Temple of the Almighty Torch

"So tomorrow, we strike," Daniel interrupts.

"Exactly," the Chairman answers. "Now, go home, rest up, and get some sleep. Meet back here at sunrise, we haven't a moment to waste."

"Yes, sir!" We reply, and then we're dismissed.

"Luis, Daniel, you guys can stay at my place!" Grover chipperly says as we step out of the Chairman's office.

"Uh…thanks," Daniel awkwardly replies.

"Yeah, I don't have a house at the moment," I reply as well.

And thus…the final stand against the Cards of the King draws nigh, and my final battle against Ace along with it.

To be honest…I'm scared as Hell.

***

"We're here," I announce to the Chairman. Currently, I'm standing with Ella, Grover, Jamie, Austin, Daniel, and Mikey behind me, outside of the front doors of the Slayer Organization Headquarters at sunrise, five AM, facing the Chairman, who stands before us with his arms crossed.

"Here, but these on," the Chairman orders as he brandishes seven blindfolds, handing one to each of us.

"What's this for?" Mikey grunts.

"Tie this around your eyes," the Chairman answers. "No one is allowed to know where the Temple of the Almighty Torch is."

"Then how are we supposed to get there?" Jamie asks.

"I have a way," the Chairman answers as he reaches into the folds of his suit jacket. The Chairman then pulls his hand out, brandishing a notebook. The Chairman then opens his notebook and flips through it, stopping on a specific page. "Put your blindfolds on," the Chairman orders, and we do as we're told, tying the blindfolds around our eyes. "Now…The Notebook: Wormhole!" The Chairman exclaims.

"WHAT?!" Grover cries.

I hear a familiar wirrrr noise, as if Grover had just created one of his wormholes.

"Grover…is that you?" Ella asks.

"No, it's not!" Grover answers.

"It's me, don't question it," the Chairman orders. "Now, I'll lead you to the wormhole."

I feel a pair of hands on my shoulders as the Chairman leads me forwards. While I'm not able to see thanks to the blindfold around my eyes, I feel a familiar sensation, like I'm stepping through one of Grover's wormholes, except…far more refined but less gentle. When I step out of the wormhole, the air around me feels far more warm and moist than when we were outside of the Slayer Organization Headquarters.

"You can take off your blindfolds now," the Chairman orders, and I pull my blindfold off then quickly spin around to where I heard the Chairman's voice, watching the Chairman slink away into a spiraling silver wormhole, which closes up directly after.

"How did the Chairman use my Cursed Ability?!" Grover cries.

"Unless maybe the Chairman also has a teleportation based Cursed Ability," Ella suggests.

"Unlikely, the Chairman must have some sort of Cursed Ability that copies others' Cursed Abilities," Austin explains.

"Yeah, I remember Nick telling me about how the Chairman once used his Electricity," I chime in.

"Hee hee…if he does that means that I can become the next Chairman of the Slayer Organization with my Cursed Ability," Grover giggles.

"We should focus on the task at hand," Daniel interrupts.

Mikey is silent.

"Oh my gosh…look!" Jamie cries, and the rest of us turn to where Jamie is pointing, seeing a large, ornate golden temple standing before us, which must be the Temple of the Almighty Torch, nestled deep in wherever the Hell we are in the center of a humid, boiling jungle. But that's not what Jamie is pointing at. Jamie is motioning to the blood soaked ground before the temple, where the bodies of Pro Slayers -the temple's guards- lay strewn about.

"Ella, can you heal them?!" Jamie asks.

"I'll try," Ella answers as she rushes over to the body of the nearest Pro Slayer and kneels down beside them. Ella places her hands to his chest, but when her mint green healing flows into his body…nothing happens. 'He's dead…" Ella whimpers as tears begin forming at the edges of her eyes. "They're all dead."

Grover teleports over to Ella and helps Ella to her feet, patting her back gently.

"We ought to be careful, we're basically in enemy territory now," Austin announces.

But before anyone can reply, we're interrupted when five figures leap off of the roof of the Temple of the Almighty Torch. Four of the figures land in the middle of our group, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process. Mikey, Daniel, and I leap forwards to dodge, While Ella, Grover, Jamie, and Austin hop backwards to evade the attack. Our group has been separated. When the dust settles, I see that the four who've attacked us are Clover, Diamond, Spade, and Heart of the Cards of the King.

"Separate them, Joker!" Spade orders. "Only allow the half demons and the wielder of the Flames of Destruction into the temple!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Joker laughs as they continue falling from the roof of the temple. Joker then spreads their arms out wide to their sides, as orange and bright green Cursed Power begins leaking from Joker's body. "It's time…" Joker begins to say.

"FOR THE GAME SHOW OF DOOM!"

Joker's orange and green Cursed Power then wraps around Ella, Grover, Jamie, and Austin and solidifies, forming a small "room" of Cursed Power around them. Joker then hops inside their Cursed Power building.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" I roar as I take a step towards the building, but I'm interrupted when Daniel places a comforting hand on my shoulder, prohibiting me from taking another step forwards.

"They're giving us a chance to enter the temple, we should take it while we can," Daniel says.

"Already ahead of ya'," Mikey replies as he makes a beeline towards the temple.

"You should listen to your friend," Clover smirks.

"Don't worry, Joker will take excellent care of your other friends," Diamond adds.

"Once Joker's Game Show of Doom has begun, there's no stopping it. No one has ever escaped Joker's Game Show," Spade sneers. "Alive."

"If you like your odds, we'll take you on, four on one. But I hope you know that it's impossible to enter Joker's Game Show of Doom without her invitation," Heart yawns.

I growl at the four opponents standing before me as my hand slowly and instinctively lingers around the hilt of my katana.

"Luis. Let's go," Daniel orders, causing me to sigh and retract my hand away from my katana.

"You're right. I trust them to find a way to beat our opponents," I reply as I turn around and sprint towards the temple, with Daniel hot on my heels. "Let's go!"

When Daniel and I enter the Temple of the Almighty Torch at last, we see that Mikey is no longer in sight. Instead, we're greeted by Queen, who struts over to the two of us.

"I was told to let the Flames of Destruction wielder pass," Queen explains with a smirk. "But as for you two…we only need one half demon."

"Alright…what the Hell are these "Flames of Destruction" that everyone keeps talking about?!" I cry.

"You'll find out soon enough!" Queen cackles. "Go, Blue Demon! Meet the Flames of Destruction wielder and King in the throne room!"

"Luis, go on ahead," Daniel orders. "I'll hang back and take care of Queen."

"You sure?" I ask, to which Daniel nods in reassurance.

"You called me to assist you, didn't you? And besides, I know how much it means for you to fight Ace. Go ahead and defeat him here and now," Daniel answers, and this time, it's my turn to nod.

"Right, thank you," I reply as I take off running deeper into the temple, leaving Daniel behind to deal with Queen.

***

Queen begins crackling her fingers as two coffins constructed out of dark purple appear beside her. Threads of cursed Power extend from Queens fingers and latch onto the two corpses (One hand per corpse, a Cursed Power thread per finger, for each limb and the head) from the coffins, which begin to stand up, like puppets.

"I've been informed about your Cursed Ability, Puppeteer, Queen, of the Cards of the King," Daniel explains. "You use thread-like emissions of Cursed Power from your fingertips in order to control corpses like puppets and use their Cursed Abilities."

"Oh, why, that's funny-" Queen replies. "BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE CURSED ABILITY OF A NOBODY LIKE YOU!"

With a slight wiggle of her finger tips, Queen sends her two corpse puppets to take a hop towards Daniel. Slayer Iwa slams his fist into the ground, sending jagged spikes of stone jutting out of the ground around Daniel. Meanwhile, Slayer Rēzā thrusts her palms forwards, sending an emission of Cursed Power flying towards Daniel.

Daniel peers at the attacks, unfazed. "Shadow Sickles: Chain and Sickle," Daniel says, and without even drawing his hands, dozens of black chains wiggle their way out of Daniel's shadow, each chain armed with a vicious, barbed sickle blade. The Shadow Sickles slice through Iwa's stone spikes, as if they are as tangible as the sharpest katana. As for Rēzā's Cursed Power emission, Daniel's Shadow Sickles come together and form a shield of shadow blades before Daniel, blocking Rēzā's attack.