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It would be a blatant lie if Emery said he had it easy. In fact, the previous fight could be considered one of the most difficult duels he had ever fought.

It took Zetto a minute before he was able to get to his feet again. He sharply stared at Emery, as if he was ready for another round. But in the end, he only snorted in anger, before turning around and walking out of the arena.

[Rank 10 Emery Ambrose (9)]

Even though he had somewhat expected it, Emery did not imagine it would be this hard to reach the top ten rankings. After all, his body had undergone such a tremendous upgrade at Ouroboros, while his spirit force had reached rank 9.

Once again, he was reminded that these top 10 were the top talents from ten thousand acolytes selected from thousands of planets. They were the best of the best of the generation.

The crowd cheered and applauded loudly for such a great fight. It was only at this moment that Emery realized the arena stands were actually almost filled to the brim by people. It was quite a rare sight, as Hyperion was after all a restricted place to outsiders.

Among those seen in the stands, Emery once more noticed the Dragon bloodline protege, Zach, who still seemed to be watching him with rapt attention.

Once again, Emery's fighting spirit burned like a blazing fire. Rank 10 was simply not enough. He wanted to climb higher on the leaderboard. At least, he had to defeat that prodigal young dragon.

As soon as the Titan left the arena, Emery quickly sat down and took up the lotus position before starting to focus on healing the wounds on his body. At the same time, he also deactivated his transformation in order to allow his physique to relax, recuperate and subsequently prepare for one more fight.

After fifteen minutes of uninterrupted healing, just as Emery opened his closed eyes, he was caught off guard when he saw a figure already standing in front of him.

Even though Emery previously focused his attention on recuperating his condition, he still divided some portion of his attention to the outside world. However, there was no sound nor any energy he could sense using his Spirit Reading.

It was as if the other party had suddenly appeared like a ghost.

It was as Annara said last night, when she briefed him about the target of their operation. "That guy named Arcana is known to be a powerful enchanter. I heard he usually plays with his opponent's mind. So you must be careful and, most importantly, resist his attempts."

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However, now that he had seen firsthand the famous figure with his own two eyes, Emery was a bit shocked, the other party was exactly the polar opposite of the brawny and imposing Zetto.

Despite his black hair that had a streak of blue highlights and his mature facial features, Arcana's figure only looked like a 13 years old kid at most. It was shocking, to say the least.

Was this really the person who had been holding the monstrous Titan at rank 10?

Emery suddenly realized Arcana looked annoyed. He didn't have to think as to why, as the latter swiftly answered the question himself. "Huh! What were you thinking just now? You dare make fun of my size?!"

A shocked expression appeared on Emery's face, as his inner thought was exposed. From the looks of it, the young man named Arcana could also read people's minds.

Emery quickly readied his mind for another possible mind attack, while at the same time he also checked the Arcana's stats

[Rank 9 - Arcana (18)]

[Mental Score undefined Rank 3]

[Physical Score 9210- Rank 29]

The kid-looking acolyte was the third strongest acolyte in the mental faculty, which meant he should be a powerful Spirit Reader that triumphed over most of his peers. Thus, Emery could only hope he had enough spirit energy in his Spirit Pool to fight this one.

Seeing no visible reaction from Emery, Arcana once again opened his mouth. "I was contemplating to take it easy on you, knowing you just had a difficult fight. But now, seeing your attitude, I changed my mind!"

Understanding the duel would soon begin and what kind of opponent he would be facing, Emery didn't dare to hold back and immediately reactivated his [Twilight Transformation].

Loud howl resounded in the arena again as Emery's [Battle Howl] took effect.

"Don't worry. For your sake, I'm definitely gonna make this fast!" Arcana said in a confident tone.

Reminded of what the Nephilim girl had told him, Emery immediately decided to go for the offensive. He planned to overwhelm his opponent with a relentless wave of attacks, so that he couldn't finish his spells.

However, before Emery could even more, he suddenly saw within his line of sight a dark blue smoke appearing on the arena, before covering everything and engulfing himself with its existence.

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In an instant, Emery lost sight of his surroundings. But through his Spirit Reading, he quickly realized all of this was not real.

"Damn! I'm in an illusion already?!"

Fortunately for Emery, he could feel his enhanced magic resistance start to work and help him stop the unknown energy that was trying to enter in his mind further. He could feel the illusion that was taking over him diminishing slowly but surely.

Arcana, on the other hand, looked at Emery and seemed to realize what he was doing. As a result, he laughed loudly in an evil manner. "Hahahah! Not bad, not bad at all… Unfortunately, it's not good enough."

The kid looking acolyte placed both of his index fingers on his forehead, and immediately after, Emery felt a powerful surge of energy from his opponent. It was akin to an unstoppable tsunami that threatened to ravage everything in its path.

He could feel the arena floor he was stepping on shaking violently. This time, Emery was not sure and had no idea how to find out if it was an illusion or real.

In the next second, Emery saw the center of Arcana's forehead split vertically and emerge from within, one bluish eye with a golden pupil that exerted tremendous pressure on his body. Following that was the voice of Arcana, echoing throughout his mind.

"You have gazed upon the eye of Mistra, now you shall die."

The moment Emery saw Arcana's third eye, he realized he screwed up. Even trying to close his eyes did not work. His gaze was completely fixed on that mesmerizing eye, as the eye was gazing inside his mind.

It was apparent from this display that Arcana had a powerful skill, even stronger than the one the beholder possessed. Emery was unable to move even an inch of his body and, at the same time, familiar figures started to appear within the blue smoke.

Someone called out to Emery, in a voice he recognized and recalled from his childhood memories.

"Emery… why… my boy... Why didn't you save me…"

It was the figure of his dead father. His expression was distorted greatly, as if he was in excruciating pain. Standing next to it was another familiar figure to Emery, a young boy of fifteen - Lanzo.

"You… Why did you let that old granny kill me?"

Emery knew all this was merely an illusion Arcana conjured. Even so, his heart still couldn't help but feel sad and remorseful.

Next, four more figures arrived. A female and three males that Emery knew too well.

"Klea!" Emery subconsciously shouted her name, when he saw her pale figure. Together with his three close friends Julian, Thrax and Chumo, they all seemed to be no longer alive and just a moving corpse.

"Emery… It's your fault. The Nephilims have killed us. It's your fault!"

The forlorn within Emery's heart instantly disappeared, this time replaced and filled with fear and horror.

To be continued