Magical Heritage

Chapter 13:The Man in Black and The Verger.

It was time for the tournament and everyone had gathered in the arena, and it seemed like Ulrich was having an easy time advertising his business. On the upper platform sat the king, queen, a few other royals from different nations, and the royal Chef and Judge, Fox and Sorra. There were groups of different people watching, some being commoners, others being martial artists or swordsmen and swordswomen. However, two stood out, one group held up a huge flag with the name Fox, and the other held a banner and had headbands with the name Sorra on it. They were all diehard fans. "Oh my God... I've never been this close to my goddess Fox before!" One said before getting a nosebleed. "What're you talking about?! Our sweet madam Sorra is better!" Another one said, the two sides. Fox and Sorra then looked at each other and grew annoyed before both of them yelled, "SILENCE!" The two sides then immediately shut up, Fox and Sorra backing down. The king looked at them and nodded, clearing his throat before standing up. "Welcome to the annual Royale Finals! We congratulate our contestants who have gotten this far, you have 5 minutes to prepare!"

While Vatel and Emopa were getting ready, a man dressed in a black trench coat, pants, a bandana over his mouth, and a shirt walked up to them. "Greetings, Vatel and Emopa." Emopa turned around and looked at him. "Oh, who may you be?" The man then sighed. "My name is Ruek. I come from the 'second level' of this place. AKA, one of the towers has been activated." The two looked confused. "What do you mean?" Ruek then turned around. "I'm from the future. I'm here to warn you guys, the future isn't so good." The two stop what they were doing as Yakon entered the room. "Who is this guy?" Reuk turned to Yakon and bowed slightly. "Greetings sir. My name is Ruek, I'm from the future when the Floor of Transcendence opens specifically." Vatel looked at him. "The Floor of Transcendence?" Ruek nodded. "I'm the future, after the catastrophe, all the spires that were original companies shot a beam into the air and each one led to the second layer of reality. This is only the first layer, however, things are slowly evolving and growing stronger. Humans and creatures alike must kill or gain levels constantly to survive in an evolving world."

"So, what is this future you're talking about?" Yakon asked as he sighed. Ruek seemed a bit hesitant but sat down. "We have a few minutes. Alright, so first of all, the first fighter in this tournament is going to be a Verger named Mareth coming from the sky. He's an extremely strong martial artist, everyone thinks he has no mana but in actuality, he has divine mana, which we can't sense cause we're not even near the level of his mana." Vatel and Emopa looked at each other and grinned. "Ahh, Mareth is coming back!" Reuk chuckled. "Then tomorrow another of your guild, his name is Static, he became a showman that's a yokai, I must say you can't help but laugh when he performs." Emopa raised a brow. "Two things... one, we never made a guild, and two, what's so bad about the future, it sounds fine to me." Ruek then seemed a bit sad. "That's the thing, due to the tense relations between this kingdom and the Northern kingdom, a war started a month after this tournament. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost... It wouldn't be too far-fetched to say if it reached the millions."

Vatel looked at him. "Well, couldn't all of us have stopped it?" He asked, a look of worry on his face. Ruek then shook his head, "You guys tried. The old man got a gash along his chest, and Emopa got all his cores destroyed, you, Vatel, you escaped with an inch of your life and passed your shadow powers on to me. I am grateful, it helped me on the Floor of Transcendence. I never had magic before so I mainly just used guns. However, I have been getting better with the bow lately." He chuckled and looked at Vatel. Emopa then stood up. "What happened to the rest..?" Ruek then looked up at Emopa. "All sent away to different worlds. I'm trying to prevent that from happening... I'm pretty sure all the worlds they were sent to are either on or one above The Floor of Transcendence. I'm trying to change that future." Yakon then stepped forward and looked at the man. "How can we be so sure you're from the future? How'd you get back to our time? Why are you even helping us?" Ruek looked at the time. "Look, we only have a minute. As I said, the first fight will be Mareth, Emopa is up next."