The door opened as Isamu limped into the room, closing the door behind him. As I got a good look at him, he did look similar to Iris and Irene. He had blonde, curly hair with a rough beard. And just like them he had pointed ears indicating he was an elf.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" I asked him. "You're injured."

I glanced down at my arm. It had grown back at some point while I was taking the Kage and Kato trials. I didn't even noticed because of how distracted I was.

Avalon healed quicker than last time, and I didn't even use Amplification. The boost that psycho goddess gave is pretty good.

"It'll be fine." He smiled. "It won't be too extraneous. I just want to have a talk."

"Alright then." I replied.

"So, how long has it been since we 'died'?" He curiously asked.

"Fifty years." I stated.

"I figured it's be something like that." He mused. "Since you were Kagami's grandson. This is how Merlin must have felt."

He let out a low chuckle. "So, how's life?"

"Pretty good." I shrugged. "Except for the fact the Demon King is trying to return."

"Fair point." He laughed. "So, do you know any of my descendants."

"About that..." I sweatdropped. Should I tell him? Well, he's never even met them, so he can't be overprotective.

"Your first granddaughter is my fiancé." I stated.

He looked at me surprised, before laughing. "Well, I didn't expect that. You said first granddaughter, right? How many do I have?"

"...Two." I stated. "Irene Aegis and Iris Aegis."

"That nice." He chuckled. "Hope you're getting along with your sister-in-law."

"Yeah...we are..." I slowly replied.

Probably shouldn't mention that she's also crazily in love with me.

As I watched Isamu chuckle joyfully, I wondered how in the world could Isamu possibly ever produce the trash known as the former king.

They were completely polar opposites.

"Do you know any Katos or Tsukis?" He asked.

"A friend is a Tsuki." I stated. "And my godmother is a Kato."

Isamu smiled. "Even our descendants are good friends."

He looked at me. "Look, I'm going to be honest. We're not all going to make it out of this alive. But I want you to live."

"Your time is now. Our time is over. As much as I miss my wife, she's moved on. It's been fifty years since we were sealed, and our age is long gone." He stated.

"I want you to live. I don't want you to lose your current life, because you seem to value it very much." He added.

"I do." I nodded.

"Good." He smiled. "Your worthy. And you better live so that you can marry my granddaughter."

He walked back out of the room, sputtering out coughs as he went through the door.

Wait...that was it?

"This has been surpassingly easy." Loki sweatdropped.

Don't jinx it.

The door opened as Baki walked in, closing the door behind him. He looked at me in silence, before clearing his throat.

"Look. I'm surprised you got the other's approval." He stated. "But I can't let you get mine."

"Why does this matter so much to you?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

"We said this before. Whatever happens next changes everything. And unless you somehow blow me off my socks, I'm not calling you worthy." He replied.

"Because this means everything." He stated.

"Why are you being so cryptic?" I asked him.

"Doesn't matter." He shook his head. "Now for my trial. Defeat me."

You jinxed it Loki.

He summoned his arcana in his hand, a blue trident which seemed to be encased in a thin layer of ice.

I quickly summoned my armor and Loki as Baki dashed towards me, sending his arcana towards my chest in a stab. I blocked it with Loki as a sword.

The sword went inbetween the prongs, barely blocking the prongs of clashing into my chest. He pulled his weapon back before dashing towards me again.

I deflected his weapon as he came at me with another assault of stabs. I barely kept up with him, keeping myself from being stabbed.

How could I beat a Great Sage? One of the strongest arcana users in the world?

He temporarily stopped his assault, giving me a chance to take his breath.

"Hm." He hummed. "Better than I expected, I'll admit. But not good enough."

He dashed towards me at an even quicker speed with another stab. This time I've started to extended from the prongs of the trident, making it so if I blocked I would still get stabbed.

Morphing Loki into an axe I slammed it's back into the trident, pushing it away. In my other hand I sent a punch towards Baki.

Baki easily caught it. I've crawled around my fist as it was encased in ice. His look of boredom was pissing me off.

My hand ignited in flames, immediately burning away the ice and made Baki let go. He jumped backwards, waving his hand through the air.

My arm was now covered in green flames which didn't harm me at all. Even my fire turned green for some reason...I thought that only happened when copper was being burned...

"We'll look into it later. For now just focus on this fight. I have a feeling we want to complete these trials for whatever ritual they have." Loki stated.

Fine.

"If that's all you can do you'll be annihilated in a second." Baki stated.

"Then how come you haven't taken me down yet?" I replied.

I really didn't like this guy.

Baki looked at me annoyed. "Fine. I'll end this now."

The room instantly dropped multiple degrees in temperature. My breath warmed the air, creating a cloud from my mouth. My body lightly shivered from the cold.

Ice crawled up Baki's skin, encasing him in a layer of spiky and jagged ice. It was very threatening looking as he turned into what looked like an ice knight.

Even his head was encased in a spiky block of ice which looked similar to a knight's helmet. Two dark blue eyes eerily glowed from under the suit.

He tapped his trident onto the floor, ice quickly spreading and covering the whole room. Both the floor and the walls became encased in ice. Bangs came from the door from the other Sages, but it couldn't be opened due to the layer of ice now blocking it.

"I'll show you the true might of my arcana Frigurus, god of the seas, glaciers, ice, and much more." Baki growled. "Then you'll see how out of league you are."

How out of league I am?

I was straight up killed by the Demon King, who easily tortured and mocked me before effortlessly killing me. If anybody knows the difference of strength it's me.

But who would I be if I quit now?

"Come at me." I growled.

He dragged his trident across the ground as he menacingly approached me, before coming at me in a sudden rush.

I dodged his trident which had sped up even more. Slipping on the floor I quickly used the momentum to jump over Baki and save myself from becoming vulnerable.

Green lightning started to encase my arms as I shot out of a blast of lightning towards Baki. He quickly slid out of the way, dodging the strikes which seared the icy ground.

As I landed I morphed Loki into a shield to block Baki's trident. Pushing the trident upwards I sent a fiery punch towards Baki's chest.

It impacted his chest, but didn't do anything. He gripped my wrist, throwing me against the wall. I got back up to my feet as he continued to come after me.

I noticed my movements were slowing down as I continued to dodge Baki's strikes. While he was getting quicker, the cold was slowing me down.

I needed to become warmer.

I noticed that my arm didn't feel cold when it was encased in fire. Could I...?

A blast of fire surrounded me as green fire started to crawl up my armor. The fire burned across my body, encasing me in a fiery wrath of destruction. It didn't even burn me, showing my ultimate control of fire.

I now looked like the incarnation of fire, with a new technique similar to Baki's. His eyes widened as I slammed my fist into his chest, sending him flying backwards. He slammed into the wall, cracking the ice around him.

As he went to stand up I rushed over, grabbing his icy head and slamming my knee into his face. His ice helmet cracked from the fiery force of the blow.

Green lightning danced over my fiery arms as I whammed down on Baki, sending tons of punches towards him.

He kicked me away, getting back to his feet and rushing towards me with his trident. I morphed Loki into a trident which copied his, using it to perfectly deflect his attack.

This fighting had given me a good analysis of his fighting style with the trident. Our tridents perfectly clashed with each other, each attack exactly the same.

That wouldn't be enough to beat him. But I know more than just how to use a trident. Deflecting his trident I charged my other fist with a mixture of fire and lightning.

Amplification.

Slamming my fist into his chest, his ice armor cracked as he slammed once more into the wall. The ice around us started to melt as Baki coughed, laying against the wall.

"Hah...haha..." He chuckled.

"What are you laughing about?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

"I really...didn't think there was any possible way..." He laughed. "But...I guess I was wrong."

"Wait, you mean-?!" I gasped.

"You're...worthy." He let out a crooked grin.

The door slammed open as the other three rushed into the room.

"Baki?! What the hell?!" Grandpa exclaimed.

"He's worthy..." Baki smiled. "Haha..."

Grandpa looked at him in surprise, before looking towards me with a big grin etched across his face.

"You did it!" He grinned.

Baki dusted himself off, standing up and walking towards the others with a slight limp.

"We'll go prepare it." Akashi stated, looking towards the others. A small smile appeared in his face. "It's been fun."

"Agreed." Isamu chuckled. "Come on. It's to end everything."

Three of them exited, leaving Grandpa with me. He walked over to me, setting his hand onto my shoulder.

"Hey. I want you to win." He stated. "I want you to live through this. I know we put a lot on your shoulders, but I want you to know that."

"It's fine." I smiled. "I have a bone to pick with him anyways. So, what's this ritual?"

"We'll explain." Grandpa stated. "But there's one more thing...no matter what, don't hate yourself."

"What?" I asked, looking at him weird.

"You have great power." He changed the topic, poking my chest with his hand. "Your lightning...my wife had it. I don't know too much, but it's fueled on emotions. It would always go crazy and uncontrollable when she was angry."

"I'm sorry I can't help with that." He lightly smiled. "You'll just have to try yourself. Wait here for a moment."

He walked into the room with the others, preparing this ritual. Seriously, are they going to sacrifice me or something? They're being awfully secretive.

After a minute of waiting I finally heard Grandpa call for me. Walking into the room, a single magical circle was drawn onto the ground as the four stood around it.

Yeah, I know they aren't going to sacrifice me to some demon god or something but I still can't help but get that feeling.

"Stand here." Grandpa gestured to the circle.

I stood in the circle, waiting for the next instruction.

"Now take off your shirt." He stated.

"What?" I asked. Did I hear him right?

"Take off your shirt." He restated.

I sighed, taking it off and throwing it into the floor. Please don't suddenly stab me for my blood...

"We're going to each our power into you. It will stay dormant until you use it, and you only can for a couple of minutes." He explained. "This will give you the necessary power to stop the Demon King."

"Wait, why are we doing this?" I questioned.

"Individually, we aren't strong enough. And even with power in numbers, once he takes one of us down then it'll just go downhill from there." Akashi explained.

"So if we put our powers into one person, it will give them enough power to hopefully match up to the Demon King. So you'll have the power of all of us to fight." He continued.

"That...actually makes sense." I replied.

Grandpa nodded. "So just stand there. We'll seal our power into you. And then it's you against him."

"Okay." I nodded.

The Four Great Sages walked behind me as I stood there. Grandpa walked up, lightly touching my back. "Good luck." He whispered to me.

He then murmured something under his breath as the circle started to glow. Once he finished, a surge of power entered my body before it disappeared, being sealed.

Grandpa's touch receded. One by one the next three came up, giving me their well-wishes before sealing their power into me.

It was almost as if they were saying goodbye.

As Baki finished with his, his hand left my back. I turned around to thank them, but I didn't see them. They had disappeared.

"Wait...where...where are they..." I asked, looking around.

"...Remember how Merlin gave you a piece of her power?" Loki quietly asked.

Yeah, she gave me a piece of her soul.

"And do you remember what she said when you give away all of your soul?" Loki continued.

Yeah, she said that you would become an empty husk. Like how Goku and Brandon were. But what does that have to...

Oh...

No. You're kidding me. They didn't.

"They did." Loki somberly confirmed.

That's why it was their plan two. That's why they didn't want to do it. Because they were completely sealing their souls. They sacrificed themselves.

They sacrificed themselves so I would have the power to take out the Demon King. But why? Having more Arcanas will rip my soul apart, won't it?

"Not in their dormant state." Loki reminded me. "However, once you open up those seals, you only have a short time until your soul would be ripped in half from the pressure."

"Releasing all four seals would give you about two minutes. Human souls just aren't meant to wield this much power. However, since I'm here I'll be able to keep your soul together until then." Loki continued.

"But anything after two minutes would destroy your soul. And you'll have to release the seals one at a time to not overload yourself with power and rip your soul in half." Loki explained.

My fists tightened as tears gathered into my eyes. Lupercio.

He took everything from me.

Separated me from the ones I love.

Tortured and killedme.

Is planning to kill the ones I love once he returns to Earth.

And made Grandpa and the others sacrifice themselves so I could even have a chance of taking him down.

Lupercio. You. Are. Dead.