A man collected his wizards and monsters. From the east side came an army of four hundred thousand wizards while from the west came another hundred thousand tamers on their dragons, dinosaurs, and other monsters.
He was standing in the middle of the field, he had deep blue eyes and dark brown hair. He spun around as his army marched to the front lines.
His eyes fell on a girl with black hair, her green eyes glowing like emeralds, walking with pride and no fear of anyone. He smiled when she stood next to him.
Then they both looked in your direction and called, "Atama-sensei!" They moved their hands, gesturing for Atama to join them.
But he stood like a statue, a cold expression on his face-- slight anger-- no feeling for anyone.
The scene changed and now Atama was watching the hundred thousands of men firing spells everywhere. They were practicing against each other, against the dummies, against wild (untamable) monsters.
A few of the hundred thousand were standing in a graveyard, chanting their incantation and waking the dead from their graves. Some raised an army of undead vampires and zombies. They were practicing necromancy to prepare for the worst.
In a grassland, another set of fighters was sparring against peers. Their katanas clanged and the sound echoed through the never-ending grassland of the Realm of Magic.
In a barren land that looked like a battlefield, spanning thousands of kilometers, Hiro and Kaori were casting a ninth-level spell from the School of Abjuration.
From the opposite sides, they started creating a Prismatic wall, a multicolored pane of light created a vertical wall that went up to ninety feet long, thirty feet high, and one foot thick.
The wall had seven colors of the rainbow. They all acted as a barrier and did their job of protecting the people inside it from the outsiders. Each color had its property of damage.
A bird cage's door slung open and a cuckoo bird flew from its cage, making a loud 'cuckoo' sound to wake up its master.
Dot at five in the morning, a man opened his white eyes. Cold, no feeling for anyone. He rigidly pushed against his bed to sit straight, his white beard waved under his chin, and his white bed hair made him look like a kid. But the coldness in his eyes did not.
He recalled every incident that happened in the Realm of Magic, then sighed and said, "I wish I was bold, Akuto-Kun."
Kuzu knocked on Onogi's door. "Yeah." He heard from the other side, the door opened, and Kuzu walked inside.
He walked straight to Onogi's table and took a sit in front of him. Onogi placed his glass on the table and looked at Kuzu.
"What is his recovery status?"
Kuzu took out a cigarette and tapped its butt. "At first, it was only his foot. After twenty-four hours, it is his whole leg. The pus refills the next second after it is taken out."
"Are you sure it is a curse?" Onogi asked.
Kuzu blew the smoke. "I heard her cast some Noroi behind us. Gigi said it must have been a sprain, but you don't end up with a swollen leg and a ton of pus because of a sprain."
Onogi took a sip. "What did Sensei say?"
"Before the blood test, he said it must be a spell, some poisonous thorn he stepped on-- impossible for a thorn to pierce our battlesuits-- or a creature's venomous bite."
"And after the blood test?" Onogi raised his brow.
Kuzu sighed and dropped his head. "His blood is poisoned," Kuzu said, "the pus released it his rotten blood."
"Blood Poisoning?"
"Sensei says it is more like blood rotting. It is a curse. After taking his legs, the blood will rot to his brain and heart within forty hours."
"Legs? What do you mean?"
"Sensei said..." Kuzu looked at Onogi. "His leg will swell till his skin hits the limit and burst into a semi-solid liquid."
"Fuck." Onogi rubbed his hand over his glass.
"Then his another leg, his arms, then his whole body. When the supply of blood is cut off, his cells will rot, numerous infections will develop---"
"And his tissues will die from gangrene." Onogi shook his head. "And can Sensei do anything?"
Kuzu shook his head. "It is a curse, Masao-san, medicines can only slow it down, it needs the perfect countercurse to stop and cure the effects of the curse."
"So we need someone to get us the countercurse of a curse that rots your blood till your head blast into pieces and die."
"Yes." Kuzu took a smoke.
Onogi nodded. "Do you have our guest?"
Kuzu looked at him, he lowered his cigarette. "Guest?"
"The one you kidnapped from the supermarket."
"Ah... yes. She is here."
"Bring our guest, Erabu." Onogi lifted his cup and gulped down his drink.
Kuzu took a deep smoke and then crushed his cigarette in an ashtray on Onogi's table. He got up and bowed to Onogi before leaving.
Onogi made himself another drink while he waited for Kuzu to bring their guest. The door slid open, and Kuzu pushed the wheelchair and brought a girl inside the room.
Onogi closed the door, leaned back in his chair, and stared at a girl who was wearing a skirt and a sweatshirt. There were a few bruises on her forehead and forearms.
"I hope you will speak to me. That was just our first round, if you don't speak, we have two more rounds for you."
Then Onogi gestured to Kuzu to let her speak. He tapped a metallic device that covered her mouth, it slid into one corner and revealed her face.
Her lips were bruised from the tight metal, her eyes were devastated, her purple hair was scrabbled all over her head, and she was panting.
"Let me go! I have nothing to do with this!" She pled. "And my whole body hurts!"
"Ah, shut her up, Erabu." Onogi took a sip.
Kuzu covered her mouth once again, she shook her head furiously, trying to escape, she even tried to scream.
But it all turned into muffled noises.
Onogi got up from his chair and walked to her, he leaned on his table's edge with the glass in his hands.
"Rion Reonine. Despite being a scientist, you have a complicated relationship with two mages. I wonder what I should do as a fellow scientist, but I am here as Onogi Masao, not scientist Onogi Masao."
He glanced at Kuzu then stared at Reon.
"I will ask you a question. Did something happen between Hitori and Kamiya?"
Kuzu leaned forward and pulled her fold. Reon panted, then said, "Fuck you, Onogi, I am not telling you shit."
Onogi nodded. He banged his glass on the table behind him, reached for his pocket, and squatted in front of her.
He slung a weapon which turned out to be a wire cutter. He did it in a flash.
So fast that it took Reon a sting of pain to realize her pinky was between the cutter.
Her eyes widened, sweat flooded her neck, and her hand started trembling.
"Answer. Or lose your pinky. Three, two, one."
The blades connected and traced back, leaving blood on the edges.
Kuzu covered her mouth, letting her muffled screams out.
Onogi then took out a medkit and treated her pinky, stopping the pain.
Reon shook her head and cried her eyes out. Onogi didn't bother with a painkiller, she was flapping the chair like a fish out of water.
Kuzu removed her fold, and Onogi grabbed her middle finger. "Answer my question, or lose your middle finger."
The cold blade touched her finger. But this time, she spilled it all. "They fought! They argued, Kamiya cast a spell on Hitori, and they are not talking since. That is it."
Onogi leaned back and sat on the floor. "Easy-peasy." He chuckled. Then he looked at Kuzu, who covered her mouth again. "If those two are not together, Erabu, and we were thinking a way of diving them."
"Things are easier than before, Masao-san, all we have to do is... rule them."
Onogi laughed, then looked at Reon. "When will they be together?"
"I don't know, they have never fought before. I do not fucking know when they will make up!"
Onogi got on his feet, she panicked and kicked the floor. He reached for his medkit, took out a pill, and forced it in Reon's mouth.
"It is a painkiller, don't throw up!" Kuzu warned her.
Reon choked but eventually gulped the pill. She dropped her head forward and panted.
Onogi got up, grabbed his glass, and went back to his chair. "Your turn, Erabu." He sat and gulped his drink.
Reon gasped and glanced at Kuzu. He took a deep breath, frowned, and leaned toward her. "Listen, Reonine, I have work for you."
She gulped. "No. No, I will not kill anyone. I can not do it, I can not kill them---"
"Oh shut up. Do you think we are that weak, that impotent? We can kill our enemies ourselves!" He snapped at her. She sealed her mouth.
Kuzu looked down, then grabbed Reon's jaw and jerked her head back. "Your friend cast a fucking spell on my partner and now he is fucking dying."
Reon's eyes widened. She wanted to ask who but she could not since her Kuzu squeezed her mouth.
"You go to him and ask him the countercurse for the blood rotting curse. Your fingers will be spared, and so will your life."
Kuzu jerked her jaw and kept staring at her. Then he got up. Onogi swirled his drink and said, "If you go against us, if you tell them about us, you will lose your fingers, that is for sure, but…" he got up, "...Leo will lose his fingers, too."
Kuzu tapped the mouth fold and covered her mouth before she could say anything. She jerked her head, kicked the floor, and tears formed in her eyes.
"I believe it will be pretty hard for Leo to continue as a conqueror if he can not hold his weapons."
Although her voice was muffled, he could make the meaning of her words. She was swearing at him, pleading to keep her family out of this.
Onogi dropped back and took a sip. "You will do as we say, or we will have to put Leo through the second round."
Tears dropped from her eyes, she froze when she heard him. Second round, that means he already went through the first round.
"Take her, Erabu," Onogi said. "Release her after feeding and treating her bruises. Her family should not suspect anything."
Kuzu grabbed the wheelchair and pushed her out of the room. Reon felt devastated, her head was dropped, her arms were tied behind her, her legs gave out, and just tears flooded her eyes.
Till Onogi had finished his drink, Kuzu came back to the room. "What do you think, Masao-san?"
"Something ties her," he said, "something is holding her back. She let her finger get cut, maybe she was debating.
"She told us the truth, that is for sure, but when the cutter's blades were on her finger, I felt she was not worried about the pain, but she was worried about how bad it would be to lose a middle finger– one of the main fingers."
"T-that was her reason?"
"Probably." Onogi nodded. "Anyway, keep Leo unconscious till Reonine accomplishes her mission. He is one of the best scientists, you never know what he would do to get out of this situation."
"I will keep an eye on him, Masao-san."
"All we need is the countercurse and a plan to bring those two together. Once they are, at least, in the radius of five meters, game over."
"To kill both of them together in the mage prefecture, don't you think it will attract attention?"
"No, It would—" he paused and raised his brows. "Attention. Yeah, I remembered. I will do this, you will stay at home."
"W-what? No, why? I will kill Hitori will by blades."
"Your target should be Kamiya, not Hitori. He is a nobody, Kamiya is our enemy, and he is just a side character. Remember that." Onogi pulled the side drawer and threw the glass inside. "You can not come to the mage prefecture."
"What stops me? I will avenge Gigi, if not my drops. Kamiya is someone you should deal with, you started it anyway."
Onogi glared at him. "Your wanted posters are all over the prefecture. Every little kid knows your face there. I have handled those pamphlets on this side, but that side, fuck it. If you still want to kill that woman, you will have to use a clone to enter the city, I will have to think about your exit though."
"Wanted posters. This all happened because of Kamiya and his dumb petrifying spell." The veins on Kuzu's forearm popped.
"We will talk later, Erabu," Onogi said and leaned into his cloud chair.
"Ah, sure. Later, Masao-san." When Kuzu turned around to leave, Onogi called him again:
"Keep eyes on Leo. One won't do."
Kuzu took time to process, then nodded, and left.
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