The dust in the arena settled... Along with the several unique strands of energy left glowing faintly in the air for only Chase's eyes, as it seemed that no one but him could see the left over residue from the satisfying battle that took place only moments prior.
"Damn..." Equan said, hunched over his knees with heavy breaths of exhaustion blocking any actual speech from leaving his lips.
Chase muttered under his breath in response, studying the energy left in the air. Ignoring the crowd's cheering, the announcer's deafening voice, and Equan's clearly stagnated state... He summoned soul sight and watched the colorless gaze take over his vision.
Of course, the energy left over from the twins was strangely disorienting and nearly blinding to look at even with the protection charm built inside of his mask.
Chase sighed, seemingly unable to even read the combination of particles that made up the twins' affinities, just exactly the same as how it worked with Michael, Gabriel, Leo, or any other member of Unity, besides one person.
Throughout Chase's entire time with these people who he knew of as friends, the only person who's energy had actually ever been readable...
Has been Neo...
Which in reality made very little sense to Chase, as Neo's affinity was still a question mark in Chase's mind, seeing as whatever Neo used as said affinity, was never actually used in a flashy or visible way... Or perhaps... Neo had never actually used his Primis Affinity, which would make sense considering his past.
But that only made Chase dread more internally, as Neo was already leagues above not only Chase, but even Poppy would probably lose to him in a true battle.
Suddenly as Chase rubbed the faint markings where Sparky's rune had once been, he heard someone call out, drowning out the loud crowd around him and shaking him from his daze.
"Elite!" A croaking call came from a stretcher surrounded by healers and coliseum staff.
Chase turned, raising his eyebrow which also lifted his mask ever so slightly.
"My- My name is Noir..." The dagger wielding twin groaned from his stretcher with his wounded arm limply held over his face.
Chase stood for a moment with his vision fixated on the twin; however, for some strange reason, although his vision only looked at the picture before his forward facing body...
Chase perceived the world three-hundred-and-sixty degrees around him... His awareness zoning in on his masked figure standing at the very center of this twilight coliseum...
His lightly damages ivory armor glowing underneath the evening sun... His gauntlet covered left hand resting on his right shoulder... And his dimly glowing neon eyes radiating a dreadful energy from the onyx skull wrapped around his face like a blanket made of serpentine scales...
Something...
Wasn't right...
"We should go back home..." Chase said, turning around and walking straight towards the exit of the coliseum...
However, as he walked and Equan followed closely behind with heavy breaths: Flowers rained down from above... And chants followed closely behind those as well.
It wasn't his or Equan's name though, in fact Chase had never met someone named Elite or Actor... Which made it feel so unsatisfying... So, unglorified of a victory...
And then there was the fact that these people had begun to truly believe that Chase was of the Paladin variety of gladiators...
He watched as petals fell around his slow moving figure... They were white, orange, and some were even red flowers that Chase had no way of truly identifying... However, he would have believed himself crazy had someone told him that these flowers were of the same variety as the ones he had seen long ago, growing in his own front lawn...
...
Not long after, Chase and Equan walked side by side in the Western branch of the outer ring of the Coliseum.
Both of them had removed their armor as well as their masks and had taken the appearance of two diehard fans of the Paladin known as Lizzy of House Durangor... The Sawblade Paladin...
Neither of them had ever heard of her before, but the T-shirts they had purchased told them enough of which they needed to know.
So when a middle-aged man came up with a pen and paper and began asking them about Lizzy, while stroking his silver goatee every time he set his pen down on the scroll. They were luckily able to answer nearly every question about the Paladin on their shirts.
"Well I'll be damned... Here in return for taking my interview and scoring such an impressive score, I will grant you both five golden coins!"
Of course they took the reward without hesitation, and began even deeper into the coliseum branches, passing by old shops and attractions that slowly grew more and more abandoned as they ventured further underneath the arena.
"I think I could take her..." Equan chuckled, looking down at his shirt with a terrifyingly still smile on his lips.
"You? Take a Paladin? Yeah..." Chase stopped himself before saying something that would lower the morale of his teammate, and instead sighed and spoke up.
"Maybe you could, ya know? I don't really know all that much about your affinity, but if her affinity relies on metal than you might have a real shot." Chase sighed again, descending down a very wide flight of stairs that led into an area of the arena that was not lit by lanterns, but instead shrouded in an awfully eerie darkness.
Equan stopped.
"Maybe we should head back for the night... It was you who said that in the sandpit wasn't it?" Equan asked, clenching his fist and narrowing his eyes at the abyss below them.
"It was, but there is something I need to check... Peace of mind and all that ya know?" Chase said, stopped a couple of steps below Equan.
"But like, how come you can't tell me what it is we are looking for? If you told me, maybe I could help or something... At least like that, I have a reason of my own to be down in this horror pit..." He responded, clearly not wanting to go any further.
"I'll tell you... Just not yet, I don't know who is listening or even if my theory is right... Which I hope its not..." Chase said the last part extremely quietly, letting his voice turn into a soft blowing sensation.
"You don't... Dude, after everything we've faced... You are making me think we are about to walk in on a Devil or something..." Equan grit his teeth after the words left his mouth, but instead of continuing with trying to get out of going down there... He simply sighed dramatically and followed behind Chase for the rest of the way down.
Which is what Chase would have liked to happen...
But just before they took their first step after the short conversation...
Chase spotted movement in the shadows below.
Equan seen it as well...
But it wasn't the sight of someone coming that put them on immediate high alert...
Because the sensation of being before this lone man... Was enough to put Chase's flames on trigger happy mode...
Their skin froze over...
The hairs on their arms skyrocketed...
However, Chase could feel no mana approaching from below... Which could only mean one of two things... Either this man had no natural mana in his body... Or he was extremely skilled at hiding it.
And Chase assumed the ladder based off the poise of just his figure walking up the stairs towards them with slow and precise steps.
The man was slowly illuminated by the lanterns of the higher layers of the inner-coliseum.
A dark-silver Armet helmet slowly swayed left and right with the nearly royal-esque movements of the man.
As the light shrouded even more of the knight, his lower armor was revealed: Showcasing a very similar style as to that of his helmet... Dark silvers ran across his bulky chestplate and leggings.
But it was the void in the space of between his mouth guard and the crown of his helmet that instilled the most reverence into Chase's body.
It was like the light had refused to show the face behind that helmet...
"May I ask what you two gentlemen are doing this far down in the coliseum?" The man's voice was familiar and almost like a stranger at the very same time. A gruff and deep voice that was filled with what could have been confused with mysticism...
"We got lost." Equan said with a confused shrug.
"Lost? That is quite foolish in a place like this... I will escort you out of here..." Chase nearly let out a sigh of relief in response to the knight's words...
"That is... If you answer a question of mine that seems to be of decent importance..." Mid turn, Chase froze with his eyes facing the opposite side of him that the man stood, looking up from a few steps below with what could have been any expression based on his near-robotic sounding tone.
"Go for it." Equan shrugged, with one hand behind his back communicating to Chase with his fingers crossed.
The man cleared his throat, armor rattling as his fist slowly rose in front of his mouth.
"Have I met you two before somewhere?" The words must have had some sort of magic imbued into them, because Chase felt his spine nearly tremble under the pressure that resonated from the knight.
Equan swallowed deeply beside Chase, before clearing his throat and looking the still knight up and down, then he simply shrugged with his signature stupid expression resting on his face.
"Perhaps if I said my name... It would make it easier for you to recognize me..." The man seemingly thought aloud... His voice echoing within his own armor.
"I...
Am Veximus... Paladin of House Durangor... And sworn Sword of the King..."