The 2nd phase was finally over, and every remaining examinee was relieved. Mia caught their attention and started walking towards the Blessed House at a moderate pacing, with the contestants right behind her. As they expected, the walk was at least 5-6 minutes long across the dreadfully long pillar, but they made it.

The second Mia opened the door, every examinee was in shock. Well, almost everyone. Saga kept the same expression since he had arrived. The others looked around in shock, spotting out the beautiful details of the pure white house, from the perfectly aligned columns to the gorgeous paintings. Knox had never seen something so incredible in his entire life.

“This place,” started Knox. “It’s so big and clean. It must’ve cost fortune to build this place.”

Blake nodded half-mindedly, as he still was distracted by the house. “Man, if me and my boys owned a place like this, I don’t know what I’d do!”

From the front, Mia, who was surrounded by 2 soldiers on each side, cleared her throat and said, “Attention everyone! Please take a left here and take a seat anywhere you’d like at the table. You should also feel free to eat immediately after you’ve been seated.”

With no hesitation, all of the examinees hastily walked to the dining room. As soon as the doors flung open, everyone’s minds were on the food. The smell alone made their mouth’s water and stomach’s grumble. One by one they took a seat at the table, digging in at once to the large selection of food, to perfectly cooked chicken to juicy stake, and that wasn’t all. Knox counted out several other items such as fresh fruit, spaghetti, turkey, stuffing, onions, mixed vegetables, cranberry sauce and boiled ham. As both Knox and Blake waited in line, watching one contestant sit down after another, they were itching to sit down and start feasting.

As soon as they reached their seats, they hogged the food and started eating. Blake was literally stuffing the food down his throat in handfuls.

“You have interesting table manners,” said Silver, who was sitting across from him and Knox.

“How can’t you eat like this?” asked Blake. “You only get a few chances in your lifetime to get good ass food like this!”

“Yeah, I agree,” said Knox, intruding the conversation. “You can’t go wrong with rich people food.” Silver shrugged and started to cut up his turkey.

Above the table on a balcony that stood at least 10 feet above the ground, Mia watched over them silently. From a door behind her, Vauhan walked in, looking both unpleased and curious.

Mia bowed before him and said, “Hello, sir.”

Vauhan didn’t answer right away. At first he looked over the balcony and watched for several seconds as the psychics ate. He gave off a disgusted expression. “First you let those things into my house, and now they’re contaminating my precious food?”

“I understand you’re not happy about us feeding them, but the next phase is going to be much tougher than the last 2. We’re even ordering a blimp to reach the examination site.”

“I see,” he said. It was obvious to Mia that he still wasn’t pleased. “So, how did the first 2 phases go?”

“Well, we originally had about 300 or so psychics, but the first phase caught most of them off guard when the majority of the elevators broke, so we only had about half of that number afterwards.”

Vauhan brought a vile look upon his face. “They must’ve had quite a fall. A good way to scare them shitless before they die.” Mia felt uneasy about Vauhan’s trash talking against psychics. She didn’t necessarily favor them, but she found it disturbing how he enjoyed their demise so much.

“The second phase was meant specifically to learn more about them and give me a better idea on who I should look out for and who is just trash.”

“Well,” said Vauhan, impatiently. “Give me some details. I wanna know who is worth my time.”

Mia nodded and pointed at Silver. “That boy with the silver hair. I forgot his real name, but he told me to just call him by Silver.”

“Silver? What is he, retarded? Who the hell names themselves after the color of their hair?”

“I wouldn’t just judge him by his name, sir. His psychic power allows him to manipulate wind.”

“Big deal, he can make wind blow, so what?”

“You see, sir, from what I understand, he may be fairly powerful. He told me that he’s a member of the Rao family.”

From hearing the word ‘Rao’, Vauhan took a deep breath and lit up a cigar. “I see, the Rao. Maybe he’s strong, but what if he’s after me?”

“That’s a good point, sir, but I wouldn’t let it bother you. He told me that he’s a runaway, so we can guess that he might be here for a different reason.”

Vauhan nodded, but he still didn’t feel safe. “Just have a few extra soldiers around him just in case things go wrong. Anyways, who else?”

Mia quickly pointed towards Keira. “Her name’s Keira. A feisty woman for sure, but she seems to have great endurance. I don’t know her power, but she definitely makes an impact.”

Vauhan shrugged, seeming uninterested. “Who else?”

“Him, the one with the snake tattoo.” Vauhan examined him carefully, and so far, Bain was the only one who stuck out. “Like Keira, he’s got great endurance, but he had kind of a demented feel about him. It was kind of hard to explain, but I can tell you that he’s something special.”

“Yes, he does look strong. Maybe he’s one of the very few idiots here that are worth having. Anyone else?”

“Yes, sir. I saved these 2 for last because they definitely stuck out the most to me. Their names are Saga Yamada and Knox Blood.” She pointed them out for Vauhan, who took his time to study them both.

“Them? They’re just little kids. We should’ve put an age limit on this test to avoid this kind of thing!”

Mia shook her head. “You’ve got the wrong idea, Mr. Vauhan. These two aren’t normal kids, they’re special. They’ve both proven to me that they have what it takes to take out the assassin.”

“Really?” he asked in disbelief. “How so?”

“The small boy, Saga. He was able to penetrate the pillar! We’ve tried with some of the strongest steel on earth against the pillar, but none of it has worked, yet this kind found a way through it. You must agree that that is very impressive!”

“You’re right, that is incredible. And the other boy? Knick, or whatever his name was.”

“Knox, sir. You see, he-” Mia wanted to speak about Knox’s father, but she knew that revealing something like this during such harsh times wouldn’t be appropriate. “You’ll know soon enough, sir. He’s not an average psychic, I can tell you that.”


Back at the dining table, both Blake and Knox were sitting back in their chairs with their hands placed over their full stomachs. They were both exhausted from eating all of the food, but it was so delicious that they need more. “I…must…eat more!” said Blake, as he tried reaching towards the stuffing.

Tokar smacked his hand away. “Stop being ridiculous,” said Tokar. “If you two eat anymore, your stomachs are going to burst.”

“No way, man. I got an iron stomach, I can eat ALL the food.”

“I’m doing this for your own sake, Blake. The next phase starts in about an hour, and if your stomach starts to ache in the middle of it, you’ll regret it.”

Blake shrugged and giggled. “Dude, it’s totally worth it.”

“Second that,” said Knox, as he fist bumped Blake and went to reach for more food. Tokar simply rolled his eyes.

“Get away from me you perverted freak!” The high pitched scream startled everyone at the table, causing them to go silent. They all looked over at Keira, who was holding a slightly overweight man by the collar. He wore a small pair of glasses and his head was on the verge of balding. His scruffy beard was definitely the factor that stand out the most, other than his light blue shirt of the popular T.V series, KuKuKu KuKu KuKu.

“What are you doing, babe?” asked the overweight man. Knox, Blake and even Tokar had to hold back their laughing after hearing the man‘s nerdy voice. “You shouldn’t get mad at the super otaku himself, Bugie.”

“I don’t give a s***, fat ass! I should whoop your ass for even looking at my tits, let alone touching them.”

Bugie smiled attempted to slick back his brown, balding hair. “Yeah, I’m pretty sexy, ain’t I?”

To responds, Keira smacked him across his left cheek, leaving a red handprint. Some of the more immature examinees, such as Blake, busted into laughter. “Holy s***,” said Blake. “That was freaking hilarious!”

Tokar sighed and rubbed his eyes. “You should stop laughing, Blake. She might come after you next.”

“Man, you worry too much.”

Knox tapped his soldier, and tried muttering some words with his mouth full of food. “Seriously, Blake. It’s not that funny anymore.”

“Eh, whatever. You guys are no fun.”


“Listen, girl,” Bugie winked his eye and tried putting on a sexy expression over his chubby face. “You need to calm down and accept that Bugie is you new man.” Keira’s face went bright red from embarrassment.

“You freaking creep!” she said. “Take this, asshole!” She took a nearly full bowl of mashed potatoes and dragged it near her. She then grabbed Bugie’s head and shoved into the potatoes, continuing to push it down. Some of the examinees near her started going crazy, laughing so hard that they were on the ground. She continued to drown Bugie’s head in mashed potatoes until a couple of guards had to pull her off of him.

Knox and Tokar watched Blake laugh so hard that his face went red. “Holy s***!” he yelled out. “I’m freaking dying right now! That b**** is freaking crazy!” Unfortunately for Blake, Keira just happened to hear him.

“What was that?” she asked, as she struggled to escape the guards. “How about you say that again, you retard!”

Knox tugged Blake’s overcoat, getting his attention. “Seriously, Blake, cut it out. You’ve pissed her off enough today. If this continues you two could get disqualified.”

“Are you kidding, Knox? I’m not letting some middle-aged broad boss me around. We got a mind of our own for a reason.” He got out of his seat and glared over at Keira, who was staring angrily back. “Listen b****, you need to smoke a blunt.”

Tokar looked at Blake as if he was an idiot, which Tokar ultimately thinks Blake is. “Of all insults to say, you tell her to smoke a blunt? You must be joking!” Knox stayed speechless and acted like he never even met Blake.

She finally made her way out of the guard’s arms and ran to the table, getting close to Blake. “You cocky little s***, I’m going to mess you up so bad!” She prepared to throw a punch, but right before so, a loud voice echoed over the room. A voice that could’ve shattered windows if it wanted to. The only person it could’ve been is Mia.

Mia stood over the balcony. “Both of you, cut it out! If you don’t, then you die.” It was then that both Blake and Keira realized that two guards had assault rifles pointed at the back of their heads. Blake felt his limbs shaking as he slowly sat back into his seat. Knox gave him a smart ass look that said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that, retard’.

“Now, can we continue onto the third phase. Before we begin, this phase will be done in groups. I want groups of 3-4 psychics only! I’ll give you 5 minutes to form teams, so get to work!”

All of the examinees got up immediately, trying to be partners with the most intimidating psychics. Bain was instantly surrounded by a group of 10 psychics, but he refused to join anyone.

Knox looked over at Blake and Tokar and said, “I’m guessing we’ll be partners, then?” They both nodded as the team was formed with ease. Before they knew it, 5 minutes had passed, and almost everyone had a team.

Mia came down to the 1st floor and looked around before asking, “Does anyone not have a team mate?”

Silver looked around with an astonished look and examined the room. “Team mates?” he asked. “Since when have we needed team mates.”

“Well,” said Mia, who was clearly annoyed. “if you were paying attention instead of reading, you’d know what’s going on. Besides, where’d you even get that book?”

“Oh, this? I borrowed it from your private library during our lunch.” Knox and Blake looked at each other, very confused. They didn’t even notice that Silver had left the table during lunch.

“I see. I instructed the guards that no one was to leave the dining room during lunch, but you still somehow got out. You’re a sneaky bastard, aren’t you?” Silver respond with a small laugh, and continued reading. What a weirdo, thought Mia. I wonder if the rest of the Rao family is like him.

“Who else?” she asked. She counted out 3 hands, which came from Saga, Bain and Keira. “I see, so you guys must not be very social. I‘m surprised, Saga. You were really impressive in phase 2, so I expected people to come to you.”

“Kill yourself,” he said, firmly.

Mia sighed and thought to herself for a second. “Alright, since you 3 boys refused to listen, I really should disqualify you guys, but I’m feeling generous, so I’m going to put you 3 into a team.”

Silver looked away from his book and looked towards Mia, smiling. It seems my plan worked, thought Silver.

Both Bain and Saga could careless about their team, but the rest of the psychics felt uneasy. Blake didn’t understand why both Knox and Tokar looked worried. Blake said, “I don’t get it, what’s the big deal.”

“It’s unfortunate,” explained Tokar. “It just so happens that 3 of the strongest psychics are on a team together, which means that they’re an essential threat to our game. It’s going to be tough with them around.”

“Yeah, good point. The exam just got a lot deadlier with them around.”



“And of course,” continued Mia, “my good friend Keira. It seems you and the druggy over there had a bit of a quarrel, so for your punishment, you can be on the same team!”

“What?” yelled out Keira. “Of all teams, you put me with him. I’d rather be with the demented samurai then him!”

Mia giggled mockingly and walked away, saying, “You should’ve thought about that before you flipped.” Keira dug her nails into her palm and watched angrily as Mia left the room.

“You know what, guys,” said Blake, “it’s not that bad. I mean if worst comes to worst, we can just use her as a sacrifice!”

“Oh, shut up!”