"It appears... this guy known as Sinbad is a gentleman, too," S Nando said, smiling while he stroked his beard. "I admire him."
"But, Nii-chan, what should we do now?" L Nando asked anxiously. "We've stolen from him before." M Nando was also worried about that.
"Don't worry," S Nando told them. "He was sleeping like a log that time. He didn't see us."
"I see!" L Nando said, relieved.
"??" Hope placed a hand over her chest, wondering why she was suddenly filled with a sense of unease.
"What's the matter, Hope? Heartburn?" Faith asked, wondering why her sister was wearing such an odd expression after that uplifting speech.
"No, I'm pretty sure it's something else..." Hope replied, sweat-dropping.
"Hm?" M Nando said, looking up when he also sensed something was amiss. "Hey, Onii-san, what's that?" he asked S Nando, pointing up at a figure in the sky through a large hole in the roof.
Judar smirked and crossed his arms, standing proudly on his magic carpet. "Hey! Sinbad!!!" he shouted, making the older man flinch in shock.
"!" Sinbad gasped as his head snapped up to look at the evil magi, startled. 'Judar!? Did he follow us here...!?' he wondered anxiously. If that guy was here, then everyone present was in danger!
"Hey, Stupid King!" Judar greeted Sinbad with a mock salute when he jumped down from his magic carpet through the gaping hole in the roof. "What are you doing here?" he asked, walking over to face him.
"Who's that guy?" one of the troupe members asked.
"..." Aladdin and Hope stared at the intruder, surprised.
'He's... that person from earlier today...' Aladdin thought.
"... Shouldn't that jump have broken his legs?" Faith asked, furrowing her brow in confusion.
"Yes... but you've also leaped from a second story window without hurting yourself before. And more importantly..." Hope said, furrowing her brow, too. "There's something very off about that guy... He gives me a bad feeling. We need to be careful."
"Yeah..." Faith agreed. She thought Judar was pretty hot, but his attitude and the way he carried himself reminded her of one of her asshole exes, so he was probably an asshole, too.
"Judar," Sinbad said grimly, "were you sent under Ahbmad's orders? Or did the Kou Empire send you?"
"... Huh?" Judar said, stopping in his tracks. "No, no! It's nothing like that!" he said, suddenly beaming a smile at the king. "To tell you the truth, those things don't matter to me at all!"
"What do you plan to do with this country?" Sinbad demanded sternly, knowing better than to lower his guard.
"... Who knows?" Judar said with a shrug. "I don't have a single bit of interest in all those things about the economy that the old man talks about..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sinbad, you should know, right? What I truly like..." He raised his head to look at the king, wearing a devious smile, "... is war!"
"Psycho alert~" Faith sang quietly behind her hand in Hope's ear so that only her sister could hear.
"The Kou Empire is strong!" Judar said excitedly, clenching his fist. "Having countless soldiers, dungeon capturers as generals, and even dungeon monsters as part of the army! Aren't they awesome!?"
"You...!" Sinbad said lowly, narrowing his eyes in distaste to glare at him with disapproval.
"..." Hope could see that they obviously knew each other. Sinbad seemed to dislike him a lot, which made her wonder what had happened between them.
"... Ja'far, do you know him?" Aladdin asked.
"Yeah, who is that guy? 'Cause he sounds like a whole can of nuts," Faith remarked.
"He is Judar, and he has a long history of accumulated hatred with us..." Ja'far replied. "What's more, Aladdin... he's the same as you, a 'magi.'"
"!?" Aladdin and the twins were startled.
"Magi!?" Aladdin and Faith exclaimed, whipping their heads around to stare at the aggressive teen in black.
'I've got a bad feeling about this...' Hope thought with a bead of sweat sliding down her face.
"Oh! You shouldn't misunderstand!" Judar said, continuing his conversation with Sinbad. "The one I want to work together with the most is you, Sinbad! I just can't stand the emperor of the Kou Empire~" He smirked and held a hand out to the king. "That's why you should cut it out and partner up with me in attaining world domination!"
"I have repeated myself many times already. I won't be your puppet," Sinbad replied coldly.
"..." Judar withdrew his hand and finally turned his attention to the rest of them. "Then again, who are all these people? Gathering in droves..." He fell silent when his eyes landed on Aladdin.
"!" Both magis were surprised when their eyes met.
"... Hm? Who's this guy?" Judar asked. "Hey, Sinbad... the rukh around this guy is weird," he said, pointing at Aladdin with his thumb. "Who is he exactly?"
'Oh no...' Sinbad thought, concerned for the younger boy's safety. 'But it's not like I can conceal it from him...' "... He's the same as you, a magi," he answered carefully, waiting to see how his enemy would react.
"... What—!!?" Judar shouted incredulously in a slightly delayed reaction. "This midget is a 'magi'!? No way~~!?" he said, leaning down for a moment to invade Aladdin's personal space in order to have a closer look. "Magi are supposed to be amazing beings! When rukh was sent out to change the world, they're considered the strongest magic users with the largest amount of magoi in creation of the world. That's 'magi'!!" he ranted, pointing at his chest. "How can you tell me to accept the fact that there are magi other than myself!?"
"... It's precisely because he is a magi that you even responded to him," Sinbad said with his arms crossed.
"..." Judar stared at the idiot king for a moment before turning back to face Aladdin again with a friendly smile on his face. "Hello, midget! I'm Judar, and you are?"
'Uh-oh,' the twins thought, easily recognizing a happy bitch façade when they saw one.
"I... I'm Aladdin," Aladdin replied a little nervously.
Judar held out his hand, still smiling. "So you're Aladdin. As fellow magi, let's get along well from now on!"
"..." Aladdin hesitated for a moment when he noticed how on edge the rukh around the twins were, but reached out to accept the older magi's hand.
"!?" the twins gasped as they reached out to support him along with Alibaba and Morgiana, outraged when Judar's outstretch hand suddenly clenched into a fist and punched him instead. They had been expecting a harsh hand squeeze or a bitchy insult, but a punch to the face!?
"!" Aladdin gasped in pain, staggering backwards while he clutched his eye.
Hope and Faith glared Judar. Shit was on, now.
"Hey, Hey~ Are you saying that this slow guy is the same as me, a 'magi'?" Judar said mockingly. "Sinbad, don't tell me you've decided to abandon me... to work together with that guy...?"
"He has nothing to do with that!" Sinbad shouted angrily, anxious not to get the younger magi and his friends caught up in a dispute with someone so dangerous. "We just happened to meet in this country."
"..." Judar stared at him. He seemed to be telling the truth. "Then that's fine, but~~ Hey, midget, if you really are a magi, you should have a candidate to be king by your side, right? There should be one or two. Come on, midget! Call out your candidates!"
Alibaba glared at Judar. Hope was rather furious herself, but she kept a firm grip on Faith's shoulder to keep her from charging at the enemy, because Sinbad and the others seemed extremely wary of him, and she knew that couldn't be a good sign. Hope didn't want her sister to get hurt, too. Faith was grinding her teeth, too angry to even speak.
'Candidate to be king...' Aladdin thought, remembering the time Paimon asked him if he had chosen one before. He set his face with grim determination and stared back at Judar without answering. He wasn't about to let this other magi know about Alibaba. This guy seemed dangerous. Who knew what he would do to him?
"Hey, are you ignoring me?" Judar asked. He sighed and put his hands on his hips. "Whatever~ I'll just find him by myself..."
It didn't look like anything had changed from the others' perspective, but when Judar opened his eyes again, instead of the physical forms of those around him, he saw only their energy signatures. He scanned the entire crowd, starting with Sinbad's side, until he found what he was looking for. Two eight-pointed star seals. "..." Judar started walking towards them. "I've. Found. You!" he said, holding out both hands to point at Alibaba and Hope.
"!" Aladdin gasped in alarm. 'Alibaba...! Hope...!' He hadn't been as worried about Hope, because technically he hadn't chosen her, but he had never expected Judar to find either one of them so easily.
Hope frowned at the older magi, and Alibaba furrowed his brow in confusion.
"Heh~ You two are twins, right?" Judar asked her with a smirk, glancing briefly at Faith. "You know, I've heard the Empire's looking for a twin with a metal vessel..."
"!" Sinbad, Alibaba, and Aladdin tensed.
'That's right... I almost forgot, but those two mentioned something about being on the run the other night!' Sinbad thought warily, thinking back to the conversation he had eavesdropped on.
"No, we're triplets. We just leave the ugly one at home," Faith said with a straight face.
"..." Judar stared at her for moment, then burst into laughter. "Hahaha! That's a good one!! But seriously... I've seen the wanted posters, and your faces look a lot like them!"
"Yes, we get that a lot. I've seen those wanted posters, too," Hope responded coolly. "But aren't those girls supposed to have ginger hair?"
"Ha, I guess that's true!" Judar said with a laugh, flicking her brown bangs. "Yeah, the hair color's all wrong. And there's no way they'd bother with someone lame enough to be picked by this midget!" Then his eyes fell on Alibaba. "Hm? I seem to remember you. You're that guy... that was bullied by Ahbmad earlier today!"
"!" Alibaba said, taken aback.
Judar laughed again. "Pfftt... You looked so horrible then~! I saw you scream at the top of your lungs, but you were treated like nothing... and you even cried in the end when you were called a maggot~! Hahaha!" Alibaba clenched his fists, unable to say anything in his own defense. The twins' glare at the magi hardened. "Really... You're such a useless guy..." he said, laughing even harder at Alibaba's humiliation.
"Shut up!!" Faith growled.
"Don't you dare laugh at him!" Hope said in a dangerously low voice.
"Heh~ Why shouldn't I?" Judar asked challengingly. "It's true, after all. That pathetic guy couldn't do a thing! He's completely useless!"
"He's not useless!!!" Aladdin yelled angrily, standing up to defend his friend.
"... Huh?" Judar said, looking at him.
"Alibaba is not useless! Because I know it!!" Aladdin said sternly. "He knew right from the beginning that he might not be recognized. But for the sake of others, he put aside his fears to do something that no one else has dared to do. He is a brave person!! There's no way he's useless!!"
"Aladdin..." Alibaba said, feeling extremely touched to be defended to such an extent.
"... Midget, is this guy really a candidate for king that's worth such high hopes?" Judar asked skeptically. "Hmph... I... don't see it... at all!!" he said, pulling a wand out from the scarf around his neck to fire a burst of energy straight at Alibaba. Everyone's eyes widened in shock as he was thrown back by the force of the sudden attack. Aladdin froze, too stunned to react.
"Ugh!!" Alibaba grunted in pain, wrapping his arms around his stomach. It felt like he had been slammed in the abdomen by a battering ram!
"Ali—!" Hope started to cry out in concern, turning to check on him. Her eyes widened when she was hit hard in the side by a strong force and sent sliding into the dirt.
"!" Morgiana, who had already been on the move to help Alibaba, looked up in alarm and managed to catch her before she hit a pile of rubble. She set Hope down beside Alibaba.
Judar laughed. "I guess she isn't much better! Look! They're way too weak!"
Sinbad looked at the fallen king candidates. Alibaba was curled up in pain, and it looked like he was having a little trouble breathing. The king's eyes widened in alarm when Hope coughed, and he saw blood on her lips. She must have been hit in a bad spot. "Judar!!" he shouted, glaring furiously at the magi.
"Sinbad!! Why did you mingle with these boring people!?" Judar asked. "Did you get even stupi—!?" he gasped in surprise when suddenly, before anyone could even blink, Faith lunged at him without warning and delivered a powerful punch.
BZZZ. BZZZ.
There was a wild, merciless look in her wide eyes as she gripped the strange force field that had popped up between her and her target to stop her attack and delivered another blow, pushing even harder, making it crackle with energy. To Judar and Sinbad's shock, it cracked.
'Pierce through...!!!' Faith thought, pushing her fist harder, willing it to breakthrough and hit the bastard who just hurt her sister. Her fist didn't make it through, but something else did. Everyone was surprised when a black light formed around her fist and shot through the cracks to scrape Judar on the side of his face. His eyes widened in shock before narrowing in rage, and he quickly flicked his wand at her to send her flying back with another attack into the same rubble that her sister had been fortunate enough to miss.
"Faith-san!!" Morgiana cried out in alarm.
'Did... she just use strength magic...!?' Sinbad wondered, stunned by the achievement. She hadn't succeeded in completely breaking it, but for her to have actually managed to crack a magi's borg enough to be able to project a small amount of highly concentrated force through it was incredible!
"Faith!!" Hope yelled, struggling to get up to get to her sister. She winced and hissed in pain.
"Don't try to move! I think your rib is broken," Morgiana said urgently after kneeling down to check on her, holding her shoulders to keep her down.
Ja'far and Masrur hurried over to check on Faith when she showed no signs of responding to their calls. "It's all right! She's alive!" Ja'far said. She was out cold, and bleeding from a cut on her head. The arm she had landed on was broken. But the cut didn't look too serious, and her breathing was still steady.
"Whoa~ haha! That surprised me for a moment," Judar said, quickly absorbing more rukh to repair the slight damage done to his borg. "But there's no way I'm gonna be beaten by such a weak attack!" He would never admit it, but that girl had been a little scary. But he figured it had to have been a fluke. She only managed to get through because he was caught off-guard. It wouldn't happen again. Judar's eyes widened again when the white rukh flared up around Aladdin to an almost blinding level. The younger magi was holding his staff in front of him, ready to fight. He looked furious. "Heh, so you're going to do it?" Judar asked with a dark grin. It was about time.
Aladdin's heart thumped heavily in his chest while he stared down the older magi. 'What's happening?' he thought. 'I have had this feeling ever since I saw this person... Although I didn't really understand it at first... However, I understand clearly now!! I have to stop this person at all cost!!!'
'Aladdin...!!' Morgiana thought, watching the rukh gather around his staff with wide eyes. 'It's just like... when we fought...' Beads of sweat formed on her brow from the sense of impending danger she felt.
'What is that...!? Magic? It looks like some kind of energy...' Hope thought, astonished. She squinted, and realized the glowing particles looked like the glowing bird-like things that she had occasionally caught glimpses of ever since coming to this world. 'Rukh...!?'
"You look eager to fight, don't you!? Hey!?" Judar leered mockingly at the younger magi.
"I don't want to fight with you," Aladdin said grimly, "but you hurt my friends. And if you intend to hurt us again, then I will stop you."
"Stop it!! The both of you!!" Sinbad yelled. If those two fought here, then innocent people would get caught in the crossfire!
Judar smirked before turning his head to look at him. "Shut up, Sinbad," he said coldly. "This is a 'fight between magi.' Normal people have no right to interfere. Anyway it's not like you can stop me. I've seen it just now... You don't have a single metal vessel on you!!!"
"Kuh!!" Sinbad flinched, gritting his teeth in frustration. 'He's right. I can't stop him now.' He glanced at the unconscious Faith out the corner of his eye. 'But maybe...' "Masrur!!"
"Understood," Masrur said, launching himself forward without hesitation. He spun around using his momentum and delivered a devastatingly powerful kick.
BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ.
Judar smirked when it was blocked by his borg. It crackled with energy again as Masrur tried to apply more pressure.
"...!" Masrur gritted his teeth and had to retreat when he couldn't break through. He couldn't even make a crack in it. They needed magic. "As I thought..." he said, returning to his king's side. "We can't use our household vessels now."
"Damn it!!" Sinbad cursed. Why did he have to lose his metal vessels!?
"Ok then, let's start, midget magi," Judar said, twirling his wand in the air. "First... let's begin with a competition of firing magoi!"
"Firing magoi!?" Morgiana and Hope said, startled. Hope furrowed her brow with concern. She watched anxiously while Judar raised his wand and rukh started gathering round it to form a ball of glowing energy like the one around Aladdin's staff.
"!?" Aladdin gasped when he saw how large it was and quickly increased the size of the amount of magoi around his own.
"All right, let's go!!!" Judar said with an excited grin. He raised his wand higher, but instead of firing the whole burst off at Aladdin, he ordered his magoi to shoot out in all directions like laser beams.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The magoi exploded everywhere it touched upon impact. "Uwaah!!?" the troupe members cried out in fear and alarm while they did their best to dodge. "What are these!?"
"Faith!!" Hope screamed when one of the beams headed for her sister. There were no words to describe how relieved she was when Masrur quickly scooped her sister's body up and carried her to safety before it could hit her.
"Hahaha, become full of holes!" Judar laughed gleefully, enjoying the panicked expressions on their faces and the chaos he had created.
WHOOOM!
"!" Aladdin gasped when several beams came at him and the rest of his friends. His eyes widened, and his rukh glowed brighter as the beams fizzled out harmlessly when they hit his ball of magoi.
"Aladdin!?" Morgiana said, still holding onto Alibaba and Hope, while the three of them watched with wide eyes.
"Ah?" Judar said, a little surprised. He furrowed his brow slightly in confusion. He hadn't been expecting that.
Aladdin drew back his staff and flung all of his magoi forth at his enemy.
"!?" Judar gasped when the huge ball of energy came flying at him. His eyes widened in shock as it hit his borg. He was lifted off the ground and his hair was blown back by the impact while he watched his magoi and Aladdin's cancel each other out. "..." Judar was shocked. "... What..." he said, looking down at his hands while he tried to figure out what had just happened. "I've got it." He lifted his head to look at Aladdin again. "Hey, midget! Let's stop this! Competing with firing magoi is completely meaningless. Since we're magi with the protection of the rukh... the magoi will only be nullified."
'Nullified...' Aladdin thought with a bead of sweat sliding down his face while he recalled how Judar's beams had fizzled out on their own when they came in contact with his magoi. Was that what happened?
"Since that's so..." Judar held his wand out in front of him. "Let's have a magic battle."
"Magic!?" Morgiana and Alibaba said, taken aback.
"Weren't they already using magic just now!?" Hope asked with a frown. Many of the other troupe members were muttering something along the same line.
"Tsk," Judar clicked his tongue in annoyance at their ignorance. "Ah~ You bunch don't understand at all! This is why I hate amateurs," he said with a sigh before smiling and glancing at Sinbad. "Isn't that right? Sinbad!"
"Hmph!!" Sinbad glared at him in response.
"Hehe... That's right..." Judar said. That was a great look on the stupid king's face! "Let me show you amateurs!" He raised his wand high over his head and started gathering rukh again. "Magoi is... created from rukh... It's pure power. The power of just concentrating magoi and firing is not that strong either. The most it could do is break a few things like before..." he explained. "However, what if I gave an order... to the rukh that produce magoi...?" Judar looked at the magoi forming on his wand and willed it to change form.
Everyone watched in amazement as the rukh and the magoi it was forming turned yellow and began to hum and buzz with energy.
BZZZ. BZZZ. BUZZ.
Streaks of light zigged and zagged across the surface.
'The magoi is behaving like electricity...!?' Hope thought, eyes widening in surprise.
Judar grinned as the electric arcs grew bigger, brighter, and bolder. "It's just as you see!" he declared proudly. "This lightning magic is now complete!!"
"!?" Aladdin and his three friends gasped in astonishment.
"Lightning magic...!!?" Aladdin exclaimed, looking startled.
"Aladdin!" Sinbad shouted over the noise of the crackling lightning. "Just to confirm, do you know magic?"
"I don't," Aladdin replied honestly. This was his first time encountering someone who could use it.
"Just as I thought..." Sinbad said with regret, wishing he had been wrong. "Rukh causes all the world's natural phenomenon by using the energy it produces. In other words, it is the energy the rukh produce... that causes storms, fire, and lightning in nature... And now... Judar is using the energy of the rukh produce to create lighting!!"
Hope's eyes widened in fear. How were they supposed to counter something like that!? Aladdin and Morgiana could probably get away, but Hope didn't know if she and Alibaba would be able to dodge in time. It hurt just to breathe.
"When are you going to stop talking..." Judar muttered, annoyed. "Here I go!!" he shouted at Aladdin, sending the lightning crashing toward him.
"Aladdin! Evade that!!" Sinbad shouted anxiously.
But Aladdin stood his ground. His friends were right behind him, and he knew they would never able to move in time. He quickly gathered more magoi and tried to use it to block the magic attack.
"!!?" Aladdin gasped in shock, eyes wide with fear when the lightning easily shot through his magoi.
'Just as I expected... the current Aladdin can't handle that move!' Sinbad thought, horrified and afraid for the young boy's life. "Aladdin!!!"
CRRRSSSHHHH!!!
The lightning crashed into the very spot where Aladdin stood in an explosion of sizzling electric energy.
"Hey, hey... Did you turn into ash after that one move?" Judar said mockingly, as the dust and electricity started to clear, and he could see the edge of a crater in the dirt. "!?" he gasped, shocked when he saw that not only was Aladdin still standing, but he had been shielded by a huge djinn whose head was stuck inside a flute. Some lingering electric shocks arced around its rippling blue muscles.
'This is... 'magic'!!' Aladdin thought, panting. He was a little roughed up, but still relatively unharmed thanks to Ugo.
"..." Judar narrowed his eyes dangerously at the younger magi.