Golden Gate Empire [IC / No Longer Accepting / PG - 16]

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Morgan glared daggers at Saul at his words. She wasn’t an idiot she could tell exactly what he was implying. He wanted to play that game? She could too. She knew people liked her style of commentary but...

While still glaring at him she spoke sweetly. “Well my dear co-commentator you make some points I suppose but you seem to forget something important about magic. Even when it seems to be an all-out aggressive assault; magic is always a matter of skill and intellect. It’s true that brute force with weaponry is less than effective but this is not simply swinging a sword about at random. The sheer power behind these magical attacks is such that just one hit can utterly overwhelm many opponents. It’s quite practical to send a barrage in a fight because of this. Of course, the good users of magic such as myself know how to combine this assault with skilled maneuvers, all the while making it appear haphazard. We still would need to watch a bit longer to see if they have this talent. But either way it takes skill to defeat even the most basic and aggressive of magic. Those without skill will find themselves unable to handle it, but I’m sure you know that.” She smiled at Saul, reminding him that Elspire, despite his less-skillful abilities, defeated the Titan.

She turned back to the fight to see the Godstone...crumble? Fascinating...What kind of power do these two possess? She had to claim it for herself one way or another...Morgan briefly wondered what an undead half-dragon minion would be like.

[Hälō]

"I say we do this Mexican Style,"

 

"Ripper, you're shaking..." Mephisto's voice seemed to hold small traces of concern as he observed Tyson from within. Upon seeing Howler, the demon noticed an instant change in the man's demeanor; his heart was beating extremely fast, his body seemed to be vibrating with anticipation, but perhaps the most bizarre shift of all was found on his face. Tyson's expression was now one of cold determination, and his eyes held a level of bloodlust that Mephisto had never seen in a human before. Who exactly was this Howler? 

 

"A Three Way Deadlock with Howler?" Tyson finally spoke after what felt like an eternity of silence. "the Howler?!" Every time he uttered the man's name, a small grin seemed to form across Tyson's lips as if he where speaking in the presence of a celebrity.  "Hell yea." He nodded to Dirk, before shifting his gaze to Howler. "Mr.Howler, sir..." He paused for a minute as if trying to find the right words. Ever since Tyson had entered the business of murder, there had been one man who he'd had always considered his superior. He idolized that man, and spent quite a lot of time and money trying to track him down for a single reason... Howler was the best. An angel of death, and a legend among those who walked the bloody path of the slayer. It didn't matter how many souls he sent screaming to hell, demon lords he banished, or even if he won this tournament; no matter what he accomplished, Tyson would never achieve the level of esteem that Howler held- not without putting a bullet in his head.

 

"I just wanna say it's going to be an honor to take a shot at you." He bowed his head respectfully to Howler, his eyes still filled with inhuman bloodlust. 

 

"Alright boys, I'm not really one for tradition... but if I'm gonna dance with Howler, It's only right that we do it by the book." Tyson reached into his pocket, retrieving a large coin that brandished several inscriptions on each of it's faces, all of which seeming to be completely alien in nature. This was a dueling coin used by assassins and hitman alike. The ancient text on it's faces were thought to assure that all combatants were given a glorious passage to the afterlife, though Tyson was the only one of the three that was aware of just how unpleasant the afterlife was going to be for the three men. "When the coin hits the dirt, this bridge becomes a battlefield,"  With a flick of his wrist, Mephisto's chain extended from the sleeve of his trench coat, clattering to the ground with surprising weight. "and a grave."

 

He his burning gaze shifting between his two opponents, Tyson flicked the coin high into the air with his supernatural strength. 

[Dad]

Razerhill City

 

"I say we do this Mexican Style."

 

Dirk had decided on his choice of fight rather quickly.  This was exciting because of the way he expressed himself.  Howler couldn't help but smile, nodding to Dirk silently in respect.  When a man is able to make a conscious decision with no trace of regret or question in his voice, it shows that he's prepared.  Dirk could be regarded as a man who was both prepared and determined.  It would be interesting to see how well he adapted to two opponents who he knew nothing about.  The sun blazed over head, even catching Howler slightly off guard and causing him to squint as he eyed Dirk carefully.  Placing a saluting hand over his forehead to block some of the sun, Howler turned his gaze to Tyson, on the opposite side of the gutter.  The boy was quivering slightly.  Not from a chill, or from worry.  Judging by the look on his face, he had been hit with a big surprise, and he was enjoying it.  

 

"What about you, Mr. Slayer?" Howler said speaking up.

 

"A Three Way Deadlock with Howler?  the Howler?!  Hell yea."

 

Howler kept smiling, nodding in agreement.  A one on one battle between gentlemen was fine, and more than reasonable.  But with time running out, and spectators looking on, these people were expecting a show.  He nodded again, this time to Tyson.  Reaching inside his own coat pocket, Tyson and Dirk flinched slightly, not knowing what to expect.  They were relieved when he pulled a rather hefty cigar from his pocket.  He lifted his helmet, his face obscured by the shade of the bridge, as he placed it between his lips.  "I like your sportsmanship, gents," he said between the cigar, as he pulled a solid silver lighter from his pants pocket.  

 

"Mr.Howler, sir..."

 

Howler looked up from his lighter, with a slight grunt.  "Hm?  What is it son?" he said as if he were mentoring a child of his own.  Howler continued flicking his lighter, until he finally got a spark.  He placed the crisp orange flame gently against the tip of his cigar.  It hugged the cigar tightly, giving way to a powerful array of peculiar scents.  It was rich in flavor, and only made Howler look forward to the end of it as the battle proceeding his cigar would be complimentary.

 

"I just wanna say it's going to be an honor to take a shot at you."

 

Howler chuckled, taking his cigar out of his mouth.  He pointed it at Tyson, nodding as he did so.  "You flatter me Tyson," he said.  "I've taken on man, angel, and demon alike.  You'll be the second hybrid I've encountered since I was twenty-one.  Takin' down a fella like you would make a nice trophy for the grandkids," he joked.  "Tell ya what," he said gesturing to the boy again.  "You beat me, and I'll tell you that story," he said placing the cigar back in his mouth.

 

"Alright boys, I'm not really one for tradition... but if I'm gonna dance with Howler, It's only right that we do it by the book." 

 

The boy took a recognizable coin from his pocket, that Howler was both happy and dismayed to see.  "So it's true," he thought to himself.  The coin had many names, but traveled only in circles of a hitman or an assassin.  The Serpentine--as Howler knew it--was a coin that originated some time long before he was born.  But it was something that people like himself used when they knew they were in for a good fight.  It was said that the Serpentine meant two things:  a secured passage to the afterlife, and a fight that no combatant involved would ever have leave their memory.  In short, it was valuable among those who were in this line of work, if only for its message.

 

"When the coin hits the dirt, this bridge becomes a battlefield.  And a grave."

 

Howler took a long drag from his cigar, as he watched Tyson flip the coin high into the air.  And everything seemed to slow down.  As he inhaled, Howler began to think.  Even with the cigar at his mouth, he was on a natural high.  He felt good, as the sun gleamed off of the coin mid flip, and he could make out one of its two faces.  As he exhaled the smoke from his cigar, the coin finally began to plummet.  He topped off his cigar, and placed it in a sealed container inside his coat pocket.  It fell slowly, turning over and over.  Howler patiently put his helmet back over his head, as it hissed, locking over his shoulders.  As the coin fell closer to the earth, Howler locked eyes with Tyson, before changing his stance with either of his arms facing Howler or Dirk.  And as the Serpentine clattered against concrete, Howler drew from his jacket two very large, and incredibly effective modified weapons.

 

On his right, now pointed at Tyson, was a grenade launcher, especially designed by and for Howler.  On his left was a double barreled shotgun, also designed by and for Howler.  Each gun was not what it appeared, and assuming so would only get Tyson or Dirk killed.  It would be best to simply, "Play ball."  Howler let off one grenade at Tyson, and two rapid buck shots at Dirk.

 

 

Godstone Valley

 

The arena floor quickly turned to bubbling mud, and then to molten lava.  Ilgad could feel his power slipping away, as he looked to the skies.  "So.  You have forsaken me.  Brother."  Ilgad turned his eyes to Elspire, as the arena itself began to erupt.  "Let's end this quickly.  Boy."  He took to the skies with his remaining strength, and charged Elspire as he took his sword into his hands.  It became ablaze with fire, and Elspire would find that touching the sword would cause him immense pain.  But Ilgad had no intentions of allowing Elspire to suffer.  His intentions were to quiet the dragon-boy quickly, and with precision.  His speed increased at extreme rates, until Ilgad was nothing more than a passing blur.  He moved so quickly, in fact, that upon making contact with Elspire, and slamming his forehead against the boy, Ilgad and Elspire were both sent reeling backwards.  A powerful shockwave of thunder erupted from the location in which they butted heads.

 

"It seems you've lucked out, Elspire!" Ilgad said, charging in.  "I was unable to locate the Philosopher's Stone that your comrade dropped!"  He blinked behind Elspire, and kicked him backwards towards the cliffside.  "You were probably unaware of its existence.  But I could smell it on her!"  Ilgad charged again, shoving Elspire into the cliffside, and holding him in place by his throat.  "But with my godly powers fading slowly away, I've already lost touch with the artifact.  Immortality is now once again out of my reach."  He struck Elspire with a strong right hook.  "And now with the destruction of the Godstone, I've been deemed a traitor.  Thanks to you!"  He pummeled Elspire, punching and kicking the boy deeper into the cliff, creating a massive crater.  "You and that little jabroni.  How dare you assault me!?  On terms of which the likes of you could not possibly hope to understand!"  Ilgad kicked out of Elspire's chest, and floated dangerously above the lava now.  He drew back an empty hand, as a dark sphere of pure black magic began to shape in it.

 

It writhed with evil intent, lashing out at the environment around it.  The sphere looked to be a mass of black tentacles, with a beating black heart at its center.  The sky cracked as Ilgad spoke, and the sphere only grew larger.  "Therefore, with the last of my godly powers, I condemn you, Elspire.  For your sins, for your trespassing on holy ground, and for your very existence."  The sphere of dark magics had now expanded to be more than fifty times Ilgad's size, and it was being held above the former god by sheer will alone.  "I banish you to the depths of nothingness.  Forever.  Black Magnitude."  And as Ilgad threw the sphere at Elspire, he felt his armor shatter, and his ethereal body had become exposed.

[Mr. Hyde]

 

 

The ground beneath him had so quickly boiled into a magma, the product of Ilgad's raw power.  "Let's end this quickly.  Boy." 

 

"I couldn't agree mo-..."

 

It was like lightning...no...it was way faster than that.  Ilgad had become the lightning, and Elspire was the thunder.  His head was in intense pain, as the two traded headbutts.  But as the saying goes, nobody wins from a headbutt.  The two were sent reeling backwards in the air, the force from their collision still prominent.

 

"It seems you've lucked out, Elspire!" In the blick of an eye, Ilgad was back on the offensive.  "I was unable to locate the Philosopher's Stone that your comrade dropped!"  A swift kick dealt from behind sent him hurtling into the mountain. "You were probably unaware of its existence.  But I could smell it on her!" What was all this talk about a sociologists pebble?  It was really hard for Elspire to think while a god was choking you out. "But with my godly powers fading slowly away, I've already lost touch with the artifact.  Immortality is now once again out of my reach." Another blow right to the kisser.  It had been some time since Elspire had received this much punishment.  "And now with the destruction of the Godstone, I've been deemed a traitor.  Thanks to you!"  Elspire could feel himself being smashed deeper and deeper into the cliffside.  "You and that little b****.  How dare you assault me!?  On terms of which the likes of you could not possibly hope to understand!"

 

Ilgad took time from his pummeling of the half dragon to gather dark energy into an orb like attack.   "Therefore, with the last of my godly powers, I condemn you, Elspire.  For your sins, for your trespassing on holy ground, and for your very existence."  Elspire's vision had become blurry, but he knew the attack before him would surely be the end of him.  "I banish you to the depths of nothingness.  Forever.  Black Magnitude."

 

"Well...I wanted to say I gave you some sort of hassle IL...but it seems that you hadn't even broken a sweat until I broke that dumb stone."  Elspire laughed, blood spattered the stone around him.  "I'll take some pride in the fact that it took a worn out demi-god to beat me."  Elspire prepared for his end, as his dragon scales faded, and he was left in tattered clothing.

 

"Bormah?!" A voice rang out in his head.  That's right..he had someone waiting for him now.  Something to fight for that he had forgotten.  More images shown in his head, Arisu sacrificing herself to destroy the godstone, his mother's warm embrace.  That's right...this is what it felt to fight for something...

 

A flash appeared from within the hole, as the black sphere crashed into the mountain.  A large explosion lay the mountain to waste, but it gave Elspire a cool scenery to go against.  He wasn't completely in his dragonform, rather his wings were the only thing to be created from the power he had mustered.  His clothes, hair, and wings all blew in the air that were created from the explosion behind him.  "You know dragons were the first to invent cool guys don't look at explosions?"

 

comeback

 

Elspire appeared all bruised, and worn down.  His breathing was heavy, but he wore a smile on his face.  He gazed upon Ilgad's true, and hopefully final, form.  "So much for banishing me huh?  Sorry for being so stubborn!"  His tone turned deathly serious.  "But listen here Ilgad...you don't seem the type to be wearing some sort of godly mantel.  Your hatred is misplaced among mortals.  Someone with great power who doesn't protect people, rather destroy entire races, doesn't seem worthy of being called a god if you ask me."  He looked towards the sky.  "You say your brothers have forsaken you?  It seems the other way around.  It looks to me like you give the gods a bad rep."  He tightened his left fist, and cocked it back.  A dragon like head, similar to his in dragonform, had manifested itself out of electricity surrounding his fist, and up his arm.  "If the rest of them are as bad as you though...I'll continue defying the gods and my fate!"  Elspire lunged forward, delivering his blow towards the defenseless Ilgad.

 

"FIST OF THE LIGHTNING DRAGON!"

[VCR_CAT]

Dirk: Razerhill City

 

The coin had been tossed, and Dirk immediately sprinted backwards. As the disk of metal struck the ground, Dirk spied Howler drawing a double-barreled shotgun on Dirk.

 

"Sh*t!" Dirk exclaimed, forming a full-body riot shield of shimmering blue light in front of him. The first buckshot split into multiple projectiles; impacting against the blue shield hard; bright flashes of light exploding as they hit the hard-light surface. The second hit in a similar manner; breaking the shield in a blinding flash. Several of the shrapnel bits cut into Dirk's legs and waste as they burst through the shield; cutting a shallow ways into Dirk's flesh. Luckily, Dirk had time to dive behind a large chunk of concrete in the dried basin, loading his gun as the pace of his breathing quickened.

 

"Looks like this will harder than I thought," Dirk muttered, poking his head and gun out and firing two shots back to Howler in response. Hopefully he wasn't prepared for the beefiness of Dirk's bullets.

 

 

Saul: Observation Tower

 

There was tense moment where Saul glared down at Morgan for her comment, but one that was either broken, or made more tense as Saul erupted in thunderous laughter.

 

"So your tongue truly is faster than your brain, your reputation precedes you," Saul laughed, keeping an eye on Elspire's feed to be sure that if there was a way to stop Ilgad, that he would learn it from there. Meanwhile, Dirk and Tyson's fight was progressing and Saul knew he should probably focus on that one as well. "Now, for the Blonde Fool's fight. So far it looks like if there's one thing he does right, it's knowing to fall back and earn some space so that he may know his opponent fights; but I doubt he has thought into his plan that much."

 

Saul knew of the silly ship involving the amateur witch and that blonde idiot, and thought the whole thing was a waste of time. So far it looked like the amateur witch was more into it to, at some point, take Dirk's winnings from him if he earns any and leave him to die; and it seemed that Dirk very well knew that. With that thought, Saul smiled to himself as he considered actually making his own poll, and tentatively used the keyboard, still discovering that his fingers weren't the proper size for the keys. After several attempts, each resulting in the same broken english, Saul gave up on the poll system and decided that he should just stick to the commentaries instead.

[Dad]

Godstone Valley

 

BGM:  Ghost and Glass

 

For a moment, everything around them went dark.  The 'Black Magnitude' as Ilgad had called it, crashed into the mountain, seemingly washing over Eslpire and engulfing him.  This however, was not the case.  The boy emerged from the blast almost unscathed.  His bruises, scars, and beating were obvious, but he had not yet fallen.  Mustering the last of his strength, Elspire gathered a powerful energy in his hand, as Ilgad looked on through empty eyes.  

 

". . . listen here Ilgad . . .Your hatred is misplaced among mortals . . ."

 

He grinned, a thoughtless smile crossing his face.  "Perhaps, Elspire.  Perhaps," he said lowering his now shattered arms.  His spiritual body began to break, and Ilgad started to take on a fleshly form.  He was returning to his original state.  As a human.  

 

". . . you give the gods a bad rep . . .If the rest of them are as bad as you. .  .I'll continue defying the gods. . . "

 

His head hanging low, Ilgad now floated naked, shielding himself with what little strength he had.  Before Elspire now was a bald, naked man with pale white skin and burned, ineligible markings on his head and chest.  A toothy smile adorned him, as he raised his head to look his foe in the face.  And in Ilgad's final moments, he gave Elspire a warning.  

 

"Perhaps, Elspire," he said wheezing.  "You are more naive than I thought.  If it is the gods you fear, then it is you who will fall victim to the greatest danger mankind has ever faced.  AND YOU WILL BE FOREVER TRAPPED, IN THE WORLD OF A MAD MAN!!" he screamed, laughing as Elspire charged forward.

 

"FIST OF THE LIGHTNING DRAGON!"

 

And as Elspire attacked, Ilgad simply threw his head back in acceptance, still cackling at the thought of his siblings allowing him to become mortal again.  Elspire's attack pierced through Ilgad's chest, causing the man's eyes to widen.  He looked up to Elspire, and threw his arms over the boy, pulling him closer.  "When you learn the truth," he whispered, his blood running down Elspire's arm.  "You'll find I was right, Elspire."  He shoved the boy's arm further into his chest, until Elspire could feel Ilgad's heart beating.  "And you will know.  All of you will know."  Choking on his own blood, Ilgad collapsed atop of Elspire, his heart dying in the boy's hand.

 

 

Razerhill City

 

When Dirk took the shots head on with a suddenly crafted Riot Shield, Howler smiled.  "There's that fire," he thought to himself, watching Dirk dive behind a heavy rock.  The man quickly retaliated with two shots of his own, the gunfire ringing out and rocking the normally quiet streets of Razerhill.  Howler flipped backwards, barely avoiding the bullets as they whizzed past his torso.  "I dunno what you're packin' son," he said nodding his helmet.  "But by the sound of that gun, I'd say it's roughly a .45.  I could be wrong, but even so, that's a mighty big weapon you got for this here tournament," he said aiming his shotgun to the left of Dirk's hiding spot.  "I'm not willin' to test those bullets," he said with a chuckle.  Howler reloaded his shotgun, before blasting two more rounds near what he assumed would be Dirk's feet.  The bullets would spread wide on impact, and likely shred through him if he didn't move quickly enough.

 

And meanwhile, on the opposite side of Howler, the grenade he launched at Tyson had stopped in mid air.  It cracked open, spinning rapidly as it leaked a noxious and toxic green fume.  "I wouldn't inhale if I were you, Mr. Slayer," he said nodding at his grenade now.  "That there is lethal enough to put a fully grown demon under.  Someone as young as you would go down a lot faster."

 

The grenade shot towards Tyson at incredible speeds, targeting him as it continued to release a vile poison behind it.  The poison stuck to the ground, corroding it quickly and destroying whatever it touched.  Even so, Howler wasn't letting up.  He loosed two additional grenades towards Tyson, each of them cracking and now spewing poison throughout the air as they hunted him down.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

Death is, for the most part, painful. Not even dying times after times before lessened the pain.

 

Perhaps the fact that she kept on being reset was the reason why she couldn't be used to the pain. That's probably the price she was paying for taking this path. It's not something that she regretted, however. It's far too late for her to feel any regret about it.

 

It was dark.

 

Stuck at her stone, she was unable to see anything as she waited a time to re-emerge safely. She could feel that the battle continued to rage on outside, however. The ridiculous display of magical prowess - the entire showcase of the destructiveness of a god's and a dragon's magic, she could feel it continuing to ravage the land. For one, she felt a bit ashamed that she had to cowardly hide behind her philosopher's stone and wait until the battle wore out both before she could take them out at once. It felt dirty, and while she usually wouldn't be too concerned with something like that...it felt different this time.

 

Maybe because she kind of cared about Elspire? Just like how she didn't kill Fate in the last round, it seemed that her own personal sentiment had gotten the better part of her. For once, she felt like it'd be so wrong if she just reappear like that, and used the fact that Elspire was tired to deal the final blow and win the round.

 

"...Tch,,,who the hell am I anyway? Am I really Arisu Itakura at this point...?

 

...That girl's been dead for a while, isn't she?"

 

Well, duh. Of course.

 

Maybe just for once...she should go on and on following her own heart. A momentary detour from her project wouldn't be too bad after all.

 

 

May this heart of stone be filled with light.

May this cursed soul be enlightened.

For this ground to be the foundation

Let the souls pour, pour, and pour.

Pouring, spinning endlessly.

 

May this frozen flower blossom once more.

 

 

"...

 

...

 

...It's already over, huh."

 

Standing on top of the scorched grounds that had been tainted by the black magic of earlier, Arisu was only able to watch as the battle between the god and Elspire had concluded from the sidelines. Her guess, more or less, had been confirmed by how drained Elspire looked right now. The scenery around her was a silent proof on the destructive battle that had just happened there while she was absent. The god himself had collapsed on Elspire, after seemingly suffering a direct final hit into himself courtesy of the lightning dragon.

 

For all intents and purposes, what was left in the end, were her and Elspire. Whoever would defeat the other could go on into the next round. At this point, she had the greatest chance of winning. Elspire was tired and wounded, and she was still completely fresh after she was revived. He didn't even seem to notice her presence yet, so it could even take her just one attack to finish him off and go onward. Pointing her index finger at the dragon, several icicles appeared around her, all aimed at him and waiting her command to be fired. Even if this failed and Elspire ended up having enough stamina left to defeat her, she could just reset herself once more since she doubted he would figure out her trick at this point.

 

"...Dammit...no...I couldn't just...this is not the ending that I wanted."

 

The icicles she summoned melted as she withdrew her hand back. She couldn't bring herself to do it. She's not cruel enough to do it. Not to someone that was this nice to her earlier. Not to someone that tried to protect her earlier.

 

There must be another way that she could take here.

 

"E..Elspire...I..." She weakly called out to the dragon man who was still holding the dying god on his hands. Probably he wouldn't be able to hear her, but she couldn't really bring herself to get to him right now. Taking everything into consideration, as much as she wished for it to go in another way, at this point they were opponents that should eliminate the other. Mustering more power into her voice, Arisu started to speak once more.

 

"Elspire...I...I'm sorry.

 

I just...I don't want to hurt you...so...please just surrender!

I'm sorry for hiding away as you tried your best in defeating him...I'm sorry for playing dirty when you've been so nice to me! But...just...please...please let me win!" Without her intending for it to be so, her voice started to sound more and more desperate as she continued to speak.

 

"Just...please let me win...and...let's return together after this, Elspire..."

 

---

[Mr. Hyde]

 

Without meaning to, Elspire had punched directly into Ilgad's chest.  The pumping blood was escaping from the newly created orifice, and Elspire could feel the pulsating of Ilgad's heart.

 

 "And you will know.  All of you will know."  

 

And with that, Ilgad slumped onto Elspire.  The once god, with a smile on his face, had passed away.  His last words were sure to haunt Elspire for the next oncoming weeks.  What did he mean by all of that anyways.  Elspire had to force his fist out of the man's chest. the heart no longer beating to the rhythm of life.  With the only thing keeping Ilgad in the air being ripped away, the corpse fell to the ground.  Elspire wheezed and gasped for air.  He looked to his arm, painted with the blood of a dead god.  Closing his eyes, gravity took control of him, and his wings disappeared in a flash of energy.  He plummeted towards Earth, and landed right next to Ilgad.  

 

"I won't let this world fall into the hands of a mad man...that I promise.  Sorry about the whole killing you thing IL..."  His eyes were closing by themselves now, he was just so tired.  Had he won...He should've won when Arisu was caught in that explosion.  It's not as if Ilgad was his opponent the whole time...then why hadn't the round ended right then and there?

 

"Elspire...I...I'm sorry.

 

That voice...it was almost blissful.  It would be quite the lullaby to fall asleep to.

 

I just...I don't want to hurt you...so...please just surrender!

 

He remembered the last time he tried to surrender...Gerald had no interest in letting the fight run stale.  He imagined he wouldn't let this one end so easily either.  As a matter of fact...Elspire had to win...what was he fighting for again?  Stratus that's for sure...but there was something Elspire must've forgotten about.  A vision of the outline of a burly man took the place of the darkness that was accumulating.  "Dad?"  That's right...he had to find his dad.  He wasn't going to be able to if he couldn't win this.

I'm sorry for hiding away as you tried your best in defeating him...I'm sorry for playing dirty when you've been so nice to me! But...just...please...please let me win!"

 

"How did you....come back Arisu...."  His eyes finally opened, and as he looked to the side, there he saw Arisu standing.  "That explosion...there's no way...Sociologists Pebble..."  Elspire's mind cut to when he was fighting Ilgad, as he talked about a supposed Philosopher's Stone.  Elspire remembered his mother talking about such a powerful magical artifact, but he forgot what it was capable of and how one might be able to obtain such a thing.  "Arisu I-"

 

"Just...please let me win...and...let's return together after this, Elspire..."

 

Her voice sounded desperate, and all too sincere.  He had seen this girl in a totally different light.  She was strong, and caring...not to mention a pretty tops mage.  Elspire struggled to muster the strength to push himself off the ground.  He managed to sit with his legs crisscrossed, and he smiled.  The bruises and blood were sprinkled around every inch of his body.  His eyes turned from cheery to gloom ridden.  "Arisu...I don't think Gerald's going to let both of us walk out of here without being knocked out...or killed.  Gotta get those ratings you know..."  his chuckle was faint..no heart behind it.  "You wouldn't happen to know any lightning magic would you...cause if so...I'm pretty hungry at the moment."   

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"We don't really have any choices regarding this...huh?

 

I really don't want to continue...

 

...But i cannot afford to lose."

 

Flicking her fingers, Arisu immediately followed her words by creating several balls of lightning and firing it straight at Elspire, before being capped off with a thunderstrike from the heavens above. Arisu was well aware of what she was doing, but she still tried to give off some impression that she was doing it as an attack instead of her attempt to get Elspire back on his feet once more. Seeing the result of her "assault", the magus tried her best attempt to look surprised of the fact that the lightning did not hurt Elspire at all, before she discarded it and replaced it with a smile.

 

"There's that, I guess. See, I've attacked you, so I must be your enemy now. There's no reason for you to hold yourself back against me now."

 

The girl took a deep breath. What came next would be the true battle. Having discarded all of her advantages just for the sake of a dignified battle with Elspire, she knew that her chance of winning became almost abysmal. It seemed that her own feelings and sentiment did make her stupid. Not that she regretted this decision at all. There's no reason for her to regret it.

 

"If I die here, my Philosopher's Stone will simply revive me. As you said, Gerald's desire is to see an interesting fight before he'd let any of us leave this place...so I really hope that you don't hold back even if that would mean I'll die.

 

I'll fight you here until the pain becomes too unbearable for me to continue. That's what you should do if you want to stop me. If you want to still win.

 

I...I don't want to hurt you...but...I don't want to lose!

 

Elspire, this is it! Hit me with your best shot...since I will stop pulling any punches now too!"

 

 

 

Battle: VS Arisu Itakura

 

BGM: Rising Star Nova

 

"I'll start!" Loudly declaring her intention to attack, Arisu held her Philosopher's Stone right before her as magical energy started to gather on it, taken from the remaining magical reserves from the desecrated blessed land. A thin ray of scarlet started to form on it, and it then soon solidified itself into a blade.

 

"Phantom Fog Blade: Distant Scarlet Rain!" Once the sword had fully formed, she immediately made a move away from her previous location as she activated her Illusion World. She obscured her own figure by flooding the area of her illusion with black mist, while she started to conjure illusion copies of her sword all around Elspire. Each of them had been imbued with magic to be tangible enough to hurt and slice like a very sharp blade would, but they were brittle enough to break before they could create a deep wound on someone. An attack intended to wake the sleeping dragon, more or less.

 

Glints from the illusion blades started to overshadow the darkness caused by the illusory mist. Having surrounded Elspire with these blades, Arisu stopped herself from running around, returning to her previous position while still being obscured by the mist and the indistinct blades. The girl closed her eyes for a second, thinking about what she would do next and what would probably happen after it, before she made a hand gesture to rain off the blades at Elspire. It definitely wouldn't kill him...but maybe...

 

I could just beat him up to an inch of his life. i...really don't want to lose after all.

 

It kinda have stopped being only about me, after all.

 

"Elspire...for one last time, I'm sorry. But I need to win, so I'll beat you up until you can't continue if that means we can return together!"

 

---

[Astolfo]

It was a new day, but Lotte couldn’t shake off a disgusted feeling. Sure, it wasn’t like he cared about those criminals’ lives anyways, they were probably going to be sentenced to death sooner or later. Knowing that he was directly the cause of their death solely because he was too hasty and didn’t think everything through was another matter. Man, this sucked. Splashing cold water on his face, he stared at his reflection, wondering what others saw in there, saw of him, saw of what he had done. The stupid rush to kill had probably dropped his popularity some, but it’s not like that ever mattered, the crowd were just stupid bloodmongers. His mind flashed to the psychic girl from before, and Lotte banged his head against the rock wall, immediately regretting it when he felt the inevitable jolt of pain. Grimacing, Lotte muttered under his breath.

 

”Why does she even matter? It’s not like I care about what she thinks either.” On the plus side, the sharp pain had snapped him fully awake.

 

Getting dressed, he flicked through the manila folder that contained the information that could be the difference between winning and losing.

 

”’The Boiling Depths’? Oh, great, I get to fight inside Hell. And of course, there’s the fire critters that can rip my flesh off, if they don’t end up incinerating it first. My cloak’s going to just get in the way, and it’s not like any of the clothing I have would stop that lava or any actual attacks.”

 

Throwing off his cloak, Robert opted for a lighter, short-sleeve hoodie and belted shorts in the same white color. This would at least help with not practically sweating to death in the upcoming arena. Striding out of his room, and ready to rumble, Lotte headed towards the elevators that would take him to the helicopter pads. Drowning out the droning of the popularity polls and the fans and enemies swarming around all of the contestants that were heading upwards much like him, he deftly boarded. Reclining back almost lazily, he motioned at the pilot to go ahead and fly. His buff should help him decently in the upcoming fight, and he really didn’t think he was going to lose, let alone die.

 

---

”Goddamn, that’s hot.”

 

Immediately after stepping off his ride, a sweltering wave of heated air swept directly into his face. It felt restrictive and cloggy, and it disgusted Lotte. Wandering through the caves, careful not to accidentally step on unstable rock, Lotte glanced around. Everything was in various shades of red. Remembering the picture of his opponent that he had seen being paraded around with all the other successful fighters like him, he wondered how his fancy-schmancy suited-up opponent would stand in this molten arena. It almost certainly wouldn’t be comfortable, to say the least. Wiping the sweat off his brow, he couldn’t shake the feeling things weren’t going to go quite as well as the last round.

[Hälō]

Razerhill City

 

Reacting quickly to Howler’s fist attack, Tyson thrusted his fist forward towards the mysterious projectile, letting loose a small fist sized fireball to intercept the grenade in mid-air. Upon coming into contact with the supernatural flame, Howler’s grenade erupted into a toxic green liquid that became to sizzle and erode the ground bellow. 

 

“Acid?” Tyson’s eyes lit up with both glee and hellfire as the thrill of combat began to creep in. Watching as Dirk skillfully dodged the attack aimed at his direction, then fired off a few shots of his own, Tyson knew exactly what his next move would be.

 

“Ripper, our flame is the strongest it’s ever been…” Mephisto’s voice was a cool whisper. The demon was referring of course to the buff the pair had received from the hotel before the match had started.  “Show them.”  

 

“Waaaay ahead of you…” Hell fire danced across Tyson’s fingertips as he swung his arms wide to either side. Channeling the otherworldly flame, the Ripper hastily slammed both arms together with his palms spread wide towards Howler. “Howler!” He called out to the other man whilst he was occupied with Dirk’s attack, a large sphere of fire slowly growing in the center of his hands. “I got something for ya too!”  Gritting his teeth, Tyson twisted both arms clockwise, unleashing a swirling torrent of soul scorching fire towards his opponent

 

 

[Mr. Hyde]

---

---

 

[spoiler=Arisu V.S. Elspire Part 1]

 

bgm

 

Elspire was impressed.  Up until this point, he had only seen Arisu use Ice Magic.  The girl had created spheres of electricity for an appetizer, and finished with the main course of a lightning bolt.  Elspire gobbled the attacks up, inhaling the element akin to his.  He covered his mouth as he let held back a rather forceful burp.  He felt revitalized, energy surged through his body, but his wounds still remained.  After all, Elspire didn’t possess any means to heal himself.  “That’s some tasty electricity you make Ari!”  He licked his lips.  

 

"If I die here, my Philosopher's Stone will simply revive me. As you said, Gerald's desire is to see an interesting fight before he'd let any of us leave this place...so I really hope that you don't hold back even if that would mean I'll die.

 

So that’s what the Philosopher’s stone was capable of, regenerating one’s being.  A handy artifact for sure, how did one such as herself come to possess such an item?  

 

I'll fight you here until the pain becomes too unbearable for me to continue. That's what you should do if you want to stop me. If you want to still win.

 

I...I don't want to hurt you...but...I don't want to lose!

 

Elspire, this is it! Hit me with your best shot...since I will stop pulling any punches now too!"

 

Elspire had finally arose from his sitting position.  He cracked his necks and knuckles, and rolled his shoulders.  “Alright Arisu...I’m coming at you with everything I’ve got!”  In the next moments, the field had become layered in a black mist-like substance.  He could barely see the outline of Arisu in the distance, but a glimmer of red light made him wary of an oncoming attack.  Swords started hovering around him, appearing from the mist.  Elspire had put up his arms in an attempt to block the oncoming onslaught.  

 

And then it came down upon him, a hail of steel and sharpness.  Elspire did his best to deflect any blade that came his way, but he was highly unsuccessful.  The sheer multitude of blades broke through his defenses, but they didn’t cut as deep as he had thought they would.  Was it his dragon scales that were preventing most of the damage, or was Arisu holding back herself?

 

"Elspire...for one last time, I'm sorry. But I need to win, so I'll beat you up until you can't continue if that means we can return together!"

 

Elspire did his best to continue his defenses, but a smile broke out across his cut-ridden face.  “I can’t lose here either Arisu...but I want to return with you as well.”  Static enveloped his body, and a mighty lightning bolt had come down from the sky.  Elspire had again donned his dragon form.  The blades now simply bounced off his hardened dragon scales.  His vision was still blurred, but he found Arisu’s scent...the sweet aroma.  He took in a deep breath, and unleashed a beam of lightning from his mouth in her direction.

 

“Roar of the Lightning Dragon!”

 

 

The attack caught Arisu by surprise, but she was still managed to direct her jewel sword at the beam of lightning as it started to reach her. Gritting her teeth to withstand the pain of getting directly hit by the shock, Arisu focused her magic towards the stone to have it act as a lightning rod to soften the blow for her and to resupply herself with some energy. The attack soon subsided, leaving the blue-haired magus with singed clothes and a bit of a bad hair job, clearly still reeling from the pain but standing firmly despite of that.

 

“The fog seem like it’s not serving its function anymore...huh.

 

Alright then.” With a movement from her hand, the thick mist disappeared and the two combatants was able to see each other clearly once more. Arisu was a bit surprised that the dragon was capable of pinpointing her location as easily as that. “The fact that it’s completely flat here is disappointing, but well...I should work with what I have instead.”

 

Casting several simple spell on her legs to increase her speed in preparation of what she’s going to do next, Arisu then summoned several icicles and rained them down at Elspire as she started to move around the battlefield. While the previous attack was just to make sure that he was fully intent to battle her, this one was intended to find how much punishment could his dragon skin take.

 

 

His lightning had landed a direct hit.  Upon contact with Arisu, Elspire flinched.  He held out his claws and started to ask if she was okay.  Upon further inspection, she seemed to take minor injury, but her hair was frazzled.  He let go a sigh of relief.  

 

The mist was gone now, the two combatants could clearly see each other now.  

 

“No more tricks huh?” he asked in a state of surprise.  A crashing sound was heard from above him, and shards of ice could be seen falling from around his head and shoulders.  The icicles had come from above, but shattered on impact.  One fragment of an icicle spear tip had lodged itself in Elspire’s shoulder.  He quickly sent a pulse of electricity to both melt, and cauterize the wound.  “Ice try Arisu!...I don’t know why...but Ice has always been good against dragons…”  

 

Elspire’s wings shot out.  With a quick flap, he was airborne.  Arisu might’ve had  a larger magical arsenal than his, but his maneuverability was drastically better.  At least that’s what he was hoping.  Elspire threw his hand into the air, and a spear of electricity manifested into his palm.  “Lance of the Thunder Dragon!”  As he threw the spear towards Arisu, Elspire raised his other hand to recreate the same attack.  “Lance of the Thunder Dragon Storm!”  One after the other, Elspire continuously threw electric spears down onto the grounded Arisu.

 

 

Arisu gave no commentary of her own as she utilized the speed gain from her magic earlier to try dodging the raining electric javelins from the now flying dragon. She barely dodged some of them, grazed some other, and had one skirting dangerously close to her back, to the point of scorching it with the heat. She winced in pain as it happened, but the magus regained her focus as the javelins continued to fall.

 

“Ugh...guess this leaves me with no choices…”

 

Arisu continued to dodge the javelins barely as she tried to find a suitable place to attack the floating dragon above. He kept on following her like a stormcloud, so it was getting harder and harder for her to dodge, and not to mention her earlier speed buff was slowly disappearing. However, soon she managed to reach the point where the Godstone used to be placed, and with that realization, the magus smiled as she prepared her next spell, covering herself with an ice barrier beforehand as a temporary measure to protect herself from the storm.

 

“I’m not too good with this element yet but…

Raging wind, accompany the thunderstorm and dance around the battlefield in a mesmerizing circle!

 

Tornado Sign: Wind of the Lost Promise!”

 

From the focal point of the arena, a tornado formed and went on to rage around the battlefield, with Arisu at its eye. It was clear that she was not controlling it properly, having it more as a rough attempt of her part to drop Elspire from his position to nullify his airborne advantage.

 

“El...guess it’s time for us to continue our dance.”

 

Arisu realized that she would need to find a way to somehow refill her mana pool, even if she said the above words with the utmost confidence. She knew that she’s only capable to fire off two big spells after this one’s over, so either she should find a way to recharge her magical circuits, or she would need to die again. That would be an ugly way to keep up, but that’s her best shot right now since unless she could somehow harness everything that still remained from the Godstone’s or the valley’s innate magic, she wouldn’t be able to gather enough mana to recover herself significantly enough for it to be worth the effort.

 

 

His barrage of Lightning spears seemed to be giving Arisu a lot more than she could handle.  She still managed to dodge his attacks, which was mainly a good thing.  He didn’t particularly want to impale this girl.  As she danced, dodged, and weaved around the shower of lightning, she managed to find an opening to counterattack.  

 

A raging wind had touched down on the battlefield.  The air was much harder to navigate, and his wings were buffeted by the gale force winds.  A cyclone had appeared around Arisu, and it was making it impossible for Elspire to maintain his aerial mobility.  

 

“This rides getting too bumpy!  Let me off!”  However, the half-dragon cooked up a hair brained scheme.  He flew towards the tornado, making sure to dodge debris that had been lifted off the ground.  He was flying in circles now, going with the rotation of the cyclone.  The speed was creating G-forces of unbelievable magnitudes, a merry-go-round on crack!

 

“Faster!  FASTER!”  An aura of electricity enveloped Elspire.  He used his momentum to rocket to the top of the Cyclone, where he saw Arisu controlling the tempest.  Aiming in the eye of the storm, Elspire shot towards here, his fist gaining the majority of the aura that had surrounded him moments before.  He made sure to aim for the ground, and not Arisu herself.  

 

“QUAKE OF THE LIGHTNING DRAGON!”

 

 

“...Well, it seems that you’re making the choice for me. Thanks, I guess.

 

...This is going to hurt huh...”

 

Noticing Elspire coming towards her direction, the magus smiled before she moved away from her current position-

 

-straight into the direction that Elspire was aiming with his attack. Turning around to see the dragon face-to-face, soon afterwards Arisu was hit will the full brunt of the attack - the dragon’s fist punched right through her chest. Seeing that happen, within her last breath, the girl uttered one last spell to use up what was left of her current mana pool.

 

“Fire...bathe this land and purify all taints!

 

Holy Flare: Subterranean Prominence!”

 

As she drew her last breath, the ground erupted with an inferno.

 

 

Elspire’s attack landed...but that’s the last thing he had wanted.  His fist barreled through her chest, like a searing hot rod through a bar of butter.  His eyes widened, as he felt Arisu’s life left her body.  

 

“Ari no...I...I didn’t mean to…”  His apology was interrupted but an incantation.  It was then that an inferno shot up from the ground, incinerating the two in a melting heat.  Elspire’s scales had soaked up most of the fire, but as soon as the flames had extinguished, he was shown again in his human form, knelt down on his knees.  

 

“Why...why do you still hesitate, Elspire?” Amidst the subsiding inferno, the presence of Arisu was clear as she slowly rematerialized again after being purified by the flames. “I have said the truth about my ability...so why?

 

If...if you don’t want to hurt me...why didn’t you just stop..?

 

I...please...one last time. If you didn’t want to win this...please...please just end this now and let me win!

 

You’re hurting yourself more and more...and I...I don’t want to hurt you again! But...I need to win! I want to win...I want to win for my long-deceased friends! I want to be together with them again! But...but...

 

No…

 

They’re...I just...but…

 

I…

 

....El...I want you to just...I...I just..I...I WANT YOU!” Tears ran down the magus’s cheeks as she screamed those words. The girl that stood before the dragon was not the insane, egomaniac witch that arrived there earlier to fight. It wasn’t clear whether it was even the same voice, or even the same person with the person she was earlier. Instead of any formidable opponent, before Elspire was simply a teenage girl, overwhelmed by her own emotions.

 

The sudden confession made him smile.  “So this is what you were talking about huh mom…”  His head fell back...it was so heavy.  His body was so heavy.  He just wanted to nap now...but there was no time for that.  “You ask why I hesitate...I think you know the answer.”  His head slumped forward...it was so heavy.  He found the strength to pick it back up to look Arisu in the face.

 

“You were my first friend Arisu….I think you were the first person besides my mom and Stratos to ever care about me.”  His eyes were streaming tears.  “Saul sure as hell wasn’t!” His laughter gave off the impression that he wasn’t in pain.  “I have to repay you for the kindness you’ve shown me...the kindness that I know that resides in your heart.”  Elspire picked himself up again, he held his arm that was previously damaged by falling ice in one hand.  “I can’t repay that kindness if you’re dead.  I can only do that…

 

After we’ve returned together.”  

 

He held up his fists.  “But...I’ve got to find my father Ari...He’s out there...but I don’t know where…”  He was running out of time.  His previous magic attacks had drained him of energy.  “So please Ari...let me win…”

 

“You’re so nice, Elspire…

 

Aah...so this is what I have missed. No wonder she was this desperate...

 

Perhaps that woman was right...maybe...it’s not really worth it after all..” Arisu’s gaze was distant. She seemed to be pondering about something, as if she was considering to throw off the match for the sake of the dragon. However, she turned her attention back at him again after several seconds. Her red eyes started to glow brighter and brighter, as if it was filled with determination to achieve something. It was a clear sign that she was unwilling to give Elspire his victory, definitely not now. However, within that gaze, there was something else hidden beneath it.

 

“...No, I can’t.

 

I can’t just...I can’t just let you win. No, that’s definitely not something that I can bring myself to do.

 

Because....we need to win.”

 

[Maeriberii Haan]

 

[spoiler=Arisu(?) vs Elspire, Round 2]

 

“Because....we need to win.”

BGM: Reincarnation -Piano ver.-

 

Arisu’s voice mysteriously echoed as she spoke the last sentence, as if there were more than one person speaking at the same time. Elspire was surprised at this occurrence, and he soon realized that something started to feel off about Arisu now.

 

“I don’t want to die.

 

Neither do I. And I don’t want to die too. And me neither. Yeah, I don’t want to die for real.

 

So, since you refused to give up, we’ll kill you.” This time, as she referred to herself several times, her voice grew more and more distinct within each of her sentence. Her normal voice, the voice of one “Arisu Itakura” had all but disappeared now.

 

“That girl...the girl that you just said as your first friend earlier, had been dead for a long time. I’d honestly contest the notion that she’s even your friend in the first place since you two literally just interacted for like…half an hour, tops? Eh, whatever.

 

So...who am I, you might ask?

 

Hmm...no...let me fix that inaccuracy. Who are we? It’ll take us quite a bit of  time to describe that properly, so here...we’ll give you one last gift beforehand.” With a flick from her hand, “Arisu” summoned many bolts of lightning from the skies to strike Elspire. As with last time, it was done with the intention of getting him back to his feet, but this time, it lacked the pure, good intention of the previous time she did this. It seemed as if she was doing it just to artificially prolong the battle - knowing that she was in the position to win it.

 

Elspire ate the lightning once more, with a lukewarm expression on his face.  This lightning tasted different from beforehand.  As if it was made by a totally different person. He cautiously watched the girl before him, still unsure on what exactly happened just yet.

 

“Well, where should we start, hmm?

 

Oh right. So there was once...around one century ago, a certain girl named Arisu Itakura.” As she said that, “Arisu” projected an illusion for Elspire to see. It was that of a brown haired girl with glasses, her hair braided into pigtails. Lacking the strong, proud aura that her current self, it that was even accurate to describe the blue-haired girl, if it was not for the fact that her face was the exact same as the magus, she probably would be completely unrecognizable.

 

“She was...how do I say it...well, she’s quite the shy girl. Meek and closed off, but even then she was quite friendly to others. She can be quite insufferable at times, but she usually meant well. Might be a bit overeager at times, and can have her head stuck up on her ass, though that doesn’t happen all the time.

She always considered herself as the heroine of a certain fantasy story, but she always kept it to herself. She was a scholar at heart, however. And so, with her fascination of the occult, that was quite the ignored subject back then in her place, she was determined to learn more and more about everything hidden and magical.

 

And to achieve this, she wished to live forever.

 

How could she achieve it, however? Of course, something like this would be a taboo subject for humans to pursuit, else they would conjure the wrath of the gods. This girl...she once came across a certain…”Dream”. It gave her the idea to pursue the creation of a certain magical artifact, and later on she managed to find out how to create one. Of course, something as powerful as this can’t be created for free.

 

She required human sacrifices. Souls to form the stone.

 

And thus she sacrificed us.” Arisu’s tone was nonchalant as she said that. It was as if she’s simply mentioning what she ate for breakfast, rather than something with more gravitas. Her expression was still as calm as before, but a look on her eye clearly showed the madness that she was trying to conceal.

 

“We used to be her colleagues, and that was the extent of what we could remember. As our souls became the foundation of the stone, we lost any sense of individuality and most of our memories as a person, simply becoming a chaotic mess. Right now, we’re simply the consciousness of the stone, more or less. That, or we’re probably just the remnant of the spites left by the sacrificed girls given form.

 

It’s a bit pitiful, however. This girl…” Arisu pointed to the illusion she conjured as the brown-haired girl slowly changed and changed into more and more like the blue-haired girl that stood beside her. “...She ended up regretting what she did. All that talk about living forever and fulfill her dream to know the secrets and wisdom of the world…after she sacrificed us all and cut ties off everyone else she knew, she couldn’t bring herself to continue. In the end...she found her action to not worth what she had sacrificed.

 

And that’s the last time we saw her. She’s probably dead now, just as what she wished. Meanwhile us, being the chaos that filled the stone, we decided to take her everything in. We became her...or perhaps, the insane, megalomaniac, perverted, flippant, knowledge-seeking magus that everyone ended up knowing.

 

So...perhaps you’re now asking yourself a question. Was everything that happened before a lie? Was I just playing your feelings for my own amusement?

 

Truth is, I don’t know. Maybe that’s just me trying to compensate for something...or maybe it’s something else entirely. It’s definitely not how us actually act. There’s no reason for us to be like that. Speaking of, there’s no reason for us to spare that little girl in the previous round anyway, but we’re a bit lonely and we figured out that we could borrow her shears for us to study, so it’s probably worth it in the end to keep her around.”

 

“Arisu” walked around Elspire, who was still watching her carefully. She seemed to be analyzing the dragon before her or something close to it, but maybe she’s just amusing herself by waiting for any reactions coming from him after this reveal.

 

“So...there you go. It can be seen that we’ve discarded our own heroine status with this reveal, and we have become the villain of this story. It’s just like those stories, right? Having someone you used to trust a lot suddenly being irredeemably villainous. To have this long-ass reveal while you didn’t do anything. As we’ve said before, it’s so anime it hurts. And well, since we’ve gone this far, I’ll carelessly spill my motives too.

 

We want to win this so that I can recreate another stone. Something more stable, so we can keep on living. We’re starting to split apart here, as you have seen earlier. Our voice started to break apart earlier, and perhaps why you get the impression on us earlier was due to this too. But whatever.

 

In stories, this is the time when we gloat about how you have no way to overcome us. But that’ll just make we lose in the most undignified way possible. I mean we’ve already raised our death flag by spilling this much backstory about us, and by giving you the lightning for you to swallow earlier. That’s like, asking the narrative to have us lose real bad.

 

We can just betray the script however. The binding of narrative convenience would not restrict us anymore. Even if I’m the villain, I’ll become the protagonist of this story and win this battle.

 

So...young hero. Do you have enough determination in stock to overcome me?”

 

 

---

 

 

---

 

BGM: Megalomania

 

As “Arisu” finished her long-winded taunt, Elspire’s fists tightened.  With energy overflowing, he let go of his wounded arm.  “Heh...I know the real you is somewhere in there Ari...I think I heard it at some point.”  That frail...pleading voice...that must’ve been her.  “Seeing as most of you aren’t her...that means that I can pummel the rest of you with no holds barred!”  Electricity surged around him.  “I’m gonna beat you until I find her!  She knows she made a mistake!  She can redeem herself!  She can live her life normally!” 

 

“She’s dead tho.”

 

“She’s strong enough without that dumb rock...she doesn’t need another!”

 

He charged, cocking his fist backwards.  He would use as much force as he needed, not enough to blast through her skull, but just enough to knock out a normal human cold. 

 

“I’m going to win Arisu, and I’m going to carry you back in my arms!  Believe it!” 

 

“Pfft...that resolve is amusing.

 

Though, even if she’s still alive, I doubt she’d appreciate only being a damsel rather than a heroine.

 

Oh well...since this is a fantasy story, I’ll go slay a dragon like what protagonists do. That’ll return my status as the heroine of this story.” As she said that, the illusion that she had summoned earlier broke into pieces. Arisu then swung her jeweled sword around, creating many, many icicles on the air just like before. With a flick from her hand, she then fired them all just like before, before disappearing from sight, activating her illusion to conceal herself.

 

“I don’t have a choice here then!”  As he charged, he flung his fist in rapid succession, jabbing at the ice crystals.  His fists were covered in a layer of electricity, and he shattered the icicles with ease.  However, he wasn’t able to destroy all that were flung at him, and some had managed to cut the skin of his thighs and arms.  “This ain’t nothing!”  However, when the cloud of icy dust had subsided, the girl was nowhere to be seen. 

 

“Arisu!  Come out here so I can knock out those fakers would ya?!” 

 

“Sure then, my dear~!” With a painfully forced cutesy voice to go along with it, Arisu appeared right before Elspire, with a giant hammer made of ice ready to be swung. Which she gleefully did not long afterwards.

 

“Glacier Crusher!”

 

Elspire had put his hands out before him to try and stop the hammer in it’s tracks.  The force used to swing the hammer wasn’t much, he had had a harder time blocking one of Saul’s punches.  The strain against his left arm made it wobble as he made the hammer stop.  He then forced his fingers into the ice, and gripped it from the inside.  It was chilly, almost made him shiver.  Elspire swung the hammer in a circle, and then rose it up before striking it to the ground. 

 

“...I guess physical attacks really isn’t my thing.” Arisu pouted before she moved away from Elspire as fast as she could in fear of retaliation while she continued to fire icicles at him.

 

Elspire flexed, his arms still wobbling.  “Mom always told me I was pretty strong for a boy!”  Elspire then took a runners stance, jolting electricity to his leg muscles.  He ran around the barrage that was blasted towards him at a blinding speed.  Approaching Ari, he stuck his leg behind him to prepare a kick, although he lessened the force used to bring it forth.  “Talon of the Lightning Dragon!” 

 

“You call that a kick? One of our grandmothers kicked harder than that!” Arisu let out a deranged laugh as she guarded her body from the kick using both of her arms. With the realization that Elspire had lowered the force of his kick intentionally, the magus smirked before she went up and grabbed the kick before Elspire withdrew it.

 

“Hey…

 

...Let’s chill.” She said it with a smile as she started to channel her ice magic into her palm.

 

“COLD!COLD!COLD!”  Elspire’s attack was easily blocked.  Understandable since he had amped down the kick to that of a normal human’s.  But now Arisu had a hold of his leg, and from her palms, she began to freeze it.  Trying to escape from the chilling temperature, Elspire placed both his hands onto the ground, and used his other leg to crash into her side.  This time, without realizing, this attack had been used at a level of strength similar to that of an Olympic-level athlete. 

 

Being not accustomed to physical combat much, the kick caught Arisu off-guard, and the force hit her hard on her face, sending her flying several meters to the side. Wincing at the pain she felt on where the dragon hit her, she was thankful that at least her neck didn’t break from it, and she was only suffering from a mild concussion at worst.

 

“Tch!

 

That’s it! No more playing around!

 

...Well that’s what villains would say at this point, but that’s just going to ensure my downfall. We’re not proper villains after all.

 

Still, maybe I should try putting more effort here…”

 

Closing her eyes, Arisu started to move around as she channeled her magic to the ground before her. The ground started to shake, and soon afterwards, stone spikes emerged from the ground at random locations around the battlefield. From the fact that she was unable to be accurate with it, it could be concluded that she’s not excelling in this element too, but she compensated it with sheer numbers, not caring on how much magical energy she expended in doing so.

 

“Violent Motherland: Turmoil Spiker!”

 

A spike pillar appeared to the side of Elspire, and he managed to be only grazed by the thicker base of the column.  It made him stumble back to where another spike had burst from the earth.  It would have impaled his back, had he not shot off from the ground to jump over it.  They just kept springing from the ground, and it made Elspire seem like a mad fool trying to dance and avoid all of them.  One appeared underneath his foot. 

 

“sheet!...Gotta move!”  There was a bright flash, and Elspire had brought forth his wings again.  He flapped, not to become airborne, but to make himself light enough to where he was able to balance on the tip of the rocky spear.  His wings faded shortly after.  “Things are starting to get a little rocky around here huh Arisu…”  He laughed, flashing a toothy smile that was covered in blood. 

 

“As rocky as our current relationship, perhaps?” Arisu sneered at him.

 

Elspire cracked his knuckles.  “About as rocky as they come then!”  Elspire’s feet were covered in his electricity, as he hopped off the spike and high into the air.  He spun down as he plummeted back to earth, and smashed his heel into the ground, shattering every spike, and causing a mini quake of his own.  “Talon Quake of the Lightning Dragon!”

 

“Can’t you try being more creative in naming your attacks?!” Arisu retorted, sounding quite annoyed. She seemed to take the most offense on Elspire’s attack name instead of the attack itself. Speaking of, the quake broke her concentration for the attack, and then as the spikes she summoned broke apart – some of the pieces ended up coming to her direction at high speed. She was barely able to dodge them all, and when the dust settled, she noticed that some of them ended up being lodged on her body.

 

“Welp, I guess I should reset and reload soon.” She pouted again, sighing at the sight of how much damage she had suffered. Bleeding heavily, she started to find it hard to concentrate on the battle, and while she could reincarnate again soon, with how much she had goaded Elspire, she wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up aiming to break the stone, which would kill her for good.

 

“Nope, that’s not going to happen. The lovestruck fool’s probably was still holding back in fear of harming Arisu, or something to that effect. Still, I guess it’s better be safe than sorry.”

 

 After thinking for a bit, to shift her attention away from the pain, Arisu decided to try talking to the young man while she figured some way to best utilize what’s left of her mana in this body that could ensure her revival.

 

“Anyway, what does finding your dad having to do with winning this competition anyway?”

 

BGM: I Believe People Know

 

When the scene was clear, Elspire had seen what he had done.  No matter how hard he tried not to kill this chick, she always seemed to get killed by stray debris, or by moving herself into attacks.  Of course, Eslpire had realized that the girl was unkillable.  Still, seeing the young lady lie there in a pool of her own blood, slowly dying, affected Elspire just as traumatically as the first time. 

 

“I...I don’t know who he is.  I figured...with that sort of money and fame...I could get the word out you know?  Launch search parties and the like...I need to tell him that my mom’s gone...his love’s gone...I’ve got to meet him…HE’S ALL I HAVE!” 

 

“...Eh?

 

That’s it? You serious about that?

 

That’s plain pathetic.” Arisu laughed at that notion. She found it to be utterly ridiculous. So ridiculous, yet fitting for the fool that stood before her. If he’s naive enough to be convinced that Arisu’s still alive...it’s not too far- fetched to think that he’d think this way about his dad’s condition.

 

“Gee…are you really that freaking dense? If he had left you and your mother for oh god how long and never bothered to look for you two, why do you think he would even care?

 

Saying that he’s the only person that you have now...that’s a bit too naive, isn’t it? Now I’m half tempted to let you win just to prove a point on how idiotic this entire thing is. Go on, try finding him with the fame and money you got. Try finding him only to be disappointed.  At best he’s dead now, at worst he wouldn’t even acknowledge you as his son.

 

Just let it freaking go.

 

I know, if this is a story, this is the part when you’re trying to be sympathetic to the readers so that they root for you in this battle. However...there’s a difference between being sympathetic and being an insult to the concept of rationale and logic.

 

Face it, he’s gone. Unless you’re just desperate for closure, just let the damn thought go.

 

That way you don’t have any reason to win this anymore, no?”

 

Elspire’s smile hadn’t faded, but the tears had returned.  “Don’t you think I know all of that…”  His fists clenched.  “Don’t you think that I asked myself that question every day after figuring out that I even had a dad?  Why’d he leave us, did he even know I existed?

 

My mom said that he was a hero, known on the Island for slaying dragons in the past...but that he was a kind...she never went beyond that.

 

So yes...yes I want closure.  If the guy’s a jerk, I’ll sock him one real good...but I hope that’s not the case.  I trust my mother’s judgement.  Even if he’s dead, even if he doesn’t care about me or mom,

 

I just want to know what kind of guy he’s like…

 

Mom always said I looked just like him.”  He said, wiping his tears.  “Maybe after this is all well and done...the real Arisu and I can look for him.”  He stuck out his trembling hand.  “I just have to find her first…”

 

“Well...you’re way more hopeless than I thought.

 

Searching for things that no longer exist this intensely...I’m starting to pity you, to be honest. If I’m not just pure spite given form I might give you my sympathies for your illogical determination.

 

But eeeeeh, I need to win and you’re my opponent.

 

No hard feelings, but please die for me, ok?”

 

Slogging due to her injuries, Arisu started to walk towards Elspire, seemingly not caring about the potential attacks that could hit her sooner or later.

 

“How do you even plan on reaching out to Arisu anyway? Do you have a way to SAVE her, assuming she’s still even alive?

 

You’re starting to act like the old anime protagonist now with your reckless thoughtlessness. Weird, I thought this kind of characters had been abandoned by now by writers.

 

It’s…clichéd, you know?”

 

Elspire shrugged slowly.  “I know Arisu’s in there somewhere.”  He pointed to his nose.  “I can smell it...and the nose knows, ya know?” 

 

“Ooooh, you should try nuzzling with someone sometimes in the future with that nose of yours. Seems like getting laid or having a mate would knock the nonsense out of your mind.

 

Well…but that’s assuming you can even survive me, that is.” Even as she started to cough blood, Arisu’s sneering at the dragon boy didn’t stop.

 

Elspire laughed.  “You look on the edge of being beaten yourself Ms. Mage...or whatever I call whoever isn’t Arisu.”

 

“Hm…? Oh...right. Just call me….Alice, in that case.

 

It’ll be easier to keep track of when I’m speaking this way.” Telling him a name that she pulled out of nowhere, Alice felt like it’d be a nice way to keep herself separate from the “Arisu” that the boy kept on wanting to reach to. She’s dead anyway, as regrettable as it is. Maybe when this is all over, she could…

 

“Oh also, are you really sure about that, Mr. Dwaggy? You really think I’m on the edge of losing?”

 

“As a matter of fact Alice, I know that you are...you’re only human after all.  I mean...I’m half human, but being half ‘dwaggon’ helps out a lot.

 

Now, I know that I can’t kill you...I never wanted to in the first place...so incapacitating you should be fine.  Another blow to the noggin oughta do her.” 

 

“Well...perhaps...I guess you want to try that hypothesis firsthand to see if it works or not.” She shook her head, a sign that she’s not really convinced that Elspire’s going to do much on her. ”Anyway...I think I want to ask a question to you. Been literally dying so far to ask you this but…

 

I wonder…

 

Do you think dragon meat is tasty when grilled? Haven’t had one ever, and I figure this info will be good for my encyclopedia.” Her gaze went back at Elspire, an expression of hunger and lust was visible on her eyes.

 

“Are you crazy, woman!?  Like I would know that!”

 

“Well yes, I AM crazy, thank you very much.” Laughing again, Alice activated her illusion for another try in an attempt to conceal her going straight at Elspire, channeling as much magic as she could into her body in preparation for her next attack. The air on the arena started to heat up - a sign of what was coming next.

 

The air was hot, and Elspire started to sweat.  He took off his shirt, which was basically in tatters at this point, to reveal his toned body.  An aura of electricity surrounded him.  Anybody that would get too close would be met with a painful shock.  He couldn’t smell Ari...and he couldn’t track Alice’s scent….

 

“Tricks again?  You really should rely on your own strength huh Ari...I mean Alice?”

 

“But I’m just a poor little girl fighting against the sexy hunk that is you, my dear~

 

It’s like saying a kid having to fight fair and square against a professional boxer.”

 

Her magic starting to run out - her illusion broke not long afterwards, revealing Alice standing near the shirtless dragon. Licking her lips for a moment as she gazed on him, the magus smirked before she rushed forward, forcing herself to the dragon, ignoring the pain she suffered as she made direct contact with the electric field Elspire had just erected.

 

Elspire looked behind him to notice the girl forcing herself through his field.  “If that’s the case Alice,” Elspire jutted his foot backwards into the girl, “I don’t think a cheating kid has any chance against the boxer!” 

 

“Ow, my organs.” With the flattest tone she could manage, Alice reacted to the fact that Elspire’s kick managing to punch a hole through her stomach. Granted, her body was breaking apart already, and the fact that she’s too determined to care about the extreme pain she was feeling was enough to keep herself from reacting in any way other than a dull surprise.

 

“Well you know, the kid can hit the boxer’s groin with ease.

 

That’s something, I guess.”

 

Ignoring the pain and the fact that Elspire’s leg was still lodged on her gut, Alice pushed herself forward, and once she was close enough to see Elspire face to face, in a sudden movement, she rushed to embrace him as tight as she could. Slowly dying from her wounds, Alice hugged Elspire, intent of not letting him go as she kept on staring at his face while her magical energy was starting to go on an overdrive.

 

“You know...as much as I despise you, I can’t help but be attracted to you somewhat. It's kind of a pity I need to kill you..

 

Oh well...smell ya later, lover boy.”

 

With a smile, the body of the blue-haired magus exploded into pieces right before Elspire. As the girl exploded, Elspire couldn’t help but sigh.  “Aw c’mon!  Not again!”  The explosion wasn’t as intense as the volcanic eruption, but it was enough to severely damage Elspire.  He bounced back onto his back.  He only had moments before Alice would be back to whoop him, get whooped, and then explode all over again. 

 

“It’s like i’m caught in a loop or something…” Elspire said as his breathing had become more frequent and hoarse.  “This girl’s going to be the death of me, mom...I can smell it.” 

 

Elspire picked himself up once again, sitting in the same position he had the last time he exploded.  He looked at his leg, Alice’s blood had stained his pants’ leg.  “I just need to knock this girl out...but she seems to be prone to dying very easily…”  He remembered the stone which had been causing so much trouble.  “I can’t break that thing either..or Arisu will be gone for good…”  That meant no attacks that would be able to shatter the gem should be used against her.  “I need to strike precisely...swiftly...and not as strong...or i’ll just blast through her body again.”  His breathing had finally gotten back on track, although it was still rugged.  He might’ve had a collapsed lung...but then again, he wasn’t sure.  The beating from Ilgad was surely the worst beating he had had, but the occurring events were sure pushing his body to the extreme. 

 

“I guess i’ll try that move next…”

 

“Done contemplating your navel, Elspire?” Sitting not far from him, Alice greeted the wounded dragon.

 

“Yeah yeah...let’s get this over with shall we?  I’ve got a new plan to get Arisu back.”  He stood up, wobbling as he rose.  “I’m just gonna keep killing you until Arisu pops up again!”  Static formed around Elspire’s body, producing a make-shift t-shirt out of lightning. 

 

“...Why do you even bother making a shirt.

 

The fangirls would like you walk around shirtless more, y’know?” Shrugging as she saw Elspire’s antic, Alice nevertheless didn’t make a move for Elspire once more, at least for now. Now finally actually taking mind of what Elspire planned to do, the girl couldn’t help but smile in amusement. She thought that perhaps the boy’s simplicity was his blessing, able to decide on doing just that. With her stone slowly losing more and more of its coherence, killing her repeatedly would definitely do a number on her.

 

“Also, really? Why do you even tell me about your plan? Something like it is supposed to be a secret only to you or something, gee.

 

Oh, and good luck on trying that.”

 

Though, Elspire should’ve figured out by now that doing that would just kill Arisu too…though why she would be even around at this point was beyond her.

 

“I’ll try my best…”  The electric shirt had turned into a flowing trenchcoat, open to expose his chest.  “I kinda like this look...reminds me of a certain character from these ‘animoos’ you keep talking about.” 

 

“Well, the thing with anime is...how should I say it…

 

It’s not real, duh. Good luck trying to replicate it in real life.

 

Hint hint: you can’t.” Arisu sneered at him again, dismissing his efforts.

 

Elpsire pointed to the sky.  The clouds began to rumble, and Elspire bolted towards Alice as soon as a flash of thunder happened in the distance.  He dashed behind her, and gathered electricity in his palm.  He threw the electric-filled palm into the girl’s back.  “Crack of the Lightning Dragon!” 

 

“W-what the-?”

 

Caught by surprise, Alice was unable to react due to how fast Elspire was moving, and the next thing she realized was how the shock from the attack electrocuted her. Taking the brunt of the attack completely without being able to dodge, Alice’s heart stopped beating in an instant. Once again, she had died.

 

“...Tch…

 

Well, that was unexpected. You’re better at this than I thought.

 

I knew you have the will to do this, Elspire. Glad that my guess is not wrong.”

 

BGM: Perfect Dark Gaia

 

After one minute, Alice has reawakened around twenty meters away from Elspire, looking far from amused after being killed as easily as she did earlier. Icicles started to form around her, every single one of them were being aimed at the dragon.

 

“Here, I’ll treat you with some acupuncture since you’ve been so kind to me.” Gleefully, she fired off all of them in a torrent of sharp edges.

 

“I’ve always been more of a massage kind of guy!”  Elspire gathered electricity in his mouth, and zapped each icicle out of the air with amazing precision.  “I told you Alice...I was holding back before...but now that I know exactly what I have to do...I’m not going to do that anymore.”  Elspire gathered one more orb in his mouth, before shooting a very thing bolt of lightning towards Alice.  He aimed for the heart, making sure to avoid the gem that hung around her neck. 

 

“Well, this is certainly shocking.” Unable to dodge, Alice instead ducked just enough so that the great lightning bolt hit her straight on her head, instead of hitting the stone. The energy from it charred her immediately on impact, killing her instantly as the foul smell of cooked human meat could be sensed coming from her position.

 

“Having fun killing me, Elspire?” Alice rose up once more, and this time she did not waste any time to attack the dragon with as many icicles as she could - each were bigger and rougher than before. Intent on smashing the dragon’s pretty face in, Alice then followed it by summoning the stone stakes again, trying her best to direct them to pierce Elspire from down through his head.

 

“I won’t let you do that anymore! It hurts a damn lot, you know?”

 

“Trust me Alice...It isn’t easy on me killing you over and over...you look like the girl that confessed her feelings to me.  The first one that I think truly cares about me is hiding behind a wall of fakes...I just gotta bust through those walls!”  The electric coat that had covered his body floated above him, a pillar of lightning shot into the sky.  “Secret Dragon Art: Plasma Prism!”  The pillar came to life with static, and as the Ice made contact, it was instantly vaporized by the fourth state of matter it tried to pass through.  The stone spikes did the same, except the ones that had made their way into Elspire’s domain.  Each time he saw one start to rise, he covered his foot in plasma, and simply stomped down on it.

 

The pillar had vanished after deflecting Alice’s onslaught.  With a huge gasp of air, Elspire grabbed a lightning spear out of the air, and threw it. 

 

“I hope the renovations are over soon...busting these walls...I can’t do it much longer…”

 

“Well sucks for you...I’m not stopping anytime soon!”

 

Erecting a wall of ice to block the spear, Alice was prepared to attack him once more to seal his fate...but she miscalculated the force coming from the spear, and the wall of ice was broken by the attack. Without being able to go anywhere else out of surprise, the spear pierced through Alice’s face, and kept on going and going, out of the bounds of the arena.

 

“...Guh…at this rate…

 

Tch, I won’t let that happen!” Materializing not far from one of her dead bodies, Alice tore the head from it, and after charging it with her mana, she lobbed it off towards Elspire, using it as a bomb. It seemed that the more she died, the less rational and confident she became. Perhaps it was due to the pain causing her to lose focus, or perhaps it was just showing the degradation of the stone the more she died.

 

“Can’t you just goddamn die already?!” Tearing off the arms from the corpse, Alice threw them at Elspire too, each was also acting as explosives. Her voice was getting more and more manic.

 

Elspire hopped out of the way of each body part being thrown at him.  Alice was literally throwing hand grenades at him.  Although the attacks were smart, Elspire couldn’t help but gag at the sight of Alice dismembering her own bodies to be used as ammunition. 

 

BGM

 

Even though he was sure Alice knew it at this point, Elspire was completely drained of his magic.  That spear was the last bit of it that he possessed.  The rest was essential for keeping him alive.  Elspire weaved and dodged over all of the armed….arms and made his way across the battlefield towards Alice.  As he approached her, and their eyes met, Elspire mouthed I’m sorry, as he launched an uppercut.  Lightning flashed in the distance.  Another flash, and Elspire met her chest with a flurry of fists with a force that made the girl lift off the ground.  While she was airborne, Elspire jumped into the air and delivered a roundhouse.  As her body flew, Elspire fell back to the ground, onto his chest. 

 

“You know Alice...this was all fun and everything...but I don’t think you were the protagonist this time around…”

 

“The hell are you saying?” She reappeared not far from Elspire, looking completely livid.

 

He picked himself up yet again...he couldn’t believe he was able to stand.  “I’m saying...that I think I’m the hero!”  Elspire charged once again.  Arisu, starting to panic, fired off a literal rain of icicles towards him, desperately trying to get him away from her. A flash of lightning struck from the clouds above, striking Elspire mid dash.  Instead of reeling from pain, Elspire instead inhaled, slurping up all of the electricity that mother nature had provided him.  Resurged once more, Elspire jumped parallel to the ground, and started to rotate rapidly.  He covered his body in Plasma, and he propelled himself towards Alice, skimming the ground, and shattering all the Ice that came his way. Nothing was able to stop him as he started to spin.

 

“HEAVEN PIERCING DRILL OF THE LIGHTNING DRAGON!"

 

“The hell is th-” Alice’s words were cut short as the brunt of the attack hit her. The spinning plasma tore through her with ease, even breaking the ice barrier that she summoned during the last moments before the impact. Once it’s all said and done, what was left in the end was Elspire. Alice’s body had all but disintegrated by the lightning drill.

 

And, that said, the battlefield went silent. No more one liners. No more snide comments. Without Alice running around, everything was quiet. The whole world was probably watching the end of her for good when Elspire drilled through her with his attack earlier. It had been quite a lengthy battle already, and it seemed that finally, it was ending. It’s tiring for everyone involved in it, after all. And even the viewers had been chanting for one of them to die already.

 

As he drilled forward, he met little resistance.  Shortly after, he had stopped rotating and crashed into the ground himself.  He looked behind him.  No Alice...and no Arisu...Where was she?  Had he really killed her this time?  He shoved off the ground and made his way towards the pile of ash that had previously been the blue haired girl.  “Arisu??  Is it over yet….”

 

“...

 

NO!

 

No...No way in hell! I refuse to lose!

 

No...I refuse to die now! I’ll finish you for damn good now, Elspire!"

 

BGM: The Ancient Magic - Grimoire of ALICE

 

"Last…Word!  Caged Soul Fantasia: Perceptionless World Sphere!”

 

The silence was broken by a bold chant, immediately followed by the light coming from hundreds of crimson gemstones scattered through the battlefield. And from each of them, Alice manifested again, looking absolutely spiteful. The ground of the holy ground had eroded significantly with how much Alice had transmuted the materials on it into her extra bodies. On the next moment, Elspire was surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of Alices. Every single one of them was staring at him, preparing to tear him apart.

 

 

“Welcome to my wonderland, Elspire.”

 

 

 

 

[Dad]

The Skybox

 

Admittedly, the commentators were mesmerized at the slew of magic and power being thrown around by the different parties, mostly focusing on Godstone Valley.  Ilgad had become mortal again, causing Gerald to frown, but to quickly hide this behind a "surprised" gasp.  "Ilgad is down!  Ilgad is down!" he said, pretending to cheer.  As the now human man's limp and lifeless body slid away from Elspire, he fell to the still ground with a thud as he came into contact with cooled molten rock.  But now, things became more complicated, as Elspire and Arisu turned on each other.  An impossible onslaught of magic was launched from their fingertips, as the battlefield was illuminated by lightning and ice.  They were at each other's throats, with Elspire occasionally losing out to an illusion or two.  And for some time, it even appeared that Arisu had an advantage.

 

"Her magic--along with the Philosopher's stone--is taking a whittling toll on Elspire.  He's going to have to find a way to sustain his own strength in--oh my!" Gerald  said on the edge of his seat, as Elspire was struck by a thunderbolt from the sky.  "He's inhaling it!  Yes, Elspire is absorbing the lightning to rejuvenate himself!"  And with that sudden burst of strength, Elspire began to spin in a fantastic form.  Plasma consumed his body, turning him into a walking weapon as he spun disgustingly quick towards Arisu.  Desperate to get Elspire to yield, she unleashed a flurry of icicles.  Unfortunately, Elspire's momentum kept him going, shattering through her magic without pause.  Arisu was ripped through, causing even Gerald to gasp in horror.  But still, Arisu was not prepared to surrender to her star crossed lover.

 

With a powerful magic chant, Arisu--or rather Alice--had transformed the raw magic materials around her, and created an overwhelming number of clones of herself.  Her advantage had just spiked once more, and Elspire's chances to win looked grim.

 

“Welcome to my wonderland, Elspire.”

 

"This is huge," said an excited Steph.  "Gerald, this is one of the most back and forth battles we've seen since Cam and Nero!"

 

Gerald nodded in agreement, as he took poll results in the meantime.  "Quite a brawl indeed!  But we don't want to overlook our other challengers.  Before we change views, let's hear from our contestants on who they think will take the battle, as our polls update."

 

'Elspire v.s. Arisu!  Who will be victorious?' the poll read as it streamed across the bottom of Elspire and Arisu's stream.  Below this, numbers began to file in, as more than six million viewers weighed in on the battle.  And in a surprising forty-seven to fifty-three percent result, Arisu had claimed a small edge among the fans.  But Elspire's fans continued to cheer him on, hoping to see him fight another day.

 

"And if they spoil this for me, I've got more than enough measures to create a winner," Gerald thought to himself.  "That's a big change from the opening results which heavily favored Elspire.  Perhaps Arisu can climb out of this whole, and move forward to the semi-finals!  We'll find out soon enough.  But first, I'd like to hear from Saul and Morgan.  Saul, you were facing Elspire when you both were engaged by Ilgad at his strongest.  With Ilgad down at Elspire's hands, are you looking to see him press forward onto the semi-finals, or would you like to see Arisu take this battle in your stead?  What are your thoughts?"

 

Steph posed a question to Morgan now, as Gerald questioned Saul.  "Morgan would be wrong if I pegged you to be a fan of Arisu?  I feel like--with you both being users of magic--she would have a bit of favoritism in your book, am I right?" she said with a smile.  "Do you think she can overcome Elspire's own magic, or will a half-dragon's magic resistances be too much for her?"

 

Meanwhile, something more was happening on the opposite side of the world from Elspire and Arisu.  A western showdown was underway.

 

 

Razerhill City

 

 

Howler watched carefully from beneath his helmet, as Tyson shot forth several fireballs to interrupt his grenades.  The projectiles fell short, bursting into acid and stopping in their tracks.  With a smirk, Howler put his Grenade Launcher away, as he intended to change combat stances against the boy.  But before he could move in, Tyson greeted him warmly.

 

“Howler!” 

 

He remained silent for a moment.

 

 

“I got something for ya too!” 

 

The boy rotated his arm like a child pretending to be a whisk.  From his arms two powerful cyclones of fire propelled towards Howler, threatening to swallow him whole.  But Howler remained perfectly still, choosing only to raise the side of his trench coat to 'defend' himself.  Normally, this would be awkward, and Tyson's victim would be burned to cinders in mere seconds.  However, as Howler emerged unscathed, he began marching slowly towards Tyson.  He patted the outside of his coat, soot falling to the ground as he walked around the acidic pools left behind just moments ago.  Placing a hand inside his coat now with his other still on his Shotgun, Howler drew an enormous revolver from his pocket.  "I took two measures against you and your pal there," he said cocking the hammer on the revolver.  "Initially, I was sure you boys would take each other on first.  But havin' to show all my tricks so soon, you've forced my hand."  Howler nodded towards his coat, as he explained.  "Made of pure Seidrich fibers.  Able to withstand heats of more than six thousand Fahrenheit.  Hotter than the sun," he said proudly.  "Best part is, its light as a feather.  So I hope you're packin' more heat than that, Mr. Slayer."  Howler pointed the Revolver at Tyson, before grinning, and muttering something under his breath.

 

"Don't blink," he said to himself.  He let off two shots, before flipping the Revolver around and firing two more into the air, and then turning it towards Dirk, and firing his last two rounds.  Howler skillfully reloaded the revolver, as its slow moving bullets trained themselves on their intended targets.  Tyson had more than enough time to avoid these shots.  They had been moving like snails.  He could even try to burn them down, but he would that difficult with the coating of these bullets.  And Howler, being the trickster that he is, let off six more shots, in a wide array varying over the battlefield, literally surrounding himself in gunfire.  What he did next was sure to give even the audience a look of confusion.  He dropped his revolver back into his inside coat pocket, and looked to a watch hidden up his sleeve.  Tapping it with an index finger, he said, "Time starts. . . now."  As the word 'now' left Howler's lips, a gateway opened beneath his feet, iconic devilish markings that Tyson would recognize  if he got up close to read them.  And at each of the twelve bullets scattered across the battlefield now, their tips glowed in warning, as Howler disappeared into the portal below.

 

And inside the now sealed realm of Howler's choosing, he went through his cache of weapons.  "I think I'm gonna use this before I die," he joked to himself.  He looked upwards towards the twelve sockets of light that funneled down over him, and selected one.  "I wonder if Mr. Dirk is feeling neglected," he said floating silently towards his first destination.  

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Morgan was shaking. With a mixture of excitement, awe, and rage. She had watched, and cheered, as Elspire brought down a god. She praised the young half-dragon highly for this. "That's some amazing power he has, and at such a young age! He killed a god. a GOD? Can you believe that folks? That's so cooool!" She was only half-hamming it up. She truly was impressed, this guy was surprisingly strong. Maybe the Titan wasn't actually all that much of a push-over. Not that she'd say that to him.

Though most of her amazement was her wondering how she would turn the boy to her side. She slightly regretted taking the Dirk train so early. It seems she'd have to do some major maneuvers when Elspire returned. If he lived, even if he didn't win this, he'd be very..useful to her. If she were to create a criminal organization for herself she'd need some power on her side.

 

But then the two started their battle, with some gag-worthy friendship lovey dovey crap. And Morgan could tell they weren't even using it for popularity or an edge, completely pathetic. She was in the middle of pointing out the flaws in their statements when...all hell broke loose. She started focusing more on Arisu than she had thought she would. She knew what the girl was...but to that extent? Morgan realized a moment before Arisu herself revealed it what the girl had done. "No...she couldn't have..." But she did. The magic she had used was...Horrible. Horrible and disgusting.

 

"The stupid girl she really did it..." Morgan knew the potential price of immortality. Her Lich father had payed quite a high price himself. But something like this...How terrible must it have been inside Arisu's head to cause her to take that leap? "She must have been in so much pain..." There was a surprising amount, even to Morgan herself, of pity in her voice as she spoke about this.

 

 "Morgan would be wrong if I pegged you to be a fan of Arisu?  I feel like--with you both being users of magic--she would have a bit of favoritism in your book, am I right? Do you think she can overcome Elspire's own magic, or will a half-dragon's magic resistances be too much for her?"

 

"Favoritism? No...the girl isn't a user of magic...she's an abuser of it. The things she's done to magic is just...I've seen a lot of horrible magic, but this...What even is she anymore?" Morgan stared at the screen, her body shaking as she watched the girl use the most reckless and haphazard magic possible. There was power there, but power that wasn't earned, power that was stolen, twisted, mangled beyond recognition. Even Morgan's dark magic had a natural basis, this was...an abomination.

 

Morgan had to think. This thing that Arisu had become. It was powerful, but unstable. Great power always came at a price but there are some lines that should not be crossed without extreme willpower. Her father had been able to control his own power over many years of practice but this...thing out there didn't have that kind of control. It was dangerous, extremely so. Not because of her power but because of what her power stemmed from. An unstable power source always led to disaster...

 

Even if Arisu survived this...she couldn't live. She can't be allowed to live...

Morgan leaned in towards Vena, who had been sitting in her lap calmly this whole time, and whispered to her. "Listen Vena this is serious, that thing out there is a serious threat to everything magic, understand? We have to keep our eyes on it. If necessary we have to destroy it."

Vena nodded solemnly. It wasn't often that Morgan had that serious of a tone and Vena had learned to treat it with the utmost importance. Vena looked back at the fight but this time she wasn't watching it as a spectator. She was watching it with the idea that one of those fighting will be a potential target.

 

Morgan forced herself to tear away from watching that screen to check on Dirk. She had to keep up appearances, and all this seriousness wouldn't look good to the fans. "Now let's see how Dirk's doing, he'd better not be hurt! Looks like things are getting crazy down there, but I'm sure he can keep up!" She continued to rattle on about Dirk, while stealing glances at the other battles. Or, to be more specific, to steal glances at the creature calling itself Alice.

[Mr. Hyde]

---

---

 

[spoiler=Alice - The Philosophical Magus VS Elspire - The Lightning Dragon  Pt. 3]

 

"Welcome to my Wonderland."

 

Each of the Alices spoke in unison. There was a certain kind of unnatural pressure in the air. It’s easy to know that the entire thing was simply a part of her illusion, but something else felt different about it. The sky, everything, almost looked similar to how the arena looked before, but something still feel off...of course aside from the hundred Alices that watched over Elspire.

 

“I don't know...I really don't know whether you've any guesses about what I am going to do with you or not. Perhaps now you're dismissing this entire thing as only one of my tricks.

 

However, with this...the binding of fantasy will not hold me back anymore. Reaching my own truth...I am no longer the heroine of a fantasy story. I...right now, I am the heroine of THIS story! And this...this is where I will slay the evil dragon for good! This is the endgame, Elspire! The last episode of our tale!

 

I’ll show you a finale that exceeds fantasy!”

 

BGM: Sealed Sword - Oriens

 

 

Elspire flashed a weary smile.  “Hopefully...I can muster the strength to match your expectations!”  Elspire charged up his energy.  He was guessing that this was his final shot at breaking through to Arisu...but this magic seemed on a totally different level than her previous elemental magic.

 

“Let’s dance Alice!

 

Heroic Storm of the Lightning Dragon!”  The electric energy surging around him, had turned into a dense orb of plasma.  From it sprung forth a many magnitude of  bolts of lightning that seemed to be trajected in a random pattern.  Without full power, Elspire wouldn’t be able to aim his bolts, he had to hope that luck would be on his side.

 

“Dance you said…?

 

Well..if you insist…

 

Hopeless Theater: Dance of the Withering World!”

 

Each of the Alices started to move around in circles as the battlefield slowly became blurrier and blurrier for an unknown reason. Spinning faster and faster, she then started to circle Elspire while moving like a spinning top, as the ground below them started to crumble as each second passed, threatening to drop Elspire to the white void below. And then, it was soon followed by each of the Alices firing a chained sword from their mouths at the dragon. Seemingly, she was trying to rain down a shower of blades as she continued her tasteless dance, and if she missed she’s using her rotation to bind Elspire anyway. All while the world around them continue to crumble. While it seemed that the withering world looked like merely a visual cue or something similar, the breaking apart ceiling started to launch its debris at the fighters below.

 

Elspire’s situation had become dire, his time limited as the world crumbled away.  Some of the stray bolts he had produced had deflected some of the swords, but some swords had breached his plasma barrier.  They hadn’t cut him, but put him in a bind of sorts.  The chains that were attached to the swords wrapped around him, and some hung before his face.  With quick wit, Elspire grabbed onto the chain with his teeth, and launched a beam of electricity from within his mouth to the metal chain.

 

“You’re going to find out the hard way that you shouldn’t stick metallic objects near an outlet!”  The electricity raced through the metallic chains all the way to the Alice clones that controlled the swords.

 

“Solitary Star: Ego that Devours All!” As some of the Alices exploded as the electricity overloaded their circuits, the rest flew upwards, before opening their mouths into a comically gigantic proportions. They all then came downwards at Elspire, swallowing him and the ground below him and the clones that had eaten him beforehand and on and on. Each swallowed the next one in a neverending chain of eat and be eaten. Trapping him in an eternal cycle of being crushed and digested, Alice attempted to break the dragon’s mind with the everlasting pain.

 

“Well...this is gross...It’s been awhile since I’ve been eaten…

 

This food’s got a little kick though!”  However, Elspire charged up again, and he unleashed his electricity outside of his body to zap the fleshy interior of the Alice making a meal out of him.  Creating a chain of explosions that Alice had failed to take account of as a possibility, each of the Alices exploded one by one, and soon afterwards, it ended with Elspire standing alone in the middle of a boundless realm of white, with only the chunky remains of the infinite Alices alongside him, which soon disappeared anyway.

 

It was an endless sea of white. At first, nothing was there on this world now aside from Elspire. But once more, a disembodied voice spoke, and everything changed.

 

“Infinite Weapon Creation: Unlimited...Blade Works!”

 

The gears of the sky started to turn. Scattered now around the vast white were uncountable amount of swords, plunged into the ground. As Alice’s voice commanded them with her spell declaration earlier, each one of them rose from the ground, and started to hurl themselves into Elspire’s direction. Alice herself soon appeared, and she went ahead to assault Elspire too with her own sword.

 

As one sword appeared, Elspire made a bolt of lightning appear from behind him to strike it down, and incinerate it.  He grabbed his chest...this technique of his wasn’t well developed.  “Secret Dragon Art….: 1000 Chirping Birds!”  Orbs manifested behind him that turned into bolts, shooting themselves at each sword that hurtled towards him.  Elspire made one orb manifest in his hand.  As he gripped it, it’s shape took the form of a sword of his own.

 

“Secret Dragon Art: Lightning Blade!”  Elspire charged towards Alice, his sword drawn, as the orbs behind him continuously blocked each sword that try and stop him.

 

“Heaven's Mandate: Gate of Kings!” A pair of golden portals appeared on Alice’s side as she attempted to parry Elspire’s attacks on her. Locking in on him, from each of them she started to fire even more swords at high speed, aiming to blast through him accurately from close-range. Elspire dodged the incoming projectiles as he continued to charge forward.

 

“You lacked the determination...nor the resolve to overcome me!” Alice kept up with her attacks as she continued to shower Elspire and his orbs with swords. The border between reality and illusion had all but disappeared at this point. It was impossible to determine whether the entire experience was real or merely a part of Alice’s scenario.

 

It was hard to put up a defense against such a close range barrage, but he had to do something!  One sword had managed to plunge it’s way through the right side of Elspire’s chest.  It nearly struck his heart, but his lung had been pierced.  Still, he tried his best to swat away the swords that rained down on him.  His wings appeared in a flash of light, shielding him from more damage, but they were shortly torn to shreds, swords protruding in the flesh.  With one flap, a rattle of clanking metal was heard, and his wings were freed to shield him some more.

 

“Superior Roar of the Lightning Dragon!”  Elspire mouthed, his voice incapable of coming out due to his lung.  A beam of Electricity, surrounded by two more spiraling beams, sprang from his bloody mouth.  In it’s path, it vaporized most blades in his path.  As some were deflected, the hand that was swordless had been sliced off.  He screamed in agony as he finally made his approach towards Alice.

 

“...

 

....

 

...no no no NO!

 

G-go away! Go the hell off of me!”

 

What air of confidence that she had before had evaporated as Alice started to panic when her attacks started to whiff more and more against Elspire’s beam, all while the dragon himself approached her fast. She attempted to summon layers upon layers of barriers from various elements to protect herself from the attack, but once more, her own franticness and her miscalculation of the sheer power of Elspire’s own attack bit her hard -the barriers crumbled upon the might of the beam. It hit the magus directly, delivering one hell of a shock to her. However, she still managed to stand up, even if she was still wobbling, even if she unable to move anywhere as her body was completely paralyzed. She was moments away from being killed off for good by Elspire.

 

“Eternal Story: Repe-”

 

At her last moments before he could hit her, Alice tried to utter a spell, but was stopped midway as the paralysis stopped her from finishing it. However, moments afterwards, before anything else happened, before Elspire managed to attack her, the infinitely expanding whiteness around them broke. It was as if reality itself was breaking apart around them. As the curtain fell, what was once concealed was revealed. Elspire returned to the Godstone Valley on his own, once again without either Alice or Arisu around.

 

While it seemed that he finally broke through Alice’s illusion once and for all, any observers would soon realize that something was off. Perhaps the most jarring was the fact that the arena was completely pristine, devoid of all the destruction and damages that the battle so far had caused to it. As if confirming everyone’s suspicion, soon afterward a familiar voice without a source could be heard booming through the arena.

 

BGM: Legendary Illusion ~ Infinite Being

 

“...Ah well...perhaps my Repetitive Phantasmagoria didn’t work as well as I would’ve hoped. Well then, it should've stopped mattering anyway now.

 

You...who have dared to push me this far...who have dared to stand against me this much...refusing to die…

You...who have dared to play with my heart this much...who have dared to incapacitate me like this...

This is it. I shall pass my final judgment onto you.

 

This is the final dream for you.”

 

A bleeding Elspire stood there on the pristine battlefield, his arm now gone and his chest impaled.  “Dream huh...this seems more like a nightmare…”

 

The disembodied voice was heard chuckling a bit when she heard what Elspire said, but she soon shifted back to her serious tone.

 

“If you say so…

...Well, time for you to end.

 

Suffer in this everlasting nightmare until the end of eternity for all your sins, you evil dragon!

 

Eternal Disaster Cycle: Catastrophe Coagulation!”

 

That was it, the final attack had been declared. As soon as Alice’s voice finally disappeared, a sudden shaking of the ground happened. Cracks appearing around where Elspire was standing as shockwaves after shockwaves on the ground arrived on the scene. An earthquake was brewing, and it became stronger and stronger within each passing second. Fissures started to form on the ground, crags and slopes forming as Alice started to reshape the continent as her final attack. To attack Elspire now, it seemed that Alice was willing to even split apart the continent. With the ground collapsing beneath him once again, Elspire took to the skies, flapping his tattered wings.  It was strange that he was able to gain altitude at all, seeing as the state of disrepair they were in.

 

However, seemingly noticing Elspire’s avoidance of her attack, the next segment of the attack became apparent. Tornados started to appear on the battlefield, all seemingly having their own mind with the intention to throw Elspire back to the ground and be crushed by the moving plates below. The wind started of small, but in the span of seconds the blow would be strong enough to devastate buildings - enough to carry cars and houses with ease.

 

“You think you can avoid this…?! My dear...It’s useless, useless, useless!” Alice’s manic voice could be heard in the background as she continued to control the tornados to slam Elspire into the ground as hard as possible.

 

“I just might be able to, Alice!”  The winds blew Elspire around like a ragdoll, and the sword that had been impaled in his chest had finally come loose.  His blood was swirling around him, but Elspire cauterized the wound fast with his electricity.

 

“Heavenly Piercing Drill of the Lightning Dragon!”  Elspire twisted with the winds, and zigzagged his way through each twister, cutting off the airflow as he seemed to slice the air.

 

Elspire’s maneuver had managed to make Alice’s tornados to subside, but she was still fully intent on continuing her onslaught. The temperature of the arena suddenly dropped as cold wind started to gather, and it was soon followed by a chaotic blizzard - the worst blizzard that Alice could conjure with her mind. From the skies, ice shards the size of cars started to fall on the ground, while the freezing wind was blowing stronger and faster as each second passed. Yet it seemed that Elspire was only mildly bothered by it, if at all.

 

“...Why..? Why can you keep surviving my attacks?!

 

Just die die die die die die die for real this time!” Alice’s voice was of utter bafflement. Elspire started to shrug her attempt to attack with ease, as if he knew that-

 

Elspire launched his counterattack...this blizzard was lukewarm at best.  He powered his fist up with plasma, and he smashed every Ice shard that came his way.  The wind blew one of his strikes off course, and he was smashed in the chest by one of the shards.  However, it seemingly bounced off his chest without shattering.

 

“I don’t know how I’ve survived this long to be quite honest, Alice…

 

Maybe I just need to tell Arisu something before I kick it…”  Her voice was still coming from nowhere.  Elspire couldn’t trace it to any one place in the valley.

 

“Then...go tell her about that in hell! I’ll reunite you with her and your mother and your father there if that’s what you oh so desired!” Any traces of sanity, if there was any in the first place, had all but disappeared from the disembodied voice. With the blizzards being useless, she started to bring down ice projectiles of differing sizes from the skies. It started off just like her usual icicles, but soon it became bigger and bigger, and she soon threw car-sized ice blocks towards the dragon.

 

“Don’t you dare bring them into this!”  A gleam showed in Elspire's eyes as he dodged Alice's attack again.

 

“It’s you who brought them into this in the first place!” Alice yelled back, intensifying the hailstorm in the meantime. Lacking anymore desire to reserve her ability or to hold back, she started to throw icebergs towards Elspire. Elspire took his electric sword, and amped up the voltage to increase the size.  He swiped it horizontally, and destroyed three iceberg sized shards in one fell swing.  He proceeded to glide in the air, swooping and dodging pieces of ice as they fell to the ground.

 

“DIE!” As she screamed, Alice then did...something to her world. What happened next was odd, and Elspire found the ground below him had all but disappeared...only to reappear on top of him. Reversing the ground and the sky, Alice now dropped the ground itself on Elspire’s head.

 

The sword disappeared, and Elspire’s hands were both covered in electricity...wait...both hands?  “NO TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS!”  Elspire put his hands above his heads, his arms covered in energy.  As the collapsing land fell into his palms, his muscles ached as he used all of his strength to hold back the attack.  It should’ve proven pointless..the mass of this piece of land should’ve been enough to make him a stain beneath it, but the island was so light...well lighter anyways.  He held it above his head, and rested it on his shoulders.  He then threw it in the air beneath him, and it floated back into it’s original space.

 

“SINK AND BE FORGOTTEN!”

 

In the next second, water suddenly flooded the arena, and it kept on rising, on and on, even if it betrayed any sense of logic to raise this much. It rose higher and higher and higher and higher, and soon Elspire was already at the bottom of a sudden ocean created by Alice, the water pressure aiming to crush him into pulp. In the background, a muffled sound of Alice's manic laugh could be heard.

 

The pressure was intense, but Elspire hadn’t felt any differently than when he was high up in the sky.  He swam, with the tiny amount of air he had accumulated before he started sinking.  His wings also helped him propel through the water.  Without speaking, Elspire started twisting violently in the water, recreating his drill attack to jet him to the surface.  He breached the surface and took a deep breath.  “It’s you who’ll be forgotten Alice!  You’re nothing but a fake Arisu!”

 

“Can one even be a fake of something that doesn’t even exist in the first place?” With what could pretty much be a flick of her hand, the vast ocean was replaced with magma in an instant, and bursts of molten rocks started to erupt from below, all while the hot primordial liquid itself started to rise higher and higher. Somehow, the dragon had ended inside of the Earth's mantle.

 

“Just go burn in this hellfire and die silently!”

 

Elspire noticed the hot magma swirling around him, but he felt nothing.  He rose to the top of the Magma, and stood on a stone that had been floating on the surface.  “I bet Ari’s flames are way hotter than this...it’s time we end this charade, don’t you think?!”  Elspire’s fist glowed, as he smashed the lava below him making it disperse away from his location.

 

“What charade? You mean the charade you put up about being the main character of MY story?” Alice's emotions became more and more chaotic, and responding to it, he magma of the arena started to erupt again, sending plumes of molten rocks raining down on Elspire. The underworld geyser started to burst, and the ceiling above started to crumble. A volcano eruption was imminent.

 

“Tch...I’ll stop being the heroine in this case.

 

I will kill you as the writer of this story if you oh so desired to be the hero of it! Tragedy is the soul of drama, and I will end your story as it!”

 

The plumes of lava erupted towards him, but he simply sidestepped the falling rocks and magma.  “This isn’t a story Alice!  This is the real world!  I’m not a hero, and you’re definitely not a heroine!  But I can tell you this....

 

I will defeat you!”  Elspire launched an electric spear into the air, hoping it would hit the disembodied voice anywhere.

 

“Then I will write out your ability to do that!” The spear hit the ceiling, and as it did that, it went on and on, breaking the ceiling, and on to the sky. As it passed through it, the sky itself parted, like how the ocean was split by a miracle. The spear traveled on and on, even when it should’ve stopped. It traveled on and on until it left the earth’s atmosphere. And then, there were a momentary silence as Elspire found himself back in the normal arena.

 

But then, a deafening, thundering sound echoed throughout the sky, shaking the foundation of the heavens itself.

 

“With this, I shall drive dragonkind into extinction!”

 

The clear sky burned bright red. Raining down from the skies were burning celestial rocks, creating craters on the ground wherever they hit. As if it wasn’t enough already, the meteorite shower was then followed by what looked like an asteroid ramming the ground straight out of nowhere. It was as if the world itself was ending. The ground started to break apart as what was inside of it gushed forward, mountains crumbled all around the arena.

 

“Show’s over, Elspire.”

 

Elspire shrugged.  “I guess you’re right in a sense.”  Elspire took a step back, and ran to the coming calamity.  His feet filled with energy as he approached the meteor crashing into the ground.  He smiled as he kicked the meteor, as it seemed to collapse inside of itself, as if he had kicked a balloon.  The meteor flew back into the red void from which it seemingly came.

 

“The show’s over Alice…”

 

“...It’s over for you, yeah.” The place started to heat up, and the sky flashed brightly once more, unnaturally so. The air pressure started to be heavier and heavier, and in the next moment, Alice’s last resort had shown itself. It was nothing else but the moon, rapidly approaching the arena in what would lead into the apocalypse itself. The intense gravitational pull from it broke apart what was left of the ground, and in the distance, the sound of rushing ocean could be heard as it rose rapidly in response to the summoned moon.

 

“Pity, I thought you’re quite handsome and could be my type of boy.

 

See you in the next dream, I guess.”

 

“I’m definitely not your type Alice…”  Elspire bolted towards the moon that was headed for a crash course towards the valley.  “But I think i’m a certain other girl’s for sure!”  With his fist imbued with electric energy, Elspire struck the moon, an ant punching through a bowling ball.  With his eyes seeing the truth, the rocks before Elspire’s fist started to crumble, and he punched all the way through the big ball of rock.  When he appeared on the other side, the whole moon had exploded into tiny pieces of stone. An act that should've been impossible.

 

But he did it anyway.

 

“...H-how the hell did you do that?!

 

...The hell are you?!

 

WHY CAN’T YOU DIE?!

 

JUST…WHY?! STOP IT, STOP IT I SAY!

 

JUST STOP BEING ALIVE, CAN’T YOU?”

 

Alice’s disembodied voice became more and more desperate as her final attack failed, and the world itself started to crumble. The perceptionless wonderland that she had created, the marble of reality that she possessed, it started to crumble for real now. Alice tried to fire off attacks after attacks again, but now they were merely images instead of something solid. Her illusions, her fantasy had failed her.

 

Her illusion was meaningless against someone that had seen the truth behind it.

 

BGM - This Isn't Over

 

“I can’t die here, remember?

 

...I can’t stop here...I gotta save someone first.”

 

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

Took a while for him to notice, but at long last, the boy that was fated to be with his opponent had arrived on the arena. He...didn't seem really the type of person that he's looking for, and that made Nero sigh. He considered to just skip all common courtesy and just barrage the boy with his attacks to end this quick so he can move on to the next round, but he remembered about Cam. That boy...he didn't look like one having determination at first, but he kept on fighting even to the bitter end. It was quite regretful that he had to die...but that's inevitable and in the end, he would still need to move on with his life. Human life is fleeting. As much as he tried to care to individuals, in the end, the sheer difference in scale of age between them would only lead Nero to regard them like mayflies. At this point, caring about the whole race would be better than individuals. He had lost so many people whenever he got close to them anyway. Cam's definitely not the first.

 

Casting off the distracting thought, Nero then decided that he would need to at least gauge the opposing competitor first. Advancing to this round require skill, and if he's just a random kid he definitely wouldn't be here. Thankfully he wasn't wearing his fancy robe at the time. Even if those were fireproof, in a place like this it would be very impractical.

 

Well, it's kinda impractical in general, but Nero liked the coat .Walking with a certain air of nonchalantness, Nero soon appeared before his opponent. His sword was half-projected behind him, ready for any potential attack that would soon happen.

 

"Yo.

 

Perhaps we can start our match here with haste? There's something that I need to confirm from you, and I need to confirm it fast.

 

Pardon me for suddenly appearing, but the environment necessitated me to do so."

 

With that said, he finally turned towards the cloaked boy, a big devilish grin on his normally stoic phase.

 

"So tell me. Do you have the determination, or the resolve to defeat me and win this tournament...?

No...I mean, Would you have the sheer determination necessary to create your own path from here on?

 

Let's find out, shall we?"

 

---

[VCR_CAT]

Dirk: Razerhill City

 

When Howler responded with his own shots, Dirk dove behind cover, but was shocked to hear now impact; no shower of debris from bullets slamming against the stone. Dirk poked his head out; Howler was nowhere to be seen.

 

"...The hell?" Dirk muttered to himself before looking at where the bullets had apparently hit; each spot was glowing brightly. "sheet!"

 

Dirk leaped away from where the glowing lights were; making sure to be aware of his surroundings in case anything surprising would be to happen. Especially to be sure Tyson wasn't trying anything...

 

 

Saul: Observation Tower

 

A loud "bang" echoed through the observation tower. Saul's fist lay impacted against the metal surface of the table in front of him; embedded into an accurately hammered dent, glowing. Saul's face was stoic, yet his breathing was heavy with a forced sense of control. His lays stared at one thing: Ilgad's dead body.

 

"Excuse me, Saul...?" A voice spoke from elsewhere in the tower. It sounded like Gerald's servant, but Saul was not paying any direct attention. His gaze was fixed, almost as if he didn't notice. For a second, the tower lay completely silent before Saul's face cracked a smile.

 

"I'm fine," Saul replied, the air in his tone lighter and softer than any way he had spoken before. "That was an impressive play by Elspire; I can see why I was defeated." Of course, at this point, the tone and air to Saul's voice now was far more unsettling than any fit of rage he could've expressed at that point, and this only pointed to a calm before a great, great storm.

 

"Magic is not just a tool; it's a part of life and the world around you. If anything, people like you have abused magic by stealing its gift without any god-given right," Saul countered to Morgan. "However, you need only let the power become one with you; what this girl has done is let it overtake her; consume what little of her being remained. Now all that's left is a maelstrom of the victims needed to achieve this."

 

Saul let out a sigh. "Elspire will lose this if he holds on to the idea of the human that was once Arisu. The being in front of him will not hesitate to end him; but if he hesitates for one second, it will all be over."

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

The world shattered around him, and the real Godstone Valley had appeared, all the damage from the battle beforehand intact. He stretched his arms, and looked over his chest. Besides a couple of burn marks, everything else seemed to be in their rightful place. “Impressive show...I’m glad it’s over now.”

 

Resting her head on a stone not far away from the boy, Alice silently watched as her final attack failed. The paralysis from Elspire’s attack still affected her, but it seemed that she would be able to shrug it off if given enough time - or she could just die and revive again. She could risk dying once more and be reborn...but she’s too tired to do it. Not in a physical sense, that wouldn’t make sense for her of all people.

 

She just...she didn’t really have any desire to continue anymore. Her shocked and furious expression as she broke down screaming earlier slowly disappeared from her face. She was still not a fan of losing like this, but Elspire proved to be the victor here with how much he withstood her.

 

“Nah, the impressive one is actually you, Elspire.” Alice answered the dragon’s statement, smiling slightly. Took her a while to realize it in her furious tantrum earlier, but finally Alice realized what made her unable to defeat the dragon, even if she attacked his soul directly with such power that would’ve broke him down normally. His heart refused to waver. Against an insurmountable odd, the boy had managed to stand against her time after time. No matter how much she pushed her to the brink of defeat, his feeling push him back forward. No matter how much she tried, Alice knew she wouldn’t be able to match such strong feeling.

 

And frankly, she’s also tired of dying. Not to mention...after a long time, she could finally enjoy herself truthfully and stop being spiteful for once. Hard for her to be mad at Elspire for beating her due to this.

 

“Hate to admit it...but it’s been quite fun starring in this story with you. Maybe we should dance again one day, perhaps?” Her tone was more playful this time, somewhat teasingly.

 

Elspire bowed. “Another dance huh? Alright...but next time...don’t step on my toes as much huh?”

 

“But that’s what make it fun, am I right?” The blue-haired magus laughed.

 

Elspire laughed alongside her. Rubbing the back of his head, he replied. “Only if you’re some kind of masochist or something like that! Also...probably safe to say you shouldn’t wear heels then either!”

 

“Well, I don't actually wear heels here. But you know, you’re right. I hate dying too much, I don’t think I can’t afford being a masochist.” The girl laughed and laughed after her reply. Both parties didn’t seem to have any intention to continue fighting now - and neither seem to be able to continue, anyway.

 

“Maybe I miss being a normal college girl just as much as Arisu. Laughing with you like this, playing with you like earlier...being attracted to someone too, seems like I missed these a lot more than I’d like to admit.

 

At least I can feel them for one last time now. So for that, thanks. Been quite a story that we share, but we all know that it’s not the final chapter for you yet.

 

I assume you’d like to share your story with someone else, right?”

 

Elspire nodded. His light-hearted smile had turned somewhat sympathetic, a glimmer of sadness behind it. “Although it was a blast fighting...er...playing?...with you, you’re right in that assumption.

 

I want to share it with her...if you wouldn’t mind.”

 

“It’s funny, really. You two had just met for...not really that long, yet your feelings for her was strong enough to defeat me.

 

Yeah, I’m sorry for lying. She should still be around, somewhere...I think she can hear you reaching out to her. I don’t know if I can reach out to her, but maybe I can try.” Alice’s gaze was distant as she said that. As much as she used to despise Arisu for what she did, in the end she was still her friend. Even if she couldn’t remember who she was, or what kind of souls composed her being now, or even her friendship with the girl, she decided that it’s time for her to forgive her for keeping her in such sad state.

 

“I don’t think I can stay mad at her after one century has passed. I...we have lost everything. Guess it’s best that I throw her some bone.

 

I haven’t talked to her for ages...I kinda envy you that you can reach out to her as easily as you did. I don’t know how much she had changed.

 

Well, let’s just hope she don’t end up being as nuts as I am now. That’ll ruin the moment for everyone.”

 

Elspire’s face became nervous with anticipation. “Oh man...I hadn’t really thought about it up until now...but for some reason I know she’s the only reason I’m not dead right now! She might’ve been in the back-seat...but I think she was driving for the most part.” He scratched his cheek. “Otherwise...if you hadn’t pulling your punches Alice...I’d be full of more holes than swiss cheese!” He laughed again, taking a seat next to his opponent.

 

“Guess I’ll just have to wait for her to come out then!”

 

“Yeah...just lemme handle this.” With Elspire right beside her, Alice smiled serenely as she leaned herself to his shoulders. The entire battle was tiring…and now, she needed a rest. The girl’s breathing became slower, slower...and suddenly it stopped altogether. Elspire’s heart sank to the bottom of his chest as he realized what was happening...hopefully this was all normal.

 

“,,,

 

...Hey...hey...Alice…Arisu…you there?”

 

There were no answers coming from her. Elspire tried to shake her, hoping for any sort of signal from her, but there weren’t any.

 

“Don’t fall asleep on me now!” He panickingly yelled. Several minutes of silence, and still nothing. Elspire started to think that the worst had happened.

 

“She’s...she’s supposed to come back right?!

 

I mean...I went through all of that...I killed you...I killed Alice so many times….for what?!” A thought crossed his mind, the beginning of all this. Those soul piercing eyes that met his at the banquet. The friendly conversation they had shared in the beginning. Her face...her scent...Her. He looked to the unconscious girl on his shoulder. He gripped her firmly and started to shake her gently. .

 

“Hey...come on Arisu...you can’t leave me hanging like this...How do I go back after this…

 

How do I live without her…

 

This tournament isn’t fair....

 

I just want the real Arisu...my Arisu..”

 

---

 

The air up here was so nice...he loved taking rides into the stratosphere with his mom.

 

“Now Elspire, remember what I’ve told you about women?” A voice as blissful as the heavens spoke to him. It was as if a cloud itself were speaking to him, light and fluffy as can be.

 

“Yeah yeah Mom. But girls are so icky...who needs ‘em!” A young Elspire huffed with his arms crossed, sitting on top of the back of a magnificent dragon.

 

“Girls are not icky Elspire dear...they’re sweet, and kind. One day, a girl will take care of you for the rest of your days.” Elspire’s head tilted.

 

“I thought that was gonna be you Mom? Aren’t you gonna be around for like, ever?” A soft chuckle came from beneath him.

 

“Yes Elspire...I’ll always be with you. But this woman will be able to be there when I can no longer be...she’ll be so great...I can just tell that you’ll catch the big one! You’re a nice and handsome boy...don’t you know?”

 

“But how will I know it’s her?”

 

“It’s the way she looks at you Elspire honey...It’s the way you’ll look at her as well...You’ll feel funny, you’ll be embarassed...but it’ll be for the best.” The dragon laughed again. “She might be able to put you in your place from time to time! You’re such a handful.”

 

Elspire placed his hands over her gargantuan back. “I love you mom...ain’t no girl going to replace you!”

 

“I would hope not…I love you too, my son.”

 

 

“WHAT’S THE MATTER BOOOOOY??? SCARED OF A SUCCUBUS?” A hideous creature stood before him, along with the corpse of a man who had been sucked dry of his life essence.

 

Elspire had stepped into a home, decrepit and dark. It had been like this for some time. He was hired to come and see what the disturbance that occurred so long had been. Lo and behold the sight before him, a woman with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, and a tongue that stretched down to the floor. Electricity surged through his fist. “Alright monster...be rid of this place or I’ll have to force you out!”

 

The hag cackled. “And who’s going to make me? A boy that’s been playing too close to outlets all day? I think not!” The succubus lurched at him, but Elspire decked her in the face. The force sent her flying to the opposite side of the room.

“J-just what the hell are you!?” It hissed.

 

“I’m Elspire Ferdinand...a hero of justice!”

 

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to hit girls!?” Elspire could only grimace at the monster.

 

“She did...but I’ll make an exception this once. Besides, you’re definitely not the one she was talking about.”

 

“The one?” Succubus asked confused, as it was vaporized from Elspire’s next attack.

 

---

 

This darkness...this emptiness. He hadn’t had felt this way since his mother passed away before him. “She called me a hero….Mom...she said I was a hero…” He wore a smile, but the tears kept streaming down his face. “What’s the good of being a hero…If I couldn’t save either of you…”

 

There were still no signs that Arisu would reappear. No one else’s voice could be heard on the broken down valley except for his own. Sooner or later, the helicopter that would lead him back would appear to take him.

 

Elspire looked to the girl that lay before him. “Arisu...I’m...I’m so sorry…

 

If I couldn’t do that one simple thing...how am I going to find dad…” His fist started smashing into the ground. “DAD! You weren’t there! You were strong! You could’ve saved her! You could’ve been there for me! You could’ve given me the knowledge to save her....” Elspire remembered Alice’s words...his dad didn’t even know he existed...did he even care about Mom...of course he did.

 

---

 

“Love is a powerful thing Elspire...love created you...love can do so much more.”

 

---

  

“Do I...?”   His tears stopped, the floodgates had been att ended to.  “Well..I must’ve….or else I wouldn’t have tried this  hard…” Elspire’s   head was a mess with visions from his past, and his currently breaking future. “So did I…?” Elspire couldn’t find the way to put it into a sentence. He hadn’t said the words since he was a little boy.

 

“I do…

 

I love Arisu…” With the words finally out, Elspire felt a surge of warmth throughout his body.

 

“I guess it’s too late for all that now huh Ari?”

 

---

 

“…W-what are you doing here?!”

 

“Surprised to see me again, Arisu? Hey, don’t look terrified like that - I’m not here to kill you or anything. Iunno…I think I’m only here to talk to you about something.

 

…You really like that boy, aren’t you? Hey, it’s not something to be ashamed about. He’s pretty slick for a dragon whelp.”

 

“…Yeah...so then what? Is that has anything to do with why you're here? Just...just leave me alone, will you?!”

 

“Not much, just stating something obvious. Tho, you’re looking like a precious puppy earlier when you took control just so you can face him. What made you let go of that control to me soon afterwards, locking yourself inside of your own prison again?

 

Shyness got your tongue again?”

 

“…I don’t think I should be with him. No…not like this.”

 

“Hmm? You’re serious ‘bout that, Miss Itakura? C’mon, he’s waiting for you out there. You’ve locked yourself here for the last six decades, time for you to actually get together with people.”

 

“No way in hell he’d even like me!

 

Maybe now…maybe he would see me as the girl of his dream, but…why would he stay on my side if he knew-“

 

“Hey hey, now you’re just being overly dramatic, dammit!

 

You killed us back then, forcing us to be stuck in a state like this for ages, being used as the battery for you to keep on living. Yeah, that sucks, and we did kinda feel betrayed and despise you a lot as a result. Even with that, we can still bring myself to try picking you from here.

 

It’s less me being forgiving, but it’s more wanting to see you get it on with- I mean, it’s really just me wanting to see you get a second chance. Look at you here now, so deep in your slump. You’re even worse than when I first met you.

 

As much as we’re pissed at you for doing what you did, I’m more pissed right now that you don’t even put us to a decent use, instead stuck moping here for decades. You’re not the Arisu we know. You’re just a melodramatic angst queen too self-absorbed by your own emo to do something actually useful or interesting.

 

Perhaps it’d be a better use of my time to just go out there and pretend to be the Arisu that once became our friend for the dragon boy. Poor guy really don’t deserve to be lumped with someone as self-defeating and pathetic as you.”

 

“So, you’re saying that just to rile me up so I go out from here and-“

 

“This is not the goddamn time to be a smartass, Arisu! Holy hell, stop being so insufferable for once, will you?”

 

“…I’m sorry. I just…but why would he like a mur-“

 

“You keep saying that again and again, and it made me so damn sick! Here, I am your friends, I am the people you ‘murdered’!

 

You’re saying you’re a terrible person? Guess what, you are! You’re terrible since instead of doing anything for your problems, you instead just sulk here.

 

I get it, I get it, you regretted what you did back then. And hey, even if I’m still slightly pissed about that, it’s cool, no use to keep up bringing that. I get it that you’re feeling sorry for it, so then what? You didn’t actually apologize to me even if you know that I exist. You didn’t even use the life you got by taking ours to do what you’re going to do, and we ended up taking your slack instead. You’re so useless at times I forgot that you exist.

 

That story has long ended, Arisu. Now go get up there and start a new story with him! You said to us back then that you wanted to be in a fantasy as its hero, so now it’s your time to turn that daydream of yours into reality!

Him killing me a lot of times just to get to you hurts a hell lot, you know?”

 

Being yelled at like that, the expression of the girl before her slowly changed. Before the annoyed gaze of Alice, she could saw that it seemed that her words finally pierced through the girls' thick head.

 

“…Alright then, I’ll take this chance. I’m still unsure about a lot of things, but maybe I shouldn’t doubt myself like this. He’s probably dead worried about me now.

 

Yeah, I’ll be the heroine of our fantasy once more. And this is the start of my new story! Arisu’s story!”

 

“Heh, nice to see you finally being honest to yourself. Since the illusion has been broken, it's time to show your true self to the guy you wished to be with.”

 

“Yeah…I’ll do it.

 

Thank you, everyone.”

 

---

 

A faint sound broke the silence.

 

BGM - Reunion

 

“E...El..s..p…” A weak voice tried to call out to the dragon, but couldn’t finish. Elspire turned to face the point of origin..., and he saw the girl that lay on his side has opened her eyes. Looking at her, he could see that something had changed from the opponent he faced before, yet, the change was familiar to him. He could see her smile, weary, but full of hope.

There was no mistaking it.

 

“Arisu?! Arisu!? Is that really you?! Tell me I’m not dreaming!”

 

“El...it’s nice to see...you again.” Her voice slowly become steadier, but it was clear that she wouldn’t be able to regain much of her strength for now. Grasping at the boy that had just fallen on his face, she tried to pat his hair, still unable to move her body much.

 

Elspire grabbed the girl’s hand as it reached out to him. “Arisu….Arisu…” His voice was shaky, but he pulled the girl into him. Hugging her as he moistened her shoulders with the tears that rolled down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry Arisu…

I’m so happy to see you…”

 

“I…” At loss for words, Arisu instead hugged Elspire as tightly as she could. She was also unable to hold back her tears, as she finally was able to embrace the person that she could honestly love for the first time. “It’s..it’s I that should’ve said that! I’m sorry, Elspire! Because of me, you’re…”

 

“It’s fine, you’re here with me now at least…” He wiped his tears on her shoulder. “It’s over...we can finally go home together!” He could hear the chopper in the distance. As it appeared over the flat valley, Elspire picked Arisu up in his arms. They shook as if miniature earthquakes were occurring in his muscles.

 

“Yeah, let’s go back. After all, you’ve won against me and them, it’s over now.

 

So, congrats, I guess.” As she was being held by the young dragon, Arisu smiled warmly at him as her thoughts traveled. Agonizing about her choice for decades, Arisu had chosen to hid herself into the stone and let the collective spite of her friends took over as Arisu – perhaps as the only way she could apologize to them as they wouldn’t be able to hear her anymore.

 

However, something changed.

 

The last round…when “Arisu” decided to spare Fate, something had started to flood inside of her. A desire…or perhaps, something close to it. It took her a while to realize what it was, but it finally clicked on her now. It was…simply a desire of hers to live the life of the girl named Arisu once more. She wished to have a friend just like how she had friends as Arisu, and that was ultimately the reason why “Arisu” saved Fate – the overwhelming desire to not be alone for once took control for a moment. And also…as she desired to not be alone anymore…that was probably why she resurfaced momentarily earlier.

 

Perhaps it’s unwarranted. Perhaps both of them were rushing to it just based on some heartful talk to each other. Perhaps it didn’t have much depth right now. But with Elspire being with her now…Arisu decided to not care. There’s something more important to care about now anyway.

 

The helicopter soon arrived on the scene. An explosion could also be heard in the distance, signifying that one of the helicopters had exploded with the winner had been decided.

 

“Let’s leave, El.”

 

---

 

“Arisu…!” A voice called out. The brown-haired girl woke up from her sleep, and realized that she’s being surrounded by several girls. The sight surprised her, and she attempted to back out after letting out a small yelp. She had just moved into this school, but it seemed that it didn’t take long before she was targeted to be picked at by the other students here. The girl sighed, somewhat resigned of her imminent fate. It wouldn’t be the first or the worst anyway, so why would she-

 

“Hey, you alright…? You’ve been asleep throughout the break time.”

 

“H-huh?

 

A-ah, I’m fine...I think.” The concerned voice surprised her.

 

“You know, if you have any problems, it’s fine if you tell us. We’re here to help, after all.”

 

“Though it’s fine if you don’t wanna. After all we’re probably still strangers to you…no?

 

But hey, that means we should get to know each other better! You’re our classmate now, after all!”

 

“Y-yeah, I guess…”

 

Are they for real? They’re just playing me around…aren’t they? The girl thought.

 

“Hey, how about you join us after school? We’re going to watch a movie then, so you should come too. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for you just this time!”

 

“…”

 

“Hey hey, don’t look so scared like that. We won’t hurt you; we just want to be your friends. We’re a bit worried since you’ve been here on your own for quite a while, so we think that you probably just a bit too shy to ask us to be friends with you.

 

If we’re too intrusive here, then we’re sorry.”

 

“…No…this is fine.

 

…T-thank you…everyone…”

 

---

[Dad]

Razerhill

 

"I wonder," he said as his arm outstretched through the purple portal before him.  "Just how perceptive you really are, Mr. Dirk."  The young man scrambled as the portals lit up around him, trying to scurry away from Howler.  His foot emerged next, as he kicked forward out of the portal.  However, the scenario had been reversed.  "The first time, they're always confused."  The bullets around Tyson darkened, as the ones nearest Dirk remained bright.  Howler kicked out of the portal, nailing Tyson directly in his chest and causing him to topple backwards.  "Don't let your eyes fool ya, boys," he said wielding a large metal tube over his shoulder now.  "You'll end up lost and confused."  A loud thud and a rush of wind and sound erupted from the chamber over Howler's shoulder, as a rocket propelled grenade found its way towards Dirk now.  

 

"I'd run if I were you!" Howler said with a laugh.  Another specially designed weapon.  And it would be much harder for Dirk to outrun this RPG.  "That outta keep him busy for a while.  So, Mr. Tyson," Howler said dropping the rocket launcher at his feet.  "What's say you and me tussle?"  Howler revealed at his right hip a lengthy blade, branded with a language Mephisto would recognize if he got a closer look at it.  It's silver and black hilt was lined with a ruby coating, and a sinister eye blinked at the center of its hold.  The blade shrieked with power, as it detected Mephisto and Tyson.  Howler pulled the sword from his side, flipping it about skillfully as he challenged Tyson to a duel.

 

Holding an open palm over the blade, Howler began to chant something in a very old, outdated, and sinister tongue.  "Bal shiok da nes dia dos.  Hing dey os noltros sulnamun.  Weep."  The silver blade shattered into hundreds of pieces, floating ominously in the air.  Seconds later, the blade reassembled itself, its silver edge now painted red.  "I got this from one of your pals, a long time ago.  Second time I've had'a put it to use."  Howler took a step back, before whipping around suddenly and slashing at Tyson with the sword he wielded.

 

 

The Skybox

 

Back in the large viewing facility, a rather unimpressed Gerald forced himself to smile as Arisu and Elspire brought their fight to a classic end.  "A hero's end, is it no?" he said over the microphone, as a remaining helicopter retrieved Arisu and Elspire.  They were whisked aboard the helicopter in a rush, their battle having been concluded the fastest of all of the day's events.  

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, your victor!  Elspire Ferdinand!" Gerald called over the live stream.  The screen was littered with fireworks, as behind a now slumbering Elspire and Arisu, the sky was lit ablaze, brilliantly by hundreds of fireworks.  

 

Silently, Steph breathed a sigh of relief, a hand over her chest.  "What a battle, Gerald.  That one was quite intense, from start to finish!" she said excitedly.  "Once again, our resident dragon-kin has beaten the odds and has risen up the ranks once more.  He's making his way to the semi-finals."

 

"Indeed Steph.  Elspire has a lot to work with.  His strength is very versatile, and with a deep seeded power bonus from his draconic blood, he can quite quickly turn the tide of battle.  However, as this match has shown, he's no god," Gerald joked.  "Arisu kept him on edge for quite some time, pushing the boy further and further."

 

"Of course.  Funnily enough, I had assumed as a dragon-kin Elspire would be invulnerable to magic."

 

"Perhaps.  But, we must remember he is only half-dragon.  His human blood is likely twice as vulnerable to magic, thus balancing out the diminishing and amplifying effects of both parts of Elspire.  I'd like to see what his limit is.  Perhaps, in the next round.  But right now, two of our contestants have entered the Thunder Dome, two others are staring each other down, and our remaining two are engaged with Howler in the pits of Razerhill City.  I dare say we're just getting started."

 

Silently Gerald grasped at the steel siding of his desk, accidentally collapsing it beneath his hand.  He hurriedly repaired it, plucking out the dents and damage, minus the very large, obvious scuffs.  "You'd better fulfill your contract, Howler."

[Astolfo]

Nori

Nori shook her head briskly, trying to shoo away the disturbing images of the previous mind-game that had been enacted with the captives, and her effect on their lives. It was a new day, and a new battle. No time to think of such distracting things. Everything was riding on making it to the top, and she had come too far to just let some deaths actually hinder her. Waking up and preparing quickly, she headed out to the helicopters with a fast-paced but steady walk, waving silently to the crowd in small gestures.

 

Having thoroughly read the manila folder’s contents which held all the important information to the arenas - usually, recalling the sudden appearance of the unmentioned geese beasts - Nori felt slightly tense. In such a fragile arena, she would definitely have to try and not just blast everything apart, because it wouldn’t do for her to perish with her enemy. Hopefully, her enemy wouldn’t have to perish either, but if the situation demanded, she wouldn’t hold back. Recalling how it would be at the very bottom of the ocean, the option to breaking the dome with the provided tool wasn’t quite the most likable idea, as it would be nothing more than a way to deny the enemy’s victory - something petty and dishonorable.

 

Transferring into a submarine, Nori arrived at her underwater stage relatively quickly. One thing she had to hand to Gerald’s flight and travel crew were there efficient travel speeds. The concept of breaking the dome before she entered to win first occurred in her mind, but she removed the thought. The host most likely would simply kill or torture her for such foul play, nor would it do her well as she would have no way back either, as she’d have to exit the sub to do such, and she would not be able to survive that deep in bare flesh. This really was going to be a bothersome fight.

 

”My god…”

 

Touching down on the floors of the exquisitely beautiful Thunder Dome, Nori couldn’t help but take a moment to admire just how breathtakingly dazzling the view and the creations were. It would be a pity that most of the interior structures would probably lay in ruins by the end of the day. Given Gerald’s connections and way of obtaining this arena though, it wouldn’t be too unreasonable to assume repairs would most likely be done unless the dome itself was vaporized.

 

Nori recalled to herself what she could of her opponent’s appearance. The girl she was against had a quite dainty appearance, almost as fragile as the dome they were to be in right now. It wouldn’t do to underestimate her though, as she had made it this far. One hand on her sword to prepare for an instantaneous draw and attack if needed, Nori scanned the surroundings, letting her eyes drink in the wealth of stimuli. Finding a small nearby tower, Nori quickly climbed her way up the inside before launching herself out through a window and crouching on the roof.

 

Although her opponent would be on the opposite side of the field, which would be almost 10 miles or so away, given that the field was a half-sphere and 200 square miles, the height vantage would give Nori a good view of the enemy to come. Simple math sometimes served quite well, reflecting on all the groaning and moaning in the past about how math in school would be utterly pointless. Obviously, neither player could see each other right now unless they could somehow see almost 10 miles away, but with time, the battle would be bound to start.

 

”Come on, show me what you’ve got miss.”

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

"Oh shut up super-size grandpa, more important things are happening than you trying to explain magic." Morgan was pissed at the ignoramus's words but she had to focus. The fight was getting even more and more heated. She watched this "Alice" creature closely as she fought with a deranged power.

Morgan had been certain that Elspire would be overwhelmed soon enough but he somehow persevered. It was kinda impressive, Morgan thought, as she wondered how she could get him on her team.

 

The fight was honestly exciting, even if it were tempered by Morgan thinking of how she would have to destroy this magical misfit. But then...it ended. And in such a way, Morgan was baffled. Surely it couldn't be so easy? "What the heck is this some cartoon happy ending crap? I swear these two have to be acting, it's sooo cheesy! Well at least there were some fancy special effects in this one hey guys?"

 

Morgan's thoughts were a whirl. No, that can't be the end of things. This girl had done such twisted things with magic, she harbored such uncotrolled power, she was unstable. Any moment she could explode again, Morgan knew it. Magic was more complicated and dangerous than that, everything her father had told her taught her that. But, she couldn't just kill her right? Not now at least, not after this display. She wouldn't be able to get away with it easily.

 

Morgan leaned away from the mic and let out a frustrated groan. This thing was almost more trouble than it was worth...grudgingly she turned her attention to the other matches.

"Well that was fun, but lets see what's up with the others shall we, been pretty quiet over there. Maybe things are about to heat up!"

[VCR_CAT]

Saul: Observation Tower

 

Saul smiled at Morgan's quip; his expression much softer than before.

 

"You're right, this is no time to argue technicalities," Saul replied gentley, glancing over at another screen and noticing the combat going on between the blonde fool, the demon man, and the third combatant and smirked. "Although it appears that your boyfriend may be in some trouble of his own."

 

 

Dirk: Razerhill City

 

"Run? What're you talking about?" Dirk yelled down into what he assumed was some kind of portal. Of course, than question was answered quickly enough as a rocket burst its way through the portal. "Oh come ON!" Dirk complained as he leaped over a pile of rubble with the rocket on the chase. "This isn't fair!"

 

The rocket itself moved faster; faster than Dirk had anticipated. He couldn't outrun it now, and using his overclock ability would be a stupid thing to do right now; even for Dirk. Of course, physics were still a part of reality, and Dirk just needed to use them to his advantage.

 

Spinning on his heel, Dirk sprinted full-tilt at the missile; sliding underneath and staring at the metal casing as it passed cleanly over his head; intense heat from the exhaust washing over his body. Righting himself on his feet, Dirk sprinted towards the battle between Tyson and Howler with the missile in hot persuit.

 

"Hey guys, I hope you don't mind, but I got a present for ya!" Glacing back, Dirk spotted the missile and, within decent distance, performed a standing backflip clean over the RPG; which was now speeding towards Tyson and Howler.

[Cosmo.]

Odette was in the Thunderdome, looking for her opponent in the huge enclosed area. A very faint sound could be heard of her opponent taunting her. "I shall find youuu!" She said in a cheery tone, almost as if singing. Odette was travelling around the dome, looking inside buildings and admiring the city beneath the ocean. It was all very quiet, way too quiet, sometime the sound of something being hit could be heard, as the fish hit the glass dome by accident. "Come on, we don't have all day!" Odette said, trying to taunt her opponent back, she wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible, the idea of being under tons of water and the only thing protecting her from certain death was glass, unsettled her quite a bit.

[Hälō]

BMG

 

 

"I got this from one of your pals, a long time ago.  Second time I've had'a put it to use." 

 

"Ripper..." 

 

"I know. That thing's got some bad mojo..." Tyson's expression darkened as eyed Howler's weapon and waited for the legend to make his move. Watching as the his opponent took a single step backwards, the man summoned his own unholy artifact to his grasp, willing to wrap around his right forearm with blinding speed, just in time to parry a viscous slash from Howler. 

 

The sound of grinding metal filled the air as the two entered a power struggle. To Tyson's delight, he found himself forced to support his right arm by placing his left palm on in the opposite side of the the chain, causing it to tremble slightly under the Howler's power. "Bwahaha!" The man couldn't help but erupt into a small fit of laughter as he locked eyes with hero. "You're as strong as they say..." He paused for moment, only to have his grin grow even wider. "No... you're even stronger!" A wave of adrenaline washed of Tyson for the first time since his resurrection. The fire in the man's eyes burned like the pits of hell themselves, and Howler would notice that the temperature around the two was climbing fast as the stood locked in a clash of demonic steel. 

 

"Hey guys, I hope you don't mind, but I got a present for ya!" Dirk's voice suddenly called from behind Howler. Though Tyson didn't need to take his eyes of his target to know what was about to happen, that was what Mephisto was for. "The projectile he fired... coming fast." The demon dutifully reported, slowly becoming aware of how serious this fight was to his other hal- host.  

 

Gripping his right arm tightly with his left hand, Tyson used his all of his supernatural strength to bat Howler's blade away, before abruptly swinging his left arm forward and opening his palm wide towards the other man's chest. "Kickkick!" The man clicked his tongue twice and winked, then proceeded to release a sudden burst of hell fire from his palm. Using the flame jet technique he developed during the last round's battle in the sky, Tyson launched himself backwards whilst simultaneously using the jet to try and blast Howler toward's Dirk's rocket. 

 

"Yo Ridder! Watch the rest of those bullets!" The slayer called over to the other contestant, as he brought himself to a tumbling halt a safe distance form the imminent blast-zone. He could only hope that the man would heed his warning...