I woke up back in my room. It was all a bit fuzzy, specially the events of yesterday, but I could still remember some parts. I really got fucked up. If I hadn’t gone into the training room, I would’ve died. The last thing I remember was lying in there… and… James. I quickly got up from my bed, and started to run towards the door, before hearing a finger snap behind me

“Where do you think you’re going?” Martel’s voice came from behind me, quickly turning myself around to face her.

“What do you need? I’m in a bit of a hurry” I said this in a worried tone, knowing well that she had seen me bringing James into the base

“Does it have to do with your brother?” She said this in a serious tone, with a deadly look in her eyes.

“How did you know who h-” Martel cut me off before I could continue talking.

“You think I didn’t know who he was when you brought him in? Remember, I did tell you you could find him if you joined us” She stood up and slowly began walking towards me “But…”

She then quickly lunged into me, pinning me against the wall, one of her arms pinning my neck “That doesn’t mean that you are allowed to put this base in jeopardy!”

“B-But-” Again, I was cut off

“Don’t try to even speak. I know this was the only reason you joined, but you’re still putting everyone else in danger bringing their second strongest member in here!” She was still holding me against the wall with a lot of strength, almost cutting my breathing. “You are supposed to be the leader, not a wise-ass that only cares about his goals!”

“L-Let me explain m-myself a bit please?” I said this with a bit of struggle, as she slightly let go of her grip”

“Go ahead, talk. Why did you do something as reckless as that?”

I was now able to breathe a bit better, but I still couldn’t move. “Look, it was a last second thought. I was almost out of Power Overdrive, and if it had ran out, I would’ve probably died from the pain alone. Plus, imagine what ran through my mind when I finally saw his face. I couldn’t just leave him there, he would’ve probably died too. I would never allow him to die. Taking him here was probably the best bet. Plus, he wouldn’t know how the training room works, so he probably would not be able to escape” I lifted on of my arms to grab the arm she was holding against my neck, trying to take it off “I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. The training room, in way of me healing myself and to not put anyone else in danger was the only way. I’m not a dumb asshole”

“It still is stupid bringing a strong enemy into the base without consulting!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I would’ve asked, but I was busy DYING!” I shouted this in a loud volume as I grabbed her arm, throwing it away from me so that I could start breathing correctly. After a few seconds, I went back to the door “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I want to talk with my brother”

“Well, there’s no need to leave the room” Martel said this as she backed up a bit, brushing off her arms.

“What did you do?” I turned to face her again, anger forming since I didn’t want my brother to get hurt

“Don’t worry, I just moved him to your room. Couldn’t have him in the training room interrupting everyone” She then took a seat back in her chair, pointing to a new door in the room “He’s right in there if you want to talk with him”

He was right there. Even if this was a bit unexpected, I still wanted to talk with my brother, so I just entered the room, without even giving it a second thought.

He was there alright… although, not in the way I was expecting. He was tied from his wrists to chains coming from the ceiling. He was still unconscious, but he still seemed a bit damaged from the battle, almost as if he had been taken out of the training room before he was fully healed.

“Why is he like this?!” I asked this in an angry tone, turning my head back towards Martel. She just sat in her chair, a neutral tone in her voice

“He might be your brother, but he is still an enemy. I cannot let him roam around freely. He needs to be like this” She said this in a condescending tone, not even turning her head towards me.

“But he’s human! We aren’t in the medieval times to be doing this type of shit to people”

“Do you remember who you’re talking to? I am your boss. I can do whatever the hell I want to whatever you bring in. You are not in control of anything that happens inside here” As she finished saying this, the mission alarm started to blare, almost as if she had planned it “Plus, seems like it’s mission time, so it’s not like you’ll have the time to talk with him for now” She smiled as she said this, making the door close behind me.

“What are you planning?” I said this with a serious tone as I stood still, facing her. Her tone didn’t sound friendly at all, almost as if she had something planned.

“Don’t worry. I promise that as long as he doesn’t do anything, he will not get hurt” She still said this while smiling, standing up and walking out of the room. “Now, get to work”

Before she left the room, I quickly ran past her, but, before going to the meeting hall, I quickly said, not wanting a response “If anything happens to him that’s serious, you can expect me to riot”

Before she could answer, I quickly ran towards the meeting room, jumping into the portal as soon as I saw that there was no one there.

The place I ended up seemed to be an arena room. The ground and walls were made of stone, with a cage that allowed various expectators to see what’s inside the cage. There was a huge amount of shouting from said spectators. And in front of me, there was a throne… a crimson throne. And yeah, I said me, because Martha, Ness, and Mark weren’t there. I was the only one there. And the portal had already closed behind me.

“And just entering the Arena is one of our new contestants, a 17 year old male that’s about 1.70 meters tall. Various witness reports have shown him being able to defeat various strong enemies. But, one enemy he hasn’t defeated is now here to battle him. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the battle of the century. The wielder of the SoulCrash Bracelet, Colin Striker… VERSUS, THE ONE AND ONLY, CRIMSON KING!”

An announcer said this, with the crowd starting to chant in a really somber tone, as a portal opened in front of the throne, with a member of Anima Daemonium coming out of it… one of the only two I hadn’t met yet… the so called Crimson King. At that time, I had only heard that the rest of the team were only able to paralyze him. What I didn’t know was that it took most of them to even do that. But, even without knowing that, him just entering the Arena made chills run down my spine. He was emanating a really menacing aura, he was a half sylph, but this power almost seemed like someone with Power Overdrive always on. This was terrifying.

“Just to remind everyone, all forms of immortality are shut off while in this arena, along with all forms of protection, including armors” The announcer said this in a hyped tone, as the Crimson King’s armor fell apart, revealing him. He had the same length of hair and face as me, but with red eyes. He had a more toned body, but not by much. He had a tank top and a pair of dark blue jeans, along with some red sneakers. He looked almost like a copy of me… What was he?

“Like what you see?” The Crimson King said this with a creepy smile on his face. This was really creepy, seeing myself smile back

“W-What are you?!” I walked back a bit, trembling a bit.

“Oh, you mean my appearance huh? This is one of my abilities which I gained after turning into the Crimson King. This is Black Queen, which turns my appearance into that of my enemy, but a bit older” He then looked himself over, smiling as he did “I must admit, you have a pretty great body, this could actually help me” He then laughed as he turned his head back towards me “To bad I’ll only enjoy this once, because once the fight starts, you’re dead meat” His voice sounded almost like mine, but with a double voice, one hidden away behind mine.

“We’re almost about to start folks, prepare to watch a beatdown in 3!”

“This is really fucked up. What even happened to my team!?” I said this in a scared tone, slowly activating Power Overdrive

“2!”

“What do you mean? This was a solo battle!” The Crimson King said this as a blood red aura surrounded him, but, this wasn’t a Power Lust aura, it was even darker than one.

“1!”

“What?! But… the alarm…”

“Start the carnage!”

As soon as that last line was heard, the Crimson King quickly launched himself towards me, punching me right in the stomach and launching me back towards the wall behind me, making a crater on it. If I didn’t have Overdrive one, I probably would’ve fainted right then and there, but this was no time to relax. He launched himself once again towards me, but I quickly blocked the attack, crossing my arms in front of my head, to then move to the side quickly to continue avoiding his attacks.

“Huh, you’re much faster than I thought. Guess it must be all that energy flowing in you. Of course, it won’t matter much” The Crimson King said this as his aura changed color to a yellow aura “Yellow Jester, pull the strings of fate!” After he said that, white strings came out from his fingertips, which quickly got tied to my body. It didn’t damage me, but, something else did happen, the strings colored themselves the same shade of blue as my Power Overdrive and my Novas. As soon as the color reached CK (Might as well shorten the name for now) his aura started to change into the same shade of blue I had on me.

“Oh, this feels great. All this power flowing through me, it’s almost orgasmic” CK said this with a smile on his face as the blue aura surrounded him… he had Power Overdrive… he copied my Power Overdrive.

“You can steal abilities?!” I said this as I quickly summoned a shield with my bracelet to protect myself from his attacks. If he had Power Overdrive, I could not afford to get hit again.

“I can copy them, but only for one battle. Sadly, Iago is still above me in that regard” He laughed as he started preparing 10 Novas around him, all orbiting around him, preparing to strike me. “But, one battle is enough to kill you” He quickly launched himself once again to strike me, breaking my shield in just one hit. I quickly started generating more shields as he continued to attack, alternating his fists with his novas. This was taking a lot of energy out of the bracelet, taking a lot of blood from me to keep it running. This was making me feel dizzy, making my breathing uneasy, I was starting to slow down.

“What? Are you not as quick as before?! Are you actually the weaker one!?” He smiled as he kept attacking me, using the novas more constantly against me.

My vision was starting to fade. I was starting to sway from side to side. I had to think of something fast. His attacks were coming in quickly, his novas came against me more quickly… I had nothing to do… but, then I remembered… I needed energy… and he was using Novas, attacks made of energy… it was going to be risky, but I had to give it a shot.

“I might be weak… but I’m not stupid” I said this with some of the energy I had left, throwing my shield away and started to use my hands to protect from his physical attacks.

The whole crowd started to laugh as I protected myself, followed by the CK “You really think this is smart?! Oh, you are definitely a fun one to fight!” He continued to laugh, until his voice turned to a serious tone “But, to bad this ends now” He quickly combined all of his Novas and launched them towards me, with the hope of killing me right there… in the moment I had, I charged one Nova in my hand and held it in front of me. Both it and CK’s Nova impacted, even if it was a low powered one, I was not planning on sending it back. Instead, through my Nova, I started to absorb all of his Nova into my body, turning it into energy. This was way to much, even with the energy I was already missing, this was a really heavy amount of energy. It was overflowing.

“Wh-What?! How did you do that?! That’s not possible?!” There was fear in his voice, he was clearly taken by surprise.

“I am a Sylph Hunter… My body has some special capacities. Now… how about I let go some energy!” I threw myself against him, picking him up and crashing him into a wall, continuously punching his face against it, every punch carrying even more of the energy overflowing from my body, finally making him bleed. I was starting to attack so fast that he couldn’t even respond to it. I could feel his skull starting to crack under my fist.

“Woah! What is this!? Is our Crimson King being overpowered by a random passerby?!” The announcer said this in a surprised tone as the crowd also gasped in surprise.

I continued to punch him, but, I soon stopped… I saw it… fear in his eyes… I saw someone that was highly respected with fear in his eyes. If I had punched him one more time, I would’ve probably killed him. I let go of him, making him fall to the floor. He cowered back in fear, crawling away, clearly not feeling pain due to his Power Overdrive.

“P-Please, spare me! It is not a good idea to kill me, I’ve got information you might need!” He said this with a scared tone in his voice.

“What information could we take out of you? You are an enemy. We have no need for you!”

“I have an idea on how to recover your brother’s memory!”

That stopped me in my tracks. “How do you know about that?”

“All of our team sleeps in the same room. I have some problems sleeping, and I hear both Iris and James talk in their sleep. I know what happened to him… I can help you recover his memory” He said this with a really sincere tone in his voice. He was scared for his life.

The portal back home opened. I had the decision of leaving him here to be humiliated, or take him back and have him help me with James. I could be benefitted from this.

“If you try anything, I will not hesitate to kill you. Do you accept those conditions?”

“Y-yes, yes I will, just please, let me live!”

“Our Crimson King is asking for mercy!? Who is this passerby who he challenged” The announcer said this in an even more surprised tone.

I simply turned my head to where the voice was coming from and spoke “I’m a weakling with hidden potential. That’s all I’ll say” After saying that, I picked CK up and carried him to the portal.

“What is your name?” I asked this with a calm but serious tone as I walked towards the portal, still carrying CK.

“My name… My name is Dee Skyler” CK said this before fainting as I carried him through the portal. Taking him to the training room, making both of us heal back to full strength…

END OF CHAPTER 17