Song of Illusion
The day of the semi-final tournament arrived. Everyone in the audience all had an eager expression on their face, as they look forward to vice president Edward speech about the theme of the competition. If there were any news agency around, capturing this moment would have brought a huge turnover to their company.
Unluckily for them, medias were banned from entering the competition ground. As a result, such an exhilarating moment wasn't captured.
Vice president Edward walked onto the high podium, and began to announce the theme of the competition. Sighs of relief leaked out of some anxious contestant's mouth, the moment they heard of what the event was composed about. It was still the same combat theme.
However, they hadn't been relief because they could rely on their contractual beast in the match. Instead, they were relief because Vice president Edward had just made mention in his speech that the use of contractual pet was banned from the match.
A lot of them were scared to be paired against Xue Yiran, whose contractual beast is a B rank beast king. How could they win against that huge entity. Even the outcome of such match could be predicted by anyone.
Hence, they were very satisfied with vice president Edward opinion of ruling out the use of contractual beast. Seems like the judges had noticed their dilemma, and decided to make such adjustment.
Xue Yiran on the other hand, had no changes in expression the moment she heard the banned against the use of contractual beast. If it wasn't for Ronin contractual pet poisonous ability, she wouldn't have summoned Sky out back then.
On the other side, the expressions of the Hermes academy homeroom teachers all plummeted in a second. Celia brow had creased into a frown. Based on the calculation she had formulated; Xue Yiran's contractual pet is their only ace in winning this tournament.
She knew that the emergence of the beast king would cause a huge flaw in the competition. In spite of that, she had hope that the judges would overlook this huge flaw. But it seems like she had hoped too much. The judges had already noticed the imbalances, which more likely seems unfair to other constantans. And thus, they decided to make some changes in the rules.
'Sigh' The homeroom teachers shook their head in dismay, already resounding to their fate of loss.
[Host, looks like they've given up on you already.]
Xue Yiran was the only participants from Hermes academy who hadn't been eliminated. Thus, you can see why the homeroom teachers were in dismay. It's most likely that their end would be in this semi-final match.
The commencing sound rang, announcing the start of the competition.
It was now or never. Most of the students were still pumped up from their previous training. As a result, the rewards of their training did pay off.
As for those who were disqualified, they could only wipe the tears off their eyes and leave the stage.
Xue Yiran was going to be fighting against six opponents. However, her gaze was focused on a certain guy in the distance. Based on the academy badge pinned to his chest, it signifies that he was from Roland academy.
Xue Yiran was indifferent about whether the guy was from Roland academy or not. Instead, she asked Susu for confirmation, "Is he the one?"
[Yes, host.] Receiving Susu reply, Xue Yiran expression undergo a huge change.
As if sensing her gaze, the guy looked up, his eyes meeting hers in exchange. He then beamed into a smile, before tilting his head away. Most would have thought it was just a normal glance between the two. But if Xue Yiran hadn't asked Susu for confirmation, she would have known nothing about the underlying plan against her.
After that event, Susu hadn't stop tailing Aviva. And sure enough, she was brewing up another evil plan. Since Xue Yiran was the only contestants available from Hermes academy, there was no one for her to use as her scapegoat. Thus, she had to reached out to someone from another academy. Surprisingly, it was someone from the Roland academy.
The person was someone whom Xue Yiran hadn't met before. So, it was quite surprising that the person would want to become Aviva's underdog. The fact that he could attend Roland academy shows that he wasn't in lack of any wealth.
After Susu ran a deeper information on the guy, it was found that the other person was among those who had crush on Charvi. Perhaps due to the vendetta between Xue Yiran and Charvi, he had come to teach her a lesson.
…
Soon it was Xue Yiran turn to go onto the stage. Her opponent was a young girl, with a two-ponytail hair. She looks petite and cute, almost like a harmless girl. But for her to have survived to the semi-final round shows that she was an opponent to be wary of.
"Hi, my name's Mimi." Mimi pleasant voice reached Xue Yiran's ear.
Since the other party had introduced herself, Xue Yiran replied the courtesy. "Xue Yiran."
"Your ability is quite stronger than mine since your contract pet is a beast king. In spite of this, I'm not going to back down without putting up a fight." Clenching her fist, Mimi said with a determined expression.
Being the only contestants to have survived the disqualification in their academy, Mimi's mentors were all excited. At least there was a high chance of them going up the rank, and also a tiny chance of them getting to the final. But after seeing who Mimi was matched with, their excited expression fall. They could only console Mimi.
Face with such scene, how could Mimi be happy. Seeing her teachers losing hope on her hurt her. Yet still, her fighting spirit became vibrant.
'Just because her summoned beast is a beast king doesn't justify my failure. Even if it's a tiny effort, I'm going to prove it to the teachers that I can win.'
"Sure." A smile formed on Xue Yiran lips when she saw the fighting spirit in Mimi's eyes.
"Start!" The emcee announced the start of the match.
"Song of illusion!" At her shout, a green thin cylinder-shaped object appeared on Mimi's palm. Anyone could recognize that the object was a flute musical instrument. Bringing the flute to her mouth, she began to play it. A very pleasant tone began to fill the ears of the audience. Out of nowhere, pink smoke began to fill the stage obstructing the view of everyone. Thankfully, there was a video feed where they could see all that was happening beneath the stage without any obstruction.
Xue Yiran stood at the side. She hadn't made any movement so far. One was because she wanted to give Mimi a chance to perform her best. It would be so disheartening to kick her out of the stage in seconds.
[Ho-ho, it's an illusion skill. Who would have thought she had such terrifying ability. Seems like she had more than just one contractual pet]
Ever since the start of the competition, Susu had kept an eye on all of the contestants. Based on the information he had, Mimi contract beast which she had summoned out during the combat event, was just a Brown-Haired Boar that was only capable of combat and not illusion. Hence, for her to be able to use an illusion ability means that she must have another contract beast; which she has kept as secret to everyone.
Mimi expression was serious as she kept playing the flute. The fact that she has a second contractual beast was meant to be a secret. But facing against an opponent like Xue Yiran, she couldn't help but go all out. Although she hadn't perfectly mastered the song of illusion ability, but she knew how terrifying the skill was.
The pink smoke covered everywhere; Xue Yiran couldn't see anything in front of her apart from smoke. Her whole view was covered, but she could still make sense of Mimi's location based on her keen sense.
Just as she was about to make a move, her whole view suddenly began to distort. Her senses of the outside world began to diminish little by little. The view in front of her changed entirely.
Before her, was a middle-aged man who was beckoning her with a smile to come over.
"Come here, Xue Yiran. Let's go inside. Your mom is waiting for you."
Soon the whole scene changed to that of a dining room. There was a woman in her apron busy placing a bowl of food on the dining table. Seated around the table were a boy and a girl, including the middle-aged man who had smiled at her earlier.
Looking at the scene before her, Xue Yiran didn't know whether to cry or laugh.
The man smiling at her was none other than her father. This was the home she had lived before the disaster struck.
"Xue Yiran, come over. Why are you standing there. Come and seat with your siblings." The woman who seems to speak calmly was none other than her stepmother.
Inside Xue Yiran consciousness, Susu remains calm as he watches the scene unfolds. The faces he was seeing was unfamiliar to him, but he assumed that they were all from Xue Yiran's previous memories before he met her.
'Are these host family? So, this is what a happy family looks like. Hmm, this must be host's brother and sister. But why hasn't she made any mention of them to me. Perhaps they had died during the apocalypse, and she didn't want to remember the painful days without them. Yeah, that must be it.' While Susu mind continues to wander about, the scene in the illusion feed continues.
The audience above the stage couldn't see the illusion Mimi had casted. All they saw was Xue Yiran standing in transfixed, her eyes looking lost.
'Gotcha.' A cheerful expression appeared on Mimi's face. Knowing that Xue Yiran had been caught in her illusion, she put her flute away and dash towards her ready to land the finishing blow.
Inside the illusion, the woman kept asking Xue Yiran to come over to the table in a soft tone. Seeing that she wasn't answering, she walked towards her.
"Tell me. What's wrong dear? Is the dinner not up to your liking?" The woman lifted her hand to touch Xue Yiran's hair, but before she could make any attempt to touch it, her hand was immediately caught by Xue Yiran. A surprised expression appeared on the woman's face.
With a sneer, Xue Yiran looked directly into the woman's eyes before saying, "Is this a joke to you." Soon the whole world starts to distorts, resuming back to the scene of the arena. However, Xue Yiran palm was still grasping onto a wrist.
This time instead of the woman appearance, the person in front of her had changed to Mimi. Mimi expression kept changing from disbelief to surprise, since she hadn't expected Xue Yiran to react in the inch of time.