{I was there when Scorn was born, as I was there when the universe was born.
I bore witness to the massacre; I tried to reach out to save him, but I couldn’t.
The evils of humanity, with the massacre of Amoria as the last straw, tainted my holy energy.
I tried to pass my retribution on the horrors I saw perpetrated in front of me, but I was, for the first time, helpless. Each time I tried, something I didn’t intend to do happened!
That’s how the scars of reality came to be, rifts in space and time where monsters from parallel universes passed into my universe.
They wreaked havoc, misery, and destruction upon everything they saw.
They can be closed by cultivators if they would fight the monsters, and attack the scars with enough power to force them closed.
But the cultivators didn’t care about the people, the scars started becoming localized areas of desolation around the world.
Humans, as usual, persevered and survived by avoiding the affected areas, hoping that they don’t wake up tomorrow and find another scar of reality in their own backyard, butchering their entire village or city.
And the scars weren’t even the only horrible thing that came to be from my tainted energy.
The energy that would have been tainted even more, if it hadn’t been for the existence of the Yin cultivators. Who started balancing out the incoming energy to use it for their own cultivation.
Disappointed Am I, in myself. Disappointed Am I in the cultivators who have the power to stop these horrors and they won’t.
And I am grateful for the abominations, who are the Yin cultivators, for without them, the world would have already expired, despite my best intentions.
I am Karma; I am the goddess of this Earth, and my existence has become suffering from my impotency to change anything, as was the purpose of my being.}
*****
image [https://imgur.com/XfBSXXC.jpg]
Finally, the last fight was up. Most of the losers were sulking, except Brother Liu and Brother Huang, who were sitting together drinking green tea from an unknown source. They were speaking about their journey so far cheerfully, without a care in the world.
The winners, on the flip side, were paying attention to the fights, analyzing each one, preparing mentally to be ready to face anyone in the next round.
A wild man of about 30 years old started walking to the stage. His robes were hugging his body tightly, showing tight muscles underneath. He carried the most muscles out of all contestants, and Gabalawi was no slouch in that regard.
His body was like an apex predator, made to hunt and devour his prey. He was bald except for a ponytail sprouting from the top of his head and going all the way to his neck.
He had an extremely big mustache on his face that made him look even more threatening. His facial features were strict, with wild eyes, and big yellow teeth, with a prominent nose to match them.
image [https://imgur.com/kYBatdf.jpg]
He reached the stage and waited for his opponent. He didn’t have to wait long, because a teenager of almost 16 years old started walking to the stage.
Dark hair. He was five foot five; he had one really sad eye. Half his face was bare-boned. It just wasn’t there. His bones were visible to everyone. He wore a black shirt and black pants that looked neat and clean.
An abundance of cats that were looking at everyone around them followed him, taking notice of everyone, some running and jumping playfully landing on their back, some kept straying and licking their paws and cleaning their fur.
They all arrived at the arena, and both contestants calmly raised their number 8 opposing balls, twirled them around for everyone to see, despite being unnecessary now as they were the only two left.
“Yo, Boy. They call me Feral Xu. You made a mistake by stepping in here; you should have acted like you didn’t have the balls, and stayed behind forfeiting the fight, but I guess you have some balls, eh?”
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“Your voice is so loud, old man. Can’t you fight more quietly? You are going to give me and my cats a headache.”
“You dare talk that way to your superior? I should bash your head in, kid, and FEED IT TO YOUR FUCKING CATS!”
“Again with the loud voice, you won’t do shit old man, and the only way you won’t become cat food is if Scorn saves you like he did all those others, so why don’t you fucking shut up and fight!”
The young male, by the name of Kafka, signaled his cats to attack, and they started running towards the older man!
Feral Xu took out a couple of claws that he attached to his hands and started running towards the cats. Sometimes he would even run on all fours!
Once both parties reached each other, the cats started jumping for Xu’s vitals. He thought his neck would be the most vulnerable part if their bites were deadly enough, so he did his all to protect that part.
He struck one cat that went for his neck with his claws. The cat didn’t bleed or get torn apart; It turned to a little incorporeal kitten instead, that yawned cutely and floated back towards Kafka, finding a place on his shirt where it got imprinted on it and went to sleep!
Other cats bit Xu in his legs, stomach, and hand, but he just shrugged them all off. Their bites were tough, but his skin was tougher, and he had only little bleeding dots where they bit him.
A couple of red cats went behind Xu and jumped on his back, clutching at him with their claws. They yawned lazily before they exploded onto his back.
Again they turned into little incorporeal red kittens that floated back towards Kafka and found an empty spot on his clothes to sleep on, but those were red imprints instead.
Feral Xu dropped to the ground face first from the explosion, and two bigger brown cats that were much slower than the others ran heavily towards his prone body, jumped on his back, and went to town clawing and scratching him.
Sensing his life was in danger, Feral Xu let out a primal roar that pushed all the cats from his body and rose to his feet.
He didn’t look sane anymore. He looked utterly mad, like he lost his mind!
Eyes whited out, he was frothing at the mouth, teeth bare in a wild snarl, drool dropping. His body was more tense than ever.
It was like he activated a berserk mode of sorts, and he pounded the ground on all fours again, heading towards Kafka.
His claws struck many cats on his way, finishing them immediately as they turned incorporeal and went to sleep on Kafka’s clothes again.
Kafka, sensing the danger, turned into a red cat that meowed at Xu who just reached it and exploded in his face!
Kafka appeared a little further away instead of the red cat. He pointed to a couple of orange cats that ran fast towards Feral Xu, while all the other cats followed them. Once the orange cats reached him, they caught into him, paralyzing him, not able to move anymore.
The following cats grasped the chance to finish Feral Xu off, but Scorn appeared again and stopped the fight. He also fed Feral Xu something that cured his berserker state.
Kafka, seemingly indifferent to his win, went down on one knee and petted many cats, while smiling happily at them with his half face.
They lived for each other, and they were better for it.
Everyone was watching the fight, seeing these absolute monsters going at it. Skill won over raw strength this time.
Sun was very interested in the cats and kept leaning his head left and right while watching them. The exploding ones scared him, so he was wary of getting close to them, but he wanted to!
Scorn told everyone that they had one full day to recover before starting the next round of fights.
Which was a welcome respite for all the fighters.
Dahlia went over to speak with her former opponent Esme, who seemed to be annoyed with her attempts to talk with her at first, but after a while, reluctantly started whispering to her. They hadn’t much in common; they were poles apart, but the older woman could definitely help her if they ever became friends.
Gabalawi had Brother Liu, Brother Huang, and Lao Wencheng gathering around with him, talking to him in fascination. They all became big fans of his after seeing him fight.
Black Crow was sitting alone, caressing the back feathers of his companion vultures, his eyes set only on them, not interested to see anyone else.
While Divinity went over to where Kafka was, seemingly not scared of the kid with the half eaten face at all, she was very cheerful talking with him, praising his cats, and then crouched on the ground to pet them, while some of them licked her other hand!
After seeing this, Sun got encouraged and jumped off Seph’s shoulders and ran over to where Kafka stood. He got closer to the cats and started petting them as well with Divinity, who was smiling at Sun happily with her eyes closed.
The cats purred at his touch and he cooed contently along with them.
Glenda was with her former opponent, Huan Chun. She was speaking to them calmly with a grandmotherly disposition about her, and they spoke kindly back to her. She overflowed with parental love and she sensed Huang had a tough life, and got close to them trying to help them in her own way.
Rong Sha and Qui Ma were both sulking, sitting alone, while Al-H’awi and Feral Xu were alone healing their wounds.
Seph was alone, but he was watching all this take place, the same as Scorn.
Instead of making enemies, this tournament made many very respectful peers, it seemed, and who knows? They might even become friends in the future.
Scorn was mind boggled by this breed of cultivators. How can they still talk to each other after all the insults and trash talk said before the fights? After all the threats?
Considering all the physical harm and mortal danger they faced during those fights?
His dream could really become a reality. He knew he was selfish, thinking only of his dream, but it had to be achieved. He won’t allow the world to go on the same way it had been.
The suffering has to end, and if the good guys won’t do it, the bad guys are going to be up for the challenge, and get the job done.