Everyone felt uneasy and tense, not knowing what to expect.
Currently, the whole world was in silence, no vehicle moved on the streets and only a few individuals were visible walking around.
Of course, the reason for that was pretty much obvious.
[Worlds' Clash [First Round] countdown: 00:00:03]
[Worlds' Clash [First Round] countdown: 00:00:02]
[Worlds' Clash [First Round] countdown: 00:00:01]
[Worlds' Clash [First Round] countdown: 00:00:00]
Whoosh!
In that very instant, the moment the countdown reached zero, the whole world seemed to undergo a massive change.
Suddenly, the air felt a little heavier than usual, giving one a hard time breathing normally, while the ground descended into darkness despite the sky being perfectly clear!
A massive object appeared above every city!
"What the hell is that thing?" standing either outside on the streets or before their windows, people looked toward the sky with both into of dread and anxiety.
The object floating and slowly rotating counterclockwise just a few miles above the head of people was a massive cube, so huge that even others several miles away from cities could inspect it with ease!
The cube was made out of some mysterious black material while the surface of it shone with gentle white light from time to time.
However, except for that and its ridiculously colossal size, nothing seemed to happen even after 5 full minutes.
"That's it? Cubes appearing out of empty air and floating above our heads?" a recruit of the Black Moon Guild stood calmly outside, his gaze staring at the large object in the sky despite it being rather far away!
"The fuck? You are not scared at all? Do you have any idea what kind of chaos those things could achieve if they were to fall?! We would all die you dumbfuck!" another recruit exclaimed, his eyes fixed on his comrade as he was looking at a retard.
Meanwhile, standing outside the mansion, Old Dan, Luna, Thomas, Kayn, Raven, and a few recruits from the Black Moon Guild stood still, their eyes fixed on the floating object in the distance.
"Any bright idea what that thing could be?" standing still for several minutes, Old Dan finally decided to talk, his question directed toward everyone.
"No idea." everyone shook their heads, only to see that the next second finally things seemed to change.
The cubes that so far only floated in the sky finally stopped rotation, with one of their edges pointing perfectly toward the ground, and under everyone's gazes the surface of it lit up.
Whoosh!
"Heyoo everyone~! Etia, your lovely goddess is here! Hope you haven't forgotten about me!"
Just like akin to turning on the television, on the cubes' surface, suddenly the figure of an inhumanly beautiful woman, or to be a more exact girl, popped up, her face holding a wide grin full of glee.
On the other hand, everyone who saw her face immediately became either pale or dark, their eyes holding a storm of negative emotions within.
Rage, hatred, sorrow, pain, killing intent...
Emotions akin to the ones mentioned above we're the only things that occupied the hearts of the people currently looking at Etia's figure, who at this moment was sitting on a golden throne with nothing but a lollipop in hand!
There was also a figure standing beside her, but as the individual was too tall, even taller than the throne, his or her face was completely out of view with only the area below their chest visible.
Waiting for a second or two after his intro, Etia sucked on the lollipop and with a smile continued to speak;
"It's so good to see all of you grow this much just in the short span of a month. Haa~... Just remembering how you all were struggling to stay alive a few weeks ago makes me feel so proud."
Etia sighed with a soft smile, looking almost like a mother would look at her children with pride.
However, that soft smile quickly vanished, and what replaced it was a smile full of anticipation and excitement, which could be felt even in her following words.
"And exactly for that reason, we are going to celebrate!"
Whoosh!
Right after Etia said those words, her figure vanished from the cubes' surface before a massive scoreboard appeared on it.
----------------
[Worlds' Clash Leaderboard]
Race: Humans
Average Rank: 4.2
Number of humans with True Rank: 21,792
Average True Rank: 1.4
Universal Rank out of over 1,000: 666
First Round Challenge: Not yet specified!
----------------
"Not bad, but not good either." Etia's humming voice with mixed emotions could be heard in the air before the image changed once again.
Whoosh!
[Starting of the draw!]
[Humans vs....]
At that very moment, characters began to blur after another and after beside the word 'Humans', making everyone's heart beat faster and stomach tighten.
Although no one knew what will happen and even felt confused, for some weird reason they all had a feeling about what will happen once the blurring stop.
And just as when everyone was on the verge of screaming out things like 'Come one!' or 'Let's get this fucking over with already!' the draw finally came to an end.
[Humans vs Rotrids]
----------------
[Worlds' Clash Leaderboard]
Race: Rotrids
Average Rank: 6.7
Number of rotrids with True Rank: 113,398
Average True Rank: 2.7
Universal Rank out of over 1,000: 201
First Round Challenge: Not yet specified!
----------------
[Choosing Random Challenge!]
[First Round Challenge:...]
Whoosh!
This time, there was no blur of various names or titles, the name of the first challenge immediately appeared right below the information about the Rotrids.
[First Round Challenge: Heaven or Hell]
----------------
[Heaven or Hell]
Difficulty: Black
Description: The strongest individual from both races with the weight of their race's fate at stake will clash against each other!
~~~
[Rules]
° Will be specified in 24 hours!
----------------
[Start of the Challenge: 23:59:22]
"Woah~! Well, that is unexpected indeed!" suddenly Etia's shock-filled voice resounded in everyone's ear before she sighed with a hint of sorrow, "To think you all will be given such a challenge right from the start... Your luck is truly cursed."
Then, after another sigh and when her figure was visible to everyone once again, she continued, "I will be honest with you guys, you all are in a very tough spot. As for the reason?"
When Etia asked that question, she started to chuckle with a hint of sorrow and said, "It is because whoever loses this fight, will die. And when I say die, I don't mean just a single soul, but all of you. If your strongest member is killed, it means all of you will die. Your race, as a whole, will cease to exist... completely!"
The moment she said those words, everyone fell into silence with the majority of them losing all the color from their faces!
Some even became so frightened that they lost consciousness while others lost their strength and fell on their butts because of his weak their legs became.
The feeling of helplessness now truly crept its way into everyone's heart, except for a single individual, Raven.
While others felt dread, anxiety, panic, and other similar emotions, which was understandable, after all, they just happened to learn that the fate of their lives now was in the hands of a stranger, until then Raven stood motionlessly, his face as dark as if clouds have appeared above his head!
However, this was just the beginning. Once he completely understood just what kind of weight had fallen on his shoulder, it felt almost as if a bomb had been detonated within his body.
Everything around him became silent, his vision turned blurry, and his body became colder while thick drops of seat began to roll down his face.
Furthermore, to make things even worse, he felt as if the air around him became thicker, making his breathing so heavy that slowly the world around him began to spin, and in the end, he fell to the ground.
The last thing he saw before everything went completely black was Luna's and his father's figures running toward him, each holding faces as pale as ghosts.
Meanwhile, in Nova City, within the Star Palace, President Bai with the rest of the members of the United World League sat around a table, their faces holding deep gravity.
The only thing that could be felt and heard in that room was a heavy silence, which lasted for several minutes before President Bai lowered his hands and stated with a cold tone, "Who has the highest Rank?"
A young man standing beside President Bai flinched scarcely when he felt all the eyes falling on him before he raised the device in his hand and began to speak;
"According to the database, we have 4 individuals who had already reached Rank 8, each with unique abilities, Sir."
President Bai nodded and with a heavy tone he ordered, "Bring them all here, now!"
"Y-Yes, Sir! Right away!" the young man saluted and without any hesitancy dashed out of the room, not daring nor wishing to stay there even for a second longer.
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