Within a confused atmosphere, Hugo's declaration came like a bad joke. The audience had all seen it. The ultimate and greatest showdown of the competition was won by Arnold, and yet, Ace had won the competition against all odds.
It simply didn't make sense why that was the case. At least until Isidor proceeded to explain to the public the situation amidst their whispers of doubt and uncertainty.
"Okay, okay! Dear spectators, you may have forgotten this, but the main objective of this year's 5-Star Competition is not only to eliminate the other contestants, but it is also to find the treasure that was hidden somewhere on the map!" announced Isidor, reminding them of the rules that were previously announced before the start of the Competition. "As such, if each and every one of you could please direct your attention to the display screen!"
The sight that everyone saw was a surprising one. Even Arnold looked at Ace with surreal surprise in his eyes.
Indeed.
Ace's body that was in the process of disappearing as per the rules and mechanism of elimination, hadn't dispersed at all.
Contrary to expectation, he sat with the arm that held a rectangular box-like blue stone in hand, resting on his knee.
"With that out the way, I hereby announce the end of the 5-Star Competition!" announced Isidor as any remaining contestant was being teleported away from Hugo's artificial space.
"That was a close call," started Ace internally, his vision turning to darkness for a short while before reopening them as he now stood at the center of the arena of the colosseum. "Though it was quite the gamble, in the end… I won."
Confetti and fireworks exploded in the air as the audience's opinion was divided about Ace's victory. What they had witnessed was hard to forget even with all the excitement and hype of his duel against Arnold. More specifically, the surgical and brutal way he fought Emilia previous to his duel against the people's Crown Prince.
Some roared and clapped with satisfaction at the performance while others whispered their curses of his brutality, with the latter being overshadowed by the former even with how much it was weighing in the air.
As Isidor approached Ace with a mic in hand, Hugo observed Ace with an analytical eye.
"Congratulations!" started Isidor with excitement and a hint of curiosity in his voice while he clutched Ace's shoulder. "So, how does it feel to be crowned winner of the 5-Star Competition."
With the mic in front of him, Ace said the most surprising line ever.
"Sorry, but I'm tired," Ace said, the audience, the VIPs and even Isidor being completely dumbfounded. "I'll be heading in now."
"Wait-!" started Isidor as he stumbled, his grip on Ace, who simply dispersed in a trail of shadows in a single step, disappearing as if he was never there in the first place. "What!?"
Isidor looked around, unable to even find a single trace of Ace anywhere. And in the meanwhile, the audience were either surprised or annoyed by Ace's attitude.
To put it simply, the atmosphere in the colosseum became awkward and heavy, leaving Hugo to sigh in exasperation while Leonardo held back his laughter back in the VIP lounge.
"What an amusing child he is," Leonardo thought while Dorian was laughing his lungs out and the other elders just looked completely lost by the whole situation.
---
---
---
In the meantime, as they walked out of the waiting room for those eliminated during the competition, a younger sister struggled to hold back her laughter at her elder brother's defeat.
"Okay, I get it," said Arnold, exasperated at Stephany's continuous laughter. "Would you quit it already."
"I'm… sorry… it's just…" Stephany's words were broken by her unbearable and endless laughter. "It's just…"
Stephany struggled to put another word in her mouth as she just held back her laughter. Her amusement, not seeming to end anytime sooner, simply made Arnold release a long and deep sigh.
After several minutes, Stephany finally calmed down.
"So," she started, wiping off her tears of joy. "How do you think he did it?"
"I don't know," replied Arnold, replaying each moment of his fight against Ace in his mind. "The way he fought was almost elusive."
"What do you mean?" Stephany asked, her curiosity piqued.
"What I mean is that there was no proper way to react to his sword. For every action I took, he had a counter-action ready. In terms of pure execution, motion fluidity and technique, he surpassed me. That was evident. His sword was elusive and rogue. Like a wild beast that adapts its hunting method to its prey."
"So poetic," said Stephany with a teasing tone. "Any title in mind?"
With a deep sigh from Arnold, "Please be a little empathic towards your brother, would you?"
"I'll think about it," she said with a small mischievous smile.
"Anyway," Arnold started after another sigh. "I felt nothing from his sword. It was as if I wasn't even battling against a human. He was in front of me, but at the same time, it was like nothing was there."
"Huuuuh," Stephany stared at Arnold intently. "Basically, unless he's able to be in two places at once, there's no real way to know how he acquired the treasure and won, right?"
"I guess you could say that."
"In that case," Stephany began, grabbing Arnold's wrist and dragging him away with her. "We might as well go and ask him!"
"Ah! Wai-!" Arnold simply let himself be without fighting back.
"At the very least," his final clash against Ace replayed in his mind. "Towards the ending… I think I did manage to connect with him."
---
---
---
As Ace walked towards the exit, he replayed the stratagem he used to acquire victory in his mind.
"Who knew creating a shadow clone would be this helpful," he thought, thinking back on the first time his experiment succeeded.
His shadow stretched out in front of him and from it, a hollow and unresponsive copy of himself emerged.
He gave it orders which it obeyed easily, and thanks to this new ability, he had created two clones during the competition which scouted the area and searched for the treasure while he focused on racking in points.
"Hiding it on the farthest mountain on the map behind a waterfall… without a doubt, the old man is a sadist," he frowned as the visual information shared by his clone replayed in his mind. "On the other hand, I've got other things to worry about."
He thought to the system that suddenly appeared after being unresponsive since his arrival in this world.
"The next scenario was triggered. In which context is it triggered? What was the trigger to begin with? And... why has it been on standby all this time?" he questioned, holding his chin as he tried to figure out what he had done or what had happened before the system's reappearance.
"Hmmm?" he stopped in his tracks. "Now that I think about it…"
"Status," he called as the system didn't respond in the slightest.
"Tsk," he clicked his tongue with a mildly annoyed expression. "Kind of expected it, but I didn't think it'd happen so soon. It's almost like I'm being watched by someone or something, always playing in the palm of their hands. Whatever the system is, it's better to consider it as a variable meant only to react under certain conditions."
He let out a deep sigh.
"Better not consider it as an ally either," he muttered with suspicion in his tone. "After all, there's no way to know why it acts the way it does."
"Now then, what should I-!?" he saw drops of blood on the ground. "Huh?"
And as they continued, he noticed that his nose was bleeding.
"What the hell is-?" he muttered before feeling a jolt of pain so intense it felt like it was trying to split his head open. "ACK!"
"Shit…" he thought as his vision grew blurry before collapsing on the cold ground.