The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　As a moon elf princess, she possesses a special ability to purify darkness and evil.

　The dark creatures summoned by Selena were purified and weakened by her, and were quickly defeated.

　The duel ended in Lucia's victory, a complete triumph in terms of both intelligence and strength.

　Therefore, although it is very regrettable, Selena ultimately bid farewell to this world stage.

　Lucia, on the other hand, successfully advanced to the third round.

　Whether she can go any further depends on her positioning in the next round.

　The match then continued.

　One after another, highly anticipated players took to the stage, delivering one exciting duel after another for this World Cup.

　After more than two hours of intense competition, the duel finally entered its eleventh match, marking the end of the second round of the preliminary rounds.

　The duelists who stepped onto the dueling stage were Joliet, a maid from the Dimon family, and Louis Kennan, a disciple of a certain sage who had risen to fame during this preliminary round.

　Louis Kennan ranked eighth in the preliminary rounds, second only to Pandora.

　His strength is indeed very strong. Joliet had tried her best, but still couldn't make any further progress.

　Louis Kennan emerged victorious in the duel.

　All five maids from the Dimon family who advanced to the preliminary rounds have now been eliminated.

　However, Joliet has already made it into the top 64, which is not a bad result no matter how you look at it.

　Although she was very frustrated, Dak was relatively satisfied and generous with his praise.

　Then came the twelfth duel.

　Finally, it was the turn of the professors from St. Marian Academy to take the stage again. This time, the professor was Cazell.

　"I'll go and set an example first."

　Kazel stepped onto the dueling ring.

　He was the first of the academy professors to appear, and his opponent was Isaiah Rogill of the elves.

　[Forest Spirit] Isaiah Roger was also an old acquaintance of Dark's. When Dark discovered that he had the misfortune of running into Professor Kazel, he could only silently pray for him, hoping that he wouldn't lose too badly.

　After all, another familiar face, "Grassland Elf" Zenny Burns, had just lost to "Court Magister" Cole Toynbee, who ranked third in the preliminary rounds, in the ninth duel.

　—It can only be said that these two elf friends were really unlucky. The duel was largely predictable, and Professor Kazel advanced smoothly.

　……

　Next came the thirteenth duel.

　Noah Sharp, a graduate of St. Marian College and one of the twelve heroes chosen by the King, finally takes the stage.

　His opponent is none other than Prince Charles Clarissa! In the previous round of the duel, Noah Sharp defeated another member of the Twelve Heroes to advance.

　But in this second round, he finally encountered an invincible "superior."

　Noah Sharp, the boss, is faced with a difficult choice.

　Firstly, he desperately strives to become stronger, hiding his true strength, all in order to make a name for himself in the World Cup, break into the top 16, and receive the "gift from God." He absolutely does not want to lose.

　Secondly, he was facing the eldest prince, Charles. Without the prince's support, he would not have been able to get to where he is today in just one year... If he eliminated the prince in this duel, it would be hard to say what kind of situation he would end up in.

　"Give it your all, Noah."

　Charles said this to Noah Sharp only after both of them had stepped onto the dueling platform.

　Noah Sharp, seeing Charles's incredibly "sincere" gaze, gritted his teeth and said, "Watch out, I'm about to go."

　So after a duel in which both sides went "all out", Noah Sharp was eliminated.

　"What a pity."

　The contestants from St. Mary's Academy couldn't help but feel extremely sorry for their senior's elimination.

　At the same time, the audience was also shocked by the amazing strength shown by Prince Charles.

　Therefore, we are even more eager for the arrival of another member of the royal family—Princess Elizabeth!

　Eliza's appearance will be in the next match.

　Her opponent was no longer a "substitute player," but a player from the Holy Church, Emily Grantham, the younger sister of the "Twin Paladins"!

　This is yet another duel between peers.

　From the audience's perspective, they were in no way inferior to Noah Sharp and Charles in the previous game.

　But unlike the previous duel, this one has a deeper meaning.

　The "Twin Paladins" are the stars that the Holy Church is fully committed to developing. Eliza is the kingdom's princess and one of its heirs.

　The duel between the two women foreshadowed the open and covert struggles between the royal family and the Holy Church.

　Emily certainly doesn't have the option of "losing" in her mind.

　King Austin also gave Elizabeth a strict order: she could only win, not lose! Elizabeth stepped onto the dueling platform under immense pressure, yet she appeared unusually calm and composed.

　She received a very rigorous education in the palace, as she felt. It even made up for the occasional laziness she had experienced during her time at the academy.

　She was originally an extremely talented mage, and with the accumulation of countless resources, she finally reached a height she had never achieved before.

　The fourteenth duel.

　Eliza activated "Death by a Faint Candle in the Wind," launching a desperate counterattack just before being eliminated, shattering the life shield of the "Twin Paladins."

　Thus, the Twin Paladins were both defeated.

　Instead, two heirs to the throne advanced to the third round.

　The old king's smugness was palpable, and he once again gave His Holiness the Pope a hard time.

　But His Holiness the Pope already has countless worries, so one more wouldn't make much difference.

　After this defeat, Emily will surely learn from her mistakes, work even harder, and reclaim her glory.

　The fifteenth duel.

　The professors from St. Mary's College are back on stage. This time, it's Professor Pavajohn.

　Her rival, unfortunately, is Gina Grant, a student at St. Marian's College.

　"That's fate, we can only face it."

　After receiving blessings from her junior, Gina stepped onto the dueling ring to face off against a professor from the academy.

　Although Gina Grant is already considered a "devil" among her peers, she still felt like she was facing a towering wall when confronting Professor Pavajohns.

　She tried her best and used every trick in the book, but she still couldn't budge that high wall.

　The ultimate victor of this duel was Professor Pavajohn.

　However, after this duel, Gina was able to see the view from the top of the wall again.

　She won't remain forever languishing in the corner. Her next appearance will surely be as the one standing on the wall.

　Lunch break, half an hour.

　The competition continued after the meal.

　The sixteenth duel.

　Quintinanos from the Royal Magic Academy of the Kingdom makes her appearance.

　Her opponent is Jun-Wen, who will compete in the Pu-College Championship and the World Cup Duel Challenge.

　These two contestants are standing on the same stage again.

　But this time, the strength of both sides is completely different from before. Winiskadi is pure ice.

　Quintinanos is pure electricity.

　The moment their duel began, it sent the entire arena into a frenzy.

　Above the arena, dark clouds gathered, and lightning flashed and thunder roared. Below, glaciers rose majestically, and a biting wind howled. Quintina dominated the sky.

　Winnie took control of the ground.

　The shouts and applause of the audience were drowned out by the deafening roar of the ice thunder.

　Judging from the sheer intensity of the duel between these two fighters, it even surpasses the duels between the previous top ten fighters.

　The duel continued until the very end.

　Winnie summoned her current trump card, the Frost Giant.

　Faced with the "Frost Giant" who was over twenty meters tall, Quintina was finally forced to reveal her trump card and use the "God Card" that she had kept hidden until now!

　That's the legendary divine species of the twelve-star electric/flying type—"Zeus's Thunder Eagle"!

　Winiscatti was ultimately no match for the "God Card" and suffered a regrettable defeat.

　……

　Two students from St. Mary's College have already been eliminated.

　After that, only Darkdemon, Pandoradorgon, Eluri Clarissa, and Ergane remained.

　Among the professors, Professor Lily and Professor Steven were not present.

　But by the afternoon, only fourteen duels remained in the second round. Their turn would be coming soon.

　In fact, in the seventeenth duel, which was only one duel apart, it was the turn of the students from St. Marian Academy.

　This time, it's the "Fairy Princess" Eluri Clarissa who makes her appearance. As the only member of the royal family besides the eldest prince and princess, she is the only one to advance to the preliminary rounds.

　Eluri Clarissa has garnered much attention.

　Moreover, besides ordinary viewers, a large number of royal nobles also paid attention to her.

　Moreover, the higher the status of the nobleman, the more attention he paid to her.

　Her performance in this World Cup was so outstanding that she left all the other royals behind, standing out from the crowd.

　And she is not like the eldest prince and princess, who can only be admired from afar.

　Those high-ranking nobles naturally all wanted to bring her into their families through "marriage alliances".

　At this moment, Eluri received the "Holy Body of Marriage".

　But she was already burdened by the king's "marriage mission," so she naturally couldn't afford to be polite to those nobles anymore.

　In this duel, her opponent was a contestant disguised as a "free spirit" but actually a member of the Holy Cult.

　His disguise was so skillful that it wasn't until he was forced to use a light-type magic card in the last round of the competition that his disguise was exposed.

　In short, this player is very strong and can be considered another seeded player that the Holy Church is using to compete for the top sixteen.

　Based on the information, even if he's not as good as Laureen, he's not far behind. After learning that her opponent was him, Eluri immediately adjusted her deck accordingly. However, she couldn't come up with a perfect counter-deal until the match began.

　This made her look serious and under a lot of pressure when she appeared on stage.

　This is because although her strength has increased significantly, she still has shortcomings in the "breadth" of her magical knowledge.

　Like Winnie, she is an absolute specialist in one attribute.

　While one may achieve the ultimate in specialization of this attribute, their offensive capabilities will be severely limited.

　Even if it's not perfect, she still has to step up when the time comes. She silently vowed, "I'll give it my all," and activated her duel domain.

　From the very beginning of the duel, Eluri was suppressed by the Crusader.

　But she had anticipated this, so she included many magic cards in her deck for removal, maneuvering, and protection.

　In the third round of the duel, she successfully activated "Fantasy Heavenly Principle". The entire arena was transformed into the fairy's domain.

　The Holy Cult contestant's magical spirit, in terms of both race and attribute, was gradually transformed into a Fairy-type and Fairy-like creature.

　This allowed her to successfully break through the Holy Priest's light-type defense, weaken his magical spirit, and buy herself valuable breathing time.

　Eluri was able to hold on, and finally in the seventh round, she drew the magic card she needed most.

　……

　[Anniversary celebration, double monthly tickets with no limit, feel free to cast your vote.]

　Facing his current nominal