Chapter 8

Anger was an understatement for how Fiona felt. But the Solace family was still alive; if Collin wanted, he could have killed them, yet he didn't.

"Why didn't you get revenge on them?" Nathan asked. If it had been him, he would have uploaded the video to the Internet long ago.

Collin laughed. "You're thinking I should post the video to the internet," he said to Nathan, then he shook his head and laughed again. "You are underestimating the Solace family, don't you think people can say that the video is fake? With the kidnappers still out there who knows what they can do for money."

"The kidnappers are still out there?" Fiona said.

"Who knows," Collin replied. "Besides even if people do believe this video it wouldn't matter. The Solace family keeps making connections with a lot of people—nobles, businessmen, even underground. They have connections with enemies of the empire. With the number of connections they have, it would be easy for them to plan a coup against the Emperor and take over the Empire," Collin said, making Nathan's eyes widen in fear and disbelief, then he continued.

"With all this information at my disposal, it would be easy to permanently tarnish the Solace family's reputation and land many of them in prison," Collin said with a malicious grin. "But where's the fun in that?"

"Does Father know about this?" Nathan inquired because the Solace family could not possibly have thought the Emperor wouldn't know.

"Of course, the Emperor is aware," he says, nodding. "However, the royal family owes the Solace family for their loyalty during the war of the worlds 75 years ago. And, no matter what happens, Victor Solace always has his supporters." Nathan is aware of the situation and understands that if his father begins arresting the Solace family, with or without evidence of their guilt, the royal family would be in jeopardy. After all, the Solace family's military powers and connections are far more powerful than those of the royal family.

"And besides, even if they are put in prison, they have an incredible connection with the prison's warden; their life would be like that of a middle-class family, then they would break out, turn the civilians against the royal family alongside the nobles on their side, blah, blah, blah, the royal family is overthrown, and the bloodline ends," Collin said in an overly cheerful voice.

"This isn't something to sound cheerful for!" Nathan shouted.

"Anyway, I don't want to think about that family for now, nor do I want you meddling in my business."

Collin sounded a bit too cold. Nathan and Jake felt a bit dizzy and fell unconscious while sitting.

Fiona was a bit surprised. "What did you do to them?" she asked.

"Nothing, I just altered their memories a bit; they'll soon wake up. I only left you out because, aside from David, you're the only other person I can trust."

Fiona didn't know if she should be honored or frightened that Collin trusted her with some things. "Okay," she said, and then Collin smiled. This smile isn't the normal, adorable kind; it is more deadly like he's saying, "Say anything, and you would part of my body count."

Nathan and Jake woke up; it looked like they were never unconscious. It just seemed as if they were talking to the both of them a few minutes ago.

"And now for my question," Jake said. But he never got the opportunity to ask. David came back with several tubs of ice cream.

Collin smiled at David and collected the ice cream from him. "Thanks," he said. David smiled back at Collin.

Collin went to the kitchen to drop the ice cream. Jake hasn't asked his question, so he decides to ask David. "So... uh, you seem to know Collin well," he said.

"Not really," David replied.

"Really?" Jake said in disbelief. He doesn't believe it. "What is his favorite color?"

David replied honestly. "Black and red," he replied. "He also likes the color pink but he's too embarrassed to say so because it's a girlish color."

Jake had an evil smile on his face, so Collin likes pink. "What is his hobby?"

"Cooking," he replied. Everyone knows that, "and using people as guinea pigs," he replied. "But I don't know if he has changed hobbies,"

"Nope, that is correct," Nathan said. "I still don't get why he enjoys using people as guinea pigs," he said, and everyone nodded.

"There was one time he called me to his apartment, and he asked me to drink something," David said. "When I drank it and finally asked what it was, he told me it was zombie rat venom,"

Fiona gasped. "Were you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, he had the antidote with him, and just wanted to see the effects of the zombie rat's venom," he said. "It wasn't bad helping a friend in need, even if it meant becoming mindless for a few minutes."

"Seriously?" This was what everyone thought.

"We all can agree that Collin has some weird hobbies," Nathan said, and everyone nodded in response.

"Well, he has one more hobby none of you know about," Fiona said.

"He has one more what?" Collin said coming out from the kitchen. He sat beside David and raised an eyebrow suspicious of what they were talking about.

"Nothing I was just asking questions about what they liked to do," David said scratching the back of his neck and refusing to meet Collin's eyes. "Fiona was about to tell me some of Nathan's embarrassing habits that I don't know of," he said.

Collin's eyes lit up, Nathan's embarrassing habits. He looks at Nathan, then he looked at Fiona, he smiles weirdly and moves his wiggles his eyebrow at her. "Care to share?" he said.

"No," Nathan said. "That isn't what we came here for."

Collin pouted and everyone sighed in relief. If Collin should find out they were talking about him he would explode and then try to guilt-trip them with teary eyes.

"First and foremost, let's start with training. I already asked for a few weeks off from the headmaster, and we were granted permission to do as we like till the end of the tournament."

Collin was surprised, he never expected him to take this seriously. "You are really taking this seriously," he said.

"Of course, I would, I like winning, also, father promised to revoke my punishment if I win," he said happily. Collin's eyes widened.

"Really?" he exclaimed happily nearly dropping his bowl of ice cream. "We have to win!" he said. He didn't want to win, he was planning on making the team fail in the first week by leading them into a group more powerful than they are, before losing.

But now, he has to win.

"So what is our training plan?" David asked.

"Well, I was thinking of asking my dad to allow General Jackson to train us," he said.

Collin and David scrunched their faces. "Ugh," they both groaned in disgust. Everyone in the higher class knows that General Jackson was a weirdo, and had a weird obsession with getting stronger by doing anything to get to that goal.

"He's still on my kill list," Collin said, the aura around him was dark. He remembers when they first met after he had beaten David, he was looking at him with weird eyes. He couldn't help but poke the man's eyes, they bled and he was punished for it, but it was worth it.

"Well, we wouldn't want that now, would we?" Fiona said with a worried smile.

"Then who would we ask to train us then?" Nathan said sighing. He knows General Jackson's reputation was a bit bad, but he didn't know that he was bad enough for Collin to want to kill him. "It's not like we can ask anyone else, Collin is at risk since most of them know General Solace," he said.

"Why can't Collin just be in charge of our training schedule?" David said, this made Collin choke.

"No!" he and Fiona exclaimed at the same time.

"We don't know what he might try to do to us," Fiona said.

"Hey!" Collin said feeling a bit insulted.

"She does have a point," Jake said.

Collin got angry, "Okay for that I am going to be in charge of our training and there is nothing you can do to change my mind, see you all tomorrow by 5 am, don't be late," he said leaving them with no room for complaints. "Don't worry, I'll make this training as safe and as humane as I can possibly can," he said cheerfully before getting up to go to his room.

This didn't sound reassuring to Fiona, Jake, and Nathan, rather it sounded like a quick way to the afterlife.

"May the Entities have mercy on our soul," Nathan prayed.

"Mother, father forgive me for being irresponsible," Jake also prayed.

"Entities forgive this evil person, and allow her to reincarnate peacefully," Fiona whispered her prayer silently. The atmosphere around them became depressing as each of them said their final prayers.

"Hey don't be so down, Collin training us might not be challenging," David said, Collin is a lot of things, but he isn't a cold, heartless person, especially to his friends. "Besides what is the worst he can do?"

~~~~

If David could go back in time and eat his words he would. Collin wasn't joking when he said they were meeting by 5 am.

As punishment, he took them from their comfortable beds at 5 am and dumped them on the cold, hard, dirty soil.

They woke up to the sound of Jake screaming: "Spider!"

Upon hearing her brother's scream, Fiona was the first to get up. The others got up too, they saw a giant 5ft trulentus spider on top of Jake trying to eat him.

Jake held its fangs with great struggle. The trulentus spider is an A-class beast, that is well known for its wild nature, for spitting venomous saliva at its prey, and having acidic blood as a defense against predators.

Fiona created giant vines and grabbed the spider throwing it against a tree, before using the tree branches to trap it.

She was frightened why is she in the mirror realm in her pajamas? Now is not the time to ask questions. "Jake, are you alright?" she asked running to her brother.

Nathan used his blood manipulation ability to kill the spider. Acidic blood sprayed everywhere, Nathan used his ability to stop the blood from spraying everywhere, collecting it and dumping it in a corner. The ground dissolved when it came in contact with the blood.

Jake was okay, but he was most definitely traumatized, his body was shaking in fear, and he had woken up when he detected something heading toward him. He woke up to see the spider right in front of him.

He's sure the spider went after him and not the others because he was the weakest among all of them, so that meant he was easy prey.

Nathan and David rushed over to Jake's side to comfort him alongside Fiona.

"Good morning people," they heard Collin's voice.

"Collin you bastard, where are you?" Fiona shouted angrily. Collin had put her brother's life in danger, she would fight him for that.

"If you guys are wondering where I am, don't worry about that. Also if you are thinking I left you here to die, think again. I won't let either of you die here." he said softly before adding. "After all, if any of you die, I'll have to go to prison and I'm not going there again..."

"I asked you guys to get ready by 5 am, and you guys weren't. I had an awesome training schedule packed for everyone. But since you refused to obey, I decided to do the next best thing. Dump you all in the middle of a forest of the Mirror Realm, where the strongest beasts you'll meet would be a double S-class, if you wake up after 6:30 am, you would most likely be prey, especially Jake, since he is the weakest," he said seriously.

"If you were already attacked then I'm sorry, especially Jake since you've never experienced something like this, as well as most of you," he apologized sincerely. "But since we're going to be coming here for the tournament, you need to have experience. There'll be other teams here as well, avoid them at all costs. Eliminating early competitors is their motto,

"You all are to work together and try to survive here. Don't worry I didn't leave you completely helpless, each of you has space rings that would provide you with what you would need, as well as a map to find me, so if you guys want to try to kick my ass, even though you can't I'll be waiting."

After listening to Collin, his voice was no longer heard. They all realized that there was a space ring on each of their index fingers.

"Well, then good luck."

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