“What the damning grakk did he do to me,” Garett said, breathing heavily. He remembered feeling dizzy as soon as Aya was able to remove all his protective silver sheets of flesh. There might be no way to confirm what he was feeling, but it felt as if he lost some amount of mana involuntarily. He had a heightened sense of control over his mana, given his fighting style, and he could have sworn that he was forced to concentrate his mana to the points where Aya grabbed his arms.

Blowing his arms was a split second decision to get away from Aya.

He raised his severed arms. The stumps began glowing then tendrils of muscles shot out and slowly twisted themselves into new arms. Sheaths of silver covered the muscle fibers that were growing. Severed arms weren't the main concern of Garett. It was his mana. He could feel the agitated flow in his body. His vision was slightly blurry and his head was spinning a little, well-known side effects of a disturbed mana pool. What did the Roghinian do to me?

He glanced at Aya to check if he was attacking but he kept his distance. Garett concentrated on healing himself. He would have to let Aya have the first move. Training his eyes on his opponent, Garett was prepared to take action if Aya attacked.

Garett steadied his breathing and redirected his mana to his second beaststone which was hard at work. It was from the behemoth of a beast, the Ragmarauth. A prime specimen valued by the biomagi when it came to regeneration. Said beast could even regenerate half of its body back. Its abilities complemented the other beaststones of Garett. The first beaststone gave him remarkable speed and a way to abuse the mutated power of his mana while the Ragmarauth beaststone took care of his defenses.

The first beaststone worked in tandem with his third beaststone to create packets of explosive mana. The Angelic Guard beaststone, the first one, made containers for his highly volatile mana using the silvery skin of said beast. Garett himself hasn’t seen the Angelic Guard beast in person because they do not live on Forkspear but he has seen pictures of them depicting twelve-foot-tall silver creates of blades and covered in swaths of self-generated armor.

His third beaststone, from the Ramuspiens, the living lava gargoyles of the Van Garrin deserts, ignited his mana to create highly corrosive explosions. On its own, the effects of his mana were akin to the degenerative affliction caused by contact with the Blight, although at an accelerated pace. Coupled with an explosion, his mana could break down most elemental bonds that hold together everything in existence. Once the packets of mana were used in an explosion, the Ragmarauth beaststone would regenerate his silver skin, and thus the cycle continues, as long as he could supply mana to the beaststones.

With these three beaststones, he was able to fight his way to the top of the tournament with ease. Most of the time, only his first two beaststones were used. Only rarely did he need to release explosive packets of mana, for he himself did not like explosions and flashy attacks. He never imagined that he would have to blow of his own arms as a means of escape during a match.

“You surprised me there,” Aya said, opening his mouth wide to make his voice louder. He was doing it in an exaggerated manner for he surely knew that Garett could even hear him if he whispered. The Roghinian was grinning broadly; gone was the serious look of concentration on his face during the early part of the fight when Garett had the upper hand. He stretched out his arms, his hands also gone, shredded by the explosion. “I didn’t expect that you will blow up your own arms to get away,” Aya said in an amused tone.

“You surprised me as well,” Garett said. “It seems I was wrong in thinking that your pure mana was the reason your opponent’s mana quickly disappears.”

“You didn’t ask me about it,” Aya said with a sly smile.

“If I asked you about it, would you have responded truthfully?”

“Of course, not that you would understand how it actually worked,” Aya said. “How about your own mana? Does it break down elemental essence structures that come in contact with it?”

Garett’s eyebrows twitched because Aya has approximately guessed what was special with his mana.

“Looks like I’m right. But that still doesn’t explain why you can transform with a beaststone while others cannot. From what I have seen in this tournament, and there were many beaststone users, you're the only one to have achieved a full body transformation. You're just that special then?"

Garett didn’t bother responding because he was thinking of something else. Was this man the thief as I had first guessed? Garett’s heart wavered. He didn’t want to wrongly accuse anyone of such a grave crime as stealing a relic of the First Emperor, for the First Emperor would frown upon him if an innocent man was punished because of his false accusation.

What did happen when Aya caught his arms? The packets of mana covering his arm begin to shrivel and shrink away as if they were being drained. Drained by what? Aya was certainly not a mana drainer. Countries kept track of the pedigrees of the people having mana draining Bloodline and they would not allow such an asset to roam around the continent joining tournaments of other countries. Garett also couldn't imagine Aya to be a mana drainer of Krysperia; would they even allow him to join this tournament?

The healers who examined the victims who were knocked unconscious during the robbery said that the priests and the guards fainted because their mana was used up. Used as in it was as if they cast a spell non-stop until their mana pool was drained, which was usually followed by loss of consciousness. Very much unlike the case of mana draining.

So what did Aya do to him? Was it the same as what happened to the victims?

"Looks like you're deep in thought," Aya said.

Garett paid him no mind but continued to replay the moments before he was forced to blow off his arms.

"My hands are good to go," Aya said. He has transformed one hand into a large claw covered in dark blue scales that glinted as if they were metal armor. Garett noticed that his other hand stayed normal. "Here I come," Aya said in a singsong tone. The Roghinian hopped on his transformed bowed legs that ended in claws.

Garett knew what he had to do. He already lost the initiative when both of them saw that Garett couldn't quickly defeat Aya. Superior speed and strength weren't enough to win the fight. As long as Aya caught him, then he could do that insidious move he performed earlier and mess with his mana. Aya should just try to survive being sliced by Garett then he could counter attack. Aya realized this as well, that was why he was now actively goading Garett.

He just had to incapacitate his opponent first before the latter could do his mysterious magic. He ran forward, his curved feet giving each of his step an extra bounce. As Aya neared him, he flipped himself, rolling in mid-air, bringing his legs up and swinging them down with his momentum. No choice but to use his leg blades because his arms still weren't finished regenerating. He was aiming at the elbows of Aya.

Aya swung his claws up, catching both of Garett’s leg blades. A shower of blue and yellow sparks as Garett’s mana broke down the hard scales of Aya’s claws, almost like a blacksmith grinding down metal.

Garett twisted his body, detaching his blades from Aya’s claws, slicing off a couple of his fingers. He swung his legs, targeting his opponent's elbows once again. Aya propped himself up with his tail and moved his body away from Garett. As Garett landed, Aya used his tail to bring his body back to the fight. Aya followed up with a high kick, which Garett blocked with his still healing arms. There was another kick to the side, hitting Garett’s near the ribs.

Aya noticed I was going for the elbows!

Thick silver packets of mana lining Garett's side absorbed much of the blow. But Aya wasn’t done yet. He threw a punch with his normal hand. Garett ducked to evade, right into Aya’s injured claw that was balled into a fist.

He was thrown away by the punch, but righted himself in mid-air and tucked in his legs. As he was about to hit the ground, he extended his legs, anchoring himself to the ground. He tightened his core stopping himself from falling over. Grakking hell. I was getting conscious with being touched by his normal hand.

“I hope you don’t think badly of me that I attacked you when you haven’t finished fixing your arms,” Aya said. He sat down cross-legged on the floor. “Want me to wait for you?”

He’s trying to agitate me. Garett wasn’t about to fall for that. Maurice, his subordinate who has fought Aya in the tournament warned him about this particular trait of Aya. Garett also noticed this when he was viewing recordings of the previous fights of his opponent. He would even throw pebbles at other people during the fight.

Garett looked at Aya’s injured claw that was turning back into a normal hand. Why does he need it to be his normal hand before he could do 'that' ? It seemed that Aya needed only to be in contact with his opponent using his hands before he could use his skill that made people lose their mana. In Maurice’s fight, it was only during the last moments of the fight when Aya punched Maurice several times, destroying his armor and coming in contact with his body. After that, Maurice fainted. He probably didn’t realize that he was losing mana at an alarming rate because he was focused on trading blows with Aya.

In the end, it wasn’t a punch covered with pure mana that dissipates the mana of his opponents, rather, Aya needed only to come in contact with them with his human hands to drain their mana. Was drain even the word the right word to use?

“You’re deep in thought about something. I suggest you bring your mind back to the fight,” Aya said.

Garett frowned and looked at Aya. “The mage boy,” he said.

Before he could say anything more, both of them looked towards the direction of the city of Krysperium. The audience, the healers on standby, the soldiers, turned to Krysperium. A steady hum of the earth was the background of the beautiful sight they beheld.

“The upsurge is beginning,” Aya said with glee in his voice. “I couldn’t believe that this is my second time seeing this.”

Geysers of light shot out from different points of the city, sending sparkling showers that slowly descended on the confused people living there. Such a beautiful sight. Just by looking at it, Garett felt that he was becoming healthier. Garett gazed at the floating boxes around them. The spectators were applauding and pointing. Some of them were even crying. They were all focused on the city. The clouds over the city parted, giving way to sunlight. The energized elemental essences sparkled more in the sunlight, making it look like the city itself was glowing.

“We should finish our fight,” Aya said. “I think they want to time the event of the princess with the peak of the upsurge. It’s going to be so pretty. Too bad this will be a weaker surge compared to the previous one.”

Garett opened his mouth, changed his mind, and then closed it. He narrowed his eyes.The mage boy that Aya first fought in this tournament. He only touched him. Then the boy fainted. That was too much of a coincidence. Garett could also remember a couple of opponents Aya only touched instead of punched where they fainted.

This hypothesis matched the narration of the victims during the robbery. While the impostor, who masqueraded as a priest, punched most of the victims, some of them said that they didn’t remember being punched. The ones who fell unconscious first could only remember being touched by the impostor. The guards of the vault, who were the first to fall down, remembered the impostor priest walked towards them and immediately grabbed their faces. The high priests remembered someone touching them on the shoulder.

It was all making sense! However, how did the robber impersonate the priest? Did Aya have that same skill? That was the remaining piece of the puzzle and the most important one. And how was the large man who was captured by the city guards but escaped connected to this?

Am I just forcing facts to make an answer even if it was the wrong one?

Aya said, “Look, your blades are back again. Let’s finish this so that the nobles up there could cheer the princess on as the city glows from the upsurge.”

Garett loosened some explosive mana packets on his arms. He swung his arms, flinging two packets towards Aya at high speed. It was as if they were shot out of cannons.

Aya raised his brow but didn’t move. The packets exploded as soon as Garett willed them. Garett rushed towards the explosion, flinging two more packets in. He jumped to avoid the explosions. In his descent, he brought all of his blades in front of him. As he predicted, the Roghinian jumped out of the smoke of the explosion. Aya had a large claw in front of him to take on Garett’s blades.

Garett let his leg blades stab Aya’s claw. He kept careful watch where Aya’s normal hand was going. Contorting his body to move his upper body nearer to Aya, he once again aimed for Aya’s elbow where the claw was attached using his arm blades. Aya’s normal hand shot up to intercept Garett.

This was what Garett was waiting for. Instead of slicing Aya’s clawed hand off, he changed the direction of his blades to meet Aya’s normal hand. But before Garett could do what he planned, he felt a tug on his leg blades. Aya’s claws closed themselves on his leg blades and threw him away.

He detached a few more packets of mana to leave with Aya as he was lobbed across the arena. Several blasts blew him further away but he was able to get away without injuring himself. He bet that the same couldn't be said of Aya who caught all the blasts.

“I don’t think I have used all of my beaststone this much since I was training in the Inner Sanctuary of the Church.” Garett could feel his heart pounding as his body was taxed continuously provide mana to the three powerful beaststone.

“That really, really, hurt,” Aya whined as he stepped out of the dust cloud made by the blast. His black robe was in tatters. The threads tried to sew themselves back together but the corrosive yellow cloud from Garett’s mana residue ate them away. Aya’s body was covered in wounds. Bits of flesh were ripped away.

Both of us are getting pushed to the limits in this fight, Garett thought. Yet, the Roghinian still looked calm. Garett knew that Aya should be in terrible pain from coming in contact with his mana. Garett himself was immune to its destructive effects but others had told him how it felt when they were hit by his attacks.

“The city is so beautiful isn’t it.” Aya turned his head to stare at the city, showing to Garett that his cheek was scraped to the bone.

Garett felt a cold hand grip his heart. What kind of person was he to be nonchalant about this?

“Your mana is so annoying. I can’t even heal properly. Not to mention that I only have a small reservoir of blood left.” Aya was staring wistfully at the city. Then turned to Garett. “Can you feel it?”

“Feel what?” Garett answered despite himself.

“The mana from the upsurge is getting diverted.” Aya nodded. “I think I understand some things. But new questions also arose.”

“What do you mean?” Garett inhaled deeply and then spoke firmly, “Aya, surrender now. I have reason to believe that you have stolen an important object from the treasury of the Church. But I may be wrong. And I hope that I am wrong.”

Aya looked back to him with a blank expression.

“I can feel that you’re not a bad person. I also know that you’re not a void mage. However, from what I have witnessed, you have power similar to the robber. Come with me so that our healers can check. If you’re innocent, we will compensate you and formally apologize to you.”

Aya smiled broadly He held up one finger then touched his cheekbone with it. “Look, look, I can touch my own bones.”

Garett persisted. “Right now, you’re the prime suspect. But I can sense good in you. We have to check if you have the power to mimic other people. Do not be afraid. Paximillon always guides good people. And I know that you’re one.”

“Paximillon is existence itself, Garett Berklaw.”

“What do you mean? Let’s end this now. I know that you’re in great pain.”

Aya said, “It is annoying…this mana of yours. I have to push my limits to heal this.” He closed his eyes.

“Wha—?” Garett gaped in amazement as strands of bright blood seeped through the skin, flesh and exposed bones of Aya. The blood began to form lines, then the lines formed circles. The designs became more and more complicated. Garett closed his mouth. He focused on the seals forming on Aya’s body. What was that? An elemental seal? One of the ancient elemental seals that was thought to be lost? Garett has only seen some of them in the forbidden scrolls of the Church.

He switched to another seal. His instant reaction was repulsion. Vomit was rising up his throat. He could taste the acid in his mouth. What was that abominable seal? Could it be possible that it was a void seal? Or something more sinister?

“Ah, there we go,” Aya said. His body glowed green and began to heal at a rapid rate. Muscles mended themselves and were immediately blanketed by skin. His black robe was not repaired so Garett was able to see Aya’s body that was quickly regenerating. Aya laughed while looking at the city. “So, it was really timed with the upsurge. But how did they get the right timing? You can’t predict the upsurge that accurately. Who set up all of this?”

“Are those void seals?” Garett asked.

Aya didn’t respond to his question but instead touched his cheek. “Aw, I can’t touch my bones anymore. But good think I was able to reconstruct my face,” he said with a wink.

Reconstruct his face?

Garett was livid with anger. He rushed towards Aya with his blades stretched out. His twin blades roared with his furious mutated mana. “You’re the thief,” Garett shouted as he leaped. He brought down his blades. Aya jumped out of the way. Waves of yellowish mana slapped the ground, parting it in half.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Aya said. He was high above, his wings flapping furiously to get him higher. The glowing red seals moved around his body at a rapid rate.

Garett shouted, “You’re playing games with my head, whoever you are.” The leg blades of Garett melted into thick legs with wide feet. Vents opened below his feet. He blew his mana out of these vents and detonated them at a gradual rate to boost him up. “Flying will be your undoing.” He went straight up for Aya.

Aya stared at him from above with a bemused expression then swooped down to meet him. Garett detached all of his mana packets, twisted his legs so that the vents faced Aya, and let out a burst of mana to propel him far away from the massive blast that would follow.

The shockwave from the blast still caught Garett and slammed him to the far side of the arena against the shield walls. The blast created a huge energy ball in the middle of the arena. Garett knew what was about to happen so he flattened himself against the ground.

The energy ball descended and exploded once again, sending more shockwaves. Violent earthquakes followed as chain explosions set out inside the energy ball as it carved a huge crater in the middle of the arena.

Aftershocks continued for a couple of minutes and then it all calmed down. Dust nearly covered the entire field, obstructing visibility.

“Did I get him?” Garett said. That was all his mana packets. This was his plan in case Aya took the fight to the air. Supposedly, his final attack. But he couldn’t be complacent. He remembered the grinning face of the Roghinian while half of his face was blown off. “I…I need to make more…” he weakly said as he tapped into the power of his Ragmarauth beaststone and regenerative his silver flesh. “The thief should die.” Anger at being tricked was pushing him on. I trusted him and thought that he was a good person. I was a fool.

He paused as he felt his heart skip a beat. He also couldn’t breathe deeply anymore. Adrenaline was keeping him awake. Adrenaline and sheer will power.

There were several times during the tournament when the opponents of Aya thought that they had already won, but the resilience of the Roghinian proved them wrong. Garett was nearly a hundred percent sure that the explosion he caused was enough, for it wasn’t a simple explosive spell or fireball. Even though the Roghinian had the bodily fortitude that reached nearly the level of high-quality magical armor, it should have a limit. Only Paximillon was limitless, Garett thought with a laugh.

A few minutes passed with Garett just standing near the edge of the arena and nothing was happening. Was the Roghinian dead? Garett couldn’t sense his presence anywhere else. He wasn’t about to get tricked by the Roghinian by tunneling underground.

He made sure that the Roghinian caught the brunt of the explosions in mid-air. It was the reason why he wanted the Roghinian to fly. If he used his explosive packets on the ground, then Aya could escape underground, as he did during his fight with one of the Baccarats. Garett had replayed that fight several times since they would also fight on the mountains.

Garett started walking to the crater that he made. Every step was agony. He knew that his body was about to give, yet he pushed it to make more explosive packets.

As he was nearing the crater, he shook his head. "What was I thinking, killing the robber. How could we recover the relic if I killed our only lead to the location of the treasure?" He was ashamed of himself for being so stupid. This was the first time for as long as he could remember that he let emotions took over his decisions. "Dumb, dumb, dumb," he berated himself.

If the healers acted fast enough, they may be able to revive Aya, then Garett would be able to question him. That’s it! I will volunteer our services in healing him so that we can immediately get custody of him. But what if he already killed the Roghinian? He felt guilty that he possibly botched their investigation.

Garett looked up. Through the dust he could see the blue ceiling; they still haven't dispelled the mana shield. The fight would only end if it was certain that the opponent was defeated, even if it should mean that the opponent was killed. Should he go down the crater to get the body? Then they could immediately heal Aya. If Aya was still alive down there, he won't be for long because of Garett's corrosive mana.

Garett walked to the crater. Yellow smoke rose from the crater accented by vicious red flares.

Laughter echoed inside the mana shield dome covering the area of the tournament. Garett stepped back in alarm. The laughter was deep, guttural as if the earth itself was laughing. Garett couldn't clearly make out the spectators outside the dome because of the dust but he caught glimpses of curious faces trying to peer down on the battlefield. The audience outside wasn’t distressed by the laughter because the mana shield soundproofed the entire arena as one of the precautions against cheating. A wordbound spell from the outside could sneak in if the organizers didn’t do that.

This laughter surely wasn’t a spell. Or was it? Was he hallucinating from the strain on his body? Was he trapped in an illusion spell? What about Aya? Did he do this?

“Hahaha—ugh, what is thi—” the earthy voice said, shaking Garett’s heart with his words. “Grak it Garett. Your stupid smoke…” There wer a couple of violent bursts of coughs that slightly shook the earth.

Garett rushed building up more and more explosive packets, fearing the worst. This was the Roghinian. He was sure now, for the voice knew his name. Why did his voice change? Why did each word spoken by the dreadful voice shake his entire body?

Another shake followed a cough. “What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Garett, the stupid smoke from your mana explosion makes my throat itchy.”

“You tricked me. Show yourself, Aya!” Garett said. “Show me what you really are.” He forgot all about the ancient relic that was stolen from the Church. He forgot about the void mages. The only thing in his mind right now was the ominous presence hiding in the cover of the smoke.

“Tricked you? I did no such thing.” The voice said in a steely tone.

“This was why you had such a pure mana. You weren’t human to begin with!”

“Shut up for a bit, I’m about to do something.”

Garett brought his blades up in a cross over his chest. Whatever comes out of the smoke, I will destroy it, even if it costs my life. His guts told him that Aya should not leave this arena alive. He would end him.

A black shadow loomed behind the yellow smoke. Large claws peeked through, pushing away the curtain of smoke. A gigantic scaly hand appeared, with claws as long as a full-grown man. Garett came to expect the unexpected, but he never expected this.

The clawed hand landed heavily on the ground. Another clawed hand emerged. Together, they seemed to be pulling the body attached to them out of the crater. The claws dug into the earth, raking up mounds of dirt.

Garett drew in his breath sharply. A large figure was about to come out the smoke. A scaly snout penetrated the smoke, followed by a mouth full of serrated teeth, teeth that might as well be greatswords adorning the mysterious monster's maw. Three yellowish eyes appeared, hooded by a prominent brow ridge full of spikes, sending fear into Garett's heart as he stared into their depths. Ten horns topped the monster's head, each one was a spiky black tower forming a fortress of spikes, a fitting crown for the black scaly terror.

"Are...are you a dragon?"

"Who dares disturb my slumber?" The deep and dreadful voice of the monster nearly unnerved Garret.

Garett didn't know what to do. They stared at each other for a few moments.

"Nope, doesn't sound right," said the monster. He retracted his head back into the smoke. Bursting out once again, this time he said, "Why do you come to my domain, mortal?"

Garett inhaled. He resolved himself to kill this being in front of him. He was sure that he saw void seals on Aya's body. Perhaps, this was but an abominable transformation of a void mage. Void mage or not, Garett wasn't going to allow this beast to leave the arena, assume human form once again, and walk among people.

"That sounded way cooler, right?" the monster asked him

Garett shouted a war cry and flung himself towards the monster. He thought of a prayer to Paximillon. The monster caught him in his mouth, trapping him with his teeth. Garett's plan was to throw himself down the monster's throat and detonate his entire body for maximum damage. If he detonated outside, the beast would most likely survive, as it did his previous attack.

He struggled against the teeth, stabbing it with his blades, but his blades no longer spewed his mana for he spent it all on making packets. He swallowed. Looks like this is it. "For the glory of Paximillon," he cried.

A voice inside his head spoke. As much as it annoys me, I have to lose this match. I enjoyed playing with you, Garett Berklaw.

Just as the packets were about to explode, Garett felt a cold point pierce his stomach. It came from inside the mouth of the beast. Then the packets inflated themselves, burned bright yellow, and exploded.