Elowyn, sitting in the stands, covered her mouth as if she were about to vomit for some reason. Narisse, beside her, grew worried and tried to approach, extending an empty popcorn bucket.
"What's wrong, princess?"
Elowyn's eyes turned red from the burning pain she felt in them. The reason was that Lira's essence had worsened—it was something grotesque, swirling around Enrico's neck as if it had been sent by her. Her eyes hurt more and more, even when she tried to turn her head.
'My eyes… they hurt. How do I make this pain stop?'
Remembering something, she looked toward where Enrico was. Seeing that his essence seemed to devour that grotesque thing, making it shrink around Lira, Elowyn's eyes stopped hurting and she could finally calm down.
'This is a good feeling… the only problem is that I have to look at him.'
"That's it, Enrico, don't give up."
"Damn it, he seems to have gotten stronger."
"Why is he so injured?"
Hearing Danyana cheering, she turned just in time to hear Valença and Kai's comments as they had just arrived, both looking worried. When Valença saw he was hurt, she ran to the spot.
"This fight is already over, Enrico."
"No… I can still continue."
"Not with your body in this state. Let me heal you."
Angela held Enrico in her arms while he struggled, trying to go face Lira again, but he seemed to be losing consciousness. He had been so close to winning—if he had, the characters might have evolved even further—but now he had lost that chance.
"Damn it…"
Angela sighed as Enrico lost consciousness and laid him on the ground, beginning to heal the deep and open wounds on his body. Lira, whose expression had returned to coldness, gave a respectful bow and turned to leave the arena, which had returned to normal.
'This feeling is incredible.'
In the corridor, Lira leaned against the wall, trembling and gripping it tightly. A dark laugh escaped her lips, and her eyes shone with madness.
"Incredible."
Being carried to the infirmary, Enrico had entered a state where he might take a long time to wake up and could even miss the fifth round if he didn't. At the bedside, Serenya, Elian, and Caelan approached, worried—especially Serenya.
"Angela is already healing him while he's being carried. You can trust her to take good care of him."
Virelle arrived behind them. As she had said, Angela was healing Enrico, and six of his wounds were already closing. Only his face was taking a bit longer, but it would heal completely.
Valença arrived soon after, along with the other girls, Yumeha being the one who followed him the closest. Seeing this, Elowyn was a bit surprised when Danyana jumped from the stands and went straight to the infirmary, looking upset.
'He said he could keep going, so why did they stop him?'
"Where are you going, Deymon?"
"I'm leaving. The fights are already over anyway."
"…Just make sure to be back this afternoon for the next match."
As if he didn't care, Deymon walked away, as if he only wanted to see Enrico's fight. Elowyn was already growing tired of his attitude, and to be honest, she was already planning to remove him from her plans and replace him with Enrico, who knew about the future.
'Even if he's annoying, he's better than Deymon. With this attitude… I'll tell my father to replace him on my list of vassals for the succession trial.'
Outside, Deymon sat at a table where Jago was already waiting for him. It irritated Deymon to have these conversations where he had to mention Enrico—it was bad enough that he sometimes had to follow him from more than five hundred meters away.
"What do you think of his performance?"
"Why ask me that if you saw it yourself?"
"You seem unsatisfied with how much stronger he is compared to you."
"Tsk, that doesn't matter—he lost, didn't he?"
"Actually, from my perspective, that girl just got lucky with her last attack…"
Looking at Jago in confusion, Deymon tried to figure out what he meant by that. With a sarcastic look at Deymon's level of attention, Jago turned to the side, noticing four hooded figures at the next table—the four subordinates he had gathered so far.
'He still hasn't shown what I saw that day.'
The day he felt the energy of a Nartheis coming from Enrico's body during his fight against Tilios—and it wasn't just any Nartheis. Without a doubt, its classification should be Rank Ranvil Level One. Sure, there were many Level Ones, but the energy he felt was like that of a newborn—still in the stage of forming its power, which made it unique.
'From what I know, one of the Kairom-level Nartheis appeared exactly this way, fully completing itself after five years and already reaching Ranvil Level Three.'
That's why Enrico was so interesting to him. Maybe if Jago could figure out exactly how this worked, he could replicate that development for his own evolution.
'I need to keep watching him and try to decipher this somehow… Maybe if I could find out who he really is—if another one even exists.'
In that fight, he had felt a second Nartheis presence, but it was so faint that he couldn't identify where it came from—perhaps it was from Enrico himself.
'What if that's it? What if he has two Nartheis inside him, developing together and in balance?'
That thought gave him an idea to complete his decision—and that's what he worked on throughout the day after leaving Deymon at the table. He began writing on paper, weighing the pros and cons of whether it could work.
"Looks like I've been here for a while."
Leaving his hideout, he disguised himself as a civilian he had killed on the first day of the eliminations.
'I only came here to analyze Enrico, so I don't need to stay all the time.'
Sitting in the stands, he crossed his legs as he watched the first matches. Among all the groups, the ones that excited the audience the most were Groups F, C, and E—considered the best in terms of entertainment.
'Wait—that feeling.'
Jago focused on the arena where Enrico was about to fight Sakura. Focusing on the spot where he would appear, he felt the energy he had been waiting to see.
'Finally. Now show me why you're so different, hidden Nartheis.'
Enrico entered the arena, his eyes covered by his hair. His wounds were still visible on his body, and he clearly wasn't fully healed, yet he wore an amused smile on his face—and in that smile, there was also a hint of arrogance.