Aina walked out from a portal that appeared. Her hair didn't even seem to be ruffled by the encounter, and her calmness was unmatched.

There was a dense sort of silence that took hold of those that were watching. They had somewhat expected that such a thing would have to happen, but they didn't expect it to end up like this.

There were a fair share of weak participants as there would have to be in this sort of situation. The trouble was that the lion Beasts were most definitely not one of them.

The one that Aina fought in particular was only on his second battle after running into a particularly tough opponent the first time around. Although he probably wouldn't have made it much further than the second round, there was no doubt that he had the strength to pass the Preliminaries at the very least.

And yet, it took just a single strike. It was hard to even call it a strike. It had looked more like a pat on the head, a single swift downward slant of the palm... and then the battle was over.

There were other battles that had ended in just a single strike as well. But the fact Aina had forfeited twice, seemingly on purpose, only to now erupt with such strength.

It felt like a message. No, it was yet another message, one that layered atop of what Leonel had already done as though they had come here not to bow and scrape for the hope of saving the last bastion of the Human Race, but rather to be that last bastion themselves.

Someone with a soul fused with their body was able to deal with someone with a separated soul with nothing more than overwhelming force.

She didn't use Forces, she didn't use a technique, she didn't even seem to have gone all out.

It was just a single, overwhelming, and crushing victory.In a secluded room, a group of nine gathered. It wasn't too hard to guess that these nine were those that remained of the original ten Council Members.

They looked up into the skies, watching the battle with narrowed eyes.

"Is this supposed to be the plan? Are they saying that she's guaranteed to reach the top 100? Is that supposed to be a joke?" Lumina was speechless.

It was an idea they had thought of, but it was so ridiculous that they had directly dismissed it.

Even for the ten, or rather, nine of them, should things go a little wrong, it was still possible for them to miss out on the top 100. If they ran into an unlucky slate of enemies, if they were caught in a battle against an enemy that perfectly countered them, or even if they were suddenly caught off guard and pushed off the platform... all of these things were possible.

Although they still have a better than 90% chance of reaching the top 100, none of them were so bold as to say that it was a 100% certainty.

But not only was Aina basically saying so, but she had purposely lost twice in a row, making her path to the top 100 several times more difficult. It was hard to quantify exactly by how much, but her seeding now was objectively terrible.

"An overestimation of their abilities," Caspian said lightly, his eyes half closed. He seemed completely uninterested, the flashing lights of his Ethereal Glabella making it seem like he was stuck in a completely different dream of his own.

In a corner, a familiar Pure Blooded Spiritual sat. She was none other than Lyra Emberheart. While the others talked, her eyes were still stuck on Aina.lights

She hadn't really thought about who Leonel's wife would be, but seeing her now, for some reason... she felt inferior.

It wasn't an emotion that made any sense. Aina had won in great fashion, but so had she.

"... There's no point in caring about this. I don't know why you're all wasting your time," a yawn came from the side.

A Cloud Race young man reclined on a chair. His face kept changing from one aspect to another, the clouds coming from the back of his head billowing like rune-filled steam.

"It's not like we can rig the outcome, we've already done all the rigging we can. No one can change the rules of the Gathering of Kingdoms Stele. Go sleep, or fuck, or practice or something. The constant droning is annoying me."

Orion leaned back and many had a flash of rage toward his words. However, they were reasonable and there was little they could say as a rebuttal.

And so, the conversation was dropped and the days began to tick by... until the next round began.

Aina stretched, raising her hands to the skies. Although Yuri and Savahn's worry hadn't faded, they had at least settled down somewhat. At the very least, Aina's victory had given them some hope to latch onto.

A ticker appeared before her and she smiled. It seemed that she would get to battle again. Hopefully, whoever this was, would be able to give her a better battle.

Aina vanished and appeared within an arena. Across from her, there was a hooded figure, practically dripping in black. They were lanky and tall, standing at over seven feet tall. Hidden within the hood of their cloak, one could sometimes catch the faint glare of two sparkling green eyes.

The figure suddenly swayed and seemed to vanish.magic

'Hm?' Aina's brow raised.

Leonel sat over his workbench, beads of sweat falling down his brow as he focused on just a single piece of ore.

Changing an ore on a molecular level was easy. The trouble was having it maintain its form afterward.

Just logically, an object's chemical structure decided everything about its properties. Casually changing it without regard for maintaining its original integrity, or compensating for it somehow, was as good as destroying the materials he had on hand.

What was even more interesting than that was the fact it felt that there were actually two ways to approach this after learning his father's methods...

The Life Path and the Self Path.