Ning walked back into the seating arena amidst noises of cheers and applause. He had gone from someone who shouldn’t have even his first match, to entering the Top 3 when it should have been impossible for him.

People from his academy stood up and cheered for him as he walked up to them. Some slapped him on the back and laughed, while others patted him on the shoulders.

“Young Ning!” the headmaster stepped in between the students to arrive in front of Ning. “How did you do it? How did you break through in just a few hours?”

“I… don’t know,” Ning said. “I just felt like it was the right time and I did it.”

“Didn’t you break through to the Essence Manifestation realm just a month ago?” Kaleb asked. “How did you do it again so quickly?”

“Well, even if you ask me, I can’t really answer,” Ning said. “I truly don’t know how it happened. I just… knew I could, and I did.”

“Why did you do it when you were in the middle of the competition?” the prince asked. “You missed our fight. You nearly missed this one too.”

“Oh that… uhh, I was told I had 2 hours before our match, so I thought I had time,” Ning said. “But I didn’t expect it to take so long to create my Essence Soul. Does it always take this long?”

“How long did it take?” Tenn asked curiously.

“Nearly half an hour,” Ning said.

“HALF AN HOUR?!?!”

Multiple people shouted at him immediately the moment they heard him.

“It took you half an hour to make your Essence Soul?” the princess asked.

“Yes, was that long?” he asked.

“HELL NO!” the prince shouted. “All of us take anywhere from 3 hours to entire nights to make it, to craft it as best as we could while it tries to do its own thing.”

“How did you make your Essence soul in just half an hour?” the headmaster said.

“Well,” Ning had an awkward smile. “I might have cheated a bit.”

“Cheated?” the prince was curious.

“Well, I’ll show you guys once we are done with the competition,” Ning said.

The rest of them were curious, but they were still respectful enough to not ask him about it.𝗈𝒱𝐿xt.𝒞𝑶𝓂

“Come here,” the prince dragged him to sit next to him. He got close to him and whispered so low that no one but him and NIng could hear each other. “How strong are you now?”

Ning looked at the prince who seemed to have realized it. He couldn’t help but smile and say, “if I had a little more time, you might have been fighting that girl I just beat.”

The prince looked at Ning’s confident smile and couldn’t hide the look of shock on his own face. “You damn man,” he said as a smile formed on his own face. “Once we’re back, I’m going to make you fight with me every day and night.”

“No worries,” Ning said. “I am more than prepared for that. I should train myself more too.”

The prince smiled. “Well, I’m glad you were late then,” he said. “It gives me a chance that doesn’t generally come.”

He turned toward his sister who eyed him with an annoyed look as well. “Finally, we are going to see who the superior twin is,” he said with a fit of laughter.

Ning talked to the prince while occasionally answering questions that the others around him asked of him. He answered what he could, but since he didn’t have a lot of the answers, he couldn’t tell them anything.

It wasn’t just about his sudden elevation to the Essence Soul realm that made them curious, but also the skill that he used back on the match that got him admitted to the medical room.

They wanted to know how he created the giant rock pillar, which Ning told them honestly.

“I made it using this sword,” he said. “Don’t ask me about the sword though. I just found it one day, floating next to the beach. I knew it was quite special since back then, but it is only now that I’m finding out that it might be even more special than I could have ever imagined.”

The stage was cleared up. All rocks and water on the stage were moved away, tossed out of the arena to one side where they would slowly degrade back into Essence over the course of a year or two.

Since the stage was fixed, the host arrived with loud drums suddenly beating out of nowhere. Lights that had been prepared for a bit shined onto the stage as natural light started dying on the stage.

The sudden brightness alerted the crowd into being excited for what was to come.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” the host shouted. “It is time, for the match you have been waiting for since the beginning of the competition, and maybe even before that.”

“The final match is here.”

People cheered from all around and the host smiled, hearing all of that.

“Let me call onto our stage, the two finalists, both of whom are from the Blackhawk Academy.”

“The gems of our country, the hearts of our hearts, the Royal twins of Blackhawk Dominion. Let me present to you our finalists, Allen Black and Alena Black.”

The crowd roared in shouts that covered the entire arena. They clapped and turned to where the Blackhawk Academy was located.

The prince stood amidst cheers as everyone focused on their group. He waved both his hands with massive smiles on his face, while his sister didn’t show much emotion than some slight surprise at the sound.

“Shall we, sis?” Allen spoke as he turned to his sister and a giant grin on his face.

Alena nodded and stood up from her seat and together the prince and princess walked to the stage, surrounded by applause that rang throughout the arena as everyone who had come here today prepared for the last match of the competition that was going to begin any time soon.