OCMR Round 3 Stage 1

OCMR Round 3
Stage 1
Undenied Chaos


Streets where Kale and Terallok fought




"You know what could've happened."

"I know,"

"It's already a pain I was gone for a few days when Tammy was leaving with her daughter,"

"… Yeah?"

"You're a judge now, so maybe you could at least be a bit more responsible?"

"I tried to be much more responsible,"

"But you still didn't stop them!"

"I am very sorry for my allies' actions," Darwa muttered as a reply, her indignity as high as her frustration. She fiercely glared at the person in front of her. She almost screamed and attacked him, but somehow, she kept her clam. But right now, she's at her peak.

"Sorry wouldn't fix anything you know," responded Zack the Great.

His arms were crossed, and behind him, the road wasn't doing so well. It was covered by boulders that have darkened in colour, cracks have appeared in the ground, and a few of the buildings were destroyed. The result from Terallok and Kale's match led to a small and much more chaotic brawl when a mutant and an electric messenger came by. Good thing the Ionic Storm and the Tendril Devastator didn't hit any civilians though.

The other thing that got her frustrated was 'Serphy'. After her conversation with Drafuella, she had now figured that this person might have heard the entire plan from the beginning. She had to clarify if Thermatt's static disruptors were on during the planning phase, but right now she was still developing an ability to counter Serphy. So far, she had a dimension crack in her brain right now so that Serphy's mind reading capabilities would be nullified. But that also changed her moods more and increased her anger.

Then there was also 'Flare', the untrusted fox youkai that was spying on her. She found her spying at the exact date when she discovered Serphy's ability. The familiar of Clause didn't really learn anything new, but that usually meant trouble. That could mean Clause was against on their side. She hadn't talked to her fellow celstic yet, maybe he was avoiding her, but she had other things to worry about. The plan to invade the area was still going to continue, no matter what.

"I am being sincere right now,"

"Still wouldn't change anything,"

"They could have caused more damage."

"They caused enough damage around here. It's going to cost a lot of money just to fix one of the spots,"

Darwa gritted her teeth, her frustration nearing her limit. It was already degrading for her to apologize to someone who looked like a kid. But to actually be unable to use her powers or abilities to get out of her current problem, it was an understatement to say that she's angry. And now here she was, standing still hearing Zack's lecture as if she was talking to the judge of the dead and their famed long lectures.

"Macarea can just fix whatever we do with a flick of his hand," she stated, flicking her own hand. "Why don't you just ask him to fix the problems?"

"Even if I do that, what makes you think that will fix the civilian's opinions about the place?" countered Zack. "Macarea said he cannot affect the civilians in any way. So even if he fixed the place, the audience that actually visited here would either leave before the final round!"

"Is there even an audience aside from the Shikantians?"

"There are! And the more the people fight around here, the more chaos would happen!"

Darwa groaned and placed her hands on her temples, aching from her anger and desire to just flick Zack away. It was taking a lot of force to remain in place while in an argument, while being unable to attack them. She hated it when she can't attack her opponents. If she did, that will get her into serious trouble.

"It's already a crisis that the cafeteria party with those guys gone," vented out Zack turning around. "And now there are reports of these unofficial matches everywhere! This is worse than when we have to protect the audience when Darkon and Shadus fought! That's even-"

Forgot to include Xhon there with that Sorrow guy, Darwa thought as Zack continued to rant.

She lowered her arms and breathed out a sigh of frustration. Her head was still aching, her hands twitching and wanting to punch Zack out of this dimension. But she has to admit, it was technically her fault for even allowing all the other members to fight each other. Mentally, one side of her screamed it was her fault while the other screamed it was Clause's fault.

And Zack's continuous rant took almost five minutes. Darwa had enough of this.

Somehow, despite the conflicts of her brain cells wanting to attack Zack, an idea came into her mind that would not harm him. "Wait Zack! I have a solution!"

The armored boy stopped his rant and turned to Darwa. "And don't just make an ex-… Wait what?"

"I think I might have a solution to both our problems," she stated with a sly smile. A small crack almost invisible appeared behind her. "You don't mind being away from here for awhile do you?"

…
Close to them, on an eight-storey building.


"You're watching her too? Are you a stalker?" Crimsor ignored the question and only watched from above, the Multiversal Royale's many high-storey buildings being a great spot for him to sit on. He really felt free whenever he travels at the roofs. And right now, he was standing on the edge watching below like Cole MacGrath.

Below him, which is what he's watching, was a strange purple void had covered the area. Right beside it was where the darkened rocks and ruined buildings were seated. The purple void had taken his attention when he was just heading to leave the vicinity. He caught a glimpse of Darwa and Zack, right before a small crack formed that 10 metre diameter aura. He can't see through it, but he wasn't sure its friendly.

And behind him, Shadus Tricefok approached, sporting his usual attire like always and wearing a smirk. His plasmid shards were slightly glowing, which was slightly bad news to Crimsor. Either Shadus was going for another unofficial fight, or he's going to avenge himself from another prank. It could also be a combination of both.

Crimsor turned to leave but the wind around him was 'dragging' him to stay. That clarified that Shadus wanted another fight, so Crimsor immediately had his hand glow green to send off a warning.

"Calm down, I just wanted to talk," Shadus's announcement was barely audible, slightly making Crimsor relax. "Talk about some stuff."

"What would one of the top three contenders want to talk to me about?" he responded as the wind around him returned to the natural breeze.

"Stuff of the future," Shadus answered as he stopped right beside Crimsor, gazing down at the void. "Very interesting stuff about the future,"

…

Another Restaurant,


"Yup! That Yana girl was my apprentice, and I thought her everything I know! That's the story of one of the seventeen," Clause finished and took a swig of his drink. In front of him, on a table, Rymelia scratched her head.

"That's… more confusing than I expected," her response caused Clause to narrows his eyes. "Is it really that long since I met you?"

Clause chuckled as he wiped his mouth. "You used time travel to get here right? So that means you aren't in my timeline. Meaning, I'm the future Clause from your perspective, and you're the Rymelia from my past."

"I kinda… figured that." Rymelia turned around on her seat and gave out a sigh. "It was obvious from how 'new' your clothes look. And what's that orb thing? Another artifact you picked up?"

Clause simply tossed his 'eclipse' orb he was holding from one hand to the other, safely catching it. The orb glowed slightly and caught the attention of Rymelia. Clause noticed that the orb was still half-filled despite his hidden fight with Darwa, and that emitted a sight from him. When he caught Rymelia staring at it, he smiled.

"Like your Wheel of Essence, I have my own special items too," Clause tossed the orb upwards before snatching it back. "You could say this artifact can absorb any harmful element and would allow me to contain my powers. Like an extra capacity for energy, I'm still thinking up of a good name for this,"

Rymelia's surprised was evident on her face, but it was short lived and recovered to ask another question. "I spotted your fight with that Darwa girl on Shadus' match. She can crack the dimensions of space itself right?"

Clause nodded and pocketed his artifact. "She basically almost destroyed the dimension whenever she attack, making it into that void element, different from my black hole. Darwa's quite creative and skilled with her power."

"I noticed her helping me and Father fight Keith. It's already quite bad that Dylan's power was taken, but if he managed to get hold of Darwa's, that would be…"

"Chaotic," Clause finished, as he got off his seat. "It's a lot more complicated and confusing to use. That's why if he got it, he's still going to take a few years to at least learn the basics, and decades to master it. Like how his doppelganger got my ability. I am quite glad that it was only his doppelganger and he only got my Black Hole ability and not the Silver Moon. Without each other, both powers are 80% weaker than average,"

"Combination attacks are always effective But I want to ask one thing," Rymelia got off her seat and faced Clause with seriousness. "If what you said was true and Shadus just have to relive his life, something that happened a lot. Why stall him here? And I've just noticed how different Shadus is acting awhile ago from before I was watching him."

There was a pregnant silence between them. All the sounds from the other beings in the restaurant were seemingly unheard from these two. Clause only stared at his drink silently. Rymelia stood there waiting for an answer for a few minutes, but the silence made it seem like hours. The silence was enough to signify that it was a sensitive topic, and Rymelia bowed down to apologize.

"I'm sorry, that's none of my business. That's a sensitive topic," she stood straight back up. "I'll be going now. Se-"

"There's a reason why he was stalled here," started Clause, still focused on his drink.

His tone was much more serious now, even slightly cold. But it had a hint of sadness and resentment in it. His words felt like knives to Rymelia and halted her speech, his voice slightly intimidated her. But she had talked to many beings similar to Clause, and she's used to these. To her, she could easily recover and calm him down before he could get angered.

The celstic embodiment breathed out a sigh and turned to Rymelia, glaring daggers at her.

"I want to inform you first, that there will be war in this universe. This year marks the end of the decade where Shadus unleashes all the emotion he had kept for his time. He did this several times before and his ten year rampages, nearly destroyed the world he was living in. Each one… This would happen soon, here. And not even Macarea would… willingly stop the destruction…" Clause trailed off and he finished his drink.

Rymelia only stood there, mouth slightly agape. Clause mentally applauded the girl's capability to take that news in place without shouting it out. In fact, the time traveller seems to be only perplexed, and interested.

"But the thing is, he's leading to his last moments of life due to an imbalance paradox," Clause continued, taking the center of the conversation again. "That imbalance paradox led to the loss of his persona, and he's… dying, never going to be reborn again. He knows what's happening, and his wish for an 'interesting death' is what led him here. And he wants to die, here… Macarea, heard the wish and this is where we are now."

Rymelia opened her mouth to speak but Clause spoke quickly.

"25% of the beings in my group are here to soften the rampage. The rest are here to ensure Shadus enjoys his last moments. That means they're helping him cause chaos. I have seen everyone's capabilities here, and they are more than capable of surviving Shadus' attacks on his rampage. In fact, I think they can even go toe on toe with him."

Another silence followed, and this time, Clause was worried. Had he revealed too much? Maybe Rymelia would tell this to the others, and Shadus would rampage earlier. That would have more… catastrophic and unsatisfying effects. For a moment, Clause thought about taking out Rymelia silently , but then she spoke.

"So you want him to have the best of his last moments spreading chaos in this world, instead of dying without even a fight? You're willing to endanger everything on 'your plan' just to give your so-called childhood friend your last gift?" Rymelia crossed her arms glaring at Clause. "Is that really the Clause I know from the past? Or is it because of the figure seated invisible beside you?"

Clause blinked and for a moment, was stunned. All his rage disappeared in a flash, and he smiled at Rymelia. "I could blame Macarea for it since he was on our world when Shadus made his damn wish,"

"True, true,"

The voice of Macarea agreed from beside Clause. A figure slowly appeared and soon, Judge Macarea was sitting on his seat beside Clause, smirking at Rymelia. No one else seemed to notice the event and the whole area was beginning to become dark. The sudden darkness was quite surprising to her, but it was nothing unusual.

"I travelled around for some time in the multiverse before I found this fellow needing my help," Macarea remained broad on who he was referring to. But Clause's eyes seem to darken when the judge finished. "Imagine my joy when I found someone quite interesting. He was so capable, of satisfying me and curing my boredom. At least, not yet before his future rampage. That would finally give me some entertainment,"

Rymelia's eyes widened when Macarea finished. The information, about the judge that can bend reality orchestrated an event where chaos would ensue on a universe, for the sake of curing boredom, had an effect on her. To say she was shocked and horrified at the judge's actions, would be an understatement. But Clause continued his pace of speaking, unfazed and apparently knowing of the judge's actions.

"Macarea and I made a deal. He gets to involve Shadus here, and he allows him to go 'God Rampage Mode' at the end of Round 3, forfeiting the match and forcing the rest of us to fight him. On that state, even he is invulnerable to your saint erasing capabilities. Macarea's motive for this? It could be boredom or something else entirely,"

Macarea laughed heartily for a moment, preventing anyone from speaking. After stifling the rest of his laugh, he then gestured him to continue, "I'm sorry, please do go on and explain the future,"

Clause nodded and turned to Rymelia. "The final round is two weeks away, Shadus is interested on everyone here. But many seem to have left the tournament already. Which is why, the rest of us here, are ensuring that they get an upgrade before Shadus' rampage. All I ask, is for you not to tell on anyone,"

Rymelia took a deep breath and went back to her seat, eyes closed and mind thinking. Macarea watched her with his eyes, his grin reaching his ears for each passing second. Clause on the other hand watched worryingly as Rymelia opened her mouth to speak.

"You're still the same guy I know." Remarked Rymelia as she gripped her hands tightly, "always the one manipulating someone with the aid of powerful beings. I'm taking that Macarea has manipulated everyone to make this happen?"

"I have standards," Macarea stated. "Even I wouldn't take control of everything. That would be boring. I only took control of the rest of Clause's team. Flare, Clause, Karitto, Thermatt and Shadus are all independent on their own."

"So are you with us?" asked Clause.

"I'm telling you my answer, if you answer this. Who is this Karitto?"

Clause remained silent while beside him, Macarea stifled a chuckle. The judge tapped Clause and the celstic turned to face him. The judge now sported a grin and was clutching his cane quite tightly.

"Clause, you haven't told her? Maybe I should tell her?"

"… Sure… Don't scar her mind too much though," Clause gave out his response as his whole body fading into nothing. "I'm sorry but I have to go, my familiar is organizing a meeting with Thermatt. And don't bother telling me about Xhon and his 'Serphy' friend. Macarea had taken the liberty of hiding any trace of this conversation. So only the three of us knows what we talked about. I'll get back to you later."

"Wait!"

Before Rymelia could reach Clause, the man's body was gone, leaving her behind with the judge. Macarea's grin seem to stretch further and he drew closer to Rymelia, twirling his cane.

"Fufufu," Macarea leaned towards Rymelia. "Now where do I begin? The multidimension maybe?"

….

Crimsor's spot on the rooftop



"You freaking bastard," Crimsor heard the man beside him, Thermatt, growl out.

On the same rooftop, where Crimsor and Shadus were peacefully talking just awhile ago, three beings stood face to face.

Crimsor's right hand was glowing red while the other was green. There were several cuts on his clothing, but there was no blood. A few icicles stuck on him, but each barely affected his movement and was slowly melting. He glared intently at Shadus, while clutching his right hand.

Thermatt was still sporting his clothes, but the gunslinger had an aura quite different from the past. Thermatt had his two pistols raised at Shadus' head, each one loaded with bullets that could easily disrupt magic. His anger was evident by the sparks coming in from his pistols, and he was gritting his teeth as he spoke.

"I really hate your guts now," Thermatt growled out "What happened to the person who was actually determined to fight for his people?"

"…Things have changed… And I wish to enjoy these things…"

In front of the two, a good seven metres away was Shadus. His right hand was attached to some sort of crystal whip that ended with a small blade. There were also plasmid crystals covering Shadus' torso and arms, acting like armor. And Shadus' hair had become purple along with his eyes. A purple glow had also covered the half-daemon man, which would have made him more intimidating if Crimsor hadn't learned that he only gave it off as a light show.

Shadus attacked again, swinging his whipfist downwards towards Thermatt. Crimsor's instincts were to dodge, but before he could move, the whip shattered into pieces, turning into nothing. He was only confused for a moment then he realized Thermatt was beside him, and used his ability to shatter the attack.

"It's not yet time!" Thermatt shouted out, shooting at Shadus.

Normally, a bullet from his pistol would go through any sort of magical defense, but Shadus' capabilities were quite different from an average mage.

With a flick of his hand, Shadus had sent out a solid ball made out of ice the size of his head, towards the bullet. The bullet was caught, and was unable to disrupt the magic due to the ice being only an effect from Shadus' freeze ability. The ball of ice landed in front of Thermatt, harmlessly landing there.

It cracked open with a loud sound, and Crimsor jumped away to dodge whatever wind blades, electric charge or flames were in there. But it only sent out a small mist, the element inside it gone from Thermatt's Disruptor Bullets.

"I was only having some early fun," Shadus seem to pout. But his calm smile easily returned. "Think of it as an appetizer before the main course,"

Crimsor was taking in all the information he can get. He knew that asking questions in the middle of some sort of face off would get him no answers. He was going to do the questioning later and focus more on collecting information.

That was his tactic, when cracks appeared in front of Shadus. The half-daemon was surprised, but his face was soon taken over by a look of annoyance. The dimension cracks fully shattered, revealing a purple void similar to what Crimsor was inspecting awhile ago, no doubt from Darwa.

"Lightning ghost here is right," a female voice owned by Darwa spoke. "Now's not the time."

"Damn it Darwa. Oh well, we have to finish this sometime later Crimsor," Shadus cheerily responded, his tone having completely changed. For a moment the ninja was nervous, but that lasted very shortly.

The dimension void disappeared, apparently taking in Shadus with it. How Darwa's dimension ability works was something Crimsor would want to avoid asking or learning about. But now that the duel was done, Crimsor turned to Thermatt.

He had some questions to ask.

But before he could even speak, Thermatt spun to face him and grabbed his shoulders, his grip strong and not letting the ninja go. And before he can comply, Thermatt launched one sentence that stopped his thoughts.

"Shadus and Darwa are about to kill us all at the Final Round on a rampage."