It's me, Nix! On the last episode, all of the soldiers and guards either ran or were injured. So, Matt made it in safe into the headquarters but he does not know how to continue on when there are even more soldiers. Matt and Venus meet and decide to go through the vents. Some people just can't fit in there even how skinny they are, can't they? The two of them fall down a vent, meeting Alex and Yessenia along the way. Once they headed towards the elevator, they noticed that there are twelve floors and they are currently on the tenth floor. On the eleventh floor, the four students meet Lieutenant Braus again only to find out that Jaime is just on the twelvth floor! However, the lieutenant says that in order to get up there, the students must surpass him first. This is about to get destructive, everyone! Let's see what will happen next on the last episode of volume 10! I wonder when I show up?
Episode 130 – Pendulum of Time, What is that?
The tension was growing between Lieutenant Braus and the group of four students. Matt took out his butterfly sword and Yessenia readied her long sword. Venus gripped her whip in her hand and Alex was in the back, shivering with his Grimoire book in his hand. “What is this?” Venus said bluntly.
The lieutenant dropped his musketoon. “Who needs guns? I can fight without it.”
Matt laughed. “Haha! You’re going to fight bare-handed against four people with weapons?” He turned to Alex, “Well, three people with weapons.”
“MY BOOK IS STRONG ENOUGH!!” Alex burst into madness.
Venus added with Matt as she said to the lieutenant, “Oh ho! Mister, you won’t stand a chance against us. What can you do with bare hands? We’re completely armed.”
The lieutenant placed two fingers on his left eyebrow, pinching a strand. Yessenia clenched onto her weapon tightly. “He is onto something! Everyone, keep your guard up!!”
The lieutenant pulled a strand out of his skin and then he suddenly screamed in pain, “Ow! Ow!! That hurt, damn it!”
The group of four stopped and stared in confusion. Matt said slowly, “What… is going on?”
“This is just sad to watch.” Venus said.
Lieutenant Braus suddenly became serious again. He held a strand of hair on his finger tips and then he cupped it onto his palm. He used his other hand to create a light in between both palms and the eyebrow was shining. “Here comes the real deal!” The eyebrow strand grew larger and thicker. He carried it like a dangerous sword with spikes all over. “Didn’t see that coming, did you?!” He turned around, “Hey, you soldiers hiding behind the couch! Come out here!”
Matt smiled. “A three-on-four battle, huh! We’re still at an advantage!” He turned around and said to Alex again, “Well, a three-on-three battle.”
Alex blasted, “STOP THAT!!”
The two soldiers beside the lieutenant began using force. They headed towards Matt and Yessenia. Venus was behind them, murmuring, “What kind of weapon did he just take out? What kind of weapon did he just take out?!”
Yessenia ducked right below the first soldier before the man could strike. She was about to kick him in the stomach but she accidentally missed and kicked an unthinkable area. The soldier fell and Alex cheered her on, “Wow, Yessenia! Very smart idea!”
“That was an accident. I am sorry, brave soldier.”
“Why are you apologizing?!” Alex did not compute with what just happened. The second soldier headed towards Matt.
“Great, out in the open!” Matt smiled. He gripped on his butterfly sword and he aimed for the side of the soldier so that he does not kill the man, but injure him. All the sudden, with quick speed, the lieutenant flashed right next to Matt in the air. Matt turned and he barely avoided the strike of the spiky eyebrow-weapon. “What the hell?!”
Matt fell to the ground and Venus ran next to Matt. “Stay back, mister!”
“Oh?” The lieutenant said in an intimidating tone. “A little girl fighting against a lieutenant? Hm, I shouldn’t judge. You did escape all on your own from the concentration camp.”
Alex was in the background, saying lightly, “Me too.~”
Ignoring Alex, Venus continued, “Being a lieutenant is just a stupid title!” Yessenia took care of the other soldier. “And now, it’s three versus one!”
Alex cried, “FOUR!!”
Yessenia yelled from across the room, “Venus! Do not underestimate him! Being a lieutenant is not just a title.”
Venus shook her head. “Oh, so that’s what you think.” Venus suddenly became whiny. She moved her behind around and everyone stared in annoyance.
Matt sighed. “This isn’t going to work…”
“What’s this?” The lieutenant became confused. “It’s too bad I’m not interested!” He gave a strike with his eyebrow weapon and Venus barely dodged it. She was struck, however.
Venus squealed and then she fell. Alex ran up to her and was in fear. “V-Venus! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine… It’s just a scratch.”
The lieutenant chuckled from inside his helmet. “Hmhmhm, hahaha! This is fun, isn’t it?”
Matt stood up and said to the lieutenant, “We’re not even getting started!”
The lieutenant took a few steps backwards. “So aren’t I.” He pinched more of his eyebrows.
Everyone began to feel alert. Yessenia yelled, “Everyone, be careful! It does not look like he will just pick one eyebrow!”
The lieutenant plucked about five eyebrows and he suddenly screamed in pain, “GAAUH that hurt!! Sheesh!” He continued complaining in the background. Matt and Alex groaned in disappointment at the same time.
Venus face-palmed herself. “How is he even a lieutenant in the first place?”
Lieutenant Braus suddenly became serious. “Hehe. Pentagon Brow!” The five small eyebrows in his palm became larger and sharper. The five sword-like eyebrows flew towards the group.
A blast of shadow appeared in between and the eyebrow swords shattered. The wind between the shadow and the eyebrows was strong. Venus and Alex fell to the ground and Matt was kneeling. Yessenia was in the back, covering her face with her arms. “What in the world? Shadow?!” Yessenia had a feeling what this could be.
Jaime appeared in the shadows. “Lieutenant! We should not kill them.”
Venus gasped. “J-Jaime!”
“Oh, Jaime, Jaime. The guard who chose to chase them down, ended up helping two students escape from the Junkyard.”
“You’re mistaken.” He turned to the group, “You’re all mistaken as well.”
Yessenia shook in anger. “Do not tell me you-…”
“Yes.” Jaime opened his palms to create two ghostly shadows beside him. “These are my shadow powers.” He said to the lieutenant, “Head for the twelfth floor. Activate the switch for the Pendulum of Time!”
The lieutenant snared. “Tch! I am your boss.”
“You don’t want me to take care of these people while you’re up there completing the Pendulum?”
“I see. You make another move against me, you’re dead, even as our best guard.” He turned away and headed for the elevator.
Matt questioned Jaime, “Where did you get your powers back?”
“You’ll all see soon. With the Pendulum of Time, I can-…”
“JAIME!!” Venus screamed his name as loud as she could.
Jaime stared at her without any expression. “Venus…”
“Why did you run? What happened to you since then?!”
Alex threw himself into the conversation. “Since when?”
Ignoring the topic, Jaime headed towards the elevator. “Well, like I said. You’ll all see soon. You guys better hurry, before the Pendulum of Time is triggered.” He began to laugh demonically.
“Damn it!” Yessenia threw her long sword at Jaime but the weapon went through him like an illusionary shadow. The sword fell and Yessenia commanded the group, “Hurry! We must stop the Pendulum of Time! That name sounds very familiar and all I remember is that it is deadly!” She ran for the elevator and the other three students followed her.
~~~
In the elevator, calm music began to play and the students were quiet again as if there was another awkward silence. After about seven seconds, Matt burst into annoyance, “Someone destroy the elevator music already!!”
“Oh you calm down. We’re in an elevator so we can’t just destroy anything in the middle of going up.” Venus responded to him.
“You be quiet! I can’t stand the music anyway. It’s all about pop rock.”
“I agree.” Yessenia added.
Venus said to the two of them with an evil tone, “Korean pop is better!!!” Alex was behind her, cheering her on.
Matt ducked down closer to the floor, becoming more afraid of her. “Geh…” Yessenia only turned away in annoyance. She was not afraid at all.
“Anyway,” Yessenia changed the subject. “You guys have to be extra prepared for what will happen on the next floor.” She said to herself in a worrisome mood, “If my guess is correct, the Pendulum of Time is…”
“DIING!~” The elevator bell interrupted their focus.
Yessenia could feel the essence of danger coming. Her eyes widened and she was shaking. “No…” She said. Her voice trembled.
Matt knelt down to help her continue to stand up. “Yessenia? Are you okay?”
She covered her eyes while the elevator was opening. She forced herself to fall to the ground, yelling, “The Pendulum… It’s the Pendulum of Time!”
Venus and Alex headed out of the elevator first and Matt helped Yessenia walk out, following them. “Yessenia, this is not like you. Come on, we have to keep calm. You’ve always told us that.”
“Nyah ha ha ha!” Jaime said while holding onto an orb of purple misty shadows. “You all have finally reached the last floor. Watch as the lieutenant presses the switch! One little turn and everything will change! Well, for most people. But, as you four… as my experiment!”
Venus took out her whip, “J-Jaime! Please, get a hold of yourself.”
“Experiment?” Matt paused.
“Remember what kind of people we were last year?” Yessenia answered with another question.
Matt asked her, “What are you talking about? We were human.”
“Besides that…” Yessenia was still on the floor, in tragic fear.
“Hm… Wh-…!” The thought finally occurred to him. “We… had powers!”
Venus said to them, “Powers? You all have such thing?” She then said to Jaime, “Stop it, Jaime! Why have you changed?!”
“Changed? You’ve been fooled by me all along. You and that old friend of yours… you two split because of me. It was all my fault.”
Venus froze. “No… no way… He died because of you?! That can’t be, that just can’t! I won’t believe it!!”
“Oh, you can believe whatever you want. But, I am not going back to your land. I found a new place for me now. I can finally do what I want.”
“That’s crazy!” Venus frowned. “Jaime, please, listen to me!”
Jaime took a few steps backwards. “Never. Never, never, never! Ha ha ha!”
Alex watched as the large machine in front of the lieutenant was shining. “Y-You guys…! I don’t like the look of this!”
Yessenia took out her long sword, “Everyone, cover yourselves QUICK!!” Well, it was too late. At that split second while the group of four were going to use their weapons to block themselves from what was going to happen, the large shining machine exploded and large auras flew all over the place.
Matt watched as one of the auras aimed right in front of his face. Lots of thoughts went on his mind as he felt as if he were going to die right there and then. “What is this…” He thought. “It feels as if… I’m in limbo.”
~~~
After falling from the struck of light from the machine, he stood up and all around him was nothing – completely nothing. He examined the whole area. All around him, 360, nothing was shown. Not even the floor was seen but he could still stand around. He could still feel it. “Is… anybody there?”
“Matt…” The voice of Santiago was heard.
Matt gasped. “S-Santi! Is that you?!” He opened his eyes wide in happiness. “You’re… alive!” He walked towards nowhere, mindlessly. He was hoping he would find someone familiar if he continued to move around.
“This is no place for you to meddle in.” the voice said.
Matt yelled out loud, “Santi! Answer me! Where are you? Where are our friends?”
“The World of Elsiya is a dangerous place. Please, stay back to where you were meant to be in. You do not belong here…”
“What are you talking about?” Matt began to run for the voice but nothing was working. He was running for nobody.
“Run… away…” The voice began to disintegrate. “G…o…”
Matt became disappointed. “W-Wait, I have so much to ask you. Santi, please come back! Where are you?!” One portion of his area turned into a burned down city. The whole city was in flames. A man was standing there but Matt could not see who it was. Matt squinted his eyes to see what exactly he was looking at. “What is this…?” He saw a man fall down and he was on fire. “No… no…! ”
Another voice was heard. “Matt… what have you done? What have you done to us? Get out…! Get out of here! Nobody wants you!! Please, leave now!” The voice was more pleading and crying rather than angry and rude. “Leave, leave!”
Matt closed his eyes. “What did I do? What’s going on?” The vision became blurry and he himself was starting to vanish. Matt yelled from the pain. The aura all around him expanded and he yelled, “AHHH!!! Sssstop it!!! OWW! OUCH!!! AGH!!!” He closed his eyes tightly. The pain was too much for him, more than ever before. Parts of his energy were depleting rapidly and he could barely thing. He started to collapse onto the floor. “Argh…” His mind caused him to slowly faint away. “Am I... going to die? Why me…” He last said. Everything was turning back to normal…
‘Normal’ actually… was a very familiar place that he had always wanted to return to…
~~~
-NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW-
Matt: Ahhh it feels great to be back in El Monte! Hey... how long were we gone again?
Yessenia: Did someone beat you up or something? How can you forget?
???: MATTY-BOY!! I'm finally here and you show up after over a year all the sudden?! I've missed you!
Matt: What the hell- get away!
Nix: Kuhehe it looks like I show up too.
Matt: And what are you? A chicken?
Nix: I'M A BIRD!!
Venus: Why are you guys being so noisy? It's annoying...
???: Excuse me? It's reunion time with me and Matt so you back off.
Venus: What did you say, little brat?!
Matt: Uh- Before things get awkward... Next time on episode 131, Time Stops, a New and Improved Atmosphere!
Nix: *Blows fire* FIRE!!!
Matt: Stop that! Not here!
