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Chapter Text

   The Theater.

   The place where figures of greats, would compete against monsters, and eventually each other, to grab ahold of the center's light. Though the grand prize is still unknown, but the thought of it had already made everyone were on the edge of their seats.

   This is the times where there are no barrier with the current world we live in and the world that goes beyond death. People lives together with "Ghosts", with only those who are worthy to be able to see and feel them. Thus, it begins the Theater's "selection" to chose the superior winner of the world beyond death, to grab ahold of the light.

    But, to do so, the Theater only wants the best of the best to execute such risky competition. So, it only resurrects a selection of twelve figures of greats, those who possesses something that is called "arts of performance". Though such thing doesn't really exists, but they don't know how the Theater works with their own minds.

    This twelve figures, heard from gossips and the passing winds, that they are the most famous. Where their legends are constantly talked, generations by generations. Not limited to that only, the Theater judges that their arts of performance are really rare and refined like the finest of diamonds.

    In the past, they were called kings, rulers, the main lead of their legends... Of course, they were called figures of greats for a reason. But here, they were only mere competitors who carry the titles from their past life. Their past are no longer needed to pursue of a new purpose at the times ahead.

    Their resurrections are held by the brightest of full moons, deep inside the Theater's chambers. Lies on each room are a summoning circle, and a coffin filled with the twelve figures' delicately preserved artifacts that belongs to them. Heck, there were even talks upon behind their backs that one of the twelve figures had their legendary sword to be present in this resurrection. Who could've it be?

    It was like the calm before the storm. The times of peace before the roars of warfare upon this stage. It's calming yet unsettling at the same time, as hooded figures starts the ceremony by chanting mysterious words. The circle shines in various colors, from the brightest of whites to the darkest of blacks. The Theater is amused upon the welcoming of the new twelve figures upon their turf, to be basked in this light.

    Ah, what a wonderful stageplay.

    I hope he would appear next time we're here!

    I wonder how could she performed that in such divine way?

    Aww, so bad that they died such gruesome way...

    The lingering words of the audience are everywhere surrounding the Theater, as the air become hot and dense with the amount of mana spewing out from the coffins and the summoning circle. The hooded figures continues to link hands and the mysterious chants got even more loud, before wishing on there would be someone to answer their summonings.

    Slowly, but sure, each of the summoning circles are glowing brighter and brighter. The ceremony continues with one of the hooded figures of each twelve summoning circles, opens a box with a mysterious six-pointed star gem. Each gem are different, each color of a rainbow hue. They throws the gems onto the top of the coffins, and suddenly the summoning circle blinds them, overthrowing the almost darkness with light.

    As the hooded figures of each twelve chambers starts to regain their sense of sight again, they goes in awe. The coffin disappears, but the summoning circle still dimly lit, enveloping the mysterious figures in a mysterious light. One of them; in an entirely adorned in ocean blue, gold and black outfit, points to one of the hooded people on his summoning chamber.

   "I see that I had escaped death itself. Where am I?" he asks, in a tone that were strange, a mixture of gentle, kind and slight slyness and roughness

   "You are now in the Theater, my Lord. A place where you will meet your next battle," the pointed person says, while bowing down

   The man grins, his magenta irises watches them in interest. "My Lord, huh? Does my name really known even to this times?"

   The other people on the room nods.

    "Well then, now that you all knew about me, then I shall give out my name to my enemies," he said again, before heading to the door, a swish of his coat accompanies

    The magenta-eyed man opens the door, and when the first step out of the room, the view changes into a grand stage. A battle, the hooded figures told him. He may know that he died, but this entire "resurrection" thing does made him wonder. Speaking of which, he notices presence of other people nearby.

    "Speak, as now you are my enemy," he declares

    The magenta-eyed man immediately goes into his position, resembling of a samurai. He then remembers now, he doesn't have his sword with him, so he just do it, hoping something would appear. The first one to come out from behind the stage curtains, is a man a bit taller than him, featured in pale blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. His outfit is like a western knight would look, adorned in black, white, and yellow.

   "Say, why would you be on your stances when you do not wield your sword to do so?" the knight tells him, not even budging about the man's stances

   This man is not bad. He's gotta be a person similar to him, a warrior who defends their country. But, he radiates an aura of a different kind of that. Something more...

   The man in blue immediately straightens up. "Ah, a habit of mine. Akechi Mitsuhide, and I'm a samurai general. I came from the Far East, Japan."

   The blonde knight nods. "I see, I never talked to someone—moreover a general, from the Far East. I shall tell you my name too."

    The general, Mitsuhide, are slightly intimidated by the knight's aura. He speaks in a rather soft yet assertive way, and so formal. The knight brings one of his long-gloved hand to his left chest, to form as a meeting gesture.

    "My name is Arthur. You may know me as a King."

    Arthur? a King?

    "Oh!! It can't be!! The famous King of Knights is here!" another voice responds

    The two immediately turns, to a rather short orange-haired boy, in a cowboy-styled outfit. Beside him is a brown-grey haired girl, slightly taller than the boy. The girl is also surprised by the boy's statements.

    Arthur then flashes them a kind smile. "I see that you had recognized me."

    "Even to the Old West? You are more famous than you could think," the boy replied

    "Bless the Lord for this opportunity of a lifetime, this is such an honor for me to meet King Arthur himself. My name is Jeanne d'Arc of Orleans, it's such a pleasure to meet you," the girl introduces

    Mitsuhide guessed that he must find the nearest library to learn about his enemies. He looked dumbfounded among them, he needs to regain his focus. He was a samurai general for a reason, and losing focus is not what he wanted.

    "I'm sorry that I didn't introduce myself farther. I'm the King of Britain who known for pulling the legendary sword, Arthur Pendragon. It is nice to meet you all too," Arthur reintroduces himself, regally announces 

    The boy whistled. "Dear gracious, can't say more about the King himself. We can't hang off our introductions here, am I right? I may no royalty, but I, Billy the Kid, at your services."

     Well, they do give off a nice first impression. But, his suspicions doesn't end there. He felt more of them are coming this way. He may told that the ones that awaited for him right here are the enemy, but it's not bad to at least learn more about their history.

    "Oh? What an interesting gathering we had here," a soft, girl-like voice comments, from Mitsuhide's back

    The magenta-eyed man startles. "Ah. Forgive me, I didn't notice you there."

    The young girl, with tanned skin and beautiful emerald eyes, are looking at Mitsuhide curiously. He noticed that she had a pair of cat ears on top of her head.

   "And... I guess I was told to gather here with the others?" the girl asks him again

   Mitsuhide just nods. "Yes, we were been told to, by the hooded figures."

   The cowboy looks at the girl who is with Mitsuhide, and greets. "Hey, you over there. Is that real cat ears?"

    She just giggles. "Well, you can say that it is true. Ah, my bad. I heard from earlier that you all were exchanging names, right? Then I shall give mine too."

    The girl with the cat ears moves forward, so that the others could see her. She might has short hair, but her side bangs are really long, reaching the upper part of her legs. 

    "I am the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Cleopatra VII Philopator. Well, now that Osiris had resurrected me from my sleep, those titles doesn't matter anymore."

     Arthur is enthusiastic to find fellow royalty. "I have heard your tales once, Your Highness, and I am amazed by how people describes the Egyptian Kingdom thrived to one of its best times."

     Cleopatra giggles again. "I'm flattered by your compliment, but please just call me Cleopatra. We may be royalties in the past, but that doesn't matter anymore to our times here."

    The King of Knights then replies, "Then I shall be the same. Cleopatra is right, our past glory isn't needed anymore here."

    Billy and Jeanne agrees about that too. 

    "But, won't that be a bit strange if I call you with just Arthur?" Billy asks, making sure of that

    "Actually, I don't mind being called with just my name. Being called with my titles, I sometimes feel nervous," the ice-blue eyed King answers, still maintaining that kind smile too

    Mitsuhide thinks to himself, while eyeing at Arthur, ' Damn, the King of Knights is sure can be a potential threat. Not to mention he brought a weapon as well... ' 

    "I heard that there was supposed to be the twelve of us to be here, but where are the others?" Jeanne raises her questions

    The other just thinks. They were currently on an empty auditorium, with balcony views high above. This said "Theater", sure looks like those from the medieval times, but the aura that this place emits, is something else.

     "Hey, young miss! Wait!" a new voice echoes from behind the curtains

    The others who are present by the stage immediately turns, instinctively goes on their stances. Two more people came out from the curtains, and this time is a young lady adorned in pink and a detective in ocean blue. The two immediately stops, seeing the ones who are already here before them.

     "Oh my, are you all the ones we were supposed to meet, those people in hoods told us?" the young lady speaks

     "Yes. Did you two have other informations upon what causes they to woke us up?" Billy asks, tipping his cowboy hat

     "Wake us up? Hmmm..." the lady in pink hums, putting one finger on her chin

     The detective decides to speak up, "Like the boy said, those hooded people woke us up for a reason. I had questioned each one of them before meeting her and eventually it lead us here."

     "Questioned? What answers do they gave?" Mitsuhide asks

     "Their answers are unclear. They mentioned me about a stage, an upcoming battle for me and the other eleven people that had chosen by the Theater," the detective answers

     "I could feel this is a doing of evil, to ever wake us up to participate in another battle," Jeanne murmurs, worried

     "Other than that, they immediately ushers me out of the room, right after I finished my interrogation. That's where I meet this young miss, walking nearby."

     "I told you, mister detective! I had a name!" the lady suddenly whips her head to the green-haired detective

     "And I too had a name."

     Arthur immediately clears his throat to stop any further argument, and the two stops by that moment. "You two, there is no need to argue when we had no clue on what's going on here."

     The detective suddenly widens his eyes. He felt something. "Wait. Are you...? I might be wrong... but are you, our King Arthur?"

     He nods. "Yes, I am."

     The detective immediately scrambles to bow in front of the king, apologizing. "I am so sorry for this inconvience, my King. My name is Sherlock Holmes, and I am a detective from London."

   Arthur assertively says, "Your apology is accepted. You may stand, Sherlock Holmes."

   Sherlock then straightens his standing position, "I have never been this alive to ever bare witness upon the King himself. It is such a honor."

   "The honor is mine too. How about that young lady over there? Why don't you introduce yourself too?" Arthur says as he glances to the lady in pink

   "Right, this is where everyone should hand out names, I understand that. My name is Marie Antoinette. You may know me as the last queen of France before the revolution—though I dislike to mention the latter..." the young lady introduces

    Sherlock immediately looks away. This young lady turned out to be one of the famous queens in history, and yet he started in an argument with her.

    "That's eight of us already. The other four should come out soon," the cat-eared queen comments, while counting each of them

    Well, these figures of greats cannot stay put until someone else would come out from behind the curtains. So they decides to hops off the stage and starting to exploring the empty auditorium. Unfortunately, the only existing door is locked, so they cannot move to anywhere else this auditorium. Mitsuhide decides to sit by the edge of the stage, his feet dangling off the tall platform. 

    He started to think upon the informations that he had gathered from the others. The Theater, which is called as their next battlefield. The hooded figures are the ones who resurrected them, without telling more of the purpose. Moreover, they had no clue on what kind of war would they face?

    Suddenly, he felt something awful by the pit of his stomach. ' What is this feeling? No... it couldn't be... '

    "And here I was, wondering of the same thing. I found a familiar face in this hell of a hole."

    Mitsuhide freezes. That voice. He knew it so well that it might curse his own sleep, the voice that driven him to something else rather than devotion...

    But instead, the general in blue and black just grins, as he rises to his feet. The one who were behind him, is a slightly taller man, looking at him mockingly with his scarlet-red eyes. Speaking of might finding someone familiar to his times, but he guessed he was out of reach from the Goddess of Fortune.

    "We met again, Mitsuhide," the man snarls

    The others immediately looks on the stage, seeing that the battle would be started sooner than they thought.

    Mitsuhide's tone turned into a slight more rough as he said, "To think that I might go into another battle, I wouldn't expect to ever meet you again—"

    That name, dripping in venom.

    "—Oda Nobunaga."

Chapter Text

   "—Oda Nobunaga."

   Mitsuhide spits out that name like venom, but on the contrary, Nobunaga is rather amused. For a left hand like him, it is obvious. The others immediately abandons their exploration and came back to the stage, where the two are practically glaring daggers at each other.

   "Damn, are you two like, enemies or something? 'Cause you two do look like it," Billy decides to be the first to separates them

   "Indeed," Mitsuhide replies shortly

   Followed by Nobunaga, "He said it."

   Billy starts to sweat, this situation had gone worse if a wrong approach is used in order to separate them. 

    "Wow, I've never been this nervous after the time I challenged the bandit king," Billy said to himself, slowly moving back

    Sighing, Arthur decides to step in. He gently taps Billy's shoulder, gesturing that he should stay back because he'll handle this. So, the orange-haired boy nods to him, and moves back.

   "Mitsuhide. There's must be a purpose of why Oda Nobunaga is here. You're no longer need to even think of your enmity in the past with him," he approaches slowly, speaking with a soft tone

   Nobunaga just scoffs while folding his arms, "For a King like you, you do are brave enough to even say that, when you're betrayed by your own knights and killed by your own son." 

   Arthur stood still. How could Nobunaga know about his past? The others who heard it, just gasps in silence. His fists are curled by the sides of his body, maintaining the calm. The red-eyed daimyō¹ is amused once again. He could swing his sword, Excalibur, quickly, but he doesn't know of what could this place do towards him and the others.

   "There's no need to talk about our own pasts. I ended his life for the price of taking mine," Arthur speaks again, this time his ice-blue eyes gone colder by the second

    "Hey, stop it, all of you," Jeanne immediately steps into the scene, using her arms to separate Arthur and Nobunaga

    Nobunaga once again scoffs, this time he's in disinterest, "All of you are really boring, honestly."

    "Oda Nobunaga, we don't know of what could happen if any of us would engage in a fight with each other before this place could tell us," Jeanne tells Nobunaga, this time she was serious

    "This place? Does hooded people said that this place is our next battlefield. So why not?" the daimyō asks again

    Dear Lord, Jeanne is already this itchy to beat him up, and she bet that Mitsuhide and Arthur also felt the same as her. The ice-blue eyed knight king gestures to Jeanne to let him, he may be already recomposed himself. But, Mitsuhide isn't saying a word yet, so Jeanne is worried about how this could turn out.

    "I was just arrived in this strange place, and yet I found myself in the midst of yelping dogs," another one says, from behind the curtains

    "Huh? Yelping dog, you say?" Nobunaga asks, turning to the voice source

    "It is rude to address most of us with dogs, moreover royalties are present with us," Sherlock speaks, clearly upset by the mention

    "Royalties? My bad, that I had to call people who are the same as me, with such filth," the voice says again, before the person walks out from the curtains

    This time, it's another young lady, dressed in entirely black and red dress. And surely it fits her black-and-red looks, where she also had medium black hair, gradiated in red and matching red eyes too. For once, she does looked like another version of Nobunaga, but just gave the other kind of intimidation.

    "I, Queen of Hearts, had requested to be present in this Theater. And you all must be the ones those people told me," the lady speaks

    Yikes, another headache to deal. Nobunaga already made enough headache for everyone, and now that Queen of Hearts is here, they sure are gonna feel even more so.

    "Queen of Hearts? From Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland? How could that be possible..." Sherlock moves forward, giving the red-and-black Queen a question

    But, Queen of Hearts doesn't answer, instead she's gazing back to the curtains, as if it's like she is waiting for someone else. Everyone else is looking at her and the curtains too, and it's true that there are like three more people to complete the twelve selected competitors. The Queen sighs, and she spun on her heels to the curtains, reaching her arm to the other side. She grunted, as she pulls someone from there, like a magician would pull out a bunny from the hat.

    "Your Highness, you don't have to be that rough to pull me out!" the person that is quite taller than her, lightly bickers the red-and-black haired queen

    The Queen clicks her tongue, and says back to the pink-haired person. "Shut it, or I shall had your head."

    He sighs. "But then my knowledge would be useless if you took my head." 

    "What on earth..." Mitsuhide mutters to his own, really do not expecting to be this bewildered when his supposed enemies coming out one by one.

   "Now, introduce yourself to the others. They are waiting," the Queen said again to him, who is just squirming to let go

   Queen of Hearts lets go of her iron-grip, and the person just groans in pain. It sure really hurt, as the others thought. He quickly pats his outfit, in order to make it neat again, and his long hair too. For most of them, he could be mistaken as a girl here².

   "My name is Leonardo da Vinci, and I am really happy to meet you all here. I guessed we are all supposed to be in our eternal sleep, and yet we're here, wide awake?" he introduces, using a sweetly tone

    He's right for a reason, though. Leonardo da Vinci, the name of a famous polymath from the 19th century. This is quite an interesting line-up, but it couldn't be concluded yet, since they are missing the other two. Speaking of the tension earlier, Arthur decides to move away, having enough of engaging in such reckless actions. Mitsuhide, in the other hand, decides to looks away. Their grudge can be handled later, in a more fitting of a time.

   "Well then, what should we do?" Marie asks, looking back and forth to the others

    「 we guessed that our dear competitors are already present here? 」

    The ten of them immediately whips their head, as the voice echoes on their heads. No one talks after Marie asked that question, so this must be the one who assigned to welcome them.

    "Who are you?" Mitsuhide raises a question, his voice echoes by the empty auditorium

    「 oh please, I am just a humble person who was supposed to guide you all into this war. 」

     "What kind of war do we have to face?" This time, Jeanne is asking

     The voice on their heads just chuckles before replying,「 personally, I wouldn't call this as a war, but rather just a competition. But, we don't know how the Theater even thinks. 」

     "What competition?" Leonardo inquires

     「 do you all, o' great leads of the past, have you believed in magic? 」the voice asks them again, this time with a trickier question

     Arthur decides to answer. "I am, personally. My advisor is the great mage of Camelot, Merlin, and my sword is given by the Lady of the Lake, where I granted such tremendous powers—or you might call, magic."

     「 ah, a response we needed. Well then, Your Highness, why don't you show us and your fellow competitors? 」

     "I would rather not. My sword can destroy anyone and anything by a single swing, and I don't want to risk anyone's life here," the King of Knights refuses

     「 that's too bad. Well then, we'll give you examples of what magic would be. 」

     Suddenly, Billy's body lightens up in an eerie orange light. "Uh... guys? What's happening?"

     As if it's moving by his own, Billy hands are moving to a position of where he would draw his pistols out from the pistol holder. Magically, a shiny silver, magnum pistol manifests to his hand. The boy tries to stop his hand, but his attempts were futile. The magnum pistol on his hand are aimed towards Arthur, and he immediately goes into his stances, hands on the sword's hilt.

    "Billy! You should stop!" Sherlock exclaims, trying to hold him back, together with Cleopatra

    "I can't!! It moves by its own!!" the boy frantically answers, as his finger slowly curls towards the trigger

    The others are in total shock, unable to do anything. They already trusted Arthur enough to be able to dodge the bullets. Billy's body suddenly struggles from Sherlock and Cleopatra's grip, as if he really want to shot the King. Then, out of sudden, a loud BANG! resonates from the pistol barrel, an iron bullet flew out.

    It was like a slow-motioned movie, as Arthur felt something odd embraced him, a strange yet familiar feeling. As he pulls the holy sword from his sheath, electric surges suddenly overthrew him, and he felt lightheaded. But, he remained focus, locking eye contact with the flying bullet towards him. The sword suddenly flares in a yellow light, as he on his way to swing it to slice the bullet into two.

    The electric surges goes stronger and stronger, by each milisecond. As if it's like he was striked by a lightning, and that lightning ignites the insides of his body. The sharp blade swung, and a loud CLANG! resonates. The others watched it in such awe, seeing the small iron piece are sliced into two, clatters to the varnished wooden flooring of the platform. Arthur's eyes gone bright blue, from the soft ice-blue colors, and the residue of the electric surges are still tingling off. 

   "Whoa... Arthur, how exactly do you do that?" Cleopatra asks

   The bright blue on his eyes, like the clearest of summer skies, disappears in a sudden. So does the electric residue. Billy's magical magnum also fades into thin air, and he drops to the floor. The strange powers surely brings him fatigue.

   "I never felt like this... Last time, it was at my final battle..." the King said, froze on the spot

   Yes, the magic that were stored deep inside the sword, Excalibur. But, the one at Billy... it must be something new to this times... A new kind of magecraft. Does that mean, everyone else had those kind of powers like him, in participation of the war by this stage. The voice that echoes on their heads earlier doesn't say anything after that sudden weapon engagement.

  「 what a wonderful show, Your Highness! That swing, that lightning-speed, everyone would love to see that! 」

    The Excalibur clicks, as Arthur puts it back to the sheath. Even though he can perform such otherworldly powers, but this is not what he wanted. Not now, as he thought. 

   "Not bad, for that light show. Does that what the Theater do?" Nobunaga finally says another word, and this time it sparks of interest

    「 yes, my daimyō. The Theater is capable of anything to spun any story with just a flick of a switch. You all should be grateful, that the Theater would give such divine powers, to grab ahold of the light. 」

   "The light?" Jeanne repeats the last word said by the mysterious voice

    「 the light, yes. We personally doesn't want to spoil the surprise, but that is the prize, if any of you manages to stand by this stage, defeating the lurking monsters and eventually, each other. 」

   The prize is still really vague to the minds, but that rivet one's attention.

   "Does this light... would grant the winner's wish?" Queen of Hearts asks

    「 my Queen, you sure are smart enough to think about that. 」

    The prize of a granted wish. These figures of greats had gone into many hardships on facing the path towards their glory, and they must have regrets, that's left when they eternally asleep beneath the ground. Now that they woke up, and there's this mysterious forces that can help them on relieving the empty patch of their hearts, if there is one.

     But, one thing is certain. This place wants something in return. The reason of why they were resurrected, the reason of why they have unpaid regrets that carries with their wandering souls. Yes, this stage is the place these wandering souls would fight to death, for a single wish that can grant anything they want, even if they want to alter the time itself.

    「 this is not a war where blades and firearms are used. The Theater itself, is a place where people witness great singing and acting talents, as they fight for the top position, unknown to their eyes but only those who were worthy. 」

    Mitsuhide grew even more suspicious upon this. "Do you mean, people watches us fight upon this stage?" 

    「 only those were worthy, would bare witness the fight. For others, it would like a normal performance. People these days needs entertainment, and what could better than this? 」

    "And disgracing figures of greats' legacies?" Arthur raises his tone, now his annoyed by the voice on their heads

    「 oh, my King. We are not disgracing our great leads' legacies. Sadly, this kind of topic are out of our range, so we cannot talk about this further. 」the voice answers, that resulted of the pale blonde King clicks his tongue too

     "Then, what are we gonna do now?"

    「 before the curtain raises, why don't you all, be nice to each other? We prepared a special place for all of you to live for a while, and you'll get a special key to this place, where your battle will begins. May you sing. May you dance. May you act. May you fight. To grab ahold of the powers deep inside you. 」

     The echoes of the mysterious voice disappears. The auditorium's door also clicks open with an eerie voice. These people barely know magic, and now they were thrown into a battle where they have to use magic against each other. And the voice were mentioning of be nice to each other, when you're about to battle against them.

    "Well then, everyone. Why don't we try go to the door, now that it's unlocked?" Cleopatra asks

    The rest nods, and off they go to the huge doors of the auditorium. once they stops by the door, Mitsuhide offers himself to be the one who will opens it. The door itself, lightly creaks open, as it suddenly blasts off a bright white light.

     They were arrived in front of a some kind of a mansion, surrounding it is a huge garden. The serene feeling it brings, it makes everyone goes unguarded. It wafted with smells of flowers, summer must have begun. But, the next thing they noticed, that their outfits changed. The ten figures of greats suddenly looks around in confusion.

     "W-What happened to our outfits?" Leonardo, the first one to chirp about the changes

     But, the polymath just spins around and see his outfit consisted of navy blue short-sleeved buttoned shirt, adorned in pink flowers; a white trousers; and matching loafers with a part of it are colored navy-blue and pink. 

     "Do we, were told that we were supposed to blend with the people?" Jeanne asks, while paying attention to her new outfit; which is a flowy white blouse with trumpet-like sleeves that reaches her elbows, blue jeans and black ballerina flat shoes.

     The others goes into a singular harmony of hmmmm... as they thinking of how did it happen. The wind breeze passes them, and suddenly Mitsuhide opens his eyes when he felt something lands on top of his head. A paper airplane. He takes it, and unfolds it, revealing of a letter written onto.

    Mitsuhide recites the letter, "Welcome, o' figures of greats, to the present day Japan. Oh, what a coincidence."

    "Might as well being a tour guide to our fellow foreigner greats here," Nobunaga comments, eyeing at the magenta-eyed  samurai general

    cynically, Mitsuhide glares back at Nobunaga, "Shut up. This mansion right here, will be your new place to live. You'll be supplied with ingredients to eat, and ingredients to prepare all of you for the war by the Theater. Training, and other things to enhance your powers."

    "But, with who should we train?" Marie, in a soft pink gingham dress, with puffy sleeves; a pair of bow on her twintails, matches the dress; and white oxford shoes

    "It's written right here. In order to prepare you to its absolute finest for the war, we would send out our people to train with all of you. Remember the hooded people by the resurrection ceremony? Those would be the ones who would assist you."

    "How about we enters the mansion first for a cooling down? That voice is right, we should know each other better," Arthur suggests them

    The others nods, and off they go to the mansion. Mentioning the missing two, they were still at the Theater, still basking in the odd aura of this place. One is a very tall man, with white hair and black rimmed glasses around his striking yellow eyes, and the other is a short young girl, with flowy white hair almost reaching her upper thighs and mysterious green eyes.

    "A vampire and a valkyrie, an interesting combo for someone that is like us," the man starts

    "For someone like you, I would have expected that," the young girl says, in an almost hushed voice

   After a while, the young girl speaks again. "Hmm, they wouldn't even notice there would be a living monster amidst them. Is it right, Dracula?" 

   The man—Dracula, lets out a chuckle at the young girl's words. "You are right, dear Rossweisse."

    It's only a matter of time, before the curtains raises to the first battle performance, as the two mysterious figures just gazes to the door in ahead of them, ready to cast shadows upon the glories that are living once again.

Chapter Text

    Two weeks had past since they were resurrected by the Theater, and staying by the mansion while preparing for their first appearance on the stage, to be witness by people, unknowning that there would be bloodshed incoming. The ten figures of greats had started training, from strength, to singing and weapon practice with the accompany of the hooded people from the summoning chambers.

    The sounds of two wooden swords hits each other, as Mitsuhide and a "magical moving training dummy"—as he named it—were on a spar. This two weeks, he channel his frustation and curiousity into enchanting melodies that drives him closer to the mysterious powers, and from that his armpower must've gone stronger. This wasn't so bad, as he thought.

    The spar ends as Mitsuhide strikes the dummy's lower parts, making it fall to the wooden floors. He sighs, as he mentally note that this is fourth win in streak against this dummy right here.

    "Good job on your sparring today, Mitsuhide," Cleopatra greets to him, waving her hand

    "Thank you on your compliment, Cleopatra. I might get a new and harder dummy to be sparred on," the magenta-eyed general comments, and takes the towel that Cleopatra brought him

    She picks up the black blazer that he drops on the floor, and pats it clean from the dust that might sticks there.

    "Mitsuhide, you dork, at least fold your own clothes before goes on sparring," the ruler of Egypt teases him

    Mitsuhide just sheepishly laughs, and takes his blazer. He then drapes it by his shoulders, his preferred way to wear a certain clothing item. After they tidying up, the walked out the dojo, back to the mansion. On the way back, they have to walk pass the side garden, bloomed with bright flowers. Although it's odd, but Arthur's the one who tended to them.

    "Arthur really is diligent about the flowers here," Cleopatra starts the conversation

    "For a King and a Knight like him, he really does," the magenta-eyed man nods, glancing to the flowers

    They can imagine a certain King of Knights, still maintaining a bright smile after tending the flowers, cheeks smudged with dirt. The thoughts of it made them nods in agreement that such ray of sunshine embodied should be protected at all cost, but they thought that he could protect himself, haha.

     Speaking of which, he remembers something. "By the way, how did you do with your training?" 

    "Going well. Heka, the god of magic and medicine, guides me to understand him, like once I did on my previous life," she explains to him, while twirling her finger to show a bit of the magic she developed

    Cleopatra's abilities is leaning more towards spell casting and transformations, as she was worshipped among the gods and goddesses of Egypt on her previous life, so that she could embody any kind of beast, like how her deities would do. By the way, they have arrived to the door that leads them to the common room of the mansion.

    When Cleopatra is about to open the door, Mitsuhide felt something fast is coming towards them. Instinctively, the samurai general immediately takes the Egyptian queen down to the ground. The door is heavily damaged with bullets, but the trails of magic it gives off, it must be shot from someone among them.

    "I told you, Nobu-san, someone could've be on that door front!" the two can hear Marie yells at someone, most likely it's the daimyō himself

    "Mitsuhide, are you okay?" Cleopatra asks him, while looking around if he's got shot

    Mitsuhide just lets out a chuckle. "That bastard, still tries to kill me, even though we're not at the sengoku period anymore."

    The door quickly opens, revealing the worried Marie. She then sighs, but she whips her head around to see Nobunaga was relaxing by the couch, on his fifth sake refill. 

    "Look! Mitsu-kun and Cleo-chan is right in front of the door, and you could've killed them if they don't evade it quickly!" Marie once again yells

   The scarlet-red eyed daimyō just groans, covering his ears from Marie's yelling. "Heh, such a fuss of thinking about the safety of your own enemies."

    "That's okay, Marie, we're fine," Mitsuhide taps on Marie's shoulders, signalling that they are fine

    "There goes that door to be fixed by the hooded people once again," the pink-haired royalty sighs, and walks away from the common room

    It's still in the afternoon, and yet the others are still on their training or some other thing they wanted to do. As Cleopatra parts with Mitsuhide by the stairwell crossing to her atelier, he sees Jeanne and Queen of Hearts who was just arrived with grocery bags.

    "Good work today, Jeanne, Queen," Mitsuhide greets the two ladies

    Queen of Hearts as always, immediately drops two grocery bags on her hands to the general, "Ah, it's the not-typical general boy. Here, bring this for me."

    Jeanne sighs as the Queen walks away that easily. "Mitsuhide, you should know that you couldn't take any more of her shenanigans by doing this."

    He just laughs lightly before saying, "That's how she is. Come, let's prepare for dinner."

    Although they were supposed to become enemies on taking the grand prize that the Theater offers them, but instead they gathered by the dining room, laughing at the funny stories shared by each figure of greats, while eating the food that they made, like they were just normal people who just enjoyed youth in the present days, not people who goes through suffering on their past lives to achieve a moment of glory.

    "For foreigners like you all, you guys are really quick to learn using chopsticks," Mitsuhide comments

    He's right, eight out of ten existing figures are from countries outside Japan, where they used silverware more than chopsticks.

    "It's really interesting to learn about Japan's cultures, moreover learning about the table manners," Billy speaks, after swallowing his food

    "I agree with Billy. Though at first it's so hard, but I'm getting used to it," Arthur also agrees

    "For people like you all, the food really tasted well," Queen of Hearts comments on her plate of food

    The ones who handled cooking today is Mitsuhide and Jeanne, so they thanked the infamous Queen for such kind compliment. Aside from the friendly atmosphere, they also on high alerts, since they didn't sensed the presence of the last two figures of greats here, because it's already two weeks since their arrival and haven't heard anything from the Theater, also their upcoming performance.

    "Hey, what do you guys think about the last two that were too late to come here?" Leonardo brings up a topic

    The others fell into silence, thinking for the answer.

    Marie raises her hand. "If there's a girl, I want to dress her up with the dresses here!"

    "Speaking of which, don't you all think this is really suspicious?" Sherlock inquires, looking at the others

    The sudden change on the atmosphere, makes them submerges on their thoughts. Sherlock is right, they should've been with them since day 1, the time they met on the stage, back at the Theater. But, no one had come to the mansion other than the hooded people. They tried to ask them once, but they never answered. Plus, if they try to go back to the Theater, they would've been lost on the way there.

    "For now, let's watch out for anything strange for the night," Mitsuhide suggests, raising an agreement with the others

    Once dinner is over, the ten of them split up to go around the mansion for something suspicious. Since it's nighttime, the hooded people are "going home" to their houses nearby, so there's only them who were on this mansion. The ones who will watch from the roof are Billy and Cleopatra, since they were considered of having keen eyes. Plus, Cleopatra can put up a magical barrier to keep all things inside.

    Arthur and Mitsuhide were stationed by the foyer and stairwell that leads to the front door, if there was an unexpected attack by the last two figures of greats. The two's swordsmanship are really excellent, so the others don't have to worry. Jeanne and Nobunaga are on the gardens, being the ones who gives support if ever those by the roof and front doors are assaulted.

    "This is such bullshit. Why don't they come out by the time we're on that stage?" Nobunaga groans

    The saint glances at him before looking front again, "I don't know of that. We should stay alert, and we know that they might be dangerous."

    But unexpectedly, the daimyō just complies to it and continue to watch over the gardens. Meanwhile, Leonardo and Queen of Hearts are sent to the streets near the mansion. They were the first line of defense from the mansion, since Leonardo can manifest various weapons to be used and Queen's brutality when she had her scythe weapon.

    Even in the summer's hot weathers, the coolness that the night brings... The sound of trees rocking softly by the passing wind, the fading sounds of bustling city not far from here. 

    "Don't you think it's thrilling, oh my Queen? To anticipate something we don't expect and we are fully armed to face them if ever they were meant to harm us?" Leonardo starts talking

     The black-and-red queen sighs, there goes Leonardo starting to ramble about nonsense. He may be a genius, but he looked stupid at the same time. She just swings her scythe around, to at least distract her minds.

    "Don't be distracted, idiot. They may have our heads first before I could even do it," the queen snarls at the pink-haired polymath

     The shining blade of her scythe reflects the moonlight, revealing the aura of a weapon that could take someone's head in ease, like the famous lines of hers. Leonardo decides to shut up, before he makes her upset even more. Lastly, Sherlock and Marie were in the back gates of the mansion. They were the ones who secured the escape route if ever the last two figures of greats does want to harm them, outside the Theater itself.

     Now, the mansion estate fell into utter silence. Waiting. The samurai general looks by the curtained windows, if ever someone strange walks to the frontyard of the estate. Mitsuhide looks back, and see Arthur is closing his eyes, while leaning to the wall nearby. Great amount of mana are flowing out of his body, he must be restoring the excessive powers he had for moments later.

    ' As expected of him, he carries the highest mana status from himself and his own sword... I can't let him beats me... ' he thinks, clenching his fist while at it

    ' Rest easy, Mitsuhide. I won't attack unless we are in an utter emergency... '

    Arthur is talking to him, through his own mind? A new discovery about what their new powers could do, huh? Moments later, the King opens his eyes. His eyesight are always sharp as ever, while he gazes by the doors.

    "I felt something is wrong..." he says to himself, his right hand tightly grips the hilt of Excalibur

    To be honest, the aura surrounding the mansion starts to felt... wrong. That was when a young girl lands to the front yard, and that causes the ones by the roof and side garden to prepare, if ever she's attacking. The young girl only goes silent, as soft wind breeze blows the black goth-styled dress with long gloves and thigh-high stockings. Her green eyes are emptily looking around the mansion, for someone's existence.

   "Hey, how could da Vinci and Queen doesn't notice her?" Billy whispers to Cleopatra

   The cat-eared queen just shook in disbelief, looking at the mysterious young girl. Even after minutes, she is still standing by the front yard, not showing something that might give them a heads up to engage a fight.

    "Good evening, my fellow great leads. My name is Rossweisse, a war maiden from the Norse. Of course, I am less known than my sister, Brünhilde, but, I am resurrected by the Theater, to participate in this war."

    Jeanne, upon hearing Rossweisse's introduction, frowns. War maidens, or simply called as valkyries, can be deadly if they are threatened, since they are basically warriors who served under the god Odin, to slain people who are worthy to arrive in Valhalla.

    ' I'm sensing an intense amount of mana coming out of her... We don't know what techniques she used on this battle. '

    ' Why don't we just face her head on then to find out? ' Jeanne hears Nobunaga's voice on her head

   She whips her head, and sees that Nobunaga is rising up. The saint immediately grabs his arm, prevents him to move forward. He just looks back at Jeanne, and he looks annoyed now.

    ' Are you an idiot?! ' Jeanne yells, while shaking her head to not move forward yet

    ' I'm certainly not. And why did you ask that? ' the daimyō asks her back, freeing his arm from her grip

    But immediately she grips it again, this time it's hardrer. ' You could've die if you used the wrong approach! '

    ' Then, would you all fighting blindly if you didn't observe her movements first? '

    For someone like Nobunaga, he is right. Though, it's risky, but worth the try to understand Rossweisse' battle movements. Releasing a sigh, Jeanne also stands up, withdrawing her grip from Nobunaga's arm.

    "Oh? Turns out the saint maiden is brave enough to go with me," Nobunaga teases her, his scarlet-red eyes glints by the moonlight

    Jeanne puts aside his teasing and puts up a firm answer. "Then I'm not a loyal servant of my Lord if I'm afraid to take the step, even if going with someone like you."

    The two of them walks out the garden, to the front yard. The young girl notices them coming towards her, so she faces them. The other figures of greats are wide-eyed, seeing two of them are approaching the young girl.

    "You say your name was Rossweisse, huh?" Nobunaga, the first one to give the green-eyed girl a question

    Rossweisse nods. "Yes, I am. May I ask for your name, too?"

    "This one behind me is Jeanne d'Arc, a saint maiden, as I remember. And I'm Oda Nobunaga, one of the three unifiers of Japan. Is that good enough for you?" Nobunaga introduces, surprisingly in a much gentler way

    Mitsuhide, still behind the doors, watching the scene happening, just chuckles lowly. "That bastard really is unpredictable..."

    Rossweisse nods again. "That's enough for me."

    "If you are one of us, then where is the other one? We are supposed to wait for you two," Jeanne asks her this time

    Then, Rossweisse's green eyes meets with Jeanne's sky-blue ones as she says, "Then why you greet us like we were your enemy?"

    Jeanne and Nobunaga's realized, she knew it all the time. Meanwhile, back inside the mansion where Mitsuhide and Arthur guards, suddenly they felt a presence nearby. Two of them immediately brandishes their swords, eyes towards the end of the long hallway.

    ' They knew about our plan. Attack if they started it first! ' Mitsuhide immediately tells everyone

    Leonardo and Queen of Hearts are confused, how could they can infiltrate the first layer of defense without them knowing? Anyways, they immediately runs back to the estate. The tall shadow by the hallway's end, looming over. The moonlight illuminates the purple colors of the outfit.

    "Show yourself!" Arthur declares, his voice echoes by the hallways

    "My, my, such a rather rude way to welcome your own guest, King Arthur?" the velvety voice of a gentleman, echoes back at them

    The King just thinly smiles, knowing that this gentleman already knew him. "I apologize for such rude greeting for our guest, and it seems you already know about me."

    "Yes, the Theater told us about all of you. Great leads of the past who were basked in glory like spotlights. But, without you notice, the Theater gave rise to some of us, who gained glory by the darkness, away from the main stage. People would be fascinated, upon hearing stories about all of you. But we? Don't be silly, they would run for their lives upon hearing it."

    The two are confused by the gentleman's explanation. But, he's true though, almost everyone in here are considered the main character of their own legends, or so what they believed. The gentleman still stands by the hallway's end, his shadow looming like a monster.

    "Then, if you already knew who are, might tell us about yourself too?" Mitsuhide asks

    The gentleman grins, revealing two sharp fangs. The aura he emits, like a monster would do. He then gives them a honorary bow to the King and the samurai general, his striking yellow eyes glows in the darkness.

    "Pleased to meet you, I am the sole resident of a certain castle in Transylvania, Count Dracula."

    Then, it goes total darkness, like how someone would turn off the moonlight like a lamp. Unknown to them, the curtain had already raised to their first performance. Like how they were basked in spotlight once, now they are useless in the total darkness. . .

Chapter Text

   Two eerie lights, came from Mitsuhide and Arthur's hands. One is powder-blue, and one is bright yellow. They looked at their hands, that lights came from this mysterious looking marks. 

   "Mitsuhide, what is this mark?" Arthur asks

   The samurai general shook his head. "I don't know. I could've conjure a magical flame instead, but this is bright enough to find our way."

    They looked at their glowing marks again, seeing that Mitsuhide is resembling a cherry blossom, the crest of the Akechi clan. While Arthur is resembling a sword, its size almost reaching the base of his fingers.

    Enough observing, as Mitsuhide looks at his companion and says. "Anyways, we should move. We're not safe here." 

    The King agrees, and they immediately left the place they were standing. This is not the mansion they were lived before, this is a new place they were not familiar before. Speaking of which, Billy and Cleopatra are looking around, since they were arrived in a rooftop of a castle. The tall pine woods surrounding the mansion, and the tall mountains by the horizon. They were not at the mansion they lived.

    "Hey, Billy. Could you contact the others?" Cleopatra asks

    He shook his head. The other just sighs. Moreover, they lose sight of Jeanne, Nobunaga and Rossweisse. Now, they just need to get off the roof, and they can start looking for the others. Billy then closes his eyes, while thinking of something. His hands glows orange, and suddenly ropes manifests.

   Cleopatra claps for him. "You got rather good on controlling your powers. Can you use that to get us down?"

   Billy then peaks down the rooftop, and immediately looks at her again. "Do you have something in mind? This rope might not work..."

   "I can do transformation spells," Cleopatra comes with an idea

   Billy sighs. "That was you. You could transform into a bird and flew down. Then, how about me?"

   The queen answers, "Maybe I could try transform into a bigger beast, so that I could carry you."

   "That could work. Might as well try find the others and find out a way to defeat those two."

   Cleopatra then opens her left palm, its back shines a mark of a winged triangle with a single eye, in an eerie turquoise light. Then, a thick bound book, with rough papers inside it. Egyptians used papyrus to write, long before papers are invented, so that's why the pages are so thick and rough.

   "O' the great Bast, may you grant us your protection from the approaching darkness. I, Cleopatra, offers you my body for you to be taken, to transform into the divine form of yours—!"

   The book shines, and Billy has to close his eyes. After several seconds, the boy moves his palm, only to see a huge feline beast, its fur gradiate from dark blue to turquoise, with huge emerald eyes, its pupils slit. The gunfighter stares at awe on the beast.

    "Wow..."

    "No need to stare of awe at me now, Billy. We can do it later. Now hop onto my back," Cleopatra says from Billy's mind

    He immediately finds his way to Cleopatra's back. She asks him that if he was ready to jump down, and he nods. They have to find the others quickly, so the Egyptian queen immediately jumps off the castle's high roofs. Meanwhile, Jeanne and Nobunaga are in thick lush garden. They were silence after recieving informations from nowhere.

   "Dracula... A blood-sucking monster... How unholy is that," Jeanne spites, speaking that name

   "Whatever you say. Then, what are you gonna do?"

   Jeanne thinks for a while. "Arthur and Mitsuhide are inside the castle, pursuing him. We should at least, get out from this greenery, first..."

    The daimyō just looks at her in question, but then immediately averts away.The two then begins to move forward, to get out from the greenery. The dangling vines are making their advance harder.

   "This damn vines are in the way. I shall burn it—" Nobunaga growls at the vines that is blocking his way

   Jeanne pulls on his arm again, "—Not now. If you uses your powers now, either Dracula or Rossweisse will come for us!"

   Nobunaga then pulls out a katana, from his coat. "Fine. This will do to keep the saint maiden, mouth shut."

   Jeanne silently sighs, thinking of why she is with this hell of a lord on this kind of situation. She also summons her weapon, a spear, and starts to cut the vines to make their advance easier. On the back parts of the castle grounds, which is a series of pine trees, Marie and Sherlock are also making their way towards the castle.

   "I hate this feeling..." Marie mutters to herself

   "You have to pull it together, Marie. The others might be in danger," Sherlock said, before pulling the lady up a patch of dirt

   Marie then pats her pink-and-white dress after settling down, "For a place like this in this part of the world, they really do convenient."

   Sherlock's magenta eyes suddenly looks around, as if he sense a presence nearby. He then pulls out the cane he carried on his belt, two long ocean blue fabric tied onto it. 

    "Marie, please get to my back. I sense one of them are coming for us," the detective warns

    The lady in pink hops back, as the detective points his cane to the empty woods in front of them. Suddenly, a shadow of black and white flew towards them in high speed. The detective then opens the outer part of his cane, revealing a thin blade inside. The shadow makes impact to Sherlock's swing of the thin blade. It was Rossweisse, who's attacking with her bare hands.

   "Go without me, I'll hold her back!" Sherlock shouts

   Marie trusts Sherlock to it, so she immediately takes on a run. The war maiden doesn't let Marie to run away, so Sherlock with a swish of the fabric on his cane, makes an attack. The two engages in a rather fast fight, as Sherlock's blade meets with Rossweisse' bare hands.

   ' How can she be able to attack with only bare hands? ' he thinks

   Other abilities Sherlock gained in order to be prepared for this war, is the ability to read his enemies with his enhanced sighting. But, now he cannot see of what the war maiden is planning, it's all blurry. Perhaps, she had expected it and use concealment magic? Anyways, Sherlock immediately hops back, while Rossweisse lands to the ground, lightly like a feather.

   "I guessed that you used concealment magic so that I can't read you. Clever trick," Sherlock says

   "I had expected there would be someone like you among them, so yes. But, you must die now," Rossweisse hushly warns, lifting her long-gloved hands

    ' She probably had something beneath the gloves. But, it's useless to use any of my powers here. '

    The detective then reaches for the compartment tied onto his belt, for a tobacco pipe. At least, by inhaling this, he can use it as a escape chance. Fighting her is useless at the moment, and he rather wants someone else, stronger than him, to fight her. Sherlock lights up the tobacco pipe, and he starts to inhale it.

   "You think you can relax here, detective?!" Rossweisse exclaims, jumping towards him

   But, the maiden isn't fast enough, as Sherlock immediately blows out white smoke from his mouth. And from that thick smoke, he immediately disappears. She lands to the ground again, and she is clearly upset. Immediately, she jumps up towards the pine trees, wanting to 

    Inside the castle, the moonlight is reflecting by the windows, showing light to the fairly dark place. As Mitsuhide and Arthur are making their pursue towards Dracula, a paper plane is flying towards them. The two stops, and the King of Knights catches the flying paper plane. He unfolds it, hoping to find something useful.

    He then reads, "Objective, the two knives that killed the monster. Find it, and use it to kill him." 

    "Hold on for a second, do this said that our weapons is useful against him?" Mitsuhide immediately asking

    Arthur looks again at the letter, and say, "Probably. But, you remembered that he said that this place is his estate? So that means, the performance started already..."

    The two realized. They expected that they would get a door towards the Theater, but not this way? But then, they heard footsteps behind them, so immediately they turns around and points their blades to the almost darkness ahead.

    "Mitsu-kun! Arthur-san! I found you at last!" It was Marie! She somehow finds a way in the castle from the escape

    "Marie! Where is Sherlock?" Arthur asks, when Marie stops in front of them to catch her breath

    "He held back the war maiden, Rossweisse. I found a door on the pine woods that lead me to this part of the castle."

    The pale blonde king asks again, "A secret entrance?"

    The queen in pink nods. "Yes. Anyways, what are we gonna do?"

    "Find the two knives that kills Dracula. The stage already starts on his own turf, so we must hurry."

    "What about the others?" Marie points to the window, where the others could be

    "We'll tell them on the way," Mitsuhide then proceeds to run across the hallway, followed by Marie and Arthur on the back

    Jeanne and Nobunaga had finally freed from the thick lush greens, and now they arrived in an empty field, just in front of the castle. It's oddly silent, especially in a setting like this. As they walks, the taller man is suspicious of there must be something that awaits them. Just as the two passes the last tree outline, his red eyes captured a glint of a thread. Quickly, Nobunaga pulls on Jeanne's collar, right towards him.

   "Good gracious!! Nobunaga, what are you doing?!" Jeanne lets out a squeaky complaint

   "A trap. If your feet pulls the thread, it would caught you," Nobunaga warns, while pointing to the thread in front of them

   The maiden immediately squirms to let go, face gone red from the sudden contact. "T-Thank you, for noticing that..."

   Nobunaga proudly grins, before saying. "If that kind of trap exists, there must be more on the field."

   "And the castle, too..." Jeanne continues

   The daimyō then pulls out his katana, surely he was excited enough to march towards battle, and Jeanne needs to look out for him. The two then jumps over the thread to avoid the trap's activation, and walks towards the empty field.

    "Ah! The saint maiden and the hell lord!" heard someone calling for them

    The two turns around and see Leonardo and Queen of Hearts are running to their direction. 

    "This castle grounds is huge! No wonder we all got lost..." Leonardo speaks, while catching his breath

    "The general boy said through our minds to find the two knives that kills the monster once. How do we supposed to look for it?" Queen asks, resting by leaning to her scythe

    "I guess the castle is where the knives could be—" Jeanne says, before stops immediately

    The ground by the field suddenly shakes, as the four figures of greats suddenly close their distance to make a protective stance, and they had their weapons ready. The soil cracks, like how earthquake would tear the layer apart. The aura becomes awfully horrible, as hands suddenly popping out from the cracked grounds.

    "What is this?!" Leonardo shrieks

    "The powers of controlling the undead... Everyone, make sure that anyone from below must not reach the grounds above!" Jeanne orders, twirling her spear

    Nobunaga's katana suddenly bursts in flame, Queen's scythe flares in a red light, Leonardo nervously summons his circle of weapon manifestation. These greats had waited for their entire death to experience battle again. The others then spots more of the undead are coming from the pine woods.

    "O' my Lord, may you grant us power to repel the darkness," Jeanne prays

    "Let's make them burn in hell," Nobunaga says, his burst in flame katana are like a monster that can go rampage in any second

    The four greats, grab ahold of their weapons, goes for the grostesque figures of the undead that lurks from the pine woods and the ground cracks. Queen of Hearts makes a run towards the flock nearby, and with a swing of her scythe she chopped off the heads. She enjoyed this moment, as her face shown in a twisted euphoria.

    Leonardo, although disgusted, he summons various weapons like throwing knives or magical bullets towards the approaching undead. Jeanne works her way to keep those from the underground to not rise to grounds above, with the help of Nobunaga who rather burn them alive. But, that's not working because they were still wriggling alive.

   "Hey! This bastard can't stay put! Hyaaah!!" Nobunaga shouts, swinging his katana while shooting with magical fiery bullets too

   Jeanne then recites a spell, and with the shining light of her mark on her left hand, a small bottle with clear substance appears. She unplug the cork and pour the substance inside, all over her spear. In an instant, when she stabbed a nearby undead, the grotesque figure suddenly banishes into ashes. She realized, that works.

    "Everyone! Please use holy water to kill them!" Jeanne shouts

    The saint maiden summons more of the small bottles, and throws it to her fellow greats. The other three caught it skillfully, thinking it that this might be useful to killing the undead. Nobunaga was the first one to test the katana that was coated with the holy water and the fire which from the extension of his powers. The weapon slashes the bodies like clouds, easily dissolved into thin air.

    "Hmph. Just like the holy fire everyone told about, long time ago. Not bad, Jeanne."

    "With this, we can move forward to the castle!" Jeanne announces, as they continues to fight off the undead

    Meanwhile, Cleopatra and Billy had arrived inside the castle, in a rather spacious bedroom. The Egyptian ruler is too tired after her transformation, so Billy had to share his mana to her for a short while. So they sat by the edge of the bed, linking the hands that their marks shines.

    "That beast is awesome! Can you turn into other beasts too?" Billy ask, in astonishment

    Cleopatra giggles before answering, "Thank you for such kind compliment. Well, turning into one beast causing me to use lots of mana, since I had to offer myself to the form that my gods and goddesses took shape."

    "That sounds like a lot of work..." Billy comments

    Suddenly, the orange-haired boy turns around, and he shots his pistol towards the doorway. The bullet flew, but only to be dodges by a blade, familliar to the boy's eyes.

    "Oh man, I thought it was the person we were supposed to look for," Billy says

    "That's okay. Your keen senses surely did really splendid," Arthur gives a compliment, once he lowers down his holy sword

    "I heard commotion outside, what is going on?" Cleopatra asks

    "Apparently Dracula had the powers to control the undead," Mitsuhide shows up behind Arthur, he clearly looks upset

    "The undead? I better send Anubis to take care of them," Cleopatra suddenly stands up, but Billy held her down

    "You better save your powers for last. We don't know of what other abilities he can do to keep us from clearing this stage," Mitsuhide interdicts

    "I'm sure they can held them back. Believe in them," Billy then says to the ruler, confidence radiated from his bright blue eyes

    They then left the spacious bedroom, and proceeds to move forward. Since they literally had no map, so they just run around and checks if the doors might lead to the thing they aimed for. Cleopatra, while still sprinting, chanting a spell to help her see with the Eye of Horus. Horus is known for having the eyesight that can see for a thousand miles away.

    "So, this Eye of Horus thing... Can it help you see throughout the entire castle?" Mitsuhide asks

    "Yes. But, I sensed some parts of the castle are blurry, possibly concealment magic. He must have hid the knives on those parts...!"

    "But, we must look out for Rossweisse too. She could be somewhere around here," Marie warns

    They then turned right, as Cleopatra directs them to the nearest blurry spots. It leads them to a some kind of a dining room, with long dining table made of sturdy teak wood, with china plates and glasses and silverware neatly decorated on top of the table.

    "Anyways, do we know anything about those two knives?" Billy asks, while they were looking around

    "Where is Sher-kun when we needed him?" Marie sighs, worries of their fellow friend

    Speaking of which, Sherlock is running throughout the gardens by the open middle part of the castle. Apparently that smoke disappearance doesn't work, as Rossweisse is the one who chases him. The young girl throws sharpened flower petals from the red flower she held, like bullets. Switfly, he evades it with his blade too.

    ' Dammit, where is everyone?! ' Sherlock said to his thoughts, hoping for someone to hear it

    "Getting tired already? That's good."

    Physically, Sherlock isn't as strong as the others like Nobunaga or Queen of Hearts or Arthur, but he had the brains. But, his physics must be needed here in order to escape her. Rossweisse then moves her hand, and three knives came on each one. Sherlock's magenta eyes caught on something shiny among the blurriness of Rossweisse's status.

    ' Perhaps, each of the knives that Mitsuhide mentioned earlier... Are one by chance within her? ' Sherlock thought

    Suddenly, the three knives that were on her right hand threw towards the detective. He lifts his blade, and a bluish light coats it. Sherlock also throw his blade, like a pole jumper would do. Rossweisse don't have time to evade, as the blade hits her left shoulder, making her drops the other three, evaporating into ash.

    She grits her teeth at the sudden contact. "Not bad, that you too can fight."

    Sherlock fixes his hat while speaking, "I must exceed all kinds of abilities in order to find the absolute truth. Well then, give me the knife."

   Rossweisse in the other hand, just smiles creepily. "That one? Dracula trusted me with this, because he warns that he would aim for my own throat."

    Sherlock furrows one of his eyebrow, the truth the war maiden just gave him. He reaches his hand out, and the blade suddenly tear off from her shoulder back to his grip. The green-eyed girl drops to the floor, clutching her shoulder, gritting her teeth.

    "I know, it's hard to work among the shadows to overthrow the light. But, you can be forgiven, if you handed me that knife."

    Rossweisse looks down, guilty. She knew of what happened if she decides to cooperate with the other greats. After a while, she finally reaches to her dress, and she hands out a sheathed knife, its blade slightly crooked. Sherlock knew it immediately, it's a kukri knife, known from Nepal.

    "Make sure to use this to stab his throat. Please..." Rossweisse asks, with guilt of betraying visible on her tone

    Sherlock's sighting upon her goes clear, and then his first thing to do is retrieve the knife and secure by the compartment bag on his belt. Then, he proceed to put his hand to Rossweisse's wound, and a bluish light shines. A healing spell would do, as he thought.

    "Tell the others, that the knife that was supposed to be used to stab his heart, was being held by him. For now, I shall hide, I made a really huge bet with my own head right now," Rossweisse said, before she swiftly stands up

    She takes a run towards the dark in front, her footsteps are light as feather. As he puts back his blade to the outer part of his cane, he looks up, sensing something is coming. A shadow of red and black flashed, as it makes its descend down to the garden paths. The burning blade, the tall figure...

    "Nobunaga! Where are the others?" Sherlock immediately asks

    The other roughly cleans the dust and blood splutters on his black coat, before answering. "That damned undead, it got even bigger and attacks us in one go. We took different ways to go inside."

   "Anyways, we got to find the others. I found the first knife," Sherlock immediately says

   "Oh, good for you, detective. It seems that your bargaining skills into useful in this damned place."

    The two then fled the garden towards the inner part of the castle. Meanwhile, the person they want to swing their blades and cast their spells on, was sitting by a comfy chair on a study room. By his enhanced eyes who lurks upon the walls, he can see everything, including Rossweisse who gave the kukri knife to Sherlock earlier.

     "You just had sympathy for humans that doesn't disappeared, don't you?" Dracula asks, as if he was praising her, but it's not what he intended

   Even though he looks pissed, but he still maintains a calm exterior. The man then stands up, taking the wooden cane with him. It's time to move on to the next act, as he slowly removes his glasses. After that, he folded it and puts it neatly on the pocket inside his eggplant purple blazer. Dracula's yellow eyes shines, as if that glasses was a barrier to held something dangerous within.

   "Now, I shall show what true horror looks like," he says again, before darkness consumes him

    Jeanne, who's approaching the castle from the side, alongside Leonardo, she felt something bad. She immediately stops, and the polymath also follows her, unknowing that the huge creature is behind them.

    "Leonardo! Please held them back!" Jeanne says

    "Heh?! W-Why me?!"

    "You're the only one who can held that enormous undead with your continuous weapon manifestation. I must go for the others. That phantom... is coming for our friends on the inside!" Jeanne says

     Leonardo realizes, "Jeanne, you're telling me... you're gonna use that?"

    The blue-eyed maiden nods, gripping her spear tight. "Yes, that's the only way to keep them from being hurt."

    The polymath hesitated, before saying. "I-I'll come up with a way. You better go!"

   Jeanne fled off, as Leonardo turns around and see the enormous creature, made from the gathered undead from the woods and the cracks. The man gulps, before summoning his circle. The mark on his left hand shines magenta, bright like a flashlight. The circle then pops with a weapon that resembles of a blade.

    "There's no enemy or problem that I can not solve. You shall bare witness upon the knowledge that I had stored, in this head, in this hand, in this power!"

Intelligenza del Rinascimento!!

    He raises his hand, as the blade is aiming towards the approaching undead. Leonardo might be afraid, but he will stand to the ground, because there is nothing that he cannot solve. The blade then shots, as Leonardo points his hand towards the creature, over and over, like a machine gun would do.

    Jeanne runs through doors, hallways, hoping to sense her fellow friends' mana energy. But, the castle is already filled with shadows, the one thing that Jeanne despise. They didn't know of what is coming to them, so she better reach them first before the lurking monster, Dracula. The other five greats, are now stuck in a hallway crossroad, surrounded with more undead. As they try to held their standing ground with Arthur and Mitsuhide's blades, Billy's pistols, also Marie and Cleopatra's spells.

   They just kept coming!" Billy exclaims, as empty bullet barrels clangs towards the floor

   Mitsuhide swiftly kills the undead that's nearby, his katana are like a monster of its own. "Keep held them back!"

    The pale blonde King of Knights gasps, immediately rounded the others up, behind him. "Everyone, something is coming! Get behind my back!"

    The flock immediately fled away, scattered. The aura among the hallways are really eerie and threatening. Arthur puts both hands on the hilt of Excalibur, and then the blade shines yellow alongside his eyes brightly turns sky-blue. Jeanne, after making a sharp turn, seeing the bright yellow light the end of the hallway. That must be Arthur, as she thought.

    She then runs, spear in hand. "O' my dear Lord, may you show us light among the darkness, show the way that we are supposed to walk onto. I shall be their lead, bringing this flag of victory to me and my comrades—!"

   The dark hallways are suddenly roars with a really scary voice. The greats who huddled behind the King, are shivering. Arthur thinks if he supposed to pull out his climax move, but he doesn't know of how big the creature that is approaching them. Two huge yellow eyes with slitted pupils, are watching them. Billy looks to his left, where a faint white light is coming towards them.

   "Guys, it's Jeanne!" Billy announces

   The whole scene was like a slow-motioned movie, as Jeanne slides in, to the very front. She puts her shining spear aside her, as a huge flag with many scriptures suddenly appears. Jeanne firmly plants her feet, as a rapier manifests onto her hand. The shadow with the huge yellow eyes suddenly wails in a rather horrid voice, as it moves back.

   Jeanne then exclaims, as the shining flag continues to flutter, "I shall erase all darkness upon this land!"

Divine Light of the Saint Maiden!

Chapter Text

Divine Light of the Saint Maiden!

   The blinding white light from the flag, causes the huge creature from the shadows to wail in such a horrid voice. They know what to do, before they could stab the knife to Dracula, they have to first make this place goes bright like a cloudless midday, even though this is in the dead of the night.

   "Defeat the phantom with the light..." Jeanne says to herself

   She looks back, and see an accompanying light who existed from Arthur and his sword. "Arthur, can you handle it?" She asks

   The King nods. "This is more than enough."

   Jeanne then moves aside, allowing Arthur to move forward. He then puts his blade down to the floor, and suddenly a huge golden yellow magic circle appears surrounding the other greats. The circle had twelve points that leads to the middle, where Arthur stood.

    "Knights from the Round Table! Grant your rightful King your powers to protect our kingdom—!" Arthur exclaims with authority on his voice, causing everyone is at awe

    Then, the magic circle shines brighter, and gradually enveloping the others in the same golden yellow light. He lifts Excalibur, and held it with both of his hands. The mana energy he emits is so big, and blinding. Arthur then takes his stand, the position where he would blasts off towards the shadow ahead. 

    "Like a lightning, I shall advance, with this Holy Sword that will penetrate the darkness—" he speaks, before he leaps forward in a lightning fast speed

     The King, leaping towards the shadow, Excalibur in hand. The darkness really makes his bright blue eyes glows, and the light that he and his sword emits. He moves his arms, so that he would swing in full force. The shadow just stood still, as if like it's stunned by the approaching light.

Storm of Camelot!!

      As Arthur swings his sword, a huge explosion follows. The others had to take covers from the impact. The explosion and the waves of the swing makes a part of the castle to explode. Like the name, he becomes something that is similar to a lightning storm. But, combined with magic, that said phenomenon became even more deadly.

    The shadow disappears, leaving the now empty and damaged hallways with the view of the pine woods ahead. Arthur leans to his sword who he planted on the ground, because that such move costs him a lot of mana energy. The other five immediately runs to him, and clearly they were amazed by such powers.

    "The shadow must've gone... But, you all must pursue Dracula. I'll catch up later," Arthur said to them

    "I'll stay with you. You really do need backup after that move," Marie then suggests

    The King just lets out a satisfied sigh. "Alright, I appreciated your suggestion."

    "Be careful, you two. Let us know if you need help," Mitsuhide says, before he runs through the damaged hallway with Jeanne, Cleopatra and Billy

     Soon, the silhouettes of the others are disappeared. Marie then helps Arthur walks to the part of the hallway crossroad that doesn't damaged from his Storm of Camelot. The two of them then proceeds to lean by the nearest wall, to catch with their breathes first.

    "Arthur-san, you really are amazing with that move! How can you name that such move?" Marie asks

    "I actually do not know... It just came onto my mind, the name that are mirrored my past life. I remembered that in my past life, I moved like the huge lightning storm that terrors Camelot once. Even there are rumors that I was a mad lad for going out on that day and ended up being striked," Arthur recounts, closing his eyes in the moment

   "Wait, are you actually striked by a lightning once?" Marie's eyes widened upon his story

   Arthur just lets an airy chuckle. "No, I am not. I guess it's the powers from the very Excalibur itself."

   "Holy shit, is this explosion I heard earlier?" someone suddenly says

   The two looks around and see Sherlock with Nobunaga runs towards the crossroad. They saw Arthur and Marie, and they can relieving their worries— well that was Sherlock though. 

   "Which one of you did this?" Nobunaga asks, pointing towards the two royalties

   "I did, and why is that?" Arthur asks

   The daimyō just shook his head upon his answer. "Damn, that could blow the entire castle and us if you ever go berserk."

   "Don't worry, I'll try my best to not go berserk with my own powers," Arthur replies, flashing Nobunaga a smile

   Even in situations like this, the certain King of Knights still radiates like a sun of its own, and the scarlet-red eyed man does questions of how he could stay calm in this.

   "Anyways, we found the first knife. This one is supposed to stab Dracula's throat, and the one that supposed to go for his heart..."

   Arthur continues, "...Is it within him, am I right?"

   "Yes, that's right." The detective agrees, "How many hours until the first light?"

   "Looking from the sky, it should be another two hours," Nobunaga answers, glancing to the window

   "The first light? Sher-kun, what are you planning?" Marie asks

   "I might have an idea, and this requires everyone's help. My King, can you do another one of that earlier?"

   The taller man nods, "Of course, I can do one more. But after that, I will retreat."

   "I contacted da Vinci and the Queen to catch up with us, and they are on their way."

   Marie is still confused of Sherlock's idea so she immediately cuts in, "Wait, wait, what are we gonna do to pass this performance?"

   "Yes, we're gonna blind him, and kill him when we got the chance," Sherlock says

   "Risky move right there, but I like it," Nobunaga compliments

    "But, we have to retrieve the other knife that supposed to go for his heart..."

    "...Then we have to get it first before Arthur-san's climax move," 

    They suddenly heard hurried footsteps behind them, turning over they see Leonardo and Queen of Hearts, their outfits are splattered in blood and many other bits they don't want to explain.

     "That disgusting undead blew up in front of me!! Yuck, now my outfit's dirty!!" Leonardo complaints, disgusted

    "Stop yapping like a dog, idiot!" Queen scolds him

    Sherlock just facepalming on that conversation, thinking of why he ended up with this kind of people. Arthur just lets out another chuckle while Nobunaga looks away. Marie then moves towards them, and using her magic to make their outfits clean again. After that, they joined with the others, to hear Sherlock's briefing. Not far from them, Rossweisse is stalking, her dress makes her almost invisible in the dark.

   "I won't let he wins this stage again," she says to herself, as she blows a flower petal towards them, and it disappears before anyone could realize that is a concealment magic, so that Dracula couldn't find out about their strategy.

    As the other four figures of greats are moving deeper, the castle walls gradually becomes overgrown with vines. And the smell this part of the huge estate was like someone just left the bodies unattended, so yes, it's wafting with rotten flesh and dried blood. Jeanne held her mouth back, so that she won't vomit, while the others looked around. Cleopatra silently prays for the souls that left this poor bodies to be guided by the god of death Anubis, to the afterlife that they deserved.

   "Look. Two puncture holes by their veins," Mitsuhide gestures to come closer as he observed one of the bodies

   "It's Dracula that we're talking, and the thing he do is to suck blood from normal people as a staple food," Billy explains shortly

   "The more he consume people's blood, the stronger he is..." Jeanne mutters

   They then left the body, and moves again. Mitsuhide finds a nearby torch, and he lights it on with a flick of his finger. The torch then burns with a swaying yellow fire, as they walks past a hallway guarded ith two gruesome-looking gargoyles. They have to huddle each other close, so that something wouldn't try to separate them.

  "Hey, what should we do if we met Dracula earlier than we thought?" Billy asks, really nervous of this uncomforting silence

  "We shouldn't tell our plan if his eyes and ears are all over the place," Mitsuhide says

   Cleopatra averts her glowing falcon-like eyes, while looking at the vines. "Mana energy were really concentrated here. If we follow it, we might meet him earlier."

    "How far can you see with your Eye of Horus, Cleopatra?" Jeanne asks

    "Normally, it would reached miles away, but the amount of concealment magic used in here limitated the view. I should can hold for another good ten minutes using the Eye," the Egyptian ruler says

    Mitsuhide then ushers to increase their pace, because they sure want to finish it quickly. After turning here and there with Cleopatra's direction of detecting mana energy, possibly from Dracula himself, they finally arrived at an empty space, presumably used as a ballroom before. How could be a room like this after that series of dark hallways? 

   Suddenly, the lights on the ballroom flickers on, and the four flinched on the sudden brightness. Revealing the figure that stood in front of them, is none other than the one they looked for. He just leans on his cane, no glasses who hangs on his face anymore.

   "Well done, for all of you who find this place. I have to compliment you, giving the way here is very hard to be passed— those poor people who did their best to bring myself down."

    The bodies by the dark hallways? Are the ones who chased him before?

    "I shall give my condolences to the professor who try his best to kill me too."

    "The professor? Abraham van Helsing?!" Billy immediately cuts in

    "Yes." Dracula then opens the curtain behind him, revealing the already rotten body of Abraham van Helsing, the professor who is also his nemesis

    Jeanne and Cleopatra gasps. Mitsuhide realizes, that the end of this stage had already altered. Dracula is supposed to die, while Hellsing remains alive, like how the script is written. But why this had a different outcome than they had expected.

   "As you can see, the Theater gave me the power to compel things like crosses and wooden stakes. Yes, this is the fight where you all have to use your new powers! Now, o' great leads of the past, let's settle the matters between us!"

   "I shall go. striking him in one blow might work. Cleopatra, please assist me," Mitsuhide says

   "I'm right behind you," Cleopatra nods, before the spell book from earlier returns to her hand

   Dracula then points his cane to the air. "Rise, my dear Brides! Don't let them come!"

   The three coffins, who's hung by a series of chains, suddenly moves around, as if someone alive was inside it. Mitsuhide looks at Jeanne and Billy, and the two nods as they know what to do. The coffins suddenly fell to the ground, and a hand suddenly breaks the sturdy wooden construct of it. Came out from it is three women, with similar faces but slightly different hair colors; one is blonde, and the other two is dark colored.

   Their red eyes glows, as they sees the approaching Billy and Jeanne. Dracula moves his cane towards the two, and the three women wails, running towards them. 

   "Billy! They are undead humans too!" Jeanne exclaims, before thrusting her spear towards one of the Brides

   Billy, chugging his magnum pistol, says, "Oh, I surely gets it!"

   Mitsuhide and Cleopatra are facing the blood-sucking monster, with the samurai general are striking him with his katana swings and Cleopatra trying to bind him down. They had an idea to ground him, and Mitsuhide shall use his climax move to finishes it. But, getting Dracula to stay put surely tricky. The clangs of metal can be heard, all the way to the hallway entrance with the two gargoyles, where the rest are currently.

   "Did you say destroy this part of the castle?" Arthur asks, assuring of what Sherlock said

   "Yes, so that once the first light came, he would grew weak," Sherlock replies

   "I heard clangs of metals at the possible end of this hallway. What if the others were there?" Leonardo asks for this time

   "Don't worry, I sent a signal. Contacting them from here is hard, it's blocked with multiple layers of concealment magic. Nobunaga, can you destroy this hallways?"

   Nobunaga then answer, "Don't ask me again, detective. Leave that to me."

   As the others move back, the daimyō straightens his jacket coat, before pulling out his katana. A sudden wind suddenly passes through him, like a breath of a beast that awaits him, and that must be the shadow from before. Suddenly, fire comes from his feet, and coats him and the katana in a huge wildfire. 

   "How dare you challenge me, whom people call me the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. Fear my sword, fear my power, fear my army! If you wanna witness hell right in front of your eyes, then I shall give it to you," he challenges

   Another horrid wail echoes from the dark hallways, as the ground starts shaking. But, Nobunaga just smirks by the acceptance of the challenge he brings. He points his katana towards the hallway with the two gargoyles, and fire sparks floating surrounding him, following the direction he points on.

   "H-Hold on!" Leonardo immediately shouts

   Nobunaga turns around, "What the hell are you doing?"

  "At least can we just turn the lights on first? This has electricity across the whole castle."

  "I don't have time for such thing!" Nobunaga growls, clearly annoyed

  Leonardo then pulls Arthur close towards the place where he sensed electricity behind the walls. "Here, you can send out electric surges here."

   "Leonardo, are you sure? My own surges can be dangerous if combined with Nobunaga's magic," his face shows worry

   "Just do it. Might as well destroy the whole castle so that Dracula wouldn't have the place to hide. That's Sir Sherlock's idea!"

   The King is clearly worried of what this scenario's outcome. But, Leonardo is right, if they destroyed the whole castle so it might be easier to kill him within the first light.

   "I'll give you mana energy backup, don't worry. Let's do it then, Sir Arthur!"

   "Alright. Make sure to hang on," Arthur says, before putting his right hand to the part of the wall who he sensed the surging power within

   "Bare witness upon the feast of the Demon Kings, and the gates of hell that opens for this special occasion!"

   Arthur's whole body then sparks of electrical surges, similar when he was about to do his Storm of Camelot, but he didn't use his sword for this one. He focuses his energy to the cables, so that it can be induced with his magic-infused electricity too.

    "Now!" Arthur shouts

    Nobunaga then plants his katana to the floor, and the fire balls immediately shots towards the hallways, destroying it. Then, the whole walls then bounced off yellow lightning sparks, causing the whole castle to shaking, as if it was an earthquake.

    "So celebrate! And suffer—!"

The Feast of the Sixth Heaven!

   Nobunaga then takes off his katana and the ground suddenly cracks with reddish light visible from it. The horrid wails becomes even louder, as two sources of powers emerges to grounded this enormous castle. Deep inside the ballroom where the others are fighting Dracula and the Brides, suddenly feels the terrible shivering by the castle walls.

   "W-What on earth?" Billy says to himself, while quickly replacing the magazine on his pistols

   "We have to get out of here!" Jeanne shouts

   "I'm not gonna let you!" Dracula immediately says, as the Brides continues to chase Billy and Jeanne

   Cleopatra sensed this situation to pull out another spell, "By the orders of the God of the Living, Osiris, you shall not live among the upper world, you phantom of the death!"

   The ground surrounds Dracula then cracks, and shows several golden chains. The chains then proceed to tie over the monster, and he just grunts, trying to let go of this restraint.

   "The chains of Geb, used to restraint the souls of the wicked. The more you struggle, the tighter it would be. Mitsuhide, the knife!"

   The samurai general then walks to the now restrained Dracula. He immediately searches throughout his blazer and any other pockets that are available. He couldn't find it!

   "Tell me where the knife is!"

   Dracula, in the other hand, just smirks. "You really are dumb, Akechi Mitsuhide."

   An immediate respons of Mitsuhide's katana by the throat. "Tell me!"

    "Sometimes, you really have to act smart to defeat me, not just some barbaric attacks. Now, can you avoid this?" Dracula then suddenly moves his body, and the golden chains immediately breaks into pieces

    Mitsuhide had no time to react and move his katana, as Dracula immediately punches him, sending him to the other side of the ballroom. The tall man moves his arms like he was just stretching, even after he was bind by the chains of Geb.

    ' How can someone like him evade it? This castle must've be his mana energy resource. ' 

   The ballroom ceiling starts cracking and large debris falls to the floor, causing dust and many other smells they didn't recognized to waft at the air. Even after trying to kill the Brides with holy water by their weapons, the two greats cannot advance. The three women were just too stubborn to die.

    "This would collapse at any moment. Billy, secure an escape path!" Jeanne tells the shorter boy

    "Will do—!" he says, before someone pulls him backwards

   Jeanne immediately turns around and see Billy is missing. "Billy?! Where are you!"

    But, unknown to the saint maiden, the blonde Bride suddenly plunges towards her, sending them to the ground. Jeanne used her spear to keep a distance from the blonde Bride's sharp fangs. For someone like her, she was really strong and the maiden's hands suddenly goes shivering. Jeanne wants to come back to the mansion in one piece, so she had to hold on.

    Suddenly, a katana was thrown towards the blonde Bride, and it hits her by her head. Jeanne immediately kicks her away, and lands the blade of her spear to crush her beating heart. She takes the katana off, from the now dead Bride. Surely it was Mitsuhide's, but she cannot see any of his silhouettes.

    Before she could act, a hand suddenly grabs her collar by the back, pulling her backwards. The ballroom immediately zaps into darkness, only then be replaced by a view of the almost bluish orange sky above. Teleportation magic! Someone must've saves them from the collapsing ballroom.

    "Jeanne! Are you hurt?" The orange-haired boy immediately scoots towards her

   "Billy... W-What... Who..."

   "We're on the field by the castle entrance. Someone saved us through teleportation!"

   She immediately sits down, her left hand still grips the general's katana. "Where is Mitsuhide?"

   "I'm... fine. That punch is quite strong to make me like this," Mitsuhide talks from their backs

   Jeanne then returns his katana, while proceeding to give healing spell to the wounded general. Meanwhile, Cleopatra is still inside, completely surrounded by Dracula and the remaining Brides. The energy by this place had made her grew weak, and cost a lot of mana to pull out a spell from her book.

   "Heh, this brings me such good memories," Cleopatra says

   "Then you shall be grateful that you will be the first one whose blood will spill among the stage," Dracula then points his cane, and the remaining Brides immediately runs towards her

   Thankfully, the tanned ruler had a trick up her sleeves. She immediately lifts her leg up, and stomps it to the ground in a brute force. The ground suddenly rifts like waves, as the three vampires tries to get towards her. Cleopatra's spell book immediately turns to the next page, and decided to use it as an escape chance.

   "O' shadows of the night, fear the mighty light of our creator! By his name, I shall command to protect me and my subjects from the approaching darkness. Our great Ra, show your servant the light she wished for!"

   Suddenly, a bright light concentrated behind Cleopatra emits and the whole ballroom blinded by it, causing the vampires to screeches by the sudden contact of light. Ra is the Egyptian God of the Sun, so the light is as bright as the midday, giving Cleopatra the chance she needed to retrieve the knife.

   ' Horus, may you guide me with your eyes! '

   In a quick bat of an eye, her turquoise eyes glows once again, with slit pupils who resembles of a falcon's eyes. As the bright light continues to blind them, she spotted a shiny twinkle by Dracula's chest. That must be where the knife would be. In a quick movement, she jumps over him and her hands immediately rips his blazer off, seeing the knife were turned out to be his glasses. Cleopatra wasted no time and takes the glasses, and launches herself towards the stained glass windows.

   Just in time where the others came out, the huge castle falls into ground. How smart of him to use disguisement, and she thanked Horus for the guidance. She then runs, follows the threads of the sunshine that were about to show up. She have to hurry, but suddenly a hand grabs her foot, causing her to fall towards the ground.

   Dracula manages to get out, and now he's pissed more than ever. His tight grip makes her whines in pain, as she struggles to free her leg. As seconds pass, the two are just in a crawling tag, as Cleopatra doesn't let him get his glasses or the knife that goes for his heart. 

   "I'm not gonna let you kill me!" Dracula growls

   Cleopatra slowly loses her power to struggle, this man is too strong. There should be minutes left before sunrise and he isn't even strangled yet. She grunts with all of her might, trying to let go. But then, sparks of yellow lightning moves past her, and her foot become light again. A shadow of white, yellow and black flashes, it's Arthur!

   "Cleopatra! Are you alright?" The pale blonde man reaches his hand out, and she takes it to support her rising

    "I might walk slower than you think," she replies

    "I am gonna lure him to field. Can you bind him once I got there?" Arthur asks, as he takes his stand

    "I can, but it cannot last long."

    "Bring the knife to Sherlock, now go!"

    The ruler then stumbled her way, through the paved road that leads to the open field by the entrance. On the way, she constantly prays to her Gods to give her strength after that torture on her right leg. Arthur on the other hand, immediately striked by the white-haired man, using his punches and kicks. He swiftly moves to evade while attacking.

    "Then, let's see if you can outchase me," Arthur then challenge, before running to the way he came from

    His footsteps are really light, as he moves in a lightning-like speed. Dracula wants to do another jump among the shadows, but the sunlight is just upon a reach. So, Dracula jumps over trees to chase the blonde King of Knights. As the field is upon the eyesight, Arthur immediately slides and unsheated Excalibur, waiting for him to come. A flash of white and purple among the trees, that cues him to plants Excalibur by the ground, the yellow magic circle from before once again appears.

    "Knights from the Round Table! Grant your rightful King your powers to protect our kingdom—!" Arthur shouts, regally in his tone

    From afar, Leonardo is "copying" the two knifes. So the plan is to blinds and weakens Dracula with Arthur's Storm of Camelot before Cleopatra could bind him with the chains of Geb, and finally Leonardo would use Intelligenza del Rinascimento to rain the two knives to kill him. If that doesn't work, Mitsuhide shall move into action with his climax move.

    "da Vinci, are you ready?" Sherlock asks

    "Let's do it. I had enough being on this stage," the pink-haired man nods, before jumping off the bush

    Dracula appears from the trees, and prepared to ambush at Arthur. "Prepare to die, King of Knights!!!"

   Arthur takes off his sword, and takes his stand, "Like a lightning, I shall advance, with this Holy Sword that will penetrate the darkness—" 

   The vampire then jumps from the trees, with sharp claws ripped from his maroon red gloves and sharp fangs ready to rip the King's throat off. The sword glows in a blinding yellow light, with lightning sparks emitting off it. He plans to not do the move he did before, but rather lets off the sword's power to do the rest. Once the vampire was close enough, Arthur immediately shouts.

Storm of Camelot!

   The wave of powers suddenly hits the trees and Dracula on the way. The huge surge caused to fell to the ground, and that gives Cleopatra and Leonardo a chance.

    "By the orders of the God of the Living, Osiris, you shall not live among the upper world, you phantom of the death!" Cleopatra chants, her mark by her left hand is shining

    Another series of golden chains emerges from the ground, binding the vampire to the ground, and this Cleopatra isn't giving him another chance to escape. Once the residue of the power surges, Leonardo steps into the scene, with pinkish magic circle appears by the air.

   "There's no enemy or problem that I can not solve. You shall bare witness upon the knowledge that I had stored, in this head, in this hand, in this power!"

Intelligenza del Rinascimento!!

    Two magic circles immediately rains Dracula with the two knives; kukri knife directed to his throat, and bowie knife to his heart. The sun peaks by the horizon, as Dracula still struggles to let go. The sunlight soon reaches him, and sizzle sounds immediately can be heard. Cleopatra used both of her hands to make the chains go tighter, as if he was on the punishment by Osiris' Judgement Hall.

    "With this, we won the first stage..." Marie says

    Mitsuhide nods. "Yeah..."

    Minutes of intense sizzle sounds and Dracula wailing in pain, he finally disintegrates into dust. The others finally can lets out a satisfied sigh, especially Arthur and Cleopatra who on the verge of overdoing themselves. They can hear claps and whistles by the horizon, as the audience by the Theater cheers for them.

   And then, before they realizes,

   the stage once again goes dark.

    "Took you long enough. So sorry for making such fuss on your first performance," a familiar voice greets them

   They were back on the mansion, now back in their summer casuals. They immediately realizes, Dracula and Rossweisse is standing by the doors of the mansion, looking comfy on their casuals too.

   "How could you not die yet, you unholy creature?!" Jeanne shouts, before Sherlock immediately takes her arms to held her back

   "It seems like those people hasn't clarified the whole rules of the performances..." Rossweisse mutters, fiddling with the hem of her black-and-lilac purple dress

   "The whole rules?" Mitsuhide decides to ask

   "Yes, did you noticed that the objective is to find the weapons that killed me in my past life and repeats the scene once again?" Dracula explains, this time in a polite tone

   "Do you mean, that's the rules?" Queen of Hearts asks

   "Yes. The Theater wants to relieve the scenes of our glorious deaths, and retrieve the weapons that killed us. That's what they told me. Aside from that, they were too persistent to keeping things to themselves."

   Rossweisse then says, "We may be enemies by the stage, but do please know that we are comrades too."

   The whole thing after the end of the first performance would get even more interesting, as they discovered that these two monsters that terrorized them on the first performance, is gonna be their comrades slash enemies too?

   The audience wants to come back for more. The premiere performance amazes them, and surely the Theater doesn't disappoint them. As long the great leads of the past, continue to follow the script it had written, to fight for reenacts their glorious deaths, before they moved to the next one.

   Ah, yes. The light of the center position, the prize of a granted wish. 

   It sure would be exciting and making the hearts of the audiences rushing to the climaxing story.

Chapter Text

    "Seconds, please!" Arthur enthusiastly exclaims, ice-blue eyes brightly twinkles

    "Arthur, it's your third plate already. I guess you really need to restore yourself after doing Storm of Camelot twice," Billy just laughs lightly, before taking his plate to be refilled with another round of rice

    "I haven't been this tired after a battle. So yes, replenishment is a must," the King replies, his smile is also really bright today

    "Then, I shall have seconds too!" Leonardo pipes in

    The mansion becomes more lively, as the twelve greats had gathered. They seemed to be very delightful in this summer weather, as they are people from the past whom resurrected for the sake of competiting with each other, to amuse the Theater. They do chores by schedule, such as cooking, doing laundry and even going out for grocery shopping.

    "Hmm, do people know that we existed once again in this world?" Cleopatra asks, as she doing stretches with Sherlock by the dojo

    "As far as I can know, we do. We can be seen by normal people, but they just do not know of who we are," Sherlock replies

    "No wonder of why those hooded people forced me to hide my ears and parts of my ha— S-Sherlock! It hurts!" Cleopatra immediately shrieks, when Sherlock helps her on back stretches

    "I thought you were flexsible like a cat... This intrigued me," Sherlock says in curiousity

   As he continues, the ruler just lets out tiny yelps, not used to this kind of stretches before. "T-Thank the Gods that you didn't live on my time, they can mummified you alive because of this."

   The green-haired detective just laughs lightly at the harmless threat. Meanwhile, Rossweisse was on the front of a bedroom door, a red flower by her hand. She seemed to wait for someone... Jeanne, who brings a basket full of laundry from the laundry room, walks past her and decides to ask her.

   "Ah, Jeanne... I was just waiting for Dracula to come out," the young girl says, not averting her sight to the saint maiden

   "Well of course, this hours is his weakest time. He won't come out until sundown... Ah, there's still time before he wakes up, can you help me folding laundry instead?"

   Ever since Dracula and Rossweisse came and stayed at the mansion, the others gave them distance, especially after the first Performance happened. But, those like Jeanne or Marie or Billy gave them another chance to join together.

   "I would want to... but..." the valkyrie mutters, looking down

   "You said once that we are also comrades by offstage, right? I will also give you the cream puffs I made earlier if you did well," Jeanne says, in a kind tone

  Rossweisse looks up at the mention of the pastry filled with sweet cream, her green eyes twinkles. "Cream puffs?"

  The blue-eyed maiden nods. "Yes. I learnt making them last week, and the others like it so much. So, I thought of making it again for this time."

  The young girl nods to Jeanne's offering, and she lift her laundry basket to walk to the common rooms, with Rossweisse tailing her. Behind the door, the tall man overhears it and just smiled in content. Maybe it's just his own fault that he shouldn't introduced themselves sooner, maybe things would gone in a slightly different results...

  "Hey, have you eaten something yet?" a knock by the door, followed by a question

  Billy was the one knocking. He decides to not answer.

   "I guess you're still asleep, huh... If you're awake later, I left you some chicken blood by the door. Or maybe if you wanna properly eat human food, just let me know."

   Billy then puts out a bottle filled with dark and thick liquid by the doorstep. The hooded people said that Dracula must drink blood to survive or otherwise he can disappears before they could get on the next Performance. But, since this is the present day and taking human blood is rather questionable, so they decides to use animal blood instead.

   Well, they do tasted a bit bland rather than human blood, as Dracula thought, but that could do for now. The day gone in a rather subtle way, as the twelve greats are taking their chance to relax by getting each other close by talking their past lives and some funny stories that they didn't seen it in the history books by the library.

   The waxing moon slowly rise upon the powdery dark blue sky, streaked in faded orange and red, as Mitsuhide decides to sit by the rooftop. It's been a while since he can relax and views the night sky with an accompany of a drink. It sures bring him memories he used to do this with Nobunaga and the other warlords back at the sengoku period, but at these times he rather give distance to the daimyō he once served.

   "Hey, general boy. Might if I join? You didn't get your tart share earlier," The red-streaked young woman calls from the attic window

   "Sure, I'll help you," the general then helps Queen of Hearts to reach the roof

   She looks she doesn't mind of sitting in such uncomfortable place like this, as she spreads a mat to put her plate of tart. The Queen then sits, and proceeds to look over the moon too.

   "You better thanked me for such kindness to accompany you. Besides, you sure have many thoughts within today."

   A refill to his small cup, before he says, "How keen your eyes are, Queen of Hearts. About why we are awakened in this world, and moreover... what does competition meant anyways?"

   "You sure are know how is it like to live in this world before. Unlike I, who lived and died on a land people knew as the Wonderland. This is the world that the little Alice told, so might as well enjoying my time here too," the Queen recounts, before eating a part of her tart

   The tart is topped with strawberries and cream, as the young woman just happily eats the tart, despite having a near-sadistic personality... Mitsuhide then proceeds to take one, and eats it too. The sweet and sour taste that combines together with the alcohol he drank, no wonder why the Queen liked her tarts so much.

   "How was my tart?" she asks

   "Delicious. I guess I had the honor to eat the tart from the Queen of Hearts herself," Mitsuhide says, thinly smiles

   The Queen grins at the respons. "Of course, you are a nice boy and deserved a reward. Though, this is not the Unbirthday Party, I can bend the rules for a bit."

   "By the way, who do you think will be the one stood upon the center of the next stage we stepped upon?" Mitsuhide asks, his magenta-colored irises looks at the outline of the city ahead

   The red-streaked Queen is just closes her eyes while saying, "Anyone is fine, as long it's not making me tiring."

   "But then, the audience wouldn't be satisfied by that..." he commented

   "You have a point on that. Say, does this brings you memories?" she asks again

   The general just chuckles. "Yes. I used to watched the moon with Nobunaga or with the other warlords. We had good times when we didn't engage in battles..."

   "I see that I reenacts that memories of yours. I am not that hell lord, but I am kind enough to give you a company."

    For once, he sees that the Queen is just as kind as the others, just looked with the wrong mindset. Speaking of which, the tart plate remains with crumbs, and Mitsuhide's bottle of sake had drained empty too. Maybe it's time to end their moon viewing. In this place, he can take a deep breath and not being the famed general he was titled. He does think that Queen of Hearts does think of the same thing.

   I rather swallow the poison of an asp¹, rather than being paraded by the faces of my subjects as a prisoner!

   Cleopatra immediately jolts up from her slumber, her heart thumping loud. That sudden words upon her shapeless dream, makes her immediately thinks of something.

   ' Dear Thoth, o' god of wisdom, I shall ask you of what vision did you gave me? ' she silently prays, as she trying to restore her breathing pace

   Her right wrist immediately stings, and she holds her mouth shut with the other, trying to not waking anyone up. She remembers it now, that words, the sudden pain on her wrist, the feels of hot substances running through her veins... The Theater gives her a heads-up on what would happen at the next performance, but the others had no clue of this sudden message.

    「 did you know it already, my Pharaoh? 」

    ' Are the others... going to fight me...? ' Cleopatra asks by her thoughts

    「 of course. Like how they did to the vampire count, they have to fight the ruler of the stage, in order to advance to the next. 」

    ' How cruel... '

   「 remember that you can't fight it back. Don't resist the Theater's invitation. 」

    She doesn't want to fight them, but the powers inside is forcing her to do it. It's just matter of time before the curtains to the next Performance, lifted. Before she can open her mouth to say another answer to the voice inside her, something closed her eyes. The Theater wasted no time, the main lead should be ready to welcome their competitors, even if they were nervous to go back to the times they feared the most.

「 welcome, great leads of the past, to the next Performance— 」

Chapter Text

   The Theater wasted no time in between breaks to held the next Performance, they sure had a mind of its own. Since the knives that killed Dracula already secured, they need to retrieve the other killing weapons of the remaining eleven greats of the past. The audience picks on Cleopatra, wanting to see on how the Theater reenacts her story upon this stage. So that's why, the ruler had an earlier "heads up" call by that place.

   Unknown to the others, the time and space shifted so fast, that they who were asleep by the mansion, didn't realize that the curtains had arisen to the next. The cool, summer night breeze slowly turns into a hotter desert breeze, the mansion disappears; leaving them lying down on bare sand. Surely, Cleopatra doesn't want to see her weakest times here, but the Theater forced her to do what they wanted her to do.

   Slowly, but sure, the place that resurrected them and goes into a competition of death and alive, are a cruel entity.

   Marie was the first one to wake, realising the temperature rise from the mansion onto here. She blinks her eyes several eyes to gain her focus, and realizes it's all colored golden brown and bright blue.

   "Wake up, everyone!! We're not on the mansion!" the pink-haired queen immediately exclaims, while rushing her way to wake everyone

   Nobunaga, upon hearing Marie's wake up call, immediately scowls. "Dammit, is it another Performance already?" 

   Rossweisse, dusting the sand off her black goth-lolita dress. "I suppose it is..."

   "They sure do not want to wasting time, huh?" Arthur gazes by the colision of golden sand and bright blue sky on the horizon

   As they slowly rises to their feet, Rossweisse immediately looks around for her dear vampire friend, worrying that he might disintegrate into thin air and wouldn't came back for good. A structure resembling of a coffin, colored black and maroon red, can be seen among the lands of golden.

   "Dracula! Are you alright?" Rossweisse then asks, knocking on the coffin

   A voice then resounds from it, "I'm fine, dear Rossweisse. Just a tiny scrap from sudden sunlight."

   "It's kind of a hard request to tell, but can you survive more hours in the sunlight using magic?" Mitsuhide asks, as they come close with the valkyrie and the coffin

   "That is a rather impossible request, Akechi Mitsuhide. I do have an ability to walk upon sunlight hours, but that won't last long."

   Rossweisse then turns around and looks at Mitsuhide. "He needs to consume human blood to maintain that magic."

   The tall man from Transylvania surely regretted with this, being a creature of the night whose weakness is literally the sunlight itself. He already had a bad first impression, and moreover he would burden them more if they decides to carry him and the coffin... That wasn't a thing that a great lead from the past would do. Sighing, he fixes his glasses, and deciding that he shall use that ability for now. Because, they doesn't know of what could come towards them.

   "Well then. I shall use it, but you shall promise me please that you all would look for human blood tonight, or I will personally hunt you off," Dracula says, with a subtle threat at the end

   The others are just gripping their weapons tight, hearing that subtle threat from the count, remembering of what could've happened back at his castle if they let lose of their guard. Rossweisse then stands up, to give space. Since Dracula was on a lying position on his coffin, he has to do it within such narrow space.

   He then closes his eyes, and starts speaking. "I may be a monster that lurks upon the dead of night, but you shall know that I am too a creature of day on my past. Grant me the ability to walk among mortals, to be a human once again—"

   His whole body lights up in a mysterious violet color, as he activates his ability. Carefully and sure, he reaches up to open the coffin, after the violet light recedeed. It's been a while since he used this ability, so he had to know the consenquences of doing such deadly risk. The piercing sunlight slowly goes into the dark interior of his coffin, and that made his golden yellow eyes to squint by the sudden contact with the light.

   "H-How do you do? Should I summon an umbrella for you?" Leonardo pipes in, after that nail-biting silence

   "My, this surely been a while since I last used this ability. But, I'm fine like all of you," the vampire reassure, before he rises up and got off the coffin

   He then closes the lid, and it suddenly dematerialize into shimmering violet sparkles. For someone who hunts by moonlight, seeing them in broad daylight is surely odd.

   "Since he seemed to adjust to his ability, any ideas of where should we go?" Queen of Hearts asks, starts fanning with her palm

   Sherlock, turns to the others before saying. "We arrived at the Ptolemaic Egypt. The capital, Alexandria, is a day walk towards the northeast."

   "A day walk? Can't we just use teleportation? Wouldn't that faster enough? Plus, we don't have the supplies for a walk across the desert," Billy gives a series of questions, he sure knows of the enviroment really well

   "Teleportation! Good idea! I assume the only one who can such ability is only the little miss valkyrie, right?" the polymath excitedly asks, pointing towards the one he mentioned

   Rossweisse nods. "Yes, I could. But, transporting with all of you at the same could cost a huge part of my mana energy. Well, at least... I could try."

   "Hold on right there!" a voice suddenly roars behind them

   They turns around and see Cleopatra, standing not far from them. Her white pantsuit outfit turned into a rather flowy white dress, with golden accessories across her neck, wrists and ankles. Decorating the top of her hair is a corsage of a fabric flower, tinted in golden too. She looked more like a pharaoh with that coordination actually.

  "I just knew that all of you are going to face me at my palace, but I rather not want to make my subjects to suffer a lot on repairing it. So, I better welcome you all myself to the next stage," the turquoise-eyed pharaoh speaks

   "Welcoming? As if we are going to fight you here?" Nobunaga asking, 

   Cleopatra just shaking her head. "No, I'm not like the ones you thought of. Besides, if we are enemies by the stage, at least I should give you a proper welcome."

   "What is it then?" Jeanne, clearly suspicious about her intentions might be

   The cat-eared ruler then reaches out her hand, and her spell book materializes. Her lips formed into a cat-like smirk. "If you are truly great leads of the past, perhaps you can evade this—!"

   Suddenly, the ground beneath them rumbles, and cracking sounds can be heard not long after it. They then jumps, but then a huge lion's paw emerges from the ground, swatting Jeanne and Leonardo away. Mitsuhide, in the other hand, quickly draws his katana, and try to cut off the lion's paw.

   "Only the worthy who can even dare to challenge the Sphinx!" Cleopatra shouts, swinging her hand to reinforce the paw of Sphinx

   Arthur, decides to go for Cleopatra instead, so that the Sphinx could be ceased. As he blasts towards her, his movements suddenly goes into a halt and fell to the ground. His feet were wrapped in golden chains. She had guessed it.

   "Not bad..." the King of Knights compliments, as he tries to rip the chains off his feet by swinging his sword

   Not just Arthur, Billy makes his way to weakens Cleopatra with his shots. But, she wouldn't be that easy to be fooled, as she summons portals to send the shiny bullets back at him. The boy is fast enough to notice this apparently, so he jumps to evade every single one of them.

   "Ah, eleven to one sure are not fair. Besides, I really don't want to make this dress dirty," Cleopatra speaks, before with a flick of her hand that causes the sphinx's paw; the chains that caught by Arthur's feet; and the portals, to disappear

   "That's it?" Billy reassuring, still looking towards her with suspicion

   Cleopatra's spell book disintegrate into sparkly shimmers as she says, "Yes. The feast would be started soon, and I am needed as quick as I could."

   "A feast?" Sherlock inquires, after helping the others to recover

   "To welcome all of you, of course! Hey, be nice since not all of the ones who stood upon the center of the stage would be friendly to those who desired that said position." 

   Clearly, Cleopatra is subtly roasting Dracula, being the first one and literally welcomed them with sudden attacks. The tall vampire in purple just looks away, avoiding the others who might look at him. 

   "Well then! You all better hang on, because this would be a bumpy ride!" The pharaoh says again, before clapping her hands twice

   The ground once again rumbles, as a huge carriage, colored in gold and emerald green emerges from beneath the sand, wrapping the greats inside. The pharaoh sure likes to surprise them, especially when she is in her full powers on her very own stage.

   "Well, the Theater always has its way to surprise us in a way..." Mitsuhide says to himself, as the magic-enhanced camels pulls the huge carriage, makes their way towards the capital

   The sounds of bustling city is slowly turning in from the sounds of wind blowing across the desert. All of them were oddly in silence right now, even those like Nobunaga or Leonardo.

  "Say, what do we do once we arrived by the capital?" Jeanne decides to break the odd silence

  Rossweisse proceeds to ask about a thing that's on her mind. "About this feast... Do she really welcome us?" 

  "Well, that girl surely bold enough to express gratitude before literally killing you," the daimyō replies, hands folded by his chest

  A clear on the throat interrupts. Nobunaga turns around and see Cleopatra who is sitting with them. "How rude of you, Nobunaga."

  He clicks his tongue, admitting his mistake. "Fine, I apologize."

  "About what all of you should do after the feast, that should be told by that time! Because, telling it here would be ruin the surprise," Cleopatra explains

  "Sounds about right. Might as well try something to get us off the stage quickly," Queen of Hearts says

  "Hey, stop it. We don't want to upset her more," Arthur immediately comes in to prevent the rising pressure between them

  The pharaoh, just relieving her sigh, calming herself down. Arthur is right, there's no need to channel their anger here and now. They were the figures of humankind's glorious history and myths, they should maintain the image of themselves.

  "Speaking of which, how long until we arrive? These camels seems to make me curious of their speed when you shared your mana with them," the long-haired man looks around, because they realized the camels are faster than they thought

   Cleopatra stands, gaining the attention of the others. The camels who pulled the carriage also stops, as if her standing position gives them the signal to stop. She grins proudly, as she clicks her finger. The hood that covers the carriage suddenly whisked away by hands from the outside, and suddenly a roar of people cheering surprised them.

   "Welcome to Alexandria, my fellow greats!" Cleopatra shouts, her voice echoes through the air

   The eleven greats immediately rises to their feet, as if the title she said gives them the urge to stand. They stood with Cleopatra, as they hops off the huge carriage. Percussions are welcoming them with an upbeat rhythm, and tables are being set with tons of food from various regions. 

  Mitsuhide then says his gratitude, representing the others. "Thank you, to welcome us to your kingdom. We are in honor as your special guests."

   "No need to thank so much about it. This is a regular thing to do here, welcoming other leaders who came to visit. Come, let us sit down!"

   ' She obviously didn't do the same thing as this when Augustus invaded Egypt... ' Sherlock said by their minds, mentioning the name of the Emperor who caused the fell of her reign

   Thank god, Cleopatra didn't hear it clearly. As they sits down, maids came out to collect their coats and such. The ice-blue eyed King doesn't really want to be separated from his Holy Sword, so he just gave his black coat instead. After that, Cleopatra sits down once the it's gone to a silence. People must've left the palace grounds already.

   "Well, why don't we start on what you all shall do in order to complete this stage? Oh, you can eat anything on this table!" 

   Cleopatra looks at her comrades, faces show of concern and doubt. She then continues, "Do not worry! I had no intentions to ever poison any of you."

   Marie, reaching for a round-shaped bread, baked into a perfect color of golden brown. Her pale purple eyes shines by the item on her hand. "Such perfect bread! I don't know that people in Ptolemaic Egypt can make this kind that I often eat at Versailles!"

   "Thank you. So, we shall start our dinner!"

   Well, they can't say no to such kind offer, so want it or not, they have to. The long tables smelt of roasted meat, beer and bread. And surely after that long journey, they need something to eat.

    "Then, what are we supposed to do once we finished our... umm... welcoming banquet?"

    "Good question right there, Billy! You see, this is a rather not possible request but..."

   Sherlock notices it, and immediately cuts in. "Forgive me, but you had seen the future of this stage, don't you?"

   The others stops on their dinner, looks at the pharaoh whose smile fades slowly. "Yes. I actually do not want all of you to see in my weakest times here..."

   "The end of a reign, isn't that your problem here?" Nobunaga looks up to her, serious as ever

   Cleopatra nods, explaining more. "Yes, the war that I, with my dear husband Mark Antony, fought that evil thing... He doesn't want to be inflicted with that person, so that's why he fled to be with me."

   "So is that why the war started?" Jeanne this time gives her question

   "Yes. That person looks at Mark as a threat that needs to be removed immediately, so that's why."

   Mitsuhide know where this might go, so he immediately ask. "Where is your husband then? We can help you on protecting Alexandria."

   the red-and-black queen sighs, before saying. "Don't you get it, general boy, our goal here is to let her and this city fell as it is on the exact history."

   "Like Queen of Hearts say, I need your help for that very purpose. I ask you, my fellow greats, don't you want your people to see yourself, being paraded as a war prisoner, brings the shame upon the failure you caused?"

    Jeanne and Marie turns away, that question brings a very bitter memory. That surely a hard question to answer, even to those of them who hasn't experienced it yet.

    "I understand that feeling. It brings me such shame on carrying my duty to protect my people," Jeanne says bitterly

    "I do not want to see the people of Alexandria to see me in such state, so that is why I need your help to bring me the poison of the snake deity, Uraeus."

   The others goes silent.

   Rossweisse raises her hand, "As in, are you gonna use that to commit suicide?"

   "Correct. I wished to myself, in this trying times, that I rather do such thing rather than seeing my own pride as a pharaoh to be shattered by the face of my subjects..."

   Arthur, immediately stands up. He knew what to do. "If that is what you wished for, we shall depart on a journey to find it."

   "A war is coming towards us who already in this hell of a warfare. Bring me those Roman bastards," the daimyō soon follows, clenching his fists

   Marie then says, "We better settle this sooner, since we didn't know what would come towards us,"

   The other agrees. Even those like Dracula and Rossweisse too. The vampire told her, "I don't want to see a lady like you to struggle on your granting your wish, so I am at your side."

   Cleopatra's eyes sparkled by the support her new comrades upon her. The last time she goes into this, she was beyond desperation and ready to end her life at any time. But, this time, she had more confidence on doing it. Quickly, she brushed her palms to wipe her incoming tears, and recompose herself.

   "Well then, if you all on the same boat as I am, let's meet up in the morning for our meeting!"

   The pharaoh tried her best to make the others didn't look at her as her enemy, at least, that such thing can pass through the eyes of the Theater, right? As she gave them rooms to stay by the huge palace complex, she just thinks of how could a place like this wants to ever reenact an event she hated so much, the reason she never wanted to die at the first place...

   ' Isn't that the reason I was resurrected? ' she thinks to herself, stopping to look over the moon who's peeking by the balcony pillars

   The moon, shining with its pale white colors, upon the tapestry of dark blue studded with stars that are faraway above. The desert slept, letting the wind spirits travels with the coolness of the night. It's like a moment before the storm, they never knew of what could happen by sunrise.

   "Uraeus is the other form of the Goddess Wadjet. She ruled over the Lower Egypt, and she is worshipped for her protection towards the pharaohs."

   Cleopatra starts her explanation, in front of her is the eleven figures of greats, surrounding a huge table with maps and documents. The library of Alexandria, one of the greatest libraries by the ancient world, is the place they were now. She ordered her vassals to close the national library by the day because of this urgent meeting.

   "Uraeus would only give her poison, if those who came to her possesses the quality of a true leader."

   All eyes averted towards the man in white-yellow-black knight outfit. 

  "Why are you all looking at me? Does she mentioned that she protects pharaohs from this land?" Arthur then raises a question

  Cleopatra easily answer in return, "She gives protection to leaders who weren't meant to harm this land. I'm sure, you can persuade her. So, I shall have Arthur, Marie and Queen of Hearts to be the ones who will go to the Nile Delta."

  The three royalties, looking at her, and assure that they would do their given role perfectly.

   "Mitsuhide, Billy, Rossweisse, you'll join them. The rest of you, you will join me for the Battle of Actium."

   "But, we have this powers within us, so we have the upper hands for this?" Jeanne asks

  Cleopatra then puts down the document she was reading, hieroglyphs adorning it. "If we have powers, so do they. My spies just sent me this report that they were also learning magecraft for this battle."

  "The Theater must've done this," Mitsuhide comments, looking by the documents sprawled by the table

  "Of course, there's no other answer about that."

  "But, before that, I do have a question. The Battle of Actium is a naval battle, do we have to worry about us who may be didn't get the chance to ride a ship in our previous lives?" Sherlock ask

  Even if they were granted with magecraft, they were still humans. And Sherlock worries of seasick, for those who weren't rode a ship yet. The cat-eared pharaoh, thinks about Sherlock's question.

  "I shall think of an idea. For now, let us map for our battle strategy. First, I'm about to tell the landscape for the Nile Delta."

  One of Cleopatra's vassal emerges from the tall book racks, and hands her a map, tied with a golden cord. She thanked him, and immediately the vassal slinks back towards the racks. She unrolls the map, and suddenly golden sparks blows upon the air.

  "What are the golden sparks for?" Billy asks, trying to grab one of it

  "The Nile Delta is important to our kingdom, so, we wrote this map by the blessing of our gods and goddesses. It has many sacred places, a place to find our destination."

  She continues, "Anyways, Wadjet's primary temple is at Imet. Eastern of the Delta." a finger points towards a symbol of a cobra

  "And, she would be there?" Marie asking, looking over

  "Of course. Rossweisse, can you handle for the teleportation?" Cleopatra looks at the petit valkyrie

   She stops on her way to get those lingering golden sparks, and looks at the pharaoh. "Of course. That length can use few of my mana energy."

   "Good. Then, let's move to our naval battle."

   The strategy meeting still continues until sundown. The others are amazed by Cleopatra's knowledge of strategies, using the advantages of the landscape she knew best. They never see this side of her before, usually she would just be on a over-friendly nature and would sometimes tease. It's counting days before their plans to proceed.

   In this land where those believed their gods and goddesses walked upon here, blessing them to overcome the storms that might destroy humanity, through the bodies of their leaders. And that is what Cleopatra is trying to do, to change of what the Theater told them. This is just a reenactment of a part on their history, instead they fight with these new powers, for a way to "kill off" the one who stood by the center.

   Or so what she thought...

   The Theater always has a way to turn things easily, like turning around a palm of a hand. They just smirked by the thought of it, thinking of how these twelve figures of greats would adapt to any of tricks they intend to do?

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Chapter Text

   Imet, Eastern of the Nile Delta.

   The teleportation magic the petit valkyrie did, bounds some of the greats from Cleopatra's palace back in Alexandria. Now, they were in barren lands once again, but this time the lines of the Nile were there, making its striking contrast to the collision of bright blue sky and golden sand.

   "It seems too quiet here..." Mitsuhide says, his katana materialize onto his hand, light blue sparks twinkling

   "There's the temple. we should be hurry!" the outlaw boy spots a structure hidden behind the tall sand hills

   The six greats makes their way to the temple. Turns out, Imet is an abandoned city, with buildings resembling of houses are damaged. There's no signs of civilization left in here, so they didn't need to worry about casualties. The temple, colored with sand-golden and paintings of hieroglyphs in blinding gold. There's an open field by the temple's entrance, and no seems to wait for them.

   "I don't like this feeling..." Marie mutters to herself

   By the corner of Rossweisse' eyes, a huge serpent tail was slithering through the city ruins. Quickly, she takes out her red flower, shining in a mysterious light. The next second, another serpent tail is lashing towards the unnoticed Queen of Hearts. Billy immediately shouts and his pistols fires. The red-and-black queen evades the lash, while her scythe materializing onto her hand.

   ' Strangers... Say your purpose of why you—strangers upon on this land—to come for this cursed place!! ' a woman's voice roaring throughout the ruins

   "Goddess whom protects the pharaohs of this land, we've come in peace!" Arthur speaks

   ' Then why are you pointing your blades against my temple?! ' the woman exclaims, another serpent tail sprouts out from the ground

   "Wait! We are sent by Cleopatra! Please, let us explain!" Marie shouts to the air, while dodging the serpent tails with her magic

   Billy agrees, while trying to defend himself with warning shots, "Yeah! We need your poison so that she can end her life, rather of being a war prisoner of her enemy!"

    ' I am the protector of the pharaohs! I granted them blessing on their lives, and yet... she wants to throw such gift, away?! '

   Wadjet hasn't show her self yet, and the six greats are already overwhelmed by the serpent tails that are lashing to them like a riding crop. She is considered one of the Goddesses who blessed upon their lives on this land, and the fact Cleopatra wants to end her life quickly, it made her pissed.

   "I think I should be serious too then..." Queen of Hearts says to herself

   "Well then, we shall give you a challenge. If the three of them, could win against you, you shall give us your poison," Mitsuhide challenges

   ' A challenge? Only those who were worthy of being called a true leader of their people, who can do such thing— '

   Wadjet stops immediately, so does her serpent tails. Standing by the front of the temple, is none other than Arthur. Excalibur is shining bright with a yellow light, and one second can change the color of his eyes to his "lightning-striked" self.

   ' The holy sword of the stars... Heh, I'm not mistaken, then. '

   Marie and Queen of Hearts soon follows him, as the pointed royalties waits for the goddess to show her self. The calming breeze blows through them, as they can hear footsteps by the temple. Slowly but sure, a silhouette of a very tall woman slinks from behind the temple pillars. Long hair, colored black, with light brown highlights; looking at them are a pair of yellow eyes with slit pupils. Draped by her toned body are a white dress, similar as Cleopatra, with gold accessories on her neck, wrist and bare ankles.

   Lastly, hanging on her head are a crown, with a circular shape that resembles of a sun, and a snake circling it. The six greats literally have to look up, since Wadjet was really tall, as in the same height of the Temple's ceilings.

   ' I thought... she's gonna show up with a snake head instead of a human head... ' Queen of Hearts comments by their minds

   "Speak, are you three the ones who lead your people once?" the goddess asks, eyes locking to the royalties in front of her

   "Of course. Shall we introduce ourselves—"

   The goddess cuts in, "—No need. Your actions shall enlighten me. Prove that you are worthy of a dignified death, or I shall grant you punishment to waste your life as those who lead people..."

   A staff materialize to her hand, colored in gold. She then continues, "My vassals! Keep those three, out of my way."

   Her pointer finger at Mitsuhide, Billy and Rossweisse, and suddenly the ground shook once again. The serpent tails are back again, now multiplying and attacking more violent than ever. 

   "We're counting on you three!" Billy shouts to them who faces the goddess, while running away with the samurai general and the valkyrie

   As the silhouettes of three slowly goes far, mixed with the sand, Wadjet then looks down again at them. "I may a challenger, but I shall listen to any of your words, before our match would commence."

   Marie then raises her hand, "Maybe... can we fight somewhere else from here?"

   Queen of Hearts and Arthur silently agrees. If they were about to use their climax move in the match, they have to fight in somewhere open, far from the ruins. Wadjet, in the other hand, agrees to Marie's suggestions.

   "What an interesting suggestion, the Queen of France. Let us move to a more appropriate place for our match," the goddess then clangs her staff to the stone floor, and then a golden magic circle appears, like a water ripple

   A halo of yellow suddenly appears on the sky, and slowly the scenery from the ruins of Imet, to a rather vast and empty savannah, with the lines of Nile can be seen not far from here. The shining sun is slightly leaning towards the west, meaning some hours had past from their departure from Alexandria. 

   "The match shall begin. The first whose blade, or spell, able to draw blood from me, they shall get its prize," Wadjet explains, finger pointing to Queen's scythe, Arthur's sword and Marie's wand

   "Hmph, fair enough. Let's begin then," the red-and-black queen agrees

   The King of Knights then says, holding Excalibur with both of his hands. "By the honor of my homeland, I shall accept your challenge upon this match."

   "Marie Antoinette, has arrived!" the pink-haired lady announces, twirling her long baton-like wand

    The goddess wasted no time to summon more serpent tails, and starts attacking the three royalties. The match between them roars throughout the sandy wasteland, witnessed by the sky, the passing wind, and of course, the audience who witnessed by the Theater.

   Ionian Sea, the promontory of Actium, Greece.

   350 galleys are making their way towards the place of encounter, to the shore of Greece. The remaining greats, Cleopatra included are ready to engage in the battle against Octavian's armies. But, one thing is concerning Sherlock. He's been gazing upon the sea, with his ability to read enemy's status.

   "It's been making me concern, after I read about the history of this battle back at the mansion..." Sherlock raises his voice

   Cleopatra heard him and decides to ask, "What's the matter, Sherlock? Is something making you concern?"

   "Yes. We may be had the upper hands of having more galleys, infantries and archers, but why do the Romans won over your army?" the detective ask

   The pharaoh's eyes averts away from him. "They are more advanced in naval battles. We have to prepare for the absolute worst, since they are also using magecraft here."

   Dracula who were under a wide shade that's given by Cleopatra, fixing his glasses before saying. "Well, the Romans are quite barbaric. It's obvious."

   "Da Vinci leading the archer troops, Jeanne with the infantry. Dracula and Nobunaga who would do boat-hopping..." Sherlock reviews the strategy plan, putting one finger upon his chin

   "I just hope that we can at least survive to fall back..." Jeanne says, before linking her hands together to say her prayers

   Slowly, but sure, huge red sails are poking out from the horizon, with distant battle march accompanying it. It must be Octavian's army, as she thought. The six greats are lining up with Cleopatra, weapons materializes upon their hands.

   "This is the battle of decision, whether our homeland would prevail, or would fall upon pieces in the hands of our enemies. I, Cleopatra, shall lead you towards our fated end! Everyone, follow me!" the pharaoh's voice roars on to her naval army, followed with her troops' cheers, and the heart-pounding drum beats to speed up the galleys' speed

   "That is quite a speech," Nobunaga teasingly compliments, grinning

   "Thank you, I actually practiced it before. Now, onto your battle stations!" Cleopatra reaches her hand out, and her fellow greats jumps away from the mothership, to their designated places

   "May the Lord grant us the power in need," Jeanne prays, before hopping off to the infantry galleys

   Sherlock stays with Cleopatra, acting as her escort. Also he would observe on the enemy moves.

   "My Goddess Tefnut, please do give us your protection upon your territory. Let's go, Sherlock, we are going to protect the mothership from upcoming magecraft attacks."

   The detective nods. "As you wish, Cleopatra."

   Jeanne, positioned in the frontline of Cleopatra's army, was ordering the infantries to start fighting on any enemy infantries who tries to get on their galleys. Suddenly, she felt something wrong, as huge fireballs were shooted from the Roman side. They were not just an ordinary fireballs, but a magic poison-induced one. As a great herself, she cannot see Cleopatra's army to be suffocated by the fireballs.

  ' Dracula! Nobunaga! Find a way to destroy the catapults! They are shooting poison-induced fireballs! ' Jeanne says through her mind, to the galley-hopping duo, as she thrusts her spear to help the infantries

  The vampire was the first one to notice the catapults, stationed at the back far of the enemy line. ' But, it's quite far to the back. Even if I can penetrate with my climax move, I can't see of what they can do besides this. '

  Nobunaga clicks his tongue, after dealing with a whole galley filled with charging infantries on the enemy line, ' Damn, I wish we're on land instead, so that I can burn them with my Feast of the Sixth Heaven. ' 

   ' We're already on an disadvantage, then... Da Vinci, command the archers to attack the catapults, ' Sherlock's voice resounds on their heads

   The polymath, together with the archers not far from the mothership, sees at the huge catapults. He shudders in fear, before he clears his throat to command. Appearing behind him is his own magic circle, with arrow tips are popping out.

   "You heard the detective, then. Fire at the catapults and the fireballs!" he shouts, and soon hundreds of arrows are flying to the sky

   The fireballs, induced in magic poison are exploding on the sky, hitted by the arrows and Leonardo's own weapon manifestation. Shouts are everywhere, either from the Egyptian side and the Roman side, firepower meets magecraft, perfectly unwrapped by the powers of the Theater. As Dracula lands on one of the enemy galley, he was welcomed by a strained creature.

   ' A strange creature... Hybrid-made? ' he thinks, before going to his stands

  The chains that kept the huge creature strained, suddenly rips off. The vampire then moves, fast as in a bat of an eye, to try cut off the limbs with his elongated nails. But, the creature notices his move, and quickly it grabs him by the shoulder and throws him up to the air. Dracula uses this opportunity to twirls his wooden cane, into a sharp spear, and thrusts it to the creature during his descent.

   "Mana energy... Oh, this would be harder than I thought," the tall vampire remarks, before going back to assault the magically-made creature

   Similar creatures are released, and they were hopping off the enemy galleys, making their way to Cleopatra's army. Jeanne, still on her position, had no other options than using her climax move as a barrier.

   "I shall use my climax move, to keep those creatures and the fireballs away."

   The pharaoh's voice, echoes through her head. "Go on, we'll fall back if that can't held it in."

   Jeanne nods. She then straightens her spear right next to her, white mysterious light enveloping her and the spear. The flock of creatures, roaring, and the flying fireballs that were induced with potion. The maiden puts one of her palm by her heart, speaking out the spell.

   "O' my dear Lord, may you show us light among the darkness, show the way that we are supposed to walk onto. I shall be their lead, bringing this flag of victory to me and my comrades—"

   The huge inscripted flag, unfurls beneath the blinding light. An invisible barrier shows up through midair, and suddenly the creature stops, roaring in pain from the exposure of the flag she carries. Her rapier manifests to her hand, and she points it to the enemy line in front of her.

   "I shall erase all darkness upon this land—!"

Divine Light of the Saint Maiden!

   The fireballs explodes, when it hits the invisible barrier. The creatures then tries to go through it, resulting of them cutting their own limbs. But, unknown to her, that the flock of magically-made creatures are start regenerating.

   ' Sorry, for not telling you sooner, Jeanne d'Arc, but, apparently these creatures can do regeneration. '

   "Regeneration? On these times?!" the saint maiden exclaims, holding to her spear to not let the barrier not breached by the flock

   Sherlock's voice resonates, ' It's obvious. All kinds of magecraft were considered when it comes to them... '

   ' Oi, I'm getting overwhelmed here! We are not getting closer to their mothership, these creatures can't drop dead!! ' Nobunaga exclaims, as he relentless tries to kill any of the creatures that is charging towards him

   "What do we do, Cleopatra? I am considering of falling back. I can use my climax move to hide our galleys. Dracula can do one to blow them back while at it."

   Cleopatra cannot say anything. Jeanne is holding with all of her might, the shining flag flutters by the wind, both Dracula and Nobunaga can't proceed to Octavian's mothership, and soon the archers would ran out of arrows and Leonardo must be really overwhelmed with it too.

   ' Please, I hope they can get the poison in time... ' Cleopatra prays, thinking of her fellow greats who fought the goddess for her poison

   "HAAAH!!!" Queen of Hearts shouts, swinging her red-and-black scythe towards the goddess, but Wadjet was smarter than her so she used a serpent tail to evade the deadly swing

   "Her defense... is unpenetrable..." Arthur says, grasping for breath

   Even after Arthur's Storm of Camelot, Wadjet still stands and attacking them. Marie in the meanwhile, thinking of something that might find the goddess' weak spot. As she observes the sandy wasteland surrounding them, thinking of any possibility that she gets the power because this is her domain. That means, they have to do it outside of Wadjet's domain.

   "An alternate reality... another place... I got it!" the queen beams

   "Marie, did you come up with something?" the pale-blonde man asking

   "I could get her into my alternate reality, which is the Versailles! That, combined with Queen of Hearts' climax move, at least we can scratch her, even for a little..." Marie explains,

   she then continues, "But I don't know if that could work."

   "We do need all hands on deck for this one, huh? That's alright, I will keep her busy when you two are getting ready," Arthur stands up, grabbing the hilt of Excalibur to his hand again

    ' Oh! What are an interesting idea, too-bright King of Knights! Alright, she's yours! '

   With a final swing, the queen flips off the goddess' shoulders and lands perfectly on the ground. The King of Knights makes his way through the swarming serpent tails towards Wadjet.

   "Even though you were just launches your epitome of that sword's power, you were still dare to even stand up!" the yellow-eyed goddess exclaims

   Arthur stops by front of her, speaking, "Like the castle of Camelot, I shall rise once again. I was named the legendary King of Knights for a reason! Hyaaaah!!"

   He swings his sword, releasing the surges of power, both from his mana energy and the sword's own mana. Marie, wand in hand, are getting to get her climax move in action. Mysterious wind, blew the soft-colored dress, and her pale-pink twintails. Brightly smiling, she speaks out to welcome her climaxing act.

   "Dear my beloved ones, tonight, we shall commence to the party of our harvest, to celebrate of our victories, our pride, and to your beloved queen! Come forth, Versailles! The palace of glory!" Marie throws her wand, a huge magic circle appears by the ground where she stood

   She catches the wand, and soon a flourish of colorful flowers blooms by the sandy grounds, while the scenery changes to the a rather familiar grounds to the famed queen of France. Arriving to the Hall of mirrors, but much larger in scale. The Hall were colored in gold and diamond white, with sculptures and crystal chandeliers lining it. Arthur and Wadjet stops, and sees the scenery changes.

   "An alternate reality... not bad!" the goddess commends, before swinging her staff that causes the King to be thrown to the other side of the Hall

   "Hey, are you okay?" Queen of Hearts asks, helping him standing up

   He gives her a smile before saying, "That sure gives quite the damage. Anyways, you two shall attack on her!"

   "You got it! With the mirrors that reveals your own truth, you shall be petrified by the glory of my famed homeland—"

La Galerie des Glaces de la Vérité!!

  The mirrors that were on the Hall, suddenly bounces off blinding white light, causing the goddess to be "petrified" by it. Queen of Hearts, in the other hand, was taking her stand to do hers too. A mysterious dark grey, almost black light enveloping her while the blade of her scythe shines carnelian. Her sadistic nature is kicking in, so the two royalties were moving back.

   "I am one. I am absolute. The punishment that is deserved for those who disobey my own rules and those who doesn't see as their rightful Queen. Commence the punishment for the sinner, executioner!" the Queen of Hearts moves her hand forward, ordering

   Huge black chains appears and ties the cobra goddess, causing her to wail in pain. She cannot send her serpent tails towards them, since she is no longer in Egypt in this alternate reality. Queen of Hearts blasts off from where she is, and jumps above her. A huge shadow, resembling of a rather big, plumpy lady, with a staff on her hand, manifests behind her.

   she shouted, with a wicked grin by her face, "You shall not waver on this desicive swing for your deserved punishment—!!"

Absolute Rule: Off with Your Head!!

   Her scythe swings, to the goddess' neck. That resulted of a huge explosion, causing Arthur and Marie to cover themselves. Although the explosion happens, but the Hall of Mirrors still prevails, shining with its golden and diamond white colors. The black chains disappears, as the queen in red-and-black, lands to the floor. The smoke slowly disappears, and see Wadjet, on her knees, her hands were pressing to her wounded neck.

   "Her blood color... is gold...?" Marie mutters, seeing trickles of gold down her body

   The cobra goddess just smiles in defeat, seeing that they are worthy leaders who proved such power and quality.

   "You three, are indeed possessed the quality of being a true leader. You carried the glory of your homeland, your power upon your blades, unwavering..." she speaks, now in a much gentler tone

   The Hall slowly disappears, as they goes back to the temple on Imet. Waiting for them are bloodied three greats—Mitsuhide, Billy, and Rossweisse. They seemed fighting the serpent tails with all of their might.

   "Oh my god, you guys did it!!" Billy exclaims first, waving his fist to the air in victory

   "You three surely really determined to get it, huh?" Mitsuhide asks in a delighted mood, as his katana dissolves into pale blue sparkles

  The goddess stands again, and now her wound was disappeared. "Come, I shall clean you all up. People like you, aren't deserved to be drenched in your blood."

  She swings her palm, and tiny golden lights flew from her, and lands on the heads of the six greats. Blood trails, scars and dirt are cleaned magically by the tiny lights. Once they were neat and tidy again, the golden-eyed goddess opens her palm, and another golden light appearing, this time it shaped into a vial with clear golden fluid, secured by a cork, circled with a golden snake.

  "If it's death, that will keep her pride as a pharaoh onto herself, then I shall give my poison. Make sure to inject them inside her veins, and give it several hours to work. The poison of an asp, as people would call it," the goddess says, kneeling and gives the vial to Mitsuhide

   The vial dissolves to golden sparks. The samurai general thanked the goddess. "Thank you, for your cooperation, Goddess Wadjet. We shall take your poison, back to Cleopatra."

   "We must head back to Alexandria. Cleopatra and the others are just falling back from Ionian Sea..." Rossweisse informs

   "Why don't we just help them by hopping towards there?" Queen of Hearts asks

   The valkyrie shakes her head. "The initial plan was to return to Alexandria as soon as we get the poison. My teleportation ability just can do this once only."

   "We must follow the plan. I'm sure they can arrive in safety," Arthur then speaks, settling the doubt between them

   Without further ado, the six of them circles each other, with Rossweisse who is focusing her energy to do one of her abilities. Wadjet, witnessing them, then puts her hands by her staff.

   "May you be safe on your future journeys. My blessing would be always accompany you," she wishes

   "O' great Odin, may you hand me the power to move ourselves..." Rossweisse prays, closing her eyes as her mark shines in a lilac-colored light

   Then, in a zap, all six of them were disappeared. Their destination? Alexandria. They have to secure the poison so that Cleopatra could inject it as quickly as possible. But, the problem is, she and the remaining of the greats are still escaping the Roman army.

   The remaining galleys are moving fast, as Cleopatra starts to infuse them with her own mana. The slaves who's rowing the galleys must be so tired, so she decided to magically moves the rows with magic. Jeanne, barely survives when her barrier breaks because of the continous attacks.

   Now, the two armies are in a cat and mouse game. It's just a matter of time before they could the Egyptian waters, and let the barriers she put up would do the rest. The sky is colored orange to dark blue, signalling the moon is showing up soon. The vampire almost has its time to pull up his climax move.

   "Dracula, please commence your move, once sun is completely down," the pharaoh tells the tall vampire

   He complies, by fixing his glasses before answering. "I've thought of the same too."

   "I shall cover for you then, Sir Dracula!" the pink-haired polymath says

   He chuckles for a bit, "Make sure you can follow me, Leonardo da Vinci."

   Fellow golden-yellow eyes meeting him, and he is serious about it. "If that was what you want then."

   Dracula and Leonardo then hops off the mothership, going backwards to the remaining galleys who were protecting the mothership from the enemy assaults. Since Jeanne is wounded and unable to use her Divine Light of the Saint Maiden again, so they are making their way out, with a huge amount of casualties already.

   "Jeanne, how are you feeling?" Cleopatra asks, while applying a healing spell to the maiden

   "Never been this great. But, yes, it hurts..." she says, before hissing in pain

   "Oi, Sherlock. I don't see you handling with the enemy attacks, what are you doing?" Nobunaga asks to the detective

   The magenta-colored irises are sharply stares to the daimyō, as he speaks. "I'm observing them. I might be looked that I'm not doing nothing, but I give informations through my eyes."

   Sherlock then continues, "Da Vinci and Dracula are arrived at the farthest back of the remaining galleys."

   Speaking of which, Leonardo had shots various arrows and swords towards the enemy lines, some of them explodes by the sky, and some by the galley decks. The tall man looks by the horizon, as the lasts of orange-dyed streaks by the sky, slowly dissolves into the darker blue colors.

   Dracula then proceeds to take off his already ripped maroon-red leather gloves, thinking that he should repair it once they arrived back at the mansion. Next, rolling the sleeves of his eggplant purple vest, and revealing more of his corpse-pale complexion. And lastly, his black-framed glasses, as he neatly folds it, and puts it by the pocket of his vest. He's ready to perform the already perfect nightmare once again.

   ' It's full moon... It seems that I am in the embrace of the Fortuna. ' the vampire thinks, as he sees the rising, perfectly round moon

   "The full moon had risen on this night, shines upon innocent souls who begs for salvation, and tainted ones who were lost by the hazy darkness. The nightmare, stretches its arm like a curtain, enveloping those who fright itself. I shall show you, the true horror—"

   The white moon slowly zaps its color, until it's colored bright red. The enemy army were stunned, including Octavian himself. This is must be a work of magecraft, but never see something like this. Dracula then jumps towards the sky, his now scarlet-red eyes shines. Enveloping him next is a black shadow, making his arrival unknown to the enemy.

   The enemy army were suddenly screams in agony, and fear is consuming them quickly as in like it was a wildfire. The red moon still shines eerily, as the remaining greats seeing by the mothership, seeing the enemy troops are in literal insanity. Dracula, by the shadow who envelopes him, smirking—showing his sharp and elongated fangs.

   "Let the fear consume you, and your blood shall be the moon's payment..."

Coșmaruri Nesfârșite ale Lunii de Sânge—

   Cleopatra immediately orders her magically-charged galleys to start rowing from the Roman army who is literally screaming their lungs out, seeing their worst nightmares by his climax move. The others just gulps their saliva, hoping that vampire wouldn't ever strike them with that. Leonardo, once he arrives at the mothership, his face were looking really pale.

   "Wow, for someone like him, that move surely scary..." he mutters

   "Thank you for such compliment. Well then, that should keep them occupied for a while," Dracula thanked Leonardo, while wearing his glasses again

  "We would reach Alexandria port by the morning. Sherlock, have you recieved anything from the others?" the turquoise-eyed pharaoh ask

  "They got the poison thankfully, and they are waiting for us back at the palace."

  Somehow, a feeling of relieve and happiness shows up on their faces. Even the wounded saint maiden, thanking the Lord above. Cleopatra, in the other hand, starting to prepare her emotional state for ending her life, by the face of her fellow greats...

   "I could use a break for an afternoon tea... Too bright King of Knights, overly-sweet lady, join me!" the Queen of Hearts commands, once they arrived by the palace at Alexandria

   ' At least... can she call us with our own names... ' Marie thinks

   ' Hahaha, I am thinking of the same thing, honestly... ' the pale-blonde man sheepishly laughs by Marie's internal thinking

   "I definitely can hear everything you said by your heads. We are connected, after all," the black-and-red queen scoffs, proceeds to walk away

   "Ah, we're really sorry! I'll tell the maids to prepare them!" Marie immediately skips to catch up to her

   Mitsuhide just pats Arthur by his shoulders, saying, "Those two are really interesting. Don't they become troublesome for you, when you three at the match with Wadjet?"

   "No, not at all. They know what to do. They were actually really amazing with their individual powers," Arthur retells of the match earlier

   Well, he was responsible enough for taking care if anything gone wrong, so Mitsuhide can leave it to him. At least, for now they can take a breath of relief, as they walks deeper inside the palace, since the night had rising higher. But, they cannot rest yet, since Cleopatra and the others hasn't arrive.

   The night passes rather quickly. The six greats had agreed to wait by the throne room, and taking a break in turns, as they seeing the port by the distance, to se if the huge galleys had came back or no. After for a while, Rossweisse is rising to her feet, suddenly sprints off.

   "Rossweisse! Where are you going?" Mitsuhide also standing up and catching up to the emerald-eyed valkyrie

   The two fled off fhe throne room, running through the torch-lit hallways, all the way to the front gardens. There, he sees six silhouettes are walking with a convoy of the guards. That's where Rossweisse stops to hug a really certain person.

   "Everyone... thank god you are back safely," Mitsuhide quickly says

   "Thank you, Mitsuhide. You seemed looking very well too..." Jeanne says, clutching her wound by her abdomen

   "Oh, are you missed me that much, dear Rossweisse?" Dracula ask, looking down to his dear companion

   The valkyrie then ask him, "Are you using that again..."

   "I'm sorry, but I have to. We barely survived the fall back, and using that is the only way to stop them," he explains, patting her head while on it

   Somehow, Rossweisse is worried of something that Mitsuhide doesn't know. But, he decides to ask her later about it. Cleopatra immediately ushers the guards to take Jeanne towards the medics.

   "Mitsuhide, Sherlock told me that the poison is on you, right?" Cleopatra asks

   Quickly, he nods. "Yes, it is."

   "Good, let's settle the matter between us and the Performance quickly."

   Not long after that, Cleopatra decides to be alone at her room, injecting the poison into her body, with the others are waiting for her by the hallways. They surely won't eat anything, because all of this doesn't make them want to consume something, at least for now. The pharaoh then opens the golden snake that sealed the vial, gulping her saliva. The last time she goes through this, she was already away from Alexandria, as she was commiting suicide by her tomb.

   ' The Theater... How were they being this good to craft such an amazing yet sorrowful Performance like this... ' she thinks for the last time

   The asp that was the seal to the vial, grows larger into a life-size one. Cleopatra then drinks the whole clear and golden fluid, as the golden asp bites into her veins by her wrist. She gasped in pain, the bite really hurts. The poison slowly runs throughout her body just like fire.

   And the next second, she limp to the huge bed, her soul left her body. It surely just feels like a memory from a distant past, but she don't know why this was too real... And of course she would think of how the others would react to their respective Performances later. The whole stage gone dark immediately, as whistles of cheers and clapping from the audience can be heard.

   The second Performance, greatly enjoyed by the audiences.

Chapter Text

   "Waaaah, this is so delicious!" Marie exclaims, as she scoops another spoonful of her strawberry parfait

   "So this is what people called parfait..." Arthur looks at his own glass of the said dessert, stacked with sponge cake and meringue; decorated with sweet mixed berries

   "Taste it! I guaranteed it's so delicious!" the French lady beams in excitement

   So, the story is that Marie heard recommendations from the hooded people that took care of the kitchen duties sometimes. She likes sweets so much and want to know of how does it tastes in Japan, so she had to go out and seek it herself. But, she cannot do it alone so she asked for a company. And that company is none other than the King of Knights himself.

   "I never knew that you liked sweets too, Arthur," Marie curiously looks at her fellow royalty

   He chuckles before saying, "We, British royalties loved sweets as far as we knew. It's  a mandatory tradition, to be exact."

   The King takes a bite of his parfait, and in a sudden his ice-blue eyes twinkles at the taste of the sweet and cold dessert. Marie who looks at him, just smiling contently.

   "Amazing. This tasted so delicious!" he compliments, the summer's sunlight surely brings out the odd blue color of his eyes

   "Right? I knew that you might like subtle yet sweet flavors, so I go with that," Marie tells him about the parfait he's eating right now

   "As expected of Marie," he hums in satisfaction, before continuing eating his parfait

   "By the way, what do you think about all of this? Surely, we were back alive for a purpose... And what is that purpose, if I have to ask you?" the light pink-haired queen asking, looking down to her half-emptied dessert

   That makes him to stop too, considering of the question too. He knows one thing, looking from Dracula and Cleopatra's Performances, but he wasn't so sure about it.

   "We must follow what is right to ourselves. If the Theater aid to us on our unforgivable deaths, maybe we can reach inner peace—"

  he continues, inside his mind, ' —or so, what the Theater wants us to thought... '

  "For now, we cannot think of an exact order of who's Performance gonna run next. All the thing we can do right now, is to prepare ourselves for the worst," Arthur speaks, straightens his sitting position

   "You're right. And, one more question..."

   "Say it then. I might be able to answer it," he lets Marie to tell her question

   Marie, this time looks at Arthur, serious. "Do you have something in mind regarding your Performance? Do you really accept your fate at that day?"

   Arthur is beyond words. She might have looking for his own history, and probably she knew about that battle. The records that told of he asleep in peace at Avalon, letting go of the fury between him and his son...

   The pale-blonde King of Knights looks down, his bangs covers his shaking ice-blue eyes, "You will find out about that... when the day comes."

   "Thank you for taking me to the gallery today, Lady Jeanne!" Leonardo, together with Jeanne are in a gallery showroom right now

   "My pleasure. I could use a break after that dreading experience of maintaining the safety of a whole fleet from the enemy's magecraft abilities," the saint maiden sighs, as the two walks by the showroom

   "But, your Divine Light of the Saint Maiden is so blinding! I might have try to make a painting of it!" Leonardo enthusiastically says, his yellow eyes sparkles

   "You're a painter too, I remember that. I would love to see that soon," Jeanne looks forward to it, smiling to the polymath

   "Speaking of which, this generation's art styles are really different than the one on my times. Of course, this was not the Renaissance era, I understand that," Leonardo speaks to himself, as he observes on an abstratction-styled painting

   ' What such determination to observe on a painting... as expected as Leonardo. '

   "Lady Jeanne, have you seen my Mona Lisa painting?" the polymath then ask her, still fixated on the painting

   "I have not. But I heard it's one of your most famous paintings," Jeanne moves forward, to look at the painting too

   "Haha, indeed! Lisa del Giocondo is truly the perfect woman for my masterpiece! We must depart for where we could see her! At Musée du Louvre, it is!"

   Jeanne immediately shushed him down, afraid that they might attract attention. "Leonardo! We must not attract people's attention!"

   Some people were looking at the two greats, and Jeanne immediately bows down in apologize. She immediately takes him to the next part of the showroom, avoiding unnecessary contact with normal people.

   "Cher Dieu, we can get asked for many questions! We weren't supposed to publicly show ourselves!" the saint maiden quickly scolds her companion

   "Sorry... I guess I was too excited... Perhaps we can get the hooded people to schedule a trip there!" Leonardo suggests, still maintaining that excited nature of his

   ' I don't sure about that... what if the Theater do really brings us there through one of our Performances? ' Jeanne's voice then heard on his mind

  He stuns on his track. At least, three of them had their history and deaths recorded in France— with Marie in Paris, Jeanne in Orléans, and Leonardo's death in Loire Valley. Probably they will experience the country through the magecraft ability of the Theater sometime later.

   "I guess that's true. We should keep an eye of the Theater and what it can do," the pink-haired polymath agrees, his voice were reduced into a soft mutter

   "Oi, I wanna ask you," the voice of the daimyō, sharply ask for the orange-haired outlaw's attention

   "Nobunaga. What brings you here?" Billy greets, after de-materializing his magnum pistols

   He then proceed to give his question, "About why I met Mitsuhide again. Perhaps you can give me enlightenment about that."

   "Enlightenment? I guess that would be Sherlock's job, not me. I don't have such talent to observe people," Billy chuckles lightly, saying about that wasn't his expertise

   "But, I've seen your eyes are sharper. You can observe your target, so does all of us. Tell me."

   "Hmmm, let's see. Since we can't guess of what the Theater is up to, but like Arthur once said, there's no need to ever think of the past. Maybe, fate made you two wants to be partners again?" the young outlaw explains

   Nobunaga somehow agrees, "What sharp observation you had. I'm looking for more of that, if I need it."

   But, Billy was curious, of why the red-eyed daimyō comes to ask him about that. He never get to ask the man in the end, since that's a question that must remain unquestioned.

   "You're coming or not? I was about to take you for a quick snack," Nobunaga's voice suddenly makes Billy's train of thoughts to stop

   "Quick snack? Yeah, sure! I'll go with you," Billy jumps up and quickly walks to the daimyō

   Even in the subtle sunlight of the afternoon summer, there is always a thought of fear. Fear upon the entity that is holding the threads of their lives...

   Did you know, that these paintings I made, were my nightmares? No matter how beautiful is it, it scared me to death.

   A certain pink-haired polymath suddenly gasp, during his time alone on the atelier, "—Oh my..."

   "I see... So that is the signs of the invitation?" He immediately gets it, grinning to the empty space

「 I expected no more from you, Leonardo da Vinci. Yes, this is the Theater's invitation. 」

   He pauses. If the others would ever look at his death, they may be reconsider everything about him. But, regardless, he were looking forward to ever reenact this bitter memory of his.

   "I may be died because of a disease, I hope you can spin up an amazing tale about that," Leonardo speaks

「 believe in the powers of the Theater. Even yourself would be amazed by the Performance. 」

   He silently hopes that his fellow greats would still think of the way he is right now, not the self he hated, not the way how beautiful yet scary his Performance would be. Well, not as tensed as Dracula or Cleoptra's, but he just can sense it.

「 welcome, great leads of the past, to the next Performance— 」

Chapter Text

   Quiet and serene, that is what the art gallery they had arrived to described. It's counting hours to dusk, yet it's still so bright with the lighting. Each of the familiar paintings were displayed neatly, fitting with the themes that occured. But unfortunately, this is no ordinary art gallery.

   "I guess we're arrived at Da Vinci's Performance..." Sherlock announces

   Mitsuhide and Rossweisse, who were together with the detective looks around in awe. They were alert, but it seems the beauty of the gallery blinds them.

   But, the samurai warlord immediately focusing to his job right here, "Where are the others? Why are we separated randomly like this?"

   Sherlock hooks two of his fingers to his chin, thinking of something. "It might be easier for him to take us down in small groups."

   "As much this gallery is beautiful, I don't like how this place gives off..." the petite valkyrie mutters

   The other two's senses became more alert after her words. Meanwhile, Billy, Queen of Hearts, and Marie were awake in a display hallway. They don't see other paintings on the wall, beside one on their back. A long painting of a feast, with a gold plate carved "The Last Supper".

   "This was supposed to be a mural," Marie says, trying to remember her knowledge regarding the artpiece

   "A really religious piece, as I can see that," the red-and-black queen comments

   Billy looks closer to the painting, and he's about to touch the painting, but Queen of Hearts immediately pulls his hand back. The outlaw startles and turns his head to her, who were staring to him in anger.

   "Last time I saw someone touches a painting in the Wonderland, they got sucked into it."

   Billy's face turns grim. "T-Thanks for the warning..."

   Marie then claps her hand to gain attention of the two, "Anyways, let's search for the others!"

   Well, it's only a matter of time before Queen of Hearts' suspicion would be proven. On other side, Arthur, Dracula and Jeanne, were gathered together, and the same as the previous three, there's only one picture that is facing the hallway before them. And it's the famous painting of Mona Lisa.

   Jeanne keeps hide herself behind Arthur, as Dracula is observing the painting, of course the King just stood still seeing the maiden is covering herself with his cape.

    Jeanne then speaks in a rather alert tone, "Forgive me for such inappropriate moment, Arthur, but I really don't like him."

   "Is it because of before? I can see that Dracula is giving quite a scare of us," Arthur says, smiling at that

   Dracula, hearing the two just chuckles. "My, I thank you for such compliment."

   "But, a painting that drips of blood... It's a very rare occurance," the tall vampire continues, his sharp yellow eyes observes the edges of Mona Lisa's eyes

   "Blood? If this place is cursed, so I shall cleanse it—" Jeanne immediately moves away from Arthur, moving forward

   Quickly, the pale-blonde man moves his hand to prevent her from walking to the painting. Dracula then moves his cane to the blood-stained eye of Lisa, but immediately Arthur pulls him back.

   "We better not touching any of the paintings here. I afraid Jeanne might be right. Even if you can handle it, we can't know of how dangerous it is," Arthur warns him

   Dracula just grins. "How knowledgeable you are, Arthur Pendragon."

   The king just lets out a hmph sound. "I'll take that compliment of yours."

   "Let's just stay here. Might as well we're gonna wait if there would be a change," Dracula says again, moving away

   Speaking of which, Nobunaga and Cleopatra were stranded in a rather dimmed place. There were no paintings here, and the lights are blinking eerily. Of course, the daimyō is more than annoyed of not knowing where the hell they are.

   "I don't know where the hell this might lead us to," he growls, the grip upon his katana got tighten

   "I'm trying to use my Eye of Horus, but I can't see anything..." Cleopatra says, shaking her head after disabling her ability of sight

   "Concealment magic, huh?" Nobunaga replies

   The ruler nods. "It might be."

   the red-eyed man growls again, his katana burning, "This is so freaking dark, I'mma burn the whole room to see!"

   "Nobunaga, look out!" Cleopatra immediately shouts

   Suddenly, a sharp pair of knives were thrown, directed to Nobunaga himself. Quickly, he swings his weapon to ward off the flying object. Within the blinking of the dimmed lights, they can see an outline of a tall man, with two pair of arms and legs, staggering their way towards them.

   "What the actual fuck is that?" he ask, as he moves closer to his partner at the moment

   "H-How do I know?!" Cleopatra shrieks, her spell book hugged tight

   Nobunaga then clicks his tongue. "There's only one way to find out then. Haaaaaahhh!!"

   The daimyō charges his way to the mysterious creature. Swinging his burning sword, he manages to hit the chest part of it. The creature wails in pain, as it also swings its four arms to grab ahold of Nobunaga. On the other hand, Cleopatra attacks the creature with trying to chain it down.

   The humanoid creature is a lot taller than him, so using its four arms it tries to grab his sword. Cleopatra, in a swift motion, grabs one of the chains she summon to tie its hands.

   "O' shadows of the night, fear the mighty light of our creator! By his name, I shall command to protect me and my subjects from the approaching darkness. Our great Ra, show your servant the light she wished for!" the ruler chants, still mounted on top of the creature's shoulders, tying its hands with the chain.

   The concentrated light appears, making the creature wails again. Of course, the entire hallway became bright. Nobunaga uses this opportunity to find an exitway, by grabbing Cleopatra from the creature's shoulders, and run away. So, the cat-eared queen ended up slung over the daimyō's shoulders.

   "You better hang on tight!" he says, and Cleopatra responses with holding onto his coat tighter

   The light still blinds the creature, as Nobunaga constantly looks left and right for an exitway. The hallway seemed endless, as he finally eyes an open door. He skids, with Cleopatra still on top of him, and rushes to open the door. They finally sees the bright side, as the room behind that door is properly lit.

   "Oh my, that was surely quite a ride..." Cleopatra mutters, still gripping onto him

   Strangely, Nobunaga sets her down on the floor gently. The art gallery is still silent as always, unaware of the danger behind them. They gotta find the others soon, so that they can find out on what's going on.

   "Would be nice if we can find some familiar faces here. Come," Nobunaga ushers her to follow him

   Meanwhile, Sherlock is observing on blood trails on the floor, together with Mitsuhide and Rossweisse. As they move further, they started to see it. The valkyrie crouches to one of the trails, intently staring.

   "This were relatively new..." she mutters

   "It is. Someone must've been hurt and—Rossweisse, stop!" Sherlock immediately shouts

   She is wiping the blood with her finger, and about to taste it. She just looks at the two in confusion, while froze on her position.

   "We don't know whose blood was that!" Mitsuhide says

   "...And that is one of my ability. Finding out on whose blood is this."

   Both Sherlock and Mitsuhide suddenly stuns, and in return Rossweisse just lets out a small grin on her somehow emotionless face.

   ' Don't underestimate me. '

   "Fine then, you can do that. But it's not our fault if something happens to you," Sherlock sighs, looking away from her

   The valkyrie then puts her gloved finger into her mouth. For a while, she stay in silence, while Mitsuhide and Sherlock is waiting for her answer. She suddenly stands up, causing them to startle. Her red flower shows up to her hand, and she has a rather serious expression now.

   "Arthur is hurted."

   "What?!" The two man exclaims, hearing the name

   "They are in grave danger. We better hurry."

   The three then rushes their way, following the trail that is presumbly was Arthur's. Turning right, they arrived on a hallway display, and their faces were shocked seeing blood splutters on the wall and on the Mona Lisa painting. Arthur is there, clutching onto his wounded abdomen and his blood-stained Excalibur.

   "Oh my god, my King!" Sherlock exclaims, rushing his way to tend his wounds

   He was hurted badly, and there were no sign of both Jeanne and Dracula. That made Rossweisse start fidgeting. Sherlock applies healing spell to Arthur, asking him of what's happening.

   "That painting... It ate Jeanne and Dracula."

   "What do you mean, it ate them?" Mitsuhide ask for reassure, katana in hand

   "As soon as we decide to wait for the others, the painting drips a lot of blood from the eyes..."

   "It came alive," Rossweisse continues

   Arthur can only nod, knowing from how shocked he is.

   "We gotta find the others. They should be around here somewhere—"

   "—No. It can see everything, and changes the layout of this building like a labyrinth. I've tried escape it twice, but it keeps chasing me," The King of Knights explained, before hissing at the pain

   Arthur continues, "It's only down to moments if ever this painting would come at me and you all again..." 

   The lady on the painting, gently yet mysteriously stares back at them, even after coated with fresh red blood. It's been a while since Billy, Marie and Queen of Hearts are trying to find their way inside this art gallery, yet don't see anything familiar passing through yet. Except for Marie is constantly thinking about the Last Supper painting, who may be tries giving them a clue.

   "Hey, do you think that we're just going on circles? I kept seeing that painting again and again," Billy ask, as he points out to his front

   And that painting is still there.

   "As expected from an illusionist. The Cheshire Cat often do this to fool me," Queen of Hearts sighed

   "I don't think that's the problem," the orange-haired boy points onto the painting

   Now the painting is smeared in blood red, with each faces are crossed out. Marie suddenly gulps her saliva, manifesting her wand. Both Billy and Queen of Hearts are confused of what does she thought.

   "Are those people on the painting, could it be this art gallery are trying to kill us?" Billy asks Marie

   The twintailed lady nods. "Yes, just like the story behind it. He predicts the one who betrays him thrice during the supper..."

   "Betrayal? Are we speaking of that freak polymath is gonna kill us?" Queen of Hearts cuts in, starts to feel suspicious

   "I don't think he would do that though," Billy tries to be the neutral side of the two

   "Hey, Kid, do you remember of the Theater's bargain to us? They would give out a granted wish for the return of clearing each of the Performances, and maybe that is what he gonna do," the red-and-black queen explains

   "Would that mean each of us are actually gonna do the same thing?" Marie turns her head, left and right to the two greats

   The shiny black-and-red scythe manifests, pointed to Billy and Marie, "Wouldn't be surprised if we ended up killing each other."

   But somehow, Queen of Hearts is right. There must be something that the Theater needs in return. The tension between the three grow tighter, on figuring out how to solve this place. What they don't know that it's the influence of the painting, making those who look start accusing each other.

   Truly, this place is becoming of a nightmare.

    "Lady Jeanne! Sir Dracula! Wake up!" a familiar echoes through the empty darkness, calling the name of a certain saint maiden and vampire

   Slowly, the darkness cracks, revealing the blinding light behind it. Both Jeanne and Dracula, as Arthur told, was eaten by Mona Lisa. But they're still alive somehow, lied down on the hard cold floor. Jeanne tries to move her body, as she hears the familiar voice is calling her name.

   "Where..."

   "You're save with me, Lady Jeanne. Here, let me help you!"

   She can feel her body is being lifted up, and finally she can focus her eyesight to see who's the one. She can see the shocking pink hair color, the smell of rose, all of this already-familiar someone...

   "L-Leonardo...?"

   Jeanne feels that she was put into a chair, and it's actually the polymath himself!

   A familiar person with cat ears shows up, making Jeanne's face gone brighter, "Oh my, you two are such a mess!"

   "What could you expect from a bunch of paintings that came alive?" Of course, the maiden recognizes the rough voice of Nobunaga himself

   "Cleopatra and Nobunaga too? What are you two doing here?" Jeanne decides to ask, once she knew of what's going on

   "Leonardo saved us!" Cleopatra exclaims

   "You heard her," Nobunaga nods to it

   Jeanne turns to Leonardo, who is currently hanging Jeanne's coat, patched up after that bloody fight with the Mona Lisa painting who came alive. 

   "Of course! I knew my masterpieces better, so it's nature for me to save you from them!"

   "But you spared Arthur. You too could save him, right?" the vampire decides to speak, fixing his glasses

   Leonardo stops. The proud expression slowly melts away. Both Nobunaga and Cleopatra starting to realize that the King of Knights isn't here with them.

   "Lisa is unpredictable. When I try to save him, it became more wild and frantic, like a girl who couldn't give up her precious doll away."

   The others are becoming worry.

   "Hey, isn't this your Performance? Why didn't you try do something about all of this shit?" Nobunaga goes through the point

   "As much as I'm gonna say that this is my Performance, but I believe the Theater had gone too far on meddling with my history."

   A collective of gasp can be heard from the room, from the four greats. Leonardo clutches his fists tight, as he felt guilty from all of this.

   "Right, you died of a disease. There's no way to contain the killing weapon if it's a disease," Dracula say again

   Having enough of the sudden argument, Jeanne stands up, "Let's talk about this later. Right now, we need to get the others out from the gallery."

   "If I go back there, surely I'll become worse than those," Leonardo warns, the look in his golden eyes is guilt and sadness

   "Then it would be fine! We survived Dracula and Cleopatra's Performances and we don't know of what's next, we can do this...!" Jeanne exclaims, proceeds to grab Leonardo by the shoulders

   "Wow, she really do was that positive, huh. Reminds me of that King," Nobunaga comments, shaking his head

   Cleopatra lets out an airy giggle. "But that was a perfect idea. I'm agree with you, Jeanne."

   "I didn't believe in the powers of the Theater on the first place too, so, consider I'm in too," Dracula agrees too, standing up

   The rest looks at Nobunaga. 

   He straightens his standing position, scarlet-red eyes seemed to be burning, "I want to beat Mitsuhide's ass by myself, not by some creepy creatures out there."

   As expected of him, as always. Now that they had the same goal in mind, it's up to Leonardo as the main lead of this Performance. Seeing such determination from the four greats before him, he gotta give in and embrace the nightmare within.

   "Alright then! Let's hurry before they got eaten too!"

   The five needs to catch up with the time, as the other four who were stranded by the gaze of Mona Lisa, as fighting for their lives. As Arthur told, the painting do came alive with the lady actually crawls out from the painting, beautiful yet grotesque, emitting an aura that even Rossweisse is backing away from.

   "How can she still surviving all of our abilities?" Mitsuhide complaints, grasping for breath

   "Even after we made her losing lots of blood, she's still alive..." Arthur too, is tired from facing that monster

   "I can't read her mind and status. Look at that amount of concealment magic."

   Rossweisse suddenly moves forward, tightly gripping her red flower. She may have something in mind.

   "I shall go," she says, this time she was serious

   "Are you sure about that?" Sherlock ask to the petite valkyrie

   She nods, "It's a perfect chance for me. Sherlock, please bring Arthur to a save place. He's hurted badly."

   The detective agrees, "I understand. Come, my King."

   Arthur on the other hand, still stands up and refuses on her ask, "But I still can fight, Sherlock. I'm not gonna fall back now."

   She eyes on him, that bewitching emerald colors are telling something. 

   "I'm a valkyrie that only has one job, and it's to see if the person I'm taking the life from deserves to depart to Valhalla or no. I don't want to take yours," Rossweisse speaks, before turning back to the monster

    The King of Knights smiles, "I appreciate of you worrying for me. I shall fall back for now."

   As Sherlock and Arthur moves back, Mona Lisa starts attacking Mitsuhide and Rossweisse. The magenta-eyed warlord sent slashes and stabs to her, as the valkyrie launches sharp petal bullets.

   "I see. It latches onto him for not being eaten yet," Rossweisse says to herself

   "As expected of him, huh? Well then, I gotta my extra best!" Mitsuhide charges to Lisa again and manages to hurt her again with his katana

   With him who is making the monster busy, Rossweisse is preparing herself to let out her climax move. Her red flower shines brighter, also her mark and eyes. The strange yet familiar wind is wrapping around her, lifting off the ground.

   "As the Ragnarök's orchestra resounds, the gates of Valhalla are wide open. I, one of the wings of the great Odin, shall be your guide. Judgement would decide, from your accumulated sins..." Rossweisse chants

   Her flower transforms into a shiny lance, making the monster stun on her way. Mitsuhide moves away, in awe of her. She flies to Lisa, in a light speed. The lance suddenly stabs onto Lisa's chest, making her throw out blood. The lady looked at the valkyrie, eye to eye, as she wails in a horrid noise.

   "Your judgment, is to be burned by the very same fire that took Valhalla into ashes. Now, may you burn just like that twilight...

Feuer der Todesdämmerung!

   The lance suddenly sparks of a bright red fire. Lisa suddenly wails again in pain, as the fire becomes bigger and bigger. Rossweisse then pulls out the lance, dissolves into sparkles and moves too from the burning lady.

   Mitsuhide uses the sleeve of his coat to wipe the blood off his blade, as he says, "You're the same as Nobunaga basically then, burning people alive."

   "But him and I have a different purpose. Valhalla is a place of Odin welcomes his greatest heroes after their deaths among the nine realms of Yggdrasil, and I'm simply becoming their guide to there," Rossweisse explains, dusting off sparks from her black goth-loli dress

   That becomes a mental note for the magenta-eyed man to study about her history more later. But, Mona Lisa still crawling her way towards the two, causing them to jump back. If that's the fire that took the lives of Odin and other gods from the Norse myths, why should a creature that came alive wasn't dead yet?

   Quickly, Rossweisse takes Mitsuhide's hand and starts to run away from Lisa. Since fighting it is impossible, so they have to figure out another way to fight her. While running, Mitsuhide is thinking about what he said earlier to Rossweisse, because somehow he had an idea about it.

   "You say that the fire of Valhalla can take down everything, right?" Mitsuhide ask

   the white-haired girl nods. "It is, if I said so."

   "What about try burning down the place?"

   "That would be impossible. We don't know of how far the extents the Theater can do with our powers," Rossweisse said, making Mitsuhide sulks on his already failed idea

   she continues, "...But we can try."

   Turning left, they saw Billy, Marie, and Queen of Hearts are hiding. They looked up and immediately their faces became happy, seeing familiar people on this hellish place.

   "Where have you all been?" Mitsuhide ask to the three

   "Some creepy painting of Jesus is trying to make us kill each other!" Billy tells, as the samurai general can see that he's afraid

   "What the..." Mitsuhide comments

   "What about you two? Have you seen others?" Queen of Hearts immediately pulls both Mitsuhide and Rossweisse to their level of crouching

   "We got separated from Arthur and Sherlock, when we fought Mona Lisa. We didn't see Cleopatra and him too."

   Marie and Billy's eyes became wide. "Mona Lisa?!"

   The samurai general closes their mouths with his hands. "Yes. And she's chasing us now."

   "Even my Feuer der Todesdämmerung didn't work on her," the quiet valkyrie mutters, but loud enough to be heard

   The three swallows their saliva. This place is becoming scarier, and the windows reflects the orange colors of the setting sun. Meanwhile, Sherlock finally sees a safe hallway and sets down Arthur. The spell needs gradual apply to perfectly heal the wound, so now this is the perfect time.

   "Wounded like this, makes me remember of the good old days," Arthur starts to speak, as Sherlock is pressing his glowing hand to his abdomen

   "Do tell me, how was Britain during your times?" Sherlock requests

   The King nods. "As you can see, Britain may reaches it glory by the middle ages, if my knights knew how to keep things to their own."

   "Do you forgave your past? If you're about to ask mine, I would probably say yes. I died in the end together with my archenemy, Moriarty," the detective also retells, while looking left and right to see something

   That question again, as Arthur thought.

   Instead, he answers, "I may forgave Mordred before, but maybe this time I won't."

   Sherlock is curious upon the blue-eyed King's answer. But, he decides to not ask about it further. After some time, the wound on Arthur's abdomen heals and regain his lost mana energy that is needed for later. But, suddenly the magenta-eyed detective felt something is wrong. 

   "Please stay here. Something's coming our way," Sherlock says, as he stands up and pulling the thin blade out of his cane

   The pale-blonde man also stands, gripping the holy sword. "Well then, same goes for me too."

   Arthur was really stubborn, not letting others try protect him... But that's what Sherlock likes. The hallway lights starts blinking, cold wind passing through them. If it's becoming dark, then Sherlock had to do his move to the enemy. The lit hallway becoming dim, as the two British men can see an outline of a man with two pairs of arms and feet.

   The very same creature that attacks Nobunaga and Cleopatra before.

   "The Vitruvian Man..." Sherlock recognizes

   "Do you know this one too?" Arthur asks, turning his head to the other

   "It's Da Vinci's drawing on the concept of the ideal human body. But, I guess this place turns it horribly," the man in ocean-blue and white explains, still looking at the monster from afar

   "It hurted. Someone must've fought it before. Besides, the concealment magic is not that strong. I should take from here," Sherlock speaks

   Arthur nods. "I'll support you."

   As the two men begin to attacking the Virtuvian Man, Leonardo and the other four are back in the gallery, on a different part that they never seen before. Throughout their way using secret paths, the pink-haired polymath grew more and more worry, of coming back here.

   "I can tell that you're feeling bad about this," Cleopatra says

   Leonardo turns back, making them stop walking, "I really do! If ever Lisa found me, all of you would be doomed!"

   But, when he sees the faces of his fellow greats, they were afraid, disgusted, and shocked. The next thing he sense, is the weight of someone slumped over his back. The charred figure of a lady with long hair and black dress, her hideous eyes are looking to the four in front of Leonardo.

   "How dare that your new friends... do this to me..." the lady speaks with a hoarse tone

   And, all of a sudden, everything across the art gallery goes dark. To the paintings that resides here, the nightmare has only just started.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Chapter Text

   "Oh my," Arthur says, as he looks ahead of him, an empty void of black.

   There's nothing that shone inside the gallery, except the faint light of the moon from the outside. The detective immediately looks around him, asking to the King.

   "My King, are you alright?"

   "I'm more than fine, thank you. But that was quite a move from the Theater," Arthur moves around, still looking to the void ahead

   Sherlock looks to him again, and discovers that he was glowing, like a lamp. The bright blue color of his eyes, and the yellow glow of Excalibur. He doesn't know that the sudden changes might annoys him off, but Arthur's expression remain calm.

   Sherlock agrees, "It is. I lose sight of the Man. What should we do?" 

   "In the dark, the enemy moves better. Perhaps, you understand it already," Arthur says, eyeing the other with that glowing blue eyes

   Arthur is right. The detective faces onto the void ahead, the blade reflects the light of the faint moonlight. There's only one thing that he can do, and that is pulling out the ace card out of his pocket. Sherlock smiles, understanding what the King meant, as he grips the blade tight.

   "Of course, there's only one definite answer that would solve this case. Even if I would walk on a thin line, but do know that I can solve any of the riddles upon me. I found it! That's it!" Sherlock says, his magenta hues are glowing too

   Making use of his ability to read the enemy, he sees the four legged and armed man on the other side, clear from any concealment magic. Grinning, Sherlock starts walking closer to it.

   "You can't run from me. Wherever you are, I'll have my eyes upon you—" Sherlock warns, before throwing his blade to the creature

Eyes of the Final Answer.

   The blade thrown in a high speed, got stabbed on its neck. Sherlock leaps to the monster, using his enhanced eyes to make him blind, before using the blade to behead the creature. Like its name, his eyes are becoming the weapon of his climax move. Arthur who sees it, proudly smiles on the amazing and stealth kill.

   "Sherlock, can you sense other movements throughout this hallway? Because I sure do," Arthur says, looking around through this mostly dark surrounding

   "We can't destroy this place just like Dracula's castle then, since we can't broke the windows to go outside," Sherlock walks back to him, blade in hand

   "I hope the others are fine in this darkness..." the pale-blonde man mutters in worry, hoping the others to be alright

   A spark of red fire, is the one who broke the darkness. It was Rossweisse, lighting up her red flower who presumed to be the same fire of Valhalla itself. Mitsuhide, Billy, Marie and Queen of Hearts, huddling up to the small source of light.

   "We can't stay here. We gotta move away from the eye distance," Billy suggests

   "But where? All around here is darkness, you silly," Mitsuhide replies, and Billy just sighed

   "I guess we have to try that then, burning this place down..." the white-haired petite girl also suggesting, while looking at Mitsuhide

   "A great idea, but we don't know of what these creatures would do," Marie agrees

   Queen of Hearts also nodding her head, before turning to Mitsuhide, "Quite risky, after all. General boy, can you contact others through your mind?"

   Mitsuhide then closes his eyes, focusing on the faint yet familiar voices in his head. He caught Sherlock with Arthur, planning to move from the hallway they are now, with the King seemed to be better than earlier. But, he can't reach on the other five, like it was blocked by a wall.

   "I can't reach them. Something must've happened while we're here," Mitsuhide answers, before looking to the void behind him

   "I'll go face that painting then," the outlaw's voice immediately breaks in

   All eyes suddenly turns around to the orange-haired boy, in question.

   "I got my perfect sightings, and besides I never missed," Billy proudly explains, trying to hide the cracked fear on his voice

  "It's too risky. The enemy knows the landscape better than us. Arthur mentioned about it can changes layout of the building..." Mitsuhide immediately cuts in, trying to make Billy reconsidering

  Suddenly, Mitsuhide thought of something, "...But it's worth the try."

  "That means you all agree on this... I shall go with him." Rossweisse nods

  "The influence of the painting is too dense, that we're barely survived... Can you two actually do it?" Marie worriedly ask

  In a way, the white-haired war maiden's eyes glows, as she says. "That would be not a big problem for me."

   Billy and Rossweisse then stands, walking away. The fire spark still floats on the air, giving light to the remaining greats that is huddling. Maybe they are ones who lead people once, but for now they need to look beyond the darkness for the answer. As the two walks to the display hallway where the Last Supper was, Rossweisse plucks off a petal from her red flower and puts it on Billy's palm.

   "Keep this safe. It would give you protection," hushed, she says

   Billy immediately puts the frail petal on his coat pocket. "Cool, thanks."

   Moments later, they started hearing whispers. Billy starts turning around in alert, yet Rossweisse calmly watches the painting on the front of them. After that, her shiny lance appears on her hand, the glows that are like a wildfire. The outlaw also spread his palms, and summons his trusty magnum pistols, its orange sparkles shines on the darkness.

   "Rossweisse. They're staring at us," Billy alertly aims his guns to the painting ahead

   "If you have faith, they won't reach you," shortly the valkyrie replies

   Billy surely know what he meant about, so they have to get ready for whatever the Last Supper would do to the two greats. Meanwhile, in another side, the remaining greats who were caught by Lisa, were unconscious— except for Jeanne. But, she's wounded, as she tries to stand up again.

   "Oh... still... standing..." the corrupted lady, mutters

   Jeanne grips onto her lance for support, this strange mana surges is making her weak. She cannot forge to do her climax move to grant an escape chance, with all of this concentrated dark mana energy. But, she cannot give up for now, even if she has to force herself to bring this entity down. 

   "I am my Lord's saint maiden. Not once I shall waver to the darkness. Come and fight me...!" Jeanne speaks, pulling out her rapier, its glow reflected the dim moonlight by the glass roof

   "Hahaha, I can't believe I fell first before you!" Nobunaga laughs, as he also tries to stand up

   The daimyō gains his strength to stand up, and pick up his still shining katana. "You should thank me for my accompany!"

   Jeanne smiles. Cleopatra and Dracula rising up, weapon in hand. The lady grins wickedly, supposedly that these greats won't die yet. The tall vampire immediately takes the first action, throwing his cane to Lisa, and he blasts off from the shadows that follows on his back. Lisa's hands then gripped onto Dracula who is coming towards her, hissing. His eyes are a swirl of golden yellow and red and orange, as he comes face to face.

   He said, with an accompany of a growl. "Let's be fair, I'm also a creature that came from the darkness. Fight me instead!"

   "No...!" Lisa hisses, trying to fight back

   "Now!" Dracula shouts, as suddenly Cleopatra and Nobunaga jumps from behind him, fiery weapons on their hands

   "Sekhmet, engulf this creature of darkness with your fire!" Cleopatra chants, as she sends a claw of fire to the lady

   Nobunaga shouts, swinging his burning katana, "Taste this hellfire, you bitch!"

   Two swings of smouldering fire hits Lisa, makes her wails in pain. And using the cane he threw earlier, it becomes of an impact to send her far to the walls of the gallery. Jeanne then felt the concentrated dark mana energy had decreased, so she uses this chance to light up the entire place. She stabs her lance to the floor, as she aims her rapier down to front.

   "O' my dear Lord, may you show us light among the darkness, show the way that we are supposed to walk onto. I shall be their lead, bringing this flag of victory to me and my comrades—"

   The huge inscripted flag, unfurls beneath the blinding light. Jeanne took light steps, making her way to Lisa who is smashed onto the wall. As she steps, puddle-like light reflected, resonating to the walls. Swinging her rapier, her sky-blue eyes glows along with her lit-up white aura.

   "I shall erase all darkness upon this land—!"

Divine Light of the Saint Maiden!

   Mona Lisa can't evade the attack, as Jeanne's rapier hits her heart. The others has to close their eyes from the sudden of contact of light. The light suddenly reaches all side of the gallery, alerting the other greats. Sherlock and Arthur immediately sees the pouring light and decides to follows it, while Mitsuhide, Marie and Queen of Hearts can finally see their surroundings. 

   While for Rossweisse and Billy, they can see the looming twelve shadows directed from the painting. Afraid but sure, they can finally know of where to attack. So that is Rossweisse' meaning of having faith. Suddenly Billy's entire self was engulfed in an orange light, just like that time he first ever feel magic in his hands.

   "Use it. I'll cover you," Rossweisse shortly says, before she twirls her spear to attack the shadows

   Billy nods, as he moves back to prepare. The shadows are moving so fast, yet so slow at the same time. That means his ability are in full swing. Aiming his two magnum pistols, he gathers the overflowing mana energy inside him.

   "One, the lightning strikes—" Billy speaks, as a bullet fires

   The bullet moves like a lightning, hitting and bouncing around the hallway walls.

   he continues, "—Two, the thunder echoes."

   It starts to gain more speed, as Billy sends one more bullet, who lets out of a thunder roar. The orange-haired boy grins, as the two bullets continues to bounce and hits the shadows that is coming to him.

   "Can you evade this one too!" the boy asks, as his pistols aimed to this approaching shadow

Thunderbolt Bullet Fever!

   The shadow got hit with the ball of light Billy shot, disappears into thin air. Rossweisse, using her spear, burns the painting. She grits, as the biggest shadow of all tries to held back her burning weapon.

   "No one stands the fire that burned Valhalla, just like that giant's flaming sword." Rossweisse chants, as the fire on her spear grew bigger

   The canvas of the painting starts rotting, as the fire consumes the delicate art piece. Rossweisse' expression remain the same almost expression-less one, as if she's gone through the same process for a few times already.

   "Stop!!" someone suddenly shouts

   Billy lands to the floor and immediately looks back, seeing Leonardo who is grasping for breath. Rossweisse looks back too, but she's continuing to spread the wildfire on her spear on the painting. Leonardo starts coughing, clutching his torn outfit. The outlaw makes his way, grabbing Leonardo to sit him down.

   "Rossweisse, please!" Billy shouts to the petite valkyrie

   No answer from her. Billy frantically tries to find out what is happening to the polymath, he looked like he's suffocated under heavy smokes of flame. That means the painting are connected to his life inside this Performance.

   "I-It hurts..." the polymath mutters, before coughing again badly

   "C-Can you move, Leonardo? I gotta find someone here!" the Kid asks him

   He barely can shake his head. "I can't believe this entity... can do such thing..."

   "I believe that's how you die then. Burn all of the paintings here," Rossweisse says, as she sees the painting starts to crumble

   The polymath then lets out a tiny chuckle. "Little miss valkyrie... you do know everything..."

   As Arthur and Sherlock runs to find the light source from Jeanne, suddenly something grabs onto Sherlock's feet, dragging him down. The King stops, only to see the Vitruvian Man is alive, although its head is slightly off from its neck. Sherlock hangs on by stabbing his blade to the marble floor. Arthur immediately takes his run back to Sherlock, lightning accompanies his steps. He swings his sword in great force, making the creature grunts in pain.

   But, it doesn't let Sherlock's feet go, so it's a tug-o'-war between their forces. The detective starts gritting his teeth, as he can feel something might broken inside. Arthur on the other side, gotta evade the Man's other three hands while attacking.

   "Let go of Sherlock!" The King of Knights exclaims

   Sherlock tries to kick the hand that is wrapped his feet, but the force of the hand is too strong that he might got two broken legs on the same time. Arthur using his ability to speed up his movements, trying to confuse it. But, it seems that the creature grew adapted to their abilities, so using one of its hands it manages to get Excalibur grabbed.

   Clicking his tongue, Arthur tries to pull back his sword from the strong grip. "Not bad, you've known our skills already."

   Among the dim light of the moonlight by the windows, a strange wind blows cherry blossom petals throughout the hallway. The creature actually stops struggling, dazed by the sudden vision. The two british greats looks at the familiar black-and-blue silhouette on the other side of the hallway, it's Mitsuhide! The glow of the dim moon reflects on his shiny katana, as he takes his stand.

   "The cherry blossom rain, dyed by the red glow of the rising sun by the east. This flames that burned my heart too many times, I shall present it to you. Behold, a showcase of one's determination beneath this scorched lands."

   Mitsuhide leaps forward, with suddenly the wind grew harder and the flurry of cherry blossoms following him. As he says, the room suddenly sparks fire on his steps. The samurai general maintains a calm face, as he leaps closer. He's actually moving quicker, with the flurry hides his presence. The flurry suddenly burns, as Mitsuhide came from behind it, his black-and-blue appearances are a complete contrast to the burning red.

   "Rise, the dawn of red blood and flames, together with the flurry of Akechi's cherry blossoms—"

Cherry Blossom Blizzard of the Scarlet Dawn!

   In three slashes, Mitsuhide manages to cut off all four hands and feet, the whole body and the slightly off head of the Vitruvian Man, also the stunned Sherlock and Arthur to be reunited with their weapons. But Sherlock immediately fell to the floor, grunting in pain.

   "Thank you for saving us, Mitsuhide," Arthur thanked the general

   "Thank god you're here, this bloody monster almost snap my feet into two!" Sherlock immediately exclaims, trying to shift positions so that he can sit

   "Rossweisse is right, we should burn the entire place down," Mitsuhide says, sheathing his katana

   "While we're inside it?" Arthur ask for reassure

   "Da Vinci died of a disease, remember? This gallery is like his body, and we're supposed to be the virus that attacks him and made him weak. That's why the paintings came to alive to repel us out," Sherlock immediately says, as the other two helps with healing his feet

   "I see. There were three main paintings that we supposed to burn, as I can remember," The King says, his eyes looks to the night sky ahead the window, thinking the night is still long

   "Rossweisse and Billy had taken care of the Last Supper. And we three with the Vitruvian Man. Then I supposed that was Jeanne and the others who were dealing with Mona Lisa," Mitsuhide explains

   Sherlock nods. "After this, we shall go to where she is. My ability read that she is the strongest one in this gallery..."

   Suddenly, Jeanne is thrown across the walls, with a visible huge scar on her chest, and red blood smears her pure-white outfit. The saint maiden coughs up blood, breathing becoming hollow on the sudden pain.

   "That doesn't enough for you, huh?!" Nobunaga immediately takes his run, attacking Mona Lisa

   Dracula looks away, trying to held back his animalistic instinct on the sudden smell of blood from Jeanne. Leaving that to Cleopatra that they have to find a way to end this Performance quickly. If Mona Lisa indeed their goal to get Leonardo's "killing weapon", so she gotta find the fleeing genius. Lisa appeared that she doesn't intended to kill Leonardo, that means she gotta convince Leonardo to let them kill the lady of the painting.

   "I'll be right back!" Cleopatra shouts, immediately makes a run to the other hallways, trying to find Leonardo

   Dracula, immediately pulls Jeanne back to safety, trying to ignore the delicious dark-red substance he's been craving for. Jeanne just gulps her saliva, as she tries to press the wound on her chest.

   "You have to get away from me," Jeanne then says to the vampire

   She's right. Another minute holding in, another minute of wanting to let loose. 

   "Jeanne d'Arc, you do really had done your research upon myself," a satisfied grin came to his face, his sharp fangs peeking beneath, as he stands up

   Dracula continues, straightening his red leather gloves, "Besides, I am too wondering of how the blood of a maiden like you would taste. But, I guess you would be no longer saint if I do such thing."

   Jeanne just turns away, trying to imagining what he said. A blush immediately creeps to her face, an indecent thought! The white-haired monster just chuckles, seeing her rather cute reaction.

   "You unholy creature!" Jeanne bickers

   "I am. I get that already," he nods, turning away from her

   Cleopatra evades the creeping fire easily with her agile steps, trying to find Leonardo. He must be not far from here, judging from the reducing concealment magic and dark mana energy. Jeanne's Divine Light of the Saint Maiden is really helping, now that it's not utter darkness throughout this gallery.

   She needs to hurry, or else Mona Lisa might've hurt Nobunaga or Dracula too. While running, she opens her spell book and her mark is shining turquoise.

   "O' the great Bast, may you grant us your protection from the approaching darkness. I, Cleopatra, offers you my body for you to be taken, to transform into the divine form of yours!" Cleopatra chants, as a similar color glow wraps around her

   The ruler turns into a big puma, her fur glows by the fire and the dim moonlight, as she rushes through the hallways to find Leonardo and perhaps the others. Meanwhile, Marie and Queen of Hearts are walking, passing through the way where Mitsuhide suddenly run into.

   "What a feisty boy he is, immediately runs and leave us here," the red-and-black queen complaints, scythe by her hand

   "T-That's how Mitsu-san is, haha..." Marie comments

   "Well, you sure are bold enough to make nicknames to all of us," Queen of Hearts says, eyeing Marie

   "Throughout my times I didn't have a chance to do that to my siblings and cousins, so I glad I can do it now!"

   The sweets-loving lady turns out not an eyesore, as Queen of Hearts thought.

   "Marie! Queen of Hearts!" a familiar voice calls out to them

   The two queens turns, and sees Billy and Leonardo who is hanging by his shoulders.

   "Hey! You should stop this! This Performance is such a waste of my time."

   "I heard Sher-kun and Jeanne got hurt... Please, can you stop it?"

   Leonardo hear the pleads of the two, and he barely lifts his head as he says, "Let me speak with her..."

   The building starts to shake, and Leonardo then clutches harder to Billy's shoulder, his breath heavy. The gunfighter did his best to support his weight, continuing to stand.

   "You can't stop her. I supposed... this was my own fault..." he mutters, the pools of his golden irises glows with sadness

   Suddenly, the walls nearby crashed, as a shadow of an almost glittered puma emerges from it. Marie immediately runs behind Queen of Hearts, afraid of the sudden appearance of this creature.

   "Cleo!" Billy exclaims in happiness

   "Hurry, I have to bring Leonardo back to Lisa. If we spare another moment, we all could die to her rage!" The Egyptian ruler explains, as Billy drags closer to her

   "That won't be a big problem for me," the hushed valkyrie immediately appears, causes Marie to squeak in surprise

   In a click, Rossweisse immediately focuses her ability on teleportation. The zap of black immediately changes into the damaged walls and spurts of blood on the marble floors. A collect of gasps, as the first sight they saw is wounded Nobunaga, with a rather big hole on his abdomen.

   "I've never been this thrilled before! Hahaha, c'mon! I still can fight!" illuminated by the fire, the daimyō's scarlet eyes stares to the also wounded lady

   "H-He's been fighting alone?!" Marie exclaims

   "I got some helping hands. Even Mitsuhide too," Nobunaga scoffs, wiping the blood that pours from his nose

   Mitsuhide appears from a badly destroyed hallway, now blood decorates his black-and-blue appearances. He also lets out an airy laugh.

   "Couldn't be fair if you died first to this hell of a place."

   Not far from the samurai warlord is Arthur. He's still fairly fine, only scratches on his armour and arms.

   "Come, let's end it since we're all here," swishing his rather fluffy pale-blonde hair, the King picks up his Holy Sword

   "Listen, everyone.... Before everyone could do anything to kill my prettiest lady, I have something to say..." Leonardo then musters up his courage to speak

   "At least you can did it from the very first time we began?!" Queen of Hearts fumes, as they are back on the Theater's auditorium

   As Leonardo puts down the bloodied and burned painting of Mona Lisa to the floor, on the center position, the others just stunned of what she just complaint. What the polymath did on the gallery is takes Mona Lisa back inside the painting, peacefully and without bloodshed. The others had fought her like it's almost undefeatable yet he just used the simplest of manner to take home the pretty yet mysterious lady.

   "Trapped in a gallery of Leonardo da Vinci's accumulated thoughts, or nightmares... We should really not underestimate the Theater's powers," Dracula nods, as he looks around on this cryptid empty space

   Billy takes off his cowboy hat, asking, "That voice hasn't come again to us, huh? This is weird."

   It's been three Performances completed, but no one has ever announced that they are going on the right way. The next one could be days away, and it could be anyone. The twelve figures of greats, are growing far more suspicious of what it wanted.

   But, for now, they shall oblige to complete the Performances first, before they can see the conclusion of all of this. As they are coming back to the mansion, hooded people are waiting for them already and immediately took those are badly wounded like Jeanne, Nobunaga and Sherlock.

   Sighing, the pink-haired polymath sits on the sofa, burying his face on his bloodied palms. He guessed that this entity is outsmarted him, and maybe the detective too. He's been really suspicious since he was resurrected, and now he gotta use his brain to think of its future motives.

   "Stressing about the Theater's motives...?" Rossweisse walks closer, a cup of warm tea on her hands

   Leonardo just sheepishly chuckles. "Little miss valkyrie, you do know everything. I wonder how could you know?"

   Lonely emerald eyes looked back at him, the soft lighting and the moonlight illuminates the strange color, as if it's unhumane. The valkyrie opens her mouth, saying one of the most vague things he ever heard throughout his life.

"That would be your turn to think about it."

Chapter Text

   "I don't know that this mansion's garden is a perfect fit for our picnic today," Marie enthusiastically says, as they are preparing for the occasion

   "I got too excited and cooked up a lot, I never had a picnic before..." Jeanne says, still bandaged from the previous Performance

   Arthur then says to Jeanne, putting down clear glasses on the table, "You shouldn't force yourself, you know that you can leave it to us."

   The saint maiden giggles. "I appreciate your help, Arthur."

   In the garden, there's already tables set with picnic mats too. Since they did so much on Leonardo's Performance, the hooded people announced to them that they use the garden for a picnic, to winding off. They also made so many cuisines from the countries they came from. Varies from light salad to petit fours, everything is there.

   "When it comes to party like this, sake is needed!" Nobunaga comes up too, grinning in excitement

   Mitsuhide walks behind him, just sighing. "You really didn't change at all, huh..."

   "I believe all of us do legal enough to drink alcohol, am I... right?" Sherlock asks, looking around, before landing his eyes to the valkyrie who is taking some flowers as decorations, and Billy who is together with her.

   "I'm actually older... this body made me looked like a child..." Rossweisse shortly answers, doesn't even bother to look at the detective

   Billy also says, "Same as her. I'm actually 21 years old when I got killed, so yeah."

   Nobunaga laughs, pointing to the petite maiden and the outlaw. "Ahahaha! Good! Then let's all drink!"

   But Jeanne interferes, "I have to refuse, thank you very much. Alcohol isn't a thing that I like."

   "The drinks are for the nighttime only!" Leonardo pipes in, clearly agree with Jeanne too

   Queen of Hearts replies, "I never seen anyone actually drink alcohol on the morning before you arrive."

   Nobunaga felt that his idea is slowly being rejected, "Oh come on! Hey, Arthur! Wanna drink together with us?"

   "You only. I'm agree with Leonardo," Mitsuhide cuts in, causing Nobunaga to scoff in disagreement

   The King of Knights just lightly chuckles. "As much I want to, but my tolerance is pretty low. I don't want to risk anything dangerous by daylight for now."

   Everyone else just stuns by Arthur's response. Nobunaga sighed in defeat, thinking that morning isn't the perfect timing for a drink. Wait, do that famed King of Knights has a low tolerance on alcohol?! That makes the daimyō impatiently waits for the nighttime. Without knowing, Cleopatra sneaks up behind him and takes the ceramic sake jug.

   "Oi! Cleopatra!" Nobunaga bickers

   The playful ruler just sticks out her tongue, while hugging the jug tight. "Arthur's right. We don't know what you could've do while you're drunk, so it's best to refrain from now."

   "I've lead an attack once while I'm drunk, I can perfectly held it back!" the scarlet-eyed man argues

   Mitsuhide reluctantly pulls Nobunaga back  by the collar of his dress shirt, smiling, "Forgive my Lord over here, but he's actually lying. That attack didn't end up well."

   "Oh? Is that so? Well then, I'll keeping this until tonight~!" Cleopatra happily skips away, as Nobunaga just groans in defeat, looking to Mitsuhide

   "You really hate me, don't you?" Nobunaga ask to his retainer from the past, trying to not sound pissed off as he should be

   "I still might, though. Come, they're done setting up the place, we should take our seats."

   The picnic goes so well, with the greats eating together. Stories were also shared, laughter and excitement throughout them. Once Sherlock is done with his stories of solving cases as the famed detective of the 19th century London, Arthur came up. The others cheered for him to tell his stories.

   "Well, I do have some interesting stories of my own, but have you ever imagined being visited by a man who called itself as the Green Knight on your Christmas feast?" Arthur begins his storytelling

   "Gawain's tale, huh? I thought you're about to tell your own, my King," Sherlock comment

   "Although it's unfortunate that Gawain isn't here with me, I perhaps have to share it by myself. It's also a test for myself by Morgan Le Fay, whether I can lead my court or no. Gawain takes the challenge in my behalf by decapitates him, in return that the Knight should return the blow to Gawain next year."

   "Then what happened to him?" Billy raises his hand, asking

   "He lose that challenge. Morgan tricked him by transforming Bertilak de Hautdesert into the hideous Green Knight. He didn't got the Green Knight's axe, but a green sash instead. In the end, I acknowledged his honesty, that's why that tale is one of the famous on Camelot."

   Marie comments, after taking a petit four, "Pretty much you accepted the challenge but Gawain did it for you?"

   "Yes. Even if I took the challenge, I would did the same thing," Arthur answers

   "Hey, what is Camelot like, though? I'm curious of it from your retells," Leonardo gives his question

   A simple smile came to the King's already handsome face. He then replies, "Well, I have a hunch that we're all gonna see it when the day of my Performance came, but I must say, Camelot is really a beautiful kingdom that my family had built."

   The last words he said, carries the undertone of bitterness and sorrow. That makes Cleopatra wonder of it, since it's been heard that Camelot fell into ruins when he died, just like her before.

   "Don't be so mellow, King of Knights! Just say you missed your home kingdom!" Nobunaga cheered from the back

   "I guess you're right," the pale-blonde man agrees

   As nighttime comes, the picnic cuisine turns into barbecue and alcohol. Jeanne acts as the helper whenever someone is drunk and might doing some embarrassing things. Now, Nobunaga is standing, about to tell his story as one of the three unifier of Japan.

  "Japan during my times isn't the most peaceful. The day I decide that I'm about to lead the clan when my father died, the day I'm becoming the first unifier. Heh, that days sure brings me thrills," the scarlet-eyed man retells, before gulping sake from his special jug, after getting it back from Cleopatra by force

  "I gotta say, I've met the best men, alliance-wise or on the battlefield. They're all like you, somehow bloodthirsty for powers, I get that. But, wars are what shaped a leader the most, and I follow that phrase exactly."

   A drunk Oda Nobunaga turns out to be a lot more polite. A more proper clan leader than just a man who rampaged the stage with his fiery ambitions. Mitsuhide just nods, sipping his cup of sake, of course remembering this odd habit. 

  "Mitsuhide, one of best retainers. Yes, I can see that from when he defend Ashikaga Yoshiaki from an attack on his palace at Hongoku-ji."

   Mitsuhide almost about to spit his sake out, when Nobunaga suddenly praise him. Sherlock looks away, tries not to laugh, Dracula who was just joining the gathering just smiles mischeviously. A very sleepy-drunk Arthur looks up from his makeshift bed made by Marie.

   "You still love hearing my praises, right Mitsuhide?" Nobunaga turns to his retainer

   The general looks away, "N-No!"

   "Ah! A very tsundere Akechi Mitsuhide!" Leonardo blurbs out, also drunk

   "Oh, this is getting quite interesting," Queen of Hearts comments

   "Behold everyone! My retainer's rare expression! Feast yourself on that!" Nobunaga exclaims

   Everyone cheers, and Jeanne just sigh seeing the flock of drunken figure of greats. Mitsuhide on the other hand, just trying to held everything in and try not to assault Nobunaga with his Cherry Blossom Blizzard of the Scarlet Dawn.

   "Oh! I've totally bet with Rossweisse for this! Haha, I win!" Billy suddenly shouts, with the valkyrie beside him just sat in silence, occasionally drinking her share of sake

   "Good for you then," she answers shortly

   Not long after that, everyone is asleep soundly on the garden, completely hungover from the alcohol. Jeanne and the not-so drunk Sherlock tries to drag back the greats to their beds. Some walks on their own, like Billy, Rossweisse, Leonardo, Mitsuhide, Dracula, and Queen of Hearts, but others needs some support.

   "Come on, Arthur. I'll take you back to your bedroom," Jeanne says, as she reaches for Arthur's hand so that he would hang over her shoulders

   "Huh..... Guinevere...? Is it you..." the King mumbled, hazy ice-blue eyes looked at Jeanne

   Jeanne apologizes, as she starts to stand up, "Forgive me, but I'm not Guinevere. Ugh, you're really heavy..."

   "But I'm not that heavy...! That's right! I shall carry you instead. It's not polite to let the woman bring their man like this," Arthur moves quick, immediately scoops Jeanne up into bridal style carry

   "A-A-A-Arthur?!" the saint maiden's face gone red, blurbs out his name

   He notices Jeanne's flushed red face, leaning closer to her, "Your face is red. Are you alright?"

   ' H-How am I alright in this state?!?! ' Jeanne screams inside

   A single pat on the shoulder, is what making Arthur realizes. Cleopatra emerges behind him, clearly trying to hold her laughter back. The King immediately focuses and sees it was Jeanne whom he carried, then he puts her down, also blushed in embarrassement.

   "I-I'm sorry, Jeanne! I thought you were Guinevere who came to bring me back to bed," he apologizes

   Somehow Nobunaga is right about Arthur misses his home a lot, especially his dear wife Guinevere. 

   "Forgive me, but I tend to be so homesick when I'm drunk like this..." Arthur apologizes, as Jeanne leads him back to the mansion, with Cleopatra tailing them

   "Everyone in the end are human, and it's obvious that you might get the feel, I know that."

   Meanwhile, Sherlock deals with Nobunaga who slept soundly, Marie tries to wake him up. Pretty sure the French lady can be escorted easily back to the mansion, but the Oda clan leader slept like a log.

   "Shall we try with magic instead?" Sherlock asks, sighing

   Marie nods, summoning her wand. Colorful sparkles emerges from it as she swings to Nobunaga, making him float. That's all, as Sherlock noted. Now, he hoped that no Performances would be held while they were recovering from the hungover.

   But, the Theater as always, unpredictable.

   I would not forgive what he did to bring the whole of Japan together, his ambitions are too big that caused bloodshed of thousands!

   Heh, to be thinking my loyal retainer turned against me— I'm really a fool.

   Nobunaga immediately jolts awake, suddenly remembering what that line means. He groans in pain, holding his head as the impact of the hungover is pounding. But, that feeling is not strange. The Theater is calling to them to commence their Performance.

   The door to his bedroom is open, revealing the last person he thought, which is Mitsuhide. He must've heard the same lines on his head. He closes the door, and nods his head that he had the same thing happening.

   "That means we're coming back to the Sengoku period, right?" Nobunaga ask to the silence, in hoping for the odd echo on their heads to resonate back

「 You know it, my Lord. A special offer that the two of you would commence the Performance together, since you two shared the same history, right? 」

   "Interesting. But, how could you alter the fate that has been written?" Mitsuhide asks

  「 that is why, you should never underestimate the powers of the Theater. Come my Lords, they are waiting for you. 」

   Nobunaga grins in excitement, the feel of a nostalgic battlefield is ahead of them, yet Mitsuhide worries about how the bitter moment of his proven loyalty to him was broken would be repeated, and this time his new comrades would see it for real.

   The Theater is indeed cruel, as he thought.

Chapter Text

   Honnō-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan

   It's counting hours before dawn. The ten greats awakes and found themselves on strange lands once again. Sherlock immediately confused why they are here already, which this particular place was the "climax" of both Nobunaga and Mitsuhide's history. Yes, the Honnō-ji Incident, where Mitsuhide leads an attack to the defenseless Nobunaga.

   "What if... Mitsuhide didn't betray Nobunaga and didn't attack the temple?" Sherlock asks to himself, but loud enough to be heard by the others

   "That would be ridiculous," Billy commented

   "Sherlock is right. If indeed the history goes the right way, we won't arrive on this particular date and place," Leonardo explains, finally using his knowledge into help

   "Then, should we come to the temple? They probably had expected us already," Jeanne asks

   "Definitely they had ambushed us the moment we stepped outside this woods. Too risky for a sudden approach," Arthur shakes his head, as he points to soldiers doing perimeter patrols surrounding the temple.

   Unaware of them, Mitsuhide is already aiming his tanegashima gun to them, doesn't mind with the enveloping darkness of the woods. Preferably, he rather charges at them head-on, but it would be fun if he uses an element of surprise. Loading a bullet, he aims for a head there. Perhaps, someone like Sherlock would do.

   "Show them, the fire of wrath that burns like the blood-red sun..."

Fire Dragon of Honnō-ji.

   The gun blows, as the bullet sparks with a mana-infused flame, ziplines to the woods below. Cleopatra heard the explosion from afar, and Arthur sees the bullet is heading to Sherlock's head. Immediately, Cleopatra leaps to put Sherlock down to the ground.

   "Everyone on the ground!" Arthur orders, and the others ducks immediately, as he runs forward

   The lightning sparks wraps his fingertips once again, when Arthur swings Excalibur to stop the flaming bullet. The bullet explodes midair, causing the ground to shook. The King of Knights moves back, his eyes are a glowing sky-blue due to the sudden mana enhancement.

   "They knew we're here," he speaks, this time seriously

   Mitsuhide just whistles, when he sees the moment his bullet come contact with Arthur's magical weapon. As expected of the very King of Knights himself, as he thought. He threw the tanegashima gun up, and quickly a shimmer of powder blue changes it into his trusty katana. He then leaps from the balcony, to the pathway of the temple, where a group of samurai are waiting for him. He lands perfectly, gracefully like a stork.

   "We have a guest," is what Mitsuhide says, before the group spreads away and starts ordering to the soldiers

   History-wise, Nobunaga was defenseless during his visit to this temple, and when the temple was burned down, he commited seppuku. But not this time, as he himself who guarded his Lord, can employs the entire army in a single swing to protect the entire capital. But, after learning his way to understand his new comrades slash enemies, he knew that a delicate strategy is needed.

   Besides, his specialty is map out strategies. That way he can use his powers to the fullest to assault the considered strongest, like Arthur or Queen of Hearts. But for now, a welcome would do. The gates of the temple are opened, as the group of samurai are leading the ten greats inside the perimeter. All of them are not from Japan, so this new scenery makes them awe. The summer breeze wasn't so bad even dawn is still hiding.

   "Welcome to Honnō-ji temple. I had expected you all to be here," Mitsuhide greets, bowing down

   "And almost shot Sherlock before that?" Cleopatra cuts in, suspicious

   The general chuckles. "I want to see that if you all aware that we're already inside another Performance. What a great reaction you have there, Arthur."

   This time, the King maintains a straight expression. "I'm aware of that, I thank your compliment."

   Sherlock on the back just curls his fists tight, seeing Arthur who is on his serious mode. Mitsuhide, with a smile still present, gestures them to come in.

   "Come, Nobunaga-sama is waiting for you all," he says, soft and alluring tone invites them

   What's with the sudden honorifics? The Theater must've be the ones behind this. The greats walked inside, but Mitsuhide immediately stops them by the front door.

   "If you're about to attack him, while he's inside... I'll have your head first," Mitsuhide warns, the other responded with nodding their heads nervously

   This would be very hard to clear this Performance, when there's two main leads at once. They continue to walk inside, to a huge single hall, with golden statues and smell of incense on the air. Sitting down by the face of the largest one is a familiar man, recognized from that black-and-red coat.

   "That was fast enough for you to come back," Nobunaga says, without turning his head

   "Yes, our guests are willing to follow without aiming their weapons at us," Mitsuhide reports to his lord, his soft yet rough tone lulls everyone who hear it

   "You lie again. I heard you were using your tanegashima gun outside," the Oda clan leader's voice gone gruff, still not turning around

   "Forgive me."

   "Now that we met you, what are we going to do?" Dracula immediately cuts in, getting into point

   And that answer becomes the cue for the daimyō to stand up. He turns around, scarlet eyes glows by the candles that lit the temple's main hall.

   "Getting serious, eh? I like your spirits. Wouldn't be fun if you attack me just like the history said, so I offer you a deal," Nobunaga explains

   "Do tell us," Sherlock agrees

   Nobunaga smirks, as he challenges, "If any of you can take me down on a match, I'll surrender. In other words, that incident would repeat."

   That was too easy?!

   Everyone shocks by the challenge. A match sounds not so much work, but then suspicions came to their minds of what if Nobunaga's strength and mana power are enhanced inside his Performance, just like Dracula and Leonardo before?

   Nobunaga suddenly takes his stand, his katana materialize in red sparkles. Jeanne immediately moves forward as he leaps to his comrades slash enemies, holding the slash with her lance. The impact sends the two crashes the doors, to the gardens by the entrance.

   "I don't say that the match starts now, but I guess you have good instincts," Nobunaga praises

   "I accustomed to what war has in its sleeves, just like you," Jeanne says, before holding her lance and attacks him back

   Mitsuhide, on the other hand, also taking his katana, and aims it to the remaining. "The match goes for me too. If you win, I'll betray him."

   Immediately, Marie twirls her wand, and an invisible wall accumulated from her mana energy emerges, protecting them in a single dome. Mitsuhide lets out a hmph sound, thinking that they're already prepared for anything.

   "Well then. I'll be here to keep you all busy as Nobunaga-sama is fighting with Jeanne," Mitsuhide says, as suddenly the flames that lit the temple are out

   "That would be my cue," Dracula says

   "A-Are you sure about that?" Marie asks for reassure

   "It seems that we're inside of an alternate reality..." Rossweisse tells

   "What? Inside this shrine?" Billy exclaims

   Suddenly, something sharp are flying to him, when Sherlock immediately pulls him by the collar of his coat. There's nothing by this darkness, but they can feel that they weren't alone.

   "Aww, I've done my best to have Tamamo-no-Mae here in this reality inside here, yet you still manages to evade that," Mitsuhide's voice resonates

   "Tamamo-no-Mae...?" Arthur ask in confusion

   "An evil spirit of the Japanese folklore. She can shape-shift and deadly," Leonardo explains

   "Caught you off guard!" a wicked voice of a woman, suddenly appears inside the bubble, an arm with sharp claws swings to Arthur

   The King uses the armour on his left arm to protect himself, yet causing to bounce off the other side of the main hall. The fox spirit chases him, as the bubble breaks. His arm armour was scratched badly, so he quickly unsheathe Excalibur and leaps to the charging spirit, yellow lightning accompanies his steps.

   "Tamamo-no-Mae's claws can shred human flash easily, as you can know," the resonance of Mitsuhide's voice echoes, as Arthur fought the spirit with such speed

   "Ugh... This match is a lot trickier than we thought," Cleopatra sighed

   Nobunaga manages to give a hurtful attack to Jeanne, sending her to the main gates. Her instincts came in by slowing her fall with her lance. As expected, Nobunaga had gone stronger in this. She can't fight him all alone, and the army are moving to the shrine complex, waiting for the order.

   Suddenly, two magical red bullets flew fast towards Nobunaga, with him suddenly swings his katana to burns the flying bullet. Emerging from a black hole, are Sherlock and Rossweisse. Jeanne's face gone bright, as she fixes her cap and holds her lance tight.

   "There's no time to waste! Attack them!" Nobunaga orders, and suddenly many people runs for the three greats that is attacking him

   The petite valkyrie's red flower immediately suddenly glows on the dead of night, as she chants. "As the Ragnarök's orchestra resounds, the gates of Valhalla are wide open. I, one of the wings of the great Odin, shall be your guide. Judgement would decide, from your accumulated sins..."

   The flower burns into her shiny lance, and quickly she twirls it to gather the fire inside it, continues to chant, "Your judgment, is to be burned by the very same fire that took Valhalla into ashes. Now, may you burn just like that twilight..."

Feuer der Todesdämmerung!

   She stabs her lance to the ground, causing a wave of fire to hits the huge garden, burning the charging enemies. Nobunaga's smirk grew wider, finally knowing of Rossweisse' actual abilities. 

   "Go eliminate his army. I'll keep him busy," Rossweisse told Jeanne and Sherlock

   "We're counting on you," Sherlock wishes, pulling out the thin blade from his cane

   Jeanne also nods, "May the Lord give you strength. Let's go, Sherlock!"

   With the two goes attacking the soldiers, it's up to Rossweisse as his enemy. Her face is still cool and almost expression-less, the black colors of her outfit becomes a striking contrast beneath the raging fire.

   "Wouldn't thought that you could play with fire too. Turns out I didn't know anything about you, but let's see about that!" Nobunaga exclaims, leaps forward

   With no other words, the two's fiery weapons hits, creating another wave of flames. Back on the alternate reality inside the temple, Now they rest are separated, on complete darkness. Marie hides behind Billy's back, since she cannot see movements in the dark unlike the orange-haired outlaw.

   "I hate illusion tricks like this, honestly!" Marie whisper-shouts to Billy

   "But you worked with one too?" he ask back

   Marie swallows her own saliva, saying, "But this is way harder than I expected..."

   "Just stay on my back, okay? We can do this!" Billy encourages her, aiming his guns to ahead of him

   Meanwhile, on another side Arthur hits the ground after getting hit by Tamamo-no-Mae's raw power. She barely unarmed, but the force she had is deadly. Her claws must've hit his front part, and he almost coughed up blood from it. He cannot overlimit himself with the powers he had, so after wiping the blood smear by the corner of his lips, staining the pure-white of his long gloves, he maintains the tight grip of Excalibur's handle.

   He wishes, ' Merlin, please guide me. '

   "Oh? The little blondie Sir Knight is still can do it?" the woman ask, her shining golden eyes with slit pupils staring at him from head to toe

   "Then I would be not one who held my family name if I surrender now," Arthur speaks, taking his stand

   "Guess you'll be mine if you surrender. I like pretty men like you—!" the woman jumps up, and was about to pounce on him

   The King's sword glows bright yellow, as he about to slice her head off. He swings, and that impact slices off both her hands and head, causing it to fell to the ground but still squirming alive. He rather fought real people than evil spirits like this. Arthur looks at the dissolving body of the nine-tailed fox spirit, still suspicious of whether Mitsuhide is still playing around.

   "Aww, Sir Knight, you really have strong will on that swing..." someone familiar came from behind, as suddenly Tamamo-no-Mae appears from the dark, strangling Arthur from behind

   "You bloody woman!" he suddenly curses, try prying off her strong hands

   "Ahaha, you're really good-looking~ Unlike that guy I've served now, you're so much better. But, it's his orders to take your life, so I shall comply," she speaks, tightening her grip on his neck

   Arthur starts chokes on his own breath, as the fox spirit continues to strangle him. Suddenly, he can feel the tingling sensation of lightning inside him, the ice-blue color of his eyes slowly zaps into the same bright sky-blue. The spirit just stays still while on high alert. Slowly, the King of Knights once again grips on her clasped hands by his throat, now charges with mana-infused electricity.

   "You do sting, huh? Not bad!" Tamamo-no-Mae praises, before suddenly Arthur rips off her hands from his throat, throwing her in a brute force and high speed

   The fox spirit hits the ground, losing both of her arms on the process. She laughs crisply, sounded so wicked and vicious. Arthur threw the arm he ripped off to the floor, dissolves into black mist. He's way pissed off, his mask of the perfect knight-king shatters into pieces.

   "It's been a while since I last had this. You remind me of Morgan," he sneers

   "A beloved from your past? How sweet~" Tamamo-no-Mae cooes, as her arms appears again, sharp claws glints by the faint light from outside

   He didn't spend another second on try sparing this spirit, attacking her relentlessly. On another side, Leonardo and Cleopatra are surrounded by a group of oni, the largest reaches more than two meters, with a huge sword it carries.

   "Shuten Dōji, the remarkable leader of the oni, once rampaged the old capital before killed by Minamoto no Raikō. I hope you know how to kill him," Mitsuhide's voice echoes again

   "I must say. If these are evil spirits, then you must did a great job on it. Let's see if you can evade this?!" Cleopatra's spell book shines, as the demon starts to roars in intimidation

   Emerging from the spell book is a staff with a golden head of a hound, the other end is a sharp blade. Cleopatra's turquoise glints with a red flash, as she immediately jumps to Shuten's head and makes severe cuts by his neck. He rages, swinging his big sword to Cleopatra, and she kicks him by the chin, in such brute force. She lands to the floor in a light step, maintains a calm face, while Shuten stumbles back, growling in pain.

   "What amazing force you had, I am impressed," Mitsuhide praises her, still doesn't where his body was

   ' I adjoined Seth's power that was stored in this staff with the mana source in my body. And I guess it wouldn't be enough to bring this demon down, ' Cleopatra thinks, before her face shrinks into shock as the severe wound got healed

   "Attack!!" Shuten Dōji growls, as the other oni rampages their way to the two

   "Lady! Leave the group to me, you can focus on the leader!" Leonardo shouts, as he opens his summoning circle of weapons and attacking the oni army

   Cleopatra nods, as she takes her position, the sharp blade still glows even when it's already draw blood from the demon leader. Leonardo perhaps had gather his courage to taking actions, that amused the pharaoh.

   "O' Seth the god of chaos and violence, grant me your courage and power to defeat the evil ahead of me," Cleopatra chants

   She jumps and attacked Shuten Dōji again and again, feeling the rush of adrenaline and burst of mana energy inside her. Meanwhile, Rossweisse finally stops on her way, her breath is ragged and heavy. Nobunaga won't drop dead, his endurance is too much for her. But, the valkyrie thought that maybe it's time for her to give out her all.

   "Huh, finally that tires you? But that wasn't enough for me," Nobunaga says in amusement

   The petite girl picks her fiery lance again, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Perhaps, if he doesn't allow himself to burn, she has to switch her tactics. She dismissed her lance, into million of sparkles, and the magical fire also disappears, leaving trails of heavy burn and charred bodies. Surprisingly, the temple is still intact, so that must because of the Theater's intention.

   "So, this was all its doing..." Rossweisse mutters

   "Giving up already?" Nobunaga asks

   Immediately, Nobunaga felt something wraps around him, and sees a frozen set of chain. On the other end is of course the valkyrie, as she immediately plants her feet strongly and swings the chain to smash Nobunaga to the ground. That happens too fast for him, so he hits the ground in high speed. When he sees again, Rossweisse disappears, but a dozen of frozen giants are circling him.

   "W-What is this cold? That brat...!" Nobunaga curses, as he tries to evade the giants' attacks and tries to kill them off

   The valkyrie, watches from the roof of the temple, finally corners Nobunaga from the frost-biting temperature. It might be the choice she doesn't want to do, but she pulls out her ability to summon the giants from Jötunheimr, a realm among the Yggdrasil. As valkyries, they were expected to can battle in most extremes of enviroment, and can up to three abilities be gained.

   ' That should give me some time to pull everyone back, ' Rossweisse thought, before disappearing

   As of Dracula and Queen of Hearts, they were face to face with Mitsuhide, or so what he wanted them to think. Weapons in hand, they felt something might've gone wrong.

   ' If he indeed using dark powers, that means the Theater had gone too far already. Wouldn't be him if manages to summon two most-known evil spirits here, ' Dracula thinks, as he grips on his wooden cane tight

   ' You do know their things here. Have been here before? ' Queen of Hearts ask

   The vampire answers, ' Exactly not been here before, but I happened to know. '

   Suddenly, he swings his arm and caught Mitsuhide's blade using his cane. Queen of Hearts' vermillion eyes gone wide, totally not expecting that. Her scythe then swings on Mitsuhide, trying to behead him. But, the general moves quicker, hops onto her scythe and kicks her. The Queen hits the ground, separating her with the scythe.

   "Don't you think it's making you frustated? You hate Oda Nobunaga's ambitions and all of this bloodshed he did for that goal, yet you still be loyal to him," Dracula tells, but Mitsuhide didn't listen, as he continues to attack the tall vampire

   "Shut your mouth!" Mitsuhide exclaims, swinging again and again to attack

   Again and again, the vampire evades with his wooden cane, "We can end your suffer easily... If you're willing to follow us!"

   "I don't need more of your trash words, you monster!" the general shouts, before suddenly a blade is thrown to his head

   Mitsuhide then kicks Dracula by the sides, and evades the flying blade. It then stabbed on the nearest tree, and quickly the two sees Sherlock by the other end, his magenta eyes glows by the threads of dawn. Jeanne also there, helping Queen of Hearts getting up, quickly dust off the dirt from her dress.

   "That was fast enough to notice that throw," Sherlock greets

   "Got used to that thanks to train—" Mitsuhide says, before suddenly seeing the detective now eye-to-eye with him

   A single chop to the nape, suddenly causes him to pass out. Sherlock caught Mitsuhide's limping body, and of course the others were too shocked.

   "We need to retreat. Rossweisse is now getting the others. We're going out of Kyoto."

   "But, it would be risky, every single of his army and enemies should be inquired already about this chaos," Jeanne explains

   "That's why, we need Mitsuhide for this plan," Sherlock says, as he nudges on Dracula to carry him

   "Why him? Could we just kill him already?" Queen of Hearts ask

   "I'll explain later. We don't have much time."

   Suddenly, the barrier of the alternate reality blurs away, disappearing. Arthur, out of breath, leaning to his sword, as Tamamo-no-Mae looks at him with content. The darkness bleaks with orange-red rays, meaning dawn had come.

   "You really are persistent, huh. But, I guess time's up. See you later, Sir Knight!" she waves her hand, before dissolving into black mist

   It's been a while since the last time he gone too far, so he lets the force shutdown takes him, as he fell to the floor, outfit bloodied by the mix of his and the spirit's blood. Shuten Dōji and his army, immediately runs away to the remaining darkness. Cleopatra barely wounded but it seems Leonardo is too tired to take care of an entire army by his own.

   "We did it...!" Leonardo excitedly says

   "We need to escape. We can't let Nobunaga got us—!" before the pharaoh finish, they were sucked into a black hole

   Rossweisse sighed, as she takes Billy and Marie's hands. "That should be it. Come on, we should escape."

   "B-But what about Arthur? Would you get him too?" Billy asks frantically

   Without doubt, the valkyrie answered. "He'll be the perfect eye for our plan."

   The three plunges to her teleportation hole, leaving the King alone on the temple, still perfectly intact but perhaps the floor had been stained with his blood.

   The first thing Arthur see when he suddenly jolts awake, is him in a rather spacious bedroom. He can felt that he was stripped off his armor and outfit, only with a bandage over his chest and arms. A thick blanket over a futon, the smell of freshly brewed tea... someone saved him, during the pass out. 

   "Oh, that was quite fast for you to awake," someone familiar talks beside him

   Darting his head, he sees Nobunaga who is sitting beside his futon, maintaining a serious face. This could not be it! Still, it's quite suspicious of why the daimyō saved an enemy like him.

   "Why you saved me? I am sure that I was prepared to die by your hands," Arthur speaks, highly suspicious

   "Drop the suspicious act already, I saved you genuinely. Mitsuhide must've sent his summoned yokai to attack you as his part of the match, that damned brat couldn't learn his lesson."

   Arthur was shocked. "Y-Yes, it is."

   "Not that I'm about to behead you while you're sleeping, it's not a very honor way of us samurai," the daimyō explains, the light of the morning sun does illuminates this room and him perfectly

   Enough with the chit-chat, so the King ask, "Where are we now?"

   That cues him to stand up, while the pale-blonde man just seeing him with a serious expression.

   "Welcome to Azuchi Castle, King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot. You should be honored enough to be here," Nobunaga announces

   The castle above the mountain, standing with proud. One of the most prominent buildings that marks his history as the one of the powerful warlords of the Sengoku period Japan. Arthur grips the edges of his thick blanket tight, now having to stay together with one of the main lead of this Performance.

   But, he know his presence here must be needed for a plan conducted by his comrades. The dawn rises, illuminating the Oda clan leader, and the King of Knights must gain that will once again to see him fall, just like the sun that never came up on that fateful day. . .

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Chapter Text

   "Mitsuhide-sama is missing from Kyoto, my Lord. What are your orders?" his retainers surrounds Nobunaga, as he finally realizes that his loyal magenta-eyed retainer was disappeared

   "Conduct a search party for him. I'm in a hurry since Takeda's being a pain in the ass again with a sudden movement," Nobunaga immediately orders, arms folded

   "Understand, my Lord," his retainers bow and left quickly

   Azuchi Castle is lively as always, since the wars and conflict doesn't finished yet. The Oda clan leader walks to the room where the confined King of Knights were. It's been two days yet he doesn't want to get out or almost not touching his food.

   "What are you doing?" Nobunaga greets, closing the slide door

   Shortly, Arthur answers while averting away, "Thinking."

   "If you're thinking about how to take me down, that would be impossible since you're basically on a lion's den," the daimyō sits down, almost scowling from Arthur's somewhat stubbornness.

   "About the Theater. I can't believe how this place can perform such high level of magecraft. Don't you think it's already suspicious enough?" Arthur ask, his ice-blue irises gazed sharply

   "I think that it was beneficial enough for me. I can finally turn the tables if Mitsuhide hasn't betrayed me by continuing my campaign. You sure wanted the same thing right?"

   The possibility if Mordred spared his life...

   Arthur sighed, "You should go. I understand enough of your goals right here."

   "You should join me instead. These assholes are magecraft users too, and I would like see them frightened if they saw you with your freaking abilities."

   Clenched fists on his lap, Arthur scolds, "That's not how you take upon a battle, Nobunaga. I would refuse if that's your purpose of having me in your party."

   Nobunaga laughed as the reaction, tapping the King's back several times. "You're as stubborn as ever, huh? Well then, feel free to leave if you're ready to go."

   But, as soon as his laugh receds, he once again puts on a serious mask. He then reaches for his coat, pulling something. It was a dagger, its handle and sheath were made of the finest of woods, decorated with gold flowers. Nobunaga puts it on the tatami mat in front of Arthur, and the latter just looks in confusion.

   Nobunaga offers again, "I hope you know enough of we samurai would commit seppuku or suicide of honor as our choice of death. I want you to have it."

   Does he talking of his real death? No, he gotta keep that dagger to himself! He could take that knife and kills him off immediately using his enhanced agility, but he doesn't know of what the Theater can do fo flip it over. So, he didn't take the dagger.

   Arthur answers, "No. I rather have you keep that knife to yourself."

   Nobunaga curses internally, of how stubborn Arthur is. He takes the dagger back and keeps it inside his coat. Probably it would take more than a while to convincing him as his alliance. The daimyō leaves the room in an unpleasant mood, since one of his enemies had made a movement, trying to not add Arthur's stubbornness into that long list too.

   When the pale-blonde man thinks that he's earshot away, he turns to the vast window that he had been staring at for a while now.

   "How long are you going to be here? You heard him, there are magecrafts user on this castle that can detect your presence," Arthur talks

   A falcon lands on the wooden railing of the balcony, its feathers colored glittery and gradiate from dark blue to turquoise. He knew that it was Cleopatra, due to the prominent features.

   "Aww, I just missed you here. It would be ruined if I tell your plan now, but Sherlock wants you to keep an eye on him," Cleopatra says through his mind

   Arthur furrows his brows, "That's it? What about you and the others?"

   The falcon just stares intently, as the pharaoh's voice resonates in his mind, "That is up to Sherlock to come up with an idea. Well then, I'll visit you later for the update."

   "Be safe. I'll do what I can while I'm here," Arthur nods to the glittery falcon

   The falcon flies away. Now it's up to him to keep an eye on Nobunaga. A quick walk to a panel that separated the bedroom, where his fixed and clean knight outfit were there, along with the sheathed Holy Sword on a wooden display. Perhaps, he can make use of his abilities to observe the enemy's movement, as he starts to change, by stripping off the white kimono-shaped robe he was given.

   Mitsuhide wakes up to him being tied into a chair with a series of golden chains, in a hallway with gold colors and crystal chandeliers. He's trapped inside an alternate reality, a familiar one as he thought. Coming up to him is the detective in blue-and-white, smoking through his wooden pipe.

   Mitsuhide greets, "Good job on actually bringing me inside here."

   "That was the last resort on try convincing you. Is the Theater behind all of your evil spirit summoning?" Sherlock ask, moving the pipe away from his mouth

   "Of course it was! We're inside of a Performance, wouldn't that be obvious?"

   "But we don't know that you would do such thing," Marie pipes in, still afraid thinking about earlier

   That was my last resort too...

   Mitsuhide tries to squirm beneath the tight chain lock while asking, "Sherlock, if you meant to interrogate me, why don't you put me off these?"

   "Even if you're inside an alternate reality, I highly doubt that you'll attack on us," Sherlock answers again

   "But that won't be a big problem! I can just petrify him!" Marie again pipes in, with Mitsuhide just scowls after

   Yes, the Versailles' Hall of Mirrors. With Marie's mana energy stored inside here, she can do what she wanted here, that includes petrification and illusion tricks. Moreover, Mitsuhide recognizes the chains that must've been from Cleopatra— the Chains of Geb.

   "Let's get to the point, shall we? Where do Nobunaga keep his dagger that supposed to take his life on the incident?" Sherlock fold his arms, pipe in hand

   "You sure want to rush everything, huh?" Mitsuhide mutters, face turn grim

   "Could it be like Dracula before? Hides it within himself?" Billy ask

   Sherlock stood silent, thinking. "That could be a possibility. One question is, that whether it could be so hard to retrieve it. Rossweisse said that his endurance is hard to penetrate, not to mention his army that can use magecraft..."

   "A treasured weapon, huh?" Leonardo also thinks

   Mitsuhide just grins, "You all would need more than just a plan. Infiltration and assault, that's what you needed."

   "The infiltration part had been taken care of, thank you for reminding," Sherlock points

   The disguised pharaoh as a falcon, suddenly flies inside the Hall of Mirrors from one its opened windows, carrying a scroll on its feet. She drops the scroll to the detective before lands to the floor and transform back to human. Sherlock reads the scroll and nods, perhaps it's a report.

   "Well done, Cleopatra. You may rest," he nod to the pharaoh, as she finally reaches to a chair and sits down

   "Azuchi is fortified with magic barriers, that's new. That means he can't get out without his permission?" Sherlock ask to her, still reading the report

   The cat-eared lady sighed, "I barely can't get out of there, how would he do?"

   Mitsuhide gets the gist of this person they referred, since he didn't see the familiar tall knight-king here. So that must be Sherlock's infiltration part.

   Jeanne then claps, gaining attention of others, "Alright then, interrogation time is over. Put him back to sleep, please."

   Suddenly, the magenta-eyed general felt sleepy, he wants to hear more but he guessed that plan is still classified, so he lets the spell drifts him off to sleep.

   "That plan is indeed dangerous... Do you think Arthur can handle it?" Jeanne worries

   The detective answers it with confidence, "I believe in his will and powers. Come on everyone, we still have so much to do."

   Arthur makes his way to gate entrance of the castle, guarded by people. If this plan needs his ability to persuade Nobunaga to go to Honnō-ji temple again, that would be very hard.

   ...since he's aware of that incident who happened beforehand.

   Looking up, it seems a dome of magical barrier. The bright early summer sun, makes its translucent bubble-like barrier to glow. He wants to try of how much it can take before fully destroyed, so that he can calculate of how much mana energy would he need. But, it's too hard since too many guards and servants around.

   Arthur then thinks, ' Looking from it, a single Storm of Camelot wouldn't do. The stronger the caster of this barrier, the harder to penetrate... '

   A lady with colorful kimono, strides closer to him. Her brownish red hair and yellow eyes are a striking difference, as he nods on the lady. She stops by his side, her soft hands folded on her front.

   She greets, with a sweet and soft tone, "Long time no see, Sir Knight."

   That voice!

   Arthur turns quickly, his eyes widen. "You again!"

   "Aww, I guess my first meeting impacted your thoughts badly. Don't worry, my master ordered me to not assault you," the fox lady nods to him, her somehow wicked smile still disgusts the King

   "Mitsuhide, huh? Did he got caught by my comrades?"

   Tamamo-no-Mae nods, "Yes. Since they're running out of options to try breaking this barrier, my master contacted me to relay the messages to you."

   Arthur lets go of his tight grip of his sheathed sword, finally relaxing. "I'll trust you for this once."

   He then ask again, "I'm surprised that you passed the barrier without anyone notices. How do you that?"

   She just shrugs, "A good ability of mine from the past. By the way, can you see that posts over there?"

   The spirit points at wooden posts, each circled with a rope tied with white papers.

   "That's the origin of this barrier. By dawn, I want you to destroy it. I said it exactly like that detective said earlier."

   Arthur then thinks again, ' Sherlock is so smart on figuring this out. With I destroys the barrier, the others would've attack on Azuchi, leaving Nobunaga had no place to return. If Rossweisse can use her teleportation abilities, she can bring him and us back to Honnō-ji. There, whoever got to fight with him, must get that dagger. '

   Tamamo-no-Mae then says again, "I afraid the Oda daimyō had changed much within this reality. He treated you—a foreigner—much better than people whose regions he conquered."

   He turns around, "What? Is that true?"

   The spirit nods, "Yes. You know his true history, a rather ruthless unifier with the desire to be the one ruler under the heavens. I felt pity that my master serves such person."

   "I thought that you yourself also an evil spirit. You might also agree to his plans."

   She smiled, "I know that I'm an evil being, but I tried my best to symphatize with whoever gained contract with me."

   That sounds vague for someone like Tamamo-no-Mae, as he thought.

   "Anyways, we don't have much time. Thank you for relying the messages," Arthur thanked the spirit

  Tamamo-no-Mae just bows down before looking at him with that wicked smile, "My pleasure, Sir Knight."

  And before he realizes, she disappears into thin air. That was rather an odd experience to him, actually talking to the evil yokai that attacked him almost to death before. With now he has a proper goal, he goes around the keep, trying to spot weak spots and perhaps test some of the soldiers' magic powers.

  But, what Tamamo-no-Mae said is constantly bugging him. Did Nobunaga tries to change that horrible image of him by treating him, a legit foreigner King, so much better? In the end, he would fight him anyway, so he got to focus. But, there's so much happened behind him, as Nobunaga was already away from Azuchi, leading his army.

   "Is it alright, my Lord, to blow up Azuchi Castle?" one of his guards braven to ask him

   The clan leader just grins, "I want to welcome him, I said. Don't be so fidgety about it."

   The guard just turns forward, "But that man..."

   "I said focus! That's none of your business!" Nobunaga immediately barks

   "Y-Yes! Forgive me!" the guard exclaims

   On horseback, Nobunaga felt everything is gone according to plan. Unfurling the hand that has the mark of his powers, is a tiny spark of fire. As Arthur walks by the castle grounds, he starts seeing cracks of red on the ground. He immediately knows of what's Nobunaga intention on leaving him alone here.

   "You can't be kidding me!" Arthur makes a run to the barrier posts, pulling out his sword on the way

   Nobunaga smirks, as he can feel the cracks of his climax move is commencing on the mountain where Azuchi Castle were. With the strange mana power surges from the magical weapon, he starts destroying the barrier posts. It was stronger than he thought, as the rope acts as a seal to keep the posts intact.

   "Trapping me here! Not bad! Haaaahhh!!!" He shouts, as finally with a swing of force, the first post fell

   That's three more. He needs more help on taking the barrier down, so that he and the residents of this castle wouldn't burn alive here. The barrier starts blinking, showing signs that it's weakened.

   Clicking his tongue, he shouts to the panicking people. "Everyone! Please escape the castle grounds! It's about to fall down!"

   "Arthur! There you are!" A familiar voice is calling him

   "Too-bright King of Knights!"

   Cleopatra and Queen of Hearts is running towards him. The King immediately says, "Destroy the barrier posts. We don't have much time!"

   The two nods, as they separates to destroy the remaining three. The army that marched with Nobunaga grew worry, hearing horrible voices on the path behind them, with the mountain below the castle starts to fall apart, the sounds of people screaming from the distance, and so much more.

   "I hope you can enjoy it, Arthur. So, celebrate and suffer..."

   With two more posts taken down, there's only one more. Cleopatra decided that this castle shouldn't fall just yet, there's still many people running away from the castle that may fell upon them. Quickly, she opens her spell book, and the ground shook again.

   "O' Geb the one who controls the earth, and Nut who controls the skies, this lands shall not fallen yet!" Cleopatra chants, as suddenly earth pillars bursts out from the cracking ground and supports the castle from falling to on top of running people.

   Queen of Hearts and Arthur uses their powers together to bring down the last post, and honestly they were just confused on what purposes Nobunaga tries to kill down Arthur if Queen of Hearts and Cleopatra hasn't interrupted. With their blades swung and cuts off the thick wooden post, it fell to the ground.

   "You go first, Queen of Hearts! I'm going to get Cleopatra!" Arthur then runs

   ' That too-bright King of Knights, chivalric as always... ' the queen thought, a thin smile on her face, before she proceed to run away

   The cracks gone deeper, as the solid ground starts to crumble inside the crack, causing the earth pillars starts to wobble. Cleopatra stabs her heels to the ground, trying to supporting the falling castle. Suddenly, she felt someone scoops her up. She turns and it was Arthur who were getting her. Regaining her focus, Cleopatra curls her fists to hold the pillars for the last time.

   Billy, who is watching Nobunaga's marching army from the distance with a binocular, seeing the tensed conversation between him and his soldier. Then, he heard explosion from Azuchi, as Nobunaga announces the name of his climax move.

   ' So that mean, Nobunaga figured out our plan? Arthur's there, but he's strong enough to flee. Should I start then? ' Billy thought, as a rifle materialize to his hands

   Sherlock told Billy's part of the plan, is to weaken the marching army. He sets up several familiars on other trees, hoping to at least kill a several dozen. Then, it would be up to Rossweisse to dealing with Nobunaga by teleporting him back to Honnō-ji. Within the reality inside the Theater, everything from weather to time can be controlled by magic.

   The detective had asked Dracula in advance whether he can turn the day into night using his ability. That ability is possible, as he said, but that would drain out most of his mana energy so that plan would proceed if Billy manages to kill. Accompanying Billy are Marie and Leonardo, who would slip in between lines and takes down without knowing.

   "Lady Marie, so you can work with illusions?" Leonardo asked her, moments before they start their operation

   "Indeed I can, but I resort myself from using it. Since it's needed for this plan, so it can't be helped."

   He asked again, pulling out a thin sword from his portal, "So, kill or knock them down?"

   "That would be up to whether they fight back or no," lilac irises looked at him, shines with determination

   It's the first time Leonardo ever see Marie serious like that. No wonder, though. She's also a leader on her past life, so maybe it was needed now. The pink-haired queen pulls out her wand, begin to focusing her energy to the wand. Her plan is to make them as an illusion, barely visible to the naked eye.

   The two begins their operation, from the very back row. Meanwhile, Billy with his muffled rifle already shot down a few. Moreover, the army are under Dracula's effect of not even trying to budge if someone's drop dead. It's only a matter of time before Nobunaga realizes that he lost half of his army mysteriously.

   The three moves quickly, killing the soldiers that are hypnotized, and when someone drops they would just walks pass the body. The sun moves rather quickly, also a part of Dracula's effect. Billy just sweats a lot of the possibility of Nobunaga notices this all setting, their plan would be ruined.

   But, Nobunaga doesn't seem bothering on turning back. That's good. Now, upon the big opening of the main road, Sherlock and Rossweisse are there— ready to drop him inside the hole to Honnō-ji. Billy moves among trees too, watching his movements.

   It should be by now, as he thought.

   Suddenly, the scarlet-eyed clan leader stops his horse. The outlaw immediately hides, shrinking his rifle to his trusty magnum. Nobunaga hops off, pulling out his katana, and walks ahead. Does he had the guts to face whatever this plan has to bring him down?

   "Using illusion tricks to bring down my men, huh? Not bad for you all. The sun moves fast, shadows are faster to cast. Doesn't this part of your plan, detective? 'Cuz a certain someone tells me everything about this," Nobunaga speaks, clearly amused

   Sherlock who hides behind the trees, immediately shocks. ' No, it can't be! That damned spirit! '

   Rossweisse' voice echoes by his head, ' That's why we can't trust an evil spirit like her. We didn't have no other choice to strike head-on. '

   ' We better let everyone else know. That Mitsuhide turns out didn't cooperate with us, ' Sherlock then pulls out his thin blade, magenta eyes shining beneath the shades

   The valkyrie also materialize her frozen set of chains and a sword that attached to it, nodding to Sherlock's request. Meanwhile, after the three greats on Azuchi rescuing people, Arthur grits his teeth, upon hearing the news from the echoes of their heads.

   "I should've finished that damn woman from the very start...!" he grunts, curling his fists

   Queen of Hearts pulls his arm, trying to not make him move recklessly, "Calm yourself, King of Knights. It's also our mistake to not noticing that so soon."

   "We should split up. Whatever is going to happen between the two, they're gonna need back-up. I'll go to Nobunaga. I think it's time to pull up something I had," Cleopatra quickly explains

   "Very well. We'll go to the general boy were," the vermillion-eyed queen nods, while pulling Arthur to follow her

   "Be safe, Cleopatra," Arthur quickly says

   The pharaoh nods, "You too."

   With that, the three of them splits up into two directions. Picking up her pace, Cleopatra sees a surge of fire and ice not far inside that forest path. Pulling out her spell book, she felt mana energy is piling up inside her, enveloping her with this familiar feeling. The sun continues to shine, even though it's colored orange to almost red already. Before the sun sets, she shall show no mercy.

   On the way, passing through bamboo forests, Queen of Hearts immediately stops on her tracks, signalling Arthur to stop as well. 

   The queen starts explaining, "The detective told me our next plan. Apparently, the general boy died of being stabbed with a bamboo stave, while he escapes. Take one and sharpen it."

   "But, Mitsuhide would've noticed if either of us wield that," Arthur is wasn't sure for Sherlock's plan this time

   "Hey, you have that lightning-speed reflects right? You better use that for real. Now get one right there."

   Arthur, although hesitated, makes his way to cut a tall bamboo stick, using his sword. He wasn't sure will this weapon work for someone who were a magecraft user. But he knows that Sherlock had done so much to think of this plan, he can't fail him right now.

   Dracula's rather amused laugh rings on the almost darkness, "Finally getting serious now, Akechi Mitsuhide?"

   "He's much stronger than I thought..." Jeanne's breathing become rigged, as she holds both her rapier and spear

   Barely wounded, Mitsuhide also amused, saying, "You shouldn't try letting me out of Marie's alternate reality. Or, you shouldn't try confine me there."

   Gloved fingers touches with the black-rimmed glasses, as Dracula starts to think. He hasn't take off his seal after that chase-off in Cleopatra's Performance, and he doesn't know of would Jeanne enough to take care the aftermath of his berserking mode. Sherlock foresees that Queen of Hearts would secure the killing weapon, and whoever she has tailing her would be either an advantage or the opposite.

   The two women rulers gone to get Arthur on Azuchi, so it's him for sure. But, it's a matter of time before they could get here. All he needs to do now, is to hold back until the perfect timing he would release it. Jeanne straightens her standing, this time she had recovered from the impact.

   "Say, how well do you two adjusted in the darkness?" Dracula then proceeds to ask, golden eyes shines by the setting sun

   Jeanne looks at him, somehow gets what he meant. Mitsuhide didn't answer, but tighten his grip on the handle of his katana. The tall vampire still grins in amusement, taking it as a yes for him.

   "Very well then," he concludes, before he disappears, with a sign of him throwing off his glasses

   Jeanne then stabs her spear by the ground, and immediately a magical barrier dome covers the area surrounding them. Her rapier shines white beneath the approaching darkness. Mitsuhide grins, for her to be so exposed and vulnerable to be attacked.

   "Even in darkness, His light shall be your beacon," Jeanne prays, taking an easel

   "Have you learned that too much light is making you vulnerable?!" Mitsuhide leaps forward, ready to take her head with a swing of his katana

   What he doesn't know that Dracula is approaching him from the side, proceeding to punch him. The brute force he has, sending the samurai general to other side. Mitsuhide coughs up blood, also feeling that he might bled by the head. That's bad news, since the more human blood Dracula smelt, the more berserk he would be.

   "Say, does this brings you anything to remember?" the vampire's voice echoes by the space

   Oh yeah, the way Mitsuhide got punched on Dracula's castle. That memory is clear but his head is stinging in pain when remembering it. Before he could stand, a kick by the stomach, sending him again to the ground. Jeanne barely moves after seeing it, because she acts as the fence that is keeping Mitsuhide away from absorbing the Theater's powers, and she must wait for the right time to act.

   "Is it strange? That you weren't feeling that the Theater is aiding you with its power?" Dracula ask, towering over Mitsuhide who is on the ground

   The general chuckles. "What hella sick abilities you have."

   "Yes. I refuse to use more of these, so I better get to the point. Surrender now, and we can kill you off easily," without the glasses, Dracula looks even more alluring

   Grinning, he retorts, "Sorry to ruin your fun but surrender is not my thing. I rather die than doing tha—"

   Mitsuhide got stopped, as suddenly Dracula stepped on top of his chest. "D-Dammit!"

   "I said, you must surrender. It's only time before you died from suffocating."

   "Damn you, monster...!" Mitsuhide chokes

   Suddenly, a pair of gloved hands pulls Dracula back, and the black-rimmed glasses slids back to him, sealing back his berserk mode. It was Arthur! Mitsuhide who sees the whole scene just breathe in relief, while hurting that he might got some ribs broke along the way.

   "Dear god! Jeanne, why didn't you stop him?" Arthur immediately scolds

   "I-I can't move when he starts attacking Mitsuhide... F-Forgive me..." the saint maiden mutters

   The tall vampire lets out a sigh, "I guess I even made the saint maiden quivers. That would be my fault too to use this ability."

   Queen of Hearts just looks by the wounded Mitsuhide from above, "General boy, you looked like beaten up sack."

   "Could've been better..." the magenta-eyed man sighed

   Arthur then faces Mitsuhide, who's being helped by Queen of Hearts to sit down, "Surrender is the best thing you can do now. Perhaps, you can stop Nobunaga from doing all of this."

   There it is. The decision that would change everything that happens. Mitsuhide, drenched in his blood, are now asked to do what he did before.

   The decision that leads to the deaths of betrayal...

   Meanwhile, only Cleopatra who stands facing Nobunaga. Sherlock and Billy were badly wounded from fire lashes, with Rossweisse literally thrown somewhere far and Marie suffers from heavy cuts. Leonardo, barely stands but still tries to bring the daimyō down.

   "Not bad for you to keep up with me. But, I shall not forgive anyone who's on my way," amidst the fire, Nobunaga's scarlet-red eyes glows

   Cleopatra replies, "I knew your ambitions, as a leader myself. But, what you don't know is what comes after if you have all you wanted."

   A gush of wind suddenly blows, spreading the fire wide. Cleopatra jumps up, enveloped in a greenish glow. Finally, the forbidden page has unlocked, the spell of the God who created the universe and the sun, Amun-Ra. She is nervous for once, but she got to chant it so that she can win against him.

   "From nothingness, life was made. O' the primordial star who gave birth to many forms of creatures that walked this lands... This humble servant who needs the help from the skies above... He answered, His silence shall forgive!" Cleopatra shouts, before she moves her outstretched hands to cup the forming light in front of her

   The wind starts to blows faster, with Nobunaga also conjures his mana energy to let out a power surge to go against the possible death blow for him. From the gold light, a golden arrow with intricate details appears.

   "A shot to the hearts that's brimmed with sin... Shall not fret, He would forgive you by this silencing wind..."

Arrow of the Silencing Forgiveness!

   Suddenly, the arrow flies towards Nobunaga. Planting his feet deep, he swings the fiery power surge emitted from his katana to the golden arrow. The two forces clashes, with both leaders are gritting their teeth to win this fight. But suddenly, a stab from Nobunaga's back, stops the power surges, disappearing into thin air.

   Cleopatra suddenly had her eyes wide, seeing that the already wounded Mitsuhide is stabbing Nobunaga using the dagger that were supposed to take his life on the Incident. Instead of fuming in anger, the daimyō just thinly smiles.

   he says, in a rather soft tone, "You got me again."

   Nobunaga suddenly falls to the ground, his breath shallow. Mitsuhide follows too, crouching down while holding onto his chest, the wound must be severe after Dracula stepped on him.

   "Huh, it's been a while since last been into this," Nobunaga mutters, looking at his retainer

   Mitsuhide just scoffs, "I must be an idiot, if I decide to stay loyal to you. This brings me nowhere."

   A low chuckle vibrates from the clan leader, "The fool is on me. I know that I did my way wrong to unify the whole country... to color this land blood-red."

   A sharp object goes through Mitsuhide too suddenly, as he looks down he can see an outline of a bamboo stave. He doesn't even look back to knew who stabs him. The emerald-eyed valkyrie, just stays in silence, not even budging to the scenery ahead of her.

   Hushedly she prays, "You two deserved an honourable death."

   For the two, the last thing they saw was the red-streaked dusk sky, before the gone to the embraces of death. The other greats can finally rest back, seeing this setting sun of the Sengoku era Japan for the last time before going back.

   Back on the mansion, it's also sundown. Mitsuhide, who's done wrapped in bandages and now sitting by the garden terrace, enjoying the sky that is painted pale blue and striking orange. It reminds him of the end of both his and Nobunaga's Performance, that sky at that time looked the same too.

   "This is such a nice scenery," a familiar voice calls to him

   Magenta eyes met the sky-blue ones. Billy tip his fedora at him, as he sits down next to him. He's also wrapped in bandages because of fire lashes.

   "So, how's Sengoku era for you?" Mitsuhide asks

   "Exhilarating! It gets me going when I heard the history of family clans clashes for authority!" excitedly, the outlaw explains

   A thin smile graces the general's good-looking face, "Good, then. That means we entertained all of you."

   "But, I wonder how you and Nobunaga can be friends again after what happened?" Billy asks, turning to his companion

   That question, huh. Naturally he would get along with anyone, but since he's speaking of Nobunaga ever since they were resurrected, that's a bit tricky question. That first time they met on the Theater, the way they were forced to cooperate once again in this rather strange journey of living on the present time.

   "I honestly don't know," Mitsuhide answers, looking up to the sky above

   But, he continues, "I guess that's how our fate is."

Chapter Text

   "So Mitsuhide's shot back then is his finishing move too?" the green-haired detective ask, fitted in a black turtleneck and matching slacks

   "That's what it told us," Nobunaga nods, crossing his arms

   Eyes closed, Mitsuhide answering, "I would not rather use it, though. It brings me those unpleasant memories."

   The twelve greats are gathered by the longue of the mansion, since the mysterious echo just announced of a new unlocked spell for all of them. Well, everyone except Mitsuhide since he used it before to welcome the others.

   "Moreover, we need to train for our next Performance. We didn't who's next and possibly could be anytime from now," Mitsuhide says again, before standing up

   ' That's true then. That we all have visions regarding that new spell... ' Sherlock thinks, as he gazes at the blue-haired general

   A different vision regarding one's true self and what their past is. It could be either defensive or offensive, and judging from the previous Performance, it would get much harder. The detective also concludes that they are separated with the terms of "real" and "fictional", and after observation the "fictional", like him, Queen of Hearts and Dracula, had greater endurance and diverse abilities rather than the "real".

   The "real" are also strong on its way, but there's something that the "fictional" only have. He nearly grasped that answer, but like a loyal guard of a safe, the Theater shuts everything that he wants to know. He bet that everyone else must've thought of the same thing. But suddenly, a tap to the shoulder breaks the chain of thoughts.

   "You shouldn't think too much. It's a great time to take a break," turquoise eyes met his magenta ones, as Cleopatra proceeds to lightly massage his shoulders

   Groaning from the sudden movement, Sherlock sighs, "You're right. But, I can't lower my defense from what about to happen..."

   "We all were..." Rossweisse adds

   The others just stayed in silence, doesn't know what to say about this gripping aura.

   Having enough with the odd silence, the pink-haired polymath immediately "This tension is too much! I'm gonna go get some fresh air!"

   Leonardo stomps out the room, dragging the tall King of Knights with him. Obviously, Arthur didn't ask much of why he dragged him, so he just stayed silent. Mitsuhide, deciding to be the ice-breaker, clapping his hands to gain attention.

   "Well then, rather than we worry that right here, why don't we held practice for the next Performance?"

   The others agrees on the suggestion, so up they go and separates to different ways, either going to magic or physical training. Meanwhile, Leonardo and Arthur arrives on the pathway to the garden. The genius just constantly sigh of the too-many thoughts about what could happen.

   Worriedly, Arthur proceeds to say, "I suppose you really have to take a break, Leonardo." 

   Whipping his head around, he says back, "I can't! As much everyone told me so, but I just can't! Hear me, Sir Arthur. My whole life before, it won't force me out of thinking about something."

    Leonardo continues, his golden irises narrows. "Sir Holmes was the same as me too. He make most of our plans throughout the Performances."

   Arthur felt bad for the two right now. "I think I am a fool to not notice. Forgive me."

   Quickly, Leonardo shakes his head. "Ah, you shouldn't sorry for that! Anyways, the sun is still pretty high, why don't we practice as well?"

   Arthur then ask, "I know that if you have artistic senses, I want you to accompany me on a singing practice."

   Nodding, Leonardo reaches out his hand and say, "If that's the King's wishes, I shall oblige!"

   Breathing in and out, Arthur starts to sing. His melodic voice resonates, as words starts to flow out into lyrics and melodies. The polymath can't move a bit, since he was too absorbed. As if he was lured by siren, his heartstrings was tugged. After what if felt like hours, the King stops.

   "So, what do you think of that?" Arthur opens his eyes, looking to his friend

   Leonardo was stunned. But quickly he regains his focus and gives out a compliment, "Ah... That was amazing!!"

   But quickly he thought, ' Wait a minute. I never sensed this mana energy so strong before. That was only by his singing, how he would do on his Performance? '

   On the other hand, Arthur was worried. His Performance is coming sometime soon, and he doesn't know of how bad the Theater will influence his magic circuits, seeing from the ones before. He afraid that he might badly hurt anyone, almost killing them on the worst case scenario.

   Having a great idea, Leonardo immediately chirps, "Maintaining one's magic flow is important too! Let's go to my atelier, the hooded people had taught to do these before so might as well gonna try it to you."

   "I appreciate your kind request. Let's go then," Arthur nods, and he felt he was dragged again by the pink-haired polymath

   Not far from them, the petite valkyrie is watching over. She also sensed that huge amount of mana energy flows over the King, and it's getting bigger and bigger through the days. She somehow remembered of something nostalgic, maybe someone from her cloudy past?

   "Grey..." she mutters

   Jeanne drops her wooden sword, as she grasp for breath after a spar. What she did on the last one was horrid to her, she barely move when Dracula assaults Mitsuhide brutally. The way her hands would shiver on the thought of it, among the light she emit, the darkness still overwhelmed her. But, she cannot let that become her setback, so she picks up that training blade and continues her practice.

   "Seriously, you forced your way too far."

   The blue-eyed saint maiden turns around, and sees the familiar daimyō by the doorframe of the dojo.

   "I can't stand myself to stay still like that. He is really an unholy monster..." Jeanne mutters, gripping it tight

   Nobunaga didn't bother with her fuming rage for that, so he just shrugs it off. "You told me that you had accustomed to what wars had on their sleeves. People like Dracula exists too, on the battlefield."

   Everyone here had blood pouring on their hands before, through wars and battles, even Jeanne herself. Moreover, what could happen is out of their minds to ever imagine, since the Theater is still a mysterious entity that controls over the story on top of the stage. Perhaps, what come after them could be lethal.

   He sighed again, "Quit being angry like that. If you are engulfed in it, you can't fight properly."

   Since when Nobunaga knew a thing or two about it? Perhaps, the Performance changed him in a way. Pulling into a smile, she now has to clear her mind and set her goal. The daimyō also grins in amusement, as he steps in the dojo, rolling the sleeves of his dress shirt. Then, he takes one of the wooden sword on the display, and takes position on front of her.

   "I'll be your sparring partner. First to drop wins," he challenges

   Ah yes, Nobunaga is always spirited. Jeanne takes the challenge, and the two begins their sparring practice. The day runs by with constant uncertainty, as Sherlock continues his "solving time" by the small library space of the mansion. Right now, he maps each of the powers he had witnessed throughout the first four Performances, and remembers that some of them had tremendous impact coming from it.

   ' I should really look out for any slight changes... ' the detective thinks

   His hand then covers one of his eyes, feeling that his focus of magic were on there, the ability of petrification. He knew Marie should have similar magic too on her alternate reality, so he has to be careful to not use it unless needed. Speaking of eyes, he had seen some others had enhanced sighting, like Billy and Cleopatra— and Arthur as a sign of when the mana energy is overflowing him.

   "There you are, Sherlock! Been looking for you!" a familiar voice calls from his back

   He turns around, and sees the orange-haired outlaw. "Perhaps, you came on the right time. Come sit, I'll make you tea."

   As Sherlock pours tea by the small tea table on the corner, Billy glances upon opened books and scattered notes. Scriptures of magics and many others, he can't remember most of them.

   "Wow, being a detective sure is hard," Billy commented

   That brings the detective to an amused smile, "That's what I do. With this time we have something not certain ahead of us, I have to figure out what it's going to do next."

   ' The Theater, huh... Sure that was suspicious enough. ' Billy thought, as his eyes moves to see Sherlock is putting a warm cup of tea in front of him

   Billy then take a sip, admiring the subtle taste. "Ah, thanks. I'm not really a tea person, but yours is always tasted so nice."

   Sherlock puts down his cup and nods, "I appreciate that. Well then, for one to have enhanced sighting, can you tell me do you experienced anything weird when using it?"

   "Sure, I'll tell you that," the outlaw agrees

   I have realized that I've become a person that rules with an iron fist. I hate myself now! It's all because of me... If I forgave Alice back then, I would be a different person now!

  Queen of Hearts clicks her tongue, for that words to come now when she's having time to enjoy her favorite red berry cake. But, she seemed to know that the invitation had come onto her. That was pretty bold of it to invite her with that words, filled with anger and regret.

   "Pretty sure you were brave enough for speaking to me by make me remembering those words," the vermilion-eyed monarch sneers to the empty space

 「 Forgive my rude actions, your highness. But, yes, your invitation to commence your Performance is here. 」

   "You sure love making your actors suffer, don't you?" Queen of Hearts ask again

   The voice didn't answer. They were cornered by the question. After four Performances, she can see that the "main leads" are always angry and suffering going back to the times they hate the most.

 「 For someone who didn't died by the end, what a great courage you have to ask that question, you phantom. 」

   Now, her anger has flamed off, "Degrading me as a phantom!"

 「 That would be my fault to not tell you about there is some of you who came from a fictional world. At least, you can tell who, right? 」

   Before she could answered, everything had gone black. With new powers comes with new rules, as the curtains raise to a new kind of stage. A place of where nothing but fictional were there...

Chapter Text

   The creepy forestry, with high trees and leaves in many colors of the rainbow hue. That is what the eleven figures of greats seen for the first time. Behind them is a huge tree with scratch marks, colored golden. By the roots of the tree, is a rabbit burrow. The eleven greats thought that they must've been thrown off from inside that burrow, though they had no clear memory when they did come here.

   "Is this Queen of Hearts' Performance then..." Jeanne says, as she looks around this strange enviroment

   "Like people said, the Wonderland has everything possible here. The Theater must've been estatic to get its hand on this reality," Sherlock explains

   Dracula and Rossweisse just looks away when Sherlock said that, as if they knew something about that. There's no signs of life here but definitely they can hear bird chirping and animal sounds nearby. And perhaps humans who live here didn't go through this forest.

   "Anyways, how are we supposed to find her castle?" Billy then ask, his head turns to the fellow greats

   Suddenly, someone who clears throat interrupts them. They all turn around to the very same person they were looking for. That same black hair with red highlights and vermilion eyes, but her hair are much shorter and instead of the usual tight dress she was wearing a red-and-white-and-black sailor uniform, complete with a white lace bow on her hair.

   Queen of Hearts grins, finally greeting them, "I guess you are all smart enough to not go into that forest. Good. No need to ask, I'll explain everything by myself—"

   "—Sorry but why are you much younger?" Leonardo immediately cuts her

   The younger queen just sigh, before explaining, "That's why I'll explain. I'll make it quick since we have not much time. I'm still Queen of Hearts, but somehow the Theater turned me into my younger self. I naturally doesn't have any enemies beside Alice, but it seems the story had altered."

   "That makes you had no enemy when this Alice doesn't exist here?" Arthur inquires, intrigued by her explanation

   "Yes. People would probably wonder of how the story will continue even after she left this land. But, that ties with me doesn't forgiving Alice for winning the trial..." Queen of Hearts retells again, but the usual proud shine on her eyes soon fades

   "The trial?" Mitsuhide joins in, interested by the topic

   "You know the story goes with Alice came to me for a way to go back to her world? I challenged her to a trial. She won that match, and maybe it was my fault that I didn't forgive her."

   Continuing, with a serious expression, "In other words, I killed her."

   The others collectively gasped.

   She continues, "The version you've read are just the attempt to hide the real version that happened here. When that version told that the trial is a game of croquet, what happened here is a real match, blade with blade. Poor Alice, she barely can lift that weapon."

   "Such hideous thing to do..." Marie commented

   Queen of Hearts then says, "That's why, I need you all to take this challenge."

   "For what purposes?" Suspicious, Nobunaga asked her

   The young lady hangs her head down, "The one you would face later, is my future self."

   Back to the collectively gasped reaction.

   Sherlock looks to the young lady, "So, the Theater made us the Alice of this story."

   The young Queen of Hearts nods. "Let us depart to the castle immediately, since today is the Unbirthday Party."

   Suddenly, she clicks her fingers and immediately the scenery zaps into a huge courtyard dominated with red rose bushes, the courtyard itself is more of a field, tiled with beige-colored marble and a huge red heart in the middle.

   She announces, "We're here. Her table is up ahead."

   Suddenly, the young Queen of Hearts stops, her face is shocked. The aforementioned the "future self" of her, looking different. Even though her hairstyle remained the same, her dress is more extravagant and elegant and luxury. On her hand is a golden cane with a red-and-black heart, servants rushes to clean up the berry smudges by the corner of her lips. The eleven greats are alerted and ready to summon their weapons.

   "Still stubborn to come, huh?" the future self ask in a rather rough tone

   Her vermilion eyes scans over the party behind the younger self. She then continues, "What a party you have right there. You picked them up from the river outside, aren't you?"

   Nobunaga felt offended by the question, but before he could stomp off to yell back at her, Mitsuhide pulls him back, saying to stay put. The younger self of Queen of Hearts didn't smile from the hurtful question, but she's confident enough.

   She then offends, "Oh no, they were the best warriors that I could found. Kings and queens and rulers of their lands, leads a great army once, and have so much power and knowledge that you may not have."

   The older Queen of Hearts take one last look and of course the amount of mana energy spewing out of them is tremendous, especially on people like Arthur or Rossweisse or Dracula.

   ' What great energy she emitted. This is gotta be her domain, ' Leonardo thinks

   Looking to her future self, the raven-haired lady thought, ' Speaking from what that damned voice said about the phantoms, she could be much stronger than I thought. '

   Scoffing, the older Queen says, "Well then, I should welcome you all. Today is the Unbirthday Party, it's not nice of me to not welcome such great guests like you all."

   As she said that, servants from earlier are pushing them to the tables that is available. Some of them are pulling on those who wear coats like Mitsuhide, Nobunaga, Leonardo, Jeanne and Arthur. The five of them insists on them keeping them on, so they just scatter away to prepare the tea party.

   ' If she found out that most of my defensive magic came from my coat, it would be a dead end for me... ' Arthur thinks, as he proceed to sit down

   The Unbirthday Party is a tea party where it's held on a date where it's not anyone's birthday, basically a celebration of nothing. Queen of Hearts herself was fond of hosting tea parties, and she could make many throughout the week. The trays of small and large cakes on the table, and the already poured tea on fancy china surely looks scrumptious to be devoured, but they came in high alerts.

   the older Queen looks up from mixing her tea with more sugar cubes, looking at her guests were intense like it was war rather than a tea party. "Why the intense face? Don't worry, I won't poison any of my guests unless I wanted to."

   ' This bitch is making me pissed off, I'm gonna chop her head!! ' Nobunaga tries to hold himself back in, fisting really hard while maintaining his image as the famed daimyō of the Sengoku era Japan

   Mitsuhide's voice then resounds in his head, ' Breathe in, breathe out. Just like we talked before. There will be time for that. '

   The scarlet-eyed man sighs, lowering his guard by leaning back to the chair. He can't believe he listened to his former retainer again. Hesitantly, the others starts going with the flow by taking some small-cut cookies or watching the servants poured them tea. In silent, they slowly carries on to the mood of relaxing, literally the calm before the storm.

  Marie felt that it was way too tensed, so she speaks up to the older Queen of Hearts, "T-The sweets are so delicious! How your pastry chefs made them?"

   She turns to the all-in-pink queen, "Good thing that you have asked! I had watched the people grew their wheat and fruits carefully, and make sure only the best got inside this castle!"

   "I read that your favorite cake is a red berry cake. I wonder of how that would taste?" Following Marie, Billy ask to her

   The older Queen clasps her hand in enthusiasm, "Oh, a very wonderful cake it was. Made by the recipe from my family generations ago, and also our pastry chefs here had been trained to make these perfectly."

   Nobunaga's enraged inner thought echoes, as he forced himself to drink some tea instead of causing unnecessary chaos, ' I swear I'm gonna shut that bitch's mouth. '

   The younger Queen eyes at him from across the table, ' Same as I am, Hell Lord. But please wait until she announces the match. '

   The others started to warm and engage socially to the enemy Queen, while maintaining to be alert on anything that could've happened, including the possible after effects from the tea and sweets they taken. An hour had passed, and finally the older Queen of Hearts stands up, with the servants around immediately dusted cake crumbs and the trails of strawberry jam on her cheeks.

   "My dear guests, on this Unbirthday Party, it would be nice to have a little match to decide whether do you worthy enough to be invited back here. Anyone up for being my challenger?" she looks to the greats who's sitting on the party tables

   A servant hands her the cane, and she twirls it as magical red sparks turns it into a scythe, the same weapon as the current Queen of Hearts. This is it, the moment of truth. They doesn't know of how much she could do on this Performance, moreover the current one is still sealing her mouth regarding this match's terms.

   The chair is creaking, as Arthur stands up.

   "I see myself worthy as your challenger."

   Sherlock immediately thought, ' This was like him taking the Green Knight's challenge. We better save him for the worst! '

   the older Queen of Hearts then grins, as she mocks him, "Oh, you do see me as the knight in green that once challenged you? Does anyone here wanna be his precious Knight of Round to take his stead?"

   Before anyone could ever stand up, Arthur says, "No, I refuse. Only once that would happen, and this time I shall take the challenge."

   ' Shit, if something happened to him, we cannot stay still and watch all of that happened... ' Mitsuhide thinks

   The greats follows the ruler in red-white-black to a vast courtyard, not far from the place the tea party was held. The servants ushers the rest to a specially prepared stands, as Arthur and the older Queen of Hearts positioned themselves on the vast courtyard— or more like a match ring.

   "I sense that you're no ordinary king, let's see on how that feeling were true," she says, ripping the lower parts of her billowy skirt, showing her long legs and the knee-high boots that wraps it

   unsheathing Excalibur, Arthur felt the familiar tingling wraps his fingertips. "May this holy sword show me the promised victory."

   "Come, King of Knights! I'm giving you the headstart!" the older Queen of Hearts shouts, as she suddenly leaps to him in a high speed, and about to swing her scythe to claim his head

   Granted with lightning-like speed, Arthur immediately slides his feet and counter the swing of her scythe with his sword. The Queen leaps back, and this gives the King to leaps towards her and starts attacking her. When it comes to speed, what he needs to watch out of not using it too much and the mana energy that were spewing out.

   CLANG! CLANG!

   Metal clashes with metal; flashes of black, white, red and orange-yellow blurs within each clash; the battle felt so fast and the others were trying to catch up with overlooking the battle.

   "I think the too-bright King of Knights can win this. Speed wasn't my specialty, but my endurance are so hard to be broke."

   "Unless you try to include a gimmick into this, Arthur might lose," Jeanne then says from beside her

   Immediately, she remembered something. The younger Queen of Hearts stands up and wants to intercept the battle, and two servants quickly caught her by the arms.

   the one on her left says, hushedly, "You cannot interrupt the match, my lady."

   "You have to stop this! He doesn't know of what she had on her sleeves!" she exclaims, trying to yank herself

   Arthur hears what the younger Queen said, but he's too late to evade the harsh swing to him, causing him to bounce off. Unable to hold his fall off, he hits the match ring floor hard. The greats gasped, as the older Queen of Hearts managed to make a huge scar that were from his shoulder to the chest part.

   "That's right! Hear that, o' King of Knights? Apparently you're a bit blind-eyed to not know of what I had prepared for this match!"

   Clutching his outfit and gritting his teeth, Arthur tries to stand up. ' Guess that headstart wasn't useful enough for this match. '

   ' I afraid that we have to watch it until the end. Or else we will attract her rage, ' Dracula then tries to calm the others down

  The petite valkyrie nods, ' It was his choice to challenge her. He's right... '

  "No rest for you, blondie!" the older Queen of Hearts shouts, planting her scythe to lift herself up and about to stab him from above. But quickly, the blonde man jumps up and kicks her to the ground below in high force.

   Arthur lands on the other side of the ring, as the older Queen rises up, feeling that blood is gushing from her head. Instead of fuming into rage, she only smirk. 

   "Right, you're finally getting serious... That's what I like!" stretching her arms wide, suddenly the ground shakes

   Blocks of wall and stairs sprouts from the ground, and immediately Queen of Hearts were sprouted out high above. Feeling that the wound is healed slowly, Arthur catches up by running and jumps to the blocks that distanced him with her. The others are starting to worry that the huge wound might slow him down.

   "Oi, we need to do something! I swear I can't stay still!" Nobunaga whips his head to the others, he's 

   ' Stand off, Nobunaga! I can handle this! ' Arthur's voice sudden resonates to his head

   His hands grips to the railing, Nobunaga just looked at the rising platforms, teeth gritted, ' You'll pay for this if you lose! '

   The blonde King stops, and looks down to his comrades who were on the edge of their seats, watching this match. Feeling that they were rooting for him, once again he clutches on his sword to focus on healing with his mana energy, before going up again with determination to take the ruling monarch of Wonderland down.

   Billy looks up to the platform where the older Queen of Hearts were, as she waits for the approaching knight in white-black-yellow. He stretches his arm, and his finger pointed as if he was aiming. Leonardo, who happened to see him, decides to scoot closer.

   "Hey, I have an idea. But it's too risky to be done," Billy pulls back and turns to him

   Leonardo winks, "Anything that comes to ideas, I can fit enough into it!"

  "We can't afford to see Arthur lose an arm or worse, so I'm going to make an intervention shot to her," Billy then explaining his idea, pointing to the highest platform there

   The detective in ocean blue and white also heard the idea, and approaches the two, "Good one you have right there. From your place, it's possible. But, I foresee that it could be bad since we don't know of how her enraged self would be."

   Billy then say, proudly, "We outlaws of the west likes taking risk, so why not."

   Leonardo agrees, "I'm with the Kid. Sir Sherlock, you better come up with something or else you'll get stressed if Sir Arthur hurted like before."

   The green-haired british man sighs, "Very well then. I'll come up with something."

   Arthur, as he makes his way up through the moving stair platforms, he was thinking of whether it's good to showcase the new vision he had. A vision of a round table with blades of each knight who sat on it, in total of 12. His sword made as the thirteenth, and he had a feeling that it could be his ace card.

   "Such a slow-poke, I'm waiting for you!" the older Queen of Hearts shouts, as she suddenly jumps from her highest platform, and a huge black shadow creeps from behind her and slices the stair platform Arthur's currently in.

   It sends Arthur far down, but quickly he regained his senses and lands on another platform. It seems that she already pulls out her finishing move, Absolute Rule: Off with Your Head. The King of Knights then closes his eyes, and lets the familiar energy wraps around him. To bring himself closer to that envisioned Round Table with the 12 blades that served him before.

   The older Queen of Hearts decides to attack again, because Arthur isn't moving right there. She shouted, "You shall not waver on this decisive swing for your deserved punishment!!"

Absolute Rule: Off with Your Head!!

   The swing got collided, as suddenly Arthur holds back the deadly scythe with his sword. She was surprised, and tries to force herself to finish her decisive swing, as the King was shining in a golden light and his eyes, bright blue.

   "Heed to your rightful King, o' Knights of Round! We shall raise our blades and erase all evils, upon fairness and our oaths of the Round Table."

   Suddenly, a circle of golden lights appears from the floor of the platform where the older Queen of Hearts were. Then, twelve blades sprouts out from the circle, trapping her in a cage of the twelve blades that belongs to the Knights of Round that served him before. She grits her teeth, as she tries to move but it seems like his circle of blades were a magic concealment type of spell.

   Arthur then jumps up, makes everyone lifts their heads up. In a sudden, Excalibur is shining brighter, and waves of electric are zapping here and there. Rossweisse kept her face grim, and her tall vampire companion eyed on her, feeling the same worryness. The sky blue-eyed outlaw then aims his magnum pistol to where the older Queen of Hearts is, in case Arthur didn't succeed on bringing her down.

   Arthur then plunges down, like a meteor that were about to hit the earth, "With this sword, the circle of the Knights of Round shall be complete!"

Storm of Camelot, Second Movement:

Thirteen Blades of the Round Table!

    The monarch in red-and-black then prepares to deliver a swing, there must be a weakness from this deadly plunge to a cage of blades that was trapping her. Because, Arthur gets the upper hand from using magic concealment, but the Queen has a risky idea.

   She wants to cut off his hands, so that no one can swing that shining in gold Holy Sword again, for a while. It happens in the next split second, as everything surrounding her becomes so bright, as Arthur and his sword were merely there and was about to pierce her heart. The towering shadow in black then swings her huge scythe with reddish fire following it, and suddenly a bullet flies from the spectators side.

   CLANG!

   The huge sound causes everyone to close their ears, as the explosion blinds the entire castle in a white light, and a thick curtain of dust. Moments later, as the dust curtain breaks away, the view ahead of the eleven greats is very gruesome.

   A hand for a hand.

   Both of Arthur and the older Queen of Hearts' right arm were completely cut off, huge scars on their chests, and left hand barely attached. Flung to across the other side of the yard is Arthur's right arm who were still gripping the shining Excalibur. While Queen of Hearts' scythe were stabbed on the platform wall behind her, and the cutted off arm plopped down to the floor below.

   "Perhaps, a head for a head would do next time?" the older Queen of Hearts chuckles, as she starts to wobble on her stand

   Arthur grits his teeth, trying to hold back the overwhelming pain, "If ever next time exist for you..."

   Suddenly, the blonde King of Knights felt he was pushed back gently, as a pair of slender yet small arms embraces him and closes his eyes.

   "Remember, restrain the beast inside you..." a hushed yet familiar voice then whisper onto his ear

   Rossweisse pulls everyone in through her teleportation, deciding that staying longer in this castle would be dangerous for all of them. The older Queen of Hearts just chuckling, seeing the fast flee. She turns back and reaches for her right arm. In this realm, nothing is impossible. Even if you were on the verge of dying, the Theater wouldn't let you unless you were destined to.

   "I didn't know you're good on the medical field too, Sherlock," Cleopatra compliments, looking over the detective who were just finish stitching Arthur's arm back

   Putting on his gloves again, he looks at Cleopatra who asked him. "In forensic science, it requires basic understanding on these things. Though, most of these were enhanced by healing magic, I guess this would be enough for now."

   "But, he used most of his mana there, how long would he be fully healed?" Mitsuhide then ask, leaning to the wall beside him

   Excalibur were not far from the makeshift surgery table Leonardo made for the sedated Arthur, and it continues to glow in a golden light. Everyone else were wondering of why it's still glowing, where the wielder wasn't holding it.

   "It won't be that long. I believe, that sword is the answer," the pink-haired polymath answering, and he's serious about it

   Nobunaga then shrugs, "Wouldn't be that surprised if that action earlier isn't his all-out form."

   Eleven pair of eyes looks at Nobunaga, clearly suspicious.

   Jeanne immediately claps twice to gain their attention, "Hey, we should focus on how get the end of this Performance. We now see that the older Queen of Hearts wouldn't stop fighting until a part of your body fell to the ground."

   "And worse, she would aim for the head..." the petite valkyrie grimly commented, gaining worry from the other greats

   Marie looks up from fixing Arthur's ripped gloves, "Didn't she has a weak spot? Do you have something in your mind regarding that?"

   The younger Queen of Hearts just stayed silent on her seat. It's the first time that she felt this confused of what she need to do. Moreover, the mysterious words from the Theater about those who are called phantoms are existed among them, and she was one of them. Do these phantoms have different set of powers rather than the historical figures?

   If they do, who are the potentials? as she thought

   What she needs to do is to remember what her older self doing after she claims Alice's head off. But, she keeps looking on the shining sword not far from her. Does Arthur know a thing about this phantom and historical figure terms?

   Deciding to put that thoughts for later, the vermillion-eyed Queen shakes her head, "I honestly didn't remember... I can't foresee the future, and obviously that self of mine is the one from the ahead."

   Leonardo then inquires a suggestion, "Why don't we search for the residents here? Like Mad Hatter or Cheshire Cat?"

   The younger Queen of Hearts sneers, "I don't trust either of them, such sly bastards."

   Cleopatra then tries to straighten this problem up, "But, hey, they were the ones who were still here after Alice was dead?"

   Opening an eye, the younger Queen only scoffs. "They indeed still lived here, only they wouldn't even try to step onto my land."

   The magenta-eyed samurai general then clears his throat, "Alright. I have an idea. Whatever answer that we would get from the remaining residents from the original ending, that's where we shall split up."

   Fixing his suit, Dracula then eyed to his petite companion, ' Dear Rossweisse, please keep an eye on them. I sense something unwell in here. '

   Rossweisse nods, ' Understood. '

   Dracula starts to sense something is wrong. The younger Queen of Hearts starts to feel restless, ever since she met them on the woods outskirts. And of course, Arthur is still recovering from Sherlock's sedation medicine and yet his sword is still glowing brightly as if Arthur remained awake on that state.

   ' As expected, the Theater starts to bring up those nonsense term about our existences, ' the golden-eyed vampire thinks, as he looks on the greats ahead of him

   The Performance on a famous fairytale book continues to spin, entering many loops of illusion and confusion of this land has to offer. Of course, like all stories that were spun upon this stage, this one was changed badly. . .

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Chapter Text

   Arthur actually felt bad, that this is the second time that he got collapsed within a short time. Maybe the Theater is fiddling his magic circuits too much? Either way, he felt that he can move his right arm again, and there's no longer rips or blood trails on his outfit.

   Inside the alternate reality of Versailles, it felt so quiet. Maybe everyone else had gone first to continue this Performance? He slowly brings himself to a sitting position, and realizes that he was lied down to a makeshift surgery table.

   He heard a door closes on the other end, and sees Jeanne who was bringing a floating tray, with a cup of tea and a bowl, "Thank the Lord you're awake. How do you feel right now?"

   "I felt... weird... Are everyone else continues on searching the way to defeat her? To a hatter and a cat, I recall."

   Jeanne blinks in confusion, "I-I thought you were sedated by Sherlock by the time we brought you here for an emergency surgery. Were you awake at that time?"

   The King's ice-blue eyes moves to the sword, and Jeanne follows his eyesight there. It doesn't shine anymore.

   "What in the world does your sword contain..." Jeanne was this close to do the three hand movements to the Christ, yet she only stood there

   Moving his just healed right arm, Arthur looks to his bare palm while saying, "I afraid that the Theater is been meddling with my magic circuits, and the more I resist the more they start to force me to let out the power I stored there."

   "We can't stood still like this if the one who woke us up has means of evil, if we managed to survive until the curtain fall."

   Moving his hand, the floating tray moves closer to him, "Speaking of which, did all of them were going to search for the hatter?"

   The saint maiden nods, "Yes. I'll stay here with you until you're fully recovered."

   Gulping down the tea, Arthur then jumps off the surgery table. "There's no time to be wasted. Let's go, Jeanne."

   Dracula is back at the castle dominated with red, black and white. He's here for a reason, and he wants to ask the older Queen of Hearts of whether she was familiar with the unspoken terms regarding of this stage and themselves. Escorted by the guards, he arrives on the throne room, where she was perfectly sit there and waiting for the next guest to see.

   "Oh, you alone? Where are the other wimps that were tailing behind you?" the older Queen of Hearts mocks him as a greeting

   Dracula only smirks, this kind of greeting is what he liked, "It appears they want to search for an answer inside this realm. Perhaps, someone knew how to rewrite the story."

   Suddenly a scythe manifests so close to his throat, as the older Queen is now in front of him, enraged. "You sure got guts to say that in front of me."

   Dracula moves his hand to lift his glasses partly, showing his right eye zaps from yellow to red. The older Queen of Hearts suddenly moves back. "It seems that you've already known of what will happen if I take off this glasses."

   Fixing his glasses, his right eye becomes golden yellow again. "Have you heard the term of a phantom and a figure of great said by that mysterious voice?"

   Narrowing her eyesight, she's suspicious of his words, "You should've told that to those wimps first before to me, your enemy."

   The tall vampire lets out a chuckle, "They surely will realize it soon. Don't you realize it when Arthur traps you with his cage of blades?"

   The older Queen of Hearts mutters, "That King of Knights is surely inhuman... I can feel it deep inside."

   ' Inhuman... So that explains everything. That would be bad if he loses control over his powers. '

   "So, why do you come here?" Her scythe evaporates into red sparkles, as she proceed to sit down on her throne

   "I have no means to betray them, just when I resurrected here once again. But, you should consider on giving up."

   Gripping to the armrest of her throne, she ask him back, "Now, with that I have full control of this story, away from that blondie girl?"

   Dracula is just looming there, with no slightest of an expression was there on his face. He knew the answer already, but deep inside he wasn't ready to reveal the dark truth behind all of this...

   "Look, that was the windmill that Mad Hatter used to have his tea parties. But, once I killed off Alice I exiled her allies including him, to the outskirts of woods' western entrance," the younger Queen of Hearts points to the badly damaged windmill and a table was broken in half, with no teacup sets and sweets anymore

   "Wait, what was on that part of the woods?" Mitsuhide ask

   The vermilion-eyed lady just sigh, "Glad you asked, general boy. Someone like him and his animal friends wouldn't survive there, since there was a flock of monsters."

   The others felt their stomach sunk, that the one they were looking for is no longer at this world, perhaps. Sherlock then moves to observe the damaged party table, like it was a crime scene. There, he eyed on a parchment on one side and picks it up, there was a writing there.

   "Even your worst enemy can come from yourself..." Sherlock reads it out loud, gaining attention from the others

   "Who is he referring to?" Marie then ask

   Putting back the torn parchment, Sherlock then points to the ravenette lady, "This was a letter, the name of the recipient were torn off. But, I had a speculation this was Mad Hatter's letter to you."

   The younger Queen of Hearts points herself, "Me? How could a dumb idiot like him would know anything about this?"

   "Who knows if he refused to use any of his ability to protect himself. Besides, this could a clue to our next—"

   Before even finishing, a huge feline-like monster colored dark purple came behind him, and about to swing its huge claws. Magenta eyes glowing, Sherlock then pulls out his thin blade and successfully lands a slash on its neck. The others were shocked, as the monster drops dead to the ground.

  "That idea is totally stupid to ever try bring me down. I had expected it."

  "Hey, Sherlock. We should get running, I sense more of them are coming here," Billy then shouts, as he points to the woods behind them

  The younger Queen of Hearts grins, "Forgot to tell you all. That was the Cheshire Cat's clansmates. Perhaps he still has a grudge upon myself."

  "Well then, lead us out of here," Sherlock then eyed to the younger lady

  "Let's split and meet back up on Marie's alternate reality barrier," Mitsuhide quickly tells and soon they split up into two groups and gone into separate ways

   Meanwhile, Arthur and Jeanne are walking through the forest. Though it was still daylight hours, it felt so dark inside here. Jeanne, gripping her lance tight as she looks at Arthur's back, his black coat swishes and pale-blonde hair lightly bounce whenever he takes a step.

   "Arthur, I don't think we should go out from Marie's alternate reality until the others head back," Jeanne said to him

  The King stops, and turns around to her. "I cannot stand still after the older Queen of Hearts manages to cut off my right hand. As King, I cannot afford to wait for the result to come to me."

   Jeanne smiles, "As expected from you, huh."

   Suddenly, an outline of a floating cat manifests behind Jeanne. Quickly, Arthur draws his sword and pushes her to his embrace. The outline then zaps into a cat with grey and purple-colored fur, a huge grin and shining yellow eyes. Jeanne snaps into reality, and immediately blushes.

   The floating cat then cups its face with its paws, "Oh, what an honor to see that famous wielder of Excalibur to wander inside these woods."

   "What are you?" Arthur then ask in a serious tone, as he lets Jeanne go to take her stand

   the cat then grow sad, "Ara, I think I did a bad impression on suddenly appearing behind your lovely lady right here."

   Jeanne's blush gone darker. "H-He's not my lover or something like that!"

   The grinning cat chuckles, as he floats closer to look at the two, "Don't be so serious, I was just teasing you, Miss Jeanne d'Arc."

   "...Are you the Cheshire Cat?" Jeanne then tries to recompose herself, lowering down her pointed lance

   The Cheshire Cat floats happily, "Well of course I am! Oh, I've seen your fight with the Queen on her Unbirthday Party. As expected of the very King Arthur himself."

   Still serious, Arthur then answer, "I don't see myself being proud with that match."

   "Aww, don't be sad, my King. There would be next time you'll come as the victor, though people like you..."

   "People like me?" Arthur lifts one of his eyebrows in confusion

   The grinning cat just floats away, "Don't mind that! It's only a small matter."

   Jeanne immediately intercepts, "Cheshire Cat! We want to know an answer to defeat the Queen. We can't afford to see our comrades to lose another one of their limbs."

   "But, that would be no fun~ Miss Jeanne, the only one who can defeat the Queen is herself. The choice she made to kill off my dear Alice, is what separate them from each other, a separation of the soul. Apparently, the young one still doubted her decision to do the same to her future self. That's why she only gone silent."

   The two gone shocked. Jeanne then ask the cat again, "Why is that? Is she the only one who can defeat her future self?"

   Cheshire Cat nods, as he continues, "That's the rule. Her killing weapon is her own scythe. But, I've seen King Arthur's capability to hurt her, maybe people like him will do too."

   Once again, Arthur points his sword to the creature, "I repeat, what kind of person am I? Are you disgracing me right here?"

   Cheshire Cat flew to avoid the sharp blade ahead of him, "Oh, you got the wrong one, my King. What I meant is that you're on the same level as the Queen who ruled here in terms of magic power, since you are the protagonist of your story too."

   Jeanne only looks at her companion in confusion. ' He's right... His mana energy is so tremendous, and he even didn't held his Performance yet... '

   Lowering down his sword, Arthur then ask him again, "Cheshire Cat, I believe you must put all of those nonsense aside. Do all of what you said were true?"

   The cat grins again, showing its sharp white teeth, "Aww, just like the little Alice, your stubbornness! I promise that everything I said is the truth, by my own want."

   Feeling that it's all he needs to hear, Arthur then turns to the saint maiden, "Is that all you need to say? Come, Jeanne, we must head back."

  Cheshire Cat then appears suddenly in front of Arthur, "Na-ah-ah, hold right there, my lieges. If you're going back, the woods would be so completely different than the one you entered. You see, the Wonderland is particularly known for its constantly moving trees and such."

   "Then, where we should go?" Jeanne ask the magical cat

   "To where the story should continue of course, Queen of Hearts' castle!" Cheshire Cat points ahead, a pointy castle roof by the distance, "Don't worry, I had friends on leading your comrades there too. Come follow me, my lieges!"

   With no other option, the two then follows Cheshire Cat on their way back to Queen of Hearts' castle. Meanwhile, the rest of the twelve figure of greats were running, as a flock of purple feline monsters are chasing behind them. 

   "Oi! Can't we just stop and fought them for real?!" Nobunaga shouts

   Cleopatra says back to him, "We can't! Whatever these monsters think, they perhaps want to lead us to something!"

   "Isn't that your specialty, talking to cats? Just try read their minds!" Marie suggests to the pharaoh

   Cleopatra's cat ears suddenly twitches, hearing among the growls behind them, a sentence assmbled, "To the castle of red."

   "Castle of red? Queen of Hearts' castle!" the pharaoh then turns back and tries to slow her run down

   The others stops on their tracks, as Cleopatra immediately turns on her heels and gestures them all to stop. The feline monsters stops too, and yet they were keep growling as if they were talking.

   "Residents of the woods of Wonderland! Tell us what you want us to know about! I, with the blessing of Bast, I shall be the one who converse with you," Cleopatra announces

   One of the monsters come closer to her, and she gestures the others to not manifest their weapons on them.

   "If you understand human language, I apologize in behalf of my friend for killing off one of your comrades, he was beyond alert."

   The monster only growls, and by her hearing it was assembled into, "We don't mind, we forgive. That's what strangers would do. Cheshire told us to get you all back to the castle of red."

   "Cheshire Cat, do you mean? For what purposes do we have to get back there?" Cleopatra ask

   The monster lifts its arm and points its claw to the younger Queen of Hearts. "Finish what she started."

   The ocean-blue eyed pharaoh looks at her, "I believe, Arthur is not the opponent for that match. You have to be the one who get to fight her and finish what you've started."

   Younger self only chuckles, "As I expected. What else do it say?"

   "If she manages to become one with that self, you'll complete the story. That's what Cheshire told ourselves."

   Cleopatra then say again, short solid and clear, "Queen of Hearts. You must get ready."

   "We will help if things get worse," Mitsuhide suggests, followed by the agreement by others

   Nobunaga grins, "Finally, some good 'ol action I've waited for!"

   The younger Queen of Hearts, whether she want it or not, must fight her future self. She can feel her heart is beating faster in anticipation. This time, she would make the right decision, to end this story with the right way.

   "Quit with your jokes! I always known you from the start that you were the one whom I shouldn't trust!" the older Queen of Hearts snaps, as Dracula finishes his explanation to her

   The vampire grins, as he points out, "Always? See, you knew it yourself."

   the older Queen of Hearts clicks her tongue in agitation, as she tries to consume of the truth regarding of the cruel entity behind the curtains of the Theater. Do Dracula really knows about everything, going through all of this again and again like a repeated record track? 

   "I owe you a swing to your head if all of that you've said is true."

   Dracula only chuckles, "I'm a man of my words, looking forward for that."

   Suddenly, the huge doors of the throne room were blast open, revealing guards hurrily comes in, obviously their faces written that they were attacked suddenly on the castle complex.

   "Your Majesty! We've been attacked!" one of them shouts

   The tall white-haired monster of the night then pulls out his glasses, and puts it inside his blazer. The ruler whips her head to him, that the color on his eyes zaps into red.

   "I believe, that was my signal. Prepare yourself, my Queen."

   All of a sudden, the throne room gone pitch black, signalling the start of Dracula's berserking mode. Meanwhile, thousands of guards were running out from the sides of the castle complex, roaring battle cries. Nobunaga then moves ahead, manifesting his katana onto his hand.

   Nobunaga then turns to his former retainer, "Mitsuhide. Do me a favor. Shot that tanegashima gun to them."

   "Are you serious? I would rather not use it," Mitsuhide refuses

   "What else then, if you're not showing them that I am here," Nobunaga says, serious about it

   Mitsuhide sigh, as he also manifests his katana. "Alright then, as you wish for, my Lord."

   "The others, spread out and get her to meet her older self. We'll hold them back here."

   the younger Queen of Hearts nods, "Counting on you, hell lord!"

   As the others spreads and starting making their way to the main castle building, both Nobunaga and Mitsuhide focuses their mana energy for their opening. The ground below them suddenly cracks, with fire suddenly leaks out from it. Mitsuhide throws his katana up to the sky, and it shines blue. He caught it, now as a tanegashima gun.

   "Let I be the one who will dye the world with my flames of retribution to those who dare to defy me, the rightful Demon King of the Sixth Heavens!" Nobunaga shouts, as he jumps up

  The ground shakes, and suddenly huge swirls of fire lashing onto the pursuing soldiers. Positioning, Mitsuhide aims his rifle gun, as mysterious wind blows through himself, with the rising heat of the gathering magic-infused fire. Perhaps, doing this would grant them a swift opening and destroys the entire castle complex with it.

   "The dragon that lies deep inside the flames awakens. Upon the path dyed with blood, it spreads the fear for the last chain of trust to broke, on the verge of the changing dawn..." Mitsuhide chants, as he inserts a bullet inside the rifle.

   Emerging from behind Nobunaga are a blood moon, as the day suddenly turns into a dark night. Pointing his katana, he orders the fire lashes to form a huge skeleton-like figure, and suddenly it shots out laser-like mana surges.

   Shouting, as he dived down to the soldiers below, his katana burning red and black, "Let this be your lesson to learn that the colors of the Demon King will always dye the past, present, and future—!"

   Mitsuhide felt that the bullet is burning inside, ready to unleashing the dragon, "Show them, the fire of wrath that burns like the blood-red sun...!"

Bloodred-dyed Heaven's Divine Vengeance!!!

Wrath of the Fire Dragon of Honnōji!

   The fire dragon shots out from Mitsuhide's tanegashima gun, swirling around the huge mana surge around Nobunaga's katana. The daimyō lands, causing a huge exploison and immediately burns the soldiers alive. Like he was possessed, Nobunaga kills off the remaining soldiers that goes for him like a madman. Mitsuhide caught his katana again, and immediately runs to make kill counts for himself.

   As the younger Queen of Hearts, with the ones who followed her to find Mad Hatter before tailing her back, makes their way through the city gates, to the main castle. There, a pair of huge white monsters with huge claws are chained. Suddenly, the binds breaks as they heard the huge exploison from Nobunaga outside the tall walls of the city.

   Narrowing his eyes, Sherlock reads the status of these monsters, "These ones were different from the ones that brought us here. I and Cleopatra will hold them back, the rest of you please proceed."

   "Let us know if you see Arthur and Jeanne!" Billy waves to the two, as the rest continue to run over

   Cleopatra smiles in amusement, "To be picked by the great detective by yourself, I'm honored. It's my time to show that, then! O' Seth the god of chaos and violence, grant me your courage and power to defeat the evil ahead of me!"

   The bronze staff with a hound head emerges from her spell book, and suddenly Cleopatra threw that staff like a lancer warrior would do. It hits one of the monsters with great force, and Cleopatra counters it with her kicks. For her to be able to do it in heels, that amazed the british detective.

   "Focus on us only," Sherlock challenges, before the other monster pounces on him

   Arthur and Jeanne manages to get out of the woods, following Cheshire Cat. The huge blast caused them to sped up their way, accompanied by mana surges and glows in the distance.

   "Cheshire Cat, thank you for bringing us here," Jeanne thanked the floating cat

   He grins widely, as he answer, "Well I rather don't want to plunge my guests in to a battlefield, but I accept your humble gratitude. Feel free to call me if you need help, I'm the Wonderland's final ally after all."

   The King of Knights nod, "We appreciated it. Then, we shall meet again soon."

   "May Lady Fortuna were on your side, my lieges..." the Cheshire Cat wishes, before he disappears into thin air, as fast as a mere shadow

   Suddenly, a man in black-and-blue, presumed Mitsuhide, got thrown to the sky, and he lands badly to the clearing near the woods. Emerging from the huge fire is a huge dragon, made from bodies of the dead soldiers. For once, Arthur felt something bad is taking over him, but quickly he snaps out of it.

   "Jeanne, aid Mitsuhide quickly. I'll fight that dragon," Arthur says, as he unsheated Excalibur out

   She agrees, and then she warns him, "Please, don't push yourself too far!"

   There's no time to doubt, so Arthur and Jeanne proceed to run onto different directions. The way from the outskirts to where the commotion is a bit far, so Arthur tries to think about not pushing himself too far for this time.

   Remember, restrain the beast inside you...

   ' That is exactly what the Lady and Merlin would tell me, regarding my magic powers. But that voice wasn't hers... ' Arthur thinks, and quickly he sped up to not let that dragon hurt people on its way

   The berserking Dracula lands hard to the marble wall of the throne room, and then fell to the floor. Perhaps, he brought out her worst form after that warming up. In the other hand, he felt that the older Queen of Hearts is succeeding him in terms of power, and he cannot stay like this for a longer time.

   "Tired already, mister vampire?" she mocks, pointing her scythe to him

   That's right, he needs to buy time before the younger one arrives here. He can't feel tired right now. They are watching on the shadows, this is what they wanted. To feel the adrenaline, the horror, the bloodthirst by the audience.

   "Heh, I don't think so. We barely started and felt tired now would be a hindrance for those who watch us. Come at me!" Dracula exclaims

   The older Queen leaps towards him, and immediately the vampire swings his elongated nails to shred her throat apart. Gaining into her senses, she kicks him and the marble wall behind them breaks. Dracula lands to the room next to it, his elongated nails slowing the momentum.

   "Good! Good senses you have!" the older Queen of Hearts uses her scythe to jump above, and about to land on top of him

   And suddenly, a bullet flashes sideways, causing her to land to the floor in evasion. Dracula looks to the source of the shot, and Billy was there. Guess he was tasked to do the intervention shot, again.

   "Hell no, Dracula's not gonna go home with a scythe stabbed on his head!" 

   Sarcasticly, as the tall vampire stands, he jokes. "I appreciate your kind saving, Billy the Kid. But, I'm an immortal being, getting stabbed in the head won't work."

   "As expected of you! C'mon, Queen of Hearts, we're here!" Billy turns behind him, waiting for the one who were supposed to be here

   Emerging from the door behind Billy, is the younger self of the Queen, holding her scythe tightly. The older self just grits her teeth in annoyance, that these bunch can't hold back on pursuing her giving up this Performance.

   "Since you had your Unbirthday Party, now it's the turn for our own version of the Party!" Billy announces

   "You freaks," the older Queen of Hearts sneers

   Her younger self then tugs on Billy and Dracula's sleeves, causing them to look at her. "You two get out, I can handle this myself."

   "You sure about that?" Billy ask in worry

   "That's what those creatures told me. I gotta finish what I started."

   The vampire nods on her request, "Very well. Wishing you good luck."

   Dracula and Billy then runs out of the room, and the two selves of Queens of Hearts are facing each other, the red-and-black scythe glints beneath the bright moonlight and red flames by the distance.

   "Finally regretting that we killed Alice?" the older one starts

   The younger didn't answer.

   "No last words? Alright then," the older raises her scythe

   Immediately, the younger one swings her own to the floor, creating a dust curtain. The older self swings to dissolve the heavy curtain, but the younger one sharply pushes the other one of her scythe, and that causes a huge force that sends the older one flung past the window, to the gardens ahead.

   she thinks, as she makes her way to try not making time space between each strike, ' I must thank the saint maiden for that move later, turns out it was quite handy. '

  The older one in the other hand, reaches for four cards on the inside of her dress. "Kings of the Trump Cards, I grant you power to protect our land from my impostor!"

  Suddenly, the four King cards shines and a mysterious wind blows them away. Within a shine, four huge humanoid creatures shows up, each with a short-ranged weapon and all dressed so regally. The younger self then flees further inside, because she remembers of how violent these kind of soldier summoning were. At the very least, she wished she possessed that ability, but turns out she wasn't granted with it, yet.

   "Chase her! And make sure I'll be the one who would cut her head off!"

   The four King card soldiers gruffs, and they spreads out to chase the younger Queen of Hearts. A game of cat and mouse, one of the simplest chasing method. As when the older one can take a breathe break, bright red bullets were attacking from the dark sky above. The older dodges the bullets with her scythe, as a flash of white suddenly jumps to front of her.

   "Little miss valkyrie...! Please, slow down!" from the distance, a very certain genius is catching up

   "No time for it. We need to finish her quick," Rossweisse says, as she then leaps to send more of her red flower bullets, while deploying her teleportation to bring Leonardo closer

   Leonardo emerges from her portal on the older Queen's back, about to swing his sword and chops her head off. But, she has a plan to widely swirls her scythe to hurt the two. So, she stabs her heels to the ground, and swirls her scythe like a deadly fan. Rossweisse jumps up, while using her portal to suck Leonardo back in.

   ' I can't use my lance in short periods of time. Dracula warned me about it... ' Rossweisse thinks, as she tries to find a way

   ' Little miss valkyrie! I'll give you a weapon! ' Leonardo's voice resonates inside her, as suddenly from the black hole two knives were thrown towards her

   With such agile, she caught them,' Helpful much. '

   And suddenly, Rossweisse throws one of them and perfectly lands on the right side of the older Queen's chest. She fell on her back, and grits her teeth on the sudden pain.

   "You seemed to master every kind of weapon, huh?" the older queen rises again, and pulls out the knife, causes her to hiss in pain

   "Necessary abilities are needed for taking out my enemies," Rossweisse shortly replies, as two more knives pops out from the portal

   Leonardo also jumps out from it, using a crossbow to shot the older queen. The queen just clicks her tongue, thinking of how good is this improvised teamwork. Meanwhile, Jeanne, Mitsuhide, Arthur, and Nobunaga got overwhelmed with the dragon made of the dead soldiers' body who kept growing and growing.

   "Are you sure we can't let Arthur do his Storm of Camelot to this shit right there?" Mitsuhide ask to Jeanne

   "We can't let him collapsed for overpulling his mana energy out! We never knew what could've happen!" Jeanne answers, after pulling out an attack on the dragon

   "We too can't overwork!! Don't just think about him, you dumb!" Nobunaga shouts from the distance, as he goes up and attacks it again

   Jeanne looks to the trees, where Arthur sat, rearranging his breathing. When she recovered Mitsuhide and goes to where the King is, he was leaning to his sword in exhaustion. Normally, he wouldn't feel this tired, but there's something that's been bothering inside him.

   "I felt something bad is happening. Mitsuhide, I shall come forward," Jeanne twirls her lance and starts to walk forward

   Tightening his grip to the katana, he then say, "If that was because of your visions from the god, then I shall back you up."

   "I appreciate it, Mitsuhide," Jeanne smiled towards him, and then white glow envelopes her, praying that this Performance should end soon

   The younger Queen of Hearts is still fighting the four Kings of the trump card soldiers. She needs to get back to where her older self is, but these summoned creatures won't drop dead! 

   "Tch! What a waste of my energy!" the younger one complaints, as she kicks one of them by the front despite height differences.

   Suddenly, she felt something is coming, fast. And then from the distance, a sound of thunder. It's not raining, but the thunder sounds so familiar. That's right, Billy!

   ' That Kid, really sly! ' she grins, as she suddenly ducks

   Billy from the other one of the huge hallway, aims his pistols for the third decisive bullet, "Good move right there! Can you evade this one too!"

Thunderbolt Bullet Fever!!

   Three bullets; one roars, one flashes, and one zaps, ricochets through the pillars and hits the heads of all four of the Kings. Suddenly, the floor underneath her gone black, and it sucks her in.

   ' Land your finishing blow...! ' Rossweisse' hushed voice echoes inside her mind

   The pitch black zaps into the clear night sky, as the younger Queen realizes that she was plunging down. She looks down, and see her older self was tied with the freezing Binds of Jötunheim. Suddenly, she felt mana energy is wrapping around her. From the distance, she sees Cleopatra and Marie by the still intact part of the city, it seems that they evacuated the people there and uses a barrier from the impact.

   On the other side, the city's entrance were engulfed with flames and rays of light and lightning. A flash of four is fighting a hideous dragon-like creature who won't drop dead. Maybe, if she finishes her older self, all of this fear on her shall be stopped. She's getting closer and closer, and the more she can feel the black and red flames wrapping her scythe.

   She then thinks, ' I'm sorry, Alice. I wish I could've let you have my head... Maybe that could come out as a better ending. But this time, I'll make sure this swing was to atoning my sins! '

   From above, her older self sees the shining flare of red and black. It felt nostalgic, as she thought. She can no longer moves her hands and feet, as it froze. It stings so bad, and all she can do is await for her punishment like a mere prisoner who is looking at the executioner that's preparing their blade.

   But, despite all this pain, she smiles, "You got me this time."

   The younger one sets her scythe, and about to swing it. "Let's all be mad in this land of wonders! I, the sole ruler, shall show you that upon this decisive verdict, I am superior!"

Hearts of Madness!!!

   The older Queen of Hearts closes her eyes, as she see her younger self with the shining scythe on her grip. She smiles dearly, as she accepts her vengeance. All of a sudden, it goes stark white. The Performance ends, with audience at the edge of their seats. The entity behind the curtains of the Theater was happy, as a certain queen clad in red-and-black manages to pull out such an amazing move towards her own emotions.

   — My Majesty, you have such an amazing garden for having a tea party right here.

   The young blonde lady beautifully dressed in a baby blue dress, complimented the queen dominated with red and black.

  — This was nothing, but I appreciate your compliment. Say, Alice, why do you want to go back to your world?

  — There's so much I need to solve. My parents are in dire need of trading expansions, and I can't leave my suitor without a definite answer. Can you give me an advice, knowing that you're a noble as I am?

   The young lady is still pure from the evils of the world, like the queen herself. And yet she were asked for an advice, which she's bad at.

   — I was named as the Queen of Hearts, because I made my decision as what my heart told me to do. I shall challenge you into a match, Alice. I want to see what your heart truly want. Then, I might let you go back if you win.

   But, the queen's dark heart were engulfed with fury upon Alice's pure heart and determination. At the young lady's last breath, witnessed by the citizens of the queen's city and the young lady's new friends, she smiles. A genuine smile like nothing gone wrong.

   — You're right... My heart was... not suited for our worlds... huh...?

   The queen didn't answer that question,

   perhaps until this time she was resurrected upon this stage. But perhaps, she had found another "Alice" who was standing with her. A someone with similar appearances, blonde hair and blue eyes. A someone with similar goal and determination.

   But, for now, she kept that answer inside her heart, waiting for the right time to reveal it to her new comrades. Contrast to that, now she knew that such person, bright and seem to know their way to the end of this journey,

   is also possessing a huge and dark shadow behind his back.

Chapter Text

   "So is this that guardianship shrine Ieyasu once hold during his shogunate, huh?" Nobunaga ask, as he looks on the shrine ahead

   "Sensō-ji shrine, stated as the oldest shrine on Tokyo. How is it feeling to see it in the present time?" Sherlock, who was beside the daimyō consuming the pamphlet on his hands

   "Yeah, yeah, I don't need your walking dictionary, Sherlock. Nor I or him weren't associated with ourselves anymore after Takeda decide to break the alliance and that incident. But, I was proud that brat manage to unify Japan as I envisioned."

   It seems Nobunaga had tried to be more proud of his history then, as Sherlock thinly smile on that fact. The others separated to experience the temple's atmosphere in their own ways. Marie's eyes were practically shines as she sees jars of star-shaped rock candies, called konpeito, by the street vendors. She manages to buy a small package of it, and when she eats a few, it pops inside.

   Marie then excitedly says, "What on earth is this sweets! Rossweisse! Cleopatra This sweets are so delicious, you have to try!"

   The petite valkyrie who were tailing her reach for one, and so does the pharaoh. The eyes of the two ladies soon sparkles by the taste of the sweets. It was sweet and has that crunchy factor.

   "It feels like I've bitten ice... not bad," Rossweisse comments

   Though her cat ears were disguised, the two can see that Cleopatra's ears are practically twitching in excitement.

   "Let's buy some more! So that the others can enjoy this!" Cleopatra comments, gaining agreement from the other two

   Meanwhile, Jeanne, Billy and Mitsuhide are inside the temple, because the blue-haired samurai general wants to show them how Japanese people pray to their gods. The three of them lined up by the praying altar.

   "First, you gotta throw a coin to there," Mitsuhide explain, as he slips a coin to Jeanne and Billy's hands

   Then, he throws a coin to the huge wooden box with sectioned holes. Both the saint maiden and the outlaw follows his movement. After that, Mitsuhide claps three times and then closes his eyes for prayers.

   "Clap three times, and say your prayers," Mitsuhide instructs

   The two follows, and soon all of them fell into silence as they pray. A few minutes passed, and they left the altar after bowing down for respect.

   "I think it's a good way to know and learn your cultures here. Thank you so much for taking us here, Mitsuhide," Jeanne thanked him

   "Even though it's quite crowded for a shrine like this, it felt so serene. C'mon Mitsuhide, take us for a sightseeing!" Billy enthusiastly wanting to see more

   "Alright, alright. Let's go then," the three of them soon walk again for a sightseeing through the vast temple complex

   On the other side, Leonardo and Queen of Hearts were curious of this omikuji thing. According to Leonardo, it was fortune slips that basically tells the fortune of the one who pulled it. 

   "You seemed to be fit enough to come along after your Performance, my queen," Leonardo ask

   "I rather go into an outing than to stay at home, it makes me stressed if I had to think about it," the vermilion-eyed monarch sighs

   "Well, Sir Arthur and Sir Dracula were staying back because they need mana recharge with the hooded people," Leonardo say, but then stops as she were staring at him angrily

   "I know you're all worried about him, but can we just try to not talk about it now?" she then turns away

   ' Right, those two were the ones who fought her older self. I think it hurts her much, ' the genius thinks, as he shakes the fortune tube to get a slip from it

  A stick came out from the hole of the tube, and quickly he hands it to the shrine maiden in charge there. The maiden gave him a folded paper.

   "That's right! I got my fortune slip! Let's read it together!" 

   Reluctantly, Queen of Hearts moves closer to him, as he opens up the paper for the big reveal. The big red 大凶 kanji was written there. Leonardo's face turn grim, but Queen of Hearts just looks in confusion.

   Leonardo mutters, "It says... Great Misfortune."

   Still, the queen doesn't caught the meaning of it, "Huh? It was you who pulled the fortune, right?" 

   "It is. Then, what should we do with this?" Leonardo ask, as he moves again to the shrine maiden and ask

   The shrine maiden explains that if they draw a Misfortune slip, they should tie at the ropes that were available throughout the omikuji huts, so that the misfortune shall not follow them back home. The young maiden shows them the rope behind the hut, who were tied with so many white papers. Leonardo then proceed to tie the slip into the rope neatly.

   "Glad this option exist. I don't wanna be blamed for bringing misfortune to the next Performance..." Leonardo says, and then he suddenly froze

   "You alright?"

   Somehow, Leonardo felt something bad. "I think I know where would we head next."

   Before Queen of Hearts could even ask, Leonardo grabs her hand and take into a run. That's where, she realize that her feeling is also true after all. And they need to get back to the mansion quickly.

   Back at the mansion, while Dracula was sleeping on his coffin during the day, Arthur was looking through the window of his bedroom. The sun starts to set, the reddish leaves becoming more vividly colored. Throughout Queen of Hearts' Performance, he felt something awakens within him. His second climax, Thirteen Blades of the Round Table, he thinks that it might give him some kind of a sign.

   Father—!

   Arthur whips his head quickly, to the slightly ajar door of his room. That voice sounds so familiar on his memories. The only one who called him that...

   "M-Mordred...? Is that you?" he ask to the silence ahead of him

   But nothing answers.

   And there's only one thing left.

   "Show yourself, you wicked entity!" Arthur stands from his bed, now clearly he was serious

   Yet, the mysterious voice didn't echoes on his head. 

   The blonde King of Knights then think, ' Is this how the Theater points one of us to commence our Performance? I surely despise this way. '

   But then, suddenly a sentence he once say from his previous life ringing inside his thoughts.

   I already failed myself as the King of this kingdom before I could see myself as your father. Forgive me, Mordred...

   He turns around his room, how the hell that he has to remember that sentence now? That exact sentence before he lands a finishing blow to his traitor son.

 「 My King, why you're restless upon remembering that? 」

   "You wicked entity, how dare you..." Arthur almost snarl on that question

 「 I've seen reactions of the ones who go before you, and like all phantoms between the greats like yourself, they sure hates their deaths. 」

  Arthur clenches his fists, as he heard the term phantom. "A mere shadow, are you address myself as that?"

「 Why would I dare to address that to you? My King, you are a special case to this time's resurrections. Not only a phantom upon this stage, you're seemed to be not fully human too. 」

  That's where Arthur's pupils narrowing into slits, resembling of a monster, "How and where do you know it?!"

「 I'm smart enough to guess, o' King Arthur Pendragon. Do not resist the invitation of the Theater. 」

  The chains of the beast who reside inside him breaks. How much Arthur tries to hold back, the beast is much stronger than him. Dracula, inside his coffin, suddenly awakes that another Performance is approaching. Their whole surrounding suddenly goes black, as the Theater prepares for the big turn of the planned ten Performances.

  A stage that sets right after the epilogue.

  Where the certain King of Knights still haunts his kingdom, fearing everyone with his true form that got revealed on that fated final battle. . .

Chapter Text

   The battlefield on that faithful day, reeks of blood, fire, smoke; clangs of swords, shouts, and promises were everywhere throughout. That exact battle, burns most of his memory pages, like a wildfire that is consuming everything on its way. It was his mistake, to not acknowledge one of the knights upon his Round Table, that was claimed to be his inteligimate child.

   The young knight, cried in agony... wanting him to be looked as his son, not just a result from escaping anger and vengeance when his dear wife was taken away by his loyal knight. He loved another woman, after her. And that young knight was borned. Throughout his reign, he was told of being too selfless towards the people of Camelot, another mistake he commited.

   Right after the resurrections at the Theater, he immediately shuts his own past, tormenting himself to not let anyone to ever see or hear any words that is from his weakest times. Even when a certain sengoku period warlord mentions about how he died, he retorts it as a mere "payback" to how his son took his life. But, it's more complicated, as he thought.

   Five Performances had past, with him doing what he can to help ending the said reenactments. With Queen of Hearts finally had her vengeance to her future self, now the Theater points at him to commence his Performance, the last thing he expected by this cruel entity. He had seen, six greats whose Performances before him, are suffering as they go back to the times they hated the most. 

   And to be honest, he's starting to understand of what purpose did this entity had in the first place. A mere competition, for a granted wish. He personally had experienced it during his past life, when he and his knights sets out on a journey to find the Holy Grail. But now, this is rather an endless journey to seek out that said prize, looking for the killing weapon of those who stood by the center—the throne of the stage.

   If he's gonna be "killed" by that sword again, well at least, he can give out a taste to his fellow greats, of what is it like to feel these unbearable pain, a memory that lasted for centuries already.

   "Is this... Camelot?" the magenta-eyed samurai general asks in disbelief

   Sherlock gulps in his saliva, saying, "Unfortunately, yes, this is Camelot post the Battle of Camlann."

   "But, where is everybody?" Billy looks around, its city entrance were really quiet, abandoned

   A sudden crash behind them, making them looking to their backs, seeing a middle-aged woman is running away. But, Jeanne is fast enough to stop her in her tracks, asking if she could give them some answers.

   "Ma'am, are you alright?" Jeanne softly ask, patting the woman's shoulders to calm her down

   the woman looks at Jeanne in fright. "No, I am not! How could be this city be abandoned without a proper annoucement from the King?!"

   Jeanne's eyebrow lifted. "Abandoned? Tell us more."

   "I can't. This city looks like a ghost town already... even when I heard the King had died on the battle, I still see him walking by the palace grounds! I was just from there, taking my belongings!" the woman exclaims again, now trying to pry herself away from the saint maiden

   "So, you are working on the palace? Please, give us more informations!" Jeanne pleads to the woman

   "Who the hell are you all then?! If you are reinforcements for the King, you are already too late!" the woman hurrily said

   Surely, they can't give out their identities easily. So Jeanne decides to improvise. "We are looking for survivors from the battle. Despite our clothes, we are actually very good knights and medics from the west of Britain."

   The woman's body gone relaxed. Perhaps, there is possibility that this kingdom might revive. "Oh, thank the gods. Please, let us know... that if our King Arthur is not dead yet... in exchange, I shall give you everything I know about the palace."

   Actually, they are already gone suspicious when the woman said about Arthur still exists by the palace grounds. Well, all kinds of scenario were considered after Nobunaga and Mitsuhide's Performance, made them still works together and the Honnō-ji incident doesn't happen.

   ' What if... he survived Camlann? ' Rossweisse said by their minds

   ' Possibly. Well, he's Arthur, what battle that he can't survive from? ' Nobunaga said back

   ' Historically, this is the battle that he can't survive, though. But, this is really suspicious enough... ' Cleopatra shakes her head, looking up to the hazy sky above

   "Thank you, ma'am. May the Lord be with you upon your journey," Jeanne thanked the woman, while wishing her

   The woman didn't hesitated to run away, as if  the abandoned city scared the hell out of her.  They decides to make a run to the castle, and thinking of an idea of how they have to start this Performance. The road leads them to the huge white castle, with its blue-and-yellow banners flutters by the wind.

   "Split up into fours. We don't know of what could happen next," Sherlock immediately tells them

   They agrees, and off they go in fours. Mitsuhide, Queen of Hearts and Jeanne are heading to the gardens. Upon their arrival, a silhouette of a man, sitting by the grass, while his sword was beside him. The familiar glow of the blade immediately makes them steps back.

   "Is that you, Arthur?" Jeanne decides to ask first

   The man, just looks down. He doesn't give an answer, moreover budgeting to the question. But, even under the hazy sky, his pale-blonde hair is really recognisable.

   "Why does the Theater wants us to reenacting our deaths... We all hate our deaths... right?" he speaks, voice carried sorrow

   The three was out of words for this question.  He then slowly standing up, and they can see his pristine white-black-yellow knight outfit were bloodied. He picks up his sword, and finally he looks up, with that ice-blue eyes they known. But, this one is different.

   Mitsuhide then immediately say, "Arthur, we can just talk this out. We can end your Performance as quickly as possible—"

   He stops at a sudden, when he sees Arthur were glowing in a yellow light. The Holy Sword, were pointed at the general, and that suddenly he were shaking in fear, unable to take a step.

   Arthur chants, as he was wrapped with a golden light, "We shall raise our blades and erase all evils, upon fairness and our oaths of the Round Table..."

   A yellow magic circle appears by Mitsuhide's feet. He tries to jump up, but why he still can't move?! With a swish of Arthur's hand, twelve different blades bursts out from the ground, traps Mitsuhide in like a cage.

   "The Thirteen Blades..." Jeanne remembers it, her lance manifest onto her hand

   "Hey! How you dare to try kill one of us when the Performances aren't done yet?!" Queen of Hearts exclaims, as she takes her run and manifests her scythe

   Of course she has to act in order to bring the king down, and not making the general hurts from the sudden climax move. She swings her scythe, but Arthur was faster than her, by gripping the long spear of her scythe, throwing her away to the burnt woods behind.

   Jeanne, tries to destroy the blades that trapped Mitsuhide using her lance, while he tries to kick it from inside. It is really sturdy, plus the mana energy the blade cage wafted is too dense. Arthur jumps up, Excalibur shining bright by the hazy sky.

   "With this sword, the circle of the Knights of Round shall be complete...!"

Storm of Camelot, Second Movement,

Thirteen Blades of the Round Table!!

   Mitsuhide and Jeanne were stunned, but suddenly someone pulled them from the back, and suddenly it zaps into pitch black. It's Rossweisse who is pulling them through teleportation! Arthur hits the ground, and yellow lightning bursts out, spreading out to the air above. He grits his teeth, unable to get two of them hurt.

   The valkyrie grasps for breath, as the three lands to the ground in high speed. 

   "Rossweisse! You saved us in time!" Mitsuhide exclaims, before groaning from the sudden contact with the ground

   The white-haired girl pushes herself up while saying, "I see Arthur's glow from afar..."

   "W-What about Queen of Hearts? Is she alright?!" Jeanne looks around, looking for the familiar lady in red-and-black

   Rossweisee says again, "Don't worry. Nobunaga is with her."

   The fiery katana clashes with the glowing sword, as Nobunaga suddenly charges to Arthur, laughing maniacally.

   "Finally! I had a chance to fight you!" Nobunaga exclaims, as the two leader clashes their swords on each other, trying to make wounds

   "Not a chance...!" Arthur speaks, as a mana surge suddenly send Nobunaga flying to the other side of the garden

   But, the daimyō quickly uses his katana to slow down his fall down. He almost got him killed by blowing up Azuchi Castle back on his Performance, moreover Queen of Hearts just chopped off his right hand on her Performance too!

   ' How could he be this strong on his domain?! ' Nobunaga thought, standing up

   Of course, through healing magic process, that wound is no longer making him weak. Quickly, he flicks his hand and two imaginary tanegashima gun made of fire materialize, and shots it at the King. But, fast as lightning Arthur evades it, and swings his weapon while at it. Nobunaga barely survives it, as strands of his bangs are sliced.

   From the woods behind, Nobunaga heard Queen of Hearts running through, and she leaps up towards the two. Arthur then once again grabs the handle of her scythe and forcefully throws down to the ground. Queen of Hearts spits out blood as she come contact with the ground. Again, Nobunaga charges and tries to turn the tables, attacking relentlessly. As if Arthur had seen through it all, he sends a mana surge once again.

   And this time Nobunaga lands hard to the ground. There's no way he can't caught up to Arthur's lightning speed at this rate. Queen of Hearts looks from the crater she was thrown down to, that Arthur was practically shining by the hazy skies of Britain. She was foolish enough that she didn't try telling the others of what she known about who actually Arthur is.

   "Retreat, Hell Lord. We can't fight him just like this..." she mutters

   Nobunaga stands up, again. "I have a hunch that he's not gonna let us go that easily. Can't you stand too?"

   Weakly reaching for her scythe, she pleads. "We have to! There's something that I need to tell you all!"

   Arthur only looks at them in sorrow. It seems someone had told Queen of Hearts regarding his real self. Thinking that she might knew it from her Performance, it must be either Dracula or Rossweisse. Sheathing Excalibur, the King turns his back on the two.

   "I'm giving you a chance to regroup yourselves and come with an idea to bring my deserved ending. The next time we meet, there would be no chances to retreat," Arthur says, and then he jumps away, back to the abandoned castle of Camelot

  Reaching up and takes Queen of Hearts to slung her onto his shoulders, Nobunaga felt like that something's wrong with this Performance. Arthur's deserved ending? What was that mean? Now that they were spared, it's time to gather and find more information.

   "That King of Knights... I have been told that he wasn't even fully human to start with."

   The remaining greats shocks from Queen of Hearts' statement— well except Dracula, Rossweisse, and Sherlock. They were regrouping at the outskirt hills of Camelot, away from Arthur's territory.

   Sherlock takes off his hat, and decides to give his take, "It seems my suspicions were true, then. There were myths about Arthur was a human and dragon hybrid, specifically born to rule over Britain by orders of King Uther and Merlin. My biggest fear is that the dragon that has been infused with his soul gained life on its own and starts taking over his body, thus the very powerful mana output."

   ' Also a half-breed... ' Rossweisse thinks

   Dracula nods, ' Right, as we suspected. '

   Marie ask, as she fastened bandage on Queen of Hearts' hands, "Then, what should we do? We need more than a plan to end him right here."

   Sherlock eyes on the white-haired duo, feeling that they must've hiding something important regarding Arthur. For now, they need to scout the territory and looking for possible location of the killing weapon— the blade who was used by Mordred at the final battle of Camlann.

   "It is possible that Arthur won't leave the castle. We need to scout on Camelot's territory, and perhaps find survivors here," Sherlock explains

   Cleopatra raises her hand, "Are the Knights still alive at this point?"

   Sherlock shook his head, "This is way far after his death."

   The others just shocks again.

   Standing up, Nobunaga says, "Glad you're agreeing with me, Sherlock. When he spared me and her, he said that he was waiting for us to deliver his deserved ending."

   "Far beyond his epilogue..." Rossweisse mutters, gaining the attention

   Mitsuhide also comes in, "That solves most of the questions we have right now then. The Theater made him still alive by the end of his story, hence why he said about waiting for his deserved ending."

   Leonardo then delivers the important point, "But why waiting?"

   Once again the group gone into silence.

   Billy ask for this time, "Maybe he didn't want to commence this Performance on the first place?" 

   "Heck, we're all forced to commence ours," Nobunaga comments

   "No, the Kid is right. I remember how sorrow the King's face was when he said that to us," Queen of Hearts folds her arms, while leaning to the tree behind her

   "Alright everyone. Let's all rest for the night, we will scout the territory tomorrow," Jeanne says, as the others starts to settling down for the night outside.

    Arthur awakes, lied down on the floor of a huge abandoned ballroom. He thought he managed to return to his bedroom and strips all of his armor alone and drifted off to sleep. But that's where he realizes he heard chain shackles by the dim darkness of the said ballroom. This is inside of her made dreams.

   "I don't deserved to be missed by you..." Arthur sneers, as he tries to push himself up into a sitting position

   The one that was chained, replies, "Dear little brother, you didn't know... I was estatic that they agreed on linking us together by this stage..."

   It was Arthur's half-sister Morgan. Though he cannot see her by the almost darkness, but he can feel her presence is looming over. Like Merlin, she is also a mage who was raised on Avalon, away from the grasps of the political. Even far after his death, he still didn't know that whether Morgan hates him or no.

   "What do you want this time?" Arthur roars to the silence ahead

   He can hear she is moving back, from the way the chains resound, "How rude you are, dear little brother. Your friends is what I want. I want you to show them your fury regarding your death."

   The King grits his teeth, "I don't want to."

   Suddenly, a pale corpse-like hand emerges from the shadows, and then Arthur was slammed to the floor as the hand swings downwards. Inside her made dreams, he was weak.

   "That form... I wanted to see...! The monster that our father and that old wizard made!" From the darkness, a pair of sky-blue eyes were looking

   All of a sudden, he felt something is waking up. His pupils narrowing into slits, but he tries to hold it back. He clutches onto his chest, he starts to feel suffocated. It felt so hot that it might burn his insides. 

   The dragon is awaking.

   "Morgan! P-Please! I don't want to!!" Arthur's pained screams rings into the air

   And then, the hand retracts to the darkness. Arthur fell to the floor faceward, heavily panting. He knows that Morgan hates him, yet he always spared from these kinds of tortures. His ice-blue eyes returned to normal, and he sees the darkness ahead of him. He almost can see that she was smiling after that little torture session.

   "That was a boring torture. Would be nicer if I do it by the face of your friends," Morgan says, amusedly

   This time, he cannot answer. If he tries to refuse, then maybe she would not spare him next time. Ever since this Performance starts, there's only pain that attacks like sharp blades into human flesh. He only wishes that his comrades be able to find that sword, and kills him by this stage.

   He had enough.

  But, the entity behind the Theater's curtains was beyond disappointed with his resolve from the very beginning. Hence why they brought up Morgan's soul shard and infused it as a catalyst on his resurrection. It resulted on the mage whispers to show them his unbearable pain, again and again.

  And it peaks on this Performance. Suddenly, he felt tired. Closing his eyes— though he didn't want to— he fell asleep inside this dream, where his dear sister is overlooking him by the darkness. Perhaps, she would reach a hand out and brush them to his hair, lovingly. Morgan's love is never love at all, it's only a cruel hatred.

   Sherlock awakes, since his mind won't stop mapping out possible outcomes and ideas about this Performance. They've been inside here for half a day, and there's so many mysteries regarding how the Theater pulled their strings. Throughout the five Performances, he observes on how Arthur's mana output was. on Queen of Hearts' Performance, he starts to feel fatigue and he seemed to hold something back.

   Yet, he didn't try tell the others about it. The detective looks up to the perfect round moon, the sky is clear for the night. Round... Sherlock suddenly had an idea. If the castle's still standing, there are chances that the Round Table still exists! Perhaps he can read on whatever clues he can find on that table.

  That shining blades that manifests as a cage that entraps an enemy, and the Holy Sword as the seal of the said circle of blades... That was Thirteen Blades of the Round Table. Sherlock only saw it once during the match with the older Queen of Hearts, but that thought refuses to left his mind.

   "Where do he hide Mordred's sword...?" Sherlock mutters

   The detective looks up, as something blocks out the moonlight. He finds the lonely valkyrie who is looking back at him, in her hands was two mug cups.

   "Marie made this..."

   Sherlock moves his hands to receive the mug. A hot chocolate with frosted soft candies on top. He really doesn't understand Marie's fixation on anything sweet-flavored, but sometimes he's fine with it. The detective takes a sip, but immediately scrunts from the swetness. 

   "Good gracious, do she want to make us hyperactive on night?" Sherlock asks

   The valkyrie just stands there, while not budging to drink her portion. He looks at her, as if she has something to say to him.

   ' Is there anything you know? ' He ask, deciding to use telepathy

   ' Underground. We have to get inside that castle. '

   Sherlock immediately stands up. "Why don't you say so?!"

   Rossweisse narrows her eyesight, ' Silence. Even if we're far from his ears, there are possibility of magic presence nearby. '

   ' Okay then, shall we tell the others? ' Sherlock then moves his fingers to make the two mug cups disappears into thin air, having enough of the oversweet drink

   Yes, he sure he was hyperactive enough to think up of an idea. But that doesn't leave him suspicious of how Rossweisse knew about the castle underground. Perhaps she got inside there for some point and found a way to there during the initial scouting earlier?

   But, he always knew that the she is always agreeing to cooperate. Or is she? But, he hopes that maybe he can see the Round Table and locate Mordred's sword quick. Or maybe the underground of Camelot castle is where Arthur hide it? Before he catches up to Rossweisse who is waking everyone from their sleep, he heard something in the wind.

   Find . . .

  Sherlock shakes his head, maybe the wind is just playing with him. Their first night in Britain continues inside the alternate reality of Versailles, as they starts to set up a plan for their so-called siege scouting to the Camelot castle. But, it comes with a risk of whether Arthur stays there or no, by the time they make their way inside.

   But once again, he never really understand of how the King thinks about this.

   Deep down, inside the underground of the castle, there was an armor pile by the center. The underground wasn't that dark, because of the shining stalacites above. Arthur was there, looms emptily like a mere ghost. Ahead of him is the familiar gold-and-red sword that he knew so bad.

   Clarent, the sword that took his life by Mordred.

   "What do they mean... I know that I was not fully human to even start with it. My father and Merlin made me as a hybrid of human and the dragon that forms our family name. A perfect heir. I don't want to hurt them, but why..." he says to the utter silence of the underground

   "That entity called me as half of a hero but also half of a phantom," the King continues, the glow of the stalacite reflects to his icy eyes

   The only answer is the distant chain shackles. A signal that Morgan is awaking inside him. But, she wasn't trying to take over his body, instead he feels that she was behind him.

   Dear little brother, you should be grateful. Not much can reach that such state.

   "How could I? Even if they dare to look on my actual form... I can't stand to be called as a monster again..." he regretly said, gritting his teeth

   The slight wind blows near him, as if he can feel Morgan is brushing her hand onto his jaws.

   Not all creatures are meant to be perfect from the start, dear Arthur. Even someone like you. That friends of yours must be the same.

   He looks down, to his bare fists.

   I want to see how you overcome that battle fatigue. Welcome them all inside here and then you can show them the truest magic that father planted it inside your soul. And then, you could make their blood boils to kill you down. Is that what you want, right?

   Arthur knows that he can't turn away from what Morgan wants him to do. Or else, she might turn him into that form he feared so much. The blonde King of Knights looks up, to the sword that once killed him before.

   Raising his voice, he announces,"Let them come. Let them test themselves if someone here truly worthy on killing me, once again."

  He can feel that Morgan is smirking widely behind him, as he follows exactly what she wants. Even if now he wakes with a new vision about his third climax, he now has to steel himself for what's coming.

  The sixth Perfomance continues, with the cast are preparing for the absolute worst, for the turns and twists that the ones behind the curtains had concocted, for reaching the King's deserved ending. . .

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Chapter Text

   Mitsuhide finds himself standing on a vast burnt land, smelt of fire and corpses. He knew that he was supposed to be asleep during the first night on Britain, but how the hell did he got into the battlefield so quick? Or did someone tries to bother him through his mind?

   Suddenly, a huge human-like shadow with dragon wings made of fire and lightning emerges on top of the huge pile of corpses ahead of the samurai general, causing him to quickly draw his katana. The setting sun is too bright for him to see, but he can see the familiar outline of the sword who's glowing bright yellow.

   It roars viciously, yet it has a distinct human voice, trying to take back its own body. Mitsuhide realizes, that he was shown the final battle of Arthur by the lands of Camlann through his dreams. And yet, he cannot even move a muscle of the horrid form who were looking at him with its glowing blue eyes. The perfect description of how a human and dragon hybrid would look like.

   "That, is the true form of my father. You're the only one that I've chose to ever see this."

  Mitsuhide turns around to his back, and seeing a man with the same pale blonde hair and icy-blue eyes. But instead he has silver-gold-red attire and armour, and a sword with gold details and a winged red ruby by the handle on his right hand. He was beyond bloodied, as if he's going to be dead at any second. Mitsuhide sees the wound on the knight's abdomen, and immediately remembers.

   "Are you..."

   The man closes his eyes, "No need to say my name. I was wrong to ever revolt from my father and caused all of this chaos. Just like Morgan said, my father is a monster."

   That perfect King of Knights, was really a monster? That changes all of his perspectives regarding things that could happen inside the Theater.

   Mordred moves his hands to give the sword to Mitsuhide, "I'm going to choose you, to relieve my father's pain, and end this stage immediately. Pull my sword from his possession by the deepest underground, and I'll be accompanying you."

   "Wait, wait. Why me? You could've picked someone else?" Mitsuhide decides to ask

   The young knight only smiles sadly, "I guess there's someone like me on your group. A someone who know the truths regarding those who call themselves phantoms."

   "I don't understand."

   Before something pulls Mitsuhide back to the reality, he can hear Mordred is saying something, but quickly cut off due to the scenery immediately zaps into black...

   "He is a half—..."

   "...Mitsuhide! Hey! Wake up!"

   From the distance, he can hear someone is waking him. The magenta-eyed general jolts up from his sleeping position above a simple makeshift camp bed, and seeing Sherlock and Rossweisse are looking at him.

   "S-Sherlock... I just had a damn nightmare..." Mitsuhide says

   The detective moves up and helps Mitsuhide standing, "Would be very helpful if you dreamt something regarding him."

   Affirmed, he replies, "Actually, I do."

   Sherlock turns to him, eyes wide in shock. "What kind of dream? Is it about the battle?"

   Mitsuhide then crisply laughs, "Gosh, Sherlock, you do know how to read my mind. Yes, I had a dream about it."

   But, the green-haired detective remains a serious expression as he say, "We need to get inside somewhere safe, stat."

   As the others got inside Marie's summoned alternate reality, Mitsuhide then retells of the strange nightmare he had. The atmosphere among them was really tense from the glimpse of the cruel truth of this Performance and the Theater in general.

   "He said that there are someone who knew the truth about those phantoms... That's why I've been suspicious on you," Mitsuhide ends his retelling, immediately points to the bespectacled tall gentleman

   Dracula, upon the accuse, only grins while fixing his glasses, "Good observation you had there, Akechi Mitsuhide. Indeed, as you said, I knew things about the Theater..."

   He continues, now the grin disappears, "...Or more like, I knew and had seen everything."

   The others only silent, eyes wide, and on the brink of shock and mistrust.

   Thinking that hiding it is no more, Dracula starts to explain, "From the start, these two terms are the unspoken rules of this war. You are the ones who were called great leads of the past, while the ones who were called the phantoms always succeed on blending among the great leads, like myself and Rossweisse."

   "In the past, we were supposed to fight each other. Because each terms has its own advantages and disadvantages. But now, we felt that the rules had changed. Even though the two terms still stand now, an odd someone could be the half among the great and the phantom. If that someone is our enemy, we need more than our rivalry to gain victory."

   Rossweisse then interprets, "What Dracula means... is that Arthur was that half."

   Collective gasps rings through the Hall of Mirrors. Sherlock grits his teeth, now that he has no other option but to fight Arthur because he was a potentially lethal enemy.

   "She is right. Arthur is that odd case of being half a great lead and half a phantom who were resurrected this time. Thankfully, I had the perfect weapon for this kind."

   "Wait, does the Clarent doesn't work on him?" Cleopatra ask

   "It does work, but halfs like him had gained immortality inside their Performances, hence why you two cannot hurt him even once back then," Dracula explains again, while looking at Nobunaga and Queen of Hearts

   "Can I ask a question? How does someone here be referred as a great lead or a phantom?" Jeanne decides to ask

   Dracula only looks at the petite valkyrie, and she answers, "History and fairytales. If you were a great lead then you are a hero or a historical figure from the past, and if you were a phantom then you came from a fairytale book."

   "That means, me and the detective are a phantom?" Queen of Hearts immediately snaps

   Dracula nods, explaining again, "I'm afraid it is. But, we do all know that each term has its own advantages. I'm sure you all know that already, the powers that had given by the Theater and all of its quirks."

   "Hey, can you tell us about that weapon? It might help with my plan to defeat him," Sherlock recompose himself

   Once again, Dracula nods, "Well of course. And I'll give each one of you a role on our upcoming battle."

   The discussion goes all night, as they formed a plan. A very risky plan that everyone needs to work together for this plan. As the greats separates to think of the role that both Sherlock and Dracula had assigned, the magenta-eyed detective was deep in his thoughts.

   ' It's really risky, as I expected. My role is to paralyze him with my Eyes of the Final Answer, but do that even work on him...? '

  But, he has to try, no matter how concerned he is on whether his magic would work on Arthur who was a half, or not. Others had their own roles, but apparently Dracula specifically chose the ones who have royalty traits and those who personally fought him in the previous Performances.

   ' I shouldn't really trust him, but he seems to be honest of what he said... ' Sherlock thinks, before proceeding to do a quick shut eye

   The sun rises upon the lands of Britain, a few hours after the discussion. The bright sun shines over the lush pastures and forest and of course the ruins of Camelot. It reeks of fire and blood, like a looming monster upon its approaching death. After a quick breakfast inside Marie's alternate reality, they were off the ruins.

   They were no signs of people left, as if they had flee to neighboring kingdoms, yet there's no one as if Camelot are now forgotten. Going back to the ruins making some of them becoming emotional, like Marie. But, they arrived right at the end of this story, a Performance to put a conclusion.

    Cleopatra, who got a heads up by turning into a falcon, sees everything from above. The scorched lands that were from Camlann had reached the other outskirt entrance of the city, and there's no signs of the King of Knights that is dressed in orange-gold, white and black. As others grew in worry of the revealed truth, they continue to scout through the abandoned city.

    ' I can't afford to see myself inside that cage of blades once more... since he won't let go this time... ' Mitsuhide suddenly feels himself shudder on this weird Britain weather

   As the navy-haired samurai general walked past through a tall pole with the Camelot flag, he thinks again, ' But, I'm curious at the same time. If Arthur was a half, do they insert something inside his magic circuits to interrupt his genuineness? '

   "Like double personality, if I must take a guess?"

   Mitsuhide lets out a tiny gasp, as Sherlock immediately talks behind him.

   "For the Gods' sake, you kept creeping me out," Mitsuhide says in annoyance

   But, what the detective said piques his interest. The samurai general then ask, "A double personality?"

   The detective nods lightly, "Indeed. But, his trace of whereabouts of his double personality is too weak so I cannot sure of that, yet."

   "I'm glad I'm not the one," Jeanne also heard their conversation and decides to give her insight as well, "I noticed that he was quite different. Normally he would talk very regal-like yet so familiarly, but all I can hear is coldness on our first meeting..."

   "Have any idea?" Mitsuhide turns to Sherlock again

   Tugging his detective hat, Sherlock concludes, "No certain answer. Even if he do has a double personality, the Theater must've done a really good job on hiding it all this time."

   Without realize, they arrived by the main entrance of the Camelot castle. Everyone had their weapon manifested onto their hands, but the main entrance was beyond empty of presence.

   "This is strange. We waltzed through the main entrance and still no presence of him," Nobunaga comments, looking around

   Leonardo then asks to the daimyō for reassure, "You sure you wanna fight him again? Not a great chance if we met him here today..."

   The scarlet-eyed man scoffs before sending a smirk to the castle ahead, "Sure. This time I'll take him down for real."

   "But it is better to keep proceeding to our plan. We'll go underground," Dracula reminds the other greats of their initial plan

   The glittery turquoise falcon lands to the ground, and the sparkles turned Cleopatra back into her human form.

   "The entrance is over there, just by the huge flag pole. And yup, no signs of him, even inside the castle."

   "Good then, let's go quickly!" Leonardo commented and ushers everyone else to move

   But, Marie realizes that Rossweisse isn't here with them. So, she returns to the entrance and tries to find her. The valkyrie somehow left a trail of mana energy so that someone can follow it to locate her. Marie skillfully follows the trail, while trying to stay hidden. The trail leads her to go farther to the woods' entrance.

    ' What is she doing here inside the woods? ' Marie thinks, doesn't want to enter it since she might got lost here

   But, wait a minute. She heard something. Someone's talking inside there.

   "Why are you inside the woods, Arthur? Or no... You're not him." Rossweisse sounds very wary, and Arthur is inside there?

   Marie gathers her bravery, and steps inside the woods at last. But only for a few steps because it's getting clearer of what the two said.

   "How do you know?" Arthur replies back, he sounds really cold

   "All I know about your legend is that you were born to be a mere puppet for your father's sake."

   Marie can hear a huge thud and a sword unsheathed. A puppet? What is she talking about? Arthur brandishes her sword, pointing at the valkyrie.

   "It seems that both of you are struggling to control his body. Who am I speaking to now?" Wary yet calmly, Rossweisse asks again

   Both? Is there someone else with them?

   "It is true that I was made by my father and Merlin to become his successor, but puppet is really a rude thing to say," The King says again, this time he sounds normal, regal and gentle

   "But, do anyone else from your family know this fact? Perhaps someone who also acknowledges that?"

   Lowering his sword, he replies, "There is someone."

   "Why don't you come out then?" Rossweisse ask, her voice is getting colder and distant

   "You sure are different, valkyrie. Yes, I do acknowledges everything about him as his precious older sister. But, this time I won't let him ends in a tragic way..." Arthur says, his ice-blue eyes coldly stares at the valkyrie

   ' Older sister?! ' Marie's eyes gone wide as she heard that fact

   The King turns to his back, and say again, "Now leave. Unless you want to meet your death earlier."

   Rossweisse turns around and walk away. The King of Knights also walks deeper inside the woods, after somehow he got sheathed his sword. Marie needs to tell this to everyone else, right now. But, it seems the white-haired maiden knew her presence already.

   "Aaaaah! You're scaring me!" Marie yelps, but quickly covers her mouth so that it doesn't heard anywhere else

   Rossweisse doesn't bothered with her so she say, "So you heard... everything."

   Marie can only nod.

   "I heard Sherlock's conversation about Arthur might has a double personality, so I looked for him and see it for myself."

   Marie continues, "Rather than a double personality, there is someone else controlling him?" And Rossweisse nods in agreement

   Suddenly, Marie thought of something and immediately arise to her feet. "Morgan le Fay!"

   Rossweisse puts her gloved hands to cover the pink-haired queen. ' She'll hear you. '

   "F-Forgive me!" Marie apologizes, her voice muffled

   The petite valkyrie sighs and sent a telepathy to her, ' Dracula sent me out here to look for him, in case we haven't retrieved Clarent yet. You should get back to the others. '

   ' But, you sure need a friend...? ' Marie ask, somehow not sure of whether she should head back to the castle scouting or stay with her

   Rossweisse lets go of Marie, ' I'm fine by my own. ' She continues, ' If so, I don't want to danger you by following me. '

   "Marie! Where are you? Have you seen Rossweisse?" a familiar voice calls out from woods' entrance

   Billy came to search for them. Rossweisse moves away from Marie and about to head towards where Arthur walked to.

   ' I'm sure you can come up with an answer if he's asking of where am I, ' she say, before she sprints further inside the woods

   Before she could called the valkyrie, Billy arrives. The two then head back, of course with Marie lying that she doesn't see her. Since there, the France queen wonders of why Rossweisse and Dracula works so hard outside the scene, or is this what they do normally inside these Performances? To know what their enemies' weaknesses are and use it to kill them.

   "Enough meddling with this body's consciousness, Morgan," Arthur say irritatedly, as he once again woke up on the dimmed hall and the distant chain sounds

   "But that valkyrie knew," Morgan replies from the shadows, seemingly upset as well

   The pale blonde King stands up and scolds again, "You told her too much. Phantoms like her would only use that information to end this Performance."

   Morgan's chains shackles again as she moves by the darkness, "Guess that phantom part of yours urged me to told her that then."

   Arthur is forgetting that he was a half. He only looked down. "You're right..."

   "Held your head high, dear little brother. We better prepare for once they reached underground and pull that sword off."

   Maybe Arthur should've wished for him to fully take over his body with no one else controlling it instead. That witch surely enthusiastic, due to her frequent movements that came from the chain shackles. Even though that chains exists to chain her down, she still freely doing things inside here. What she meant preparing, is that she's gonna release the sleeping dragon that was infused into his magic circuits.

   "Morgan," Arthur's voice rings through this dimmed hall, affirmed yet gentle

   The shackles stops. "Yes, dear little brother?"

   "What you said to Rossweisse—about that you won't let me end tragicly like this, and that you loved me for that—is it true that you meant that?" The blonde King ask, trying to make sure

   All phantoms do is to lie.

   Of course, he knew that what she said to the valkyrie is just a lie.

   But, he never hear what Morgan say about that question... Only distant footsteps and chain shackles that's resounded. Arthur looks up to the huge halo of light above the hall, it's so bright...

   "Is this.... the Round Table?" Shocked, the detective barely can ask anything to the others

   "How is it split in half? It must took so much force to split a stone table like this," Cleopatra say, as she crouches down to observe it

   "We need to hurry, the faster we get the sword, the faster this Performance to end," Jeanne advises, gaining agreement from the others

   Dracula, who were on the end of the line, touches the stone table, and all of a sudden the images of the Camlann battle and when the Knights left him, burned onto his mind. He understands of how much Arthur's suffering inside his legend, but he thinks that this was very wrong also. Still keeping it to himself, he also left the table to keep up with them.

   "The entrance is right there," Cleopatra points to an opening ahead

   And which is a huge crater that leads to the darkness below. 

   "Any signs of concealment magic?" Mitsuhide cranes his neck to look over the huge crater that's literally holed this castle apart

   "Faint traces of it, but I can't see what's on the bottom," Billy answered

   Rossweisse appears from the hallway behind them using her teleportation. 

   ' I found him. And you're right, Morgan is steering his conciousness, ' Rossweisse reports to her tall vampire companion

   Dracula nods, as he continues to share telepathic conversation with her, ' Good. When should we tell them? '

   ' Hey, it's not nice to share informations secretly like that, ' the two white-haired phantoms turned around and see Queen of Hearts that's folding her arms in annoyance

   ' Forgive our habit right here. '

   The monarch says, this time she carries a tone of threat to it, ' You better tell them now or else they would be sitting ducks down there. '

    "Everyone, listen up. Before we head down there, we had some new informations," Also heard that telepathic conversation, Sherlock decides to put a pause on the greats' current doubt

   "What else you got this time?" Nobunaga ask, as the others turns away from the crater

   Judging from how intense Queen of Hearts and Sherlock stares at him, Dracula left with no choice to spill the secret information, "I have guessed that most of you've the heard the name Morgan le Fay already."

   "What did Arthur's half-sister do to be tangled in all of this shits?" the scarlet-eyed daimyō ask again

   "She was the phantom counterpart that forms who Arthur Pendragon was right now after the Theater resurrected him."

   "Two souls in a body? That's impossible," Leonardo commented

   Hushedly, Rossweisse answers to the genius' question, "Impossible is not on their dictionary. If they wanted to, their magic can make one."

  "So, the part that we're fighting was Morgan's all along? How about Arthur then? Can he fight back from the inside?" Jeanne worrily asks, and recieves a shoulder pat by Queen of Hearts

   "That's what we would see down there," Sherlock finishes

   "I think we all understand our enemy now. Rossweisse, take us down there."

   The petite valkyrie nods. She clasps her hands and pray, "O' great Odin, may you hand me the power to move ourselves..."

   And all of a sudden, all of them zaps into disappearance because of her teleporting them to the underground of the castle. Not until a moment later, they are arrived there and immediately looks around, to see nothing within this dimmed background. But, Clarent is also within reach, shining gold and ruby-red—as if the sunlight reaches down here.

   "Look, Clarent is over there. Mitsuhide, we must be quick," Sherlock nudges over the magenta-eyed general

   Mitsuhide nods, and moves closer to the pile of armour, steeling up his will while on it. He heard from the back that Sherlock is telling everyone else to get ready to commence their operation plan. The samurai general moves closer and closer and felt that his feet nudges the armour pile, possibly buried Mordred's body down there.

   It felt like hours, as he moves his hands to take hold of the hilt. Without wasting no more time, Mitsuhide pulls out the sword. All of a sudden the dimmed underground space zaps into the burning lands of Camlann once again, just like what he saw on his dream.

   "O' warrior from the faraway lands, it seems that you've took hold of my sword. I'm going to ask you once again, will you be sure to use that to end my father's suffering?" Mordred's hushed yet calm voice resounds once again, though Mitsuhide cannot see him

    Looking down to the sword on his hand, Mitsuhide affirms his choice, "If that's what it needed, then I would not hesitate."

   "As I expected. May luck be on your side—"

   The burning scenery zaps once again into the castle's underground space, as a heavy gush of wind disturbs his vision. Mitsuhide opens his eyes from covering it with his arms. Arthur emerges from the heavy smoke curtain, his eyes are glowing sky-blue.

   "Arthur..." Sherlock mutters, from behind Mitsuhide

   The King of Knights speaks, coldly, "Let's settle this matter quick. It seems that you've chosen by him to possess his sword."

   "Yes. And I'm going to end this Performance and you too," Mitsuhide replies

   ' With Rossweisse' support, I can match to his speed in about two minutes. Would that do? ' Sherlock asks

   Mitsuhide nods, ' More than enough. We're counting on you. '

   Arthur, who temporarily take control of his body, can only smiles in gratitude. He then felt a strange breeze caressing his shoulders. Morgan may not having a physical body, but to him her presence is more than real.

   Well then, dear Arthur? Shall I take over?

   ' Yes. I made my mind. '

   That smile turns into a smirk, as suddenly Arthur's body were engulfed in a yellow light, accompanied with blue lightning. Sherlock discards his detective hat, and pulls out his thin blade who's soon to be coated in a bluish light. Rossweisse gave him two petals of her red flower, so the mana boost is surely helpful for him.

   The two British greats blasts ahead and proceed to chase each other. Arthur's sword soon engulfed in a yellow and blue light, and he used it to send a few mana surge towards Sherlock. The detective felt his run is light as air, as he uses his enhanced eyes to detect the incoming surges. The mana boost gained almost teleportation-like energy so Sherlock appears behind Arthur.

   Almost as fast as light speed, Sherlock twirls his blade and about to stab Arthur from behind. But, being associated with speed also, the King evades with a swing of his sword. Arthur stomps his foot to the ground to anchor his movement, for his next swing. But, Sherlock evades it also by jumping back. The detective then throw his blade, but quickly bounces due to hitting Arthur's left arm armour.

   Once again, Sherlock takes a run to prepare his finishing move. Morgan who took control of Arthur's body had no idea of what he would come up next.

  "Wherever you are, I'll have my eyes upon you—!" Sherlock exclaims, as his magenta eyes glows

Eyes of the Final Answer!

  Arthur paused for a bit as he looks onto Sherlock's glowing eyes, but then he feels of something must've taken his body into a pause, rapidly. Sherlock used this chance to once again throw his blade to Arthur. The blade itself has infused with Leonardo's mana boost, so the impact is equals to a harsh kick. The King of Knights used his sword to held back that huge impact, but it's stronger than him so he blasted backwards, and seeing that his movements starts to rig.

   Sherlock takes the blade and runs again to perform it for the second time, since one time wouldn't be enough. But, the King is faster to respond by letting some surge of his mana energy to erase the traces of that almost petrification from Sherlock. He skids to stop, and was in pure shock that it wasn't work, just like what Dracula said.

   "Still too slow for you, Sherlock?" Arthur asks from his behind, and about to swing again

   Raising his blade to hold the sword back, Sherlock replies, "Turns out you knew about the Eyes?"

   "My dear little brother told me everything. I wanna see something that even him hasn't seen yet," the sky-blue eyed witch sneers, as Sherlock decides to jumps away and lands on the already damaged ground

   The Excalibur shines golden, as he unleashes a huge wave of fire and electrical mana surge. Meanwhile, Leonardo and Billy are getting ready to be the next to attack. All Sherlock need to do is to lure Arthur to the shooting range. Arthur leaps to chase the detective, closing to the range. Leonardo summons his weapon portal and Billy aims his magnum pistols.

   "Come back here!" Arthur shouts, sends another wave of mana surge to the escaping detective

   "Now!" Sherlock shouts

   Leonardo and Billy shots on the hanging stalactites, so that it would fall on him. Swiftly, Arthur evades the falling stalactite debris, and manages to catch Sherlock's shadow through the curtains of dust, and he turns to send a huge wave again, causing Sherlock to nearly can't escape this one. Luckily, Rossweisse immediately saved the three that was on site. The mana surge makes the entire underground rumble, and fell deeper below.

   As Arthur falls to the below, he caught Queen of Hearts on the other side. The monarch of Wonderland seemed very furious yet enthusiast of her rematch. The King of Knights blasts his way to the Queen, and she uses her scythe to held the huge impact. Violently, she was thrown very far, and Arthur is once again using his enhanced speed to charge towards her, but this time she won't let herself to be battered again, so she summons the big black shadow from her climax move to slam him to where Nobunaga is.

   Arthur didn't saw that coming, so the big black shadow swings the enormous scythe to slam down the King. Luckily, he regained his focus after a split second, and see Nobunaga is taking a stand to swing his fiery katana at him. Arthur lands to a rocky debris, and the two heavily strikes each other. The two leaders are considered strong swordsmen, so every time their swords met it let out a very loud metal clang.

   Nobunaga manages to take the upper hand, by slamming Arthur very far behind. Nobunaga leaps to catch up so that he could strike again, yet the King lets out an enormous mana surge, causing the surrounding area to burn and explodes. Nobunaga felt himself are being pulled inside a portal, and emerges on another side where Queen of Hearts is. Quickly, he grabs her to evade another of Arthur's deadly swing by jumps up. Rossweisse again came onto the scene, to save them by summoning her portal.

   Being a valkyrie, Rossweisse is also granted light-as-feather steps so she leaps through the floating debris inside this supposed bubble dimension easilt. Her flower glows red, and then turns blue, to signal her ability change to summon the Frost Bind. Cleopatra is the next to attack Arthur, by sending her Arrow of Silencing Forgiveness to him, and each of the two arrows that hits Excalibur vibrates the entire dimension. Cleopatra emerges from Rossweisse' portal, with the Staff of Seth on her hands.

   Her task is to at least make Arthur bleed, so that she could return to Dracula to commence the finishing move of this operation plan. The two fights very violently while maintaining balance against this floating debris. Cleopatra also infuses Horus' soul to hers so that she could easily levitate herself. Arthur finds this very difficult to bring the pharaoh down, as he swings his sword. With brute force, Cleopatra twirls her staff and hits him by the head. 

   Arthur summons the enormous mana surge again, making the underground dimension glows in a yellow light. Cleopatra was beyond shocked of how is he manages to let out such large amount of mana energy in a short time. But, she has no time to waste, as she dismissed Seth's Staff and the Chains of Geb emerges on her hand, glowing gold.

   Cleopatra and Rossweisse had their chains throughout the bubble dimension, and even it manages to catch on Arthur's right hand. Both of their chains shone gold and frost blue, a complete contrast to this relatively dimmed dimension. The chains pulls Arthur straight to the ground in high speed. Cleopatra immediately leaps up to where Dracula is and hands him her staff that drips of Arthur's blood.

   "Is one drop enough?" Cleopatra ask

   Dracula nods, as he takes off his glasses and puts it inside his blazer vest. "Indeed it's enough."

   He continues, as his red eyes glows. "I call upon thee, a curse that struck the brightest of day and the darkest of night!"

   Arthur's blood floats on top of air, as Dracula bits his finger and let his own infused with the King's drop of blood. Soon, the drop glows into a reddish blob. But, Arthur arrives at the scene, completely off from the two set of chains.

   "You shall end here," Morgan sneers, as she controls Arthur's body once more

   He takes his stand and again Excalibur is engulfed in a golden light. The mana surge once again shatters the ground again, and it's so bright that Dracula barely can see what is ahead of him. This is where Jeanne and Marie comes in, to protect him by casting their climax moves. Both of them are graced with fortress-like magic, so they are a perfect combination.

   "With this flag, I call upon the light of liberty," Jeanne prays, stabbing her glowing lance to the ground

   "I shall show you, the Revolution of rage!" Marie exclaims, as a summoning circle appears when she reached out her hand that's holding her wand

   An translucent wall of cavalry men emerges from the ground, and surrounding the three is the Plaza of Revolution. Dracula's reddish blob continues to zaps here and there, taking shape. Arthur jumps, as he felt his body is being taken by the dragon who is awakened inside him, and wings made of fire and lightning emerges.

   ' What is that.... form? ' Jeanne thought

   ' It's so scary... ' Marie tries to not shiver on the reveal

   "Shall not be frightened, pray for your last wish under the mercy of the land eternally bloomed with flowers....!!!"

Storm of Camelot, Final Movement:

D'Arc la Liberté!!!

   The wall of cavalry men shines and charges forward. The surrounding area is also wrapped into a dome, with the Plaza in the background, as Marie also shouts out her move,

Place de la Révolution!

   The Excalibur turns into a lightning lance, and Arthur also shouts out the Final Movement of his climax, with him literally glows bright like a sun,

Avalon's Last Wish!

   He throws the glowing lance to the magical fortress, as enormous surges of mana energy directly hits them. Jeanne and Marie grunts in pain, as the two layers of fortress is decreasing rapidly. But, they kept standing and summons a new layer to covers the damage. The red blobs turns into a red summoning circle, as Dracula pulls out a sword that's entirely colored in blood-red.

   "No one can escape this curse, neither you are an immortal or no—"

Blestemul Muritorului!

   Dracula blasts off, making Jeanne and Marie's fortresses to break. His summoned sword that was supposed to break a creature's immortality, lets out a red surge of mana energy, easily dominating the course of battle. The sword hits Arthur's chest, and the two of them got thrown onto the surge by blasted off to the other side.

   It causes a huge explosion, and Dracula lets go of the sword and got crashed. Arthur also crashes down, the zaps of lightning comes out from him. It seems the curse works really well to force Morgan away from controlling Arthur's body. And it ends with Mitsuhide, running to where the dying King is. He raises Clarent high, clenching his teeth.

   Weakly, Arthur calls. "Mitsuhide...?"

   The samurai general stabs the sword to Arthur. He only smiles, as he remember this sudden pain.

   "Now, you can let go of your past..." Mitsuhide says

   He didn't say another word, as the King of Knights closes his eyes. The Performance ended with a wave of weird silence, as the other greats gather after this very intense battle.

   "Dear little brother, I have disappointing you. Your friends is truly pulling you out from this darkness..." Morgan say, carries the tone of sorrow

   Arthur only faces the darkness ahead of him, "The light suits me better, as they said."

   Her pale, almost corpse-like hand, reaches out from the darkness of this ballroom, and put it on his right cheek.

   "They are right. I will always be here, if you need my support. That's what can I do, as your precious older sister."

   Morgan continues, "And I meant it."

   The ballroom fades into white. The blonde King thinks, that must be the answer to his question. Though he would miss her, but having her around would very hazardous for his body and magic circuits. The Theater is surely harsh and having no mercy...

   Just before he suddenly losing his consciousness, he saw Avalon—the land where the flowers bloomed infinitely. A familiar outline of a young man with gold-and-red armour is standing there. He looked so bright, that he cannot see. That's right...

   Mordred do loved him and tries to stop him from rampaging because of his powers, but Arthur is blaming himself for not even looking at him before....

Chapter Text

   Arthur intently stares on his summoned Excalibur. He is still in recovery after his Performance, due to extreme exhaustion and extreme output of his mana energy. The Holy Sword keeps glowing, without any trace of chipped or cracked— yet he knew that even this sword can shatter if ever he loses control again.

   The door to his room was knocked. Swiftly, with a swipe of his hand, Excalibur disappears into million golden sparkles. He turns around to the door.

   "It is me, I came to visit you..." a familiar hushed voice called from the other side of the door

   Arthur stands up, and replies, "Y-Yes, you may come in."

  The door opens, revealing Rossweisse. The valkyrie scans her eyes upon his room, very neat and he seemed to really like on making use of the sunlight to properly light up his room. 

   "Are you fine, after Dracula uses his Blestemul Muritorului on you?" Rossweisse ask, her voice has a slight worry

   "I am fine, thank you for asking. Why don't you sit down, I'll bring us tea," Arthur says, as he stands up from his bed

   Rossweisse tugs on Arthur's sleeve, and shook her head. She then mutters, "No need."

   The King seemed to understand, "Were you worried about Dracula? Can you tell me why?"

   The shine on her emerald eyes fadened, as she explains, "After a while, he refrained himself from drinking blood. Even though the hooded people are kindly enough to offer him their blood, but he refuses it and gone for animal blood instead."

   "That must've drained lots of his mana energy. That curse, it forced Morgan out like my body was torn into two," Arthur explains, clutching the spot where Dracula stabbed him before

   Arthur then continues, "Then, how was him now?"

   "He had received mana transfer, and a total bedrest right after we arrived on the mansion."

   But, the blonde King was worrying about that said weapon that can rip off someone's immortality, that can be useful to take out the main lead of these Performances. On the other hand, all of them seemed to having new kinds of abilities, including himself. Avalon's Last Wish... Rather than a blissful dream that can finally lead him into an eternal slumber, it's a horrible nightmare. Without realize, the petite valkyrie had already left his room. No wonder Rossweisse likes to creep the hell out the others, she really is stealthy. Arthur looks again to the window, now there's a new question on his head.

   Who Rossweisse really was, behind that mask of a war maiden that came out from the Norse mythologies? If Dracula who already showed his true self as a phantom that terrors the stage, then how terrifying she would be?

    "This is odd for you, to stare out the window when the sun's still up," Queen of Hearts say, as she turns from a corner to see Dracula is staring to the window

   Though, he takes stand on the shadowed part of the hallway, his golden eyes are fixated to the world outside the window.

   Dracula answers, "As a monster, it is fair to long for the normal human world outside. Don't you think so, when you realising that this reality is the one you lived on now?"

   "That is true—But, that valkyrie told us to keep an eye for you to continue to rest. You should go back to your room," she reminded him

   The vampire lets out a small chuckle, when Queen of Hearts mentions of how Rossweisse approaches every single one of them to keep an eye for him if he ever escaped rest.

   "She is truly caring. If that is what she wished for, I shall go back."

   Before Dracula could walk past Queen of Hearts, the shorter monarch uses her cane to stop him. He gazes at her, who is staring back at him intently, as if there's more that she wanted to ask.

  "This is regarding that valkyrie, she kept making sure that you weren't using too much of your powers. The general boy also informs me of how worried she was when she knew about your attempt to escape the Romans. Were phantoms supposed to be that strong, hence why the King of Knights gone haywired?"

   Fixing his glasses' position, Dracula only smirks on Queen of Hearts' somehow detailed question. He was expecting someone like Sherlock would ask that instead. But, he likes to challenge the people he met, so instead of answering what it is, Dracula swiftly takes the cane and use to trap Queen of Hearts to the wall, using his body to cage her in.

   "H-How dare you! To do this to me!" If we're not bound to the no-magic rule, I would've killed you now!" Queen of Hearts fumes, trying to push back the tall vampire back

   "And if we have no rules regarding no usage of magecraft in this world, I would show you just how strong us were."

   Dracula pushes the cane back, causing her to suffocate on her breathing. He is right, the strength he held was very tremendous even if this was just using his raw powers to dominate this sudden fight, she could only imagine of how strong he was if ever he uses his magecraft in full swing. But, as a gentleman he is, he then lets go of the monarch. Her feet has no strength to support her, so she fell to the floor, heaving for breath.

   Dracula then reaches out his hand, and Queen of Hearts is using it to stand up. He then explains once more, "That is why she never lets me gone too far on you all. In the terms of the Theater, our kind was supposed to be able to overthrow the great leads. But, now's not the time to talk about it. Good day, Queen of Hearts."

   When Dracula left the hallway, Marie was about to walk pass them. He only gives the pink-haired queen a smile, and quickly walks away. Marie then sees the disheveled Queen of Hearts, shadowed by the nearby window.

   ' Overthrow... He told such word as if he's done that before, ' the monarch thinks, then reaches to her hair to fix it

   "Ah! Such good timing! I was just looking for you! I brought out a very delicious tarte tatin! How about we eat it together on the veranda?" Marie greets her, beaming with a sweet smile

   Queen of Hearts seemed to relax after that such rough engagement earlier, of course when it comes to sweets, she would comply.

   "Sure. Don't you waste my time," she agrees, and the two of them leaves that hallway, towards the veranda

   As the two queens walks their way through the mansion, Marie starts to feel uneasy. Is it just her or does the atmosphere is colder than she thought? The vermillion-eyed Queen looks to beside her, since Marie is clutching her arms as if she was cold.

   "Hey, you okay?" she asked to Marie

   Marie only shakes her head, "I am fine! The wind is pretty chilly today!"

   But, there's something that's been whispering onto her mind, causing her to shiver. A sentence from the past that keeps creeping onto her, even though that such thing weren't so true. . .

   Being a queen that wasn't even twenty yet, how could she rule the country if she doesn't know what to do rather than just spending heaps of the people's fortunes on feasts and dresses?!

   But, Marie tried her best to put that such thought aside, but why now?

   Marie lands herself to her bed, covering her eyes with her palm. She can't enjoy her afternoon tea with Queen of Hearts and Billy, when all of these insults she heard from her past are trying to make her vulnerable and accepting the Theater's invite.

   ' I don't want to... I don't want everyone to look upon my vulnerable self.... Go away! ' Marie telepathically says, to anyone who kept whispering to her

  「 I'm afraid that I can't stop on what's coming, Your Highness. 」

   She figured it, the echoing voice is back again, "The Theater's invitation.... If you invite us, why you using such bad memories..." 

  「 Once again, I can't answer that question. I can only announce that your cue to your Performance is here, my Queen. 」

   Marie rises herself up to a sitting position, that she can't get an answer to whoever the Theater send to commence her Performance here. "Then, what is the point? I died because of an execution, I'm not like Arthur who died a great battle! I'm still.... not ready...."

  「 So that was the problem... As always, Queen Marie, you're not ready to take whatever you were responsibled for. 」the echoing voice starts to lose their patience

    Marie grips upon her lacy dress, trying to not breaks down, "D-Don't talk to me like those noblemen speak of me—"

    Yes, you are right, my dearest. I'm just a young girl that is dragged to the court so early into her life, when she was supposed to enjoy her life by the gardens, reading books, exploring the outside, not to be chained by the royal titles that is left by your grandfather. I spent all this fortunes because I myself can't experience such thing on my age when I sat on that throne!

   "No! Not that!" Marie exclaims, her voice laced in fear, when she heard that exact words to her husband Louis XVI, just before they flee Versailles to Paris

  「 With a little pressure, even the toughest of kings and queens can break. Come, my Queen, commence the Performance, to find what's behind that famed title of yours? 」

   Marie breaks down by crying, hiding her pained face. The last light of the sun disappears, as a veil of uneasiness strucks the other greats, the next Performance is commencing.

   Behind the glory of the Palace of Versailles and the last ruler of that palace, there's more sadness than anyone could imagine. A forgotten story of a young queen who rises to the throne, missing the life she longed for. Could this Performance, can finally give her the peace she wanted to the past that's keep haunting her?