Despite several strong and popular candidates presenting themselves for the Dawn Cup, there were few names who were truly considered capable of competing for first place.
Some were convinced that victory would go to Aurora or Perseus. After all, both were children of the Beast God, and they had already demonstrated enough potential to frighten every great warrior.
Other kingdoms, however, did not accept that conclusion so easily. The competition's age limit was fifteen, while Rygar's oldest children were, at most, twelve.
It was very obvious that whoever was closer to the limit would naturally have an advantage in physical maturity, combat experience, emotional control, and additional years of training.
Many even said that this had been done deliberately, to give other people some chance of defeating the offspring of the Apocalypse Beast.
Besides, as happened everywhere, Star Rise Academy itself, the host of that worldwide event, had its own favorite.
And she was almost unanimous among the faculty.
Even the Headmistress had said that the girl had a good chance of taking first place.
Her name was Romira Landon, the first official disciple of the Divine Sorceress, Aisha Greyrat.
Romira was fourteen years old and would be close to turning fifteen at the time of the competition, standing only one year below the permitted limit.
Even if, at some point, she had been "recruited" by Aurora into some kind of strange and competitive group, Romira did not depend on that association to be recognized.
She had her own fame within Star Rise Academy, built over years of exceptional performance.
The Landon Demon Clan had inherited a high magical affinity due to being distant descendants of one of the Five Great Demon Kings of Antiquity, the Subterranean Demon King Largon-Hargon, a powerful Earth God Mage and one of the most prominent generals who fought under the command of the Demon Empress in the First Great Human-Demon War.
Romira was one of the first children of the demon race to experience Star Rise Academy's education.
She had attended the Academy since she was six years old, and gradually, her magical talent, special even among the members of her own tribe, made her stand out.
In time, that distinction caught Aisha's attention, and she took Romira in as an informal disciple, personally teaching her on some occasions.
Those teachings, combined with Romira's effort and natural talent, were directly reflected in her performance.
At nine years old, she had already become a King-Level Mage in Water Magic, an absolutely impressive achievement.
But Aisha's interest in Romira was never limited only to her magical talent.
Aisha was interested in the kinetic abilities of the Landon Clan.
Like many other demonic races, the Landon possessed a somewhat mystical innate ability.
After a certain age, usually during puberty, their members developed telekinetic abilities. That was the tribe's common pattern.
Almost all of them awakened some form of telekinesis, though at varying levels, and this had been part of the clan's identity for many generations.
Among them, however, there were rarer cases.
Very few members awakened special kineses. They were so few that they were usually treated as mutations within the Landon.
On average, one in every hundred youths, upon reaching puberty, might awaken something different from common Telekinesis, such as Pyrokinesis, Hydrokinesis, or even much rarer cases, such as Photokinesis.
Since those abilities were seen as inferior, deviant, or simply too different from the traditional pattern, those who awakened something other than telekinesis were generally treated as pariahs.
To Aisha, that constitution was truly interesting. It was out of curiosity that she began teaching Romira as an informal disciple.
The question driving her was simple: what would a fully trained mage, with advanced training and capable of using high-level magic, awaken upon going through that process?
Was there any relationship between magical formation, elemental affinity, mana volume, and the kinesis manifested? Would it be possible to influence that awakening? Or would the innate ability follow its own rules, independent of all training?
Initially, Aisha treated the whole thing as an interesting experiment, one that would still help a very talented girl grow even if it did not lead to any important discovery.
But everything changed when Romira Landon had just turned thirteen.
According to her, that day she had already not been feeling completely normal, but even so, she went to class.
In the middle of the day, during a controlled training battle against a B-Rank Stone-Fur Gorilla, something perfectly safe and within the Academy's limits, Romira suddenly exploded the enormous gorilla from the inside out.
Right after that, she fainted.
From that moment on, her life changed completely.
The Second World Power accepted her as her first official disciple.
Romira Landon, probably the first of her race to reach such an anomaly, awakened nothing less than five kinetic powers simultaneously.
Among them were Telekinesis, capable of moving objects with the mind; Electrokinesis, capable of controlling and generating electricity and lightning; Geokinesis, capable of controlling soil and rocks; and, finally, the two most absurd ones: Atmokinesis, capable of controlling the atmosphere, the weather, rain, and storms, and Hemokinesis, capable of controlling the blood of living beings.
At present, only one week remained before the great Dawn Cup competition, and Romira continued attending Star Rise Academy as usual.
The Academy's basic education lasted seven years, with three additional years for those who wanted to specialize in an area.
Since Romira had started at six, she would probably graduate at sixteen. After that, her plans were to return to her homeland on the Demon Continent and reshape the Landon Tribe, becoming the chief of her tribe.
There were many obstacles on that path, of course. She was not the natural heir to that position, and, to begin with, there had never been a female chief in the Landon Tribe.
Even so, Romira was willing and very confident about facing those challenges.
Well, after all, Aisha was her Master.
At that moment, Romira was in Battle Mage class. Her teacher was explaining instant mana condensation, something she probably did better than him, but Romira always liked to review that kind of thing as much as possible.
Her Master had taught her that fundamentals were important precisely because they seemed obvious. When a mage began to ignore them, mistakes would accumulate instead of disappearing.
She did not know, however, that she was being watched.
Outside the classroom, on the roof of a building across the street, two boys who even looked a little younger than her were following the class from afar.
"Why do we have to do this?!" Perseus complained, stomping his foot impatiently.
He wore a cloak similar to those of the Sword Sanctuary, but gray in color. That was the uniform Laplace had made them wear to distinguish them from the others as his students.
Beside him, Nel wore the same cloak and continued watching the classroom without looking away.
"If you are going to question Master, do it in front of him," Nel answered.
Perseus turned his attention back to his target, still irritated.
"'Know your opponents,' my ass! What can we learn just by watching her study? I guarantee she wouldn't even see me coming before my claws reached her throat."
Laplace's exercise, in the last two weeks before the competition, had been different from what the boys expected.
They had asked for special training in the final stretch, but, as a task, the Technique God ordered them to observe their opponents. Not in battle. He was specific in saying that they should observe the favorites in ordinary daily tasks instead of watching them fight.
Perseus initially followed the order.
The Technique God's methods were strange and often did not seem to make sense, but Laplace certainly knew what he was doing.
The problem was that, although Perseus had learned to contain part of his wild impulse over time, he had never stopped being stubborn, impatient, and fierce.
Nel remained silent for a few seconds.
Honestly, he somewhat agreed with Perseus this time. He would understand if the objective were to observe the opponents' fighting styles, their habits in combat, weaknesses, or preferred techniques.
But observing them outside the fight? Watching someone study, talk, walk through the corridors, or deal with teachers?
He did not understand the point.
Even so, who was he to argue with the legendary Technique God?
A mere Sword Saint, who had discovered that his glorious Longsword of Light only served to pick that powerful dragon's teeth.
For that reason, Nel made a point of fulfilling the task with more diligence than necessary.
"I don't know what Master intends," he said. "And I don't think you should try to understand either. But this had its advantages anyway, didn't it?"
Perseus had much better senses than Nel. As a Beast Saint, he could often hear conversations around Romira even from that distance. As much as he complained, he could not deny that he had learned a few things.
"Maybe you're right..." he admitted, annoyed. "But that's enough watching this Romira. Let's visit Kody now. I think he's training with my Red Mother."
Perseus turned around and walked away.
Nel followed him without arguing.
Perseus did not turn to check, because he was still thinking quite a lot about Romira Landon.
In general, she was a polite young woman respected in many places, but her most striking trait seemed to be her sharpness.
Unlike in her childhood, when she merely followed Aurora around, Romira now had her own influence within the Academy.
She was no longer seen only as one of Aurora's friends or as Aisha's disciple.
And that was without mentioning her strength.
Just like Aurora, Romira was King-Level in multiple schools of magic.
Perseus was truly unsure who was more dangerous: Aurora, with her magic eyes and teleportation, or Romira, with absurd control over the elements of the battlefield and even over the blood of her opponents.
Besides, unlike Aurora, Romira could use Battle Aura and was considered proficient in the North God Style at Advanced Level.
She would be dangerous.
Nel and Perseus left the grounds of Star Rise Academy and went directly to the Combat Temple, where they would check another of the favorites.
Kody, the son of the Supreme Commander of the Iron Legion and, more importantly to them, Eris's disciple.
He was also fourteen years old. The good news was that Kody was not as talented as them in general terms.
He had recently become a Sword Saint at fourteen years old, and had not trained many other areas in the field of swordsmanship.
Over the last four years, he had devoted himself entirely to mastering the Longsword of Light. He had finally succeeded, but still after Perseus had become a Beast Saint.
The big problem with Kody was his origin.
Being Taes's son, he had certainly learned magic from a very young age and could cast several schools without chants.
Although he did not seem to be a genius in that field, since his real focus had been mastering the Sword God Style with the Sword God herself, that still made him much more dangerous than an ordinary Sword Saint.
A swordsman capable of using magic without incantations was dangerous. Rygar was the greatest proof of that.
Time was running out.
Even while dissatisfied, Perseus and Nel continued observing their future opponents. This earned them a strange reputation among the students.
Some said the Technique God's students were weird. Others whispered that Laplace had occupied their minds and controlled them like puppets.
Regardless of the rumors, the days continued passing.
Rygar and Aisha continued with their greater plan while dividing part of their attention with the Dawn Cup.
The World Stabilization Mechanism would soon be ready, and that might be Hitogami's last chance to try something.
Even so, they were not very worried.
In truth, Rygar's family was more excited to see their children competing than about the imminent attack.
The battle competitions would take place in the vast training fields of the Combat Temple, while the other events would be held earlier in the facilities of Star Rise Academy.
The closing of the Dawn Cup, naturally, would happen on the battlefield, before everyone who came to witness the birth of the first champions.
As time passed, the day finally arrived.
The new generations were in full swing. Meanwhile, Aisha and Rygar were only one month away from completing all preparations.
----
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