Albatos had no idea what to make of the situation unfolding before him.

Those Who Follow The Heavens? What the hell are The Heavens? More importantly…

He looked to Stein, his charge, and grimaced at the look on the boy's face. As of late he'd been nothing but a nuisance, and it looked like now was no exception. It was easy to tell at a glance that trademark look of defiance at a hostile force. The brat's only job was to bunker up and stay safe, and he couldn't even do that properly. Albatos' frustration was about at its limit.

Dammit, how to play this? I thought staying by the side of this man, heralded as the strongest in the world, would be enough to deter any opposition, yet it's placed some right in front of us!

Albatos honed his mind as his thoughts raced to look for a suitable conclusion. After only a moment he determined that it would be better to follow the boys whims and see this confrontation through.

From the way he saw it, if they ditched right now then they'd most likely run into some ambush set by Lleig, but if they stayed they'd have to contend with this threat instead. If even a fraction of what he'd heard of the Sword God was true then he'd still wager their chances of clearing the conflict at hand without casualties as higher than those if they chose to walk away.

"Sir," His thoughts are interrupted by the woman before them speaking to the man, "That one, he's…"

"Yes, I know. Apex, do you intend to drag outsiders into your own business? I would have thought the one who stands at the top to have a little more dignity than that."

"I already told you the name is Isao. Whether I'm the strongest or not has never been important to me. I won't stand in the way of a friend stretching out a helping hand."

For some reason that put a frown on the man's face. But before he had a chance to respond, Isao continued, "The people of this city have seen a little too much violence lately as is, why don't we take this somewhere where we won't drag innocents into our business?"

It didn't seem to take the man much thought before he responded, "Very well. Leaving an impact would not benefit me, so I'll happily accept that proposal. Where would you suggest we go? Outside the city walls?"

"No, follow me. I have an idea of a place that should be entirely devoid of people around now."

Albatos felt a tap on his shoulder, and saw that it was Annora as he turned. "We really gonna follow this shit?" She whispered to him.

"If we leave I can almost guarantee we'll be ambushed. Better to fight a known enemy than an unknown."

"And if the unknown decides to step into this ring?"

"Then chaos ensues, and nobody will have the advantage. We'll see how it develops and play it by ear."

Annora fell back in behind him with a still neutral face. For the life of him, he'd never been able to tell what the woman was thinking. Still, she followed orders to a T and never failed to carry them through. In his eyes, that was far more valuable than some loose cannon brat that did nothing but bring trouble to them, but Zeph was the leader, and he understood the kid's value.

Isao led the way through the alley and out onto the street. Despite the outsider's and Isao's attitudes seeming lax, their group of six was wired and ready for a sudden attack. Thankfully, that attack never came and they made it to a small box with a grated door in an adjacent alley.

Isao forced open the locked grate and pulled it open, revealing a small room inside. He stepped inside and motioned for the rest to follow, "This is a lift. It'll take us to the lower levels." The two outsiders followed him in with a nonchalance that defied reason, while their group of six followed in behind with a slight bit of hesitation. Once everyone was inside Isao pulled a lever and the lift started to descend after giving an unpleasant shudder.

Albatos didn't find the small thump on the roof of the lift out of the ordinary amid all the clattering and creaking the think made as it made its descent.

***

As we descend I wonder idly how many of these lifts are stationed around the city. While the spiral staircases certainly are aesthetically pleasing, it does stand to reason that the ordinary worker wouldn't want to have to make the journey all the way up and down every single day of the working week. Much less have to transport materials up and down.

Frankly, I'm amazed Albatos doesn't look like he's about to blow a casket at the current situation. He followed along with barely a word even when I expected him to attempt to separate us from this situation at the first opportunity.

While the lot of us are in this confined space I take the chance to examine the two who claim to be envoys of The Heavens. At first glance they seem pretty normal, aside from the foreign uniforms and the man's incredible bulk. Upon closer inspection however, I see little oddities in the behavior.

The man spends about a full minute on the descent examining me, so I take the opportunity to openly examine him right back. Perhaps the thing that stands out the most is that his eyes don't seem to focus on anything in particular. Though he's staring right at me it's almost as though he's seeing right through me, or staring off into space.

Part of me desperately wants to probe for info about what The Heavens actually are, but I decide that caution would be a wiser option. If I let it slip that I think they may be connected to The Summoning I'm a bit afraid that'll fall into their 'you know too much' criteria.

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"I have a proposal," The strange man suddenly says.

"And what would that be?" Isao responds.

"You spoke of this city's grief before. I would be loathe to shed more blood than necessary today if possible. Hm, nay, in truth it would be rather inconvenient to create more of a disturbance than we already are. So I propose a contest."

He turns to Isao, "You and I will duel, and I will seek to take your life. My partner will face the marked boy and his companions. However, their battle will be strictly nonlethal. It will be a contest of pure strength rather than military might, as I can tell they specialize in. Weapons and magics will be forbidden, and the strongest will reign."

The woman looks at him with a grimace, but he continues nevertheless, "Both battles will occur simultaneously, and whichever side determines a victor first will determine the outcome of both. Is this agreeable?"

Isao gives a wry smile and puts his hand on the pommel of his swords, "You're saying if they're defeated then I should simply bow my head and let you take it?"

"Is honor not a concept in this land?"

"It's a notion fools tend to follow, I've found. Though I suppose you could call me an even bigger fool for following one even less dependable."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"Faith."

"Indeed, it is a fascinatingly foolish ideology to follow. However, this contest needs the consent of all parties to proceed," He says, turning to look at me with those dead eyes.

"We agree," I say without hesitation. While I'm sure it irks Albatos that I'm answering as though I'm the group leader instead of him, I know he'd have picked the same option anyway.

Though we're a contingent of six fully fledged sorcerers, something tells me it would still be a bad idea to cross either of these people in full on combat. There's some dark and unnatural feeling I get from the both of them, and I can't help but feel like there's some hidden strength behind their odd personas.

The nonlethal restrictions are actually a godsend for political reasons as well, because it would be a horribly ill advised idea to kill someone from a faction as mysterious as Those Who Follow The Heavens. Likely none of us have any idea how deep that rabbit hole goes, and poking our heads in blindly would be nothing short of sheer stupidity.

Not only that, when he mentioned me he said 'marked boy.' I can only assume he's referring to my blessing, but why phrase it like that? No matter how I look at it, everything about them screams danger. Still…

"But I must ask," I continue, "You said we need the consent of all parties, yet you haven't asked if your companion consents to participating."

"My partner is my subordinate. My will is hers to carry out, my whims hers to acquiesce." The woman in question says nothing, keeping her face a mask.

The elevator shudders to a stop. As he opens the door Isao says, "Very well, since we're all in agreement we'll continue with our little 'contest.' It's not much further to our battleground."

As Isao leads the way I quicken my pace until I'm beside him and ask, "Are you really okay with that, putting your life on the line like that?"

"As I said, I have faith. We haven't known each other for long but I sense the latent strength within you. I know you won't fail. Besides, this is a way to resolve this incident without spilling any blood, which I'm thankful for."

"I guess. Still…"

"Relax. If it comes to it, I can end the fight any time I want," He says, laying his hand on the pommel of his sheathed sword. The faint aura the blade emits seems to pulse a bit before settling back down.

After about five minutes of walking mostly deserted streets we arrive at what seems to be an abandoned cargo loading area. Looking to the central area I see a train resting on tracks sunken beneath the platform we walk upon.

"You would have our arena be a locomotive? Hmph, very well," the man in gray says with a smirk.

"Yes. I've learned the basics of how to operate these things from a drinking buddy I found. We'll take it further into the mine, where it won't matter as much if we happen to break things. I don't like the idea of us causing more property damage than necessary."

You know, I think it might be more expensive to fix the train itself if we happen to wreck it, but I do find the idea of a duel on a locomotive to be aesthetically appealing, so I'll just go along with it.

There are actually several trains stationed around the loading area, with the majority of them seeming to be for cargo. Isao leads us to one with carriages instead before heading frontwards to the engine.

The majority of the cars themselves are extremely barebones. Unlike the nicely furnished train cabins I'm familiar with, these are a simple wooden platform, rows of wooden benches along the side, and the roof above our heads. While it sounds extremely similar, the rather stark difference comes in that the designers of these cars didn't deign to put walls around the outside of the cabin. A simple handrail is all that stands between sitting along for the ride and falling out.

You know, back where I'm from a certain health and safety organization would have lost their minds over this.

Some of the rear cars have walls and seem more tailored towards comfort, but the majority of them have their curved roofs held up by pillars alone.

As we hear the engine start up the woman turns to us and says, "Since we will be engaging in an unarmed contest of strength, I request that you leave your weaponry here."

"No," I say, gripping the handle of the rapier at my hip, "While we agree to compete unarmed, we will not relinquish our weapons. Unfortunately, we just aren't that trusting."

The woman stares at me with her still expressionless face, "Very well. If you breach our accord do not blame me for reacting in a similar manner."

A high pitch ring echoes before quieting down a second later. Over what seems to be a rudimentary announcement system I hear the somewhat fuzzy voice of Isao, "Attention please, all contestants. Please board the vessel at immediately, we'll be leaving in a moment."

We all board the train, our group and the woman taking places in one car while the man hops on a different carriage directly behind the engine. There's a slight lurch as the train begins slowly moving forward. We pass out past the loading area and on towards a gaping hole in the rock wall. The train passes through roughly circular the cavernous opening on slightly elevated tracks and into a rocky cavern supported by seemingly endless wooden and metallic support structures on all sides.

Once we're decently within the confines of the mine and there's a somewhat pleasant yet stale air blowing past, the woman says, "Shall we begin now?"