Chapter 309: Red Orb [2]

Chapter 309: Red Orb [2]



The thought of my strength not being enough started to set in my mind.

While the event was important, what was most important was the reward that came with ranking first.

The Empire had yet to reveal the reward, but everyone understood it was going to be extremely important.

It could range from a very powerful relic, manual, or bone, to even information that I wanted to know.

I could use the chance to learn more about the unrecorded.

But...

"That's probably not a very good idea.'

While I didn't know the full details, I knew that the Empire was closely tied with one of the Unrecorded. The vision I had experienced regarding Atlas being my greatest piece of evidence.

If I was so blatant with my request to know about the Unrecorded, then I'd immediately turn eyes in my direction.

'Oh, wait!'

I had a sudden realization.

'... Aren't I currently being chased by an Unrecorded?'

The Faceless man? No...In the first place, was I being chased by him? I wasn't so sure if I had to be honest. Thinking back to Atlas, he was so powerful. For such a figure to be a mere subordinate... How much more powerful was the Faceless Man?

Would he really struggle to look for someone like me?

Perhaps it was a subordinate of his that was chasing me.

'Maybe there are some drawbacks that I'm not aware of that are preventing him from finding me directly?'

I doubted that such a powerful figure would struggle to find someone like me if they had the chance. He was either preoccupied with something or had some sort of limitation that prevented him from reaching me.

'I'm more inclined to believe it's the latter.'

Still, if there was someone who would know best about my brother then it had to be him.

One way or another I needed to figure out a way to meet him.

But not yet.

As things stood, I was in no position to ask him anything.

Trading the sword in exchange? ...As if.

If he wanted to, he'd just be able to snatch the sword from me. He had no need to trade with me. And even if he did trade, that would only show to me how important the sword was to him.

I still didn't know much about the sword.

I couldn't just carelessly give it away without knowing what the consequences of giving it away were.

"Haa..."

What a troublesome situation.

After a little bit of thought, I decided to leave things be for now. I was growing stronger but it was still not enough. I needed more time to grow further.

'For now, I need to focus on the tournament.'

At the end of the day, it all boiled down to the fact that I was still weak.

I needed to become stronger, and winning the tournament was the key in order to gain the resources that would help me achieve such strength.

But there was one problem with the entire situation.

'I'm still not strong enough to deal with the top contenders.'

The gap wasn't wide, but it was there. My current level was around that of Leon's or perhaps

lower. It was hard to tell since we had never fought ever since that time.

My Emotive Magic was on another level compared to that time, but I had neglected everything else in the process.

And this was a problem.

'How can I bridge the gap between us?'

The gap between me and the top contenders?

||

I thought long and hard about the question, to the point where I started to run all sorts of different ideas and simulations. But in the end, the only answer I could come up with was also the one that I thought was the hardest and least likely to happen.

That was...

'Create a concept.'

A concept for my future Domain.

The thing that was completely drained was my mental energy. Conceptualization came from the mind and I exhausted everything in order to make the entire

world rage with flame.

"Hooo..."

I swallowed my saliva and looked at the platforms above before clenching my teeth.

'...I need to hurry up.'

***

"Looks like the first bouts of fights are coming to an end."

Supporting his cheek with a propped-up hand, Theron's eyes scanned the platforms below.

Intense combat bouts had just taken place, with the final combatants wrapping up their

matches as he spoke.

Overall the results were as he expected.

"....In the end, it doesn't matter how many contestants your Empire has. What matters is that

they reach the end."

Theron's gaze shifted toward Lucian and Gael.

They were the ones who had lost the most participants during the first bout. While neither

showed much of a reaction, Theron could notice the visible annoyance in Lucian's eyes as his thick brows knitted slightly.

Theron felt the corner of his lips curl at the sight.

"I did expect some losses from your Empire, but as much as half of them? A little shocking

honestly." Their members gave almost laughable performances. He didn't say much about the ones from the Nurs Ancifa Empire since it had always been like this. But from the Aurora Empire?

This was the first time he had ever seen such a horrible batch.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind. "Right, I did hear that an incident occurred right before the start of the Summit. I never got to

hear the details, but it can't be the reason for why you're performing so bad, is it?"

||

||

||

Neither Gael nor Lucian made a sound, but seeing the look on Gael's face he understood that

he had hit the mark with his question.

'So something really did happen...'

He wasn't really sure since he had never been briefed about it nor did he care. However, things

were different now.

Thinking back to the fights, he did see that those from the Aurora and Nurs Ancifa Empire

were somewhat timid at certain points in their fights. They still displayed a decent level of

skills, but not to the standards that they were capable of. Something was clearly holding them back, but he just wasn't too sure what it was.

Only the two of them knew.

'Interesting.'

Whatever the case was, he could tell that the mentalities of the participants were somewhat

off. Some were better at hiding it than others, and some had managed to resist up until this

point, but he could see a subtle shift occurring.

He could sense that a few were a fine line from succumbing to whatever demons were

haunting their mind.

Theron could see that Lucian and Gael knew about what he had noticed. It was just that they

remained silent about it.

The smile on his face grew as his face leaned more on his hand.

'.... How long will they last before blowing up?'

His eyes fell on a girl with long platinum hair and red eyes.

Without a doubt...

She was definitely the one who was suffering the most.