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 replaced 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 unexplainable 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 blade 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 only comply, calling upon dozens of patterns of his own. His opponent, however, didn't bother to even manipulate 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 flared up in an alarm. He saw a white flash of light approaching him at a tremendous pace.
And it wasn't recovering all that much under the stress of the suppression.
In contrast, the woman seemed to have more access over her essence. Warden had a suspicion about her origin, but he wasn't sure how that would explain 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 was completely 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 plan 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 place, 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 the last 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.