Chapter 50: I Get That A Lot

The arena didn’t wait for Tayo to get back up.

The stone beneath their feet unstitched itself in long seams, and where the second shattered star had scattered its motes, a portal drew itself open in a slow twist of brass light.

Tayo pushed himself off the ground, but he wasn’t looking at the portal. He was entirely focused on Jaxir. He looked like he’d glare right through him.

"You know," Jaxir said, spinning his staff once and resting it on his shoulder, "it’s not that serious man, it’s just a game."

Tayo picked up his shield and walked toward the portal, his jawline twitching with writhing veins.

Jaxir watched him go with a smile on his face.

’It seems he still thinks he has a chance. I guess it’s not best two out of three, then...’

He walked into the portal after him.

...

The light on the other side was wrong. That was Jaxir’s first thought, and it took him another second to work out why. It wasn’t did, nor was harsh. It simply didn’t come from anywhere. There was no sun above the vast glass-domed roof of the hall, only a slow drift of scattered starlight, and yet every surface glowed faintly.

Pale columns rose in two long rows. Between them, the floor was polished to the point of reflection, and the air carried that particular heavy stillness.

―

[You have entered Consecrated Ground]

―

[The fury of the Minor God of Gravity has been stoked]

―

"Oh, come on," Jaxir muttered. "All I did was walk in. At this point just stop edging me and smite me or something."

He felt the weight of the boost settle back over the room, that slight lag creeping into his mana again like a stone dropped in gears. Something was trying to suppress him.

But then his eyes lifted to the far end of the hall, and the rest of his complaints died down.

Three statues stood there.

They were carved from the same pale stone as everything else, but whoever had made them had not been interested in stone. Every fold of the robes had a weight to it, every hand was caught mid-gesture, giving each one a feeling that was so very real and grandiose.

They were tall. They weren’t exactly massive statues that stood at dozens of meters, but they were out-sized compared to what they had likely been when they stood amongst the living... or were they? Jaxir honestly could not tell.

They were beautiful, though. All three of them, in three completely different ways. It felt almost like the artist who carved them was trying to show off just how many ways they could depict the allure of the fairer sex.

The one on the left wore a crown of feathers, each plume cut so finely that the starlight caught in them and sparkled like real stars themselves.

The one in the middle wore a simple banded circlet, plain to the point of simplicity, and yet somehow held no less weight than the first crown.

The one on the right wore a crown with an eight-sided star set at its center.

Jaxir stood there for a long moment with his head tilted back.

’That one’s Twinkle Village.’ The star was the same symbol the king bear had worn, the same one that burned above Tayo’s head every time he lost a round. ’Feathers would be Sparkle, then. And the plain one is Glimmer.’

Which made three villages, three sets, three doors, and three statues.

That part tracked.

What didn’t track was the Minor God of Gravity being nowhere in this room. This was His territory, no? So why were there just three Demi-Gods here instead of the main event? Was he waiting somewhere else?

Jaxir frowned slightly.

’Why am I so sure they’re only Demi-Gods?’

It was like the thought had just popped into his head, flowing naturally as though he had always known it. There was no notification about it, he had had to guess himself who these three women were. He had simply known by looking at them like it was the most obvious thing ever.

Jaxir pinched his forehead. Those memories again...

The world shook. It rang like a single, deliberate drop, one moment a silent wait to the fall, and in the next a crashing boom.

The whole hall felt like it had been picked up an inch and set back down. At the same time, three new figures popped up out of nowhere.

Jaxir had been so enraptured he had forgotten about Tayo, only for two new enemies plus Nick to appear out of nowhere.

And one of them was still mid-swing.

Nick came out of it staggering, both daggers up, and spun a full half circle looking for an opponent who had been in front of him a half second ago.

The other two landed better. A lean man with a bow already half-drawn, and a heavyset woman whose shield hit the ground with a boom that felt a little too hollow compared to the commotion from earlier.

The man was Telik and the woman was Zay.

Nick found Jaxir, and his whole posture unwound in relief. For a second he thought he had gone from facing just one enemy to two. But that relief didn’t last for long.

Above them, the carved eyes of the statues began to fill with light.

It started slow, a warmth pooling in the sockets of all three, and then it caught like flames to an oiled towel.

Tayo made a sound.

Jaxir’s head snapped around. The eight-sided star on Tayo’s forehead had ignited, no longer glowing but burning in a divine sort of punishment, and the same fire was crawling out of the corners of his eyes. Across the hall, a similar, but not identical mark seared its way onto Telik’s brow, and then Zay’s, all three of them flinching as their eyes lit from the inside out.

Nick’s lip twitched. This was what he got for being optimistic.

He looked over at Jaxir, complaint evident in his eyes. He didn’t know how exactly, but he was sure this was Jaxir’s fault.

Jaxir let his staff drop into the crook of his elbow and raised both hands, palms out, fingers spread wide in the most sincere gesture of surrender. It was hard to tell if he was mimicking or mocking Nick for his act the first time they met.

"Whoops," he said with a grin.

Nick opened his mouth to respond, but once again didn’t get the chance.

Three beams of light lanced out of the foreheads of the three Demi-Goddesses.

They crossed the length of the hall in an instant and struck Tayo, Telik, and Zay square in the chest, and the trio’s feet left the ground, arms flung wide, heads tipping back as though they might crash to the ground.

But they didn’t.

When their boots touched the floor again, the burning marks on their brows had spread into a thin, crawling delicate pattern of fractals and nature that ran down their temples and along their jaws. The air around all three of them had gone heavy enough that Jaxir felt his own robes tug toward them, an obscene density of Twinkle Mana filling them to the brim.

They raised their heads together and spoke as one.

Three voices braided into one, and beneath that one there was something else, something older and colder that made the columns hum.

"You have enraged our masters."

Jaxir’s grin came back, slow and crooked.

"Yeah," he said, "I’ve been getting that a lot these days."

They moved as one and suddenly it wasn’t so funny anymore.