Confrontation

A short while later, Asher's team was finally close to the site but once they were, Asher and Owen noticed a couple other presences there. They didn't notice them earlier because of the strange nature of the area that made the mana go stale making it harder for one to sense the presence of others from a distance unless close enough.

In truth, Asher noticed these auras earlier on thanks to his past life's experience and his constitution, the Chaos-Origin body, but he found none of them familiar, except two.

'I never expected I would meet them here.' Asher's expression was one of interest.

At the same time that Owen spotted the mysterious figures on the other side, the opposite side also noticed them and they seemed to realise that they had been spotted.

"Who are you?"

A young male voice sounded from the other side but the team ignored it until they approached an open clearing and spotted the speaker as well as the other individuals whom the aura belonged to.

When they did so, Noah, James, Luna, Melissa and even Owen, all had their faces scrunched as if they had eaten shit. Luna's reaction was even worse as she shook in fear at the sight of the other party. James and Noah trembled at the sight of the group, and this further worsened once they glanced at two figures on the opposing side. The same was true for Melissa, whereas while Owen was scared, he still had a better composure than the rest. Only Asher seemed unaffected by the sight.

"This is some dogshit luck. Of all the groups and with all the odds, we actually stumbled on them." Noah cursed under his breath.

"Oh, it's you." The speaker, a young boy of similar age as Asher, glanced at him with a bit of scorn in his smile.

"The bastard of the Arnhaunts, isn't it?"

The temperature of the area changed after those words were spoken. The young boy still smiled and Asher's face was still emotionless but any onlooker would notice that there was some friction in the air between the two.

The young boy who just spoke was the son of a duke -a regular duke- but even then, his family wielded a lot of authority, nonetheless, they were still below that of the great families' dukes. However, he had still mouthed those words not out of ignorance but simply because he could. Added with the backer beside him, he wasn't afraid or bothered of the consequences of saying such words.

This was because the backer, or rather backers, beside him were none other than the twin princesses of the Great Dawn kingdom.

That's right, the team which Asher's stumbled upon and were currently in confrontation with was the undisputed number one of this exercise; one of the few teams made up entirely of top 50 students and the only one with three top 10 students (first, second and fifth students of the division) in its numbers, with the other five members being part of the top 20 or 30 rankings.

This was a team that could send that of the young lord, the undisputed number two team of the test, running. So one can imagine the thoughts and emotions running through the heads of Asher's teammates.

Asher kept his glance on the young boy for a few seconds before ignoring him and focusing on the two main characters of the enemy team.

'So these are the fabled twin godsouls?' Asher thought.

Godsoul was a title given to individuals with incredible potential that set them out from the rest; the kind of potential that destined them for greatness even if all they did was eat and sleep with minimal effort put into training.

The twin princesses gained this title after their Ceremony of Confirmation which revealed their constitution and physique to be of heavenly grade.

'They are the ones who profited off of me?' Asher smirked silently.

After the awakening of his constitution, the Chaos-Origin body, Asher realised a lot of things he didn't notice before. First off, the phenomenon during his birth was as a result of the appearance of his constitution, a beyond heavenly body, into this world. It also had a bit to do with the status of his soul from his past life which was that of a Celestial Emperor, a being who could create worlds and life out of energy.

The original phenomenon, which appeared during Asher's birth, had caused a shift in the heavens. The result was a change in destiny of those who happened to be born at the exact same day and time period as he was. The twin princesses were two individuals who happened to fit into this slim window of opportunity and as such, they profited from Asher's birth, developing heavenly grade constitutions, dual-elemental bodies while still possessing advanced elemental mana.

In summary, the entire reason the twin princesses could be called Godsouls and have their current status and potential all had to do with the fact that they were born at the same time as Asher, or in simpler terms, all had to do with Asher.

'And yet, the same people who profited off me have come to rob me. Oh, how the heavens work.' Asher smiled.

"Why the hell are you smiling?" The young teen frowned seeing Asher not only ignore his taut but also smile.

'Don't tell me he has fallen for the princesses? A strange look appeared in the face of the boy.

Aurora, the stronger of the two twins, frowned at Asher's glance, feeling both weird and confused at his actions.

"You bastard." She gritted her teeth in anger.

Being stared at by someone she considered a lowly waste felt like an insult to her being and it was simply her desire to maintain an appropriate composure of a leader that kept her from attacking Asher right away.

One of the students on her team noticed this and decided to step up to play the chivalrous knight.

"You pervert. You're an insult to the surname 'Arnhaunt'. I can't believe that the man I once looked up to fathered such a waste as yourself. What more, you're a null. Your very existence must be a disgrace to your father. It would explain why he left the family's domain to move to the front-lines. You should just do your family and your father a good thing and commit suicide right here and now."

Silence pervaded the area right after. Even the young boy who spoke before was surprised at the words spoken by his comrade. Although he called Asher 'the bastard of the Arnhaunts', he never actually meant it as he only wanted to taunt him, and his insult could be said to be within 'safe one'. However, his comrade didn't hold back at all and lashed out at Asher. Even if the said comrade wanted to call it off and claim it was a joke, no one would believe him. There was no way Asher would sit still after those few sentences.

'Oh well, doesn't matter anyway. We were going to fight either way. Even if this blows up, we have the princesses on our side.' The young boy thought.

In truth, even his comrade, the one who spoke, thought the same way. He acted based on the previous actions of the young boy but decided to push it to the max as he saw that the first attempt did nothing to rile Asher.

"You take that back!" Noah and James yelled at the boy, incensed on Asher's behalf.

"Or what huh? What can you do?" The young boy who spoke all those incredulous words smirked.

"Oi, wastrel. Look, you can't even defend yourself that you need your teammates to do so. Haha" The boy laughed.

As for the character at the centre of this, Asher, he simply sighed.

"I originally didn't want to make the first move as it would go against my conscience and be tagged as bullying, but you've earnestly been pushing me to the limits. It seems that even if I decide to not do anything or just leave, you wouldn't stop." Asher said.

"Alright then. It's not that I laid my hands on you first or that I find joy in bullying the weak. It's simply because you pushed me to do so. Either way, the rules of the test makes it such that we are destined to fight once we cross paths, so that further justifies my actions."

The boy roared.

"What the heck are you saying?! Who are you calling we-"

Asher abruptly appeared in front of him, an arm outstretched towards him.

"Be quiet."