Scarlet

As soon as the Fae King finishes speaking, bright flashy lights begin to shine from the screen with the lights in the universe going dark. Which sound weird, but is exactly what happened. Almost like he just straight up turned off the sun or something.

An act that makes me realize just how much control he has over this universe.

Certainly a humbling thought on how powerful he is.

“The Fae King has moderation privileges over the System as a whole, which comes with a lot of bonuses,” Tar says, “one of which is the teleportation ability we’re trying to get.”

Interesting.

And only moderation? Not ownership or admin rights?

“The only one with ownership of the System was its creator, my grandmother,” Tar says, his voice getting quieter as we both watch the blank slots for the two first combatants flicker with equally bright lights as those around them. “And since she passed away, no one has control over the System, other than some minor moderation privileges that the Fae King has.”

That doesn’t sound very safe for those in the System. To just have the System going on its own, doing what it wants.

“Grandmother put in plenty of safety measures to make sure it wouldn’t go berserk, so it should be fine,” Tar concludes, sounding confident.

Or rather, as confident as someone saying ‘should’ can be.

As if the lights weren’t enough, some music begins playing across the universe that has me raising a brow.

Then it all stops at once the moment the two silhouettes turn into pictures of two competitors.

My eyes narrow when I find Aria as one of the two. Meanwhile the other is actually Anthony. Which makes me wonder if it is pairing people up based on equal power for a more balanced tournament. Seeing as those are two of the weakest competitors in the tournament.

“And we now have our very first competitor pairing!” King Oberon declares before his eyes flare, and I find myself floating high in the sky over some sort of dueling arena themed with water and what look like sea monsters floating in the middle of some sort of void with a faint purple mist over the water and monsters surrounding the arena. Likely representing the two people fighting, since one uses void and death magic and the other a special type of water and kraken magic. Same as her father. “Let’s welcome Aria Knight and Anthony Wilson!!!!”Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The crowd immediately begins their applause and cheers, although most of them seem to be cheering for Aria. If not all of them.

Which makes perfect sense to me.

Aria is adorable in every way, is related to me, and has already made a name for herself in previous competitions during the tournament. Meanwhile Anthony is mostly just known as the void hybrid. Which isn’t something you wanna be known by when being invaded by the void.

The Fae King lets the applause continue on for a little longer before he raises one wing and shouts, “Begin!”

And as soon as he says that, both Aria and Anthony rush at each other.

I can’t help but glare at Anthony though. Because while Aria is at the end of Class II, Anthony is at Class III. And he’s not at the start either. He’s in the middle of Class III.

So he better not fucking hurt her.

Actually, come to think of it, Aria doesn’t talk about her skills much, nor does the media try capturing her on camera since she’s so young… I actually don’t know most of her…

My thoughts trail off when I see Aria sending her hair out, turning it into blue and black tentacles, some of which separate from her head before regrowing, with the separated parts turning into a bunch of large squids. Meanwhile a massive amount of water flows out from her skin to cover the arena, giving said squids a perfect battling ground.

Huh. Kinda forgot she has Blue’s etched skills.

On the other side of the field, Anthony actually isn’t bothering with breathing in the water. Which is probably some sort of mutation of his, especially considering that I’m pretty sure the void doesn’t have air to breathe in the first place.

He’s also glowing with a pitch black light, similar to the void creatures. Which means he’s starting out with the void magic, not using the death magic yet.

Unlike with Aria, I do know what he’s capable of. I’ve fought him before after all, even if the last time we fought was back when we were only Class II. And the skill of his that I remember the most is the one that basically made him temporarily immortal until he eventually grows completely crippled after the usage of the skill. Taking in all of the damage without actually showing any damage on his person until the skill runs out and it all hits him at once.

From my understanding of the void creatures that I’ve fought, along with the ones during that tower defense competition, void magic is all about devouring. Whereas null magic erases something from existence, void magic devours it, empowering itself. But it takes more mana to devour something than to erase it, and when it is devoured it can also lead to issues with the one devouring it. Like if they’re not strong enough to keep it, it could burst out of them. Like a popped water balloon.

I watch as the black light spreads out to form several black figures around Anthony, some of them humanoid, others not. Some aren’t even animalistic. Some are just plain giant mouths or even large masses of mouths.

Which is just plain creepy.

And without hesitation, both sides send their little forces at each other, making the squids – or I guess I’ll just call them krakens – clash with the… void things.

The crowd goes absolutely wild, especially when it’s shown that Aria isn’t actually overwhelmed by Anthony despite their level difference.

Etched skills really are powerful.

Both Aria and Anthony look like they’re having fun too, so I guess I won’t have to beat Anthony up after all.

“Lucky him,” Tar comments rather dryly.

I ignore his tone and nod my head.

Yes, he should feel lucky.

Tar snorts.

I ignore him again as I continue watching the battle.

To be honest, I’m rather curious about if Aria has a chance of winning this.

That would be cool.