No Other Option But Victory...
No Other Option But Victory...
Fortunately for Duchess Alina, Queen Ai came to the rescue as she teleported The Ruiner outside the arena against his will again after this announcement.
"You b*tch! I was just starting!!"
The moment The Ruiner opened his eyes next to Felix and the rest of the Councilmen, he exploded into another frenzy, cursing the living shit out of Queen Ai.
"That's enough Ruiner." Felix said calmly, "You have done enough, and it's my time to fight for the nation."
"Fine." The Ruiner crossed his arms with an irritated expression and quietened down.
He might be much stronger than Felix and more proud than him, but he still listened to his orders and requests for a simple reason...He was confident that his god would never choose a nobody to be taking care of him.
-The next battle will be held in half an hour break. May the next combatants prepare for it.-
Queen Ai announced again.
"Well, the first battle has ended as we have anticipated." Saurous said as he glanced at Wendigo, who didn't seem too pleased by the image of King Jaygat kneeling before another.
It was extremely humiliating for him when he was watching the game with the majority of his peers.
"Yes it did." Wendigo replied with a suppressed chilling tone.
"If only his pride was equal to The Ruiner, the peacock symbol would have bestowed them both with complete domination of the surrounding laws.' Manananggal shook his head.
Clash of Prides was a double-edged sword for this exact reason. The Peacock symbol was fair in judging everyone's genuine pride in themselves.
If Elder Dragon was against The Ruiner in this clash, they would have most defintely matched their prides.
This would in turn make them both a temporarily gods in a limited area.
If somehow Elder Dragon's pride was higher than The Ruiner? Then, he would end up getting dominated just as badly as King Jaygat by his own ability!
That's why Annihilation Fiends never rush to use this ability unless they were certain that their pride is much higher than their target.
However, because the only method of them getting stronger was by using this ability and absorbing their targets' pride, they were forced to take risks and choose individuals with high pride.
After all, breaking a nobody's pride would give a meager reward compared to breaking the pride of a King.
All in all, it was an extremely overpowered ability, but it was fair and fraught with risks that had caused many Annihilation Fiends to end up killed in the old times.
'There is no ifs anymore...What's done is done.' Wendigo narrowed his eyes coldly, 'It will be all worth it when I see that punk getting turned into cloud of blood.'
'Alina won't disappoint us, we have prepared too much for this moment.' Manananggal assured.
'She better be.'
While The Darkin faction primogenitors were putting all of their hopes on her, Duchess Alina was meditating in peace to get rid of the horrific image of The Ruiner's torture out of her mind.
She might not admit it out loud, but her confidence was shaken to the core by such a unforgivable sight.
She honestly thanked god she wasn't selected to face against him. But at the same time, that one-sided slaughter had woken her up.
'If I want to win my fight, I need to take it as seriously as possible.' Duchess Alina kept breathing in and out regularly, trying her best to cleanse her mind from all the hate and anger she had towards Felix.
She planned earlier on torturing and humiliating Felix, but now? She wasn't going to screw around and end him in the first opportunity she obtained!
Felix also spent this half hour break to revising his plan as it was quite too complex this time even for him.
Meanwhile, the aftermath of King Jaygat's death was taking place in real time and was streamed for everyone to watch.
It wasn't pretty in the slightest.
"Whether the Void Nation win or lose the next battle, they have already succeeded in getting rid of two major races in the alliance." Aegnor sighed while sitting with Selphie and his cousins in the arena.
He had both wisps of consciousness logged in simultaneously and watching the battles with his void nation and his royal family.
Unlike Arthur, he had yet to get exposed as the recording shown in the council was from Arthur's perspective. He modified it to show only clips of primogenitors to not expose Aegnor.
Since Aegnor's identity wasn't significant and could affect the war in any shape or form, Duchess Alina didn't spare him even a second of her time to expose him.
As disrespectful as it was, Aegnor wasn't complaining.
"What do you mean whether they win or lose their next battle?" Selphie eyed him frigidly, "Felix is going to win it. There is no other option. Understood?"
"Yes." Aegnor's eyelids twitched, 'You psycho.'
Baron, Elanor, Carwen, and Moana could only glance at each other with slightly worried looks at Selphie's behavior.
Ever since Felix was exposed as the Void Nation's leader, they witnessed Selphie's personality drastically change from a gentle and loving to a silent and distant.
It was like her kind personality conflicted with her love for Felix after finding out that his nation was committing mass genocides in the war.
If she was a human, no matter how much she loved Felix, she would forsake him if he went against her beliefs and moral standards.
Unfortunately, she was an elf. Her love was no different from obsession that could be freed only if she was betrayed personally by Felix.
This inner conflict between her love and morals kept stressing Selphie out to the point she stopped being herself, even lashing at her cousins whenever they criticized Felix in this war.
The fact that Felix had refused to meet or talk to her due to his shame made it even worse.
Fortunately, her love for Felix ended up prevailing at last after she realized that Felix took no joy in those deaths and was willing to sacrifice himself to finish this over a battle.
Though, this created another conflict in her mind as Felix's safety in this battle was far from guaranteed.
The fact that only death could end this fight made it even harder for Selphie to cope up with her emotions.
'Let's stop bringing up Felix's death.' Elnora gulped a mouthful, 'I have a bad feeling that if Felix really died, she would vent it on us.'
'I second that.' Baron said, 'I would rather not be frozen in time.'
The rest nodded in understanding and stopped discussing anything related to this battle, leaving them to stare at Selphie as she kept murmuring prayers for Felix's safety.
She was praying to non-other than her mother...
Her concerned reaction was shared by Felix's Grandfather and his loved ones...In fact, most humans prayed for Felix's victory, knowing that if he died, their race was going to return to its sh*tty situation yet again.
Felix was a beacon of hope for them. They were sure that a better future would unfold under his leadership, similar to the way he pushed their rank to twenty-five.
So, plenty of hopes and wishes were lying on Felix's shoulders. He knew all of this, but he didn't allow it to affect him.
He merely kept revising his plan in silence without an ounce of emotional instability.
Before long, Queen Ai announced out loud, "The battle will begin in two minutes!"
Both Duchess Alina and Felix opened their eyes simultaneously...Neither rage, hate, agitation, nor any emotions were reflected in their pupils.
The only thing reflected was absolute stillness like a peaceful lake in spring.
Then, they uttered simultaneously with great conviction...
"I will kill him!"
"I will kill her!"