The Grand Catastrophe

Chapter Two: To The Pit

It was an annoying thing, to simply wait for one’s betters in certain fields to act. Sure, it wasn’t too annoying having to wait for the old man to place the spells and remove any spells that weren’t supposed to be there.

Jircniv sighed as he looked over the building itself. It was the entrance to the colosseum. The colosseum itself was a large thing made of stone that his ancestors had made. Like all other colosseums, it was circular. Also, attached to the sides of the building were the entrances that looked much younger as they were much younger than the rest of the building.

He sighed a little in his mind. It was taking a while. After another beat or two, Fluder came out of the colosseum with a teleport spell.

“My Lord, The booth has been set up. We are free to go inside,” he said, and Jircniv nodded his head.

…

There he sat, his back up against the chair he sat in. The room itself was simple. The walls were painted red, while the seats themselves were placed around a central table. Several more seats, like the one he was sitting in, were facing the arena where the fighters fought.

Jircniv leaned back in his chair. Fluder had checked the area for traps, and he had said all was well. The sun was still high in the sky, and he was rather. Relaxed as he watched the people below fight. There was just something about people beating the ever loving crud out of each other that was cool to watch.

Fluder sat behind him, watching the area for any threats. The old man had become just a tad bit more fanatic about magic since learning and meeting with the goddess. That, Jircniv thought, was normal. After all, she was the goddess of magic and calamity. Why wouldn’t he fawn over the very idea of her?

It was soon after that, the members of the theocracy came. There were six of them. Two newly minted sunlight folk as guards, and two of the cardinals dressed up as basic priests, as well as two bishops of the faith. Jircniv smirked as he saw them, and he spoke.

“You’re late,” he said lazily.

The cardinal didn’t respond, even as she sat down. Jircniv wiped the smirk from his face as he leaned forward. It was time to at least see what they wanted. Sure, he had guessed, they hadn’t actually asked him what they wanted, but he could tell.

“This place is a bit busy, too busy to discuss things of this nature,” one of the cardinals said as he looked over to the emperor.

“Well, the room is safe, Fluder made sure of that. The cheers of the people would drown out any sounds we make. Also, I heard last minute that the martial lord would be fighting today. He’s a rather busy man, don’t you know?” Jircniv said with a smile.

“He’s a War Troll, yes?” the man asked in response.

“That he is. Though, he’s been trust worthy the whole of the time he’s lived in my nation. After all, I wouldn’t let him live here if that wasn’t the case,” Jircniv responded.

“Do you think we could use him for what we need?” he asked in response, and Jircniv smirked.

“What, you aren’t above using non-humans for your purposes?” he asked, and the man scowled.

He was stopped when the cardinal woman, he forgot her name, by him, I mean the author. Her voice was grave. He wiped the smirk from his face as she spoke.

“This is what we wanted to discuss,” she said.

The cardinal herself grabbed a piece of paper from her pocket, then wrote something in it with a pen she had in her other pocket. Jircniv raised a brow, and read the thing after it was placed in his lap. As he was about to look at the thing, cheers rose from the people.

“Oh, I think the Martial Lord is going to show up. The announcer will probably want me up here,” he said half heartedly, as he walked up to the space to look down on the field though, his eyes caught something.

It was a flash. It was a flash of magic. Just a blip in his sight, but he saw it anyway. Now, as of recently he had taken the idea that he could fight the Goddess Momonga as a dream, a fairy tale. This was why. In an instant, she was there for no reason at all. Yet, before anyone could speak, the announcer spoke for them.

“Now, the fight you’ve all been waiting for. Our Martial Lord, who has come here to fight someone a fair number of you know. Lady Calvaria, Champion of Momonga!” the man said as the huge war troll strolled into the arena.

Jircniv blinked as he saw him. He looked excited, more so than any other time he had fought. His tall frame was protected by metal plates, and his club was held tightly in his hand.

On the other side of the field, was a woman in plain, gun metal grey, plate. Her two swords hung at her hips, and she seemed almost embarrassed by the attention on her. No, she was more tired than embarrassed.

He stopped, and looked back to the rest of the people in his booth. There, sitting in a chair made of some white and flimsy plastic, was the goddess his people had taken to. There sat Momonga.

It was a sudden thing. He didn’t even know she was visiting, even less so did he know that she knew about the plan to talk with the theocracy people. The six of them had stood up as soon as she got there. Their minds must have been as honed as possible, and as stretched thing as possible to realize that she was here so fast.

“Surprise,” she said, her tone genuine as could be, “I came here to show off something, Lord Jircniv. I hope you don’t mind.”

She then glanced at the standing people around her. Fluder seemed nonplussed, somehow. He likely could tell that she was here before she had teleported in somehow, or she had told him. Baziwood just seemed a bit shocked, yet he had gotten used to this kind of thing with Fluder.

“Oh, I didn’t even know you had company. I planned to speak about things one on one. If you have friends over I can leave?” she asked more than told him, her face still as blank as could be.

“No it’s fine. We were just leaving,” said the male cardinal.

“Truly? That’s sad, I was hoping to meet some of Jircniv’s friends,” she said while tapping her chin, and the six of them ran out of the space, “what rude people, not even telling me their names.”

…