Alyssa hesitated for a moment, but Asher took a sip without hesitation. The liquid was cool and refreshing, with a hint of sweetness and a subtle tingle on the tongue.

"First of all, congratulations on your wins," said Arman, as he pressed on his phone, and a hologram appeared.

"I am Professor Arman, and I teach about the black element, as you might have heard. But moving on, as you know, this tournament was to decide the first-year student representatives."

A hologram appeared on his palm from his bracelet, displaying the World Academy's insignia, a shield-shaped emblem with intricate golden designs etched on a deep blue background.

In the emblem, there were 22 golden small stars representing the number of seats in the high council.

Arman took out two blue rings with golden designs on them.

"Take these," he said as a black shadow took the rings and placed them on Asher and Alyssa's palms.

"These rings will represent your status inside the World Academy. And only by wearing them, you can use the privilege of being the first-year representative," he said.

"Having them makes you part of the student council, but your role and position will be decided by the student council itself," Arman explained.

"The student council has their own authority inside the World Academy, which can rival some professors but not all of them. You will learn more about this once you join officially," he added.

"And don't worry, these rings don't have any function that will jeopardize any kind of information about you to us or anybody else," he looked at Asher.

"What are the privileges exactly?" Asher asked, and his voice made Alyssa, who was in deep thought staring at the ring in her hand, come back to reality.

"As you know, once you enter the World Academy as a student, you are not allowed to leave the floating island unless the Academy needs you to leave for some assessment or something else," Arman said.

"But if you have these rings, you can leave, but you still need to come back within a week, or you will recieve some sort of punishment," Arman explained.

This was another reason Asher participated in this tournament. For some of his plans, he needed to leave the academy, and doing so was only possible if you were part of the student council.

"And you might have heard about this, but inside the World Academy, most of the facilities do not use AUR. Instead, we use our own point system, which grants you GP," said Arman.

"GP stands for Grade Points, although you can still buy around 1000 GP monthly using real money or exchange them from other students as well," he added.

This was done to ensure that normal students could live comfortably and earn their facilities. This also made sure that competitiveness amongst students was high. But no matter how anyone tried to bring down the social status to an equal level, there would always be some sort of inequality present.

So they allowed students to buy GP monthly, but the conversion rate was high to discourage this behavior. One GP costed around 1000 AUR, although you could still get it cheaper by exchanging it for something from students as well."And as first-year heads, we give you around 1000 GP monthly, and you can spend it however you like. If you climb to a higher position inside the student council, you might get even more," Arman said.

This statement grabbed Alyssa's attention, but it didn't matter much to Asher, who had the funds and ways to get any amount of GP he wanted.

"Remember that although this position gives you some authority over students, you cannot force or threaten others," Arman said.

"Right now, you might feel like you are the first ranker, but this could change in the assessment test that will happen in two months," Arman said.

"And if you are not in the Top 5, we will remove your status as the Year Representative," Arman spoke.

"And the assessment test will judge all your strengths and weaknesses," Arman looked at Alyssa.

"I saw your performance, but you also know that you would not have won if they had not underestimated you," Arman spoke as he looked directly at Alyssa.

"This time nobody knew about your bad health and your condition, but that will change the next time you get into such a situation," his words made Alyssa a bit nervous as she looked down.

"But you don't have to worry; the assessment test will be a team match, not a solo one, although I will not tell you more about it. And don't forget there will be a written test which can help or stop you from achieving your spot in the Top 5," he said.

"Why tell us in advance?" Asher said as a frown appeared on his face.

"Don't worry; count this as one of the privileges. Having good impressions on your professors will help you greatly," Arman said as he smiled.

Although Arman had another reason for treating Alyssa a bit nicely, he saw Emmy helping her in the waiting room, and he remembered that it was Asher who sent her there from the conversation he overheard.

But he was not lying when he said that having a good or bad relationship with professors could impact your life inside the World Academy.

"Although we make sure that nothing bad happens to the students inside the World Academy, we mostly do not intervene if the rules are not broken," he said carefully.

"This means that students can find a loophole around our rules, and we are aware of it, but just like outside life, the World Academy is also not fair," he continued.

"But what we can guarantee is that no outsider will touch 'you' while you are inside the World Academy," he said.

And Asher knew that very well as he was one of those people who used those loopholes inside the World Academy in his previous life.

"But that will be all; we will talk more, but it will be inside the World Academy three days later, and I need to leave now. You guys can get to know each other and leave whenever you feel comfortable," Arman said and disappeared from the room.

Alyssa was a bit surprised, but not enough to make her flinch. She looked at Asher, who wore the ring and looked at her.

"Hello, I am Asher Von Greville, the heir of the Greville family," he brought his hand forward.

"Ah, I am Alyssa," she got a bit surprised by his actions as until now, he looked like a person who did not like to interact much with others.

She brought her hands forward, and as both of their hands touched, time stopped, and some chains made of something unknown appeared around their hands, wrapping their whole body.

[ WARNING!!! ]

[ A harmful energy is intruding host's body ]

[ Using blessing-------- Cannot use ]

Time had stopped, so neither Asher nor Alyssa nor anyone else in the whole world could sense what was happening.

************************************

Far from earth in the vast universe, in a plane where nothing moved everything was at stall.

The woman sat in a place beyond time itself, a place where the universe around her was frozen in stillness. Her face was covered with a fog like veil only leaving her eyes which could be seen but they were closed.

Despite the stillness of the world around her, the woman seemed to be at ease. She appeared to be completely in control, as if time itself were a mere tool for her to shape and mold as she pleased.

She opened her eyes revealing her dark black eyes with green pupils. As she opened her eyes everything around her that was paused started moving.

A small purple crack appeared in front of her and she stood up.

"Law of chaos is weakning," She spoke as she looked around her.

"I listened to you and granted him a chance," She spoke as she looked at the purple crack that kept getting bigger.

"I told you that destiny is not something you will be able to fight,"

"I have given him a blessing as you asked but it will become useless now," She spoke.

The crack got bigger and a purple hand emerged from the crack and it came for the neck of this woman. But as it got close chains appeared stopping it from harming her.

"You cannot interfere with the true will," She said as she looked at the chains which protected her.

The chain kept strangling as the hand broke into multiple pieces and disappeared.

The crack opened, and inside it was a space full of darkness; not a single speck of light could be seen in it.

A purple light grew bigger as it shaped into a smile, and the crack disappeared.

"This will be the last time I intervene," she waved her hands as a bright green wave went out and disappeared from her space.

She sat down again, closed her eyes, and made the space around her freeze in stillness again.