When the hulking young man and the red-haired girl next to him entered the area, a path opened by itself within the crowd. The place where the walk ended, where Lareina waited for them eventually, was the long table where registrations were taken.
"Yes, why did you come?"
When the type sitting at the head of the table spoke, Nafız recognized him at a single glance. This person was none other than the man who had previously said she couldn't collect points outside the Blood Arena.
"I came to ask if your health and well-being are in place!"
"What are you saying?"
"What are you saying actually; aren't you aware of the work you are doing?"
Although she had lived alone in a room for six hundred years, thanks to her elephant memory not forgetting even a single moment of what she experienced, Nafız was being difficult. The tension between the two increased with every sentence; seeing the end of the matter going to an undesirable place, Lareina stepped forward and took the initiative.
"We want to participate in the annual fights; would you take our registration?"
After the young girl's silky tone, the laughter coming from the hoarse voice of the man at the head of the table echoed in the area. While Lareina didn't break her expression, the young man right to her right took a step forward.
"What is so funny; tell us so we can laugh too!"
While the crack starting to form where he stepped passed between the legs of the man opposite him, Jashua's single eyebrow was two fingers above the other.
"Look at these, they are defying me. Insolent ones!"
The red-haired young girl also took a step forward; the heaviness of the environment increased manifold. The others sitting at the head of the table also stood up; the crowd couldn't believe their eyes. Some of the elders of the Holy Blood Sect were about to fight with two student disciples.
"What is happening here!"
When the red light descending from the sky like a meteor touched the ground, it appeared right in the middle of the two sides who had come head to head. With his eyebrows arched upwards, a torso even hulking than Jashua, and eyes like flint, the Second Elder had appeared after a long time.
"Sir, these impertinent ones are disrespecting the officials of the Holy Blood Sect!"
The man standing at the head of the registration table answered quickly. Compared to him, Nafız jumped into the conversation after looking at the faces of everyone standing on the other side one by one.
"Nothing will come out of here; how could they gather this many scumbags together?"
Following the words spoken in the presence of the Second Elder, the environment tensed like a rope pulled with ambition from its two ends.
"Cut the chatter!"
The Second Elder had his fill of empty talk; he wanted to learn what was going on. Right here, Lareina stepped in again.
"Sir, we came to register to participate in the Annual Fights, but the officials are constantly creating obstacles."
The young girl's attitude was completely independent of the environment; the Second Elder couldn't help scanning her from head to toe.
"Slander sir, these insolent ones didn't even allow us to speak. Otherwise, I would have told them that at least four people are required to register for the fight held with teams of five!"
Hearing the words of the man speaking while laughing under his breath, Nafız's face fell; she was just learning that such a rule existed.
"Who set this rule!"
Evidently, the Second Elder didn't know either.
"Sir, His Excellency the Third Elder put the rule into effect this year with the approval of Sheikh Atractivo!"
When the man standing at the head of the table finished his words, he lifted his head and looked at a point far away. Although his movement lasted very briefly, it couldn't escape the attention of Nafız, Jashua, and the Second Elder.
"So that's how it is!"
Nafız murmured and then shouted with all her might.
"Is there anyone among you who wants to join us?"
The voice echoed dozens of times and spread in the wide area, but not even a single answer came.
"You see sir, there is nothing we can do. A rule is a rule!"
They liked the lack of sound from the crowd so much that they looked at each other and laughed with joy.
"I am in!"
Just when they said everything was over, a deep male voice echoed. The person coming cutting through the crowd astonished those who saw him.
"I will be the fourth warrior!"
The Second Elder seemed happy to see the young man standing in front of him, but when he examined the condition of his body, his smiling face suddenly changed shape.
"Ralf, what is this state of yours? How could you get so injured?"
Ralf, whose face covered by his long black beard was left the size of a spoon, spoke scratching his hair he had cut very short.
"I guess I angered a creature I shouldn't have disturbed!"
While the words spilled from his mouth, his eyes were on Jashua; the Second Elder had understood what happened. Ralf left his side, took a step, and came in front of the Young Count.
"I apologize to both of you for what I said that day. My goal was to make you fight using all your power with me!"
Jashua's color turned red; evidently, his anger hadn't subsided, but seeing the loving gazes of Lareina holding his arm, he began to calm down.
"Yes, since we completed the fourth person too, write it down Mr. Clerk!"
If the men sitting at the head of the table had to eat what they soiled, they could only have such worse facial expressions. Everything was going as planned; just as they were about to get the people in their targets directly punished, their business was ruined due to the Second Elder appearing and Ralf arriving later.
"See you in three days!"
Nafız, Jashua, and Lareina prepared to leave the area upon the completion of the procedures, but Ralf was following them.
"Hey, wait!"
While the trio looked at the bearded man appearing next to them, Ralf continued speaking.
"We have a very short time ahead of us; we need to determine how we will fight!"
Nafız just turned her head and answered.
"If you want to come with us, no problem, but I guess you misunderstood something. We will not fight; we will crush them!"
The whole area clearly heard the red-haired girl's words. Judging by the commotion starting behind her, she had left a great impact on them too.
While these were happening somewhere in the Holy Blood Sect, the surviving Five Clan Representatives had locked themselves in their residences, staying out of sight. Without exception, they all had a giant-sized blood stone in their laps and another item right next to it.
They went to their clans and didn't come back empty-handed. When the Black Lily Clan representative died inside the Blood Valley, they came one step closer to losing their places which were already shaky. Previously, the clan leader's son had died on the Wild Swamp, and he himself had lost his clone which he loaded a part of his power onto.
When who would form the foundation of the puppet power to be established in its place when the Holy Blood Sect collapsed became open to discussion again, the clans assigned completely different missions to their representatives. If they managed to stop the people the Third Elder tried to block in the Annual Fights, they were sure they could take the place of the Black Lily Clan.
On the Hell Realm, everyone had completely different plans. A woman watching it from the balcony of the magnificent palace rising right at the bottom of the volcano in the middle of the continent, kilometers away from the lands of the Holy Blood Sect, was included in this.
"My Queen, your birthday is approaching!"
The woman, who had left herself to the warm wind lightly stroking her coal-black hair extending to her waist, turned her back along with the voice of the man greeting by folding his torso in two.
The long eyelashes of the woman inside the red clothes with deep slits, where her porcelain-white skin blinked in defiance of her hair, touched each other a few times. The dark black color of her almond-shaped eyes was beautiful enough to make the night jealous.
"The event I have been waiting for a hundred years will happen; there is a very short time left for the Holy Blood Sect to become history. Take all precautions; I don't want any mishaps to happen!"
"As you command!"