Scarlet

Amelia continues going over some basic details of the tournament all the way till it begins. But there isn’t much else that she says. Nothing all that important at least.

Just some things about the way for others to spectate, the fact that the tournament will be displayed on massive screens in the sky on both Earth and Tartarus, and mentioning how much the news on Earth is hyping up the tournament. To the point that they made a ranking for who they thought would win.

The Demon Lords and White being at the top of the rankings.

Aside from that, she does mention one thing that is useful to know. Apparently, if you try to go easy on someone else or give up without trying, you’re automatically disqualified for the tournament.

Which I find odd, but it doesn’t really matter. At least it means the demons won’t go easy on me just because I’m their princess.

Soon after she finishes, a loud voice echoes throughout the world. One belonging to the Fae King.

“All forty-three competitors in the tournament will now be called to the tournament universe. Prepare for transition occurring in ten seconds.”

I glance at Tar, who is getting off of my lap before I focus on Amelia again to find her nodding.

“Good luck, Scarlet,” she says, making me give her a nod of my own.

Then we wait for ten seconds to pass, following which a vivid red and blue light shines over us. And within moments I find myself entering some sort of pitch black location that I can only assume is the In-Between.

“Your assumption is correct,” Tar says as he floats alongside me through the In-Between. “We’re still far away from the void creatures though.”

That’s good.

Why isn’t Amelia with us?

“The In-Between isn’t on a one-to-one scale with the mortal universe,” Tar answers. “So a couple of meters in distance on Earth might be a couple kilometers in the In-Between.”

Oh. So she’s just somewhere nearby then.

“Yeah,” he says while we continue moving through the In-Between, being pulled along by Oberon’s power.

While we fly, I can’t help but look around at our surroundings. At the occasional strange barriers I find us passing by.

“Those are the natural barriers that seal away the void creatures,” Tar explains without me asking. “They’re running rampant now after holes began appearing in them.”

Hmm.

We continue flying through the In-Between, otherwise known as the Void, for quite a while before finally arriving at some sort of strange wormhole-looking thing. And we’re not the only ones here as I quickly find other people, many of whom I recognize, arriving right when we pass through.

My attention quickly turns to my surroundings after entering the wormhole and finding myself appearing in the middle of some sort of plaza. Specifically the sky, since the sky is… weird.

Instead of a sun and stars, all I find are strange lights growing brighter and dimmer all over.

After several seconds of staring at the stars, I lower my gaze back down to my immediate surroundings.

We seem to have been placed in a rather large and wide open area, with more than a few grand-looking decorations scattered everywhere. There are five different stadiums, each standing at a height that must be over a thousand meters tall, and each a different color.

The center stadium is a red and blue color, similar to the one that shone when we were teleported, meanwhile the other stadiums are black, gray, green, and purple. And there is a path moving through various gardens heading to the entrances of each stadium.

“Please follow me, Your Highnesses,” I hear a voice, bringing my attention directly in front of me, where I find some sort of see-through wisp of light in front of me.

I blink in confusion before tilting my head slightly.

“Follow them,” Tar says, snapping me out of my confusion. “That’s a fae without a contracted partner that’s outside of the Farshore. It’s what we look like outside of the Farshore without an artificial body.”

Oh. Interesting.

I look around for a moment, finding the other Guardians and contracted demons that are appearing all being confronted with a similar creature. So I turn around to face the fae again and immediately follow after the floating wisp.

We move through the path for a while until the fae leads us all into the stadium. And after we enter, the fae turns back to us – I think, since it’s hard to tell with a wisp – and says, “His Majesty wishes for you to remain here.”

“Do we need to form up into any specific order?” I hear one of the Class V Guardians from Earth ask, bringing my gaze to the man. One I don’t have much experience interacting with.

“No,” his own fae answers, following which all of the fae that were leading us begin to head out of the stadium.

Then some more people begin to trickle into the stadium along with us. And at least half of them I recognize.

There’s Leonidas, Amelia, the other Knights, Xyvandra, Satan, Damien, Vorgrim, and a bunch of Class V demons and humans. And the demons immediately turn their gazes towards me, with most of them bowing when they enter the stadium.

The humans on the other hand just give me a respectful nod, which seems to irritate the demons.

Leonidas walks up to me during this and places his hand on my shoulder with a smile on his face. Then he moves to join Amelia, taking her hand as a powerful life source appears in the air above us. One belonging to someone everyone here knows on instinct, even if many of the Class V Guardians have never met him in person.

Before I look up, I notice a couple of the Knights actually trembling in fear.

Oh, right. Gramps almost killed them with ease when they went to Tartarus a while back.

I raise my gaze to the sky where I find Gramps and King Oberon both floating in the sky.

“Hence forth, the Tournament to decide the next Fae King is officially opening!” Following Oberon’s words, flashes of light begin shining rapidly across the entire universe we’re on and quite possibly across Earth and Tartarus as well. “Welcome those fae and contractors here and beyond, for you will see a once in a lifetime event!”