Interestingly enough, there are apparently hierarchies in the world of mages. Instead of having elemental magic like in other magic types of novels, this world only has a single type of magic known as holy mana. However, not everyone receives the same starting amount. There are those with strong mana and those with weak mana, and of course the stronger your holy mana is, the higher you are in the hierarchy. And there are all sorts of complicated stuff like the purity of your mana, an amplification possibility, mana control, blah blah blah. One of the books even stated that some people believe in the  categorisation of the mages that ranges from Stage 1 to 5, with Stage 5 being the strongest.

In one book, legend goes that this world used to be crawling with demons. From small, low-level ones to those high-level demons the size of a castle, they used to be everywhere, and humans were constantly being slaughtered or terrorised on a daily basis. Back then, this was the normal flow of the ecosystem, with demons being the top of the food chain.

And then, one day, three deities took pity upon the terrified human beings who had been desperately praying to them to save their lives. In a unison agreement, they decided to descend into the bodies of three chosen people in order to help them. This led to the event where light magic became introduced into this world. After possessing these three chosen ones, now known as the 'First Three Holy Heroes', the battle quickly overturned in their favour. The humans no longer held the title of a prey, and the number of demons quickly reduced to a small amount.

At the end of the Holy War, the deities taught the humans how to seal the gates of the underworld. However, the sealing process takes a huge amount of time and mana so, it couldn't be sealed all at once. Occasionally, some demons are even able to slip past the gates. The deities advised the humans to perform the sealing ritual every 50 years until the 500th year, which will be when the final seal is completed thus, permanently closing the gates forever.

".... And it just so happens to be the 500th year, huh?"

Ha, ha, ha. Just my luck.

Anyways, it's just a legend though, I don't know how much truth the story holds. Either way, the ritual will be held next year and that only the top three strongest holy mages from the ceremony will be selected to become the representatives. This means that I have to fight my way through hundreds of other talented mages in order to get to the top three.

I sank lower into the bathtub, my thoughts becoming deeper.

In the novel, the only reason Evangeline became a representative was because she made her father bribe one of the high priest, who happens to be part of the judging committee for the ceremony.

And the reason she wanted to become a representative?

She fell in love at first sight with Malakai Caelestis. Honestly, did she even realise the gravity of the situation? It's a life and death mission for goodness sake! What was the point of her character anyways, other than to sacrifice the male lead?

I don't even know what level her powers are, since she hardly ever uses it. Though I guess that if she had survived as far as to the last chapter, she must have some sort of talent and skill. 

Hmph. Too bad she mostly relied on others to save her skin. 

The ritual is an extremely dangerous process. If you aren't strong enough, you will likely die in the process. I haven't gotten to the part as to why that happens though so, I'll need to do a bit more reading. I questioned why they don't just send all the high-level holy mages at once, but apparently it's because only three people are allowed into the chambers where the stone tablet is held. As soon as they enter the chamber, the doors behind them will close. 

No one else, aside from the chosen representatives, knows what will happen during the ritual, and for some reason, it wasn't recorded in any of the books I've read so far. Even the author opted that out from the story, but then again the sealing ritual didn't even happen in the novel since Elijah ended up playing the reverse card and unsealed the gates instead. 

Anyways, right now, my plan is to stop Elijah from him being selected in the ceremony, though that will be very difficult to do so as he's too talented. I mean, of course the author makes it so that he's stronger than 99.5% of the participants. If that plan fails, I'll have to go with Plan B and stick close to the enemy while gathering up evidences of his plot. Once I have enough, I'll submit it to father, or better yet, I'll use it to get Malakai on my side!

"My lady, you'll catch a cold if you stay in the water for too long"

Marise knocked from behind the door, which shook me from my thoughts. I rose from the water and wrapped myself up. After dressing up in my nightgown, I told Marise to send an apology to my parents since I was too tired to eat dinner with them. They sent me a note asking whether they should call the doctor but, I declined. All I need is a little rest. 

Curse this weak body with basically zero stamina!

I'm gonna need to start exercising pretty soon, otherwise I'll die before the selection ceremony even starts.

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