Chapter 262: Chapter 261 – True Nature

When the fights of the day had concluded, Yuki was sent back to her assigned room. The lounge around her disappeared and she was standing in her cramped room once more. 

‘Well. Today was an interesting day,’ she thought.

There was a lot she needed to analyze and even more to plan. However, one thing was clear to her just from watching a few of the matches. At her current strength, she would have a very high chance of sustaining a serious injury or even die should she fight most of the people here. 

‘But how can I train?’ she wondered. 

She was trapped inside such a small room. There were books in the room that she could read that might help her with knowledge, but knowledge was useless if she couldn’t practice it. The knowledge was also limited. If what Jesse had told her was true, then she could need to get used to as many weapons as possible.

 ‘I need a wide open space. And weapons. Lots of weapons.’

While she pondered over her problems, she took out the extra tunic she had taken from the baths. She ripped it into long ribbons and slid the tunic she wore off. Then she wrapped her chest, just tight enough to hold them in place and prevent them from rubbing against her tunic when she moved.

‘There we go. It was getting annoying. But now what?’

An idea struck her. She had a place where she could practice. It was larger than any room and was always with her. She also had access to more knowledge than most people have in their entire life. All she needed to do was use it.

‘I can’t believe I forgot,’ she thought. 

After a quick trip to the toilet and using a small spell to sanitize herself, she heard a small knock at the door of her room. It must have been dinner. She crept towards the door and saw the tray of food on the ground. She picked it up and ate it silently as she tried to formulate a plan within her mind. 

‘I should talk to Sophie first. She might know things about my situation,’ she thought. ‘Then I’ll find some books and set up my training area. I’ll have to find a way to push myself as well.’

When she finished eating, she put the tray back on the floor in front of the door. It would disappear in a minute or two. Where? Yuki didn’t know.

She went to her bed and propped herself against the wall, using the lone pillow to give some support for her back. Then she shut her eyes and hoped that whatever spell was suppressing her magic didn’t affect this.

Her eyes opened and a sigh of relief escaped her lips as she looked around. A grassy expanse surrounded her save for a tree that her back leaned against. It looked exactly as she had seen it countless other times.

Raising a hand, she snapped her fingers and summoned a ball of fire. The glowing flames sprouted immediately. Yuki smiled, pleased at how easily her mana flowed now. Nothing disrupted it in the slightest.

‘This place,’ she thought as she looked around. ‘This was where I met Akira for the first time.’

A wave of sadness crashed down on her. Again, she wished Akira was here with her. She wanted to talk to her about what happened today. She wanted to hear what she had to say. 

‘I can’t think about that right now,’ she thought. ‘It’ll take a while before I can leave this place. And that’s assuming the Fiddler stays true to his fifty win promise.’

She went to her feet and summoned a wooden door that appeared right before her. When she opened the door, the familiar smell of paper and books hit her. She stepped through and entered the library created by her ancestors. Shelves filled with books towered over her. In front of her, a table stood with books and manuscripts piled on top of it. A head peeked out from the stacks of books. 

“Oh, Yuki,” Sophie greeted, pushing her chair back. She had a smile on her lips. “What brings you here? Need to do some research?”

“You can’t see what happens outside, can you?” Yuki asked.

“No. Why?” Sophie replied. She frowned. “Did something happen? Bad?”

“Yes. Let me catch you up really quick,” Yuki said, snapping her fingers to summon a chair.

She spent the next couple of minutes recounting the events of the past couple of days, starting from the battle with the hydra and the monsters up until the last few minutes. The whole time Sophie listened quietly, nodding her head up and down to show her understanding. 

“So. You seem to be in quite the pickle,” Sophie summarized when Yuki finished. 

“It’s a rather large pickle,” Yuki said.

“I’ve heard of this man,” Sophie said with a small frown. “The Fiddler. I’ve had a few conversations about him with some, let’s say, colleagues.”

“What do you know about him?”

“Not terribly much,” she shrugged. “He’s a man running an illegal battle arena that people can’t track down because of how he moves his arena and where his arena is.”

She waved her hand, and a packet of papers bound together appeared in the air. She handed it to Yuki.

“That’s what we know,” Sophie said. “It’s not much. Most of that is just speculation and witness accounts. Very few concrete details, but you can take a look through that if you want.”

“Where did you get this?” Yuki asked.

“From my memory. Don’t worry about inaccuracies. I have perfect memory,” Sophie smiled. “Sometimes my colleagues hate me for that.”

“I see.” Yuki flipped a few of the pages, glossing over the images, before setting it aside. “What concrete details do you know?”

“Well, the Fiddler is, or was, an angel. His black wings means that he’s fallen from the path of the archangels. Probably a murder or something to that degree. Something bad enough that Uriel herself would give up on an angel.”

“Uriel?” Yuki repeated. 

“Yes, not your little AI though,” Sophie laughed. “The archangel Uriel. The leader of the angels.”

“I see.”

“She’s quite kind. I’ve met her a few times. Had some tea with her. She makes a mean steak.”

“Tea with your steak?” 

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“Why not?” Sophie shrugged. “Anyway, we know that the Fiddler is a fallen angel. We don’t know his real name though. That’s been lost forever. Only he remembers it. Other than that, we do have some idea as to the type of magic he wields.”

“He has some powerful abilities,” Yuki said. “He can teleport people in the blink of an eye. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“Oh, that’s part of his magic,” Sophie replied. “Do you have a clue as to what it is?”

“No. Not really.”

“Well, think about this. How is it that he can keep such a large building hidden from other demons for so long?”

“Some sort of wide area spell that makes people not be able to see this place?” Yuki suggested. “Though, that would be a lot to maintain along with keeping the arena clean and teleporting people around.”

“It would be a lot, so that’s why that isn’t what he does,” Sophie said. “He also has to move around his base of operations, otherwise he would be found eventually. So let me tell you what he actually does.”

Sophie spread her hands apart and created a projection out of mana of a forest with a giant block in the middle of it.  

“Let’s say this block is the Fiddler’s Coliseum,” she said. “It’s big and requires a lot of maintenance. He works solo, so it’s not feasible for him to do all of that and keep the place hidden while also moving it around. Here’s his solution.”

A dome sprouted and enveloped the giant block. Then the block disappeared in the dome, leaving only the dome left to be seen.

“Now, that isn’t an invisibility spell,” Sophie said. “Are you familiar with domains?”

Memories of fights Yuki had been in flashed in her mind. She recalled the battle with Firestorm and how his spell had turned the room around her a fiery hell. One word she heard in his chant was “Domain”.

“Is it like putting a certain area under your control so you can change its properties, or something like that?” Yuki asked.

“Yes,” Sophie nodded. “Essentially. Area of effect spells have some of those properties intrinsically built into them. Domains are when someone declares a certain area theirs and makes it bend to their will. By imbuing certain properties in it, they can achieve various effects such as boosting their strength, magic, healing, and all that.”

“What does this have to do with Fiddler?” 

“You see, this dome indicates his domain,” Sophie said, waving vaguely at her projection. “The arena is his and he has control over it. He’s seem to have opted for a more of a control route than an effect route. What that means is that he basically made himself the god of that area at the trade off of not having any other beneficial effects. So he’s about as strong in there as he would be outside, but he can manipulate what happens in there.”

“So he can move us around because we’re inside his domain?” Yuki asked.

“Yes. He can also suppress your magic because you’re in his domain. But all of this takes a lot of effort. Remember that.”

“And he can transport the entire Coliseum because it’s within his domain?” 

“The Coliseum is his domain. He can move it wherever he wants. The land under it doesn’t belong to him.”

“I see. Then how would I be able to break out?”

“Three options,” Sophie said. “One. He releases you and you don’t need to break out. Two. You kill him and his domain falls. Three. You hijack his domain.”

“I don’t like those choices.”

“Me neither. But the easiest of those would be the first. Get to fifty wins,” Sophie said. “Then he might let you go. It’s not a guarantee though.”

“And it’s not a guarantee that I can even get that many victories in a row,” Yuki sighed. “That reminds about the other reason why I’m here. I need to get stronger.”

“Then I’m happy to help,” Sophie smiled. “I can recommend books for your growth. There is a vast amount of knowledge here that I haven’t even looked into yet.”

“I’ll take that help gladly. But there’s something else. It’s important.”

Sophie raised an eyebrow and gestured for Yuki to continue.

“I need to know my history,” Yuki said, her voice soft, but firm. “You’ve been in here for so long. You must know a thing or two. You’re a demon as well. An important one. Do you know what I am?”

Sophie stayed quiet and stared at Yuki with careful eyes. Eyes that began to flash as she continued to stare. A shiver went down Yuki’s back. It felt as if Sophie was looking at more than just her body. 

“I see. You’ve become aware of something within you, haven’t you?” Sophie whispered. “You’ve almost awakened. But not yet. So close. So so close.”

Yuki frowned.

“What are you looking at?” she asked.

“You, hatchling,” Sophie replied, a soft growl in the back of her words. “Your wings are starting to form. You’re not there yet though. Oh my.”

Her eyes widened as her hand jumped to her mouth.

“I see. It’s all coming together now,” she mumbled. “Everything. They always wondered where it went. And now she’s standing right here.”

“What do you mean? What am I?” Yuki said, exasperated. None of this was making sense to her.

“You already know what you are. You’re like me,” Sophie smiled, her sharp canines showing as her pupils became slits. “A dragon, my child. You’re a dragon.”

 

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