Graham didn't notice that the moment he grasped the shadow's hand, an invisible black aura had silently enveloped him.
Regarding Aldebaran's 'Unknown Authority', Graham had some understanding. From the information in his mind, this Authority will seemingly randomly assign roles to those within the domain- the role of 'Victim' and 'Perpetrator'. [T/N: now it makes sense...]
In summary, it was a specific domain that could forcibly pull people into a one-on-one duel.
This ability was called a cheat skill because, upon death, Aldebaran could restart like in a game, similar to Subaru's Authority; 'Return by Death'.
Each time upon his death, if Aldebaran is the 'Victim', he will be able to remember previous loops in his domain while his opponent will not.
If Aldebaran is the 'Perpetrator', his opponent will remember the previous loops while Aldebaran himself will not. His opponent is then trapped in a never-ending loop of trying to kill Aldebaran, seemingly unable to escape until they lose their minds.
This ability allowed Aldebaran to resurrect infinitely, betting on whether the opponent retained their memory or not. [T/N: in Summary, the one assigned Victim remembers while the one assigned Perpetrator doesn't. I used the fandom to get proper explanations and used them here as it seems the author confused himself somehow.]
Seeing Aldebaran's resentful gaze, Graham confirmed his guess.
The voice had said he was the 'Perpetrator' so he retained the memory of killing Aldebaran. [T/N: as I said, confused himself somehow... or Graham's cheat that prevented his memories from being wiped out by Roswaal also came into effect here and he retained his memories even though he was assigned 'Perpetrator'... Or maybe I'm just tweaking... Any viable solutions that you, the reader, can come up with are welcome.]
However, the most impressive aspect of this ability was the freedom to choose the save point.
Now, Graham and Aldebaran had returned to the moment before the match.
More precisely, they had returned to the second round of drawing lots.
As long as he drew a completely different number from before, he could perhaps perfectly avoid this death, right? After all, he couldn't win anyway.
Aldebaran thought it was a good idea, but fate seemed to play another trick on him. After three matches, his opponent was still Graham.
Looking at the number 4 in his hand, Aldebaran's face turned pale. Knowing he would be killed again was not a pleasant feeling.
From the previous experience of being killed, Graham was a cold-blooded and ruthless guy who would definitely kill his opponent, with no chance for mercy.
So, at this moment, he could only brace himself and go for it.
Although he had survived in the Gladiator Arena with his Authority and honed his exceptional combat skills, unfortunately, he couldn't use magic.
Even so, he felt he shouldn't give up. As long as he kept trying, remembering the opponent's attack routes, he would definitely not lose.
If he hadn't activated his domain and used his Authority at the last moment, he would have been dead by now.
In fact, neither Aldebaran nor Graham noticed that the former had silently lost something, while the latter had gained it.
Returning to the main topic, as he walked to the arena again, Aldebaran was prepared for death and thus activated his domain first. The domain's range was set to this whole mansion.
For some reason, this time the domain was very smooth to use. Previously, every time he used it, he felt a strong sense of oppression...
"My name is Aldebaran, please guide me."
Starting over, Aldebaran was unwilling to back down. His hatred for Graham gave him the courage to fight. Since he was going to die anyway, he might as well die with some dignity.
Moreover, after dying multiple times and remembering Graham's attack patterns and routes, he would definitely make the opponent pay.
Graham, however, just smiled and made a gesture, "Please."
During this time, the dazzling deep blue light kept flashing in his eyes.
It seemed the conditions were finally met, and the special ability he had guessed, the 'Mystic Eyes of Death Perception', had awakened.
The 'Mystic Eyes of Death Perception', a conceptual Causality ability, allowed the holder to see the end of things, that is, 'Death'.
Touching and cutting the death lines or attacking the death points would cause irreversible damage to the object.
...
After announcing his name, Aldebaran roared and thrust his sword at Graham, eager for revenge.
In response, Graham simply opened his hand and aimed at him.
"Fireball."
Yes, just a fireball. He could naturally use it too, as long as he gathered fire attribute Mana and used the corresponding lesser spirit's assistance to easily conjure and emit it.
"Ha!" Aldebaran's expression didn't change. He swung his sword a few times to dispel the fireball.
"Waterball."
Graham continued his antics.
Thus, under the astonished gazes of the crowd; fireballs, waterballs, earthballs, and even continuous small wind blades were constantly launched from Graham's hand, bombarding Aldebaran.
Priscilla squinted her eyes, showing a delighted expression, "As expected, he is a Spirit Arts User and potentially a Spirit Mage, his magical talent is undoubtedly high," she silently muttered to herself.
Although fireballs and waterballs were the most basic and lowest-level magic, Priscilla believed that if given better magic books to study, Graham would become even stronger.
After all, he was a wandering warrior, so it was normal to lack resources.
Moreover, there weren't many mages in this world who had the affinity for all elemental attributes.
Thus, Priscilla secretly made up her mind to definitely make him her knight.
Back in the arena.
At this moment, Aldebaran was somewhat embarrassed. Although the opponent's magical attacks weren't very powerful, they were persistent.
He didn't know where Graham got so much mana to cast so many types of magic.
Moreover, each time he used his sword to block, it consumed his stamina.
In fact, Graham was just experimenting with his 'Mystic Eyes of Death Perception'. Not achieving the desired effect however, he stopped the magical attacks.
He had already seen the dense red death lines on Aldebaran's body, as well as the death points on his heart, head, and limbs.
Unfortunately, flinging magical attacks on the death lines and death points proved ineffective. To fully utilize the 'Mystic Eyes of Death Perception', it was best to use a dagger or other sharp blades....
...
[T/N: Remember to point out any potential errors you come across so I can fix them. Though keep in mind that Webnovel automatically deletes all paragraph comments of edited chapters... Enjoy]