The celebration encompassing the entire Neo-Demon Realm prevailed for almost a year but finally reached its end. And what better way to end a festivity for a warrior race than a tournament!
It was a tournament for the youngest generation of the Neo-Demon Race. Since dividing them by age was complicated due to some babies born directly at Rank 3, the rules allowed anyone beneath Rank 4 to participate.
Runes, artifacts, and bloodlines were among the tournament's rewards.
The final battle to crown the First Neo-Demon Seed Tournament's champion took place in a Peak High World where a perpetual white lightning storm covered the sky.
Unlike a traditional platform, the semi-finals battlefield comprised an entire continent. Ezequiel did this to prove the duo's ingenuity and killing techniques.
Knowing how to take advantage of the terrain and put traps was sometimes more critical than whether your brute strength surpassed your opponent's.
The duo fought with all they had, unleashing killing techniques meant to pulverize the other. Of course, truly wanted to kill one of their brethren, but the referees instructed them to take each fight as an authentic life and death battle from the beginning of the tournament.
Each referee was a Rank 5 Neo-Demon with a Superluminal True Doomsday Body, so they could stop the fight before any actual death occurred.
Ezequiel and the rest of the Sky Breakers, along with many Rank 6 Neo-Demons, watched the battle from the High World's sky.
There were only three people in the sky that were not Soul Law Domain existences. A man with a bulky body and black metallic skin, a woman with elven bloodline, and a little girl who shared the duo's physical characteristics.
The middle-aged couple was at Rank 3 while the girl was Rank 1. As Neo-Demons, the adults' talents allowed them to form a True Soul easily, but since their wills were not powerful enough to resist the Three Severings, they still could not enter Rank 4.
Although it was strange for a warrior race to have people without extremely strong wills, the truth was that around 2% of the Neo-Demon Race chose not to participate in the armed conflict. Some of them became artists, and others took the path of scholars, etc.
While those paths and experiences still help their will grow, their speed could not compare with Neo-Demons that faced the cruelty of war.
Ezequiel did not have a problem with those Neo-Demons' choices. They were free and could do whatever they wanted.
Of course, not because your parents took a path would mean that you would have to take the same. That was the case with one of the fighters on the ground.
"Daemon Dragon Infernal Breath!" A five-meter tall young man with blood-red scales covering his muscular body roared those words as a wave of black flames emerged from his mouth, destroying everything in front of him.
The young man with the Daemon-Draco bloodline smiled as he saw his attack consume his opponent and was sure victory was his, but then shock appeared on his face.
From the left flank of the flame wave, a young man with black skin and elven ears emerged.
"How..." His attack should have been able to pulverize a Rank 3 Demon, so the young man's shock was understandable.
Ezequiel and the other Neo-Demons in the sky nodded when they saw that. The black metallic elven found the weakest point of the flame wave and pierced through it, sacrificing his left arm. That took excellent martial skills and also immense courage.
The Daemon-Draco Neo-Demon couldn't do anything as a punch landed right on his rib. That attack did not carry the brute power to defeat him, but it landed precisely where his opponent harmed him during an initial ambush.
An immense amount of energy gathered in the black metallic elven's arm as he made a knife with his hand and attacked his opponent's neck.
Right when his attack was about to land, the young man saw his opponent vanish. Utter shock appeared in his face as he thought that he underestimated Daemon-Draco Neo-Demon's resilience, and he prepared to receive a counterattack.
Luckily for him, no attack came, and as he turned to the left, he saw a Neo-Demon with light wings holding his opponent.
"Congratulation, Nitzer Ictus, you have become the Neo-Demon Seed Tournament's champion."
Nitzer looked up as a torrent of golden flames descended from the sky and bathed his body, healing all of his injuries.
Then, the young Neo-Demon saw a man bathed in white lightning descend from the sky.
'The Supreme!' Nitzer felt an intense sense of awe as he saw Ezequiel's figure.
"As the champion of this tournament, you earn a Half Law Bloodline and a..."
Confusion appeared in Nitzer's face as he saw how Ezequiel froze mid-air, and that only grew as he saw the expression of utter shock in everybody.
He followed their sights and saw a twelve-year-old boy standing half a meter behind him.
The boy's appearance wasn't exactly the same, but Nitzer could not help but think of the man his parents and elders taught him to revere from the moment he was born.
"Ancestor..."
Zatiel turned to the young man and gave him a soft nod before looking at those in the sky.
"I am home."
...
"Your time is up. It is my turn now."
"How could it be so short?"
"Hmph, you can keep track of every millisecond that passes. You finished your ten minutes."
The Supreme Neo-Demon and the Sky Breakers gathered in a large white room inside the same lightning world where the tournament carried on.
A somewhat emotional meeting occurred when Zatiel arrived. Still, after they got some time to calm their emotions, Ezequiel dispersed the other Neo-Demons, and they came to his Magic Tower.
There were many important matters to attend to, but Ezequiel, Dante, and the others could not do much as Sophia and Zitra played with Zatiel, switching him from one lap to another every ten minutes.
Zatiel had always been extremely handsome, but now that he resembled a twelve-year-old boy, he could be considered cute, and the duo could not get enough of him.
"Ahhh." The Neo-Demon could only sigh. It wasn't wise to interfere with his physical development, so unless he wanted to project an illusion every moment, the best path was to wait a few decades until his body grew older naturally.
Besides, Zatiel's power allowed him to detect people's emotions. The Neo-Demon felt the duo's pain and sadness from the previous hundreds of years, so he let them have their fun.
"Carry on."
"Yes, Father. We currently control nine hundred twenty-six Low Worlds, seventy-eight Middle Worlds, and eleven High Worlds. Our Neo-Demon forces are composed of one million two hundred thousand Rank 4, ninety-one thousand four hundred Rank 5, and two thousand three hundred Rank 6. Regarding drones, we have approximately three times those numbers in each Rank.
As for important events during your absence, the most notable ones are the rise of the Supernova Race and the Fallen Race.
You can find additional and detailed information regarding both topics here." Dante touched his forehead, generating a seed of consciousness before sending it toward his father.
Zatiel's right eye absorbed the information and went through every piece of it in less than a second.
"There is one more important event, one so significant that involves the entire Prima Universe, but our power and intelligence network is too weak. We have only learned some information from our contacts in the Dark Tower Alliance and Supreme's investigation. I am talking about the arrival of the Flame Imperator and the Alpha Universe."
Everybody became incredibly solemn when they heard Dante's words. The Flame Imperator was a life form that managed to open the Cosmic Wall with his bare hands, and the Alpha Universe was full of mysteries.
Other than having extremely powerful life forms, they knew nothing more about the Alpha Universe. If it turned out to be an irreconcilable enemy, they did not see how the Prima Universe would resist fighting against it and the Eldritch Universe at once.
"I can not speak about this Flame Imperator, but the Alpha Universe is not our enemy."
Ezequiel and the Sky Breakers looked at Zatiel with surprise when they heard that. Even the Primarchs were shocked by the arrival of the Alpha Universe, but it seemed the Neo-Demon Ancestor was different.
"Master, did you know about this new universe?"
Zatiel looked at Ezequiel and the rest with a smile. They have grown powerful enough to learn a little about the dangerous mysteries of the universe.
"Unlike the Eldritch Universe's life forms with whom we can't reason due to their nature of seeing every as food, the people in the Alpha Universe can become allies to the Prima Universe. Besides, there are already three of them living among us in the Neo-Demon Realm."
If before Ezequiel and the Sky Breakers were surprised, now they were utterly shocked.
"One." Zatiel raised his finger, and the picture of a beautiful girl with black hair appeared.
"Yami!" Ezequiel could not help but scream when he saw that picture, and before he could process it, Zatiel raised another finger.
"Two." This time Zatiel made the picture of a dog with a silly smile appear. There was no one here who did not recognize Tao.
"I detected something in that girl when I first saw her, but now that my eyes can see the universal causality, I am sure she came from the Alpha Universe. As for Tao, his aura was as extraordinary as his origin, so I am confident his soul also originated there."
The Neo-Demons were shocked, they were trying to understand the Alpha Universe, and without even realizing it, they had lived with two of its people for more than a thousand years.
"Father, who is the last one.." Dante made the question in everybody's mind, and when they saw how Zatiel once again raised a finger, only to point it to himself.
