"You've done well. We will handle the rest from here on," teacher Hayan told Ning and sent him back to his room.
Ning wanted to see how they dealt with the woman, but he was also a little tired from all the fighting today, so he decided to take his leave.
He returned to his room and quickly met with a plethora of questions from the guys that were waiting for him to tell them about his 'friend'. They didn't believe that it was just a friend at all.
Ning couldn't tell them anything else, so most of them were forced to leave without any answer.
"A girl came to meet with you from so far away, there's no way she doesn't like you," the prince said after most of the people that weren't from his room left.
"No, she really is just a friend," Ning said.
"But she could be more," the prince said. "Don't miss this opportunity."
Ning sighed. The conversation was basically pointless, but he couldn't tell these people that he had been married for over millions of years now.
He thought of taking the opportunity to ask the prince about his grandfather and family, but since Clara had said that she didn't think she was ready, Ning stopped. There was no reason for him to get involved in something that wasn't his problem.
He left to get some food afterward as everyone gathered for dinner. Ning noticed a significant absence in the number of teachers and wondered how it was going with finding the truth.
He had yet to tell anyone about what had happened, so everyone was equally concerned and confused as well.
It was around when Ning finished up his meal that the teachers finally came to the dining hall. As they got around to getting food for themselves, the headmaster turned towards Ning and spoke.
"You're finished eating, huh?" he asked.
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Ning nodded as he was about ready to leave.
"Well, stick around for now," the headmaster said. "I have something to talk with you about."
After the students left, the headmaster finally started speaking. "Can you tell me what happened exactly? How did you catch that woman?" he asked.
Ning thought for a brief moment and nodded. "I was with my friend when she asked me to show what I had learned. I showed her my Void Essence, and accidentally stripped away that woman's light concealment. That's how I found her and subsequently captured her while she was trying to run away."
The headmaster's eyes were wide when NIng was done with his story. He looked toward the other teachers who were equally just as surprised as he was.
"Wait a second, did you say Void Essence?" the headmaster asked, completely forgetting about the main problem they were talking about just beforehand.
"Mhm," Ning nodded. "I learned a skill from the shop back in the academy."
"And you managed to learn it? You managed to use it?" he asked.
Ning shrugged. "It wasn't that hard," he said.
The headmaster took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down. "Dear god, just how pure is your Essence?" he couldn't help but ask. "To generate Void Essence, it has to be extremely pure as far as I know. Void Essence just doesn't exist except under very, very rare circumstances, which I do not believe has happened in our continent yet. "
Ning nodded. "That's what it said in the skill book too," he said. "So I learned it."
"Hmm," the Headmaster thought for a bit. "Ok, let me talk about what I want to talk to you about."
"Yes?" Ning asked.
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"As I mentioned my promise earlier, I was planning on giving you two rewards based on your performance," the headmaster said. "However, something has changed now."
Ning's eyes narrowed for a moment. "What changed?" he asked.
"That woman you brought in," the headmaster said. "She's been found guilty of tampering with our academy by sabotaging our food supplies. On top of that, she was also found guilty of following you around with maleficent intent, so the Essence Heart academy is now about to gain a rather large punishment."
"Oh…" Ning got curious. 'What sort of punishment?"
The headmaster shook his head. "I do not know just yet, the committee members are still deciding. However, whatever the decision is, it will be bad for them without a doubt. They will no longer have a chance at victory at all."
"Oh," Ning said with a surprised look. "I did not expect my actions to produce such a drastic result."
"Their actions were drastic as well," the headmaster said. "Anyway, given the situation, I've decided on something. I will no longer let you have 2 rewards."
"Instead, I will give you 3."
Ning's eyes widened a bit in happiness. "Oh, what sort?" he asked excitedly.
The headmaster smirked. "What exactly do you want? Do you have any idea?" he asked.
Ning thought for a moment. "Honestly, I'm not sure I know as much about what is good for me and what is not when compared to you, so I would like to request the headmaster to make the decision for me."
"Haha, okay then. I will make the decision for you."
The headmaster reached into his clothes and pulled out something. He tossed it at Ning who quickly caught it in the air and looked at it.
It was a small cylindrical piece of metal with a small purple gem attached to the front of it. The entire thing was on a rather sturdy feeling rope.
"The thread is made from a spider Essence Beast known as the Strong Iron Spider. It's known for its strings that have unnaturally strong and can't even be ripped destroyed by someone in the Essence Soul realm."
"As for the metal itself, it is a titanium alloy, that is superbly strong," the headmaster said. "As for the last purple crystal, that is just how much space was crammed into that small place."
"I see," Ning said, looking at the object in his hand. "Thank you for the Storage artifact, headmaster."
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Ning looked at the storage artifact with a curious look on his face. He would have to use some Essence to bond with the item so that he could use the space inside of it.
From what he could judge based on what he knew and saw, this thing was large enough to hold an entire room's worth of items in it. While nowhere near impressive for Ning, he was still quite happy to finally get something where he could store his sword.
"For the second reward," the headmaster reached into his own storage artifact and pulled out. "I will hand you these Essence crystals."
He brought out a bunch of crystals, each one as large as the largest one that Ning had seen, all amounting to nearly 30 in total.
Ning's eyes widened in shock as such an amount of crystal would take him forever to acquire on his own.
"Do I deserve this?" he asked, trying to see if there was something else going on than just rewards. Was the headmaster trying to give him these things to try and make him feel like he was indebted to the academy?
"No, no, that's your reward. It's what you deserve for getting into the top 16," the headmaster said. "You will love them. Each one of them is extremely pure. I had to buy them off of the Light Dance academy to give them to you."
"Well, then thank you," Ning said as he gathered up all the Essence Crystals.
"As for the third one," the headmaster looked through his storage artifact. "Hmm, wait for a bit. I hadn't planned for this one, so I will need to search for a bit. I wasn't prepared to give anything to you other than those two today."
Ning let the headmaster search for whatever it was while he checked the Essence crystals. As the headmaster had mentioned, it was indeed quite pure and would help him a lot to improve his Essence to the next level.
He couldn't wait for the day when he too formed an Essence soul of his own.
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After a while, the headmaster finally spoke. "Aha! There is it. I knew I had it here, somewhere," he said and brought out a small, thin book.
The headmaster gave him the book, which Ning took, and started reading to see what it was. As soon as he read the title, his eyes immediately widened and he quickly looked back at the headmaster in shock.
"Is this… real?" he asked.
"It is," the headmaster said, amused at his expression. He liked to see youngsters get surprised at what he was giving them.
"Then… this essence exists as well?" Ning asked.
"Haha, yes," the headmaster said. "I had decided on giving you armor to protect yourself from the ones that I had. However, now that I learn you can create any type of Essence, I see no reason to not give you this as it is obviously better."
Ning nodded without much thought. He could only look at the book in absolute awe.
It was a technique book, another skill that he could learn if he had the time. Judging by the size of the book, he could most likely learn it over the course of the night itself, if he was willing to lose some sleep over it.
"Thank you so much, headmaster," Ning said with genuine glee on his face for gaining such a thing.
"Alright, go now and rest. You'll need the time to gain back your Essence," the headmaster said. "Now that you're in the top 16, you have 4 more fights to go. It is unlikely you'll go even past the next one, but if you do… ho ho, I will find you something even way better than this.'
Ning excitedly thanked the headmaster and placed everything inside the returned back to his own room.
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Everyone was focused on their own task, so Ning went over to his own bed and took out the book to read it.
The book itself was quite short as the skill for the most part was simply creating the Essence and then launching it directly at the target.
It was akin to a fireball skill, except the ball would be made up of a different Essence entirely.
'I wish I could do the same thing with Void Essence as well,' he thought. 'Just attack someone with a projectile made up of Void Essence and cancel whatever technique they are about to use.'
Unfortunately, that wasn't really possible as of now without any technique of his own. Ning wondered if there were ways to create techniques, to do what he wanted with them.
He would have to try out in the coming days once the tournament was over.
Tomorrow was the last day, so Ning had to prepare for that as well. He brought out the half-used Pure Essence crystal from his drawer.
Then, he started absorbing it with his eyes closed while trying to remember the technique he was learning at the same time.
He tried to do two things at once and somewhat succeeded in it. Even though the book was small, there was still quite a lot to learn, remember, and apply in such a short time, so Ning had to bring his full concentration into the job.
He fell into some sort of trance where he unconsciously absorbed the Essence while mentally learning at the same time. Also at the same time, his body got the rest it deserved as it stood still without Ning's movements.
It was only after midnight that Ning woke up from the trance and realized that the Essence Crystal in his hand had vanished. He had absorbed it all and was back to having a full core.
Then, he was free to learn the technique all he wanted.
When the morning came, Ning was asleep on his bed after a long night of training and had to be forcefully awakened by the others around him.
Once he was up, he got dressed up and got ready to leave for the arena, for the final day of the competition.
The final day of the competition was celebrated even harder than the previous days. More people than ever had arrived at the arena early in the morning and were waiting for the matches to start.
When the entirety of the Blackhawk Academy arrived, they were greeted with a number of audiences that blew them away.
"So many," one of the students said when they saw the arena from their sitting area.
"It's like people were waiting for the last day to arrive to watch everything," another one said.
Everyone started revealing their surprise at the crowd's size and intensity.
"Look!" one of them pointed somewhere, forcing everyone to turn to look. A small tower had been erected toward the north of the arena, including a small viewing room created for the elite.
"Who do you think is in there?" someone asked.
"Maybe the headmasters go there later," one of them said.
"I see some movement," another person said, pointing there again. "Oh, I recognize him."
"It's our head of the family," Tenn said.
Saburn Foreman, leader and head of the Foreman family that unofficially ruled the Whiteowl region was up at the VIP platform, looking down at the matches from an amazing vantage point.
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Along with him were a few other officials from around the dominion, and one important group that even he had to bow down to.
"Your grandson and granddaughter have made it to the Top 32, with your grandson even reaching the Top 16. You must be truly proud of them, your majesty," Saburn Foreman spoke as politely as he could to the man that sat next to him.
"Proud?" the old man asked. "No, it is expected of them to reach this high. I expect them to reach the Top 8 easily."
The old man had amazing long flowing white hair and a beard that did not seem to fall even with his age. He was slightly muscular, despite his old age, and wore a fully black robe with golden inscriptions and embroidery all over it.
The gold was not gold, but rather brilliant yellow Light Essence that was sewn onto the cloth which appeared to look gold. The talent one needed to make Light Essence not only that thin but also long-lasting was not something just anyone could acquire.
Only the highest of the highest talent and Essence rank was needed to do so.
One of the most prominent depictions using the golden light was that of a bird with only the outlines being in the light, while the bird itself was entirely black.
It was the image of a hawk staring back at the person who stared at it.
The Blackhawk design was the signature telling that someone was from the Black family, the rulers of the Blackhawk region as well as the Blackhawk Dominion.
The old man was Darran Black, the current Emperor of the Blackhawk Dominion.
"You must have high expectations of them then, your majesty," Saburn spoke. "What would you say is the rank that you hope they reach by the end?"
"Top 2," the emperor said without any hesitation. "Top 4 is good too, but I have higher expectations of them than that."
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"Haha, my royal father doesn't like to show it, but he is very proud of my niece and nephew," the man with similar clothing as the old man that sat next to him replied. "To be honest, I imagine them both entering the Top 2 as well."
The man had a head full of black hair and a clean-shaven face. He had a small, handsome face and looked no older than 30 years of age.
This was the Crown Prince of the Blackhawk Dominion, Damien Black, the next ruler of the Blackhawk Dominion.
"Top 2… huh?" Saburn said looking down below. He could notice that the twin prince and princess were amongst their newly arrived group and remembered their last day's battles.
The prince's rank was higher than most if not all the fighters in the competition. His Essence rank was in the High Essence Soul realm, so it was expected of him to reach far. It was even believed that he had been holding back a lot.
However, in the princess's case, he couldn't see just why she could be so strong. Sure she was in the Low Essence Soul realm as well, but so was everyone. And her Essence Core was light, something that wasn't considered very good to begin with.
If someone traced her footsteps back throughout this competition, one would see that she had gotten lucky one after another at every step, with her opponents always being weaker than her.
So, Saburn Foreman could not understand why the Emperor and the Crown Prince would ever have so much faith in the girl. As he stared at the two of them, his eyes fell on another young man that stood next to them.
'That young man,' he thought. It was the young man that his son had notified him of. The one with a sword so heavy that one couldn't carry it. He had seen the sword in action, so he understood a bit as to why it could be heavy.
However, he wanted to see more, to see it reach its peak. He doubted a young man at Essence Manifestation realm could give him that.
He sat back on his chair and looked down, waiting for the matches to start.
Below at the arena, Ning and the rest were preparing to go to the hall. Ning, Prince Allen, Hyandus, Princess Alena, and Yorsha were taken away by the teacher toward the hall in preparation for today's matches.
When they arrived, however, they were a little surprised by the lack of people there. As it was already down to Top 32, there weren't many there, to begin with, but something more was going on.
The headmaster suddenly arrived next to them with a wide smile and gave them the good news.
"Because of their actions that went against the competition rules, Essence Heart Academy and all of its participants have been officially thrown out of the competition. You guys now have one less thing to worry about."
"Wait, so Essence Heart Academy is done?" the prince asked with a surprised look.
"Yes, they are done," the headmaster said. "Gone from the competition. All 3 of their remaining players are disqualified."
"Oh!" Ning cried in surprise. "So does that mean I get to go to Top 8 now?"
"Hmm? Did you have an Essence Heart academy student as your next opponent?" the headmaster asked.
"Yes," Ning said, pointing to the board. "It was the guy we met yesterday outside of the gate. So I can now skip him, and go to the Quarterfinals, huh?"
"That is amazingly lucky for you then," the headmaster said.
"I suppose I'm somewhat lucky too then," the princess spoke all of a sudden. "My current opponent was supposed to be a girl from that very academy too."
The headmaster looked at the board again with surprise in his eyes. "Haha, our academy sure is lucky. This is fate helping us for the bad start that we received."
"Would've been better if it was Yorsha that got the next fighter," the prince said. "She could've skipped to the Top 16 easily. My sister could've instead just fought her way through."
"Well, we can't all ask for miracles," Yorsha said. "I'm fine with where I've reached. If I am capable, I will go forward on my own."
"Good, good," the headmaster said. "Good luck to you all. I will head over to the audience stand now."
The headmaster left, leaving the group of 5 students with a single teacher. They remained in their corner of the hall that was better fitted to hold them all.
There were too many participants the last time around to make good preparation as that could make it difficult to move around in the hall. But now that there were no more than 30 people left, they had prepared a more formal section for all the school.
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Tokyo's digital art scene in 2023-24
Tokyo's digital art scene in 2023-24
Tokyo Metropolitan Government
The Essence Heart Academy's section remained empty, however.
The host for the day started by welcoming everyone to the competition and then explained to them the actions that the competition holders had taken against the Essence Heart Academy.
They didn't give the exact reason, other than a vague implication that they had broken the committee's trust by breaking some of its rules. As a result, they would be keeping all the points they had acquired until the day of the competition, but everything afterward would be invalid.
Participants that had lost to a student of the Essence Heart Academy would gain the next round's points if they had lost to someone from that academy.
Once that was done, the remaining half of the top 32 continued from where it was left the last time. The 9th match began with two students from other academies going up to fight.
Everyone watched the matches carefully, as any of these people could be their opponents today. One needed to be ready for anything that came so that they couldn't miss out on any fights at all.
The next 2 matches took place within the next 15 minutes as well, all of which resulted in making a clear demonstration of just how strong the ones that had reached this rank were. The 12th match was a freebie as one of the participants in that match was someone from the Essence Heart Academy.
The 13th match came around, and two people went onto the stage. Within the next minute, the match ended.
Everyone watched in silence as they realized that there was someone strong that had been hiding until then. It was a fighter from the Peace World Academy, and he was someone in the High Essence Soul realm. He had been hiding his rank all this time, and that had taken everyone in the hall by surprise.
The only other person that had shown such a rank until now was the prince.
"You've got stiff competition up next, sis," the prince said, looking at Princess Alena, who was glaring at the illusory screen that showed the fight in the air. Her eyes shifted to the young man that walked in all high and mighty and gave the prince a look of mockery, telling him that he wasn't the only strong one there.
"Ohh… he's annoying," the prince said while keeping his smile. "You need to kick his ass, sis."
"You can't tell me what to do," the princess said.
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"Uhh… then don't kick his ass," the prince said. "Will you be doing the reverse now?"
The princess sighed and looked away. It was her match now, but because it was against someone disqualified, she didn't even need to go to the stage.
"I still can't believe how lucky you've been, sis," the prince said. "You've only come across fighters with Essence Manifestation realm or with weak Essence souls. You haven't had to fight seriously until now."
"That's going to change next," the princess said.
"I suppose," the prince said.
"Well," Yorsha suddenly spoke. "This is me then."
"Good luck," the prince said, and the others followed.
"I'll… do my best," Yorsha said.
Everyone nodded. No one expected her to win at all, but they wanted her to do the best she could.
As her name was called out Yorsha stood and walked to the stage alongside her opponent, a girl from the Crimson Wings academy.
Yorsha frowned the entire time she made it to the stage. She knew she was going to lose, but there was nothing wrong with trying to win.
They arrived on the stage and went over to the opposite side, waiting for the referee to start the match. While waiting, they each brought out their weapons and got ready.
"Start!"
As soon as the match started, Yorsha activated her Burning Sun skill as she increased the temperature of the entire surrounding.
However, it was then that her opponent brought out her Essence Soul that made Yorsha immediately lose all hopes of victory.
It was a Fire Essence Soul, which took nearly no damage from her fire attacks. Which meant, she was up against the worst type of enemies the members of her family could.
Yorsha tried her hardest, but her fire could not burn someone that not only had a Fire Essence Soul, but also was talented enough to reach the top 32.
Within a few minutes of the fight starting, she was beaten by her opponent. The referee had to come in and stop the flaming swords of her opponent's Essence Soul from reaching her in the end.
She returned to the hall with some disappointment in herself, but she had already expected the failure, so she couldn't be mad about it.
"You did great out there," the teacher said as soon as Yorsha arrived.
"Thanks," she said meekly.
The others went on to congratulate her too for reaching Top 32. That wasn't something so easily reached by many.
"Don't worry," Ning said. "You're young. You'll do far better in the future."
Yorsha's eyes narrowed. "You're only 3 years older than me at best too," she said.
"Uhh… yeah," Ning replied.
One last match took place and then the top 32 were over and they moved onto Top 16. For top 16, the matches changed a bit. The host announced that this time, instead of 5 minutes per battle, everyone was going to get 10.
With the extra bit of time, everyone could slow down their pace and fight better. Since there weren't that many fights remaining, the committee saw no qualms in doing that.
The very first match of Top 16 was called out, which was Ning's match. However, since his opponent had been disqualified, they moved onto the 2nd match.
The 2nd match took some time to finish and Ning saw that his next opponent was going to be a person with Earth Essence core.
The third match began between the Prince and someone from the Grand Will academy. After a somewhat difficult battle that was only difficult because the Prince didn't go all out from the start, the match ended with the prince's victory.
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After the 3rd match was over, the fourth match started between the prince's bodyguard Hyandus, and someone from the Peace World academy.
This was the fight that took the most time yet conclude. The opponent in this match was someone with a Water Essence Soul and he covered himself in water, making it difficult for Hyandus to properly attack him.
His Wind Essence soul didn't give him much offensive strength, so it took some time for him to use his spear to weaken his opponent, while dodging every attack, to gain his victory.
3 out of the 8 fighters in the Quaterfinals were confirmed to be the Black Hawk academy members. At this point, they had already won the entire competition.
Now, all that left was to see who had won it exactly.
Hyandus was breathless, and by other people's senses, Essence-less when he returned back to the hall again. He was congratulated on his hard-earned victory and allowed to rest while the next two fights took place.
The 5th and the 6th matches were won by two people with Fire Essence and Water Essence.
Then, it came time for the 7th match.
The young man from the Peace World academy stood up and looked toward the Black Hawk Academy's direction. He was the 2nd person in the entire competition to reveal to have a High Essence Soul realm.
He was without a doubt the second strongest person in the entire competition.
He looked toward the princess and bowed. "Let us have a fun match, princess," he said. His words were polite, but his tone was not. He was simply taunting the princess as he knew that he would win.
Alena stood and walked toward the door without even acknowledging him. The young man followed next to her, but even as they went to the stage, she did not show any sign of noticing the man.
And that pissed him off.
"Well, at least the princess reached Top 16. That's one better than me," Yorsha said.
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"Hmm?" the prince turned around. "What do you mean?"
"I mean the princess did good to reach where she's reached, nothing else," Yorsha said. "It would've been better if she continued moving on, but this is the last of the line for her."
The prince gave a small smile. "Are you saying my sister is going lose this match?" he asked. Even Hyandus shook his head when he heard that.
Ning and the teacher got a little curious at where the conversation seemed to be headed.
"Are you saying she has a chance to win?" Yorsha asked as she looked back at the live image of the princess on the stage.
"Why not?" the prince asked.
"But… but her enemy is a rank above her and has an Earth Essence soul. The princess is only in the Low Essence Soul realm, and on top of that, she has Moonlight Essence core, one of, if not the worst when it comes to offensive capabilities. Are you saying she's going to win through that?" Yorsha asked.
The prince gave a wide smile. "Did you think Alena has shown all of her skills in this competition when she hasn't even been pushed as hard yet?" he asked before chuckling.
"She has something hidden?" Ning couldn't help but ask. He was truly curious about the princess's fighting capabilities.
The prince laughed some more. "You guys better get seated then. You will soon witness something incredible," he said.
Everyone turned their eyes to the screen.
The princess took a deep breath while her opponent seemed to have his Earth Essence Soul ready to fight.
"I'm sorry, princess," he said. "But your puny moonlight and light essence isn't going to work. This is the end of the line for you."
"Fight!" the referee shouted.
The young man rushed toward the princess all of a sudden, wishing to end the fight all at once.
However, when he got close, his eyes widened as something happened.
The princess breathed out and all of a sudden her aura changed. That which was only at Low Essence Soul suddenly reached a higher level at High Essence Soul.
The audience's eyes went wide as they realized taht the princess had been hiding her powers all this time.
"You!" the young man freaked out a little seeing the princess bring out a level of Essence that he didn't think she had. He stopped in his tracks and quickly flew back away from her.
Once he was at a safe distance, he looked at her with confused looks. He had thought he was the only one who had managed to hide it from everyone, but it seemed the princess was even better at it than him.
What he didn't know was that he had only managed to hide it from the other participants who were weaker like him. The referee and various teachers had most definitely already noticed it.
However, even the referee was confused when sensing the aura that came out of the princess. That was not what he was expecting seeing someone like her on the stage.
Was she not weak? Was her Moonlight Essence Core that well hidden that even the adults hadn't seen it?
It wasn't just the referee, of course, everyone but a few people were surprised at the sudden revelation.
Up in the tower where the Royal family members and other rulers of the dominion stayed, the Emperor couldn't help but scoff. "These idiots!" he spoke out. "They thought my granddaughter was weak. If they keep it up, they'll be killed by people they underestimate."
The crown prince chuckled a bit.
As for the rulers, they were wide-eyed at the situation. Saburn Foreman especially was more than surprised as he had watched her fight through multiple battles the other day, and nowhere had the princess shown such a capability.
'How did she hide it?' he still couldn't believe.
Aside from them and the crowd, even Ning and Yorsha were equally surprised, including the teacher.
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"What… what is going on?" Yorsha couldn't help but ask. "The princess was in the High Essence Soul realm? How was this hidden from us for multiple days?"
Ning stayed silent, trying to make sense of the situation. He had definitely sensed only a Low Essence Soul realm from her. Even if he was mistaken, what about the machine that tested their Essence? It had shown no sign of the princess having such a strong aura.
"How is this possible, Prince Allen?" the teacher asked. "We've seen the princess bring out her Essence Soul. It wasn't strong before. Did she break through last night?"
"Haha!" the prince laughed. "You guys still haven't caught onto it, have you? You're in for a treat then."
Hearing the prince's excited sound, everyone looked toward the screen, in hopes of seeing just what it was that made the princess's situation so incredible.
On the stage, the princess stood at a distance without any weapons, not even the light sword, and faced the young man whose mind was going through a lot of turmoil.
The young man had a Water sword in his hand and Fire armor inside. Even then, he hesitated at the weirdness of the situation and didn't immediately attack again.
He thought for a few seconds before confirming something. "It really is the High Essence Soul realm, isn't it?" he asked. "So it is not some sort of illusion to dupe me."
The prince narrowed her eyes a little, giving a slightly disgusted look toward the young man, who was immediately offended by it.
"Hahaha! So you hid it until now," the young man shouted. "What does that matter. You've merely stepped up to my level. All you've done is placed yourself on equal playing field as me. That does not mean that you will win at all."
"You still have to fight."
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The princess finally sighed. "Are you expecting me to give up after hearing your long speech, or are you actually going to fight against me?" he asked.
"You— haha~ hahaha! Princess, do you truly believe that you have a chance at victory here?" he asked. "You might have the same Essence rank as me, but please do not forget that while you have a Moonlight Essence core, I have an Earth Essence core. You have no chance at victory here."
The princess lifted her two arms in front of her. "It will soon be apparent who is the victor here."
Then, she started using her technique.
The young man instantly started using his to create a simple barrier of stone as he would need nothing more to stop the incoming Moonlight Essence attack.
As the stone barrier finished forming, his eyes changed a little while his face fell. "What?" he couldn't help but be surprised when he sensed that the Essence being used on the other side was not that of Moonlight, but something else.
Something he rarely sensed.
Before he could realize what it was, the attack landed on the stone wall, breaking it immediately as the rest of it started spilling around him. The young man immediately recognized the direness of the situation and brought out his Earth Essence soul, a 10 meters tall earthen figure that was completely humanoid and seemed to be made out of many pieces of stones.
A layer of rock grew out from the ground and only then did the princess's attack was finally stopped.
The young man stared in awe at the remainder of the attack.
What had remained was a pool of glowing red liquid that seemed to have molten most of the stones that came into contact with it.
The young man gulped in fear when he realized that the attack the princess had used was in fact not Moonlight Essence, but rather something entirely different.
The Princess had used Magma as her attack. She had a Magma Essence core.
The young man couldn't believe what he was seeing, but the truth was right in front of her. The truth became even more true when two giant, glowing orange arms appeared from behind her, followed by the rest of the Essence Soul, which was 10 meters tall as well.
Her Magma Essence Soul was fully on display in the fight, surprising the many thousands of people who had not expected to see something like this at all.
Alena's Magma Essence Soul was 10 meters tall with hands that split into long vines that dripped magma whenever they moved. The soul had no legs, but a single long magma fountain that sprayed all across the ground.
The soul's hair freely flowed behind it, dripping magma there as well. Soon, there was a pool of magma all around Alena as she fully revealed her Magma Essence Soul.
"What's… going on?" a few people up in the tower asked when they saw the Magma Essence Soul come out from the princess.
"I swear the princess had a Moonlight Essence Soul until recently," another person mentioned.
The Emperor put on a smug face, incredibly happy with his granddaughter's performance, and simply watched what happened next without speaking a single word.
The princes started sending out attacks. Blobs of molten rocks fell all around the young man as he desperately tried to stop it all. He created rocks to stop them, but that did little to the liquid rocks that flowed around them.
He couldn't directly touch the lava with his Essence Soul as the stones that made it up would burn and melt, hurting him in the end. All he could do was defend with his techniques and fight back whenever he could.
However, as time went on, he found it impossible for him to fight back against the princes. She started melting the very ground they stood on, heating the entire arena making it not just difficult to find a footing but be in there as a whole.
The heat from the lava was just as worse as it was from a very strong Fire Essence user, and the princess wasn't even intending to use it that way.
The people in the audience and hall were equally ecstatic watching the fight, just as they were confused. They couldn't understand why the princess suddenly had a Magma Essence core.
The same questions floated around inside the players' hall as Yorsha and Ning asked the prince what was happening.
Everything made them so curious that Ning nearly broke his own rule and asked the system about it all.
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"What is happening?" Yorsha demanded. "Prince, tell us."
The prince, being bombarded by questions, finally gave up. "Fine, I'll tell you. She always had a Magma Essence Core."
Yorsha shut up for a moment before her eyes narrowed. "That explains neither the High Essence Soul realm nor the fact that she used to have a Moonlight Essence Soul. What happened there?" she asked.
"It's still there. It's just hiding," the prince said.
"Hiding?" Ning asked.
"The Moonlight Essence Soul hides when Alena decides to use the Magma Essence core," he said.
Both the teacher and Ning understood what that meant at once.
"Wait, are you saying…"
"The princess has dual cores?" Ning finished the teacher's question.
"You guys got it!" the prince said happily. "Yes, Alena was born with two cores. Ever since she was young, she was made to absorb two separate types of Essence to her two separate cores."
"She can only use one core at a time though," the prince explained. "From a young age, grandfather gave us both unique Essence crystals to absorb. She got Magma, I got Ice."
"But when we realized that each core absorbed separately, Grandfather realized that he could get her to have two completely outrageous cores. He made her cultivate pure Essence for the time being, which forced her to absorb Moonlight Essence when there wasn't any Pure Essence."
"She continued on and at some point, it was clear that Grandfather couldn't get her any other crystals that would be good for her, so she was forced to try and instead have a Core filled with Pure Essence."
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"By that time, however, her core had already absorbed the Moonlight's attribute, becoming a Moonlight Core," the prince said. "She has worked twice as hard as anyone in this place to send both of her cores to Essence Soul realm."
"To say that we are proud of her is an understatement. Sometimes, it feels like I'm following behind her, trying to catch up. Or else, she will leave me behind," the prince said.
The other 3 were slackjawed at the information they just received. Yorsha couldn't believe that there was such a thing as a person having two cores. The teacher couldn't believe that someone with 2 cores was amongst them, and Ning was simply surprised she managed to keep it hidden throughout so much of the competition.
Hyandus seemed to know all of this, so he remained quiet, watching the others talk about it.
"So… the princess's primary core is actually the Magma core?" Ning asked. "Has she been holding back this entire time?"
"Yes, that's her primary core. And no, she hasn't been holding back. She just didn't need to use it until now," the prince said.
Still shocked, the group turned to look at the stage again as the match was coming to an end.
The Magma Essence soul behind the princess that dripped magma all around her, pulled something out of its arm. A long magma javelin formed in the Essence Sou's arm and it pointed directly at the young man's own Essence Soul.
If the Javelin hit, the young man was certain that the Essence Soul would certainly be destroyed. If it was completely destroyed, he would certainly die.
He thought of ways to defend himself, but nothing would phase the princess at all. She was way too strong for him.
He looked toward the referee for help, but even the referee seemed to struggle a little in this heat. Did that mean he wouldn't be saved?
His head whipped toward the princess at the earliest sign of movement and immediately retracted his Essence Soul before she could throw her attack.
"I give up!" he shouted with his hands in the air. "Don't hurt me, please princess."
Alena stopped her attack before it went off. The javelin melted from the Soul's hand, falling to the ground down below.
The Essence Soul disappeared behind the princess as the referee announced the result after a few seconds.
Princess Alena had won her match.
The princess returned to her place with the rest of the Blackhawk Academy members. As soon as she arrived there, she was congratulated by everyone around her as her performance on the stage was more than incredible.
"You were amazing, princess," Yorsha shouted. She had forgotten all about her own loss and was reveling in the princess's victory. "Why did you not tell us that you have Dual cores?"
"Oh, you guys realized," Alena said. "Did you tell them?"
The prince shrugged. "She asked a lot," he said, pointing toward Yorsha.
"That came off as quite a surprise," Ning told her. "You hit it all rather well. That made for a nice match to watch, princess."
"Thank you," the princess said. She sat next to her brother and acknowledged the congratulations from the others before looking at the stage.
"Huh? I messed it up quite a bit, didn't I?" she asked.
"No more than usual when you use that core," the princes said.
The teacher turned his head toward the brackets and spoke. "Ning, it's your turn next."
Ning nodded. His eyes shifted to a guy that stood in the distance, wearing a set of purple uniforms. He was an Earth Essence user and he was his next opponent.
There was still a bit of time as the stage had to be fixed before they went.
"Well, I am right after Ning," the prince said. "How do you want our fight to go, Hyan?"
Hyandus cringed a little from the side. "I have no chance of winning against you, prince. I will instead just give up when it starts."
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"What? Come on! You need to fight a little," the prince said. "Sure I'll win, but don't you want to see how far you can push me?"
"No," Hyandus said. "I refuse to fight because I don't want to see how far I can push you. You will use the fight as evidence that you don't need any guard and start running around alone without any protection."
"True," Alena said. "Absolutely do not fight with him."
"Tsk!" the prince clicked his tongue. "And here I had such a great plan."
The stage was fixed and the host came to the stage to announce the final match of the Top 16. When it was over, he came over once again to announce that the Quarterfinals were going to begin. The one who won everything would be one of these 8.
Ning stood up from his seat and so did the purple-clothed man. They both walked out onto the stage and felt the lingering heat from the princess's battle. While the stage was fixed, it seemed they couldn't clear away the heat just yet.
It wasn't hot enough to bother either of them, so no one found any problems with it.
Ning stood on one side and looked at his opponent. The young man had an Earth Essence core, but he wondered what else he had. Did he have any weapons on him?
Ning brought out his own weapon. The Earth Sword.
It was so much more convenient to have somewhere to store the sword. He no longer had to worry about accidentally cutting someone or something because of how large the sword was.
Ning's opponent brought out his weapon as well, a Wind sword.
Ning didn't find that as threatening as any other sword could have been. They waited for the referee to announce the start and began fighting.
As soon as the announcement came, Ning throughout multiple rocks at the man, each flying at an incredible speed.
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The young man slammed his feet on the ground, causing a crack to form, from which grew a single pillar of earth that stopped all the attacks.
Then, he took a second step and another crack grew from where he stepped, growing toward Ning in the distance. When it arrived next to Ning, it grew out as another pillar of rock again.
Ning stepped aside at the last moment and cut through the rock with his sword. He then used Essence on his sword to create a similar rock pillar, but at a slanted angle to toss the remainder toward the young man at the edge of the stage.
The young man easily warded it off and took another step, using the same attack once more. Ning was a little confused, but he let it happen. He easily dodged it once again, but he wondered why he wasn't using any more attacks.
Some sort of bait? Was he trying to lure him in? Or was he trying to bait him into thinking that was all he could do?
Ning did not expect the young man to just be cautious of him.
While the young man was theoretically the stronger one in this fight, he had seen many stronger people fall to Ning's immense variety of techniques that were seemingly endless.
Not only were they endless, but they were also rather unique, with none being used before at any point in most of the fights.
Lightning, Space… these weren't the types of Essence that were easily found, and as such many weren't used to this sort of technique.
Ning's opponent was just afraid of what else he could use.
In the tower, Saburn Foreman rested his head on his palm as he leaned to the side. He watched the match from far away, looking for anything special about the sword in Ning's hands.
He mostly believed that his son was simply trying to get back at Ning for the humiliation he received a few days ago, but on the smaller off-chance that he was correct, he wanted to not miss it.
While he believed his son was lying, he knew there could be an essence of truth hidden in that lie somewhere. And so, he watched.
The rest of the people on the tower were also quite enjoying the match. Someone in the Essence Manifestation realm defeating multiple Low Essence Soul realm fighters was something unheard of.
They hadn't watched the previous matches but wanted to see if they could figure out how he could win this time.
The Emperor especially watched him with keen eyes. However, his eyes didn't seem to be on the person at all, but on his sword.
"Could it be…?"
Ning's fight was only starting. He used neither Lightning nor Space essence as no opportunity showed itself, but he did use his Wind Essence Movement technique to move around the stage to dodge the young man's attacks.
If nothing, he wanted him to stop using the same monotonous attacks. He hated that this young man was treating this like a video game, where he could win by spamming the same attack over and over.
Ning wondered what he could do though. Lightning Essence took some time to gather and Space was obvious. Void Essence could be used, but it would leave him without much if he used it.
He wondered if he should use the other technique, but… he wanted to keep it for a later fight. For now, he shouldn't have to use it.
He stepped to the side and cut the upcoming pillar in two. He became so frustrated by the same attack over and over that he thought he was going to lose it.
"Take your own attack. See what it feels like!" he shouted and poured some of his Essence into the sword.
The young man sensed Essence gathering beneath him and moved to the side. A rock spike grew out from underneath him.
At the same moment he jumped, Ning sent out another rock attack that he threw in the young man's direction. The young man needed to use a technique to create the rock pillars, which he couldn't while in midair.
Even if he stepped, it would be too late.
In the end, an Essence hand came out from him and blocked it all. The young man landed properly and sighed. Now that he had used his Essence Soul, there wasn't any point in holding back.
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He should go all out and fight as well as he could.
He wasn't really holding out beforehand, but for the sake of testing his opponent, he had to. However, he was done testing. If he continued it. He would eventually end up making a mistake that would cost him.
'It's just an Essence Manifestation realm expert. I can easily beat him,' he thought and the second Essence Soul hand grew out from behind him.
The first hand that had solidified to protect him had turned translucent, like the one that came afterward.
Ning watched as the two hands grew and expected the head to pop out next. Instead, what came out was a hand that was half a sword. Then, another hand came out that was a sword hand as well.
'Four hands?' Ning thought. That wasn't very rare, but it was still an uncommon sight to see.
Then, another arm came out. This time, it was a rock spike more than a hand. While Ning was perplexed, another rock spike arm came out.
'Bastard hid his arms until now,' Ning thought. He had seen this person fight, but he mostly just fought with his two soul arms. No one on the stage had any idea that he had this many arms.
The head finally came out, and then the rest of the body. Fortunately, there were only two legs.
As soon as they came, however, they stepped in from of the young man. Ning worried that it was going to be another crack that would lead to an earth pillar forming.
Instead, however, the ground split as something came out from the ground. Something cylindrical came out, which the Essence Soul grabbed onto and pulled.
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Ning only then remembered seeing this technique during one of the previous matches he had been barely paying attention to.
"Shit!" he couldn't help but cry out as the Essence Soul pulled out a 10-meter-tall sword from the ground.
The sword was unnaturally long for the arm, but it handled it as if it were using a dagger. Then, the Essence Soul took another step as the ground cracked and another sword handle appeared.
"No! I can't let you take that one too," Ning said and quickly moved forward with immense speed. The wind helped him speed up more than he could himself and he arrived where the ground split.
The young man hadn't expected Ning to come to him, but he didn't panic. His hand that went for the sword instead moved toward Ning.
Ning used his Essence at the last moment to use a rock pillar, to throw him into the air, over the incoming hand. His sword struck the hand as he passed through, leaving a deep cut on it.
"Aargh!" the young man cried out in pain when his soul was injured.
Ning landed next to the giant sword and cut its handle before creating spikes from all around to jam it into the ground.
Through his back, he saw the giant sword falling on top of him. Ning jumped to the side and did a roll before getting to his feet. When he was upright, he saw the Sword's hand come at him.
The sword was much smaller than the earth sword that was created, but it was obviously stronger. Its reach was only the main problem, and at the moment there was none.
Ning quickly used his Essence on his sword, creating a spike from the side that parried the sword's hand as it came for him. The sword hand slid onto the ground next to him, carving nearly a meter into the ground.
The young man stepped and the crack flowed underneath Ning. Before Ning could realize it, he was pushed upward. Ning cut off the rock spike on top of him at the last moment, but the piece that was split off still hit him in the chest.
It fell to the side as Ning was tossed into the air, but it had done its damage. While Ning was strong, he wasn't strong enough to crash onto a large piece of rock and come out unharmed.
He felt his ribs hurt. It was maybe even broken. However, before he could care about it, he saw the Essence Soul swinging its giant sword at it.
Ning used his space essence at the last moment, creating a portal above him as the momentum of being thrown up carried him through it. On the other side of the portal, he was directly tossed into the ground far off to the side.
He was only trying to regain himself when something slammed next to him.
Ning looked to the side and saw the sword jamming to the side, merely a meter away from him. He looked toward the young man and saw him sticking his sword through the portal that he had created.
Ning swung with what force right then and halfway through the rock sword. It was too large to cut entirely. Then, as the young man tried to pull back the sword, he closed the portal.
The weak part of the sword that had been cut crumbled at the force of collapsing space and the piece that broke off fell onto Ning.
Ning rolled to the side to dodge it and barely managed to escape. He heard something and looked back just in time to see the young man tossing the remaining sword at him.
At the last moment, Ning created a giant boulder in front of him, but that was broken into pieces by the force of the sword as the rocks flew back at Ning, most pelting him before he could get back up.
Most of them hurt, but one, in particular, hit him in the head, and suddenly coldness covered a part of his face. Even without looking, Ning could tell he was bleeding.
'Great,' he thought. 'Just what I needed.'
He saw the young man create another sword and pulled it out from the ground. With that sword in hand, he started walking toward Ning.
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Ning tried to get back up to fight, but even as he stood up, he stumbled to the ground, dizzy. The hit to the head had given him a bit of a concussion that would take some time to heal.
His head was bleeding, his body was hurt, and his ribs were definitely broken. Even so, his opponent came at him with caution, just in case.
Ning tried to get a hold of himself but the dizziness only continued to grow as his bleeding went on. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't get treated until the match was over.
In the state he was in, it could only be when he lost.
He didn't want to lose. A part of him told him to let go of such foolishness. There was no need to feel this much pain, this much trouble just to gain nothing. A part of him told him to simply use the system to heal himself and beat his opponent.
However, the other part of him told him that if he were to do so, that would be his loss. It would be the same as giving up on what he wanted. It would mean that he was a man that couldn't stick through with what he wanted. He would be a loser.
He did not want to lose.
"I'm not losing," Ning shouted to himself as he punched the ground to push himself back up. "I… am not going to lose."
He knelt on one leg to balance himself, but on the other, he stood. He pushed on his leg to look forward at the young man that came toward him.
The young man stopped when he noticed that Ning was halfway up. He worried if he was going to use Lightning essence, or maybe use his Space Essence to get behind him.
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He kept his senses alert. However sensing that nothing was coming, he started moving forward again. But, he was forced to stop once more when he saw Ning's terrible grin.
The maniac face that Ning had at the moment with one side bloody was not something the young man had seen in anyone before. "I know what to do," Ning said and stabbed his sword onto the ground.
"You like it, don't you?" he asked with bated breaths. "You like sending people into the air with your tiny rock pillars. How about I do it to you instead?"
The young grew alert of his surrounding as he expected a pillar to grow from underneath him. When it did, he would have to move aside.
However, when he sensed what he did, his mind went blank for a moment with confusion. Was his Essence sense correct? Was it, not an illusion?
The young man's shock came at the fact that the Earth Essence that should be forming somewhere underneath him instead formed all around the stage.
The stage was a massive ground and as the young man could tell, Ning was using his sword as a conduit for Earth Essence. So what was he trying to do by using his essence in such a massive area?
The young man immediately believed that Ning had bluffed. He had told him that it was going to be an earth pillar like the ones he had used, when in fact, it was going to be a rock spike.
He doubted it was going to be quicksand as barely anyone had Mud Essence, and that sword certainly wasn't one.
The young man created his own rock pillar, pushing him off the ground and into the air in preparation for the spikes growing from the ground.
However, when he looked down, he instead saw that he was falling back down toward the stage even though he had just jumped up.
"No…" the young man realized belatedly. It wasn't that he was falling back down toward the stage, but rather it was the entire stage coming onto him.
The speed at which it came slammed onto the young man, hurting him a bit. However, that was nothing compared to the inertia he felt as his body continued to stick with the ground while the ground moved up.
The young man couldn't tell how many seconds had passed before it abruptly stopped moving. When it did, the momentum carried him into the air, and from there, he saw the curvature of the plant he was on.
:)