Inhuman Warlock

“Nonsense. Only idiots will think that. We are teammates, so of course, we will come here.” Malin repeated sternly.

“So what happened on the trial? Who won?”

“I did.”

Lucifer’s simple answer shocked both the ladies, stunning them.

The two ladies gazed at each other. Even though they hoped he would get a good rank, even they couldn’t have expected him to win the first rank. He defeated the three Seeds? At least in the trial of cold, it seemed.

“And Raayi also won.” Before the three ladies became too excited, Lucifer further stated.

“It was a draw between two for the first place,” he explained. ” Mander came second, and Ron was third.”

“Apparently, the Elder only had permission to use his absolute cold for only a second. The two who outlasted that one second won. Mander and Ron failed before absolute cold since their abilities weren’t sufficient in the face of cold.”

Lucifer described what happened on top of the mountain in more detail, talking about how the flames of Mander were frozen by the absolute cold, taking him out. It was similar for Ron.

Thanks to her Bloodline, Raayi managed to escape that one second while he survived because his Time Barrier stopped even the absolute cold. Despite that, the burden that absolute cold applied on even the time barrier was too much.

Even now, Lucifer wondered how long he could’ve lasted before that cold. He wasn’t sure how long he could, but one thing he was sure of was that the attack was very powerful.

“Now that you got your answer, you two can leave. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m tired. I just want to go to sleep.”

Lucifer walked to the gate and opened them for the two ladies to step out.

The ladies also didn’t trouble him too much. They were just curious about the result, and now that the results were out, they listened to Lucifer and left his room.

Lucifer closed the door after the two ladies left.

As soon as he closed the door, Lucifer once again took off his shirt, going straight to the mirror and looking at his back.

Even though he didn’t show it before the two ladies, the mark was really concerning for him. Unfortunately, there was no one who could answer him.

If anyone could answer him, it was a person who was staying in a faraway world.

“This mark…”

To distract himself from the mark, Lucifer went back to the shower, letting cold water remove all his worries.

****

Time kept trickling away as dates changed. Lucifer went from one trial to another, noticing another phenomenon.

Just as the first trial was something that was advantageous to Raayi, the second trial used the element of flames, which was beneficial to Mander. It was as if this wasn’t a neutral trial either. There was not a single doubt left on this assumption when the third trial turned out to be beneficial to Ron.

Despite the unfairness, Lucifer didn’t hesitate. He gave each trial his all, even though his team was lacking. Fortunately, his team wasn’t completely useless.

Maya from his team was an expert in technology and artifacts, which came really useful in one of the trials. In fact, her knowledge even made her win the seventh trial.

Lucifer’s team was turning out to be a dark horse but not quite since everyone knew how long Lucifer was by now. They also believed he was a special seed, so no one found it odd at all.

Weeks had passed since Lucifer’s arrival on this world. Gabriel remained inside his room all this time, never even coming out.

With time, more and more teams started losing hopes of ever having a chance at victory since the battle appeared to be between the three seeds and Lucifer for the top three team spots.

In this world, many things were tested, including their resistance, their strength, their defense, their knowledge, their critical things, and such.

Throughout the weeks, Lucifer’s team had surprisingly managed to take the first place in the team rankings. Lucifer’s personal ranking was still very far from the top.

There was only one last trial left before the top three teams were finalized and dissolved. As for the Trial, it was where the arena that Lucifer had seen at the start finally came to play.

Every team stood around the arena where the Administrator told them the rules about the final trial, which was very simple.

“There are seventeen teams here right now. But only sixteen teams will take part in this. Looking at that, the last ranked team is automatically disqualified. Please step back.”

The team with the least points until now wasn’t even allowed to take part in it. All three members of the team stepped back.

“There are only sixteen teams. Each of the sixteen team captains need to come forward and pick one of the cards on the table without flipping the card and showing others. There are sixteen cards on the table. The cards will decide which team you face in the trial. There are two cards with number one on them. The teams which pick those two cards will go first.”

“Similarly, the team with number eight will go last.”

“This will be an individual team battle! Each team will have three battles, and the order of participants will be decided by you. The team that wins two of the three battles will be part of the eight winning teams here, getting maximum points. If a team can win all three of its battles, there will be bonus points.”

The old man gave his instructions before stepping back.

“Pick up the cards. Lucifer, since your team is leading the ranking, you’ll get to pick a card first.”

Lucifer moved closer to the table, picking up the card before going back to his place. It was only after he was back that he glanced at the card.

Mander went next as his team was tied for the second place with Lira and Ron. Still, he had the most points in the individual ranking, so he was given a preference.

Raayi went third and picked up the card before it was the turn of Ron.

One after another, all sixteen captains picked up the card, yet none told others what their number was. In fact, captains didn’t even tell their team members.

“You can tell your numbers out loud now. Let’s see who you’re paired with. Who picked one?” the old man asked, roaming his gaze over the participants.

Two captains raised their hands.

“Number two?”

…

“Numbers Six?”

Finally, Ron stepped forward, sighing in disappointment that he wasn’t paired with any of the seeds.

In fact, he found his luck so bad that he was paired with the sixteenth-ranked team.