Allendis Escarlot

A loud clatter halted Eli's burrowing hole of unfathomable thoughts.

Looking ahead, she was greeted by a figure with crimson hair and electric ruddy eyes.

Standing on the auditorium's entrance in all his glory, the Student Council President looked as if he's about to crash a party.

"So, you showed up, villain," he hissed, voice firm and thunderous.

Out of nowhere, scarlet blazing flames appeared and cloaked Allen's body.

Not too long, the raging fire flared out of sight, giving way to a red head in pure ruby plate armour, black linen under-shirt and under-pants and a long, fluttering vibrant maroon cape. On the right side of his belt, a gleaming silver sword with a dragon's figure intricately carved on it was tightly fastened.

In a flash of light, the Crimson Blood Warrior of Aristia had made his appearance.

Wonder-stricken, Eli only gawked at him with her jaw dropped.

"A Champion? I see, well then, I should probably make a greeting now..."

All of the sudden, the foggy mist orbiting around her revealed a masculine figure in red and black full dress tailcoat tux, a black hat, a pantalone mask covering half of his face, and a cane with a glowing red orb.

The dark cloud eventually dispersed, causing Eli to fall on the ground and yelp in pain.

As she straightened herself up, she found Allen looking at her apathetically, to which she only returned a quizzical expression.

"A pleasant day, ladies and gentlemen! It is I, Felix the Puppeteer, who shall entertain you for the rest of tonight," the villain proclaimed, dramatically opening his arms as if welcoming them.

Unmoved by his ebullient greeting, Allen unsheathed his blade before charging towards Felix.

His ferocious commencement of attacks failed to make the villain falter, however. As a comeback, he raised his cane forward, the red orb illuminating brightly and commanding Leah and the other victims to swarm around his enemy.

Then, as if moving puppets with untearable strings, Felix steered them to battle against Allen in his stead.

Eli, on the other hand, was helplessly driven into a corner by his other victims.

"How bothersome. Are you a magnet for trouble or something?" Venus blurted out, her miffed expression reflecting on the polished surface of the stage's leaden wall.

"Venus! Y-You came?"

"Dummy. When did I leave in the first place?"

"You're seriously asking for a fight now?"

Their conversation got cut off by the sound of clashing.

It seemed that Allen had easily dealt with Felix's puppet humans by having the strings twist around their bodies after a series of scuffling, thus restricting them from attacking him. At this point, he had engaged in fierce combat with the last boss.

"Shall I lend you a hand?" Venus suddenly asked, catching her off guard.

Eli promised Hal to suppress Venus no matter what, and to give her minimal exposure to the outside world as much as she could.

That's because they're still unsure if she'd go berserk again like last time. It has only been a few days after her recent fit of pique, anyway. Letting her control her body again was too risky.

But then, at that very moment, Eli was taken aback, not by her sudden offer, but by a subtle tinge of sincerity in her voice.

That is until a loud thud interrupted them which was followed by a blare of gunshots.

In a matter of seconds, Hal showed up before her in his Aristian Emperor's get-up.

Around him was the unmoving human puppets lying coldly on the floor. They looked unharmed, however, and the strings that were wrapped around their wrists were now severed.

"Hey, Eli... Thought you just ditched cleaning duties, turned out you're playing dolls instead. Aren't you much, much too old for that?" he quipped with a miffing smirk, playfully swirling his revolver with his fingers.

Once more, Eli knew an insult when she heard one.

She was about to retort when Felix exclaimed furiously, "My puppets! How could you rip them apart like that, Champion?! That's impossible!"

Felix and Allen were currently on pause from their tussle.

They're now watching Hal with saucer eyes, conspicuously surprised at his unanticipated arrival. Allen was the first to recover from this reaction and resumed to his battle stance. Seeing this, Hal descended from the stage and dashed towards Felix.

By now, the villain was surrounded in both directions, leaving but a little room to escape.

As they're about to reach him, Felix sprang upwards in an attempt to have the two collide with each other instead. What he didn't expect, however, was when they did the same thing.

Hal and Allen launched themselves towards the villain, readily joining him in the air.

Still meters above the ground, they embarked on another round of a pugnacious brawl. Hal casted his invisibility magic and vanished into thin air, followed by Allen backing him up and brandishing his sword against the cornered villain.

He shot bullets at Felix without scraping his comrade on the other side. The golden leads appear to be avoiding Allen by themselves instead of him dodging them.

It's now a face-off between a gun-wielder and a swordsman versus a villainous puppet master.

Eli watched them in astonishment and awe. She knew that she shouldn't feel amazed at this situation, but such a stupendous display that could only be found in books made it difficult for the bookworm not to do so.

"[Savage Blade of Judgement!]" Allen exclaimed as he thrusted the deadly peak of his sword into Felix's middle.

Eli was flummoxed upon hearing him and witnessing how his attack seemed to intensify. A pool of crimson flames then encircled them.

At Felix's contact with the blade, a blinding burst of red light illuminated the whole auditorium.

It seemed like the villain finally took a fatal blow after minutes of darting around. Since his army of puppets was no longer of use, his futile struggle resulted to him getting slashed by Allen's blade.

What followed his piercing screech of downfall was the sound of paper ripping into shreds as Allen pulled the peak of his sword out of his abdomen. The sliced up part of his body turned as brittle as a paper before slowly being engulfed by flames.

With that, his entire body was set ablaze, dispersing into burnt, tiny paper snippets.

Hal then materialized again and took out an old-looking book from his coat. Upon opening it, a bluish-white light illuminated from within, suddenly sucking in the villain's remains.

Confounded and perturbed, Eli could only observe how Felix scorched like a page being burned.

She then snapped out of her daze after sensing bloodlust.

Swiveling her head around, she saw Allen pointing the same sharp, gleaming blade that terminated Felix to her, fiery red eyes glistening with malice.

The daunted ash-haired girl recoiled in flummox and gulped at this, feeling a sense of déjà vu and recalling a similar predicament she had with Hal the other day.

Once again, her life's being threatened with a deadly object.

"Have you finally peeled off that ridiculous mask of a redeeming villainess? How dare you take our master's act of mercy for granted? Seeking another villain's help – don't think that you can get away with it this time."

Eli had a rough idea of what he's going on about, at least.

Allen thought that she just teamed up with Felix, like what Felix had wanted in the beginning. How she wished that he saw her backed into a wall like a defenceless rabbit earlier.

Then again, Hal was also the same. Despite seeing her get exploited by Venus last time, he still doubted her to the point of tying her upside down for half an hour.

By now, she got the message that these guys were just clearly and overly cautious.

"Now, now, Allen. It's rude to point that to a lady," Hal chided playfully, standing in between her and Allen.

He then lowered Allen's blade with his finger, motioning the swordsman to draw back his weapon, which Allen instantly complied to. Eli doesn't feel relieved by this, however.

For unknown reasons, her uneasy feeling only intensified when Hal turned to face her with a faint smile.