Calamity Upon This World

Throughout his whole childhood, Michael lived in the shadow of his older brother, always being compared to him.

Michael didn\'t hate his brother, but even when he tried his best, he couldn\'t get rid of the inferiority complex he had developed because of him.

That is, until, at the age of 13, he awakened  a Tier IV aspect, just like his brother.

At first, he was hopeful that maybe he might be able to defeat his brother someday, but after countless failures, he came to realise that even among aspects of the same tier, there exists a gap that simply can\'t be crossed.

So, having given up on his dream of defeating his brother, he chose a different path.

After years of contributions and building connections, he had managed to succeed the position of head of the adventurer guild in Markwelter Kingdom.

Now no one could undermine his hard work and achievements, and yet he felt unsatisfied.

Deep inside him, his childhood dream of beating his brother was still alive, but it simply wasn\'t possible for him.

So he was instead looking for someone to accomplish his dream for him.

The look on his brother\'s face when he finally tastes the bitter taste of failure will be priceless; he couldn\'t wait for it.

But despite this, there was one main problem: there was no one strong enough in the older generation.

Rex Verhein was the closest in terms of strength to his brother, but even he wasn\'t strong enough.

So as an alternative, his best bet was to place his trust in someone of the next generation.

And out of all his potential candidates, he chose to place his bet on William Verhein.

The son of Rex Verhein, the second-strongest human, who awakened a Tier IV aspect at the mere age of 4; even his own monstrous brother couldn\'t boast such a feat.

While Michael was a bit hesitant about all the rumours surrounding the boy at first, all his doubts were quelled once he saw the livestream a month ago.

The aura the boy exuded and the fearlessness to boldly declare war on arguably the most dangerous criminal organisation.

While many would call him a fool, Michael would disagree; in his opinion,  the thing that separates the strong from the strongest.

Was ego the absolute confidence in one\'s own prowess to never lose?

He could see this ego in the boy named William; if it was him, it might just be possible to beat his brother.

But since the boy already had the guidance of Rex Verhein, someone stronger than him, there was nothing left for him to do other than just manage his guild and wait for William to grow up and beat up his brother.

Or at least that\'s how it was supposed to be until he came across the man named Edge Lord, whose mask may have fooled everyone else but not him.

He could see the black-haired youth hiding behind him; he didn\'t look any older than the girl who took the test before him, and yet the sheer difference in skill was insane.

While the girl before him was strong and had a lot of potential, it wasn\'t enough to beat his brother, so he didn\'t have much of an interest in her.

However, the same couldn\'t be said about the masked youth.

From back when he saw the way Mana reacted to his presence upstairs.

He could tell that he was different. His talent in mana was potentially equal, if not higher, than that of William Verhein, the boy being praised as the second coming of the God of Mana himself in terms of his talent in the field of magic.

And yet here was a youth with equal talent to that same William Verhein, just randomly showing up in his guild.

This belief was only further strengthened once he got to see the boy in action.

\'Since when did talented monsters become so common?\' Michael couldn\'t help but think.

But it wasn\'t like he was complaining since such a talented boy had willingly appeared in front of him.

It was the perfect opportunity to raise a person capable of beating his brother in case he was overestimating William Verhein or something unexpected happened to him.

But before he went all in, he needed a bit more confirmation that he was betting on the right horse, and he had the perfect plan to achieve this.

"Hey boy, wanna skip straight to A rank?" He asked.

**

Everyone was silent as they observed Michael Harion stand up from his seat and walk towards Edge Lord.

His words were insane; throughout the history of their branch, there had been almost no instance of someone skipping straight to A rank.

But what were they supposed to argue with the leader of the organisation that brought food to their table?

And besides, just from what they had seen, everyone could tell that the boy definitely deserved the rank, so all they could do was stay silent and watch the whole exchange go down.

"What do you mean?" Edge Lord asked, his tone depicting confusion.

"Don\'t act clueless; I know you understand what I just said," Michael retorted.

"Well, yeah, but I was more asking about how." Edge Lord argued.

"Quite easy. Just spar with me, and if you impress me, you win."

Gasps of shock could be heard from everyone in the basement.

After all, Michael Harions, the younger brother of the strongest man in the world who was also among the strongest humans alive, as well as the leader of the Adventurers Guild, was challenging a no-name adventurer who had just registered and looked no older than 20.

Hearing the crowd\'s reaction, Michael quickly explained.

"Of course, don\'t worry, I\'m not ruthless. I won\'t use any weapon, skills, martial technique, spells, or even my own aspect to make it even more fair. I\'ll restrict my stats to just about 20% of their normal amount."

"And you only have to last 5 minutes against me without any restrictions on your abilities."

"So, what do you think of the challenge?" Michael asked in a taunting fashion.

"Sure, but aren\'t you underestimating me too much?" Edge Lord asked, annoyed by being underestimated so much.

"I don\'t know, am I?" Michael asked in a clueless tone before suddenly his body emitted a luminescent white-bluish hue that engulfed the whole basement.

The hue was sharp, almost like a sharp sword, and overwhelming, like a blizzard, making it hard to breathe for everyone subjected to it.

William was also having trouble breathing, but unlike everyone else who was kneeling, William smiled, forcing himself to stand straight as he adjusted the level on his ring to 5.

Requesting the mana to assist him, hearing the request of its child, Mana quickly answered his call.

And as it did, William unleashed an overwhelming crimson aura matching that of Michael\'s.

The crimson aura was much weaker than its lumniscent counterpart, but it more than made up for it in terms of intensity.

Now, once again, being able to breathe properly, Edge Lord announced.

"Yeah, I think you are."