Back at Westgate school Alex and Scarlett were currently sitting in their seats waiting for their school number to be called up. On stage was a giant Glass oval ball, inside were even smaller yellow balls with a number written on it. Air would be shot into the glass ball causing the balls to move and bounce around. One of the teachers at Westgate school would pull out two balls and these would be the two teams facing each other in the tournament.
In total four seeded teams would bypass the first rounds. One of the seeded teams was Westgate school themselves. This year they were the favourites to win the tournament because Lucas had decided to take part.
Alex couldn't help but feel nervous about the whole thing. His legs wouldn't stop moving up and down. He needed to do well in the tournament to show his parents that there was some sort of future in VSW for him.
The women on stage had a microphone in hand and before drawing out balls she had an announcement to make.
"Tonight, we have a special guest today that will be deciding the fate of your schools, please welcome to the stage, Lucas bell!"
The crowd started to whisper to each other as they saw Lucas walk onto the stage.
"So, he really is joining the tournament this year."
"Well, there goes our chances."
Lucas slowly walked onto the stage and stopped just by the giant class oval ball. Lucas started to scout the room as if he was looking for something.
"looks like the one I'm looking for isn't here, what a waste of time."
Currently, Mortem was in control of Lucas's body. As soon as she stepped into the outside, she recognised that the world was different from her own. The sky was blue, life was prosperous and there were living beings overpopulated everywhere. It was not like her home at all.
She had experienced something similar to this a long time ago but her memories were fuzzy and there was no telling how much time had passed. Even if it was the same world clearly it was a different period.
Using her abilities, she extracted as much information as she could from Lucas's mind. Lucas tried resisting of course but it was useless. She quickly learnt the way the current world she was in worked and even saw images of Lucas's fight with Arthur.
Arthur had displayed fighting abilities that were truly impressive, they were clearly beyond the capabilities of humans that belonged to this world. Her bloodlust wanted her to face strong opponents and perhaps finding this Arthur would give her answers, so she went looking for this so-called Novis person.
Lucas was currently in spirit form next to his own body. He two was looking around the arena looking for Novis. He had originally joined this tournament hoping to face Novis but now he wanted someone who could just beat Mortem.
Lucas had his own theory, every day when Mortem would go to sleep her spirit would be transferred to the dream world. There Lucas was able to battle her but every time he would lose. When Lucas had first met Moretem she had brought him to the dream world and he had lost. When he did, he also lost control of his body.
He thought that maybe by beating Mortem in the dream world he would get a chance to take back his body. Every spare minute Lucas had he would practise his skills in the dream world. He decided to practise with the same weapon as Mortem, the scythe. He needed to know everything about the weapon to beat her and the best way was to use the weapon himself.
But all his efforts so far were in vain. All Lucas could do was continue to practice every day until the day he beat Mortem.
Scarlett while looking at Lucas couldn't help but have this uneasy feeling about him. The look in Lucas's eyes sent a shiver down her spine.
The drawing started with Lucas pulling out two balls from the machine. The two teams were displayed on the large cinema-like screen behind him. The screen showed the schools name and all the participants for that team with the user ID, right next to the player's ID were their ranks.
All the teams that had been displayed so far had no players higher than platinum rank. Meaning most likely if a player had a diamond rank or higher in their team, they would be considered too strong and would be seeded.
Finally, Lucas pulled at a number 12, and number 23. The announcer girl on stage started speaking.
"And here we have, Number 12 Eton Vs number 23 Montem."
The huge screen again displayed the two team's player ID's with all the players and ranks right next to them. As the information on the screen was displayed the room was filled with laughter.
"Do you see that? The whole team is bronze, there's not even one player higher than that."
"Why did they even bother entering the tournament?"
"Eton are so lucky, it's practically a free win for them."
Alex could feel the stares and looks that everyone gave him. He couldn't help but feel small and weak as he tried curling up.
Scarlett put her hand on Alex's back.
"Don't worry about them, your plan is perfect, we'll show them. All of them."
Scarlett's words manged to cheer Alex up a bit. He expected this reaction and it only worked out in their favour. The enemy team seeing them this way meant they would only let their guard down giving them more chances.
As the Screen displayed the player ID's Lucas managed to catch the name of one.
"ProNovis, that can't be can it? Isn't that Novis." He thought to himself.
Lucas's heart started to pound harder. He wanted to fight Novis more than anything in this tournament but there was one person getting in his way.
With all the teams registered and opponents decided, it was time for them to go back home and prepare for the first match that would be happening tomorrow.
Alex had one day remaining to gather as much information as he possibly could to get his team ready.