"Some welcoming ceremony, huh? Any more and you'd think this was just for us."

The pair walked straight forward in matched stride, azure and amber eyes gliding about the arena surrounding them. From the inside, it was a whole new experience. Its space for fighting on its own outclassed that of the shrine's training grounds threefold, a completely circular expanse of seasoned earth defining a history holding many a clash to its name.

Several lines in the ground indicated borders of the arena, with two marks in the center of the battleground being what he figured would be starting points. Seating in the tens of thousands, set 360 degrees, lined several dozen rows up and outward, nearly reaching the top of the structure's surrounding wall.

There was seldom a spot without its occupant.

"The whole thing is called the Legends Festival. Something tells me that's the point."

At the upper center of the wall furthest from them, a flattened section with large, unsurprisingly gold-plated chairs indicated the royal family's seats. At the edge of the platform, a sort of desk fit with magic circles in front of two more chairs finished their area. He spotted Altar, Alexandria, and Ryder quickly enough, the latter he assumed to be more of an honored guest, as she sat at one of the desk's two spots. Although, there were new faces among them.

More specifically, two.

One was a woman nearly identical to Alexandria, with the same skin tone and apparent visual style, although she appeared overall sharper, wearing a rose-gold cloak over full armor to the collarbone, and stood a good head taller. Her hair was a darker silver than the Princess's, more towards a cold tempered steel, and was set in a bowed ponytail. Despite not being able to make out an eye color from the distance, Kyoya figured from Lyric's looking his way that this was someone she'd mentioned before.

"I'll take it that's this 'Solitaire'?"

"Bingo. Believe me when I say she's even more of a handful than her sister; they're only separated by two years, but she doesn't let that stop her from being about as tough as they come."

"I'll remember to save some respect for the meet-and-greet, then... Y'know, you're great at talking people up, especially if there's room for the person in question to irk me."

The second addition to the Miscreant's list of pending meetings was a younger man, sitting next to Ryder at that second spot. However, younger definitely didn't mean much in terms of height.

Although he wore armor, namely greaves, gauntlets, a jagged steel pauldron on the left shoulder, and a traditional knight's helmet with the visor covering the upper half of his face, he towered over even Altar. At full height, he easily reached seven-seven, and still boasted moderate bulk. Similarly to Solitaire, he stood with crossed arms, casting an ever-imposing look to the approaching Legends.

If Kyoya's first viewing of the King was intimidating, whoever this was blew that out of the water.

"And that giant would be executor Rory Alberick. He's known around here for being one of the best commentators that the dueling face has ever seen, but off the job, he cleans up Altaire's streets... Peacefully. The guy's actually not much of a fighter, but he loves watching it, for whatever reason."

"Talk about a relief..." The boy breathed a sigh at that, resting a bit easier knowing that at least one gaze bearing down on him wasn't one purely judging.

"If that's enough to get you worked up, I wouldn't be excited. Stand straight: we're about to be put on the spot."

As the King rose to his height from the throne, the cheer and chatter quickly died out.

"Welcome, friends and family of Altaire! I do hope that you've rested well from your travels to our Kingdom, and that the time you've committed to this journey is time spent good and well. I'm certain that we've waited plenty long for our opening ceremony, so now that they've arrived, please extend your welcome to Lyric Seraphim and Kyoya Miskrit of the Defiant!"

Just as quickly as it went, the roar of applause returned with a vengeance. Alexandria situated herself next to Ryder, putting the number of active commentators up to three. Then, a pair of voices sounded off from the desk before her. He hadn't noticed it until that point, but they were actually using those magic circles like some kind of speaker, broadcasting voice across the entirety of the arena.

It only made sense that such a clever strategy could be used as something so nit-picky as a microphone.

Rory was the first to speak. He slammed his hands on the table, leaning so far forward that it was a wonder he didn't fall straight off. When he threw a single hand to point down at them, he did so with absolute fervor.

"Here we have it, everyone! We welcome today as the 951st annual Legends' Festival Dueling Tournament!" A second flood of excitement flowed through the crowd, the knight sitting back normally. "As most know it, the name's Rory G. Alberick, representing Altaire as your head commentator and peaceful pacifier extraordinaire. Today I'm joined by our go-to analyst Princess Alexandria Albion, and our extra-special guest, the Mechanical Kingdom's very own Steampunk Showstopper, Allison Ryder!"

A very noticeably more intense wave crashed across the stands as Ryder lived down the hype.

"Thanks, Rory, I can't help but express how much it's a pleasure to be up here and not prepping for my own fight. But, pity parties aside, this year's gonna be a break from the mold, because our reigning champion and resident reincarnation of Hope, little miss Seraphim, got her hands on a real somebody. The blue-topped brawler you see next to her is the one who we've come to know as Kyoya Miskrit, but was known a millennia ago as Kyoaekon of Glory! Let's see what Princess Alexandria has to say for this grudge match like no other!"

Among roaring spectators, the young miss's voice still managed to make a splash. There was a smidge of hesitance, maybe even a bit of nervousness in her tone, but she didn't seem to have any trouble doing away with it once she got going.

"R- Right! Thank you, too, miss Ryder. As for our duelists, mister Kyoya and miss Lyric share the same rank of B-Class Reclaimers, with Power Levels of 3,600 and 3,650 respectively. While the Hope specializes in her Air-Water-Thunder mixed magic, dubbed Storm, the Glory stays true to one element of a strange azure Fire. From the numbers alone, that should be clue enough of their being no laughing matter. What's more, the two of them single-handedly eliminated the Abomination that appeared in the courtyard yesterday evening, so we should all be in for a serious show as our opening match."

"Air-Water-Thunder, again... Makes sense she'd be skilled, but three elements is a bit much." The Miscreant cornered a glance to the Seraph, who maintained a stare to their announcers.

Rory quickly tailed her conclusion.

"You heard it from her highness, people! This'll be one you do NOT wanna miss! That said, it wouldn't be all that great of us to draw this introduction out any longer, so how's about we get miss Solitaire Albion to lay out the duel's rules?"

The Adventurer-Princess stepped forward. There wasn't a place for her at the desk, and it didn't appear that she quite knew of Rory's plan to involve her, either, but nothing about her spoke discomfort.

It came as no surprise that her voice was as sharp as her appearance, being a mixture of husky and keen that almost made her seem as though she were from a completely different line of family than the soft-spoken Alexandria.

"This duel, like any other official function in the arena, will follow the same format as per regulation standard. A time limit of fifteen minutes is allowed, and will start following the conclusion of a thirty-meter power-clash. Victory or defeat will be decided once either party is unable to fight further, unless a draw is reached either by time-out or double-elimination."

Thirty meters was something Kyoya wasn't quite used to. It didn't sound like much of a change at face value, but he also knew that all his life, he'd played from twenty meters. That meant he'd have no way to prepare for adjusting to the extra distance, which he felt definitely had potential to cause an issue or three.

Alas, he shook the thought, instead choosing to burn that bridge when he got to it.

An ever-excited Rory followed up, now raising one hand and pointing toward the sky.

"With the technicalities outta' the way, we here at the commentators' circle say it's high time we got this event going! Duelists, take your positions!"

Kyoya briefly stood still before Lyric turned to face him.

"I'm really looking forward to feeling that fire of yours." She grinned, turning away to walk toward her starting mark. "Don't let me down, 'kay?"

"Didn't plan on it. I'll catch you at the clash."