As we were preparing ourselves for the imminent assault against Escher at his tower. A storm starts to pick up and all of sudden, the least expected thing happened to Stardust.

“Hey, Mei. I have a question…”

Rulend walked in and asked me a question.

“What do you want, Rulend?”

“Oh nothing…it’s just that I was wondering where are you hiding the pieces of the Runix Cube that we got.”

“I hid it inside my dimensional bag, of course. No one would get it unless I allow it. It’s a solid plan.”

“Nice.”

Rulend walked around the room slowly as he looked at me with a suspicious face.

“It would be a shame if…something were to happen…to you.”

“What do you mean, Rulend?”

It was at that moment when I realise that my hands were tied by a rope. Was it, Rulend? I didn’t realise he was tying me up when he was talking to me. Just what was going on at that time?

“What is the meaning of this, Rulend?”

“Oh it’s nothing. It’s just a favour for our Lord Escher.”

As he said that, his eyes glowed purple in a few seconds and faded back to normal.

“You’re chaorrupted…”

“And not just me but half of Stardust was chaorrupted thanks to them being close to the previously chaorrupted Blax Tank!”

Darn it. I should have known this would happen. Half of the Stardust, he said. How fast can these illusion magic spread anyway?

“We got the others, boss.”

Kaym appeared along with Kin, Rider, Serena and Kin has caught Airi, Haz, Lore and Zone.

“Good, Kaym. Wait a minute, where is the other one?”

“Hosuke? He ran away in time. Looks like he wasn’t chaorrupted by the illusion magic for some reason.”

I got a feeling that I know why Hosuke wasn’t infected. He is a crystal eater. So that means he has a relatively different kind of Infinitum energy flowing through his body. It could probably protect him from a bunch of spells that could effect ones Infinitum energy. Currently, the others that were Chaorrupted, fell under these mysterious magic that took control of their Infinitum energy.

“Fine, whatever. Let’s take everyone to the tower, now.”

Rulend ordered the others to bring us to Escher’s tower. This wasn’t the way we would make our entrance to the lion’s lair…

As we were marching toward the tower, everything started to feel a whole lot different than what I used to know. Some of the school buildings were upside down. Even the trees roots were above from the ground while the leaves were underground. Most importantly, Escher’s floating tower…it was upside down as well.

“Behold our lord’s latest creation! The Inverted Soul Power High School!” The mind controlled Rulend proclaimed his lord’s latest work proudly.

We continued our way to the tower. As we were about to reach the inverted tower, a wave of water started spewing out from a fire hydrant, splashing away the eyes of the Chaorrupted Stardust. Hosuke appeared from the gushes of water of the fire hydrant and knocked out Kaym with a single fist as he appeared.

“Hosuke!” I called him as soon as I saw him.

To which he replied, “Mei. You’re alright. Hang in there. I’ll handle this.”

Hosuke summoned his Mizusame blade and prepared himself to fight against his fellow Chaorrupted friends. Rulend, finally realise what was going on called an order.

“Capture him!”

Rider transformed into his Golden Lion Armor while Serena turns into her DJ Mode. Both of them launched a simultaneous attack on Hosuke. Fortunate for them however, Hosuke turned himself into transparent water much like how Sonozaki Wakana was able to become the light to avoid damage.

As Hosuke successfully avoided the attack of those two, he turned himself back to normal at a different spot and countered against Rider who deflected his Mizusame just in time. Swords began to collide with each others while Serena distracts Hosuke by putting up traps all over the place.

“You think this is enough to stop me?” Hosuke proudly asked.

Hosuke turned himself into water once again and deactivated all of the traps that Serena placed. He then formed himself back in front of Serena and surprised her with an insane amount of water being smashed from her left and right. Serena falls down to her knees. Hosuke then notices another attack was approaching him. He moved his back and deflected a thrown sword that was thrown by Rider.

Just as things were getting better, Kin started to attack him with a rapid amount of watery melee strikes. She probably copied Hosuke’s ability of manipulating the water. At least, she won’t be on the same level as Hosuke was. That would be awful.

“Thank goodness, I aimed for Kaym just now. Or else I would be done.”

Hosuke managed to talk even during the chaotic handicap match between him and his chaorrupted friends were ongoing. Then, I began to notice another problem.

“Hosuke! Be careful! Nif is analyzing you!”

“Is that suppose to harm me or anything?”

“Of course it won’t but something might happen. Just be careful.”

Just as I said that, Rider managed to overcome all of Hosuke’s deflection by striking at the perfect time, delivering a perfect blow to Hosuke’s abdomen. Blood begins to spurts out from the stabbed region as Rider’s sword was pulled away from the body. Hosuke covered his wound with a protective water as it heals himself slowly.

Hosuke kneeled down in pain, “How did that happen?”

I took a guest and told him, “I think Nif sent some information to Rider about your fighting style. Now it’s going to be hard for you to fight him since he now knows every single moves of yours. That probably goes the same way for Kin.”

“Now I’m really stuck between a rock and hard place, huh…guess I have to do this then.”

Hosuke turned himself into a floating ball of water which then suddenly burst all over the place. It was like a fountain that shoots out water from a lot of different hole. All of the water that burst out of the water ball went through and impaled all of the remaining Chaorrupted Stardust.Yes, impaled. I don’t know how Hosuke made the water as sharp as a knife but it works. He pulls it back and turned himself back to normal.

“That took a lot of force…”

Hosuke tried to catch his breath as he notice that the battle was over. But it wasn’t over, as he was suddenly flung away when a flash of light ran next to him. It was Sonozaki Wakana. He was also Chaorrupted from the looks of it.

“Not so fast, Hosuke.” Sonozaki steps in.

“...you...hmm, why is your hand in stitches?”

“This? Why it’s because of your old friend of course. He ripped off my arm and put it back by sewing my arm instead of just fixing it using his own magic like what he did to Blax.”

“Old friend? Blax?” Hosuke was in confusion.

“Never mind. I have other business that I need to finish up.”

Sonozaki flashes in front of the tired Hosuke and punched his stomach, knocking him out in the process.

A few minutes after the battle, we were all brought up to Escher’s tower along with the now captured, Hosuke and the Chaorrupted Sonozaki who appeared out of nowhere.

We were then thrown to the floor as we figured out that we have arrived at our destination, which was Escher’s throne room. There he was, standing alongside his accursed staff.

“Welcome everyone. To my Inverted Tower of Reality. I’ve been waiting for you. Especially you…”

Escher gazed at me. Even though he was wearing a helmet. I could still feel his menacing eyes gazing right through me. It was…scary and…nostalgic? Wait what?

“You must be wondering…what’s going to happen next now that all of you are here. First of all, I have to feel proud of myself for mind controlling some of your friends here. It wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for my creation that is The Staff of Illusion! It can put upon an illusion that puts anyone under its spell, to follow all of my orders. Slowly but surely.”

“I won’t give you The Runix Cube pieces!”

“Oh you will. I’m sure of that. You will give me the pieces once I tell you a story…A very…interesting story…”

Escher then told his story to me and everyone else. It was indeed an interesting story…a story that could make me…lose hope…help me…White…I don’t know…what to do…help me, White…

TO BE CONTINUED