"Did any of the former Hematite citizens apply?" I inquired, as I pored through the list of names in front of me.

"No, not a single one. We did try to encourage some of them to do so, but it didn’t work. I suppose it’s understandable, ordinary people wouldn’t stand a chance against Demons, after all," Pointed out Argent with a wry smile.

Today’s the 25th of Martius, 2021, the first month of the new year. And on the 20th of Aprilis, next month, we’ll be holding the tournament we discussed, which is going to be called the Arcadia Championship Clash.

We’ll be inviting the leaders of the other nations of the Dark Continent to come watch too, with a long term goal of setting up an annual friendly tournament between all nations in the continent. Also, to show them just how powerful we are.

We’re also making preparations to set up large, powerful barriers around the borders and the cities, since our strongest members will be participating in the tournament and won’t be there to defend their respective cities.

All four of the Demons will be participating, as will Izzy, along with the nine Demi-Human Elders. Frielektra is going to compete as well, she showed interest in it pretty much the instant we told her about it.

The rest of the participants include Argent, Prysm, Lumena, Rhyle, Gior, Phyurio, Ilex, Rosary and myself, plus eight other Demi-Humans, making it a total of thirty-two competitors.

I did try to get Mysst to participate too, but she pointed out that any fights she participates in wouldn’t be very entertaining, since the power of her Soul Weapon traps her targets in a separate dimension, the audience wouldn’t be able to see what’s going on.

Unfortunately, that was a very valid point, so I ultimately excluded her from the competition, much to her delight.

I also asked the others to try and get at least a few of the former Hematite residents to volunteer to participate too, but they weren’t too keen on it, so looks like we can finalize this list.

The stadium we’ll be using for the tournament is scheduled to finish construction in about a week and half or so, which will give us about three weeks to set things up afterwards.

It’s being built here in the capital of Arcadia, Isekai City. I’ve arranged to have concession stands, cheerleaders, fireworks and the like set up for the event, to make sure the audience gets the full tournament experience, I’ve taken inspiration from sporting events from my previous world and modelled this tournament after that.

I’m also trying to find singers or bands to play music at the event, like to kick it off and as well as during breaks and stuff, to keep the crowd entertained even outside of the actual fights.

If all goes according to plan, this should prove to be quite an enjoyable event. But there’s still a fair bit of work to be done to bring that full vision to fruition, so I’ve been spending a lot of time organizing and setting it up.

"Have you decided on the match ups yet?" Argent asked me curiously.

"No, not yet, I’m working on it right now. I did consider doing it randomly, but that could easily result in one-sided matches early on. It’ll be close to impossible to completely avoid having any unbalanced matches, but at least for the first round, I’d like to set up more balanced match ups. But at the same time, we don’t want too many of our heavy hitters clashing too early in the competition, it’ll be anticlimactic if too many of our strongest competitors are eliminated too early," I sighed in response.

"Huh, yeah, I didn’t think of all that...yeah, that’s tough. Hm, I think we’re going to have to have at least a few unbalanced match ups early on, maybe we can alternate between match ups that are likely to be close and the one sided ones?" He suggested after mulling it over.

"Yeah, that’s going to be inevitable, but I also have to think about the match ups for the subsequent rounds. Another thing I want to avoid is having only the Demons and Frielektra make it to the semi-final and final rounds, I’d rather have a more balanced mix with at least one or two humans and Demi-Humans too," I pointed out objectively.

"Hm, yeah, we don’t want to make it look like our fighting forces are too heavily dependant on the Demons and Dragon King. But that said, you’re probably the only one who stands a genuine chance against them, Larrk."

"On that note, I’m especially conscious of what my match ups should be. If I make it too easy for myself to reach the latter part of the competition, it’ll seem rigged...well, it kinda will be, but still," I sighed wistfully.

"Let me think...oh, how about this? Why don’t you reverse-track the match ups from the final backwards? For instance, say you want the final to be you versus Satan. That’ll mean you’d need to have the two of you in separate semi-finals...and then figure out which two would be good match ups against you and Satan in the semis. And just keeping working your way backwards from there. Obviously, when we actually get to the tournament, there’s every chance that the progression through each round won’t work out as you planned, but that should be fine. What do you think? Would that work?" He suggested with a smile.

"You know, what? Yeah...I think I can work with that. It’ll still take some time and consideration, but it should be easier this way. Thanks for the suggestion, bro, I feel like I can finally make some progress with this," I grinned with a thumbs up.

"Sure, anytime. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you out with this, you look pretty exhausted, Larrk."

"I appreciate that, thanks."

———————————————————————————

Point-of-View: Frielektra

———————————————————————————

"It’s about time I finally found one of you...I feel like I’ve been searching for ages, even though it’s only been a few months," I sighed in relief.

"It’s been a long time, Frielektra, how many centuries has it been since we last saw each other?" She greeted me in response.

After a frustratingly long search, I finally located one of the other Dragon Kings, Liquaqua, the Water Dragon King.

Of the three other Dragon Kings, I surmised that she would be the easiest to locate since, as the Water Dragon King, she likes to live in places with an abundance of water.

The Earth Dragon King prefers to live underground and the Wind Dragon King constantly moves to new places to live in. Without any leads, finding either of them would be close to impossible.

I finally found Liquaqua in a large, partially underwater cave off the coast to the north of Arcadia, and here I am now.

"Hm, I don’t remember the last time we met, it has been quite a while, hasn’t it?"

"Indeed...now, then, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? I doubt you came here simply to exchange pleasantries, am I right?" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Yes, that’s right. I’ll get straight to the point, I have a proposition for you...how would you like to live in a nation where you would be able to move around freely, without needing to be concerned about staying hidden?" I inquired, a look of intrigue appearing in her eyes.

"Oh? That does sound tantalizing, and I must admit, I’ve grown tired of living in hiding like this. But I find it hard to believe that such a place exists, humans have colonized the entire world, after all. And they don’t tolerate the existence of any species besides their own, and while they are weak creatures, their sheer number makes them a threat," She frowned in response.

"Yes, most humans are indeed as you just described...however, there are a group of humans who think differently. They have allied themselves with the Demons, as well as myself, and established a nation where all species and races are welcomed equally. I live there myself now, and I must say, it’s been quite freeing. The only condition for living there is to help defend the nation in the event that it is attacked by another nation. But considering the sheer power the nation possesses, it’s unlikely that there are any foolish enough to attack it."

"Hm? Demons still exist? I was under the impression that the humans wiped them out a few centuries ago," She responded with a confused look on her face.

"Not quite, there are four remaining survivors of the Demon race...as well as a half-Demon child."

"A half-Demon? What’s the other half?"

"Well, er...the child’s father is the Demon Lord Satan, and the mother is...me."

"Wait, what?"

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