Endless Evolution: Last Star

Adam slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Silvana's face. Her eyes were closed, with each breath her chest rose slightly before falling lower, she was still asleep as dawn broke only recently.

'What...? What's going on here?' Adam was baffled. His eyes moved from side to side, trying to comprehend the situation.

Soon, memories from the past night flooded into his mind, causing his pupils to grow wider for a moment.

'Oh, I see... In that case, what should I do?' Adam pondered, glancing at Silvana, 'I'm supposed to get up carefully so I don't wake her up, right?'

Adam internally shook his head, dismissing the idea.

'Fuck it. I want to savor this moment for as long as possible. Adam muttered to himself before closing his eyes, falling back into sleep.

He cuddled Silvana gently as if she was a warm, soft toy.

After about half an hour Silvana woke up.

Unlike Adam who remained calm and just assessed the situation before making a decision, she was confused by the situation she found herself in.

Adam was hugging her tightly, he was heavy but not too heavy which was just a reminder.

Silvana's cheeks flushed as she carefully crawled away from beneath Adam, freeing herself from his embrace.

'Calm down, Silvana take a deep breath. As much as you'd like to stay there with him, I can't let Adam go to practice hungry.' Silvana said to herself as she looked out the window.

She always woke up around the same time, pretty early, so even without checking her watch she realized that they didn't have much time.

Before heading to the kitchen, Silvana glanced at the sleeping Adam.

'Hah, I wonder what he'd do if he woke up first? I'm sure he'd be embarrassed as hell!' Silvana pondered with an energetic smile on her face.

...

Crackle.
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The elevator doors opened as two silhouettes stepped out, heading towards the training hall. In five minutes, training was to begin.

Tron, Riska, and Dahla were already here. They turned toward the elevator to see the last two participants.

Silvana was walking ahead with a confident, wide stride. Her face was glowing with happiness and energy, and her bracelet was noticed by everyone.

Behind her was Adam, a smile on his face, but not as bright as Silvana's. Also for some reason, his eyes looked exhausted as if he hadn't slept well.

'Damn, how is that possible?' Adam scratched the back of his head with a slight frown, 'I thought it was the best sleep I've ever had in my entire life!'

Well, Adam just didn't realize that it wasn't about physical fatigue but mental fatigue. Though they both said a lot to each other, Silvana got real relief when she cried all her tears into Adam's shoulder.

Tron and Riska glanced at each other.

After their active nights they looked the same for the first few hours, she glowing with energy and he weak and exhausted.

Clap.

Tron decided not to load his head with these thoughts and clapped his hands, drawing attention to himself.

"Alright. Adam, you've already gone through several stages of training, though I wanted you to beat Max a few more times, but he decided you were ready to move on."

Adam nodded deeply as he looked around the training room. It was empty, nothing was prepared, which meant Adam was about to move on to something he had been waiting for so long.

"It's been forty-six days, and you're finally going to get what you want."

Tron waved his hand as he pointed at Adam.

"For the rest of the time, except for the last few days, you will fight against me using all of your abilities, artifact, and Nexus."

Adam's eyes went wide rapidly filling with life.

He thought this was where his training would begin, but in reality, it wasn't until a month and a half later that he could get to this point.

"However, I will not lower my strength to K2-Level. You will be fighting against a K3-Phantom."

Adam's face turned pale when he heard that.

"Wait... Doesn't that mean I can't win?"

Tron smirked, he crossed his arms over his chest, staring intently at Adam.

"Of course not, even if you're strong and talented, against K3-Phantom from the Dark Order you don't stand a chance. Well, you don't stand a chance against any K3-Phantom." Tron shrugged.

Adam gulped, he knew what Tron was talking about.

He had once fought against a Phantom who was at a higher level than him, Prago. Sure, he managed to win because he had two strong allies, Kayla and Edir.

But, if they were K2-Phantoms and Prago was a K3-Phantom, they would never win.

True, the difference was still only one level, but the magnitude of the gap would be much larger.

"But, don't worry. During this training, you already should realize that there's nothing wrong with defeats. It's much worse to win all the time and think you're invincible."

Adam scratched the back of his head. He missed the hard fights and bloody victories that always accompanied him in the Dead Lands.

Tron's face grew serious.

"Adam, you've done this many times before, but you didn't understand it."

"Hmm? What are you talking about?" Adam tilted his head in confusion.

Tron looked at Adam intently, his amethyst eyes were mesmerizing.

"No matter how much or how often you lose, none of that makes any difference if you win when and where you need to. The Rule of Power, think about winning there, it's the only thing that has any actual value."

In response, he received Adam's confident smile.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to lose to some Phantom working for the nobles. If between the Dead Lands and the nobles, you're choosing the nobles, you're definitely not the strongest."

Then, Tron's expression changed, spreading into a sly grin.

"That's right! I want to see their faces when you win! It's going to be a unique show."

Adam felt uneasy at this reaction. Normally, Tron was calm, but when it came to battles, power, and victory, his inner self showed itself.

"And, before we begin. Adam, we're going to be fighting in the real world, not the digital zone. So be prepared to receive gruesome and multiple wounds, just like when fighting against Damien."

Tron warned, in a heavy voice.

Then, he pointed at Dahla.

"Sure, Dahla will heal any of your wounds, but we'll keep fighting until you can't stand on your feet or if you no longer have anything to stand on..." Tron's tone grew darker, "Only then will Dahla heal you."

Goosebumps went down Adam's body.

He realized that this was all part of the training and necessary for results, but he still felt a little scared.

"Silvana, go back to Dahla and Riska, it's dangerous for you to be here." Tron said glaring at her.

"Sure."

Silvana nodded slightly before walking over to Adam and taking his hand tightly with a happy smile on her face.

"Good luck!"

Then, Silvana quickly ran into the spectator room.

Watching this scene, Dahla and Riska looked at each other.

"Damn, she's glowing with happiness." Dahla frowned as she crossed her arms on her chest.

Dahla turned to Riska.

"Do you think... They did it...?"

Riska narrowed her eyes, staring intently at Silvana's neck where a bruise remained.

"I don't know, but now we'll have a chance to find out everything that happened yesterday."