Back in the dungeon, as Draco's fight with Mors reached its climax, another battle simultaneously escalated to its own harrowing peak.
"Cough! Cough! Hack!!"
Alfia choked, but the blood kept coming, staining her sickly pale skin with sticky crimson. Kaguya blanched at the sight.
"Just how much blood have you lost?" Ryuu couldn't help but ask, her voice laced with concern.
"And how much pain have you lived through your whole life?" Clair added, her gaze fixed on the witch.
"How can I possibly answer that?" Alfia replied, her fit finally subsiding.
"This is all I have known from the moment I was born. If I asked you to describe the blood that flows through your veins, what would you say?"
With a slender arm, she wiped the blood from her lips, a gesture both delicate and disturbing. "Alas, this detestable sickness has taken everything from me… even my own twin. If not for this, could I have slain the Black Dragon?"
This was her regret.
Her curse.
Her twin sister was the price she paid for her power….a power that still fell short of fulfilling her goals.
"Could I have escaped this raucous noise? Could I have escaped your scornful and piteous glares?"
The members of the Bahamut and Astraea familias had their eyes all focused on her, causing Alfia to curl her lips in a snarl of rage.
The witch spoke the truth; if not for her illness, she would have obliterated them.
Asfi's accessories and Riveria's spell, Veil Breath, had allowed the combined team to survive Alfia's opening gambit, providing precious time for her congenital ailment to kick in and begin deciding the battle's fate.
Since the fight began, Alfia's condition had steadily deteriorated.
It was as if an incessant anti-status magic was being cast upon her every second.
Alise had realized it first, noticing the witch's power level plummeting.
The name of her skill, the manifestation of her illness, was a cursed blessing.
It induced a perpetual 'Limit Off' state, but at a terrible cost.
In battle, or whenever she suffered her debilitating fits, she was assailed by many simultaneous status conditions, including poison, paralysis, and immobilizing sickness.
Furthermore, for as long as it remained active, her stats, stamina, and magic continuously decreased.
It was the crushing price of her monstrous talent, unmatched by many of the most costly curse spells.
No matter how hard she tried to mitigate its effects with technique, tactics, or by going all out, Alfia at present possessed no greater combat ability than a Level 5 adventurer.
Perhaps even only a Level 4.
As she was now, victory began to seem possible for the combined efforts of the Astraea and Bahamut familias.
Generally, any adventurer party was capable of overcoming a one-level gap through superior teamwork….a fundamental strategy for fighting a floor boss.
Alfia didn't just have the ability to flatten her foes in an instant; she needed to.
If the battle was allowed to drag on, she was doomed.
"Grh…! Alfia, we…!" Ryuu stepped forward, her voice desperate, but the words failed her. Before she could find them, Lyra interjected.
"Let's cut to the chase," she said, casting the witch a deadly glare.
"We both know you are losing strength, so why not give up and come quietly, eh?"
"It's painfully obvious you cannot keep up the fight any longer," Kaguya agreed, directing a look at Alfia one might reserve for a decomposing corpse.
"As much as it vexes me to abandon my revenge, I will not bring my sword down on such a pitiful sight."
"Alfia," Alise said with genuine sincerity in her voice.
"It's best you surrender. We might not be able to overlook the things you've done… but I understand why you did them; I truly do."
There wasn't much time left.
From the very beginning, Alfia had been paying with her life just to be here, and now it wasn't even certain she'd survive to see it through.
Alise's gaze held genuine condemnation for Alfia's evil acts, yet a trace of respect lingered. Nikolaos and Clair on the other hand, couldn't help but shake their heads in disappointment at the Astraea familia's words.
Though younger and less experienced in certain areas, they understood Alfia on a deeper level. Their lives, after all, had been warped by the same creature.
They recognized that pity, directed at Alfia, was not only an insult to her resolve and ideals but also to her very being as a warrior.
This was a truth the Astraea familia members refused to accept through the course of battle, yet Nikolaos and Clair chose not to lecture them, understanding that such empathy was simply ingrained in the Astraea familia's core.
"Surrender… Surrender, you say…" Alfia repeated those words, her voice taking on a darker, chilling cadence.
Believing the battle was reaching its inevitable conclusion, the girls of the Astraea Familia even began to lower their weapons, much to the shock of Nikolaos, Clair, and Alfia alike.
"What are you idiots doing…?" Nikolaos wanted to yell out.
But Alfia acted first.
"When will you vermin stop disappointing me?!" Alfia's eerie voice cut through the air. Simultaneously, she unleashed a wave of raw magical energy and burning rage.
"Gah?!" the team gasped, caught off guard.
"Do not make the mistake of taking pity on me, whelps. It does not matter how far my sickness progresses; it will never stop me burying every last one of you!"
Alfia's sound blast hit the Astraea familia members first, before slamming into their allies, the Bahamut familia.
Alfia straightened her back, tall and proud once more, determined to give them a harsh reality check.
"And what does it change, in any case? Even if I am destined to die, Orario is finished! Killing me changes nothing! Behold, the monster rages yet!"
Alfia swept her arm, and as if on cue, the team heard Delphyne's terrifying roar. "Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!"
Nikolaos looked in its direction and grunted.
"Grh…!"
"Th…the monster!" cried Ryuu.
"It's regenerating!" said Clair, her voice tight with alarm.
"It's somehow even uglier than before! At this rate, it'll break through the other team!" Delphyne had begun to take up even more of the cavernous space.
Its jaw had split into many shapes, odd protuberances grew across its length, and its pair of draconic wings had morphed into a pair of toxic, purple, butterfly-like appendages.
At last, it managed to shake free of Ais's binding wind and Riveria's barrage of spells, and its roar alone was enough to shake the entire floor.
"I'll end you all here and allow that beast to reach the surface! It will shatter the Dungeon gate!" Alfia's prediction was close to becoming reality.
If their team fell here, and if Ais, Riveria, Dimitra, Vasileios, and Gareth couldn't stop Delphyne, the evil dragon's breath would burn a hole through the ground itself, drawing the curtain on the age of gods and ushering in a new age of heroes, just as the conquerors had planned.
"I have made my pact! Traded my soul to the god of the underworld. I will enact my justice now! I must see this ruinous path to its end!"
Her will shone brightly, even if it was an evil one.
Alfia was not ready to give up on all she had worked for.
The sands in her hourglass continued to fall, and until the very last grain stopped, the witch would follow her chosen road.
"Goddammit, old woman!" snarled Lyra.
"Why would you go that far?!" growled Ryuu.
"Are you girls stupid, or do you simply listen only to forget? I have said this before, what I seek is the past!" she proclaimed.
"A return to the Age of Heroes! So long as you look to the future, we can never coexist!"
The Astraea familia members gave her bitter looks, but her answer remained unchanged.
Then the force of her next spell flung them all backward.
"...…." Alise was silent, an arm raised to protect her face.
She lowered it, then composed herself.
"How can we stop you, then?" she asked, her face a mask of pure sorrow.
With nothing but regret for her own powerlessness, she raised her sword and pointed it at Alfia….one of the sinners she could not save.
"There is only one way," replied the witch.
"Become a hero."
.........
"Become a hero, huh!" Nikolaos repeated, the words escaping him in a shocked gasp as the eyes of his teammates flew wide open in stunned silence.
A faint, knowing smile graced Alfia's lips.
Her eyes, one emerald green and the other ash gray, were fully open for the first time in a long while, gleaming with dangerous clarity.
"Become a hero, and strike me down!" she declared, the air thickening with power.
"If you want to see the future, then show me you have what it takes to protect it!"
A wave of determination washed over the younger heroes; every fist clenched instinctively.
"Show me this justice you so staunchly believe in! Show me it surpasses my evil!"
The witch made her principles ruthlessly clear.
There was no meaning in noble intent without the power to see it through.
There was no value in power without a strong will to guide it.
Only a noble soul, possessing both the necessary might and a strong conviction, would be capable of stopping the darkness.
Despite the despair she had endured and the horrific sins she had committed, Alfia was still a hero…a twisted, final trial presented to the unpolished potential of the new era standing before her.
While the others remained stunned by the monumental nature of the challenge, Alise spoke first.
"Alfia…" she murmured, closing her eyes briefly, acknowledging the weight of history in that single name.
Then, her voice hardened with absolute resolve.
"Grab your weapons, everyone. We're doing this."
"Alise…" Lyra watched her captain ready the magnificent blade, Crimson Order.
She nodded, resolution settling deep in her gaze.
"Just you watch," Alise vowed, pointing her sword directly between the witch's terrifyingly bicolor glare.
"We'll show you! We'll show you that justice endures and carries the light of the past forward!"
"Yes, we will take the hope we're building and shove it right in this old hero's face!" Clair chimed in, the ferocity in her shout snapping Nikolaos out of his stupor.
"You're going down, Alfia! This we swear, on the sword and wings of justice!" Nikolaos added, a flush of awkward embarrassment warming his face as he mirrored the infectious zeal of the Astraea familia girls.
"Hahaha, you finally get it, Niko!" Alise beamed, clearly rejuvenated by his earnest, if clumsy, display of dedication.
'Ugh, these people' Kaguya groaned internally, though the sound of her friends' ridiculous battle cries sparked a sudden, undeniable excitement within her own chest.
Alfia smiled faintly at their unified, defiant front, then stretched her open hand forward in a chilling invitation.
"Come, then." Her eyes narrowed at the dazzling, yet unpolished, light of the gems standing before her.
The next moment, she roared, her voice laced with primal, feisty spirit, unleashing the full weight of her legacy.
"I'll show you what a real hero is made of, insolent children!"…
.........…
Alfia was a hero.
Even as disease crippled her, pushing her to death's door, her life melting away like a snowflake, she remained a hero.
"Haaaaaaargh!" Ryuu bellowed, unleashing her 'Luminous Wind!'
"Vortex Pull!" Clair echoed, but…
Alfia danced between the swords and spears of justice, nullifying the wind, gravity, and flames that crushed down upon her.
With a sweep of her arm, she unleashed the Gospel, a wave of power that swept everything away.
She was a hero in power, strength, and even appearance.
Though she walked the path of evil, she was a hero nonetheless….perhaps the worthiest of the title by far.
"Mages!" Lyra screamed.
"Keep pelting her with spells! Don't let up!"
"Keep fighting!" Kaguya shouted.
"Don't give up, and don't run!"
Their faces were stained with blood, but none of them took their eyes off the witch.
"Answer that monster with everything we have!"
The team raised a rallying cry in response to Kaguya's words.
"I can't show my back! Not to her!"
In a state of absolute focus, gripping her spear, one tiger-kin warrior ran forward, her mind attuned to nothing but the bloodied hero before her.
"We have to surpass her! It's the only way!"
Everything accelerated.
Swords, shields, staffs, spears...flashes, slashes, bursts, and roars...all moved with heightened speed.
Even their minds raced, devoted to the relentless pursuit of greater power.
"Alga! Alga! Alga!"
Each word of power drew more of Alise's energy from her body, channeling it into her magic. The fires around her grew and roared, and at last, they collided with the witch's sound.
"Alvarna!"
"Gospel!"
Their blazing movements were like a shower of meteors.
"Alise… everyone…"
Two gods watched from atop their cliff.
Beside Astraea, Erebus, the embodiment of darkness, donned a smile.
"A battle of good and evil….their last battle, at that. Yes, this is what I wanted to see!"
Erebus shivered with dark anticipation, spreading his arms wide.
"This is your story, connecting the past to the present, and stretching on into the future!"
Beneath his and Astraea's watchful gazes, the black star of evil faced off against the myriad comets of good.
Until…
...........
"O cursed root of my blessing, my cursed birth. O sin of mine, my twinned half's demise…"
The witch began a third incantation.
"That's not her usual spell! It's a new one!"
"Wait, this is…" Clair muttered, then yelled, "It's an exceptionally long chant!"
It was not her wave of sound, focused on speed.
Nor was it her magic-nullifying enchantment.
Clair was the first to realize this.
The witch had been concealing a third ability this entire time and was now invoking it.
"Grh! Stop her! Don't let her finish!" Nikolaos yelled.
He felt in his bones that whatever Alfia was planning would surely end the battle in a single instant.
Ryuu and the rest of the team charged the witch, swarming her like angry bees drawn to an irresistible scent.
Their blades rang out repeatedly; a vortex of strikes unleashed gouts of flames and gusts of wind, forming an inescapable net.
However, the song of evil went on unhindered.
"There is no ablution, purification, or solace. Heaven's bell begets my sin." Alfia's sonorous voice continued its ode to demise.
'She's dodging all our blows!'
'She's even fighting back! Concurrent Casting! We can't stop her!'
It was a peculiar stance.
With both arms hanging limply at her sides, she weaved to and fro like a weeping willow, evading their every swing.
The frontline fighters were shocked that none of their attacks connected; the witch, paying no heed to their consternation, even struck the plates of their armor with a casual sweep of her chopping hand.
Even Riveria and Gareth were distracted, their eyes drawn away from Delphyne and toward the melody of battle unfolding at the other end of the floor.
"This incantation… this flood of magic! There's no mistake; it's Alfia's final spell!"
"You mean the one she used to finish off the Leviathan?! Is she crazy? She'll destroy us… and the whole floor, too!" Gareth yelled.
They were the only two beings present who had witnessed that spell before, at the conclusion of one of the Three Great Quests.
More than anyone else, they feared what was about to be unleashed.
"Why, Alfia? Why do you seek destruction? If you have so much power, then can't you find another way?"
But Alfia ignored the high elf's pleas.
"O bugle of the gods. O harp of spirits past, O melody of light…all traces of my unpardonable act."
Discarding her earlier silence, the witch drew deeply, allowing everything within her to become her strength.
"O wretched life of mine; the gods' most blessed craft, hearken now my hate!"
She laid her heart bare, using the key of hate to unlock the belfry of her sin.
"Here is my confession! The price of my sin, I pay in full!"
Her chant reached a crescendo as it approached its conclusion.
The eyes of everyone beheld the same blinding light: a powerful, all-consuming… gray.
Not the white that she could never attain, but a cruel reminder of the sin that tainted her very soul.
Then Alfia raised one arm and pointed up, and a magic circle appeared above her head, above which spawned a large gray object in the rough shape of a church bell.
"Hear the howl of the holy belfry!"
Everything shook.
The sound was unlike anything heard before…a noise with no future, an awesome, yet magnificent crescendo that heralded the end of days.
Ryuu felt trapped in time.
Alise felt frozen in ice.
Kaguya was awestruck.
Riveria and Gareth looked on in horror.
Even the black winds calmed, and Delphyne itself appeared hesitant.
There was no stopping her now.
The ash-gray bell that hung above her shone with searing light, then cracked, and burst open, releasing a howl of destruction that swept the land.
"Genos Angelus."
It was the epitome of ruin.
The blast snuffed out all flames, quenching every source of light from the floor in an instant.
It shattered the land, extinguished fires, and tore apart the trees.
Pure, unadulterated destruction.
That was what was coming for them.
The shockwaves it left in its wake were enough to strip the adventurers of their gear and cause blood to seep from their eardrums.
Moments later, the true blast bore down on them like a god-slaying hammer.
It was the cry of a Level 7, one who desired everything to perish.
The effect range was over one hundred meters.
It couldn't be dodged.
It couldn't be blocked.
This would spell the end of the Astraea, Bahamut, and Loki Familia members.
But just then…
.........…
"Finally, my time to shine!"
Before anyone could react, the smallest of their team, Lyra, burst into action, sprinting straight toward Alfia.
"Nikolaos!" she yelled.
As if practiced for countless hours—a partnership forged in the heat of this peril—Nikolaos seized the pallum girl and flung her across the battlefield, catapulting her directly toward the stunned witch.
"Raaaaaaaaaaahhh!"
Nobody could stop her.
Lyra, mid-flight, ripped the shield from her back, planting it firmly in front of her body and curling into a tight ball, completely concealed behind the makeshift defense.
Upon immediate impact, the shield exploded, shattering into a million shimmering pieces.
But not without first completely neutralizing the effect of Alfia's ultimate spell.
"Wha…?!"
Kaguya, Riveria, and even Alfia herself couldn't believe their eyes.
It was the witch who first realized the gravity of what had happened.
"That was my Silentium Eden! But how?!"
Only one among them possessed the knowledge to answer her.
After flying halfway across the battlefield and rolling painfully across the ground, Lyra painfully pushed herself up and shot Alfia a defiant, mocking smile.
"What're you complaining about?" she sneered, clutching her bruised ribs.
"You're the one who gave it to me."
Lyra had already planned this maneuver with Nikolaos.
She had given him this specific shield not long after his maul was disintegrated by Alfia's magic. It had happened just minutes prior: Nikolaos had used the shield to directly attack Alfia, ensuring contact with the witch's magical barrier.
"You mean, back then…?!" Alfia whispered, piecing together the audacious trick.
"Perseus worked together with that Cyclops to make it happen," Lyra explained, her voice ringing with hard-won victory.
"This shield can steal any magic spell… Well, it could until it broke."
Finn had provided Lyra with crucial intelligence regarding Alfia's full repertoire of magic far in advance.
As the witch seethed, the pallum calmly explained the technicality of her survival.
"Hermes gave us the design. It's based on one of Zeus's old shields. What did he call it again…?"
Lyra paused for a dramatic beat, then grinned triumphantly.
"Oh yeah. Aegis… that was it."
"Hrh…?!" Alfia groaned, the name striking a deep chord of recognition and fear.
Aegis.
A legendary artifact of the Zeus familia…..a shield capable of warding off any calamity and even reflecting a petrifying gaze.
No member of the Hera familia was unfamiliar with its awesome, terrifying might.
"Alise! Clair! Ryuu! Now's your chance!" Lyra cried, ignoring the searing pain in her body. "Beat her into a sorry pulp!"
The moment Alfia's ultimate spell was blocked and the oppressive magical aura surrounding her died down, the witch began to splutter blood.
It was in this moment of devastating weakness that the three young heroes rushed in to finish the fight.
The trio moved like the wind, plunging through the opening Alfia had finally conceded.
This was ultra-close range; Alfia knew there was no avoiding it.
She knew precisely where the blades would fall.
Ryuu's focused wind magic, combined with Alise's fierce fire, while Clair's crushing gravity completely locked Alfia in place—there was no room for error, no possibility of escape.
The trio's combined assault was accompanied by a blinding barrage of magic that seared the Level 7's flesh.
The attack culminated in a flash of fire and blinding purple starlight, compounding its devastation.
Sparks flew from the point of impact, showering the floor in shooting stars, and everything disappeared in a huge cloud of dust.
The floor of the dungeon shook violently.
The surviving team members flattened themselves against the earth to avoid being blown away by the shockwave.
The rumbling continued for some time, even after the wind had completely died down.
The sheer force dislodged several massive crystals from the ceiling, which fell and shattered nearby.
Soon, the earthquake stopped, time seemed to flow again, and the cloud of dust began to settle, revealing the exhausted victors: Ryuu, bent down on one knee; Alise, using her sword as a crutch; and Clair, leaning heavily on her now broken spear.
"Did we… get her?" asked Neze, uncertain whether to allow herself hope.
"If not, then we're really screwed," muttered Lyra, her eyes glued to the slowly clearing dust cloud, watching closely for any sign of movement.
It was Kaguya who finally spoke, her voice steady.
"There's no need to worry," she said, glaring across the battlefield.
Where her gaze fell, the witch slowly collapsed to the ground.
"Gah…!" Alfia was sliced, burned, beaten, and now uncontrollably spluttering blood.
Her death was inevitable, a matter of time measured in heartbeats.
She knelt, hands splayed on the ground, her majestic dress tattered and torn, defeated just short of attaining her desperate goal.
"Haah… haah…!" Ryuu panted, slowly staggering back to her feet.
"Alfia…!" Alise called out, the word a mixture of awe and exhaustion.
"We've won," said Clair, drenched in sweat from head to toe.
"Cough! Cough! …Hrgh… hgh… hgh…"
Alfia's blood spilled from her lips, staining the floor that was now almost as torn and mutilated as she was.
After a short moment, a smile, fleeting and almost imperceptible, appeared on her lips.
"…Yes," she stated, her voice a ragged breath.
"You've won."
She rose to her feet, moving as though her body weighed nothing at all, almost like her soul had already begun to depart.
"What truly… noisy brats," she whispered.
"You did… you did well, to defeat evil…"
As the dancing sparks illuminated her fragile form, the ashen witch bestowed her final blessing upon the heroes who had bested her.
"Alfia…" Ryuu didn't dare move a muscle.
What she and her team had achieved was nothing short of the impossible.
Alfia was an unbeatable foe, and yet, through determination, tenacity, and a huge amount of luck, they had prevailed.
It had taken all their wisdom and knowledge, their pride and their bravery.
But it was done.
"I have… one last thing to say," said the witch, like a blasted tree about to crumble in the wind. "…Do not… forget this. Do not… forget my fate. This… is what awaits you all in the end… when the Black Dragon comes."
"Guh…" everyone gulped, the raw terror of the great beast chilling them, except for Nikolaos and Clair.
"That is how fragile… and fickle a thing… justice truly is."
Nikolaos and Clair nodded in silent agreement, having already experienced the despair brought by the Black Dragon.
They were fortunate to have their brother, Draco, to tide them through the darkness, or else it would not have been strange if they too had succumbed to evil's temptations.
The former hero delivered her final, damning warning.
Here stood a woman who had fought to save the world, who had stared into despair, and been forever changed by it.
"Gather it all together… and raise the final hero…"
Her bicolored eyes were distant, as though she could already see where she was headed next.
She imparted her wishes to the victors, engraving them on the inside of a shell of despair that would surely one day be opened.
"…Got it," Alise said, her voice strained but firm.
"We'll remember you… and what you just told us."
Alfia gave a gentle smile and closed her eyes for a moment.
Then she turned her back on the team and started walking, leaving a trail of bloody footprints across the shattered earth.
"Alfia! Where are you going?!" Ryuu called out after her, but the woman didn't respond.
She walked until she reached the edge of a deep, dark pit….the tunnel to the lower depths that Delphyne had wrought with fire.
The molten rock walls were fluid and smooth, and even now gouts of flame spewed forth from it, as though the abyss was connected to the very pits of hell itself.
"I always wished to be consigned to ash," the witch explained, without turning back, "just as she was."
She peered over the edge, toward the pit's invisible, fiery bottom.
"Farewell, heroes of the future. Farewell, Orario."
Ryuu finally snapped out of her stupor as she realized what the witch was planning.
She began sprinting toward the edge, but it was clear she would not make it in time.
Alfia turned back and offered the team a final, serene smile.
"The future… is in your hands now."
With that, she tipped herself from the precipice.
In a matter of moments, she was swallowed by the flames, incinerating her hair, her clothes, and finally, her flesh.
And then she was gone, removed from this world by the judgmental fires of the inferno.
Ryuu sank to her knees at the edge of the pit, the sight of Alfia's self-immolation forever burned into her memory.
And in her heart still rang the words she swore she heard, right at the very end.
"Ah, Metelia, my beloved sister…"
"At last, at last, I can be with you once more…"
..........
"Alfia's gone…"
From a distant point, the evil god observed the witch's demise.
"…Thank you,"
"I owe you a great debt," Erebus murmured, his voice swallowed by the raging fires.
"Your mightiest followers are no more. Your plan is finished." Astraea said, snapping the dark God back to reality.
The dark god regained his smile, a cruel twist of his lips.
"Really, Astraea? I think you're forgetting someone."
As if on cue, a ferocious roar shook the cavern.
Astraea's escorts paled, turning to see Delphyne still going strong.
"Yours, Bahamut's, and Loki's children are growing weak. Even if they find the will to go on, there is nothing more that they can do," Erebus continued, his voice laced with mocking satisfaction.
"And don't expect any reinforcements from above. Even if Zald and Mors are dead, they won't have gone down without a fight. There is also Falazure to worry about."
Erebus swept his arms like an opera dancer, indicating first the exhausted members of the Astraea's and Bahamut's familias, and then the distant forms of Riveria, Dimitra, Vasileios, and Gareth, still locked in battle with the monstrous threat.
In fact, it was a wonder how the latter four were still standing.
The only one still burning with hatred and determination was Ais, but even her wind was beginning to die down.
It was only a matter of time before the battle swung decisively in Delphyne's favor.
"The one in check here is you, my dear Astraea. The mortal world is on the brink of destruction." The dark god grinned, giving the goddess a sideways glance, but she wasn't looking at him.
Her eyes were fixed on her children, who carried the light of justice with them.
"You're wrong, Erebus. I came down here precisely to prevent that."
Her indigo eyes twinkled like shooting stars, and Astraea immediately turned to leave.
Her escort hurried to catch up with her, leaving Erebus to stare after her blankly.
"Oh, Astraea."
He shrugged, a hint of genuine amusement in his features.
"You never do give up, do you? Not until the very end…"
He gave a genuine smile.
"Perhaps that is what makes you such a fine woman, you know that?"