Silence tore through the upper floor of the gala. It was as though any form of sound or noise was forbidden here at the moment. Even the silence of a graveyard paled before the silence that reigned here at this very moment.

Nobody could believe what they had seen. They doubted their eyes, their ears, their senses. What they had witnessed was supposed to be impossible. No, it WAS impossible, and that was LAW.

Throughout history, and for the past twenty thousand years, there had never been anyone who awakened on their third attempt at the age of seventeen and later grew strong enough to achieve anything noteworthy.

It was why they had labelled Asher trash, it was why they had looked down on him, it was why they had made fun of him. Because the impossible was the impossible. And now that impossible had been made possible before their very eyes. They had seen a fact being turned into an opinion in real time.

If the boy before them had awakened on his second try, they would have sort of understood. After all, a few people in history had awakened on their second try and still gone on to dominate their generation or come close to doing so.

Of course, not many people knew exactly how talented or powerful Maximus, Hilton, or David actually were. After all, they were children. But they had seen the speed at which Asher had moved, and that wasn’t the speed of some random trash. They had seen the backfist to David’s jaw, the perfect connection, the execution, the ease. They had seen the brutality behind him slamming David’s head into the ground, breaking his limbs, and tearing off his arms.

Everything was literally... perfect.

They had witnessed him slam a fist into Maximus’ gut before either he or his brother could even react, and even plunge Hilton’s weapon into his gut, suggesting that he was even more deadly with a weapon than in hand-to-hand combat.

Although the entire display had occurred within a minute or two, within the perception of Crownstar Life Rankers, Soulstar Life Rankers, and Voidstar Life Rankers, they had broken down every one of Asher’s hand movements, foot movements, and body positioning. They had seen through it all and come to one singular conclusion; they had all been wrong.

They hadn’t even been close to the truth.

This wasn’t someone simply dominating through the greater physique of the Wargraves. The finesse was simply too beautiful and spoke of immense experience in the art.

And what left them even more shocked was the ease with which he had done all this. There was no struggle in handling all three of them, no exchange of attacks, just one child dominating everything before them.

At this moment, the Principals of the various Academies stationed within each Empire couldn’t help but remember what Cindralis had told them just yesterday.

"A Wargrave was still a Wargrave."

It had been a simple statement at the time, one they had assumed she had used to cover up the deed of accepting Asher into her Star Academy despite him awakening on his third attempt. Now, at this very moment, they understood that she had meant it literally in every sense of the word.

They had all come to see the extent of Asher’s trash talent. But instead, they had seen that the Wargraves didn’t give birth to anything less.

Eyes couldn’t help but turn to Azaron, who stood with indifference carved into his eyes and expression. To him, this was expected. There was nothing to smile about. No one had placed any bets with him, and he didn’t make any gains from this. There was literally nothing to feel good about.

If anything, this only moved to reduce Asher’s odds during the competition that was set to begin the day after tomorrow. If Asher had displayed only a bit of talent, he might have had odds of ten, which Azaron could have bet on and made ten times his stake. But now, those beautiful odds had definitely dropped to maybe seven or six.

At the side, Malrik simply smiled as he sipped his wine. He didn’t bother saying anything; there was simply nothing to say. The Zarik family had made a move, and the move had worked against them. If he, Malrik, were a loudmouth, he would definitely be making fun of Adam Zarik at this moment. But alas, he, Malrik, was a calm man.

But of course, just because Asher had won against a single top ten student within Heavenly Academy didn’t suddenly make people think he was going to win the Inter-Empire Competition. While they admired the finesse and perfect execution behind his basic techniques, to them, other geniuses could do that as well.

So, if the stakes were Asher against someone popular, they would still go with the other party. A single small skirmish between two people wasn’t enough to change that. After all, other geniuses possessed techniques, abilities they had been training since the age of fifteen and beyond.

At this moment, Adam Zarik’s face had transformed into a deep frown. If before he could control his expression somewhat, now he totally couldn’t. Not only had Hilton made a move against the supposed trash Wargrave, but he had also lost. And not just that, his head was literally sticking out of the ground as though he were some sort of mole.

He stared at Hilton’s broken jaw and shattered teeth, his bloodied face, then walked forward. Holding Hilton’s head, he pulled him out of the ground, turned towards Azaron for a moment, and simply nodded before vanishing without a word.

Although Azaron hadn’t spoken, he was sure he would be receiving compensation. There was an opportunity to make money; why miss it?

At the side, a female noble had hidden herself away. Her body trembled, and she was drenched in sweat at this moment. She was a Baroness, and not just any Baroness. She was David’s mother.

She was trying her best not to be seen. She was truly fearful at this moment at the thought of Malrik wiping them out after the Inter-Empire Competition.

But as she trembled, a small consoling voice whispered to her, telling her not to overthink it. After all, nobody here even knew David’s name. He was just a random person, maybe a commoner even. There was no way someone like Azaron or Malrik would know of a small Barony family from the Thalvorn Empire, right?

And indeed, there was merit in the whispering voice’s words. After all, neither Malrik nor Azaron knew about David’s family or even his name, unlike Hilton Zarik, who had basically announced himself to the world.

Everyone’s eyes followed Asher’s movements from the upper floors. They watched him walk through the crowd as though nothing had happened.

Only one thought echoed in their minds; How?

How had he made the impossible possible?

Was the Wargrave Bloodline simply so ridiculous that even the Laws of the world couldn’t suppress them?

As for Baron Whale, he wondered how his daughter had found her way onto Asher’s shoulder and even referred to him as "Brother Asher."

Baron Canestane, who was standing beside him, simply laughed, telling Baron Whale not to overthink Rachael’s behaviour. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Their wives didn’t exactly react. Finch’s mother was simply pleased that Asher had taken a liking to her daughter. Of course, not in a romantic way, she loved the big-brother dynamic that her daughter seemed to have established.

If that wasn’t perfect, she wondered what else was.