A New Challenger

Ed slowly awoke within a dark room. The rain pelted against the window. Occasionally the crackling of lightning could be heard, followed by the sound of thunder. "Ugh." He groaned as he rubbed his head and opened his eyes.

"Finally awake?" Dupe questioned. He was sitting in a nearby chair with his legs crossed.

"Mm." He responded. "You're not exactly the first thing I want to see when I wake up."

"Very funny." Dupe responded with a light smile.

"What's the current situation, and how long have I been out for?" Ed questioned.

"Well, we won..." Dupe replied as his face turned serious. He hunched over in the chair and folded his hands while staring at Ed. "However, that doesn't mean the war is truly over. Most of the mayors are still alive and well within their cities. That in itself isn't a big deal, but if we don't move fast then they might start uniting their remaining forces to resist us. We need to start heading out soon."

"There's no point." Ed sighed while shaking his head. "Now that the Governor's dead, we just need to wait for the final decision from the real decision maker."

Dupe frowned. "You mean the President? Do you really think he'll interfere?"

"He has too." Ed replied with unwavering certainty. "It was one thing when I was just raising an army against the Governor. Hell, the President might have even known about the Governor's plans to let me build the forces all so he could collect more golden faith energy. But now things are different. His vassal is dead, and a new one must be chosen. It's only a question of who he'll choose to run Florida. Once the new Governor is chosen, a mock election will be held for the citizens to vote. Then the new Governor will be appointed as the winner."

"And you think he might choose you?" Dupe asked, doubt evident on his face.

"I don't." Ed shook his head. "I fought this war because the only options were to do so or run away. I can be considered a traitor to the United States for my actions."

Lightning flashed by the window. The booming of thunder followed, interrupting Ed's speech.

Ed glanced out the window before continuing to speak. "There is a small chance he'll choose me though. It's the path of least resistance since Harmony now controls most of the state. It really depends on his personality, which I know very little about. Only his powers are common knowledge."

"Mm." Dupe nodded. "I guess you're right."

"Anyways..." Ed continued as he stood up from bed. He cracked his neck while rolling his shoulders to stretch. "Who are you anyways? Phantom?"

"Oh?" Dupe smiled as his body grew illusory. It transformed into an old man with a gray beard that stretched to the middle of his chest. He wore copper glasses and striped pajamas. "What gave me away?" He questioned.

"Dupe would've already known all this crap." He replied nonchalantly. "It'd be different if it was questions about just the war, but he's far more knowledgeable than me when it comes to politics."

"Ah, I see." Phantom nodded while rubbing his beard. "It appears I miscalculated."

Boom! Another bolt of lightning streaked past the window. Suddenly, screams and shouts rang from outside. The wind grew stronger, growing so loud as to be heard from inside Ed's room. He looked outside and saw a towering monster nearly 300 meters long. It was formless green wind that made up a long funnel. It was like a sideways tornado that stretched out like a snake. The wind it released tore the buildings to shreds, sending debris flying everywhere. The Harmony soldiers struggled for dear life as the flying debris picked them off one by one.

"Really?" Ed questioned as he turned back to Phantom. "As if I'd believe the Wind Nightmare came here just because there was a recent hurricane. A nightmare has never struck a state twice within such a short span of time before. Besides, hurricanes are quite common in Florida. I've seen enough of them growing up to know they aren't an indicator for a nightmare attack."

"Tsk." Phantom clicked his tongue. The Wind Nightmare vanished, returning the skies to a light rain. No thunder or lightning existed within it. "You're no fun at all. You could at least play along."

"Not in the mood." Ed replied. "You know what I like about your powers? They have no effect on individuals. You can drastically alter the environment, creating incredible illusions. You can even make things completely real. But doing these things must use up an incredible amount of mana. I'm confident I can escape from you if needed. Maybe even kill you."

"Perhaps." Phantom nodded as a steaming cup of tea appeared out of nowhere. He happily sipped it.

Ed stared Phantom in the eyes. "So what is it you really want, Phantom? Or should I call you Nexus?"

"Oh?" Phantom rose an eyebrow while smiling. "I'm afraid I'm not Nexus." He laughed. "But I'm guessing you'll hardly believe me even if I deny it." The tea within his hands vanished as he stood up. "It was quite fun chatting with you like this. The reason I'm here is to kill you of course."

"Shocking." Ed replied in a monotone voice.

"No need for the sarcasm, boy." He quipped. "Would you like to know why I'm going to kill you?"

"Oh, are you going to monologue like the old-fashioned villains in storybooks?" Ed grinned.

"I suppose so." He replied matter-of-factly. "The truth is, I've never really betrayed someone before. I've always been very above board in my actions, earning me a great deal of trust as a result. But this opportunity is far too great to overlook. I honestly didn't think you would beat the Governor and present me with such a golden opportunity."

Ed lowered his head in thought for a moment. Many ideas flashed by as he considered what he would do in Phantom's position. Suddenly, it all clicked together. He looked back up. "You plan on killing the traitorous Forge, taking revenge for your dear friend, the late Governor. Once the president arrives, you'll be the best candidate to take over. He'll gladly appoint a strong esper that can easily place Florida back under control. Your political opponents won't have any leeway due to your vast network of political connections and your feat of taking revenge for the Governor so quickly."

"Very good." Phantom clapped slowly as he nodded. "Indeed, this is the plan. Truthfully, I've been eyeing the seat of Governor for quite a long time. The benefits are tremendous. You're guaranteed power over an entire state, and more importantly, you're guaranteed tremendous amounts of golden faith energy. Unfortunately, all current Governors are espers, giving them quite long lifetimes. Killing one would be a traitorous act, granting me zero chance of becoming one. I have to say, you're really my lucky star. I'm incredibly grateful for meeting you in Reef city."

"And where does the manullium fall into your plans?" Ed questioned.

"Manullium?" Phantom shook his head. "I told you already, I'm not Nexus. That had nothing to do with any of this. I naturally passed all of the manullium to Nexus. I had no desire to get on their bad side."

"You're still insisting on that?" Ed frowned. 'Is he really telling the truth? He has no reason to lie to me at this point? He's been open about everything else he plans...' Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he continued. "Well, it's too bad your plans have a fatal flaw. Even if I don't become Governor, you can forget about it too."

"Oh, and why is that?" Phantom questioned with a smile.

"Simple." Ed replied as he pointed his arm towards Phantom. "You have a time limit. You need to kill me before the president arrives while using your finite mana supplies. Your illusions may be deadly, but the things you make real hardly qualify. It uses far too much mana to be of any significant use beyond parlor tricks." He lifted his other arm towards his neck, feeling a slight trace of blood. However, his scales had automatically surfaced and defended against the attack. "Looks like you already tried to kill me with your parlor tricks while I was asleep. If your real body was here, then maybe you could've pulled it off. Unfortunately for you, you missed your best opportunity."

A stream of flames blasted forward, releasing a low hissing sound from his hand. The Phantom in the chair immediately vanished. Ed wasted no time as he broke straight through the roof, flames propelling him high into the sky. He looked around at his surroundings with extreme caution. Orlando was beneath him, seeming to have a peaceful night within the light storm. 'Is this real?' He wondered as he watched. 'It should be. Phantom wouldn't go out of his way to waste mana for no reason. A city of this size would be too difficult to maintain for a long time.'

Suddenly, a streak of silver shot into the skies. The light caught up to Ed and faded a bit, revealing Ray within it. "Hey!" He grinned. "Glad to see you woke up."

Ed frowned as he stared at the man, examining him carefully. "Repeat the orders I gave you regarding the delay of our attack against Florida." He ordered.

"What?" Ray replied on confusion.

"You've got five seconds." Ed said as he aimed an arm at him. "Repeat the exact orders I gave you two weeks before our attack against Miami."

Ray frowned. "Shit man, I don't remember the exact details. It was just ordering me to keep our plans to attack two weeks later a secret, right?"

"Wrong." He replied as a stream of flames shot from his hand and swirled around Ray, burning the illusion to nothingness.

'This is going to be a pain in the ass.' He sighed to himself. 'Fortunately, I've taken countermeasures ahead of time.' He turned around in the sky and blasted away at top speed, the wind bellowing past him as he went. The light rain felt pleasant on his skin, cooling him down a bit on the otherwise hot night.

Dozens of Phantoms appeared as he flew away. "Where are you going?" They echoed as he continued to fly.

"Abandoning your army?"

"Running away?"

"Giving up so easily?"

"Why not fight me?"

The chorus of voices never ceased. Ed grinned as he listened. This might slightly unnerve him before absorbing the golden faith energy, but now he was completely fine with it. The experiences from the golden energy had been thousands of times worse.

"Son." A tall man blocked his path, frowning. "It isn't polite to ignore your guests."

Ed calmly lifted his arm and released a white light, completely annihilating the illusion. "That's low, even for you Phantom."

Several more Phantoms appeared while laughing. "Maybe so, maybe so." They echoed nonchalantly.

The plains and rivers of Florida sped by as Ed continued to fly. He was now in the middle of nowhere, many kilometers away from any cities. "Here we are." He said as he stopped flying. "Let's fight like men, Phantom. Come at me with all your tricks and espers. I'll show you how a real man fights."

"Just a moment." A Phantom replied as he rubbed his beard. He stood there silently while several minutes passed. Soon, a carriage arrived in the sky. It was pulled by golden horses with flapping wings. Dozens of espers flew outside from within it, each one wielding their own pair of golden wings."

'The espers under his command? Or another illusion?' Ed wondered as he watched. His question was soon answered as an esper with green hair and dark clothing exited the carriage.

The green-haired esper was Mordy, and he seemed distraught at the current series of events. However, that did not stop him from giving Ed a hand signal, one which they had only ever used when they first arrived together to Reef city. It was a custom one, not existing within any existing systems. It was the signal they had used when planning to attack the enemy from two fronts.

'That Mordy is almost definitely real.' Ed nodded to himself. 'But can he be trusted? Are the others real? Phantom should know of my past friendship with Mordy. Would he really make such an elementary mistake to bring him along?'

Phantom smiled towards the arrival of his underlings. He waved them over with great enthusiasm. "Come, come!" He yelled towards them. The golden wings flapped them forward. They were likely creations of Phantom's real illusions. One of the more practical uses of his powers. He placed his hand on Mordy's shoulders. "Why don't you do the honors. You've been wanting to take revenge on your old pal Edward for a long time after he almost got you killed in Reef city. You never ceased complaining about how I made you continue pretending to be his friend."

'Revenge?!' Ed frowned as thoughts flash past his mind. 'It's not that Phantom doesn't know about my past friendship with Mordy. It's that Mordy has purposefully misconstrued the nature of our relationship? It's likely that Phantom thinks I'm responsible for our capture by Luny and Jarrod, and thus Mordy wishes for revenge. It's not that Phantom is stupid, but instead it's that Mordy is smarter than he realized... but why would Mordy do it? Did he plan it all from the beginning?'

Ed's thoughts were interrupted as his surroundings rapidly changed. No longer was he flying in the sky. Instead, he was within a massive maze. There was no ceiling or roof, and it was very dark. Creepy ornaments of various bulls, tigers, and other animals lined the walls, eerie green fire glowing within their eyes.

"Time to kill him, my friends." Phantom's voice echoed. "Once he dies and I assume the role of Governor, you'll all be my future mayors. Work hard now!"