The tension in the Chaos Arena VIP area was palpable. With the prestige of entire planets on their backs, the top 100 cumulative rankers were almost in no mood whatsoever to be enjoying entertainment. That said, there were always exceptions to rules, because despite the thick layer of apprehension, the room itself still remained quite lively.
Planet Naiad. Planet Mino. Planet Nix. Planet Deimos. Planet Earth. They were all approaching a once in a century tournament and each was confident in their own victory.
That said, Dyon and Ri didn’t seem to particularly care. They smiled as though nothing was happening and chatted with each other lightly even as they walked to past the elevator door and to the entrance to find yet another receptionist.
However, this receptionist seemed far past the norm. It was suffice to say that he wouldn’t be cowering in the face of Ri’s name. If he really was the only representation the Chaos Arena had here, and they were allowing saint level experts up, there was no more needed to be said about his power.
Completely ignoring Dyon’s presence, the receptionist nodded toward Ri before stepping into the already opened doors and into an elegant lounging area, expecting Dyon and Ri to follow him.
Although Ri wasn’t very happy about Dyon’s treatment, Dyon himself didn’t mind. It wasn’t as though he was trying to keep his identity as the demon sage secret, it was only that he hadn’t known until just recently what his rank was. He had only temporally transferred his tracker into Ri in order to duplicate one for her.
However, it was better this way. He’d be able to separate who was truly dangerous and who wasn’t much easier. If you weren’t intelligent enough to understand that he was more than what met the eye, you wouldn’t be worth his time.
The lobby area was interestingly designed. Surprisingly, the room was almost like a sheer cliff. The entire center of Chaos Arena was hollow, peering down to the Arenas below. The surrounding space was filled with circular tables and a combination of semi-circular and near circular couches. Since it was just the two of them, meaning Ri and Dyon, it would likely make the most sense for them to sit as a small table with a semi-circular couch.
Although Dyon’s mind was thinking about trivial things like that as he followed the receptionist while chatting with Ri, to everyone who was already inside the VIP area, their gazes immediately focused on their approaching figures, quietening down slightly.
“What name would you like to register your fighter under?” The receptionist asked Ri, finally sending a glance toward Dyon.
“Fighter? He’s not my fighter. He’s my husband.” Ri’s brows furrowed at the questioning of the receptionist.
For the first time, a flash of emotion appeared on the face of the receptionist. He had noticed Ri and Dyon’s intimate interactions, but it wasn’t odd for powerful women to use handsome men to sate their own desires. So, the receptionist had just assumed that Dyon doubled as a sex-friend and a fighter. After all, the goal of today’s special events was to pit the rankers head to head without actually spoiling the outcome of the coming tournament.
Of course, it wasn’t mandatory to participate. Watching was definitely allowed. But, the receptionist had just made the wrong assumption.
“I see.” The receptionist said, quickly recovering. He sent a second look toward Dyon, trying to see what it is he had missed. But, he sensed nothing coming from either Ri or Dyon. For Ri, her ranking made up for what the receptionist assumed was a lack of cultivation. But, Dyon had no such fallback.
A robust laugh came from the corner of room. “Imagine a man having to rely on his wife to do things. If you marry your fighters so easily, beautiful miss, why not let me be your fighter too!”
A large man with tanned skin sat on a couch much too small for him to fit properly. He was surrounded by others with tanned skin as well. Dyon immediately realized that they weren’t from Earth, but there was something distinctly Middle Eastern about them.
Dyon’s eyes faintly glanced over the large man. He was probably three meters tall and his waist was seemingly a meter thick to its own. But, he was worthless. Dyon barely spared him a glance before he scanned the rest at the table.
Disregarding all those that weren’t worth his time, Dyon immediately picked out six troublesome characters. But, the problem was, everywhere his eyes shifted, he began to pick out more and more. And yet, there was one striking thing that caught him off guard… They were the only ones from Earth here.
Seeing Dyon disregard, a rage built up in the heart of the large man. But, what was most interesting was the reaction of a beauty that shared the section with the Middle Eastern lookalikes.
Her beauty was breathtaking. Her skin was a healthy and shining bronze. Her hair was a jet and straight black, and yet her eyes were a cool dark blue. Her features were sharp and her nose was pointed, but her traditional dress style seemed to be what took her already outstanding features to a new level.
She looked like an Egyptian Queen. Wearing a linen dress embroidered with rich gold and jewels, and yet maintaining a minimalistic and conservative smile.
And yet, Dyon had spared her but a glance.
In fact, there were three other beauties of that level in this very room. And each and every one received a glance of pure nonchalance. However, when Dyon turned to reassure Ri that her didn’t mind such ridiculous words, the twinkle in his eye was clear. He had sights for no one else besides his fiancées. He had grown, or at least, he was trying his best to pretend he had and hoping that if he willed it enough, it would become the truth.
Dyon chuckled, “It’s okay old man. I got it. You couldn’t start until you had a representing member of Earth, right? Unfortunately, many of our members are still recuperating. So, they’ll have to settle for me, no?” Dyon’s hand domineeringly slid to Ri’s waist before he brushed by the receptionist.
The truth was, Alidor’s plan of attack had worked even better than he thought. Because of his provocation to Kaeghan, the first son of the Uidah King God Clan, the Uidah had joined the attack on Earth. It wasn’t just Lotus Tower that had an influx of essence gathering experts sent to them.
Couple all of that with the fact that Prince Belmont had just fought through a legacy world, and Madeleine was MIA, and the members of Earth were truly having a poor showing. Inside, Dyon was a bit worried about whether Madeleine had received the legacy in time to leave the gates before they closed, but he reassured himself by hoping that the avatar Amethyst had left behind would help Madeleine circumvent the gate’s lock down.
All of this said, it was in the best interest of Earth’s best that they rest as much as possible for the world tournament in the coming weeks. However, that was just fine for Dyon.
Earth wasn’t a place he had to trick himself into seeing as his home. Earth was his home. He grew up here.
Regardless of how the other members of Earth treated him, it would be a cold day in hell the day he let anyone assume they were weak.
“Don’t mind me,” Dyon said lightly, “This is my wife’s show and I’m only her humble fighter. Introducing – Princess Alexandria Acacia.”
The large young man froze at these words, because he suddenly realized who it is he had tried to provoke…
“Rank 27.”
This was a completely new take on things.
With a ranking list consisting of only one hundred people, Ri’s ranking of 27 was nearly unprecedented. And what was even more surprising? Everyone here could tell that she wasn’t even sixteen years of age yet. It really put things into perspective. Even if her husband was weaker than Ri, or so they thought, he was also just as young, being only a few months older than Ri. So, logically speaking, for him to be her husband, it was likely that his talent surpassed much of theirs as well.
At least, that was what the intelligent warriors immediately picked up on. As for the more block-headed large man, all he saw was Ri’s ranking and how he should have chosen his words better than he had.
The truth was that although he wasn’t within the top 100, he was still within the top 30 his planet had to offer. It was just that he barely missed out. So, when he saw a teenage boy like Dyon looking down on him and completely ignoring his provocation, a rage built up in his heart.
However, Dyon seemed completely oblivious to his aura even as he passed by and led Ri to an open table where he intimately laid his arm out for Ri to rest her head on.
It was at this moment that many noticed Ri’s level of beauty. Because of the receptionist’s questioning, Ri had been partially hidden, and thus no one got a good look at her until Dyon led her past.
A sudden look of realization crossed the faces of the four beauties, ‘No wonder…’ They thought. But, that just lit a competitive spirit within them. They had no real interest in Dyon despite how attractive he was. To them, a young man not able to be in the top 100 rankings wasn’t worth their time. But, for a beauty that rivaled them to appear like she had, and yet be ranked so highly despite being younger than them, that was definitely something to take note of.
Seeing that Dyon had taken hold of his job from him, the receptionist shook his head and began to speak, “Now that we have a representative for each Planet, we can begin.”
The truth was that the receptionist had been told that no one from Earth had planned to come. He had only waited this long to give the semblance that this hadn’t been a planned absence. But, with someone so highly ranked having come, this saved Earth from a lot of embarrassment. Ri wasn’t the most highly ranked they had, but she also wasn’t too lowly ranked either. It was perfect.
The truth was that there was no way the other injured Earth rankers could heal as quickly as Ri. After all, Ri’s husband was one of the most skilled array alchemists on the planet, and even in the universe. With his constant care, it was no wonder Ri recovered so much faster.
“The premise of today’s battles is simple. The crowd below is currently watching miscellaneous fights between people you all likely look down upon. However, we of the Chaos Arena are in business of entertainment.
Keep in mind that there is no obligation to battle today. In fact, we have plenty of fights lined up that you will find of interest regardless of what you feel about the current happenings.
Treat today as a friendly way to get a pulse on your competition. If you don’t want to fight. Don’t.” The receptionist turned to walk out of the doorway, but, before he closed it, he smirked. “That said, I think you’re all a lot more competitive than that.”
With that, the door locked and the room shifted. Everything began to tilt and slope downward, continuing until the arena and noises below suddenly came into full effect.
The loud blaring of the masses, the sound of the cries of agony and breaking bones and flesh – even the smell of blood suddenly invaded all of their senses.
They were only 5 stories up, which made Dyon think what the rest of the building’s height was used for. He definitely remembered it being much taller than the inn he and Ri had stayed in, and the inn was ten stories.
Shaking his head, Dyon looked down at the table in front of him, suddenly remembering he hadn’t eaten in weeks. He had spent all of his team constantly healing Ri, and because of his new energy cultivation, he hadn’t particularly felt it. But, he was missing the human aspect of savouring food.
“Hungry?” Dyon smiled down at Ri who seemed lost for a instant, looking down at all the chaos going on in the arena below.
Ri giggled, resting her small hand on Dyon’s thigh, “Go ahead and eat, you glutton.”
Dyon grinned when he noticed the food mechanisms were near identical to Heaven’s Wine. It dawned on him that even if he didn’t have Iaachus’ badge, he could essentially use his array alchemy to force the table to give him whatever food he wanted for free. But, he found it much funnier to know that somewhere, Iaachus’ tab was steadily growing. In fact, he wondered if he’d meet Iaachus again soon. He found it odd that someone as powerful as him wasn’t at the gates. Or at least, Dyon hadn’t seen him. It was quite possible that maybe Iaachus campaigned on another planet.
It didn’t take long for Dyon and Ri’s table to be filled with food. But, it was clear to everyone that only Dyon was eating. To the elite warriors, eating was almost something reserved for the inferior masses. If you felt hungry enough to eat, it meant you were either lazy with your cultivation, or you were weak to begin with.
However, the more intelligent noticed something different about Dyon’s eating, causing their eyes to sharpen and look at him in an entirely different light. His digestion was perfect.
That only meant one thing: his foundation stage cultivation had reached a realm of perfection only allowed by a peak level technique. And yet, they felt no cultivation coming from him. They had no idea what that could mean.
Of course, Dyon had done this on purpose. He wanted to see who would notice how much finetuned control he had over his body. Those who noticed would earn the right to be on his radar.
Suddenly, the beautiful middle eastern lady dressed like an Egyptian queen thought of something, “Uta. Go and probe him.” She said through essence communication.
The large young man didn’t need any more prompting. He didn’t know he was being used, but even if he did know, the commands of this young woman weren’t commands he could ignore.
Dyon snorted playfully when he noticed who was coming over, but he didn’t care too much. In fact, Dyon was still scanning the area for any Ragnor Clan slaves he could find. As of now, Dyon could see among the twenty or so arenas below, at least five of them involved slaves fighting in one way or another. Some even had two slaves fighting each other. And when they weren’t fighting, they were cleaning up after the mess of completely battles.
Dyon cared much more about this than the clown puppet now looming over him and Ri.
“Fuck off.” Ri wasn’t happy. They hadn’t bothered anyone since they’d come, and yet here was this oversized bear of a man come with clear bad intentions.
The young man hesitated at Ri’s anger. He had been prepared to deal with Dyon, but Ri was someone even he didn’t want to provoke. But, he knew it was too late to back down now, so he focused on Dyon, hoping his allies would help him should it come down to a fight with Ri.
“Can you even be called a man, hiding behind a woman?”
Dyon said nothing, continuing to scan the arena and eat the meat of what was definitely a heaven level beast much to his happiness.
Seeing Dyon ignoring him, the young man took this as a sign of weakness. “The weak have no place here. I’d like your seat, so it’s best you fuck off.”
Dyon sighed, “I usually try not to judge people by their outward appearances, but you really are a brainless brute, aren’t you?”
“What did you say?!”
“Worst yet,” Dyon continued, ignoring his question, “You say I’m hiding behind a woman, but you’re taking orders from one right now. In fact, you’re hoping to use her as a shield to protect you from my wife’s anger. You’re quite the manly man, aren’t you?”
The young man grit his teeth. But, he calmed himself and smiled instead, ignoring the snickering of the surrounding rankers, “It seems that you won this beauty over with nothing but flowery words considering that sharp tongue of yours. She’s young, after all. A pretty face and some poetry was probably all it took. She’ll discard you when she realizes there’s more she should want in a man.”
Suddenly, Ri giggled, her anger dissipating under how ridiculous she knew this Uta character’s words were. More to a man than her Dyon? How?
Dyon pouted, “What are you laughing for? Don’t tell you me you’re actually planning to replace me.”
Ri flicked Dyon’s forehead playfully, continuing to laugh.
Uta felt the limits of his patience being played with. They were practically treating him like a joke.
“How pathetic.” Uta said in anger.
Suddenly, Dyon’s eyes flashed, causing him to stand up so quickly that Uta almost lost his balance.
In that instant, Dyon’s playful demeanor had completely changed. It was as though they were looking at the devil incarnate.
A red gold dripped from him as his eyes trained on the arena below him, landing on a young boy scarred and bloodied almost beyond recognition. He stumbled into the arena, gripping a short sword as he faced off against another young boy. However, they both shared one thing: the distinctive scar that ran from one side of their face to the other, slanting down their features diagonally…
Dyon didn’t care about hiding or pacing himself anymore. All he saw was red.
Ri didn’t know who Dyon was looking at specifically, but she had a pretty good idea. So, she remained silent. This was something that Dyon would want to handle alone. But, it was clear he was having trouble controlling himself right now.
His demonic will was leaking so potently that the rankers completely forgot about questioning Dyon’s credentials and immediately put him on a list of people to watch. A young man, still many weeks from his sixteenth birthday, having already reached the peak level of a will as rare as demonic will? And the fact his path was so domineering? Dyon couldn’t be ignored anymore.
Almost immediately, the leading geniuses of every planet turned to their subordinates with one goal in mind: find out who this kid was.
Dyon’s breathing was erratic. He was aware that he was being much too emotional to act rationally, but the idea that this was his fault was weighing on him heavily right now. He had to fix this. He had to.
Suddenly, Dyon felt a soft hand slip into his causing him to look down to find Ri looking up at him with a worried smile. “It’s okay.” She said softly.
A calming ice purity will circulated within Dyon causing him to slowly calm down and retract his will.
Uta suddenly became aware of how far back he had stumbled due to Dyon’s abrupt actions. And even then, what made it worse was that he hadn’t begun to breathe again until Dyon calmed down. Why was he feeling so much pressure from someone with no cultivation? It didn’t make sense.
“Wait for me a while?” Dyon tightened his grip on Ri’s hand, looking at her apologetically.
Ri nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
‘Was calling him pathetic all it took?’ Some wondered about this. What was with the drastic change in personality? Something else must have happened. But, there were just too many fights going on at once for any of them to have any idea what had set Dyon off.
“You said you wanted to fight, right?” Dyon took off his long coat, handing it to Ri before he took off his turtle neck as well, revealing his striking tattoos and rippling torso. The beauties couldn’t help but allow flashes of interest to sparkle their eyes, much to Ri’s displeasure. But, Dyon leaned forward and kissed her forehead, easily appeasing her.
Seeing Ri smile, Dyon felt content. “Let’s go then. I’m sure you’ll handle it, right old man?”
Not waiting for a response, Dyon’s feet flashed as he disappeared.
The eyes of the geniuses couldn’t help but narrow again. Just how could someone with no cultivation be so fast?
Before anyone could blink, Dyon was falling through the hollow center of the Chaos Tower at break neck speeds.
Even as he did so, the voice of the announcer sounded.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the warmup rounds are over and done with. We know none of you care about the endings of these petty fights, so, how about we move on to the main events?
Today, we have something special in store for you all.
A battle between worlds. The will of men will clash.
Planet Deimos, highly lauded for its domineering cultivators, have brought along with it two God Clans and a single Royal God Clan, prepared to fight with our warriors to name the best of the best of our younger generation.
Warrior Uta Geb. Ranked 29th among his peers and top 200 within our universe. A highly respected warrior to say the least.
And his opponent? One of our very own. The husband to an unprecedented genius. The prince consort of the Elvin Kingdom. A man who is a genius in his own right. The slayer of Scaled Elephants. The warder of King God Clans. Dyon Sacharro!”
Dyon feet slammed into the arena below, cracking it nearly in half.
“Go, Uta. And don’t shame the Geb God Clan.” The beauty spoke lightly and quite beautifully, and yet, her words held an unconcealed threat.
Uta had no choice but to dive downward as well, soon landed in crater much larger than Dyon’s impact.
The crowd raged with excitement. Cheers rang out unceasingly as Dyon and Uta’s faces were projected onto large screens for everyone to see.
However, not everyone in the crowd had the same reaction.
“Big brother? Isn’t that brother in law?” Pertinacis Sapientia sat next to Oliver Sapientia, Jessica Knoton, some big sect elders as well as his mother, and a Sapientia God Clan member.
Pertinacis’ mother looked at him curiously, “Brother in law? Are you telling me this boy is Madeleine’s fiancé? But, they just introduced him as the prince consort of the Elvin Kingdom.”
The Sapientia elder turned a questioning gaze toward her son. Although she was an elder of an upper branch, her cultivation was still within the meridian formation realm. Elder ranks in the Sapientia family had less to do with power, and more about research contribution, especially in the lower branches. This only changed once you reached main branches on the level of a God Clan.
In the end, this was why she had married Madeleine’s father to be his second wife. He was handsome, and she wanted a child. Because he was from a lower branch, that just made the entire process even easier. With her desire sated, she could once again focus on her research.
However, hearing that Madeleine had promised herself to this young man she had never heard of – and not only her, at that, but also the princess of the Elvin Kingdom – it made her extremely curious.
“Our first in line genius has no fiancé. It’s best you drop this nonsense.” The elder spoke curtly, cutting off the conversation immediately. He was only here to scout Pertinacis at the recommendation of his mother. Normally he would ignore such a request, but knowing that Pertinacis was Madeleine’s younger brother, and the fact that they had almost let Madeleine’s talent fall through, he decided on taking this chance.
As a thank you, Pertinacis’ mother had brought them to the Chaos Arena, something the elder was quite interested in studying the philosophy of. But, hearing what he thought of as slander to their first in line genius, didn’t make him happy.
Hearing the elder’s words, Pertinacis said nothing more. To this very day, Pertinacis was still logical to a fault. Before, he had wanted Dyon to prove that he was strong enough for his sister first, taking a calculating approach as opposed to Oliver’s more emotional one. But, to Pertinacis, it was impossible for Dyon to be strong enough now.
However, the idea of his being the fiancée to the princess of the Elvin Kingdom was new information for him to add to his calculations. The Elvin Kingdom was no weaker, in theory, than the Sapientia God Clan, and yet he was clearly already accepted by them. So, were the Sapientia only being stubborn? Wasn’t the princess to the Elvin Kingdom, what Madeleine was to the Sapientia?
Despite his thoughts, Pertinacis kept it all to himself, instead focusing on Dyon’s figure.
Oliver and Jessica though, had many complex emotions running through their minds. To them, it was no coincidence that Dyon had come down as soon as they had seen a familiar bloodied figure… Pertinacis didn’t spend much time interacting with the outside world. But, Jessica and Oliver knew exactly what that bloodied figure meant to Dyon. And, if Dyon had gotten as powerful as they knew… Things were about to get stirred up.
‘Can you save her?…’ Thought Oliver quietly.
Dyon was oblivious to all of this. All he could see was Eli’s tired figure being dragged to a side tunnel. He had probably gotten so used to tuning out the arena’s announcements that he hadn’t even heard Dyon’s name, but that just made the pang of guilt in Dyon’s heart grow even more.
“You picked an unfortunate day to piss me off.” Dyon said faintly, turning his gaze to the Uta that towers more than a meter taller than him.
Uta said nothing. He had no words left. He could only crouch into a fighting stance, trying to steady the wild beating of his heart as he stared into the black flames crackling in Dyon’s eyes.
The loud cheering slowly calmed until only silence remained in the Chaos Arena.
“BEGIN!”