As soon as Poseidon's hand came down, Zeus rushed towards my direction, the sharp tip of his sword pointed straight at me.

I quickly side-stepped and swung my staff to him. He jumped out of the way and slashed his sword at my staff, the two weapons clashing. We both pressed our sword and staff against each other, with Zeus pushing me back harder than I could do to him.

He slowly pushed his blade towards my face. I gritted my teeth as I felt the cold metal graze my cheek.

"Is that all you've got, Amelia?" Zeus grinned. "I thought I've taught you better."

"Yes, you. . . did!" I kneed him hard on his abdomen, making him stumble. I stepped back as far as I could to keep my distance from him.

He winced but quickly gained back his balance. He laughed.

"Man, you got me there!" His expression suddenly changed. "And I won't let you do that again."

He lunged at me. I tried jumping out of the way, but I was a second too late. I hissed as I felt a sharp sting on my left arm. Blood started to ooze out of the wound. I gripped it with my good arm to keep the blood from flowing, leaving me in a vulnerable position.

"Argh!" I grumbled as I put pressure on my injury.

Zeus stared at me with expressionless eyes. I narrowed my own as I tried to get through his mask, but he was hiding his emotions so well that I wasn't sure what he was thinking.

Wait a minute. I could read his thoughts to know his next moves! Why didn't I think of this before?

I stood up tall with my chin up and grasped my staff with both of my hands, ignoring the pain I was currently feeling. I took a deep breath and let my power do the rest.

Zeus looked alert at my new resolve. He gripped tightly on his sword and slashed. I parried my staff to stop the hit, and it did.

He then thrust his sword to my other side. I easily blocked his attack.

We exchanged blow after blow. Where he countered, I blocked. Where he stepped, I followed. The injury in my arm didn't bother me anymore as I continued reading Zeus's attacks like an open book.

After a long exchange, Zeus stepped back to catch his breath, his eyes never wavering from me. Panting, I gave him a tired but satisfied smirk while I leaned on my staff for support.

I think I'm kinda enjoying this.

"How are you doing tha—" He paused, the realization dawning upon him, then pointed at me accusingly. "You. . . you were using your powers."

"So what?" I said, shrugging nonchalantly. "It's not part of the rules."

He grinned. "Well then. If that's the case, there's nothing that says that I can't do this!"

Letting go of his sword, he reached out his hands and shots of light came out of his fingers. The lightning hit every spot of the floor mat, leaving scorch marks behind. I ran out of its path, but Zeus continued aiming at me without even moving a muscle.

Tempting Zeus was a bad move on my part. But I can still know what he's thinking.

I tried reading his mind again but a blank wall blocked my path. I pushed my way through but the wall was only replaced by a stronger barricade.

H-How did he do that?

Zeus was the one to smirk back. "Don't even try your mind tricks again. You'll get nothing from me."

Grunting in frustration, I let out a battle cry and ran towards him. I evaded Zeus's lightning with my staff, which was thankfully an insulator to the electricity.

Just when I was about a few feet away from him, a rod of lightning struck me, causing me to jolt and fall.

"Amelia!" I heard Poseidon shout.

My whole body shook uncontrollably and every single part of me felt numb and useless.

I saw Zeus look down at me in worry. "Oh god. Are you okay?"

Unable to move, I was only able to stare at him in annoyance.

"Yeah. . . Stupid question." He grimaced. "Sorry. I think I got carried away. . ."

"You think?" I finally said, which got me and Zeus by surprise. "You got, like, way too far."

"Okay, okay," he said. "But you lost the fight nonetheless. I win."

I made an attempt to raise a brow. "Are you sure about that?"

"What are you talking about? You were clearly knocked out so—"

"No, mister. I'm fully awake and still planning on taking you down," I said. "And you didn't hear me see surrender in any way, did you?"

"So? What are you trying to prove?" he asked.

"Look at your hands," I told him.

He inspected his hands carefully. "Huh? What about them?"

I smiled crookedly, slowly raising my staff in front of him. "Are you forgetting something?"

"What. . ." He looked behind him and saw his sword on the floor. Speechless, he pivoted back. "I. . ."

"Whoever lets go of their weapon and doesn't retrieve it for five seconds will lose," I quoted. "You lost your weapon, Zeus. I win."

Nobody spoke for a while, especially Zeus, who looked like he was hit by his own lightning, until someone began clapping.

"That was impressive," Poseidon said as he slowly clapped.

"Not bad, Amelia," Athena remarked. "What do you think, brother?"

Snapping out of his daze, Zeus turned to me and stared, square in the eye. I searched through his gaze, trying to comprehend the meaning of his look. I even tried to crack open his mental shield but nothing came through.

A second later, he grinned. He extended a hand and I took it, pulling me and my now-normal body up.

"Congratulations, Ames." He patted my shoulder. "You've passed the duel."

I blinked. "Really? I-I did?"

"Of course! You deserve it." Zeus chuckled. "Although. . . If Sei didn't put that stupid rule in the duel, maybe I would've won."

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes.

Poseidon and Athena came over and congratulated me for my win. Smiling, I thanked them.

My god. I can't believe I won!

"Well, Amelia, don't rest over your victory yet," Athena told me. "We'll start our training next thing in the morning."

"But tomorrow's Sunday! Can't I have a single break?" I pleaded.

Athena glared at me, which definitely said no.

I looked at Zeus and Poseidon for support. "Come on guys. Help me out!"

Poseidon shook his head. "No can do. Athena's in charge of you now, so if she wants you to start tomorrow, then you're going to start tomorrow."

"What he said," Zeus added. "If you wanna survive, just do as she says. She doesn't like messing around."

I groaned while Athena smirked in triumph.

I am not excited about what's going to happen tomorrow.

After my duel against Zeus finally ended, I headed out and went to the school building to meet with my Math teacher for one of my missed tests. He gave it to me and answered it for a while. Despite having a hard time answering some of the questions, I eventually finished and gave the test paper back to him. I excused myself and directly went out to avoid disturbing him any longer.

Outside, I paused. I realized that I didn't have anything else to do for the day and whatever excuse I made in front of Pierre wasn't half true. If I just went back to the dorm, Athena would be there and I don't want to hear her talk about what she has in store for me.

When you think about it though, she doesn't talk much and instead just read a book and leave me to my own devices. But I still don't want to be reminded of tomorrow's upcoming training. Just the thought of it makes me utterly exhausted and nervous.

Thinking of stuff to keep me busy, I decided to the school garden. Maybe I can meet with Pierre and hang out with him. I have to make it up to him after all.

The sight of pretty rosebushes, sunflowers and other greenery was beautiful, but there wasn't a sight of my friend anywhere. Although, I spotted a girl standing nearby. She bent to the nearest sunflower and took a good sniff, sighing in delight.

Maybe Pierre's in the school library studying his math.

Inside the building, it was just like I saw it the last time: full of books and quiet people.

I began walking around, looking here and there for any sign of Pierre. I peeked at every aisle and occupied table but he was nowhere to be found.

Hm. He probably went back to his dorm. Maybe I should too, it's kinda getting late anyway. I have training with Athena tomorrow anyways.

I checked the place one more time, this time walking aimlessly along the shelves of books. I passed by the History section and from the highest row stood The Founding History of Kingston Preparatory Academy, the book Pierre and I read when we first came here together. More dust accumulated its whole body more than ever, and it still had the small cut at the spine that I made when I saw the weird bulge on it.

I suddenly remember that I kept the paper somewhere in my school bag. Looking at the paper once in a while, the code and the portrait of the strange man had baffled me for sometime now.

Wait. Maybe Athena knows how to crack codes. She loves reading those mystery novels during her free time, so she probably does. . .

I quickly went out of the library and ran to the girls' dorms as fast as I could. I barged in the room to see Athena in her bed reading the same book from earlier. She looked up lazily and frowned when she saw me.

"Couldn't you at least knock on the door?" She pursed her lips. "It's inappropriate and annoying."

She resumed reading her book, still frowning.

I walked to my bed, took my bag which was near it and began rummaging through its contents until I found the piece of paper. The man's hazel eyes gazed at me, his somber-like expression judging me.

I tore a sheet of paper from a notebook in my bag and copied the code. I then hid the old paper back in my bag.

"Hey, Athena. Can you do me a favor?"

I heard her slam her book close. "What now?"

I gave her the paper with the code I copied just now. "Uh, well, I saw this code somewhere in the Internet, but I couldn't solve it."

"So?"

I sighed. "So will you help me solve it? I'm very curious of what it means."

"Fine, let me see." Her eyes narrowed as she read the code.

Ufnqvt tjtuju jo fp, fu jmmj tpmj

After almost a minute of intense staring, Athena finally looked up from the paper with a grin on her face.

I hesitated. "Okay. . . Judging from that look, I suppose you know what it says."

"Of course I do. Obviously," she said. "It's too easy. How did you not know from the start?"

I groaned. "Well, not everyone's smart like you, Athena, so stop bragging."

"Whatever you say." She rolled her eyes. "This message is written on Caesar cipher."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Since you just said you're not smart—"

"Hey, I never said that!"

"—I'll just translate it for you to make it clear," she continued. "It says tempus sistit in eo, et illi soli."

I gazed at her in confusion. "Is that it? Because it still sounds like the code from earlier."

"Definitely not," she said. "It's Latin, and if my Latin is still sharp and it still is, it roughly translates to . . . 'Time waits for him and him alone'."

"Time waits for him and him alone?" I repeated. "Isn't there a saying that says something about time not waiting for anyone? It's kinda opposite to what the message says."

"Time and tide wait for no man," she said. "And yes, it does contradict with the message, but don't think I've translated it wrong. I never make a mistake."

"No, no, it's fine," I said quickly. "Um, thanks for helping me crack the message."

"Don't mention it." She gave the paper back to me. "Where did you find it again?"

"The code? Um, it randomly appeared in an article that I was reading before," I lied. "Why?"

"Nothing. Just curious," she replied, eyeing me carefully. "It seemed odd to find a coded message that's also translated in a dead tongue in some online article."

I coughed. "Yeah. The Internet sure is a really weird place. . ."

"True," she agreed, then opened her book.

Sighing, I finally sat down on my bed and stared at the coded message. When nothing else came to my mind, I crumpled it silently and threw it into a nearby trash can.

Time waits for him and him alone. . . What does that have to do with the man in the picture and Kingston Prep?