Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Hal reverted to his human form and walked towards Sassy who was looking at the dagger in her shoulder as though intrigued by the Artifact.

Hal gripped the handle and pulled it out of her shoulder after which the wound on Sassy's shoulder began to close up at a rate that was visible to human eyes.

After acquiring her human form, Hal found he could occasionally grant Sassy his Devil abilities and had now granted her his regeneration to drastically increase the speed at which she healed from the wound.

She lost the ability once she was healed though.

Sassy groaned a little as the dagger was pulled out before she flashed Hal a smile,

"How did I do?" She asked.

Hal shrugged,

"You did great" he told her with a smile before he went over to Dee's body to pick up her other dagger as well as her spatial ring.

The dagger, he gave to Sassy along with the one he had pulled out of her shoulder,

"Here, I think this will go quite nicely with the slinky look you're going for" he said to her and Sassy quickly imprinted on the now ownerless daggers that she proceeded to charge, not with cosmic energy but her poisonous toxins.

Then Hal went over to Cee's body to pick up the assassin's Saber Artifact and spatial ring.

While he did so, Melinda took Tee's spike and spatial ring and gave both to him while he told her,

"Spectacular as always"

"Really? I thought it was a bit of a dull performance" the golden-eyed beauty said before Hal wound his arm around her waist without a care for her bloody clothes.

Although, to be fair his clothes were bloodied as well.

It was quite interesting that while the two had their brief loved-up moment, Sassy did not seem like a third wheel.

That might have had a lot to do with her being more occupied in testing out the weapons that once belonged to her first kill in her newly acquired human form.

...

On the outside of the Royal Blue Dome of Astral energy...

Incredibly, both the rest of Hal's group on the outside (Nicole, Adeline, and Pierre) and the complete members of Han Doe's group had called a temporary truce which Pierre felt was totally in their favor.

After all, the opposing team had their members complete and were not in a state of total worry as to the well-being of their compatriots.

To an extent, Pierre wondered if Han Doe's group were simply waiting them out.

Waiting for their devices to go red as they all felt was inevitable.

After all, they had all felt the pressure the trio had been giving off... How the hell were two Cosmic Aurora realm experts supposed to emerge victorious against Cosmic Pagoda experts.

None of those present could boast of success.

And then the black Dome came down.

Evidence that the battle was at an end.

But since the dome of Astral energy which they all knew had been erected by Hal. was still standing, they wondered if that meant Hal and Melinda had won.

If incredibly, they had come out in top.

Those watching in the coliseum had their attention focused completely on the area of the rundown district they had not been able to watch due to a black done that had now been taken down.

They were quick to notice that two were missing and quickly sported the royal blue dome of astral energy as where Hal and Melinda were.

Almost immediately, the black dome was down, the exam came to an end with Elsa taking a few seconds to collect herself before she stood up to make the announcement that everyone in the rundown district heard.

Everyone except Hal and Melinda who could not perceive any sound apart from what was produced within the dome they were in,

"The First Stage of the Entrance exams is over. Of the Ten groups that have survived till the end, five have ten members, three have seven, while the last two groups have eight and five members. To all those who survived till the end, I congratulate your success"

As exciting as the news of success was to Pierre especially since it meant he had not failed the exam for the second time or more accurately, he had not failed yet, he was much more focused on what was happening within the dome.

It was a few minutes after the visual of the area was recovered before the dome came down to reveal a bloodied Hal and a bloodied Melinda standing together and chuckling as though they were enjoying a private joke.

The bodies of the cosmic pagoda realm trio lying on the ground with the only female's chest colored with a poisonous-looking tint.

Han Doe, having taken a mending pill and completely healed stood to his feet to stare wide-eyed at the Hal and Melinda duo who walked discussing and chuckling like lovers as though they had not just done what everyone looking at the bodies was thinking they had done.

The golden crow sect genius was speechless.

He was not just looking at the duo with incredulity, he was also looking at them with fear.

Fear that the rest in his group were quick to mirror.

The only one not looking too shocked and was mostly glad Hal was alive and well was Nicole.

"What is it?" Hal asked when they all suddenly paused to gawk at Melinda and him.

Almost as soon as he spoke, the portable teleportation devices ingrained in all the devices activated and took them all to the Coliseum.

Everyone who had participated in the exam and passed the first stage was now standing in the center stage where all those present in the coliseum would see those they had been watching on a screen in person.

While the thought of many as they watched Hal and Melinda was that the two had killed the trio, one individual in the entire coliseum was yelling out her support and making sure the entire coliseum could hear her yell due to her imbuing her voice with Cosmic energy.

"Just look at my man, looking all bloody and manly, ugh, I dare any of you to try and take him on. He'll crush you. He'll make mincemeat of you. Oh, you just try it. It will be so much fun watching him destroy you with one hand.

And in case I am not being clear, since a lot of you are idiots with minimal brain cells, I am referring to the most handsome blue-eyed young man standing side by side with his golden-eyed goddess.

Just look at them, they are such a picture-perfect couple..."

That was the end of Marla's supportive announcement as she was pulled back to her seat by Rita who cautioned,

"You've yelled enough"

Hal's lips were twitching but he had been introduced with a certain amount of dignity and needed to strike a pose befitting of that dignity.

As for the crowd, they actually never cared that Hal and Melinda had killed the trio.

This was a world where only the strong had a right to survive anyway.

What they wondered was who the trio had been and what had caused an alteration that saw a Doxon and a Dane fight against them together and actually be able to do so while wearing devices that were supposed to stop participants from killing or overly maiming one another.

Also how brutal were these two that such a clearly brutal battle did not seem like a bother to them at all?