Silent. No cheers, no clapping, no whispering. Only the sound of breathing from the people in the room.

All eyes were on Xiao, his hand already placed on the crystal ball of truth.

1 sec, 2 secs, 3 secs have passed. Nothing happened.

4 secs, 5 secs, 6 secs have passed, still nothing. No lights were coming out from the crystal ball, no matter how you look at the crystal ball to find any changes, all you can see was an ordinary blue crystal ball.

Slowly, voices popped out one by one in the crowd, whispers slowly turned to loud talking as people started to question why nothing was happening.

"Oh my...I guess he failed huh? Hehehe!"

Among the newly appointed heroes, Mila Mila was the first one who spoke out in a playful tone.

"Pathetic, a waste of time and a disgrace to his race," said Princess Leya with a disgusted expression.

"And here I thought he was a worthy rival. Ha! So much for the strongest hero in the Heroes Band," followed up by Hatta who mocks Xiao.

"..." and nothing from Prince Adolf.

Now, the room was filled with voices of talks coming from all directions, everyone was talking the same topic, and that was, Xiao had failed the hero selection ritual.

As for Xiao, who's the subject of the talk in the room, he was still standing, with his hand still placed on the crystal ball while staring at it with desperation and hopelessness.

(IMPOSSIBLE! Why is there nothing happening? Where's the light? It is supposed to be glowing out a bunch of radiant lights, right? Since I'm the light hero candidate, the light will be either pure white or gold, at least that's what I imagine, but here I got nothing, nothing at all!)

Xiao slowly looks up and took a look at his surrounding, all eyes were on him, mockery starts flooding in one by one, disappointed sights, worried gazes, every one of this scene has forced him to face the result he has been ignoring, and it has given him the ultimate feeling of despair.

(Unless....unless I failed the hero selection ritual, yeah, that explains why nothing happened at all, this is because I had failed. I'm no Prince, no warrior, not the chosen one, and certainly no hero, just an average high school boy you can find anywhere, I should have known that this result is bound to happen, how stupid I'm to think myself as a hero.)

Xiao drowns himself in despair as he shuts out his senses from all the noises and scenery happening around him, he was at the point where nothing happens matters anymore to him since failing the hero ritual defeats the purpose of him replacing Kang as the Hero of Light. For now, Xiao just wants all this to be over quickly and be left alone.

"People! Please, remain silent for a minute," said Pope Baton, who's the only one still focusing on the crystal ball.

Everyone was surprised at first but they followed Pope Baton's instruction and quietly went down, while also looking at Pope Baton, curious about what he was doing as he kept going around the crystal ball and touching it.

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Pope Baton has this serious expression on his face as he carefully checks on the crystal ball, and suddenly that expression changes into shock.

"....this is?! But how....," said Pope Baton with a shocking expression as he kept touching a part of the crystal ball, to reconfirm the thing that shocks him.

"What seems to be the problem? Pope Baton," said King William curiously, for he too was curious about what shocked the usual calm and composed Pope Baton so much that he was showing such a serious face.

"I see..."

Pope Baton pondered for a while as if he was constructing the announcement to make to the audience about the shocking fact he had just found out.

Pope Baton clears his throat, and speaks in a loud and serious manner:

"The crystal ball of truth has spoken, Xiao passed the ritual of the hero."

"WHAT?! But the crystal doesn't show any sign at all, how does that count as passing the ritual?" said Hatta with a shocking and curious expression.

Everyone was the same as Hatta, both confused and shocked by what they just heard from Pope Baton, even Xiao was being pulled out from his despair by the Pope announcement.

Except for one man, who's grinning secretly at the corner, as if he had predicted all of this, and he whispered:

"Just as calculated. Hehe."

As if she can't contain her urge to ask anymore longer, Princess Leya asked Pope Baton:

"If I may ask, what hero is he then? Since you said that he has passed the hero ritual."

Following Princess Leya's question, everyone turns their attention to Pope Baston, waiting restlessly for his words.

Pope Baton took a deep breath and say:

"Xiao…. is the hero of darkness."

Words have come out from Pope Baton's mouth, there was silence at first, immediately followed by the burst of noises from the crowd, asking questions among each other while looking both confused and frightened.

Without waiting for the crowd to settle down, Pope Baton continues to explain:

"First of all, let me explain how this crystal ball of truth works first, by saying the certain vow before placing one hand on the crystal ball, it acts as an amplifier to amplify the mana of the subject and display it out virtually, so when one's result is positive, it will display the magic element of the subject, just like how you all had witness so far."

Pope Baton paused for a moment while pointing at the crack line on the crystal ball.

"This crystal ball will always take in some bits of mana of the subject, and all magic elements such as Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, and others will be absorbed into this crystal ball and convert into visual effect, except for one, and that is the element of darkness, the rarest element among of living being as it can only be found in high-rank demon and monster, this element does not contain matters to be absorbed, instead, it was the one who absorbs, be it object or living being, as long as it contains mana."

Pope Baton looked at Xiao after the explanation on the crystal ball, his face was never before dead serious as he was truly shocked for what he is witnessing right now, and he continues his words.

"So for a human to possess such element, I can say it is near impossible, this is why I'm shocked to found out about this, never have I seen a human being with the magic element of darkness, except for one, the first and only Hero of Darkness, which is considered a myth as there are no records, only for some few said that the hero appeared during the era of the third generation Heroes Band, which mean the Era of Blank," Pope Baton further explained as he tilts the crystal ball to another side, showing another crack of line that was already there before everything started.

And now, everyone was once again, focusing their attention on Xiao, showing various kinds of emotion, frightened, disgusted, shocked, curious and confused, some were speechless, others were voicing out their mind.

The audience room was in disorder, everyone had their mind to express upon hearing what Pope Baton had just explained.

Suddenly, a loud shout came from Hatta out of nowhere, it was so loud that got everyone's attention, which put the room into a sudden silence.

After that, Hatta stood up and looked at Xiao and says:

"You know, I think I have an idea on what to do in this situation, I have a proposal."