The entire first group from the New Arcadia Empire looked pumped. One of the guys quickly moved to help Nayara walk.

She was struggling. Her ring power was totally drained—just one shot had taken everything out of her. But the force behind that shot was on another level.

Luckily, each group only fought once a day. With the help of the recovery hall, she'd be back to full strength by tomorrow.

They calmly left the arena. Seeing the looks on the other participants' faces, Nayara was satisfied. With the opening Darian gave them, using the bow at that moment wasn't a waste at all. It was a dominating win, and it definitely made every future opponent think twice about facing them.

Fear and extreme caution were the last things you wanted in a tournament like this. In life-or-death fights, sure, being careful made sense. But here? The winner would be the one who was more aggressive and unpredictable.

The remaining matches went on normally, but the audience didn't seem that hyped anymore.

In the final match of the day, though, another huge surprise dropped: the first group from the Polar Circle Empire—the second most powerful on Earth—beat the second group from the Solar Federation!

Everyone was completely shocked.

Those two empires had ended up having their two groups fight each other. In the first round, the result was what you'd expect—a crushing victory for the Solar Federation. But in the second one... the Polar Circle Empire actually won—and not just barely. It was a shockingly fast win.

The leader of the Polar Circle group was a stunning woman who stood out immediately. Still, the whole group moved in perfect sync with her. They didn't even use their supreme artifact—because their opponents didn't have one. Using it would've felt like a total disgrace to them.

By the end of day one, the entire Earth was buzzing. So many rising stars had shown up in this tournament, and now everyone was dying to see how the next rounds would unfold.

The Aurora Coalition Empire? Both of their groups were out—they were done. Meanwhile, to everyone's surprise, both groups from the New Arcadia Empire had made it through. Every other empire only had one group left in the game.

Darian quietly returned to his team's courtyard. Anyone who even thought about talking to him... gave up the moment they saw the look in his eyes and the aura around him. They all left him alone.

...

That night, there was a small gathering for guests from other planets and the elite of Earth's empires. A bunch of powerful young people who weren't eligible for the tournament showed up, hoping to make connections.

And every single one of them had the same goal: to get close to Irana. A single, beautiful human girl from a planet way more advanced than Earth. Their intentions were obvious.

But... to everyone's surprise, only a few of the older folks from the visiting delegations showed up. The three young people who'd come to watch Darian had already said they'd only appear at the final big celebration—once the tournament champions were crowned.

The next day...

The arena was even more packed than before. Spatial artifacts that expanded the venue's size were activated to hold the massive crowd.

Throughout the night, all of Earth's powerful figures who hadn't come on day one rushed to the capital, dropping a fortune just to witness the rest of the tournament in person.

Thomas walked calmly onto the martial stage. Everyone locked eyes on him, full of excitement.

"I officially declare the start of Day Two of the Grand Rookie Tournament!"

The arena erupted into thunderous cheers. Then, Thomas drew lots again between the six winning groups.

First match of the day: Group 2 from the New Arcadia Empire versus Group 1 from the Celestial Order Empire.

Darian was going to fight again! The crowd went wild. But... many people's expressions immediately turned serious.

If the Celestial Order Empire had gone up against Darian first, their reaction—and their fate—would've been exactly like the Aurora Coalition's. They probably would've mocked him, underestimated him... and been humiliated the same way.

Now, the entire Celestial Order section was dead silent. Not a single cheer. Not one mocking comment. In fact, their eyes were filled with a deep, quiet fear.

That one guy had the power to crush a whole group of imperial geniuses in just seconds. And what made it even scarier... was his ruthlessness. The way he fought was cruel, violent, and completely merciless.

The five members of the Celestial Order team stepped out first.

"Don't get discouraged!" a senior military officer from their empire shouted roughly.

"Don't forget—the main reason Darian won so fast last time was because those idiots from the Aurora Coalition underestimated him. They got caught off guard. If you go all out and stay coordinated... one guy alone shouldn't be impossible to beat! If you use the supreme artifact, you might even win!"

The five nodded quickly in agreement, but inside, they were cursing silently. Darian won with a surprise attack? That sounded like a joke—something made up just to hype them up. No one in the arena was that naïve.

But... if they really went all out... maybe this time there would be a real fight.

Darian stepped slowly into the arena, and everyone watched his every move.

On that second day, most of the crowd came from the Solar Federation Empire. They all wanted to see for themselves how a single guy could have such bizarre combat power.

Even before Thomas officially announced the match, the five from Celestial Order were already in formation. They weren't taking any chances—ready from the very first second.

Their expressions were dark, like they were facing a deadly enemy.

They were all short, with slightly slanted eyes and distinct skin tones. That empire, back in the day, had covered all of Asia on Earth.

Darian observed them closely. Among them were two women and three men. But something caught his attention. He felt something strange and activated his curse.

Four of them had normal karma—nothing out of the ordinary. But the one in the center—the group's leader—had pure white karma, incredibly bright.

Darian narrowed his eyes. This was the fourth person he'd ever seen with karma like that. Instantly... he knew he'd feel bad if he went overboard on the guy without a good reason.

"Begin!"

The moment Thomas's voice echoed, the five moved in perfect sync.

Yellowish waves of power radiated from their rings. They all drew their weapons, and the glow of their blades was harsh and cold. They were really going all out from the very start!

"Heavenly Blade Formation!!" the leader shouted.

All five slashed forward at once. A blinding light and a sharp, oppressive feeling filled the whole arena stage.

At the same time, the leader's curved blade lit up with a fierce glow.

Everyone could feel it—their attacks weren't separate. All that power was being fused into one devastating move.

"Supreme Artifact... the Concord Blade!"

One of the more experienced spectators recognized the artifact. That group wasn't holding back anything—they were putting all their chips on the opening seconds.

A beam of light so bright it hurt to look at sliced through the air like a divine blade, aimed straight at the lower half of Darian's body—like it was meant to cut him clean in two.

He scoffed.

Yeah, it was a crazy strong move. But... those five didn't have refined control. All that power meant nothing if you couldn't hit your target.

In a five-on-five fight, they'd probably take down one or two opponents right away with that. But against just one guy? They were already at a disadvantage.

*Vwoop!*

Darian vanished using Tempest Blink.

"!"

Suddenly, he reappeared right in the middle of them.

They all turned toward him in shock. In his hand was a short sword, and at the center of the blade, a glowing rune pulsed.

"TAKE HIM DOWN!"

They all shouted, and the closest guy lunged at him. His blessing flared—he was a Fighter—and electrical currents wrapped around his body, making him lightning-fast.

At the same time, his weapon lit up with a different glow.

That was soul power. It was the signature technique of the Celestial Order Empire.

They called it the *Heavenly Blade*. A skill that channeled a Spiritual Guardian's soul energy into a weapon, turning it into an unstoppable force.

It was incredibly powerful—but had one major flaw: any weapon made from average or even slightly better materials would explode trying to handle that kind of energy.

That's why they needed ultra-high-tier weapons. So over time, the empire became experts in forging. The bulk of the materials they brought from other universes went straight into crafting better weapons.

Right now, their forging level was considered top-notch within their universe—but still not as high as the top 50 planets that specialized in it.

Also, the Celestial Order Empire kept a ridiculously tight grip on everything they forged. No item—hell, not even forging knowledge—was allowed to leak to other empires. It was a matter of survival.

Because of this technique, most of the people in that empire had blessings focused on speed or defense—they didn't bother with attack power, since their weapons handled that.

Another interesting thing: their mages could fight in close quarters, and their support types had attack strength you couldn't ignore. The advantages of this technique were straight-up enviable.

The attack, full of killing intent, closed in on Darian.

Its path was tricky, hard to predict. But Darian didn't move his body—only his weapon did, striking forward directly.

A blade duel was about to go down.

Everyone in the arena held their breath, eyes locked on the stage. And then—

"Waah…!" a gasp of shock echoed from the arena floor.

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