Half-snake and half-human, the naga hissed at Magnus' presence. It did not attack right away, much unlike the others.
It stayed in place, scanning Magnus with an intelligent gaze.
It seemed curious for some reason.
"No... friends...?" It asked, giving Magnus a look of interest. "Sacrifice..?"
Magnus blinked, reciprocating the interest he was given.
"What do you mean by sacrifice?" He asked.
To which the naga appeared even more confused.
"Not a sacrifice... No friends... But challenger..?" It asked another question.
"I... guess?" Magnus took a step back. He felt the naga's aura change in nature.
"Then... die..!" It hissed as it shot out an arrow from a bow that materialised out of thin air.
"...Shit." Magnus instantly summoned all of his Hivemind members.
Even Restiel, who was just moments before death when he was unsummoned, appeared.
In fact, Magnus decided to sacrifice him readily this time.
Ssuk!
An arrow whizzed into Restiel's skull, sending a splatter of grey matter everywhere, but successfully blocking the shot. Magnus went and messed with the gravitational pull of the area.
Small orbs of black spawned from his fingertips, acting as focal points for his array of vortexes as he invoked Catastrophic Planetary Architect.
"I am the cause of creation,
The maker of stars!"
He then tasked Klaris with retrieving another Restiel while he and Javelin distracted the naga.
Arrows kept shooting out from the naga's bow, and Magnus could barely dodge. He weaved around his vortexes as the arrow's trajectory was tampered with. He was re-enacting his short yet fun time as the Gravity Fairy, making the battle less on defeating the opponent and more on something else.
In this case, it wasn't beauty but time.
Just as the nth arrow flew past Magnus' face, he heard a familiar flap of wings. He also felt his skin get singed in the presence of Divine Energy. Then came an invocation made from someone else's lips,
"I am the master and maker of the Hivemind,
The mind behind minds,
The one who stands above humanity,
And the one civilizations despise."
Spirit Energy swirled as a member was returned to their rightful spot in the Hivemind.
"Done!" Klaris yelled out as he disappeared from where he stood in a flash of light.
Restiel then came flying in towards the naga, scythe blazing with light, and slashed.
Magnus sent out his golden gravity sphere as well and rooted the naga on the spot for but a split second.
But that split-second difference was enough as Restiel stabbed his scythe into the naga's chest. The naga didn't know what hit it. From how people appeared out of nowhere to the sudden appearance of a scythe-wielding angel, it was too slow to comprehend it all in a few moments.
Instantly, the world returned to how it was.
Restiel and Javelin reappeared beside him and were promptly unsummoned.
Magnus then waited as he glanced at the box wrapped in four-coloured chains.
"I've completed four battles. This should be enough, right?" He asked aloud, but his question was left unanswered.
Nothing was happening. The runes still glowed, and so did the chains. The box continued to lay there within its bindings as if it didn't wish to be opened.
"Okay..." Magnus awkwardly murmured as he snooped around a bit more.
Touching the runes no longer triggered anything. Even if he wiped his entire body onto the runes, it did nothing but continue glowing.
Thus, Magnus put his attention on the chains. He took out his spear and struck the chains at the centre where they all intersected.
The red chain glowed, and a number appeared above the box.
[ 1.9 ]
Magnus hit the chains again after the number faded.
[ 1.9 ]
"Hm,"
Magnus descended into his thoughts.
Curiously, he took out his gravity sphere and slammed it against the chains.
[ 2.5 ]
He summoned Restiel and had him strike the chains.
[ 1.9 ]
Then again with his scythe.
[ 2.8 ]
A small crack appeared on the red chain and Magnus noticed this.
This time, he hit the chains with a combination of gravity and scythe.
[ 3.2 ]
Crack!
The red chain crumbled.
"Three more..." Magnus mumbled as he tried pouring his Spirit Energy into the chains.
[ 0.2 ]
[ 0.8 ]
[ 1.3 ]
[ 1.6 ]
[ 1.9 ]
The numbers rapidly rose until they stopped at the number 1.9. This time it was the blue chain glowing.
Magnus pursed his lips as he began pouring even more Spirit Energy. He tapped into Restiel's, Klaris', and Javelin's reservoirs of energy.
Thus, the numbers continued to rise.
[ 2.3 ]
[ 2.9 ]
[ 3.3 ]
Crack!
Upon reaching 3, the blue chain shattered.
Now only the purple and green chains were left.
"Perhaps..."
Magnus had Restiel invoke his Blessing after he hid his original body in the Hivemind.
"I am the warrior of the Heavens,
The seeker of light,
The judge and jury,
And the image of perfection.
Bow before my grace and glory."
Under the influence of Restiel's aura of Divine Energy, a number appeared on the green chain.
[ 5 ]
Then it became dust in an instant.
"So... is it possible to invoke my Curse as well?" Magnus touched the final chain with his left hand.
"You are the child of gravity,
A creator of earthen tragedy.
Let your past haunt you,
Let those souls pester you.
For the day you set foot on the ground is the day you die."
He whispered his Curse, and a mysterious energy churned throughout the temple.
[ 5 ]
The number appeared above the purple chain as it disintegrated into nothingness in an instant.
Click!
Without the chains that held it down, the chest opened up. A warm glow suffused from within it, giving Magnus a similar warm feeling.
When Magnus looked inside, he spotted what seemed to be one half of a key.
"It's the fragment I need..." Magnus gasped softly as he took the Placement Key fragment into his hands.
Poof!
A couple of scrolls appeared before his face. They all looked identical, and from that, Magnus already knew what it was.
[[ Gatemaker's Scroll x3 ]]
[[ Tear when near a Pocket World entrance to create a Gate. ]]
[[ Gates are monster-filled extensions of Pocket Worlds that must be cleared before one can access the Pocket World again. Gates can range from 1-star to 9-stars in difficulty depending on the Pocket World. ]]
[[ Large amounts of treasures taken from the Pocket Worlds can be found in their respective Gates, and are usually dropped by the monsters that use them. ]]
[[ If a Gate is not cleared of monsters, once a certain amount of time has passed, those monsters will flood the outside of the Gate and invade Thare. Caution is advised. ]]
[[ Once three Pocket World entrances have successfully been given Gates, the Otherworld Trials Event: "Apocalypse of Monsters" will begin. ]]
[[ Special reward once all three Gates have been created: [Gatemaker] Title ]]
[[ Title: Gatemaker - The Gates of the world are your friends. Special information on their natures will appear inside your head when you observe them. ]]
Magnus licked his lips at the sight of so much information from just one type of Scroll. From the title to the event, his eyes glistened with every word he was sent.
'I wonder what the Scribe who wrote this is doing know? Getting ready for the apocalypse perhaps?' He asked himself and chuckled. He then quickly put that thought aside as he thought about how to leave the place he was in.
When suddenly, the Placement Key fragment in his hand lit up.
Feeling a sense of deja vu from the time he was holding the bronze card that gave him Master of the Hivemind and the Vow of the Lonely, Magnus held the fragment up.
Whooosh!
The world blurred, as the sensation of being transported into a different world once again made Magnus' stomach churn.
As he was getting used to it, he simply closed his eyes and waited. When he felt stable gravity in the area, he opened his eyes.
Only to discover that he was in the middle of a monster-filled desert.
"What...?" Magnus saw the horde in front of him and was stunned silent.
.
.
.
Magnus had to instantly rise into the blazing-hot sky. He could feel the sunburn coming already.
But it was better than dying to the stampeding monsters below him.
A fight was breaking out.
One seemingly from between two tribes of the same species. Magnus watched for a moment as greenish blood was spilt over the hot sands.
He watched the humanoid beings with scorpion tails and four arms duke it out on a battlefield. They shot their stingers out and wielded maces and blunt weapons with their claws and hands.
It was a chaotic scene that Magnus was entranced by.
He totally forgot that he could kill one or two of those scorpion-humans and take their characteristics for a moment.
"Right," Magnus finally remembered after a splash of blood reached him.
"I can do that,"
He secretly sent Javelin into the chaos and waited for a good moment. The tribesmen below him were all at the 1-star to 2-star level. It was enough for Javelin to assassinate secretly.
And so, as the battlefield rocked back and forth like a brutal meat grinder of poison, Javelin's body suddenly expanded.
He grew into his wind leopard state and ferociously pounced forth. He targetted a weak scorpion man and tore his body apart, sending its stinger and pincers in Magnus' direction.
Magnus caught the likely characteristics with his gravity.
"And that should be 7." Magnus smiled to himself, "Three more to go,"