end and looked across at Svenja, who did not look back at him.

"Ready?"

"Ready"

Silence from Svenja’s end.

"Begin."

"Schwarzes Loch. Weißes Loch."

(transl: Black hole. White hole.)

Svenja acted first. Her hands remained fixed in their folded position as a summoning seal manifested over her, and two orbs materialised in orbit around her, roughly basketball-sized, their surfaces cycling between black and white in slow, hypnotic rotation.

She walked forward into the arena proper, still maintaining her posture.

Eric dropped to both knees, palming his hands on the arena floor as his summoning seal glowed. He said nothing, only letting out a strong groan as he channelled much of his mana into the earth. What responded was a...

RUMBLE!!!

The ground cracked open and something enormous answered the call.

Four meters of assembled rock and compacted earth groaned upright from the fracture. The roar it released shook the air. Altair felt it in his sternum from the seating.

Around him, the freshman section reacted, with some leaning forward, and others pressing back.

Svenja stopped, almost already at the stage center.

"Crush, Halbrund!" Eric ordered, stepping further away from the summon as it began its charge towards Svenja.

Halbrund covered the distance to Svenja in five steps that each landed like a minor earthquake. Arriving with one massive arm raised, it descended immediately.

"Schwarzes Loch."

One orb moved. Its colour locked to full black and the other white, a change Altair registered immediately.

The black orb intercepted the rock arm’s descent, blocking it , but something else followed. From the point of contact, the fist was gone, pulled inward into the orb. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

And then,

The golem began to lose its upper half.

Piece by piece. Chunk by chunk. Stone and earth drawn into the black orb like the thing was simply being unmade.

"Wait..." Eric stepped forward. "Stop! I forfeit!"

Svenja didn’t stop.

"Stop it!" His voice cracked on the second word, fear evident in his tone.

"Svenja." Oz’s voice cut across the arena with a different register. Loud and absolute.

She stopped.

But by then the upper half of the golem was gone. The lower half stood for a moment, then collapsed sideways in a slow, anticlimactic heap, raising dust from the impact.

Oz exhaled through his nose. "Don’t get carried away. It’s a training exercise." Pausing momentarily before announcing.

"Svenja wins."

She dispelled both orbs without looking at either of them. No acknowledgment of the crowd which had gone considerably louder, or Eric who was staring at what remained of Halbrund in absolute awe. She just turned and walked back.

Eric took a moment, then dispelled the remnant of his golem, and walked back to his section with an expression of total ruin.

"Next." Oz checked his clipboard. "Of House Slykhar. Omar Hassan."

A figure stood from the Slykhar section, younger-looking than Altair, twelve if the face was telling the truth, though the build said older. Black turban wrapped neatly around his head. A scar ran diagonal across one cheek. He descended to the arena flipping a coin. Like the walk down was boring him.

"And of House Daeryion."

"Altair Elfender."

His expression didn’t change.

Beside him, Finn turned. And for the first time since Satoshi had met the boy, the sunrise-bright energy was dialled down. What was there instead was something that looked almost like worry.

Altair stood. Brushed his Daeryion red. And walked down.

The hall responded to his name in whispers.

"The Elfender scorn found his way here?" A voice from somewhere in the upper seating, not bothering to be quiet about it.

"What do you mean?" Someone nearby asked.

He didn’t look for the source. He’d outgrown that now. He scanned instead with purpose. Taking inventory or worthwhile figures.

Ryka, the girl from registration who’d summoned the juvenile wyvern, was seated in the Halo section draped in white and gold. He’d suspected, Halo was building something this year. Ryka and Svenja already. He wondered who else they were hiding.

His eyes moved to Berdania.

Fleur had been watching for exactly the moment he’d look over. When their eyes met she smiled quickly. He returned it with a slight smirk and turned back to watch his step as he descended to the floor.

He reached the stage and looked across. Satoshi found the Slykhar section without trying. Prince Lex sat near the front of it, watching with a focused attention.

"Hey, uncle." He gestured with a tilt of his head. "Over here."

Omar Hassan was still flipping the coin. He caught it one final time and then pocketed it and looked with brand audacity.

Altair turned back to him.

"Ready?" Master Oz’s voice cut through the tension.

They both nodded.

"Begin."