Chapter 413: Golden Eye

Polly stood still in the arena. Her black blindfold remained over her eyes, but her lips were pulled back into a cold, terrifying sneer. Her breathing was heavy, and the air around her began to hum with a dark, dangerous pressure.

The shadow user panicked. He drew a black dagger and melted back into the shadows to attempt another surprise strike.

Polly remained still, her ears tracking the subtle vibration in the ground.

The man erupted from the shadow directly behind her, thrusting his dagger toward her spine.

This time Polly was ready.

She ducked under the blade, seized his extended arm, and hurled him overhead, slamming his back onto the ground with earth-shattering force.

BOOM!

The shadow user gasped out, blood spurting from his mouth.

Polly didn’t give him a moment to breathe. Standing over him, she raised her fist and brought it down on his head. But the man saw it coming and desperately sank back into the shadows at the last second.

Her fist struck the floor.

KRA-KOOM!

A massive shockwave rattled the entire amphitheater. Cracks spread in every direction as the floor collapsed inward and shattered, leaving a deep, massive crater where her fist had landed.

The shadow user reappeared far away at the other end of the arena. He stumbled out of the shadows, breathing hard. He had barely escaped death by a hair’s breadth. If he had remained on the ground beneath her for even a second, his head would have been crushed beyond recognition.

He stared at Polly with wide, terrified eyes. He couldn’t beat her. She was a monster.

He tried to map out an escape route, but when he blinked—

Polly was gone.

In the single microsecond his eyes fluttered, she had vanished.

The crowd gasped; no one saw her move. One moment she had been standing beside the crater. The next, she was gone.

The shadow user panicked. He had to get out of there. Fast.

But before he could sink back into his shadow, Polly suddenly materialized in front of his face and caught his wrist.

She smirked wickedly. "Gotcha."

The man’s eyes widened in horror. He tried to stab her with his free hand, but Polly casually ducked his blade, reached out with her left hand, and clamped her fingers around his throat.

She squeezed tightly, cutting off his airway completely. The shadow user dropped his dagger, desperately clawing at her fingers, but her grip was too strong.

Polly lifted his body off the ground effortlessly with one hand, holding him suspended in the air as his legs kicked uselessly. She watched him choke and struggle for a while before leaning in to whisper something in his ear.

"You cheated..." she whispered coldly. "...I don’t like cheaters."

Then, she hooked a finger beneath the right edge of her blindfold, seemingly about to open it.

Astrid’s eyes widened. She knew what was about to happen. She immediately threw both hands over her face, closing her eyes tightly.

Dammit, Polly! You promised! she cursed inwardly.

A second later, Polly pulled the blindfold up... then opened her right eye.

BOOM!

The temperature in the entire amphitheater instantly skyrocketed to over a thousand degrees. A suffocating, searing heatwave erupted from the arena, sweeping across the entire hall like a solar flare. Everyone in the stadium instantly began sweating profusely, gasping for air as the oxygen burned away.

In his seat, Jayden was frozen in horror. A chill crept up his spine. His instincts screamed at him to run.

The moment Polly opened her eye, a feeling he hadn’t felt in a very long time washed over him.

Fear.

Her exposed right eye was a blinding, radiant golden-white, shining like a miniature sun. The divine light emanating from it was so intensely bright that the entire hall was bathed in a blinding white glare. Spectators in the front rows screamed, desperately covering their eyes to avoid being permanently blinded.

The heatwave was so intense that the air turned into a boiling furnace. People in the audience lost their breath and collapsed unconscious. Even the powerful crime lords up in the VIP booths were drenched in sweat, gasping for air. And if not for the reinforced barrier encasing the arena, the front five rows of spectators would have been incinerated alive.

Everyone turned their faces away, unable to look at the light. Even the host scrambled off his podium, crawling away in fear.

All anyone could hear was the screams of the shadow user being held by Polly in the arena.

A few seconds passed.

Then, just as quickly as it had begun, it ended.

Polly slid the blindfold back down, sealing her eye once more.

Instantly, the blinding light, the suffocating heat, the oppressive pressure, and the burning aura vanished as if they had never existed at all.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then, the audience began breathing again. People coughed and gasped, wiping sweat from their faces. Some remained hunched over in their seats, trembling. Others slowly lowered their arms and looked toward the arena.

Jayden exhaled, letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

Everyone slowly turned their eyes back to the arena.

What they saw left them scarred for life.

The man Polly had been holding was still hanging from her grip... but his entire body had been reduced to a blackened skeleton, smoke curling from the charred remains of his skull. Every drop of flesh, hair, and muscle had been incinerated away by her eye.

Polly released her grip, dropping the man’s corpse to the ground. Then she turned her blindfolded face toward the host.

The host flinched on instinct, his heart nearly leaping out of his chest. He stumbled up the podium stairs, his hands shaking violently as he grabbed his microphone.

"P-Participant 033... is the victor."

He looked around the stadium, his voice trembling.

"D-Does anyone else... wish to challenge her for the Lotus?!"

Silence.

Not a single identification tag rose.

Not a single bidder spoke.

They didn’t dare challenge her after what they had just witnessed.

They had all come to the Grand Exchange prepared to gamble their lives for valuable artifacts. But fighting the blindfold girl wouldn’t be a gamble, it would be suicide.

The girl wasn’t simply strong. She was a monster.

A god-like entity they needed to fear more than any syndicate or galactic warlord. They sat petrified, terrified that making a single sound would bring the wrath of her golden eye upon them.

"V-Very well!" the host stammered. "Participant 033 has won the Celestial Starlight Lotus!"

The arena doors hissed open and Polly stepped out calmly. An attendant trembling from head to toe approached her with the Lotus sealed inside a crystal case.

Polly accepted the case, flashing a sweet, innocent smile. "Thank you," she politely said.

The attendant stared at her for a moment, then hurried away.

Polly chuckled and stepped off the podium, walking back up toward the spectator seats.

Jayden watched her walk away, his eyes wide, a chaotic storm of emotions swirling inside him.

What was that energy?

He was certain of it now. When she pulled back that blindfold, the energy that poured out was unlike anything he had ever felt. It had a strange resemblance to Skye and Aileen, but it was far denser and vastly more astronomical.

Her presence reminded him of Coraline, the mysterious woman he met at a park in Carmine City. But while Coraline’s aura was elegant and mysterious, Polly’s was wild and dangerous.

He never wanted to end up in a ring with that girl. Not today. Not ever.