Dimensional Descent

Orinik took a deep breath. Just this subtle action seemed to agitate the atmosphere itself, a sweeping wind flying about the arena.

"I will not explain to you all the weight the Title of Void Palace Disciple holds, because quite frankly, the majority of you all are not worthy of knowing. Instead, I will only tell you all that if you miss this opportunity, it will be one you regret for a lifetime.

"Today will be the first of three days of trials. Usually, we have something of a more elaborate planned, but this time around, we will use the simplest and most crude of methods."

What Orinik didn't explain was that this was due to the actions of Leonel's mother.

In order to allow the youth of Earth more spots to be selected, it could be said that she abused her power to expand the Selection. This wasn't' exactly rare, as many overseers would do similar things when they were sent back to their home Sectors. Due to this, the Void Palace usually had a policy of sending over those who could be unbiased.

Because of these factors, Alienor wasn't meant to return. But, due to the interference of Leonel's father and a series of events not many were aware of, the Void Palace ended up making yet another exception.

In truth, the Void Palace wasn't too worried about this at all because…

"There will be no absolute fairness. If you cannot make it through these rounds and rise to the top in just this Sector, you would have never stood a chance upon reaching the Void Palace. Don't think me out to be cruel. If anything, we are saving your lives. The Selection that takes place here could never match up to even a tenth of the difficulty in the Void Palace's True Selection.

"If you can't prove yourself here… You would never be able to do so there."

Orinik's words were strict and allow no room for rebuttal. In any sort of crude tournament format, expecting fairness was impossible. Even in the case that the organizers knew every single little detail about the participants and could organize the perfect tournament brackets, there would still be a few who ended up with a raw deal, let alone the fact that the people of Void Palace had no way of knowing all these secrets.

If you could perfectly predict everything, what would be the point in the Selection to begin with? You might as well just pick out your favorites and get it over with.

Orinik was wizened enough to know the hearts of people and how they could complain about such things, so he laid the cards out on the table immediately. He wouldn't allow the organization of this Selection to go awry.

"With these formalities out of the way, we can begin with the rules.

"As I mentioned before, the Selection will be divided into three days with ample rest between these stages. We will provide adequate medical attention during these rest days, but during a tournament day, you can only rely on yourself.

"This means there will be a ban on all extracurricular supplements. The only thing you can rely on is your own Force and Force replenishment ability. Those found violating this rule will be disqualified immediately."

Orinik didn't explain how he would monitor such a thing when there were so many participants, not to mention countless elders with a vested interest in their juniors succeeding, but no one doubted his confident expression. If the Void Palace couldn't accomplish at least this much, they would be far too incompetent.

"The first day will be a group stage. The second day will be a round robin. The third day will be a special day which has an undecided format as of now.

"As I've already stated, this is just the beginning. Whether you will truly become the students of the Void Palace will be decided on how you perform when you reach those tall gates. However, there is still something that you can fight for here.

"There are an unlimited number of Nominal Disciple positions. Whether you can claim one will depend on your performance. Those eliminated in the first day will have no chance. However, those who can make it into the second day can consider themselves to be on a short list of potential entries.

"Above the Nominal Disciple position, there are three Gold Tokens up for grabs. These Gold Tokens, when exchanged at the Void Palace, allow you a chance to directly challenge to become a Galaxy Ranked disciple upon entry.

"Of course, reaching the location to do so is not so easy… But this is a matter you will learn about in the future.

"Finally, there is the Amethyst Token. In this Selection, there will only be one. However, just like the Nominal Disciple position and the Gold Tokens, this Amethyst Token also isn't guaranteed to be given out."

Orinik allowed his words to drift into the air. He wanted those here to know that there was no guarantee that any of them would be selected. There was a very real possibility that even after all three days, not a single Token would be given out and not a single disciple would be chosen.

"The Amethyst Token is a special Token reserved for a special level of talent. Across the Human Domain, in a given Selection Cycle, no more than two or three has ever been given out at the same time. In fact, in most years, not a single Amethyst Token would be awarded.

"The Amethyst Token represents the Undefeated. To earn this Token, not only must you display dominance, you cannot lose. This Token represents the Number One Genius of a Sector, an undisputed Ruler amongst their peers.

"Having this Amethyst Token, much like having the Gold Token, allows you to challenge for a higher disciple Rank. But, while the Gold Token caps you at the Galaxy Rank, the Amethyst Token has no such cap.

"Whatever you accomplish will be solely up to you."

The gazes of the youths all glowed with a fiery light. Just how many of them wanted to claim such a glory, to be undefeated and become the undisputed head of their generation?

Fire burned in their chests and a blaze lit in their eyes. This glory, they would give their everything to strive for it.

[More coming :)]