"Your daughter truly is an impressive fighter."

A statement was made back at the domain of the Gods.

"The fact that she can keep such an ability active is frankly remarkable," another God commented to the God spoken to.

Rose and Iris had been transported for a few minutes as the other demigods awaited their presence before the continuation.

"I think she did a really good job," Shade eventually commented to Klaus.

"I guess," Klaus responded.

"So that means you're happy that she won, right?" Shade then asked Klaus with a smile.

Klaus took a few seconds before he responded.

"I guess."

And after a few more minutes, Rose finally returned to the Arena of Valor. As Rose walked in first, she headed to the location of Klaus and Shade, where she initially was. Although, similar to her first battle with Iris, she could barely look Klaus in the face after such a topic was mentioned during her battle.

"Congratulations, Rose," Shade started.

"Thanks," Rose responded with a smile that she couldn't stop after looking at Shade for some reason.

After a few seconds of silence, Rose then turned her attention to Klaus as she attempted to make things less stressful than Iris made it to be.

"Klaus, I..." Rose started.

"You performed well," Klaus instantly said cutting her off from what she was going to say. "I'm proud of you."

Klaus was not one to talk about things like this, and he wasn't fond of expressing his emotions about such a topic, so he usually decided to let matters like this float into the air and disappear. And this was perfectly fine for Rose, at least for the meantime.

After a few more minutes of small talk with Rose and Shade, Iris finally returned to the arena. Upon Iris' entrance, she gradually walked in with what seemed to be a smile on her face.

Klaus turned his attention to Iris' appearance as he noticed her smile in surprise. He had expected her to be a bit less joyful, but after all, it was Iris. Then something happened to him.

As Iris turned her focus to Klaus, she stared at him as she let out a brighter smile. As Klaus locked eyes with Iris, the comical headache he had gotten from their fight suddenly spawned back. It was almost like a pulse of pain as he held on to his head in slight agony. Even though the pain was not anything serious, he knew that it was there.

Eventually, XVII finally walked ahead of the demigods to announce the next battle.

"I will now announce the fighters of the next battle," XVII stated as the demigods paid attention.

Klaus' sudden ache didn't seem to subside and it felt a bit strange to him why this was the case. He held onto his head as he continued to pay attention to XVII.

Suddenly, it appeared that Klaus' eyes started to get blurry and his head started spinning, making him feel dizzy.

"What is going on?" Klaus thought to himself as he tried to understand why he was feeling this way.

"The next battle is..."

Before XVII could continue his statement, Klaus' vision almost immediately changed, causing him to see only a deep purple color. Klaus' eyes were still open, or at least that was what it felt like to him, yet all he could see was purple.

This lasted for a few seconds before Klaus eventually started to regain his sight, as well as relief from the ache he was feeling earlier. But as he regained his vision, Klaus instantly noticed that something was off.

As Klaus took his time to analyze what was going on, he noticed that Iris and Rose were still in the arena. However, Rose was stationary as Iris seemed to be moving a bit. Not just that, but as Klaus turned his focus to the other demigods, he also noticed the same reaction Rose had on the rest of them, excluding XVII.

"Damn, I guess it's getting weaker now," Iris then said as she turned her face in the arena to Klaus with a smile.

Eventually, Klaus was alerted back to the other demigods as their vision proceeded to revert from the purple pupils to their normal state.

"W-What the heck just happened?" Quinn commented as she held onto her head in the realization of the situation.

All the demigods seemed to have finally returned to their senses, but they knew that something was off. Suddenly, the sounds of giggles slightly echoed around the arena as everyone turned to the battlefield, realizing that Iris was the one and that Rose still seemed to be under the strange situation that had just occurred since her pupils were still purple.

"I am so confused right now," Link commented on the situation.

Rose's eyes then finally reverted to her natural pupils as immediately this occurred, she fell to her knees in exhaustion. Her sighs were audible as she proceeded to gasp for air. Iris then walked up to her opponent as Rose seemed to be unable to do anything. Iris then placed her right hand on her hair and pulled out a needle from it and pointed it directly at Rose's neck.

"So what now, chica? Do you forfeit?" Iris asked Rose.

Rose was still completely confused about what had just happened. One moment she was laughing with Klaus, awaiting the announcement of the next battle, and another moment she was on her knees on the battlefield, gasping desperately for air and unable to move.

"I... I forfeit." Rose managed to whisper.

"Are you certain?" XVII then asked Rose.

Rose turned her head up as Iris continued to smile, but she knew that there was nothing she could do in that state so she nodded her head in agreement.

"The winner of the battle is... Iris Haze," XVII then announced.

The confusion among the demigods had never been more noticeable as everyone turned to each other to understand what had just happened. It seemed like what Klaus had witnessed was the same thing that the others had, making it even more strange since this was not how Iris' illusions worked prior.

Iris still had her smile on, but she seemed to be weaker than expected so after XVII's announcement, she fell to the floor unconscious. After, both Iris and Rose were transported to the medical facility.

"It's like deja vu, but not," Ace commented after the fighters got transported.

"What exactly do you remember?" Quinn then asked Lance who was beside her.

"Rose had used some sort of Rage Charm on herself giving her the win, and the next battle was already announced by XVII. Then after a few moments, everything turned back to the beginning of their fight like nothing happened," Lance then explained to Quinn, confirming that they had the same experience.

Klaus remembered that XVII had not announced the next battle, but he remembered that he somehow was able to return to reality before the rest, so he was possibly cut out of that part.

Quinn placed her index finger and thumb on her chin, attempting to critically analyze what had happened, but she didn't seem to have any luck.

An ability that tricks the five senses of a person, enabling them to feel, smell, taste, see, or hear something that isn't truly there. The ability to make a person's body burn from fire that is not present, making the target's skin behave as if this was not the case, or the ability to inflict wounds with a blade that only exists to the opponent. This was the simple explanation of Iris' abilities that seemed to be the general knowledge at this point. But somehow, what had just happened was completely different from what everyone was aware of.

"I think I have an idea of what is happening," Shade suddenly mentioned, dragging the attention of all the demigods.

"I'm sure that everyone is already aware that this is not the same as Iris' usual ability," Shade started. "From what I can understand, it's possible that Iris was able to place everyone under an illusion, but instead of us perceiving something that wasn't there, we instead perceived an entire reality that wasn't there."

This statement came as a shock to everyone as Shade continued to explain.

"We all know that it felt genuine. Perhaps Iris can deceive the cerebral cortex into perceiving that an action has been performed when in reality, the body just stands stationery."

"That makes sense," Quinn stated. " So it's an illusion that makes the entire brain perceive a False Reality."

"That is beyond scary," Link commented.

"Yeah, but how did she get all of us? Because I'm sure she didn't stare at us during her fight with Rose," Tyler pointed out.

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Quinn took a few seconds to remember everything that had happened within the past hour before she came across a strange memory.

"The point when she was explaining Arthur's ability. That was the last time she stared into my eyes. And it seems like she did the same to everyone else for a brief second," Quinn explained.

"But what about me?" Trent asked. "Arthur and I weren't there by then."

"True," Quinn continued. "But it's possible it was when she was congratulating you guys upon your arrival," Quinn stated.

Considering that Iris was not present at the moment and that she would probably not be willing to explain such a strong ability to her possible opponents, the rest of the demigods knew that there was no way they could get a confirmation in the meantime.

"But the true question remains..." Klaus eventually mumbled. "What exactly was an illusion and not?"

"You're referring to Rose's Rage Charm thing, right?" Shade whispered to Klaus.

"I don't know if that was Rose's ability or just Iris trying to make Rose believe the illusion of victory even more," Klaus explained to Shade.

This assumption made sense to Shade. They were unaware if everything that happened with Rose was her ability or not, so they decided to ask her when she arrived.

A few more minutes went by before Iris and Rose finally returned to the arena, this time for real. The disappointment on Rose's face made the others feel bad for her. The feeling of victory, immediately followed by the realization of defeat, was what Rose had felt in the past hour.

A few other demigods still congratulated her on a good performance, but considering all she did in the battle was stand to exhaustion, she took their words as untrue. Then she walked to her seat, where Klaus and Shade were.

"Illusion or not, I still think you did a great job, Rose," Shade started. "There was no way anyone would have realized it so don't be too hard on yourself."

This statement was able to make Rose smile as she turned to Shade and accepted his words. Shade then turned to Klaus as he stared at his brother, attempting to make Klaus say something as well. Klaus sighed before he finally decided to talk.

"I still stand by what I said when the illusion was active."

Rose realized that his words in the illusion were truly from him and not a creation of Iris, so she smiled and nodded her head in slight joy.

Quinn sent barrages of questions at Iris, who was also present at the arena, but as expected, Iris did not reveal too much.

"All I can confirm is that everything mija did could have happened either way," was Iris' only statement on the situation.

But this was enough to confirm that Rose's ability was real and not projected by her.

Iris then walked to Klaus with a few things on her mind. She then turned her focus to Rose before stretching her hand out.

"I know I used a lot of personal information during the fight. And I know that's not cool. So I wanna say that I'm sorry, for what it's worth."

Rose took a second to think about it before she finally decided to return the handshake.

"That's fine, I guess," Rose responded. "However, I want to know something. When I entered that weird state, I'm sure it should've stopped you from creating illusions. Why didn't it stop the main one?"

"I dunno," Iris replied. "Maybe all it did was close the door for any other possible illusions, not completely negate the already existing ones. Especially since the daggers were also technically illusions."

As Iris explained this, Rose just realized that Iris had pulled daggers out of her pockets, but this did not seem weird when it initially happened. She assumed that this was also part of the illusion, to keep the target fooled for as long as possible since realizing an illusion is always the sole way of breaking out.

Before any more conversation could be made, XVII finally walked ahead of the demigods with an announcement.

"I will now announce the next battle."

Once again, the demigods stared at XVII, awaiting the announcement.

"The next battle is... Mia Woods vs X."

And as this statement was made, almost everyone's eyes widened.

Klaus turned to Mia and in doing so, he noticed the slight fear in her face upon realizing that she was next and that she was about to battle X. Everyone stared in silence as Mia gradually proceeded to walk to the entrance of the battlefield.

X was not around the other demigods and was a bit far. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be in a state of focus with his arms folded and a leg crossed while on his seat. His breathing was also very gradual and concentrated, which helped Klaus realize that he was meditating.

After a few seconds, X then opened his eyes before walking into the battlefield seconds after Mia.

Silence filled the arena as X walked in, standing in front of Mia, similar to the other fights. Mia's heart could not stop pounding as she locked eyes with her brother. She didn't know what to feel, whether to be scared of the battle that awaited her, or to be happy that she had gotten an opportunity to prove to X that she was worthy to share the same last name with him.

"G-Good luck, b-bro," Mia managed to say.

X's silence was clear as he awaited the commencement of the battle, ignoring her statement. And finally, the alarm rang, indicating the battle's commencement.

Immediately the battle commenced, X proceeded to walk gradually toward Mia. This scene was frightening to her since she knew that she was beyond comparison to his close combat capabilities. Swiftly, she then pulled out her bow from behind her and picked up an arrow from the quiver on her thigh. These were actual arrows that were not altered like the ones she used during the Cosmic League.

Mia pulled the arrow before firing it at X. But as the shot reached him, X caught the arrow instantly. He then snapped the caught arrow before continuing his forward motion, without slowing down in the slightest.

In a state of panic, Mia then continued to fire multitudes of arrows once again but ultimately failed to hit her opponent, even though every single shot was on target. X continued to catch the thrown arrows, breaking and throwing them to the ground instantly before the others were shot.

X continued to walk closer to her, which made her realize that she had to do something quickly. She then remembered that she could use True Accuracy if she wanted to land a solid shot. But she knew that the backlash upon using it was too great and there was still a possibility that hitting him with an arrow would do little to no damage. With this, Mia knew that she had to write off the ability, at least for the meantime.

By the time Mia realized, X had almost reached where she was so she instantly jumped backward to create more space between them. She knew that even though it wasn't working, range was her best chance of winning the battle so she had to continue her current approach until she found a better one.

"The same futile attack," X said to Mia. "Pathetic."

Mia continued to fire her arrows once again at X, with him using his hands to hit the shots away this time as he continued to walk.

"He's not attacking," Lance stated while spectating the battle. "I am surprised."

"Yeah," Quinn started. "In everything I've ever heard about X, he always tends to finish a battle before it even becomes one. But this time, he's not even using Heart Halter and Soul Slayer."

All the demigods turned to her in confusion at her latter statement.

"The who and what now?" Link asked.

Quinn realized that she had information the others didn't, but she felt that this was not one that she would decide to keep to herself. She was also eliminated from the tournament, so the information wasn't valuable to her so she decided to disclose it.

"The Heart Halter. A nickname given by the press on the very sniper rifle that had taken over a dozen politicians' lives. It's rumored that for every bullet that is fired from the weapon, a heart would also be halted. And then there's the Soul Slayer. A hand cannon sidearm that's rumored to have the same force as a rocket-propelled weapon when fired. This was also the weapon X used to take the life of the French minister of finance a few months ago, as well as a few others."

"I think I've heard that before," Link said as the display on his helmet changed to a loading bar for a few seconds.

The bar then filled up before it reverted to its usual display and he continued.

"Yeah. you're right," He responded, confirming what Quinn had explained.

But Quinn still had her curious look on her face as she brushed her chin in thought once again.

"I wonder. X could win in a ranged battle, probably easier than his close range too, so why exactly is he not fighting back?"

Mia was starting to run out of arrows as she continued to fire shots at X, ultimately failing to hit any. She was starting to realize that she was going to have to fight him in hand-to-hand combat.

After a few more seconds, X seemed to be fed up with the repetitive nature of the battle so after deflecting one of the fired arrows, he instantly changed from his walking motion into running. Mia noticed his action as she instantly dropped the arrow she was holding and switched to a close-range style.

The two fighters clashed, with X expectedly swinging more punches and Mia defending more. But it was clear that the battle was not a fair one.

X continued to swing punches at Mia and landed about seventy percent of them. Mia somehow managed to dodge and block a few, but the other attacks she was receiving were too great for her. And the worst thing was that she couldn't get a single window of opportunity to even decide to attack once.

"I'm guessing this is where it ends," Shade said.

"I guess," Klaus responded.

"Seems that all this time, he was just stalling," Rose commented.

Klaus seemed to be frustrated that X was landing so many blows on his sister, but he knew that the tournament was expected to be brutal and that the fighters were expected to go all out, regardless of their opponent.

The fight continued in X's favor as with every attack Mia received, she was getting closer and closer to losing consciousness. She was getting bested.

As the barrage of attacks continued, eventually, X landed a devastating punch on the side of Mia's head, causing her to lose balance and fall to the ground in utter pain. The attack was so devastating, that Mia possibly lost consciousness for a brief second before managing to hang on to what consciousness she had. But she knew she couldn't go on any further.

"Get up."

As Mia turned her head up, she noticed the anger in X's eyes as he stated those words. The silence lasted for a few seconds as everyone watched Mia struggle to get back on her feet.

Upon getting up, X moved back a bit and waited for a few seconds before finally returning to the battle. This entire scene made the other demigods feel bad for Mia and what was happening to her.

"It's almost like she doesn't want to forfeit because she wants to impress him," Rose stated at the spectator's area.

"I feel bad for her, knowing there's probably no chance of that happening," Quinn replied.

The battle continued almost the same way, except this time, Mia was taking more damage than before. Her eyes seemed to be getting harder and harder to keep open as X continued to attack at the same pace he had in the battle. Once again, X landed yet another devastating blow on her, causing her to fall to the ground once more.

"Get up," X said once again as he stared directly at her.

"This is torture," Tyler commented. "At this point, we'll understand if she forfeits."

Mia still attempted to get up, even though she was badly hurt and could barely stay conscious at this point. But her attempts fell short as she couldn't get back on her feet.

"I-I f-forfeit," Mia managed to state while still on the ground.

This was not surprising, but rather refreshing, for most of the demigods to hear as they spectated the battle.

"Are you certain?" XVII then asked Mia.

Mia then nodded her head in confirmation. She was extremely disappointed in her performance in the battle, especially since she never even got the chance to use True Accuracy, or even land a single blow at least. But she knew that there was nothing she could do.

As she turned to X, she noticed that he had anger in his eyes. She could not blame him for it, but she wanted to impress him and she was sad that she failed.

X still had anger in him, but eventually, he closed his eyes and sighed, almost calmly. Suddenly, he made a gesture that surprised everyone in the Arena of Valor. He stretched his hand at Mia, almost as if he wanted to help her up.

Mia saw this action and was stunned for a few seconds, and the silence from X made it more difficult to tell what was happening, but she decided to take it as a gesture so she stretched her hand out as well. And to her surprise, X helped her up from her fallen state.

"Wow, didn't see that coming," Link commented.

Mia smiled at X as her face turned redder by the second. X closed his eyes for a brief moment before placing his right palm on her left shoulder. This felt like a sweet dream to Mia as she could not believe what was happening was real. But as always, sweet dreams eventually come to an end.

As X placed his palm on her shoulder, he then let out a slight sigh before finally saying something.

"You bring shame to that last name."

Immediately X made this statement before anyone could even react to the statement, he gripped her shoulder before placing his left leg forward and using force to sweep Mia off her feet.

Mia felt everything in slow motion as she proceeded to fall to her side. But before she could completely fall, she turned her eyes upward to see what appeared as X's sidearm pointed directly between her eyes.

All the demigods watched as before Mia could fall to the ground, a loud bang echoed around the entire Arena of Valor.