Alena's Magma Essence Soul was 10 meters tall with hands that split into long vines that dripped magma whenever they moved. The soul had no legs, but a single long magma fountain that sprayed all across the ground.
The soul's hair freely flowed behind it, dripping magma there as well. Soon, there was a pool of magma all around Alena as she fully revealed her Magma Essence Soul.
"What's… going on?" a few people up in the tower asked when they saw the Magma Essence Soul come out from the princess.
"I swear the princess had a Moonlight Essence Soul until recently," another person mentioned.
The Emperor put on a smug face, incredibly happy with his granddaughter's performance, and simply watched what happened next without speaking a single word.
The princes started sending out attacks. Blobs of molten rocks fell all around the young man as he desperately tried to stop it all. He created rocks to stop them, but that did little to the liquid rocks that flowed around them.
He couldn't directly touch the lava with his Essence Soul as the stones that made it up would burn and melt, hurting him in the end. All he could do was defend with his techniques and fight back whenever he could.
However, as time went on, he found it impossible for him to fight back against the princes. She started melting the very ground they stood on, heating the entire arena making it not just difficult to find a footing but be in there as a whole.
The heat from the lava was just as worse as it was from a very strong Fire Essence user, and the princess wasn't even intending to use it that way.
The people in the audience and hall were equally ecstatic watching the fight, just as they were confused. They couldn't understand why the princess suddenly had a Magma Essence core.
The same questions floated around inside the players' hall as Yorsha and Ning asked the prince what was happening.
Everything made them so curious that Ning nearly broke his own rule and asked the system about it all.
"What is happening?" Yorsha demanded. "Prince, tell us."
The prince, being bombarded by questions, finally gave up. "Fine, I'll tell you. She always had a Magma Essence Core."
Yorsha shut up for a moment before her eyes narrowed. "That explains neither the High Essence Soul realm nor the fact that she used to have a Moonlight Essence Soul. What happened there?" she asked.
"It's still there. It's just hiding," the prince said.
"Hiding?" Ning asked.
"The Moonlight Essence Soul hides when Alena decides to use the Magma Essence core," he said.
Both the teacher and Ning understood what that meant at once.
"Wait, are you saying…"
"The princess has dual cores?" Ning finished the teacher's question.
"You guys got it!" the prince said happily. "Yes, Alena was born with two cores. Ever since she was young, she was made to absorb two separate types of Essence to her two separate cores."
"She can only use one core at a time though," the prince explained. "From a young age, grandfather gave us both unique Essence crystals to absorb. She got Magma, I got Ice."
"But when we realized that each core absorbed separately, Grandfather realized that he could get her to have two completely outrageous cores. He made her cultivate pure Essence for the time being, which forced her to absorb Moonlight Essence when there wasn't any Pure Essence."
"She continued on and at some point, it was clear that Grandfather couldn't get her any other crystals that would be good for her, so she was forced to try and instead have a Core filled with Pure Essence."
"By that time, however, her core had already absorbed the Moonlight's attribute, becoming a Moonlight Core," the prince said. "She has worked twice as hard as anyone in this place to send both of her cores to Essence Soul realm."
"To say that we are proud of her is an understatement. Sometimes, it feels like I'm following behind her, trying to catch up. Or else, she will leave me behind," the prince said.
The other 3 were slackjawed at the information they just received. Yorsha couldn't believe that there was such a thing as a person having two cores. The teacher couldn't believe that someone with 2 cores was amongst them, and Ning was simply surprised she managed to keep it hidden throughout so much of the competition.
Hyandus seemed to know all of this, so he remained quiet, watching the others talk about it.
"So… the princess's primary core is actually the Magma core?" Ning asked. "Has she been holding back this entire time?"
"Yes, that's her primary core. And no, she hasn't been holding back. She just didn't need to use it until now," the prince said.
Still shocked, the group turned to look at the stage again as the match was coming to an end.
The Magma Essence soul behind the princess that dripped magma all around her, pulled something out of its arm. A long magma javelin formed in the Essence Sou's arm and it pointed directly at the young man's own Essence Soul.
If the Javelin hit, the young man was certain that the Essence Soul would certainly be destroyed. If it was completely destroyed, he would certainly die.
He thought of ways to defend himself, but nothing would phase the princess at all. She was way too strong for him.
He looked toward the referee for help, but even the referee seemed to struggle a little in this heat. Did that mean he wouldn't be saved?
His head whipped toward the princess at the earliest sign of movement and immediately retracted his Essence Soul before she could throw her attack.
"I give up!" he shouted with his hands in the air. "Don't hurt me, please princess."
Alena stopped her attack before it went off. The javelin melted from the Soul's hand, falling to the ground down below.
The Essence Soul disappeared behind the princess as the referee announced the result after a few seconds.
Princess Alena had won her match.
