Siera frowned so deeply that it physically hurt her face. For a fraction of a second, the absolute, apocalyptic madness of the burning battlefield seemed to pass her by completely. She looked from Ren to Miki and back again to the smoldering, burning debris around them. Her chest rose and fell rapidly and uncontrollably as pure adrenaline pumped through her bloodstream. What these two absurdly small children had just proposed did not sound like a mere tactical plan. It sounded like pure, unfiltered suicide. “Wait a second… from start to finish…” she asked with a cracking voice, desperately searching for a glimmer of logic or reassurance in their unusually large, innocent eyes.
“Well…” Miki and Ren began in a perfect, almost serene chorus.
But the detailed explanation died on their lips instantly. A screeching, deafening tear filled the hot air above them. The dark shadow of absolute death fell mercilessly over the small group. A massive, flaming boulder the size of a small fortress had been broken off from the highest stone watchtower with brute force. The gruesome mass shot like a burning, unstoppable comet straight through the thick clouds of smoke, aimed precisely at their small, vulnerable shelter. The suffocating heat was already scorching Siera’s skin, making her want to scream her lungs out.
Right at that terrifying moment, reality literally tore open above them. The air filled with a sickening, extremely heavy electric crackle. Beat appeared out of absolute nowhere in the air, floating like a vengeful god. He was fully transformed into his bloodcurdling Crimson Oni form. The transformation was terrifying in a single word. Deep red, pulsating, destructive energy flowed like magma over his massive, tensed muscles, while a wild, aggressive static charge danced and crackled around the demonic horns on his head. Without showing even a shred of physical effort, he remained floating completely weightless in the air. He did not even look up or around at the approaching doom. With an inhuman, utterly arrogant calm, he extended merely two fingers toward the massive, destructive mass of stone. An invisible, horrific vibration shot forward from his fingertips. The giant boulder struck the vibration and pulverized in less than a millisecond from solid stone into a fine, harmless cloud of sand that drifted down like warm snow over the bewildered Siera and Hulda.
Beat remained floating untouched within his red, all-consuming, crackling aura. From the sky, he slowly looked down, staring directly into the eyes of the two little ones, and gave a sharp, respectful whistle through his fingers. “I trust you,” he said with a bold, overpowering grin that spoke of limitless self-confidence. Miki and Ren nodded back with utter seriousness, as if stopping a meteorite impact were the most normal thing in the world, and calmly continued their rambling, deadly explanation.
While Beat remained suspended in the air, intimidating and static, because his explosive portion of the plan had only just begun, his burning eyes swept across the devastated plain like searchlights. He found his target effortlessly. “It is time…” he muttered with utmost seriousness to himself.
On the other side of the smoldering havoc, Apollo clamped his jaws together so hard that his enamel nearly shattered. The taut muscles in his legs immediately began to glow with a blinding, cosmic heat. “Divine Acceleration…” he roared from the darkest depths of his heart. The light inside him glowed so intensely and otherworldly that the dark ash clouds around him spontaneously burned away into nothingness. With a fluid, majestic, and perfect motion, he drew an enormous, shimmering bow out of absolute thin air. The bow was created purely from concentrated, boiling, white-hot sunlight. He pulled the radiant string to its absolute limit, his muscles trembling with pure, untamed power, and fired without hesitation.
At the same time, Beat screamed the lungs out of his demonic body, a sound that rattled bones. “TRANSLUMINAL VACUUM…”
High in the air, his crimson Red Oni form began to circulate at insane, impossible speeds. The atmosphere itself seemed to tear open. A giant, screaming red vacuum formed instantly. An electrically charged, spinning vortex violently reversed gravity, mercilessly sucking all flames, loose stones, rubble, and smoke toward the blood-red center. Simultaneously, Apollo’s golden arrows shot forward with explosive velocity. They flew razor-sharp and dangerously close past one another, leaving behind a trail of molten air. With the final sonic boom of the projectiles, Apollo’s glowing legs materialized out of the exploding solar energy. He began running around the immense vacuum like a darting, invisible beam of light. Within a heartbeat, the storm escalated into a fatal visual dance of deep crimson red and giant golden solar explosions that instantly melted the underlying sand into glass.
Master Juro stood unmoved in the absolute heart of the arena. His heavy clothing billowed wildly and uncontrollably in the swelling storm. He looked at the approaching, overwhelming whirlwind and threw his head back theatrically. “THIS AGAIN HAHA…” Master Juro thundered with a voice that effortlessly drowned out the hurricane. Without stepping aside a single millimeter, he reached into the air with both massive hands. Gigantic chunks of stone, complete pillars, and shattered walls were gathered by his jet-black, living smoke and forged into massive, friction-seeking projectiles the size of houses. He hurled them straight at the rotating, glowing storm with sickening, inhuman force. “IS THIS ALL, YOU BABIES…” Master Juro shouted, filled with pure contempt and defiance.
The projectiles flew across the plain with deadly, unnaturally precise trajectories. They were about to mercilessly crush the running Apollo and the floating Beat. But then, completely unexpected and perfectly timed, the dark projectiles slammed hard into the ground. The massive stones began to vibrate wildly and then froze dead in place, suspended in midair. The entire arena floor suddenly began to shake violently. The gigantic, seismic vibration within the bedrock was so intense and pervasive that it completely disrupted the friction of Master Juro’s smoke, completely neutralizing the attack.
Master Juro stopped his graceful motion abruptly and looked toward the side of the arena with deeply furrowed brows. “WHAT…”
Above the deafening violence and the horrific cracking of the earth, an uplifting, martial beat suddenly echoed. The sound came from a flute, clear and compelling. The massive stone floor suddenly seemed to turn fluid like a surging sea. Kaelid rose calmly out of the solid stone in a fluid motion, his eyes closed. He played continuously and rhythmically on his stone flute, guiding the enchanting melody through the earth itself. Master Juro roared furiously like a provoked beast and tensed all his massive muscles.
From a high, still partially intact lookout post, Silarias and Beat began to cheer, filled with untamed adrenaline. “JUST IN TIME…” they shouted in unison, both punching a tightly clenched fist high into the smoky air. Aurelius suddenly emerged beside Kaelid from the ash clouds, a broad, ruthless, and confident grin on his face, raising his large fist as well in an unbreakable sign of pure brotherhood.
But Master Juro accepted no setbacks. A colossal, jet-black smoke tentacle, many times thicker than a massive spire, shot directly at them like a dark lightning bolt. Aurelius clamped his jaws tight. He set his heavy boots deep and firm into the stone floor and placed his hand tightly on the hilt of his gigantic, deadly sword. He was mentally and physically ready to take the devastating impact with his own body. But Kaelid stepped fearlessly in front of the large swordsman and played the rhythmic melody on his flute even faster, even more aggressively. Earth magic intervened instantly. A complete, mammoth section of the stone floor broke loose with a heart-wrenching, tearing sound. Floating as if on a wild, flying carpet of solid stone, Aurelius and Kaelid drifted safely past the horrific smoke attack. They flew rapidly through the heated air, steering sharply and flawlessly in front of and over the flying boulders. Kaelid controlled the floating stone slab with absolute conducting perfection, calmly swaying along to his own pulsating rhythm.
Master Juro burst into a roaring, almost psychopathic laugh that made the air tremble. “HAHAHA THIS IS WHAT I WANT…” Without any further warning or setup, he twisted his massive, muscular upper body and struck with an unexpected, sideways whip-crack of pure, raw physical force. The crushing shockwave of his giant fist cut mercilessly through the air. It hit the floating stone slab and launched Aurelius and Kaelid spinning hard through the vast sky. They flew completely out of control toward the far edge of the giant arena.
They were about to crash brutally against the hard bleachers, until thick, thorn-covered green vines suddenly shot up from the petrified ground with tremendous violence. Lila stood below with trembling arms, sweat beading on her forehead, her eyes tightly focused on the falling boys. The immensely thick vines unfolded rapidly into a giant, flexible, and springy flower. The massive leaves caught the two launched boys astonishingly gently. Master Juro immediately lunged forward like a predator. Completely ignoring natural gravity, he intended to drive his fist straight through the magical plant to crush them horrifically anyway. But Lila was a millisecond faster. With a desperate, primal scream, she commanded the giant flower petals to curl tightly together. The magical plant instantly formed a solid, impenetrable cocoon, exactly one second before Master Juro’s all-devastating impact followed.
On the other side of the destroyed arena, Beat and Apollo were having an exceptionally tough time. Maintaining the tornado demanded absolutely everything they had in terms of endurance and mana, but they began taunting loudly and defiantly. “HAVE YOU NOT FORGOTTEN SOMETHING…” Apollo roared, blood trickling from his nose. They accelerated their deadly, luminous run around the monstrous vacuum. Their speeds repeatedly broke through the sound barrier in a series of deafening booms.
Driven by the insane, explosively swelling suction of the Crimson and Solar vortex, Master Juro was suddenly dragged back toward the absolute center of the arena with brute, unstoppable force. The sand and hard stone beneath his feet were mercilessly scraped away. Master Juro dug his heels deep into the floor, carving deep trenches into the earth, and began to laugh darkly. “HAHA NOT FAST ENOUGH…”
Suddenly, an unimaginable, suffocating amount of black smoke erupted directly from the core of his massive body, threatening to drown out the entire storm in a single blow and cause it to explode catastrophically. But then, two completely new, extremely energetic voices cut through the din of war. Two lightning-fast flashes, one bright poison blue and one intense purple, shot like fired lasers across the completely shattered field.
“Hahaha… Perfect timing… VIPERS AT YOUR SERVICE… VOLTA…”
The blue flash shot perilously close past the swirling vortex and immediately caught the massive slipstream, seamlessly accelerating into the deadly, spinning orbit.
“JOLT… TODAY WE WIN…” came the second, perfectly synchronized voice. “STATIC IMPLOSION…”
The twins began darting and crossing through each other at dizzying speeds. Their blue and purple energy blended into a blinding glow. Together, they functioned as an absolute lightning cannon, running in perfectly timed, tight circles around Beat and Apollo, who were already spinning extremely fast. The combined gravity and relentless centrifugal force surged beyond sanity in an instant. Master Juro’s thick smoke was ripped apart mercilessly by pure friction, sucked inward tighter and tighter, wrapping tightly around his motionless body.
Silarias stood high upon a remaining, unsteady chunk of tower and signaled frantically with both hands down below. “Amfibian… NOW.”
Amfibian swallowed a thick lump of pure terror and uncertainty. His slender hands trembled uncontrollably, but he thrust them forward resolutely. The webs between his fingers stretched to their limits. Almost perfectly, and with a bizarre reaction speed he had never dreamed possible, transparent, shimmering, unbreakable shields appeared around the four invisibly fast runners. Beat, Apollo, Volta, and Jolt were now completely and hermetically protected. The strong barriers absorbed the destructive heat, pure friction, and g-forces, allowing the four warriors to shift into an absurdly higher gear without burning alive.
Master Juro felt the immense, crushing pressure build upon his body. Air was literally being squeezed out of his giant lungs, atom by atom. His dark eyes narrowed into two sharp slits. “Mmmm. It is only just beginning…” Master Juro grunted, for the very first time today with a clear trace of slight irritation in his usually indifferent voice.
But at that exact, carefully calculated moment, the entire world flashed a blinding, dazzling gold.
“MIDAS BREATH…” the entire arena heard Ethaniel shout with a thundering voice. The boy stood far outside the immediate danger zone with theatrically spread arms, his eyes shining wildly with unleashed, powerful alchemy.
The entire rotating vacuum, all swirling dust particles, the crimson lightning, the light, and absolutely every spinning, destroyed fragment flashed blinding gold. The magical transformation was absolute, instant, and inescapable. All the heavy particles being drawn inward rapidly by the storm slammed en masse and furiously against Master Juro’s massive body. They stuck instantly. Within a single faltering breath, the invincible Master Juro was completely coated and encased beneath a heavy, scorching, meters-thick layer of solid gold. He stood completely frozen like a crazy, gleaming, solid statue right in the heart of the swirling storm.
Silarias observed the golden spectacle with sparkling stars of satisfaction in his eyes. His brilliant, complex master plan was falling into place like a perfect, orchestrated puzzle. Where is Nicola anyway...? The thought suddenly crossed his mind as an unwanted thought. That guy with his power would have been an insanely brutal addition here… But he shook his head violently to banish the unnecessary thought. Focus, Sill… focus now.
“MIKI, REN… THE SIGNAL…” roared the young, brilliant strategist with a mighty voice that drowned out the entire shattered arena.
Miki and Ren, who had remained untouched beside the bewildered Siera and Hulda all this time, let their eyes pop open wide and pitch-black. Their usual childlike, cheerful innocence vanished instantly without a trace. They turned their small heads simultaneously, excruciatingly slowly and with a completely icy, calculating stare, directly toward the two girls.
“So, as we just thoroughly discussed…” Ren spoke with extreme composure, his childlike voice suddenly demonically deep and ominous.
Hulda and Siera stared intently at the two deadly serious, intimidating children. Even in the middle of this downright catastrophic chaos, their hearts secretly melted a little. It was mind-boggling how intensely cute yet completely lethal and focused those two kids were. But the burning, all-consuming adrenaline of ruthless battle had now taken over Siera completely and irrevocably as well. She was no longer the confused, fearful student from moments ago.
“Alright…” Hulda began, letting her heavy weapon spin a bit more freely and nimbly in her palm, ready for action. Siera, on the other hand, stepped forward with supreme confidence, a wild, aggressive, and daring smile spreading across her soot-covered face. She looked fearlessly at the children with a gaze full of pure bravado. “Though we want to have some fun too, haha…”
Suddenly, Siera’s slender legs began to glow intensely, as if the sun were awakening inside her. The surrounding temperature spiked by dozens of degrees in an instant. Her destructive magic took over immediately and completely. The sleek, delicate feathers on her outfit flattened straight back, becoming extremely aerodynamic and streamlined. They began to burn, quite literally and magically, with white heat. The pure, untamed heat and immense, crushing physical pressure Siera radiated at that exact moment were absolute and overwhelming. It felt as though a second, furious sun had awakened in the arena.
Miki and Ren stood completely rooted to the spot. They stared at each other in utter bewilderment, almost fearful. Their cool, icy, serious masks shattered into a thousand tiny pieces upon the cracked ground.
“Wait, what…” Ren stammered, his eyes unusually wide and panicked as he stared at the immensely hot, flaming, intimidating figure before him.
“You were just supposed to throw us, right…” Miki whispered, trembling, as she instinctively took a tiny, fearful step back.