For a few minutes, the square became the most peaceful of places, with the silence only being broken by the occasional sound of rock falling from one of the now destroyed building walls.
"The beasts of the Tamer. They never cease to surprise, don't they?" Asked an old man in light blue clothes who, along with another old man in similar yet grey-colored robes, had quietly appeared right in the middle of the square without being noticed.
For a long minute, the second man observed his surroundings in an attempt to evaluate those who had participated in the fight, then said, "We knew they would make use of their ancestor's blood in case of danger. I am just disappointed by their timing."
"What do you mean? Was it not appropriate?" Asked the man in light blue robes with confusion.
"If they did not have to fight today, it would have been appropriate. They should have not started this fight to begin with. Now look at them, nobody seems to be in the condition to fight. They clearly did not feel that they were at an advantage, and decided to level the playing field by taking out everybody else at the same time, including themselves." Responded the grey-clothed man.
"What do you think about the others?"
"The independent cultivators were wise not to meddle in. This was a matter between the followers of Iewah's chosen ones. I was surprised about the students. The beasts were clearly the best prowess wise, and chose the right time to attack. The charmer's followers are a disappointment. You can see the charmer's inexperience through the simple minded orders she gave to them. The idea of increasing their numbers within the event by itself was not wrong, but it was immediately seen through by the students."
"Now, aside from the student's known judgement, I was surprised by the outcast's followers. They were not the smartest group, or the most powerful.. Certainly not the most unique, considering the odd powers of the three merchants. They are normal cultivators, but everything that makes one a cultivator, in them, is boosted to an unnatural degree. I can only see them as a better kind of cultivator than the rest. If only the possibility of a war was a thousand years in the distance, this would have been the most important piece of information of the event."
The man in light blue clothes could not help but to agree with the words of the grey-clothed man, and after looking around for a few more seconds, he asked, "I doubt any of them will be able to fight for the following few hours. Should we ask the old mage to aid them with the fires of light?"
"No other choice.." muttered the old man in grey clothes before adding, "Damn it. We should have stopped them before. I'm too old to get a scolding."
"Alright then. I'll go call him, be right ba-" Responded the old man in light blue clothes before being stopped by something unusual. Right on the south edge of the square, five little mounds of dirt were being formed by the pushing of just as many bodies.
As the dirt made way for these five bodies to come out of the ground, the two old men watched with surprised expressions.
Nilo and the others were the first ones to wake up from the impact, showing that their mental recovery, just like that of the production of immortal essence and healing, was above that of any other cultivator at their level.
"Impressive." Said the old man in grey clothes before turning to look at his companion, and saying, "Go. If by chance these little monsters start to kill the others, it will be even worse for us."
Without needing to be told twice, the old man in light blue clothes disappeared, and when he reappeared around minute later, he was in the company of the old explorer, who stood next to him while laying over his large staff.
"You idiots. Did I not tell you to stop them before they could be this badly injured?" Asked the old explorer to the two old men, that next to him, behaved like two embarrassed juniors caught doing something very stupid.
Instead of waiting for an answer, the old explorer looked at Nilo and the others, who were the first ones to recover a sliver of their power, and with eyes filled with curiosity, he took a white seed from within his spatial ring, and placed it in the middle of the square, right where the high level spatial sphere which maintained the space which contained the entire area had been locked in.
As soon as this seed touched the spatial essence sphere, a feeble white smoke started to come out of it, and extend in every direction in a gentle waft. After reaching the far ends of this space, the white seed fell apart, and the smoke disappeared as if it had never been there before.
The only ones who had been able to see this seed, were Nilo and the others who, while being heavily injured, had been the only ones that were awake during the actions of the old explorer.
When the white smoke had reached them, they had felt a surge of healing essence within their bodies, which they immediately recognized as a weaker form of the white flame they had seen in the tower. However, instead of bringing them back to the top of their form, this smoke was only powerful enough to cure the serious injuries, and force the mind to recover.
After the white smoke disappeared, numerous other people emerged from underneath the destroyed surface, just like Nilo and the others had.
Beasts, merchants, students, charmed ones, and even the few dozens of independent participants were able to recover from the explosion caused by the impact between the two legendary beasts, from which they had been barely able to protect themselves from thanks to their treasures. Unfortunately, they did not possess treasures that could shield their weak minds, which were unable to stand the shock of such a powerful attack, causing them to fall unconscious.
As soon as the student's attention landed on the charmed ones, they became alerted, and prepared to continue their battle. Similarly, the beasts became wary of Nilo's group, which shockingly, had been able to survive so far while having to fight against a larger, and more powerful group.
"Cut that out!" Said the old explorer with a voice powerful enough to threaten to destroy the ear drums of the participants. Then, after making sure that everyone's attention was directed at him, he added, "There will be no more support from us. You only have two hours to recover before the final part of the event. If you wish to waste your chance on an idiotic brawl, then tell me now, so that I can kick you out myself."
Not many had noticed the presence of the three old men after waking up, yet, the old man's tone was enough for these two hundred participants to be reminded that they were nothing but ants in the eyes of people like the explorers, and that their feuds were of even less importance.
While the charmed ones and the beasts immediately gave up and focused on healing themselves, their actions were interrupted by the shocking words that they heard only moments later. "We want out." Said Nilo with a calm, yet decisive tone.
The faces of every participant collectively turned him and the others. Their expressions were filled with shock, as they could not understand why the now favorites of the event would decide to abandon right before the very end.
The only one who did not share this level of surprise, was Tianna, the young woman who led the group of students. She had immediately understood what the motivation of Nilo and the rest of his group for wanting to leave, was.
By winning the event, one would likely receive great rewards and a massive amount of fame, but there was likely a massive condition attached to it. Specifically, to be under the attentive eye of the Universal Government, and fight for them during the meeting between the two civilizations.
The only other motive to participate in this event, for the followers of Iewah's children, was to compete against one another, and if that was the case, this exchange had been more than enough for all of them to find the answers to the questions they could have had.
At the end of the day, Nilo and the others had distinguished themselves within the event, had obtained a massive amount of resources from its participants, and had gathered every bit of information there was to discover. Their gains were the best they could obtain without having to be shared with the obligations of winning the event. So for them, it was time to quit.
The old explorer, with his more than a hundred thousand years of experience, was quick to realize what Nilo's motivation was, so he said, "You can't quit now. Your fights have already been scheduled."
However, just as he finished talking, he felt the heavy emissions of Fyro's immortal essence increase exponentially, as he turned to look at the now resting participants. On the other hand, before Fyro could attack the participants and cause them to be kicked out, Nilo placed a hand on his shoulder, and said, "Sir, you have two hours to rearrange the fights, or you can just watch us surrender as soon as it is our turn. Why don't you let us out directly instead?"
For how irritated by Nilo's words the three old men were, they had no choice but to comply. After all, while they could have forced them to participate in the event, they would not be able to keep them from surrendering as soon as it was their turn to fight.
"Very well.." muttered the old explorer with irritation before waving his hand, and forcing the group out, and into Daniel's empty observation booth.
"Where are we? Did he imprison us?" Asked Cynna with curiosity. From the booth where they were standing in, they could see the stage in which they had competed yesterday down underneath, while connected to the booth, they could see many more similar, yet empty booths.
"No. Tianna was right. This must be the place that the government has organized for our carers to observe the event from. Master Golden Cauldron and Master Silver Alchemist must be amongst the owners of this booth, and during the night, they were likely occupied elsewhere, just like the owners of the other booths." Responded Nilo after a long minute spent in consideration.
In agreement to Nilo's words, Finn sat in one of the many chairs, and said, "The old explorer said that the second part of the competition would start in two hours. We might as well wait for them to come back."
Left with no choice, Nilo, Cynna, Fyro and Zack followed Finn's example, and occupied four other chairs, and focused on recovering to their peak state instead of waiting without doing anything.
"Were they as you guys expected?" Asked Zack without bothering to explain to whom he was referring to.
The first one to speak was Nilo, who opened his eyes, and while looking at the empty space, said, "I really thought we were special before. But now, between the beast's raw power, the student's wisdom and intelligence, or the other's odd powers.. We look li-"
"We look like the most common form of special." Said Finn, finishing his sentence.
The group once again became quiet, almost as if each one of them was busy thinking about their own weaknesses and strengths. This silence lasted until Cynna said with melancholy, "I still can't see myself winning against him. I keep thinking about it, and whenever I imagine him being in the situation we were in a few hours ago, all I see is a sea of blood, and him standing in the middle of it, unscathed. But the universe is so vast.. I wonder if he is still alive."
All four of them knew to whom Cynna was referring to, but none of them were able to say anything. Instead, it was a different, yet familiar voice that tried to give her comfort, by saying, "He will find his way home. You can count on it."
As they heard this voice, Nilo and the others turned around in shock, only to see Daniel stand right behind them.
