Liam walked over to Renna's side and stretched out his hand to help her stand up.
"It was a good match… It's been a while since someone forced me to use so many tactics."
The last time Liam had to go all out was when he was fighting Rio in the group survival test.
(Don't count the battle with Alverto, as that wasn't even a proper battle; it was a one-sided beating…)
Renna shook her head and sighed at those words.
"No way... I barely delayed the match for less than ten minutes… Moreover, I wasn't able to land a single hit on you… I have been completely defeated…"
Liam wanted to offer some words of comfort, but Renna waved her hand and left without waiting too long.
"No worries, I will keep working hard to improve; you do the same…"
Renna smiled a bit and then slowly left.
She wasn't very injured, so there was no need for a teleportation circle to appear.
Seeing her leave, Liam shook his head.
He waved his hand at the audience once and then left too.
…
While walking back to his room, Liam saw a familiar silhouette standing near the cafeteria's entrance, so he decided to take a detour and walk over to the cafeteria first.
"Yo! What are you doing, being so sneaky?"
Liam suddenly placed his hand on Link's shoulder, surprising him for a moment.
He had detected Liam, but he thought that Liam was going to leave to rest in his room. Link didn't expect Liam to come over towards him.
"Oh… me… just hanging around, hehe…"
Link scratched the back of his head in embarrassment when he was caught off-guard like that.
Liam glanced inside the cafeteria and understood immediately why Link was sneaking around like that.
"Riya hasn't come back yet? She's still in her training?"
Link was quite embarrassed, as if caught red-handed.
"Th-that… You know, I was just thinking that if she returns, she might be hungry and will come to the cafeteria first… but it seems her training hasn't ended yet…"
Then Link immediately tried to change the topic.
"What about you? Haven't you just finished your match? You should take some rest…"
Complicated emotions appeared in Liam's mind seeing that Link was trying to 'shoo' him away after being caught like that.
"Forget it… I am a bit hungry; would you like to join?"
After saying those words, Liam didn't even bother waiting for the answer and went directly inside.
Link also didn't decline Liam's offer and sat opposite Liam on the same table.
"Sigh… I wonder how she is doing… She hasn't been to the cafeteria for four days straight… Is she even eating properly? I have no idea… She's making me worried sick…"
Upon hearing Link's sigh, Liam simply shook his head and responded.
"Isn't she under the care of that SS-rank healer? What's there to worry about then… Even if Riya gets bisected in two pieces, the SS-rank healer can quickly stitch her back…"
Link's face turned even more worried after hearing those words.
"Bruh… Don't scare me like that… bisected!? How horrible!!"
(Says the guy who forcefully ripped apart people's necks from their bodies with sheer force in the original setting… bro was literally the most sadistic villain himself…)
"Also… I've lately had a feeling that something's not right… I feel that she's in some kind of trouble…"
Liam just shook his head after hearing those words from Link's mouth.
"Bruh… You are worrying too much… Wait, don't tell me you haven't slept for the last four days and have been staring at the cafeteria door for hours?"
After hearing those words, Link avoided Liam's gaze, as if he dared not respond to that question.
"W-well, you see, we have an engagement ring on our hands, and if she gets hurt, I find out about it via my ring… But for some reason, her ring has stopped responding since day one…"
Syvis took that ring from Riya's hand and said that she could only get it back if Riya improved; that's why the ring stopped responding.
If it really was responding, then Link would have lost half of his weight from seeing that Riya was getting injured again and again during this whole week.
If he had known about Riya's hardships, he would have already broken the tournament rules and would have rushed out of the waiting area to question his father about it.
For him, Riya comes first; tournaments like this are just mere formalities to him. Winning the tournament is just a matter of fact for him; he doesn't think that anyone can make him lose at all.
When evaluating the talent of a younger generation genius, people often use terms like,
[How long can an individual stand against Link?]
Link is the standard for measuring talent, and he is the ceiling of combat power for the younger generation.
His reputation reaches far and wide, and even the demon race knows about him by now.
Link shines like a torch in the darkness; he is considered the leading force of the next generation.
But for Link, all this doesn't matter at all.
He can throw away his reputation, all for the sake of Riya; if not for her, he would have already walked the path of darkness by now.
…
Seeing Link like that, Liam simply sighed and thought to himself.
'I remember now… I used to be worried for Kira in the same way as he is for Riya… I can't blame him for pursuing that comforting feeling…'
Liam remembered the days when he used to chase behind Kira like an idiot.
He was already too deep in that abyss of love, and once that illusion broke, he lost a lot of his feelings.
Liam has become colder and quieter ever since he moved on from Kira.
Now he had devoted his care to his summoned beasts, as he knew that they alone wouldn't betray him in any circumstances.
Unlike humans, the summoned beasts are bound by magic contracts with him, and they will always think of his well- being.
So, Liam doesn't need to worry about getting betrayed anymore; he can just give his feelings to his summoned beasts as if they were his own children.
Moreover, Ellie has been supporting him since he was a child, so Liam has started to open up to her slowly.
He had started to ignore her when he fell for Kira, and he rarely ever summoned her during those years.
But after he moved on from Kira, he finally woke up from illusions and figured out how much Ellie has done for him.
'Maybe… if we had met in some other circumstances, maybe if things were a bit different… then…'
Liam knew that Ellie was here with him in just a spiritual form; her real body wasn't with him.
All contracted beasts' true bodies reside in the spirit realm, which exists between the fabric of reality and dreams.
Ellie, or Elisia, is a true shadow dragon, but she's also a spirit being; otherwise, she couldn't have made the contract with him.
Spirit beings are basically a projection of the 'will' of a beast that resides in the spirit realm.
Which means only Ellie's will is with Liam, but her real form resides in the spirit realm.
(Kai isn't just a spirit beast, by the way… his real body manifests in the real world when Lia summons his full form…)
Thinking about all this, Liam couldn't help but sigh.
'If we had met in some other circumstances… I would have never wanted to let go of your hand…'
[What are you talking about, master… How can a contracted beast have that kind of relationship with their master… I have never heard about it being possible…]
[But yeah… Divine General Kai might know more about this…]
Liam nodded his head at those words and stopped thinking about them.
He wasn't sure what he should do in the future.
If Ellie was not a shadow dragon but some other type of dragon, then she could have existed in the physical world like other dragons.
But the whole world knows that all shadow dragons reside in the spirit realm, as they were exiled by the dragons from the dragon valley long ago.
'Can a human go to the 'spirit world'?'
At Liam's question, Ellie replied in a sad tone.
[No… I have never heard about a living person being able to enter the spirit realm…]
[Only 'heroic spirits' enter this realm after death… and even then… they dissipate into nothingness after a few days or weeks…]
Entering the spirit realm is near impossible for a living person, and since the shadow dragons were banished to the spirit realm by the other dragons, they can't come out of there unless they get the permission of the dragon king himself.
Forget about making him agree; the dragon king might not even agree to meet a human, as all dragons consider other races lowly and weak.
'Sigh… forget it… There's no point in thinking about it right now… Let's finish the food first…'
After having a small talk with Link, Liam ate his food and left the cafeteria.
He stopped thinking too much about the complicated things, as the current him doesn't have any proper ideas about what to do about them.
He went back to his room and slept for the rest of the day.
He didn't even bother looking at Link's match that was scheduled right after his.
…
Fifth Day of the tournament.
Liam woke up and noticed that the hologram in the center of his room had already fixed his match.
Yesterday, Liam stressed his mind a bit too much while thinking about various complicated things and ended up getting exhausted before falling asleep.
Thus, he woke up quite late in the morning.
The roulette had already rolled on it's own and he was already about to get late by now.
[Ding! Congratulations! Your match has been fixed!]
[Liam Aldif Vs. Rio Flash]
[Time: 9:00 A.M.]
[Make sure to arrive on time!]
Only one word came to Liam's mind when he saw his opponent's name.
'F*ck!'
…
…
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here! And we finally have some clues on what type of existence Ellie exactly is… let's see what Liam does in the future to solve these problems…
Question of the day.
What would your reaction be if you woke up in the morning and the first thing you saw was that you had to fight Rio in two hours?
(Tell me in the comments.)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.