Damien stood there with a calm expression. His inner turmoil was shrouded from the many hysterical spectators. Hundreds, thousands even, looked down upon him with varying expressions. Judging him for actions that he personally did not commit, yet continues to haunt him to this very day.

Damien just shook his head and debated internally, “Stop wallowing in self-doubt and pity, look around. If these livestock are here to witness my downfall or rise from the ashes is no matter. Feel the energy, the raging excitement, for you.”

Although Damien showed no external change in expression, the resolve in his eyes flared up once again. A raging fire that threatened to crush the pathetic Head Professor, the only obstacle between Damien and his salvation.

“I came to this forsaken world, isolated and destined for failure, like some kind of sick joke by the Gods. This will be my first step in abandoning that cursed fate and walking along my own path. This duel is no small matter, failure is not an option.” Damien decided, “Without the protection of the Mage Tower my future here in Kassinki is looking grim indeed.”

Damien looked up towards the VIP area embedded in the northern side of the arena, looking down upon the world with a dazzling yet slightly ominous expression was none other than Prince August. The true villain of this storyline, in his eternal greed for immorality and endless power, he shall destroy all that surrounds and supports him. Including the very kingdom that Damien has recently become a Duke of. Damien shook his head in despair, why couldn’t he have been reincarnated in Oshal instead. That way he wouldn’t need to deal with this childish excuse of a final boss.

Looking around the arena Damien had conflicting thoughts. He had stood in this very spot hundreds of times in the past, he was a veteran of the game after all. Yet he never once noticed the crowd, they were mere background jpegs with a soundtrack playing on loop. Nothing noteworthy, but now… Damien could only shake his head. The pressure of thousands of scorn filled eyes was rather obnoxious. He felt his usual calm mind falter under the intense gazes.

Looking over at Victor he seemed to be in an even dire state, he was constantly twitching and switching his focus from the VIP room and Damien. As if it was a tick he kept patting his suit jacket's inner pocket with a complicated expression plastered on his sickly face.

The announcer's voice then boomed out across the arena and patiently explained the stakes and the rules of the duel. The hateful gazes increased ten fold after the mention of Damien cheating his way into his position. He could only sigh deeply in his heart, no matter if he won or lost this duel, his reputation would likely never recover, not that he minded. He was a villain through and through and had no plans to right his past wrongs, whether or not they were committed by him personally.

While the announcer explained the rules, Damien thought, “This is it Damien, a real magic battle with my life on the line. The announcer claims it's not a deathmatch, but Victor is already a deadman walking. The question is will he drag me down to hell with him, or will I persevere and soar into the heavens?”

May the duel begin! The announcer exclaimed and the crowd roared in anticipation.

Damien stood perfectly still and did nothing. “I have the advantage in the early stage of this dance, my cards are unknown whereas I can read Victor like an open book.” As Damien expected, Victor quickly began to multicast defensive spells of various types. First, he surrounded himself in a quickly made mud hut surrounded by spikes. “A solid defense strategy against Spatial and Wind schools of magic.” Damien muttered, “I shall keep my affinity’s hidden as long as possible, with his illness his mana is limited. Allowing him to waste resources on useless defensive spells would be ideal.”

Victor hid inside his mud hut for a few moments, noticing that Damien didn’t teleport and stab him in the back, nor did he unleash a barrage of wind blades. He concluded that Damien was unlikely to use either affinity so he promptly proceeded to the second stage of his plan.

The earth opened up beneath his figure and he vanished into the dark depths of the ground below. “Like a little rat, he runs and hides…” Damien said with disdain, “If I had water affinity I could drown him inside his tunnels but alas I have no such talents.”

Damien finally made his first move of the duel, activating Psychokinesis he formed a bubble around himself, he also pushed the spell into the earth at a depth of two meters. Within a mere breath, he detected the change in the earth's mana composition within his domain. Victor was using Geokinesis to swim through the soil at high speeds, he was playing cautiously, still trying to work out his opponent’s game plan. As Victor was also a veteran at magic battles, gathering intel on the opponents capabilities was of the utmost importance. Ignorance and arrogance are the most dangerous emotions for a mage to harbour, as even the most insurmountable mountain can be carved away by the river of time. Every school of magic has its strengths and weaknesses, no mage was omnipotent and all powerful. Except maybe the Dean, he is the closest figure to a demigod on this mortal plane.

Getting within a few meters of Damien he felt he had collided with an invisible wall. This wall rejected his earth affinity mana wholeheartedly, impeding his advancement. “Tsk, if I wasn’t so weakened this level of mana control would be mere child’s play before me.” Victor cursed in a muffled voice.

Moving through the earth like a fish through water, he attempted to attack at varying angles but was met with the same obstacle time and time again. With frustration, he used a B grade spell which consumed a large portion of his mana. The Earth around him became drenched with earth affinity mana, causing the earth to surge towards the surface with tremendous force.

The spectators all gasped as they watched the entire arena’s ground become overlaid in meter tall spikes of stone, all within fleeting moments. As the dust settled an unscathed and unbothered Damien stood upon one of the spikes.

Victor emerged from the ground, sure of his overwhelming victory yet he was aghast as he witnessed Damien, effortlessly balancing upon an impossibly small point. He squinted his eyes, standing like that was simply impossible without magical assistance, the question was how?

The Head Professors brain whirled as it formulated the possibilities, eventually he came to only a single conclusion, Psychic magic. Upon this discovery he patted the green vial in his pocket with a smile of relief. “For a mere psychic mage, even in this pathetic condition I will have no need for such a heinous drug.” he assured himself.

Seeing that Damien was utilizing one of the few advantages of Psychic magic, levitation, he decided to utilize his arsenal of artillery type spells. Seeing that spikes would have little to no effect on an opponent that could stand in the air, Victor cancelled the spikes and the arena returned to its usual state.

Damien smirked and lowered himself back to the floor, sending clear provocation towards the professor that his earth based skills had no effect on him. Victor just snorted while thinking, “You are still wet behind the ear’s thinking you can defeat me by flying around like an insect…”

Victor chanted the runic language at an inhuman speed, causing spittle to spray everywhere, yet he paid his improper actions no heed. His palm’s glowed with a deep blue as the ground trembled. Damien didn’t move as he already knew that the spell was a conjuring spell rather than a directly offensive one, and therefore posed no immediate threat. Damien wished to remain stationary to conserve his mana as much as his opponent allowed.

Innumerable humanoid men of stone crawled from the earth with awkward movements befitting magically animated beings. Victor then gave them a mental command as they all collectively looked towards the unmoving Damien with their lifeless eye sockets.

Damien felt an immense sense of déjà vu, is this his fate to face innumerable enemies while all alone once more? Shaking away the useless thoughts that clouded his mind, he quickly ascended to the skies. Although he had a suspicion about how to deal with this seemingly disadvantageous position, he would have to test his theory out first.

The golems began forming mud balls and launching them in his direction, many didn’t even reach the soles of his feet, but a few did reach his altitude. With a casual wave of his hand, Damien effortlessly returned the mudballs towards the golems below, causing them to shatter on impact. Yet they quickly reformed as threads of mana forced the mud to reform once more.

The audience was in an uproar, some agitated commoners screamed that he was cheating and to fight like a man, others were baffled at his unusual skill set as many had never seen a proficient Psychic mage engage in mortal combat before.

Although both Damien and Victor tried to control their expressions, beads of sweat and slight worry were hidden behind their well-trained facade. The number one rule for a mage competing in a duel is to never show any hint of weakness. Making the opponent believe there is no way of winning is the best and quickest way to victory, yet experienced mages could see through this little trick.

Damien knew commanding that many golems at once was draining Victor's mana at a substantial rate, but so was his own defense. He had to maintain air superiority to force Victor into using this mana inefficient method of fighting. Unfortunately, maintaining his Psychokinesis domain and levitation was costing him greatly. If Victor was still at A grade in mana control he would infuse the rocks the golems were hurling with mana protection, but due to his deteriorated state, just maintaining the golems was his limit. Controlling mana from so far away was simply impossible.

Victor hoped that Damiens mana control was at a lower tier to his own, a battle of attrition was always his forte and go to strategy. Unfortunately, Victor had no way to determine the extent to which his A grade mana control had deteriorated, as it was all internal problems that held him back, rather than his innate skill.

Psychic mages were famous for being easily overwhelmed, Victor had to acknowledge Damiens ability to maintain flight while dodging and repelling hundreds of rocks at once. He personally had never witnessed a Psychic mage with so much control over his surroundings before.

Feeling a trickle of sweat run off his brow, Victor's nerves once again spiked. Although he lied to himself that he was prepared for death, alas he still was unwilling. He wholeheartedly believed he could defeat Damien with his own deteriorated skills and somehow get away with murdering a Noble on stage infront of thousands.

Maybe Prince August would break him out of prison before hes executed, allowing him to run away and live happily with Evelyn like before, but a part of him knew that was only wishful thinking. His mana circuit was already rotten away and barely holding on. Victor noticed out of the corner of his eye that his defeated golems were no longer standing back up.

He took a nervous look at the man in the sky who had maintained the same bored expression since the beginning of the fight, apart from the slight sweat on his brow, Damien showed no sign of obvious weakness. Victor refused to fall for the man’s tricks. Just a little more… and he would fall from the sky.

Victor pressed on with the assault yet as the seconds ticked by and his reserves ran dangerously low, Damien was still the same. Victor cursed under his breath for being impatient, he believed he could end the fight quickly with that B grade spell, alas it had only been a massive waste of resources.

His shaking hand tapped upon his suit pocket once again. The feeling of the cold glass vial against his shirt only brought more anguish to his blackened heart. Would he really have to leave this world as a monster? How would Evelyn view him?

***

Within the VIP box an agitated prince paced back and forth, occasionally he would glance down at Victor, causing his frown to deepen, “What is that disobedient man doing?” he cursed, “Drink the darn vial and be done with it you fool.”

He spun on his heel and faced the arena and spoke with disdain, “I'll be damned if I have to concede a single thing to either of you bastards.”

Seeing the fire of life being ignited in Victor's previously lifeless eyes, August's expression turned icy. “It seems his heart is filled with delusions… bring her in,” he said to seemingly nobody yet the door opened a second later and a confused and timid maid walked in.

“Evelyn come, witness your Father’s foolish last stand, his pride, and ego have consumed him.”

“F-father? My father is here?” she asked in an apprehensive tone, all contact between herself and her dear father had been severed years ago. The Prince forbade her from leaving his sight.

The Prince casually gestured towards the arena below, “See for yourself, although it's a rather pathetic sight that I am certain he wouldn’t wish for you to witness.”

Evelyn timidly walked to the edge and leaned over, she felt the stares of many spectators on her but she prevailed, her dear father was apparently here. Soon she spotted a deathly pale man that somewhat resembled the father in her memory, but he seemed to have lost a lot of weight.

With shock she didn’t think twice and shouted out, “Father it's me!” The barrage of attacks stopped for a moment as the decrepit man turned his sunken yet fierce eyes towards his daughter. Unknown to Evelyn, Prince August was shadowing behind her and making a cut throat action for Victor to see.

Victor’s shoulders sagged with defeat, his body was in extreme pain, he knew he had pushed his limits too far today. Taking one final look at Evelyn’s heartbroken and worried face he said some final words, “Evelyn I'm sorry, I failed you and Anna.” His many golems crumbled to dust as he lost concentration and the will to move forward.

Damien didn’t waste a single second and dived down towards Victor with a vicious expression. With a well placed knee to the face, Victor's nose burst from the impact as he tumbled back a few meters.

“No, NO, DAD! KEEP FIGHTING!” Evelyn shouted while holding back tears. “Let’s go see the spirit blossoms together this summer, like good old times!” Her voice broke down as she collapsed against the VIP room’s railing.

She watched as Damien brutally smacked her father around like a rag doll. The stadium was dead silent, just the sobbing of Evelyn and the sound of cracking bones could be heard.

Damien placed his foot upon Victor's mangled body and said with a sneer, “Do you surrender oh mighty mage?”

Victor turned his head with great effort to stare into Damiens bloodthirsty eyes, spitting out a mouthful of blood he displayed his mouthful of missing teeth and muttered with disdain, “King Yama is calling, the gates of hell welcome us both.”

With his barely functioning arm he retrieved the vial that was surprisingly still intact, a testament to the quality of glass used to contain the ominous green liquid inside.

He popped the top and brought the vial to his mouth, yet a foot promptly descended and crushed his hand. The green liquid boiled viciously as it made contact with the outside world, most landed on the ground around Victor but a few drops made contact with his hand.

The liquid entered through his pores like snakes, causing Victor to scream in anguish. His hand became a grey wiggling mass of something unknown to the residents of this world. A creature from the beyond.

Damien laughed in disdain at the screaming Victor, “Do you take me for a fool? Did you think I would just stand here and let you drink a vial of devil tears? Are you trying to destroy this arena and everyone within it?”

Seeing victory in sight Damien turned towards the VIP area, “Prince August I do believe this classifies as a victory yes? He is using illegal substances in a duel!”

Damien expected to see an annoyed expression on August’s face but contrary to his expectations he had a mocking smile. August simply pointed his hand towards Victor and announced, “Are you sure?”. While everyone was misdirected towards Victor, August cast a spell with a small wave of his hand, barely noticeable to the untrained eye, Victor's body suddenly began to shudder.

Damien noticed what August had done but nobody else seemed to have caught his use of magic in the middle of a duel. Damien opened his mouth, ready to protest but he felt the body of Victor go limp on the ground. A medic ran across the field and checked the mangled body for signs of life, yet there were none.

Before Damien could refute the arena exploded with commotion, “Murder! He killed him!” Damien noticed a person exclaim as he stood up. If one looked closely they could notice a small skull tattoo on his wrist, signifying he was one of Prince August's men.

Damien said with annoyance, “He was using illegal substances, It was a fucking set up all along, I never had a chance to win!” Yet his protests were drowned out by the shouts of bloody murder from the spectators.

Standing in the middle of the arena, Damien just stared into space with a baffled face, he could feel the lingering mana from a high-grade necromancy curse spell on Victor's body. With a new found hope to prove his innocence he tried to grab the body but two medics with black skull tattoos on their wrists were faster and retrieved the body. Carefully hiding the mutilated hand from prying eyes. Damien debated revealing the Prince's secret but who would listen to him? The evidence had been removed and he didn't have the authority to force Prince August to take a public examination of his schools of magic.

After a few minutes, a decision was made by Prince August and his voice echoed through the arena, “The duel has been nulled due to the death of Head Professor Victor, Damien Karles will not receive the promotion to Head Librarian of the Mage Tower but due to Head Professors passing he will be promoted from Assistant Professor to the honourable position of Head Professor. That is all.”

Damien clenched his fist in rage, ‘He didn't even mention the involvement of devil tears if I waited for him to transform he would have killed me easily but I would have been excused from murder. But if I stop the transformation August planned to kill him all along to frame me. I was playing in the palm of his hand the whole time! Who cares about some useless Head Professor role, do you think a single one of these students will be willing to learn from me after this? Do you wish to make my life miserable Prince August? Not to mention the university is under your control.’

"Only the Mage Tower has the resources and protection I require, if Prince August is hell-bent on keeping me under surveillance in this university then..."

Damien clenched his fist but then relaxed. With the entire world seemingly against him, with his back against the wall. There is only one way to beat a rigged game, and that’s not to play.

“I refuse the promotion, I don't require your handouts,” Damien exclaimed loudly before calmly turning on his heel and leaving, ignoring the suddenly silent arena, and Prince August’s enraged face.

“I'll carve my own path in this world. One step at a time. The life of a villain was never supposed to be easy.” Damien muttered with new found determination.