Naya felt her skin crawl as she heard the voice behind her.
Fear flickered in her eyes—it was finally ti.
She turned her head slowly until her gaze locked with his.
Nathan took a drag from his cigarette, exhaling the smoke into the air.
"Are you done running?" Nathan asked with a smug grin on his face.
Naya dropped her fork, clenching her fist tightly.
"This isn't right. We could've easily partnered up in the True Dream and survived through it together... Killing will only add a little more ti for you," Naya said, her cold gaze flickering with defiance.
Even though she couldn't stand a chance against him, she wasn't going to let herself go down easily.
"Do you really think if I kill you it'd end there? There are a lot of other people with cards out there... I could kill them all and get their cards for myself... I get all their wealth and still get a lot more ti away from that hellhole," Nathan said with an indifferent expression.
He didn't co all the way here to back out now.
Thanks to her date, the entire hotel was reserved just for them.
He didn't have to worry about killing extra people.
The hotel attendants had been allowed to leave, with only two people left to stay behind and serve them.
Nathan had dealt with them before even entering the dining area.
Caleb, on the other hand?
He didn't have as much influence as his other siblings.
She had created the perfect condition for him.
"Do you really think you'll be able to kill off all the Cardholders? Do you even think X would let you do that?" Naya asked, her gaze filled with unbending resolve.
She had already readied herself.
Her hands were inside her handbag, making it look as though she was reaching out to sothing.
Nathan saw her hand movents, and a smile ford on his face.
'She still wants to fight? Amusing,' he thought with a snicker.
Although Nathan had yet to move, he was already setting the stage for a fight.
The smoke from the cigarette—it wasn't dispersing like it was supposed to.
It was snaking its way into the surroundings, wriggling with so much vitality as though alive.
The smoke condensed, slowly spreading through the entire room.
'He's definitely not backing down... We'll have to fight... And I have to distract him long enough for Caleb to give the finishing strike. I don't know how long before he realizes that I'm not with it.'
"I won't know if X will allow to do that, at least not until I test," Nathan smiled.
The heat in the room had already reached a frightening level.
Visible sweat could be seen dripping down from Naya's face.
"And you think it's a good thing? To kill people unjustly? When we all still have to worry about the True Dream, now we have to worry about keeping our lives in reality as well? Isn't that pathetic?" Naya's eyes flashed with disdain.
She was angered by Nathan's dirty moves.
They all knew the rules of the True Dream.
It was all told to them the first day they stepped into the forbidden realm.
They knew that getting soone else's card could give them more ti away from the Dream Realm.
But she didn't want to act on that. She had taken the card out of her own choice.
They didn't force her to—it was her greed, and she accepted it wholeheartedly.
She didn't want to trouble anyone else simply because she was running away from the ss she put herself into.
She had encountered other Cardholders in the past... ones weaker than herself, but she never once let the thought cross her mind.
She would rather survive in the forsaken realm than stain her own sanity in reality.
But then, Nathan ca...
Soone who didn't have the sa ideals as she did.
And now, he was after her own life.
Making her live in fear of both the True Dream and reality itself.
"Hew," Nathan let out a long breath.
"My dear, this is simply a ga of survival... I have to do it. How sane do you think I'll be if I keep entering a realm where I have to stay awake for three days straight... No food, no water, killing abominations?! I couldn't deal with it... I had to take the gun. Don't bla if you couldn't," Nathan said firmly, his eyes wide with insanity.
"Can't you see it? This entire thing—X is simply toying with us... They keep using our greed against us! This won't change anything... You'll only keep killing!" Naya retorted, her eyes searching for anything human in the man who stood in front of her.
But to her surprise, Nathan let out hysterical laughter.
"I think you're getting it wrong here. You won't be the first I'll be killing."
Naya knew at this point he no longer had any shred of humanity left in him.
Nathan was no longer human.
A sense of realization hit her.
This was exactly what X wanted her to beco.
Not just her, but all the other Cardholders.
"Enough of all this! You'll be dying here today!"
Nathan roared, throwing his cigarette into the air.
A spark of fla flickered—boom! It suddenly roared out like a lion, condensing into a ball of blue flas.
He hurled it toward her. The fla danced fiercely, as though waiting to consu everything in its path.
'Shit!' Naya panicked as she pulled out a card from her bag.
She quickly dodged the ball of flas that was hurled toward her.
BOOM!
The ball of flas blasted the wall, sending a resounding shockwave through the room.
The walls shuddered from the impact.
Nathan's eyes followed her movents.
And even before she could land, another ball of fla materialized from the cloud of smoke, hurling toward her.
Naya threw another backflip, narrowly dodging the second blast.
As she regained her footing on the ground, she locked gazes with Nathan.
But as she heard a sound from the side, her eyes darted right toward the bathroom door.
Everything happened so fast.
"I told you it'd work."
Caleb bolted right through the door, his usual confident smile on his face. Out of his hands, a long lance ford from ice shot right at Nathan.
The very air seed to freeze as it bolted toward him with powerful speed.
'He did it!' Naya thought, her eyes lighting up with a mix of excitent and surprise.
Their plan worked!
Naya held her breath as she watched the ice lance... Every second seed to stretch for a decade.
Nathan was caught off guard!
It was going to hit!
Or so she thought.
"It was exactly like I thought," Nathan's voice—it was confident, unbothered, unfazed.
Right before her eyes, the lance lted away, turning to liquid even before it could reach a ter near him.
And before she could blink, she saw a ball of fla being hurled toward the figure who stood by the door of the bathroom.
"CALEB!"
A flicker of doubt flashed in her eyes, as she saw the fla ball hit him.
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