Demon Lord's Reincarnation

"Today's tournament will be is a bit special than the previous years. The Emperor said that since his own children and his best friend Sir Valdel's children have joined the tournament this year, they needed to increase the challenge a teensy bit. So instead of the battle royal that usually happens, this year's preliminaries we'll be doing something different."

Julia smiled which made many of her fans in the audience swoon. She then pointed at the people who were standing behind her.

Everyone was amazed to see who the people behind Julia were. In the entire Capital of New Grenton, not a single person hasn't heard of the five standing on the stage today. Their heroic deeds were known to all, as well as their past battle with the Emperor. These were the five heroes summoned to fight the Emperor in the pseudo-war that had happened years ago. 

"This year the participants will be facing the five heroes for the preliminaries." 

When the audience heard what Julia said they were stunned into silence. The children before them were geniuses and were better than most of their peers and they had the potential to be among the strongest in the Empire, but that was all it was at the moment, potential. Unlike the geniuses who were still at the start of their journey, the five heroes before them were already among the strongest in the Empire. 

"How is this a teensy bit?"

"There's no way they can beat the five heroes." 

"I guess this year we won't get to see the Emperor fight." 

"I wonder if the Emperor's children can win?" 

"That can't be, I'm sure that not even the Emperor's children could beat the five heroes." 

While the audience members were discussing and some of the participants felt a tiny bit nervous, Julia smiled mischievously. 

"I can already guess what our dear audience members are thinking, how can our little geniuses fight the famed heroes? Don't worry everyone, the heroes will be given many handicaps so that it would be somewhat fair. The first handicap would be that the heroes aren't allowed to leave the circle that's one meter wide. The moment they step out of the circle the participant wins. The second handicap will be the heroes are going to wear the newly created power suppressors." 

Julia raised a metallic-looking chocker for everyone to see.

"These are the power suppressors, once placed on the neck they will stop the flow of mana. Of course, we can control how much mana the one wearing it could use, for this tournament the mana that the heroes are allowed to use will be regulated to thirty percent of their power. Then the final handicap, if the participants are able to hit the heroes even once it would be considered their win." 

When the audience heard the many restrictions that were placed on the heroes they felt the competition was now finally fair. On the other hand, the participants felt a little bitter, even those that thought that they were no match for the five heroes didn't like hearing that the five were so heavily handicapped to face them. It was like they were saying without all of those restrictions they stand no chance whatsoever. These so called geniuses who had always been high and mighty were now continuously shown that they were nothing in front of the true powerhouses in the Empire. 

"Now that the restrictions have been placed, I will call out five participants one by one, and they can choose which of the five heroes they want to challenge, of course, the last of the five will have no choice but to choose whoever of the five hero remains. Now then let's begin the preliminaries! I will now pick the names of the first five participants at random." 

Julia got off the stage and walked to a table at the side were there was a bow filled with small pieces of paper. Julia pulled one piece of paper and announced a name. 

"Come on up, Riku Okin!" Hearing his name being called a young man stepped forward. "So who do you wish to fight?" 

"I wish to fight the hero Artemisia!"

The young man chose the Golden Empress as his opponent since many believed that among the heroes she was the weakest when it comes to battle. When Artemisia heard the young man choosing her she frowned as she knew what the young man was thinking. She glared at him and could pretty much guess the general level of the young man. 

"Hmph," She snorted as she waited for the young man to come up on the stage wanting to beat him up. She wouldn't allow the battle to be over quickly, she will show a little opening every now and then so that the young man would think he has a chance and continue fighting. She would slowly torture him for thinking that she was the weakest among the five of them. 

...

Julia continued to call on other participants' names, each one of them chose the hero they wanted to fight. Now only Xia and Sora were left of the five heroes. The next participant to be called didn't know who to pick between the two. 

Xia was widely considered to be the strongest of the heroes, she was the one who was at the same level of power as Ren's wives. Then there was Sora, who was also considered by some as the strongest hero with the highest potential. Among all the heroes he was the trickiest to battle as he had a great array of spells and battle techniques in his arsenal. He also had an ability to get stronger every time he fights in that way he was similar to the legendary Emperor, Ren. 

The young woman who was going to pick between the two felt like she was so unlucky today. She gritted her teeth and had no choice, but to choose the slightly weaker one. 

"I wish to fight the Hero Hayate."

After that participant was done picking, Julia once again dipped her hand into the bowl trying to pick a name. Most of the participants started praying that their name wouldn't be the one that's picked. Julia picked another white paper from the bowl and spoke the name of the unlucky participant that needed to face Xia. 

"Please step forward, John of Region four!"