Six participants remained.
The six people who had reached this stage from among dozens of geniuses, family heirs, and foreign guests.
And what was even more interesting was that among the six participants, only three of them carried the Vorhelm name, and one of them was even an outcast...this was a situation the Vorhelm family had never expected.
They had not planned for outsiders to shine in this event, they wanted their own children to gain honor.
But it seemed fate was not on their side.
Before everyone’s attention turned to the main battles, there was one more match.
Raphael Stormheart against Nova Lionheart.
Two geniuses and two well-known names among the young generation.
When both of them entered the arena, the crowd clapped for them with respect.
Raphael rested his long silver spear on his shoulder, his face was calm, but the desire for battle could be seen in his eyes.
On the other side, Nova stood with red hair and eyes that shined like flames.
The moment the referee announced the start of the battle, the ground beneath them exploded.
Raphael’s spear moved like lightning, every strike cut through the air.
In response, pillars of fire rose from the ground one after another.
The heat of the arena became so high that many people in the front rows had to activate their mana barriers.
Raphael closed the distance several times, his spear passed through walls of fire, but every time Nova answered with another spell.
The battle continued for almost ten minutes.
Finally, when Raphael gathered all of his power into one final strike, Nova smiled.
A huge magic circle appeared behind her, dozens of fire snakes jumped out from it...Raphael managed to destroy several of them, but there were simply too many.
A huge explosion covered the entire arena.
When the smoke disappeared, Raphael was kneeling on one knee, and his spear was lying several meters away on the ground.
The referee raised his hand.
"The winner, Nova Lionheart."
Scattered applause spread through the stadium, but it was not surprising for anyone, these two were well-known rivals and since both of them came from the same country, they competed against each other from time to time.
Their battle was not especially exciting for anyone, and the truth was that most people were thinking about something else.
Everyone was waiting for the next battle.
The battle that everyone had been talking about since the drawing.
Evangelin Vorhelm against Seris Pendragon, a battle between two young princesses, between two beauties from two rival families, a battle between a mage and a swordswoman.
No matter how they looked at it, this battle was perfect.
At the Vorhelm family section, Evangelin was sitting calmly, unlike many of the younger family members, there was no sign of nervousness on her face.
She was one of the greatest geniuses of the family’s new generation, many believed that if Cassius did not exist, she would have been the main heir candidate of the family.
Some of the elders even secretly believed that her talent was greater than Cassius’s.
Of course, this opinion was not shared by everyone, because there was still another child of the Vorhelm family with monstrous talent...but that person was not here today.
On the other side, Seris was sitting in her seat, her silver eyes were calm.
It was as if she was not taking part in a competition at all, as if the result had already been decided long ago.
Aurelia, who was sitting beside her, looked at her for a few moments and then said.
"Are you going to fight seriously this time?"
"It depends, but no." Seris answered without taking her eyes off the arena.
Aurelia smiled, she had known Seris for a long time and knew very well that this answer was never good news for her opponent.
This answer had only one meaning, this girl had absolute confidence that she was much stronger than her opponent.
It looked like the Vorhelm family was going to suffer a little more.
A few minutes later, both of them entered the arena.
The cheers of the crowd reached their highest point, the genius mage of the Vorhelm family against the silver swordswoman of the Pendragon family.
The two looked at each other, they were judging each other, but neither of them spoke, they did not waste their energy on useless words.
The result would speak louder than any words.
The moment the battle started, Evangelin raised her hand.
Dozens of magic circles appeared in the air at the same time, ice spears were fired toward Seris from every direction.
Waves of wind moved behind them and increased their speed many times.
But Seris simply took a step, one step to the right, one step forward and one small turn, every attack passed beside her body.
At first the crowd thought she was just lucky.
But then the second attack came.
The third.
The fourth.
The fifth.
Hundreds of different spells, and every time Seris only walked, as if she already knew every attack path, as if she could see the future, or she was simply so fast that they could not notice it.
A wave of whispers spread among the audience.
"What...?"
"How is this possible?"
"She’s not even defending."
At the foreign guests’ section, several people looked at each other in surprise.
Even some family elders slowly frowned, this battle was very important, because it was a battle against their greatest rival family.
They could not lose no matter what.
Evangelin realized it as well, she could not land even one effective hit, for the first time, real seriousness appeared on her face.
Mana burst out from her body, the air in the arena suddenly froze and white clouds formed in the sky, then hundreds of ice blades appeared from every direction.
The ground cracked and a layer of ice covered the whole arena, a huge storm of snow and ice appeared.
The crowd exploded.
"It’s her main spell!"
"That’s the Ice Storm!"
"It’s over!"
Even several Vorhelm elders smiled.
But at that moment...for the first time, Seris placed her hand on the handle of her sword.
The sound of metal echoed through the air and the silver sword left its sheath, a cold light flowed across its blade, for one moment, even the ice storm seemed weaker.
Seris took one calm breath.
Then she moved her sword, only once, only one simple slash, and because of it there was no huge explosion, no shout, no legendary skill.
Only one simple slash.
But in the next moment...the entire storm was cut apart, hundreds of ice blades were split in half, Evangelin’s spells broke apart and the ground of the arena cracked.
And when everyone could see again...the blade of the sword was resting against Evangelin’s throat.
Complete silence filled the arena...no one spoke, no one could speak because of the shock, not even Evangelin herself, her eyes were still open.
It was as if her mind could not understand what had happened, she blinked once, then slowly looked at the sword and then at Seris and understood.
She had lost, completely, without even realizing how.
Was the gap between them really that big? But how...they did not even have a big age difference...then what was the reason for such a huge difference in strength?
"The winner...Seris Pendragon." the referee announced in a heavy voice.
This time the stadium reacted differently, no one clapped, no one shouted, everyone only watched.
"How old is this girl?" one of the Vorhelm elders quietly said.
"Where did the Pendragons find a monster like this?" another man beside him whispered.
Damian, who had stayed silent until then, quietly said.
"No...this is not the level of a normal Awakened, our guesses were most likely correct, this girl has a five-star class."
Seris had been under the Vorhelm family’s attention for a long time.
But there was almost no information about this girl, and the Pendragons protected her like a treasure.
The Vorhelms had guessed that this girl had a five-star class, and now it seemed they were right.
Damian secretly looked at Celestia with a mocking smile, her face looked uglier and angrier than ever, this event was her responsibility.
And now the Vorhelm family was being humiliated in this event, and the more the Vorhelms suffered, the more Celestia would have to answer for it after this event.
No matter how much power and influence she had, her power was not absolute, and maybe this would finally become the chance to pull her down.
On the other side, Aurelia was smiling, a smile that showed she was enjoying the shocked faces of everyone.
Many people present realized that Lian was not the only problem in this competition, Seris was also a monster who had destroyed all of their calculations.
After the battle ended, only four people remained.
Lian Vorhelm, Cassius Vorhelm.
Seris Pendragon.
Nova Lionheart.
The atmosphere inside the stadium had completely changed, no one was talking about the previous battles anymore.
Not about Raphael.
Not about Evangelin.
Not even about Darius.
Everyone only had one topic.
The battle between two brothers...the heir candidate of the family, against the exiled son.
At the Vorhelm family section, Cassius stood up.
This time there was no smile on his face, no pride, no clear mockery, only seriousness, he had received orders from the two women at the top of the family that he had to win this battle no matter what, otherwise he would be punished.
He could not understand why his mother and stepmother kept making mistakes, then instead of cleaning up their own mess, they threw all the responsibility onto his shoulders, and after that they even took out their anger on him.
It only made him even more pissed off, but there was nothing he could say.
He slowly walked toward the arena.
At the same moment, Lian also stood up.
All eyes were fixed on the two of them, thousands of people had even forgotten to breathe.
The referee looked at both of them for a few moments, then took a deep breath and announced in a loud voice that echoed through the entire place.
"The next battle...Cassius Vorhelm...against...Lian Vorhelm...begins."