The constant sound of his watch ringing forces Karl to wake up. The room is in a complete mess. Broken glass pieces on the ground, the bed split in two and walls covered in Karl's blood.
"Shit." Karl curses because his head hurts like someone dropped a hammer on it. He gets up from the ground and picks up the call. "Hello?"
"Where are you? Everyone is gathering on the stage." Ian says.
"Yeah. Give me a minute or two. I will be there."
"Okay. Hey, Andressa is not answering my calls. Did something happ-" Karl cuts the call.
He takes off his clothes and throws them into dustbin. He grabs his armour set and puts it on. Suddenly a sharp pain comes from his stomach. He crouches down and winces in pain.
"What the-" Red liquid raises in his stomach which made Karl dash to the open bathroom, there he pukes blood.
COUGH! COUGH!
His throat is burning in pain as he coughs so loudly that even his chest starts to hurt. Karl opens the tap and takes deep breaths as he tries to remain calm. The water pushes the blood into the sink, creating a stream of flowing red liquid. In that red liquid Karl sees something that sent a chill down his spine. He quickly stomps the thing in panic. "ARGH!"
Beneath his feet lies a unmoving white worm. Karl leans down to pick up the worm, it starts to wiggle weakly as Karl picked it up. Again, Karl's stomach turns upside down and he pukes. This time instead of blood, yesterday's dinner and juice comes out. It left cold yet painful sensation in Karl's stomach.
His eyes falls on the worm once more and the mere thought of such worm living inside his body horrified Karl so much that every muscle, every vein and every hair tensed up. In his entire life, Karl never felt grossed by his own body till now. He clenches his hands and tries to look away. He steps on broken glass as he walks to the main door. Once there, he opens the door and silently closes this door for one last time.
TING!
The elevator door opens up and Karl walks out in the main dome. There are many people standing in multiple single lines on the main stage. It looks like a giant parade. Among the people who are standing in front, Karl recognizes one.
"Mikaela."
She also raises her hand and gestures Karl to come.
"Hey kid. Go stand in your line." A voice comes from above.
Karl sees the shadow of the floating chair. "Don't you have anything better to do other than stalking me?"
The chief smirks and floats away.
Left alone, Karl walks towards Mikaela. She looks quite different. 'She has lost her light.' This pops in Karl's mind as he observes her. Just then he spots Serena already standing behind Mikaela.
Karl walks past Mikaela and stands behind Serena. "You are late."
"Would you believe If I tell you that a worm came out of my stomach?"
"You gave birth?" Serena jokes.
Mikaela quickly turns back and glares at her. "The entire world is watching you right now. Show some dignity and act like a knight." Both Karl and Serena turns silent for few seconds.
The judges slowly floats at the centre of the dome with Lady Treypin being in the middle. The big screen focus on her, the overseer.
Serena slowly leans back and whispers. "Why is she so grumpy?"
"I don't know. She seems different."
"What do you mean? She looks the same?"
"Not her appearance. Look in her eyes. She has a more determined look which replaced her usual prideful look."
Serena chuckles. "That is natural. Anybody would be irritated after being defeated by a junior like you. She became a laughing stock among other heirs of knighthood. Some elders in her own knighthood even went far and called her fraud or favoured by her father."
"She can hear you." Karl reminds Serena.
"So what? I am not scared of her. Representing the same academy doesn't require us to be allies. In the end we have to fight."
"SILENCE!" Lady Treypin finally speaks.
"Today is the fourth and the last phase of the Knight ascension tournament. This year the horizon has blessed us with strong individuals as well." The big screen changes to the stage where Karl is standing.
The crowd cheers loudly as few warriors raise their swords in excitement. "ARUGHH!" Every single youth standing on the stage lets out a loud battlecry to show their strength.
Seeing the loud commotion, Karlos Ratan snaps his fingers and all the swords which were raised falls on the ground because they became too heavy. "A knight should honour his weapon and only unsheathe them in times of distress. Such barbaric action is not befitting of a knight." Karlos's eyes glow in a brownish colour.
"They are young blood. It is fine to let loose sometimes. Don't you agree, Susen?" Lady Treypin's voice was sweet and addictive like a song of an angel for everyone.
"Well, this time Ratan is right. They should be disciplined." The Chief expresses his thoughts.
Lady Treypin smiles at Chief's words and continues. "In this last phase, everyone will be representing their sponsors. They have to fight against other sponsors in a 1v1 fights, until there are only 10 people left on the stage regardless of their sponsors. Remember if you lose once, then you are out. Lastly, the people who raised their weapon just now. Will have to fight without a weapon."
The last sentence created a large commotion with multiple people on the stage complaining and a lot of people arguing in the crowd sitting above as well.
"SILENCE!" Lady Treypin speaks and this time her voice was far from sweet. It even left a stinging sensation in the ears. "Whoever has any sorts of complains will have to face me."
The entire dome quickly turns silent. This silence continued for few seconds till the Overseer spoke again. "Good. I hope you all perform your best."
'Sometimes I forgot that these all are still kids.'
The referee comes on the stage and the big screen changes to him. "The first match is between The Black Pegasus academy and The Groover and Aquilae academy." The crowd cheers loudly.
Everyone quickly moves to get off the stage but Karl, Serena and Mikaela remains on their place. Karl looks around and notices that another stack of people are not moving from their place.
"You see that fatty?" Serena asks.
"Yeah."
"Those are our opponents."
In matter of seconds, everyone left the stage excluding the two teams. "Why there are 12 people?" Karl asks.
"Because that many got through all the phases and made it here."
"Does that mean we have to fight all of them?"
"Yes." Serena answers.
Mikaela turns and starts walking towards the centre of stage, followed by Serena and Karl.
"Isn't that unfair? Like If I was the sponsor, then I will force hundreds of students to participate in the tournament and even if one tenth of them reached the last phase won't I be able to win by just the numbers?"
Serena glances back at Karl. "Just how does your brain think of such dumb questions?"
In response, Karl just laughs awkwardly.
"First of all, only specific amount of participants are accepted from each sponsor and 12 is actually quite low for top level academies. Last year's winner, Midussa academy had total 20 people for last stage which means not a single one of the student from Midussa academy lost a battle in the entire tournament till fourth phase." Karl takes a mental note of the Midussa academy.
Mikaela is now standing directly in front of the fat student. The referee comes between them and asks their names. "Mikaela Lumineux representing Black Pegasus academy."
"Jereom Delta representing The Groover and Aquilae academy."
"Confirmed. Exchange greetings."
Mikaela extends her hand and the fat boy quickly grabs her entire hand. "We are lucky to face against such weak academy. I am really interested in seeing your fake abilities."
Mikaela's expression remains the same and both of them let go.
"Choose your warrior in 2 minutes."
She turns backs to Serena and Karl who are laughing and smiling while cracking jokes. This annoyed Mikaela. "Do you not have any shame?"
They both become silent.
"This prick is a peasant. But you Serena belong to a Sentinel family. You should know how to behave in such situations." Serena rolls her eyes at Mikaela's words.
"So, who is going first?" She asks.
"Respectfully, I volunteer myself." Mikaela suggests.
"But I think-"
While Mikaela and Serena are arguing with each other, Karl is observing the opponents. 'Giants!' This is the only word Karl could use to describe his opponents. Currently, they formed a circle around a person who is wearing a cloak. It appears that they have already decided whom they are going to send.
Karl's eyes meets with the cloaked person and his hands starts to itching. "It can't be."
"That is why I think I should go." Serena explains.
"Hmm. Now that you explained, it does make sense." Mikaela says. It appears that both Serena and Mikaela have come to an agreement.
Karl comes between them. "I think I should go."
"Huh?"
"What? Leonard Avaritia, just because you defeated me once doesn't mean that you can do the same thing here. That time I let my guard down-"
Karl cuts in. "Stop with the excuses and the reason that I want to go first is not because that I think I am better than you. You see her?" He points at the cloaked person. "I know her and she is something different. I think it is better if I go first."
Both Serena and Mikaela glances at the cloaked person. "Hmm. I already searched The Groover and Aquilae academy in the database, besides Jereom no one is worth mentioning. I don't think she would be anything different."
"You heard her. Now shut up." Mikaela answers very rudely, clearly annoyed by Karl's taunt.
"But-"
'Do you think you can survive?' Leonard whispers in Karl's ears.
'You are just like my ex. She came back no matter how bad I hit her. Tell me. Do you want be buried next to her?' Karl threatens back with a smile.
"What?" Serena asks.
"N-Nothing."
"You clearly said something."
"It's nothing. You want to go? Sure. Do your best."
"That's settled then."
Again, Mikaela walks towards the centre and tells the referee about their choice. Few seconds, Jereom also tells their team's choice. Mikaela grabs Karl's shoulder and drags him away from the stage. The other team also leaves.
Now there are only two people on stage, Serena and the cloaked person.
"The fight will began now. We have Serena Ratan from Black Pegasus academy and here we have Karla Nice from The Groover and Aquilae academy."
'That name!'
A pale hand emerges from the cloak and uncovers it. Kalonice Apate Tenebris reveals herself. This time she is wearing a black gown which covers her entire body and a very large hat which has veil on top which covers her face.
Despite this, few degenerate men are aroused just after seeing her hands. Anyone could tell that under that veil is a gorgeous woman.