(Earlier)
"Where are you going?" Hikashi questions with a genuine curiosity.
Valeria stops walking, and although not her entire body, her head turns towards Hikashi, "Don't bother yourself. I'm not hungry." She had no belief in the concept of devouring another person; it was almost as if Valeria was instead rushing to chase something. "No worries though, just don't die before we talk again...Loner." She jokes, although not showing any sign of what you'd often expect alongside a joke within the grey tone of her voice and face.
A few steps over, Valeria stands above a defeated Liora, refusing to give Valeria an eye; her body and eyes remain slouched towards the ground. "What the hell do you want? Here to see how a person soon to be erased looks up close?"Β
Although solely against the top of Liora's skull, Valeria argues with an overflowing passion, yet she still refuses to budge. "Who says you're going to be erased? There's a whole five hours left."
"Are you an absolute idiot?! Everyone just saw me be utterly vanquished; they're all sure exactly what I'm likely to play in desperation, even to get back on my feet!" The girl finally throws her tearful face up at Valeria, "What's the point of standing on my feet at all now?"
Her stance unfazed, Valeria opens her mouth. "Then stand with my feet."
Liora's eyes widen. "What? Someone just took advantage of me, and you're not wasting any time, huh?" Liora spits immediately after.
"I refuse to take advantage of a single person in this game. You'll see I'll make it solely through feeding, not devouring; it'd be both impossible and impractical to betray an ally through the way I decide to play the game."
"So basically, you're stupid." Liora retorts, gritting her teeth in disbelief, no matter how much she wishes she could. "There's no way we could win that way in such a selfish game."
"You're right; it is stupid." Valeria smiles with her eyes closed.
Liora waits for Valeria's next argument to be rejected, which never comes. Liora forms a smile, something you could never expect to grow on her face a few moments ago. *Sigh* "You're really an idiot, but what other choice do I have than to be one too?" She states, finally succumbing to Valeria's restlessness, she rises to her feet. "So what's the first plan of action?"
"Well, we obviously have to gather more stupid people." Valeria chuckles in an atmosphere so mellow that Liora can't help but follow suit.
(Back to the current)
"Well, that's five," Liora states calmly, holding her hands in her pockets.
"It's calm, that's plenty," Valeria replies, her voice hastening.
"That's awesome," Valeria cheers towards the girl who had just managed to burn two demon cards for absolutely free, quickly distracting herself from her fatal mishap, but it doesn't take too long for her tone to steepen out of the ordinary, although maintaining a sympathetic seriousness. "It'd not be smart to sell all our demon cards like that just yet. I'm glad you found this opportunity and came to me before selling all of them. Still, please check in before any big decisions, okay, Roxi?" Valeria concludes.
"Okay, my bad," Roxi replies, her previous excitement and eagerness consumed by guilt; her head shifts to the side, evading eye contact.
"It's fine, don't worry. It's still pretty good." Valeria smiles, waving her hands in front of her face in an attempt to protect whatever remains of Roxi's cheerful eagerness. "We really must get a move on; the hour we allocated to gathering allies is over." Valeria turns to the dream team she had managed to gather.
Behind Liora, two boys stand, one with spikey blueish-pink hair, some torn leather pants and jacket and red trainers. His name Alijah. To his right stood Simphone. He wore a black suit, a white shirt, and a grey and yellow striped tie.
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"Absolute dream team," Liora chuckles silently.
"Exactly." Valeria smiles, forcing a cruel obliviousness onto the entire team, and the mood quickly drops with everyone except Liora and Valeria.
Roxi fiddles with one of her remaining demon cards as a poor distraction. Valeria turns to her with a mother's worry, "Roxi, are you okay? We've still got four whole hours."
"I'm already sweating like we've got four minutes. The situation seems so impossible." Roxi explains her belief, gradually faltering against her wishes; her voice dampens more than a wet tissue.
Alijah steps forward with a painful sigh, "I ain't feeling too far off. We appreciate the hope, but the Soulis to our names is barely enough for a decent funeral."
"Especially when we refuse to dupe a single person." Simphone continues.
The entire team had been running on nothing more than hope, formed of contestants who had fallen into near-hopeless situations. The concerns were well valid. Valeria still had a spotless slate; any risk she could take could utterly eliminate any chance of them existing past the next four hours.
Whilst she could come out with nothing less than a few scratches. Or even more so, every bit of soulis they had left. Well aware, Valeria takes a deep breath and a step forward. "You shouldn't conclude the impossible is not possible so early, but I don't blame you so far; it seems as if we were just running blindly, and an hour has already passed. But I assure you, I've thought about this well."
Her gaze emanated a conviction you couldn't dare doubt, and all but one of the team remained silent in a guilty shame. Liora's words did not carry any guilt or hesitation; her faith had never once dwindled. "So what will you have us do?" Liora questions, folding her arms, and her eyes watch Valeria calmly, awaiting a command.
Her body refusing to maintain eye contact, Roxi twiddled her thumbs and mumbled a near-inaudible "Sorry..."
Valeria places her hand on Roxi's right shoulder, translating the fact that she had no need to be guilty through physical touch alone, finally persuading Roxi to share her eyes with her once again. "It's fine, really. Don't worry, it'd be hard for me too."
Simphone looks at them disgustedly as if he had accidentally consumed a sour apple. To this, Alijah asks with a genuine curious empathy, "Simphone, everything alright?"
Simphone's detestable face doesn't shift as his head does towards Alijah. "Yeah, don't worry about it, I'm just not very fond of this stuff."
Valeria grabs a pen from the nearest table and begins inscribing each calculation in the palm of her hand. "Okay, we've got 24 angel cards, 22 demon cards and 27.5 thousand left among us."
"I'll split us all into groups. Roxi and Liora, you are the most stable of the team, so you'll be the burners. Your job is to attempt to burn our demons as safely as possible. You can hold onto a couple of angels in case."
"Alijah and Simphone, you're in very risky positions, so you will be our scouts. You will find potentially beneficial games and trades and investigate notable players."
"As for me, I'll be the floor; I'll hold most of the cards and run most of the games."
"60,000 is a lowball if everything goes to plan. You guys down?" The dream team listened; her voice gradually wiped away their hopelessness, revealing smirks of confidence and giddiness from Roxi. In sync, the dream team announced. "We're in."
Valeria couldn't fight the grin emerging across her face.
She had actually managed to do it.
She will beat this game without costing or taking advantage of a single life.