‘Huh...?’ Ark wondered, his mind processing the turn of events, [I mean, if you’re going to kill everyone in this colosseum then you would obviously kill me as well, so why are you singling me out?]

The entity which called itself Elder, laughed a little at the sign language.

“I see… So you’re a clown… I wonder how intelligent you are under that façade…” Elder spoke, reaching a gloved hand into one of its pockets…

It pulled out a multitude of small multicoloured spheres that looked like gumballs and clenched its fist around them, whispering to itself before it tossed them out onto the sand of the arena.

“You’ve won every battle so far, and you may win more battles after this… But…” Elder looked at the balls which started to shake and crack in the sand, trembling and blowing away the grains around them, “This is a battle you will never recover from… A battle with no counter…”

The balls erupted into a flurry of colourful beams with creatures of various elements coming from each ball, dozens of them screeching.

“Meet my elementals, they’re quite aggressive and violent so I wouldn’t recommend agitating them,”

The alchemists in the arena were all petrified with fear, Quart however, stepped forwards with a gleam in his eye, flashing a smile. A very arrogant and prideful smile.

“Oho? Is that a challenge?” He spoke, crossing his arms, “Or is it a threat?”

“It’s a warning, I wouldn’t make any sudden movements…” Elder looked over to one of its fire elementals.

Elementals were rare creatures, possessing a peaked power of the element they were a part of. Each elemental had a set of five small and beady eyes in the shape of a diamond, some elementals had these eyes on slabs which were a part their bodies and some elementals had them within their body… Each set of eyes was located in a different place for each elemental…

Either way, they were said to be like the automations of nature, seemingly emotionless and mechanical…

And gods save whoever triggered these automations…

A fire elemental looked at Quart with the five diamond aligned eyes in its chest piece and let out a cry.

“iː,ʌ/ iʌɪ/;’;;l;hnu iː,ʌɪ/’ It said, raising its hands and pressing them together to form a fiery orange sphere.

“Bring it you oversized-“ Quart was immediately consumed by a firestorm from the flame based entity.

“::}_+_:__)++_:” Speaking in an ancient language, the elemental watched as its target came out of the attack, unharmed and undamaged, though he looked pretty pissed off.

“ʌ,.., ,ʌ,ʌ” The fire elemental said something and all the other elementals repeated a sound that obviously resembled laughing, angering Quart even further.

“Now now kids,” Elder said, amusing his… Children...?

“Be nice to the man, he’s not very well tempered and will chuck a tantrum if his diddums are interrupted,”

The elementals all repeated the sound louder, if you were to hear it, the sound would very much be like a G major chord but autotuned and altered to the point where it sounded mechanical.

“Anyway, have fun slaughtering the crowds and remember, if you successfully kill Ark without letting him escape, we’ll get some ice cream afterwards,”

Each of the elementals, Lighting, Air, Fire, Earth, Vegetation, Ice, etc. All of them turned to the alchemist with killing intent radiating from their specialized bodies.

‘Ah fuck’ Ark stepped backwards, unable to verbally shout out his opinion.

“Not if we have anything to say about it!” Atra landed on the stage with several elite guards and her brother at her side, Wilford also joined in with his god blessed muscles.

“And we do!” Rekiel continued his sister’s sentence, putting his pot plant down beside him.

“Oh? My my, it seems I’m facing the royal family…” The servant-executioner spoke, “I wonder how much force you’ll exert before you all tire out,”

It stepped forth and a familiar oversized great sword landed in the wooden stage, its owner landing a few seconds after it.

“Can’t Unitos just have a single day without me needing to protect it?” Relziem spoke, his ever-changing colour eyes holding hostility and annoyance. Today they seemed to be orange.

The Paladin hero followed shortly after, landing with his powerful Warhammer.

“Alright, lets smash and dash,” He said, some not comfortable with how he said that.

“Smash and dash? You’re implying that you are going defeat me then run off and not that you’re going to attempt an illicit action then scram….”

“Yes,” The Paladin replied, making Elder hum disappointedly.

“Alright, smash and dash it is,” The trait replied.

It snapped its gloved hands and suddenly all the elementals were looking at the few gathered but still powerful forces of Unitos while Elder weaved between the mass of his summons and faded away to safety.

“New plan: Destroy them… And Ark,”

The elementals cried out in sync before rushing forth, their respective elemental attacks charging in their hands as various shapes.

“Get ready, we’re going to have to fight our way out,” Atra warned, her brother raising his fists with the vines coming out of his wrist. He was smiling as if he wanted an excuse to fight.

Relziem aimed his sword at his opponents and narrowed his eyes, readying a skill while his Paladin counterpart buffed the rest of the party with his holy skills.

“For Unitos!” One of the guards shouted, all the other guards cried out in agreement and they all charged in.

The two forces, one of nature and the other of man, met in the middle of the arena, a clash of magic power echoing through the construction.

Rekiel took on the fire and earth elementals while his sister attacked the ice and air elementals, the guards holding against the lightning and plant elementals with the heroes taking on the demonic and holy elementals.

And when I say elementals, I mean a few dozen of one element all focused onto a single person, with neither side managing to truly win over the other.

Even for Relziem and Rekiel.

One locked his trait onto the entities which surrounded him and the other swung his blade and sliced the elementals to pieces.

Something you should know of an elemental, you can’t kill one without using its natural weakness, so stabbing it with a sword won’t help. But killing it with a trait on the other hand…

The fire elementals were doused with water from the water elementals, screaming in pain while Elder just sighed from outside of the arena.

“I wouldn’t piss them off too much, lest something unfavourable comes out,” Elder hummed from one of the seats, looking over to Ark.

“As for you, I suggest that you don’t try and escape, it’ll only prolong your-“

The trait hadn’t even finished talking before the alchemist turned tail and ran off in the opposite direction, overcoat flapping and all.

“I see you choose suffering…. So be it…”

Elder charged towards Ark and skidded to a halt in front of him.

It expected him it stop, to slam his feet into the fine marble that made this place and maybe dig up a small trench with his efforts to back away and run.

Nope. He didn’t do any attempt to run away, in fact he sprinted harder at the trait, intent on knocking it down and trampling it underfoot.

Elder, however, had a surprise of its own.

Sure, the alchemist had made it open its non-existent eyes a little, but that surprise was quickly flooded out.

[Shadow Mode: Activated]

As quickly as Ark rammed into the sentient trait, he fell through it.

As quickly as his metal body made contact, suddenly there was no contact.

The trait became ethereal, untouchable, unharmable, unkillable.

Just like a shadow…

He rushed through Elder, eyes wide in surprise and horror. All the while Elder swiftly went to roundhouse kick the pesky alchemist.

Ark’s steel skin wouldn’t save him, the trait could break even A-Steel (a type of steel that was 10x stronger than B-Steel, which in turn was 10x stronger than C-Steel. C-Steel being equal to regular steel in our world) and he estimated he was around decent quality C-Steel range in terms of durability.

The kick came fast and hard, it contacted his shoulder and a burst of pressure erupted from the attack. Our alchemist was knocked into one of the rounded walls in the colosseum, but he remained relatively fine.

Though the potion effect on him had been strained too much, fizzling out and returning its maker to normal.

“Ugh…. Thanks June…” He groaned, rubbing a bruised shoulder.

The witch stood a good ten meters away from him, arms raised and purple fire magic bared.

“You absorbed the attack for him… Quite interesting… Why is it that you are so cautious to protect him?” The trait questioned, a tone of arrogance in its voice, “If you do perhaps desire his soul as your groom, then it’d be easier to kill him or just let him die from an accident. No?”

“…. He needs to develop a bond with me in the mortal world…” June’s hesitant answer made Elder chuckle, like when a parent knew when their child was lying.

“Yet you were so eager to snatch up bodies and force relationships around a week ago, why is it you’ve changed now? Surely being accepted by a man wouldn’t matter as he’d only have you to talk to…”

The witch didn’t respond, and the trait burst out laughing.

“Of course you wouldn’t be able to simply take him! Even for someone as grand as you there are rules that need to be followed! And one of those rules is that you need to have him love you to claim his soul, which he’ll never do!”

June grit her perfect teeth.

“Not only that, but it appears you’re bound to him. Which means that if you were killed, you’d reappear at his unloving side, eternally fated to a future without love,”

The witch’s fire began to rapidly heat up.

“Stop it,” She ordered.

“But… If he were to die before loving you then you wouldn’t be able to claim his soul. Ever.”

“I’m warning you…”

“Oh June Laysong… How old are you? Five hundred? Six hundred? He’s already seen you as the corpse you truly are. No matter how good you look, no matter how much you make yourself appealing, he’ll only be able to see that rotting and decaying form you hide from everyone,”

June lifted her arms and immediately a river of fire flowed from her hands, the trait eternally laughing, its shadow form providing immunity to the attacks fired from the witch of lust and greed.

“YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A SELFISH AND UGLY WOMAN!” It spat, falling back through a wall.

The wall it phased through was blasted open by June who at the moment looked incredibly angry. Like your sibling just ate your part of the pie and didn’t get punished for it, while you were then told to wash everyone’s plates.

THAT’S how pissed she was.

And the firepower behind that rage was colossal.

The witch released hundreds, no, thousands of purple and pink orbs. All gathered behind her, brimming with the magic stored within her body.

June pointed at the trait and all the orbs followed their user’s will, locking onto Elder with the intent to kill.

And they all went flying, ready to just destroy the hooded executioner at a whim.

The orbs all homed in on the trait, though it retaliated by throwing more of those small marble things out.

From them came a Mud elemental and a Mineral Elemental, both derivations of the base earth elemental.

These two elementals raised their fists/arm appendages and unleashed a volley of iron and mud pellets at the storm of orbs.

Now, because Elder stood between the two elementals, the orbs went towards him. Because the two elementals were firing pellets at the orbs which were only focused onto Elder via a predictable path, the orbs were mowed down with ease.

“Honestly June, you could’ve at least-“

Elder turned to see June right behind him with a gathering of fire in her palm, smiling maliciously while the trait could only sigh in frustration.

“Ah fuc-“

Both Elder and the earth-type elementals it summoned were engulfed in fire, consumed by the flames of the enraged witch.

“May you burn in the fires of the abyss…” The witch sneered, the heat melting and killing the two elementals.

She was immediately roundhouse kicked into one of the colosseum’s walls, shattering said wall.

“And may you be disciplined for getting my cloak dirty,” Elder brushed some dust off its shoulder, “Really, for someone such as you, in a dress like that, I would’ve expected more manneristic behaviours. Perhaps my faith was misplaced,”

The witch tore herself from the imprint she left in the colosseum wall, even angrier than before.

“You….” She seethed through gnashed teeth.

“Yes, I am still alive and well-“

Elder tilted its head and avoided a thrown spear from behind, turning around to chuck a yellow marble at the soldier who threw it.

It turned back, ignoring the twelve lightning elementals which spawned from the now clear marble, plus the soldier’s screams which followed.

“Now, shall we continue our brawl?” It spoke, raising its fists, “For I am very excited by the prospect of teaching the witch of lust and greed her place,”

June hissed in displeasure, reigniting the fire in her hands, the purple glow illuminating a few scars on her face.

“I already know my place, and I expect that you should know yours,” The scars immediately healed, and she blasted forwards, flying straight at the sentient trait.

The trait activated shadow mode and she flew through it.

“I expected more,” Elder mocked, seeing her attack was ineffective.

“I wasn’t aiming for you,”

“Huh?”

It looked over its shoulder and saw she was aiming for the few elementals that remained.

Wilford was pretty much tanking the attacks thrown at him with his godly body, unaffected and unfazed by the elements thrown at him.

Rekiel was shredding through them with his trait, Atra was doing the same with her wrist blade. Both Regimonts were working in unison with one another.

The guards were also holding well, particularly one of the captains who seemed to be untouchable.

“Hmm,” It seemed to hum, “I don’t possibly see how that even helps, I can just chuck out more elementals,”

“Rekiel! Use your trait on him!” June pointed to Elder, the gears turning within the trait’s mind.

“That’s a dude?” Rekiel locked his trait onto the other trait.

[Situation Nightmare has been locked onto Ilmit]

“Huh? Who’s Ilmit?” He asked, his brain trying to put things together, “Wait…. Isn’t she one of the participating alchemists?”

The powerful trait user suddenly jerked to the left and avoided a punch from his right.

“Your trait takes around ten seconds to activate, all I need to do is kill you in that time,” Elder challenged, glaring at its new opponent.

Rekiel smiled and put his hands behind his head. Pulling a smug expression with a cheeky glint in his eye.

“Then try and catch me, Mr trait,” He mocked, stepping back.

9 seconds remained.

Immediately the trait appeared in front of him and threw a punch.

“Ka-boom,” The human smirked, looking down to where the trait stood.

“Huh?” Elder looked down to its feet and saw a magic array drawn in the sand, panicking upon seeing it was already glowing, “When did you-“

“With my vines when I put my hands behind my head,”

7 seconds remaining.

The array exploded and sent Rekiel a few meters back while Elder activated shadow mode and ignored the damage,”

“Whoops, looks like I missed,” The florist joked, seeing the trait was unharmed through the smoke.

It wasted no time in dashing towards the royal alchemist’s brother, intent on ripping him to shreds so it could save itself.

5 seconds remaining.

Then Rekiel was engulfed in purple fire and surrounded by even more explosive magic arrays, a purple shield forming around him.

“Come on at me!” He challenged, June’s figure floating above him with a sadistic grin, “I know you can’t touch me while you’re in that invincible mode of yours. You may be able to avoid the arrays and shield, but you can’t hit me without hurting yourself!”

3 seconds remaining.

Elder rushed into the minefield of arrays, shadow mode activated.

2.5 seconds remaining.

It breached the shield and was upon Rekiel, unleashing a flurry of punches as it went to deactivate shadow mode.

“Fool you once, shame on me,” The florist crossed his arms, forever holding that grin, “But fool you twice, shame on you,”

“Huh?” Elder looked down at its feet, just as shadow mode was deactivated.

Arrays. Lots and lots of suddenly visible arrays... All of them explosion based….

The last thing the trait heard before it was pummelled with magic was Rekiel laughing as the vines pulled their owner out of the blast zone.

0 seconds remaining.

The arena was lit up with colours and explosions, the vast crowds who were still failing to escape awed at the second display of makeshift fireworks.

A rather large explosion occurred and Elder was shot up into the sky, screaming with smoke emitting from its body, burning and charring its clothes.

“Mommy look! A shooting star! Make a wish!”

Elder fell into the seating area up near the back of the colosseum, breaking a few seats as it landed.

“So, are you going to keep running at me in a straight line or are we going to properly fight?”

The trait looked up at the cause of its pain and internally gnashed its non-existent teeth, getting up.

Due to the explosion, it’s cloak now possessed a sickly brown colour and its hood had been torn in several places, its gloves and sleeves had been burned and singed to bits, revealing a set of bandages underneath. Its white gem-like face had a few chips on it though.

It stood up but this time it was more hesitant to do so, carefully looking about before something registered in its head.

“Your trait’s time limit is up… Why am I not dead?”

Rekiel shrugged.

“Killing IS my style but if I had to choose between indirectly killing someone or a hostage situation, I’d rather the hostage situation,”

“Hostage situation?” Elder questioned.

“Behind you,”

The trait turned around and went cold, colder than it had ever felt in its life.

Ark, the damn alchemist who it had forgotten about in the quarrel, was holding Ilmit in his arms. The girl was still unconscious from her trait’s activation.

“Let. Go. Of. Her. Now.” The sentence was laced with venom, and an adult male voice poured through.

“No, not until you tell me what Spite wants,” Ark demanded, “Or else I’ll kill her, and render you irrelevant,”

“As if you would be able to even bring harm to her, “ The trait challenged, clenching his fists, “You may be Ark the Armageddon, but even you wouldn’t be as low to kill a defenceless child…”

“I know, that’s why I’m having Rekiel do it for me,”

Vines suddenly shot out of the alchemist’s hand and wrapped around Ilmit’s neck, the reaction was imminent as Elder fell to the floor, grasping his neck in an effort to breathe.

“H-What…?” He spoke, the vines clasping tighter.

He looked to the side and saw the vines extending down through the next row of seats, hidden by the sheer havoc and messiness of the seats.

“Fooled by the same trick twice! Maybe you ain’t so crafty old man!” The florist kneeled to the trait, “I may be only in my twenties but I know a thing or two-“

A red and a blue marble dropped to the ground.

“REKIEL GET BACK-“

The 24 elementals emerged from their respective marbles and roared in anger, which of course was targeted at the florist.

“Ah shi-“ Rekiel failed to evade a quick grab from a water elemental while his vines were quickly severed by the fire elementals, allowing Ilmit and the trait to breathe.

Getting his air back, the trait looked to the trapped human.

“Let’s see you survive this!” Elder signalled the water elemental to throw Rekiel out of the colosseum.

“Y’know you are such an old and crusty bitc-“

The elemental did a heavy spin and flung the florist straight into the sky of the city, his form joining some of the few clouds that were present.

Ark went silent and stared at the trait, his pupils dilating a little.

“Now, I have had it with my patience. Hand her over or else I’ll make your death more painful than it needs to be,”

The alchemist stepped back, keeping his grip on Ilmit tight.

“I don’t understand, why not just have her unconscious all the time? You’d be able to do whatever you wanted, why would you risk having her run around,”

“Don’t ask questions about things you don’t understand boy,” The elementals drew closer, “Just accept things as they are and you’ll do just fine,”

“I- That defeats the whole purpose of what a question is!” He stepped back again.

“Now aren’t you smart? In this world, truly smart people succeed. Why? Because they know when too smart is too smart… They bow their heads and don’t ask questions,”

Elder stepped forwards and watched Ark step back again. He extended an arm to the human.

“Hand me Ilmit and I’ll make your death swift and painless, or else I’ll drag it out and have you live the rest of your days in agony,”

The alchemist narrowed his eyes, a bubble of a thought forming in his brain.

“So you’re just going to kill me and not bring me to Divak?” He asked, “Wouldn’t it be better to bring me to him?”

“Divak? You mean the dead god?” The trait failed to hide a laugh, “Why would I bring you to a deity who was wiped out millions of years ago? Unless of course you mean I’ll be killing you and sending your soul to the abyss,”

“So you don’t know him?” A sense of hope flooded into his chest.

“Why would I? He’s dead,” Elder calmed down from his laughter, “Perhaps you’re experiencing stress as a result of this situation, a swift chop to your neck would cure that,”

“And a swift chop to Ilmit’s neck would cure you,” Ark retorted, “Though you’d be able to cross the meters which separate us within an instant before that happened,”

“You really are a nosy boy, I wonder if that’s a result of your trait or a natural curiosity,” The trait titled its head in amusement.

“You know what, you win, I can’t get out of this situation,” He sighed, “You can kill me and everyone else trapped here,”

“Really now?”

“Yes, you can cut my head off and kill my friends down in that arena,” Ark gestured to Atra who was currently assuring the trapped civilians, “You can kill the royal family too,”

“Interesting, and you’re not going to try anything? You’ve just given up and handed your life to me?”

“Yep,”

“I have a feeling you know something I don’t,” The trait had his elementals stand down, “Otherwise you wouldn’t freely hand over your life to me so suddenly,”

“You said that you’d give me a painless death, I’m all for that,”

Ark stepped forwards and suddenly it was Elder who stepped back.

“What’s wrong? Slice my head off, kill me!”

He placed Ilmat down and stepped over her unconscious body, holding his arms out.

“I’m wide open! Do it!”

“Mere moments ago, you were afraid of me, until you realized I wasn’t affiliated with Divak…” Elder said, “Now you want me to kill you… This will not do!”

The trait stepped forwards and stared Ark down.

“What’s your game Ark?! Tell me what your plan is!” He demanded, the elementals growing hostile.

“Oh? Its just that I have a little something called a bounty on my head by this cult dedicated to Divak called Spite. They want to capture me and interrogate me, why do you think all these attacks and events have been happening in Unitos as of late?” The alchemist half-truthed while shrugging to himself, “You said it yourself, I’m nosy and with my trait, I’ve discovered a LOT of their secrets. Plus, many other secrets of Unitos reside within my brain since I regularly talk with the royal alchemist,”

In reality, he didn’t know if Spite wanted him or not, but it was certain that Divak himself wanted him dead. He just hoped this lie would work.

“And if I killed you then that would anger Spite…” The trait’s tone grew from polite to wary, “And it wouldn’t take long for them to know who did it….”

“Bingo, killing me kills you,” The alchemist pointed at Elder, “So what’ll it be? You announced to the world that you’d specifically kill me. And if Spite, a cult dedicated to one of the most powerful gods, finds out that you’ve murdered me without any hints to the secret weapons of Unitos, then you’d better keep Ilmit safe,”

“You… You really are a crafty alchemist…” Elder broke out into laughter, “I can’t kill you, but I can’t let you live! I can’t bring you to the cult either as Ilmit might be mistreated or even killed in Divak’s name… Oh what a checkmate you’ve placed me in!”

“Indeed,”

“Or you would’ve if I cared about Spite anyway,” The trait suddenly dropped his laugh, “I don’t care what happens to you if I kill you, but nobody will ever know who I’m affiliated with, not even Spite, a cult who worships a dead god, will ever find out who I am,”

The human’s grin dropped, the trait didn’t care about his weakness being exposed, he didn’t care about Spite hunting him down… Oh shit…

Elder suddenly appeared in front of Ark with a clenched fist.

“A quick and painless death to a foolish alchemist,”

He went to drive his fist through Ark’s body, but something seemed to stop him… No, something WAS stopping him. And suddenly something sent his right hand to the floor! Literally pressing it to the marble on the ground!

Looking up, the trait internally cursed as he saw the alchemist’s foot standing on Ilmit’s right hand. The goddamn potion maker had stepped on his weaker body!

“You may be able to lift my foot with your strength, but what about Ilmit? No way a girl like her could lift my entire body weight with just a hand, especially while unconscious,”

“Y-you… Kill him elementals!”

All the elementals charged forth, but suddenly June appeared from behind Ark, a sadistic grin on her face.

“Kill to your heart’s content-” The alchemist ordered, smiling a little at the last sentence he spoke to her, “-darling~”

The witch’s aura erupted into violence and power; all of the elementals reflexively stepped back due to the sheer imposing danger.

“How could I resist such a gift from my dear husband!” June flew at the 24 elementals and began to mow them down, leaving Elder to face Ark alone.

“Villain…” The trait insulted, seeing how his elementals were being shredded, “You used unmanneristic tricks,”

“Bitch you have an army of elementals and the ability to make yourself invincible as well as a little girl to act as a skin suit to cover your cowardly ass, you can’t say anything!”

“Swearing… Of course you’d resort to that,”

Ark ran his hand down his face out of sheer frustration.

“Look, I’m having June kill all your elementals, Atra’s gonna be coming up here to kick your ass and you didn’t even manage to scratch Rekiel. I’m going to beat you senseless anyways so I’ll get it over and done with,”

He extended a hand to his enemy.

“Join me,”

“Join you? In what? Dying when Spite comes to claim you?”

“I’m offering you some chance at redemption with me, someone showed me kindness and I wanna start showing kindness back, especially considering I might start dying at any moment,”

“It seems you just want me to protect your vulnerabilities,”

“Yes, I will admit that, but I can tell you are at least a semi-decent person. You wouldn’t have knitted Ilmit that dress if you didn’t care about her,”

“…”

“My trait, Analyzer or Analysis depending on how you see it, allows me to view and analyse anything I see, I wondered how Ilmit would come across a dress like that, and now I know. You’re pretty much her father,”

“…”

Taking the silence as an answer enough, Ark lifted his foot off Ilmit’s hand.

“You care about her enough to stage an attack on Unitos itself, because you want to see her succeed,”

“…How did you know...?” The trait got a laugh from the alchemist.

“Ilmit creates a damage counter potion and suddenly you stage an attack on the alchemy tournament? If you just put two things together in any situation, you’d be surprised at how many plausible answers come up,”

“I see…” Elder was about to say something else but suddenly a giant sword sliced through the seats, making the alchemist scream and the trait step back in surprise.

The blade returned to its master who landed between the two.

“Well well well, Ark it seems you’ve done enough,” Relziem said, keeping a swift eye on Elder, “Take that unconscious girl and go, I’ll take care of this guy,”

“Uh, dude you might wanna-“

“I said go,” The hero scowled at the other male, picking up Ilmit and tossing her to Ark.

“Yes, go Ark, run from a battle you cannot win,” Elder mocked once more, ignoring the fact the man he was insulting had his life in his arms, “Like you’ve always done,”

“Right,” He placed down the body of Ilmit and brought up his fists, frowning at Elder, “I’m gonna give you a beating!”

The trait suddenly dropped two sky blue marbles and summoned a dozen air elementals, of which exerted extreme wind pressure, pushing the alchemist back as they began to clear the area of dust and rubble.

Ark covered his eyes to prevent the air from shoving itself into his eye sockets and making them bleed, thus he was occupied.

“I mean, Relziem’s gonna give you a beating!” He corrected himself, picking Ilmit up again, knowing the hero wasn’t fazed by the wind. His edgy red eyes judging the potion seller.

The Berserker was about to turn and face his opponent after rolling his eyes at Ark, but the trait threw a swift punch at Relziem’s turning head and well….

The edgelord was punched back with some good distance. Ripping up the marble of the seats and rows with his body, creating quite a long trench in the colosseum’s upper seating area.

The wind stopped and the alchemist stumbled forwards onto his knees, still holding Ilmit with a single arm.

He dropped the girl and suddenly the trait was upon him, throwing a barrage of punches.

“Holy shit!” Ark attempted to try and strangle the throat of the girl he dropped, but he was punched in the face and combo-ed into a valley of pain.

Suddenly a figure appeared behind Elder and grabbed him by the neck, Elder was then thrown over a very pissed off Relziem’s shoulder, activating shadow mode to save himself from pain.

Or at least he tried to.

For some reason he couldn’t activate shadow mode and was pummelled into the floor, rapid flurries of black gauntlets now giving him a taste of his own medicine.

“Oh god it all hurts…” The alchemist groaned in pain, slowly balling up, “Oh man…. I feel my liver ascending to heaven… Oh it all hurts….”

While Ark was bitching and groaning, the berserker kept throwing punch after punch at the trait, no time seemed to pass between each hit and every blow seemed to be worse than the last. Eventually the gem face of the trait began to crack after each punch, and soon it started to bleed.

“What’s wrong?! Use your invincibility! Summon more elementals! FIGHT BACK!”

Hit after hit, strike after strike, pain making way for more pain with no relief in-between, Elder was not having a good day. In fact, this could be one of those days where he actually died and took a few of Ilmit’s precious hours of sleep to regenerate his body. This whole thing was falling apart…

This berserker, Relziem was his name, definitely had that annoying enchantment about him which locked skill usage. Damn, even if he was a trait that pesky enchant seemed to cripple his only way of survival.

And where did June go? Was she still busy with his elementals? Had she won? Is she watching him get beaten right now? He couldn’t tell, all he knew at this moment was pain, all he felt was pain, he existed solely in pain…

Then his face cracked…

And an eye, or what looked like an eye, specifically a red glowing eye, was revealed underneath…

“Huh?” Relziem stopped his assault, a moment of hesitation which was swiftly taken advantage of.

“Relziem you fucking knob!“ The berserker was grabbed by the throat and lifted up, seeing the battered trait and it’s hauntingly glowing red eye underneath its apparent mask.

“Why did you stop barraging him?! You know that if you hesitate in a battle you get anally destroyed!” Ark cried out.

“Indeed, I am as curious as you are about this,” Elder spoke, using its other hand to touch its broken face, “This is a new experience for me and I am not sure if I wish to-“

He saw the alchemist run towards Ilmit, reaching an arm out.

“I would refrain from that!” He threw the hero at Ark and dashed towards the source of his life.

The weaker male had what felt like two tons of pure power meet his average human body, easily throwing him off balance and causing him to fall to the floor, back first while his stomach was crushed by Relziem's weight.

The trait scooped up Ilmit and quickly spun to punch a purple ball of flames out of existence, the ball's caster hovering with an angry look on her face.

"Are you just able to cast fire-based spells? What happened to your variety?" He hummed, exposing his back to the other two behind him.

"You want variety?!" June screeched, opening her palms with crackles of dark energy, "Then I'll give you variety!

Hundreds of dark mana arrays formed around her, she seemed to be in a deranged state, and one could easily tell she was about to throw down a very powerful spell.

Relziem got off Ark who looked at the hero with his two eyebrows going up and down, this action made the hero pull and even harder scowl.

"Eyy, I felt something hard press into my knee, you wanna tell me about it?"

"..." Relziem was silent with an ease of his signature scowl before he extended a hand to the annoying human before him.

"Take my hand..." He said, an unusual kindness to his voice.

"Oh? So you can see me in a white dress?" The alchemist smirked, taking the hero's hand, “Thank you my fair knight,”

"No," The hero's grip tightened as he lifted Ark right off the ground, making a wave of breakfast churn in his stomach, "SO I CAN THROW YOU!"

The Berserker did a spin and flung the bane of his existence right at Elder's exposed back.

Ark opened his arms in an apparent tackle, holding in his breakfast.

[Shadow Mode has been activated]

"Shame on you Ark.... You never learn..." Elder looked down at his chest and watched as the human's body flew through his own in a slowmotion shot.

The alchemist rotated mid-air with a cheeky grin on his face, closing his arms around Ilmit's falling body.

The trait's visible eye widened in a truly pissed off fashion as he witnessed the lesser creature... This mere human... This… Insect… Literally steal his 'daughter' from his arms and fly down the row of seats. Pulling her out of his wide grasp.

"NOOOOO!!!!!" He screamed, plunging his hands into his pockets and chucking out a massive handful of marbles.

Ark watched Elder's composure diminish as June's spells finished their long charge, his gliding body hitting a wall and halting his movement.

The spells began to activate, and Elder reached out a hand in one last desperate attempt to try and reach the girl in his enemy’s arms.

Yet all he saw was a self-satisfied human glaring back at him.

"ARK ANDRASON!" He screamed in fury.

Shadow mode was about to activate but two arms grabbed him from behind and locked him into place, it was Relziem, and he had a sadistic grin on his face.

The trait struggled but the first lick of flame touched his tangible body and it all became black, he was unable to even react to the first shot of pain that seemed to slice through his body.

Ark watched this scene, seeing the hundreds of dark beams blow into his opponent's restrained body before it was completely obliterated, along with the freshly summoned elementals.

The few remaining shreds of fabric were reduced to ash, and after the chaos was calmed… The sounds of clapping followed.

Ark heard an applause and looked to his left, seeing the various alchemists and audience members cheering and clapping in the centre of the colosseum.

He smiled a little while Relziem just did his signature scowl, a few streams of smoke emitting from his armour.

Yeah... It felt good to win...

…

Atra was stressed, like really stressed.

Who knew that the civilians of Unitos were so damn jumpy?! Even when the threat was finished off a mother was panicking because her child coughed and she feared it was because a toxic elemental was poisoning the air.

Her ‘dearest’ brother had been thrown straight into the sky and honestly, it was unnerving to think he hadn’t survived the fall, but then again, he was always able to handle himself.

Sighing, she felt a migraine starting to form in her brain. Resia was holding up well, doing her bit to help by making the spirits dance and distract the children from the disaster around them.

Wilford was being… Well he was being Wilford, simply standing there awkwardly as ladies admired his muscles.

“Are you alright dear?” The Queen asked, seeing the royal alchemist was starting to get a little bit fatigued.

“Yeah… It’s just… I need to sit down for a second,”

“Then sit, it’s no use complaining about something when you won’t act on it,”

“I guess…” Atra sat back down into the sand, laying down and taking a few deep breaths.

“That’s it, just imagine yourself in your happy place with that special someone,”

She closed her eyes and pictured a beach, a sunny sky above that beach and her laying on the shore, looking up at the clouds while she could faintly hear Rekiel and Armi talking in the background.

She could hear the footsteps of someone approaching her, and she looked over the small dunes of sand to see Ark…

He was wearing his board shorts and had a smile that was bright enough to light up the world…

And beside him were two kids. One that looked like her and one that looked like hi- God dammit brain….

Atra returned to reality and internally cried, seeing the Queen was smiling beside her.

“You imagined yourself and Ark on a beach with two children, correct?” Her smile was as knowing as ever.

“Yeah, that’s what knocked me out of the fantasy,” She groaned, “And the migraine’s gotten worse…”

“Oh and here comes your dream man,” This sentence made Atra want to scream in agony as Ark walked up to her, a smudge on his smiling face.

“Hey,” He greeted, dropping the body of Ilmit who had a little drool pooling from her mouth on her relaxed face, “How’s it been?”

“Why do you have the body of the girl who made a damage counter potion?” She asked, being as straightforward as possible.

“Tsk, tsk, don’t ask questions that don’t matter,” The alchemist pretended to lightly scold his higher rank.

“You always say that, someday I’m going to throw in jail when we get answers…” Atra closed her eyes and attempted to go back to her fantasy world before her eyes went wide open.

“WAIT WHERE’S THE-“

“Relziem molested him and then June evaporated him, didn't you?”

"Yes my dear, he'll know not to mess with us again," June smiled to her crush.

“Oh,” Her panic quickly died down and she laid in silence with Ark who then went to lie down beside her.

“Ah, peaceful, isn’t it?” He asked, getting a questionable ‘hm?’ as a response, “The clouds I mean,”

“I guess?” She partly agreed with a slight hint of confusion, seeing there were no clouds in the sky.

As the two alchemists simply laid together and talked, an elderly robed man observed them with a darkened gaze, possessing a mechanical arm that seemed to follow his actions a little too well…

This man turned away from the two and began to mutter something to himself, a faint blue energy highlighted his body.

A guard noticed this and attempted to stop him.

"Great elder please do not cast spel-"

The guard felt the palm of his hand shred and robe of the elder immediately fell to the ground, as if nobody was actually wearing it...

Ark immediately stood up, feeling a familiar energy pulsing in the air as the guard screamed in pain.

“Ark? What’s wrong?” Atra noticed the other alchemist wasn’t cheery or talkative anymore, she could also hear the guard screaming so something was definitely up.

“The Symphony of Order…” He whispered faintly, “It’s here…”

“What...?” The royal alchemist became alert, “What did you say?!”

Ignoring her, he walked towards the screaming guard, the shredded skin of his palm led blood pool through ripped flesh and onto the sand.

“AHHHH! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?! DID THAT OLD MAN DO THIS?!"

Ark kneeled to grab the robe, using his trait to analyze it.

[Unanalyzable *%^$%I% ERR//]

[A simple robe for worshipping gods, what else?]

The alchemist just sighed in defeat before something perked up in his mind.

Turning to the guard, he quickly asked who owned the robe or rather, who was wearing it.

“I-IT WAS AN OLD MAN! HE WAS MUTTERING SOMETHING WHILE GLOWING SO I ASSUMED HE WAS CASTING A SPELL! I GRABBED HIS SHOULDER AND SUDDENLY HE FUCKED UP MY HAND BEFORE VANISHING!"

“Thanks!” Ark shoved the robe into the guard’s chest and ran around the colosseum in an apparent trail, ignoring the guard’s screams.

If he was lucky then he’d be able to-

He accidentally slammed into someone turning a bend, they both fell back from the shock, though Ark was worse for wear.

“Sorry! I’m in a hurry!” The alchemist got up, chucked a few copper coins at the man and ran off.

As for the man, he regained his thoughts and exhaled in a mild anger, watching Ark run away with a vengeful hate in his heart. He looked at his hand, where a tingling took place on his finger.

On his finger, although it was the slightest, most insignificant injury that would heal with a simple douse of magic, it had a faint trail of blood leaking from it.

He glared at Ark’s running figure and closed his palm, a puff of smoke vanishing the wound.

….

Armi was enjoying this day greatly, Ismai was like a lazy housecat and the abyssal god in animal form surprisingly laid a few eggs which he gave permission for her to cook for lunch. They were safe to eat and apparently, they were like regular eggs, only they tasted like souls which according to her, were like bland pancakes.

Then Rekiel came along looking like trash so she made him take a bath in the hot springs, how someone could look like they just came from battle at an alchemy tournament she had no idea. But at least she managed to get him cleaned up.

Currently she sat in the armchair, reading over the large book.

“Magic has often been thought as a way to divinity, many powerful mages are often outcast due to a tendency to believe themselves as high beings. However, while this is the case, some mages have been known to give themselves immortality, often regretting the action,” She read from the page, tracing it with her finger.

“Magic is a form of science that is speculated to be linked with traits. Heavy evidence supports this as those who were exposed to lesser amounts of magic were shown to possess lesser traits while those exposed to higher amounts of magic were proven to possess greater strength with their traits,”

She looked down to her right hand, a slight hint of guilt washed over her.

Their home had quite the mana surge on the day she was born, and thus she had her trait and magic talent, but sadly her brother wasn’t as fortunate.

[Mana Blessing]

[You can release a massive pulse of mana that increases the mana regeneration of the user and allies by 200%, the mana capacity of the user and allies by 50% and removes mental taxation from the user and their allies. This effect lasts for 10 minutes and can only be used once every half-hour. The user also gains a 60% resistance to mental effects]

Sure, Analysis was a powerful trait which could peer into the history of anyone and anything, but Mana Blessing was the ultimate party buff for magic users like her. Sadly, her brother had never properly cast magic, not once in his entire life could he ever throw a fireball without feeling that rush of proper magic through his body.

But then again, he didn’t let that stop him, he was her brother, and that seemed to be enough for him.

‘Armi’ he would say, slamming his fist into his palm, ‘I don’t need magic to shatter kneecaps, that’s what my fists are for!’

Her brother then proceeded to beat up the kids who would bully her, she earned quite the reputation thanks to her brother’s antics at the local school.

“Greetings!” Rekiel suddenly appeared at the doorway, shirtless and only in a towel, “How is life dear sister?”

“I’m not your sister and you’re not Ark,” She ignored him in favour of her book.

The florist frowned.

“Really? Me and Ark are quite similar,” He grinned, counting off similarities on his hand, “We’re both immature yet highly intelligent and we’re quite full of ourselves, we’re annoying to our respective sisters, yet we somehow get along with them,”

“I would beg to differ,” She replied, “For starters, Ark knows his boundaries, you do not. Secondly, Ark makes obscure references to things that I don’t even know exist, and you two only get along with your sisters because we tolerate the antics that you cause. Honestly if Ark wasn’t here, I’d be halfway into my magic degree with a prospective future,”

“Then why not just leave him behind?” This suggestion made her look at Rekiel with a deadpan, “If he’s that much of a burden then you could just dump him off and go on your journey,”

“Rekiel… That’s a horrible solution,” Armi shook her head in disappointment, “I can’t just leave my family behind,”

“Why not? That’s what I did, I just up and left one day and nobody gave a shit!”

“According to Atra, you were such a pain to your parents. Do you even care about them?”

“Nah, they’re just parents. Dad really didn’t care about me that much and dear ‘mother’ was such a kind and oh so caring woman that she would… Do unfavourable things to me daily, well, that was our stepmother anyway,” The florist sat down in a chair.

“What about your biological mother?”

“She…. She took care of Atra for a bit then… Then she just vanished, thus Atra from there on was given to the Queen per her requests,”

“Really? Just like that?”

“Yep, and I stayed back with the others. Eventually I got fed up and left them, changing my name from Revile to Rekiel,”

“Huh… Whys that?” She asked.

“I just hated how my step-mother would look at me, every time she would lock me outside at night or even deny me food. How she would speak in hushed tones while I was around, eventually I changed my name and left that all behind me. But anyways, where’s Ark’s clothes? I need some new pieces of attire,”

"He has a white shirt and pants, that’s his entire wardrobe," She uneasily pointed to her brother's room.

"Hmm, I prefer more blue coloured attire... Pity my overcoat was trashed from the tournament..." Rekiel commented, leaving the room to let Armi think about what he just said.

As he changed, the abyssal chicken god entered the room, pruning his feathers.

"Armi, while I do believe that your brother can handle himself at the tournament, are you positive he can go a day without stirring chaos?" The god asked.

"He should be able to, why?"

"I'm feeling his soul being put under a physical pressure, which doesn't often happen unless the master is being hurt," Sir Cluckens explained, "But its Ark so he might just be using his body for something,”

"I swear, if Ark is in trouble then I'm going to take away his bedsheets and he'll sleep with only a pillow,"

"I take it is this a regular punishment for him?" Rekiel stepped back into the room, wearing his friend's clothes, "Can't say its effective,"

"Tell me about it... I've lived with his antics for my whole life, he's quite a handful," She looked at the odd similarities between Rekiel and Ark, if Rekiel’s face shape was a little different and if he had heterochromia then maybe he could pass off as her brother’s twin.

"Don't worry, he's just built different. A little cracked here and there but still fully intact," This remark caught Armi off guard.

"Cracked here and there? What are you talking about?"

"Eh... Just saying your brother may be a bit... Well not just a bit, he's pretty retarded in all respects, but that's why me and him get along so well! We're both idiots!"

"Can't argue with that," She went back to her book and began to read while Rekiel stared at Ismai all snuggled up and cute.

'Hmmm, demi-humans are uncommon in Unitos, but I've never seen a domesticated cat type before.... Only combat types…’

He kneeled to analyse her further, glancing at her from various angles. Lightly poking her.

'Quite intriguing indeed, although she looks like a child, she's actually-"

Armi slammed her book shut, stood up and screamed in pure horror. Causing the thief in blankets to yelp and bite Rekiel's hand in a midst of panic.

"MY SIBLING SENSE IS TINGLING!" She cried out, distress all over her face.

"Oh yeah, that might have something to do with this weird elemental dude who's killing everyone," The florist nonchalantly mentioned, not caring about his hand being bitten.

Armi’s face opened in horror and she quickly got ready to leave the house.

"Rekiel take care of the house I need to find my brother!" He listened to the woman leave the room and run down the street in haste, leaving him all alone with only animal-based creatures in the house.

He looked to Sir Cluckens and raised a suggestion.

“Ever burned a Neverplant before?”

....

Ark leaned against a wall in pure exhaustion, sweat pouring down his body with dryness of a throat to accompany it. God it was so annoying....

"C'mon.... Being able to shred things apart and teleport its user?! What kinda magic is this?!"

As he caught his breath, he heard a faint, almost yelling sound coming towards him.

He narrowed his eyes as he focused on it.

‘Huh…? Is that a fairy...? No… An arrow? A warning?’

Immediately his danger sense flared up as he turned to his right, his pupils dilating with horror.

‘NO! IT’S MY SISTER!’

His body straightened, his exhaustion disappeared, and he adopted a cheerful expression.

“Good day dear sister, how are you?” This was ignored, obviously.

“WHAT HAPPENED?!” She pointed at him.

“Well you see I- Wait your meant to be sick!” He pointed back.

The two kept accusing each other until the Queen stepped in.

“There you are Ark, and it seems you’ve got your sister with you as well, that saves us time!” She sighed in relief, “Quickly, come with me, there’s a problem!”

“Can’t you see I’m arguing with my sister?!” The royal grabbed him by the collar and dragged him through the sand.

Armi followed the Queen through the colosseum, her brother yelling murder and threats until they arrived at the western end, then they saw the problem.

There was a huge, colossal black mass leeching off the walls, it seemed to devour the tough marble with ease, constantly adding the external matter to its own.

The trio joined the already concerned crowd of civilians and officials.

“What the…” Ark was speechless, seeing it bulging and swivelling like a slime.

“By the gods….” Armi was also lost for words, “What……”

“What indeed,” Wilford spoke, his titanic frame blocking out some of the sun, “I found this after running away from some women who were getting a little too close…”

“And it’s only tripled in size since,” Resia appeared behind her brother, clutching his shirt.

“And you want me to cure this oversized tumour?” The alchemist asked, almost in disbelief at the thing eating away the colosseum’s marble.

“Not exactly, we need your trait to scan this thing,”

[Abyssal Leech (Abyss Creature)]

[HP: 902,0328,0324,00/1]

[Trait: Servant of the Abyss]

[Desc: This creature is a servant of the abyss and thus has an 89% resistance to all mortal plane magics and attacks, though it takes an extra 3% damage to holy magics and attacks]

“Well the good news is that it can’t regenerate health….” He spoke, almost disbelieving the results Analysis was showing him, “But I think it has more health than Sir Cluckens and it resists eighty-nine percent of all magical and physical damage we throw at it unless its holy…”

“Hmm, we’ll need the priests to exorcise it then. I’ll contact Arch-Bishop Gerald and see if his clergy can do something about it…”

“They won’t be able to fight something like this though,” Relziem appeared out of literal air, like he suddenly teleported in, “Not if it’s able to retaliate,”

“Yeah, Priests are pretty squishy…” Ark agreed, “We’d need a heavy hitting tank, something like a-“

“PALADIN!” The Paladin hero landed in front of the gathered crowd, his giant Warhammer accompanying his armoured frame.

“Yeah that’d work…”

“Where were you?” Relziem questioned, seeing the paladin laugh.

“I was taking a bath and training!” He exclaimed in response.

He turned to the leech and readied his Warhammer.

“DIE FOUL BEAST!”

“WAIT STO-“

The Paladin swung his weapon onto the abyssal creature, but as quick as he was to attack, an equally quick blue swirling transparent barrier erupted from beneath the leech and shielded it. Covering it.

The attack landed on the swirling barrier and an eruptive beam travelled through the mighty Warhammer, straight into the armour of the Paladin. Blowing it wide open and throwing him into Relziem.

“Sorry but-“ A hooded figure stepped forth, wearing a familiar robe with his arms spread out, “-I can’t let that happen…”

“And who’re you?” Armi asked, weary of this mysterious figure.

The swirling barrier suddenly split, a layer of the transparent swirl dancing around the robed figure as they lowered their hood.

“Just a loyal dog protecting some insurance,”