2 – Christina

The city was gone.

Completely melted.

Wasn’t that death?

But she came back to life.

“Wow…”

She marveled at being alive even with almost nothing but bones left, and after thinking about it, realized it wasn’t impossible.

The area where the Electrical Ability was circulating most strongly was her head.

The reason it was less affected by the heat was because she had used her Electrical Ability to create a near-vacuum around her head.

Heat doesn’t transfer in a vacuum.

Light radiated from her body as if it would explode.

She couldn’t block the radiant heat, but she could handle it… or so she could recall from her hazy memories.

She had vague memories of what she had done back then.

She remembered going to the brink of death.

She remembered clinging to Hongyeom.

She remembered aiming for a mutual destruction but failing.

She remembered undergoing her third Rebirth.

But,

‘I can’t quite remember what happened after that.’

Earlier memories became clearer the more she tried to recall them.

But the memories from the very end were filled with thoughts rather than the scenery before her eyes.

In other words,

Imagination?

Delusion?

Fantasy?

Her head was filled with such things, and that was the feeling she had when she recalled them later.

Visual information was scarce, and only the thoughts she had at the time remained in her memory.

She had a vague feeling that she had done something, but the memory was just out of reach.

So, she searched for the Duel Arena video.

The records of the Duel Arena.

She, as a skeleton, had rushed madly at Hongyeom.

She hadn’t cared at all about how it would look to others, but she never imagined she would be burned to a crisp as a skeleton.

It was no different from a charred corpse with even her Mannequin Skin peeled off.

She had pushed back the flames with Superconductivity,

And countered high-powered attacks with her Electrical Ability.

After approaching and grabbing her, it was a battle of Magical Power.

The next part took some time.

In the meantime, she frowned.

“Hmm…”

What on earth was she doing?

Even Americano thought it was a bit much this time.

She even remembered the intense pain, so her mind, or rather, the body watching the video, trembled at her fingertips.

The pain from the flames was etched into her body.

Even when she was an Unawakened Hunter and was hit head-on by Dragon Breath, melting her entire body, it wasn’t like this.

‘It must have hurt that much.’

She stroked her face.

“I’m sorry.”

She comforted herself.

Well, that didn’t mean she was going to treat her body differently now.

If she found herself in the same situation again, she would do the same thing. She patted her butt, telling it to take care of her then.

There was a change in the video.

A small change, but a big one.

Hongyeom and Espresso.

Espresso, who had obtained Superconductivity, froze Hongyeom with firepower that was no less than her heat.

But she melted again and shifted to Hongyeom’s momentum.

Soon, she even spewed flames of a different saturation, completely reversing the situation.

She was firing high-powered attacks without her Magical Power running out, so Hongyeom had most likely chosen a martial arts constitution.

And those flames of a different saturation were a Skill given by the constitution, like Ice Crystal.

Hongyeom most likely possessed the Geass of the Nine Yang Constitution.

‘Well, if you know your Magical Power won’t run out, there’s no reason not to choose it.’

It was stranger that there weren’t more people who chose a martial arts constitution…

‘…Or is it not?’

Awakened Abilities had only been applied recently.

Before that, people would have frozen or burned to death with a martial arts constitution.

The game had only been out for a year, so the fact that it was less explored also played a part.

Hongyeom had actively cultivated the Nine Yang Constitution from the unpopular element of Geass during such a time.

…Or so she deduced.

In the end, it was just speculation.

‘Well, judging from the way she uses that flame ability, it seems like Hong Joo-ah. She must have wanted to use flames with the Nine Yang Constitution.’

She had appeared on YouTube before.

She said she wanted to use her ability to its full potential.

But she couldn’t because the damage was too severe.

In the Duel Arena video, she was taking that full power head-on with her bare body.

The sight of her gleefully unleashing her flame ability, which melted cities, was cute.

The video was coming to an end.

Her entire body crumbled to black ash from the firepower of Hongyeom, who had the Nine Yang Constitution, possibly even the Nine Sun Heavenly Body.

Espresso, who had become a skeleton, left only her skull, unrecognizable.

“Haha.”

It was funny.

She was dumbfounded that she was still alive after all this.

The moment Hongyeom was about to deliver the final blow.

She probably entered the Custom Room at this time because of her third Rebirth.

This was the most important part she wanted to know through the video.

The video still had a little time before it ended.

That’s when it happened.

‘Huh?’

Espresso should have only had her skull left, but her name tag moved as if lifting her body.

In the place where the flames had subsided, Espresso stood with a complete body.

Third Rebirth.

Was that it?

Since it was Rebirth, it not only repaired her body but completely remade it.

And then.

An angel’s ring.

A Small Sun.

A dress of Frost.

She gathered the flames from the lava zone and made the Small Sun power plant even bigger.

She generated Electricity from the grown sun to enhance her abilities.

She converted the increased amount of Electricity back into Magical Power to enhance her Magical Power.

She released the increased Magical Power to increase the Frost, strengthening her Superconductivity.

As her Superconductivity grew stronger, the Small Sun grew rapidly.

It constantly spun around and grew stronger like a snowball rolling downhill. With rising anticipation, disappointment weighed down on her shoulders.

Because this Enhancement cycle was entirely thanks to Hongyeom.

In order to make such a huge amount of energy her own, the source of that power had to have a total amount of power equal to it in the first place.

The law of conservation of energy was absolute.

The flames that Hongyeom had scattered became Espresso’s power as they were.

In other words, if she had the skill to control that total amount of power, Hongyeom could have done the same thing as Espresso.

The reason Espresso could do it was,

‘Because I’m a genius.’

She grinned.

She had proven that she was more of a genius than a real-life S-Rank.

In the video, she then attempted the Six Forms Six Styles Sword God.

She unleashed her overflowing power and raised the Sword God, a Magical Power incarnation.

The giant incarnation of energy planted its feet on the ground and raised its head.

The Sword God reached out its hand to Hongyeom to crush her, but then.

It collapsed.

She remembered.

Only the sensation of her fingertips distorting and crumbling in an instant remained in her memory.

The Sword God was truly a giant.

Bigger than Chief Ogre.

Bigger than Elder Treant.

Only its upper body was visible, but it seemed she lacked the capacity to fully control the Sword God of that size, that energy.

As soon as it went out of control, the Sword God was dispelled, and it was game over.

When she watched the very end of the video, her body, which had appeared from within the Sword God, shattered like an ice sculpture as it touched the ground.

“Was it a Cold Energy management mistake rather than Magical Power manipulation?”

Hmm…

The Duel Arena video ended.

The Duel Arena plaza.

She stretched.

The Ranked Battle was over.

She opened the Duel Arena information window.

Espresso

Rank: SS

She had become an SS Rank.

It was a shame she hadn’t achieved SSS Rank, but looking back on her battle with Hongyeom, she didn’t yet have the skills to be called an SSS Rank.

She had shown a rather unconventional appearance at the end, but,

If it hadn’t been for her third Rebirth, Hongyeom would have won easily.

“I need to improve.”

Still,

She smiled.

“Just know that now is the only time you can beat me.”

She muttered, looking at the frozen Hongyeom in the video.

‘As a reward for beating me, I’ll make that your lifelong boast.’

Then suddenly.

Hongyeom was a real-life S-Rank.

Third in the country.

Seventh internationally.

Hongyeom, a world-ranked player, was quite close to Christina.

‘Should I ask her later?’

She wanted to hear her impressions.

That’s when it happened.

The Duel Arena plaza.

While white shadows were wandering around without a sound, footsteps rang out.

They were coming towards her.

When she turned around,

A blonde, blue-eyed woman.

“Hello?”

“Ah, yes.”

Choi Choco

Rank: SSS

It was Christina.

Speak of the devil.

In the time she hadn’t met her, she had risen to SSS Rank.

She was unranked when they fought last time, but she was SSS Rank even though she had lost to her.

Chris must have used her Awakened Ability to raise her rank.

A little disappointing, Chris.

‘…But I was unleashing my abilities like crazy too.’

She had done everything she could to beat Hongyeom.

When she stared intently at Chris,

“…?”

She tilted her head.

“It’s been a while, want to have a match?”

“Sure. No Awakened Abilities?”

“Let’s use them.”

She was also curious about Chris’s full power.

She had seen it on YouTube and in the news.

But the media only showed her controlling her power, and YouTube only showed the aftermath of the fight.

There was also a video taken from very far away of them fighting.

At that time, an entire mountain was blown away.

Of course, considering Hongyeom’s case.

The strength of an S-Rank was on a different level.

Rather, considering only what she had seen in the videos, Hongyeom, who had melted the city while weakened in terms of power, was more unconventional.

But Hongyeom’s fighting style was a walking artillery battery, and Chris, to put it simply, was a martial artist. The criteria for admiration were different.

First in the national ranking.

Third in the international ranking.

Nuclear Fist Chris.

Her Awakened Ability was Plasma.

She could use Plasma for high-speed movement and flight, and a single blow using Plasma could destroy a mountain in one hit.

She didn’t know the principle.

In the first place, Awakened Abilities were biased towards each phenomenon.

They followed scientific theories but were treated incredibly loosely, unlike scientific experiments that required atomic-level precision.

‘Just like how I was favored by Electricity and easily caused nuclear fusion and Superconductivity.’

Chris was also loved by Plasma.

The duel ended in an instant.

It ended in one hit.

Americano’s defeat.

She was much faster and reacted, but the difference in power was absurd.

Hongyeom melted the city,

Chris sculpted the city.

The fragmented concrete created an uneven plain.

The collateral damage was no joke, and she had landed a blow, but her skin was incredibly tough, and the Blade didn’t penetrate at all.

It wasn’t that she had created Plasma to defend.

This was pure defense enhanced by Magical Power.

Americano, who couldn’t penetrate that defense, was swept away by the aftermath of Nuclear Fist.

After the duel,

On top of the destroyed city.

She took Chris’s outstretched hand and got up.

“Amazing.”

“You too, Americano. I never thought you’d be able to cut me at that moment.”

“It didn’t work at all, though.”

If she had shot Plasma like a Laser, she would have countered with Superconductivity, but she only used Plasma for auxiliary purposes.

She practiced both offense and defense with her bare body, so it was different from Hongyeom’s case.

“No, no.”

Chris waved her hand.

“If your Sword was better, I would have lost. That’s a basic Sword, isn’t it?”

“….”

“You must have collected a lot of points, so try another match with a better Sword. I’ll try to dodge everything and win this time.”

“Want to try? I don’t want to hurt your pride.”

“Is there any reason to be prideful? The more strong people there are, the more peaceful the world becomes.”

“You’re positive.”

What if strong people were villains?

Anyway,

She had finished her Ranked Battle.

She should go back soon.

Just as she was about to say she had to go,

“….”

“…?”

Chris had a look on her face as if she wanted to ask something.

No, it was more her body language than her face.

“If you have something you’re curious about, say it.”

“Ah, yes. There’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while, but I don’t know if I should ask.”

“Feel free to ask. Like you’re consulting a childhood friend.”

“Then…”

Chris asked carefully.

“What’s your relationship with Dahyun?”

“…Excuse me?”