"WHAT?!"
The Ersatz spies could only shout their shock as they saw their Archer suddenly get defeated in one fell swoop.
This wasn’t part of the plan!
They were supposed to show the power of the Artifice in the eyes of hundreds of thousands of people! It was supposed to be an eye-opening moment where people finally saw the world without being bogged down by an ancient past.
In fact, to ensure that this happened, they even sent out a 8th stage Maugnetic Archer in the tournament.
That’s right. The Archer was actually in the 8th stage rather than the 5th. With the Artifice, they could manually adjust their own cultivations to make it seem lower than it actually was.
This allowed them to bypass the cultivation limit and completely dominate the competition!
But... but before he could even show off his power, he was suddenly eliminated.
He staggered, lost control of his own Diva, and completely became defenseless.
And now, no one believed that the power of the Artifice could defeat a Maugnetic!
"Oh... that Fly Diva looked cool at first, but now it looks very unstable..."
"Why did it suddenly disappear? A lack of practice?"
"I knew there was something wrong with that Diva. It looked wrong from the very start."
The Ersatz spies gritted their teeth as they heard their own powers get disparaged.
They opened their mouths, about to say something, when the ground underneath their feet suddenly turned hollow.
A shadow formed below, swallowing them whole.
"WHERE AM I?!"
...bu to to...
...rah ta ta...
Those chants were the last thing they heard before they were exterminated like the rats they were.
Meanwhile, back at the Colosseum, Sheina gracefully phased back into the arena as the Sanctum closed down.
The fight was over. The Brownbloods, despite the odds stacked against them at the start of the tournament, achieved ultimate victory over all the other tribes in New Sparta. Not only that, but they defeated the Conglomerates too, showing that they could contend with the best of them.
Claudia approached the winner.
"Any words for your victory?" she asked, her voice projected throughout the entire Colosseum.
Sheina stood tall, hundreds of thousands of people’s attention faced to her next words.
She smiled.
"I have nothing to say except... FOR REBORN! REBORN MAKES EVERYTHING POSSIBLE. YES, EVEN YOU!"
The crowd exploded into a tumultuous uproar. They were impressed, shocked, awed, and pure of disbelief throughout this entire tournament.
They cheered, realizing that they had just witnessed history being rewritten right in front of their very eyes.
No one doubted that Sheina’s run in the tournament would forever be etched in the minds of everyone here, and forever be a tantalizing thought for those who would only learn of this feat through word of mouth.
She would be a household name in New Sparta.
And most of all, she would be a symbol for all demi-humans in the world. A symbol of hope. That even people of their species could transcend their limited fates and carve a new one for themselves—even without having to sacrifice their humanity for it.
...
...
...
With such a historic win, many in the viewing deck wanted to congratulate Keo and the Reborn company for their victory.
But when they turned to their table, they were already gone.
Meanwhile, Michael, Yuna, and Jot’un were already out of the Colosseum and returned to the Thunderfoot Building.
Jot’un excitedly opened the doors to their establishment, startling Jasper.
The Thunderfoot butler was currently attending to some customers, appeasing them and calmly explaining that they had to limit the amount of GodForge pieces they could sell at a time.
"—Once again, I am terribly sorry for this inconvenience. You can ask any of the employees here if you have any more inconveniences."
Jot’un approached the butler, nudging him from behind.
Jasper ignored him, keeping his attention to the complaining customer.
"Please excuse me for a brief moment...," he said, before turning to Jot’un with a stern look on his face.
"I’m sorry, Young Master, but I cannot humor you at this moment. There are a lot of fires that I have to put out or else our reputation as a company will plummet."
In response, Jot’un widened his eyes conspicuously. "Shut up and come with us!"
"Young Master—"
But before he could even say anything else, Jot’un took his hands and secretly passed him a cold, metal item.
Jasper looked at his hands, seeing a simple, austere key now in his possession.
It took him a good second before his eyes widened with recognition.
"THIS—"
Before Jasper could shout out his elation to everyone in the room, he was pulled inside the private area of their residential building.
"How... how did you get this back?!"
Jasper’s hands were trembling as he held the lost Thunderfoot inheritance. This absence of this item almost caused all of his hair to fall off. It almost caused the downfall of their entire company!
And with each day that they had no idea where or how to find the Key, Jasper was slowly losing his hope.
But somehow, they found it. The Young Master got it back!
"Let’s put it back!"
Jasper immediately led the group back to the warehouse.
The abandoned mineshaft looked the same as it was before, with a lot less mounds of soil than before.
It seemed that the GodForge piece situation was a lot more dire than they were letting on. They probably only had a few thousand kilograms left to sell.
Jasper made a few gestures, Aubility Power threads spooling out of his chest and spiraling to the tall walls of the underground mineshaft well.
The slabs shot out from the edges, with a red light emanating from the holes as the Oil Lamp appeared in front of them.
The Key jumped out of the butler’s hands, reuniting back to the red Oil Lamp.
It slotted itself back on the base, and suddenly, a large shockwave of pressure permeated the entire mineshaft.