GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

They chatted in anticipation of Soverick's match. They were probably more excited than Soverick for his ranking battle. They had watched him get beat up by SQUARESKULL and it was not an entertaining sight at all.

"I'm going to start from the moment he left here. The delay should be enough to escape his notice."

A screen popped up in the middle of the right figures. It was a flat horizontal screen that produced 3D videos. It was a miniature full-colored holographic display. Soverick was displayed on it. They saw him walking with his head down considering something. Then he met up with SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON and they began talking. Even though they were talking with their divine sense, the people here could understand what they were saying. It's because their wrist logger was recording their soul fluctuations and the titans were deciphering it.

"Hah, so funny. She just said she happened to walk by. I bet she has been stalking the entrance for him." One of the figures laughed.

"I have data of her movement pattern here and it says she has been staying in that spot for over 150hrs. If one didn't know better they'll think she has a crush on the boy."

Another one sighed and said, "Those from the eternal battle are seriously insidious. A glorious bloodline sure has fallen so low."

"It was never glorious. People just didn't know what they're Origin ancestor was doing at that time. They thought he was building momentum off of victory but they didn't know he was siphoning their fate, luck, destiny, and talent. His actions led to the death of several titans of law. Many Kings of law that his descendants fought against died when they tried to break through to the next stage and many lords of law couldn't become Kings of law anymore. It was always an insidious bloodline." One of them disagreed.

"It was already too late by the time he became an origin god. No one could eradicate that cursed bloodline anymore. But I heard he didn't have a good ending." One of them whispered mysteriously to the others.

"What happened?" Many of these titans were curious about this. They had heard that the ancestor of the eternal battle didn't have a good ending but no one knows what exactly happened. These people would like something really bad to happen to him. They understood above everyone else how dangerous refinement is. So they knew the full implications of having your chances of success reduced during a breakthrough. It can be the difference between success and death.

They were communicating really fast but so were Soverick and SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON. So before this particular person could answer, they noticed a sudden spike in Soverick's brain activity when he was inspecting her. It drew their attention to the video again.

"That mind of his must be what's special about him. His brain lights up when he is considering a problem. From what we can see, his chances of becoming a titan of law is high as long as he keeps the number of stars to a minimum."

"But the minimum isn't enough for the family."

The pink central figure spoke this time around. "We still have time to make more observations anyway. And it is his choice at the end of the day. No one can force anyone to take a path. Even if it were possible, I doubt it will work on him anyway."

Then Soverick challenged SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON and they left for the arena.

One of the figures asked the central one. "Should I send out a notification to everyone in the secondary school for the upcoming match?"

"You can. These children need something fun to do once in a while. Hopefully, it isn't too late by now."

It was not too late. The trainees ran in droves to watch the match. They were mostly from the preparatory and technique training stage. The ones in the fighting proficiency stage were busy with their training. The fact that a notification was sent out for this match intrigued them but they lost interest when they found out that it was the first ranking battle of one of the challengers.

They all thought that Soverick was biting more than he could chew. They had seen it happen before. The first ranking battle allowed you to challenge anyone and some arrogant people believe that they are better than people that have spent years here in the academy more than them.

There are 12 milestone fights for those that haven't reached the first step of weapons mastery. It makes it very obvious that not everyone below that level of skill is equal. There is still various level of skills, such as accuracy, the efficiency of movements, effectiveness of techniques, reaction, perception, battle judgment, and fighting instincts.

Most of these arrogant people get punished for their hubris. So they decided that it wasn't something worth wasting their time for. Only the ones in the lower stages appreciated the event.

In the fighting ring of the arena.

Soverick and SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON arrived at the arena only to find people waiting for them already and more were still arriving. SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON was waving and riling up the crowd. She wanted Soverick's impending defeat to be very humiliating.

"Look what we have here everyone. A newcomer to the fighting ring is challenging someone way up the rank. What do you think will happen?" She shouted to everyone.

"Defeat!""Beat him up!""Humiliation!"

Many people shouted back at her. The energy of the crowd had gone wild in anticipation.

"He has spent less than 2 months training his fighting proficiency and yet he thinks he can't beat me. I have spent 10 years in the fighting proficiency stage alone. Should I beat him up?"

The crowd began to chant, "Beat him up. Beat him up. Beat him up."

Only a few were quiet, among them are Ghaster and Litori. But even they had ugly countenances. They didn't believe that this match will end well for Soverick.

"What is he doing challenging someone so out of his league?" Litori asked.

Ghaster shrugged but answered. "You know how he is. Pompous and proud. Maybe this fight will knock him down a peg. His arrogance needs dealing with. It won't be a bad thing for him to suffer a just defeat."

Litori was worried while Ghaster chose to be impassive. He promised himself not to allow the outcome of the fight to affect him. That's only so that he won't consider Soverick a lesser person and underestimate him. A loss is not always a bad thing, as long as Soverick learns from it and improves, he will become more formidable. Ghaster doesn't think it is possible for Soverick to win though. And so did the crowd.

SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON smiled and gripped her spear. She remembered the first lesson that she learned during the duels with SQUARESKULL. It was how to properly resolve all the basic spear skills. She remembered how tough it was to resolve her teacher's attacks which were backed up by momentum. It was a tough lesson in the power of the first step of spear mastery. She would teach Soverick that lesson.

So she initiated the fight with a spear thrust. Her body was still for one moment, then she began to accelerate as she shot towards him. She quickly arrived at Soverick's seemingly unprepared form.

Soverick on the other hand was thinking about the toughest obstacle in his duel with SQUARESKULL. It was not how to deal with the basic spear skills, nor was it how to chain attacks. It was not how to combine the basic spear skills or how to shift seamlessly from one attack to another. Or the numerous other spear skills he knows. No, all those he learned himself just to overcome that one trick from SQUARESKULL. He will perform that trick on SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON and maybe gain some insight into how to deal with it.

This fight is just a resting point on the way to his final destination. So this fight must be useful to him in helping him overcome that hurdle. His eyes are always on the real prize, but he will allow himself to enjoy this fight. Maybe just a little bit. That's why he smirked and twirled his spear.

His hand was in the middle of the spear so the blade and the butt formed the outline of a circle as he rotated the spear clockwise. SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON's thrust arrived but was knocked aside by the butt of the spear. She careened past him unable to control her momentum.

She would have eventually stopped behind him and attacked again, but the blade of his spear didn't allow that. It turned just as her attack was deflected, she had yet to recover when it slammed her belly. The blade cut into her stomach, lodged itself into it, and continued its upward journey.

It was just the start though. Her ordeal has yet to end. Soverick had promised not to hold back.