After the semi final round between Ghost and Regan, the commentators announced a six hours break before the final of Body Strengthening stage cultivators. In the final, Sabrina faced Victoria. The final battle lasted for an hour before Sabrina overpowered Victoria and defeated her. The battle between the girls kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Even Ashton, who wasn't very interested in the tournament, watched the fight without batting an eye.
Many expected Sabrina to give a speech after winning the championship while the commoners wondered what would be the rewards. However, Sabrina just said 'thank you' to the crowd and left the battle stage.
Taking the pegasi carriage offered to her by the Holy Trident Academy, Sabrina flew towards where Andrew was staying. The sun had almost disappeared into the horizon when she reached the manor where Andrew was staying.
"Young Miss" when her carriage landed, quickly few of the guards staying outside guarding the door came to open the carriage door. They bent forwards to show their respects.
"Andrew inside?"
"Yes young miss"
Sabrina hastened inside to meet her cousin leaving the carriage under the care of the guards. At first Sabrina thought winning the championship tournament would make her feel pleased or at least something except it didn't. Although she fought with Victoria for almost an hour, she didn't use her full power. IF she had defeated Aelia, she knew she would have felt different.
However, Sabrina could not think about anything at the moment except her cousin's condition. She hastened inside the home. Entering the manor, she walked straight to the hall where she saw Andrew with several people standing around him. She expected Andrew to be in his room taking a rest. Instead, she found him surrounded by people. Andrew was resting on the sofa while Emelda had her hand on his shoulder. She was consoling him.
Sabrina saw her mother, aunt Emelda, a hooded person who stood in a corner of the hall, Alicia and Norvin.
"Sabi" Emelda was surprised to see Sabrina enter the hall.
All of their gazes including Andrew's fell on Sabrina.
"You won?" Diana asked as though she already knew the answer. Sabrina gave a small nod before walking towards Andrew.
"Shouldn't you be celebrating your win right now Sabi?" Andrew asked with a gentle smile on his face as usual. He tried to hide his worries with a smile but Sabrina could see through the facade.
"I know why you are worried Andrew" Andrew raised his brows as Sabrina smiled,
"Dad isn't very good at keeping secrets from me, Andrew. Don't you know that?"
"I know that" Andrew sighed as he chuckled,
"How is your brother Ali?" Sabrina asked Alicia. Alicia remained silent,
"The healers said they could only heal the physical wounds, not the mental ones' ' Norvin answered instead of Alicia. Sabrina sighed. What Ghost did to him was cruel and ruthless. However, Sabrina also knew Peter brought it on him by himself. No one asked Peter to dress up as a vigilante to ambush Ghost and other prodigies just to prove he is better than them.
"Time will heal everything," Emelda said. Alicia nodded but she knew the mental wounds of Peter would never heal unless he could defeat Ghost and humiliate him as Ghost did to him.
"Andrew, I am asking you again. Are you sure you want to do this?" Diana asked Andrew.
"Is there any other way we can convince Katherine's father?" Emelda asked a question after Diana,
"Can Katherine tell her father she loves you?" Sabrina asked.
Andrew was getting bombarded with questions until Alicia opened her mouth,
"Why is everyone talking like he's going to lose? When we all, including me, thought Andrew couldn't do this, he came this far and proved us wrong. He will defeat Ghost, have some faith in him"
Everyone was speechless for a few moments. They couldn't argue with Alicia's words.
"It's because I cheated," suddenly Andrew said, stunning everyone.
"Cheated? What are you talking about?" Emelda creased her brows. Except for Diana and Alicia, everyone looked flabbergasted. Alicia knew about Noah's deal with Lailah and her involvement in Andrew's victory. Diana however didn't know anything about Lailah or Noah's deal with her but she was able to tell that something was amiss.
"If it wasn't for Lady Alden, I wouldn't have reached this far"
"Lady Alden? Lailah Alden?" Sabrina literally started to shiver hearing the name.
"Without your mental resolution and willpower, you would have died taking my power" they all heard the melodious voice as they turned their eyes towards the hooded person. Sabrina saw the hooded one taking off her hood covering her head to reveal her angelic face.
Sabrina felt like she was going to faint. The woman in front of her was Lailah Alden, one of the legends of this world. She had only seen Lailah in the paintings in her Holy Trident Academy. Lailah was a pride of all woman cultivators, she was the embodiment of woman power.
"How far would you go for the girl you love Andrew?" Lailah asked as everyone stared at her in shock.
"I give my life for her"
Slap!
The moment Andrew finished speaking these words, a slapping sound could be heard in the hall. Sabrina was stunned to see her always gentle and warm aunt Emelda slap Andrew. No one could believe he got slapped by Emelda.
"Are you really prepared to give your life for a girl you know for how long, a year? Or two years? What about us, your family? What about your mother?" Emelda was stuck between worry and anger. Her eyes were bloodshot.
"You're gonna quit whining, go out there and defeat Ghost. Cheating or no cheating, you will defeat him. You know why? Because you have us"
Her words did not motivate Andrew but somewhat calmed the storm within him.
"If you can't defeat him, dont be stupid to fight till you die. Just say you surrender and we will figure out how to deal with everything that follows later" Norvin gave a piece of advice of his own. Unlike Emelda, Norvin doubted Andrew could really defeat Ghost. As much as Norvin wanted Andrew to defeat him, he was less optimistic about that.
Diana was in a world of her own thinking. All the people in the room thought Ghost was some kind of monster. Ever since he was born, he has faced nothing but tragedies. And he faced everything life throws at him alone. She didn't know why they called him the Dark Lord when there are hundreds or even thousands of evil cultivators who were capable of great evil roaming the work as they speak.
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Meanwhile, in Michael's room, he was sitting in front of Calvin reading several parchments on the glass table.
"Feel free to tell me if you have any changes to be made," Calvin said with a smile,
"No changes required Calvin. I hope you guys will have my back when the time comes" Michael inked the quill to sign the parchments as he spoke,
"Don't worry, King Bredia won't go to war with you if you choose to reject the princess" Michael looked up at Calvin with his brows arched up. Michael was surprised to see Calvin grasp the upcoming problem without any explanation.
"Like I said, I did my research. I know you are not going to accept the marriage proposal. Naturally, rejecting a king's offer would result in problems. But worry not, Thusia will have your back"
"This time, I'll be the one stabbing you in the back," Michael thought to himself.
"It will be a pleasure to work with Thusians" As he said, Michael signed his name on the parchment. With this sign, he had officially become the guild leader of the Thusian Alchemy Guild.
Finally, Michael stood up to shake Calvin's hands,
"Welcome aboard Ghost"
After shaking Michael's hand with a wide grin on his face, Calvin handed over a space ring to Michael.
"This contains some welcoming gifts from Thusia Ghost. I hope you like them"
The final day of the tournament began with a drizzle. The dark rain clouds filled the sky like marching soldiers. The thunderclaps in the distance implied the upcoming heavy downpour. The arena was filled with chit-chat from the fans. Not a single person who wasn't in the conversation of who would win the championship. Of Course, many voted for Ghost while only a few voted for Andrew.
"Welcome to the finals ladies and gentlemen '' Ishihara's announcement finally brought down the volume of their chit-chat. But only for a few moments tho as the crowd yet again erupted into cheers.
"It has been a roller coaster ride, ladies and gentlemen. What do you think guys?" James Hall asked,
"I think we better start the final before they start a riot" Ishihara giggled,
"Before we start the final, let us see the journey of the two finalists. Andrew Winston and Ghost" After Darius spoke, the giant mirror began to broadcast the highlights of both Ghost and Andrew's battles. Seeing both of their battles gave goosebumps to the commoners and raised their expectations to another level.
The highlight reel went for almost fifteen minutes. Looking at the reels, Alicia once again shivered in anger. She wanted to destroy the mirrors to oblivion when they showed Ghost mopping the floor with her brother.
What disturbed her more was the people who roared seeing Ghost's ruthlessness.
Sitting on her throne, Katherin clenched her fist tightly. Her heart pounded against her chest looking at the vial in her hand. The king was too focused on Ghost's highlights reels to notice the vial in his daughter's hands.
"Finalists Andrew Winston and Ghost, please come to the battle stage"
The entire arena was shouting the names Ghost and Andrew to show their support. The majority of the crowd was waving black flags.
Under their thunderous cheers, Andrew appeared above the battle stage and slowly descended onto the battle stage. Andrew ignored all the cheers to focus on the upcoming battle.
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
While Andrew was trying to ignore the shouts, he heard the arena erupt in cheers. He looked up to see Ghost slowly descending onto the battle stage with his black long coat fluttering in the wind. Unlike Andrew, Ghost seemed calm with his usual smile on his face.
"Shall we start Andrew?"
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