"That was fast, Shib! Is the treatment process done?"
"For the most part. The wound will take some time to fully heal, but it should be okay to move around."
"Wonderful, wonderful. So you're Dignitas Qwerdan. What a weird name." Sayuri closed in on Dignitas and began scanning every inch of his face.
There was only about an inch worth of distance between their faces, and as such Dignitas found it hard to breathe under The Crimson Maiden's curious gaze.
"Everybody said the same thing about my name…"
"Teacher."
"Pardon?"
"From now on, you will refer to me as Teacher! From today onwards, you will work under me as my disciple! Is that clear, Dignitas?"
"Gwaa! Yes, yes!" Shaken from the sudden increase in Sayuri's tone, Dignitas accepted, not knowing of the harsh training that would await him while being under her.
"Wonderful! Now, as my first order to my disciple, follow me! Let us head to someplace crowded for some field work!"
Dignitas had no choice. He was quite literally swept by the flow of the conversation and had unwillingly gotten himself into a relationship he would soon thank the heavens for.
"I pity you, Dignitas. No one's ever survived being under The Crimson Maiden as a disciple. The following days will be rough." Shib commented from the side.
"I–uh…"
***
"Are you okay, Curie? Please wake up!"
John was currently in a state of panic. Unlike in the first and second lives he lived, no demon invasion happened during the second exam.
While he was caught in his own confusion, John failed to protect Curie from a nearby demon's attack, and got her injured.
'This is all because of me being too comfortable with the timeline, thinking everything will go as I wanted!' He thought to himself.
What John didn't know was that if a certain person wasn't here, then all these events most likely would not have happened. Everything would be the same as he knew it.
"Should I do it? I could always just restart. My fourth life is bound to be better than this one." John stared at the sword in his hands.
Just as John thought of restarting his life, he suddenly stopped. Unbeknownst to him, a force out of this world had just stopped it from resetting.
"What am I thinking? This is still salvageable. I need to take Curie to the infirmary quickly! Then, I need to look for the rest of my party members."
"Don't worry, Curie. I'll get someone to fix you up soon. Please hold on until we get there."
"Unexpected. A flaw. You must die."
John turned his head in the direction of the voice. It sounded terrible, and quite frankly, not human.
And there stood a demon roughly about the size of John. A tail sprouted from behind it, and two small wings were resting on its back.
Its skin was purplish, like the color of a bruise.
"A demon. You!"
That was when John remembered. The reason why Curie was in this state.
Not wasting any more time, John drew his sword. And in one swift move,
He sliced off the demon's head.
Powered by Mana Maxima, his movements were already nearing the C + rank. The sudden burst of speed had given him the advantage he needed to end the fight immediately.
He had to. He couldn't afford to leave Curie any longer.
***
The two strongest figures in the Colosseum stared each other down. One a demon, the other a human.
One S rank, the other S+.
Although Cendria could feel the slight difference in power between them, she did not let her guard down.
Demons were known for being slick, crafty, and unbelievably witty. They made use of any tools in their arsenal to thoroughly crush their opponent under their heels.
They would take advantage of the moment you lost your focus and use that to instantly turn the tide of battle. And before you knew it, you were now the one on the defensive.
"Let us begin." Kano snapped his fingers, and in an instant, dozens of portals appeared behind him. Each portal was around the size of a standard door.
*whoosh* *whoosh*
Dozens of spears shot out from the portals at a speed even Lorelai was not able to follow.
But this still was mere child's play for Cendria, humanity's strongest hero. She crossed her index finger with her middle, and a green card appeared in the crux of the two fingers.
Throwing the card onto the floor in front of her, a transparent bubble similar to the one surrounding the Academy formed. This one, however, was much, much stronger.
Like a bunch of harmless sticks, the spears bounced off the bubble and fell to the ground.
"As expected. Now, should we get started?" Once again, Kano snapped his fingers, and two of the spears magically formed themselves in his hands.
Now armed with two weapons, Kano charged forward. To Lorelai, it would have looked like the demon disappeared and reappeared right in front of Cendria.
The green card was still in effect, though. This caused Kano's attacks to bounce away easily.
As for Cendria, she was under the protection of the bubble, unharmed. This gave her time to quickly summon another card, this time a red one.
With a single throw, the card flew toward Kano.
*boom!*
An explosion far louder than any nuclear bomb erupted on the Colosseum. Everyone who was present heard the deafening roar of magic and covered their ears in order to stop them from bleeding.
Smoke covered the blast radius, but it soon dissipated after a while.
Cendria's eyes widened in shock. The attack surely hit Kano, she thought. And the explosion was far larger than he could reasonably block.
"Is this all the strongest hero's got? I've seen better control over mana in Cerberus. That hound could easily swallow you whole."
The voice came from high above the arena. And there he was. Kano was floating in the air, watching Cendria.
'I can not afford to put the cadets in any danger. I must end this quickly.'
Naturally, as a hero, the people's safety was her first worry. It would put a bad reputation on Cendria if she managed to beat the demon but sacrificed hundreds of lives in the process.
Cendria had a firm belief that she was no more important than the ordinary citizen. Just because she was the strongest did not mean she needed to be treated like the world's natural treasure.
If she didn't protect the people, then who would?
"Get back down here, demon! I will remove you from this world!"
Placing strength in her legs, Cendria closed the distance between her and Kano with a single leap.
Even the demon was surprised at how fast she got there.
Raising her hand, Cendria slapped Kano.
But there was no movement. Kano had endured the slap and stayed completely still.
"That's it? A slap? Did you run out of cards to play?"
This went both ways. As a joke and as a genuine taunt. Other than being called the World's Strongest Hero, Cendria also had another nickname.
The Card Dealer.
"That's not it." She replied, smiling.
In an instant, both of them disappeared. No trace whatsoever. They had just disappeared from plain sight.
Their destination? One hundred kilometers above the surface.
In order to go full force without worrying about the damage they would cause, Cendria quite literally brought them to space.