✔ blue-coloured beginnings 「 khunbam 」

i

The colloquy of Aguero Agnis who won a race by walking had reached its peak as time passed, and the second round came. Surprisingly- but not to Khun who had the skill set and confidence to back it up,- he finished the race first without any moment to spare. Ines Madeleine came in a close second, much to his internal delight. He will be utterly disappointed if the dog he was toying with had chosen to tuck his tail behind his back and cowered away.

Now, he was currently undergoing another challenge which was rather unfamiliar to him. Whether it was due to the fact that he had changed too much things regarding the future, or something else inevitable, but it was none the matter. Khunʼs brains werenʼt all for naught, and he did not aspire and become the Khun Family Head for nothing.

The emcee said something about a mirage array powered entirely by a guest High Rankerʼs shinsu. They each gave the competitors three illusions and ten minutes each to find the turn the switch off. They vary in different ranges, and itʼll only become more burdensome to distinguish the illusions from reality as you linger longer. Khunʼs first mirage was something he had failed to bring himself to do in his past lifetime. An opportunity to kill Rachel.

It was not as satisfying as he thought it would feel. Her horrid screams, the sound of her bones cracking and breaking under his iron will, and the mortified expression on her face as she asked what she did wrong and begged for mercy- they werenʼt enough to satiate his fury, not even a part of it, because it wasn't reality. It was not long before he accidentally activated the switch which was the red ribbon on her hair that he snapped into two to strangle the blonde until Khun felt okay. The ribbon reminded him greatly of the vestʼs fabric that Bam wore when they first met, yet it disappeared along with the illusion, and the bluenet had only felt worse than before.

Khun just sighed and roamed around the seemingly endless dome, wanting to get all of this over with. However, when the ten-minute mark came to an end and was reset once again, he didnʼt know if heʼd ridicule himself for his misfortune.

"Seriously?" He laughed, bitter and empty, pushing his blue locks from his face to mask his dazed state. "You are my second illusion? Isnʼt this too mundane?"

"So I still am your sworn enemy? Canʼt seem to get enough of me now, can you A.A?"

The silhouette stepped out from the darkness, revealing a woman bearing similar cerulean blue hair as the Agnis and the Baby Growler, the same observer her mother left behind when she was still a young child.

"I see that you havenʼt changed much for someone who lived inside my conscience for 500 years. Always ever so redundant, arenʼt you Kiseia?" Khun picked up his knife and stretched his joints.

Thinking about his current circumstances, he was in a terrible disadvatage. Sure, he had fought this version of Kiseia before when he entered the Hidden Floor, and an even older version when Rak wreaked havoc on their way towards Jahadʼs castle, but even if he can bring her down, thereʼs only so much this ten-year-old body can do.

"And I can see that you also have not changed much either for someone who lasted half a millennia." He saw her jaw clench, yet even as a fragment of his imagination, she seemed to have gotten better at managing her emotions. "Youʼre still weak."

Khun blinked, and a sly smirk crept towards his lips. "Iʼm not you, cousin."

"Then die!"

He dodged the flick of Kiseiaʼs swiss knife, his body more nimble than he had expected as he managed to land a blow on her stomach, pushing her lightly. Another thing about this array is that even though these are all illusions, the damage you have received would feel like reality. There would be no visible wounds inflicted by your illusion, but dying isnʼt that farfetched either. Knowing his cousin, she wouldnʼt do anything half-assed. Like killing him.