Chapter 2

⟨The Next Day⟩

»Third Omniscient POV«

Thanks to the guidance of dark magic, Akuma and his opponent meet up in an empty and abandoned building without anyone else. The building is partially destroyed due to it being attacked by the other races. Furniture is strewn and broken about with blood spattered and corpses around. In the room where they will host their battle was a singular table with small walls to act as barriers between the battlefield and the playing zone. Shadow slithers up to the table with Akuma on his back. His opponent approaches the other side of the table. Looking at them, Akuma could tell it's a girl. The female isn't someone he is familiar with but he wouldn't be surprised if they knew of him. They had short purple hair combined with purple and white attire. Despite their human appearance Akuma knew better. She seemed to be holding a selfie stick, but she spoke into it as if she was recording a video or a live stream.

"Lights on, Cameras On, and Sparkle Sparkle!" She grins and winks into the camera. "Hello my beautiful stars! Welcome back to another live stream in the galaxy of this Vivi's channel! Today, we'll be playing Limelight Illusion! My opponent will be-" she pauses to present the camera at Akuma who briefly raises his hand.

"Akuma." He simply says. The girl looks back at her phone with a bright look on her face.

"Akuma! Will he best this purple star? Let's find out now~!" She holds her deck over the battlefield, initiating that she's ready to start, Akuma does the same. A faint dark purple surround the cards before the deck slides out of both of their hands. Both decks lose five cards and are laid on the appropriate side of the table. Akuma looks at the five cards, each face up and separate, showing the five pawns he conversed with yesterday. He glances at his opponent who sat down and propped up her selfie stick to record her cards and the battlefield. The decks start to shuffle separately in the air before being laid down at the appropriate spot on each side of the table. Two cards are lifted from each deck and laid out in front of the duelers. Akuma picks up the cards before looking at the scale. There's dark magic on the scale on his side. That means, he's starting the match. He looks at his cards.

"I summon Sol." He says, placing the card down. It emits a soft glow before Sol comes out.

He looked around, staring at the enemy dead on despite being a mere pond. "So this is who I'm dealing with? She's too loud. Obnoxious sounding and all."

Akuma lifts up both of his cards and he places them both down. "I give him these daggers and armor." The cards glow as a set of daggers emerges from one card, and leggings come out of the second card. Sol first puts on the armor before he grabs his daggers, gripping them in reverse, taking up a stance, and waiting for Akuma's command.

"End." Akuma rests his head on his fist as he watches the YouTuber look into the camera.

"If you guys have read the title then you all know that this is actually my biggest Collab yet! Now you might be wondering where the other YouTubers are! Well... I summoned YouTuber CoryxKenshin!" She says happily as she puts down a card. A black man with an afro came out. "And I summon a samurai sword!" She puts down a second card. Cory picks up the sword and looks at Sol, grinning confidently as he wields it.

"Aye sucka, you should've thought better before challenging the shogun himself." He says before chuckling.

"Challenging..?" He tilted his head confused "To challenge someone they'd have to be worthy of dying at my hands, and… well you're too weak.

"Oh? We'll see about that!" Cory shouted.

"Battle~!" Vivi commanded her pawn. Cory is seen charging towards Sol, his cocky grin changing to one of a serious expression as he focuses on slashing at his enemy.

He tilted his head watching the man approach him. Sol is seen vanishing, sending a knee to his gut and two wide gashes to his back. "Sorry but my team has lost very important people. I don't have time to waste on you."

The samurai grunted, sidestepped and finding an opening in Sol's armor, he sent his heel towards it to give himself an opening, following it by a side slash at Sol's ribcage. Sol's seen as he looked down at his sword, whilst the samurai went in for his slice he threw one of his daggers at his face. Taking quick notice of this, Cory ducked and instead tackled the cyborg, which earned an excited cry from the Youtuber.

"It seems Sol is trying to stop Cory from landing any critical blows! How smart and tactical! Will Sol succeed and strike this samurai down? Or will he fall to Cory's blade and will of iron?? Keep watching to find out!" Vivi says, trying to make it more interesting and fun for her viewers. Akuma looks up at the YouTuber. Biggest Collab yet huh? Akuma had the feeling all her cards were people of popular status, otherwise why would she say that?

"What's your motivation?" Akuma asks, this makes the girl raise her head from the fight and to look at Akuma.

"Hmm~? I don't get it!" Her face blanked in a goofy fashion.

"Why do you want to be the dictator?" Akuma didn't necessarily care since he's confident in his win regardless, but he's curious. The YouTuber hums happily.

"I want to be the #1 Social Media Influencer in the world! Everyone will know about me and subscribe to all my platforms! YouTube, Patreon, Twitter, Instagram, all of 'em! Even my discord server will be blowing up!" She winks. "I want to be a black hole who pulls in all the stars! What better way to do that then with the help of YouTubers??" She gets into a pose. "I just want to-" she winks. "Sparkle Sparkle!" Akuma stared at her. He found the goal sort of childish since it was just the want to have popularity but at the same time he preferred more innocent ones like that over his brother's motive. "What about you?" Vivi asks with a friendly smile.

"My brother wants to overthrow the world to be a God and I want to stop him." Akuma puts it simply.

"Ooo, how admirable! But the question beckons: are you the protagonist in this fight or a side character getting swept under the rug? We'll find out now!" She states with a smile.

Sol glared down at Cory, he's pinned down basically so Sol puts the man in a bear hug. "Well, sorry but that's the worst move you could've chosen. Apologies, I'll make your death quick." Sol crushed Cory's body with the force of 2 tons of strength, his ribs punctured his heart directly taking his life painlessly.

The duelers hear the bell ring as Cory's life is taken. They look down at Sol and what's left of Cory. "Gasp! Cory has fallen!" Vivi says, holding her cheeks before deflating. "Gaaahh! What am I supposed to do now?" She holds her deck, tapping her chin in thought as she wonders what to play next. Sol releases the corpse and returns to his side of the battle field. It being Akuma's turn, he raises a card.

"Lava terrain, Style: Parkour." Akuma says before the battlefield immediately changed to look like the inside of a volcano. There was various cool magma acting as safe ground to walk on but there were also fake magma spots, lava to jump over, and two portions of the battlefield had moving magma platforms on lava. Much to everyone's surprise, The terrain isn't fake, Sol could feel the intense heat coming from the lava. Afterwards, Akuma raises a second card.

"I summon Experiment Smoke-X." He places a card down onto the battlefield. It glowed and Nyx came out with her hands in her pockets. Afterwards, Akuma leans back on Shadow. "Ending my turn." He says before Vivi draws a card. Akuma figured Nyx would be the perfect teammate since she didn't need equipment to kill opponents. It's more like an accessory to her.

"Parkour?? Oh here comes more Collab YouTubers! I'm sure you all know who is perfect for this! The Irish Gang!" She chirped said into the camera before placing a card down. "I summon Jacksepticeye!"

"Top of the mornin- holy CRAP!" Jacksepticeye was surprised by the terrain. Akuma's opponent places down another card.

"I summon the Irish Backup!" Out of the card came several YouTubers. CallMeKevin, RTgame, Daithi De Nogla, and Terrioser. "Now Battle!" She pointed her finger and all six people started to do the parkour. Nyx decided to watch and not take action until they were halfway across the battlefield. Lucy, on the other hand, was under a lot of pressure, she wanted to faint. This is the definition of horror to her. She desperately flipped through the book, hoping, mentally begging, that she can do something before they get to her. She stops at a page that has a simple wind spell to knock opponents back. Lucy gulps back a sob as she mentally reads the words to herself. She stops midway when she hears a horrific scream, she throws her head up and notices one of the YouTubers, CallMeKevin, had fallen into the lava due to stepping on fake magma. His screams of pain were loud as his skin melted off and he became deformed as he sank in the lava. Sol and Nyx watched with unmoving expressions.

Jacksepticeye managed to get to the middle, which made Nyx act. She runs forward and hops onto the moving magma, she quickly hops to the next moving platform before landing in the middle, across Jack. He looked tense and threatened by the unit in front of him. Nyx stops pocketing her hands and gets into a fighting stance.

She charges at Jacksepticeye and sends a jump kick to his head, he blocked it with his bamboo stick and swung, but to his astonishment it didn't get a reaction out of her. The confusion distracted him long enough for Nyx to grab the back of his head and slam it on her knee, a loud crack heard from Nyx's bare strength breaking his skull. Nyx slams Jacksepticeye onto the ground after and slams her foot onto Jacksepticeye's head, his blood, bones, and brain splattering everywhere.

Seeing the Nyx's brutality, the remaining Irish YouTubers grew extremely intimidated, they second guessed themselves and were overwhelmed with fear as well as the desire for a quick and painless death, so throwing themselves into the lava only seemed logical. So they did just that. Nyx watches them burn and die around her, seemingly unaffected by their deaths as if she's already witnessed a lot or simply didn't care. All this bloodshed was being broadcasted onto YouTube. Seeing all this caused a shock expression from Vivi. "Whoa...I didn't think they'd want to stop sparkling just like that!" She was taken aback by Sol's and Nyx's abnormal strength as well as their unmoving composure. It made her wonder if she could be killed by them or not. If they're that big of a threat then…"Well, it seems their sparkles are brighter than mine!" The YouTuber seemed saddened. "Then let's cut to the chase, I forfeit, thereby making Akuma the winning star!" She says before smiling. "Good game!"

Hearing the YouTuber admit loss, all the pawns on the field, including the corpses, disappear and return to their cards. All of the Youtubers' cards rise up and turn around to face Akuma so he could collect his prize. It seems her deck was surrounded around YouTube with her unused cards being Markiplier, DashieGames, and PewDiePie. The card names also confirmed this with names like "The Editing Process" and "1 Million Subscribers Celebration". Akuma didn't get the names, so he just skimmed what they did. A card caught his eye though. It was named "I always come back". The image on the card seemed to be some sort of corpse in a bunny suit. Strange, Akuma thought. The description of the card stated "Bring a Pawn back to life".

"Oh, you're interested in taking that??" Vivi asks while leaning over. She must've noticed Akuma observing it. "I loooooove this card! I mean, it's about this really popular franchise! Make any video off of it and you're guaranteed to explode in popularity~!" She does jazz hands. Akuma didn't care about the origins though. He takes the card and places it in his deck. The remainder of the Youtuber's deck came together and returned to her hands. She picks up her selfie stick and looks into it with a sad face. "Even with the biggest Collab I've ever had I couldn't stop Akuma's sparkle! But I guess we'll end it here! I hope you all enjoyed it. Like, comment, and subscribe to be a part of my galaxy! Lights off, Cameras off, and Sparkle Sparkle~!" With that, Vivi ended her life stream. A ritual appears in the ground before it turns into a portal. Shadow slithers through it with Akuma on his back.

⟨A Month Later⟩

It took more battles then the pawns had expected to climb up to Axel's level. It probably would've been faster if Akuma didn't procrastinate, but thanks to their team effort, they were finally here. As with the previous battles, Akuma and Axel met somewhere secluded but also personal as the battle would take place in their home. Like usual, Akuma's opponent was already there, impatient. He had his cards ready and his ego ascended past heaven. Once Akuma arises from his portal, Axel looks at Akuma with immense disgust. "Well, if it isn't Cerberus's shit!" Axel states with his condescending tone. "Why are you so insistent on meddling in my affairs?! You're better off becoming a pawn for my personal gain!" He says.

"I'm good." Akuma says simply before holding his cards over the battlefield table. It absolutely pissed Axel off to see Akuma with his usual neutral look, shrugging off his words. He absolutely refuses to just let Akuma surpass him when he's so lazy.

"I don't care what it takes, I will prove my superiority to you!" Axel says as he holds his cards over the battlefield. Like in the previous matches, the deck shuffled itself before the cards were placed down on their respective sides. Two cards were drawn for them. The demon twins look at the scale. Axel is going first. He picks up a pawn card and puts it down. "I summon the former Mafia leader: Kaya." He places the card down, it glows and Kaya comes out of it. "I summon brass knuckles." He puts down another card and brass knuckles appear on the ground. Kaya picks them up and puts them on. "And I use Dark Hope to finish it." This made Akuma intrigued. He knows users can put in custom cards, and this must be one of them. He wondered what it did…? "I end my turn."

"Eh.." Akuma looks at his cards. He had gear for Nyx but also gear for Trevor. And while he would summon Nyx, he remembers Xenon had talked to him the previous night.

⟨Flashback⟩

Xenon approaches Akuma who was eating cheesecake. "So Akuma we're gonna get the chance for me to get revenge on that bastard Axel?" Xenon clenches his fists. Akuma turns to Xenon.

"Yeah, why?" Akuma eats a slice of cheesecake.

"No matter what, promise me that when my wife is summoned on the battlefield. you'll draw my card and no one else's."

"You want to kill her?" He asked.

"No, I don't want to kill my wife, that's the dumbest shit you could've said. What I want is to set my wife free of that bastard's grasps, she'd rather die than be held captive. So that's my only rule." Xenon spoke firmly, Akuma shrugged at him and leaned back on Shadow, picking up another slice of his cheesecake.

"I can make it happen." Akuma replies. "But, remember to get the job done." Xenon feels an undying rage succumbing to him, he knows what he has to do but it's because of that bastard.

⟨End of Flashback⟩

Xenon's eyes open as he's released from his temporary cell. Xenon's eyes immediately looked up at the demon who was responsible for pulling his family apart. Seeing him made his blood boil. Axel will never understand the pain he caused to Xenon, to his children. Seeing their sad, worried faces every day is motivation to return their mother back to them. Xenon intended on getting their mother back today. Xenon lowered his gaze to see his opponent from across the battlefield. He locked eyes with his wife, seeing her for some reason gave him an odd relief. He's realized that she made it this far but wonders what she's been through. This bastard turned her into a tool, for that reason solely it's seen on Xenon's face, the rage and bloodshed directed towards Axel being the most apparent thing on the field. He took his eyes off of Kaya to say something. "I'm. going. To. KILL YOU!!!" He shrieks in agony, rage overcoming the man once more since he's faced with the person he loves most in this world. Hearing him made Axel erupt in laughter.

"Kill me? HAH! And how do you suppose you can do that mortal? You were too weak to save your wife then and you're too weak to save her now!" Axel shouted, talking down on Xenon as if he was a pig, someone only existing to kiss Axel's feet. "Pathetic creatures!" Xenon feels a poke from behind, he looks behind him at Akuma.

"Focus on the fight." Akuma reminds him. "You can kill my brother later." The man yawns into his hand. He's right, Axel is just trying to get a reaction from Xenon so he'll break the rules of the game and lose by default.

Breathing slowly, Xenon redirects his attention to his wife. "I'm going to free you from those binds, I'm sorry… but you know what I have to do."

"Xenon?" Kaya surprisingly called out to him. She took a step toward Xenon as if she's in genuine disbelief. This sudden twist made Xenon's guard drop. Akuma claimed her memories would be wiped, and yet, she remembers Xenon..?

Xenon's eyes widened, hearing his name made him even more enraged. It could've been easier if she'd just forgotten about him, he knew he couldn't trust the world of that devil but he so desperately wanted her to forget. He was deeply angered… His eyes darted up to Axel, bloodlust deep in his distorted colored eyes. "..."

"I don't want to kill you, hell- I don't want to fight you either!" Kaya said as she balled up her fists, raising her voice near the end. "I promised myself I'd never…do that to you. To betray you- to be like that old fucking bastard! But if I lose.." She grips her hair. "Fucking Shade is going to…Fuck!" She stomps and looks away in emotional conflict.

He watched as his wife had an eternal conflict, if she had kept her emotions she'd rather kill herself than be controlled, and Xenon knows this so there had to be some sort of incentive… But hearing Shade's name be the reason why he had to fight his wife pissed him off even more. He knows it's her friend, and that she's been there… but for her? No. His eyes close as he grabs ahold of his lance tightly. "I understand. I won't lose… Shade isn't important enough to me to allow myself to let you win."

"I know," Kaya turns back to him, placing a hand over her chest. "Axel told me something-" She paused for several seconds, her face reading disbelief and emotional conflict. "Axel said the cards only revive me when I die, So if we fight, I could-...fuck." She hangs her head down, she's hiding something.

"Kaya, I know you think this is hard on me. It is, and I know what you're thinking… Yes, I am going to kill you. I love you, more than you'll ever know, and I know that you want to die at my hands if not anyone else. You know it'll be hard on me to take your life… hard for me to live with, but in the end I know you'd rather die than be controlled. Never again will I allow a repeat of our past." A tear grazed down his cheek and he quickly swiped it away before she could notice.

She stepped forward, her grip on her weapon weak. "Can-" She looks at her right hand. "We…hold hands, one last time?" She raises her head, offering her hand out. Her eyes read vulnerability, he's the only one who's ever seen her at her worst.

Xenon spoke. "Close your eyes… hold out your hand, and lean forward… I'll give you more than just a hand shake." Kaya gave a brief nod, she expected Xenon to sneak kill her, and she's not entirely against the idea, she can't morally fight him to the death. Sighing, she closes her eyes, a tear going down her cheek as she leans forward.

She's pulled into his arms. He deeply kisses his wife one last time, interlocking fingers with her. She feels tears stream down her shoulder that weren't hers. "You know me too well… I love you, Kaya…" He slid his lance into her side killing her in an instant, not to mention a painless death. He knew exactly where to hit, in fact he knew she accepted that he was about to kill her.

Afterwards, Xenon's vision felt foggy. What's going on? He held his head, his eyes blinking repeatedly. After blinking a few times- his vision changed and he was looking up at a bloody fist repeatedly punching him in the face, the pain finally settling in as if it was nonexistent the entire time. Axel laughs loudly. "Hahaha!! My illusion magic works once more! I knew you'd be too weak to make your pawns forget their memories! Pahahahaha!" Axel laughed victoriously since he had predicted this from the start. "Pathetic humans! Clinging to emotions, memories, and bonds is your downfall! I knew my idiotic brother would keep your sensitive memories intact and send you all out to fight your loved ones! You think I didn't plan for the dumb shit my brother does? That's why I specially requested this card!" He picks up the card he used to put Xenon in the false illusion. "Dark Hope!" He puts the card down, laughing as Xenon's blood splattered on the battlefield. Akuma shakes his head. "The stronger the bond, the more strength you lose!!" Axel says in a sadistic tone. If he knew Axel would use something like that, he would've sent out Nyx. Nyx and Kaya don't have any sort of bond, so it wouldn't have worked on her. Given how deep their relationship is, Akuma knew Xenon couldn't make a comeback. Not because Kaya is stronger, but the spell took a lot of his strength.

Akuma could only imagine his brother loved this fight for multiple reasons, namely to overwhelm Akuma's pawns with despair. Kaya stops stomping on Xenon, but there wasn't much to identify him with. His carcass returns to Akuma's card that he put in the afterlife pile. "Well, I forfeit," Akuma says blankly

"Hahaha! It took you long enough to admit I'm the superior brother! Pahahah-...wait." Axel stopped his boisterous laughter quickly. Axel felt proud but something was off. "You're planning something, aren't you? Scheming is all you do, to get the upper hand and prove you're something." He glares.

"I want to make a bet." Akuma says, which made Axel intrigued.

"Run your peasant tongue of this deal you speak of." Axel motions toward Akuma.

"We will duel three times, if I win one of those three times, you have to give me all of your pawns and step down from your goal." Akuma says, Axel scoffs.

"HAH! Don't make me laugh! Why would I agree to a deal like that!?" Axel asks.

"Because if you win all three matches, you get all my cards and I'll let you take my life." Akuma says, which shocked Axel and Shadow. "The dark magic can't object to you killing me if I let you." He had a fair point. Shadow wanted to object, but didn't get to before Axel snickers.

"Wow, you're dumber than you look! Making a team out of those rejects and trying to oppose me!!? The audacity to make a bet with a failing team that dies faster than your brain cells!" He laughs before holding his hand out. "You got yourself a deal...." He says. Akuma didn't hesitate to grab his hand and shake it. Dark Magic surrounds their hands as it promises this deal between the demons. "See that peasant? The dark magic is sealing the deal. Which means, whether you win or lose, a deal is a deal."

s a deal."