The man who was presiding over the final remained before the forty-five participants for several seconds, his eyes scanning each face with a silent assessment, allowing the anticipation to accumulate in the arena like a cloud about to burst.
The silence was absolute, broken only by the occasional sound of restrained breathing and the rustling of clothes as the competitors adjusted their positions.
Then he raised one of his hands, and a blindfold appeared between his fingers. It was completely different from an ordinary blindfold, an object that seemed to have come from an ancient era.
The fabric possessed a silvery, almost metallic hue, crossed by thin red lines that formed mysterious patterns across its surface, like the veins of a living body.
Small runes glowed along the edges, emitting a subtle yet extremely powerful energy that caused the air around them to vibrate at an almost imperceptible frequency.
