Like the previous times he’d been through this experience, Marvin found himself floating upwards toward the surface of the water. Strangely enough, Eobard was there with him, managing to get to the surface just before Marvin himself could.

Eventually getting out of the water on his own, Marvin pulled himself up to the surface, which oddly enough didn’t feel like the cloudy surface that he expected from the Caelum Terra.

It felt more like stone, and as he looked around, he realised that the place itself was a large warehouse, similar to that Kara used during one of their training sessions. He stood up, taking all of it in.

Unlike that one, it wasn’t empty.

He was surrounded by all kinds of people on all sides. They ranged from regular looking people armed with weapons, to ones that were clearly sorcerers judging by the glowing heptagrams on their hands, dhampirs and various types of werebeasts.

Even though a lot was obscured by the crowd, he could make out a large number of exits. They were probably there to accommodate the vast crowd, but who was Marvin to tell?

At the front of the portion of the crowd that was in front of him, Marvin saw a Japanese brunette woman that looked like the spitting image of Yui, looking only a bit older than the girl.

She was flanked by all the people he knew in this world, most of whom he trusted.

Eobard was on her left side, with Adam and CB standing on his left, both in their anthropomorphic animal forms, ‘weremode’ as Adam had once called it. Marvin took a certain amount of solace in the fact that they appeared to be genuinely happy at him being there.

On the woman’s right stood Chiron with Maria Rockwell and a smirking Amdis by his side. Marvin frowned a bit at seeing the two of them, but he didn’t dwell on it, telling himself that there were more important things going on at that time.

The woman approached him, smiling softly and extending a hand out for Marvin to shake. A gloved hand he noted, yet another similarity between the woman and Yui.

“Marvin Perlie, I take it?” she said softly as Marvin took her extended hand.

He thought that he ought to be a bit sceptical of the woman, but she seemed to have the support of people that he considered trustworthy. Besided, he told himself once more, there were more important things going on.

“You look, you look just like someone I know.” he blurted out, not really able to think of anything else to say. Her smile fell almost instantly and Marvin almost felt bad for bringing it up.

“Do you know that person well?” she asked seemingly off-handedly but it was clear to Marvin that there was more to her question than met the eye.

“Not really.” he admitted somewhat reluctantly. “Her name is Yui, and I don’t really think we have that good of a relationship based on the few times I’ve seen her.”

The woman let out a small hum and nodded at Marvin.

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She then removed both of her gloves, revealing heptagrams burned in her skin with unreadable symbols behind them. Just like Marly’s back.

He suddenly felt a wave of anger overtake him.

The heptagrams glowed in the dark atmosphere of the room, and when the woman spoke it seemed to reverberate across the entire space.

“My friends!” she began raising her arms in the air. “We are on the dawn of a new era. I’m not going to bore you with a long winded speech about what we are hoping to accomplish or what we’ve lost across the way.

“The time for speeches is over. Now is the time for us to prove our worth and fight!”

A resounding roar of approval shook the whole room, and Marvin could see Eobard nod at Maria Rockwell’s direction, with the sorceress nodding back at her.

She knelt down at the floor, creating a circle that Marvin couldn’t make out, and whispering something to herself.

Not half a minute later, a massive explosion was heard, hell a massive explosion was felt and the crowds began to roar once more.

Chiron approached Marvin, an eager looking Amdis right behind him. The centaur put a hand on his shoulder. “We will go together, the three of us. Straight to James and Marly. Are you ready for this?”

Yes, yes he was. Unlike when he went to fight off against Amids a few months ago, although it felt like it was so much longer, he was truly ready. Even if Marly didn’t see their point of view, even if it all went sideways.

Even if he had to fight, something he hoped he wouldn’t have to do.

“One more question.” he said, clenching his fists together. “What just happened?”

“You really think this is a good time for a lesson?” said Amdis impatiently, completely contradicting his demeanour up until this point.

“Amdis!” chastised Chiron. “Not to worry Marvin. You remember Johnny Lloyd?”

“I don’t think I could forget him.” muttered Marvin, looking up at him.

“His body was rigged to explode on Maria’s command.” he explained, putting a hand up when Marvin began to object. “It was a powerful explosion, no doubt about that, but he will survive. That’s what his regeneration was for. We had him attack you so that he would end up here, but there’s no way I would advocate for the death of the child.”

Marvin let out a breath he didn’t expect he would be holding. No matter what had happened to him, what Johnny and so many others had done to him, he wouldn’t wish anything so horrible to happen to them.

Not anymore.

“Are you all ready?” asked the woman, turning to look at the unlikely trio.

Chiron noddeed, and he turned to Adam and CB, getting closer to them.

“What will you guys be doing?”

“We’ll be trying to get Ava to see some sense. Eobard and Maria will lead that mission.” said CB through gritted teeth, letting out some dog-like growls.

“Hopefully we’ll have better luck than last time.” said Adam dejectedly, looking as if he didn’t expect their mission to have any results.

“We-no you will.” reassured Eobard from behind the two boys, putting a hand on his shoulder before turning to look at all three boys. “Remember that you made a promise. You’re all making out of this alive, and will see a better tomorrow.”

The three nodded before being separated once more. Marvin’s eyes met with Maria’s, the latter nodding at the teen. Marvin found himself nodding back. He still didn’t like her particularly much, but after their talk back at the hotel, he felt as though he understood her a little better.

She and Eobard nodded to the mysterious woman, who turned to address the crowd once more.

“The time is now, my soldiers! Fight! Don’t let the Association come out on top ever again!”

The soldiers started running and Marvin followed Chiron and Amdis. He was just a step away from getting to Marly, a step away from what was shaping up to be the toughest battle of his life.

And he wouldn’t let himself lose.