CHAPTER 163: | INTO THE TEMPLARS
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~ ? ~ West of the Lahaina Empire — In the Kingdom of Loika — Inside of the Colosseum ~ ? ~
"Ladies and gentlemen! Allow me, your commentator Henry, to introduce to you our upcoming contestants!" Henry smiled gently, waving his hand with a flourish. A massive projection flickered to life in the center of the colosseum, the light washing over the audience who stared up at the screen, hungry for the spectacle.
"We have arrived at the Grand Finale! The battle that will decide the best of the best of this generation! The victor shall earn admission to the Holy See and rise as a Templar of the Empire in the Kingdom of Loika!"
Henry paused, letting the weight of the title hang in the air, allowing the audience to digest the stakes. Then, he flicked his wrist. The projection shifted, revealing a young contestant staring coldly at her opponent. Henry clapped, and the image cycled again to show the highlights of her previous battle.
He smirked, spreading his arms wide as he shouted with mounting zeal. "From the semifinals of the Women's Division, we witnessed the infamous Lady Selena fighting against the most beautiful flower of the entire kingdom! Though Selena is a beauty, there is always a sky above the sky—and that is Minerva! Every aspect of her beauty, be it her body or her soul, is said to be more devout than a nun. Her personality is easygoing and warm, but there are always two sides to a coin!"
Henry’s voice dropped an octave, turning theatrical. "Minerva’s entire persona shifts into an Ice Cold Empress when she enters a fight. Just look at how she dismantled Selena, whose nails were augmented with the claws of the sovereign Lunar Wolf her father hunted in his youth! How could the 'ordinary' Minerva defeat such a powerful noble when her only weapons are her heels that is made of normal steel?"
Henry clapped his hands, and the projection zoomed in on the climax of that fight. His professional smile broke apart, replaced by a strangely perverted expression, a face that suggested he would gladly let her stomp him mercilessly if given the chance.
With eyes burning with fanaticism, Henry shouted like a girl meeting her idol. "The answer is Minerva’s absolute control over her musculature! Though Selena’s claws could rip apart adamantine armor with a graze, she was too inexperienced. Minerva on the other hand is a battle hardened individual with experience, just look at the screen when she closed the distance between them in a single breath, while already preparing for her heel to kick Selena’s chin! And when Selena retaliated, clawing gracefully like a Lunar Wolf, the fight went downhill fast. Minerva canceled her kick within a split second and stomped her foot into the ground before her leg could be clawed in half, sending a tremor through the arena that destabilized Selena’s balance! Caught off guard, unable to dodge, Minerva delivered a single kick to the neck! The match ended in a bloodied spray as Minerva’s heel dug deep, knocking Selena out cold, leaving her in the care of His Holiness Astros!"
Henry clapped again, signaling the screen to change. It revealed an unknown man in the left corner of the arena. This time, Henry smiled, but his voice carried less chaotic zeal and more wary respect. "From the left corner, we see a man wearing a blindfold, whose appearance eclipses even that of Minerva. His hair is a luscious gold that flows like the finest silk. None know the color of his eyes nor the reason for the blindfold, but we all know he is a vagrant who wandered from the desert."
The screen flashed scenes of a spearman moving with terrifying efficiency. "His battle against the son of the Golden Blood, Astraus, ended anticlimactically. He used merely three movement techniques to end the fight. First, 'Light of the Stars,' a spear technique able to pierce any metal with a single thrust. Then, he crouched, and the moment he took a step, his form turned into afterimages that danced through the gloom as he used another set of hos technique which he named to be ‘Dance of the Moonless Night.'"
Henry took a breath, building the hype. "Finally, he transitioned his dance into an all-out attack. He appeared at the center of the arena with a fractured halo hanging above his head. In that moment, the world seemed to shine for the final time, blinding those who dared transgress their mortality to glance at a divine being! He swung his spear downward in a practiced arc, as he used his most destructive technique named ‘Decree of the Starlight Advent!'"
BOOM.
"He unleashed a blinding attack that nearly split the arena’s barrier, a barrier meant to hold the might of a Greater Sovereign! The fight ended in a minute. Astraus had no chance to retaliate, no chance to showcase his grandeur. The winner, Lumicor the Starlight Spearman, exited without a single word."
Henry clapped his hands, and the projection shifted one last time, displaying the profiles of both finalists side-by-side. He smirked, his energy returning to a fever pitch. "Enough introductions! Let us witness the Grand Finale! The best youths of the year, fighting for the Holy See scholarship admission!"
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Henry lifted his hand. Both contestants stared at him. The audience held its breath.
SLAM!
He brought his hand down onto the table. "Let the final battle begin!!!"
At the commentator's signal, the two combatants locked eyes for a brief second to assess one another. Simultaneously, they smirked. The crowd fell silent.
Vwoom.
In the next instant, Minerva vanished without a trace. The audience scanned the arena frantically, but Henry’s keen eyes caught the movement. "Like a traceless shadow, Minerva has vanished! She closed the distance to Lumicor in less than a second, her heels already aiming for his neck! Just like she did to Selena!"
True to his words, Minerva reappeared below Lumicor, her heel slicing through the air at supersonic speed, aimed directly at his Adam's apple with the intent to incapacitate him instantly. But to her dismay, Lumicor merely lifted his spear. He clenched the shaft until the wood groaned, then rapped the butt of the weapon into the ground with all his might.
THOOM!
A super-immersive shockwave blasted through the arena. The platforms shattered under the sheer force of his strength, huge chunks of stone rising into the air suspended by the pressure. Minerva, witnessing this absurdity, instantly deduced her chances of victory were less than a percent. She kicked off the air itself, retreating just as the platform she had stood on levitated from the force of Lumicor’s attack before lodging back into the earth as if nothing had happened.
She clenched her teeth, jumping back to create distance. But before she could even sense his intent, Lumicor was there.
He appeared in front of her, his hand already seizing her neck.
Alarmed, Minerva grabbed Lumicor’s wrist, clenching her grip. She swung her leg up high, pummeling her foot toward his face with every ounce of force she possessed. But before the impact could connect, her vision warped.
Whumph.
The world spun. In an instant, she was no longer in the center of the arena but at the far edge of the platform. She realized too late that she had been thrown. She tried to regain the control of her body, but before she could correct her trajectory or crash safely into the ground, she slammed into the wall.
CRACK.
The impact sent her cratering into the stone, embedding her deep within the masonry for tens of meters. Her head rang like a struck bell.
Minerva lifted her chin, glancing forward through the haze of dust and fog rising from the crash site. She looked down her nose and saw blood dripping, 'a nosebleed it seems.' She muttered internally as she assessed her body, moment's later the grim reality finally set in. Her ribs were destroyed. Her back was cracked to the point where it would break under any immediate pressure. Luckily, her spinal cord was intact enough for one more attack before giving out.
She took stock of her most alarming injuries. It wasn't her internal organs rupturing or her intestines turned into paste from the impact, nor her lungs that we're pierced by the broken shards of her ribs, nor even the ruin of her lower abdomen, she knew injuries of that scale could be healed by the Highest Priest, Pope Astros himself.
What made her face grave was her leg. Her femur had snapped in half. But it didn't discourage her, instead she sighed, then pushed her body out of the rubble.
The crowd erupted into cheers, seeing her still alive and moving, Henry announcing her resilience with awe. But Minerva didn't care for the noise. She remembered her responsibilities as the eldest sister. She remembered the goal she needed to accomplish, 'admission as the top contestant to the Holy See.' She needed the scholarship desperately as she couldn't afford the tuition fee that the 'Holy See' demanded without noble sponsorship, sponsorship she had lost by nearly killing Selena.
She had to be the champion. So she stared at Lumicor impassively. Who stood at the center of the arena like a mountain so infinitely massive she couldn't determine its summit.
Despite the pain, she stood. She lifted the leg with the snapped femur and stomped it into the ground, holding her breath as muscles, blood vessels, and bone ground together. She forced them to meld, willing her body to hold for one final attack to defeat this damned man standing in her way.
Minerva lowered herself into a stance, pouring all her mana into her legs. But before she could vanish, Lumicor spoke for the first time. "I am impressed at your stubbornness, Minerva. So, I offer you to become mine."
Minerva flushed, as she was visibly flustered at his words. No man had dared 'to man up' to her since she officially became an adult at age ten or even now when she was eighteen. So how could this vagrant have the guts to propose?
But before her mind could run wild, Lumicor continued coldly. "No. I’ve decided that today is the day you will swear your loyalty to me as your god."
He stared at her, letting go of his spear. He signaled for her to come. "In account for taking you in, I shall grant you three graces... no, one should be enough. Attack me with everything you have. If you can push me back even a millimeter, I will reward you."
Minerva clenched her teeth so hard they nearly cracked. She took off from the ground, launching into the air, as she shouted without the bearings of a lady. "I am no one's subordinate!!! Even if it is a god, I, Minerva, shall not swear fealty to anyone unworthy! Prove to me that you are someone worthy for me to serve!"
She kicked through the air, her voice tearing through the arena. "LUMICOR!!!"
On the other end, Lumicor stood his ground, his face void of worry. He watched her through his spiritual vision. He lifted a hand, and embers rose from the earth, burning into radiance to form a shield, but it sputtered and broke apart.
He sighed. "Truly, I missed the ability to conjure a barrier in an instant."
He shook his head. As she arrived, then he calculated the most optimal movement to catch Minerva’s foot without injuring himself or her. As his hand moved with fluid grace, much like how Alister dismantled his ten thousand spells that sorrounded him in less than a second.
Catch.
He intercepted the strike and, in one smooth motion, scooped the startled and flustered Minerva into his arms like a princess.
Before the crowd could react, before the commentator could stutter a single word, Lumicor vanished from the arena. It was as if the mission, the tournament, and the glory didn't matter anymore.
His voice lingered softly in the empty space, a whisper meant only for himself. "Is it fate that I meet someone with the potential to accompany me in the future... in this barren wasteland?"
