There was a little difference between the girl he met at the foot of the mountain and the girl... no, woman at the final checkpoint. Warden could tell both were the same person, though the one before him seemed to be half a decade older, with most of her innocence gone.


    A mature charm had reced the innocence. Some might say it was all worth it, considering how otherworldly gorgeous she was... Yet Warden couldn''t help feeling a pang of sorrow looking at her.


    "You promised to give your name after I catch up," Warden said, bottling up the unexinable emotions growing inside of him.


    "Who are you?" said the white-haired woman. "I don''t remember promising you anything... I don''t even remember ever meeting you."


    Warden frowned.


    "Wait, don''t tell me," realisation dawned on her face, as her eyes widened. "You''re one of my fans, who even climbed the cursed Elysian to stalk me."


    Warden was dumbstruck.


    "While I do appreciate your enthusiasm, Mister," she said. "I''m not much into stalkers."


    A silver de appeared on her arm as she finished. She took a stance, looking as haughty as ever—perhaps she had not lost all of her innocence.


    Warden could onlyply, calling upon dozens of patterns of his own. His opponent, however, didn''t bother to even manipte the pattern.


    "Ready?" she asked.


    Warden narrowed his eyes, meeting her gaze. He nodded.


    The wind rose. A moment passed. Warden took a step forward, and his instinct red up in an rm. He saw a white sh of light approaching him at a tremendous pace.


    Warden lurched to his left. The figure of the white-haired woman appeared where he stood a moment ago, her de shing twice. Silver beams of light shed out, though none of them affected Warden.


    "You''re better than you look," she said, turning to him. Her eyes were burning silver as her form shed again.


    Warden didn''t dodge the attack; instead, he swung his spear to block her attack. Their weapons met in a resounding sh. Her agility was a notch higher than Ovium''s, still, he didn''t understand why Karim called her a monster. Maybe the fourth disciple didn''t know how to appreciate a woman—


    Her body shed again, and within a millisecond, she was behind him, her de plunging into his back. Warden lurched away; unfortunately, he wasn''t nearly fast enough.


    A cut appeared on his back as lightning shed in the folded clouds. As Warden thought, there was a coercive power in her move, which slowed down his healing process.


    His opponent didn''t stop with her moves. Her form shed unrelentingly, swinging her de at him from all directions. If Warden blocked one of her moves, she seeded with the next two... If he tried to create distance between them, she would simply sh in the blink of an eye and appear in his blind spot to deal a blow.


    Moreover, with all the wounds appearing on his body, Warden was unable to reach the peak of the flow.


    Ultimately, he could only do one thing.


    Warden channelled the swirls of pattern in his control into the unnamed spear move he had created with Karim. He didn''t make it fatal; instead, he broke the move into swirls of a terrifying storm and shoved all that in her path. He only desired to slow her down, just so that he could withdraw from the area of the checkpoint.


    The battle was lost before it began.


    "Wait for my return," he shouted and red the saved-up anti-gravity scripts. His body flew up as Warden didn''t even look back.


    He was sessful in fleeing, of course... Though it didn''t make him feel any better.


    The woman didn''t even let him bring out his best. Warden''s ferocity rose the further the battle went on. Sadly, he didn''t think he wouldst a couple of minutes at the intensity with which she dealt blows on him. On top of all, his void essence was suppressed by ny percent at the very least, while he had mostly exhausted his light essence.


    And it wasn''t recovering all that much under the stress of the suppression.


    In contrast, the woman seemed to have more ess over her essence. Warden had a suspicion about her origin, but he wasn''t sure how that would exin how he felt familiar with her. She seemed to have none of the familiarity with him. Hell, she didn''t seem to have the memory of their meeting on the first day either.


    Could it mean that the younger version waspletely separate from her?


    Warden rubbed his forehead, feeling a terrible headache growing. It wasn''t simply because of the questions, all things considered... Sadly, he was in no mood to rest up.


    Warden needed to devise a n to defeat her. He was sure she hadn''t shown all her cards, either. So, he couldn''t leave any room for improvement.


    Warden brought out all the stuff he thought he could use. First were the Attribute points enhancing elixirs. Considering the suppression of this ce, enhancing his attribute points to the limit of the Iron rank would be of little help. Of course, if he could increase his Mind attribute, it would be the highest advantage, but Warden didn''t see it happening with these Intermediate potions.


    Still, he drank them all, reaching 150 points in all his attributes but Recovery and Mind.


    Then there was the Gold-ranked quintessence of Light.


    Warden stared at it for several seconds and brought out the device...


    ***


    A couple of days passed, and Warden was back again to challenge the final checkpoint. He made all the preparations he could in thest two days. Perhaps he wouldn''t win, but Warden would give her a good time of the money.


    "You again," the white-haired woman said. She was sitting in the inclined stairs of the sanctum, a bucket of orange in her hand. She seemed to have eaten a couple of them.


    "Good, at least your memory isn''t all that bad," Warden chuckled.