Chapter 24

Rose could also summon a world fragment? I was already super impressed by Zack's dark world, but Rose's world was even bigger? They were leagues above us. Why must Alduin pick Kishi and the others? Or maybe…. Maybe Alduin found out about that secret before we even met… Hopefully it's not that. Maybe Alduin just saw potential in them. No matter what, Alduin was the god of the world. His judgement should be the best.

Rose's voice snapped me back to reality, or in this case, her reality. "Zack…" I could feel the anger in her voice. Her eyes were a little watery. "How… How could you torture so many people… And then, you just burn off their souls without a second thought?" Her eyes were staring daggers at Zack. "You're so heartless"

"Pffft" Zack pretended he never heard anything.

"I guess I have no choice then. You have to pay for what you did." Rose summoned a dandelion pappus. It was floating calmly above her left hand. Rose grabbed the stem of it and gave a gentle blow. The seeds dispersed around her, gracefully floating towards the ground.

"Huh, what is that supposed to do? Make me sad or something? It's not like those souls feel hurt anyways." Zack laughed. "Well, I guess I'll just let you witness it more. [Soul Ascension : Demonic form]"

A wave of soul energy began to flood into Zack's body. A dark aura swirled around him like a cyclone. It hid his body. At the same time, a powerful flow of pain and sorrow radiated out.

Rose took a deep breath. She then responded with [Meadow winds]. A gentle breeze blew and scattered the seeds all around Zack and the distance between him and Rose. Upon touching the ground, the seeds quickly grew into saplings.

Rose then summoned [Nepenthes pitch]. The saplings closest to Zack rapidly grew and surrounded Zack. Each of their flexible stems are as thick as a bartender's barrel of wine. There were spikes on them too. The stems twisted together and formed a dome around Zack.

Rose let down her hand and said, "Squeeze!"

The dome then started to shrink. It gradually squashed everything inside of it.

After the dome shrunk to half its original size, a voice came out of the dome. It was Zack's. It had a dark and powerful tone. "[Tempest Radiance]"

Small cuts appeared all around the dome. From the rips, I could see a powerful swirling storm inside the dome. The plants quickly regrew the damaged area. Gradually, the speed of the slashes increased. The regeneration wasn't able to keep up for long.

Then, the dome broke apart in a blast. Pieces of the stems flew to all directions. The swirling winds faded away. It revealed Zack's new form.

Zack had two horns made of pure energy on his forehead. His hands were covered in a semi-transparent bear paw-like aura. It had sharp long claws. Besides that, his body was filled with soul energy. All of it waiting to be released.

"Hahahaha!" Zack laughed out loud. "Such an impuissant attack will never stop me!"

Rose immediately cast another spell [Forest of amber]. Amber crystals popped out of the ground around Zack. The crystals joined together at the top. It trapped Zack from all sides.

I felt a small release of soul energy. Zack cast [Demonic rumble]. Zack slammed into the amber wall. The wall broke apart like glass. More amber crystals rose up from the ground, attempting to stop Zack from reaching Rose. Zack just easily knocked into them head-on and caused them to crack into pieces. Zack was like a wrecking ball. He just smashes through walls after walls of amber.

Rose was indifferent. She didn't look worried. I thought that maybe she was faking it, or maybe she had a plan.

As Zack entered the final stretch of land between him and Rose, he leaped into the air. Rose then smiled. She said in a soft tone. "Have you heard of Julie's grave?"

"Julie's grave?" The words slipped right out of my mouth. I travelled so much but never heard of it before. Maybe it was a world speciality.

Zack launched his attack. It was just one single second away from touching Rose. Suddenly, thousands of vines popped out of the ground. First they wrapped around Zack's right arm, disarming him. Then his legs and the other arm got wrapped too. Lastly, his body was no exception. Then, the vines retracted and pulled Zack flat onto the ground.

All of it happened in merely half a second. At such speeds, no matter how strong you are, it would be almost impossible to dodge it. Moreover, there are not just a few vines, but thousands upon thousands of them. If I fell for it but can't use [Phantom translocation], I have no idea how I will be able to dodge it.

Zack slammed straight onto the ground. He didn't have the chance to react at all. Zack struggled a little, but to no avail. In the end, Zack gave up. He was only able to give a death stare at Rose.

"Julie's grave." Rose smiled as she explained. She kneeled down to get closer to Zack. "Named after the first person who fell victim to it. Attracted to magic and all kinds of magical energy, these vines are very fast growers." Rose pat Zack's head. She was mocking Zack. "Well, it's not normally this fast. I enchanted it with some of my magic." Zack tried to shake her hand off. "Oh, now I remember what I was supposed to do."

She stood up. She patted some dust off her clothes. Then, she summoned some seeds and sprinkled them around Zack. "This is for burning all those souls."

This time, small creeper plants sprouted. They slowly made their way all around Zack. Red flowers began to grow on the stems every so often. Before long, the plants have covered Zack's body. But, the flowers haven't yet begun to bloom.

I poked Brusken. "Hey, what are those plants?"

"You don't know what plant it is?" Brusken asked confusedly. He stared at me suspiciously. "They are called fire stars. I heard humans used them for cooking. How do you not know them?"

"Ehh.. probably it's because there are not very much of them around my village, so we don't use them." I tried to look for an excuse.

"The thing about fire stars is that they are super easy to be farmed. Minimal care and super hardy. You can basically grow them anywhere with at least 3 hours of sunlight a day." Brusken wasn't convinced.

"How would I know why my ancestors never grew or cooked with them?" I told Brusken.

Brusken turned back his attention to the battle. He obviously didn't believe me. Well, even I myself might not believe me either. "I can show you to a restaurant where they served fire stars. It was really tasty." Brusken said. I gently patted his shoulder, showing my thanks.

X

We were watching as the first fire stars finally bloomed. Compared to the other plants in the world, the flowers are actually growing super slowly. They had 5 beautifully red petals and orange outlines.

All a sudden, the flowers lit on fire. The fire didn't spread down the stem. It just remained on the star shaped blossom.

However, the fire is releasing quite a lot of magic. It's probably enchanted by Rose, but I believed originally it would have released a small amount of magic too. The fire magic it was emitting was fluttery and not pure, but was still very powerful. Even so far away, I could feel the heat. I can only imagine the pain Zack endured.

The last flowers entered full bloom. Unexpectedly, a huge fire boomed out above Zack. The gust of fire magic made my daggers vibrate. This meant that my daggers are actually absorbing some of the magic.

Brusken was calm. He was staring straight into the fire. It was like he was hypnotised. He extended his hands out towards the fire. It seems that he was trying to touch the fire.

I patted Brusken's shoulder. "Hey Brusken, you feeling okay?"

Brusken found his way back to reality. Brusken turned to me and said. "Yeah. You know that I have an affinity to fire magic, right? This fire…. It feels so calming to me."

Actually, I understood Brusken. This fire had a sort of…. Natural feeling to it. At the same time, it's also enchanted by Rose which made it stronger.

X

After enduring the flames in silence for a whole minute or two, I finally heard Zack's voice again. He was sniggering. "I really do have to say, it seriously hurts. I can't believe you would hurt your friend like that. I already said that it doesn't hurt the souls much, and you still want to hurt me." Zack was pretending to be a cinnamon roll. "I guess I have to retaliate." His voice suddenly turned dark. "[Ominous battlefield]"

Zack suddenly burned a humongous amount of soul energy. He burned through more energy than he did in the whole battle so far. The ground beneath him turned black. The plants withered. The blackness didn't spread far. It was just big enough to cover his whole body and withered all the plants holding him down.

Zack got back on to his feet. His clothes were burned from Rose's attack. "Aww, my clothes got burned. Could you go buy a new set? Since you were the one who burned it and all."

"Outrageous!" Rose lifted her right hand into the air. She cast [Elegance of Purgatory]. Myriad of flowers materialized high up in the air. They formed a circle around Zack.

Zack responded by casting [Glooming Shackles]. The darkened ground below him started to spread. Then, hands popped out of the darkness and flew towards Rose.

Rose let her hand down, initiating the attack. The flowers gathered magic and blasted powerful rays down on Zack.

Right then, it was a matter of whose ability is faster. None of them had intentions of dodging. They both believed they would win.

Unexpectedly, time slowed down again. The world fragment was falling apart. But, why? Zack's burnt through so much power and the world was able to hold it. Did Rose focused too much power on the attack? Or could it be that Zack did something behind the scenes?

I sensed a great surge of magic. It wasn't coming from either of them. I looked upwards, towards the source. Something, or someone, was flying in like a meteor.

"[Majestic onslaught]" The meteor spoke. It sounded familiar… it sounded like .. Lance!

Lance smashed into the ground between Zack and Rose. The crash created a huge crater and emitted a powerful shockwave. The shockwave knocked Rose out. Zack too was knocked unconscious. The shockwave dissipated and created hurricane-like winds. The winds managed to reach me and Brusken.

The world fragment broke. We returned to the real world. Zack and Rose were still out like a light. The crater disappeared like nothing ever happened.

Everyone else, spectators and judges alike, started to get their senses back. When Zack got knocked down, his spell was probably broken too.

The judge tried to assess the situation. They then announced the last person standing the winner of the battle, which was Lance.

The announcement marked the end of the first set of battles. All the winners will move on into the quarter finals.

"That is all for today! We have to let our contestants rest up, so come back tomorrow for the quarter finals. The semi and finals will be held the day after tomorrow!"

X

Spectators poured out of the arena. If viewed from above, it would looked like a river. Some spectators were excited while others were still shivering in fear.

"Hey Brusken, let's go find Eff. Do you think she would be waiting for us outside or inside the arena?" I asked Brusken. We were slowly making our way out.

"I think she might be outside."

"Hah? Wanna bet?" I challenged Brusken just for the sake of it.

Brusken looked at me. He had a confident expression. "I'll bet 500"

"Alright then. If you got it right then I'll treat you and Eff to another meal as an extra. I think she's probably waiting by the door or along a hallway."

I suddenly felt a tap behind my shoulder. I turned around. It was a smartly dressed man. "Mr Renikno. I believe you are new here. I'm a trainee here in the arena. My higher ups asked me to explain the rules to you about the next round. The rules for the first set and the second are different. If you please, why don't we go find a slightly more comfortable place to talk."

I looked at Brusken. He got the message. He replied, "Ahh… I think I'll go find Eff. How about we wait for you in the pub we ate at earlier?"

"Fine by me." I turned back to the trainee. "Alright."