All Is Revealed

“Do you wish to explain yourself, Miss Cheater?”

Ed said, pointing his blade towards Joyce. The boy had begun approaching her, as he had fully believed he found the one. It was perhaps a bit late, she had already knocked out a lot of other people in this tournament. But, he figured that he could stop her before the finals at least.

“Cheating your way through the tournament, and also tricking us into thinking you would help us?” Ed continued, approaching Joyce at the tournament. The audience gasped, and Ed saw guards looking to take him away. However, from the top of the stadium, the governor looked down upon them. A shield appeared in front of them as the Governor’s voice projected across the stadium.

“Let him speak,” Knox said, looking down seriously towards Edward.

Ed looked back, before looking at Joyce. He was certain, and there was no holding back. Auranna appeared next to him, giving a nod of affirmation for him to continue.

What…? I’m not…” Joyce began to say, looking at them.

“Adelyn, when that blood splashed on you, what did you feel?” Ed asked, continuing to stare down Joyce.

Adelyn was behind him, standing with a nervous expression. She didn’t seem as sure as Ed was, but she opened her mouth.

“I felt sick… nauseous like I wanted to throw up…” Adelyn said.

“Toxic blood. No wonder that you’ve never bled in this tournament before this fight, you just needed someone to push you to that limit,” Ed explained. “Signs of a vampire, this would make sense for someone using vampiric mimicry!”

The crowd gasped. This was the first they heard of this cheater scandal. One that Ed and the rest of them had been working on investigating for a while.

“Mimicry? I’m not using mimicry…?” Joyce said, stepping backwards even more.

“You have so many more signs, that it all adds up. You have red eyes, you heal damage, and you’re freakishly strong. Do you mind opening your mouth, I bet I could find some sharp teeth in there!” Edward kept on pushing forward. Joyce kept on moving backwards, Ed was beginning to feel a little bad for her.

However, he looked at Auranna. She was as confident as he was. They were definitely on the right track, and he thought it made sense. There were a lot of things to be suspicious about with Joyce, ever since they first met.

The fake name and how easily she was clearing the tournament. The only reason why she slipped under their radar was because she agreed to help.

“I… I’m not cheating…!” Joyce said.

“Then how do you explain the blood? The most telltale sign of vampires? That’s the nail in the coffin for you. Were you relying on not getting hit this entire tournament?” Ed asked. “It almost worked, but luckily Adelyn here was strong enough to reveal it!”

Ed looked back at Adelyn, who still seemed unsure of this entire situation. But, she gave a small nod in agreement.

“So, do you have any counterarguments? Or will you drop out of the tournament, lest be arrested for vampiric mimicry?”

“I… I…” Joyce stuttered. It looked like she was trying to think, and Joyce’s entire body was shaking. “I’m not… I can’t…”

“Hey Ed…?” Adelyn said. “Isn’t that ultimatum a little bit too extreme? I mean…”

“She’s the cheater, Adelyn! Come on, she was about to ruin our chances of winning!” Ed responded. “Maybe she should have considered how this would affect others who might have their opportunities crushed!”

“I didn’t mean to…! I just wanted to…!” Joyce began to hyperventilate. It was clear she wasn’t ready for this possibility, for her cheating to be exposed. “I… I…”

The crowd was already jeering at her, pressuring her to defend herself. Murmurs, questions, thoughts, all of them came out of the audience stands. Questions like ‘are all her accomplishments fake?’ or ‘I wonder who she crushed?’ kept on being repeated over and over again.

Before she could articulate a sentence, Joyce looked to the exit… and immediately bolted. As fast as she could, which was impressive considering her already superhuman speed.

“Hey!” One of the guards shouted and they took chase. Joyce ran through the exit, and a set of guards followed after her. That was essentially as good as an admission of guilt, leaving just Ed and Adelyn standing in the arena.

“Not even a counterargument,” Auranna said. “Right call.”

“Yeah… yeah…” Ed said, taking a deep breath. Doing this call out was far more stressful than it seemed on the surface. He didn’t know if he sounded convincing enough at all, and he definitely did not have the confidence to be one hundred percent sure.

But, she was far too suspicious. That means he had to have gotten the correct person, right?

“Ed…” Adelyn said, grabbing his shoulder. “I… I hope she’s okay…”

“She’s the cheater, right? We don’t have to worry about her. You should move on by default… right?” Ed looked back. He thought he did something good, so he didn’t know why he had this sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Yeah… I guess you helped me win… it’s just, I dunno,” Adelyn responded. The two of them awkwardly stood in the arena, a little bit unsure. They took a glance at the governor looking upon them. They were looking for some kind of confirmation, and the governor took a deep breath.

“Well, it seems like a situation has occurred. Despite the unorthodox conduct, it seems like Edward’s evidence has caused Joyce to forfeit her spot in the tournament,” Knox said. “Which means by default, the winner of this match is…”

“ADELYN! ED!”

A sudden voice interrupted the governor, coming from the skies. A pink streak shot through the darkened sky before landing right between Ed and Adelyn. Two figures emerged from the streak and appeared before them.

Cozy, wings spread wide, holding onto Teddie, who was along for the ride. The two of them seemed to be in a rush, and a little bit out of breath.

“Ed, Adelyn. I figured out who the cheater was. You need to come with me, NOW!” Teddie said.

“What?” Ed asked. “Wasn’t it Joyce?”

“Joyce…?” Teddie asked in confusion. “That’s… that’s not what I was talking about?”

Adelyn and Ed looked at them in confusion. They had just gone through a moment to prove that she was the cheater.

“Wait,” Adelyn said. “If it’s not Joyce, then who is it?”

“It’s Elaina!” Cozy said. “Teddie found her crying blood in an alleyway after I beat her!”

“Yeah. What made you think Joyce?” Teddie asked.

“I’m confused. If… If Joyce is not the cheater, then how come she had so many vampire signs? Or maybe there were two cheaters… there’s no way I could’ve been wrong…” Ed said. He didn’t know how to process this, there were too many things to consider.

“Regardless. This is really bad, like, bad bad. Adelyn, do you remember what you read in the library?” Teddie said.

“Huh?” Adelyn paused to think. “Wait, I read something about a monster. Wait wait wait, if you’re serious then…”

“Let’s go investigate,” another voice said behind all of them. It was the governor, who had stepped down from her seat in the audience to come down to them. “The guards are busy dealing with Joyce right now, so I will help you handle this.”

“Thanks… Governor…” Teddie said. “Guys, we need to go. Now.”

***

The five of them headed over to the alleyway in the city, and they instantly saw something wrong. The darkness of the alleyway had taken to the moonlit skies, as a cloud of black substance floated into the air.

The lights of the city illuminated the substance, as it began to float to the top of the buildings. Ed pulled out an orb of light, illuminating the darkness as they began to walk closer.

“Did I really accuse the wrong person?” Ed asked himself, as they walked.

“I refuse to believe that the deductions were wasted,” Auranna said. It was an attempt to reassure him, but he wasn’t convinced. Joyce didn’t have a defense, however, so why did she act the way she did?

“It could be possible that there are two cheaters,” Cozy suggested. “We don’t know if that potion was only given to one.”

“Lets just focus on what’s going on right now,” Adelyn said. “Ed, can you shine your light a little bit further?”

Ed shook the thoughts out of his mind and sent the ball of light further into the darkness, and in the distance, they saw a familiar face.

Elaina was floating, and she looked completely out of it. Her eyes were pale white, with blood dripping down from the sides, and a massive amount of that black substance was floating up into the air from her body.

“Shoot,” Ed said. “What’s going on?”

“Seems to be a classic case of rejection. I don’t think a human’s body can handle mimicking that much vampiric power,” Knox said. The governor seemed proactive, and with a wave of her hand a transparent multi-barreled gun construct was formed, pointed at the girl.

“Hey! Hold on, she’s our friend!” Adelyn said. “Maybe we can…”

“Elainaaa-!” Cozy called out. “Sorry for beating you earlier… you know you don’t need to cheat to succeed-”

Their words seemed to fall on deaf ears, as Elaina began to rise further and further. The black substance grew thicker as more of it began to form, as the girl rose into the sky… over all of the buildings.

“Adelyn? Teddie?” Ed asked. “What exactly is happening?”

“From my understanding…” Teddie said. “It’s trying to form something… probably from the negative thoughts and rejection that copying a vampire entails.”

“Wait, so…?” Cozy asked. “What does that mean, exactly?”

“It means…”

Suddenly, a massive ROAR shook the entire ground. From above, standing on two buildings, was a massive pure-black draconic monster. Its wingspan was the length of two entire buildings, while its massive body was pure pitch black. The creature’s long neck craned around the area, as Elaina was absorbed into the mass.

Its glowing red eyes looked around at the city, and screams of shock were heard from normal citizens and tourists that only just noticed the attack of the massive beast. Soon, the creature leaped off of the building and landed directly on the street they entered from. Another roar rumbled the entire city as it began running through the street.

“Shoot!” Knox said, before immediately running back into the street. She closed her hands in the air, and an entire set of transparent artillery was called forth and began firing at the beast. It seemed to disfigure it, but the creature kept on rampaging. Soon after, Ed and the rest followed her in preparation for combat.

“Governor!” Adelyn said. “You have to let us help, we promise we can!”

“Yeah,” Ed said. “It’s the least we can do.”

“Well,” The governor responded, still blasting away at the monster. “The guard is split, and there is absolutely no way I can host the rest of the tournament under these conditions.” Another blast landed on the creature, disfiguring it but causing the black substance to reform quickly. “And I need to evacuate this area.”

“We can help slow down the beast, and we’ll try and beat it while the guard gets together!” Cozy suggested. “We’re the semifinalists of your tournament, can’t you let us show you what we can do?”

“And, we’ve handled threats like these before…” Teddie said. “We’ll do our best!”

Knox paused to consider, before nodding.

“If you four can cause a notable dent in this creature, then I will grant all of you my word and your requests,” Knox said. “I must ensure the safety of this area, so consider this your grand final tournament match!”

“Good,” Auranna stated. “Ed. This is our chance, even without the tournament, we won’t be restricted by any rules.”

“You’re right,” Ed said, both to Auranna and Knox at the same time. He put on his mask, and Auranna’s power flowed through his body. His friends all stood at the ready, as the governor headed off to secure the perimeter.

This was their true finals, and they hoped to make it count.