Talia brought her sword to her side. Blue lines were visible on the parts of her arms and neck not covered by her armor. They were shining with a bright light, different from what she had shown Sanya yesterday. Hayden had his smile back on his face. As he was about to run to her, he found himself impossible to move. “...What?”

It was like an invisible force was holding his limbs, making him immobile. He tried to use force to move, but there was nothing that he could do. The shackles were unbreakable. “What is going on?!”

He turned his eyes to Talia. “What did you-”

He was not able to let the rest of his words coming out. Lighting, water, and fire were forming around her, transforming into three elongated shapes. The shape became clearer and clearer. The three elements followed the same pattern, a giant creature. Several seconds later, three giant sea-dragon beasts made separately in water, fire, and lighting appeared on the field. The elemental dragons were about a hundred meter long and a few meters thick. The water inside the water dragon seemed to split the air each time its body moved. The fire of the fire dragon made the air as hot as inside a volcano, causing difficulties for the others to breath. The lighting dragon looked like the less dangerous out of the three, but its swiftness greatly surpassed them. They circled around Talia and Hayden leaving no room for escape and only gaps for the others to watch what was happening.

Hayden was looking at them with traces of fear in his eyes. ‘...Is this for real?’

Talia’s words woke him up. Her face was devoid of emotion. “I told you. You wished me to stop holding back.”

She placed her right foot in front of her and placed her right hand on the handle of the strange grey sword. She only slightly leaned her body forward, but the floor cracked and split in a radius of dozens of meters. Her eyes were locked on her target.

Fear instantly spread through the room. The ministers were covered in cold sweats because of the huge pressure. The guards tried their best to stay calm and ready to act, but they were not really better than the ones that they needed to protect. Only Sanya seemed unaffected, but she was currently holding the shining bell around her neck. When the sword had appeared, she had started to fell some kind of a link between herself and the sword through the bell. However, the connection was faint. It was like the bell was an excited child, while the sword was still sleeping. Nevertheless, she could not say why, but she felt like the sword was inoffensive.

The moment Talia placed her hand on the sword handle, George woke up from the daze. He stood up in a hurry and shouted. “STOP! we understand now! Please, don’t kill him! ”

Talia only glanced at him through the barrier made of dragons. She acted like she heard nothing.

George gritted his teeth in fear and anger. He suddenly turned on the side to glare at Sanya. He pointed with his slightly chubby finger at Talia while spitting out an order. “Stop her!”

Sanya had her heart skip a bit. She tried to stay cool-headed while standing up and retreating lightly. The guards switched their stare on her, making the already heavy atmosphere tenser. Sanya knew that the situation was really complicated. She looked at Talia with a face showing her confusion. ‘She promised me that she will not kill unless it was necessary...What is she doing?’

Darius was conflicted and bitter about the situation. Nevertheless, he was ready to activate his ability if he needed to. If possible, he wanted to trust Talia, but he could not let the world strongest man die. He was ready to take Sanya as a hostage, then negotiate or even gain time to let the others evacuate. ‘Alan Seddon should be aware of the situation now. Another S-ranked ability user is better than nothing.’

The boiling situation was burning up until it was about to erupt. But, it did not. Or more exactly, Talia stopped everyone.

She clenched the grip of the handle. Hayden was overcome with terror as he closed his eyes in front of his imminent death.

All of sudden, Talia unsheathed the sword with a lightning speed strike. The blade was too fast, impossible to see. She cut the air in a crescent moon shape, stopping the light grey blade vertically over her head.

Silence fell inside the Chamber. No sonic boom, nor shockwaves were created during the sword ascent. Hayden timidly opened his eyelids. He was confused about the fact that he was still alive. Even if Talia was a bit far from him for the use of a sword, he knew that this was surely not a problem for her. The elemental dragons also melted, evaporated into thin air, making the view a lot better inside. Hayden looked dumbly at the smiling Talia. Then, something caught his attention. He looked at the people behind the protected zone. They were all, with no exception, looking behind him. ‘...behind me?’

He was slowly turning around. The moment his eyes saw it, they opened wide.

A spatial tear. A big part of the roof was erased from existence by a giant spatial tear. The inside of it was absolutely black. It was like no light was allowed there. Pure blackness. Its outlines followed the form of a blade cut, tens of meters long. After a second, the tear started to close itself. Whirlwind accompanied it. The gusts of wind were so strong that the light broken pieces on the floor were pulled to the closing tear. However, they were not sucked in. They just attached to the surface like it was an impenetrable zone. The people present, even those behind the protective glass covered their eyes from the winds.

The speed of the wind was not strong enough to move people, but it was enough to flip their clothes. All the people present were wearing either wearing a suit or an outfit with pants, so they were not so bothered by the wind. Well, all of them except Sanya, who was wearing her school uniform skirt.

The moment she felt the strong wind tickling her tights she tried to brought her skirt back. However, there was nothing that she could do. The wind was too strong, flipping the skirt completely and showing a light navy sport short. The wind was blowing until the tear totally closed, leaving a big hole in the roof. Sanya shot a glare at Talia. Her cheeks became redder and redder. The earlier wind caused by the sonic booms were at a low altitude, so they were stopped by the glass panels. But, this time they had been caused by the spatial tear who was high. Also, Sanya was standing up, making it more difficult to prevent it from happening.

Talia noticed her but turned her head with a drop of sweat on her face. ‘...I should have told her before the fight. I knew that in some ways the ministers would have wanted me to show my powers. Sky Slashing Blade is always spectacular to see, so I decided to use it. I didn’t want Sanya’s underwear to be seen, so I asked her to wear a short. Fortunately, she did wear one. Well, there is nothing that I can do about the wind during a spatial reconstruction. Even more, she should have a short on for when we will go home.’

Hayden’s figure entered her line of sight. He was looking at the hole in the roof with a frozen expression. The rain outside passed through it and landed on his body. However, he didn’t seem to care. He fell on his knees and dropped his head. Talia sighed and sheathed her sword before putting it back inside her earring. She took a step forward and instantly appeared in front of Hayden. Sensing her presence, he slightly lifted his stupefied head. “...Why?”

Talia put her hands on her hips and looked at her red-faced girlfriend. “Because I promised to not kill for no reason. Also, I don’t want to kill an idiot like you.”

She then turned her face and was looking deep into his eyes. Hayden was captivated by those eyes that had seen countless things, totally unsuited for a 15-year-old girl. “I understand the importance of wanting to be strong, to seek what is beyond. I understand it more than you can imagine. I’m your senior in this field. So, as your senior, let me give you an advice.”

She brought her pointer finger of her right hand to the forehead of the disbelieving young man. Her eyes were filled with complicated feelings. “When you die, you die. That’s it. You can no longer be with the ones that you love, the one that you want to be strong for. If you want to beat those stronger than you, you have to stay alive. Survival is the key to be strong. Understand?”

Hayden seemed in a daze for a moment before nodding. Talia was satisfied, so she decided to go resolve the real present problem. She was being nice to Hayden because he was just a strong, but naive human. It would be a waste to kill him only for wanting to fight someone stronger than him. But, George Keller was another issue. ‘I clearly understand that he wanted to test me. However, trying to use Sanya to stop me…’

Talia clearly saw Sanya’s scared face when George told her to do something about the situation. She had been tempted to cut the space just in front of him to calm him down, but in the end, she maintained her first target. She was making her way to the protected seats

The ministers saw her walking toward where they were and instantly were filled with fear. They imagined their body halved in two by her sword. George was the most terrified of her. He personally accused her to be a fake and even set up a confrontation with the strongest man on earth.

Suddenly, clapping sounds resonated through the inside of the Chamber. Everyone turned in the direction where the sounds where coming from. Seeing the person who was there, Talia was tilting her head in puzzlement, the ministers were surprised, but also overjoyed like they saw their savior, while Sanya was agape.

“Impressive. It seems the world strongest human is no longer Hayden Carter.” His height was at a bit more than 1m80. His build was neither too slim nor too muscular. He was wearing a dark blue suit.

“This is really intriguing. Your physical strength doesn’t seem to be enhanced by any external factor. However, unlike Lord, you absolutely look like a human.” His golden eyes, which contrasted with his raven-like hair, swept over Talia with no emotion, like a scan. His emotionless face didn’t change even when he arrived just before the girl that destroyed a reinforced Chamber roof with one sword strike.

He adjusted his framed glasses and extended his hand calmly. “Greetings, Talia Chevalier. My name is Demetrio Allocca, Head of the Abilities Regulation Union.”