Destiny (Part 4)

The marbled glass. Six people stood in a circle. The table a circle. The glass a circle. The marble ceiling, marble floor, marble walls, marble pillars, marble faces.

An old man walked into the marble hall. The six people at the round table split apart to make room for the new arrival.

The old man in long robes, reaching the floor, dragging three feet behind.

"Welcome Guild Master." (Yorda)

They all bowed their heads in the Guild Master's presence. The new faces, the pure faces, the new faces.

"It is nice to see all your faces. May we start our buisness." (Guild Master)

"Guild Master? Why did you bring us all here?" (Tenosu)

"Ha! Tenosu you've turned senile. Old man isn't it that time of year again?" (Yung)

The Guild Master stepped up to the table. He leaned forward.

"Exactly Yung. It is that time of year again. The Promotional Trials." (Guild Master)

"And why are the A-Ranks here?" (MeloMelo)

"I personally asked you to help coordinate this event." (Guild Master)

He turned to MeloMelo and smiled.

"Melo Melo I am grateful for your cooperation." (Guild Master)

"But Guild Master why so many of us. Four A-Ranks and the old martial masters Tenosu and Yung? Aren't the annalists and coordinators good enough?" (Yorda)

A fifth A-Rank leaned forward on the round table.

"Is it that you don't trust those white-masked annalists sent by the king?" (Bellix)

"Not exactly Bellix. It is something much more horrific." (Guild Master)

The Guild Master turned away from the table. His wrinkly old hands shaking, his old face cowering in regret and past pain.

"Guild Master, what is it?" (Yorda)

"Old man does it have to do with the-" (Yung)

"Not another word Yung! We don't need to talk about them now. This has to do with the Kingdom of Albatra." (Guild Master)

MeloMelo stomped over to the other side of the marble room. He leaned against a marble pillar.

"Let me guess, Guild Master? It's time to take back our Kingdom?" (MeloMelo)

"Yes." (Guild Master)

---

"Kid you are perfect!" (Yung)

Axel leaned forward covered in bruises, his body bent and bleeding. he breathed heavily, his exhaustion showing.

"You're... You're a monster." (Axel)

Yung stepped forward.

"Are you done already? Or you want to keep going?" (Yung)

Axel pushed himself up.

"We're not done here." (Axel)

It gave way. His left knee falling flat to the floor. Breathing harder and harder. He held himself up by pure will.

"Are you one hundred percent sure, kid?" (Yung)

Axel forced himself to stand up. He stepped forward. Yung stopped talking, he stepped forward as well.

"I'm not giving up!" (Axel)

"Fine, I did warn you. Just be prepared." (Yung)

The extreme amount of Harmony. It overflowed from Yung. From his pores to his skin. Like red smoke, it floated ominously in the air. A pure intent, a pure goal, pure Harmony.

"Run! Run! Run! Run! Run!" (Gabriel)

Axel smirked. The voice of Gabriel spamming across his mind.

"He's telling me to run again. This is the first time I've heard him so scared." (Axel)

"Who are you talking about?" (Yung)

"Run!" (Gabriel)

"You really are a monster." (Axel)

He looked at his left hand. His right eye missing. His silver eye glistening. He swallowed his doubt.

"Let's go!" (Axel)

---

Meanwhile.

On the second floor of the colosseum, in a closed-off dark room, a wooden sword pointed at twenty D-Rank Adventurers. A bald old man with a long white beard. The two opposing sides.

"D-Ranks. Please stay seated. No need to leave just yet." (Tenosu)

"What are you saying we can't leave?!" (D-Rank Tank, George Ginger)

Five D-Ranks stepped up to the old man. They pulled out their hidden weapons. Tenosu closed his eyes.

"Old man get out of the way and let us pass!" (D-Rank Attacker, Lorance Tim)

Lorance and George stepped up from the group. They both held their respective swords. They pointed them at the old man.

"What are you saying, old man?! That we sit still as the other D-Ranks participate in the trials?" (George Ginger)

More D-Ranks stepped up inspired and angry.

"Yeah wait!? It's been half an hour? Shouldn't the trials have started by now?" (D-Rank Magician, Carlos)

Tenosu lowered his wooden sword.

"You are all correct. The trials are about to start. But I have permission over this group. It is my job." (Tenosu)

Gen hid in the corner. Her body slouched down, keeping itself cool whilst the action unfolded from a distance away.

"What do you mean by job?!" (Lorance Tim)

All the D-Ranks stepped forward in unison.

"It is. A secret." (Tenosu)

Geroge Ginger looked closely at the old man. He lit a match in the dimly lit room and tossed it to the floor. A flicker back and forth, orange against the beige walls, waves of light, on and off.

"Hey, old man are you bluffing us? What your saying makes no sense. Jobs secrets, whatever. Just let us out! Am I right guys?" (George Ginger)

In unison they marched. The nineteen feet at once, stomping in order, a formation, a line. Getting closer and closer. George stared down the Tenosu. The other D-Rank magicians lit up small flickers of light Harmony. The old man's bald head, its perfectly smooth surface.

"Old man move!" (George Ginger)

"Yeah move!" (All D-Ranks)

"I wonder. Did the others have as much trouble. As me..." (Tenosu)

"Huh?" (Lorance Tim)

Sting! Clank!

In an instant, Tenosu stood on the other end of the room. His wooden sword across the air pointed to the sky. Gen looked up at the old man. She looked at the nineteen other D-Ranks, their still bodies, their weapons falling from their heads. hitting the ground with metallic rings and bangs.

Tenosu glanced down at Gen before turning away in a stylish swerve. All the D-Ranks fell over at once, their bodies becoming lifeless and limp. The old man with the bald head, his long white beard that touched his stomach. He slid his wooden sword into his tight belt that wrapped along his loose jeans.

"I am done here. My job is elsewhere." (Tenosu)

He walked up to the door pushing the unconscious bodies away at every step he walked. Gen looked up in amazement. She crawled over to one of the D-Ranks bodies. She looked at their skin, their faces, their bodies. Whit specks floating up. Little stars sparkling across the skin. Every single one of them. She reached for the old man about to leave the room.

"What did you do?!" (Gen)

Tenosu quickly turned back at the last second.

"Little girl. I did nothing. They just fell... Victim." (Tenosu)

Gen pulled out all of her courage, all of her inner shyness, her awkwardness. She remembered the fear of the undead. The feeling of hopelessness. A powerful enemy that she couldn't fathom. She thought about Axel and Mel. The short week she knew them. She thought about her own future. As a Porter. As an Adventurer.

"Sir! I... Can you teach me! Train me! Can I become your student!" (Gen)

Tenosu tossed his wooden sword to her.

"When they wake. Don't let them leave. Not one step. No one can leave this room... I will be back in two. Hours. If you survive this task. Then you will become my student." (Tenosu)

"Yes!" (Gen)

---

Axel laid on the floor exhausted. Yung was perfectly immaculate.

"Yung? I want to ask a question." (Axel)

The buff old man in the tank top and short shorts leaned over Axel.

"Yeah ask away. You deserve it kid." (Yung)

"Just before me a young boy came in. How did he do?" (Axel)

"Kid? No, no kids came in here except you." (Yung)

Axel sat up.

"Then..." (Axel)

"The kid your talking about probably passed the Harmony test with flying marks. I don't actually have any say in the final Rank results. But... I am allowed to test." (Yung)

"So... A-Rank. B-Rank. The whole-" (Axel)

"Yup yup yup. I lied. You were really Ranked F. But... If I could rank you... I would-" (Yung)

"I don't want to know." (Axel)

Yung looked surprised.

"You don't?!" (Yung)

"Ranks. Games. Fun... I don't care. I don't... I don't know what I'm doing here... That kid... He's... Gabriel!"

Yung grabbed Axel by the shoulders. His nose bleeding. His face punched and bruised.

---

The darkness enveloped. A world inside his head. Endless void, floating naked, mindless, lifeless. The figure. The figure. The figure.

"Gabriel! Who are you?! What are you?! Why are you talking to me?! Why are you in my head?! Answer my questions! Answer! My! Questions!" (Axel)

The void swallowed every vowel, phrase, verse, sentence. He floated. His muscular body leveled with blackness. A comparison. Floating. Floating. He stopped floating-

---

Axel pondered his own mind. The feeling of that kid, the way he talked, walked, carried himself. It felt like destiny was on his back, ready to swing or slash at any moment.

Axel opened his eyes. He was now outside. In the stands of the colosseum. Yung sat in the seat next to where he was laying. He sat watching the show.

The screams.

"Old man? What do you know about destiny?" (Axel)

The blood.

He turned away with a smile on his face.

The gore.

"Destiny is..." (Yung)

A black evil erupted in the far distance.

"Run!" (Gabriel)