13 Place To Stay

Solis flew over Cadiz, as Ad led their group, and examined the crowd of people that had formed. The masses started to scream when the wyverns flew over them. Some were trampled, battered, and tossed as hysteria caused the crowd of people to flee. Solis and the others had to ignore the cries and screams of the people and keep flying if they wanted to avoid being caught by them.

"Solis, we can't keep up this game of cat and mouse forever. I don't know how they found us without the help of our brethren, but we need a place that can hide us," Tenacity said as they flew.

"Alright, I'll try and think of a place."

They flew for a few more minutes while Solis thought about a place they could use as their hideout. After he sifted through multiple possibilities, he thought of one they could try.

"I don't know if it'll work but we can try and hide on Oculi Nebul," he suggested.

"There? How would that work?" asked Kalamati.

"My mother and father are there, their bodies at least, and I think their lingering scent might hide our own."

"Your parents are there?!"

"Yeah, Kalamati, it's where I buried them but that's beside the point. We'll fly there and see if my hunch is right."

From up ahead, Ad asked, "But didn't those amphiteres find us, Solis?"

"Yeah, but it might've just been because they saw us."

Ad nodded as he understood what Solis was saying.

"Let me take the lead, I'll take us back to Oculi Nebul."

Solis sped up and overtook Ad as he led their group. Once he saw a familiar structure, he took a sharp left and sped up. They flew low as their wingtips grazed the surface of the ocean and sent up mists of water; about halfway from Oculi Nebul, Elise had woken up from her short comatose. Once they reached the island, Solis let down Elise, gently, as he and the others landed.

"It's been a while since I've set foot here," Kalamati said as she landed.

Solis turned to them and said, "Now that we're here, we'll spend a day of rest here. If we aren't found within those twenty-four hours, then this is where we'll stay."

Once Solis told them what their plan was, they all split up and relaxed. Ad, along with Muun, jumped up onto a palm tree and laid back, Fera walked into the jungle to who knows where, Tenacity and Lunis stayed on the beach but sat down in some shade. Elise and Solis were the only ones left standing but this didn't last long when Solis started walking toward the jungle.

"Hey! Solis, wait up!" Shouted Elise.

Solis turned around for a second and allowed her to catch up before he went into the jungle. As they walked in silence, they hopped over massive roots, traversed crowded areas of trees, and followed windy paths. There was one root in particular that Elise couldn't get over and tripped. Solis reacted fast and caught her before she hit her head on a tree.

"Elise, we'll take a break here. You don't seem to be fully recovered yet."

"I-I'm fine, Solis, we can keep moving."

Elise pushed off from Solis and stood back.

"If you won't rest then I'll do it for you."

Solis sat on the very root Elise tripped over and stared at her. She stared back but couldn't handle the pressure.

"Fine, I'll sit down."

She sat down next to Solis and let her legs relax.

"Where were we going anyway?" Elise asked.

"I was going to see if a certain ruin was still standing."

"A ruin? What for?"

"I wanted that to be the place where we could live, for now at least, but let's just rest here in the meantime."

Not long after, Solis realized he had a few things he wanted to ask Elise.

"Elise, did the man, you fought against, give you his name?"

"Yeah, he did, he said his name was 'Brava.'"

Solis thought about the name but came up short. He had never heard the name but he needed to ask her an important question.

"Did he give you a family name?"

"Y-yeah, I think it was something like Supi...Supir...Sputi..."

Elise had a little trouble remembering his family name but Solis knew exactly what it was.

"Elise. Was it...Superitor?"

Elise looked up at him with excited eyes.

"Yeah! That was it!"

Solis had a very serious look on his face as he watched Elise's light up.

"Is he someone bad?" She asked.

"You've never heard of the Superitors? They're very infamous among my kin and were known for their extremely domineering tendencies. They were the only humans to ever, successfully, interfere with our policing duties."

"Woah, they were that strong?"

"They probably still are, maybe even stronger. If that's the case--"

"SOLIS!!!"

He was interrupted when he heard Tenacity shout his name.

"It seems my cousin needs me. Stay here, I'll be back shortly," he told Elise.

Solis jumped through the canopy of trees and disappeared from her sight. It didn't take him long until he found himself back on the beach and with Tenacity.

"What did you need, Tenacity?"

"I realized I needed to tell you something."

"Which is...?"

"The Wyverns are, or have been, working with the Superitors."

"The Wyverns?! How could you tell?"

"Well, for starters, they came in a pack and saved the Superitor. You and I both know how selfish they are and they wouldn't do it without a very strong reason to."

"That reason must be because they know we're coming..."

Solis looked at the sand and tried to revise his game plan. The fact that two pillars joined forces to hunt them down was a big problem for them. Solis wanted to take down the Wyverns first because they were the weakest, at least when compared to other Pillars, in terms of firepower, but they were not to be taken lightly. Their armadas could easily wipe out all the life on a continent.

The fact they teamed up with the Superitors was problematic because they were considered the second strongest, in terms of power, among the pillars. They were few in numbers, in fact, their forces only amounted to about 3,000 Sui, but all of them were very strong. One of their legions, which consisted of 100 of their Sui, had enough firepower to go toe-to-toe with the whole Wyvern armada.

"Thanks for telling me, Tenacity, I'll think about how we'll stop them in the meantime."

Solis turned to leave but Lunis stopped him.

"Solis, you'll be fine, right?"

He looked down at her and simply gave her a smile before he left. Lunis watched as Solis's back grew ever smaller.

"That smile didn't fool anyone, Tenacity, I can tell he's worried," she said in a low voice.

Lunis looked up at Tenacity who saw Solis off with a worried gaze.

"I know, Lunis, I know. But we just have to put our faith in him, there's a reason he was given the title 'Aurelios,' remember?"

"I remember, Tenacity, but I just can't help but feel it gets to him sometimes. Bearing the title of 'Aurelios' is a heavy burden for anyone."

They went silent as they stared at each other for a few minutes.

"You know what? Let's go see what Solis is up to."

Tenacity started walking with Lunis close behind him. He broke into a jog as the two of them entered the jungle. Back where Solis left Elise, he had walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Oh, you're back?" She said as she turned around.

"Yeah, now let's get going."

He put one leg over the other as he stepped over the roots she sat on. They listened to the sounds of life as they walked through the jungle. Elise couldn't tell how long they had been walking but the heat was getting to her so she asked Solis how much farther they had to go.

"Not much farther Elise, we're almost there."

Elise groaned but took Solis's word and kept walking. They kept walking when Solis took a sudden turn into a thicket of bushes. Elise got nervous at his sudden disappearance and chased after him. When she emerged on the other side, she was met with the sight of a titanic building.

It was in the shape of a colosseum but very old and decrepit. Some of the columns that supported this colosseum were cracked and some even had pieces of stone missing. From the very sight of this, it looked like it would crumble if someone simply blew on it. Elise continued to walk up to it but slowly started to realize its true size. From afar you could tell it was big but when you stood next to it, it made you feel insignificant. "How did I not see this before?" Elise wondered as she kept walking toward it. She passed through a giant arch, that signified the entrance of the arena, and was met with more weird structures.

She saw three colossal pillars, all varied in height, in the middle of the colosseum and Solis stood beneath them. As she kept walking, she looked at, where the stands would be, numerous giant platforms. Those platforms lined the inner ring of the arena and looked as if they were pedestals for gods to sit on. When she thought about it some more, Elise had an eerie feeling this colosseum was used for watching but she couldn't figure out what they would've watched.

As she walked up to Solis, she asked, "I'm assuming this is what you were looking for?"

"This is...this is exactly it," he said in a soft voice.

"What is this place anyway? I got goosebumps just walking through here."

"This place is where a hatchling comes of age."

"What?"

"This place is where everyone from my race had to earn their stripes."

"Then, what are these weird structures inside for?"

"These thrones," Solis pointed at the three columns in front of them, "were for whoever the Suns were at the time. The pedestals around us were for the others who had been invited to watch, which usually consisted of the celebrant's families."

"That's amazing. So, how was this 'coming of age' thing executed?"

A small smile appeared on Solis's face when Elise asked him that question and he, oddly, seemed excited.

"It was a lengthy event that lasted for a week. This was one of the most celebrated events among my kin and an event that all of the celebrants, which were four hatchlings of the same age, and their families looked forward to. The first six days served as preparation; the first half gave the celebrants the chance to train with the Suns, and the second half was for the celebrants to spar with each other. On the final day, the four of them would be led into this colosseum to finally fight one another. Their fight was broadcasted to the ones who didn't get the honor of being invited to watch personally. Among those four, it didn't actually matter who won because all of them would've been declared as a 'teenager.' But they fought anyway because they would've had the honor of claiming victory in the first major fight of their life. From that battle, whatever scar they had served as a trophy and proof of their maturation."

"Do you have your scars, Solis?"

"Of course I do."

He pulled up his shirt and showed the scars that Elise had seen before but he pointed to specific ones.

"These ones," he touched the ones on his abdomen and near his hip, " are some of my first. The one on my neck was also one I got from my fight."

"So that's how you got those. Then, from your fight, who won?"

"Me, of course! But my hatchmates put up an amazing fight! A fight I will never forget."

"Do you remember their names?"

Solis looked at Elise with sincere eyes.

"I would never forget, in fact, they became my best friends. Uma was the name of the only female in our group, Alde was the largest, and Denebola was our little runt but he still packed a punch."

After he said their names, Solis started to feel melancholic, which showed on his face. Elise noticed and tried to ask.

"Solis, are you okay?"

"I am. I just miss having them around."

An awkward silence fell over them and caused Elise to choke up. She tried to think of something to say to break the odd atmosphere but couldn't. Luckily, for her, two other people entered the colosseum as well.

"Oh my...I can't believe it's still here!"

Tenacity's voice echoed off the low walls of the colosseum. Lunis was beside him as well and was very surprised.

"I can't believe it...this really is Aetatem," Lunis said.

From across the floor, Tenacity shouted, "This is what you were looking for, Solis?! I didn't think it would still be standing for us to find it!"

Tenacity and Lunis walked up to Solis and surveyed the environment around them.

"I didn't think I'd ever be back here."

"Neither did I, Tenacity," Lunis agreed.

"I just got an idea, Tenacity, wanna hear it?"

"What is it?"

Tenacity turned to Solis.

"How old is Ad?" Solis asked.

"If I remember, he's a few thous--he's old enough for the Aetatem!"

"My thoughts exactly. I know he doesn't have his hatchmates with him anymore, but we should hold an Aetatem for him anyway. Besides, all of the current Suns are here anyway."

Elise and Lunis stood around while the two cousins talked about Ad's Aetatem. Elise leaned over to Lunis and whispered into her ear.

"You had a 'coming of age' event too right?"

With a smile on her face, she said, "Everyone has to have it, even the females. I'd never forget my Aetatem, it was a fun time for sure."

Solis split off from Tenacity and walked over to Elise and Lunis.

"Lunis, take Elise up into the stands. We're going to give Ad his Aetatem."

Lunis nodded and picked Elise up by her waist and jumped onto one of the pedestals. Tenacity and Solis took their spots on the columns in the middle.

"Solis, call Ad over here."

He nodded and closed his eyes as he called for his younger brother, along with the rest of his group. In no time at all, four other figures entered the colosseum.

"You called, Solis?" Ad asked as he walked through the arch.

"Woah, what is this place?"

Muun marveled at the gray walls as they walked along the arena.

"Kalamati, come join us," Solis beckoned.

"Wait, what for?"

Kalamati looked at Solis with a confused look.

"We're holding Ad's Aetatem and we need all three Suns for it. I assume you haven't forgotten tradition."

The look on her face changed when she realized what they were doing. Before she joined Tenacity and Solis, she looked at Ad and gave him a sly smile.

"Fera and Muun, please take a seat in the stands."

With a smile, Fera said, "Of course, Aurelios."

Muun didn't say anything and followed Muun up to the stands. Now that Ad was the only one in the arena, everyone else settled in.

"Sadly, brother, I cannot give you the most proper Aetatem, but I will make sure this is done well."

Ad nodded and knew what he had to do. He took a few steps back and bowed. It was a unique bow as he crossed his arms and touched his shoulder and then swung them out.

"I graciously accept this Aetatem, First Sun of the Arcanas."

With a smile, Solis looked down at his brother and returned the gesture.

"Adamant Arcana, I, the First Sun, welcome you to your Aetatem."

Tenacity walked over to the edge of his column and said, "Adamant Arcana, I, the Second Sun, am here to oversee your Aetatem."

Kalamati did the same and said, "Adamant Arcana, I, the Third Sun, wish you the best of luck in your Aetatem."

"Ad, for your Aetatem, Fera, Tenacity, and I will be your opponents. Since your hatchmates are not here with us, we will do it in their stead."

The rest of them spectated as the Arcanas leaped from their respective seats and out onto the arena. Muun was still very confused at what was happening and asked her sister.

"Lunis," she leaned over to her sister, "what are they doing and what exactly is an Aetatem?"

"I'll tell you all the details after, but for now, just watch because it'll be fun."

They retrained their eyes down back into the arena.

"Before we start, I'd like to say how unfair this is," Ad complained.

Fera laughed and asked, "Oh yeah? How so?"

"Because I have to face off against two Suns for my Aetatem duh."

This made the people around him laugh.

From her column, Kalamati said, "Celebrants...show us how sharp your fangs are!!"

Ad, without hesitation, slammed the ground. This sent up massive amounts of dust and clouded the vision of his sister. He quickly moved to her left and kicked her side. Fera flew across the arena and into Solis and crashed into the wall with a loud thud.

"Very good!" Shouted Tenacity.

He charged Ad, who threw a punch, but Tenacity ducked beneath it. He wrapped his arms around Ad's shoulder and tried slamming him into the ground. Ad thought quickly and wrapped his legs around Tenacity's waist and took his free arm and punched his side. This released Ad from his grip and he took the chance to jump away from Tenacity.

Once his toes touched the ground, Solis had appeared behind him and tripped him up. Ad fell on his face but quickly flipped onto his back. He saw his brother throw his punch but he stopped it when he kicked Solis in the chest. Solis flew back but grabbed Ad's ankle as he did and hoisted him up. Solis threw his brother into the walls of the arena and made a cloud of dust appear. Solis turned around and saw his cousin running toward him. The two of them grappled each other as their attacks clashed. Tenacity was about to punch Solis in the side but Fera reappeared and kicked him away.

She spun around Solis as he lurched forward for a punch and elbowed his side. Then, Fera put her leg behind Solis and pushed him over. As he fell, Fera lifted up her leg and brought it down on Solis. His head hit the ground but he redirected Fera's foot as he brought his hands up to block and let the foot bounce off his forearm. Solis kneed his sister's other leg and caused her to fall. He rolled away and got onto one knee and was prepared to leap away. At that point, Ad had recovered from being tossed into the wall and planted his foot into his brother's back. Ad pushed Solis down and then stabbed his knee into Solis.

Ad clasped both of his hands together and was going to pummel Solis's head into the ground. He stopped as he felt Tencity's presence flying toward him so he rolled off of Solis and let Tenacity miss. Tenacity rolled along the ground for a few seconds and then stood back up. Ad pursued Tenacity and then opened his mouth to form his energy ball.

"Oh, so you're the first to use it?" Tenacity thought to himself.

Ad came face to face with him and Tenacity expected Ad to fire. He was caught off-guard as Ad promptly closed his mouth and gut-punched him. Ad got himself steady as he let loose his sky-blue beam. The laser broke through the dust as it made contact with the wall and sent up even more dust clouds. Ad immediately stopped firing and rolled out of the way as a black laser broke through from the ground. Tenacity erupted from the ground as he looked around to where his little cousin escaped to. He was blown back again when Ad let out another beam, but at that point, Tenacity had already equipped his armor.

He was sent into the walls again but he hopped out quickly and fired back at Ad. Ad was hit, just barely, in the thigh, causing him to collapse. Tenacity jumped over to Ad but was intercepted by Fera. She jumped into Tenacity's abdomen, grabbed his waist, and then threw him at Ad. The two collided and Fera landed softly back down onto the ground. She walked over to where Tenacity and Ad had piled up and flipped over Tenacity's body. Both of them woke up and attacked Fera. Ad kicked at her but she caught his leg, while Tenacity aimed at her knee. She used Ad, like a golf club, and hit Tenacity away. She was intent on giving her younger brother his loss in his Aetatem and immediately cocked her fist back. Ad regained consciousness in time and caught his sister's fist. He gave it a quick twist and made her let go of him. Ad rolled and pushed off the ground and into Fera's chest. He stood over his sister with a triumphant look on his face.

"Concede now, Fera."

She looked up at Ad with an unrelenting glare.

"I'd rather die than accept a loss by your hands!"

Fera opened her mouth and shot off her red beam, barely missing Ad's nose. He somersaulted off of her chest and dashed away.

"HAH! You missed!"

Fera grew extremely mad and opened her mouth again. She fired a barrage of energy balls over where Ad was standing and Ad fired back as well. Some of their energy balls collided with one another and blew up. Even with the strength of the blasts, and all the throwing, the colosseum hadn't received any damage. While they were occupied with one another, Solis had regained his bearings and turned his head toward the commotion. He wasted no time and charged straight at his siblings, and it seems Tenacity had the same idea too. Solis opened his mouth and prepared to fire. After a few seconds, an explosive beam escaped from his mouth. Once again, Tenacity thought the same thing and had fired his beam as well.

From the pedestals and throne, Lunis and Kalamati said, ""Oh...that's not good.""

Black and gold came together to make a shimmering ball of demolition. The two forces battled with one another until they couldn't handle each other anymore and separated. The shockwave sent back all for contestants into the walls of the colosseum and caused the colosseum to quake. Ad was the first to stand back up and faced Kalamati.

With a beaming smile on her face, Kalamati shouted, "Adamant Arcana! With my grace, I award you the win for this Aetatem! Congratulations on besting the other celebrants in this glorious ceremony!"

Kalamati gave Ad the ceremonious bow, he returned the gesture and stepped off. As she approached him, he kept his head down until they were only a few inches apart. He looked up at Kalamati and waited for her to say the words he's always wanted to hear.

"You are now officially a Bellator...Adamant Arcana."

Ad stood erect and yelled, "Thank you for this opportunity, Third Sun!"

Now that all the formal jargon was out of the way, Kalamati gave Ad a sisterly hug and shed a few tears with him. As they stood in the middle, the other three combatants stood back up from their short naps.

"He's the one who got up first eh?" Wondered Tenacity.

"Hehe, I guess, but he deserves it. It wouldn't make sense for all of us to have won anyway, I mean, we're all Bellators already," boasted Solis.

"That's true, but next time I'll crush him," Fera told Solis and Tenacity.

The three of them walked over to Kalamati and hugged Ad as well. While they were celebrating Ad's victory, Elise had a few things to ask Lunis.

"Hey Lu--"

"Before you ask, let's go down first."

"Oh, uh okay."

Lunis, Muun, and Elise hopped off the pedestal. They walked along the colosseum and over to the rest of their group.

"So, how was the winner decided anyway? I couldn't understand that."

"You know when Solis and Tenacity's beams collided? The four of them were knocked unconscious, even if for a little bit. Of those four, Ad was the first to wake so he was declared the winner. From the beginning, the winner is determined to whichever combatant is still conscious because our race doesn't accept ties. It's either win or lose, no in-between."

"Ouch, those are really harsh words to live by," Elise said with a little laugh.

They continued to talk and as they neared Solis and the others, he had overheard one of her questions.

"How come the colosseum wasn't destroyed?"

"Because this place was made from the remains of our ancestors."

"Wha--?!"

"Everything you see here is made of them. We don't know the reason, but it is very durable."

"Then why doe sit look like it's all broken?"

"Just think of it as a decomposing body, otherwise, it's a pretty resilient arena."

Elise stood in amazement as she realized she was basically standing on a bunch of dead skeletons. Aside from the fact the colosseum was made of dead bodies, she congratulated Ad on his maturation.

"You're a Bellator now, Ad, congrats!!"

"Woah, you know what 'Bellator' means, Elise?"

"Yeah, I had Lunis tell me on our way over to you."

She smiled and rubbed his head in a friendly manner. He looked up at her and gave a thankful smile. From behind, Ad felt someone put a hand on his shoulder.

"Solis? What's the look for?"

Ad stared at his brother intently.

"Nothing...I just..."

Tears started rolling down his face and this worried his siblings.

"Solis!" Screamed Fera.

"Are you alright?!" Ad shouted.

"...Y-yeah. These are just tears of joy, Ad, nothing to worry too much about. I just wish that our parents were here to see how big you've become."

Ad looked at his older brother's teary-eyed face, which he never liked to see. So, as a means to cheer him up, he decided to give his brother a challenge.

"I'm sad that mother and father aren't here either but you shouldn't be crying. You have a title to live up to, Solis, and an example to set! If you're too incompetent I'd have no choice but to take your title of 'Aurelios' away from you."

Through his teary eyes, Solis looked at his brother with his puffed-out chest. He knew what Ad was saying and collected himself.

"Ahem, you're right, Adamant. I'll act properly from now on."

Solis looked back at his brother with a confident gaze.

"Also, don't get too cocky. Becoming the First Sun is still way out of your reach," Solis teased.

An hour later, after they celebrated Ad's victory, they went up into the stands and set up their temporary base. With Tenacity's brute strength, Fera's organization, and Solis's leadership, and everyone else's help, they made a decently sized house in a few hours. They used a multitude of trees around them to build a house big enough to comfortably fit 8 people. It consisted of two floors, with 4 rooms on the first and 3 on the bottom. Of course, since the house was made with wood, it had a brown exterior and interior. Solis and Tenacity had carved multiple spaces in the two floors to represent windows but kept them empty. To stop the eventual rain from getting into the house, they simply installed overhangs to cover the windows.

As the group admired their finished project, they went into each individual room and inspected the places they would be sleeping. For the upstairs rooms, all four rooms had one occupant in them. Fera was in one, Ad took another, Lunis had hers, and Kalamati as well. The bottom was where Tenacity, Solis, and Elise would stay, while Muun got to choose whoever she wanted to share a room with. Solis offered Muun a room of her own but she quickly declined and told him she would just share.

"Hey, Solis, is there anything we could put as a mattress for the beds? I'm not fond of waking up with my back hurting," complained Elise as she looked at her bed.

"Best I can think of right now is just a make-shift sack filled with sand. Would you like that?"

Elise's face scrunched up but she said, "Y-yeah, I guess. Beggars can't be choosers so I'll take a bag full of sand."

"Alright, Tenacity and I will be back before sundown then."

Solis left her room and went downstairs to grab his cousin.

"Tenacity, you're coming with me. We have some mattresses to go get."

"Oh, is Miss Elise too pampered for a wooden bed?" Tenacity jokingly said.

"Stop, it's not nice to tease a young woman of her stature. Who knows, if Eliza hears that you're talking bad about her granddaughter she might vaporize you."

The two of them walked out of the house laughing side-by-side, but as soon as their feet touched the ground outside, they sprinted. Solis and Tenacity hopped through, and over, tree roots, or over trees. They raced all the way to the beach just to see who would be the winner. Petty games like these were always something Solis and Tenacity took pride in winning in.

"Hey, hey! You only won because a vine caught me up!" Argued Solis.

With them on the beach, and the winner decided, Tenacity let out a laugh.

"You're just a sore loser, Solis. You still had the chance to win because I took the time to laugh at you when that vine surprised you, but you were fumbling with it instead."

Tenacity continued laughing at Solis, who had a displeased look on his face. Solis turned away from him and started collecting materials to make a sack for their mattresses.

"22,876,900 to 22,876,899."

Solis stopped what he was doing and looked at Tenacity.

"What did you say?"

"Don't play dumb, Solis, I know you know what those numbers mean."

"Of course I do, Tenacity, I'm just amazed at how stupid you are."

"What was that?!"

Tenacity rushed his cousin and held him up by the collar.

"Those numbers are wrong! It's 22,876,901 to 22,876,899 in my favor!" Shouted Solis.

"You must've gone senile, Solis! That time when we were chasing for Sunflies did not end in your win! I caught more than you!"

Solis smacked Tenacity's hand and let himself down. He walked up to his cousin grabbed his hair and brought his face down.

"If you forgot, Tenacity, my father was there to count up our Sunflies and he declared I had more than you!"

"Of course I remember!"

Tenacity shoved Solis away.

"But if YOU forgot, MY father came in and recounted and declared that I won."

Tenacity shoved a finger in Solis's face as he said that. Solis promptly swatted away Tenacity's finger and retaliated.

"Of course he would say you won, you're his son! He'd obviously lie to make me and my father look bad!"

"The same could be said for you, Solis! You were Uncle's son so he WOULD take your side."

Solis let out a roar and punched Tenacity. He caught his fist and threw him away.

"Then what about that one time where we raced to Stellar Belt?! Who do you think one that one?!" Tenacity yelled.

"I did, it's one of two reasons I have two more wins than you!"

"Just because you're a few months older doesn't mean you can keep distorting the truth like that!"

Tenacity and Solis flew at each other and their fists came together. From the foliage, a friend of theirs decided to make an appearance.

"Hey, hey! I thought we were supposed to be hiding. With the amount of noise you two idiots are making, the Wyverns and Superitors are sure to hear us!

The two of them turned to see Kalamati standing on the beach with them. They separated and took a couple of steps back from each other. She walked up to both of them and asked what was going on.

"This idiot right here," Solis pointed at Tenacity, "thinks he's won more times than I have!"

"I HAVE won more times and this ignorant fool is too stubborn to accept that fact!"

Tenacity stared down at his cousin while Kalamati kept watching them.

"Alright, alright. Both of you need to relax. Tenacity what's the score between you two?"

"It's 22,876,900 to 22,876,899."

"No. It. Isn't! How many times do I need to tell you?!"

They went back to arguing and Kalamati took action. She conjured up two of her whips, wrapped them around their heads, and smacked them against each other. They let out pained cries as they fell back and onto the sand.

"Just return to zero if you can't figure it out! Besides, aren't we here for something more important than scores over petty games?"

Solis and Tenacity looked at each other and stood back up. They split off and went to work on the make-shift mattresses.

"I can't believe you guys are Suns."

Kalamati let out a sigh and started working. Twenty minutes later, the three of them had each made two single-sized mattresses and were ready to go back. Solis left first while Tenacity and Kalamati made some adjustments to their mattresses. When he reached the house, Solis visited Elise's room to drop off her mattress.

"Here's the best I could do with what the island had."

Solis plopped the mattress down onto the bed frame and let Elise look it over. She ran her fingers across the palm leaves that Solis used to cover the stuffing beneath it. Elise flipped up some of the leaves and saw a wooden sack filled with other palm leaves. She took the chance to lay on the mattress and rolled around a bit.

"Not bad. This will do nicely. It seems you changed your mind and didn't fill it up with sand, huh?"

"Yeah, I thought just stacking more palm leaves, instead of sand, might make it more comfortable."

Elise sat up and looked at Solis for a few moments.

"Alright, I need to go over to Fera's room and drop her's off. Let me know when those leaves start to rot, I'll have to replace them if they do."

The rest of the day was spent with each member of their group receiving their mattresses and discussing if they needed any tweaks. In the end, Lunis, Fera, Muun, Ad, Elise, Kalamati, got mattresses, while Solis and Tenacity opted for a different experience. In their rooms, they had put up hammocks they would be sleeping on instead of a bed. Soon enough, once the fine touches were implemented to the house, Tenacity and Solis started planning for dinner.

"Sun's going down, what are we getting for dinner?"

"We'll be having whale tonight. We'll hunt down two of them since that should be enough."

Tenacity nodded and walked out the door.

"Hey, Kalamati! We're going to get some whale, you wanna tag along?"

Kalamati came out of her room and answered Solis from the second floor.

"No, you guys handle it."

Solis took his leave and walked out of the house. He saw Tenacity at the base of the stairs and he gave Solis a curious look. Solis shook his head, indicating that Kalamati wouldn't be joining them in their hunt for dinner. They took off, with Tenacity leading, and went to the east side of the island. Once there, they surveyed the ocean for any prey.

"Hey, Solis, there's a pod over there."

Solis looked to where his cousin was pointing and saw streams of water fly through the air.

"They'll do," he replied.

Solis took off his shirt and shorts and quickly dove into the water. He heard Tenacity dive in and the two of them started swimming toward their prey. Since it was dusk, they couldn't rely on their vision to hunt for the whales, but on their hearing instead. Solis and Tenacity picked up the clicking of the whales and made a slight adjustment and sped up their pace. Not long after, they started to see the pod of whales, which consisted of four adults and, what seemed to be, two calves. Solis designated the adult humpback whale that Tenacity should go after and told him which one he would go after.

Tenacity broke off quickly and swam toward the adult male he was assigned to. The whales were unaroused by their presence, at first, and continued swimming. They only went into a panic as soon as they saw Tenacity shoot off his beam. His attack superheated the water and made it bubble. The beam went straight through the head of the whale, killing it instantly. The rest of the pod tried their hardest to swim away but one of them was caught by Solis. He dazed another male, by punching it, and then shot his beam through its brain as well. The whales let out dozens of cries as they saw Tenacity and Solis swim away with the bodies of their family.

The two of them dragged the carcasses of prey, by the tail, all the way back to the island. As they approached the beach, they tossed the bodies onto it. They leaped out of the water and put their clothes back on before inspecting the conditions of their whales.

"I can't wait to cook these! These look like well-matured whales and you and I both know their meat tastes the best!"

Tenacity was drooling as he continued to look at the bodies.

"Me too, I haven't had whale in a long time."

Solis walked onto the carcass and produced a thin beam from his mouth. Tenacity crawled onto his and started sectioning parts of meat off of the whale. They worked in silence as they gathered, in total, about twenty pounds of meat and were cutting away more. Suddenly they shut their mouths and dashed into the forest and hid.

"Solis, you felt that didn't you?"

"I did and I don't know what type of energy signature that was."

"Me neither but it smelled like one of us but had another scent on top of it."

They looked up into the sky and saw the squadron of wyverns that had attacked their hotel. Their charcoal black bodies made them look like shadows as they flew across the sky. They flew in an organized formation with an unknown figure leading them at the front. Whatever it was, it was massive, dwarfing the wyverns that followed it. The creature had deep red eyes that carried a lot of rage behind it. Its muscular and reptilian-like body was supported by brilliant, red wings that glimmered with each flap. Pearl, white horns jutted out of its skull with some beard-like ridges along its jaw. The remaining sunlight bounced off the deep red scales as it traversed across the sky and its white underbelly captivated Tenacity and Solis.

"Solis, I don't remember seeing that creature back in Spain. What do you think it is?"

"I can't tell but it's obviously their leader."

They observed the mysterious creature further.

"Tenacity, tell me, that looks like a drake, right?"

"I was thinking that but they don't have wings, nor can they fly, remember?"

"I do but that thing looks a lot like them."

One of the wyverns split off from their formation and dove down onto the whale carcasses, and this caused Solis and Tenacity to retreat back further. The wyvern started eating the whales but its actions displeased their leader.

"IMPUDENT SCUM!"

The massive lizard crashed onto the beach and confronted the wyvern.

"When you are around me, you WILL follow orders! And I did NOT give you permission to indulge yourself!"

"I-I am sorry milord. It's just that these whale carcasses looked extremely delicious," replied the wyvern.

"I DO NOT CARE FOR YOUR EXCUSES!"

The wyvern was taken by the head and driven into the sand.

"Anacite said our mission was to find the Suns and nothing else!"

The leader squeezed his humanoid hands and made the wyvern scream.

"I-I'm s-sorry Lord Depravity, I won't do it again."

"Exactly, you won't...."

Depravity squeezed the wyvern's head even harder and completely crushed its skull. He tossed the dead wyvern into the ocean and watched as its lifeless body skipped across the surface. Even though he scolded his dead subordinate on indulging themselves, he grabbed one of the whales to snack on. He bit into its torso and yanked his head back with a mouth full of blubber and meat. The whale's blood tainted the sand as it came out of Depravity's mouth. He momentarily stopped eating and scanned his surroundings.

"It seems I had some eavesdroppers," he thought to himself.

He flapped his wings and created gale-force winds that blew away the trees and plants. He stared down at his uninvited guests with a huge smile on his face.

"How did he know we were here!?" Solis questioned.

Solis and Tenacity ran in the opposite direction of Depravity but he quickly gave chase. With his massive hand, he swiped at the two Arcanas, but they easily jumped over his hand. Solis and Tenacity turned around and fired their gold and black beams. Depravity was taken by surprise as the beams hit his chest and caused him to scoot backward.

"You guys really ARE the Suns," he said aloud.

He flapped his wings again and swept Solis and Tenacity off of the ground. With them off-balance, he lunged forward and grabbed both of them. They let out grunts as they struggled to release themselves from his grasp.

"I was born to defeat a Sun and lookie here! Two of them in my hands! Anacite will be happy when she finds out I've killed two of them."

He stared into Solis's and Tenacity's eyes as he continued to squeeze their bodies.

"Born to defeat us you say? You should watch your tongue!" Yelled Solis.

In a split second, Solis and Tenacity let out a monstrous roar before a black and gold light enveloped their bodies. A big explosion blew back Depravity and forced him to let go of Solis and Tenacity. Finally free, the two of them reverted back into their human forms and ran back to their house.

"We have to leave NOW! Our enemies have found us!" Screamed Solis.

His companions emerged from their quarters and looked at him with spooked gazes. Lunis jumped from the second floor and flew out the window, with Muun following her. Ad and Fera busted through the ceiling and started running.

"W-wait, what about our belongings?" Elise asked.

"Leave them! They're close behind and we can't waver!"

He grabbed her by the wrist and ran out the door, with Kalamati and Tenacity close behind. They had left in the knick of time because a few seconds later, Depravity came crashing through their house.

"You won't get away from me!"

Once the Suns caught up with their group, Lunis asked Solis what they were going to do now.

"I-I don't kno--Wait! There's one last thing I can think of, we meet up with an old acquaintance."

"Which one?" Tenacity asked as they ran through the trees.

"To answer that we'll be heading to Japan."

Solis took a left and led their group out to sea. As their wings sprouted from their backs, they followed Solis, while he held onto Elsie, and head for Japan.