Reborn in another world as a Hermaphrodite

All of the spells on the other side had vanished, along with the archmage and the emperor's barrier.

All three of the kids could feel their mana being suppressed to their bodies, unable to exert outward at all.

"You all really think you can beat an archmage?" The emperor laughed as he drew out a sword.

The other groups started to panic as all of them seemed unable to cast anything at all, either.

With the emperor walking closer and closer, the groups of mages started to scatter all over the place.

A few stayed, casting an elemental sword of their own in an attempt to fight back.

Yet, despite the numbers advantage, they were no match to the emperor as a clean slash and stab killed them off one by one.

The five of them on the rubble could see the elemental sword would instantly disappear when their hands were cut off.

"You all stay back here."

Within a blink of an eye, Meiya disappeared before appearing to be standing right behind the archmage.

The archmage's head was cleanly cut off, much to their surprise, as usually their body would have vanished.

Meiya instantly noticed something was off as well after seeing her kill count not increasing.

She instantly jumped away before the dead body exploded out of nowhere.

All of the mages were shocked. Even the emperor himself stopped for a second to look at what was happening behind him.

"I had been waiting for you."

As the archmage reappeared from another spot, the bright light was now gone.

Everyone could feel their mana was now back in control, being able to cast spells.

Within seconds, the archmage and the emperor were blasted with spells as they both raised their barrier at the last second.

"Professor! What the hell was that?" The emperor yelled in anger as if he didn't expect the sudden change.

"Sorry, my emperor. I will make it up to you after this fight is over."

The archmage didn't bother protecting the emperor as he turned his attention over to Meiya, who had been standing afar.

"Outsider, what business do you have here?" The archmage questioned as the emperor's barrier was now on the verge of breaking.

"I'm just here to fulfill someone's request. You aren't going to protect your emperor?"

With a snap of a finger, a portal appeared right behind the emperor before being instantly sealed back up.

"Shit!"

The archmage started to panic a little as his teleportation didn't work at all.

"You all are going to regret this!"

As the emperor's barrier shattered, a kill count was eventually added to the few remaining mages who ran fast enough.

"You six, are you really going to fight me rather than an outsider?" The archmage questioned.

Meiya immediately realized what the archmage was trying to do, causing her to strike first as she disappeared.

However, to the kid's disappointment, she stabs an afterimage of the archmage.

The archmage was now almost a hundred feet away, with a standoff as the group of six mages seemed to hesitate.

They finally realized there was a third party that distracted the archmage from them.

"You all serious? You rather help a cultivator over a fellow mage?" The archmage questioned as he dodged another Meiya's attack.

The groups finally seemed to have decided as they began casting a spell towards Meiya.

Within seconds, Meiya's speed became much slower, as she now had to fight a two-front battle.

"Alex, we have to go in now, right?"

Mary impatiently asked as the battle started to become Meiya's dodging spells being thrown at her.

They were also purposely casting all the spells toward her path, making it impossible for her to go closer to them without being hit.

"What can we do? Our level one spell won't even be able to put a dent in their barriers."

Alex was much calmer and collected as he knew there was no point in them going in.

But at the same time, he could tell he had to make something happen before Meiya lost.

"Luqing, can you go distract those six mages?"

"I'll try."

As Luqing disappeared from their sight, Alex turned his attention to the archmage.

"What can we do?" Alex murmured as he watched the archmage floating in the air.

With Luqing on the battlefield, some of Meiya's stress was finally relieved as the six mages noticed the person running close to them.

"Alex, how about we just try to throw a spell at them?" Sophia suggested, unable to just watch any longer.

"But what kind of spell? Wait, I got an idea."

As the three of them got into their formation, Alex quickly told Sophia about his idea.

"You sure wind is going to do something?"

"We got no other options."

Sophia accepted Alex's idea as the two of them began transferring both of their mana over to her.

A strong turbulence of wind began to appear around them, forming no shapes whatsoever as it gathered rapidly in the rubbles.

It wasn't a windblade or any needles of some sort. Instead, it was just raw winds as she finally directed towards the archmage.

At first, the archmage didn't seem to care about it at all, as he noticed the three kids a long time ago.

He just hasn't had the time to eliminate them from the competition, choosing to focus on Meiya instead.

However, he soon came to regret it.

The wind didn't cause any damage, as a simple barrier he cast easily blocked it.

But the wind was much larger than he expected, as it wrapped around the one-sided shield he cast.

Once again, it didn't do any damage, as it had lost most of the momentum on the shield.

Yet, the dust inside the wind that had been gathered from the rubble forced him to close his eyes for a second.

That split second was enough for Meiya to get close once again as she sliced her sword in the air.

A Qi wave, much faster than the wind, rapidly flew towards where the archmage stood as it hid itself inside the dust.

Nobody could see what was inside until the dust had all vanished.

To their surprise, there was a clear wound on the archmage's army, indicating the blade had hit him.

Meiya didn't give him any time to rest either as she cast even more Qi waves right at the archmage.

They could see the archmage panicking as he cast more and more barriers, trying to block it.

But every single one of them was being cut through like butter, with him eventually being hit by the last few.

Without even saying a word, his body disappeared as Meiya's kill count finally got one added.

Meanwhile, the six archmages had eliminated Luqing with a massive focus fire a long time ago.

They, for some reason, chose to watch the whole time despite being able to help.

"You all won."

Before Meiya could eliminate them to revenge Luqing, their bodies disappeared as if they had chosen to leave the competition.

Awkward silence appeared between Meiya and the three kids as they realized they had technically eliminated her daughter indirectly.

"I'm sorry I——"

As Alex tried to apologize, Meiya didn't seem mad at all over their decision or her daughter's choice.

To their surprise, her body vanished, leaving the three kids to be the only ones remaining.

"Win for us!"

Within seconds, Sophia and Mary both looked at each other before vanishing together.

Only Alex remained as he stood alone on the rubble, despite him wanting to give the win to someone else.

"Hey, Guardian, am I supposed to eliminate myself, or are you going to announce the winner?"

Alex asked as he looked up at the sky, waiting for someone to answer. But after a while, there was no answer.

For a second, a chill traveled down his spine, thinking that there was actually someone still in the competition.

Just like how he hid in the tunnels, there was an extremely high chance of someone being underneath all the rubbles who had not been eliminated.

"Shit... Is anyone out there? Let's have a duel to determine the winner."

Despite the yelling, not a single living person emerged anywhere besides the wind blowing dust all over the place.

Just as Alex thought that he needed to eliminate himself to win, a portal suddenly appeared from the sky.

"Congratulations, Alex. You won this year's competition. Please eliminate yourself to claim the award."

Alex didn't waste any time, as he imagined himself leaving the competition, causing light to appear in front of him.

He could see his body turning into small parts, almost like pieces of puzzles being broken apart.

---

When Alex could see again, he found himself in a little house, sitting on a chair next to a coffee table.

Everything looked so familiar, yet as he tried to remember the exact details of the house he was in, nothing came up.

The kettle on the coffee table looked so real, as the sounds of boiling water could be heard.

It reminded him of one he had used in the past, but he couldn't remember who taught him how to use it or who once brought him a kettle.