Kill The Old Ones!

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The last match of the day was between Ren and Aria.

He knew that at some point, this would happen. But even so, Ren still feels a bit excited for this match because, like him, Aria was yet to lose a match—except when she surrendered to Sieg, but that doesn’t count.

Yes, that’s right. So far, Aria had been dominant in this tournament. She fought two of the seeded participants—Aurelia Valentine and Darius Stormholt—and won. The fight was just exciting enough to look like it was a close match, but Ren saw the truth—Aria didn’t struggle at all.

What made Ren even more excited about this match was that he knew that Aria would be mad.

Now, it was never his intention to piss off that lady. He knew how volatile she becomes when it concerns Sieg, and he just so happened that he kind of bullied her boyfriend in their match, but what can he do? Even after cheating, the guy was weak. It was Sieg who was provoking him; all things considered, he was begging to be bullied!

But he knew that Aria wouldn’t see it that way. She was way too in love, in a very concerning manner, with Sieg, so she genuinely believed that he couldn’t do anything wrong.

She would see the world burn for being unfair to Sieg rather than see reason—it’s unhealthy and, honestly? Psychopathic.

This was one of the main reasons he disliked Aria’s character, and he wasn’t alone in this.

In his previous world, many people who read the story were bothered and concerned by Aria’s character. There were theories that she wasn’t originally like this—that some forces beyond human comprehension interfered and turned her this way—but this has never been proven; the story never made it clear, either.

Anyway, to put it simply, Aria was holding back in this tournament so far, all for the sake of keeping her real strength and identity a secret.

Even though two decades have already passed since her birth and the phenomenon that appeared when it happened, some people still remember it vividly and are still suspicious of the Carmichael family.

They staged the death of ’Celestine’ and ’grieved’ her loss. They even waged war and cleansed D-City of those who plotted her ’death.’ But in truth, they hid the child in an orphanage where she grew up in peace and safety. Only to return to the clan in the guise of an ’adoption.’ They told her the truth, and because of her appearance—which was vastly different from the product of Carmichael genes—most people were fooled.

But again, the suspicions weren’t completely gone. Even now, some people who still remembered that event are still spying on the family, watching their movement.

Aria had been warned to be careful, and she has been—under the assumption that Sieg wasn’t compromised, of course. He was her weakness and her moral compass.

But Ren did that to Sieg, which in turn pissed the scary lady off.

And now, both of them are marching to the arena to settle this once and for all...well, not really, for Ren knew how vindictive Aria could truly become when it comes to Sieg.

**

’My, how scary.’ Ren chuckled as he saw Aria’s stormy expression.

In her previous matches, Aria wore an indifferent expression most of the time. No matter how ’close’ the fight turned up, her expression never changed. The only time her expression changes is when she’s talking to her boyfriend.

But now, Aria was looking at him like he just murdered her entire family, like he murdered Sieg.

If looks could kill, he would’ve dropped dead by now.

He could feel her desire to murder him, to rip him to shreds, and he could already tell that she had no desire to hold anything back at this point. Hiding her true identity? To hell with that!

[Match! Start! ]

Boom!!

She did not waste time at all. The moment the match began, she disappeared into a streak of light and charged at Ren like she was a woman with nothing left to lose.

Her speed would put lightning-aligned martial artists to shame. And just to truly prove that she’s being serious, Aria held two weapons—which, if Ren were to be asked, she undoubtedly mastered.

Aria held a spear on her right hand and a sword on her left. She was like a warlord or something.

The tip of her spear charged with purple lightning struck Ren’s blackened arm. The impact sent shockwaves that shook the arena.

Ren hummed when he felt the force behind her attack. His assumptions weren’t wrong, indeed. Aria was definitely a cut above all else here, and that’s for a damn good reason.

A sacred-grade talent in the guise of an epic-grade one. Her family paid extravagant amounts of merit points to change her public information and to hide her true talent.

Aria was, so far, the only person who had made Ren feel ’something’ when she struck him. Nobody here, not even Lily, managed that so far.

But still...that wasn’t enough.

Yes, he could feel Aria’s strike, but he wasn’t in pain.

Even when the tip of Aria’s spear, charged with purple lightning, attempted to wreak havoc on Ren’s body, it didn’t do any damage because of how tough Ren’s body was.

The Black Adamantium Technique was doing wonders against this. And judging by the shocked and mildly horrified face of the lady before him, he could tell that she’s starting to get it.

Ren then felt her adjust the angle of her spear; she shifted it just slightly down to make her spear slide through his guard. This pushed her closer to Ren, bringing her sword forward.

And that sword wasn’t just wreathed in the purple lightning; it had dense sword intent, too—one that would make Adrian Arclight weep in envy.

Ren tilted his head to avoid the spear aimed at his face and held out a finger to meet the tip of the sword.

Boom!

Another clash occurred, which sent more shockwaves to shake the arena. Once again, Aria was horrified to see that her sword was stopped dead by a single finger this time.

She looked at Ren as if he were some otherworldly monster; her expression was grim.

Her purple eyes with golden pupils strained as she attempted to get a read on Ren. But while this would’ve worked on others, for some reason, it’s completely ineffective against Ren.

This vexed her. She hated the fact that he was an exception. She called him a cheater inwardly and already decided that his whole existence was an anomaly and an unforgivable abomination.

Somehow, she will find a way to eradicate him from the world.

Boom! Crackle!

A pillar of purple lightning struck her and Ren at the same time without any warning.

To Aria, this purple lightning wasn’t harmful. If anything, it gave her a boost to her strength.

But to Ren, this was supposed to be a harmful attack. But due to how anomalous he was, it wasn’t either. It didn’t make him stronger, but it most definitely did not make him weaker.

He didn’t even look surprised, to be honest. He still wore that smirk, which looked irritating and extremely provocative to Aria.

Aria sneered while cursing this ignorant thug for his arrogance.

She raised her spear to the skies and blurred into motion, leaving afterimages that turned to clones of her all over the arena. From their appearance and chakra readings, they all looked real and indistinguishable from the real one.

All of them aimed their weapons at Ren, attempting to skewer him in every direction, and they did not hesitate at all.

But Aria was greatly underestimating Ren...

For the first time in their match, Ren took the initiative to move.

There it was again: Ren’s incredible mastery of martial arts that gave the illusion that time itself stops just to observe his performance.

Ren punched the open space before him. But instead of a linear impact, it was a spherical one that affected Aria and her clones that went close enough to skewer him.

The clones were reduced to puffs of clouds, dispelling just like that, and Aria had to defend himself and stab his spear into the ground to prevent her from being pushed out of the arena.

Aria cursed beneath her breath, and while she was thinking of her next attack, something surprising happened.

Ren was looming over her. His cold and indifferent eyes bore down on her completely and utterly as if deigning her insignificant. He looked at her in a manner that made her small.

Then, as if a titan had woken up angry, he raised his fist.

For the first time, Aria got a read on Ren’s intent—whether that’s on purpose or not, she couldn’t care less because she’s more concerned about the message.

’You will die from this punch.’

Aria’s eyes dilated, and she reacted just fast enough to raise her guard. That’s when Ren’s fist struck, and all of a sudden, Aria felt like she was trying to stop a world-ending meteor from hitting the human civilization.