Scarlet

After my little show of power wipes out all of the other contractors, I’m left in the arena alone with Aria while our two fae companions go at a leisurely pace completing the puzzles. And I can’t help but wonder how the audience is reacting right about now.

Are they bored? Or maybe amused? Frightened even?

Either way, I just continue playing chess with Aria using makeshift pieces of blood metal as we float in the air on a platform also made of blood metal, sitting on blood metal chairs.

And Aria doesn’t look even the least bit surprised by my display of power. Even Amelia and Leonidas didn’t look surprised.

Probably because they were there for my scolding from Gramps about not destroying the world.

I rest my elbow on the blood metal table with my cheek on my hand, wondering how long the rest of this competition is going to take.

Also, Aria is surprisingly good at chess. Each match has ended in a draw so far.

While the two of us continue playing one chess game after another, Tar and Aria’s fae continue completing puzzles. And eventually, once they finish, King Oberon awkwardly announces that it was the only competition for today. That the third portion of the Ascension Tournament won’t begin for another week.

Leaving us with the rest of the day off for the most part. Also with a large lead in points over the other competitors in the tournament since most of them only had the first thirty minutes to complete puzzles before they were eliminated. Whereas me and Aria had several hours.

We were also told that it won’t be broadcast like the rest of the tournament.

It’s private to just the fae, with the humans and demons not being allowed to see it. Not sure why, though. Since he never explained.

Anyways, after that, Tar and I return to Tartarus. But I don’t join the celebration that the demons put on at the castle. Instead I fly straight to a cliff within the Battlefield of Blood and Ruin. A battlefield that has gotten a lot less populated after the Sins curse was removed.

There are still demons here though. Even if those demons all quickly flee when they sense me appearing nearby.

As if running away from some sort of monster.

Although the sapient ones – which don’t number many amongst them – kneel down around the cliff without a word. Until I wave at them in dismissal, and they all bow once before leaving as well.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Then I just lie back with my hands on the scorched ground behind me and my legs dangling over the edge of the cliff. And Tar appears before floating to land in my lap.

“It’s been a long journey, hasn’t it?” Tar asks amidst the silence.

Yeah. It has.

And everything after this point for the tournament is up to you. You do know that, right?

Tar nods his head from my lap as he answers, “Yeah, I do.”

How do you feel about it?

He doesn’t say anything for a while. So I just look up at the full moon in the sky while giving him time.

To think that it’s only been a few years since I was trying to get into a university…

I smile as I think back on everything that’s happened since. Some of which hasn’t been very enjoyable, and an equal amount – probably – that has.

And everything I’ve managed to do, even if it was under the guidance of a prophecy I still don’t know the events of…

“I think…” Tar begins, breaking me out of my thoughts as I look down at him again. “I think I might struggle a bit against my elder siblings.”

Don’t worry.

I pat him on the head while raising my head to look at the moon again.

We have such a large point lead on the others that I’m pretty sure you’d have to try to lose for us to lose.

Just try your best and I’m sure we’ll be fine.

Tar lets out a sigh and mutters, “I hope so.”

I continue petting him on the head for a few moments before replacing my hand behind me again and returning my gaze to the moon.

We sit in silence for a while. Just with the breeze blowing past us and the moon shining down unbidden. With the only sounds being that of the party that I can still hear from the castle on the other side of the battlefield thanks to my hearing.

But the peace is soon shattered when a very familiar noise echoes out across the battlefield. A noise I have never heard on Tartarus before.

Just on Earth.

And along with the shattering sound appears strange cracks in the air. Black cracks instead of the red ones on Earth. Meanwhile the moon for some reason obtains a strange black glow to it.

I shoot to my feet, my eyes widening in surprise.

“What the hell?!” I shout out loud as Tar floats into the air next to me. Then Titania and Oberon both appear next to us, looking up at the black moon themselves.

And both of them look just as surprised as Tar and I.

“This…” Titania mutters, “wasn’t in the prophecy…”

Prophecy? The one the Fae King mentioned?

My focus quickly returns to the black Fracture cracks in the sky, only to find various glowing black Fracture cores appearing all around the battlefield.

Cores that immediately start spawning void creatures all over the place.

I float into the air and create thousands upon thousands of spears of blood that I send into the void creatures and the cores, slaughtering them by the masses. Breaking each Fracture without much trouble when the cores are destroyed. Just like the Fractures on Earth. And out of the corner of my eye, I find Titania and Oberon both staring in stunned silence.

As if this was fully out of their expectations.

“Grandmother, what’s going on?!” Tar exclaims, snapping Titania out of it as she turns to look at me and him.

Then she turns to look up at the moon again and mutters, “I don’t know… these corrupted Fractures have appeared all across the universe.”

My eyes widen at that.

She meets my eyes again and finishes, “It’s almost like the Voided Overlord has somehow taken control of the universe’s own defensive measures and is using it to send its minions throughout the universe.”

I turn to look at the black moon high in the sky.

Well… shit.

This is bad.