Absolute Soul
24. Green Bird

The first match of the quarter-final of the Welcome Tournament this year was greeted enthusiastically by the audience, because the inaugural match was opened by the seed group expected to be the winner of this year's tournament, the group Verna Galvoria.

"Cecil's spirit, you can do it!" Seru Verna from outside the arena intended to increase the confidence of the girl standing in the middle of the arena, but unfortunately Cecil could not hear his voice due to his growing nervousness.

Different from Verna who called for his support directly, Jack just kept silent beside Verna staring at Cecil who was trembling nervously in the arena. He believes that despite his shy nature, Cecil has enough ability to be compared to himself and Verna, only Cecil never had confidence in himself.

Since childhood Cecil is often labeled 'lowly children' by children in the surrounding environment, making Cecil can not move from there and consider himself inferior, in fact, he is far more talented than those who insult him.

"Little, I don't demand you win, but I hope you can overcome your past and your disbelief." Jack put a serious expression on his face, feeling the only thing that bothered Cecil was his past.

If you have to talk about Job and his statistics, then Cecil is not far from Jack whose talent is only covered by Verna's genius. If Jack is not in this academy then he can be said to be the closest genius to Verna, other than because of Anna, Salvia, and Edward.

On the other hand Cecil was still trembling feeling his legs were starting to lose strength, did not have confidence against his opponent, "Great.this is bad, I will not be able to win...."

As Cecil dissolved into his mind Carlos who was his opponent had already exerted the fire ability of his Soul Arc, a Wizard-type Soul Arc that focused on fire magic. Soul Arc type Wizards with fire elements are quite often encountered, but Carlos comes from the Ogwine family which is famous for its ability to manipulate soul energy and magic.

The Ogwine family was indeed not a noble family, let alone the 13 most influential noble families in all of Wulodhasia, he said, but it can be said that this family is one of the Blazer family is talented in manipulating soul energy so as to bring creativity and improvisation to each attack.

Carlos was less fortunate to be born in the same generation as Salvia, Verna, and the other geniuses so his talent was less noticed, making Carlos strong desire to highlight himself in this Welcoming Tournament.

Seeing Carlos was ready just to wait for the cue starting from the lawyer, Cecil became increasingly trembling and panicked not knowing what to do. After a while, Cecil finally took out his Soul Arc, making most of the audience surprised and amazed at him, but not a few who regret Soul Arc as good as this is held by a little girl who seems timid.

"Soul Arc type animal call... Summoners. Isn't that one of the rare Job among Blazers of the Wizard type?"

"It's rare, but if the user can't use the ability of a Summoner isn't it the same?"

"Although Summoner is a rare Job, with such a call animal can he fight?"

The form of Soul Arc Cecil is not something that can be witnessed every day. It has a small animal-shaped Soul Arc, more precisely a small green feathered sparrow. Most of the audience was interested because Cecil had a rare Soul Arc among the Wizard-type Blazers, but seeing his Soul Arc form almost the entire audience lost interest.

"A Summoner.... I never thought I could fight against one of them," Carlos' inner smile thinly turned out that his opponent was a candidate Blazer with a Jacob Summoner, but did not underestimate Cecil.

Summoners are known to be rare and reliable in various types of battles because they have good mobility and efficiency, and their combat strength is also often worth considering. Carlos felt today was his lucky day to be able to fight someone with Job Summoner.

While Carlos was amazed at Cecil, the girl herself felt the gazes of the spectators were extremely sharp, as if exerting immense pressure on him. His legs were trembling more and more feeling so many spectators' gazes centered on him now.

As the cue began to be launched by the lawyer, Carlos immediately moved forward while spitting fire in his hand towards Cecil.

Cecil who was aware of being attacked took a few steps to dodge, but because of his nervousness he could not dodge perfectly. His right shoulder was slightly burned.

"I'm sorry, but I won't hesitate even if you're a girl." After saying that Carlos again launched an attack, this time he threw some fire that had been solidified into a fireball. The range of his attacks became less, but Carlos was aware with this that his attacks became faster and stronger.

Cecil was still able to avoid it with his little legs, but as his nervousness had not lost Cecil's movement a little chaotic and his body was lashed by some of Carlos fireballs before beginning to groan in pain, "Urgh...."

"I'm not finished! Fire Ball – Barrage!" Carlos fired a fireball, this time his fireball came in a row in the direction he wanted.

Cecil again moved to avoid his attack, but thanks to his legs that began to lose power most of Carlos' attacks hit him with a landslide, "Uaarghh!!"

Cecil was thrown a few meters after receiving Carlos's attack, rolling over and stopping right at the edge of the arena's dividing line. He looked really in pain but did not want to give up, making most of the audience slightly amazed.

Not many know Cecil's past that traumatized him. Stamped as a child of failure and incompetence by the children of the surrounding environment makes Cecil can not move forward fearing the time reoccur, especially in a place so many people.

But that does not mean that every talented person will be held in high esteem, not a few people or parties who are not happy with the talent and are eyeing it to hinder its development. There have been cases in the past of talented Blazer candidates being killed so as not to be too threatening.

Yes, although the main enemy of mankind is Verg, humans have a nature that has always been the root of the problem in every age, namely greed. Everyone wants more of a group or of themselves. In fact, war has erupted several times thanks to the greed of mankind.

In an age where power is everything and civilization is almost wiped out, man does not abandon his greed though. This is what keeps Cecil trapped in his past.

The Vermillion family where Cecil was born was a noble family, which automatically made them a family living where the nobility lived. Among the nobility there were frequent disputes and rivalries, even his young children were often used as tools to compete.

The Vermillion Family did not treat Cecil that way considering their position as nobles was not as high as the other nobles. They chose to be silent not to try to dive into the disputes and rivalries between nobles.

But that's where the root of the problem is.

Nobles had the special right to check the talent of their descendants as Blazers and when the Vermillion family checked Cecil it was only then known that Cecil Vermillion had high talent, making the Vermillion family the target of many other nobles.

Many nobles tried to get close to the Vermillion family when the news of Cecil's talent leaked out in order to tighten up the relationship, but in truth they only did so up front. Most of these nobles told their children to ostracize and ridicule Cecil, mentally dropping him in his youth to hinder his future development.

Sure enough, thanks to the treatment of their children Cecil became suffering from trauma that is deep enough to inhibit its development until now.

"Cecil Vermillion, are you going to give up?" The lawyer was a little pity to see the condition of Cecil who was badly injured enough to protest because Carlos was too excessive, but he was aware this tournament was held for something like this.

Amidst his moans that sounded extremely agonizing, Cecil shook his head not intending to give up in the slightest.

He then looked at Verna and Jack outside the boundary line of the arena who seemed very worried. So far Cecil has never found a friend like them even in a dream.

When he saw the two Cecil remembered the exercises he had been doing with them.

Neither Verna nor Jack complained that Cecil was not so good at fighting because of his trauma, and both tried to push Cecil out of the dark times.

"If I give up because of the nervous and scared halmeh thing.I'll just embarrass them both." Cecil tried to stand up from his position lying on the arena floor, in a condition that should have been impossible for a first-rate student.

"Oh, can you still fight?" Carlos raised his eyebrows covering his shock, not expecting Cecil to be intent on fighting with such an injured condition.

Carlos actually does not intend to hurt Cecil to this extent, only Carlos is the type of person who will not underestimate his opponent even though the strength of his opponent is far below him though. Many people misunderstand the nature of Carlos like this.

The spectators and Guilds present in the arena could not help their admiration, it was not easy to look for a first-rate disciple who possessed such a strong will as Cecil, even after being injured to such an extent by his opponent.

As the audience and Carlos were amazed by him, Cecil slapped his own cheeks making all who saw him glare violently. Already injured as badly as that still intend to add more injuries? This girl must have lost her mind, or at least that's what they thought, even Verna and Jack's eyeballs almost popped out while watching Cecil's actions.

Cecil did that not because he lost his mind or did not feel pain, he did it to eliminate the nervousness and fear that he felt was very stupid. Recalling the actions of Verna and Jack who had always supported him all this time, Cecil felt unfair to them.

"If I lose without a fight, I'm just wasting both of them's kindness." Cecil's eyes glowed, trembling in his legs and his entire body also stopped.

At that moment also the pressure of soul energy flowed out of his body, making Carlos was wide open to witness the change in Cecil.

"Let's start the real game." Cecil then catches the green feathered sparrow that is his Soul Arc and squeezes it to shreds making everyone who sees it surprised, but what Cecil does next makes them even more surprised.

From the hand of Cecil squeezing his own destroyed Soul Arc, created a bright green flame that dazzled all the people present in the arena. When the light has subsided can be seen a large bird as high as one meter green feather perched on the shoulder Cecil.

"This time I will also fight with all my might," muttered Cecil slowly who was then answered by the green bird with an unusually loud salute echoed throughout the arena.