The sky rumbled with thunder and strong winds that hurled rain violently. Basking under the moonlight were flames that lit the skies.
Humming to himself, he pumped his shotgun. The Elven guard tried to crawl away, his face etched in horror, attempting to move his gored legs. But unfortunately, the man unloaded the last 5 pumps on the poor man's face. Kneeling, he observed the corpse of the Elven guard, its face mangled into a bloody mess. "Wow, his face looks kinda funny, not gonna lie..." he says to himself, poking his barrel on the splattered mess.
As if he were fascinated by the sight, he stared at it a little longer before adding more ammo to his shotgun. Firing one more bullet into the guard's face, he lets out a satisfied smile. "I wonder what it'll look like if I use my favorite shotgun on his face instead?" He asks himself in his wild curiosity.
Looking out the window, he watched as the entire Elven kingdom he stood in burned to dust. The kingdom built on trees and magic is now collapsing. Ravaged bodies that are being piled up in fire pits burn, producing a funky smell. Soldiers from Eiden surveyed for any survivors, butchering them with their weapons.
The raging fires drowned the noise of his footsteps and howling winds as he approached the throne room. As he opened the door, the throne room was in shambles. The royal guards were slaughtered, and the queen was in a pool of blood, motionless. Quivering in his chair on his last limb was the King of Leyartria, Jorgann.
Standing before him with a cane was a jester in the Eiden uniform, its colors being red and black. His cane was pinning down Jorgann, trying not to get any of his blood on his shoes. "So I see you've gotten to work, Aiden!" Nox says, eyeing the sight he was witnessing.
"If people of this caliber made me struggle, I would've stepped down as your right hand years ago." He replied, still pinning Jorgann against his bloodstained seat.
Jorgann cried as he saw the horrors from outside his castle. "H-How did you get past the eternal spirits who guard this forest?! They were supposed to protect us!"
Nox tossed aside his shotgun before summoning his Artifact. "I mean, all I had to do was just kill 'em... not much to understand here."
"But they were immortal, how?!"
Ignoring Jorgann's questions, he walked right beside Aiden. "By the way, did you find out where they're keeping Nevality at?"
"Yeah, he said Nevality is being sealed in the World Tree."
"Alrighty, it's time for a detour then!" Nox excitedly shouts, turning to exit.
Jorgann, seeing this, was in utter disbelief. "Y-You wiped out my entire kingdom, holding thousands of years of ancient knowledge, just to know where Nevality is?!"
Turning his head back, Nox nodded. "Yeah?"
"You could've just asked me! I would've given it to you! You didn't need to kill my people and my home! Now everything is ruined!" Jorgann screams, putting his head down in tears.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't think about that. You see, I figured you wouldn't just give me the location of some ancient dragon the gods were scared of, so I simply thought-"
Hearing his ridiculous demands, he cut him off in anger. "How would you even tame Nevality!"
Nox shrugged. "I dunno, beat him up or something!"
Jorgann began to wallow in sorrow once again, knowing his entire life was ruined by some moron. "Why would God do this to me! Why! I lived for hundreds of years being the best person I could, so why did it have to end like this?!"
His outcry ticked Nox off a little, but he didn't get mad. All he felt was sympathy. "Yeah, I asked him the same question." Nox replies, walking off.
*****
Mina ran, carrying Ryan over her head like bagged luggage. "Mina, hurry! If my brother catches us, we're dead!" He warns, limping like a ragdoll as he is carried.
Struggling to run with him over her head, she responds, "I know, I know! You're just really heavy, okay?!"
On their escape, Mina ran into a dark alley, from which Kin emerged from the shadows. "There you two are. Come on, I'm breaking us out of this Mimicry World."
Without question, Mina followed Kin into an empty building with Ryan still above her head. Harold was on the top floor of the building, taking a peaceful rest. Even if he was in a bloody mess and his clothes were tattered, his calm expression stood out the most.
"Luckily, I managed to save him last second. He must've been exhausted because as soon as I brought him here, he collapsed." Kin said, standing by Harold.
For Mina, though, she immediately dropped Ryan and rushed in Harold's direction with aggressive motion. Kin, seeing the intensity of her movements, instinctively grabbed Mina and held her up. In Kin's grasp, Mina wriggled her limbs in the air, trying to reach Harold. "I need to give him mouth-to-mouth CPR! He's clearly injured! I need to give it to him ASAP!" Mina squeals, with an attitude comparable to a rabbit in heat.
Mina's sudden shift in demeanor baffled Kin, with her lust-driven eyes being the cherry on top. "S-Stop it! You don't need to; he's just resting! I already gave him a health potion before he fell unconscious!"
"Kin, you told us you're breaking us out of this Mimicry World, right?!" Ryan asks. Both Mina and Kin abruptly stopped to engage in the conversation. "Yeah, I found out where they planted the inscription by beating up some assassins. I've already set a timed explosion inscription in the area, so we'll be leaving right... now."
As an explosion is seen in the far distance, the Lurian immediately shifts back to normal. All the damage dealt to the Lurian was as if nothing had happened, and the lively crowds reappeared. "Crap, it was that easy?!" Ryan excitedly cheered, knowing they had escaped danger.
"Hey, quit downplaying my actions... I had to beat a ton of dudes till one of them fessed." Kin mentioned taking a teleportation stone out of her pocket. "Now that we have you here, we can finally escape. I've prepped a teleportation stone and built up enough Rysen in the inscription to teleport all of us back to the academy." As Mina still wriggled in Kin's grasp, the stone began to glow, signifying the teleport.
As they waited, the crowd expected to be teleported. But a sudden setback arose. Crashing through the window were a black and red jester, alongside Stephen Lyhorn, who accompanied him. Immediately, Stephen aimed his palm at the teleportation stone and sent a purple orb at it at high speed. On collision with the orb, the teleportation stone's weight increased tenfold. With the sudden weight change, it easily slips out of Kin's grip. "Oh no!" left Kin's mouth as she went to pick up the stone. As she did, a kick from the jester sent Kin flying back. The impact against the wall shook the entire house, making a loud thud. Cracks formed on the wall, as if the building itself barely held itself together. With the blow forcing the wind out of her lungs, she collapsed on all fours, gasping for air. Clenching her stomach, she tried to grip her katana, but it was shattered upon impact.
"H-How did that jester hit me so hard?! My Rysen Storages should be at least level 2!"
She gave the jester a rebellious glare underneath her bird mask as her gasps for air were muffled beneath it.
"If he's that physically powerful, his Rysen Storages must be immensely high then!"
Stephen had already cut their escape route, and the jester displayed inhuman levels of physical prowess. Combining both of these factors gave Kin a panic attack. "W-We can't win!"
Stephen looked over to the jester. "Aiden, grab Mina." he ordered. Sneering at him in response, the jester snapped at him with a bitter attitude. "You're not my boss, dumbfuck. Don't just blatantly order me to do the obvious."
Mina summoned out her Artifacts, but Stephen's quick thinking quickly disrupted her. He already shot a purple orb at her, causing an immense force to weigh her down. She tried to nudge her body away, but to no avail. Footsteps approached, and her eyes met the shoes of Aiden. "For beating Kang the Obliterator, you sure lost easily. Well, actually, he was more of a lapdog, anyway."
Ryan attempted to at least try to fight back, but in his weakened state, all he could do was be pressed down by Stephen's Artifact. "No! I won't let it end here!" he screamed.
To their surprise, an unexpected blast of Divine Light hit both Stephen and Aiden, sending them flying out of the building. Screams in the Lurian streets erupted as the explosion took everybody by surprise. Harold stood up, using his Artifact as leverage. "I just can't get a moment's rest!"
The first person to jump back into the room was Aiden, who was visibly unscathed. Harold had to admit he was quick on his feet for a mere jester. But that's what made him more terrifying. Aiden's response to Harold was to summon his Artifact. It took the form of a dagger engraved with a beautiful rose. Thorns etched around the dagger as if they were consuming it whole. "Harold Etton, a lowly runt you are." Aiden shot out a mysterious, dark, foggy projectile at Harold. Harold's legs barely moved, no matter how hard he tried. Facing multiple powerful opponents in one day had taken a huge toll on his body, and his struggles proved it.
He expected the projectile to deal some sort of damage, but it did none. He grasped his own body, trying to comprehend what had happened.
"Do you think you're the main character or something? Just sit the fuck down and surrender, you dumbass." The words that came out of Aiden's mouth just now felt sharp, as if his words nipped a thread in his body. The pain that followed was immense, forcing his Artifact to dissipate away. "M-My Artifact... I can't call it anymore!" He tried and tried, focusing deeply, but came no results.
"Kiddo, your Rysen Storages were drained out of nowhere!" Konge states, fluttering onto his shoulder. "Since your Artifact consumes a lot of Rysen, your body can't materialize it anymore!"
You could hear the sly smile in Aiden's voice. "Should've known better than being a one-trick pony. Yet again, you have nothing special to you, anyway." His words were meant to put down Harold, but Harold didn't waver. Even if the words stung more than usual, his determination pressed through. "I'm not a one-trick pony!" Harold took out his frying pan and tossed it at Aiden. With the frying pan whiffing in the air, all Aiden did was take a meager step to avoid that blatant attack. The frying pan flew out of the building, crashing into the nearby dumpster. "Huh, you're able to resist Seething Downfall's negative energy. Impressive." Aiden compliments him as he twirled his Artifact. "Well, not that it matters as you're all going to die soon."
Harold smirked. "I'm not done yet! I got more tricks up my sleeve!" Harold fumbled around in his coat, preparing the next set of actions like he was a circus clown preparing his next trick.
"That's not what I'm trying to imply here. You're all eventually going to die, and it's because your souls are going to be sacrificed for the Stone of Eternity."
Harold's smirk immediately wilted away. The name was familiar and also traumatizing at the same time. The mere mention of the stone put him on his knees and turned his face pale. Aiden, noticing such a drastic change, approached him.
He saw the total wreck he was in. His breathing was heavy and unsteady, he was sweating profusely, and his eyes widened to a horror that only he could see.
Aiden leaned down to him. "You're having a panic attack from the name? Stone of Eternity? It seems I found out what your trauma was." He said it again, seeing Harold starting to tear up now. Aiden chuckled, seeing how his Artifact's ability was finally coming into effect. "Oh, I see! If you're reacting so heavily to this, it must be some pretty deep stuff. I assume. Stone of Eternity, Stone of Eternity, Stone of Eternity, Stone of Eternity." Purposely saying to intensify his panic attack, Aiden watched the funny scene in his mind as Harold aches on the floor, nearly puking.
"Alright, playtime is over. I was told to capture you and Mina alive... but I'm free to kill the rest!" As Aiden approached Kin and Ryan with his Artifact still in hand, a light enveloped the entire group, teleporting them away.
Stephen, getting back to the top floor and reaching Aiden, asked, "Where did they go?"
Aiden felt a pulse of anger seep through his skin. "That light... it was clearly the work of a teleportation stone. I thought it was neutralized, so how did they use it? And also, how did they get enough time to charge it? It takes a while for a teleportation inscription to gather enough Rysen, especially a group of that size."
They were all teleported into Mina and Harold's dorm room in Kane Academy. Plopping to the ground, Kin immediately gets up and prays to the heavens. "Thank you, God, for granting us a miracle!" she exclaimed in glee, happy to see another day. Her praises didn't just go to God but to Harold as well. His quick thinking saved them all, and she saw it unfold right in front of her eyes.
The memory of his quick wit replayed in her mind. He secretly activated his own teleportation stone and attached it to the frying pan. He then tossed the pan, purposely missing it and sending it out of the building to activate while he distracted them.
"Impressive!" she thought, turning her gaze to Harold. But Harold was still having a panic attack. Gasping for air, Mina crawled over to him on the ground. "Harold..." she whimpered, seeing his distressed state. Her hand loomed over him as she went to hold his hand, but instead, Harold pulled her into his grasp, hugging her tightly with tears streaming down his face. "Please don't leave me again, Kasca."
Like blood pouring into her pupils, Mina's eyes turn red. Sorrow immediately sparked in her palm, prepared to hunt a potential love interest if needed. "Huh...? What does he mean, Kasca? Why is my darling mentioning some dumb bitch named Kasca?" Her rage was deepening; another woman was being desperately called in her beloved's mouth.
"You're not even dating him..." Sorrow murmurs.
But, seeing the tears in Harold's eyes, his trembling frame as he grasps onto her, the pure desperation in his voice, she paused. "What am I doing! My darling needs me!" She called off Sorrow and immediately accepted his embrace, closing her eyes alongside him. Her pupils slowly averted back to their beautiful blue jewels, which shined with adoration and love. "Don't worry, Harold, I'm here." She reassured him that she would always be there for him in his darkest moments, just as he had always been there for her during her darkest moments.
"That jester guy must've done something to Harold's mind... It most likely was that fog thing he shot Harold with."
Ryan, on the other hand, saw his friend's distressed state. "HAROLD, DON'T WORRY! I'LL GET YUE HERE AND SHE'LL TELL YOU THINGS TO CHEER YOU UP!" Ryan, back to his outlandish and brute tactics, rushed out of the dorm to search for Yue. During that process, he accidentally hits his foot against Kin's abdomen, tripping over her.
"GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! CAREFUL! MY STOMACH STILL HURTS FROM THAT BATTLE!" Kin screamed, shuddering on the floor as she grasped her abdomen.
"Oops, sorry!"
Ryan stands up, but stumbles over her once more. He falls right onto her abdomen; this time, his entire body is plopping onto her.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
"Sorry again!"