At the first Lagrange Point, a place between the Earth and the Sun where the gravitational pulls of both celestial bodies were equal, a strange spaceship made out of twisted flesh and tortured muscle squatted, like a parasite upon creation. It technically did not need the orbit denying influence of the Lagrange Point to stay stationary there, but it made the cost in fuel a bit lower than normal.

It drew power from the ritual sacrifices of thousands of prisoners that were held within the myriad of storage devices that were strewn across the ship. They had created storage devices similar to stasis chambers just for this purpose, but without the effect of shutting down the minds of the inhabitants. Being nothing more than an untethered mind for hundreds of years in the void quickly turned most of the prisoners to madness, which only increased their energy potential.

Each of them had been a disciple of the Minorian Sect who had failed in their missions. The members of that profane sect did not even receive a single chance to redeem themselves after failure. No, this was the instant punishment for such a crime against the sect’s reputation and honor. They were fed into the ship’s Dao engine, a creation by one of the higher ups in the sect that converted Dao aligned energy into pure power that would be used to propel the ship. This being a ship belonging to the Minorian sect, the Dao energy was that of Pain.

On the bridge of the ship, Salvinious Relk’s supervisor, the man who had been informed of the presence of a promising being on this planet by his subordinate, stood. He looked down at the small blue and green orb that hung in the firmament, feeling a tiny bit of interest at the sight. Earth was a markedly different planet than most within the civilized Multiverse, which were invariably vast conglomerations of endless urban sprawl. He was keeping a watchful eye on Reaper, to see if he truly was worthy of joining the sect.

For a cultivator like him, it was almost trivial for him to extend his aura sense down to the planet’s surface and into the tournament. The man laughed as he saw where it was, inside a pocket of open space deep within the crust of the planet. The System never failed with its intriguing initialization tournaments themes, and this one was one of the better ones that he had seen.

He took a seat on a chair that was lined with jagged spikes and complete with a localized gravity well to increase the pressure. Letting out a small sigh of pleasure, he reclined backwards. For a powerful Pain cultivator, this chair was like a balm to the soul. Ignoring that for now, he kept watching the fight as it began. Baltus Agranor was nothing if not a patient man. That was for things that were out of his control of course. Everything else that dallied was a personal affront to him.

Back within the arena, Sam and all the others in the audience were transfixed by the beginning of the most anticipated fight in the tournament yet. Reaper was a quickly rising power within the world, and this would be the battle to see if he had what it took to hold his own. It was unlikely that he would beat the Overlord, but his showing here would be what determined his final ranking. Fighting well against the strongest man on Earth while still losing was far more impressive than beating a weaker opponent.

The audience went still as the Overlord took a step forward.

“So, Reaper, I have heard a lot about you and your power, even felt it. Now let us see if you can match that in a real fight!” The Overlord was drumming up the passions of the crowd to fuel his Dao, and Sam could see that it was working. Streams of ethereal Dao energy coursed down into the Overlord, making him light up with power. His mask started to glow as the energy entered his body, and the snarling demon’s face took on an eerie hue. The entire time, Reaper gazed on with a cold look on his face, one of a man who has realized the most fundamental truth about life. That it cannot exist without death.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Reaper held out one arm, and summoned a spectral scythe to it, one so densely packed with ectoplasm that it was basically a physical object. The ectoplasm allowed for the cutting edge to be far sharper than that of a normal weapon, while maintaining peerless durability.

A pure black suit of plate armor rose up from the ground around Reaper and began to attach itself to his body. This was no transparent conglomeration of ectoplasm, but a solid suit of conceptual energies, wrought out of Reaper’s Dao and his elemental energy.

The Overlord started to hype himself up for the match, building up his stores of ego by flexing for the audience. The cheers of his supporters added even more fuel to the fire that was his Dao. The only question was now, how many hits would it take to knock Reaper out of the game? The betting board appeared in the middle of the arena for some reason, and Sam saw the audience begin to mess around with their System interfaces. Sam wished that he could bet on the matches, but as a competitor, that sort of behavior was banned. Besides, he would be walking out of this with a hefty payout in any case. The Overlord finished grandstanding and got ready to attack.

When the battle commenced, he moved like a flash, so pumped up on Dao energy that his movements were a blur, even to Sam. He appeared directly in front of Reaper, and punched forwards, his hand coated in energy. To everyone’s surprise, Reaper dodged. Sam had seen what the man had really done, which was not as impressive as it had looked, which was to read the Overlord’s movements before he had started punching, allowing him to predict where the fist would land so that he could move out of the way in time. If he had not done this, he would have been pancaked by that attack.

A gust of wind blew up a storm of sand as the energy of the punch faded, and Reaper counterattacked. His scythe whipped around like a serpent, and the very tip cut into the Overlord’s mask. The item must have been made out of something special, as it didn't even crack, but the scythe was still able to cut smoothly into it, drawing a single drop of blood. Sam watched as the Dao energy surrounding the man dimmed slightly. The Overlord growled and lashed out with his right fist, grabbing onto the scythe. It must have burned his hand and Sam could hear the sizzling, which had been amplified by the speakers for some reason, but if he felt any pain, he did not show it.

“The devious actions of Reaper have allowed him to achieve first blood! Will it be enough to prolong his defeat? Only time will tell.”

Sam nodded. The System was definitely interfering, as shown by the flare of Dao energy around the Overlord.

“Hey, Lao?” Sam called out.

“So you noticed it too?”

Sam nodded.

“His Dao energy is being artificially increased by the System. It seems to have some sort of vested interest in this fight.”

Eduardo frowned.

“What? I don’t see anything.”

Sam looked at Eduardo.

“You don’t have a Dao yet, so you can’t see what's going on. Though, by the looks of your aura, you’re getting close.” Sam raised his finger to cut off Eduardo as the battle went into full gear below them.

The Overlord shuddered as the new power entered him, and he tightened his fist around the scythe. Reaper tried to wrest it free, but the other man was too strong. With a roar, he shattered the scythe between his fingers, creating an explosion of black light that forced him back a few steps. Blood ran freely from Reaper’s nose as his connection to his skill was shattered. He grunted and then took a step back, dodging another strike from the Overlord. The man’s fist slammed down into the ground, sending a cloud of sand ten feet into the ground. It fell like coarse yellow rain around the two fighters, obscuring the view of the audience. The dust cleared to reveal the Overlord with his hands around Reaper’s neck.