Shana, Erica, Diana, Mildred, and Derek, who were watching the battle, gasped in shock after seeing this scene.
"Y-You," Roland couldn't believe that his best friend had stabbed him .
He understood that Joshua needed points, but he would have allowed the latter to kill him if only his best friend outrightly talked to him using reason, allowing one of them to advance to the Semi-Finals.
However, Joshua hadn't been transparent and directly went for the kill.
He knew that Roland was stubborn and righteous. Because of this, he was afraid that he wouldn't see reason.
This prompted him to make this hard decision to eliminate his friend, so at least one of them could survive.
"I'll make it up to you, I promise," Joshua said bitterly as he looked at Roland, who was looking at him with profound sadness and pain.
The Hero then turned into particles of light, for he had been eliminated a second time.
'With this, I'd at least tie up with one of them,' Joshua thought.
Clark's and Terence's group was down to six people.
Currently, there were four people that they could kill.
Clark had two points, while Terence had three.
If they evenly split the kill, Clark would get four points, while Terence would have five.
Of course, Clark could play it safer and eliminate three people, allowing him to get five points, while Terence could kill one, giving him four points.
Right now, Joshua had four points, which meant that he would tie with them no matter what.
Since it was no longer possible to catch up to his enemies, Terence stood in place and looked at the Rankings.
There were only ten seconds left, and just as he expected, Clark's points rose to 5, while Terence's points rose to 4, tying with Joshua.
However, when there were only three more seconds remaining on the timer, Terence's points rose to five, making Joshua's face turn grim.
Before he could even react, he was kicked out of the Deserted Island, his face filled with shock and disbelief.
Having watched the battle until it ended, Thirteen slowly closed his eyes at the outcome of the match.
When he opened them again, a cold glint appeared in the depths of his eyes.
'How does it feel to be betrayed, Roland?' Thirteen gazed at the Rankings, which were now flashing on the screen.
It showed the top two survivors of each Island, and in Island Number 1, Clark's and Terence's names flashed in gold letters.
The capsule lid slowly opened, and Clark came out of it with a complicated look on his face.
"Zion is so ruthless." Clark shuddered. "Even I pale in comparison to his schemes."
The Scion of the Ashforld Clan was shaken because everything happened according to Thirteen's plan.
The deaths of the Wanderers, including the one they killed, were all part of a single plan.
The two who attacked Joshua did it because it was the role they had to play. The third Wanderer, who also attacked, was also part of Thirteen's scheme.
This allowed the Sage, who was the smartest member of the Hero Party, to understand that he now had a shot at advancing in the tournament.
All he needed was to take one last step and eliminate his best friend.
This was not an easy decision, and Thirteen terribly wanted to see just how Joshua would handle everything.
Earlier, he wondered whether Joshua and Roland could still be friends after this event. This was precisely what he was thinking again at that moment.
His grand plan perfectly pitted the Sage and the Hero against each other.
If Roland decided to kill Joshua, he would gain 4 points, which would also make him tie up with Clark or Terence.
If Joshua killed him, then he would get four points.
It was truly a maddening choice, with one friend forced to kill the other for a chance of survival.
A very ruthless scheme.
A very merciless plan.
Regardless of what happened, it would shake the friendship of Roland and Joshua to the very core, which would have consequences after the event was over.
Terence felt the same way as Clark.
The young men vowed that they would never become Zion's enemy, fearing they would also die a dog's death without even knowing how they died.
The last kill Terence had taken before the Timer ended came from one of the Wanderers on their team who had respawned on the island after being killed.
They had already come up with a location where they would meet up at the last few minutes of the event, allowing them to gain more points if needed.
From the very start, Clark and Terence were guaranteed to win as long as they followed Zion's plan.
And they did, allowing the two of them to advance to the next round of the tournament.
The capsule lid of Joshua's special GANDAM Capsule opened, and he propped himself up, feeling shaken.
However, his face lost all its colors when he saw Roland standing in front of his capsule, looking at him with a cold gaze.
The Hero gave Joshua a long and hard look before walking away.
He wanted to punch Joshua's face and beat the crap out of him to vent his frustration. However, he changed his mind and simply walked away.
Joshua watched Roland's back as he bit his lips in frustration, drawing blood.
Both of them knew then and there that the friendship that they had nurtured for many years would never be the same again.
Everyone, who had watched the final events of Island Number 1, was all shaken to the core.
Even Claude, who had initially been cursing the stupid Wanderers that allowed themselves to be killed, finally calmed down.
He felt relief, and at the same time, he also felt anxiety gripping his heart.
Everything that happened seemed meticulously calculated down to the last points of the Rankings. This made him wonder if his son had planned everything out, or if Terence from the Leventis Family was a character that he had overlooked in the past.
However, the image of a teenage boy with short black hair and green eyes appeared inside his mind.
Zion gave Claude a devilish smirk and raised a finger to press over his lips, as if telling Claude to keep everything a secret, making the Patriarch's heart turn cold from fright.