Chapter Sixty Two: The Combs Selection

By and large, the truth is not merely

a fierce battle between ignorance and fallacy,

but, first and foremost, a combat with our

preconceived ideas and aprioristic

conceptions.

Erik Pevernegie

jJj

The stadium was full to the brim. The Fellowship is in complete attendance. As the crowd roars with enthusiasm and excitement, the energy reflected by the audience to the participants is super electrifying.

In the center of the battleground, the prospective combatants are all lined up, getting ready to showcase their power and skill, although most of them may be queuing up for the last time and into their painful death. Others, like a handful of them, are waiting to receive the full glory of their predestined triumphant victory, preparing to assume the respectable role of a competent ruler.

As the crowd continues to indicate its boisterous interest to the starting lineup, the Group of Seven's prying eyes are hidden from the public's notice by the secrecy of their masks, examining every individual present who may have the intrinsic talent early on in the selection process, as well as deciding the demeanors of everybody who may be discovered to be consistently characteristic of carrying within them the presence of a potential might.

While the full ceremony of the ultimate Comb selection begins, every skill that is needed for victory is constantly perused while the battleground is laden with expectations both grim and bright. In fact, the majority of them are effectively taking the risk, walking willingly into the valley of death because there is no guarantee that everyone will come out of the Purple Junket alive. Heroism derived from courage is the eventual prize for all of them.

As the choice for the right Combatants are carefully studied by the impression of their individual efforts, which is achieved by adequately showing their stuff to the Fellowship and to the Gamblers, it is highly probable that creativity in skirmish may be the only factor that will determine the final edge from the systematic discernment of performance as compared to those shown over the others.

All of the moves and tactics shown even beforehand, and now that the fighting styles are heavily influenced by time's efforts to modernize everything (or to create more order from the present disorder) in a proper historical perspective, the Potioneers and the Dark Masters are generally regarded as innovators of change, the symbolic heroes who are the self-appointed warriors against the proliferation of Sinister Agents, whether it is in a distinct form of substances visible or invisible.

In the midst of all the disorder happening inside the battleground from every fighting stance shown and the extravagant exhibition of their prospective dueling skills, the Untarnished Cup of Miraculous Valor remains displayed at the center of the action, serving as the most proximate witness to the predicate analysis of the participant's final selection as an appropriate destiny foretold by the flaring elixir of the cup and the fortune corresponding to the constellations of the stars.

And within every movement and every virtue of chivalrous character, mentioned or shown, the Untarnished Cup produces a distinct purple smoke (from which the term "Purple Junket" was coined) whose degree and intensity of appearance is determined by the mark of all whose dueling skills had been revealed in the characterization of their set of skills, and especially when combined with the final strength of the chosen Combs.

The Official Cauldron will then be lighted. 

Together with the chosen Question, the names of the Combatants will be mixed in the ashes of the burned ballots, to arise later on after the Games had been decided, to ascertain the foretold destiny of this edition of the Prudence Wars, and for all related prophecy to return to the night sky containing the destiny of the stars.

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The Chapter is sponsored by Nike, Inc.