The next day, as Rieren joined the rest of the monsters at the stands, she wondered if Kalvia had arrived at her new goal. She could understand the Empress’s frustrations. What was life if there wasn’t something to look forward to, if there wasn’t a goal to keep on driving forward on and on?

The resoluteness with which Kalvia stepped into the arena gave Rieren a brief pulse of hope. Those were the steps of one who was sure of her purpose.

“Do you have a winner in mind already, Destroyer?” the Stifling Nebula asked.

“Not particularly,” Rieren said. “This one could go either way. I will be curious to see how they both perform.”

The Arisen nodded. “Once the battle is over, will you come train with me? My own fight is only a mere day away.”

Rieren nodded. “We can spar afterwards, yes.”

Monsters couldn’t look tense, but Rieren suspected that the Arisen was experiencing some sort of uncertainty. She would need to pay some attention to it during their training session.

“Please welcome our competitors for the day,” the commentator yelled. “Kalvia Zhouven, the future inheritor of the Elderlands’ throne!”

The crowd roared as Kalvia raised a band. From a self-proclaimed Empress to the inheritor of the throne now? Had they made it official? That would explain why the crowd was cheering harder than ever before. They were to see their future ruler in action, would see her face before it was shuttered away from them for the rest of time behind the imperial veil.

Rieren realized she probably should have asked Kalvia more personal questions the previous night, but ah well. They would have more opportunities eventually.

“And our other combatant, Galorian Markand, the first scion of the Markand Archnoble clan!”

Galorian looked flashy in silver robes trimmed with gold. He didn’t seem to have any weapons on him. Rieren could understand why he hadn’t cared to bring one in his previous battle, but surely this fight would require him to use a greater extent of his abilities. Was he that confident of his victory? No, he wasn’t that powerful.

The match official spoke with the combatants for a few moments before retreating, dropping his raised his hand as he did so. With a roar from the crowd, the fight began.

Kalvi was wasting no time. She summoned her Domain into being. Green energy flickered to life over the entire field, little saplings shooting out into the world from under the field.

Galorian wasn’t a single step behind her. He had called on his Domain too.

His one materialized as a greenish-yellow mist. It spread outwards from his location for about a dozen paces in radius. The danger zone that Kalvia would need to avoid. She wouldn’t be able to withstand Galorian’s powers within that mist.

Which, Rieren realized, would proactively prevent her from executing the same trick she had performed on Ledorne. An ability like that needed Kalvia to get close to her opponent. Galorian’s Domain was too powerful to risk an entry, even to execute a seemingly surefire way of ending the battle.

“Can’t figure out how to do your little tricks anymore, Empress?” Galorian taunted.

Instead of answering, Kalvia pulled her knife from her waist and pointed it at her opponent. A second later, her Domain materialized the same kind of ripping vines that Zhalen had used against Rieren.

It didn’t affect Galorian. As soon as the vines entered that lime-yellow mist around him, they were torn to shreds. It happened quite fast, but Rieren was able to catch the exact mechanism Galorian’s Domain used. The vapour solidified into dozens of hands which caught the vines, then tore the green tendrils apart like they were nothing more than cobwebs.

A powerful Domain. Just what one would expect from an Archnoble’s scion.

Galorian wasn’t content to sit back and take blow after blow. He rushed at Kalvia, intending to let his vapour tear her apart too.

She summoned a wall of forest trees in front of her to stop him. Galorian wasn’t stymied for long. As soon as his vapour touched the wooded barricaded, more of those hands reformed and simply began pulling apart the wood at an incredible pace.

Rieren had seen that Domain in action before. She was well aware that at a certain point in strength, it could even rip apart solid metal armour and rocks. While it was a curious question whether Galorian had progressed enough to do that kind of damage, it wasn’t relevant here. Kalvia used no metallic or earthen Aspects, nor did she wear any armour.

Despite the short time Galorian had been stopped, it was still enough for Kalvia to erect a far larger tree behind the ones she had already created. But she wasn’t able to take it to its full height. Galorian broke through her defence far too quickly.

Then his Domain began tearing through Kalvia’s main tree as well.

She jumped off, landing squarely behind him. Her tree continued shaking under Galorian’s assault. It wasn’t going to last long.

Rieren had thought Galorian would let it simply fall to the wayside and then resume attacking Kalvia directly. Instead, he chopped through the tree’s trunk and then lifted it up. Rieren wasn’t the only one surprised. All those little yellow hands in his Domain clearly possessed a great deal of strength to be able to raise an enormous tree like that.

Kalvia was rooted to her spot for a second in shock as well. It was only when Galorian swung the broken tree like a gigantic club that she acted. Or maybe, her response was measured. It needed her to wait.

Kalvia jumped right atop her own broken tree.

Then she ran along its trunk towards Galorian’s location. He swung it the other way, seeking to turn it over his head and crush Kalvia, but she just slid into position faster.

Rieren wasn’t certain what she was planning. She couldn’t hit him with his Doman around him. Not physically. Not directly. She had to have some other aim.

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But then Kalvia’s true goal materialized a second later.

She ended up dropping to the exact location where she had been aiming, just behind Galorian and his Domain. The tree slammed down right atop her position. Splinters went flying at the impact, the crash reverberating throughout the entire arena.

Everyone went hushed. Was that it? Had Galorian truly smashed down his opponent, potentially killing their supposed future Empress? That was impossible, right? There was no way the imperial clan or the Emperor would allow his successor to come to that kind of harm, even in a controlled environment like this.

The dead tree exploded to life. Its massive trunk split apart at the top, a new tree rising high in its place, growing taller in seconds. Too fast. Way too fast. How was it—Rieren realized the trunk of the broken tree was growing darker, more brittle.

Ah, so the new tree was pulling in matter and nutrients and life from the broken one. Not dead fully. Not yet. Just broken all too quickly.

“Can’t figure out how to counter this trick, Galorian?” Kalvia asked. She was far up in her new tree’s branches, which were spreading out to shade the entire battlefield with its canopy.

Galorian had been shocked enough to throw himself several steps back. His retreat had been instinctive. “You wish.”

He attempted to attack Kalvia’s new tree too, just as he had done the old one. But the problem was that there was far too much wood blocking his path. Most of the dead tree was intact. Combined with all the solid matter that his Domain’s hands were trying to break through and the initial surprise that had driven him back, Kalvia had more than enough time to enact her real move.

Her tree’s canopy glowed a brilliant green for a few moments. Then it began raining.

The drops weren’t regular water, of course. They were the same brilliant green that emanated from the boughs of Kalvia’s gigantic Domain summons. Rieren hadn’t seen this specific technique anywhere, but she had a sneaking suspicion she knew what exactly it was.

Her suspicions were proven right the next second when the strange rainfall made contact with Galorian’s Domain.

Kalvia was suppressing her opponent’s Domain.

As they watched, the green raindrops started storming down faster and faster. All the while, the lime-yellow mist around Galorian had begun dissolving to thin air, dissipating as though the rainfall was eating away at it.

“No!” Galorian shouted. “No!”

He stopped trying to get through and destroy Kalvia’s new tree, and instead attempted to retreat.

Not if Kalvia had anything to say about it. She had already dropped down from her high perch, landing at the exact position her opponent was hoping to go. Her knife flashed in her hands.

With a desperate yell, as the last of Galorian’s Domain dissolved around him, he tried to fight back. He threw a heavy punch at Kalvia. All it met was her knife. The curved edge, in fact. With a yelp, he pulled back his hand.

Granting Kalvia a clear opening to land the final blow.

She struck her knife hard at his chest. With a cry, Galorian went down, blood spilling from the wound Kalvia had delivered. She stood over him, and it took only a second or two for him to realize that there was no hope. Kalvia had won.

“Our winner of the bout,” the commentator yelled. “Is Kalvia Zhouven!”

The crowd cheered her name. Her last name. She was living up to her position as the heir to the throne.

Before Kalvia left, she once again nodded at the dignitaries’ stand. Then she nodded at the monsters’ stand as well. Rieren blinked. Now that was bold. The spectators continued cheering, but when Rieren looked around, she caught some people giving the monsters’ stand odd looks, especially those who were in the dignitaries’ stand.

“Will we now convene at our sparring location?” the Arisen asked.

Rieren nodded. “Yes. I will meet you there. I want to check something before I come over.”

She felt its stare boring into her back as she left. Perhaps it was getting a little too reliant on her training. Something she ought to excise when they sparred later on.

Once Rieren exited the arena, she tried to head to the other side and meet Kalvia. She didn’t succeed, unfortunately. At first, there was no sign of the future Empress anywhere. But after a while, when Kalvia did come out, she ignored Rieren completely. Surrounded by a small contingent if guards and other cultivators, she passed by Rieren while paying her no notice at all.

At least Rieren received some withering looks from the guards surrounding Kalvia.

There was no telling what was going through Kalvia’s mind at the time. Like with Amalyse, Rieren was a little stumped. Though, she supposed they hadn’t exactly parted with a promise that things were back to normal.

It made Rieren frown a little all the same. She felt they had made some progress last night, had regained some old measure of their former camaraderie.

And yet, Kalvia had ignored her completely.

There was clearly a deeper reason that she had ignored a monster. Perhaps she still didn’t want to give the impression that she was affiliated directly with them, despite the supposed intention of the current Emperor to grant the monsters a peaceful boon.

Deciding not to overthink things, she went to her sparring session.

The Arisen was raring to go when she got there. When they began fighting, Rieren didn’t need long to notice that its movements were frazzled, that its attacks were coming in wild and uncoordinated. Desperate.

Rieren deflected one of the starry blasts with Earthfall Blade, then swooped in close to deliver a hard kick to the Arisen’s midsection. With a heavy grunt, the monster fell back.

“What is the matter?” Rieren asked as her sparring partner rose back to its feet.

The Stifling Nebula considered her for a few moments. “There is a matter?”

“Your attacks. Your movements. They are all erratic. Thoughtless. I would almost think you are not taking this seriously, but there is far too much effort behind your blows for that to be the case.”

The stars within the Nebula part of its body glimmered lightly. “Let us go again, Destroyer. My thoughts were occupied elsewhere.”

Rieren tilted her head a little. A monster with occupied thoughts? And that too in the middle of a battle? She couldn’t recall if she had ever heard of one in such a state. Albeit, it was a mock fight. “Come at me, then.”

They resumed sparring. It went much as it had done moments ago. For all that the monster had given her an excuse, it had done nothing to correct the situation.

There was something else going on.

Floating claws of the Life Stifler part of its body tried to ram at Rieren, but she evaded them with ease. She didn’t even need Fray Passage to do so. Once she had gained another opening, she countered, sending the monster flying off its feet.

“Enough of this,” Rieren said, keeping her voice firm. “What is the matter? What has your mind so occupied? If you fight like this in your upcoming bout, you are destined to lose.”

The Arisen sat upright but it didn’t rise back to its feet. Instead, its many starry eyes stared at Rieren. “Are you suggesting that I have a chance if I focus then? Because your earlier thoughts made it seem as though there was no hope whatsoever.”

Rieren frowned. “What? When did I ever say that?”

“All through the tournament, you’ve said my opponent is one of the strongest participants there is. The cultivator with the paper is undefeatable. Too strong, too powerful. I am slated to lose, am I not? If that is the case, then what point is there in me continuing to fight? I might as well simply surrender now.”

Rieren stared at the Arisen. Of all the things she had considered dealing with, making a monster believe in itself was not one of them.

“Winning or losing is not all there is to the battles in the tournament,” Rieren said. “Would you be satisfied with yourself if you simply cowered away from fighting just because you thought winning is a hopeless endeavour? Would you be able to forgive yourself if you surrendered?”

The monster looked down. “I do not know if I can do this. I do not want to become another Darkstalker.”

“I fight to win. But do you know why I fight to win? Not because winning is my ultimate goal. There is more to my life beyond the Trials of Ascendance. Is there something more to your life beyond this tournament?”

The Arisen needed a long moment before it could answer. “I think there might be, yes.”

“Then think of that, and whether it is worth fighting for, regardless of your triumph or your defeat. The Darkstalker did not fight because it wanted to claim victory. The Darkstalker gave its all because its hopes, dreams, and wishes deserved that effort.”

It was impossible to tell just how much of an effect her words had upon the Stifling Nebula. But Rieren figured it was enough for one day. Now, they would just need to see whether it could actually fight when the time came.