Chapter 656 - Steel Plates

"Big sis…" Gersan's face was filled with all sorts of complicated emotions. 

She could feel Sael's rage, but he also knew it was all futile. Defeating Raylion? It was impossible. 

Everyone knew how terrible his ability was. Even if he never trained an ounce of Force in his life, he would be an undefeatable force. To ask Sael to carry this weight on her shoulders was no different from asking her to walk through a wall of fire. She might not even leave this place in one piece. 

Raylion looked down from the stone rising, his gaze just as expressionless. As though Sael's challenge didn't mean anything to him, he began to speak again. 

"Now that the will of the people has been spoken, the context of the coming battle must be laid out."

The crowd grew hushed once again, their emotions still boiling from the recent events. 

This was the most important part of every trial. After the majority agreed, the wager would be set. This wager would decide what changes would occur and what spoils would be given to the winner. 

Usually, this would just be a change in the percentage resource allocation. But, something was telling the crowd now that this would be a much larger change. 

Raylion brought out another scroll and handed it to Aphestus. 

With a toothy grin, Aphestus accepted the scroll and leapt down from on high. His stride was so long that he practically did the splits in the air, plummeting down more than 20 meters and landing with a soft thud on the toes of his feet as though it was nothing. 

Aphestus cracked his neck, standing amidst the ground of Valiant Hall members without a care in the world. It was as though he didn't fear them lashing out at all. 

"Well? Aren't you all going to scram? I have a battle to fight." Aphestus said with a wide, toothy yawn. 

If everyone didn't understand what was happening by now, they'd be fools. Rather than stepping forward himself, Raylion had actually sent Aphestus to battle in his stead. 

This sort of nonchalance… 

Sael's chest was steaming pile of rage by this point, but she could only watch as the Valiant Hall crowd parted for Aphestus to walk through them. 

With light toss, Aphestus threw the scroll into a bowl. Immediately afterward, it erupted into a pillar of flames, but he didn't react much to this. It seemed that he was already prepared for this outcome. 

"It's been set." Aphestus said with a grin, beginning to exaggeratedly stretch out his body. "Are you idiots still not leaving yet? There only needs to be two people up here."

Aphestus showed not the slightest hint of respect for the Valiant Hall members, forcing them to clear out even beneath their seething anger. 

"Are we really going to allow this?"

Within the Founding Peak Section, the elders had been watching the happenings without a word from start to finish. They had initially set up the Valiant Heart Mountain political system to allow competition between the youths, but they were certain that whatever changes Hero Peak had proposed with that scroll couldn't just be a matter of the younger generation. It would cause great, rippling tides to drown whatever semblance of their old teachings that remained. 

If the elders of the organization couldn't tell that all of this was a farce, then who would? Still, even now, while Sael and Aphestus faced each other in a pending duel, none of them stepped forward to do anything? Even the elder who spoke had never really expected an answer to his question. 

For years, they had done it the traditional way. But, those traditional ways were exactly what put them on the brink of destruction. 

Valiant Heart Mountain seemed to be at peace right now, even to a point where they could leisurely have such bouts of internal strife, but the elders knew better. They were a wilting flower, prepared to collapse at any moment. 

Maybe in as little as ten years, they wouldn't be able to hold their heads up high any longer. 

But Raylion was a beacon of hope. Even if his methods were underhanded and cruel, which part of the Dimensional Verse was clean? 

Maybe, before it was all too late, they should try everything they could. Who knows, maybe this new system would bring about a surprise for them. Maybe, with this new system, they'd be able to rise from the ashes and become something greater. 

Who knows if these elders were correct or not. But, what was true regardless was that an organization without courage would never get anywhere. 

Sael balled her fists, the air around her continuing to tremble. 

Aphestus faced her with a cheeky grin, his back still bent over with terrible posture. But, anyone with sharp senses could almost see the bestial aura forming around him. He looked like a beast pulling against its chain, the bars that locked him in just about to snap. 

It was the moment when his momentum reached its peak that he suddenly moved. 

His head fell toward the ground, his leg stretching out. His body seemed flexible in ways it shouldn't be, his movements far too agile to come from a human. 

A swirl of wind was left in his wake, an upsurge of air moving quickly as though in an attempt to fill the space he had just vacated. 

He appeared before Sael in the blink of an eye. Her face was still seething, her fists still balled tightly to the point her nails were outlined in a coating of dripping blood. 

Aphestus' long legs whipped forward, his lanky arms tightening around his body. The sudden shift made the torque of his hips reach astonishing levels. It felt as though a viper was snapping at her head rather than a foot. It didn't seem impossible for such a strike to decapitate her entirely. 

It was then that Sael finally moved, her rage bubbling forth. 

BANG!

She crossed her arms in the path of Aphestus' foot, the torrent of raging winds causing her hair to flutter and even her cheeks to deform slightly. 

It sounded like two steel plates had collided, neither willing to give in to the other.