Chapter 13 - 41

The horde of Cavaliers paraded through the castle corridors drawing the attention of everyone around; as they walked, more people started to follow curious to know what was going on. Exoutius, Amniela and Laylah were looking at the commotion from far when they saw Asphela, Valon, Sotíel and Onami. They approached them and asked what was going on, after the explanation, the huge swarm of people entered the arena.\\

Prospounae, Thysíla and Adam were training when the crowd invaded the venue. There was people sitting in the benches as if they were going to watch a long-awaited festival, and others waiting standing near the door as if they knew the battle would end quickly. Raphael entered the glass and gently spoke to the cavaliers there.\\

—I'm sorry to interrupt your training but… Can we use the arena for a duel very quickly?\\

—Yes… Of course sir — They quickly withdrew.\\

Raphael called Mikael and Idiofyel inside of the glass.\\

—This is going to be a normal duel, who kills the opponent first wins and I am going to be the judge. Azazel, choose the arena please.\\

As Raphael was leaving, the walls and the floor started to change until the whole place became a stone room, very similar to the architecture of the castle but with different colors and a greater neglect. From the ground, stone columns rose and from their tops, water started to flow until the whole room had one inch of it on the floor. The two cavaliers summoned their armors and waited for Raphael's signal. The commander lifted his right arm, the stadium silenced, after long seven seconds his arm fell down, and the two in the arena rushed at each other. \\

Mikael attached the Diamond Limbo support to his back and now every time he summons his armor, the blade is there making it company. When Idiofyel saw that, his rage grew even bigger, to think that not only the boy was using the especial armor he made for another person but also was modifying it, enraged him in a way nothing else could. Before Mikael could take the sword in his hands, Idiofyel punched his right arm away and prepared himself to punch his enemy again in the chest; Mikael reacted by calling Toliman and defending the punch with the side of the cleaver, he pulled Idiofyel away and with his right hand he held the Diamond Limbo. Idiofyel kept on striking relentlessly; it was punch after punch always trying to get closer to his enemy. Mikael, so far, was on defensive; he was not finding openings to attack, the attacks were too fast for him to be able to counter while holding the giant cleaver and the heavy sword. Idiofyel's punches were amazingly strong; they were capable to destroy the columns in their path and still have the strength to give a good blow on Mikael.\\

While he was being cornered by Idiofyel's barrage of punches, Mikael waited for a slightly bigger window between his attacks and created an ice wall in front of him. Idiofyel broke the wall with a single punch, but it was time enough for Mikael to jump on top of a close column and, with the Diamond Limbo, fire a large current of electricity at Idiofyel, that fell with his face on the water.\\

—Really? Was that it? — Haamiah asked Azazel.\\

—No, he is just pretending.\\

Mikael, after waiting a few seconds, looked towards the arena door. You cannot see anything outside of the training area if there is a simulation going on but you can see the door if someone wants to end the simulation. So if the door appeared it would mean that he had won, but since nothing happened, he got off the column and started to walk closer to Idiofyel to give him the finishing blow. When he was half way through, he saw the water around the Cavalier ripple slightly; he stopped and smiled. Mikael prepared the cleaver and threw it, aiming at Idiofyel's head; when Toliman was about to hit him, Idiofyel rolled to the side, took the cleaver in his hand and charged to the attack. Mikael threw the Diamond Limbo to his left hand and called Kentaurus defending himself against Idiofyel's attack. They clashed the two blades with ferocious attacks; Mikael pushed him away and continued on the offensive. He was using the sword and the cleaver to attack alternately, since Idiofyel is not used to using a weapon big as Toliman, only the equipment in the forge, he cannot attack or defend efficiently. Mikael, with one of the Kentaurus hits, made the Cavalier lose balance; he prepared the sword and fired another lightning torrent about twice as big. Idiofyel could not take on another raw attack like that, so he lifted Toliman as high as he could and shouted "Gi".\\

Before Mikael's attack could reach him, the stone in front of Idiofyel started to move and climb on top of itself until a full barrier against the lightning was formed. \\

—Gi? Is that a spell? — Mikael thought out loud.\\

When he said the word, the stone columns close to him started to crumble until they all became piles. He was going to get close to one of them to examine it but, before he could do it, Idiofyel continued his furious onslaught. From behind the wall he previously built, Idiofyel jumped and attack; Mikael dodged by jumping backwards. The Cavalier said "Gi" once again and created another wall, but this time, behind Mikael; when the student collided with the stones, Idiofyel used Toliman to pull the wall towards him and kick his enemy in the head. The wall broke and Mikael was thrown to the limits of the room.\\

—What the hell is Gi? — Mikael asked Idiofyel when he approached to attack, there it was no response.\\

The clash of cleavers started again. Every time he had the chance, Mikael would ask what Gi is, but Idiofyel would not listen, after a while, he started to see the patterns. The word Gi allowed the cleaver user to move the earth or, in this case, the stones around him; when he would speak the word and move Kentaurus in one direction, the rocks would make a similar movement that varied with the way he spoke the word, similar to how spells work. When he started to completely understand the effects of the word, Mikael started to use it to attack Idiofyel, who was in an increasingly worse situation. The cavalier was keeping his distance from the gold soul while using Kentaurus and the Diamond Limbo to attack simultaneously.\\

—Do you think he can win? — Asphela asked Valon.\\

—Well… So far, he is doing pretty well. If he manages to hit the rocks and the lightning at the same time, I think he can win.\\

—He better do it soon — Exoutius, who was on Asphela's other side, said — With the amount of mana he is wasting, it won't last long.\\

—True — Sotíel added — The normal color of Mikael's mana is fading away…\\

After approximately two minutes of continuous attacks, the lightning unleashed from the Diamond Limbo starts to get thinner. Mikael realizes what was happening and stopped, what Idiofyel was waiting for; while running towards Mikael he throws Toliman at the cavalier. With his remaining amount of mana, Mikael makes his last move; the student raises Kentaurus as high as he can and screams "Gi". A great circular wall, a tall well made of stone, mud and dirt rises from the ground blocking Idiofyel's sight of Mikael, the wall emerged from the ground quickly but not quickly enough to affect Toliman's path. Idiofyel started to go around the wall trying to find a way in, when he got to the other side of the circle he saw that this part of the wall was shorter and jumped to the top of it. There he saw Mikael in the bottom holding the two weapons he was using earlier; Idiofyel wasted no time and jumped in smashing and destroying his enemy; he smiled. When he looked closer to the remains of his attack, he saw large chunks scattered in the floor, one of them in the shape of a hand holding Kentaurus and a cut mark on the floor close to where he landed. Before he could make any other move, Mikael jumped from the wall and lacerated Idiofyel's head off finally killing the Gold Cavalier.\\

The crowd celebrated as Raphael opened the door of the arena and the two cavaliers left the arena. Mikael screamed and danced with the crowd while Idiofyel was staring at the ground unbelieving and angry. Raphael called Mikael and said to both of them:\\

—Congratulation… Mikael. It was a terrific duel, from both parts…\\

—I won… — Mikael said extremely excited to Raphael — Against a Gold Cavalier.\\

—He is not used to this kind of fighting so… don't even think about bragging. — Raphael warned him.\\

Idiofyel looked in anger towards both of them; Raphael noticed and said:\\

—Don't you have an agreement to keep?\\

—Oh shit yea… — He turns to Idiofyel — Hey you. What is the name of the bow? And what is that Gi thing? Is there more of it? And how many pillars were in that place? All of them were weapons? And did you made wings for this armor?\\

With every new question, Mikael would approach Idiofyel and make his anger increase to astounding levels. He did not said a single word.\\

—Remember that you have to respond all of my questions. — Mikael screamed to him.\\

Slowly, Idiofyel's anger face was showing small traces of concern until his only countenance became despair.\\

In that moment, a very familiar voice comes from the entrance of the building, drawing the attention of the three. Raphael stood paralyzed looking at it, Idiofyel almost pissed himself and Mikael was electric, at least until he remembered what could happen.\\

—What is going on here? — Seraphim said in a friendly and happy tone.\\

The whole stadium stopped.\\

—Shit. — The arena was so silent that everyone heard what Valon said.\\ Seraphim looked straight at him.\\

—Ahm… Did I came back in a wrong moment? — He said.\\

Raphael approached him and started to explain the situation.\\

—We… were having a duel… here.\\

—Yes… I thought so… Is that Idiofyel? When did he came back?\\

Raphael pulled Seraphim to the corner and whispered something in his ear. The Archduke stood in silence for a few seconds.\\

—Everyone… Out. — He said firmly and loud, the crowd stood paralyzed.\\

Seraphim turned his head to the grandstand and all of the Cavaliers in it started to get up and left the arena. The only ones left in there were the two Paladins, the duel loser and 41.

During dinner, the rain outside the castle and the murmur of the people filled the cafeteria full of Cavaliers. In the same usual table, the eleven new cavaliers were sitting and telling Tius what happened earlier, he was the only one that missed the event, he was sleeping. 41 was the only one of the group missing dinner, he has not been seen him since Seraphim's arrival. Asphela, ValonVorum and Onami are especially worried about him.\\

After eating, at a worrying speed, Asphela went out to look for him. He was not inside of the main building; she then started looking at the arena, the White and Red Auditoriums and the outside gardens, he was not there. Then she jumped in the Forge hole and went to the library, from there she looked in all of the floors of the main building again, starting in the underground level. She reached the highest floor in the castle and stopped, it was Raphael's office; she could not hear a sound coming from inside it so she knocked on the door.\\

—Come in…\\

She quietly entered and looked around, Raphael was the only one inside it.\\

—Excuse me sir…\\

—Yes?\\

—Do you know where Mikael is?\\

—He is on the roof.\\

…\\

—What?\\

—He is in my roof. After the conversation with Seraphim, he said he was going to cool down and think, so he climbed to my roof and stood there, even after started to rain. I can still hear him moving sometimes. — She laughed — Are you going to talk with him? He was pretty down after everything happened.\\

—Can you explain to me what happened exactly?\\

—It will be better if he tells you…\\

She went up to the roof and found him sat down under a small slab of ice he made when started to rain.

—Are you okay? Everybody was worried about you… \\

—Sorry. \\

She sat down with him. \\

—Your fight today was great. I honestly still can't believe that you defeated a Gold Cavalier. — He did not respond — The way you fooled him with the ice statue was… kind of funny actually. — She could see him smiling — You are pretty strong Mikael… \\

—You can't call me like that anymore. \\

—Why? \\

—I do not wear Mikael anymore. — He showed his ringless hand to her.\\

— Seraphim took his armor back.\\

—Oh no… I'm sorry… \\

—Its all right. When we got the armors that night Raphael told us that it was made for Seraphim. I already knew this was a possibility, I just didn't want it to come true. \\

—I'm sorry… I'm sure everything is going to be fine. You will find an armor in no time; they will send us more or… Idiofyel can make a new one for you — She said slightly excited to him. — Imagine an armor made just for you… \\

—Its fine. \\

—Of course it is. \\

—No, it is Fine. Seraphim said that when he gets used to Mikael, he can give me Seraphim. Since I was compatible with the armor that was made for him I should be with that one too. \\

Asphela was immensely surprised, she turned to the side and stared at him with her eyes widened. \\

—You are going to win Seraphim? That's amazing… What exactly happened there? \\

—Well… When everyone left the arena, Raphael told Seraphim what happened while he was gone. He said that it was unfortunate, but he still wanted his armor; I tried to convince him, almost cried, but he still did not change his mind. He said that I only got the armor because Idiofyel came back when he was away, which is true but still… And then Raphael said that even though it was an accident, I was getting very good at using that armor. Since I defeated Idiofyel, Raphael said that my ability with Mikael should not be ignored. Seraphim stopped and thought for a couple of seconds, then Idiofyel suggested another "duel". \\

—You fought the Archduke? — She asked scared. \\

—No. Well… not exactly. The duel was like… Seraphim would hit me once, if I survived I could have the armor and if I died in the attack, I would have to give the armor to him. \\

… \\

—Was it bad? \\

—I don't even saw the attack. He stood far away and started to make some weird gestures with his arms, I saw a flash and died. \\

—Oh… \\

—Yea… \\

—Well… You lost Mikael but… at least you won't be without an armor, there is no need for sadness. Seraphim is… it has its charm. It has wings — She said excited. \\

—It does… but I don't know. I feel like I was starting to understand Mikael, with that Gi stuff during the duel. In the end I'm not sad… just disappointed… \\

They stood in the roof looking to the rain for a while longer when Valon, Onami and Thysíla appeared with three umbrellas. \\

—Hello. — Thysíla said with a warm smile on her face. \\

—We came to see if you two were alive — Valon — You took so long that we started to think that they dismissed you… \\

—Well… they might… \\

—What do you mean? — Onami asked worried — What happened there? \\

—Seraphim took Mikael back and now I need to wait to see if he is going to use it. \\

—What happens if he does? \\

—He'll give me Seraphim and use Mikael. \\

Onami was surprised. \\

—Wait… Isn't that good? You are going to receive an armor anyway, and you won't be dismissed. \\

—It is but… I don't know. \\

—Can you use Seraphim? — Valon was confused with the situation — Isn't Seraphim's element fire? \\

—It is… and if can't use Seraphim I'll be back to stage zero. \\

… \\

—I'm sorry… — Valon awkwardly spoke. \\

—Its all right. That's not why I'm… like this. \\

—Then, what is the problem? — Thysíla whispered to Valon. \\

—It is the ring… — Valon responded — You wanted the ring. Right? \\

—Its not that I want The ring, I wanted to Know the ring, the armor… That dream that I had… \\

—The one with the pillars? \\

—Yea. I want to know what is that place, what are those pillars, what's in each of them. Remember the night Idiofyel arrived… when I looked at the ring for the first time… \\

—Yes… you didn't say anything until we get back in the room. \\

—The ring… it did something to me… \\

—What? \\

—I don't remember well… But it was kind of a place… or an objective. I really can't remember. \\

—Am I the only one who thinks that there's something wrong with that armor? — Thysíla said to them. Valon nudged her. \\

41 started to laugh and then said. \\

—There is definitely something wrong with that armor. — He got up — Maybe that is why it is so interesting. \\

Valon smiled and said: \\

—You are not going to give up of it, are you? \\

—Of course not — He shouted — I never gave up on Any of my plans and I Completed them all. \\

—That is totally not true… I haven't seen your plans work a single time, the armory is an example. \\

—I found the armory. It wasn't when I was looking for it but still. My plans work… eventually. \\

—So… I guess the one where we steal the ring is still in operation. — Asphela said smiling.