The midday sun kept its casual pace, unbothered by the chaos happening below. Stretches of white clouds occupied the blue sky high above, big and small. On a normal day, a day like this would be considered a peaceful one… However, down below in the Valley Kingdom, a horde of Phantomdrakes rummaged this large, proud city, clustering as they turned its skies red.
High above, however, the final battle between the Valley's traitor and the one framed by him was about to meet its conclusion… at least, that was the plan.
***
**Two days prior**
I led us in the walk toward the South Gate of the Valley Kingdom after the incident in the hourglass—me, Code, Ophelia, and Havoc—had escaped from. Code met me from the front of the group as the other two dragged back.
"We need to discuss some things, so come with me to get groceries after we've freshened up a bit," he said so the other two couldn't hear.
"Sure," I said in a disinterested manner, still facing forward, hands in my pockets.
The rest of the day's plans consisted of us getting back home and gathering groceries for dinner. Code and I left the Den after dropping Ophelia and Havoc off and having cleaned ourselves up, changing out of our sand-filled clothes.
After walking a good distance away in silence, we had already made it to the East Gate. Then and only then, amongst the crowd of people, was when Code finally decided he wanted to talk, but he simply opened his mouth as I beat him to it.
"So where is he now?" I said, hinting at what I already knew he was about to talk about.
He closed his eyes and gave me an approving huff.
"You ARE getting sharper… Guess Asura and I were right about appointing you as Acting Captain."
"Gag… Don't ever give out compliments, Code. You sound like you've insulted me instead."
Silence.
Then Code replied, "Approximately twenty yards away, behind us…"
I didn't turn my head fully, but I glanced a bit back just to catch whoever it was in the distance, hiding amidst the crowd, following us.
Brown cloak, hood… I sensed our little guest since we had left the Den. I figured Code wouldn't start talking until we got to the city where it was noisier.
"So then… what's the move?" I asked.
"The move? Why… nothing," he replied nonchalantly.
I raised an eyebrow at him, questioning his response.
"To put it more clearly. We are going to give him what he wants and then let him leave."
"You've got to be joking…"
"Not at all… We are going to use him for intel instead."
Classic Code, always one step ahead. He went on…
"Cool, but maybe keep it down a bit? They would only send a Sensory type user to spy on us after all."
Code scoffed at me, closing his eyes while he said, "Even with Sensory type magic, at this distance and with this bustling crowd, you'd have to focus twice as much… Also, I've been switching thoughts with our little 'friend,' so he doesn't even know we are having this conversation right now."
I couldn't even begin to manage how Code had been doing what he had been at this time. Having a conversation with me and simultaneously keeping our "hidden" informant distracted by switching thoughts and making him believe it was just his own, while gathering intel from him without him knowing, with those same exchanged thoughts. Amongst this busy crowd, keeping a fair distance to further disrupt the informant's Sensory magic—if any—all at the same time and with a calm demeanor about him, all the while. This really had been the work of a man with 200-plus IQ.
"Anyway… He's a Blue Phoenix Knight, so this helps build the case that the ones who kidnapped us are them—or are associated with them. He had started following us when we came back. That can't be a coincidence. My theory—he must have been ordered to follow us after we thwarted their plans at the church. It's just a theory. I need concrete facts, however…"—he looked over his shoulder, and the informant had pretended to do something else as Code glanced—"he should have trained to hide his thoughts better."
Code faced forward once more as we continued to stroll and pretend we weren't being followed. I gave a pause and then said, "So, what exactly is he after?"
"Well, they took a young girl. Blonde. Pigtails. I don't know why, but it seems they're only using her. They plan to know where you'll be tomorrow evening so they can temporarily release her, lure you to go save her, and then lead you to a certain… 'location'… his thoughts on the matter stopped there."
"Well, that's low," I clicked my tongue and said irritably.
I hated every word of it. Just what had their angle been in all this? If there had been one thing that irritated me the most, it was when kids get involved… It had been sort of a triggering point for me, perhaps something that happened in the past that I struggled to remember, but could still feel the negative emotion of for some reason.
I then glanced back to Code, knowing there was more than just the surface level of what he was telling me… "Let me guess—you want me to fall for it," I asked.
"You really have gotten sharp…" he poked.
I sighed and looked up to the orange-pink sky as the evening sun was going down. "Is that it?" I asked decidedly.
"That's all I got. I don't even know what this 'place' is that they're planning to lure you into. But don't sweat… If all goes well after our little stroll around the city today—I will be there too…"
"And you intend to do what exactly?"
He took a second to answer. I could tell he was reviewing the information he had just traded this fool behind us.
"Follow him."
I blinked.
"Won't he notice? What if he's tasked with spying on us the whole day?"
"He won't. He was clumsy, and I managed to trade a thought telling me where he needs to be after he gathers some intel on where you'll be. His only time limit is before tomorrow evening, so if we give him the intel now, he'll probably leave early… I traded a similar thought back so as to make him think it was his own and so that he doesn't forget to do it… Though he can only leave if he leaves with something… So go ahead, Captain… Where do you plan to be tomorrow?"
I sighed once more and kept walking side by side with Code as he let off trading thoughts with our follower and let him get closer to us.
"Gonna grab some dinner with Ryo tomorrow evening near the South Gate… you know the place."
"Ah, alleyway noodles. Sounds just like our Captain…" he jabbed, then lowered his head with his round, thin-framed glasses shifting down his nose, revealing his blue-gray eyes, "Well… have fun…" he ended, glancing ever so stealthily over to the informant around the corner.
We kept walking around buying groceries at the outdoor market and bantering about whatever else. Code and I don't ever talk this way, but it was all an act to make sure the informant was completely satisfied with the intel he received.
After thirty more minutes of walking around aimlessly and pretending to be busy, our follower finally left.
"Looks like that's my cue…" Code said as he handed all the groceries to me. "I pre-made dinner and breakfast for you idiots already. Just prepare it and heat it up, and you'll be good for the next day or so…"
"You plan to be gone for more than a day?"
He stopped walking as his back faced me.
"Let's hope not…" he said, pondering a thought.
I had also been lost in thought as we exchanged our silence with each other.
"Just one day," I said finally. He glanced over to me, fixing his round glasses with his middle finger as usual. "You have one day to do what you need to, and if I don't hear from you, I'm beating Syemore's ass, with or without proof. Are you still going to follow me then?"
"I only follow the strong, so in other words…" He turned to face me. "Of course I will." He smirked.
I didn't even smile. I hated flattery. It had been easier to take criticism. But I knew why Code was talking this way, and it quite frankly pissed me off.
"You sound more like a captain by the day. I don't want to jinx it, but… If I don't come back—"
"No. Gonna stop you right there. You know I hate that shit… Whatever you must do…" The sun began setting, and my shadows elongated. My silhouette masked the front of me now, and I stared unflinchingly back to Code. My eyes glowed from the darkness with the shining light from behind me. I said without a hint of regard that was more of a plea than a command, "Make it back to us. That's an order."
Code was silent for a while, and then he threw his hands in his jacket pockets before turning completely around, facing away from me once more. I didn't quite see it, but I could have sworn he smiled when he turned away.
"I'll create an opening for you. That's how you'll know I'm okay. Let me know when and I'll be there." He started walking away from me. "I'm gonna do that thing I did for Asura, but it'll take me a while to set it up. This way, though, even if I don't know where you are or can't see you, I can still warp you… anywhere… So, before you kick his ass, just give me five minutes."
"Understood," I said to him as he continued walking, waving a hand to me with his back still completely facing me.
"Before I go"—he stopped walking and raised his head a bit, but still away—"have you figured out what you are yet?"
The breeze picked up a little, rustling the scattered leaves on the ground around us. The expression I had was unwavering as the silence between us grew. "Hard to say," I said casually, saying nothing more.
Code disregarded the question he just asked, then reassured me, "Don't worry about it. I was just curious."
"It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that… I can't. And I don't know why…"
"Sounds complicated… In any case, until the day comes when you want to tell me, that's the time I want to hear it." He turned his head back one last time to view me from his peripheral and smirked before he was gone without a trace, followed only by the sound of snapping fingers. And he was gone, replaced by a speck of dust.
It was just me now with the bags of excess groceries we bought. Me and the evening sunlight, switching shifts with the waking night. That was the last time I saw Code.
***
**Present time**
In a blink of an eye, Belle and I were warped in the sky by Code's magic several meters high above the Arcane King's castle. We were teleported to a scene that he had just caused moments before. An enormous building had crashed just before we got here, most likely right on top of Syemore. The debris looked like floating pieces of rubble there in the sky as the dust began to settle on top of this golden barrier covering the whole Valley Kingdom.
This barrier Belle had cast was called the Celestial Dome. An advanced Holy protection spell with wide-range capabilities. Because of her vast amount of mana, she was able to cast spells like this all on her own with a measly charge time of five minutes…
Unlike other protection-type techniques, after Belle casts this, it does not have a time limit, nor does it have to be maintained by a hand sign. With her incantation done, she was now free to do as she pleased. The cost, however, was the amount of mana it took just to cast Celestial Dome—so at this time, she was about less than half at full power.
I held Belle close in my arms above a large piece of rubble—acting almost like a podium among the debris. Finding the Arc Slayer, I let go of Belle, hopping off the concrete; her bare feet gently landed on top of it, staying herself there. A few feet away, just past the Arc Slayer itself, Syemore lay mangled among large pieces of rubble.
When I reached for the blade, the rubble that lay over him burst out, blasting its pieces my way like an explosion had gone off.
BLAST!!
I grabbed the Arc Slayer swiftly and raised it to my side, both hands at the hilt, swinging horizontally at Syemore, who had arisen from the heaping pile.
SLASH!
A drawn-out clang sounded from it as it cut him completely in half across the torso. Then, from behind me, Belle raised a palm in the direction of Syemore's severed body. No incantation needed—a simple cast…
FWOOM!
Sharp, light spears appeared from all directions around him and stabbed both his severed upper and lower halves.
Stunned that her magic had actually worked on him, Syemore shouted with a blood-filled mouth, "Holy magic!?"
Belle, with a stern look on her face and her blue eyes radiating, replied, "You can thank the Arc Slayer for that."
Syemore merely twitched his eyes in response as his severed and now stabbed body could do nothing in this moment. Though to most, what it had seemed might have been overkill. Syemore was the type we did not want to underestimate. The fact that he was not dead after having his teeth shattered and his tongue bitten off from my uppercut or even having a whole building crash onto him, said it all. He had even, somehow, regenerated those same teeth and tongue shortly after the Arc Slayer had fallen out from his center.
"Forbidden magic is still magic. Because of that, its greatest enemy is still Nullifying magic. So long as I strike after the Arc Slayer, my magic will have an effect on you." She squinted her eyes slightly and her fingers curled, following. "However small the window of opportunity may be. I will strike when given any chance!"
At this time, Belle closed her palm, forming a fist, and the light spears, along with Syemore's two severed halves, began to compress into a ball.
"Suffocate…" she said to him as she went for the kill, closing her hand completely.
However…
A menacing laugh echoed through both our ears. There was then the sound of a crack, like the sound of metal breaking. When I looked down to the Arc Slayer in my hand, a large crack trailed down the middle of it.
What? I thought, as Syemore's laughing echoed unendingly, and the contorted mess of him in front of us began beating like a heart…
"See, the problem with what you just said… Is that it goes both ways…"
He beat again and again like a heart racing. The light spears from Belle began disintegrating into the air and his compressed body began morphing and taking on shape once more—piecing his broken bones, shattered organs, and open wounds all within a grotesque ball of flesh. Almost like what one would do to clay as it morphed every which way.
"Forbidden Magic: Multicast: Regeneration—plus Time Reversal—plus Refurbishment."
After he said this, the Arc Slayer shattered completely. Both Belle's and my eyes widened at the sight and Syemore, mending himself back together to normalcy—hand sign in place once he had reformed himself to nearly perfect condition.
He stood there, pristine body fully mending, and naked underneath the beaming sun we were so much closer to now. "I have dabbled in the Forbidden arts for so long, I know every enhancement and diminishment that can be cast… Forbidden magic can be layered on top of other abilities I've collected, granting me the ability to master those powers and cast multiple spells at once. It can give me access to spells otherwise not known of my own magic, pushing past the limit of what a normal mage is capable of. It can even grant me immunity to my weaknesses, such as Holy magic, or even Nullifying magic… nulling even itself, despite it taking a moment for me to activate… The realm of the Forbidden knows no end."
As he spoke, his reformation had completed, and his body had fully healed. Right then, his chest had formed two faces—one on his right and one on his left. That creepy face of the first Arcane King on his left chest, with its eyes and mouth open, emanating nothing but soft beams of blue light from them, and the other on his right chest, still sleeping.
He made a hand sign as his bloodshot eyes looked like they burned a black fire from them. Then and only then, did the other face on his right chest open its eyes and mouth, emanating a dark red glow…
"Forbidden Time Magic: Eclipse of Chronos!"
Everything stopped. The movement of the clouds, the Phantomdrakes' rampage from below, people running, even the sounds of everything seemed to come to a halt. In this moment, he stopped time itself.
The only ones who could move in this stopped space were Syemore, Belle, and myself.
"As expected… you weren't affected, young wolf. Though I am surprised the Sun Killer can still move. Did you piggyback from the mutt?"
I observed Belle from my peripherals, making sure she hadn't been triggered again by those words. But when I saw her, she didn't look the least bit affected by them. Unless she had, and she was doing a very good job in holding in the emotion. She sensed me even though I wasn't looking at her. "You don't have to worry. Three is my lucky number. I won't let it happen a third time," she reassured. "This magic… this is Time magic, but not the normal kind. Time magic of this caliber could only be—"
"Precisely, young princess… From a Maven Lord."
I clenched my teeth as he spoke.
"The face on my left is the first Arcane King… and this face on the right… is my father."
Belle and I wore horrified looks on our faces at the mention of it. He went on. "My father was a powerful man… But he died before ever getting to use his ability to the extent it was meant for. He could never hope to achieve what I have just done… let alone stop time for a mere few seconds. Even still, his magic was regarded as a higher tier." Syemore looked upward as if we were not a threat to him, reminiscing about his past. "It was really such a shame that he was a pacifist and actually cared about the worms below. It's precisely because of that that he was overruled by the council and banished from his post. After that, he took my mother, brother, and me, and we lived among the worms. And later on, he died among the worms we looked out for—a peaceful, painless death…" He looked almost sad now as he paused, but his emotion changed completely when he spoke his next words. "Like a fucking coward."
His face and tone were that of disgust.
"Since the day he was banished and took us with him to rot, I've loathed him with every fiber of my being. So, when he died and I began to practice the Forbidden arts, his magic was the first I took… How do you think I was able to defeat so many of your Captains up until this point? How I was able to dodge every attack? Continue to get back up each time? It's because…" He pointed to the face on his right chest. "Well, that and other reasons…"
Flowing from one emotion to another, Syemore orchestrated his arms in a drawn-out way and faced them upward, "I am a Maven Knight of the Olympus Kingdom, and you are all groveling worms under my feet."
The aura around him now was more intense than anything I've felt from him this entire battle. What filled the air was more like malice than it was aura. It was pure evil.