"This isn't good..."

Staring at the projection where Emma and Aaron appeared, my face darkened and my heart sped up a little.

I suddenly felt an ominous premonition.

'...I should've seen this coming.'

I should've seen the possibility of Aaron getting matched up with someone like Emma. Or rather, I knew about the possibility, but I still chose to ignore it.

Normally, I wouldn't have worried, but the current Aaron was not in the right state of mind.

Of course, he wasn't.

I made sure he wasn't.

Back then, when I had taken him outside of the building, I didn't just go to him with the goal of beating him up to satiate my thirst for revenge.

No, things were a lot more complicated than that.

After Waylan and Douglas took him away from me, and after I regained myself, they quickly gave him back to me at my request.

I told them that I had a plan in mind. The both of them did not refuse but made me promise not to kill him, which I didn't.

Once I gained their permission, I gave Aaron more sedatives to keep him knocked out.

From there, I had Ryan create a small chip that was similar to mine and have it installed in his brain. That took about a day to do, and with the aid of a potion, I was able to remove any trace of anything ever happening to him.

After having learned a lot through the teachings of Jomnuk, Ryan was now able to create an almost perfect replicate of the chip, well, at least the tracking part of it, which was exactly what I needed.

After installing the chip, I also injected him with a little bit of the serum. The one that the Monolith injected me over and over again.

The intent behind such a move was so that traces of the serum would be found inside of his body, increasing the links to him possibly being 876.

Of course, there was much more to it in the plan than that. After all, there was countless evidence pointing to the fact that he couldn't possibly be 876, but I already had a solution for this.

Anyhow, the point was that the current Aaron was no longer the previous Aaron. His current state of mind was akin to what I had experienced not too long ago.

He was now extremely dangerous, and I was worried that something was going to happen.

Vrrr Vrrr Lowering my head and glancing at my watch that had just vibrated, I quickly tapped on its screen. It was a message from Ryan.

===

[Permission to access granted]

[On] [Off]

===

Without hesitation, I pressed the [On] switch.

Raising my head and staring in the direction of where Emma and Aaron were, I secretly clenched my fists before gazing in the direction of where the referee was.

'...She shouldn't die from this.'

Hopefully, the referee should have no problem stopping the fight before anything bad happened.

Crossing my arms, and glancing in the direction of Kevin's match, I secretly prayed that nothing bad happened.

If something happened to Emma...I really couldn't tell how Kevin would react.

***

An eerie silence enveloped platform [5] as Aaron and Emma stared off.

At the moment, they were both just waiting for the referee to begin the match.

As the two stared at each other, Aaron, whose face was slightly sunken and had glaring black circles underneath his eyes, opened his mouth.

"Hey"

A raspy almost croaky voice came out of his mouth as he spoke.

Emma frowned when she heard his words, however, she didn't reply back to him.

She knew Aaron all too well. Although he was different from his usual self, an aura of arrogance still radiated from his body.

Simply put, she wasn't keen on hearing his trash talk.

But it didn't seem as though Aaron got the message as he continued to speak.

"are you close to Ren?"

Emma's face froze slightly.

His words were so unexpected that for a moment, Emma almost slipped up.

Fortunately, she was able to quickly recollect herself as her face became colder.

"Why are you talking about a dead person?"

"Dead?"

Aaron scoffed. A clear look of mockery appeared on his face.

"I knowI knowI know"

His head tilted from left and right as he said those words. Raising his hand he pointed it at Emma.

"I know he's fucking alive, little bitch. I fucking know!"

Placing both of his hands on his face, his voice trembled in an uncontrollable manner.

"I saw it...he was definitely there that night...I can't be wrong!"

"He's completely lost it."

Emma softly muttered as she looked at Aaron.

From the way he was acting, it was a clear indication to her that Aaron had completely lost it.

Flashbacks of what she saw a week back replayed in her mind as she secretly sighed.

'Ren, did you really have to go that far?'

The current Aaron was a far cry from what he was in the past. Emma almost felt pity for him.

Gone was the usual elegant self. All that was left was an almost deranged and borderline psychopathic version of him.

"Begin!"

Before she could say anything else, the referee's voice rang out, marking the beginning of the match.

The first one to move was Emma.

Pressing her feet onto the ground, her figure dashed in Aaron's direction.

Although Emma knew that Aaron was stronger than her, given his current mental state, Emma believed that she had a chance of beating him.

Therefore, unwilling to waste the opportunity, she immediately went all out from the beginning.

Mana poured into her body as she quickly redirected all of her mana toward one of her shortswords.

"Hiiiia!"

Arriving before Aaron, she slashed down. Despite being lower ranked than Aaron, her attack was nothing to be trifled with as it tore the air in a devastating manner.

Aaron who had only just snapped out of his delusions was unable to react in time and thus was only able to partly dodge her attack as he only took a step back.

"Khuaa!"

Extreme pain coursed through Aaron's body as a long scar traced from his lower torso all the way towards his right shoulder, and the color red sprayed on the arena grounds.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Taking a few steps back, Aaron's face grimaced in pain as he felt blood trickle down his body.

In the background, the booming cheers from the audience reverberated throughout the whole area grounds.

"W...wha...t?"

Opening and closing his mouth, Aaron did not know what to say. Raising his head and staring in Emma's direction, his mind blanked.

Unfortunately, that slight distraction once again cost him. Repeating the same attack as before, Emma reappeared in front of Aaron and once again slashed down, this time, her attack hit him right in the shoulder.

"Khuuuak!"

A pained groan escaped from Aaron's lips as he stumbled down on the ground. With his hands behind his back, Aaron fearfully crawled back.

Raising his head and staring upward, at where Emma was, Aaron blinked a couple of times.

'What's going on? What is happening to me?... Why am I losing to such trash?'

A myriad of thoughts flashed across his mind in seconds as his eyes remained locked in Emma's direction.

Aaron couldn't comprehend what was happening to him.

He couldn't think straight.

With his eyes darting all over the place in looking for something to grab on, it wasn't long before his eyes locked towards the distance.

SHIIIIING!

Just as his eyes locked themselves there, he suddenly felt a powerful force quickly headed in his direction. From the corner of his eyes, he caught glimpse of Emma's shortsword nearing his face.

From that point, everything that happened next happened within the blink of an eye.

Just as Emma's shortsword was about to land on Aaron's face, Aaron's body suddenly disappeared from the spit, startling Emma.

"Huh?"

Then, reappearing in his position was the referee who was just as startled to find Emma's shortsword directed in his direction.

SHIIIIING!

Waving his hand, the shortsword came to an abrupt halt.

Spurt!

But not even a second after the referee stopped the attack, blood suddenly sprayed all over his body as Emma motionlessly stood on her feet with her eyes wide open.

"y..you?"

Weakly turning her head, the last thing Emma saw before passing out was Aaron's smiling face. Opening his mouth, he coldly said.

"...I hope you send Ren your greetings for me."

Thump!

Following his words, Emma's sight became black and she fell face first towards the ground.

As her body fell onto the ground, blood spilled out from her wound, slowly forming a pool of blood around her, and the noise around the arena toned down a notch.

***

At the same time, on another platform.

Clank!

A loud metallic sound reverberated throughout the platform as two swords crossed together. The moment the two swords connected, the air around them blasted out, it was clear that neither party was trying to give the other a single inch.

While their swords were locked together, meeting Kevin's eyes, Gilbert clenched his teeth tightly and muttered.

"Remember the time when I sent you flying across the wall back at the Lock? ...That was intentional."

"I know."

Swooosh!

Not falling for Gilbert's provocation, Kevin raised his foot and kicked in the direction of Gilbert's head. However, pressing his foot on the ground, Gilbert was able to quickly dodge his attack and distance himself a couple of meters away from him.

Bang!

Once he dodged his kick, with a loud bang, he propelled his body back in Kevin's direction. Raising his sword, he slashed downwards.

Clank!

Meeting his attack, their swords once again intersected.

Strands of mana swirled on both of their bodies as the two glared at each other and circular pressurized wind gales shot outwards of their bodies.

Thump! Thump!

With loud thumps, the two figures clashed under the attention of countless gazes, the outlines of their swords appearing here and there.

With the animosity that the two held for each other, neither showed any mercy in their attacks as each and every one of them was aimed to hurt, making the fight look exceptionally entertaining to the audience.

Be it heart, head, or even private parts, both of them aimed their attacks toward their weakest areas.

As they fought, from an audience standpoint, their fight looked even. With neither side giving an inch to each other, it really did appear as though the both of them were equally matched, however...

Right as Gilbert's attack was about to viciously slash Kevin's neck area, Kevin's body suddenly disappeared from where he was standing.

"Huh?"

Before Gilbert knew it, Kevin had reappeared behind him. Startled, Gilbert tried to turn around, but it was already too late, with a simple push, to Gilbert's horror, he suddenly realized that he was out of bounds and his body fell to the ground.

"Haaa...haaa..."

Breathing heavily, and staring in the direction of where Gilbert fell, a smile crept up on Kevin's face.

From the very beginning of the fight, Gilbert's goal was simple, hurt him. Kevin, who had watched Ren's fight right before his match, thought that this was the perfect opportunity to replicate his tactic.

Since Gilbert's focus was on him the entire time, Kevin took advantage of this and purposely led him towards the edge of the arena.

Once he lead him there, the rest was easy. Using his movement art and reappearing behind him, Kevin simply pushed him out of the arena, marking the end of the match.

"Match winner Kevis Voss, he will proceed to the round of 32."

Following Gilbert's fall, the referee's loud voice boomed throughout the field. However, contrary to Kevin's expectations, there were no loud cheers to meet his victory.

Glancing around, Kevin suddenly realized that the stadium was a lot quieter than before.

Frowning, he moved towards the edge of the platform. To get a better view of what was happening.

Glancing towards the other platforms, it was then that Kevin saw it.

Emma laying on the ground as blood spurted out of her back, slowly forming a carpet of red blood. Around her multiple elves were trying to stabilize her condition.

From there, time seemingly froze for Kevin as he motionlessly stared at her figure from above.