Chronicles of Mystery

The Snake and the Fish

They both took a shuttle island to lead them to Mars. The rock, circulating as if endowed with its own life in the air between the large islands, made fairly regular turns between the main islet and the outer islands, arranged like a crown around it. Up there was a battle arena with bleachers which stood in a circle around it. The arena was similar to those once used for gladiatorial combat in the Roman Empire, but the architects of the sanctuary liked to claim that they were the ones who invented the concept. It was a fairly low building, two stories high, with large open arcades on each wall. The sun was just rising and beginning to illuminate Mars, the highest of all the islands. The shadow of the arena flowed onto the ground, pierced by countless holes that were the arcades, inscribing their black lines on the brown earth.

He and Liam passed through the main entrance, larger than all the others, with impressive metal gates, which conveyed all the raw force of the place, like the jaws of a beast ready to swallow anyone who came before its path. The gates also featured a carved gold face believed to represent Eldrius. The sculpture was so old that the features could barely be made out, so he could hardly judge the resemblance.

David never would have believed that gates would be adorned with the golden face of Eldrius. He would have liked his to have been engraved somewhere significant, like on a wall that everyone would be forced to look at. Such magnificence deserved to be observed.

Mars was the island of fight and strength. It was an island for warriors. And for the unfortunate people forced to become so.

Inside, they found Aiko, Jonas, Eva and Thalie. The latter yawned repeatedly and looked like she had barely gotten out of bed. She hated morning workouts. She also hated not being allowed to wear her extravagant outfits there. Generally speaking, she and Sissi didn't get along very well, to put it mildly.

From the back of the arena, she arrived. Elisa, an ex-squadron member, was the only person without power to have succeeded in integrating them. The only warrior and member of the squads who had been able to retire and who was still alive past her thirties. As such, she was also the most experienced. She had participated in a staggering number of missions during her life and had escaped unscathed, or almost, if you did not count the last one which had cost her all the members of her squad and her own arm. More experienced especially than Milo, the only other available "trainer" of the order, if we except the priests who had never had to fight in their lives. The latter was absent from one time to the other and mainly taught them to breathe "correctly" as he said, more than anything else, having probably never witnessed a battle in his life. The brigades also had a saying about him : "When you don't have anything better, Milo is your teacher".

Elisa was wearing a tight, full-body black jumpsuit that day that seemed like a second skin to her, made from what was said to be Helios wing feathers, a very rare material and almost impossible to obtain these days, but also one of the strongest in existence. The only other person with such clothing was Evelyn, the leader of Sigma Squadron, who sported a white cape that she used as a shield. It was said that this was a gift from Lalinn, the last present that he could give to his faithful, with the help of the relic that was kept of him in the great temple reserved for the priests of the island.

The outfit flowed over her like a black river, like a snake along her skin. At her belt, gleaming like the morning star in the morning light, hung two daggers made to be thrown. She also kept two long blades at her waist, although she was now only able to wield one, keeping the other out of habit or in reserve.

One of its sleeves was folded up, having no arms to fill it. Even disabled, Elisa remained one of the best fighters in the sanctuary. She managed to defeat all the members of the brigades as well as some members of the squadrons. She was on a par with the Ellipse squadron.