This was it, the final stretch. After what had felt, to him, like a year and a half of dealing with Axis and his countless annoyances, Vaile was, at long last, about to be freed of his self-created weight.

“I’m not going to miss you in the slightest, just so you know.” Vaile remarked before using his staff/ walking stick to bludgeon Axis forward. “I want to be clear here, not that you’d be able to pick it up, that I absolutely hate your stupid, miserable guts and I am very much looking forward to watching Monarkea toss you around like a rag doll.”

“So say we all.”

A voice that Vaile never wanted to hear again came from high above, and Vaile looked upward to see not merely the owner of that voice but many, many other people besides hanging out together and watching the show that was about to unfold.

“Scum!” shouted one of the more vocal members of the peanut gallery. “Die with disgrace! Suffer before your end as penance for wasting our Lord’s time!”

“Here, here!” added another. “Don’t let him die quickly!”

“Stupid Human! You’ll die a thousand deaths in extreme misery before I even begin to consider attempting to bring myself to forgive you for tormenting our Lord!”

“Certainly more merciful than myself, that’s for damn sure.” came someone else. “I wouldn’t be able to even consider showing any kind of mercy for that dense bastard.”

“Blood! Bone! Gore! Meat! Shred! Slaughter! Kill! RIP AND TEAR! RIP AND TEAR! RIP AND TEAR!”

Vaile couldn’t believe how many entities were up there in the improvised stands. He counted at least fifty, but as his eyes swept slowly from one side to the next he realized that those up there in the seats were not physically there, instead using some form of long-distance projection magic to be ‘here’ while also being somewhere else.

Plus, many would only appear for a few seconds before blinking out and being replaced with others, not that Vaile assumed that those that were not visible were not also enjoying the show to come. However, as much as he would have loved to sit back and watch the hundreds, no, thousands of forms flicker in and out and try and memorize and recall each one of them, something else caught his, and the crowd’s attention.

Axis was trembling. Not out of fear, mind you, but out of something far worse.

“You utter idiots.”

“Oh, shit, I was right.” Vaile said nonchalantly as he crotch-punted Axis into the arena below them. Axis landed not with a thud, but with grace fit for a master of the martial arts, and while the will controlling Axis would have loved for everyone present to be shocked and scared that they had been fooled, the big reveal was met with a resounding “meh”.

“Don’t try and hide your-.” Axis tried to say before a shout from the crowd interrupted him.

“Skip the monologue and just throw hands already!”

“I was going to say tha-.”

“Kick their ass, Monny! Kick its ass!”

“Will you let me sa-.”

“FUCK! HIM! UP!”

“SILENCE!” Axis shouted, but his words, or those of the will controlling him, were met with more derision and mockery, among other things.

“Learn to be less predictable, you dumb bastards!” yelled Zahra, and her words were soon echoed by others of a similar nature.

“Did you honestly think we didn’t see this coming a hundred miles away?!”

“For an attempt at a plot twist, this sucks!” shouted someone else. “My slaves could write better plot twists, and they’ve all had their brains stapled!”

Axis looked around and then looked at Vaile.

“I’ll be honest with you, whatever you are.” Vaile added with a shrug. “Everyone saw this coming. You, or whatever you are and whatever group you’re a part of, really need to find some new tricks, because this is just kinda sad.”

Vaile gestured around and more of the darkened areas that surrounded the pit Axis was inside of lit up to reveal a great number of monsters of various high levels. All of them began to boo and mock the would-be ‘genius plotter’, and soon the sounds of ridicule and humiliation were loud enough to wake the dead. In some cases, quite literally.

“But… How?” Axis stuttered.

“Because playing the fool until you need to reveal your true nature is, like, the oldest trick in the book.” said a voice that rumbled the entire mountain from within. “Or one of them, at least, and we’ve all known that this would happen for a while now.”

Monarkea emerged from a chasm that ran up from the elevated platform in the distance and through the wall. She came out in her true form, wearing some snazzy extra armor and jewelry despite the fact that she needed none of it.

Fire and magic explosions ringed her as she entered the arena from her hiding spot, showing just what a true entrance should be. She then unfurled her wings and launched herself into the massive arena, shaking the ground and causing the mechanisms in the structure to activate.

“Do you honestly think I didn’t make that ignorant boy the way for no reason?” Monarkea remarked with a sneer. “He was my most recent attempt to make something so utterly useless yet so utterly easy to control that you lot would try and use it for your own ends! And now you’ll die here, fracturing that bastard and its ilk even further, and then I’ll make another, and another, and another, and they will send more pieces like lambs to the slaughter!”

“Still have no goddamn idea what is going on, but hey, whatever floats your boats.” Vaile yelled as the noise in the arena grew into a thunderous cacophony.

“Oh?” Axis smiled an evil grin and pulled out a small item. “Then we’ll see how you try such a thing when I escape and warn them! You’ll die off soon enough!”

Axis raised the item above his head and cracked it, but before the item whisked him away, he found that he was no longer holding it, nor was he rooted on the ground. A foot had planted itself on the back of his head, sending the teen spinning off across the ground like a thrown rubber doll as Vaile stood triumphantly, letting the item spirit him away instead.

“Well,” Vaile said to everyone as he was being teleported away. “I’ll see you all when I see you! Oh, and Monarkea?”

“Yes?”

“Have fun. Ciao for now!”

And with that, Vaile was sent somewhere else, and left a great many very, very angry people pointing their fury directly at Axis.

“Hey, brat.” Monarkea said with a smile that oozed malice yet looked charming at first glance. “I’m going to enjoy killing you.”