Chapter 24: An Urge to Concede

At the Savanaclaw Spelldrive Stadim, Leona and the rest of the Savanaclaw dorm students are there. Ruggie returns after seeing the result of the spell and his signature spell.

Ruggie pants and says, "…Leona, I did it! Did you see the broadcast?"

"Yeah. That was nice work, Ruggie. So long, Malleus. This year, the throne is mine," Leona says with an evil smirk on his face.

Then Ruggie cheers, "Long live the king! Sha ha ha!"

Then the rest of the Savanaclaw students cheer, "Long live the king! Hooray!"

Suddenly, they hear a familiar calm and stern voice, "I believe we've heard enough."

Leona and Ruggie become stunned and turn their heads to see Riddle, Ace, Cater, and Deuce. Along with Briar, Grim, Trinket, Sereia, and Jasper. Jack is with them as well.

Leona smirks and says, "Well, well, if it isn't the Heartslabyul kids and the Ramshackle misfits." And notices Jack is with them, "And is that Jack? You transfer to Heartslabyul on us, frosh?"

Jack sternly crosses his arms, "Nah. I just don't feel like celebrating the underhanded accomplishments of a bunch of cowards."

"You filthy traitor!" Leona says, bitterly.

Then Riddle steps forward and sternly says, "You have tarnished a proud Night Raven tradition. As housewarden of Heartslabyul, a dorm focused on orderliness, I cannot possibly overlook this.

"Listen, kiddies—save your heroic speeches for someone who cares, all right?" Leona says, annoyed.

Ruggie grins and says, "Honestly, coming into our territory with only a handful of people... It's like you WANT a beating."

One of the Savanaclaw students steps forward and asks, "You want us to take care of 'em, Boss?"

"Sure. Have a little fun with 'em," Leona answers.

And with that, the Savanaclaw students begin to charge towards the Ramshackle Dorm students and the Heartslabyul Students. However, Briar and the others work fast.

"Oh no you don't!" Briar says, and casts her flora magic at them.

Then Deuce cast his spell, "I summon thee, cauldron!"

The cauldrons and the flora fly at the students and are able to cause them to stop.

"Take this you meanies!" Sereia says, and uses her water magic at the students.

Then Jasper says, "Get a good taste of rock…"

"And minerals…" Tanzanite says.

Jasper and Tanzanite cast their stone and gemstone magic at them.

Water, stone, and gemstones strike at the students.

"You're really burning me up!" Grim angrily says, and unleashes his fire.

"Take this!" Ace says, and uses his wind magic.

All of their magic strikes at the different students. Many of them fall to the ground while some are still standing.

Then, Riddle cals out, "'Off With Your Heads!'"

And uses his signature magic on the Savanaclaw students. With the collar stuck on their necks, they can't use their magic.

One of them feels the collar and tries to take it off, but it won't get off, "Urk... He's so strong."

"Man, housewardens are no joke," Another student says.

Riddle huffs, "Hmph. Nothing but a lot of hot air. Ace, Deuce, are you all right?"

"Yeah. That was nothin'," Riddle says.

"You bet, sir!" Deuce says.

Riddle turns to Briar and the others, "Are you and the others okay, Briar?"

"We're fine," Briar says.

"Nothing we can't handle," Jasper says.

Suddenly, Leona scoffs it off, "Tch. I knew those chumps'd be no match for Riddle."

Ruggie snickers, "Shyeheehee! Maybe not! But this doesn't change the fact that they were too late to save Diasomnia."

However, they hear a familiar voice, "Oh? That's quite the interesting claim."

Then someone else says, "They seemed right on time to me."

And then another, "Indeed. It's thanks to them that not a single one of Diasomnia House's players got hurt."

Everyone soon notices Lilia along with the boy with silver hair and the boy with light green hair. The boy with silver hair is named Silver, and the boy with the green hair is named Sebek.

Seeing them is a shock for the Savanaclaw students.

Ruggie is especially shocked, "What? How?! I saw you get swallowed up by the stampede!"

Then Cater steps in, "Oh! About that… So it turns out those were actually duplicates of me, made with my signature Split Card spell."

"What?" Leona questions with a deep frown.

I must admit, I really dig those Diasomnia House outfits. They're so extra!" Cater says, and holds out his phone, "I'll DM you some of my selfies later."

"Is that right?" Lilia questions, "If I knew you were such a fan, I'd have gladly loaned you mine."

"Such a sweetheart! Though I think yours would be a little small for me," Cater says happily.

Annoyed, Leona says, "All right, can we get to the point?"

Then Lilia explains, "Riddle told us everything. So we had him put on that little charade for us."

"So, then... Malleus?" Ruggie asks, shocked.

Then Sebek says, "Oh, he's in top-top shape, of course! He's been clearing up the chaos, using his magic to guide all the people safely back to the coliseum. You can thank him later."

"H-how could this happen?!" Ruggie exclaims in shock.

"We got wise to your signature spell," Tanzanite says, "One of the victims became aware that magic was played into it."

"And it's a good thing Grim and Briar remember what happened in the cafeteria. We didn't realize you used your spell on Grim until they figured it out," Jasper says.

"And it's also good that Briar came to realize your motive for doing this too," Sereia says.

However, Leona doesn't seem fazed by it, and says in a bitter tone, "...Tch. Whatever. I don't even care anymore."

"What?" Ruggie asks, turning to Leona.

"I'm done. It's over," Leona says.

Shocked, Ruggie asks, "Boss, what are you saying?!"

"Are you even payin' attention?" Leona says, annoyed, "If Malleus is able to take the field then we got no chance of winning. There's no point even trying. I'm out." and soon begins to release a little of some black and yellow aura around him.

This catches everyone by surprise and shock.

But Ruggie says, "Y-you can't just...! Malleus might still be in the game, but we took out all the other dorms' best players, right? But without you on the field, I don't even know if we'd have a shot at the top three! You're just going to abandon our dreams?"

Then Leona says, "For all the talk about 'the world watching,' this is still just school kids playin' a game. All you wide-eyed tenderfoots talkin' about your dreams... Pfft. The whole thing amused me, so I threw you a bone. That's all this was."

"What do you mean?" Ruggie asks, "What happened to working together to 'turn the world upside down'?"

"Are you seriously still goin' on about that?" Leona says, growing more angry, "All right, fine. You wanna hear the truth? You're a hyena who grew up in a dump, and I'm a second born prince who won't ever be king. And there is NO turning that around!" And the aura around his body increases.

Suddenly, Briar begins to feel a sharp pain in her head again.

Ruggie is stunned and says, "What? You gotta be kidding me! What is this? You can't just quit after we've come this far!"

One of the students cries out, "You can't do this to us, Boss!"

Another student says, "You're gonna play, even if we gotta drag you out there kicking and screaming!"

Soon, the black and yellow begins to be fully exposed around Leona's body as he angrily says, "Bah, I'm so sick of this nonsense."

And the next moment, Leona grabs Ruggie by the collar and lifts him up in pure anger, "Shut UP, you nobodies!"

And then starts to use his magic.

And with that, more bloating ink from Leona's pen drips to the ground, and some begin to become exposed.