Takahiro, April 25th

As you may know, about a week ago, there was an attack on us by the Satanels.” Takahiro started. He stood on a makeshift stage made of his shadow powers, one only he and other shadow elementals like him could stand on. His coworkers, and Katherina, were seated at the Black Kingdom’s dining room table because, honestly, where else would he give a speech or have a meeting? The dining room table was ridiculously long and could fit many people. It’s the perfect place.

“They want to ruin the empire I’m building that could change Ayuzuma and hopefully the rest of our endless universe with it. Katherina and I finally decided to seal the borders of all the kingdoms we’ve taken thus far. That decision has been the best decision we’ve made. We’d like to expand once more and we’ve decided,” Takahiro paused, taking a minute to pass a large-scale map of Ayuzuma down the table so that the entire map would unravel, “that the Green Kingdom would be the best choice for a next target. Any questions?”

Several hands went up.

“Isn’t Green considered a larger kingdom then Black?”

“Well, yes, but since it would be a combined effort between Black, and the small kingdoms that makeup Tempest, we think we’d have a chance-” Takahiro tried to explain.

“The elves of Green know their terrain better then we do! They’d use all the forestry to their advantage and probably trick us into doing… Well, I don’t know what they’d do exactly but they’re definitely gonna do something!”

“We’re not gonna rush this type of thing, we’re gonna send our army that was born in Green to survey the terrain and they’d help us navigate.” Takahiro tried to reassure them.

“We don’t even have an officially recognized army, Mr. Koizumi. All we have is a combination of yours and Ms. Astraia’s associates that specialize in very specific niches.”

“Okay you know what that’s true, we should raise that army. Any ideas?”

“We should each draw an enlistment poster and hang them up in the towns and cities we actually live!” One suggested. Takahiro furrowed his eyebrows at that idea.

“What is this, a high school bake sale? You know what, you’re fired. Someone take them away.” Takahiro sneered. He motioned to the other co-workers seated around the table until a few rose from their chairs, forcibly ejecting whoever spoke from their seat, and went downstairs to get them outside. Takahiro took some deep breaths while they took care of that.

“Anyway,” Takahiro started up again while the others sat back down. “I think we should discuss setting up a conscription.”

“A conscription?”

“Well, as you hopefully know, the most any kingdom has had is guards to protect royals and royal housing and areas. There’s never been a military anywherebecause there’s been no need, plus the royals in Rainbow spread all those military horror stories so few would join willingly. If we can get every able-bodied person to enlist through some type of scare we can pool armies from White, Light Grey, Fuschia, Lime, and Brown. Then we should be set to take Green.” Takahiro explained.

“What kind of scare would scare the majority of the Black Kingdom’s residents though?” Someone said.

“Maybe the fact that I’m the king of Black now?”

“What about age limits?” Another person asked.

“Hm, eighteen is hard because barely anyone isn’t going to college, let’s just say those who are under the age of sixty and graduated from school. Can someone write that down?” Takahiro asked.

Someone at the table nodded furiously and took out a pen and a pad of paper, writing down what Takahiro said.

“What about children with parents?”

“Forgot about parents. If it’s a single parent with no other parent in the picture, they can stay, but if it’s two or more at least one must enlist in the army.” Takahiro said.

“Getting people to conscript means we’re more likely to let people avoiding conscription go under the radar. Is it possible for us to go door to door?”

“Sir, that would take a ridiculously long time. If we’re not carefully keeping track we might go to the same houses over and over again.” Milena complained.

“We could all take turns visiting homes. We can just start here in the capital and work our way outwards.”

“Even so if so few of us are doing that we’re barely gonna get many enlisters,” Milena said.

“We have the time! We haven’t even set up armies in Tempest. If we keep at it for, say, a week, we should be good.”

“Alright… I hope you don’t regret this.” Milena sighed.

A few days later, after Takahiro cleared through his schedule, he finally began to go door to door. He made his way out of the palace gates, following the purple path in the ground before him.

The area around the palace had few citizens walking around, talking. The ordinarily loud and bustling market was silent; most of the stalls and store buildings had become deserted and abandoned, windows cracked, and shelves closed to empty. It starkly contrasted the ordinarily bustling area that once was crowded and noisy.

‘I wonder what that’s all about…’ He thought to himself.

He rounded the corner and walked towards the housing district, a sinking feeling welling in his stomach.

“Kuso, what have I got myself into?’ Takahiro mentally groaned. On the outside, he maintained a sly smirk because, of course, he did.

Finally, Takahiro slowed to a stop in the housing district, taking note of the area before choosing the closest house. He stepped up the stairs as slowly as he could. He took a deep breath before knocking and clearing his negative thoughts.

“Hello?” Greeted a young woman who slowly opened the door. Her already uncertain expression fell as she laid eyes on Takahiro. She began to close the door, but Takahiro stopped her.

“Wait, wait, miss, please! I just have a few harmless questions, that’s all.” Takahiro said, with his hands on her door.

“How long this will take?” The woman mumbled.

“Five minutes at the most.”

“Alright, what is it?”

“Firstly, how old are you?”

“Thirty-six.”

“Do you have any dependants?”

“Yes, three children.”

“Do you have any spouses or partners living with you?”

“Have any of them graduated from at least high school or post-secondary?”

“No.”

“Any independent adults also graduated from at least high school or more I should know about, like a spouse?”

“Also no.”

“Great! Since you have dependents and they’re all minors, there’s no conscription needed.”

“Conscription?” The woman’s eyes widened, and she slightly closed the door as if to hide behind it.

“We’re starting mandatory conscription for anyone who graduated from at least high school. Anyone not in school that’s over eighteen or below sixty must join or face severe consequences, but since you have children, it doesn’t affect you.”

“What happens if this conscription is still going on when my children graduate from high school?”

“In a few days, I’ll address that but most likely, if they decide to go to college they won’t be drafted. If they decide after high school that they’re done with school then they’d be conscripted. Anyways miss, I have a lot more households to get to, thank you for your time!” Takahiro beamed, stumbling as he tried to think of a response. He didn’t think of that. Nobody else did, except for this woman. Oh well, too late now to ponder.

The woman mumbled something in response. Whatever it was, Takahiro didn’t catch it. But it didn’t matter.

“There, one household out of a hundred twenty-nine million.” Takahiro trailed off as he walked down the stairs of the first house.

“Mr. Koizumi, this is exhausting and it’s a time waster. We need to hire people specifically to conscript people into the army, we have much better things to do.” Milena panted as she collapsed into Takahiro’s office.

Takahiro’s office was neatly arranged, everything neatly organized. The walls were grey, with no imperfections in the paint job, the carpet was perfectly vacuumed, the desk was a polished dark brown wood with no scratches or damage, and Takahiro’s computer was black with a golden apple logo, plugged into its charger which somehow was in a perfectly straight line that was plugged into an outlet. Takahiro would not have anything less than a perfect office. Milena’s stack of papers she had carried was now scattered everywhere as soon as she stumbled in, ruining the perfect office he had crafted.

“I’m glad you suggested this, I was just thinking the same thing. But now you’ve ruined my schedule and my office, couldn’t this have waited until my meeting hours?” Takahiro growled.

“Well, you did tell us that someone needed to be conscripting people into the army at all times, but nobody else wanted to take their damned turn! So I was stuck doing this for hours and I was getting hungry, sir.” Milena spat.

“Ugh, alright, you can stop. I’ll order everyone to halt the conscription process and hand over all documents thus far to me. I’ll post a job opening for someone to do job conscripting for us.”

Takahiro lay in his bed, peacefully asleep on the chest of a sleeping Katherina. The sound of an annoying alarm blared in his ear all of a sudden, jolting him up. He groaned, adjusting his glasses.

‘Crap, I forgot to take these off…’ Takahiro thought. His eyes fell on Katherina, and his gaze softened. She frowned in her sleep, covering her shoulders with her arms. Takahiro placed the comforter on her, patting her head. He stretched before finally stepping on the cold floors.

As he looked at the floor, he saw Katherina’s dress and his vest haphazardly thrown on the floor.

‘Oh. That happened.’ Takahiro realized. His eyes raised and stopped at his calendar hung on the wall. The 11th was crossed off, which Takahiro clearly remembered doing the night before. The day afterward, in large red letters, read GREEN KINGDOM INVASION TODAY!

‘Chikuso!’ Takahiro thought as he scrambled around in his room. He looked at the clock, which read five in the morning, there was still time, but Takahiro knew he couldn’t waste time on a day like this. He threw on some black jeans, a white button-up shirt, and some white socks, and he grabbed a yellow ribbon to tie his hair up and fumbled to put on his golden tie. He stared at himself in the mirror for a second before running down the hallway towards the stairs.

The oversized table only had one person, Milena.

“Where is everyone?” Takahiro asked.

“Asleep. The only ones that get up this early are me and you, sir. Since we have time to spare I suggest you eat as much breakfast as you can and make sure the plan is perfect, that way when everyone else is awake you know exactly what to do and while we’re attacking you don’t need to stop and eat food.”

“Oh, right. I’ll be back in a bit.” Takahiro turned around and started walking to his office

Later in the morning, at a more sensible time, Takahiro and his army, composed of conscripted persons, which were now being handled by someone paid purely to deal with conscription, and his coworkers arrived at the Green Kingdom. They arrived on the southwest-most part of the Green Kingdom, the Volodar Beach, the only part with no forest and other fauna towering over it.

“I’m telling you, your gonna regret walking through half of the Green Kingdom forest by the time you get to the middle half of Green.” Milena pointed out as she was teleported onto the Green Kingdom’s beach.

“Listen, I know what I’m doing. It’s not just for no reason, it’s to take out as many elves that may try to stand in our way, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” Takahiro tried to argue.

“Alright, don’t complain to me in an hour when your feet are killing you and the horses’.” Milena said.

“Cut it out you two, you’ve been fighting nonstop since I woke up, and only since I woke up, why couldn’t you fight when everyone else was asleep?” Katherina said.

“Don’t know, Milena is helpful, but also annoying.” Takahiro said.

“So are you.” Milena retorted.

“Okay, okay, everyone’s here, right?” Katherina sighed.

Random coworkers of Katherina and the generals of the new army counted. As they each finished up, they reported that they had everyone. Each division was about the size of ten thousand.

“Alright. Second army division will be teleported to the capital and will pick off as many elves as it takes. Third army division will be going down from the capital and will meet us somewhere in the middle of the capital. The first division will start here on the beach and work our way north, and naval divisions one through five will on the surrounding waters of Green to assist at any point possible. Any last questions?” Takahiro said.

Silence washed over them.

“Alright. Make sure you have your earpieces in and head to your stations.” Takahiro said. Takahiro, Katherina, and Milena started walking, leading their division, while the second and third started teleporting away to their respective starting points.

The first division made their way up the beach hill, walking on the wooden path that led them into the woods. As they went on, there was no beach to be seen, only moss, and the wooden path was replaced by dirt. The trees all were large, unlike the thin ones seen in Black. True to its name, Green had lots of green plants and trees, but there were trees of many different colors, even leaves in different shapes.

“Wow, it’s so… green.” Takahiro said.

“Almost like we’re in the Green Kingdom.” Milena said.

They continued walking on the path. Hushed conversations, whispers, and footsteps were all heard, but for the most part, the walk was silent so that everyone could focus.

For the first twenty minutes, that was all they were doing until they spotted a face watching them from the trees.

“Sir! There’s someone there!” One of Takahiro’s co-workers walked up to Takahiro and whispered.

“Get your weapons.” Takahiro mumbled.

Everyone slowly revealed their weapons, except for Takahiro, who hadn’t had one for quite a few months. Takahiro’s eye caught the person, who furrowed their eyebrows before hopping out of the trees and landing on the floor. They removed their hood, and Takahiro’s eyes fell right on their ears, which were pointed. Similarly, hooded figures revealed themselves, slinking from behind the trees or landing from the trees above, similar to the first elf they encountered.

“Mr. Koizumi, you and the rest of your army are under arrest!” The elf declared.

“For what?” Takahiro asked.

“For being here, after everything you’ve done. The monarchs may believe they’re safe, but I know with you still out there, we’re not.”

The elf whipped out a dagger, raising it to Takahiro’s heart. Takahiro swiftly dodged it, teleporting out of the way. The others started to join in on the fight, pulling out their weapons and attacking Takahiro’s army.

‘I really need to get a new weapon, fuck…Oh wait, I have a good idea,’ Takahiro thought while attempting to dodge the spear attacks.

He teleported up into the trees. The spot he was last in was a fading patch of darkness in the sun. He watched the elves become confused before they switched their focus to fighting someone else in Takahiro’s crew. He raised his arms in the air before bringing them down. The area the elves and his crew were fighting in became pitch black, like they were in a tunnel with no light. But as his sclera and iris faded to gold, a sign of a shadow elemental’s ability of also seeing in the dark, he could see every move of everyone below him.

His skin faded to black, and Takahiro also concealed his clothes. Every part of him became a shadow of darkness. He removed his fedora and covered his eyes before jumping down again.

“Who was that?” An elf screamed, frantically spinning their head around and waving their hands around in some attempt to clear the darkness.

Takahiro grabbed a dagger lying around and walked behind them, covering their mouth before stabbing them.

The sun was starting to set more and more. They ran into about five separate bands of elves, and thankfully they’d managed to either kill or scare them off.

“Sir, we’ve been on and off either walking or riding the horses since it was twelve, and now it’s six, can we please set up a camp to sleep and make dinner?” Milena begged.

“It’s six, shit, I didn’t even realize. Why don’t we go set up a camp over there?” Takahiro pointed to a large circle of trees with a large space in the middle. Everyone cheered and raced over, taking out their tents and pitching them.

“Hey, you,” Takahiro caught the attention of one of the elves working with them, “Do you know where we could get wood to make a fire? Or would we need to cut down a tree for that?”

“Last sign I saw said we were in Cohnal… Here, give me your map.” They said. They looked at the map and went into a sunny part of the woods.

“It’s illegal to chop down a tree here for no good reason. Thankfully, there’s a nearby town that sells wood, and there’s also food there too. Did we bring food, or am I gonna need to buy some?” The same elf asked.

The voices of Takahiro’s crew were split. Some said yes, and some said no.

“Alright, let me get a list. What do you all want?” The elf asked everyone as they took out a pencil and a notepad. They all shouted out food and ingredients.

“Oh, before you go, remember to hide your army indentification so they just think your’re a random passerby.” Takahiro reminded.

“Of course. Cohnal is a bit of a walk from the main road and they don’t follow news, the chances of them thinking I’m with you are slim. Alright, I’m out.” The elf said, putting on a hood and starting to walk in the distance. Takahiro thanked them before picking a spot to pitch his tent.

“Need some help?” Katherina said, appearing out of nowhere.

“Yeah. I’ve barely seen you all day since early this morning. Where have you been?” Takahiro laid out the tent and started putting the pegs on the ground.

“I’m not super fast, so I ended up at the back, talking to my other friends in the crew for the most part.” Katherina started putting up poles.

“Makes sense,” Takahiro finished by pitching his tent, but his eyes fell on Katherina’s shoes, “Are you wearing heels?”

“Yes! Why wouldn’t I? It doesn’t matter what I’m doing. I need to look perfect at all times.”

“I hope you at least brought a different pair of shoes.”

“I did, but I won’t need them!”

“Alright, suit yourself. Wanna chill in the tent while we wait for wood and food?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Sure.”

Takahiro laid out the sleeping bags on the floor of the tent right next to each other and laid down on the left one. Katherina crawled inside the tent and laid on the right sleeping bag, but not without hugging Takahiro and resting her head on his shoulder, making him blush.

“Oh, right,” Takahiro unhooked his walkie-talkie from his pants pocket and turned it on before bringing it to his face, “Division one is setting up camp. How are divisions two and three holding up? Over.”

“Division three is currently looking for a place to set up camp as we speak. Over.” Said someone from division three.

“Division two has infiltrated the capital but cannot get into the palace. We’re scrambling to find a place to sleep for the night, over.” Said someone from division two.

“Hi, sorry, this is one of the elves in division one. Have you checked out Mama Myra’s inn? They’re very welcoming to anyone, no matter what.” Said the same elf that went to get wood and food, who was now fading out of Takahiro’s view.

“No, where is that?”

“Right at the capital entrance to your left.”

“Alright, we’ll look there. Thank you.”

The following day, Takahiro’s crew woke up and began making their way northwest as soon as possible. They’d make it to the halfway area by nightfall if all went well.

And that they did, despite them encountering another five groups of elves wanting to stop them.

Now, the sky faded into dark blue, the three moons of Ayuzuma all peering around the corner. Takahiro and his crew all trudged along the path.

“Someone got a flashlight? I can’t read this map….” Takahiro mumbled. Katherina fished out of her bag and gave it to him.

Shining the flashlight, there read Essarae’s Woods, right above the last town they passed that was near the path.

“I think we’re about at the halfway point. Hopefully, somewhere around here, we should run into the third division pretty soon.” Takahiro yelled, looking behind to ensure every crew member heard the news.

They continued walking forward until Takahiro swore he saw figures in front of him. Katherina started to use her walkie-talkie while Takahiro transformed into his shadow form to use his nocturnal abilities to see if that was the case.

“Division three, are you there?” Katherina spoke into her walkie-talkie, which was heard from the walkie-talkies of everyone across the first division. And Takahiro recognized them, at least somewhat. It was clearly the third division.

“Yup.” The leader of their division said, standing in front of everyone else.

“Found any good spots to turn in for the night? One last break before we head to the capital would be good.” Takahiro asked.

“Right to the left, actually.”

The leader of the third division walked in the woods, their division following after, and the first following close behind. They spent a good five minutes walking in the woods, and just before Takahiro’s doubts started setting in, they made it to a cleared path of land deep in the woods.

“Where are we?” Takahiro asked.

“The abandoned Tri-Moon Town. The people in Essarae used to live here, but something happened, so they went to what’s now Essarae.” The third division leader said.

“That seems risky.” said Katherina.

“I agree, but as long as some people look out for us, we should be okay. As long as we don’t have heavy sleepers.”

Looking up, sure enough, the three moons were higher in the sky, visible from their chosen camp. Uneasiness set in for Takahiro when he started putting down wood for a fire. He looked behind him to see Katherina humming while putting up the tent.

Nothing would happen to Katherina in Tri-Moon as long as he was around.

Yet again, as soon as it was morning, they immediately teleported to the capital, but not without a change of clothes, so they wouldn’t get recognized, especially for Takahiro and Katherina, who would get arrested if recognized in Green.

The capital was bustling and had the most elves ever seen in one area. Of the towns they could glimpse, there were no more than a couple thousand, and buildings had few elves ever in them, while at the capital, there were at least ten elves in every place at any time. Buildings were made on top of hills and on the branches of trees. And the thickest tree trunk was in the capital. Its tree branches were out and above everyone from high above. Just below it was the palace of the royal family of Green, the Yinyras, and the capital city's official name.

“It’s beautiful,” Takahiro said.

“Come on. You can gawk after we take it over.” Milena mumbled, dragging Takahiro along.

The three divisions agreed to meet up in an abandoned building in the capital to discuss and draft the next steps of their plan. It wasn’t that far either, just in a left corner of the capital, tucked behind alleyways of the least populated areas of the capital. The same elf that got wood and food was leading everyone, yet again, down the alleyways that somehow felt much colder than it had felt all throughout the journey in Green.

They arrived in front of the door, which had paint chipped off and visible wood on some parts. The entire building was small, with a white block of wood overhead. There were remnants of a sign glued onto that block of wood, and there were brown stains near where the old sign would’ve been. The paint of the building was a faded pink, very unusual.

The elf guide paused, lingering in front of the door.

“Why’d you stop?” Takahiro asked.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this. Do we have more discreet ways of contacting the third division leader?” The guide elf asked in a low voice

“We could text them. Hold on.” Takahiro mumbled.

Takahiro put a finger to his mouth and looked at everyone, signaling them to stay quiet. Then, whipping out his phone, Takahiro typed out a quick text message to the third division leader.

“Okay, yes, they’re in there. We’re fine.” Takahiro walked ahead to open the door.

The interior had a similar run-down and dingy feel, everything was very dark, and the lights were broken. The windows were all boarded up, so little natural light could even get in, but as soon as they came to the abandoned building, it became frigid and cloudy. The floors were dark mahogany, the wood of the floor had loose screws and even some holes in the floor and pieces of wood not laying in the spots they should be. As expected, this building had the third division, too many people even to count them all, all seated and chatting in the antique chairs and booths, and even someone behind the bar like they were entering a restaurant.

The first and second divisions entered, and the third warmly greeted them. They all found themselves chatting and catching up, talking about some of their adventures while traveling Green, as if those two days were months. Takahiro and Katherina had to physically drag themselves away from the division leaders to finally get into what they planned to meet up for.

“Alright, alright, we can talk more about all that later. So, what did division three manage to do?” Takahiro asked.

“We attempted to get into the palace on the first day, but they have so many guards it’s ridiculous. We were so stretched thin and split up. Thankfully the Yinyras didn’t try to drive us out, I think they thought we were just petty thieves wanting something from the palace. And then, we had to get inns, and we tried the second day again, but we ended up giving it up by the time it was dinner. We figured it was probably because our army wasn’t big enough to outnumber those people, so we waited for the other divisions to show up today since that was already happening.” The third division leader explained.

“Really? You didn’t manage to get anything done?” Takahiro said.

“Oh, I forgot! We did manage to find out their weak spots. The entrance only has four guards, two guarding the gates and two watching from above. If something happens close enough to them yet also far enough, they may think it’s safe to step away from their posts for just a couple minutes so you get in. However, a citizen will see you in their place so I have no doubt you’ll be seeing guards constantly. If you have more people I have no doubt taking down the guards will be no problem. They also don’t have guards around the back, and they have no glass in their windows, so you can get in there easily.”

“If you noticed that other weak spot, how came you didn’t take advantage of it?” Takahiro growled, angry at how this takeover mission could’ve been done much quicker.

“Didn’t realize until it was too late, unfortunately.”

“Alright, well, no better time to take advantage of that than now. Let’s go-” Takahiro was interrupted by the door slamming open.

In the door stood a pale young woman who looked about as pissed as Satan would whenever Takahiro stole his hair tie. She had white hair that faded to light green and brown, braided to the side in a green bow. Her black mask covered her mouth and nose, obscuring most of her face except for her green eyes. She wore black arm gauntlets, a brown cape over a brown shirt, and light green pants. Her boots were dark green and folded over. Her most noticeable feature was her pointed ears that stuck out to the side, very noticeable.

Takahiro bit his lower lip and scooted closer to the leader of the third division.

“Do you know what’s her deal?” Takahiro whispered.

“The Princess of Green and Leader of the Hunters. Ever since we’ve been trying to get into the palace, she’s been on our tail trying to capture us.”

“Mr. Koizumi, you and all divisions of your army have been fighting and murdering our hunters. I hereby sentence you and everyone else that has participated in such things to the dungeon.” She announced.

Groans and screams were heard. While some army members tried to leave their meeting space through the windows or by using magic or powers to get away, some tried to fight their way out, trying to land a spell or an arrow on the princess, but either she either dodged out of the way or one of the hunters grabbed arrows and took the spells instead. With the elf princess and her hunters blocking the door, those that attempted to fight their way out couldn’t get very far. Some elves with bulging muscles ran up to some of the members and pinned their arms behind their backs.

Takahiro quickly used his shadow powers to plunge everyone into darkness, transforming himself to see in the dark. Takahiro heard screams from the elves and attempted to use the opportunity to take down the princess, who was right in front of him, eyes darting around in confusion. The third division leader handed Takahiro a dagger, and he raced up to her, close enough to attack her but not so close she could hear her breathing.

He raised his dagger up in the air.

He was stopped in his tracks by two elves grabbing both of his arms and the princess kicking him in the balls. He groaned in pain and felt liquid and glass splash on his back.

Everything went dark,

As Takahiro slowly regained consciousness, he could feel magic particles surrounding his body. His vision started coming back in, but it was blurry at first despite him having his glasses on.

When his vision cleared, he could barely make out a figure in the darkness. He was lying on the cold floor, with a few beds and a toilet. His eyes stopped at the bars on his right.

Shit.

“What happened?” Takahiro slowly sat.

“Some parts of the army managed to get away, but us? They took us, used the unconscious potions and put us in the dungeon. Thankfully they didn’t get me but I managed to fake it until they threw us into the dungeon. It’s only been like a day? They took all our forms of communications with the other divisions, I can only guess they’re monitoring what our walkie talkies say very closely. I can also only guess that we’ll be transferred to some other dungeon very soon. They may not have a guard in here but they definitely have a guard out there.” Milena explained, pointing to the door at the farthest end of the hallway.

“If your magic works, how come you couldn’t teleport us out there?” Takahiro said.

“This jail cell has some kind of teleportation prevention spell. Using your magic and trying to teleport it sends your whole body in pain.”

“I wish I knew those existed when we captured the Tempest Royals… Oh, do we have any demons or earth elementals that could break us out?”

“In here? No, we have a fire elemental over there that could melt the bars, but I can’t get out of this prison, and they’ve been unconscious the whole time, so either the rest of the army somehow gets over here, or we are screwed.”

“Fuck. Where’s Kathy?”

“Right across from us.” Milena pointed.

Takahiro scooted closer to the bars, trying to spot her. He faintly saw dark Fuschia hair, and a blanket over someone. It was too dark to tell, but he could only assume it was her. He looked around him; others from his army were scattered, awake but not moving.

“They better get here soon.” Milena bit her lip.

There wasn’t anything to do, so all they could do was sleep, sit, lie around, or talk, but if they talked, they had to be quiet. There was still a risk even when whispering, so they opted just to sleep. At this point, it’d been a few hours. Who knows what time it was outside? It was practically silent, the group awake, only hearing faint buzzing outside the door.

After hours of near silence, they started hearing running upstairs, the sound getting closer until it neared the door. They heard glass shatter and the thump of two people falling on the floor, likely the guards. The door was opened, and Takahiro opened his eyes to see the rest of his army.

“What happened?” Someone that opened the door asked.

“Unconcious potion’d everyone. I was the only one who wasn’t properly potion, so I woke up everyone in this cell with my magic. I couldn’t break out of this cell to wake everyone else up. Anything going on out there?” Milena asked.

“We had to regroup back at the Black Kingdom palace and make a plan to find everyone else. We also started trying to take Green. If you’d all like to rest, we can take you back to Black.” Someone said, unlocking the cell doors while members of the army with magic began waking the rest still asleep.

“I’d like to help out this time. I’m the reason this war is going on, to begin with. What’s happening out there right now?” Takahiro slowly picked himself up off the ground.

“I’ll show you. The rest of you, get everyone out of the cells and at Black, then meet in the Green palace’s throne room.” The third division leader waved over Takahiro.

They exited the dungeon, Takahiro glancing behind him at Katherina. Someone had just woken her up and teleported her away. Takahiro sighed in relief. At least she could take a break.

The third division leader guided Takahiro up a wooden staircase, and they walked up to see the inside of the palace. The inside was huge, the ceiling much higher than Takahiro had ever seen. The walls were a light green, and the floors were a wooden dark brown. At the right end of the hallway were wood chairs, as if tree trunks and thick tree branches were bent around to create the chairs. They were decorated with leaves and flowers. It was hard to take in the palace while Takahiro and Green’s armies were currently duking it out.

“We’re fighting off the Yinyra army right now while trying to look for the Yinyras themselves.” The third division leader explained.

“Where were they last seen?” Takahiro asked.

“They went behind their thrones, but the hunters either blocked or fought to keep us from going back there. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re in a different area at this point.” As the third division leader explained, one of the hunters noticed them and started shooting arrows at them. The third division leader raced up to the hunter, pulling out two daggers and attempting to stab them. Another hunter raced up to Takahiro with a sickle and swung it at him. Takahiro teleported away before they could touch him.

Takahiro raced to the thrones, using his shadow magic to plunge the rest of his army into darkness. He heard shouts and yelling of confusion while making his way over. And for good measure, he also made a shadow barrier around the thrones so that if someone made their way to them, they could see, though their vision wouldn’t get any farther from the throne rooms.

Just as he made it down the hallway and was about to walk up the staircase, he saw blood forming out of thin air. Starting from the ground up, the blood turned into someone in seconds. As the person finished teleporting, Takahiro got a good look at the person.

It was Satan, the first time he’d seen him in a long time, but his skin was now a light coral. Technically his demon skin color would be classified as red, but it might as well just be pink due to how light it was.

Takahiro stumbled backward, eyes widened. Satan held out his left arm, directing blood to morph into a pitchfork. He grabbed it, and twirled it around.

“How did you know I was here?” Takahiro began dodging Satan’s attacks.

“The Yinyra’s and the remaining royals have been meeting. As soon as they captured you and Katherina, they called a meeting to decide what to do. We have just gotten out of that meeting, and what do you know? Your army has caused another ruckus.”

“So? I’ll do what I need to do to take over Ayuzuma.”

“As some kind of homage to your parents?”

“Don’t talk about my parents!” Takahiro’s voice cracked, freezing up.

“Listen, it’s one thing to be grieving them, but taking over Ayuzuma, so people know they existed? Really? When you first started planning this all, did you realize how ridiculous that sounded?” Satan kicked Takahiro to the ground.

“I don’t care. I’m just Ayuzuma’s black sheep for wanting to keep ruling to fulfill my only purpose of being alive.” Takahiro deadpanned.

“Does all of this matter when there have been and will be so many people hurt? Possibly even lives lost?”

“You don’t get it.”

“Neither do you.” Satan fumed. As Takahiro tried to raise himself off the ground, Satan swiftly moved his blood to his hands, the blood transforming into a pair of handcuffs. Takahiro panicked and tried to wrestle his way out of them like there was any way he could.

Of course, Satan also had an unconscious potion he threw at Takahiro, the liquid getting his white button-up shirt dirty.

‘I’m going to confiscate those damned things. If I ever wake up again…’ Takahiro last thought as he drifted off again.

***

Katherina

Katherina woke up to magic encapsulating her body, Milena hovering over her. She rubbed her eyes, slowly sitting up.

“What’s going on?”

“Got captured by the Green royal family, put in jail, potioned us all into frozen unconsciousness, just an average day,” Milena explained. Magic particles surrounded them, and Katherina and Milena were suddenly back in the Black Palace, Katherina still sitting on the floor. She glanced around the carpet, the throne behind her, and the throne room. Others were lying on the floor, too, being awoken by those with magic powers.

“Where’s Takahiro?” Katherina yawned.

“He went with the third division leader to help take Green. Everyone else that got captured was sent to rest, including you.”

“I was just resting before, though! How long has it been, anyway?”

“Only a day and a few hours, nothing too crazy.”

“That’s better than what I would’ve thought. If anyone needs me, let me know, I haven’t eaten in a bit.” Katherina sighed.

Milena gave a quick goodbye, then teleported away to help more of the army still left in the dungeon. Katherina stood up, walked up the stairs, and went to the kitchen, where others took food from the communal fridge. She grabbed an orange and took off her gloves. She walked over to the dining room table, taking a seat away from everyone so they wouldn’t bother her. She placed the gloves on the table, then started peeling the orange. She piled the orange skins on the table, placing the unpeeled orange on the orange skins. She popped an orange slice into her mouth, trying to look as focused on eating as possible to listen to the others’ conversations. Typically, she’d hear about things as juicy as the oranges she was eating. Unfortunately for her, nothing. Just about the weather.

‘Part of our army was in the dungeon! How is there no juicy story to come out of this?’ Katherina thought.

Just as she thought about that, she heard walkie-talkies go off. Perfect, something interesting had to be going on. The others sitting at the table resting raced downstairs.

“Satan got Takahiro!” One yelled, racing down the stairs.

‘What?’ Katherina thought.

She rose in her seat, shoving the rest of her orange in her mouth, and carried her gloves and the orange skins. She frantically threw out the orange skins and washed her hands, so the inside of her gloves wouldn’t get gross.

“Mrs. Astraia, while Takahiro was going to capture the Yinyras, Satan got to him first. He managed to use an unconscious potion on him, and Satan fought off anyone that tried to take Takahiro back. What should we do?” Someone panted, asking Katherina.

“Take me to them, and we’ll go from there.” Katherina put on her gloves, eyebrows furrowing as she faced them.

They teleported somewhere within the castle. Where they were, they really couldn’t tell. The hallway walls they saw while walking, trying to look for Takahiro, or even anything really, were lined with portraits of past royals of Green. Past Yinyras. There were decorations of trees and nature surrounding the portraits on the walls.

Finally, they managed to find a map on the walls of the halls and just so happened to walk down a hall Takahiro was also at.

Takahiro was there but passed out on the floor, as expected. So was Satan, in a hoodie and his long black hair tied into a bun, much different from how he last looked. There were five more that were also there as well, the first being Nico. He looked the same since they last interacted, still the light grey hair, still immortal, and forever twenty-five without having to marry someone for it, the usual stuff. There was a woman all in blue, a shorter guy that looked like Satan, and a woman all in yellow. She could guess their names, but she didn’t care to at this point.

The person who told Katherina the news pulled out a sword and started to march forward, but Katherina quickly pulled them back. Thank the fairy goddess that the hallway was dark so they wouldn’t see anything.

“Not yet! Wait for them to turn away.” Katherina whispered.

They both leaned over the wall, peeking over the edge to see what they were up to, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

After five minutes of waiting, the five finally faced the other direction. Katherina and the other person finally charged, taking out her golden kunais. She may not be known exactly who the other three were, but she had a particular hunch they were at least immortal.

Katherina approached Satan, attempting to grab his arms and pin them to his back. Satan immediately yanked his arms out of Katherina’s hands and turned around, eyebrows furrowed and red eyes matching his actions. But as soon as his eyes fell onto Katherina, his eyes widened, and he stepped back. He pointed his pitchfork at Katherina with an unconscious potion in hand.

“Stay back,” Satan shouted.

The other four turned to Satan, and they were just as shocked to see Katherina, but they couldn’t stop fighting off Katherina’s other army agents.

“Alright.” Katherina shrugged. She waved her hand towards her as if trying to get Satan to move closer to her. Satan looked back at her, confused and retracting his weapon. Katherina smirked as she watched two of her agents, huge and much more physically robust than Satan ever was, restrain Satan, coming from the same hallway she came from. He tried to fight back but couldn’t, as one agent used magic that sealed away Satan’s blood powers, his pitchfork reverting to blood and the blood spilling onto his clothes and dirtying his hand. More of her agents finally managed to close in on the other four. Milena raced out of the swarm of army people and confiscated Satan’s unconscious potion, and scooped Satan off the floor, teleporting away without a word.

“You can’t keep getting away with this!” Satan yelled out.

“Oh, but I’ve been getting away with it, and I will keep getting away with it. Goodbye!” Katherina smiled while Satan tried to protest her.

“Mrs. Astraia, we’ve found the Yinyras.” A group of army people approached her with the four Yinyras in their hands, restrained. The rest were still, but the teenage girl protested and fought to be freed from the hands that held her back. Katherina took a moment to glance at them; they all had pointed ears, nature imagery, and wore lots of green and brown. Milena also teleported back in, handing the unconscious potion to Katherina.

“Ugh, your fashion is so boring. Will you shut up already?” Katherina commented.

“No!” The girl yelled back.

“That’ll make you shut up, alright.” Katherina rolled her eyes, tossing the potion at the four. They all passed out, making the army people drop them on the floor.

“You still need to carry them to Black’s dungeon,” Katherina said. The army people quickly apologized, and one of them, with magic, teleported them away.

“Do you need me to teleport you back?” Milena asked.

“Yes. Can you come back here, secure the perimeter, and ensure only our agents are here, no hunters? Also, do you have a recommendation on a figurehead for here?” Katherina asked.

“Mirthal, probably? Let’s worry about that later, though. Okay, to Takahiro!”

They teleported back to Takahiro’s room. Takahiro himself swaddled under the blankets, staring up at the ceiling. Katherina chuckled to herself at the sight.

“Hey, Hiro, did the unconscious potions fuck you up or something?”

“Sorta. I guess you're not supposed to use it more than once within a one-week period, makes you sick or something. I literally haven’t eaten in so long. Oh wait, did we get Green?”

“We captured the Yinyras and threw up Satan and the other four, so I’d say we pretty much have. Just need a figurehead and to set up more guards over there.”

“That’s perfect. I’m gonna go get some food now.”

“Hey, why don’t I get it instead? You should rest.”

“Okay, works for me.” Takahiro flops back on the bed.

They both stayed still in their respective spots for a moment. Katherina walks over and kisses Takahiro’s forehead.

“Wh-” Takahiro blushes.

“See ya in a second.” Katherina races off. She giggles to herself as she makes her way to the fridge.