The thought of my strength not being enough started to set in my mind.

While the event was important, what was most important was the reward that came with ranking first.

The Empire had yet to reveal the reward, but everyone understood it was going to be extremely important.

It could range from a very powerful relic, manual, or bone, to even information that I wanted to know.

I could use the chance to learn more about the unrecorded.

But

Thats probably not a very good idea.

While I didnt know the full details, I knew that the Empire was closely tied with one of the Unrecorded. The vision I had experienced regarding Atlas being my greatest piece of evidence.

If I was so blatant with my request to know about the Unrecorded, then Id immediately turn eyes in my direction.

Oh, wait!

I had a sudden realization.

Arent I currently being chased by an Unrecorded?

The Faceless man? NoIn the first place, was I being chased by him? I wasnt so sure if I had to be honest. Thinking back to Atlas, he was so powerful. For such a figure to be a mere subordinate How much more powerful was the Faceless Man?

Would he really struggle to look for someone like me?

Perhaps it was a subordinate of his that was chasing me.

Maybe there are some drawbacks that Im not aware of that are preventing him from finding me directly?

I doubted that such a powerful figure would struggle to find someone like me if they had the chance. He was either preoccupied with something or had some sort of limitation that prevented him from reaching me.

Im more inclined to believe its the latter.

Still, if there was someone who would know best about my brother then it had to be him.

One way or another I needed to figure out a way to meet him.

But not yet.

As things stood, I was in no position to ask him anything.

Trading the sword in exchange? As if.

If he wanted to, hed just be able to snatch the sword from me. He had no need to trade with me. And even if he did trade, that would only show to me how important the sword was to him.

I still didnt know much about the sword.

I couldnt just carelessly give it away without knowing what the consequences of giving it away were.

Haa

What a troublesome situation.

After a little bit of thought, I decided to leave things be for now. I was growing stronger but it was still not enough. I needed more time to grow further.

For now, I need to focus on the tournament.

At the end of the day, it all boiled down to the fact that I was still weak.

I needed to become stronger, and winning the tournament was the key in order to gain the resources that would help me achieve such strength.

But there was one problem with the entire situation.

Im still not strong enough to deal with the top contenders.

The gap wasnt wide, but it was there. My current level was around that of Leons or perhaps lower. It was hard to tell since we had never fought ever since that time.

My Emotive Magic was on another level compared to that time, but I had neglected everything else in the process.

And this was a problem.

How can I bridge the gap between us?

The gap between me and the top contenders?

..

I thought long and hard about the question, to the point where I started to run all sorts of different ideas and simulations. But in the end, the only answer I could come up with was also the one that I thought was the hardest and least likely to happen.

That was

Create a concept.

A concept for my future Domain.

*

Intent, Concept, Materialization. A Domains creation was based on these three different factors.

The hardest part of creating a Domain wasnt actually materialization nor was it the creation of a concept. It was in fact Intent.

From my research of it, finding an Intent was something that was akin to Enlightenment. It just came to you when you least expected it. You couldnt really look for it.

It was for this reason that many people found it hard to move past the fourth tier.

Finding an intent was not something that anyone could do.

But I did

I probably wont be able to materialize my Domain until way later, but I dont need a full domain. Just a little bit

One didnt need to reach the materialization stage to use a domain. They could do so at the concept stage, but the effects would be a lot milder and there was a massive drawback to it.

If the Concept shattered due to an external force or overuse of it, then the Intent would shatter, leaving a person with no Intent.

That would almost be the same as being crippled.

Unless they found another Intent, they would be as good as stuck in the fourth tier.

Its risky, so Im not sure.

The thought was tempting, but I wasnt too confident. But what other choice did I have? If I really wanted to be on par with the others then this was my only choice.

Hooo.

Lets try for now.

I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. Regardless of whether I wanted to do this or not, I still needed to create a concept.

But how could I go about this?

A concept was an idea or law that would shape the domain. How did I want the laws of my domain to be?

Curse dominant? Emotive Dominant? Or something else entirely?

This is difficult.

I felt sweat accumulate on my forehead as I thought long and hard about how to create a concept. I needed to be firm about my decision since once the concept was fully formed it couldnt be changed.

My entire vision was dark.

I drowned out all the noise around me and focused on the darkness around me.

This was the current state of my domain. An empty darkness with no laws or visualizations.

Extending my hand, a flame appeared, dancing at the top of my palm and brightening the darkness that surrounded me.

It was only for a brief moment as I closed my hand and the flame disappeared.

.It works.

In the realm of my imagination, I could create or make anything that I wanted. The same was true for a domain. Within my domain, I could create things that my body wasnt capable of doing.

One such thing was the creation of fire.

While it was possible for me to practice fire spells and evoke them, there were certain limits.

The limits of my body.

But in a domain?

Crackle!

A fire appeared in the distant darkness. It crackled lightly at first, but with time, it started to expand. It grew more and more prominent, and within a few seconds, the entire space was covered in raging flames that seemed to want to engulf me in their entirety.

In my domain, I basked in the sea of flames.

I was a man of fire.

Swoosh!

I waved my hand and got rid of the flames.

Haaa Haaa

Opening my eyes, light returned to my vision as I breathed heavily and sweat covered my entire body. I felt completely drained of energy and could hardly make a sound.

Despite everything having happened in my mind, I found myself struggling for breaths.

There wasnt actually anything wrong with my stamina. In fact, it was perfect. The same was true for my mana. It was almost full.

The thing that was completely drained was my mental energy.

Conceptualization came from the mind and I exhausted everything in order to make the entire world rage with flame.

Hooo

I swallowed my saliva and looked at the platforms above before clenching my teeth.

I need to hurry up.

***

Looks like the first bouts of fights are coming to an end.

Supporting his cheek with a propped-up hand, Therons eyes scanned the platforms below. Intense combat bouts had just taken place, with the final combatants wrapping up their matches as he spoke.

Overall the results were as he expected.

.In the end, it doesnt matter how many contestants your Empire has. What matters is that they reach the end.

Therons gaze shifted toward Lucian and Gael.

They were the ones who had lost the most participants during the first bout. While neither showed much of a reaction, Theron could notice the visible annoyance in Lucians eyes as his thick brows knitted slightly.

Theron felt the corner of his lips curl at the sight.

I did expect some losses from your Empire, but as much as half of them? A little shocking honestly.

Their members gave almost laughable performances. He didnt say much about the ones from the Nurs Ancifa Empire since it had always been like this. But from the Aurora Empire?

This was the first time he had ever seen such a horrible batch.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind.

Right, I did hear that an incident occurred right before the start of the Summit. I never got to hear the details, but it cant be the reason for why youre performing so bad, is it?

.

.

Neither Gael nor Lucian made a sound, but seeing the look on Gaels face he understood that he had hit the mark with his question.

So something really did happen

He wasnt really sure since he had never been briefed about it nor did he care. However, things were different now.

Thinking back to the fights, he did see that those from the Aurora and Nurs Ancifa Empire were somewhat timid at certain points in their fights. They still displayed a decent level of skills, but not to the standards that they were capable of.

Something was clearly holding them back, but he just wasnt too sure what it was.

Only the two of them knew.

Interesting.

Whatever the case was, he could tell that the mentalities of the participants were somewhat off. Some were better at hiding it than others, and some had managed to resist up until this point, but he could see a subtle shift occurring.

He could sense that a few were a fine line from succumbing to whatever demons were haunting their mind.

Theron could see that Lucian and Gael knew about what he had noticed. It was just that they remained silent about it.

The smile on his face grew as his face leaned more on his hand.

.How long will they last before blowing up?

His eyes fell on a girl with long platinum hair and red eyes.

Without a doubt

She was definitely the one who was suffering the most.