"Hey, Amethyst… are you okay?" Crystal crouched down, eyes wide, as her brother lay frozen on the floor.
In front of them, Theodore and Lucien stood hand-in-hand, the air between them almost glowing.
"Gasp! Theo! Why are you holding her hand?!" Crystal demanded.
"Why do you keep gasping, Crystal?" Theodore replied, puffing his chest with unusual confidence. "We're engaged now. Of course I'll hold her hand—we'll be together forever and ever, right Lucy?"
Lucien's cheeks flushed, heart racing. (Though in truth, half of the "charm" she saw was her imagination filling in Theo's innocence.)
"Y-yes, Theo… let's go have fun while they stay here and watch how close we've become ♥."
The room fell into stunned silence. Crystal's jaw dropped. Amethyst still hadn't moved, eyes trembling.
---
✦ The Battlefield
"ROAR!! Fire blast! Heal! Hold the line!! Don't fear—fight together!!"
Shouts of soldiers shook the Green Continent's battlefield. Steel clashed against steel, fire burned against ice, and above it all—snowflakes hissed into steam against dragonfire.
"My Lord!" A dragon knight flew down, panic etched across his scales. "The Snow Elf King himself has entered the battlefield! Our men can't withstand him—his ice tears through shields, his water drowns entire formations!"
Aizen's eyes narrowed, golden light flashing. He gripped his blade, stepping forward as the ground quaked beneath his presence.
"Stand back," Aizen growled. "He is mine."
---
✦ Aizen vs. the Snow Elf King
Across the battlefield, the Snow Elf King emerged, towering, his body clad in crystalline armor of ice. Frost spread from his every step, freezing grass, soil, even blood mid-drip. His voice carried like a glacier splitting.
"Beastman… today you and your kind are erased from history."
"Then come," Aizen snarled, dark fur bristling, eyes blazing like suns. "Let's see whose history remains."
They charged.
The world itself shuddered. When their blades collided, the force tore the land apart. Fire roared against water, steam bursting skyward in pillars that split the clouds.
The Snow Elf King swept his hand, conjuring jagged spears of ice that shot like arrows. Aizen weaved through them, his body flickering like shadow, before answering with a flaming claw strike that melted the air.
"Dragon Fang Strike!!" Aizen roared, sending a wave of crimson fire slashing across the field.
The King countered with "Frozen Abyss!!"—a surge of blackened water and jagged ice. When they collided, the explosion rattled mountains.
---
The duel became chaos incarnate.
Aizen hurled a spear of flame, piercing through the King's hand with a blast that shattered bone and ice.
The King retaliated by unleashing a blizzard so fierce that soldiers on both sides were buried alive.
Aizen roared, his power twisting the skies—dark clouds gathering, thunder rumbling. Rain poured so heavily it drowned the fires, turning the battlefield into a storm of ash and ice.
The Snow Elf King smirked. "The storm weakens your fire."
But Aizen's eyes burned brighter. "No… it strengthens my fangs."
"BEAST FANG!!!"
A howl of primal terror burst from Aizen's soul. The sound itself struck like a blade—tearing through the King's spirit, shattering his courage, making his body tremble uncontrollably. Even the snow elves in the distance dropped their weapons, shaking under the unseen pressure.
The Snow Elf King staggered, gripping his ears as though they would burst. "W-what is this… monstrous aura…?!"
---
✦ The Awakening
Before Aizen could finish him, the earth screamed.
A thunderous crack split the battlefield. The ground heaved upward, splitting apart as if the world's spine had broken.
From the depths rose a shape too massive to comprehend—scales glistening, eyes burning like abyssal lanterns. Its serpentine body coiled up and up, towering like a mountain. Neither snake, nor fish, nor eel—but all at once.
The Leviathan had awoken.
And then—another shadow tore the skies.
A colossal red dragon descended, yet it had no wings. Its massive body floated, writhing in the heavens, eyes burning with hatred.
The Bakunawa.
Two calamities.
Two ancient rivals.
Their presence drowned out even the war.
---
End of Chapter 54