"Contestants!" The old man shouted, causing the crowd to once again turn silent and watch with a rising animation as the old man raised both his hands in the air.


    Giving it a couple of seconds to get the crowd to calm down, the old man stepped back, to the side of the twisting dark portal. Then, he looked to the side, where the 4 groups were stationed.


    "Get your bearings ready, calm your nerves and step up! The moment hase. You will step through this gate and begin your journey to bring glory to your Pir, and im victory in his or her name!" He eximed, shing a thin smile. His old, shifty eyes gleamed over at his own group for a brief moment, meeting with a rough-looking short, brown-haired man at the front. The man reached for his small mustache, twirling its right end, as a crooked smirk together with a meaningful glint shed across his face. He nodded, then raised his right hand above his shoulders.


    He didn''t utter a word, but his team seemed to understand hismand nheless and followed the man as he stepped up to the stage and walked over to the elder. As he got there, they nodded at each other once more, and without wasting any other words, the man stepped through the portal.


    His figure vanished, his team quickly followed suit, traversing through the dimensional barriers and arrived at a seemingly random spot in the other world.


    In the next moment, Aiden''s calm expression twitched, and a deep frown appeared over his face. From the back seat, where the various VIPs and the other Pirs, leaders of the War Games various factions sat, an obese, rounded figure stood up. He was wearing the uniformed attire of the Academy''s high-ranking officials, a ck silk robe with the well-known insignia, the ming, burning ball of fire with a fierce bolt of lightning shing across it.


    The man was obviously the not-so-young Master Leon, the current principal, leader, and one of the Pirs of the event. As he stepped forward, the two elderly figures wearing a simrly ck robe followed after him, looking at the crowd with cold, arrogant indifference.


    To them, this rabble was merely some filthy ants, not worth their attention at all.


    Master Leon walked up to the elder, both giving each other a silent nod, and switched ces. Whilst Master Leon took his ce at the portal''s side, the elder walked back to his seat at the back.


    Without even wasting a single breath to introduce himself to the audience or to even acknowledge their presence, he looked at the side, where at the forefront of what seemed to be a battalion of trained soldiers stood guard. At their lead, arge, hulking man wearing full te armor with a lion head helmet and holding a giantnce-like weapon, with a longer, curved de at its head, matched the young lord''s gaze.


    Like before him, he as well didn''t waste a single breath but stepped up to the stage. Even without him needing to give order, the group of soldiers behind him followed after him lining up and forming two columns. Their march was disciplined, their feet hitting the wooden floorboards in sync.


    As the soldiers lined up in front of the portal, Master Leon leaned closer to the leading man and with a normal tone, that though wasn''t loud still reached the first couple of rows of the crowd, as well as the remaining groups at the side, said coldly.


    "Do not fail me. You know what to do."


    The man did not react to the obvious threat but instead marched into the portal in the next moment. Even before his figure fully submerged into the dark, swirling void, his team followed after him, vanishing by the twos one after another.


    His role done, Master Leon turned around. He seemed to be either oblivious, ignorant, or just didn''t care about Aiden and Lily''s presence as he didn''t react at all when his gaze shed across them. Without saying a word the trio walked back to their seats, not bothered to give courtesy to the next pir that stood up to ''guide'' his team across.


    A single, tattered robed figure, wearing a matching ck faceless mask, and hood pulled high stepped forward. He was by his lonesome, and though there was no obvious energy radiating from his weak-looking body, there was an aura of cold, an ominous presence surrounding him.


    He slowly shuffled next to the portal and turned to look at the side.


    His gaze paused for a moment on the long ck-haired youngster amidst the team of adventurers before it wandered off and reached the smallest and at the same time, strangest looking party of all.


    6 hulking bodies stood motionlessly since the beginning. They were garbed in simple ck studded leather armor, neither of them having any weapon on their bodies. All of them wore a leather strap, a strange sack-like helm on their heads leaving only two small holes at the front for some air to get in but leaving their vision strangely blocked.


    What was worse and most likely ignored by most of the people gathered, was the simr, ominous air surrounding their figures. When Aiden tried scanning them, the system could only tell that though they only saw 6 figures standing, the system actually imed there were double of that, matching up to a dozen. Each man, each body held two presences, two entities, or to be more precise… two consciousness inside them, though of what they were, the system couldn''t tell.


    The figures werepletely motionless throughout the event, only reacting when their just as equally mysterious leader looked over at them. For a moment, Aiden could feel some vibration in the air, but before he could react or analyze, the 6 figures suddenly reacted and stepped up to the stage in calm, butrge strides.


    Arriving in front of the portal, they looked at their robed, hooded leader as if waiting for his nextmand.


    The robed figure didn''t speak, but once again, Aiden could feel the strange vibration for a brief moment. In the next moment, the 6 creatures stepped closer to their leader, surrounding him and forming a shield covering his figure from the side and from the crowd.


    From the outside, it looked as if they were discussing something… may be rted to their strategy? Aiden could feel the same vibration once again though this time, there was something else, something that he couldn''t understand as well.


    Before he could ponder on it further, the figures suddenly stepped away from their leader, and swiftly crossed across the portal. As their bodies submerged into the dark portal, for a brief moment a reddish hue glinted across its dark surface.


    The peculiar change was very brief, barelysting a fraction of a second, probably gone and ignored by almost everyone in the crowd.


    Yet, thest representative at the back, Sebas furrowed his brows instantly, his face losing its calm disposure and revealing a deep frown.


    Something was amiss


    ---


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