Dirlu fanned herself as she headed to Natalie's office. The duchess and the host had many things to discuss, mainly about the sponsorship. The host had organized the match and after she pressed the key. She heard Dirlu enter as she while she saw her glare before she closed her fan.

“Is there are problem?” The host asked.

“There is. My father paid to get the D'or brand sponsored, and there is no sign of the sponsorship anywhere.”

“The sponsorship will be announced in due time. If you must know, your father isn't the only sponsor.” The host reminded.

“Don't make me laugh, the products you're advertising are as flimsy as the mop vacuum I bought a while ago. And for your information, the attachments are useless. If you can't test the products you're promoting. Don't bother putting them on display.”

“If you are demanding a refund, you can go file a complaint to customer service.” The host said, nonchalant.

“Oh I will, not just for the useless vacuum but for the tickets I paid for and the money my father invested. Not only will I file a lawsuit for embezzlement, I'll make sure to warn other investors about your fraudulent tournament.” Dirlu opened her fan to wave goodbye gracefully before she fanned herself on the way out. Natalie plastered a fake smile until the Duchess of D'or exited the office.

“This is just great!” The host fumed, “First it was the hack, then the vaccination scam and now this! How could this get any worse!?” Her rhetorical question had been answered when she heard yelling and rioting.

What is it now?

As she ran outside she saw the bracelets on the floor, which were specifically designed to nullify the powers of the magic users who weren't partaking in the fighting matches for safety measures. She spotted some of the commonfolk running for cover as she saw a red smoke. A red smoke that zigzagged in the air and faded, as she headed to the lounge and saw the skirmish, the people scattered while the magic users shot whomever was in reach, regardless if their moving targets had powers or not.

Dirlu heard the clinking sound of metal while she headed to the administration as she passed by the lounge, the magic users were curious as to why their bracelets unlatched and fell to the floor. Out of the blue, they felt an influence that enticed them to let loose, they acted upon impulse with the first thing that crossed their minds as a fight broke out with one another. Some of them wanted to shoot someone down with a spell, they did so. If they were in the mood to steal something, they did so. By the time Dirlu arrived to the administration, the administrators hid under their desks.

“I demand my refund!” Dirlu slapped the desk with her fan. Anaya and ADav were hiding under their desks while they ignored her. Adrian hadn't returned after his lunch break and they were worried that one of the rogue magicfolk had done something to him. “I'm not leaving without my refund!”

Quinn came out of her cubicle with a crossbow as it pointed at the duchess. The noble raised her gloved hands to the air.

“Duck!” Quinn commanded as Dirlu knelt to the ground and the crossbow launched the arrow at a witch as the witch countered by turning the arrow into ashes.

“Shoot!” Quinn ducked under her cubicle as a flurry of fiery darts were thrown at her direction. Dirlu crawled out of the way before one of the darts set her dress on fire. The duchess ellicited a high pitched scream as she used her fan to blow out the flames before Anaya ran to pick a fire extinguisher amidst the chaos and ran back to put it out.

The security guards called for back up.

At the reception, Akane and Geoffrey hid under their desks while Goung and Samoht fought to get Alma out of the reception. She was her usually mellow self while she drank the refill of Cröstnack then threw it in the trash bin before she inexplicably became violent. She next threw away the keyboard, then knocked the office supplies to the floor and attacked Akane first, Geoffrey ran to pull Alma away from Akane. The elf punched Geoffrey in the face, giving him a black eye then kicked his groin as he doubled over before Alma kicked him repeatedly them stomped on him before Goung grabbed her from behind and lifted her up away from Geoffrey while she kicked the air.

Next, she stepped on Goung's foot with one of her heels as he grit his teeth from the pain. Samoht and Vilma watched the elf kick Goung to the curb as she ran to Goung's desk and flipped it to knock over the computer and the hardware. Akane and Geoffrey ran to Goung to help him before Alma could catch them. Alma reached for Samoth's desk. He slapped her hand away to prevent her from touchimg his stuff though it didn't stop her from punching him in the face while Vilma chanted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Goung hobbled up to help Samoht to fight off Alma while Akane and Geoffrey crawled their way to their desks as Vilma fished out her phone to record the fight. Alma fought with the strength of a drunken professional wrestler as Goung and Samoht dragged her as far as they could before the elf glared at the camera while the petit receptionist recorded. Akane and Geoffrey hid under their desks while Goung and Samoht fought to get Alma out of the reception.

Vilma ended the video after Alma gave Sam a roundhouse kick, threw Goung over her shoulder and went towards Vilma.

Vilma pushed her desk chair to block elf briefly to quickly take out her syringe from her pocket. Alma threw the desk chair away before Vilma stabbed her with the syringe and injected her with morphine. The elf grabbed Vilma's wrist before her strength waned, her body went numb, her half-lidded eyes drooped as she felt her grip loosen as she staggered, bobbed her head and fell asleep on the floor.

“What the hell, Vilma?!” Geoffrey yelled angrily, “You saw us struggle and you didn't lift a finger to help!”

“You're welcome.” Vilma spoke condenscendingly despite that she took down Alma.

Maori was irate that she couldn't finish reading her book with the noise the others were making. She closed the book in a huff before she sensed dark magic in the air. A foul inkling dread that came from the pit of her stomach and shot up to her chest. She hated the feeling, at the corner of her eye she noticed a tall cloaked man and felt dark magic emanated from him. As she stood to walk out of the food court, she got intercepted by three spellcasters. Rax blew bubbles and Maori used her magic to merge the bubbles to create a bigger one, large enough to shield them. It served as a distraction when one of the spellcasters popped it. They only saw the baby blue dragon, one of them got harpooned. The tip of the harpoon protruded through the chest as the spellcaster bled when Maori pulled out her glaive while Rax trapped the other two within a bubble before high up before she threw her glaive like a javelin. The glaive popped the bubbles they were in and impaled the spellcasters as if they were shish kabob and fell to the ground.

“Let's skewer them all!” Maori declared while Rax screeched in glee.

Faim lifted weights as he pulled the ropes just when Uiwo entered the gymnasium, exhausted from running. “Faim!” Uiwo called out as the blonde kept lifting weights.

“Faim!” Uiwo trudged, his partially torn shirt coated in sweat on his back and underarms.

“Faim!” The blonde finally heard him as he stopped working out and stood up.

“There you are.” Uiwo panted before sat down on a nearby chair.

“What happened to you?” Faim asked as he saw Uiwo drizzled in sweat.

“I tussled with some of the strangers when one of them attacked me. If Ximo hadn't helped me, I wouldn't be hear by now. It's like everyone lost their minds for no reason.” Uiwo explained as he regained his breath.

“How is Ximo? Is he still fighting out there?” Faim asked him.

“He's having a field day with the skirmish.” Uiwo mentioned, “He's roughhousing with those lunatics for the fun of it, I caught him spanking the next guy on the way here.”

“That's not good.” Faim drawled.

“He's gonna get sued if he keeps this up, he'll lose the gym he worked hard to build over a young man that tickled his fancy in an instant.”

They heard screams and people running like headless chickens. Faim looked out of the gym to see spellcasters hovering and casting spells. One of them opened his palm to manifest an opalescent orb before it shot a light that turned its victims into glass statues. From the opposing side, a baby blue dragon spewed bubbles by the gallon as the spellcaster turned the bubbles into crystal. The crystalized bubbles fell before a curly haired brunette threw her glaive at the orb of light as it exploded before the spellcaster turned to crystal and fell to the ground, reduced to shards. The victims that were previously turned to glass reverted back to normal and kept running.

When Maori ran to retrieve her glaive, another spellcaster wiggled his gloved fingers as electricity danced around it. Faim ran up to Maori at breakneck speed to catch up to her. The spellcaster pointed at her and lightning shot through his arm as it aimed for Maori's head. Faim pushed her out of the way as the lightning bolt missed by an inch.

He landed on top of her as she was pinned between the floor and the wall. The spellcaster that shot lightning he got hit by kunais and shurikens in the back and shot by the shoulder in the front by a gunslinger fell to the ground.

“Get off me!” Maori shouted, “Rax, bubble him!” The baby blue dragon blew a big bubble.

“No!” Faim stood up as fast as he could while the bubble went towards him, when it was inches away from touching him. A stray arrow popped it. Irate, she grabbed her glaive ready to stab him.

Faim's eyes bulged and instinctively dodged the first jab and the second one, with the third one, Faim swatted the glaive with his hands, the tip of the glaive two inches from his sweaty face.

Maori pulled the glaive away from him.

“Who do you think you are?” Maori snarled.

“Faim!” Her question had been answered when Uiwo called him, “Are you crazy?! You could've gotten yourseld killed!”

Faim spun to face him. “Don't worry about me, are Eimy and Mewmi alright?”

“They left the stadium a while ago.” Uiwo assured.

“Rude!” Maori hollered, “Rax, let's get outta here, we've got better things to do.” The baby blue wyvern flicked her tail and let out a roar as a response, then Rax blew a bubble, big and malleable enough for Maori to sit on it before the bubble hovered and they left.

As they whirled around the lounge, Ximo could be spotted body slamming a ruffian while other strangers dog piled on them.

Felix stood in front of the spellcasting group. He did a quick scan, and knew none were up for a friendly discussion. Each member wore a black mask and white robes with varying coloured cuffs that hung over the hands. The one in the front had a golden trim. She raised her hand. The long sleeves concealed a weapon which Felix knew. His eyebrow cocked and so did a smirk. His fingers itched for a quickdraw. 

Inhale… He felt his heartbeat race.

Exhale.

Bang!

The bullet flew out of the sleeves. The other people fanned out.

Felix dodged the bullet and drew his musket. He shot a few rounds. The bullets missed. They passed the girl, hitting the stone ground. A green cuff flanked with an air bullet. It struck Felix in the arm. Nothing broke, not even the skin. But pain paralyzed him for a quick second, allowing other strikes to connect. Each person had a different gun or projectile type. One with a water shotgun. Another with a lightning sniper. Another with a regular crossbow enhanced with magic. A flamethrower. An earth bazooka. And many others.

He materialized his bullets in their trajectory, fending as many as he could. Smokes filled the area. With the screen he pulled back the bullets that had missed. They pierced the gold cuffs from the back. The others became flustered. Felix lunged out of the smoke hoping to ambush them. An arrow locked his leg from moving far. He dropped to the floor, and rolled.

The green cuff used his pistol to ventilate the smoke. 

Felix had no time to think. He had no energy to think. His lungs pumped in air as much as possible. His senses became dull. He felt nothing… No pain… No fear… He heard nothing… Not his breathing.... Nor his heartbeat… Yet… he knew… There was a big smile plastered on his face.

“This is fun!”

He dug out a canister from his musket holster. Tossing it in the air, he shot it. “Have fun with this…!”

Before the place was fully cleared of smoke, a huge explosion wiped out the area. Felix was left, protected by a mana field he erected. 

The place was in ruins. The ceiling slowly peeled off. Stones crumbled downwards. He began to regain his senses, starting with a long deafening ring in his ears. His eyes scoured the place in his limited space of an eye socket. Dust patted his face. A cough struggled to escape him. 

Then, in the corner of eye, the gold cuff girl approached him… slowly… staggered. She removed her mask. Green eyes stared at him with victory. Her smile reflected his. She pulled back her sleeve to reveal her weapon. Her gun was her forearm. The machinery whirred as it prepared for a shot. She showed her teeth as she uttered something Felix was not able to hear. But he responded with an exhaled scoff. A green laser lanced through her forehead. Her body flopped next to his as her gun fired. The bullet smashed the ground. The rock debris flung and knocked out Felix. 

Haeji ran to the infirmary as fast as she could to find her brother. She needed to make sure that he wasn't in danger.

When the EMCuffs unlocked after Ryan casted a rune, her reaction was a mixture of hope and fear. The hope to get both of them out of Patricia's clutches had presented itself when she least expected. This was the chance she was waiting for — an opening for her to take.

But then, the fear for her brother's safety took hold. The fear that kept her hostage was the same type of fear Patricia had gone to face by the time she visited the Deity of Realms — ParaVi.

ParaVI’s eyes darted everywhere as they watched the moving pictures on the Oculli. He rubbed the underside of his full red lips.

“What brings you here once again?” He spoke without looking at the uninvited guest.

Patricia took a few steps in before she replied, “Keen as ever, I suppose.” She stood, arms crossed beneath her bosoms. “How about paying respects by facing me?”

ParaVi turned his body to her. His eyeless face gave an eerie grin. As he talked, the eyes on his hat heed no attention to them. They continued to watch the Oculli. 

Patricia stared at his white empty face. She searched for something to focus on. She looked at his lips. Her teeth bit down with disgust. His words from her previous visit echoed into her mind. Her eyes flicked away as she wiped out the memory.

“I apologize,” ParaVI said, breaking Patricia’s train of thought. He raised both of his hands next to his head. With his fingers stretched, and his palms exposed, an eye opened on each hand. He proceeded with putting  his hand on his face where the eyes should’ve been. “Is this much better? I do have a difficult time maintaining decent eye contact.”

Patricia cringed for a quick second, then resumed her composure.

“Let me use that mirror of yours,” she requested, or rather demanded. There was no hesitation in her voice. Her resolve impressed ParaVi.

Though subtle, his wide grin softened. 

“This mirror,” ParaVI started to explain, “is called an Oculli. It is not something that anyone, but I, can use. Or even give permission to use.”

“And that is why I am here.”

ParaVi was losing patience with her. The corners of his lips lowered a bit more. “You seem to misunderstand our… how would I put it... ? Hum… relationship.” He entwined his fingers, breaking off the eye contact with her. “I may converse with you. Make a joke here and there. Welcome you to my domain despite the lack of invitation… But all that, boils down to nothing more than my apathy to your existence.”

“What about my fear?” She blurted. “Did you not find that to be useful?” Her eyebrows lowered as she glared at him.

Instantaneously, the Oculli turned off and back on with Patricia on the screen. ParaVi had the back of his hands facing her, each had an eye staring at her. “Yes, yes,” he agreed. “That fear of yours is of absolute delight.” He turned one hand. Its palm faced her as an eye appeared. “Nonetheless, that fear can only come to be with a physical body.” The Oculli showed the back of Patricia. Noticing, she turned around to see nothing but darkness. She faced him again. “But bodies can be found anywhere. I have eyes on my hat, eyes on my hands, eyes on my body, chest, back, arms and legs.” The single video of Patricia divided into four, showing different angles of her. All eyes were on her. Patricia retreated a step. Her eyes watched herself move upon the Oculli. “Yet, they are decorations. A metaphor of my being…  I am all-seeing, with or without my eyes.” The Oculli multiplied the angles of Patricia over and over again until she was unrecognisable due to such small frames. Then, it turned off. In the dark, ParaVI exhaled, “You are not that special.” The Oculli turned back on. The light illuminated Patricia’s bewildered face. Her wide eyes were still absorbing the event. She was in a complete daze.

“A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed,” a cold steel tone emitted from behind Patricia.

“Rekēr,” ParaVi greeted. “What a pleasant surprise, though not really.”

Patricia was preoccupied to be surprised. She simply turned her head in silence. Another deity was in the room, Rekēr. She had hair of golden metal strips, measuring down to her mid back. Her eyes were grey like metal. The light from the Oculli bounced off her obsidian black skin, revealing a dark violet undertone. She stood 8 feet tall with the assistance of 6-inch heeled, 3-inch platform footwear. Despite her metallic appearance, she made no sound as she walked. Her footwear was clearly made of some hard substance, yet she made them appear to be pillows.

Rekēr placed her hand upon Patricia’s shoulder. It was a cold touch. But it recovered Patricia’s senses.

“Bring me to your place,” Rekēr requested. Her voice was almost robotic, an echo effect to her tone. It sounded like there were two voices at once, one of a female and another of a male. Neither of which overpowered the other.

And so, Patricia did. They left. Only Patricia’s footsteps were heard.

I have to get to Joon! Haeji dashed to the hallway before she zigzagged to pass the skirmish whilst she was within firing range of the spellcasters that remained.

One of them saw her running with the EMCuff that she was wearing and went after her.

📘

Maggie was listening to Tantetra and the information she gave about the Deities. Most of the onlookers had taken an interest in the Deity of Discipline for the way she spoke. Refined. Concise. Firm.

Others had only approach just to admire her elegance.

Jinx rolled her eyes as she tried to get Maggie's attention.

“What is it?” Maggie asked in a whispery tone, not wanting to interrupt the Deity of Discipline.

“I'm hungry, gimme food.” The feline groused.

“We are created with the inspiration of the Tarot.” Tantetra mentioned. “Here is another trivia: Which of the deities known are of which Tarot?”

Maggie ellicited an annoyed exhale before she took off her top hat and rummaged through the hammerspace within the hat.

A deck of cards, darts, an energy bar, a laser pointer.

Maggie mumbled as she passed the aforementioned items to the black feline.

“Is there something you would like to share?” Tantetra queried. Jinx pawed the deck of tarot cards before the deity picked up the deck while Maggie's head was inside the hat in a similar fashion to how an ostrich hides its head in the ground.

“Found it!” Maggie took out the bag of cat chow and shook it, “here's the cat food,” Maggie opened the bag and gave it to Jinx for the black feline to eat it, “now stop whining, I wanna hear what the tall lady is saying.”

As Maggie looked up she saw Tantetra take out a tarot card.

The fool.

“Guess which deity is a reference to the fool.”

Maggie squinted at the fool card and recognized the scratch on top of the head of the fool. “That looks a lot like the card you scratched.” Maggie mentioned.

Then the magician looked down at her cat that was eating the cat food, before she picked up the darts, and the laser pointer. Maggie's mouth was agape when she realized what her cat did.

“You gave her my tarot cards.” Maggie took the cat food from Jinx.

Breloq got out of the door he created himself.

“It's the stilted man again!” The boy hollered.

“Breloq. He is the Deity of Liberty, and the only deity that interacts with humans unlike other deities. He seemingly has free will. But as a Deity of Liberty is that truly free will or born for it? As for the other deities, they obey, keep order, or simply watch over the humans. His name is the combination of Break and Lock. and coincidently, similar to the French word breloque which means charm or a seal for a chain or bracelet.” Tantetra explained.

This coincided around the time the bracelets some of the magic users wore as it unlatched automatically and fell to the floor though the Deity of Liberty came to warn Tantetra about what Ryan did regarding the incantation. “Hate to interrupt, but something went wrong.”

“What are you implying?” Tantetra interrogated as her neutral expression shifted into slight anger. Jinx's ear twitched as the feline heard a noise.

A fight broke out.

A force struck Felin in the back. She stumbled forward. Her hair swayed in front of her eyes. She paid little attention to the subtle pain, but the strike was something not to be ignored. As she turned to the direction of the attack, so did Ryan.

A robe-wearing troop was approaching them. Golden trims covered the cuffs and linings of the purple robes. A string around their chests tied the halves of the robe together, while the hoods hid the troop’s faces. The man in the front had a high collar that was closed, covering his mouth.

He raised his hand. 

Felin stepped forward. She felt danger. She gave a low growl and bore her teeth.

The man’s eyes shined as if they smiled. He drew a rune. Magic began to burst from the etching and fired at Ryan and Felin.

Ryan quickly grabbed Felin by the arm to pull  her out of harm’s way. They managed to dodge the attack. But it was not over. The rest of the troop drew their runes, ready to attack.

‘Runes!’ Ryan thought. ‘But not the same as mine. Who are they?’ He drew his share. The spells collided, forming a smoke screen.

Ryan ran as he held onto Felin. Several steps in and Felin tripped.

“Felin! Are you okay?” Ryan shouted.

Felin rubbed her eyes as she responded, “I’m fine.” She lets out a big yawn. “I’m just tired.”

‘Tired?’ Ryan’s brows scrunched. ‘Now? Wh-’ “That first hit. The one that made you stumble. They must’ve shot a sleeping spell on you.” Ryan carried Felin onto his back. She continued to yawn as she tried to stay awake.

Before Ryan could get up, a fireball shot through the smoke and landed next to Ryan. The splashing residue scorched Ryan’s pants. He felt the heat. Another shot was made. This time the fire burned his skin. He groaned in pain.

He ran.

He thought he would be safe once he made the corner. He was wrong.

Another set of the unknown Rune casters awaited him.

Simultaneously, from the pincer attack, the enemy let out an onslaught of magic. Ryan stood frozen, waiting for the end.

Suddenly, on one side, stone pillars slammed together to form a wall with thick vines crawling all over and entwining themselves, while on the other side, a large gate appeared. The wall took the impact. The gate absorbed the spells and reflected them.

Another gate appeared. Breloq and Tantetra came through it.

“No time to explain,” Tantetra spoke. She looked at Ryan. “Can you handle a few of them?”

He nodded once. “I suppose.”

Felin also answered in a groggy tone, “I… can….~”

Tantetra took a second to look at Felin. “Okay then. We will split the enemies up.”

Breloq nodded. With that, a gate appeared each for the three.

When Ryan entered, he appeared on the other side of the wall Tantetra erected. But instead of a double digit troop that was before, he faced five of them. He placed Felin down. “This should be easy enough.”

The enemies seemed to be unfazed for the sudden disappearance of their allies. They simply carried on with their attack. Ryan held his ground. 

Both sides spent several rounds. Both failed to land a strike.

A person in the back whispered into the one in the front. The front nodded. Ryan took his stance.

The front shot out a spell. Ryan drew his rune and shot it. The enemy’s projectile doubled. One continued head on and slammed into Ryan’s spell. A smoke screen formed. The other projectile angled off twice. Once to evade Ryan and once to aim at Felin.

Ryan was caught off guard. He saw the light though the smoke, but was too slow to react. As his eyes ran to Felin. A Rune caster ran up to him. Too many things were happening. Ryan didn’t know what to do. 

The spell’s impact flung Ryan forward into the Rune caster’s fist. Ryan closed his eyes, prepared for the hit.

Unexpectedly, he heard the person grunted. Ryan opened his eyes to see a red shawl flowing in front of him. Felin knocked the wind out of the Rune caster.

“Now there are 4 of them,” Felin spoke in her mature form. “I’ll take 2 and you take 2.”

Felin lunged out of the smoke just before it cleared. The screams of the people frightened and relieved Ryan.

Now, Ryan’s turn is up. He lifted her finger to etch a rune. He opened his mouth to say its name.

Blood spat out instead.

Ryan dropped to his knees as he coughed. “Wha-” ‘What is happening? Did they hit me? It can’t be. There was that fireball, but nothing else-’ His thoughts had cost him his attention. Two spells hit him head on. 

“Ryan!” Felin yelled. She kicked a Rune caster aside. She tried to run to him, but the others occupied her. They flung their magic. She dodged them. She attacked. They evaded and retaliated. “Leave! Us! Alone!” She jumped all around, confusing the enemies’ line of sight. Then, she attacked each. One of them, however, was stronger and faster than the rest. He kept Felin at a distance and struck her down.

The attack wasn’t painful, but she was getting tired. The sleeping spell had put the younger Felin to sleep, awaking the other half of Felin. And now, it was making its way through the mature Felin. She hopped her way to Ryan.

“I can’t keep up,” Felin said. “I’m getting sleepy again.” Her eyelids felt heavy. She blinked rapidly as she fought the drowsy temptation.

Ryan gave a dry cough. He patted her head. “It’s okay. I got this.” ‘I hope.’

Felin slept. She transformed part way. Her red shawl hid her shaggy hair and accessories, and loosely wrapped around  her small body in ragged clothing. 

Ryan fought for his breath. He leaned on his knee. Dirt and scratches painted his face and clothes as bruises were visible on his body. 

He still didn't know what was going on. His mind wondered if Hexice knew of these events. 'He had to have known.' But thinking of it would not solve the case at hand. 

Ryan glared at the approaching mysterious Rune caster. Then, more arrived from behind. His bangs covered his scrunched brows. His blurred vision doubled their troop. With one breath, he staggered upon his feet. He drew a few Runes in front of him. And so did the Rune casters.They casted theirs first. Ryan's eyes lit up with the barrage of luminous spells.

Breloq's gate was erected and opened, taking in the assault. The gate reopened above the enemy. Their own spells rained down on them. 

Ryan never felt more relieved to see Breloq and Tantetra standing before him., even though he just saw their backs. 

"You did well holding them off," Tantetra spoke without turning to Ryan. 

"But we will finish this," Breloq said. 

In mere seconds, the remaining casters were entangled in Tantetra's magic and were beaten down or teleported away by Breloq.