“The teams—” the host began, gesturing with his hand. The floating orb split into three, then five, and continued multiplying until there were enough to fly into the hands of each participant.

  His was red. And then purple. Green. Red again. It changed second by second.

  “—will be selected according the color. But before starting let me make one thing clear for your all,” the host’s gaze swept through them, a chilling aura dripping from their words. “Fifteen Participants will go into the Forest, and fifteen will come again. Not fourteen, not thirteen or ten. Fifteen. If the number changes—”their voice became quieter, menacing. “Then forget about passing. I’ll start a new season from scratch. Do you understand?”

  This was more than a blatant threat. It meant safety… in some twisted way.

  Chef Dominatom sneered from behind, leaning back on his throne. “Will you led them to the ingredients, too?”

  "You have nothing to say, mister. None of you does," the host said, shaking their head. "Do you know how much production will nag me if they kill each other in the first challenge? Ahhh," they sighed,"I have such hard job, keeping up with your bunch. They should give me a raise."

  That was a feeling Luca could sympathize with... perhaps more so in other circumstances, but—yeah. The point still stood.

  “C'mon!” Chef Tartarus laughed at their words. “Stop being a killjoy and start the challenge before we drop dead of boredom.”

  Chef Harpira didn’t say anything but the way in which she was looking at the host was quite clear.

  The host only shook their head, muttering something that sounded quite similar to “Can you believe them?” before clasping their hands, turning their attention to the groups of Participants.

  “First Challenge, as I’ve already said! Find the ingredients in the forest, don’t kill each other… You’ll have one hour!”

  With a snap of their fingers, a round, red countdown appeared in the air. The numbers looked like they were dripping something black.

  “Meet your team and get going! Look for the darkness! Time starts now~”

  After such words, the orbs finally stuck to one of the colors.

  His was purple.

  Luca glanced around, seeking his teammates.

  “Hey, you’re with me!” A boisterous voice came from behind him, but it wasn’t speaking to Luca’s but to the black-winded demon. They both got purple orbs.

  Leaving his seat, he went to them. Around him, the other demons found their new temporal teammates —including the imp and their four-armed friend, and Imuit with a bunch of demons from the third round.

  “-we’ve only four?”

  Luca cleared his throat, provoking a sudden jolt from the closest demon. “Here,” he showed them the purple orb.

  “Where did you—?”

  “Time is passing by~” the host said, a mix of cheerfulness with something darker.

  “Let’s go!” One of the demons, with hair like green algae and grayish skin hurried them up.

  The black-winged demon scowled but couldn’t say anything as the rest of them quickly headed toward ‘The Forest.’ The entrance was on the opposite side from where they had come. Well, some of them. Considering the state of the demons from the third round—wet, and carrying a salty smell—it seemed as though they had arrived by a different route than Luca’s. The same for the survivors of the First Round.

  A bloody arrow emerged from the floor, pointing to the thorny arch. Luca’s team wasn’t the first one to pass by —that dubious honor belonged to the four-armed demon and their friend. They were lucky enough to avoid the sudden branch that sprout from the arch and tried to ‘pat’ them.

  “Angra’s pants! It’s a Spiny Scavenger!” yelled out another demon, barely avoiding the hit.

  “Careful, dear Participants~ Would be a shame to lose against a plant.”

  The encouraging words of the host —said in the sweetest, most mocking tone Luca had heard before— managed to lit up the spirt of destruction of everyone there. Taking advantage of the fire —figuratively, and then literal when someone sent a fireball straight to the arch—, Luca managed to cross through the mess without a single new injury.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Once he crossed the threshold, the environment changed. Giant trees stood proud, their dark tangerine leaves and sprawling branches forming a colorful canopy, while thick roots mingled with clusters of mouth-like flowers on the forest floor. Thin, sinuous white vines snaked through the dark earth, and faint light seemed to came from everything around.

  Sounds of rustling leaves and a strange bird-like song spread through the air.

  So this is The Forest, thought Luca, glancing around. He hoped that not many of the plants around were poisonous.

  “Oi, don't fall behind,” a demon nagged a black-winged demon, and then halted. “Wait, you aren’t—”

  “We’ve been separated from our teams,” announced Jackal Head, a hint of wariness on his voice.

  “Mr. Shadow is so devilish—”the imp complained from the floor, their tail flickering behind them.

  So, not only had they been randomly divided into teams, but this distribution hadn’t even been respected five seconds later. The show had truly embraced chaos, taking it all the way to the end of the road, hadn’t it?

  At that moment, a growl reached their ears.

  You got to be kidding me, thought Luca, as his eyes caught a hint of dark fur moving among the shadows. Thanks to his Night Vision he was able to find quickly that it was a monster of the size of a bear. But it had too many mouths to be one. Or this was the demonic version?

  Another growl resounded. Saliva dripped on the floor, sliding across the fur, and sharp, very sharp teeth glinted in the dark.

  There was no time to contemplate about this.

  “Imuit, you can do something, right?” asked the nagging demon, stepping back from the direction from where the noise came. Uh. This was one of his teammates.

  Jackal Head raised one of his hands, as if he preparing himself for a spell. And then turned around abruptly. “Run!” Was the only thing he said before sprint forward.

  Luca didn’t hesitate, running with all his might. Without his Acid working, he was anything but a human-shaped snack for that creature.

  “What the-?”

  “Legacies don’t work!” yelled the imp, their voice coming from closer than Luca expected. “Run, idiots!”

  The sound of hurried footsteps was followed by a deep growl. But strangely, the beast didn’t seem to follow them. So after putting ‘enough’ distance between them and the creature, they stopped next to a thick tree.

  “They are crazy!” The demon from the same team than Luca complained. “Sealing our Legacies?!”

  “Maybe they didn’t believe we wouldn’t kill each other,” suggested the imp, resting with his hands on his knees. Despite their ragged breathing, their condition wasn’t so bad like Imuit, who was still unable to speak, according what Luca could see.

  A lot of magic, but a weak body, mused Luca. Then, a new voice joined, but this time was distinctively female. It was the black-winged demon. She had her arms crossed and a frown on her face, looking at them with dissatisfaction.

  “How are we going to find the ingredients?”

  Ah, so she was someone who wanted to go straight to the point.

  “They didn’t give us any direct clue,” said Luca, causing the demon closest to him to suddenly move in an erratic manner. He ignored them. “But the host said we should look for ‘darkness’. Is there any particular place that seems dark to you?”

  The dark-winged demon tsked. “What are you saying? It isn’t obvious that it was only misdirection. That —Mr. Shadow does something like that each season.”

  “Well, do you have another idea?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew this was the right answer but —if they didn’t believe him, then it would be better for his team.

  “Yes,” she raised her chin. “We must cover as much of the forest as possible. That’s the only way we can get the orbs. You think the same, right, Imuit?” Turning at the demon, she played with her orb. It was deep green, as Jackal Head’s.

  Ah, so you’re playing like this.

  “Wait, before starting, shouldn’t we decide about the distribution?” the imp interjected. “We’re from different teams, and we can’t kill each other, so… what did you say about ‘finders, keepers’?”

  “That won’t work,” she said immediately. “Defining who ‘finds it’ is very difficult in this situation. It will only cause unnecessary fights.”

  “Then what? Are you expecting us to gallantly leave it for you or something?”

  “Ha. Was that a joke, or do you simply not know anything besides how to speak nonsense?”

  “The distribution can be arranged by dividing the results according to the number of ingredients and their value,” suggested Imuit, perhaps tired of the discussion.

  But it did matter.

  The end of this ‘treasure hunting’ would be a whole battle.

  “Oi…” The demon who had been strangely quiet until now finally spoke, their voice unusually serious. “Do you hear something?”

  No. Luca’s skin prickled, and his eyes darted around. As they had been talking among themselves, they hadn’t notice as quiet everything had become. Not even that strange bird-like sound could be heard.

  This could only mean one thing.

  “No. What are you trying to—?”

  “Run!” Luca shouted immediately as he spotted the bear-like beast among the trees, not far from them. The beast stood up and growled, the noise echoing on the air like a hoarse drum. He gave a look at the demon who was part of his team, before fleeing, taking a zigzag pattern.

  Luca didn’t wait to see if they were following him.

  It would better if they didn’t.