Four months passed by peacefully, after Sin had claimed his dominance as top dog. The beginning phase of the tournament, where normally hundreds will die. There were no more life threatening casualties, except for a lot of broken pride and bones. But hey, that's a pretty damn good situation all in all.
The six representatives had also begun getting all buddy buddy with Sin. However, that was all a front they were playing. On the third night, Sin made a 'surprise' visit to bea- I mean put them in their place. If there was one thing Sin hated more than brown nosers, it was those who would suck up with ulterior motives.
If it weren't for their status, Sin had no qualms about getting rid of these representatives at sea. But that was just a small thought in his mind, what truly excited him was the tournament.
With his newly made brother Arcuz, who knew a lot more than most people should know. Sins engine and battle lust had all been revved up. But for now, Sin spent this period of four months swapped with Midnight Reaper. Vigorously training himself, Lan, Alannah and Samara.
While his stats had no big improvements, the time he spent digesting his master's Sword Heart was very crucial. Sin passed along his Withering Sword Dance, and the two new forms he created within this period of time. It had become a public ability, something all could learn without any merit or contribution points needed.
Sin had also given a copy of his Refinement Method to Lan, Samara and all 240 elders that now controlled over 90,000,000 people.
Sin gave the 240 elders, Alannah, Samara and Lan a drop of his blood.Samara was able to rank up to God tier. However, no one else was able to elevate theirs. This had brought Sin to a conclusion, Alanmah and Samara are both a part of his bloodline. Where else the other elders, and Lan did not have Sins bloodline in them. However, in the end they still managed to reach Divine rank for their Refinement Method, giving them an extreme boost in power, as well as the authority to pass it down to 120 excellent individuals per year.
During this time, Sin had gotten Alannah and Samara out of their sleep habits. Both girls now cultivated their Refinement Method religiously. Sin had also given them a new habit, to cultivate under the starry night sky every night. This allowed them to absorb very small amounts of starlight, but further increased the efficiency of their cultivation, and would enrich their Mana over a long period of time.
Sin had gotten inspiration on his last night, thick beams of starlight poured down. Sins Mana hungrily devoured it, while in his mind concepts of conducting starlight were flooding in.
Back on the deck of the ship, Arcuz was looking at the vast and turbulent waters in the sea. Maybe it was a hint, or it was the feeling of pain he thought he lost, but hearing his little sister berate him. The lid that choked his emotions down like they were an evil surprise, finally gave out.
Looking up at the starry night sky, Arcuz sensed the thick starlight energy building up. Eventually, shooting stars and comets began raining down from the sky. A phenomenon that was new to this world.
Arcuz felt a sharp and overwhelming Sword Qi burst out from the lounging cabin. A hexagonal formation appeared in the sky, funneling thick and pure starlight energy down into Sins fleshly body, and Soul Weapon Kaiser.
Sins body became ethereal, and floated out from the lounging cabin. A brilliant sea of twinkling stars, stardust and comets flew about Sins body in a 25 meter distance. The starlight poured into Kaiser, enhancing the sharpness of the blade, and the sword spirit. Stars fell down from the sky, They became the size of an adult's palm. The stars engraved themselves onto the blade of Kaiser.
Sins Refinement robe disappeared, leaving his figure completely exposed. Thick starlight energy wrapped around Sins Refinement robe, forming a cocoon.
While these changes were happening in both Scion Milkyway, and this galaxy Sin had fallen into. The beings from the higher domains felt the disturbance also, the main palace of the Infernal Keep began rumbling.
The should be extinct race that nearly wiped out the higher domains and lower domains, began waking up. The 750,000,000,000 years of slumber had come to a grinding halt. And this all started with one man, and two children.
Three hours passed, Sins body floated back down into the lounging cabin. Whereas back in the Desolate Kingdom, Alannah and Samara entered into a state of enlightenment.
Feeling the changes within his daughters, Sin left a note for them filled with starlight energy locking the content. If they had improved as much as he gauged them to, they would get the note and their next meeting would be in one week.
Sin took a look at the timer on the Spirit Container.
[The required time of rebirth for those in the Soulless Body Container has been cut in half. 3 years, 4 months, 26 days remaining.]
Sin was both relieved, but also reminded of his own weakness once again, Sin thought to himself.
[Soon my precious wife and little sister. I wonder, will the both of you hate me for my selfish actions back then?]
After swapping back with Midnight Reaper back to his own body, Sin noticed Arcuz and Acacia both eyeing him weirdly. Sin lightened up the tension that was slowly building and said.
"Don't tell me entering that state made me a woman? Brother Arcuz, do I have a big rack of breasts that appealing to your eyes?"
Arcuz soon began laughing, he looked at Acacia with a tired look and secretly communicated.
"Has this mother fucker always been like this? I'm regretting becoming brothers with him now."
Acacia laughed out loud heartily. "From my looks, I'd say you also gained the magic hole that tempts all men."
Sin looked down in fright, seeing his naked body and trunk still dangling with pride. Giving it a couple slaps and taps, Sin confirmed his fear was for nothing.
Putting on a spare pair of clothes Sin let out a hearty sigh.
"Brother Arcuz let's go and look out at the starry night, don't you feel your heart pounding? It almost feels like some ancient calamity has woken up."
The rest of the night passed, Sin and Arcuz gazed endlessly at the starry sky. With his new starlight energy, and enhanced Mana. Sin caught movement of an aura that made him quiver in his combat boots. Although for a mere fleeting second, Sin saw a future 10,000 years from now of his own powerless demise.
As dawn began rising, Sin was dead silent and mentally shaken. The terror, anguish, and trillions of haunting souls he felt for a mere second rattled his mind.
Arcuz was also dead silent, except he felt his entire kingdom threatened. The portion of the Infernal Keep he sealed away, began showing signs of rebellion and breaking the chains one by one.
Each snap he heard made his heart quiver. Arcuz happened to look at his left, he met eye to eye with Sin. Despite not knowing each other for long, both men knew they saw the same bleak future awaiting them. But neither of them could ever guess, Sin had awoken monstrosities that would soon descend to the lower domains in 10,000 years time.
------------------------
The sun hung high in the sky shining and blazing in its own glory. The ship had finally arrived at the divine continent, and it was the last out of 350,000.
The voice of Berlin, the head of the representatives sounded throughout the ship.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to announce we have safely arrived on the divine continent. Please exit the ship in an orderly manner, you will have guides to bring you to your destination. Do not mindlessly wander where you're not wanted."
Sin, Acacia and Arcuz led the pack as they got off the ship. Sin could feel the dense Mana in the air. It made him feel like he was a fish swimming in water.
Quickly guides came forward, one came to Sin and said. "Mister Raizen, this is your Mercenary Badge. For each competitor you kill, it will automatically add to your points. I will be your guide, we are going to the central square of the divine city. The Emperor himself will explain the preliminaries."
Sin followed behind his guide, and they made their way to the central square. After the guide stopped, Sin and the guide stood side by side. Sin let his Mana wander out of his body, in mere moments Sin had counter 750,000 participants present, and that number was speedily increasing.
After standing in silence for two hours, the final participant count was 4,650,000. What surprised Sin was he couldn't sense Arcuz amongst those in the crowd. It was like he simply vanished, despite leaving the ship with him and Acacia in tow.
A heart stopping aura surged out, a middle aged man with an imposing barbarian build appeared on the main stage. Behind him stood a 7 kilometer tall scarlet rakshasa.
The Emperor raised his hand, all the nearby hushed voices were shut quiet. No matter how anyone tried, they couldn't talk or make a single movement.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am the 250th generation Imperial Emperor Ragenitus. I bow to you and thank you all for participating in my tournament. Out of 25,000,000 participants, you are all the cream of the crop. Millions have died or been killed along their way here. This concludes the entrance stage of the tournament."
Emperor Ragenitus snapped his fingers, a teleportation channel appeared behind him. His voice sounded out again explaining.
"This time, with the resurgence of the King Of Mercenary tournament, I am spicing things up and changing some things. For your preliminary competition, you will all enter the battlefield behind me. It is a separate world I made within this dimension, your goal is simple. Kill all those who stand in your way, the preliminary competition will last for three years and 5 months."
"Now I will make this very clear. I have written a contract for all matriarchs and patriarchs to sign. Whether these hired mercenaries come from your clan, or hired outsiders. Whatever they do inside the separate world, has nothing to do with your personal matters. Thus this contract explicitly states."
1) You may not act out of hand for revenge, if your representative dies that is due to their weakness.
2) You are not able to hire outsiders to kill for you, if you do. I will personally erase your soul, karma, and chance of reincarnation will be wiped clean from all universes.
3) If any outside organizations these mercenaries come from look for answers. With your signature, they understand I will wipe them out of existence for breaching my rules.
4) The strong will survive, and the weak will die.
"If you understand my rules, you may contact those organizations and tell them my rules. And if you don't, you can fuck off. And let me make myself clear. If ANYONE has the courage to make a stink before me, I will kill you where you stand. Be smart, not dumb you maggots!"
Emperor Ragenitus snapped his fingers, a clock timed for two minutes appeared behind him.
"This is how much time you have to decide, any who do not sign within the given time, or those who walk out now are disqualified immediately."
Within a matter of two minutes, 575,000 were disqualified. They were taken away by their guides, but there were many hot heads who got angry, and began making a scene. But that was quickly taken care of by Ragenitus. The ones who made a stink, vanished from existence no longer able to go through the cycle of rebirth.
Ragenitus voiced out once again. "I made myself crystal clear did I not? I don't believe I stuttered when I mentioned the consequences. Well no matter, ladies and gentlemen I formally declare the preliminaries begin!"
The crowd began getting crazy, there were over 4,000,000 participants. Each and every person was more hot blooded than the other. Ragenitus went off stage and vanished, but no one had the guts to be the first to go through first.
Sin flashed up to the stage, and stood in front of the portal with his back facing the crowd. Raising his middle fingers up he yelled out.
"See ya later you pussies! Early bird gets the worm!"
Sin flashed into the portal, Ragenitus who just changed looks back into Arcuz saw this all go down. He cursed like Tech N9ne within his mind, but he soon acted as well.
Arcuz called out to Sins disappearing figure. "Brother, you can't honestly want to take all the fun for yourself do you?"
Making it in time, Sin and Arcuz clasped wrists with each other. And both had a mutual understanding with each other. They were both painting a huge target on their back. But they both knew the chaos they were going to stir up, was well worth being the main targets.
After Arcuz and Sin entered into the separate world, the others on the outside began stirring like an enraged bees nest.
Hundreds began flocking into the separate world at top speed. The whole crowd was sent ablaze.
Sin and Arcuz floated in mid air 75 meters away from their entrance point. Both men fist bumped each other.
Arcuz said to Sin. "You truly know the tried and proven true method to kick start things. When those enraged pests come through, make sure you save some for me to kill brother."
Sin laughed hearing Arcuz' words and replied. "No promises, I know hiding within that lanky exterior is a caged beast like mine. If you want your fair share, you had better work for it."
A minute passed, and tens of participants were flooding in each second. Sin smiled viciously as his body became ethereal, stars, comets and stardust formed a circle around Sins current state.
Transmitting his voice to Arcuz he explained. "If you want to avoid friendly fire, I suggest you stay within the diameter of my ring."
Sin flew forward, changing Kaiser into its Great Sword form. Thick starlight covered the blade, the thickness of it increased by 6 inches, and length by 11 inches.
The engraved stars on Kaisers blade became active, although it was the middle of the day. The stars were conducting and pulling starlight energy down.
The word Emperor on Kaiser blazed with a majestic golden aura, perfectly combining with the starlight energy making the deadly blade enchanting to look at.
Sin flew forward, with a single slash with Kaiser, a beam of condensed moonlight energy shot out. Decapitating thirty new arrivals, Arcuz pulled out one crimson red blade, and another cyan blue. Rotating both his wrists together, Arcuz' dual swords formed a high speed fan.
Charging forward through forty participants, all of them had been cut up into chunks of flesh falling from the sky. Arcuz let out a cocky smile and yelled out.
"That's forty for me compared to your thirty brother, you better step up your gam-"
Arcuz was interrupted as Sin held the hilt of Kaiser, stabbing down with it onto the sky boundary. A massive blue-white cross formed in the air. It's aura expanded and it quickly became a 300 meter tall cross.
[Mystic Sorcery: Sanctuary Cross!]
Over 350 figures were enveloped within, blood, organs, guts, intestines, rained down from the sky onto the land below.
Sin raised his right hand up, putting it behind his ear as he said back to Arcuz.
"What I couldn't hear you, that's my 380 kill count to your 40. You'd best step up your game brother!"
Arcuz grinded his teeth in humiliation, he the mighty Emperor Ragenitus, had never been mocked by his generation, let alone a kid like Sin.
Arcuz' aura spiked several notches, Sin felt like he was suffocating from it even though he was 6 miles away. Sin called out once again provoking Arcuz.
"Did I touch a nerve? Well prove to me you aren't a little bitc-"
Arcuz slashed out with his dual swords, two crescent sword beams cut through 2,000 participants like a hot knife through butter.
"Fuck you brother, you instigated this!" Both men yelled back and forth, clearly competing over who has the higher kill count.
Sin and Arcuz went on a killing spree, both men were egging each other on. The flow of the participants was steadily increasing. Now there were over 75,000 within the separate world.
All of them were holding a deep grudge against Sin and Arcuz. Both of these two crazy bastards were having a competition that concerned their survival. It was only day one, yet they had already taken the top two places. This had indeed made these ruthless mercenaries, group up to fight against the two killing machines.
A man came out in front of the group of participants, and quickly rallied them all together.
"I am Alistar the disciple of the Saint Sword Master Kreuzen. Ladies and gentlemen these two ruthless pieces of shit have been killing us like live stock for no good reason. Under my leadership, we can all power through these mother fuckers, and then split our separate ways. But before that, we must fuck these bastards up!"
The battle-crazed participants took notice of Alìshard. Putting their pride away, they all knew Alistar had the might to control their group.
Sin looked over in Arcuz' direction, both men nodded towards each other.
Arcuz flashed behind Sin, with his back against Sins back. Both of their energies began synergizing with each other. Before long, their energies became a knot together. Interwoven together forming a perfect link.
Sin used Void Steps, and flashed behind Alistar. With his left hand holding half way down the hilt, Sin knelt down and began vibrating his body. With the created momentum, Sin sprung up thrusting the pommel of the hilt, into Alistars sacrum. A loud crunch was heard with Alistar being blasted into the air.
Sin called out. "Now!"
Arcuz who had been moving in perfect sync with Sin, separated from Sin's back and used a technique with his stored up power.
[Dual Abyss: Icy Inferno!]
A vacuum column shot out, trapping thousands of participants within. Both elements which were in perfect sync with each other, became berserk within moments and clashed against each other.
Ice and fire caused a thick fog to coat the area around the entrance. A crystalline tree was created, its roots wrapped around various frozen menciles and womcicles. A raging fire ball hit the crystalline tree.
[Dual Element Crusade!]
Sin spit out a glob of condensed lightning energy, Sins eyes sparkled brightly, and currents of lightning sparked overtop his body.
Sin zig zagged as he slashed Alistars body open, reaching the top of the lightning formation. Sin accelerated slashing downwards splitting Alistars body in half.
[Mystic sorcery: Lightning Grand Cross!]
Alistars' still conscious mind became devoured by the lightning, his body turned into ash that was blown across the entrance from the raging winds.
Sin noticed Arcuz was trapped within a formation of 100,000 participants. Sin flashed covering Arcuz with his arms spread out. A blazing saber became embedded into Sins chest down to his abdomen.
Sin punched out, blowing the attacker into bloody bits. Placing his palm on Arcuz' wounded shoulder, and putting his index and middle finger to his forehead. Sin declared loudly before disappearing in a blinding ray of light.
"If Goku can do it, so can I, see ya later mother fuckers!"
Moments after, Alistars master who was inspecting his back room heard a sharp snap. Turning his head backwards slowly, his face became deathly pale before being overrun with rage. His master bellowed loudly as he shot forth to the divine city.
"WHICH MOTHER FUCKER DARES TO KILL MY DISCIPLE!?"
Ragenitus, who had created Arcuz as a clone, intercepted the Saint Sword Master halfway to the preliminary world.
"You as well as everyone else heard my rules, if you dare take another step forward. I will wipe your entire sect off the face of our galaxy!"
Sword Saint Kreuzen let out a loud bestial roar. Charging back to the back mountains of his sect. An overwhelming Sword Qi erupted devouring 1,000 miles worth of land. Knowing that Emperor Ragenitus was a man who kept his word, and wouldn't act unless someone crossed the line he drew. Sword Saint Kreuzen was smart, and let out his billowing rage in the land that belonged to his sect.
Blood began rolling down the side of Ragenitus' mouth, wiping it away and began appraising Sins sense of honour.
"A man who can sacrifice his well being for his brothers, I take it back Grand Warrior Sin. Despite the massive bridge separating our social status, you are a worthy brother indeed!"
Elsewhere, Sin and Arcuz appeared in a hidden cave. Sin's Withering Sword Dance surged out, detecting no hostilities in the cave. Sin deactivated it and let out a sigh of relief.
"Brother Arcuz, that was so exhilarating! Your techniques are overpowering, I can't help but admire you more than before!"
Sin then wiped the blood stains off his face, grabbing the saber embedded into his upper body, Sin ripped it out with force. Bringing a surge of blood from his fleshly body.
Sitting down cross legged, Sin wrapped his body and Arcuz' body within his Rebirth essence. Their injuries although not light, or fatal recovered fully in three hours time.
The brothers stood up and said in unison. "Let's continue our party from earlier on brother!"
Sin left a locking formation from his Mystic Sorcery. This cave would later be their headquarters for their various operations. And if anyone were to force their way into it, the cave would self detonate with might that's able to wipe out a middle stage third promotion expert.