The Other Fifth Leaf

by KenosDC1

The grimoires of the Clover Kingdom have always had three leaves, which represent faith, hope, and love. Within the fourth leaf lies good luck, but within the fifth leaf, lies one of two things, either a devil, or...an angel. (Cover by chaoticallyfairy)

100. Inferior to You

Chapter One Hundred: Inferior to You

And here's the last chapter for day 5, readers. Chapter 100 (AKA The halfway point.) Thanks a bunch to everyone who has been with me so far, I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. Hopefully, you'll stay with me for the remaining hundred chapters. Cya.

---

"No…it can't be,"

The possessed Shauna sneered as she put a hand on her hip. "Make no mistake, human, this is happening,"

Oliver immediately created distance between them. "No, I refuse to accept it. Shauna! Shauna, can you hear me?!"

The elf could not help but burst into laughter. "You're funny, y'know that? Foolish, but funny. Save your breath, this Shauna you speak of isn't in charge anymore," she pointed at herself. "The name's Sena,"

"Sena?" Oliver repeated. "Okay, chill. Why are you talking like you're a different person with another name and everything? And more importantly, why are you calling me a human like those other people? Weird thing to say when we're all human,"

"We're all human? Aw, that's adorable, you don't know,"

The wood mage was not a fan of the condescending tone. "What do I not know?"

"Listen well, um…," she trailed off. "Crap, I forgot to ask for your name,"

The Yggdrow grit his teeth, that was what finally forced him to accept it, she didn't even know his name. She really wasn't Shauna. "You can call me-,"

She put a hand up. "Ah ah ah, quiet, I'm thinking," she scanned his person, her eyes soon falling on his tie, but more importantly, the design on it. "I can't entirely tell since most of your tie is hidden, but based on the branches that I can see sticking out, I'm assuming there's an image of an oak tree on it?"

The wood mage was surprised by her accuracy. "Yeah, it is,"

She smirked. "Nice. Then listen well, Oakie, I'm not a human, and neither are the ones like me. We may dwell in human bodies, but we are elves,"

"Elves?! Do you mean like from the stories? The ones who disappeared 500 years ago?"

Sena raised a brow. "Hm, looks like I'm not the only accurate one around here. Yes, we are they,"

The teen held his forehead, trying to grasp the bombshell, but that's when he realized something else. "Oh, and do me a favor: DON'T call me Oakie! My name is Oliver!"

The possessed illusion mage sucked her teeth. "Why are you acting like I should give a damn? You're not going to be alive for much longer. Who cares if I call you something else?"

"I won't be alive for much longer?" Oliver narrowed his eyes at her blatant threat. He gripped his hammer tightly and slung it over his shoulder. "Bullshit. I'm not just going to live to tomorrow, I'm going to find a way to free Shauna from your grimy-ass clutches,"

Instead of being threatened by his declaration in the slightest, Sena burst into an even greater fit of laughter. "Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha!" she fought the urge to drop to her knees as she wiped the tear building up in her eye. "Oh, I haven't had a laugh that good since watching Rhya laugh at the play Lifu messed up,"

"And what's so funny?"

The elf managed to calm down. "What's so funny? The ridiculous notion that you want to fight me. Trust me, Oakie, you're not going to win,"

"And why is that?!" the boy barked.

"Simple, you're a human, you're weaker than us elves, it's just a fact of nature is all. My kind is loved by mana, and yours isn't, as such, you are inferior life forms," she replied plainly.

"Inferior…life forms? That's it, I've heard enough!" he adopted his battle stance. "No more talk, time for action!"

"That's the smartest thing you've said," Sena manually pulled out her grimoire. "Now, let's see what magic I've got to work with," she opened it and read the first page, her eyes immediately expressing disappointment. "Illusion Magic? Come the hell on, I know humans are useless, but I didn't expect her magic to be this useless,"

"You shut your mouth! Shuana's magic has come to our aid many times, I won't let you badmouth it!"

"Of course you wouldn't, the weak stick together," Sena ignored him for the most part, not even bothering to make eye contact. She kept flipping pages until one caught her fancy. "Now here's one that looks like it actually does something! Here we go, Illusion Magic: Creature of the Unknown!"

The familiar red creature manifested at her side, the elf eyeing it. "Decent enough. Alright, my creature, don't fail!" she commanded as it lunged at Oliver.

The wood mage jumped back, avoiding the first strike, but then he quickly lunged himself, reeling the hammer horizontally before slamming into the creature's side, sending it back. It didn't take long for the beast to get back up, however, and it growled viciously.

The aqua deer put down his weapon momentarily. "I know that's not all you can do," he beckoned it with his hand, grinning as it charged at him at top speed, so this time, he reeled his weapon back vertically, waiting for the right moment to smack it straight into the ground, watching as it fizzled out of existence.

Despite the easy enough victory, Oliver couldn't help but notice an important detail. "I used a high amount of power in those swings. The Creature of the Unknown spell can't tank much damage, the power of my first swing should've been enough to destroy it. Whatever this elf did to Shauna, it also seems to have supercharged her spells, I need to be cautious going forward if I want to win,"

Sena clapped slowly. "Okay, you've got some skills, emphasis on some,"

Oliver wasted no time in lunging a second time. "Be quiet! Now it's your turn!"

The possessed illusion mage focused mana into her legs, jumping a fair distance away. "Oh my, do you have that little regard for the safety of your friend's body?"

"Shauna will understand once I tell her, all I have to do is make sure you don't die," he retorted, pointing at her. "As for you, you keep talking about how you're better than me, but so far, you've made no attempt to fight me yourself! You're nothing but a coward!"

The girl rested her hands on her hips. "Really? A coward? Nice try, but you can't goad me with empty taunts like that. If I wanted to fight you personally, I would've done it already, but as you already know, this attribute doesn't exactly permit that, so I'll have to be content with killing you this way. Illusion Magic: Creature of the Unknown!" a new beast came to life and charged.

"Fine then, I'll do this as many times as I have to!" he was ready to strike again, however, another spell beat him to the punch, blasting the creature away.

"Huh?" Oliver muttered, noting the attribute of the attack. "That was…Water Magic?" admittedly, he didn't know many people with that affinity.

"Thank…goodness I…reached…you,"

His head whipped around at the sound of the voice, his eyes falling on someone he wasn't expecting to encounter that night.

"Joshua?"

The boy in question had one hand on his left knee while he used his other hand to wipe the sweat forming on his forehead, panting heavily. "Yup…it's me,"

"What are you doing here?"

"Long…story,"

[Flashback]

Sakuraba Household. A Few Minutes Ago.

"C'mon, one more time!"

It was relatively quiet around the noble estate, granted, it was never really noisy to begin with, but that quiet was disturbed every so often by the sound of loud grunting. The grunting came from one lone source.

Joshua. He stood in a field in the back of his home, his grimoire in front of him as he had just finished casting a spell, water shooting in all directions in a wave-like manner, decimating the circle of practice dummies that surrounded him.

"Oh yeah!" he cheered, jumping up and down. "It's about time!"

"A very impressive display, young master!" one of his three maids congratulated him.

The second maid came up to him, presenting a towel which he graciously accepted to wipe off the sweat on his face. "Samantha's right, if you keep improving, that spell will serve you well,"

"Yes, I agree, Deborah, it's very useful," he nodded as they walked back to the building's territory, the water mage resting by one of the pillars.

"It's absolutely incredible how much you've improved, Joshua, and to think, you've only been training for a bit over a month," the third maid stated. "You're a magic prodigy,"

"Well, I try my best, but I wouldn't exactly call myself a prodigy, Tulip," he reached for a nearby canteen, gulping down the refreshing ice-cold water.

Samantha held her chin. "Now that you mention it, the only reason the young master has improved so much in such a short time frame is because of how often he practices. If he's not dealing with any family responsibilities, he's out here for most of the day. I wonder why?"

As soon as she asked that last question, Joshua choked on the water and was subsequently subjected to a coughing fit. "Oh no, are you alright?!" the three women swarmed him with concern.

His coughing became lighter as he covered his face with the towel, praying that it hid his blushing cheeks. "Y-Yes, I'm okay, I just..drank too fast, that's all, no need to worry," he fibbed.

The maids breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, just make sure to slow down, you don't want the hiccups. So, if you would entertain us, why have you been working so hard?"

He put the towel down. "Oh, that? Well, you see, I…feel like I shouldn't waste my youth. If I'm to be the head of the estate one day, I need to be strong," he couldn't think of a lie fast enough, so he told a half-truth.

And that managed to do the trick as the maids clutched their hearts. "Young master, how responsible! You'll make a great leader one day,"

He smiled, glad the topic was more or less avoided. He quickly rose to his feet. "We'd better head back inside," he said as they entered and split from him, the teen heading to the bathroom to freshen up before marching straight ahead until he arrived in a large dining room.

The room wasn't empty though, two people were sitting on the abnormally long table that resided in the center, Joshua's ear now registering the sound of the utensils in their hands clanging against glass plates holding nearly-finished food.

"Hello, mother, father, I'm all done," he sat down at one of the chairs, a servant walking in to deliver his plate.

His father wiped the sauce that had formed on his mouth. "We can see that, though I do wish you'd at least be able to have supper with us. We're a family, we should get to have this moment together,"

"I know, father, but please understand, this training is really important to me,"

"I'm not saying that it isn't, just that you should try to manage it better," he clarified. "However, I am curious as to why it's been as intense as it has. The first month or so starts slow and builds up over time,"

He took a bite of his food, swallowing it. "I want to get better as quickly as possible so I can be a strong head of the family one day, like you,"

"Like me?" his father repeated before sniffling and letting a comedic tear fall down his face. "My little boy is already on his way to becoming a man,"

His wife giggled. "Oh Nolan,"

"This is a very serious matter, Andressa," Nolan said. "A father should always be his son's first role model, it's one of the greatest honors you can have," he then faced his son. "Keep up the training then, I'm behind you one hundred percent,"

Joshua smiled. "Thank you, father. If I could, may I eat supper in my room? I'd like to get started on the plan for tomorrow's regiment,"

"That's my boy, go ahead,"

"Great, good night," he grabbed his plate and left the room.

Though he couldn't see it, Andressa gave him an odd look before getting up and following him, continuing until they were out of earshot. "Joshua, hold on,"

He was a little spooked by the woman's presence. "Yes, mother?"

The woman paused, she wanted to make sure her next words were worded properly. "As you know, I'm your mother, and you're my son, and as your mother, there are times when my intuition tells me things, things that I know to trust more times than not,"

"Um, where are you going with this?"

"When you told your father why you were training so much, I got the feeling that you weren't telling the whole truth. So I'm going to ask something, and I want you to be honest: are you trying to impress someone?"

Her question hit the nail on the head as her son became a blushing mess. "I-I, w-well, I-I," he internally regretted that his hands weren't free to bury his face in them.

Andressa showed a little shock at her accuracy on the first try. "Oh, you really are. Is it a girl? It's alright, you can tell me…," her tone started out excited, but trailed off into silence, a frown on her face. "Never mind, I can imagine things are still fresh in your head after what happened with the Trixxtons,"

Joshua's blush died out as he gave his mother his back. "Yeah,"

His mother fiddled with her hands nervously. "I never got to tell you this, but…your father and I are sorry for all of that. It's just how things could be at times, but we should've never tried to arrange your marriage. Choosing to share your life with someone is a tremendous thing, and it should've been you who got to choose,"

The water mage still gave his mother his back as he spoke. "...Don't be sorry. In a way, I'm glad all of that happened, if it didn't, I'd have never met her. Goodnight again, mother," he resumed his trek to his room.

Andressa's frown was gone, and now she was smiling. "Goodnight,"

It didn't take too long for Joshua to get to his room, and once he made it and shut the door, he set his plate on a counter and leaned against the entrance, letting himself slowly slump down to the floor. "Yes, it was thanks to that whole event that I was able to meet the love of my life," his whole face turned red and he smiled from ear to ear.

However, after a second, he slapped himself. "Woah, calm down there, me, no time for swooning, you have a schedule to write out," he pulled out a chair and sat down by the counter, grabbing a pen and some slips of paper.

"Let's see, it's best that I start with some target practice to increase my aim with Gáe Bolg, then I should probably begin sparring actual people," he began, pausing to take some bites of his dinner. "And of once I get strong enough, I'll make my move and join-,"

He was cut off by a sudden, loud rumble. "What the hell is going on?" he jumped out of his chair, the rumbling happening again.

Not wasting a second, he dashed out of his room and down a flight of stairs to ground level, his eyes darting everywhere. "Mother! Father! Where are you?!"

"Joshua!" their united voices were heard near the entrance door.

"I'm coming!" he sprinted, reaching it in seconds to see them along with the maids. "What's happening?!"

"We're not sure, but whatever it is, it's coming from outside," his father replied. "We shouldn't have to worry for long though. There are two guards stationed at the entrance, they'll handle the threat,"

"AHH!" then, as if to mock his timing, the painful grunts of those guards rang in their ears.

"Oh no, they're in trouble, we have to help them," Joshua ran over to the gate, opening it three-quarters of the way, but that's when he gasped. "It's not possible,"

"What's the matter, young master?" Tulip asked. "Are you seeing who's attacking?"

"Yes…," he began. "...We're being attacked by Magic Knights,"

"Magic Knights?!" the rest exclaimed, stunned.

Andressa coupled her hands together. "But why are they attacking? We didn't do anything,"

"We can worry about that later," her son turned to one of the maids. "Samantha, get those two out of there,"

"Yes, leave it to me," she ran over to him, putting her hands up, creating two portals under them, a larger singular portal appearing inside, the pair falling out of it.

"Don't let the humans escape!" Joshua could hear one of the knights yell as he closed the gate behind him. "We need to secure the building!"

"Leave that to your mother and I?" Nolan said. "Ready, dear?"

"Ready," the two took out their grimoires.

"Water Creation Magic…"

"Flower Creation Magic…,"

A swirl of the two attributes bloomed into life outside, growing and weaving into each other until it encased the entire estate in some kind of barrier.

"Combo Spell: Perfect Dome!"

"Holy crap!" their son could feel the mana of the dome. "Mom, dad, you two are awesome, I didn't know you could cast something this big,"

"You shouldn't underestimate us. Just because we aren't magic knights, that doesn't mean we don't know a thing or two," Andressa winked.

"I agree, but onto more important matters," Nolan said, turning to his son. "You need to leave,"

"What?"

"The dome won't last forever, eventually, those crazy knights will tear it down, you need to leave and find help,"

"But, can't someone else do it? Samantha has spatial magic, I'd be more useful here. I've been training for moments like these," he protested.

"Yes, that is true, but while Samantha is faster, calling for help can also keep you out of harm's way if things go south here," Nolan said back, getting closer and putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "A father isn't just his son's role model, he's his protector, someone who always has his best interest at heart. Please, don't argue with me,"

"...I understand,"

The flower mage smiled at that. "Thank you. Samantha, if you would?"

"Of course, my lord," she nodded, creating a portal. "The maximum distance I can make is only two miles from here, but it should be far enough so they don't spot you,"

"Two miles should be plenty, thank you," he said before looking around him. "Be careful, I'll return as soon as I can,"

"Be safe as well," his mother told him.

"I will," with that, he entered the portal, finding himself outside. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, he needed to think of where to find help. He wouldn't have to think for long as the obvious option came to him.

"There's only one group who I can go to,"

[End Flashback]

Finally catching his breath, Joshua stood upright. "Long story short, my house is under attack and I came to find you and your friends so you can lend a hand. Although, it looks like you've found yourself in quite a pickle,"

"You can say that again, but this opponent is pretty tough,"

From where Joshua stood, it was impossible for him to see who the wood mage was facing up against. "I see, well, worry no longer, with me here, things will go much-," he started walking closer, however, once he could see the elf, his blood ran cold.

Sena placed a hand on her hip. "Oh, another human? I was wondering who you were talking to,"

"Not her too," the noble muttered. "Shauna! Shauna, can you-,"

"It's no use," Oliver cut him off. "I already tried. For the time being, Shauna's gone, and this Sena person is running things,"

"Oakie speaks the truth,"

The wood mage narrowed his eyes again, but that wasn't as important as Joshua stepped forward, his eyes full of rage. "Hey! I don't know who the hell you are, but you better give Shauna back!"

Oliver's eyes widened at his declaration. He was so used to the shy and meek demeanor the boy gave off, that seeing him so clearly angry surprised him, no, it almost scared him.

"I mean it! You can't have her, she's really important to me!"

"Important to you?" Sena repeated. "Not even the other guy got this mad…wait a minute, don't tell me," she placed both hands on her face and gave him a malicious smirk. "Are you in love with this girl? Aw, that's so sweet. If only I cared, suck it up, her body's mine forever,"

Joshua quieted down, but the intensity was still there. "Not on my watch,"

"So, you'll be joining in? Hmm, two against one? That certainly changes things," the elf focused on her grimoire, slowly flipping pages back. "I know I saw a spell here earlier that can help..aha, there it is. Illusion Magic: Creature of the Unknown + Illusionary Multitude!"

At her call, thirty identical creatures spawned to life, all standing in a horizontal single-file with their caster in the center. "Alright, here are your orders! Two of you, hang back here, the rest of you, go deal with lover boy,"

"Shit," Oliver cursed under his breath. "Dealing with twenty-eight of those things won't be easy, Joshua. It's best if we stick together,"

"No,"

"Huh?" the deer's head turned in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Sena's likely going to stay with that group of two. If we stay too close, the ones that are being sent after me can intercept if needed, so I'll break away from here and take them all with me, that'll give you the best chance of beating her,"

"But…I know how much Shauna means to you. Don't you want to be the one to save her?"

He chuckled. "Of course I do, but we both know you're way stronger than me, I wouldn't stand a chance, at least this way, I can do my part and help indirectly,"

"Alright then, let's just hope we can finish this quick so we can go and help your folks,"

"Right,"

"Oh, and one more thing,"

"What is it?"

Oliver looked at him seriously. "Be careful,"

The Sakuraba just smiled back. "That was a given," he then took off, the majority of the beasts chasing after him.

"Lover boy's going to have his work cut out for him," Sena voiced. "Not only does my elven influence strengthen the beasts and keep them around for longer, but that kid's mana is pitifully mediocre. He's a goner,"

"Joshua was right, she is staying back here. What for?" the wood mage thought. "I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you, we humans have a knack for defying the odds,"

"Hmph, I seriously doubt that,"

"Doubt it if you will, but it's true. That being said, I'm confused as to why you're here. I thought you might've gone where Joshua was to taunt him or something,"

"I can do that later if he's not dead by then. As for why I decided to give you my undivided attention," she replied as Oliver noticed her fists lit up with light red-colored mana.

He knew what this meant. "And here I thought you said your attribute wouldn't let you fight?" he said in a mocking tone.

"It doesn't, but with the inclusion of your friend, I'll have no choice but to get personally involved, so I'll have to resort to a more, how we say, primitive tactic," she loudly cracked each of her knuckles. "Den, Vetto, it's time. I'm about to see right now if what you guys taught me will be enough,"

"Are you ready for your last fight, human?!"

"I said it once and I'll say it again, it's not going to be my last fight!"

They said nothing more as they both ran at one another, the beasts behind Sena. Fist and hammer were reeled back as their real battle had begun.

---

"Come on, just keep running!" Joshua yelled to himself as his dash brought him to the northwest area of Aqua Deer HQ. The teen honestly wanted to stop earlier once he got far enough, but an important factor stopped him from doing so.

Bodies.

Aside from Sena, all the possessed knights had left the premises, leaving the bodies of unconscious knights in their wake. Joshua couldn't let his fight be around any of them, he wasn't strong enough to fight AND keep them safe if the beasts got any bright ideas.

With his mind made up, he kept on running and running, and thankfully, he reached a spot that met his criteria. "And here we go," he paused shortly to catch his breath. "Note to self, incorporate cardio training into the next regiment,"

The nearby sound of growling made his body shoot upright. "Okay, you can do this," he hyped himself up, taking out his grimoire, but before he could grasp the book, he witnessed something that made his eyes go wide.

His hand…it was shaking.

"No, not now," he managed to stop it, but he couldn't ignore what this meant. This wasn't a training exercise with dummies, or a friendly spar, this was a life-or-death battle. If he wasn't strong enough, then this would be his resting place, he'd never go back home, he'd never see his family again, he'd never get to achieve his goal, and he'd never get a chance to see her again.

Defeat was NOT an option.

He took one last deep breath, and in an instant, his grimoire was before him. "Time to see how my training has paid off! Water Creation Magic: Gáe Bolg, The Great Spear of Damona!" he exclaimed as a watery version of the Celtic goddess appeared behind him, bringing her hands together before spreading them out horizontally, creating a spear which she took hold of and presented in front of him. He reached out with both hands and grasped it, the goddess taking her leave.

With the weapon now in hand, he twirled it around his fingers before entering a stance that lasted for just a moment as he charged dauntlessly ahead. One of the beasts decided to act differently, jumping up to meet him with an aerial assault.

"Take this!" he lunged, piercing straight in the abdomen. "Nice!"

His joy was short-lived, however, as it seemed like the animal was hardly affected if the growling said anything. He also noticed that the others were starting to get too close for comfort.

"Woah," he dislodged the spear and focused mana into his legs to jump back a couple or so meters. "Damn it, I can't take them out in one strike. Well, luckily for me, and unluckily for them, Gáe Bolg has a trick up its pole,"

He struck the ground twice with the base of the spear as the spearhead split into three, spreading out a few inches from each other.

"Open wide," he pointed the weapon at one of them, an orb of water building up before it shot out with force, hitting the stabbed beast, the attack doing it in as it vanished.

"One down, twenty-seven more to go," he praised himself, but not for long as he was already running at them, shooting blast after blast, the beasts managing to dodge each one. "Damn it, just stay still!"

They, of course, didn't stand still, in fact, they did something. Breaking up into groups, they opted to come at him from multiple directions, intending to force his back to the wall with nowhere to go.

Granted, it was an obvious plan, and as such, it didn't take long for Joshua to figure it out, but he still gave an impressed whistle. "Crap, these things are much smarter than I gave them credit for, but I need to keep them at a distance. Water Magic: Damona's Tears!"

The goddess appeared behind him once again as the noble extended his hand, creating a large water orb that Damona then grasped and shot in the air, then he slammed his fist on the ground with her copying his movement, breaking apart the orb in the air into sharpened raindrops that fell down, the beasts howling in pain.

"Now's my chance," he got out of their range of attack and launched attacks of his own, succeeding in taking down three more.

He grinned upon witnessing the easy takedown. "That last spell must've weakened them a whole lot. I bet they're at the point where one good strike will handle them,"

He struck the ground twice once again, reverting the spear into its base form, yelling a loud battle cry as he charged once again. Once he reached a distance that satisfied him, he leaped, reeling the spear vertically as he drove it into the head of one of his bestial enemies, hearing it scream and then disappear.

"Don't be shy!" Joshua was starting to feel confident. In a swift spinning motion, he impaled yet another one, his eye picking up on one coming to the left, but it was coming really fast.

"Oh no, it's too close, I need some space!" he quickly backed up, but it persisted. "Shit, this one is making things difficult. Looks like I have no choice,"

Taking a chance, he leaped back, and as he expected, the creature leaped after him, only two feet separating them. "Here I go!" he winded and threw the spear, striking it dead in the chest.

As he landed, he saw that his gamble ended up paying off. "Alright!" he cheered, doing a cartwheel before jumping into a dive roll to retrieve Gáe Bolg, rapidly turning around to face the remaining beasts.

"Okay, let's do a headcount for progress. I took out one, then a group of three, and then another group of three, that leaves twenty-one left," he began scanning the number of them, but what he discovered shocked him. "There are only twenty? Did I do a miscount? I couldn't have, but then that can only mean…,"

But it was too late.

One of the creatures managed to sneak up on him, jumping on his back before it sunk its teeth into his left shoulder.

"AHH! URGH! Get the hell off of me!" he used his available hand to forcibly pull the animal off him, stabbing it in the head. However, the attack left its mark, Joshua was feeling the pain, and it was immense, he began to feel a little nauseous, slowly backing up until his back hit the base's wall, the boy slumping down.

"I…I…I," he couldn't even finish his sentence, he was just breathing sporadically, and his problems were just starting, the remaining twenty were ready to take advantage of his situation.

"St…Stay…back! Water Creation Magic: Damona's Safespace!" the goddess came to his rescue, creating a cubical barrier of water, and Gáe Bolg disappeared.

Even though he was safe for the time being, his breathing was still uneasy. He scanned where he was bitten, blood was still leaking from it; he poked at it with his finger, wincing in pain. "So…this is what the kingdom's elite can possibly go through on a regular basis? Damn, then I have my work cut out for me. If only I had a recovery spell, I'll have to settle for the next best thing then," he placed his hand above the bleeding shoulder, shooting water at it multiple times, sighing in relief at the cool, soothing sensation.

He continued doing it until the bite mark stopped leaking. "That's one problem somewhat solved," he said as he looked in front of him, noticing that the creatures were banging their heads against the barrier to break it down. "Y'know, it's been like, five minutes give or take since this has started, and I am already so fucking tired of these things,"

Standing up, he dropped his protective spell, the beasts coming in like crazy, but he responded by enhancing his legs and jumping back, using the wall as leverage to thrust himself forward. "This ends now! Water Creation Magic: Caladbolg, The Ultimate Sword of Damona!"

For the fourth time, Damona took form, placing her hands together as she had before, but this time, she spread them out vertically, constructing a water sword that she presented to her caster that he took with his right hand.

Joshua said nothing as he rushed at top speed, throwing caution to the wind, hacking and slashing at whatever got close. "I can't afford to waste any more time with you! My family needs me! Who knows what can be happening at this very moment!"

Granted, his strategy, or lack thereof, didn't come without consequences. One of the creatures slipped past his violent rampage and managed to sink its teeth into his right leg, but from what he could feel, it wasn't as deep as the bite on his shoulder, and even if it was, he wouldn't have cared, the boy was now running on pure adrenaline.

A whole minute passed as he backed up and fell to one knee, his breathing the most uneven it's been since the fight began, he had suffered another bite mark to his arm and a claw mark to his side, but he wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet, especially since there were only ten creatures left.

"You're almost done, Joshua, stand up, stand up," he mumbled to himself, rising to his feet, but the second he did so, the crimson pack surrounded him in a circle, growling and snarling.

The water mage mage looked at their formation and weakly laughed at the irony. "So, that's how you want to end it? Fine by me, this makes things easier,"

Without warning, they ran in unison, but Joshua took a deep breath and commanded his grimoire to an earlier page. "You worked before, don't fail me now. Water Magic: Damona's Flash Flood!" he and the goddess once more moved in sync, this time performing a full 360-degree rotation, ending with outstretched arms, their dance conjuring the omnidirectional tidal wave, crashing into what remained, finishing them off in one fell swoop.

"I won…I actually won," he said as the adrenaline wore off and his wounds began throbbing like crazy, he no longer felt like he could stand. "Holy…shit. I need to train…harder, even…harder. I struggled this much against…powered up illusions, if I fought Sena or any other of the crazy knights, I'd have…died in an instant,"

He dragged his body over to the nearby wall and leaned against it. "Okay, right now…I need to rest, I'm no good…to anyone right now," his heartbeat started to regulate itself as he stared to the south.

"Hopefully, Oliver is faring better than me!"

---

A shockwave.

That was the first result of Oliver and Sena's clash. For the wood mage, he was expecting that, what he wasn't expecting, however, was for his hammer to recoil to the point where it was behind his head. That could only mean one thing.

"I lost the clash?" he voiced, puzzled.

The elf smirked. "Are you surprised? You shouldn't be, I told you this already, you're inherently weaker than me,"

Frustration was blatantly painted on his face, but he couldn't ponder on it, Sena wasn't the only threat. Similar to Joshua, a pair of crimson beasts were lunging at him, so he performed a wide backflip, using his available hand to help stick the landing.

The precious seconds that move bought gave him ample preparation to bat both creatures away from him. "Ugh, I can't waste my time on you," his grimoire flipped to a different page. "Wood Creation Magic: Pine Edge Wolf!" he summoned a creature of his own.

"Handle them the best you can," he ordered, the wooden canine growling softly in affirmation as it ran at the beasts before suddenly breaking left, prompting them to give chase.

Oliver nodded. "Okay, now it's just you and-," he stopped halfway at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. His eyes readjusted to the center just in time to see the possessed illusion mage blitz his way.

With her hands still encased in mana, she fired a flurry of punches, punches Oliver was weaving around by the skin of his teeth. "So, you can dodge pretty well? Hmph, though it's nothing commendable,"

"Nothing commendable?" Oliver backed up a little further and did a quick sweep kick, forcing the elf to back up herself. He took this chance to stage his own flurry of attacks, replacing punches with swings. "Then let's see how good you dodge!"

"Very good in fact, observe," she retorted as she proceeded to evade his moves perfectly. "If you want, I could slow down a bit for you, after all, it appears that half of my total skill is too fast," she now bragged, her eyes confidently closed.

Her temporary lack of sight stopped her from seeing her opponent's annoyed face, but it also barred her from seeing it transform into a sneer. "Don't worry, I'm going to get you sooner than you think," he sneakily weaved his foot behind hers, pulling his back.

Sena's eyes shot open the second she felt herself losing her balance, quickly trying to restabilize herself. From there, only an idiot wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity that arose, and Oliver proved he wasn't one of them as he roughly shoved her, finally getting her on the ground before rushing, hammer ready.

"I'm sorry about this, Shauna!"

The possessed illusion mage was able to rise to her knees and cross her arms in the direction where the strike was coming, blocking it, but at the cost of getting flung some number of feet.

She uncrossed her arms, now registering the throbbing sensation they were giving off. For the first time, Sena snarled at him.

Oliver, for the most part, was unworried. "You had your eyes closed, you were honestly asking for it,"

She ignored him. "You damn brat! That was a dirty trick! But why should I be surprised?! Playing unfair is what your kind do best!"

"Don't give me that crap!" the teen yelled back. "You just sicked twenty-eight feral four-legged shits on my friend, who's also never been in a serious fight mind you! You don't have the right to complain!"

She was the one to grit her teeth this time. "So what if that's the case? What I did earlier was just me getting even, he deserved it, he's a human!"!" she screamed, getting up and breaking into a dash, picking up speed to add momentum to her jump.

Oliver's eyes traveled up above, watching the elf spin vertically and descend with blinding speed, ready to strike him with her heel, so he responded by raising his hammer, using both hands to reinforce the handle to block it.

"That doesn't make any sense!" he exclaimed, increasing his force, but he could hear something cracking.

"Yes it does!" with her triumphant cry, his weapon snapped in two and dissipated, his eyes widening as she landed right in front of him. "You deserve everything that's coming to you!"

Oliver didn't have time to create another hammer, so he did what he could, copying his foe by enveloping his fist in beige mana and throwing a punch, but she caught it, so he did the same with his other fist, but it was caught as well. "What do you have against humans anyways?"

"Are you seriously going to ask me that, Oakie?" she began overpowering him, twisting and slowly stretching his arms. "You know that we elves disappeared five centuries ago, now take a guess about who was responsible for it?"

"Humans," was all he said.

"Very good, I didn't have to spell it out," she said back as both of their arms were fully stretched and they were face to face, separated by a bit over an inch. "Now do me a favor and die,"

Upon saying that, she flung her head back, ramming it into his before letting him go, the boy stumbling back and falling to his knees.

"Shit!" he clutched his head, the predicament giving Sena the chance to run up and kick him in the jaw, flinging him back further.

"That's payback, you bastard,"

Oliver forced himself up, spitting out blood that accumulated in his mouth, going through a short coughing fit. "Look, I'm sorry for whatever happened to you and your people back then, you have every right to be mad, but you can't be that blind as to not realize no human here was responsible for that! Trying to kill people who are innocent in the matter makes you no better than the ones who started this whole mess!"

"Don't you even attempt to compare us to them!" the possessed illusion tried going for another kick, but he dodged it just in the nick of time. "Our vengeance is a righteous crusade against evil, while what the humans did was nothing more than a display of senseless violence on a group they envied, but that's to be expected, such behavior is your nature,"

"Our…nature? And just what do you know about our nature?!" Oliver asked with a yell as he tried to assume the offensive. "Wood Creation Magic: Wood Hammer!" he made a new weapon and swung with all the force and speed he could muster, but instead of dodging, Sena made an attempt to meet each hit with a punch.

"Quite a lot actually, and this body has only proven my point more," the elf replied, creating a notable distance between the two.

"What do you mean? What does Shauna have to do with it?"

"Once I've been in control long enough, I can start seeing glimpses of my host's memories. I've seen what she's gone through with her mother and father. Parents are supposed to be people who always have their children's best interest at heart, but instead, they talked down to her about her wants and tried to make her into nothing more than a bargaining chip to better their own lives, and that's what I'm talking about. It doesn't matter who you have to belittle, who you have to hurt, who you have to kill, if it's for your own sake, it's all worth it in your eyes. So no, the people of this time period didn't do anything to us, but they act the same as those who did, so there's no real difference at the end of the day,"

Oliver's expression changed, showing guilt and regret, her words forcing him to search his memories for a time he wasn't proud of, and words he wished every day he could take back.

"Whatever, the real question you should be asking is why are you defending her? You're a noble, and she's just a lowly peasant,"

"Oh I'm sorry, did I hurt the little commoner's feelings?!"

"I'm not going to work with some commoner, she's just going to hold us back,"

The wood mage stared at the ground with the same expression, just clenching his fist, but he didn't have time to wallow in self-shame as his opponent was on the move again. "A-Ah!" he backed up to make more space, but it was obvious to see that his footwork was sloppy, like his head wasn't in the game. "Wood Creation Magic: Forest Spear!"

The spear materialized in front of him as he quickly rammed his hammer into it, rocketing it Sena's way. "Hm," the elf easily weaved around it, watching as the weapon lodged itself into a large piece of debris. "That gives me an idea," she halted and ran the other way, dislodging the spear from its temporary resting place before running back at top speed.

Oliver quickly moved to defend himself as she lunged at him with his own spell, the boy adopting a strange stance as he held his hammer at eye level in a vertical fashion, using the face portion of the weapon to shield him, his arm pushing against the face of the opposite side to reinforce it.

While they were stuck in this stalemate, Sena looked into his eyes, the expression from before was still there, and that brought her delight. "Oh? I see that look on your face. You know I'm right, don't you? If you know I'm right, why won't you just admit it?"

The wood mage clenched a fist, his spear disappearing, the elf now in a bad position from the lack of resistance, so the Yggdrow backed up a few inches and threw a punch, getting her right in the face. "I have nothing to admit because you're not right!"

Sena stood up straight and wiped the blood leaking from her mouth. "Y'know, it's hard to believe that when you have that look on your face,"

"U-Uh," he panicked a bit, now adopting his usual serious expression. "Shut up! Wood Magic: Gale of Splinters!"

She smirked as she got out of his line of fire, but her eyes widened once she saw the splinters curve around and chase after her. "A spell that follows you? That can actually pose a problem," she broke into a sprint, her eyes falling on the scuffle between their beasts. The wood wolf was winning for the most part, having beaten one of the creatures, but it had seen better days as its body was severely damaged.

"Looks like I don't have a choice. Creature, come to me!" she bellowed as it obeyed, leaving the fight to run by her side. "I'm going to need you to shield me,"

It growled softly in response as it slowed down and jumped in between its master and the incoming attack, completely taking the hit before vanishing.

"Damn it," Oliver cursed as his own creature walked back to him, its caster giving a nod of approval. "Thanks, you did really well," he clenched a fist and dispelled it.

"Okay, I need another move. I think I remember seeing one in this grimoire," Sena diverted her attention to her tome, flipping through three pages until she landed on what she was searching for. "Ah yes, this one,"

Meanwhile with Oliver, just because a move failed once, that didn't mean it wasn't the right move to make. "You got lucky with that one, let's see if you can do it again! Wood Magic: Gale of-,"

"Oh no you don't! Illusion Magic: Pestilence Swarm!" the elf was faster, birthing a swarm of flies that sped over to their target, unleashing their incessant buzzing.

"Shoo, go away!" Oliver tried to swat them away, but it was too late, he was starting to feel the dizzying effects of the auditory illusion. He tried to fight it the best he could, focusing on something in hopes that it would stop the feeling, but to no avail.

"No, I have to keep trying, if I don't, then I'm as good as-," he didn't get to finish as Sena blitzed him and punched him dead in the face, but she didn't stop with one punch. As her opponent was stumbling back, she closed the distance and let loose a violent flurry, ending it with an uppercut.

"Oh man, that felt good," she said, gazing down at him, reeling her fist back. "Don't think I'm done just yet,"

She wouldn't get another hit in as Oliver's eyes shot open. He tossed his hammer some feet behind him and did a starfish kip-up before backflipping to his spell, grasping it. "Wood Magic: Forest Upheaval!" he raised his free hand, a pillar shooting up under Sena, launching her into the air.

The wood mage brought his eyes to the sky, the girl wasn't in sight. "Holy shit! I launched her way too high! I just panicked and acted without thinking! If she hits the ground from that high up, Shauna won't have a body to get back! Alright, think, I need to find a way to break her fall first. Maybe I can use another Forest Upheaval and have her land on it? Yeah, that actually sounds like a pretty solid plan, now I just have to wait until I can see-,"

His mental planning came to a halt as he noticed something in the sky. What was it? It was a red light that was getting closer and closer. But where was it coming from? It was coming from Sena's right fist, the mana from it glowing brighter than ever as she descended at high speeds, and she was coming right at him. At this rate, his prior plan wouldn't work, so he came up with the next best thing. He assumed the odd defensive stance he did previously, bracing himself as the elf finally reached him, using gravity and momentum to amplify her punch, not only shattering the entire hammer into tiny pieces, but also propelling its holder backward from the sheer force, roughly hitting the ground.

Sena landed on her feet with a bit of force as well, flapping her hand a bit from the amount of power she put into it. "Crap, you actually caught me by surprise back there, Oakie. So, what will you do now?"

In response to that, her foe just rose to his feet. "You want to keep fighting, is that it? Very well then," she cracked her knuckles and gave him a twisted smile.

"If you choose not to die easily, then by all means, keep persisting…this will only be more fun for me,"

---

"Hm, how do you think Rufel's doing?"

Things had calmed down further within the elven base as it continued to float toward its final destination. Save for Licht, the elves were all engaged in separate conversations, with Yoveen asking the prior question to Romit.

The possessed lightning mage gazed down at the girl who was lying on the floor, arms slung behind her head. "If I know him, he's probably taking his time at the town we left him at,"

"Maybe, or he could already have arrived at the capital," she brought up the possibility.

"Yeah, maybe," Romit sat down and criss-crossed his legs. "So, have you thought about what you're going to do when you find your sister?"

"Well, the first thing I'm going to do is give her a big hug and probably cry like an idiot, after that, I'm going on a killing spree. What about you?"

"Hm, I'm not too sure yet," the possessed lightning mage answered. "I don't have any siblings to look for, and I'm not too concerned about my parents, they're a capable bunch after all, they'll end up finding me rather than the other way around,"

"Well, then you're in luck, you have all the time in the world to think about it," she told him before standing up and walking to the hole. "I wonder how much closer we are,"

"You say that like you could tell,"

"I know, but I just want something to do," she kneeled and took a look down, seeing them pass by unfamiliar buildings she didn't recognize.

Or did she?

"We're getting close," she suddenly said, surprising herself.

"What?" her friend got up and came right next to where she was, looking down for himself, widening his eyes. "You're right, we are close. But how did we know?"

Yoveen held her chin for a second, then a lightbulb went off in her head. "We must be starting to access our hosts' memories, but not much it seems,"

"That's alright, we'll start to see more as time passes,"

Yoveen punched her palm. "If the capital is close, then we're moving out,"

"Not right now you're not!" Rhya's voice plainly boomed for all to hear.

The two friends turned around, the boy waving at him. "Hey there," he greeted, raising as he noticed something strange in the copy mage's clutches. "What's that thing you got on you? It sort of look like those things Lumiere and his friends used to have,"

"That's because, in a way, that's exactly what this is. What you're looking at is a Magic Item, specifically, a communication one,"

"Really? That's actually kinda cool," the possessed lightning mage said in somewhat awe. "That'll do us some major good since none of us appear to have any exchange spells. So, who were you talking to?"

"Patri. He was supposed to have already been here, but he made a detour to pick up some stuff to surprise you all with, hence why you're staying," he responded.

"But Rhya, we want to go and do something," Yoveen puffed her cheeks.

"Hm," Romit stroked his chin. "How about this: I'll stay here while you head out, then I can fill you in when you and Yurim get back," he suggested.

The copy mage shrugged. "Sure, I guess that works. Have fun," he lazily waved and walked off.

The elven friends exchanged a pair of thumbs-up with each other. "Wish me luck," the girl said before she jumped down the hole, landing on the top of a building, and jumping again to land on the ground.

She scanned the area around her, admittedly, it was a very interesting sight. The architecture was different from what she was used to, there were larger and taller buildings, and they were all so close to each other, not to mention the long, clear walkway that resided in the middle where she currently stood. "So this is the territory of the humans? It is kind of nice, a shame their kind had to be responsible for it,"

She then started walking forward, her head turning from side to side. There was no one around, the place was quiet and empty. "There isn't a single other person here, either they ran or they're hiding, it doesn't matter though, escape is futile-," the elf paused as she began hearing footsteps coming from a nearby alley.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" she demanded, entering a fighting stance.

Slowly but surely, the culprit walked out of the alley and into view, the person in question was a young man dressed in the uniform of the Coral Peacock, what was more important though was that he was possessed, calming Yoveen down as she broke her stance and stood upright, smiling. "Well I'll be damned, if it isn't my good pal, Den," she placed her hands on her hips.

"Yoveen? It really is you. You spooked me when you yelled like that, I thought I would have to fight some humans," Den said, approaching her.

The girl playfully punched his arm. "You say that like you wouldn't want to," she stopped and took some time to note what he wore. It was the standard Coral Peacock fit, cape and all, but under it, he wore a bright blue and green shirt and long, white pants. She whistled. "Nice, it's a really pretty combination of colors,"

"Why thank you, granted, my host was responsible for this. I guess the humans at the very least have a good sense of fashion,"

Yoveen shrugged. "Some of them do,"

"If you say so. Where did you come from? I thought I was the only one here," Den inquired.

"Look above you," was all she said.

"Above me, what would that-," he did as he was told and saw the floating base, away in the distance. "Woah,"

"A good amount of us are up there, even Licht, but I came down to find Yurim and do some killing," she explained.

"Licht is up there? Oh man, it's been so long since I last saw him,"

"I know. Say, have you by any chance run into Sena or the twins? I'd love to see them too,"

He shook his head. "Not at the moment, but I'm not worried, my cousins are smart, or rather, Sena is smart, the twins, however, eh, they have their moments," he said before he remembered something. "Hold on, speaking of running into people, there's something I want to show you. Wait here,"

Den ran back into the alley, coming back seemingly empty-handed, his cape hiding his hands, but once he got closer, he revealed what he was hiding: a rottweiler pup, holding it up proudly for her to see. "Tada!"

The possessed sparkle mage couldn't help but hold her pink cheeks. "It's adorable! Is it a boy or a girl?"

"A boy,"

She extended a finger. "Hello there, little guy, my name is Yoveen, it's nice to meet you," the dog responded by opening its mouth, softly chewing on her phalanges. "Aw, he likes me. Where did you find him?"

"Around here. He was roaming the street when I encountered him and he looked really malnourished, so I found some food and used some recovery magic to fix him up,"

"That's our Den, your soft spot for the animals never ceases to amaze me," she said, scratching under the pup's chin. "To think those rotten humans would leave such a cute puppy to die of starvation, meanwhile they probably stuff their faces with more food than they can handle,"

The possessed coral knight elevated the pup as high as he could, staring into his eyes. "Well, I'll be different. I'm going to love him, and keep him, and I think I'll call him…George,"

"George?"

"I don't know, George just has a nice ring to it, y'know?"

Having received his name, George proceeded to jump out of the clutches of his new friend, running straight ahead. "Oh no, he must be smelling some food ahead. I'll catch you later, Yoveen," he turned and gave chase. "Wait, George, don't go without me!"

"I'll catch you later too!" she called back as he was soon out of sight. "Alright, that was a nice side thing, but I need to get back to-,"

She was interrupted a second time, but instead of the reason being footsteps, this time, it was a pair of voices, one male, and one female. If she could hear them, she reckoned they were close by.

"C'mon, we have to hurry home! It's time we get some answers!" exclaimed the female voice, speaking as if she was a good distance from the one she was talking to.

"Yes, we will learn the truth!" the male voice exclaimed soon after.

"It's coming from above me," Yoveen crouched down and stored mana in her legs, jumping onto the building she landed from earlier, staring up to see the two people in question flying on broomsticks, the girl further ahead of the boy.

"A pair of humans? Finally, targets," she was about to take out her grimoire and conjure a spell to intercept them, but that's when she stopped herself. "But wait a minute, one of them said they were going home, home to more humans no doubt," she chuckled. "Now that sounds like a good opportunity,"

Making up her mind, she imbued her legs with mana once again and stealthily gave chase to the humans on the ground, mainly getting around by jumping from building to building, making sure she didn't get spotted.

"Things are about to get interesting,"

---

"Let's try this! Wood Binding Magic: Constraining Thickets!" Oliver declared, shooting out the branches to trap her in place.

The battle between the two aqua deers continued to rage on. Seeing that two of his hammers had been destroyed in such a small span of time, the wood mage opted to try and avoid close-quarters combat for the time being, now relying on long range attacks, even firing a few basic magic bullets. However, aside from Gale of Splinters that would occasionally keep her on her toes, his other moves weren't doing so well, and the same was true for the spell he just cast as Sena cartwheeled out of range.

The possessed illusion was currently winning, her face smug and amused. "A binding spell? I don't think I've seen you use that one yet, Oakie,"

"I thought I'd try something new,"

"I suppose, but at the end of the day, it was nothing more than a pitiful tactic from a lesser opponent," Sena sought to close the distance between them, and she succeeded, leaping up a few feet and spinning in a full circle, using the momentum to straighten a kick.

Oliver crossed his arms, but was pushed back significantly. As he broke them apart, he gave the elf a cryptic look, one the girl found odd. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"...There's something I want to ask you,"

"Something you want to ask?" Sena repeated, putting a hand on her hip, giving him a gesture of acceptance. "Very well then, ask away,"

The wood mage narrowed his eyes. "You keep pedaling the notion that my kind is inferior to yours, but at the same time, it was humans who made the elves extinct. If you're so much better like you claim, how did you let that happen?"

A shadow loomed over Sena's eyes, her fists were clenched tightly and were only getting tighter as she raised one up, revealing the veins throbbing from it. "We were ambushed," she answered at normal volume, but the venom that dripped from her words only made that fact more unsettling. "We were attacked at a moment we weren't expecting, that is, unless you humans have some sick tradition of attacking people on their wedding days,"

"On their wedding day?"

"Yes. You see, a while before all that happened, no human had ever stepped foot on our territory, after all, they didn't even know where we were, but that changed one day when two humans stumbled onto it," she began recounting a story. "They were nice enough, so we elves welcomed them and treated them like family; they eventually brought even more friends and we welcomed them just as warmly. However, there was one who was different than the others,"

Oliver raised a brow. "How so?"

Sena bit her lip before continuing. "He would talk about how we were the same, and how that fact meant our kind should be friends who can co-exist with one another, and we believed him, we believed every word he said. But guess what?"

"What?"

"HE LIED!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "It was all a trick so we'd let our guard down so he and his real buddies could swoop in, kill us, and take our magic for themselves!" her mind flashed back to that fateful day, her body lying nearly lifeless on the bloody grass, her father shaking her, telling her to open her eyes.

She stood still no longer, charging ahead and throwing punch after punch which her adversary evaded before catching both her fists, but he could feel himself getting quickly overpowered.

"And do you know the worst part about it all?!"

Oliver struggled to keep himself from getting overwhelmed. "No. What?"

The shadow over her eyes finally cleared, revealing orbs consumed with a rage like no other. "IT WAS ALL OUR FAULT!" she freed herself and slugged him in the jaw, sending him back as she kept running, yelling all the while.

"Shit," Oliver cursed as he now switched to defense, doing his best to block her onslaught.

"We would've been fine if we were smarter and rejected those intruders the second we saw them! We would've been fine if we were wiser and saw your kind for what it really was: worthless, less-than-dirt SCUM! And scum have no place with the clean and pure!" she exclaimed as she reeled her fist back and threw an even stronger punch, pushing the noble back an astounding three yards.

The elf was breathing heavily, sweat starting to form on her forehead. She wiped it off with her hand as she started to slow down her breath, her eyes and fists calming as well. "I won't let myself get tricked, never again, so I'm going to kill-!"

She stopped midway when an attack hit her hard in the back of her head, forcing her to her knees. Turning to see who was responsible, she saw Joshua, holding Gáe Bolg in his hands.

"I guess you weren't expecting to see me here,"

She sucked her teeth. "So, the lover boy didn't die after all? How unfortunate,"

The water mage quickly made his way to his ally, but it didn't take long for Oliver to notice that he was looking worse for wear. "Dude, are you okay? Those things must've done a number on you,"

"Yeah, it was tough, but I survived. How have you been holding up?"

"Not too well all things considered, but with you here, we'll have the advantage of numbers. But first, sit down, let me heal you up quick,"

Joshua smiled. "I would appreciate that very much," he replied, but before the wood mage could cast anything, a trio of magic bullets passed by them, forcing them to separate.

"Oh no you don't, there will be no healing for either of you," she said, looking through her grimoire once again. "It's two on one now, nothing I can't handle, but let's see if there's a spell that can help me out," she flipped from page to page, the flipping getting faster and faster. "C'mon, give me something to work with!" she kept going until she reached a certain page at the near end of the book.

"Hm, that's strange, I don't remember passing by this spell before, what a peculiar name it has," she remarked as she began reading it, but as she did, her lips contorted into a smirk as she began chuckling, that chuckling turning into laughing, and that laughing turning into howling.

"And just what's got you so cracked up?" the Sakuraba inquired.

"Oh, nothing, just an interesting spell is all, but first, it needs some setup. Illusion Magic: Twin Clone + Disappearing Act!" a copy of her appeared before they both turned invisible.

"Crap, watch out, they could be anywhere," Oliver warned.

"It shouldn't be a problem, right? We should still be able to sense their mana," Joshua pointed out.

"That fact doesn't mean she can't catch us by-," before he could finish, both boys were directly punched in the face as Sena and her copy made themselves visible, backing up afterward. "...Surprise,"

The possessed illusion mage snapped, her duplicate vanishing in a puff of smoke. "Y'know, just to warn you, what I'm about to do will be very brutal, as such, I'll be generous and give you one last chance to surrender and let yourselves be killed some other way. However, knowing you two, you're going to refuse my offer,"

Oliver pointed at her. "You read our minds, but we won't fall for your bluff, I know Shauna's repertoire, she doesn't have anything more than what you've currently used,"

Hearing that made her giggle. "Then I guess she never told you about this then. Prepare yourselves for her strongest spell!"

The pair tensed up, bracing themselves for what it was.

"Illusion Magic: Distorted World!"

In an instant, the setting around them shifted. It wasn't that they were transported somewhere else though, Aqua Deer HQ and everything nearby started shifting…warping, their color palettes changing. Oliver scoffed. "What, is this it? This is what got you so confident, I can see why Shauna chose not to use it, it's-," he and Joshua suddenly fell to their knees, clutching their heads. "W-What's going on? Why do I suddenly feel so weak?"

"That is courtesy of the Distorted World's first effect, anyone who has my mana imprint on them feels a decent weakening of all their basic senses and magic power,"

"Mana imprint? When did you-," before Joshua could finish asking, the part where they were punched earlier glowed red. "Damn it,"

"And that's not all, it has another effect, one that's way better: I can freely create illusions and those illusions can physically interact with me or anyone who's been targeted by the first effect,"

"What?!"

Oliver shook his head in disbelief. "To think, Shauna had a spell that powerful and never used it,"

"I can see why though, there are some pesky drawbacks. The bigger and/or stronger I want to make an illusion, the more mana I have to spend, not to mention I feel whatever pain they feel in whatever place they were injured, but in this case, those would only be problems if the people I was facing were actual threats,"

The aqua-clad knight forced himself up, helping Joshua up too. "You say that, but we forced you to use her trump card,"

"This is more a result of you being nuisances rather than threats, nuisances that will soon be dead," she raised a hand, creating a hextet of tall, anthropomorphic creatures.

The water mage sighed. "This won't be easy,"

"No, it won't be, but we have to give it everything we got. Let's do this!"

"Wood Creation Magic: Wood Hammer!"

"Water Creation Magic: Caladbolg, The Ultimate Sword of Damona!"

Now they were armed, they charged at top speed, the creatures doing the same. Fighting back the weak sensation he felt, Oliver jumped, reeling his hammer back and swinging it, so one of the creatures lifted its arm to block it.

"Ugh," Sena grunted as she felt the impact, rubbing her arm. "Hey, try to get hit as little as possible!" she ordered.

They all silently nodded and continued. With both weapons in hand, Joshua alternated between long-range and melee combat. He began by shooting a flurry of water orbs with his spear, but they weaved around all of them, opting not to block and further hurt their caster.

"Okay, that didn't work, time for a closer approach," he closed the distance between one of them and swung his sword, the first strike missing, so he went for a second one, but at that moment, the sensation washed over him again and he slowed down significantly, giving the creature a chance to kick him in the side.

"Shit, Joshua!" Oliver ran over to him, staring at their enemies. "I'll take you all out at once! Wood Magic: Timber Descent!" he raised a hand, watching as a multitude of large logs appeared in the sky, falling down.

Sena looked straight up at them. "Easy," she snapped, a giant slab of stone appearing above them, shielding her and her soldiers from the raining attack.

Oliver grit his teeth at how easily she stopped it. "Then let's see how you like this! Wood Magic: Root Rampage!" he slammed his hammer on the ground, the roots bursting out and nearing them, actually managing to wrap around the creatures and pull them down. "Now that's how it's done,"

"I wouldn't celebrate too early if I were you," Sena warned him casually as she pointed to something behind him, at the same time, a shadow loomed behind him. Oliver quickly turned just to see a slab on its way to falling on him.

"Shit!" he let go of his hammer, using both hands in a desperate attempt to stop it from crushing him, but with his concentration broken, the roots around the creatures were beginning to weaken until they could break out.

"C'mon, you can do this," he encouraged himself, it was already difficult enough as is, but now his strength was diminished from the spell.

"No, we can do this," Joshua got up and lent a pair of hands, the two working together to move the slab to the side.

"Oh man, thanks for that,"

"You're welcome,"

The two wouldn't have time to rest though as the creatures were on the move again, so both mages grabbed their weapons and backflipped in unison to get out of range, leaving the illusions to punch air.

"We're wasting our time with these things. Distorted World is a spell, and a spell will undo itself once we take out the one who cast it," the wood mage pointed past the creations and at the creator. "Sena is our target,"

"But how do we get to her?"

"We'll circle past those things and go straight for her, if that doesn't work, we'll formulate another plan," Oliver replied.

Joshua nodded. "Let's do it then," the two tried to move, but for some reason, they didn't move.

"What gives?" the boys questioned as they stared down and saw what was responsible.

Hands. A multitude of decrepit hands came from out of the ground and were currently holding their ankles.

"Let go of us!" Joshua stabbed at it with Caladbolg, the stinging sensation going through Sena's hand.

"I thought I said not to let them hit you!"

The creatures all ran together, ready to take advantage of the predicament and beat the restrained combatants to a bloody pulp.

"Don't worry, I got this! Water Creation Magic: Damona's Safespace!" he formed the cubical barrier.

"Break it down!" she barked out another command as the hextet punched it over and over again, but it managed to remain intact. "Fine then, let's see how that defense of yours fares against this!"

Another shadow loomed over the boys, as they looked up, their jaws dropped at the sight of a ginormous boulder falling their way. "I know this might sound like a dumb question, but can your barrier handle something that big?"

"No,"

"...I was afraid of that," he muttered as the boulder landed, destroying the safespace like it was a fragil bubble, leaving them once more at the mercy of the beastly soldiers.

"There's another thing I can try," Joshua said, but his friend cut him off.

"I'm sure you do, but we need to get to safety! Wood Magic: Forest Upheaval!" a pillar rose from under them, rising into the sky at a slower speed, putting them miles above danger. "Okay, this will buy us some time, if Sena tries to drop something else on us, we can jump onto another pillar. For now, we need to heal ourselves,"

The possessed illusion mage smirked confidently. "Tisk tisk, did you really believe I'd give you a chance to do anything?" she snapped again, wings akin to a bird sprouting out of the back of her creatures as they took flight.

"Wood Recovery Magic: Healing Branches of-," his casting was interrupted by a fist that was coming his way, but he weaved around it. "What the? These things fly? Since when?"

He got his answer in the form of a ball appearing right in front of him. "Since whenever I say they do," Sena's voice spoke from it. "Knock the pillar down!"

They nodded and diverted their attention to the spell itself, kicking and punching at it with all their might, increasing their speed at the sight of the pillar giving way, and eventually, it did, the boys free-falling.

"AHHH!" they screamed, but they were saved as two hands came to life in mid-air, catching them and lowering themselves down, but not before roughly tossing them away from each other, a trio of the now winged creatures landing close to each of them.

"Damn…it," Joshua forced himself up, he didn't know how much longer he would last, but if he didn't want to die then and there, surrender wasn't an option. "W-Water Magic: Damona's Flash Flood!" he sent out the omnidirectional wave, but it was a move made through a lapse of judgment as the creatures simply flew a few feet above the ground, completely dodging it.

"Oh…Oh yeah, they have wings," the teen weakly stated, his spear disappearing as he used his sword to keep himself from falling down. "I…I need to regroup with Oliver," he tried running, but like before, the hands from below latched onto his legs.

"I thought I said to let go of me!" he raised his sword to stab them, but before he could, metal cords shot out from nowhere, wrapping around his wrists, leaving him completely immobilized.

He struggled with all the fight he had, but it was useless, and things only got more grim as the creatures were finally in striking distance.

Meanwhile, with Oliver, fighting back only got harder now that the creatures could fly. They were currently circling around him in mid-air, waiting for an opening, and when one saw such an opening, it dove down like a falcon, hitting him in the side and rocketing him many feet away.

The Yggdrow sucked his teeth. "This isn't looking good for me," he mumbled, noticing Sena standing confidently in the corner of his eye. "Hm, there may still be a chance. Wood Creation Magic: Pine Edge Wolf!" he summoned the wooden beast once again. "Here's the plan, I'll hold these things off, you go after Sena," he instructed as it obeyed, charging at the elf.

"As for you abominations," he now turned his attention to the creatures. "Wood Magic: Gale of Splinters!" he shot out the projectiles, but in a turn of events that he never would've suspected, the trio flapped their wings, calling on a gale of their own, one so powerful that blew not only the splinters back, but to the one who sent them.

"Ugh, I didn't see that coming," he got up, turning around to see how his plan was faring. The wolf was now going at top speed, but to Oliver's surprise, Sena made no motion to dodge or create an illusion.

It then jumped, ready to tackle her, but that's when the girl revealed her hand, creating a black head with an eerie face along with a pair of black hands. Those hands caught the wolf in mid-air, the head's expression contorting into one of twisted delight as it revealed its sharp teeth and stuffed the wooden canine into its mouth, crunching on it loudly as the beast whimpered in pain, its misery coming to an end as the head swallowed it with a loud gulp, spitting out a piece of its body to use as a toothpick.

Oliver was in utter shock at what he just witnessed, but that shock soon replaced itself with anger. "That's it!" he ran at her, hammer ready.

Sena merely looked past him and at the trio behind him, narrowing her eyes as they amalgamated into a black ball of mass, shooting out four tendrils that wrapped around Oliver's wrists and legs, stopping just as he was a few feet from his target, the tightened grip making him drop his weapon.

"Well well well, it looks like you've both been subdued," Sena remarked.

"Both?" Oliver repeated as on cue, the other trio brought Joshua to them, carrying the boy by his arms. The wood mage gasped at the sight of his heavily bruised face, the mage was knocked unconscious as they carelessly dropped him on the floor.

The noble struggled for freedom. "You'll pay for this!"

"Oh Oakie, I won't be paying for anything," she walked up to him, a gauntlet of sorts materializing above her hand, mimicking her movements as she winded her fist back and rammed it into his gut, the gauntlet doing the same.

Oliver felt the air rush out of his lungs as the tendrils let him go, leaving him to fall on the ground, writhing in pain, only made worse by Sena disrespectfully stepping on his head with her foot.

"Looks like I won in the end, not that I was surprised. Just like how an ant can never hope to beat a lion, you could never hope to beat me, no matter what dirty tricks you used,"

"No…that's not true," he weakly protested from under her.

"Not true? Oh really? Who's the one who said they would beat me? Who's the one you said he'd live to see tomorrow? Who's the one who said they'd save their friend? You did, but has any of it happened? No," she bent her head down. "Face it, you're nothing compared to me! You are inferior! You are a failure!"

It was that last sentence that hit Oliver the hardest. He recognized those words. And why wouldn't he? After all…they were his own.

"Sometimes…a lot of the time, I feel like I'm not good enough compared to them, I feel inferior, like I'm a failure,"

"No…it can't be," he muttered to himself, but he couldn't deny the facts, he had lost. The small victories he had during the fight meant nothing if Sena wasn't taken down, and because of his weakness, not only was he going to die, but Joshua too. "It's…it's true,"

"So, at last, you see the truth for yourself. That's good, at least your last moments won't be in denial,"

Although she couldn't see it, Oliver made an expression, it was the expression Zuka and Shauna were unable to see just two days prior: a face that portrayed clear, unadulterated self-loathing.

"I'm really not good enough,"

[Flashback]

Yggdrow Estate. Varying Years Ago.

It was a beautiful summer day. The sun was out, the clouds were white as cotton, the sky was blue without blemish, and birds happily sang. There wasn't a soul on Earth that wouldn't feel uplifted by it.

And Oliver was no exception. The future wood mage was humming in his room, reading a children's book. "Take that, Big Bad Wolf, that's what you get for ruining those little piggies' houses," he said before a knock was heard at his door.

"Who is it?"

The door opened before there was an answer, but that was okay since the person turned out to be Magnus. "It's me,"

"Big brother!" Oliver got out of his chair and ran to his brother, embracing him.

He returned the hug. "It's good to see you in such a great mood. Y'know, Ollie, it's a really nice day outside," he walked out and came back in, showing a handful of art supplies. "How would you like to go painting with me?"

"Ooh, yes, let's go!" the little boy cheered as they ran through the hallway. "Painting with Magnus. Painting with Magnus. Painting with Magnus,"

"Painting with Ollie. Painting with Ollie. Painting with Ollie,"

Painting, painting, painting, hiyah!" the brothers sang in unison this time as they arrived outside the building, now overlooking a beautiful section of the house that was akin to a meadow.

Sitting down, Magnus handed Oliver some supplies. "So, what are we painting?" the little brother asked.

"What's in front of us," the older brother replied.

"Then I'm going to paint something really cool!"

"I know you will, so let's get started,"

An hour passed as the brothers sat in near silence, both smiling at what they were making, and once that hour was up, they got up and walked back inside. Magnus led them to a room with a table.

"Okay, Ollie, let's put our paintings here," they rested them on the table before the older Yggdrow pulled something out.

"What's that?"

"It's a magic item that can blow wind at things with different strengths. We'll just need a strong breeze to get these dry in no time," he answered, activating the item as it did its stuff.

Once they were done, they rested them on stands. "Magnus, look at mine,"

The wood mage gave his brother's piece a look. It was in fact a meadow, but it was on the sloppy side, the colors were not separated properly, blending in at spots which made it less appealing. But on the other hand, what was he really going to expect from a kid who was just having fun?

"It looks awesome, but who are those people?" he pointed at the center of the painting, where a stick figure and a taller box figure stood.

"It's you and me, spending time together," he replied innocently.

"Really? Then that turns it from awesome to amazing!"

"What's with all the noise in here?" a female voice asked as a head poked into the room.

"Hello, mother," they greeted her.

"Oliver, Magnus, what are you doing in here?" she asked another question.

"Drying our paintings," Magnus told her.

"Paintings?" she walked inside fully, her eyes falling on the piece of her eldest son as she gasped audibly. "Oh my, it's wonderful, it's breathtaking," she commented, and she was right, the painting was a near replica of the actual place used as reference, not a single detail being ignored.

"Mother, you're overreacting, this is nothing impressive, it only took me an hour to make,"

"An hour?! That's even more incredible!"

"Mother, mother, look at mine," Oliver pointed to what he made, hoping to get the same words of praise.

"Hm," she gave it a quick look. "Oh, yes, it's very cute," her attention immediately went back to the superior product. "Everyone! Come and look at this!"

In no time, servants had littered the room, all giving words of praise.

"What a talented artist,"

"We must frame it immediately,"

"A modern-day Leonardo, wonderful,"

"Tell us, will you be taking up art?"

"Um, I don't think so, I think it's just fine as a hobby," he answered.

"Hey, um, I made something too if you all want to look at it," Oliver was able to get their attention.

The servants all observed what he made, all saying the same thing. "Aw, how cute," and like their mother, they ignored him.

Oliver didn't like this, not at all, so he took his painting and quietly walked out of the room, only one person noticing him leave. "Excuse me,"

The future wood mage was already a number of steps away by the time someone called out to him. "Ollie, wait up!" Magnus ran to him, kneeling down. "Are you okay?"

"Not really,"

"Hey, mother and the servants, you know they weren't trying to hurt your feelings, right?"

"I know,"

He smiled. "That's good, and if it makes you feel better, I'm going to hang your painting in my room. Is that alright with you?"

His little brother feigned a smile. "That's alright, I'm going to keep it for myself,"

Giving him one last smile, Magnus patted his brother's head and walked back into the room. With him gone, Oliver walked into the kitchen, his smile fading as he crumpled his painting up and threw it in the trash.

"That's where it belongs,"

---

"Today is a day for celebration!"

Years passed since that day, but the place was nearly the same. Magnus stood in the center of a small crowd of servants and friends, his parents being the ones to make the exclamation.

Cheers and clapping then erupted, the noise drawing the attention of an older Oliver as he walked out of the house, passing by a servant. "What's going on?"

"You didn't hear the news, Young Master Oliver? Your brother has been officially appointed as a diplomat apprentice,"

"Really?" he was stunned, running into the crowd as he made his way through them. "Excuse me, pardon me, I just need to pass by you," in no time, his eyes fell on his brother's back.

"Magnus!" the older man turned at the calling of his name, smiling at the one who called him as they neared one another. "I heard you're an apprentice now,"

"That is indeed true,"

"...Then congratulations," they shared a handshake. "But I'm confused, no one said there was going to be a party today,"

"That's because they didn't. After I broke the news to mother and father, they just decided to throw me a party out of nowhere, and here we are,"

"He deserves it though. Being a diplomat's apprentice is huge, learning and getting a chance to influence how Clover deals with other countries will be very beneficial," his father remarked.

Magnus was embarrassed, scratching the back of his head. "I just thought that this was what I wanted to do with my life,"

"And you chose well, but in all honesty, it doesn't matter what path you decided to take, you are an exceptional Yggdrow, you'd succeed in anything," his mother gave additional praise.

"Thank you, everyone," he accepted their words before a thought came to his head. "What about you, Ollie?"

"What about me?"

"Well, what path do you want to take in life? As a member of this family, you're bound to do great,"

"Hm, I never really thought about it. If I had to give something, I'd say…a Magic Knight,"

That answer garnered some tame nods of approval from the crowd. "Yes, a good dream," his father said.

Oliver raised a brow. "Um…is that all you have to say?"

"Well, yes. A Magic Knight is important, just promise us that you'll be careful," he replied.

"Oh, yeah, will do," Oliver excused himself, looking a little downtrodden, but trying his best to hide it, even to the point where his brother didn't feel worried.

The future wood mage kept walking, talking to himself about something while kicking rocks. "That was all you could say? Really?" he was about to turn, but he hid himself as he noticed someone.

It was his half-brother, training in isolation like he always did, using his magic to make a tree grow larger.

Oliver found himself in awe at the seemingly simple feat, admittedly, he never really practiced with his magic.

"Hm, William?"

---

"Oh man, I'm so excited,"

Several years passed to some months back, the colosseum in the capital became packed, and with good reason, it was the day of the Magic Knights Entrance Exam. Oliver made the statement with a pumped tone as he walked around the area.

Today was going to be the day, he had his grimoire, he had training under his belt, and all that was left was to show the world how great he was by joining the best squad.

"Victory is in the bag," he said to himself before he picked up on a nearby conversation between two girls.

"I can't believe we're actually going to see the captains!" one of them squealed.

"I know. Which one are you excited to see?" the second one asked. "I can't wait to see Rill Boismortier. He's such a cutie, and we're almost the same age, I think I might have a chance,"

"Fair enough, girl, but I'm aiming higher, I want to see William Vangeance,"

That name further captured Oliver's attention as the second girl raised a brow. "The captain of the Golden Dawn? What for?"

"He's such an impressive figure, so powerful, and so mysterious too. But more than that, it's my dream to join his squad and work under him. Who knows, maybe if I get good enough, I can rise the ranks and get to know him better,"

"I don't know if that's possible, girl," her friend said. "I think the only ones who will know him better are his folks, especially his brother or sister, that is, if he even has one,"

At this point, Oliver almost felt compelled to introduce himself, but he chose to stay back and continue listening in. "Oh man, imagine being the sibling of William Vangeance? They could probably end up being the second-best Magic Knight who isn't the Wizard King,"

Oliver liked what he heard, he felt important. "Don't worry, potential future squadmate, you'll see what I'm capable of soon enough,"

.

.

.

.

.

"It would be my honor to join the Aqua Deer,"

He failed. He thought he was good enough, he thought he could make his half-brother acknowledge his skill and proudly welcome him into his ranks, but that was all just fantasy now.

As the exam came to an end, night fell and all who Rill selected flew to Aqua Deer.

"No matter how hard I tried, I could never measure up to them,"

---

The next day passed and Oliver currently walked down the halls of his new squad, still unhappy with the result. "There must have been some kind of mistake,"

"Hey there,"

"They must've not been focusing on the good parts,"

"Um, hello?"

"If they were, there's no doubt he'd pick me-,"

"Excuse me!"

Oliver jumped at the scream directed at his ears. He looked to his left and saw a girl walking beside him. She was nearly the same height as him, with magenta and blue hair that was fixed in a ponytail, a long-sleeved beige cotton shirt with a long black skirt.

"Is everything alright? Sorry about the yell, I was trying to get your attention," she apologized.

"No, it's my fault, I shouldn't have ignored you," he apologized back. "I'm Oliver Yggdrow, by the way,"

"Nice name, I'm Zuka Glitenia,"

"Glitenia? I've never heard of that noble house. Is it far off?"

"Noble? Nope, I'm a commoner, born and raised,"

"Is that so?" he didn't really have a problem with peasants. Sure, his family did and were very vocal about it, but he didn't care all that much. However, that was until…

"I hated how being below my brothers made me feel, so then and there, I decided to do it,"

He walked ahead a bit and turned to face her properly, opening his mouth.

"I needed someone to vent on, I needed someone to feel the way I did,"

"...Then do us both a favor and steer clear of me. I'd rather not associate myself with the lesser folk," he said before walking away, leaving Zuka dumbfounded.

[End Flashback]

"That's right, I'm not only a failure, I'm a jerk too," he thought, further piling on the negativity.

"Oh yes, I've been waiting a long time for this," Sena grinned. "And you will be my very first victim-,"

"Oli…ver,"

The elf quieted down, both she and the aqua deer turning to Joshua who weakly stood on his knees. "Don't listen to her…don't listen, she's dead wrong. You're…not a failure, and you're not…inferior. Look at everything…you were able to do, you're…amazing," he said, doing his best to smile. "Block her…out. Don't…give up. If Shauna and Zuka were here…they'd say the same thing!"

"Shauna, and…Zuka?" he repeated slowly, his eyes widening at the mention of the sparkle mage's name. It made him think back to their first interaction. He didn't recall all of it, there was still one more part.

"Hey!" he remembered her exclaiming. "You better watch that attitude of yours, buster, because if you keep it up, we're going to have problems!"

He closed his eyes and thought back. As she warned, there were indeed problems between them, Oliver would always taunt, but Zuka would always have a retort. Her confidence never wavered despite the harshest insults.

"...That's right, I wanted to make her feel the way I did, but no matter what I said, she never let it get to her, she never belittled herself, because…,"

"...Because…she never believed my words,"

Sena gave Joshua a look. "Save your breath, lover boy, he's already accepted the truth, don't try to steer him-," her eyes shot down suddenly, seeing him holding her foot, pushing it back as he fought the pain and stood up. "What, do you have some last words?"

He ignored her and went on. "Y'know something, you were right, but at the same time, you were wrong," he began. "Right now, I am inferior, I'm a failure…and I'll keep being all those things as long as I think I am," his face became serious. "So I'm done thinking that way! I'm done wallowing in self-pity! All my life, it was me who held me back, well no more!"

Sena was surprised by this passionate outburst. "Listen here, Oakie-,"

"Oliver!" he cut her off. "My name is Oliver, you will respect it, and you will use it! Why, you may ask? Because I'm sticking by my word, I'm going to live, and I'm going to win!" he pointed at her, eyes full of determination. "Listen and listen well, because I'm only going to say this once: humans are not inferior to elves, and I am NOT inferior to you!"

As soon as he said that, his grimoire came up to him, flipping to a blank page, becoming filled with an inscription. All three mages knew what that meant.

"A new spell!"

"It doesn't matter what spell you got, it won't be enough, I'll still win!" Sena screamed.

Oliver smirked in response. "Nah, you'll lose," he turned his head to the water mage. "Joshua,"

"...Yeah,"

"Thanks,"

"No…problem,"

Looking back at his opponent, the aqua-clad knight was set, with a triumphant exclamation, he was ready to turn the tables in his favor.

"Wood Magic: Soul of Yggdrasil!"

He closed his eyes as a powerful beige aura flared around him, propelling into the air before it died down, continuously flaring all over his body. His hair floated ever so slightly as it gained streaks of white and green to compliment the black. And finally, his eyes opened, his pupils glowing and taking on the shape of an oak leaf.

Sena and Joshua gasped as he landed softly on the ground. "If you want to surrender, I'll give you the chance now," he parrotted her prior words.

She growled. "Get him!" she ordered as her creatures went into action.

Oliver glanced at them from his peripherals, making movements with his fingers, roots shooting up from the ground, tying around them, and forcing them down. "You say that Distorted World lets you freely create illusions that can interact with us, well, Soul of Yggdrasil lets me freely create and manipulate wood,"

"Just shut up and die!" Sena conjured a floating sword, sending it his way. Oliver turned and ran in the other direction, outstretching a hand as an oval board of wood materialized, the mage jumping on it as he took to the skies.

"No way, he's hovering on it?" she muttered, conjuring an array of weapons to fall from the sky.

"You're going to have to do better than that!" he called out to her as he weaved around most of them, changing up his approach to deal with the rest. He stretched out his hands and clapped, a circular shield spiraling to life in front of him, blocking some of the incoming ones, he then separated his hands, and by extension the shield, using it to parry what was left.

The possessed illusion mage couldn't believe it, the way he was fighting, it was like he wasn't feeling the weakening sensation at all. She looked at her trio, they couldn't escape, so she promptly ended their existence, creating two larger copies. "Kill him!" they took to the skies after him.

He wasn't worried at all if the look on his face said anything. "My oh my, what's this? Company?"

One of them flew straight at him, coupling its fists together to slam him down, but he flew out of harm's way. "My turn!" he waved an arm, forming twelve wooden daggers, shooting them at blinding speed, one of them managing to puncture its shoulder.

"AH!" Sena screamed, dropping to her knees.

The wood mage wasn't done yet. He flew to the uninjured one, watching as it prepared to attack him, coming at him at top speed. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he made a floating wall of wood right in front of it, killing its momentum. Oliver then jumped off his hovering board, forming a long whip of roots that he held in his hand, launching it out as he wrapped itself around the creature's abdomen.

"Your friend is lonely. You better go check on 'em," he swung it around, rocketing it into the other winged beast before his board came up under him.

His eyes were now on the elf. "As much as I'd love to keep doing this, I'd better wrap this up fast,"

"You ready my mind, human!" she exclaimed. "I will use all my mana and create the strongest thing to crush you! I will prove to you once and all that we are superior!"

All of her pre-existing illusions turned into a mass, converging behind her as it rose to an astounding fifty feet, becoming some kind of monster. It roared loudly, shaking the entire area.

"You put all your mana into that?" Oliver asked rhetorically before smirking. "Not a good plan," he commanded his grimoire to flip to a page while he himself waved his finger in a large circle motion.

"Wood Magic: Forest Upheaval!" a ginormous pillar shot from under the creature, propelling it up, much to Sena's shock.

"Time to finish this!" he flew as fast as he could, arriving above it, jumping off his board as he reeled his fist back, his mode of transportation turning into a giant knuckle made of wood that formed behind him. "I win!" he slammed it right into the monster's gut, an immense pain shooting through Sena's whole body as the massive creature crashed and vanished.

Oliver created a new board as he flew down next to the elf, who was now struggling to stay conscious. "I guess that means you were wrong about me,"

"Damn…you…Oliver," she then passed out, the spell undoing itself. Oliver extended a hand, wrapping her tightly in roots.

"What…a spell," Joshua commented.

"Oh crap, you need this. Wood Recovery Magic: Healing Branches of Yggdrasil," the spell finally took shape, the water mage touching a branch as he could feel himself getting better, though he still looked bruised.

"Thanks," he said, walking over to the unconscious girl. "Hopefully, you'll be back with us,"

"Well, that's one problem handled, we had better head over to your house," Oliver said as he elongated the board. "Hop on,"

"What about her?"

The wood mage extended the hand levitating the roots to float beside him. "We'll take her along,"

Joshua nodded as he hopped on and they took off. "Everyone, I'm coming,"

---

"We're getting close, the capital isn't too much further from here," Nozel stated as the remaining group of Royal Knights flew past another town.

Kenos had his eyes fixated down, noting the buildings they passed by, but in the corner of his eyes, he noticed someone with an uneasy look on her face.

"Is something the matter, Noelle?"

She jumped a bit at the calling of her name. "Yeah, I'm fine. Do I not look fine?"

"You looked worried. Is it about Asta and Yuno?"

"A little bit," she confessed. "I thought they would've been back here by now,"

"You know they haven't been gone for that long, right?"

She sighed. "Yes, but with what's going on, I can't help but be a bit concerned,"

He nodded, understanding how she felt, but he also couldn't help but chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"It's nice seeing you more honest. I feel like if I asked you this a month or two ago, you'd be all 'I'm not worried about them at all, I'm royalty' and call me dumb or something," he mimicked her voice and demeanor.

She blushed in embarrassment. "K-Keep that up and I'll blast you,"

"Please don't," her brother warned.

The solar mage laughed it off as he resumed his watch, but out of nowhere, he saw dust rise to the east. "Hey, where's that coming from?"

The others noticed it too. "Not sure," they answered.

"Hold on, Kenos, isn't your house to the east?" Alice pointed out.

His eyes widened. "You're right. I have to go and make sure they aren't under attack," he took out his grimoire, but Nozel stopped him.

"Wait," he clenched his fist, a piece of mercury breaking off from the main thing as it expanded into a smaller version. "Ride on that, you must conserve your mana,"

"Thank you," he jumped onto it.

"Kenos, hold on," Noelle said.

"What?"

"Are you sure you want to go there? Are you ready to face…it?"

He pondered it for a few seconds, giving her an answer. "With everything that's going on, he's the least of my worries. I'll be fine, promise," he gave her a reassuring smile.

"Alright then, but make sure I don't have to come in and save you," she quipped.

"I'll try," with that, he was off.

"What is this "it"?" Nozel was curious.

"Just…something personal,"

---

"Steel Creation Magic: Thousand Knives!"

"Phantom Magic: Ghoul Chaser!"

Going a few minutes back, Dante and Oxanna finished off an elf who was attacking them.

"What the hell was his deal?" the girl asked her brother.

"Not sure, but it's something we'll have to deal with later," he replied as they both broke into a dash, soon arriving at the front of their estate.

"Man, what a day," Nathan stated, standing in the courtyard, having finished his personal training.

"That was a good move you did there at the end, very impressive," Sylvester, who stood across from him, commented.

"Awesome work, bro!" Sonia was on the sidelines with Eleanor, cheering.

Nathan pumped his fist. "Thanks, but next could we probably-,"

"Sylvester!" two voices exclaimed, the lunar mage seeing his cousins running.

"Hey there, you two. What's the rush?"

"Do you know where my dad is?" Oxanna was the one to ask.

"In his office with my parents,"

"Thanks!" they sprinted past them, not bothering to say hello, but they didn't want to wait any longer.

Arriving at the office door, they opened it, seeing the four adults. "Oh, hi kids, what a pleasant surprise," Ellen greeted.

"No mother, there's nothing pleasant about this," Dante said back, his eyes fully focused on Richard.

"Is there something you need me for?" he asked.

"Yes…" he began. "...We'd like to talk to you…about Kenos,"

Ellen raised a brow. "Kenos? What about him? Has he been hurt?"

"That's what we'd like to ask dad," her daughter crossed her arms.

"Richard, what are they talking about?" Marcus asked his brother.

The man was about to do something, but that's when a loud crash caught their attention, the Rossiu being the first to run out the door. "We can discuss this later, let's check on this first!"

The others followed, arriving at the courtyard, dust rising into the sky as the culprit walked into view.

Yoveen.

"I was right to follow you, there are eight more humans to kill,"

"Zuka?" Nathan said, surprised.

"They know that girl too? What a coincidence,"

"No way, it happened to her too? This isn't good," Oxanna said.

"What happened?" Eleanor inquired.

"We don't know many details, but if someone has those features, they start acting crazy," she replied.

Sylvester sucked his teeth. "So when you say crazy, you also mean can't be reasoned with?"

"Yes,"

"So, all of you, will you let yourselves die without fuss, or will I have to get my hands dirty?" the elf questioned, and she got her answer.

"Phantom Magic: Specter's Blight!" Richard shot a stream of ghastly heads, which she dodged.

"I guess we're going with the latter,"

"Eleanor, get the kids out of here," Sylvester said.

"No way, I want to fight," Nathan protested.

"Let the boy join you, it'll save me the trouble of having to find him later," Yoveen charged forward, prompting everyone to scatter.

The lunar mage took out his grimoire. "Everybody, since Zuka isn't herself, we need to avoid lethal damage. Nobody except my mother uses any wyvern spells!"

"Okay!" they exclaimed.

Reyna took out her grimoire, flipping to its strongest page. "I'm a bit rusty, but we need all the help we can get. Night Reinforcement Magic: Wyvern's Starry Sky!" a black wyvern flew atop the estate, letting out a screech as the Rossius were covered in an aura.

Marcus joined in. "Okay, I need to use my least dangerous battle creatures,"

"Chimera Creation Magic: Summon - Preyas!"

"Chimera Creation Magic: Summon - Freelancer!"

At his call, two chimeras came to his side. Preyas was the shorter of the two, a mix of a frog and a lizard that stood on two legs. Freelancer towered over him, a lion-turtle hybrid that held a flaming lance and shield.

"Charge!" he cried out.

"We better help too," Sylvester said as he and the two knights also prepared for battle.

"Steel Creation Magic: Vergil's Great Sword!"

"Phantom Creation Magic: Reaper's Scythe!"

"Lunar Creation Magic: Moonlight Armaments!"

With all three armed, they charged in too.

Yoveen looked unworried. "Hm, it appears I've run into quite the group of mages, you still stand no chance though! Sparkle Creation Magic: Glittering Lance!" her weapon formed as she went after her first target, that person being Richard. She didn't know why, but going after him felt right.

"Honey!" Ellen stood in front of her husband. "Steel Creation Magic: Barricade Array!" multiple layers of metal barriers formed.

"It's useless!" Yoveen destroyed them with no issue, now taking down two people instead of one. "Alright, who's-," she was shot down to the ground by a strong stream of water, courtesy of Preyas, meanwhile, Freelancer charged ahead.

"Oh no, I'm not even going to consider wasting time on you! Sparkle Creation Magic: Scintillating Aurora!" she summoned her strongest spell, the beam completely decimating the chimeras.

"What the?" Marcus muttered.

"Our turn!" the elf turned to see Dante and Oxanna coming at her. She engaged with him, blocking or weaving around whatever strike they sent out. "Please don't tell me this is all you got?"

"It's not, but fortunately for you, Zuka's the reason we're holding back," Dante replied.

"Is she now? Then I'll take full advantage of that!" she jumped behind them before doing a sweep kick, punching them both away.

"Hey!" Sylvester now came in. "Lunar Magic: Crescent Bladedance!" his daggers shot out, forcing the possessed knight on the move.

"Sparkle Creation Magic: Shimmering Bow!" her long-range weapon manifested as she shot six arrows one by one at blinding speed, neutralizing the daggers before they could move around.

"So, it seems that whatever you've done to Zuka, you also made her stronger?" the eldest Rossiu child deduced.

"Correct," she blitzed over to him, reforming her lance. "And it's now I'll put an end to you all!"

But to her surprise, the mage perfectly parried her strike with his sword, pushing her back and lunging, unleashing a quick set of strikes. However, she didn't like being on the defensive, so she backed up and did a lunge of her own, ready to pierce him, but to her shock once again, he parried it with the flat side of his sword, moving in quickly to land a cut on her cheek.

She made distance between them. "You're good, in fact, I think out of all the humans here, you have to best potential,"

"And what makes you say that?"

"You wounded me, that should be impossible,"

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but it's not!" he charged forward again, but she was ready, dodging at the right moment and grabbed his wrist, twisting it and slamming him on the ground.

"Sylvester!"

Yoveen was now on top of him resting her knees on his arms. "Yes, you have the most potential, but I can also feel that you're wasting it,"

"Wasting…it?"

"Hold on, son, I'm coming," Marcus started running.

"Stay back! Anyone moves, and I kill him immediately!" she warned as she wrapped her hands around his neck, choking him. "Besides, I want this to be slow and painful,"

Her grip got tighter as the lunar mage tried to do something, but the position made it nigh impossible. He could feel himself fading. "I…can't breathe,"

"It doesn't feel so good, does it? Trust me, I would know," her grip kept getting stronger and her evil grin kept getting wider, she was almost about to do it, but then…

"Solar Magic: Sunbeam Ray!"

The familiar attack sent her flying away, saving Sylvester as he coughed and caught his breath, thankful for the close call. His eyes turned to the right, where his cousin stood.

"Kenos!" everyone was happy to see him.

All except for one person that is.

"No. No! It…It shouldn't be possible, it can't be possible!" Richard was in disbelief, shaking his head over and over again, his worst fear had come to pass. "Zaxon, he failed? Oh no, no, no, no!"

Kenos walked onto the grass, a shadow looming over his eyes. He and Alice were right, his house was the place that was under attack, but never was he expecting that the culprit would be her of all people. It almost seemed too perfect, like fate was giving him a chance, and he sure as hell wasn't going to refuse it.

"Ugh, you again. Do you know these people too?"

"Get the hell out of her," he muttered.

"Huh?" she raised a brow.

"Did you not hear me, BITCH?!" he slowly began transforming into Angel's Child, beginning with his arm, then his leg, followed by wing, halo, and sword. Finally, he revealed his glowing eye along with the rest of his enraged face.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HER!"