Note: Its been a while since I last updated this story so my apologies on that. Its been hard to update with school and everything lately especially with end of the year testing. But I will say that this story is nearing its end. Expect a few more chapters with a lot more action and possibly shocking deaths. With that, enjoy chapter 18!

Yelling in pain, the blue haired male falls back and groans, holding his stomach. "Ugh…damn that Kishin…"

Tsubaki reverts back to her human form and worryingly looks over at Black*Star. "Are you okay!?"

Black*Star slowly gets to his feet, holding his stomach. "I'm fine don't worry about me." Biting her lip, Tsubaki glances from Black*Star to the Kishin.

Grinning, Asura remains calm and stays where he is. "Like I said, you don't have a chance." The Kishin feels his smile fade as he sees Medusa looking over at the control room where he had all his cameras. Rushing forward and going past Black*Star, Asura lunges for Medusa, grabbing hold of her wrist. Taken by surprise, the witch stumbles back with Asura's iron grip still locked on her. Wagging his finger at her, the Kishin smirks. "Ah ah ah. No going in that room."

Noticing the room for the first time, Black*Star squinted as he tried to get a closer look at the cameras. Seeing the blue haired male staring into the room intently, Tsubaki follows his gaze to look at the cameras as well. The pair soon grow tense as they see their friends on the cameras. Maka and the others were all there. They also noticed two other figures in one of the camera screens. It was the two that had been with Medusa. Free and Eruka.

"Wait, Eruka. I heard something."

Stopping, Eruka looks over at Free who takes her by the hand and looks around cautiously. Hugging his arm, Eruka shivers. She suddenly felt very cold. Free said he had heard something but all she could hear was silence. "Free, what is it that you hear? I don't hear anything" The frog witch says as she nervously bites on her lower lip.

Sniffing the air, the werewolf narrows his eyes on a certain spot. Taking a step back, the male turns to look at Eruka. "We have to go. Now."

The seriousness in his tone made Eruka grow tense. Immediately after she nods, Free begins to run off in the opposite direction with Eruka nearly tripping. "F-Free! S-Slow down!"

Suddenly coming to a halt, Free curses and grits his teeth. "Shit! It was a trap!"

Confused and dazed, the female looks forward to see Crona and Jackie blocking their path. A voice behind Eruka and Free soon calls out, "No use in running now. You're surrounded." Glaring as he turns around, Free stares at Kid who steps forward with Maka, Patty, and the twin pots. Shaking, Eruka looks to her left to see Soul walking slowly with Liz supporting him.

Crossing his arms, Kid stares at Medusa's former allies and scoffs. "You two disgust me. Going as low as joining forces with the snake witch, Medusa. Plus then attacking our friend and nearly killing him."

When no one says anything, Kid goes on. "Alright, now we all have to agree on a way to deal with these two…I personally think we should kill them."

Jackie's eyes widen and she blurts out, "What!? Kill them! Are you serious!"

Maka furrows her brows a bit and crosses her arms. "I agree with Kid actually. Soul could have died…"

Surprised, Jackie gives Maka an astonished look and her jaw hangs open. Looking from Kid to Maka, Liz begins to shiver and shake her head. "No...w-we can't just kill them…d-didn't we agree we wouldn't play this game?"

"I know what we said but this is different now Liz. We've all seen things here that I would have never imagined we'd see…and its all changed my view of things" Kid explains as he glances at the ground, his fists clenched.

Liz looks over at Kid with a sorrowful glance and places her hand on his shoulder. "That doesn't mean we have to do this…"

Shrugging off her hand, Kid shakes his head quickly and grits his teeth. "No Liz! We…we have to do this! Better them than us right? I just want to go home as soon as possible…"

"We can go home, Kid! We just have to keep-"

"Keep what!? Tell me, Liz! What else can we do! Too many people have already died! Do you want to be next!?" Kid snaps furiously. Looking away and without as much as a word, Liz shuts her eyes and shivers, unsure of how to reply. Jackie glares at Kid and crosses her arms as she shakes her head. "You're wrong Kid…killing people isn't going to stop this. Killing them won't bring the dead back!"

"Would everybody just shut up for a second!?"

Soul's unexpected voice makes everyone stop and look over at him. The white haired male sighs heavily and looks over at the group. "Can you all just calm down for a moment? You've all had your say…now I want you to hear mine."

Back in Asura's hideout, Medusa lets out a shriek that makes Black*Star and Tsubaki jump.

The witch raises a shaky finger and points into another room that was next to the camera room. "W-What the hell is all that…?"

Without turning around to see the room, Asura grins and says, "Oh so you've noticed the room where I collect the dead bodies of the eliminated participants, have you?"

"Say what!?" Black*Star quickly glances at the room and feels his eyes widen with horror as Asura's statement turns out to be true. In the room were the corpses of all the dead participants who had been killed. The blue haired male gulps and clenches his stomach as he starts to feel queasy seeing the bodies of Ox and the others.

Nearly bursting into tears, Tsubaki puts a hand over her mouth and gags upon glancing over at Sid's body. "No…" She shivers and shuts her eyes as the sudden scene of Sid's death fills her thoughts.

"Hey! Tsubaki! Snap out of it!" Black*Star cries out as he shakes her shoulder. Blinking and opening her eyes, Tsubaki glances at the floor and gives a slight nod. "S-Sorry Black*Star…"

"What the hell is the meaning of this you damned Kishin! Why are there dead corpses in that room!" Black*Star demands. Cackling with laughter, Asura throws his head back and grabs hold of his hair. "Oh that's just great! Why!? It's simple! For the grand finale!"

"Grand finale…?" Medusa repeats with her brows knit. Smirking, Asura nods and licks his lips. "That's right. The grand finale. I've had this whole thing planned out. I know what I'm going to do."

"W-What are you talking about?" Tsubaki asks nervously. Chuckling to himself, the Kishin rubs his hands together. "Let's just say I'm going to attempt to bring our dead friends back to life with a bit of madness!"

The trio stares wide eyed as Asura says this. Medusa feels a tingling sensation go through her spine. "Bring the dead back to life…with madness…?"

Nodding, Asura gives the group a wicked grin. "Yes. That's correct. But hey its not all bad right? Your boyfriend Noah will be back to see you again, huh Medusa?"

The snake witch jolts up her head to give the Kishin a furious look. "What the hell did you just say?"

"Oh I'm sorry did that offend you? I thought you knew I was watching through my cameras. Heh…"

Hissing, Medusa takes a step forward but stops when Black*Star brings his hand out. "Don't. He's mine."

Glaring, Medusa turns to look at the blue haired boy. "Don't even bother trying to stop me. I'll have the Kishin's head!"

Asura smiles calmly and folds his arms across his chest as he raises his brow. "My…you must really hate me."

"Damn right we hate you!" Black*Star yells out as he turns to Tsubaki and gives her a nod. As Tsubaki turns into her weapon form, the blue haired male grabs her and rushes forward towards Asura. "Your soul is mine, Kishin!"

Right as Black*Star attacks, the sound of metal clashing is heard, forcing Black*Star to back up a few paces. "What the hell was-"

Eyes wide, his mouth drops open at the figure in front of him. "O-Ox…?"

Standing in front of Asura, with Harvar in weapon form was none other than Ox.

Tsubaki gasps in her weapon form as she notices as well. "B-But how can that be? Ox and Harvar both died didn't they?"

Grinning from ear to ear, the Kishin puts a hand on Ox's shoulder. "How do you like my revived minion? Yes he's the first I had tested to be brought back with madness. He's a mindless puppet. He'll do anything I ask of him."

Gritting his teeth, Black*Star growls. "Damn you Kishin…quit using dead people as a way to avoid me! You're just afraid that without your damned puppets, I'll kill you!"

"Hah! Me? Afraid! We'll see about that!" Asura says with a smile. "Now if you want to get past me, you'll have to get past my puppets. ALL of them!"

It was then that the rest of the dead participants suddenly got to their feet and began surrounding Black*Star and Medusa. Staring into their eyes, Medusa saw that they were a deep glowing purple with pitch black pupils. "Madness…"

"The real fight starts now!" Black*Star calls out. "We send these puppets back to death and kill the Kishin here and now!"

END OF CHAPTER 18
DEATH COUNT: 10