"Son of a bitch," Enzo murmured to himself as he stood, staring down at the arena. "That little fucker managed to copy my Relentless."

"Isn’t that amazing?" Kit beamed happily as she clapped her hands together. "My little bookworm is growing even more!"

Enzo shook his head in disbelief and scoffed before sitting back down. On the other side, Cassandra smiled, her eyes rapt with clarity.

"Adorable and strong! I wonder if he'd be interested in me."

"Watch it, Princess," Kit immediately hissed at Cassandra with a piercing glare.

"Aww, but aren’t you dating that Technomancer from the VRO guild?" The Glass Queen smiled, unbothered.

"I broke things off with her ages ago! Where have you been?"

Enzo ignored the two women as he kept his gaze on the match. Though a part of him wanted his brother to do well in the match, he couldn't help but feel a rare pride at Sero's performance. It was a strange and uncomfortable feeling for the Demonic Judge to experience, but he was eager to see what would happen next.

At first, Enzo hadn’t understood why the Boss assigned a weak A-rank like Sero for him to train. In fact, Enzo had hated the way the Scholar was so unmotivated, pathetic, and new even despite learning that he was thrust back onto the world playing catch-up.

But as he continued to train Sero, Enzo found himself growing more fond of the young man, even begrudgingly respecting his stubborn and persistent attitude. At least, whenever Sero used that for things that mattered.

On the other hand, Liam was difficult to break through to. All of Enzo’s efforts to try and reconcile with his younger brother had failed, due to the world’s incessant comparison of the both of them. He knew Liam had an inferiority complex, but didn’t know how to deal with that. It also didn’t help that the brothers weren’t good at talking out their feelings, especially with the way their family was prior to the apocalypse.

Enzo sipped his can, deciding that he’d deal with what issues came after the match ended. Next to him, Kit’s phone began to ring.

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With a roar, Liam charged first, throwing a flurry of punches and kicks. Sero, now able to see them all, deflected or dodged them, returning an assault of his own. There was no longer a need for flashy skills or weapons.

"I’m not sure what exactly happened, but it seems as though the Scholar has done something unexpected once again!" The announcer cried out, a little relieved that the match wasn’t going to end as brutally as expected. "Was it a new type of recovery skill? Is it a trick? Who knows!"

The crowd had regained their enthusiasm and was now cheering loudly, many of them surprisingly advocating for Sero. He ignored their cries, focusing on the fight before him.

Even with the new Relentless passive, Sero found himself evenly matched against Liam, both men unable to land a decisive hit. In the midst of their fist-fight, Sero managed to summon two Queens, who focused on restoring his stamina. With Recovery working overtime and keeping his Queens out, Sero’s mana began to dip, though he decided he didn’t need it for the physical clash.

Analyzing the Demonic Enforcer, Sero was taken aback to find that he was able to learn much more this time around. Liam’s Harmony could be seen as a direct counter to his Relentless, able to convert damage into either strength or restoration, hostile magic attacks into personal mana use, and even transmute negative effects into buffs. What's more, Harmony was also able to use extreme emotional duress to further increase Liam's power; rage was a particularly effective emotion to utilize.

"You know, Liam, I don't hate you. I just... don't want to be like this," Sero shouted through gritted teeth. "I don't want us to be like this."

Liam roared, pushing Sero away with a wave of dark red mana. "Shut up! What are you even talking about? Don't speak like you know me, bottom-rank!"

Sero recovered quickly, pushing past Liam's crackling elemental aura to engage in combat again. "But I do! You're lashing out because you feel like no matter what you do, you'll always be compared to your brother!"

"And?" Liam snarled, managing to secure a heavy blow to Sero's side. "You think you understand how it feels to be alone, since all the attention is on your brother?"

"Actually," Sero grunted through the pain and landed a hit of his own. "I do. Not exactly in the same way you did, but I know how it feels to be alone. My mother always pushed me to do my best, and because of that, I was at the top of my class."

The Demonic Enforcer's rage grew, dangerously adding more strength due to his Harmony passive and Provoke skill. Sero felt Liam's power beginning to eclipse his own.

"I never had real friends! The so-called 'friends' I had were just using me to pass!" Sero summoned the last two Queens just to keep up with Liam's ever-growing power. "When it came down to it, they never remembered to include me in anything!"

"So what? Boo-hoo, your friends weren't really your friends!"

"I wasn't stupid; I knew they were using me, but I kept lying to myself, thinking they were my friends!" Sero struggled against the increasing pressure from Liam's aura. "And then after my mom died, I lost myself! I pushed away my father and ended up alone!"

Liam's onslaught was wearing him down, but Sero refused to give up. For some reason, he thought he recognized something Liam had that reminded him of himself.

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"At least your parents loved you!" Liam roared back. "Mine always favored Enzo, and that was only when they weren't being abusive and shitty parents! Did you know that? Did you know that my brother and I killed our parents?"

Sero's heart skipped a beat as Liam's words hung in the air. The crowd went silent, as if they could sense the shift in the battle's focus. Sero glanced at Liam, studying his expression. He saw the same rage and pain that he had felt reflected back at him. And for the first time, Sero understood why Liam had become the person he was. He understood why he had lashed out against him, why he had been so desperate to prove himself.

"After that, Enzo left me," Liam snarled as he upped the pace of his attacks. "When I needed him the most, he left me! I had no one."

Sero felt a pang in his heart as he realized the depth of Liam's loneliness. He knew the feeling all too well. It was a hollowness that ate away at you from the inside, a constant reminder that no matter how hard you tried, there would always be something missing. It was a feeling he had thought he had left behind, but seeing it in Liam's eyes, he knew it was still there.

"That's when I decided," Liam began to land more and more hits as Sero found it difficult to keep up with the Demonic Enforcer's speed and strength despite his Relentless. "I'd climb to the top. I don't need anyone's help to do so, and I certainly won't now. Those who can't stand where I'm at don't deserve the right of the strong."

Sero narrowly avoided a hit, his own Queens falling to the ground as he struggled to keep Liam at bay. He glanced at the Demonic Enforcer, seeing not the monster he had once believed him to be, but a lonely child who had grown up with an impossible burden on his shoulders. A child who had been hurt and abandoned, just like Sero had.

Like Sero, he was an asshole too, but the Scholar wondered if that's what he would've become had he chosen to channel that pain into hate. Or if his parents had been like Liam's.

"Your way of thinking," Sero grimaced from the force of Liam's attacks. "Is fucked up. I had to start over too, but I'm not degrading everyone else!"

"Because you're still weak," Liam sent a punch densely coated with mana that blasted Sero away. The Demonic Enforcer quickly followed behind, catching up and elbowing Sero into the ground mid-flight. "You don't know sacrifice. Or loss, or loneliness."

Sero coughed, spitting out a glob of blood. He could feel his Relentless passive slipping away. At least his Queens and Recovery had restored his energy somewhat.

Liam stood over Sero with a sneer, gathering dark red mana into his fists. "But I will teach you pain."

The playing card Sero had dropped during his knock back activated, exploding and conjuring a Jack that quickly grabbed Sero's ankles and yanked him away from Liam's downward punch in the nick of time.

Sero ungracefully flew through the air a second time as he threw out the rest of his Kings and Jacks to deal with Liam. Using Shadow Sneak to safely land on the ground, Sero felt his Relentless passive fade. A slight panic rose in his chest, but his Rationality activated, calming his nerves as he tried to imagine Enzo's Relentless once more.

But nothing happened.

Swearing to himself, Sero watched as Liam quickly dispatched his familiars with blinding speed, easily ripping them apart with his bare hands. It was a terrifying spectacle to behold.

Steeling himself, Sero casted Undying Spirit, figuring that using Fairness on Liam would cripple him. He was running out of options, his Perfect Analysis now useless.

Liam turned his attention to Sero after the familiars had been decimated, coming towards him at supersonic speeds. With no time to think, Sero tried the only thing he could come up with, imagining a certain woman with mismatched eyes.

Both men threw a punch, but Liam was much, much faster, his fist already near Sero's face while his own fist had barely moved forward.

"What the?"

Liam blinked in shock as his punch missed, whereas Sero's punch connected with the Demonic Enforcer's chest. A few seconds later, a reverberating mana echo from Undying Spirit erupted from impact, followed by Revenge's enveloping green aura.

Liam shouted in pain as he was blown away by the attack. Sero panted heavily, feeling Kit's Lawbreak passive hold back the Cat Paradox's mind-shattering effect. He hadn't realized the mental strain the skill imposed on its caster, finding a newfound respect for the Paradox.

Sero kept up his pursuit, dashing after Liam even as Revenge worked its magic on him. He sent a series of punches and kicks, draining mana from Liam with every echoing hit.

Though initially caught off guard and unable to defend, Liam quickly composed himself, adjusting to Sero's attacks and shifting the advantage back in his favor. Sero casted Cat Paradox again, aiming to land a direct hit on Liam.

| I will hit him. | He will miss. |

Sero's will gave out against Liam's as his fist missed the Demonic Enforcer. It seemed as though Liam already realized Sero's emulation of Kit's abilities and knew how to fight back.

"Fuck!" Sero swore under his breath as his plan failed. While it was a strong skillset, Sero lacked the experience that Kit had, unable to draw out her skill and passive's true strength.

Liam smirked, seeing his opponent falter. He lunged forward, grabbing Sero by the throat and lifting him into the air. "You're just another pathetic human, struggling against your fate. You don't belong here, weakling."

Sero gasped for breath, choking as he struggled to break free from Liam's vice-like grip. He felt the world spinning around him, darkness beginning to creep into the edges of his vision. He wasn't going to make it out of this. Not like this. He couldn't lose like this.

As he felt the Lawbreak passive slip away, Sero desperately tried to find a new tactic. But nothing came to mind.

His vision began to swim as he felt the last of his strength ebb away. He was about to give up, about to accept his fate. But then, an idea struck him. It was a wild, reckless, foolish idea. It was the kind of idea that would only work had he been a certain someone else. In this case, Sero did have the ability to do so.

With a final cry, Sero gripped Liam's arm tightly, dispersing his Undying Spirit in favor of activating Fairness. Liam's eyes twitched at the forceful balancing, but kept his hold on Sero's neck steady as he gathered mana into his hand.

Under the immense surge of power, Sero could felt his body paralyzed from the overload, but he stared directly into Liam's eyes with renewed determination.

"What are you trying to-"

Before the Demonic Enforcer could finish his sentence, Sero mustered up the concentration to emulate the Harmony passive. He felt his pain gradually give way to strength, and he was slightly surprised to learn that he could convert that strength back into stamina.

"Oh, this is pretty broken," Sero thought to himself as his copied Harmony began to work a miracle on his exhausted body. The excess surge of strength from the Fairness he casted earlier had all been converted into energy, replenishing Sero's stamina. With a quick jab and a kick, Sero broke free from Liam's grasp and created some distance between them.

"You are annoyingly persistent," Liam growled through gritted teeth. "How about you stay down?"

"How about no?" Sero wiped the blood from his mouth using the back of his hand and flipped Liam off.