The entire arena was thrown into chaos as Nox, who was supposed to be in prison had suddenly jumped in out of nowhere right before the finals were about to start.
"GUARDS! TAKE HER AWA-!"
"ENOUGH!!!"
Just as the elderly judges were about to order the guards to capture Nox, a loud angry voice rang out through the stadium. Walking in behind Nox were two men. One was the lord of the green palace, who was giggling creepily to himself as he wrote down ideas for his character on a piece of paper, and next to him was the very man who had saved Ryuji from the green lord, with fury written all over his face. The moment after they appeared, all the guards genuflected.
"WE GREET HIS HIGHNESS THE 1ST PRINCE TSUKI MINATO!!!" They all shouted in unison.
The judges walked up nervously to the 1st prince.
"We greet his highness the 1st prince of the 2nd moon! What can we d-! Ugh!"
Just as the elderly man was about to ask why the prince was here, the royal in question grabbed the old man by the throat and lifted him off the ground with one arm.
*Gag*
"Elder Wei! You are suspected of fabricating evidence to incriminate a contestant, grossly misusing the power bestowed upon you by the crown! Do you have anything to say in your defense?" He spoke as he tightened his grip and released his qi pressure.
*Gasp*
The audience were struck silent at the prince's words, making the sounds of the choking old man even more audible. In this suffocating situation, there was only one person who dared to speak.
*Gag**Gasp*
"Oh no! He speaks in evil tongues! This can only mean his body is being taken over by the D of evil! But never fear, for magical girl Su is here!" Nox spoke while doing some over dramatic poses.
"Hmph! Keep quiet girl, or I will arrest you for obstruction of justice!"
"Justice? Great idea sergeant tight-ass!"
"Someone shut her up!" The prince ordered.
With surprising speed and efficiency, a group of guards appeared to restrain Nox as they handcuffed her hands behind her back and gagged her. However, soon after doing so, she suddenly jerked her head back and broke the nose of the guard restraining her with a headbutt before squirming out of his grip. She then started hopping around and dodging the guards trying to grab her, while trying to talk through the cloth in her mouth while posing.
*Muffled talking*
*Thud*
*Swoosh*
*Crash*
*Bang*
It was a rather silly scene as they would scramble to grab her, only to miss her by a hair's breadth before tripping on something or crashing into each other.
"Hm?"
While the grumpy prince got distracted by the sight of the squirming Nox making fools of his men, the man suddenly noticed he had accidentally choked the elder into unconsciousness.
"Tsk! Take him to a holding cell! I will judge him later! Also, take them in for questioning as well!" He said before dropping the old man on top of the guard who tumbled in front of him, and pointed at the other judges.
The prince then sat down at the judges' table and gestured for his men to stop messing around with Nox.
"DUE TO THE JUDGES IMPARTIALITY BEING BROUGHT INTO QUESTION, AS OF THIS MOMENT! I WILL BE PRESIDING OVER THE FINALS OF THIS YEAR'S ALCHEMY TOURNAMENT PERSONALLY!" The prince announced to the whole stadium.
*Click*
"Okey Dokey then! So, what's for dinner sergeant?!" Nox said as she unlocked the handcuffs and pulled off the gag and saluted with her purple wand.
Ignoring Nox, he gestured for the announcer to explain the rules of this round.
"F-FOR THIS ROUND! TH-THE WINNER WILL BE DECIDED BY WHO MAKES THE PILL WITH THE HIGHEST DIFFICULTY!" The announcer spoke in a nervous tone as he seemed to feel the gaze of the prince on the back of his head.
Shortly after explaining the rules, the pale-faced announcer left the stage and the final round started. The two alchemists immediately started working on their pill of choice, while a certain magical girl seemed to be hesitating for some reason while mumbling to herself.
As per the rules, they only have until the crack of dawn to finish their pills and due to certain delays, that may or may not have been related to Nox's imprisonment, they only had about 30 minutes to make it. Though the speed can vary, most alchemists need at least an hour to make a pill of the corresponding grade. Hence, the urgency seen in the two alchemists eyes as rushed to make their pills on time. The third round is considered to be the most important of them all as it can change the outcome entirely. Whoever wins this round, regardless of the results of the previous rounds will win the tournament. The reason for this is because of how unlikely there is to be a clear victor of this round.
Due to the difficulty of most pills of the same rank being generally the same overall with only a handful of exceptions, it is not completely wrong to assume that in order to win the 3rd round you would need to be at least one rank higher than the other competitors. However, with the baseline for passing the 2nd round being what it is and taking into consideration how scarce grandmasters are outside of the 3rd continent, it is not strange that nearly every tournament held on the 2nd continent has ended in a draw between the finalists. There have even been years without a winner, because nobody managed to make it past the 2nd round due to the high difficulty pills. Though, that might not be too surprising considering what the 1st place prize is.
"10 MINUTES REMAIN!!!" The first prince announced as he watched the hourglass trickle away on his table.
It was only after those words that Nox snapped out of her thoughts and got to work. Her other two competitors were in the middle of finishing their pill refinement already, when Nox suddenly pulled out a rainbow-colored basketball-sized ball of pills. It was of course, another rainbow death-moon, that Nox had made at some point during the breaks.
Presenting a pill made in advance is of course not allowed by the tournament rules, and even if it was, the highest ranked pill used to make that laser-shooting rainbow-ball was a unique grade pill. So, even if she was allowed to hand it in, assuming either of her opponents are able to complete what appears to be legendary grade pills, she would lose as only the components of her ball of drugs and rainbows rather than the thing as a whole. Nox of course knew this, and after spending two thirds of her time considering the pros and cons of trying to steal the 1st place prize by force, she came to a decision.
"IT'S TIME FOR ME TO GO ALL OUT! MAGICAL ALCHEMY GIRL TRANSFORMATION!!!"
Suddenly, Nox's body began radiating with a blinding light, so blinding in fact that it ended up distracting Ryuji at a crucial moment. He only just managed to stop his pill refinement from failing at the cost of its quality thanks to the help of his master.
"ONCE A YEAR, A COLD DECEMBER NIGHT! BREAKING ENTERINGS LEFT AND RIGHT! NAUGHTY CHILDREN BEWARE! STALKER OF THE NORTH I, MAGICAL ALCHEMIST SU, COMMAND YOU TO GRANT ME YOUR POWERS!" Nox announced during her transformation/costume change.
When the light finally died down, Nox was now sporting a pink princess dress and for some reason, a white beard, complete with a Santa hat. In one hand she held the purple star wand decorated with angel wings and in the other, she was twirling the death-moon like a basketball on her pinky finger.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!" She shouted before pulling out a witch's cauldron which she promptly threw her rainbow basketball into.
"NOW LET'S COOK UP SOME OF THAT GOOD SHIT FOR THE ADDICTS THAT WERE GOOD THIS YEAR!!!"
And so, with the power of Father Christmas flowing into her magical girl spirit, she began refining a pill in a witch's cauldron using her rubber wand as a ladle as she stirred the pot of blue fire and a chemical-based laser-canon.
The clock continued ticking until the last grain of sand in the hourglass fell and the light on the horizon began to shine. There was tense silence in the air as the contestants had to present their pills. Ryuji went first presenting a slightly burned legendary grade pill known as the 'Lovers Heart Pill'. It's a pink heart-shaped pill that is designed to be used for dual cultivation.
Dual cultivation is a very delicate and risky cultivation method where two people share their qi while cultivating. If one party makes a mistake or decides to betray the other, they could seriously injure one another, potentially crippling their cultivation in some cases. This means using this cultivation-method can, however, greatly speed up the cultivation process if done correctly. However, due to the high level of trust, and not to mention the amount of skin-to-skin contact that it usually requires, it is a common assumption that only lovers practice this method.
The 'Lovers Heart Pill' is a legendary grade pill that is made with the intention of being split between two cultivators right before getting intimate while dual cultivating. It not only allows them to dual cultivate passively without any risks, but it supposedly also enhances the carnal desires and fertility of the individuals. With how the fertility rate of cultivators tends to drop, this is a highly sought after item, worth several times the amount of most other legendary pills.
*Sniff*
"The quality is awful, but its rank remains the same! NAKAHARA RYUJI: LEGENDARY GRADE LOVERS HEART PILL!!!" The prince declared.
Ryuji let out a sigh of relief at the announcement. He had barely managed to avoid failing in the refinement process after getting distracted by Nox's transformation blitz. He had only just barely finished before the time ran out as he rushed to present his lightly charred heart-shaped pill.
*Bump*
While looking longingly towards Nox who was struggling to balance a chef's hat on top of her Santa hat, the other competitor who made it to the finals bumped into his shoulder as she passed him by. She was covered in black blood and soot as she gave him an angry glance before limping her way up to the prince's table.
"Hm? It's burned! AOKI EMIKO: DISQUALIFIED!" The prince said as he saw the burned pill in her hand.
Emiko, the third finalist had made a mistake while preparing the ingredients. Due to the lack of time, she had tried to skip past the unnecessary steps in the preparation phase, as quality was irrelevant this round as the only thing being assessed was the success and rank of a pill. Unfortunately, while in a hurry, she had accidentally skipped past one of the more important steps, which caused her pill to burn up before she finished refining it.
She looked angerly at Ryuji after getting disqualified, as she left the stage.
Next up was none other than the magical alchemy princess of Christmas chef Su, which is what she calls herself now that she has put on the chef's hat and a twirly black mustache that she plastered over her Santa beard. She carried over a cloche (metal dome) covered plate to the prince.
"HERE YOU GO! MY ORIGINAL RECIPE! I CALL IT, 'PILL-CEPTION'! BON APPÉTIT MONSIEUR SERGEANT TIGHT-ASS!" Nox spoke in a bad French accent while twirling her mustache before removing the cloche.
"HM?!"
Before the prince floated a steaming pill in the shape of an atom. Its core was made up of tiny red pellets that clung together while two color changing rings of energy were turning around it. Before the prince had time to process the reality before him, Nox quickly snatched the microphone on the table as she addressed the audience.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I GIVE YOU MY NEWEST CREATION, THE MYTHICAL GRADE 'PILL-CEPTION'!"
From the audience came a mix of laughter and judgmental stares in response to Nox's words. In the entire history of the magic continent, there have only been two or three people who have ever been able to create a mythical grade pill. There are a number of reasons for this.
First is that the difficulty for each grade increases exponentially. Most alchemists manage to create a 90% purity pill corresponding to their rank before succeeding at refining a pill of a higher grade due to this. Even for those who reach this level of skill, most who reach grand alchemist rank or higher just barely did so with the help of high-quality equipment and materials to increase their chances of success.
Secondly, the danger from a failed creation increases with the grade as well due to the ingredients often being more volatile. Even for indigo core nascent souls, attempting to make a legendary grade pill is a life risking venture where failure usually results in the loss of one or more limbs, so Aoki Emiko could be considered rather lucky to still be in one piece after such a failure considering she is still just a yellow core. To make a mythical grade pill would be dangerous even for immortals, so it's not hard to imagine that it would spell certain doom for a nascent soul, especially if you consider the difficulty of such a task. It would be like trying to beat a game on hard mode on your first attempt. Making even the tiniest mistakes while refining a mythical grade pill could mean certain death to a nascent soul regardless of their cultivation stage.
Thirdly, there is the matter of resources. Even if someone had the knowledge and skill necessary to make a mythical grade pill, there is the issue of acquiring the materials to make them in the first place. Mythical grade pills are usually made from extremely rare and energy rich materials that are hard to come by on nearly every continent. Even if you searched the entire 2nd continent for some you would probably only find enough to attempt making a mythical grade pill once or twice.
Considering the strict requirements and high difficulty of making a mythical grade pill, it is no wonder why the audience thought Nox was joking about her pill's grade, especially after seeing her weird getup. However, for those who saw it up close without a transparent energy barrier to obscure their sixth sense, it was a completely different story.
When encountering an unknown pill there exists a very simple method to get a general idea of its grade, and that is to look at the energy coming off it. Due to how much energy is imbued within the materials used to make them, high grade pills often exude certain amounts of elemental energy that correspond to their rank. While there are some that tends to show less than their grade would imply, it's a general rule of thumb to assume a pill's grade to be at minimum that of which its energy level would suggest, and right now the 'Pill-Ception' was exuding overwhelming amounts of energy, far beyond that of the legendary grade Hollow Life and Lovers Heart pills.
"I see now! AS THE 1ST PRINCE OF THE 2ND MOON I PROCLAME THE WINNER OF THIS YEAR'S KAGUYA ALCHEMIST COMPETITION TO BE LADY SU!!!" The prince said after swiping back the microphone from Nox.
"YAY! ANOTHER VICTORY FOR MAGICAL GIRLS!!!" Nox shouted while doing a victory pose.
Ryuji and Emiko stood silently by with a dazed look of disbelief as they watched Nox pry off the glued on mustache from the Santa beard post victory. The first to snap out of their dazed state was Emiko as fury filled her eyes, but just as she was about to go and give her a piece of her mind, the prince approached her while announcing to the whole crowd.
"GRANDMASTER SU! AS THE 1ST PRINCE OF THE 2ND MOON, I FORMALLY INVITE YOU TO SERVE AS AN ALCHEMIST UNDER THE TSUKI ROYAL FAMILY!"
An awkward silence filled the air at the prince's words, as nobody expected such a public declaration to be made so soon after the competition.
"Hohoho! Good one sergeant tight-ass! Now, please be a nice boy this year and hand Santa Su her Christmas present, or space invaders will steal your dreams!" Nox responded, while squinting her eyes so nobody could see how bloodshot they were.
"IT IS NOT A JOKE! THERE ARE VARIOUS BENEFITS SHOULD YOU ACCEPT MY OF-!!"
*POP*
Suddenly, there was a big spatial distortion right above the stadium as a giant flying saucer suddenly teleported right above them. The bottom half facing the arena was covered in various circular enchantments that kept it floating in the air, while the top half was covered in what appeared to be dirt and vegetation.
Suddenly, a light shot down to the center of the arena, creating a hologram of a certain brat disciple trio played. They were sporting very revealing costumes and had fake antennas on their heads.
"EHEM! UH, W-WE ARE THE EVIL SPACE ALIENS! HERE TO UHM!" Aiko stuttered out, while trying to remember her lines as she nervously fidgeted around while trying to cover up her exposed belly and thighs.
"WE ARE HERE TO STEAL YOUR DRUGS AND STUFF!" Kenji chimed in.
"No, it was! WE ARE HERE TO STEAL YOUR DRUGS AND DREAMS FOR THE GREAT EVIL INTERGALACTIC EMPIRE OF BAD GUYS!" Shinji said.
"OH NO! IT'S THE EVIL SPACE INVADERS! QUICKLY! GIVE ME THE GRAND PRIZE OR THEY WILL BECOME EVEN STRONGER!" Nox shouted at the prince.
However, before anyone could do anything.
*POP*
*BOOM*
"AAAHHH!"
"WHAT HAPPENED!"
"THIS WASN'T PART OF THE SCRIPT!"
Apparently, the king of the 2nd moon was not too happy about the giant UFO suddenly teleporting right above his city and launched an attack that shattered the protective barrier around the areal craft and destroyed a fifth of the ship. The brat trio was panicking as they ran off screen to figure out what was happening.
Seeing that the UFO was still there and able to float, much thanks to the now broken barrier, the King launched another attack that would surely erase the evil aliens from this airspace. However, …
*POP*
*POP*
*CLANG*
A golden golem with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a man suddenly appeared and blocked it. He was sporting a sword hilt with a color-changing energy blade in one hand and a circular black and yellow shield in the other that had a glowing red gem in the center. The golem and the moon king began exchanging blows as they moved away from the city to avoid destroying the city.
"Should we maybe call it off!"
"Are you crazy! Its either this or the stick!"
"Good point!"
The whispers of the offscreen trio were heard throughout the stadium. Soon after they came to a decision, the trio reappeared once more to show off their terrible acting skills.
"AHA! NOW UH! What was my line again?" Kenji said, forgetting his line.
"Forget it! I'll just do it all! AHA! NOW THAT YOU HAVE WITNESSED OUR MIGHT, SURELY THERE ARE NO ONE FOOLISH ENOUGH TO STAND IN THE WAY OF OUR EVIL DEEDS!"
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, EVILDOERS!" Nox shouted from atop the podium where there previously was a floating mystery box, before jumping down to a flickering spotlight in the arena.
"I, THE MAGICAL ALCHEMIST PRINCESS OF CHRISTMAS SU, WILL NOT STAND BY AND LET YOU STEAL ALL THESE JUNKIES' DREAMS! TAKE THIS! MAGICAL GIRL CANNON!" Nox shouted as she did a bunch of poses before firing a laser from her gun that made a small hole in the bottom of the ship.
"HAHA! YOUR MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CHEER IS TOO WEAK TO HARM OUR BAD GUY MOTHERSHIP! NOW TAKE THIS!" Shinji said as he pressed the red button on his remote.
Soon after, a big ray-gun came out of the bottom of the ship and aimed towards Nox as it prepared to fire. However, …
*BOOM*
Right, before the attack was launched, Ryuji pulled out his blade and split the gun in half with a spatial slash.
"I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU PEOPLE ARE, BUT I WON'T LET YOU LAY A FINGER ON MISS SU!" Ryuji said while flashing Nox a confident smile.
*Gag*
"THEY ARE TOO STRONG FOR ME TO FIGHT ALONE!" Nox said.
"Don't worry! I'll protect you!" Ryuji said.
*Gag*
"IF ONLY THERE WERE ANOTHER MAGICAL GIRL TO FIGHT BY MY SIDE! OR MAYBE EVEN A PHANTOM!" Nox said, trying to ignore the lovestruck idiot ruining her show.
"Miss Su, did you not here me?"
*sigh*
"I thought at least the phantom would show up!" Nox muttered under her breath, before raising her wand.
"Miss Su?"
"WITH THE LAST OF MY MAGICAL GIRL POWER, I WILL BANISH YOU ALL TO THE DEEPEST DEPTHS OF REHAB!" Nox said before flying towards the UFO.
The UFO responded by shooting a bunch of lasers around her while her flying shoes left a glittering trail behind her. However, before she could reach her target, Ryuji teleported in front of her to stop her.
"STOP! THIS IS TOO DANGEROUS!" Ryuji screamed.
However, seeing the obstacle in her way, she threw her wand at his face. Ryuji caught it with one hand, however, the momentum from the sudden stop caused the star to pop off and hit him in the eye. While Ryuji was distracted, Nox raised her flight trajectory to go over him as she bolted into the hole she had blown in the UFO with the magical girl cannon.
"Ugh! WAIT! AAHH! MY EYE!"
Just as Ryuji turned around to follow after her, one of the lasers hit him right in the eye. Fortunately, the lasers were only there for special effects, so it only caused some damage to his retina rather than burn a hole through his eye and into his brain.
*SWOOSH*
*BOOM*
*POP*
While Ryuji got disoriented from one eye being blinded and the other one clouded by the tears of pain, the golem fighting the moon king came crashing back into the UFO right before the whole ship escaped through a spatial distortion.
"Tsk! They're running away! Hey, Minato! What happened here?" The King asked his eldest son as he teleported into the stadium.
"Father I-!"
"You know what! Never mind! I'll talk to you later!" He said, before using the spatial trail left by the ship to follow after the UFO.