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Re: Arena 3 - The Rest of the Story


Amphoteric

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I forgot my username and password for my original account, but this actually is the same person who wrote the original fanfics. Would I lie to you? On April 1st?

Arena 1:

https://www.cardmaker.net/forums/topic/350681-arena-a-duel-academy-fanfic-completed/

Arena 2:

https://www.cardmaker.net/forums/topic/362714-fanfiction-arena-2-the-cursed-chain-completed/

Arena 3:

https://www.cardmaker.net/forums/topic/372264-fanfiction-arena-3-the-children-of-silvershine/

 


Anyway, as has become abundantly clear by now, I will likely not be able to finish Arena 3 in a chapter-by-chapter format, at least for the foreseeable future.  I will not leave you folks high and dry without an ending though. I planned the ending a very long time ago, just for some reason I couldn't seem to bring myself to complete it.

Hurr, finished 68 chapters. Couldn't finish the last 13.

Where did it all go wrong?

Lots of ways.

I'm a very private person so I won't go into too much detail, but the long and short of it is:
- I met someone romantically and typically spend a majority of my free time with them
- I started a new job around November 2017 with longer hours and a longer commute
- I just found the fan fic harder and harder to write

I won't delve too deeply onto the first two points, however to elaborate further on the third, every chapter ends with a cliff hanger or some lead in into the next chapter. Arena 1 and 2 had more quieter moments and more peaceful endings. Moments where we could all walk away and say "okay, that's the end of the series! Have a good night!" and be okay. With Arena 3, every moment has to lead up to the next one and there's never any quiet moments of just being happy, a sense of feeling like you won, because it's not over until Aynn is defeated and the world goes back to normal.

I also find the typical high school schlock and tropes and stuff to be more fun and easier to write as opposed to situations where characters are dying and suffering.

Lastly, I don't really like writing a story with an incompetent leader at the helm controlling a bunch of brainwashed masses trapped in a quarantined city. It hits too close to home.

I don't want to read spoilers on what happens to the story, and would rather read it chapter-by-chapter when it's done.

It will likely never be done until much later in the future, and I don't anticipate life getting easier with marriage, children, and job promotions on the way. This is the closest thing to an ending you're ever gonna get unless I win the lottery and suddenly have a lot more free time

Alternatively, write it yourself. I could use the publicity and exposure.


Reminders, for those that forgot:

Team Surname
Currently the team is composed of:
Arthur Surrogate - The Unreliable Narrator
Gal Surname - The girl twin. Happy, cheerful and upbeat.
Guy Surname - The boy twin. Serious, stoic, and the self proclaimed leader of the group
Oliver Khlozoff - The handsome womanizer
Ami Pastiche - The best friend of Gal Surname, love interest to Guy Surname, and one of the few girls who can playfully banter with Oliver
Laplace - Also known ans Lillian D'Valle. Oliver's primary love interest
Arena? - The Goddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy. She's the ultimate Deus Ex Machina, but she doesn't really care about humanity, other than Arthur Surrogate. Currently missing in action.

The Cursed Chain (by order of Who-Has-What as of Chapter 14)
The Second link in the chain: Allows you to politely give people commands they must obey. The current owner is Guy Surname.
The Third link in the chain:  Allows you to move through solid objects. The current owner is Guy Surname.
The Sixth link in the chain: Allows you to have tremendous weaving skills that let you control fabrics. Current owner is Gal Surname.
The Seventh link in the chain: Allows you to negate the other links in the chain, however the other members have a sort of sixth sense about where you are and sort of seem to naturally gravitate towards you. The current owners are Guy and Gal Surname.

The First link in the Chain: Allows you to absorb the youth off living things but it makes you age much faster. Currently owned by Aynn Mischa
The Fourth link in the chain: Allows you to alter someone else's memories, at the cost of having a greatly limited memory yourself. The current owner is Aynn Mischa
The Eighth link in the chain: Allows you to freely change your form, however you were made of water. The owner of this link is Candice Sublime.
The Fifth link in the chain: Allows you to see into someone's entire life from their birth to the moment they touched your hand. The drawback was you experienced it all in real time and it would take a great psychological toll on your psyche. The current owner is Hortense Friedman.

The DemiGods
Alistair "Handsome" Solaris - A tall cool older gentleman who's not afraid to back down from a fight. Loyal to his friends. Can shoot lightening from his hands. Demi God of the SKy, Lightning and Unofficial Leader of the DemiGods
Allison Katherine "Allie Kat" Swebb - A mute young lady who is typically calm and distrustful of most people. Doesn't ever speak. Demigoddess of water, the sea, and earthquakes.
Kristi "The Lead Singer" Korrina - Happy and upbeat, but a bit naive. Demigod of the music, hunting, wild animals and healing
Kira "The Necrophades Witch" Ikari - Quiet, very respectful of the Gods of the Aether Realm. Demigodess of Death and Rebirth
Hilda Mishegoss - Gal's old Duel Disk professor at Hawthorne. Extremely jolly and upbeat, though as she has been de-aged she is now rather overweight and rather ugly. She is the Demigoddess of Love and Blacksmithing.
Spencer "World's Greatest Detective" Friedman - A slightly inept detective with a bit of delusions of grandeur. The true brains behind the Friedman Detective Agency was Hortense Friedman, his half sister. As son of the god Diomes, he has the power of Travel, which offers him quick speed
Aynn Mischa - More on her later.

The Villains
Aynn Mischa - In all of history, there has never been someone who was both a DemiGod and owner of the Cursed Chain until Mary Aynn Sumischa Surrogate was born. Using her natural smarts as the DemiGoddess of Wisdom as well as her ability to alter people's memories with the fourth link and alter people's ages with the first, she took over Silvershine and rules over the city with an iron fist.
Colonel Wacom T Sender - Leader of an elite team of mercenaries that were originally sent to stop Aynn Mischa before being brainwashed into believing they worked for her. He has been de-aged to a small child.
Lieutenant Yi Sheng - The 'brains' of the operation. A technical genius. She wears glasses that are far too big on her and constantly slip from her nose. She is also very bad at gun maintenance.
Major Marcus Graves - The 'brawn' of the group. He's a bit slower than Sheng, but he's an expert marksman but still very tall and strong.
The Gods of the Aether Realm - It is unknown what exactly they are planning but as the author of the story I can tell you they are not on the side of Team Surname.

The story so far:

Arena 3: Arc 1

Picking up directly where Arena 2 left off, our heroes are stranded on Crimson Wind Island  To them, it feels as though a day has passed. In reality, it's exactly one year later since the Sweetheart's Day Dance. Team Surname eventually manage to get power to the Silverline Express and escape the island, though it's out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Arena 3: Arc 2 (so far)

Chapter 10: The kids arrive in Silvershine, and Arthur meets Sender, Sheng and Graves, the three leaders of Aynn's military force, the Board of Ethics and Standards. They're sadistic little bastards who seem to murder people indiscrimenently. Also, Arena is not there to save him. Eventually someone (Candice Sublime) saves him, and he wakes up in the back of Oliver's car, along with Kristi and Kira, two of the demigods.

Chapter 11: The kids arrive at Point Blank Night Club and meet Laplace, Oliver's old girlfriend. While there, the BoEaS begins a raid. Kira and Kristi hold them off using their demigod powers, as does Allison Swebb, but they can only hold them back for so long. The chapter ends wih our crew heading back to Hawthorne Academy, their old school where they hear the rebels are hiding.

Chapter 12: The 'rebels', as it were are just the students of their old school who are not affected by Aynn's brain washing powers. A long time ago, Guy had used his Cursed Chain to prevent Aynn from using her brainwashing powers on all students in the school. They travel amongst the school but it seems Sheng and Graves beat them here, and they have all their old classmates tied up. A duel breaks out, with Ami and Oliver versus Sheng and Graves. If Team Surname wins, they get to go free. If they lose, they get taken prisoner and sent to the Black Wall Camps. Our heroes actually lose, and get sent to a death camp.

Chapter 13: Separated from his friends, Arthur meets with a few of the rebel girls, who are executed right before him. He is persuaded to reveal what information he knows about the Cursed Chain and Demigods by bringing in his family. Arthur tells them what he knows and he's escorted out by Spencer Friedman, who is working for them since they have his sister. Arthur speaks with Spencer and persuades him to leave the BoEaS, and assures him the Board wouldn't kill his sister. They split right at the entrance of the park, and Arthur decides to head back to the park to help his friends.

Chapter 14: As he travels to meet his friends, Arthur stumbles across Candice Sublime, a shapeshifting little rat who has somehow survived and made it to Silvershine. She disguises herself as Colonel Sender and leads him back into the park, where he sees all of his friends and four of the DemiGods about to be executed. Just as all hope seems lost, Alistair Solaris and Spencer Friedman show up just in time to free their friends. And this is where we begin with Chapter 15.

But enough about the old. Here's something new:

---
Chapter 15:

I had an idea that the DemiGods just slaughter all the BoEaS folks in a violent showdown, just as a big flex move because the team desperately needed a win. Ultimately it seemed boldly out of character for what's technically the secondary protagonist team. How would Gal react to her favorite teacher, Hilda Mishegoss killing a man in cold blood? How would Team Surname react to seeing "the heroes" violently kill a hundred or so other people?

Eventually the idea was to tone it down and more likely match what they would do. So Hilda would "charm" the boys (and some girls) to fight for her side using her powers of love. Allison would "freeze" and entomb the army in ice. Alistair could fire "warning shots" of lightning at people, but that seemed a bit out of character since he's meant to be a tougher guy. Friedman could probably disarm the army pretty with super speed, but he could also literally dis-arm them, with a knife. He's a former police detective so he's fired a weapon at least once. Kristi would summon a horde of wild animals to do his bidding, but what to do about the DemiGoddess of Death? Kira's only powers are to grow vegetables and to kill people.

The long and short of it is that SOMETHING happened, Team Surname gets a win, Sheng and Graves escape, and the crew is left with a whole lot of either dead or currently still living BoEaS agents.

They discuss next steps when... probably Gal or something asks how Aynn's able to hold control over everyone like this. There's buzz on everyone's PDA all at once, and the BoEaS agents D-Gazer's begin to turn on.

Team Surname find out that Aynn has been sending daily Mischa Casts, broadcast messages from her headquarters at the mall to remind the town how great she is, how much they should all love and respect her, etc etc. Today's Mischa Cast is special however. Thanks to the information provided by Arthur, they now know that the little girl in their clutches, Hortense Friedman, actually holds all the knowledge of the Goddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy. Earlier in Arena 2, Hortense touched Arena's hand and fell into a deep, deep sleep she had yet to wake from. Arena would never reveal her secrets, never tell anyone what she knew because she viewed it as "meddling with human affairs". Hortense however would be left at the mercy of the board, to be tortured and hurt until she revealed the universe's secrets.

If you noticed a pattern in Arena 3, it might be that every third chapter ends in a duel and this one is no exception. Aynn (or Sender?) gives some sorta speech, and a white haired girl suddenly appears at the entrance of the mall and gives a cool one liner. The Mischa Cast pans and we notice a girl with long white hair and gray eyes at the doors. Everyone gasps. Has Arena actually come to save the day?

However, Arthur shakes his head at the thought. He knows Arena, she's the love of his life and the girl on the Mischa Cast is definitely not his soulmate.

"That's not her. It's Candice Sublime."

Candice challenges Aynn to a duel, and I mean... obviously Candice loses. Aynn wins and gets her link in the chain while Candice is executed by the Board of Ethics and Standards.

---

Chapter 16:

Team Surname and the DemiGods are horrified at what they just saw. A girl was just executed in cold blood and with the 8th link in the chain Aynn Mischa is now more powerful than ever. Nevertheless, Spencer Friedman and the rest of the DemiGods agree that taking back Hortense should be their top priority.

Team Surname and the rest discuss and decide to split up for the remainder of the fanfic. Arthur, Oliver, Ami, Laplace and the rest of the girls from Hawthorne Academy agree to try to run from the city. Guy and Gal meanwhile go off to use the 7th Link in the Chain to neutralize Aynn's 4th, removing the brainwashing on the citizens of Silvershine and getting them out of the ciy as soon as possible. The team splits up. Magical folks leave to help the city, while the regular mortals try to escape.


---

Chapter 17:

The plan for escape is to walk the length of the Silvershine Expressway and make it out of the city. Arthur, Oliver, Ami, Laplace and the rest of the girls continue on foot hoping for an escape. Probably a more lighthearted kinda filler chapter. Maybe something silly with the survivors make their way across the highway and having stupid conversations, jokes, reminiscing, sharing stories about what they plan to do when this is all over. Eventually they reach the end of the road, and are in for a bit of a surprise.

---

Chapter 18:

So here we are, the final chapter of the second arc. At long last Arthur, Oliver and the girls make it to the end of the highway, and as they round the bend they see the most horrifying sight they've ever seen. Colonel Sender, with what looks like his entire army at the ready, guns drawn, tanks ready, snipers on rooftops, the works.

This looks like the end for our crew, when Arthur thinks back to everything he knows and everything he's ever seen on TV. When asked for "any last words" Arthur suddenly blurts out and challenges Colonel Sender to a duel. If Arthur wins, they all walk out of Silvershine free. If Sender wins, he can do whatever he wants.

Sender's eyes light up like a kid on Christmas and he's excited. He hasn't had a duel in ages! Sheng tries to persuade him it's a stupid idea and they should just kill them all instead, but as the commanding officer he outranks her. Sender instantly agrees and hands Arthur his pistol. "Back to back, 20 paces."

Arthur is confused and rather startled. When he said 'duel' he meant a card game, but Sender really meant pistols at dawn. Sender reluctantly agrees to the card game, but says if he wins they'll have a real duel like real men.

Ultimately, Arthur's Dark World deck loses to Sender's... I'm-not-sure-yet deck.

Sender smiles as he grabs Sheng's pistol, though she keeps trying to interject and warn him about something. Sender tells her to be quiet or she'll be the next one to die after Arthur.

Arthur and Sender stand back to back and actually have a for real pistols-at-dawn duel. They take 20 steps, all the while Arthur's nervous. If he wins, everything ends right here and now. If he misses, he dies.

At long last they call 20. Sender pulls the trigger and surprisingly, nothing happens. Sheng's always been bad with pistol maintenance and her gun (which Sender took) jammed. Meanwhile, Arthur has Sender's prized pistol, ready to fire.

At long last Lady Luck smiles on Arthur. He aims the gun, pulls the trigger and catches Sender right in the neck. Sender collapses in a heap on the ground, dead. Everyone is stunned, except for Lieutenant Sheng. In a split second she grabs the nearest available pistol, aims, and pulls the trigger. Arthur feels something warm and wet in his chest, though his red hoodie hides what it is. He hears Oliver, Laplace, and all the other girls of the academy call out, but he feels like he's drifting underwater. Soon he'd be drifting somewhere else entirely. Arthur closes his eyes and falls to the ground, dead.

---

Arc 3

---

Chapter 19:

Things could always be worse, or at least that's the lie I told myself. In Chapter 1 I awoke in a hospital bed, with a dull ache that consumed me.

In Chapter 10, I woke up crushed underneath a train and pinned beneath the rubble. Moments later, I heard my friends get shot by dangerous psychopaths.

For Chapter 19, I was about to wake up somewhere even worse.

We pick up where we last left off. Our narrator is dead and the first thing that hits him is an intensive wave of pain. He's in a molten river and in horrible agony. He cries out, yells, desperately flailing and searching for anything to grab but there's nothing to hang onto. Then just as suddenly as it began the pain stops. He washes ashore on dry land, now in a field of flowers and it is here that he sees a girl he hasn't seen in ages.

This girl is Ella Minnow, and fans of the series may recognize her as the girl who died in Arena 1. She explains that Arthur Surrogate has died, and he is currently in the Elysian Field, the afterlife for people who led good honorable noble lives. The river is meant to wash away whatever sins you've accumulated, and you come into the Fields clean and free of worries.

Arthur is shocked, surprised, angry. He thought he could save the town but maybe Arena was right all along? Nothing he did had any effect on anything. And speaking of Arena, why hadn't she saved him? She's a reality warping Goddess of the Aether Realm. Where was she during his last moments?

Ella is able to calm Arthur down and she explains that death is inevitable, everyone dies eventually, and to just accept it. She found it difficult to accept her first few days here, however eventually her worries just slipped away.

Ella is not able to help Arthur, so she asks that he speak to the others here. Arthur speaks with his mom, with a few of the girls of Hawthorne that were killed in Chapter 13, with Guy and Gal's mom and with Oliver's dad. They all assure him that everything will be fine and that this was his time. There's just one person left to speak with...

He meets a girl with dark grey eyes and bizarre looking hair. "Have you ever seen those girls who dye their hair platinum blonde? After about a week or so their natural hair begins to grow in. The tips would remain white, however up near the scalp, right at the root, you would see their natural dark brown hair. This girl's hair was exactly the opposite.". White near the roots and black towards the tip. This girl name is Aynn Mischa, but she's not HIS Aynn Mischa, at least he doesn't think so.

Late in Arena 2 Arthur met a girl from Crimson Wind Academy who called herself Aynn. She was definitely the DemiGodess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy as she was able to help in a ritual to open the Door to the Aether Realm.

She explains her story, but she feels it's a little bit hazy. This Aynn believes that she comes from the future, from a different sort of timeline where Aynn was defeated and her punishment was to be sent back in time and forced to attend Crimson Wind Academy in the past. She remembers some of what happened before she was shipped off to school, but above all else she remembers for sure that she saw her mom and dad both there, which couldn't be possible if he stayed dead. Arena's looking for a way to bring him back, she's sure of it.

As soon as she finishes her story a beam of light seems to appear before them. A blonde little girl barely manages to squeeze through the pillar of light, like it's a door that's about to be slammed shut. She extends her hand desperately trying to grasp at Arthur's. This is Kira Ikari, DemiGoddess of Death. She somehow used whatever faint powers of death she had to try to pull him back, but for what purpose seems unclear. Arthur grabs her hand and accepts the call as he feels himself being pulled back. He says goodbye to everyone and states how he's sorry he failed Aynn. Aynn disagrees, saying she learned a lot at Crimson Wind Academy and it was just her time.

Chapter ends with our hero leaving behind the beautiful field of flowers, waking up gasping for breath in a blood drenched sweater in what looks like the bombed out remains of the Zenkai Hospital.

---

Chapter 20

Arthur gasps and cries and shivers and is just a horrible mess. For a little while he almost knew true peace before suddenly and violently being ripped out and being thrust back into a warzone. Dying and coming back isn't exactly something he can just easily shake off. Kira Ikari, who was sitting on the floor, opens her eyes saying her work is done.

Arthur has so many questions. What happened to all his friends after he died? How was Kira able to bring him back? Why did she pick him instead of her dead boyfriend? Kira looks at him with sad eyes and motions to the girl near the doorway. "The answer to all your questions is her."

Arthur follows the girl's line of sight and finally at long last sees Arena, his girlfriend. She weakly and uneasily toddles over to him and kisses him on the forehead.

"I gave up everything just to have this moment with you."

Arthur has so many questions, but she assures him his friends are safe. She states that after his death in her rage she descended from the Aether Realm and singlehandedly slaughtered the entire BoEaS army. Arthur is glad that she did but rather surprised to hear how she meddled with human affairs. Arena sighs then begins her story.

Ever since they arrived at Crimson Wind Academy she's sensed a foul air, one that only grew fouler as they approached Silvershine. She left them at the train station to see what was going on and found that the Gods of the Aether Realm had been working behind the scenes all along. Originally they had seen humanity as nothing but boring playthings and pets at best. But after the ending of Arena 2 where Father Ikari was able to open a portal to the Aether Realm using the Cursed Chain and threaten all of them with Ophelia's Blade, they realized that humans were nothing short of an existential threat to the Gods of the Aether Realm.

Originally they plan was to kill all of humanity, but Arena managed to talk them down. Instead of killing all humans the plan was to gather all the gifts they gave humanity into one place. Guide fate and meddle with human affairs to bring the DemiGods, the Cursed Chain, and the Little Pieces of Heaven all to Silvershine at the same time and then destroy the entire town.

---

Chapter 21

Arthur is horrified by what he just learned. Even after all these years and all the time she spent with humans, she still shows them no sympathy? Arena disagrees but before she can continue, Arthur challenges her to a duel, because this is a third chapter. Arena doesn't see the point in dueling now, but Arthur insists, saying that if he wins she has to stop whatever the Gods are planning.

They duel and surprising everyone, somehow Arthur wins. He's shocked he was able to defeat someone who was supposed to be the Goddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy. At long last however, Arena reveals the final part of her plan. She is no longer a Goddess and just a regular mortal girl.

When Zera and the rest of the god were hellbent on destroying all of humanity, the only way Arena was able to talk them down was to offer her status as Goddess up to them. They reluctantly agreed not to kill everyone in exchange for Arena's Goddess Status, and also in exchange for only destroying the city.

But the Gods of the Aether Realm can't just... NOT have a Goddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy. Humanity would fall apart if a pillar of wisdom wasn't there. Since the Cursed Chain couldn't be destroyed there needed to be one final contest to decide the fate of everything.

At 5:29 PM, the exact moment the sun sets in Silvershine on Sweetheart's Day (also the time sunset is scheduled for in New York City on Valentine's Day BTW), the person who has the most links in the Cursed Chain would not only inherit all of them, but would also officially become the new God or Goddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy.

---

Chapter 22

As Arthur staggers to get back to his feet, Kira Ikari tells him the DemiGods are planning the final part of their plan. The rest will be up to the twins. She warns that the stench of death is ripe in the air and that she prays for their safety, then leaves the room in a hurry.

Before too long, Oliver shows up, partly surprised and relieved to see Arthur still alive, but also partly cool and collected, since he knew Arena would use her Goddess powers to keep him from dying.

Arthur shakes his head. He did die, and Arena's not a Goddess anymore.

Oliver is surprised but he says they have more pressing matters at hand. With the entire Board of Ethics and Standards dead and with no army to defend her, Aynn was at her weakest. Mishegoss and Gal had come up with a plan to put an end to Aynn's reign of terror once and for all and it started as soon as Aynn started her next Mischa Cast.

---

Chapter 23

Aynn's base of operations, where all Mischa Casts come from was located in the Silverbear Mall. Without the Board of Ethics and Standards however, she was just a girl in an empty building.

Oliver, Ami, Arthur and Arena arrive and meet with Guy and Gal, who are already there.

It's probably a bit of a filler chapter, where they reminisce and talk a little bit. Ultimately Gal explains something she noticed for Aynn's broadcasts. The D-Gazers in town are all connected to Duel Disks, so in order to broadcast to everyone in the city, Aynn has to challenge everyone in town to a Battle Royal Duel at the same time.

Arthur wonders aloud if that means that Guy and Gal had technically been challenged to a duel and if so, did that mean there was potential for them to lose their links on a weird technicality like if their Duel Disks shut off.

They don't have time to wonder that, as it's right around the time for Aynn's Mischa Cast, and all the D-Gazers in town light up. Aynn is at the door and she looks confused and mildly enraged. Before she can enter the mall however, the six demigods show up and suddenly, all at once all six of them challenge Aynn to a duel.

---

Chapter 24

It's another third chapter so here we have a Battle Royal Duel, with all six demigods squaring off against Aynn Mischa.

It's an intense duel, with new DemiGods hopping in, chaining cards and working to stop or slowdown Aynn. Slowly but surely the DemiGods are defeated one by one, leaving Aynn Mischa as the winner. Aynn scoffs at the DemiGods for thinking they could stand in her way. Mishegoss however has the last laugh.

The point of the Duel wasn't to win. It was to distract Aynn long enough to abandon her daily Mischa Cast, and let Gal and Guy step in to take her place. "See for yourself!" Mishegoss grins as she hands over a spare D-Gazer.

Aynn sees Gal and Guy using the 7th Link in the Chain, this time to nullify the memory altering magic of the fourth link in the chain. Guy politely asks residents to take off their D Gazers, never use them again.

Aynn looks as though she's lost in thought, as though she may have just broken down and realized she was defeat. But alas it seems Mishegoss's plan worked a little too well. The Fog is lifted from Aynn's mind as the seventh link negates the negative effects of the chain she's been suffering. She remembers everything she needs, she grows into her proper age and she seems a lot less... liquid.

Meanwhile, somewhere upstairs in the mall a little girl was opening her eyes for the very first time in over a year.

---

Chapter 25

One year ago, Hortense Friedman touched Arena's hand and with that, had to view within her mind the Goddess's entire life. For most people this would only take about a split second, but with such a tangled, intricate and long lived mess to comb over, Hortense had been asleep for over a year. Last year, when the Silvershine citizens returned from Crimson Wind Academy, Aynn Mischa had the Board of Ethics and Standards kidnap Hortense because she was pretty sure there was something important about her, but she just couldn't remember what. Hortense had slept in the Silverbear Mall for the past 12 months, only now waking with a jolt. She didn't need any exposition to know what was going on. She had lived Arena's life and thus knew everything the Goddess did.

She knew the group would be downstairs in the main atrium of the mall and so she made her way to greet them. Even though the little girl had slept for a year she looks exceedingly tired. Nevertheless, they were relieved to see the girl alive and well once more.

They're in high spirits, they defeated the Board of Ethics and Standards, they saved the citizens of the town, and they're fairly certain they defeated Aynn Mischa. Just before they can start the celebration, a voice rings out over a BoEaS Walkie Talkie. It sounds like a military man asking to speak to Colonel Sender.

Before any of them can answer, Aynn Mischa appears and shapeshifts into Sender to pick up the walkie talkie. She insists that she is Sender and everything is under control. A bit of a fight breaks out between the group before Ami confirms over the walkie talkie that Colonel Wacom T Sender is dead, along with his entire army.

There is a bit of a silence for a moment before they hear "Affirmative" and the signal drops.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys!?" Aynn exclaims in horror.

"With us!? You took over the entire and installed a brutal regime!"

Aynn shakes her head. "My memory's coming back. The man who was just on the phone is some high ranking politician who hired Sender and the Board to bring control back to Silvershine in the first place."

"And then you brainwashed him and his army." Arena responds.

"Everything was just fine and under control before you killed them all!"

Arena closes her eyes, a pained expression spreading on her face. "Though I can't see everything at all times like I used to, I have a bad feeling that we may have said the wrong thing to the wrong person."

"Colonel Sender was the only reason the military didn't storm in and nuke the city. What do you think they're gonna do now that he's dead!?"

---

Chapter 26

Everyone's shocked. A nuke? That's a little drastic. Aynn and Hortense seem to have known something big was going to happen by the end of all of this. They're certainly concerned, but they both feel like this was an unavoidable, unacceptable conclusion. With no proper Goddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy, those working in the military may do drastic, and unwise things.

Aynn doesn't know what Arena's talking about but soon is able to figure it out. Arena is no longer a Goddess.

Oliver confirms it, saying that the person who has the most links in the chain will become the next God or Goddess.

Quick Math Time!

Aynn has three, Guy has two and a half, Gal has one and a half. But is it really that simple?

Does Guy, with the 7th link, count as having two and a half or does he technically three? Since Guy and Gal are identical twins are they counted as one unit who would then share Diety status?

This is all uncharted territory, and Aynn can't have the twins mucking it up. Neither of the twins really wants God Status, but they certainly don't want Aynn to have it. With just DemiGod Status and a few links in the chain she was able to ruin the city. What would she be capable of with more power?

Aynn insist she can fix everything, they just need to surrender their Links to her and everything will be fine. Both twins refuse.

Aynn raises her Duel Disk, and the twins respond with their own. The long awaited duel of Guy and Gal versus Aynn Mischa has finally arrived.

---

Chapter 27

The duel between Guy, Gal and Aynn rages on with no clear front runner. Aynn Mischa turns on the machine that runs Mischa Casts, planning to etch her victory in the hearts and minds of everyone . Arthur glances at his Duel Disk which has come on and he has an idea.

The duel continues and the last turn is almost at hand. Aynn insists the twins surrender, and as DemiGoddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy she deserves to take the throne. Guy and Gal are unsure what to do, and at long last they spot Arthur and realize what he's done.

Guy takes a deep breath and realizes he has lost. "I surrender..." But he hasn't lost to Aynn. "I surrender to Hortense Friedman, and with that give her all my links in the chain." Gal nods and agrees, declaring a surrender to Hortense as well.

Aynn's Mischa Cast triggered a call to all Duel Disks, which means Arthur's disk responded as well. He slipped his disk onto Hortense's arm, which gave Guy and Gal one last move that, while stripped them of the powers of the Cursed Chain, kept them away from Aynn Mischa.

With the sun setting, Hortense is crowned as the new Goddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy.

Aynn throws a tantrum at losing, but Hortense, with Arena's help, opens a portal that slingshots through the Aether Realm and sends Aynn back in time. Arena learned a lot from her time on earth spending time with mortals, and was humbled by her time at Hawthorne Academy. She hopes the same humbling will happen to Aynn by sending enrolling her in Crimson Wind Academy, before it was destroyed at least. She sends her to the school three years in the past, wishing her well.

At long last it seems like everything is all tied up in a neat little package until a voice goes off on the radio. It's a countdown, counting backwards from 100.

Now able to see all sides of the past, present and predict the future, Hortense is able to see that in their maddness, without a proper Goddess of War, Wisdom and Military Strategy their country's military launched a bomb to vaporize the entire town.

Arena pleads with Hortense, telling her to open a portal to the Aether Realm and keep herself safe. While the bomb won't kill Hortense, it could take centuries, eons for her to reforge herself. One day without their Goddess and the humans destroyed a city. A century and they'd probably succeed in wiping out humanity just like the Eternals always wanted. The world can't have a lack of wisdom and military strategy.

Hortense sighs, but she agrees. She looks around and watches everyone holds each other tight, afraid that their time has finally come at last. Hortense takes a long breath and opens a portal to the Aether Realm...

---

Chapter 28

Super Secret Surprise Final Chapter!

A nuclear bomb has been launched, a little less than one minute before it vaporizes the entire town and everyone within a two mile radius.

At long last, Hortense closes her eyes and opens a portal to the Aether Realm, but not at her feet or at ground level. She opens a portal in the sky right on the flight path of the bomb to shield the entire city. Instead, the full force of a nuclear war head is teleported to the Aether Realm. The portal swallows up the bomb and just as it closes they see a flash of light and the anguished faces of the other Gods of the Aether Realm who were vaporized.

Arena is shocked, appalled and horrified at what she had just seen. He entire Celestial Family had been killed by a nuke before her very eyes. She had never even considered there deaths to be a possibility, and yet Hortense found the one move that would save the town and kill the true bad guys. Overall, Arena is mixed on the ending. Her family died, she lost Goddess powers, but her friends are alive and she can now grow old with her beloved Arthur.

As for what to do about the Gods, Hortense decides that the DemiGods deserve a promotion and gets them to take over their Celestial Parent's place. They won't view humanity as a nuisance but instead work together and rebuild civilization to make the world a better.

And the now human mortals, they look over the newly minted Gods of Silvershine and promise that they too will work together to rebuild and rise up from the ashes of Silvershine, towards a brand new future and a clean slate.

The End.

---

 

Questions, comments, concerns? I probably won't log back in again to see them. Or maybe I will. Who really knows?

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