Sworded Affair

"Revenant," Emma gave only her class in reply, deciding it best not to reveal her name in case anyone put two and two together. "I saw three soldiers fighting down in the town; they were doing quite well last I saw."

"There'll be a lot of us scattered around, and even more in the nearby towns too." Peter explained, unbothered by the pseudonym. "There's lots of empty forest around here, so it's good for wilderness survival exercises. Course, we all ended up getting rather more exercise than we expected!"

Peter laughed at that, though there was no mistaking the hint of bitterness present. On screen; a second round of horns declared the start of the bout; Lenny wasted no time charging forward like a rocket, his sledgehammer raised over his shoulder. Choosing the path of least resistance, Nox stood directly in his path and opened wide; as the sledgehammer came down straight onto his skull, so too did the top half of Lenny's body disappear into the lion's gaping maw.

"Seriously?" Emma blinked whilst Peter put his head in his hands, as Dies headed over as well and helped himself to Lenny's remaining half.

"It probably worked well on the wolves outside," Peter muttered, head still hidden from view. "Those can't exactly eat you in a single bite, but a lion? A whole different story there."

It was altogether a very short and unimpressive sight; unsurprisingly, the audience were booing one and all. Far more interesting than the crowd's displeasure however, was the faint blue orb that floated up from where Lenny had died. Making its way into the sky unaided, it drifted inexorably towards Imperator Felix, only coming to a stop once it was level with his seat.

[Soul Fragment]

Emma could only parse two words, whilst Felix for his part was staring intently into the distance at something only he could see.

I wonder if that's how I look when reading from the System?

[Your visor prevents that, I'm pretty sure.]

You know what I meant, Emma rolled her eyes.

After just a few moments more, Felix shook his head, having seen what he needed and found it wanting.

"Unworthy."

That single word proved the final straw, as the remnant of Lenny's soul lost its final tether to the world of the living and faded from sight in short order.

"I'm not surprised," Peter commented, having settled back into his chair the way Emma first found him. "You need to give a good showing in the first trial to be offered a deal. Part of that involves lasting for longer than ten seconds, I'd wager."

"What kind of deal are we talking here?" Emma asked, her mind drifting towards several instances where her parents had warned her never to make deals with her soul.

Back then, she'd assumed they were speaking metaphorically about telemarketers or something, given they'd never expressed any hint of religious worship during her childhood, but now she couldn't help but wonder at the frequency with which such warnings had occurred.

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"The kind you can't refuse on pain of death," Peter grumbled. "I never won any competitions, no, but I'm still a decent shot. When things went mad while I was preparing for training, I already had a rifle in hand, and didn't have much trouble bringing down the Wolves swarming the town. After I got my first three kills quick, I noticed they stopped coming after me, and that gave me the breathing room I needed to try and figure things out."

"You climbed the yellow brick road, and volunteered for the trials."

"I did," Peter confirmed. "Faced the lions just like you, except I didn't have a sword and plate armor so I sure as hell wasn't fighting lions up close. No, like any good hunter I tried to bring them down from a distance with my gun. Did some real damage to one of them too, until his partner started glowing."

"Ah."

"Yeah," Peter sighed. "I was much too far away for cover by the time I realized what was happening, and that's all she wrote. Next thing I knew? I was floating in front of the Imperator, being offered a stay of execution."

"Not usually what someone would call it, given you were already dead at the time." Emma pointed out, seeing some parallels here to her own situation.

"True enough," Peter nodded. "Though the details don't matter so much as the big picture. Basically, I could either move on to whatever comes after, or I could agree for my soul to be bound to this Dungeon. I'd have to do what the Imperator said, and would no longer be able to leave, but in exchange I'd get a new body to live on in here. Honestly, it's not been bad; all I have to do is explain the ropes to anyone else who asks, almost like a tour guide. Otherwise, it's free food and drink, private bedrooms in the back, and even a spot of entertainment whenever someone new wanders in. It's still a bit quiet at the moment, is my only real complaint, but maybe it'll get more lively down the line?"

"It's certainly better than what's going on outside," Emma agreed wholeheartedly, contrasting the relaxed atmosphere of the theater to the chaos she'd waded through on the way in. "Ah, while you're here, is there a way to speak to the Imperator in private, besides dying?"

"Sure; you just have to beat all four trials to get an audience and a boon, unlike everyone else here." Peter laughed. "Nobody else even made it past the lions, and the bound aren't allowed to try, so I don't see you being beaten any time soon. Not many suits of usable plate armor lying around, and even less people who can fight properly in them. Good on you, lass."

"Thanks," Emma replied, grateful for both the explanation and the compliment. "Last question then: how do I move onto the second trial?"

"Sign-up sheet is at the front beneath the screen." Peter gestured vaguely in the correct direction, and that was that.

Walking down the middle aisle to the front of the theater, Emma could see eyes turning her way, but nobody else seemed inclined to make conversation. Reaching the front wall undisturbed she found the sign-up sheet in short order; it was completely blank save for the title, confirming Peter's words that nobody else had made it this far. Scribbling her name down with her best doctor's handwriting, Emma frowned when the expected teleport into the arena didn't arrive. Instead, a timer appeared on the sheet, along with a short disclaimer.

"In order to safeguard the contestant's physical and mental health, only one battle to the death is permitted every twelve hours." Emma read aloud in disbelief. "Well, guess I'm checking out the bedrooms then."

—

Despite the widespread devastation caused by the apocalypse, there had been remarkably little damage done to the roads. Unlike say, a war or a natural disaster, the demons had no concept of infrastructure denial and instead focused exclusively on targeting the living. All this goes to explain that seeing a Silver Mercedes Benz gunning down the country road at a hundred miles an hour wasn't strictly impossible. Just very improbable, and exactly what Noah Knight was doing right this moment. Tree branches, leaves and unfortunate squirrels fell before his wheels as he raced home, the empty roads letting him make what was normally a forty minute commute in less than ten. Only when he saw his house (the last one standing within a half mile radius) did he finally decelerate to a reasonable speed, coming in to park at his usual spot purely out of habit. Barely sparing a glance at his wife's ruined car as he stepped out, Noah headed to the front door and pulled it open without preamble.

"Bwah!"

Then Noah fell flat on his ass with a startled yelp, because of all the potential suspects he had been expecting to welcome him home, a large brown bear hadn't made the list.