Tales From The Kronos

The spectators stared at Uriel's falling body in a stupor. The metallic sound of her corpse echoed in the Colosseum. Ada stared at her, only hoping she wouldn't wake up suddenly. Opal herself came into the ring to examine Uriel's body and stayed silent for a while. After a few seconds that lasted an eternity, she gave her verdict.

"Uriel is no longer able to fight, Ada wins."

Ada celebrated her victory, she expected the crowd to cheer but was instead met with disagreement from them. They were accusing her of cheating, begging for her to be disqualified. Sepide ran toward Uriel in the ring, still not believing what happened. Her eyes were open, but there wasn't any life in them. She turned toward Opal, hoping she would get an answer from her.

"What happened? Is it just that she doesn't have energy left? She'll wake up soon... Right?"

Opal shook her head and stood up. She read her notes, trying to search for something.

"This shouldn't have happened, there are no explanations." Opal turned toward Ada and asked her with a cold voice "You know that you aren't supposed to use your powers, right? We better not find out that you broke something inside of her."

"You can't prove I did anything! Maybe she just reached the end of her life suddenly, who knows?"

Sepide felt enraged toward her, just the thought that she could have hurt Uriel was too much for her. She took her firearm and aimed it at the anomaly, with tears all over her face.

"You cheated! You shouldn't have done that! She... She didn't deserve any of that."

"That's just how it is, I can't do anything about it."

Despite Ada's words, Sepide knew that she was the reason behind Uriel's fate. Before she could do anything, Opal took her gun from her hands.

"It's not allowed to fight against other contestants between fights."

Sepide wanted to argue back, her heart was racing and the hatred against Ada was the only thing she felt. She tried to calm herself, afraid she could cause problems if she left her emotions to get the better of her. Opal nudged her slightly with her shoulder and handed her a kind of metallic bloc once she got Sepide's attention.

"You were friends with Uriel apparently, I think you should have it then, it's her hard drive."

Sepide wasn't sure what it was exactly but accepted the gift. Everyone left the ring, while the crowd still booed Ada.

Despite everything that happened, the tournament continued. The next two contestants entered the ring. On one side was Silv and on the other stood Eve. Before the fight even started, Eve already felt exasperated.

"I'm just a nun, why am I here? And why are you my opponent?"

"Come Eve! It was fun to team up together!"

"No... It wasn't..."

Eve had a wooden staff in her hand, she visibly wasn't confident about her chance of winning. Unlike Silv, who seemed to have way too much fun for the situation they were in.

"For our third fight, Silv will face Eve. May the best win!"

The fight officially began and Silv took the gun she had in her third trial in her hand. It only had one bullet in it but it was still a dangerous weapon.

"I'm sorry Eve, but I'd like to get to the fun chapters quickly."

Silv pressed the trigger, she expected the fight to end right there but the gun didn't fire anything. No matter how hard she tried, nothing would happen.

"That's unlucky." Eve said those words like she knew it would happen, she swung her staff at Silv, who dodged at the last second.

"What do you mean unlucky? Did you cheat?"

"No, I'm just naturally lucky, and by extension, my enemies are unlucky."

Silv didn't have any other weapon, all she could do was run away from the nun while still paying attention to not leaving the ring.

"You may be lucky, but I know all your moves!"

"I know." Answered Eve with an annoyed voice "I'm sure I'll just get lucky eventually."

Silv managed to find an opening for an attack and tried to throw away the gun itself at her. But the weapon stayed stuck in her hand until she threw it on the ground. Silv realized had paint on her hand and that it made the gun stick to her hand.

"Why weren't you lucky like that when we worked together?"

"I guess it's because I didn't do anything, you all did most of the job."

Eve continued to attack randomly, trying to land any blow with her staff. Silv wasn't sure how she would manage to win, her strength alone was clearly inferior to Eve's staff. Every time she would approach, she ran the risk of losing on the spot. if she did, Eve's divine luck would make her lose, or she would take a hit if she wasn't being careful enough.

"Hey, Eve! I'm going to attack! You better dodge!"

Eve was confused about Silv's sentence, why would she warn her about her intentions? Either way, she decided to dodge when she saw Silv running toward her. She planned to counter-attack, but Silv stepped back instead of attacking.

"Are you just mocking me?" Asked Eve offended.

"Don't worry, I'm going to attack for real this time!"

Eve wasn't sure if she was telling the truth now. This time she decided that she would attack first and throw a hit whenever Silv got close. But unlike last time, Silv didn't even get close.

"I don't understand what you're doing, you're supposed to fight you know?"

Silv ignored Eve's sentence and instead yelled her next move again.

"I'm going to punch you!"

Eve was getting seriously annoyed, she knew that Silv wouldn't do anything and just waste her time. It was better for her to think about a way to beat her quickly. Silv approached her, she tried to attack with her staff but Silv managed to dodge it, surprising the nun. Silv was right next to her now and managed to punch Eve in the guts and steal her staff from her. When she stepped back, however, she lost balance and made the staff fall outside the ring.

"I hate being unlucky..." Silv considered reaching for the staff but didn't want to take the risk of losing and instead woke up.

"How do you always know what I'm doing? I'm sure you're cheating!"

"I'm not cheating, I'm just very good at knowing what you think!"

Eve let out an exhausted sigh and raised her hand to the air while turning toward Opal.

"I give up, I can't win against her."

"Are you sure?" Opal asked "She just hit you once."

"I lost my weapon and honestly, I don't think I can win against her, she always knows what I'm doing. I'm just leaving before anything worse happens."

"Very well. Silv won, Eve forfeited."

Silv tried her best to appear confident but she was glad this fight was over. All she could hope was that her next contestant wasn't going to be someone too strong for her.

Only two persons were left for the first round of the tournament. Kairo and his former leader. They both stepped into the arena, everyone stayed silent looking at the two facing each other, feeling the tension in the air. Both had the intention of putting their all in it.

"Onto the fourth and final fight of the first round! Yada versus Kairo, may the best win, and without cheating please..."

The fight barely started and the leader had already taken her sword in her hand, rushing toward her former member. Kairo managed to defend the slash from the sword with his axe but noticed that this time, the leader was trying to end it quickly. Still, he couldn't allow himself to give up just yet.

"I'm sorry leader, but I need to win. I am so close to seeing the truth, and I won't stop now."

"I don't care about your backstory! I just want to see Neige again!"

The woman moved her sword swiftly and precisely like she was dancing with her blade. Kairo could barely find a moment to attack, buried in the hits of his former leader. He was forced to step back from her, leading him dangerously close to the limit of the ring. Seeing an opportunity, the man tried to swing his axe at his former leader. The blade of the axe barely touched the woman, and now Kairo was opened to an attack. He dodged as fast as he could but the sword of the leader gave a clear cut on the right part of his face. The axe fell from his hand as he tried to cover his bleeding right eye.

Kairo thought it meant defeat, that his former leader would offer him a chance to give up, but instead, she was already prepared to swing her sword again. She was really serious about ending it once and for all, death was facing him, getting as close as it could to him. Kairo took a step back in reflex, almost sure his life would end there.

"Kairo stepped out of the ring, Yada won!"

Kairo couldn't believe what just happened. The leader stopped her attack and left the arena like nothing happened. The crowd was cheering as the man fell to the ground, still not realizing what happened. His life flashed in front of his eyes, his body was still shaking from what just occurred. At this moment, he realized that he never had a chance to begin with and that his former leader was way more skilled than him. Even if he lived today, he knew the next time he would face his former leader, no rules would save him.