The grand elder, Elena still perched on his shoulders, led the group Solanky among them — toward the clan headquarters, a short distance from where they'd landed. Inside, a handful of elites in training uniforms were locked in sparring matches. The instant they spotted the grand elder carrying the small girl on his shoulders, shock rippled through them, but they quickly saluted and returned to their drills.
Solanky walked close behind the grand elder, the disguised mythical beings trailing after him in numbers reaching the mid-hundreds. They arrived at the main hall, where the upper echelons sat waiting for the grand elder's entrance. The moment the group stepped inside, the king and queen rushed forward to greet him warmly. The grand elder lifted Elena down from his shoulders and set her upon his own chair before stepping to the side.
A ripple of shock passed through the room — that seat represented the highest authority in the clan. One of the upper echelons rose to speak. Solanky recognized him instantly: the same man who'd once refused him the chance to see his sister, known as the fifth elder.
Solanky smiled to himself. This self-righteous fool is about to get exactly what's coming to him.
"Grand elder," the fifth elder said, "how can you allow an outsider to sit upon such a prestigious throne of our clan?"
The hall fell silent. Aside from the grand elder, the king, and the queen, only the fifth elder had reached the elementary god level. The moment the words left his mouth, Elena's playful demeanor vanished. The disguised mythical beings shook their heads in quiet pity. Elena rose from her seat — but before she could act, the grand elder stepped forward, asking to handle the matter himself.
The request stunned everyone in the room, the king and queen included. The fifth elder, feeling no remorse and brimming with arrogance, chose to meet the grand elder head-on to test his strength, settling into a defensive stance. Solanky laughed aloud. "How can someone be this stupid and still miss what's obviously happening?"
The grand elder asked the king and queen to step back. They did — the weight of his presence alone had grown far heavier, far more dangerous, than anything they remembered.
The grand elder surged forward. The shockwave from his burst of speed alone tore a crater two meters wide and five meters deep into the ground where he'd stood. The king and queen froze in disbelief — an elementary god's instantaneous burst typically reached 800 meters per second, or 1,600 for the strongest among them. The grand elder had just moved at 5,000 meters per second — six times that speed.
Every pore on the fifth elder's body clenched in instinctive terror, but it was already too late. All he could do was activate his bloodline's defensive body technique, said to harden a Bayoka clansman's body to five times the strength of steel, even without armor. That day, he'd also worn armor that pushed his defense to twenty times steel's strength. It didn't matter. The grand elder blurred and reappeared behind him, driving a kick into his waist. The armor shattered like glass. The force snapped his spine, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood that splattered across the hall floor as he was launched clean through the ceiling.
Elena clapped with delight. Solanky felt something well up in his chest too. The grand elder blurred again, appearing above the falling elder and driving a kick down into his chest, shattering every bone within it. The fifth elder plummeted back into the hall and crashed hard onto the floor.
Elena beamed, cheering the grand elder on. "That's not exactly keeping a low profile," Solanky murmured to her. She only smiled, telling the grand elder she was satisfied — that she believed he'd learned his lesson. The grand elder nodded, relief washing over him; had Elena wanted to use this insult as justification, she could have annihilated the entire clan without breaking a sweat, and no one there could have stopped her.
The grand elder summoned the clan's medics, who rushed to the fifth elder's side the moment they reached him. His armor lay in ruins, his chest caved inward, his spine bent unnaturally. The sight left them stunned — inflicting wounds like these on a high god-level being would normally require a heavy, weapon-grade strike. They lifted him onto an AI-controlled stretcher, and as they moved him, the elders in the room could sense his consciousness teetering on the edge between life and death.
The grand elder turned to Elena and asked once more if she was truly satisfied — if she wouldn't take matters into her own hands after all. She told him it was Solanky who had pleaded on the fifth elder's behalf and talked her down. The grand elder looked to Solanky with quiet gratitude and nodded.
The king and queen approached, asking how the grand elder had grown so powerful. He smiled and told them he'd explain once the elders and guards had cleared the hall. They had little choice but to accept this. "I've learned the Centuries Star Field Competition begins in three days," the grand elder said.
The king nodded. "That's why our elites have been training so hard. But this year's competition is different — there are several exceptionally powerful contestants, including a monster from Jade Ice Planet who's a hundred and twenty times stronger than a high-level mortal, with seventy times the energy of a regular elementary god."
The grand elder took the news in stride — it wasn't the kind of thing that could shock him anymore. He asked about the clan's own contestants. The king shook his head, disappointment plain on his face. "We're sending twenty contestants, but we only hold real hope for two breaking into the top hundred. One is Barusi, from our first elite camp, seventy-five times stronger than a high-level mortal. The other is the goddess of strength — her power has surprisingly climbed to a hundred and ten times."
The grand elder was caught briefly off guard that such a prodigy had risen from within his own clan. He fell into thought for a moment before asking — was the goddess of strength the young girl who'd joined six months ago from the outskirts, the one whose mother now served the queen?
The queen nodded. "Yes. That's her. Elisa."
The grand elder's eyes gleamed, and he ordered one of the hall guards to bring her at once.
The guard rushed to the training grounds and relayed the summons — Elisa was needed in the main hall, by order of the grand elder himself. She followed him at breakneck speed, and within five minutes she stood alone at the hall's entrance. The instant she stepped through, Solanky felt her aura and called out. Her face lit with joy at the sight of her brother, and she rushed to him, flying past the upper echelons without so much as a glance in their direction.
Solanky pulled her into a hug. "I heard you've gotten really strong — strong enough to represent our clan in the coming genius competition."
Elisa smiled. "It's all thanks to you. You're the one who pushed me to grow stronger, so no one could ever bully the people I love. The strong make the rules. The weak just live by them."
Elena cut into the conversation without warning. "That's very true, dear. I'm Elena — a good friend of your big brother's."
Elisa raised an eyebrow, a mocking grin spreading across her face. "Ohhh, my big brother has a girlfriend now?" Solanky felt his stomach drop, certain he was about to be thoroughly embarrassed.
Elena shot him a wink before turning back to Elisa. "You must be my future sister-in-law. Solanky never mentioned you, but I've heard you're quite the genius." Elisa beamed with pride — then suddenly remembered why she'd been summoned in the first place. She turned at once to the grand elder and dropped to one knee. "Forgive my manners, grand elder. I got carried away. You sent for me — I'm here, ready for your order."
"I wanted to inform you," the grand elder said, "that your brother will be joining the competition. He'll lead our clan's contestants."
Both Elisa and Solanky froze in shock. "Wait — I'm actually doing this?" Solanky asked.
The grand elder nodded. "Get ready. We leave tomorrow. The king, Elena, and I will be escorting our selected participants — the competition has already begun, and our clan is scheduled for the final battle."