"Red Phoenix!"

"Red Phoenix!"

Farah continued to attack Adam without giving him the time to breathe, and each of her attacks was enough to annihilate an entire building.

The crowd felt the intensity of her attacks and her desire to win, but even though she tried to conceal it by showing a tense expression on her face, she was about to tire out.

'This can't be! This humiliation! I would not accept this!' Farah took Adam's actions as a way to ascertain his superiority over her. Even if he didn't attack, it would not mean that he would lose. In other words, she could never win against him because the gap between them was too wide.

To someone as prideful as Farah, it would be unacceptable to lose due to a ridiculous reason like exhaustion.

Boom! Boom!

As such, she did everything that she was capable of to take down the monster in front of her. Indeed, at some point, Adam had become a monster that she had to take down at any cost.

'Why? What's going on? Why isn't going down?' She thought. Farah could somehow accept it from a person who she acknowledged.

Therefore, the fact that she underestimated Adam made it worse, and she would look more miserable when after losing.

There was no way for the crowd or anyone else to understand what she was feeling though. Most of the spectators were there to see action and explosions.

"Burn him!" Some of them didn't even hide their thirst for blood, even though it was supposed to be a simple test.

Even Blanca felt uneasy as she watched the duel.

"What is he doing?" Blanca mumbled to herself. "I know he is not playing around but... How can he be so confident?... Is it because of his complicated plans?"

Despite what was happening, Blanca was more concerned about Adam's behavior, not only during the duel but during the last few days.

Adam had already explained her plan to her, but somehow she felt that there was something not right.

Blanca understood that it was necessary to be prepared, but the way Adam did things, it looked like it would take years for them to reach their goal, and this made her feel impatient.

Moreover, there were times when Adam acted bizarrely, as if he was thinking about something but still decided not to do anything.

The thought that Adam might be just scared crossed her mind but from the way he spoke, she couldn't perceive any fear in him.

Blanca was not as smart as her sister, and Adam was probably smarter than both her and her sister, but she wasn't stupid.

She knew that there were things that Adam didn't tell her, and she understood why he did that, but what if Adam also didn't know what he was doing? What if he didn't have the solution to their problems?

To begin with, it appears like Adam was plotting something. Maybe she just assumed that Adam would always find the correct answer but in the end, he was also a human.

"Don't tell me.." All of those were just assumptions, but what if she overestimated him? What if she was wrong about him? "No, I shouldn't be thinking like that. What would Noira have done if she was here?"

[..]

Blanca had never questioned the nature of her mission, and she was ready to fulfill her duty at any cost.

However, for once, she decided to act based on her feelings and chose to trust Adam, a person that she had only met. Thinking about it that way, it was more strange if she didn't have any second thoughts.

What if she was wrong by choosing to trust him? What if..

"So this is ice tea. Humans can indeed create interesting things."

Suddenly, everything appeared to have faded away. It was as if Blanca was disconnected from reality.

Everything was moving, but for some reason, it looked like she was watching her surroundings through a hazy glass.

The loud cheering of the audience that made Blanca feel a little bit uneasy became nothing more than noises in the background.

The only thing that appeared so clear was Adam and the individual who was sitting next to her. She didn't know when they appeared, how long they were there, or who were they, but for some reason, she was relaxed.

"Who are you?" Blanca asked in a very polite tone, and she looked like she wasn't even aware of what she was saying.historical

"Our conversation wouldn't be as enjoyable as it should be if I begin to talk about me. Do you want some iced tea?"

For some reason, Blanca couldn't refuse the mysterious individual's offer and took the modern-looking bottle that contained the Empire's most popular iced tea.

This beverage was sold at the entrance of the enormous stadium where multiple duels were taking place simultaneously.

This fact made Blanca more confused about the mysterious person's identity.

She squinted her eyes and looked at the individual, trying to identify him, thinking back about the list containing the information of people that Adam asked her to keep an eye on.

"I wonder how is he feeling now," the mysterious being said, his line of sight cast upon Adam. Seeing this, Blanca had also looked at Adam, and somehow he appeared different from how she always perceived him. He appeared..

"Predicting the future is easy because it's just the result. That's why emotions are what makes a human a human. It's hard to describe emotions, because most of the time, emotions are the origin of every irrational thing that makes humans, don't you agree?"

Blanca didn't have the slightest idea about what the person next to her was trying to say.

"Let me tell you a tragic story. There'd a boy. He loses his parents, he loses his friends, he loses the one he loves, and the one he trusted the most betrays him. If the boy was a normal person, he will end up like the one who caused his suffering. He would curse the world, wouldn't he? After all, his reason to live would vanish. He needs a new reason to continue living, but death doesn't even seem scary anymore. But how can he change his fate if he is powerless? In what way the saying that 'humans are haunted by their past would apply to him?'"

The more the mysterious person spoke, the more Blanca felt an incompressible feeling. She didn't even know what kind of emotion she was feeling. Maybe she was just confused, but why was she sad?

Seeing her, the mysterious individual appeared to have smiled a little bit, or so Blanca felt even though she couldn't memorize their face no matter how many times she tried.

"I love talking. It makes me feel a bit closer to humans. If the boy is indeed a normal person, he will never reach the right answer because human emotions can't be easily removed from the equation. If he did that, it would mean that he will discard what made him himself. So what would the boy do in your opinion? What is the correct answer?"

Blanca didn't know what to say, and she couldn't even keep up with what the individual said.

"It's already too late, or so a normal person would think. But the boy is closer to me than any other human. Thanks for listening to me, I will reward you."

For some reason, the mysterious continued talking as if they had already heard Blanca's answer.

Suddenly, the scenery changed and Blanca was taken by surprise. She couldn't differentiate what was happening from what she considered the reality,

"Sister.."

Tears dropped from Blanca's eyes as she rushed to her sister's embrace. It felt so real. She could feel her sister's warmth and her familiar smell.

"Blanca? How? Where are you?"

"I've been searching for you, Noira! How are you? Tell me where are you?! I.."

However, before Blanca could exchange a few words with her sister, she was suddenly shrouded by darkness.

"Why is it dark? Where is she? Cristal?" She shouted.

After that, the darkness looked like it was being painted over, and the people who were cheering loudly appeared in Blanca's field of vision again.

However, the first thing that caught her eyes was Adam who was kneeling on the ground,

"What happened, why is he crying? Cristal?" She asked in a more than confused tone."

"Because a human would never do what he did. The human part of him is crying," the mysterious person mumbled, but Blanca didn't see anyone, almost as if the voice was just an echo.