Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

...The arrows entering her domain started to freeze upon entry, the added weight made it so that all the arrows started to fly weirdly, unable to hit anything at all.

stepping up to the gate she extended her hand as the gate froze over entirely, with a quick grasping motion the gate shattered into millions of tiny pieces and scattered all over the room and the ground. 

As Soli strolled into the gates, soldiers came running out to greet her as they all began to be rooted in place. Freezing from the legs up, walking through the main door the shadows caught her attention as she froze the entirety of the corridor forcing those hiding in the shadows to lunge out at her. 

Huge icicles emerged from the ground piercing the bodies of the assassins as she continued moving forward.

On the other stage, Basil was advancing through the castle as well, finding his way to the main room of the boss. 

The two of them pushed open the doors in their castles respectively as they spotted the king sitting on the throne. 

Both of them felt their blood boiling. This was it, the moment they had been waiting for, the king was right in front of them. They just had to fight him and win. 

From upon the throne, there was a cold gaze, one that would chill the spine of the toughest soldier. A sinister smile emerged from the King, followed by a slight laugh. 

---

In the control room, the chief instructor felt the hairs on the back of his neck tingle as he talked to the instructor in charge of the trials. 

"What the heck is this? It's so damn creepy. Did you program it to do this?"

"Er… boss, I think it's what the AI is doing on its own, it might be using it as a form of intimidation to let itself have an edge."

"Alright, let's trust the AI since the two of them made it this far, let's hope the AI has ways to defend itself."

---

Soli and Basil looked upon the throne, they were two completely different people with two completely different ideologies. 

Soli was calm and composed planning ahead before wanting to engage the King, Basil was raring to go and couldn't wait to dash in to fight the King in a one on one. 

The King on the throne mirrored its action to them beckoning them to come forward. 

Soli wasn't baited by this, but Basil, on the other hand, ran straight in, he was affected by the provocation.

"Look! That's how a real man should be! Face the king!"

"I'm sorry but Soli isn't a man, to begin with, I still think her approach is correct."

The crowds were filled with people who were defending both of them. 

As Basil stepped forward, two spears were thrust into him from his back, making his HP drop to half. 

"Damn it! It's an ambush!"

Basil shouted, he had expected to go one on one with the king but didn't expect the king to play dirty and ambush him like that. 

"It doesn't matter! You will burn to a crisp!"

Basil ignored the spears and went directly for the soldiers, grabbing hold of both their heads, he incinerated them till they were nothing but dust. 

Basil turned to look at the king as he pointed his finger at him. You're next! 

Soli was finally taking her first step into the room, unlike Basil she had checked her surroundings before she entered and had caught the 2 soldiers before they could deal any damage to her. She crushed them entirely before walking step by step towards the king. 

As she approached the King, she instinctively felt something amiss. She wiped her forehead with her sleeves only to notice that her sleeves were wet. 

"Am I perspiring?"

The room's temperature escalated as the surroundings became warmer and warmer. The king on the throne still laughing wildly as he snapped his fingers. From behind the throne emerged an orb as the orb floated out, it took shape and became the form of a humanoid. 

Soli's eyes widened as she looked at the humanoid figure, the figure looked so damn familiar. 

In the other room, Basil encountered the same thing, but instead of feeling warm, his breath fogged up as the room was plunged into subzero temperatures. 

The same orb appeared in front of him, but taking on a different form, it was in the form of a female and was now standing in front of him. 

Basil didn't want to waste any more time and just charged forward, he threw a fireball towards the female, as the fireball blazed through the air it slowed down and vanished as the ground around the black silhouette turned into ice, shocking Basil entirely. 

On the other stage, Soli engaged the silhouette with caution, she decided on a two-pronged attack launching an icicle while attempting to freeze the ground he was standing on. 

Licks of flames emerged as the icicle evaporated before even reaching him, the ice on the ground melted before it even approached him. 

In the exact moment they launched their attacks, they realized who their opponent was, or rather who the silhouette was modeled after. 

---

"What the hell is this?"

The chief examiner asked. 

"Is it normal for an AI to be so advanced? You've really outdone yourself this time. Good job! In the future, when people think of testing they'll want to engage us. Hahahaha"

The chief examiner patted the examiner on the back as he started to laugh wildly. 

"Sir, this AI is special, it stores the data and generates the perfect counter for every student. When I found the base model for this AI, the instructions for its learning algorithm was really specific, looks like it doesn't let us down." 

The examiner smiled wryly as he smirked at the screen. 

"Also, make sure the data is destroyed after the test, we don't want this information to be spread anywhere. In fact, after every round dumps the data. We'd be in real trouble if it were leaked."

"Sure, I'll definitely delete it."

The examiner smiled as he whispered to himself. His smirk was more prominent than before. 

--- 

In the stands the audiences were dumbfounded, a lot of them recognized who Basil and Soli were facing and were visibly shook.