The Grand Duelist

"Safehouse within the Forbidden Region..." Alice's eyebrows furrowed. She couldn't recall knowing such a place.

But after a few moments of silence...

She finally answered.

"I do know about a place like that! However, it is deep within the Forbidden Region and can only be accessed by those who hold the medallion key for it." She nodded her head and Joseph lightly smiled.

"I suppose that you have the medallion key for it, right?" Joseph stared nervously at Alice.

According to the books that he read back in the outside world.

It was a well-known cliche that a character didn't have the key to an important location, and it would cause more trouble and pains to the protagonist.

Thankfully...

"Yeah, I do have that key."

... Alice answered positively. 

To which Joseph sighed in relief. 

"In that case, the only problem that we have right now is how we can successfully escape from the Capital City Reinhardt towards the Forbidden Region..." Joseph mused.

Within the Arena of the Gods, Colosseum. The two of them were safe. But once they exited the Colosseum and return to the outside world. A shockwave would explode from their original location which would signal their return.

Once that happened, then it would be quite hard to escape...

But since this was inevitable.

Joseph knew that he had to face it.

But...

"No... That's not the only problem that we need to face."

Alice looked at him in confusion and asked: "What do you mean?"

Joseph stared at her for a moment. But he soon decided that, since he needed Alice's cooperation right now, and in the future. He decided that he would not hold back anymore on giving her information.

"If you really are Senior Krid's disciple then, I am sure that you know about my identity already, right? I am the Grand Duelist of the current generation and the skill that I used to transfer the two of us in here is from the Grand Duelist."

Alice casually nodded her head.

Joseph repeatedly blinked his eyes before saying: "I am the Grand Duelist of the current generation, you know? Yeah, I am..."

Alice nodded her head once again in the same manner.

Joseph revealed a rueful smile: "I really am..." Alice's expression and her body language revealed that she definitely didn't buy what Joseph was saying. 

But in contrast...

Alice lightly smiled: "Yeah, I know. I really do believe you..."

... her answer was the opposite.

Seeing the light smile on her face...

Joseph shook his doubts and said: "Really? Well, in that case then this would not cost too much time. Let me explain to you how the Grand Duelist's Grand Challenge works." 

A smile appeared on Joseph's lips and he stared at Alice who had the same light smile on her lips

"What's wrong?" Joseph asked.

"No, go on," Alice replied.

"Wait, I mean... Why are you staring at me as if I am a swindler or something?" Joseph asked with furrowed brows.

"Oh? Am I doing that? I am sorry... How about this?" Alice revealed a mocking smile on her face.

"That's even worse!" Joseph exclaimed.

"Just what do you want?" Alice replied in an irritated manner.

Joseph sighed: "Tell me, do you really believe that I am the Grand Duelist of the current generation?"

Alice nodded her head and the smile on her lips deepened: "Yes, of course. I believe you... Do I even have a choice not to?"

"So, you are saying that you only believe me because you have no other choice?" Joseph's eyes narrowed into slits.

Alice merely stared at him without saying anything. After a few moments of awkward silence. Joseph finally accepted his defeat and explained everything.

"Okay, I know that you can't believe that I am the Grand Duelist of the current generation. I know since senior Krid also misunderstood my identity the first time that we met." 

Alice's interest was piqued when he heard what Joseph said: "Oh, grandpa misunderstood your identity? You really are lucky. Grandpa is far vicious than me when it comes to facing those that dare impersonate the Grand Duelist. I can't even believe that you're still alive right now hearing that..."

Bitterness flashed on Joseph's face as he thought: 'If only you knew about how much I went through to convince your grandpa that I was the bonafide Grand Duelist of the current generation...'

But in the end, he decided on keeping these thoughts to himself as he took several deep breaths, calmed himself down and finally said.

"There's a huge problem that we need to face if we want to escape from this place." 

Alice's eyebrow lifted when he heard what Joseph said: "What do you mean? Aren't you the one that brought the two of us in here?"

She swept her gaze in the surroundings and when she felt the unique, and peculiar divinity floating in the air, excitement momentarily flashed in her eyes to which she hurriedly extinguished.

Joseph nodded his head. He didn't deny what Alice was saying, but that wasn't the problem right now.

The problem was that how the two of them could escape without sacrificing either one of them.

"You see... We can only escape this place once one of us is dead or lost the duel." Joseph said.

Alice stared right in his eyes before saying: "What do you mean by lost the duel? In the first place, what does losing the duel mean? Do we need to fight each other in here before the two of us can escape?"

Joseph nodded: "That's right... I think that we need to fight each other until one of us is defeated..." 

Alice turned her gaze away from Joseph as she fell into deep contemplation. But after a short moment, she spoke up once again: "What does defeat even mean? Does defeat equal death? Or is being incapacitated enough for it to be considered as defeat?"

Joseph made a helpless expression in the face of Alice's question. He hadn't really been using the Grand Duelist's Grand Challenge, so he wasn't so sure about what constituted a defeat.

Although he knew that dying in here meant defeat, it would be a problem if one of them died just for the other to escape.

"Looking at you like that, it seems like you do not have any idea about how this place works." Alice wryly smiled when she noticed Joseph's helpless expression. 

"Yeah... I'm really sorry about that..." Joseph awkwardly scratched his head in embarrassment.

But Alice shook her head and suggested: "No, you do not have to worry about that. Grandpa always told me that it was normal for someone to not know about something. What's bad is not having the initiative on learning about the answer to your questions..."

"What do you mean?" Alice's cryptic words baffled Joseph so, he couldn't help but ask.

"Since we are not so sure about what constitutes a defeat. How about we use the route that we are sure about?" Alice revealed a sly smile.

Joseph felt a bad premonition in his heart. But nonetheless, he still asked: "What route?" 

The sly smile on Alice's lips deepened: "I mean, aren't you a cursed one? If you died then, you could just revive. In other words, how about I just kill you and we'll meet up once you come back to life?"

Joseph almost keeled over in shock when he heard what Alice was saying. 

"You... How does someone that looks as innocent and lovely as you say such vicious words?!"

Joseph pointed a finger at Alice, and the latter merely chuckled as she said.

"Let's stop this unnecessary banter. Just obediently stand there and let me kill you!" Alice suddenly pounced at Joseph, and the astonished Joseph couldn't do anything other than jump backward in an effort to evade Alice's sudden attack. 

"Don't run! Running is useless! You're just delaying the inevitable!" Alice ran after Joseph.

"Stop! Stop chasing me, alright! Hey, stop! Why are you doing this?" Joseph's instincts told him that he must run, and whenever his feet lifted off the ground. Explosions would occur at the previous locations of his feet. In other words, if Joseph moved even a beat too late in his escape.

His feet would've been pulverized by the force of Alice's attacks.

"Why are you running? I thought that you want us to escape from this place as soon as possible?" 

"Of course, I do want to escape! But I also don't want to die so, please! Stop!" Joseph helplessly exclaimed, but Alice was still chasing after him. He made a quick glance at Alice, and when he saw the anger on Alice's snow-like face.

An idea suddenly sprung up in his mind as he cried out.

"Are you mad about what happened earlier? If so, then let me tell you this! You don't have the right to blame me for what happened since you are the one that voluntarily stripped! To chase and even attempt to kill a man for a crime that he didn't even do, what a shameless woman you are!"

The moment these words rang out, they became a powerful gospel that forcefully stopped Alice in her tracks. Sensing that the danger behind him suddenly disappeared. Joseph stopped running.

But when he turned around to look at Alice, astonishment filled his eyes.

"You... How dare you even bring that up..." Formless energy surrounded Alice's body in such magnitude that the energy without form looked like it was about to become corporeal.

Cracks spread on the ground where Alice's feet were located, and the rocks on the ground slowly floated up like she was about to transform into a Super Saiyan.

But...

Gulp!

Joseph saw a different scene than what was written. 

"Wh-wh-white tiger!" He suddenly exclaimed.

"Ah!" 

Alice's eyes widened in shock, and a furious blush spread on her cheeks. The anger that manifested on her expression vanished, replaced with embarrassment as she hurriedly pushed her clothes down in an effort to hide what was being shown underneath.

Afterward, she stared daggers at Joseph.

"You... Calm down, alright... What happened just now is definitely not my fault... We are civilized people here, so you need to be reasonable..." Joseph raised both of his hands in the air as a gesture of surrendering.

Beaded sweat could be seen on his forehead for when Alice unleashed her killing intent, several system notifications floated in front of him...

[You are in the face of an overwhelming presence!]

[You feel an urge to submit.]

[Under the effects of your title, "Mythical Authority" and "The Sun That Overlooks Everything".]

[You have resisted.]

Seeing these system notifications. It was clear that Alice possessed might that was at least as strong as the Jail Warden. In other words, she was someone that he must not trifle with.

"Calm down, alright? Let's stay away from killing and talk properly about how we'll escape from this place." Joseph stared nervously at Alice.

Alice looked like she was finally convinced as she took several deep breaths, calmed herself down then, stared at Joseph in a cold and distant manner like she always did.

"Okay, then how about you come over here and we'll talk?" She casually said.

Joseph heaved a sigh of relief. He approached Alice, but then he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Can we not use schemes against each other, please? I mean, I rescued you from the hands of the Kingdom of Nether and even became a traitor of the Kingdom just so I could ensure your safety and you're going to pay my kindness with schemes? I'm really disappointed." 

Astonishment flashed on Alice's expression.

But it disappeared as quickly as it appeared...

"How do you know?" 

"How do I know, you say? It's clear that you're really bad at sneak attacking! If you are going to sneak attack, you should not let clues about what you are going to do show up on your body!"

"Take a look at what you are doing right now! Look at those knees of yours... They are slightly bent, and your toes are holding on tightly on the ground!" 

"That's some goddamned obvious clues right there that you are about to pounce at me once I got near enough!" Joseph revealed everything.

A disappointed smile surfaced on Alice's lips as she sighed.

"Okay, you're right. Let's stop this... You can go near me now."

"Let's stop this? I can go near you now? Then why did you look so disappointed when I revealed what you were about to do to me?" Joseph exclaimed, but Alice wasn't having it as she turned to look at him in a serious manner before saying.

"Are you going here, or do you want me to go there to you?"

"..." Joseph's words got stuck on his throat, but eventually.

He managed on squeezing these words out.

"Of... Of course, I'll go..."

He then proceeded on walking towards Alice.

But stopped in his tracks when he was about five meters away from Alice. 

"Look at you looking so afraid of me... Do you really think that I'm going to eat you up or something?" Alice loudly mocked which greatly contrasted her innocent-looking visage as a bitter smile emerged on Joseph's lips.

'Yep... She really is a disciple of that old man... I never thought that I would meet a woman that could act like a hooligan in my lifetime...'

Just as Joseph was feeling bitter inside.

Alice spoke up.

"Then, what do you want to talk with me about?" She said these words in a commanding manner as if she had the higher ground between the two of them.

'God dang it... She's really acting like she's my boss..' Joseph swallowed the bitterness welling up his throat as he turned to look at Alice and said in a serious manner.

"I reckon that the only way that we can escape this place without killing each other is for one of us to surrender."

Alice's eyes lit up: "Oh? Surrender! If you do that then it could be considered as your defeat then!"

But after a few moments. 

She realized something which made her stop speaking...

"You realized it too, right?"

"Yeah..." Alice nodded, she thought for a moment before she continued.

"Surrendering doesn't make sense if it works here since it would be a fatal weakness of your so-called skill from the Grand Duelist." Alice made a sidelong glance at Joseph and even purposely lengthened the end of her sentence.

Joseph agreed with what she was saying, but a bitter smile emerged on his lips when he heard the latter part of her sentence: 'It seems like she still doesn't believe that I am the Grand Duelist...'

'But oh well, I do not have the time to explain, finding a way to get out of this place without killing each other is more important than that proving myself bullshit.' Joseph thought to himself.

"I have an idea, I don't know if it's going to work but it's worth it to try."

"Hm? What is it?" Alice stared at Joseph.

Joseph also looked at Alice and said...

"Say that you surrender right now."

"Why me?" Alice lifted an eyebrow.

"Just say it!" Joseph felt annoyed.

Alice heaved a sigh, after a moment of hesitation. She whispered into the air.

"I surrender."

Joseph nodded his head before saying: "I acknowledge your surrender."

Alice turned to look at Joseph in confusion: "There's nothing happening?"

"Yeah... It seems like I failed." 

Joseph sighed in disappointment.

But when these words came out of Joseph's mouth...

A ball of light suddenly descended from the skies and enveloped the two of them.

"Eh?"

"Nani?"

When they finally realized what was going on...

They found themselves floating in the air above the Central Square of the Capital City, Reinhardt.

"Oh fuck, I'm not ready for this..."

Said Joseph as the two of them plummeted towards the ground in front of the ancestral monument.