28 Where It All Began

"Don't make me laugh." Rai with a dual voice uttered, black electricity coursed through his body and slowly melted the ice which encased him.

"I-impossible!" Alexander in disbelief shouted.

"Electricity!?" King Julius arose from his throne swiftly, he was very astonished at the discovery of this commoner's essence.

"Just who is that boy?" The king out of curiosity questioned his son.

Julius smiled, he laid back into his throne and let out a sigh of relief. Electric essence was a rare ability in this world of magic, most of the Elementalist Essenmages and knights who fell under the Elementalist essence type were unable to achieve this.

The highest Elementalist essence ability they could attain was ice, just like Alexander.

"There's no way!" Ford followed up as he could see from outside the dome of ice, sparks of electricity which is not supposed to be possible because the temperature within the dome of ice limited the flow or movement of atoms.

However, that was not the case for Rai. His assassin mode prowess enhanced not only his strength, speed and precision. But it also enhanced his essence and his control over it greatly.

Alexander fell to his knees shivering, he usually would have been able to handle the temperature within the dome. But given that his Dragon emperor form had been destroyed and he was beaten up badly, his durability decreased making him prone to the cold.

"Curse you..." He uttered softly glaring directly at Rai from the ground.

For a brief moment, Rai remained motionless as the black electricity melted the ice surrounding his body completely. He raised his right palm in front of him, Alexander held his chest as he stared at Rai unsure of what he was about to do.

"What does he plan on doing?" He said in his thoughts, no one had seen Rai's essence in action so they had no idea the extent of his abilities.

A dark blue ball of energy manifested out of thin air in the right palm of Rai, sparks of dark electricity surrounded it as Rai raised his palm above his head slowly.

"Raisen." He uttered with his dual voice possessing an ominous tone. The ball of electricity grew larger and larger until it became as large as a barn.

"Wait.." Alexander uttered with a shaky voice. "Wait!" He yelled, for the first time in his life he experienced the emotion known generally as fear.

Rai dashed forward at Alexander with the massive spiraling ball of electricity and aimed it directly at him. Given the dome which encased them and the size of the electric ball, there was little to absolutely no escape for Alexander.

Alexander slammed his palms together and utilized his technique [Absolute Zero] again, only this time it was smaller and it only enclosed him as he used it as a barrier or shield.

The massive spiraling ball of electricity tore through the dome easily as it descended at Alexander.

BOOM!

A large explosion occured as the spiraling ball of electricity connected with the body of Alexander, Rai made sure to lower the damage rate of the Raisen to avoid bypassing the rules of the match.

Even at that, the Raisen was powerful enough to destroy the entire ice dome that Alexander created. The entire dome crashed down to the ground, evaporating due to the heat generated by the massive ball of electricity.

As the steam cleared, Rai was spotted standing over Alexander who laid back first on the ground almost unconscious. Everywhere was struck with silence as everyone witnessed in awe, the defeat of a noble by a mere commoner.

"Y-your winner! Rai Voltia!" Ford stammered.

Abigail got to her feet, she began applauding softly with a smile on her face. Seeing as their princess applauded the efforts of the commoner, the other nobles felt they had no choice but to join her. In that brief instant, the remants of the arena echoed with the claps of everyone.

Julius stood to his feet with his father, they had both seen enough. "You truly are a remarkable warrior, Rai..Voltia." Julius smiled as he said in his thoughts, both him and his father left the room heading towards their carriage.

At the remnants of the battle arena, Rai's hair and nails returned back to normal. The assassins mode prowess was automatically deactivated by the system as the threat it perceived earlier on had been neutralized.

Rai fell to his knees, he gasped slowly for air as using the assassins mode took a huge toll on his body. "What.. just happened?" He said a bit softly to himself. The last thing he remembered was him losing consciousness.

Alexander in his critical state chuckled softly. "You really are something else." He uttered, he referred to Rai being unable to remember half of the things that happened in the course of their battle.

Rai looked up and faced Alexander who commented on his poor memory. "Says the guy who utilizes absolute zero as a technique." He replied.

"Tch.." Alexander scoffed as he looked into the sky filled with clouds, dazzling at its beauty. "To think, I'd ever be beaten by a commoner. My life has no meaning anymore."

"Why do you hate commoners so much? Just why? What did we ever do to you!?" Rai exclaimed, frankly he was tired of having to hear Alexander complain about commoners.

"Why..you say?" Alexander murmured as he still gazed into the sky.

"I suppose since you managed to beat me, I'll enlighten you. Tell me Rai Voltia, what do you understand by the word hate?" Alexander asked.

Rai was confused by his words, he tried to understand how his understanding of hate related to why Alexander detested commoners. "Hm, I've never thought about it before but I suppose hate is a feeling of great dislike towards something or someone." Rai replied answering his question.

"Yes, that's right. But no one can hate because they want to, no matter much they tried. With every reason to hate comes an origin, and my origin begins with a girl named Bridget." Alexander said with a faint smile on his face.