Lyra's POV:
"Who hired you as the strategizer?" Kyoya grumbled, still pissed at being stuck in Yu's body. Gingka's eye twitched slightly as he stared blankly at the pieces of paper scattered out in front of him, trying to hold in the pent-up frustration building up inside him.
Finally, he gave up. "I hired myself! And please! I've saved the world before! Like three times!" He groaned, collapsing back in his chair. Everyone rolled their eyes at his weak argument.
"Not true. You forgot about us," Chris muttered in his usual snarky tone, not too happy about being stuck in Bao's body. He didn't even know the Hades Crown blader, for goodness sake. Everyone nodded in agreement, glaring at Gingka who grinned nervously and backed away.
Madoka slammed her hand down on the table firmly, fed up with this whole tiring ordeal. "That is it. I hereby select Dynamis to be strategizer!"
I gasped at the vision. No… but why him of all people? Couldn't those humans tell that he wasn't the true Jupiter blader? She had an idea of what he was about to do- and it wasn't a good one. I would interfere- but the Gem of Souls was an important part of my life source- and I was too weak to visit the human world. Sure, I had my shrine, but it was still partially in the realm of magic…
But all that could wait. For now, I had to find a certain blader in this impossibly never-ending maze of tunnels and gates…
Tithi's POV:
I finally woke up, and found a sleeping Dynamis next to me. Was he sleeping or unconscious? I didn't have the medical knowledge to tell… All I knew that there was something different about him…
I carefully touched his wrist, where the dark aura was emanating from, and gritted my teeth when I felt a faint jolt of electricity run up my body. I shuddered slightly and carefully leapt back, and saw a ring of black electricity surround his hand. What is that?
"That's the work of Pluto's dark magic."
The melodic voice from behind startled me, and I yelped and quickly turned around, but relaxed when I recognised the girl- it was the Guardian of Purity. Her long hair swirled around her as she stood inside the dungeon. Glad to finally see someone else again, I didn't think before hugging her. However, my arms went straight through her and I fell to the ground.
She sighed. "I'm not actually here. This is just my spirit appearing to you in this form. And that electricity…" A sad, regretful frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. "It binds the user to the dungeon of Hades for eternity. That means, even if the Gem of Souls can be restored, he can't escape…"
"What?!" Tithi shrieked, causing Dynamis to stir slightly. The guardian nodded. "Yes. I'm here to deliver the message- Pluto will try to guide your friends wrongly to find the legend of the Elements- Dynamis can tell you about that."
The young blader's eyes softened. He fingered Quetzalcoatl in his hand, a habit he had developed when he was frightened or nervous. He was scared- but who wouldn't be, when you were locked up in a dungeon with no where to go, and your best friend and big brother could be trapped here forever?
Everyone felt fear- and that fear would be shown at some point in life, no matter how strong you try to be, no matter how hard you try to mask it. Because in the end, the strong façade is just a mask. Masking the fear.
No one is truly strong- it's just a game to see how well you can hide.
Even though he couldn't really hug the guardian of Purity, he just wanted a shoulder to cry on. He just wanted someone to reassure him that everything was going to be fine, even though it wasn't…
The teenage girl handed him a globe. "Use this to have some semblance of connection in the outside world. It will only work occasionally, though… And if you excuse me, I have to go now. I cannot stay here for too long." Her body started to glow and disappear- but not before Tithi asked a question.
"Why are you helping us?"
Her voice faded away into the pitch darkness as she disappeared completely. "Because I have a promise to keep, and I don't break promises…"
3rd Person POV:
Pluto tried to make up a plan. The bladers were relying on him to help them find the elements now- and that was perfect. With some skills and background knowledge- they'd never know. They would be falling right into his trap.
The problem was that he didn't know who the elements were.
But he could sense their presence, and that helped. He just had to direct them away from them, and everything would be fine. Just fine. It was as easy as it sounded, after all… probably…
Suddenly, Kyoya's head snapped up and he blinked for a while before turning to the group, his grouchy expression back. "We have to go to this certain event held in the spiritual dimension called the Soul Exchange."
Gingka narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "And how do you know that?"
He sighed in response. "A certain extremely annoying dragon decided to tell me in my head. Why me, I have no idea. I don't know if she's even telling the truth." The voice spoke up in his head again.
I heard that.
"Oh, shut up," He growled, and Zenchi fell silent. Kyoya felt the dragon drifting away from his mind, the temporary connection between them breaking. At that moment, Pluto held out his plan.
"We'll go to France first, followed by the other countries. Like what you did with the Legendary bladers, I think we should enter in tournaments- though maybe we could go to more nature related places for them." Everyone nodded in agreement and Pluto felt as if a weight had been lifted off his back- but then Yu spoke up.
He drummed his fingers on the table- and it looked pretty funny for the Legendary blader of Spring to both wear that ridiculous expression and do something so childish. "Well, I think I'll stay back in Japan. Wasn't there quite a few Legendary bladers there too?"
Madoka nodded. "You're right. I guess you can stay behind. Any other objections?"
No one spoke.
"OK," Gingka said. "I think it would be better if the rest of us goes to France together. This way we'll be safe against any possible danger."
Pluto groaned inwardly as he felt his perfectly pieced together plan start to slip through his fingers.
