Chapter 79
Back at the headquarter of the Order of Supernatural Being, a man with silver hair and a pair of piercing silver eyes was sitting behind a desk while reading a doc.u.ment inside a file with a serious expression.
Once he was done reading, he looked at a photo that was clipped to the inside of the file, and a small frown appeared on his otherwise flawless face. In the photo, Juin was seen walking out of the Thompsons' house in the middle of the night.
"Is there more to this?" he mumbled to himself as he looked at the man who sent Juin out. "James Thompson, are you involved with our world again?"
He thought for a moment before closing the file and putting it back in the top drawer of his desk.
"President Presley, it's me," a young voice came from somewhere nearby.
Upon hearing the voice, the man looked up and saw his young ward standing by the door. He noticed the boy's s.h.i.+rt was covered in sweat stain and knew that he had just come from his weekend soul power practice.
"Come in," President Presley said as he snapped his fingers, upon which, a small glow appeared in a line at the bottom of the door.
Luca Rockefeller nodded as he used the small white towel that he brought with him to wipe his sweaty face while waiting for the glow to disappear before stepping into the room. The last time he rushed into President Presley's office without announcing it, he was inflicted by the cursing ward that the old president placed around the room, causing his body to break out in painful rashes and hives.
Thank G.o.d President Presley was nearby, and he immediately removed the curse from Luca's body before the boy fainted from the pain. After that, Luca tried to be careful whenever he entered President Presley's room.
"How's your practice today?"
"I lasted longer than before. I can now continuously attack with my soul power for almost an hour, provided that I don't use my strongest attack right at the get-go," Luca Rockefeller replied with an arrogant smirk as he pulled one of the chairs in front of President Presley out and sat down.
"Good," President Presley said with a nod. "Keep it up and you would be able to handle the Battle of the Underground Beings better."
"Is there anything on the rules yet? Is it still a battle style this year?"
The quinquennial Battle of the Underground Beings was a unique game, where everyone below 25 years old was allowed to join. The Order, the Nakamura Clan, the Dark Night Clan, and various other different sizes groups were allowed to join as long as the contestants were under 25 years old.
Out of the groups, the three scariest powers were the Order, the Nakamura Clan, and the slightly smaller Dark Night Clan.
The members of the Order were mostly Elementalists or humans with supernatural bloodlines, and these people received rigorous and strict training since young to increase their soul powers and physical strength.
The members of the Nakamura Clan went through similar training as well, except that they were mostly pureblooded humans who could either manipulate the elements using various help or Elementalists.
As for the members of the Dark Night Clan, even they were smaller in size compared to the other two main groups, they were mostly pureblooded supernatural beings or demons, which meant that those from this clan were naturally endowed with specific skills and abilities that the rest took years to gain.
And these three made up the biggest threats in the Battle. Since the first Battle, members of these three groups had dominated the Battle, easily clearing out the partic.i.p.ants from the other groups within the first few days.
As such, certain restrictions had been placed on them in order to maintain a fair game for everyone else; restrictions that President Presley was extremely dissatisfied with and had been trying to remove for years.
One of them was the age restriction.
Unlike the other smaller groups, the age restrictions on these three groups were lowered to 18 years old, thus giving them lesser opportunities to compete for the prizes. Imagine if the partic.i.p.ant was a talented Elementalist that was found later in life, say around 10 to 13 years old. By the time they were well trained enough to partic.i.p.ate in the Battle, they would have only one chance left to do so.
Given that the organizers of the Battles always provided the winner with extremely powerful and tempting prizes, this restriction was seen as unfair and promoting mediocrity. During one of the Battles, because there was no suitable partic.i.p.ant under the age of 18 from the Dark Night Clan and the Order, the Nakamura Clan was able to easily secure a victory and win a rare artifact that granted its user the ability to wield the wind elemental power without expanding a lot of soul power.
And this artifact helped the Nakamura Clan to win the subsequent two Battles.
Looking at Luca's body condition, President Presley nodded satisfactorily. The last five years, the boy had grown tremendously, in every sense possible and the old president was sure that this time, if he were to face the user of the rare artifact, Luca would be able to use his power to s.n.a.t.c.h the artifact away from him.
"President Presley?" Luca called again when the president did not reply to him. "What's the style of the Battle this year?"
"It's not out yet."
"Shouldn't it be out by now?"
President Presley nodded. Usually, it would be out around this time of the year. But a week ago, he received an email from the organizer, telling him that information on the Battle would be published a little later than usual this year.
"I expect they are doing something big this year," President Presley said as he gently tapped his fingers on the desk. A smile slowly appeared at the corners of his lips as he realized what this could mean.
The word "Battle" in the Battle of the Underground Beings could mean a lot of things. It could be a battle of wits or a battle of pure strength. 5 years ago, it was one of the simplest battles, as it was just a form of battle royale where the winner was the last person standing.
The organizer was free to decide on the form, the rules, and the rounds of the Battles. Generally, the more difficult the Battles were, the better the prizes… And a late announcement meant that the organizer was planning something that was unprecedented.
"I wonder if this has something to do with the random opening of portals a while back," President Presley mumbled under his breath.