Kairo's fist hovered above Selis's face. Moving slowly downward. His chest was constricted as if it had been squeezed from deep within. His breathing suffocating in his mouth. So much that his lungs hurt. He wanted to scream, to shout at her. But the words would not simply come out, hung in between his throat and his rationality.
It was at this moment that Kairo had the words of the serpent monster flash in his mind. If things were to go south, he should use the Eye of Truth in the altar of Slayer. But could it really change anything?
"I saw life leave her eyes," Kairo's voice sobbed.
"Selis has been apprehended. We can collect chosen destiny. I think this mission didn't go all south in some sense, Kairo. You have done enough, more than all of us. It's time we stop." Ortega was the only one still able to move on both legs. However, his usually straight and imposing figure was slightly arched.
"Stop, you said. How funny." Kairo let out an amused laughter. He knew it was foolish to blame Ortega for the Monarch Rule, but still. Could he just stop like that? Mirelle almost died and Nyx's condition was unknown, and they wanted him to act like he had saved the day and everything was fine.
"I know it is hard, but certain sacrifices are unavoidable in missions of such stakes. Many of my friends in the reaper have shelved their decks forever today. We all bear your pain, Kairo. However..."
"Shut up." Kairo's eyes devoured into knives in Ortega's direction. Around Kairo, the circuitry of the void came to life. Interconnecting lines of blue and colorful energy spreading out. Unlike with Selis, the circuitry covered the entire coliseum and beyond, shining deep into the sky. The mage awakening.
The Eye of Truth was ejected on its own from Kairo's launcher, floating out to plan above his head. Then a blinding ray of light enveloped them all. The next thing they knew was the coliseum had disappeared. And a series of images were played in front of them.
In those images, we saw two men in a castle. Arguing about their new discovery. We saw one of the men place a card in the pitch black orb that they had created. Observing the scene, Slayer's eyes twitched slightly.
The observing card mages couldn't believe their eyes, gasping and holding their breath in awe. "It's the first arch mage, Donatello."
Ortega himself had to scrape his eyes wide to take in the truth of what was revealed to them. Then the images shifted once more.
This time it wasn't a peaceful castle scene but a clash. Above the medieval castle, two figures were clashing. The exact two friends who had been talking moments ago. "Leo, I thought you were my best friend. How could you do something like this to me?"
"Donatello, your egoism has reached a point of no return. Someone like you should never be allowed to finalize what we started."
Kairo and the others saw how Leo summoned the mythical Valhalla. A card that allowed him to rift time and space to summon beings of the otherworld. From the rift in the sky, dragons, griffins, leviathans and more poured out, fighting to fend off Donatello. But in front of the creator of card magic, it was nothing. The Card of Infinity was a black orb that absorbed any form of magic, rendering them null in front of him.
The clash intensified to the point where there was a final clash of energy. And both figures fell into the castle once more. Chains coiling around their legs almost simultaneously. "Leo, how could you betray me?" Donatello screamed, holding Leo's neck as he tried to strangle him. "Your plan to seal the castle in time has failed, Donatello. Even if in the future anyone was able to regroup the Deck of Origin, the new generation of card mages will never allow this castle to escape its time prison. We shall be friends like we have always been. We shall stay together forever, my friend, for eternity."
Then the images changed again, and the next thing Kairo saw was Donatello talking to a skeletal figure seated face to face with him. "Leo, do you remember the first card we created?" Donatello stretched his ears. "What? You say you have forgotten? No worry, my friend. I will retell the story this time again."
"The Eye of Truth allows you to erase time, past, future, and present. But beware, Kairo, for what you choose to erase will have consequences. That was why Donatello ended in the castle of infinity forever. Had Magnus not held the faint veil that was equilibrium between the Deck of Origin, Donatello would have used this woman's mage awakening or your own to return to our world. Now it's up to you," Slayer warned. His figure turning into particles of light. Now that the reveal had been passed, his being had no meaning to be here anymore.
"Choose what to erase?" Kairo repeated. In essence, it meant Kairo could rewrite what Donatello had done. Rewrite what Selis had done. And perhaps even rewrite his whole life with a single thought.
"Kairo," the card mages called one after another.
Despite their calls to his name, Kairo ignored all of them, calm reigning in his mind. Slowly he let down his hand. "I will not give you that satisfaction," Kairo said. Of course, he understood what Selis wanted from him at that moment.
However, after witnessing what Donatello had done completely, he understood certain things were better left the way they were. He glanced at the Eye of Truth and activated it. As to what Kairo had erased from the timeline that day, none of the card mages could have known.
Several months later.
Kairo's eyes lazily went open. Fidgeting around him was someone very familiar to his eyes. Nyx dragged over the bed sheets to her chest. "What's that look on your face, Kairo? Today we need to resume work. Are you aware of that?"
"Of course. Why do old days always feel so fleeting?" Kairo sighed heavily. It had been a month now since the event of the Island of Card Fossils. And many things had changed. He slipped out of the bed and picked up his shirt off the ground.
"Get ready. We are leaving in an hour."
Kairo went down to the kitchen, while taking his breakfast. He took a read at the articles over his tablet. The ICMA had seen many changes over the month. Their power considerably reduced after the events of what the media called the Gold Rush.
Many spoke about how the event on that island should be revealed to the public, demanding who the card mage police was to hide something so important. Among the loudest of media insulting his father for his incompetence, Kairo noticed the edge of something interesting.
"The circuitry of the void was taken in picture that day," he muttered to himself with a spoon half in his mouth. The moment he had touched the mage awakening, the greedy media had been ready for the juicy piece of news. As to what it would mean in the future, no one could tell.
"Kairo, what do you think is best these days? Should we invite them all at home after the ceremony?" Nyx asked, joined him now fully dressed in her card mage uniform. Kairo couldn't help but freeze briefly in her direction.
It was the exact same uniform from the very first day they arrived. But today it had a completely different meaning to it. "Why do you look so mesmerized? You should be used to my extraordinary presence by now, shouldn't you?"
Kairo spit out his food, coughing loudly. "With someone like you, it's hard to get used to it."
"Already consuming the news this early, Kairo? You know with the intel department, there is no need for you to bother sorting it on your own." Mirelle joined them in the kitchen. The woman in her thirties was dressed more lightly in a simple gown and heels. Unlike the likes of Kairo, the captains were quite free in how they dressed in the card mage police.
"It takes away the fun to have everything sorted from the very start," Kairo said, throwing off the tablet onto the counter. He spun on his leg and led his mother and girlfriend out of the villa. After the event of the island, Magnus had strangely allowed Mirelle to be more present here if she wished to. Or to be more precise, he was never here and simply didn't care.
"After today, you too will be free once more in the villa, to do everything you wish without any extra eyes to bother you," Mirelle said while on the wheel.
Kairo avoided his mother's expression from the rear mirror, shaking his head. While Nyx looked in the opposite direction with a tinge of red. "Can't you fake being sick a little longer? It was fun having to take care of you for once," Kairo said.
A moment later, Kairo and his group parked their car in the card mage police safe vault. A new day of work had resumed.