The Competition Begins

Shura stood with his back against the see-through wall. He was far away from the other people. They were all competitors, enemies. This wasn't an isolated occurrence, everyone was also keeping their distance from each other. Shura had thought they would begin talking and leave him out as he really was out of place, but he soon realized that the scene was just right.

They were all competitors, enemies. There was no need for words. There was only one prize, and only one could win.

Shura was immersed in simulating combat in his mind on one hand, while on the other he was also attentively listening to the announcement being made.

The form of the competition would be a massive free-for-all. No one would die from the fight. As soon as they were about to receive a lethal blow they would be forcibly teleported out of the battlefield by overseers who will be monitoring the battlefield. As soon as only one combatant remained, the path to the object that would grant them the Supreme Power to transform their Truesoul into a Supreme Truesoul would appear.

Just as half of Shura's attention was directed at himself, and the other at listening to the announcement, a random thought suddenly popped into his mind.

It was a thought, but it was also a feeling. He saw a mental image in his mind. It was a mental image, yet he couldn't quite see it clearly. He was absolutely certain that it was from his memory, a childhood memory, but he didn't remember or recognize it at all.

The feeling accompanying the mental image was familiar, yet strange. It was from childhood that he never remembered having It was a feeling of a want of care, companionship. Had it all started from such a long time ago?

The childhood referred to the childhood in his first and only true lifetime of course.

This thought, this feeling, this memory elicited a feeling in him: longing for family and companionship. Did he have them then?

The feelings didn't last long and it soon was gone.

'So that's who I am, deep down.' Shura thought. 'Since I couldn't get it by myself all my life, my hope rests on having Ultimate Power grant it to me instead.'

At least Shura knew what he was doing all of this for. Although feelings change, at least it was something he could grasp onto at the moment. It was something he felt he wanted to do, and so it shall be.

If he won, that elusive feeling of the past that had continued to define him to the present, that sense of lacking, it would be fulfilled.

It was at that moment that Shura's sharpened senses noticed someone staring at him. He looked around and quickly found it.

It was a woman, a young woman with vibrant hair the color of fire. She too was standing against the wall. She was looking at him intently.

Shura didn't know why she would. He was a stranger to everyone here.

Shura closed his eyes. Anyone could look at him, it doesn't mean he had to look back at them.

He didn't know how long he had waited. Every moment was fully used to train himself mentally. He was simulating combat in his mind. It was the newest benefit he had found from his now strengthened soul.

Before too long though, he felt the familiar feeling of something covering him, and the vibration surrounding him, and soon the feeling around him was entirely different.

Shura opened his eyes and as he expected, he was now someplace different.

Something immediately caught Shura's attention as he looked around. It was something floating in the sky, immobile. It looked like a city.. a castle, or a palace. It was a grand building that floated in the sky.

For it to be there, there must be something special about it. Was it related to the competition?

The sky was a pale blue color, while the ground was an endless sea of red sands. He could see pillars of white light all over the sky in every direction, appearing and disappearing. These must be where the others were teleported to.

He couldn't see anyone around him at all. Everyone must've been set up to appear far from one another at the beginning.

Shura decided that he wouldn't actively go out to find people and eliminate them. He'd wait for them to fight themselves and tire themselves out. When most were eliminated, that would be the time for him to go in. There was no need to tire himself out right away.

He'd conserve his strength. As long as he won in the end, that's all that mattered.

A pillar of red light shot into the sky in the corner of Shura's vision. When he turned to look at it, more such pillars appeared at the edge of his vision.

"Anyone not present near the designated location within three hours will be eliminated," a manly voice came from the sky.

Shura was at first speechless, but then he laughed afterward.

"When have I become so non-confrontational? Since this was a competition, let's compete. What's the worst that could happen!?" Shura said aloud as he looked up the sky.

Gripping his blade tightly, Shura sprinted toward one of the red pillars.

On his way there he came across a well-built man in metal armor who was also moving toward the pillar.

Shura didn't care what the other person thought or their intentions, he immediately attacked the man as soon as he saw him.

Shura's blade arrived before the man's neck. Contrary to Shura's expectation, the man blocked his strike. In the split second, before his blade made contact with the man's neck, the man moved at an even faster speed and blocked the blade with a shield.

The two fighters backed away from each other, both were wary of the other.

'As expected, there are no weaklings among those who are participating,' Shura thought to himself.

This result didn't vex Shura at all. He was not displaying his full abilities. His blade which should've darkened the sky had not. The blade which was supposed to be pitch black had color and looked like a common weapon made of common metal. Were he to activate it, he was certain that the man would lose his head.

Since there was no gain to be had from this fight without revealing himself, Shura decided to continue on toward the designated location. Although three hours seemed a lot, it actually was not. This massive ocean of sand was immense. Although his speed was heavenly, and he assumed everyone else had a similar or superior ability, the size of this battleground was still ridiculous. Three hours may not be enough if one wasn't careful and hurried.

Shura finally arrived at his destination. He came upon a hill overlooking the pillar of light. He stared directly at it, but there really wasn't a pillar of light at all. When he was far away he saw a pillar, but when he looked directly at it, there wasn't any pillar, nor any lights.

"As long as this is the right place…"

Many contestants were already present. They kept their distance from each other. Everyone was vigilant and wary. More and more people kept arriving.

"Hello! How's everyone doing?" Shura shouted and gestured at everyone.

Those who looked at him weirdly were not just a few people.

"When are we starting the fight?" Shura continued.

Perhaps because of Shura's words, or maybe not, someone attacked someone else. This scene repeated throughout the area and before long everyone was fighting someone else.

Shura also had his hand full. A man and a woman near him both started attacking him at the same time. He was definitely alone before he said anything.

The woman kept throwing stream after stream of throwing weapons at him, forcing Shura to parry them with his blade.

While he was occupied with warding off the woman's attack, the man appeared behind him and thrust a spear toward his head.

Shura narrowly dodged the fatal spear, but due to his inattention, one of the projectiles scratched his left wrist.

Feelings began to disappear in his hand. It spread up toward his forearm, and then up his arm. Shura used his internal energy to immediately block it from spreading to the rest of his body. When he was done he could feel a fierce struggle occurring inside of his body.

With Shura's left dangling lifelessly, he could only fight with one hand. This was the result of him not taking this seriously.

"Aaaaaah!" Shura roared and unleashed his blade's true power. The shiny blade immediately darkened and turned completely pitch black. The darkness was so dark that the light around the blade was sucked into it and a few meters around Shura was darkened considerably.

Shura vanished three times and reappeared three times. This all happened in one instant.

The first time he disappeared, he reappeared behind the man with his blade through the heart.

The second time was the same, but it was the woman's turn. The third time he moved away from them.

The two weren't here anymore. A pillar of light engulfed them and took them away. Whether they were still alive or not didn't matter. Shura had expected them to have left before his sword reached their heart, but they only left after he had already vanished and hole bore through their bodies. Did it not matter? Or were the overseers slow to react?

Shura sheathed his blade and the darkness dissipated. Shura crouched down and touched his lifeless left arm. The skin was ghastly pale and it felt very odd to the touch.

The fighting around him had quieted down as well. Many contestants were eliminated and only a small number of people remained.

Shura's eyesight darkened. Although his blade and body had some property of darkness, this wasn't the good kind of darkness. This wasn't the result of his powers, but that his body was showing signs of abnormality sustained by the small wound.

"Tch! I would never know from just looking at that woman, but she had such a strong poison applied on her throwing weapons!"

'Damn!' Shura mentally exclaimed. The seal he had made with his energy was broken through.

The sensation of weakness spread throughout his body along with the poison faster than he could blink. Shura felt weak and immediately fell down to the ground. He laid there powerlessly.

Shura exerted the last of his strength to grip hard on his blade. With a thought, the sheath removed itself from the blade and black strands of energy came from the blade. It joined together and formed a protective barrier around Shura. Not only was he defended, but no one could see through the dark energy. They wouldn't be able to see that Shura was in no position to defend himself.

Shura's heart began to beat irregularly as he sweated profusely. Parts of his body twitched in odd rhythms. It was hard for him to think, and it only became harder and harder as time continued.