There were no carriages to the Obsidian Arena. We had to walk the vast distance from the Silver Arena towards the ominous mountains in the distance on foot. At least, initially. An hour or so after we passed the last palisade of the silver area, Claire activated one of her new abilities.

A burst of cold wind struck me in the face when Claire activated her power, and mists seeped up from the ground in great billows. The mists took the shape of a cart, and four goats made of blue, ethereal mist. The four wheels on the cart looked solid and flimsy at the same time, made out of mist as they were. The cart itself, with a driver’s seat and then bench seats in the back of the cart bed, seemed to be quite solid. The mist managed to mold itself to look like an impressive facsimile of wood.

“Oh man, this is awesome!” Claire jumped up and down while she clapped her hands in giddy excitement. One of the goats turned its head and bleated at her. It barely made any sound, as if some great dimensional divide separated the goat and Claire.

“Nice job, Claire. I knew that scary old guy was the right choice for you,” I clapped her on the shoulder, then set my other hand on the back railing to ensure it was solid. It was. So I vaulted over the side and landed in the cart bed with a light clatter. Very light, considering my weight, and the metal armor that now clung to me. Arx Maxima showed me how to don and doff the armor via the Belt of Diana, but I felt like I needed more time inside the armor to be able to fight in it.

“You have interesting companions these days, Remy.” Miyuki’s compliment arrived with a bright smile for Claire, who took it in the spirit it was offered and smiled back at Miyuki.

As quiet as the goats and their bleating had been, the rolling of wheels over the increasingly rocky ground proved to be quieter. The misty facsimile of a cart absorbed shocks and kept on rolling over every obstacle its wheels met, the goats easily pulling it at a fast walk. Eventually Claire decided to see how fast the goats could go. The answer? Fast. I had not ridden a lot of horses in my time, but the goats easily seemed to outrun any non-monster animal I had ever seen, and were able to keep the pace indefinitely. Claire said the upkeep cost of mana wasn’t that bad, although the initial summon cost had been high. I felt a touch of pride in myself, since I’d bound the concept of Farmagnuðr the Trailbreaker for her.

Eventually the earth broke more and more with eruptions of stone, the ground grew more uneven, and we had to slow down. Then finally, we had to abandon the cart entirely due to the rents in the earth and increasingly large columns of obsidian rose from the depths of hell. That wasn’t how they were created, I’m sure, but it really had that look of a cursed, forbidden waste. My judgement could be clouded by the fact I knew we were heading towards a cursed place, though.

Talk remained subdued, even without the noise of the winds and cart to deter it. When the large black structure showed itself on the horizon for the first time coincided with the first time we heard the dull, constant rumbling. The closer we grew to the mountains, the louder the rumbling grew, and I could even sense it, slightly, through the ground.

“What the hell is that?” I asked the others. Claire and Miyuki were our lead, and Chrys and Remy had the middle of the party, while Arx Maxima and I brought up the rear.

“Volcano,” Chrys shouted back to me in a simple, matter of fact way. Leave it to a Gneissling to be comfortable, and unaffected, by the proximity of a volcano. Chrys would probably ask to go take a bath in it, or something strange like that. Maybe lava was what Gneisslings ate?

The Obsidian Arena looked like a broken bowl cupped by thousands of huge columns of jagged obsidian. Random sections of what should have been the bowl were gone, as if it had been dropped from a great height. The huge shafts of obsidian rose menacingly from the spikey ground and arched over and around the peak of the arena, which itself was made from columns of another dark rock.

A cold chill filled the air the closer we got to the arena. By the time we stood in the shadow of the arena, gazing up at the gothic entrance covered in gargoyles, our breaths were all visible in the frigid air. Remy had cast a warmth spell on Claire, but he, Miyuki, Chrys, and I all endured the cold without ill effect.

“Do we just go in?” I asked, as I closed the final few feet between myself and Claire and Miyuki who had stopped at the bottom of the stairs that lead up into the decrepit arena.

“Yes, there are few rules here. We may enter as one, for Alrik has welcomed all comers.” Miyuki’s answer was dark and ominous.

“Remy?” I said my uncle’s name to pull him from the daze he was in while he stared at the immense arena.

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“Yeah, I can break this. No promises it’ll be fast, though. Claire, you’re with me.” Remy off handedly ordered the scout to accompany him.

“What the fuck? We’re not in the Dustwalkers anymore, and you aren’t the boss. Why should I be with you?” Claire scowled at him, and I could tell she was concerned he was pulling her out of the fight because she wasn’t quite on the level of physical prowess that Miyuki, Chrys, and I, all shared.

Remy lifted his hand, and pointed up at the broken walls of the arena. His finger glowed and he etched a quick rune, and Claire gasped and her eyes glowed.

“See it now?” Remy asked her.

I focused my own eyes up there, but didn’t see anything.

“I see them. You said this guy is a summoner? That’s a lot of placed minions waiting to spawn,” Claire said. “I think?”

“Yes,” Remy said with a nod. “You’ll be protecting me while I break the curse. Every dual cast I have to do will draw time away from breaking the curses here, so I need you to play bodyguard. Up for it?”

I hid my grin at how easily Claire got her ego fluffed by Remy,. She fell into line with his request with a self-satisfied smirk on her face.

“You and I are on Alrik. Allow me to take the forward position. You act as the flanker and deal as much damage as you can, and break his summons if he tries to go after Chrys. You’re on support, Chrys. Before we go though…”

Miyuki lifted her gloveless left hand, and kissed the tip of each finger, but not her thumb. When she pulled her hand away, candle sized blue-white flames danced above her fingertips. She stepped up to Claire and brushed her index finger against Claire’s lips. The flames seeped into the scout, and Claire practically glowed a little.

The process repeated with Chrys and Remy, each also gained a powerful glow. When Miyuki did it to me, however, the flame flickered as it came closer to me, then went out entirely. Miyuki clicked her tongue in annoyance, and again kissed each of her fingertips, and tried to place all four against my snout. They were snuffed out just before making contact.

“Maybe putting you in Magic Resist armor wasn’t a brilliant idea,” Miyuki laughed. “Up for a peck on the nose?”

I nodded.

“Concentrate on accepting the flame. Welcome the foxfire into you, let it heat and warm you,” Miyuki whispered and leaned up on her tip toes, then had to jump just a little to brush her lips against my snout. I did what she said, focused on pulling the power into myself, welcome the warmth and blessing. When Miyuki hit the ground, I had a faint glow too.

“Stubborn,” Miyuki muttered under her breath about me.

I flexed my right hand, and Delirium of Ruin appeared.

“Hold a moment,” Chrys said and handed a small pouch to Claire. “Grenades. Red are fire, white are light, and black are lightning.”

“Black are lightning?” I asked.

“Well, yes. They’re copies of your Bedlam Bolts.” Chrys answered as if I were a moron for not knowing that.

Claire looked into the bag, her eyes widening at how many cylinders were inside.

“You should really keep some for yourself, Chrys,” Claire said worriedly.

“I have plenty of my own,” Chrys said with a laugh. “You are a nice girl, but I would not give you supplies to my own detriment.”

Claire’s cheeks reddened in awakard embarrassment.

“All those nights we were sleeping you were building a stock pile?” I asked, pulling everyone’s attention away from Claire’s embarrassment.

“Yes,” Chrys answered with a nod.

“You’re the best, Chrys. Alright. If everyone is ready.. oh. Are you going to give us some kind of signal when the curse is done, Remy?” I wondered.

“You’ll know. Each of the pillars around the arena are tied into the curse. When I break it, they are all going to shatter into dust. Good chance some of these exterior walls will fall down when that happens, looks like they’re being held up by the obsidian.” Remy answered nonchalantly, but he had a little pleased look on his lips.

“Let’s go,” Miyuki said as her primary weapon whisked out of its sheath. Foxfire danced along her skin, and tendrils of flame embraced each of the other five swords on her back, and they too unsheathed and formed an arc of blades before her.

I tried to whistle and failed so completely that I spat on myself. After a couple of coughs, I fell into step next to Miyuki and the other three trailed behind us. I awoke the storm inside of me, and black lightning leaked from my eyes and streams of the Ebon Gale formed around my wrists and ankles and licked along my body as if they were here to seduce me. The insane voices were dulled and quiet, now, but they would build to a crescendo when I fully activated Galvanize.

The seating of the Obsidian Arena had largely been destroyed over the ages. Small remnants of sections remained here and there, but they were essentially only a reminder of what once was. The main entrance led us straight to the arena, although it was a good fifty-foot drop.

“Create Wall,” I murmured and three pillars and a long plank of a wall formed a ramp down into the arena.

An immense sword, curved like Miyuki’s but easily three times the length, had been stabbed into a sharp column of obsidian. Trapped between the hilt and the pillar of obsidian a figure had been impaled. Each movement the impaled figure made caused its own massive weight to push the sword through more of its flesh. The face of the creature was a man, the lower body that of a lion.

A dozen feet away, a human sucked the vitality from the lion man with dark magic.

“Little by little, you will be mine, Xian. One win out of a hundred isn’t enough to be the master of this place, and with every loss, you move closer and closer to becoming one of my minions. Will the final day be tomorrow? Maybe the day after. It will come, no matter how defiant you remain.” Alrik the Shackler taunted his fellow cursed gladiator, before his cold eyes turned to Chrys, Miyuki, and I as we walked off the ramp and into the arena.

“Fresh meat,” Alrik laughed.

“I’m going to enjoy killing this shithead,” Miyuki spat, then vanished.