Chapter 205 – Epilogue – All of them

“So, how did you solve the Nia situation yesterday?” John asked, once again in the cathedral. Today would be the last time. “I totally forgot to ask after everything else that had happened.”

The skin around Lydia’s nose wrinkled. It was part of a sour expression that only stayed for a moment, “AFTER you removed Aclysia as my emergency way out…”

“…Sorry about that…” John apologized.

Lydia shrugged and let out a deep sigh. She knew the circumstances and thus did not condemn him too much. “I found a reference case in the past. Using that, she was still accepted under the demand that I show a photo and make a certain concession…”

“Which would be?”

“They get to choose their group fight roster after ours in the first round.”

“Oh… so that likely puts us 2 points behind, huh?” John mumbled.

“Indeed, but I am certain that Nia can beat Maximillian and every other mage, so this should be a worthwhile investment,” Lydia agreed.

“And how are we going to handle Thana?” he asked, “Can she just come with us to Rome?”

“Ah, there won’t be a problem,” Lydia said, her previously annoyed tone shifting into a heavily satisfied one, “We will go there, all of us.”

With those words Lydia made her way to her spot at the middle plateau. “What would she mean by that?” he asked no one in particular, his mind had already come to a conclusion.

“I think you have the correct idea, Master,” Aclysia whispered to him. They still had to be mindful of the general quiet in the cathedral.

“Yeah? Well, that would mean you don’t get to participate, though,” he reminded her.

“I will happily give up my participation if it increases your chance of success,” Aclysia said, “and considering all known factors, it will increase them greatly.”

“True enough,” John agreed. “I will still be relying on you when we go grinding though.”

“Master, you can rely on me however you need.” The maid grabbed his arm and pressed a kiss on his cheek. “Now more than ever.”

John looked at her for a few moments. He wanted to smile, but his lips refused to curl. In the absence of joy, he just leaned against her. She reciprocated and they just stood there, bodies and minds embracing one another. Had Rave been there, she would have doubtlessly joined them. It was good to have people they knew they could trust. If ever the harem, too, turned out to betray him, then John did not know if he could ever recover.

‘What do you think about this Siena?’ John asked, once his mind was ready for levity again.

‘I think you need a nice chase through some dark woods, followed by your guts being spilled over the pine-needle covered floor,’ the nightmare elemental answered in her usual calm sexiness.

‘Man, you are, like, so brutal, why don’t you take some time off and become John’s courtesan?’ Sylph suggested from another corner of his mind, ‘Maybe his dick will give you something to spill, wink wink, nudge nudge.’

‘Mhm, If you will take the submissive part I will consider it,’ Siena sighed back, having experienced just how frustrating it was to fight against Sylph.

As promised she had had her ten minutes to try to murder John and as promised he hadn’t used his new armguard. Not that he needed it when he had access to all of his elementals. Siena had spent the ten minutes hiding in the shadows and chipping away at his Mana Protection, as she couldn’t hope to directly attack her summoner as long as his elementals were around, especially Sylph who had the shocking habit of throwing lightning. John hadn’t even needed to resort to Momo’s mana.

‘I will get another chance, eventually,’ Siena told herself and dropped out of his thoughts.

That was when Romulus gestured for the last contestants to be revealed. John didn’t know who the enemy number 4 was yet, that was a thing he would have to ask about later as well, but the one revealed this time was called Mario de Medici. ‘Those are two pretty well-known names, although for entirely different reasons,’ John mused as he looked for the man.

He was an Italian, to no surprise, with the typical Mediterranean skin tone of a light brown. He was a handsome guy with an elegant jawline, tall, short dark hair, probably in his early twenties. Leather armour reinforced with a greenish metal added a rugged charm to his overall graceful, natural looks. Two swords hung from the left side of his hip, a dagger from the right, and a shorter sword was bound to his back.

Well, that was a pretty concerning enemy. Then again, the person that walked up for Lydia made pretty much every enemy irrelevant. ‘I really wish they would stop trying to surprise me, only to give me giant hints a few seconds early, kinda ruins the surprise,’ John thought as the short figure passed him.

Her frame was largely hidden by a loose, black robe. Its hood was put back, her white-blue hair layered on top. Thana walked in a manner more relaxed than anything she had shown yesterday. After bawling her heart out for a few hours, she had stabilized a lot. Her grin still had something unstable to it and when she locked eyes with someone she stared until they surrendered. To John these gemstone-like eyes were fascinating, but the case for them being highly unnerving on this sickly pale girl could easily be made.

The tournament would be a lot easier with her around.

A LOT easier.

“Do you, Mario de Medici, Knight of Rome, wish to fight for your candidate?” Romulus asked the customary question. “For the glory of the empire, I will fight for the one true king of Germany,” the knight said and took a knee. He did that with such carefulness that one couldn’t tell whether he was bowing before Maximillian, Romulus or both.

“Your pledge is heard and accepted. The fighters on the side of the Candidatum Primus are now all assembled.”

His eyes moved over. “Before I can ask for your earnest intentions, I will have to ask for your full name.”

“It’s just Thana,” the bloodmage shrugged, “guess you’ll have to live with that.” The hall was filled with amused chatting in response to the newest contestant’s uncaring tone.

“You will speak with respect to Romulus!” Sol demanded.

“Nah,” Thana waved it off. Then Lydia bowed down to her and whispered something into her ear.

“Okay, kurva, I get it,” she annoyedly gave in and cleared her throat. “I, Thana, have no last name as I lost all of my memories thanks to Nazis torturing the fuck out of me, in fact Thana isn’t even my real name,” she said in such a monotone voice that it was almost more insulting than the previous words, “so you are shit out of luck.”

Silence swept through the gathered people. Thana, without any reason at all, chuckled for a moment, then took an entirely unnecessary step to the left, her bare foot stomping down. ‘Probably another one of these faces she sees everywhere,’ John thought.

“I see,” Romulus finally said after some thought. “Nevertheless, I have to ask that you may state a last name. Speak it now and I will guarantee that it will be the one the world calls you by, until you care for it no longer.”

“Oh? How nice…mhm…” Thana bent backwards, her robe opening at the front and revealing that she only wore things that only hid the most necessary. A bikini top, held with an iron ring in the middle of the chest, and a string thong that was hiding the basic decency of what underwear was supposed to cover, while doing absolutely nothing to hide anything else, both made from black leather.

That leather bikini was about all that they managed to get her to wear after having brought her to the mall in some of Rave’s clothes. The whole trip had been ceaseless complaints about how the clothes had been too big everywhere but in the chest area.

Getting her to wear the robe was considerably easier, she liked that piece of clothing for some reason. Both articles had cost A LOT of money, more than John could have hoped to earn even if he farmed for two weeks straight. It made sense, they needed to be durable enough to withstand whatever Thana could do to them in battle, but Lydia paid up without hesitation. In hindsight, John could easily see why.

John also got himself some new suits at the occasion, with basic fire resistance so that they wouldn’t get destroyed the next time he used the armguard. He had to pay for those himself.

Thana continued to bend until her head was on the same level as her hips. The blue ends of her hair almost touched the floor. The princess had cut the hair until it ‘only’ reached halfway down Thana’s back. Wild bangs covered her forehead and framed her face. The idea to braid her hair, the blood mage had denied.

Her lavender, seven-dotted eyes scanned the audience. She found John at his usual spot at the side. Her grin seemed to grow just the slightest bit wider. In a flash her back was straight again. “I’ll take Newman,” she announced.

John groaned, of course she did. “Jane won’t like that,” Aclysia commented.

“No, she probably won’t,” he answered and looked over to one of the many cameras.

“It is weirdly appropriate though,” Momo, who had actually come with them today, chimed in, “You know, because she is a strictly superior human being, a New Human.”

“I don’t care about how appropriate it is, it will get the rumour machine running to all hell,” John whined. His ears picked up a low, deep sound at that moment and his eyes looked up to the plateau on top. Did Romulus just chuckle?

“Very well then, Thana Newman,” he spoke, causing John’s insides to cringe, “do you wish to fight for your candidate?”

“Well, honestly I just want to fuck some shit up, but sure I will help Lylytina here,” Thana said. Another round of wild chattering, then the whole world was witness to the rare sight of Lydia, princess of steel, losing her temper.

“W-what do you think you are doing?!” she stammered, red from both anger and embarrassment. She had completely lost her upright stance, now gesturing wildly at her last fighter.

“The hell I want, same as usual,” Thana laughed into her face and booped her on the nose, “It’s a cute nickname.”

“We are IN COURT!” the princess loudly reminded her chosen fighter.

“Meh,” was all Thana had to say.

“Ha!” a single laugh escaped Romulus before he got himself under control again, as Sol and Luna both looked at him disapprovingly. No matter who you were, apparently women were able to find a way to maintain some control over their lovers. The giant cleared his throat and continued in his usual, rumbling voice as if nothing had happened. “I hear your pledge and it is accepted. The fighters of the Candidatum Secundus are now all assembled,” he announced.

Mario walked over to Thana with confidence, anger in his eyes. “May the better team win,” the knight said and reached towards her with his leather gauntleted hand, “being us, the ones who stay courtly, of course.”

Thana looked at the extended hand with a neutral expression. In an urging gesture, Mario twitched his hand. It was pretty clear that he was planning something. Still looking completely unimpressed, Thana took it.

With a smile Mario tightened his grip so strongly that the leather creaked. Surely, it was his intention to intimidate the intruder who went ahead and broke court conventions. Thana maintained her neutral expression. After a few seconds, she raised a single eyebrow. Mario’s lips pressed together as he put more and more effort into the handshake until his whole body seemed to concentrate on that motion.

“Are you actually trying to break my hand or what the fuck is this?” Thana asked.

“Oh no, I only want to put a bit of pressure on you,” Mario returned, trying his best to mask the strained state of his body. The tiny girl in front of him raised a white eyebrow, the golden dots inside her violet eyes rotating with accelerating speed.

“You know, you longsword-lover, for a moment there I thought there were a surprisingly low amount of shitheads around,” Thana said and her white teeth flashed as her mad grin returned, ”but now I can plainly see that you are a fucking moron.”

She returned the strong grip in kind. Bones were crushed with the same ease John would have snapped a chicken wing with. Mario cursed in Italian and stumbled back when he was released. His fingers were not sticking out the right way.

“Whoops, only meant to put a bit of pressure on you,” she innocently said, making a shocked impression, before starting to laugh maniacally. The shrill noise was accompanied by a deep undertone, silent at first, then a loud roar as Romulus burst out laughing.

“This…!” Toga waving, he jumped off his throne and walked down the three steps underneath. “…will be a legendary tournament it seems. The players are as unusual as never before and now that everyone is assembled, this story may take its path and be witnessed by the masses. Go forth and fight for glory, be it your own or of those you deem worthy of support,” he passed the electors and walked towards the exit as he, in a mood that put a wide smile on his face, spoke the last words of the event. “For next we see each other in the eternal city of Rome!”