Chapter 48: Tornado

Safo slowly climbed the stair leading to the stage, three candidates were already there at their designated place.

Safo took the spot "X" with his name written below it, between Yon Ace and a dreadful bull. In comparison to him, Safo looked three times smaller.

"I had no chance to apologize for the match, I didn't mean to… you know." Yon Ace kept looking straight while talking to Safo.

"Don't worry. It is all fine, I'm fine. I'm weak so it was predictable. But I want you to do your best at the next event too. Do not hold back, because I won't." Safo winked at him, showing that everything was fine.

Yon nodded with a smile. "I know that you are new to the psiora world, do you know what is it "Soul Gauging"?

"You know what, actually, no. My friend told me to just go and repeat after others. They said that I just stand under that arch and the rest is assured. Even though once I was under something similar, I have no idea what that thing does." Safo had an emotional roller coaster too intense at that time to recall doings that took place after his kidnapping.

"Basically it is true, you have to go there and stand under the arch and touch the crystal ball. That device is a treasure of psiora nation. It was developed thousands of years ago. It shows the capacity of your soul's resources. You see the ten while orbs?" Yon directed his eyes to the golden arch with ten basketball size pure white crystal spheres adored to its top.

Safo nodded barely and Yon continued.

"Those are the scores of your soul resource. Depending on how many white crystals will change in color, people can say how powerful you are now. One crystal means that you can use your resource no more than a minute. Usually, kids can dye one crystal. Occasionally ten takes color, indicating that a psiora can utilize the resource infinitely, as long as his body supports the load."

Safo started to understand the purpose of the device, it was to show psiora population the estimated potential of the candidates. He felt a bit easy, he couldn't use his resource infinitely but he could last long enough to be considered potentially powerful.

There were two black orbs too, but Safo hesitated to ask about them.

Meanwhile, the host of the event was reading the poll results that took place at the break time. Approximately, 70 percent of psiora gave their voice on a vote simulation platform attaching comments to their choice.

84.8% voted for Kardon Gar. Commenting on him the most in all departments. The most handsome, the most skillful, the strongest, and many other compliments.

Nearly 10% of voters gave their voice towards B'hemah the "Behemoth" Cultrin.

Both Safo and Yon received 2.5% of the votes. Comments under Yon's name were about the fact that his father was a veteran of war. Only people who knew his father rooted for Yon. He himself was considered as an outsider, grown under the Empire's influence.

Comments for Safo Nur stated that they chose him solely leaning to his lineage. He was the grandson of a former King that they respected deeply.

The host showed many short videos of an interview with the regular folk after voting. Most of them spoke ill about Safo’s performance so far. Their opinion on Yon, on the other hand, had changed drastically after his match with Kardon Gar. Some over-acting people spoke great things about B'hemah until the interviewer had to stop them.

Yon's face was grim for some reason.

"It will be hard to beat that Kardon guy." Safo said to nobody in particular.

The announcer finished his report on the votes and was ready to start the soul show-off competition. People in the stadium and all across the New Tenga were eager to see the soul score of their favorite candidate.

"Deer audience, meet Kardon Gar, the closest candidate to the title and favorite of most girls. First time in the history of New Tenga, the results of the Arch of Open Soul was shown to the public. It wasn't even possible to see it somewhere else except the main plaza. Our generous Advisors allowed us to move the treasure for today's event exclusively. Thank you, thank you.

Before we start the show let me remind you of the colors and their meaning. If the crystals will be painted in Green it will mean that the subject has a Physical Enhancement resource. Yellow color for a Powers of Nature resource, While a Blue hue will represent a Mind Abilities resource and Red color orbs are for an Ego Epitome type of resource."

Kardon was closing to the arch, stadium uproar.

Kardon stood under the arch and placed his arm on the small crystal which went green telling the audience that Kardon had a "Physical Enhancement" type resource.

'So he can do something with his body, good to know' Safo was taking notes.

A small green gem was connected via white wires to the arch and the big white spherical crystals. The wire's color was turning green, rising high towards the top of the arch.

First was the black crystal, it turned white, but only one of the two. Another one carried to be unchanged.

Green waves inside the wires kept on going and soon reached the white crystals. In that second, seven of the white balls turned green accompanied by deafening applause from the crowd.

The commotion was so high that the host struggled to calm down the cheering people in the stadium. That much was the anticipation of the result.

The favorite candidate had room to fill but was better than average considering his young age.

"He can use his resource for a day or two without pauses. He is a respectable opponent." Yon couldn't help himself but admire the first candidate in line for the title.

The second was B'hemah the "Behemoth" Cultrin. His crystal dyed in yellow hue indicating that his resource originated from Nature like Safo’s fire. He managed to fill 5 spheres into yellow color. And one black ball turned white.

Safo was about to ask the purpose of the black spheres when the host invited him to the stage. By the majority of votes, he and Yon Ace shared third place. But due to Safo’s bloodline or soulline, he had been put in front of the line.

Again, Safo went directly to the designated point under the golden arch. And as always he was more than nervous, seeing himself on the screens only added to his anxiety.

He dropped his sweaty hand on the small white crystal hanging on the similar color wires, against him.

Crystal slowly took the yellow color, but soon after a blue color appeared, both swirling inside the crystal. A colorful tornado ran through the wire for the awe of the crowd. Most were confused, didn't know how to interpret the rare occasion of two colors.

Hastily two colors fighting and dancing with each other reached the black spheres turning them on into white color. Psiora apprehended the situation after seeing the proof of the double-resourced soul.

"I can't be true! How can someone as weak as he has two resources?!"

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Is this a prank or something? One just can't open the soul to have two resources at such a young age. Is he a genius or just an unimaginably lucky?"

The crowd exploded with contradictional emotions. Some were startled by the fact that a young man had an advanced soul, while some were in disbelief. It wasn't unknown for such a rare occurrence to happen but psiora who had two different soul resources were incredible individuals, let alone being much older and physically stronger.

Advisors stood up to take a look at the arch as if the floating cameras transmitted a faulty image.

"You forgot to tell me about his second resource, Kutch. What is it? Tell me everything!" Halazar was impatient, he couldn’t hide his grin of excitement.

"Didn't I?! I must've forgotten. You will see yourself, uncle. I told you he is lucky." Kutch chuckled at the sudden turn of events.

Yon had no other way to express his reverence other than whistling. "Man, this guy is awesome. Can't wait to see what he can do with those two resources." He turned to get affirmation from the other two candidates but they nor responded nor turned their heads. They were staring eyes wide open at the white ball that turned into a swirl of yellow-blue colors.

It was only one orb.

…

The laughter of mocking and full of tears and relief, for some reason, flooded the stadium.

Safo stood shocked. "What the f…"

Yon curled his lips and sadly looked at the floor. "Aw, he is still too young."

"It can't be right!" Kutch jumped off his seat and hit the panoramic glass of the room. "Uncle, believe me, we trained together, he can hold his ability way more than one mere minute. He can go on for hours. Something is not right there." Kutch yelled with his chaotic hand gestures.

"It must be the result of the seals." Dost chipped into the conversation with his theory.

"Yes! Yes, it must be it. We have to tell people that most of his powers are under the seal. Or else they will discredit him." Decisively Kutch wanted to take the job in his hands and with wide steps, he headed to the stage only to be stopped by the Regal Advisor.

"Wait, if what you are saying is true, we should not interfere with the current situation. Think about it, his opponent will greatly underestimate him. Which is good for him."

Unforeseen realization put sparkles in Kutch's eyes.

"I'm starting to believe that he is truly lucky." Smiled, the Financial Advisor.

The crowd on the other hand trash-talked the Safo. Comments online rained with toxic acid, the first reaction of awe swiftly turned into hatred. Safo gave them high hopes for a brief second only to shatter it into pieces. And people without hope felt only hatred towards their fallen heroes.