The smoke continued to fill the room; it made it difficult to see through his pink porcelain rabbit mask, all the blood dripping from it didn’t help either. The fire had fully consumed the building by this point and the foundations keeping what was still left of the auditorium up was more fuel than support. The blood staining his clothes was a real shame, he was dressed for a better occasion than the one he was in, but it was not his fault since he was not alerted of the dress code ahead of time.

She had been waiting impatiently for many hours. Peering out of the small eyelets of her grey porcelain wolf mask, she watched the slow trickle of people flow into the empty auditorium. She was never too fond of when they had these large gatherings, all these big overarching plans always went over her head. She much preferred it when they just sent her a letter telling her to act, and she would act. This time was different though, the rabbit was coming.

He was nervously waiting in a small room to the side of the wide auditorium, his apprehension did not show through the eye holes of his dark cowl. Today was the day he was going to be granted his mask. He stared at his hand reminding himself of why it was different, who made it different. Once he finally gets his mask, he can right the wrongs of the world. He wasn’t fully sure of exactly what they saw in him to so quickly give him such a prestigious position, but he was in no position to complain. “Mhm” a loud voice could be heard from the auditorium, it’s starting.

A man suddenly walked into the tavern devoid of any people except for the lone bored bartender. The man was wearing a strange set of clothes. The clothes were very clean and straight, it had an heir of importance to it, but it was not like the robes of the nobles. He was wearing a pair of black pants with a matching blazer over his white collared shirt; wrapped around his neck was an odd colorful silk cloth that fell to his stomach. The bartender recognized the clothes. She knew someone who always wore the exact same thing. He had told her that it was the clothes of nobility of the ancients, it was called a suit. It came with a pair of nice shoes as well. He always dressed for a better occasion than the one he was in, but this stranger was not him.

It stuck its head out of the curtains hiding the stage. The gathering of people was approaching its full size now. It would begin soon. It was not worried that the audience would know that it was an it because its face was protected by a mask, the perfect mask. A small porcelain mask of an octopus, each of its tentacles curled to the chin, it was a yellow octopus with many blue rings spotting its body. The mask didn’t have any strings to wrap around its head, it just seemed to stick on with no impression of falling, as did all the porcelain masks provided to the organization. Satisfied with the audience, the octopus stuck its head back in, hiding behind the red curtains from the patiently waiting audience. “I hope you are excited, today you will become change itself. This world, and all who stand on it. Your words today decide their fate.” In front of the octopus was a short and plump person, it was impossible to distinguish any details because their face was hidden behind a white porcelain lamb mask.

He found it hard to breath. Missing a lung didn’t help in that case. His diaphragm pointlessly continued its rhythmic motion pushing against his loose ribs. The pain was searing through every nerve. he tried to push through it. His hand, although it was different, was still capable of dragging his mostly limp body forward, just a few more inches. His mask had fallen but if he could just get it back, all would be solved.

He had finally arrived at this small town just on the outskirts of the Cruor swamps in the dead of night. The perfect place to do things one would want to do unnoticed. Why would following his master’s footsteps lead him to such a place? He wasn’t certain, but he was not going to leave this town without becoming so. He tightened his tie with his free hand while his other held firmly to his, as he called it: briefcase. He noticed a tavern off to the side of the street, surely someone there could guide him to the auditorium.

A lady wearing a green porcelain turtle mask waved goodbye then walked back towards the tavern. The woman with the grey wolf mask watched the turtle walk away for a moment longer before finally entering the auditorium. A few people who stood in the corner by the entrance turned a glance to see who the latest to arrive was, but when they saw her grey porcelain wolf mask, they realized she was too important for them to approach. The auditorium was not very large, but it could hold the hundred or so people here. The square stage across the room was blocked off from the crowd by a large red curtain. She scanned the room to see if he was already there. There were two other masks here, but he was not one of them. The only reason she even bothered showing up was because he was supposed to be here too.

An ethereal green shell suddenly appeared; a loud thud exploded as his faintly pink coated foot pressed firmly on the shell inches away from the grey wolf mask. He felt a sudden chill from behind, the pink around his foot suddenly hardened and faint ethereal hairs began to grow just as he pushed off the shell cracking it. Where he just was an orange blade and a slender man in a fox mask appeared. After that last maneuver, the pink around his foot was almost totally faded but he still had some power left, truthfully speaking that pink power provided by his rabbit mask was but a fraction of his true strength. Twisting around he threw another kick into the ethereal brown horns charging into him shattering the horns and crunching into the brown porcelain bull mask, sending him flying across the room. “My shell… won’t… last much… longer.” A woman with a green porcelain turtle mask struggled to speak through forced breaths. The smoke was beginning to choke everyone, especially the out of breath turtle. The fox ran to the bull to help him up and extinguish the flames catching to his sleeves. “It won’t need to.” the woman with the wolf mask said encasing her arm in silver energy. The silver energy hardened and coalesced, until growing full of fur. She extended her claws and readied to attack the man with the pink coated foot who hid his identity behind a pink porcelain rabbit mask.

“Try not to charge through that curtain.” a slender man with an orange porcelain fox mask approached the food stand pointing to the red curtain hiding the stage from the rest of the auditorium. “You know that’s not actually a thing, right?” The burly man with the brown porcelain bull mask responded. The bull turned his back to the fox, rummaging a cookie from the food stand before twisting back towards him, “Actually, I know that you know that’s not a thing because I told you at the last meeting that it wasn’t. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I told you at the meeting before the previous one as well.” The bull berated. The fox gave a soft chuckle “yeah, but I like pissing you off.” The fox swiped the cookie from the bull, he gently raised his porcelain mask so that his face wouldn’t be revealed and let the cookie disappear into it, letting a satisfying crunch of the cookie resound as he placed his mask back on properly. “…And I have to do something to make these meetings a little more exciting. It’s just the same boring ceremony every time.”

“Give me the box.” The man with the lamb mask beckoned to the man in the rabbit mask before him. The two of them were poised on the center of the stage with the entire auditorium and its hundreds of spectators watching. The rabbit was holding a small case close to him. A third man without a mask was also on stage nervously watching the two. “It’s called a briefcase.” The rabbit spat back bitterly. “Then give me the briefcase.” It was impossible to tell expressions with everyone wearing masks, but the rabbit could feel the arrogance exuding from the lamb. “No”

“-Change!” even within this small little room to the side of the auditorium he could hear the voice echo signaling his cue to enter. He fidgeted and adjusted his hood nervously then walked into the large room and onto the stage with the comfort of knowing no one could see his anxiety through the eye holes of his cowl. There was a man on the center of the stage, his face was covered with the white porcelain mask of a lamb, in his left hand was a small black cloth obstructing some item hidden beneath. The crowd was totally silent as he approached the center. “Two years ago, this man gave his soul to us. We sent his soul to the Whittler. The whittler judged his soul, sculpted it.” The lamb at the center of the stage paused as if expecting some kind of response, but received none, he continued. “For the first time in fifty years, a soul has been returned.” The lamb turned towards the nervous man. “But before we return your new soul back to you. We have a very special guest today, who comes with a gift. I would like to call the rabbit to the stage.”

The octopus tapped the shoulder of the dazed man with yellow skin next to him and pointed to the auditorium. The dazed man shook his head vigorously as if trying to discard something unwanted, but whatever it was he failed to remove it. He tossed his torch into the strange pool of black liquid at the base of the auditorium; the black liquid was set ablaze. The octopus took a deep breath to appreciate the soft dawn breeze. He gazed up to the beautiful purple sky, a faint black shadow could be seen slithering across the orange star off in the distance. “We should probably skidaddle before any unwanted guess show up. I think they can take care of the rest anyways.” The octopus and the dazed man walked away from the town into the sunrise.

The lamb’s mask fell cracking in two on the hard wood floor revealing the young boy’s tears draining down to his throat and mixing with the blood and pink energy. His mind was swimming. He was trying to focus on the animals in front of him, but his eyes wouldn’t listen for some reason. The force at his throat was released and he immediately crumbled to the floor.

The man in the suit approached the bartender. “I am here to attend a gathering. Do you know where I could find it?” The man placed a porcelain mask on the counter. The mask had two long ears that extended the overall size of the mask two-fold. It depicted the face of a rabbit, and the whole mask was painted pink.

The lamb and the octopus hurriedly ran into the side room next to the auditorium. The lamb was desperately collecting cloths to clot the gushing liquids from escaping from where his left arm once was. “What is happening? I thought you said the rabbit was going to help us?” The lamb shouted to the octopus. The octopus stopped in his tracks and turned to the worried lamb taking a moment to decide if the lamb was worth the struggle. The octopus then gently placed his hand on the wooden wall next to him, he made sure to really get the texture right. The door to the small side room ruptured into countless pieces. The rabbit ran into the room to see the lamb alone, holding tightly to the stub which was once his left arm. “Where is the octopus?” but no response. Imbuing the pink energy into his hand, he charged towards the lamb and pierced his throat.

“-the rabbit to the stage.” The lamb spoke before the crowd. The wolf, trying to hold back her tears, grabbed onto the rabbit’s blazer as he was walking away, “Why?” she choked. The rabbit quickly turned to the wolf “I need to go to the stage now.” he replied apathetically. The wolf tightened her grip. “Is he alive?” the rabbit did not respond. “Tell me he’s alive.” The wolf begged. “I have to go now.” The rabbit said forcibly removing her grip from him. The rabbit walked on to the stage and the wolf covered her arm in an ethereal silver aura.

As if magnetically attracted, the mask flew onto his face. The black porcelain mask in the shape of a spiked star hid his dried tears from the rest of the world. It still wasn’t easy to breath with the punctured lung, but he could endure the pain. He stood up, now alone on the stage. He looked over to the sea of corpses. Their burning bodies filling the room with a horrendous odor. With the mask on, he was filled with a sense of calmness. He looked up to the roof. It had partly crumbled allowing the calm man to peer out. The day star was finally up beckoning a new day on. The sky was littered in many soft white clouds, truly dazzling. His cloud watching was interrupted by the screech of a man from the room to the side of the auditorium.

“You should put on your mask before entering.” The barkeep told the well-dressed man while pointing to the pink rabbit mask. Similarly, she put on her own mask, it was of a green porcelain turtle. The well-dressed man nodded and put on the rabbit mask. She didn’t know how this man got a hold of the rabbit mask or the briefcase. But she had to find a way to alert the rest. It may be the weakest mask, but one could never take too many precautions.

The wolf leaped onto the stage throwing a mighty fist at the rabbit, the rabbit calmly placed his briefcase between him and that charging fist and as if it was some immovable mountain the wolf’s fist stopped dead against that briefcase. The crowd let out a shocked gasp to the sudden development but before they had any chance to process what happened the fight was over and the rabbit placed his foot imbued with pink energy on the chest of the collapsed wolf. The bull ran up onto the stage but was halted by a raised arm of the lamb. “It would appear that our VIP is quite excitable today.” The lamb gestured to the bull to step away. “That is understandable. I would be to if I had the honor of giving away such a gift. But surely Mrs. Wolf, this is no cause for jealousy. And Mr. Rabbit, could you please not overreact so much, you’re going to scare our initiate.” The rabbit removed his foot from the injured wolf and turned towards the lamb. “You know, from the fairy tales, I always expected the two of you to be in reversed positions right now.” The lamb chuckled in a feeble attempt to cut the tension. “Why don’t you give me the box.”

The octopus focused all of his mask’s power into keeping him hidden. The side room next to the auditorium was filled with all six masks currently, and he had no intention of partaking in the imminent fight. He silently slipped past the plump corpse on the ground and through the door into the auditorium. “Who are you and what did you do to the real rabbit?” he could hear from the side room. The octopus would definitely have a lot to report when he returned to his superiors. The octopus stood at the center of the stage and relinquished his camouflage. He stared on to the large crowd before him, most of which were totally unsure of how to react. The octopus was certain that the powers that be would want as few as possible to know of this incident. A faint ethereal yellow mist oozed out of the octopus mask and filled the room. The yellow mist began to seep into every open pore of the asphyxiating crowd, and they all lifelessly tumbled to the floor. The yellow mist surrounding one of the people still struggling for his last gasp of air hardened and merged with his skin giving it a faint yellow hue. The man instantly felt comfortable in the poisoning mist and could breathe normally. The octopus looked over to the other man on the stage. This man was totally unaffected by the yellow mist, he had a hole punctured through his chest, but he was not dead. He was desperately crawling across the stage to get to an item. The octopus easily outpaced the dying man and picked up the object. It was a porcelain mask; the mask had the vague shape of a star with many limbs outstretched in all directions and was riddled with countless small black spikes. The octopus carried the mask over to the dying man and knelt next to him. “There is no Whittler, I am your whittler and I am giving you this mask. You will do well to remember that. It is with my generosity and mercy that you survive this night.” The octopus gingerly placed the mask next to the dying man. “The rabbit isn’t the rabbit anymore. I don’t know who he is now, but who he used to be used to be someone who knew you… if that helps any. And… please be the last person to leave this place. I’m sure a warrior of your skill can understand how to do that.” The octopus got up and walked towards the exit of the auditorium. “There’s some oil lamps and torches in the back, go get them.” The man with the yellow skin ran to the back of the stage.

A streak of pink energy sliced through the lamb’s left arm, severing the limb and launching it across the stage. The black cloth now knocked away, revealed within the lifeless hand a porcelain mask depicting a strange many limbed black star littered with small black spikes. The man in the dark cowl tried to jump away, but the rabbit’s arm, along with its deadly pink aura pierced his lung as if his arm were an impossibly sharp blade. Pain encroached on every inch of the cowled man’s body as he fell to the floor. He wanted to stand back up, but every ounce of his body shouted at him not to. The whole world was spinning, and voices were distorted to incomprehension. A shade of yellow waved towards where the lamb once was and away again, followed by shades of pink, orange and brown. Were these colors real? It was impossible to tell at this point. He wasn’t even certain of his own consciousness. Perhaps, the solution was just a few inches away: that black porcelain star.

The wolf’s arm had grown into that of a great monster. It was no longer ethereal; the thick grey fur was tangible, and one could feel power emanating from it. All of the air within the room seemed to be drawn into the arm, being sucked away. She swung her arm towards the rabbit across the room. Despite the fact that he was far out of her reach, he desperately jumped aside, barely dodging out of the way of a great slash that tore the wall behind him. The building exceedingly weakened by the fire could no longer sustain its weight with the new wound. The wall collapsed dragging part of the ceiling down with it. The rabbit propelled himself forward out of the debris and swung his pink clad foot towards the wolf. Again, at the last second a green shell materialized defending the wolf. An orange pressure on his neck, a brown force at his back, a grey blade towards his chest, the rabbit expertly weaved and dashed out of the continuous onslaught of the coordinated group. Each one of them individually were extremely powerful and skilled, their cooperation making them even more so. The rabbit was unsure of how much longer he could push back against them, he had to end this fight quickly. He imbued more energy into his mask and the pink energy around his foot began to climb up his leg. The rabbit could sense a brown force charging straight towards him, just on cue the large ethereal horns of the bull emerged from the fiery smoke. The bull charged towards him while remaining low to the ground, nearly on all fours. The rabbit raised his briefcase between the two. Upon colliding with the briefcase, the bull stopped cold. The rabbit swung his pink infused leg towards the stomach of the bull. The green shell appeared again but was too weak this time, the shell shattered, and the rabbit’s foot comfortably depressed into the bull’s stomach. He could feel the organs squish under the weight of his kick. The muscles shredding under the force, and the cracking of ribs reverberated through his entire body. The explosion of force was so great that his back ruptured spitting blood and spinal fluid onto the rabbit’s mask. The death was instantaneous. “NO!” The fox shouted, tears erupting from the eyelets of his mask. All the fire in the room extinguished as the air rushed towards the wolf’s arm. She pulled her arm back to prepare for a great swing, when suddenly a black aura ensnared it, and the arm immediately dissolved to liquid.

Right when she was worried that he wouldn’t show up, the rabbit entered through the large auditorium doors. Thankfully it was hidden by her wolf mask, but she couldn’t help but grow a giant grin. He arrived just in time as well, the presentation was just about to begin. “mhm” a man with a lamb’s mask cleared his throats on the stage, a small black cloth obscuring some object being held in his left hand. She couldn’t care less about that. She ran over to the rabbit while waving, she was going to call to him before she saw the turtle behind the rabbit shaking her head no.

In the doorway stood the short figure of the black star. It glanced towards the turtle and with such hundreds of ethereal black spikes appeared piercing her body. A quick cough of blood was the only thing she could let out before collapsing onto the ground. The wolf was already on the floor trying to scoop up her liquid arm. The air around the fox went cold and viscous. The fox wanted to fight, wanted to avenge his allies, his friends, but his body couldn’t move through the now congealed air. The black star looked towards the rabbit. The rabbit was readied in a fighting stance, but the pink aura was beginning to flicker and dissipate. A loud bell chimed in the room despite their being no bell. A small pink rhombus grew out of the thin air in the center of the room. More things had arrived, and it was not time for the black star to reveal himself to the world; besides, the powers that be told him that the octopus and his orders would not be relevant for much longer. He wasn’t even certain if he could defeat the rabbit and whatever this pink rhombus was at the same time, so instead he just left. Left in the room was the green turtle, convulsing in mortal agony; the grey wolf, grasping at her phantom limb; the orange fox, trying to pull out of his thick encasement. The dead bodies of the brown bull and the white lamb; the pink rabbit staring at the strange being before him; and the pink rhombus, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a feutureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards the rabbit holding a glowing parchment: It read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are The Reliquary