The room inside wasn’t nearly as regal as the doors leading to it. In fact, it wasn’t regal at all.
The walls were pearly white and, along with the room being completely empty, made the space feel extremely large but also cold.
There, in the middle of the room, a tall, bare chested man with long black hair calmly sat on the ground, his legs crossed and his eyes closed.
His calm, even breathing made it seem as if the earlier angry shout hadn’t originated from him, but from someone else entirely.
Prisca, without a hint of anger left in her, gulped nervously at the sight and walked into the room as the large doors closed behind her.
She couldn’t be blamed for her earlier false bravado. Anyone hailing from Helinor wouldn’t be able to properly raise their head in front of this man, let alone be angry at him, as he was the pillar of their civilization.
Bowing slightly, still trying to retain some of her pride as an array master, she quietly said, “Uriel—”
“Kneel.” A serene voice, one that had neither anger nor any sort of resentment hidden within it, rang throughout the empty space.
Bang!
Prisca’s eyes shrank to pinholes as the sensation of becoming an enemy of the world itself assaulted her. Before she could shout, her knees slammed into the ground with a loud bang that echoed for several seconds.
Shocked by what was happening, and even more so by her inability to comprehend why, she knelt there without even considering trying to stand up. She knew that, as dire as the situation was and as gloomy as she felt inside, she first had to find out the reason for this.
Thus, she raised her head to look at Uriel and, trying her best to keep herself from panicking, asked in a shaky tone, “Why? What did I do?”
Uriel slowly opened his eyes. His pupils, two blue orbs, glinted for a brief moment before returning to normal. He spoke slowly, “It was you who recently challenged an unranked civilization to a fight, am I right?”
He phrased it as a question, but his tone was closer to a decree.
Prisca nodded slightly, still internally shaken. Why is he asking? Is there something wrong with that? No, it can’t be. It was just a lowly unranked civilization, why would he care about it?
“That would have been, usually, fine, but you bet one billion Gold coins on that fight, am I right?”
Again, he asked, but Prisca knew it was only for the sake of laying it all out. He already knew everything.
Bracing herself, she took a deep breath to calm down and said, as clearly as she could, “Yes. That civilization took down one of our vassals using that amount as a bet, and I decided to do the same to them.”
Uriel stared at her unblinkingly. “Have you thought of the consequences in case we lost?”
Lost? Prisca tried to think about it, but she couldn’t even imagine such a result. “I haven’t. There’s no reason to think about that either, they’re just a lowly unranked civilization. How could we possibly lose to them?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the pressure that had earlier forced her to her knees returned. This time, it rattled every bone in her body, so much so that she had to gnash her teeth to keep from screaming at the top of her lungs.
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“You didn’t think. That’s the reason this is happening. So what if a civilization beats our vassals? Are we supposed to go after every single one of them?”
With each word, the pressure bearing down on Prisca gradually increased.
“Another mistake was not checking the civilization you challenged. I thought you were smart, but this?”
Feeling as if her body was about to implode, she did her best to stay sane and listen to every word Uriel was saying.
“Haven’t you learned already? In this place, unranked has never meant weak, and a high rank has never meant strong.”
“Or,” Uriel continued, clearly spelling out each word and unbothered by her struggle, “do you think I’m weak too, since we rank in the 90,000s?”
“NO!”
The pressure doubled in an instant, forcing Prisca to scream in pain as her entire body violently slammed into the ground. Her mind went blank for a few seconds as blood seeped from her mouth. Every muscle ached and twitched uncontrollably.
When she could think again, she forgot why she was there. Instead, despair filled her mind.
Am I going to die now?
She knew Uriel needed only a thought to kill her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
But then, without any warning, the pressure vanished.
“Since you’re a respectable array master, I’m sure you can manage to gather a billion Gold coins. You can ask our vassals to pitch in as well.”
With a wave of his hand, Uriel threw Prisca out of the room as if tossing garbage into the street, her body skidding to a stop a few meters outside the doors.
“Don’t let me see you again if you can’t gather the coins by tomorrow.”
His final words echoed out of the room before the doors slammed shut, leaving a dazed, and injured, Prisca staring blankly at the ground.
Inside the room, Uriel closed his eyes once again, as if the events that had just unfolded weren’t worth mentioning at all.
Minutes later, as the shock of what she had endured slowly subsided, Prisca’s mind replayed the entire interaction. This time, as she searched for an answer, she wasn’t just shocked.
She was dumbfounded.
I… need to gather a billion Gold coins?
Can it be?
It can’t be… right?
The thought lingered only momentarily.
When Prisca’s thoughts finally pieced together the answer, she couldn’t believe it. But that was also when she noticed the notification she hadn’t bothered to read, and once she did, she wished she hadn’t.
We lost… to an unranked civilization… ha ha ha… one billion Gold coins… ha ha…
It took only a moment for her to piece together the cause, and a single face surfaced in her mind.
Celera’s.
It’s her fault. It’s all because of her that I’m in this situation. How dare she play me like a fool? She’ll wish she had died along with her civilization, but be unable to do so. I’ll make sure her life will be a living hell from now on.
She ground her teeth so hard they nearly cracked, her body trembling, this time, not from pain or fear, but from rage.
/////
While Celera, too preoccupied with her own revenge, was unaware that she had just gained a mortal enemy, Nova, after the fight, was fully aware that the Khaian civilization was now a mortal enemy of his, but he didn’t care.
He was busy reading the notification he had received just before leaving the arena.
[Congratulations. Your civilization, Earth, has fought Grenara, Khaian, and Helinor, winning all three fights]
[You will now be ranked based on the strength shown in the matches]
[Calculating…]
‘Doesn’t that mean it’s based only on those who fought? Only Jack and I participated, and if it’s based on the strength we showed, then it won’t be accurate. Our ranking will drop a lot.’ Nova frowned slightly. ‘If I remember correctly, the system said a civilization’s ranking was based on the total strength of its people, so why is this happening now?’
[Your ranking has been calculated]
The notification snapped Nova out of his thoughts.
“40,000s? 30,000s? Where will it place us? I don’t think we can get higher than the 20,000s.” He murmured, waiting for Earth’s ranking to appear.
[Earth (74,922th)]
“That low?” he exclaimed abruptly as soon as he saw the notification. “How can it be that low?”
Before he could think further, another notification rang in his head:
[Those who haven’t fought yet and wish to record their strength to help the civilization’s ranking can now head to the sparring zone to fight against constructs]
“Ah, that’s it, the way for everyone in the civilization to measure themselves and reach a higher ranking.” Nova nodded to himself.
“Should I go there and record my strength to get a better rank?”
He thought about it for a few seconds before dismissing the idea.
“I still have a lot to catch up on. The others will probably do it.”
Little did he know that, just like him, none of the other three from Earth decided to waste their time there either.
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