"There's something about you that seems familiar, but I don't remember ever running into you." Eclipse continued, leaning closer towards Shadow. Shadow leaned back, avoiding eye contact. Eclipse let a look of suspicion cross his face as he waited for his answer. Just then, the buzzer sounded from a speaker and the people in the room started standing up and heading towards the door. Shadow stood up too but Eclipse stood up and grabbed his sleeve before he could walk away. "Answer my question." Shadow paused before glancing back. He barely noticed the hint of hesitation in Shadow's eye.
"How about after the test? There's a lot of people and I feel this is a private matter." he whispered softly, only loud enough for Eclipse to hear. They stood there for a moment before Eclipse let go of his sleeve. Emperion joined them and they all left together.
The room had changed again. It was a simple room, unusually dark, colored deep navy with a square pattern and an industrial feel to it. A line of demons stood in front of the examinees. Behind those people was a long glass window that emitted a bright light. Nine of them, including Scaldris, were standing behind Silver, each dressed in their own strange way. The one that caught Shadow's attention was standing at the far right end of the line. He was very tall and had a silver mask covering his face. It was diamond shaped with four spikes sticking out of it. Two spikes were sticking diagonally up out of the left and right corner of the mask, while the other two were halfway between the bottom spikes and the top of the mask, facing the same direction. The top part of the mask overlapped the bottom part where the nose was, and two small holes just above the overlap showed where the eyes were. Behind the mask was a mane of black hair spotted with white that led into a long messy ponytail colored silver with black spots. The man's shirt looked really tight and thin. It was black with swirling white patterns and no sleeves. A circle was cut out of the back to show bare skin. His forearms were wrapped in bandages, but they looked like they were merely for aesthetics and not injuries. Similar bandages were wrapped around his waist. His pants were also black with white lines swerving down the legs. He wore no shoes and his feet were covered in dirt. Strapped to either side of his waist was a pair of daggers, their sheathes tied to the bandages. The parts of his arms that weren't covered by clothes were covered in scars. His back and even his neck had more than one scar on it. Unlike the rest of the people there, he didn't have his wings out. He had his arms crossed and he leaned against the glass wall behind him. Again, Shadow got the feeling that he knew the person but couldn't remember from where. Silver raised an arm to gesture to the nine standing behind him.
"You will pick from this group of people to be your opponent. Each is a squad captain in their own respective ways. They will get to choose what kind of battle field you will fight on and the rules of your battle. You will play rock, paper scissors to decide the order you will choose your opponents in." he explained. Shadow was watching the masked man during the whole explanation. The masked man stared back. They locked eyes, the masked man's amber eyes staring into Shadow's own red eye. The man's eyes were soft but focused. It reflected the similar confusion in Shadow's eye. Emperion raised a hand.
"Hold on, there's ten of us here and nine of you there. Does that mean one of you will fight twice?" Silver giggled and smiled.
"I'm the tenth." he smirked, pointing his thumb at himself. He waited for a moment in case there were more questions, then continued when no one else raised their hand. "Now I'll introduce everyone starting from left to right. I'm codenamed Silver Phoenix. That's Scaldris..." Eclipse followed along with Silver when he noticed SHadow staring at the masked man.
"Shadow? Why are you staring at that guy?" he whispered. Shadow didn't respond.
"... and that's-!"
"Codenamed Solaris." the masked man interrupted. His voice was deep and rusty and he stepped up into line when he introduced himself. Shadow didn't break eye contact. Neither did Solaris.
"Now, in order to determine the order you guys will be choosing opponents in…!" Silver started drumming his legs, getting over enthusiastic about being the announcer. "A Rock, Paper, Scissors contest!"
"Seriously." Eclipse looked at Silver with disappointment. No one else complained as they gathered into one big circle.
"Shadow, you have to join in this too." Silver called. Shadow snapped out of his gaze and turned towards Silver. He wandered over and held out a hand as well. After the games, three people were placed in front of Emperion to pick opponents. Eclipse was placed two places behind Emperion while Shadow was stuck as the second to last to pick. Shadow returned his gaze to Solaris, as if the results didn't matter.
"Alright, now that the order has been decided, the first person may pick." Silver announced, stepping into line beside Scaldris. The first person, a boy, stepped forward and looked from left to right at the line of people. Once the boy stepped forward, Solaris' eyes switched. He started giving off a chilling aura that screamed 'I will kill you'. The sudden change from calm to killing intent made Shadow flinch and the pure intensity of Solaris' killing intent made the room feel heavy. Shadow started trembling under the weight and fear he felt. He's dangerous. Super dangerous. If I look away for even a second, he could kill me and I wouldn't even know it. But Solaris' attention was no longer trained solely on him. Instead, his gaze and killing intent was directed straight at the boy. When the boy made eye contact with Solaris, he got scared and started trembling and sweating. He couldn't keep eye contact so he slowly turned away and chose someone else. The next person did the same. So did the third. Emperion didn't show it, but Solaris definitely intimidated him. He didn't tremble enough to be easily noticed, but he still shook. When it was Eclipse's turn, he slowly turned his gaze towards Solaris. He forced himself not to shake and stared back.
"I choose Solaris." he announced. A few gasps sounded from the crowd and Shadow turned his attention back to the selection. He glanced at Solaris and knew what would happen next, but not knowing how he knew. Solaris closed his eyes as if to ponder the choice. Eclipse nervously smiled.
"I refuse." Solaris stated. Shocked, Eclipse stared back, confused.
"We were told that we would be the ones to choose our opponents! You're not supposed to refuse." he burst. Shadow let a small smile onto his face but he quickly put it away before Eclipse noticed. It was a smile of relief. He felt he just had to fight Solaris.
"You may get to choose, but I still have standards." Solaris closed his eyes and turned his head away.
"What, am I not good enough for you?" Solaris didn't answer. Seeing that Solaris wouldn't change his mind, Eclipse was furious, but reluctantly chose a different person anyway. As the squad captains dwindled, it was Silver and Solaris who were left. Now it was Shadow's turn.
"Please don't pick Silver. Please don't pick Silver." The other remaining boy chanted behind him like a prayer. But Shadow had already set his sights on Solaris, and out of all the captains, Silver was the one he was least interested in fighting. After practice sparring with him all those times, Silver's rhythm and style began to bore him. Shadow stepped forward and let his gaze wander across the line of captains that stood in front of him. When he reached Solaris, he slowly raised a hand and pointed it straight at him. Solaris was watching him again.
"You." Shadow stared determinedly back at Solaris. His killing intent suddenly burst out and he unfolded a pair of ragged crimson wings that were more torn and scarred than Shadow's wing was. The whole room was shaking with suffocating pressure. Shadow unfolded his own battered wing as if accepting the challenge. He neither lowered his hand nor turned away. He didn't shake in fear but with excitement and anticipation. Emperion grabbed Shadow's shoulder from behind.
"Shadow, are you sure? Can't you feel his killing intent? It's overwhelming!" Emperion whispered.
"I wouldn't have chosen him if I wasn't sure. I'm not the type to back away from a tough fight." Shadow smiled nervously. "I didn't choose him because I thought he was a push over. I chose him because I want a challenge."
"Be careful against him. You could get seriously hurt."
"Stop looking down on me. I'm not that weak, ok?" Shadow teased, turning towards Emperion and guiding his hand off his shoulder. He smiled softly at Emperion to reassure him then turned back to Solaris with a serious expression. They locked eyes for a moment before Solaris nodded and put his wings away as he lowered his killing intent and the suffocating pressure vanished.
"Surely a strange choice." Silver observed. "Well, you're on your own now I guess." Shadow walked over to Solaris and stared up at him. He raised up a challenging fist towards Solaris.
"See you on the battlefield." Solaris stared back. If his mask was off, Shadow believed he would've seen a smile, the way he stared back with anticipation. His gaze was full of poorly hid excitement and joy at the returned challenge. He was as thrilled as Shadow was. They bumped fists as if they were already close friends.
"Looking forward to it." Solaris accepted. Shadow smiled with delight and returned to where Emperion was waiting. The boy who was picked to go after Shadow let out a sigh of relief. Eclipse glared at Shadow and walked up to Solaris.
"So why him and not me?" he growled quietly. Solaris looked down at him for a moment.
"A strong body is useless without a strong mind to go with it." Solaris then turned around and walked over to the window. Eclipse thought about what he meant but came up empty.
The order of the matches was decided by the order in which the examinees got to pick their opponents. The captains got to choose the arenas to fight in while the other examinees and captains watched from the glass window.
"Psst! Over here!" Shadow was about to go over and watch the matches with Emperion when he turned to see Eclipse beckoning him near the door. Shadow glanced back at Emperion before joining him.
"If this is about Solaris..."
"I want an answer to my question." he pressed. "Have we met before?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Not really. I get this feeling that we've met before but I don't remember ever meeting you."
"What do you think it is?"
"No idea."
"You do look uncannily like my big brother. If your hair was silver, I would've thought you were my brother the moment I laid eyes on you. That's the only difference between you and my little brother along with how your scars don't match. My brother has a long scar that stretches along his left cheek and cuts across his mouth. But your mismatched eyes and wings certainly match his." Eclipse stared at the ground in thought. Shadow nodded. Another moment of silence.
"I wonder how Vytal is doing."
"What?" Eclipse looked up at him. "Vytal? You mean the Demon Slaver Vytal?"
"Yes? I mean, he could be the Demon Slaver Vytal you are talking about but I just know him as Vytal the Pig."
"You mean you got stuck with Vytal and lived to tell the tale? I bet it was a horrible and traumatic experience." Eclipse said with pity, patting him on the shoulder.
"What are you talking about? The month with him was probably the best month I've experienced since I went on the run before reaching this place." Shadow smiled.
"Did he not enslave you?"
"Oh, he did."
"Did he torture you?"
"He did. The entire month."
"Are you some kind of pain masochist or something?" Eclipse narrowed his eyes in suspicion and took a step back.
"No, no, no, I'm not! I promise!" Shadow waved his hands back and forth frantically. "It's just... I had a lot of fun teasing him." Shadow couldn't hold back a little giggle at the memory as a dark look crossed his face.
"Teasing? Why would you tease him if he was going to torture you?"
"Because it was funny! You should've seen how red his face got after a few days. He just couldn't take all the insults I threw at him. He was pretty strong, though. If he had learned to ignore my insults and kept his anger in check, he probably would've been much stronger." A sudden look of realization crossed Eclipse's face as Shadow rambled on. Solaris, who was watching them out of the corner of his eye, turned his attention back to the current match.
"Eclipse?" He perked up to see Shadow staring at him. "Do you have any adventurous stories to tell?" Eclipse smiled playfully.
"What if I told you, I saw a dragon once?" Shadow gasped in amazement. They continued to chat until it was Eclipse's turn to fight.