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Cody Lazarus

Henri reluctantly nodded in appeasement. The maze was quiet as Jack handed over his catalyst to Kirin.

"Well," Cody began, "I guess that's that. You guys ready to head out?"

"Yeaaah." Anne stretched her arms. "I'm sick of this place."

The majority of the faction, along with Kirin, Riza and Jack, stepped through the passageway. Cody lingered behind with Caster.

"It wasn't a bad plan." Caster ran his fingers against the stone walls. "Stop the war in its tracks by making a key element unattainable. If we'd known, perhaps..."

"Best not to think too much about it. We've got our own plan."

"Well put." Caster walked through the door. Cody was about to follow when the maze to his right shifted slightly. The exit was still there, but to its right was the remains of a separate portion.

On its floor, Cody could see the shredded remains of a teenager's corpse. It was Nick's. The heart was torn wide open by a large wound, supposedly by the hand of a large sword. At the sight of it he heaved, grasping his mouth in a panic.

Oh... Oh my god...

A voice echoed. It was faint. It said nothing. It merely laughed.

Cody spoke out loud. "...Why?"

HMM?

"Why... are you showing me this, Ruler?"

IT SHOULD BE RATHER OBVIOUS... OF COURSE I KNOW OF YOUR PLAN. I JUST THOUGHT I'D GIVE YOU A LITTLE SENSE OF CLOSURE BEFORE THE GRAND FINALE.

The maze shifted again, hiding the corpse from view. In a cold sweat, Cody ran straight for the exit as fast as he could.

The air outside was cold. It was snowing.

Anne

"So we're close- wait, are these three coming with us now?" She asked gesturing to Kirin, Riza, and Archer.

Avery

While Berserker was concerned with the orb spell thing, Avery used a quick telekinesis spell to abov shove Nicole into a wall before following where Jack has run.

He could see snow, but it stopped abruptly as a wall shut it off.

He ran back and announced to Will and Nicole "They left the maze!"

Cody Lazarus

Madeline. Come in.

I'm glad to see you're alive. I couldn't find a way to gain entry into the reality marble. How did it go?

Successfuly. Kirin, the spade master from a few days ago, has decided to join us along with his assistant and servant, the Archer of Spades. We have his two catalysts as well as another spade's, and finally the seventh from the labyrinth itself. We're still missing one, though.

I don't have any leads as to who may have the last catalyst. Perhaps we should consult the Brazen Head.

Alright. Caster, turn it on.

Fire away.

Brazen Head, is the aforementioned catalyst, which we do not yet posses, in the hands of the Spade Faction?

NO.

...Huh. How about the clubs?

YES.

Cody visibly raised an eyebrow. "That's odd, the head says we already have all 7-"

"Brazen Head." Caster spoke out. "Do we posses all seven catalysts required to summon Avenger?"

NO.

"...Huh." Cody scratched his head.

"I believe the head means to say that the last catalyst lies in the hands of a Club-faction mage that isn't with us right now..."

"...That girl. What was her name again? With the pink hair?"

Maria Kieszeń.

"Send her a message."

Done.







Maria Kieszeń

I, Madeline, the Artificial Intelligence system working in assistance of Club Master Cody Lazarus, have messaged you to inform you that we have obtained six of the seven catalysts required to win the war. It has also come to our attention that you allegedly have already obtained the last one. I highly suggest we rendezvous as soon as possible in order to end the war swiftly and achieve our goal.

Muramasa/Hypatia

Even before the cloud faded, Hypatia's clairvoyance told her what had occured.

Im-Impossible! Even Saber couldn't move that quickly, and his agility was A-ranked!

Sure enough, when the dust settled, Muramasa was nowhere to be seen -- Until she appeared behind Avery, and her sword sprouted from his abdoman this time. His blood spattered her armor, but her sword, once withdrawn, was spotless.

"NO!" Will shouted. He'd hardly even met the boy, but he'd still been a loyal spade, and it wasn't supposed to end like -- like this! In a second, the heavy glove on his second hand fell away, revealing a purplish, formless cloud. He thrust the "arm" forward, and the cloud followed through, punching Muramasa in the gut.

She didn't flinch.

"Berserker! Stand down!" Nicole called.

She still didn't flinch.

Hypatia had been readying another spell, but stopped as Nicole spoke. It probably wouldn't have worked anyway.

"You. Spade boy. Banish your servant, or we'll kill her."

Will glared. "Are you NUTS? No! I'd never do that!"

"Um... I'll kill all the clubs?"

"Still no. Do you have anything sane to say?"

"Sane? I stopped saying sane things a long time ago. YAAAAAARGH!" Berserker's next blade found its mark once more. Will fell facefirst onto the floor, blood oozing from his partially-detached neck, before Hypatia could so much as blink.

Cody Lazarus

"Well..."

hehehehehehe...

"I..."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

"...No." Henri raised an eyebrow. Cody looked around. "I don't think we can just do that."

"Why not?"

"Marcell Krauss, the spade master of saber in the last war... He tried to do something similar, but Ruler never plays fair. He'll just find some way to keep it going once we're old and unable to intervene. We have to be proactive here. Let's head for the laboratory, then first thing in the morning we're confronting that pink-haired girl."

Kirin Oshiro

He flinched.

...Right. I still have that mental communication line. He took out his catalyst, the one he'd obtained at Big Ben. It was that which his mother had left behind, a ruby with the Oshiro emblem.

Take care, James.

He terminated the connection.

Jack

"So this is where y'all live?" He piped up as he lit a cigar, "Cool idea, we slept at a church, well I did at least." he said, "I assume I'm not welcome inside. I'll be at the closest bar." he waved at the clubs as he walked away, "Come on Celtchar."

She nodded, I need a drink too, although I would like to talk to that cody kid at some point....