Jade stared down at the shimmering scroll in his hands, unsure of exactly when Seraphina had pressed it into his grasp. The parchment was warm and alive, the images shifting and swirling - each one featuring Seraphina in various poses: regal, dangerous, and unnervingly alluring.
"This is a... biography?" Jade asked, his voice flat.
Seraphina smiled from where she lounged nearby. "It is a guide to your only logical conclusion."
Before Jade could respond, Cassian's voice cut through from the doorway. "I hope I'm not interrupting." He glided into the room, his crimson eyes fixed on Jade with contempt. "A half-human anomaly is not suitable consort material for the Crimson Wing. You would do well to stop encouraging these... lesser creatures."
"I don't encourage anyone," Jade stated.
"Good," Cassian said. "Then you won't mind extra security." He snapped his fingers. Two massive vampire guards stepped into the room.
Jade's eyes narrowed. "I don't need babysitters."
"It is not a request," Cassian replied, his smile cold.
Jade stormed out of Seraphina's chambers with the two vampire guards following like shadows. He found Zero and Kai in a garden sector, where Kai was demonstrating acrobatic moves.
"Jade!" Kai bounded toward him for a hug.
Jade sidestepped while a guard moved to intercept. "No hugging!"
Kai pouted. "Who are they?"
Zero looked from the guards to Jade's face. "Overprotective vampire in-laws?"
"They're not my in-laws," Jade gritted out. "And they won't leave."
"Maybe if you stopped being so irresistibly huggable," Zero suggested.
Cassian appeared at the garden entrance. "Having trouble with my gifts?"
Jade turned on him. "Call them off. Now."
"Or what, little anomaly?" Cassian's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "You'll refuse my sister too? We'll see about-"
<
Floor 6: Ascent Initiated
All participants prepare for immediate transfer
00:00:05... 00:00:04...
The tension shattered. Cassian's smug expression faltered. The guards looked uncertain. Kai gasped. Zero's posture shifted immediately to combat readiness.
Jade met Cassian's eyes, a cold smile finally touching his lips. "It seems we'll have to continue this another time."
The world dissolved into light, cutting off whatever retort Cassian might have made and whisking Jade away from the vampire drama - for now.
Just before the system teleportation took hold, as they moved towards the glowing portal, Jade spotted a familiar figure in the crowd. Lyra. Her arms were crossed, and the look she shot him could have frozen lava. Her amethyst eyes were narrowed, her jaw set, radiating pure, undiluted fury from their last encounter. She deliberately turned her back on him, a clear and final dismissal.
Zero, following Jade's gaze, let out a low chuckle. "Looks like someone's still on your permanent list. At this rate, you'll need a dedicated secretary just to manage all the people you've annoyed."
"Shut up, Zero," Jade grunted, tearing his eyes away from Lyra's back as the portal's light engulfed them.
The familiar, nauseating lurch of teleportation deposited them onto a cold, stone floor. The air was thick with ancient dust and the metallic tang of old blood. They stood in the center of a colossal, circular colosseum. Towering walls of weathered, sand-colored stone rose around them, tiered with endless rows of empty, shadowed benches that stretched up into a cavernous, gloomy darkness high above. The only illumination came from a sickly, greenish light that emanated from cracks in the ground and the distant, barred archways that led into the arena, casting long, dancing shadows that seemed to writhe with a life of their own. The silence was absolute, heavy, and deeply unnerving.
Before they could even take in the full scope of their surroundings, a stark, blue system prompt materialized in their vision:
"It's been a while since we had a normal floor," Zero remarked, his voice echoing slightly in the vast, empty space as he smoothly drew Gesshilla. The blade hummed, already crackling with latent lightning.
Jade grunted in agreement, his mind reaching for the familiar, comforting weight of his scythe. He reached back, his fingers grasping for the pale bone haft of the World-Eater.
Nothing.
He frowned, reaching again, more insistently. A cold spike of alarm shot through him. The connection was there, but it was… dormant. Unresponsive.
A new, urgent prompt flashed, its text a glaring red:
"What the hell?" Jade muttered, his composure cracking for a split second.
As if in response to his frustration, the air shimmered in front of him. With a pathetic, metallic clang, a weapon materialized at his feet. It was a sword, but only in the loosest sense of the word. The blade was pitted with rust, notched in a dozen places, and looked like it would snap if used to cut butter. The hilt was wrapped in rotting leather, and the pommel was a misshapen lump of crude iron.
Jade stared at the wretched thing, then at the now-glowing archways around the colosseum, from which low, guttural growls began to emanate.
He was weaponless, in a death arena, with only a piece of junk to defend himself.