And DG stands there… still standing… still as a statue…

“Why is nothing happening…” says stefan3B to himself, as everyone froze in place.

“Hey! Wake up! Get him!” shouted stefan3B.

Ares quickly snaps out of it, he charges up his spear and throws it at DG, but his body vanishes like dust in the wind.

“Hey, do you think we got him?” asks Darius.

“I hope so…” replies Ares.

“That was a lot of pain.” continued Radu.

“You can say that again!” replied stefan3B.

. . .

One whole month has passed since the incident. The city and its citizens managed to recover from the trauma caused by the attack. The royal guards and the cat decide to meet at a cafe to discuss the events. stefan3B is the first one to appear there, he looks at the clock from another store, they're late. All of them, except for him. The cat arrives just a few seconds afterwards and sits down at the outdoor table where stefan3B is.

“Ah- you have arrived… so…”

“Go on, what's so important to ask that you called me? I have things to do.”

“You… really didn't miss us? At all…?”

“It didn't even feel like a month.”

“You're insane… anyways… ever since I launched my Yellow Blitz, I lost a lot of control over it… maybe you knew anything about it?”

“Yellow Blitz? Is that really how you named it? Get more creative.” said the cat with a chuckle.

stefan3B frowns, feeling offended.

“Shut up, tell me already.”

The cat closes its eyes and yawns.

“Where is the coffee?”

“I don't have money, just answer my question already.”

“Meh, just wait until your body recovers itself. It's clear that you are still tired from the battle.”

stefan3B wears a tired expression and then sighs, resting his head on the table.

“What's wrong?” asks the cat, as he pulled out a self-made coffee machine and made himself a cup of coffee.

“I… I can't do this anymore…” says stefan3B as his tone gets sadder with every word.

The cat raises an eyebrow.

“You? So young? Giving up so early? What do you mean?”

“It's too much… I'm not made for this…”

“Hmm…Y'know, that reminds me of an old friend of mine, that was just like you in a way or another.”

“So I'm not the only child you forced into labor?”

The cat chuckles. “Of course not, silly~. I had 6 more people before you.”

“And…where are they now?”

“Dead.” says the cat with a smile, giggling and covering his mouth.

stefan3B sighs. “Of course…”

“Heyy~, relax, boy, out of all of them, you have the most potential.”

“Such a cheesy thing to say considering you were never able to do whatever you wanted to. What even is your purpose? Why are you doing all of this?” says stefan3B with a slight frown as he regained his posture.

The cat's eyes widened a bit. He sips from the cup, but before he gets to speak again, Radu shows up, not as cheerful as they knew him. He sits down together with them.

“What's good?” says Radu in a partially tired tone.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“What's up with the mood?” asks stefan3B.

“I'm still pissed off that the wizards are lame. I felt more useful than them to be honest.”

The cat sips from his coffee and starts reading a newspaper.

“Where do you even get these things out of?!” asks stefan3B.

“Anyways, since he's here too, I won't wait for the fire boy anymore.” says the cat.

stefan3B sighs again and rubs his forehead a little.

“I have new research based on this world.”

stefan3B and Radu suddenly get curious.

“Turns out, this whole world is a random creation into something called ‘creation void’. I used a machine to read the energy within this world and it's abnormally high for a planet, but the thing is, this is not a planet, it's flat terrain, meant to expand for an infinite amount of miles.”

Radu’s eyes widen at the information and he rubs his chin. stefan3B sighs once more.

“Very, very interesting… is there anything else you know?” asks Radu.

Just then, Ares comes from around the corner.

“Why did you call me here-...” says Ares before noticing Radu, his mood switching into a bored one.

“Any good news?” asks Ares.

“Yeah, I finished my research on elementalists, I have discovered their ranking system and how their powers work… well, not fully discovered…” says the cat.

Ares raises an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Alright, so, first off, there's the null rank, null rank elementalists present no powers whatsoever because they did not come in touch with elementalist energy as children, so their bodies morphed back into human ones. Low rank elementalists are the weakest ones out there, no need to explain why. I also realized every elementalist rank other than null has something called ‘elementalist coat’.”

“But when I was a low ranker I did not have a coat.” interrupts Radu.

“That's because low rank elementalists have just a small aura that's barely noticeable. It gets really obvious starting from the middle rank and upwards.”

“Ah, aha, I get it… continue.” replies Radu.

“Middle rankers have the ‘coat’ itself, physically, but they dispose of the aura, seemingly expanding their previous aura to its limits, creating the coat of energy around their bodies.”

“What about high rankers?” asks Ares.

“High rankers regain the aura they had before… no, not regain, they gain another aura, alongside their coat, which strengthens their existing coat.”

“That makes sense.” says Radu.

They suddenly hear a loud pant from the distance, it was Darius who was rushing to them.

“Ah… sorry guys, did I miss anything?...” asks Darius.

Ares gets even more bored, he leans against the wall with his back and puts his foot on the wall, crossing his arms at the same time.

“No, you didn't, we just arrived here.” says Ares in a slightly pissed off tone.

“Ah… alright!” says Darius in a happy tone as he takes the last seat down at the table.

“Yeah, anyways.” says the cat before finishing his coffee in a second gulp.

“I know about only one more rank, being the grandmaster rank. I cannot tell how one evolves into it, it's extremely tricky. But one thing I know is that grandmasters are massively stronger than high rankers.”

“I've never seen a ‘grandmaster’ elementalist before, how do you know about it?” asks Radu.

The cat gasped a bit as he made his second cup of coffee.

“Uhh… none of your concerns.” replies the cat.

Radu grows more suspicious of this cat, but doesn't get deeper into it.

Darius notices the tension between Radu and the cat. stefan3B and Ares are both bored, but Ares seems more attentive than stefan3B.

“Do you think something bad will happen again?” suddenly asks stefan3B.

Everyone other than Ares raises their eyebrows.

“What do you mean? We already defeated the bad guy.” replies Radu.

“Yeah, obliterated…” says stefan3B.

“What else could there be to threaten us now though? I doubt the shadow elementalists will come back.” says Darius.

“Yes, that's correct, but you forgot one thing, the plates have not activated again. We're defenseless against invasions. And shadow elementalists aren't the only threat existent, we're now open to endless possibilities!” continues stefan3B.

“That's why we're the royal guards, Stefan, we'll always dispose of them!” says Radu.

“Last time something like this happened one of you failed to do a simple task, which led to me having to single handedly solo the fight. If it wasn't for me all of you would've died. I can't do whatever I did back there again, my powers are gone, don't you understand the seriousness of this situation? Do you really want to die?” says stefan3B.

“Oh, come on, you're just overthinking it!” says Radu.

stefan3B is left in disbelief.

“Alright you drama queens, calm down.” the cat sips from his newly made coffee. “If an enemy will come, it will come and that's it, there's nothing we can do about it. If people die, they die. It's the normal cycle of life.”

“I can't believe you just said that…” says stefan3B

“What I'm saying is, enjoy life while you're still the same person you are today. You'll never know when your life changes.” continues the cat.

“You have an insane attitude to tell that to me out of all people.” says stefan3B.

“He's not lying though, enjoy peace while it lasts.” says Ares.

stefan3B frowns and stands up “And when a conflict comes, what will you do?! Do you just let yourself get killed?!”

“I'll fight back…” says Ares, looking the other direction.

stefan3B doesn't reply back. A short silence clears the atmosphere.

“You do you, but I hate standing here, knowing I'm not prepared for anything.” says stefan3B before leaving.

The cat sighs before drinking from his third coffee. “Kids these days, fearing since the start of their life.” said he before drinking once more.

From around the corner, a lightning elementalist was listening to the entire conversation. stefan3B passes by him and they make eye contact. Surprised, the boy looked away like he didn't hear anything. “Weirdo.” says stefan3B before continuing to walk.