(Chapter 10) Show Time

*Everyone head to the briefing hall where a message from a special person will be told to you.*

The command wasn't heard via speakers but instead transmitted directly into mine and everyone else's mind.

"Looks like it's about to begin." Lazuli muttered as we and everyone else got up and started walking towards the entrance of the briefing hall.

"Wonder who this "special person" will be?" Kuni said voicing his thoughts aloud.

"My guess would probably be a member of the 6 Demon Ranks." I said, giving a potential answer to the question.

"I agree." Said Shion beside Kuni nodding.

Maybe she'll get to see one of those Ethereals she admires after all.

As we exited the previous room, we entered a massive hall made of shimmering marble that was glowing with the residue of the Ethos it had been infused with. It was hundreds and hundreds of feet wide and seemed even larger in height. A huge chandelier, the shape of an arrowhead, dangled from the ceiling while swaying ever so slightly from side to side. There was also a very large balcony at the end of the hall that was a hundred feet or so above the ground, towering over us like a giant. It was strangely bright inside, as if it was morning, even though there was not a window in sight and nor were there any light sources coming from the chandelier either.

*Attention everyone. You have been put into organised positions. You should all each see a glowing circle on the ground specifically meant for you. Please step inside the centre of the circle. *

That's some fancy new Ethos induced mind tech their using.

Sure, enough I spotted a shoulder width in size circle that was glowing faintly a few metres away from where I was standing.

As I turned round to face the others, Shion spoke.

"Ok this is where we part. All of you do your best but just know once this begins, I won't be going easy on you."

Shion was not really an expressive person (not that I'm one to talk) and the expressions she usually showed were mostly ones that were heavily to insulting someone. I'd only seen her showing genuinely happy expressions once and that was when we had a toast over a month ago.

This was the second time I saw a real smile on her face.

"I won't have it any other way." Kuni said with a big grin as he, Shion and Alex split off into opposite directions.

Me and Lazuli turned to each other and did nothing for a moment with Lazuli looking down at her feet.

Was she nervous or something?

"Hey Lazuli." I said causing her to look up at me. "Good luck."

My comment seemed to inspire some confidence within her since she stood up straight, slightly puffing out her chest.

You to Nova."

We gave each other a nod before splitting off into opposite directions.

It's strange. I feel an actual care for these people and even… worry for them? There is the possibility they could die in this tournament and I don't want that. I usually wouldn't care at all about people like them but this time… is definitely different. I don't think I'd risk revealing my identity in order to save them if needed but I don't want them to die either.

This is confusing, I should be focusing on the situation at or hand.

I dismissed the strange thoughts and emotions as I approached my designated circle.

It took a couple of minutes or so for everyone to fan out into their positions and even longer for everyone to be quiet when they realised that was what the "special person" was probably waiting for. It was silent for a few more moments before a great gust of wind flew into the hall from above.

That is quite the breeze. Are we in the snowy mountains or something?

I, along with everyone else, looked up to see that the roof of the massive hall was slowly being opened like a giant trap door, with it splitting into three different pieces, until it was fully open, and we could see the grey cloudy sky.

"What the...?" I heard someone mutter in the crowd.

Then we all felt it.

Two massive power sources were coming this way, descending from the sky above. Whoever they were, even though we couldn't see them, we could all tell they were crazy strong.

"You don't think it's the-" Someone began to say but was suddenly interrupted by two things dropping from the sky like a meteorite and smashing into the balcony at the end of the hall. Although it hadn't been destroyed, or even cracked for that matter, the impact sent up a large dust cloud that constricted our view.

"Well, well, look what we have here." I murmured under my breath as two figures appeared out of the dust cloud revealing themselves at the far end of each corner of the balcony. I recognised both instantly alongside everyone else.

The first one who appeared, was someone I'd met very recently. Two months ago, to be exact. It was none other than The Devil Ape herself, Ariel High of the 6 Demon Ranks. She seemed to have also acquired a robotic arm that replaced the one I tore off during our fight. A moment after she stepped out the other figure did. It was a very large man, who looked to be in his middle twenties, with bulging muscles, short black hair and beard along with sea green eyes to finish of his rugged looking face. He wore forest green shorts and a lion skin coat with the head of the lion pulled over his own head like a hood. The lion coat was open revealing a very rippedset of six pack abs and a chest that would put any bodybuilder to shame.

Vide Blackstone, The Beast King himself. Haven't seen him in a long while.

As gasps were beginning to emerge, they were quickly cut off as two purple and black portals opened between Ariel and Vide. Two women then exited the portal, and they were none other than Eclipsis Hyde and Kara Cosmos. Eclipsis wore a long black dress, that covered her shins completely, she also had pitch black eyes and hair that was kept very straight and tidy.

Kara wore casual clothes except for a mask that covered the top half of her face.

It's almost liked a reunion of sorts.

I ignored Trio's sniggering as I then began to hear the gasps and whispers of my fellow competitors while they stared in awe at the Ethereals who some of were the strongest to ever exist.

Kara stepped out onto the front of the balcony ahead of the other Demon Ranks and looked over all of us like were nothing but ants. I noticed she nodded to herself as a cocky smile appeared on her face.

As arrogant as always.

Kara raised her hand for silence and the chattering ceased immediately.

She paused for dramatic effect, taking a deep breath but before she could say a word, a sound that sounded like a mix of thunder, lightning and a volcano erupted from the sky. The sky seemed to shake as cracks in reality just above the massive open ceiling began to form. The cracks spread wide across the open ceiling, end to end, like a spider's web before it shattered in an explosion of golden orange and purple energy.

There were shrieks and cries of surprise that rung out from across the crowd with even Kara and the other Demon Ranks looking surprised. Great gust of wind swept across the room, blowing people's hair back, forcing them to cover their faces.

A torrent of purple and golden orange like flame energy erupted from the explosion and began swirl around in a vortex with the golden orange in the middle and the purple outside that. It swirled round and round growing bigger and bigger until it completely covered the open roof and view of the sky.

"There's no way that's who I think it is!"

I heard someone yell over the chaos. It sounded like Shion, but I wasn't sure.

What I was sure about was what I was currently seeing. The gusts of wind slowly began to calm down and dissipate as a figure began materialising into view. As they formed, I could immediately sense the power coming from them. The power was insane as it seemed to crack the marble wall close to the swirling vortex of energy. The feeling of this power could not be described the only way that was close was the looking up at gigantic tidal wave before it crashed down upon you.

Before long the wind had completely disappeared and the whole room was silent except for the slight rumbling of vortex of energy swirling around the figure in the centre of it, who was now in clear view.

They wore a simple black combat sleeveless hoodie and trousers that revealed muscular arms. The arms were striking as the skin from the hand to the elbow was glowing golden orange with purple tattoos also glowing on the forearms. What has most striking and eye drawing, was the mask they were wearing. The colour was split down the middle with the left being pure white and the right pitch black with small golden orange and purple Yin-Yang symbol in the centre of the forehead.

I notice everyone stair with their mouths open wide in shock, even Kara looked taken a back before narrowing her eyes. She continued that look before what looked to be realisation briefly flashed across her face. Kara smiled revealing perfect white teeth.

"Attention everyone." She said in a loud voice that boomed across the room. "May I introduce our surprise guest before get on with the formalities."

She gestured to the figure above everyone within the vortex of energy.

"Give a warm welcome to my dear younger brother. The strongest Ethereal beaten only by my father. The one! The only...!"

She paused for dramatic effect.

"Nova Cosmos! The Yin-Yang King!"

Everyone stared in awe not being able to believe what was happening.

The mask Nova was wearing retracted partially, just enough to still hide his face but show both his eyes in clear view. They were a wonder to look at. Nova had glowing golden amber eyes, like a lion, while his eyelids the whites in his eyes glowed a violet colour with the colour also crawling halfway up to his temples in a vein like pattern.

"Anyway, everyone if I could have your attention quickly."

A flash of white gold energy erupted from her and quickly grabbed everyone's attention. Silencing them as she surveyed her audience like she was looking for someone.

I get the feeling she may be looking for me. Yeah, let's not have that.

I pulled my hood over my head leading to the plain black mask to materialise, hiding my face.

Much, much better.

"Now that I have your attention now, I can give you all a brief talk about the tournament instead of being rudely interrupted by a certain younger brother." Kara said with an exaggerated turn of the head pointed at Nova. "First I'll get on with the rules."

Space seemed to warp as writing appeared in front of my face. Kara read them aloud.

"These are all the rules for this year's Divine Tournament. Ehm."

Kara cleared her throat.

"Rule number 1: Opponents can only be defeated via taking the opponent's life or forcing them to admit defeat.

Rule number 2: Alliances and team ups are allowed until the last hour of the Tournament.

Rule number 3: Only one winner can be crowned champion. Any and all opposition to this will be eliminated with extreme efficiency."

Vide suddenly transformed into a dragon, fire erupting from his mouth before transforming back. Kara smiled sweetly in a way that sent shivers down the spine.

"Now for the boring stuff." She said waving her hand causing the words in front of me and everyone else to disappear before beginning to pace back and forth across the balcony.

"This Divine Tournament will run until there's only one person remaining no matter how long it takes. No worries everyone, I've made the battle dimension, so you won't age a day and that leads me on to the next thing."

Kara clapped her hands in theatre like fashion.

I forgot how much Kara loved to be the centre of attention.

So, the exact opposite of you except she's successful at it.

Hey… Damn it. Annoyingly, you're not exactly wrong about that.

"As you all know I personally created this year's battle dimension." Kara continued pulling my attention away from the sly comments from Duo. "And considering that you all are the most promising set of Ethereals we've seen in the last 30 years this tournament has been happening, I have made it the size of a Reality. Oh and the environment will be our universe."

I noticed everyone have bewildered looks on their faces but not daring to let out any whispers or gasps. Kara was giving off a vibe that hinted at the fact that she would kill the next person to interrupt her in any way.

"I believe that's everything. Oh, one more thing that you've probably figured out." She spread her arms wide. "We'll all be watching this great battle royal so please make it entertaining."

All the other Demon Ranks began to smile with The Sin Empress.

"Now let this year's Divine Tournament begin!"

Kara clapped her hands and the the floor beneath my feet within the circle I was standing in gave way.

Well, this'll be fun.

I dropped like a stone and continued to fall into what seemed like bottomless cavern. I looked around to see all the other contestants also falling, some of them already fighting one another. I looked down to see the bottom of the cavern. It could be described as a glowing blue like energy that had the look of water as it rippled and warped repeatedly.

Ah so this is a portal leading to the battle dimension itself.

I suddenly felt something hot suddenly slam into my back, well to be more correct the barrier covering my back and the rest ofmy body. I turned round to see a guy with blasting fire from his hands to help him glide through the air. He shot ahead in front of me before turning around to face me, his arms aimed at my face. Fire, that looked hot enough to reduce a planet to ash, began to swirl and gather around his hands.

"Burn to ash Lion Rank! Cosmic Ignite!" He yelled as the fire swirling his around his hands turned a teal colour and roared forward at me. As it slammed into me, Barrier protecting me completely, I could sense the power within the flames.

This guy must be gifted with Fire Magic.

Your right. These flames could wipe out a whole solar system, maybe even a galaxy.

The attack, and in turn the flames, disappeared not long after leaving my opponent completely taken aback by zero damage his attack did.

This guy poses no threat but he's going to be annoying if I don't dispose of him.

He quickly raised his hands to fire another, presumably stronger, attack.

"You're in my way." I said and snapped by fingers before he could release another attack.

Not even a moment later, his body was suddenly cut into four bloody pieces with the look of surprising engraved on his severed head.

Ok let's get through this portal to the battle dimension and be done with this.

I got into a streamline position and flew down to the portal faster than before, the pieces of my deceased opponent flying past me as I got closer and closer to the portal below. I could feel and hear other exchanges going on around me as my fellow competitors fought hard while others avoided it completely and dived into the glowing blue lake below.

I should probably try and hide my presence to prevent other arrogant Ethereals ending up like that other one.

I activated Ultra Stealth, completely concealing me from anyone who wasn't an Assassin Class.

"Sunlight Burst!"

I looked to the side to see Shion fire a sun like blast, the size of a truck, at five opponents, all of which looked capable of destroying galaxy. They all let out a little yelp of surprise before the blast hit them, vaporising them as it made contact in explosion of golden orange fire. Shion blasted flames of the same colour from her hands her feet, projecting herself like a rocket at insane speeds that sent her rocketing forward until she hit the portal a few moments later.

Impressive Shion. Very impressive. I look forward to seeing what you can do.

Glowing arrows bounced off my Barrier an inch from my face before another attacker slammed into me. They threw punch after punch to no avail. Their movements were at speeds that the normal eye could not even perceive but for me they were as clear as day. I grabbed the arm of their next punch and slammed the back of their elbow, bending it into an awful angle. They screamed in pain and tried to pull out of my grip, but I would not let go.

3

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My attacker's eyes went wide as blood erupted from their eyes, nose ears and mouth while it also seemed to seep from the pores of their skin as well. They died on the spot. I spotted other Assassin Class Ethereals approaching me in the air from behind, all ready to pounce. I swung the lifeless body I was still holding at them, distracting them as I formed many throwing knives within my hands. Taking advantage of their distraction I threw the knives at them at speeds many times faster than sound, instantly taking out three of them. The other five dodged and closed in around me but before they could get any closer, time froze.

I quickly flew forward at one, leaping over them and snapping their neck in the process. I threw a punch at another who was a way off from me with the shockwave of the punch freezing in place before it hit the target. I then snapped my fingers at the other three next to me before I unfreezing time as I pushed off the back of the opponent whose neck I snapped. The following sequence happened.

Blood erupted from the mouth of said neck snapped opponent while the three who I snapped my fingers at were all sliced in half down the middle in an instant at. At the same time the powerful shockwave of the punch I threw earlier slammed into its target, shredding him to pieces like a blender.

I continued to fall faster and faster towards the portal before diving into it like a swimming pool

Now the real fun begins.