Chapter Twenty Two: Arena and Commanders

She quickly gets into her clothing and realizes that it's the same clothing that her avatar wore in the game. A beautiful red dress with accents of black that leaves her stomach exposed, and with a cape-like bottom goes well past her feet. High heel boots with the same color scheme, along with black stockings. Thin, black gloves that cover from her fingertips almost to her elbows. A dark silver ring over the middle finger of her right glove. A thin black tiara with a red jewel in the center, and a pair of ruby earrings.

"The dark queen's dress, gloves, boots, leggings, tierra, ring, and earrings. This is the equipment I had on before I last played the game. This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Although, if I have Eris' body as well as her equipment, then it's very likely that I have her powers too. I wonder if I can use my battle armor. Another thing I'll test when I get to the arena."

Eris walks out the door that Raven entered from and immediately knows where she's going. It seems as though whatever did this to her, copied the castle to this world perfectly. And since Eris is the one who designed the castle and its interior, she's easily able to navigate through the maze-like halls. While doing so she makes sure everything is in place. The floor has red carpet along its center and is illuminated by bright, yellow-orange lamps. Though the outside of the castle is black, the inner walls are white in color and the ceilings are held up with columns similar to those of ancient Greece.

It takes a while, but after moving through the halls of her castle, the vampire makes it to a large stadium. The stadium is similar in shape, size, and structure to the one in Rome. Surrounding the battlefield are wide seats made of stone. There's an iron guard rail and a drop that separated the stadium seats from the battlefield. The battlefield itself is nothing more than a huge expanse of light brown dirt.

In the center of the field of dirt, there are thirty individuals gathered. They include Hadrian and Raven with two other individuals, the seven creatures that were with her at Eris' last battle in the game, then two other groups. One has ten individuals and the other has nine. Each of the creatures has different weapons, clothing, and armor as well as different features and they all seem to be a different race.

As Eris enters the colosseum, all of the beings kneel to her presence and Hadiran speaks, "The Four Horsemen, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Ten Commandments, and the Nine Rulers of Purgatory have allied gathered. Just as you have ordered, Empress."

"Thank you, Hadrian. I've brought all the forces here today to confirm a few things. It seems to me that, like Raven hypothesized, we've been transported to a world different from the one we came from. At this point, all we can do is strengthen our defenses and survey our surroundings. It appears that all of you have been worried about me in my absence. But now I'm back, and it's time to work.

"We shall do anything that you ask of us, Empress," says Raven.

"I'm glad. Because there's something that I need your help with. For this, I'll choose… Lucina."

One of the girls in the crowd raises her head to look at Eris. She was one of the ones with Eris in her last battle inside the game. She has tan skin, short, black hair, and orange eyes. Her chest is covered by light gray wrappings, leaving her stomach, shoulder, and neck exposed. Her black shorts also show off half of her thighs. She also wears dark steel gauntlets, with a sharp claw at the end of each finger, and that goes almost up to her elbow. Her greaves are similar to her gauntlets in the sense that they're almost completely made of dark metal, and that they almost go up to her knees. Then she has a strange, black, fluffy, wolf-like tail hanging from above her buttocks. Finally, the girl is slim, but has defined musculature on her arms, legs, and abs.

"I'll do anything you ask, your highness," Lucina says, looking at Eris with her orange eyes glowing.

"How'd you like to spar with me?" the vampire asks with a smirk.

Lucina's pointed ears perk up as she smiles similarly to Eris, "I'd be happy to, Mistress."

The preparations are made. The other 29 individuals move to the stone stands while Eris and Lucina get some distance between each other on the battlefield. Both of the fighters have smiles on their faces as they prepare for the battle.

"May I ask what you want to accomplish by fighting me, Mistress?"

"I just want to test my body. I want to see if I still have the power that I did in the other world," Eris explains.

"I see. Any rules?"

"Hm… no magic, including enhancement or transformations. Other than that, let's just try not to kill each other."

"Good. So that means this will be decided on our strength and skill alone. Sounds fun."

"Hm… I wonder if they know the lore of Legend Conqueror's Online," Eris thinks before asking, "Lucina, did you know that the vampires and werewolves were once ancient enemies?"

"Of course, Empress. In the past, your species and mine would have constant wars which lasted hundreds of years at a time. That's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about this fight."

"That's right. When creating the NPCs, players can also make up backstories for them and even some personalities. Of course, I made Lucina with a personality like mine, so she should be a real battle junkie. I wonder…" after thinking this she asks, "Can you tell me the strengths and weaknesses of vampires and werewolves?"

"Yes, Mistress. Werewolves are known for their incredible strength and speed. And while vampires have a lot of strength too, they're more well-known for their magic and regenerative abilities. This being the case, this puts you at a disadvantage," Lucina answers with a confident smile.

"Then I guess I'll just have to do something to compensate. Battle armor, activate!"

At that point, Eris' body becomes engulfed in a bright, red light. When the light fades moments later, Lucina finds the vampire now covered in armor. The armor goes from the base of her neck all the way down to her feet. It's colored blood red with accents of black, and also has the appearance of dragon-like scales. The torso has rib-like decorations on both sides, and like her dress it fits perfectly on the curves of her body. The gauntlets have a sharp claw at the end of each finger. The ring she wore originally is now hidden under her armor. She also still wears the tierra, the bracelet, and the necklace. Her extraordinarily long, black hair flows like a cape behind her.

"Ha! I'm glad this still works," says Eris in an excited tone.

"She put on her battle armor?! The Empress is going to take this fight seriously," says Hadrian.

"The accessories increase her magic power and resistance while her armor increases her physical strength and speed. With this, Empress Eris should be able to counter Lucina's strength," answers Raven who is sitting beside him.

Lucina smiles widely, "Great! With this, this will be an awesome fight. I've always wanted to go one on one with you."

Eris thinks for a moment, "Always wanted to? Does that mean they remember everything from the game? Even the fact that I created them. Hold on, if they also remember the backstories I made up for them, then shouldn't those two things conflict with each other? Oh well. I'll figure that out later," Eris then asks, "Alright, I'm ready, how about you?"

"Ready and waiting."

Hadrian exclaims, "Let the match… begin!"