The death ga lasted for around half an hour.
All 99 were dead, bodies littered around with their parts torn apart brutally.
Sitting in the middle of the warzone-like area was a man. He had muscles and looked healthy—which was the reason he was still alive—but his actions, oh, they were far from it.
Sniffing drugs thrown by the audience, he sat covered in blood.
The red haze of crimson that had covered the Colessum ground didn’t deter him from acting like a junkie.
The bodies that were thrown around and the parts that were littered around like decorations didn’t stop him from acting true to his nature.
Thrill had still not died from the audience’s stream as so of them still scread.
"Yeah, I won. Can you guys see? I fucking won! Hahahaha..."
"Tsk, why the hell did I even bet on that bitch?"
"I told you to bet—"
"Shut the fuck up, man. You also lost. You lost more than I lost."
Crunch crunch
Walking through the screams and the thrilled chaos of the audience, the man, the host, once more appeared.
His boot crunched on the bodies and parts thrown on the ground, his soles wetting in the crimson liquid.
The man styled his black hair with his fingers and adjusted his tie.
Crunch crunch
Walking through the gore, the man looked pristine, untouched, and unbothered by his surroundings. His coat and pants glead under the haze of crimson as he reached near the junkie.
"Did you all like it, dear patrons?"
The host spoke, enthusiasm lacing his tone.
"Hell yeah, brother. I don’t know about your wife, but I give a fuck about you, brother."
"You like n?"
"It’s called respect. Respect!"
"Haha," the host laughed, matching his energy with the audience before turning his face to glance at the man loitering in the middle of the blood-soaked ground.
Coughing, he stole the attention of the audience and pointed his fingers towards the winner of the deathmatch.
"Dear patrons, as you know, he had won our ga. And now, he is free! He is loaded with not only the drug but also money! But—"
A smile crept across the host’s face, and the audience felt their hearts race.
"—As we said, today we have a VIP present with us. So, we can’t just let it end this way, can we?"
"Yes, we cannot!"
"Brother, you know what we want, don’t you?"
The man, oblivious to the new ga taking shape to make his life more hellish, kept on with his addiction. The drug was more important than whatever the reality had to offer.
"Yes, that’s why we have prepared sothing more entertaining." The host spoke before clapping his hands.
Clap
Following this, a woman was dragged inside by a knight.
By the way she looked, she didn’t look like a junkie. Nor did she look like a slum dweller.
Tear stains were present on her cheeks as she followed—well, was dragged by—the knight. Her eyes couldn’t help but roam over the area as shivers of fear passed through her body.
"So here’s the ga we are playing now," the host said. He clapped his hands once more.
A worker with a platter ca.
The gold lining on the silver platter shone as the host pointed to it, where 3 different boxes were kept.
"I have drugs that have been newly developed by us. This drug is quite addictive; however, the ga is not this; the ga is whether this man will consu this drug or not."
"What a dumb ga?"
"Yeah, of course he will, can’t you see?"
The audience sneered at his words.
"Haha, dear patrons, the ga is not this simple," the host said. His lips pulled up. "Two of the boxes have cyanide mixed in the drug."
Silence. Before the audience went fucking crazy.
"Yeah. Is it a guessing ga? Fuck yeah!"
"Let’s start it already; I am itching!"
"Still no, the ga is not that simple," the host answered. "The first ga will be the guessing ga, where this woman," he pointed towards the woman who was brought by the knight, "will guess which box to consu. If she dies, we will tell the man the reason behind her death, and then we will present him with the box. We will also tell which box has cyanide and which doesn’t. If the man only consus one box and leaves the second, he wins; if he consus both, well..."
The host only gave a smile.
"What if the woman doesn’t die?"
Soone from the audience asked.
"Well," the host glanced towards the shivering woman and saw a ray of hope in her dead eyes. "She will be free from the debt her husband has taken and will also be set free."
The woman’s eyes lit up. She clasped her hands and bowed her head, muttering thanks to God.
"Thanks, Solar—"
However, the next second, the disgruntled voice of the audience cut through.
"La."
"Yeah, so la. Do sothing with her!"
"Yes!"
The woman shivered as she looked at the people who were screaming. She could also see people from her own gender wanting sothing else to happen to her. Sothing that could excite them!
"Wha... ?"
She couldn’t form words. How could she, when she herself felt that she was seeing the demons themselves, those who have been purged by God?
"Well, we can’t just snatch the things promised, can we?" the host laughed. "However, for that she had to win, dear patrons. If she does, she can always leave or maybe earn money for her family that could last a lifeti."
The woman blinked and looked at the smiling face of the host. She wasn’t doing anything; the second she won, she would leave. She missed her family.
Her husband’s addiction to gambling had put her here, and she hated him for that. However, this didn’t an she had no one to go to. She had.
She wanted to et her daughters and son and escape with them before the man she married for love did the sa with them.
However, her brooding didn’t last for long.
"Start it!"
"Start it!"
The audience, simply bored, started to scream at the thought of the next ga that could bring them uncontained excitent.
The bets happened, and the woman was given the choice to guess. After guessing, she consud the box.
Sniff
The white powder invaded her system as her body quaked.
Tick-tock
Ba-dump bad-dump!
It seed the whole world had held its breath.
All waited for the reaction. The second hand on the watch turned.
Was she safe?
The woman thought as she didn’t die instantly.
’I am safe—’
However, the next second, the woman’s ecstatic expression crumbled. Her body quaked.
"Wha... ?"
Before she could finish her words, her eyes rolled back, and she fell back.
Thud
An eerie silence covered the whole Colosseum before, once more, the audience broke out crazily.
Following this, the host told the man about the drug. He explained everything to him, not once but twice.
And as the ga started, the junkie, without a second of hesitation, consud the first.
After consuming it, he fell on the ground, his expression turning extre.
"Hehe~"
"Yes, don’t take the second box or you will die!"
"Take it! Just think about the hit!"
"No! Don’t!"
The audience fought within themselves as they continued to scream at the man who was now standing once more.
Was he going to take the second box or not?
Many waited, and many scread, giving out instructions.
And—
The man took it!
Thud
***
Gas like these continued.
After the second ga of guessing, duels between different age groups and different body weights happened. Each had its own extres, but death was the minimal thing that happened. The blood soaked the ground more and more over ti, as the gas went on.
’When is he coming?’ Elias wondered, tapping on his armrest. ’Did I make a mistake sowhere? No, it doesn’t seem so. Then why is he not coming?’
The wait for Kade Blunt was going on for too long. Elias didn’t want to wait anymore.
The scenes that he had seen today were enough to give him nightmares for months, if not years. He didn’t want to see more.
This was not the only reason. Even Evelyn was getting more and more restless.
As Elias started to think about whether he needed to do sothing more, a knock echoed.
Knock, knock.
The way Evelyn had already turned towards the door told that whoever he had been waiting for had co.
Kade Blunt was here!
’Finally.’
However, Elias didn’t respond imdiately. He turned towards Evelyn, who, feeling his gaze, looked at him with furrowed brows.
Elias, gaining her attention, shook her head, signaling that she should control herself.
Following that, he spoke. He didn’t need to babysit Evelyn; he knew that she had a brain enough for situations like these.
"Co in."
***
Monts prior—
Step step
The sound of the footsteps echoed as Kade walked, followed by Julius.
"Do I look presentable?"
"Yes, my lord," Julius answered for the nth ti.
"Are you sure that the woman with Elias is only [C-] rank?"
"Yes, my lord. Knight Karman said that he didn’t find her threatening. And we can trust his intuition, as he is one of the most experienced knights we have."
"Hm," Kade humd.
’Weird. Why is soone from the organization with soone this weak?’ He wondered. ’She must be hiding her strength.’
Kade concluded, however, in the next seconds, the old thoughts on which he had been brooding for hours surfaced again.
Kade, even though he had believed that Elias was soone from the organization, considering that he himself had co. He was still a bit skeptical sowhere in his heart.
Not that sobody could leak information about him. Considering even in the organization "Velvet Hand," very few low seats like him knew about others.
Only people with a high seat in the Velvet Hand knew information about others. And only those people could contact others apart from the annual etings of the Velvet Hand mbers, where every low seat t.
But even then, high seats didn’t do it. They road around very little, and most of them kept their identity secret. Even Kade didn’t know who his master was, as if needed, the low seats would go around if high seats wanted to do any talking with other high seats.
This was rare too, as most used magics for conversing, but still sotis happened.
However, this also didn’t an that Elias was a low seat. The thing was that Kade had no information or any orders about any upcoming etings or so.
So, if Elias was a low seat, how could he be here?
This was also the reason that Kade believed he was excluded from the operations.
But that didn’t last for long. As Kade thought of his situation, there was no way he could be excluded.
So, a bold thought took place in Kade’s mind.
’What if Elias was from the organization?’
This thought was nearly impossible. The organization, minimally, in fact, seldom ca to the surface. All the things happening in the Radiant Empire and the things planned were taken care of by the Velvet Hand.
However, this didn’t an they could not co.
Kade has heard from his master that sotis, low-wing mbers of the organization co themselves. And when they do, a huge change of plans was promised.
Kade knew that he was thinking sothing very absurd, but nothing else ca to his mind.
There could be only two possibilities. The first one being that Elias was a low-wing mber of the organization, or he was soone supported by the low-wing mber.
’The latter is more believable, and I think it is the truth. For no one knows that I run the underground arena. Only my master does.’
But yet, the stuffy feeling—what was it?
’Eh, maybe I am just nervous.’
Kade shook his head and styled his hair with his fingers.
"We are almost there," he muttered as he saw the room approaching in his view.
Coming before the room in a few seconds and nodding to the attendant for her to leave, Kade knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
Ba-dump!
"Co in."
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