Krone|Crown

*Whoosh*

Smoke escaped the mouth and vanished into the moonlit night. Daniel, the man in the three-piece suit, stood outside the tavern and smoked. A calm atmosphere radiated from him, it was welcoming.

"I haven't seen ya in a while, Cherry." He looked over at her. "Please don't call me that.", Daniel said fatigued and offered Boss a cigarette. "You know I quit smoking, Cherry." He put his arm down and let his head hang down. "So, how's life at the WM?" "Ahh, please don't ask. It's horrible. I hate it, even." "Hmm?" The moon shined onto them and covered them in a moody blue. "Life's become boring." "How come?" "Nothing helps. I thought storming the World Military and forcing them to accept me as a general would be fun." "And?" "Nah. Instead, I have to wear this dumb three-piece and capture bad guys." He took off the jacket, ripped it and threw it into a trash can; his eyes still closed yet he had a clear grasp of the environment. "Well, we are older then we were back then." "Back then. Tsk, those were the best days. To be honest I thought of quitting the WM and become a teacher." Boss looked him straight into his face. He could feel it. Speechless at first but a laugh disturbed the silence. "Hey now, really, Cherry?", she said while still laughing. "Yeah, really. And I think I've found three students already." "Them kids? Really?" "Mhm.", he nodded confidently. Boss punched his shoulder. "Ya finally startin' to grow up!", she added and agreed on his plan. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm already a grown man." "Nah, back then and even now you're the youngest of us." "Tsk, I guess, heh. But I'm older than these guys, so I'll have to handle the responsibilities this time, just you watch.", he started smoking again. Boss then turned around to get inside the tavern again but left him alone with some last words: "Think you can bring back the Architects ?" Daniel smiled towards the moon.

"Huh?"

"Don't HUH me, you heard me right."

"I mean, we did but.."

"I kinda... don't care."

Leigh, Ray and Daniel collectively looked at Leo who answered their looks with a short yawn. "What a way to start a day.", Boss cut in and put down drinks for everyone and left the group which had sat down at a table. The interior looked warm due to the sunshine. Boss put on a record and soon the room was filled with Delta Blues. Leigh and Ray were already dressed and ready for the day but Leo had just finished his shower and was given a new shirt by Boss, when he was told to sit at the table with the others. Daniel told them he wanted to become their teacher. "When I said I'll teach you guys, I didn't mean it like a regular school teacher." Doubtful faces looked at him. "Oh, you mean you'll teach us about 'Will'?", Ray guessed. "Damn right. You guys have potential and I'll nurture it." "Hmm.", Leo murmured, "How long will it take, then?".

"Give me one month."

Leo drank and Ray asked: "You know I have to ask this, why would you do something like this?". "Why? Ah, because I was taught when I was your age as well. By the way, how old're you guys?"

"16."

The teenagers weren't as suprised as Daniel. "Same height and same age..", he thought. "Anyways", he continued, "You three give off the smell of rebellion.". Boss looked at him from the counter. "Wanna make the world your own?", he asked them bluntly. "Yes.", Leo was the first to answer. *Thump* Leigh put down her empty glass. "Fuck it, then. Let's do it." "Are we settled, then? We could start immediately-" "Is there someone who holds the strongest 'Will'?" Daniel faced down to Leo who was the only one left sitting. "There sure is. The strongest-willed person is honored with the title of King." "And where are they ?" Ray noticed Leo's personal interest, while Leigh had already gone out and waited outside for the others. "He's in the next city, actually. Go west and you'll end up in Londinium, the King's Capital." Leo stood up: " Alright, let's go." And the four of them made their way through the streets of Pandemonium. The people were friendly and greeted them. Daniel told them about a quiet place with a waterfall he knew of, they would only need about 15 minutes to reach by feet and so on they hiked. Leigh was talking to Daniel but Ray was still unsure about Leo before. "Hey, there." "Heya." "You seemed pretty interested in this 'King-ting', man" "Yeah." "Any reason why?" "If there's a king, I'll have to overpower him first, then challenge the world.", Leo told him. Ray wasn't sure but to him, Leo's personality had changed somehow when it came to Will. "That's the spirit, Leo.", Daniel said and nodded over to the waterfall whose lake was surrounded by ground with fresh green grass. It was their training ground as of that day. Daniel clapped his hands. "You three against me, alright? I need to see where we need to improve things, so-", he dodged the sword that tried to cut off his head, "-let's have a nice long training month-", He extinguished the flames which suddenly popped up around him, and avoided a kick by Ray, "-so let's get along and have-" "Fun.", Leo ended the sentence and was above Daniel, holding a blood-red sword he was striking with full force at Daniel and it was like a squeak when Daniel decelerated the sword with only one hand. Only bits of his own blood stained his white button-up. He acknowledged Leo with this attack but it wasn't over just yet: Still in mid-air, he transferred the rest of his body into the sword and thus giving it enough push to bring the sword's handle right toward Daniel's hand and from there it encircled the hand, forming a rope out of which Leo rose and by his swung he was able to pull down Daniel onto his knees. The rope deformed into regualar traces of blood which were sucked into Leo's left hand and shot out of his right, forming the sword again which he held close to the throat of Daniel. Meanwhile Ray and Leigh just stood there. Neither of them had expected a stunt like this from Leo. Daniel and him were on the same height right now, Daniel could feel the eager look in the pale boy's eyes. "Okay, you go rest now." Leo let the sword vanish and spoke: "What makes you think that I would need to rest?". Daniel stood up. "Oh, I didn't mean rest like that. I told you to go heal those big scars on your arms." He helped him stand up. "And you two. That was lousy how you didn't take the advantage of attacking me while I was focused on Leo."

Leo sat down by the lake to recover and watched his friends. Leigh smashed her sword against the ground, the black pattern on her back grew a bit and now she attacked Daniel with more force and speed after being fired up by Leo. "Amazing.", Leo whispered. It was truly elegant how Daniel danced through the reappearing blades, slowly making his way to Ray who had his eyes focused on Leo ever since he had pulled that swift move. One step away from Ray, Daniel stepped to the left to escape the frontal swing of the sword that cut Ray's shirt open right down the middle, which was finally enough to bring his attention back to the practice fight. "You just swing you sword aimlessly around. And Ray, you just stand there being real useless. Don't the both of you want to become better than this?!", He provoked them. Suddenly the air around Daniel became hotter. And so much hotter that the air exploded, leaving him in black clouds and making him unaware of the teenagers' next moves. Daniel then clapped his hands, using the emitted sound to lessen the burden, and erased the black fog but didn't think he'd be confronted next with a phoenix, entirely made out of raging flames, which came directly flying at him. Ray had shot it out of his left arm and threw it at Daniel head-on, having given Leigh enough time with the fog to position herself, she spurted forward, elbow facing forward, blade facing behind, ready to unleash a heavy strike into Daniel's back who was now in danger of being at least damaged but not killed. Two steps away from collision, he felt the tension close in but couldn't hold it in anymore :

He blurted out in laughter.

The flames dissolved and Leigh's mobility was downgraded back to normal.

"Fuck-", Leigh spouted quickly before falling on her face.

"How the hell... why?-", Ray was interrupted by the pain in his arm.

Leo stared at Daniel. He knew what he did to escape both of their attacks, he knew it. "I simply overpowered your Will,", Daniel pointed at Leigh, "And yours too, Ray.". "That simple.", he added. "Damn it! What even is this shit?", Leigh said after standing up again. "It's the power to change something to your advantage.", Ray commented in a defeated tone. "But I'm guessing there's more to it?", Leo asked and joined the talk. (Daniel enjoyed being the superior right now.) "Hades and Eden.", Daniel said bluntly and was confronted with doubtful faces once again. "Gaaah, alright look. You're using Hades when you make something worse and Eden when making things better." Three pairs of eyes were staring at him, although he was unseeing he could see their gazes well enough. The sun was shining brilliantly on them and made the lake sparkle. "Look it's a dumb and simplified analogy, okay? But it does convey the idea well enough so..if I was to.. kill somebody, like you damn delinquents just now, I'd be using Hades, alright? And if I...uh,.. healed myself like Leo did just now, that'd be-"

"Eden."

"Nice going, sweethearts."

Four heads turned to the entrence of the training ground and saw the woman for the first time without her apron on and dressed in normal spring clothes: White jeans conbined with a yellow top. Boss had brought food and bottles of water for everyone and handed them out. They sat down to eat and drink.

"So what's up? How's the teaching going, Mr. Cherrywine?"

"Wha-", smiles formed on Ray and Leigh's faces which turned into laughs. Boss joined them as she punched Daniel's shoulder whose face turned a bright red out of embarrassment. "No- Hah, hah-hah, way is your name cherry wine", Leigh also punched Daniel's shoulder who tried to cover his face with his hands.

"What's cherry wine?", Leo asked.

.

.

.

"Oh, honey..", Boss smiled, leaned in and whispered the meaning into his ear. Daniel's face was straight looking at him after Leo had been taught the meaning; silence.

Leo poked his tongue out at Daniel and stood up:"Let's get a move on then." "Leo,", Daniel also stood up, "from what I understand, you want to overthrow the king, right?". All looks were directed at him. "I'll get the crown, then we'll see what the next move is." "Ya sound confidant, honey." "First I'll hafta train all of you, though", Daniel bit into a sandwich. "Oh, we'll be regicides?", Leigh asked. "'We'll change the world, make it better for everyone'..That's what our friend once said." Boss and Daniel looked at each other. "Alright, ya'll: Ray and Leigh come with me, Cherry you'll get Leo." "Oh, you'll be joining us?", Daniel asked her mockingly with a smirk. "You remember what Jackie said what would happen when the. Two. Of. Us. would duke it out, right?" "Y-yeah...", he answered wimply. "Right, so let's get a move on, already."

"The best will most likely get the crown.", Ray thought, "But what then..?".

It had become noon and the training intense, the three teenagers motivated and resolved as well.

End of Krone|Crown