No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I WON'T LET THIS END HERE! I WON'T BE BEATEN TODAY!
All the anxiety and all the frustrations in my heart need to be brought forward in this single moment, I need to wield its powers even if it will cost me everything. Even if I have to cheat.
I grab the amulet and hold out my hand, and two iron faces appear at a 90-degree angle, shooting the ball up towards the sky as the ball ricochets. "YES!"
Yet as my head hangs up high, I see the ball fly towards the sky. Mõõk appears up above, and with a smile, he says, "This is over."
With a furious kick, he smashes the ball right into the house, and destroys the king piece behind, smashing it into pieces.
Φ Zbur up and shout, "GAME OVER!! THE KNIGHTMARES ARE THE WINNERS!!!!!"
The crowd erupts in cheers so loud that the very tremors that Dumnorix sent through the stadium feel like nothing more than a whimper. Standing up and pointing his finger towards the sky, Dumnorix yells, "I AM THE GREATEST IN ALL CREATION!"
Ikaras, Pia, and Mõõk all head towards each other, congratulating, while Ivana and José hug, jumping up and down in excitement. Cyrus grips his fists, Avram smiles at his son, Gheroghe whimpers with his eyes filled with tears, Suzuka, Maple, Willow, and Wadim all jump with their fists pumping towards the sky.
Iancu, staring at the sight in front of him, falls to his knees in relief, then says, "We finally won."
Yet in his peace, Orb jumps on him and says, "Did you see what I just did! How I completely destroyed all those scrubs and smashed them into the ground."
Pushing Orb's head away, Iancu says, "Yes, now get the hell off of me."
Iancu keeps pushing, but as the weight on him increases, he looks at Orb. "Did this idiot fall asleep?"
Looking at his limp body, Iancu says, "Rest well."
"You did good as well. You know that we could use a spare goalie like you," Cara says, whilst his body in its tiny form rests on Iancu's shoulder.
"Sorry, but I have a group of people I have already devoted myself to."
"Then it seems they are rather lucky."
Žudrė, with her back lying against the ground, looks up towards the sky and covers her face with her arms while tears fall down her face. She smashes her fist against the ground and says, "Is this really as far as I could go? Mother, I am so sorry."
"So you're doing this for your mother."
Žudrė, turning her head sees Dumnorix sitting beside her, and says, "What do you want? You've already beaten and stopped my goals. Are you just here to rub it in my face?"
"Hey, have you ever made a mistake?"
"A mistake?"
"Have you?"
"Yes, I have, a rather big one."
"I made only small mistakes in my life, with one exception. Which is probably the mismatch of times for an important event. Almost got Orb over their killed. But one thing I learned from it all is that I can still make mistakes. I have had a particular fear since I was a child, due to these mistakes. What if I make a mistake on a bigger scale? What if the same stupidity that led to this mistake happens, but affects so many more people? It terrifies me and has made me a cautious person. It's the only fear the greatest in all creation has ever, or will ever have in his transcendent life."
"So that fear is supposed to lead to stagnation? If I allow that to bind me, how will I stop injustices from happening?"
"Very true as well. That's why action is necessary, but more than that, that's why allowing individuals wills like yours to make a difference matters. But war isn't that. In war, individual skills, will, thought, or love have no value, it might as well be paper to wipe one's butt, though even that would be giving it too much value. That's why actions that cause war must be refrained from. War is a beast that, once released, has no master. It doesn't matter why it started or what you think it stands for; it exists by itself and moves however it wishes until it is satisfied. We're all infallible, so if you can talk it out, we should aim to do that before any actions are taken. I have seen unrest and distrust before, but people so willing to gather in a stadium to watch a bunch of people run around are nowhere near the limit to call for such extremes."
Holding out his hand, Dumnorix says, "I happen to be a beastkin, and despite all the hatred between my people and humans, we have decided to take some steps forward for both of our futures, and I am sure you guys can do this as well."
Grabbing his hand, she says, "You really do like to talk a lot. Of course, because I AM THE GREATEST IN ALL CREATIONS!"
Dumnorix pulls her up, and the cheers continue as the teams both shake their hands against each other, and the trophy is presented to the Knightmares!
With the three ministers standing in front of the Knightmares, Stiprais holds a trophy in his arms. It looks like a giant purple chalice with a red heart in the centre. Across the back of it are a pair of white wings, on its left side is a blue tentacle handle that droops down, and on its right side is a handle reminiscent of a forest with green leaves.
Staring at Mõõk, Stiprais says, "You have done splendidly, young man. Leading the Cursed Land region to victory."
Mõõk, looking at Stiprais, says, "I thank you for this, but it wasn't just me; it was my teammates who led me to this victory, as well as the new members and even my manager."
"Manager? You guys got on-?"
As Stiprais' eyes move towards Ivana in her costume, they open wide, and across his bark body leaves sprout and wilt. Vėja elbows him in the back and says, "It's time for you to hand it over."
"Yeah, right, I need to hand this over."
Stiprais hands over the trophy to the Mõõk, who holds the trophy up and yells in victory, along with he rest of his teammates. Then, as the crowd explodes, the Bloody Marys walk out through the player tunnels.
Φ As I move forward, a series of little hands touch upon my back, and turning, I see my brothers with little baby hands created from all their mass touching my back.
"Thank you all."
But as my eyes lay on them, they all soon freeze in place and pause. "Sister eyes up front," Red warns with a chillying tone.
Turning to face the people in front of me, I see a series of people with a purple banner that has a golden heart across it, standing in front of us. "The Cursed Heart army, Perfecțiune, huh. You're here to capture us."
Yellow says, "Everyone uses smaller, more mobile forms. We will use White to break through and get sister out of here."
"No you won't, you fools. I will keep them away."
The six boys, ignoring me, continue to talk, and Red says, "Yellow and I will make a hole, Blue and Pink help, White break through. Green rampage however you like."
Each of them shrinks their bodies with White entering his aerodynamic form, and saying, "Thank you, brothers."
He quickly grabs me, as I say, "Let me go, you morons!"
As they prepare to push through, I try and fight back, but as large stomps break and shake the area, all my brothers' bodies relax, and I am released and look forward to where I see a large figure pushing his head against the top of a tunnel.
A man with his head pressed against the top of the tunnel says, "This place really needs to increase its height. We should get this fixed. Isn't this sport supposed to be for every single person in the country?"
Staring at him, I say, "Gurmand."
The black dragonic wolf, looking down at me, kneels down and says, "You guys have gotten way too big. I could pick you all up with my fingers, but now you could all probably restrain my body.
Red, standing in front of me, says, "Are you here to take us? If so, we will fight back with all we ha-."
He flicks my brother in the forehead and says, "Stop being a violence-brained brat. If I wanted to be done with you all, I would have done it years ago."
Walking forward, I say, "But you're still here to punish us."
"From what a little fox told me, you have all fallen in line with some pretty radical people, haven't you? Maybe that stuff my wife was saying about leaving a bunch of kids who have bad experiences with humans together was actually a bad idea."
As the Cursed Heart Army behind him understands the words that flow through their ears, the silver and purple helmets they wear with two bat wings at the side are all removed in an instant, and every single one of their faces resembles the kid known as Iancu.
One of them is a woman with a ponytail, and silver hair that reflects the red and white hue that covers the Cursed Sky regions player tunnel says, "Sir Gurmand. What did you mean by that?"
"Oh, it's just that a bunch of the kids I received from human prison all happen to be members of Blamator, crazy how that worked out, huh?"
All the members of Perfecțiune behind him yell, "IT'S YOUR FAULT!"
Gurmand picks his nose and flicks a giant bogger towards them, then turning towards me and my brothers, he says, "You all have done some stupid things while I kept my head turned, but at least judging by the look on your face Žudrė, you seem to be doing quite a bit better than before."
Smiling a bit, I say, "I just realised I was too rash."
"That's nice to hear. Now what about the six of you?"
Pink says, "We go wherever our sister goes."
The rest nod their heads, and Gurmand says, "You're all still just like little guard dogs when it comes to your sister."
They all nod in satisfaction, causing me to say, "Annoying."
Gurmand says, "So I can be sure you'll all help me when it comes to telling us all the details of this incident without any struggle."
"I promise."
"Good to hear. It seems you have grown stronger while I was away. I can assure you all that you're mother would be proud that you became such strong people."
Walking past Gurmand, the vampiric lady moves over to me and says, "You will all follow us to the holding cells beneath the ground, there you'll be questioned. Compliance is mandatory, and you all have the right to bring a witness with you to watch to make sure no abuse takes place. You can select any non-criminal, but I think I know who you'll pick."
"I will be taking the stupid wolf dragon. But might I also ask a question?"
"Go ahead."
"Will we be able to play Cursed Chess again?"
The woman looks perplexed at my question, and I continue on by saying, "We broke quite a few rules and attacked the Knightmares before the game even started. I know that depending on the charges, you can get a lifetime ban on you're ability to play. So will we be able to play again?"
Smiling, she says, "It depends on a lot of factors, but willingness to help during our investigations can heavily reduce punishments received, and at the very least, judging by both the crowd's and the Knightmares' reactions, there is a high likelihood you'll be allowed to step foot on the pitch again."
I smile as I look back at my brother, and with Gurmand, we all walk away.