Inside one of the destroyed houses in the arena, Enrico lay among the rubble, his body covered in blood. His clothes were torn, and his hair fell over his eyes, hiding his expression and making it seem as though he had lost consciousness.
Upon seeing that scene, the referee did not hesitate to declare the end of the round.
"Winner of the match: Lira Xuefeng!"
"What?"
Lira stared at the situation, unable to understand what had happened.
Had she seen it wrong? Had Enrico really failed with that final attack? If that was the case, then she should give up on choosing him as her rival, someone capable of enduring her personality.
After all, would that day happen all over again?
The day she broke someone.
Ever since she was born, everything she touched ended up destroyed. Her toys, her friends, her opponents, and even her family. She had never understood why she acted so impulsively, as if she couldn't control her own desires.
"She hit her little sister again!"
"This can only be a curse! Why did I have to give birth to this monster?"
During her childhood, it was as if Lira were incapable of thinking for herself. Her eyes were lifeless, and she behaved like an animal, destroying everything she came across.
Although she was now called a prodigy, she had only learned to speak at the age of eight.
It was precisely that year that her family began beating her every day. To their surprise, however, Lira enjoyed it. Instead of showing fear or trying to escape, she retaliated with violence, even tearing parts of her own family members' bodies off.
When she turned ten, her family decided to send her far away, dispatching her to an underground academy located in Tianlong, where experiments were conducted on the students.
"That girl is strange. While the other children scream and try to escape, she does the exact opposite. She waits for the drug to take effect."
"She doesn't seem to have any problems or curses related to magic. So, I wonder what's wrong with her?"
"How curious... It seems we've found an interesting human being."
Ever since she arrived at that institution, Lira had been considered the perfect experiment.
The researchers decided to offer her something she liked: battles against several people her own age.
Ever since she had hurt her little sister, Lira had lost interest in fighting younger people. At the same time, she recognized the disadvantage she faced against older opponents. Therefore, she believed the perfect opponent had to be the same age as her.
Otherwise, the fight simply wouldn't interest her, although she would still accept fighting someone older if she felt threatened.
It was in that place that she met a girl older than herself, someone who seemed to believe she could make Lira control herself. That girl taught her many things, but even after countless attempts, the day eventually came when Lira broke several of her opponents, and the other girl finally gave up trying to change her.
'It seems she's given up. But that doesn't matter, because I've found what I wanted.'
On the eve of the day she destroyed all those experiments involving children her own age, Lira had spoken to the girl about her dissatisfaction with the opponents she faced.
The other girl then decided to teach her one last thing, beginning with a question.
"What do you want, Lira?"
At that moment, the two were watching a broadcast presented by the adults at the institution. On the screen, a monster was devouring a small animal, and Lira watched the scene with a smile on her face.
"You should know that I want to destroy everything."
"But if you destroy everything, what will be left for you to destroy?"
Confused, Lira tilted her head to the side. The girl was right. If she destroyed absolutely everything, her amusement would come to an end.
"... Then what should I do?"
"It's simple. You should find someone capable of restraining you. If you find that person, someone who can endure your personality, they could provide you with amusement forever. Don't you think?"
"Really? But where would I find someone like that? I don't think anyone could put up with me."
"If you want, I can be that person. I'm older and stronger, so you can take your personality out on me."
Upon hearing those words, Lira, who was only twelve years old, smiled and returned to watching the broadcast.
As she had explained, she preferred people her own age, with whom she could grow and develop over time. And that was precisely why she destroyed the other experiments the following day, trying to make that girl give up on her idea.
When she was finally given permission to leave the institution at the age of fourteen, Lira already understood how the world worked. She knew she couldn't simply go around beating up anyone who caught her interest.
Therefore, to find someone capable of enduring her personality, she decided to establish five criteria that her future rival would have to meet.
The first was personality. She didn't like people who shouted about how great they were, nor those who were excessively kind or cruel. To Lira, both were a headache.
The second was their eyes. If she found someone with something different in their gaze, she would be willing to give them a chance. This was especially true for someone whose eyes concealed a certain emptiness, similar to the one in her own when she couldn't find anything interesting.
The third criterion was physical and magical abilities. She wanted someone strong in both aspects, a person capable of enduring her blows without being easily destroyed.
The fourth was the willingness to take risks and do something out of the ordinary. She wanted someone who wouldn't hesitate to face unexpected situations and adapt to them.
Finally, there was the fifth criterion: after meeting the previous four, the person would still need to defeat her in battle.
Since she couldn't reveal her crazed side in front of others, whom she considered too weak to endure it, Lira decided to adopt a cold personality. During the four years she spent at that institution, she had lost her enthusiasm for fighting anyone who wasn't someone she could genuinely choose as her rival.
"Only those I choose will be allowed to see the real me."
During that period, she also understood that acting like a lunatic would lead her down a path people called evil, something that would probably end in her death.
Therefore, she decided to behave like a "good" person, even if she remained cold toward everyone else.
'It's strange... In the past, I even felt a certain disgust toward myself when I thought this way. But now I accept who I am. I just need to wait for the day I find my rival.'
When she enrolled at Astrong Academy, Lira met many strong people. However, none of them managed to awaken her genuine interest.
One of them was Victoria, the first-year ranker.
She was stronger, faster, and possessed far more magic than Lira. Even so, when Lira was defeated by her, the only feeling that arose in her heart was disappointment.
"What a disappointment."
Although Victoria was powerful, she had failed to meet any of the first four criteria required to become her rival. Fighting her was boring, like watching someone use nothing but raw power to crush an insect.
'Will I ever find something truly interesting?'
It was then that Lira saw a girl who seemed sad.
"That girl looks sad."
"Isn't her name Valença?"
Lira listened to the people passing nearby.
'Boredom.'
She didn't like people with sad eyes and painful pasts. To her, having to comfort them all the time was boring. On the other hand, she also disliked those who kept smiling despite having suffered in the past, because she believed they were merely hiding their own wounds.
The two students walking behind her continued talking.
"Apparently, almost all her classmates were killed in a dungeon."
"I see. So that's what happened."
Lira found the information interesting, but nothing more. Just as she was about to leave, a boy ran past the place where Valença had just been.
He had golden hair, but it wasn't his appearance or the worried expression on his face that caught Lira's interest.
'Emptiness?'
She didn't follow him. She simply remained standing in the same place while her lips, which hadn't formed a genuine smile in a long time, seemed about to curl upward.
Lira covered her mouth with one hand, trying to control herself.
Of all the things she liked, emptiness was her favorite. And that was exactly what she saw hidden behind that worried gaze.
'Calm down, Lira. He seems weak.'
She was right. Enrico was weak at that moment, but he was evolving every day at an absurd rate for someone who was supposed to be weak.
Watching him from a distance, Lira realized that he had also passed the first criterion: personality. He was someone who could endure hers.
"He passed the third one too... Hehehe."
That night, Lira sat on her bed with her hands covering her face. Enrico had fulfilled three of her criteria, and two were still left.
Even so, she bit her own hand to contain her anxiety, hurting her skin until it began to bleed.
"Three? The most anyone had ever achieved before him was two. I'm so close now... So please, let him be my rival!"
She had waited two years for that moment, ever since her conversation with that girl. It had to happen now.
When Enrico fulfilled the fourth criterion, Lira finally couldn't contain her excitement any longer.
The reason that was the fourth criterion was simple: she wanted to find someone willing to take risks in order to adapt to any situation.
If Enrico had truly wanted to prevent her from finding him using her wind-based tracking magic, he could have remained hidden, switching positions with his clone and keeping his distance until the fight ended. That way, he would have stayed out of her reach without needing to expose himself to a direct confrontation.
But he didn't do that. Instead of continuing to hide, he advanced without hesitation, accepting the risk of facing Lira head-on.
She suspected that Enrico might have considered that possibility and even tried to convince himself there was no other choice. After all, throughout all the elimination rounds, he had been taking advantage of every battle to evolve, even when it meant facing dangerous opponents. In that fight, he was doing exactly the same thing, willing to learn and improve even against someone as strong as her.
That was what Lira wanted from her rival: someone who didn't limit himself to fighting to win, but who was also willing to risk everything to surpass his own limits.
'Only one more remains... So, what happened? Did he really miss? Was it all just an illusion? Is all that blood nothing more than a truth my eyes refuse to accept?'
Her breathing began to grow irregular, but Lira managed to recover her cold expression. She turned away without looking at Enrico again, because she needed to watch the broadcast and make sure those feelings were real. However, before she could move away, the referee's voice rang out behind her, filled with surprise.
"Boy, what are you doing?"
Suddenly, a blood-covered hand grabbed her shoulder tightly.
Lira turned her head and came face-to-face with a sight that could have been frightening to anyone else. Enrico was standing behind her, his body covered in blood and almost his entire right side destroyed. His appearance was so terrible that he looked more like a monster that had just emerged from a deadly battle.
"Where do you think you're going, you damn lucky prodigy?"
Upon hearing those words and seeing his completely cold expression and empty eyes, Lira finally became certain that she had lost that fight.
"Hehehehehehe!"
Lira couldn't stop her smile from returning, but this time, it wasn't merely a smile of amusement. There was something mad and almost demonic about it, an expression she had hidden from everyone for years.
Enrico had survived, refused to accept defeat, and stood back up even when his body could barely support him. To Lira, that was proof that he possessed the determination and willingness to take risks she had been searching for.
'Now I'm certain. In that final moment, when our attacks collided, I would have lost the fight.'
All five criteria had been fulfilled by the person standing before her. After waiting two years for that moment, Lira had no intention of wasting it. She had finally found her rival, and she would never let him escape.