Nanatsu no Okoko no Kenshi
Season 01 : The New Generation Rises!
Arc 01 : The Tournament of Candidates
Episode 04 : Is This Really the End?
[[OP : Unravel]]
[Living Realm, Arena C15]
[15:27]
"Uh....the winner is Shun Beifong!!" The lady announced and the entire crowd went completely wild at the display, but most were still wondering why Chiaki had not used her Special Sword Skill. "Does she not have one?" One of the people in the crowd asked in a curious tone. "Impossible, she's the daughter of Lord Ayato and the granddaughter of Lord Ryuzaki!" Another person commented as the arena began getting filled up by murmurs of the gossiping members of the crowd. "It's ironic that Shun has a Lightning Special Sword Skill and Ayato also has one. It makes you wonder...." Another person in the crowd said, earning laughs from a few people in the crowd. "We will commence to the match in the finals after a 15 minute break." The lady said and the members of the crowd began to disperse. In the battle area of the arena, Shun stood still as he stared down at Chiaki's downed form that kept flinching as a pool of red liquid started to form right under the daughter of the Hoshinomori and the golden boy smirked evilly. 'Pathetic.....' He thought as the grip on his sword tightened, the smirk disappearing and turning a look of hatred and disgust. "You don't have a Special Sword Skill...You're a disgrace to our realm and to all swordsmen in the cosmos, and I will be the one to purge these disappointments like you.....Blade of the Lightning God : Surge Sabre!" Shun yelled the last part of the statement that he had made and lightning surged through the blade of his sword in a similar to how he won the battle a few moments ago and in a swift motion, he moved his sword in towards her back where the heart would be located in this instance yet just as he was about accomplish his objective, it seemed as if the sword could not move any further. Shun looked at his arms to see a gloved hand, looking up to see the source to see a slightly tanned man who had white eyes, wild black hair and he looked to be in his early forties. He wore green patches of armour in certain areas of his upper body with mesh armour underneath, black pants, black boots and green gloves. His katana was on the right side of his waist with the sheath being black in color with green jewels shining off of it, the hilt sharing the same qualities. "Lord Suzaku...!" Shun uttered in shock at the strongest swordsman's speed and his physical strength in fact, because by the looks of it, it did not seem like he was exerting much effort to keep this hold on the golden boy. "Stand down." Suzaku, a member of the most recent generation of Swordsmen of the Seven Realms ordered in an authoritative tone and Shun yanked his hand away before walking away with a click of his tongue. Picking up Chiaki from the ground, he winced for her once he saw the wound as he took her into the medical facility. 'Just what power are you hiding, Chiaki? Or do you really not have it?'
[Spirit Realm, Arena C19]
[15:45]
"We will resume with the finals of the tournament. The final match is Satou Kurosawa VS Hime Nokana! But before this match can begin, a word from our High Priestess, Nephirites Lomka." A voice called out into the arena. The area that this arena was situated in was far more different, more unique in a way similar to all the others that came before it. It held a sense of hope, happiness and overall positive energy. This was the Spirit Realm, the realm of hopes and dreams where all are welcomed and peace is no illusion. This is also the new home for the fallen heroes of the Living, Hero Realms. Like the rules in the Phantom Realm, how one has lived their life in the world of the living dictates how your life in the Spirit Realm will be. Unlike the Phantom Realm however, this realm was formed 1500 years ago, forming a mass of cosmic clouds that came to be known as the living realm and over time, the realm experienced a surplus of spirits and as a result, each soul had part of their mind copied to form another race dubbed as the Reincarnats. These Reincarnats are Reincarnations of every being that has ever lived in the Hero and Living Realms and inhabit one half of the realm and thus the past lives/dead inhabit another half, much like the Phantom Realm. Also similar to the Phantom Realm, the Reincarnats are able to transform into spirits which grants them an array of different abilities such as Intangibility, Invisibility and access to the half of the Spirit Realm where the dead reside along with the Phantom Realm of Death. "The final match, this tournament has definitely been thrilling." A voice spoke from the stands, being revealed to be coming from a higher area of the arena stands. The area had two thronged with one appearing to be more majestic than the other and there appeared to be a woman on the one that appeared less majestic. On the more beautiful throne, a woman stood up as she walked I've and placed her hands on Golden railing that prevented them from falling off of the special stands designed for them. The woman that had stood up looked to be in her late twenties and had a fair skin tone yet was covered by freckles that went across her cheeks, upper part of her chest, neck and shoulders, ginger red hair that had been tied into a neat bun and glowing green eyes. She was dressed in white robes that stopped around her ankles, a gold necklace that had a white gem as the centre of attention towards it and a golden tiara that had a similar white gem at it's center.
"I just want all of you to know that your loss here doesn't mean that you will be unsuccessful in your journey as a swordsman from here on out, there are still plenty opportunities to go down as one of this realms best swordsmen. And to the two who have made it in the finals, congratulations and good luck! Your High Priestess will support you no matter what!" The lady declared, now dubbed to be the High Priestess, Nephirites who was known to be serving as the realm's leader for the longest of time. Despite appearing ridiculously young, intact too young to be seen as someone fit to lead a whole realm, or atleast half of it, she was in fact about 424 years old and is the longest running High Priestess, ruling over the Spirit Realm for about 300 years and being the second in one succession. This long lifespan is not possessed by her only, but it is an attribute that is possessed by all those of the Reincarnat race, capable of living well over 900 years old with the Realm's elder having lived the longest at an age of 712 years old, though still retaining her youthful physical body. From each of the ends of the arena, two individuals stepped out and walked towards the center of the ring where they stopped once a distance of 4 meters was left between them. On the one side was a male who had pale skin, shining onyx eyes, and hair that stopped at the middle of the neck with a few of the hairs being braided. He was fairly tall and donned a large white jacket/kimono that stopped around his knees and had multiple patterns incripsted upon it and two tassels hanging from the left side of his waist held together by a black belt with white patterns written upon it with 2 smaller white belt sand a piece of grey fabric tied around his waist and the remaining part hanging behind. He also wore a patch of black armour extending from the shoulder to a good portion of the upper left part of the chest with different patterns also drawn onto it, the armour being held together by a belt that extended from the source, across the chest to the back side of the armour and another patch on the right side of the waist extending all the way to the middle of the hip. Underneath he wore a grey kimono of sorts that was much less baggier than the usual and stopped at his waist, held together by one of the many belts around the boy's waist while the pants were also grey and a bit baggy with black boots that stopped at the knees with a different pattern written onto them and black fingerless gloves. His sword was on the left side of his waist with the vessel being white with different black patterns running across it with the hilt bearing the same appearance. The teen held a sort of excited and enthusiastic air around him and was radiating positive energy.
On the other end was a female who had much fairer skin than her opponent, blood red hair that was tied into a high ponytail but the hair was still long enough to hand above her plump buttocks despite this with a few bangs framing her face, and determined green eyes. She was dressed in a swimsuit type outfit that was created from gold in the middle and a harder version of black leather on the sides, this acting as a breast plate along with armour despite having no straps going across the shoulders, a skirt composed of leather with golden accents that stopping at the middle of her thighs, black high heeled boots with golden accents that stopped just below her knees and black gloves that went all the way up to the middle of her upper arms with gold arm guards. She also had a gold bracelet a little farther up her upper arm, a gold necklace that was went from the middle of her neck to the upper of her chest with a diamond shaped emerald at the center and a gold headband around her forehead that was curved in a way that it formed a V pattern in the front. Her tanto laid comfortably on left side of her back with a black sheath and a red hilt with gold accents. The white haired teen flashed a smile that was full of confidence and determination as he began to walk a bit closer to the girl, holding his hand out for her to shake, that's if she wanted to. "You must be Hime, I'm Satou. Bring everything you've got in this match, okay?" The teen now known as Satou greeted respectfully while the girl now revealed to be Hime stared at the outstretched hand suspiciously and she sighed as she shook the hand quickly and retracted her hand in the next second, thinking that it was a possible deception. "Likewise." She stated and quickly jumped backwards to create some distance between them once again. "Begin!" The commentators said and Hime's hand swiftly moved over to her back where she grabbed the hilt of her tanto, unsheathing it from it's vessel to reveal a gold blade which she held in reverse grip as she began to charge towards Satou. He quickly unsheathed his sword as he stared at her with an excited expression. Hime ducked below to the point her face was looking at his groin and her arm moved a bit in an attempt to create a deep gash in Satou's midsection but it seemed that he was way ahead of her and as such, the blade simply moved through the teen's body. "You're mine!!" Satou yelled with conviction evident in his voice as he moves his right led up to kick Hime upwards but it simply moved through her in a similar manner to how her tanto did when she attacked. Using that moment of suprise, Hime moved her fist towards Satou's face, striking him dead on and sending him sprawling across the battlefield while she stood up and aimed the tip of her tanto at the momentary downed Satou. "Heaven's Blade : Godl- Nghh!!" Hime cut herself off as she clutched her stomach in pain and dropped to her knees, vomiting large amounts of blood. 'No, not now! Not here!' Hime thought. "AAAHNGH!" She screamed as she forced herself to a vertical base, which seemed to be a bad move on her part because she was met with the blade of Satou. "Angel's Light : Solar Flare!" He shouted as a blinding light engulfed the already weakened Hime and once it died down, she was on the ground unconscious, laying in a pool of more blood she had vomited. "The winner is.....Satou Kurosawa!!" The commentator announced and the crowd was shocked at how the win was acquired and what had happened to Hime.
[Hero Realm, Arena D12]
[16:00]
"The final match of the Tournament of Candidates will resume shortly after a few words from our Symbol of Peace, the strongest swordsman in our realm and a member of the current Swordsmen of the Seven Realms, Mai Hirose!!" A male voice announced from a booth a bit higher than the stands where the crowds sat. Also a bit higher than the rest of the stands was a balcony type platform with grey floor and shining sky blue railing around and on such a place was a large throne where a woman sat who stood up and walked closer to the railing. The woman had a stern expression on her face and had pink hair that was long enough to reach the middle of her back that ended in curls, piercing crimson visuals, near perfectly toned skin and a well developed body. She was dressed a white long sleeved t shirt and a black skirt that stopped at her ankles with the sides of the skirt opened up on both sides until it reached the middle of her thighs with a pattern written on it. Over the t shirt, she wore black armour around her neck, shoulders, elbows, wore a black female type chest plate black armoured gloves and black knee length high heeled armour boots. Underneath the skirt, she wore brown/green tights and had a grey, borderline black hood of sorts on her head, stretching all the way to her lower back, where it had a few holes. A medieval type sword laid in a sheath that was on her lower back and it was black in color while the hilt was the same color but had something more eye catching, a red gem at the center of the hilt. "All of you who have participated have fought valiantly, but it seemed that you just couldn't make the cut, but that doesn't matter, there will be plenty of other opportunities and plenty of other ways to make your realm proud and uphold our status the Realm of Heroes!" The lady known as Mai Hirose spoke a few encouraging words as she elegantly walked back to her throne and took a seat, the same stern look on her face as she prepared to watch the final match of the tournament that was also going on in other realms. Mai was the 6th Symbol of Peace in succession and had been ruling for about 3 years thus far and in that time, she had turned what was the second weakest realm after the Living Realm, into a Realm that was in the top 5 strongest with her effort of course as a member of the current era of the coalition that was soon to disband to give the new generation an opportunity.
"Now, our final match is Asami Yukino VS Kageyoshi Ranmaru!" The commentator in the booth that was situated high above spoke and the crowd was dead silent, knowing of the bitter rivalry that the two had over the course of 6 years. All of it starting with Asami defeating Kageyoshi back in their younger days when they had participated in a simple spar, or that was how much the crowd knew, there was probably something deeper if one was to delve deeper into the matter. From the different entrances on either side of the arena, two figures walked out. On one side was female who was a bit on the short side with tanned skin that had a sort of Flame tattoo that ran from the left shoulder throughout a majority of the arm, blood red hair that was in the French hairstyle with the hair going all the way to her lower back and grey, borderline black eyes that seemed to be assertive and determined and a slightly petite body. She wore a navy blue kimono that stopped at her ankles and had sort of white triangle pattern on the ends, excluding the sleeves and a navy blue belt to keep things together. The kimono hung a bit loose revealing a large portion of the girl's chest that was bandaged up to cover her breasts while still revealing her toned stomach. She also wore navy blue tights, red boot like sandals that went up to the middle of her calves, a navy blue armband with a few white bandage strips around it, covering a majority of her right forearm while she had a beaded bracelet on the left wrist with the beads being orange in color and on her right upper arm she had a white bandage strip tied around. Her sword was on the left side of her waist without a sheath and yet it hung between belt, being navy blue in color and with diamond shapes that were sky blue and 2 orange beads connected by 2 white bandages that extended farther and blew in the slight wind. 'Kageyoshi...' The girl thought, now assumed to be Asami since it had been established who Kageyoshi was. On the other side was Kageyoshi who had a fair skin tone, purple, borderline black hair and shimmering royal blue eyes. He wore a white jacket that had a grey line running on the shoulder, extending all the way to the arm on both sleeves and under the jacket was armour, yet unlike most, this was a unique armour. It was silver in color covered every inch of his body aside from the hands and head and it had outlines in different areas to show that it was made up of multiple patches of armour. His katana was on his back and the sheath was a deep purple color while the hilt was silver with purple accents.
'Asami, I will defeat you and become the Hero Realm's entry into the Swordsmen of the Seven Realms!' Kageyoshi declared in his mental plane since he felt words were not needed in such an exchange and that only their blades would do the talking. "Begin!" The commentator yelled and as if on instinct both of them unsheathed their weapons in such a swift manner that it felt as if they had been unveiled since they had entered the arena. "Valiant Gale : Beam Festival!" Kageyoshi yelled as he charged towards Asami in a burst of speed, with his blade glowing a purple colored energy and once he was within a range of 15 meters, 6 beams of energy fired towards the girl at impeccable speeds but it was nothing that she could not match and as such, she jumped into the air in a manner similar to a back flip in order to avoid the attack, which appeared to have worked successfully, or that was what she had thought.
Looking below while still upside down in midair, Asami saw the beams now moving upwards in a manner that was similar to a liquid in terms of it's flexibility and fluidity and it was closing in soon. "God's Monsoon : Fluid Barrier!" Asami quickly shouted as she did her best to spin around in the circle while still in the air, a white liquid forming around her that appeared similar to water at first glance, yet it was definitely not. The liquid swiftly spread around Asami's body to form a bubble of liquid that all 6 beams crashed into from different angles, fading away after a minute or so while the sphere slowly descended towards the ground in a manner that much resembled a bubble and once it landed on the ground the liquid seemed to recede into Asami's body and she turned to face her opponent once again with a mostly emotionless expression while Kageyoshi appeared to be shocked. Slowly walking towards with the tip her sword dragging behind her, Asami began her trek towards Kageyoshi in order to cover the 15 meter distance between the two but the Ranmaru clan member refused to give her the luxury of doing so and as such, he intercepted her in an impulsive movement. 'Just like that....' Asami thought and an angered look graced her features for only a moment and once Kageyoshi was about 2 meters away, she quickly spun around in a similar manner to before with her blade outstretched and the same liquid from before formed once again but this time it wrapped around the Ranmaru, forming the same sphere as before. A look of shock crossed his face. 'She used my rage against me....' He thought. "God's Monsoon : Fluid Barrier!" Asami yelled and in that instance, a violet energy seemed to be exiting from Kageyoshi's body into the sphere. 'My Aural Energy.....' He thought as he began to feel much weaker than only 5 minutes ago and after a little while longer, the liquid once again receded into Asami's body while Kageyoshi's body dropped to the ground with a thud. He twitched as he did his best to get to a vertical base but it seemed impossible at his level of strength. "The winner is Asami Yukino!" The commentator announced while only a few of the crowd cheered with a few sharing a couple of secrets, there was something that was unknown about this 'rivalry'.
[Mage Realm, Arena C10]
[16:17]
"I trust that all of you will serve the Mage Realm well even when you are unable to join the ranks of the Swordsmen of the Seven Realms because this is truly a fascinating generation and I'm proud to say that the Mage Realm has nurtured all of this young talent!" A voice declared with much conviction, earning cheers from multiple other voices and it appeared to be coming from a man who was located in an area that was a bit higher than the areas where the rest sat. It was a balcony like area that had but a single large throne which was currently empty because the entity had been standing. He was a man who had pale skin, black/grey/white hair that was about shoulder length with a short beard and he had orange colored eyes that seemed to be fading of their color a bit and the man appeared to be bit on the older side. He was dressed in a purple colored robe that stopped at his ankles and on the right side of his waist was his weapon, a katana that was sealed within an indigo vessel with the hilt being a mixture of violets, purples and indigos. This was the the Grand Wizard of the Mage Realm, the Realm most proficient with magic, all forms of it at that from Alchemy, Dark Magic to even Necromancy. Such a skill with the art made this realm one of the most feared realms across a majority of the Realm System under the ruling of the Grand Wizard, the strongest swordsman and mage in the realm and a member of the Swordsmen of the Seven Realms 300 years running, yes, 300 years. This was simply because of the fact that the Grand Wizard had failed the past 3 generations of aspiring swordsmen and mages simply because of how he believed that they did not deserve the honor of becoming members of this coalition, or that was what he had always said to each group of candidates, no proper explanation had been given. Now this made the Tournament of Candidates irrelevant if he would not deem anyone of the contestants worthy to be an entrant into the coalition, but he himself still had faith that just one of these swordsmen would suprise him and he could finally retire. The man with such stubbornness was known as Keiichi Tetsuya, the fourth Grand Wizard in succession to rule over the Mage Realm. "The final match of the tournament will be Mars Māsai VS Shin Satoru!!" A feminine voice announced and the crowd cheered wildly.
From different entrances in the large arena, two individuals walked out to meet each other at center of the battlefield, a distance of 7 meters separating them. On one hand was a male who had royal blue hair that was a bit long, stopping around the middle of his neck, golden colored eyes with the pupils slit, tanned skin but his most notable feature in his appearance were the two grey horns protruding from the sides of his head, pointing forward. This was something that all of his clan members had, a trait of the Māsai clan which, according to legend, originated from a simple maiden falling in love with a dragon like being and over the years, this blood diluted in order to help the bodies stabilize because most of the previous generations of the Māsai died out much quicker and had shorter lifespans, causing their numbers to easily dwindle. The child of the Māsai was dressed in a flack jacket of sorts that was blue in color with black shoulder armour over it, underneath he was dressed in a black t shirt and over that was more black armour and a white belt around his waist. He wore black pants with black knee guards, black knee length boots and black armbands. His sword laid comfortably on his back and was within a black sheath while the hilt had grey bandages/straps around it. On the other side was Shin who had a much fairer skin tone, wild black hair and mesmerizing purple eyes. He wore a sort of purple hijab type object around his head with two parts of the remaining fabric that was not around his head to hang freely around him. The robe had a sort of writing engraved on it which appeared to be glowing. He wore a sort navy blue shirt with the sleeves ripped off and it was unbuttoned, revealing Shin's toned chest and stomach, a purple belt which had the same fabrics that appeared similar to the hijab hanging from all 4 sides of his body, sharing the same writing as the hijab. He also wore slightly baggy navy blue pants, purple boots and purple gloves that had the similar writing as the fabric. His katana laid comfortably on the left side of his waist in a purple sheath that had the same writing with the hilt being a lighter shade of purple. The two stared at each other intently, sharing a history. "I promised to cut you down, and today is that day, liar....." Mars spoke as his right hand moved to his back where his hand would hover over his weapon for a few moments, waiting for the signal to begin the battle he had been hoping to have for so long to set something straight.
"Begin!" The voice from before yelled and the two quickly grabbed hold of their weapons, freeing them from the confines of their sheaths. Mars charged towards Shin in somewhat blind rage, performing a combo of slashes that did not phase the Satoru at all because they were predictable. It was first a horizontal slash from the left to the right, an alternating of the sword's grip and a vertical slash towards his left shoulder and another horizontal slash from the right to the left across the midsection. Shin evaded the series of attacks by simply ducking under the slash and rolling to the side of evade the 2 following attacks as he quickly got up and charged towards Mars. Once again he ducked and swung his katana towards Mars' knees yet it seemed that he had predicted it and as such, he launched propelled himself upwards into the skies. "Fire Drake Spawn : Dragon Flame Storm!" Mars yelled while descending towards the ground s he waved his sword around before pointing the tip directly at Shin, a blaze of flames erupting from it that formed a dragon that flew towards the Satoru and once it was within a range of 10 meters it exploded into a storm of flames that appeared to have consumed the Mage but that was far from it. "Htapaved!" Shin's voice yelled out as the flames began moving in the opposite direction with a look of shock gracing his features. Shin finally became visible to the eyes to see that he was around a dome that continued to expand to larger proportions until all of the flames disappeared completely. Shin grabbed hold of his katana that he had quickly embedded into the ground and pulled it out as he stared straight into the eyes of the Māsai. Mars growled as he charged towards Shin once again, their blades clashing once they met to create a few sparks here and there they quickly separated and clashed once again and this exchange would go on for a while since it appeared that they were evenly matched, until.... "Enough of this! Fire Drake Spawn : Blade Flame Destruction!" Mars yelled as he charged towards Shin, his blade brimming with fire as he swung the attack, creating a wave of fire that was set to sweep up Shin in a single bound and turn him into a well done delicacy once it was done, but it seemed that he had other plans. "Neptune's Beard : Dark Floodgates!" Shin yelled as he pointed the tip of his katana at the flames and flood of purple water was released, easily overpowering the fire and submerging Mars beneath it in a matter of seconds. He was able to control the force that the water carried despite the size so he had made sure that only a few bones were broken so as not to be disqualified for excessive force. The water seemingly disappeared as Mars' body dropped to the ground with a thud and the crowd went wild at such a heated battle. "The winner of the Tournament of Candidates is Shin Satoru!!" The commentator said while Shin stared at the unconscious Mars. 'Guess you still don't understand.....'