Supremacy Games

'Hehehe, that's what you get for your shitty habit of fast skipping movies.' Asna laughed in pure delight, enjoying the sight of him facing his Karma.

Every time she watched a movie with him, the f*cker keep irritating her with 10seconds skips to jump straight to the juicy parts.

In Felix's previous life, he was watching those live documentaries merely for the action and seeing the pirates get killed. 

Unbothered by her mockery, Felix kept rubbing his chin, thinking deeply about a solution to this dilemma.

He understood that with the pirates, looking for them, his time was limited.

'Why is there only a riddle for each door? What's going to happen if we solved all three of them?' Felix requested, 'Asna, read them separately for me please.'

'A part of a tree holds everything to someone who lost everything.' Asna read the riddle on the black gate first.

'How can a legless, armless, wingless person, swim, fly, and walk to a single distention?' She read the riddle on the white door.

'Dreams will be reached only if someone....them.' Asna clarified weirdly, 'There is an empty space between someone and them.'

'Hmm? So the puzzle is to figure out the word that fits in the sentence?' Felix was slightly confused as well as he thought that he would be dealing with the same riddles.

But so far, those puzzles were getting more peculiar.

'Whatever, I will know what to do next after solving them all.'

Felix decided to start with the riddle on the black gate. He repeated the puzzle three times in his mind then split the riddle into two parts.

At the start, he thought that 'A part of a tree' meant a branch, leaf, root, or something like this, but after connecting it with the other half of the riddle, he found out that it didn't make sense.

How could they hold everything to someone who lost everything?

But after this elimination process, he realized that he was left with fewer options.

Crown, fruits, twigs, trunk, and foliage. However, he also failed to see the connection they had with the 2nd part of the riddle.

Now, that he had eliminated almost everything that was in the box, he started thinking outside of it.

The first thing that came to his mind was a Paper!

The moment he thought of it, the answer just surfaced on its own due to its simplicity!

'A will!' Felix said firmly.

'Makes sense.' Asna agreed with him while doing her nails.

Paper comes from trees and a person who lost everything simply implied that he died and wrote a will to give everything that he owned.

So it was indeed a part of a tree that holds everything to someone who lost everything!

'Let's see the second one.' Felix didn't want to go check on his answer now but solve all three of them together first.

'How can a legless, armless, wingless person, swim, fly, and walk to a single distention.' Felix pondered deeply on it for a few seconds before snapping his finger with a brightened look.

'It's got to be by traveling! If one can't walk, swim, or fly, then simply travel by boat, a plane, and a car.' Felix reasoned.

He didn't know if he was right or not but if he was in his consciousness space, he would have seen that Lady Sphinx was nodding her head slightly.

Though, he was quite confident in his answer. For now, he held into it and moved to the last puzzle.

'This is probably the easiest and also the hardest of them all.' Felix narrowed his eyes and thought, ' Dreams will be reached only if someone wants them. Or tries hard for them, Or desires them, Or seeks them...There are plenty of correct answers.'

This is what dreaded Felix the most. He would rather have a unique difficult riddle than an easy one with a broad range of answers.

That's because he had no clue if he had multiple attempts to open the gates or only one. So, he needed to choose the perfect answer lest he screws his squad over.

In this situation, it was best to seek help from others to narrow down the answer.

'Guys, what do you think would fit best in this puzzle, Dreams will be reached only if someone...them.'

He asked his squadmates who were busy watching a hologram that was showing Samir's chase on the pirates.

At the start, they were confused by his question as they thought that he was contacting the Organization or someone for Intel.

But, Malak soon explained to them that Felix was the one opening up the gates by solving those riddles.

'Are you serious?'

'Boss, you can read that language?!'

'Do you...'

'Alright, I don't have time for your questions now.' Felix interrupted their ruckus and repeated the same puzzle.

This time, everyone behaved and started thinking about the most fitting term and why they picked it.

'It must be desire.' Malissa clarified, 'Without desire, you can't work hard for your dreams.'

'Yeah, desire trample 'want' as well.' Malak supported.

'Desire is not the word for it.' Pualani said with a wistful tone, 'We all desire and want things, but do we work hard to get them? No, desire is a simple emotion that is not enough to make someone do his best for his dreams.'

Malissa and Malak thought about it for a second and realized that he was right. Everyone desired to be something or reach somewhere.

But, when it comes to putting the effort into it, we start making excuses or distracting ourselves from getting it just to laze around for another day.

When we finally make up our minds to seek our dreams and goals, we realize that it was already too late and stop ever desiring them.

However, in reality, it's never too late to chase your dreams. That's just another excuse to make yourself feel slightly better about not working your hardest to achieve your dreams.

'The word you are looking for is, seek or strive.' Pualani said to Felix with a look filled with regrets, 'I didn't truly seek my dreams, now I am paying the price.'

'I agree with your answer but I disagree with your other statement...Paying the price?' Felix laughed a bit and said, 'Your journey with me had just begun. It's too soon to feel regretful about your life.'

Malak smiled after hearing so as they knew that Felix wasn't bullshitting or trying to lift Pualani's spirits.

She was in the same spot as Pualani. Feeling regretful of her decision in life that led her to end up as a slave.

But after spending months under Felix, she realized that she was extremely fortunate. There goes not a single day that she didn't feel grateful for her sudden change in life.

'Give it time Sir Pualani, just give it time.' Malak said, smiling.

Pualani didn't understand what she meant but he was a veteran fighter who could control his emotions easily.

Hence, he nodded his head to her and Felix and didn't bring this matter anymore.

'Now that we have the three answers, let's see how it goes.' Felix took a deep breath and hovered towards the black gate first.

'Retreat.' Malak extended her hand while walking backward. The rest listened obediently but didn't remove their eyes from Felix, who started coughing to alleviate his dried throat.

Then, he spelled 'Will' with the hieroglyphics language and held his breaths in anticipation just like the others.

A split second later, the gate started rumbling loudly, marking its successful opening!

'Haha, we are so lucky!' Erik laughed in delight while watching the gate continue to slide from the left to the right until it submerged itself fully with the wall.

This exposed a breathtaking well-lighted glass garden that appeared as it came straight out of heaven!

The flowers were colorful and had distinctive beautiful shapes while the grass was as green as life itself, emitting waves of refreshing vitality in this forsaken death box.

Even the herbs and the insects were unified with this heavenly environment, making everyone look at them with dazed and allured expressions.

They didn't even care that most insects were almost the same as the Tombscreamers but bigger in size.

They were just too hooked by the sight to care.

'This is it.' Felix smiled widely while flying through the gate, 'This is the same Herbal garden that the pirates had cleaned thoroughly in the documentary.'

Felix might not remember the riddles but he does remember the treasures, the places, and the battles.

He was absolutely certain that this garden was the same as the one he saw. Hell, even the glass door leading inside the garden was in the same position.

Since he was a hologram made of light, he easily penetrated the glass and emerged inside the garden.

'Uhmm? What is this smell?' Felix's widened smile stiffened after his nose took a whiff of a nasty stench.

A stench that shouldn't have been in such a heavenly garden that is filled with rare natural treasures.

This stench was all it took for Felix to expel the greed that was moving him and start using his reason.

'Why bother to make three riddles and three gates if it's going to be this easy to access the herbal garden?'

'Haha, Sir Felix, is it as good as it appears from here?' 

Felix's thought process was stopped after hearing Erik's joyful voice a tad too close to him.

'Oh no!' Agitated, Felix turned around and saw that most of his party was waiting before the glass door!

All of them seemed quite excited while glancing at the riches inside the garden. Erik even had his hand placed on the glass doorknob, planning to open it for them!

"LEAAAAVE NOW!!!" Felix could only shout with a horrified expression!