"Going all out with her full strength, can Ais Wallenstein truly pull out this divine spear of legend!?"
Hermes held a simple voice-amplifying magic item, faithfully doing his duty to hype up the crowd.
"You can do it, Miss Ais," Lefiya tightly clenched her fists offstage in nervous anticipation.
However, under everyone's expectant gazes, Ais soon let go of the spear. She shook her head expressionlessly and said calmly, "No, I can't pull it out."
"How can that be... Not even the Level 6 Miss Ais can do it?"
Lefiya's face instantly collapsed into a devastated expression of pure disappointment.
"Excellent! You're the only one left, Aiden. Go on, pull that spear out."
Wearing a smug expression, Furina confidently shoved Aiden onto the stage. She wasn't worried in the slightest that Aiden would fail. As his patron deity, she knew very well that Aiden had recently acquired a brand-new skill. With that skill, there was absolutely no weapon he couldn't wield.
"You can do it!"
Firefly, Castorice, and the others were also offstage, their hands balled into fists as they cheered him on.
"So, where is our final challenger?"
Hermes continued to ask from the stage. When he saw Aiden being pushed forward, he was stunned for a moment before a knowing smile spread across his face. "Are you next, young Aiden?"
"Yeah," Aiden nodded, looking at him calmly. "Although I have a lot of things I want to ask you, you probably won't say a word until I pull this spear out, will you."
The smile on Hermes's face grew even wider. He spread his hands and said, "Then give it a try. As long as you can pull it out, I'll tell you everything."
"Excellent! The Flame Emperor's challenge begins now!"
Hermes announced loudly.
Aiden stepped forward and quietly looked at the black divine spear in front of him. Then, he reached out a single hand and gently gripped the shaft.
In the next instant, he activated his skill.
[Knight of Owner]
This was a power drawn from the system, originating from another world just like his power to acquire the beginning, now deeply branded into his soul in the form of a skill.
With the activation of the skill, an ethereal and highly confused female voice echoed within Aiden's mind.
Eh? How can this be...?
Aiden knew that voice intimately. It belonged to the Goddess of the Moon, Artemis.
Almost simultaneously, a sudden anomaly occurred. Streaks of crimson, mystical circuitry, acting like living vines, instantly spread from the palm of Aiden's hand, crawling over the entire shaft of the spear. The previously dull, unlit divine script engraved upon the weapon lit up one by one, radiating a brilliant glow.
Crack—
With a crisp, shattering sound, the massive blue crystal that even a Level 6 like Ais couldn't budge shattered into pieces.
In the deathly silence of the entire plaza, under the shocked, dumbfounded stares of everyone present, Aiden held the pitch-black spear with one hand. With effortless ease—like plucking a twig planted in the sand—he pulled it out and hoisted it high above his head.
The entire plaza fell absolutely silent. The crowd that had been boiling with noise just a moment ago was now so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone was stunned by this scene that completely defied common sense.
The divine spear that even the Level 6 Sword Princess couldn't pull out had actually been effortlessly... pulled out with a single hand?
Up on the stage, Hermes pressed the brim of his hat down, his eyes lowered as the shadows hid his expression. He let out a long, slow sigh, his words meant only for himself.
"I see... Destiny didn't choose you, but you... chose it."
The silence was finally broken by a crisp, energetic cheer.
"You're a total badass, Aiden!"
Seeing Aiden hoisting the immovable spear high in the air, Furina let out an excited shriek. Like a tiny cannonball fired from its barrel, she charged straight onto the stage and leaped onto him with total reckless abandon.
"Hey—!"
Aiden stumbled from the sudden flying tackle, instinctively wrapping his left arm around the petite goddess in his embrace while keeping a tight grip on the black spear with his right, barely managing to steady himself.
After a brief, dead silence, the adventurers below finally recovered from their shock, erupting into cheers and applause far more intense than any before. The noise swelled into a tidal wave that threatened to blow the roofs off the entire plaza. They cheered for this entirely unexpected conclusion, congratulating this near-miraculous moment.
"He actually... managed to pull it out," Alise murmured to herself. She really had used every ounce of her strength earlier. That spear had felt as if it were fused to the city itself; it simply wasn't something mortals could shake. "Even though it wasn't Miss Ais... if it's Aiden, I suppose it's not totally unacceptable."
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