"Look at Allekant's match!"
At Claudia's urgent call, Haruki and Julis turned their attention to the monitor. The screen displayed a qualifying round between Seidokan Academy and Allekant Academy.
Representing Seidokan were Lester MacPhail and Randy Hook. Lester, currently Rank 9, was a formidable fighter, and Randy was a seasoned ranker in his own right.
However, their opponents were far from ordinary. They weren't even human.
Two mechanical puppets stood in the center of the arena. One was a massive, combat-oriented Al-D unit—towering over two meters tall and encased in heavy, plate-like armor that made it look like a robotic knight.
The other unit was the complete opposite. It looked almost indistinguishable from a human woman, possessing a flawless, porcelain-doll face and a slender frame encased in sleek, metallic tactical gear.
Both machines wore the Allekant Academy crest.
Initially, Lester and Randy treated the puppets with blatant contempt. But the moment the match started, they learned the true meaning of the word "overwhelmed."
The knight-type unit, Ardy, didn't even bother to move. The moment Lester lunged, the puppet generated a semi-transparent wall of light—a localized energy barrier—that absorbed the strike as if it were a gentle breeze. No matter how many high-impact techniques Lester threw, he couldn't even scratch the paint on Ardy's chest.
Meanwhile, the feminine unit, Rimsi, moved with a speed that defied the human eye. Her marksmanship was surgical; she fired high-velocity energy rounds that dismantled Randy's defenses in heartbeats.
Throughout the entire battle, the two machines didn't even seem to use one percent of their processing power. They moved with a casual, almost bored efficiency.
"Match over! Winners: Ernesta Kuhne & Camilla Pareto!"
Under the modified Festa rules, the victory of the machines was credited to their creators. The stadium fell into a stunned, deathly silence. The audience struggled to comprehend what they had just seen—technology that surpassed the peak of human Genestella potential.
Claudia, Kirin, and Julis were visibly shaken. They had known Allekant was a threat, but this was a different league entirely.
Only Haruki remained calm. He had watched the feed with a clinical eye, showing no signs of panic or even a desire to challenge them.
"Aren't you worried about those things?" Claudia asked, her voice tight.
"Why fear a dead thing?" Haruki countered. "They're just data points. No soul, no will, no conviction. A machine follows a program; a warrior follows a path. There is nothing in those metal shells that can match the edge of a real blade."
"..."
The girls stared at him, stunned. While they were still wary of Allekant's power, Haruki's absolute confidence offered a strange sense of relief. If he wasn't afraid, maybe there was still a chance.
"Regardless," Claudia said, regaining her composure, "I'll have our intelligence teams dig deeper into Allekant's data. We need to know their power limits and their weak points."
"Thank you, Claudia," Julis said.
Haruki, however, had already shifted his gaze back to the brackets. He pointed at a woman with fiery red hair wielding a massive scythe in a different block. "Who is she?"
Julis looked at the screen. "You caught that, did you? She's another one of our primary rivals. Irene Urzaiz from Le Wolfe Black Institute. They call her the 'Vampire Princess.' She's Rank 3 at Le Wolfe, and she's a nightmare to face. Some say she's as dangerous as those Allekant machines."
"Rank 3?"
"Yes. Irene is a powerhouse. Her Pure Stellar Lux, Gravisheath, allows her to manipulate gravity by consuming blood. It's an incredibly balanced weapon—capable of absolute destruction and near-impenetrable defense."
"I see." Haruki's expression shifted, a hint of genuine interest finally lighting up his eyes. "Do we cross paths with her soon?"
"It's highly likely," Julis nodded gravely. "Irene is in the L-Zone with us. If both our teams clear the Round of 32, we'll likely face her in the early brackets of the main tournament. She's our biggest hurdle before the semi-finals."
"I look forward to it," Haruki said.
His reaction—effectively acknowledging Irene as a worthy sacrifice for his blade—left the Seidokan group feeling a bit helpless. They couldn't understand Haruki's mindset. To him, a stronger enemy was just a sharper whetstone for his soul.
The Phoenix Festa prelims concluded without further incident. With the main tournament looming, most candidates spent their days in high-intensity preparation.
Haruki and Julis were no exception. Under Kirin's "Satanic Training" regime, Julis's swordsmanship had evolved by leaps and bounds. While she was still miles behind Haruki, her close-quarters efficiency had quintupled. She was no longer just a Strega; she was a combatant.
On the day of the formal bracket drawing, the duo headed to the Sirius Dome.
Asterisk was in the middle of a brutal heatwave. The summer sun scorched the pavement, and the air was thick with humidity. Julis was drenched in sweat, her uniform sticking to her skin, and she looked ready to rip off her coat.
"How... how are you not sweating?" she panted, looking at Haruki.
Haruki looked perfectly comfortable. His skin was dry, and he radiated a calm, steady "vibration."
"Mind over matter?" he joked.
"Don't give me that 'spiritual' nonsense!" Julis snapped. "We're in a heatwave! It's physically impossible to not sweat!"
Haruki shrugged. "I'm not doing anything special. I've just isolated my body's internal temperature from the atmospheric heat. If you master your energy flow, the environment becomes irrelevant."
"Isolating heat?" Julis stared at him, dumbfounded. "You say that like it's easy. That's high-level mana manipulation!"
"It's just a basic application of Fluctuation," Haruki said, his tone flat.
Before Julis could escalate her annoyance, a commotion broke out in the street ahead of them. Shouting and the sound of breaking glass echoed through the alleyways.
"What now?" Haruki muttered.
They pushed through the gathering crowd to find a group of men in Le Wolfe uniforms scattered across the ground like broken dolls. Standing in the center of the carnage was a girl with red hair and a scarf wrapped around her neck despite the heat.
It was Irene Urzaiz. She was casually knocking out her own schoolmates with her bare hands.
"Irene? Why is she attacking her own team?" Julis whispered, shocked. "Is she insane?"
"Tch. Useless trash," Irene spat, stepping over a groaning boy. "If you don't have the strength to stand, don't bother coming to me for revenge."
Le Wolfe's internal culture was famously toxic, but this was a level of brutality even for them.
Irene turned to leave, but then she caught sight of Haruki. She stopped, her eyes narrowing as she sized him up.
"Hey. You're the one who took the Ser-Veresta, aren't you?" Irene asked, her voice carrying a sharp, aggressive edge.
"How do you know that?" Haruki asked. He hadn't used the blade in public once.
Irene smirked. "I have my sources. My school's 'beloved' Student Council President is very interested in that sword. He wants me to break you and bring it to him."
"Do you think you can?" Haruki asked. He didn't move, didn't flinch. He just stood there, his presence cold and absolute.
Irene should have laughed. She was Rank 3 of Le Wolfe, a girl who thrived on violence. But as she looked into Haruki's violet eyes, she felt a jolt of primal panic. Her internal energy—her Star Pulse—began to flicker and shiver.
She didn't know what she was feeling. To her, it was just a strange, sudden discomfort. But her biological instincts knew the truth.
It was the smell of death.
"You really are an irritating brat!"
Irene didn't understand why this transfer student made her skin crawl, so she did what she always did when faced with a problem: she reached for her weapon.
She summoned the Gravisheath.
The massive, purple-bladed scythe materialized in her hands, its edge glowing with a sinister, pulsing light. The weapon was longer than she was tall and radiated a crushing spiritual pressure.
"What are you doing, Irene?!" Julis shouted, her flames igniting in response. "You can't just attack people in the street! You'll be disqualified!"
"Hmph. Just a greeting," Irene chuckled, though her grip on the scythe was white-knuckled. "Consider this a preview. I'm going to enjoy turning that arrogance of yours into a red smear on the pavement."
"Is that your Pure Stellar Lux?" Haruki asked, looking at the scythe.
He sensed the gravity-distorting properties of the blade. It was a powerful tool, built to bypass standard defenses. But he also noticed the toll it took on the user. Irene's own energy was being "siphoned" by the blade.
"She's a slave to her own weapon," Haruki noted quietly.
"You said something?!" Irene snapped, swinging the scythe in a wide arc, the force of the movement creating a localized gravity well that cracked the pavement.
"Nothing important," Haruki replied. "Save it for the arena. I'd hate for you to be banned before I get a chance to see if that scythe is as sharp as your mouth."
Haruki turned and began to walk away, followed by a fuming Julis.
Irene stood in the middle of the street, watching Haruki's back. She was shaking—not with rage, but with a lingering, rhythmic tremor. She had faced champions and killers, but Haruki Aizawa didn't feel like either. He felt like an ending.
***********************************************
For advanced chapters up to 20 chapter ahead is on my Patreon
My Patreon name : M7md_sol
Current amount of chapters on Patreon : 112
If your having trouble reaching my Patreon
Just write M7md_sol Patreon on Google search and I'll probably be the first page that shows up and thanks for any support you guys give
Discord in the comments