Chapter 15. The New Technology.

The Day of the Tournament

Asmodeus was giving the speech and explaining all the rules. "All hail Lord Luciferal. Today is the day when Nethralis will hold its first tournament ever. We are also accompanied by our special guests, I want all of you to welcome the Princess of all the dragons, Alina Draconis, and the Supreme Commander of the Dragon Army, Kael Volkarr, along with all the Dragon Army soldiers with some clapping."

All the spectators started cheering and clapping for the Princess, Sir Kael, and the Dragon Army.

Asmodeus continued, "Today we are also blessed by the presence of our emperor, Lord Luciferal."

The crowd, upon hearing that Luciferal was present, spoke with one voice, "All hail his majesty!"

Luciferal was still wearing the dark cloak that covered his face, hair, and hands.

Asmodeus then announced the rules of the tournament: Devil beasts cannot participate in the tournament, meaning that no participant will take the help of their devil beasts to prevent the unfair advantage of demon and elite soldiers over the normal ones.

No artifacts, armors, tools, or weapons which don't belong to the wielder but have been purchased are allowed. One must make their own tools, armor, and weapons with their element for the tournament.

The use of Regeneration magic in every match is only limited to a single-time use.

"These are the rules which every participant must follow while competing in the tournament. Show us what you can do, devil soldiers. All hail Lord Luciferal!" Asmodeus's words echoed through the arena.

He then started announcing the first match of the tournament, "The first match of the tournament is the most interesting one for you all. It is not a match divided into different battles, but a match which will end in only one battle — a battle royale amongst our devil soldiers. Now let me disclose to you all the number of participants. We have 100 million devil soldiers taking part in the tournament. Well, to be honest, I didn't think that this many soldiers would take part, but from the core, I am happy that this many soldiers were interested in the tournament.

Now, for the battle royale, it will take place in the celestial cage. During the purification of Meldara, we discovered a new technology through which we can create numerous clones of any particular place and beast. However, we are unable to create clones of Nethralis and the devil soldiers and all beings associated with devils for some reason, but we can create clones of the celestial cage and all the Celestial Beasts, including the Apex.

If we want 100 million soldiers to battle at the same time, it would be impossible to make them battle in a single Celestial Cage, so using that technology, we made 100 clones of the celestial cage, and in a single cage, 1 million soldiers will battle with each other. All the battles will begin at the same time. One more interesting thing: there is no time limit for the first match of the tournament, and all the devil soldiers will have to prepare their own food and water inside the celestial cage, and they are not allowed to take even a single piece of food or a drop of water with them. Now, let the battle begin!"

And with the ending of Asmodeus's words, the battle royale started. 100 screens appeared in the center of Vulkaris, the capital of Nethralis.

The battle royale had finally started. Indraksha and Ignis were both in the same celestial cage, while the others were in different cages.

"Sir Kael, I don't think Luciferal is here. Asmodeus is not a devil we can trust. There's something really bad happening in Nethralis that the normal citizens don't have a clue about. I do want to watch the tournament, but there's something really fishy about it," whispered Alina to Kael.

She suspected something was wrong with Asmodeus and Luciferal. She further instructed Sir Kael that they both should go and check whether the real Luciferal was present or not. They left the royal room from where they were watching the tournament and went straight to the emperor's room, where Luciferal was.

But outside Luciferal's room, there were royal soldiers at the level of vice commanders. Alina and Kael tried to enter the room but were stopped by the royal guards. The royal guards told them that no one was allowed inside except Lord Asmodeus. He had strictly told them that even special guests were forbidden to enter.

Alina said to them, "There's something I want to ask Luciferal, and he is the only one who can answer my question. So, if you let me go inside, I don't think it is good to decline the request of your special guests."

The royal guard told them that whether they were royal guests or not, they couldn't allow them to go inside. If they had any questions, they could ask Lord Asmodeus. Or, if they really wanted to meet his majesty, they would have to take permission from Lord Asmodeus.

Alina was really pissed and instructed Sir Kael to knock them out. As Alina said, Sir Kael knocked all 10 royal guards out in a second with his mere presence.

Without wasting time, Alina opened the door to the emperor's room, and right after opening the door, Asmodeus was standing in front of them. He said, "I don't think it's good for guests to infiltrate the personal matters of someone else. Why don't you both go to your respective rooms and enjoy the tournament?"

Alina, with anger, replied, "I know you are cooking something, Asmodeus. Remember, if it's related to the current imbalance in the universe, you're going to pay with your life."

Asmodeus gave them a very fishy smile and then sent them back to their room.

Meanwhile, the tournament was going great. The fights among the soldiers were amazing, and every citizen was enjoying it.

In cage 1, where Ignis and Indraksha were present, there was a demon rank soldier who was killing the other soldiers like they were powerless animals. The name of that soldier was Raven. His element power was to summon any kind of weapon he could imagine. His element power wouldn't work if he tried to imagine something else not associated with weapons, and only Raven could utilize what he had summoned.

As Raven kept defeating his opponents in the blink of an eye, he encountered another demon rank soldier, Zane. Zane's element power was among the most unique ones. Her element power grants her an increase in both power and speed the more excited she gets in the heat of battle, but it also reduces her defense to the same amount her speed and power have increased. When her element was first awakened, it gave her two daggers which she could summon whenever she wanted. The daggers were made up of her element, so the daggers had the same attribute: the more they clashed with the opponent's weapon, the sharper and sturdier they became, but her daggers didn't control any nature's power.

Raven, without wasting a second, summoned a weapon that looked like a combination of a crossbow and a battle axe and charged toward Zane. Zane, using her speed, dodged Raven's attack and performed a counterattack using her daggers. But before Zane's counterattack could hit Raven, he launched a sword from the crossbow he had attached to his battle axe.

Zane was not in the position to dodge the sword, so she stopped the counterattack and blocked the sword using her daggers. She then kicked Raven, which he blocked using his battle axe. To the crowd, it looked like Raven and Zane were equally matched in power.

Meanwhile, in cage 6, where Kharos was present, a battle broke out between Kharos and an elite soldier, Takshak. Takshak's element was associated with snakes. He could summon a spear that contained an infinite amount of poison from the Inland Taipan. If the spear wounded anyone, they would be affected by the poison, and the only way to neutralize the poison was to rub the back side of the same spear on the wound. Takshak could also summon 20 snakes at a time, and after summoning 20 snakes, he couldn't summon any more for 15 minutes. Those 20 snakes lasted for 30 minutes. Takshak could also summon a snake that matched his power level, but he couldn't summon any more snakes with that particular one, and it would only last for 5 minutes. After those 5 minutes, he couldn't summon any more snakes for another 20 minutes. He also couldn't summon a snake more powerful than himself.

Takshak threw his spear toward Kharos, but Kharos easily dodged it and created a sword with his dark element, charging toward Takshak. Takshak summoned 2 snakes and launched them at Kharos, but he easily dodged them. Then, suddenly, Takshak whispered something: "Naag," the name of his spear. After whispering that name, his spear came back toward him. But Kharos was standing between the spear and Takshak.

Before Kharos could be hit by that spear, he used his wings to fly upwards and threw his sword at Takshak. Takshak had no choice but to summon a snake and use it as a shield. Kharos's sword pierced the snake, which Takshak had used as a shield, but the sword melted. The blood of the snake worked as a poison that melted Kharos's sword before it could strike Takshak, and this was one of Takshak's trump cards, which Kharos didn't know about.

Suddenly, a snake wrapped around Kharos's right leg and bit his foot, paralyzing him and preventing him from moving his body. The snake summoned by Takshak could paralyze Kharos's body for 5 minutes and paralyze his element for 10 seconds. However, the duration of the paralysis depended on the strength of the snake. Kharos, sensing the snake's bite, quickly enhanced his body and core with his dark magic, reducing the element paralysis from 10 seconds to just 3 seconds.

Takshak charged toward Kharos with his spear, attempting to pierce Kharos's abdomen. But before it could strike, a dark spike shot up from the ground, piercing Takshak's abdomen. The spike had been created by Kharos using his dark magic. Takshak didn't stumble back; instead, the spike had incapacitated him completely, leading to his disqualification from the tournament. The battle was over, and Kharos emerged victorious.