Chapter 218: The Useless Daughter Of Mine

"Who dares?!"

An invisible pressure rolled out, clashing directly with the Clan Head, as both Tobias and he glared at each other, neither one willing to back down first.

"Good, very good. It seems like you have made it clear that you are here to go against the clan and me!! Let’s decide the future of the clan here and now!!"

A visible windstorm started to form in the atmosphere around the Clan Head as the pressure got even deeper, kicking up loose dirt and pebbles into a slow, deadly spiral around his feet.

"Fine by me!! I wanted to clean house for a long time!! I will end you right here, right now, so I can atone for the sins of giving birth to a scourge on earth like you!!"

A golden tornado started to form around Old Man Tobias as a serious look appeared in his eyes, the sheer force of it bending the nearby trees at an unnatural angle.

The rest of the clan members who were watching this spicy drama grew astonished, whispers erupting in every direction as people scrambled backwards to put distance between themselves and the two colliding auras.

How could these father and son be at each other’s throats now? They used to be each other’s biggest support a few years ago, keeping the main family branch standing strong for a hundred years.

"Clan Master, please calm down. You can’t fight here!!" A few elders rushed forward, holding the Clan Head down and whispering something urgently in his ear.

Hearing that, the man calmed down considerably, his aura receding, and with a scoff, he turned and walked away, robes billowing behind him like a man trying to salvage whatever dignity he had left.

"Heh, running just like the coward he is." Tobias sneered as he watched him go, though Raiden noticed the old man’s hands were still trembling slightly, whether from anger or restrained grief, he couldn’t quite tell.

"Attention, everyone. Please calm down. We are going to open the trial grounds now. Please step forward one at a time." An elder’s voice boomed across the field, cutting through the crowd as whispers started floating around.

It was clear nobody was paying attention to him, and everyone was still curious about what just happened.

"Silence!! Silence, I said!! Anyone who is still talking won’t get a chance to go into the Trial ground."

This seemed to do the trick as the crowd slowly started to fall silent.

They slowly began organising themselves, forming loose lines in front of a massive stone formation etched with glowing runes that pulsed a soft blue light.

Raiden had seen something similar before, back when he first arrived at the Alliance base, and the sight of it now sent a small wave of nostalgia through him despite the seriousness of the moment.

"That’s a teleportation formation, isn’t it?" Raiden muttered, watching as the first group of participants stepped onto the glowing platform and vanished in a flash of light.

"Correct. It will scatter everyone randomly across the trial grounds." Maple confirmed quietly from behind him, her eyes scanning the crowd carefully.

One by one, groups disappeared in flashes of blue light, the crowd steadily thinning until it was finally their turn. Aria took a deep breath, steadying herself, while Theodore rolled his shoulders, clearly preparing himself mentally for what was to come.

"Stay close to me, all three of you," Raiden said, tightening his grip on Woolie’s as they stepped onto the platform together.

The world dissolved into blinding light.

Far away from the noise of the crowd, hidden within a private chamber deep inside the estate, the Clan Head sat with his most trusted elders gathered around a low table.

"Are you certain she won’t be a problem?" One elder asked, his fingers drumming nervously against his teacup.

"She is nothing but a shell of what she used to be." The Clan Head replied dismissively, waving off the concern entirely.

"We stripped her bloodline four years ago. Whatever pathetic scraps of power she has clawed back since then are meaningless compared to what we’ve prepared." He continued, a cruel smile creeping onto his lips.

"But that outsider boy seemed unusually confident. And Grand Master Tobias clearly favours him. He wouldn’t take this step if he wasn’t confident that someone would find out more information about that boy." Another elder pointed out cautiously.

"Confidence means nothing in a trial like this." The Clan Head scoffed, leaning back in his chair. "We have spent the last four years training over thirty young talents specifically for this moment, each of them stronger than anyone she could possibly bring along as protection."

"Even if, by some miracle, she manages to slip past all of them, there’s still the final guardian waiting at the end." He added, his smile widening into something far more sinister.

"The final guardian is your own personal Terra Beast, isn’t it?" The first elder asked, already knowing the answer but wanting confirmation regardless.

"Exactly. A monster I’ve spent decades nurturing myself. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever gotten close to defeating it." The Clan Head’s eyes gleamed with pride and arrogance in equal measure.

"She will never make it that far. And even if she somehow does, that beast will tear her and her little protectors apart before they even get close to the bloodline vessel. Only our chosen ones will get to pass. She was doomed to fail from the beginning." He finished, lifting his teacup in a mock toast to his own inevitable victory.

The elders exchanged uneasy glances but said nothing further, choosing instead to trust in their leader’s confidence, even if something about the whole situation still left a bitter taste in their mouths.

They had all agreed to this crazy plan of the Clan Head, and they all felt a massive guilt afterwards. But since the deed was already done, they had been tied together in a single boat. So, though they had no choice but to support his future plans.

"Just wait and watch. That useless daughter of mine will die in that place..."