The Prince's Gamble.

Amidst the bloodied corpses of fellow Pathbearers around him, Veritas could only feel dejected by his own mistake!

He gambled, yet he failed!

The grovelling sight made him puke in fear. He saw the Puppeteer walking slowly towards him.

Although 10 had already fallen, Calida and Elisia were still alive, Calida had already given up to the sheer mental strain and Elisia was greatly wounded!

"Is this your so-called gamble?"

The Puppeteer mocked him, walking slowly as if taunting the Prince to make a move.

Behind the Puppeteer's broken weeping mask, lay a wide grin that laughed at Veritas' pathetic sight.

Veritas puked all-over the body of his dead comrades. This situation made him almost feel his sense of identity to waver. He began to feel his Soul fluctuate and take over.

Yet, Veritas focused on maintaining his Soul. Due to this, he could barely keep it whole, and the strain caused by using Storm Cut was finally taking effect.

The Puppeteer entered the slash sized hole in the metal wall, and walked on top of the bloodied bodies.

Veritas saw this mockery and rage filled within his inner heart. 

"...bastard." Veritas did not have the strength to speak out loud. He was bleeding due to the cuts caused by the strings. 

"Truly pitiful.. You are considered to be the Prince of this Great Kingdom? Pathetic."

The Puppeteer was slowly making progress on reaching Veritas, who was now crawling away from him. 

His white hair had been stained by bloody-red fluids, his blazer was tattered and cut, and his entire body was filled with deep red cuts. 

He felt that his end was coming..

In the end, all of them could not stop this singular rogue Pathbearer. It outsmarted Veritas at every aspect!

Veritas then felt his entire body freeze as if it were getting controlled.

"Now you are but a mere ant in the palm of my hands? I contemplate whether to kill you or not. I still have a couple of minutes left, I guess preparing a terrifying sight for them would be quite fun.."

The Puppeteer did not immediately plan to kill Veritas, but it wanted to show a great conclusion to his Soliloquy. 

So, Veritas' body floated up in the air, it seemed like he was getting positioned into a crucifixion. 

His hands were spread out, blood coming out of them, and his legs were tangled together. 

Veritas screamed in great pain due to his limbs being torn and broken. No individual should experience such a thing!

"That's right! Scream! Let everyone hear your agony!"

The Puppeteer had soon arrived in front of the crucified Prince. It conjured a spear made of strings and pierced through Veritas' abdomen.

"AAAAAAAHHH!!"

Veritas was agonized, his screams echoed loudly along the empty streets of Copper Borough. 

"Scream!" The Puppeteer pierce his legs.

"AAAAAAHH!!"

"Scream louder!" The Puppeteer pierced his chest.

"AAAAAH!!!" 

"Scream in agony!" The Puppeteer pierced his arms.

"AAAH!"

"And now.. fall." The Puppeteer pierced his neck.

With the Prince's lifeless corpse, the Puppeteer raised him up even more for everyone to see.

The Puppeteer raised its hands up and slowly bowed at the non-existing crowd. 

With that, the Puppeteer fully expected its ritual to be finished. As its Soul was already brimming in capacity. All the Puppeteer needed to do was to conduct a grand play.

So it did.. It was a Soliloquy of Strings and it had orchestrated it elegantly.

Thus, upon bowing, the Puppeteer waited for the moment that it would ascend its soul.

Yet that never came..

What came was two long cold metal rods piercing the Puppeteers back. The rods pierced the Puppeteer's back all the way to the abdomen.

"W-wha-"

The Puppeteer coughed up blood in its mask, and blood flowed down from its pierced abdomen.

Then, spikes from the ground pierced the Puppeteers legs.

It fell to the ground.

The Puppeteer's chest was shot by spiked rocks, piercing them deeply.

At this point, the Puppeteer was bewildered at the sudden situation. It looked above, searching for the crucified body of the Prince. 

Yet it seemed like the winds had swayed the body away. It seemed like an illusion, or.. a vision.

The world around the Puppeteer seemed to change. Before it was countless bodies and mangled corpses. But now, a white-haired and deep gold eyed Prince stood before him.

The Puppeteer's eyes widened behind the weeping mask.

Veritas grinned widely and mocked the Puppeteer's words.

"And now... fall"

A high-pitched noise echoed along the empty streets of Elrod, hitting an organic flesh. 

In a fraction of a second, a Puppeteer's head fell down the corpses of its tragic victims.

Its mash shattered due to the great impact, and within the Puppeteer's vision, was the Prince of Elrod, staring at it with a cold expression.

"Pathetic.." the Prince stated out loud. 

The Prince then turned its back on the Puppeteer's head and walked away from it as if it was not even worth the time to address.

The Puppeteer's vision gradually got darker until blackness was all that remained. 

*

After walking away from the Puppeteer's decapitated head, Veritas felt his knees weakened. He walked for a couple of seconds before falling down in exhaustion. His Soul was depleted, his mind was strained, and his body suffered immense pain. 

However, Veritas liked this pain. 

That pain made him feel the great scale of a battle and... the sweet taste of victory. 

Although there were 2 losses, the deaths of more lives were prevented. Veritas respected the two that fell from the strings of the Puppeteer.

With his gamble, Veritas and the Wielders finally took down the rogue Pathbearer. 

The plan that he conjured in a small amount of time was all about misleading the Puppeteer. 

Veritas knew that no one except for his Father, knew of his Path. So, Veritas decided to block the Puppeteer's vision in order for him to conjure a vision of his own. Veritas used Visionshaper to stay out of the Puppeteer's sight. 

And it worked!

Veritas conjured an illusion where everything and everyone had fallen to the Puppeteer's strings. With this, he and the other Wielders only had to wait for the moment that the Puppeteer would let its guard down.

After the humiliation faced by Vision Veritas, the Puppeteer anticipated its Soul ascending. But due to it only existing within a mere vision, that anticipation failed!

This was the moment when Lino pierced the Puppeteer's abdomen, followed by the individuals from group 2 to pierces its legs and chest!

Veritas stood in front of the Puppeteer and deactivated the vision. Using Wind Cut, he cleanly decapitated the Puppeteers head and broke its weeping mask.

"It worked.."

Realizing that the battle had been won, Veritas aimed to rest himself and close his eyes slowly. 

He heard faint voices in the background but chose not to care. For now, he was going to get some sleep. 

The mental strain that Visionshaper caused, made his mind feel all weird. It felt like Veritas was going on a nice peaceful sleep. 

So, amidst the bloodied bodies in the solemn streets of Copper Borough, the moon shone towards the body of a white-haired Prince.

Not knowing everything that went on in his surroundings, the Prince slumbered in tranquil. 

For now, he deserved a long-awaited rest.

Amidst that sleep, runes appeared in front of him, it said:

[You have felled a Pure Soul]

The white-haired Prince continued to snooze peacefully.

*

Inside the luxurious Gold Borough where moonlight basked the aesthetic structures of great architecture, the silence of the dark seemed all-too undisturbed.

It was midnight, and a black-haired 17-year old boy was sleeping peacefully in his bed. He looked very comfortable due to the softness of the bed's fabric. 

It seemed as if the boy couldn't be woken up by anything. 

He somberly laid on the bed, defenseless and oblivious to everything around him.

When suddenly, his eyes flew open, wide with astonishment.

The deep-dark pupils that looked like it was filled with void, stared at the light ceiling of his dark room. 

It looked fierce yet faced with pain. 

The pressure materialized inside the room, everything seemed to shake and objects began falling off the desks. 

"I've lost a part of my Soul."

The black-haired boy said so with eerie calmness in his voice. 

Echoing across the room, the tranquil silence was broken by the boy's calm voice. He continued speaking amidst the loneliness:

"It does not matter.."

The boy moved his fingers softly and the fallen objects from the desk suddenly went back to their rightful positions.

Then, the door inside the room suddenly opened! Coming inside was a middle-aged woman that looked to be the mother of the boy.

"Is everything fine, Lumen?"

The boy named Lumen stared back at his mother and softly spoke:

"Everything's good mother..."

"I see. Go to sleep, you have to go to the academy tomorrow."

"I will."

With that, the door closed and Lumen laid down on his bed once more. He made himself comfortable on the soft sheets of his bed and closed his eyes slowly.

"Prince Veritas.." He uttered silently in the darkness of the room. 

The coldness of the night echoed across the streets of Gold Borough, many footsteps that belonged to Wielders were heard as if they were rushing towards the direction of the main road.

But this was not of concern to Lumen..

As the moonlight shone on the streets of Gold Borough, Lumen fell into a deep slumber.