,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Time passed.
One by one, the contestants made their way back to Gaia.
In as much as those corrupt worlds were dangerous, killing people with so many resources behind them was genuinely hard. Each of them had arrived with divine beings at their backs, with equipment and preparation that most wouldn't have access to in ten lifetimes. Wiping them out entirely would have required something far more deliberate than what those planets threw at them.
Most came back.
Not all came back whole.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The first to return was Talos, son of the prince of the left.
His spacecraft came down on the imperial tarp tilted hard, its outer construct severely damaged, landing on one leg like it had dragged itself across the last stretch on sheer stubbornness. The hull was scored deep. Whatever it had passed through on the way out had left marks that weren't decorative.
He stepped off it carrying the black ice lily.
He did not receive a good reception.
