The fight between Sera and Alex ended with Sera's victory.
Alex sat on the ground dejected; it was his mistake; when he used Time Stop on the Sera behind him, he had let his guard down thinking that he had won. He had forgotten that he only Time Stop on Sera, not the whole arena; if he had done that, then the match's outcome would have been different. It never came to him that Sera could create a clone using her Shadow world; in fact, as an assassin, she only showed her real body when she was sure that she could kill her target; therefore, the Sera who had attacked Alex was not the original Sera, but a clone made using the shadow world's energy, it was a gamble which paid off.
Sera also sat on the ground and leaned her back against Alex's back; she was exhausted.
''Hah! Hahahaha! You have progressed; I knew you were strong, but not to this extent. I was sure that I would lose; it was my thought at the beginning; I was not sure of my chance of winning.''
Sakuya and Alice watched the two from afar; they didn't come closer as they believed that it was necessary to let the two talk.
''It's that so? Tell me what I'm lacking? Where did I do wrong?"
Finally, Alex asked a question that had been troubling him. Sera stayed silent for a moment; she was surprised by Alex's question; for him to ask this question instead of saying a line like 'I lost today, but next time I will win' meant that he was aware of his shortcoming and was ready work on them. Naturally, Sera was not going to spit in this.
Smiling gently like a teacher lecturing her student, Sera opened her mouth and began to explain.
''It true that you possessed overwhelming strength, overwhelming mana unlike your peers, you have many strong skills and abilities.''
Sera stopped and looked at Alex to see his reaction; he was strongly nodding his head to say that Sera's words couldn't be more fitting; however, her following words weren't something he had anticipated.
Upon hearing that question, the corners of Sera's mouth perked up and pinched Alex's cheeks while talking about her wish.
''As the winner, I ordered you you sit as you are until I come back and tell you not to do it anymore.''
''That's the problem, you possessed too many skills and abilities that you became unable to use them properly.''
''What?"
Sera's declaration hit Alex hard; it was like he received an arrow directly in his heart; it was harrowing.
Neither Silveria nor Nyx said anything; their silence meant that they did think that Sera's words held some truth.
Alex took a deep breath to calm down; there was no need to be all flustered over her words, she was older than him, had more experience than he does, so her words must not be taken lightly, now that she spoke about it, the more he thought about, the more he felt that her words were true.
Believing that it was time to change, look at the thing from another person's perspective, Alex firmed his resolve and said.
''Please continue.''
''Great, it's good that you are not offended by my remark. I knew you are not narrow-minded, but I'm still glad that you took it nicely and are ready to learn.''
To Sera's words, Alex chuckled.
Sera nodded her head before continuing.
''As I said, you have many skills and abilities which are not necessarily a good thing as it makes you unable to use them as you have too many fully. Let's say you use skill A but see that it doesn't work most enemies again; the natural thing to do would be to switch to another one, let's say the same thing happened, forcing you to switch to another one, and in the end among the ten abilities you have only four are used, the other six are left on the side because they were not effective, slowly, you will end up forgetting them. This is a mistake; no ability is useless; you only have to find the right use for it. If A doesn't work alone, pair it together with B or C, I dare say that their effect would increase drastically, making you have a new ace up to your sleeve.''
Alex carefully listened to Sera's words, not missing anything as he believed it would help him grow; indeed, what he heard began to formulate a specific idea, he could see where Sera was going.
''What I'm trying to say is that you must combine your skills (abilities); this would make them stronger. You ought to find the perfect combination of two skills among your skills. Skill A might not necessarily work with B; maybe it would work with C; it's up to you to find out. Once you do this, you will become stronger. The ability to combine your skills is necessary as you get stronger; by controlling all your abilities, will you able to say that you have become stronger.'' Sera said before putting her head on Alex's leg; the latter was lost in thoughts, trying to digest what he had just heard.
Meanwhile, Sera was watching Alex, who had a serious expression on his face; the way he frowned as he was lost in thoughts was cute, it gave Sera the urge to flick his forehead to stop him from frowning, but she controlled this urge and let Alex think as much he wants.
Five minutes seemed like an eternity passed before Alex stopped thinking and lowered his head to stare into those brown eyes and said.
''I understand; I would think of something. By the way, as your winner, what is your wish?"
''What?"
It was like he had received a huge splash of cold water over his face, all delusions he had were instantly cooled, and Sera stood up as if she had recuperated enough; she glanced at the other girls, especially at Sakuya, she seemed to have understood what her wish to mean, she smiled in return before the three left the underground arena, leaving a still confused Alex behind.
Suddenly, Silveria burst into a peal of laughter; she laughed for a while before telling her why Sera did what she did.
〖She is angry; this is a punition〗
''I see,'' Alex mumbled; nothing else was needed to be said as he had understood with just these words; he sighed and decided to suffer this well-deserved punishment.