Tales From The Kronos

After a well-deserved night of sleep, Silva, Sepide, and their leader were guided to the same colosseum they were on the first day. Compared to last time, fewer people stood in the arena. However, Kairo, Silv, and the anomaly were here, it seemed like they ended up winning the last trial. Uriel was also here, the robot woman they worked with before. The crowd was cheering and yelling, some even yelled names, visibly already picking their favorites. The crowd seemed to have taken a liking toward Silva and Sepide, as some cheered for them.

"Why are they cheering for us?" Asked Sepide, confused.

"I guess it's because they liked seeing two girls wrestling, they're just a bunch of perverts," Silva answered, still waving at the crowd with a proud smile.

The leader looked at the bleacher, where Neige's body was still visible, sitting on the throne with the tournament organizer standing next to him. Once everyone arrived, the crowd went silent, listening to the girl talking.

"Thanks for coming today too. Only twenty contestants are left. Well, I say only, but it's impressive. It wasn't easy, and you can be proud of yourself. But now is time for the second trial. A race to the cold core of this planet. Life before, everything is allowed once the trial starts. Backstabbing, betraying, slaying, burning, exploding, everything is allowed. And unlike the first trial, there won't be any groups, the twelve first to reach the end will pass, while the rest will be forced to leave. That is, if you don't die on the way there, it's no easy task to just survive inside the planet itself."

The spectators were in euphoria, screaming and cheering while the participants themselves were worried about the dangers they would face. Once the crowd's cries stopped, the tournament organizer continued to explain the rules.

"We'll each give you a mount for this, you won't be totally alone. But as I said at the beginning, we'll hold a small game to give an advantage to someone. We have a splendid mount, extremely swift and precise as a reward. The rules are simple, whoever can tame it has the right to keep it."

Before anyone could ask anything, the door behind the contestants opened. When they saw what was behind, everyone took a step back. A huge dragon, with scales as black as the void and wings big enough to block the sunlight on the colosseum, came out of the door with a loud scream.

"Oh, right. You'll mount dragons for this trial, I'm sorry I forgot to say that."

As the dragon made its way to the center of the arena, everyone went away from the dragon. The only person who dared approach it was the anomaly, slowly walking toward it with confidence.

"Looks like I'll be the one that gets it if no one wants to try."

The woman handed her hand to the dragon without a worry in the world, but instead of submitting to her, the huge beast wiped her away with its tail, making her fly across the arena. The creature continued to walk around, staring at everyone with a smug gaze. The anomaly managed to wake up, and immediately approached the dragon, with rage this time.

"Hey, I created you! You better obey me!"

"She created it?" Wondered Silva before yelling at the tournament organizer "Hey, tournament girl! If she created the dragon, isn't it cheating that she can tame it?"

The girl thought for a moment, debating with herself about the best course of action. Before she could answer, the beast sent the anomaly flying through the arena once again.

"No, I think it's fine, it doesn't seem like it's affecting anything."

Silva still felt like it was unfair, but it seemed like the nun wouldn't get it anyway. After a few more tries, the anomaly gave up and stood away from the dragon.

"Well I don't care, I'll get a better mount than you!"

The beast seemed satisfied, as no one dared to defy him anymore. The crowd seemed bored, as indicated by the fact that they were booing the people in the arena for their cowardice. Annoyed by the lack of action from anyone, Silva decided to run toward the beast and yelled at it. Sepide was about to stop Silva from approaching the beast, but her friend acted too quickly to be stopped.

"I don't have time for that, I have more important to do! So make your choice or leave, I don't want to stay here all day because of an indecisive dumbass!"

The dragon approached his face at Silva, squinting his eyes at the girl. A few minutes of silence passed and none of the two moved away from the other. Suddenly, the dragon laid down in front of Silva, gently head-bumping her. The organizer of the tournament waited a bit to make sure, and once she was assured of it, she announced who managed to tame the dragon.

"Well it appears that Silva is the winner, she will be the one that gets to use this mount for the next trial."

Silva turned toward the tournament organizer, with confusion on her face.

"What?"

The crowd cheered for the confused Silva, while she was stepping back from the dragon.

"Wait, I never wanted that! He's too big for me, in both ways!"

The anomaly ran toward them and yelled at Silva while pointing at her.

"Why did you get it, that's cheating! You must have used black magic or something!"

Silva touched the dragon, which was completely submitted to her. She wasn't going to complain about the advantage that the dragon gave but still felt like she didn't deserve it. She gently rubbed its scaly face and gave it a cheerful smile.

"I'm going to name you dickhead!"

"No, you can't!" Yelled the anomaly "His name Is Snowflake!"

The guards entered the Colosseum and gestured for everyone to follow them toward the site of the second trial. The anomaly watched saddened as Silva and her pet newly named dickhead left the arena.

"His name is Snowflake..."

Silv went closer to her, also staring at the scene that she could not see.

"That's tough, even the narrator calls it dickhead now. Guess you'll have to win legit this time, no cheating."

"Hey, that wasn't cheating! Opal said it herself, in a trial, there are no rules!"

Silv stood there silently, captivated by her inner thoughts. The anomaly stood up and waved her hand in front of her eyes to get her attention.

"Ada to Silv, are you responding?"

"We can't win in the end, right Ada?" Asked Silv with an unusually monotone voice "The only reason we won is because you had treasures prepared in advance, so I can only imagine you did the same to other trials."

"Come on, it was just luck if we found three treasures at the same place!"

"Don't worry, I'm not mad." Said Silv with a smile "My life is basically a game I can't win, but I learned to make it fun. Even if this tournament is pointless, there's always a way to have some fun."

After giving her mysterious speech, the girl left to follow the guards. The anomaly followed her, unsure about what she planned to do.

Opal, the organizer of the tournament, took her papers and notebooks to leave toward the site of the second trial. But before leaving, she heard Neige making weird sounds. He was moving slightly like he was trapped in her nightmare. The girl looked around, making sure she was alone and put what she was holding on a table to make sure he was alright.

"... Sil... va..."

Opal gently caressed his hair, hoping to calm him from the ordeal he was put in. Neige didn't seem to feel any better, still grimacing with his face.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could do something for you. But don't worry, your friends are here now, they'll save you soon enough..."

Neige didn't react, still in a deep slumber. With a heavy heart, the girl took her belongings and prepared herself to leave.

"I know that it wasn't supposed to happen like that, but it will end soon, I promise... I wonder what you're dreaming about..."

After giving him a soft smile, Opal left as fast as she could to not end up late.