Anna sat in the Teacher's Lounge, looking over Naju's research about Dark Lords and their arsenal of abilities and their armies. As she glanced over her works, she began to hatch ideas on how to use Naju's formula to work in Genesis's light.
She took a sip of her coffee, leaning back in her seat and setting down the pages upon the table and closed her eyes. 'A Dark Lord can just hatch Monsters from Eggs... and it's similar to a Shepard calling his sheep...'
'Opposite of Monsters are Heroes, but I can't just bring people from the dead. I don't have that kind of power, nor do I want to tamper with the afterlife...' Anna thought to herself, stressfully running her hand through her hair.
She sat up straight once again, looking at Naju's formula on how she creates Monsters to be ready for Dark Lords to deploy. She noticed she needed DNA for Monsters, but she knew getting DNA for Humans weren't going to be an easy task and willingly.
"It's not like I can create people from dirt...I'm not God. Ugh...how am I going to get on her level of skill? Artificial Humans take too long to make, and I can't even use the humanoid monsters..." Anna sighed softly, flipping through more of the research until one piece caught her eye.
There was an entire section to Naju's research dealing with Heroes, their ranks, and their classes and variations. As she flipped through the notes, she noticed Naju had recorded Hero Ranks reaching Special Grade aka reaching up to 24 Stars.
Anna sat up straight in her seat, reading through the instructions to make Units and Valkyries without needing to acquire DNA from living beings. To create Units and Valkyrias the mortal way, they would unironically need the assistance from a Dark Lord or a Dark Lord Constructor.
"Why does Naju have this information..? Was she really planning on making Units and Valkyrias? What does she truly know about Nox..?" Anna questioned to herself, continuing to read over the notes Naju have her.
First, Anna would need to be inside a Zone that contains two rooms called Breath of Life and the Secret Laboratory. For the ingredients needed, all she would need is some dirt from the ground, but depending on the quality of the dirt depends on the quality of the Unit or Valkyria.
Once obtaining the dirt, she would then need to place the dirt inside a incubator within the Secret Laboratory for the process to begin which takes time depending on the quality of dirt. Cheaper dirt takes only 3 Days to develop while more enriched, carefully chosen dirt takes approximately 40 Days to finish.
After finishing their molds and figures, they are then to be taken out to the Breath of Life facility, where they will breath the breath of God through their lungs, obtaining life and their purpose. Unit and Valkyrie Creation can only be done by Dark Lords with Iridescent Energy, and those without it only create 3 Star Humanoid Monsters.
"Hmm...sounds easy enough. To make a Valkyria, I would need to take the rib from the Unit and undergo the same process at half the time. Wow, Yuvah really thought this out for His Dark Lords," Anna said, taking another sip of her coffee and hummed to herself.
"Origins 2:7-25... This is literally how Yuvah made Adamiel and Eva. I suppose I could give this a try in the future with Nox...but how could I convince him to try this..? And how did Naju find out this process..? Was there a Dark Lord before Nox that could do this..?" Anna questioned to herself, setting down the research papers once again.
---------------------
Steven and Angelyce rushed across the Virgo Campus, Steven looking back as they were being chased by West's group of delinquents, the two picking up the pace through the courtyard until they eventually reached the walls of the Zone, a deadend.
Steven panted and bent down to touch his knees, catching his breath slowly and stood back up onto his feet, turning around to face West's faction. "Geez, we ain't even on the Bounty List, why are you chasing us?"
"Right? What did we do for you all to chase us down like this?" Angelyce asked, using her magic to summon her staff in her hands.
"Simple, anyone allied with Nox and his Council are enemies, per orders of Lord Reinhart of Squad XII. However, we were tasked to not kill you so take gratitude in our leader's mercy," One delinquent chuckled, reaching toward his side toward his holster.
Steven glanced down at the delinquent's waist, his eyes slightly widening as he noticed the delinquent wielded a gun, the tattoos upon his body glowing brightly and awakening his and Angelyce's power. Angelyce grinned with glee as Steven awakened her power, her eyes gleaming a beautiful golden glow.
As the delinquent fired his rounds at the two, Angelyce warped the two of them out of harm's way, boosting Steven toward the group like a speeding bullet. Steven let out a bellow as he rushed through the delinquents, knocking each one of them away with his Heat Boost.
"Don't just stand around! Get those two! We could use their power to take Nox down!" One delinquent ordered, rushing toward Steven to try to strike him down.
Steven dodged the swings of the delinquents bat, a burst of flames pushing the delinquent back and leaving him open for Steven's straight punch to the delinquent's solar plexus, causing him to sink to his knees. Steven dodged another attack from behind then caught the second swing of another bat, using his body heat to melt the bat.
"There's one thing you all should know about me...I am the Leader of Squad VIII. The Lion King, the King of Beasts, and powered by the Might of God. You honestly expect me to bow before anyone before my Lord of Lords..?" Steven asked, chuckling softly as his hair began to set ablaze in a primal frenzy.
The delinquents grunted at Steven's primal heat, the heat feeling vastly familiar to the heatwave I caused during my first encounter with West. They all began to spread out avoiding my flames while Angelyce lingered in the background, giggling softly at Steven's primal fury.
"Hey, Steven!~ Don't have all the fun without me! Now that you've awakened my power, I can join in too!" Angelyce called out, waving behind Steven to gain his attention.
Steven glanced back at Angelyce, letting out a soft sigh, a small smile forming at his lips at her comment. "Just don't get in my way, okay? Or you'll be paying double for our failure."
"Yeah, yeah! I know the drill!" Angelyce hummed, stretching her arms and stuck her staff into the ground, twinkling lavender aura slowly spiralling around her weapon as a warp point. "Let's do this!"
Leona wandered into the Virgo Parking Lot, watching as Steven and Angelyce readied themselves to fight against West's crew. As she saw Steven, her eyes widened slightly and she quickly hid behind a car to watch from the shadows.
Her tail swayed slightly as she stared at him, her instincts drawn to Steven from his familiar presence. 'Steven...Why are you here..?'
Steven pounded his fists together, flames spiralling around his arms and forming into the shape of Lion Heads. "Let's get this hunt started.."
Steven's body became a blur as he rushed forward, engaging in battle against the group of delinquents. Each delinquent began to swarm around him like fire ants, swinging their weapons in hopes of landing one decisive blow against his body.
Steven's movements were to quick, his blazing speeds too much for the group to handle alone. Defeating each one with a single blow, he cleared a way for him and Angelyce to escape into another Room of the Zone.
"Let's go, Angie! While they're still down!" Steven called down, dashing ahead through the vast parking lot.
Angelyce grabbed her staff and threw it ahead, teleporting toward it and sat on top of her staff, flying behind Steven at top speeds. She glanced behind them, noticing one of the delinquents had jumpstarted a car and began driving behind them.
"Ugh! These guys just don't know when to quit!" Angelyce groaned, crossing her arms and glancing around the parking lot quickly.
"What are you thinking about in the little dark mind of yours? It better not be anything stupid!" Steven asked, looking over at Angelyce and watching her hatch an idea in her mind.
Angelyce's lips curled into a dark smirk, her eyes shimmering with a cunning plan then she uncrossed her arms to execute her on the fly plan. "Hey, Steven, you are a Prince right?"
"Huh?" Steven asked with bewilderment, turning around to run backwards to witness what Angelyce had planned.
"I hope you have enough to cover my bail if Prince Nox finds out about this heinous idea, but we need to get them off us!" Angelyce said, marking all the cars within the parking lot and summoned a volley of fiery arrows behind her.
"You better not—" Steven yelled, grunting heavily as she fired each of the arrows at the cars around us.
The arrows struck the cars, each arrow lighting up and detonating into a chain explosion. The delinquent driving the car was forced to swerve around the explosions, each one becoming vast in numbers until a single massive explosion took place, smoke covering the entire parking lot.
The shockwave of the explosion reach Angelyce and Steven, blowing both of them away in the distance, causing both of them to yell out in distress. Everyone within the area fled the destruction, their frightened screams filling the air.
Luciel hurried over to the window of the Virgo Department Hall, noticing a massive smoke cloud coming from the Virgo Parking Lot and gasped lightly. "What the— What could've happened..?"
"I don't know, but it's getting bad... Where is Nox?" Fleur asked, looking over at Effie and Luciel.
Effie and Luciel looked over at Fleur with a shrug, no one having seen me since the starting morning. The three girls glanced back out the window at the explosion, each of them worried for the safety of those caught within the chaos.
"So, it's all starting huh? The total chaos is spreading throughout the campus. Both Squad IV and XII put out a hit on all of us," A familiar voice sounded behind the three girls.
They each turned around, noticing Chester and Queen standing behind them. A smile formed on the girls' faces, relieved to see the two of them once again. Luciel went over to Chester and Queen, catching them up on my plans for the last days of my trial.
Chester hummed softly at Luciel's explanation, looking over at Queen with his hands in his jacket pockets. "You know, I had a feeling Nox's plan was Total War...but there's something I don't quite understand."
"What?" Luciel asked, tilting her head with curiosity.
"It's Nox. He hasn't really been out since he started the trials. So far, the only ones causing chaos is the students of the campus. He's been absent and it's strange for a Dark Lord to not be active within their own Zone," Chester answered, staring ahead out the window with a thoughtful expression.
Queen hummed at Chester's comment, glancing up at the roof and tapped her finger against her chin. "Well...maybe he's waiting? I mean from what you tell me, Nox is never the aggressor in any situation."
"I suppose he's waiting to flip the script. It only makes sense with how he made the Zone. It's only fitting for someone who wants to break a cycle buried under holy traditions. I think." Chester said, continuing to stare out the window with a distant gaze.
"You can't just say I think after dropping that kind of theory," Queen scoffed and rolled her eyes then looked over at the girls. "What are you three doing?"
"We're planning to recruit some new people on our side to prepare for the Total War! We still don't know who to being on our side yet. Did you wanna join?" Effie asked, smiling at Queen with invitation.
Queen nodded then looked over at Chester, about to ask him if he wanted to join, but he ended up wandering off. "Chess? Where are you going?"
"You four go on without me, I have something I have to do. Don't wait up on me now," Chester hummed, disappearing around a corner like a slick cat.
The four girls were left confused by Chester's sudden leave, but shrugged it off to focus on their recruitment process. Effie began to go over her likely candidates as they walked together down the halls, naming the people who all went to Abylon's lessons and those who took a blessing from one of the three Departments.
--------------------------
Steven and Angelyce stood up from the ground, looking around their surroundings and noticed they were in the main Virgo Campus. In the distance they could still see the aftermath of Angelyce's stunt, the smoke cloud continuing to fume in the air.
"Damn, girl...you went overboard didn't you?" Steven asked, glancing over at Angelyce and nudging her head.
Angelyce smacked her lips and pushed my hand away playfully, looking up with with mock annoyance. "Hey, I saved both of us buddy! You should be thanking me!"
Steven turned his nose up at Angelyce's fussing, letting out an exasperated sigh then turned around to check were they were. "Yeah, thanks I guess. Anyways, with the amount of noise we made, we certainly attracted trouble to us."
"Hey! They're over here!" Kisoo, a renown thug from Tang's squad, yelled out, charging toward Steven and Angelyce with his knife ready.
Tang's faction of delinquents rushed toward Steven and Angelyce, the two of them sighing loudly before taking off once again. Kisoo pointed toward the two, dashing after them as if they had a price on the top of their heads, only viewing the two of them as money.
As Kisoo ran forward, a leg reached out in front of him, causing him to trip and fall onto the ground. He grunted as he quickly turned around, noticing Chester standing above him with a smirk on his face.
"You... Get out of the way!" Kisoo yelled, lunging toward Chester and swinging his knife to cut his neck.
Chester slipped backwards, evading Kisoo's slice with his hands still in his pockets. He looked backwards noticing Kisoo's girlfriend charging toward him, leaping backwards to avoid her attack as well, causing her to stumble upon Kisoo.
"West has been hired by Squad XII and Tang has been hired by Squad IV if I'm correct. Both Bethel and Reinhart decided to work together to capture the Council, but I was already ahead of the schemes," Chester said, his pupils shifting into a sharp, cat like shape.
"Mi-sung, get behind me. Remember, this guy was from Neverland, so his powers are all wonky..." Kisoo warned, pushing his girlfriend behind him. "The rest of you, after Steven and his girl! Don't let them escape!"
"Right!" His men said, running after Steven and Angelyce with high urgency.
Chester watched as Kisoo released his team, closing his eyes and lowering his head with a soft sigh. "You know, you're gonna need more than just a knife to beat me right?"
Kisoo scoffed at Chester's cool confidence, readying his knife and rushed toward him with a vicious slice, but he simply phased through Chester's body as if he wasn't there. He grunted as he slid forward, looking back and noticing Chester still standing where he was.
Kisoo roared as he thrusted his knife at Chester's back, but by sheer luck, a gust of wind pushed Kisoo's arm to the side, changing his thrust into a slice and only cutting the fabrics of Chester's jacket. He stood in confusion, wondering what was going on and why he couldn't land a hit.
"Allow me to tell you about my home, Neverland. You don't live through Neverland, you survive it. You conquer it. And you leave and never turn back. Do you know who I was within that place? My ranking and status?" Chester asked, turning around to look at Kisoo with a wide, cat-like grin.
Kisoo froze with hesitation as he stared at Chester, watching his shadows form into the shape of a large Cheshire Cat behind him like an Avatar. He took a step backward, gulping heavily as he began to witness Chester's true power.
"I was the Cheshire Cat in Neverland...and beating Neverland, I was allowed to escape toward a better future. To die in Neverland...it would be a disgrace to everyone who suffered there. You never stood a chance, Kisoo," Chester revealed, chuckling at the sight of Kisoo's subtle fear.
The sound of a sniper echoed in the air, a speeding bullet tagging Chester's arms and causing him to grunt loudly in pain. Kisoo looked to the side, seeing Eurydice in the distance taking aim at Chester from the top of the Virgo Department building.
Taking this chance to strike, Kisoo lunged toward Chester with a slice to his neck, but Chester quickly hid inside his Cheshire Cat, the shadow cat letting out a loud roar and generating shockwaves to push everything around it away. The shadow cat began thrashing around, forcing Kisoo to create space away from it.
Eurydice watched the shadow cat through the scope of her sniper, a cold chill going down her spine as she watched it thrash around. "Chester...so this is your real power..."
The Cheshire Cat let out another roar, generating illusions of Chester around the area and each one turning invisible. Chester exited his shadow cat fully healed, rolling his shoulders and looking over at the Virgo Department with a calculated gaze.
"You know...I don't really follow the Zodiacs as much as everyone else does. My power isn't even remotely close to a Zodiac, but it has been enhanced by the Blessings from the Virgo and Sagittarius Departments," Chester said, turning his attention back toward Kisoo with a calm smirk.
"I know Eurydice is up there, but she's not a danger to me. She's only up there per orders of her Princess, but how much longer will she remain still before she follows Nox's commands?" Chester asked, slipping his hands back into his pockets.
Kisoo scoffed at Chester's question, readying his knife once again and got into his stance. "It doesn't matter because Eurydice is loyal to the Princess!"
Kisoo dashed toward Chester once again with a wild punch, but Chester took the strike head on with a chuckle. Kisoo noticed the attack did nothing to him, his mind beginning to race with questions then he quickly sliced the side of Chester's neck, leaving a deep wound.
Chester stood still as blood pooled down his neck, his smirk still remaining upon his lips as his wound slowly closed as if he were never cut. His body became invisible quickly, giving Kisoo a scare and causing him to stumble backwards. The illusions of Chester began to charge at him with strikes, each one dealing more damage than the last.
The last illusion struck Kisoo's chest with a power blow, causing him to falter onto one knee. Chester reappeared behind Kisoo, placing his hand upon his head and casting an illusion upon him, dragging him into a mind scape of Neverland.
Kisoo opened his eyes, noticing he was chained to the ground with a device strapped to his neck with a shape displayed upon the screen of the choker on the back. He looked around, noticing he was in a large cell, just him and Chester.
"This is one of the games Neverland had us play. The Jack's Game. All you have to do is guess the shape correctly and you live, but if not...you die," Chester explained, looking down at the screen on the back of Kisoo's choker. "You have Diamond, Spade, Heart, and Club to choose from.."
Kisoo panted heavily as the stakes were drastic now, his body breaking into heavy sweats as he didn't know what to choose. He grunted as he tried to break out of the hold he was in, letting out a distressed yell.
"No one can hear you... this illusion you're in is only for you. Don't worry, you don't die on the outside, but your Spirit will be inactive and whether the night takes you or not is dependant on your own will. Now choose..." Chester pressed, the grip upon Kisoo's hair growing tighter.
Kisoo grunted in pain at Chester's impressive strength, the pain upon his scalp being too much to bare. "Heart! I choose Heart!"
Chester smirked at Kisoo's answer, releasing his head then walked around to stand in front of him then crouched down to his level. "You chose right...but I'm not done with you yet. You're gonna give me all the information I need..."
"Fuck you..." Kisoo spat with defiance, meeting Chester's gaze with a glare.
Chester hummed at Kisoo's answer then stood up straight, slipping his hands into his pockets and released Kisoo from the illusion. "Alright, if that's how you wish to play it, we can play rough."
Kisoo stood up quickly from the ground and grabbed his knife, pointing it toward Chester then lunged toward him again. "You bastard!"
Suddenly, a swift figure rushed toward Kisoo, tackling him away from Chester and pinned him down. Kisoo grunted under the weight of the person, looking up and noticing Seven retraining him.
"What the— You idiot, what are you doing?!" Kisoo yelled, fighting against Seven's restraints.
"Stopping you idiots from making a stupid decision! There's only one way this ends and if you take this route, the entire campus is doomed! Today is the last day to prevent something catastrophic, listen to me you idio—" Seven began, groaning as Kisoo pushed him off onto the ground.
Seven tried to get back up, but Kisoo grabbed Seven's pants leg and pulled himself toward Seven, stabbing his leg to stop his momentum. Seven yelled in pain, catching Kisoo's wrist upon the next stab and struggled due to his weakened strength.
"You fucker! You betrayed your Princess, you're one of them!" Kisoo yelled as he began to overpower Seven to stab his chest.
Eurydice gasped at the struggle, taking aim at Kisoo and pulled the trigger, the sound of her sniper echoing into the sky once more. Suddenly all struggle stopped, the birds flying away in the air with their calls.
Seven gasped and panted, looking down at a dead Kisoo on top of him, seeing the bullet hole on the top of his head. He exhaled loudly, looking up at the sky and silently thanking Eurydice for the save.
"Hm, you're a bigger risk taker than I thought. You definitely remind me of someone I used to know," Chester said, walking toward Seven and looking down at him with a smirk.
Seven looked up at Chester, sighing softly and closing his eyes to rest, digital particles generating around his leg to heal the stab wound within it. Eurydice sighed heavily and dropped her sniper onto the roof floor, looking down at her hands as she realized she had killed one of her own allies to save Seven, her heart pounding against her chest.