The darkness around Derel disappeared and she felt the bird in her clutch go away as well.
When she opened her hands, she saw the words '20 points' clearly float in them.
Ning saw that they had won and suddenly let go of everything. The concentration he had put up to fight the bird had been incredibly taxing.
Not to mention the fact that he had lost so much of his Aether in strengthening his body enough to survive the bird's attacks.
'Aether Divinity, huh? It's got nothing on a realm immortal that cultivated in Qi,' he thought. He had known previously, but this battle only served to make him understand how truly powerless he was when he was without a system.
Derel fell to the ground in front of his eyes even as her wings tried to keep her afloat. Ning tried to help her, but he realized she didn't need it.
While she couldn't fly, she slowly guided her body down to the ground.
"Are you okay?" Ning asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Derel said. "I used a technique that I shouldn't have used unless I was in danger and ended up frying my mana circuits."
She looked to the side and saw a concerned face on Ning. "Don't worry," Derel said. "It should heal in just a couple of hours, if not a day."
"We don't have that much free time," Ning said.
"Sigh, I know," Derel said. "How long before it appears again?"
"A couple of minutes at most," Ning said as he sighed. He was sure he was going to lose.
"Didn't we get 20 points?" Derel suddenly asked.
"Yes, we did," Ning said. "Oh, the others must not be finished yet then."
Ning opened the screens and saw only 2 screens with people on them aside from his own.
Group 2 had all 5 people fighting at once, and group 3 had its people focus entirely on defense.
One of the people in group 3 was used to creating a barrier, which the black fire apparently couldn't consume entirely.
Ning looked at the other 7 screens and saw a Midnight Phoenix on all 7 of them.
'How the hell is Genesis able to create so many Immortal realm creatures? Even if they do not have the soul, just the fact they are this powerful should keep him from making it all.'
'Then how? Where is he finding all of this power?' Ning thought. More and more, Ning was starting to get curious about Genesis' identity.
By now, he was sure Genesis was in fact the system's creator. Now, he only wondered what a system's creator was.
Were they people that got too strong in their own world and ascended to godhood? Did gods even exist for real?
"Argh!" Derel grunted as he stood up.
"Are you okay? Should you be moving?" Ning asked.
"Damn, little worm. I fried my mana circuits, not broke all the bones in my body," she said.
"Oh, right," Ning said. "So, it doesn't hurt?"
"Of course, it goddamn hurts. But a little pain isn't going to stop me," she said.
"So? What should we do now? Any idea?" Derel asked.
Ning thought for a moment and looked at his screen, then back at the tower.
"I have an idea," he said. "But it is quite risky."
"I like risky," Derel said. "What should we do?"
"You will have to get beat up again," Ning said.
"Get… beat up? Like before?" she asked.
Ning shrugged.
"Fine," she said. "But if I die, I'm taking you with me."
Ning chuckled and got ready for a fight. Together, the two of them waited for the Midnight Phoenix to appear, but it never did.
Instead, they saw something bright appear in the sky.
When Ning looked up, he saw words that gave him a weird feeling.
[8/10 Groups have been Eliminated.]
[Congratulations to the Two remaining groups on winning the 2nd round.]
"What's this?" Derel asked as she saw something white appear in front of her.
"The Gem!" Ning said, looking at it in awe. "How?"
"So we just win if all the groups die? We don't need to go out of our way to get the gems from the beasts?" Derel asked.
"I think it's over because only 10 of us are remaining," Ning said.
All the anxiety and fear Ning had been feeling was flushed away from him as he teleported out of the place and back into the white room.
He looked around, dumbfounded as he saw Drake, Nova, Issi, and Derel by his side.
A little further away were the 5 from Group 2 who too looked haggard from their fight against the Midnight Phoenix.
The Lion with the wings was missing half of its right-wing, and the left side of the elf's head was nearly bald like she had hurriedly cut her hair to protect herself from the fire.
One of the girls, that was always in robes, was now missing it, and she stood with nothing but a simple dress and yet bright, blonde hair in full display.
Ning saw something bleed into the young man as he seemed the only one without any real damage.
The leader of the group, the girl with the violet hair was full of dirt and sweat, as well as blood from being attacked.
The group hadn't made it out as well as Ning and his group had.
Ning finally turned to look at his own group and saw Issi with a gem on his head. He too had gotten it after all the 8 groups had vanished.
'Would the game have ended earlier if there were 10 people with multiple groups?' he wondered.
Just as he thought that bright white light shined from the sky as Genesis appeared finally after quite a few days.
"Congratulations, and welcome back," he said in a grandiose voice that reverberated throughout the room with infinite dimensions.
"I am proud to call you my top 10 finalists, of whom one who will get this system of mine that I call, the Conversion system."
