"Why the heck…"
"What the fuck…"
"How could you…"
"Are you insane to…"
With everyone speaking all at once, Fen's hearing tuned all the voices down in one instant, making him immune to the storm of shouts that ensued right in the next second. Just looking at the maddened faces of everyone around him was enough for the young man to understand what they wanted to tell, ask or point out. Hearing their words filled with desperation, fear and disappointment would only serve to demotivate him even further.
Because as great as it felt to finally be free, Fen did realise that once he would get out of the waiting room, his time to live would most likely conclude. Enclosed in the enormous building, surrounded form all sides by the guards that were initially placed around the place to keep order, but that would quickly turn into more pressing tasks once the situation demanded them to take action.
Even before turning to the two greatest threats of the near future, namely the royal forces and the inquisition itself, Fen could already see how dire his chances were at getting away from this city. Unless he could somehow clutch his way out of the colosseum, then all the way to the forest near the city, then he would still have some chances. In any other scenario, he was as good as dead already.
"Stiel, let's start with you."
Picking the moment when most of the shouting crowd had to make a stop to take a breath, Fen instantly raised his head and looked at his teacher. Contrary to what others might think, he was in the absolutely worst spot out of everyone in the entire crowd.
"If it just so happens that I will be somehow capable of escaping after the grand reveal… Find any excuse, break your legs, fake your own death… I don't care about what you will do, and this actually is an advice and my last request to you all. No matter what happens, if I will somehow manage to make it out alive… Do not give the chase. Only death awaits those who will dare to chase after me."
This was the one point that Fen could be sure about. Even with all his power-ups that made him capable of dealing with a member of the inquisition without even properly using his power or skills, he still would be worth nothing more than a speck of the dust once facing the beast queen of the local forest.
While the young man never learnt what realms lied above what he could learn at school, it was quite obvious that arcanism was way deeper than the teachers here were allowed to openly admit it was. Even with that precaution in place, Fen could tell that unless someone reached the level of the ancestors whose memories he kept seeing over and over again, then dealing with Raksha would be a task above impossible ones.
"Everybody, out."
Out of nowhere, right as Fen was going through the list with the final advices and goodbyes to each and every of the people he get to know in this short life at the archarity, Firo suddenly paraded into the chamber.
Deprived of her usual, maid dress, she was now wearing some strange clothes that somehow made it actually hard to spot her figure! As if the colors of the surroundings were melding together whenever even the tinies fragment of her suit skewed through one's vision, noticing her exact location would be completely impossible as long as she just pulled the thick fabric of her hood down on her face.
"What is the meaning…"
"Once the moon covers the sun, no star will dare to break the red shroud."
Speaking nonsense, Firo somehow managed to gather everyone's attention on herself, before nearly everyone in the room lowered their heads, gritted their teeth and actually left the room!
Even though Fen was completely sure that the current situation was nothing else but a premature burial ceremony for him, Firo's determination and actions slowly started to crack on this determination of the young man. Seeing the worry in her eyes, the feeling of loss most likely caused by the fact that they were bound to separate forever soon…
But it wasn't as if the girl was the only one who was slowly getting overwhelmed by the emotions!
So far, Fen managed to focus his entire attention on closing all the maters that he had the time and opportunity to close. The hopes of getting out of this entire shithole alive, were too small for the young man to consider them seriously. Yet, once the load of all the lose ends was taken off from his shoulders along with the crowd leaving the chamber, the dread of his looming passage was strong enough to overwhelm the young man for a moment.
"Snap out of it!"
Not hesitating even for a second, Firo moved the last few steps forward that separated the two of them, before taking a wide swing and slapping the heck out of the young arcanist's face.
"Listen, the time is not playing in our favour. I already know that Inquisition is frantically digging you everything that they can about you. The longer you sit here, the more time you give them to find the proof that they need to condemn you."
Even before Fen's head could return to its natural position after the inevitable recoil from the hit, Firo's hands already found their way under Fen's armpits, quickly lifting him back on his legs.
"Listen, I know you won't like it, but if they won't see the blood on you, they will just jump you right away. That's why… I'm sorry."
For the first time during this hasty meeting, Firo's voice broke. Yet, it didn't stop her from puling out a decorative knife on her own and nearly instantly cutting open Fen's forehead and hand!
Following the standard procedures, within a second Fen was back to the bloodied state that he was when he left the arena. A the same time, the heat that continued to grow inside his body, was slowly reaching the dangerous levels of igniting his flames!
"Now, go. My people will try to give you a window to escape, but you need to notice it yourself."
Pushing Fen's back towards the currently closed doors of the chamber, Firo didn't move an inch from the place where she was standing. Only after Fen shook his head, spilling the blood that coninued to pour out of the cut on his forehead nearly everywhere around him did her last words reached the young man's ears.
"Good luck, brother."
The meaning of those words hit the young man exactly as his hand pushed the door open, once again revealing him to the overwhelming atmosphere of the colosseum. The loud cheering of the crowd, the uncertainty of what awaited him on the arena, the looming death above his head…
All of those things hit the young man at once. But it was the figure that awaited his arrival on the other end of the fighting grounds that draw nearly the entirety of the young man's attention.
In this one moment, all the useless thoughts disappeared from Fen's head. Seeing how calm Basil dared to be while waiting for him to come out, managed to invoke a feeling that Fen would never believe that he would be capable of feeling.
Taking one step forward, the young arcanist closed in towards his fake, former friend. One more step. Another one. Just one more.
Step by step, Fen continued to shorten the distance between the two young man, all the way up to the point where taking a single step more would mean the realistic start of the duel. But instead of hesitating, Fen raised his knee and pushed his leg forward anyway.
Only for his surroundings to disappear all at once, replaced by the familiar scene of the ocean of fire!
"So you are cornered, huh?"
Contrary to all the interactions that Fen had in the past few minutes, Draconis calming voice was devoid of panic, anxiety or any of the other annoying emotions that were akin to avalanche in the past few moments for the young man.
"Well, I'm not going to lie. This situation is kind of my fault, but I'm not going to step back now. It's to late to retreat."
Shaking his head in a slight, emotional pain, Fen raised his eyes on the human body of the ancient beast. If what he was told the last time was true, then this would be their very last meaning.
"Before you go, I know that you have an important question for me. Ask this now, since I won't be able to help you anymore… In a long time."
Smiling amiably at the young man, Draconis rested his back against the pillar of fire that suddenly erupted behind him.
"Since I'm the descendant of the Phoenix… Like, I know this is a wild guess, but you should be able to say that I'm Phoenix reincarnation, is that right?"
This was the only way for all those strange events that kept happening in Fen's life to be properly explained. Any other explanation would fail to provide the answers for at least some of Fen's questions and doubts, making it hard for the young man to give any faith to the other possibilities.
"Yes. While this matter is… way more complicated than what you now think to be possible, in a general way, you are Phoenix reincarnation and a way for her to regain her life once again in this world. Just like I used some means of mine to secure my return, so did she."
Suddenly referring to the Phoenix per she would otherwise be a big point for Fen, if not for the grave importance that was hidden in those words.
"If that's the case, then it shouldn't really matter whether I will die now? After all, if I somehow manage to surivive, it would all be up for this Phoenix you speak of to properly reincarnate through me, taking over my entire self. If that what will be the case, then I might as well solve the problems for others caused by my wrongdoings, instead of just sacrificing my body and mid for someone's crazy experiments!"
Feeling the anger boiling in him, Fen was about to erupt when Draconis did something unexpected. Instead of entering the heated argument, even though the name of his compatriot was most likely slandered right in front of him, he just placed both of his hands at Fen's shoulders.
"Listen. She is not that kind of a person. You could say that to a certain extend, my way of returning will be far more… brutal than what she came up with. But for your information, while its true that once you grwo powerful enough, Phoe wil reincarnate through you, but it won't affect you all that much in the long term. To quote her words… How could I ever dare to threaten the life and health of someone devoted enough to the mission to fulifll all the requirments of my reincarnation? How could I cause harm to someone who would do so much for me?"
Clearly and openly smiling to his thoughts, this time it was turn for the Draconis to shake his head before directing his serious stare right into Fen's eyes.
"To keep it short as our time here is running out, this will be my last gift to you."
Taking his hands down form Fen's shoulders, Draconis placed his right arm right on top of the young man's chest.
"Firstly, my blessing. If you manage to survive the incoming ordeal, then a time when you could make a great use of it will be bound to come sooner or later. "
Smiling gently at his quasi-student, Draconis suddenly retracted his right hand for a minimal distance, before suddenly pushing the young man forwad.
"The ensuing vision will be the second part of my gift. As bloody and depressing as it will be for you, its something that I can promise you, will help you before the battle imensly. Now, farewell Fen. Farewell my first and last student."
Sending the young man off with a sad smile on his lips, it took only a moment for the reality to shatter, before reasembling each other in the process that the young man was already familiar with.
Stomp.
Once the clarity returned to Fen's eyes as his leg finally stepped inside the inner circle of the fighting grounds, it was given that the young man would stumble a bit.
After all, he was now facing not only the greatest enemy he ever had, but also the ticking timebomb, capable of killing everyone in a huge radius away from the explosion effect.
As if that wasn;t enough, Basil in his new inquisitiorial robes were clearly a match even to the improved Fen.
A quick look at the tribute revealed some kind of hooded man reporting something the the leader of the inquisitnion. Connecting what Firo said about the investigation with the sudden change on the leader's face, it was given that they already knew.
Even by looking at Basil's face, Fen could tell that this was the case. From the death threat in his eyes, perfectly sharp sword in his hand and a huge yet stable fireball covering majority of his left arm, Fen's fake friend was now a threat to be recokoned with!
"The fight…"
Hearing the announcers voice, Fen felt as if he was tripping. HIs body was no longer capable of holding back this sudden raise of temperature. At least, once the fight would be over, Fen could clean his shoes by the riverside, something that his opponent camp was painfully unable to ever do so!
"APREHEND THIS MAN! HE IS A…"
Nearly at the same moment, the leader of the inquisition party stood up from his chair, pointing the finger at Fen's slihuete.
Yet, he was never given the chance to finish his sentence.
Sweeping his hand through his forehead, Fen discovered that only the dry remains of his blood remained there, with even the skin on top of his forehead quickly repairing itself. Yet, for what he was about to do, even the dry remains of the blood would be enough.
Taking his hand away from his face, Fen stared down at the lingering droplets of his blood, before resuming this kind of peculiar activity.
Keeping his motion despite the poor results, Fen swept his head, then his mouth and then he used the same arm to bring this blood at the level of his waist.
"Ignite."