"What's happening?"
"His Majesty personally stopped the match?"
"But why would Raisa win? Isn't Maiah in the advantageous position?"
The audience was baffled by the entire situation and started questioning the result. They thought Alex must be favoring the Elemental Gods' successors over a plebian like them.
Even Maiah couldn't accept this.
When she was about to complain, William waved his hand, blowing the dust that was kicked by the explosion before shouting. "A moment please! I'm sure that you all are confused as to why His Majesty did this. I'm going to explain it to you right now."
Listening to William's voice, the stadium fell silent once again.
"Wait a minute. What is that small thorn on the roots that His Majesty cut earlier?" Suddenly, someone noticed and shouted in shock.
All the people suddenly turned their attention to it and found the same white torn.
Maiah turned around and widened her eyes as she sucked a cold breath.
William sighed and announced. "That's right. I was planning to cut it, but His Majesty deemed it dangerous and stopped the fight immediately."
"I see."
"So that's how it is."
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I shouldn't doubt your decision."
"We won't doubt your decision anymore, Your Majesty!"
"We regret it."
The audience began to apologize to Alex as they understood that Alex was impartial the whole time.
Listening to their apologies, Alex waved his hand as if it was easily forgiven. Instead of getting angry at such a petty thing, Alex thanked Raisa. "You're truly the number one. Did you plan it all?"
Raisa cupped her hands politely and said, "Although I don't know what is troubling Your Majesty, your schedule must be tight because of something big. The least I can do is to speed up the competition."
Maiah suddenly remembered what happened earlier. Although Saul was forced to lose the match, he should be able to buy a bit more time in the fight. Yet, he didn't even struggle and let her win.
She then remembered a certain rumor, saying that Eulja would soon go to war. Her expression darkened as her feet felt limp. Dropping on all four, she asked herself inwardly. 'Did… Did everyone actually realize this and speed up the entire thing?'
Giza seemed to have realized it as well, so he admitted defeat without a fuss as soon as he knew there was no chance. As for Raisa, she was even more monstrous.
To bait her, Raisa allowed her to lock her up in her strings. This was the fastest but riskiest way to end a match, yet, Raisa didn't have a change of expression when doing this.
This showed just how much Alex's words mattered. No, this was the real thought of the people who were truly loyal to Eulja and Alex.
They pushed aside their pride to do something better for Eulja. Even if she claimed the championship after defeating Raisa, she had no right to accept the reward. After all, if she, a Humanoid Spirit, couldn't even do something like this, could she call herself the true patriot?
'The two spikes would've severely injured me if His Majesty didn't stop the battle… Raisa might have realized this and wanted to punish me for it…' She clenched her teeth and couldn't help but cry. "I lose."
William facepalmed and sighed before announcing the result. "The competition ends here. First place is Raisa, followed by Maiah in the second place. Giza and Saul are tied in third place while Rok is in fifth place. To shorten the time, I would like to request all the winners to be present in the arena."
Alex then jumped off the wall while waving his hand, burning all the roots in an instant. It was like the root didn't have any resistance as it turned into nothingness within five seconds, leaving only a crater that Raisa made earlier.
"Thank you, William." Alex nodded with a smile.
"Your Majesty." William cupped his hands and bowed politely.
"I'm going to end this as soon as possible, though, someone seems to be unsatisfied with the result." Alex turned around and found a red-haired young man with fierce eyes. Although he didn't show it, Alex could see the rampaging in his body as if he was angry with the result.
William widened his eyes when he saw Rok's expression. "Ugh, let me take care of him first."
"No need." Alex shook his head. After confirming that Saul and Giza had entered the arena and went toward Raisa and Maiah, Alex walked to Agnis's successor with a calm expression. "Do you feel unsatisfied with the current result?"
"…" Rok fell silent and kneeled. "No. I don't dare."
"Do you think the special rule that I'd placed in this competition restricted your chance to win?" Alex asked again.
"…" This time, Rok didn't answer him since he felt it was obvious. He was a Rank 3 God, while the other party was only a Rank 5 God. If Alex didn't ask him to restrict his cultivation, he wouldn't have lost against her.
"Do you want to know the reason I added this rule in the first place?" Alex smiled before explaining, not only to him but to all people that gathered here. "Cultivating talent is indeed something that is emphasized a lot.
"But I don't want to focus on that aspect alone. I want to add your Eyes, Judgment and Fighting Prowess to the mix. You need your eyes to assess the entire situation before doing something and everything can result in a positive or negative impact on Eulja in the future. This is where I can see your Judgment."
Alex glanced at Maiah as if telling her to not forget about this and continued. "I need someone with a high Fighting Prowess. Realistically speaking, even with my Rank 4 God cultivation, I can defeat you in your full power. How about it? I will let you fight me one-on-one. As long as you hit me once, I will declare that you are the winner of this competition. I promise I won't use my Pure Fire to suppress you."
"!!!" All the people, including William, were shocked by his statement. Even Rok stared at Alex in disbelief.
William sweatdropped, knowing that Alex wanted to beat this guy to show his dominance as well as breaking Rok's pride. In the heart, he had been chanting, 'Don't accept it. Just lay low. Don't accept it. Just lay low.'
Unfortunately, just like Agnis in the past, Rok was hot-headed. He politely cupped his hands to Alex and said, "Then, I would like to give it a go. I apologize in advance if I accidentally hurt Your Majesty."
'Ah. This guy is dead.' William let out a long sigh.
Meanwhile, Alex only took his sword and waved his hand, asking him to make the first move.
"I apologize for offending you." Rok raised his hands as they turned into claws covered in fire. He then leaped toward Alex.
Alex, on the other hand, grabbed the sword's handle and swung it without any special technique.
It might be surprising for a few people, but most people would consider this normal since Rok won in the battle of strength, blowing Alex's sword away. When he was about to hit Alex, he heard Alex's voice from behind.
"Alright. That's my win." Alex smiled.
Rok was bewildered for a second before his answer came the moment Alex's figure disappeared. It turned out that Alex was already behind him, pointing his sword at the back of his head.
"Wha—" Rok widened his eyes as he halted his movement, knowing that the match was settled. The figure in front of him then disappeared, telling him that what he had been chasing this whole time was a lie.
Meanwhile, it certainly had a different meaning for people like William. What they saw was different from Rok.
The entire process was only Alex going around Rok and pointing his sword. Everything was just Rok doing something weird by himself.
William gasped as if he barely felt the fluctuation of the Divine Energy. If it were him, he would've been more careful, but this technique was plain nasty. "Illusion? No, no. This technique far surpasses a normal Illusion Technique."
"What? You want to complain about this result too?" Alex smiled. "As I said, I want to test all of you about your assessment of your current predicament and situation before doing something according to your judgment. In other words… The moment you decide to fight me, you've already lost.
"What? Do you think everything can be forgiven just because you are Agnis's successor? One misstep can cause a huge war between planets. I don't mind making enemies, but there is a limit like your own limit as to how many enemies we can have at a time. You FOOL, do you want to destroy this planet like how you destroyed yourself?"
Alex's killing intent suddenly enveloped the entire arena, telling everyone that even Agnis's successor wouldn't be spared if all they could do was make trouble.
Most people couldn't help but recall what happened when the Spirit God died. They faced so many wars and deaths to the point they declined for one thousand years. It was the worst period to be alive, so they could somehow understand why Alex said all this.
Rok, on the other hand, gasped as he finally saw things clearer after getting another defeat. No matter what excuse you had in your heart, it wouldn't change the fact that you lost. This was what Alex wanted to teach him.
Rok dropped to the ground and prostrated with his whole body shaking. "I am unqualified to be one of the winners. Even if Your Majesty wants me dead, I won't have any complaints and take my own life personally."
Alex suddenly bent his knees and raised his body before hugging him. "Still, even if you are a fool, you are still my subject. Just like how you support me, I will protect you to the best of my ability. Even so, no one knows whether they will see the Spirit God in their eyes in a special situation. I want to teach you to not take the risk because if any of you are injured, I will be sad."
Alex's voice was sincere and soothing, touching every single person in the stadium. They saw three figures in Alex: A Ruler, A Friend, and… A Father.
Not knowing why, half of the people couldn't help but shed tears. Even William closed his eyes as he recalled the matter of the past.
Alex, on the other hand, summoned his Spirit Crown and used it on him.
Suddenly the arena's floor cracked as they could see red lines between cracks. A surge of heat burst out of the crack and fire began to leap around the cracks.
He then rose and used his Pure Fire to suppress this Fire Element and the arena returned to normal.
"Still, I can't let you go unpunished. Although you have won and gotten the chance to have your ability improved, I will punish you by enhancing a random ability of yours. Do you have an objection?"
"I don't… No, that's not it. I shall prove that Your Majesty's choice is not wrong by turning this random ability to be the best ability out there." Rok smiled and cupped his hands politely.
Alex nodded with a smile as the problem had been resolved in the best way possible.
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