Legacy of the Dark Sage

News of what happened in Function Hall 4 spread among the leaders of the factions participating in the event.

The Conclave council members gathered in Noir's room were anxiously watching the projection showing a live feed of the match between them and the Montgomeray Family.

This sudden turn of events came as a shock to them. As far as they knew, the only ones who had open hostility against Kyran were the Lumley Family.

The Courtenay Family remained civil even with one of their Twin Belles's evident admiration for Kyran- or at least for Disciple Tyr.

On the other hand, it was the first time Kyran had anything to do with the Montgomeray, and the latter had been indifferent. At least, that was how the council members saw this.

But seeing the current match, they began to realize that the Montgomeray hid their motive well. They came up with this possibility from Dante's off-handed warning last night and how Callan and Vaness witnessed one of the Montgomeray leaders nodding at Kyran's direction during the Material Gathering event. While these two incidents were not enough to draw a conclusion, because they could purely be interested in Kyran like the rest because of the recent events that involved him, it was enough to know they were up to something.

"The match has started more than 15 minutes ago," Malis broke the tense silence. The concern in her voice was also evident from her expression while she watched the projection. "What do you think is happening inside?"

"This is unlike him," Callan also voiced his doubt. "Do you think something happened that is keeping him from ending the match?"

He turned to Noir as if waiting for his opinion.

Noir shook his head with a slight frown.

"I may be posing as his master but I also have no clue whatsoever as to what his reasons may be for prolonging this match."

"Maybe it is not him who is prolonging the match but the boy from the Montgomeray Family?" Vaness suggested. "We already know that the Montgomeray Family is interested in him. So maybe this wall of flames is their way of isolating him with the rest to talk to him?"

"Hm... it is a possibility," Noir agreed. "There is nothing more effective than to fool others right under their noses. Maybe the Montgomeray Family does not want the other noble families to know they wanted to talk to him and set this up."

Malia frowned and looked at Noir, "You sound as if they don't mean him any harm."

"We all know the relationship between him and Spirits... well, it is only my assumption but if there is a possibility that the Spirits have a way to identify him even with a disguise, then the Montgomeray going through all this while being cautious around the Courtenay, Lumley and even the Royal Families, is understandable."

Callan and Vaness also nodded their heads in agreement with Noir's reasoning.

"But..." Malia, however, was not convinced. "Being inside those flames is not good. If this continues then his body..."

"Hm..." Noir leaned back and closed his eyes. He knew what Malia was worried about. Such flames required more than the magic energies in the surroundings to maintain— that included oxygen that the human body also needed.

If the oxygen within the flames was already drawn to the wall of flames, then how would a human last inside?

"The same hold true with the boy, is it not?" Vaness pointed.

Noir opened his eyes and all of them turned to Vaness.

"He is the Spirit's contracted mage, so maybe he is being protected to a certain extent? After all, Spirits cannot harm their contracted mages, even inadvertently," Malia insisted.

"Regardless, I agree with Chairman Noir's sentiment. Besides," Callan smiled wryly before adding, "I have a feeling he will not allow himself to fall into a disadvantageous situation."

Malia lowered her head. What Callan said, she understood based on her own understanding, so she could not refute it.

"Right... he has a far important thing to do, which is why he will never allow himself to be careless. He may act reckless, but everything he does has reasons," she agreed.

They all fell silent again and continued to watch the live feed.

It might be unconsciously but all four of them refrained from mentioning Kyran's name all throughout their conversation. The room might be protected by Noir's array, but now that there was a possibility that 'Spirits' were anywhere, there was no harm in being extra careful.

As long as they were not clear of the Montgomeray's motive, they still had to keep up appearances, whether there were other people listening or not.

Back to the dome's Function Hall 4, the timer above continued to count down.

There were less than two minutes left before the timer ends, and yet there was no change whatsoever to the wall of flames. It did not seem as if it would disappear anytime soon.

This already exceeded the expectations Styx and the other three mercenaries had on this matter.

"Could something really have happened to Tyr?" Tilda asked no one in particular.

The other three did not respond. But they could not blame her for worrying too much. After all, she was still a woman, and also a mother. She probably saw Kyran as her own given the latter's age.

Deo was the one to finally respond after a few seconds, "The array around the arena will activate if any of the players inside are fatally injured. We'll just have to trust in him."

"But this situation is not good for us, right?" Rake voiced his doubts. "If the timer ends with both players not admitting defeat, it will either end in a draw, or based on the injuries of both players, the arena will decide who wins. If it is a draw, we can still reverse the situation. But if that kid wins...."

Rake's worry was warranted.

If it was a draw, then there were only three players left in their numbers while the Montgomeray would have four. But if Lev won the match, even if the Conclave's next player managed to defeat him, the Montgomeray would still have four players.

Apart from this, they had no idea what the other three players were capable of. The woman who got transferred from team one with Lev was a pure mage using Fire magic, so they could easily come up with a strategy against her.

Fire mages were common in the empire, after all.

But if any of the three players possessed a Spirit then...

"Then I'll f*cking win the remaining matches," Styx snorted. "I can't even trust you guys to do a proper job, seriously."

"Oi!" All three protested and glared at him.

Styx only snickered good-naturedly at their expressions, proof that he was not serious about his words.

Or at least, half of it anyway.

"Anyway, I don't think Tyr will let this match end with a loss. At worse, he would go for a mutual destruction."

Deo, Rake and Tilda narrowed their eyes.

Yes, they could definitely see Kyran doing just that.

However, mutual destruction sounded too brutal, even to them mercenaries. If possible, they prefer it if Kyran came out of those flames in one piece.

Finally, the male announcer moved. With his eyes, still fixed on the timer, he hovered in the air and flew near the wall of flames.

As the timer was down to the last 10 seconds, everyone braced themselves for the result.

The Lumley Family were all snickering in anticipation.

Millie's brows were furrowed with worry. Mimi looked indifferent, but doubt was reflected in her eyes.

WHOOOOSH!

A gust of powerful wind erupted from the middle top of the flames, forming a vortex of flames.

Heatwaves filled the air and everyone in the audience including the participants were forced to use their magic barriers to protect themselves. Because the heatwave was too hot they felt their skins would burn just from it.

"Errgh..." The male announcer lifted his arms and covered his head while employing his most powerful magic barrier. He was the closest to the vortex, after all.

However, he still kept his eyes open and fixed on the timer.

3...

2...

1...

0

The moment the timer turned 0, the vortex of flames dissipated revealing two figures kneeling opposite each other near the arena's edges. On the arena's floor was a remnant of a large-scale array.

Both of them were almost out of breath and looked rather pale, but apart from this they were practically unharmed.

The male announcer did not need to confirm anything with the arena's array, he lifted his right arm and shouted his verdict, "Second match, Solo Competition between the Conclave and the Montgomeray Family, end with a draw!"

Everyone gaped at the arena.

Some wore an expression of mixed awe and wonder.

Given the situation, the match ending with a draw was reasonable.

Both looked unharmed.

However, with Lev's Spirit nowhere to be seen and the wall of flames getting countered by the array on the floor— at least, most of them believed the array was meant to counter the Fire Golem and its flames—, and Kyran probably deploying all the materials he had on hand to make that large-scale aray, not to mention exhausting all his magic energy, both would not be able to fight on the next match.

"T-This...!"

"I-Impossible! Disciple Tyr cannot lose!" Millie could not help but complain.

Apparently, in her eyes a draw was considered a lose, and was unacceptable especially when it involved Kyran.

A blinding light engulfed Kyran and Lev and both were transported out of the arena and toward their respective sides, signifying that the match indeed ended with a draw.

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