The weekend passed by in the blink of an eye, and the day of the tournament had finally arrived.
Reporters filled the academy campus and different colored buses appeared on the roads of the academy as they entered through the main gates. All of the major and minor academies in the human domain had gathered here today for this event.
Everywhere I walked, I could see people. It was as though I was in Times Square New York back on earth during Christmas times.
It was very crowded.
"Can you share with us your thoughts on the tournament?"
"What are you planning on achieving?"
"Who do you think the favorites of this tournament are?"
As I walked around, I could overhear the conversations the reporters were having with some of the students.
Some of the students came from the Lock, and some from the other academies.
"Where are they?"
Arriving at the academy main gate, I looked left and right. Unfortunately, no matter where I looked, I could only see an endless amount of people trying to get in.
Right now, I was looking for my parents.
Once they learned of my participation in the tournament, they forced me to send them tickets to the event so that they could watch it live.
'No, we want to watch it live! Since you're performing, I want to cheer for you!'
Was what my mother said when I told her to watch it on TV.
Since I knew that arguing with my mother was pointless, I quickly gave in to her demands thus leading to the current situation.
"Ren!"
Suddenly, a familiar voice called out for me. Turning around a smile appeared on my face.
"You guys are here"
"Of course! We would never skip such an important day for you!"
With Nola in her arms, my mother walked up to me. Behind her was my father who nodded his head towards me. I nodded back.
"Bwudar!"
Nola called out for me as she extended her hands in my direction.
"Come here"
"Tehehe"
Grabbing Nola by the armpits, she suddenly giggled. My brow raised as a result. An evil thought crossed my mind.
"Oh? Did that tickle you? Do you want more?"
"Kyaaaaaaahahaha!"
Faintly tickling her armpits, Nola suddenly screamed. Hearing her screams, I smiled even more and tickled a little bit more.
"Ren, stop bullying your sister!"
My mother scolded me as she slapped my shoulder.
"Alright, I'll stop, I'll stop"
"Big bwuaddar is a meanie"
Looking at me, Nola pouted. Tears gathered at the side of her eyes.
"Aww, I'm sorry Nola. I'll make it up to you by winning okay?"
"Hmph"
Nola turned her head around and ignored me. I scratched the side of my neck.
"Alright, you win"
Sighing, I decide to resort to my secret weapon. Tapping on my bracelet, I took out a piece of candy. Instantly Nola's eyes lit up.
'Hehe, I'm already well versed in the art of bribery'
Nola was a very easy child to appease. Just a simple piece of candy and she would instantly forget any grudge.
"No, I don't want"
Just as Nola was to grab the candy, she suddenly stopped. Retrieving her hand, she continued to ignore me.
"Eh?"
The gears of my mind stopped working for a second.
This was not how the script was supposed to go. She was supposed to take the candy and quickly forgive me. Why wasn't it like this?
'Ah, maybe she wants another candy. How cute'
Suddenly a thought struck me. This was indeed plausible.
"Alright, here"
Taking out another piece of candy, I put it in Nola's hand. Once again, she shook her head.
"No!"
"You..."
My eyes narrowed. Once again I took out another piece of candy making them three. Yet again, Nola remained completely unfazed.
"Nola, what can I do to make you forgive me?"
Once again unable to appease Nola, I gave up and directly asked her.
"Fwive candies"
Glancing me by the side of her eyes, Nola opened her little hand.
"Five candies?"
"um, fwive!"
Nola nodded her head. Her stance was clear. Unless I gave her five candies, I was going to be shunned by her.
"Fine, you win"
I quickly gave up. There was no way I was ever going to win against my sister.
Just as Nola asked, I gave her five candies. I had an endless supply of candy anyway, didn't really matter.
"Okay, Nola forgives you"
Taking the candies, Nola happily smiled. She then proceeded to pat my head.
"That's a good boy"
"Eh..."
Opening my mouth, my mind suddenly blanked. I couldn't process what had just happened.
'What was that just now?
No matter how I looked at it, she had just treated me like a dog. What in the world had happened whilst I was gone?
'Angelica...'
Then a thought suddenly struck me.
It had to be her!
Other than her, I couldn't think of anyone else that would corrupt my sister like this.
'Damn it, I'll definitely not let you off for this...'
Clenching my fists, I swore inside of my mind.
How dare she...
"Ren, aren't you running late?"
My mother reminded me as she looked at her watch. I quickly snapped out of my thoughts.
'Crap!'
Checking my watch, I inwardly cursed. I really was running late.
"Please follow me, I'll lead you guys to the arena grounds"
With Nola in my arms, I turned around and quickly led my parents to the arena grounds.
All thoughts on revenge had to be put in the back of my mind for now. I had more pressing matters to attend to.
*
After dropping my parents at the arena grounds, I quickly made my way towards the changing rooms.
"You're late"
Waiting for me at the changing rooms was Kevin who flashed his watch.
"Sorry, was with my parents"
I was originally supposed to have met Kevin ten minutes ago, but with all of the crowd, it took me much longer than I expected.
"Your parents?"
Kevin asked.
"Yup, was showing them the way to the arena"
"Ah, I see, must've been nice..."
Kevin lowered his head slightly. A look of nostalgia appeared in his eyes.
"So what are we going now?"
Pretending to have not seen it, I quickly changed the topic.
"We're supposed to meet up with the other first years, after that we are supposed to be heading to the augural ceremony"
Lifting his head, Kevin responded.
"When's that?"
"In about two minutes..."
Tilting his watch slightly, Kevin responded. Silence enveloped the changing room.
"..."
"..."
"Shit!"
Cursing out loud I took out my clothes and changed into a new uniform made specifically for the tournament.
The new uniform was primarily black with a few touches of gold and white around the edges and insignia of the uniform. Putting on the uniform wasn't hard as within a minute I was already changed.
"Let's go"
Putting my other clothes in the dimensional space, I followed Kevin out of the room.
From this point forward, the tournament arc had finally begun.
***
Dark clouds filled the sky and heavy rain poured down.
"Haaaa—! "Haaaa—!"
Inside of a massive arena filled with people, blood-curling screams rang out repeatedly. Blood spilled everywhere and corpses littered the floor of the arena.
Huaa! Huaa!, The spirited cheering coming from the arena stands echoed all the way down towards the arena grounds, filling the contestants with adrenaline.
Standing in the middle of the training grounds was a pale youth.
SHIIIING—!
At some point, an individual snuck up from behind the youth and thrust their spear in the direction of their head.
Right as the tip of the spear was about to connect to the youth's head, the youth tilted his head ever so slightly.
The spear missed.
Taking a step forward, the youth turned around and swung his saber.
—Spurt!
A beautiful arc drew in the air and blood spilled everywhere.
—Thud!
Following this was a small thud and a head rolled on the ground.
"...that's thirteen"
The youth muttered as he slashed his saber to the side. Instantly the blood on the saber spilled towards the ground.
He then looked at the arena grounds.
Wherever he looked, corpses lied on the ground as the sound of fighting echoed everywhere.
Recovering some of his stamina, the youth was about to once again join the fray.
However...
—Beeep! —Beeep!
Suddenly two large beeping sounds echoed across the arena grounds.
Simultaneously, all contents stopped whatever they were doing.
—Congratulations to those who have passed the trials. Out of the 500 initial contests, only 28 remained alive. For the contestants that have survived, please make your way out of the arena.
Marking the end of the massacre was the voice of the announcer that echoed through the speakers around the arena.
Following the announcement, all those that remained standing in the arena walked towards the exit.
So did the youth.
Moments after, multiple people dressed in white entered the arena and cleaned up the corpses on the ground.
"Congratulations, it was a splendid performance"
"Thank you"
Arriving at the exit of the arena, a familiar voice echoed into the youth's ear.
"You better rest up for now Matthew. The next round starts in a week, if you aren't in the best conditions, chances are that you might die"
"mhm, will do"
The youth, Matthew, lifted his head slightly. Standing before him was a black humanoid creature who had a smile on his face.
'How long has it been?', Matthew wondered as he looked at Everblood before him.
Matthew's memory of the past few months was hazy.
After having been questioned by the authorities regarding the incident at the hotel a few months prior, Matthew had decided to leave everything behind and follow Everblood to the Monolith.
It was then that his new life had started.
Every day was a struggle.
Thrust into a domain where only the strongest survived, Matthew had to fight for everything.
Every week he would join the 'arena games' and compete for merit points.
The game was simple, within a specific time frame, hundreds of competitors would be put inside of an arena and till then it was free for all.
If you either survived or killed an opponent you would be awarded merit points.
Anything went there. There was no foul play. As long as you killed your opponent you were the winner.
This was the Monolith, and this was how Matthew lived for the pasts months.
Looking back, he could still remember his first time joining the arena games.
He remembered that day like it was yesterday. How could he forget that day?
It was the day that changed him.
He could still vividly remember the degenerate look the others had in the arena grounds.
At some point in time, the ground of the arena was already dyed in the color red.
There were many powerful opponents in the arena, and a single act of carelessness could've resulted in him losing his life.
Fortunately, he was amongst those who had survived. Having been trained since young, Matthew's skills were top-notch. If not for those, he would've long have died.
As he struggled to survive, he could still remember the sound of a buzzer marking the end of the game.
As if all energy had been sapped from his body, he remembered slumping down on the ground and blankly staring at the sky. It was then that he realized he needed to change.
And so he did...
Each week he would enter the trials and compete putting his life on the line.
He had realized that only through real life and death battles would his strength see actual improvements.
It was now Matthew's tenth time entering the arena games, and ever since joining, he had undergone a drastic transformation.
He had completely shed his past self and embraced his new self...
He had been reborn. No longer was he the naive old Matthew that was easily flustered by unexpected changes.
He was now a lot calmer and more calculative than ever.
...and this was all thanks to Everblood before him.
Had it not been for him, none of this would've happened.
"You've earned a total of 1,200 merit points. Not bad, with this, you're one step closer to purchasing a devil fruit to increase your strength even further"
Snapping Matthew out of his thoughts, Everblood patted Matthew on the shoulder. He was satisfied with today's harvest.
"Mhm"
Matthew nodded his head.
"Good, let's go rest up"
"Understood"
Turning around, Matthew made his way towards the changing rooms.
As he walked, his left foot limped slightly.
From the looks of it, he was injured. Still, he stubbornly persevered.
'Good grief...'
As he looked at Matthew, Everblood smiled.
Compared to the first time he had met him, Matthew was much calmer than before. He also spoke less and was more decisive.
He had matured.
Although he wasn't perfect, Matthew had this sharp feeling about it. Almost as if he was a sharpened sword ready to cut anything down.
Although the sword was still a little bit dull, with a little bit more polishing, Everblood was confident in creating an unstoppable sword.
Fighting with his life on the line every day, anyone was bound to change.
From the very beginning, Everblood knew that Matthew was talented. His current change was within his expectations.
No, rather, Matthew had exceeded his expectations. He was without a doubt a hidden gem.
'Still not ready though...'
Everblood shook his head.
There was still a long way to go for Matthew before he would truly turn into a diamond.
Till then, Everblood would do his best to polish him.
"kuku, let's take a rest. The tournament is about to start soon. Let's tune the TV and start cheering for our little acquaintance shall we?"
Everblood chuckled slightly. Turning around, he caught up with Matthew.
"Hopefully he'll show us how much he's grown during the time we didn't see him"
"yes..."
Listening to Everblood's words, Matthew's clenched on the grip of his saber.
'The tournament, I was supposed to be in it too...'
Had it not been for the incident in the past, he too would've been one of the participants for the tournament.
Unfortunately, his life had now changed.
He could no longer have the same life as before.
He knew that, yet he wasn't angry about it. There would eventually be a day where his name would spread around the world.
Till then, he would continue to polish himself.
