When Ryo said those words, I didn't know what to think. Was this the work of that shadow that we saw earlier? The missing people in the audience that Alphonzo and Henza were investigating?
Apparently, everyone here was invested in Jo and Polaris' match-up until the finality. Around that time, the disappearances of the other nine contenders, and even some of the healer mages in the Keep, had occurred. When Jo's match concluded, that had been the time everyone else had noticed.
"Isn't there someone who can read minds here?" Viper asked. Exhibiting that same forward attitude I had come to know from the first time I had met her.
"Yeah, it was my 1st Exec, Marley. She went missing before the match." Snow said.
"Of course, she was one of the first ones taken, that's not suspicious at all," she added.
"V—Viper, you don't have to say it like that…" Love said to her.
"Hey…" Snow darted his cool eyes to her. "You're not assuming Marley did it, are you?" he asked intimidatingly with his hands in his pockets.
"I don't know. All this is kinda sketch. Just brainstorming," Viper said, glowering at him now.
"Some way to brainstorm… and what about you? I've heard you have heightened senses. How come you weren't able to track who was vanishing? The three of you Golden Rose Knights are still here, how's that for suspicious?"
"You dare pick a fight with the Golden Roses? If you want to talk about a Guild that's all still here, why don't you look at the Black Wolves? All three of their members are still here. Or will you not suspect them because you're friends? Maybe you're all in it together?"
"Greed and Jo were just upstairs in the middle of a match!"
"And yet Nash is still here… curious."
Ryo stepped in at that time, "Now, now. We should not be arguing amongst ourselves. We should be figuring out where the others are. Isn't their safety the top priority right now?" the heart of the Valley said.
Nash snickered that his name was brought up after all that.
"Greed and I saw a shadow in the hallway earlier, that's why we left," Rex spoke up. He was not in his usual joking mood. Two of his subordinates, Rowen and Maine, had also gone missing. "My team outside has been sending me updates and telling me there have been some disappearances throughout the colosseum as well. All happening while we are conducting this Tournament. And the reason we came back was because we ran into Alphonzo and his subordinate, who are also looking into this mystery. During the time Greed and I were away, we had gotten trapped in a Dimensional Territory someone had set up, and by the time we had escaped, some time had already passed—hence why we had missed a total of three matches by the time we came back—even though when we were in that sub-space it only felt like mere minutes…"
After Rex had concluded his thought, another voice separate from all of ours entered in. That stoic stern was something I was starting to get familiar with.
"What he says is truth," Alphonzo said as he entered the room from one of the many entrances, it was the one from the middle.
Following him was that baggy-eyed traitor from close behind. Henza.
When everyone saw him, they all reacted; some even drew weapons. Looks like I wasn't the only one who felt that way about him. The only one who didn't react, surprisingly, was Nash…
"You may all relax. Henza here is my subordinate. He is no longer a Blue Phoenix Knight. You may simply ignore his presence if that makes you all feel better." Alphonzo preached.
Though everyone was hesitant, they eventually complied. Ryo was another one who didn't react; he must have already known Henza was working with Alphonzo. Regardless, he still didn't expect to see them here, of all places.
"Now, to get to the matter at hand, I want to update you with our findings so far." Alphonzo then took out a pendant and pressed its middle. When he did, he chanted a spell from a different typing of magic than his own,
"Projection Magic: Divine Map"
Right then, a hologram of sorts emitted in front of him, showing a three-dimensional map of the underground hallways of the colosseum. The big space in the middle was the Warriors' Keep.
"This is the map of the entire underground hallway system underneath the colosseum."—he pointed to three different sections of the halls—"here, here, and here we found evidence of Dimensional Territory rifts."
When he had pointed to the three areas, they were in the shape of a triangle.
"Here, here, and here there was evidence of closed rifts…" As he pointed to those three areas, they formed an upside-down triangle. He traced each, his three-dimensional map marking the areas of each point.
When he had finished, the right-side-up triangle and the upside-down one overlapped, forming a type of star…
"And when you align it with the shape of the colosseum above,"—he brushed his hand down, and the three-dimensional colosseum hovered over the map of the underground hallways—"you get this…"
The circle lined up with the points on each of his findings, forming—
"A pentagram…" Zeno said.
"Precisely," Alphonzo confirmed. "Long story short, whoever is behind the vanishings is using these markers as their entry and exit ways. Now here's the interesting part…"
He then took a notebook out from his robe and flipped the page to the map he had gathered from his sources in the Ocean Kingdom. Tracing it with his fingers, then pulling his finger away, the map from the notebook was now a small three-dimensional copy in view to us all. With his other hand, he expanded his fingers and then layered it over his current map of the colosseum.
"What is this now?" Viper asked impatiently.
"This," Alphonzo replied, "is a map that does not exist, because it is the map of the Dimensional Territory."
When we all observed it, the hallways were so intricate that it was hard to follow where one path had led to the other. "I didn't understand the conceptualization of this map until I did this," he said.
Alphonzo then snapped his fingers, and the hallways on that map began shifting into different places constantly. The halls bent and created stairways, curved and led from one end of the colosseum to the other.
"To conclude, whoever is behind these disappearances is using these pathways to make it happen. And they can do it in the blink of an eye. Unless you just so happen to catch it in your peripheral, even a Sensory mage would miss a vanishing if it had happened right as they looked away. Whoever is behind it is indeed skilled. And because the entry and exit points are underground in these halls…" Alphonzo glared at each and every one of us. That expressionless face that radiated—I'm on to you—said it all, "means that the perpetrator is here in this very Keep."
If there was a moment when Ryo wanted unity, this was not it. Jumping back to where they had started when they were accusing other members, Viper said at this time, "I can only think of two mages that participated in today's Tournament who have an ability even remotely close to this… and that is Marley of the Silver Sharks, and Cecillia of the Forest Kingdom."
Snow retaliated, "There you go again, blaming my subordinate."
"You awfully have a lot of faith in someone who was sneaking around when you were trying to find them." Viper stung.
"What?" Snow asked. Confused.
"I sensed her in the hall when you were looking for her. She snuck off somewhere and has since disappeared. She lost her match, then, once it had passed along with a few other matches, she up and leaves. And since then, more and more of us have vanished. Curious, now that I'm saying all of this out loud…"
Alphonzo's intrigued eyes met Snow at this time, and so did others as Viper had stated her case.
"This is ridiculous! Do any of you know Marley's ability at all?" Snow shouted. "Her ability is Mindwave magic; she can control electric waves from her brain and link it to other people's brains, which lets her read minds one at a time. It even lets her enter her physical body through thoughts. But she can't create an elaborate sub-space out of nowhere. Your point lacks concrete facts. Sorry you had to see this side of me, Love." Snow winked as he somehow managed to flirt toward the end. Love shyly gave him a hesitant laugh in response.
Viper scoffed and then shifted her accusations, finally, over to Cecillia.
"Well then, how about her?" Nash spoke up from behind the crowd, pointing over to Cecillia now. "You said she was your other culprit, right? If anything, I'm leaning more toward her as the prime suspect. Did you see how she fought in her last match?"
At this time, the quiet Cecillia from the corner of the Keep raised her head slightly.
It was hard to tell her expression, especially with that beige cloth that wrapped over her eyes and around her head like a blindfold.
As they recalled how she had fought in her match, Cecillia looked as if she were teleporting against Marley.
"What's her ability again?" Rex asked, "Greed and I weren't there after all."
"Timeskip magic. Let's her pause her own time temporarily, which allows her to appear as if she's teleporting when she fights," Goro said at this time. He had been listening and waiting to gather all his thoughts. He usually solved these things with Rin, who was an expert at these sorts of things, but she was ironically one of the vanished as well.
It was as if the one who did this knew to take out some of the key players: Marley and her Clairvoyant abilities, Rin and her sharp debunking skills. Leaving the rest who were a bit harder to vanish here in this room.
"When you mentioned the Sub-Space ability, a.k.a. the Dimensional Territory, it all made sense. I had wondered how, even with my heightened senses, I was not able to track who had gone missing… and well… it's because they're not in the same realm with us anymore," Viper said, looking over to Cecillia at this time. All eyes were on her now. "Tell us… is your ability really 'Timeskip' magic? Or is it something more?"
Cecillia clicked her tongue and remained silent thereafter.
"Nothing to say, Head Guard?"
This whole time, Alphonzo had said nothing as well. He was like a serpent waiting to strike. Like he wanted us to figure out who it was. And then once he was sure—
"All right, folks! The ring has been repaired to its original state! Thank you for your patience while we reinforce our arena for the next match!" the announcer shouted. "Now, let's bring in our next set off— Huh? Hold on just a second, Valley citizens, I'm getting a call in."
The announcer's speech was interrupted suddenly, and right then, I heard Alphonzo speak into his comm, "Is Daz listening? … Good… There have been vanishings in the Warriors' Keep. Here is the list of contenders still here…" He mentioned all the names of the present contenders. "That is all."
There was silence from his end of the comm, and then he went on, "If I may make a suggestion on the next round…"
After that, Alphonzo's words were inaudible. It was as if he had silenced himself with magic somehow so that none of us could hear. But knowing him, I knew he had something up his sleeve.
"Uh, okay! Sorry about that, folks, I just got word that we are going to be doing something a bit different. Rather than continue into our first round, we will be moving on to stage 2 of the 1st bracket!"
I could hear the crowd's boos and confusion from here.
"This was a change-up by Arcane King Daz himself, as an interesting turn of events has given us an opportunity to present the Valley Tournament winner sooner rather than later!"
At this time, the projection screens with the audience changed. And when it did, all of us in the Warriors' Keep were there for all to see…
"The fuck?" I said. And when I looked over to where Alphonzo and Henza were, they had quietly moved to the other end of the Keep. Avoiding the screen's view of them.
"While we were holding the main Tournament up here, we were also holding a secret tournament below to speed up the process! By doing this, we have expedited stage 2! And these, folks, are all your second round contenders!"
Interesting turn of events… secret tournament… speed up the process… the irony in those words…
"Now please help me welcome the next set of contenders to the ring!" the announcer shouted, "Cecillia of the Forest Kingdom—"
But I now understand.
"—and Lance of the Golden Roses!"
When the announcer said his name—Golden Boy, or, I should call him Tantrum Boy with the scene he had apparently made in his first match—I glanced over to him. He had been silent that whole interaction.
I bore witness to his face; his hazel eyes were wide with bitter rage, glowering heavily in Cecillia's direction. It was then that I understood why they had chosen this match first for the second round.
I think after this fight, I might have to change his nickname to something more fitting and serious… like 'Executioner'.