[Tree] Chapter 331: Loser's Bracket (Patreon)

Stella pulsed her spatial Qi and moved faster than her brain could process. Lyra's corpse vanished in a flash of silver light. She used telekinesis to raise the blood off the floor and rearrange the furniture. Anything destroyed, she Spatial Stepped next to and stored in her spatial ring. It all happened so fast. Barely a second had passed before she Spatial Stepped back to the chair Lyra had originally been sitting in.

"Com—ahem," Stella coughed as she readjusted her voice to match Lyra's, "Come in."

"Sorry to intrude, Miss Lyra." A man of impressive stature strode in. He paused after taking a step inside the room and glanced around. "Where are Hugo and the other guards?"

"I sent them away," Stella said dismissively. "They were overly worried about me before the fight, which made me anxious, too. I didn't want to disappoint Father after he made the effort to come and see my match, so they had to go."

"Is that so?" the man said cryptically. He looked around the room some more, and whenever he paused on something, Stella felt her fingers twitch. If this man made a single move she didn't like, his head would fly. Oblivious to her thoughts, the man seemed to finish the inspection as he did the equivalent of a dismissive shrug and returned his focus to her.

Stella was honestly surprised at how little regard the man showed for Lyra. Her story was weak, and despite her efforts, evidence of a fight could still be seen throughout the room—missing furniture in awkward places where there should be something, a significant dent in the door from where Hugo had been impaled, and lingering spatial Qi.

Either the man was blind, deliberately ignoring the signs, or simply didn't care enough to ask anymore.

Clearing his throat, the man said, "Well, I have a message from your dear Father. Would you care to hear it?"

"Tell me," Stella said. She had observed that while Lyra was nice to her friends and close aides, she treated servants coldly.

The man grinned, "Elder Vortexian has fixed the tournament layout, so you will face your brother in the losers bracket. Due to Spatial Peak's poor performance, he needs you to make your brother look as powerful as possible to maintain our peak's face. Understand?"

"Huh?" Stella answered, not as Lyra this time but as herself. What kind of instruction was that? It was a death match out there. That was no better than saying, 'Die to your brother.'

"Why do you seem surprised, Lyra?" The man narrowed his eyes, "Your fate was sealed long ago, or is that scar on your face not a good enough reminder of the crimes you committed?"

As Stella was not Lyra, she had no idea what these supposed crimes were, nor did she care. She didn't plan to lose a single match from now on while assuming Lyra's identity. Losers bracket? Die to some random Spatial Peak 'brother' to make him look good? Stella had never heard anything so ridiculous.

It took every fiber in her body not to stand up and strangle this arrogant servant to death while watching the life slowly leave his eyes as he slowly realized who he was talking to—Stella let out a breath to calm herself. She was wearing someone else's 'face' now. This servant had this attitude to someone already dead, not her.

"I understand," Stella nodded to the servant, "Thank you for relaying the message."

The man smirked, "It's good that you understand. Now follow me, it's time." With those words, he strode out of the room with an arrogant flick of his robes. Stella sheepishly followed him while mentally marking this man for death.

***

Stella stood opposite Lyra's supposed 'brother.' Like Lyra, he was a pure-blooded Azure Clan member with pointed ears and pale blue eyes. She had actually seen one of his fights, and it had been a step above the other Spatial Peak fights simply because he wasn't beaten to death.

"Hello, sister," the unnamed brother she knew nothing about smirked. "Let's have a good duel for the people watching." At his words, the crowd Stella despised cheered, and she could hear hundreds of insults being hurled at them. The view of Spatial Peak was at an all-time low, and it was made even worse by two Spatial Peak siblings fighting to the death in the losers bracket.

She wanted nothing more than to silence everyone with her Star Core pressure. Her mood was made even worse by the idea of intentionally losing to this guy, which made her skin crawl.

No, stop letting your own pride get in the way. You are Lyra right now. Ugh, posing as such a weakling is humiliating. Why wasn't there an arrogant and strong spatial cultivator's identity I could have taken with a pure soul flame?

"I-I will try my best," Stella stuttered while gritting her teeth and taking a slightly off battle stance, which made her 'brothers' smirk widen.

Now, how should I kill this fool?

She could kill him in numerous ways if it was a random battle. But she was here to put on a performance while hopefully not earning too much attention. At least this early on.

Stella glanced at the attending Elders. If the gossip from earlier was anything to go by, the man sitting in the middle and missing his arm must be Elder Vortexian, Lyra's Father. She would never forget such a face. Undoubtedly, he was the Elder who found her in the library and got attacked by Maple.

Maple only managed to take out an arm last time, but he has devoured a lot since then and is rather fat now. I'm sure if Elder Vortexian grew displeased with me showing off, Maple could protect me... maybe.

Stella knew messing around with a Monarch Realm was a bad idea, but what else was she supposed to do? Sit around and rot away in this realm while the other sect members progressed and overtook her?

Fighting practice aside, the various members of the Azure Clan peaks weren't dueling to the death for fun. There were rewards for victors, but the only problem was that Stella didn't know what they were. All she knew was they were spirit stones and other cultivation resources in an upper creation layer.

If I can get my hands on them, I might be able to jump up to the Nascent Soul Realm. Stella felt her mind wander as she imagined how proud Ash would be of her if she made such progress and how the other sect members would praise her. It would be glorious compared to how they would react if she returned with no progress and a few measly corpses. Forgive me, Azure Clan. Whether you are a clan from the upper layer of creation or not. You will be my prey and fuel my growth so I can pay back Tree and protect everyone I care about. You may all consider yourself something greater, but anyone outside of Ashfallen is nothing but a talking beast to me.

Stella raised her head slightly and looked directly into Lyra's brother's eyes. Without intending to, she leaked a little of her bloodlust as she imagined all the ways she could slaughter him. His smirk slowly faded, and his arrogance was replaced with unease.

Maybe something primal within him was screaming out and telling him something was about to go terribly wrong. Perhaps the sheepish girl wearing a mask before him was not the weak sister instructed to make him look as competent as possible.

The usually bored-sounding Elder stood up with more vigor than before. His sky-blue robe mirrored the refined movements of someone who had tempered themselves as he glanced between them with a kindle of interest. Stepping forward purposefully, he used Qi to boost his voice and present their duel.

"Due to the sheer number of Spatial Peak cultivators in the losers bracket, I introduce a duel between two siblings from Spatial Peak. Lyra Azure and Aaron Azure will now fight till the death or until one surrenders."

Elder Vortexian stirred in his chair as he finally bothered to look at his two children down in the arena. There was no love in his piercing blue eyes. Stella may be bad at reading people, but even she could tell he was as cold and disinterested as one would be when looking at animals on the way to slaughter.

He raised his finger, gesturing for the presenting Elder to pause.

"It will be to the death." He added, "Surrender will not be tolerated." His voice was a whisper, yet it reached everyone who dared listen. A pressure followed, washing over the arena and reminding Stella and Aaron that a Monarch was watching.

Aaron's fighting spirit seemed to have left him as he turned to the Elder and called out, "Wait! Something isn't quite right." Unfortunately for him, his concern was drowned out by the crowd's roar at Elder Vortexian's statement. It was the loudest Stella had ever heard them—clearly, a death match between a powerful Elder's children was the week's highlight.

The presenting Elder, who definitely heard Aaron's plea, raised his hand anyway, "The battle will now begin!" The Elder lowered his hand in a swift motion to signal the start.

Aaron fell backward onto the sand with a thump, sending up a small cloud of dust. A blue wooden dagger's hilt stuck out from his forehead like a horn. The portal that had manifested into existence before him snapped closed with a small pop, and Stella put her hands behind her back.

Before the Elder had even fully lowered his hand, Aaron was dead.

The arena fell silent in an instant, which made Stella nervous.

She had made sure to use a dagger from Lyra's spatial ring that she had broken into earlier, and the portal technique she used to plant the dagger into Aaron's forehead was one from the Azure Clan's library. Nothing she had done was technically impossible for Lyra. However, she might have done it a little too quickly, and the portal may have been too stable.

I did the most straightforward and cleanest kill I could think of. Stella lamented in her mind. I could have tried crushing him to death with my Star Core pressure, decapitating him with a portal, or even using my earrings to make him incapacitated like the dream Qi cultivators. Hell, I could have walked over there and beaten him to death with a Qi-wreathed stick. Compared to those options, a simple dagger through the skull should have been reasonable?

Surveying the arena's spectators, it was as if time had stopped. Everyone's mouth was wide open, with some holding food and being mid-bite. Nobody seemed able to understand what had just happened.

"Announce the victor, Elder Soren." Elder Vortexian said. His utter lack of emotion in his tone and facial expressions showed his position as an Elder of such a clan.

"O-oh right," Elder Soren gathered himself. Unlike in the other duels, he hadn't even had a chance to fully lower his hand, let alone sit down, so he was still standing there as dumbfounded as the rest. "Lyra Azure is the victor! Um..."

The Elder turned to Elder Vortexian, "What should we do about the loser bracket?"

Knowing that the bracket had been artificially set up, the fact she won had likely ruined the system they had in place.

Stella watched Elder Vortexian with interest in her spiritual sight. She maintained her stance of standing still, with her hands clasped behind her back, and looked at Aaron's corpse on the other side of the arena, though she was sure someone at Elder Vortexian's level would sense her watching him.

Despite his perfectly crafted facade, Stella believed she had worked out Elder Vortexian goals based on his attitude thus far. He, or someone clearly, hated Lyra, but the death of this girl Stella was posing as wasn't the main objective.

No, what Elder Vortexian wanted was for Spatial Peak to save face.

Let's test if I'm correct.

Elder Vortexian looked at Stella as if searching for something. She answered in kind by directly flashing a hint of her true cultivation strength at him. It was a gamble, but he might look upon her favorably if she showed that her strength surpassed anyone here.

For the first time, Elder Vortexian showed some reaction. His brow raised, and the slightest smile tugged at the edge of his lips. Turning to Elder Soren, he gave his verdict, "Move Lyra to the main bracket. She will compete until she either dies or wins."

"Elder Vortexian... that's a bit..." Elder Soren protested.

"Are you questioning me?"

Dream Qi flicked across Elder Soren's shoulders as he resisted the pressure from Elder Vortexian's gaze. "No, there are just thirty people still in the main bracket, and we had everything set up. I agree Lyra seems to have talent, but putting her against thirty opponents in a row is unreasonable."

"Lyra, what do you say?" Elder Vortexian said with interest, "Care to show what mastery over spatial Qi can achieve?"

"I would be honored to... Father," Stella replied, stumbling on the last word. The word 'father' held a lot of meaning to her, so even while pretending to be someone else, calling this man as such twisted her heart.

"Then it shall be so. Bring in the next challenger." Elder Vortexian instructed.

***

From Stella's understanding, the tournament was supposed to last another few days. As the darkness of dusk descended on the arena, all around her lay bloody sand littered with pieces of humans and random dead bodies with missing heads or holes in their skulls. It was as if some savage beast had gone to war with a group of cultivators and fought without mercy to the death.

Stella sighed as she looked up at the sky and scrunched her nose at the strong metallic smell of death wafting all around from the dried blood. She was exhausted—not physically, nor were her Qi reserves low. She was bored to the point of exhaustion.

After the first dozen rounds of going all out to display the strength of spatial Qi by teleporting around and playing with her opponents, she soon grew bored and gave up on showing off in the last ten rounds. Not once had she taken a step from where she stood. Instead, she'd chosen to kill her foes in a similar fashion to Aaron, with a simple one-hit the moment the duel started.

Similar to killing Lyra, something about killing weaklings left a sour aftertaste. There was no thrill, and victory left her hollow. Whenever a body hit the sand and moved for the last time, she felt the slightest hint of regret.

To distract herself during the one-sided slaughter, she listened to the crowd. What had started as disbelief after Aaron's death turned to excitement for the following matches. However, around the time she stopped putting in as much effort and killed each opponent within a second, the crowd's opinions changed from excitement to fear.

Some even began questioning her cultivation level, but Elder Vortexian shrugged off the complaints and kept the tournament going. It was clear as day to everyone there that he was using Lyra as a weapon to brutally eliminate the upcoming talents from the other peaks by abusing the rules.

If Stella killed the enemies before the Elder had even finished introducing the start of the match, then the foe didn't have an opportunity to surrender.

Stella knew this, and she also knew she was being used. It was obvious that her disguise or true skill would be plain as day under the scrutiny of a Monarch Realm Elder. What she hadn't expected was for the Elder in question to turn a blind eye to the chance she was an outsider and even actively encourage her and shield her from scrutiny.

The question is, what will he do with me after the last match? By then, his objective would be complete, and he would have no reason to let me continue to do what I please. I would be an expired tool, and I know how this man deals with those he deems disposable.

"Evan from Dream Peak will now challenge Lyra Azure in the final match." The presenting Elder seemed exhausted as from afternoon to dusk he barely had a chance to sit down and watch the fights like before. Also, as a Dream Peak Elder, watching his peak members being decapitated before they could even blink likely wasn't helping his mental fatigue.

The man Stella had seen beat the redhead from Spatial Peak to death, jumped down from the stands and landed in a small cloud of dust. Dream Qi flickered across his body as he eyed her with understandable concern.

"Who—no, what are you?" Evan asked like a scared child. Stella could see his fingers trembling at his side, and he was biting the edge of his lip. A pitiful display, yet Stella's heart was cold. As with many of the other people she had ended today, they hadn't batted an eye as they killed members from Spatial Peak after they made errors with Spatial Step or other techniques Stella had been so lucky to be able to practice and master under Ash's loving canopy.

This is why she hated humans. They were walking contradictions.

Stella looked at Evan and said nothing.

"Really? Are you going to stay quiet?" Evan gritted his teeth. "What is it you want?"

Stella tilted her head, "What do you mean?"

"To let me surrender without killing me instantly," Evan said, "Name your price."

"Oh..." Stella playfully tapped her chin. This was the first opponent that had begged for their life in a while. "Ah! I got something."

"Yes?" Evan said with a hint of hope. "Name it, you can have anything—"

"I want your heart."

"What?" Evan looked down at his chest in confusion.

The tired Elder dropped his hand, "Final duel begin!"

Stella appeared before Evan. She wreathed her fingers in spatial Qi and punched through his chest. Evan's eyes widened as he looked down at Stella's arm embedded in his body. Stella felt the buzz of the dream Qi trying to invade her mind, but it was laughable compared to Ash's dream realm and the illusions that came with his voice.

"Say you surrender," Stella pulled him closer and whispered in his ear, "I got what I wanted."

Evan wheezed, "I... I... s-surrender—"

Stella smiled, "Good." Pulling her hand back, Evan collapsed at her feet. His still-beating heart was in her palm, glowing with dream Qi. Her smile faded as she looked at it. "Thank you for the once-in-a-lifetime gift," Stella said as she dropped it beside Evan's face, and Spatial Stepped back to the spot where she had spent most of the day.

"Lyra Azure is the winner of the entire tournament," Elder Soren announced with a hint of disdain. "May the presiding Elder for this tournament step forward to present the rewards."

Elder Vortexian stood up gracefully, and the arena fell silent. Stella turned on her heel and looked up at the Monarch Realm Elder directly for the first time.

He vanished and appeared right beside her on the sand.

"Lyra Azure, come with me." A portal to elsewhere materialized, and Stella was envious of the power radiating from it. It was so clear she almost needed a double-take to see if it was even a portal and not a clean cut through reality.

Not one to say no to the request of a Monarch Realm, Stella followed him through the portal into a room deep underground home to a single orb placed upon a pedestal.

The portal quietly closed behind them, leaving them alone. A short silence drew out between them until Elder Vortexian looked over his shoulder at Stella. "How were the books? They must have been quite enthralling, considering you never returned them."

"So, you recognized me." Stella crossed her arms as she eyed the Elder. "As for the books?" she snorted, "They were nothing but flowery nonsense."

[Author Note]

Wow, lots of comments on yesterday's chapter. When I wrote it, I did not expect such a reaction at all. Thankfully, I was distracted from my computer, so I was able to take a step back and read everyone's comments from a more detected perspective at a later date. After letting the chapter sit for a few days, I re-read it with everyone's comments in mind and concluded that apart from a few minor edits (which have been done) for added context for info that was already there but required some reading between the lines. The chapter had the intended direction I wanted, and everything that occurred in the chapter was in line with Stella's previous character actions and development. I really appreciate the passionate and well-written comments. It's a joy to know you are all so invested in the story, and I wanted you to know I did read everything you all said and took it into consideration.

Anyways, see you in the next chap ;)