Liana, the Blood Rose, walked through the arena’s upper hallways, followed by more than twenty men and women, all of whom were among the strongest people around. Each one of them is a near-immortal monster, and not even the strongest of masters could dare stand against them.

She who walked in the front carried herself with pride; each step caused waves of her power to flow through the entire underground area, and the sound of her heels hitting the ground caused every cultivator anywhere near them to stand up and bow to her.

As her coal-black hair moved through the air, her glowing red eyes flashed with power as she smiled. Arad had decided to join the tournament, and so, she’ll get to see something interesting for once.

"You look happy, Great Elder." One of her guards asked with a smile, and she looked back at him with a grin. "Well, we got a real monster in this year’s fight. I never expected him to join, but here we are. We shall see a lot of interesting fights."

The man pulled the list of contestants, "So, one of them is talented enough to be your disciple? You got high expectations for them?"

She giggled, "Let’s just say that being a disciple is an insult to their power. Try to learn as much as you can from the fights." But then, she heard a commotion ahead. One of the masters of the arena was arguing, trying to get someone to leave the VIP quarters.

"I was told to find Bloody Rose." It was a woman arguing back, and the voice felt strange, as Liana didn’t recognize it.

"Is she looking for me? Let’s go and see what this is about." Liana walked forward, and her guards followed. She tried to sense who was ahead around the corner, but could feel nothing, not a single spec of power. Probably, they are just the servant of some other elder, a messenger perhaps.

She turned around the corner, and her eyes fell on the arena’s staff and then on the woman causing the commotion. She was tall, probably a bit over six feet tall, had long brown hair, and two glowing honey-colored eyes, long ears, and ashy pale skin.

That woman was Eris; she had come here to watch Arad fight. "I hear you calling for me. Who sent you?"

Eris turned, looked toward Liana, and then smiled, "You’re the one called Bloody Rose? I was told to find you."

Liana stared at Eris for a second, and then frowned. "I don’t know who sent you, but they probably didn’t teach you how to show respect to your elders, did they?" And in the next moment, she unleashed a heavy wave of her aura forward. All of her guards fell to their knees, and the arena’s staff hit the ground, twitching as she could barely breath.

Eris, on the other hand, remained standing without flinching. Her eyes moved a bit, she looked around, and then she sighed. "Really?" She then lifted her foot and stepped on the guild staff, causing her to gasp for air.

"Don’t move. I don’t know what she is doing, so this is the only way I can protect you. Those are her guards, so they can save themselves." Eris then smiled, "You call me rude, but aren’t you the one attacking out of nowhere? Look, you’re harming an innocent girl."

Liana was already worried, since she couldn’t sense any power from Eris, yet... her aura was easily resisted, and she was even protecting the guild staff. Wait, there was only one person that she couldn’t sense any power from, yet was oppressively powerful.

^Wait... She can’t be Lord Arad’s master?^

Eris licked her lips, "Let’s see how far you can go."

Then in the next moment, Liana found herself standing alone in a vast deserted land, getting cooked alive beneath an oppressive purple sun as her whole body, from head to toes, was getting ripped apart by countless bloody claws. She was killed over and over, cooked and seared by sunlight, all while crying and groaning on the bloodied ground, looking up at Eris, who was floating above in the heavens, and she couldn’t even see her face clearly.

Then, when she blinked, she was back in the hallway, sweating buckets. Eris looked at her with a smile and giggled. "You didn’t break down, didn’t cry, piss or shit yourself, and at most you’re just sweating a bit. You’re decent."

Liana smiled, "Know who you’re talking to. Who sent you?" She took a step forward, "But, I can already guess. How should I call you?"

"Eris, and... I just lost a child here. She just went running around to explore the place, can you send some people to look for her?" She looked around and Liana blinked. "A child? How do they look?"

"This tall, has pink hair, and is barefoot, wearing a simple grey robe and is always cheerful." That child was Kali.

"I’ll send people to look for her." Liana threw a glance at her guards, "All of you, leave me and find that child. Make sure she is fine and don’t dare hurt her. When you find her, bring her safely to the upper VIP room."

The guards all stood, nodded and rushed away. "Tell her that Eris is looking for her!" Eris shouted after them, and soon, all of the guards were gone.

Liana sighed, then looked down. "When will take your foot from that poor girl’s back?"

Eris looked down, and she was indeed still stepping on the poor arena staff. "Sorry, here you are." She stepped aside, and the guild staff slowly stood up. "I almost died there; thank you." She gave them a quick bow and bolted it away. She didn’t want anything to do with those horrifying monsters.

Liana then approached Eris, "So? Lord Arad sent you?"

Eris blinked, "Lord? Yeah, Arad sent me. But I’m certain he is no lord here, just a humble lumberjack." She then looked around, "But I have to say, this place is really well built. We also got an underground area, but it is a black-market instead of a fighting arena."

"I can recommend a few skilled craftsmen. You’re Arad’s master, right? I can even get them to build you an arena like this free of charge." As the two walked, Liana started talking, and Eris immediately gave her a strange look.

"Arad’s master? Me? You must be joking." She smiled, "He is my Lord and Master." Technically, Eris wasn’t wrong. As a vampire, Arad was her Lord.

Liana paled as she forced on a smile. "With all of that power you wield, and he is your master? I felt like drowning in blood while facing the sun itself. Do you know how powerful you must be to be seen as the jewel of the sky? The radiant and unreachable orb of pure power and flames?"

Eris giggled, "I know, I understand my power well. If I am the sun, he is the night sky, that endless and cold darkness." She then looked toward Liana, "But if you’re looking for who could be called Arad’s master... that little girl your guards went to fetch might fit that role better."

"What?!" Liana cried, and when they opened the door of the VIP room, Kali was already there, sitting on one of the large chairs and eating sweets, with all of Liana’s guards piled up in the corner like sardines. The arena staff were all standing near the walls, terrified. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"I heard you call powerful people here Elders. Don’t get fooled by her young appearance, she is as old as existence itself. She is a literal Elder that can call your sacred World Tree a little sapling." As Eris walked forward, Kali looked back.

"Eris! And you’re the master of those fools. Don’t you teach them not to use hypnosis on kids? I refused to go with them, and one of them tried to brainwash me to listen." Kali then jumped from the chair and landed beside the fireplace. "Well, the hypnosis was only to make sure I follow them back here... so I might’ve gone too far beating them up."

"I don’t know what currency you guys use here, so this should do it." Kali grabbed one of the coals burning in the fireplace with her bare, tiny hands and then crushed it into diamonds in her fist. Seeing that, Liana almost shat herself. The raw strength needed to achieve that was impossibly divine, not a feat that can be done by mere mortals or even immortal cultivators.

One tiny coal after another, Kali kept crushing more and more into large diamonds, one that would be sold for millions. And then, after she made a handful of them, she took them, made a few hops toward Liana, and handed them to her with a smile. "Here, compensation for giving them a beating and causing a bit of trouble around."

The look on Kali’s face was so innocent, like that of an orphaned child who spent the entire day playing in mud and finally returned to the caretaker with a happy smile and hands full of shiny pebbles. Especially looking at her ragged clothes, soot-smeared hands and dusty feet, if she saw her on the street, she would’ve thought she was just another abandoned child.

But this being in front of her, was an actual, genuine, Elder.

As Liana didn’t take the handful of diamonds, Kali frowned and decided to flex again.