Arena

The pale blue of the holographic window in front of Ciel complimented the swirls of color around her. On every side, people shuffled to and from their destination in bouts of pigment.

"Welcome to the room of portals," the screen read.

In the past, portals were thought to be an impossible concept; how would you make sure your body parts didn't end up spaced too far or too close from each other if the world was constantly moving? No one held the answer.

But with all the new technology around her, Ciel couldn't stop her heart from pounding at the thought. There was so much to explore.

"Hello, Citizen of the Galactic Federation," a voice rang through her head. Ciel knew the voice wasn't speaking English, but for a reason unknown to her she could understand him. Even so, the next thing he said made her face lose color.

"It seems you've popped into existence, or at least into our databases," the voice stopped, then started again, "some four hours ago."

Ciel froze. Her eyes closed and she placed her attention on what the man said. She wasn't from this time, possibly even this world, and she didn't know what they were capable of.

The man laughed, diffusing the tension in his voice, "But be assured, here at the Community Center, as you are still a citizen, we won't question your arrival."

"I've just personally taken an interest in seeing into your matter. Would you like me to see to your tour of the Center?"

Ciel didn't reply, but the man took her silence as a sign of acceptance. Before her eyes, Ciel watched as a blue form sprouted from the ground, building up into the previously empty space. This created a semi-transparent holographic appearance of the man who'd presumably been speaking in her head just a moment ago. It was just that, unto her expectations, the man had the head of an alligator on his shoulders.

"Hello, Citizen, my name is Leonard and today I'll be your guide," the man said, quickly bowing to her. She couldn't help noticing his resemblance to Butler Hei. Not in speech or appearance, simply in mannerism. Highly chivalrous and calm without a break.

"Hello," she replied, "my name is Ciel, but based on your database I would assume you already knew that."

The alligator man named Leonard stood up with what appeared to be a grin -- not that Ciel knew anything of what an alligator grinning would look like. That was just what it seemed to her to be.

"Yes, I did already know that," Leonard told her, "what I also know is that according to our system you came through the portal connected to a planet that has been deserted for half a millennium."

"Earth?" Ciel asked.

"Post mortem Earth, yes."

Ciel didn't feel shocked regarding the death of her homeland of millions of years. It was more relief than anything. Every day she'd spent there had begun to feel torturously long. She could do nothing about the limits of its landscape, nor the constant aching boredom in the back of her mind.

She wouldn't call it wrong to say that she'd been mourning the death of Earth since the day she decided she'd seen all it had to offer. Civilization fell into a constant cycle, and with the degradation of her mind, she couldn't care anymore.

"How did Earth die?" she asked.

Leonard's unquestioning attitude felt like a godsend in this new world.

"Well, after nearly burning along with the sun, the magicians of the time managed to break through with regards to Interstellar magic," he said, "and gradually, through time, the planet grew deserted."

Ciel turned this over in her mind. The magicians that she'd known back then were mad with their studies. Actually, thinking back on it, it seemed to be an omnipresent theme throughout their generation. Madness gripped at them like mothers to their stillborn children. It pulled at their hair and flipped through their pages.

It had gripped her too, making her lose control of her own body as she wandered the world; a hopeless shell of a person. Maybe what had done it to them back then was the radiation as the sun grew too large to sustain life on any of its orbiting planets. But the madness wouldn't let them play cannon fodder to their own cosmic reality, it shifted into a violent study of the arts.

And they had lived.

Leonard indulged the girl with silence, standing with his untouchable grin as she thought to herself. Perhaps this girl was more interesting than he'd thought. With a blink, the girl broke from her daze.

"I'd like to begin the tour now," she said.

In the one thousand years since Earth was saved from collapse, people had long since begun exploring the Interstellar. With magic enhancing their weaponry, and technology on the rise, the Galactic Magic Association -- previously called the Magic Tower -- came to the forefront.

Throughout political conflicts and the separation of boundaries, their influence only grew wider. They had become more than a universal acceptance, they had become an expectation.

Magic was present in everyday life; in every crux of every corner, and in the daily chronicle of citizens around the galaxy. Magic loomed over the people like an untouchable god. It was easily accessible and a commonplace practice, not to mention necessary to even live in the climates on otherworldly planets.

Leonard introduced Ciel to the basics of the Community Center. She would find one for every cluster of planets in the Galactic Federation, usually taking up its own dwarf planet for the sake of security and because of all it supplied to commonplace citizens.

Of course, not everyone could get in, and on the first entry, ninety-nine high-difficulty questions had to be answered without help. These questions would change every so often to maintain difficulty.

The Magic Association only provided its support to geniuses, but with the combined population of a cluster of planets, genius wasn't rare.

Even with the requirements, the Community Center was constantly on the verge of overflowing.

"Let's leave the portal room for now," Leonard said, "in order to do so, just enter the directory on the side and type in Arena. I'd say that's one of the most interesting places you'll find."

Ciel did as told. When she hit enter, she felt as though an electric shock had run through her finger, her arm, and down her spine. Closing her eyes tightly, she reopened them when the electrical feeling stopped, but what greeted her wasn't the room of colorful voids, instead, there were shouts and cheers.

She was in a stadium. Looking to her left, the man with the alligator head was seated next to her. With his signature grin, a screen popped in front of him and he tapped on it. The stadium fell silent.

Ciel read the words on her own blue screen.

"Welcome to the Arena, please enjoy the show."

And with a gesture from Leonard, Ciel left behind all pretenses.

Two people -- if they could be called so -- stood on their independent sides of a stage, facing one another. Even though she was far from them, Ciel could clearly hear their labored breathing and quick heart rates. Still, it may have been more accurate to say that what she was seeing was two robots fighting.

Clad in armor from head to toe, the suits wrapped around the individuals like skin. Ciel could see, supposedly by the Community Center's technology, the details of scales running down the two. That must've been why the suit could react to the smallest movement.

Their eyes were hidden by a tinted plate, surrounded by more scales that would wrap around the person's head. In their hands, the two held guns that weren't connected to them, but even so, felt like an extension of their suits.

"Hah, Dragon, did you think you'd be allowed to sit on top of the rankings forever?" one of the suited characters said. The other -- allegedly Dragon -- didn't reply. Taking this as an acknowledgment, the man laughed angrily.

Holding his gun in front of him, he immediately shot forwards.

With a quick shift in stance, Dragon dodged the man's attack and ran toward him. As he tried to shoot at the figure, Dragon continuously dodged his attacks until right in front of the man.

"Peekaboo."

And as quickly as they'd come, Dragon shot him in the head.

As soon as the man fell, Ciel could hear the crowd burst into cheers. Dragon's opponent, who, in only three days managed to climb the rankings to third place, had been dealt with in a matter of seconds. It was a crushing defeat.

Ciel didn't ask if the man had died. She could tell from the bullets he'd shot that they were created with a combination of magic and rubber, not doing much harm to anyone in the end. Even with the influx of young geniuses, the Galactic Magic Association was still wary of losing any. Especially if they were top of the rankings like the two involved.

"The young has overcome the old yet again," Leonard said next to her.

She looked toward him.

"By the look of those suits, those are kids."

Pulling his attention back from those in the arena, Leonard's grin reinstated itself.

"Well, let's continue with the tour, shall we?"

A/N:

Here's an informational chapter that should bring you further into the world of the Community Center, a center taking up a small planet used for supplying young and old geniuses alike with resources.

I didn't think this chapter would be all that fun to write, but when I got down in the dirt with it, it actually was a whole new experience. I didn't think writing could be so immersive.

As always, if you want to see how you can get more chapters faster there's the "Overtime" chapter at the beginning of this novel(under auxiliary novel) about how to get more releases.

But even if you don't really care about this novel having more updates than what's currently available, I'd still appreciate any votes or shares.

Have a nice one, and see you next time.