The fears could be triggered by real threats or by memories of those threats. At least, he learnt something from those threats; he had to push forward them and act with his mind. Letting the fear cloud his mind would put him in a difficult situation. Furthermore, she told him something he was confident she didn't intend to divulge so early. She talked about the past Masmoenia and the present Masmoenia as if she knew what it would be as if she was the present Aurora…
While Aurora focused on the limbo dance, Stephan stole a few glances sometimes. Since she let out something important from her mouth, he had to take advantage of it and make her lose. If he won, he would make her finish his quest quickly. No matter how many luck points he had, it wouldn't be enough to block her crazy behaviours.
As she was almost done with the last bar at the same time as him, Stephan rolled his eyes to the corner and stared at her. She had her tongue sticking out for focus and clenched fists.
"Tell me… I have been wondering about this for a while but… You are the present Aurora, aren't you?" he started. "You talked about expectance and butterfly effect; doesn't it mean that you changed things and you weren't supposed to be here?"
His words made her head turn towards him. It was true she slipped some words she didn't intend to say but she thought it was alright since he didn't hang on them. She thought his fear got a hold of him again and it would be a while before he would regain his sense of composure. Humans always found it challenging to get rid of fear; fear always made one hesitate and freeze on spot, hindering the goal of causing death.
The first thing the human mind thought of when it realized it had the fear was to escape, to cement the threat and be away from it. She thought he was thinking of how to end this whole episode but he was listening to her. Her carelessness made her whole plan exposed. She just wanted to have fun since he activated one of the sub-dimensions she created for the system wielder.
Because of the lost focus, she fell backwards and lost the game between them. She didn't intend to let him win either but he touched her soft spot. She turned on her back and then stood up on her legs after pulling herself from under the threads. To look like the fool she always showed to the audience, she clapped her hands and jumped repeatedly with a big smile.
"As expected from my dear disciple, you reached this far and exposed me. I know you might have a lot of questions but let us enjoy this race a little bit more. We have eyes on us and spending time while the timer is working isn't wise. Let's do the last part. It's not that hard."
The last part of the solo race was the easiest one. It was a bungee jump to the other side of the road that was lower than the place they were standing. There were spikes all over the emptiness they had to jump and they were given cords to use. She was confident Stephan wouldn't be able to reach the other side without a boost. She used her powers to push him with a wind spell when he jumped. As for herself, she didn't need much. Her stamina was already great and she was agile. She had years of experience.
As they reached the safe area, the screens were shut, giving the audience a break. Stephan and Aurora were the only ones left as all others died or finished the race already.
"Since I am all exposed, I think I got nothing to hide now," she shrugged, sitting in darkness. "I wanted to help you improve your agility faster. As I said previously, it's better to learn how to secure an escape route than fight head-on and lose. Remember the strategy you used at the tutorial, you dodged the attacks while you tried to give a single attack to the heart of the boss."
"Yeah, I do remember it. So what you are trying to say," he fell to the ground, lying down with all his arms and legs stretched in all directions. "You are telling me to do the same thing, just this time, I must learn how to better use my body."
"Well, that's just a part of it. But you gotta admit it was fun. If you let out the scary stuff, it was the most fun race you could ever have. In fact, the marks we have around our hands are damage transfers. It's a damage transferor spell. Whatever fatal injury you will experience, it will be transferred to me. I made some changes in the rules of the spell, since I don't want you to learn about it."
"So you had it all cornered from the beginning. Tell me, I have another question, what's the butterfly effect you were speaking about? What changed?"
"I guess Soprana told you a little bit about my character, I don't care about other people, especially those who cannot give me anything. I have received the commission but I refused it. I am not interested in letting my name be known but since this is a replica from the past, I accepted it. I guess a part of me wanted to see the extent of your abilities."
"You are crazy."
"Yeah, I am told this a lot of times. What people need to understand is that I am not a hero. If something is troublesome for me, I don't do it. If I am tired, I rest. I don't push myself to serve people. Masmoenia is a rotten world. I have been travelling for years and I got one conclusion, it needs to be destroyed to be fixed."
"So you destroyed it?"
"No, it's a little bit complicated. As I said, I don't care about people so, why would I destroy it to fix it? I did my best so now I let things to future generations."