After his fight with Reus, Nova left the stage and got back to his seat to recuperate his energy.
While it was true that he wasn't injured, he consumed a lot of energy, especially when he used the 'Apex of Defense', a newly invented technique powered by Apex.
A few minutes later, he got enough energy in him to heal Sania. Once again, he rose from his seat and made his way to the Sword Clan's booth.
Seeing him getting over, no one even thought of stopping him. "Relax, I'm here to heal Sania."
Hearing this, the elders all breathed in relief. Without much talking, he approached Sania before touching her forehead with his index finger and using the technique he got from the dungeon's reward. Regeneration.
In a few seconds, all of Sania's internal injuries were healed, not only that but even her hidden injuries recuperated. What surprised Nova was that he used less energy than he thought he would.
Seeing a fully healed Sania in front of them, the elders were shocked. But when Reus saw that he was even more so.
"Regeneration!" He exclaimed, drawing a few gazes over them. Regeneration was a technique lost over time from the superpower's libraries of techniques.
It originated from the Space-Time Shrine but was later modified after the original technique was lost, to a few other variations like Nature Heal using natural energy, or Water Cleanse which used water energy, etc.
Of course, how could manufactured copies compare to the original version?
Everyone was interested, but seeing it was Nova who owned it, they kept all their questions back, remembering how easily he defeated Reus.
No one was a fool, and they knew that Nova didn't go all out considering the ease he defeated Reus.
Not even Reus gave his all, but besides maybe one or two trump cards, how could he compare to a 20-year-old youth that transcended almost 3 entire realms to beat him?
After healing Sania without saying a word, he nodded towards Reus as if erasing all their bad history in a motion.
He didn't return to Star Sect's side but approached the Vientienne family, Imperia in particular.
"Are you okay?" He asked as if Imperia was the one battling Reus and not him.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault that things degenerated like that..." Seeing Imperia acting like that, he hurriedly stopped her.
"It's not your fault, I was the one who jumped to conclusions so fast. So you don't need to feel guilty at all. I needed a battle like that to release some steam and check my progress." Saying this, he hugged Imperia, shocking those watching.
Because not a lot of people knew about the romance between them, many hearts were broken seeing these two huggings each other.
Imperia was given the title of one of the most beautiful women in the sub-region.
After a few minutes of chatting with Imperia and Orion, Nova left for the Star Sect's booth.
Finally, two hours later the group stage was over.
The top ten was formed of: Nova, Imperia, Melissa, Toby(the guy who focused on his body cultivation), Celia(pink-haired girl), Ruven from the Castello Family, Karla from the Polaris Family, Markus of the Bow Clan, Gil from Terrence Family and Julian of the Spear Clan.
It seemed that the other Stage 8 youth from the Death Shrine didn't participate in the tournament in the end. Was it because of Nova? Nobody knows and cares.
The matches were fast-paced and very fast only 5 of them remained as Nova, Melissa, Imperia, Julian, and Karla quickly won against their opponents. Toby and Celia were indeed enough against a normal Stage 7, but facing these monsters at the Peak of Stage 7, they quickly lost.
The drawing resulted in Nova vs. Julian, Imperia vs. Melissa, and Karla that got pretty lucky to skip her match.
When he stepped on stage, right after the match began, Julian quickly used his most powerful attack knowing that he won't stand a chance, but at least prove his ability to everyone.
"Penetration! Spear of Speed!" Julian quickly used his Penetration Ability to enhance his spear, then used a speed buff technique on it.
The tip of the spear quickly approached Nova who sidestepped it, leaving a trail of destruction of a few meters in the place Nova previously stood. He did this so that the spectators could see Julian's power for a while.
Seeing Nova dodging, Julian was stunned before he understood what happened and smiled at Nova before getting out of the arena.
Quickly winning, Nova turned around to watch Imperia's match vs. Melissa. He was surprised to see their match was also over with blue flames receding into Imperia's body.
He never saw her use that against him and he was amazed by the beautiful color that complimented her.
He understood that Imperia's fire was of a higher quality than Melissa's.
After the lots were drawn Nova was pitted against Karla of the Polaris Family, she had ice Ability and ice techniques, not to mention her Polaris Bloodline which was also ice related.
Just like Julian, she also chose to go all out.
"Ice Manifestation, Giant Snowball!"
She quickly called out her strongest tricks, first freezing the ground around Nova, knowing he wouldn't resist, then using Ice Manifestation to form Giant Snowballs who focused on Nova.
The snowball was 1 meter in diameter and approached Nova with a fast speed, maybe not even an Early Stage 8 could resist this attack.
She was a notch above Julian and could contend with Melissa because her Ice would've suppressed her.
This time Nova didn't dodge but choose to use another power of his Apex Index. That's what Nova chose to name his abilities and techniques granted by the Apex.
'Blazing Fire' he chanted and golden flames suddenly erupted around him, originally a star, The Apex Star of Origin granted the most powerful fire-related abilities.
Very quickly the ice domain collapsed followed by the snowballs, not even vapors of water remained in the air.
The crowd quickly noticed the temperature in the air rising so much that even those a good distance away started sweating.
What to say about Karla's clothes that stuck to her body. Wearing only a white shirt and pants, the contour around her breasts became apparent.
She wasn't wearing a bra, and her nipples quickly started shaping out of the shirt.
When Nova saw this he took a double glance after which he shuddered when he noticed a killing intent thrown his way.
Not even turning around to see who it was, he quickly cast an earth dome around Karla formed from universal energy, giving her time to change with something from her spatial ring.
After a few seconds, a knock was heard inside the earth dome. With a wave of his hands the earth dome dissipated and Karla was wearing more clothes.
She looked in Nova's direction because he was the only one who saw her nipples clearly, she didn't blame him as even she couldn't expect his flames to bring such a huge change in the temperature.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think it would affect the environment so much." Nova apologized to Karla.
"I-It's okay, I know you didn't have such wicked thoughts, also one more thing. You should stop talking to me, as you're only digging you're grave deeper." said Karla, 'kindly' reminding Nova, while looking in Imperia's direction.
There, they could see an Imperia smiling and looking at them chatting, she even waved at them. What a cute and kind girl.
The killing intent directed towards Nova also came from that direction coincidentally. Who it was from remained a mystery...
After thanking each other for the experience, they both got off the stage and walked in different directions.
The final match between Nova and Imperia started only one hour later to give both of them time to recuperate.
Standing face to face, Nova was reminded of their first time facing in the dungeon and he started smiling at Imperia.
Seeing Nova smile, Imperia blushed slightly before regaining her composure and look him straight in the eyes.
Without much fanfare, they began the final confrontation for the first place of the Regional Youths Tournament.