Robert stood in the arena, staring down at his opponent. His polished Minotaur armor was a new model, teleported to the Academy at a huge premium this morning. It had bull horns and a plethora of add-ons. His next opponent was someone very bothersome. Someone with seemingly infinite supernatural healing and immune to debuffs.

"Begin!" The referee shouted as the horn buzzed and the shield came up.

Robert broke into an erratic run, dodging the pillars of Holy light that shot down from the "heavens". His opponent could summon these pillars endlessly, each one of them strong enough to give a normal human third-degree burns. Only his supernatural speed and danger sense kept him safe from these beams. Any time one of these beams touched the stone floor, it would make it glow a dull red for a few seconds.

His last seven fights were exactly like this. He would flood the arena with the pillars of Holy light, chasing after the enemy until they became medium-rare barbecue. Those who managed to get closer found that the pillars had a secondary function. While they burned enemies, they healed the guy's allies, including himself. When faced with close-quarter combats, the pillars fell either on top or in front of the Holy Arch.

To defeat him, Robert would need to deal more damage than the other guy could heal. He seriously thought if this was the moment he should reveal his Void affinity. figure out who had the strongest beams.

Holy Light changed his patterns. As Robert approached the other side of the arena, it became harder to dodge the beams. The maze of light was cornering him to the point he decided to test his armor against the talent. He rushed straight through one of the pillars. The light descended upon his armor, some of the damage reflecting in a dazzling array of golden beams, while the remainder tried to fry his armor. The telemetry data showed this beam caused forty percent damage to the armor's systems. One or two beams and its Ethertech features would cease to function.

Without a choice, Robert decided to use one of his trump cards. He triggered his main talent, entering the liminal void. He had burned the excess time before coming out of the ramp so this visit would be brief.

In the liminal void, he took a new weapon that came with the armor. A copy of the demonic Minotaurs' great ax, weighing thirty kilograms. It was a beast of a weapon and he intended to finish this fight in a single blow.

Walking behind Holy Light, Robert prepared the blow by holding the ax in an overhead strike. He cycled Time essence to get the exact count. One second before his return, he was already swinging the ax. Colors returned as he struck Holy Light on the left shoulder next to the neck and pushed down with all his power. The ax cleaved through ribs, heart, lung, stomach, and bowels, and touched down on the hip bone.

That's when the biggest pillar of Holy light ever descended upon the both of them. The blast pushed Robert backward. He didn't let go of the ax, which went with him, dislodging from the cleaved and most likely dead Arch.

Robert watched as the two sides of the man rejoined as the light seemed to push the flesh together.

Holy Light turned and stared at Robert on the ground. "Ouch," he said without much spirit behind his words.

Another upgraded pillar descended upon Robert. He used his primary talent as the light touched his armor.

Dangerous. Too dangerous. The armor was busted from three attacks. But it was more than others endured. Robert engaged its self-repair system and at least got the mobility back. Another overpowered hit like the last two and the armor would become a liability.

He had little time to spare. Upon his return, Robert put some distance between them as the beams of Holy light seemed to slightly decrease in potency and frequency the furthest he was from his opponent.

That bought him some time. Just like a previous time, his problem was not going all out. Robert glared at the smug Holy practitioner and vanished from reality.

He reappeared in front of him, ax already in motion. He cleaved and triggered his talent. He entered the liminal void with his ax and his opponent. Startled, Robert dropped the ax inside the guy and moved back.

A pillar of Holy light descended. The ax was pushed out of the wound as the light healed the man. The Void seized him and started to consume his essence. Many Time wisps left the man's body and rushed toward Robert. In a panic, Robert drew his sword and stabbed the main through the left eye just as they returned to reality.

Another pillar descended. Robert jumped back with his sword and watched in horror as the wound he caused healed.

"What just happened?" The man asked, confused.

Robert didn't waste time. He used his primary talent again, reappeared, stabbed the man through one eye, vanished, and reappeared to claim the other eye. His sword went all the way to the point of touching the back of the man's skull from the inside.

Each time, a pillar of Holy light healed him to perfection. Each time, the guy seemed more and more confused. His reaction time slowed, he no longer kept the barrage of pillars upon Robert.

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Robert glanced at the man's combat teacher. The guy was fiercely yelling orders to his pupil. He looked at the referee, an impassible sculpture of flesh. Then back at Noah. Noah just shrugged.

Robert dashed and lunged.

"What are you doing–OUCH!" This time he shouted with emotion as Robert pierced him in the heart, withdrawing his weapon in a whipping motion that created a gash. All was fruitless because he healed himself immediately. "Now you got me MAD!"

The pillar descended on Robert. He engaged his primary talent and once more stabbed the guy in the eye all the way to making his sword appear behind the man's head. He used his talent to withdraw before he was burned by the Holy light.

"Why are you hurting me?" Holy Light asked with a whiny, childish voice.

Robert couldn't care less. He went to the liminal void, swapped his sword for the boar spear, and reappeared mid-swing. This time, he struck the man in the temple a bit above the ears, pushing to cleave the top of Holy Light's head, kept the momentum, and used one of the spear's prongs to knock the top off the man's head before the pillar healed him. A shower of shorn hairs descended for a brief moment before the pillar burned them.

Just as always, the pillar descended and regenerated the top of the man's head. But the top Robert sheared away was burned.

Holy Light stared at Robert with unfocused eyes. He opened his mouth and drooled. Then he sat on the ground and started to weep, bawling like a baby. The man's skull was misshapen.

His spell could heal any wound with supernatural quality. But not even this second-to-best type of healing could completely fix some kinds of wounds. Brain damage, for example, could be healed but the synaptic pattern that held knowledge and memories and the person's identity, built over the many years they lived, wouldn't. The brain mass created by healing was just like a newborn baby's brain. Full of potential but fresh and without the complex tridimensional lattice that formed one's personality.

Robert had killed Holy Light in all aspects but life. Though he lived, little remained of the individual who started this fight.

"Referee, pursuant to tournament rules article eighteen paragraph seven, my opponent is unable to continue fighting," Robert called.

The referee looked at the teacher, who was screaming at the top of his lungs for Holy Light to stand up and fight. Holy Light just bawled its brains out. Not literally. The referee shrugged.

Robert used his spear and cut off the main's head, this time from ear canal to ear canal. The pillar healed the guy. One of the eyes was of a different color. Supernatural healing could cause mutations if overused.

The crowd went silent.

"Referee, article eighteen, paragraph seven!" Robert shouted.

Nothing. Only the infuriated screams of the teacher.

Robert took two copies of his Water-imbued sword. He swung both in tandem, getting three slices of brain. Holy light descended. One of the ears was misshapen, floppy like a Goblin's.

"Article eighteen, paragraph seven!" Robert screamed as he cranked the armor's speakers to its maximum.

He cut the man's head again. The crowd started to boo and hoot. The referee remained impassible.

Robert scanned the audience and found the principal and several senior teachers on a private balcony. He pointed his sword at them. "Article eighteen, paragraph seven!" Robert shouted.

Robert cast his two-star Haste. Ninety-nine speed boost. Then he cut the man's head off and sliced it in six parts before the Holy light grew a new head and incinerated the old ones. It even damaged Robert's sword, causing it to glow red-hot. The weapon's Water essence quickly cooled and repaired it.

The referee stared at the balcony, then nodded. "WINNER!"

The Academy student nicknamed Holy Light ceased to exist that day. All in the name of greed.

The person who would develop in the vacant body would have to live with a heinously deformed head.

*

*

The Minotaur armor with a furious Robert inside was trembling and rattling. The metal of the gauntlets scraped finger against finger. The speakers were off but he was screaming inside.

He had half the mind to hunt down the stupid teacher who didn't call the fight and challenge him to a duel. But he couldn't because duels were forbidden during the tournament.

Next to him, one of his Minotaurs played a haunting and dissonant tune on the viola. Robert should be grateful that the microphones were also turned off. The scratching noise was keeping both Amanda and Noah away.

He had half a mind to quit the tournament as a protest. Exhausted, he fell on his knees. Robert punched the dressing room floor. Then he used his secondary talent. Not touching the Minotaur armor, he used his primary talent.

Fairy-Robert appeared in the liminal void encased by the armor. Getting out was a simple matter of putting some more distance between reality and him, the act known as diving deeper into the void. Then he returned next to the armor and sat on it.

His sorrow resonated with his Fairy magic. He let the essence flow freely and followed his instincts. He opened his mouth to let out a haunting a Capella tune. An illusion of the Archhuman he had defeated in the arena appeared, a window into the past. In the illusion, Holy Light was entering the Academy for the first time, with wonder in his eyes and a bright future ahead.

Another shell materialized in his soul.

Dirge.

Sing the honors of the departed to get a glimpse of their life. Though the body and soul were alive, the spirit that inhabited both had vanished.

Without anything better to do, Robert kept singing. The image showed many aspects of Holy Light's life, mostly the happy moments or when he achieved something great. Fairy-Robert sang and watched until there was no more essence in his body. The magic faded. He knew he couldn't use it more than once on the same subject.

But the images he saw would remain forever alive. A VHS tape appeared in his intellect fortress bastion, the first of its kind.

*

*

When he returned to reality, Robert was calm and collected. He wore his symbiote suit, as usual.

"Professor Actus," he called. "I need you to follow me. We need to find my latest opponent. And his family. We need to talk to them."

"Calm down, Robert," Noah said. "Why do you need to talk to them? You don't have to apologize for anything."

"I think I can restore some of his psyche," Robert boasted.

Amanda shook her head but said nothing.

"That's an awful idea. Why would you do that?" Noah asked, raising a hand to stop Robert from replying. "I know you'll say 'humanitarian reasons'. And you have my respect and admiration for thinking like that. But think. How easy is it to do what you are proposing to do? I'll tell you. Not very easy but also not impossible. There are some Archs who can restore a mind damaged by brain loss. They charge millions of dollars to even consider doing it. You can't do the job better than them. Exposing yourself for no benefit to you other than quell your guilty consciousness and doing a shitty job just to prove a point won't help anyone. Not you, not the guy whose teacher was too dumb to give up. Amanda, do you disagree?"

"No, I don't, professor. Robert, I'm sorry," Amanda said and hugged him.