As Breaker stood amongst the contestants, the last of the Cell warriors. Sei began to glide down from his makeshift seat in the air. He could still smell the dust from the chaos as the barrier began to lower around what was left from the fight. Breaker instantly took off towards his friends, Sei calmly following behind him. He kept a safe distance from the group until Breaker said his farewells and left the area. It was only then that Sei walked over towards the ‘Breaker Group’.

“Ma-Master Orlouge…” The injured one, Jake spoke between labored breaths, “The Cult….the Remis…”

“Are already being taken care of, sir” Sei spoke calmly. The looks on the faces of the three friends of Joshua seemed to be skeptical at the mute’s response. Before he could elaborate, however, Andrew Octane appeared beside him, courtesy of the plant-like beast known as Misery.

“Sei,” The young man said, his hands tucked into his leather jacket as he looked upwards to his leader, “The spectators have been safely delivered back to their homes. Misery worked really hard during the last minutes to make sure they got to safety. Your doggy deserves a treat for his efforts.” Sei waved the youth off as if he were trying to swat away a bug. He smiled while looking towards the three.

“You will find that most of the crowd this round were filled with soldiers of the Ixian Knights, as well as the Mystic race. I had the Mystics build new barriers around any straggling innocents in the audience. The Remi’s would have found themselves with faces full of glass if they tried to attack them. Everybody else was well armed and prepared for what was to come.” A sly smirk crept across Sei’s features, as if he were simply showing off how smart he was.

“By the Thayne,” Bodorson spoke, his own mind wrapping around the intricacies of it all, “You knew they were going to do this the whole time. You planned for it!”

Sei nodded as he reached into his pocket, taking out a war fan and placing it over his face. He hated the smug look that graced his features when his plans had been realized, too late for anybody to do anything about it. “Correct, Lord Bodorson. I knew that if I kept advancing Draug during this tournament, I would lure in more and more cultists getting ready for some sort of surprise attack. You see, the Cult has launched too many surprise attacks against us, I felt it was time to give them a taste of their own medicine.”

As if on cue, there were screams from all around the group. The cult members that weren’t surrendering were being cut down without remorse by the Ixian Knights. The blood of Cassandra Remi’s fodder stained the castle grounds, staining the blades of Sei’s soldiers. Those that would hope to strike a blow against the Knights would find that the Mystic race would not sit on its laurels while it’s savior’s army fought on their behalf, often launching Mystic Protections, light and shadow magics, and (for those that had lost their Mystic powers, yet still learned other Non-Mystic magic) the fury of the elements.

“It will not be a permanent solution,” Sei noted, “but it will make sure that the Cult never attempts to come after us in our home again. I knew they could not resist the opportunity to send their ‘Champion’ out, and the more Generals I sent his way, the more they took the bait. They honestly thought I wouldn’t prepare for an imminent attack when the majority of my Generals may have been injured from the tournament? Cassandra Remi is a bigger fool than I had thought.”

“What of Jebb and the daughters?” Octane asked, his head turned more to the sounds of the chaos, “We’re just going to let them go?”

“Correct. We need survivors to tell Remi how the Cult failed her this day. Her rage will be so immense; she may eliminate many of her ‘children’ herself. Furthermore, we’re sending her an even greater message; we could have taken whatever left she held dear to her, but chose not to. We’re the bigger men in this war she is so set on waging against us. Breaker may have won the round…”

Octane finished for the mute, “But the true victor of the Cell was the Ixian Knights.”