Silence filled the air as everyone in the stands, ordinary crusaders as well as even the highest of elders, looked at the scene with wide eyes. Once again, Adriel, a local legend within their order, had created a miracle. Once again, he had escaped death where everyone thought it impossible.

Elder Ironskin had, in fact, played right into his plan. Though none had seen through the moves of Adriel, retrospect enlightened everyone. The many exchanges, which everyone had thought to be useless to both parties, had been used by Adriel in a spectacular way. Without anyone noticing, Adriel had carefully been preparing a trap. A trap that Elder Ironskin walked right into.

This fight would serve as a valuable lesson to all those present. It was to never grow too confident in your power, especially if it burrowed. Elder Ironskin’s eagerness to show off had led to a painful downfall.

*Roar*

The vast majority of the spectators in the stands erupted into cheers, with only those of Elder Ironskin’s faction displaying gloomy looks.

“This… This power…” The elder, who had previously spoken about the power of Elder Ironskin, spoke up again with a shaking voice. “How is this possible? Could it be that he has reached a higher level?”

Those that listened in would soon discover that the elder was not alone in his thoughts, as he was soon joined by a number of other voices that sounded out from all sides of the elder’s stands. Some sounded excited by their thoughts on Adriel’s newfound strength, but the vast majority of the elders had a shivering undertone in their voice. They were clearly apprehensive about the sudden strength increase.

In a room, just beyond Sett’s field of vision, was a pair of eyes that looked at the scene below with unbridled rage and fury. His breath was laboured and the wine glass in his hand seemed dangerously close to shattering.

“How could this be? We failed? No, this was that fool Ironskin’s fault.”

The faint voice of Caspian, the envoy of the Newson Dynasty and the backer of Elder Ironskin, could faintly be heard in the elder’s stands.

“But how could he fail? I did everything father told me to… I even arranged for a fight that would elevate his position to new peaks. This… This is impossible.”

The poisonous words of the envoy reached all those that were situated around him in the elder’s stands, but he did not give the matter of subtlety a second thought.

Who was he? He was Caspian, the glorious envoy of the Newson Dynasty. He had personally been entrusted with the matter of bringing a mid-sized faction into the fold by his father, the patriarch of the Newson Dynasty.

He had been overjoyed when he heard the news that he was to lead this acquisition. It was a laughably easy matter considering the amount of groundwork that had already been put in. It would be an easy booster to him in the competition for the next family head.

He could still remember the envious faces of his siblings when their father had revealed their assignments.

Everything had gone as planned. He had made a grand entrance in the order, bringing all the eyes to him. He had ten months before the elders and captains would convene to chose their new grandmaster, but Caspian had begun his work immediately.

His first order of business was to stabilize Elder Ironskin’s position. The elder had considerable support as things stood, with many of the elders being in the same faction, but he still had to win over the neutral elders. Gaining the admiration of the order’s lesser members was only a side effect of the work they were doing.

What was the easiest way to show off? Fighting naturally.

He had thought that it would take many days before he could trick another elder into fighting Elder Ironskin, but he had been glad to be proven wrong. An old relic, an elder by the name of Adriel, from the past had jumped out at them, eating the bait that he had set as if it was the most natural thing to do.

It had been perfect. The old man was a legend among the more knowledgeable crusaders, young and old alike, but he had one flaw. He was old, very old.

There should have been no way that they could lose.

Yet, fate would prove him wrong. Not only was the elder much stronger than they had expected, but he could even be considered to be the pinnacle of the elders in the order.

Even so, they could not back down now. Caspian could only be thankful that he had given his subordinate a final trump card the day before. Naturally, it had been painful to take out such an outrageously expensive item, but it had to be done.

However, to his great horror, it did not end there. Somehow and someway, the opposing elder had turned even more absurd. Just as he had thought with certainty that victory would be within their grasp once again, Adriel had knocked his champion out with a single strike.

It simply was not fair!

“Hah…”

Caspian composed himself and took a death breath. He could not allow himself to be lost in self-pity.

He had to save Elder Ironskin, his champion, from the results of his failure. They were, after all, in the same boat. If he failed to save him, everything would be lost. His chance of succeeding in his mission that he had gotten from his father would become dismally low. This could not be allowed to happen.

The mission was simple but incredibly important and his father expected results. He was readily aware of what would happen if he failed. If he was lucky, he would be left out of the running from the competition to becoming the family head. If he was unlucky, he would be exiled from the family. He would become like the cousins that he scorned only a day ago.

For the moment, he could only watch the scene below and wait for an opportunity to speak up for his champion.

“Elder Ironskin, do you surrender?”

Adriel asked with a cool voice from where he towered over the broken and battered body of Elder Ironskin.

“You…”

Elder Ironskin struggled to raise his upper body from the ground, but inadvertently reopened a wound and fell to the ground again with blood leaking from his mouth.

“Sigh. It does not appear that my opponent is in a state suitable to continue fighting.” Adriel spoke calmly and analysed. “Elder Harriet, I do believe there is a need for you to step in and deliver a verdict on our fight.”

“Ah… yes.”

Elder Harriet, who had been looking on from the side-lines, hurried over. She attempted to hide away her stupefied expression, but a few of those with exceptional eyesight managed to see it. Even as someone who had some connections with Adriel, she had thought that Adriel had been done for.

After doing some light prodding, it quickly became clear for everyone and Elder Harriet that let alone fighting, Elder Ironskin could not stand properly.

“Elder Ironskin has been incapacitated, the victory goes to Elder Adriel!”

With a large yell, Elder Harriet announced the winner of the duel. Adriel, in a grand twist of fate, had won the duel. It had been a rollercoaster of a duel, one that the spectators would not forget in the many months and years to come.

The sound from the stands was enormous. Countless emotions were conveyed through simple yells. There were the yells of battle maniacs, those who believed in the actions of Adriel and those who dreaded him to his core. All their yells coagulated into one gigantic torrent.

“Now, then. I do believe it is time to enforce the terms of our battle.” After the commotion had died down some, Adriel raised his hands. “I had one request and one request only. Mister Ironskin is to step down from his position as elder, effective immediately.”

Silence filled the duelling platform as everyone waited eagerly for Elder Ironskin’s response. It was one thing to promise something and another thing entirely to actually pull through.

“Puh.” Spitting a mouthful of blood on the ground, Elder Ironskin finally managed to get himself off of the ground and stand up somewhat straight. “You may have won, old man, but you have no grounds to repeal my position. You speak so highly of the laws of our order so you should be well aware that the elders exist under the grandmaster and only the grandmaster may take the title away. What duel? Hah. You should have been more sensible. Your terms are not enforceable.”

A small silence filled the island, but it was not to last.

“Shameless…”

“What the hell.”

“Is that an elder of our order?

“Dude.”

Countless comments of ridicule showered upon Elder Ironskin, but he stood defiantly and took them all.

“I see, it is unfortunate that you would choose to take this path…” Adriel shook his head with a slightly saddened expression. “Since you seek the protection of that law, I shall enlighten you on its true reach. It is indeed true that the elders are under the grandmaster, but you should be aware that there exists another position that exceeds that of elders. Indeed, it is not only the grandmaster who can remove elders, but also a grand elder.”

The words hung in the hair. A large majority of the younger generations stared blankly at the speaker, wondering what he was speaking about. They knew of grandmasters and elders but had never heard the term of grand elder.

The elder’s stands, however, went into great upheaval when Adriel uttered the words. They had clearly understood something that eluded the rest of the order.

“Grand elder? You must be kidding me.” Elder Ironskin spat on the ground before Adriel, turning the ground red. “Since the founding of our order, we have only had a single grand elder and that man died only years after we first arrived here. Do not tell me we have some kind of mysterious ancestor hiding in that little house of yours?”

Elder Ironskin’s words were filled with ridicule and he even began to laugh hysterically at the notion that Adriel had put forth.

That laughter, however, became stuck in his throat. He had clearly felt something and his eyes grew wide.

“This… This… No… This is impossible.”

Elder Ironskin fell to his butt and began to crawl away from Adriel. It was as if he had seen a monster.

Soon after, all those that stood on the stands realised why Elder Ironskin had been so frightened.

There existed few ways to accurately determine someone’s strength. One of the most common ways was to go through the hall of ascendants and its tests.

On the other hand, if you wanted to gauge your opponent’s strength in the middle or before battle, you were out of luck. Unless the opponent freely displayed his essence, you would be unable to determine much more than their tier.

“Good gods, he really is of the fourth-tier middle step.”

The elder from one of the adjacent rooms to Sett spoke up again, affirming the thoughts of many people.

Adriel had freely displayed his pure and frightening strength to the world, allowing them to determine his level. Although it was nowhere near as precise as the hall of ascension, there was no doubt that his strength was reaching well into the fourth tier.

“I had not planned to reveal my actual strength, but some things are simply too important. Anyway, this should be enough to grant me the position of grand elder.” Adriel shook his head as if it was a great injustice. “Mister Ironskin, your actions are heinous and should be condemned. In my position as a provisional grand elder, I temporarily strip you of your position as an elder and open an investigation into your actions during your tenure as an elder. Should your actions be deemed to be unworthy of the order, you will be permanently stripped of your status. I bid you to return to your residence until the matter is completed.”

“Yes…”

In the end, Elder Ironskin could only obediently accept the words of his enemy.