Rota returned the Void Bolt back to the sender with identical velocity, however, the Viper reacted almost perfectly, evading the attack at the very last moment as he leapt backward into the air.
"May, are you alright?" Wolf asked as he approached her.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied while wiping away her remaining tears. "We have other things to be worrying about right now."
Wolf was surprised by how calm and focused May seemed in this moment, as though she had become a whole different person.
Perhaps it was due to the weight that had been finally lifted off her shoulders from confronting the voiceless assassin.
"May!" Amber cried as she and Snapper ran toward them. "Don't scare us like that!"
"I'm sorry, Amber–"
"You can't just go running up to the enemy on your own; we have to stick together."
"She's right," Snapper agreed. "If we don't stick together, they're just gonna pick us off one by one… and besides, this was never even our fight to begin with."
"Aww, you poor things. You're all starting to feel left out, aren't you?" Jude said, feigning sympathy. "Here's an idea: why don't we all just play a fun game together?"
"I've had enough of your shi–!"
"Or I could just slaughter the lot of you without even lifting a finger."
Snapper immediately went quiet, knowing that his threat wasn't just a simple bluff.
Wolf, realizing there was practically no escape now, spoke up with curiosity.
"What kind of game?"
"Well, I'm glad to see that someone's interested. Ahem," Jude cleared his throat before he continued. "Within my arsenal there's a special card ability that I recently obtained; it's called 'Cold World'."
This can't be good, Snapper thought to himself.
"Now, you're all in luck, because in order for me to activate this card, I'll need to explain how it works, so listen carefully."
Everyone focused their attention on Jude, who had practically coerced them into participation.
"Once the card activates, the air will turn cold and a hat made of ice will spawn in a random location within a five-hundred-meter radius from the card's activation point."
He specified that it could appear anywhere from inside of buildings or even in the air, depending on where he chose to activate it.
"If I–the user–am able to find and make contact with this hat, an enemy of the user–one of you four–will turn into a frozen statue… Isn't that fun?" he laughed.
I'm not sure how being frozen could be considered fun, Wolf thought before asking…
"What happens if one of us touches the ice hat?"
"Then any frozen player on your team will be unfrozen, and if you don't have any frozen players when one of you makes contact with the ice hat, then you will freeze a player from my team."
"Your team!?" Snapper yelled in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Oops, did I forget to mention? I'm not going to be the only one on the opposing side."
At that moment, Jude raised his hand into the air.
"Come to me, my puppet."
From beside Wolf and his friends, something began to materialize.
"What the—" Snapper backed away, surprised when he caught a glimpse of long golden strands that elegantly fluttered around an expressionless face.
"Yes, Master." A voice–smooth as silk–spoke out from where Snapper had previously stood, as the glamorous image of Princess Meleragine appeared before them.
"Mel?" Wolf whispered in shock, but as he attempted to approach her, she began to reach for the handle of her blade.
"Come any closer, and I will not hesitate to strike you down," she warned with a ruthless tone and a stern gaze.
"I see..." Wolf kept his distance so as not to antagonize her further.
Amber glared at her in disbelief.
"I don't know what kind of spell Jude put on you, but you've gotta snap out of it." she said to her provokingly. "Are you just gonna let some weirdo order you around like this?"
"Hey! I'm right here, you know!" Jude frowned.
Amber clicked her tongue in frustration. "I thought you were stronger than that, Mel... guess I was wrong."
"Are you finished?" the princess impatiently wondered. "My master is still speaking."
With pity and disappointment lingering in her heart, Amber turned away from her.
"AHEM! Now, if you'll let me continue, I'll start explaining the rules…
"Once someone makes contact with the hat, it will respawn in another random location within the same radius. But be warned: the same individual cannot consecutively make contact with the hat and they will be prohibited from entering the 'zone', which is a one hundred and fifty meter radius around the ice hat, where the individual will begin to slowly freeze until they are completely frozen solid. The game only ends once everyone in a single team is completely frozen. That's all... Any questions?"
Wolf more or less understood the gist of what Jude was saying, but he felt as though he was purposely leaving out some key bits of information.
"How will we know when the ice hat spawns; is there some sort of indication?" he asked.
"I was wondering when someone would ask that. 'Cold World' is an ability with an environmental effect, so every time the ice hat spawns, it will begin to snow, and whenever the hat is claimed, the snow will clear until it spawns again. There are some other things I may have left out, but that's all part of the fun… Trust me."
"Trusting you is what got us here in the first place!" Snapper frowned.
"Tch, I hate surprises…" Amber groaned.
Within his Vision Field, Jude summoned the card.
"Well, now that you all understand the rules and what not, we can begin!
"Cold World!"
Suddenly the atmosphere turned bleak, accompanied by a thin fog that dampened their surroundings.
The air was so chilly that the hairs on everyone's skin began to stand as they began to shiver.
Woah, this feels even worse than the Nixous region, Amber thought, noticing her breath was now visible.
"Oh, and I forgot to mention..."
"What now?" Snapper moaned.
Just then, Wolf noticed the Viper back away slightly as though he were preparing for something to occur.
Jude grew a sinister smile. "As long as you play by the rules… anything goes."
Jude then summoned another card, which took everyone by surprise.
Another X-card?! Wolf questioned as he used Clairvoyance to read Jude's six-star card.
"Soul Strummer!" Upon activating his X-card, five long white strings began to grow from Jude's right forearm, covering it completely as it attached to the top of his wrist.
It was like his right arm had been turned into an instrument.
Snapper recoiled at Jude's grotesque arm in disgust.
"What kind of weapon is that?"
Jude held his arm up for a moment as if to flaunt his weapon proudly.
He then started playing with the strings.
The Viper, who was wearily observing Jude's actions, began to take a defensive stance while summoning a card of his own.
"Do.Re.Mi.Fa.So," Jude chanted while plucking the strings on his arm in a certain order. "Do.Re.Mi.Fa.So," he confirmed.
With each repetition, each of the strings flashed a certain color: purple, blue, red, yellow, and green were the colors that glowed respectively on each string on his arm.
"What's happening?" Amber questioned, showing signs of deep concern.
"I think there's something wrong," Wolf anxiously stated, watching as one of the strings on Jude's arm began to flash a bright red color.
"Do.Re.Mi." With a sweep of his fingers, Jude vigorously strummed the red string that vibrated across the middle of his arm.
Suddenly, a loud rumbling could be heard, as the whole area seemed to shake for a moment before an enormous wave of energy slowly erupted from around Jude.
Sensing a huge energy spike, Wolf urged everyone to "Get down!!"
The wave aggressively rippled through the air with a cataclysmic force that began to destroy and dismember every object in its path.
On impact, the wave sent the bodies of all the royal guards–including the semi-conscious Lieutenant–flying through the air in almost every direction; meanwhile, Wolf and his party struggled to maintain a steady hold on the ground.
While still on the roof, the Viper stomped the ground twice with his foot, causing a wall of reinforced earth to shoot up in front of him.
It shielded him from the wave, however, the building he was on began to collapse beneath him.
Noticing this, he was forced to jump into the air, causing the wave to knock him backwards into another building.
Wolf managed to wedge his dagger between the pavement tiles, preventing the wave from blowing him away.
Amber also did the same, however, May and Snapper were swiftly blown back by its sheer force.
"Shit!" he cried, before Snapper crashed into another fountain along the street.
"Eeyah!" May, on the other hand, managed to grab hold of a small railing on the side of the road, grasping it tightly with her metal prosthetic as her body ferociously waved against the harsh wind.
Then, shards of glass began to blow in her direction, compelling her to let go of the railing in order to shield her face. Her body was thrown into the air, and over many buildings, as though it weighed no less than a feather.
May! Wolf cried as he looked back at her helplessly.
"Dammit!" Amber yelled as her dagger loosened from the wedge between the floor tiles. "AHHH!"
Immediately after her dagger was free, she flipped backwards while flying high into the air the same way May did.
"AMBER!" Wolf called to her, but she had already disappeared over the buildings.
Just before Amber had been carried into the distance, he caught a brief glimpse of a light object that seemed like it was following her. What was that…?
Meanwhile, during all the chaos, Mel stood firmly, almost as if Jude's Soul Strummer ability had no effect on her at all.
She slowly began to approach Wolf with a menacing stride.
Wolf, who noticed her advancement behind him, decided to loosen his dagger from between the tiles.
Sorry about this…
Crash! His body was flung into hers with tremendous force, launching them both far into the other side of the district.
Jude's chaotic ability had now separated the group, casting them all into different parts of the Paradise District.
"That's much better," Jude smiled to himself with pride as he gazed at the destruction that surrounded him: some buildings had collapsed while others were almost completely destroyed. All glass around the area was completely shattered with dozens of lamps and fountains destroyed, and even the ground became rugged with cracks and large debris.
"Now…" Jude turned to see the muzzle of Viper's rifle, aimed directly at his head from point-blank range, "where were we?"