novelnext Chapter 353: The Privilege Of Power
Chapter 353: The Privilege Of Power
[The Arena]
The pressure in the arena normalized with a sickening lurch as the Bauhinia curse fully integrated into the air. The majestic, untamed aura that had violently surrounded Austin evaporated like mist.
"This is bad." Austin muttered, his voice stripped of its prior booming resonance as his white hair reverted to his normal red. Due to his curse, the suppression was absolute; all his augmented strength was gone, forcefully locking his level back into its base state.
He looked up at the sky in sheer disbelief. The five hundred massive, corrupted Bangles hovered menacingly, blotting out the sun, before they all violently shot down towards him with apocalyptic momentum.
"Damn!"
BOOOOM!!!!
The entire arena violently shook. Everyone in the stands completely froze, staring wide-eyed at the massive, localized mushroom cloud of dense smoke and pulverized dust erupting from the center of the arena. The sheer destructive yield of the attack was enough to vaporize a standard competitor.
As the dust slowly began to thin, Nirvana hovered in the air, but her triumphant grin faltered. She narrowed her eyes, staring intensely at a flawless, shimmering golden barrier that had materialized perfectly around Austin, completely shielding him from the blast. Her furious gaze then fixed directly on the slender lady standing effortlessly before him.
"How dare you stop me, Mirabella?!!!" She yelled, her voice echoing with a distinct, unnatural resonance as she completely lost herself to the demonic bloodlust. She aggressively raised both her hands, burning her energy as one thousand massive, red-glowing bangles instantaneously appeared around her, and violently shot towards Mirabella with absolute, unadulterated killing intent.
"Did you forget the rule? I think I should make you remember."
Mirabella’s tone was entirely devoid of emotion. She calmly raised one delicate hand, her blue eyes fixed on Nirvana, and simply snapped her fingers.
BOOOOM!
A localized disruption in the spatial fabric rippled outward. The whole one thousand hyper-dense bangles instantly shattered into completely harmless, glittering particles of dead energy, dissolving into the wind before they even crossed half the distance.
"This?"
Everyone in the VIP boxes and the general stands was completely dumbfounded. Nirvana had just violently shown everyone that she was unequivocally amongst the prodigies of the empires, and now, with a casual gesture, Mirabella had just violently rewritten the entire meaning of the word ’prodigy’ to them.
"You!" Nirvana snarled, her aura flaring to attack again.
"Nirvana! The Battle is already over!!"
Master Teacher Nadia’s stern, amplified voice suddenly sounded all over the arena, carrying a heavy wave of pacifying spiritual pressure that stunned everyone once again. The audience collectively turned to the Sword Royal family platform, and then looked up at Nirvana, who exhaled deeply, slowly descending from the sky.
"Hmph." She scoffed, her eyes flashing with lingering malice as she forcefully reigned in the curse, turning her back; and walked away.
Davy finally stepped forward, wiping cold sweat from his brow and tightly holding his chest: "That was scary... Nirvana won this round." He said, his voice trembling slightly before the amplification runes steadied it.
"Sorry Captain." Austin said in a low, deeply frustrated voice as the golden barrier faded, and both he and Mirabella calmly walked off the shattered stage toward the Dragon Academy’s section.
"It’s not your fault." Mirabella slowly nodded her head.
’How do you expect to win someone who has been corrupted with Demonic energy?’ She thought. Mirabella subtly turned her head to look at Jessica and Ethan resting in the Sword Academy section.
’But something is fundamentally different between her and those two...’ She thought.
"Okay! I can’t believe our kids has this much power." Davy stated, staring down at the absolute structural destruction left on the ground, and turned to the massive holographic screen:
"The next on the screen is, Mirabella from the Dragon academy."
DEADLY SILENCE....
A suffocating quiet fell over the entire stadium. Everyone looked at one another, collectively staring up at the screen, their eyes full of profound pity for the unfortunate soul who would be forced by the system to face this walking anomaly.
"And--"
"--Sir Davy!" Alexa from the Eagle academy yelled, frantically jumping to her feet and waving her hands, instantly drawing Davy’s and the audience’s full attention.
"You don’t have to call my name, I surrender." She said, quickly bowing and giving a small, nervous smile.
’Are you kidding me? The previous battle was so intense, and she completely stopped Nirvana’s cataclysmic attack with just a casual snap of her fingers, do you guys really want me to die?’ She thought frantically, her polite smile feeling entirely forced as a cold sweat rolled down her back.
"Um... This is all randomly selected, it’s not in my control. So the winner of this round is Mirabella." He yelled, ensuring his voice carried to every corner of the coliseum, specifically making sure the high nobles and the audience knew he absolutely wasn’t the one controlling the lethal algorithms.
Davy suddenly stayed completely quiet, his expression shifting from confusion to shock. He finally lowered his hand and continued:
"Okay, For winning continuously, and being the first placeholder, Mirabella will be given a privilege... She will skip the whole round, and fight the final standing student in the competition! If this final student could land a hit on her, the Dragon team will lose 40% of their total points to that team." He said, reading the sudden, unprecedented mandate.
"This?!!"
"What?!!"
"What stupid rule is this?!!"
"Yes, I don’t get it, the competition associate just keeps bringing out new rules without notice!!"
The Audience, including the fiercely loyal Dragon team, immediately yelled in loud disagreement. The sudden shift in tournament law felt entirely manufactured to target their Captain. But Davy simply shrugged his shoulders helplessly:
"That’s the rule, Miss Mirabella, what do you say?" He asked, turning his gaze directly to Mirabella, waiting for a formal protest.
"Whatever, I don’t mind." Mirabella answered simply, her tone perfectly flat and completely unbothered by the targeted rule change.
Besides; who could possibly touch her actual physical body when her ten clones were actively on duty?
"Okay, everyone should go and rest! In two hours, we will continue!" He said, and in a flash of teleportation light, vanished from the sky.
Mirabella remained still for a fraction of a second, her blue eyes subtly moving her gaze around the vast, cheering arena: ’Seems they’re people watching me.’ She thought Inwardly.
__
[Unknown space.]
Far beyond the physical plane of the arena, existing in a dimension woven purely of spiritual energy and starlight, a massive scrying screen floated before an ancient, circular stone table.
"This girl is truly strange." Nita said, leaning forward in her seat, staring intently at the screen before them that perfectly tracked Mirabella’s every micro-movement.
Jang Gu, his features obscured by shadows, slowly nodded his head: "In three months, these kids should graduate, and move to the next level." He said, evaluating the timeline.
The other three immortal guardians seated around the table slowly nodded their heads in solemn agreement. The world constants were shifting faster than anticipated.
"All plans will be changed... Move them directly to the last level." Nita abruptly stood up, the fabric of her robes flaring with absolute authority:
"These kids journey to Earth has changed them, at least they should help the second world for a while... In one year, the space will weakened." She said seriously.
Bonita sighed deeply, her piercing green eyes fixed firmly on the screen monitoring the competition: "No matter how we try to hold it, those from the Third World will try their best to merge the two worlds... I agree with you, Fernando." She said, and the collective gaze of the council turned completely to the gray-haired swordsman sitting quietly at the end of the table.
"As I said, we should catch those guys off... I visited the Third World, and things are getting even more chaotic." He stated, his voice carrying the heavy. He slowly lifted a scarred hand and pointed a definitive finger directly at Mirabella’s image on the screen:
"This girl is also family... She is indeed my Elder Sister’s daughter." He said, his heavy words instantly sending a shockwave of profound realization through the other three guardians.
"Really?! Last time, we weren’t sure, but for you to say this. You mean, she is Genevieve’s real daughter? And your Niece?" Nita asked in both profound awe, and deep disbelief.
"I am 100% sure. I followed her in the early stage of the competition... She has the Lotus Bow, that belongs to my sister..." He said, staring softly at the holographic projection of Mirabella, a small, incredibly rare smile of familial pride appearing on his battle-hardened face.