Kiki's brother(who was basically an adult male version of Kiki) placed the azure gem on the table before sliding it to Zalroth.

"So, is it legal?" Kiki's brother asked nervously as he placed the tips of his fingers together. Zalroth inspected the azure gem with Lola(with a sleeping Iris on her head), Kusana, Scarlett and Snow intently staring at it from on top of Zalroth's tails.

"It seems to be an auto-tracking attack magic ability and shadokinesis; so it would in reality it would be a B-rank azure gem but since azure gems with more than one ability automatically increases an azure gem's ranking by one so technically it's an A-rank," Zalroth remarked as he spun the azure gem on the spot.

"I-I see," Kiki's brother said as he placed his hands on his chin. Kiki looked sombrely at her brother before looking over at Zalroth.

"Does that mean big bro can't use it?" Kiki asked.

"Well..." Zalroth said before Chronia bonked Zalroth on the head, with her foot, as she layed on top of Zalroth's tails.

"Stop teasing them and just split the gem already," Chronia commanded as she crossed her arms and placed her feet on Zalroth's head. Zalroth sighed as he picked up the azure gem.

"You didn't need to spoil what I was going to do," Zalroth remarked before he pulled on the sides of the azure gem until it split into two azure gems. Zalroth placed the azure gems on the table before doing jazz hands, with Lola copying his jazz hands.

"Behold, they aren't illegal any more thanks to the painstaking effort of my inamorato," Chronia jokingly remarked. Zalroth rolled his eyes before using his ears to flick Chronia's feet off his head; Chronia tumbled backwards into Zalroth's tails leaving only her legs exposed as she flailed them around.

"And here you were telling me to be sensible," Zalroth remarked as he grabbed onto one of Chronia's ankles and pulled her out of his tails. He slowly lowered the dazed Chronia onto his tails before looking back at Kiki and her brother.

"So, Kiki told me you were interested in joining the tournament, is it just you or are there any of your friends who wanted to join as well?" Kiki's brother asked. Zalroth attempted to answer but, before he could, Lola butted in as she rested her hands on Zalroth's head.

"Of course, papa's going to join; I also asked Sophia-sis if she and her friends wanted to join but they haven't got back to me ye-" Lola said before suddenly glancing upwards.

"She said Ruby and her were going to join," Lola added as Kusana's head emerged from Zalroth's tails.

"How does one sign up?" Kusana asked as she rested her chin in the fur of one of Zalroth's tails. Kiki's brother was about to answer but his phone began to ring; he apologised before telling everyone he needed to go and raced out of the room whilst answering his phone. Kiki watched as the door closed before sadly sighing.

"Do you know how to sign up, Kiki?" Lola asked.

"I think big bro Kikou said that people need to sign up on the day and that there'll be some tests to narrow down the number of people to around a hundred contestants, or something like that," Kiki explained.

"Heh? It's that simple?" Scarlett asked. Kiki nodded her head as she started to explain how the tournament was going to work while sliding a diagram across the table.

Zulcrestus light dashed in front of a heathian bird before swiftly slicing it in half with a light mana sword. The remaining heathian birds grouped up together; they attempted to fire a coordinated attack before they were all pierced by a volley of light mana swords and javelins.

Zulcrestus slowly spun around and extended his left hand out at the birds, with his horns glowing brightly. Zulcrestus tightly clasped his open hand and simultaneously made all the birds burst into purple mush, followed by Zulcrestus snapping his fingers and obliterating the birds with a light beam from the overhead Righteous Rein ring. Hika watched the remnants of the birds crumble away before she heard a loud screech and glanced at the source of the noise.

"Papa Zuzu, what's that?" Hika asked. Zulcrestus slowly panned his head to glance behind himself before letting out a mostly restrained angered sigh as he reached for the sheathed Novathane. Zulcrestus unsheathed Novathane and pointed it at the rapidly gathering cluster of purple bird feathers as it formed into a shape similar to the heathian birds. The feather cluster unloaded a barrage of rageful screeches, making Hika angerly scoff with a pouty face.

"How uncivilized," Hika pouted before a small light magic shield formed around her, making her pouting face swiftly switch to a confusedly concerned one.

Purple mana began to leak out of his body as Zulcrestus entered into his Surging Mana State. The purple parts of his, otherwise, white aura gathered into Novathane's sun-like blade and turned it to a bright dark purple.

Zulcrestus raised Novathane over his head while putting his other hand tightly on its handle.

"First Form: Instant Slash," Hika excitedly muttered before Zulcrestus instantly lunged in front of the feather cluster and unleashed a devastating downward slash that left a trail of dark purple mana as it sliced through the air.

However, before the sword could reach its target, the feather cluster suddenly exploded into multiple smaller clusters that raced past him. Zulcrestus spun around and pulled Novathane back as he prepared to continue attacking.

"Second Form: Instant Slash Return," Hika whispered as Zulcrestus unleashed a flurry of 360° horizontal slashes and managed to destroy a quarter of the feather clusters before light dashing a head of the feather clusters. Zulcrestus came to a stop mid-air before he turned to face the regathering feather monster.

"Hika?" Zulcrestus asked with a serious tone, making Hika flinch.

"Yeaah...?" Hika nervously asked as what Zulcrestus was about to say raced through her mind.

"Why do you keep saying the names of my attacks?". Hika confusedly tilted her head in response.

"But that's what they do in anime and manga,". Hika noticed as the purple parts of Zulcrestus' aura and Novathane's blade reverted back to normal.

"That so?". Hika enthusiastically nodded her head while listing off all the characters she knows that say their attack names before being interrupted by Zulcrestus violently coughing and almost losing his balance.

"That was close," Zulcrestus exhaustedly stated as he covered the left side of his face while heavily breathing.

"Papa, what's wrong?!" Hika worriedly asked as she quickly scanned and checked Zulcrestus' vital signs.

"I'm fine, Hika," Zulcrestus said as he regained his composure and imbued light mana into Novathane's blade before the feather cluster fully reformed, although at a reduced size.

"It doesn't appear there are any other angorthite infected creatures nearby," Hika mentioned as she looked around. Hika's comment made Zulcrestus chuckle as he got into an aggressive-looking stance while placing the palm of his free hand over Novathane's pummel.

"Looks like I can kill two birds with this next move, Fifth Form: Heaven's Vanguard," Zulcrestus stated before lunging at the feather cluster, at a slightly slower speed than Instant Slash. The feather cluster attempted to split apart again before its body was forced back together by Zulcrestus' telekinesis.

"That won't work a second time!" Hika playfully yelled as Zulcrestus plunged Novathane into the feather cluster before Zulcrestus flicked Novathane's pummel with a glowing teal finger and launched the feather cluster, and Novathane, off into the distance. Zulcrestus activated his light dash and his extreme speed spells before blasting off after the feather cluster.

"I don't think mama's going to be happy if you break another one of her inventions," Hika mentioned.

"If you recall it was because the battle axe was an experimental prototype, and not because he was too forceful with it," a second Hika said before the original Hika told the second Hika she's got the wrong colour scheme. The second Hika looked at her clothes before her dress, eyes and ends of her hair changed to pink.

"How's this?" Pink Hika asked with Hika giving a thumbs up.

"Much better, now papa won't mix us up, oh and we should notify the other Hika's to change their colours too," Hika said with Pink Hika agreeing while Zulcrestus let out a sigh, which sort of sounded like a yawn.

The next day, Xinia(wearing a black shirt, white sleeveless hoodie, black shorts and white running shoes) hurried down before slipping and falling down the shiny stairs, of the Dragon Heart Arcade.

Mei(wearing a dress made of multiple coloured squares and shoes that seem to be made from the same material as her head tendrils) and Fei(who wasn't wearing anything since his body was covered head to toe in spiky and fluffy pink fur) watched as Xinia came tumbling down and crash into the luggage at the bottom of the stairs. Mei hurried over to the dazed Xinia before casting LifeLight on her.

"Careful, Mr Kukamo just waxed the stairs," Fei mentioned as he floated over on his tail.

"Yeah, I noticed," Xinia remarked as she sat up and looked around.

"Say where is he anyway?" Xinia asked as she stood up while picking up the knocked-over luggage with her mana strings.

"He said he was going shopping before he opens the arcade," Mei explained as Xinia was placing all the luggage into a black magic storage pouch, that she then put into a storage bubble.

"Alright let's be on our way," Xinia happily proclaimed with a happy Mei and a not-so-happy Fei floating behind her as they all left the arcade.