Ace leaped backwards, creating distance between him and Emilia. He then discarded his knife by throwing it away, cracking his fists with a cold, murderous gaze directed straight at the still-giggling Emilia who was still in her transformed state.
In an instant, Emilia unleashed countless spears of ice at Ace, each one being bigger, sturdier and more destructive than the previous one. The speed at which she unleashed them was unlike any Ace had ever seen. Right after summoning and firing one off, another came in a split second.
'Goddammit,' Ace cursed internally, evading, leaping around and gliding through each and every attack with impressive speed and agility. 'She's not giving me any openings.'
Emilia, who simply watched the show with a gleeful and flushed expression that didn't even seem to know what she was doing, only had one thought going through her.
"So pretty~!" she thought, a certain black void which held a silver glow appearing within Ace's chest in her eyes.
"I want it," she thought, grinning happily with a soft and subtle smile.
While Ace was simply busy evading Emilia's onslaught, he felt a shift in the air. A cold and freezing air that made his instincts go on high alert.
In an instant, Emilia appeared behind him, sword in hand, ready to pierce through his chest. As the sword pierced him, his form faded into nothingness. Emilia was completely surprised by that. Like a surprised lost child, she looked around for Ace, her onslaught being completely at a halt.
Without noticing anything, Ace, with a stoic yet bloodthirsty gaze in his eyes, was right above her, leg high and ready to kick her with full force.
"Time to bring you back down to reality," he said as the blow came strongly, making Emilia crash on the ground while the icy debris of her previous attack exploded into countless pieces.
Hands in pockets, Ace landed on what remained of the ice spears Emilia had unleashed. From the dust cloud, smaller spears of ice came at him, evading them one-by-one before grabbing the last one in his hand and obliterating it.
'So annoying,' he thought, his hand frozen as he clenched and opened it repeatedly. 'Guess I need to put in some more effort.'
Walking out of the dust cloud while smiling and giggling happily, Emilia was covered in grazes but there were no apparent injuries on her body.
As her eyes laid on Ace, she grinned happily with her unsettling yet innocent smile. But for Ace, that sight only made him click his tongue as he then joined her on the firm ground.
Emilia continued to walk slowly towards him, completely unbothered. Her expression was full of amusement and joy. There was no resentment. No anger. And for Ace, that was what was unsettling.
For the audience who watched everything through holographic magic screens from their seats, and Isidor who continued to comment excitedly as if his life depended on it, none of them could have foreseen the sheer brutality that they were about to witness.
With only half a meter between him and Emilia, Ace also put a foot forward, and in a split second, he disappeared from sight. Emilia still had her child-like surprise when she no longer saw him, and yet, the next moment, a firm hand gripped her face.
Ace's expression, though cold, was unusually frightening.
With a single push, he grinded Emilia's head through the ground. The earth shattered from the sheer force as they created a straight yet fractured line through the ground.
After a short while, his feet landed on the ground, and without giving her even a second to react, he grabbed her by the hair and threw her away as if she was a ball, making her bounce off the ground violently.
When she finally stopped, her body, letting shells of ice fall off, struggled to rise from the ground. When she stood up, her unbothered expression, which didn't seem to comprehend what was happening to her, shifted to a surprised one as Ace once again disappeared from sight.
Of course, it didn't take long before she noticed his presence behind her, but unfortunately for her, a powerful kick to the face came straight at her, blasting her away several meters.
As her body still flew through the air, Ace appeared above her, kicking her straight to the gut without mercy. The landing was violent enough to create a crater in the ground as Emilia gasped for air.
Her body trembled yet she was expressionless like a doll. Ace grabbed and lifted her by the hair, his expression distant and murderous.
"What's the matter? It's no longer fun for you?" he asked her, his voice menacing and piercing. "Too bad it's not over yet."
He let go her, and before she could fall to the ground, he punched her violently, the sound of her ribs crack reverberating strongly.
But he did not stop there, every time she was about to fall, without waiting for even a second, he'd beat her up without hesitation. Whether it'd be kicks, punches, palm, elbow or knee strikes, Ace showed no mercy.
And in the meantime, the audience was frightened. Even Ellie held her breath at the sight as she covered Shaw's eyes. Frank, Mira, Stephany, and all the other students that had been eliminated had widened eyes as they watched the images displaying in front of them.
In the VIP lounge, the silence was palpable. Whether it'd be Hugo, Leonardo or the other Elders, they all either had stoic or uneasy expressions.
"He really isn't pulling his punches, is he?" asked Deker, an uncomfortable and forced smile on his as he sat in a recovery room with Chris whose indecipherable expression clearly hid his clenching teeth.
Emilia, the victim of Ace's ruthlessness, started seeing her mind break from the sheer brutality.
'It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Eh? It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Why did I attack Ace to begin with? It hurts! It hurts! Why did I…? It hurts! It hurts!'
Emilia's expression, already bleeding by the nose and bruised up, was a distorted mix between a broken smile that only drowned in tears.
"Well, well," Ace started, letting her fall on her knees as her twisted gaze fell on him. "Seems like you're back to your senses. Or at least partially."
Ace, with a cold and distant gaze filled with bloodlust directed at her, simply crouched in front of her, his hand grabbing her neck while slowly choking her.
As she struggled for air, grabbing his arm with a teary face, "Don't you remember? I told you that at any misstep, I'd kill you. Too bad this is a virtual reality, and that there are so many witnesses," Ace said before letting go of her.
And as Emilia coughed, struggling for air, Ace slowly bent towards her, whispering only a single statement in her ear.
"I'd advise you not to become my enemy. Because when I strike my enemies, it's to kill. You'd better not forget that."
As Emilia heard those, her heart skipped a beat. Ace's words anchored themselves deep in her heart, but at the same time, an inexplicable urge came to her.
Ace felt a pang of pain on his neck.
Emilia had bitten him. Strongly enough for blood to come out of the wound and leave a mark.
Without wasting a moment, he kicked her away and clicked his tongue.
Emilia slowly rose from the ground, her distorted yet smiling expression showing a form of satisfaction as she opened her arms wide, almost waiting to be embraced.
Ace didn't care about what she was thinking or why she acted the way she did, he only did one thing. With his usual stoic expression, he pulled out a sword from his shadow and then cut off Emilia's head swiftly and quickly in an instant.
Before fading, Emilia's gaze stayed stuck on the strange void that was within his chest as a single thought crossed her mind.
'You're mine. Mine and no one else's.'