Tales From The Kronos

Silv and Silva both raced against each other, trying their best not to end up as the last one. Their speed was slower than if they ran on foot since none of them felt comfortable going faster and just followed their dragon's lead.

"Silva! Your end is near, I shall prove I'm the superior self! Not only that, but that I! Am the main character!"

"That's great Silv, but I'm trying to understand if I'm last or first, so be quiet."

Silv stayed silent, paying attention to her surroundings, looking as confused as Silva.

"Wait, you're right. Where are the others?"

"Yeah, see? I don't think we passed them, but it's kinda sad if we're last."

Silv took her revolver that she got from her first trial and shot in the general direction of Silva. The shot missed, but she couldn't tell by how much. All she knew was that neither Silva nor her dragon were affected.

"Did you... Try to shoot me?"

"Yeah, could have been fun, right?"

The fall toward the deepest part of the planet was painfully slow, but they both started to be more confident in their mounts and were getting slightly faster.

"What's the deal with you? What do you want?" Silva asked. She wasn't sure that Silv would answer, but nothing was happening, so she figured it was worth trying.

"I, have been blessed by the Goddess herself! I-"

Silv's mount suddenly hit a rock, forcing the girl to stop in her sentence. She managed to stabilize somehow but was clearly mad to be interrupted.

"Why won't anyone let the villain monologue!?"

Silva chuckled a bit before answering.

"You really think that you're in a movie or something."

"Shut up you human-shaped blobfish! You don't understand what is truly happening!"

Silva rolled up her eyes before taking a deep breath, ignoring Silv's words.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll need to find a way to win now!"

Silva tried to accelerate, she couldn't see anything but she wasn't going to give up without trying her best. Noticing Silva going away, Silv suddenly jumped toward her, barely grabbing her dragon's tail.

"Silv!? What are you doing?"

"You have a better dragon than mine, I'm just taking advantage of it!"

"You want to fight? On a dragon?"

"Are you crazy? I can barely feel where I am, there's no way I'm fighting you on that!"

Silva let out a weary sigh, already tired of this trial.

"I guess I'll have to deal with you later, for now, I'll just try to win the race. Or at least not lose it. I wonder how are Sepide and the leader..."

The leader managed to stay far ahead of everyone, expertly navigating in the tight spaces of the cavern. She could easily win the race if her focus weren't solely on the anomaly. The only thing on her mind was to defeat it by any means possible, even if it meant that she would be taking incredible risks in the cave. The anomaly tried her best to run away from her, but it was clear that she couldn't win against her.

"Hey, it's a race, not a fight!"

"But is it against the rules?" The leader said with a voice that ran chills down the anomaly's spine.

"Come on, you'll see your Neige soon, you just have to win!"

"I don't believe any of these words monster, you don't belong in this world!"

"Monster?" Said the anomaly, offended "I'm only trying to find a way to save humanity!"

"Humanity?!" The leader hit her dragon against the anomaly's, trying to make her fall "Since when do you care about humanity!? Have you seen the lives you've destroyed? The worlds you've led to their fall?"

"I know, I wasn't always the best. But even if I gave up on God, I still am a nun by heart, striving for the good in the world. It's just... It was hard without Neige, I think you can understand how it feels."

"Your Neige is no longer here, just give mine back!"

"Come on! You're being so stubborn!"

The leader still tried to attack the anomaly with her sword, putting all her strength into eliminating her.

"I'm stubborn? What makes you think that you have your place in this universe? You should have ceased to exist long ago!"

"You're me, right? Don't you think the same? How unfair life is for everyone, but now, I can change that! I could make a world where everyone is happy, and where no one will have to suffer."

"And your way of doing is putting people in a life-threatening tournament?"

"Okay, so first of all, I'm just helping Opal with it. Secondly, I'm doing it to see something. And thirdly, it's not that dangerous."

The cave was getting more and more open as they spoke until they were led to an immense room. It was filled with lava everywhere, still forming a tunnel toward the center of the planet.

"That's not dangerous?"

"Well, maybe a bit." Said anomaly with an uncertain voice "It was Opal's idea, not mine."

"And you think you're worthy of determining mankind's fate?"

"Hey, I never asked to be born with world-bending powers, and yet here I am. It would be a waste if I didn't use them. Like, what would you do if you could reshape the universe? Wouldn't you want to make the world a better place?"

The leader stayed silent for a moment, lost in her thoughts. She always wished to use the diary to make everything peaceful. If everyone was forced to do as she wished, none of that would have ever happened. The only thing stopping her was the promise she made to her friend.

"Neige told me that he would rather suffer to live his life, rather than live a life that someone made for him."

"Oh, he told you that too?" Said the anomaly with a smile "I envy him, he's so strong!"

"Yeah, sometimes I think that if he was the leader, everything would be much better."

"I understand how that feels if Neige was here instead of me, he would have dealt with everything in a much better way."

The leader thought about Neige for a while, before suddenly realizing who she was talking to.

"Well, you should have thought about it before, now your Neige is no longer there. Your existence is an affront to the Goddess!"

As she said those words, she suddenly jumped on the anomaly mount, facing her with her sword.

"What are you doing? You could die too!"

"My life is nothing, as long as Neige lives, I can consider my goal accomplished."

The anomaly took her spear and defended against the woman's assault the best she could. She knew that the end was near, if she could hold on until then, everything would be alright for her now. The two fought on the dragon's back, plunging deeper and deeper. A voice suddenly echoed through the upper part of the cave, stopping the fight between them.

"Leadeeeeer!"

In a fraction of a second, a huge dragon dived down. Leaving the two women speechless.

"Was that... Silva?"

"It's her dragon at least, but how did she go so fast?"

Polyetta looked at Silva going down with her dragon. She was worried for her but knew she had more important things to deal with.

"I knew she could make it, I just hope she'll manage to land safely."

"Yeah, it would be nice if we could land safely too, right? Maybe stop attacking me so I can pilot."

"You'd like that, huh? I'm going to take you in my grave if I must."

Kairo still tried to attack Sepide, while she did her best to dodge. They made it to a part of the cave that was entirely made of blue crystals. It was so reflective that they could see themselves in the wall of the mirror. Not only that, but they saw something that looked like the finish line. Kairo took back his weapon and stopped his aggression, to the surprise of Sepide.

"I can't see properly because of those crystals, and it's the end anyway, you're lucky."

"Lucky?" Asked Sepide, offended "You spent the last hour trying to kill me!"

"It's alright, even if not today, all life eventually comes to an end."

Sepide wasn't sure what he meant, she tried to understand but was suddenly interrupted by a huge dragon falling from the upper part of the cave like a meteor. She couldn't see who it was, but she recognized the beast and knew it was Silva. She looked at the sky above her and was left wondering how she managed to end up here. Even Kairo stood in shock, staring at her old friend falling down.

"S-Silva? She's always full of surprises..."