Keilan stepped through a swirling portal, emerging onto the grounds of what the Verrille scion, Vanis, had called an arena.

To call this place an arena was an understatement, extremely so. Without any form of exaggeration, the place Keilan now stood on was unarguably larger than the miles-wide castle compound at Cirin.

Behind him, he noted, absentmindedly as the others of their new coterie stepped through, including the recent joinings. And despite his anxiety at the duel ahead, he couldn't help but smile at the uncontained exclamation of surprise from Damien.

His brother was, if anything, a good displayer of his emotions.

Aside from the ginormous space they now stood in, which stretched so far even his Spirit lord-enhanced senses failed to grasp the fullness of, the place looked so... Normal.

From above, Damien felt the heat from the sun as it bathed the entire arena in light, painting it a bright golden orange. And aside from that, dimly, he also sensed, more within his bones than senses, the large dome of energy hovering overhead, likely covering the entire arena. The power radiating from the stuff was enough to make his bones vibrate, thankfully at an ignorable level.

"Welcome to the arena Posenos," Vanis announced beside him, drawing the attention of both Keilan and Damien. "The greatest lord to mid-tier King arena in the core."

"Mid-tier Spirit King? That's the highest it can hold?" Damien choked just as his eyes boggled out. "I fail to fathom what a high-tier Spirit King arena looks like."

"Grow strong, and you'll find out," the man, governor Turen, said with a chortle as he walked up towards them.

Despite the advice coming off as somewhat of a joke, Keilan still took it with extreme seriousness. He would grow so strong containment would be a thing of impossibility when it came to him.

Keilan just hoped his injury healed fast enough so that he could go back to amassing power. His excitement at gaining a technique exclusive to beings so far above him that they were like the earth to a sun was beginning to wane and was soon turning into disgruntlement. Very soon Damien would begin ascending again, and Keilan would be left behind.

Honestly, he didn't understand why his brother still hadn't climbed into the peak tier of Spirit lord by now. It wasn't like he lacked the potential to do so, If anything, there was more than enough to climb and still reach the edge of the tier, but Damien still hadn't done so.

Oh, well. Keilan shrugged. Dumb as his brother might be, sometimes, he had to admit that Damien knew what he was doing; it was Keilan's job to simply trust in him and pull him out whenever he went deeper than he could handle.

The soft voice of Governor Turen snapped his attention back to the others. "The first part of this duel is between Spirit lords Keilan and Solis, and unlike how it is usually done, this would be a fight without the use of internal essence. As lord Vanis has commanded, the win condition for lord Solis would be the defeat of both brothers, while the Elason brothers only had to defeat the Verrille scion once to achieve victory."

Keilan didn't blink at the sound of his surname. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if some higher realm wielder somehow knew the meal he'd eaten at a certain point years ago."

"Both contestants should please take to the center stage," the man called without shouting. Everyone here were beings with senses that could, at most, catch conversations a mile away.

Keilan looked at his brother, meeting the worried gaze he saw there. He smiled comfortingly with a punch to Damien's shoulder.

"Don't get all sappy on me, Dame. I'm supposed to take that role, remember?"

Immediately, Damien's worry vanished, replaced with a scowl. "Lose and you won't hear the end of it."

"That's the Damien I know and love," Keilan laughed.

Turning away from his brother, Keilan took a deep breath and then walked forward, ignoring the mocking grin Solis threw his way as the other man levitated toward his position.

It took Keilan almost a minute before he got to his location, which he was certain was comfortable enough to be called the center.

Opposite him, a mile away, was Solis, who had already drawn his huge bastard sword with an exaggerated flourish and a sharp smile pointed at Keilan. On any other person, a look like that would have been sweat-inducing, but Keilan didn't mind; he simply glanced at his opponent with an expression carefully made to look intensely bored. Entitled brats like these hated those.

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And truly, it worked, seeing as Solis's smile immediately morphed into a scowl.

Keilan wanted to chuckle but held himself. Instead, he focused on the huge monstrosity on the other man's hands.

Like his brother, Vanis, it seemed he, too, had been gifted with an extremely powerful weapon. Just by looking at it, Keilan instantly deduced that anything of Spirit lord make would be very susceptible to destruction should it come in contact with the blade, his skin included, which instantly heightened Keilan's threat assessment of the other man. And that was even discounting the dozens of runes etched in rows on both sides of the blade. Like his brother, Keilan's knowledge on runic structure was basically non existent, which made any deduction of the rune capabilities null.

Keilan didn't fight the nervousness that crept up at that realization, but he didn't let it overwhelm him either. Instead, he took it, folded it, and then placed it into a corner of his mind, enough that he knew it was there without it interfering with his thoughts.

With a steadiness contrasting his size, Divine King Turen landed in the middle of both opponents, holding a leaf-shaped fan that hadn't been in his hands last Keilan checked.

With a casual wave, a subtle tremble rippled through the ambient essence, and then an earthquake began.

Keilan steadied himself and had to keep tighter control of his expression as the earth began breaking open, with multiple protrusions slowly tearing out.

First, they appeared as sharp pointy objects made with thickened earth essence, and when the rest of their mass came out, Keilan couldn't stop himself. His mouth snapped wide.

Right in front of his eyes, Keilan watched as massive mountains grew out of the earth, rising like germinated seeds imbued with an excess of nature's essence.

They began with a circle around the two duelers, forming a sort of ring with both fighters at the center. And then behind those ones, other mountains also began rising, getting taller the further they went, until Keilan's view of the horizon was soon blotted out by the humongous tips of some of the most gigantic mountains he'd ever seen.

After a few minutes, the earth finally settled, bringing with it a quiet stillness all around, even from the people who were no doubt familiar with all of this.

"At my mark, you will begin," Turen's voice drew Keilan back into the duel. The man raised his leaf fan to the sky, and Keilan breathed in.

He was injured, yes, but that didn't mean he was entirely defenseless. The rules said no internal essence use; it didn't say anything about an external one.

With a deeper breath in, Keilan unraveled his will, spreading it out, and his eyes widened in shock at the instant effects his will had upon the world.

He wasn't the only one who took notice, either, as through the euphoria that came with his will enveloping much more than he had ever taken in before, he sensed the gaze of everyone land on him.

Like a calm river, he felt the essence of the wind flowing through the world, essence and element together. Alongside it was the presence of the other elements as they also flowed through the world, something he'd never sensed before. Intuitively, Keilan knew he could touch them, command them into his bidding just like his own element. And this time he couldn't help but laugh, the sheer euphoria of it all engulfing him.

With a flex, he willed the essence of the wind into submission, and his grin widened at the sheer effortlessness it took.

Usually, the wind was an unruly element, unwilling to be caged, ever willing to be free. It constantly fought off all attempts at commanding it, which made his use of intent a struggle at best. Now though? Keilan smiled at the condensed wind essence he held in his hands. It wasn't as solid as a normal weapon, but he still felt its weight on his hands, like a leaf, a leaf with the power to level mountains.

He looked up at Solis, finding the man frowning in confusion while his eyes studied Keilan and the roiling wind spear in his hands.

Expecting a word from the man, Keilan raised an eyebrow when Solis said nothing, simply nodding with a serious face and a more careful arrangement of his sword.

"Begin!" Turen called just as he disappeared.

Keilan moved before his mind processed what he'd just done. His eyes watered at his shockingly new speed, twice that of his normal.

Solis met him in the middle with a calm warding swipe of his sword, which Keilan heeded. He halted with such force that the shockwave pushed the other man staggering back.

Keilan stepped forward, willing the wind to boost his speed a little. He grimaced when Solis met his strike again, catching it and redirecting it away from his shoulder with the flat side of his blade.

"Although your grip on the wind is strong, I can already tell your use of it is amateurish at best," Solis said while he retreated a few meters. The man spat onto the ground. "What a waste."

Keilan gritted his teeth but otherwise said nothing, because deep down, he knew Solis was right. He didn't have as much experience commanding the essence of wind compared to the other people he'd seen. And with another gritting of his teeth, this time in embarrassment, Keilan tore a book right out of Damien's page.

He and Solis clashed in a conflagration of wind and destruction. This time, instead of trying to wield the wind like a knife, Keilan slammed it down like a hammer.

Solis dodged just as a powerful gust of wind approached him, but Keilan was just a step behind. With his speed, he easily bridged the gap, surpassing it and reaching the other man just before he could halt his movement. Keilan stabbed forward, and instead of his spear tearing into skin, he willed in a wall of wind before the spear tip and then slammed it into Solis.

With a whoosh of air and the sound of something breaking, Solis was blasted backward, crashing with massive force into a mountain close by.

Through the thunderous sounds of boulders crashing, Keilan pushed forward, his spear leading the way. Thankfully, he hadn't attacked at full speed, which gave him room for an instant halt the moment he sensed it.

The smell that preceded the reappearance of the young lord sent shivers down Keilan's spine. Suddenly, the coppery smell of blood filled the air, with a faint red ting following.

Through the dust-filled mushroom cloud that shrouded the mountain Solis had crashed into, Keilan heard the voice, piercing through with a mad echo that forced Keilan to tighten his grip on his wind spear.

"I think, I am beginning to like you," Solis said just as the outline of his figure stepped through the curtain of dust, materializing into view. The man's eyes glowed with crimson madness the moment Keilan's eyes met him.

Fuck!