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Waking up after a good rest, I waste no time leaving the room to meet with Cordelia, finding her talking with the same witch who tried using a spell on me yesterday.

"I already said no," Cordelia states, shaking her head in disappointment. "Tell them that there's no deal, and if they insist, scare them a bit."

Her pupil nods. "I'll see what I can do."

Cordelia reaches her hand and pets the young witch's head, and after seeing me approach, the girl leaves.

"Good morning, Olivia. I hope you rested well."

"Morning." I stretch my arms and let out a yawn. "Did something happen?"

"Just a little trouble with some insistent people; nothing to worry your head about." Cordelia gives me her usual smile, and I see that it looks like she doesn't want to talk about it further.

"I'm ready, by the way, if you want me to do the job now." I decide to put things in motion now; better to waste no time so I can see how Dalia is as soon as possible.

Cordelia, hearing my words, gestures for me to follow. "Come then; I'll guide you there."

We walk side by side, diving deeper into the bookshelf labyrinth. I notice that the deeper we go, the rarer people wandering about become.

The wooden walls and floor are replaced by sturdy, cold stone, like a tunnel. Torch lights illuminate the way, placed wisely on some sconces, very creepy and dungeon-like.

The temperature drops and so does the herb smell, something that doesn't help ease my nerves.

Finally, we reach the light after what felt like a very long walk. Blinking, I let my eyes adjust to the more predominant, magical light of the room.

It's very simple looking—two chairs sitting alone near a big opening, giving vision to what's ahead—and looking out of it, I see why the creepy atmosphere makes sense.

Rows of places to sit differ from five levels; on the floor, I see vines that take most of the first and second rows, with flowers filling the air with a pink-looking smoke that covers most of the basic floor level.

I get it now; even if I only saw it in some movies, I would recognize the structure anywhere. This is a fricking colosseum.

"The monster I talked about is right there, you see?" Cordelia points to the middle of the arena, to a ball made of twisted vines and pink flowers amidst the smoke.

Gulping my courage down, I look at Cordelia. "The smoke; what will happen if I breathe it?"

"To you, it probably will have no effect, and just to be sure, I'll cast a protection spell on you."

Raising her hand, Cordelia stops her index finger at my forehead, closing her eyes and whispering words.

"By the flowers and seed, the creators of life, I cast upon thee the protection of the sun's light."

A small orb of light forms, staying where her fingertip was. It feels funny—a fuzzing feeling like drinking hot coffee on a cold morning.

"There, you have an extra layer of protection. When you're ready to go, start by leaving through the door on our left, and be careful when climbing the seating area down.

"And one more thing, I won't be able to go with you; as I said yesterday, the creature is only docile with humans, but I'll wait for you here."

I nod my head, taking in a deep breath to prepare myself for what's coming. I need to be brave for Dalia, for Tina.

Repeating my mantra, I find enough will to start, so I leave this room, finally entering the Colosseum.

One step at a time, I climb down the floors one by one. The feeling of the cold stone strays away all chances of my hands slipping and making me fall to a painful death.

Fifth, fourth, and third, with one more jump, I reach the second row, being careful not to step on any of the vines and doing my best to be away from the spores and their releasers.

In my curiosity, I kneel down and study one of the not-blooming sprouts a few steps away. Pandora's eyes... how do I know the name of this flower?

My hands move unconsciously to small, developing petals, and with my touch, the sprout seems to force itself to bloom. The small petals turn, like the others, a beautiful pinkish color.

The strange thing is that I feel a slight pressure on my finger, and when I focus on it, the flower starts to wrap around, climbing its way to my wrist.

Panicking, I pull my hand away and lose my footing, stepping into an extension of the vine that I'm pretty sure wasn't there before.

I feel myself falling, but as quick as the feeling settles in, my back meets the floor painfully. Pain shoots up my spine, rushing to the top of my head and causing a nauseating headache.

My head starts to throb, begging me to stay down and wait as it tries to deal with the overwhelming pain. But there's no way I can stop now, even more, when I look at my leg and see more of those vines approaching it.

Forcing myself to my feet, I gaze around, seeing the twisted bramble shield-like thing just a few meters away. So I force myself to walk as my contorting stalkers follow right behind me, ever-approaching, seemingly pushing me to this meeting.

Now standing in front of my goal, I watch as it opens itself up, filling the ground with a more refined, fog-like version of the spores.

A small figure resembling a small child climbs out of between the roots and vines. Moss-green eyes analyze my face, a white dress hugged by long leaves and flowers.

The kid takes a step forward, adjusting her long green hair that reaches the cracked stone floor, which, looking more closely, has signs of nature growing from underneath and finding its way in between cracks.

The thought of taking a step away proves to be impossible even before I do it, as around me is a wall of branches that allow no way out for those inside.

How do I start this? Do I tell her my name and try to communicate?

"Hi, I'm Olivia," I offer my gentler smile, arching my back so she doesn't have to look up to see my face. "Do you have a name?"

"Pandora." The kid answers unemotionally, seemingly focusing her attention on something else.

"Nice to meet you, Pandora; do you know why I'm here?"

Pandora nods her head. "You are here to put me back to sleep, just like the others that have visited me since I woke up.

"But I don't want to sleep; I have to be awake for when my mother comes to pick me up."

She's waiting for her mother, then, hum... There should be something I can do; maybe I can talk to her until she feels tired. If she's been awake for a long time, having company may make her relax enough to fall asleep on her own.

I sit on the ground, crossing my legs, and sigh. Pandora tilts her head and uncertainly copies my motion, sitting down in front of me.

"Do you want me to keep you company till your mama comes to pick you up?" I offer, watching as the inexpressive girl widens her eyes and quickly nods her head.

Good, now there's one way I know that can help pass the time and tire her. Grabbing my phone, I use my chip's internet to download Crush Candy, waiting two minutes of silence until the notification warning me that it's been downloaded appears.

Shifting more closely to Pandora, I extend my phone to her small hands. "Want to play together?"

Once again, the girl nods her head and grabs my phone, at first having trouble understanding how to use it, but as I slowly teach her how to use the screen and play the game.

To my surprise, she learns way too fast, passing down phase by phase without a sweat. Lucky for me, this game has thousands of phases, because if it hadn't, she might have ended it in less than half an hour.

Pandora, after a few minutes of playing, grabs my hoodie sleeve and tries to grab my attention.

"Something happened?" I ask, putting a hand on top of her head.

"I noticed something; your smell is very familiar to me. Are you-"

*Bang*

Looking up towards the sound, I see that room where I was with Cordelia blow up in flames, seeing too some masked people getting out of it, entering the colosseum, laughing. Scrappers!

I'm able to hear their conversation as their voices echo down.

"The trap better have worked; the information was very hard to get." One says with their voice muffled by a gas mask.

"She's here; I'm sure of it; that little witch confirmed this shit." Another replies with a muffled laugh.

"Remember what the boss said; forget the witches and kill the agency girl."

Their voice grows closer as they climb down the seating rows—many steps, many voices.

I turn to Pandora and grab her in my arms, putting her back on her bramble shield. "Stay here; don't get out until I say so. Okay?"

Pandora nods her head, and so I step back, leaving my phone with her, and, with my hands, I help the bramble close.

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, what do I do? My gun is gone, and I have a broken sword that probably will serve little to help... Time to be resourceful.

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Using the little time I have, I bet all my chances on one thing: the spore flowers.

Closer and closer, little by little, the scrappers finally reach the ground floor. The pink fog helps me stay unnoticed, and trying my best, I'm able to make out at least five of them.

"She has to be here somewhere; stay close in case she tries to play smart."

All five of the scrappers start walking in formation, keeping close and sharp to their surroundings. So I wait and wait.

As they walk past where Pandora is, one, getting curious, stops and separates from the others, touching and trying to pry open the entangled vines.

So I make sure that the others gets a little more distance before moving, and without wasting my chance, I tighten my grip around the sword's hilt and use the pommel of it to hit the scrapper's head with all I have.

Thanks to the mask, the painful sound the person makes as they lose consciousness is muffled enough that the others don't hear it. Grabbing their side, I lay the body down and start searching it for anything useful.

A radio, a pistol, and a modified taser—jackpot. I put the radio in my hoodie, put the pistol secured in my belt along with the sword, and make the taser my go-to weapon for now.

One down, four to go. I make sure to stay away from the areas where the fog is less dense, patiently stalking the four scrappers as they stop to study one of the flowers.

"Wait, just to be sure. After we kill the girl, what do we do with this thing?" A masculine, muffled voice rings as he kicks the vine, managing to hurt his feet.

"We burn it." The rough woman's voice as she answers the question coldly makes even me gulp.

Instead of talking back, the scrappers seem to uncomfortably walk to brush the heavy air away. Having a better look, the woman is huge—I mean, she's at least two meters tall and very buffed.

The man beside her, feeling bold, grabs one of the flowers and pulls it from the vine.

*Boom*

Spores and thorns fly, the sound of glass shattering echoes, and I watch as the man who grabbed the flower falls to the ground with his mask broken, breathing heavily the spores as a horrifying scene unfolds.

Flowers start to grow from his skin, ripping his insides and clothes to bloom; soon, what once was a man looks like a fallen tree trunk taken by nature.

"Like I said before we got here, STAY AWAY FROM THE FUCKING FLOWERS." The woman growls to her two remaining friends, who nod rapidly. Her gaze moves, and for a second, I'm sure she sees me as she unmovingly stares in my general direction.

I try not to move, keeping dead still so that, if anything, she shrugs it off as the fog, but that doesn't happen. Without wasting time, she starts striding forward, like a bull ready to hunt.

The other two look confused, deciding to follow her. Soon, the three of them stop in front of me and smile.

"Look who it is; our little rat decided to come out to play." The woman laughs loudly, and before she can start her monologue, I activate the taser and throw it at one of them.

And when it hits, the other scrapper starts to get electrocuted and falls to the floor. It seems that their taser was heavily modified; if I'm hit with that, I might as well consider myself dead.

As the information starts to down on the two enemies left, I rush back to the fog.

"I'll get this bitch," the last normal-looking scrapper announces, and he runs after me, managing to dodge the woman trying to stop him.

"YOU IDIOT, DON'T-." The tall woman screams but to no avail. My plan has already worked.

Like a dance, I follow the path leading back to Pandora, where I left the body. When my eyes meet the fallen person, I circle the vine shield, successfully confusing my follower as he looks at the fallen body, not having enough time to react.

When the hard pommel meets the back of the scrapper's head, a gasp escapes them as they fall to the ground, atop their friend.

Losing no time, I search the body for another taser, but it seems that someone got what I was doing and uses my plan against me. The tall woman grabs me by the side and lifts me up before doing something like the MMA, throwing me with all she has to the ground.

Like the continuation of the earlier pain, more of that headache hits me, but this time it manages to make me throw up.

With my weak hands, I grab the pistol, and before I can shoot the woman's leg, she kicks it away from me.

"No weapons for you, rat. I want to see how you do hand-to-hand." The woman grabs me and forces me to my feet, not even letting me take a breath before sinking her fist against my now-empty stomach.

"Ahrg!" Adrenaline shoots up, but not fast enough to give me the energy to do anything about the other punch she throws at me.

Her fist connects with my jaw, and moving her hand, she grabs my neck and headbutts my nose. This time, letting me stumble backward. Blood runs down my nose, tinting the ground below.

"Ow, poor rat, you thought that taking out those four would give you any advantage?

"No, you only cleared the Colosseum for us. Taking out the trash so I could have you on my plate. You really should have tased me when you had the chance, maybe so you could have won.

"Now, time for you to sleep. Consider yourself lucky; you're not the girl we have to kill."

Somewhere else.

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Void—that's the only thing I feel when her fist hits the side of my head—then warmth. Red hair is flying with the wind; its scent reminds me of blood.

It's the same feeling I had when I visited the fairy queen—memories that aren't mine but from something very close to my soul.

"There's no time to waste anymore," I watch as the red-headed girl turns her head to me, holding an unpleased frown. "You can either stay here with me and sleep, or wake up and have a chance to save someone."

"Are you... talking to me?" My question is met with a harsh expression on the girl's face like I'm the dumbest being in the world.

"Who else? There's just us in this field."

My tired legs beg for rest, so I sit beside the girl and look at the forest in front of us—a familiar forest, but not for me.

"Even if I wake up now, I won't be able to win the fight."

To my words, the red-haired girl clicks her tongue and grabs my chin. Studying my eyes before slapping my face.

"Then I have a proposal for you; I'll lend you my strength if you do me a favor."

"What favor?" I ask, and the girl in front of me finally smiles, but not gently, which is more unsettling.

"You will free me, not now, not today, but when the time is right. And when you do free me, I'll be your ally.

"So, what do you say? Do you want to save your friends?"

Maybe this is a trap. Should I really trust her-

"Two seconds, now or never."

Nice strategy; she has me in her palm. If I already lost, then I'll deal with the consequences later.

"Deal."

A big grin, a meeting of lips as she kisses me without warning, managing to make me confused and blush. "When you wake up, repeat those words..."

Back to reality:

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The tall woman has her back turned to me, and on her hand is a canteen smelling of alcohol. She chugs down some of its contents before spraying the rest over where Pandora is hiding.

She really plans to kill the girl; why? Why does everything need to turn to shit every time? If I should do something, I need to do it now.

As instructed by the red-haired girl, I grab the sword and use it to cut the palm of my hand, coating the blade with my blood.

"Sun, keeper of the flames.

Breaker of day, you give me your sword, and I allow you to have my heart and faith." I repeat the girl's words, managing to grab the attention of the woman as she lights up a match.

"You don't know when to stay down, rat? Then I'll show you-"

The sword in my hands burns hot, very hot. For the first seconds that it activates, I feel like my hand will melt. The pain is enough to push me to the edge of my sanity, but when I think the pain won't end, it subsides.

Third-degree burns on my right arm turn into scars, healing in seconds. My body feels lighter, rested, and healed in an instant.

The half-blade extends, the missing part molding itself with flames and revealing its name on the hilt. Excalibur.

I give no time to the woman in front of me, and as her fear grips and holds her mind, I move. Fast as the wind, unforgiving as the flames, gentle as the water, and certain as the earth.

As the blade slices the woman, her flesh is left intact. She looks at her belly, expecting her to be dead, but that was not my target. The silver stand was.

The woman's eyes start to become heavy, her energies disappear, and then gravity happens as she passes out. Her face meets the cold stone, and looking at her, I sigh in relief to see that she's not dead.

While putting the sword away, I make sure that the area is clear before kneeling down and knocking on Pandora's branch shield.

"It is safe to come out now."

In the blink of an eye, Pandora jumps from the shield and hugs my shoulder, managing to surprise me enough that I almost fall back.

"You protected me; I knew it. Your smell, your face—you're my mama."

.

..

...

"What?"

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