For the life force assessment in the second round, the students had been allowed to use resonances. So, at the moment, one could see numerous transformations occurring across the entire stage.
The judges smiled wryly as the pressure increased to an overkill level, even for them. They had to help each other to not falter under the aura.
But as they were doing that, they suddenly felt a massive force join the fray. They all snapped their heads toward Arima's class and spotted the two princesses holding their hands. They both had an almost identical appearance as well; they were like two twin harpies. But what shocked them wasn't their appearance but their combined aura that could even rival theirs.
On top of that, they also perceived two other auras at the ninth level. It was common knowledge that the more you go up, the harder it is. For example, going from level seven to level eight could take a year, but then going from eight to nine could take five years.
The judges were very aware of that and that's why they were dumbfounded to see such powerful individuals under the age of eighteen. They seriously began to consider requesting Arima to be their mentor.
Even Raal couldn't help but wonder how strong he could become if he were to let himself be taught by Arima. Karia smiled wryly and started counting the score of the classes by herself, waiting for her colleagues to wake up from their daze.
It took the jury ten minutes before they signaled the students to stop.
"Okay, I'll announce the results," Raal announced.
"Group A: …290; 2.9," He actually hesitated before giving the Arima's class's score but he then continued on with the other classes.
"Group B: 269; 2.69."
Velvet's class wasn't bad either but, in these circumstances, the difference between group B and group A was rather significant.
"Group C: 274; 2.74."
Olien's class was surprisingly above Velvet's as one of his students was at the ninth level.
"This concludes the life force evaluation. Now, only group A will remain on the stage. You will be evaluated on aura and killing intent control once again since resonances can improve these types of variables."
"Group A will be evaluated first. The class with the highest score will receive three points, the second place will get two and the third will obviously get one point. As you all know, by the end of the competition, the class with the most points will win. After, of course, taking the multiplicators into account."
The students nodded and a few minutes later, only Arima's class was still on the stage. They unleashed their spiritual forces without wasting any time. Raal observed them and grinned when his eyes fell on Kine. He was a Blood Eater himself. He was quite happy to see a kindred demon and her improvement.
It was the same for Airon. His control over his killing intent was a lot deeper. Gaodu's overall control was also really impressive. And that wasn't all of it, the control displayed by Ofia and Lena was almost perfect.
"Enough, you can stop," Raal declared and the students sighed before dispelling their resonance and getting their spiritual forces back inside their bodies.
"Next group; the results will be given at the end," Karia announced and group A left the stage to leave place for Velvet's class. The control they showed was quite beautiful as well. The judges reacted very positively to it but nothing really stood out.
Then, afterward, it was the last group's turn. When those students released their spiritual forces, the judges' eyes narrowed and almost all of them jumped away. They couldn't react at what they had just done since it was completely on instinct.
Raal and Karia were definitely the strongest judges there and were the only ones who managed to keep their calm. They both scowled at a certain student. His expression was impassive and his eyes empty, even his body language only demonstrated dullness and indifference. He was the one who had revealed an aura at the ninth level during the precedent test. And the scariest thing was that he didn't use any resonance to reach that level.
But even considering his impressive life force, the killing intent he was exuding was too powerful for a teen. He didn't even care about controlling it. He just purely and carelessly released his entire bloodlust.
Arima glanced at the kid and frowned. That kind of killing intent wasn't really remarkable to him but it was kind of startling. He was just confused since that intensity would require someone to kill hundreds if not thousands of people.
"Stop," Raal ordered with a darkened expression and the class promptly withdrew their spiritual forces. Raal then beckoned the other classes to come back whilst nodding at Karia. She stepped forward and started announcing the results.
"The ranking is as follows; A, B and… C." It was ironically in the alphabetic order but it didn't amuse anyone as they knew if this were an evaluation on killing intent intensity, the third class would have won without a doubt. Merely with that single student's performance.
"The points will be attributed; A: 3, B: 2, and C:1," Karia said and a light projection in the sky appeared to display the numbers.
"Next. We'll continue right away with magic theory. The order will be the same. Class A will pass first," She added and the tournament continued without anyone mentioning anything about group C's anomaly.
For that particular evaluation, there wasn't any surprise. Arima's students had spectacular theories and easily won as their teacher had predicted. The two other classes unexpectedly tied and ended up both in second place.
Thus, the points were updated; "A: 6, B: 4 and C: 3."
Raal quickly read them aloud then called the teachers separately. He talked to them about how the core manifestation was going to be graded. This time, only one student from each class was going to be assessed. The teachers were therefore supposed to pick a student and send him on the stage.
Arima chose Gaodu. Velvet chose a female student of hers who was named Mila. And predictably, Olien chose the student with the astounding killing intent named Yrion.
The first one to pass was Gaodu. Once on the stage, he invoked his inheritance without any hesitation. He was rapidly surrounded by a divine aura and his appearance changed in consequence.
Arima watched this and mused. It was a similar situation to Chronepsis'. Dionysus is supposed to be one of the strongest and popular gods of Greek mythology, not far from Zeus and Poseidon themselves. But Chulainn confirmed that Dionysus never became a Heavenly God in his lifetime.
Arima had already confirmed if Dionysus's soul had completely fused with Gaodu's, leaving no doubt. But also found out something else in the process. Dionysus was still a proud God and a fairly unique one. Although his strength wasn't at the Heavenly Realm, his abilities and persona were at the level of a Heavenly God.
That's why; the moment Gaodu commenced his core manifestation, two different lights appeared around him. It wasn't one, but indeed two cores.
Everyone was shocked at the sight and even Cekrad stood up with squinted eyes. Although the two cores were not fully matured or exceptionally pure, there were still two of them which was more than rare.
As everyone was gawking at the cores, the manifestation resumed and the entire arena became covered in vines. A pleasant fragrance invaded the air and a pink colored fog emerged from Gaodu's body.
The manifestation spread throughout the arena and reached the benches where the teachers were. Raal was quite surprised as he observed everything unfold. The arena was actually quite big. If we carefully measure the distance the manifestation went through, it would be around a mile from Gaodu as a starting point.
Raal waved his hand and Gaodu nodded before retrieving his cores. Once his manifestation disappeared into pink and white particles, Raal signaled Mila to step in without waiting for anyone to recover from their shock toward the double core.
"Yes!" The girl responded and walked to the center of the arena and inhaled. Her core soon formed beside her. When Arima glimpsed at the core, he smiled as he glanced at Velvet.
The judges and Cekrad also showed a similar reaction. Their expressions were a bit odd, but it definitely was not mockery, far from it. They were instead congratulating her to have found such a talent.
Mila's core was indeed special. To be exact, its form was special. The core wasn't spherical like the others but had the shape of a prism. Its size was also quite significant, a lot larger than Gaodu's cores at least.
It simply meant that she had a bigger and purer mana pool. Her core's form though was very special. It was a unique constitution that signified one would naturally have purer mana than others. These kinds of people are also renowned to recover mana at a high rate.
Her manifestation then finally began. All around her, flowers started blooming endlessly until they reached a distance equal to Gaodu's.
Raal nodded and told her to stop. The flowers promptly turned into petals and then vanished as they were blown away by the wind. It was then Yrion's turn to go.
As he stood in the center of the arena, he crouched down and suddenly punched the ground. He buried his fist and closed his eyes. His mana then started flowing out of his body and the ground shook. From the underground, countless stone spikes emerged and like a wave, they reached the benches and even beyond.
Arima and Cekrad both acted at the same time and shielded the students and the spectators from the threatening spikes. Following that, Yrion pulled his hand back and released a shining red core within the same motion.
Arima glanced at the core and snickered. It was as he expected. That kid's soul was bathing in so much blood and killing intent that it had unsurprisingly nurtured his core similarly. As proof of that, from the tip of the earth spikes, ethereal blood started flowing although it hadn't pierced anything.
"That's enough," Karia raised her voice slightly and Yrion ended his manifestation. Instead of disappearing though, the spikes retracted and returned underground.
When that happened, Cekrad waved his hand and repaired the arena in the blink of an eye. The judges concerted together afterward and then the results were given by Karia.
"The first place for this test goes to group C. The second place is tied since we deemed the two to be equal."
The points were now; "A: 8, B: 6, and C: 6."
"So, it's now, huh?" Arima muttered as the next test was announced. He glimpsed at his students' anxious expressions and mused. Indeed, the ensuing test was what worried the students and teachers the most; magic control.
Arima slowly stood up and before he even was completely standing, he had already teleported near his class. The two other teachers also went to see their students.
"I already told you about the important aspect earlier. Now, I will just give you something to go through this," Arima said. "I put it in my books but it's not something that is easily learned. That's why," he smirked. "We'll cheat a little," he declared and snapped his fingers.
Suddenly, his class and himself disappeared. Cekrad's eyes widened and he instantly turned toward Arima's group for answers.
"It's okay," Night smiled, doing his best so that his expression wouldn't betray him. "He just needs to talk privately with them for a minute."
Cekrad raised an eyebrow but still nodded. Barely half a minute later, Arima reappeared along with his class before returning to his seat as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, his students stepped on the arena with a really peculiar feeling. If you looked closely, you would see some of them were holding back their laughter.
"How long?" When Arima sat down, Chulainn impassively asked.
"Well, not much. Maybe twenty hours or so," Arima replied and his whole group chuckled together.
"That's not fair though. I thought you wouldn't do that," Night remarked and Arima chortled.
"I could have done any time before anyway. This is just to make sure of a few things. On top of that… considering our opponents, it's not that unfair. Don't mind about the details, just appreciate the show," He lightly laughed.