Olivia was a bit surprised that Sylas would suddenly bring something like this up, especially dozens of minutes after the initial affair. His attention to detail was a bit frightening, but Cassarae had also told her about this.
Eventually she nodded and brought him down to her basement. There was a great deal of gym equipment down there, but it wasn't the usual.
Aside from a squat rack by the side, everything else was far from the usual.
There were a pair of gymnastic rings hanging from the ceiling, two differently shaped pullup bars drilled into the walls, the floor had an almost trampoline-like feel to it, and there was a balance beam placed right in the middle of the room.
Looking at how short Olivia was, especially in comparison to himself and Cassarae, he seemed to realize something.
She hid it well, but she was very clearly a gymnast.
Usually, it would be easy to tell from their strong arms and legs, but Olivia's body was much softer than one might expect. Sylas couldn't help but wonder if that was just her natural state, or if things had changed after the Trial.
It was possible that she had never taken gymnastics seriously enough to reach that level of toned... but this gym seemed to tell a different story entirely.
'Now that I think about it, everything about her home makes it clear she lives alone. This part of Love City should be quite expensive, and she's a young woman as well. Let alone how expensive owning such a gym would be, just the home alone would be very difficult to own or rent for someone of her age.'
Things like the rings or the pull up bars weren't very expensive. But there were Olympic grade weights by the squat rack, and this special flooring most certainly cost a pretty penny.
"You're a gymnast?" Sylas asked.
This was the first time he had taken the initiative to talk to her. Olivia couldn't help but be surprised because she didn't even know he was capable of that.
"I am."
"Olympics?" Sylas asked again.
Olivia blinked, a hidden light flashing in her eyes. "... No."
Sylas nodded. He didn't really pay attention to things. But he assumed that if Olivia really did represent their country in the Olympics, he would certainly know about it.
The Olympics were different now that Earth only had seven countries. It was designed more like a tournament where you would win regional competitions and move your way up to the national stage. These would happen over the course of four years until the final competition was held for the world to see.
As such, when Sylas asked Olivia if she was an Olympic athlete, he wouldn't be very surprised to hear her say yes. That was because there would be quite a number of people who could claim such a title.
Love City, for example, would probably have thousands of young women competing to represent their city on the state-wide stage.
The fact she said no only made Sylas more curious. Why not?
All things considered, Olivia was almost in her mid-twenties, so this was already getting on in age for a gymnast. But if she had been one in the past, there was no reason for her to say no. "How do you train?" Sylas asked.
"Body control." Olivia replied simply, seemingly not as talkative as before. She seemed to have completely forgotten that she was still wearing her lingerie as well.
Sylas, however, took her off guard once again and he stood like a statue, his mind running at a million miles a minute.
"... I see..." he said eventually.
Olivia frowned. "What-."
She stopped talking as Sylas walked to the pair of rings dangling from the ceiling and wrapped his hands around them.
He hesitated for a moment as though trying to grasp something, then all the muscles in his body tensed at once. Slowly, he pulled his body up, performing a dip.
The rings shook and he almost lost his balance several times, but he forced himself to go slower even though it only made it more difficult.
He flexed every fiber of his being until he reached the top position. Then, he began to slowly lower himself.
An unknown amount of time later, Sylas came to a stop. He wasn't breathing particularly hard, but there were still beads of sweat on his forehead.
'I should have realized it before. No matter how strong I become, I can always bring out that full strength by flexing as hard as possible. Lifting weight is just another form of flexing...
'If I want to change that isometric exercise to a true exercise of movement, all I need to do is slow things down, focus on every individual fiber, and add instability to the exercise.'
Olivia was a genius. Or at the very least, she had a far better understanding of the human body than Sylas did.
Sylas had been trying to overcomplicate things. He was trying to run faster than he had to, use blood restriction, or any number of other forms of exercise, when in reality... the answer was actually so simple.
Olivia just stood to the side, watching as Sylas went back onto her rings. But this time, he didn't stop at just a single rep at all.
He continued to perform dips until she could practically see his blood vessels popping along his collarbone.
Just when she thought he was finished, he shifted into an 'L' position, proceeding to shred his abs to the same degree.
Then, still feeling that it wasn't enough, he began to work out his back. Facing the ceiling, he held onto the rings and forced himself into a plank before slowly pulling himself up.
He struggled with finding an exercise that would work just as effectively for his legs, so instead he ended up loading what must have been over a thousand pounds onto his back and began to test the limits of the balance beam.
He balanced himself on his toes and began to slowly lower himself into a deep squat.
'What the hell is wrong with this monster?' Olivia's lip twitched.