Soon afterward everyone travelled by ship to Ree Island for the training camp, and Celis explained that they would begin with a small training program.
Lisha reminded them all that Knight Squadron training was not a joke.
Lux noticed an old building standing further up the island while Celis announced that they would open with a hundred swings. She trained alongside everyone else and drove herself harder than any of them.
Later, when Lisha had been reduced to a heap of exhaustion, Krulcifer explained that Celis always worked twice as hard as the people around her.
Celis looked perfect at it. But Lux noticed that she also seemed to be carrying something heavy that had nothing to do with the training.
That evening she told everyone to go back to their rooms and rest. Lux went to her instead and explained that he had never returned the clothes she had lent him earlier.
Celis smiled and told him to keep them as a gift, since he had honestly carried them all the way to the island.
Noct remarked that Lux actually looked good in them.
Soon afterward Sonia appeared and told Lux that Celis had urgently asked to see him.
When Lux arrived, he found Celis lying down and waiting for a massage, and stopped dead. He was thoroughly embarrassed, because he had been given to understand that Celis disliked men.
As she began to wake, Lux hurried to change back into his own clothes.
Celis, waking to find him there, was every bit as shocked as he was. Lux apologized and explained that he still had work to finish. Celis then suggested that the two of them meet privately during tomorrow's lunch break.
Before he left, Celis noticed his sword and commented on how beautiful it was. Once Lux confirmed the sword belonged to him, she returned it carefully and reminded him to treasure it.
Outside the room, Lux ran into Sonia, who questioned him suspiciously about who he really was.
Krulcifer appeared and came to his defense, telling Sonia to stop interrogating him, and pointing out that Sonia herself had been lurking outside Celis's room. Embarrassed and irritated, Sonia glared at her and walked away.
Krulcifer then told Lux warmly that she could never fail to recognize her beloved Lux, even in disguise.
She also mentioned that Sonia was the person most determined to have him removed from the academy.
Later that night Philuffy stood watching the building on the hill while Lux rested nearby.
She asked him gently whether she could hug him the way his mother once had.
Lux refused awkwardly and insisted that he was not a child anymore.
Philuffy replied calmly that to her, Lux had never really changed at all.
Then she promised that even if he lost against Celis, she would fight Celis herself, because she refused to let him leave the academy.
Touched by her loyalty, Lux thanked her sincerely and promised he would do his best.
The next day Lux waited for Celis during the lunch break. When she arrived she took his hand and dragged him off shopping.
The two of them spent the time looking at clothes. Lux waited nervously outside one of the stores while Celis changed inside.
Eventually she admitted that she struggled to understand how she was supposed to treat the younger students. She worried that she had failed as an upperclassman, and she was afraid of disappointing her strict father.
Later, while Lux was quietly eating biscuits beside her, Celis fell asleep.
When she woke, Lux told her she did not have to force herself to look strong all the time.
Celis insisted immediately that she was the captain of the Knight Squadron, and that a captain could not show weakness.
Lux asked gently whether constantly pretending to be perfect was really necessary.
Celis answered that truly strong people were the ones who could endure loneliness by themselves.
Then Lux laughed, because he had remembered her talking to the cat.
Embarrassed all over again, Celis admitted that she had spent most of her time alone in the capital, which had eventually left her with strange habits, such as holding conversations with animals. She also revealed that people had mistakenly decided she hated men because of her cold personality.
Shocked, Lux asked whether she truly had no problem with men at all.
Celis smiled shyly and said quietly that it was a secret, which left Lux completely surprised.
In the royal capital of Atismata, government officials were discussing the mysterious disappearance of Ragnarok. Instead of finding the legendary creature, the kingdom's investigators had recovered only an empty shell. Nobody could explain where it had gone, and the discovery raised the possibility that a far greater threat was still out there.
On Ree Island, the members of the academy were preparing for the next stage of the camp.
Celis arrived in a swimsuit for what she believed would be swimming practice. Her classmates teased her for treating it so seriously, and in the middle of it Celis explained that she did not dislike boys the way everyone assumed. She admired them deeply, in fact, because her greatest teacher had been a kind and honorable man who had shaped her entire life.
She simply did not know how to interact with them. As the daughter of one of the four great noble houses, and as captain of the academy's Knight Squadron, she believed she had to remain independent rather than rely on anyone.
Meanwhile, Lux found himself awkwardly surrounded by girls enjoying the beach. Embarrassed by the whole situation, he escaped as soon as Philuffy splashed him with water.
Hoping to avoid any further embarrassment, he went over to Lisha, only to discover that everyone was treating the camp like a holiday.
Celis remained focused entirely on training, and watching her, Lux remembered an earlier conversation in which she had revealed that almost everything she knew about swordsmanship had been taught to her by Wade, Lux's grandfather. She had also confessed that she believed she was responsible for his death, because she had exposed corruption within the former Arcadia Empire.
It was that guilt, she said, which had made her dedicate herself to protecting Lux from danger.
At the same time, Lux privately understood that he could not afford to lose the coming duel. Too much depended on it.
The following morning, Lux and Celis arrived at the arena for their official duel. The referee announced that the winner would be granted any reasonable request, which made the match more significant still.
Many of the students expected Lux to summon Bahamut. Instead he chose to fight with Wyvern, and several of the spectators were visibly surprised. Bahamut's true identity as the machine of the Black Hero remained a carefully guarded secret from most of the academy.
Before the duel could properly unfold, events took an unexpected turn elsewhere on the island.
Two investigators confronted a suspicious masked individual whom they identified as a spy from the Hibberg Republic.
The stranger abandoned the disguise, revealing herself as Sonia. She announced calmly that her true mission was to destroy the military strength of the new kingdom, and summoned a powerful Drag Knight while the music of a flute drifted across the island. The time for games, Sonia declared, had ended. The real battle was about to begin.
Back at the arena, Celis opened the duel with devastating lightning attacks. She followed at once with her most powerful technique, Starlight Zero, hoping to overwhelm Lux before he could counterattack.
Then the ground began shaking violently beneath everybody's feet.
Gigantic tentacles erupted out of the earth, interrupting the duel and striking at everything nearby. Within moments a monstrous creature came up from below the ground, and a friendly competition became a desperate struggle for survival that forced every warrior present to abandon their personal rivalries and protect the innocent people around them.