Galactic Nexus/Episode 10: The Phage's Grounds

**The Phage's Grounds** is the tenth episode of the first season of Galactic Nexus.

## Story so far

"As inscribed in the prophecy, a young man named Frisch Celerent walks on a path where the future of being the ruler of time and space, the Harvester, awaits him. Now is the time for a heated battle amongst many belligerents. I dare not speak about idiocy, like what my host does, but it seems Locar easily outsmarted the Mobians... This brings to mind what Verzleinir did to them before. Even the Apocalian siblings were no match. What a man... He might be a worthy opponent to Master Altus. But before they could cross blades, they expressed why they are fighting for their causes. Now that we know why they fight, this marks the ninth page of the history of the Harvester in another realm." — Irissia

## Roleplay

It was late afternoon when Everburn first invaded the camp with his hellfire angels. Their presence had tainted the sky with the hue of red. However, a few minutes had transpired and now the number of belligerents in this skirmish had increased.

Ishvati and the current Prismite contingent of the Scythes, alongside the two Apocalian children and the three Mobians, were about to clash with Locar and Verzleinir... while Darkstorm was still having a (random) duel with Everburn, and Seele and Julia were keeping the angels at bay with sheer defensive tactics. Meanwhile, Serpina, her army, and the enigmatic white figure had been watching from a safe distance.

"Looks like they really have no choice but to thwart our plans," Verzleinir stated the obvious. "Then if you Prismites are really gonna fight us seriously, you better be not boring like the anthropomorphs! Let's go then, shall we?" he said with enthusiasm as he bumped the back of his hand on the side of Locar's arm, of course not hitting any dangerous formation on his armor—a laid-back gesture of friendliness.

"Oh, I already have sacrificed myself. This is just borrowed time..." Locar responded cryptically, before nodding to Verzleinir. It was now that the sickening presence intensified; the golden serpent vessel finally returning to its place atop the staff as Locar closed his eyes, inhaling, and exhaling before sharply opening them, revealing them with an emerald tint. Of course, he acknowledged Verzleinir's friendly gesture, returning it with a rather sardonic chuckle.

Cryptic it might be but it failed to breeze past the Scythes' ears. From that point on, Frisch was thinking of what Locar meant.

*"Borrowed time... No wonder,"* he mused in his thoughts, possibly as a result of decoding information from what his Prismatic Eyes could see, especially now that he and Seele could better sense *that* particular presence emanating from the staff Locar was holding.

However, the mystery of its identity loomed over the two, as they were yet to know what exactly it was.

Regardless, it seems that Frisch and Heiz would not fight these two alone, as they were soon joined by Ishvati, bearing all the scars of life as the bandages he wrapped himself in continued to fall off. He was just dragging the two cutlasses he carried on the ground; ignoring the sensation of his body heating up as he stood beside Frisch and Heiz; pointing his cutlass at Verzleinir.

Frisch batted an eye at the young soldier with a sense of familiarity washing his mind as he remembered that he once saw him sever a robot's arm which mysteriously transmuted into a cutlass completely made of steel. Though he wondered where it was now.

Jack, Patricia & Layla prepared themselves for this moment, they decided to go with new tricks, what they are, you may ask? Jack charges up & quickly punches at the ground with her water power to create a powerful Water Geyser Attack from below to give Locar & Verzleinir a surprise blast of pressured boiling hot water geyser attack from below the ground, while Patricia & Layla combine their magic to purple, light, lunar & dark magic create a Magic Orb Storm blasts of multiple forms of magic orbs rain down at the two from above at high speeds. If the Water Geyser attack succeeded, it would've stunned & blinded the two, if either the Magic Orb Storm works, the two would've been pelted with heavy swarm attacks that are like hard hitting sharp diamonds. If either one of them doesn't work, they would've been distracted by one attack or the other to notice the other attack.

Blaze the Hedgecat skates her way towards where Darkstorm is to try and get him back to the camp to provide support.

Locar was admittedly surprised by the sudden geyser of water that erupted underneath them, he frankly was not expecting Jack to try something like that as he had largely written him off as insignificant; as a result he would have been drenched in the scalding hot water of the geyser and probably knocked upwards; taking the brunt of the magical explosion. Though his raiment would most likely protect him from the bulk of the damage he would have sustained.

Though, with the water shooting upwards and the various magical explosions going on, odds are there would be smoke that started to cover the area; obscuring Locar and Verzleinir from sight. However, this sudden bombardment served to well and truly infuriate Locar. These mongrels thought to end him with such a pathetic attack like that!? This would not stand!! Not now, not ever!! With that, Locar would likely right himself while still in the air; the socketed emerald of his staff letting out a faint glow as a wave of black flames reminiscent of a tsunami in terms of sheer intensity had been launched at the three Mobians.

The thing was, it seemed to be moving at speeds equivalent to the arrows of light Ishvati fired at the hellfire angels, and unless the Mobians could react to such speeds than odds are they would have been caught in the black flames before they could even react.

Frisch raised an eyebrow in caution; his Prismatic Eyes seeing a portion of what happened—Locar channeling a command that allows him to release a crescent wave of flames, then the staff seemingly inserted... Well, that was the part he could not interpret, evident from him furrowing his eyebrows within less than even a split second, as what comprised the 'code' the staff inserted into Locar's script was nothing more than pure chaos; numbers well and truly out of sequence with no hope of deciphering them. When the flames were sent towards the Mobians; its script was partially that of flames with the property values of... photons...?!

But fortunately, even though he could not read that one script, he knew the gist of what it did, as per observation of its effect on Locar's own command.

*"I cannot read it but that does not stop me from knowing what it does. But then..."*

But there was not enough time. Frisch had to deal with the inbound attack or else the Mobians will get incinerated, not even with the span of a split second!

And even then, Verzleinir on the other hand let himself be vaporized by Jack's geyser blast, thus releasing fumes of toxic gas. Though just in time, his now gaseous presence allowed him to ignore the magic spheres raining upon him and Locar.

And Frisch recalled something he could use to retaliate. Thus, he called for Heiz and Seele through the astral network to save time, as they, especially the brothers, were seemingly the only ones among the heroes who could react to such speeds albeit with relative difficulty.

Everburn looks at his right arm as dark symbols are burned into it, growling in anger. He gave Darkstorm a menacing glare.

"We will meet again, Darkstorm. Just remember, I am your doom."

After those words, his body abruptly went in flames, seemingly some sort of pyroportation.

Heiz furrowed his eyebrows, seemingly catching on to an unseen signal. He dashed towards the Mobians in their defense, leaving afterimages from the speed he was going in—his wings clipping forward as it turned into dense armor before he stretched forth his palms.

For strange reasons, the flames, instead of going straight towards the Mobians at the same speed, would severely slow down to measly millimeters per second upon his very presence.

Given Locar's battle experience, it was rather simple for him to assume that Heiz was able to manipulate flames based on the fact that the flames that should have been moving at light speed had now slowed down to millimeters per second—a far cry to how fast they were initially going.

His solution? Channel more Prismions into the snake staff itself, allowing the entity inside to manipulate the script controlling the flames more freely; this time, it seemed to alter the code regarding the temperature and state of the flames; resulting in the flames taking on a solid state, and the temperature given off by the flames to reduce itself instantaneously to zero; the staff itself turned the black flames into black ice, rendering further edits to the script impossible since Locar's commands were related to fire and gold.

But such method still seemed to be rendered moot as the effects of the command seemed to only affect half of the flame wave. Heiz did not seem to be directly manipulating the flames, after all. If that's the case, what would it be?

Simple.

Heiz was projecting a time dilation field.

While Locar was distracted by the fact that his flames were put to a halt, Frisch pointed at the command circle Locar was generating which made the light-speed flames possible... and from his finger, he released a swift bolt of condensed Prismions at bradyonic speeds.

It was just in time that it has introduced itself into Locar's command circle since it seemed he did not see it coming, nor he would be able to react that fast to it. Regardless of how his script was heavily altered, the formlessness of the Prismion bolt introduced a bug in the scrip, breaking it down into free Prismions. Such interference also interrupts concentration, thus Locar would recoil and the black flames would disappear.

Heiz's Raiment then had its wings flapped back as he zoomed towards Locar within a second with a reared right fist before throwing an explosive hook across the man's face when he got near.

As for Ishvati, the power exerted by these individuals actually managed to surprise him into remaining motionless for a moment; what could he do..?

Wait, the gas...?

He was capable of producing hard light constructs. With that in mind, Ishvati set about executing the command sequences necessary to gather the ambient photons around the spreading gas that Verzleinir produced; solidifying them into one giant cube with the intention of containing the gas before it could spread any further.

His plan was to incinerate Verzleinir... Or what he believed to be Verzleinir.

Or was it...?

Sure, he seemed to have been in gaseous form when he was vaporized by Jack but seeing things are going on at high speeds, he had to keep up. Realizing that the photons were aggregating into a solid mass, he realized that someone must be after him with the intent of trapping him in gas form so that he could be open to a follow-up attack. He opted to return to liquid form but the heat of the geyser prevented him from doing so.

As such, as fast as he could, his gaseous body would effuse out of the photon cube, making use of small gaps present on its surface before it was completely sealed. Thanks to the temperature gradient between the cube and the environment, it allowed him to effuse faster towards cooler regions and not get seen by the naked eye since the photons used to shed light on the gas had been used for the cube.

With Everburn and his swarm of Hellfire Angels gone, Julia breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it was over. That was until she quickly noticed the others fighting against one another, and her eyes widened at the sheer amount of power being thrown around. She looked a bit panicked, realizing that she didn't have a lot of mana left in her reserves - thankfully they were replenishing slowly, but she knew she was particularly vulnerable. Yes she still had that big freaking cannon, as well as the five infrared laser cannons and the two explosive 20mm cannons... oh and don't forget the converted Jack-4 automatons that were still hiding in the forest. But regardless, if all of those were destroyed, she would be left very vulnerable... or would she?

Regardless, she didn't know whether or not to engage the remaining two aggressors, and so turned to Seele for guidance.

"Se-Seele, um... sh-sh-should we in-intervene? I-I-I don't if I c-can do anything against... we-well... a-a-all that," she said.

When the hellfire angels were gone, Seele cancelled the dome, allowing it to dissipate into free Prismions.

"Conserve your energy," Seele advised her. "I'll tell you when there is a good opportunity to strike."

Darkstorm and Blaze the Hedgecat arrive to the front.

Jack, Patricia & Layla come over to Darkstorm & Blaze the Hedgecat, though keeping their guard up against Locar & Verzelenir just in case, while Jack says "It's a good thing your here, Darkstorm. Thanks Blaze. Right now, both Locar & Verzelenir are starting to give all of us troubles."

"Best to keep our guard up incase both Locar & Verzelenir are ready to attack again." said Patricia while she, Jack & Layla keep their guard up with the group with defensive abilities, to be safe.

*"Who the hell is Verzelenir?"* Seele mused in her thoughts with sarcasm as she was apparently overhearing Darkstorm and the Mobians.

Frankly speaking, Ishvati had a feeling that something like the paralysis of the regions where he was struck by Verzleinir would occur—numbness around the areas perforated by Verzleinir.

Which made it practically imperative that he had finished what he did: throw both of his cutlasses at the cube; reverting them to simple light fixtures spinning like a buzz saw, building up heat energy as they spun towards the cube until the energy given off began to rival that of the core of Mobius's sun, incinerating everything directly in its path. When his cutlasses collided with the photon cube, it would set off a chain reaction, subjecting the contents inside the box to heat extremes rivaling the temperature of the core of Mobius' sun. Not only that, a sudden flash of light radiated from the cube, potentially blinding those who were directly looking at it.

It was imperative simply because this was all he could do, he was weaponless, and this command took everything he had; should it fail then Ishvati would be vulnerable, weaponless and on the brink of a Facet rejection.

A faintly visible cloud of green gas aggregated above a sturdy tree branch as, a few seconds later, it materialized back into Verzleinir, who was wearing a face of surprise. Ishvati's determination was enough to paint vivid astonishment on his visage.

"That was close to hell...! Impressive!!" Verzleinir cheered upon Ishvati, showering him with applause. "I would like to fight some time with you again since you're not boring like the others. But you're down—we can't continue like this. For now, I'll just deal with..."

He looked at Darkstorm and the Mobians—the people he intended to toy with.

"Them," he decided—a sly smile etched along his lips.

Locar was indeed wearing a helmet, and odds are Heiz's punch would have connected... However, something strange was going on, as the serpent staff glowed for a split second. Locar would have caught the fist with his left hand and quickly pulled it downwards.

"...?!" Heiz furrowed his eyebrows within that short span of time—

Smack!

Locar simultaneously raised his right knee upwards to plant a crushing strike towards his chin.

"Kghh!" Heiz grunted in pain from a significant concussion on the affected area. His helmet was somewhat crunched by the strike as well. He was sent flying backwards in an arc.

So what happened...?

Frisch saw that the serpent staff had injected its own command focused entirely around Locar's being to temporarily send it to the fourth dimension and had made itself the anchor point that kept Locar's physical form tethered to space.

Otherwise, he would have sunk in the infinite sea of timelines.

Furthermore, such an event would essentially make Locar operate at subluminal, if not light, speeds—far slower than what Heiz could have gone in, but at such close range and with his grasp on his fist, Heiz got a bit too cocky and took that sudden knee.

Despite that nasty surprise, he had one of his own.

An explosion had occurred upon contact, with its force as well as of the punch's own actually sending deep cracks running along through the left arm of Locar's Raiment.

However, Locar took this head-on and pushed through the resultant pain. Heiz wanted to pound his resolve into Locar's head, then he should not mind when Locar did the same. This was just as much a fight as it was a contest of wills after all.

Not only that, the force of the punch would have radiated across his arm as it dealt sudden sheer tension to his triceps, potentially tearing some tendons around them in the process.

Meanwhile, Heiz gritted his molars as he exerted effort to maintain flight by taking advantage of his aerial momentum, flapping his wings back again and swooping back to the ground while clutching his chin.

*"Damn it...! How am I supposed to eat later when he just smacked my chin?! More importantly, how the hell did he smack it when he's not fast enough to keep up...? This geezer is strange."*

*"Elainne, Julia, defenses,"* Frisch relayed through the astral network.

Seele nodded faintly, channeling turquoise scripts around her hand in preparation.

Julia had gotten the message through the astral network, and thus got the weapons already on the field ready in case they needed to be used. Not a lot of mana had been replenished in her reserves, though there was enough if she needed to cast something at the heat of the moment - for now, she would just make sure her already summoned weapons were ready to fire upon her command - and by extension Frisch's when he needed her.

Though after being in two skirmishes back-to-back (this one still ongoing), Julia was getting tired of fighting. Not that she was experiencing fatigue, far from it actually... she was just not liking any of it at all. She didn't like fighting - she preferred things to be peaceful - hell it's the only reason why she's fighting, to keep the peace. But while Eggplankton and Everburn had pretty much bailed out ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶w̶a̶r̶d̶s̶, Locar and Verzleinir were disrupting the peace she wanted to keep - and they weren't stopping. It was actually making her a bit frustrated that they were fighting for... what even? She didn't know why they were fighting, and she assumed it was for no reason. So help her god, if one more party joins in the fight or if it keeps dragging on for no good reason...

She would try to make it all stop.

*"That staff he's holding... It must be holding a powerful Prismatic Spirit, from the looks of it performing commands. Not only that, it was able to use dimensional anchoring on its wielder. But considering the composition of the Spirit and the nature of its commands..."*

An unthinkable realization hit him in the head.

*"Must it be... a Spirit capable of manipulating chaos itself...?!"*

Blaze the Hedgecat walks over to Jack as Darkstorm goes to tend to his family and access the damage from the attack.

"Thank goodness your safe, sweetie." said Jack while he feels happy that Blaze the Hedgecat is still ok eve

"It's good to know that we're still ok, but about those two strong we've faced, we can never be too sure if they come back for more or not." said Layla, feeling a bit relieved, thou still wondering about the two opponents Locar & Verzlenir if they're still out & about or have already left the camp.

"Seems like we still have a long way to go if we want to stop the Hollow Empress. We were all lucky enough to survive." said Patricia while making sure their enemies are already gone from sight.

Darkstorm nods in agreement, "Had they brought their full strength we surely would have fell. But this wasn't their full strength, this was a surgical strike to test our capabilities. Everburn wouldn't attack without a plan."

"You might be right about both opponents. So what do you think Everburn is up to? Why challenge us here & now?" Asked Jack, as he is wondering about Everburn's plan really is.

But then again, Seele was watching them from behind

*"They're still talking in the middle of battle?!"* she thought.

Locar noted that his left arm was becoming more difficult to move, luckily he was right handed otherwise it would have been more serious. Still, Locar just smiled at Heiz while he was in the air. "I think i'll leave it at that for now.." Locar remarked, he never left the camp after all, and Verzleinir was literally approaching the mobians and presumably Darkstorm to finish them off.

Still, he chose to stare at Frisch for a moment with a callous sneer. "I got what I wanted out of this, I doubt we'll meet again in the near future; but remember this, do not cross me again." With that stated, Locar casually dispersed his Raiment. Only to pause and glance at the Mobians and Darkstorm. "You three are worth less than spit on the ground, honestly you should probably give up; you are so outclassed by us.. Well, I doubt he will."

"... Eh?!" Verzleinir interjected, but it was as if he was talking to somebody else. "Just as when I was about to do something *really* fun. Ah well..."

Locar actually pointed at Darkstorm when he said 'he', indicating that the next portion of what he had to say was specifically directed at him.

"You should really check up on those brats, or keep them out of the battlefield; I'm quite accustomed to killing children you know, it's just another statistic that I'm more than willing to live with."

Obviously Darkstorm should know who Locar was referring to.

Still, with a wave of Locar's staff; a series of commands swirled around him, leading him to parts unknown—a manner of teleportation performed by distorting the boundary of space so completely that it flung him off somewhere in a manner that was untraceable due to the chaotic nature of space at the moment.

Regardless, that caught Frisch's attention. The destination may be untraceable but the fact that it was from the snake staff was useful information to him.

Now, in regards to Ishvy, when he saw that Verzleinir was fine; and that his last attempt at ending him amounted to nothing, there was a primal scream that tore out of his throat. A scream that encompassed a lifetime of hatred and self loathing directed outwards and inwards. With the last of his might, he reached out for Verzleinir as if to pull him back; his very eyes alight with such hatred that it made his previous display of power look like a weak ember.

The Prismite contingent of the Scythes suddenly turned to look at him in surprise from the scream. What was happening to him, anyway?

Still, he had nothing left, he had put in all of his power; all of his will and Verzleinir still managed to escape unharmed! With his fading thoughts, he cursed his own Facet for letting him down when he needed it the most, he cursed himself for being so weak as to fall like this; he cursed the others for being able to do what they did with seemingly no effort! Most of all, he cursed those who made his Facet this way and tossed him out.. He was nothing more than a failure, doomed to fail when it mattered the most, yet too weak to do the right thing and ensure his failures could never compound by ending his own life.. With his final thoughts before sweet unconsciousness, he uttered a soundless cry of hate directed solely at himself.

With an instinctive impulse, Seele dropped her scepter and hurried towards him in rescue.

"Hey! Are you okay?!" she asked in an attempt to check whether he is still responsive or not. Regardless, he would check his respiration and circulation if still present.

But all the while, her eyes were peering into his spiritual being if he has non-physical afflictions.

In which she squinted her eyes, noticing an anomaly between his soul and his Facet; the latter exuding peculiar Prismionic signatures that hinted it being tampered by an external force in the past.

With Locar gone, it now seemed things were calming down a little to Julia—only a bit though. It was enough to calm her down though, so a potential lash-out was a little unlikely now. She ended up getting startled when she heard Ishvy's fainting scream, and looked to see that he had fainted. Before she could have a chance to do something, Seele was already running towards him. Albeit heavily concerned about their unknown ally, she stayed put. At least it managed to distract her from her frustration.

"Se-Seele, i-i-is he okay? Pl-Please tell me h-h-he's not dead..." she asked her from afar. Strange, even if she didn't know him, she was still concerned.

Frankly speaking, aside from two or three cauterize puncture wounds that weren't even remotely close to fatal, Ishvy wasn't really injured. Best guess was that he either overexerted himself or it had something to do with the fact that his Facet seemed to have been tampered with. Still, the bandages covering his face were removed; allowing the group to get a good look at his face; angular features that were honestly very pale from lack of sunlight compared to the part of his face that wasn't bandaged; a youthful face that likely suggests he was in his early teens, but most of all.. The fact that he was still practically standing through sheer reflexive willpower.

And the paralysis was a contributing factor as well.

"He's still alive," Seele spoke. "He must have exerted himself too much.

Verzleinir... sat down on the branch?! It looked like he did not want to leave. In fact, he even waved a hand—the paralysis afflicting Ishvati's body clearing up in an instant.

"Now it's just us, huh... I commend the bandaged soldier for being able to keep up—I actually almost got baked! But anyway, clear up before I tell you why I'm here!" he said nonchalantly. It was as if they did not fight.

"Prism Shift... Levenacht," Frisch uttered.

Seven indigo orbs swirled around him and formed ring constructs which washed a faint indigo hue on his Raiment and metaphysically merged with it, replacing the orange lines with indigo. When the Prism Shift was complete, the armor sprayed out wafts of wispy indigo energy. Without further delay, a shadow hand laid itself upon Heiz in a small effort to heal his chin injury.

"... Elainne, could you transport him inside?" Frisch asked Seele. "... I'll handle the rest."

"Gotcha. Julia, let's go."

A wispy turquoise appendage emerged from her back, firmly yet gently wrapping Ishvati around it, transmitting spiritual waveforms which did nothing to return Ishvati's consciousness but it kept his Facet temporarily stabilized. Regardless, it would carry him out of the field as Seele walked back to the camp.

"O-Oh... th-th-thank Aang..." she muttered that last bit to herself in relief. She hated to see a valuable ally to die— actually she hated people dying in general, at least from violence. ￼With nothing else to add, she continued to stand there while glancing over to Verzleinir. She didn't know why, but something in her mind just wanted her to point all of those weapons right at him so he could be annihilated. Probably out of vengeance.

Before that managed to manifest however, she overheard Seele's call to join her.

"Ri-Right, um... c-c-coming!" she said, quickly making her way to her so she may walk besides her. Kind of close, but not too close either.

Jack, Patricia & Layla were silent, seeing how Locar is right, though they were entirely lucky to survive for now. Though that does not stop the three from trying to fight smarter rather than harder, though now it's becoming serious business. Even if they took criticism hard, it give them all the more reason to reach to high levels never before reached if they want to continue to help the group stop the Hollow Empress & other dimensional villains.

Remembering Josh & Yuki's teachings, they continue to learn more tricks & a variety of attacks in their respective powers in order to reach to new heights. Jack needs to master more advanced water abilities & even a water theme transformation so that he would become a master of the sea. Patricia & Layla continue to learn more of a variety of spells & magic to create tricky manuevers to confuse & deceive their enemies the correct way, while controlling & doing their best to increase their magic aura to exceed at advanced magic. Layla continues more research of her Lunar magic & controlled dark magic to make sure she is ready to target the mind of her enemies the next time around.

Jack, Patricia & Layla we're completely focused on what was coming next, especially if the 7 Chaos Emeralds could be involved, according to their dreams.

Verzleinir let out a sly smile...

Not knowing all that shizz.

Regardless, it was time for them to know th reason as to why he came—no, arrived.

"I'm here to toughen you guys up before Reginull arrives, especially the anthropomorphs. Oh and the hybrids too, as I have observed. Those who trail behind will be the first to die in her hands, remember that~"

"..."

Frisch and Heiz had fallen silent. They did not expect Verzleinir, the Phage of Phages of all people, to actually lend a hand. More or less, he was an enemy until now.

But no one save them really knows his connection to the Prismites.

"You serious...?" Heiz asked, evidently confused.

"Surprised, I see!" Verzleinir noted, expecting such reactions from the Prismites. "But this is me extending my sincerity. Up to you to accept or refuse, it's just two."

"Then help us train. Help us exceed to the next level & reaching greater heights than before. It's about time we dive into serious business, because Locar is right. Play time is definitely over." said Jack, now feeling more serious with Patricia & Layla.

"It's all starting to make sense. You we're helping us from the shadows to be tough & strong against the face of danger. If we need to reach to greater heights, we need to push ourselves to our limits & even master our own powers for the upcoming battle that is coming." said Patricia, now starting to think that Verzleinir is actually training them, thinking that his way of helping us is like solving a puzzle.

"I think it's about time we all take off the kid gloves & get to more serious training both the body & mind. Now, the question is, where do we start?" asked Layla while she, Jack & Patricia were all very determined & focused to get started with their brutal training with the heroes' aid, knowing that it's a battle that is a matter of life or death in their hands. If they all want to survive, they all need to become as tough, powerful & clever as the Reginull herself if they all wanted to win & protect all the dimensional worlds from certain doom.

"... But he's been our enemy way back on Crystialga, and he was *created* solely to hinder the progress of the Scythes."

Created...? Does that mean Verzleinir was some sort of living project produced by some sort of shady group? If that was true, then what exactly is it?

"... But I'll give you a chance... since I see something interesting within you," Frisch declared with a confident tone—it was as if he saw through him.

"I know you have good reasons... but are you really sure about that, Frisch?" Heiz asked for confirmation.

"... That I am."

Verzleinir clapped slowly in amusement. "As expected of the bearer of the Prismatic Eyes. Yes, you can confirm my current affiliations. And now I bring to light the cause of my revival. Frisch, you know you have this power yourself..."

"... Revival...? Wait, you must be referring to...?!"

Verzleinir raised a hand to the side.

"Lady Azalea and Lord Richter."

The faces of the Scythes were hidden in ethereal masks but they were wrought with disbelief. But the others might be able to tell from the cloud of silence looming over them.

"Richter had betrayed us, but... Azalea? Why is she working together with him?" Heiz said to himself.

*"... Azalea... is still alive...?"* Frisch mulled over.

Who is Richter and Azalea anyway? And what is Verzleinir's relation to the two? And why did they revive the Phage of Phages?

They were about to discover the answers.

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To be continued in the next episode...

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