The smugness of the smirk that stretched across F.B. 's lips gave even Malty a run for her money as the most evilest sneer around. With a flourish, his hand snapped forward, the sharp, whip crack sound of the air freezing quieted everyone instantly. F.B. leaned back into the icy throne that he had just created, it seemed to almost dance between the three states of water, hypnotizing the crowd and forcing everyone to give him every ounce of their attention.
Quiet steps filled the air, the crowd of commoners and nobles shut up as a small robed figure walked to the hero of waters form, without a word the figure silently pulled out a hand from beneath the robe revealing a familiar crystal, a recording crystal. F.B. took the crystal and without a word the figure drifted behind the hero's new icy throne, the figure quickly becoming as still as a statue.
Many jerked as the hero's voice suddenly boomed, "As I'm sure you are all aware, this is a recording crystal, now, the supposed victim: Malty Q. Melromarc, has boldly placed the charge of abduction and selling of human and demi-human slaves alike, on both the hero of earth: Emma Lameria and the hero of flame: Hoka Mosu, along with the added charge of rape on Hoka Mosu, but what I'm sure many of you are unaware is that your first princess is not as innocent as you all belive.'' With a snap of his fingers the figure drew another recording crystal and held it out, the crystal's feed flickering to life to reveal F.B. standing in front of a solid steel door.
"Some days ago I discovered that there was an illegal-" F.B.'s voice paused, the points of his fingers joining together on his lap in contemplation, he soon began to speak once more, voice holding back an unknown rage, "...slave ring...trafficking humans." a large magical screen that looked similar to a hologram appeared. It began with the recorded F.B. freezing a large metal door, quickly shattering it, before opening a bottle and tossing it inside. The recorder followed F.B. as he entered the dilapidated building, however the moment it began to move past the entrance way the current F.B. held up a controller and paused the projection.
"What you all are about to see is not for the weak hearted or equally weak gutted, viewer discretion is advised." A quiet murmuring filled the colosseum and F.B. stood silently, giving them a chance to leave. A short while later the crowd settled down, and F.B. pressed a button on the controller. The projection started once more, only this time F.B. began commentating over it.
"Now, I will be frank, when I found this group, I killed them all." F.B. 's voice was just barely loud enough to be heard over the gasps of horror and shouts of anger from many of the commoners as they watched when the group of children were revealed. On the other hand, the noble's were only interested in where the hero was leading them.
"But of course I'm no fool, so I questioned some of them." on que the projection showed F.B. torturing two of the men that he had defeated. Many of the commoners shouting praise for his actions, the voices combining into one giant roar that almost seemed to shake the ground. Soon everyone fell quiet once more as they all eventually noticed F.B. had gone silent and the projection had stopped moving.
"Of course, when I had interrogated them, they were merely lackeys. That was to be expected, so instead I went to the one they called their boss." the projection smoothly shifted to show F.B. shuffling through a desk, sitting in a chair next to him was what looked like a human shaped ice statue. The so-called boss.
"But what I found was that their boss was being ordered by someone else, one Malty Q. Melromarc." many were shocked into silence, but before anyone could say anything, especially Malty herself, the projection showed F.B. leaving the room. The person carrying the recording crystal showing a close up of the paper he had left on the table. It showed an envelope with the royal crest on it, someone only a member of the royal family could get, as well as a paper that was signed with the initials M.Q.M and a lipstick imprint on the paper.
"T-This is outrageous! You're trying to cover for your fellow heroes with lies about me!." Malty ranted out, conflicted looks now covering many of the public's faces, "Besides both my little sister and my mother have the exact same initials! And where is your proof, how do we know that wasn't tampered with!" Malty was quick to try to shift it to someone else, but it was a bad move.
It was one thing to say that two of the elemental heroes were slave dealers, but now she was stuck in a situation where she could only blame her own mother, who had final say, her little sister, who was supposedly kidnapped and heiress to the throne, and F.B., someone who had just publicly shown he had been the one to save dozens of children and single handedly destroyed a human slave ring. The odds were mounting against her, and F.B. decided that now was the best time as any to take the web of lies she had made and spin it into a noose for her to hang herself on.
"Oh? Well then, if you're so adamant it was someone else, that's fine, how about we discuss this instead?" Suddenly the orb that was in F.B. 's palm lit up to reveal another projection, it revealed the place they had just seen, but everything was intact. The public nearly as one gasped as Malty herself walked into view, two giant men holding larger than normal sacks, with a knock the metal door opened to reveal a man in a robe. Their lips moved but sadly there was no audio, suddenly Malty gave a sharp nod before quickly leaving, kicking what in the darkness looked like a pebble, but as it bounced into the moon light it was revealed to be a small shard of metal. The two giant men placed the bags down as more robed figures came out to take the bags from them, the two men quickly lumbering off.
But instead of the projection ending like everyone expected, instead another figure appeared out of the shadowed building, with a quick movement the robe was tossed aside to reveal the face of F.B. Clearly speaking, the other robbed figures also tossed aside their robe's to reveal that they were their majesty's shadows, gasps of shock rang out in varying intervals.
"You see everyone, when I found that the suspect was most likely Malty, I contacted the queen when Hoka told me where she had taken his party members, I had shadows help me set up a convincing enough look to trick into believing that her secret was still a secret." F.B. deactivated the recording crystal before grabbing an envelope from the figure, "Hoka and I knew you'd do something from the beginning." He took the envelope and tossed it up and down, before finally extending it to Malty.
"As for this one's authenticity, you don't have to look no further than the queen herself to verify if this was tampered with, after all, she was the one who sent one of her shadows to follow me, and was the first person to see it." Malty by now seemed to be switching between trying to backpedal to her 'holier than thou' attitude but couldn't seem to throw it any other way. So now it was time for the finally, the rope was there and waiting, now all he needed to do was push.
Taking the letter, everyone watched as she personally broke the wax seal on the letter before opening it and looking at its contents, a look of pure sorrow washed over her features before her face turned statuesque once more, "This Malty is quite the damning evidence, flipping the letter over, the recording crystal showed her form on the projections, the letter large enough for everyone to see the clear signing of the initials M.Q.M. with a lipstick mark next to it.
"And wouldn't you know it, that just so happens to be the same shade of lipstick Malty is wearing right now, convenient indeed." F.B. drawled, instantly everyone's focus turned to Malty who was now hiding her mouth behind her hands, but it was already too late, the evidence too damning. A trial over the fates of two elemental heros had been flipped on its head, and now the supposed victim was now exposed as the culprit.
F.B. honestly didn't know that Malty would leave so many tracks behind. It was as if asking for him to get her. He almost felt bad for her, since it was so easy. Malty thought she was good, but in reality she was a spoiled brat that had been humoured by everyone around her. The way he caught her was so unbelievably stupid, it genuinly surprised him. He thought she'd be better than she had been. In the end though… he had prepared a lot of evidence to get her, but it didn't pack enough of an impact. He needed something more.
And as he suspected, it wasn't enough.
"So what? In the end your incriminating evidence is lipstick? Lipstick that anyone in the world could have worn?"
"No, my incriminating evidence is you having multiple traces in slave trading rings, as well as other illegal activity."
"Slave trading of demi-humans, not humans. And it's not like I wanted to do it, but as a member of the Royal Family I have to keep good relations with the underworld. It doesn't matter how much we don't want them to exist, because they do."
The public was already going back to Malty's side. F.B. couldn't lie, he was baffled at how gullible these people were.
Malty leered, "So in the end, it's lipstick."
All of a sudden a gust of wind blew in everyone's face, especially Malty's. Her perfect hair messed up, entering her eyes and mouth.
On the balcony, effortlessly landing on the railing, was none other than Avi. The Wind Hero.
He gave the area a once over before snorting at Malty's mussed up appearance. She just puffed her hair out of her mouth angrily, after all, what could one more hero do. Avi then nodded at Hoka and Emma, chuckling when he saw F.B.
"Nice throne."
"Nice entrance." F.B. retorted.
"Malty, what you're using is a bullshit argument." Hoka had called Avi over right before the trial. He had been hesitant, but knew Avi was capable. If Malty felt the trial wasn't going as intended she would probably kill Katsumi and Rino immediately, so instead he ripped the telepathy scroll connected to Avi. But he hadn't told Avi to come to the trial.
"That lipstick, it's one of the most expensive kinds. Created from the extract of Xeranthemum, which is fed solely from the blood of dragons and inhabits spirit soil. It's growth conditions are extremely limited, and it has a very unique scent. It's also your signature lipstick, the one product you consistently use. This is your trademark. It's more incriminating than you think. There's also the fact that you weren't creating connections as the contract was that of the business kind. You being both the client and at times the business woman. You are literally the boss of a criminal organization, albeit a tiny, trashy, sloppy, messy one. That means you pay them and take their dirty money." As Avi said the last sentence to Malty he sounded so condescending, but it was amusing to the heroes and (secretly) the Queen, "That's not including the stamp M.Q.M. Every member of the Royal Family has a stamp unique to them, which requires their specific mana signature to activate. Sure it could be faked, but why go through all that trouble?"
Malty stammered, "They could've been using my name because I'm a princess!"
"If they're that skilled at stealing identities why put themselves out there and expose their abilities as well as to the Royal Family, no one is that stupid. No, it was just a ploy for the underground to gain leverage over you. And you didn't even think about it."
Malty began to pale again, but Avi just continued, "You're so naive. Did you not even think about covering your tracks? I mean your own signature stamp? Come on Malty, you can't be that stupid. Can you?" Then he hit her with the heaviest blow of all, "Then there's the fact that you were commissioned to do this by the Three Hero Church."
The King perked up, finally hearing something he could attack, "What kind of blasphemy is that!?"
Malty struggled to breathe, this could quite literally end her whole life as she knew it, "H-how…" But she quickly recovered. Inside however, she was quaking in fear and rage.
Avi smiled kindly at the king, but his eyes showed murderous intent. There was a madness in his eyes. F.B. rolled his eyes when he saw that look, partially present yet partially not, like he was talking to someone else, 'It's as if he's venting rather than debating.'
Hoka just sat there, laughing in everyone's face, while Emma just looked triumphantly at the King and Malty.
The king had a bad feeling, and Malty broke out into a cold sweat.
"Why, oh my dearest King! I'd be positively ecstatic to show you!" With that he pulled out (the nine, sorry I had too. It was either that or 'a fast one') yet another recording crystal.
"This is something of my own design, I just tweaked the runes a bit so instead it would record from my point of view." Ignoring the fact that he had made an achievement that mages hadn't been able to do, while he was within mere weeks of entering the world, he pointed out scenes in the images shown. Emma, Hoka, and F.B. were interested, no it was more like they were shocked.
'His elemental sight is so much more detailed than ours!'
It was if he's seeing from a different dimension, with confusing patterns, unnameable colors, and frustrating geometry. But with Avi's direction they could slowly make things out, "Those colored wave lengths over there are wind traces. Scents left behind by certain people, this one is unmistakably reminiscent of Malty's, and it leads right over there. The church," And with that he pointed out a large cathedral of whirling spasms of light and objects.
Malty pounced on this, "If the three heroes church commissioned me to defame the heroes, then that wouldn't be very three heroes church like."
Avi turned his smile to Malty, who flinched, "Yes. Because you (who are way over your head in this might I add) are using them too. You're using them as an excuse and as a potential scapegoat. I bet they only wanted one hero gone (they are the three hero church after all), but you took that opportunity to ruin the hero image as a whole, thereby increasing your reputation and making the people depend on you rather than your sister or mother or even us. Then you'd become Queen no matter what. That's even more proven with you kidnapping your sister. I mean how stupid did you think Emma and Hoka were to even try this scheme?"
Malty shook her head solemnly, "That's simply not true. After all, if that's true, where are Hoka's teammates? If he was truly a good hero then he'd be trying to find them, but it seems like he doesn't care."
Avi replied as if he had been waiting for her to say that, "You've managed to be wrong so many times in a row I'm wondering how you're still alive, I mean do you even know anything at all?"
Avi had chosen the rude, aggressive route. It was more because he knew how things would end up anyways so he might as well have fun along the way, "If Hoka was a smart hero he would cooperate with the authorities and then find someone else, someone reliable to save his party members. And even if he wasn't a good hero and if he did do what you're accusing him of, he wouldn't be relaxed. He'd be getting rid of them and then escaping. Probably in a very stressed and panicked manner as well. Any of the four heroes are able to escape any time they want. But why do we stay in this humiliation? For the people. The same people we were "summoned to protect" as you say," Avi had heard the broadcast of the trial as he was doing what Hoka had asked of him. Outside in the pavilion, the blacksmith Erhard just shook his head quietly and went back to his forge.
"Looks like it'll end with Malty's fall."
Avi just continued, "And it's funny you brought up the teammates because I actually have a little surprise for you! I really think you'll like it."
Hoka was proud of Avi, he was acting just like how Hoka wanted to be acting right now. Maybe that's why he was doing this, to help Hoka destress. Well, he didn't know, but it was working, because the public was beginning to turn tides.
As Avi finished his sentence five figures came into view, their bodies blocking out the sun up in the high sky. They descended slowly and dramatically.
They lightly set their feet down on the earth, and their faces were unmistakable.
It was Rino, Katsumi, Melty, the Royal Family's Physician, Yusuf, and Grand Magician Galarius, the latter two being connections Avi had cultivated in his time here.
Melty spoke out with a loud, confident voice, unbefitting for a child as young as her. But then again so was this whole situation.
"It was undeniably Malty Q. Melromarc, my sister, who kidnapped me. I cleary heard and saw her talk to my captors about me."
Katsumi began talking next, "Yeah, the last thing I remembered before waking up in a smelly dungeon with Rino, Melty, and the other people was eating a meal with Malty before feeling cold and then passing out."
Rino's lip trembled, "...how could you? I thought we were friends?" she asked in a small voice.
It was actually the King who denied it first, "NO! They've been drugged! Brainwashed!"
But to no avail, Yusuf lowered his eyes, he was afraid of what would happen to him after this trial, but he had no choice. Yusuf was an idealistic man, and he couldn't just forsake everything he lived for at the drop of a hat.
"Your majesty… they are not drugged."
"And neither are they mind controlled. There is no magical residue nor artifacts present." Galarius said confidently.
Avi turned to the public, addressing them directly, "And you know what? The people that Malty had kidnapped as a cover to frame Hoka and Emma? She actually sold them into slavery. Must've thought she could get a quick buck in."
The citizens outside went silent, the nobles looked away, everyone stopped moving. You would've been able to hear a pin drop. But it was obvious what the people were saying, 'We need more.' Avi sighed. They found it too difficult to believe. Their beloved princess Malty? No… there was no way! But what if?
'Fine, so be it.'
"But since no one ever listens to logic and actual evidence, why don't we swear an oath to tell the truth."
The Queen gasped, she knew what he was talking about. The sacred oath, if broken, the user would feel as if they were being lit on fire. No one wanted to feel that. Her husband desperately didn't want the oath to be sworn but he couldn't come up with a good reason against it.
"Why not? You're not scared? Are you?" Avi baited them. He didn't need to though, after all, what else could Malty do?
"I accept." and that. That was the epitome of her stupidity. Her unreachable Mt. Everest level of idiocy, and she topped it within the span of a day.
So Avi, Hoka, Emma, F.B., Galarius, Yusuf, Rino, Katsumi, Melty, and Malty all swore to the Oath of Truth. The public smiled in relief, after how could she agree to such a condition if she was wrong? What was the result?
Malty thought that she could twist the Oath, find a loophole in the question's wording, or answer indirectly but kind of truthfully. She was given no such comforts.
The rest of the trial was Malty screaming in agony, writhing on the ground, the King averting his gaze, rage and fear apparent in his face, the public beginning to turn on Malty, the Queen looking sad and disappointed, and the rest of the people who swore the oath not having any reaction.
Malty broke down in the middle, completely spilling all her plans and inner thoughts, "YOU DAMN PEASANTS! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT ME NO MATTER WHAT! YOU STUPID OLD FOOL! YOU'RE MY FATHER! DO SOMETHING! GOD DAMN HEROES! IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" and so forth. Everyone was getting second hand embarrassment for her. At the end, there was the final moment of silence. Everyone was anticipating judgement.
'There's no way she's getting away with it now.' Emma could practically taste her victory, a wide grin began to spread across her face.
But then, "Further investigation is necessary for my judgement." and with that the Queen stood up and left.
"What?" Emma couldn't believe her ears. However just like that. And it was over.
In Emma's Room:
"No." Emma simply refused F.B.'s suggestion. He had told her to leave, and let him handle everything else. F.B. really didn't expect her to agree, but he thought it was only right to do the bare minimum.
Hoka and Avi also expected it, so without further ado, they began to plan.
"So here's the plan." And they did it by communicating in ways that could only be read with each other's elemental sight.
In all honesty it was a very simple plan. Mostly because they were already living in the palace so it wasn't hard to infiltrate it, but also because they didn't really care if they were found out or not.
At the dead of night Emma created a hole in the floor, and an underground tunnel, directly to Malty's room. Avi had used his elemental sense to determine if the King and Malty were alone together. Now they were, it was inevitable, the foolish King could help but spoil his daughter. F.B. eliminated the Shadows living in the ceilings too (things were tense after the trial and they were on constant surveillance), actually he killed them. They required very delicate positions to remain hidden, so it was easy to freeze certain parts of them. Then they would be trapped and just be paralyzed while slowly freezing to death. He made sure they didn't alert anyone either. It wasn't long until they reached the 'dungeon'. It wasn't actually a dungeon, it was more of a suite. But they dropped from the ceiling silently and listened in.
"Malty! You're not lying right? It's really them?"
"Yes daddy! I told you! Geez!"
Emma kicked the door in and shouted, "Surprise Motherfuckers!" and slammed her fist into Malty's shocked face. Malty went flying into the rock wall and bounced off of it like she was a doll. The king lunged at her but Hoka just flamed his hair. The tips were just barely singed, but the King knew he missed on purpose. Since the King had come to visit his daughter secretly, he had removed the alarms. It wasn't a smart move, but he was desperate to see his child.
Malty barely managed to open her swollen eyes, the first thing she saw was Emma's face right up close.
"Boo bitch." And Emma slammed her elbow into Malty's nose. Blood spurted everywhere, and her nose let out a loud crunching nose.
"Mah fath! Mah byuthiful fath!" Malty wailed, her lips were swollen too, and some of her teeth had been knocked out. With her faced so badly messed up she spoke with a lisp. But Emma just kept on punching her. The King couldn't stand back anymore, but Hoka grabbed him by the hair and forced him into a Bas Rutten Chokehold.
"Look. Watch your daughter bleed. Don't you dare blink." He snarled into his ear. F.B. and Avi stood back, they weren't the ones to be wronged. They just focused on making sure no one entered.
Emma proceeded to break every thing in Malty's body. With the help from F.B. slowing down Malty's blood she proceeded to rip every finger, every arm, every ankle, every leg, every rib, she cut her achilles tendons, stabbed her multiple times. Even ripping out her nails, and teeth, all while she was still just barely alive. It was as if she was in a frenzy, but Avi placed a hand on her shoulder. Emma spun around, eyes full of bloodthirst, however Avi didn't flinch, and her eyes immediately cooled. She understand Avi's message, "Don't be stupid, don't lose yourself." Emma took a deep breath. It was time to end this. She shaped a huge boulder into a compressed, extremely heavy rolling pin.
"I'll start feet first cunt." Emma growled, and then placed the roll on her toes. They immediately exploded, and Malty sobbed in anguish. Avi muffled her cries so only they could hear. Slowly, ever so slowly, Emma rolled the pin upwards, millimeter by millimeters, slowly crushing Malty. She started from the bottom so it'd take a long time for Malty to die.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it! It wasn't my fault! I didn't do anything!" She looked at Avi pleadingly, "Please! Save ME!" She begged, "I'll do anything!"
Avi looked at her disdainfully, "The fuck you looking at me for bitch?" Emma actually high fived Avi at that, then she ripped out Malty's eyes and hair.
As Emma tortured Malty, Hoka still held Aultcray in his choke hold, the king's mouth was covered by Hoka's palm as he sobbed and pitifully cried for help, pleading for them to stop. Eventually it seemed Hoka got tired of having to gag him, forcing him to continue to watch his daughters death, Hoka heated up his index finger to blistering temperature before shoving it onto the king's throat, the king's words choked on his own words as the blistering heat carved into his throat, eventually he fell to his knees, eyes unable to turn away from his daughter as she was turned into mush, he tried to start his pleading anew until he noticed that he his body shuddered in a pain to intense as the words failed to escape his throat, he had been turned mute, the words 'FOOL' carved across his throat.
All of a sudden someone burst in. She was so powerful that she had been able to overwhelm F.B. in his ice abilities, and in that split second she ran into the room. It was Mirellia Melromarc, The Queen herself. She had known they would be here. But her appearance was completely unlike her. Usually she took great pride in her attire, carefully thinking of every situation that she would have to deal with in the day. But now she looked messy, her hair was all over the place, she had no makeup on, and only a loose dress robe. Even so, the desperation in her eyes almost made them falter. Almost.
"Please! I'm begging you! Stop!" She sank to her knees and grabbed the hem of Emma's dress.
"No." Emma coldly replied, and kicked her away. She didn't forget the bullshit she spewed at the end of the trial.
"If you hadn't been so stupid this wouldn't have happened." In truth she was felt sorry for the Queen, sorry she had a terrible daughter, an incompetent husband, a foolish kingdom, and a terrible situation. But she was the Queen. She chose her husband, she raised her daughter, how'd she treat her kingdom? How'd she prepare for the waves?
"I-Kill me instead! Please, just spare them." The Queen went so far as to kowtow to them.
Hoka scoffed at that, "1, that's the worst deal in the history of deals, how stupid do you think we are? 2, you're supposed to be the queen. How pitiful." But the Queen didn't care about her pride, now she was just a concerned mother and a fearful wife. F.B. decided against attacking her, but Avi didn't. He knocked her out with a swift chop. They all agreed, the Queen was innocent. She was kind to them, and although in the end she chose her daughter, Mirellia was human just like them. A mother yearning for her daughter. Avi personally understood the feeling of loss and betrayal due to a family member. Which was why he had mercy on her by sparing her the pain of watching the scene that was unfolding.
F.B. picked her up, "I'll take her back to her room."
Emma took 8 hours before Malty actually died, and she was fully conscious for every second of it. Hoka was tempted to kill Aultcray, but decided to spare him because he had just been a pawn blinded by his love for his daughter and his hatred for the heroes. An insanely ignorant, biased pawn of course, but he had never done anything to them directly other than be manipulated. Of course that didn't mean Hoka would let him off easy. Hoka made it so Aultcray would never heal again. He would never even be sane again. His eyes would stare sightlessly, his mouth permanently twisted into a bizarre, silent scream, his posture unmoving, he would never wake up ever again. Trapped in his head, reliving this same hell over and over again for eternity, with the word 'Fool' seared into his flesh and branded into his soul.
When the public learned that Malty had died and Aultcray was unable to appear publicly, they knew what had happened and who had done it. What was actually surprising was that the image of the Heroes grew much more positively. Achieving justice even through the suppression of corruption. Unfaltering courage even when no one believed in them. The people's admiration only grew, and they became convinced that these were truly heroes. As for the Royal Family, trust fell exponentially. The Melromarc's golden age had ended, and was falling fast. People began leaving, and if they didn't they just resisted everything for no apparent reason. There were riots every day on the streets. As the name of the royal family name fell, darker powers and influences saw their time to strike, while the iron was still hot…
In the Palace:
Before they had left Melromarc F.B. combed through Malty's room, unlike Avi, he could only sense water, not material objects. So while he knew Malty had gone to the church, he had no idea what it was they were bargaining with as she didn't actually need the church's help to do what she did.
Blinking he stopped as he heard a faint whisper, like someone had just whispered in his ear, but it was an incomprehensible and had a grotesque feeling to it. The whispering got quieter as F.B. took a step back, but when he stepped forward again the murmuring returned. Carefully he followed the trail of whispers before being led to a giant picture of Malty.
"Huh, of course there would be something hidden behind a painting, how original."
The water in the vases in the room splashed onto the portrait, almost instantly shredding it, stepping up F.B. walked through the walkway behind the painting's canvas before finding a small room lit by a single torch inside was a pedestal, and an old blue and black book withered within a fragile glass casing. Icing over the glass he turned the heat up, instantly shattering the glass. When he picked up the book a prompt appeared.
[You have found a soul catalyst, the manifestation of a class of a transcendent, please finish trial to proceed.]
"oh?"
Unseen eyes blinked, watching him as F.B. turned the book around in his hand, he tested the front of the book but found it resisted him, even if he was physically the weakest of the four he still had superhuman strength. But the book cover refused to budge, grumbling that he decided to deal with it later. As he walked away he tucked it securely into his coat.
From the shadow of the pedestal pale blue eyes blankly followed, before traveling across the ground like a shadow and disappearing into F.B.'s. F.B. turning around quickly as he thought he sensed something moving the water in the air, a small spin of water and nothing was found, he quickly shook his head before turning to leave once more.
Elsewhere:
Left all alone, completely forgotten due to recent events, was the Dragon Hourglass. The sands of time slowly trickled through the small tunnel. A large digital timer was etched into its surface.
03:23:58
Elsewhere:
In a certain dark alleyway a woman screamed. There was a flash of silver, and a spray of blood. The liquid splattered across a brick wall, before slowly cascading downwards. A man with a steel mask stood over the corpse. After cleaning his knife on the woman's clothes he sheathed the blades somewhere in the folds of his long trench coat. The way he walked away was a bit odd, as if he was mourning. As if he felt sorrow for his victim.
Somewhere deep underneath the Cathedral:
"Our time has come!" A man wearing brilliant white robes was preaching to hundreds of believers.
"Amen!"
"We no longer need to restrain ourselves!"
"Amen!" Each amen grew more and more fervent.
"We have the Gods on our side! Those false heroes are nothing!"
"AMEN!"
"It is our turn to take charge." The Pope said this is a quieter, more colder tone.
"Yes Pope!"