V2Ch58-Gatekeeper

“Are you ready for the challenge, then?” Charon asked, voice slightly brusque. “No more foolish questions?”

He seemed to cast a sidelong glance in Leo’s direction as he spoke the second question.

“Just one question right now, if I may!” Mina called up to him. The hound seemed impatient and easily offended, but the answer to this question might mean the difference between surviving the challenge and becoming dog food.

“Go on,” the hound prompted.

“Which deity do you serve?” she asked.

“We serve the Gatekeeper,” Charon replied, his voice suddenly surprisingly tender and respectful. He locked eyes with Mina. “She sees the raw, unshaped material of which greatness is made in you. We have watched you for some time now.”

Her heart sank a little. He won’t even name the goddess, she realized. Maybe he thinks it would be disrespectful, or perhaps he’s just conscious that it might give away some sort of clue.

She simply nodded in response, mind whirling.

I need more information, but I know so little, I don’t even know what to ask.

“Follow me, then,” Charon said.

The hound bent, so his two young companions—his offspring?—could climb onto his back. Then he ran forward, leading the way through the burning forest. Wherever he stepped, the flames pressed themselves back, clearing a path. Mina, Leo, and the other humans did their best to follow close behind him, because everywhere else was on fire. As she ran, Mina spotted Yulia and worked her way over to her. When they met, the sisters linked arms.

“We’re staying together for the rest of this no matter what,” Mina whispered urgently in her ear.

Yulia nodded fervently in agreement.

The two returned to their running pace, trying to keep up with the other humans chasing after the hound that galloped like a horse.

They must have run for nearly a mile when the stadium came into view.

Mina’s first view of it was from a great distance, which was perhaps the best way to get a good initial impression of the structure. A massive oval arena made entirely of a pale stone. It reminded Mina of Ancient Greek stadiums. What was the name of that old stadium they used again for the 2040 Olympics? Panathema? No, that wasn’t it. But she remembered that it had been touted by the newscasters as the world’s only stadium built entirely out of marble.

This stadium was much like that one, she decided. Probably also marble. And it should be able to fit tens of thousands of people like the Greek stadium had. They were a comparatively modest crowd for this place. Then again, maybe there would be other spectators, while the humans competed for their amusement.

Did the System—or this goddess—build an entire stadium just for this challenge? No, why am I thinking like that? They already built a maze for the challenge before last. It didn’t help her thought process that she was still a little groggy from having been woken up so unceremoniously.

More importantly, the appearance of the stadium gave Mina a sense of which culture this goddess might hail from. Greco-Roman, almost certainly.

Her eyes panned over the stadium as Charon drew them closer to it, trying to capture any details that might be relevant in the challenge. It was ringed with countless torches that lit the whole open air structure fairly well despite the darkness of the night. They gave the area on the ground where everyone was arriving a similar level of lighting to dusk during the day.

There was a long reflecting pool in the center, around ten feet by twenty-five which seemed noteworthy, since the only thing that it would reflect was torchlight. Around the pool, there was only grass.

Wait, there’s something else, Mina noticed. She caught a flicker of movement in the pond, and she instinctively looked up above it. There was something there. Something moving, just hovering gently up and down. It looked like nothing more than a short, thin white line segment in the air.

“We have arrived!” Charon barked at the closest humans. Then, with huge bounds that the mortals couldn’t hope to match, he leaped into the stands and took off toward the upper levels.

Mina, some distance back, finally allowed herself to slow to a walk. She had a stitch in her side from the run, and she sucked in deep, heaving gulps of air as she tried to catch her breath. Beside her, Yulia was likewise breathless; neither sister had been especially athletic before the System.

As the two sisters closed in on the stadium, and Mina tried to think about what sort of challenge they might have based on the physical cues, Mina realized she hadn’t used her Class Evolution.

Darn, she thought. She didn’t think it was an opportunity that was likely to disappear, as the System hadn’t indicated a time limit. But maybe it would have helped with whatever challenge was to come. And who knew if it was a time-consuming process? If she had wanted to ask whether she had time or not, Charon had already gotten too far away for her to raise the question without yelling and getting everyone’s attention.

Slower people began catching up to the early arrivals, who had decelerated once the hound announced that they had arrived.The mass of humans gradually clumped together into a crowd.

“All non-magic users may take a seat in the stands,” Charon announced in a booming voice that projected across the whole space. “This is an individual challenge, and the particular difficulties of it are suited only to Mages.”

There was a grumble of protest at that.

“Why did the rest of us come all this way?”

“Isn’t this the final challenge? But only the Mages get to participate?”

Charon howled his response: “Be grateful that you did not burn to death in the forest! You are permitted to watch this competition, because the goddess has allowed it, and because all of your lives are at stake. If none of the Mages are capable of completing the challenge, you will all die!”

The voice was so loud and piercing that Mina and Yulia both winced and covered their ears. Mina didn’t know how the baby hounds were enduring it, though she couldn’t even see if they were sitting on Charon’s back anymore. Perhaps they had gone somewhere else, like a soundproofed room under the stadium. There was a covered opening and a staircase that Mina had observed, descending underground. The opening was blocked off by some sort of Mana barrier, translucent but likely formidable, considering that this place belonged to a goddess.

Probably, the little hounds were just covering their ears with their paws. Mina hadn’t seen them drop off before Charon climbed up to the top of the stands, and the big hound was now so far away that it wouldn’t be strange if they were just laying on his back blending in, invisible to her eyes.

More objections.

“My life is my own!”

“Why is our fate in a tiny minority’s hands?”

“I want to participate myself! I can take you, beast!” shouted one particularly aggressive voice. Mina saw the man, a burly fellow with thick dark hair on his head and lots of visible body hair, and she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

Hadn’t he noticed how powerful Charon was? Even if he hadn’t used Identify to check the hound’s level, Charon had set a forest on fire in an instant with little more than a thought. Did this man really believe that he could win that fight? Mina had no confidence that the whole body of her Orientation could defeat Charon together, let alone a single Warrior. She was sincerely hoping the challenge was something else.

“Very well,” Charon replied. Mina could hear malice in his voice. She swallowed nervously. “This is an individual challenge, however. Everyone who will not be participating should make their way into the stands, and then we can begin taking individual volunteers from among our brave competitors. If you remain in the field, I will assume that you wish to be considered for the challenge.”

Mina had intended to participate, given that this was a Mage challenge, but Charon’s tone of voice made her doubt herself. This challenge would surely be murderously difficult.

You can do this, she thought. You’re probably the strongest Mage in this place. Or at least the most precise with your Skills.

Unless the challenge calls for fire elemental magic, or literally anything besides your two elements, she argued with herself. She had seen a couple of fireballs used in the first challenge, but only in her peripheral vision. So she hadn’t learned the Skill with Quick Study, the way she had acquired Healing Aura. At present, Mina only had Elemental Magic: Water and Basic Elemental Magic: Wind to work with. If she needed something offensive, those didn’t leave her a lot of options.

Then again, other Mages likely wouldn’t have been practicing as much as she had. Very few challenges had actually required the use of magic, and it was only Mina’s personal drive that had caused her to cast so many spells that she acquired a second element so quickly. Couple that with the fact that she’d likely learned wind magic more quickly thanks to Quick Study, and that two elements was probably more than most of the other Mages had. And at least there was water in the stadium.

So perhaps she should volunteer first. This would undoubtedly be dangerous. If it was a magic challenge, and they would all live if any one challenger succeeded, then perhaps it was best to put their best foot forward.

“Yulia, go up into the stands,” Mina said quietly.

“Are you participating?” Yulia asked.

“I am,” Mina said, her voice hollow.

Yulia squeezed her hand tightly and stood there in silence for a moment.

Mina spoke again, looking down at Yulia as she did. “I’m participating, because I’m a Mage, and probably the strongest one we have. I’ve practiced magic night and day here. You know that. If anyone can beat this thing, it’s me.” She tried to make herself believe the words as she said them, so Yulia would believe them. Mina could imbue her words with great conviction at times, but only when she said what she truly believed.

It seemed to work. Yulia hugged her tightly and smiled. She seemed to believe in Mina. Now it was time for her to believe in herself. She pulled Yulia into a hug that lasted a few long seconds, giving her a little squeeze before finally releasing her.

“Alright, sweet. I love you. Since you’re a Healer, and not a participant, you should go sit with Leo in the stands.”

Most of the people who were non-Mages were already seated in the stands. Even those in the competition who had physical handicaps had been helped up by friends or family members and now sat on the long stadium seats. Only a handful of non-Mages lingered with the hundreds of Mages on the ground level. Leo, being a sensible man, had not taken Charon’s bait. He was seated in the third row, looking down at them with a smile. When he saw Mina looking up at him, he waved and mouthed the words, “You can do this.”

Yulia reluctantly released Mina from her grip.

She surprised Mina by walking away from her toward the other competitors rather than into the stands.

What is she doing? But then it became obvious.

Yulia approached Jose, who Mina had forgotten was also a Mage. He looked nervous as she drew closer. She leaned in, kissed him on the cheek, and muttered, “Good luck!”

Then she turned, cheeks glowing bright red, and climbed the stairs.

“Th-thank you for your confidence!” Jose called after her. “I’ll make sure we win!”

“You go, kid!” an unfamiliar voice shouted from up in the stands.

Mina couldn’t help but laugh a little to herself despite the circumstances.

Puppy love, she thought. Jose looked as embarrassed as Yulia following the exchange. His cheeks weren’t burning, but his eyes conspicuously focused on the ground.

Mina would ordinarily be trying to assess whether this boy was really good enough for her Yulia, but she had to shelve that for now.

She was left standing in the field with a couple hundred Mages and a half-dozen very stupid non-Mages. All of them were men, she couldn’t help observing.

“Is everyone in the field a participant?” Charon barked down at the silent crowd. “If you remain in the field for some reason but are a non-participant, please raise your hand.”

No hands went up.

“Very well. Then I will explain the challenge. You must simply light, and keep lit, three candles. Not for a fixed period of time. If there is a moment when all three are burning, then you will have accomplished the challenge.” The hound’s mystical body letters glowed orange again, and three flames appeared in three different places.

One flame moved to light a candle that Mina now spied laying next to the hound itself. Another flame flew down and lit a candle that sat on a lily pad in the middle of the reflecting pool. And the third floated over and lit a candle that hovered in the air six feet above the reflecting pool.

That was the thin white line I saw, she thought. Those candles are the challenge. Of course, it seemed too simple, and she waited for the rest. Perhaps they would go out if you didn’t light them quickly enough, or in the correct order, or they could only be lit by a certain temperature of flame.

“The only problem you will have,” Charon went on, “is an opponent that will seek to stop you, by any means necessary, and put the candle flames out.” As he spoke, all of the candles instantly went out.

“I’m ready to take you!” shouted the same brave idiot from earlier. Mina wished for a moment that she could slap him.

Shut up! she thought.

“Oh, no!” Charon began to make a strange snuffling sound, and to slap one paw repeatedly on the stadium seating directly in front of him. It took Mina a few seconds to realize the hound was laughing uncontrollably. Once he’d caught his breath, Charon resumed talking. “Not me, you fool! If you had to fight me, you would all die horribly. Even demanding that you all fight me at once would hardly be fair to you. Let alone the idea of you each fighting me individually. No, I am summoning you a much more suitable opponent.” The strange lettering on his body glowed brightly again, though this time it was a royal blue rather than orange.

Mina saw motion in the corner of her eye and turned to see that an elephant-sized hole in space had opened in the air just above the field. Through the gap, she could see a massive creature’s head and a mountainous backdrop. At first, the beast looked like a lion. Then it stepped through the portal, and she saw a second head sprouting from the middle of its body. The middle portion of the body and the head attached to it looked like they belonged to a goat. And in the creature’s rear, its legs were those of a lion, but in place of a tail, there writhed the long body of a snake.

A chimera, Mina thought. It was sort of breathtaking. Horribly ugly, but impossible to look away from. Somehow it appeared to be functional. Once it was through the portal, it gamboled about the field, testing the ground and roaring. It barely seemed to notice the humans, or the fact that the portal had closed behind it. Finally, it walked over to the reflecting pool, lapped a small amount of water up, and then laid down beside the pool and seemed to go to sleep.

Not very smart? Mina hoped. If it was just a dumb beast, that wouldn’t be so hard to overcome. Let’s see what its powers are… Investigate!

[The use of this Skill has been blocked.]

Mina looked up at Charon, who she thought was frowning down at her from above. The letters on his body were fading away again, but she realized they had been glowing white rather than royal blue the moment before, which she guessed meant he had just used a different type of magic.

“As stated earlier, this will be an individual competition,” the hound said drily. “Please do not attempt to use any Skills or interact with the chimera or the challenge in any way unless it is your turn to participate. Humans who are not in the midst of participating, please keep to the group of prospective challengers, or to the stands, respectively. Any future violations of these rules will be punished severely.”

“I’m ready!” the same man from before declared. “Just as soon as I get my armor on.” He had more or less donned his full armor while the more sensible men were leaving the field, but Mina saw he was putting on a helmet as well now, and strapping a small shield to his arm.

Charon waited until the man had fully prepared.

“Are you ready now?” he asked.

The man nodded.

“Then you may begin.”

The armored man rushed over to the wall nearest to him, where two torches sat in sconces. He yanked one free. Then he circled behind the other competitors and ran up the arena steps toward Charon.

He’s not going to still try to fight Charon, is he? Mina couldn’t help wondering. He couldn’t be that stupid, right?

The man lit the candle next to Charon, and the big hound didn’t move an inch. His eyes watched the man, and the man looked back at the hound, nervous from his body language to be so close, but finally, the man descended the arena steps once more.

A few in the crowd began oohing and ahhing at his quick progress. Mina thought this was the moment to begin worrying.

In theory, the challenge was one-third complete now, but the Warrior hadn’t engaged at all with the actually challenging parts. Dealing with the chimera and reaching the candle that was floating six feet in the air. It wasn’t even clear whether the armored man could jump that high, let alone jump that high and precisely aim a torch to light a tiny candle wick.

But they didn’t get to that point.

The Warrior stepped off of the stands and into the arena, and the chimera opened its eyes.

Then it rose to its feet.

The man seemed to become petrified with fear. He looked behind him for a moment, as if considering retreat.

In that moment, the chimera leaped forward and reached him in a single bound.

The lion’s jaw opened wide. Mina saw saliva dripping as it eyed the man.

The Warrior turned to face the monster, but much too slowly to do anything.

The lion’s head bit down on the man’s head, and the goat’s head sunk its teeth into the body armor, holding him still for the lion. Together, they ripped him in two.

Some in the crowd began to scream.