Chapter 26: Ambitions Aired

The situation is starting to get severe, and Leona's negative energy and magic are increasing. It's proof that Leona's magic is immense, and dangerous.

Riddle calls out, "If you have that much power, why do this?!"

"'Why?' What do you care, kid? You gonna scold me? Try to talk me down?" Leona questions in anger,

Then Leona grows even resentful, "Don't you get it? Power alone ain't enough to make waves in this world." And turns to Ruggie, "Look at Ruggie here. He's like a muzzled dog. Pathetic, ain't it? Hard not to pity him."

Ruggie continues to gasp air, "Urrr...ggghhh…" and his body continues cracking.

Jack angrily shouts, "That's enough!"

And calls out, "'Unleash the Beast!'"

Just then, Jack lets out a howl and transforms into a large white wolf. Everyone becomes shocked to see Jack has transformed.

"What just—" Riddle says, surprised.

In this new wolf form, Jack lets out a growl, "AAAAARRRRROOOOO! GRRRRR! AAARRROOO!"

"Did Jack just… transform?" Tanzanite asks, surprised.

"Wow. He's… he's a giant wolf!" Jasper says, astonished.

Then with that, Jack charges at Leona.

Leona notices Jack's form, and Jack raises his claw to strike him.

Leona becomes surprised, "Whoa, what just—"

Then Leona quickly dodges as Jack tries to strike him as he drops Ruggie to the ground. Leona tries to dodge Jack's attack, but Jack is proven fast.

"Gah!" Leona becomes startled and quickly moves back.

Riddle sees his chance, "He broke Leona's concentration! 'Off With Your Head!'"

And with that, Riddle performs his signature spell at Leona.

And the collar is placed around his neck, "GAAAAAH!"

As the collar is placed around Leona's neck, his signature spell has been canceled out, and the dust and sand disappears. All the students who are affected gasps and cough as their bodies return to their normal state.

"That was beautiful, Riddle! You stopped Leona's magic cold!" Cater says.

"And he let go of Ruggie!" Deuce notices.

He then calls out, "This way, quickly!"

Ruggie barely able to get up and rushes to the others.

Silver turns to Sebek, "Sebek, let's get the wounded somewhere safe."

"Do not presume to order me around, Silver!" Sebek says.

Deuce, Ace, Briar, Silver, and Sebek begin to help the wounded out students of the field.

Finding himself collared and his spell canceled, made Leona furious, "No... NO! You can't collar a lion!"

And then glares at Jack, "And Jack! How did you... Transformation potions are forbidden! Where did you get that?"

But Jack says, "I didn't use a potion—that's my signature spell. With it I can transform myself into a wolf.

"Ha! What's that saying? Every dog has his day? Well I guess you had yours!" Jack says in remark.

Jack then confronts Leona and says, "Housewarden Leona, I want you to know... I only came to this school because of how much I admired you! What happened to the man you used to be?"

"Shut up... Your dreams got nothin' to do with me!" Leona angrily says.

Then Riddle says, "I understand the irony of me being the one to say it, but it pains me to see you like this. You'd be wise to confine yourself to your room and try to calm down!"

"What do you know about how I feel?!" Leona questions with a deep frown.

Then Lilia says, "Would that the lion king of the savanna could witness this absolute farce. No, if you ask me, the collar suits you far better than a crown ever could."

"...Huh?!" Leona becomes confused, but the frown deepens.

You may bemoan the fact that you're not higher in line to be king. But with that sensitive ego of yours? That so quickly directs all your petty anger at your retainers…" Lilia says "Well, the idea of you ever contending with a REAL king like our Malleus—is absolutely laughable. Even if you COULD defeat Malleus, so long as that's how you choose to conduct yourself? You would never be fit to rule!"

Suddenly, Leona begins cackling, "Hah... Ha ha. Yeah, you're probably right. No, you're EXACTLY right...! Ha ha ha ha! I will never become king. No matter how hard I try!"

Soon, Leona begins to unleash his magic again, and it has gotten stronger that everyone can sense it.

Grim senses, "Myah?! All my fur's standin' on end!"

"The magic power within Leona is surging... I don't think my collar can hold it!" Riddle says, struggling to hang on.

But Briar says, "That's not just magic… Leona has a lot of negative energy flowing around him, and it's even stronger than before."

"You're right. That isn't magic power," Lilia says.

His eyes wide open in realization, "That's negative energy, which means…"

"Negative energy… You mean like what happened to Riddle?" Tanzanite asks.

Cater calls out, "Everybody, get down!"

Everyone hears Cater and soon sees that the situation is growing more serious. Leona's negative energy becomes so strong that it breaks off Riddle's collar placed on him, shocking everyone.

Even Cater is shocked, "Riddle's collar flew off?!"

Briar soon feels her head hurting even more, "Leona has so much negative energy flowing around him I think he's going to…" but the pain is hurting her so she can't say anything.

"Going to…?" Ace questions.

Then Ace's eyes wide in shock, "Wait, he's going to…"

Suddenly, Leona says with strong resentment, "I've been loathed since the day I was born. I've never had a place, never had a future! None of my hard work is ever rewarded! How could any of YOU possibly understand? MY disappointment?! MY pain?!" And let out a scream in rage, "AAAAAAAAAH!"

And suddenly, Leona lets out a powerful lion roar. Soon, the black ink becomes fully exposed around his body, and his magepen gemstone has turned completely black. The black and yellow aura is at its max as Leona is consumed by the blotting ink, and then a massive shadow appears behind him.

Once the ink is cleared, Leona has officially overblood and transformed. He is wearing what seems like a traditional african outfit, with gold bracelets, gray skirt, a waistband, and a black fur collar with gold accessories. Leona's skin and fur changed to a lighter color and a yellow aura appeared over his left eyes. There is also ink on his arms, legs.

Behind him is a massive shadow in the form of a large brown lion with a black mane and wears a crown on its head. There is also a glass container at the face where many of the blot ink are stored.

The stadium also changed as well to some dark version of it, it's dusty, the clouds darkened, and many parts of the stadium begin to crumble into sand.

Leona lets out a roar, "GRRRRRAAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!"

Shocked, Jack asks, "What's happening?! Some kinda giant shadow is comin' outta him!"

"That's the incarnation of his blot!" Deuce says.

Grim asks in fright, "Is he goin' into evil darkness berserker mode like Riddle did?!"

"I'm afraid so, and the lion must be his shadow," Briar says.

Riddle turns to the others, "If you can move, seek shelter! Ace, Deuce, help me take the wounded outside! Lilia, please get help from the faculty!"

"On it!" Ace and Deuce reply, and hurry off.

"Understood. Stay strong until I return!" Lilia says, and leaves the scene.

Leona then lets out another roar, "Grrrrraaaaawwwwwrrrrr!"

"Why does this keep happening to us? This is soooo not my #brand!" Cater says, holding his phone.

"If you're afraid, feel free to run," Riddle says.

But Cater says, "Trey wouldn't let me hear the end of that. We do this together, Housewarden!"

"We'll stay and help too," Briar says.

"Yeah. We were able to fight you when you went Overblot, we can do it with Leona, Riddle," Jasper says.

"And we can't let you face him alone," Tanzanite says.

A little scared, Sereia says, "I may be scared, but I want to help. Let us help."

Trinket nods her head.

"Yeah. We're going to knock some sense into that overgrown cat," Grim says.

"Weird choice of words because you look like a cat yourself," Jasper says.

Grim angrily says, "I'm not a cat!"

Jack steps in and says, "I dunno what's going on, but if we hit Leona hard enough, maybe we can snap him outta it?"

Still coughing, Ruggie is able to get up and says, "I… I'll help too… No way am I taking what he said lying down!"

"Are you sure? You're still a bit out of it after what Leona did," Briar asks.

"I'm sure…" Ruggie says, and coughs.

Seeing what has happened, Leona angrily says, "So even the lowly hyena turns against me?" And laughs sinisterly, "Ah ha ha! What a total joke!"

Grim turns to Briar, and says, "Briar, if we can take this guy down, they'll let all of us play in the tournament! Give it everything ya got!"

"Let's get him!" Briar calls out.

Leona lets out another roar, "Grrrrraaaaawwwwwrrrrr!"

And says, "If I can't overthrow the world. I'll turn it into sand! It's pointless-all of it!"

"Have you always felt this way? All this time…?" Ruggie asks, shocked.

Jack then turns to Ruggie, "Ruggie, let's hit Leona hard and knock some sense into him, fast!

Leona lets out another, "Grrrrraaaaawwwwwrrrrr!" And charges towards them.

"Watch out!" Sereia cries out.

Everyone quickly moves out of the way as Leona and his shadow charges at them. Grim and Sereia quickly act fast and perform their magic at Leona. Leona quickly turns around and swat the magic away with ease.

Deuce and Ace also try to use their magic, but Leona simply brushes them off with his shadows.

Jasper then cast his magic, "Time for some rock and roll!"

"Let's go!" Tanzanite says.

Jasper and Tanzanite quickly use their magic together and dodge Leona's attack. They continue to run around him as they fire their rock and gemstone powers. Luckily, they're proven to be quick against Leona since they run around in circles from opposite directions.

Briar turns to Jack, "Jack, tries to strike now while he's distracted."

"Right," Jack says.

Then Jack calls out, "Unleash the Beast!"

Jack then transforms into a wolf once more and charges towards Leona. Leona swings his paw at Jack, but Jack dodges and is able to strike back. Jack manages to swing his paws and swat at Leona's shadow. Then Leona uses the shadow to swat Jack away, and he falls to the ground. Jack is able to get abc as he changes back to his original form.

"Rgh… So strong!" Jack says, feeling a little pain.

Then questions, "How can someone so powerful give up on everything?"

Leona then roars again, "Grrrrraaaaawwwwwrrrrr!"

And says in anger, "You're getting on my nerves. I'm gonna turn each 'n' every last one of you to sand!"

Leona then lets out a mighty roar, "Grrrrraaaaawwwwwrrrrr!"

And charges at the group attack.

"Here he comes!" Grim panics.

"Look out!" Tanzanite cries out.

Everyone quickly moves out of the way, as Leona and his frightening shadow run past them.

"Is there nothing we can do to stop him?" Sereia asks, frightened.

"I have to admit, I never knew that Leona was this strong," Briar says.

"Neither did we," Grim says.

"The only way to defeat him is to attack him with everything we got," Briar says.

"Then let's beat him!" Jasper says.

Briar calls out to everyone, "Everyone, fire any magic you can at Leona."

Hearing Briar, everyone agrees that they need to attack him at once. With the way their magepens, everyone fires all of their magic at once. Leona struggles to hang on as so many different magic spells are attacking him at once. As they fire the attacks, the glass container holding the blot is starting to crack. Soon enough, everyone stops their attacks to see Leona has been weakened.

On the verge of collapsing, Leona softly says, "I wanted… to be king… "

Then collapses first on the ground.

Ace turns to Briar, "Hey Briar, I think this is where you come in."

Briar nods her head and begins to walk towards Leona. At the same time, the glass container continues to crack and the blot begins seeping out.

Seeing this, Jack asks, shocked, "Hey! Where are you going?"

"Cool your jets! Briar knows what she's doing," Grim says.

"But she's going to get crushed if Leona wakes up," Ruggie says.

"Just trust her. She'll get Leona to snap out of it," Jasper says.

Briar walks over until she is in front of Leona. Then kneels down and places her hand on his head. Just then, the glass bursts and the blot falls all over the two, shocking Jack and Ruggie .Lilia, Sebek, and Silver are just as shocked. Riddle and the others are looking at the scene with serious yet worried looks in their eyes, but have to trust Briar to help Leona. They can only hope Briar and Leona both come out alive.