Joy was falling.

Joy had lost a hand.

Joy was having what he would call "a shitty day."

There was an angry princess, a violent dragon, and one singular goon who had simply beaten him at this game. Of course they had used magic to circumvent the game itself, but that was beside the point. Joy had lost and now he was going to fall to his death.

The thing about being saved is that no one wants to be saved when they have accepted their fate. See, Joy had already decided that this was where his story ended. He had grand plans for convincing David to make a better world for humanity rather than the same prison that the gods were trapped in. Joy had found that the tragedy of him falling to his death before he could even try to save the world poetic. So, Joy had decided that his end was fitting.

He closed his eyes and waited for whatever came after death.

This was not his end though; there was still a little story left to tell.

Joy felt an impact on his back and a pair of strong arms cradling him before he hit the ground. The strong hands held him tightly as the careened towards solid earth. However, instead of going splat, Joy felt a strong thump as whoever had grabbed him absorbed the impact.

The hands were familiar and comforting. Joy opened his tightly closed eyes and saw the face of his father. His features were still strong; he was a man who had not left the prime of his life in spite of Time.

"You are always getting into trouble, Joy." His father gently set him on the ground. His father's immense strength was a gift from Strength and Joy seemed as light as a feather in his arms.

"I only get into trouble because I know you'll be there to save me."

Joy's mother interjected, "we almost weren't here to save you. It was only this one's insistence that even brought us from our home."

Joy's eyes blazed in delight as he saw Theo with his cane, walking his way forwards at a slow but methodical pace.

"I can't let you and Lillian have all the fun."

"I wouldn't call this fun. I would call this the end of the world as we know it." Joy's disarming grin was a counterpoint to his serious words. "I think I know what to do, but I need you all to defend me. There is a really angry former princess, a quarterfinalist from the knight tournament, and a dragon that is hopefully not Theo's sister. Oh, and don't forget the godlike battle happening up in the sky. I need you three to defend me while I work."

And with that, Joy sat down on the ground and pulled his deck of cards out of his soul space. He was demanding, he was bossy, and he was annoying. But his parents rolled their eyes and cracked their necks while Theo sighed. Joy demanded the utmost from everyone, but he also gave his everything. So, when he demanded they defend him, they refused to back down from the three goons.

Joy started building a house of cards as a new battle started to unfold around him. His one remaining hand shook as he started placing the base of his tower.

___

Joy's father had once been a man named Antony. However, time and parenthood had changed that name into "Joy's father." For a long time, he had been okay with it. It was okay to give up a piece of identity for your child. But these days, he was a little sick of people only thinking of him as a father.

He had been so much more than that. Antony was strong and he would teach these young whippersnappers what his strength meant.

Antony shared a meaningful glance with his wife before he jumped forwards and intercepted the girl between the dragon and the man with the shimmering constructs.

Antony had not always been a nice man. The world was not a kind place, and he was glad that he had taught his son how to be kind to those around him without effort. But Antony was not like his son.

He had grown up in the slums of Vena Cava. He had struggled, murdered, and stole to get everything he had in life. All of this was before he had met his wonderful wife and they had galivanted off into the countryside together, but he had been a brutal man before that. And all that time being a bad man had taught him one thing; no one was every prepared for overwhelming violence.

Antony's gift was the strength of 30 men. Now, that may not sound like a lot, but it was focused power. The power of thirty men jumping at once was enough the catapult Antony through the air and into the princess.

The force of his jump was stopped as he hit the poor princess, and she lost her lunch as his form barreled into her.

The two of them flew away from the combat, rolling and bouncing off the ground. Antony was the first one to get back up once they had stopped moving. Dahlia let out a moan of pain as Antony walked over to her.

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Dahlia tried to cast a spell. Maybe she could have stopped Antony if she had been faster. But Antony simply crushed her hand under one boot, held her nose shut, and sat on her chest.

It wasn't the most climactic end to a battle, but Antony didn't believe in grand showdowns. His son had been in danger, and he had watched this woman steal his son's hand. He wasn't going to play games. Now, she was out of the battle, and his son could go back to whatever he had been doing.

___ Joy's mom had once been a knight. She had specialized armor with clock motifs, and she used to galivant around the countryside stopping evildoers from enacting their schemes. Or at least that was what she had told herself.

She had felt important and powerful when she was young, but age changes one's perspective. She had started chasing a young rapscallion in the slums of Vena Cava, and instead of apprehending him, he had stolen her heart.

The people in the slums were not the enemy of the knight order. They were just people trying to survive in a world that wanted them to just go away. Cleopatra had appreciated the opening of her mind to this new world of grey morality.

She and the young rapscallion had moved from Vena Cava to the outskirts of the world and started a family there. She had been happy.

But when she was young, she had not been happy, she had been powerful.

Cleopatra squared off against a dragon. The massive beast looked down upon her from its high perch in the sky. She knew that it felt a certain superiority against her as a being who had only ever lived on the ground, but she didn't let that derision bother her. She was better than any mere dragon.

The dragon took a deep breath in, and Cleopatra knew instinctively that the dragon was going to breathe fire. Her husband had already catapulted off into the distance and taken the young woman away with him, so she did not have the protect him. To her other side, Cleopatra saw that Theo had somehow heard the dragon preparing to breathe and had created a massive ice wall that stood between him and the fire. Finally, she looked at her son and saw he had made no preparations to rebuff this attack, since he was so secure in his knowledge that his parents would protect him.

She shook her head at his willfulness. She was terrified that he had just lost his hand. Her son had always used his hands well; she had hoped and prayed that he would pick up a musical instrument to make good use of them. However, that was not the way for her Joy.

Alas, she needed to protect her son from the big bad dragon.

Cleopatra's gift allowed her to turn back the time on any nonliving object. She was in a city that was in ruins around her from the insane battles that had taken place over the past few months. There were a lot of things to play with.

With a flick of her wrist, a building materialized around Joy, protecting him from the beginnings of the flames. As the flames began to just barely scorch the hem of her dress, Cleopatra willed the air that had carried the fire to her to take it away.

A vacuum formed in front of her, but she stood firmly, watching the flames go back from whence they came. The dragon's eyes shone with a glint of fear and confusion as it dodged its own attack.

The dragon looked down, calculatingly, at Cleopatra. She simply willed the few scorch marks that had marred her dress to disappear as if they had never existed. She wasn't afraid of a big lizard.

Cleopatra waited for the dragon to move. People, animals, and everything in between never knew that to do when faced with something more powerful than them. She could have ruled the continent if she had truly put her mind to it, but she had just wanted to be happy.

The dragon dove from the sky, presumably thinking that if it could blitz her fast enough that the dragon might win. Cleopatra shook her head at the foolishness.

She waited for the perfect moment, not an instant too soon or too late, Cleopatra forced the remains of the building she had been standing on to suddenly reassemble. The building cleanly uppercut the descending dragon. And as the tiles broke, Cleopatra simply kept reforming them, creating an endless barrage of strikes against the dragon's body.

Cleopatra sighed; it was always a little too easy. She checked on Theo to make sure he wasn't too out of his depth, but he seemed fine. She also looked at her foolish son who seemed to have just gotten up to the second layer of his house of cords.

It was all going to be okay.

___

Theo had just formed an ice shield around himself in anticipation of the gout of flames he could feel on his skin, when something slammed into him.

He instinctively opened his eye sockets and let loose a stream of intense cold. He could feel the single tear in his soul space. That singular droplet of water had been his gift so long ago.

There were never any instruction manuals on how to use gifts, but there was an instinctive feeling in a person's soul that informed them of what to do. Theo's gift was a little more complicated than just freezing what he looked at.

His gift was that singular droplet of water that was stored in his eyes. His gift allowed him to use that teardrop up to freeze things.

But the teardrop had to be exposed to use. Theo opening his eyes for long periods of time didn't simply make him freeze more, it caused his eyes to well up and the tear to become more exposed to the air around him.

The more emotional that Theo became, the more of the tear was exposed to the air and thus allowed for incredible feats of freezing.

Theo felt whatever had been touching him fall away in brittle pieces; the absolute cold having caused it to tear itself apart.

"Why are you attacking me?" Theo asked his attacker.

"Because we are scared." A familiar voice said. Theo recognized Ramses from his time in the knight tournament so long ago. He had been so strong that Theo had destroyed all his own art in an attempt to beat him, and it still hadn't been enough.

Well, there was nothing to do other than stand and fight then. He trusted Lillian and he trusted Joy to save the world in their own ways.

Theo opened his empty sockets and let enough ice come out to freeze he entire sky. He felt the amount of ice in the single tear drop dramatically from the use, but there was still plenty for later.

He heard the muffled cry of Ramses being consumed by the ice he had summoned.

Theo laughed at how easy it was. This grand hurdle of his life had been squashed like a bug when it mattered the least.

Theo knew that his fight was over, but he heard a grand battle taking place in the sky. It was so raucous that it could only be Lillian. He smiled, hoping that she would win whatever fight she was in so that Joy, Lillian, and him could go galivanting off on new adventures.

Theo heard the beat of a creature's wings as it approached him. The buffeting winds stung his face, but he turned to face the threat anyways.

"Lillian wishes for you to join her in the sky." Theo simply nodded his head and felt the arms of the creature wrap around his torso, lifting him up.

Once he had arrived, Lillian didn't waste time on pleasantries. She said, "I am losing."

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