“100 million. An alpha God Level one puppet. I wonder what kind of element it uses and how strong it was upgraded physically.” A man wearing a red armor, sitting in a suite not far from Semil’s suite said. He added: “I was about to leave because it was boring but I think I can stay to see the fate of the challenger.”

A woman sitting next to him said: “Master. Are you thinking of fighting him personally if he is good enough?”

The man said: “Yeah. I need a good puppet to experiment with as I am about to embark on the path of sealers. Fighting physically is starting to bore me.”

“All you have to do is ask the main branch, they can give you as many puppets as you need.” The woman said.

“I like to choose my things, they’d just give me rubbish anyway. Puppets nurtured by good Sealers are the best and have more room for improvement. The main branch just buys things left and right when it comes to things other than alchemy recipes, they do not care for sealers nor do they have a good eye for good puppets.” The man said with a tired voice.

A gray humanoid puppet appeared on the puppet’s stage.

It had gray skin and gray hair. It wore a black attire with a black mask that hid all facial features.

“It’s starting.” The man said.

Devinn was still sitting inside Semil's suite with his eyes closed. He had to monitor the creation of a new Alpha god realm puppet through his incarnation and monitor the fight at the same time.

“Can you fight on your own?” Devinn asked the puppet on the stage.

“Yes. I can. From the Alpha God first level to the third level, there should not be any problems.” It answered with confidence.

“Good.” Devinn said.

The challenger appeared. It was also a puppet refined from a human being. It was deformed in many places. It was at the second level of the Alpha god realm.

“Do you prefer to surrender now or wait for me to dismember you?” The deformed puppet said. It was the puppet master talking through it. Clearly, it had come for some quick money and just wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible.

Devinn’s puppet remained silent.

“Suit yourself.” the deformed puppet said before it slowly advanced towards Devinn’s puppet.

A blue metallic skin started appearing on it until it was entirely covered by it. It controlled a kind of blue metal element. Its deformed parts started to vibrate and were perfectly realigned within a perfect human like silhouette.

A blue humanoid kept advancing slowly towards the gray puppet.

Devinn instructed: “Fight openly. Do not finish the fight with a wish. Make the fight last by only using your arcane bloodline for physical power.”

The gray puppet launched itself towards the blue metallic humanoid.

Punches were traded with no one being at a disadvantage.

No one was defending his body.

The blue humanoid appeared confident of its metallic skin.

The gray puppet just remolded itself after receiving a punch as if made from clay.

The blue humanoid managed to cut the head of the gray puppet with a blue blade made from its palm.

The gray puppet just reattached its head to the falling body as if nothing had happened.

The red armored man in the suite not far from Devinn said: “See? That’s a good puppet. It’s made from a lifeform that can reattach itself and can suffer any kind of physical attack without having to worry about being hurt. I wonder what kind of element that it uses. Or could it be that the clay like body is its element? That blue boring humanoid has a useless element. It’s not enough to let me see the true capabilities of the gray puppet.”

Devinn then sent: “Conjure a fire and melt it.” he could see that the fight was going nowhere.

The gray puppet waved a hand and a scarlet fire appeared out of nowhere and started melting the blue humanoid.

“This is impossible. This puppet is stronger than yours. How can it summon a fire that can hurt my puppet.” The frantic voice of the puppet master was heard through the puppet.

The red armored man then said: “So it controls fire. Weird...there were no ripples of origin energy...A different kind of power source that can summon such a powerful fire? This is new...I'm sure that I am not the only one who discovered it...People are sure to fight for it now...”

No matter how strong one was, he still needed origin energy to conjure his element. it’s just that the stronger one got the bigger the pool of their origin energy was.

The red armored man stood up and headed for the betting stall. He thought he had been the first to arrive but he soon found the two others had already reserved their place in challenging the gray puppet.

“I hope it survives these two. With my Alpha god realm level seven, I refuse to believe that I, Damian Mallory, will lose.”Said the red armored man before applying as the next challenger after the other two.

The gray puppet the next two fights without a hitch.

A man wearing a red Armor then entered the stage.

“You did well. Beating those three annoying puppet masters that overestimate themselves...I think I will be the one to win this. If I win, I want the puppet. If you win, just take the money.What do you think?” Damian said.

Devinn felt an invisible pressure weighing down on him as he looked at the man. He thought: “The strongest that I’ve fought so far is an alpha god realm level 3. It seems that he is even higher than a level four.”

“Master. He is an Alpha god level 7. It’s close to impossible to win against him with just my physical strength. Undo the restriction you’ve put on me so I can have a chance at winning. The arcane bloodline will not be enough.” The puppet said.

“Yes. Use the arcane energy.” Devinn said. Then he said to the man through the puppet:”Deal.”

The third eye under the mask of the puppet flashed.

It said : “ Temporal arcane bloodline buff. Price, half of the arcane energy.”

The puppet sacrificed half of its arcane energy to strengthen its arcane bloodline for more physical power for a while.

It transformed into a three-meter giant before it retracted itself into a more refined and suitable form almost looking like before.

“You can use arcane energy and the arcane bloodline like that?” Devinn was the most surprised of the crowd as he was learning how to use his power properly through a puppet.

The armored man was looking at the whole process and still felt no ripple of origin energy, but felt that the physical power of the gray puppet was almost as strong as him.

He wanted to gauge the current limits of the puppet. He attacked.

The puppet and man exchanged aggressive punches.

The puppet was relieved that just half its reserves were enough to match this red armored man. It knew that the man had other trump cards which was why it had left half of its reserves to prepare for all eventualities.

Damian thought: “This is impossible. Just a level 1, yet capable of exchanging punches with me at the 7th level. I eat and drink Elixirs since my birth and no one on my level is my match, but this puppet here ...something is wrong...if such a good thing existed, why haven’t I heard of it? The elders of the main branch must be scheming for this puppet right now...If I do not win it, it will end in their hands... I suspect that the one controlling it is unaware of the storm he just created.”

“Alright. Time to see your true limits, I am going all out.”The man screamed out before a white light enveloped him after which he completely disappeared from the ring.

The puppet thought: “The element of light. I know how to deal with him now.”

It said: “Darkness domain. Price, nine tenths of my remaining arcane energy.” It added: “Mesmerizing seal. Price, all of it.”

The stage was soon enshrouded by darkness and the man who was running faster than the speed of light about to land a punch lost his momentum as the light around him disappeared, eaten away by the darkness.

Because of the ever expanding darkness, no one saw that Damian was put under a spell and then fell asleep on the ground saying: “What..are ..you?”

As the darkness dissipated, one could see a man in a red armor lying on floor in front of a gray puppet that was soundlessly leaving the stage.

Once outside of the stage, the puppet vanished.

Devinn had teleported it back to his palace to avoid any problems but he had no way of knowing the status of the man he had just beaten nor the ones who were searching for him.

***

“Who is this Semil?” A man with a long beard asked. His name was Dolok Mallory, he was one of the elders of the Mallory family.

“He just turned in a grade 1 Elixir recipe today. He presented his membership card for the bet of the individual that was controlling the puppet. The individual was hiding under a cloak but failed to hide a portion of his armor. If the clerk that registered him is not wrong, then the man should be the 13 man squad that escorted Semil here.” A young man said while bowing.

“If he is of the Bluebird family then he is untouchable, but his belongings are not. I want that puppet so I can study it.” Dolok said.

“Are you sure this is the right way to do things? Why not just ask the Bluebird family to hand him over. He is just a Quintessential god after all. ” Another Elder, Dexter Mallory said.

Dolok then looked at Dexter saying: “Sometimes there are crazy people who try to dual cultivate two elements at the same time but they never go as far as the Quintessential god realm yet there is a puppet out there at the Alpha god realm that can use both fire and darkness to put one of our side branches Kid to sleep. Damian has yet to wake up. I also hear that the puppet could somehow match him in strength. Do you not understand? A puppet that can match a kid that we nurtured from his very birth.”

Dexter did want to argue any longer and wanted to have a look at that puppet for himself as well : “ What do we do?”

“We intercept them when they come to take the gold they won.” Dolok said.