Chapter 351: Champions Call

The cheering crowd accompanied Violet and Luna as they were led through the streets by the king and the two other sovereigns of Syan.

The two companions grinned at the people lining the streets.

At one point both girls were covered in a flash of light before they reappeared back in their humanoid form. Violet in her kimono and Luna in a elegant blue dress.

They then floated in the air besides the other three, utilising their domain to reject the effects of gravity and thus allowing them to move effortlessly through the air.

Despite having never tried it out before, the action felt natural to the girls. Manipulating their domains was somewhat similar to utilising their presence.

After all their domain was an extension of themselves, if anything it felt more natural to utilise their domain that their presence ever did.

Still they could both feel that even though their control felt effortless, it was still incredibly limited. They were both too new to having one and too low leveled to truly be able to manipulate and utilise their domains to the limit.

Still that was something that could be easily be fixed with both training and practice.

Something that both girls were more than willing to do.

As they walked through the city they waved to the cheering crowd and chatted with the three sovereigns through telepathy.

They discussed their domains, how it felt to claim it and what kind of effects they believed they could achieve with it.

Whilst the three had limited advice to give to Violet given her truly unique domain, the King in particular was able to provide a wealth of information about an ice type domain.

He explained some of the features of his own, how he had developed and advanced it over the years. The kind of problems he had encountered and more.

Whilst brief the conversation provided Luna with several ideas on how she could develop and advance her domain in the future.

Still whilst they had limited info on specifics for Violet, they still provided some generic advice about both stabilising and efficiently utilising her domain.

They also promised to show them some techniques to help build proficiency with their domains and the steps needed to take to change it to best suit their own unique domains.

The girls were bombarded by helpful advice to the point they had to ask them to stop for now as they were begining to get overwhelmed by the information being thrown at them as they also began to feel the strain from maintaining their flight.

Whilst it was not exactly trying at first to levitate through their domain, it was like straining a muscle that you have never used. It began to tire after pushing it for prolonged periods of time.

Thankfully they soon arrived at the palace where they returned to the ground with releived sighs at being able to relax that new and unfamiliar muscle.

Masis chuckled at their apparent discomfort. "Haha got the aces from straining your domains? It sucks but you best get used to that feeling if you want to gain enough control over it to use in combat any time soon."

"How long does it take to be able to use it in combat? And how is it different from using it to fly?" Asked Luna.

It was Karla that responded, her voice gravelly yet kind. "Depends on your talent. Iv seen some tier 5’s take years before they get any kind of grasp of their domains. But those are the type of sovereigns that barely scrap through into tier 5 yet are never able to advance any further.

For young talents like yourselves, I imagine that it shouldn’t take too long, maybe a week or so of training and practice. I seem to remember that you had pretty good presence control yes?"

At the two companions nods she continued. "That’s good, training your domain is similar to that, except you are no longer using your mind alone. Now you will be using your will to dictate how your domain works."

King Mason spoke up then. "You will have to practice at manifesting it, yet not simply by turning it on at full blast, but controlled. You must be able to actively manipulate how far out your domain extends, who it effects, who it does not, what it effects and so on. We can go over the details at a later point in time however. For now we should celebrate your advancement! So come let us have a feast!"

With that the king waved his arms dramatically forward, the doors to the palace swinging open and twin lines of servants lined the entrance, all of them bowing as the group walked in.

The night proc ended to pass in a blur. Food was served, drink was drank and laughter was shared.

They celebrated their advancement together with friends and those that they had come to care about during their time staying within Syan.

Yet as the evening drew to a close something happened that caused the party to come to a sudden halt for our two companions.

[System Notice: Champion Beast Protocol Update:

Number of participants has reached the required threshold of 100,000.

In 10 days all remaining participants will be teleported away to participate in the second stage.

Prepair yourself, for only the strong can become a champion.]

Both girls froze in place as they read the notification, their conversations coming to a sudden halt.

King Mason, who had been speaking to Luna at the time tilted his head in curiosity and asked. "Has something happened my dear? You seem awfully distracted all of a sudden?"

Luna nodded at the question, unsure of how much to explain, yet knowing that she should inform the king of what is happening.

"Umm do you remember about the Chapion Beast Protocol that was announced around a year ago?"

The king hummed and stroked his chin as he thought, then snapped his lingers as he seemed to remember. "Oh that thing that was mentioned at the same time as the announcement from when Violet was born?"

Luma nodded. "Well it seems like the conditions for the first phase being completed have been achieved." She said with some somberness in her tone.

"What was that condition again?" He asked.

"That the participants be reduced from 1 million down to 100,000. So around 900,000 beasts have been killed. Likely more given that the title was able to be passed on." She softly explained.

The king let out a sigh, his voice showing his age. "Such a loss of life over some system announcement. Saddly that is not so unheard of in the Wilds. Do you know how many beasts are believed to exist in the Endless Forest?"

Luna tilted her head at the sudden change of topic but shook her head in the negative. The king continued after seeing her answer.

"Whilst it is impossible to confirm. It is believed it be in excess of 100 billion at any given time. The forest is truly vast, home to so many different species and biomes. Sadly it is not a strange thing for so many to die."

Luna gaped at that, struggling to comprehend so many beasts, yet also understanding that the forest was truly vast. Even after traversing through so much of it they had barely scratched the surface of the forest. It would take several lifetimes to fully explore these woods.

"Wow, I guess I never truly considered that." Luna replied after a moment. But then shook her head and proceeded to explain the contents of the system message to him.

Once she was done explaining, Violet had arrived besides her with the rest of their friends in tow.

The king rubbed his chin in though, a pensive expression on his face, eventually he spoke up. "Who amongst you has been marked as one of the champions?"

"Just me and Luna. I think." Stated Violet quickly, everyone else seemed to agree with that fact so the king quickly moved on, directing his words at the two freshly evolved sovereigns.

"Well then, it looks like you two will have a busy few days." He explained with a slightly predatory smile adorning his face.

That smile caused Luna to shiver slightly, Violet was the one to respond to his words, albeit even she felt some unknown apprehension.

"Why is it going to be busy? I get we need to practice with our domains but that won’t take all of our time will it?"

The king smiled wider at her words. "Oh your quite right, utilising your domain will not take all of your time. So in the downtime when your domain is not being used myself and Karla will be personally training you in other aspects of combat!

After all, how could we allow the hero’s of our city to go into such a deadly event unprepared."

As the companions stared at him they each felt a heavy hand land on their shoulders, looking behind them they saw the grinning face of Karl’s staring right back at them.