The temperature seemed to drop several degrees, and even the magical lighting flickered as if responding to some primal darkness.
"Friends," Kira repeated, and this time when she spoke, her voice carried a tone that made the audience unconsciously lean back in their seats. It was cold, empty, and filled with something that went beyond mere contempt. "You speak of friends as if they matter. As if they're anything more than temporary distractions before the inevitable betrayal."
The broken mask fell away entirely, revealing the face beneath. Kira was younger than anyone had expected, perhaps nineteen or twenty, with pale skin that seemed to have never seen sunlight. Her dark purple hair was shorter than Hanan's, cut in sharp, asymmetrical lines that framed features that might have been beautiful if not for the absolute emptiness in her purple eyes.
But it was her smile that made Krad's blood run cold.
"You really believe in friendship, don't you?" Kira laughed, and the sound was like breaking glass. "How wonderfully naive. How perfectly, disgustingly human."
"Hey now," Krad said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "There's nothing wrong with being human."
"Human," Kira spat, her spiritual pressure spiking so dramatically that several spectators in the front rows actually fainted. "The most worthless, selfish, destructive species to ever crawl across the face of this world. You want to know about friendship? Let me tell you about human friendship."
The shadows in the maze began to move independently, reaching out like grasping fingers. Kira's form flickered and multiplied, creating dozens of shadow doubles that surrounded Krad.
"I was eight years old," Kira continued, her voice coming from every shadow at once. "Eight years old when my human friends decided that playing with the weird demi-human girl wasn't fun anymore. Do you know what they did, Moon Fist? They tied me up and threw me in the old well behind the village. For fun."
The shadows began to coalesce, forming shapes that defied physics. Weapons materialized from pure darkness, swords, daggers, chains, all of them radiating an aura of malevolent intent.
"But you know what the funny thing is?" Kira's voice dropped to a whisper that somehow carried to every corner of the arena. "The thing that really, truly makes me laugh? Even after all of that, I still tried to make friends. I still believed that maybe, just maybe, there were good humans out there."
DING!
System Alert!
Enemy Spiritual Pressure: OVERWHELMING
Threat Level: Beyond Calculation
Recommended Action: Run. Now. Seriously.
"I can't run," Krad muttered, his Lunar Sense screaming warnings as Kira's true power began to manifest. "This is a tournament."
This isn't a tournament anymore! This is a massacre waiting to happen!
"And do you know what I learned?" Kira continued, her form becoming more solid as her power grew. "I learned that humans don't just betray you once. They do it again, and again, and again. Every time you let your guard down, every time you dare to hope, they find new ways to disappoint you."
She raised her hand, and the shadow weapons began to orbit around her like a deadly constellation. "The mercenary company that took me in? They sold me to slavers for thirty gold pieces. The slaves who shared my cell? They gave me poisoned food to curry favor with the guards. The rebellion that freed me? They used me as bait to distract the guards while they escaped."
"But that doesn't mean everyone---" Krad started.
"EVERYONE!" Kira's shout shook the entire coliseum. "Everyone is the same! Humans, Orc, Goblin, elves, dwarves, even other demi-humans! They all want something from you, and the moment you're no longer useful, they throw you away like garbage!"
The shadow weapons launched themselves at Krad from every direction. He dodged desperately, his enhanced reflexes pushed to their absolute limit. Even with his Lunar Sense, there were too many attacks coming from too many angles.
"I trained for years," Kira said conversationally, as if she wasn't currently trying to kill him. "I learned every form of combat magic, every technique for manipulating shadows and darkness. I became the perfect weapon, the perfect predator. And do you know why?"
A shadow blade sliced across Krad's cheek, drawing blood. He rolled away from three more attacks, his heart pounding.
"Because I decided that if the world was going to treat me like a monster, then I would become one. If everyone was going to betray me eventually, then I would betray them first. If friendship was a lie, then I would become the enemy of everyone who still believed in it."
"That's not---" Krad gasped, narrowly avoiding a chain that would have wrapped around his throat. "That's not how friendship works!"
"Isn't it?" Kira appeared directly in front of him, moving faster than his eyes could follow. Her fist, wreathed in shadow magic, slammed into his stomach and sent him flying across the arena. "Tell me, Moon Fist, where are your friends now? Where are these people you're fighting for?"
Krad struggled to his feet, tasting blood. "They're watching. They're cheering for me. They believe in me."
"They're using you," Kira corrected, her voice gentle now, almost kind. "They're letting you fight their battles while they sit safely in the stands. When you lose, and you will lose, they'll find someone else to throw into the meat grinder. That's what humans do. They use people until they break."
"You're wrong," Krad said, wiping blood from his mouth. "My friends aren't like that. Captain Mist trained me. Ragnar showed me how to be stronger, Drugo is annoying, Miss Vice is beautiful, Hanan is caring. Even Queen Hania---"
"Queen Hania?" Kira's eyes widened with genuine surprise. "You mean the Cursed Queen? The one who's been enslaving people for fifteen years?"
"She was cursed herself," Krad protested. "She didn't choose to do those things. When I broke the curse, she was horrified by what she had been forced to do."
"How convenient," Kira said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "A curse that makes her do terrible things, but somehow leaves her innocent. Tell me, if you hadn't broken this curse, how long would she have continued hurting people? How many more would have suffered while she claimed to be a victim?"
The question hit Krad like a physical blow. He had never really thought about it in those terms.
"See?" Kira smiled again, that terrible empty smile. "You're starting to understand. Everyone has an excuse. Everyone has a reason why their betrayal doesn't count, why their cruelty isn't their fault. But the pain they cause is real regardless of their intentions."
She began to advance on him, her shadow weapons reforming around her. "I'm going to do you a favor, Moon Fist. I'm going to end this quickly. Because you seem like a decent person, and decent people suffer the most when they finally realize that decency is just another word for weakness."
"I don't believe that," Krad said, struggling to his feet again. "I refuse to believe that."
"Then you're going to die believing in a lie," Kira said matter-of-factly. "Shadow Requiem."