The full moon rose high a few nights later, illuminating everything through the mist in the citadel's courtyard. The lit blue fire in the sconces along the elegant brick archways further brightening and casting tall shows in the surrounding area.

And a mamluk flew backwards, crashing into one of said archways. Mozenrath followed it, residue energy still caressing his fingertips. He sent a disc of magical black-blue fire with a strong ripping motion, slicing it in half. The fire then consumed both halves from the inside out, until nothing was left. "Again!" Mozenrath angrily commanded, his voice carrying throughout the courtyard.

All 369 mamluks readied their stances, half facing the other half. Mozenrath turned his back to, and walked away from the sound of metal striking metal, grunts, groans, as well as the occasional loss of limb. The defeated will be absorbed into the victorious.

Mozenrath admired his perfectly manicured, luscious dark green grass between the paved cross that've been fertilised with the blood of countless citizens he once ruled over. Either for spell components, or to increase his army of mamluks. With the promise of work to entice lower classes in other nations, he didn't have to worry about actively looking for people to increase his army or population. All of them came to him, with the hope of a better future in a dead, and dying kingdom.

The poor unfortunate fools already there, and those who will come, are and will be paying exorbitant taxes. That which even Mozenrath knew they could never pay for long. Or, there was always the option to voluntarily miss paying tax, for the year, in exchange for sacrificing a family member to him. Those who couldn't do either, or refused to do either, were made gruesome examples of. Along with those who riot, and those who attempt to flee the land. Every single person who nationalised in his land will end up serving him.

Ultimately, he planned on steadily increasing his army into the thousands again. In addition with experimenting on them. His small army of what once was 1653, that he accounted for since taking control of the citadel when he was 17, had dwindled down to 369. Something that Mozenrath was not happy with. He had a good amount of them destroyed by Aladdin, and co over the years. Not all of them, but enough to become frustrated. And through his carelessness, he set out to find more power, losing even more.

Regardless, a better army of stronger, faster, and less fragile mamluks started with new, delusional citizens.

A head dropped into his sight, and groaned on the only vegetation in the entirety of the Land of the Black Sand.

Xerxes swam up to Mozenrath, ignoring the head and the fighting, and curled around his shoulders. Mozenrath softly patted his familiar's head. "Have you seen anything amiss, Xerxes?"

The flying eel smiled widely at the affection, snuggled up to Mozenrath's neck, and rubbed his head softly against Mozenrath's hand. "No. Nothing strange."

"Good," Mozenrath closed his eyes. Perhaps he—

"Just Genie, and Hero."

He stopped patting him, and Mozenrath's eyes snapped open. "What!?"

Xerxes flinched. His smile dropping. He shied away from Mozenrath. "Hero said he had attendance with Master…"

Mozenrath narrowed his eyes at the head that tried rolling its way to its body that happened to be looking for it, his lip curling upwards. "Of course he did."

Xerxes could sense an aura of irritability radiate off of Mozenrath, and swam away from him before he had a chance to strangle him. He stopped about a metre away. "Master no want Hero's help?"

He watched Xerxes swim away from him out of the corner of his eye. It was almost funny how he thought moving away would help him. "Not tonight, Xerxes."

"Well, I guess that's just too bad, Moze." Aladdin chimed in, standing on Carpet who hovered a few feet off the ground, and with Genie floating behind him. Aladdin crossed his arms. "Cause we're here."

Xerxes reflexively hissed at Aladdin, and co while Mozenrath pinched the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headache coming on. "You have impeccable timing for when you're not wanted, Street Rat."

"Not wanted!" Xerxes hissed, then closed the distance between Mozenrath, and Aladdin and friends. He was nothing, if not loyal.

Aladdin shrugged, smiling, arms still folded. "What can I say? It's part of my charm."

Mozenrath dropped his arm, and turned to see Aladdin in his prince getup. Was the attire for this 'audience' or was he simply coming there from official business in Agrabah, and didn't have time to change? Regardless, he looked at him blankly. "It is rather strange. I specifically remember telling you I will tell you more when you've proven you can be trusted with more. Why are you here?"

"Proving exactly that. We needa talk, Moze."

"No, we really don't." Mozenrath mentally commanded his mamluks to stop fighting.

Aladdin instantly noticed the lack of commotion, and the silence broken by creaking bones built up the pressure he felt. He was well aware that he needed to be careful with his choice of words. Maybe he shouldn't have been so casual moments ago… "Genie found out more about the ring," he started. "He said it has more to do with seeing into alternate realities, that the more you see into them, the more they could bleed into this one. That once they've melded into this reality, history rewrites itself as if they've been here to begin with. And that Amara didn't just have the ring. There's other artefacts, too."

"Yes, yes, yes. I know all this, Street Rat!" Mozenrath was really starting to get irritated at him. Why couldn't he just leave him alone to train his mamluks!?

Aladdin frowned at him. "Then why didn't you say so to start with?"

"Because I didn't have the time, nor the inclination, to explain a convoluted history of paradoxes about something you knew nothing about!"

Fair point. "Ok, so you must also know that Destaine tried to attain apotheosis with it?"

Mozenrath raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm surprised you even know what the word means."

"I… uh… had Genie explain it to me. Still, it must be hard. I mean… living under Destaine while he'd—"

Mozenrath folded his arms. He had no desire to further the conversation, and didn't want Xerxes to get hurt in the crossfire. "Xerxes. Leave."

"But, Master!" He needed to stay! Needed to stay, and protect his Master!

"Leave."

Xerxes' head dropped low as he swam inside, giving Aladdin, Genie, and Carpet all dirty looks.

Mozenrath glanced to citadel. He remembered everything vividly. Constantly being revived from the brink of death. The constant torture, how he was left to starve, and being used as a bargaining chip. "Yes. He wanted to become a God of Death, and made pacts with demons to enable himself to do so," Mozenrath retuned his attention to Aladdin, his voice, and expression as casual as if he was simply making small talk about the weather. But somehow Aladdin could still sense the irritability radiate off of him. "Suffice to say, it wasn't a pleasant experience."

Demons? Death God? How… how far did this go? If Destaine stopped at nothing for power, as to make pacts with demons, then is Mozenrath willing to do the same thing? "You mean you were inv—"

"You're seconds away from being obliterated." His jaws clenched shut at the sensation of fire that overtook his fingertips to his shoulder. He wasn't interested in keeping up veneers anymore.

Aladdin held his hands up defensively. He could clearly see the other man was getting even more agitated than he was before, so he tried salvaging it. "Look, Moze, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to bring up the past. But you can't really hide info like this from me. I know that Destaine used to own the gauntlet before you. I also know the ring, and the gauntlet is a part of a set. How many more artefacts are there?"

"Thousands." Mozenrath wasn't in the mood to help him anymore. As far as he was concerned, he had just given them the last piece of information he was willing to share seconds ago. They can all deal with it on their own now.

"Of the same set, Mozenrath…" Aladdin groaned.

He laughed at him. Did he really think he had the power or the authority to tell him what to do in his own kingdom? Mozenrath may have been tolerant of him earlier, but Aladdin's constant questioning was wearing his patience thin. "Look around you, Street Rat!" Mozenrath gestured to their surroundings with both arms, and Aladdin glanced over his shoulders, realising that every mamluk were hyper focused on them. "You're standing between hundreds of mamluks, and myself. I get to tell you as much or as little as I like."

"Back to this, then…?" Aladdin sighed. He weighed out his options. Provided that Mozenrath's going to be terrible with his aim, or much more unlikely, that he doesn't want to destroy his mamluks, Aladdin could *maybe* get his gauntlet off of him. But that would mean he'd need to subdue him, which is doable, but it meant he'd need to contend with the mamluks with a struggling Mozenrath in hand. "Look, Moze, I don't really wanna fight you. And aren't you tired of losing every single time?" That wasn't even meant to be a jab, either. Aladdin knew he'd be tired of losing all the time if their roles were reversed, so why wasn't that the case for Mozenrath?

Mozenrath would've been offended if he wasn't certain of his guaranteed victory. He smirked at him. "That was then, this is now. My power has evolved since you left me stranded; since you left me to die, Aladdin."

Aladdin frowned at him. Mozenrath was walking closer to him. What was he playing at? He could easily get to him… Especially with Carpet, or even Genie. Unless that's what Mozenrath wanted. "How'd you get free, anyway? And speaking of which, how'd you even get that back?" He didn't know why it didn't occur to him to ask until now, but better late than never. Still, though… He couldn't do magic without the gauntlet back then, could he? Can he now? He glanced over his shoulder again, and ahead of him, keeping an eye of both the mamluks and Mozenrath. Aladdin was going to have to think about this carefully… While Genie was powerful, he knew that Mozenrath could easily capture him. He could capture them all if Aladdin wasn't careful. "Genie, can you do something about the mamluks?" He whispered to him.

"Sure thing, kid!" Genie poofed, and reappeared in front of a group of mamluks. He divided himself into 6 fabulous hairstylists, "now, let's liven this place up a little!" They all exclaimed, and created a picturesque salon scene with everything matching shades of bright pink, and green. "Ah! Our first customers!" The leader of the Genies gasped, fanning himself, and all of them guided 12 mamluks into all of the styling chairs. While about 200 waited outside the scene in the streets in a single file-line. The shop apparently seemed to be a big deal.

Mozenrath was about to laugh, that was until he felt something slip from his mind. His attention snapped to the stark contrast of his beautiful, dark citadel, and… whatever that bright monstrosity was. His eye twitched. He had a hard time believing that the djinni stole a good majority of what was left of his army right from his control, and enthralled them to participate in that hideous scene. What… what were those contraptions his mamluks were wearing on their heads?

But, whatever. Mozenrath clenched his jaws shut.

He still had over 100 left.

And he had bigger fish to fry.

He returned his attention to Aladdin just in time for him, and Carpet rush towards him. Almost within an arm's reach. "You want to know how I escaped, and retrieved what is mine?" He responded to Aladdin's earlier question, snapping his fingers, and disappeared. "A magician never reveals his secrets." His disembodied voice continued, before he then reappeared some distance behind Aladdin, and Carpet. He threw a black-blue firebolt at Aladdin, causing Aladdin, and Carpet to easily dodge. Carpet then flew straight for Mozenrath.

Only for Aladdin to glance over his shoulder, realising the bolt they just dodged was on their trail. He was about to steer Carpet away when he noticed Mozenrath readying another. "Mozenrath, no!"

Mozenrath didn't listen, and blasted both of them. Sending both of them crashing to the ground. Aladdin jumped off, and tumbled. He tore off his cape, and stomped on Carpet and beat him with his cape when he crashed to try to extinguish the blue flames. Which he was able to do before the first bolt closed in on him again.

He was going to have to time it. He ran to an archway as a detour, and dove behind the stone a mere second before the bolt hit him. The bolt impacted the stone, causing it to crumble behind him. Aladdin glanced from behind the rubble at Carpet. The flames were extinguished, but he could see Carpet was trying to fly but couldn't. With Mozenrath right in front of him. Which meant he was a sitting duck out in the open.

Aladdin was going to have to get to Carpet again, and have Genie fix him. All without getting either one of them hurt, killed, captured, or destroyed. He glanced around again, and dove for more cover when he realised a few of the mamluks were readying their bows and arrows at him.

"Soon you'll be serving me in death, and your djinni will be mine!" He cast a force-field around Carpet, then rose above the archways into the eternal night sky. Watching as his archers carefully took aim, while his swordsmen drew closer to Aladdin's cover. "That, I promise you." Mozenrath took advantage of the crumbled stone, magically deconstructed it so it was pure black sand, and made glyphs out of them, hiding them amongst his grass that Aladdin ran across, making them act like active landmines.

Aladdin mentally cursed himself at seeing Carpet out of reach, and grimaced at the notion. He weaved in and out of the arrows to tumble, and roll. Grabbing two discarded scimitars to dual wield. He heard an arrow whistling through the air, coming his way. And deflected it, making the arrow bounce off when he brought them into an X shape. He then went back for cover. "You really are sick, y'know that?" Aladdin called up to Mozenrath. He saw what Mozenrath did, and going any closer to Mozenrath on the grass would just be suicidal. And he wasn't game enough to go across the pavement when Mozenrath could literally just do the same thing.

Unless… unless he could get to higher ground. He quickly glanced at the archways to see if he could get a foothold, and the quick survey told him he could.

Currently he had three options, and all of them were long shots. He'd need to either draw Mozenrath out, and make him get into close range to be able to disarm him. Or, Climb, jump, and drag Mozenrath to the ground with him. Or lastly, have Genie see if he could deactivate the glyphs. Option one had the risk of him accidentally setting them off, option two meant he'd have them fall into the glyphs and have them explode upon impact, and option three meant he'd need to dodge even more arrows and fight some mamluks in melee, and possibly be overwhelmed by a small army. He wasn't fond of either option, but he decided to go for option two. That seemed like the one with the most merit. Plus, he was almost sure Mozenrath would teleport them away from any immediate danger, like he did a few days ago. He'd just need to be careful to make sure he wasn't hit by any arrows, and that Mozenrath wouldn't collapse anything he was climbing, or blast him off.

"I'll take that as a compliment. Genius is often confused with insanity."

It was now or never. Aladdin got a running start, and jumped onto the closest one then started climbing. Making sure to keep out of the archers' line of sight.

"A genius wouldn't lose as many times as you have, hun…" one of the Genies commented, distracting Mozenrath, whilst snipping at a mamluk's blonde, newly permed hair. The other Genies nodded, and voiced their agreement.

Mozenrath narrowed his eyes at all the Genies, "I wouldn't be boasting about your enemy's lack of intelligence when you're the one who came to their territory where they're at their strongest." And for good measure, he zapped the water one of the Genies was using, electrocuting him. The resulting yell of pain was almost like music to his ears. Even better, all but one disappeared, and he regained control of his mamluks.

Mozenrath didn't even have to command them to attack. He could tell they weren't too happy with being taken control of.

"Mozenrath! This stops now!" Aladdin stood on the roof, and backed up for a running jump. He only had one shot at this.

"I agree. Let's bring you to an end!"