Crimson Eternal - Book 5 - Chapter 53

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't mind this fluff. It's so that free readers can't click on the link.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those of you who are reading this on a website that is not Patreon, please stop. You're reading a pirated version. Instead, if you would be so kind, please click on the table of contents link below and go to my Patreon instead. Or even read it off of Royal Road, which is free.

Discord Invite

Table of Contents and Weekly Schedule

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Click on the following link for the 1445 word chapter 53:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18U9sPXuiuj2vTP0s9EHFKmyup73DNGdYQMl9hemviYU/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aria

Hmm. Well, that wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to happen, but when I really think about it, it makes sense it would happen.

My entire body is made of death energy given a human form. So it makes sense that death energy wouldn’t be able to harm me.

It’s just too bad I couldn’t feed on that death energy to level up.

Unfortunately, the only death energy I can absorb into my body itself is the death energy let off by actual deaths.

Regular death energy like this just adds to my death energy stockpile. It doesn’t help me level up at all.

Of course, if I actually genuinely fought Raja in a genuine fight, I’d be on the losing side even if I can’t actually die. Simply because Raja is far stronger than me physically. Even without his magic.

But Raja clearly has no intention of ever fighting me seriously. Considering how he literally worships me like a god.

Anyway, after my ‘battle’ with Raja, the day’s matches are concluded. Since Pestilence won the match in the morning against the Grand Silvanian Emperor.

Without much difficulty at that.

Pestilence just kept healing himself with his poisons while whittling away the Grand Silvanian Emperor throughout the battle. All the way until he was declared the winner.

Meanwhile my father doesn’t have to battle and gets a free pass through the first round. Since there are nine competitors. Making for an imbalanced bracket.

From what I understand, they’re planning on selecting a random participant from round two to skip the second round just like they did for the first round.

In fact, they’re doing that in just half an hour.

So I sit in the VIP room for another half an hour before the MC finally announces the brackets with a large bracket tree shown on a screen at the center of the arena.

And this time the bracket starts with a match between my father and War, followed by a match between me and Pestilence. With my mother being the one getting the free pass this time.

I lean back in my seat as the crowd goes absolutely wild.

Not that I blame them. After all, this will have two matchups people are incredibly interested in seeing.

The first time my father, the newest Grand, will be showing himself fighting in public outside of the news. And a battle between two different Horsemen.

I can’t help but notice that my mother looks disappointed though. Which implies she actually wanted to fight.

That is rather amusing in and of itself.

I chuckle at the sight before quickly leaving the stadium for the day. Before any people with unpleasant intentions decide to bother me.

Like people with paperwork.

Because, while I may be able to deal with paperwork through magic now, that doesn’t mean I like paperwork.

So I immediately Gate myself all the way to the lovely café on Vortel.

The café I used to always go to back here at the start of the System and before it.

I smile as I enter the café and walk over to the corner before ordering some wine. Then I just sit down and relax while looking out the window at the falling snow outside. Since it’s currently winter on this planet.

And just like that, I spend the rest of the day relaxing at the café. All the way until I Gate to my ship for the night before returning to the stadium the next morning for the first match.

A match that begins with an explosive start. With my father flooding the entire arena with black and crimson lightning while War uses scarlet lightning to counter it.

It’s a battle of death energy lightning versus War energy lightning.

And it’s incredibly intense and exciting to watch.

It’s just too bad that my father is heavily outmatched in power. So the battle doesn’t last all that long before the judges decide to call it in War’s favor.

No one ever really expected my father to win though. No matter how sad that is.

He only just became known as a Grand after all. Meanwhile his opponent is a Horseman of the Apocalypse, who require multiple Grands to take down.

So he straight up had no chance from the start. This battle was simply to put on a show for the people. And to display his power and firmly set his image as a Grand in the eyes of the universe.

Anyway, after that battle, there’s a half an hour break before my battle with Pestilence.

Of course, when my father enters the VIP room for the exhibition brackets participants, he immediately begins sending me glances. Almost like he’s looking for praise or something from his daughter.

I ignore him while thinking about what my battle with Pestilence will end up turning into.

Neither of us can really harm the other.

I’m too weak to hurt him, and I can’t be hurt in the first place since I’m Death.

It entirely depends on how the judges determine the victor.

If they judge it based on the amount of damage dealt, Pestilence will be the victor. If they judge it based on who will eventually die first, then I will win.

There is one thing that bothers me about this matchup though.

Knowing Pestilence, he’s probably going to use this battle as a chance to experiment with his poisons. He may not even take the battle seriously and just focus entirely on an experiment of some sort.

Maybe even that age experiment of his.

I slightly grimace at the thought of being turned into a child again in the middle of an arena where we’re being broadcast all over the universe.

That’ll be embarrassing.

The only saving grace is that my outfit is enchanted to automatically fit me. So even if my size changes in the battle, my clothes will accommodate and change as well.

I glance past my sulking father at Pestilence to find him writing down notes on a terminal screen in front of him.

And when I look at said notes? I find it being about that very age reversal poison.

Yep.

This isn’t going to be fun.

And just as I expected, after I enter the battle with Pestilence half an hour later in the arena, the very first thing he does is use that poison. Sending an orange gas straight at me that instantly causes a wave of pain to flood me before I find myself reverting in age again.

The crowd immediately goes silent when they see the orange gas dispersing to reveal me sitting awkwardly on the floor of the arena in the form of an eight year old child. With my equipment having adjusted to fit my new size.

Then, just a few seconds later, the stadium erupts in noise as screams of adoration for my cute form echo from every direction.

I grit my teeth in irritation. Especially when I see Pestilence calmly writing down notes about the experiment.

Seriously?

I immediately release all of the death energy in my body, making a powerful wave of crimson and black energy flood the entire arena in an instant. While blowing away the notes Pestilence was writing.

Pestilence’s eyebrow twitches, seemingly in irritation.

But that’s all that happens. Other than him being pushed back ever so slightly just from the sheer amount of death energy.

I continue to ignore the cheers of adoration coming from the crowd – not to mention from my family who I can see taking numerous pictures from the VIP area – as I target Pestilence with all of the death energy released.

Or to be more specific, I target his notes. The very notes he was writing over the poison he just used on me.

Because I’m feeling petty.

When he sees his notes being destroyed, his eyes widen in surprise before he turns toward me in anger. All while pestilence energy begins to flood out of him to combat my death energy.

Making for a clash of deep sickly green and crimson and black energy that finally begins to crack the barrier around the arena.

With his energy winning out over mine simply because he is a higher level and he has a lot more energy than me from numerous years of building it up.

But that doesn’t change the fact that death energy is stronger in a direct clash.

So the gap in strength isn’t quite as large as it would be otherwise. And we continue to clash using our respective energies.

Finally marking the point at which our real battle actually begins.