The crowd was waiting patiently for the anomaly to continue her sentence. The people in the arena stared at the woman with a fear colder than the freezing wind. The anomaly took a deep breath, and after minutes that felt like hours, she finally broke the silence.

"I know it may not look like it, but all of you agreed to enter this tournament. I can feel in your heart, you're ready to sacrifice your life for something, sacrifice your existence for the mere chance of getting it. Some may be here for glory, some for freedom, some may even be here to save their friend. I'll grant the winner their deepest wish, but of course, I'm not a monster. If you wish to leave, you still have a chance to do so. Raise your hand, and you'll be right back to your home world, with no memory of what happened."

The crowd waited expectantly, some even betting on whether one of them would give up. But despite some hesitation, no one raised their hand, putting a smile on the anomaly's face.

"Great! Marvelous! I knew I was right by choosing you all! Now then let's explain the rules."

The anomaly took a step back letting her place to a girl, looking barely older than twenty. She had a strange green outfit with a cape, looking like she was some sort of traveler, and her black hair reached just below her neck. 1fter bracing herself, she started to talk, in a feeble and soft voice.

"H-Hello. You can call me Opal, I'm the organizer of this whole thing. Let me explain the basic rules of this tournament, and we'll get more in-depth into the different trials as the event goes on. You will be a total of 32 participants and will have to go through three trials, meant to eliminate the unworthy. Once we finish the three trials, we'll have a last one, meant to choose the true winner of the great tournament. In the trials, everything is allowed. Cheating isn't a concept, honor is only a human construct, and victory is the only goal. But outside the trials, it is forbidden to hurt, or cause any problems to the other players."

After she finished talking, the anomaly whispered something in the ear of the girl, visibly annoying her.

"... Also, and I wish to precise that this isn't my idea, we'll host small games between trials. We'll explain when we get there, but all you need to know for now is that the only way to lose is during the main trials. Does anyone have any questions?"

Sepide raised her hand and yelled to make sure that she could be heard.

"All of our equipment got stolen, how are we supposed to fight?"

"Ah, yes." Answered the girl after looking at her notes "We'll give you each new weapon, adapted to the trials that you will face. It is, of course, forbidden to use them outside the trials."

Opal looked around to make sure that there weren't any doubts left and continued "Now follow the guards, they will lead you to the site of the first trial."

The guards gestured for the participants to follow them. Silva, Sepide, and their leader stayed together, unsure about what was about to happen to them. But they were determined to win, and save Neige from the anomaly once and for all.

The guard led all the contestants in front of a snowy forest. There, Opal the organizer was already waiting for them, the anomaly on her side. They waited for a while, making sure that everyone was there. The girl glanced confused between the group and her notes multiple times before talking in a soft voice.

"Is Silva here?"

Silva raised her hand, leading the organizer to her next question.

"And... Is Silv here?"

The three friends looked surprised and saw a hand raise. It really was Silv, the same Silv they caught and that was kidnapped back by the anomaly. She looked at the small group and smiled at them with a sinister tone. Before anyone could say anything, Opal turned toward the anomaly with a clearly dissatisfied tone.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"Wait, we can't do that. They look exactly the same, that would lead to too much confusion. Why didn't you tell me? I'll never be able to differentiate them!"

"If that's the problem, I can deal with that." The anomaly took two pairs of glasses and showed them. One was sunglasses, while the other didn't even have glass on them "One will have sunglasses, one will have regular ones. And they need to wear them or else we can't validate their victory, how does it sound?"

The organizer let out a sigh but nodded her head.

"Sure, I think we didn't need to have the same person twice, but it's fine."

"Great, so now that it's over with... Which one do you prefer?"

Silv and Silva both stayed silent, visibly a bit confused. The anomaly didn't understand at first, but quickly realized her mistake.

"Oh, I forgot that you two are blind." She handed the sunglasses to Silva, and the regular glasses to Silv "So now you can't remove them. It's quite practical, at least, one can't pretend to be the other."

"It's going to be a miracle if we finish this tournament..." Opal took a deep breath, and after making sure she was ready, explained the rules.

"Welcome to the first trial, as a reminder, everything is allowed. We'll make eight groups of four, and we'll give you all three maps per group. The rules are simple, the first to find three treasures and come back here with them win and are guaranteed to go to the next trial. Some treasures are harder to get than others, so if you think that yours is too hard to get, you can always steal the map of someone else. You have 3 days, every group that fails will be disqualified from the tournament. Now then, please form groups."

The there friends grouped and looked around for a good fourth member. But Sepide noticed Silva's weird behavior, she was holding herself in her arms and seemed visibly perturbed.

"Silva, are you okay?"

Silva tried to make a smile but quickly stopped in her attempt.

"I wasn't expecting her to be here... They even took my pills..."

"Oh... I remember that you needed to take some."

Sepide shared the pain of her friend, but sadly, there wasn't anything they could do. As for the leader, she looked around, still trying to find a member.

"These peoples, they're all from other worlds. The anomaly isn't holding back."

A man approached the group, Silva and the leader recognized him immediately, while Sepide was clueless about his identity.

"Silva... Leader... Long time no see."

"Kairo?" The leader seemed shocked to see him, he looked like he lived a lot since the last time she saw him. His face seemed harsher, his uniform barely in one piece, and his right arm was no more "What happened? And what are you doing here?"

"It's a long story, but I'm the surprised one. So, that's what you look like without your mask..."

The leader hid her face behind her hand after realizing that she didn't have her mask on. Even if it made her voice muffled, she continued the conversation like that.

"A-Anyway, do you want to join our group? It will be like the old times, except it's with Sepide instead of Neige."

"I would have loved to, alas, our paths are forever opposed now. And I already have a group, I just wanted to see you one last time."

Kairo walked away, the leader was at the same time relieved to see him, but at the same time saddened that they didn't see each other in a different context.

Most of the groups were already formed, the group was worried about not finding another member. But a woman approached them, she had short blonde hair and had ample clothes hiding most of her body. She came with a smile and did her best to appear as friendly as possible.

"Greetings, I see that you are missing a member, and I am alone, can I join you?"

The three friends looked at each other, she certainly seemed odd, but at the same time, they didn't have a choice. Silva was the first one to talk, sharing her concerns.

"I'm not against it, and robots are pretty cool. The ticking sound of her cogs is annoying though."

"A robot?" Asked Sepide, looking at the woman in the eyes "She doesn't look like a robot."

The woman that was being suspected of being a robot looked surprised, and quickly dissipated the confusion.

"I thought I did a good job at hiding, but you are right, I am a robot. I was made for war, but I do have feelings and have no wish to harm you."

"Oh!" The leader looked extremely excited for some reason, her eyes lit up, like a kid on the day of Christmas "It's like in Shadow 3! Can we take her?"

"Shadow 3? The video game that you made us buy last time?" Asked Sepide, still annoyed that she had to get it.

"No, it was Shadow 4 arena. It's a spin-off of the sequel, there's also a robot but-"

Silva raised her voice, knowing it could have lasted for hours if she didn't stop the leader.

"That's fascinating leader, can we focus on the actual robot?"

"Yes, you're right. Well, I'm for taking her in our group."

"I'm okay too, what about you Sepide?" Asked Silva.

"It's okay for me too, I don't have a problem with it, she seems nice."

The woman-looking robot made a big smile and looked more than happy at the news.

"Thank you, I will do my best to not be disappointing. I am Unit R-1 Esper Lambda, but you can call me Uriel!"

With a group finally formed, they were ready for the first trial. They couldn't afford to lose, as a loss would mean losing Neige, and it was something that neither of them was ready to do.