'It should be easy to defeat him.'
My gaze went to his missing arm.
'In this place the 'bodies' we have work like our true bodies.'
Indeed my current body wasn't my real body. Even if I lost an arm here, I would wake up with both of my arms and no injury in real world.
'While we are here, our bodies work normally. Dad has lost an arm and a lot of blood. He already.... half-dead .' I bit my lips and shook my head to clear my thoughts.
I opened a small portal beside his head.
A piercing Magic bullet formed above my hand, ready to fire.
But before I could shoot, he turned.
His eyes met mine.
In a single heartbeat, he vanished from where he stood.
The next moment, his sword was already swinging toward my neck.
I crouched low.
The blade missed me by inches and sliced clean through a tree trunk behind me.
'What the hell? How is he still this strong?'
He twisted his body, redirecting his swing, and stabbed forward. The motion was so smooth that it looked like he was dancing.
The sword aimed straight for my heart.
In the last second, I created another portal in front of the blade's tip.
The sword entered the first portal and came out of the second one—right behind his head.
The blade pierced through.
He froze.
Then his body fell, breaking apart into glowing pixels before hitting the ground.
[+1 Heart]
'...Fuck.'
I exhaled slowly.
'I underestimated dad.'
If he had known about my portals—or if he had been in his right mind—I wouldn't have stood a chance.
I looked at where he had fallen.
"How strong were you before you were crippled?" I muttered under my breath.
"Lord of Shadows, are you alright?" Yuna asked. Her wings flickered weakly as dad's body vanished completely.
"Yes. I wasn't injured."
"That's not what I meant," she said softly.
"…?"
"You just killed your father."
I froze.
I had been trying not to think about it. But her words forced it out into the open.
"It wasn't his real body," I said quietly. "He didn't die."
"But—"
"Let's not talk about it." My voice came out sharper than I intended.
I didn't want to think about it. Not now.
If I let that thought stay in my head, my focus would break. And I couldn't afford that here.
The voices in the sky suddenly grew louder.
"Cheater! You are not worthy! Cheater! Cheater! You are not worthy!"
I looked up.
The once-cheering figures were now jeering. Their voices echoed across the entire domain.
Before I could react, my body was pulled upward.
The ground disappeared beneath me, and in the next moment, I was floating high above the arena.
A figure stood before me.
It was X'Lhaur, the same creature who had welcomed us when we first entered this Cursed Spirit's domain.
"Greetings, Champion," 'he' said, 'his' voice echoing inside my head.
I gave a small nod.
'He' looked above at the screens in the sky, where the blurry figures were shouting. Then 'he' turned to me.
"You must have noticed what is happening. Do you know why they are booing?"
I shook my head.
'He' smiled faintly.
"A worthy warrior is one who is not just physically strong, but also has a great presence of mind.
"In fact, we believe that the mind is more important than strength. Physical power can always be trained.
"But the mind… the mind stays the same."
I didn't say anything.
"It's why we summon people of equal strength," X'Lhaur continued. "However…"
His expression changed.
"Some outsiders always find a way in."
I understood what 'he' meant.
'He's talking about Exorcists.'
'This Cursed Spirit normally pulls in civilians, not trained fighters.'
'But Exorcists always interfere, and break the balance the Cursed Spirit is trying to create.'
X'Lhaur's gaze hardened. "You are the same. No… perhaps you are worse. You killed sixty-eight participants.
"All because you were stronger.
"Because you had better tools.
"Nothing you used showed great presence of mind."
I felt no guilt of shame about his words.
Tools?
'He is talking about my spatial magic.'
They were a part of my strength. I felt no shame for using them to win.
The reason this Cursed Spirit summoned civilians was to test them. To make them think, plan, and adapt. To survive using their wits.
But Exorcists didn't have to do that.
They could summon flames, tear through their enemies, or crush them with brute force.
Unlike them, the civilians would've been forced to strategize, team up with others, betray others for their benefit and all.
That was what this Cursed Spirit wanted to see.
'Exorcists have the manual, so they use the shortest past available to them, instead of entertaining the Cursed Spirit's whim, and showing it what it wants.'
"What are you trying to say?" I asked.
"You are not worthy," X'Lhaur said simply. "Not yet."
'His' tone was calm but firm. "However, you have potential. Even if you relied on 'tools', you defeated more than half the participants alone. That shows something."
'He' raised 'his' hand, and the space around us began to twist.
"That is why," 'he' continued, "we have decided to give you a special chance instead of taking away your right to take the championship test."
If they had taken away my right, the Victory Platform wouldn't appear no matter how many times I reattempted the test.
That would've been a game over for me.
"So what will happen now?" I asked.
"Instead of a normal Elicoras Warrior, you will fight a special one.
"This warrior will have the traits of all the warriors from the last test combined into one. It is a hybrid of our race and yours, a perfect being to test you.
"If you can find the Victory Platform while fending him off, we will accept you as a worthy warrior."
'Fucking bullshit. Just changing the test whenever they want.'
Despite my thoughts, I nodded.
"Alright."
The next moment, I was back on the ground.
Up in the sky, X'Lhaur snapped 'his' fingers.
A dark figure appeared beside 'him'.
Then, from all around the forest, glowing fragments—like broken pixels—started to rise and drift toward the figure.
"What is happening?" Yuna asked, watching from behind me.
"When people die here, they leave pixels behind. They're fragments of their thoughts, their instincts, their fighting style. That thing is absorbing them," I explained.
Her eyes widened. "Wait… doesn't that mean—"
"Yes. It's learning how to fight like a human, and how to fight against one."
Yuna's face turned pale.
She understood what that meant.