The Author's POV

"Pheeew..."

Sighing in relief, I exited the section B compound.

Donna's request definitely caught me off-guard. I had come there expecting myself to just hand in the exchange form and leave, but it seemed like Donna had other plans for me.

I was so caught off-guard that I didn't have enough time to properly weigh the benefits and the costs of the deal.

*Sigh*

Just remembering what had happened moments before made me sigh. However, thinking more about the deal that I had made with Donna, my mood brightened a little bit.

All in all, the reason I accepted was because at that time, the deal seemed to work in my favor.

...and now that I had more time to think, I couldn't agree more.

After all, Donna was going to be personally coaching me for a while.

Yeah, we would also have coaches training us for the tournament, but they weren't going to train us based on skills, but rather train us for specific games. It just wasn't the same.

...and although Donna didn't practice a sword's art, that didn't matter.

Her mastery over mana and psyon control was on a league of her own.

Sword arts didn't only focus on swords. No. Psyon control was one of the most important factors when practicing any type of art.

Let's take the Keiki style for example. In order for my sword movement to reach such unparalleled speeds, I had to coat my sword with wind psyons.

If I had better psyon control, I would estimate that reaching the Greater realm of master wouldn't take long.

Moreover, because of the fact that we were training mana control, I didn't have to reveal the sword art I was practicing...and it would benefit all of my martial manuals since better psyon control would improve not only the Keiki style but my other arts too.

...taking this factor into consideration, refusing would've been stupid. The deal was just too good to refuse.

Plus, there was another reason as to why I didn't refuse her. Why would I want to antagonize a ranked hero just for a measly tournament? Wasn't worth it.

After all, she only asked for me to pass the tryout, she never said that I had to be a key player. If I managed to become a bench player, I would pretty much get all the benefits with barely any effort.

There was no point in refusing if it'd end up with me having a bad relationship with her, as, after all, she could help me in the future if needs be.

I needed to build connections for the future. If I wanted to make it till the end of the novel, I couldn't just leave bad impressions everywhere I went because of my mindset. I needed to think long-term.

There were times where I needed to take a loss...well as long as it wasn't too big of a loss.

Though I said that, smiling to myself, I couldn't help but realize how favorable the situation was for me.

Though it looked like I took a loss, I really didn't.

I mean, as I said before. I never really needed to be a key player. All that was required of me was to pass, nothing else.

Realizing this, I couldn't help but lightly chuckle to myself.

She may have won the battle, but I've won the war...well, we both profited, so I wasn't too sure about that.

Regardless, now that that was over, it was time for me to head back to my dorm.

It was already late, and I needed to rest.

Along the way back to the dorm, recalling something, I typed something on my phone and sent a quick message.

It was about time I tackled my biggest problem...

...

Smoke filled the surroundings, as the color red enveloped the sky. The sound of falling debris could be heard everywhere as torn buildings and infrastructures appeared everywhere.

Obvious signs of skirmishes appeared everywhere as craters and gashes appeared on the empty streets of the current undisclosed location...

"Khhhh..."

With some difficulty, an elegant beauty got to her feet. Her skin was white as jade, and her long black hair gently fell to the side of her face. She looked absolutely stunning...however, there was something different about her.

...She had two long black horns on the top of her head.

Standing up straight, the Matriarch's elegant red gown was now tattered, and the outlines of her curvaceous body were revealed.

She stood expressionlessly in the center of the wreckage and surveyed the surrounding destruction, as well as the massive crater around her.

Silence covered the area she was in. The atmosphere was so stifling that it made one unable to breathe. Lest needed to be said to the demons kneeling beside her.

After her contractee, Elijah got killed a few months prior, the Matriarch found herself in a state of weakness.

During the time she was injured, searching everywhere and using her clan resources, the Matriarch found out that the one that was responsible for killing Elijah was Amanda Stern...daughter of the guild master of the number one ranked guild in the human domain. 

...This news caused her to become helpless as in no way was her tribe able to contend nor even provoke such a behemoth.

However, as she went through the reports, she realized that what was reported was fake.

As Elijah was her contractee, she managed to somehow glimpse at the scenes before his death...and from what she saw, the real killer wasn't Amanda...no. It was someone else.

Yet no matter what she did to find out, she had no idea who was responsible...and in the midst of her looking for the real killer, she was suddenly ambushed by her fellow-clansman in hopes of overtaking her position. 

Thus after a long and arduous fight, she somehow managed to come out on top. 

...After fighting with her life on the line, having lost a part of her strength, the Matriarch found herself drained for energy. However, despite her current predicament, she couldn't show it on her face.

Forcefully swollowing the iron-like taste that coated the back of her throat, the Matriarch spoke

"...What have you got to say for yourselves?"

"Angeli-khhh"

-Vuam!

As soon as the Matriarch spoke, one of the demons kneeling on the ground tried to speak up, however, as soon as the first words came out from his mouth, an overbearing pressure enveloped his body completely.

Suppressing the demon with some of the last remaining strength she had, the Matriarch slowly said

"Oh? It seems like your respect for me has fallen so low that you no longer refer to me by my title huh?"

The Matriarch's full name was was Angelica von Droix.

The current head of the charm tribe, a subsidiary of the lust clan.

The reason for her current outburst was because she was currently the Matriarch of her clan. Being referred by her name meant one thing...the demon no longer recognized her as the Matriarch.

"...as soon as you got wind of my injury you tried to seize your opportunity, how sly"

As she spoke, Angelica's gaze was directed towards the few demons kneeling beside her. The latter's usually imposing and arrogant faces were now listless and filled with powerlessness. It was obvious that they were currently being suppressed by the Matriarch.

"To think that you would be so brave...and naive to think that you could stand up to me thinking that you could beat me just because I was injured...very brave"

As Angelica's bare feet moved around the demons, an imposing pressure slowly formulated around her body. It made everyone present unable to look at her in the eyes.

"...how disappointing"

Though she tried to hide the news about her injury from her fellow tribesman, she couldn't hide it for long.

They eventually found out. Thus they schemed behind her back so that they could take this opportunity to rise in the ranks...

Unfortunately, they had miscalculated. Altough Angelica had been wakened by Elijah's death, she was still, after all, a Baron borderline Viscount ranked demon.

...They never stood a chance against her, to begin with.

As her slender jade-like legs moved around the demons, Angelica slowly glanced at each of the demons beneath her. Smiling slightly, she opened her mouth.

"Were you just here to fight for my rank...or were you here for something else like..."

As she spoke, her every word caused the demons around her to shudder uncontrollably.

"N-no…"

Pausing slightly, Angelica's eyes squinted as she looked towards her left where a black coffin buried within the earth appeared in the central point of a small crater.

On it, were several pale skeletons hands outstretched towards a red gemstone embedded in the middle of the coffin. As the skeleton hands reached for the gemstone, it looked as though they were desperately trying to grab it, forming a strange scene where it looked like the skeleton hands were gently hugging the black coffin.

Glancing at the coffin, Angelica slightly muttered

"...The coffin of the cursed night"

-Vuam!

As soon as those words escaped from her mouth, her very presence shone like a star as a red hue that seemed to envelop the world cascaded towards all of the demons presents.

-Spurt! -Spurt! -Spurt!

As the red hue expanded, the demon's bodies pulverized into dust. They died instantly.

"Huuuu..."

Taking a deep breath, Angelica closed her eyes. Seemingly trying her best to recover her energy. A minute after closing her eyes, as if sensing something, Angelica's eyes slightly opened as she looked towards the distance

"What brings you here....Everblood"