Blake awakens in an infirmary, surveying his environment. The room is stark white, and a white curtain divides him from the patient beside him. He notices someone seated next to him and immediately recognizes the individual. It’s Truth who smiles down at Blake. Blake sighs and looks Truth straight in the eyes.

  [Blake: So? What are you here for? Don’t you have the next round to watch?]

  Truth laughs.

  [Truth: I will get back in time to watch the king's son fight. I was not expecting that last move! You are a dragon slayer! That is a lost art, you know? You must have trained hard to use that move; you woke up pretty fast with how netsu draining it is. Unlike him.]

  Truth moves the curtain to the side. Pax is unconscious, still lying on his hospital bed. Blake immediately tries to get up but fails.

  [Truth: Don’t worry, he is fine. It is just that using a domain expansion requires your netsu to be properly prepared. It is not something you can just do on the fly like he did. His netsu is dangerously low right now, so he probably won't wake up for the rest of the tournament.]

  Blake looks concerned.

  [Blake: You keep mentioning “Netsu”. What is that?]

  Truth gets a surprised look.

  [Truth: You have Aric as a teacher, and you don’t know what Netsu is?!?! Education has really gone down the drain. It is not my job to tell you that. If you make it to the higher levels, you will be forced to learn what netsu is anyway. Also, why am I here? You gained something pretty strong.]

  [Blake: What? You mean that orb?]

  [Truth: That orb was the Ten Shadow Generals technique you just fought. It seems that the guild master has some ability that allows him to give others abilities. When Shifter was killed, the given ability went out of him. Normally, it probably is supposed to go back to the guild master. However, it went to you instead. I want to train you in that ability.]

  [Blake: Why do you want to train me?]

  [Truth: I owe your dad a favor, so I'll pay it off right now. Speaking of him, I have an item he asked me to grab. When you see him again, tell him to stop by.]

  Blake looks down in sadness.

  [Blake: Actually… My dad has been missing for years now. He is probably dead.] The sadness in Blake's voice is audible. Truth starts laughing extremely hard.

  [Truth: You don’t get it, kid! Let me tell you something. Your dad is a monster. He definitely is not dead! Knowing him, he is probably on vacation in another dimension or something! Just let him know the next time you see him.]

  Blake is surprised.

  *Blake: Truth called my dad a monster? Just how strong was my father?*

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  Back in the arena, the next fight is about to start. The announcer starts to announce the fighters.

  [Announcer: First up, we have the son of the king. He is the brother of the High Special Grade Lyric Valerian and the son of King Valerian himself! He is the inheritor of the strongest esper ability in existence, “Golden Hour”! Give it up for… Harpstein Valerian!]

  Harpstein walks out onto the arena.

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  Peak looks so confused.

  [Peak: Harpsteins 15-year-old brother is a High Special Grade?!?!]

  Pea looks over at Azarath; he knows the most about the royal family.

  [Azarath: Yeah, officially, Lyric is a prodigy. He inherited Golden Hour as well, but he was also born as a specialist with another ability. Golden Hour was compatible with this ability, and they fused. Giving Lyric a whole new ability called 『The Sands of Time』. With this ability, he quickly became a Special Grade and even a High Special Grade. You need to be 18 to register, so officially, he is not recognized as a Special grade. It is common knowledge that he is on Arics level, though.]

  Peak is astonished, he looks back into the arena.

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  [Announcer: On the other end, we have a popular man! He glows and is considered radiant! If you cannot move as fast as light itself, then you have already lost! Give it up for… Sorato Aetheris.]

  Sorato walks into the arena. His white hair is yellowish, and his eyes are the same color. He is wearing an overcoat.

  [Sorato: I am tired. So I will end this quickly.]

  Sorato makes a finger gun motion and points it at Harpstein.

  [Announcer: Let the fight between Sorato and Harpstein… Commence!]

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  The fight starts. Harpstein goes to attack, but before he can do anything, he sees smoke coming out of Sorato's finger. He looks down and sees a giant hole in Sorato's chest.

  *Harpstein: Huh? When did I get attacked…*

  Harpstein is about to fall unconscious.

  [Haprstein: Heed me… creation… and return…]

  『Golden Hour: Rewind』

  ←

  [Commence!]

  Harpstein quickly jumps to the side as a hole appears in the wall behind where he was standing. Harpstein quickly throws his spear at Sorato. Who conjures an arm of light and blocks it.

  *Harpstein: I see. His light-speed blasts need to be shot out of his finger. While I'm not faster than light, I should be fine as long as I can outpace his hands.*

  Harpstein dashes around the arena, dodging the light blasts. He jumps in front of Sorato, ready to attack him. However, a light construct grabs his leg, and another one smacks Harpstein in the face. During this time, Sorato aimed and shot another light blast at Harpstein.

  ←

  Harpstein jumps away from the light construct, trying to grab his foot, and stabs at Sorato, who jumps away. Sorato gets back even further.

  *Harpstein: He must have done his research. He is keeping a six-to-ten-second space away from me at all times. Meaning if time stopped, I wouldn’t make it in time. Still.*

  [Harpstein: Heed me, creation, and fall still.]

  『Golden Hour: Stop』

  ??

  Time stopped. Everything falls still as Harpstein runs as close as he can. Harpstein shoots his spear the rest of the distance. It stops a few inches from Sorato's face.

  ??

  Sorato quickly moves his head to the side as the staff slices his cheek.

  [Sorato: Just let me kill you!]

  『Light Golem』

  A bunch of Light Golems appear and make a dash for Harpstein. Harpstein calls his spear back and destroys one of them. He has to destroy them while also not staying in the same place for too long, or else he will be shot. He starts to slice and stab through them.

  『Light Creation』

  Light tendrils come out of the ground at blinding speeds. They wrap around Harpstein as the Golens bring down their fists on him. Crushing him.

  ←

  『Scream』

  The Golems and tendrils are blown back and destroyed by the spear's shockwave. Sweat starts to appear on Harpsteins head. He quickly throws the spear at Sorato, and it hits his torso. Harpstein calls his spear back and readies himself for another attack.

  『Smite of God』

  Suddenly, a large amount of Light comes down from the sky and piles onto Harpstein, evaporating him.

  ←

  Harpstein jumps to the side and narrowly avoids the blast just as another blast comes down on him.

  *Harpstein: He is trying to make me use my ability and tire out. I guess I will have to indulge him.*

  ??

  Time stops just before the second blast can hit. Harpstein slices Sorato all over before the five seconds are over and jumps back.

  ??

  Cuts appear all over Soratos body. Harpstein is now panting heavily.

  [Sorato: What's wrong? Can’t keep up?]

  Sorato is smiling. He knows the end is close.

  *Harpstein: I only have five more uses of Golden Hour before it becomes too much. I need to end this fight soon. I had to run to him before, so shallow cuts were the only attack I could get in before fleeing if I could just get closer.*

  Hundreds of light arms come out of Sorato's back. They all turn into guns and aim in a different direction.

  『Omni-Directional Light Minigun』

  Before Harpstein can react, his body is filled with over ten holes.

  ←

  Hundreds of light arms come out of Sorato's back. They all turn into guns and aim in a different direction.

  ??

  Harpstein throws his spear, and it stops right in front of Sorato.

  ??

  『Scream』

  A shockwave rings out and destroys all of the light guns. Sorato touches the ground and starts making light erupt from it everywhere. Harpstein looks around at his surroundings. Light geysers are everywhere, and one is about to erupt under him.

  Since his spear has not come back to him yet, Harpstein runs up and punches Sorato in the face. Sorato flies back from the punch, and the ground stops exploding with light. Sorato gets back up and looks at Harpstein.

  [Sorato: I'm already tired of this fight. How about this? I will stand here, and you can launch an attack on me. I won’t block or dodge. We will see what happens.]

  Harpstein thinks for a second.

  *Harpstein: I have three uses left. I will take him up on this offer and back out next time if it doesn't work out.*

  [Harpstein: I will take you up on that offer.]

  Harpstein runs at Sorato and stabs him through the chest with his spear. Sorato grabs the spear and looks down at Harpstein with a smile. Hundreds of light guns come out of his back and point at Harpstein.

  *Harpstein: Shit! I am going to die and rewind!*

  Harpstein closes his eyes and waits. Nothing happens. Harpstein looks up at the smiling Sorato.

  [Sorato: Your ability has a limit, right? You can only stop and rewind for five seconds. It has been five seconds since you stabbed me, meaning now I can just kill you until you can’t come back.]

  Hundreds of light guns shoot into Harpstein. Riddling his body with holes.

  *Harpstein: I see. I will have to pay my trump card.*

  [Harpstein: Heed… me… the universe… and reset…]

  『Golden Hour: Prime Time』

  ←←←

  [Sorato: I'm already tired of this fight. How about this? I will stand here, and you can launch an attack on me. I won’t block or dodge. We will see what happens.]

  Harpstein looks at Sorato. Who is waiting for him to attack. He smiles.

  *Harpstein: My Prime Time allows me to reset up to 10 seconds. Meaning I was able to get out of that situation. The downside is that it takes up two uses. I have one final use left of Golden Hour. *

  Harpstein runs up and stabs Sorato. Sorato summons the hundred of light guns like he did originally.

  『Scream』

  A shockwave blows away all of the light constructs on his back. Sorato goes to summon more.

  [Harpstein: Heed me, creation, and fall still.]

  『Golden Hour: Stop』

  ??

  Harpstein stabs Sorato's body all over and ends it with a stab to his neck. Harpstein jumps behind him as time unfreezes.

  ??

  All of the stabs appear on Sorato, and he falls to the ground dead. Harpstein falls to one of his knees, panting.

  *Harpstein: I was able to win without passing out. I guess I am getting better with my ability.*

  The crowd is silent. They have no clue what just happened. To them, the fight only lasted five minutes, which is much less than all of the previous fights. They also noticed that Harpstein didn’t take any damage in the fight. To the audience, it was as if he perfectly predicted all of Sorato's moves.

  [Announcer: The winner of round five, with a flawless victory, is Harpstein Valerian!]

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  Peak is looking at the arena with bewilderment.

  [Peak: He won so easily. That was insane!]

  Selene is also trying to make sense of what happened. Azarath steps up to Peak.

  [Azarath: Of course, he won easily. What you witnessed was the strongest esper ability, Golden Hour!]

  To be continued…