Suddenly, a blur of orange and blue tackled Yuu with a force that knocked him off his feet.

"Bestie! Are you okay? You had all of us worried! And you are badly hurt! But what you did was super cool! That was amazing! You were like-bam! And then-pow! And then woosh! You wers like
"Can't touch this" and then started evading and redirecting those attacks! You were awsome-" Salena's rapid words tumbled out in a flood of excitement and worry. She practically sat on top of him, her tail and ears twitching erratically as sparks of electricity crackled in her fur. "I mean, I was totally going to jump in because you looked like you were about to die, but I didn't want to take the spotlight from you and then you just-!" She kept rambling on but Yuu could no longer understand ger words.

They were all just muffles voices. As if his ears are ringing loud enough to block any sound. He was staring dead silent at her with rapid breaths. Salena and the others may want to congratulate him but his victory felt hollow, haunted by the vision of Salena's death, her lifeless, withered body staring at him with empty eyes. That image lingered in his mind, cutting deeper than any physical wound or mental torment charming gold had inflicted. He was confident he could beat Charming Gold. Confident to end everythibg in this arena but he failed. He let his emotions get to him and it cause Salena's life. It may have just been a vision, but it still happened. Yuu blinked up at her, his chest rising and falling as he tried to process her words through the haze of exhaustion. But he didn't speak. His trembling arms quickly wrapped around her like snakes, pulling her into a tight hug.

Salena froze, her mouth hanging open mid-sentence as he pulls her closer to him till there is absolutely no space left between them. Her wide eyes stared down at him in shock, her cheeks quickly turning red. "Uh... B-bestie?... Y-y-yuu?" she stammered, her usual hyperactivity stifled for the first time.

Yuu didn't say a word. He just held her tighter, his face buried against her shoulder as if he feared letting her go. His body shook slightly, whether from the toll of the fight or something deeper, she couldn't tell.

Salena's heart pounded in her chest. This wasn't like him at all. Yuu would never hugged anyone like this, it's just not like him. Her mind raced, trying to make sense of it, until realization dawned-he must have gone through something terrible during the fight. Something that affected him psychologically or else he wouldn't be doing this out in the open. Still squeezing her. Slowly, her expression softened.

"Hey... it's okay," she whispered, her voice suddenly gentle. She wrapped her arms around him, her hands lightly pressing against his back as if to reassure him. "I'm here. We're all here."

For a long moment, the two stayed like that, the chaotic battlefield around them fading into silence.

"Ahem," a forced cough broke the quiet, followed by an awkward shuffle of footsteps.

Yuu and Salena turned their heads sharply, still tangled in each other's arms, to find Liu standing a few feet away. His hand was over his mouth, clearly hiding a grin. Behind him, the rest of the group stood awkwardly, with Miyo glaring at them while crossing her arms.

"Don't mind us," Liu said with a tone that clearly implied they were very much minding them.

Realizing their position, Yuu and Salena jumped apart like they'd been burned, both scrambling to their feet. Salena's tail frizzed with nervous electricity as her blush deepened. Yuu adjusted his bandages, grateful they hid the redness spreading across his face.

"She tackled me! I couldn't move!" Yuu barked, his voice gruff but slightly shaky, trying to divert the attention.

Salena crossed her arms, her ears flattening. "Well, excuse me for being worried about my bestie, you jerk!"

Despite their bickering, the group's tension eased as they saw the pair back to their usual dynamic. Still, Yuu's grip lingered in Salena's mind-his trembling arms, the desperation in his hold. Whatever he experienced in that fight, it wasn't over for him. And though she wouldn't press him now, she silently vowed to be there for him when he was ready, she's sure all of them would be.

It onky took Akong's voice for them to finalky reacknowledge his existence.

"Splendid! What an amazing performance!"

After drinking the potion Pala has ready for him, Yuu responded. "I'm glad you enjoyed the show you twisted midget"

"Indeed! I'm sure not a single one of the audience found the fight boring. I have to admit though" Akong continues, leaning forward from his throne. "I never expected Charming Gold of all people to lose to a one vs one in a death match. Whoever you are, you are quite the find. But entertainment is all you will be after my ultimate goal is fulfilled"

"As if we would just stand and do nothing!" Liu shouts as the group gathered around him to make the last stand. "As long as we're around you won't have your way!"

"Watch me" Is all Akong said before a retractable white mask covers his face and the red crystal on his forehead began to emit a psychic wave. The four activated pillars began to glow in red colours and emit the same waves onto the entire arena.

The Running Men all felt a sudden pain in their head. The wave mentally attacking them as they all but Yuu started to lose their balance.

"Guys! Are you alright?!" Yuu called out but all of them kept groaning in pain. Then, all of a sudden they stopped.

As they all raised their heads, yuu could see that all of their eyes are glowing red-orange.

"How are you doing this?!" Akong shouts in visible anger, confusing Yuu.

"Doing what?"

"Don't play fool! How are you resisting my Mind Control?! Not even the spirits are strong enough to withstand my power!"

"Mind Control..." Yuu muttered. He looked over to his friends, one by one he stared at them in the eyes. "So your saying you took over their minds...?" Yuu's voice grew deeper. Memories of the Dv8's Brainwash resurfacing in his head, now his friends are a victim to that.
"... I will gauge your eyes out..." The words escaped his mouth as his eyes flicker in red and blue colors. However, there was a split second appearance of a black aura glowing around his eyes before it vanishes. Akong seemed to have notice it as his hands flinched in disbelief. In the short second, he could feel a sickly aura coming from him. A viscious, and horrific aura that made him feel fear for the first time. A primal fear that the priest only ever truly felt once when he enraged the Titan of Destruction, Ulcus, but how could he feel the same fear from a mere mortal?

"You have Ulcus' blessing" Aria's voice erupted from the Guardian mech causibg Yuu to quickly turn around in surprise. The aura he was unkwowingly letting out subsides and the priest agreed to himself that he was just imagining it.

"Ulcus' blessing?" Yuu repeated and the Guardian Mech nodded since the head is the obly part they could move sue to the restraints.

"That scarf you're wearing... I could feel a trace of the Titan himself. It has been blessed with a pure energy that could never be defiled or corrupted. You are protected from the dark forces that is beginning to plague this world" Aria pointed out as Yuu slowly gripped his red scarf.

"... That prideful prick. He couldn't live with the fact that I could have wished for anything in the world yet I chose to change this scarf's simple colour scheme, so he snuck in some devine protection as well. Are all Omnipotent beings this petty? Well, can't really complain in my current position now can i?"

"To insult the Titan of Destruction with such a casual statement makes me fear the occurance of another devine retribution" Aria muttered with a sigh.

"Get him!" The Priest shouts as the Runnibg Men readied themselves to attack.

"Guys! You have to snap out of it! I hate to have to beat you up!" Yuu shouts as he lowers his stance to prepare for their attack. "Well... Except for Kuga, pretty sure he can take more hits than any of you"

"Don't worry... Bestie... I'm still in control" Salena mumbles as she staggers to stay on her feet. Placing a hand on her head as she experienced a headache.

"WHAT?! HOW?!" Akong shouts again, this time anger overtaking him.

Miyo, who is still being conteolled, fired her grappling hook at Salena to apprehend her but the bunny quickly leaped away just in time and landed beside Yuu where she almost lost her balance if you hadn't hold her.

"How did you escape his mind control?" Ask Yuu as she forces a smirk, still clutching her head.

"We have my mentor, Ruby, to thank for that. If it weren't for all those boring meditation lessons and force-feeding me tea of centuries-old herb and ginseng, I would have been a puppet by now. But it is giving me the most horrible headache of my life..."

A mind-controlled Liu fired a charged shot at the distracted Salena. Yuu activated his Dark Volt suit and swatted the shot away from her, exploding at the wall on contact.

"Can't you use your powers to knock them all out at once?" Yuu suggested.

"I could but this headache is distracting me. I can't focus. We're gonna have to fight them"

"Use the Blessing of the Titan to free them" Aria's voice spoke through the mech. "Only the powers of a celestial being and the elder spirits can nuetralize the effects"

"How do i do that? Do I rub the scarf on them?" Yuu asked.

"Gross! Don't do that! You're gonna get the nasty scent of your unwashed scarf on Po-bro!" Salena complained.

"You're freinds have also gained a fraction of the blessing when you encountered the Titan, Ulcus, in his domain. Use the blessing to strenghten theirs and break them free" Aria explained.

"Yeah, but how?!" Yuu repeats.

"Feel the powera within the scarf. An aura. A feeling. Hold on to that feeling and unleash it"

Yuu stared down at the red scarf around his nech and clucthed it gebtly with his hand. The scarf was meant as a reminder of his failure, now he must use it to save his friends from evil influence.

Not qanting to waste another second he closed his eyes and searched for the "feeling". Salena immediately stood in front of him. Protecting him from the coming assault despite the headache she was feeling, but hurting her new friends was something she realized she couldn't do. Unlike Yuu or Kuga, the others won't be able to handle her fighting prowess, especially Popo. Among all of the teachings her mentor taught her, holding back her strenght was the onky thing she failed to do. After countless of battles, one would never be able to hold back their strenght, Kuga would have understand it.

Popo suddenly tossed three flaming cards at her direction which she easily evaded. However, the cards were now travelling towards Yuu who still had his eyes closed. Salena eyes widenes in panic before she quickly pulled out a smoke bomb pellet she had secretly took from Yuu's hidden pocket, without anyone knowing, and tossed it quickly at the cards. The explosion had enough force to push the cards away from Yuu as smoke covered the area around him.

Then, Lonky's arms wrapped around her waist and legs, immobilizing her as Kuga leapes into the air and plummets downward with a punch aim at her. Salena quickly tapped her feet on the floor beneath her and and and backflipped to break free from Lonky's hold just as a large hole opened up where she was previousky standing. The mind-controlles tiger plummets onto the hole instead as another hole appeared beneath Lonky where Kuga exits through and punches the Giraffe's chin, sending him flying above and plummeting on the arena.

As Kuga's exits the hole and gets back up on his feet, Salena jumped high into the air and performed multiole front flips as she falls then, at the right moment, raised her left leg straight and performed a flip kick. Sending the sole of her feed onto Kuga's head. Knocking the tiger downwards.

When her ears twitched in response to danger, she quickly spun behind to oerform a roundhouse kick but quickly paused to see it was Popo, about to tosses her his magic cards. She couldn't bring herself to hurt him or Liu, who was aiming to fire at her as well.

As the penguin tossed her a freeze card, she automatically evaded to the side where she met Liu's plasma blast and hit her on the chest. The bunny flew backwards from the explosion before Miyo stepped in and snared her with her grappling hook. Still reeling from the pain and surprise, Salena failed to block Miyo's roundhouse kick which knocked Salena to the side. She absorbed the impact by rolling as she immediately stands up.

"Bestie, I don't want to be rude but can you please hurry it up? It's hard to protect us both if I can't fight back"

As Salena tries her best to defend them both from the oncoming attacks, Yuu remained standing still. Looking for the "Feeling" that Aria had mentioned but there was none. He felt like an idiot, standing there doing absoluteky nothing.

Until he dug deeper within him. Whenever he uses his powers to mimic others, tgere is always a tug. Like something was pulling him deeper into a void and that if he kept using it, it would swallow him whole. Close to that tug, was a strange feeling opposite of it. It was pushing up. As if it was trying to break free and it disturbed him, made him uneasy, nervous... Scared.

He never felt like this before. He meditated often during his time as a student of the Hidden Shifter Tribe. The teachers would always tell them to familiarize themselves with their "inner voices". A term they used to describe the deep desires that reside within everyone. Yuu was familair with his but until he recieved the powers fom the book, strange new "voices" appeared. He coukd feel it growing inside him and he thought if he pretended they didn't exist then it wouldn't be.

But looking back at it now, realising what he is feeling, it seemed the new voice kept growing. He could almost hear actual voices, calling to him. To lash out, break free. Submit.

It felt malicious and vile. Along with it, there were multiple other repressed "feelings". One in particular felt as if it was enveloping itself onto the one with the maliscious aura. Supressing it to prevent it from escaping. Yuu latched himself on that feeling, the feeling to protect and to contain. Upon openibg his eyes, he could feel a strange power coursing through himself. It only took a few moments before rhe scarf reactwd to his newfound powers and glowed with a ligh-reddiesh aura that wrapped around the runningmen, pausing them in place.

Salena leaped back next to him as they witnessed their friends struggling to move, not because of the aura, but because they were starting to regain control of their bodies and are trying to prevent themselves from attacking them.

"Keep at it, Yuu...!" Miyo suddenly spoke, struggling to lower her clawed hands away from them.

"We'll... Prevail!" Liu shouts as well.

"No! I control you! You all obey ME!" Sending another wave of his power, the four pillars glowed brighter and emitted a stronger red pulse that combats Yuu's power as he fell to one knee.

"Bestie!" Salena shouts in concern, kneeling next to him.

"The wave is too strong... It's like I'm being crushed with a force of a thousand water falls...!" Tapping into his powers again, he pushes himself up and continued to help his friends. But with Akong's corrupted crystal, he was too powerful as the Running Men are slowly submitting to his mind control.

"The power that you and your friends hold is not enough... We must do it brothers" Aria whispered the last part to himself.

"I cant... Hold it any longer! " Yuu shouts trhough gritted teeth, struggling to maintain focus.

All of a sudden, he felt the pressure instabtly vanish. As he stood up with ease, he turned back too look at a sudden bright light coming from where the guardian mech was. A white light formed aroynd its body as it slowly stood up. With a clasp of the mech's hand, it emitted a powerful wave that pushes everyone away and removed the clergy Pululus away from the four pillars, sending them back to their ohysical bodies.

The wave was so powerful that it collided with Akong, shattering the red cyrstal on his forhead into a million pieces with a haze and sending the Pululu flying agaisnt the wall.

"What was that?" Yuu asked, rubbing his head as he stand up along with the others. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine, thanks to you" Liu says on everyone's behalf.

Suddenly, the light on the Guardian Mech vanished and the mech shut down, falling on its knees permently. As the running men gathered around it, Vivace appeared out of thin air, spribting in circles as he shouts a cryptic warning.

"IT'S OVER. IT'S OVER. IT'S ALL OVER! WE'RE DEAD! POOF! ACTUALLY DEAD!"

Then, the twins also began to appear out of thin air, looking like ghosts.

"Are we really leaving this to their hands? Isn't that kind of a big stretch, big sis?" Asks Enn.

"Yeah but Big Brother said we can trust them, especially the bandaged one so, eh, either way we cant do anything about them now"

"Leaving what on our hands? What do you mean?" Liu asked the question the were all thinking.

Soon Aria appeared with a bright light enveloping him. Looking at peace with his hands clasped in a prayer.

"Hoho... I know you all have a lot of questions to asked but I'm afraid our time has come. We took the resposibilties as Guardians of the Seal for thousands of years long before the first war..."

"First war? You mean the war of the tribes?" Miyo corrected but Aria and his siblings slowly shook their heads sideways, shocking the cat. "There... There was a war before the tribes?"

"Yeah, the Primordial Wa-" As Enn was about to finish, Semble quickly covered hee sister's mouth and quickly shook her head in disaproval.

"We are not suppose to talk about that" Sembke whisper-shouts as Aria continued with his words to return to the topic at hand while Miyo remained curious as to what kind of war they were talking about.

"As i was saying... We beared this responsibilities for many, many years and now we must past it on to you. Running Men, forgive us for showing you histility but now we pass this burden onto your shoulders. We know that your goal would be to prevent evil such as Akong from taking this world... So now... We give you the last of our strenght. We bestow upon you the tittle of Guardians of the Spirits... Farewell"

Everyone quickly covered their eyes as the guardians erupted into a bright light before disappearing. Leaving a trail of twinkling light in the air where they used to be.

"They're gone..." Popo mumbled.

"They used the last of theie powers to save us..." Miyo says as all of them, even Yuu, felt remorse for their sacrifice.

Then, 7 circular emblems appeared aboce their heads and lowered themselves to be inserted into each of their watches, exept for Salena, with the faces of the four guardians as images on the emblem.

"What's this supposed to be?" Yuu asked as all of them stared at their own watches in awe.

"Hey! Why don't I have one?!" Salena shouts and pouts next to him.

Then, the ground started to shake violently, causing the runningmen to lose their balance. The four pillars shattered and unleasged a red beam upon the diamond-shaped cieling.

"HAHAHAHA! YES! FIBALLY! THE GUARDIANS ARE DEAD!" Shouts the evil priest as the light in the arena became red as well.

The arena floor continued to rumble until it was now levitating towards the cieling at a rapid pace. With the Ceiling getting close to them, the Runnibg Men jumped off from the arena and onto the platforms where the audience are. Liu and miyo jumped off on their own while Kuga had to carry lonky, Salena with Popo, and Yuu with Pala as they wouldn't be able to land without sustaining injuries.

The Arena smashes onto the ceiling, creating a booming echo that sent the audiences to panic. As the Running Men looked up, they can finally see what was underneath the arena. It was a diamond shaped seal with a large creature glowing inside. Upon closer insoecting, there was a large crack on the seal that expanded until the light dimmed and pieces of it started to fall apart.

They all knew what happened but it took Yuu to voice his words for them to be sure that what they were seeing is indeed true.

"The seal is broken..."