Jolyne, now the center of attention of the entire room as she pressed on against Mus’s unstoppable advance. With countless puppets swirling around her, each of them containing enough strength to challenge any of the generals present in the room, Mus couldn’t help but face her seriously.
John was about to intervene when Mus whistled lightly, and a thin yellow Cast slipped out from his mouth before it wrapped around John’s ankles and held him in place.
“I shall perform the dance myself.” Mus said, his speaking rhythmic and casual as usual, though his golden eyes focused onto Jolyne’s body with interest, “You. You have potential.”
“Potential to end you right here and right now.” Jolyne said, each of the puppets mirroring her movements exactly before highly concentrated Wave beams shot out from their hands and clashed into Mus’s body at the center.
His semi-transparent shields showing Mus’ face beyond the blasts as he glided forward with his feet scraping along the floor as if gravity had been turned off. Then, he reached his finger forward, sending forth another Crackling Snap that tore through his own shields and pushed outward, shoving back Jolyne’s own attacks.
Jolyne seemed undeterred, crossing her hands as the countless smaller puppets all over Mus’ body continued ripping into his skin, but Mus also seemed completely unbothered by it all, his glowing skin still looking to be in fine condition as the Cracking Snap also sent the individual small puppets peeling off his body.
Revealing his angelic body of the gods to everyone around, Mus stepped through the rows of charging puppets with an elegant dance that followed a strange rhythm, and his muscles and family jewelry down below all moved with the same beat. The group of girls from Necrovia screamed before covering their eyes, though a few of the curious ones tried to peek through the gaps in their fingers.
As horrifying as Mus seemed ever since he revealed himself, he was equally as handsome. If God had decided each individual’s attributes before they were born, then Mus had gotten all of the best ones anyone could have asked for.
With his hands held out, Mus danced through each of the attacking puppets, each one attacking faster than the last as he matched the speed of each puppet exactly before sending them back, displacing them literally like pushovers.
Then, he made it in front of Jolyne, his fingertips inches away from touching her neck when the King’s voice cut through.
“STOP!” The King of Varous commanded, “Stop…”
“No! Don’t give him what he wanted!” Jolyne said, turning around when Mus cut her off with a loud hum that sounded like a choir warming up their voices before a performance. Then, he wrapped his fingers around his own cheek, extracting a glowing sphere from his mouth and silencing the hum.
“Did he just…take out his ‘voice’?” One of the generals asked, and another shrugged before smelling the scent of pee from beside him.
“The color…it looked just like his shields…”
“Here.” Mus smiled, releasing the glowing sphere as it suddenly formed inside of Jolyne’s lungs and took over her own voice, “Have my humming bubble.”
Jolyne looked gagged, and she reached into her mouth, trying to claw out that sphere with no effect.
She was about to attack Mus again, when Mus suddenly made a face before placing a hand on the King’s shoulders.
“Now, with every second you are waiting, she will be running out of air.” Mus said, leaning in close with the King, “Please. Take as much time as you need, my king. PORA may have a reputation due to the…ways of each of the operatives and region leaders, but I assure you, I keep my word. Grant us your activation Casts, and you shall return home safely, just like the blokes from Yarka.”
Jolyne turned towards her King, and even as her throat twitched, she forced herself to put on a smile, showing him that she was alright, that she would be fine, that he needed to be the king that both herself and Joseph knew he is, that he needed to…
Jolyne’s visuals started turning blurry, and her knees collapsed underneath her body as her nails dug into her palm. Tears streamed down her face, though she kept the smile still as she closed her eyes.
Mus felt the King breathing rapidly, and when they shared their next eye contact, it was as if the King had aged a decade in mere moments. He reached into his pocket, taking out a dagger before snapping its body in half, revealing the activation Cast.
Mus snapped his finger, popping the bubble and freeing Jolyne as the King rushed to her side and as Mus moved swiftly to the next group. Jolyne gasped greatly, her chest blowing up like a balloon as she breathed the fresh air ferociously. She felt a firm grasp over her shoulders before the King held her close to his chest.
“My king! Why?!” Jolyne asked, her heart straining as her head started becoming dizzy, “Why give up your kingdom for me?!”
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“I…can’t afford to lose both my son and my daughter today…” The King said through his quaking lips, looking over to Alina who’s applying a gentle stream of ice to help dull the pain from Joseph’s injury, though his breath was weak.
Jolyne tried to held her lips steady, but she could pretend no longer.
When Jolyne and Joseph cracked, not many more countries resisted. A few headstrong generals and Kings tried to save their faces, but the lucky ones were knocked out with debilitating injury while their underlings helped Mus obtain the Cast and the unlucky ones were destroyed on the spot.
“Is the world witnessing the battle down below still?” Mus asked, sending over each and every one of the activation Casts over to John as the latter worked with his bare hands after his brush pen was destroyed by Jolyne a little earlier. He nodded, guiding each of the Cast into place in the giant red book.
“A couple hours of delay.” John replied.
“Very well.” Mus spun around yet again, gesturing towards the rest of the room, “Thank you for all of your fabulous participation. Now, so long as you will remain in the castle as we work, no one will get hurt.”
“Now, we can go obtain the last of the materials we require.” John said, getting ready to pack up, “Getting the key from a Heavenly Pillar will be no mean feat.”
“Well, then it’s rather convenient that we have exactly one running the entire Academy.” Mus said casually, taking a piece of clothing that Mila Nekova, his partner, sourced from someone else in the main room.
John tilted his head with confusion when suddenly, Mus turned around, his voice projecting outwards as a massive bubble of Wave shot outward like a big bang, tearing through the floating structure itself, breaking through King’s Palace and the protective Casts on the outside, passing through the air and floating structures underneath the castle of the kings and queens, and reaching to the bottom of the artificial island.
“It’s time for the world to hear my Melodic Disruption, a song especially prepared for this special occasion.” Mus said, smiling at John as Shaila caught him in her grasp with everything falling and cracking around them. The cries of panic and screams filling the room as the panicked kings and queens made their escape with the bricks raining and ceiling crashing down.
“What are you doing?! I thought we are extracting immediately!” John said, his eyes widened as Mus’s face seemed to have grown more and more distant from him.
“No. We are obtaining the last of the three things we need.” Mus said, looking up as the floating building started cracking into two separate pieces with him at the center.
Countless chariots floated away from castle like birds escaping a falling tree, and Mila hopped by Mus’s side as the floor tiles under his feet collapsed down towards the forest below.
A loud cracking sound came from above before a streak of gold shot from the Headmaster’s quarters towards the floating structure, and Mus waved John goodbye before snapping his finger, a bright flash swallowing John and Shaila whole as the entire floating structure exploded outward. Those unable to make it out quick enough swallowed by the blast completely.
“What is the meaning of this?” Principal Khan’s harsh voice came from above, and Mus elevated himself up as Wave surged from underneath his feet. He looked straight into Principal Khan’s eyes, himself floating in the air, while the Principal stood in his own special-made chariot cast.
“You cannot create something new without taking away the things that were in their place.” Mus said, “I am tearing the old system down.”
“That was not part of the deal John informed me of.” Principal Khan said coldly, his eyes locked onto Mus even as the massive floating islands suddenly started shaking before sounds of the earth cracking and tree roots being snapped started echoing the entire premise of the Academy.
“An example must be set.” Mus said, “An example that there is nothing sacred in this world. The people must be free! Free from the shackles of yesterday, free from that of the past! Our future should be in our hands and our hands alone!”
“You are speaking as if you have already activated the Revolutionary Manuscript.” Principal Khan said, allowing the broadcast to continue.
“By the time the delay was accounted for by the greater world, I would have obtained all that I needed.” Mus said, “All three criteria will have been met by then.”
“You are picking the wrong fight, kid.” Principal Khan’s eyes flashed a deathly glare as the air started swirling around him. However, Mus simply pointed his hands downward, drawing his attention towards the panicking students as they scrambled like ants in a flood.
“The choice is yours.” Mus said, “You can fight me, and lose absolutely everything you have built so far. Or, you can offer up your key, in exchange for me leaving you alone for the rescue and recovery efforts.”
“What makes you think I couldn’t do both?” Principal Khan asked, his voice suddenly duplicating as his entire body flickered and started multiplying into the countless versions of the same being.
“This.” Mus’s body also moved, leaving Mila behind in the air as he ripped through the duplicated bodies of Principal Khan with ease, leaving behind a trail of footsteps in the air even as he flew, “You cannot afford to not pay attention to me.”
A massive glow went off from Mus’s hands before Principal Khan’s body was blown backwards. He immediately surrounded himself with a glowing blue shield, recovering his injuries and strengthening his defense at the same time when Mus spun his finger, pushing his initiative in the fight even further as another dozen of Crackling Snaps went off around Principal Khan’s body.
To those down below, it sounded like a series of popcorn leaping off a hot pan, when Principal Khan emerged, he had rolled away his jacket, revealing a round sack tied to his waist. He reached with, grabbing a handful of grains before sprinkling it down to the earth below.
“What…was that?” Mila asked, her eyes focusing on the individual grains of sand as they suddenly expanded and glowed each in their own rhythms, expanding into a full-sized Casts before dropping on the ground. Then, those Casts sprouted as each of them worked to hold the structure of the artificial island together, “No way…”
“That’s the Endless for you.” Mus smiled with excitement, “So you have chosen to save your students at the end of the day.”
“All members of the Ten Pillars are gods among mortals.” Principal Khan gestured forward, his hands grasping another handful of Casts, each the size of a single grain of sand, “Gods, do not bargain.”