“Wakana Matsumae,” said the town’s master with a heavy sigh. “He led the attack against our town. He brought his own kind—monsters. It all happened so fast. And with his power, the Treasure of Manipulation was all he needed to complete his scheme. Before he left, he spoke of elevating weak monsters as gods before men.”
“So, he’s a monster hungry for power and influence over weaker creatures,” Joseph said thoughtfully.
“Yes,” confirmed the town’s master.
“But why go through all this trouble?” Joseph asked, a hint of curiosity and frustration in his voice.
The town’s master straightened, his tone grave as he explained. “Wakana Matsumae, despite his youth, has demonstrated extraordinary prowess as a B-Rank—Tier 8—Knight-Hunter. His role was to safeguard the lunar regions, ensuring they remained protected from monstrous threats. His abilities marked him as a rising star, destined for even greater achievements.”
“Whoa!” Joseph exclaimed, visibly impressed. “B-Rank, Tier 8... That’s no joke. A monster knight-hunter of his caliber must be formidable. I get it now.”
The town’s master nodded and continued. “There was a time when rankers were assigned duties according to their ranks to maintain balance across the four lands. Those with aura levels matching the lunar regions faced threats of similar magnitude, whether monsters or supernatural forces. But when that system changed, Wakana was relegated to protecting towns instead of battling on the moon. This demotion... it infuriated him.”
“That’s insane. And here I thought Yoshi was pulling my leg with these stories,” Joseph said, laughing nervously. The town’s master’s expression shifted to one of shock and disapproval at Joseph’s casual reference to Yoshi by name, instead of addressing him as royalty.
Joseph noticed the master’s gaze and asked, “Did I say something wrong?”
Before the tension could escalate, Lyra intervened. “Let’s focus. Do you know where Wakana is now?” she asked the town’s master.
The master shook his head. “No, I do not know his current location.”
“In that case, tracking him will be our only option,” Yoshi said, closing his eyes. His expression became calm as he reached out with his mind, attempting to connect with the Treasure of Manipulation to locate Wakana. Moments later, his eyes opened, and a frown darkened his features.
“Did you find him?” Joseph asked eagerly.
“Yes,” Yoshi replied, his voice steady. “And he’s ready for us.”
“I found him,” Yoshi said. “He’s deep in a dungeon, surrounded by other dark presences he’s rallying for his conquest. But... he sensed my connection. He knows we’re coming.”
“Very well then!” Joseph said, clapping a fist into his palm with a grin. “Let’s go treasure hunting!”
Lyra, standing nearby, hummed softly, her expression thoughtful and determined as the group prepared for their next move.
Yoshi took a select few comrades with him while the rest remained in Aso Town with the local warriors, ready to respond to any emergencies. After preparing, the group set off, determined to recover the Treasure of Manipulation.
When they arrived at the designated location, they found it eerily quiet, as if the area had been recently evacuated. The unsettling stillness heightened their tension.
“Where could they have gone?” Joseph wondered aloud, scanning their surroundings.
Before anyone could respond, a flying monster darted toward Joseph with blinding speed, its claws outstretched for a lethal strike. In a split second, Yoshi unsheathed his sword and executed a flawless, swift slash, slicing the creature cleanly in half. Its lifeless body crumpled to the ground.
“Illusion,” Yoshi muttered, narrowing his eyes. He turned to Lyra, who waved her hand in a fluid motion, dispelling the illusion and revealing their true surroundings. The oppressive silence gave way to an ambush. Enemies surrounded them from all sides.
From a high cliff, Wakana Matsumae emerged, the Treasure of Manipulation clutched tightly in his hand. His piercing gaze swept over Yoshi and his comrades, a sly smirk spreading across his face. He tested their resolve by wielding the treasure’s power, manipulating their emotions and thoughts.
Yoshi and Lyra, fortified by their strong wills, resisted the effects. However, their comrades were not as fortunate. Wakana’s influence corrupted their minds, turning them against Yoshi. The once-unified group now stood divided, leaving Yoshi, Lyra, and Joseph alone to face not only Wakana’s forces but also their own companions.
When Wakana turned his attention to Joseph, attempting to infiltrate his mind, Joseph’s reaction was unsettling. As the first tendrils of Wakana’s manipulation took hold, Joseph began laughing—a manic, uncontrollable sound that echoed through the cavern.
“Stop it, Wakana!” Joseph warned, his voice trembling with amusement. “That won’t work on me… HAHAHA! HAHAHAHA!” His eyes widened, and a twisted grin spread across his face, hinting at something dark and unhinged.
Yoshi and Lyra moved to intervene, worried about Joseph’s state. However, he raised a hand, stopping them. “No need. I’ve got this,” he said, his voice steady despite his laughter. “But Wakana... I’m begging you—stop while you still can.”
Wakana ignored Joseph’s plea, pressing deeper into his mind. At first, he seemed undeterred, but then he faltered. A strange, ominous sensation engulfed him. His confidence shattered as he glimpsed the chaos within Joseph’s mind—a maelstrom of thoughts, countless personalities, and unfathomable madness.
The sheer weight of it was overwhelming. Wakana’s smirk faded, replaced by a look of horror as his own laughter became erratic, mirroring Joseph’s. His grip on reality slipped, his sanity teetering on the edge.
Desperate, Wakana used the Treasure of Manipulation to forcibly sever the connection and regain control of himself. Gasping for breath, he stumbled, clutching his head, his laughter fading into a strained silence.
Joseph, now calm, straightened and looked up at Wakana with a mix of pity and amusement. “I warned you,” he said softly, his grin still lingering. “Some doors are better left unopened.”
Wakana, shaken but regaining his composure, glared at Joseph, though the fear in his eyes betrayed his bravado. The confrontation had only begun, and the stakes had never been higher.
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Wakana's gaze hardened as he studied Joseph. “What are you?” he demanded. “I’ve never encountered anyone like you. You’re neither an individual nor singular in existence. You’re a collective—a being that defies all understanding. You don’t belong in this world.”
Joseph smirked. “Oh, thanks for the poetic analysis, Wakana. You’re not the first to tell me I don’t fit in. But hey, hindsight’s twenty-twenty, right? I did warn you not to poke around in my head.” His tone grew more serious. “Threatening my mind doesn’t work. If anything, it backfires—and trust me, it’ll hurt you a whole lot more than it’ll hurt me.”
Wakana clenched his fist around the Treasure of Manipulation, his pride still shaken from his earlier mental assault. “Your mind… it almost drove me insane,” he admitted grudgingly. “If not for the power of this treasure, I might have lost myself. Truly, you are formidable. No one else has resisted me like this.”
Joseph turned to Yoshi and Lyra, a confident grin plastered on his face. “See? I told you I had this.”
Then, addressing Wakana, Joseph’s tone sharpened. “Now, why don’t you surrender while you still can?”
Wakana burst into mocking laughter. “Surrender? Look around you, fool! Your comrades are under my control. You three can’t stop me, not when I wield the Treasure of Manipulation.”
Wakana’s horde of monsters and the manipulated comrades surged toward them. Yoshi, Lyra, and Joseph braced themselves for battle.
Yoshi, in a swift display of his abilities, slowed time, giving Lyra the opportunity to focus on freeing their companions from the treasure’s influence. Joseph took advantage of the moment, swiftly incapacitating several monsters with precise strikes. However, Wakana’s cunning wasn’t so easily thwarted. Using the treasure’s power, he disrupted Yoshi’s time stop, forcing the battle into full speed.
The three fought valiantly. Yoshi wielded his sword with grace, cutting through enemies while protecting Lyra as she worked her magic. Joseph moved with uncanny agility, his XPT humming to life. A sleek, armored suit formed around him, enhancing his abilities and allowing him to deflect a powerful blast aimed at one of their comrades.
“It’s about time,” Joseph muttered to himself, his grin widening. Without hesitation, he launched himself at Wakana, eager to face him head-on.
Wakana sneered. “You’re a fool to face me alone. You have no idea what the Treasure of Manipulation can do.”
Joseph dodged Wakana’s first attack with ease, countering with a strike that nearly knocked the treasure from Wakana’s grasp. “Oh, I know exactly what your shiny little toy can do,” Joseph retorted. “It’s not so different from what my XPT can manage. The difference is…” He trailed off, pausing mid-sentence as if reconsidering his words.
Finally, he smirked. “You know what? Forget it. No need to give you an ego boost. Let’s just get to the part where I kick your ass.”
The two clashed fiercely, their battle becoming the centerpiece of the larger conflict. Joseph’s quick reflexes and armored enhancements allowed him to counter Wakana’s manipulation-based attacks. Meanwhile, Yoshi and Lyra, having successfully freed their comrades, regrouped to battle the remaining monsters.
As Wakana pressed his assault, Joseph laughed. “For someone wielding a so-called treasure, you’re not putting up much of a fight! Come on, Wakana—show me what you’ve got!”
Wakana’s rage intensified, his attacks growing more ferocious. Yet Joseph’s confidence never wavered, his grin an unyielding challenge to Wakana’s growing frustration.
Wakana harnessed the power of the Treasure of Manipulation to control the elements. Conjuring water from thin air, he launched it at Joseph, attempting to encase him in ice. Joseph retaliated with a searing heat blast from his crafted armor, vaporizing the water instantly. However, Wakana anticipated the counter and manipulated the earth beneath Joseph’s feet, causing the ground to collapse and threatening to swallow him whole.
Before Joseph could sink, he activated his unique ability, duplicating himself. One of his duplicates leaped out of the original just as the ground consumed him, catching Wakana off guard with a powerful strike that momentarily disrupted his focus.
Just as Wakana began to regain his footing and prepare to retaliate, he was blindsided by a sudden uppercut from below. The original Joseph, whom he believed had been consumed by the ground, erupted with a devastating punch that sent Wakana reeling backward. In that moment of vulnerability, Joseph's clone seamlessly merged with his original, becoming whole once more.
Furious, Wakana unleashed the full power of the elements. Waves of water surged, flames roared, the ground trembled, and the air howled as all four elements combined into a chaotic assault. Joseph’s crafted armor pulsed with energy as he summoned the devourer within him, absorbing the elemental onslaught. The display left Wakana momentarily stunned, his confidence faltering as he struggled to comprehend Joseph’s abilities.
Joseph smirked, his tone laced with mockery. “Is that all the treasure can do? I gotta say, you’re really bad at this, Wakana. You’re like a kid with a shiny new toy but no idea how to use it. Honestly, for a monster of your supposed caliber, you should be taking lessons from other powerful beings.”
Wakana’s eyes narrowed in fury as Joseph continued, relentless in his taunts. “I mean, come on—the treasure could pull off some truly wild stuff. You’re barely scratching the surface. Influence emotions, control thoughts, play with the elements—sure, that’s cute. But where’s the reality-bending? Even the archdemon with the Relic of Time showed more creativity than this!”
Wakana’s grip tightened around the treasure, his anger boiling over. “You dare mock me?” he snarled.
Joseph grinned wider, his words deliberate and cutting. “Oh, absolutely. If you’ve got something better up your sleeve, now’s the time to show it. I came here expecting a fight, not a lecture on how not to use a powerful artifact.”
“You want to see reality bend to my will?” Wakana’s voice rose with rage, his aura flaring.
“That’s the whole point,” Joseph replied, his tone casual and mocking. “But hey, take your time. No pressure.”
“You want to see reality bend to my will!!!” Wakana roared, his fury reaching its peak, only to be interrupted again.
“Yeah, yeah, I just said that,” Joseph quipped, feigning boredom. “Why are you yelling? I thought we were on the same page here.” With that, Joseph unmasked himself briefly, his grin taunting Wakana further.
Scoffing in anger, Wakana’s voice dropped, seething with menace. “Then allow me to show you the true power of the Treasure of Manipulation, you insignificant life form!”
With a burst of energy, Wakana shot into the sky, shattering the concrete ceiling above them. As Joseph calmly masked himself again, Wakana began to glow, his aura intensifying as the power of the treasure surged through him.
Reality itself began to shift under Wakana’s will. A distortion wave radiated outward, bending the boundaries of existence. The sky fractured, revealing swirling voids of non-reality. The very structure of nature, the cosmos, and the balance of creation twisted and warped as Wakana unleashed the treasure’s full potential.
“Let’s see how you handle this!” Wakana’s voice echoed ominously, his transformation complete as the battlefield became an unrecognizable nexus of chaos and power.
The sudden shift in Wakana's power immediately caught the attention of everyone on the battlefield. Yoshi and Lyra, who had been locked in their own struggles, stopped and turned toward the incredible display of power. Joseph, however, simply stood there, seemingly unconcerned by the chaos unfolding around him. His casual stance contrasted with the cataclysmic reality-bending forces Wakana was wielding.
“Hey! Joseph, what the heck are you doing? Now is not the time for your shenanigans!” Yoshi’s voice, barely audible amidst the mayhem, managed to reach Joseph, snapping him out of his momentary distraction.
Joseph grinned, unaffected by the swirling chaos around him. “I was just giving him a five-second head start,” he called back through his suit’s comms. “He was getting too boring for a villain, and besides, it’s not like he even knows how to use the full potential of the treasure.”
Yoshi and Lyra exchanged an exasperated sigh. Joseph’s antics were as unpredictable as ever.
Before Lyra could step in to stop the battle from dragging on, Wakana noticed her attempt to intervene. With a flick of his hand, he immobilized all of them—Joseph, Yoshi, Lyra, and even his own minions—before teleporting them away to a desolate landscape.
However, the XPT within Joseph surged to life, protecting him as he materialized once more before Wakana.
“Hey! Those were my people!” Joseph yelled, frustration edging his voice. “Of course, you did that to your own kind too, so it’s nothing personal, I guess... even though I was overreacting,” he added nonchalantly, before launching himself toward Wakana with immense speed.
But Wakana was ready. With the flick of a finger, he altered the very fabric of reality around Joseph, halting his motion mid-flight. Wakana then flung him aside with bone-crushing force, sending him crashing into the barren ground. Joseph quickly regained his footing, dodging more of Wakana’s attacks, but this was no ordinary opponent. Wakana’s reality-bending powers made him nearly unstoppable.