Chapter 154 - Apocalypse

The tournament continued on until the final day.

The Academy wanted to speed things up a bit, so the faculty had decided to host 6 matches at the same time. 5 matches would be going on in the smaller stadiums and 1 match at the main stadium.

So the tournament was able to progress all the way until the Finals after only a day.

The Academy also changed up the format a little to speed things up. The match ups would now all be at random and students with a record of at least 10 wins would be able to participate in the Finals of the Dueling Tournament.

This was because the random matchups from 2 days ago had pitted 4 seeded students against each other in the first round. With the Alchemy and Student Council Presidents gone, it would without a doubt affect the Academy's overall performance in the National Tournament.

Losing 2 gifted students just because of an unfortunate matchup didn't sit well with the Academy and the Kingdom. There was a little bias and favoritism shown here, but at least now all the students of the academy had 3 chances to be placed in the Finals.

Every student would be required to fight 15 total matches. Win 12 of them and they would be guaranteed a spot in the Finals, lose 3 then its good bye.

Once the Finals were over and there were still some vacant spots remaining from the 100, the Academy would pick the students with the most wins from the second day and place them to fill in the remaining spots.

Basically, if you made it to the Finals of the Dueling Tournament, you would already have a ticket to go and participate in the National Tournament next month.

Although the tournament format changed a little, it meant nothing to the Little Kings; they won every single one of their matches totaling 15 straight wins. Lucia simply overwhelmed her opponents with her magic combat. Velicia won using her fighting techniques. Ainz and Fina defeated theirs using the two's new fighting styles and Eli crushed her opponent using her newly awakened Intent.

Her matches were simply too one-sided that it was harrowing for her opponents. At least with the other Little Kings, their opponents could at least fight back or do something. But Eli's opponents... just stood their ground pale in fear. They couldn't do anything. Some of them even fainted on the spot once Eli unleashed her Sword Intent. Once it happened 1 or 2 times more, her subsequent opponents had just give up without a fight.

As for Cecil...It was just like he had promised no mana, no weapons, no skills, just pure goodness-to-honest martial arts. He punched and kicked his way to the Finals and because of this he had finally received his King's Title. The Academy dubbed him the Combat King.

It was a fitting title for Cecil, and the boy very much liked it. It wasn't only him, by the time the Finals began; everyone from Little Kings had officially received their King's Title. Lucia was named the Apocalyptic Queen, Fina was the Aquafrost Queen, Velicia was the Queen of Destruction and Eli was the Crimson Sky Queen.

As for why they got names like that, it was pretty obvious for Fina and Eli. Fina was mainly using water and ice magic so it was an appropriate title. Eli's aura and Intent-fused rapier were always crimson in color. Coupled with her new sword skill that she always used to defeat her opponent, it was fitting.

As for Velicia... she got her title from the way she battled. Whenever it was her turn to fight she would just...destroy. Literally, destroy everything. Magic, she would punch through, combat skills she would break, battle pets she would pummel. And she would always, in one way or another, destroy the arena whenever she fought. Her single minded and simple, yet very effective way of fighting was what gave her the nickname 'Queen of Destruction'. Exactly, it was a nickname that the audience had chanted and for some reason, the academy had taken it as her title.

As for why Lucia had such an ominous title...well let's take this back to the second day since the main stage matches started.

Lucia had asked Cecil for permission to test out a new spell that she had just recently created. Cecil gave her permission, but told her not to overdo it. It was a decision the boy would soon regret making.

It was during Lucia's 15th match. She had finally landed an opponent that was worth fighting, who also didn't give up right away. It was the Spell Caster Faction Leader, Lala Naito. Lucia thought it was a perfect match up. Surely a strong mage such as her would be able to withstand her newly developed spell, right?

Wrong. It was so wrong that Cecil nearly jumped into the ring to berate the girl for using an over-tiered high ranking spell.

For some reason or another, during their training sessions inside the Accelerated Time Formation before the tournament started, Lucia had somehow fused her fire and water elements together and created a new element all together.

The new element was in the form of a purple colored flame or liquid. As a flame it was extremely hot and as a liquid it was absurdly cold. She called it the Solaris Fire and the Lunares Water.

As for the magic spell she would use to earn her Apocalyptic Queen title... the spell required Lucia to fuse these two new elements together during the incantation and cast the spell onto her target.

She called it, Apocalypse. Why was it named Apocalypse? This was because during her experiments with the two elements she had accidentally caused near irreversible damage to the Accelerated Time Formation's independent space.

The purple flaming meteors and dancing plumes of fire plus the randomly falling purple glaciers and ice explosions that her spell caused as a precursor before its full activation had literally put her into a doomsday setting. It was powerful, but she had lost control of the spell and it ran rampant.

Her isolated space inside the formation had nearly collapsed in on itself, nearly trapping her forever inside the formation. It was a good thing that she had quickly escaped and cancelled her spell before it could fully activate.

The mana backlash from her forcibly canceling the spell put her bedridden for a couple of days. Cecil and friends asked her many times about the cause, but she wouldn't spill the beans.

So that brings us to Lucia's match versus Lala Naito. Right when the match started, Lucia and Lala at first competed with their magic spells. Throwing in originals and regular low to mid-tier spells at each other.

As the magic fight reached a peak, Lucia jumped back before chanting her new original spell. She had her aura active during the entire fight. The red crimson aura surrounding her was blazing strongly as ever, but the moment she began chanting her new spell, that aura began to blaze even stronger and it slowly changed color into a dark violet color.

On her 5 foxtails blossomed flickering purple flames and undulating water orbs. As her aura changed color her physical abilities experienced an even greater enhancement. Lucia's opponent, Lala, obviously wouldn't wait for her to finish casting her spell, but no matter how many spells Lala fired, Lucia was able to calmly and easily evade or neutralize them while she continued her incantation.

She learned from last time and after days of practice, she was able to finally gain complete control over her spell, at least, that's what she thought.

As the last words fell on Lucia's incantation, she pointed her tails and Butterfly at Lala and powerfully announced her spell's name.

"Blazing suns and arctic moons, lay waste to the world, APOCALYPSE!"

Just the name alone caused Cecil to have a bad premonition and sure enough that premonition came true. Shit, happened. The entire stadium nearly collapsed from her spell.

If it wasn't for the combined forces of every capable magician in the stadium who reinforced the protective barrier that protected the audience... then maybe that day's joyous tournament would have turned into a tragedy.

Lucia only realized this after her last words fell. The output that she thought she could control which, by the way, in her honest-to-goodness explanation and apology, was set to the bare minimum which was 800 units of mana, but that alone was enough to blast open the ground and eradicate everything inside the barrier.

It was a good thing that Lucia was able to flash towards the referee and her opponent in time and swiftly bring them outside of the barrier. There were no casualties, but the aftermath of the destructive magic had left behind a large crater inside the barrier that replaced the previously glorious fighting stage.

If that wasn't the worst of it, Lucia's Apocalypse had also ruined the structural integrity of the stadium's protective barrier and they had to halt the tournament for almost a quarter of the day. They had to repair the rune engravings and enchantments then they had to restore the fighting stage.

This was also why the tournament format had a last minute change where multiple battles had to be conducted all at once that day, just so they could keep the schedule moving.

It was a good thing that over half of the matches that day had finished so they only had to rush the last several matches before they pulled the curtain down on the second day of the tournament.

Lucia received an earful from both Cecil and her mother. Then she went to apologize towards the Headmaster and the King. Fortunately the King was a pretty laid-back guy. He had actually thanked Lucia for showing him a magnificent and interesting spectacle and thus, Lucia was pardoned with only a bump on the head from Cecil.

Cecil couldn't stay angry at Lucia. Plus, her friends were practically on his case now since the boy lectured her to the point where she began crying and apologizing.

So now we arrive at the present time, Final Day of the Dueling Tournament, Kings' Waiting Room.

"...Cel...sorry..."

"..."

"...please... say something."

Lucia was pitifully clinging onto a very, very silent Cecil. Since the incident from yesterday, Cecil had kept his mouth shut ever since they came home. Even this morning he stayed silent. Although the boy didn't actively avoid anyone, his silence alone was enough to express his dissatisfaction. At least, that's what everyone thought.

As the primary offender, Lucia felt horrible and tried everything to make him speak again. Actually, even Cecil himself didn't know why he was angry. In fact, could this even be called anger?

Cecil only felt like he was throwing a tantrum... but at what? Why? Was it because of Lucia's thoughtless display of might from yesterday? No, he had already come to terms with that, Lucia as a person, just didn't know restraint and he's long accepted that. Also, it was Lucia, how could he stay mad at her.

So, since this morning, he's been trying to find the answer to this question, but even until now, he still hasn't found it. That's why he's been staying silent. He didn't respond to anyone because he was deep in thought, as for Lucia who was always pestering him to talk, he would only turn an eye at her and frown a little.

Not because he was mad, but because the irksome feeling in his heart was appeased whenever he looked at her face. He didn't want this odd feeling to disappear yet, so that's why the boy kept his silence.

'...this is stupid... I blame my parents for this... couldn't they have educated me normally?'

Cecil thought as his frown deepened, this only caused Lucia to tear up pitifully.