My head felt like it had been used as a battering ram against a titanium wall.

  When I finally managed to peel my eyelids open, the blinding white light of the infirmary ceiling assaulted my retinas. I groaned, instinctively clutching my skull as a tidal wave of fragmented memories crashed into my brain.

  The red sky. The suffocating aura. The Thousand Tera Blood Rain.

  I shot up in bed, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "What the heck happened?!" I gasped, my vision swimming as I frantically looked around the room. "Did we win? Wait... I felt a massive surge of energy, and then I went completely berserk, and almost..."

  The realization hit me like a physical blow. I stopped breathing.

  "I almost killed everyone! Are you guys alright?!" I yelled, gripping the bedsheets. "Dammit! What the heck have I done? I lost total control and attacked my own friends! Curse me! Curse—"

  "Calm down, bro," a familiar, incredibly exasperated voice interrupted.

  I blinked. Sitting around the ward, looking varying degrees of battered but undeniably alive, were Leonica, Jade, Azra, and the rest of the crew.

  "We are all okay," Leonica assured me, offering a tired but genuine smile.

  "Oh my god," I exhaled, feeling a mountain of tension instantly evaporate from my shoulders. I scrambled out of the bed and immediately dropped into a deep, perfectly executed bow—a move my former arrogant CEO self would have scoffed at. "What a relief. I am really, really, really sorry, guys."

  "It's okay, Ragna," Jade chuckled, waving off the apology. "But seriously, let's go. You and Alita are the only ones who haven't chosen their new masters yet."

  I stood up, pausing as my brain tried to process the sudden shift in topic. "New masters? What do you mean?"

  "We mean," Azra chimed in, leaning against the wall, "that for the first time in history, the top ten of us have been chosen to be core disciples. Though, eight of us have already chosen our masters. You've been out cold."

  "Seriously?!" My eyes went wide. Total hostile takeover of the Academy rankings achieved. "Oh my god, let's go then. And wait... who else wasn't there? Alita... that girl who basically fucked all of us hard?"

  "Yes. Now let's go."

  The voice came from the doorway. Deadpan. Completely devoid of any inflection.

  I turned. Alita was standing there, looking exactly as expressionless and perfectly put-together as she did before I tried to drop a localized apocalypse on her.

  "You have slept for nine days," she stated simply.

  "Cold," Jade muttered under his breath, leaning closer to me, "but she actually stayed by your bed for all nine of those days for some reason."

  I blinked, looking back at Alita, but she had already turned around, her figure fading from the doorway as she started walking down the hall.

  (Wait. The stoic, overpowered cosmic deity stayed by my hospital bed for over a week? That is classic Tsundere behavior. Plot armor comes in many forms, folks.)

  I watched the empty doorway for a second before turning back to the group. My gaze landed on Starlia.

  "Hey," I said, clearing my throat, suddenly feeling a completely different kind of nervousness. "Can I talk to Starlia alone for some time?"

  The room went quiet for a split second. Then, a collective chorus of knowing smirks broke out among the group.

  "Alright, but come fast," Leonica teased, practically shooing the others out the door.

  Once the door clicked shut, it was just the two of us. The air felt heavy. Look, surviving a deathmatch and nearly nuking the server changes a guy. It makes you realize how short life is.

  "I know it's probably too early to ask this, especially after everything," I started, rubbing the back of my neck and dropping all my usual snark. "But... I think I am in love with you."

  Starlia looked at me. She didn't look surprised, but she didn't look happy, either. She just looked incredibly sad.

  "See," Starlia said softly, her voice filled with a gentle, agonizing pity. "I know it's hard, but actually... I don't love you. I love someone else."

  Critical Hit. HP reduced to zero.

  I felt my stomach drop straight through the floor. The great Ragna Crimson, the True Demon anomaly, defeated not by an Earth Drake or a celestial sword, but by a polite rejection in a hospital room.

  "Who is it?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, completely overwhelmed by the sudden, crushing weight of sadness.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Starlia looked down at the floor, hesitating for a fraction of a second before twisting the knife.

  "It's Drake."

  My brain bluescreened. Drake. The guy with the shiny bow. The guy who had beaten me completely, and would have won if Azure hadn't helped me 5 years ago.

  I forced the corners of my mouth up, plastering on the fakest, most faded smile I had ever mustered in my two lifetimes.

  "I should've known," I breathed.

  "I am sorry, Ragna," she whispered. And with that, she turned and walked out of the room, leaving me completely alone with the echoing silence of my shattered ego.

  I dragged myself out of the infirmary bed, moving with all the enthusiasm of a condemned man heading to the gallows. I silently pulled on my clothes—the Azure Frost jacket thankfully doing a lot of heavy lifting to hide my complete lack of will to live—and trudged out into the hallway.

  And there she was.

  Alita was waiting for me, standing casually against the stone wall. As I walked up to her, a stray breeze drifted through the open corridor window, gently ruffling her purplish-pink hair.

  I stopped. For the first time since we met, I was looking at her up close without the immediate, pressing threat of being atomized by a space-sword. And it hit me like a physical blow.

  She was breathtaking. Objectively, undeniably, 'forget-how-to-breathe' stunning. I stood there completely mesmerized.

  A weird realization washed over me. I never felt this way when I looked at Starlia. Was what I felt for the Princess actually love? No. My mind had just been playing tricks on me. I had been projecting the ghost of my past—the memory of Lia from my previous world—onto her. But my past is just that: the past. It wasn't true, and it never could be.

  If Lia isn't here, there is absolutely no reason to keep looking for her in the faces of other people. It was a cold, hard fact. I needed to snap out of my depressive funk and focus on my present.

  "Hurry up," Alita said, her voice cutting through my internal monologue.

  She pushed off the wall and started walking down the corridor. I quickly fell into step beside her. The silence between us stretched, heavy and a little awkward. I hesitated, my usual arrogant CEO confidence completely nowhere to be found, but I forced myself to break the ice.

  "So..." I started, rubbing the back of my neck. "Are you a half-demon too?"

  Alita didn't break her stride. "No," she replied, her voice as flat and expressionless as always. "I am a True Demon. I'm from one of the five demon families, ranked second, just after the Crimsons. The Cosmos family. What about you? You are a Crimson, right?"

  "Yes," I nodded, looking down at my boots. The memory of my unhinged, feral meltdown in the arena suddenly felt incredibly embarrassing. "And... sorry for causing trouble."

  Alita stopped walking.

  She turned her head to look at me. And then, the universe completely broke its own rules. The stoic, expressionless, terrifying cosmic deity... smiled. It wasn't a smirk or a polite curve of the lips. It was a genuine, breathtakingly beautiful smile that instantly melted away her icy exterior.

  "What are you talking about?" she said softly. "It was the best fight I've ever had."

  My brain bluescreened. The absolute pinnacle of my two lifetimes of smooth-talking, corporate negotiating, and sarcastic banter completely vanished. I was left staring at her, entirely starstruck.

  "Th... th... thank... thanks," I stuttered out, sounding exactly like the dumb, lovestruck twelve-year-old I technically was.

  "By the way," Alita said, her voice casually shattering my brief moment of peace. "How does your hand feel? It had gone pitch black and looked like it was melting."

  I stopped walking, staring at her in mild horror.

  (Excuse me? Melting? I feel like 'spontaneous limb liquefaction' is the kind of medical update you lead the conversation with, Alita!)

  Now that she mentioned it, I suddenly became very aware of the thick layers of bandages wrapped around my right hand. I lifted it. It felt... different. Heavier. Denser. Like the bones had been replaced with solid tungsten. It didn't feel broken, though; it actually felt terrifyingly stronger.

  Curiosity getting the better of my survival instincts, I reached over with my left hand to start unwrapping the linen. We had just reached the massive, arched double doors of the Hall of Supremes.

  I tugged at the bandage.

  "Ouch!" I hissed, immediately snatching my hand back. Yeah, nope. Whatever the medical staff did to me, it's staying under wraps for now.

  Pushing through the doors, we entered the Hall. I have to admit, my inner corporate CEO was impressed. The place was breathtakingly luxurious, designed almost entirely in pristine, blinding white marble and trimmed with enough gold to bankrupt a small country.

  We were late, obviously. The rest of the Top 10 had already assembled and, from the looks of it, had already locked in their choices. They hadn't settled for mediocrity, either. Every single master they had chosen was radiating an oppressive, heavy aura that screamed Venerable Stage 4 or 5. Those are the big leagues—people who get cool nicknames and expect you to bow when they sneeze.

  That left exactly six master options standing at the far end of the hall for Alita and me to choose from.

  I was just about to step forward and evaluate my options when the floor completely gave out.

  BOOM.

  A violent, localized earthquake rocked the entire Hall of Supremes for three solid seconds. It didn't feel like a natural tremor. It felt like someone had just jumped off a mountain and landed directly on the roof with an absurd, logic-defying amount of force.

  Before the dust could even settle from the rafters, a frantic scream echoed from the hallway outside.

  "Lady Alexia! Lady Alexia! Stop, we plead you!"

  The grand doors were shoved open. In walked a woman. She was undeniably beautiful, wearing an elegant, sweeping blue gown. Her hair was pitch black, matching her deep, dark eyes. (Wait. A disguise? That definitely feels like a high-tier illusion.) She wasn't paying any attention to the stunned prodigies or the Venerable masters in the room. She was entirely focused on the bright, red-colored fruit she was holding casually in one hand.

  Trailing desperately behind her were two frantic female attendants, both practically in tears, reaching out as if trying to shield a live grenade.

  "Please!" one of the attendants cried. "It isn't a common fruit! It's an ultra-rare Fruit of Wisdom!"

  The woman—Alexia—paused and looked at the panicked attendants, tilting her head in profound confusion.

  "What are you talking about? It's just a fruit," Alexia said, her tone completely deadpan. "It only gets eaten to kill my hunger."

  And then, right there in the middle of the sacred Hall of Supremes, she took a massive, unapologetic bite out of the priceless legendary artifact.

  Crunch. "Mmm," Alexia hummed, chewing happily. "As delicious as always."

  The entire room stood in completely frozen, horrified silence. The Venerable masters looked like they were about to have synchronized heart attacks. The attendants fell to their knees in despair.

  I just stood there, blinking, thoroughly unbothered.

  (What is the big deal?) I thought, watching her take another bite. (Why are they so horrified? It literally just looks like an apple. Have these people never seen a snack break before?)