The Nightmare Emerges (Part 2)

Rodan and Nono weren’t on their own in the VIP room. There were several people as well, though not as many like the regular visitors below. The two sat in the back row of the VIP seats, which is the highest point that they could see the entire show going.

“Ahh... this chair is way comfortable than the ones at home. I can spend the whole day napping on this kind of chair. Geez, I want to know where they got this kind of seat.”

Shortly, Rodan looked beside him and noticed how Nono was still down. He then patted his friend’s shoulder.

“Aww, cheer up, Nono! That was not a big deal. Come on, now.”

“How could you say that when you’re not even in line waiting...?”

“AHUMP—W-Well, that’s right, but... at least we still get to watch the show, right?”

“...ha..........”

“Don’t ‘ha...’ me like that!” Roro quickly retorted.

“Besides, weren’t you the one who wanted me to come here to enjoy the show? Get your spirit fired up again! At least we didn’t miss the show, Nono.”

“Errrgh... oh, well. I guess you’re right, Roro. Well... let’s just see how the show goes. Sorry for being a jerk.”

...

And so, the show started with the circus ringleader gave a bombastic opening.

He walked gently to the middle of arena and greeted the visitors. The opening began with the entire room suddenly turned dark, leaving only streaks of light all around the place.

“—Eh, what? Why is it dark all of sudde—

“—Shush, Roro! It’s about to begin.”

The ringleader raised his arms and slammed them to the ground, creating a massive cyan magic circle on the arena that illuminated its surroundings in a warm soft luminescence. Few seconds later, the walls were decorated with balls of light. Those lights swarm in spiral around the ringleader before finally sending those highly into the air and then outwards back into the wall in a quick motion. Shortly, the room was bright again. The spectators were greatly amazed and they clapped afterwards.

“Ho... Using magic as a tool of entertainment, huh? Pretty impressive,” Rodan complimented the action.

“That’s so cool, don’t you think, Roro? Never thought magic could be used that way, because normally, magic served as weapons. Wait, isn’t that dangerous?” Nono asked.

“No worries. I’ve sensed the magical energy in his act. None of them were potentially harmful to us visitors. They’ve calculated this. Hm-hm, as expected of a great circus,” Rodan explained.

“But you know... it is refreshing to see magic being used not for warfare, but for entertainment. How knowledge has evolved throughout the ages...”

“Oh, oh, here’s their next act!” Nono stated excitedly.

“Hm... nom-nom-nom...” Roro nodded as he munched an apple.

...

..

.

The show lasted for almost three hours and now the circus team prepared their final show for the day.

“Huh... time sure flies by,” Rodan noted. There were two apples left in his bag.

“Their way of acting and stunting was extremely great! I’m really glad we go here today.”

“Huh, just then you were nagging like a crybaby. But, oh well... I’m surprised at how they performed overall. They really show us some high quality shows.”

“Yup, imagine it, Roro, their play was so awesome that nobody notices that it has been three hours since they began! Ooh, what they’re going to show now?”

Shortly, the lights went out slowly, leaving the room dark with only streaks of light coming from the walls and the arena.

“Ooh, here it is!” Nono said to himself excitingly. Meanwhile Rodan watched him in a cringed face.

Not long afterwards, the ringleader appeared again, this time with a unique set of clothing that matches the theme of the room now: black and stripes of shining cyan light elaborated his clothing. His necktie was also lighting up.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are nearing the closure of today’s act. Our final show will be a special one. Why? It is because a new act that we are presenting for the first time here in Gantz city!”

Few seconds later, a group of men appeared from the veils of darkness, pulling a cart into the middle of the arena. The cart was mostly unseen, probably carrying a giant box. Once it reached the center, the box object was picked up and brought down. Then, sounds of metal and chains were heard once it impacted the dirt below. There, Roro realized what was being carried into the arena.

“Hey, hey... you’re not joking, right...? That’s...” he said while having his arms crossed.

“Eh, you can see it, Roro? Geez, I can’t see a damn thing down there. It’s so dark.”

“Hah, stop messing around, Nono.”

The box turned out to be the large cage from before. They intend to show everyone on board the circus the strange creature. Somehow, Rodan felt uneasy by it being brought to everyone’s attention.

“I’ve a bad feeling about this...”

Soon, the team who carried the cage pulled away the cart and back into the other side, leaving the cage with the ringleader. Everyone could hear how aggressive the cage was shaking.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we Algorians have managed to secure a rare catch. Today, we will present to you, one of the BEST we have!”

A moment later, a man in full armor appeared from the dark of the arena. His armor was also flashy with lights all over his body. As he closed his distance with the large cage, the ringleader continued his presenting.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a rare opportunity, a great privilege to witness one of the greatest fights in history of our circus! The knight hero of Algoria that shall usher light into the world tainted by the white demon!

This is not a mere circus play.

This is a true fight!

I present to you, the final show! The evil demon shall be defeated in the hands of our knight hero!”

The man in armor drew his great sword out, pointing at the cage. Shortly, two guards arrived from the dark to accompany the protagonist actor. They brought a long pike, which Rodan noticed who they were.

“Ahh, aren’t they those guards from before? Their presence here would mean that this play is absolutely real.”

“What do you mean, Roro?” Nono wondered.

“Just wait and you’ll see. I saw those guards when I was strolling alone. Those pikes could possibly be used to tame the creature in it should things went out of order. The creature in that cage... was not any normal creature.”

“H-Huh... is that so? How scary,” Nono replied.

“Just for safety measures... Nono, activate your magic detection spell. I will activate mine, too.”

“Haha, what are you talking about, Roro...?” Nono chuckled, but stopped immediately when he noticed Rodan’s face was dead serious when watching the arena. Nono realized that Rodan would only act that way should something dangerous would happen.

“I get it. I’ll activate now.”

“Do you see it, Nono?” Rodan asked seriously.

“Whoa... the aura in that cage was... blaring like crazily. What’s going to happen? What should we do, Roro?”

“...So it is true. Well, we should wait and see how they do this. Judging from the way they spoke, it appears they’ve been doing this several times, so let’s leave it to them.”

“Y-Yeah... they’re professionals. They can handle it. I hope.”

And so, the show began with the knight hero planting his sword to the dirt below, causing a massive white magic circle. This time, Rodan and Nono sensed how tense the magic power coming from the knight hero alone, beating that of the massive magic power from the cage.

“That guy... is probably the strongest guy in the circus.”

“I agree...”

And then, the cage padlocks were unlocked by the two guardsmen. Once they opened it, they rushed into the corners of the stage and pointed their pike to it. Slowly, the cage door opened and then fell into the ground, causing some shake around it. The blankets were still there, but now with the iron bars opened, the creature was free.

The creature crawled out, though unseen by everyone, its presence could be sensed from how evil the aura it emitted from its very body.

“Roro, that creature...”

“I know.”

Shortly, spotlights from eight different directions lighted on the creature, revealing the creature’s physical shape.

“No way...!” Nono retorted.

“...A girl...?!” Rodan’s eyes nearly popped out in shock.

The creature was covered by its white loose hair. Its appearance was that of an albino girl with a ghostly white skin. No matter how Rodan and Nono looked at it, that creature resembled a young human girl instead of a monster.

Then...

Disaster struck.

The creature opened its eyes as it was exposed to light in a long period of time. When its eyes were open the entire spotlights that were shining at it broke apart one by one, until none was left to reveal her position. The only thing that shined the arena was the streaks of light on the wall, the tribune, the knight hero’s armor, and ultimately the red eyes of that white creature.

“How scary of you, but let’s get this over with and push you back into the cage,” said the knight hero actor as he raised his sword.

“Hope to get along with you—

The actor’s voice suddenly cut off as if it was gone from the world. Everyone got confused why did that happen and thought it may be part of the show. But their thoughts fooled them. Even Rodan and Nono were shocked.

The actor that was standing steadily suddenly fell down to the dirt like a crumbling tower that had no foundation to sustain it. The entire tribune went silent as the creature approached the fallen body. It looked like it was trying to search something in the actor’s body, but to no avail.

And shortly, the creature let out a deafening roar. It was shrieking so loud that the room instantly returned back to light. Now before everyone’s eyes...

The albino humanoid creature was revealed clearly. Its arm skin had been transformed into spiky hide in white with red lines going around it. Its fingers which resembled humans’ now shaped as sharp black fingernails with each nails reaching up to ten centimeters long.

The knight hero actor... was lying coldly on the dirt, leaving everyone stunned.

Rodan and Nono were both shocked to see, that the actor was dead on a pool of blood.

That day, the circus turned into a terrifying incident.