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"I lost!" Teleported out of the battle space, Conrad Sykes stood in a daze. The attack power of that earth-dragon's final Earth Purgatory had been nothing short of terrifying, sweeping away every last one of his card spirits in a single stroke. Even the Abyssal Nether Tiger had withstood it for only a handful of seconds before being resolved outright.
Through the entire process, he'd never even managed to react.
"So I underestimated the destructive power of dragon-family card spirits after all." Once the daze passed, Conrad let out a bitter laugh in spite of himself. "Sure enough, there's a reason the dragon race can stand crowned above every species. It isn't for nothing."
Before this, Conrad had never once fought against a dragon-family card spirit. He'd known perfectly well that dragon-kind ran strong, but he'd assumed the gap couldn't be that outrageous. He hadn't expected reality to slap him across the face this directly.
"Setting the other three Regions' new students aside, the two new students Dragon's Valley sent this once alone, their strength brooks no contempt whatsoever. This is going to be trouble." A thread of worry crossed Conrad's face. "If the Trial Road's final victory doesn't land on one of our Eastern new students, and falls instead to someone from beyond the East, then we'll have well and truly lost face."
Unwilling as he was, his own skill falling short and his elimination were plain fact. All Conrad could hope for now was that the East's new students wouldn't be routed wholesale in this iteration of the Trial Road. If it truly came to that, then the embarrassment would be complete.
And even as Conrad turned it all over in silence, yet another batch of new students defeated in this round came teleporting out, and among them, plain as day, stood Lyra and Serena Frost.
"I'm asking you, WHY is it the two of us running into each other again!" Staring at Serena Frost, Lyra looked ready to weep without a single tear to shed. She was starting to feel that this life of hers had been shackled to this ice-cold woman from the start.
Granted, the number of new students Celestial Academy admitted each cohort was never large, and after round upon round of screening, the students still remaining were fewer than ever. But there were still other people left, weren't there? Just how spectacular did their luck have to be for the two of them, out of everyone, to collide head-on?
As for the result, it was that the two girls' card spirits had perished together, taking each other down in the same breath, and both of them had been eliminated in one stroke.
Hearing Lyra's lament, Serena Frost merely swept her a silent glance and said nothing more, every bit as speechless at the outcome as she was.
She had wanted to settle once and for all which of them stood higher. But that depended on the setting, surely!
---
"Conrad ranks among the top four examinees of this Eastern cohort, and the Abyssal Nether Tiger's strength holds its own even measured among Seven-Star cards. A pity that, set against a dragon-species card like the Earthring Dragon, it still fell a full rank short." Having watched the battle between Conrad and Viola from beginning to end, Moira shook her head at the last.
"And it isn't only the Earthring Dragon. The elder sister Violet's card, the Skywing Dragon, is every bit as formidable." Unlike Moira, Selene's attention had gone to the other of Dragon's Valley's two new students. A pity that Violet's opponent had run weaker than Conrad, and Violet had eliminated hers even faster than Viola managed.
"A Seven-Star card. Even here in our East, the students of a single cohort who craft one can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and yet Dragon's Valley's cohort this time carries close to ten of them." Moira's tone brimmed with open feeling. "Sure enough, Dragon's Valley's people are every bit as formidable as the stories say."
"However strong Dragon's Valley may be, without an existence at the Supreme level, it can only ever remain a first-rate power. Set against our Ancient Kingdom and the other two great empires, it still falls a step short in the end." Hearing Moira's sighing, Tobias answered with level calm, entirely unmoved.
"And beyond that, there's one more point. Dragon's Valley's people are simply too few. Some decades ago I paid the place a visit, and even counting the old fellows living in seclusion, Dragon's Valley's numbers didn't reach one thousand souls. On that single point alone, Dragon's Valley will struggle to ever grow into a force of the very top tier."
"Old man Wren, all these years gone by, and that temperament of yours still hasn't changed. Vicious-tongued as ever." Without warning, a fourth voice rang out, filling the whole of the trial plaza, and then an elder stepped unhurried out of the empty air, coming to a stop before them all. "Speaking ill of people behind their backs is hardly the bearing a Great Academy Head ought to carry."
The sudden appearance of an outsider gave both Selene and Moira an instinctive start, but upon seeing the arrival clearly, the two women settled back down, and together they offered the newcomer a bow. "Elder Drake. Greetings."
Theron Drake, an elder of Dragon's Valley, and one of the Immortal Realm Card Masters to come out of Dragon's Valley besides. Whether by identity or by standing, he was fully worthy of this courtesy from Selene and Moira both.
"No need for all that ceremony." Drake chuckled as he waved it off. "Ah, that's right. Dawnford girl, when you have the chance, pass along my greetings to that teacher of yours, Lady Lilith."
"Of course, Elder Drake." Hearing Drake's words, Selene nodded.
Relations between Dragon's Valley and the Ancient Kingdom ran decently warm. But just as the Ancient Kingdom divided into its four Regions, Dragon's Valley likewise divided internally into its own factions, and the faction to which Drake belonged happened to keep quite good relations with the East's Lilith.
"Nonsense. Am I wrong, though?" In contrast to the two respectful women, Tobias showed Drake not a shred of courtesy.
I truly never should have held any expectations for this scheming old man!
Hearing Tobias, Drake's eyelid gave a hard twitch. Were it not for the others present, and for the fact that Violet and Viola, the two girls, were about to enter Celestial Academy to train, he would absolutely have flung a card straight into the man's face.
---
"Old Drake, what took you so long to get here? I'd half assumed you'd forgotten this whole affair." As though he hadn't seen a single shade of Drake's magnificent expression, Tobias carried right on with his questioning, tossing another handful of popcorn into his mouth as he did, without one thread of a peak powerhouse's bearing about him.
At the sight, Moira and Selene both turned their faces away, unable to keep watching.
"As if I would!" Drake fired back without any grace, and then reached out, snatched the popcorn straight out of Tobias's hands, and started munching on it himself. "Violet and Viola, those two girls, are Lady Violante's daughters, when all is said. Since the Dragon Lord entrusted them to my care, I would never forget a matter of this importance."
Within Dragon's Valley there existed nine great powerhouses of the Undying Realm, and every one of those Undying held a Dragon Palace of their own, the Dragon Palaces standing as the territories of the nine great Undying. And toward those nine Undying powerhouses, all of Dragon's Valley addressed them by one honorific: Dragon Lord.
The Lady Violante of whom Drake spoke was precisely one of Dragon's Valley's Nine Great Dragon Lords, and the holder of power over the very faction to which he belonged.
"As for why I've come this late, it's because I picked up the trail of the Dragon Renegade." As the words left him, Drake's voice had already taken on a thread of deep, cold dread.
"The Dragon Renegade?" Tobias, whose face had stayed placid through everything, felt his brow jump at last, and his tone turned suddenly grave and far away. "To think that after all this time, that one still hasn't given up?"