Once the sun finally settled upon the nationals, most of starlight took the time to recuperate while Roy ventured out first to take on Texas. Alexia herself finished consuming five bottles of water to aid their exhaustion. Cheveyo noticed her turquoise hair bangs starting to glow every time she took a breath of air. Even the ends of her hair were beginning to turn that same color mixing in with the blonde, a potential side effect of using her singularity? Such things were possible. He’d seen some people's eyes change when overusing their power or other weird bodily functions take place; in his case, the two of them were similar.

A quick glance to the monitor, Cheveyo saw Roy and the Texas vanguard known as Elle Spears. Elle took a few hops into the air, even with their suppressor on their hand touching the ceiling before landing next to Roy.

“Hop~!” The female turned their attention to Roy. Cherry red eyes gazing into him. Merely fascinated by the rather rounded boy. Peach-colored hair with what appeared to be fox ears poking out from the top of their head. “Tu~!” Whatever they were doing seemed to be unnerving Roy. Elle simply continued to examine him before doing a few more jumps to exercise moments till the match began.

Cheveyo seconds away from muttering something, a knock came from the door. Everyone’s attention turned towards it, and when Deveron answered, there standing in the hall was Lyn.

“Oi, Where’s teach? You did get the people, right?”

“Yes, your teacher is fine and in safe hands. As for the people involved in the matter, they have been dealt with, minus the one that you two failed in halting.”

“Yeah, Yeah. Tell us that again when you deal with someone that just teleports in and out of place.” Deveron looked down the halls seeing that Lyn was the only one there. “So...Where is he?”

“I escorted him to the director. You should be able to see him sometime soon once the meeting is over. For now, continue with your match. I give you luck in succeeding, Starlight.” Without another word, Lyn departed.

“Hey! You can’t just leave us empty-handed like that!”

An exhausted sigh left Cheveyo, but it was one in relief. “That’s fine for now, Dev. At least we know, Teach is safe.”

“No kiddin’. But, why would the ‘director’ need to know? Isn’t it that strange tall man from the ballots?” Alexia threw another empty water bottle into the trash — The turquoise part of their hair radiating as if made up of bioluminescence. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the vanguard match commencing and Roy immediately getting confused by Elle’s harsh speed.

“What makes you say that?” Cheveyo looked back at the match, squinting his eyes in disapproval.

“Well… Isn’t that what the other branches are for? To secure the safety of all within the building? Isn’t the director part of the media and just organizes?”

“Who cares, so long as I don’t have to go chasin’ teach.” Deveron sat back down.

Starlight merely let the topic simmer and die out; for now, eventually, Reynolds would be released. Not much they could do from here, but to keep on winning — And winning was a fickle matter. A rough subject, even if one of them won, victory was far off. Now that they were in the quarter-finals, Texas wasn’t going to let them have a simple and easy triumph.

Within the halls of Side B, the spinning chamber of a revolver made its way down the aisle. Echoing out as footsteps made their way towards the battle rooms, within each slot of the revolver, the most valued player of last year's nationals, Holly Richard, reloaded. Each bullet carried the symbol of singularity, each shell having a different casing, ranging from blue, green, red, and the usual yellow.

Eyes as bright as diamonds staring at the gun in her hand — Holstering the firearm to their side, Holly took off her hat. They started to tie their hair into a ponytail for the coming match. As they ventured down the hall, they came across an unexpected guest.

“Oh? Well, Howdy Mahdri. Didn’t expect you to be on this side.”

“Hm? Huh? What?” Mahdri looked a bit perplexed upon hearing the words of a familiar voice; after a few seconds, she snapped out of what happened to be a trance. “Oh, Many apologies. I happened to be….”

“Sleep walkin’? Ha! No worries, those gods again?”

“Yes… They have become wary. Always pulling me in.”

“Oh? Well, no need to be wary, right? The devil is long gone.”

“No, no. Devils are always looming. Perhaps one sees the darkness in everything.”

“...Right…? Uh, those gods inside you aren’t tamperin’ with your mind, right?”

“Oh! I’m sorrys! No, no. They’re docile.” Mahdri gave Holly a cheerful smile then proceeded to continue walking past them. “Good luck in the match!”

“...Thanks.” Holly waved goodbye to Mahdri. As the star-strung girl watched the foreigner waltz off, she could only see silhouettes of six golden arms reaching out of Mahdri. “Man, that girl is somethin’ else. I might not keep my title if we fight...Actually, why did she waltz all the way over here?”

A few lingering thoughts looming in Holly’s head, only to quickly discard themselves. Regardless, her opponent wasn’t Millennium High’s champion; it was Starlight. Continuing to pace themselves to the battle room until finally opening up the doors. Her eyes shined onto Elle being thrown out of the system first — Gently tipping their hat down at the girl, Holly chose her words carefully.

“Aw, ya’ lost? No worries, L. Tis’ a learning lesson.”

“Sorry, Holly! He kept bulking up!”

Roy materialized back onto the machine, beginning to pose for the cameras.

“YEAH~! I’m back on track for MVP!” Roy’s literal victory celebration was suddenly halted as Holly aimed her gun towards him. In a fake gesture of shooting him, Holly tipped her hat to him.

“Bang~. Nice show, ranger.”

“Ranger?” Roy was a bit confused, he didn’t look like a ranger, yet he realized this was Holly he was speaking to. Their attitude suddenly brightened. “Oh! Ranger! Yeah, I get it.” Clearly, he did not.

“Keep up with your pace, and you'll be sure to steal my title in no time. Heh, Not like I have many years to keep it anyway.” Of course, Holly did account for the pro leagues, yet that was far off. Before Roy could reply, from the double doors across from Holly, Cheveyo stepped forth.

“Here already, Chev? Good luck, buddy.” Roy approached him as the two bumped fists — Holly eyed up, Cheveyo. A sickly green aura... no... A maelstrom of colors loomed behind him. The girl could only smile for this coming fight. It seemed, Mahdri wasn’t the only one with a pantheon at play.

Cheveyo looked at Holly and noticed their gun. Wasn’t it against the rules in many tournaments to not use such a weapon? “Aren’t guns banned from these tournaments?”

“Hm? Oh, don’t worry, it's like a paintball gun! Won’t hurt a bit.” Holly assured him, yet Cheveyo didn’t like it either way — Paintball guns still hurt.

“Sargents to your positions!” A voice from one of the foundation members loomed.

Holly and Cheveyo took their respective positions across from each other, taking off their suppressors. The machine would start up, revving its engine as particles scattered around. Both fighters transport into a vast desert — off in the nearby distance, a canyon filled with abandoned homes placed inside the mountains. An old abandoned kingdom, dried rivers run their course through the harsh heat, moving past the gorge and leading to a tall tower that spiraled high into the sky. Small platforms levitating around this structure with the light of the sun lighting the beacon on top.

Stationed next to the dried-up river, Cheveyo collected the dead seeds of the earth in his hand, conjuring forth a spirit.

“[Shakuru!]” The tattoos around Cheveyo’s body morphed into lines, some of the lines forming circular sun-like patterns. His body temperature increased as the dried-up soil in his hands slowly crumbled away. Blowing in the wind, the dust came into contact with the sound barrier-breaking, followed by a bone-cracking hit.

A shot heard around the globe — Cheveyo stumbled back as a bullet impacted his shoulder. In the distance, situated on a nearby cliff, Holly tapped the side of their revolver, realizing they made a mistake.

“Darn it! That was the wrong bullet.” Realizing they loaded the wrong ammo. Gently lowering their hat, they’d eye up Cheveyo from afar. Who had trouble moving his muscles now.

“Grargh! Hargh!” Muscles started to spasm — Blood dripping from the wound, every move he took became an efforting pain. The bullet still within him began to secrete a white liquid, a substance that began to slowly paralyze his movements.

“Yep, wrong ammo. Oh, well. Over already...Unfortunate.” Spinning the revolver once more, Holly aimed it at Cheveyo only to move it slightly above him. Then, release! From the bullet chamber, a scarlet bullet flung into the air, breaking the sound barrier. With the dry wind aiding it, the shell exploded directly above Cheveyo, releasing red smoke in a large radius.

“Bang~ Bang~!” Another spin of the revolver — then release! Out came an azure bullet hurtling towards the red smoke upon contact with the shell mixed with the smoke beginning to glow a faint golden color. Cheveyo glanced up and braced, muttering something underneath his tongue.

Holly’s eyes watched as the wind blowing past her suddenly forced itself inward towards her bullet as if the mother of all bombs just dropped before her. She held down her hat, watching the enormous explosion go off, bringing a cloud of smoke up into the air.

The smoke cloud radiated with electricity, occasionally lightning zapping in and out of it. No signs of halting anytime soon dust continued to wrap itself around the area. In the distance, Holly watched on.

A steady whistle came from her. “Phew~! That was a nice explosion. Didn’t mean to use the stun, though. Well, any second no-” Arms unearth from the rocky ground grabbing hold of her legs! Bringing her through the mountain before being tossed from the side!

Gripping tightly onto their gun, Holly ragdolled across the field, slamming backside up against the entrance of the canyon kingdom. A distance away, the ground ruptured, something hurling towards them from underground. Picking themselves back up and aiming the revolver towards the burrowing figure approaching — In the distance, lightning continued to flash as the wind picked up more dust.

Another spin of the cylinder, Holly tossed their gun up into the air before stomping her foot down, rupturing the earth. The burrowing figure launched out of the ground, being disrupted. Cheveyo held their head from being found, parts of his skin resembling scales similar to a rattlesnake. Extending his arm upward to cover the upper portions, Cheveyo endured a sudden dropkick by Holly — Slamming face-first into the ground, the spinning sound of the revolver echoed across the canyon only to stop short in a split second!

BANG!

A hue of orange flashed across the ground — A sudden explosion of energy sending Holly flying high into the sky. From the flash of the ground, a crater opened up an underground cavern hoisting with ruined monuments. The smoke gathered before being pulled away to the storm now forming in the distance.

“Urrah!” Holly flung into the floating platform next to the titanic tower, a calculated shot? Or simply a lucky fortune. When she rose, a gentle coating of yellow light shattered around her body. “Talk about rough.”

In the distance, Holly saw a giant dust storm gathering as lightning continually flashed. Wind speed speeds churning towards her direction. With the storm approaching and Cheveyo nowhere in sight, Starlight continued to watch on, hoping for the best.

“He’s got this...I think?” Roy crossed his arms to ponder for a moment. “And no sign of teach..”

“Maybe we should check on him? It hasn’t been THAT long, but better safe than sorry.” Alexia sat up from the couch, beginning to throw out a few jabs into the air — bits of stardust scattering in front of them. “I think I’ll go check.”

“You’ll just get lost again.” Deveron crossed his legs up against the table from his seat, extremely relaxed despite their team's state. “As much as I’d love to sneak around again, I’d rather not get thrown out by Lyn.”

“No point in being afraid of her. We can just talk our way out. Not like we’re going to fight her.”

“Yeah, Yeah. She let us off the hook the first time; we would have been disqualified for even leaving the tournament grounds during a match. And I'm pretty sure they’re monitoring us now. Just use that head of yours.” Deveron closed his eyes and merely pointed his finger towards the corners of the wall facing the door.

“So we just gotta wait and win our matches...Great. Not like I'm getting a chance at fighting anyway. I should have joined the individual side of things.” Alexia turned their attention to the walls, sensing many individuals gathered in the halls, likely foundation members.

“That’s my line.” Deveron eyed up Alexia before focusing back on the match.

“You two know you could have done that months ago, right? Dev, you’ve already done that before anyway!” Roy chimed in.

“Yep.” Nothing more to be said from Deveron while the match continued, A titanic dust cloud beginning to loom over the entire field. Flares of light, dry heat mixed with fierce winds upon the landscape, Holly struggled to find Cheveyo with the storm now overtaking half the tower.

Taking a gander below as the storm blew on, a twinkling light shined from the dust blitzing past Holly’s face. Blood dripped from the side of her cheek — With the spin of their revolver once more, Holly aimed it down at the dust storm.

CLICK!

From the chamber, this time, a cyan color-coated bullet released into the dust storm, leaving behind crystallized shards of ice formulating into the air. Yet again, another twinkling of light emitted from the dust grazing past Holly once more — A rumble beneath one’s feet and a chilling breeze of air surmounting with a titanic ice crystal bursting from the surface, breaking apart the dust storm around it.

From the sudden disbursement of dust in the air, Holly spotted an Eagle flying above the crystal. Parts of its wings frozen and steam emitting from its feathers started to take a dive towards her. Without hesitation, Holly shot once at the eagle, a sickly green bullet leaving the chamber only to whiz past the bird. The bullet exploded in the air releasing green smoke into the air covering the eagle.

Right, when she moved her hand, preparing to reload from the green smoke, out came Cheveyo! His left arm was sprinkled with ice, his clothing covered in dust, and overall looking sickly. The storms raging beneath them slowed to a crawl with Holly adjusting their gun to release a final shot — The pressuring pain of energy wrapped around the two fighters until one of them landed the blow.

Fist clenching, Cheveyo threw out a punch that could never reach in time — His aura extended outward in an orange hue mixed with bits of green. The energy projecting an enormous fist, knocking Holly down through the platform and into the lower tower! Cheveyo caught hold of himself, nearly falling off the platform; the aura around him dissipated into the air.

His breathing became heavier, and movements started to bunch up. Only this time, his power proceeded to drain — What was in that bullet? Cheveyo’s thoughts trying to tie in on the possibilities only for one god to force control over him.

Spiders trickled out from underneath his feet, bits of hair turning white and timeless threads materializing around his clothing. A larger one moving to his neck only to bite down — Whatever was affecting him before started to fade away with the spider injecting strange liquid into the body.

“[Kokyangwuti!]”

Cheveyo’s voice boomed, mixing with the faint sound of a female. Gesturing their hand downward — A horde of spiders continued to spew from his body, only for all of them to fall down endlessly into the lower tower.

By the time Holly sat back up, blood was dripping from the side of her left arm. Along with her face partially bruised from the punch. Around the lower lobby of the tower, the dust storm still brewed, mixing with the ice, Glass shards broken up on the floor. Despite the injury, she reached into her pocket, pulling out another cartridge of bullets beginning to reload. Only to stop halfway through at the skittering noise approaching. Visibility dampened by the dust, Holly started to focus… Seconds later, stamping her foot down on a large spider.

“Phew~!” Holly let out a small whistle looking down at the tiny spiders roaming about. “That ain’t right.” With the spin of her revolver, she immediately aimed upwards and released! A regular bullet casting from the chamber and impacting something above. After a few seconds, Holly stood back and watched as a spider twice her own size dropped down.

“A dud.” Taking a glance at her gun, she’d once more take aim to the left, Click! Aim to the right, Click! Both times a yellow bullet released from the chambers breaking apart the dust — Sweeping the plethora of spiders into the air and carrying them through the tower. The tower itself started to wobble — Cheveyo turned to watch only to jump down from the platform immediately.

Holly heard her opponent landing nearby, merely shifting their hand in the direction of Cheveyo. The two now stood face to face. More skittering and clattering loomed in the hidden dust.

“How strange. This is the MVP of last year's tournament?” Cheveyo’s voice still mixed with that of an elderly woman — The god in control wondered what determined such a title.

“Ooo~. Fancy yourself lucky. It’s because me and Gabby tied in score; last year's tournament was like a battle royale up until the semi’s. Frankly, I prefer it to this~.” Aiming the gun behind her, Holly released, shooting a bullet into another overly giant spider, killing it instantly. She attempted to reach for her hat during the process, but it seemed it was long gone — No matter, she’ll get it back when the match is done.

“Hmph. So a title for merely how many you defeat in fast succession. You children..” Cheveyo snapped his fingers.

“Excuse me?” Holly prepared to aim her gun at Cheveyo only to slap her hand into the side of their neck. As if being struck by a sharp needle, when she looked at what she smacked, it seemed a small spider managed to bite her.

Click!

Another yellow bullet released from the gun’s chamber — Holly’s reaction time increasing, Whizzing past Cheveyo, the shell picked up a horde of spiders gathering up behind him.

Click!

Again another bullet released; ducking beneath the bullet, Cheveyo lunged at Holly, knocking them through one of the supports — The tower continued to wobble. Holly managed to catch herself, realizing she only had one more bullet left. Yet again, she released this time her singularity kicking into full gear. Perfect Accuracy!

Click!

Once more, the final bullet hurled its way through the air, aiming to pierce Cheveyo’s heart. The sound barrier shattered as dust, spiders, and shards of glass followed behind the bullet. Time slowed to a crawl as Cheveyo watched the bullet approach. A gentle tug of his arm and time resumed. The wind fiercely blew past as dust enveloped the area.

Holly squinted their eyes, waiting for the dust to settle.

“So this is the weapon of today, huh?” When the dust cleared — Cheveyo had the bullet observing it. “Well… A more accurate arrow, right? You children and your new toys...Here, have it back.”

“Wha-” Holly couldn’t react in time, and with a simple flick of the finger, the bullet whizzed past her face, breaking the remaining supports of the tower. She attempted to stand up only to have her movements bunch up — Her legs refused to move!

“Oops. Overdid it, sorry boy.” Cheveyo spoke before looking down at Holly — With a simple smile and a wave, Cheveyo’s body scattered into hundreds of spiders that ran out of the collapsing tower.

“You’ve gotta be kid-” The tower fell onto Holly, immediately forcing them out of the match.

“Game set! Winner, Starlight!”

Cheveyo stood there in the same white void, only for an elderly woman to approach him — The iris of her eye resembling that of a spider web.

“Good on you, boyo. Sorry for taking over, Hehe~. Couldn’t let the others hog all the fun.”

“You and the others need to stop forcing me back here; it’s my body, my rules!”

“Relax, at least I healed any wounds and removed the poison from that girl if it was any of the rest. They’d keep both of you weakened. Though, I guess that’s what that strange machine is for, another toy. Hehe…”

“That’s not what I’m talking abo-” By the time, Cheveyo realized he was back in the tournament room shaking hands with Holly. It seemed he was talking to himself for a good bit.

“S-Sorry.”

“No worries~. You pantheon-types are somethin’ else. Had my fun in the process, few surprises. But, no more spiders!” Holly pressed her fingers up against Cheveyo’s chest then adjusted her hat.

“I couldn’t control that part.”

“Nonsense, Shouldn’t all your paths be kept on a leash or somethin’? If not, that’s crazy. Mahdri says she always has them under control.”

“You shouldn’t listen to what others tell you. They might be lying.”

“Don’t worry about that with Mahdri; she’s a bit of a weird freak but a good friend~. Well, whichever of our teams makes it to the finals. We’re gonna need it~.” With that, Holly tipped her hat to Cheveyo, giving the spirit warrior the respect he was due, and merely walked off to go talk to the camera crews nearby.

Cheveyo himself opted to ignore the cameras and head back to the team.