**A few moments earlier. The Arcane King's castle**
Syemore had made his way from the plaza where he had just made his speech, accompanied by Captain Tubolt of the Purple Panther Knights.
"It's an honor to work with the famous Purple Panther Knights on this hunt. I know it must be hard to hunt down your own and help an outsider like us," Syemore said frankly.
Captain Tubolt, a taken-care-of and put-together man, had a blond bowl cut and wore a single, dangling silver orb on his right ear. Plenty of jewelry, every finger ringed, and his nails painted purple. He walked next to Syemore up the enormous grand staircase, going to the front double doors of the Arcane King's castle, and said, "Now, the only outsiders here are those damned dogs. You'd best refer that term elsewhere."
He was a very proper-like man who had a thing for tradition. Back when Asura was in charge of the Black Wolves, they were always in constant, harsh rivalry with each other as Captains. So his vendetta against them ran deep and had roots.
"Nevertheless, I appreciate your support," Syemore finished, his white hair and perfect golden skin shining from the sun above them. "But I'm curious, how did you convince the Royal King to give you W.M.A. rights within the Kingdom? Asking as inspiration, really. That tactic was bold, but it got the point across fairly well," Tubolt inquired.
Syemore simply closed his eyes and smiled to himself before responding, "I just pleaded my case after Greed's Trial, and the King obliged. There was really nothing to it. Especially when all the facts are laid out in front of you." He said nothing more after that.
Something was off from the way he put it, but Tubolt, blinded by his vendetta for the Black Wolves, ignored it and added, "I have my members stationed across certain checkpoints in the Kingdom to capture and apprehend any 'stray dogs.' Then, by tomorrow, they will be stationed on the outskirts of the inner main wall, standing by for procedures once the barrier is down to welcome the Mountain Kingdom. Everything is in order for this big day of yours."
"For OUR big day," Syemore corrected as they finally made it up the grand staircase, now in front of the giant castle doors.
The giant doors took their time to open for the two Captains, and when they did, there was a male figure waiting inside to the side of the grand entrance. He had his back against the wall and had his arms crossed with his head down, eyes closed. He was wearing a long white robe comprised of gold and red down the middle, resembling layers of a narrow poncho. His robe extended down to his feet, wearing those gold pointed shoes as he held that infamous hard look on his face. The Vice Chairman of the Valley Magistral Parliament, Alphonzo.
"Ah, Syemore. Fancy seeing you here," he said to him a few feet away, eyes still closed like he was meditating by the wall next to the left door closest to the grand entrance, where the Trial for Greed of the Black Wolves had been held.
Syemore gave him a blank stare, then turned to Tubolt, "If you'll excuse me."
Tubolt obliged, heading through the far-right door of the grand hallway where the Kingdom's Guild meeting was held.
Syemore then casually walked toward the Vice Chairman, and only then did Alphonzo open his eyes to stare him down; their similar crimson eyes in silent competition with each other.
"Can I help you, Vice Chairman?" Syemore inquired, stopping just a few feet away.
"Cut the formalities," he shot back with quiet aggression. "What is your true plan, Syemore?"
He gave him a stone-cold look, and Syemore responded, "Why, we are preparing for the big day and cleaning up our mess before our guests arrive tomorrow."
"Bullshit. We may not have the Angels with us, and though that statement might be true, I suspect you have a deeper purpose planned out. So, skip to the part where you plan to overthrow the Kingdom and I'll skip to the part where I have your entire Guild abolished and all the Blue Phoenix Knights escorted to Tartarus for your Class SS crimes against the Valley." Alphonzo said blandly from out of nowhere.
Syemore was silent at this time, then, like a faint whisper, began to laugh hysterically, facing the ceiling, and throwing his arms open to the side, saying, "What an accusation, Vice Chairman Alphonzo." He lowered his head, and the sinister smile he had across his face disappeared almost instantaneously. "Actually. It wasn't an accusation. You're convinced it is fact, aren't you?"
The grand hallway was so silent as they glared at each other, and the grand hallway only left the two of them there now. The natural sunlight shone through the giant windows up top from the ceiling. The artwork and intricate designs of the castle danced with the sunlight rays.
Alphonzo pushed off the wall he was leaning on and walked toward Syemore, stopping right in front of him just a few feet away as if being tacitly cautious. The two of them continued to share unwavering stares as if about to draw.
"Measuring Magic: Prometheus Bound!"
"Compression Magic: Infinity Realm!"
The grand hallway was flooded with large pools of mana. In a blink, it was as if the two men there had disappeared completely.
The two men were now standing in infinite space. Giant chains emerged through portals from every direction in the air, wrapping around Syemore and restricting his movement. Syemore's magic, in turn, had summoned them both here in this infinite space, as it seemed like it was constantly moving with both himself and Alphonzo stationary in place. They had both cast their incantations simultaneously.
"That was a close call, Alphonzo. But what will you do now?" Syemore said as the infinite space howled in both their ears like white noise.
Alphonzo did not respond, so Syemore kept talking, "This is the Infinity Realm. It's an ability that traps you in an infinite and endless state. You see, in the outside world, there are things that can become infinitely bigger but not infinitely smaller. In this space, everything you know about the reality of things is flipped. Here, things that are unreal become real, and vice versa." Syemore preached, "In this space, you cannot grow, but you will always be in a constant state of reduction."
Alphonso's poker face was unmatched, simply staring vacantly back at Syemore who continued to speak, "The only one who can escape this realm is me…"
Finally, Alphonzo responded, "Do you have any idea what the chains I cast on you do?"
Syemore looked down at the thick chains binding him. At first glance, they had seemed to be ordinary binding chains to keep him in place. He didn't sense anything more from them.
Unresponsive, it was Alphonzo's turn. "Prometheus Bound are the chains that held Prometheus himself as punishment by Zeus for stealing fire and giving it to humankind. In this case, it is used to imprison those who are guilty of a crime, regardless if you yourself do not see it as one."
He went on, "But that is not all these chains do. The chains themselves absorb and destroy mana from the ones they bind. Forever holding you mana-less if you are unable to break free from its shackles, which, of course, I do not intend for you to do… The spell itself costs me a large chunk of my own mana, but once it is summoned, it stays summoned unless I choose to undo the spell. Keeping you bound in chains, however, costs me no mana at all."
Syemore, impressed, locked his eyes back on Alphonzo. "Impressive, Vice Chairman. Your Measuring magic knows no bounds. You can even manage abilities like this, similar to Bonding magic, but within a measurable judicial spectrum… So, just like Prometheus, I suppose you are punishing me for a crime you believe I committed."
"Those chains do not lie. If your actions were truly not a crime, then you would not be bound. End of story. So we can chit-chat as long as you like. By the time your mana runs dry, your Infinity Realm will be undone."
Syemore didn't say a word. But he was not nervous. "There is one thing you are wrong about, however, Vice Chairman…" He bore a smile across his face as if Alphonzo had missed a very important detail.
"It is not I that will run out of mana here. It's you."
Alphonzo's eyes widened, finally expressing a different look other than the hard expression he always wore. He was confounded as he felt his mana draining.
He knew instantly, but his ears fell trap to Syemore's words, "Remember when I said, in this space, everything you know about the reality of things is flipped and things that are unreal become real, and vice versa? Well, that doesn't just apply to reduction here. It applies to all things in this space," he went on. "Like these chains… They are not actually binding me. They're binding you."
When Alphonzo looked down, it was he who was bound by his own ability, Prometheus Bound, and Syemore was free from its shackles.
"What is considered a crime is not one here. And what is not a crime is a crime in this realm. Your magic is very powerful, Vice Chairman, but as just as you are, when the odds are stacked against you, your magic follows behind those same principles."
Weaker now, Alphonzo heaved and barely breathed out a sentence, "You will not get away with this."
Syemore chuckled. "I already have."
When he said this, he raised his hand to Alphonzo. In between each finger was a small orb with what looked faintly like small people curled up and sleeping inside them.
Alphonso observed in horror.
"You know who these are, don't you?" Syemore asked.
Starting from the far left of his hand, within the orb, Sirus, the Arcane Knight's assistant, and next to him, Ark, the Captain of the Crimson Dragon Knights, and finally, Ezkar, the Royal King.
"I had these specially made just before I disposed of Terek. Too bad I didn't have them in time when trying to get rid of that worthless Black Wolves boy. But nonetheless, with these—none of you will get in my way—in fact, you'll aid me in my endeavors."
Alphonzo trembled, realizing he was too late. He noticed a fourth orb being held in between Syemore's index and his thumb, and it was empty. His last thought was only what he had meant when he had said, Aid him…
"And I'm sure you can guess," Syemore said.
The reflection of his presence in Alphonso's eyes gave him chills as he faded out of view.
When the quarrel had ended, the grand hallway of the Arcane King's castle lay vacant, except for the natural sunlight that lit through the windows and shone down to the marble floors that resembled thunderclouds.
A man appeared from the ether and into the hallway. His white hair and braid on his left side reflected from the light, along with his golden skin. He wore a smirk on his face and put four small orbs into his pocket as he proceeded to the room on the far right, toward the end of the grand hallway. The same room where Tubolt had entered, and the same room where they had held the Kingdom's Guild meeting a few days prior—where the other Captains who were pro-alliance with the Mountain Kingdom were waiting at this time.
The four orbs in his pocket tapped against each other, and from the fourth reflected a small man crouched over. You could see faint traces of his long white robe and layers of his narrow poncho as he slept suspended within it.
"Sleep sound, Vice Chairman," Syemore said hauntingly before entering the meeting room.
***
**The Crimson Dragon's castle**
Currently, three battles had been occurring.
The first, between Ryo of the Crimson Dragons and Kiki of the Blue Phoenixes, standing atop a burning and rummaged room where Ryo's pristine quarters had once been.
Kiki's Morning Star had aimed in Ryo's direction. The ball, with its menacing toon face, crashed its gaping, jagged mouth onto him, but was stopped by something.
A giant sword, a claymore, was summoned from flames out of thin air in front of Ryo, blocking the teeth of the Morning Star. The blade was medieval-looking, and the hilt was red with carved flames. The claymore ground on the sharp teeth of the toon ball until it pushed it away a few feet, glinting in the sunlight as sparks flew out from the Morning Star's teeth. He then flipped the sword to its sharp side and swung down a strong slash onto the ball, engulfing it in flames. Smoke followed afterward, blowing toward Ryo, remaining in place from his swing.
Then, from the smoke, in an instant, it cleared with Kiki flying right at him with her fingers shaped like a gun. As Ryo caught sight of it from his peripheral, Kiki's hand had transformed into a toon-like cannon right by his face.
BOOM!!
It blasted him, creating more smoke. Her legs shot back in the air, lifting her skirt up from the blast as the Morning Star zigzagged back to her, retracting its spikes and catching her from falling back. Her pink underwear revealed a bit as she brushed her ruffled skirt back down, and an eerie high-pitched laugh sounded from her left arm as the cannon she created had also now borne a toon-like face on it as well, seeping small trails of smoke as it continued cracking up in high-pitched laughter.
Kiki's ability was Comic Distortion magic. She can transform, or rather distort, objects and parts of her body into anything she wants, making them look like a cartoon. Her ability can give life and function to anything she chooses to distort. For instance, her Morning Star, giving it awareness and acting as her minion, the debris she distorted to distract Ryo earlier in the battle that acted as her mini army, the ruffles from under her skirt that she had turned into boosters, and her hand, distorting it into a cannon.
"You're not gonna disappoint me, right, Ree-Ree? That boring 'cat boy' said he doesn't want to play… But if you can't even play rough with me, then what's the point? This was supposed to be challenging. Are you really a Vice Captain? Are you??" Kiki whined.
Ryo, strutting from the smoke and flames, held his claymore in his left hand while using his right to crack his neck. He stopped just before the spot where he was blasted and let the smoke seep from him, holding a stern expression on his face.
"If that's what you really want, don't cry to Syemore when you get hurt."
Kiki's pupils dilated, and her smile became sinister. "Ooo! Please! Rough me up already!"
Ryo's face was bland after hearing her say that. Then he sighed, speaking only to himself, "By the Keeper… Where is Greed when I need to switch with him? How did I get stuck fighting this opponent?"
All the while, Ryo had felt a strange, eerie aura. Given Kiki's psychotic attitude, he thought it might have just been her, but the aura itself was overwhelming. She had a good chunk of it herself, but there was something different about what he was sensing—like the aura belonged to someone or something else completely…
The Morning Star flew toward Ryo once again, this time from above, protracting its spikes and widening its gaping, jagged mouth. From below, in the same spot she stood, Kiki transformed the cannon on her arm into a Gatling gun and fired multiple rounds toward Ryo's direction from the front. She laughed hysterically all the while—her bullets laughing in high pitch along with her.
Ryo, readying his stance, swung his claymore to his back, holding the hilt with both hands, charging a big attack. Both his index and middle fingers on each hand stuck out, making a distinct hand sign. He closed his eyes. Then, in slow motion, the iron ball and bullets were just inches away from him. He did not waver in his meditative stance—eyes remaining closed. His timing, perfect. Then, at the right moment, eyes opened, he chanted,
"Firebolt Magic: Usurper's Rage."
He swung his blade once, and endless slashing blades countered each bullet and the Morning Star above him. But that wasn't all…
"Burst!" he chanted with raging flames in his wide-open eyes.
At this time, the endless trails of burning slashes exploded all at once, creating and forming one large blast from the rounds of detonations. The explosions held shape, round and yellow like the sun, and joined together like a volcanic eruption. Instead of flame sparks, the violent explosions emitted red lightning bolts, sparking the ground and air all around the area.
Kiki sounded a soft wail in reaction as she covered her eyes and the blast now turned into a shockwave, sending debris in her direction along with a strong wind.
Ryo, within the explosion, threw his sword into the floor. It stuck upright next to him where he stood as he slammed his fists together into another hand sign. He then bolted out from the blast, flying toward Kiki. Her eyes widened as she witnessed Ryo right there in the last moment, time slowed to her as he came. He made a fist with his left hand and held his right palm over it, hovering it there as he chanted,
"Firebolt Magic: Burn Bright Meteor!"
His fist began burning red lightning from it, flashing and leaving sparks of flames everywhere it made contact. He aimed it right at the center of Kiki, a direct hit that would knock her out cold.
But just as quickly, a wicked smile whipped across her face, ear to ear. Those same swirls from her pink pupils emanated.
"That's more like it, Ree-Ree!"
Just then, a thick concrete wall emerged just inches between him and Kiki, separating them in an instant. The giant wall had a demon's face, torches, and giant chains that ended with iron weights wrapped all over it. It had its mouth gaping, looking as if it was in agony. The face itself was a toon-like oni mask.
Once summoned, Ryo's fist made contact with the wall, and it let out a deep and low cry, denting it a bit from impact. The chains around it rattled, and the weights adjusted slightly. The red lightning jutted out from his fist all the while.
"A wall shield? An incantation spell without a hand sign or chant?" he asked himself.
Kiki, from behind, had hopped over it and sat on the top left corner of the giant toon oni wall she had silent spell cast.
"Now you see why I'm special, Ree-Ree? Hehe!" Kiki's crazed swirls appeared once more within her pink eyes.
From behind her at this time, it had seemed like there was another figure standing there with her that wasn't entirely present. It was shadowed and had an aura that felt so strong it even overpowered Kiki's own mana aura and Ryo's at the same time—swallowing everything whole. It grew a wicked, sinister smile on its blank face and was the only thing that was present upon it.
Observing intently, Ryo was taken aback as he realized, "So that's what that eerie aura was. Not her. But the thing there with her."