As Raven walked through the halls, she continued to look for Derek. She passed by many wrestlers who gave her quick glances; She didn’t think too much of it. Eventually, she did find him, but not in a state that she expected. He was in a dark corner, slumped over and shaking. His hands had begun to wrinkle up, she had a feeling what was happening. He then looked up at her, his face looked old and withered. She was right, he was suffering and aging from a blood deficiency. Usually vampires would have artificial blood handy for this situation, but he had run out. There were shops nearby that sold it, but the show would start soon, so she didn’t have time to go buy any. All vampires drink blood to continue to be immortal. Every vampire between the ages of 18-40 eventually ended up drinking blood out of pure instinct, causing the immortality stage to begin. She had only one other option to save her father. She moved her hair out of the way to expose her neck, dematerialized her wings, and kneeled down.

“Here, drink some of my blood.” she said.

Derek was hesitant, but eventually he slowly made his way over to Raven and bit down on her neck and began drinking. Raven began to tear up from the pain of the bite, but she kept her composure. Derek didn’t drink enough to kill her or to turn her into a vampire, but it was enough to sustain him for a while. He began to go back to normal, and they both stood up.

“Thank you, Raven.” he said, wiping his mouth.

“Quick question… Why does your blood taste weird? Are you sick?”

Raven grew confused. She didn’t know what Derek was talking about, she felt fine.

“I… don’t really know…”

“Oh!” she said, remembering her wrestling gear. She kneels down and spreads it out on the floor.

“I have a match tonight. Oh! And Feros and I are going on a date tomorrow.”

“Wait, what?”

◆◆◆

Out in the arena, all the seats were filled. The announcer got in the ring and the crowd grew louder.

“Ladies and gentlemen, get ready! This is it! In less than 60 seconds, Magic Madness will be live!”

The crowd roared with excitement. Eventually, the lights went off and the crowd got even louder as the intro video started. It was a different video than the one from Extreme Magic, this one had different wrestlers. Wrestlers were separated by shows, some were special enough to be featured on both shows. Derek and Raven, however, seemed to be part of the special group. As the pyro went off, the commentators welcomed the audience watching at home. “ Welcome, everyone, to Magic Madness!” the first commentator said. “Tonight, for the first time ever, Raven Valtaheim will have a match tonight. She will be in a triple threat match against Anna Scora and Satella Moon.” As he said that, the match card appeared on screen for those watching at home. It also appeared on the titantron for those in the arena.

“As we saw yesterday, Raven is Derek Valtaheim’s daughter, and during Derek’s match, she came out and pranced around the ring. It was a weird night, ladies and gentlemen and I’m excited to see what happens next. Aren’t you, Daniel?”

“I sure am, Ridge. Let’s get ready for some intense action on Magic Madness.” the second commentator responded.

A crew member told Raven that her match was up first and to hurry and get dressed. After getting dressed, she was sent on her way towards the entrance. Her theme song came on and she came out and went down the entrance ramp. The crowd cheered for her. They remembered her weird debut from Extreme Magic and they were excited to see what outlandish act she would do next.

“Ladies and gentleman, the following contest is a triple threat match! Making her way to the ring, from the kingdom of Bosneria, Raven Valtaheim!” said the announcer.

Raven made her way to the ring to wait for her opponents. Satella was the first to come out. She climbed into the ring and grabbed a mic from an official. “I just wanted to say something before the match started…” Satella said, turning her attention to Raven. “Raven, right? Yeah, well I don’t appreciate the attention you’ve been getting lately. I’m the best in this business and I’m not gonna let some small, weak, pathetic, crazy ass fairy prance around the ring and steal my spotlight.” Raven was then handed a mic. A smile formed on her face. “Okay, I stopped listening like halfway through that, but I assume I’m supposed to be offended. It’s clear to me that you’re just jealous that all I have to do is skip around a ring and immediately get thousands of fans.”

Satella’s face grew dark. Before things could escalate, Anna’s theme came on and she made her way to the ring. “Look, guys. We have a match to do. So, whatever issues you have, settle it during the match.” After saying this, the match officially started. Not long into the match, Raven’s eyes suddenly flashed orange. In a dark void, Raven’s eyes opened. She looked around, confused as to where she was.

“Hello…?”

“Where the hell am I?” she thought to herself.

She then noticed herself standing before her.

“You’re inside the mental void, the place where your conscience resides.” said the other Raven.

“Are you my conscience?”

“… No… But, you are…”

“What? Then, who are you?”

“It doesn’t matter. You should probably wake up and take a look at what you— I mean, what I have done…”

All of a sudden everything flashed white and Raven was standing in the middle of the ring with her hand being raised by the referee.

“The winner of this match, Raven Valtaheim!” said the announcer.

“What the hell…?” Raven’s confusion grew even more. She had no idea what had just happened.

Backstage, everyone was confused.

“So…???” Allison exclaimed.

Raven looked at Allison in confusion.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“What the fuck was that?”

Raven grew even more confused at her comment.

“What are you talking about?”

“Look.” Ezra said as he pointed to the screen that showed a replay of what happened. In the replay, Raven suddenly froze. She then slowly turned her attention to her opponents and went on a rage. First, attacking Satella and then going after Anna after she incapacitated Satella. Once she got Anna down, she pinned her and won the match.

“Wow, your daughter’s a brutal fighter.” Petra said, surprised.

“I… I don’t remember doing that…”

“You don’t?” Derek asked.

“No. I blacked out. I don’t remember doing any of that.”

“Well, I guess you just have anger issues.” said Ezra, jokingly.

Everyone started laughing at Ezra’s joke as two people, professionally dressed, walked up to them. The group turned their attention to them.

“Hello, you’re the new guys right?”

“Yeah, we are. Who are you two?” asked Wess.

“I’m Jero, the general manager of Extreme Magic. And this is Vira, the general manager of Magic Madness.”

Jero, a green, anthropomorphic lizard-type person, was about the same height as Derek. He wore a dark blue suit and he was pretty menacing. His colleague, Vira was a human who was about 168cm. She had short jet-black hair and purple eyes. She was pretty voluptuous and wore a white shirt that didn’t cover her shoulders and it was tucked into a black skirt.

“Yes, and it’s nice to meet you all. We just wanted to give you some advice. You do exactly what we say, and we stay out of your way. I suggest all of you stay on our good side.” Vira said with a smile.

“Exactly. Now, we have to go. Remember what we said.” Jero said as they left.

“Well, you guys heard what they said. I don’t want any problems here, almost everyone here is bigger than me.” Wess said, turning to the group.

“Don’t worry, Wess, nothing will happen.” Juana confidently said.

“Yeah, honestly they’re a joke. I don’t like them and I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.” Elisha added in. As everyone was talking, Azlana watched them from behind some equipment.

“You will pay for what you did to me…”

◆◆◆

In Adagis, Mariner sat in his office and grabbed a book. The book came from a library in Macrani. Mariner wanted to experience the literature of his newly acquired county. Knowing more about his subjects’ culture was essential for a king and this specific book captured his attention. The book was called “The Fairytale Life”. He opened it and began reading it.

“Once upon a time… In a far away land, a young, wealthy fairy lived in a big beautiful tree. Although he had everything he could ever want, he was selfish and believed himself to be above everyone else. One day, he met a poor fairy girl who believed he was the most handsome fairy in the world.

Although he didn’t truly feel this way, he told her that she was the most beautiful fairy he’d ever seen. Soon after, he’d make her his wife, only to mistreat her and send her away to never return to his tree ever again. And thus as she cried, her heart broke in two, only to be mended by true love. She believed such nonsense didn’t exist, that no one truly loved anyone. As the years passed, she fell into despair and became very bitter. For who could ever truly love her.” Mariner abruptly closed the book. “That’s enough.” he said, trying to remain cheerful. “I should probably go see what Nicolette is up to…” he thought to himself. He went into their bedroom and Nicolette was there packing her clothes and his.

“What’s all this?” Mariner asked.

“Well, you came in too early. I guess I should just tell you now. I’m getting quite bored. Let's go out and see the world. I’ve been stuck here in Adagis for years.”

“Yes, I agree It does get boring here. Who will keep Adagis in order while we’re gone?”

“Oh, we’ll just get Nizagal to do it. I trust her.” she said with confidence. Mariner always liked that about her, she was always so sure of herself.

“That works.” Mariner said as he helped her pack.

“By the way…” Nicolette said, catching his attention once more.

“Yes?”

“Did you hear singing a minute ago?”

“Singing? I might have… Honestly, I was too focused on the book I was reading.”

“It gave me an uneasy feeling.”

“Whatever it is probably isn’t anything to worry about.”

“I guess you’re right.”

The two royals continued packing. The singing Nicolette heard still wandered through her mind.

Soon enough, they were on their way to a ship.

Hours later in the hotel, Talos was back to work, studying the Gehena stone and trying to figure out what’s going on with it. There was a knock at the door. Talos wasn’t expecting guests. Syvis was expecting it either, and prepared her shadow magic. When Talos opened the door, it was Mariner and Nicolette, standing there with a smile. Mariner seemed to have found a black cat. “Look, I found a cat!” Mariner said with glee.

“A cat? Also, how did you know we were here? I didn’t even know you were coming.” Talos asked in confusion.

“I have my ways.”

Syvis came up to the door.

“Talos, who’s here?” She noticed her dad and stepmom.

“Oh! Hello! I wasn’t expecting you guys to visit.”

“It was my idea. I got quite bored.” said Nicolette.

As they were talking, the cat jumped out of Mariner’s arms. He didn’t think anything of it. The cat slowly made its way around the room, seemingly searching for something. Eventually, it found what it was looking for, the Gehena stone. It quickly put it in its mouth and sneaked past Mariner, Nicolette, Talos, and Syvis. Once the cat got far enough away, it suddenly transformed into its true form. It was Kaida, who was tasked with taking back the stone. “Gee, I can’t believe how easy that was.” he said, chuckling. He then flew away, heading back to wherever Grust was hiding out. Back at the hotel, they all got caught up, talking about past, current, and future events.

“Hey, I have the stone back, by the way.” Talos said as he got up to retrieve it.

“Oh, good!” Nicolette responded.

“I’ve been trying to figure out what the issue is with it and why it has Mordecai so worried.” He searched everywhere for the stone, only to realize that it was missing.

“The hell? Where is it?”

“What’s the matter, Talos?” Syvis asked curiously.

“The stone’s gone.”

“What?! Where could it have gone? There was no one here before my parents came over.”

Talos looked at Mariner and noticed something missing. “Where’s the cat?”

“The cat?” Mariner looked around. “Must’ve run off somewhere. If it has the stone, it should be easy to get it back. It couldn’t have gotten far.”

“We have to go look for it, that thing can be dangerous if put in the wrong hands.” Talos commanded. They then set out to find the cat who had run off with the stone.