va Stu

w fire magic slammed into me-hot enough to

crowd. They had been wai

face was already twi

ed the red-hai

't f

eld, I let go. I opened mys

atching, it

ffinity truly was. It was no

ll-encom

it felt like a long-lost child coming home. My chaotic ma

th, filling my res

the second step. A

same way, and

The fourth: solid earth. Th

low-it quickened. My footin

y a stunned silence. Everyo

's smirk froze. H

pure shock. He clearly hadn't expecte

ments. For everyone else, this was

Then I was running. My form blurred a

ieth step-the very center of

the stone, as if a beast asleep

nt five-colored runes-long faded, long dor

Green. Yell

om the bottom like a rising tide. With every

hundred years of first-years-had become a radian

No one seeme

embling. He understood now that he had pic

he light of the ancient ru

Ninety-nine.

the hourglass they had used to time

rified crowd, and at the brilliant

ut it carried to ever

t. Did

ppeared at the top of the Gauntlet-their