Ulmir’s Domain, Fourth Day of the Contest, The Champions’ Lounge.

Utar was frantically running towards the vault. Something had disrupted Essence distribution inside the Castle for about an hour. The vault had an auto-lock system. If the energy inside the realm were to be depleted by some catastrophic event, the vault and its contents would be sealed in the void.

The High Priest drew some complicated symbols in the air then the round metallic door started moving. Once inside, Utar inspected all the treasures. He’d hidden Darkstar’s sword inside the vault, in an attempt to draw the intruder towards it. After the Essence distribution suddenly ceased, the vault and the corridor leading to it were automatically locked.

Utar waited by the archway leading to the vault for nearly an hour. He was clutching something in his arms. He hugged it tight, as though he were afraid to lose it. He was sure he’d caught the intruder this time. His surprise knew no bounds when he found the sword on its shelf, as he had left it. Nothing was taken from the treasure trove that hid some very powerful weapons and artifacts.

Javad stood next to the High Priest, his eyes bulged out at the sight of the contents of the vault. Nobody was allowed inside the place apart from the High Priest. Utar had made an exception that day. He didn’t want to lose sight of Darkstar. He walked to a shelf then carefully placed the rectangular frame on it.

He closed his eyes then inspected the place. He could sense residual foreign energy in the vault.

“Whoever caused all of this is good at covering his tracks,” Javad announced, as if to add salt to injury.

The High Priest’s eyes were full of disdain as he shot a dark look at Javad. “Do you think this is a joke?” he shouted. “Nobody knows how to enter this vault except for me and the Lord Supreme. Spare me the praises and help me track this bastard.”

“Shouldn’t we be looking into what’s happening with the Contest?” Javad asked.

“If I don’t find the intruder, I may never be able to stop whatever had happened to the champions,” Utar answered, exasperated. “I have a strong suspicion the two events are related.”

“Your Reverend,” a guard spoke behind the metallic round door. “Lord Supreme summons you to the Lounge.”

“Find a trail Javad,” Utar ordered as they both left the vault. “I’ll go deal with Lord Supreme’s anger!”

The door closed behind the two. No one could explain what happened at the vault. Utar was about to have a hard time explaining the situation to his superior.

“What did you put in the vault?” Javad asked.

“Something that must be put out of sight,” Utar replied.

***

An hour ago at the mansion, Myles had finally convinced Cane and Greta not to look for the second key. After lunch was over, everybody was magically transported back to their last known location. The existence of a second key pushed everybody to rush outside, looking for a needle in a haystack.

Myles tracked Cane and Greta then convinced them to move to the mansion. They were sitting in a library, by a fireplace. Bookshelves that reached the ceiling surrounded them.

“Someone’s manipulating us into playing a dangerous game,” he told them. He’d managed to convince two other champions to give up on the search. One of them was Vivian, the other was a man named Karp.

“How do you know we’re being manipulated?” Karp asked.

“Remember when I told you about the High Priest’s torture?” Myles asked back.

They all nodded.

“Utar had captured somebody else, another champion by the name of Vyk.”

“That’s true,” Vivian cried out. “I remember people betting on him losing the fight. He surprised everybody by copying the move you made during your first fight. I didn’t see him with us in here. Then how come there were sixteen of us at first?”

“My guess is that whoever, or whatever, brought us here had sent in some impostor,” Myles explained. “We’ll wait for dinner then make a roll call. If we identify the impostor, I bet we’ll find the key.”

“How are we to do that?” Greta asked.

“Each of us will speak about their preliminary fights. We’ve all had to fight twice to get here. But the impostor didn’t. It’s a matter of details. Lies always rely on embellishing the details. Allow me to demonstrate. Greta, how was your first fight?”

“He held a sword, I had my spear. He tried to attack first. I stabbed him on the foot then pierced his heart. Poor thing started on the wrong foot.” She smiled as she told her story.

“See that? Short and to the point. Someone who hasn’t been in the fight will try to give us more details, make us believe his ordeal was real.”

“What if they like boasting?” Karp asked.

“No one would boast unless they feel comfortable enough to tell an extravagant story. We want to save our skin at this moment. We’ve no time to think how our opponent may or may not have thought during a fight that happened three days ago. If somebody talks too much, it only means they have the key.”

“Ya talk too much,” Cane interjected.

“Some of us need to keep a cool head. You obviously panicked, looking for an elusive key,” Myles retorted.

“He’s got a point though,” It was Karp who spoke this time. “What guarantee do we have that you don’t have the key?”

“You’ve searched me before.”

“It’s not enough. You may have hidden it somehow.” Karp narrowed his eyes as he got up then approached Stalwart.

The walls in the library suddenly shook. Everyone looked around to see the bookshelves flashing, like unstable images Photons sometimes relayed.

“What the hell is this?” Vivian shouted.

“This keeps getting weirder and weirder,” Greta commented.

The bookshelves around them kept flickering revealing darkness and stars behind them.

“We’re definitely having a bad dream,” Karp shouted.

The room stabilized after a while and everything went back to normal. Fire crackled in the fireplace. Books were neatly stacked in their shelves. It was as though nothing had happened. The champions however, looked around them anxiously. They didn’t have enough time to process the shock since they were teleported back to the dining room.

“Welcome back my little dearies,” the woman’s voice rung through the entire mansion. “I see that some of you have met quite a terrible fate. The one you thought to be the key holder ended up dead, killed by one of you. I wonder if Vegat really had a key on her. Hehe…”

There were only ten champions left. Guss looked in all directions. He seemed lost, agitated. They ate in silence. Nobody dared speak of what happened to the woman. They were curious of course, but they didn’t trust each other.

If one asked about Vegat and the key, a game of accusations would follow. They’d bark at each other endlessly before they were teleported again, chasing after some elusive key. After the main course was cleared, dessert comprised of chocolate pudding was served.

“This here’s a delicacy from Boligne my dearies. Melting Pots they’re called,” their captor told them. “Have a go at it, perhaps this would be your only chance. Some of you might not even make it through the night.”

They were all trapped and they knew it. Myles had seen something back at the library, but he couldn’t fully understand what he saw. He cleared his throat. Everybody turned toward him.

“There’s something I should tell you all. I think I know where we are.”

“Well spill it out then,” Rose, the silver haired woman urged. “Six of us have lost their lives already.”

“Five,” Vivian intervened.

“What d’you mean five?” Guss asked. “I see ten champions around this table.”

“Do you remember a dark skinned man called Vyk?” Vivian was addressing Guss. Her nostrils flared. She was nervously tapping on the table.

“Yeah I remember he –“ The white haired man’s eyes narrowed. “He won the second fight at the preliminaries, didn’t he? I remember betting on him with the others at the Training Arena.”

“Have you seen him since we appeared in this cursed mansion?” Myles asked.

Silence ensued. They all looked at each other, trying to find the intruder. They all understood that an impostor was among them, perhaps killing champions as the day went by.

“There was no key,” Myles told them, “at least not in our possession. Someone’s sitting among us as we speak, looking us straight in the eyes and telling us: I’m going to kill you all. And if you don’t wish to have your throats opened, I suggest you stick to my plan.”

“What would this impostor,” Rose scoffed. “gain from killing us? And how will staying in the mansion save us from whoever’s after us?”

Cane was religiously devouring the Melting Pot as he listened to the others argue. Noticing his hunger, Greta happily handed him her part of the pudding. He thanked her between grunts then kept eating.

“Weapons are not allowed in the mansion,” Myles intervened. “Failure to obey the rules results in instant death. We’ve seen it happen to Rubeus.” Stalwart stood up then started pacing around the table.

“Now if somebody wishes to harm us, they’d need to use brute strength. I’m sure loud grunts in the corridors would reach us before the killer gets his job done. We all know how to fight. Better yet, let’s stick together, in this room.”

“Dinner time will soon be over,” the woman’s voice told her captives. “And you’ll be sent to the forest. I must warn you, nasty beasts go out to hunt after dark. I suggest you make it back to the mansion before the last bell chime.”

“She’s playing us, pushing things forward,” Guss cried out.

“Everybody!” Myles shouted. He needed everybody to pay attention to his words. “We need to get back here before the last chime. If one of us fails to do so, he or she will be presumed dead or a potential impostor. If you linger long in the forest, you risk – “

Myles vanished.

“We risk what?” frustrated champions blurted out.

“I think I know what he meant,” Vivian answered. Before she could explain, she suddenly vanished as well. The other champions cursed their rotten luck. They were teleported away from the mansion one after the other.

Outside, the sun had almost reached the horizon. The tall trees around the mansion blocked most of it from reaching the ground. It started getting dark. Myles heard low grunts behind him. Everywhere he looked, he saw fleeting shadows surrounding him. He could see their shining eyes, but the rest of their bodies were just a blur.

He quickened his pace, trying to reach the mansion. Whoever was behind this trial, she did her best to ensure they would lose. The shadows, Myles suspected, were incomplete bodies. They were perhaps some dark entity that only hunts at night. Stalwart wanted to believe that story.

Something else bothered him though. It felt like a fleeting thought. Every time he felt closer to get to a conclusion, he’d be missing an important clue, something he knew but couldn’t remember. The shadows that danced around him didn’t let him focus. He wanted to attack them, go after them, but that would only slow him down.

‘I need to reach the mansion and fast, before the bell –‘ The first chime echoed through the forest.

“Oh and by the way dearies, there are only three chimes!” the woman’s voice said, taunting. “You have about ten seconds before the doors close, and the safety of the mansion denied!”

Myles ran at full speed. The creatures that surrounded him gave him an ominous feeling. They circled around him as they floated in the air. Sometimes they got closer. Other times they danced around the trees. Myles couldn’t see what was in front of him. The shadows obstructed his vision. He followed the sound of the second chime.

He had about five seconds left.

The shadows started chuckling. Some had high pitched voices. Others had low, deep ones. Myles could now see their large eyes materializing in front of him. They were as wide as a full grown pumpkin. They shone a bright golden light. They resembled a goat’s eye, but these had a different feel about them. They scared him, repulsed him as well.

The third chime echoed through the forest. The doors to the mansion closed.

The shadows laughed hysterically then cleared away from around Myles. He could see the mansion, a few paces away from him. The door was closed, and the shadows were taking form behind him. He turned around to see humanoid shadows walking toward him.

They held dark swords that Myles barely noticed. It was dark. He could only see the golden eyes staring at him behind the trees. They ran at him, Myles turned tail and dashed towards the mansion. He could at least see what’s attacking him in the clearing. There was still some light reflected in the sky, just enough to see where the attacks came from.

Myles stopped near the main door then turned to face the approaching shadows. They all had black goat eyes with golden pupils. Black lightning crackled around the sword they held. One of them, still a few paces away from Myles, swung his sword. A black shockwave left the sword then lunged at Myles with tremendous speed. He barely dodged the attack when another shadow appeared before him.

Myles dodged to the side. With impressive flexibility and dexterity, he snatched a sword from the shadow then punched it. His hand went through the shadow’s forehead then left from the back side. Myles lost his balance then fell to the ground.

The door to the mansion behind him was badly damaged due to the sword swing that missed him earlier. He was lying on the floor, his left shoulder hurt badly. All the shadows stood around him. Their eyes shone brightly. They didn’t speak, only laughed. They all stood around him, sword in hand…

Waiting.

They didn’t attack, they just stood there. They continuously laughed while observing Myles with their peculiar eyes. It was getting darker and darker. The last rays of dusk disappeared from the sky, replaced with night. Some shiny dots on the dark carpet called space shone weakly. The shadows started merging with the world around them. Only their eyes remained, dark balls floating around his injured body.

Myles looked at the sky, searching for a constellation. He needed a hint, as to where he was. The stars in the distance flickered. Myles saw some extinguish while others popped up on the other side of the carpet.

Something wasn’t right.

The shining eyes floated closer to Myles. They blocked his field of vision. Everywhere he looked, he’d see golden rectangular pupils. They all got together, aligned themselves next to each other. Each golden rectangle attached itself to another. Soon enough, Myles was looking at a large dark ball with a large golden rectangle in the middle.

The ball covered the sky. It turned left and right, looking for something. Its golden rectangle seemed to flicker, as if it were blinking. The ball slowly turned towards Myles and winked at him. Myles body felt lighter, his eyelids grew heavier. He fought the sleeping sensation that seemed to overwhelm him, to no avail. He was sinking, and the feeling of floating into nothingness seemed appealing.

The rectangle blinked again.

Myles saw it.

It was visible for only a fraction of a second but it was enough for him to understand. He fought the pain in his shoulder then stood up. What he’d seen jolted him up from whatever hypnotized him. He gave himself a couple of slaps then looked around him.

He was no longer in the forest. He was inside the mansion. Eight other champions slept beside him. They all seemed to be having a nightmare.