CHAPTER 196: TIME HAS COME.

Just to satisfy a lingering itch, he pulled up his full status screen. The last time he’d looked, even the system had been too confused to show his stats.

But the very first thing he read made his eyes widen in shock.

A chill bloomed in his gut. The high from before shattered like glass.

How did this happen?

[Name: Prim Leo’el Divaneth]

He read his name repeatedly. His name had changed out of nowhere, and it had become a long-ass name.

His stomach twisted. This wasn’t a name—it was a damn royal decree in itself.

Prim Leo’el Divaneth.

Reading the name made his stomach churn, as it reminded him of the time when he was on Earth.

His throat dried up. Even hearing it in his head gave him flashbacks to cringey middle school fanfics he wished he could burn.

In middle school...

No. Leon didn’t even want to remember his past acts, which made him feel even more embarrassed now that he actually had a crazy long-ass name.

I will take this secret to my grave.

He quickly moved on, not wanting to look at it more than necessary.

[Level: 8]

[Class: Elemental Paragon (SSS)]

[Age: 17 (Soul Age: 33)]

[Race: Divinordial]

[Title: Hope Breaker (Common), Anomaly (Divine), Myth Breaker (Mythical)]

[Cultivation: Apprentice Rank]

[Affinity: All (Rank 6) (Temporary)]

[Strength: ☆]

[Agility: ☆]

[Stamina: ☆]

[Mana: 2050]

[Intelligence: 805]

The physical strength stats—Strength, Agility, and Stamina—were previously only question marks during his trial. Now they had become hollow stars.

It looked cool, but he had no clear idea how strong he actually was. Yet he did know he was far too strong. His physical body was beyond comprehension compared to before. The Primordial Might did say his initial physical Strength was ten thousand times that of a peak human.

His pulse beat hard in his ears. Every breath he took felt heavier—like the air itself knew it was dealing with something unnatural.

So he could only imagine how strong he was right now.

Time passed as he leisurely enjoyed himself, watching the matches between others. He hadn’t found any interesting affinities after his first match.

He could have gone inside his dimensional space in conscious form to test out his Strength, but he chose not to. After so long, he finally had such a peaceful moment with Seraphine. Right now, he didn’t want to even think about it—he just wanted to enjoy the warmth of her body.

Yet his peace didn’t last long, as the following announcement from the announcer called out his name for the match.

The cheer from the crowd made the whole arena tremble.

This time, Leon was going to end it in one go. His opponent had a fire affinity, which he had already seen before, and there was nothing more left to learn.

But before he could even stand up, another announcement rang in his ears.

"Everyone, Carl has decided to forfeit the match, so according to the rules, the victory goes to our Dark Horse Leon!"

Booooo!

Jeers and curses were thrown at Carl for not giving them what they wanted, forfeiting like a coward before the match even started.

But the young man Carl, with light brown hair, didn’t have the least bit of regret over his decision. Even knowing he would be out of the competition, since a single loss meant elimination, he stood firm.

He had seen the fight between Leon and Emily. That monster had made the beautiful girl Emily into a half-dead corpse at the end of the match with a single attack.

This was a woman—a beautiful one at that.

He had absolute confidence that his chances of dying were exceptionally high when the monster even beat up a woman so brutally.

Instead of shame, he was proud of his decision and his resolve to forfeit, despite the humiliation he would face.

He clenched his fists behind his back. I wanted to win. I trained for this for years. But I also want to live. I’m not ready to die in someone else’s story.

Leon felt delighted that he didn’t have to leave Seraphine’s embrace to deal with small fries. He even hoped he would match up with Malverick today, or else he might lose his patience and start torturing the bastard who had been staring at them the whole time, his killing intent too obvious.

It was pissing him off. His patience wouldn’t last much longer if this kept up.

All his matches were being forfeited by opponents. There was only one man who was ready to fight. Leon had seen him previously. He seemed to have two affinities, but both were low-ranked: Earth and water.

He could be considered stronger than Emily, since he was using many skills and techniques attuned to his elements.

Leon didn’t even bother to stand up from his seat.

Mana surged inside his body, condensing into a dangerous spear made of ice above his head. He didn’t use much mana, but the control he had and his intelligence made the spear a deadly weapon.

The ice cracked and hissed as it formed, cold mist curling off the spear like smoke from a blade fresh from the forge.

The referee was about to say something, but before he could, the spear launched with a resounding swoosh. The speed was too fast—even the referee couldn’t react before it struck the man.

An explosion echoed, heard by everyone.

The sound hit like a cannon blast, rattling the lower rows of the arena and leaving a ghostly ring in everyone’s ears.

Their eyes widened in shock at what had just happened. This was an apparent disregard for the rules.

The mist of ice settled, revealing the man lying unconscious on the ground, shards of ice impaling his body. There were no direct wounds, yet his whole body was bloody from the fragments.

The referee, seeing the sight, realized one thing—this man named Leon was far too strong to be in this tournament. He was registered as an eighteen-year-old with his ID, and he did look that age. Otherwise, he would have assumed it was some old monster pretending.

Because that power attack of pure elemental control had been formed in less than a second. Even he couldn’t do that.

At this point, he could already see who was going to win this year’s Academy Festival. It would be the first time an outsider would win the entire event.

"The winner of this match is Leon!"

Normal people were shocked, but they still cheered for Leon, as he had indeed defeated his opponent, even if it was done with blatant disrespect to the academy rules. He should have at least been given a warning, but none was issued.

They had seen something so outrageous for the first time—and they were enjoying it. This Leon was so arrogant that he didn’t even bother to stand up from his seat to finish his opponent.

Instead of hate, thunderous chants of his name filled the arena.

The very walls of the arena seemed to vibrate with the force of their voices—raw, primal, worshipful.

LEON!

LEON!

The Headmaster of the Academy, sitting next to Aurealia and the Saintess, her seat deliberately lower to show respect, didn’t even blink at the rule-breaking. Even she could see there was no point for this mysterious, strong boy to go down into the arena.

This arena was meant to showcase the strong, not the weak.

Headmaster saw no rule broken here. His attack had given the opponent time to react; however, the man was rendered helpless. It was an apparent, clean victory.

She couldn’t help but look at him more closely. He had piqued quite a bit of her curiosity. He didn’t even seem to be using his full Strength, yet he could defeat these top geniuses from the lower domain like nothing.

She even suspected that he was from the Middle Domain. But the thought faded quickly, knowing how hard it was to enter the Lower Domain—even for someone with such Strength.

—

Leon had a grin on his face, and he wasn’t the only one. Seraphine, too, had a grin stretched across her lips.

The time had come. It was the quarterfinals, but he knew it would be the last match of the festival. From here on out, only chaos would follow.

"Malverick Arselin vs Leon!"

"Both opponents, come onto the arena within a minute!"

From across the arena, Malverick stood slowly, his eyes never leaving Leon. A faint smirk played at his lips—calm, confident, too quiet.

Seraphine stood up on her own this time. She didn’t pout like before when she had to let him go for his first match. Instead, she wore a big, bright smile.

She looked at him, giving her last message before the real fun began. No more hiding, no more politics—for her, everything was going to end today. She would settle all her scores, and not just pay them, but drag them into hell for making her live in restraints for so long.

Her fingers clenched at her side. The sweet warmth from before was gone—her body now hummed with quiet, murderous resolve.

They think he’s a monster? Then they haven’t seen enough. My Leon would soon burn this entire kingdom down.

"Give him hell!"