Throughout the area, the crowd starts staring around at all those who have been pushed down by the force of the crowd, and holding their hands, they lift them up. From up high, Orb starts pointing and says, "One is over there; there is another child over there."
He soon jumps down and starts running around, and Gurmand lets out a laugh and says, "What a strong young man." Turning his head to the ministers, he says, "Look around at the love your people have for each other, and stop taking for granted how much trust and faith they are putting in you. Stop squandering it, you fools."
Dragoste turns to the other ministers and says, "You're all too trigger-happy, don't try to do things like this in public."
Veekeeris says, "How were we supposed to know the situation had gotten this bad? Weren't you supposed to be defusing it?"
"Yes, and that's why I know how delicate it is, so stop being fools and listen to me in my area of expertise, or else this country will burn to the ground before Radonitsa is over."
Dragoste starts to walk away, and the guards quickly apprehend Benas. The burials soon continue once everyone stands up again, and together they all bury the remains of all those who are still left, shedding tears with each one placed into the ground.
And as it ends, and everyone excuses themselves, Orb and everyone else head over to Suzuka and Cyrus outside the compound, and rubbing her head, he says, "You did well today."
With uncharacteristically weak arms, she sticks her thumb upwards and says, "Thank you," with a smile.
Avram quickly claps his hands and says, "You have all been rather well behaved today, so I got us these in advance!"
Avram holds out tickets in front of everyone, and Ivana starts to jump for joy, as Orb asks, "What are those?"
"Of course, their tickets to the one and only cursed chess tournament of Blestemate, one of our country's greatest and most competitive sports."
Willow and Maple sigh as Iancu and Elia's faces light up. Willow then says, "Isn't chess that boring game that Orb tries to get us to play?"
Orb says, "It's an intellectual game that allows you to test your strategic mind against others. It's a whole lot of fun, if you would bother to take it seriously."
Willow picks his nose, as Orb talks, then Avram smiles and says, "This isn't your normal man's chess, this is cursed chess, and I can assure you it's a whole lot more fun than you can imagine."
Cyrus says, "Bu-ut will Suzuka be ok?"
Elia says, "Don't worry, I already thought about this beforehand."
"You read my mind."
"I just know you're someone who likes to take care of the kids around him."
Gheorghe says, "Avram is a nice person."
"Don't make me fire you! Now, everyone, let's go forward to the stadium."
-Break-
Location: Saint Ludovic Stadium
Hanging in the sky on one of the many aerial platforms formed from the bones of balaur over Blestemate hangs a giant stadium capable of fitting in 10% of the people of Căderea-dracului at any one time.
Within it, crowds of people sit, and in the middle of the field, a group of nightmares walk out with giant vehicles coming in behind them. And as they all sat in the stadium, Orb, Elia, Abbán, Cyrus, Dumnorix, Iancu, Ivana, Gheorghe, and Avram look upon the sights around them with excitement and wonder.
Across all of their bodies are a series of trinkets, and plastered on Ivana's face is intricate face paint that even incorporates her hair in the painting. "This place is rather big, isn't it?"
Ivana says, "It was a huge budgetary expense, but due to how invested the average citizen is in the games, almost everyone agreed that we need a bigger field for it."
Elia, staring at it, says, "This truly is a beauty."
Ivana, jumping up, says, "Isn't it! Its construction equally distributes sound, no matter how far or up close you are, making even back row seats feel as intense as front row seats for everybody. The intensity is crazy."
"You look overly enthusiastic about thi-."
"SHUT UP, THE MATCH IS STARTING!"
On the field, a large bell rings through the area, and the two teams of 7 players on opposite sides of the field face each other as a ball falls from the sky.
Soon, one of the players on a team wearing the colours of the cursed sea region rushes forward and catches it, then each member of the person team charges forward as the other team wearing the cursed heart region's colours charge forth towards the ball at the same time. Behind them, both of the giant vehicles that are shaped like giant munchers with mechanical legs, stubby legs that rush around the battlefield with giant closed mouths, and as they open their mouths, a series of giant chess pieces lie inside their cuboid bodies.
As the player with the ball rushes forward, he continues to bounce the ball off the ground repeatedly and a series of the players on the other team release their cursed at him with full force, and he charges through all of them, before jumping up and throwing the ball at full force right towards the mouth of the vehicle, and it moves past the player inside and smashes one of the pieces down.
The crowd and Ivana jump up and shout, "A PAWN!"
Orb confused, looks around, and says, "What's going on!"
Ivana says, "Their playing cursed chess!"
"I know that, but what are the rules! Besides, this game barely even makes sense."
Ivana sitting down says, "You see a long time ago some kids in Blestemate where playing chess, but one of their curses gave them an unfair advantages, so they added a new rule to make it more fair, but then as the kids kept playing together and more and more curses become involved in the game, they kept adding more rules to catch in everyone abilities more and more, eventually the game kinda kept evolving until it became this. Essentially, now the game requires to teams of 7 using pre-built vehicles that hold giant chess pieces, and using a ball, you must strike down as many pieces as you want as possible. After 45 minutes, both teams then play chess with one another, and you only get as many pieces as ones that you have still remaining inside your vehicle. All curses are allowed to be used as well."
"Wouldn't that mean taking down the king is an automatic victory?"
"Exactly, so it's the most protected piece in the field! And most of the game is about keeping it protected along with your most important pieces. It's a game that requires both strategy and stamina, it's a wonderful sport that has pushed each of the nightmare within this country to their utmost limits to play even when they were younger!"
Ivana, popping with excitement, starts to shake her hands, fists rapidly in excitement, and feeling the pressure coming off of her, Abbán says, "You seem rather fond of chess?"
Avram says, "Ivana wanted to be a pla-." She uses her curse and wraps her elongated hair around Avram's mouth before punching him in the kidney.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!"
Elia, smiling at her with a sinister smile, says, "How adorable you are."
Feeling chills behind her back, Ivana quickly moves behind Orb, and Elia, continuing to stare, says, "Is there something wrong?"
As she stares behind Orb, he rubs her head and says, "I know the evil-eyed demon is scary, but don't worry, I will protect you."
Cyrus, twiddling his finger, says, "Isn't this sport da-angerous? People co-ould get hurt?"
Ivana, popping past Orb with excitement, says, "You are right about that, and to counter this issue, we have requested the help of Bendición."
Ivana points her head into the distance, and there on the sidelines of the field, a series of people in white gowns with green markings throughout them stand.
"Are those humans?"
"No, they're anathemized like Iancu, half breeds. They heal from a clan in Molstoria, which has the only healing curse known to man, and they use their abilities to become private healers all across the world. For Radonitsa, they always send a series of their healers here to make sure everyone is ok in the case of an emergency."
Dumnorix says, "What a pity, a more head-to-head battle with your life on the line would be more exciting."
Abbán smashes Dumnorix on the head, and Ivana says, "It is already exciting, especially when my favourite team is playing life today. Right down there is the Knightmares."
As the players cover in the cursed land's regions, colours break through the battlefield, Ivana says, "They are the reigning champions and my favourite team in the entire sport. First, we have the leader Mõõk, the key and probably the greatest forward in the entire history of the game. His curse allows him to increase the effectiveness of any weapon he touches, making the ball a cannonball when thrown by his arms.
Then we move onto Ikaras, the flying death from above, a curse which manifests mainly as blade wings on his back can dice up even the strongest of shields, while allowing him to soar right through the air, breaking the very need for his legs. Next would be the heavy twins, Pumnpiatră and Pumnflacără, the two twin giants of the Knightmares. Pumnpiatră has a curse that merges its flesh with stone, allowing it to become a sturdy defensive wall against opponents' forwards, while Pumnflacără has the ability to manifest magma in response to the amount of food it eats, allowing for immensely destructive attacks against its enemies as well as long-range combat.
Next, we have Spīdogaisma, the masked hero of the Knightmares. He holds the ability to make the way light moves onto his body, allowing him to create a series of optical illusions and bright flashes on the battlefield, turning him into the master of deception and trickery. His abilities tend to become far more important as the match goes on and the player gets more tired. But in co-operation with him the we have the Traucētājs, a giant plant nightmare whose curse allows him, for a short period of time, to reduce the efficiency of another person's body, which for nightmares, means he reduces the abilities of their curses. An ability that allows the trickery set in by Spīdogaisma to become even more effective, granting them an even easier victory than before.
But finally, keeping the team safe and pieces secure, it's their legendary goalkeeper, Audra. He has a curse that allows him to produce wind, and using that, he blows away any harm coming for the pieces, while also being able to forcefully shift them around using his wind, yet in the final stages of the game, he also joins the field and helps with the attacks. Offence, defence and agility lie within him, making him the greatest source of offence on the team. Together as one, the 7 of them make up the core team of the Knightmares, and they stand-,"
Throughout the arena, screams join Ivana as she shouts, "TILL THE BEASTS FALL!"
Orb smiles at her excitement and then says, "I hope Suzuka enjoys this as much as the rest of us."
Location: Balaur rib cage above Saint Ludovic Stadium.
ΦWith a pair of disfigured glasses on her face, Suzuka hands on a small bone platform with Maple, Willow and Wadim, then says, "The match is really heating up! This is so exciting!"
Willow, with a pair on as well, says, "These glasses are really powerful, allowing us to match even Maple's enhanced sight."
Turning to Wadim, sitting looking up at the sky, Maple says, "Thank you for creating these."
"No problem, but you should thank Elia instead. She requested I make them just in cas-,"
Suzuka jump up into the air, and then shouts, "ROOK!" and the three around her attention falls on her as they smile at the excitement plastered on her face.