Although Kaen was dealt many heavy blows during the match, the thing that ultimately brought him down was exhaustion. By the time the match was over, the only thing he had the strength to do was breathe. It was a great fight and he enjoyed every bit of it but he woke up in a hospital bed wondering if it was worth all the aching that he felt with every slight movement.

  He kept replaying it in his head, how he completely lost the fight.

  "And she held back till the end" he said out loud with a short breath.

  "a true monster" he added

  "I really do pity her next opponent" Kaen said out loud and immediately began to hear a muffled laughter from beside him. He looked and saw Orie lying on the bed beside him and for a brief moment, the two men stared at each other in awkward silence until Kaen got the joke and burst into his own stream of laughter. Their laughter filled the room and they continued even though their bodies were aching severely.

  "WHY DO YOU REJECT ME? " a voice said to Natsumi. She was in an empty place with nothing in sight, a world of her subconscious.

  "Why do fail to realize that you need me?" The voice asked again.

  "No" Natsumi yelled out into the empty space

  "I don't need an evil like you living in my mind"

  "How can you say that when all you do is destroy everything around me?"

  "You're nothing but a parasite, a leech"

  "You do not deserve to be here"

  "Ha" the voice scoffed

  "You call me a parasite?"

  "I only do the things you are too weak to do"

  "I have never done anything you didn't want to do"

  "YOU wanted to destroy everything"

  "YOU wanted everyone gone"

  "YOU wanted silence"

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "All I did was help"

  Natsumi was standing before a mirror of herself. She had twin sisters but she could tell that this one looked exactly like her. Soon she started to realize why the voice sounded so familiar, it was her own voice that she was hearing all this while. She was dumbstruck, she did nothing as her other self continued speaking.

  "It was all going smoothly" the other Natsumi said

  "It was all going well"

  "We would have gotten what we wanted"

  "But that man came along and ruined everything"

  "What do you mean?" Natsumi asked

  "We were cold, emotionless"

  "Empty, with nothing but hatred and contempt to fill the void"

  "We were focused"

  "Then you went ahead and fell in love"

  "You forgot all about what we had planned"

  "He caused this"

  "Without him all would have gone well"

  "I know what we want now"

  "No!!" Natsumi yelled in protest

  "He is a distraction"

  "and we want to get rid of distractions"

  Natsumi began to notice that her voice had gone silent. Nothing she said could be made audible. She saw her body stiffening up and turning into stone.

  "We have been delaying for far too long"

  "It's about time we start making progress"

  Not many would accept the terms that were offered to Orie. He was given only eight days to recover and be ready for his next match. There were those that would ask for more time, there were those that would have forfeited the match, there were even those that would have wanted the whole tournament to be cancelled but Orie accepted the condition without any protest saying "five days are all I need".

  Like every other of his statements, Orie's "five days" statement caused an uproar. With the exception of those that knew him well, everyone had something to say about it.

  Comments about it were like :

  "I think the poison got to his brain"

  "Now he's just blabbing"

  "Oh god, him again?!"

  "That motherf***er!!"

  "He's gonna get himself killed, I know it"

  "CAN'T HE JUST STOP?!!"

  Many things were said about Orie during this time but he was too busy sleeping in a hospital bed to hear any of them. He did nothing special in preparation for the match ahead, all he did was to comply with treatment and receive visitors whenever they came to see him. He didn't leave the hospital until the match day and even then, he woke up late and had to start rushing to the stadium.

  Meanwhile at the stadium, Natsumi was already waiting in the arena and the crowd was in anticipation.

  "Ellie Porter here"

  "The day we've all been waiting for has finally come"

  "Everyone is fastened to their seats and waiting for the match to start"

  "Whoever wins this one is going to the finals so everyone wants to know who will face the defending champion"

  "The match will begin as soon as Orie enters the arena"

  "So until then, just sit back and wait"

  The murmuring of the crowd began to increase and it began to seem to the crowd that Orie might be a no show. No one noticed when he walked in, it was as if he suddenly just appeared there.

  "isn't that him?" Someone from the crowd said pointing at Orie and everybody turned to look at him. He was not putting on his coat, just a plain black shirt. He was talking to Shiro and the others but no one heard They were saying.

  Mia gave Orie a staff and he took it with him into the arena. A few practice swirls and he was ready to go. The match was finally about to begin.

  "Ellie Porter here"

  "He has arrived"

  "The time has finally come for us to witness another great battle"

  "Got tired of waiting?"

  "So did I"

  "So let's sit back and let us witness together what could be one of the greatest fights of the tournament"

  "LET THE LOVERS' BATTLE BEGIN"