Emily was silent while Danso and Natsuki conversed. After they were done Nicole started to talk to Danso.
"How are Kevin and Sasha?" asked Danso.
"Still like a couple that did not fully take the last step," laughed Nicole.
Danso chuckled at the sentence as he looked behind himself to see Everlin and Yvette trying to understand what Danso was saying. The language barrier was evident and it amused Danso to an extent.
"These guys are the people I met in the Frozen Everglades. I am helping them and in return they are helping me," explained Danso.
"Still the same old kid playing hero aren't you?" asked Nicole.
"Of course," said Danso with a cheeky grin.
Nicole switched languages to Laxaxian and greeted Yvette and Everlin kindly. Then Yvette pulled Danso aside away from the mirror suddenly. Danso screamed 'I'll be back in a minute' as he got shoved aside by Yvette's surprisingly strong arms.
"Which one is the one you like?" asked Yvette.
Danso's heart stopped as he recollected the incident with the nurse. His idiocracy was sadly going to be punished and he accepted his fate. Then out of nowhere Everlin jumped in and actually saved him pushing Danso back near the mirror and scolding Yvette stating that they should leave them alone and that he should talk to his friends since it probably had been a long time.
Danso explained everything to the three and they explained everything back to Danso. Danso was particularly shocked on how Nicole even found Natsuki and Emily in Rein, and when he asked where Tensei and Haruki were, Natsuki replied 'He is trying to grow stronger,' Danso chuckled to the response and just smiled gently.
"He won't be stronger than me no matter how much he trains and wanders," remarked Danso.
And then Danso turned to see Emily, who was just sitting there, minding her own business.
"Emily! Is my room still a mess?" asked Danso, trying to make a joke.
"Of course it is. It's your room," responded Emily bluntly.
"Ouch," replied Danso.
Nicole looked at Natsuki, then at Danso and Emily as they talked to each other. Then she whispered in Natsuki's ears.
"It's so obvious at this point," said Nicole grinning.
"I know right! He legit scolded Ozamu for interrupting his alone time with Emily as she was crying in front of him," replied Natsuki gossiping.
"Oh my god, oh my god, after this is done I need to do something," laughed Nicole.
"You should join the DMMS, I am sure Chiro would accept you," said Natsuki.
"Maybe…But I have a lot of work so I'm not sure," replied Nicole.
"Maybe we should leave them alone for a bit," said Natsuki as she got up and helped Nicole get up as well.
"Where are you guys going?" asked Emily.
"Just exploring, I never got to see such a beautiful place before," explained Natsuki pointing at the beautiful array of yellow flowers as the sun was setting.
Suddenly, a trident appeared out of nowhere and stabbed Nicole with its set of three sharp, blue and prismarine ends. The trident was majestically crafted as there was soul energy flowing and harmonizing with the weapon. It was scaly and light blue like the fresh ocean at sunrise.
Natsuki rushed over to see what happened but then it felt as if the Earth itself was shaking as cracking opened up in the ground beneath them and when the cracks stopped rushing towards Natsuki, a miniature mountain came out of the ground where the cracks ended attacking Natsuki but she managed to dodge herself and heal the scrape that followed.
Emily hearing all the commotion talked to Danso only for a minute and quickly ended their mirror 'call' and then used her exhausted playbox ability to fly to Natsuki and Nicole's current location. The purple and gold aura of hers radiated from her hands as she extended them backwards to gain momentum.
As Emily landed and Natsuki healed Nicole, the trident that was previously stabbed inside Nicole flew back to its user and as they looked to find the enemy they could make out two slight silhouettes near the sunset.
One was particularly short with muscular arms and legs and brown old hair as he was carrying a large and heavy hammer that was made with high quality alkanium steel with a brown leather hilt to it. It also looks like it could extend the hilt increasing its range and it looks like inside the hilt there were chains that with a click of a button would be unleashed onto the opponent from tiny holes from the sides of the hilt.
The other one was quite tall, with a good build and blue, long, and curly hair with a trident that reached his shoulder level. It was blue with outlines of gold throughout the trident and it seemed crafted by an expert using prismarine steel that has the unique characteristic to absorb all water and convert it into soul energy, basically creating an infinite soul energy well. Between the hilt of the trident and the main three blades of the trident there was an orb.
"These guys interrupted our fun," complained Nicole as she unsheathed her rigid and spiky bat.
"Well then let's get revenge then?" asked Emily looking at Natsuki and Nicole.
Nicole grinned as Natsuki nodded in agreement. The two men wasted no time as the shorter one, who was Basatin, smashed his hammer down to the ground creating cracks which at the end had surprised miniature mountains that would rush up and attack her.
The three dodged all the hammer smashes and instead used the mountains as jumping points where they could gain momentum and go closer. Emily opened her playbox to accelerate Nicole's movements as she was fighting Basatin and since she was exhausted she clearly was pushing herself to her limit, Natsuki came over and held her back with her palm and started to heal her soul well trying to rejuvenate it.
The taller man, who was Arion, threw his trident and aimed for Natsuki, who was healing Emily and Nicole turned around and threw her bat blocking the trident.
Then she jumped off the last miniature mountain while dodging all of Basatin's attacks and landed a crucial punch to the hook of the jaw that Basatin did not even budge towards. He just lifted his hammer and swung it once towards Nicole's direction and she instantly recalled her bat but then at the same time Arion recalled his trident and the trident and bat both clashed and the hammer that Basatin was swinging was about to hit Nicole and she had no weapon to block with.
Emily used her playbox ability to push Nicole away from the hammer's trajectory but she could not help Nicole when Arion was stabbing his soul infused trident towards her, but by then she was ready as she anticipated Emily saving her and she quickly slid past the hilt of the trident and kicked Arion on the abdominals and punched him on the arm he was holding the trident, wanting him to drop the trident.
Due to the trident not holding Nicole's bat back anymore even the bat returned to Nicole and she amplified her bat using soul energy and smashed it on Arion as he blocked with his trident. Then Basatin decided that fighting a two versus one would be tactically more efficient so he swung his hammer towards Nicole and she ducked below it, extended her right leg to knock Arion off balance and used her bat to hit Basatin on the thighs and then picked up a small yellow flower that was on the ground with the time that those both were stunned.
"Sorcery of War:- Sacrificial Weapon," said Nicole as she crushed the flower and its remains turned pure red in color.
Nicole's Sorcery of War lets her turn anything into a weapon but there are different ways that let her turn things into a weapon. The first way was to destroy the object and sacrifice it, consume the object and use its exact same abilities with no draw back, which is called Devouration Weapon, kill someone and use their ability for five minutes exactly, or in the Third Stage of her sorcery, touch anything and turn it into your desired weapon.
With Emily fully healed she flew up high in the sky and picked Arion up and created many physic hands and started to pummel him from the sky. Arion blocked all the hands and charged up a water spell and launched the spell at Emily. She created a forcefield at the perfect time and deflected the attack below and the damage was fixed using Natsuki's healing.
Arion whispered something to Basatin after they landed and Basatin smirked in agreement. They started to chant in an ancient language that the three women did not understand.
"The Exiled One, The King of Noir Blood, The Mortal who murdered a God, and the Founder of Black Magic, I pray to you to supply my blade with the power of the Infinitely Deep Ocean once again," said Arion.
"The Exiled One, The King of Noir Blood, The Mortal who murdered a God, and the Founder of Black Magic, I pray to you to supply my hammer with the power of the Core of the Earth once again," said Basatin
Their hair started to turn white as their bodies started to turn red and brown and blue and black respectively.
"The difference between us and you is…We worked hard for this magic you were born with," said Arion in Laxasian.
Arion's aura started to expel out of his body as the whole plains started to feel the bluish black aura, and it felt as if the pressure of the entire Endless Sea was on top of them.
Basatin's aura also started to expel out of his body and it amplified Arion's aura and it was brownish red in color and it felt as if the heat of the Earth's core and the gravity both increased tenfold.
Emily, Natsuki, and Nicole were taking damage from just standing near them. Then the two rushed towards the three women and hit them indiscriminately.
Emily used her forcefield to absorb some of the attacks but they were too powerful for her to fully absorb and the forcefield broke within seconds. Natsuki tried healing Nicole and Emily to the best of her abilities but that also failed.
Arion quickly attacked Emily and used a heavy waterfall spell to wash her and sent her flying to a couple hundred distance. Emily, whose attention was on Natsuki, got hit in the guts by Bastain's hammer and with the remaining energy she had she pulled Natsuki back and since now Natsuki was in range she quickly healed Emily and she unleashed a powerful purple energy bomb towards Basatin.
Basatin unleashed the metal chains and wrapped them across Emily but Nicole came in from fighting Arion and smashed all the chains with ease.
Nicole, who was distracted by helping Emily, got stabbed on the stomach by Arion's trident and then Arion kicked her off the trident. Her body laid down on the ground with the blood flowing from her body.
Natsuki rushed towards Nicole but Arion used a pressurised gulf of water with so much soul energy that even Natsuki got defeated in an instant and hit her head on a nearby miniature mountain and her head started to bleed.
Emily used her playbox to safely hide the two defeated members but Bastain this time smashed one of the chains and used the other chains to slash Emily on the face. Then he used a hammer to smash her down onto the ground, cracking the Earth itself.
"This was surprisingly difficult," said Basatin to Arion as he caught his breath.
"Don't lose focus. They can come back as a surprise and we would be doomed," explained Arion maturely.
Their bodies returned to their original state.
Nicole's consciousness was awake and she was in a lot of pain. She could not feel her entire body as she doubted if she died. Did she lose? If she died, what about the others? Then a certain someone's words echoed in her ears. It was her brother's before he died.
"Don't give up. Giving up is the worst thing you can do to you and your loved ones," said Hiroshi.
Nicole's soul and heart started to beat faster and faster as her brain's neurons started to fire up. She had only heard about this feeling in books but she knew it was real. Her soul rejuvenated more and more as she felt an expansion in her soul energy. Not only that she felt like she could turn anything into a weapon this time.
This was the moment Nicole Albaria awakened to her third stage.