[Chapter 7] – Your Turn
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Master and I arrive at the topmost seating area of the Colosseum, only to find every spot filled with people.

“I guess we can just stand here and watch... I’ll be fine with that.”

“Steve, you seriously need to think a little bigger. Think less like yourself and more—like me. Okay, I take that back, it might be a little too difficult.”

“...I feel like that is not going to be the last time I'll hear that line.”

Master walks past me to my left. And when my eyes follow the white-clad figure, I see him already sitting on the couch from the Grand Archive as if to laugh at my preconceived notion of reality, or you know—the laws of physics.

—I say that even though I know I’m literally standing in a world where supposedly magic exists…

“Are you going to actually stand there? I guess you could if you want.”

Master’s reminder successfully pulls me back from my thoughts and I move to sit on my spot on the couch. Meanwhile, the white-haired man himself's holding a bag of french fries and nibbling on a stick like a hamster?

“Didn’t you say you don’t eat?”

"To eat, or not to eat. Honestly, Steve, I haven't decided yet. There are so many voices inside my head at all times it's basically impossible to distinguish which is whose."

"Are you talking about the assimilation thing? The compiling of knowledge?"

"Mostly..."

Master presents another stick of french fry toward me. And continues to say with a smile.

“You see… the thing about french fries is that in Bri*****, they’re called chips. And when you combine those two names, what do you get?”

Are we really discussing french fries in another world? Wait, [Discussing French Fries In Another World] could be the name of a novel… not. To be honest I think that deserves the title of the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard and I was the one who thought of it.

“—When you combine them you get… french… chips?”

“French chips~! Friendships~! The sticks of friendships~!”

“...”

Well, that title was easily topped.

I blankly stare at Master who is holding two sticks of french fries with both his hands, waving them around in front of me.

“Are you—serious?”

“No, of course not.”

Master refutes and eats both the fries, before starting to grumble.

“Ugh, I don’t think eating is my thing, Steve. This is actually my first time and it’s rather disappointing. Fast food can supposedly help when you’re nervous. Maybe it’s because these don’t have that flavor of imperfection like the real thing?”

“Master... are you deliberately trying to be incomprehensible right now?”

“What I’m trying to do is to express my feelings into words… anxious, tense, apprehensive—nervous. Nervous just feels like the best one.”

—What... does that even mean?

“And besides…”

Master gestures toward the center of the amphitheater.

“It’s starting, Steve.”

My gaze follows Master’s hand to the crowd below, eventually landing on the levitating platform made of elegantly carved gold with a person wearing an equally elegant and drastically more dramatic costume standing on top of it.

Faceless silver mask with attire of black and gold reminiscent of a high priest or a judge, that person sends out a greeting to the audience and begins the opening speech.

As his powerful and commanding voice echoes throughout the Colosseum—I can’t help but notice that something feels… wrong. Something, a few things, feel off.

There’s a strange tension in the air that I can’t quite place but can still taste in my mouth, like when you try to look for something invisible to the naked eyes.

Soon after the speech has finished, the roaring cries of the mass bring my attention back to the large, open arena where groups of people begin filling it. Based on the different colored uniforms each of the six groups wears, I assume that these people are the participants of the tournament.

Five out of six groups of mixed-race people have been led by small teams of beautifully dressed dancers and their graceful and stylish performances, are made more impressive by the magical flourishes that highlight the unique cultures of their empires’ respective schools of magic… but if I have to be honest.

Embarrassing as it is, in my eyes I can only see that she moves a little to the left, he moves a little to the right, and they both spin around in place while holding fireballs in their hands.

—Well, it’s a good thing I have my tour guide with me.

“Master?”

“Oh, right… dancing! We got to that part already?”

My eyes narrow doubtfully at Master who sounds as if surprised by what I've said.

“You haven’t been paying attention at all, have you?”

“How dare I not pay attention? It’s almost like I wouldn’t be able to know what will happen next! But seriously, Steve, all of this isn’t as interesting as you think it is no matter…*Yawnn.*”

“Would you at least indulge my curiosity a little? Consider it a friend’s request.”

“A friend’s request?”

Master pauses, and then smiles.

“Well, I guess it can’t be helped then. Let’s see… how about we start with—”

Snap—!

With a snap of his fingers, Master and I are now relocated to the floating platform where that silver masked man is. Giving me the full view of the entirety of the Colosseum.

“—The blue clothes guys over there.”

When I hear a voice and follow it to its source, I find Master already sitting across from me on the golden railings beside the man with the silver mask completely unconcerned about being noticed. 

“The Umara, students of the school of [Elemental’s Wisdom]. But really they’re the students of their Godemperess Kuramiya’s wisdom if nothing else.”

The drums kick into a blasting chorus. The Umara dancers’ movements become fast and erratic, but not without a sense of control.

With each step and spin, they spring forth pallets of magical elements, the earth transformed into their stage. The flames bursting from their hands are used to paint wonderful shapes in the wind that carries them to the crowd.

“This dance is a reference to a ritual that existed long before the Six Empires divided their rules over the continent, and despite Umara being the most technologically advanced empire, they’re surprisingly traditional. The earth elemental represents nature, with nature comes the flame of life carried by the wind of age through the world. And then…”

The music stop—

Underneath the dancers’ feet, bubbling pools of water begin to rise, catching them, preventing them from continuing the dance. The water soon visibly begins to freeze their limbs, growing flower-like snowflakes on their body. And when all is consumed by the freezing ice...

A burst of flame erupts from the center, melting it all away into vapors that eventually dissipate to reveal the performer bowing to the audience who are as amazed as I am at the moment.

“Death, followed by a new beginning…”

—That’s a rather bleak meaning… for such a graceful dance.

“Bleaker than they know… —Those people are a lot jollier in comparison. ”

Master now brings my attention to the nearby group of people clad in dark-purple suits. They have an air of decadence about them, but not in the same way the Umaran gives off a sense of class and nobility. In comparison to the traditional dance of the previous entry, the Carinaru’s feels like a circus show, with top hats, rabbits, and pigeons that disperse into colorful fireworks.

“Carinaru’s school of [Phantasm]. They exploit the blurred line between dream and reality by blah blah blah, not important. But basically, they’re all delusional people who believe there’s no difference between dreams and realities and Carinaru is just an empire-sized asylum… or it would be if they weren’t kind of right.”

“Kind of?”

“It involved a lot of complicated ties to the [Astral Plane] and some other things from [Time Immemorial]. And the result is that their magic works a little too well and they start to develop the willful sensibility only rivaled by those people in green clothes... The Maziono’s school of [Wild Magic].”

With the music that sounds more like tribal chanting blaring up, the dance of the Maziono begins. Their rhythms are slow but powerful and threatening, like a growling beast attempting to scare its prey.

The performance plays out more like a sparring battle between two bare-handed fighters, slowly and deliberately testing each other strengths and weaknesses.

Until the pace of the music fastens and the tension that has been building up between two dancers instantly clashes. Exploding into literal spectral forms of a strange snake-like beast and a tiger-like monster, charging fiercely at one another!

“By letting loose the primitive nature of their bloodline—or DNA if you want to go that route—they’re able to harness the dormant power of the beasts within… allowing them to summon phantoms of their ancestors.”

When I look over to the other side of the arena, another performance doesn’t lose out to the other contestants in terms of spectacle. Though perhaps, not of the same kind.

Because seeing a guy in a black robe summoning an army of white skeletons with fiery blue eyes to form towers with their bodies is certainly very impressive, it's also kinda… yeah...

“Desmundheim’s school of [Necromantic Grey]. Unlike all the other schools of magic that have multiple branches of studies, Necromantic Grey only has 2. Namely. Necromantic black and white. Black concerning the magical control of the dead. White is, of course, more related to those who have, yet to die.”

The dances of the 4 schools continue. They circle the arena, switching places and reaching out toward every seated audience. But then suddenly, they stop.

At the center of the arena, reveals a silhouette of a figure in a beautiful golden dress.

“Elysian’s school of [Power]. The most versatile of their magic schools. By studying the [Edictum] of raw mana—their words of command—they can manipulate the fabric of reality with their voices...”

—She begins to sing…

When her soft, melodic voice flows to my ears, I feel as though the entire world has been imbued with a golden glow that resonates with the music. Her voice carries that glow into the sky, to the cloud, and the wind. Enveloping the scenery in the gentle, translucent light.

And before I know it, the song is over and the performers have started to leave. I catch myself applauding along with the audience despite—hang on a minute, those guys in white haven’t even done anything!

“Oh, them? They don’t do dances… Ainecarias’ school of [Temporal Arcane]. Students of time and space control, a primitive form of it. A reclusive bunch and they operate a lot more like a large-scale secret organization than an actual empire, only being called that because of a political agreement… 

“Aaand that’s everybody! I’m starting to get impatient, Steve.”

Master jumps back down from the railing and opens up his book.

“So let me just tell you the result of every match that will happen and skip right to the finals!”

“Wait, what? You can’t do that!”

“—1st match Desmundheim won, Carinaru lost. 2nd match Ainecarias won, Maziono lost.”

Ignoring my protest, Master begins to announce the result of each matchup. And every time he does, the color of the sky and the scenery change, like a quickly flipped through pages of a book.

“Master, stop!”

“3rd match Elysian won, Umara lost. 4th match… 5th match… 6th match...”

The sky goes dark, then the brightness returns. The Colosseum becomes devoid of people, then bustling once more. A roar is heard and I think something just exploded, I’m not sure. A giant armored skeleton suddenly appears out of nowhere and immediately shatters into pieces—and I think I saw a dragon? Giant fireballs light up the arena for a split second, disappearing in the next. The booing of the crowd, quickly drowned by their cheers.

Everything flashes by so fast, it completely overloads my senses, leaving me muddled and disoriented.

“27th match Carinaru and Desmudheim ties… And—”

The world eventually stops turning, but it still takes quite a few seconds for the nauseating in my head feeling to go away. And when the white-haired man smiles innocently and says his usual thing again, the only thing I can think of is...

“Welcome to the 20th day of the 5th month of the year 1500 ED! The semifinals are starting! Enjoy it okay? I’m gonna go take a look at something and will be—right back!”

“...”

Master...

I hate you so much, right now.

—————…..…..

Finally...

It may have taken a while but finally!

Finally, I get the chance to watch this bloody tournament. I asked Master to put the couch closer to the arena so that I could get a better view of the fights before he left. And here I am! Front row seat! Watching a magical tournament in another world!

Currently, two guys are facing each other in the arena, one is an Elysian human with shiny blonde hair, and the other is a handsome-looking Dragonoid from Maziono.

At first glance, Blondie seems to have absolutely no chance of going up against Dragon-boy. But that is only on a casual level of observation. Because right after they finished staring dagger into the other’s face. Dragon-boy summons his sta—I mean [Phantom Beast] behind him. Taking the gargantuan form of a green-scaled dragon that spreads its wings to block the sun as if devouring it.

Its eyes glow with fury as it charges forward like an arrow. Not to the Blondie but rather to the Dragon-boy himself, merging with his body as crackling sparks of green lighting shoot out from his eyes. After being imbued with great power, the expression on the Dragon-boy’s face isn’t one of confidence, but of desperation.

And with that desperation, he roars—summoning violent storm clouds above the sky of the Colosseum. It quickly gains energy, condensing a mass of lighting that continues to grow stronger as if a tribulation from heaven is demanding the end of Blondie… whose casual, unfazed expression already tells me that he’s probably one of those guys.

Nevertheless, I continue to throw popcorn into my mouth, Dragon-boy continues to look determined to fight until he rushes forward with ferocious velocity. Catching the green lighting that strikes down from the air and wields it like a spear, brandishing it toward Blondie who…

—Whispers something under his breath that instantly splits the storm clouds, clearing the sky and knocking out Dragon-boy by forcefully blasting the green dragon phantom out of his body and dispersing it into green dust.

And that is 1 for Blondie—0 for Dragon-boy.  

The school of [Power], more like the school of [Over-powered pretty boy main protagonists]... Not that I have anything against them, it's just...

Huaaa~~

—This guy reminds me of a certain someone who had a cooler name than me.

Dragon-boy’s friend eventually comes to take his unconscious body off the arena. And the final battle to decide the winner of the [Tournament of the Niles] is… why is everything stopping?

“—Having fun? Steve?”

When I hear the familiar voice resound in my ears, the scene in front of me is shifted back to that of the white-gold architecture of the Grand Archive.

“Actually, I was, before you came back anyway.”

I expect him to quip back at me something but Master, who is sitting on the floor, leaning his back against [The Astral Projector], simply continues to stare at his book in silence.

“...”

"..."

After a few seconds of just nothing but silence, as I'm starting to feel a little weird, Master throws a question back while looking up at me… I think—can’t really tell under the blindfold.

“Steve, if you know [everything], what would you do with it?”

“Is that a trick question?”

“Nope.”

“Is it a rhetorical question, then?’

“I know [everything], Steve. Every question I ask is rhetorical.”

“Then I fail to see why I have to answer this one in particular...”

“Please…”

Putting down the box of popcorn in my hand, I just tell him the most obvious answer that comes to mind.

“I would use it to make the world a better place?”

The world? Which world?”

“Earth?”

“—Just [Earth]? —What about the rest of the universe? —Or are you strictly talking about humans? —There are [humans] on Kyrias, do you want to make Kyrias a better place too? —How?”

“I don’t know.”

I shrug at him.

“I’m not the one who knows [everything]——you do… So the question should be, what are you going to do? If you know [everything] then the answer should be obvious.”

“...”

This time Master just stares at me in an apparent daze, before laughing a little to himself.

“Ha… You’re right, Steve. The answer is obvious. It’s been obvious from the very beginning. The more things change, the more they stay exactly, cruelly, painfully, the same… So, here we go again… What [we] have been doing for the last 5 eternities… ”

Master gets up onto his feet, holding his book by its spine. And just like before, it starts shining and flipping through its own pages.

“Now it’s my turn…”

Snap—!

Golden light fills my vision, during which I can hear Master’s stern voice calling out to the Grand Archive.

“Initiating Delta 6th: Kyrias RT20.5.1500.”

[Authority Confirmed: Permission Granted to the Sixth Master of the Conceptors Grand Archive. Establishing Divergence Point...]

[World: Kyrias. Class: Edinera. Plane: Material. System: Almanomea-Tieresa. Jurisdiction: None. Civilization: Type-0 Σ. Inhabited Species Hierarchy: Rank 0-3. Concurrent Sentient Populations: 2,001,105,628.056...]

[Divergence Point: Established.]

[Kyrias ——0%—— Divergence]

With each announcement made by the Grand Archive, the wall, the railings, even the floor spring to life. The three blackboards start to display complex graphs and equations like they’re digital monitors.

But before I could take a proper look at them. The scene now changes back to the Colosseum with Master standing on the concrete parapet.

“Where are you going again?”

“Back to scouting, are you coming with me this time?”

I glance toward the still frozen crowd. And to the center of the arena with a small tinge of regret.

“But the final hasn’t even begun yet—”

“Elysian wins. Elysian always wins.”

“Stop spoiling everything, you’re ruining the fun of discovery…!”

“Welcome to my world...”

Master smirks and drops directly down to the arena below. Looking a little bit more energetic than usual.

I feel like I have no choice but to follow him, but...  

Hopefully, I didn’t say something that will inadvertently affect the course of the history of the universe… again.

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