Meanwhile, Zero's small group had finished collecting all of the archived RPs. They were on their way to check up on Sylveon and her group. As the group approached the Wiki, Zero realized that something was amiss. It was too quiet.

 

Zero motioned his group to stop. He tiptoed towards the edge of the door and peeked through the opened entranceway. As he suspected, the Erasers were here. They were trying to forcefully open the Wiki Entry. But there was no sight of Sylveon.

 

Zero scanned the surroundings and saw a ripple in the air. That must be where Sylveon was. He could slightly recall a member with the ability of transporting to an interdimensional space. However, the problem with that member's ability was that once inside, there was no way out until someone from the outside disrupted the space.

 

Zero motioned MJ and Reads to hold onto him as he began to activate his ability. "Activate! ALL THINGS MUST END! Time progress reaches zero!"

 

As soon as he spoke the keywords and issued the command, time began to slow until it stopped. Everyone...everything stopped moving. Only those who were touching him could still move. MJ and Reads held unto Zero as they followed him into the Wiki room.

 

"Reads, open your library and check for their weaknesses. MJ, summon a fighter." Zero replied as he counted the number of Erasers in the room. There were a total of twenty. Each of them had burly arms and sharp claws. They were Claw-Type Erasers.

 

Reads activated his ability, summoning a large book before him. "Claw-Type Erasers or CTEs for short. They are strong in power but weak in speed and defense. Their fatality points are located at their navels and their necks."

 

"Good. MJ, you figured out what to summon yet?"

 

MJ murmured for some time as she concentrated on forming a portal made from her Creativity. "Activate! MJ SUMMONS! Summon Mighty Jouster!"

 

As soon as she spoke her summons, a sharp cry broke out as a horseback rider emerged from the portal. It was a knight from the medieval times - a Mighty Jouster. The knight charged towards the CTEs and pierced each one in the navel with his mighty lance.

 

Zero's veins bulged as he continued to feed his ability with Creativity. "Hurry! I don't have much time left!"

 

Once the last CTE was killed, Zero let out a sigh and released his ability. Soon, time began to move and everything returned to its normal state. Everything...except for the twenty dead CTEs. Having eliminated the enemies, Zero left the room and motioned for Ruko to come over.

 

"Ruko, give MJ a lucozade."

 

"Alright." Ruko nodded as she produced a can of lucozade soft drink with a flip of her hand. This drink was created using her Creativity and could grant the user enhanced alertness. However, too much of it could prove detrimental.

 

MJ grabbed the drink and downed it with a few gulps. Soon, her mind cleared up and she could see every detail. Zero asked her to find the ripple in the air, which she did with ease.

 

Then, upon Zero's orders, MJ motioned her Mighty Jouster to attack that ripple. With a small explosion, the space around the ripple collapsed and Sylveon's group appeared. Luckily, they were unharmed.

 

Zero told Sylveon and her group of the current situation and they quickly opened the Wiki Entry. Everyone took as many entries as they could and departed for battle. Rose and her group were currently fighting the main army and they needed as much help as they could get.

 

..........

 

"Hold your positions!" Rose called out to her fellow fighters as she dodged a fireball from her opponent. "Reinforcements are coming! Just hold on!"

 

Of the nine that followed her, two had perished and one had been erased. The ones that remained were naturally the higher leveled members. They were Sonderr, Queen, Lily, Scar, Storm, and Ice.

 

Each were fighting off a large group of different Erasers at a time. And each were feeling the strain of low Creativity. Those with non-fighting abilities like Lily and Sonderr had been trained in mixed martial arts in order to better protect themselves. So, naturally, they had more Creativity in their reserves than those with fighting abilities like Queen, Scar, Storm, and Ice.

 

Seeing the others exhausted, Lily cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted. "Activate! CHEER OF FANS! You can do it!"

 

Lily was also known as the Fangirl. Her special ability was of the support-type and it allowed her to motivate her allies, giving them boosts to fight on. The number of times each boost gave depended on the number of words in her cheer.

 

For instance, the 'You can do it' cheer she just did would boost her allies by four times. Her friends immediately felt the effect. Their regeneration in both health and Creativity increased by fourfold.

 

Queen mouthed her thanks to Lily and held her arms up. With a deep breath, she shouted. "Activate! Hive of the Killer Bees!"

 

A large hive created from Creativity formed beside Queen. Killer bees swarmed out by the hundreds and dove towards the enemies. This was one aspect of Queen's ability.  Her full codename was Queen Bee and she had the ability to summon bees of any kind and any number.

 

Within a matter of moments, the ground laid tens of paralyzed and poisoned Erasers. Ice jumped in and with a wave of her arm, froze the downed Erasers solid.

 

"Yay!" The two girls clasped each other at their accomplishment but their celebration was stopped early as a FTE descended upon them.

 

Caught unawares, the girls cried out in fear. However, their knight in shining armor charged in and knocked the FTE with a roundhouse kick. Ice held up a peace sign and smiled. "Thanks Sonderr."

 

"No problem." Sonderr responded curtly before punching another Eraser. "Pay attention. Celebrate when everything is over."

 

"Okay."

 

The six continued to fight but it seemed that while more and more Erasers appeared, there was no sign of their reinforcements. Their morale was low and their Creativity reserves were low as well. They won't be able to last for another hour at this rate.

 

Suddenly, a large group of forty Erasers charged towards Storm. Queen and Lily gasped as they saw Storm get driven to a corner. Ice rushed in to help by firing meter-long icicles into the crowd.

 

Scar jumped ahead and roared. "Activate! Scar of the Wind!"

 

She formed a claw with her right hand and swiped up with enough force to knock out a bull. Five tears in space appeared before her. The disruptions caused the surrounding air to fluctuate.

 

As the fluctuations moved towards equilibrium, the tears converge with each other and shot towards the group of Erasers like a wave of pure power. In just one stroke, five Erasers perished.

 

In order to lessen the load for Storm, Sonderr called out his ability as well. "Activate! SONDER! Everyone's life is a story...Storm's life is also a story. In her story, she's only fighting one Eraser!"

 

As if by magic, all except one of the Erasers disappeared and reappeared some distance away from Storm. The young lady grinned from ear to ear as tears of gratitude flowed from her brown eyes.

 

She waved her hand up and muttered her activation code. A black cloud formed above the Eraser, lightning brewed within it. With a roar, Storm chopped her hand down and the black cloud spewed out a bolt of blue lightning.

 

CRACK!

 

The lightning struck the Eraser dead-on, burning him into a blackened crisp. Storm cheered at the success but as she pranced about, she noticed that an Eraser was sneaking up on Queen.

 

"Watch out!"

 

Everyone looked at where Storm was pointing at. Everyone saw the Eraser pouncing on Queen, especially Queen herself. She brought up her arms to guard the incoming punch but the attack did not come.

 

She loosened her guard to check and saw the Eraser, frozen in his steps. Frost crept up his legs and eventually his entire body. It was Ice. She had saved Queen's life. Queen grabbed Ice and hugged her. As they separated, Queen thanked her profusely.

 

Ice patted Queen's shoulder and reassured her. "Don't worry. We got your ba-"

 

But that sentence did not finish. Before Ice could finish her sentence. A shadowy figure crept up behind her and grabbed her by the neck. With a fierce tug, the shadowy figure broke Ice's neck.

 

Queen stared at Ice's dangling neck and screamed in horror. Before she could counterattack, the shadowy figure destroyed her Creativity Core.

 

As the two bodies collapsed, Sonderr and the others cried out. They rushed towards the shadowy figure in anger, but the enemy hopped back to a safe distance.

 

Sonderr tearfully knelt next to Ice's cold body. "Activate! SONDER! Everyone's life is a story...Ice's life is a story. In her story, she comes back to life!"

 

Creativity surrounded Ice's lifeless body. But no matter how much Sonderr tried to use his ability, it could not work as his ability could not bring back someone whose life story had ended already. Realizing this, Sonderr mourned for the loss of a dear friend. The others also cried at their loss.

 

Meanwhile, Scar bent down and checked Queen's pulse. Finding that she was still alive, she and Lily dragged the unconscious girl to safety.

 

While the others mourn, a laughter interrupted them. "Hahaha, do you think you have the time to mourn! You'll be joining her very soon!"

 

"You bastard! Guys, cover me!" Sonderr roared and quickly sprang to his feet. With arms raised, he began to exhaust every last bit of his Creativity for one huge attack.

 

But before anyone could move to help, the shadowy figure tackled into Sonderr, cutting off his activation chant and knocking the breath out of him.

 

As he struggled to breathe, the shadowy figure grabbed the young man by the throat and squeezed. "Did you really think you could do anything to me? Who do you think I am? I am Wrath Chief - the Right Hand of the Madness Suzerain!"

 

"Sonderr! No!" Lily wailed out loud, distracting Rose from her combat with the Lord Tactician.

 

As Rose turned to look at her group's situation, the scholarly man lunged forward and threw a ball of electricity at her. "Should you be looking somewhere else? I'm your opponent!"

 

"Puuaahh!" Rose fell back from the attack as blood spurted out of her mouth. The area where she was hit blackened and smoke emitted from the burning shock.

 

The Lord Tactician pounced at the young girl, setting loose a flurry of punches and kicks. Rose, unable to defend herself, succumbed to the attacks and fainted from where she collapsed.

 

The enemy walked up to Rose and raised his hand. Murmuring a few words, a bolt of lightning formed within his hand. The Lord Tactician glanced at the unconscious girl and shook his head.

 

"Inferior waste. And to think you were the best amongst my four students. You should just rot like the garbage you are."

 

With that said, the scholar threw the bolt of lightning down and pulverized her head into a bloody, electrified pulp. Brains splashed out and blood soaked the floor. The sound of broken bone resonated in the scholar's ears.

 

That sweet melody...was not there. There was no blood, no brains, and no broken bones. What's going? There wasn't even a body underneath him!

 

The Lord Tactician looked up in disbelief and saw Rose, alive and in the arms of Zero. "What's going on? Who are you?"

 

Zero gently placed Rose down and glared at the middle-aged man. "Professor, it's been a while."

 

"What did you call me? You...who are you?"

 

"Me? How could you forget? Well, nevermind that. I guess you need to at least know the name of your killer. Listen well! I am Zero...disciple of Era!"

 

..........

 

A few minutes ago....

 

Zero rushed towards the first floor along with his fellow members. "Hurry! Rose and the others need us! Faster!"

 

The sixteen Writers of the PWA community mumbled some small talk as they descended the stairs of the second floor. Upon arriving at their destination, Zero and the rest saw a scholarly looking man pummeling Rose unconscious. Some of them cried out in alarm while Zero rushed into action.

 

"Activate! ALL THINGS MUST END! Time progress reaches zero!"

 

Just as the scholarly enemy tossed the lightning bolt in his hand at Rose's head, time slowed down to a stop. Zero rushed in and grabbed Rose out of harm's way. At a couple of feet away from the scholarly-looking man, Zero released his ability and time began to progress.

 

As he heard the zap, Zero touched Rose's neck to feel her pulse and hovered his other hand under Rose's nose to feel her breath. Good, she's still alive. She was just unconscious.

 

When the middle-aged man asked Zero to identify himself, Zero gently placed Rose down and stood up. He turned around and glared at the man. He told him that it had been a while.

 

The middle-aged man gaped in shock. Who could this person be? How did he know his title back when he was pretending to be a Writer? He asked Zero once more to identify himself. And the response brought him an even bigger surprise.

 

"I am Zero...disciple of Era!"

 

..........

 

"Era? Impossible! She never told me she had a disciple!"

 

"Well, I guess she didn't tell you many things...even though you were married for ten years."

 

"That whore! I knew she was hiding something from me. To think it was this!"

 

"Don't you dare call teacher that! Teacher knew that you were a spy, but she still believed that the many years she shared with you would bring you to your senses. Oh, the sorrow she had felt when you not only caused the Literary Decline but also pushed her down a volcano! I swore on my life to kill you and that's what I'm going to do now."

 

"Hehe, a mere amateur Writer and you want to defeat me? In your dreams! Activate! Mimicry! Birth of the New Age!"

 

"Don't you dare use my teacher's ability against me! Activate! ALL THINGS MUST END! Lord Tactician's Creativity reaches zero!"

 

"What? No! NOOO!"

 

Before he could even act, the scholarly middle-aged man lost all of his Creativity. How could there be such a powerful ability? He suddenly thought of something and looked at Zero. "You...could it be that you have unlocked the path of Imagination?"

 

"Unlock? Haha, I've never strayed from that path! You spent many years trying to perfect your experiment. You never considered the possibility that your wife succeeded before you? Hahaha!"

 

"You...you...."

 

"Enough talk. Time to die. Activate! ALL THINGS MUST END! Lord Tactician's life reaches zero!"

 

"You!" The Lord Tactician pointed his hand at Zero but his eyes grew dim and his strength left him. He crumbled to the floor and breathed his last, nothing spectacular...no unique ending...as if his life did not matter at all...as if he was only an ordinary person like the rest of the world.

 

Zero surveyed his surroundings, looking at the battles between the Erasers and the Writers. He took a deep breath and roared.

 

"Zero of Pocket Writers Association has slain Lord Tactician!!"