Day had turned into night and the illusion dissipated.

Sensation came first, then smell and finally sight. But it wasn’t the same light that came when my eyes needed to refocus, there was simply a flip from nothingness to something. My body was sprawled out across the floor of the stadium, and it was apparent that I had succeeded.

This round was my win.

But there was no sense of triumph. No rush of victory.

In the span of a few hours, inside an illusionary realm no less, I’d experienced every single human emotion. And though I could now stare at my outstretched arm, and wriggle around my finger, the horror had not left. Looking at my limbs, I could remember them being sliced into pieces. Rubbing my teeth together reminded me of my bloodied gums trying to cry for help. Running my hands through my hair, the tiny holes left behind from when each follicle was ripped out, was still apparent. I tried my hardest to try to relax. To reassure myself that none of it happened for real. But that wasn’t enough. I might be alive now, but I was no more than a living corpse, and a small part of me believed that the terror would never leave me.

The dome had come down from overhead, revealing the stadium to the outside. I ignored the screaming crowds around me, some cheering but most booing, saying that others should’ve won, or that I’d lost them money. It was almost funny to me. I just died, and now some middle-aged storekeeper is going to go to a bar with his friends and tell them he could’ve done it instead. The guard from the previous night approached me, offering his hand to help me up. I ignored it and stood up on my own, walking towards the underground entrance. We walked in silence, telling me that they knew exactly what happened in those illusions, but still chose to play it off like a test.

Instead of my room, I was guided to the waiting area where the remaining contestants were. Twenty-three people sat in circles while laughing and talking about their tests, only one of them sat off in a corner by himself.

‘Ah.’ A revelation hit me as my eyes drifted over the room. Clearly, the test had not been as difficult for others.

But then why the guards' silence and expression? I turned back to be met with nothing and decided to drop the matter all together.

I found an empty seat in the corner of the room and let myself fall down. Though I’d taken the longest amount of time for both tests, but it seemed as though no one was too angry about this time around.

‘So how’d it go?’ Haedon asked quietly.

I’d already put together that inside the illusion everything from the outside was cut off from me, that being why my Heartile didn’t respond. But as he spoke, my cries for help sounded out in my head. But nothing would come out of blaming or questioning him.

‘Good. I won.’ Whether it was due to my tone, my demeanor or his own personal reasons, Haedon stopped his questioning and simply materialized in front of him. My presence in the room hadn’t been noticed by anyone, so there was nothing to worry about.

Within the next few seconds Haedon had turned into his cat form and was laying down at my feet. It must have felt demeaning for him, and it didn’t feel all too comforting for me, but it was a nice gesture. In his own weird way, Haedon probably knew that I needed him.

“Hey Mr. Winner, how’s it going?” Saiba asked, taking a seat next to me. I looked up at him and noticed that it was only him that had come over. Following my gaze, Saiba gave a reassuring smile.

“I noticed you walked in and were just sitting all depressingly over here, so I thought I’d give you a few minutes before walking over. Austin’s still basically a child so calling him over wouldn’t have done much good.” He explained. I leaned back in my chair.

“Well, I won, so nothing to be too down in the dumps over, right?” I asked sarcastically.

“I’m guessing your test wasn’t as easy as the rest of ours, huh?” He questioned.

“What happened in your guy’s?”

“Austin was beaten by an angry mob of people for an hour, that’s when he gave up and just killed them all. I was tossed around a fiery hell and a frozen wasteland for god knows how many hours before using my aura to coat me. Guess that counts as forfeiting.”

“You guys could use your abilities?” I snapped my neck to face him.

“You couldn’t?” His voice shook.

I shot up to my feet and marched out the door. Saiba called out to me, but my focus couldn’t be broken.

The guard's expression finally made sense. I wasn’t the winner because my will was the strongest. If my Heartile responded, I probably would’ve been one of the first people out. But due to one idiotic reason or another, I was left to suffer. Without even the option to give up. A guard caught me marching away, but was slammed away easily. Clearly not all of them were too well-trained. It didn’t take me long to find the main guard, down the hallway in a small room, talking to some mysterious hooded figure, but they didn’t matter. My eyes were burning, and I couldn’t contain myself any longer.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Once behind him, I swung my fist as hard as I could into the guard's head. To my dismay, the hooded figure lunged forward and blocked it, pushing the guard away in tandem. Surprisingly, the figure retaliated no further and simply stared at me.

“You guys left me in there for hours! Without even a way to get out! Do you even have a fraction of an idea of what happened to me there!” My voice broke as I roared in anger. Tears began to well up by my eyes, but were suppressed by my rage.

“I underst-”

“You understand nothing! I asked you a question. Do you know what happened to me in there?”

My urge to yell and throw a tantrum slowly subsided, now I just wanted answers. The pair looked at each other, and the guard nodded. The figure turned to me and pull down their hood, revealing the face of a young man.

“We do.”

“And you just stood by and let it happen?” I questioned, inching forward.

“It’s in the rules. We cannot interfere.” He spoke slowly, as if his explanation would make everything better.

I wanted to punch him in the face. I wanted to punch all of them, but I couldn't. My hand smashed into his desk and I turned to leave.

“I might not have the ability or the strength right now. But I promise you I’ll be back.” I threatened and walked back to the waiting room. The threat certainly sounded empty and baseless, and in full honesty it didn’t even sound good as I was saying it, but it had to be said. The anger I felt for these people after what had just happened was immeasurable, and should my strength ever rise to a point where I can do whatever I want without worrying, the first thing I’m doing is coming back and destroying this place.

Or maybe the second thing. Artemis, Enzo, and the guys at The Underground also need to pay. Arriving back at the waiting room, I plopped down into my seat once more as a wide-eyed Saiba stared at me.

“What’d you do?” He asked hesitantly.

“Went to go ask a question.” I replied.

He clearly had a few more questions but decided against it.

Haedon stood up and faced his head towards the entrance of the room, where the now not hooded man appeared. He held a strange looking rod in his hand, which when slamming it down on the ground, caught the attention of the rest of the room. Upon looking up, Austin finally noticed me and quickly jogged over. He almost said something but seemingly forgot and just pulled up a chair and took a seat next to us.

Once everyone was paying attention and had stopped talking, the man began.

“Congratulations to all of you for making it this far. We do apologize for it once again taking this long to move on to the next round, but we would like to reiterate that it was indeed our fault this time. But never mind that, I’m sure you’re all anxious and eager to move on to the final round, correct?” He smiled.

A couple of people let out loud yells of impatience while others simply nodded their heads.

“Excellent. Well then, since you’re all fairly rested, please follow my associate outside once more.” He moved to the side and motioned for everyone to leave, his eyes stopping on me. I understood his meaning and told Austin and Saiba to go ahead before me. Once everyone had cleared out, only we remained.

“You going to disqualify me because of the threat?”

He laughed.

“I would never. If you truly do rise up and become powerful, wouldn’t you be even angrier that I disqualified you? All good things must come to an end eventually, especially our lives.” He chuckled.

“If you think there’s a possibility of me doing something in my life, why wouldn’t you just cut it short right now. Kill me right here.” I questioned.

Haedon clung to my leg, his expression unchanging.

“You really don’t talk like other kids your age, lighten up.” He smiled once more and threw it to me. Once it landed in my hands I finally realized what it was. A Weaver. I inspected it for a few seconds, admiring the craftsmanship, before returning my gaze to meet the man's.

“Why?”

“Compensation? A reward? Take it however you want. You can’t fight at a hundred percent if you don’t have your weapon of choice right?” He turned around. “How’d you-” I started, but he had already disappeared. Staring down at the Weaver once more, my affection towards it had decreased a bit, but there was no way I was going to throw it away.

That would be by far the stupidest idea.

“What is it?” Haedon asked.

“A Weaver. It’s my main weapon.” I twirled it around in my hands.

“That’s right, I do remember you using it against me. It’s not a terrible weapon, but it certainly could use some improvements.”

We walked side by side from the room out to the stadium once again. It seemed like that was all I was doing in this tournament. I hadn’t had more than an hour of rest so far, but at least it was almost over. I quickly caught up to the rest of the group, and watched as the stadium broke into several smaller platforms.

After a dozen had broken off and formed across the grounds, the guard began.

“Welcome to the third and final round. If you’ve made it this far, feel proud. Not many do. This round, though it needs no explanation, will be the real challenge of this tournament” His gaze quickly swept over the crowd. “You will all be assigned a number, one through twelve. Once you find your number-partner you will go to the corresponding platform and begin your fight. There will be four rounds of fighting, so try not to expend all your energy in the first fight, that is of course unless you know you’re going to lose. There are no rules, no timers and no limits, if your opponent, or you die, that is no one’s fault but the corpses. Do you understand?”

Everyone let out a loud ‘yes’, some louder than the others to catch the crowd's attention.

“Good.”

A pair of knights walked around handing everyone their numbers. As the small wooden token touched my hands, I was a bit let down. I’d hoped to be able to watch a few fights to get a good understanding of everyone else’s strengths and weaknesses, but now I’d be too caught up in my own. I stared down at the number on my token.

12.

My eyes swept over the platforms, before landing on the farthest one that featured a small sign that had the number written on it. I quickly made my way over, waiting for my opponent.

“Well then, this is a tad bit awkward don’t you think?” A familiar voice asked after a few minutes of waiting had passed.

In front of me, one of the son’s of the Eight Great Families, Austin Burns stood tall.

I smiled but said no words in return, simply holding my Weaver up in an offensive stance, letting my aura flare up.

He nodded his head and got into his stance.

Contrary to what his name suggested, no fire sprung to life when his aura came out. Noticing my change in expression, he smiled.

“You thought I’d be a Dica, huh? You thought wrong.”

Before the last words reached my ear, a pale fist appeared in front of my face.

‘This should be interesting.’ I placed my Weaver in between his fist and my face, pushing back hard. We were both pushed back by the impact, but instantly lunged forward once more.

I had no intention of losing this.