Rushing in my direction, Kevin shouted. His voice sounded extremely panicked.

"Where is Emma?!"

"Calm down, Emma has been taken by the staff, her father is with her."

Raising my hand, I motioned him to calm down.

"From what I've been told, she is still alive. Just before Emma was about to get stabbed in the back, the referee reacted in time and slightly shifted her body away, preventing her death, but..."

Pausing, my brows furrowed.

"But what!?"

Raising my head and meeting Kevin's gaze, I deeply sighed.

"...but, well, it's not looking too good. She was hit directly in the spine, so I don't know."

"Haa..."

Like a deflated balloon, Kevin's stumbled a couple of steps back as his face drained of all color.

Grabbing onto his shoulder, I held him up.

"Relax, don't lose hop"

"The book!"

Kevin suddenly shouted as he cut me off.

My eyes immediately opened wide at his words.

Placing my hand over his mouth, I quickly shushed him.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Hmmhmmm."

Increasing my grip on his mouth, I whispered in his ear.

"Get a grip of yourself, the event has already happened, the book can't do anything. Furthermore, there is nothing written on it. You know best since you've seen the book yourself."

Listening to my words, Kevin quickly calmed down as his eyes dulled.

Seeing this, I asked. "...Are you finally calm?"

Kevin silently nodded his head in response.

Eyeing him for a while, I proceeded to take my hand away from his mouth. Taking a deep breath, I tried to reassure him.

"Don't worry too much, I'm sure she will be fine."

Despite my words, I wasn't too confident in the things I said.

Emma's condition was quite critical. Fortunately, the elves were able to intervene just in time to stabilize her condition and so she was at least guaranteed her life.

Regarding whether she was disabled or not, I wasn't sure. Only time could tell.

"Huuu..."

Taking a deep breath, I turned my wrist and glanced at my watch.

===

[Permission to access granted]

[On] [Off]

===

'This is enough for now.'

Tapping onto the screen of my watch, I turned off the tracking device in Aaron's head.

***

On the upper echelon platform, moments before.

Silence descended on the platform as the eyes of all the members on the platform locked themselves on the one specific projection where a girl lay on the floor in her own pool of blood.

"Someone go and get her patched up quickly."

The first to speak out amongst the members was the elven queen whose delicate brows knit tightly.

She was evidently displeased by the fact that an incident had occurred.

Turning her head to glance in the direction of the others, the elven queen lowered her head and softly apologized.

"I apologize for the mishap, it should've never have happened."

"krrrr...krrr...What is there to apologize about?"

Responding to her, Brutus's deep voice reverberated throughout the platform. Despite the fact that he wasn't trying to speak loudly, his voice boomed loudly throughout the viewing platform.

"If a contestant dies, so be it...khrrr...Only the strong deserve to live."

"I agree."

Gervis nodded from the side as his eyes locked onto the projection in the distance.

"All contestants had been warned beforehand of the possibility of death, we can't blame you guys for this."

"I see."

The elven queen reluctantly nodded her head before standing up.

"Still, I believe that this shouldn't have happened during my watch. Each individual present represents the future of our kind, and so their death could significantly damage our futu..."

As the elven queen was speaking, the only one that remained did not have a change in expression throughout the whole event was Octavious Hall who remained seated on his seat, completely unperturbed by the various happening.

No one knew whether he cared or not about what had just happened.

Trrr Trrr

It was then that Octavious suddenly felt a vibration coming from his watch. Turning his watch, Octavious indifferently glanced at it.

===

We have detected slight fluctuations from one of the meters the Monolith gave to us.

The connection went as fast as it came as so we were unable to properly locate the individual, but it appears as though 876 is currently present.

===

Octavius's brows furrowed slightly.

876.

Octavious had almost forgotten everything about him.

876 was someone that the Union had agreed to catch in exchange for the truce.

In reality, this was merely a formality thing as the Union had never bothered investing that much effort into catching him.

Since they had agreed to it, they had to do it, but it had never been on their lists of priorities.

The reason why he had completely forgotten about 876 was because his signal disappeared a while back. Octavious thought that he had died.

Still, since the Monolith had never said anything regarding him being dead, Octavious had some people keep watch for any signal.

Judging from the current message, it appeared as though he was still alive.

Tapping onto the screen of his watch, Octavious sent a message back.

[Make sure to be on constant alert. If you find his signal again, capture him alive.]

Once he sent the message, Octavious leaned back on his chair with an aloof look.

Whether they captured 876 or not, he really did not care.

***

Late at night.

A heavy scent of alcohol permeated throughout a small room.

Laying on a small bed was a young girl with auburn-colored hair. With a pale complexion, her frail figure lay on a soft bed.

Seated beside her, holding onto her small delicate hand was Kevin whose body trembled uncontrollably. A couple of hours after the incident, the elves managed to finally stabilize her condition, allowing for the others to finally visit her.

Along with Ren and the others, Kevin went to visit Emma. Taking his feelings into consideration, they all chose to visit at a later hour, giving him some alone time with her.

Gazing at Emma's frail figure, Kevin felt a heartwrenching pain coarse through his body.

A multitude of emotions flashed across his face ranging from pure hatred and sadness.

'...This is all my fault.'

Squeezing her hand harder, Kevin clenched his teeth tightly. It was only after someone showed him what had happened that he realized that the person responsible for this was Aaron.

An undisguised amount of hatred flashed across his face as he tried his best to keep himself calm.

However, that proved to be a lot harder than he imagined as his face turned red from anger.

'...If only I did not stop Ren during that day.'

None of this would've ever happened if he had not stopped Ren that day.

Depression slowly started to sink in as dark thoughts entered his mind.

Cli Clank!

It was then that the door of the room suddenly opened and Ren walked in. Staring in his direction and walking up to him, he softly said.

"Kevin, you don't have to worry too much the doctor said that she will live."

"...I know."

Kevin muttered. His voice shaking.

"I know that she's going to live...but, he also said that sh-e suffered from a permanent injury on her back. She...will never be able to w-alk again."

Kevin squeezed Emma's hand tightly before muttering.

"...I should've let you kill that time."

There was an undisguised hatred mixed in his voice as he uttered those words.

Turning his head and glancing in Ren's direction, Kevin's snarled through gnashed teeth.

"You were right, I am too soft. I should've not interfered back then when you were about to kill him! ...This is all my fault!"

The more he spoke, the louder his voice became.

He could feel himself losing control of his emotions.

He couldn't understand what was happening to him, the feeling he was currently experiencing, the heartwrenching feeling of losing Emma...it all felt too familiar to him.

Kevin couldn't quite explain it, but the more he thought about it, the more his body trembled.

'I can't let her suffer!'

In response to his sudden outburst, Ren shook his head and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault...It really isn't."

Letting go of Emma's hand, Kevin stood up. Closing his eyes for a short minute, he quickly recomposed himself.

"No, you're right. This isn't my fault."

Raising his hand and wiping the corner of his eyes, Kevin's face slowly became indifferent.

"If there was someone to blame, it has to be Aaron. He's the one who is responsible for this."

A red glow suddenly manifested around his body. Turning his head and facing Ren, Kevin's voice suddenly became colder.

"I'm going to win the tournament."

He suddenly proclaimed.

"The doctor said that there is a chance of her fully recovering, and that's through the usage of something called an 'elven tear'. I will win the tournament and ask for that."

Before Ren could say anything back to him, taking one last look at Emma, Kevin walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Clank!

As he walked out, Kevin slowly felt his emotions become numb as a fire lit up in his eyes.

Nothing was going to stop him from winning the tournament.

Be it Ren, Jin, or anyone else. Kevin was going to destroy everyone.

***

"Haaa..."

Gazing at Kevin's departing figure, a long sigh escaped from my mouth.

Turning my head and gazing in Emma's direction, I massaged my forehead.

'I messed up badly...'

If there was someone to blame, it was me.

Had I not done what I did, none of this would've ever happened. The reason why Aaron attacked Emma was because of my own personal greed in making him suffer more.

Was the move I did wrong? I didn't know.

Without a doubt, I felt guilty for what happened, but somehow, a part of me told me that what I did was the right thing.

That what I did was a small sacrifice that I needed to take in order to regain my freedom.

...I felt like shit when those thoughts crossed my mind, but what could I do? I couldn't stop them.

Were they even my thoughts to begin with?

I really didn't know.

Having been made aware of the fact that perhaps my mind was being manipulated by someone, it became more clear to me that the thoughts that I was having could also be a fabrication of the one that wanted to manipulate me.

But just who was it?

Cli Clank!

Snapping me out of my thoughts was the sound of the door opening.

"Amanda?"

At first, I thought that it was Kevin, but to my surprise, the person that had shown up was in fact, Amanda.

"...You're here to visit her as well?"

"Mhm."

Holding onto a bouquet of flowers, Amanda slowly walked up to her and placed them beside her.

Worry flashed across her eyes as she looked at Emma who was currently in a coma. Lifting her head and gazing in my direction, Amanda brushed her hair behind her ear and softly asked.

"Do you know when she will wake up?"

"...I don't know."

I shook my head.

"The doctor said that she also suffered a head trauma and so they don't know when she will wake up."

"I see."

Nodding her head in understanding, Amanda sat next to Emma and held her hand.

'I should probably go.'

It would be rude of me to intrude in their moment. But just as I was about to leave, Amanda's soft voice rang throughout the room.

"...Emma was my very first friend."

Her voice was soft, but there was an undisguised pain laying deep within it.

Turning around, with both hands holding onto Emma's hands, I could Amanda's body trembled a little. She looked especially lonely.

My heart pained at the sight.

Amanda was not someone who had many people close to her. Yet, throughout her life, everyone that was close to her would end up disappearing from her life.

Her mom, her dad...and now Emma.

The amount of pain she went through was really too much for someone as young as her.

Startling Amanda, taking a stool and placing it beside her, I sat down and warmly smiled in her direction.

"Tell me more."

Lowering my head, I stared at Emma before looking back into her eyes.

"Tell me more about your good moments with Emma."

"Ah..."

Letting out a strange sound, Amanda's eyes reddened slightly.

Lowering her head till her hair covered her face, Amanda's shoulders slowly stopped trembling as she replied with a soft hum.

"Um."