*Boooomm!!!*

Marla's fist made contact with Leyton's and he could instantly feel the difference in strength.

Moreover, he could feel that the illusionary dark lady around Marla was far from being a simple mirage.

It had substance!

Leyton gritted his teeth and forced out every single bit of Cosmic Energy out of his body through his punch, creating a kind of combination of Cosmic attack and physical strength.

Against another opponent, this would have been a formidable move, however, his opponent was Marla who was really making use of her physique,

His brilliant attack was rendered next to useless against her.

"Arrgghh" He yelled as he was thrown back by the force.

He closed his eye reflexively from the pain of his wounded fist but when he opened it barely a second later, Marla was nowhere to be found, he instinctively knew she was behind him and despite the pain on his arm, he forced himself to turn.

Big mistake.

Marla smiled and once he faced her, she sunk her fist into his midsection...

*Puh*

...he sat out blood but Marla did not stop.

She turned and gave him a roundhouse kick that knocked a few of his teeth loose and smacked him into a tree bark.

He bounced off the bark and fell forward, spitting out even more blood and slowly struggling to his feet,

Alas,

Marla was not done.

She was soon in front of him and she kicked upward, lifting the Fidwud heir to his feet with her kick.

For a while, it seemed as though Leyton was just going to stay afloat but Marla did not wait for him to be back on the ground as she launched a kick to his ribs.

*Bam*

The moment the kick connected, Leyton grabbed her leg and attached a Rank 2 rune to it.

By the time the kick knocked him back, he activated the Rune and...

*Booommmm!*

...it exploded and knocked Marla back with her clothes smoking from the Rune's effect that seemed to have bypassed the protection of the illusionary Dark lady around her.

Leyton had adjusted himself in the air and managed to land on his knees.

He watched Marla stand to her feet with a smile and took a leaf a leaf out of her book by not waiting for her to regain her orientation.

He dashed forward, ignoring the pain in his ribs, back, and other parts of his body. It would all be worth it once he defeated her.

He withdrew more Runes from his spatial pouch as he grinned,

"I was saving this up but that was foolish, I will use it all to defeat you. Hahahaha"

When he arrived before the seemingly unsteady Marla and made to attach it to her body, she leaped up at the last moment at a speed he could not possibly follow with his eyes.

When Leyton looked up instinctively, he was greeted with her foot smashing into his bruised effeminate face.

*Bang!*

"What the...?!" The rest of the Plebeians exclaimed as they saw Leyton fail to seize the initiative and get beat down the more he resisted.

Surely, they could not let this go on.

They made to move forward but their path was quickly blocked by Jack while Marla continued her onslaught.

She was unlikely to stop until Leyton was unconscious.

The Plebeian scions could not help but turn to one another,

That's right. There was still this guy.

Could he be a monster just like the girl?

They shook off their worry.

Even if he was, he could not possibly be that way against all of them at once.

The Plebeian scions together amounted to more than 50 young men and a few young ladies and they all stared at Jack with unveiled animosity as they harnessed the totality of their strength.

The majority of them were at the Seven and Eight stages of the Energy sensing Realm but there were at least 15 of them at the peak of the same realm.

Jack thought back to how he had run from the Ninth stages that had attempted to take away his Rune tile, there was even more danger here but he would not run, he would face them and he would win.

When the Plebeian scions saw the wild look of conviction in his eyes, they decided not to take any chances and they all attacked at once with their full strength at the get-go.

Jack reinforced himself and stood with his back straight to fend off the Plebeian mob, and...

*Bam*

*Bang*

*Wham*

*Crack*

"Arrrgggggggghhhhhh"

...he failed woefully!

Once the Mob began their attack, they quickly came to the understanding that Jack was completely ordinary.

There was no single bit of peculiarity in him.

He fell to their might and numbers before long.

Even as they beat him towards the sweet release of death, they could not help but wonder if there was a reason for Jack's confidence when it was clear that he lacked ability.

While Jack was getting beat up and every one of those in the mob tried to get a piece of him,

A gigantic figure cast its large shadow over all of them and they quickly stopped hitting Jack and looked up at the figure of a 15 feet tall illusionary Dark lady, in the middle of which stood Marla.

"Good job getting them in one place" she said with a grin and covered the whole scene with Dark mist.

Then the illusionary figure shrunk and concentrated even more before it vanished into the mist.

To Marla, it did not really matter if the beat down was caused by Jack's overestimation of his abilities or if he had truly done so to make it easier for her to attack,

All that mattered now was that she could end this quickly and meet up with Hal for the Grand finale.

It was as though she had melted into the mist,

*Bam* *Bam* *Bam*

"Ahhh!"

"Oww!"

Exclamations of pain were the order of the day as they could not see a thing within the mist.

Once they were attacked, they hurried to stomach the pain and punch at where it had come from, only to make contact with mist.

Some of them even had the presence of mind to grab at the hand or body part that had hit them, but they might as well have been grabbing at air for all the substance they caught.

Soon the mist was retracted back into her being and she regained the form she had attacked Leyton with.

Jack was slightly getting back to his feet while massaging his aching muscles, he looked around and was glad to see that the Plebeian scions were even worse off than him.

Marla looked at him and could understand that the reason he had embroiled himself in combat with the Plebeian scions even when he had no chance was simply to do what he had told Hal he would do.

He made himself useful.

While Marla knew she could have taken the Plebeians on her own, she acknowledged his help all the same.

-

Leyton opened his eyes and awoke from his unconscious state, only to witness the unconscious bodies of his fellow Plebeians, left in plain view for Demon beast attacks.

He checked for the Rune tiles and was not surprised to see them gone until he realized it was not the only thing that was missing.

Every other valuable possession he had, except for his clothes, was gone.

This no longer had anything to do with the Competition.

This was Robbery!

Plain and simple.

...

Meanwhile...

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Frank yelled as he ran as far as he could from Hal within the Astral Dome.

Hal watched him run with an indifferent expression,

When Frank saw Hal had no intention of speaking, the feeling of fear intensified but he reasoned that if Hal had not yet killed him, then maybe he could still talk him out of it.

"Have you considered how much this will hurt Amelia?" He asked.

Hal shrugged,

"She'll get over it"

'What kind of monster did Amelia get involved with? Is this the end of my glorious youth?'

While Frank gritted his teeth to those words, Grimoire commented on the situation,

'There's more to this than his envy, isn't there?' It asked.

Hal was silent at first.

There was really more to this than Frank's insecurities. It cost him nothing to guarantee Frank's loyalty.

All he needed to do was ask Frank to sign a Devil contract or he could simply brand him with the Devil's mark.

Something he was sure Frank would accept gladly as opposed to death.

But he did not want to do that because that would prove that Frank's prophecy came to pass.

'Why are you so adamant to reject the reality of this prophecy?' Grimoire asked and unlike usual, Its voice was soft and comforting like that of a friend.

Hal sighed,

'Does Destiny really exist in this world?' He asked.

Now it was time for Grimoire to go quiet but it was only for a while,

'Destiny definitely exists' it said in a careful voice.

'Is it immutable?' Hal asked.

'You ask questions that will do you no good for now. Maybe it is, maybe it's not. You don't need to worry about that for now. Just try your best to succeed'

'What if, with every victory, I'm only setting myself up for an even more painful downfall. What if there is someone who can render all I achieve, useless?'

'Idiot! I'm sorry to disappoint you but there are undoubtedly existences that can render all you achieve, useless, but is that not the point of Cultivation? Of getting stronger?

Fulfilling Frank's prophecy does not guarantee that Destiny cannot be fought and besides who is to say your destiny is downfall?'

Hal chuckled,

'You're right. Fuck destiny! If I want something, I will get it. I will succeed whether it's in my Destiny that I will or not. If my Destiny is to fail, I will break away from it.

This is only the beginning. I am only just getting started'

With that, he opened his eyes and looked down at Frank,

"You've convinced me, your sister will be sad If you die, so..."

He drafted a contract and held it out for him,

"Sign this and I'll let you live"