To Rescue King Artemis

While fights raged across Wasakona's capital. On the second floor of the temple, Karisa and Ireene attempted to reach the clock tower's room, while Kou and Tomomi attempted to make their way down to the escape.

Kou's and Tomomi's path was abruptly halted when they both heard a strange sound of footsteps rumbling through the halls. Kou dragged Tomomi into the corridor that had been cleansed of light before they continued down the stairs. He gently peered around the corner and was struck with a startling sight.

Ira was leading King Artemis up the stairs to the fifth story, which was meant to be the bell room of the clock tower. Kou and Tomomi stayed mute while listening to the voices. "It's Ira and King Artemis. Lord Byron's secretary. When I returned to Byron's room, I was perplexed. I was skeptical, and it appears that Byron had been notified about us before we entered the shrine."

"You geezer, hurry up. There is no time for you to take it easy. We're headed up to the clock tower, where you'll be held until everything is finished!" She palmed King Artemis into his back and pushed him forward without hesitation or pity. She made him speed up, which annoyed Kou.

"That scumbag. She's playing with his frail body as if it were a toy. They also didn't feed him well. It irritates me greatly to see how bad these folks were."

Tomomi instantly recognized that Kou held a vendetta against Ira and released her arm from his grip to catch his attention. She misled him into thinking Tomomi would return to Tim, but he eventually allowed her to explain herself.

"Ireene had requested our assistance at the time. I understand you want to find the king... Right? Let's track them down and follow them inside the room... Now is our chance to save him while we still have the chance."

"But, Tomomi. I DO want to help him, but I can't let Tim down. He requested that I take you to a doctor. As a result, that should be our first priority. According to what I've heard, we have a time constraint."

"A doctor is useless, it won't work on me. We have exactly fourteen days before my body completely evaporates. We don't have much time, but we have around 330 hours before that happens. I'm confident we'll be finished by tomorrow. We'll have plenty of time to locate something to replace the sword with. There's no difficulty as long as my spirit is linked to another object... However, it must be an object infused with another aura, therefore I can't just be linked to anything..."

"Two weeks... O-Okay, fine. But how are we supposed to rescue King Artemis while Byron's secretary is right next to him?"

"I may have an idea..."

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Codey stood at the desert's entrance to the realm. He was perplexed and searched for Elliott, but he couldn't find him. "I ended up searching the entire Southern and Western regions for him and have yet to find him. I either missed him someplace or I'm gazing in the other direction he took off."

An unexpected sound of footsteps began to be heard behind Codey. He was being approached by someone. It was a man in a brown shirt who wore a large cape over his garments and a hat on his head. With a slice of bread in his mouth, Marienne leaned against his left shoulder.

"Look at that. I found someone. Excuse me, were you the one who knocked this woman unconscious?"

Codey's ears picked up the man's words and he gently turned his head behind him, shocked, before turning his complete body around. The man threw the woman on the ground in front of them and crossed his arms while grasping the slice of bread in his right palms.

"No, I didn't. I don't even know what happened to her. Better yet, who are you supposed to be?"

The man chewed into the bread crust before swallowing it whole. He grinned and pulled out his revolver. That scared Codey, who immediately prepared and dragged out his boomerangs, but what happened next stunned him. Marienne's head was shot when the man pulled the trigger. Her final breath was taken at that very moment.

"Hey! What the hell was that for?! You shot her!"

The man knelt in front of Marienne and pressed his palm against her brow. He introduced himself by wiping the blood from Marienne's head. "I'm Joseph, a pirate with a $36,000,000 bounty on my head. I was told to eliminate you, just like this girl over here on the floor, because I'm quite aware of your invasion. She, like myself, was a servant under Lord Byron's command, but she was defeated and is now useless. She failed her objective and now faces only death."

"Just because she was defeated, you didn't have to kill her!"

Joseph soon began to channel some form of energy into the blood splash after opening his hand allowing the blood to pour down his finger. It began to expand in size until it reached the size of a building.

Codey was absolutely taken aback when he spotted the large splash's shadow blocking the sunshine that shined directly at him and realized that Joseph had thrown the massive splash of blood in his direction. He swiftly constructed a gateway behind which he concealed himself. He flung the second boomerang far away from the city, creating another portal in the distance. Blood began to flow into the portal in a tremendous splash. The blood teleported to a portal in the distance, where it flowed into the sand, and the portals vanished after that.

Codey then noticed Joseph crouching in front of Marienne, swiping his hand across her entire body. She shrank down to the size of a doll almost instantly. Codey's eyes shook as Joseph picked up Marienne's diminishing body and stuffed it inside his belt's bag.

"What did you do to her?!

He regained his balance and doubled the size of his slice of bread. He chuckled as he bit into it. He felt revitalized after filling his stomach with food.

"I assumed it was self-evident. I merely made her smaller. Oh, wait, you're not aware of my enhanced skill. Because of this, I've honed my talents to the point where I can change the size of whatever I touch, whether it's a real person or a lifeless object. Because I'm constantly hungry when it comes to food, I simply keep a slice of bread next to me throughout the day. I can consume it endlessly because I can adjust its size to whatever I choose. Of course, if it gets expired I just grab a new slice of bread. I performed the same thing to Marienne's body and the splash of blood."

"You still didn't need to kill that girl. She was supposed to be your ally, right?"

"She's useless now, as I already stated, because she lost to some moron. Besides, Lord Byron doesn't have time for scumbags like her. I must now eliminate you, if you don't mind. Simply following Lord Byron's orders."

"We'll see about that."

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Nina continued to assist Dr. Louree in her treatment of her pals, and was eventually allowed to let go of Elliott's torso and move back. "How long do you think it will take you to finish Ayuka? I'm very concerned."

"In the next few minutes, I should be finished. I was able to extract every single drug fragment, leaving only one. Meanwhile, keep an eye on Marienne's physique. The two of them fought hard, but Elliott didn't appear to want to kill her."

"I understand!"

Nina approached Marienne's unconscious body and examined her injuries. Although her symptoms weren't as severe as Elliott's or Ayuka's, she still required medical attention, which Nina was more than capable of providing.

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Ira entered the chamber with King Artemis after opening the door. She pulled him inside and took a key from the wall, which she stuffed into her pocket. "Stay here and don't try to flee, or I'll beat you to a pulp." She dug into her other pocket and pulled out a paper from her book. She took her scissors and rapidly cut them into small strips. They were thrown forward by her. The paper began to form the paper bars, eventually forming a paper cage in which King Artemis stood. She put them to the test to see if they were tough enough, and they were.

"There, this should do the job. Now if anyone tries to interfere these paper bars will prevent others from rescuing you."

As Tomomi slipped behind her, the door behind her slowly opened. Ira was never aware of her presence and continued to keep a close eye on both the cell and the king. Tomomi crept up behind Ira and flung open her hands. All five of her fingers began to discharge white energy trails that flowed smoothly and satisfyingly behind her.

"Spiritual Imprisonment..."

The white energy streaks rushed forward and wrapped themselves around Ira's body. "What the-?!" She couldn't get away and swiftly turned around to look behind her. "You brat! How did you get here?!" She struggled to break free from the white spirituality's trails, but every second she tried, the spirituality produced a tremendous jolt that shocked her entire body.

"Struggle will not set you free... Those traces are comprised of energy, thus breaking them with brute force will not suffice..."

She tried again, but the zapping and shocking cycle continued. It nearly knocked Ira to the ground, but she was just knocked down to her knees. "Kou, hurry!" Ira observed Kou's body descending from the ceiling and looked up.

"Ah!"

Kou smacked his heel against Ira's brow after raising his leg well above his head. It knocked her out and she collapsed to the ground without moving an inch. King Artemis, who was imprisoned, peered at them with wide eyes.

"Artemis, King! We've come to save you!"

Kou dashed forward and grabbed the paper bars. His palms were sliced and he began to bleed as he attempted to destroy them. He let go, felt the anguish, and moved back. "Kou, it's hopeless. It's bad to touch the paper. You'll simply end up injuring yourself for no reason."

"So, what?! We've come here to rescue you! There's no way I'm going to stop while I'm so close!"

Kou swiftly elevated his leg and kicked the paper's flat side. It was pointless because his foot simply slipped down it, causing him to tumble. He hurriedly stood up and tried again. "Damn it! Just go ahead and break!" Tomomi managed to steal Ira's key, which was the opener for his shackles, as he was fighting to destroy the cell.

Tomomi attempted it again, despite discovering a key. She attempted but failed to fit it through the keyhole on the paper. "It's the wrong key..."

Kou felt enraged and grabbed the side of the paper bars. He pressed his right sole onto the flat side of it and began pulling back, only to cut his palm more roughly. "Kou, stop! You'll end up cutting your entire hand if you keep doing this!"

"I don't care! I'm going to free you! Even if I lose my hands, I will!"

His fingers fell down the side of the page, and he drew both arms over the paper's side. He stabbed deeper into his palm and crashed to the ground. Despite his screams of anguish, he rose up and prepared to seize the cell once more.

"Kou! STOP!"

Tomomi snagged Kou's right hand just as he was about to fully hack his arm off. Kou's body was instantly filled with a melancholy emotion. He heard a lovely music and a soft voice. Tomomi used her own capacity to communicate with his inner spirit while his eyes were shaking.

"Kou, calm down. Forcing yourself to try and rip off the cell, will just harm you... Listen to my voice and relax... Consider what would happen if you completely harmed your body. You could contract an infection and experience a painful and delayed death. Alternatively, you could lose the nerves in your arms. You'll never be able to save King Artemis if that happens. You'll never be able to hug him as hard as you want. Please listen to my voice and calm down. All we have to do now is locate a key to the lock, and we'll be able to save him..."

Kou drove his anger out of his body. He lightened the grip onto the bars and stepped back with a solemn look. The drops of blood started to splatter on the ground as he finally understood how to rescue King Artemis.

"We are unable to locate the key. Because she built the cell with her own abilities, the only way to open it is to force her to manufacture the key. We can't, however, allow her to wake up. There has to be a different method to free King Artemis."

"There is... Look at that wall behind him. It is not walled off by bars. We'll create a hole if we can destroy it. If I build the stairs, we can get him down from here."

"But how are we going to get past the cell in front of him? These bars are in the way of our procedure."

"Leave it to me..."

Tomomi took a step forward and prepared to act.

To be continued...