Beating you in anything is child’s play for the true Miray

Thales and Beatrix preserved onto the next part of the labyrinth whatever that may.

A man with blonde hair and blood red eyes, he smiled deeply.

Almost as if he was happily musing over something.

He was on a throne, sipping tea quietly.

Another man entered the space.

The man drinking his tea opened his mouth.

"So it is finally time for us to meet well then come Thales Miray, you think you're a good wisdom cultivator, and then let's see your love for wisdom."

"Magnus, it seems Jugal will conquer the last sphere, he is specialized in that." The blonde man smiled.

"Yeah this brat has some cunning but in normal circumstances he would be dead Lord Sahib"

"Who cares Xenophon my apprentice and guardian, he can use all the wit and cunning in the world but can he insist he is wise?"

Sahib admonished his student; he was a fierce man he looked incredibly strong, a real Spartan, a military man even, but he quietly listened to Sahib's words.

"Maybe soon it will be time for me to discard such folly, after Thales dies we shall head to the crossroads of wisdom, for we will rule and we will rule well"

Thales and Beatrix they journeyed up, they journeyed down.

Finally they made it to the place where they would lose it all. For their whole world were each other right now.

Thales entered the grand room, a man sat on his chair in a regal position, while another man a strong looking man guarded him adjacent.

"Hello there challenger, Thalessssssssssssssssss"

"Thales Miray, how are you doing? Would you like some black tea to wet your throat?"

Thales knew who this man was, but he was more concerned on the man to his opposite.

Not the military man, but the man who looked like a wizard.

"Hey Magnus why haven't you attempted to kill us yet"

Magnus retorted. "If you think I can kill you why have you come"

"Well it's not that I think you can, I doubt that so I came here to prove it and more importantly I came here to win"

"Well if you thought this were trial by combat, you would be mistaken."

"Well it rather seems these will be long intellectual affairs, affairs I will personally defeat you in"

"And don't be mistaken you can die, what you will gamble is your concept of self" the Exalted Venerable Sahib uttered.

"We don't mind and sure it is a 2v2 but only you and I will bet our self, how does that sound?"

"Well it meets the conditions for the tribute so why not."

"Xenophon and I vs. you and the girl, Magnus only wishes to be a spectator, can you do it Miray in any way can you defeat the strongest existence here in this Darwin's game?"

"Hmm I don't believe you that you're a Miray Thales, I'll collect that honor from you too"

"It's a shame I can't collect more but the self is very hard to preserve once it is attacked."

"I don't see a war I cannot win and by the way, you're the challenger Gadfly"

"Yes Thalesss, Thales Miray that is the spirits, how long, can that fire burn for when you despair at the difference in ability"

The man and Thales had looked across from each other, this was unmistakably a battle.

"We'll start with the debates, then riddles, then puzzles then a clean 1v1 brawl Thales, staking our very existences on this, to end here either of us how exciting"

"Let's see I choose Ser Xenon and for you Beatrix"

"Fine by me," Miray said.

"But will you take responsibility when you lose?"

"I'll take responsibility for winning" Sahib said.

Xenophon and Beatrix were each tied on a track there was another track, it had five children.

A train was speeding down the tracks it had no driver, it had freedom and it was bloodthirsty.

It would take a life or lives depending on the considerations of Thales and Sahib, they could manifest their arguments and use it as a weapon and the loser would sacrifice their chess piece for 2 more challenges.

They can simply use them to move the lever and the train simulation will reflect their arguments.

"Well, well, I will have fun here, what is the plan Thales will you save Beatrix, and abandon the innocents."

"No, I'd argue the children are the potential of society, Beatrix in a natural world will die before them, therefore to evolve and benefit society as a whole through the emergence of new information and a child's adaptability to said information then can we really let such innocence die, she can die with a smile on her face"

Sahib sat in thought, considering how to respond. He smiled, then starting cackling.

"Really is that it Thales, I'll color your truth, how can you measure potential? You don't have sufficient knowledge to make that claim and then I'll strengthen this doubt by saying if we are acting based off generalizations and probabilities, then isn't it equally probable that if Xenophon was a one in a million genius the individual could outweigh the collective"

"If we want to scrutinize this further because you know not of these children's experiences, I cast a Russell's teapot that you cannot claim these children are more beneficial than Xenon, because potential is invisible and since you cannot prove that, we only know what we know and what we know that at least Xenon is a strong man capable of many things solely by being an adult and being in good health, therefore I assert my argument applying double effect, these children's deaths are consequences I cannot prevent without trading a life so based on my epistemic access I can say that I will save Xenon and that would be morally permissible. While you saving those children are based on things we can't know, exercising ill moral judgment, so say goodbye to Beatrix Thalessssss"

"Damn it he made use of the teapot we are using for snacks what the hell man"

"I lost Beato in one fell swoop too, was I being biased?"

"Don't worry Thales" the demon mocked

"I'll beat you without Xenon in the next debate too"

Thales remained composed, thinking attempting to anticipate his arguments. In Chess in the endgame that was when it was easier to anticipate moves so he would use magic to contend with Sahib, just this once to protect Beatrix's ideals.

"Let's see here, speaking of potential, the next debate is nurture vs. nature"

"Xenon serve, Thales and I some more black tea"

"At once, master"

"Treating me to sweet tea to rub salt onto the wounds"

"Oh you don't like it?"

"You clearly know Beato does"

"Do I? I don't cultivate heart path"

Sahib snickered.

Thales started cursing. His intuition told him otherwise, but he couldn't deny it.

"Well Thales's I hope you've wet your throat a bit, because now dip your toes in the moisture of my more powerful arguments, I'll take Nature. Do as you please cry yourself into a ball if you want"

"Let's see I am stronger because I was born to rule, but aside from that I'll humble myself and say if I had a twin that was identical we'd have the same DNA regardless of the experiences we could have in life and would therefore rule on the same level

"I pose heritability as my first sword for nature"

Thales smirked "I thought you would do that but aren't you forgetting that is a hasty generalization, it is an incomplete data-set idiot, knowing the heritability doesn't tell us which genes or environmental influences would shape you to become a king, if you were one you'd be a peasant king by the way"

 "Ouch, that had some gusto, then I'd setup my next piece, is the very trials we are in not an example of natural selection, we struggle in a world we know nothing about from birth, the winner of this contest will pass the genes to the next generation each stronger than the last. Until we get to here, you experience this how can you deny this?"

Thales actually had an easy way to refute this but he decided against this.

"I concede"

"Concession accepted there is wisdom in admitting you're a fool, well played Miray, but I invoke the rule if you are white washed that is a concession to your existence"

Even in defeat, Thales couldn't be humbled in peace.

"Very well then I'd just have to win"

Actually I'm bored I'd trade the pawn you resigned to premove for the next turn.

"Um… ok"

"So yeah, the next games are riddles, follow me loser"

Thales obliged.

"God Thales I was asleep, it was so peaceful what happened?"

"Apparently I'm losing, he he" Thales laughed dryly.

"Oh that's not good, well we will just win next time"

They walked and walked, until they met a sphinx in this purgatory, more accurately a passage in the purgatory.

The sphinx said, "What walks on four legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon and three legs in the evening.

Sahib looked bored.

"I don't care there are 2 other challenges I'll just do one of those"

"Very well brat, but what does the other brat say"

Thales pondered; he recalled a certain legacy of <>

"Oh yes, the answer is man."

The sphinx laughed

"Oh yes child of man, is correct."

"What is your reasoning, how did your brain work"

"The concept was slightly alien to me, but it is simple. In the morning of life, humans are infants they crawl on 4 legs, we then mature to adulthood with 2, and naturally the third leg is a walking stick because we are old, of course this is a general case, but I'm glad it satisfied you"

"Yes it did, you may pass to the third trial now or skip it after the next one"

The rest of you cannot pass and must face it.

Thales looked at Beatrix signaling sorry.

When they walked to the next trial she said she would be ok.

The next trial there, they saw a lion it was an ordinary lion.

Except it said they needed to cross the river with a bag of grain and said lion.

Thales crossed the river with the lion leaving it alone.

He took the bag of grain across the river and returned alone isolated.

He felt like a farmer, grunting at such menial work, they had to be careful not to exceed the boats capacity.

Sahib took the lion across the river, leaving it with Thales on the other side and isolated himself.

Xenon took the boat across the river and left it with Thales

Xenon and Thales returned to the original side

Thales and Beatrix crossed the river together.

At last Thales returns alone and takes the lion across the river.

Next Thales skipped the trial.

Sahib, Beatrix and Xenon ended up in the last problem of this stage.

3 prisoners must guess their identity of their own hat colors based off certain rules, the one who does is pardoned the others are executed.

"Sahib immediately guessed that the hats were of the same color between xenon and Beatrix so he evaded execution."

That meant he tied with Thales who abstained from this, and moved on however since they each controlled this path due to their games, they simply invited Beatrix and Xenon to the final stage not having to sacrifice the pieces. If Sahib never leniently avoided answering the sphinx what would the result have been?

They ended up in a logic puzzle room it was supposed to be a 2v2 but Sahib made it a 1v3 and bullied all 3 including his teammate, from complex Sudoku, logic grids and deductive reasoning puzzles.

Somehow Beatrix dominated the next room, she guessed a symbol of a world eating monster from folklore and the symbol of the lamb and the tyger the rest didn't even know what the tyger was but they knew the lamb was humanity.

Thales actually guessed that the unknowable symbol referred to The Mystery from ETERNAL MONOMYTH primordial's book.

Even though it was very regretful for him to admit that

This made team Thales draw, but since Sahib said he could beat Thales in anything he counted two draws as one win for Thales.

It came down to this.

A gamble of self between Thales Miray and Sahib Nabal

"Perhaps, it is the most simple duel Thales the rules are simple the only thing that can erase our beliefs is by being poisoned with the truth, we each will lie or tell the truth, if we are caught lying, we are shot by the truth bullets 3 truth bullets will destroy your concept of self, killing you permanently."

"You must stay in the circle and you can only full turn to lie"

"These will be conducted in 30 second intervals."

"You will have a 5 second observation period before each round."

"Our cultivation will be sealed."

"Beatrix and Xenon will be a spectator that is all."

"But of course, I am satisfied."

"Yes, to wage our lives truly on the line neither an advantage."

The pair walked to the small circle, it was a circle of time ever rotating. This was a further element of the game was it the field or was it them that timed?

The rotation was not fixed either to make matters worse.

Both players smiled devilish smiles at each other as if risking their life couldn't be funnier as a joke and also provided great entertainment.

Sahib now looked at Thales in these circumstances, as an equal.

The invisible clock counted down.

5 seconds to watch each other before they naturally turned around, Sahib would be the black liar and Thales the white truth teller.

For round 1

5 seconds began.

Red eyes stared into black.

Sahib pointed at Thales with his index and next fingers, curled his other fingers back and relaxed his hand, while grinning deeply.

Thales licked his lips.

Sahib raised an eyebrow, shuffled his feet, and strutted his chin.

Thales, tightened his focus, twitched his hand and stepped forward slightly.

Each took in all these details.

Sahib rested his shoulders, Thales gut bubbled.

The 30 seconds began.

Both turned around.

The stadium rotated, did any seconds pass?

Both stood still, Thales arm had tremors.

As if he was raring to shoot.

The clock silently, ticked, it was on a wavelength only these two could hear?

Why could they even visualize an invisible clock?

At 14 seconds, something happened.

The clock counted down, no tick tock, waiting for the round to end, did something happen?

Tick tock, what was this world.

What were their thoughts?

Well they were very unique.

Thales had an insane peripheral vision, why is this relevant if he were turned around? Well it was not 360 degrees, but however Thales had cultivated his body with world path prior to Darwin's game, why trust senses if they aren't at its best? Thales had cultivated Synesthesia, he could see the color of Sahib and it was black?

Sahib, he wanted to test something, what he did is shuffle slightly; he got very excited and concentrated on wanting to lie and lie he did.

"So Thales did I lie or did I tell the truth?"

It was now time to guess who knew the truth what would Thales say?

His mouth watered, he thought deeply, recalled what he saw, did Sahib know what I could have seen?

What would Thales say?

"Truth, you did not turn."

"That is…"

"Incorrect" Sahib said with a dark smile.

Thales had shock.

"But he only shuffled, to throw me off what happened?"

As if to answer that Sahib explained.

"My shuffle at the 14th second mark was indeed a turn, it was a pirouette, I concentrated on saying I was going to lie through my body language, which was actually true, an interesting liar's paradox, the shuffle I did was a pirouette which is in fact a turn, who knew being good at dancing, to show such elegance would come in handy."

Thales could not shoot Sahib this round.

Onto round 2 Sahib would now get an opportunity to shoot.

"You are boring, going super try hard mode on a beginner" Thales teased calming his nerves.

"That was disappointing I gambled and got away scot free, there will be no second chances" Sahib responded.

The blond haired, man with a slender body and the eyes of blood vs. the light green haired boy with abyssal eyes, quite large attributed to his height. Both adorned suits one from a friend, one for his future people.

Continues!

"He he the 5 seconds begin again, I do wonder what will happen." Thales said dryly.

"Sahib had a piercing gaze the eyes of a predator.

As if he knew what Thales would use

Thales bit his nails.

"How exciting will destiny manifest here today, do I have a fish in the barrel or am I on a hook"

To be eat or be eaten which would happen to these people.

The clock Tick ticked, as if it were a hypnotic lull.

Tick-Tock the clock time ran out and began a new they turned around.

Did anyone move?

What were their thoughts?

"Well Sahib, what happened?"

"Here, you tell me, did you really think I care about the rotations?"

30 seconds had flown by, racing their hearts were it was exhilarating.

It is time for the golden chime, to signal who moved?

"Thales you're a fan of nature right, there are these creatures called bats, they have a neat trick called Echolocation"

"What's funny is I a wisdom cultivator copied the same abilities as an animal isn't that exciting."

"You lied, the moment the clock began almost late, a precise movement but a turn none the less"

"Am I wrong, Thalesss?"

"You are not"

Thales felt an invisible bullet, more real than any other carefully loaded and span; Thales had to watch in fear as that bullet hit him.

"Gaagggh"

The bullet struck him.

"That's the first, first the body, then the mind and soul, last the self"

The internal injuries excruciating, blood spurted out of Thales's orifices the pain was not bearable.

Thales clenched his teeth.

"Spin around and once again we watch and wait for 5 and then start again, can you feel it Thales? This is living; betting it all on your ideals, what's funny is you don't know mine so how can you ever hope to win?" Sahib smiled softly.

Thales was trying to stay composed with haggard breathing.

A healthy Sahib vs. a wounded Thales, what would be the outcome…

Thales was losing blood, but no matter he just had to win.

"I might lose, but I can't lose, I will win for every life I take I will live for them"

"I will win, for every opponent I face I will crush them mercilessly and when they realize the strong, I will protect the interests of the weak all for the brightest days"

The 5 stopped and it began again.

What could happen?

Truly what?

30 seconds, Sahib would he lie or tell the truth?

The time ended. What happened?

"Your thoughts they are all wrong? They are contradictory mess, I am listening to your heart, it's all wrong" Sahib said with slight frustration.

"This pain it eats ass, but I am invincible as long as I win"

"You my friend Sahib, you lied"

"You are correct"

Sahib thought Thales would be frightened to risk it again and think Sahib would fake the turn again, while actually turning but Sahib would read Thales thoughts from this but he actually read a step further.

"My mind is really good at parallel processing; listening to my heart won't tell you what to do against someone who moves by their own beat"

Thales turns to load up his bullet it felt perfect, he took aim and fired at a sitting duck

Now it is Sahib's Turn to feel the pain

"I am sorry Thales, but this is not my first time having the reapers scythe on my neck, what makes you think I haven't struggled before" Sahib said with an expressionless face.

The next round begins again, 5 seconds.

A watchful eye, Thales was starting to feel dizzy; Sahib was shifting from focus and an exhilarating happiness.

The clock tick-tock a familiar feeling why could both of them see the clock?

The clock began again, would they be reading such layered thoughts, could they even think as they both were on the timer of losing blood.

"I played with a cube it was insoluble, I realized such a matrix was the bundle of human emotions, that's what my mentor was trying to show me" Thales uttered.

"What are you a child or perhaps a broken toy?"

"I don't know anymore"

The 30 seconds ended again.

Did Thales lie or tell the truth.

"Thales Miray, I thought I told you I can hear you, I can hear everything"

"Yeah you can, but did you perhaps confuse sweat for blood."

Sahib had guessed Thales lied.

He was wrong.

"You… you let me shoot you on purpose…"

Thales smiled a creepy smile with hollow eyes, which was the face of the reaper.

"Death, run from it, fear it and it will still come all the same"

The bullet had not found a target this time.

5 seconds they watched as now Sahib could get shot, what would occur?

Everything was downloaded and both wondered was even this enough?

The clock tick-tock until it grinded to a halt

"Lie" Thales said.

He was right.

"Hahaha I really am against the wall here Mirayyy, Thalessss, Hyperosmia too"

"Indeed whether it would be new blood or old blood you'd better not be turning because I can tell the difference, letting me snowball was great hubris, have you ever felt being eaten by hubris?"

He was shot again his mind shattered his soul shook.

Sahib was on the brink of being written out of history, one more bullet was all it took.

And yet his gaze was as tough as a shell, his partner as expressionless as a robot.

Absolute confidence in his master's victory but one other was confident in their friend's victory.

5 seconds ended. That enigmatic clocked flashed and counted for 30.

Once again it roared to a stop.

Sahib muttered lie, they were thinking in pure abstractions no words, was this enlightenment or desperation to live?

"I regret to inform you Sahib" Thales began.

"You are wrong"

Wrong, 3 people shouted out, Beatrix and Xenophon were especially confused they watched Thales pull the same trick again. Moving the moment the time happened what could have possibly happened.

"If you think I lie even now, shoot me"

But Sahib couldn't he was confused for the first time ever.

"Did you think the clocks were for show, we aren't supposed to see them in sync I don't think we think the same at all, but we see them because they are there to be tampered with, ever heard of a temporal anomaly"

Sahib faced scrunched out not out of shock, but out of the realization Thales planned for this, the ability to negate a move for free. In reality due to the anomaly, Thales had moved at the end of the 5th second in the observation round instead of the 30th.

He made Sahib think he had no strategy, but in truth had the foresight to see such an abstract and uncertain factor.

"What madness, but is madness wisdom?" Sahib said despite the next turn potentially being his last.

Unfortunately Thales luck came back to bite him he guessed wrong, was shot and then hit by a temporal anomaly himself.

Making this 2-2 even though Miray was finally in the lead but now he must attempt to avoid the bullet himself.

"Well Thales Miray, that is who you are for the last time, can we really say you are allowed to have that name."

The clocks span, would there be an anomaly or would time shine upon Sahib.

"Were their factors unknown?"

"Yes there were, Sahib controlled his own pheromones which lead to Thales being forced to guess between his color and smell he couldn't move frozen, he was frozen by Sahib…"