"I have to say that you caught me off guard there. You've really improved too much. If you face an A rank peak... I think that you would do just fine." Fein knew how to praise when needed. He could see that Sofia had really worked hard in the past few months in just the short time of their spar. "It was beyond my expectation. Because I thought that it would take at least a few years before you would be able to wield the destruction energy stably."

He looked at Sofia directly in the eyes. And within her eyes... He could see the happiness and determination. "But you proved me wrong this time..."

"Of course. I gave my best because I really want to help you! The last time, I felt helpless. I want to always stand by your side and at least contribute something."

A smile appeared on Fein's face as he felt the genuine feelings and raw emotions from Sofia's words. It reminded him again just how lucky he was to have such a girl to say by his side. Not only beautiful but also smart, hardworking, sensible... She's almost perfect in her opinion. Of course, there's nothing perfect in this world. But he could only describe Sofia that way in his eyes.

As Fein thought of this, he stared at Sofia in the eye intensely and says. "No matter what happens. I'll never leave you behind. Just like how you want to stay by my side. I also want to do the same, and protect you for the remaining time of my life."historical

When Sofia heard this, her entire face reddened, and she felt butterflies in her stomach. After all, this was only the second time said sweet words to her. And she could feel with her woman's intuition that he means it.

"W-well... Let's continue our sparring. I still have something in my sleeves that I haven't shown you." Sofia began to stutter.

"Hmmm... But isn't the energy destruction you're strongest to move? I think you just want to change the subject." Fein chuckled.

Deep inside, every time he sees Sofia blush and stutter, he only thinks that it was cute. As he could see... Sofia had really become mature and wasn't the same as she was last time. So, seeing her blush and stutter once again gave him delight. 'It seems I still had it in me. I still had that natural rizz within me!'

Though, Fein noticed that Sofia had created several new moves this time. Like the one where he turned the blood into snakes, the fake purple phantom, and the purple mist that helps her conceal her presence.

Sofia didn't answer this time... Suddenly, a dark sphere of light enveloped the entire place. Darkness was everywhere, darkness devoured the light. Because only darkness could drive away light.

'Dark Domain? Well, let's see what moves you still have in your sleeves.'

He couldn't see the trees, the ground, or the sky, and it was all pure darkness. It was as if he closed his eyes. He could only see Sofia not far away from him.

"I'll let you see my trump card," Sofia said with a somewhat proud voice. "This is my masterpiece!"

Suddenly, the entire dark domain started to tremble. Then it shrank rapidly until it became the size of a pebble stone.

"What does she want to do?" Fein muttered under his breath. He just continued to observe.

After all, this was just sparring, not a real fight. If it was, he would never let his opponent transform or make their final moves like the others protagonists in the books he read in the past. In his view, that is just stupid.

Just like that, Sofia poured all the blood energy available in her body into the black pebble stone in her hands and turned it into a deep purple one.

"I should have expected it." Fein stood with crossed hands. He became more and more curious about Sofia's next move. "Is that your masterpiece? That's it? Do you want to throw that to me or what?"

Fein could still feel the terrifying amount of dark energy and blood energy that Sofia to create the deep purple stone in her hands. If she really threw it and happened to hit him. It might just really do enough damage to him. Not only that, but he also noticed that Sofia's breathing became labored as her chest heaves up and down.

"No. It's not as simple as you think." Sofia wiped the sweat from her forehead. A smile emerged on her lips. Then she threw the pebble stone that was made of a huge amount of Aiki that she forcibly compressed into a small size.

This time... Whether it was her blood energy capacity, or degu energy reserves. She poured them all into the thing that she threw. Now, she was thoroughly exhausted and suffered a mild symptom of degu poisoning. She could feel her pulse become slightly weaker than normal.

Fein was startled as Sofia just threw such a dangerous thing casually. So, he prepared to use his ability to teleport himself and Sofia far away if the pebble stone happened to explode.

After all, such a large amount of concentrated destruction energy wasn't worse than a nuclear bomb. Although he was confident that he could resist a nuclear bomb with his current physique, it would be different for Sofia.

The pebble stone landed on the ground. But it didn't explode or anything, which made Fein relaxed for a moment. But he didn't let his guard down and entered his chess perception.

The ground turned into a chess board; the trees became chess pieces, and everything around him slowed down significantly.

Suddenly, the pebble stone flashed a bright purple light... When the purple light touched Fein, he got pushed by a powerful repulsive force six meters away and crashed into the waterfall.

The cold sensation brought by the water woke his senses. Now he was drenched with water, along with his hair and clothes.

Fein quickly came back to his feet and looked in front of him. His eyes widened as his gaze landed on the outcome, and Sofia's so-called masterpiece.