Tales From The Kronos

Silva tried to go faster, but the cave suddenly became tighter. Silv was still holding onto the dragon's tail, her dire situation didn't stop her from annoying Silva in her focus.

"Can you go faster? We haven't seen anyone yet, we're still last!"

"You're lucky I can't eject you, I'd give so much for you to shut up!"

They persisted in their descent that appeared to stretch into infinity. After a moment, they finally managed to find other racers on the way, visibly fighting together.

"Hey, we're not going to be last anymore!" Silv yelled with enthusiasm upon hearing them.

One of the two contestants let his guard down, letting the other get away. The one who was attacking looked at his prey running away, it didn't take long before his rage redirected toward the two girls.

"You distracted me, I was about to win!"

"Have you seen the dragon we have?!" Yelled Silv with confidence "You don't want to be our enemy!"

"What?" Unlike Silv, Silva felt panicked about the idea of getting into a fight and tried to take the most innocent voice she could "Come on, we're blind, we don't want any problems!"

The angry man tried to attack Silva in frustration. Because she couldn't see the attack coming, her mount took the hit, which seemed to be hurt because of it. It became hard for her to control her dragon, their speed was getting higher and higher to the misfortune of the two girls. The man tried to continue his attack, but they were too fast for him and soon got away from his range.

"Hey cheaper me, can you slow down!?" Silv yelled while grabbing tightly onto the dragon's tail.

"I wish I could, but Dickhead doesn't obey me anymore."

Silva tried her best to pilot her dragon, but the effort was in vain as her mount wouldn't obey any of her orders. All she could do was pray and hope that they would make it to the end alive.

The cave seemed to get tighter, as the dragon kept hitting the walls of the cave and bouncing around. Silv especially suffered from it, since the beast would wave its tail around as it hit the walls of the cave.

"I'm going to puke... It's a horrible experience..."

"Do you ever shut up?"

After a while of bouncing around the movements suddenly stopped, probably because they left the tighter parts of the cave. For some reason, it started being hotter around, Silva figured that it meant they were getting closer to the end by now. Their fall continued steadily, they passed multiple racers and probably secured their places for the next trial.

"Hey, I think it's okay to slow down now..." Silv said with a weak voice.

"For the last time, I can't slow down!"

"Can't you find a way? It's insanely fast and It's getting tiring to grab the same thing for hours!"

Silva was tempted to ignore her, but she also felt kinda bad for her for some reason. She grabbed the rein with one hand and tried her best to get close enough for Silv to grab her hand.

"What are you doing!? Pilot the thing!"

"Come on, I'm helping you right here. And it's basically in autopilot."

Silv reluctantly climbed the tail, getting closer to Silva. Once she managed to grab her hand, they both returned to the dragon's back thanks to the rein. Silva managed to stay steady on her mount, while Silv was holding her as tightly as she could.

"Now you better shut up, or I throw you away."

"... It burned when you took my hand."

Finally in silence, Silva tried to understand where they were, but sadly she couldn't determine what was happening.

They continued to fall, getting faster each second. Silva heard a familiar voice, it was faint, but it was obvious to her who it was.

"Leadeeeeer!"

Before she could catch her leader's attention, Silva passed her in a fraction of a second. Silv looked behind, just now realizing the speed they were going at.

"I don't mean to complain, but how are we going to land?"

"It's fine, I'll find a way."

Silva thought for a moment, still trying to feel her environment. The cavern seemed colder again now for some reason, leaving her confused.

"Isn't it supposed to be hotter if we get to the center of a planet?"

"I don't think it applies here." Said Silv "I think the dumb-sounding girl said that the center of the planet was cold. Didn't you listen?"

"Yeah, but there are so many things happening. I don't have the brain power to remember anything."

"So what you're saying is that you're my other self but that you're dumber than me..."

"I'm saying that I have better things to think about!"

A voice could be heard again, it sounded like Kairo, but once again, she went too fast to hear anything. Their fall started to get slower as if the dragon itself decided to finally slow down. But even despite their slower speed, they crashed on the ground, ejecting them from the dragon.

Silva finally felt the ground again but was too dizzy to even realize what happened. She stood up when someone grabbed her hand and raised it to the sky.

"We have our first winner, Silva!"

Silva recognized Opal's voice despite her shock. She searched around and left Opal to go toward her dragon. He seemed to be alive, even if it wasn't a pleasant ride for him.

"Dickhead! Are you alright?"

Opal walked toward her slowly and explained in a soft voice.

"He'll be alright, he was made to last. He just needs a little break."

Silva was relieved to hear those words. Silv approached them, staggering while trying to keep her balance.

"Hey, I'm here too..."

"Wait, were you two together?" Asked Opal, searching for Silv's dragon "I guess you made it in the end, congratulations, you got the second place."

A few minutes barely passed and Kairo and Sepide both landed, finishing the race. The group sat on the side to wait for the other contestants. Sounds came out of the upper part of the cavern, sounds of metal clashing. Soon after, a dragon crashed, with the leader and the anomaly both on board. They both fell away from each other, but the leader took her sword back, and directly headed toward the anomaly. Opal had to intervene and put herself on her way to stop her from continuing her assault.

"The trial is over for you, interfering with the other contestants will be considered as against the rules, and you'll be forced to leave."

The leader stopped in her tracks, giving a deadly look at the anomaly as she walked away from her. Silva and Sepide joined her, excited to all be together once more.

"Silva, Leader! I'm glad you made it!" Said Sepide with a smile.

"To be honest, I have no idea how."

The leader stayed silent, still thinking about the anomaly. She knew she always had another opportunity to, but she wished she could have ended it all here.

Everyone seemed to arrive at the end, they all grouped around Opal, waiting for her to tell the results of the race.

"I didn't expect everyone here to survive, but it's great you did. You're really different from the others."

"The others?" Asked Silva curiously "There was already a tournament like that before?"

"You could say that, but everyone died on the second trial. I'm glad that you lasted longer this time. Anyway, twelve contestants managed to advance to the next trial. For now, we'll all return to the surface and take a well-deserved break."

Opal led everyone to a kind of giant elevator, visibly leading to the surface. Almost everyone entered inside, except for the leader, who stayed behind to talk with the girl privately.

"I have a question about the rules."

"Yes?" Asked Opal with a neutral tone.

"If the ano... If Ada dies, do we still get a wish?"

"I think you want to know whether Neige would be safe if she died, right?"

The leader stayed silent, enough to answer the girl's question.

"He'll be fine, don't worry. But she's the one granting the wish, so if she dies, don't ask for a new planet or something because I can't do that."

"I'm okay with that, thanks."

The leader was about to leave but before she could, Opal took her by the arm and talked in a softer voice.

"You're doing a good job so far, never fall into insanity and you'll make the Goddess glad."

The woman seemed to be affected by those words at first but quickly removed her arm from the girl's touch.

"Why do you talk like you know anything?"

"Because I do."

The leader left toward the elevator without another word. Opal took one last look at her notes and followed her inside, leading everyone to the surface.