CRASH

Elio grabbed Verity's head and launched him into the ground with enough force to create a crater.

"How many times have you reached for that spear of yours?" the blue-eyed man said. "Don't you get it? It's useless."

There were no more cheers in the audience. Now, it was only silence. What they were watching was no battle at all, just glorified torture, humiliation even.

Verity was black and blue everywhere on his body, multiple of his bones were broken, and he had reached a point where he struggled to tell up from down. He spit blood, and he managed to stand once more. With a smirk, he put his hands up, and he aimed them toward Elio.

Elio sighed. "And now we're back to this… I'm starting to think you might really be an idiot."

Verity managed to speak a few words through the pain. "Less…talking…more… fighting…!!"

Elio clicked his tongue.

In the past tens of minutes, the fight between Verity Elio had cycled between two things. First, Verity would try to run toward his spear, in hopes of turning the fight in his favor, and when that would fail, he would re-engage Elio in hand to hand combat.

Both strategies always failed, and each time, Verity was rewarded with new injuries to show for it.

Elio was growing tired of it all, to the point where he wondered if he might have been wrong about Verity. 'Could he be… just a man…?'

Elio shook his head. That was impossible. Simply because he was there that day with Hoshino, Marco, and Felicia, Verity could not be 'just a man'. There were many possibilities as to why Verity was so weak and clueless, and even if he really was 'innocent', there was bound to be another behind him.

Elio was absolutely certain of it. Verity was not meant to be here, and yet, he was.

He grit his teeth, a spark of anger flaring up, but he quickly repressed it.

Either Verity himself, or that person would likely reveal themselves soon if Elio continued.

Elio beat Verity, snapped his bones, and tried to break his spirit. He told himself that the reason he was toying with Verity in such a distasteful way was to study him and understand where he'd come from, but for the most part, he was simply angry.

Angry that Verity had taken a place that was supposed to, and had always been rightfully his, and…

He glanced at Felicia. She was staring at Verity with narrowed eyes.

…Yes, Elio was also angry that her gaze was not directed at him.

He struck Verity with his fist, only giving him enough time to put up a guard before being sent flying away.

Verity couldn't help but chuckle as he hit the ground with a sound that sent chills down the spines of those watching.

"What's so funny?"

Verity laughed again, blood gargling in his mouth. "What… isn't funny about this?" He weakly tried to stand up once more. "I… don't even know what I did to you and… even now, you're still glancing at Felicia every so often…" He raised his fists. "...If I didn't know any better, I'd actually think you're doing all this because you're jealous."

—

Senna placed a hand over her mouth. "Pff. If anything, your disciple is talented with his tongue, Evie."

"But really nothing beyond that." Virgo added with a derogatory tone.

Klyde let out a low hum. "Hm. I disagree. His stamina and his pain tolerance are quite good. With intensive training, he'd make a fine Imperial knight, but that would be his limit. He could never be a Beacon, or a Pillar."

Gerard raised an eyebrow. "Hmm… He looks like he could handle my training, too bad I already have a disciple…"

CRACK

The arm rest of Evangelina's seat split in half. "Shut up, all of you."

…

They all thought the same thing.

'She's totally worried sick about him… isn't she?'

—

Elio sighed, and he fixed his hair, allowing the features of his face to shine. A few women, and some men, in the audience gasped and held their breaths, but Elio paid them no mind.

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He approached Verity slowly, and his lips parted. "If that truly is the case, why have you yet to ask me the reason for all this?"

Verity scoffed. "...Would you tell me if I asked?" He lowered his stance. "Aren't you the type to mutter incomprehensible things to himself and never explain anything?"

Elio looked at Verity and tilted his head. "Since earlier… you speak as if you know me…But you don't know anything." Elio then snapped his fingers, and a bubble appeared around the two of them.

Verity rolled his eyes. "Hah! You're one to say that? Since we've met, you've called me an imposter, an intruder, an anomaly, and even an idiot! Aren't you the one who's pretending to know me!??"

Elio looked at Verity from head to toe. His body was barely functioning, and Elio wondered if he would not drop dead at any moment. "Are you really.... not pretending?"

Verity threw his hands in the air in indignation. "No!! That's what I've been telling you since earlier! I don't know what you're talking about!"

Elio looked around, and he nodded. "I've erected a barrier around us that blocks all sound and surveillance devices from listening in. Listen to me well, I will ask you one question, and you will answer truthfully." He extended his palm. "If your answer satisfies me, I will kneel and beg for your forgiveness, if it does not, I will kill you here and now."

Verity raised an eyebrow. "And if I–"

"If you refuse, I will also kill you here and now."

'Well, that's not much of a choice is it.'

Verity took Elio's hand, much to the confusion of everyone watching. To those who sat in the audience, it was not strange to not hear them.

Earlier, Verity had been shouting intentionally so that everyone would hear, but when they spoke at a normal volume, only martial masters, magicians proficient in sound magic, and those with special means could listen in on their conversations.

So, to the audience, it looked as though they had suddenly put their differences aside, while to the Trial Overseer, the other participants, and the six strongest, the scene appeared much different.

Elio firmly gripped Verity's hand. "You do not need to know any of the details, but I possess a skill that 'reveals' a certain truth. It's not as simple as a lie detector. Even if you wholeheartedly believe what you say to be true, as long as you consent to the use of the skill, and as long as the information is connected to you in some way, my skill can reveal it as a lie."

Verity began feeling a sense of nervousness. "Ahem. If you are going to ask me about Felicia, I just want to say, we technically shared a room but we didn't even sleep in the sa–"

"Can you take this seriously for one second?"

Verity exhaled. "Yeah… sure. I understand, I consent. Ask the question."

The blue of Elio's eyes seemed to deepen, and the sense of spatial distortion that always enveloped him seemed to grow wilder, as though he was exerting significant power. Seeing this, Verity felt somewhat uncomfortable, but then again, there was no need to be distrustful since Elio could do whatever he wanted to him at any time.

Elio stared into the depths of Verity's amber eyes. "Are you aware of, connected to, or have interacted with the existence known as [The One Who Sits Upon ████ ]"

At those words, a headache overcame Verity. A splitting, devastating headache. One he had only ever felt a few times before when the skill [Lesson Learned] was activated.

"S-Sorry… I didn't quite catch that last word… The one who sits upon…what?"

Elio squeezed Verity's hand. "It's no matter. Try to forget the last part. Just tell me if the name sounds familiar, or if anything at all comes to mind."

Verity held his throbbing head. "I-I, no… I don't think so…? I've never met anyone with a name like that…probably?"

There was a long pause.

Elio stood up, then pulled on Verity's arm for him to do the same.

"I see."

In a flash, Elio covered his palm in Aura, and he drove his hand through Verity's heart.

Verity died.

Or he should have, but instead, he was holding Elio's hand that had impaled him with all of his strength.

Elio frowned. "You…diverted my strike an inch from your heart at the last moment."

He tried to retrieve his arm… but he couldn't. "What's with this… strength?"

Verity looked up at Elio, his eyes blazing. "I didn't think you'd let me go from the start to be honest…"

Elio clicked his tongue. "I have two hands. This is just delaying the inevitable."

Verity ignored him, blood spilling from his mouth, and still trying to recover from the headache he'd just experienced. "Fine, since it's come to this, I'll tell you, Elio…"

Elio stopped all that he was doing and he nodded. "At last…"

Verity began "The weapons and items that we buy from the shop are… special."

Elio frowned, failing to understand. "...What are you saying?"

Verity continued. "Someway, somehow… as soon as they're purchased, they're linked to us. That's why we can put them in our inventory… but nothing else."

Verity extended a hand toward his spear, and Elio's frown grew deeper.

He clicked his tongue. "Don't tell me you think that your spear will answer your call because it's 'Linked to you'? Even you're not that stupid."

Verity smirked. "Oh, but it will."

A wave of mana traveled from his core, to his arm, then to his fingertips, and finally, to an imaginary thread between his hand and… his spear. Verity had managed to send mana to his spear from at least a few meters away.

This was something he had realized he could do in the midst of his runic sorcery training but that he thought he could never put to use, not until today.

Indeed, the reason he had tried to grab a hold of his spear so many times wasn't because he was a pathetic coward, far from it. Every single time Elio had kicked, flung or thrown Verity's spear away, it had been according to Verity's machinations.

He had acted like a haughty, arrogant, and immature bastard this whole time to focus the audience's and Elio's attention on him, all that for this moment.

Elio's eyes widened when he noticed where Verity's spear was.

Right under his crystal.

Right, that's what this duel was about, wasn't it? It was about destroying the crystals.

Elio's free hand moved at lightning speed, but Verity's eyes… they were already closed??

Elio shouted. "NOOO!!"

With his eyes closed, Verity's lips parted. "[Vow of Fire]!"

Elio's strike came before Verity's flame reached the crystal, but that also had been accounted for.

[The skill -Not me- is being activated.]

Because Verity had closed his eyes, the skill had counted Elio's strike as unexpected, and his body had phased right through it, even freeing Verity of Elio's original strike.

Of course, it wasn't over. Elio could still attack one more time. If he strained himself, he could reach Verity at the same time that the flames reached his crystal… no, maybe just slightly later.

But that didn't matter.

Even if he was disqualified, or imprisoned, it did not matter. Nothing mattered more than killing Verity right here and right now. Since he was affiliated with 'that being', Verity needed to die.

In this fraction of a moment, Elio's crystal, melted by the flames, broke in an eruption of glistening sparks, and his palm strike was now only an inch from Verity's head. But that did not matter. As it stood, no one, not even the Trial Overseer would be able to stop Elio.

The lizardman panicked. "H-Hey!! You!! St–"

Up in the stands, Evangelina clicked her tongue. "Was even this part of your plan… brat."

She exhaled, and her right foot sunk into the stone beneath her.

The audience froze.

The trial Overseer froze.

The challengers froze.

And Elio froze.

Like suppressing the slightest of movements when an apex predator was near .

A predator that had shown their fangs, and against which the prey could only hope that this would not be their last day.

Evangelina Dreadmoore, without a single word, had spoken. The match was over, and she would not allow any transgression of the rules. She was fully within her right to do so, as she was fully within her right to annihilate any who dared disobey.

Elio's hand trembled, and only a mere inch from Verity's face, he fell to his knees, his breathing erratic, and holding his chest as cold sweat rolled down his temple.

'Damnit…!! Still too weak…!' He thought as he tried not to collapse. 'I was… so close!! Verity….!!!'

And that is how the third duel concluded.

Verity's undisputable victory.

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