The massive explosion rang through the colosseum. The sound was deafening. When the smoke cleared, the main thing everyone saw was Obsidian, now on the ground, severely injured. Very quickly the medic teams ran onto the field and helped him. The hero was still standing there, but he had some kind of dumbfounded look on his face.

 

But I saw something everyone else missed. Well actually two things.

 

The first was the fact that the barrier around the hero was now gone.

 

The other was much more dangerous. The colosseum had a barrier around the battlefield. That barrier was made to make sure that the audience doesn't get hurt by anyone.

 

But that barrier was now cracking.

 

The whole box was quiet. You could hear a pin drop.

 

Very quickly, the king got up and said something about checking on his brother. The queen followed behind him.

 

Chloe’s older sister got up with her husband to try and find out how they could help. It seemed like they were going to evacuate the stands because of what had just happened.

 

This left just the small group of us looking out onto the field. It was hard to take in. The hero that so many looked up to, just did massive damage to one of the strongest people in the nation. How this would look like to the public, nobody knew. He would either be given high praise for the power he showed, or he would be ridiculed for not knowing how to show restraint.

 

“Hey, Chloe. How much do you know about the barrier around the battlefield.” I ask quickly.

 

“None, what are you talking about? The barrier? All I know is that it was placed there to protect the audience. It was something that one of the court mages made. Why?” Chloe says.

 

“Because it's going to break.”

 

The cracks that showed up in the barrier after the explosion were growing.

 

The three of them looked at me.

 

“Should we do something?” Amelia says after a minute.

 

“I’m not sure if there is anything we can do. The records for the barrier are at the castle. That also where there going to be bringing both Uncle Obsidian and the hero. I think we should head there.”

 

So that's what we did, we went to the castle.

 

(A few hours later)

 

When we got to the castle, Obsidian was taken to a place where some healing mages could work on him. The hero went into another room where he could talk with people from the church. They asked Abby to go with them. For some reason, Lily joined that conversation as well. Chloe’s oldest sister Eleanor was in a meeting with the king. And with Uriel and Tess back with us after they also rushed to the castle.

 

Deciding that what I saw back at the colosseum was important, we were now in an archive room for the work of the past court mages.

 

The colosseum itself is over 100 years old, so the more basic work, which included the barrier, was from people long since dead.

 

Eventually, Amelia called out to us.

 

“Hey I think I found the designs for the colosseums magic system.” She said.

 

All of us crowded around her, and looked at the binder she had pulled out. Inside were several architectural drawings of the colosseum. Later were the magic circles for the displays to the boxes. Then the circles for the way the announcer can talk to everyone without yelling. Then we made it to the barrier. While looking at the designs, I would have been lost if not for the info wisdom kept on telling me. Since it wasn’t basic magic, a lot of it would be harder to figure out. Chloe however was a natural.

 

With this we figured out that the barrier was supposed to absorb energy. It seems to have been based on some hero’s magic that they let a past court mage see. It would then feed the absorbed energy to a crystal that then powered the rest of the magic.

 

We concluded that without further investigation at the colosseum, we would not be able to figure out what happened.

 

But it was getting late tonight, so we decided to look first thing tomorrow.

 

While we were still in the archive room, a butler came in.

 

“Excuse me, but is a Sir None in here?” He asked.

 

“Yeah that’s me. What do you need?” I say back to him.

 

“The king has requested your presence in the meeting with the hero and the church.”

 

“What does my father want with None?” Chloe asks the man.

 

“I’m sorry but I can’t say. All I know is that the king believes that sir None could be a help in the discussion” he says to her.

 

“I’ll go” I say to them.

 

“Are you sure?” Tess asks me.

 

“It’s going to be fine. I don’t know how I can help, but anything I can do, the better, right?”

 

“That’s fine and all, but the hero doesn’t seem to like you, and you yourself said that you found the church annoying” Chloe said.

 

“Yeah, yeah. But I can still be in the same room as them”

 

“If you think it’s alright, then go ahead” Amelia said.

 

“Yeah, it should be fine. Dad probably just wants a third party there” Chloe said.

 

“When your done, come find us. We will probably be eating diner” Uriel said, completely unaffected by the others mood about the meeting.

 

“Uriel try to read the room a little” Tess said to her.

 

After that I left with the man you came to find me.

 

He led me to a grand hall. This seemed to be the throne room. The other participants for the discussion were already here. The king was on his throne, the queen standing next to him. Chloe's oldest sister and her husband were observing from the side of the hall. The hero was standing in front of the throne alongside the arch-bishop I had met yesterday. Behind them stood Abby, Olivia and Lily, Chloe’s other sister.

 

“My king, I have brought sir None as you asked” the man who led me here said.

 

“Thank you, you may leave,” the king said. As the man left the room, the king said, “thank you for coming None, this won’t take long. You said you could see the something around the hero during the last duel. Can you tell us what it was?” When he asked me this, the hero looked kind of annoyed. I don’t know what that was about, but I just answered the king.

 

“No I can not.” I said back to him. This made the hero look kind of cocky.

 

This befuddled the king. “Why not?” He asked.

 

“I have absolutely no idea what happened. I can make a guess but outside of having seen a barrier on him that was active, I don’t know anything concrete”. After my comment, the hero went back to looking annoyed.

 

“Oh, well can you tell us what you think happed?” The king said.

 

“Of course. So as you said, my king, I saw a barrier around the hero during the duel against sir obsidian. At first I didn’t notice anything. But every time the hero got hit with magic, the barrier would flair up. Eventually it seemed to be always glowing. What I think was happening was that the barrier was absorbing energy. From what I learned recently, like 20 minutes ago, there was a hero sometime in the past who could do that. He showed a past court mage, and that court mage included records of it. It goes to reason that if one could do it, the so called destined strongest hero could as well”

 

This was my best guess. I had thought that was what he was doing while watching the fight, but the archives gave me more evidence.

 

When I was done explaining, the hero blew up at me. “What the hell was that! First you insult my sword skill yesterday. Then you just so happen to guess at my barrier. Then that last part. What the hell!”

 

“Sir Arthur please calm down” the arch-bishop said to him.

 

“No, I’m not claiming down. You know what, you dumbass idiot lookalike, either tell me what you mean by so-called strongest, or I’m going to kill you right here” he said, while pulling out his sword. This led to the guards that were also in the room to stand in front of the important people in the room.

 

“Uh, that’s pretty easy. The hero of ages is supposed to be the strongest hero, based on the scripture of the church to whom your a messiah.” I say to him. After that comment he still seems annoyed, but he places his sword back in its sheath.

 

“Fine, but the rest still stands. Insult me again, and I won’t hesitate to kill you”

 

“Hey archbishop, I don’t think the meeting the day after tomorrow needs to happen anymore.” I say to the archbishop after that comment.

 

“I understand,” he says back to me.

 

“Well, one last question” the king says, “Do you believe that the hero intended to kill my brother?”

 

“I don’t. I think that the hero was trying to kill anyone.” I say. This is my honest answer. Up until he threatened me, I don’t think he had any intention to kill. But he changed when he threatened me.

 

When I was let out of the room, I asked the person guiding me if my friends were eating, like Uriel suggested they would.

 

They said they were, and led me to the dining room they were in.

 

“Hey, how did everything go?” Tess asked as soon as I walked in.

 

“It was fine, all the king wanted me to do was tell them about what I saw during the duel since I could see the barrier the hero was using” I said to them.

 

“And nothing weird happened?” She asked.

 

“Nope” I say, then sit and start eating.