Dark Magus Returns

The Demonic Faction students had reluctantly returned to their viewing area. They were embarrassed, to say the least. They knew they had performed poorly, and to come in last place, they were essentially the laughing stock of the whole continent.

The Demonic Faction was one that was feared by all; both the Dark Faction and Light Faction had always hesitated to attack them because they didn't have confidence in beating them.

So how could they come out with a result like this? Entering, Brack looked at Sha Mo for a moment and turned his head away.

"I promise I'll do better. Right now, I don't deserve to be representing the Behemoth clan," Brack stated.

In the same vein, both Beret and Mantis had gone to their leaders and clan members to talk about what had occurred and try to figure out a way to improve it.

It was only Raze who was left with no one, since Alba and Anna had both left him here alone.

Sitting down in one of the comfy armchairs, Raze looked out of the glass, or at least he tried to. A large figure had blocked his way, casting a giant shadow over him.

"Why did you do nothing?" Sha Mo asked. "If you had acted, we could have gotten the fastest time."

Sha Mo knew Raze's true strength, so it wasn't an off comment to make.

"Does the tournament really matter to the Demonic Faction? Didn't the Neverfall clan already successfully stop an attack from the Light Faction? They know our strength; even if we lose this whole thing, it would be fine, right? There's no need to draw attention to myself," Raze answered honestly.

The tournament itself was not his concern; finding a way out of here was, and the most likely best time to do that and get the Dark Faction away was right at the end of the event.

"You know some of the meaning behind this event, I assume," Lince said as he took the seat next to Raze and looked out into the main stage of the arena.

Sha Mo had decided to leave things at that and walked off, heading to the food section to stuff his mouth even more.

"I was told that it's a way to show the current and future strength of each of the factions. Which is why I stated it shouldn't matter too much," Raze added.

"Right, so you know that much, but you need to be aware of the entire situation of Pagna," Lince explained as he waved his finger in the air, drawing a circle.

"You have three factions that are fighting against each other, all of them wary of each other. Yet not one of them ready to act out. If the Dark Faction attacked the Light Faction believing they were stronger, then their worry is, in the middle of the fight, that we would attack them, eliminating them and becoming the winner."

"This is the same situation since all of our lands border on one another. Each group can be attacked by another at any point in time."

"So even if one group is stronger than the other, they aren't confident to defeat two groups. However, there is a way to eliminate a faction and limit this risk. Do you know what way this is?"

Raze thought about it for a while, considering the possibilities of what one could do, and he came up with an answer.

"An alliance; two of the factions could agree not to attack each other and go for one of the others."

"Exactly," Lince replied. "Maybe you're smarter than I gave you credit for. You should also understand why we in the Demonic Faction are in the most vulnerable state when it comes to this.

"The Light Faction's principles focus on honor. If they were to make an alliance, they would keep their word. At the same time, the Dark Faction's principle is to do whatever it can to win."

"While for the Demonic Faction—"

"They would never work with anyone to eliminate the enemy," Raze answered.

Not just that, but Raze was starting to think maybe this was the reason as well why Alter didn't exist in the Demonic Faction. It was too different compared to the others. The scary thought was, with Alter in different positions in both the Light Faction and the Dark Faction, it very well could be something that was capable of being pulled off.

"Exactly, and here lies the problem. There's a reason despite this option being available to them that they have never done such a thing. And do you know why it is?"

This was something Raze was curious about because he didn't have an answer for it. Until, he figured out the question that was asked at the beginning of all of this: why was the tournament so important to them?

"Because even if they were to team up together, they wouldn't have the strength to defeat the Demonic Faction," Raze answered.

Lince relaxed back in his seat even further with a big smile on his face.

Lince relaxed back in his seat even further with a big smile on "See, you knew the answer all along; you just needed to have a few prompts. There is another factor involved in all of this as well."

"That is the fact that in the Demonic Faction, we have one of the strongest empires that use our services quite a bit."

"They wouldn't be too pleased if we were eliminated, but the same thing could be said for the kingdoms across the other lands. Getting rid of us would start a war among the regular people as well. Although we don't tend to get involved with them, they are large in number and technology is advancing with them."

"They could be a bigger threat in the future. Either way, if we fail horribly at this tournament, it might start to spark the idea, among the people, as well as among the factions, that for one, we are weak enough to take over, and for the Empire that is under us, that we are too weak to protect them."

"If the empire in our land strikes a deal with one of the other factions as well, it will be over for the Demonic Faction."

It was quite a bit for Raze to think about, but at the end of the day, what did he care about whether or not the Demonic Faction was eliminated? He just wanted to know the Neverfall clan's relation to the Dark Faction founder. Besides all of that, if there was a chance, Raze might very well eliminate the principal, not giving them a chance to even team up with anyone in the first place.

"For the next event, can we please have each group select two participants!" The announcer stated. "As a hint for the next event, it will be best if you pick your fastest participants!"

Two participants were to take part in the event, with only a single hint. There was time for each of the groups to discuss among themselves as they picked who was to take part.

Following the past tournaments, it didn't matter if the same person for each team was picked again and again, so they didn't need to worry about that.

"If I can make a suggestion," Lince said. "Can we have Beret from the Lost Clan take part… and I think Jake from the Crimson Crane will do."