Two weeks passed in a crimson-white blur since the day Solace's banners burned, and its bells tolled black.
The reborn palace of Velora rose like a phoenix carved from marble and blood. Outer walls of blinding alabaster drank the morning sun and flung it back as molten gold, while every pillar, balustrade, and arch was banded with veins of deep crimson crystal that pulsed like living arteries.
Scarlet banners snapped from towers topped with spear-tips of white flame, and the great gates once ruined, now stood forty feet high, forged from a single sheet of star-forged ivory laced with rivers of liquid ruby that never cooled.
Inside, corridors were floored with alternating slabs of snow-white stone and blood-red glass, so every footstep looked like it walked across frozen fire.
Even the throne room itself sat beneath a vaulted ceiling painted the exact shade of fresh arterial spill, lit by chandeliers of Ash's phoenix flames that dropped, harmless embers onto the floor below.
Ash stood at the tallest balcony, hands braced on a railing of warm crimson crystal, city and sky stretching beneath him like offerings. Behind him stood the five pillars of his new world.
Nia, radiant in a dress of white silk edged in flames.
Vaeloria, crimson battledress hugging every lethal curve.
Thalion, silver hair catching the light like moonlight on steel.
Seris, arms folded, crimson general's cloak still smelling faintly of old battlefields and new grudges.
Ash turned, eyes sliding across them like a blade choosing its first cut.
"Have you made your decision?" he asked Nia, voice low, intimate, edged with promise.
The seed he had planted weeks ago had taken root and flowered. He had let her watch him dismantle an entire kingdom's pride, let her see a glimpse of what true power was, and now she was ready.
Ready to truly begin forging her own path.
Nia clenched one fist, nodded, and stepped forward to wrap both arms around his. "Yes. I'm sure you'll be fine without me for a few months, right?" The smile she gave him was equal parts love and wildfire.
Ash brushed a thumb across her cheek. "Of course, it's not like we won't see each other at all. The Haven is waiting. Vaeloria will train you inside. Once you reach A-rank, the Lesser Chamber will open. It won't take you long."
His voice dropped to a purr. "I'll slip in every now and then to give you a personal boost~"
He sealed the promise with a slow, claiming kiss.
Vaeloria's huffed with pure possessiveness. "Hmph. I better receive the same boost." She stalked forward, stole his mouth for herself, deeper, hungrier, until Nia laughed against his shoulder and
Seris pointedly looked anywhere else, cheeks burning scarlet.
[Seris Kaelthar's Affection 85%]
Ash ignored the status as he pulled away only to slide one hand down each woman's back to their soft asses and squeezed, shamelessly and absolute.
"Of course. We'll have plenty time for that. Now go. Make sure to have fun~"
The two women vanished in twin spirals of crimson and white flame, leaving only the scent of smoke and roses.
Then in the next moment Ash the loving and lustful incarnate was gone.
What turned to face Thalion and Seris was ambition made flesh.
"Where did they go?" Seris snapped, arms folding tighter. "You didn't forget we have a wager today, did you?"
Truthfully, she was more worried about Vaeloria.
'That thing.... Her power may be needed.' She thought
Ash's grin was all teeth. "No, General, I didn't forget. Us three will be enough."
He looked at Thalion. "Tell me, old pal… how many paths show us bringing home victory?"
Thalion adjusted his glasses, the lenses catching the light like twin moons. He glanced once at Seris, sighed the sigh of a man who had already seen the ending, and answered.
"All paths, Your Majesty. I see no failures."
Ash's smile widened until it could have cut the sky.
"As expected,. Now let's go meet this so-called kingdom."
---
The coliseum floated above the continent's central plains like a continent itself. A million cultivators packed the stands, a roaring sea of silk, steel, and bloodlust. Floating viewing boxes drifted overhead like storm clouds, each draped in the colors of a different kingdom.
On the eastern gate, the banner of Thalor snapped in the hot wind. It had a deep ocean blue with a silver kraken coiled around a broken crown.
King Thalor stood at the forefront of his hundred chosen, six-foot-seven of sun-bronzed muscle and old scars, trident of black coral resting across one shoulder like it weighed nothing. His hair was sea-green, braided with pearl like beads. Golden eyes swept the empty western gate with lazy contempt.
"Velora," he sneered, voice carrying over the roar of the crowd without effort. "To think such a pathetic Kingdom dares to be late." He laughed, deep and rolling like a storm tide.
Behind him, his champion a woman with a shark-tooth smile and twin storm-swords spat into the sand. "I wonder who they'll send to die first."
Another warrior, armored in scales that shifted color like oil on water, snorted. "Heard their king's been stuck at the same rank for two hundred years. He's nothing but a useless relic."
Darius raised one hand, and the hundred fell silent as the grave.
"Let's make this all quick" he grumbled, golden eyes gleaming. "
Far above, the floating announcement crystals flared crimson.
WESTERN GATE – VELORA KINGDOM
PARTICIPANTS: 3
A heartbeat of stunned silence.
Then the coliseum erupted into a tidal wave of bloodthirsty laughter that shook the sky itself.
And from the shadows of the western entrance tunnel, three figures stepped into the blinding light.
First Thalion, silver hair whipping like moonlight.
Then Seris, crimson cloak snapping like a war banner.
And finally
King Alaric?!