Slowly working on an arm for the sinister Envy, Victoria stared at him with a hateful set of eyes. She had become a prisoner to Envy in her own home. Her captor had taken a stroll across the room, towards the crushed window. He stood tall, taking in a sumptuous breath of air from the fresh fruit of Astrea and its bountiful beauty. As he devoured such divine nature, Victoria looked towards the tied up general across her sofa.

"Why haven't you tried attacking him already?" Victoria quietly asked Isaac, as she captured Envy's every move carefully.

"I'm working on something but it's tough to do much when my hands are like this!" Isaac gently said in frustration, his hands tied behind his back tight.

"Hmm, releasing you would be tough. He keeps coming and going." Victoria said with Envy embracing the bliss, heavenly valleys of Astrea.

"It's fine, Victoria Magika. You clearly aren't interested in helping me!" Scornfully said Isaac.

"Hmm? Why is that?" Victoria had only partly cared.

"You came here, instead of searching for me!" Said Isaac.

"I'm sure the others are on their way to me right now. After all, I have the only man who could possibly rival Envy." Said Victoria with a set of cheery cheeks.

"Really? You don't need to flatter me." Isaac blushed.

"Not you, I'm speaking about Thomas. He's here." Quickly replied Victoria.

"Gah! What?" A dagger sunk into Isaac's heart. "He's here? Right now? Well, where is he?" He muttered in disappointment.

"He's not in a state where he can fight right now." Said Victoria, looking away in discomfort.

"Well then, I hope someone comes soon." Said Isaac.

Riding into the pebble brick roads of Astrea, a royal carriage had peacefully entered the town with a spring of hope to its wheels. Inside the fairy-like carriage, Alsop had been sat with Maxwell and Axel, the two of them eerily quiet. This had unsettled Alsop, and their driver, Oswald Charisma.

"I hope Ms Magika can help us." Alsop said to cut the silence, but it was no hope, something had tranced the others. "Max. Axel. You two?" He stared at them blankly and realised their eyes were pinned outside.

"Mr Dusseldorf, or anyone perhaps? I think I will need you to leave the carriage." Politely said Oswald, as the carriage came to a sudden halt, a mask of concern on his aged face. "I'm sorry, but the horses are refusing to move anymore. They are scared of something ahead." He added.

"Yes, I'm not surprised. The streets are very quiet." Maxwell finally spoke, but it was with a terrifying look to Axel. "Something strange has happened. I believe we might be too small of a force." He said.

"What do you mean?" Pondered Axel.

"The three of us are not enough for this pursuit." Said Maxwell.

"Then Oswald, you must return to Bournington. You must bring help. If you find we are not here, you will meet us at Duke. Understood?" Axel pressed upon him as the three left the carriage cautiously.

"Of course. I will try my best, to bring you the best." Replied Oswald.

"Are you familiar with the region of Duke?" Asked Alsop.

"I am very much familiar with Duke. In fact, Mr Dusseldorf, I assisted your father in moving there." Replied Oswald with a slight smile towards Alsop.

"Really? Very few people know the area." Muttered Alsop.

"Yes, Oswald is quite experienced." Maxwell added.

"Well then, I shall return as soon as possible." Said Oswald as he climbed aboard his carriage and steamed off slowly.

The three that remained turned to view a desolate street. It was exactly the same as when Envy and the general entered, but this time around something gruesome stood out on the street. A body had been bleeding on the ground, and with it, a little girl stood still unaware. Maxwell approached her with a pitiful set of eyes, and he hovered about her small size with a hesitant hand of sympathy. With quick reflexes, the little girl sharply turned towards Maxwell with her watery green eyes.

"My father is gone! They hurt him so much!" The little girl cried as she quickly clutched Maxwell.

"Wah! Who did this?" Maxwell said with shock to his veins.

"They called him a traitor! Oh, they were so cruel! My father cried, but I couldn't do anything!" The girl moaned out blindly.

"A traitor?" Maxwell embraced her, with a cuddle of warmth that one would deeply cherish.

"What do you mean, little one?" Asked Axel.

"My father made friends with a sweet, sweet man. But everyone else didn't like the man!" The girl said with frustration.

"Max..." Alsop looked to him with a firm shake of the head, as he knelt over the body with his fingers searching for a pulse.

"What is your name?" Maxwell reached her level and looked at her with ice-cold eyes.

"Elsa Marielle." She replied.

"Marielle? She wouldn't happen to be related to the old king then?" Axel whispered to Alsop.

"No! My father has said I am absolutely not related to the old king!" Angrily said Elsa.

"You have a good set of ears, miss." Maxwell briefly laughed.

"My father said my ears are divine. I can hear a lot of things, you know." Elsa calmed down in an instant at the sound of his laughter.

"A divine power, no doubt. My friend Axel here will stay with you. Be nice to him, okay?" Maxwell turned his eyes to Axel with desperation.

"Ah-hah! Of course, I will." Said Axel, his eyes protruding into bitterness.

"Alsop, come. We must go now." Said Maxwell.

Alsop and Maxwell moved forwards, without looking back on the little girl and her fallen father. As Alsop walked alongside him, he noticed a strain wrinkling at the corner of Maxwell's eyes. His stance was distant and cool, but his fists were clenched firmly, and his breaths of air exhaled from his nostrils. The crystal blue eyes he carried, soon became stained with black as the villainous curse that Envy carried was clear. It stood tall in the Magician's Manor.

"I knew it. It's him. He's here, Alsop." Said Maxwell, his posture stone cold.

"Envy." Alsop had reciprocated his anger. "What do you plan to do now?" He asked, watching Maxwell roll his sleeves up.

"Kill him." Replied Maxwell swiftly.

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"You should go on ahead. I'll catch up to you soon." Said Alsop, slightly taken aback.

Maxwell nodded in agreement and soon stormed off to the Magician's Manor with a breath of temper to him. His arrival led him to the window that stood shattered. He floated above the remains, and his eyes quickly met with Envy, who stood tall with prosper. Envy had been doing nothing more than admiring Victoria's creation for some time, and he had placed it perfectly within his mutated socket. By the time Maxwell had arrived, his iron fist clenched firmly, yearning to be used.

"Ah, I remember you. You were there when I lost my hand. What's the matter, you seem quite angry?" Envy grinned with gross happiness.

"Maxwell! Help us out, will you?" Implored Isaac.

"Enough from you, general. Though, why not have a go? I wouldn't mind testing this out." Envy had placed the offer in the air as he embraced his fist.

"Victoria, you created that? Why?" Maxwell had caught her ocean eyes and delved into the depths of them with anguish.

"I had to...otherwise he would have been killed." Victoria stuttered, her glance crossing over to the fiery red eyes of the general - his back sizzling a slight trail of smoke.

"Ah, I see now." Maxwell had also realised the smoke and moved his sight far from him. "Quite the house you have here. It would be an utter shame to see it destroyed." Said Maxwell.

"Oh...I really, really wouldn't mind." Upon hearing Victoria's words, Maxwell clenched his fists firmly.

He quickly rushed towards Envy and charged him through a barrage of walls which formed a set of holes in seconds. This caused the house to tremble in terror, and thus this had been the action that impacted the prisoner beneath them all. Among this mess of debris, Victoria looked on with a hopeless smile while Isaac dropped a face of sheer surprise.

"You're just going to let him destroy all of this? This house is worth a fortune!" Exclaimed Isaac.

"I know." Sighed Victoria. "This place won't have a successor anytime soon though." She said with a frown.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Isaac pondered as he loosened himself out of the rope tied around his hands.

"Never mind that, you're free now?!" Chuckled Victoria.

"Well, now we actually stand a chance at fighting him. Before we didn't." Said Isaac.

"Yes, yes. You and your strategy, General Rose..." Victoria carried on laughing as the two of them left the room for the hallways.

Meantime, Alsop had finally arrived at the manor and its grand display of architecture. The doors were grand in size, but they had already been flung open, with the hinges being hammered down to the ground. The bolstering blows of Maxwell and the iron fist of Envy had led them into the courtyard where their punishing punches to each other eventually drew blood. In this moment of onslaught, Alsop could do little to help as their movement was incredibly fast-paced - the tempo being dictated by Maxwell and his flight. However, a sudden bolt in the sky had stopped them for a slight moment. A furious core of lightning had come down. Though the destination had not affected them, it instead buried deep into the manor, where it found the bearer of such power.

"Ah. This is where I should leave." Said Envy, wiping his bloody lip.

"No!" Was the simple exclamation from Maxwell as he darted towards him.

"You..." Envy grabbed him by the neck and began to search for his soul. "You are a guardian. It's very obvious now. Yet you don't use the fullest of your powers?" He pondered.

"Is that why you haven't killed me yet?" Breathlessly asked Maxwell.

"There is no reason to. Nor is there any reason in using my powers, on someone who will not use theirs." Envy said as he dropped the guardian to the ground.

"Alsop, no!" Victoria yelled from afar, as Alsop lunged into the fight from behind with a sword pointed towards Envy.

Her voice instantly caused the nefarious Envy to turn, whereby he quickly captured the sword with his iron fist, and he grabbed Alsop by the neck - just like he did beforehand to Maxwell. This time around, he had a moment of hesitation, before he started to taste the very embers of Alsop's soul. Something stopped him though. Something strangely sinister. Something so scary, his face wailed in pain at the sight of it. Alsop was completely fine, but Envy was not. His power had met a disastrous error. An error that compelled him to retreat. Retreating would leave him out in the open, but nobody could chase after him. The only means of speed to capture him was Maxwell, who had been exhausted of energy as he danced with death after such a battle. Thus, feeling no other options were available, Envy ran. With the cost of his new iron hand, he had managed to lose a prisoner, his only valuable pawn to find Lux Buchanan, Alsop Dusseldorf's father.

"Maxwell, are you okay?" Isaac quickly rushed to his side.

"Follow him..." Pleaded Maxwell.

"No. Leave him. He seems scared of something. He will be back soon enough." Said Victoria, coming in to aid Alsop. "What did you do to him?" She whispered into his ear a question that rose Alsop from his shock.

"I don't know...I think he tried to get my soul, but it didn't work." Muttered Alsop.

"Kff! You really had to give him such a strong arm?" Coughed Maxwell, a drop or two of blood dripping from his mouth.

"Well, you didn't need to try and stop him! It'll take a lot more than just a few punches!" Exclaimed Victoria.

"How are you in such a good mood, Victoria Magika?" Asked Isaac.

"Because Alsop here, just showed us a way to actually hurt Envy." Replied Victoria.

"Alsop? What good can...what did you do?" Asked Maxwell.

"I saw something strange, something so terribly strange. Ms Magika, I'd appreciate it if we had a chat..." Alsop was still in a state of mild confusion, the events had passed by in seconds.

"You let him go?" Thomas reached the courtyard a moment too late, standing behind Victoria.

"Huh! You're free!?" Exclaimed Victoria.

"Of course, Victoria Magika." Said Thomas. "After all, I remember what you did to me. I remember you." He whispered into her ear intimately.

"Huh! You - you do now?" Victoria's reply was ambiguous, but her lips smoothly lined up into a smile.

"If you were here earlier, you could have stopped him." Said Isaac with distaste.

"Well, I will go searching for him now. Max, get up." Said Thomas as he grabbed him, wrapping him under his arm.

"No, no. He caused quite the damage to me." Mumbled Maxwell.

"Nonsense! We're going now, and we will not return empty-handed!" Said Thomas, a newfound confidence within him, as they burst off to the rest of the town.

"He could have taken me!" Shouted Isaac in anger.

"Well, he respects you as much as you respect him." Said Victoria, her eyes towards the bliss dusk skyline.

The powerful pair of Thomas and Maxwell hurried into the main streets of Astrea, where the same sense of eery belonging from before remained. This time, however, there were two bodies on the ground. One being the father of little Elsa, and the other being Axel. He had been blundered away in what looked like a single fistful of power. Elsa was gone. And so was the villain that trapped Axel to the ground in pain.

"Where did he go?" Asked Maxwell in defeat, it had been clear the evil Envy was long gone.

"He took her! The girl, he took her after knocking me down!" Cried out Axel in pain.

"He hit you very hard. It seems you made him angry?" Suggested Thomas.

"I did nothing! I can't take him on alone! He saw the girl's father and then he became enraged. But he seemed frightened of something before that, what did you guys do to him?" Asked Axel.

"Nothing. It must have been Alsop..." Muttered Maxwell in disbelief.

"Get up, Axel Astrix. We will return to the manor." Said Thomas, holding out a hand.

"Now what do we do though? Envy is gone!" Sighed Axel.

"He is lucky the curse upon him is concealed in the darkness of the night." Said Maxwell.

"Like I said. We will return to the manor. There are many questions to answer." Said Thomas.

"We cannot delay here. We need to go to Duke to go and see Alsop's father." Said Axel as the three gazed off towards the moon with uncertainty.

However, with their cloud of judgement being blinded by Envy's cowardly act to run away, their eyes failed to capture the punishing curse that lingered off Envy. The sun had gone down, and the moon had now risen, paving the way for his curse to be almost invisible. This had been crucial for his escape, as he had not truly run very far. Instead, he only hurried into a few bushes nearby. In his great escape, he managed to take hold of Elsa, who faintly hugged onto his back - having a quiet, hesitant attitude about him.

"I can hear things, you know." Said Elsa.

"Hmm?" Envy became curious.

"You are very scared, sir. They know you are. They will return to the manor to discuss things." Said Elsa.

"Incredible. You can hear such things? What else? What else are they saying, Elsa?" Growing emphatic, Envy asked.

"Well, they plan to go to Duke. A father is there." Said Elsa.

"Truly divine. Your ears shall be protected. Let us go to Duke. We will first get my justice, and then we will get your own justice too." Said Envy with a smile of satisfaction.

"My own justice? What do you mean by that? Why do I need justice, sir?" Asked Elsa.

"Ah. You don't realise. You don't know." Envy said with bitter resentment. "They murdered your father." He said.

"My father is dead? But they can't have done it! They came to my aid when I lost him." Elsa cried out.

"No! They have obviously played with your eyes, how inhumane of them!" Envy felt sick to the stomach at her supposed mistreatment.

"They pretended to be different people?" Elsa wondered in confusion.

"Yes, no doubt. They also pretend to know what justice is. They do not. I will show them justice soon. Soon, justice will be in my hand." Envy's words slithered out of his lips, and they came with his metal hand reaching out to the moon, clenching it tight with malice.