Chapter 2597: Two Forfeits

No one bothered to try and get the key back from Aina.

They were all aware that Leonel was still here in some capacity, and whatever method he was using to avoid being banished would definitely work again on the key. As for those that felt they were powerful enough to face Leonel, they didn't care about whose hands the tenth key was in. As far as they were concerned, the Council was just a glorified paper tiger and they had already accomplished the wishes of their various families, empires and powers. The rest would sort itself out very shortly as the Preliminaries were already soon to be underway.

When the day came, the teleportations began in batches.

The tournament would be projected in the skies of the city, as well as from the large Stele that teleported them all here in the first place. The participants wouldn't have to go anywhere and they would be plucked out of the city on a whim. When it was their turn to go, they would be alerted and a few seconds would pass before they were forcefully teleported to the arena.

As it was the preliminaries and there were quite literally trillions of participants, there would be many battles going on at once.

As much as these powers would like it to be different, the Gathering of Kingdoms remained as objective as possible. Rather than matches with convoluted rules and things of the like, there would instead be simple battles.

In the preliminaries, one would have three battles. It was only necessary to win one to make it through to the next round.

Those that won on their first or second battle would have no need for a second or third battle and would be considered to have successfully passed.

Even by this point, Yuri had yet to calm down. To her, Aina's words about how she had only died because she didn't listen to Leonel sounded borderline psychotic. However, when Aina told her she was going to lose her first two matches on purpose, she almost fainted.

"Why would you do that?!"

"Because it decides seeding," Aina said as though it was only a matter of course.

"That's why you should try to win as soon as possible!"

"But then I'll face opponents that are too weak. What would be the fun in that?"

Yuri almost pulled her hair out. This was a tournament that would decide which worlds were effectively genocided, this wasn't a time for leisure and fun.

"Savahn, please try!" Yuri felt like she was losing her mind.

"Aina, you..." Savahn started.

Aina only smiled, causing Savahn to sigh.

"I tried explaining already," Aina shrugged eventually. "Since you don't believe me, why not just watch?"

"Aina!"

"Yuri," Savahn pulled her back, shaking her head, "haven't you noticed already?"

Yuri was too busy worrying for Aina that she didn't even understand what Savahn was saying. She even thought for a moment that Savahn was referring to Aina going crazy.

"Notice what?"

"That there are no other humans here," Savahn said pointedly.

Yuri's eyes widened, then she looked at Aina.

There were only two ways to survive. The first was to have 10% of your genius population pass the preliminaries, and the second...

"You want to reach the Finals?" Yuri said. "But... but..."

Her blood was rushing to her head. The problem wasn't just reaching the Finals, but if Aina wanted the best shot at it, why was she making her path harder? There was only one chance at this, and Leonel had already gotten himself removed. Just what were these two thinking?

At that moment, a ticker appeared before them all.

"Seems like it's our turn soon," Aina said.

Then, they vanished.

Just like she said, Aina directly forfeited both the first and second rounds, not even lifting up a finger to fight.

Those that were paying special attention to what was happening were completely floored.

The Gathering of Kingdoms was originally meant to be a friendly gathering, so it was, of course, the case that there were many rules for mercy and things of the like baked in.

One could forfeit simply by saying that they wanted to, and if one was pushed out of the arena, the match would also end. Though, the arena for battles of this scale was measured on the order of hundreds of kilometers.

Even so, none of this made what Aina was doing make any more sense. The higher ups were even more confused. Why do all of this just to forfeit?

And then Aina's third match came.

She stood on the arena grounds, the large white tiles that made it up making her look particularly dainty and small despite the fact she was a woman who stood at over six feet tall.

Across from her, an opponent appeared. It was a member of the Beast Race. In fact, it was coincidentally a lion as well.

It was smaller than the one Leonel had killed, standing at only around three meters tall or so. But it looked more slender and much faster.

The lion Beast thought that maybe it was in luck. Everyone had seen by now that Aina had forfeited not just once but twice. Its world was one where should they get a little unlucky, they might be a hair or two beneath the 10% mark. He would definitely take an easy victory if he could get one.

But even after an illusory judge gave the signal for the match to begin, Aina didn't move, neither did she say anything. She just stood there, seemingly waiting for something.

The lion Beast realized then that there would be no easy victory. For some reason, this woman had suddenly decided that she wanted to fight.

He crouched and a low growl came from his maw as he bared his teeth.

BANG.

He suddenly accelerated forward, lightning streaks roaring as he appeared before Aina in an instant.

The battle seemed over, and yet Aina suddenly reached out a hand, grabbing the snout of the lion Beast and suddenly driving him right into the ground.

BOOM.

The indestructible tiles cracked and the lion's skull was blended into a pile of mush.