A/N: . . THIS. HAS. BEEN. ROTTING. IN. MY. BRAIN. FOR. MONTHS! :P I hope you enjoy, guysssssss ~ (PS Gomen for the super late update minna D: thanks for your continued support though :3 always makes me happy and feel appreciated. i just recently re-watched the last ep of chronostone, and i was getting all nostalgic and it was screaming at me, FINISH THE FANFIC and i just had to get it out hahaha :P)

BTW gaiz. i just wanna say THANKS A LOT SO MUCH OMG! it really means so much to me that you are totally sharing what you think and supporting this and waiting for the next chappie 3 it makes me so happy bruhss :DDD, also, i love your comments; special shoutout to a guest who asked if the old man was Kageyama :) well, you will find out in this chappie ;)

OKEI ENOUGH OF ME and more of the fanfic! enjoy 3

/

KYOTEN CRAP 18

/ The Wedding Day \\\\

"Hey, wake up..." The voice is very soft and gentle, but nonetheless, a pillow is thrown at it.

"Go away Rick, I don't wanna live this day to see the leader get married to a whore who isn't my cousin," another voice replies, and she flips over before trying to fall asleep.

"It's no use to pretend you're asleep or sleepy," he says as he swims back to the bedside to brush the hair out of her face.

"Oh yea? What makes you think so, smarty fins?"

"Because you haven't even got a wink of sleep the whole night."

It is said so matter-of-factly, that she has no choice but to groan in petulance before getting up.

"Fine fine fine, I'll get up. But really, do I have to wear that?" She asks as she points to the corner of her room, where an expensive-looking garment and some jewels are arranged on a mannequin.

"Well it's Queen Leia's day after all," he says, and he barely ducks another pillow being thrown at him.

"It's tacky, and it's hard to move around and complete the plan in that," she complains, but all she gets is a laugh from Rick as he fixes her bed so that she can fix her hair.

"I know what'll cheer you up," he just says, making her look at him from where she is now sitting at her dresser and untangling her hair.

"What?"

"We can visit Arion now. The queen said she gave him the waking potion the other night, and that he'll be up by this morning."

Galadriel's eyes widen at this, and she suddenly squeals, making the boy wince before she throws down her brush and barrels towards him to crush him in a big hug.

"I can't wait!" She nearly screams into his ear as she pulls back, brushing through her hair at lightning-speed. "We have to see him so that we can finally stop this crapfest," she continues happily before disappearing into a room to change, also at a rate of two hundred miles per hour, before grabbing Rick's hand and pulling him through the castle.

"W-wait! Slow down!-" he tries, but his words are punctuated by yelps as he tries to keep up to prevent her from pulling his arm off.

"He's awake~!" She says in a sing-song voice as they skid to a halt in front of the white doors. She turns to look at Rick, whose face is almost green, but when he gives her the thumbs up sign, she wrenches the door open.

"Arion!-" she begins, but she is cut off when a whole bunch of eyes turn to her. Of course, those are the eyes of her friends, but...

"What's wrong?" Rick asks, and he turns towards the boy seated on the bed.

"He won't talk. He's-" Sam begins, and true enough, the angel has not moved from where his head had been laid on the pillow the day he saved Rick. Anger immediately burns in the eyes of San de Salvatorre's leader, and he turns around swiftly.

"Where are you going?!" Galadriel asks, grabbing on his arm, but his momentum doesn't stop.

"Who else?" He growls, brows furrowing as he pulls away. He heads for the door, about to swim at full speed if it isn't for Victor stopping by the doorway.

"I already tried," he says, golden eyes narrowing to dangerous slits as he rubs a finger on his temple. His brother, who is silent behind him, says nothing. Vladimir merely looks at the group sadly, and he barely has time to move back as Victor punches the wall nearest his brother.

"We have to improvise," he seethes, and Vladimir pushes past his brother gently to supply the now confused group with an explanation.

"Our plan requires an assurance that the Seraph would be awake before anything else," Vladimir says ruefully, and he spares the boy a glance before looking away. "It turns out that it isn't as simple as that."

"She said that she might've 'miscalculated' the time it would take for the potion to take effect-that is, assuming that the slimy eel actually gave a potion in the first place. She obviously wants the Seraph to take no part in this," Victor hisses after he has cooled down some. "He-"

"-Master!" The sudden voice coming from the hallway forces them to snap their heads towards the door, at the source of the voice. It's Rondula, accompanied by another boy with a turban on his head and a mask. "The Queen requests your presence. She declares that you must start getting ready."

At this, her perfectly manicured fingers wrap around Victor's arm with such a vicious grip, that the groom doesn't have time to escape before a cloud of dark purple issues around their fins, enveloping the two completely before they disappear in a flash of dark squid ink. The black explosion hits Galadriel full-on, and she coughs and bats away the smoke, only to realize that Victor is now gone too.

"Shit," Rick cusses under his breath, anger fading somewhat. A hand claps his shoulder, and he jumps into the air before swinging back with a hard uppercut.

"OW!" The muffled voice screams, and Rick watches apathetically as the turbaned boy flies upwards and crashes into the chandelier on the wall. The poorly wrapped cloths come undone, and Galadriel gasps when she sees a mop of really white hair stick out in all directions.

"Terry!" She gasps, swimming up to the chandelier to help him down. She spares a now-embarrassed Rick a cursory pissed glance before continuining on her task to salvage her friend.

"Didn't know water could do that," Jade mumbles as she supports Terry on his other side. The San de Salvatorre, with the addition of the half-shark, hurry back into the room and lock it. Double-lock it, just to be sure.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, voice hushed in a pretty loud whisper as she sits him down on a stool. "I thought my cousin threw you out."

"Yeah, but I can't let my best girl and her team go down without a fight," he says, winking at her slyly, and she laughs. Rosie seems to be the only one who notices Rick's mood go a little more sour, and she feels sad at the radiating jealousy for Galadriel, but she also feels a little bit happy at the possibility of Galadriel having Terry. Her devious thoughts are only interrupted when Rick clears his throat irritatedly.

"I understand that you want to help, but we have a handful of problems here. First, Arion won't be awake until after the wedding, Victor's already stuck in a horrifying process, and we all have no idea where the wedding is taking place," he says, holding up three fingers to illustrate three problems.

Terry nods once in acknowledgement, humming a low tune as he taps a finger on his chin to think. After a few seconds, he asks, "why do you need Arion to be awake though? Can't you just get married, get the relic, and continue the mission like she said?"

Rick half-screams in exasperation, nearly tearing out his gray-brown hair.

"I have no idea how you know about the relic, but I'm too stressed to even care. In case you didn't know, she's a heartless witch who cares only for despair and self-interest. We were hoping to wake Arion first, then free Leia, both before the wedding, because if we free Leia first, she might not know how to wake Arion up. If the witch gets married to Victor and Arion isn't awake yet, then what are the chances that she'll get around to keeping her end of the deal, especially if we can't kill her?"

"Yeah yeah, I'm not that stupid," Terry replies, annoyed. "What I mean is, she would let you finish the mission after the wedding. I mean, she's obviously obsessed with our little vampire friend, but have some faith. Maybe she will wake the Seraph and let you finish the quest after the marriage and keep her word. I mean what's a good reason-"

"-that isn't everything," Vladimir suddenly cuts, surprising everyone. Sometimes, his timing is just incredible. "To complete the ritual, you have to be a virgin."

Everyone's eyes go wide. Talk about awkward.

"And by virgin, I mean no life-long vows of commitment," Vladimir clarifies, which makes everyone turn embarrassed. "That's what I was worried about when Victor decided to say yes to the wedding. See where this has gotten us?"

"...so Victor really can't push through with this wedding, yeah? And you were only using the wedding as a bargain chip, not a real deal?" Terry asks slowly, to which the tea-lover responds with a nod of the head.

"But the wedding isn't a problem at all."

All heads turn to the half-shark, with eyes ablaze with a mix of emotions. No one's, however, could parallel the imminent explosion roiling beneath Riccardo's eyes. Shakily, the brunette chokes, raising up an accusing finger in warning.

"I am this close to murdering you, Terry Archibald," he grits out between clenched teeth.

The white-haired boy seems unfazed, however, and he just swims behind Galadriel before hugging her and burying his head in her hair. She doesn't seem to mind, nor does she get the tiniest blip of Armageddon coming off the team leader at the shark's affectionate display. He rests his chin on top of the pink mass of hair before saying, "as long as he doesn't do any vows, you're good."

Riccardo blinks. The anger in his brown orbs is replaced by confusion, and in a few seconds, embarrassment.

"Point taken," Rick mutters, and he turns around to hide the reddening of his cheeks. "So recap: we go to the wedding, then somehow unleash the witch using Galadriel, free Leia and then ask for the relic while hoping that the Queen really did just 'miscalculate' her giving of the antidote, all before the 'I do' part," Ricardo recalls. "Okay, exactly how is Galadriel going to do that?"

"We know that the witch wants two things: Victor for power, and Galadriel for revenge," Skie enumerates. "What do we know of the relic?"

"I can help with that!" Aoyama pipes up, smiling brightly. "I went to the libarary with Hugh, and though we didn't really find anything interesting at first, we found this picture in a book about the Royal Family."

Hugh produces a book out of seemingly nowhere, and he flips to the latter part. He then points a finger at the woman on the page, a slender, white mermaid with a glistening magenta-purple tail. Her almond-shaped eyes are smiling mischievously, reflecting foreboding thoughts in those purple orbs as a beautiful crown of orange and pink shells and flowers is placed atop her midnight-black hair.

"We think that this crown may be the second Deus Relic," Aoyama explains. "It's the coronation crown, and it's on display in the cove thingy where we saw the family line."

"The royal marriage rites include using the coronation crowns like wedding rings," Galadriel says aloud. "Maybe we can say that it's a fake to anger her?"

"We can do that, but it won't be enough. We need to really push her to her limits and make her so mad that she'll turn into the witch and we'll kick her ass," Jade responds.

"Make her jealous."

Rosie says it so nonchalantly, that everyone is surprised at the suggestion. Rick looks at her disbelievingly, making her blush a bit under his stare.

"Rosie, are you serious?" He asks, eyebrows quirking upwards.

"Yes! Proclaim your love for Master Victor, and make him play along," she says, with more conviction in her voice. "After all," she pauses to look at Riccardo more seriously, "nothing makes us more human than jealousy, right?"

Riccardo suppresses his gulp. Why does he have this feeling that he's got something to do with this?

"Okay...so will I kiss him?" Galadriel asks dryly, to which Terry laughs boisterously whilst others snicker.

"I don't know. Just act girly and pretend you're revealing that you guys have had a super secret relationship," Aitor suggests, smirk faltering for a second. "Then we start the real thing. But-where's Commander?"

"H-huh? But we can't do our fighting strategies without him," Eugene panics.

"We'll make our own then," Galadriel decides, and they turn their heads to where she is at the corner of the room, rifling through a chest of drawers. She quickly returns with a bunch of jagged corals, a few inkwells, and rolls upon rolls of seaweed and sand paper.

"Now. Let's get down to business."

/

"Master, this will look wonderful on you!" A dark-haired mermaid squeals as she pulls out the first of thousands of freaking useless layers of clothing. Victor, who is already uncomfortable in the strange undergarments, bares his fangs at the young chattering lady who seems unfazed by his hostility. In fact, she just pinches his cheek while giggling before motioning for her assistants to hold his arms up in a sidewards raise.

He struggles valiantly, but his ridiculous tail does no good as a painfully gay-looking coat thing is slipped on him, complete with golden fastenings that start at the waist and a huge, elegant, frilled stand-up collar that probably is supposed to look rugged and fancy. The deep v-neck is showing too much skin, and he doesn't think he has felt this naked in his entire life. He cannot even begin to describe the ludicrousness of the short gloves that are put on his hands. The servants then bring him in front of a full length mirror made of a huge shiny clam shell, and he thinks to himself: I look like a lizard.

Not just any lizard, but the weird one that has a frilled neck. Or maybe the hooded snake. Either way, the shimmering scales on his outfit do not make him feel very sexy. The mere thought of Arion seeing him in this clown's outfit makes him want to ask Midori how to do a proper hara kiri.

"Wait, let's not forget the most important part!" Rondula reminds them, as she scurries off to get some godforsaken headpiece. When she returns, it turns out to be his very own king's crown; oh joy. Fashioned out of five terracotta-and-ivory striated shells that poked out like sun rays around his head, as well as a base circlet of fine pearls and some kind of thin, rose gold circlet, the majestic symbol of power made him feel like a dunce.

Victor's eye twitches in an effort to keep his cool. The maidens are busy happily chirping and gushing over the handsomeness of their mistress' groom, but the man in question looks about as happy as Ebenezer Scrooge.

"I hope I have made the right decision," he mutters to himself, seething and growling in annoyance when he hears another high-pitched cry of "master" from a random purple-haired mermaid.

Master. How would that sound on Arion's tongue?

Effortlessly, an image of his sweet, innocent angel covered in nothing but Victor's coat and his cum surfaces in his mind. Victor's breath hitches; fuck, why does this have to happen now? At least he didn't have a thing anymore, so he wouldn't have to worry about unwanted boners nor stains. Still, he can't help but remember how those curves felt, how Arion's blood tasted like ambrosia. He can feel himself salivating; if the Seraph tasted this good, he totally understands why others would kill to be Holy Emperor.

Yes, he thought to himself grimly. In order to become Holy Emperor, he was to use the Deus Relics in order to harness the power of the Celestial Aurorae of Deus. The process could only be done through the invocation of the Seraph, who will be used as a vessel as well, making the angel and the Holy Emperor bound for eternity. The freedom of one for the freedom of all; Victor used to say that so often, but now, he feels almost guilty for taking away the life of this innocent boy. He took away this boy's innocence and right to be normal, to grow up, meet a beautiful lady, have a family, and die happily.

Victor rubs his hands on his face in guilt and confusion, which earns him a painful pinch on the ear.

"Don't mess up your makeup!" The mermaid scolds him, to which Victor almost explodes. Fuck, he could just kill these annoying witches and roast them over a fire for dinner. He's pretty sure Arion would love seafood.

"We need some help over here!" A mermaid calls from another room, and the ladies who were just helping Victor excuse themselves, much to Victor's relief. Immediately, he starts snooping around the room.

Right now, he's in a huge, elegant room with bluegreen walls and beautiful clam lamps arranged into an elaborate chandelier. Judging from the really fancy double king-sized bed at the right covered with some anemone (Victor can't even imagine what's so comfortable about those), he guesses that he's in the room of Galadriel's dad.

"Will I have to get used to this?" He asks himself, before growling and mentally roundhouse kicking himself for even entertaining a shadow of doubt. No, his team will be able to get the relic and free Leia. They just have to hope that Arion would indeed awaken. He stops in front of a huge chest of drawers beside the wardrobe, noticing that one of them is slightly open; must be where those little wenches got his crown. After making sure that the coast was clear, he opens the drawer.

In the middle, sitting on a regal velvet cushion, is a an orangey-pink crown, kind of like the color of cooked salmon. Beautiful pearls and coral twisted into an intricate ring form the base, and a fine net of strung beads and gems extend at the back elegantly. He recognizes it as the crown from the display at the cove.

"Must be the coronation crown," he murmurs, skimming a finger over one of the many conch shells. He picks it up, and at the back of the huge shimmering gemstone in the middle, is an inscription:

The rightful wearer of this beautiful crown will make all of the sea bow down.

Victor confirms his hunches; it must indeed be the coronation crown if it bore such a meaningful inscription and if it was taken out of its glass case. A scuffling of sounds is heard, and he automatically sets down the crown and closes the drawer in one swift movement, speeding back to his seat just as the noise stops right outside his door.

"I want to see him," a high-pitched voice whines, and he leans towards the door to listen better.

"I'm sorry princess, but I cannot disclose the king's whereabouts."

It's probably Galadriel. A huff follows, and the angry-sounding girl starts again. "But I have something important to tell him! He can't get married, because I love him!"

Victor's eyes grow wide. What the hell!?—

"—GUARDS!" Another voice screeches, more tinny and ear-splitting. "Escort that wretched maiden out!"

Victor, curious, peeks from a little crack in the doorway to confirm that it is indeed Galadriel, who is now being sent out by the order of Leia.

The bride is fuming mad, her eye patch almost dislocated in her fury and her hair looking electrocuted, and her angry frown only deepens even as the protesting Galadriel is kicked out with much force. The queen then turns around with a flourish of her dark hair, muttering something about "looking horrible in front of her husband" before disappearing into the chamber whence she came.

When the hallway is silent once more, Victor returns to his seat, pondering on Galadriel's words.

"What are you planning?..." he muses to himself. Hopefully, he'll be able to play along.

/

On second thought, he shouldn't have gone out on his own.

Being bestowed with the gift of excellent direction, Jude Sharp has never left his abode without a map. Now, he regrets not taking one from the library.

"Stupid water won't let me use my magic...must be the witch," he mutters to himself as he furrows his brows. Another fork in the road. Which one should he take?

After a short deliberation knowing that he must've made a fatally wrong turn ages ago, he just goes wherever. Just as he had lost hope, a beacon of light shines from above, and he realizes that he must be close to some kind of surface. He then takes another right, and finds himself at the defile which led to the squid. He rubs his hands, smirking to himself as he confidently summons an orb of light to guide him through the dark.

The cavern looks the same as they had left it, broken and cracked from where they had battled the squid—or rather, Leia. He frowns to himself. There are lots of missing puzzle pieces and odd-seeming ones in this adventure, such as the banana peel signed by Alpha back at his mansion, the attack of the thousand mutts on the way to the waterfall, the second Deus Relic, and last but not the least, the old man by the hut.

"Only one way to find out," he murmurs to himself as he reaches the dead end. He peers below the waterfall, and he sees the little hut at a distance. There, the old man with the straw hat is bending over some land, probably tending to his crops. Jude decides to be stealthy. He flies out, descending parallel to the waterfall, and changes course by zooming forward parallel to the water's surface.

As he nears the old man, he can hear the wet, squishy sounds of the old man's boots on the moist soil, making Jude wrinkle his nose. Gardening is also one of his most favorite things to do in the world, which is why he cannot live without Caleb to tend to the garden. He plants his feet on the ground quietly (no pun intended) and he gets ready to tap the man's shoulder.

'One,' he starts in his head. He watches the old man bend and straighten his back at a constant pace, putting seeds in little holes on neat rows. Somehow, that white jacket with a few orange stripes looks so familiar.

'Two,' he gets ready, raising his hand. Why does he feel like this man already knows he's here?

'Th—AGH' he thinks to himself, letting out a grunt of pain as he is sent flying backward from some kind of ground-shaking electric shock. He immediately recovers in midair, doing a somersault before straightening at lightning-quick speed. His hands pulse with a dark purplish-black light, red cloak fanning out behind him gloriously as he eyes the old man—or rather, not so old man.

In the midst of his unexpected assault, the gardener's hat had fallen off, revealing a young man with messed up spikes and an orange headband pulled back on his forehead. He's in a crouching position, legs apart, arms looking ready to catch a ball in the classic goalkeeper's position, except instead of gloves he sports two golden gauntlets fizzling with deadly electricity. In the middle of each of the the back hands is a single, shining ruby, a small sphere that glittered deadly under the sun. One look into those chocolate brown eyes, and it hit Jude in an instant like a whiplash.

"Mark?..." He calls out in disbelief. He lowers his hands, the foreboding glow disappearing as his boots touch the ground soundlessly. He doesn't even need to wait for an answer when the other male smiles in his cheerful way which made Jude almost nostalgic.

"Hey! Long time no see," the man now known as Mark hollers, waving an armored hand as he walks closer. Although the crackling energy has also disappeared from his friend's hands, he is still quite in shellshock at seeing the legendary goalkeeper after who knows how long. Mark stops in front of him, clapping a hand on Jude's shoulder with a deep chuckle, which is enough to shatter the warlock's inner reverie.

"Mark," Jude begins. He looks at his friend pointedly, eyes a mixture of 'don't do that again' and 'where the hell have you been!?'. This only makes the hut owner laugh, before motioning towards the little shanty.

"How about we catch up inside, eh?"

/

A/N: YEHHHH! YEH YEH YEH! WOOHH! i am delaying the wedding further HAHAHAH :P anyway, tell me what you think :) thanks and love you all! :D