“What do you mean?” Ursa retorted, looking at the woman beside her. “I had my doubt, too, at first, but last time I checked, Rin really wasn't an Elite.” She continued, puffing up her chest a little as if saying she wasn't that dumb. “So, obviously, she doesn't have a singularity—”

—And without a singularity, there's evidently no way she has a ‘side effect’.

The blonde spoke her mind heartily, though she was interrupted before being able to transmit the latter half of the phrase. With just a pointing finger and the soft suggestion, “Please, look carefully,” Ursa returned her focus on Rin.

In contrast to the previous time, however, her pair of blue eyes glowed a beautiful light as she gathered her Aura in them. Her vision quickly transcended that of a normal human and entered a new realm. A realm where she could see and even distinguish the energy that governed the world of Arcana.

And in such a realm, she caught a glimpse of something odd.

“The heck?” The blonde questioned, unable to comprehend.

From the side, the other woman widened her smile into a warm one, looking tenderly at Rin. Staying quiet for a short while, she began to delve into a decade memory before opening her mouth,

“Twelve years ago, Rin was deemed inept to become an Elite.” The woman began her explanation with a slightly sad expression. “For a very simple reason.”

The blonde, with an amused and very curious expression, for once, decided to stay still and listened carefully.

“She was broken.” The still nameless woman conveyed. “It may sound bad formulated like that but, in reality, although the chance was abysmally low, it wasn't that inconceivable.” With 'lies' mixed with truth, she continued.

“Just like how some people in this world are born with six fingers on each hand, Rin was unable to manifest her power.

“It is what you may call a ‘genetic disorder’.”

Heaving a small sigh, the woman took a second to look at Ursa with an indecipherable expression.

“However, a few months ago, your boss's singularity came to play.” In a slightly graver tone, she loosened her smile.

“I'll spare you the detail, but, because of that, Rin had subconsciously begun to repair her own disorders.”

Ursa's expression turned into a confused one as she was unable to follow the short conversation, however simple it may have been. Still, she continued to gaze at Rin, like a little girl having found a new, interesting toy.

The woman, on the other hand, got back her serene smile and continued her explication.

“You were correct, without a singularity, one cannot have a side effect.” Using Ursa's words, the woman gazed up ahead, this time with unconcealed curiosity.

“Just as Rin's currently twisted personality is caused by her incomplete side-effect, she should, in theory, be able to access and use her incomplete Singularity.”

Ursa's grin broke into a nasty smile at that. It took her absolutely everything she had to refrain from immediately going to ‘play’ with Rin. She did say to Celia she was going to take her friend back, and even the piece of shit she was had the decency to wait for the monster battle to end before going loose.

Paying no heed to her, the woman finished in her thought, ‘Well, whether Rin is aware of that or not is the real problem, though.’

◇

A loud angry roar resounded for the nth time inside Talia city, yet this one seemed particularly more impactful than the previous one. The roar was even more bestial and was practically leaking anger outside of it.

It was obvious just how much frustrated and desperate the owner of the voice, Tenma was.

With his firmly held draconic hands, he used his entire, small humanoid stature to blow away an entire building to smithereens. A loud, devastating noise continued to fill the city as a result, though, maybe at this point, Talia couldn't be called a city anymore.

Tenma heaved heavy breaths after heavy breaths while floating in mid-air. Were the circumstance not what it was, the dragon would surely be ashamed that his hand trembled after only using this much power.

However, now, his greatest worry laid elsewhere. Using his pair of scarlet monster eyes, he looked ahead at the cloud of dust he just created. He searched around it for the body of his target with great hastiness and, although he didn't want to admit it, with a 'very, very little fear displayed on his face.

“Inside mythology,” In vain, though, as the voice he heard came not from ahead of him but from behind. “Dragons are said to have an extremely long lifespan.”

Not even a second after the voice entered his ear, Tenma spun his body and looked down at his opponent's position. There, his frown deepened as he saw an even more irritating scene.

Sitting leisurely on gigantic rubble was Rin's delicate yet beautiful body. Her face was looking up and was locked in a stare with Tenma's. Her two frail-looking hands were leaning on the ground, making her appear relaxed and her two enticing legs were crossed together arrogantly.

“But, to think you're still only at this level,” Rin spoke with a bewitching voice while mocking her opponents. “Or perhaps, were you a newborn Dragon?”

An angry roar resounded yet again as Tenma couldn't let a mere human making fun of him any longer.

The barrier of sound was broken easily, and the monster reached Rin's position without anyone being able to bat even an eye. He swung his claw and destroyed the rubble the girl was sitting on.

The result: except for more environmental damage, he could only make Rin stand.

Just like all his previous attacks, the black-haired teens had avoided the blow by an extremely thin margin, making it seem like Tenma was intentionally missing his target. Except for her hair fluttering in the air because of the shockwave time and time again, Rin didn't appear to have received any damage whatsoever. From the dragon, at least.

“You know, I only had twelve years.” Rin continued, completely ignoring the monster's angry expression. “Twelve years where I strived so hard to reach the likes of you, monsters and Elites.”

Still heaving deep breaths, Tenma put strengths in his arms once again.

However, after only moving a little, his vision blackened. By sheer unexpectedness, he had closed his two eyes inadvertently. And when he reopened them, two alarming facts assaulted him.

One Rin's presence had disappeared from in front of him and instead, he felt an immense amount of pressure from his back.

And two, he felt an unbearable amount of pain from the left side of his face. Blood ran down from his cheek, painting his whole head in a gruesome shade of red. His left eye was no more. In its place was a hole that contained par—things that were best left undescribed.

In a natural response, he let out not a roar but a scream as he held his head in his hands. His knees gave out from the shock, the pain, and the accumulated damage, bringing the once mighty creature to the ground.

“...It's kind of sad when you're this weak.” Rin finished with a genuinely sad expression while listening to the wail of pain of her opponents.

Tenma, apparently still had his pride, gritted his teeth and, despite the pain who lowered his strength, swung his hands at Rin in a desperate manner. His claw stretched savagely and was ready to slash Rin open.

Unfortunately, such a trivial and predictable attack couldn't reach Rin.

Shockwave shook the space and blew the girl's silky hair in the air, but as for the attack, Rin had stopped it dead in its track with her own hands.

Tenma, who had slightly spun around to reach his opponent, had his remaining eyes open wide. And in the next moment, that remaining one, too, blackened and leaked out a dreadful amount of blood.

“Hehe,” Rin let out a cute giggle with one of her hands covered in red liquid. “Hehehee”

Tenma couldn't see anything anymore and pain-filled all of his minds. Nevertheless, Rin's voice oddly reached his deepest part, making him shiver and back away. Though, a not-so-gentle kick from the girl blew his entire body on the ground a meter away.

“Hahahahaahaah!!” Soon, Rin's laugh shifted from a cute one to that of a crazy person. Her body bent over naturally and was shaking from the sheer intensity of her voice.

Hidden from all to see, tears of blood leaked out from her eyes and caressed her cheek. She appeared happy(albeit in a twisted manner) and excited and even she herself thought she felt that way—

“Don't you think it's ironic!?” She asked not to Tenma nor to anyone in particular. If anything she probably asked the question to herself.

—But, deep down, she was grieving.

“Whether I'm Weak or Strong, this damn feeling of emptiness won't go away!!”

Rin's crazed laugh mixed with Tenma's cry of pain and filled the city. No doubt would anyone think Talia was the very definition of hell right at this very moment. Even Winter and the others had a complicated expression on their face as they looked at the scene.

[SHUT UP!!!] The dragon managed to shout despite his state.

Unable to accept his defeat despite the obvious difference in strength, he firmly put his pair of shaky draconic legs on the ground, and tried, with all his might, to stand up again.

Defeat against a mere human was inconceivable. And so is fear. Bordering on self-suggestion, he convinced his mind that what he was feeling against Rin was in no way fear but anger.

With his right hand covering his bloodied head, he reaffirmed his will and continued to talk,

[Don't be so damn arrogant when all you're using are borrowed power!!!]

An excuse-like phrase came out of his mouth, appearing as though he was justifying his defeat. And that was exactly what he was doing. Though, of course, Tenma himself wasn't and didn't want to be aware of that.

Nevertheless, the words did reach Rin.

Her laugh stopped instantly and her body stood still as if hit by a bolt of lightning. Her hands, which firmly held her chest moments ago, loosened up and fell like a puppet who lost its strings. Her smile, although not disappearing, turned from crazy to enigmatic. It appeared like all emotion briefly whisked away from her.

Since Rin obtained Winter's second boost, she had dominated the entire fight without piling a single injury. And yet, if it were to be compared, Tenma was well above her in terms of power, speed, defense, and all other stats.

Indeed, the dragon received injury and exhaustion from his fight against the other Elite, but Rin was already hovering around death. What's more, despite her words, action, and arrogant attitude, the girl was still constantly experimenting with the pain of breaking past her natural limit.

Few in her place would even be able to stand, let alone overpowering a dragon.

So how was she able to do so?

Well, in the end, it always comes down to how well one can control the power they had been granted.

Like she had said, Rin had twelve years of training in her arsenal. And in those twelve years, what she focused on was on how to defeat someone stronger than herself.

Finding their weakness.

Predicting their movements.

Knowing their thought pattern.

Using their strength against themselves.

Those, and much more were all skills she mastered to perfection to adapt and win against any opponent. Thus, as long as her body managed to follow what her brain told her to do, Rin was practically invincible.

Predicting her opponent's every movement or manipulating them by way of taunts and faints.

Acting and planning a counterattack before the attack itself even comes in.

And finally, targetting the weakness she had found while fighting Tenma in his dragon form.

Rin only used her borrowed power to stand on the same plane as the monster and used her hard work to win against him.

However, since this wasn't an argument to begin with, there was no point in telling all of that to Tenma himself. What's more, and unfortunately, to Rin, saying hard work did sound terribly like an excuse to hide she was weak.

“You're....right.” The girl answered, strongly affected by the petty comment of the monster.

She returned her eyes, which continued to glow dreadful red colors, to look at the now blind Tenma.

“This isn't my power, is it?” She continued, as though she had come to a realization.

Then, quietly, without anyone noticing, she closed her eyes and focused.

As soon as she did, the whole city trembled. Tenma, Winter, Rena, Lia, Ursa, and even the hologram woman instantly felt their breath cogged in their throat.

When the dragon first entered Talia city, every being present were struck by an insane amount of fear. However, right now, it was on a whole other level. Something fundamentally bad was going to move, filling everyone not with fear nor despair but with hopelessness.

No matter what they'll try to do, everything was already over.

“How about I use this then?” And the one who had the absolute power over the outcome was the owner of this voice.

For the first time since she was born, Rin Kagane reached for her Singularity.