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

　While Pandora has gained much from her investigation of Nidhogg, the "Dragon of Despair," her deck, even with its unique ability to transform dragon-type magical spirits into her own weapon, will struggle to gain an advantage in her duel against Professor Kazel if it only contains what has been revealed so far. Although Professor Kazel has shown less in previous duels, Dark actually understands his strength better than Pandora does.

　If Professor Cazell goes all out, it's hard to say who among those present could defeat him.

　Ultimately, although Pandora has always appeared strong, she is, after all, only a sixth-year graduate, and in terms of true expertise, it is still difficult for her to compare with a seasoned alchemy master like Professor Kazel.

　This is especially true in the current rules of magical duels. The "Vivre Card" system also limits her immediate combat power. However, once the duel began, the entire match unfolded in a way that slightly surprised Dark.

　Pandora Drogon abandoned any countermeasures in this duel, for she clearly understood that this opponent was unpredictable.

　Therefore, she chose to use the deck she was most confident in and most proficient in – the "Sky Dragon" series!

　However, to enhance the strength of "Celestial White Dragon," she incorporated elements of "Dragon of Despair" into this deck. But it's not a fusion of "Celestial White Dragon" and "Witch of Despair," but rather a separate "Fallen White Dragon" deck.

　By extracting the dark characteristics from the "Dragon of Despair," the "White Dragon" system is corrupted and strengthened, allowing it to gain terrifying power beyond despair from its corruption.

　This is the [Fallen Sky White Dragon]!

　Pandora harbored no illusions when facing Professor Cazell.

　This "Fallen White Dragon" deck is currently her strongest deck.

　Her deck also lacks "God Cards," and her strongest ace remains the fifth tier card.

　This is a result of limited material availability.

　Although she found the remains of Nidhogg, the "Dragon of Despair," those remains had already merged into the black soil, losing their divinity and lacking the foundation for forging a sixth-tier magical spirit card.

　However, the legendary dragon is a colossal beast that can devour gods even without divine status, and not reaching the sixth tier should not be a limitation for it.

　Pandora's fifth-tier Magical Spirit Cards are powerful enough to rival ordinary "God Cards".

　At her level, obsessing over the "God Cards" is pointless.

　However, standing opposite her was Professor Kazel, the supreme alchemist who had insight into the "Gate of Truth".

　The difference in rank between the so-called "Cards of God" is meaningless in his presence.

　Even with Pandora's immense confidence, she didn't believe she could easily defeat this goblin professor.

　She had even mentally prepared herself to fall into the loser's bracket, and before the duel even began, she had already considered how to defeat "the prophet of fate," Bruce Wheeler.

　This is truly a case of being cowardly before the battle even begins. But most of the time, such thoughts are hard to avoid. Humans always consider various escape routes. Pandora, after all, is human, not a dragon.

　However, as the duel progressed, although Pandora felt restricted in every way and the entire duel was extremely disjointed, she did not feel the terrifying oppressive force she had expected.

　This made her frown, wondering if her opponent was holding back. Professor Cazell was highly regarded at St. Marian Academy. But that wasn't in duels. In fact, Professor Cazell had always given the impression of being a scholar and researcher, with no real connection to duels or battles. His "battle-hardened" performance in this World Cup was quite unexpected.

　That only means he has no problems with the technical aspects, not that he has certain characteristics of a duelist.

　He is first and foremost a professor, and only secondly a duelist.

　It was perfectly normal for him to go easy on the student council. Upon realizing this, Pandora couldn't help but feel angry, but she quickly suppressed it.

　Because she found that she didn't have much room to think about things outside the game.

　The duel was extremely intense, judging from the scene.

　Pandora launched a relentless attack, but Professor Cazell skillfully deflected each attack and launched a strong counterattack.

　Pandora did not always maintain an advantage; many times, she faced the fatal danger of falling into the abyss with just one wrong step.

　If it weren't for Dark's deep understanding of Professor Cazell, the word "letting loose" would never have crossed Pandora's mind.

　Even if your opponent isn't going all out, it depends on whether you can withstand the attack. This duel will not be easy for Pandora.

　Even though she was the one who ultimately won.

　But she showed no signs of relaxation after her victory; instead, she appeared even more somber. Instead of responding to the audience's cheers as usual, she walked off the dueling platform in deep thought.

　The accumulation of a large amount of information in the brain allows for rapid digestion and yields significant benefits.

　This duel was more like a lesson in teaching.

Chapter 1604 [60% Off Full Subscription] Advancing to the Quarterfinals, the Sky is High (4k)

　With the end of this duel.

　Pandora Drogon advanced to the second round of the winners' bracket, while Professor Kazel fell into the losers' bracket.

　With this, the first round of the winners' bracket has officially concluded.

　The winners, in order, were Parva Jones, Darko Dimon, Steven Harvey, and Pandora Doragon.

　Upon closer inspection, it became clear that all four contestants were from St. Mary's Academy, and two of them were even students at the academy.

　The prestige of St. Marian Academy has once again been fully demonstrated. However, given that St. Marian Academy is originally a "holy land of magic," this performance is in line with expectations.

　Now let's look at the losers' bracket.

　The four players who fell from the winners' bracket will each face off against the four winners of the first round of the losers' bracket.

　These eight contestants are all highly skilled and have attracted much attention. A temporary defeat does not mean anything.

　Throughout history, many champions in this type of competition have fought their way up from the loser's bracket.

　One should not be arrogant in victory or discouraged in defeat. Sometimes, fighting one's way up from the loser's bracket can actually build momentum and put psychological pressure on opponents.

　Therefore, it is extremely unwise to underestimate the players in the losers' bracket. However, the brutal nature of the losers' bracket should not be ignored.

　In the upcoming second round of the losers' bracket, half of the players will be eliminated!

　However, Darko wasn't really paying much attention to the upcoming second round of the losers' bracket.

　He focused more of his attention on his next opponent – ​​Professor Pava Jones.

　At this stage of the competition, the right thing to do is to focus on your next opponent.

　He hoped to defeat Professor Pava Jones. But he hadn't yet found a winning strategy, so he needed more time to think.

　After the second round of the losers' bracket, the quarterfinals, it will be the second round of the winners' bracket, the semifinals.

　In other words, he only has four matches left before his duel with Professor Pava Jones.

　He temporarily set aside his extraneous thoughts and carefully considered how to deal with the situation.

　The second round of the losers' bracket began shortly thereafter.

　The first two contestants to step onto the dueling stage were the two "lucky ones" of this World Cup: "Bloody Saint" Hayley Saint Meredith and Professor Lily Laplace.

　Both players were sent to the loser's bracket by Professor Pava Jones, one after the other.

　But to be honest, this competition format has obvious flaws.

　If Hayley wins her duel against Professor Jones, then the second round of the losers' bracket will once again be between Professor Jones and Professor Lily.

　Therefore, to prevent this from happening, the losers in the second round of the winners' bracket should be swapped, with Professor Lily facing Quintina. Then Archbishop Harpagon Molière should face Hayley, and so on...

　But the competition format is already set and cannot be changed, so we can only continue like this until the next competition.

　Let's get back to the duel itself.

　This "lucky one" competition instantly became a hot topic.

　As soon as the two appeared on stage, the audience erupted in cheers from their respective supporters.

　One is a hero of the past, and the other is the number one on the popularity charts. After her duel with Professor Jones, Hailey cleared her name and now has a large number of fans.

　Professor Lily's dueling style was actually very captivating, garnering a large following even without behind-the-scenes manipulation. From the outside, the duel appeared evenly matched. However, once the duel officially began, the difference in skill gradually became apparent. Hayley's mastery of pure magical techniques paled in comparison to Professor Lily, who had consistently been at the forefront of magic. Professor Lily's strength lay more in weaponry, a system aligned with that of fellow saintess Jeanne d'Arc.

　In fact, in the magical environment of wartime, most of the mages who could fight on the front lines without being defeated were primarily armed.

　Mages who favor magic-based magic usually hide behind others to avoid exposing themselves to danger.

　However, at that time, Hayley's magical skills were indeed top-notch, but she did not fully keep up during the rapid development of the past ten years.

　Therefore, her trump card in this duel is still "armor". (However, the "armor" system is extremely incompatible with Professor Lily. Lily doesn't fight head-on at all.)

　Pure physical attacks had absolutely no effect on her.

　This duel was a fascinating event to talk about, but in Dark's mind, the outcome was already decided.

　Furthermore, it lacks any real reference value. It's not a duel that warrants excessive attention.

　By making it into the top twelve of the World Cup, "Bloody Saint" Granny Hayley has essentially secured a spot in the "Gift of God" competition, which is already a goal for her. Even if she is eliminated now, it's not a regret. For Lily, however, there is still the possibility of going even further.

　Of course, Professor Lily wasn't really interested in winning the World Cup.

　She didn't even care much about winning or losing the duel. She might be a little annoyed after losing, but she would forget about it as soon as she was off the stage.

　At least in magical duels, she is not a good role model and is a typical example of someone lacking dueling spirit.

　The duel between Saintess Hayley and Professor Lily proceeded amidst a cacophony of voices. As expected, the former began with a transformation and armed appearance, while the latter vanished into thin air.

　However, this level of concealment was useless against Hayley, who could determine Professor Lily's true location with her battlefield intuition alone and easily see through her "fairy illusion".

　Being able to see through something doesn't mean you can hit it.

　In this normal duel, Hailey only landed one hit.

　That shot was like a divine intervention from outer space, elusive and unpredictable, embodying her life's work, and almost instantly killed Professor Lily.

　But in the end, before Professor Lily could unleash her full power with that shot, she vanished into nothingness at the last second, instantly disappearing dozens of meters away. She survived the fatal blow and also evaded the subsequent pursuit.

　From that point on, Professor Lily was never touched by Hayley again.

　Unlike her intense duel with Professor Jones, Saintess Hayley was unable to utilize her strengths in her duel with Professor Lily. Her only chance was unfortunately not fully realized, ultimately leading to her defeat in the duel.

　Thus, Hayley Saint Meredith's journey ended in the top twelve. She is eliminated!

　After the battle, Professor Lily wiped away her sweat and finally relaxed.

　The duel didn't go as smoothly as it seemed, but she still won.

　Winning this duel would mean advancing to the top eight, which would be a source of pride.

　And more importantly, the next duel will be in the evening session.

　The sky is clear and bright today, and the stars and moon will surely shine brightly tonight.

　That's her home turf!

　The second match of the second round of the losers' bracket then unfolded in full swing. The two duelists were Archbishop Harpagonmouriel from the Holy Church and Quintinanos from the Royal Academy of the Kingdom.

　These two contestants are completely unequal in terms of status, age, and experience.

　But Quintina's status as a "Zeus's" favorite negates all of the above.

　Archbishop Molière's only way to defeat Quintina was through a forbidden method. Even before the duel began, the Archbishop had already made up his mind.

　With the elimination of Haley Saint Meredith, he is now the last member of the Holy Church and should be prepared to sacrifice himself for the faith.

　Therefore, in this duel, he did not hesitate to use "Isaac's Sacrifice" to enhance his strongest magical spirit, "Treasure Wheel Angel," to the level of "God Card."

　The "Treasure Wheel Angel," stained with blood, unleashed her full power, displaying terrifying combat strength.

　Even though Quintina summoned "Zeus' Thunderhawk," she was still at a disadvantage against Archbishop Molière's multi-layered tactical interference and "Treasured Angel."

　However, Quintina was not in a hurry.

　In contrast to her aggressive style during her duel with Dark, she adopted a more cautious and methodical approach, increasing the concentration of electric elements in the dueling arena to its limit before summoning "Thunder God's Illusion" once again and instantly clearing the field with a single "Thunder Blast".

　Even though Archbishop Molière had reserved a "Monster Resurrection" type of magic card, the resurrected "Treasured Angel" could not inherit the state of "Isaac's Priest." Without the "blood of Isaac," the "Treasured Angel" was ultimately unable to shoulder the responsibility and fell to the "Thunder God Orb" of "Zeus' Thunder Eagle."

　The [God Card] is not invincible.

　However, not all mages possess the strength to confront it head-on. Moreover, that was "Zeus's Thunderhawk."

　Archbishop Molière possessed extremely high magical and dueling skills, but his deck strength was indeed a bit lacking. As a result, even though he pushed his deck to its limit, he still couldn't defeat Quintina and thus sadly bid farewell to the World Cup stage.

　This duel was a victory for Quintina, the messenger of Zeus!

　As Archbishop Molière departed the stage, all the Catholic contestants left the venue.

　Both of the Holy Church's contestants who advanced to the main competition were eliminated in the top twelve, seemingly indicating that this once-powerful church, which has dominated for a thousand years, is gradually coming to an end.

　The Holy Church will certainly not be satisfied with this result.

　On the other hand, two of the top twelve are not so bad.

　In short, the deed is done, the dust has settled, and it cannot be changed.

　Even with all the dissatisfaction, one has to admit that the Holy Church is indeed not as good as it used to be.

　The third match of the second round of the losers' bracket.

　The no longer so mysterious "Mysterious Orc" Mephiss Grimm has once again stepped onto the dueling stage.