Elion didn’t immediately respond to Zenovia’s furious question.

His eyes swept across the three opposing figures instead, taking them in, as if measuring and analysing the pressure rolling off them.

All three had different builds and different auras, but they had the common trait of giving off that dangerous vibe.

The first was a buff swordsman, ordinary at first glance, holding a broad longsword and a shield that was nearly half his body in both length and width.

His body was clad in full plate armour that shone a brilliant gold, something that caught Elion slightly off guard.

The guy had a stern expression on his face, dark tousled hair, and a rough stubble that gave him a hardened look.

Among the three, he was definitely the most plain. Because the other two were not so much. They looked younger than Elion himself, by a couple of years at least.

Definitely much younger, maybe they were in their mid-teens.

The second was a petite girl, no older than sixteen or seventeen, wearing clothes that were clearly too oversized for her small frame. Baggy pants that hung loosely over her legs, thick-soled shoes that seemed designed to make her look taller, and an equally baggy top with a hood.

Her clothes were bright and vibrant, almost out of place in a battlefield like this. Green, blue, and red, and her hair matched those bright shades. It was dyed in three colors, red, green, and blue, layered in horizontal bands from the crown of her head down to the twin tails that rested on either side of her chest.

But the most unsettling part the expression on her face. A crazed smile stretched across it.

Her large, round eyes shone like amethyst gemstones, wide and unblinking, filled with a deathly sparkle that didn’t belong in a sane person’s gaze.

And then Elion noticed the weapon she had on her person. A massive scythe that was easily three times her height, resting behind her small frame like it weighed nothing.

"Hehe..."

She chuckled softly, her gaze sliding over Elion’s body as she licked her blue-colored lips. Elion had a feeling this gaze was not the same predatory look women gave him. It really looked like she was looking at him the same way a beast would look at its prey.

"Another big brother has come to play..." she said, her smile widening in a way that felt very wrong and uncomfortable.

Elion didn’t respond to her. He didn’t even give her more than a passing glance.

"Aw... I was ignored," she pouted dramatically, clutching her chest and staggering on her dainty feet as if genuinely hurt.

Elion shifted his attention to the third person, who was a guy in his teens. He wasn’t as visually striking as the girl.

But there was something about him that stood out in a different way.

He didn’t look like he possessed any visible weapon, and he had an almost bored look on his young face, one that still held a bit of softness in the cheeks.

He didn’t have any armour either, which struck Elion as odd, even though he himself wasn’t exactly dressed for combat either.

The boy’s hair was a spotless, fresh white, falling neatly to his shoulders, and there was an almost innocent look to his face.

Now that Elion looked closer, he shared some features with the girl.

The nose and the ears looked similar... but their features were not identical.

’Siblings?’ Elion thought. ’Or maybe unidentical twins...’

The boy had his hands tucked into his pockets.

And he hadn’t moved.

He had been standing in that exact posture ever since Elion arrived, which was strange, considering everyone else had already been standing in a combat stance since before Yakuza and Elion entered the field.

Maybe his fighting style didn’t require him to be mobile at all, or maybe he simply didn’t feel threatened.

Elion didn’t get the chance to study him any further because Zenovia was suddenly right beside him.

"Don’t ignore me!" she screamed right in his face, "Where the hell have you been for the past month!?"

Her eyes burned with anger.

"...We thought you ran," she added, her voice tightened a bit, "O-or that you died."

Elion looked at her with a teasing smile.

"What... were you worried about me?" he asked lightly, tilting his head. "Didn’t know you missed me that much."

"W-what—no!" she stammered immediately, her voice rising as she glared at him. "Don’t flatter yourself! And answer the question, goddamnit!" she snapped, her face heating up as a faint blush crept up her face.

He stepped forward slowly, his blade forming in his hand with a faint shimmer of mana, "I’ve been busy," he replied finally.

Zenovia’s eye twitched, "Busy!?"

"I’ll explain later," Elion said, his tone shifting slightly as he glanced past her. "I can see you guys are tired... let’s finish this quickly so you can rest."

"Tch."

Zenovia clicked her tongue, but she didn’t refute him.

Across from them, the three opposing heroes had been watching their little exchange with varying degrees of annoyance, but the moment passed, and the focus snapped back to the fight.

Aeron stepped forward and moved to Elion’s side, stopping a few metres away.

"Don’t underestimate the kids," he said quietly. "They’re the strongest among the three... especially the boy."

Elion’s gaze flickered toward the white-haired youth.

"He uses some kind of invisible weapon," Aeron continued. "We’ve taken a lot of damage from it before we figured it out."

He paused briefly.

"If you trace the mana around you... You should be able to see it."

Elion nodded as he used discerning eye to see if he could peer at this invisible weapon.

The world shifted in his vision, and the flow of mana became clearer to him. And then he saw it, not just faintly, vaguely.

It was shown clearly to him, defined vividly to him, making it almost tangible in his eyes. His brow rose slightly.

"...What a nasty ability you have there," he said, his gaze locking onto the white-haired boy.

For the first time, the boy’s calm expression changed. His eyes widened in complete shock.

"You can see my akuma?" the boy spoke rather calmly despite the shock still lingering on his face.

Elion nodded, "I am curious though... how someone so young could possess an ability so... repulsive."

The reaction was immediate. The boy’s face twisted as the shock gave way to an unsightly, angry expression.

"What do you know!?" he shouted, his voice breaking as his breath suddenly spiked. His body tensed violently as if something inside him had snapped.

He staggered as his hand shot to his throat. It looked like he was choking himself.

"Uta—!"

The young girl rushed to his side instantly, placing a hand on his back as she patted him gently.

"Shhh... calm down, Uta..." she said softly.

’So that’s his name...’ Elion thought, his expression tightening slightly. He didn’t quite know how to feel about what he was seeing.

His allies looked confused, if a bit concerned, and for good reason. Because they couldn’t see what he was seeing so vividly.

What the boy called his akuma was something else entirely.

Hundreds of twisted, elongated black hands floated around him, writhing in the air in unnatural patterns, stretching and curling like they had a will of their own.

But that wasn’t the worst part. Above him, there were multiple, black, grotesque heads. There are dozens of them, no, perhaps hundreds of them.

Their jaws are stretched wide into silent, churning screams, and their hollow faces are contorted in agony, like the souls of the dead trapped in eternal torment.

And the hand looked like it belonged to them. like they were reaching out and grasping, trying to pull something down, or drag something up into the pits of hell with them.

The sight made bile rise in Elion’s throat from disgust. Pure, visceral disgust.

Eventually, Uta calmed down enough that he no longer needed the girl’s support to breathe properly, though his eyes remained locked onto Elion, filled with hostility.

The swordsman stepped forward as he moved to stand beside the two youngsters.

"Forgive my companion’s outburst," he said, his tone surprisingly composed. "He hasn’t exactly lived the most comfortable childhood."

Elion didn’t respond immediately. What was he even supposed to say to that? He simply gave a small nod. Though he didn’t quite understand why this guy spoke as if they knew each other.

Weren’t they all supposed to be strangers in this trial? Or had he simply misunderstood? Maybe all three of them knew each other.

Given how similar the two teens looked, they could easily be siblings, and this older guy might be their guardian or something.

’Odd...’ he thought.

"You must be the last trial taker then," the swordsman said, "the one who created all that chaos on the front lines a month ago before vanishing."

Elion nodded calmly.

"I guess so."