Samuel landed on the transformed ground and smoothly dragged Tim out of the fight without him noticing. After they were far away, the bullet exploded inside the black widow's weak spot, killing it!
"Huh, what happened?" Tim said confusingly.
"I blew up the spider, killing it and saving your life," Samuel replied right after.
"Thank you. Anyway, what should we do?"
Tim said, and then Samuel replied, "We should leave. There is nothing here like I thought."
Skyfather and Cillfhanger are about to leave, but they stop when Junon yells, "Wait, you two! Don't leave just yet."
"We should see what this orb is—huh?!" When she turned around, she saw the orb floating between two pillars fall and break.
She looked at Ross and said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier it was broken?"
Ross smiled and said, "Well, It broke when the spiders arrived, and I have no time to tell you when we were fighting the giant bugs. It was dangerous to distract you from fighting by saying that."
Acadia understood what James said and replied, "Oh, you were worried about me getting harmed. How kind of you, James." Then she becomes quiet after that. After they stopped talking, they noticed Samuel and Tim had left them.
"Ugh, I can believe that old man left without us, and for young man, your friend, Samuel, is like that old man Tim, impatient!"
Ross laughed and said, "Samuel has always been like that. The first time we met, he was annoyed that I showed up one second late at my previous work, but nowadays, he has more patients than in the past."
"Tim is only 50 years old, so he's not that old."
Acadia changed the topic and said, "Let's go and find them. These bastards left without us."
Ross replied, "But what about the orb? Are you sure you want to leave it here?"
"I don't want to, but those fools left us without saying anything. We have to catch up with them before they go too far."
They left where they had fought Men In White and the spiders and entered where Samuel dug in the dirt.
In minutes of walking, they reached where the ancient elven village. Junon looked at the old and broken houses and said, "What happened here? Why are these buildings underground of Color Kingdom destroyed?"
Achida picked a torn photo after accidentally looking down, "Hmmm, what is this?"
She looked at the photo more closely and saw that the kid in the image had a pointing ear and instantly knew he was an elf.
"Could this place be where elves used to be after the moon, Pangaea, wiped out their species?"
"If this is an elf village, it explains the river and the empty bucket down where we came from," Ross says.
"Oh, you are right. Sigh, I wanted to explore these houses, but we must catch up with Tim and Samuel."
"Don't worry, Junon. Archaeologists will explore this place when we tell the public about it and tell us what they discovered."
"Sigh, I guess." They start moving again and finally reach the place they start from.
"Now, then, how we get-?!" Junon saw the transformed ground and yelled, "James, over here. Tim used his power for us to get up."
Ross goes close to Acadia, and James says, "You should go first, Junon."
She started jumping on the transformed ground, and slowly, she got higher and higher from the floor until she reached the summit. Then Ross goes on, and he arrives at the top.
***
On the top, it was already night. The three moons of Armora were shining, and Samuel, Tim, Junon, and James looked at the crowd surrounding them.
People with fancy hats with rainbow feathers on top of their hats and holding swords and guns were blocking the civilians and news reporters from going any further. They were red-colored knights, the guards of the king.
"Hmmm? What's going on over here?" Ross asked.
"We don't know, James." The other three said.
A man with a bowl cut, nerdy glasses, and a giant rainbow eagle tattoo on his face went towards them.
He said, "Hello, James Ross, Samuel Cliffhanger Junon Acadia, and Tim Skyfather. With the permission of his majesty the King, I, Jett Amadede of the Primary Colors of Red color knights, want to invite you to the Rankers Tournament of 2123."
He wore a fancy red uniform with many badges and had the same rainbow feathers as the guards. However, instead of it being on top of a hat, it was inside a pocket of his uniform.
"Wait, why are you guys here now to tell us this, but not when the worm attacked the building and killed many people?" Junon said.
"Woman, a barrier was blocking their way to come to help, so you could please shut your mouth when they were trying their best to get in the shield. When it suddenly got destroyed, they rushed inside and helped the injured, carrying the dead somewhere safe. They still are."
"Now, before you guys answer me about joining the tournament. I want to know what was inside there." He pointed to the place where they come from.
"You see there, was an elf v-?!"
Before Tim could say village, Jett flew toward Skyfather with his wings, shut his mouth, and whispered to his ears, "Shhhhh, don't speak about that! I'll have to kill your friends and family if you say anything about the elf village under there to the public!"
Cliffhanger pointed his finger gun at Jett; Ross turned his arm into armor, and Acadia was about to throw the sharp lollipop at the Primary Color when they saw him teleported toward Tim and forcefully put his arm onto his mouth. He was so fast flying from their eyes that it looked like he had vanished and reappeared next to Skyfather in a second.
The guards, not blocking the crowd from entering, pointed their guns and swords at them.
"Come on, guys, pointing weapons at me is not nice. Don't pull any trigger or come any closer; I'll order the guards not to fire."
His commanding voice made James Ross, Junon Acadia, and Samuel Cliffhanger put their weapons away.
"See, that was not hard. Guards, drop your weapons!" As he said, the red-colored knights stopped pointing their weapons at them.
"Excuse me. What did that man say about being an elf village underground in our city?" A couple of reporters inside the crowd asked that question.
Jett replied, "What are you talking about? There is no underground elven village. It's absurd you ask that question. You news reporters need to check your ears." The Primary Color touched Tim's shoulder before saying, "Right, Mr. Skyfather?" He sided-eyed Tim.
"Yes, yes... This man is correct. There is nothing under there."
When Junon heard Tim saying a lie, she was about to go toward Tim, but a giant man blocked her from moving in some way that the crowd didn't notice.
"Don't do anything. And say anything if you value their lives!" This man whispered into Acadia's ear. She got it, and he let her go after.
"We have live recordings of him almost saying the word village before you cut him off. So, Sir. Jett Amadede of Primary Colors, are you lying and manipulating this man to lie?"
"Are you kidding me, Mr. Reporter?"
"No, sir!"
"That was not a question!"
"In the name of Creation God and his majesty, I swear to you that I am an honest man of my word, that this man didn't say anything about elf village underground. You just heard it wrong."
The reporter thought about it and said, "Oh, ok. I guess you're right." Most people believed what Jett told, and others didn't, but they were too afraid to say anything.
Jett said, "Sigh, where was I?"
One of the guards reminded him, and then he said, "Oh, thank you."
"Before I got distracted, I was saying. I want your answers. Are you guys accepting my invitation?"
"Why us... Why are you inviting us? And what will we get if the tournament?" Samuel said.
"You guys are not the only ones my sisters and I have chosen to fight in the tournament. For your second question, we will give the winners a planet like Armora and Earth, with all its natural resources intact. In addition, Color Kingdom's army and our allies will protect the earth with our hearts! We would not let any states in the Empire of Man invade it!"
When Tim heard he could win a rich planet by winning a tournament, he was excited and said, "Yes, I accept!" When Jett listened to that, he wrote Tim Skyfather on a note with a pen.
"Oh, you greedy old man, you already have a business. Now, you want a planet? Heh, I'm just like you, so I'm in!" Junon said, and he wrote her name as well.
"I accept!" Samuel said.
"I don't care about winning the planet. I am joining to get stronger to have my revenge on the White Clan!" Jett also wrote James Ross in his notebook.
Then he said, "Before I forget, the tournament sets on the moon, Eden, and it begins at six months for now. Go and get stronger. We will be waiting on the biggest game in human history!"
He was about to leave when one of the guards reminded him, "Uhm, sir, you forgot to give them the Gladiator Badge."
"Once again, thank you for reminding me. Here!" He flew toward them, giving them small gladiator helmets to Ross, Acadia, Cliffhanger, and Skyfather.
"What's this?" All of them asked.
"When you arrive at a spaceport, show them this, and they will know what to do. And when you arrive in Eden, show it to the security team so they let you pass as a gladiator for free! If you don't have this, you have to pay to let you join the tournament."
"I told you everything, so good luck with winning!" When he said that, he flew up and left.
"Hahahahah, so the tournament is starting in 6 months for now. Can't wait to try it-?!" Suddenly, a knock on his door.
"Sir, can I come in?"
"You can!" After Ms. Rose entered the office, White said, "What is it, Rose?
"We have two problems. First, Commander White returned, forgetting to bring the orb back to us, and second. Ouranós betrayed us!"
Mr. White heard what she said, so he stood up from his chair, slamming his desk, and said, "You deal with Commander White, and I will deal with that woman!"
To be continued: