chairs present for all of them, yet three of them were left vacant. In an order going from left to right, the divine beings sat upon the platform were as such: Laevitia the goddess of speed, Ygros the god of illusion, Zanara the mother of all creation, Iradin himself, Tempus the god of time, Morus the god of death, and finally, perhaps the most beautiful and darkest of them all, Deianira, the goddess of destruction. Iradin's voice echoed throughout the Colosseum and then some, letting his voice silence all others in his decree.
"Brothers and sisters! Why do I not hear your voices?!" Iradin commanded, where an updraft of roars and cheers was swiftly summoned. He continued, "Is this not what you've been waiting for all year?! I ask, why do I not hear your voices?!"
The tsunami of cheers that were met by his command was enough to make your ears ring and to rattle the bells and drums that started to beat along with the crowds' excitement. Satisfied with this, Iradin continued.
"Today, we celebrate honor! We celebrate might! We will witness skill in its most primal form!" he shouted, raising his arms in coordination with the audience's roar. "We will indulge in a sport that has kept us alive for eons! We'll shake the Sapphire Realms to the core with the festivities! And more importantly, we'll feast on a grateful land!"
"Have we not waited long enough for this? Have we not sacrificed enough to let ourselves this much?! Have we not worked tirelessly, long and hard, to live for another day just to witness the annual Tournament of the Gods?! So let me hear your voices, let me see your fires, for this year our selection of challengers and challenges will be exciting! Oh, and did I forget that we - your gods, as we stand before you - will be partaking at the very end?! Hah-hah!"
The energy that was being met in response to Iradin's words was enough to crack a smile on even Tempus's face.
"So let's not waste any more time. Let the Tournament begin!"
With the tournament finally underway, it wasn't long until the arena demonstrated a variety of different challengers facing different obstacles and, usually, each other. The seven brothers of House Darius could be seen with their swords and shields, all fighting a different opponent each as they outmaneuver and out-think their foes, displaying an impressive skillset combining defense and offense.
The two sisters of House Anesidora were observed weaving magic as if it were thread on a spinner, showing off their ability to bend the arcane and nature to their gain. The audience grunted and gasped at each flash of light being an indicator that another challenger had been defeated that was unfortunate enough to face them. The worst one was the poor chap that had been launched out of the Colosseum itself by a conjured ball of fire - though luckily he was caught by a smirking Laevitia.
And the aforementioned sole son of House Brutus? Not even five challengers were enough to take him down at the same time. The man was built like a boulder and would require the strongest of winds to crack down his surface.
However, the gods all seem to take note of one particular person in the arena: Umbra, the only son of Oberon. They watched him conjure dark swords and daggers and use his agility to maneuver around the arena. Understandably, they were most interested in his prowess over the mist and shadows. Another challenger was already taken down by Umbra by the time they had anything to comment on, slammed against the wall by a pillar of smoke and shadow before being thrown away like a ragdoll.
"The boy has some skill! If only his father was here to witness that." Iradin commented, sipping on wine.
"Perhaps it's for the better. The son of the god of strength himself and he's not capable of depicting great acts of might? Please." Zanara added as she twirled her luscious hair.
"Let's not be too hard on the boy. There could be a lot more than what appears to be." Ygros replied, which was a little too on the nose for him.
Deianira, on the other hand, seemed to take even more interest in Umbra, however. She leaned forward in her seat, fixing her black, beautiful dress as if to study him.
"I sense… chaos within him. He's impulsive, for sure. But he's determined. Look at his movements, so many wasted motions, yet yielding such an impressive result. He's set out to prove himself, and he will stop at nothing. I see hurricanes of annihilations and the earth quaking before him. I see… I see darkness, shrouding a minuscule amount of light within him." Deianira spoke as if she was reciting poetry, finally leaning back into her seat, "An interesting one. I hope he makes it far into the tournament."
"...you know, you're pretty weird. And we even have Morus here." Laevitia replied, to which she was met with an unimpressed look from two different gods.
Umbra fought with every ounce of his being in him as the gods watched him during the tournament. Despite exhausting all his energy and pushing himself far too much, he kept going. Even when the callouses on his palms started to peel and rip; even when his powers started to take a toll on his body, Umbra kept going. This was in honor of his father. The tournament was on his father's birthday, and what could be a better gift for a father than to see his son excel and become the best?
The enormous arena erupted with sounds of magic and battle, though Umbra's shadows and mist were starting to envelop the place. He drew his darkness from wherever he could, and if he couldn't find it, he searched deep in himself. In turn, the tremendous feats he displayed left the audience gasping and slowly cheering in his favor. At the end of the grueling two hours, the only challengers left standing were House Darius, House Anesidora, House Brutus, and finally, Umbra himself. Gara was swept away and defeated in the tournament long ago due to numerous opponents teaming up against her. But the unconscious bodies of fighters and the trembling walls of the arena were evidence enough of Umbra's will to win.
The last remaining six challengers were at a standstill, circling each other as they regained their breath. Four of the seven brothers of House Darius were defeated and dragged away, and one sister of House Anesidora was outmatched and outsmarted by one Umbra, leaving only Sila now. The sole son of House Brutus, Damien, was still standing, although visibly weaker yet full of spirit. Umbra paced with his chest heaving up and down, filled with adrenaline, eyeing the last few challengers and how close he was to winning the tournament. Tired, but not broken yet, he drew a deep breath and gripped his misty sword, ready for the fight.
With Iradin's call, the six challengers began their final fight.
Sila Anesidora immediately stepped forward and spun with an upward motion to bend the earth and air beneath the feet of House Darius, flipping them and blasting them away with immense force - so much so that one of them was knocked unconscious upon hitting a wall, and another was defeated after Sila brought down a part of the wall on his body. Leaving now only Michael from House Darius, he charged at her with stubborn bravery and lofty ambitions.
Umbra, on the other hand, was left with the boulder himself, Damien from House Brutus. His footsteps were big and heavy, albeit slow, yet still consistent in his effort to reach Umbra. The young boy considered his options as he backed away slowly, looking around for any sign of anything that he could use against this giant, but there were none. He grits his teeth and charged forward at the giant in an attempt to hack and slash while keeping in mind what his mother had taught him.
Damien was quick to seize Umbra, taking the blows as if they were a flea hitting him and grabbing the boy by his throat. Umbra struggled as he could until he felt his feet lift off the ground with the realization that he was losing breath. Staring into the eyes of a muscle-headed bald man, Umbra's vision flashed and his memory took him back to the spar he had with his mother. A little trick that she showed him, one that he hoped would save him now.
His eyes went dark and gloomy, filled with black mist as the ground started to emerge the same mist just as well. In an instant, Umbra turned into a mist of black smoke and quickly reappeared behind Damien.
He followed up with yet another one of his mother's tactics, another that he learned just prior to the tournament thanks to the spar he had with her beforehand. Focusing on his willpower and control over the dark, Umbra summoned multiple tendrils of black mist, slowly bringing them up off the ground in a circle around the two. Suddenly, they lash out and grab onto Damien while grunting and struggling. Umbra promptly let go of him, landing back on the ground before continuing his attacks.
The tendrils tightened on Damien's limbs, stretching him apart as if Umbra was trying to rip him into pieces. The voice in the back of his head was telling him to, and the gods looked on curiously to see if he would follow through with it. However, he stopped himself just before it was too late, hearing Damien's screams of agony. Instead of indulging in his dark impulses, Umbra commanded the shadows to lift Damien before slamming him back down with the force of a meteor. Bones broken, the ground cracked; Damien was defeated.
"I thought he'd actually go through with it," Laevitia commented after seeing that spectacle.
"He almost did," Deianira added.
It was just in time that Damien had fallen that Sila also took out her own opponent from the tournament. Michael was left surrounded by stone and almost completely encased. While he was still awake, alive, and breathing, he was unable to move completely. Umbra took note of this and decided to use this to his advantage. His memory took him back to the spar he had with his mother again, heeding her words.
"You don't just control it, Umbra, you become it. You become a part of it, as it is a part of you. You learn to have it emerge when you need it, and devastate when you require it to. It's not just a tool for control, Umbra… it should benefit you in every aspect of your battle. What good's a sword if you only use it to stab?" Philomena said, demonstrating how she could willfully turn parts of herself into mist, and summon black smoke into tangible energy that could be used to harm.
Sila had a confident smirk on her face, and if you saw it, you'd definitely think that she was going to be the winner of this tournament. Her eyes lit up with arcane energy as she started to gather up her power. The magic around her was slowly building up to a climax as her feet lifted off the ground, floating up in the air to deliver a devastating blow on Umbra. The audience sat at the edge of their seats, and some even stood up to witness what was about to happen. The Colosseum could feel House Anesidora's wrath upon its stone and marble. The gods were certainly intrigued. Umbra, however, relied on his abilities. To match his opponent's magnitude, he was observed summoning black mist from the ground once again, and this time engulfing almost the entire arena floor.
His eyes were gloomy and smoky, and his hands slowly dissipated, turning one with the dark mist. Feeling the energy surging through his veins, he felt himself become powerful by the second, just as Sila was feeling. There was no telling what would come of this - it was like betting a rock against another rock. The arena started to both glow and darken with the two challengers' opposing magics.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Sila unleashed her energy onto the boy. Not all at once, but quickly in powerful bursts. Rays of blue, golden, and red arcane energy were emitted from her hands in an attempt to vanquish Umbra once and for all to win the tournament, but heeding his mother's words, Umbra seemed to hastily get out of the way of the projectiles just in time, barely missing him. The audience watched as Umbra traveled around the arena in a smoky trail in an attempt to reach Sila, and he did. Conjuring a tendril to drag her down to the ground, the built-up black mist on the arena floor slowly focused itself around Sila, dimming whatever light she had into complete darkness.
She tried her best efforts to blast her way out of this, but soon enough, the sorceress was shrouded completely in mist, preventing her from using her own powers. Eventually, after a moment of silence, the arena broke into roaring cheers in favor of Umbra, the winner of the annual Tournament upon Iradin's decree.
The gods themselves descended down to the arena to congratulate the boy, and for the first time in quite a while, Umbra was reminded of what it was like to be admired.
-
The intermission that followed saw no decrease in the numbers of the audience, but an even bigger crowd stretching out to the gates. Umbra and his family were invited to the champions' table for a feast after such a victory, as the gods outside got ready to fight for sport and entertainment, putting on a show for the people who gathered here. Their voices were booming and piercing through the walls as they warmed up and taunted each other, simply showing off a minor amount of their own powers to get the ball rolling.