The Risha sisters and the other girls, were amused at the current situation, Reyne was especially happy about the second request Daimon made, earlier she "pridefully" won in the sort against the crazy girl, but ultimately Sarah ended up jumping into the dancing stage before her, for other reasons, namely she was better at pissing off others.
Not only that, but since the turn order was messed up by Sarah, they secretly repeated the whole thing, and she came in third, the first being Femi, then Leslie and only then it will be her turn.
So, you could imagine her displease when Terry suddenly decided to be an idiot and get in the way of having a dance with Daimon, but now everything will be fine, because no matter what the White ancestor wanted, he couldn't refuse Daimon's conditions, since he said he would have already left if it wasn't for the dance.
Of course, that was a lie since Daimon was sure, that today's events will have the royal ball as their starting point, so he had to be present, but as far as the other "players", he was nothing more than a side character that was running wild without knowing what was happening behind the scenes.
And under such pretense it wasn't weird that the White ancestor whose eyes previously had a cold light in them, due to being disrespected in his own territory, suddenly changed to those of a magnanimous senior looking at a "newborn calf who isn't afraid of a tiger due to ignorance", as he nodded.
"Let's do it like this, I'll give the two sides an hour to prepare for the duel, whatever you do during that time, it's up to you, however since you are putting a condition, it would be fair to have your opponent doing the same as well", he said as he gazed at Terry who finally found a way to obtain what he wanted.
"If I win then I want a dance with Mel…", even before Terry could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a cold sharp voice.
"I think you are misunderstanding something", naturally the one who spoke right now, was none other than Daimon, though the upper half of his face was hidden by the mask of the hollow suit, the smirk he had made the Risha sisters and the others giggle knowing someone was about to suffer.
Daimon ignored Terry for a moment, and instead looked at the White ancestor before continuing.
"The favor I mentioned is not a "reward" in case I win that idiot, it's the price you have to pay for me to consider wasting my time in a duel which's result I already know, whether you accept or not that is your problem, you are in no position to put any conditions", he said before he changed targets to the crown prince.
"As for you, a loser trying to treat my friend as a reward, learn your place".
"…", the atmosphere which previously had relaxed again, tensed up to the point that some of the lower ranking nobles were actually sweating, of course it wasn't only because of an argument, but because of the anger that the White ancestor was radiating behind of them.
He wasn't the only one of course, Triten and Irma immediately stood up but were blocked by Annete and Grace.
"Adults shouldn't involve themselves in the matters of the youngest generation, even if it's only for reputation's sake", said the Duchess as she confronted Irma who was crazy enough to have tried to use her mana pressure against Daimon, but got backslash since her level was trash when compared to Grace.
"Y-You!", Irma who had a trace of blood coming out of the corner of her mouth, exclaimed, Terry was about to say something when the White ancestor raised his hand to stop him from doing so.
"Enough, my descendant, there is no better reward than crushing those who see you in a lowly way, as for you kid, since I'm the one sponsoring the duel, you are not going to stop me from helping my "champion" prepare right?", he said with a once again calm voice.
"No problem, it's not like it will make a difference", casually said Daimon, which made a vein on the neck of the White ancestor bulge a bit, but he didn't show it on his face.
"Your hour starts now", limited to say the ancestor as he actually stood up to leave, not without gesturing at Terry who despite being insulted and utterly rejected by Mellie, was now all smiles.
Now that the ancestor has openly shown his support towards him, his ascension to the throne was practically guaranteed, which is perfect as his undefeated image was shattered not too long ago, which shook his previously solid position as the crown prince.
With those two gone there were different reactions, Triten and Irma completely relaxed, the king even ordered the orchestra to continue with the music, since they now had "nothing" to worry about.
Daimon ignored their obvious disdain that the king, Irma and others who supported the crown prince were now showing towards him, and just extended his hand towards Leslie, who jumped into stage to accept his offer.
"Sometimes I feel bad for those who antagonize you, you know~", mumbled Leslie just to see Daimon laughing.
"Then things are working out as expected", he said, Leslie giggled in response before she focused on enjoying her turn, naturally she wasn't as daring as the crazy girl, who was basically jumping into Daimon's arms at any given chance, but her technique was way more refined.
Her slim figure graciously fluttered with ease, which was normal since the Risha sisters are quite physically agile despite not being knights, probably because their movement spells include steps that are practically dances.
It might not look threatening when done for entertainment purposes, but if you add their wings to the equation, things will change for sure, explosive fire feathers, mind destroying feathers or sharp puncturing ones, being even grazed by them as a result of those three's agile moves, will result in a lot of pain.
But for Daimon, that's an unnecessary worry, since their wings contain part of his mana, so they mean no harm for him.
Seeing Leslie and the others enjoy their dances, Daimon inwardly nodded, this opportunity wasn't part of the original plan, but he was happy that they were having a nice time.
'Well, at least I could confirm that the idiot prince isn't part of the big scheme of things, at least not directly, otherwise he would have kept his cool even if his blood was boiling, just like that old man', thought Daimon as he caught Leslie who did a little jump, even without using any strength, she was light as a feather.
When it comes to enemies, Daimon never does something without a reason, if he didn't have something to gain, he wouldn't lose any time insulting or messing with them, he'll just cut them down at the first opportunity.
He has long confirmed that Terry wasn't a system user, since he has made him lose his cool before and there was no notification, like it happened with Adam and Marcus, so this time he gave a try to see if the White ancestor was one, and now he could safely assume he isn't.
Of course, that didn't lower his guard towards him at all, even without access to the functions of a system, with the help of a rogue administrator, someone could easily rule over others, the Ghoul king was a good example of that and that Karla had barely any power/knowledge left.
Daimon himself is an even better example, Freya is going to teach him about metal affinity swordsmanship and there is also Joanna who has Knowledge that others don't and can share it Daimon without any restriction.
There are too many variants that can give someone an advantage over others, so being conceited is a crime, at least for Daimon who has never allowed himself to underestimate an opponent so far.
…
The hour given to the participants of the duel passed quite fast, besides Terry, the other elites of the young generation from the four seas, didn't stop leave and continued dancing with their respective partners, Daimon included.
The last one to dance with him, out of her voluntarily stepping down from the sort, was the alfear princess Tessa.
"I seem to remember that alfear are quite adept to social parties and stuff like that, but for a princess you surely don't seem to like the ambient, am I that bad of a dancing partner?", said Daimon which made Tessa softly laugh.
"Not really, ask Femi, though I always attend back at Evergreen, this is the first time I actively participate in a social event of any sort, besides couldn't the same be said of you, for someone with a vampire lineage, where is your love for debauchery and excess", she jokingly said.
Their little conversation was interrupted by Femi, who was watching from the sides with a little smirk on the corner of her mouth.
"Woah, to think the antisocial Tess is actually having fun in a ball, the world must be truly coming to an end", she said as she munched on a piece of grilled meat.
Tessa turned to see her friend to then say with a smile which wasn't a smile.
"Heh, I hope you have as much fun when you see the photos, I took of you wearing a dress and high heels, later~".
"Damn, that's not fair!", Femi nearly left her food fall to the floor when she heard Tessa's words, which made the other girls laugh.
All good things come to an end at some point, but nothing prevents another good thing from taking over, and just by the time Daimon finished his last dance of the day, the orchestra stopped since they saw the White ancestor returning with a Terry who was overflowing with confidence.
"I assume that since you wasted the whole hour I gave you, you don't mind starting the duel right away?", asked the White ancestor to Daimon, who smirked in response.
"The sooner we start the better", he said.
This time Terry didn't boil at the first sign of provocation, he simply nodded at the White ancestor before he glared at Mellie.
"Very well, then let's go the duel stage that has been traditionally used in all the events that are held in the royal castle", said ancestor as he snapped his fingers.
A short-range spatial array lit up below everyone in the room, and the next second they scenery changed, since all the adults had assigned seats, their positions didn't change, they were just sitting in the same order but instead of the main hall of the castle, they were outside on a stage that was prepared for the duels that were bound to happen during the event.
As for the members of the young generation, they were free to grab a seat or jump into the platform, in this case everyone but Daimon and Terry took a seat, since the first duel had already been set, by the White ancestor on top of that.
"Vincent, I know you are backing that kid since the little girl of the Delphini had become attached to him, but I hope you don't interfere whatever the result might be", casually said the White ancestor to the old Trident Marshal.
"As long as there are no tricks being played, I will never interfere in a duel that was willingly accepted by both parties, Arlion", calmly answered Vincent, that was the name of the White ancestor, not too many people knew that those two actually have been acquitted with each other, ever since they were part of the young generation a really long time ago.
Probably because the ones that managed to survive the times of open war are quite scarce, not to mention Vincent was only a simple member of the royal guard who left to join the army back then, while Arlion was the crown prince at the time, also Arlion became the king quite before Vincent obtained the position of Trident Marshal from the previous king, in other words Arlion's father, not too long before passing away.
"Hahaha, you people from the Mermen Sea surely like to argue over useless stuff, in a real battle, tricks are the norm, unless you want to die, on the other hand words of the shameful defeat of the "greatest genius" of the White, did travel all the way to my Maelstrom Sea, so I guess even old men like us can be excited to see this rematch", said the Chaulioudus ruler.
"This is a duel, so of course a savage won't understand it, also it seems like I have been too passive in recent years, so that beasts have started to think they can insult my White family in front of me", answered the White ancestor as he glared at the ruler who showed his spiked teeth in response, only for Horrorclaw to interfere.
"It was the White family the one who invited us to discuss a truce, you can overlook that fellow's attitude, as a race with ties to sea magic beasts".
"To think you have become the voice of reason, old bones, what has Neptune come to", added Blackbeard, only for the four of them to snort as they focused their attention on the platform.
Daimon saw Terry jumping onto the stage and he nodded at the girls before doing the same.
"Last time, those flames of yours got me good, so how about we fight using exclusively our bodies and our affinities, no treasures allowed", said Terry just to be met with a mocking gaze by Daimon.
"You don't have an option, the sword you are using right now, is not close to be of the same quality as the one I broke with mine, however if that's what you want, I don't mind crushing you under your own terms", he said.
Terry's eyes got bloodshot, but he took a deep breath and just took some distance from Daimon to prepare for the clash, everyone heard them agreeing so if any of them tried to go against the terms, the one who did will be declared the loser, since this is a duel.
'Sorry Nasha, but don't worry we'll have lots of fun together later', said Daimon to Narasha who softly laughed in response.
'I'll look forward to it~', she mumbled, in any case the sword Terry now had, was trash not even worth of being destroyed by her and Disaster was taking a long nap after eating Karla's nether, so Narasha had to put more effort than normal.
Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask as he saw a notification appearing in front of him, he smirked and then white flames covered his body, ever since the three-art tournament it became quite spread that the champion was an irregularity even among rarities, having an element that supposedly combined three affinities which is what earned him the support of the Light Palace's matriarch, as they were lightning, fire and light.
"Freaking abnormally", lowly said Triten as he saw the white flames enveloping Daimon, just to hear Arlion laugh.
"Certainly, a rare sight nowadays, however, we don't have the word "White" on our names, only because of our lineage… now show them my descendant, the terror of the White royal family!", exclaimed Arlion.
Terry's eyes got bloodshot, his muscle mass and height increased, signs that he was using the innate ability of White Shark Royal race, Bloodlust, his mage realm suddenly jumped from the middle stage of the Lord rank, to the peak stage of the Lord rank.
Daimon didn't show any reaction, as he has seen Terry using that in their previous clash, however he was indeed surprised to see that Terry didn't stop there, cracking sounds could be heard coming from his body, but unlike the previous time when he surpassed his limits by exhausting his lineage, his body didn't overgrow, in fact he returned to his original height and then exhaled.
"Let me tell you why was I so angry about being defeated by you, it was because I was forbidden to show my full strength by my master, as it wasn't the time to it, after all my body couldn't have endured a lineage concentration of 30% previously, it's thanks to being "defeated" that I have grown sturdier, sharks can replace their teeth as many times as needed after all", he said as he stretched his body, to flaunt the fact that he was now an early stage Archmage.
And that wasn't all, water mana gathered from all over the place and surrounded Terry, he actually gained a Manifestation Phenomenon, unlike Purplehaze's one which was an incomplete one, his was perfectly solid.
Needless to say, but all the other members of the young generation were amazed by what they were witnessing, that wasn't the level that a young person should have, is what they thought.
And that wasn't the end of it, water mana poured out of Terry's body as he used the innate ability, he got from his Warhammer ascendence, using it to form his water armament, the difference is that this time, he only formed five swords that were floating behind of him.
"How dare you use a white shade element in front of me, I'll extinguish those disgusting flames of yours", said Terry as the five water condensed swords painted white, their previous solid and dignified sensation disappeared to be replaced by a fierce and wild aura.
'Oh, so that's what the remaining laws at the training room of that old man, represented', thought Daimon.
The phenomenon in which water appears to be "white" is when little bubbles of air are trapped within it, in other words Terry's water affinity now contains water and wind properties, it's not a variant element like Aura's, yet… but it's not far from becoming one, as it isn't cooperating like what the Valas do, but it is being actively mixed together into one.
Arlion saw Vincent frowning and he smirked.
"What do you think, the solid water of the Warhammer family has a strong structure, so it took that child quite a lot to be able to use the "Fierce White Water" affinity he was born with, however thanks to that same thing, his potential is limitless".
Vincent remained silent, he noticed that Annete wasn't the least worried, so he simply inwardly shrugged.
'The kid's a monster, I should only worry about him killing the crown prince on the spot instead', he thought.
Daimon grinned, the white flames around him tripled their size as he activated Core Synchrony, all the flames then gathered on his hand forming a white flame sword, which Terry recognized on the spot since it was that martial art the one that was used to defeat him with a single slash the last time.
"Go to hell!", Terry's image flashed, he grabbed two of the five water swords and aimed at both Daimon's chest and head, just to not feel any resistance through them.
Daimon who had appeared behind of Terry, casually spoke.
"Let's see you growing teeth again, without your head attached to your body".
Terry's eyes widened, but he only managed to move the remaining three water sword to cover his back.
'White Universe, Comet Sword', with that last thought Daimon swung the sword in his hand, and a beam of white light of twenty meters if width engulfed Terry, travelling all the way from the platform, to the farthest corner of the area, clashing against the barrier that was set to prevent the attacks of the participants to reach the spectators.
"Aghhhhh!", a bloody scream was the only thing that could be heard coming from the platform, many were forced to close their eyes due to the bright light emitted by the white ray of light.
Arlion's grip crushed the armrest of his throne, but he was being watched over by Vincent, so he limited to grit his teeth and wait for the result, which was revealed not too long after.
Once the white light ray exhausted itself, the sight of Daimon standing right where he was before, was revealed, as for Terry, he was nowhere to be seen which made others wonder if he was vaporized by the attack.
But before anyone did anything crazy, the eyes of all the spectators fell on the farthest point of the barrier, where the half-charred figure of the crown prince was slowly sliding downwards.
"Booom!", Terry's body crashed against the ground the next second, his eyes had rolled backwards, his hair and teeth were missing too, since Daimon wasn't using Disaster, his clothes which were a magic treasure prevented him from being lethally wounded, but his exposed skin was burnt to a crisp.
"See, I told you I knew what the result would be like, now pay", casually said Daimon.
"You little bastard!!!", the White ancestor stood up from his seat as he yelled at Daimon, just to hear a cold voice coming from above.
"Well, well, well, it's nice to see all of you gathered here".
The royal guards reacted on the spot by surrounding all the "guests" immediately, as Arlion asked.
"What is the meaning of this, don't tell me none of you is involved, it's impossible to infiltrate the castle from the outside after all".
Daimon stole a gaze at the one who just arrived and inwardly smirked.
'That idiot finally shows himself', the idiot he was talking about was of course Marcus, who just appeared followed by a large group, among which there was at least twelve high stage Stellar ranks.
'Let's start', thought Daimon, as he looked at all his suspects, waiting to see who'll be the one making their move next, since it was time for everyone to show their cards and compare to see who had the best hand.
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