Chapter Eighteen.

Roger tapped his fingers on his desk out of nerves as he waited for the dwarf to show up. It was the sixth day the dwarf had been around, and he'd never taken off his cloak or mask, never reached out from beneath it.

He'd yet to see the dwarf's clothes under the cloak, his hands, his neck, his face all concealed as well, and it unnerved the man. But the attacks on his business had stopped, so he counted that as a small bonus. If only the dwarf could be satisfied soon so that he could get his hands on that heart. Selling it would take some time, but it would do wonders for helping them move things around.

The office door opened, and the dwarf entered, staring at Roger once again. No one knew when the dwarf ate or drank, nor when he used the bathroom. They'd never caught him doing so. He often disappeared for hours as well.

His men were pretty sure the dwarf was pulling pranks on them. Some were waking up with things drawn on their faces, others were finding their food covered in sprinkles. One of the toilet tanks was filled with Jello. Chocolate had a habit of disappearing around the office as well, only for the wrappers to reappear where it had been stolen from.

Just the wrappers, the chocolate itself gone, likely consumed. The dwarf was adept at picking locks, he'd even managed to steal Roger's entire stash from his safe. Fourteen different numbers had to be ticked on the dial, and the dwarf had figured it out, took the chocolate, ate it, then returned the wrappers.

Roger greeted the dwarf, glancing to see if the one-pound block of chocolate was on his desk. It was still there, just as planned. It was completely concealed by papers – the dwarf wouldn't know it was there.

But it was still a test of the dwarf. Roger was sure he had some way to sniff out chocolate.

"Are you ready?" He asked, and the dwarf stared. "Let's go, then."

The smuggler stood and made his way to the door to his office, pulling a golden key from his pocket and pressing it to the knob. He pushed magic into the key, and it sank into the knob. Roger twisted the key clockwise, and then pulled the knob, revealing a stone hallway.

"Tonight's bouts start in just a few minutes," he looked at the dwarf, noting that the papers that had hidden the chocolate were considerably lower on his desk. "We should hurry if we want to catch them."

How did he know? And when did he grab it?

The dwarf walked towards the hall, following behind Roger. The door swung shut behind them as Roger pocketed his key, and they exited the hall into the seating area.

The arena was shaped like the Coliseum, much like the auction house, though it had wide steps that acted as the seating rather than individual pulpits or rooms. The dirt floor of the arena was packed, burned, and scarred by the thousands of battles that had taken place there. Powerful barrier enchantments prevented any magic, attacks, or slaves from exiting the arena, save through one of the two large gates facing each other.

The stands were packed as Roger and the dwarf took their seats, and they waited only a minute before the gates lifted up, the slaves for the first match entering. One was a woman in her early twenties, the other was a boy around ten.

Many of the spectators laughed at the matchup. That wasn't the first time the boy was sent out there, and he'd lost every fight. He was covered in cuts, bruises, and burns from it. He could barely summon a breeze, much less fight.

But there he was, forced into it night after night for amusement. The match ended when he was knocked out by the enchant mage's punch. They knew that he'd either grow stronger to fight back or die from the fights.

The next match consisted of a werewolf that tore through the woman, and the match after that found the werewolf facing off against a nature mage who sprouted vines from the ground. He tore through those as well before killing her, only to be put down by a fire mage in the next round.

A scourge mage came out next, filling the arena with a toxic poison. The fire mage burned it away with her magic, then incinerated him.

Roger frowned. There were too many deaths that night, and most of the matches were occurring quickly. They moved too fast, putting the enchant mage against the breeze boy. They should have pulled out weaker slaves first, built up an increase to the stronger fights. And pit people against more evenly-matched foes.

The next slave to exit was a boy with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes with flawless skin. He looked around fifteen, and Roger sighed when he came out.

No one had bested this boy. He'd been there for several months, and everyone who fought him failed. It didn't matter how powerful or versatile they were, his ice magic was simply too powerful.

The smuggler realized what was going on. Someone realized things were moving too fast and sent him out. They'd pull him back in after and restart the matches with more evenly-matched mages once he killed the fire mage.

The fire mage summoned up her fireballs and launched them at the teen, and a frosty aura surrounded him. The moment her fireballs touched, they faded away, the cold of his aura too great for any heat to pierce.

He lifted up a hand, and spikes of ice burst out of the grown, piercing the fire mage's body. Then, he lowered his hand and turned to leave. As normal.

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What happened next was anything but normal.

The dwarf suddenly jumped off the seat, teleporting himself directly into the arena.

So that's how he's been stealing everything! Roger realized. Wait! How did he get through the barriers? What's he doing?

The frost mage turned and waved a hand, a whip of ice floating out. The dwarf teleported again, appearing behind the ice mage with his hands held up. He teleported several times to avoid attacks, remaining with his hands held up, and Roger stared, just as befuddled as everyone else.

"Who are you?" The slave asked. "Why did you come in here? Why aren't you attacking me?"

The spectators watched with bated breath, waiting for the answer that took several long seconds to come.

Instead of speaking, the small figure pushed back the hood of his cloak, revealing a head of white-blond hair. Then, he removed his mask, revealing the young face of a blue-eyed human boy.

"Hello, Ty!" He said with a grin, holding up a gloved hand with a small, golden ball. "Guess what? I've got a universal key! All I gotta do is this-"

He touched the ball to the collar, and the collar split in two, dropping to the ground.

"-and you're free!" The boy said. "Just like that! No more slavery for my friends! And now… IT'S TIME, GUYS!"

The crowd was already in motion as guards were rushing into the arena, having begun to move when the boy held up the key. Everyone froze at the boy's words, for it didn't just reach their ears, but entered directly into their minds.

A moment later, a pair of teens showed up.

"Later!" The blond boy waved to the crowd as one of the teens placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Was that-" The former slave began to ask Jenna.

"Yep," she placed a hand in his. "Let's raze this place to the ground, Ty."

"Alright," he grinned. "I've wanted to do this for awhile, but that damn collar kept me from doing so."

The twins raised their linked hands as spells flew, and their auras formed around them, shielding them as they merged together.

"From the chaos," they said in unison as spell after spell, bullet after bullet was rendered ineffective by their joined aura. "Comes absolute destruction. And in absolute destruction, there is nothing left but chaos."

Their magics linked for the first time in months, the twins felt absolutely powerful. Their aura expanded, burning ice filling the air around them as mages began to scream, running as the barriers meant to protect the arena were incinerated, the enchantments frozen.

The only reason the slavers had managed to catch Tyler was because while the twins had no issues with killing, they wanted to avoid involving civilians. The Chaos of Destruction spell was not something that was picky about who or what it destroyed. It simply froze and burned everything until there wasn't even ash left behind.

They had several similar spells, but all were massive, powerful area spells like Chaos of Destruction. And they were attacked around more than fifty homeless mundies. People who didn't have magic awakened with them.

People who weren't present at the moment.

When the twins finished their spell, they looked around at the destruction they'd caused. Jenna had been very careful not to extend the aura too far, and Tyler had sensed this, keeping it reigned in as well.

"That's a lot of damage," Tyler snorted. "We went nearly to the-what is that?"

There were only remnants of the building, the stone walls that made up its borders with three dozen doors set around the edges. Beyond that, and above them, was nothing but darkness.

"We're in a reality marble," Jenna answered. "Cam – that's what Jared goes by now – has been here for a few days, trying to confirm your presence. Apparently, the place you guys were kept wasn't exactly easy for his mind to breach, so he ended up having to watch the fights until you showed up."

"So he's a mind mage and a spatial mage?" Tyler asked.

"Yep," she grinned. "Though he can't do much beyond short-range teleports at the moment."

"Come on," Eden appeared. "Cam said that Callum's about to dismantle the reality marble."

"What about the other slaves?" Tyler asked. "We only destroyed everything from this floor up, but we're just going to let the reality marble collapse on them?"

"Cam evacuated them into his personal realm," Eden snorted. "He keeps doing that to slaves we free. He lets whoever wants to go home do so, telling the rest they'll be his eternal minions."

"How many slaves were here?" Jenna asked.

"Around two hundred and seventy," Eden and Tyler responded together.

"And he freed them all that fast?" Jenna asked.

"He had Callum freeze time," Eden scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know why Callum decided to get involved, but I'm not going to bother answering. He was in dog form, which meant he wasn't exactly willing to talk."

Jenna noticed her brother giving them a confused look, then said they'd explain once they were out.

"Yeah," Eden placed a hand on the twins' shoulders. "We really need to go, Cam's going off on me saying we're being suicidal."

He teleported them outside, and the twins found themselves standing in an alley. Tyler looked at Cam, the large dog sitting beside him, and the other boy who was standing there.

"Are you two brothers?" Tyler asked Cam and the other boy.

"He's my nephew," Cam said as the building beside them began crumbling. "According to Callum, this building here was the entire anchor point for the reality marble. He's dismantling it properly, that way, we don't end up with a black hole."

As Tyler decided to ask about his old friend about suddenly having family when he hadn't a few years prior, Cam looked down at the dog, then snorted.

"Yeah, I know you could make the marble with something a lot smaller, you don't need to show off."

"Is he talking to the dog?" Tyler asked Jenna.

"As I said," she snorted. "We have a lot to catch up on. But yes, he's talking to the dog. And if you're lucky, the dog will talk back. He's using shift magic to make himself a dog. In reality, he's an ancient cousin of Cam's who's been sent by Cam's father to teach him magic and protect him against evil."

Tyler groaned as he realized just how much he needed to catch up on.

"I am not considering sharing the chocolate with Jenna!" Cam suddenly blurt out. "It's mine! I stole it, and he's dead, so he doesn't need it anymore! Well, I don't care! It's my chocolate! If she wants it, she can get her own! No, I don't think she'd look cute in a dress! Well, that's your opinion. She's more a jeans or cargo pants kind of girl, and I think she just looks just fine in them."

"Yep," Tyler snorted. "That's Jared alright. Or, well, Cam."

"Or Ambrosius," the other boy said as the building finished collapsing. "Depends on who you are and how long you've known him. Guys, can we please go? I might be good at sound barriers and illusions, but I also had to keep the dust and rubble from hitting us, and am still shielding us from the dust. We can chat about how much we know Ambro later."