Rallie hopped up onto the arena and walked with intent over to Jaid. She grabbed the knight by the hand, leading her away from Tize as the medical team swooped in to check on him. Once they were in the dead center of the stage, perfectly poised over the Fiends For Hire logo, Rallie raised the woman’s hand, causing the cheers in the audience to erupt to new ear piercing levels.
“Give it up once more for our champion, folks! With all the brackets and races combined, we had well over a thousand competitors in this competition. But Jaid has done the impossible and clawed her way to the top, besting the best of them all. There can be no doubt in anyone's mind that she has achieved a well fought victory. And now, it’s time for her to claim her prize.”
The host waved her hand up towards the spectator booth. Where the four commentators had been sitting inside the booth during the match, the four Greater Fiends were now standing on top of it, staring down at the victor from above. “So, Jaid. This is your moment. What will you ask of them? What is your wish?”
“My wish…” Jaid’s words were practically a whisper, and she paused to take stock of the moment—finally hitting her that it was actually happening, that she’d won. After another deep breath, she repeated her words. “My wish…!” It was more resolute and firm. Jaid brandished her sword once more and heaved the tip skyward, pointing it up at her benefactors.
“...Is for the for the four Greater Fiends, Xard Randex, Kada Susten, Phon Drazah, and the Fiendish King, Drim Drazah…to surrender themselves into the custody of the Central Peace, and face judgment for their crimes!”
The coliseum became an echo chamber of gasps, no one, except for a very small handful of schemers, had expected that.
“Err, well…” Rallie was a bit at a loss for words herself. “I’m not sure that they’ll grant—”
“It’s fine!” Drim’s voice boomed down from above. “We accept.” He then waved his hand and a portal appeared before the Greaters. A few long black vines flew out and dove downward, long flat branches sprouted between them. They all wove into a long descending staircase, from up at the spectator booth all the way down to the arena floor.
The Greater Fiends descended the stairs one at a time, and the crowd around them devolved into chaos. Most were still just caught off guard, processing what had been said. But a few more had become panicked, making assumptions at the implications. Some even began banging on the barrier that separated the stands from the arena. “Don’t do it!” “It’s a trap!” “Don’t go!” “They’ll kill you!” Their pleas and cries were eventually drowned out by the ruckus of the rest of the crowd.
❝Settle down.❞ Drim’s voice reverberated around the stadium once his feet touched the solid ground of the stage.
Phon then took a step forward and took over. “If that’s her wish, then so be it,” she glared over at Jaid. “That was the promise we made after all. No matter what you wished for, we’d grant it.” Kada and Xard huddled next to her, but the three didn’t move further.
Drim broke off from them, ignoring the victor entirely as he made his way over to the side of the arena. Tize had just started getting back up onto his feet, so the leader bent down and held out his hand. After helping the man up, Drim pulled him in close, and whispered something into his ear. Even with the boosted audio around, no one else could hear their brief, private conversation.
And after saying only a few words, Drim took a step back and put his hand on the man’s shoulder, giving it a firm pat, as if to grab everyone’s attention with his movements. He then said loudly, making sure everyone could hear him this time, “You’re in charge now, Tize.”
Drim then finally turned his attention to Jaid and walked over towards her. She stood as if to greet him, preparing herself for whatever he was going to say to her. But he took a step beyond her, walking right past her side, shunning her existence. But then he stopped for just a moment.
“We know your group doesn’t have enough of a presence here currently to make such an arrest and escort us out of here safely. Have them send word of where they want us to go, and we’ll meet them there, anywhere in the world.” Drim then resumed his stride, and the other three caught up with him, all exiting through the tunnel out of the arena before they vanished entirely.
◆◆◆
“So what the hell do we do now?” Alk slumped her butt down onto a rock near the outskirts of Drome Coli, nothing but defeat in her voice. “And don’t say kill them all, again,” she shot down Kalter’s idea before he could even finish raising his hand.
The remnants of Above had quickly vacated the city after Kalter had been released from his room. They were allowed to stay one more night if they wished, but decided to get out before the crowd—before any law enforcement would come looking for them. Now they were sitting out in the wilds, nowhere to go, no path to follow.
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“I really don’t know, guys,” Lieu slumped forward, sitting on his giant trunk of weapons. “Maybe it’s time we—”
But before he could finish his thought, they suddenly had two new visitors. Drim and Phon appeared directly in front of them. And there was actually a third but…
“Is that?!” Kalter leapt up from the ground, placing his hand on the coffin they’d brought with them, but his hands were shaking too much to dare open it.
“Hwoof, that was a trip,” Phon stretched her limbs as if she’d just gotten out of a car after a long drive. “Had to go all the way to the CP, find out where they were keeping her, and then bring her all the way back out here.”
“We thought she deserved to be back with her friends,” Drim’s words were more somber. “It’s up to you what you do now. But I believe that Creti would truly want you all to move on and find your own happiness. That was the kind of person she was.”
“Hey, you don’t kno—” Kalter started to get angry but…
“Thank you,” Lieu cut him off. “Really, thank you. But why did you do this for us?”
“We don’t know what our own future holds,” Drim was candid with his answer. “So we thought we should at least make amends where we could.”
Lieu gave a nod, clearly choking back his own emotions. “You’re alright in my books, Drazahs, way better than your zjik parents. Thank you, again. We’ll pay you back someday.”
“Really, thank you,” Alk echoed his sentiments. “And… tell Kada… I hope she’ll be okay.”
“Thanks,” the crude word seemed to be all the appreciation they’d get from Kalter, but it was something at least.
“Well then,” Phon stretched again, readying herself for more travel. “See you guys around… or, maybe we won’t.”
She raised her hands to her eyes, but Drim suddenly stopped her. “Wait, one more thing. You’ll find an old friend at Ledmer.” He then nodded to his sister and they teleported away.
◆◆◆
“Finally, there you guys are,” the man in charge, who’d been lounging on a crate, leaned forward with exaggerated exhaustion after the four Greaters teleported in front of him. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to show. They made the call this morning to get everything ready, so we scrambled up to the last minute, and then you left us waiting for hours. It’s already damned past midnight.”
“Sergeant, how many messages did we get?” the man glanced over at one of the soldiers that had surrounded the Fiends, all raising their guns at them. “After the first few minutes of them asking if you’d shown up yet, I set all of our comms to silent. Was too damn annoying.”
“5,294, sir,” the soldier answered.
“Damn, I’m going to be in trouble tomorrow,” the man could only chuckle—clearly unperturbed by the thought.
“Sorry, that’s my fault,” Kada raised her hand and took the blame. “Had to get all my staff in line at my resort since I won’t be around anymore. Took forever. Meetings suck.”
“Well thank you for the apology,” the man finally sprung to his feet and introduced himself, the group finally able to see his red eyes under the hat he had pulled over them. “I’m Captain Deoder of the Central Peace. I’ll be the one in charge of your arrest and escort. My dear colleague, Captain Luciri, just had to go and win the damn thing and spring all this work on me. She’s going to owe me big.”
“And hang on there a second,” Deoder waved down a few soldiers who were approaching with Fiend-draining armcuffs. “I don’t think there will be any need for that, right? Our guests are here of their own volition, self-surrenders. There’s no need to treat them with hostility. Plus, I’m sure you’re aware, but those things require a ton of charge to keep operating. It’d be a pain to keep swapping out the batteries.”
“So why don’t we all act friendly? This is going to be a long ride, at least a day. Our destination is still rushing to get everything in order before your arrival, so they chose the slowest method of transport possible to get you there,” the Captain pointed at the large tanker ship behind him, bobbing in the sea at the southern shore of the continent.
“But we can make it a fun time. Play some cards, exchange some stories. We’ve even got a few movies. Or you can spend the trip in the brig. It’s your choice.”
“I vote comfort!” Kada raised her hand again.
“And I don’t suppose you’ll be telling us where we’re going or what will happen when we get there?” Xard asked a question of his own.
“Afraid I can’t do that,” Deoder shrugged. “Or it might make you change your minds. I’m sure you could force us to tell you with Eleen Drazah’s old power, but… by the terms of the wish, you surrender yourselves into our custody, and that means you’ll follow our rules, right?”
Drim gave an affirming nod.
“Great,” the man smiled. “And here’s the point where I’d ask you to hand over all your things, but it seems you’ve all come dressed for the occasion. A shame, really. I was hoping to confiscate some goodies.”
The four Greaters had certainly come dressed-down. They were all in plain clothes, and none of them had any weapons or bags along with them—all stashed away somewhere safe. Drim wasn’t wearing a cloak, Phon didn’t have on her favorite hat, and Xard had already removed his rings.
“Alright then, all aboard,” Captain Deoder whirled around and marched towards the dock, not even looking back to see if the Fiends were going to follow him. “Sergeant, you’re on first shift. I’m going to bed.”