"Gahahaha! You old bastard, even if I lose, there's no way I'm letting you keep enjoying yourself!"
Listening to Joseph's howls beside his ear, Alessi felt good all over. Even the pain from the savage beating and the Ripple rampaging through his body could be set aside for the moment.
He might usually be a coward, but even a cornered dog would leap over a wall, and even a desperate rabbit would bite. After being bullied this badly, he certainly wasn't going to let his opponent keep enjoying himself.
It wasn't that he didn't want to keep turning Joseph into a little kid and tormenting him. He had noticed something wrong, too. Although he was turning back his opponent's age, it seemed to bring nothing but benefits, with no drawbacks at all. Some unknown force seemed to have rendered his ability utterly useless, turning it into nothing more than a buff for his opponent.
He might as well deactivate his ability himself, then. Things couldn't get any worse than they already were.
In fact, once he deactivated it, he could rely on Yellow Temperance to hold out until his teammates arrived.
And forcing an old man who had regained his prime back into decrepitude would surely be the hardest thing for him to accept.
From what Joseph had said while beating him earlier, Alessi could tell that the man had a legendary story behind him, even without knowing his past.
Nothing in this world was more tragic than a hero in his twilight or a beauty with snow-white hair.
Since ancient times, heroes had so often faced their twilight, as though the world would not permit them to show their white-haired heads.
Surely that sensation of plunging from the summit into the abyss would leave his opponent in agony, too.