The bright lambent sun of Magia Terra rose from the east horizon of Mediocris City.
The Day is 15th of Dark Month. The last month of the year, many on the planet know as December.
The Day is 15th of Dark Month, the 16th birthday of Mikalae Arealis-Mediocris. The day he and the DR squad head into the Dark Realm to capture the Dragon King before he escapes,
In Mikalae's bedroom tower, He slept peacefully as the sun began to shine through the glass doors of his balcony.
"Mmnh," waking up, Mikalae groaned before rubbing his eyes as to open them.
After a few uncontrollable blinks, he opens his eyes and shifts his head to the right.
"Morning, Mikah,"
Jivan laid there beside him, head resting on his palm, shoulder and arm rested on the bed.
"Were you watching me sleep, again?" Mikalae asks.
"No... I was waiting for you to wake up,"
Mikalae smirked, "So... you were watching me sleep,"
Jivan laughed with a scoff before cupping Mikah's face, giving him a kiss on the forehead.
Jivan pulls back and says, "I just had to see your reaction,"
He points his index finger up and Mikah shifts his head towards the ceiling.
Dozens of black and purple butterflies swarm the high ceilings of his chamber.
Mikah gasped marvelously before he sat up and laid his back on the headboard.
"Jivan, they're beautiful!" Mikalae gushed.
Jivan smiles at him wondrously.
Suddenly, someone knocks at the door. The door creaks open and Eris enter.
"Well, happy birthday Mikalae," he says
Mikalae blinks, "Oh--thank you," he says side eyeing the floor.
"I got a surprise before your expedition. Can you two make it to the dining hall in fifteen?" Eris asks and Jivan nods 'yes' whilst Mikalae continued to look lost. Eris sighs before he exists the room, closing the door behind him.
"How'd it go with the lonely one, father?"
Eris jumps as Riune appears behind him on the platform of Mikalae's tower chambers.
"Oh, wait. Sorry, I meant, King Eris," Riune chuckles.
"I told you to stop that!" He quietly scolded before he pushes past him and walks down the stairs. Riune rolls his eyes before following behind.
"So, when can I-"
"Please, Riune," Eris sighed, "Refrain from asking unimportant questions. Focus on the task at hand," urges Eris.
Riune inhaled deeply and squinted his eyes.
"I continue to believe this pitiful life you live amongst mortals is truly worthless. If only my other side didn't wrong my fellow outlaws long ago... I'd probably be chilling in mother's realm right about now," Riune smirked at the thought.
"Well, you wronged us, so it's either deal with me and the Unruly Seven, or deal with the Extants,"
Riune scoffed, "Yeah, yeah,"
East of Mediocris City, and the entire mainland of the Arisheiman Continent, The Knights of Astellan drifted past the bright blue waters of the Ocean of Rakia .
Zoe stood tall, steering the ship with the wheel. Ash stood near, reading a book and Rose reveled in the great air of the region, staring out from the front of the ship.
Jessica and Aeron walked up the stairs from below deck.
"The magic! It's amazing!" Rose exclaimed.
"Jessica, how long until we reach your old home?" Zoe asked.
"Just hold on, we haven't even passed Mount Garden Archipelago," Jessica replied.
"Mount Garden?" Ash asks, refocusing his attention from his book.
"Yeah, the chain of giant islands with megafauna you could only find in Magicae's Sleeping Forest.... if that forest had strong magic like long ago, that is," her expression dullened.
In the Castle of Mediocris City, Jivan and Mikalae stood together, waiting for the door holders to open the doors to the dining hall. As they entered, a giant breakfast feast sat on the long table.
In the room stood Eris, Henry, Deros and his sister, Quwe and her brother, Mable, Riune, and even Kinten and Rhenen.
"Happy birthday!" they all say in unison.
Jivan then pulls Mikalae closer, "I wanted you to have a memorable birthday moment before our excursion," he says sincerely.
Mikalae smiles lightly, nearly insincerely. "Thank you,"
Fifty minutes passed and everyone had finally finished eating breakfast. Everyone waited in the dining room for Mikalae to return after he had gotten his spear, Ebisu.
"Jivan, make sure he comes back. Promise?" Eris queried with a stern and worrisome expression.
Jivan nods yes and soon after, the door slams open.
Mikalae entered wearing black attire, his long dirty blond hair tied up and he carried his magical spear in his right hand.
"DR Squad, are you ready?" He confidently asked then Jivan, Mable, Quwe, Delia, and Riune stepped forth, armed and ready.
"Good... Now, remember as soon as we enter the planet all of your magic must be off. With an illusion that I am the only one who has come to defeat him, while he's off guard you all will get in position to strike him down so I can capture him in my dream world dimension. This must be carried out quickly, yet meticulously," He cautions them seriously.
"A single hour on that planet and it'll be the same time it is now, except it'll be tomorrow," he enunciates and everyone gives a startled look.
"So, an hour there is an exact day here?" Quwe questioned and Mikalae nodded.
"Yes. Any other questions?" Mikalae looks around the room.
"Well, then," he whispers before turning around. A portal with purple and amaranth swirls appears behind him.
"I'll go first so my magic can cloak you all,"
"I'm going next!" Jivan jumped up and behind Mikalae.
The DR Squad lined up, walking through the portal to enter the Dark Realm.
It finally came to Riune being the last one to enter, but just before he did, he turned his back to Eris and the others with a wide mischievous smirk.
"What was that... that smile?" Kinten questioned.
"Unpleasant..." Eris quickly spoke, "at least I think," he uttered
The dining hall doors suddenly burst open and Jesse struts into the room.
"King Eris,"
Eris stepped forth, "Are they here?"
Jesse nods. "The Igetes are requesting your presence and command at the west gate. All of their armies stretch upon the west plains," he informs Eris. A small smile then rose and the side of his cheek.
"I see," he sucks his teeth in before turning around, "Lord Kinten, Lord Rhenen, I trust you'll evacuate the city since the Elementalist are absent?"
They both nod in agreement then Eris turns back around.
"Follow me, Jesse," Eris suggests as he exit the room.
"He is weird isn't he?"
Rhenen and Kinten immediately turn to their right and a purple hamster sat on top of the dinner table.
"Quain?"
"Ugh, Kinten doesn't your son has somewhere important to be?" Rhenen scoffed.
Quain rolled his eyes and slowly stepped forth, "Yeah, whatever. Like I said, that Riune guy is weird,"
Near the sky of the west gate, a white portal appears and Eris and Jess flies out of it, landing in front of several figures.
"Finally!" King Vinma exclaimed with an annoyed expression.
Eris furroweed his eyebrows as he looked down on the goblin king.
"Well, I do apologies for my late my manner,"
Sylvie smirks, "No worries, Eris. Vinma is simply an impatient little fellow," she chuckles.
Vinma deviously side eyes Sylvie, then King Terraum of Giants inhales, about to speak. "Well, we're all here, Supreme commander. I believe it's time we take action, sooner rather than later," Terraum urges him and Eris nods.
"Yes, I agree," he says before looking up in the sky. "Let's take this to our headquarters," Eris says, looking up at the Fairy Sanctuary on a cloud hovering the capital city.
He snaps his fingers in multiple blueflashes, the ten Igetes disappear.
Each of the Igetes teleport inside the giant meeting room of the Fairy sanctuary. They all arrive in a chair, and on the table sat a giant map of the world's continents, visible through a blue magical apparition.
A few moments later and with a snapping echo, Eris appears at the head of the table.
"I truly thank you all for being here. This union will ensure the safety of this world, as tomorrow strikes the dawn of a second Great War," He announced.
On the map, apparition of several flags appears on the battlefields to-be throughout the world.
"Well, what are we starting with first?" Corlun gracefully asked as she floated in midair above her chair.
"Before we get to that, shouldn't we talk numbers?" Queen Xotiko of Elves chimed in and queried.
"Yes, you're right," Eris said. "With the army of Magicae combined with the forces of the other Great Realms, we have approximately 6.32 million soldiers, and 3,108 healers,"
"Scratch that," Corlun interrupted, "We have 626,108. Don't forget that my sprites have devoted our lives to the practice of healing magic,"
"However, many troops we have it's not enough," Queen Dynes attested. "We don't have the manpower to go against 20 million wyverns, and the dark magic guilds!"
"Not quite," Eris softly spoke, "We absolutely do have the manpower, I assure you. We may not have the numbers, but the army we have together is strong as an intergalactic army! We have elves, giants, sprites, trolls, dwarves, gnomes, goblins, leprechauns, nymphs, fairies and even humans. The force that we have gathered today is force that has come together under a union that will save our planet from complete ruin and destruction. No matter the difference in numbers, we will prevail as the United Realms!" Eris declared.
Everyone's doubts lightly passed and they calmed as they prepared for Eris to give orders.
Eris folds his hands on the tables and rest his chin on it.
"We can assume that all four battlefields will have five million wyverns, but overall, over five million troops we will go up against because it'll be dark guilds fighting in the war.
"On the battlefield of Pervolsima, we'll dispatch 2.32 million soldiers to intercept the Koroshi's march past The Winged Ghost Waste. Not a single enemy soldier must make it past that desert. If they do and Pervolsima is conquered... we may not stand a chance," he elaborates solemnly.
"King Terraum, you may choose a commanding general for the Battle of Pervolsima," he says to Terraum and Terraum nods lightly.
"For the navy battle in the Eozian Sea, one million soldiers to protect the island nations, and to be dispatched on 4,200 war boats. Sylvie shall choose the commanding general,"
"And for Arden and Mediocris City... General Deros and the Parliament of Magicae shall lead the battlefields and ensure our victory,"
"In an hour I will teleport our forces to the battlefield... this starts now,"
In a dark gloomy forest with tall oak trees of black and purple leaves, Mikalae traipse through the forest and approaches a small grass area where the Dragon King sat on top of a tall rock, his shirt off, and hair so long its pasts his waist.
"Young dreamer?" Arcadius smirks.
"Oh, how marvelous! You have managed to travel between worlds. Though, I can admit that is unfavorable for you... now I can rid you much sooner," He grins maliciously,
"Or you could actually do something intelligent and speak with me, Arcadius,"
Arcadius lightly gasped with an astonished expression that turns into a smile.
"Well... you've upped your knowledge, huh?"
Mikalae stepped closer looking smug, "What can I say? The best adversary knows thy enemy,"
"Well, yes... that is true, young dreamer. And since you know me, I hope you know you can't win a fight against me," Arcadius voice echoes.
Suddenly a golden cloaked figure appears beside Arcadius on top of the giant rock.
"What is it, archlich?" Arcadius sternly questioned.
"I nearly have enough magic for the portal out of here. You know the final ingredient,"
Arcadius then stood up, "Yes, I'll get it, archlich"
"Who are you?!" Mikale shouted as he began to float, squinting his eye to get a closer look. Mikalae sensed a great amount of power coming from the figure, a power that rivaled the Dragon King's.
The figure looked down from the giant rock and stared into Mikalae's eyes. The archlich's eyes glowed a gold hue and had shiny gold teeth. His grey skin looked as if it were melting and rotting off the bone.
"I am Sirius Blackstone. The Silent Dealer, Archlich of Card Magic," Sirius's tone then turned more serious as a smirk rose on his near lifeless face.
"And you are a try hard. To think you'd attempt to hide your friends!" Sirius exclaimed as he abruptly raised his hand up and the DR squad rose from out of the forest in, struggling to get out of magic snake chains.
Mikalae looked as his friends were in pain, slightly panicking, he exhaled and angrily uttered, "Fine!"
"Arcadius Dubre," Mikalae begins and Arcadius staggard backward, lightly stunned,
"I challenge you to a duel!"