Act 2: The Strongest
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As Mwana's group ate, they also spoke about the upcoming Magic Competition and the participants who had streamed into Milele for the Candy Battle from all over Toro.
"Have a look at this." Jodenia pulled out a booklet showing it to everyone.
"The Top 100 of the Young Heroes Ranking!" With exclamations, everyone huddled over to check out the booklet.
In fact, Jodenia had actually purchased this booklet containing the top 100 of the Young Heroes Ranking only this morning. While 100 people made up the long list, it was only the top 20 who received in depth explanations in the booklet. Those in the Top 50 only had their details listed but no further information while those from the 51st position down to 100th position had only their names listed with no further information.
In such a list children like Mwana could never hope to even appear in the top 100. It was not because of lacking resources or talent, but also an issue of visibility. After all, the makers of the rankings were only human. It was unlikely for them to know about brats from random villages. However, the first name made everyone turn to Mwana in shock for a moment as the name at the front was: "Mwana."
"Mwana?! Ooh it is Mwana Mtakatifu. So it is just a namesake, huh." Even Mwana found himself sighing in shock. "It seems this is the first time the true name of the Sacred Religion's Holy Son is revealed to the public."
Indeed, while everyone knew who the number 1 on the list was, his true name had never been revealed till today so no one knew he was Mwana's namesake. Instead of his real name, people only referred to him as "Light" or simply "Holy Son". His details on the booklet were as follows:
Name: Mwana Mtakatifu "The Holy Son"
Origin: Sacred Light Religion
Young Hero Ranking: #1
Magic Form: Holy Magic
Psychic Talent: Atomic Matter Manipulation
Inborn Power: Human Divinity
Inherited Physique: Mortal God Physique – God of Light Model
Details: The first position on the Young Heroes Ranking hailing from the Sacred Light Religion. Mwana Mtakatifu is the son of the Sacred Light Religion Mistress and the Dark Kingdom's God of War. With his name Mtakatifu meaning 'Holy', he is an expert in Holy Light Mystical Arts. Perhaps the scariness of his innate talent stems from his ability to harness the power of faith as the Sacred Light Religion's future Saint and as a descendant of the God of Light.
Mtakatifu's perverse strength could be attributed to both his parents but mostly his mother's lineage. Through his mother, he received the position of the Holy Son of Sacred Light Religion as well as the God Body inherited from his and his mother's ancestor. Naturally, his physique which touched on the divine offered him a body with extreme strength.
Reading through Mtakatifu's details, Kia commented on his father too as the man was no slouch either according to his description.
"Even his father is the God of War of the Dark Kingdom! What a great status! Apparently, the father has an innate psychic ability to manipulate matter with his mind. While such mental abilities are not usually hereditary unlike physical powers, it seems that his son also inherited this power!"
"With such powers no wonder he is #1 in his generation." Even Fury who always saw herself as superior had to give him his due.
"Indeed. Who could possibly even match him?" While Mwana and the other kids from the village already had an idea of the top 10 positions, Kia and Fury were not as knowledgeable in most matters about Toro.
Mwana took the initiative to answer Kia's questions, "You would be surprised but there is actually someone who is his match! I heard that Mtakatifu and the #2 have fought over a dozen times and their battle record is actually 14:12!"
"Doesn't that mean that the fellow ranked second has actually won 12 out of 26 matches?! Who is it?" While asking, Fury had already grabbed the booklet herself to flip to the next page.
Expectedly, the reason the 2nd position could challenge the Holy Son was because they had an even more perverse innate ability: Negation - the ability to negate any power no matter how powerful the opponent.
In fact, it was not just ordinary power negation but a complete negation or all supernatural powers that brought opponents down to her level. In such a way, she could even the playing field with anyone no matter how powerful they were. When it came to such innate abilities, they usually either originated from one's bloodline or a special mental awakening.
However, there were rare times where people were born with abilities or awakened them later in life due to a random mutation such as with the rank #2. In such a case, the person simply had unique powers that no one else in their family had ever possessed. The strange thing with such innate abilities was that they were completely unconnected to any sort of training or martial arts.
On looking at the second page, everyone finally saw who the #2 position was. Although their real name was not revealed, their title or alias "Nyikang" was highlighted.
Name: "Nyikang"
Origin: Shilluk World
Young Hero Ranking: #2
Magic Form: Magic Cancelling
Inborn Power: Absolute Negation
Inherited Physique: Nyikang Sun Striking Body
Weapon: Nyikang's Sun Hunting Adze
In the distant past, the semi-legendary founder of the ancient Shilluk Kingdom gained fame and worship across the world through his mighty yet controversial actions. He was a man that dared to throw an Adze at the Sun! His actions shaved away some of the sun's essence while insulting the Sun God in the process. However, Nyikang was also recognized as a notion, specifically about how people comprehended unity and coherence in the Shilluk World. So not only was the name "Nyikang" used to refer to a legendary figure, it was also a concept representing unification with others and the world as a whole.
Naturally, the girl "Nyikang" was a descendant of the legendary figure.
After the Holy Son and Nyikang, the third person on the ranking was someone who was not any weaker than the two of them. In fact if any of the two were to compete with him, it might just end up as a stalemate due to this person's heaven-defying unique ability.
Name: Sama Jire "The Untouchable"
Origin: Eastern Border Protection Army
Young Hero Ranking: #3
Magic Form: Oracle Spear Arts
Inborn Power: Perfect Prediction
Just from the short rows of words, this person was the most 'normal' in the top 3. He did not have any unique weapons or mighty physique. Even in terms of bloodline, as the son of the Blue Smoke General and someone with a vampiric bloodline, Jire had long sealed his own bloodline to avoid bringing the same terrible fate that killed his mother and grandmother towards other women. As the concept of special physiques was also connected to bloodlines, Jire naturally did not have any unique physique. However, despite this it could be said that his strength was not much less than the other 2 in the top 3 due to his almost divine prediction abilities which were effective even against high level experts.
"It seems that this guy is the most normal in the top 3. He does not have so many additional lines." This time even the usually quiet Maisha spoke up to comment.
"What are you talking about 'most normal'? He is still an absolute monster." In addition to Fury who responded to Maisha, everyone else agreed that although Jire did not seem to have as large a background as the other two, he was still extremely monstrous.
Mwana also chimed in highlighting Jire's extraordinary nature, "In fact, his lack of a special physique just shows how talented he is as he can keep up with all the top 10 when they seem to have one unique physique after another. Who knew physiques were like cabbages nowadays! I would sure like to meet this Sama Jire one day."
However, what Mwana did not know when making this statement was that he had already met this Sama Jire!
Looking at the top 10 of the Young Heroes Rankings, the two most noticeable things were the two additional rows for inborn power and inherited physique. In terms of physique in the top 10, only Sama Jire did not have one.
"How can they have their physiques already? Others have to go through multiple bloodline awakenings to even dream of awakening and solidifying their physique!" Jodenia could not help but lament at the unfairness of the world.
Indeed in the Zika world, most people would at least need 3 Bloodline Awakenings to even touch physique awakening. After the initial Bloodline Awakening, the 2nd awakening came during the Blood Boiling realm while the 3rd awakening was during Solid Body Casting. Through the casting process, the warriors' physiques were awakened and strengthened in preparation to entering the path of a Crystal Warrior.
"Bloodline purity; the answer is always bloodline purity." Sigh. For someone like Mwana with a mixed bloodline, the importance of bloodline purity was all too clear.
However, Sama Jire's situation did give him some hope as the latter had even sealed his bloodline yet still managed to remain undefeated. Although Mwana did not have some overpowered inborn power like Jire, the latter still inspired him.
Naturally, the top 3 were different from everyone else on the list. These three, Mwana Mtakatifu, Nyikang, and Sama Jire, were on a completely different level from everyone else including the others in the top 5. Therefore, the three this received the informal title of "The Heroic Trio."