In a destroyed house, Enrico was covered in blood, his clothes torn, and his hair covering his eyes as if he were unconscious. Seeing that, the referee immediately declared the end of the round.
"Winner of the match, Lira Xuefeng."
"What?"
Lira stared at the scene in confusion. Had she seen it wrong? Had he simply failed that last attack? If he had failed, then maybe she should give up on making him her rival—the one who could handle her personality. Was that day going to repeat itself? The day she broke someone…
Ever since she was born, everything she touched broke—her toys, her friends, her opponents, her family. She never understood why she acted so impulsively.
"She hit her younger sister again."
"This must be a curse. Why did I have to give birth to this monster?"
In her childhood, it was as if she couldn't think; her eyes were lifeless, and she seemed like an animal, always breaking everything. Even though she's now called a prodigy, Lira only learned to speak when she was eight.
At eight years old, she learned to speak—and that was also the day her family started beating her daily. To her own surprise, she liked it and retaliated, tearing off parts of her relatives' bodies. Then one day, when she was ten, they sent her away to an academy located underground in Tianlong, where experiments were conducted on students.
"This girl is strange. While the other kids scream and try to run, she does the complete opposite—she waits for the drug to finish, then attacks."
"She doesn't seem to have any problem or curse related to magic, so what's wrong with her?"
"How curious… looks like we found an interesting human."
Considered the perfect experiment since she arrived, they gave her something she actually liked—a battle against many others her age. Since the day she hurt her younger sister, she had stopped wanting to fight people younger than herself. Despite the disadvantage against older ones, she thought the perfect opponent would be someone her own age. If not, then it wasn't worth her interest, even if she still fought back when threatened.
One day, during those experiments, she met an older girl who seemed to believe she could make Lira control herself. She taught her many things—until that day came. The day Lira broke many of her opponents, and that girl gave up trying to change her.
"Looks like she gave up. But that doesn't matter, because I found what I wanted."
The day before she broke all those children her age, when Lira complained about her dissatisfaction with fighting same-aged opponents, that girl taught her one last thing—after asking a question.
"What do you want, Lira?"
Watching a broadcast shown by the adults, where a monster devoured a small animal, Lira looked at the girl with a smile.
"You should know—I want to destroy everything."
"But if you destroy everything, what will be left for you to destroy?"
Confused, she tilted her head. The girl was right—if she destroyed everything, her fun would end.
"…Then what should I do?"
"It's simple. You should find someone who can contain you. If you find that person—someone who can handle your personality—they would give you endless fun, don't you think?"
"Really?… But where would I find that person? I don't think anyone could handle me."
"If you want, I can be that person. I'm older and stronger, so you can unleash your personality on me."
Hearing that, twelve-year-old Lira just smiled and went back to watching the broadcast. As she had said, she preferred people her same physical age—people she could grow alongside. That's why she broke those other experiments the next day—to make that girl give up.
When she was released at fourteen, she already knew what the world was like and that she couldn't just go around hitting others. So, to find the one who could handle her personality, she decided to create five conditions that person had to meet.
First, personality—she didn't like people who screamed or were too good or too evil. They were just headaches. Second, the eyes—if someone had something different in their gaze, she'd give them a chance, especially if it was like hers, with a certain emptiness when they lacked interest.
Third, their physical and magical abilities—she wanted someone strong in both senses, to withstand her blows. Fourth, someone willing to take the risk of doing something outside their comfort zone.
And finally, fifth—to defeat her in battle after passing the previous four.
Since she couldn't unleash her crazy state in front of others (too dangerous for the weak), she decided to act cold, since she had already lost interest in those two years of experimentation. She lost the excitement of fighting anyone except the one she would choose as her rival.
"Only the one I choose can see the real me."
During that time, she also learned that being crazy would lead her down a path people called "evil," and that it would eventually lead to her death. So, she decided to be a "good" person, even if cold toward others.
"It's weird… In the past, I felt disgusted with myself for thinking this way, but now I accept it. I'll just wait for the day I can find my rival."
Since joining Astrong Academy, she had seen many strong people, but none truly interesting. Then one day, she met Victoria—stronger, faster, with far more magic—and yet she only felt one thing after being defeated.
"What a disappointment."
Even though Victoria was stronger, she didn't pass a single one of Lira's four conditions to be her rival. Fighting her was boring—it was just raw power trying to crush an insect.
"Will I ever find something interesting?"
"That girl seems sad."
"Isn't her name Valença?"
'How boring.'
She didn't like people with sad eyes and tragic pasts—it was tedious having to comfort them. And those who smiled despite sad pasts were just people hiding from their wounds.
"It seems most of her classmates were killed in a dungeon."
"I see. So that's it."
She found it interesting, but nothing special. Then, as she was leaving, a boy ran past the spot Valença had just been. He had golden hair, but what caught her attention wasn't his appearance or the worried look on his face.
"Emptiness?"
She didn't follow him. She just stood there. Her mouth, which hadn't smiled in so long, seemed like it wanted to—but she covered it to hold back. Among the things she loved most, emptiness was her favorite. And that's what she saw hidden behind that worried gaze.
'Calm down, Lira. He looks weak.'
She was right—he was weak. But he was evolving every day at an absurd pace for someone who should've been weak. Watching from afar, she saw that he also passed the personality test—he was someone who could handle hers.
"He passed the third one too… hehehe."
She lay on her bed, hands covering her face. He had passed three of her tests, only two left, and even so she bit her hand to keep herself calm—hard enough to draw blood.
"Three? The last one only reached two. I'm so close now, so please… let him be my rival."
She had waited two years for this—it had to be now. When he passed the fourth test, she couldn't contain herself anymore. The reason it was the fourth was because she wanted someone who could take risks, who could adapt to any situation. If Enrico wanted, even after she found him using the wind's location, he could've stayed put and swapped with a clone to keep his distance—but he came anyway. Deep down, she felt he might've even thought of that plan but lied to himself.
Throughout all those eliminations, Enrico used every battle to evolve—and in her fight, he did exactly that. And that was what she wanted for her rival.
'Only one left… what happened? Did he really fail? Was everything just an illusion, and all that blood just the truth my eyes refused to see?'
Her breathing quickened, but she managed to regain her cold expression and turned away from Enrico. She needed to watch the broadcast and be sure if those feelings were real.
"Enrico, what are you doing?"
Suddenly, a blood-covered hand grabbed her shoulder tightly. Turning around, a sight that would terrify most appeared.
"Where do you think you're going, you damn lucky prodigy?"
A blood-soaked Enrico stood there, his right side almost entirely destroyed, looking like a monster. Hearing those words and seeing that face, she was sure—she had lost that fight.
"Hehehehehehe…"
And then she couldn't help but smile again—this time, a wilder, almost demonic grin. She had found her rival, and she would never let him go.