Episode 2: Road of Sacrifices

[Tracy White]

Tracy pulled an ability card that was going to seal the win for Tracy...for the most part. Noland and Markus were definite problems that needed to be dealt with immediately before the Neathians could be targeted. Luckily, Tracy has the expertise to manage how effective these two brutes are.

"Awww man... I really don't want to do this to you, but... You know I really do," Tracy said and chuckled afterwards. "Ability activate! Enlightenment!" Skystar had light from the heavens shine down on her briefly when this was activated. Now, she can solely target other people with abilities that were only meant for herself and/or her allies. She could also be selective on what is applied and what is not.

This buff's application was going to explain itself in the long run, but for now, it would do well to exclude Tracy and Skystar from the effects of...

"Now...for one of our beloved secret arts...Thought Probe..." Skystar targeted Noland, Drago, Markus, and Gargulion with this ability. Many would think that this is stupid for the simple fact that their will to get Tracy back would power them up; however, there is another caveat that she's exploiting. For one, they weren't getting powered up, because she was excluding that. Second, if they see someone as an ally, they can't hurt them.

This means that Tracy and Skystar cannot be touched by either of the Resistors, because it's very obvious how they see them. The heart doesn't lie.

"Move along, handsome. I'll get to you in a second, but I see you have two nice looking Neathians with you. I'm more interesting in getting them out of the way for now since you're too useless to do anything right now. Kyuki and Belphenoid, get them please."

[Markus Hederick]

"...Of course she'd do that..." Markus loudly sighed. He knew what this meant for both him and Noland. Tracy and Skystar are now untouchable to them. Leave it to Betadron to exploit the secret arts of the Legendary Soldiers to unfair heights of unadulterated hax.

"You know... We should really have counters for these secret arts..." Gargulion started to realize.

"Yeah. You probably should," Betadron agreed.

"I didn't ask for your opinion!" Gargulion shouted. "This is whatever. Let's fight already."

"Hmph...ability activate! Grim Beyonder!" On Markus' cue, Gargulion gathered some stone in his right hand and injected some soul energy into it to form an ethereal blade. He then lodged the blade in his and Markus' chest to briefly flicker their souls between the world of the living and the afterlife.

In doing so, the two were considered to have left the realm of the living, so the secret art ceased to have an effect on them. Now it was Tracy and Skystar's turn so they can be reset.

Before Gargulion would exercise this power against them, there was something they felt. Tracy's soul trembled when Markus technically died for a brief moment. It would seem like Betadron has a challenger that can beat his power of hate, but she will need some help. All Markus had to do was give her the help she needed.

"Watch out," Gargulion clowned as he swiped the blade across the horizon. One slash, no matter how big or small, should do her in.

[Tracy White]

"...Really...?" Skystar said in surprise of how Gargulion got around that. "Onyx Blade!"

Skystar infused her bident with dark magic. Doing so created a greatsword-shaped beam on the tip. This allowed her to clash with Gargulion's Grim Beyonder without any major problems; however, due to the inherent properties of Gargulion's ability, Skystar wasn't able to exercise the full benefits of her own ability. Still, it beats getting one-shotted out of this dark form.

"Alright. I guess I'll fight you then," Tracy sighed, like it was a privilege for Markus to be able to fight her. "Ability activate! Walk of the Accursed!"

A circle of energy was formed around Skystar that began accumulating dark energy. This was visibly seen through a waterfall-like veil. Enemies that are within its gaze will be cursed, which will progressively lower all of their capabilities the longer they are in it. As for Skystar, dark magic power is increased tenfold while she's within it. She has a light variant of this spell, but this is much worse.

The dark variant lacked the control the light variant has, so this circular field continued to expand. The main issue comes in the fact that it is very bad for the environment. If this spell is allowed to linger, it will cover the entire planet and will make it inhospitable for life forms.

Kyuki chose to use Cloaking. A skull appeared on his head before his body disappeared. He pointed at Aranaut and Wolfurio and made a gesture of him grabbing their arms and pulling them over to him. That is essentially what ended up happening once a couple of seconds passed.

The Belphenoid then used one of Baalenoid's abilities, Vibrant Blow, to attempt to literally burst their eardrums in addition to subjecting them to a very concussive sound wave.

[Fabia Sheen]

"So...you're a fighter, little man? Weird..." Aranaut spoke of Kyuki's prowess and size. He saw him the entire time he was doing that, but he didn't expect anything like this.

Aranaut was standing comfortably within Skystar's curse, but the sound waves were getting to him a little bit. He was noticeably wincing from the sheer pain of it all.

"She's really good..." Fabia said with respect to Skystar's abilities. "Still, it's not over yet! Ability activate! Support Light!"

This was an extremely powerful Haos ability that draws power from all Haos Bakugan in the immediate vicinity. The Haos energy from Aranaut, Skystar, and Wolfurio culminated into a bright aura from within Aranaut's body. Its shine completely overpowered the curse field and repelled all three of the enemies for a great distance.

"Wolfurio, prep your Lanzato. I'm going in," Aranaut signaled as he started running after Skystar to shut her down before she does anymore damage to the pristine Neathia.

[Sir Rafe]

"Yes sir," Wolfurio complied. His go-to double-sided lance and firm shield were materialized in his hands. While Aranaut ran after Skystar, Wolfurio needed some time to 'speak' to Kyuki and Belphenoid.

"Hope you don't mind, Princess, but...seeing as how destructive her spells are, I'm just gonna do a little something here," Rafe prefaced. "Alright. By my esteemed authority as the leader of the Rampart Division, I hereby call the Knight's Code into order. Assemble!"

As Rafe said those words, the battlefield was surrounded by ghostly apparitions of knights and warriors. These all comprised of faithful Castle Knights that have come and gone. Their memories are what drives this surprising force, and it was being used to bring reinforcements into battle.

They immediately began coating the area with endless barrages of beams of light that assaulted the enemies viciously; however, there were no signs of environmental damage from these attacks.

Wolfurio then started closing in on Skystar as well, but he was paying close attention to Belphenoid and Kyuki. He wanted to see what they were going to do before fully committing to the main problem.

[Markus Hederick]

"...That's very odd..." Gargulion commented on what he just saw. "Wolfurio was not affected by that spell... At all."

"Well...judging by what I'm seeing here with all of these warriors popping up, I'm not surprised by anything they do," Markus surrendered. "Let them do their thing. They know what they're doing. Kyuki's gotta go, so focus on him."

"Okay," Gargulion accepted.

"Ability activate! Vessel of Aether!" A bright orb appeared in the palms of Gargulion's hands. He pressed them against his frame to scatter the energy throughout it. Now, he could exercise his powers using energy that flows through existence. In this case, since Gargulion is not a deity, he could not use this ability through a spiritual/divine aspect. He could use this in the elemental aspect.

Still, even with that drawback, it was more than enough to allow Gargulion to do what he needed to do. With a wave of his hand, he restored the environment back to the way it was before Skystar's dark magic tainted it.

"Princess, I won't get in your way, but if you could just immobilize Skystar or distract her, I can end this here," Markus advised her.

[Noland Hardy]

When Markus activated that ability, Noland glanced to his left to see Gargulion in his semi-empowered state. He immediately knew what Markus was attempting to do by using that. The struggle was about to be over.

Drago was in a tussle in close quarters with Diablo 3, which he did on purpose to prevent the mechanical from wasting Neathia. Diablo drew its Dextra blade and attempted to slice Drago with it. While that was about to happen, Drago didn't look at it. He was looking at Aranaut run towards Skystar with Kyuki and Belphenoid ready to converge.

"Ability activate! Dragonic Presence!" A faint pulse left Drago's body that went undetected by anyone. A Switch and a Hex Code Drago appeared next to Belphenoid and Kyuki. Both of them were prepping knockout blows to the noggin. The Drago that was about to be bifurcated disappeared while the two Dragos sucker punched the two enemies.

A base Drago then appeared in front of Diablo 3 and was about to disarm it of the blade by kneeing its wrists from its right side. This Drago appeared and did just that, causing the blade to go to its left a bit. Drago shoved Diablo out of the way to grab it, and then immediately sliced down Diablo 3's body to cut it in half. It was reduced to ash and withered away. The same happened to the blade.

"Hmph. And here I thought I needed to be concerned about that ability spawning something like that..." Noland commented on how easy it was to dispose of Diablo. Their durability must not be as high by default. Perhaps the user has to be powerful enough to spawn something of that high of a tier. Belphenoid and Kyuki were as strong as the originals though with the annoying mutt being considerably stronger in this case, but Diablo 3 was the odd one out.

"No complaints from me," Drago commented on not being challenged all that much.

[Tracy White]

"Of course..." Tracy wasn't the slightest bit surprised that Noland and Drago interfered to quickly knock both Belphenoid and Kyuki unconscious...in one blow each even.

"Magic Barrier!" Skystar did this in response to the Knight's Code. A sky blue barrier surrounded her and acted as her personal bodyguard against foreign bodies or objects. Even with this barrier, the bombardment was getting a bit much. That will need to be dealt with soon.

"Ability activate! Affinity!" Skystar began to float backwards and move her body in a snake-like motion. A thin, dark aura lit up on her body so that she may absorb the dark power that Belphenoid and Kyuki carried. She was going to use it for her own nefarious purposes now.

This dark power jumped out of those bodies in orb form and violently beamed their energies into Skystar's body. Her armor was starting to darken, and her eyes were turning red.

She tossed her bident behind her so she could engage Aranaut in close quarters. The bident itself started to act independently. It beamed dark energy into the sky to darken Neathia. Dark lightning bolts started striking down on every location the Knight's Code warriors were appearing at.

"Come on then...if you dare," Tracy challenged the Neathian Princess.

[Fabia Sheen]

Aranaut ignored the lightning bolts for the most part since he already determined that they weren't going to hit him. As for the Knight's Code, they were not as easily disposed of as one might think. While Skystar definitely got rid of them, they will come back in a couple of seconds.

"You're a tough one... Resisting the Knight's Code is very noteworthy..." Aranaut simply commended. "I'd like to see your skills more if things go our way. You'd make a worthy opponent."

As Aranaut closed the distance, he got ready to engage a spellcaster in what he believed to be an unfavorable scenario for her. Except...

"Aranaut, she's welcoming your approach. Be careful," Fabia warned him. Apparently, Skystar allowed Aranaut to be this close.

"Yes, Princess. I'm aware," Aranaut acknowledged.

"Alright... Ability activate! Dual Commando!" It was important to mention that Aranaut's main draw was body supremacy. In other words, he has complete control over his body and what it does. This is very versatile depending on what the user can do.

In Aranaut's case with this ability, he can vibrate his molecules to make it seem like there are two Aranaut on the battlefield when there's truly only one. He did this to mix in feints and melees at a very rapid rate.

[Tracy White]

"So another one is able to do that..." Skystar instantly recognized. She was not ignorant to what Aranaut was doing. Ahio has been doing this exact maneuver lately from her training with Drago, and Skystar watched it and saw how it works.

Due to already seeing it at a much higher speed, Aranaut was moving very slowly in comparison to Ahio, so she was able to dodge the melees without an issue. She even surprised most who thought she couldn't hang up close by parrying Aranaut and throat chopping him.

"Let's try this..." Betadron finally said as he resurfaced. His energy flowed into Aranaut from Skystar's body. He was going to try to corrupt Aranaut in the same way he corrupted Skystar.

"Well...that was quick," Tracy said in a bit of shock.

[Fabia Sheen]

"Wasn't it?" Fabia asked in agreement like nothing was going to come from what Betadron was doing.

Aranaut was visibly shaken by the throat chop and was hung over a bit, but... Betadron's influence didn't seem to affect him... Like, at all...

"Is that all you got, demon?" Aranaut questioned Betadron.

"Come again?" Betadron asked in a bit of worry, like Aranaut shouldn't have resisted his power.

"The Castle Knights are too pure of heart to be swayed by the likes of you," Aranaut briefly explained. "You're finished."

Aranaut quickly grabbed ahold of Skystar and put her in a full-nelson. "Wolfurio! Do it now!"

[Sir Rafe]

"At the ready, sir," Wolfurio acknowledged.

"Ability activate! Holy Lasso!" A blue light extended from the tip of the lance and wrapped around Aranaut and Skystar like a lasso. Wolfurio then reeled back to pull both of them towards him. This was to make sure that he actually hits Skystar with his next ability and doesn't mess up the opportunity to end the fight.

"My goodness... This is one frightening spellcaster. You guys from Earth are really something else. I'm starting to doubt if this is even going to work on you," Rafe sighed. "Oh well. Let's see. Ability activate! Terra Seal!"

Wolfurio pointed his lance at Skystar's chest. She was quickly seized by a dark yellow coating that began to seal off this dark side of her. Still, she was in the crazed mindset, so someone was going to have to put an end to that.

"I hope this one's good enough for you, Markus," Rafe passed off.

[Markus Hederick]

"Hm..." Markus was slowly nodding in what he saw of Fabia and Rafe's performance. They were pretty good. No...very good, actually...

Now all that is left is for Gargulion to get rid of this dark influence over Skystar. He uses his eyes to shoot two lasers into the sky to get rid of the darkness and restore the light of Neathia. Pure light then shone down all over the planet to clash with the pure darkness of Betadron.

Within Tracy and Skystar's bodies, their souls were being flooded with positive energy in order to help the two overpower Betadron's influence. While this did take a while due to how powerful this Betadron seemed to be, their good halves were able to regain control of their bodies.

In doing so, their dark magic was canceled, so Belphenoid and Kyuki took a hike back to whatever void they came out of.

"Alright... That's done..." Markus sighed. "Is everyone alright?"

[Noland Hardy]

Noland looked at Tracy and Skystar with a lot of concern. As he did, he was reminded of the past when he first discovered what the Hex Code was. He felt very sorry for her, because she didn't deserve to experience what darkness does to a person.

"Why her...?" Noland asked in disbelief. "She didn't deserve that..."

"...Because none of you would do it..." Betadron eerily answered.

"You're still here?"

"A little bit. The Darkus Legendary Soldier did me in for now, so I'm on my way out...for now. I still consider this one a success though even if I didn't get what I was really after. In fact...I like Tracy a lot more than Nero right now."

"So that's your thing? You've been banished for so long you want to prey on women, just because you forgot what it feels like to see one?"

"Oh, don't make it sound like that. I was only helping her. She had all of THAT locked away in her heart and all of you were too blind to see it before I did. Drago and Aranaut can see a lot of things except for when their allies need them to."

"..."

"So, now that I've exposed the hate in the Haos Legendary Soldier, things can start moving. They were more useful than I ever expected. Lars Lion herself was very hateful...if you'd even believe that. It's always the most elegant beings that struggle the most with their own darkness. That's how I knew to target them first, because they'd supply me with the most energy that will be crucial to my escape. As it stands, I will be out of this confinement very soon, probably even sooner thanks to them. Disposing of you Legendary Soldiers is gonna be so bloody easy. Want to know why?"

"Englighten us, O Dark One," Drago scoffed.

"Heh. You all aren't ready to wield the power that you have now. The previous Soldiers were much more experienced than you all. The ones I look at now are mere children."

"Really now?"

"Really now." A portal opened behind Drago. A demonic-looking being started sticking his head out slowly as he attempted to escape. "Bloody. Easy," the being reiterated once more.

[Noland Hardy]

Something within Noland and Drago finally snapped when Betadron started peaking his head out in the open. Noland's hair started to rise as if something was blowing it up. Both him and Drago seemed to have their pupils absent from their eyes; all there was there was whiteness.

"Hmph...I don't think so," Noland responded to Betadron in a godly-sounding voice.

"..." Betadron stopped attempting to escape when he heard Noland's voice. Something was very wrong...and he could feel it.

(Colossal Crimson)

Power was building up in Noland and Drago at a very concerning rate. It was to the point where even Noland's own BrawlX was starting to overload. Then, a dark red pillar shot up from both of their bodies into the sky.