I'm not sure how long it has been since both Azreal and I were caught and put into this bizarre looking pedestal. Much to our surprises, even these guys knows when to feed a prisoner. Usually they would only left us to die or give us something cheap. But not like this...
"Here." Lord Kitsuneki placed down a tray with a bunch of different foods on it.
Azreal wondered, "I didn't know Nova would be this considerate."
Kitsuneki then told us, "To be quite honest...He never mentioned about feeding you guys. He just said not to let you guys die."
"So you give us this delicious food, then? Why go this far and instead just get something cheap?" I asked.
"It's all a matter of perspective, Lala. Dig deep into it and you might just find the answer to your struggle." He was talking in cryptic.
"You're not even making any sense." I shake my head.
"What are you doing, Kitsuneki?" someone else enters the chamber. "Are you feeding them you're cooking's as well?"
Kitsuneki replied, "Is there a problem with that?"
"Nothing." the other one sighed. "I think it's almost time for us to get ready...the girls are getting through the twins by now." a familiar man wearing a nice tuxedo can be seen walking into the chamber.
Kitsuneki then said, "Is that so...then I'll get myself ready. You take care of yourself, Crescendo."
So he was Lord Crescendo. I knew he looked familiar. That masquerade-like mask really seals the deal about his identity.
"Oh I will take care of myself, Kitsuneki. You and Escher will be on the last line of defense protecting the last floor...You should take care of yourself." Crescendo crudely smiled.
Kitsuneki shrugged as he left the chamber and closed the door. I looked at the tray and begun munching through the piece of sandwich that was prepared by Kitsuneki. It's undeniably good, to be quite honest. The texture of the meat was tenderly crushed and grilled using a decent grill. The veggies was neatly washed and conditioned so that it will bring out the crunchiness of the veggies. Everything about it was good. Kitsuneki was a competent cook. That really caught me by surprise.
Another thing that caught me by surprise was the soup. It was mutton soup. The meat of the mutton falls apart just by merely scooping it with the spoon without putting much effort into it. He probably pressure cooked the meat to make it so tender and soft. I can't believe I'm enjoying a meal made by the enemy.
"Enjoying the meal, princess?" Crescendo was jealous, "I didn't know he made soup for you guys. He only made us sandwich. What gives?"
Azreal then said, "Maybe you guys don't need the soup?"
"Shut it!" yelled Crescendo.
But there was something wrong with the soup...It wasn't that there was a cockroach or anything. It was a good soup with good meat. But I found something. It was a key. Did Kitsuneki put this into my bowl? Not sure of what was going on, I quickly grab the key and hid it from Crescendo's eyes as I tried to break free from it.
"Hey you, what are you doing?" Crescendo's unfortunately heard something suspicious.
"Crap." I hasten myself as I tried to break free from the chains.
"Trying to break free, are you? Well, you won't be able to break that lock unfortunately." He smirked.
I stopped and grinned, "Of course I can't do that, Crescendo. Kitsuneki and Nova already told me that it is futile. But what I can do now however...Is kicking your ass!"
I kicked the food tray up as it distracted Crescendo for a second. I quickly used the key to break myself free from the chains that was holding me. I was able to successfully break free from that and I immediately tried to take out Crescendo with my fist. But Crescendo was able to suddenly pull himself back as if he was flying. It was definitely his ability that allowed him to pull or push himself into anything. Kinda reminded me a lot of how I used my Guardian Spirit, Dymenshne to help push or pull me away if I wanted a quick sidestep.
The tray that I kicked suddenly floated and flew towards me. I was able to guard against it thanks to Dymenshne protecting me. So what I assumed just now was true. The two of us technically have a similar type of magic. Technically levitating inanimate object despite it falls under different circumstances.
Crescendo smiles as he said to me, "So we're fighting again, huh? Too bad that little dragon wasn't here to help me out." He reminded me about the Music Festival.
"And you're all alone now. Against me! A Cardinal!" I punched the ground as a pillar was pulled up from the ground.
I grabbed the pillar like it was a melee weapon with all my strength. It definitely caught both Azreal and Lord Crescendo by surprise to find out how strong I was. I swing the pillar as best I could while Crescendo fails to dodge it in time as he was caught swinging along with the pillar. I let go of the pillar as it crashed into the walls.
Crescendo was caught under the pillar but he was able to raise it up using his levitating ability. He breaks the pillar in half and threw at me. I was able to get away from the pillar but all of a sudden the pillars were squished into pieces. I couldn't dodge the hundreds of sharp pieces of the pillars. Some article of my clothing were damaged thanks to that. Some of the pieces also got stuck on my clothing. But I cleaned myself off as I saw Crescendo preparing for another attack.
"Dymenshne, Break!" I summoned my Guardian Spirit as it flies toward Crescendo.
Crescendo retaliate by pulling apart the windows of the chamber behind him and directed it toward Dymenshne. Dymenshne punched the air, creating a breaking glass effect on thin air. The air 'breaks' as my entire body instantly transported in front of Dymenshne's fist. Crescendo was once again surprised to see me appearing all of a sudden as I tried to do a flying lariat on him. The lariat connected as the two of us crash landed to the floor and into a couple pieces of furniture there.
"Are you alright, Lala?" Azreal was concerned.
I replied, "I'm okay."
Lord Crescendo suddenly floats up as he gets out from the destroyed furniture. All of the furniture was floating behind him. I got up as quickly as I could as Dymenshne came to my side to guard for me. One by one, the furniture zooms toward me but Dymenshne was able to destroy them just in time. Dymenshne then tried to punch Crescendo but the Chaos Conductor proceeds to forcefully ground Dymenshne to the floor with his ability.
As he was distracted by that, I run and jumped over Dymenshne as I pulled in myself a couple of windows from the chamber. The glass window smashed into pieces during the process but this only benefit me as the glass pieces flies to the conductor. He guards it by pulling in a random table nearby. He was lucky that there were still a couple of extra tables left. But that didn't perturb me at all as I proceed to kick the table from the airtime I had. The table split in half as my kick immediately hit Crescendo's face. Now that's a lot of damage.
Lord Crescendo rolls away from me as he tries to get himself back up. But I didn't gave him the opportunity for that as Dymenshne helped me transmit myself right in front of him. I punched the ground as Crescendo bounces up into the air. Barrages of punch ensues as I try to juggle the conductor in the air. I was able to hit quite a lot to him until he shifts away with his magic. He stretches his neck as he then angrily flicked his finger, forcing me to drop down to the floor with a forceful might.
"Fate has decided that it was time for you to get crushed..." Lord Crescendo slowly walked toward me.
But he forgot about Dymenshne. My guardian spirit tried to help me out but the conductor immediately flailed his arm to the left as Dymenshne was quickly thrown away by the force of his ability. Dymenshne was stuck on the wall the same way as I was stuck on the floor.
"This force..." My entire body was stuck like magnet. Even to the point of probably making a hole with the shape of me.
"Where was I?" Lord Crescendo shifts back his focus on me. "Oh yes. I'll let the laws of gravity decide your fate."
Lord Crescendo begins to conduct some sort of concert as he flail around his arm like a real conductor. While he was doing that, a bunch of material float and traveled to a single location, a couple of meter above me. Lord Crescendo continues to collect as many other material he could get to create a huge ball that will eventually crush me. Once he was satisfied with it, he let go of it and let the gravity decide my fate. I tried my best to get up but there was no escaping from this. I closed my eyes as all of the huge ball drop down to me.
Lord Crescendo laughed, "Looks like your fate has been sealed! This has been a wonderful orchestra, Lala Magnetite."
"Oh yeah?" Suddenly I was behind him.
"What the?!" Crescendo jumped as he saw me standing still. "How?!" he couldn't believe it.
I told him, "This is where I'll be explaining the details, huh..."
In laymen terms...considering that I am adept in the art of Earth Magic, I would know few tricks that would help me get out of that mess. Since all of my body parts were stuck on the ground, I used the ground itself to create a hole, fit just right for me to get through. I had to dig very deep until I was out of Crescendo's range. Once I did that, I used what's left of my ability to get back up from a different location.
"But I'm not going to tell you that, Crescendo." I was determined.
But Crescendo springs back to reality as he prepared for another move.
I continued to talk, "But there's one thing I think you probably don't see me doing all the time."
Suddenly, a small tremor shakes the chamber. Lord Crescendo was confused as a crack beneath him had started to appear. The Conductor floats away but suddenly a green vine gripped his legs. More vines begins to appear as they all tightly captured him.
I stretched my neck and told him, "It's been a while...But I've always able to manipulate plants and vegetation as well...I just haven't shown it to anyone for a long time..."
I think the last time I did show this ability to the public was during that training class in the 1st semester. I used it against my ex-boyfriend. I don't think I need to recall his name but things happened in between those timeline. I'm single now and I still have a duty that I must do. And that was to take responsibility for Cyclone White. He is my classmate and as The Cardinal of Magic Studies, I must do everything I can to save him.
"Time to face the music, Crescendo!" I shouted.
Dymenshne quickly charges toward Crescendo and smashed him with its large shield. Crescendo was knocked out thanks to that. The vine then pulled him in as the conductor was then stuck onto the ground, still knocked out.
I let out a sigh of relief and cleaned off my hand as I said, "Well that's that. Now then, time to save-"
Then all of a sudden, I felt severe pain as I slowly dropped down to the floor. I didn't feel like it was severe blow, more like a knocking out kind of attack. I could hear Azreal screaming my name in the background. Then, from the edge of my vision...I could see a familiar pair of boots walking into my field of vision.
I heard the voice, "You did well taking care of him..." The voice gets closer to me. "I'd applaud you for that but that's about it. I've seen enough of your fighting spirit."
He grabbed me and chained me back to the same altar I was previously on. At that point was when I finally saw who it was. It was Kitsuneki. The one that I assume to have given me the key for the chains.
He spoke to me, "You fought well and you prove yourself as The Cardinal for your class. But that's all for now, Lala Magnetite. I only did what I did so that I could see how you fare against one of us. I can at least respect you on one part...you put your words right at the same level as your actions. Well done."
Did he really just wanted to toy around with me? Or was he really trying to help me? I'm as confused as anyone else. I thought he would be on our side but I guess that was just a false sense of security that he made me believe in.
"I have to go now...It's my turn to unsheathe my blade as I cross it against the girls downstairs..."
"...You won't win." I told him that.
To which he surprisingly replied, "I hope so. Don't wanna get disappointed. I also wanna see what you mean by 'the smallest light that shines the brightest'... I wanna know if he is right."
He left me be as I was still chained up at the same place as I was previously. From what Kitsuneki had said to us for the past couple of hours, I can safely say that the shogun was far more threatening than I expected. Almost the same level as Nova. I don't know what it is but Kitsuneki seemed to have the same vibe as the rest of us. His presence was not endearing enough to see it as a truly evil person. He was on a moral compass of some kind and felt like he was enduring what ever was he was enduring. The Chaos Shogun was definitely a fascinating person, to say the least...
There was one thing that bothers me though. Who did he meant when he said 'he' just now?
TO BE CONTINUED