TWO FACES, ONE SHADOW

Sacres and Asimil were walking down the main avenue towards the coliseum. The bustle of vendors and mercenaries mingled with the distant sound of bells. The flagstones under his boots vibrated slightly with each roar that escaped from the arena, and with each vibration, he felt a tighter knot in his stomach.

— It won't be long now. — Sacres commented, still looking straight ahead. Asimil just nodded. The closer they got, the more he felt that pressure in his chest... as if the air was getting thicker.

Before arriving, Sacres made a detour to a small weapons and grocery store. The place smelled of old leather, metal and dust. While he perused some runes engraved on a dusty tome, Asimil let himself wander down the narrow aisle. The murmur outside began to fade... and then he felt it.

The look.

It was not curiosity or hostility. It was a cold weight, like a frost dagger in the back of his neck. But there was something else. A strange sensation, as if gravity itself were curving around it, a power that his soul seemed to recognize with an ancestral dread.

An echo of a limbo. A serene voice. The sensation of an immense force sacrificing itself for him.

Where did that thought come from? He barely turned his head, pretending to examine some rusty daggers, and there it was. A figure, motionless, leaning against a mossy wall. Dark skullcap, hood pulled low. It was not moving forward. It was not retreating. It just stood there. A knot formed in his stomach. He looked away, pretending he hadn't seen him. My imagination... I'm sure.

— Ready? —asked Sacres as he came out of the hallway.

— Yes... ready —  he lied.

They went out. The colosseum loomed before them, devouring the sky. And then he saw her. Noelia.

A few meters from the entrance. His heart fluttered. He was about to call out to her... until the hooded man moved. He approached her. The hug he gave her... it wasn't a hug of friends. It was a gesture of deep familiarity and trust. The blow to his heart was dull and painful. It was the same Noelia, wasn't it? Her smile, directed at him, did not have the coldness she always showed him. It was a smile he had never seen before, one that felt... stolen. As if, in a forgotten dream, that smile had belonged to him.

— That's it — Sacres' voice cut off his train of thought. You are enrolled. I'll watch you from the stands.

When he looked back, they were gone. And he didn't know what was worse: not knowing where they went... or the feeling that, in reality, they never stopped looking at him.

They arrived at the entrance.

— Aren't you coming in too? — he asked nervously.

Sacres smiled half-sideways. — Are you sure about this? —

He swallowed. —Yes... I think so. —

— I'll be in the stands, watching. —he said, patting Asimil's shoulder. — Just try not to pee yourself with fear, huh? —

Asimil rolled his eyes and went inside. The crowd was roaring. A hundred competitors were clustered in the center, armed to the teeth. He, on the other hand, in his rookie gear, felt like an imposter. Stares were glued to his back, but he tried to convince himself that he didn't care. He found Sacres in the stands, his mere presence an anchor.

And then, he saw Noelia again. Alone, watching everyone from a distance. Her expression was unreadable, as if she was trying to solve a riddle that he didn't understand what it was.

Before he could move, a fox-eared figure stepped onto a platform. — All are welcome to the Survival Pit! — A proving ground designed for the strongest, where only one will make it out alive. Deception, betrayal and brute force rule. —

Then he lowered his voice, sharing a secret. — And to make things even more interesting, we'll have a final boss for the last survivors! —

A ripple of whispers ran through the crowd. A low, gravelly voice crept into his ear like a shadow. It was him. The hooded man.

— That boss is completely random. A whim of the system. Some are beasts, others... abominations capable of destroying villages without batting an eye. But the scariest thing is that there are people here capable of facing them without problems. —

Asimil thought about it all, overwhelmed. How could someone get power like that? He wanted to ask, but the voice faded away. He slowly turned around. He was there, so close that he seemed to melt into the shadows. Asimil tried to look at his face under the hood, but there was nothing. No mouth, no eyes. Just absolute darkness. It was as if his mind was trying to carry a memory that didn't exist, a face from another life that refused to be seen in this one.

He blinked, and it had vanished.

Suddenly, a horn resounded with a thunderous boom. His heart pounded in his chest. The roar of the crowd became a deafening din.

And then, it all faded away.