Nicola felt the weight of the silence pressing on his chest. His uncle's words cut deep, and for a brief moment, he felt completely overwhelmed by the burden of the past. But before the lump in his throat could choke him, he felt a warm, firm pressure around his hand. Lyn squeezed his fingers tightly. On his other side, he felt a smaller hand. Miki slid her fingers between his and squeezed softly, a silent gesture of it's going to be okay.
Nicola looked up and surveyed the space of the hall. Silarias looked straight at him and gave him a short, encouraging wave with his hand. Even Vulkan, who usually maintained a stoic and distant look, gave him a quick thumbs-up.
A shudder of relief passed through Nicola. He was not alone. He didn't have to carry this by himself.
He cleared his throat, straightened his back, and broke the charged silence. "So that Tryfest… Uh, ehm… The Tryfest is a competition between all kinds of factions. For orientation, but also to celebrate that our existence once began. That's the reason all those Alliances gather."
Leonardo began walking back and forth thoughtfully in the hall, his footsteps rhythmic on the stone floor.
Nicola looked his uncle straight in the eye. Leonardo stopped pacing, looked intently at Nicola, and spoke in a serious, warm voice: "I will come back to this later. You deserve that. But for now…" He addressed the whole group. "So you're saying it's an orientation competition… Anyone got ideas?"
Jane and Aurelius looked at each other and began speaking almost simultaneously. "Ehh, we have the feeling this is also to measure strength… From the way they act."
Leonardo burst into a short laugh. "Yeah, could be."
Before he could speak further, Ren suddenly jumped straight up. "What if, what if, huh! Like with that Gunslinger on my crystal screen! That secretly the bad guys are forging things!"
Leonardo cut his sentence short immediately. He stopped pacing and looked sharply at Nicola. This was the razor focus he wanted to hear.
Nicola turned around to Ren, walked over to him, and crouched down at eye level. "Ehhh, Ren… Explain. Why do you think that?"
Ren saw that everyone was suddenly staring at him. He turned bright red and began to blush heavily. Miki rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion and let out a deep sigh, as if this were the hundredth time he came up with his stories.
But Ren wouldn't let himself be stopped. With beaming eyes, he produced his crystal screen and began gesturing frantically. "Well, on there, the bad people are forging things in a place where nobody sees it! But those Gunslingers have eyes everywhere, so they are always one step ahead. And so then came a tournament for the Cursed Grail between the good guys, and those bad guys secretly joined in!"
Nicola looked up from the little screen and stared fixedly at Leonardo.
Leonardo nodded slowly. "Ren… You might just be right." He turned his head toward Silarias. "Remember, back with the Ciphers… That…"
In the back of the hall, heavy, slow clapping suddenly echoed. A slow clap.
The air distorted with a light ripple. Kamelo dropped his camouflage and came walking forward with a grin, with Athena directly at his side. They had approached because they already heard the group in the hall, and Athena needed them either way.
"So you figured it out too," Athena spoke with a cool, confident voice.
The whole class rallied instantly. The fatigue evaporated in a single blow, and everyone rushed up to Athena, wildly hyped.
"So… Was this the Order of the Unnamed King?!" someone called out.
"Athena! Long time no see!"
"Wait a second, how long have you been standing there?!"
Athena looked at the rowdy crowd and smiled faintly. "Long enough. Long enough to notice that these two little humans are smarter than a quarter of this entire university." She poked Miki and Ren playfully in their sides.
The two little ones shrank back timidly at first, a bit intimidated by her majestic presence, but when they saw her friendly look, their faces brightened completely.
Athena walked with Kamelo over to Leonardo and extended her hand. "I am Athena of the Cipher Guild, and this is Kamelo of the Chameleon Alliance."
Leonardo inspected the pair with a critical, sharp gaze and shook their hands. After a brief silence, he burst out laughing. "So little lady and gentleman… You're Apollo's sister then, huh? How wonderful that you're coming to take a look."
Athena responded, true to who she was, remarkably friendly and charming, and Kamelo also nodded courteously. Until Kamelo's gaze fell upon Miki and Ren.
The two little ones froze stiff with fear. What kind of creature was this? They had truly never seen anyone like him before. They looked at each other and quietly summoned their courage. "Come on Ren… How bad could it really be…"
Kamelo stepped forward and stood very seriously right in front of their faces. Miki and Ren held their breath.
Suddenly, Kamelo began moving his eyes independently, exactly like a real chameleon. He leaned in between them. "So, my little buddies… See that bird up high in the sky?"
Miki and Ren looked up, bewildered. "Ehh… Yeah, that one up high?"
Before they knew it, Kamelo's long, sticky tongue shot out of his mouth at a bizarre speed. The tongue stuck fast to the high stone arch. With a wild jerk, Kamelo pulled himself up to the wall, stuck to the stone, ran up the wall, launched off with a perfect flip, and shot the bird out of the air mid-air with his tongue. He wrapped it up in a controlled manner, shot back down, and landed on the ground with a light thud. He stood upright, chest out, utterly proud.
Miki and Ren went completely wild. Happy and insanely hyped, they ran up to him.
"Again! Again!" Miki shouted. "Ehh, there! You got a rock!"
"No no!" Ren called through it. "That Griffin in the sky over there!"
"You're like a hero!" Miki shouted. "Ehhh… mmm…"
The two little ones began pacing back and forth excitedly together, thinking of a name.
"Hmm… TONGUE SLINGER!" Ren called out, after which he immediately jumped into an exaggerated combat stance.
"No no! Ehhh… mmm… CAMELONATOR!" Miki yelled, while holding her hands like claws and pretending to be a dangerous monster.
They looked at each other and burst into roaring laughter.
Kamelo turned his head half a turn and looked questioningly at Silarias. What is the deal with these two?
Silarias burst out laughing and gestured back with a chuckle that he should just ignore them.
Meanwhile, Apollo stepped up to his sister. "Sister… It shouldn't be that…"
Athena burst out laughing. "Yeah, yeah, I miss you very much too, little Polo, hahaha!" She pinched his cheeks firmly, but broke the joke right after with a serious look. "No." She turned around and pointed straight at Ren. "Young warrior, I don't know where you picked up that way of thinking… But keep it up."
Ren saluted instantly like a trained soldier. "YES, OF COURSE MA'AM!"
Leonardo burst out laughing, but his face quickly turned grave again. "Athena, take a seat."
Together, they left the hall and walked into the domain of the Goated Outcasts for the first time. Athena and Kamelo remained at the entrance with their mouths open.
Kamelo nudged Athena. "Remember… These rubble stones, what a…"
Athena interrupted him mid-sentence. "Hell broke loose here. And you turned it into a sanctuary…"
Leonardo looked at Kaelid with a smile. "So sir… Are you going to tell us how you pulled this off?"
Kaelid burst out laughing and scratched behind his ear. "Ehh, yeah, actually it was… Eh, nothing…"
He was cut off immediately by Silarias, who began coughing in an exaggeratedly loud way. "MODEST!"
Beat and the rest of the class immediately began coughing in unison with the same silly nonsense.
Kaelid went completely red with laughter now. "Yeah, you guys too… Well, I made this together with Lila. We really gave it our all."
As they walked through the domain, a mechanical click suddenly sounded. Ponich was activated by the sound of voices and came sliding over quickly.
"Oohh! Welcome masters… Guests?!" Ponich called out in surprise.
Silarias glanced back briefly, made a short, respectful bow, and said: "Good evening Ponich… Preparing food would be great."
Ponich flipped his mask on the spot from yellow to happy blue. "Always food, right, masters… But well, children need to grow!" And he immediately got to work.
Kamelo glanced briefly at the creature, whereupon Silarias explained quickly: "That is Ponich. He views himself as a servant… But he is truly a massive asset. He helps out so much here. He is really someone the Goats simply couldn't do without."
Ponich caught the words in the background. From shock and emotion, he dropped a few of his spare masks from his hands, which went rattling across the floor.
Then, the entire group walked toward the hidden passage behind the rock wall and descended the long spiral staircase down below.
Down below, they arrived in the colossal space that resembled a sunken amphitheater deep underground. The floor floated on a bed of living, gold-green moss and luminous ferns. Waterfalls cascaded down the walls into crystal-clear basins, and ancient trees with purple leaves rooted in the stone while thousands of golden fireflies moved through the branches like a river of light. In the center of the space, around a deep ravine filled with spiraling sky-blue and gold magical fire, stood the massive round table of high-gloss pitch-black obsidian featuring pulsing silver runes and heavy rock benches lined with black hides.
Kamelo walked down the spiral staircase, looked around, and froze. "WHAT IS THIS…"
He began thinking deeply, and his pupils transformed into golden coins. "I… Eh, Kaelid… Your art… Your art can be shared! You could even get serious money for it!"
Kaelid became modest again. "Nah man, it's not that big a deal…"
"Yes really!" Kamelo insisted. "It'll easily bring you 1000 golden coins an hour! And because you're the only one who can do this, you can even ask double!"
Kaelid began to laugh. "Phew… Eh, if you put it that way… But wait a second. What do you want out of this?"
Kamelo burst into laughter. "I do this purely out of honor! And… So that you might put in a good word for me with Mr. and Mrs. Legend." He winked blatantly toward Silarias and Nyx.
Kaelid got the picture. This guy just wants approval from Silarias and Nyx… What an odd bird.
Everyone found a spot on the heavy benches around the obsidian table. Athena and Kamelo took their places near the center of the table. They were about to explain everything to the entire class and reveal what was truly going on.
Athena cleared her throat, after which the deep quiet returned to the amphitheater room. The blue and golden fire in the ravine reflected off the mirror-smooth obsidian of the table.
"We came to the Goats for the reason you just figured out," Athena began with a firm, serious look. "As you already know, we have our eyes set on Thung Zu University. There are a few things you simply do not know about the tournament yet. It seems there is some kind of intermediate method, and they are going to enter the tournament."
She paused for a moment and looked around the circle. "Don't worry about all the noise. Everyone is driving each other crazy with stories that it's in a few days and that kind of nonsense. No. The exact time is in precisely two and a half weeks. What you don't know, but what also escapes so many people at this university, is that two additional groups will participate. One group is the fallen alliance, the Monkeys. And there is another group of theirs there. And in response, the university will also deploy their secret weapon."
Silarias looked at her intently and furrowed his brows. "Wait… Which secret weapon?"
Athena shook her head. "Not which, but who. Thung Zu has an elite group of students, and they are prepared to do anything. They are led by an absolute powerhouse. Human, demon… Nobody knows for sure. It has everything it needs to destroy. It can create black flames, teleport through them, it has a burning face, and it can fight like a monster. Just so you know."
The words hung heavy in the air. An icy silence fell over the entire class around the black obsidian table.
Kamelo stepped forward and leaned his hands on the stone. "And that's not all." He turned his head and looked Zax and Bonk straight in the eye. "Your brother is coming too."
Zax and Bonk looked at each other abruptly. Zax let his shoulders sag and looked at the floor. "It's probably going to hurt to see him again…"
Before he could finish his sentence, Bonk's demeanor changed instantly. His muscles tensed, and his features began to distort as he half-transformed into his hybrid beast form. His eyes gleamed fiercely.
"OH YEAH, OUR BROTHER!" Bonk growled in a raw, heavy voice. "Can't wait to see him!"
Everyone around the table looked at Bonk with wide, astonished eyes.
Bonk noticed the stares, turned around to Zax, and shrugged. "No, what? We beat him up completely. It's an embarrassment to be his brother."
Zax looked at him, laughed briefly, and patted Bonk firmly on his back, after which the hybrid features slowly receded again and Bonk calmed down.
Athena and Kamelo looked around the circle, as the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.