Chapter Thirty-Three: The Gamemaster
Hey there, readers, here the chapter for Day 2, enjoy. Cya.
"Nice work there, Noelle, way to surpass your limits," Yami said approvingly.
"Thanks, captain, but I had some help," Noelle said back.
"That's alright, nothing wrong with leaning on others," the dark mage said before he turned his attention to the solar mage. "And Kenos, where did you go, I didn't see you leave the beach house?"
"Oh, I went off somewhere to do some Ki training, I'm still trying to learn, but I'll never stop," Kenos replied.
A small smile touched Yami's face. "Is that so? Well, I'm glad to see that you're so dedicated even though you're struggling, that's an attitude I like to see in my squad members, especially since it's not seen with many nobles today,"
"Alright captain, I'm ready to take us all down," Noelle said.
"Oh no you're not, you've been training in order to get that new spell, as such, you're not at your best, the same thing goes for you too, Kenos, we'll head down there in an hour, your magic and stamina should get back to normal by then," Yami told them as he then walked over to the rocks and pulled out three Black Bulls robes. "You're going to need these," he threw them as they caught it and put them on.
"Alright, this is going to be awesome!" Asta exclaimed cheerfully as they all looked at the sea.
An hour passed, the Black Bulls had either eaten or gotten some rest, once the hour break was over, they all stood right where they were an hour ago, robes on, faces serious.
"I take it you're all ready?" Yami asked.
"Yes, captain!" they all responded.
Yami then turned to the water and solar mages. "And you two?"
"Yes, captain!" the two of them responded.
The dark mage grinned. "Perfect, so let's go!" he exclaimed as they all ran and jumped into the air, right above the ocean. "Noelle!"
"I'm on it," she said as her grimoire came out, it flipped through pages. "Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Cradle!" she exclaimed as the water orb surrounded all of them before dropping onto the ocean floor, slowly sinking under.
"Wow, so this is what it looks like underwater," Vanessa stated openly.
"I wonder if there are any sea creatures for me to cook up!" Charmy and Grey exclaimed.
"I wouldn't bother looking, this is Raquey, if there were creatures living under the sea, I don't think people would be allowed here," Finral said to them.
"Uh, Finral, there's a whole temple under here, I think the kingdom could miss a few things," Kenos said to him.
"Um, guys, I don't mean to be rude, but could you keep it down a bit, I just learned this spell an hour ago and I still have to maintain control so that it doesn't vanish and kill us all," Noelle said, holding her wand with both hands.
"You heard the girl, shut up!" Yami yelled at them.
"Captain, that means you too," Noelle said.
The dark mage turned to her with his intimidating glare. "Me?"
The royal girl turned her head in fear, but Yami noticed the sweat rolling down her face, she was trying really hard, the dark mage sighed. "Okay," he said as he walked to the others, putting a finger to his lips as to tell them to all be quiet, they all nodded understandingly.
A smile touched Noelle's face. "Thank you, everyone, if my siblings were here, getting them to stop talking would be nearly impossible," she thought, the orb was silent as it descended down further into the sea.
Ten minutes passed without any trouble, Noelle sighed in relief. "Nice, everything's going perfectly, no problems, we should make it to the Underwater Temple in a few more-," she began thinking, but was stopped as the orb started to shake violently.
"Noelle, what's happening?!" Yami asked.
"I don't know, there's nothing wrong with my spell, my spell just hit something strong, we must be getting closer, perhaps the magical pressure is stronger the closer we are to the temple!" Noelle exclaimed back.
"If it's magic that's the problem, send me out there," Asta said as he pulled out the Demon-Slayer from his grimoire. "I can cut through it!"
"No way, you might be able to cut through it, but the pressure around us will kill you before you could even try," Yami said against him as he turned to their water mage. "Noelle, can you get us through it?"
"I'll try," she replied as she tightened the grip on her wand. "C'mon, you can do this, you know you can!" she exclaimed to herself as the cradle began to slowly pass through the wall of pressure. "That's it, keep going, you're going to do it!"
Thankfully, the sphere passed through safely, everyone cheered. "Alright!"
"Nice work, Noelle," Kenos said.
The water mage started to catch her breath, unable to respond at the moment, so she merely turned to him and gave him a thumbs-up.
The cradle spell then disappeared and they began falling down. "Don't worry, I can handle this one!" Finral exclaimed as he formed a portal, they all fell into it, coming out of another portal closer to the ground.
"Thanks Finral," everyone said as they got up and looked forward, their eyes widened. Below where they were was a massive amount of space, with many stone tiered structures around, but in the center of the space was a structure that looked similar, but was much larger than the rest.
"Incredible," Asta muttered before he realized something. "Wait a minute, we can breathe down here?"
"Yeah, I thought as much, we wouldn't be assigned a mission like that without Julius telling us," Yami said.
"But I'm surprised, when I heard the name of the place we were going, I was just expecting to see the temple," Kenos said as he pointed at the large structure in the center. "That's most likely the temple, but there are other structures too, almost like an Underwater Community,"
"Hey everybody, look behind you," Luck said, they all did so and were surprised to see what was there.
"A...water barrier?" Noelle said aloud. "So the thing that hit my cradle wasn't pressure, but that barrier?"
"It's possible, the full moon most likely weakened any pressure to the point where it couldn't interfere with your spell, this barrier must also be allowing air in here," Gauche replied.
"Well, no need to worry about that, if that big building in the center's the temple, then let's head over there," Yami said. "Who's going to bring us?"
"I've got this one," Charmy stepped up as she took her grimoire out. "Cotton Magic: Cloud of Wool!" she exclaimed as her transportation cloud appeared, but this one was much larger than her usual one. "Hop on,"
They did so as the cloud flew up and started to descend into the Underwater Community, once they reached ground level, they all hopped off as the cloud dispersed.
"Damn, the place looks even larger from here," Kenos stated.
Footsteps were then heard around the Black Bulls, they turned, ready to face whatever danger was present, but no danger was there, instead, they saw something they weren't expecting to see.
People.
"There are people down here?" Magna asked openly.
"I guess there are, after all, somebody had to erect these buildings," Noelle replied. "But, how did they even get down here, this is a strong magic region, the full moon may weaken the strength temporarily, but that only allows for safe passage once a month,"
"There are two logical explanations I can think of," Kenos spoke up. "Either they're people from the surface who just decided to live here and came here during the times when the strong magic region was weak, or there were people who came here hundreds of years ago and established this community, and these people must be their descendants. Either way, they must've grown accustomed to the strong levels of mana around here in order to survive and create a civilization,"
"For now, let's just hope they're friendly," Finral stated as he took into account their numbers. "Because we're vastly outnumbered,"
The natives looked at the Magic Knights, the knights looked back at them, noting their attire, they wore either sleeveless white dresses or sleeveless white shirts and pants. Asta, Kenos, and Noelle raised a brow. "That's odd, the clothes they're wearing look familiar,"
But to the surprise of the surface dwellers, the underwater natives all smiled. "We have visitors!" they all cheered, and some of them erupted into a unified dance.
"Huh?" they all said with looks of obvious confusion.
A woman then walked up them, a welcoming smile was on her face. "Hello there, welcome to our community, we've never had visitors from the surface before since many mages are unable to cross the strong magic region, you're the first ones, please accept our hospitality,"
The natives that weren't dancing were waving at the Black Bulls, smiles and grins on their faces. "I guess we have nothing to worry about for now," Yami told them as they all waved back, the dark mage then turned to the woman. "Excuse me, if it's possible, could we go up to the temple?"
"Why of course, we'll lead you there," the woman replied as walked towards the temple, the Magic Knights right behind her. They began to climb up the steps leading to the temple entrance, chatting with the natives as they did so, a minute passed and they were in front of the door.
"Here it is, the entrance, you'll meet the high priest, we'll have a celebration for you when you come back, or rather, if you come back," the woman giggled as the door opened on its own.
"Um, sure, we'll do that," Kenos said uneasily as he and the others entered the temple, the doors then shut behind them. The interior of the temple was dimly lit by a dull blue light, but that was only true for the short hallway they were in, not too far away, they saw a large room with a brighter blue light.
"I'm guessing the high priest the woman was talking about must be in there," Vanessa stated as they all walked through the hallway, coming into the bright room.
"Wow, this place looks beautiful," Grey commented. "But, where's the high priest?"
"Hello there, I see I have visitors," a voice said from behind the transformation mage, everybody turned to see a short old man, he had a long white beard, as wells as long white hair that somehow defied the laws of physics by staying in the air, he wore a large coat with a large collar, under it, he wore a purple shirt with turquoise pants.
"Shit!" everyone exclaimed as they all jumped, startled by the old man's sudden appearance.
"What are you trying to do, give us a heart attack or something!" Asta exclaimed. "And just who the hell are you anyway?"
"How rude of me, I haven't introduced myself, I'm Gifso, the High Priest of the Underwater Temple," the old man greeted.
"Oh, so you're the high priest, well it's nice to meet you, we're the Black Bulls," Yami introduced.
"I know, I heard the celebrating outside, I must say, it's so nice to have visitors, so, what have you come for?" Gifso asked.
"We're here for a Magic Stone, we were told one was here, if you could kindly give it to us, we'll be on our way," the dark mage replied.
"Magic Stone? Oh, you mean this?" Gifso asked once more as he moved his beard aside, revealing a stone hanging down his neck.
"Yeah, that's the one!" Asta spoke up.
Gifso chuckled as he let his beard go. "I'm sorry, but I can't give this to you just like that, you'll have to earn it," he said. "And to do that, we're going to play a game,"
Magna squatted down to his knees. "Hey, Luck, Gauche," he whispered to the two people closest to him, they squatted down to his level. "There's no way we're going to play a game for that stone, so I say we just kill him and take it, he's old, it's not like he can put up much of a fight, then we can have Finral teleport us out of here,"
"Sounds good to me," the lightning and mirror mages agreed.
Unfortunately for them, Kenos was standing close enough to hear their exchange. "Guys, we're not killing him, he just wants us to play a game, let's be honest, that's a lot easier than the other missions we've been on," he told them before turning to the old man. "Alright Gifso, what'll we be playing?"
"A great question young man, the game we'll be playing is called…," Gifso began, turning to Noelle and Vanessa, his arms extended. "The boobie-squeezing game!"
He didn't last a single second as Noelle kicked him to the ground and started stepping on his back. "I'll show you a thing or two, you old pervert,"
"Noelle, stop, he's the high priest, and an old man!" Asta and Kenos exclaimed together.
The water mage turned to the two of them with a deadpan expression. "Well I'm royalty, I'll pay for his funeral," she said, but eventually stopped, knowing that killing him wouldn't end well for them.
Gifso slowly got up and bent backward. "Ha, sorry about the offensive joke, you youngsters are so sensitive these days. The real game we'll be playing is called 'Temple Battle Royale'!"
"Temple Battle Royale?" everyone asked.
"That's right, behold!" Gifso exclaimed as ten figures jumped into the air from out of nowhere and landed in a neat horizontal line, they were wearing either a white coat with blue outlines or red ones. "Meet the priests and priestesses of the Underwater Temple, also known as the temple mages, the Temple Battle Royale will have you go against these mages in a 10 on 10 battle around the temple itself,"
Noelle crossed her arms. "That's better, so what are the rules?"
"I'll use my magic to scatter you around the interior of the temple, the fights will happen simultaneously, each of you will fight a temple mage, you can either be teleported right next to them, or will have to find them. Know that you're not designated to the mage you fight, you can fight another temple mage if you beat the first one or run into a new one, but either way, you'll fight, if you manage to either knock out or incapacitate a mage in a way, they're eliminated, the side that manages to eliminate the mages on the other side first wins," Gifso explained.
"Sounds simple enough, are there any more rules?" Gauche asked.
"Let's see, killing is an absolute no-no, if any mage kills another, their side automatically loses, as well as that, multiple mages of one side are allowed to gang up on one of another side," Gifso replied. "Those are all the rules, so are you all ready?"
"Wait, I have a question?" Kenos spoke up. "There's a problem, you said there are ten temple mages, but there are eleven of us, wouldn't that be unfair?"
"Nope, there's no mistake!" Gifso laughed as he pointed at Yami. "I've heard of Magic Knights, they're supposed to be quite strong, and out of all of you, I feel the strongest mana signature coming from this guy, so he must be your captain. He's way too strong, adding him would be unfair, so it's just the ten of you playing,"
"Really, that's hilarious!" Yami laughed as well as he walked to the old man. "I'm Yami Sukehiro,"
"Nice to meet you, Yami, let's head to the watching area, I have food and drinks waiting for us while we watch them fight," Gifso said. "Oh, and the people outside will be watching as well, this will act as some good entertainment. So, are you ready now?"
"We are," the Black Bulls replied, as well as the temple mages.
"Great, so let's begin," he said as he took out his grimoire. "Game Magic: Temple Shuffle!" he exclaimed as everyone was transported around the temple.
He and Yami were teleported into the watching area, a couch was there for them to sit on, and in front of them was a counter full of food and drinks, screens then appeared above the counter, larger screens appeared outside the temple too so the people could watch.
"Not a bad spot," Yami commented as the two of them sat down on the couch, he then reached towards the counter and grabbed what looked like a bottle of alcohol.
"Why thank you," Gifso said as he grabbed his own bottle. "Cheers,"
"Cheers," Yami said as they bumped bottles and gulped down their drinks. "Ah, that hits the spot,"
"I know, say, just curious, how strong are your mages?" Gifso responded before asking.
"They're all juniors," Yami plainly replied.
The game mage laughed. "Just juniors, then I'm sorry to say that this will end quickly, by your ranking system, my mages are all upper intermediate class, some are even in the senior rank,"
"Is that so?" Yami said as the two of them looked at the screens, from what they could see, Asta, Magna, Luck, Gauche, and Charmy had already found their opponents.
Across from the swordsman was a mage who wore an octopus mask, he chuckled. "So, you people are the Black Bulls, the worst squad in the Clover Kingdom, and I don't sense any magic from you individually, it seems my opponent is a dud,"
"A dud, aye?" Asta said with a calm yet serious tone as he pulled out the Demon-Slayer, he readied himself. "Let's see how much of a dud I am,"
"A sword? Futile, with my Mollusk magic, attacks phase right through me, this fight was over before it even began!" he exclaimed as he ran towards Asta.
"I'm not going to lose," was Asta's only response as he raced towards the mage and brought his sword down, sending him to the ground.
"What?!" Gifso exclaimed in surprise, gasping as Asta defeated the mollusk mage so easily, he then looked to see Magna, Luck, Gauche, and Charmy defeat their opponents just as easily.
"We may be the worst squad...," the dark mage began, Gifso turned around to see Yami blow smoke from a cigarette.
"...But we're by no means the weakest,"
"What a joke, especially when she was talking such a big game, let's finish this quick so I can call Marie again," Gauche said, walking away from his unconscious opponent with his hands in his pockets.
"That guy was mega weak, but luckily for me, I'm right next to a stream, time to find me some marine nom noms!" Charmy cheered as she pulled a fishing pole out of nowhere and placed it in the stream.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself,"
Charmy looked up to see a temple mage on the other side of the stream, she was wearing a dolphin mask. "Oh, another opponent, you're not going to get in the way of my searching, bring it on!"
"Okay then, but something tells me this won't take long," her opponent said as she brought her hands up to a 45-degree angle.
Charmy raised a brow before she heard something. "What? Is she...singing, what's that supposed to do, there's no way...that can stop...me...I-," she thought as her eyes grew heavy, she then fell asleep.
The temple mage jumped over the stream and looked down at the cotton mage. "That was easy," she said as she walked out of the area, but in the distance, she saw Noelle, back turned, walking into a room. Behind her mask, she grinned. "I found my next opponent," she muttered as she stealthily ran after her.
"So, you're my opponent?" Kenos asked as he stared down the temple mage before him, he wore a swordfish mask, the solar mage took out his grimoire. "Show me what you got, Solar Creation Magic: Solar Construct - Blade!" he equipped the weapon and charged forward.
The temple mage neither said or did anything as Kenos drew closer, he jumped into the air, ready to strike, but the masked mage jumped out of the way at the last second.
"Those aren't some bad reflexes, let's see if you can do it again!" Kenos said as he moved in and kept attacking, but his opponent continued evading, the solar mage grew impatient. "C'mon, why don't you attack!"
He jumped into the air once more, but this time, his attack was met, by a short blue blade, Kenos also noted that a bubble-like stream followed the blade, as the solar mage landed, his eyes widened. "T-That spell," he pointed at the mage. "That was Assisting Steps!"
The mage stopped and took off his mask and put down his hood, revealing the dance mage, Kiato. "That's right, nice seeing you again, Kenos,"
"No wonder you were able to dodge all of my attacks, due to our training on the beach, you know all my moves," Kenos realized. "That explains the similarities in your clothes with the rest of the people's, but why didn't you tell me you were from the Underwater Temple?!"
"Sorry, we're not allowed to say where we're from, that was my grandfather's rule, I might not like it, but he's the high priest," Kiato replied.
"I see," Kenos said as he got into a stance. "Well, you don't have to hide now, you can give it everything you got!"
Kiato got into his own stance. "You got it, you better bring your best too!"
The two were about to charge at each other, but stopped as a scream was heard, they looked to their left to see a tall rock path, and running through it was Asta, he jumped into the air, landing right next to Kenos. "Hey there, mind if I drop in?"
Kenos slightly grinned at his squadmate's quip, but then his face grew serious as they looked at Kiato. "I don't mind, but I'd like to take on Kiato alone,"
"Kiato? Is that his name, you know him?" Asta asked, he pointed his sword at the dance mage. "I know you want to fight him, but I just want to have a test of how strong he is,"
The swordsman charged at Kiato, he launched his sword forward, but Kiato skilfully danced out of the way. "Not a bad attack, my turn, Dance Magic: Gyration Blade!" he exclaimed as he spun violently, looking like a small tornado as he approached Asta.
"What the?" the magicless mage muttered as he brought the Demon-Slayer forward to block his attack, but the attack was too fast and the dance mage managed to get a cut on him.
"Crap," Asta backed up and felt the blood coming from his cut. "No way, I can't read his Ki,"
"Ki? So, you're the friend Kenos told me about, the one who mastered Ki, well, you won't be able to read mine, when I fight, I almost enter a kind of trance, making my attacks unpredictable," Kiato explained. "I chose not to enter my fighting trance in order to help Kenos with his training, but that won't be true here,"
"All good with me, I might not be able to read your Ki, but that doesn't mean we're giving up!" Asta exclaimed.
"Where's my opponent, I haven't run into them yet, did one of the others beat them already? That's a good thing, I may have learned a new spell, but I still don't have any powerful offensive options," Noelle wondered as she walked around, but then a rock fell right behind her, the water mage turned around but was surprised to see the dolphin-masked temple mage on top of a rock path.
"My opponent I presume?" Noelle asked as she took out her grimoire.
The mage nodded as she took off her mask and put down her hood. "Hi, friend!"
The royal girl was shocked to see that the mage above her was none other than the song mage, Kahono. "What are you doing here, you're a priestess, that's why your clothes looked like the people's outside, why didn't you tell me you lived here?!"
"Rules, we're not allowed to tell people where we're from, but that's all I couldn't tell you," Kahono replied. "Other than that, I want to say I'm proud of you, you were able to make a new spell,"
"I did it with your help," Noelle said back as she pointed her wand at the girl. "But it seems we're enemies this time!" she fired a waterball at her, but as it was coming closer, it suddenly changed direction and hit the wall. "Damn it!"
"What are you doing?" Kahono asked. "That attack didn't hit me,"
"I already told you I have trouble controlling my magic," Noelle replied.
The song mage raised a brow. "What're you talking about, the problem with control only exists with your defense and development, as for your offense, you can control it just fine, you just subconsciously don't want to hurt anyone and it only looks like a lack of control,"
Noelle's eyes widened. "I...just don't want to hurt anyone?" she looked at her wand. "Of course I don't, I've faced so much pain in my life, so my subconscious doesn't want me to inflict it on others...but despite that, I still have to fight,"
"Why don't I finish this fast, just like you, I want to win without hurting anyone," Kahono said as her grimoire came up. "Song Magic: Mother Lullaby!" she exclaimed as she softly sang.
Noelle suddenly began to feel her eyes get heavy, but she fought back the urge. "No, Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Lair!" she exclaimed as the water barrier formed around her.
"Not bad," Kahono said. "I guess this isn't going to be easy after all,"
"Hey, Magna!" Luck exclaimed as he ran to the flame mage. "I take it you beat your opponent?"
"Yeah, but that battle was nowhere near what I was expecting," Magna replied.
"I know, my fight was really boring, my opponent could only take two hits before they passed out, lame," Luck said before he turned, seeing a long, straight path before them.
"Something the matter?" Magna asked.
The lightning mage grinned. "I'm sensing mana coming from that direction, and it feels strong too, I think I found my next opponent!" he replied with an exclamation as he ran down the path.
"No way in hell are you fighting them, I'm going to fight them!" Magna exclaimed as he ran down the path after him.
A few minutes passed before the two Black Bulls arrived at the end of the path, a good amount of yards away was a temple mage, he wore a hammerhead mask. "It's about time my opponent showed up, but it seems there are two of you,"
"I'm your opponent," Luck stepped up.
Magna stepped up. "No, I'm your opponent,"
"You can't decide, aye, then why don't you both come at me, it's not like either of you could beat me alone," he said.
"Both of us?" they repeated before they both grinned. "No complaints here!"
"Nice, better take this off," he said as he took off his mask and put down his hood, revealing his short black hair and goatee with a long black ponytail as well as two short strands of hair by the side of his mouth. "Name's Gio, just thought you should know before I take you down,"
"That's our line!" Luck exclaimed as his grimoire came out. "Lightning Magic: Thunderbolt Destruction!" he fired the orbs at Gio.
"Not a bad attack, but that's not going to hit me," he said as he took out his grimoire. "Water Creation Magic: Sea God's Shield!" he exclaimed as a floating shield of water appeared in front of him, blocking the attack.
"Ooh, you blocked it, this won't be easy, but that just makes this more exciting!" Luck cheered.
"Same here, let's start this fight off properly!" Gio exclaimed as he started running, but stopped as a part of the area's wall broke down, dust surrounded the spot.
"Huh?" the three said with confusion.
"Hey there," a voice said, as the dust settled, a large orange whale was seen, the whale then disappeared, revealing the one speaking to be the beast mage of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, Vetto, and behind him were hooded mages.
Vetto grinned evilly at the three mages across from him. "Mind if I join in on the mix?"