The rays of the morning sun only found an empty bed when it came through the open window.
The silky blanket lay tossed out on the floor. Forgotten.
Droplets of water fell across the floor as a man walked over to the wall that was entirely a mirror. Wiping the bath water that still remained on him, Akuma pulled up the tunic and leather pants that were folded neatly upon a body armour. Beside it were placed a pair of leather boots, metal shoulder pads, and metal knee pads.
The armour seemed like it would fit perfectly but the shirt was two sizes too big on the scrawny otaku.
"Ah, I guess there's nothing I can do about it. Zephyr isn't required to keep spare clothes for the contestants after all."
Zephyr was the Caretaker Spirit of the dormitory Akuma was in. He came over last night and asked Akuma if he had any armour with him since it didn't seem from seeing him that humans had a strong enough physique to protect their vitals.
And so the delivery of this morning. A training armour from one of the 12 training grounds, and the tunic was probably a borrowed one. Zephyr seemed too much of a cleanliness freak to lend his.
The armour itself he said was good enough against pure force and blunt weapons, although not very suitable against opponents with claws.
There was no need for worry though, since there still was the reward from yesterday's match. 300 gold coins.
The coins were weird looking. There was a rectangular hole at the center of each of them. Apparently there was a huge marketplace on this planet where he could buy himself a better armour, but first, there was a match to participate in that day and preparations were needed.
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The ground floor was almost entirely taken up by a huge cafeteria, save for the hallway that led to the teleportation circles which took the contestants to whichever floor they wished to go to.
White circular orbs were lodged onto fixtures that lined the walls, illuminating the entire place. The first person he saw was a huge guy, perhaps 7ft. tall. He had long pitch-black hair; long horns that jutted out of his skull, bent backwards and then curved up; wings folded behind his back and snake-like scales that covered his arms and only the sides of his upper-body.
A draconian. Not a draconian according to the myths, but definitely a half-dragon, half-human.
Akuma watched as he pulled up a chair which was probably half the big guy's size, but it enlarged infront of his eyes, and even before the draconian sat on it, it had grown big enough for him to be seated in comfortably.
'Well, atleast that explains why every chair is the same size in this cafeteria despite the different species living in this dormitory.'
Apart from the draconian, there were only two Astrals and Zephyr in the room at the moment. Zephyr was mopping up the tables and the wooden counter, preparing for all the contestants to arrive for breakfast probably.
Zephyr had a pale white skin tone, blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He donned a leather vest, cotton pants, and several beaded necklaces with symbols on them. The guy was just as thin as Akuma, but he knew not to judge a Spirit just from it's looks, since the first time he saw him, the guy knocked out a rhino-headed beastman for trampling on the plants he was watering.
Apart from their magic and strength, the Spirits Akuma had seen so far looked exactly like humans.
"Don't overthink it Lyra, you only need to visualize it with a clear mind. Don't try it here!"
Akuma had himself taken a seat while keeping an ear on the conversation of the two Astrals when he heard footsteps and the sound of the conversation drawing closer. He felt a gentle warmth on his face.
The two pulled up chairs and sat down at his table.
"And I'm guessing you are the 1000th candidate I've been hearing about?"
Up close, he noticed that his assumption that they were simply self-illuminating humans was wildly inaccurate.
Their skin was light blue and had a glass-like texture to it, as if they were sculptures carved from ice. Both had long crystalline eyelashes, but one had large yellow eyes, while the other had green. Their hair though, looked silky and had a crystal blue colour.
They both wore black leather armour, complete with gauntlets, shoulder pads, long boots. Which made for a beautiful combination with the black diamond necklaces with the single icy blue gems at the center, and long icy blue earrings.
They were well equipped for the matches, and managed to be devastatingly beautiful at the same time.
"Um, yes," he stuttered, "I'm Akuma, the 1000th contestant. And you?"
"The name's Ursa," the green eyed woman smiled, "and this is my daughter Lyra."
The two did look quite similar, except for the eyes and the fact that the mother was slightly curvier than the daughter, there was basically no difference between the two.
"I heard that you're from a galaxy whose inhabitants have never set foot outside it," the mother said.
"Yeah, our technology hasn't advanced that far yet, " Akuma said.
"Technology?" The daughter, Lyra, asked.
She said it as if it were a foreign word. Something she'd never heard of before.
"Um, magic?" he tried, "Our magic hasn't advanced that far yet?"
They nodded, as if that was an acceptable answer.
'Does that mean every galaxy apart from ours has magic? But then again, my swords are magical, and they are from Earth. Why then do we not have magic?'
It was then that the food arrived. There was meat for sure, but of what creature Akuma didn't wanna know.
The three then spent some more time talking while having their food, and more contestants started streaming into the cafeteria too. This dormitory only consisted of Beastmen, Astrals, Draconians, and him. So there was enough space for all.
Ursa explained a lot of things about the different species, about the competition and talked a bit about her home planet.
She was quite friendly, perhaps because she didn't consider him a threat that she couldn't kill in the contest. Her daughter on the other hand only chipped in once in a while during the conversation.
It didn't seem like she was shy, merely bored.
Soon after they finished the breakfast, the sound of a huge bell ringing filled the air.
"Ah finally," Lyra smiled probably for the first time since she met Akuma, "it's time to head to the Arena."
Not soon after the three arrived at the Arena, Leo announced the 7 matches that would be held today.
"Seems like my match is the last one of the day," Akuma said to no one in particular.
"And mine's the first," Lyra had a devilish grin on her face as she said it, and she looked absolutely adorable.
"Come on, let's get to the seats then. Yeah, I mean you Akuma, there's so many more stories that I'm yet to tell you," Ursa took hold of his hand and then kissed her daughter on the cheek, "go incinerate those idiots," and as they then walked up to a pair of seats she yelled, "Give them hell, Lyra!"
And to her credit, she did give them hell. She burnt them to absolute cinders. Even up until Akuma's match came up, hers' was the shortest match since the beginning of this year's contest.
"Your last match was quite peculiar," Lyra said to him as he stood up to head down to the ground, "a little reminiscent of how the Archangels fight, interestingly. Does your galaxy have any connection with them?"
'Possible,' he thought, 'Angels were present in many different mythologies, and their descriptions come awfully close to how the Archangels look.'
"Not sure," Akuma answered, "but it IS weird that I know some of the creatures in here."