Missed Opportunity

The situation seemed even worse. Velios wasn't responding at all, but his energy output continued to increase at an alarming rate. It reached such high amounts of holy energy that even Freya was losing track of what was happening. It was as if she had forgotten everything else and only focused on the massive amounts of energy inside the human's body. She wasn't entirely certain of how much he had, but just the size of the energy would be impressive for even a single fraction of a second. Velios, however, kept putting out more and more holy energy as time passed. Freya didn't know what was happening anymore. She thought the situation was going terribly wrong, but multiple minutes had passed, and Velios was in the same state at least physically.

As the two of them tried their best but with no success, changes slowly started happening to Velios as time passed. Velios began emitting even more, but his condition was beginning to look better. No one could really wrap their minds around what was going on, as they were left utterly speechless from what they had seen. Velios used even more of it than before, and his body slowly started moving again. The muscles around his eyes started to twist, his arms and legs began moving to a more comfortable position, and his chest went back and forth in rhythm with his breathing. It did not take long after these unprecedented changes that Velios was now beginning to wake up, still emitting the same kind of energy. Velios got up into a standing position before breathing in as much air as he could in a single breath, letting the slight breeze cool him down even if only slightly.

"H-h-how are you?" Freya couldn't even begin to speak. Velios had full control over the gargantuan amount of energy he now possessed from just a few hours of training, which would only increase if he were to train even more. "V-Velios... are you really...?" Shiva couldn't even speak either. It was also hard to hear what he was saying since he had to stand so far away. Compared to most demons, Shiva wasn't particularly strong, but compared to the average and big species that reside on the planet, he's strong. Even so, he had to stand multiple meters away since the energy was still spilling out of Velios, and radiating both inside and outside his body would cause damage to him. It was at that singular point that Shiva had realized something. He thought that he would be safe as long as he could stick around Velios, possibly even taking over his body. But now, Velios truly had a way to beat him.

"Your name is Velios, right?" Freya spoke up after calming herself, still with an uncertain look on her face. "Yeah, that's my name." Velios had at this point returned to a normal state. The air was still tense between them, and Freya didn't know how she should act. She didn't know if she should have kept up the same act from before, revealed her emotions of amazement, acted friendly, or anything of that kind. Velios looked at her in confusion because she didn't say anything for a while. Freya couldn't even bear to look into his eyes, seeing that the clothes that covered his upper body were still completely gone. In all her thinking, Freya had even forgotten what she was about to say, which made things all more awkward. She tried to look back up at Velios but quickly covered her face the moment after. Shiva stared at all of this in confusion, wondering just what was happening. Compared to Velios, Shiva could actually see and distinguish between emotions better.

"I-I would like to stay by your side!" Freya shouted it out, obviously trying to make it sound like she was still confident in what she was saying. She had completely disregarded the way she had acted earlier and was now like a completely different person. She was cold, looked down upon him, and underestimated him just hours ago, and now with her emotions, she looked like she was any ordinary human. "I wouldn't do that if I were you..." Shiva was almost caught talking to himself, but neither of them could hear what he had said. The first thoughts that popped up into Shiva's head were the training he had to participate in for a short two days. He remembered every single moment of it, every single emotion he had felt, and just the number of times he wanted to quit or give up. Shiva knew what kind of person Velios was. He wasn't the kind of person to go easy on someone because of their title, status, race, or even gender. No matter what, Velios was going to inflict the same hell he had inflicted on Shiva, equally to her as well.

"Really? Sure, I don't mind." Velios hadn't caught onto what was truly going on. He was simply confused by her change in personality and heart, but he didn't even bother trying to find out why. The only thing he could think in that moment was the amount of training he could do with Freya to maximize his holy magic. It was also undeniable that she was a strong fighter and she would most likely be able to best somebody like Vadh in combat. Vadh would still have the upper hand in attack power, but with Freya's healing and other holy magic properties, Vadh's poison magic wouldn't so much as scratch her. "W-wait, are you sure it's okay...?" Freya was surprised at just how easy it was. She didn't realize how flustered she had been before, but she didn't care. Little did she know what it truly meant to stay by his side. Velios is the kind of person to slice someone's arm off if they so much as touch him, at least if they are Vadh.

"So... how do you actually get out of here? I have a tournament—" Velios paused for a second, having not realized what he had actually said. "Tournament? Ahh! The tournament! Shit!" Velios was beginning to worry. If he didn't get there in time, he would be forced to quit the tournament. He would essentially be disqualified, and he would have no say about it if he were to be late. "W-we're going already?" Freya hadn't realized what she had said herself. She didn't think about the fact that she would have to abandon her heavenly realm. But because of her personality, if she could stay by Velios' side while visiting the same tournament she was watching before they had come. "Quick!" Velios was stressing an unnatural amount. Velios wanted nothing more than to fight the powerful dragons that he still had yet to fight. If he were to get disqualified, he wouldn't even get the chance to fight in the main tournament. Velios grabbed the two of them, holding both of them tightly as they disappeared the next second.

An unprecedented amount of time had passed in the physical realm. A huge crowd of people had been gathered outside the main arena in the cave. They were all gathered around a huge platform, just outside the giant arena, awaiting the results of the qualifying rounds of the tournament to determine which people were going to fight it out in the main tournament, for everybody to see. At the same time, Velios, Shiva, and Freya had arrived with Velios holding both of them by his sides, running as fast as he could to get down to the cave since he didn't even return remotely close to the underground cave the tournament was being held in. Velios had finally arrived, dropped the two of them, and slowly walked towards the giant board that was showcasing both the participants and the orders of the next fights. The crowd was now much smaller since most people were either watching the fights that were going on or walking around the huge underground city.

"I... missed three fights... there's no way..." Velios had realized that he most likely hadn't made it to the main tournament. You either have to prove your strength by defeating someone strong enough who would have made it to the main tournament or by winning all of your respective qualifying rounds. Velios had missed his three last ones. "Hey... master. It's okay, these dragons wouldn't be able to hold even a candle next to y—" Shiva had instantly realized that he shouldn't even have taken a single breath for that moment. Shiva could feel his body getting crushed by the mana being unconsciously emitted from Velios' body. "Run" was the only word that repeatedly popped up into Shiva's head. His animalistic instincts had taken control, and he had realized that he had no more control over his body. He only had two different options. Either fight back if the opponent could easily be beaten, or completely submit and receive any punishment possible so that he at least could survive.

"Do you want to repeat that?" Velios stood with his body pointed forward but his upper body and neck turned around facing Shiva. The amount of mana was so dense and powerful that neither of them could stand. Shiva could feel his legs buckle under the sheer amount of pressure, and he was now on all fours, not even able to lift his neck to look up at him. His sight was glued stuck to the ground, and he couldn't even utter a single word during all of this. The amount of mana began to rapidly increase in size and brought everybody down to their knees. The murderous aura Velios emitted was a killing intent powerful enough to even dominate a demon powerful enough to destroy a whole kingdom of dragons. This would continue for multiple seconds, which felt like they were lasting for an eternity. The intent to kill wasn't even directed towards Freya, but even she was forced down to the ground. "Hey, Velios, stop it! Don't you realize how much mana you are emitting!?"