On that day, everything changed for the world of Olympus Prime.

The day started with the world watching the Summer Selections enter into its climatic stages, with the underdogs teaming up to fight against the strongest squad made up of incredible Wave users from the Boarded. However, as things moved further, and those in the strongholds continued on their supposed mission while under the influence of John King’s Cast, PORA entered into the world’s limelight.

As the world’s eyes were all focused on what happened on the ground, Mus made his presence known to the Kings and Queens within the floating structure. Defeating the combined forces of the generals, he then used his Melodic Disruption on the Infinite Academy itself, causing it to tumble down from the sky and fly towards the nearest city, a sea-side port of the Ethereal Realm.

Wu and all that remained on the artificial floating island tried their best to break the fall of the island, hoping that they could buy more time to slow the island’s descent, or even reverse its trajectory. However, before the island’s velocity could be slowed further, Mus had successfully activated the Earth-Quaking level defensive Casts thanks to the Revolutionary Manuscript.

In fact, Wu actually did Mus a big favour in a sense. Slowing the island’s fall bought Mus enough time to activate the defensive Cast early enough, that the individual pieces of the islands will have scattered and landed over a far larger area, avoiding most of the populated areas of the city and slamming instead into the villages and fields that nobody cared about.

The defensive Casts continued firing off their massive Wave blasts autonomously, striking down anything that flew overhead, including a handful of student’s chariots which were moving far too slowly. Those that made it to the ground were able to hide out just in time.

As for the pieces that were far too small and moving far too fast for the defensive Casts, they were mostly ignored. One of those pieces being Wu and Lera who’s rapidly approaching the sea surface. At their speed, water and rock are all but the same.

Wu felt for Lera’s warmth, felt for her kiss, and took in her scent as she did the same, waiting for their inevitable death when a dark purple whirlpool opened directly underneath their body, and they slipped straight through it.

Instead of splattering atop the cold harsh sea surface like the other bits and pieces of the island, viscous black oil immediately drenched their entire body, decelerating them through a far longer duration of time and eventually stopping. Another set of purple whirlpools opened up on the other side, catching the eventually slow moving pair and placing them down on the beach again.

By the time their bodies felt the soft warm sand, Wu and Lera were still latching onto one another, and their heartbeats can be felt through their bodies.

“Wha…what?” Wu opened his eyes slowly, looking around when Lera’s chest started rising and falling with her breathing again.

“How long are you going to cling onto her like that?” Ver’s voice came from behind, and Wu picked his head up to see the girl with dark blonde hair and a dark mark over her right eye sit casually on the beach.

“Forever.” Lera said, smiling happily when Wu slowly let her go much to her dismay.

“You couldn’t have caught us earlier?” Wu asked, “I thought we were going to die!”

“Catching someone at the bottom of a fall is easier than catching someone during the fall!” Ver said, “That’s…what Shra’Ahk said.”

“I think it just wanted to see some drama…” Wu rolled her eyes with Lera still clinging onto his body like a sloth.

“You meant all those things you said, right?” She asked, her eyes big and teary.

“Of course…” Wu said, glancing towards Ver with a cheeky smile before he lowered Lera down onto the beach again, pressed his body onto hers before they kissed away.

“ARGH!” Ver growled, “Perhaps I should have left you two down at the Kraken’s oily pit!”

With the help of the calmer waves, Wu and Lera were able to clean themselves up. Hanging their cloths to dry against the handles of an enlarged Sky Splitting Sword, they then sat in a small circle on the beach as bits and pieces of the island still continued falling around them.

“So…what now?” Wu asked, sighing, “The island is destroyed, many students are…gone…And the revolutionary Manuscript was activated…”

“And we don’t know where everyone else is…” Lera dropped her head down and looked at the torn piece of communication Cast.

“I have tagged them with my pieces before…” Ver said, trying to reestablish connections with the pieces of the Kraken’s shell, but there was nothing but fuzziness from the other side. She tried forcibly opening a purple whirlpool, but when she poked her head through, she only found herself floating in the middle of the ocean.

“If the revolutionary Manuscript was truly activated, then PORA would have had control of all of the kingdoms in this world, right?” Wu asked, “Turning the defensive Casts inward, they would have had unlimited power within the kingdoms too…”

Lera nodded, when she suddenly noticed her Book of Casts opening by itself, and a tiny puppet made of paper rose from one of its pages before its thin tiny arms waved in the air.

The trio turned around, and they saw Jolyne carrying the King of Varous and an unconscious Joseph towards them.

“JOLYNE!” Wu shot up with excitement, “You are…you are all okay!”

“Yeah.” Jolyne sighed, looking over to the King who’s smiling warmly back at her. Because of his decision, Jolyne was able to conjure up a shell of puppets around their bodies when the floating structure blew up, and she was also able to grab onto Joseph and himself to escape, “Bro’s badly hurt.”

“I will help him.” Lera said, going ahead and surrounding Joseph with her healing Casts right away.

“So…what happened up there?” Ver asked, and the two survivors from the floating castle of the Kings and Queens relayed everything that had happened to them...the ridiculous powers of Mus Ongaku, the PORA grand master, John’s true nature, and more.

Afterwards, the circle of people filled with uncertainty and dread expanded to five, not counting the unconscious Joseph who’s fast asleep like a baby.

“So…what now?” This time, Wu and Jolyne spoke at the same time.

“I must return to my Kingdom.” The King said, glancing towards Lera, “I foresee the agents of PORA utilizing the Revolutionary Manuscript in order to take over the Kingdoms within a matter of hours!”

“If he could activate the Casts in Ethereal Realm already…then yeah. It will only be a matter of time.” Jolyne agreed, looking over at Wu and Lera.

“I…thought we could stop them before all of this would have happened.” Wu said, lowering his head in defeat, “I thought this time, we will be able to do the right thing…but at the end of the day, we weren’t able to do anything. So what even was the point?”

“I…I don’t know.” Lera held onto his hand, “Maybe…maybe we bought enough time for the defensive Casts to come up?”

“So…I just ended up helping Mus’s case in strengthening his control here?” Wu asked, half-chuckling at the irony of all this.

“He won’t control everything here.” Ver shook her head, “Elsewhere, maybe. But the Ethereal Realm is different. If he wants true control here, then he would have to go through the path of the Ethereal Tournaments, and that is still two years away.”

“So…what would he do now?” Wu asked.

“Likely pour PORA’s resources into one of the major families. Sponsor them to the top of the Ethereal Tournament, and control the kingdom through them.” Ver said, standing up from the stand, “I think…I must return to my family.”

Then, she looked at Wu, her expressions obscured by the radiance of the sun behind her head, “Will…you be okay with this, Wu?”

“Me?” Wu widened his eyes a little.

“I promised to help you through your journey…But this is about my realm, about my family…”

“It’s going to be fine.” Wu smiled, “Go take care of those. I am sure we will meet again, plus…it looked like Varous needed help too.”

Ver nodded, pointing to Lera instead, “Carve your communication Casts into the shell I gave him. Then, no matter what happens, we can be in touch.”

“Got it.” Ver said, also standing up before the three of them hugged each other tightly before a dark purple whirlpool formed on the ground behind them.

“I will see you two soon~” Ver said, a cheeky smile on her face, “Am I going to see a baby next time we meet?”

Both Wu and Lera’s faces turned red, and they looked away as Ver disappeared into the whirlpool, leaving only her chuckle behind.

“In that case, let us depart.” The King said, as Jolyne nodded and conjured up their official chariot once more, “Let’s hope there’s still a kingdom for us to return to.”

In the meanwhile, along the vast open plains deep into the Ethereal Realm territory, Matty and the crowds of students he was able to scoop up landed in the middle of the ground before the eagle Manifest faded away and Matty collapsed into Yuna’s shoulders.

“You have done well…” Yuna said, as Matty forced a difficult smile before falling asleep, his body completely exhausted from his efforts.

“I can’t believe the Academy is just…gone.” Braka said, his eyes unfocused as he sat on the ground. One of the surviving students from the Guild of Medics tried to bandage up his body, but Braka waved her off.

Shin looked around the empty fields, and he dropped onto his knees, not knowing what to do.

“On the bright side,” Yuna said with a fake smile, “That’s probably the universe telling us it’s time to continue on our adventure, right?”

“Maybe~” Braka smiled lighlty, “But if this is happening at the Ethereal realm, similar things must be happening everywhere else in the world…PORA taking over the kingdoms….”

“I will return to the Kingdom of the Eastern Sun.” Shin said from afar, “I…need to make sure my family was alright.”

“I…need to go home and check…” Matty said, straining to even speak, “I was the strongest back home…and if I am not there, who will protect them?”

“Then that’s where we would go.” Yuna said firmly, and Braka nodded with agreement, “We will head down under. I am sure father will be able to take care of himself. Then, we will come find you, Shin.”

“I will be there.” Shin said, waving his hand, “If we are going to fight against PORA, then we need the entire squad together. We need Lily…I…I need her.”