Resonance

LXVI. Death of Yuma

Death Speaks was just about to shove its hand into Yuma's chest to kill him, but was suddenly stopped. It was quicker than lightning, stopping Death Speaks from laying a finger on Yuma. Sona had grabbed onto Death Speak's puppet face, faster than he could ever change up his density.

She had used her Exchange to change the air resistance to a complete zero, allowing her to move faster and get to Death Speaks easier. Upon reaching Death Speaks and grabbing his entire face, she hid her glare from the group behind her.

"I'm not gonna let you harm another one of my students, you piece of shit," she mumbled, almost crushing Death Speaks' face, "Motza, innocent civilians, empirical knights, even your own Oculi members. You deserve everything you get for killing them all. Burn in Hell."

Death Speaks began to change his form, but not his density. This wasn't by his own accord, but by Sona's Exchange. She was slowly transforming Death Speaks into an explosive, hopefully blowing up the Oculi base. She signaled Chroma to grab Yuma and to get out. He did as she told and used his portals to take Yuma out of the cage, running away from the Oculi base alongside everyone else.

As the puppet turned into a bomb, Sona was happy to see the Oculi base getting blown to smithereens. However suddenly, she held on a piece of corn.

"My, oh my," smiled a figure in the dark, holding the Death Speaks that was slowly turning into a bomb in his hand, "This would be pretty dangerous if it were to blow up inside."

Suddenly, Death Speaks was gone from the figure's hand, and in his place was a dead bush. Ones that you would find outside in the Grand Desert. Sona heard an explosion in the distance. It was like the items were replaced.

Sona motioned her hand in the air, transforming the air into knives that would shoot at the figure. Sona had even held one knife in her hand to defend herself. However when she looked, she was holding the figure's foot! With his other foot, he kicked Sona in the face, causing her to let go of him.

"Trap Room has so much possibilities," said the figure as he stood on the ground, noticing that his shoe had transformed into spikes that would cause him to bleed, "Although, your Exchange is pretty tedious."

His shoe was replaced with a piece of corn.

"Now who are you, may I ask?" asked Sona, smiling again after regaining her composure.

"You don't need to know that yet," replied the figure, "But try to destroy this Oculi base, and you'll end up like your Motza friend. Go along with your group. You've achieved your goal anyways."

Sona had no choice but to go back to her group. Taking on the entire Oculi base head-on by herself would just kill her. She soon met up with Chroma and the others, who were carrying the unconscious Yuma.

—

"Yuma..?" asked Kirin as Yuma's eyes began to open, "Thank god you're alive! We thought you died or were about to die!"

"My death.. was greatly exaggerated.." mumbled Yuma as he slowly sat up, "Where's that Death Speaks guy? I wanna beat him up for knocking me down!"

"I killed him," smiled Sona, proud of her accomplishments.

"We should still be on look-out," suggested Chroma, "All Sona did was break one of Valroth's puppets. Who knows how much time will take place before another of his puppets come once again?"

"At least we made it out of the Oculi base alive surprisingly!" smiled Korudo, trying to lighten up the mood.

"So what now?" asked Milo, "We just did some serious damage to the Oculi, but we received some serious damage from them as well. What's our next plan?"

"Lay low and cool off," stated Etzali as she made her leave after analyzing that Yuma was alright, "This is a temporary stalemate due to both of the factions being in great damage. To continue to fight would just waste our resources."

Apollo followed Etzali, "If you guys need us, or are in the slightest bit of danger from the Oculi, don't hesitate to mail a letter to us through hawk. We'll rush over quickly to give you our support."

The students and teachers sat in silence at Yuma's hospital room. They began to think up of what to do.

"No Resonance missions for now," suggested Sona, "That'll put us in great risk of being caught by the Oculi. We should all just stay in the Empire where it's safe."

"Agreed," replied Chroma, "If you guys are itching to find more action, I wouldn't blame you. However, you can try and put up that energy into the Grand Tournament."

"Grand Tournament?" Diablo asked curiously, "What's that?"

"You dumbass," explained Milo, "The Grand Tournament is held for Resonance and Scroll users to duke it out in a championship. Whoever wins gets a recommendation to become the next Royal Guard, as well as a large sum of money and bragging rights. It's one of my goals to win and prove that I'm the strongest."

"Like hell you're the strongest," argued Zander, opening one eye from his rest, "I'll make sure to win that and take you down."

"You know, you were much better when you were depressed!"

"The hell did you say, idiota?"

As Zander and Milo bickered about who was the strongest, Yuma was already thinking up of more important things.

"What happened to me?" thought Yuma, "Did my camera still receive the princess' panty shots? Wait, no, don't think about that. There's so much more important things. I survived the consumption of the Harvest Fruit, right..?

Does this mean.. I have a Harvest Fruit ability within me?"

Chroma stared at Yuma. Yuma didn't think so, but he felt like Chroma knew something had happened to Yuma while he was captured. Should he tell Chroma or should he not? This decision would greatly impact his life.