As soon as the bell rang loudly, the third elimination round ended.
With a bright flash of light, there was a sound as if glass was breaking.
Bang!
Following this, the sky above shattered in a mass of small light fragments... like reality itself was breaking into pieces and everything was swallowed by darkness.
Suddenly, before any of the surviving participants knew what was happening, they had already been engulfed by that darkness. They immediately started to panic inwardly.
What's going on?
Wasn't the third round over? Didn't I manage to survive until the end? What's happening right now?
Did something happen to the ceremony?
Countless doubts were raised in the minds of the surviving participants until finally, they felt a sudden sensation acting on their bodies and their consciousness started to become hazy.
This sensation was like how one would feel when they were about to wake up from sleep. It was like they were cu
The person in question was no other than Terrence. This was the same person who had been with Renee and Daphne ever since the start of the second elimination round.During the second elimination round, Renee, Terrence, and Daphne had worked together to gather the required number of tokens needed to clear the round and the three of them had ended up finishing together so it was not a surprise that they had ended up sitting together at the same place when they had been teleported here.It was only when Arran had later joined them during the third elimination round that Terrence had fallen out with the group before he had been driven away.Now, seeing as Terrence was also present along with the few other participants who were suspected to have also passed the third elimination round, Arran could only guess that Terrence too had by some miracle managed to have also survived until the end and pass.At this point, Terrence, Renee, and Daphne were staring at eac
Five minutes after all the participants had woken up from the illusion, finally, there was a response from the officials of the ceremony.Just as everybody in the pavilion was waiting for something to happen, suddenly, the lights in the pavilion dimmed a little and a holographic virtual projection appeared in the air above the participants.In this projection, the figure of councilman homer could be seen. He was standing on a small raised platform overlooking the purple storm clouds above and behind him in the backdrop. One could vaguely see a few other figures that were hidden in the dark.Councilman Homer had a smile on his face as he looked at all the remaining participants on the other side of the projection and there was a gratified and proud look in his eyes.Smiling slightly, Councilman Homer started addressing every participant in the pavilion."Good day to you, fine ladies and gentlemen, and congratulations on making it this far. It gladde
Stepping out of the light, the first thing that came to Arran's senses was the loud sounds of cheers and applause.The cacophony of various sounds that assaulted Arran's senses was like a mishmash of different dials on the tv turning on and off and switching from one channel to another in his head. For a moment there, Arran could not adjust to the sudden stimulation to his senses and he felt himself feeling dizzy.It was only after a few seconds of taking deep breaths that Arran was finally able to adjust. That was when he noticed that Brianna had been shaking his hands gently and was looking at him with concern.Not only her, Renee, and Daphne were also looking at him weirdly and they seemed to be asking if he was okay with their eyes.Knowing that he had made them worry about him, Arran quickly said to them, "It's okay girls, I'm fine. Just felt a little dizzy.""Are you sure you're fine?" Brianna asked."Yes, I'm really fine..." Arran rea
Just as Arran and Renee were discussing, once more, another holographic projection of Councilman Homer appeared over the stage.This time, apart from showing only Councilman Homer, there was also a holographic board with all the one hundred and seventeen names of the participants present written on it. It was right there beside the projection of Councilman Homer hovering above the heads of the participants on the stage.Speaking of the stage, currently, it was floating in the air above a small floating island of no more than 30000 sq meters. It was from this small island that Arran and the rest of the participants came out from underground.It had to be said that compared to all the giant floating islands that Arran had seen since coming to the aeth mother planet, this was the smallest he had ever seen.Right now, above this island, apart from the stage where Arran and the rest of the participants were standing, there were also numerous viewing stages flo
One by one, the rest of the participants went up to the crystalline box. Putting their hands inside it, they each drew their own lots and came out with a number before going back to stand at their original location.Arran also followed suit.Putting his hand inside the box, Arran felt something with his hand that felt like a tile that was used to play scrabble. Knowing that there was no point trying to select a specific number, Arran just picked one of the tiles randomly.Bringing his hand out of the box, Arran then felt that tile melt in his hand before a number was imprinted on his plan with black ink.Arran took a look at the number he had gotten and he found out that he had gotten the number seven."Hmm... not bad," Arran commented.Seven was a lucky number, at least it was to Arran, so he felt that he had drawn a good number.Walking back to his original position, Arran waited until the girls were done before coming back. At the
"Hmm... the two of them have already met? When was this?""Actually, forget it. That's not important. What really matters right now is what happened between them. Tell us exactly and do not leave anything out." The figure commanded."Yes, your grace." Councilman Homer replied, and then he immediately went ahead to explain what had happened when Arran and Carrum had met each other the first time during the second elimination round. There was even a recording of that time and the seven figures slowly watched it as they listened to councilman homer speak.When Councilman Homer was finally done explaining everything that had happened, he finally went silent and waited for further orders on what to do regarding Arran and Carrum.He wanted to know if they should move the plan forward and bring Carrum in or promptly remove Arran from the ceremony for his own protection.After all, Arran was still an important person of interest that the council was monito
Everybody was done drawing their lot and each person already had a number tattooed on their palm. It was with this number that the participants would know the order in which they would fight.After everything was done, the image of Councilman Homer once again showed up above the stage and he quickly addressed everybody."Now, all of you have already picked a number. It is now time for you all to know who you will be fighting.""If you look at the screen, the numbers representing you will be shuffled together and according to what you see, that will e who you will be fighting. The order of the fight will also be determined randomly, so good luck everybody. As soon as this is done, we will immediately begin. Those whose turn it is not yet to fight, you should move to the resting stage behind you to await your turn."Once Councilman Homer finished speaking, his image once again vanished and another image showing a board appeared.On this image, the bo
Renee stood on the stage and across from her was her opponent.Her opponent was a very slim and very tall man who stood at a height of about 190cm. He had a mess of brown blown-out hair and brown eyes and he resembled your typical everyday chum you could see walking down the street.This man and Arran shared a few similarities in their build, like having almost the same height and body shape, but as far as similarities go, that was as far as he got with Arran.This man, apart from being usually tall and slim, was not remarkable in any way.He had one of those faces that always looked familiar to you and at the same time, it was easy to forget him once you took your eyes off him. He was just like an average everyday joe you meet in life. But don't underestimate him because of his looks. Anybody that is able to make it up to this stage was not a simple person at all.To be able to make it to this stage, one had to step on the bodies of others figurat