✧ Chapter 54 ✧

Arriving inside of the convention center early, The Judgment Warriors hid up high atop the interior structure of the roof to witness its inside festivities which celebrated Christmas for what was known as The Paradise Park Holiday Expo.

While the doors were locked on the outside with a massive crowd of people waiting to enter, staff of the convention center were busy putting up the finishing touches for their visitors to experience.

“Damn. We’ve been looking around this place for hours now. What are we tryna accomplish here again? Cause I’m starting to have second thoughts about this?” queried Chelbie to the group.

Solar Ninja stood on the scaffolding near an indoor ice skating area called the Arctic Blossom Rink. From the view below, he could see a large red stairwell leading up into the dome which was shaped like a giant igloo. Trees surrounding it (known as arctic blossoms respectively), had this white trunk with blemishes of blue decorating it. The bright pink crystal flowers themselves sprouted from every branch, causing them to sparkle from the lights shining above.

“Cat and Otodo will be coming anytime later throughout the day after noon since the school has many student volunteers. For all we know, there is a likely chance they may partake in an ice skating competition,” said Solar Ninja.

“Ice skating? Well sign me up then! I’ve always had a thing for it anyways. Plus, I’ve even dabbled in ice hockey camp for over half a month. This should be a breeze,” she replied confidently.

“Oh look, the poster here says it’s a dance partner competition on ice!” added Peppie with a strangely pleasant smile about what she was saying.

“A what now competition on ice? Let me see that poster. I’m almost pretty sure he said it was figure skating,” proclaimed Chelbie.

Unfortunately to Chelbie’s dismay, what Peppie stated was seemingly true. Of course, the look of pure revenge on this bunny’s face made her suspect that something was up.

“Ain’t no way there’s a freakin’ dance competition. How do we know you didn’t just add the words there with your oh-so-fancy magical powers?”

“Oh-so-fancy? I’ll have you know that the only way I can access it is through rubbing my ears together thank you very much. It takes time for me to use them anyways. Specifically for moving other objects.”

“Really? I don’t believe that for one second.”

Becoming more than annoyed with the bickering taking place, Eternika interrupted them in a whispering tone once again.

“Will both of you stop talking so loud? Just because we are invisible, does not mean no one can hear you yelling. We are fortunate that no one is in this area, but we have to stop meeting each other like this.”

“Eternika has a point. I never even said any of us were going into an ice skating contest to begin with. You two just blew it out of proportion,” mentioned Solar Ninja.

Chelbie and Peppie began to feel embarrassed about their recent actions. Their hostility against each other on the other hand grew more than before after misunderstanding the mission.

Hours later, past the small argument that occurred, Solar Ninja would appoint Cherry with the role of a maid cosplayer who would secretly record audio from Cat and Otodo speaking. Under that disguise however, she would pretend to be a UVOCA agent under the codename: Kurinen Marime. This specific person was the closest identity Cherry would be able to mirror without having to take off her glasses.

The only two other people, that being Flight Takeshi and Hisa Night, would assume the acting role of being fictional animatronic characters from the Candiere’s Cafe series as supervising cosplayers. Hisa would wear the Tangerina outfit which was sure to attract Cat. Meanwhile, Flight would don a special outfit for the character known as Bopberry. He was a humanoid-like monkey character sporting colorful fruits as part of his decorative design along with a red drum kit attached to a strap that could hang from his neck.

As it had been done before with Styra and Chelbie, these three would appear inside of a bathroom stall when no one was there and then walk amongst the crowds of people enjoying their time throughout the convention center.

The mixed sounds of jingling bells and laughter made everything entertaining for most of the team observing. Once the students volunteering for the toy drives and charities arrived, Cat and Otodo were noticeably not the only ones present. Aoki, Miri, and Hiroto also attended in hopes of having fun for themselves. Deep down, these three were just as curious about where the new friends they had met ran off too.

However, out of everyone that was there, Styra was the only one who suddenly felt like something was off.

She hadn’t met Creperus in awhile and it seemed as if The Guardian Of Darkness was the most supportive of them. It was obvious for Sapphirion to take all of that away out of spite.

Including Compass…

Where was the evidence that Voltaze was captured when Sapphirion showed up? Everyone just somehow casually believed someone who hated every single one of her friends. There was a sense of doubt to be had. She knew that if Spessarion was capable of lying and hiding something from everyone, another Guardian Of The Omniverse doing the same wasn’t impossible.

Styra’s distrust started to grow so much that Eternika could hear her mental complaints getting more louder and concerning. It decided the best course of action was to talk privately with her.

“Kade, I am going to have a word with Styra for a minute,” whispered the weapon.

Solar Ninja nodded in agreement so Eternika could urge Styra to talk with it as planned.

“I wanted you to know that I heard your thoughts about Voltaze. I am really worried about what you are saying Styra. I may hate Sapphirion as much as anyone else here, but he would not lie on Creperus’s terms. I am just as surprised as you were when Creperus introduced itself to be on our side. Still, it is completely strict about keeping The Omniverse from breaking. There is no reason for it to make up something as serious as that.”

Eternika’s reasoning looked logical, but she refused to see how Sapphirion would have even gotten the permission to say that Voltaze was caught without showing it to be true.

“I learned my lesson well Eternika. Without any evidence to support what Sapphirion said is real, he could have made it up to get his way. I’m not even overly paranoid about this. My suspicions are justified here. C’mon now. You know deep down after travelling The Omniverse, that at least one guardian has lied to you before whenever they don’t get their way. Look at Spessarion. Heck, I definitely don’t trust Prism’s judgment either.”

Mentioning Spessarion immediately brung up red flags to Eternika. But now Prism? It was starting to see the hypocrisy in trying to accept that Sapphirion didn’t lie. Of course he would want them to be fully removed from what he deemed to be “an elite guardian’s duty”.

“If Sapphirion did lie, then how does that explain where Creperus is in all of this? He went to search for him. Sapphirion cannot outmatch an Alpha Guardian’s abilities. Who else did we trust that would possibly manipulate us?” asked Eternika.

While the two of them decided to keep this question in mind, Cherry was still walking amongst the rest of the crowd in her maid outfit. She was starting to get more anxious about meeting Cat than Otodo because of their silent rivalry between one another during Astronomy class.

Nevertheless, Chelbie directed her throughout the day with the tracking information on both Cat and Otodo through an attached touchscreen on the back of her fingerless gloves. Upon following the scripted instructions about reaching a designated cosplayer area (which was where they were located), Cherry passed by that same closed shopping center from which Peppie and her came from.

It was open and running a normal business.

She mentioned the place to Flight and Hisa while passing near them. Fortunately, when Chelbie heard this being mentioned through her earpiece, she instantly recognized it as well.

“We have a new sighting. Cherry headed past the Ulunar Shopping Center. Fun fact for those of us that don’t know, it’s a large store that also exists in our world called StarSpace. This one looks slightly different though. Maybe an alternate version.”

Almost making it through the batches of people blocking her pathway, Cherry suddenly saw the vivid lights flickering on a Christmas Tree which stood in the middle of the convention center.

Everyone stood in awe at the strange occurrence until a booming noise erupted through the main electronic billboard as its speakers began to glitch excessively. Glass shattered everywhere and dust began to fill the entrance. Before long, a small shadowy figure with glowing cyan eyes appeared as the debris began to settle.

Without a second to waste, the creature lifted every single person in the room (including Cherry, Flight, and Hisa) off the ground within a blue pulsating force that altered their gravity.

“Marvelous when those that scarred you from the very beginning, end up proving their worthlessness!” announced Voltaze.

Fear crackled through the entire place as people were being choked in the air. Voltaze walked steadily toward Flight and Hisa out of the rest that were dangling up high, sucking out all of their reserved energy from The Eternal Light Of Surreality.

“Your energies are different from everyone else here. That can only mean one thing…” he said in a stoic manner.

Out of the blue, Voltaze used The Eternal Light Of Space to cause the masses of floating bodies to soar higher near the ceiling where Peppie, Solar Ninja, Chelbie, Eternika, and Styra were. Flight and Hisa were the only ones left at the bottom.

“I bet you thought I would ask you where your little team is hiding or make an obnoxiously loud threat for them to come out and take me on. Here’s the catch. I’m smarter than those kinds of fools.”

During this anticlimactic moment, Eternika specifically wasn’t sure how they would handle facing someone that had taken out The Guardian Of Darkness so easily. It showed that he was a much bigger enemy than they would anticipate. Seeing that Styra was right though made the weapon dependent on her for the first time.

“Styra, how do we defeat Voltaze?” it asked.

As she was about to think up a plan, Voltaze suddenly raised his left hand for a while in the air. Upon violently pulling it back down, the interior structure of the convention center began to collapse. Along with that, all of the people that were floating in the air began to fall.

“Incoming!” shouted Chelbie before sliding down the stairway’s rails of the Arctic Blossom Rink with her feet to brace herself for a landing. Most of the other teammates that were unable to fly followed suit.

Meanwhile, Eternika zipped through the place to catch each person in a Kra Forcefield. By the time it got to Cherry, the weapon replaced the maid outfit with the new suit Compass gave her.

Amidst the chaos, Styra put on her mask and flew past some of the descending rubble. Her first combative technique involved a special move against Voltaze which required using the force of her two feet and holding out her arms in a wing-like position. Clashing ensued with both sides going head-to-head. In an unexpected turn of events, Styra’s attacks were not as effective as she was expecting them to be. Her opponent was elastic yet durable, giving him the ability to utilize the power she battled with against her at times.

“You’re really stretching it now,” said Styra sarcastically in an attempt to make a pun out of his move set in order to tick him off.

Voltaze growled in anger while sizing his fists into a cube-like form. As he charged towards her, Styra summoned Eternika to shield her from the punches. This resulted in a huge brutal wave of Kra power that blew everything within its vicinity back.

Not long after, she kneeled in distraught from the impact which broke some parts of her armor.

Her body shook at the sight of Eternika’s blades cracking from The Eternal Light Of Fractality festering within it.