458 Had..
Away from Dyon, Madeleine, Clara and Ri, the World Tournament was still raging on. The third day was just beginning with the foundation stage warrior ranking having been finalized just the day before.
In typical fashion, youths of the God Clans completely dominated this ranking. Because they weren’t able to participate for a spot in the overall rankings because of their weakness, they held nothing back in competing with each other.
In the end, Tau Aumen’s younger brother, Ur Aumen, boasted the number one spot, bringing pride to the Aumen Royal God Clan of Planet Deimos – despite only being ten years old.
Not many were surprised by this though, after all, his elder brother was ranked third on the cumulative rankings. In fact, because Dyon’s name had been practically ignored, many began to say that he was actually the second ranked. As such, the Aumen family became a highly respected name, living up to their multi-millennia legacy.
That said, everyone acknowledged that there was no large disparity amongst the top eleven, or true top ten, as they coined it. This was because campaign rankings tended to fluctuate wildly and often relied on luck. Just the campaign before last, Tau Aumen had been first. He only slipped to third this past campaign.
Because fluctuations like this were frequent, tiers were used to separate fighters instead. And the top ten happened to be the highest of tiers.
That said, there were also dark horses who ranked lower that simply didn’t have enough years of campaigning to shine through on the cumulative rankings. These were people like Thor and Vidar, as well as Caedlum. Their faith seeds could not be ignored and their control over them only increased with each passing day. Many already accepted that they were likely already comparable to members of the top ten.
Aside from this, there was one pride of Earth that didn’t use his age as an excuse. Prince Lionel Belmont was just barely 25 years old, and yet ranked as the undisputed first place on the cumulative rankings. No one knew how he did it, but from his third campaign onwards, he never ranked outside of the top five. People witnessed his feats with their own eyes, as such, they accepted it. Lionel Belmont was simply a genius amongst geniuses.
However, if you asked members of the Ragnor clan, they would point out that Thor and Vidar were only 23 years old. And members of the Pakal clan would be even quicker to note that Caedlum was only 19.
It was suffice to say that the raging crowd had a lot to look forward to. They hadn’t forgotten about Dyon’s performance, though. They remembered the domineering display they witnessed. The visual of thousands kneeling before one man was almost too impactful. In fact, the remaining 788 candidates had to be chosen by measuring whose knees hit the arena last. Even to right now those candidates weren’t up to fighting.
But, some naively argued that Dyon’s competition had been too weak. They claimed that any member of the top 30 or even 40 to 50 could have done such a thing. They claimed that they never said Dyon was weak, only that he didn’t deserve to be number one. However… Those with any real shred of intelligence knew better. It was safe to say that the only cumulative rankers who weren’t afraid to fight Dyon were likely in the top 20. Everyone else though? They shivered at the thought of facing him.
“Congratulations to the ranked members of the foundation stage!” Elder Den’s voice boomed across the stadium.
In the revamped demon sage area, Dyon’s comrades were living a life of leisure. After Dyon’s display, no one dared to bother them in the least. Even the heckling had stopped.
Delia, who had woken up, blushed as Eli’s hand brushed up against hers while trying to hand her a plate of food. In typical Eli fashion, he pulled back a bit too quickly, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. But, luckily for him, Delia giggled at his antics, catching the plate before it fell to the ground.
She had woken up just half a day after Dyon, Ri and Madeleine left, and she was the picture of health. In fact, she was more than that now. The glow of her olive skin, the faint shine of blue that flickered in her hazel eyes, and even her long and flowing brunette hair, accented with beautiful golds and browns, brought her image together to one of near perfection. There was no question in anyone’s eyes that she had become a beauty rivaling Ri and Madeleine.
Zaltarish, though, did not find this display cute at all. How many long weeks and months had he spent carefully and diligently plating food for Mithrandir? How was he supposed to know that all he had to do was drop it to gain her affection!
‘THE WORLD IS SO UNFAIR!’ Zaltarish couldn’t even find the tears to cry. Arios’ pat on his shoulder only made him feel worse.
“It’s okay. All you have to do is rank highly and she’ll acknowledge you.” Arios sad trying to comfort his new found friend.
Zaltarish’s red eyes steeled as he nodded firmly. “Right. I’ll be number one!”
“Eh… Maybe don’t aim so high…” Arios tried to walk back his statement but it was already too late, the fire in Zaltarish’s eyes had been lit.
“Now!” Elder Den’s voice continued. “We’ll move on to the Meridian Formation rankings! I wish you all the best of lu –”
Just as Elder Den was going to finish his sentence, he suddenly felt an outstanding pressure cover the arena.
King Belmont’s eyes snapped up to the skies, a massive grin appearing on his face before he looked toward Big Red.
The pressure mounted as intent level wills clashed and distorted reality. The skies bent and twisted under an odd force until eventually… They tore in half.
The heads of the God level clans all had their eyes trained on that single space. They had no idea who was arrogant enough to interrupt something on the scale of the World Tournament. This was an event that housed all of the strongest experts in the universe, this wasn’t a small get together.
And yet, this person tore apart the skies themselves, ensuring that everyone was aware that they had arrived.
In the Elvin Kingdom’s section, Uncle Acacia stood violently as he was a tall man and a small Japanese woman descend as though they were a God and Goddess amongst mortals. The pressure they placed on the arena didn’t matter even a little bit to him. All he saw were two people he loved dearly.
Uncle Acacia didn’t hesitate, flashing into the skies with speeds as fast as his cultivation would allow.
“Did you have to enter like this Edrym? You’ll make our daughter think lesser of us!”
“This was necessary. They have to know their King is back and he’s not weak.”
No one knew more than him how much his kingdom must have been in turmoil in his absence. So, he used the World Tournament as a stage. He proved that he didn’t care to offend any other God Clan heads. In fact, he didn’t care to offend any Royal God Clan heads. He had the confidence and arrogance of a King, and he was unapologetic about it.
In what seemed like an instant, Uncle Acacia had made his way to the front of the two of them, his heart beating wildly and the excitement on his face palpable.
The man and woman smiled sincerely seeing him, knowing full well what was about to happen.
Uncle Acacia rushed forward, trying to take them in his arms. But, the man who called himself king flashed away, leisurely walking past.
“Big Brother! Sister in law!” Uncle Acacia fell to his knees, wrapping his arm around the beautiful woman’s waist as they both stood in the skies.
The woman lovingly patted Uncle Acacia’s head like a doting elder sister. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears and her smile bloomed like the delicate petals of a flower. Though she held it back now, it was clear that she was bottling up a whirlwind of emotion.
“You’re too old to still be such a cry baby. Come, come. We’re back.”
The crowd immediately understood what had happened.
King and Queen Acacia had returned.