"A draw."
The sound of a draw echoing round the entire arena plunging the crowd into silence.
As the silence dragged on, a wave of applauses erupted from all sides of the arena, to honor the two young candidates who had fought viciously.
As both participants still lay on the ground; two familiar people came to their aid: Kuro and Luna.
Looking at each other, Luna and Kuro gaze met for a moment. As they started healing their fellow companions, Kuro sent Luna a message telepathically.
"You are the young boy's companion, or should I say, Seraph of Darkness"
"Of course — and I must say the same to you, Seraph of Time", Luna said with a piercing gaze
"You are right but I don't intend to kill your friend, in fact I am strangely intrigued by him."
Luna had continued to heal Yuta with an irritation she could not bear to hide.
"You did not tell him about the Seraphs and even your god which resides heavily in him."
"I don't think you have done the same, Mister Kuro, in-fact you hold more secrets than I right?"
Kuro responded in silence but muttering "It does not matter as long as the vessels are safe"
Yuta and Rin had a few broken bones and cuts most of which were already healed.
As both Kuro and Luna stood, each carrying one of the boys on their back. Before they both went their separate ways
Kuro turned saying "Let's us four have dinner tonight yeah?".
Luna stared blankly before nodding not in fear or anything but because she knew that she had to do that.
Kuro was playing a game with her and he had started dealing his cards, ignoring Kuro or outrightly saying NO was nothing but was just going to intrigue him more.
MOMENTS LATER
Yuta wakes up in his room under the single lamp radiating light, his eyes scanned the whole room, it was small yet quite enough
As Yuta struggled to sit up, Luna helped him up.
"How long have I been out?", Yuta asked
"For the past five hours, it is already evening, thank god your super healing kicked in but the bones will still take longer to heal up" Luna answered
"Did I win the fight Luna," Yuta asked
"Unfortunately, it was a draw but we got the prize in the end," Luna said with a smirk.
"That's good."
Standing up, Yuta groaned a little, it was painful but tolerable to say in the very least.
"Now, that you are awake, we have dinner with Rin tonight. His companion, Kuro invited us," Luna said with irritation in her eyes.
"Do you want to go because I see the irritation in your face Luna," Yuta said.
"I can tolerate that guy but I feel the discussion should be done between both fighters," Luna said
"It seems you have known Kuro from somewhere before"
"You never know," Luna said.
As the evening came, Luna and Yuta dressed themselves, Yuta covered his wounds perfectly wearing a black leather jacket and black shoes while Luna had worn a black comfortable dress.
They both walking until they stopped at a cafe called "VIPER'S TEA".
Upon entering inside, they saw both Rin and Kuro sitting at a table in the corner of the room.
On spotting them, Rin got up and waving his hand "Guys, we are here"
Yuta and Luna both sat down beside them.
As they sat down, Kuro stirred up the conversation "Fancy, seeing you here Luna, I was hoping you would once again reject my offer".
"What offer?" Yuta asked with a questioned expression.
"Don't think about it, it is just how he loves to play, keeping secrets from others and turning them against each other; in-fact I think he is still keeping from you Rin"
"What is she talking about Kuro?" Rin asked with a gaze.
"You ask me, I believe she has still done the same to Yuta," Kuro said as he sipped his tea.
The place became abruptly quiet as both Luna and Kuro left Yuta and Rin asking each other questions.
"I don't know what is going on, but you have to tell me" Yuta said.
"Yeah, I don't like being kept in the dark" Rin responded.
Dropping his tea down Kuro looked up "The tea was delirious".
As he placed his cup down, the entire café began to distort—sliding into a pocket of space-time.
"Woah, what the hell is this?" Rin and Yuta said in horror.
Luna just kept sipping the tea like she had no care in the world.
"Boys, what do you know about gods Apostles and Seraphs of this world", Kuro said with a determined gaze.
"I heard of no such" both Yuta and Rin answered.
"There are seven gods who rule this world, maintaining balance in all things. They rarely interfere, which is why we have what we call Apostles."
"The Apostles are the active rulers of the world balancing everything but one stood tall and the whole world worshipped that one".
"Now the task of the Seraphs is to find vessels for the gods and you know as they all do, stand tall as anchors balancing the world."
"What then happens to the gods?" Yuta asked.
"They are alive but attending to the matters of men is not in their playbook," Kuro answered
Patting Rin on the head and roughing his hair, Kuro said "I am sorry for not telling you sooner".
Not understanding, Yuta looked at Luna "What are you not telling me?"
Luna said "Do you need to know the whole truth?"
The once-peaceful atmosphere had faded, leaving only curiosity and unspoken secrets hanging in the dark.