Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the next day had arrived.
Carlotta had important matters to handle and was sent back to Ragunna by Noah together with Zani. Therefore, only Cartethyia and Noah went to the arena to watch the gladiatorial matches.
In the stands, crowds like tides waved their fists. Shouts and cheers intertwined, creating an extremely heated atmosphere that seemed as if it would flip the entire arena over.
"Howling Tide Team! Howling Tide!"
"Yellow Camera Team must win!"
"It's so lively here."
Listening to the roaring shouts beside her ears, the passionate atmosphere made Cartethyia unable to hold back her surging emotions. She randomly picked a team and shouted excitedly along with them:
"Howling Tide, take them down!"
In the center of the arena, each of the two teams had two fully armed people and two different Echoes. They clashed amid whistling sounds, with the ring of metal clashing continuously.
Beside Cartethyia, Noah held a match schedule with the battle times for the teams competing today written on it.
Noah was looking at it carefully when Cartethyia beside him suddenly grabbed his arm and shook it rapidly, her excitement impossible to conceal:
"We won! We won! The team I supported won!"
Hearing this, Noah looked up and indeed saw two people wearing yellow armor collapsed on the ground in the center of the arena, sound asleep.
"I didn't expect Septimont to be this fun. It's much more fun than Huanglong or Jinzhou."
Looking at Cartethyia whose eyes were sparkling, Noah shook his head slightly and didn't say much.
The atmosphere in the arena was undeniably lively, but beneath its surface, there were many profit-driven nobles secretly pulling strings, designing rules, and squeezing every bit of benefit they could from the gladiators.
Even before Augusta took office, the gladiatorial tournament rules from twenty years ago involved releasing large numbers of Remnants into the arena, forcing gladiators to fight until only one remained standing.
Such a cruel competition was known at the time as the Blood-colored Gladiatorial Tournament and was enthusiastically pursued by countless nobles.
Logically, people living under the apocalypse should crave connection with each other even more. Noah didn't understand before why Solaris could have so many vastly different civilizations, but later he understood.
In the face of Threnodians and even the Lament, which were closely tied to the form of civilization, the enemies faced by different civilizations would also differ.
The ancient-style Huanglong, the western-style Rinascita, the futuristic tech-style New Federation — every different civilization was a different attempt by humanity driven by the desire for continuation.
Through repeated exhaustive trials and errors, as long as one civilization form could be found that could completely defeat the Lament, the entire Solaris would become that civilization.
"Next match, Green Branch Team versus Hero King Team!"
The voice amplified through the broadcast placed special emphasis on the Hero King Team, drawing the attention of the entire venue. The roaring in the arena almost reached its peak at this moment.
"Hero King! Hero King!"
"Avidius will surely win!"
"OHHHHHH!"
Inside the arena, four figures had already taken their positions in the center. The most eye-catching one was undoubtedly the red-haired figure raising a blazing long spear.
Lupa waved to the crowd, revealing a pair of cute little tiger teeth. But when her gaze shifted to the opposing figures, her eyes changed from cheerful to wild.
Beside her stood Avidius, who had a calm and indifferent expression.
"Hey, Avidius. Don't just watch from the side this time."
"Rest assured, Lupa. Even a lion uses full strength when catching a rabbit. Since I've decided to take action, I will definitely do my best and give our opponents the greatest respect."
Hearing Avidius's words, Lupa felt satisfied.
Come to think of it, although this partner had the reputation of crossing the bottom of Manes four times, she had never actually seen him fight.
No more words were needed. The battle erupted instantly.
Avidius, determined to go all out, attacked first. His long spear thrust forward with a whistling sound, but it was easily reacted to by the opponent, who timely raised a shield to block it.
"What?!"
Avidius's pupils contracted.
In a corner of the stands, a figure hidden among the crowd let out a low laugh and muttered to himself:
"Have you finally noticed? My protagonist. I deliberately weakened your power — enjoy this self-doubt where your strength and fame seriously do not match."
"Next… you will feel panic, worry, and lingering fear. You will be pierced by voices of doubt, and only then can you walk onto the script I have carefully prepared."
"Go on. Train tirelessly without sleep or rest. Use effort to exchange for greater power. Make every victory truly hard-earned."
Until you claim the crown — then be easily controlled by the Threnodian and bring the Black Tide down upon the Septimont you desperately want to protect.
"The protagonist of the story goes through hardships, with a tortuous and difficult heart journey. He has extraordinary courage and tenacity, but the ending is destined to be tragic…"
To replace the fictional with reality, Cristoforo's story could not deviate too much from the original blueprint. This was the limit of his ability.
The blueprint of the story was precisely Mya's past experiences.
And he happened to love this kind of script.
On the other side, Noah observed everything on the battlefield, stroking his chin with a slight frown.
"This shouldn't be right."
Hearing Noah's murmur, Cartethyia turned her head. Her clear eyes reflected Noah's profile, and her gaze momentarily lost focus:
"What shouldn't be right?"
"Avidius shouldn't be this weak."
The crowd in the stands continued to enthusiastically cheer Avidius's name, but they were merely outsiders watching the excitement.
Noah analyzed seriously:
"His opponents, whether in strength or reaction speed, would barely be able to handle an Elite class Remnant. However — Avidius is actually fighting them almost to a draw."
"What do you mean? Is this Avidius supposed to be very strong?"
"Uh…"
In the original plot, Avidius at least withstood a strike from an Overlord class False Sovereign — although he was sent flying, the point was whether he withstood it or not.
Setting aside strength, Avidius's presence here was enough to indicate: the Fractsidus Overseer, Cristoforo, was in Septimont.
Thinking of this, Noah no longer hesitated. He took out paper and a pen from his bag, quickly sketched Cristoforo's appearance, and handed it to Cartethyia:
"Little Cartethyia, I have a task for you."
"Understood! Little Cartethyia at your command!"
"Remember the person in this drawing. If you encounter him, immediately switch to Big Cartethyia and kill him with full force."
"No problem."
Cartethyia agreed readily. She reached up to brush aside a strand of golden hair hanging by her cheek and spoke somewhat embarrassedly:
"I also have an idea that I want the Laureate to agree to."
"What idea?"
"Well, Laureate, please…"
Cartethyia held Noah's left hand with both of hers, her gaze serious:
"Please team up with me to participate in the gladiatorial tournament. I think it would be really fun!"
"No."
Noah refused mercilessly.
Since Avidius was here, it meant Cristoforo was also here. And since Cristoforo was here, it meant Phrolova was here too.
He didn't know Cristoforo's exact location yet, but he knew very well where Phrolova would be!
With the enemy in the open and him in the dark, going to arrest Phrolova now should still be in time!
"Little Cartethyia, if you want to participate, I'll give this to you."
[Noah has gifted you the Echo - Dragon of Dirge.]
"I have something urgent to attend to first. I'll have Little Potato call Ciaccona over later to team up with you."
...
The gladiatorial match ended just like that.
Lupa, looking displeased, and Avidius, looking dejected, walked out of the arena.
"Lupa…"
"Don't call me." Lupa turned her head away, her delicate nose wrinkling:
"You said you would go all out. It turned out to be nothing but sweet talk. We're clearly partners, yet you don't trust me at all."
"It's not like that, I…" Avidius gripped the long spear in his hand tightly, his expression conflicted, as if doubting himself. He let out a long sigh:
"I have my difficulties."
"What difficulties?" Lupa pricked up her ears, her gaze softening.
"I… I discovered that my power seems to be…"
Before he could finish, the two had already reached the exit. Countless Septimont citizens carrying cameras and microphones rushed over, enthusiastically surrounding Avidius:
"Lord Avidius, your battle was truly magnificent."
"May I ask how much strength you used in this battle? One part or two parts? How do you evaluate your opponents?"
"Everyone is heatedly discussing that you were holding back and pretending to be weak to eat the tiger. Is this true?"
The dense questions were like sharp arrows piercing into Avidius's currently sensitive and fragile heart.
Facing pairs of fervent and worshipful eyes, he thought of the ambitious Senate behind him, of his achievement of crossing the bottom of Manes four times, of his Oakheart Badge…
The Hero King prophesied to wield extraordinary power, rising from the pitch-black tides —
How could he be someone who struggled so hard and with such difficulty even against an ordinary gladiator?
Under the cameras, Avidius hesitated. It was as if he had put on an invisible mask of lies. Against his will, he spoke. The sentence seemed to exhaust all his strength:
"Yes, I… I only used… one… two parts of my strength."
As soon as the words fell, the crowd erupted into enthusiastic cheers, heatedly speculating what it would be like when the future Hero King used his full power.
Outside the crowd, Lupa snorted, turned around without looking back, and left.
Only after finally reaching the resting area did Lupa open Quick Tone. She skillfully clicked into the top of her follow list, opened the homepage of "Phaethon," and let out a wail:
"What——"
"No update yesterday either!"
"Update already! Even the donkeys in Septimont wouldn't rest like this."