With all have been told by Escher, The Runix Cube will be powering up The Staff of Illusion with the help of his power charging invention. The only thing that was left before I decide the final judgment was what will he do once all of his plan was done. Will it be a path to ruin or a path for the future…

“What about you, teacher…where are you in this new world you say?”

I raised my hand as I asked that. Just like the honest student I am.

“Cyclone…White…I would have never known you if it weren’t the fact that you were the only student to still not have any single magic abilities by the time the year started. But what a surprise, you finally got it this year. The only thing that boggles me was why the heck does the old principal accept you when he was still leading this school…Is it because of your family or something? That might not be true, I never found anything crucial about The Cyclone Family…”

I think its a good thing that he doesn’t know a lot about my family. But it’s also disappointing because I got a feeling that my parents was hiding something from me and my siblings. But that was for another time, I believe. For now, I wanted answers. As I pull out a pocket mirror that was given by Rika several years ago. I looked at it and saw a face full of determination. I’m ready for this…

“Does it really matter, teacher? As long as I’m a student of Soul Power High School, I’m still allowed to learn.”

“Precisely. And that is why you will be the leader among your friends! Mei! Begin the charge sequence!”

Mei obeyed his order and sat on a chair. She concentrated for a while until a bunch of magical energy started to appear around her. The machine absorbed it. She’s powering the machine with her own magic?!

“Using your own daughter to further your own goal? What a great teacher, you are.”

“I’ll show you what it is to be a great teacher once I have the charged up staff. I'll create a world where there is no sufferings and lost. Everyone gets what they want. It will be a paradise for us all. And the only people I can put trust on this new world is you. Because you were the one who guided the others to stop the demons back then. You united the students with your words and charisma. Then…I will finally leave a good life with my own family. Including my death wife!”

“...All of that for a fake world…”

Blax stood from his chair. The others did the same as well and pushed away the desk from them. Zone realigns his necks and told Escher,

“How low can you get just to get something like that, Escher. Stop being inside your own illusion and go back to the real world. But instead, you only wish to bring back your dead wife. That's just escapism.”

“DON’T YOU SPEAK ABOUT MY WIFE LIKE THAT!”

“Oh yeah? She’s already dead. Just move on and forget about it. I bet you put off your anger at Mei after your wife died. That’s the reason why she’s obeying you as if she’s been mind controlled. Sounds like child abuse to me.”

“ENOUGH! YOU ARE DISRESPECTING YOUR TEACHER!”

Escher grabbed his half charged staff and hurled in a dark energy ball towards Zone. Zone successfully jumped away from where the ball landed. But then, the ball was blown up and Zone ended up getting caught in the explosion despite dodging the initial attack.

“Zone!”

Blax ran towards Zone position and pulled him away from danger.

“That was too reckless, Zone.”

“I only did it so that he can get caught by my ability…”

“What do you mean?”

“Currently, his aiming is off. But I didn’t expect his energy ball would blow up…Guess I was too cocky.”

“Just relax and don’t do anything stupid, alright?”

“I won’t do anything stupid…I’m smart enough to know that.” Zone then lies down and rest on the floor.

Blax unsheathes his sword and made his way toward Escher. Airi and Lore joined in. Their movement were halted when Escher’s staff started to move on its own.

“You think I’m alone? My staff can fight for me, you know!”

Blax exchanged blows with the living staff while Airi tries his best to sneak in a bunch of chairs toward the staff during the scuffles. But the staff slips through all of Airi’s throws in such a quick pace. Lore tried to intervene by charging forward toward the staff. Surprisingly, the staff didn’t move away from Lore. But instead, it tries to fight back Lore’s charge.

“This fella…is…stronger than I expected…way stronger than that useless…armor changing…idiot!”

Lore was referring to Rider when he said that. He was later blown off by the staff as the staff decides to unleash another dark energy ball and blew it up right in front of his face.

“Lore!”

Haz pulled in Lore just in time before he was blown to pieces with the help of his Infinibots. Although he was saved, Lore’s left leg took the most damage out of all his body parts. It’s not looking so well, The other joined in as well and fought the staff. Leaving me behind as I faced the man who was stubborn to get out of his own illusion.

“Isn’t this exquisite, Mr.Cyclone? Your own friends trying their best to defeat a stick! A stick! I never knew this was possible!”

Escher laughed at his own joke as I stopped the time and teleported above him. I pulled out my dagger and slashed him. Unfortunate for me though, as I moved the time back I actually realise that I only hit his metal shoulder pads. At the very least I destroyed one of his shoulder pads.

“What kind of ability was that, boy? Why don’t you show me more so I can experiment with you, boy!”

No, I can’t do more. My time stopping ability was limited to a certain amount. I can’t keep stopping the time after I just stopped it. My ability has a cooldown. Which was unfortunate for me. Escher grabbed me by my collar and pushed me right next to where The Runix Cube was placed. My pocket mirror fell on top of The Runix Cube.

“You think you’re capable enough to defeat a Champions of Chaos?”

“You are no Champion. Just someone who believes in his own lies!”

“How dare you!”

Escher threw me away. I landed next to the chair where Mei was sitting on. She wasn't moving at all and was all frightened. I looked at The Runix Cube and wondered of a way to put an end to this. I had to think of something, fast.

Escher called his staff back to his hand. The staff went back to its master while at the same time hitting my fellow friends with dark energy ball all around the place. The place was a minefield. The staff returned and was placed over a slot to power it up with the cube next to it.

“It’s all over. This is the end and the beginning of my new story!”

Escher shoots out a dark energy beam from his hand. However, it missed and instead hitting The Staff of Illusion. Damaging the only thing that could make his fake world a reality. Looks like Zone has done his job well at making his aim becoming so bad.

“What the? Impossible! You’re right in front of me! How can I miss?”

“Zone used Cheat on you. Of course you would miss. You believed what you were aiming for was me but it wasn’t. But now that you’ve been tricked once. You won’t miss the next one, Escher…” I slowly stood up and made my move.

“You’re damn right!”

Escher tries again but this time with Zone’s Cheat being nullified after a single use. He aimed at me and shoots out another dark energy beam toward me. I smiled, knowing that I’ve been baiting him all this time. I grabbed the pocket mirror that was on top of The Runix Cube and blocked the beam with the mirror. The beam went right inside the mirror as if it was being absorbed. But a few millisecond later, it returned fire and headed straight toward Escher and the Staff of Illusion.

Even though I barely knew what The Runix Cube was, I was still able to use it to make my pocket mirror as powerful as it can contain to absorb everything that Escher threw at me. At the same time as well, I felt rejuvenated. It was probably because I was holding on an item that has a very high amount of magic in it. I decided to stop time just because I was able to at the time. I watched as Escher’s face that was filled with rage turned into regret and said to him…

“No, you don’t get to decide when a story is over…Want to know why? It’s because…I write my own story!”

Time returned back to normal and Escher was blasted by his own attack. He himself was then completely burned out from the blast. He didn't die and that was for the best, I thought to myself. I didn’t expect he would try to not let me die with that kind of ability. Unless that was what he was thinking of when he was shooting at me. I guess...he still has some kind of hope on us.

In any case…Just like I said…I write down my own story and this time…no more walls and no more chaos…no more illusions...

TO BE CONTINUED