"Welcome back to the Redemption Round ladies and gentlemen. In this round we have two contenders." The host paused before extending her right arm, gesturing towards the silhouette. "To my right, we have a gentleman that won the hearts of many with his performance in the Arena. Give it up for the gallant Venusian dreamboat, Chris!" She announced, the spotlight showed the handsome Venusian blonde in his blue suit as he flashed a smile, the audience gave a round of applause. Some fangirls were shouting his name. A manly voice hollered, "FIGHT ME CHRIS!" Though Uiwo wouldn't be surprised that his younger muscular brother did something like that.

Oh, brother. Uiwo rolled his eyes as his suspicions were confirmed when Ximo whistled at Chris.

"To my left, we have a young summoner who fought valiantly against a skilled elf. Despite this, it didn't stop him from falling out of bounds. So he's back for another round, give it up for the contractor, Ryan!" The host enunciated as she stretched her left arm for the spotlight to hit him. Ryan raised his arm to block out the spotlight from his eyes.

The scarred sorcerer hid in plain amidst the spectators far in the back row. Violet felt a dark presence nearby, as her amethyst eyes darted, as if she sensed an ominous shadow lurked around the corner. Then the Morean Maiden saw them look at each other, just as she had foreseen in her vision.

Ryan looked at Chris. He had a vague memory of who the blond was. Teleportation…? Or was it invisibility? Chris’s battle was a blur to Ryan. If anything, Ryan believed he was overthinking things. He was getting more nervous than when had fought against any of the deities or even against Prometheus. Ryan scoffed at his own thought. Nervous against Prometheus…? Ha! I was scared senseless.

Nonetheless, he for once felt confident. With the physical enhancement from Felin, he was ready. He couldn’t let her down, now that she was able to trust him fully.

He rubbed his wrist. He began to sign a rune behind his back. Chris waited for Ryan to act first. Ryan understood what was happening. So, after a few signs, Ryan dashed towards Chris. He signed a lightning rune and spoke its name. A lightning bolt shot at Chris.

Chris, leaning against a wall he made appear, raised his hand and made a swipe motion with it. The lighting swerved and hit the wall right next to Chris's head.

Chris yawned and looked at Ryan as he said, "This is boring. Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"

Ryan stopped his advance. He bit down on his teeth. He signed the same runes, fling three more bolts.

Chris raised his hand, swiping it across the air and the bolts missed him by inches once again, and flew towards the sky where they collided with each other and let down let out a show of colourful lights.

This is endless. They both thought.

Ryan didn’t stop. He repeated the attacks. Chris repeated his defense. He was getting bored, or rather he was not getting amused for he was bored at the beginning.

“Is that really the only thing you know?” Chris scoffed. “No wonder you have those two henchmen by your side.”

Ryan didn’t respond. He didn’t want to fall for the provocation. He signed another rune. Chris’s eyebrow furrowed as he heard a different word. But the same lightning bolt shot out.

“Seriously,” Chris spoke. He waved his finger. The lightning lit up then shed its luminous skin, and a fire bolt preceded it. Shocked, Chris flashed out of the way before its impact. He chuckled as he appeared next to the explosion. “Now that was almost fun.”

From the audience, Hexice watched. His diamond eye slightly opened. “Another teleporter…” His leg shook with anticipation. He pinned his legs down with his hands. But his whole body jittered instead. He stood up. With arms wide open, he shouted, “I’m in love!” At this time, the people had barriers up, separating him from them. They were tired of hearing his perverse comments.

Back on stage, Ryan was rushing at Chris. He signed another rune. Chris knew the trick. He was ready to deflect the feigned bolt and the one within it. And so, he did. But Ryan didn’t stop. Neither did Chris. A few steps away, Ryan leapt into the air. He used both hands to sign the same rune. Shouting their name, a wildfire smothered Chris's vision. Ryan came down with his fist, striking the floor. Chris disappeared.

He then appeared behind Ryan, and tapped a shoulder.

Ryan erected his back as he turned to look. Chris laughed. He laughed so hard that he had to make a wall to lean on so he wouldn't fall. To Ryan’s surprise, Chris had no mark of damage, not even the tips of his yellow hair were singed. Ryan shook his hand, flinging off the dirt on his knuckles.

"You are a fun guy!" Chris exclaimed.

Chris raised his hand and Ryan went flying through the air and then landed on his butt with a thud.

"I would have thought you could have landed more gracefully. I mean a cat can land better than you." Chris ridiculed Ryan, laughing harder now.

Ryan rubbed his rear as he started to laugh. Chris tilted his head, curious as to why Ryan would be laughing at such a humiliating state. Ryan jumped onto his feet and dusted himself off.

“I’m not like Felin, birthed from a lioness,” Ryan commented. “And no matter how many times Breloq drops me in mid-air with his teleportation gates, I will never be able to recover from such air time. Gravity is such a pain.”

Ryan lazily signed another lightning rune. 

Hexice’s face scrunched, wrinkles formed around his eyes and nose. He just had an unfavourable future. 

Chris rolled his eyes. He materialized a metal rod, stabbing it into the ground. The lightning curved to the rod, struck it, and travelled into the floor.

“Ah…” Ryan breathed. Teleportation, telekinesis, and now, materialization… He might as well be a god. Ryan thought. I can deal with the teleportation since that is similar to Breloq. The telekinesis would have to be similar to Tantetra’s elemental control. And materialization, I suppose that would be like Vivanastra’s but on a smaller scale, yet still dangerous and annoying. Irritated, he ruffled his hair on the back of his head.

“Are you finished thinking?” Chris hollered. “Don’t knock yourself out from it. I want to do that.” He leaned on the metal rod. Wiggling his finger, and provoking Ryan, he spoke, “Come at me… but with something that is not a lightning bolt.”

Ryan scribbled four runes in four different directions. He spoke their names. Chris waited for the attack, but nothing seemed to happen. He then realized it was air. At the last second, he swiped his arm in front of him. The wind curved around him. Before he could make his snarky remark, four runes appeared. He instantly teleported away. As he appeared a couple of meters away, he witnessed nothing. The four runes stayed put.

A feint...? Or a trap? Chris thought. “You seem to have quite a bit of tricks,” he giggled. “I love a good magic trick.” He bluffed. As amusing as it was, the attacks were getting closer to him. If Ryan did have more tricks, then this was just the beginning. Chris contemplated whether or not he should just end the fight.

Chris decided it was time to get a tiny bit serious about the situation if he wanted to make it home in time to eat María's cooking.

Chris raised his hands, and the ground began to shake as walls rose from the ground surrounding Ryan.

Ryan tried to push the walls down but they were held strong. He drew a wind rune. Wind came fast and strong, crumbling the walls to pieces.

Ryan ran around the edge of the arena. He sent relentless barrages of magic at Chris. Chris deflected each wave. Then, he directed a lightning bolt back at Ryan. Ryan signed a rune and the bolt vanished. Chris stood in his spot as Ryan came closer.

Ryan was all heated up. Rage was building up inside him. His heart pounded against his ears. Veins propped up underneath the skin of his hands, and though covered by his long sleeves, crawled up his arm. His body was burning. He yearned for the win. He was enjoying the fight. 

Meanwhile, Felin and Breloq were watching Ryan. Breloq turned his attention to Felin as he heard her breathing aggressively. To his perplexity, Felin’s fangs were protruding from her mouth. Her claws extended, tearing into her oversized shirt and scratching the skin of her legs. She deeply breathed, and even growled as she exhaled. Unsettled by what was happening to her, he got out one of his keys. He shoved the key into her head and twisted. He locked her mind, putting her to sleep. Her body flopped onto the chair, calm, quiet, and back to her normal non-beastly self. He stroked her hair as he continued to watch the fight.

Once more, he summoned a wall of flames. And with a similar trick, he jabbed through the fire. Chris had already repositioned himself at another spot on the edge of the stage. Ryan signed more runes as he taunted Chris, “Have a taste of your own medicine.” The ground shook beneath Chris. Earth pillars erected from the ground. Chris flashed out of the way and reappeared a meter away. The pillars continued to shoot up, chasing him across the stage. Once at the opposite end, the pillars stopped. Chris chuckled as his breather. Water then flushed down from the sky, wrapping him in a bubble. He, however, escaped it, placing himself next to Ryan.

“Nice try!” Chris grunted with annoyance. With the flick of wrist, the earth pillars snapped. The loose ends slinged at Ryan, smothering him.

“I agree!” Ryan said at the center of the stage.

“What?” Chris breathed realizing he struck an afterimage. He waved his hand. The pillars obeyed. They struck Ryan. But, Ryan decomposed the pillars with his runes. Chris was riled up. He was beyond annoyed. All the teleporting, and telekinesis were making him tired, and yet Ryan seemed to be scribbling the runes at his own leisure. It was supposed to be an easy fight. He had the upper hand. Ryan was nothing special, just a weak, inferior teen who can’t even land a hit. Yet, neither could Chris to Ryan. I hate you! Chris growled. He repeated those words. I hate you! With no other option, he did something he would never do. He decided to get his own hands dirty. He vanished. 

Ryan stepped back, cautious of the next move. There was no sign of Chris. Did he teleport? Ryan thought. No… I don’t see him though. His eyes scoured the grounds.. He spotted some sediments move. Invisibility…! Ryan struck the spot with lightning. 

Chris went behind Ryan. He prepared a kick. Ryan countered. Chris vanished. Just as he appeared a couple meters in front of Ryan, Chris motioned his fingers. The runes etched in the air glowed and faded. Stone wrapped around Ryan's feet, holding him down, stopping Chris's telekinesis. Chris hissed. 

I need to win…! They both thought. 

Chris mustered up all his power. The stage shook. Ryan smirked. The stage lit up with glowing runes. Ryan had been etching the runes as he moved around. The elemental strikes were carefully marked. The singed grounds, the air runes, the earth pillars, and the water bubble sizzled away. A huge rune inscribed itself in the ground.

Within the spectators, Hexice jumped off his seat. “Stop the fight!” He shouted. No one answered. The crowd, judges and even the referees were enthralled by the sight. They were curious about the ending, an ending that Hexice already saw and did not want to see happen. Understanding that no one was going to stop the fight, he intervened. Both eyes opened wide. They glowed. The black of the spade spreaded like creeping shadows, while the diamond shimmered like the sun and stars. Holographic screens covered the sky. There were hundreds of thousands of them, countless to be accurate. Each showed an alternate fate, a different path, a possible outcome. Quickly as they appeared, they merged several at a time until two screens were left. One showed Ryan’s defeat, and the other Chris’s. The fate merged. With a blinding flash, both contestants dropped unconscious. Hexice stood at the center of the undisturbed stage. His diamond was ironically bleeding. He exhaled. “My goodness… what a hassle, intervening a mundane event.”

A siren went off, signalling the end of the battle. Everyone was confused. The crowd was silent. A quiet applause was made. But whispers mostly filled the place. Hexice took the limelight into his own hands. He took off his hat and gave a deep bow all around.

As the match ended, Erica cut to commercial. The paramedics brought the stretchers, two men had hefted the Venusian to the stretcher, while a woman lifted Ryan's head while another male paramedic had lifted Ryan's torso to accommodate him to the stretcher before they were taken to the infirmary. The Deity of Fate also exited the platform as he lowered his hat to cover the bleeding eye. The host entered the platform and into walked into the ground and saw the rune inscribed a large ᛏ though it was erroneously mistaken for an arrow.

Natalie looked at where the rune was pointing, as she looked forward she saw a hooded man sitting on the back row just as the tall man stood up and got out of the seat and walked away.

Hexice quietly closed the infirmary doors behind him. Air rushed between his teeth as he took a deep breath in. And released a quick exhale. His spade eye creeped open as he turned to walk. As he placed his palm on the closed diamond eye, he spotted Ryo walking towards him. Hexice began his march. The black spade shifted to the elf. Their eyes met. But the elf ignored the 7 feet tall deity.

“Nulekai,” Hexice spoke. Both of them stopped in their tracks. Ryo turned on his toes. His eyes furrowed, glaring at the Deity of Fate. He wanted to confirm what he heard. “I would prefer if you would keep that man away from Ryan,” Hexice continued without looking at Ryo.

“What do you mean?” Ryo inquired, keeping his distance.

Hexice twirled around. His skirt dragged along the floor. He unveiled his closed eye. There was a tattoo of a red blood trail leading down from the bottom of the lower lid to the middle of his cheek. “The necromancer has entered the stage.” He opened his diamond eye. But this time, there was no shining, yellow diamond. Instead, that eye was all white. No pupil, or shape of any kind. Even the casted shadow from his wide brim hat could not mask the blank slate of an eye. “His target is not simply you.”

Ryo paced towards the porcelain being. His hand jerked forward wanting to grasp onto something. Ironically, there was nothing to get a hold of. Neither the tightly wrapped chest bandages nor the long dragging skirt would make a threatening pose. His fingers curled as he withheld his anger. “Stop with the riddles and out with it already,” the elf spoke with a calmed tone.

“He desires for things like you. Somehow, Ryan fits those standards,” Hexice started to explain. “For Breloq’s sake, I need Ryan to be alive… And for him to be alive, and in the upcoming future, I need you to keep the necromancer away from him.” 

The deity’s words still confused the elf. Yet, Ryo refused to acknowledge the potential dangers he placed by leading his enemy to the arena. His eyes scanned Hexice’s face. He wondered if the black spade, the pure white eye and the blood tattoo had anything to do with those words. “Where is he then?” The elf asked as he dismissed the tangent thoughts. “If you know his whereabouts, then I need to know.”

Hexice closed the white eye. With his pointer finger, he wiped it across the blood trail despite knowing he can’t clean it. He rubbed his undirtied finger with his thumb. “Ironically, the only time I don’t feel ecstatic about not knowing the future is this one. I am no more useful as you are.” Hexice turned to leave. “Search for yourself…” His voice echoed in the hall. “And most importantly, deal with it yourself.”

Ryo watched the Deity of Fate disappear around the corner. “Nulekai…” He uttered under his breath with gritted teeth.

“Hexice,” ParaVi called via telepathy. “What is happening with Felin and Ryan?”

   
Hexice hid himself from the crowd. He watched the bystanders pass him. He kept a poker face as he telepathically returned the call, “Whatever do you mean?”

   
“Don’t play dumb,” ParaVi replied. “I saw Breloq subdue Felin during Ryan’s fight. And not to mention your interference with the fight.”

   
“An inevitable event,” Hexice said. “With so many people here, certain futures are locked regardless of anyone’s intervention, including myself.” He touched his tattooed blood.

   
“Then I can presume that your powers are down in the meantime,” ParaVi said as he saw Hexice through his Oculli.

   
Hexice waved, hoping that ParaVi would see the greeting. “Now, everything will be dust in the air. You and I will not be able to see what comes next.” Hexice began to walk. He turned a corner. “Tantetra!” He thought and spoke aloud as he encountered her. His eyes jolted to the side as he heard ParaVi repeat her name.

   
Catching on, Tantetra spoke to both of them, “One of you needs to explain Ryan’s temper to me.” With no answer after a few seconds, she continued, “I taught him that Rune arrangement for life threatening purposes. What I can see is a mere spar for a mundane prize.”

   
Hexice took off his hat and held it in front of him. Hiding behind his hat, he answered, “I am unsure.” Tantetra pulled out a golden, smoking pipe and pointed it at Hexice. Nervous, he added, “It’s a bond.”

   
“A bond?” She repeated.

   
“Between Felin and Ryan… Being a Deity of Trust, they may have created a bond between them, linking their emotions and powers… I believe.”

   
“You believe?”

   
“Indeed. This is new, perhaps. Maybe Pathalias knows more. You know, Deity of Bonds, and such… Yet, I still doubt it since if that knowledge is present and available, I should have seen it coming… with depth.”

   
“You saw it no less.”

   
He chuckled a confirmation. “Futures change. I tried to be positive. Optimism doesn’t hurt… Not all the time.” He twiddled his fingers.

   
Tantetra marched in on Hexice. Hexice leaned back. Tantetra pulled down Hexice’s closed eye with her thumb. “As I thought…” She studied the blank, white eye. With an exhale, she turned. “I will, for the least, acknowledge your quick act to prevent a catastrophe.” She walked off. From behind, a cloud of smoke rose above her head, and a thin trail from the golden pipe that could be seen from her side as she crossed her arms.