“You will what?!” Gray says.

“Eliminate you. For your crimes, of course,” Valerie said. “But… let’s make this interesting… You obviously aren’t in your prime anymore, and this kid… He’s got talent. From when I fought him, he has a kind of Aura I’ve never encountered. So, as Crown Princess, if you can beat me… Then I’ll clear your name and help you train your “student”. But I’ll be fighting to kill.”

“Fine,” Gray says firmly, shifting his stance to optimize his ability to manipulate the ground beneath him. Valerie gives chase after Gray, igniting her blade into a small dagger shape and burning a pale pink hue. Gray begins to sprint away, creating stone obstacles to delay Valerie’s pursuit along the way. Valerie extinguishes her blade, then reignites it with a vibrant orange and blue blaze, and points it downward, propelling her upward. “I know I shouldn’t be destroying my kingdom… But it’s mine, anyway!” Valerie thinks to herself while in the air, dodging stone projectiles shot by Gray. Quickly igniting her blade, she begins to slash at the projectiles. Gray quickly sees the blade ignited in a bright blue color. He instinctively changes his stance and begins to form harder rocks to deploy. Valerie notices the sudden change in movement from Gray when forming stones, and dives toward Gray on the ground. Valerie forms a large crater in the ground after diving and sees Gray sliding away from the impact.

“Still quick, I see,” Valerie smugly affirms.

Gray begins to make himself a platform to stand on to get up onto high ground, whilst forming large dirt mounds to launch toward Valerie. Slicing apart the piles of dirt, Valerie quickly approaches Gray for a close-up slash. Sensing the immediate heat, Gray forms a steel sword and blocks Valerie’s slash with her blade. Valerie smirks as she transforms the flame’s color from the blue to the green she used to make Xianghui pass out.

“Ha. I no can smell!” Gray says, strafing backward from Valerie, then charging at her at full speed with his sword.

“Shoot,” Valerie exclaims, leaning back to dodge the attack. Gray realizes the Sword was dodged and diverts his direction from straight ahead to curving sideways, attempting to slash Valerie in half. Valerie ducks, narrowly dodging the blade. Valerie ignites her blade to a scarlet tone and attempts to skewer Gray’s head. Gray moves back, and shoots pebbles at Valerie’s eyes. The rocks hit Valerie’s eyes, temporarily blinding her.

“Why you…” Valerie says spitefully.

Gray uses this time she’s incapacitated to run towards where Xianghui’s body is. Valerie quickly clears her eyes and realizes Gray is nowhere to be found. Valerie floats high into the air with her bade and scouts out where Gray is. She begins to aim her blade at Gray’s head and dives at him, trying to hit his head point blank. Gray masterfully jumps back, and immediately charges toward Valerie, sharpening his stone arm in an attempt to stab her. Valerie knocks Gray’s arm out of her way and stabs Gray in the chest with her blade. Gray moves back, putting his hand to his chest, and attempts to heal his injury. Gray then pounces back at Valerie. Sheathing her blade, Valerie pushes back against Gray. Gray begins to concentrate his Aura on his arms, forcing Valerie to go flying. Valerie is sent through buildings, finally stopping when she imbues Aura into her feet to expend velocity from her.

“Finally imbuing Aura into yourself… How great,” Valerie comments while using her blade to push back toward Gray.

Xianghui’s eyes begin to flicker open and shut. He groggily stands up, leaning on the nearby building to gain leverage on himself.

“Gray? What’s happening? Where’s Valerie?” Xianghui asks in a tired voice.

“We fight. Me do crime in past, now fight,” Gray answers, quickly making a barrier out of rock with Xianghui.

“WHAT?!” Xianghui asks, appalled by Gray’s answer.

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“Me general, me hurt Afar,” Gray tries to explain. “War.”

“So you admit it,” Valerie says as she dives from the sky back towards Gray and Xiang. “And the boy is awake too. How wonderful!”

Valerie immediately rushes at Gray, slashing him multiple times. Gray immediately regenerates the gaps Valerie had cut in his torso, and Xianghui attempts to equalize his Aura.

“Just as persistent as 18 years ago, ain’t you, Granite…” Valerie exclaims as she punctures through Gray’s heart.

Xianghui realizes this is his chance, and sneaks up behind Valerie. The knife Valerie had used to pin Xiang against the wall of the building was still in his shirt. Removing the knife, he imbues Aura into it and raises the knife above his head. Valerie felt a sharp pain in her back. Her blade is extinguished on its own, and she falls onto her knees.

“The boy… caught me,” Valerie says tiredly, as she falls to the ground.

***

Xianghui and Gray are thrown into a jail room.

“To think people could assassinate the Crown Princess,” a man said while locking Xianghui and Gray up.

“She fight us first!” Gray exclaims, but the man walks away lackadaisically, and clicks a switch, illuminating the cell with a dim orange light.

Valerie runs into the hallway, and grabs onto the cell bars, with doctors and mages following her in a crowd.

“Crown Princess, you’re not in the condition to be doing this!” one of the doctors said.

“I don’t care! Free these two immediately!” Valerie commanded.

“But Crown Princess… Granite is in this cell, and they tried to a-” a guard said, walking over to Valerie.

“I do not care. Free them,” Valerie orders with a cold voice.

The guard immediately frees Xiang and Gray, and they walk out of the cell.

“Why?” Xiang asks.

“I made a deal. With Granite. And I keep my word,” Valerie says, disgruntled.

Valerie then falls back on the floor.

“Bring her back to the Grand Healer! Now!” the Doctors say.

Xiang and Gray follow, seeing a large palace with a domed roof. In front was a large circle of mages, who were all glowing bright green. The Doctors carried Valerie into the middle of the circle and laid her down on the floor. Valerie then began to glow green and was floating in the sky.

“Now don’t try anything…” one of the guards snarkily commented at Xianghui.

Valerie floated down, healed of all injury, and immediately ran toward Gray and Xianghui.

“So, why did you even come here?” Valerie asks.

“I have some business to deal with with this dude named David Baszuki,” Xianghui says. “Gray says one of the five things needed for me to ascend to him is in Afar.”

“That right!” Gray exclaims.

“Oh. I know where what I think you’re talking about is,” Valerie says. “I’m not too pumped to have to travel with you two, but a deal is a deal.”

“Great,” Xianghui sarcastically says.

“Anyway, I think you want to go to the big stone spire over that way. It’s where we sealed the Metal Box.”

“The Metal Box?” Xianghui asks.

“Yeah, and it’s guarded by… The brainrotter.”

***

Inside the spire, someone walks towards the Metal Box.

“Skibidi skibidi, on the wall… Who’s the most sigma… of them all..?” he speaks.