Hero of Darkness

Kahn was taken aback by the display of skills and power by Celine. By no means was she faster or more agile than Veronica. But the control over the aura that she used to create her aura blades and then even changing their shapes to different weapons was something Kahn hadn't even thought of before.

Niklaus was indeed on par with Veronica, just that he focused more on power than speed. So from Kahn's perspective, the match was indeed worthwhile.

This in a way, ended up encouraging Kahn to do better and fight fiercely in the semifinals. Because if he held off his hand against the semi-saints who had a plethora of skills and combat techniques at their disposal, his loss would be confirmed for sure.

With his eidetic memory, he remembered every single attacking move, defensive skill and even Celine's body movements when she attacked the opponent. So he wanted to prepare and look for countermeasures in case he had to face her in the next round.

So Kahn created a list of her attack patterns, her skills and her fighting style after carefully analyzing everything he saw in the match for future strategy. Although he knew it wasn't even her best, having at least enough knowledge was better than having nothing.

On the following day, the hype for the competition reached a new height that even Kahn hadn't dreamed of ever since the competition started.

The next match was one of the biggest highlights because of the two candidates who'd be fighting against each other.

Victor Apopis vs Ezekiel Nabi.

The chosen representative of the Demi-Human faction against the chosen representative of the Pureblood faction.

A semi-saint vs a semi-saint.

This was a match that the whole empire was looking forward to because both of them were renowned fighters of their respective factions but so far, no one had seen them in a full-front battle. Not even their peers from the younger generation.

So not only the common folks but all the factions were anticipating this match to see who was the stronger fighter. But what made this fight even more hyped was because of the former candidate.

Victor Apopis was a scythe user who was also the youngest yet the most talented son of the previous Emperor's Chosen, Darius Apopis who won this competition 50 years ago and was the current head of his clan.

His position in the Demi-Human faction was only second to the faction leader as he was a 6th stage saint spearman. And hence, most of the empire was looking to see him fight given how a legacy was involved with his name.

As per rumors, Victor defeated his opponent with a single swing of his weapon and severely injured them in the previous round. But since that match wasn't broadcasted throughout the empire, only those who attended it knew of his strength.

Ezekiel Nabi on the other hand.. No one knew anything about this candidate and his race or species because he kept his appearance hidden till this point.

All public knew was that he is an elemental mage and extremely powerful as well as talented at that.

Luckily for Kahn, one of his potential enemies will be taken out of here and he will face the winner in the semifinals. So he too attended this match while under the disguise of a snakekin noble heir.

When the match finally started… what Kahn saw was something that completely opened up a new world to him as far as magic was concerned.

Since he was studying magic and became an intermediate rank mage just a month ago himself, he saw an impeccable display of mana manipulation and perfect spell casting for the first time.

Ezekiel, who finally revealed his appearance and identity as a human mage to the empire cast 6 different elemental spells and attack skills.

He cast 2 additional elements compared to Solomon who cast only 4 element spells and AoE skills when Kahn fought him outside the flavot city. And the use of mana as well as its density in each of these elemental spells was highly condensed.

It even exceeded Kahn's current limits by 3 times when it came to casting magic spells. And that too after Kahn had inherited the Elven species bloodline specialty skills named Elemental Fusion and Elemental Transformation after eating Solomon's core.

Even so, he still won't be a match compared to Ezekiel even if they were to be of the same levels and rank.

The match was many times thrilling and far more entertaining compared to his own as half of the 1 kilometer wide battlefield was destroyed to pieces and only 30% portion remained in the one-hour-long battle.

And when the match came close to its end.. Kahn was left speechless while watching the match between these two monsters in their own ways fight like their life depended on it.

Victor, who was a halfbreed demonkin was actually the best among his siblings who could use their family's rumored True Demon bloodline and got a massive boost in attack and mana capacity for 10 minutes.

Since Kahn himself had the Berserk God Mode and possessed 5% of True Demon bloodline which he got from Dormammu.. He quickly noticed the changes in Victor's body.

There was nothing but pure untapped destructive power after he activated his bloodline effect and even the density of his aura strikes increased by at least 3 times.

Kahn too had these bloodline abilities but at best, they gave him a boost in strength only by one and half times. If he wanted to match with Victor, he'd have to absorb this True Demon bloodline to 100% and only he'd be able to face this opponent.

Only Berserk God Mode could help him stand against him but using that skill in this competition was a huge risk in itself because in everyone's eyes.. He was a normal human.

At the end.. Victor finally won the match and qualified for the semifinals as the last burst of power broke through Ezekiel's defenses and landed a critical wound which made the genius mage faint in the end like how Kahn defeated Veronica.

But one thing Kahn learned after watching these two matches.

Whether it was Celine, Victor or Ezekiel.. He was nowhere close to fighting them on even terms as a swordsman because they were simply too skilled.

If not for his Divine Abilities & the Blessings.. He wouldn't even be able to stand in the same room as these prodigies. And on top of that.. There were two more semi-saints he had yet to see fight.

His notion of facing these young geniuses as equals was broken today. Now, it almost seemed laughable.

Because these weren't just some glorified young masters or clan heirs who worked their way up because of their family background.

These were the true masters of their crafts.. They all were the…

Creme De La Creme.