STAR AWESOME

The cold breeze swayed their clothes. The blue light reflected off Amanda's sword, moving up and down as she took deep breaths. The sorceress tilted her head with a mocking smile.

"Reynold wanted immortality."
"They wanted him to have immortality."
"And I wanted to play with immortality."

"Huh?" Amanda's sword slowly lowered in confusion, but she quickly straightened it.

"You love Star Awesome, maybe because that was your father's dream or maybe..." She shrugged while pouting. "You got attached to those weaklings."

"Why do you keep irrelevant stuff!?" Amanda shouted.

The sorceress's mouth twisted into a smile which widened into a menacing grin. "Dear princess, you are too easy to read."

Multiple sigils opened around then, and power balls began forming at their centres. The ball increased in size and brightened to the point of blinding. Blasts streaked at them, but midway, the blasts shrank into nothing.

 "Seriously, you should have called for me earlier." A feminine voice called from behind.

Podestray smiled and turned to the new girl. She lowered the hood from her head, chewing on gum. She was accompanied by Patricka and Slime. She noticed the others and spat the gum out.

"Hey, Amanda, I haven't seen you ever since you killed all my people." She smirked.

"Power-taker queen, what are you doing here?" Amanda dropped her sword; she bent to pick it up, but her eyes were fixed on the newcomer.

"I called for her...that's why I told the sorceress that I was interested in knowing about your fathers." Torpedo went to the Power Taker. "Honestly, I don't care about royal scandals; I was only stalling."

"I knew; that's why I stopped attacking her." Podestray rubbed his claw and let out a soft growl.

The power taker looked at the sorceress and let out a deep sigh, turning to Amanda. "Sadly, she was stalling too..."

Amanda's eyes widened; her internals ached with a thought she was trying to suppress. "W-what do you mean?'

"She means Star Awesome; they are all cursed at the moment." The sorceress burst into maniacal laughter. "I can't believe how easy it was to mess with them... I gave one of your kids the 121 cursed diary."

"D-diary?" Hiroto covered his mouth and pulled Amanda back to face him. "Toby's diary."

A sigil appeared below the sorceress, and she began to sink in. "In every war, you send them back because you know how weak they are; haha, serves you right." The sigil closed behind her. "Tell Dac I said, Hi."

Amanda quickly dropped to her knees, drawing a star in the sand; with trembling fingers, she spun a circle around it. Hiroto sat down next to her and grabbed her hand.

"It won't work. To create a sigil with enough strength to send you all the way back to Star Awesome, you will need to rely on Manoid."

"BUT POWERS AREN'T WORKING, I CAN'T USE MANOID..." Amanda squeezed sand under her hands.

"Well, we can reopen manoid usage." Power Taker tapped on Amanda's head.

"How?" Carlos leaned, looking at Amanda. 

"Beneath my tribe is the power-taker land; when we close the gate, it stops sucking on powers, so powers will start working again....." Torpedo began walking; Patricka and Slime followed him.

"How long has there been a power taker land beneath the Jambudh tribe?" Carlos's hand shone, and the sword disappeared into crystal dust.

"Like forever; that's why the powers don't work here." The power flailed her hands and went after Torpedo. "Don't worry, power takers are all gone now; only the hungry land is left behind....."

"U-um...are you and the power-taker queen going to be okay together...?" Carlos bent closer to Amanda, whispering.

"She actually helped me get rid of all the power takers..." Amanda spoke unusually softly and got to her feet. "Let's go." 

 Amanda began walking. She lowered her sword, touching the sand. As she walked, she left a trail behind her, not intentionally but rather hopelessly. She knew how weak Star Awesome was; she dreaded not sending Philomena, Damian, and Shar with the rest.

Hiroto walked next to her. "Don't worry, we will close the door, and you can quickly vanish back." He noticed she wasn't even listening. He hung his head low. I am sorry, Amanda; I wish I had completely figured out about the diary sooner.

Podestray and Carlos stood behind everyone. They couldn't care less about Star Awesome, but more than that, they wanted to talk, talk like they did in the past.

"You okay?" Podestray gently poked Carlos; the place where he touched became black. "I-I am sorry..."

"It's fine; I am used to this fragility...." Carlos turned to Podestray and tapped the necklace he wore. "So you need to rely on these stones to prevent the moon effect?"

"Ah yeah...my Nomed side is awfully fragile." Podestray lowered his gaze and looked back at Carlos. "Even the attraction effect is a lot..."

Carlos tightened his fists; his hands slowly trembled. His colour turned black, and he almost jumped, quickly embracing Podestray. The hug didn't last long, but Carlos managed to whisper that he was sorry.

They began walking together slowly, exchanging brief statements about life, their new interests, or what had happened in the past—a thing friends who meet after a long time do, for old times' sake.

Despite everyone else's aloofness to the situation, Amanda was panicking; she took slow steps, whispering a continuous mantra. "Please be okay, please be a minor curse, please..."