The hours trickled by faster than anyone expected, and soon, the time for the tournament came. Each of them were to return back to the throne room.

Walking inside, Aren saw that now, they completed twenty in number.

Since a few hours ago, Aren wondered why Zero was not brought here. When he saw Ragna and Lily, he felt Zero might be amongst the next, because she defeated both in strength.

Sadly, she wasn't here, which helped Aren understand that most of them here were not actually anything special. Unlike someone like Athena and Raze, the rest must have found a special item or actually finished the maze.

Elton sat on her throne, with the butler standing beside her, as well as three maids whose eyes scanned the entire throne room. Two of the maids looked human, but one, the smaller one, had crimson red hair and devil horns on her forehead, as well as crimson eyes.

"This is the tournament that chooses the top twenty of Loki's maze trial. And it will commence with random selections of one-on-one battles until the strongest is the winner.

As for how the rating will be done for those that lose or win their own fights, well, don't worry about that. I'll handle it. You just fight, and fight like your life depends on it," she said, casually smiling as she spoke.

Aren looked at her. 'Her sadistic nature is only getting worse the more and more the trials go on. If she is an angel, I wonder what the gods are like, damn.'

While everyone was waiting, the first selection was made. Their system chose them, and it was Athena versus a female awakened.

A tall, slim yet muscular lady, she had her black hair tied into a messy bun. On her exposed arm was a large tattoo of a ball-headed mace with spikes on it. On the other hand was a round shield with blades on the edge.

She walked forward, looking like some sort of warrior that was ready to take down an entire army.

Athena took a deep breath. She looked at Aren, and he nodded at her. "Keep moving forward," he said. She nodded and then walked away.

"Hmph," the lady scoffed as she saw Athena walk forward. Her small size, weak stance, they all rubbed this lady the wrong way about Athena. It screamed weak.

"I'm Bertha," the lady said, stretching her hand for a shake.

But Athena was busy with something else.

"Move forward, use my emotions, don't let it out of control."

"Move forward, use my emotions, don't let it out of control."

She said it on repeat so much that she wasn't paying attention to the fact that Bertha stretched out a hand.

Bertha saw this, and her anger rose.

She grinded her teeth hard, dropping her hand down. "I'll make you squirm and scream, mouse," she said, flexing her right hand, and immediately, the tattoo lit up. The mace appeared in her hands.

"I'll make sure I crush you!" Her voice resounded with a growl as she lunged forward, swinging down at full speed. The mace packed an impressive speed and force, with a huge amount of soul energy gathered at the ball head.

When the attack was close, Athena looked up. Her eyes glowed, and instantly, a force slammed into the mace and Bertha.

BOOM

Bertha was blown back. She flipped in the air and landed on the ground, skidding back a few meters. Her head snapped up, looking at Athena, who was now focused, her eyes red and ready to cause chaos.

The next moment, three cracks shot through the ground extremely fast, headed for Bertha. Bertha could tell that this was an attack, so she reacted fast, lifting her mace into the ground. She swung hard.

BOOM

The explosion was terrifying as the ground was smashed, a massive crater left there, dust and debris rising.

'Damn, she used brute force and her ability to stop an attack from Athena. That's crazy. Even me took some time to create a counter,' Aren thought as he watched.

From the dust, Bertha came charging out for Athena.

"Arghhhhhh!" She roared, and immediately swung when she wasn't even close yet. The mace head detached from the handle, a chain connected to it as it extended further very fast, and then began growing in size.

"Take this!" Bertha roared, swinging her hand down as the mace head, the size of a small car, came down toward Athena.

Athena was not the best physically, so she had to rely on her ability a lot. She looked at the ground, and immediately, it cracked, the internal structure shattering and forcing massive chunks of rock to rise from the ground.

The mace slammed into those rocks and smashed through them, but it was slowed enough for Athena to move out of the way and then unleash an attack on Bertha.

Bertha flexed her left hand and the shield tattoo came to life. She clutched it tight as Athena's attack slammed into her, throwing her back. She lifted off the ground and landed back, skidding meters away.

Mid motion, she chucked the shield at full speed. It ripped through the air like a frisbee with the speed of a bullet, curving right for Athena's head.

Athena reacted at the last moment. She attacked the shield when it was close.

BOOM

The shield was thrown off track, but the shockwave knocked Athena off guard. As a warrior that Bertha was, she recognized her moment and took it. She instantly shrunk her mace back to size and then attacked again, the mace head growing in size once more.

Athena knew in her mind that she wouldn't be able to focus in time for whatever was coming, so she decided to pull one of her moves, creating a three hundred and sixty degree attack. It was less powerful and uncontrolled, but she had a plan.

The mace head slammed into her attack and was deflected off course, allowing Athena to lift her head and immediately lock eyes with Bertha.

Bertha threw up her shield fast, but the attacks came hard, the ground cracking in five different places and rushing at Bertha.

BOOM!

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