Clair(The real One) POV
“Hey Dex, how many fights do I have to win if I want to be in the finals?” Ilza asks.
We´re currently eating breakfast and will go to the tournament when we´ve finished.
“The finals will be fought in a 1vs1vs1, so you have to win three times and then beat both of the other finalists if you want to win,” Dex explained.
“Why are there three people in the finals if it´s a One vs One tournament?” Ilza asks.
“Don´t know, Lilia does it have a reason?” I asked Lilia.
“Not really, the headmaster said that One vs One is boring after we said him that we´ll have the wrong numbers with 24. We need either 16 or 32 for a real One vs One final. I think he just forgot that it´s not possible to do it normally with 24, but is too proud to admit it.” Lilia states.
(AuthorNote: Yeah the headmaster....)
“That´s stupid,” Dex says.
“It is, but old men are often too proud to admit their mistakes.” Lilia
“It might become funny, “ I said and we finished breakfast and went out, to fetch Gerd.
Drulls clone is behind me, the Dex clone walks next to Lilia and Ilza is next to me. Drull will meet us at the arena and Reaper Dex will also be there on his own.
We reached a small house and I knocked.
A few moments later a younger version of Gerd opened the door, it is his brother Rufus.
I know it´s a dogs name, but we all have problems and must live with them.
“Hi Rufus, is Gerd ready?” I ask and he gets red.
“Y...yes, he´s dressing. P..please come in.” He said and stepped to the side so that we´re able to walk in.
Their home is a normal plain home, it looks exactly like you would expect, if two men would live alone. And no, I don´t mean messy and dirty. I mean no decorations, no pillows or pictures. Just a living room with a desk and a few chairs.
“Do you want something to drink?”, he began but then stuttered,” oh..oh, b...but we only have water.”
“No thanks, we ate a few minutes ago.” Dex says and we all sat down and waited for Gerd.
“So Rufus how´s school?” Dex asked him.
“Good mister Dex, the lessons are hard but not as hard as brothers training.”He says and Ilza nods, at the statement that Gerds training is hard.
“You can ask if you have problems,” I say and Rufus got, even more, red.
“I.. I would not dare to ask the Cold Goddess,” Rufus says almost as a whisper.
“Why not? And why are you calling me a Cold Goddess?” I ask.
“Because you reject any date offers without batting an eye and are a genius in everything,” Lilia says in a monotone.
“I don´t like guys,” Clair.
“And the few women I heard of?”, Lilia said with a grin and Ilza gets red, I don´t know why.
“And everyone who´s not in the group called “Worshippers of the Cold Goddess” gets beaten up if they try to talk with you.” She finishes and I am stunned with an open mouth.
“Whoa!,” Ilza shouts,” it´s possible for Clair to be stunned?”
“Why do I not know of something like this?” Dex and I ask simultaneously, and Rufus looks at Dex.
“It´s one of the top 5 rules in the group.” Rufus
“What are the top 5 rules?” I ask warily.
“First, don´t talk directly to the goddess without a really important reason. You may bring your concerns to the high priestesses.
Second, a love confession is only allowed after lunch, so that we don´t disturb the goddess,”
That explains why I only get the confessions at the end of the school,
“Third, never ever are you allowed to speak with the goddess outside of school, only if she seeks the audience with you on her own accord, only then you are allowed to speak to her.
Fourth rule, you have to speak the truth ,and only the truth, in the presence of the goddess, at all times.
And Fifth, the goddess is not allowed to know of her worshippers.” Rufus speaks as if he believes this stuff with every word.
“They have to stop that, and why did you speak about the group Rufus, if you´re not allowed to?” I ask, as Dex tries to not do the same.
“Because I have to tell the truth in the presence of the goddess,” Rufus says with a red face.
I turned my head to Lilia, who looks to the side and whistles something.
“Lilia?!” me
“I.. I thought it will be funny,” She says and began to laugh as she saw Dex and me with an open mouth, again.
“Twice a day?!”, Ilza screams in disbelieve.
“I have to stop them” me
“You don´t have to, almost everyone in the school is part of the group, only the higher nobles
aren´t,” Lilia says and Rufus shows me a badge with me sewn on it.
“At first, we thought it´ll become a real problem if a person forms a group that beats people to a pulp if they talk to their leader, but most teachers of Turon Academy are normal people and no nobles, so we don´t care about beaten up nobles and everyone else is already part of the group. That and the students are now more diligent in their studies,” Lilia says with a wry smile.
“But I´m not a god,” I said.
“They don´t really think that you´re a god,” Lilia says and looked at Rufus for support, who in return started to fidget with his fingers.
“They don´t, am I right Rufus?”, Lilia tries to seek help with force.
“Not all, but soon they will, a rumour sprouted that says that Clair is able to perform magic up to the tenth Tier in all attributes and does not even need an incantation for her spells. The rumour about her godhood is further strengthened by her godlike skills in everything she does.” Rufus says.
“I´m only able to do them up to the tenth Tier in fire, darkness, light and wind everything else is on the eight Tier, and yes I don´t need the Tiers and I am able to cast in all attributes, so what?” I mumble and Rufus eyes get wide.
“So it´s true...,” Rufus.
“Rufus, how many do think that Clair is an actual goddess?” Lilia asks worried.
“I think a third of the school, a few teachers are included.” Rufus says.
The “you have to speak rule” is good.
“Clair what happens if one of the real gods notices?” Lilia asked and I know that she means this world's gods.
“Nothing, they´re not able to see me,” I said nonchalantly.
“The false gods are not able to see you?” Rufus asks.
“Ops...,” I begin but then said, “ well not that I care who knows. Rufus, keep doing whatever you want. I am not the true god, but neither are these so called gods of this planet.”
Rufus mouths starts to open and closes a few times and he then nodded and his eyes have a strong look of worship in them.
“Yes o goddess, “ He says and bows, while Lilia only sighs.
“Hey folk, sorry that you had to wait for me.” Gerd says as he comes in.
“Let´s go, Rufus are you coming with us?” Gerd asked as he began to walk out.
“No brother I have to meet a few friends,” Rufus said, bows to me and then hurriedly left.
“Stay safe!”, Gerd shouts behind and then turned to us, “ is something wrong with him?”
“Why?” I asked.
“He was so happy, as I said that Clair will visit us but now he ran away as if the goddess Siria herself has given him a task.“ Gerd
“Must be your imagination,” Dex said with a wry smile.
“Maybe,... anyway lets go or we´ll be late.” Gerd said and we walked to the arena.
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Rufus POV:
I´ve met the goddess, and she´s more godlike from close up as I could ever imagine. Her so called brother looks the same as her, and also has a part of her divine aura, but I´m sure it´s just a copy for the masses. I´m sure of it.
I have to speak to my brothers and sisters, the goddess has enlightened me with her wisdom.
I ran to our small temple inside the school park, it´s an underground temple, made by a few teachers and equipped with the best furniture we could get.
The picture of god (Clairs blackboard picture) adorns the back wall in all its glory and her statue is in front of it. It´s made by the best stonemasons our school has, but it's still lacking in comparison to the true goddess. A few brothers and sisters are praying in front of it.
“High priestess Marie!,” I shout as I rushed to her. She´s one of our most faithful priestesses and related to us her experiences inside the dungeon, where she met the goddess and was able to witness her strength.
“Brother Rufus, what happened, sat and calm down,” She says worried and I do as she said.
“You knew that my brother teaches the apostle of our goddess?” I began as I got my breath back.
“How could I ever forget something about our goddess?”, She says in agreement.
“My brother and the goddess are going to the tournament, so I was able to see the goddess as she visited my humble home.” I start.
“I´m happy to hear that, I hope you did not offend the goddess?” She says in a stern voice.
“I wouldn´t dare to, but the goddess granted me her wisdom, “ I began and told her my meeting with the goddess.
“So the rumours are true,” High priestess Marie said as I finished.
“Yes high priestess, but what about her statement, that she´s not the true god?” I asked worried.
“You don´t have to worry my brother, she must have said it. so that our small group will not get hunted by the worshippers of the false gods. We are just a small group as of yet and sadly not able to worship our goddess as we would like. The cursed temple of Siria will hunt us if they witness us.
She must have said it so that we will not announce her glory publicly. We have to grow before we´ll be able to do that. It saddens me, but it is as it is. We´re not strong enough and the goddess must have known of us. And she, as she said to you, allows us to continue on our path of salvation.
We have to gather more brothers and sisters, soon there will be the school tournament and the other schools and the world will witness the might of our goddess. It´ll be easier to convert them after that. But first we have to bring the other students on our side.
And the words of our goddess, whom you have witnessed today will help us.” She finished and I knew she´s right.
“Yes high priestess, but what about the ones who are against our goddess or are going as far as attacking her as the accused dukes son did?” I asked worried.
“Worry, not brother, our goddess knows of them and they will feel her wrath in due time. It again saddens me that we´re not able to protect our goddess, but our time will come.” She reassures me and again I had to agree.
I nodded and we began our daily prayer to our goddess, soon we´ll be able to announce her glory, soon.
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Clair's POV:
I hope god is not against me for not breaking this little cult. But then again they´re only students. Then again, I don´t think they´ll keep doing it for more than a few month.
We fetched Norm(Drull) and then walked to the magic arena, where we parted our ways.
Dex, Norm, Ilza, Lilia and Gerd were going to the waiting room and I to the seats.
Lina and Kira already have reserved a few seats for us.
So I led the clone Drull to them, by walking to their mana signature.
“Hi Clair, sit down, they´ll start.” Kira greets me and waves her hands.
“Morning, Clair,” Lina says.
“Hi guys, I have a question, did you know of the “Worshippers of the Cold Goddess”?”, I asked and they both got pale.
“Who told you?”, Lina asked.
“Not important, are you the source of it?” Me
“No, they came to us and asked us about our connection with you. We told them that you're our roommate and that you´re our friend. They said something about your sanctity and that we should not disgrace you or we´ll feel the wrath of the true goddess,” Lina says while looking down.
“That´s the reason why we´re not living at your mansion.” Kira adds.
“And do you believe them?” Me
“Well... you are godlike in anything you do...,” Lina
“I´m not a god and I´d like you to remember that.” Me
“Roger that your holiness,” Kira says jokingly and salutes.
I only sighed and sat down, the first round starts and the participants are lead inside.
“Good day ladies and gentlemen to our real tournament. It´s nice to see you again and I´m happy to be able to introduce our participants. These 24 will fight each other from round to round until only 3 are left. These three will then fight in a spectacular final match. And the winner will get a whopping 100 gold coins,” The announcer screams with his magic amplified voice and the audience screams in excitement.
The participants were introduced, but I ignored them, most of them are humans, there are also a few beastkins and a dwarf. All of them are S-Rank and there´s also a guy who has the stats from an SS-Rank, it was the dwarf.
The first fight will be a human mage against a human archer.
The announcer introduced them and they start their fight.
The archer quickly fires a few shots up and the mage began to chant a Tier 6 fire spell, while running to the side, so that he can evade the volley of arrows from the archer.
The mage was able to finish his spell and he´s suddenly clad in a fire armour that burns the incoming arrows. The spell is called [Feuerrüsstung] and often used in cold environments and against close combat fighters. It´s not really an armour but burns nearby things and warms the caster. The downside is that it uses mana for the chant and the more the longer it's activated.
But this armour has to eat a lot of mana if it's able to burn fast incoming arrows.
Normal arrows from the archer aren´t usable now and he switched to a new kind of arrows. It´s completely out of iron, so it will not get burned. But iron arrows aren´t flying as good as normal arrows and he has to get nearer to the mage, if he wants to hit him.
The archer runs to the mage, who in short chants a few Tier 2 fireballs but they both missed.
It turns into a cat and mouse game and the mage realized that he has to win or he´ll run out of mana, so he switched his fire armour off and began to chant a Tier 7 fire spell, while evading the rain of arrows from the archer.
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The archer tests his luck and rushes at the mage, while switching to daggers but the moment he´s near enough the mage finished his spell and a giant fire pillar shots out of the ground.
Both fighters got hit, the archer by the fire pillar and the mage by the daggers but the mage was able to evade a critical hit while the archer gets turned to ashes.
The announcer announced the mage as the winner while the fighters get healed by the arena.
The audience cheers and the mage get to the next round.
The next fight was quickly over, the dwarf was against a beastkin.
Both were warriors, but the dwarf only swung his axe at the beastkin and fully smashed the skull of it.
Drull was one of the next fighters, he was against a woman, who was completely dismembered by him. The fight finished with a bloody Drull and a torso and head of a dead woman.
A few people out of the audience puked, but most of them cheered at the sight of such a gory scene.
Ilza was the next in line and her opponent was a warrior like her. She´s fighting with stats higher than the stats from an S-Rank adventurer. Strength and agility are at 30.000 and I managed to make a new kind of rune that also gives her wisdom and intelligence.
I got this skill.
Skill:
Rune Artificer
You´re able to develop
new kinds of runes.
Invent new runes and form the
attributes of the things around
you to your liking. LV: 0
Oh, and I tested the rune layers on magicians and it seems like you´re able to take more runes, if your mana is higher. 2 layers if you´re under 5.000, 4 if you are under 50.000, I dind´t found a mage with 500.000 mana who I could kill, but Drulls clone could get 32, which indicates that a mage with 500.000 can handle 16. My clone could manage to have more than my initial set of 50 runes. It seems like the quality of the objects matters.
I stopped at the thousandth rune. As there was not enough skin to further enchant the clone.
The downside is that the normal skill [Sensitivity] is not able to keep up with a strength and agility push of 20.000.000.
Which I noticed as the clone jumped. Well I haven´t seen him again, and the knowledge of its death said that he cancelled himself, after realizing that the regeneration stops him from freezing to death or imploding in space. He did not even need to breath, his cells were so fast in regenerating, that the oxygen lack did not even mattered.
But I gained a new skill.
Skill:
Ultra ultimate high Sensitivity
You had to overdo it, didn´t ya?
Here you go, this skill will allow
you to control each and every
cell inside you to an unlimited
degree. LV 0
I think the thing that gives me skills has its own consciousness....
Next thing I tried was to stack runes on itself, it worked. And I even managed to burn a clone with too many runes. I had to place runes on him for a whole week, without stopping. Well I think I don´t need so many runes and I lost count after the fifth day.
And above all I´m not able to use so much power on this planet, the normal mana manipulation, was not able to stop the leakage of my rune powered mana, so I got another skill.
Skill:
Ultra ultimate high Mana Manipulation
You break one skill, so you think
you might as well break another one?
Curse you, this is hard as fuck to
manage. °Sigh° Here is your new skill.
You can now control any amount of
mana from the smallest speck to the
biggest mana field. LV: 0
Good thing I gained the sensitivity skill beforehand. I was smacked into the ground and lost my consciousness as the clone activated all runes.
He cancelled himself the moment I got smacked into the ground and I also lost almost all my health.
I awoke an hour later and my testing facility was destroyed.
I got out of the city, after my clone jumped into the outer space, I didn´t want to risk destroying the city.
The whole facility and the surroundings were flat as a flounder, and I was inside a fucking 3 kilometre high mountain.
I think I shouldn´t use my full power in a punch, it might destroy the planet.
I applied a few thousand runes on myself, most of them strengthening my stats, giving me regeneration or making me indestructible. I also have one against bugs.
Funny thing is my clones also have the runes when I make them. But I did not tell Lilia about my runes, she might die from the shock.
Back to the initial topic, it means that Ilza currently has 4 runes which would give her a strength from over 80.000. She´s not able to control such high stats but she´s able to control 30.000.
The fight began but both didn´t move and I tried to read their lips, as it was to noise to listen in on their talk from my seat.
Skill:
Lipreading
Read the wishes from
the lips of your loved one.
Now you´re really able to
do that, as long as your loved
one speaks them out loud
or forms them with its lips....
LV:0
“You´re the one who should go to your mom,” Ilza
“Hah little girl, you really think you can defeat me?” Warrior
“Obviously, you´re just a dumb brute,” Ilza rebukes and the warrior gets angry.
“I´ll show you dumb little fucker,” The brute screams and rushed to Ilza, trying to punch her in the face.
Ilza ducked to the side, and evaded the punch. She then grabed the arm, of the still punching man, and broke it. She hindered the movement of the arm and punched the elbow from the outside.
The bone snapped but the warrior jumped up, not minding his broken arm, and tried to kick Ilza.
Ilza pulled the arm down and stopped the movement of the warrior, who was still flying.
He got bashed to the ground, not able to carry his kick out.
She then kicked him at the head and he was out cold. She was announced as the winner and walked back to the waiting area while mumbling something like,” Only Clair is allowed to touch me”.
The next fights were a spectacle of skills. Warrior against mage, mage against mage and warrior against archer. All of them were strong, but our “world” is a little... different with myself, Drull and Ilzas runes in comparison to them.
Dexs fight was different, he jumped arround his opponent until his opponent run out of steam and collapsed.
Reaper Dex kicked his enemy out with mana pressure, flattening the poor guy to a bloody pulp.
Gerd on the other hand had a few problems with his opponent, it was a back and forth, neither had the upper hand for long. He won with his larger stamina. Well he trains against my guards, each day for two hours.
The next round was almost the same, almost all of us had the luck to not face against each other. Only Dex had to fight again Reaper Dex, they fought a good, neither winning or loosing. But Dex has himself let beaten at the end, he wasn´t allowed to win.
Drull, Ilza and Gerd also won their second match.
Which brought them to the semifinals. Where Gerd had the bad luck and fought against Drull, he was ripped apart. Almost like Drull as I fought against him.
Ilza won her fight and Reaper Dex made another S-Rank adventurer unconsciousness with his mana pressure.
“The finalists are Ilza, Reaper and Norm,” The announcer screams and they get ready to fight.
Reaper Dex is only using stats in the 100.000 range, so that he´ll have a good fight against Drull.
Ilza looks a little pale and Lina asked me if she´s able to win, what I denied.
The fight began and Drull rushed at Reaper Dex, who also rushed at Drull. Both ignored the poor Ilza.
Their fists collided and we heard a loud boom.
They both kept on fighting barehanded, breaking the sound barrier with each clash.
Ilza who´s completely ignored by them hides.
Drull summons ten dark spears over his head and fires them at Reaper Dex, who in return summons ten holy spears and intercepts the dark spears with them.
They did not stop with their fist fight, hit, block, counter, hit, block counter and repeat.
Earth spikes began to sprout from Reaper Dexs side and are moving at Drull, who quick chants a Tier 8 fire spell that melts the earth spikes and adds another spell right after, a Tier 9 spell.
10 fire pillars sprouted all around Reaper Dex and were closing him inside a wall of rock melting fire.
The pillars are blazing but they do not stop the fight. Almost molten earth spikes, and dark and holy spears keep shooting out of the fire wall.
The fire finally stops after 30 seconds and we were able to see Drull and Reaper Dex, they were still fighting but Drull now had small horns on his forehead.
I looked around, trying to see if someone noticed. The whole arena is silent, and almost everyone has an open mouth. None of them seems to have noticed.
Drull smirked and said that he loves this fight and has to go all out.
I sighed because I now what this means.
Drulls shirt rips and his batwing sprout from his back. His horns get to their full length and his eyes changed to a red colour.
The audience now looked worried but none tries to escape, all of them are captured by the sight of this fight.
Reaper Dex also smiles and he switched his reaper clothes to black leather trousers, with the [Dressing] skill. He´s now only wearing his mask and trousers. It´s good that he changed his hair colour to neon green.
But now he´s also sprouting his wings, and horns on top of that he get his claws and scales.
Drull chants a Tier 10 spell and a dark sword materialized itself in his hands.
The audience is still not escaping and both were grining before vanishing for the normal eye.
I fully know that most people don´t know their whereabouts and I scream,” Up in the air”.
Everyone is looking up and we were able to see Drull and Reaper Dex in a flight fight. Fireballs, wind swords , holy and dark spells flying from one side to the other.
Drull tries to cut Reaper Dex with his dark sword but got parried by Reaper Dexs claws.
Their onslaught kept going until Reaper Dex bursts the ceiling and summons a giant, burning meteor.
Drull began to laugh hysterically and shoots a few spells at the meteor but it has no effect.
He gets hit by it and I quickly erect a barrier around the arena, so that we will not get hit.
The meteor slams, with Drull, in the arena ground. A loud boom shatters a few eardrums and a blazing inferno hits against my barrier.
The dust settles and the arena is a burning, destroyed wasteland.
But there´s no Drull, so I look up and I am also not able to see Reaper Dex. They vanished.
“Where are they?”, someone asks.
“Gone, they vanished,” I said, as I felt that Reaper Dex dissolved himself.
His memories tell me that Drull will be at the mansion, waiting for us.
They taught that they can´t stop the fight normally, now that everyone saw them in their second form.
“Ähm, what a fight. Whoever made the barrier, I have to thank you,” The announcer said as he walked inside the arena.
“Ähm, where is contestant Bose? She didn´t materialized outside,” He asked worried and we heard a rumbling from the arena.
A hole gets opened and Ilza jumps outside of it.
“Is it over?” She asked.
“I think we have a winner!” The announcer screams.
“Told ya she´ll win,” Lina said with a broad grin....
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I used a lot of words, which I normally don´t use, hope they are right.
And I´m also not good with fights, I also hope it was good enough.