"The two powers of life...?"
Marcos repeated Adam's words as the man began to speak of something slightly incomprehensible.
Nodding toward him, Adam held up his index finger and spoke again.
"First, there is 'Life Force.' As the name implies, it is the energy of living. It is consumed when you are injured or fall ill, but it recovers as you heal. There is likely no need for a formal explanation regarding this."
"So the important part is the other power, right?"
"Yes, exactly. The other power of life is necessary to understand Yugo and the events that have occurred in battle thus far. That is 'Destiny Power'."
"Destiny...?"
Yugo considered how both terms indeed contained the character for life.
He continued to listen alongside his companions to the explanation of Destiny Power, which clearly held significant weight, but Adam seemed to be struggling with the commentary.
"It is somewhat difficult to explain. One might call it the power of the fate a person lives, or the strength of their will to survive... no, that isn't quite it. Those are related, but it doesn't quite encompass the whole. Hmm..."
"Hey now, are you all right? If you don't explain this, we can't move forward, can we?"
"True. However, this is quite a profound subject. It cannot be helped. This may only apply to some of you, but allow me to use a somewhat simple analogy."
After much agonizing, it seemed Adam had decided to explain Destiny Power through a hypothetical scenario.
Though the preface that it might only apply to "some of them" piqued his interest, Yugo and the others listened to the story in silence.
"...Suppose there is a man. This man is cornered by an enemy and driven into a desperate, hopeless situation. Even if he tries to flee, behind him is a precipitous cliff. If he falls, death is surely unavoidable. In that moment, the man takes a hit from the enemy and plunges over the edge. Now, tell me—what happens to this man?"
"What do you mean 'what happens'? It's a cliff high enough to kill you, right? Then he's obviously dead."
"Hmm, I suppose so. Yugo, what do you think?"
Melt gave the natural answer to Adam's nonsensical analogy.
When Adam then turned to Yugo for a response, the boy looked a bit awkward as he offered his thoughts.
"Ah... I'm just guessing, but he's alive. At this point, there's an almost one hundred percent chance he survived. If there's water at the bottom of the cliff, then it’s definitely that pattern where he survives and makes a comeback later."
"Huh? Why would you think that? Didn't Adam just say the cliff was high enough to kill him?"
"Well, yeah, but... in tokusatsu shows, a Cliff Fall is actually a survival flag. I don't think you'd understand even if I told you, though..."
"Yes, exactly. That is it. That is precisely what Destiny Power is."
Everyone was bewildered by Yugo's answer, which completely ignored the laws of physics, but Adam reacted as if Yugo had hit the nail on the head.
Faced with the group’s confusion, Adam moved into a deeper explanation.
"Certainly, most people hearing this story would be certain of the man's death. However, this man does not die. Just as Yugo said, whether he survives by falling into a river at the bottom, or perhaps his fall is broken by a tree growing from the cliffside—the reasons and forms vary, but the man will survive."
"Wait, what does that even mean? I'm not following at all. If that’s the case, what’s the point of the enemy or the cliff being there in the first place?"
"...I see. So that’s how it works."
"Wait! Ryuga-san, you actually understood that explanation!?"
"To an extent. Destiny Power is like a Great Will intended to keep a person alive. As long as that power remains, a force will intervene to ensure survival even in the most desperate situations, right?"
Thinking about it simply, if the man were destined to die there, it wouldn't have to be a fall. He would likely just take the enemy's attack and collapse on the spot.
However, the man fell. And because he fell from a height that would result in certain death, the enemy assumed he was dead and didn't bother searching for a body.
Then, time passes, and just when his comrades are in a pinch, the man they thought was dead makes a heroic entrance. Yugo understood that Destiny Power was what supported these kinds of developments—the "unwritten rules" of hero stories.
"This Destiny Power also increases or decreases depending on a person's actions. Heaven does not side with those who stray from their own fate. If Destiny Power reaches zero, that person meets their destruction. This is the second power of life."
"If Destiny Power hits zero... you’re destroyed? Does that mean—!!"
Upon hearing that explanation, Zenon's eyes widened in realization.
Looking at Adam in a panic, he asked the question that had just struck him with sudden, frantic excitement.
"Co—Could it be that the 'Game Over' notifications we received were actually reports that our Destiny Power had reached zero!?"