The Stars who have assembled in the remote ward where they've stored Mana's body alongside the Soul Gem for the time being turned toward the door when they heard steps from outside. When they saw Asuka enter, they breathed out easier as they wouldn't have to explain their presence here and who this strange one-legged young woman laid out in the bed was.
"Well, at least you didn't vanish away," Damisan said with noticeable approval in his tone. While he may have had some very justified differences with Asuka, he couldn't ignore the fact that she was pulling her weight on the squad.
"Is that happiness I hear in your voice? Aww, you big softie…" Asuka replied with a tease before filling the space that Shige-H made in the circle around Mana's bed. Everyone turned quiet, waiting for Asuka to report her progress. "No change, huh…?" Asuka sighed in disappointment after looking at the lifeless body she'd once been elated to see.
"If Mana were to wake up, you'd have seen us showing up already," Endo replied in a tone that was soaked with an apt level of frustration given their lack of progress in restoring their teammate to life.
"What did you find out about Bogemu Uneyotsu?" Shige-H asked after turning her head to look at the squadmate who was the most recent to regroup with the squad.
"Okay, the most important thing–his ability to make people disappear sets in when one wishes him harm. I was fortunate enough to clear my head when stalking, which makes for lighter steps. Might have ended up vanishing myself, just in case any of you think I don't take risks for the team…" Asuka reported.
"Wishes him harm?" Shige-H stroked her chin in reflection. "That's an invincible ability in battle. No wonder he made short work of everyone who challenged him. We should tread carefully around such an outlandish person."
"However… That doesn't really sound like an ability that would be useful for us in guiding Mana's soul back to her body," Damisan noted. "I believe Minara noted that magicians have specialties in terms of spells they can use. Anything outside their specialty is a gamble."
"Gamble…" Asuka closed her eyes solemnly. "That explains the metaphor Bogemu used. Although, he suggested he could restore Mana's soul."
"You told him everything?" Endo flipped out, jumping off of the empty hospital bed he was sitting on. "I thought the point of tracking someone was to find out what they knew and were up to, not to spill your beans out to them with nothing of use in return!"
"Finding out that Bogemu might be the person we're looking for is hardly nothing of use," Shige-H dismissed Endo's worries. "However… The ability to make people disappear, not to mention the creepy vibes that man is giving out. It's like my entire body is giving out warning jitters to not deal with that person. Did you manage to figure out what his stake in this tournament is?"
"Sorry," Asuka shook her head with an admission of defeat apparent on her face. "He wouldn't say."
"Oh, he wouldn't say? How about you poke him a few times and see what bleeds out?" Endo growled with a passively aggressive tone.
Damisan, Shige-H, and Asuka all directed their stares to Endo, who glared back at all three of them for a short while before becoming slightly flustered and looking away. "Oh, right…" he muttered in a softer voice.
"It's a tough thing arranging a deal with that man. He holds all the cards at all times. He's likely stronger than all of us combined, as the very thought of testing that theory would decimate all of us," Asuka said while staring at Mana's careless and serene expression with immense frustration in her eyes. "Bogemu can say as much as he wants, keeping anything he doesn't want us to know. What's even more chilling is that he seemed almost excited to help us, despite me not finding anything concrete we could promise him in return."
"Maybe he's not a this for that kind of guy?" Endo shrugged. "Maybe he just wants to help?"
"That is a possibility," Shige-H noted with a slight hand gesture before returning to her contemplation. "Remember that Minara told us the magicians came here with direct instructions to win and establish a nexus here that would serve as a pathway for other plane-shifting magicians. It's more than likely that Bogemu too wishes that. If that is the case, he might genuinely wish to help Mana out of the kindness of his heart. The entire point of a nexus point is that magicians can come here and offer this plane their aid, after all."
"Having been the only one to meet the man truly, what do you think?" Damisan turned to Asuka.
"I wanted to get away from that man as soon as possible, to be honest. With your whole body screaming to get away, it's easy to take him up on all sorts of terms and conditions," Asuka replied, after looking up at the ceiling. Shige-H and Damisan both looked at the usually sassy and mean-spirited young woman with concern. It wasn't like Asuka to be terrified of anyone. "I just can't help but feel like he's a really scary guy. It's like he's hiding death itself in his pocket."
"Good, so it won't need to journey far to drag him down to Hell after we're done with… Damn it!" Endo cursed again, gripping his sheathed sword with so much strength that his hand shook from the force he put into it. "It's like the man is utterly invincible! Although, I've been doing nothing but wishing him death and I haven't vanished yet. It's clear that his ability has an effective range."
"Instead of plotting to tackle forces beyond our understanding, how about we explore our options first?" Damisan wondered out loud. "How many more magicians are left in the tournament?"
"Just two left in total," Shige-H reported after picking up a crumpled-up poster off the nearby empty hospital bed and running through the match-ups of the second round of the tournament. "Bogemu Uneyotsu, and that other guy that's competing next. Gunshi Aspen."
"Nice, you've snagged one of those…" Asuka noted the poster with the faces of each competitor and the match-ups as well as some small tidbits of information on each combatant that was meant to hype people up for the matches of that day. "Who knew that marketing tools could be so useful to people in a bind such as this?"
"This means that right now there may be two people in this plane, that is to say, this layer of reality, who can help us. What do we know about this Gunshi Aspen?" Damisan turned to the Stars' leader with the poster in her hands.
"Gunshi Aspen is a fiendish priest who once read from the Necronomicon during a sermon by accident, mistaking it for the holy book, making his body a living portal for demons, fiends and devils of all shapes and sizes to possess him and act through him as their agent since they cannot pass onto the planes of men on their own," Shige-H read out loud from the crumpled, sizeable sheet of paper in her hands.
"Okay… Not the best start, I'll admit…" Damisan shriveled up. "But… What exactly did you promise Bogemu, Asuka?"
"Nothing. I said that I'd run some things past my team and reach out to him again if we needed his help. I made it up that his vagueness and reluctance to answer my questions about his goals here pose a problem for us," Asuka replied with a shrug.
"Which it completely does, by the way!" Endo emphasized.
"There…" Damisan snapped his fingers. "There's nothing wrong in watching the next match and judging what kind of guy this Gunshi Aspen is, maybe even reaching out to him and seeing if he's less shady before we make our final decision. This is Mana's life that's on the line. We cannot afford mistakes here."
"I see," Shige-H pondered on it for a few seconds before folding the poster up and pocketing it. "This course of action makes the most sense. However, the fact that there are only two magicians left troubles me. Then again, if Bogemu claimed to be able to assist Soul Diffusion despite his specialty, whatever that is, being nothing similar to it, it only stands to reason that Gunshi should be able to accomplish it as well, despite being just a puppet for whatever demonic forces are acting through him."
"Makes sense, one thing that Bogemu let slip was that assisting with the Soul Diffusion shouldn't be as complex as Minara made it out to be. If he was truthful, at least…" Asuka agreed with the cautious decision.
"It could honestly be either way," Endo blurted out. "Minara was just an apprentice, so it makes sense that a powerful magician with a spell as terrifying as Bogemu's under his command would make such a mighty statement. Then again, if he is trying to deceive us for his unspecified gain, he'd likely like us to think that there's no complexity for him in what he's offering. If we have to deliberate on both the choice of our guy and the odds of success for each candidate, our path to being deceived is more curved and circular for his liking."
"Right," Shige-H sighed. "In that case, it's settled. Endo, please protect Mana for a bit longer and let us know if the Soul Diffusion occurs naturally. Meanwhile, we'll scope out the next match and exactly what kind of person this Gunshi Aspen truly is and if we can trust him with the merger of Mana's body and soul."
And so, the trio of Stars composed of Shige-H, Damisan, and Asuka turned and walked out the door while Endo watched Mana's soulless body lay in place like a hawk surveying its nest from atop of a mountaintop, waiting for some scavenger to try a piece of its eggs only to have their skulls crushed in the hawk's talons for their courage. Given the burning spirit in his eyes, Endo felt like he'd fend off even an absolute powerhouse such as Bogemu, if need be. Mana certainly didn't lack false courage when placing herself in harm's way to protect him, which meant that Endo could afford to offer nothing less than that as well.
Multiple breaks to repair the arena pushed the time of day well into the afternoon. Whereas before some people got rowdy and impatient waiting for the arena to be restored, with the second break, there was no such lingering tension. In fact, the horn calling for reassembly in the arena has caught plenty of spectators unaware and urged them to come back with some of their lunches that they were enjoying with them packed.
Whoever was working for the Sheikh and restoring the arena to pristine condition did some fine work. The half-demolished arena from the second match was fully rebuilt and even the new sandstone tiles were polished to the point of glistening shine. Even if it took little contact with the ever-present sand grains and splashes of the artificial lake outside of the arena bounds to ruin that shine, the fact it was ever there, to begin with, was enough to hype the audience up as they nestled in their seats, clenching their fists and seeking even more grandiose entertainment.
Entertainment was what they would be getting. Whereas the ceaseless bombast from the other day laid relentless and colossal in scale siege on the senses and seemed utterly incomprehensible, except for a select few moments that one who kept close attention to a specific bout could catch a glimpse of, these more orderly engagements provided more like what the Sun Disc arena fighting enthusiasts were used to. Each fight was splendid and spectacular in its own way and they were perfectly sliced and divided into delectable parts and served with enough breaks in between each feasting session to arouse a craving.
"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer roared out, having taken the brief opportunity for a break to regain his voice and revitalize himself some as well. While today's reporting was nothing like the chaos from the battle royale that taxed the announcer to a mental and physical collapse by the end of it, the fact that the previous period of recording was this strenuous added additional stress to this day as well.
The audience clamored as a response. Like fuel spraying through a nozzle straight into the tank, igniting and inflaming the engine to growl and boom. It was a self-sustaining cycle of each party feeding off of the other's excitement. However, as amazing as it was, neither side would retain this energy for long without the spill of the third party into the fire.
"I hope you've all enjoyed your lunches and evening snacks, sobered up from your excitement, and filled up your bodies while emptying your souls for some more amazing fighting, the likes of which cannot be encountered anywhere else in the world!" the hyped up announcer punched the air a few times, just to leak some of the pent up energy. With enough excitement for some to think that the man had gone utterly mad and decided to end it all, the announcer threw himself at the railing in his front, barely stopping himself from ejecting himself into the arena from the announcer's stand.
A crimson flame surrounded by a vile black, inky outline that leaked malicious tendrils into the blaze lit up on the north-western entrance to the arena. So intense was the gleam from the crimson and inky inferno that it made even the fading desert sunlight fade in comparison and made the audience shut up and cover up to avoid eye strain or even blindness.
"Appearing on the north-western entrance, from places unknown, is the fiendish priest who accidentally read from the Necronomicon instead of the holy book during a sermon. Now he walks the land, both channeling the power of demons from the grimoire of the dead and exorcising those that would use him as a portal to cross over to our plane–Gunshi Aspen!" the announcer recited the information provided on the poster with a little of flavor text for some sweet drama and flare. While he introduced the first entrant, a black longsword rose from the flames only for the young man with sand-colored hair spiking around the edges like a crown to grab its hilt and swing it over his head.
As Gunshi Aspen twirled his two-handed sword, the vile corruption coating it splattered away, sizzling in the field of scarlet hellfire and evaporating with vaguely skull-like shapes while the sword's natural shape revealed itself in a segmented greatsword with horn-like spikes substituting a guard and spiking out from the middle of the blade as well. The turbulent whirlwind from the spinning blade rustled the boy's spiky hair, which reached a bit past his shoulders. The gale from the spinning blade almost made the baggy, unzipped priest robe he barely covered his shoulders with slip-off for good.
After concluding with the showing off, Gunshi adopted a balanced sword-fighting stance. He didn't stay in it for too long, however, instead; he flung the sword forward, slicing through the charring scarlet flames and vanishing with a bountiful leap. The flames rushed alongside the young priest, slowly vanishing away without a trace and concentrating on a single point. Gunshi landed on his sword as if it were a surfboard and forced the sword to embed into the ground and expel a shower of hellfire from its tip, raging like a typhoon of firenadoes inside of the arena's bounds. Before the audience could even become accustomed to the grand show, Gunshi kicked the hilt of his sword and jumped off, calling it forth to spin in the air only for Gunshi to catch it in one hand while he put up his right hand and concentrated all the hellfire in a single, skull-shaped blaze at the tip of his hand.
"You pipsqueak! You dare call forth the powers of the Grand Duke of Archfiends for some fireworks and dazzle!? I'll flay your co…" before the foul-mouthed demon could finish its tirade, however, Gunshi clenched his fist and extinguished the flame in his hand. Just like that, there were no more flames, even Gunshi's spiky hair settled on a more boring and suspiciously mullet-like state. A state that was the exact opposite of the punk-like attitude he displayed previously and the very antithesis of cool.
"Is it just me, or are these guys beginning to enjoy themselves a bit too much?" Damisan shook his head, covering his face in second-hand embarrassment.
"The guy called forth the Grand Duke of Archfiends for your amusement and you're not entertained? Damn… The shit Mana must have pulled to sway you on her side must have been pure ecstasy," Asuka sent a mean-spirited smirk Damisan's way.
"All seems well so far, Gunshi Aspen has more control over his demons than the poster made it look if he's calling them forth just to rile up the crowd," Shige-H nodded in approval of the odds of everything turning out great. "Now, all we need is a simple victory on his part. His opponent is a serial killer, isn't he? That… Might complicate things."
"Hmm… The second combatant is supposed to make their entrance, but… I can't see which entrance they've chosen to enter the stage from…" the announcer leaned and put his hand over his brow to focus his vision and block out as much evening sunlight from irritating his eyes as possible. "Kita Esatoko, where might you be? Please, you might come out now!"
"E-Excuse me!" a short and chubby man in the latter half of his years waved his hand in the air from the southern entrance. "C-Could you maybe extend the bridge, please? You forgot to extend the bridge for me, I can't enter. It's too far!"
"O-Oh… Very well…" the announcer became flustered, fiddling with his glasses before pointing to someone on the staff to extend the bridge connecting the southern entrance to the arena. "After four competitors didn't make use of the bridge, I simply assumed that you'd just… Make your way into the arena in some impressive way, flaunting your abilities to the audience!"
"I… I guess I could have swum over there, but… Boy, it looks to be quite far. I'm afraid I might have drowned," Kita Esatoko inspected the extending sandstone bridge system of interconnected blocks roll up to him before placing his feet on the blocks like a cat testing the water. "Oh… This feels secure enough, I guess."
"E-excuse me, competitor Esatoko-san, could you please hurry and walk your way over to the arena? This isn't exactly an escalator, you know…" the announcer sounded incredibly embarrassed to have to rush the serial killer to walk his way down the bridge instead of waiting for it to connect to the arena the same way it extended.
"No way!" Kita Esatoko objected with a lively shake of his head. "I'll only end up tired before I make my way to the arena to clear things up here. Not to mention, walking on a moving structure is dangerous. What if I trip and end up plummeting into the lake?"
"You'll swim?" the announcer shrugged with a hopeful wince.
"And how will I climb my way up the arena? It's not like there's a ladder up there or anything… Don't worry, I won't take long. I just need to clear up a few things when I get there and you can resume your… Whatever you're doing here…" Kita Esatoko nodded to himself, looking incredibly sure of what he was saying, making him just about the only one.
"You're a strange one, aren't you?" Gunshi Aspen turned his head to the side in amazement that such a strange guy not only signed up for this tournament but actually made his way past the battle royale stage, which proved fatal for so many exceptional combatants.
Once Kita Esatoko finished his sluggish crawl on the drawbridge and made his way onto the fighting stage, the match marking the halfway point of the second stage would begin at once!