Part 2

When she finally opened her eyes, she saw that she was still wearing the same clothes, an electric-blue blouse, tight black pants and suede boots in the same shade. Her hair, which she had pulled up into a sophisticated bun at the crown of her head, had slackened and now hung down her back.

She raised her hand to her head, grimacing in pain, then when her headache subsided a little, she forced herself to look around to see where she was, then noticed with surprise and terror that she was inside a very cold, black metal cage.

"What? What....What's going on...?"

"You're probably wondering where you are and why you're there," remarked a voice echoing not far away from her.

She forced herself to turn back to the owner of this detestable voice and saw a man in a light brown suit, with a long coat and a lean face endowed with a horrifying moustache.

"Who are you?"

"Ah" he exclaimed, "memory wipe, and too bad for me it was this being's henchman who did it so I've no chance of restoring your memories even though that's what I wanted most."

He pointed an annoyed finger at her.

"You ran away from me, and worse, you chose a greater danger to me with insolence and words that insufferable me to a point...! You have no idea."

"I don't even know you."

"But I do, or at least well enough not to forget you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, so what do you want?"

She had to stay calm and analyze the situation as best she could to get out of it, because she was in great danger, she felt it with every fiber of her being.

"Me, what I want...nothing, but them, it's you. Or rather...your flesh!"

And he shouted that word as he pulled back the huge curtain in front of her, and she saw what it hid. An arena, a huge arena filled with various excited people who were shouting their joy at the fight that was taking place before them and for which they had had to pay dearly.

A giant monster fight of appalling intensity and barbarity, which was to end with the death of one of them.

One was a six-legged monster with purple skin flecked with yellow and bulging eyes all over his head, while the other was a greenish monster with eight sharp legs like a giant insect, smaller than his opponent but faster.

People were screaming and betting like mad as the winner finally seemed to be decided. The insect, of course.

His opponent soon collapsed to the ground, stained with his bluish blood as he howled in victory before beginning to devour the still-bubbling corpse.

The whole scene was disgusting, so disgusting that Iris felt her stomach turn and she folded in half, regurgitating what remained in her stomach.

"As you can see, these ferocious, repulsive beasts that so enliven the public fight to the death for the greater good. So you see, they deserve a prize of the highest quality."

He didn't specify what that prize was, but his gaze was eloquent enough.

Iris's heart stopped for a moment with pain before beating wildly to explode in her chest.

"You're going to stand there with me, watching the matches until the winner rises and comes to take his reward."

Three more fights went by like that, savage, bloody, unbearable.

Iris tried to find a way out, any way, but found nothing. Her jailer was amused to see her struggling, desperately looking for a way out that didn't exist.

He never stopped sniggering.

In the fourth fight, one of the beasts drew Iris' attention in spite of herself. It was a fawn with a perfect long body, white fur spotted with blue and looking so proud and majestic.

She shook her head. No, you couldn't hurt, let alone kill, such a creature. It was a crime.

His adversary, on the other hand, was almost criminally ugly, with his gelatinous black body, heavy legs and bulging scarlet eyes, as well as his antennae hanging pitifully around his face.

She followed the beast's movements attentively, as it seemed to scan the square cautiously, and when it turned its proud head towards her, the impact was almost physical. Eyes so green and bright it was unreal.

She lost her breath for a moment, and then the fight began.

It didn't last long, and ended with the death of the hideous beast. Iris was so relieved that she felt weaker than ever, which was illogical and disarming on her part, since this sublime beast who had won the tournament was now going to come to her, take her and devour her, as her jailer had been telling her all along.

The spectators' excitement was at its peak. They shouted the name of the winner, a certain Veron, a name that suited him perfectly, while Iris's jailer, his partners and a score of henchmen, some of whom were carrying the prize cage, approached him and soon congratulated him vigorously.

The fawn accepted all this with simplicity but also with a kind of insolence that made Iris's jailer and most of his partners wince, and then, visibly reluctantly, they offered him Iris in her cage.

He accepted her and gazed at her with that deep, captivating gaze that plunged her into a kind of inordinate whirlwind.

"You seem to attract all kinds of trouble, Iris."

At first, she was unaware that he had spoken and addressed her.

"Don't move," he continued, "and especially don't ask any questions until it's all over."

Then he turned to the arena owners.

"Since you all love this kind of activity so much that you ignore my sovereignty, then I'm going to give you a show worthy of your greed."

The jailer frowned, seeming to understand the identity of the beast.

"You..."

"Ah, Ledek, it was very clever of you to kidnap only Iris to fly under the radar, at least almost, but I found out what you did last time, at least your intentions towards this young human here, and being fully aware of your unrivalled grudge, I guessed without difficulty what you intended to do."

"And you went to all that trouble for this young human."

"You may speak. But I confess that in addition to saving her, I've also come here to destroy you and see your shitty face when you see no longer than blood and ashes from your creations. It's going to be a blast!"

Iris's jailer shook his head, his face contorted into an ugly grimace.

"Let me tell you...!"

But he didn't have time to finish his sentence, or rather his insult, for a whole horde of enraged beasts burst into the arena and destroyed everything in their path.

The spectators who weren't crushed by this wave of bestial fury were able to flee the arena, howling in terror.

"Don't move or worry about a thing," said the white fawn as he sat lazily in the middle of the arena, "my kind will do the job for me."

Ledek also wanted to run away like his customers, but his enemy stopped him.

"Oh no, not you, Ledek."

And he threw himself on the latter and imprisoned him beneath him.

"Jor, go get Ledek's associates. I'll take care of the bastard myself."

And he pointed fiercely at Iris's former jailer, who tensed under the weight of his adversary.

Chaos reigned all around them, but Iris no longer felt any fear. How could it be otherwise when he was there. Then she gasped again, certain that she'd thought of it that way before. So she summoned her courage and called out to him.

"Hey you!"

The fawn didn't turn around.

"You, the fawn who saved my life, or so I hope."

This time he turned his head towards her.

"Yes?"

"So you know me."

"A little. And no, nothing's happened between us, and it's not for lack of wanting it to."

"You're telling me. This man you're crushing underneath you, I don't remember him or any of you. And yet, he...he resented me so much that he went to the trouble of organizing all this in order to eliminate me in the worst possible way, even if it meant attracting your attention!"

"He killed two birds with one stone, indeed."

"So since you're here now and arranging things, and that bastard Ledek seems to like cages so much, you could let me out and lock him in. I'm sure it would be a novel experience for him."

Her fawn regarded her for a long moment, surprised then admiring, before doing as she said.

Ledek kept up a steady stream of curses and insults as the fawn forced him into the cage.

"You got the wrong shitty woman, Ledek. Serves you right."

The furious Ledek struggled fiercely in his cage, under the mocking gaze of his enemies, but recognizing that this would get him nowhere, forced himself to calm down, then to think in turn, and analyze the situation and above all how to get out of it alive.

And then he noticed something, and an evil smile and a sly gleam appeared on his face.

"You're not joining the battle, Your Majesty?" inquired the prisoner with a deceptive gentleness that made the sovereign immediately wary.

"Why not?"

"Oh, I don't know." raised the prisoner with a dazzling smile and icy gaze, "perhaps the answer is not that you won't but that you can't."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Iris immediately without even thinking. But when she saw her fawn's expression, she knew that the repulsive Ledek had been right. The latter was gloating.

"So I was right. All that arrogance and image of power for nothing."

He burst into an abominable laugh.

"You're weak."

The beast now put on a frighteningly ferocious expression and prepared to charge at his prisoner to finish him off. Iris, too, wanted that vermin Ledek to die, but not like this.

Just as the beast moved, Iris intervened.

"I wish I could remember you."

This stopped him dead in his tracks.

And he turned to her.

"I forgot you, but I'm sure I didn't wish to, but I had to."

And said, continuing to stare at her with that unfathomable gaze.

"If you're responsible for my loss of memory then please, I'll wish you'd remove that spell or whatever and return them so I'll know. But I already know that I cherish these memories infinitely as I will cherish these."

And with a broad gesture, she pointed to everything around them.

He finally replied.

"You said the same thing last time."

"Then give me back my memory so I can remember it," she repeated with a heartbreaking smile.

He squinted, then closed his eyes.

"Then don't regret your wish."

"Never."

The fawn glowed and enveloped her in his magical aura. The return of her memories was painful, but she felt as little pain as possible. He made sure of that.

When she recalled everything, she smiled with joy and tenderness.

"Once again, you've saved my life."

He didn't have time to say what he thought, for a monster had managed to destroy the barrier he had ruled around them and charged at them.

Zogias had just enough time to protect Iris from this monstrous charge, which succeeded in destroying the cage and bringing Ledek out of his prison.

The latter immediately reverted to his human form in order to fight better.

Ledek managed to push him away.

"Ah, what a joke!" he laughed, wrapping himself in his magical aura and drawing a terrifying-looking saber from his body.

"Fighting those human dealers and bringing order to the devastated wake must have weakened you a lot, not to mention the Kajun clan I heard you'd eliminated with force. Ah, I can see his son's fury now. Watch out, this kid's got a bigger grudge than I do. Who'd have thought it! He won't stop until you're dead!"

He paused for a moment, wiping his nose and sniffing contemptuously.

"And now this. You didn't want to run the risk of hurting your human, so you made sure you made it to the final, to be the winner, yet another terrible waste of energy and time given your condition."

He flushed and pointed the sword at Zogias, sending him a powerful magical shot, which the sovereign could face with pride, but he had the wisdom to dodge the following ones.

"What a beautiful day after all. I never imagined I'd see the great sovereign Zogias, so haughty and contemptuous, weaken at my slightest shot and end up at my feet."

Despite his suffering and deplorable state, Zogias stood up proudly before his enemy.

"You haven't won yet, Ledek."

"I don't care, as long as I kill you here, majesty!"

And Ledek flushed violently, hurling himself at his opponent with a howl of anger. He brandished the sword high with the obvious intention of thrusting it into Zogias' heart.

"Die!"

"No, Zogias!" cried Iris, powerless to do anything.

At the last moment, the sovereign managed to create a magic sword and counter Ledek's murderous attack, immediately followed by a weapon fight that seemed to last a century.

Ledek clearly outclassed his opponent in power and energy, but this time the latter possessed skill and, above all, combat experience, as well as a greater desire to kill.

The fight was sublime in its own way, but also atrocious.

Like the Tournament of Monsters, it would only end with the death of one of the two. But, Iris also thought, trembling all over, possibly with the death of both.

Zogia managed to push Ledek violently back to the ground, but the latter decided to cheat as his nature indicated by throwing fine debris at his opponent's face, which inevitably forced the latter to close his eyes and turn away, but not fast enough to avoid getting something in his eye.

He cried out in pain. The bastard Ledek wanted to take advantage of the situation to put an end to the sovereign, but Iris, in her desperation, prevented him by throwing all kinds of debris at him.

"You coward, you cheat! Don't even think about winning!"

Ledek howled in his usual rage and turned to Iris, giving her a crazed look before heading for her.

"I'll kill you, bitch!"

He positioned himself with the intention of slitting her throat.

"I've had enough of you two! I don't care what order I eliminate you in as long as you finally croak!"

Ledek was stopped in his tracks by Zogias, who grabbed the arm holding the saber before delivering an explosive punch to his face.

Iris's former jailer struggled to recover from the punch.

"It was a good blow, Majesty. But to your misfortune, it wasn't enough, it didn't kill me, and you spent what energy you had left on that fist that will doom you both."

"You're right, Ledek, it's not my punch that's going to kill you."

The sovereign's triumphant, sadistic smile put him on alert. He turned around, but it was too late: the dark, gelatinous beast that Zogias was supposed to kill at the finals to get his reward was standing right behind his former torturer, seizing him in its jaws full of sharp teeth, chewing him cruelly before swallowing him in one swallow.

When it was all over, when the chaos finally ended with the victory of Zogias' team, the hideous monster hesitantly approached the latter and waited.

The latter allowed him to leave.

"Go, your debt is paid."

He nodded, bowed to Zogia and left, followed by his fellow survivors.

Jor ran to them.

"Master, are you all right?

"Not at all!" he replied, laughing as he allowed himself to be relieved by his subordinate. "This time, I'm going to get gutted by Mahoun."

"Mahoun!" raised Iris, considering the sovereign's condition with concern.

"Our doctor. This time, he's going to gut me."

"He'll understand, Majesty."

"So you say."

A short silence followed.

"And concerning, mademoiselle Iris, majesty?" inquired the faithful guardian, looking at them in turn.

"You're not going to erase my memory again all the same, after you've given it back to me!"

"What? You've given her back her memory, Majesty!" shouted Jor, who couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I had the weakness to do that indeed," admitted Zogias, who didn't know how to behave.

"But normally, it's forbidden!"

"But there are exceptions." he argued. "And now the subject is closed."

"Not to mention that I saved your life!" reinforced Iris defiantly.

"What!" shouted Jor, increasingly aghast, "you'd needed your life saved, majesty? You!"

"I had, shall we say, another moment of weakness. And that other matter, too, is closed."

"Since all delicate matters are closed, by you, majesty, may I keep my memories intact?" inquired Iris with false confidence.

Another long silence followed this question, then the sovereign sighed and nodded.

"Yes."

She gave a triumphant, happy laugh.

"So great, thank you. So, I can come back as often as I like?"

"What?"

"No time for that, majesty. I'll take you home and we'll call Mahoun to take care of you. He's been really busy lately."

"He's only looking after me."

"That's what I said."

"I'll come with you," Iris decided, following them.

Jor wanted to protest, but Zogias allowed it. The faithful man rolled his eyes.

"It's endless trouble that awaits you, Majesty."

"Yes, I understood that, Jor. From the beginning."


*************************************************

Hello,

The Author there!

Please support me by buying my work on https://payhip.com/DiamantRaobelinaEbooks

Thank you!

Chapter end