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Ulvala, Gray Phoenix Tower, 50 Floors, Time: 11:00 AM
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"I guess I don't have to explain what we've been doing," Ludwig said as he walked around and looked at his face, he had a confident smirk on his face.
James and Mianne kept their distance from him. He couldn't be trusted; he seemed like such a shady figure. "Stay behind me, Mianne."
"That kid already explained everything to you. The Perfect Flame," Ludwig said as he chuckled and appreciated how well his dream was going.
"Why are you doing this? All of these children have the worst childhood because of you!" Mianne yelled, eager to know the reason behind their cruel actions.
These children had so much potential, and she couldn't bear to see their hopes and dreams being taken away by these LUNATICs. She wouldn't stand for it.
"This world is impure. We need everything to build the 'New World'," Ludwig answered with a smug expression as he gazed out into the world.
"A world without any conflict or wars. I am helping them build the artificial suns, our current sun will explode in a couple of centuries," Ludwig said as he stared at the sun, placing his hand over it.
"All of this just for sacrificing children's hopes and dreams?! All for planning so that the future will live?!" James exclaimed, unable to believe that this was the reason why they kidnapped these innocent children.
"Building the new world is just a bunch of bull crap! Can't you appreciate how beautiful this world is?!" James continued, expressing his disbelief and frustration.
Ludwig laughed, realizing that these people could never understand his ideals and everything that Twilight had been doing.
"The world is healing, and I won't lie about that," Ludwig said as he rubbed his neck and walked closer to the duo.
"Mianne, stay close." James signaled for Mianne to position herself behind him, to which she nodded.
"It's just that we are speeding up the process and fixing the mistake," Ludwig said as he stopped in his place.
"So if you try to stop the process, you will be dealing with the systems," Ludwig added, pulling out his red shiny cutlass.
"Mianne, get ready," James said as Mianne nodded and tightly gripped her cleric staff.
"Guess that's your final answer, huh?" Ludwig said, pressing his thumb against his blade to admire its beauty.
"Well then, En garde!" Ludwig exclaimed as he leaped towards the duo, leaving three burning footprints on the floor. He tried to swing his blade and cut James's head right off.
James barely dodged the attack, but the blade managed to cut a tiny piece of his front hair. The blade seemed to emit a fiery aura.
"Not bad, ay..." Ludwig attempted another attack, slashing in an X-shaped manner.
James blocked the attack with his halberd, "Not this time!"
"Hmph, no wonder why Koras fell to your hands. You ain't half bad," Ludwig commented as their weapons clashed.
"But still not enough!" Ludwig added, pressing his weapon harder, trying to make James fall on his back.
"Haaugh!" James struggled, but he held his ground and tried to stop Ludwig with all his might.
"Guardian!" Mianne summoned her guardian, who dashed towards both of them. The guardian successfully slashes Ludwig away from James, leaving him surprised.
"A summon magic? A holy one at that. It was pretty rare to see someone possess this kind of magic these days." Ludwig was surprised at this, but it could even add more fuel to Ludwig's plan.
"Thank you, Mianne. Eye of the Sun!" James swung his halberd at Ludwig with all his might, the fire flared up as he let out a battle cry.
Ludwig took a big hit to his stomach, even more surprised now. 'A sun-like magic? That would mean...'
"Amazing! Ahahah! We could fuel the perfect flame with your magic!" Ludwig was not taking this seriously as he kept looking forward to his future.
"Heh, I thought I would kill you and go about my days, but you're way too valuable to die," Ludwig said as he stared at the final piece of his dream: James.
"I guess I won't go too soft on you two now!" Ludwig said as he rushed toward James. The guardian stood in front and tried to attack Ludwig.
He proceeded to dodge the attack and slashed the guardian in an X-shaped manner repeatedly.
The guardian seemed to disappear as Ludwig continued to rush toward James.
Mianne started to bleed from her head, "Dammit... I knew that the drawback would be this bad..." She clenches it in pain.
"Mianne! Don't worry, I would take it from here!" James prepared himself as Ludwig swung his sword at him.
James dodged, but Ludwig was way faster as he brought his sword down and stabbed his shoulder.
"Gah!" James yelped in pain as he tried to swing his halberd at Ludwig.
Ludwig swiftly dodged it and stabbed his shoulder even deeper.
"Let go of me!" James yelled as he tried to get the cutlass out of his shoulder.
Ludwig laughed as he lifted James into the air with his cutlass. "Aw, look at you. Stuck and can't even move," Ludwig smirked as he watched James struggle to get it out.
"Let go of him this instance! You dirty old ass man!" Mianne said with anger as she swung at him with her staff.
"Awwww, little lady thinks she could free her boys," Ludwig laughed as he blocked the attack with ease. Mianne was furious.
"Well, if you're done, I will be taking your boy toy—" Before Ludwig could finish, his eyes were almost popping out of his skull from a sudden action.
Mianne decided to do the most mature thing ever: she hit him right in the crotch with her staff.
"Take that, damn old timer."
"FUCCCCC-"
Ludwig let go as he held his two best friends while showing the entire world a display of profanity, "OH OH! I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL BOTH OF YOU FOR THAT, YOU TWAT!"
"Yay, free at last- Woah!" James fell to the floor as he finally got the cutlass out. He saw both of his items on the ground: the halberd and the stone rune.
He picked up both of them, but the halberd collided with the stone.
"NEW OWNER DETECTED: SUMMON ELDRITCH." The rune let out a voice and started to glow with green light.
Everyone, except James, stopped what they were doing to stare at what was happening.
"What?" James said, not realizing what was going on.
A puddle of swamp water appeared on the floor, and a bush-like hand clawed its way out from it. Soon, a creature emerged.
It was covered in swamp water, dripping wet. Its humanoid body was a dark green bush filled with thorns, and its head was a bush with one glowing yellow eye on the left side, "Graar..."
"An Eldritch?" Ludwig said, surprised to see that James had a rune with such power.
"What's that thing?" Mianne asked, unsure if she was seeing things, some kind of bush man just appeared out of nowhere.
The eldritch looked around and spotted James, who was still clueless about what had just happened. Jame looked up to see the eldritch pointing at him.
"Umm, hi?" Jame greeted awkwardly, unsure of what to do in this situation.
"GRAAAR!" The eldritch roared at him, and the eldritch suddenly rushed toward him at a medium pace.
"AAAAAAH!" James was frightened by this creature and stumbled as he tried to prepare himself.
"Graar..." The eldritch decided to attack him with its vine. Jame swung his halberd around to keep the vine away from him, as the creature tried to maneuver its vine around. At the back of its body, another vine decided to do something.
"Relentless Shine!" James stabbed at multiple vines around him, losing count of how many there were. It was like they wouldn't stop coming.
"If I don't defeat this thing right now, It would wreck this world!" James decided to rush forward to stop this creature once and for all, seeming determined in what he was doing.
"Grraar!" The eldritch prepared itself by making its lower body roots dig into the floor. James decided to swing his halberd at it.
The eldritch stopped swinging its vine, as the halberd was almost an inch away from its face.
The eldritch then decided to slap him with its vine, creating a scar on his face, letting out an 'ow' from James.
Mianne was looking around in her backpack, grabbing a comically large book. She flipped through it before coming to the page she was looking for, "Swamp Purgers...the creature of the swamp..."
"JAMES!" Mianne screamed as she rushed towards both of them before stopping by Ludwig.
"I am taking this advantage, no matter what," Ludwig stated as he tried to swing at Mianne, but her guardian finally came back and shielded the attack.
Swamp Purger kept slapping him, creating more scars than usual. James endured the attack over and over again.
Finally, he put all his force onto his halberd and pulled it out of the eldritch's grasp.
James decided to stab Swamp Purger with the spiked part, bringing it down to the ground.
"Plunge Explosion!" James decided to pull out his halberd before he slammed Swamp Purger with the axe part, creating massive cracks on the floor with a fire explosion.
James was panting at the attack, "Geez, I need to practice with that move more, it would drain my energy this much..."
The smoke cleared with Swamp Purger reconstructed itself into its original self again.
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