Seka, desperate to stand up, grabs her sword and sticks it to the ground as she casts a spell with the final bit of stamina she has left."Magic Ice — Weapon Master. Blizzard Glaze!" she casts the spell.
All the people in the audience keep looking at the horror of Chio beating up Seka.
The blade of Seka's sword starts to glow and freeze from the tip. Chio stops moving, her eyes meeting Seka's. Seka's eyes, filled with determination, are strong and unfaltering.
Chio sighs. "I don't like your eyes, it quite pisses me off," Chio says. Her eyes go down on Seka's blade, freezing. "That much is gonna do nothing," she states.
Seka grips her sword tightly. The energy from the sword builds up and blasts across the area. Chio watches as the snowstorm unfolds in front of her.
Swoop!
The blizzard covers her. A large area of the arena also gets covered by frost. The blizzard fills the whole place with snow particles, making it look like a fog of cold snow.
Seka looks up and finds Chio frozen in ice. Her hair starts to turn white.
She tries to say something, but the words just don't come out. With sadness, she looks down as a tear starts to form in her eyes. The tear drops, freezing before it gets the chance to hit the ground.
Crak!
A sound echoes through the arena.
The audience's hearts start to race even more. Still covered with the snowy fog, they can't even see anything.
"A small battle like this, the higher-level players are not even present… and even the A-ranks are paralyzed," someone from the audience speaks, his body shaking, unable to move, fallen on the ground with the others while trying to run away. Tears start to form.
Swish.
Boong!
A huge chunk of ice crashes out of the fog, smashing into the audience seats — instantly injuring most and killing a few. Similarly, more pieces come out.
Chio breaks through the ice. Seka looks at her and gasps. Chio comes toward her so fast she doesn't even have time to react, her face filled with shock.
The fog starts to clear up. People get a clear vision of what happened. The ice on parts of the place starts to melt as well.
People still inside the arena are horrified, while the weaker ones start losing their minds, still on the ground.
Chyak!
There is a stabbing sound. The fog clears — everybody sees Seka getting stabbed by Chio.
"Huh, wait… Seka?" Chio regains her consciousness, slowly looking at Seka and seeing her smiling. "Seka?" Chio calls again, her voice trembling with tears forming in her eyes.
Her eyes cannot process the image of her best friend — looking tired, with cuts and bruises all over her body, lips filled with blood and almost dry, eyes barely struggling to open.
Chio looks down at her own hands holding the dagger that stabbed Seka in the stomach.
Chio lets go of the dagger and takes a step back. "What… wha—"
Seka grabs Chio's hand before she can finish her sentence, pulling her toward her.
She places her hand on Chio's face. "Don't worry, it's not much… it's just, I am tired."
Seka pulls her into a hug, putting her hand on top of Chio's. "There, there. I know y-you have been suffering. I am really sorry that I couldn't see that. Now, remember… I never thought of you as less than the greatest person I got to mee—"
Chio looks down. "No… what is this? No, this is not what I wanted. Why am I… why was I doing…?" A tear rolls down her cheeks, flooding them.
"Aww, poor soul. You killed your best friend to avenge your clan — what a nice thing to do," the ominous voice starts to talk again.
Breaking sounds ring through the arena.
Chio asks, "Who is this speaking?"
"Why, you want to know? Why? You want revenge for what I did? Poor little friend… it's all your fault. You did so many things, don't you remember? You attacked your friend and faked being a friend. Now you avenged your clan, isn't that right? Hah!" The voice laughs with pleasure.
"I will kill you… I will kill you!" Chio screams with the ominous voice.
Seka starts to fall on the ground. Chio slowly puts her down, her anger filling her whole body. She punches the ground.
"Hehe," the voice smirks.
Back at Kara, who is running through the huge capital.
Kara starts thinking, "After all the things I collected and experienced, only one person matches the description. It's Chio. I was not sure at first, the curse must have started to get out. And the one who was inspecting Seka when I left the house, the black figure... it was Chio. Even when Chio and I first met, the first time we talked, it felt like I had felt the presence before."
The ominous voice continues, "Hehe, that's right… now more, more. With this there is no one who will interfere with our plans. After this many years, I am the winner."
Chio unleashes black aura all around her as she is on the ground, looking at the floor. Her body starts to get darker by the second. The ground starts shaking.
"What is this?" all the crowd starts to get scared.
Chio speaks, "I will kill you...." still looking at the ground continuously.
She stops. She looks up. Her voice changes. "Here I am, free once again."
The ominous voice echoes through the whole arena. People start to cry, and accept their fate silently. A huge pressure is felt at the arena and throughout the world for a split second.
"Your Majesty, I think it has started," a black figure speaks at the king's throne.
"So he arrived after all, huh. Took some time, didn't you."
We see his face—it's the King of Kryak, the King of the Magic Kingdom, Kira Maltheria.
Royal Courtyard, Lanark
The king is taking a walk with his butler. He takes a step—the whole courtyard gets a wave of pressure.
"What was that just now? Investigate it, now." The king takes a turn, ordering the butler to investigate what just happened. He looks at the sky, his red left eye glowing.
Northern Tower of Lanark
Tak tak.
A beautiful silhouette of a female walks to the window. Her piercing, shaped like a moon, sparkles in the sun. Her glossy lips pop up.
She gasps, turns around. The whole place starts to feel a pressure—and then it goes away.
"What was that?" She walks to a closet, grabs the handle, and pulls it—revealing weapons of the same kind. She grabs one, puts it on her waist, and starts to dress up.
Kingdom of Umio
"Majesty, the water level just got disrupted."
A sparkling red earring, shaped like a heart, shines. She looks outside. Fishes swim out of a bubble dome.
"It seems okay out... how is the situation?" she turns back, asking the guard.
Her red hair flutters slowly without revealing her face, but the golden eye on one side shines a bit.
Kara feels the huge pressure in his body.
"Am I too late? I am nearly at my limit too... but—"
A crystal cracks. Kara overflows with magic.
"Fourth crystal!"
Back at Hachi:
"Another one of the pressures… this one is not as strong as before, but I need to hurry. But I am all out of my stamina and energy."
Kara dashes so hard the wind blows very fast, buildings' windows shattering.
Back at the arena
Seka opens her eyes with the little bit of consciousness she has left.
Chio—she is growing black slimy stuff from her body. Seka starts bleeding more, and starts to bleed a little from her mouth as well.
"Chio?" She lets out a small voice that no one can hear. A tear drops from her eyes. She slowly closes her eyes as she remembers them meeting each other.
"Hey, how did you get so strong?" Seka asks with curiosity.
"Hey?" she calls again.
The girl in front turns around. "Were you talking about me?" Chio asks, turning.
"Yes."
Chio sighs and walks away.
Seka calls her again, "Why are you ignoring me, help me a little."
"Why would I help a stranger anyway? Even if I help you, people will just try to stay away from you because you're with a devil like me," Chio replies.
"A devil? What are you even talking about?" says Seka.
Chio looks at her in confusion. "A literal devil, I—"
Seka interrupts, "Ah, nonsense. I don't care, just teach me. I don't have any friends either way. You just looked kind of easy to approach, so—"
"Okay, fine—"
Seka grabs Chio as she is about to speak. Together they go out to eat.
Seka starts to think, "We had fun in the park, laughed at each other's jokes... I know Chio, the one who wanted to attack me, was not you. So I will never leave you. It will only hurt you, and I don't want to do that to you. Never. So—"
Seka slowly moves her arm, stands up with the small blade still intact in her stomach, and starts to go towards Chio, dragging her legs. She removes the blade.
"Magic Nature Heal."
She starts to heal herself a little, closing the stab wound.
Chio notices, moves her head at Seka, her eyes wide, her face angry—
Swish!
Instantly, she slams her on the ground, making a huge dent.