A few sparks of purple appeared.

Everything which was in the six or seven meters range was being crushed into the ground. The ground itself began to crack and crumble. Even Ashen's own feet buried into the ground.

As the sparks disappeared, an utterly ominous silence loomed. The only thing that could be heard by Caesar and Kaits were the faraway sounds of blades clashing and shots being fired.

'G- Genesis and Lineage... h- he's using them both. W- Weyr's dead... we-we need to deal with this monster o-ourselves..?' Caesar was shaking to his core. Even so, he lifted his gun, pointing at Ashen.

'Lineage.' The pistol in his hands dematerialized into thin air. Not a single trace of it remained. But, on a closer inspection, it seemed that Caesar was still gripping onto something. 

'M-My Genesis c-can't d- do this alone. K- KAITS W- WHY'RE YOU STANDING TH- ' His eyes widened as he came to sudden realization. He couldn't speak. The region around his mouth felt wet, and weird. As his hands moved up, touching the lips. His hand began to tremble even more. Strange metallic chains seemed to be covering his lips.

He lowered his hands, now colored in crimson red.

'W- What i-is t-this...?' His gripping hand trembled. 

He gulped down the saliva which had collected inside his mouth, and shut his eyes. 

His index finger of the gripping hand jolted in.

bang!

The loud sound of a gun firing followed, only to shortly disappear. 

Kaits could only jerk his head, staring at Caesar. His eyes widened, as he stared with a deadpan face. He wanted to vomit, but his stomach felt empty. He wanted to run, but his legs did not move. 

'W- Why're we standing here.' Kaits shuddered violently. He felt as though his body his body would collapse, and turn into a thin sheet of flesh if he were to let his guard down even for a singular nanosecond.

'I- I'm going to die. I'm going to die, we're going to die..' His hand stopped gripping the invisible gun on his, as they fell down.

Seeing this Kaits could only have a singular thought.

'If I die.. I- I'm goi- going to die giving it my all.' 

He raised his sword, high into the empty sky.

'Genesis.'

A sweet sound of humming could be heard by everyone on the battlefield. It was pleasing and calming to listen to. But it only lasted for a second or two. The humming began to grow off-key. A small displacement of sound, followed by another, and then another.

As Kaits felt a rush of adrenaline surge through his body, his sight—and all his senses—became dull. And when they returned, they were met with the sound of a body dropping.

thud.

'C- Cae- Caesar...? CAE- ' He wanted to scream, but he too was bound by chains.

'I- I- ' He realized his end grew nigh.

'I told them. I told them we're going to die—I told them we shouldn't have been too lax, I told them, I told th—'

thud.

"Lord Second! Would you like to tell us your philosophy of a battle?" the reporter asked curiously, holding a camera in his hand. To his right stood a journalist, jotting something down in his notebook.

"A philosophy of battle?" He let out an amused laugh. "Well, before I answer, I would ask a few questions for you!"

"What is the difference between the mindset of a soldier and a strategist?"

The room went silent.

The interviewer scratched his head, wondering what the answer was. After a few seconds, he gave the best answer he could think of.

"The soldier should think about, uhm, protecting his own soldiers while fighting maybe? A- And the strategist should think of how they should win? Discarding all noises... like—uhm, emotions maybe?"

A smile crept up on The Second's face. "Hahaha, the answer was... that there is no difference! The only difference between a strategist and a soldier is their skillset."

Immediately after, a journalist followed with a thoughtless question. "Then what about a commander, Lord Second?"

There were a few whispers that could be heard. Some laughed at the question.

But The Second maintained his straight face. 'The difference between a commander and a soldier or a strategist is the same as the difference between a knight and a king, of course.'

blink.

'..' s....y op..d ... ..es. T.. ...st q.....on ....h ...e .. '...' ...d ..s '..o .. .?'

T.. ....nd w.., 'W... .s ...s p....?'

.....e '..' ....d f... i.. a....r, s..d....y . v.... c... f... b......

Huff!

Ryo jolted upright.

His eyes blinked rapidly, scanning everything.

An unfamiliar and uncomfortable bed, plain white bedsheet, a black curved tent ceiling. To his left was a long rod, attached to the bed. Tied to the rod was a packet of red-colored liquid.

'HAHH. W- What w-was th- that?! What was that dream... Huh? I- I can't remember, what is this place... Where am I...?!' Ryo's hands gripped the bedsheet tightly. His heartbeat was the only he could hear. 

As he was still getting a hold of the situation, the curtains to his left lifted up, and the silhouette of a man appeared.

"You're awake."

It was Ashen.

'Ah. Ash—' Although his mouth moved and he tried pushing the air up, no voice came.

'M- My voice is still...'

Ashen walked in and moved Ryo's legs to the side, sitting down on his bed. "Your voice is gone, for a while. I'll call up healers to fix it up, don't worry. Anyways, we won."

'I already expected that we'd win. Still, this is... bad. I- I'm scared. I- I can't speak. I can't move... What if I become like this? I'm scared. Scared. I'm scared...' His hands trembled slightly. The sheer thought of the effects on his current simulation body being carried over to his actual—real—body was horrifying.

Not only would he not be able to carry on with the simulation tests, he would also be in a near-death state.

Ashen stared at Ryo for a brief moment, observing him. "Lux. Why did you not use your Lineage?" he asked. His voice was strangely different. Angry. Disappointed. Confused.

'Because this is a simulation. Ask your son for the reason—he's the one who put this ridiculous condition. I don't have some combat Impulse, but maybe I wouldn't have ended up with this... outcome. No one other than me probably had Impulse yet, sure, but they could've 'given' us the powers of the Kainex this Scenario. Of course it would've been fake, not carrying onto the real world... but still...'

'They... They could've done that, but instead...' Ryo stared blankly at Ashen.

Ashen saw his expression and looked down. After a minute passed, he got up.

"We'll talk later," he said, walking outside the tent, leaving Ryo alone once again.

As Ryo laid back down, a yellow hologram appeared.

[Second Test Scenario Cleared!]

[ Time Taken: 3 Days. ]

snooze~

Mori got up and walked to his right, toward the small coffee machine sitting on top of the table. He picked up the packet of coffee, pushing it into the machine. Then he pulled out two tall ceramic cups, placing them under the machine.

As he moved his arm to press the button, the sound of beeping suddenly echoed through the entire room.

beep! beep!

It was a sound Mori had been eagerly waiting for. He quickly rushed over to the area where Lux was asleep, and the area where all scenarios were visible.

'Ah, someone cleared the scenario alread—Huh?'

His eyes noticed the scenario of the person who had cleared it before everyone else.

'It's Ryo. Well, I expected that. But what's this?' Mori quickly tapped on Lux's shoulder, waking him up.

"Ugh, what is it?" he said, rubbing his eyes.

"Someone cleared the Second Test Scenario."

Lux, who seemed to be opening his eyes, shut them again. "I see. Why wake me up?"

The question left Mori surprised, but it didn’t stay that way for long. "Why in the world did we get a perspective from Lord Second?"

"Ah, since it's only been three days, he'll probably get to meet Enzo. Which is why you get his perspective, as simple as that."

'Huh, I see...' Mori stood there, staring at the scenarios, lost in thought.

Since he seems to be in a good mood, maybe I should ask a few questions. Mori took a deep breath and pondered for a while before asking:

"Lord Third. What is Scenario Override?" He asked as he tried to be casual, walking back toward the coffee machine.

beep!

"Are you a stupid idiot? A baby? Figure it out yourself with some common sense," he snarked.

After a few minutes passed, Mori picked up two full cups of coffee and walked back.

Placing a cup on the table, he sat down, one cup in his hand. "I was talking about the high-rank thing. Almost everyone got a Scenario Override. How will this even work?"

"It doesn't do anything. Getting Scenario Override, or Absolute Authority— there's no difference. Both work the same. The ranks aren't affected either. It's there to help Squad Selectors pick potential candidates."

"I see," he replied, sipping his coffee. A smile crept up on his face, as his eyes stared at Ryo's Scenario.