https://youtu.be/EtcB2qvE5-8

The search was on, with Jude following the two while keeping pace with them, having stayed slightly behind so he could talk to Inigo. But now that his messaging was finished, he stayed close to the other two. They ran from street to street, but it seemed Grant was faster than they were - or at least, had a head-start. For every time they turned into a new street, they'd find a person collapsed, a building wrecked, and more.

All of these were undoubtedly signs that Grant had been there before them, and all of these proved that he was ahead of them. Sometimes, they would approach one of his victims, inquiring for directions.

"By the Dei, who did this to you?"

"Man in red..."

"Say no more! Where did he go?"

"That way..."

And they'd follow, hearing some explosions, finding more victims, gaining more directions, rinse and repeat. After a point, it began to feel like they were getting nowhere...until Azurine picked up a strange scent somewhere in the distance. She raised an eyebrow, looking at the other two. "Hey, do you smell that?"

In response, Silas took a whiff of the air, only to frown as he realised what was going on. "Smells like...pork?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "Hey, Jude, we don't happen to be anywhere near any Ruben-centric bonfire holidays, do we?"

"That was last month." Jude shook his head. "I fear we may have found our foe."

"Yeah, thought so." Silas sighed. "Let's follow it. I'm sure Grant's cooking someone alive."

"Alright, then! Spectrums, onward!" Azurine declared, pointing a finger sharply in front of her before beginning to run off. Silas and Jude followed along, determined to follow that burning scent that seemed to grow stronger by the second.

Eventually, amidst all the sounds of murder, the trio saw a thick pillar of billowing smoke rising in the distance, the scent stronger than ever. While there were people running away from it, they also found a few corpses with multiple stab wounds all over their bodies, concerning them greatly. They hadn't seen Grant use a weapon yet, but why would he resort to stabbing when his Natura was so powerful?

They collectively decided not to dwell on that - Grant was certainly at the site of that smoke, and the fire was beginning to spread, with a wave of heat suddenly overcoming them. All this just to draw out one man...it was just despicable. And Inigo most likely wasn't even here, so it was all in vain. With that in mind, they felt a responsibility to stop him.

.........

The trio emerged from a corner, tearing past the roads, with Azurine jumping on some of the cars that were in her way while the other two navigated them with more care, and ran towards the centre of the high street, whose everyday hustle and bustle was disrupted by the unwanted intrusion of a certain individual. The world was meant to be waking up by this time, and yet Grant's holy flames ravaging the buildings provided a much nastier sun to rise to.

On the sidewalk, there had been a large tree, but now, its leaves were burnt off, the sproutless trunk slowly being killed by the white flames burning its body into ashes. Surrounding it were the remaining ashes of the leaves, as well as a few burnt husks of men and women, and hanging over the branches, pinned to the tree in numerous ways were a dozen more humans, screaming in agony. Standing before the site was Grant himself, barking orders at the few of his men who had followed him as they impeded and interrogated the fleeing citizens before tossing them into the fire.

Good, so he didn't notice the three of them creeping up on him. Before any of his men could spill the beans, Azurine cocked her gun and fired a small, cerulean stream of electricity right at his back. He took the hit head-on and growled as he turned back to face the three. Azurine didn't stop attacking, and even Silas followed suit, smashing the earth with his axe to create a wide valley of spikes rushing towards him.

"Come back to ruin everything, have you?" Grant roared, snapping his fingers as the area around Azurine and Jude began to heat up. Quickly, the redhead grabbed Jude, pulling him out of the blast zone just in time for a mighty explosion. "You three just don't know when to stop poking around, do you?"

As he spoke, he waved his hand in the air, generating a storm of white fireballs floating behind him. He gave the trio his most hateful glare as they stood their ground. "You know, none of these people would have to die if your team hadn't been so secretive." he shook his head. "At their funerals, you can curse the name of the Joker!"

"Don't be ridiculous. He isn't the one who chose to kill the people of my town." Jude shook his head, holding out his staff. "Only you are to blame, Grant."

"And now, everyone in Ruben knows it!" Azurine declared. "No more secrets, no more fear!"

https://youtu.be/f3F_xd5R_4I

"Depending on how slow he is to act, there may not even be a Ruben to hold secrets or fear!" Grant retorted, firing the fireballs at random. Silas stood in front of the group, erecting a wall to block the projectiles, but he felt each blast pounding against the solid rock, and it didn't take long for it to shatter completely. Once the wall collapsed, Azurine jumped out of the way of the remaining fireballs, rapidly firing at Grant the whole time, and Jude, who wasn't being focused on, took the chance to take a blue crystal out of his pocket and toss it at the red-suited pyromaniac. As it exploded, it scattered water in a wide radius, soaking Grant completely.

Azurine used this as her time to shine, cloaking her body with electricity and charging towards Grant before she went on to utterly speed-blitz him. She tackled him multiple times, running circles around him before he could reach down to catch her, and at one point she placed the tip of her gun on his back before firing out electric rounds like she was wielding a machine gun. But as he turned around, she stuck her tongue out at him again, headbutting him in the stomach as she released a vast electrical surge from her head.

He gritted his teeth, but as his body became wreathed in flames, he held her close to him, preparing a close-ranged explosion. Before he could successfully blow her up, however, he felt Silas' flaming axe impact the back of his head, and immediately lost his focus again. Silas swung the weapon over his head again, striking him with enough force to knock him away from his friend completely. While they were distracted, Jude tossed another blue crystal at the tree, letting the watery explosion that occurred put out the flames for good.

The man slowly rose to his feet, but as he did, Silas generated a large, muddy rock, shaped like a basketball and spinning on the tip of his finger. He caught it in his hand and hurled it at his chest, knocking him down. Grant's eyes went wide as he looked down at his current, sorry state, and as he clenched his fists and teeth, he felt a wild heat rising inside him, the water on his clothes beginning to evaporate, and he stood up, tossing the stone aside before breathlessly pointing at the trio.

"Do you understand what kind of opponent you've made today? When the Mikado learns of what has transpired, you'll have all of Libera after your heads!" he yelled, his voice full of anger and desperation as white flames surrounded his body. "You'll all suffer in your final moments - if not by my hand, then by the storm of my allies that your persistence has brought!"

He spread his arms out wide, a positively crazed look on his face in the seconds before his body glowed a bright white, as if he was a walking luminary. The three felt they couldn't keep their eyes on him lest they scorch their retinas, and they tried to run away, immediately feeling the sense of danger as the air around them became incredibly heated. It was autumn, but it felt like a hot summer day in the desert. Before anyone could move any further, the entire area became engulfed in a scorching radiance, with everyone and everything in the area being blown away.

In the aftermath of this attack, Jude laid down on the ground, panting heavily, and Azurine likewise found it difficult to move. They both no longer felt the protection of Natura surrounding them, their barriers having shattered against the sheer light of Grant with a few burns on their bodies and clothes. Only Silas was still standing, looking at his friends briefly with a sigh. "You two okay?"

"...barely..." Azurine groaned, beginning to stand up as Silas stepped forward, glaring at Grant.

"You two stay behind me. I'll try to hold him off." Silas said. "Maybe there's an intact hospital around here. You can maybe restore your shields?"

"Silas, I don't know if you'll survive against this man." Jude murmured, looking at Grant, who was panting heavily, his hand on his chest. "Even weakened, he's a frightening mage..."

"He can kill the two of you with a fingersnap. I'm more worried about you right now." Silas frowned. He looked around the area, seeing the tree from earlier was now completely disintegrated, its victims on the ground with varying levels of consciousness - some completely motionless and some hanging onto the last threads of their existence. He hadn't been expecting an attack of that calibre, but he suspected Grant didn't have it in him to do it again.

"If you're sure about this...then fine." Jude replied, looking over at Azurine with a smile as he dragged himself up to his feet. "Let's go, Azurine."

"Huh? Uh...if you say so..." Azurine said, before looking at Silas. "But you'd better not die, okay? That's an order from your leader!"

"Noted." Silas saluted her. He watched as they ran off away from him, but as Grant raised a hand, Silas wasted no time in generating a handful of mud and hurling it at him. "Eyes on me, asshole!"

"Gladly obliged!" Grant roared, raising his hands once again, but Silas spotted a figure moving behind him and raised an eyebrow. Grant snapped his finger, and at once Silas stamped on the ground, covering himself in a rocky shield to protect himself from the explosion. Once he took the shield down, he did so just in time for him to witness a young man emerging from the rubble and drop-kicking Grant in the back, toppling him over before landing on the ground, scanning Silas with his pink eyes.

"Hmm...you don't look like the Joker..." the newcomer stood up, and at that Silas stared at him, getting a good look at him. His white hair, reaching down to his shoulders, his dark complexion reminding him of Makoto's, his black scarf and leather jacket over his white shirt, and his black mask. All of that matched up to the description he'd been given, but what was new was the black feathered hat he wore today. "Are you one of those friends I was told about?"

"Probably, yeah." Silas smiled uneasily. "And you must be the serial killer I was told about, yeah?"

"Spree killer, thank you." the man shook his head, wagging his finger. "I expected he'd be more thorough than that. Tsk, tsk."

"You're looking for...the Red Joker, right?" Silas murmured, clenching his fist. "Sorry, but you're gonna have to look elsewhere."

"Ravener..." Grant slowly stood up, snarling in his speech. "You were instructed to attack my enemies...not ME!"

https://youtu.be/OZ4eUrcWZmo

"If I'd known you were going to collapse a building on me, I'd have charged extra." the Ravener rolled his eyes. "Just be glad that's all I'm doing. In your current state, I could easily kick your teeth in, old man."

"Tch, if you're here, then cover me." Grant clenched his teeth. "I need to find the Joker!"

"Excuse me? He's my quarry." the Ravener narrowed his eyes. "Then again, I am curious about this guy over here..."

He summoned and pointed one of his feather-daggers at Silas, tilting his head slightly. "You, there. Let's see what you've got." he said. "Will you put up a fight like the Joker did? Or will you fold in a single stab like the rest of them?"

"The rest of them..." Silas murmured, looking back to the corpses he'd seen on the way here - the stab wounds. And it quickly clicked. "So you're the one who killed them!"

"Congrats, you can hear properly!" the Ravener cheered, summoning his other dagger and running towards him, while Grant used this opportunity to escape. "But enough blabber, let's get on with it already!"

"Took the words right out of my-" Silas began, only to be interrupted as the Ravener got all up in his face, slashing him with twin daggers. Silas took the initial blows and reached out to grab him by the arm. His hand passed right through, however, and the spree killer used his brief moment of shock to turn around and slash him in the face, a dark light trailing from his dagger.

"Ah, so this is what Inigo had to deal with." Silas mused, stepping back only for the Ravener to step forward. Silas kicked him in the stomach, but as predicted, his foot went right through. "No wonder you killed so many people! Civilians, too - spooky."

As he spoke, he used the pole of his axe to defend himself from the rapid onslaught of blades. It wasn't easy, and he still felt his hands getting nicked every now and then. He advanced backwards, but the Ravener did his best to keep the gap closed. "Of course, I'm not exactly your ordinary civilian. I've lived a life of combat, too." Silas continued. "So how are you gonna triumph against someone larger, experienced-"

Before he finished his sentence, he clenched his fist, his weapon vanishing as he generated gauntlets made of pure stone around his hands. He stepped back before smashing the Ravener's chin with a rising uppercut, and the spree killer landed on his back. "-and better-informed?"

"Wasn't expecting that..." the Ravener chuckled quietly, rolling out of the way as Silas hurled a large rock at his fallen body. The hitman stood up, creating a fan of feather-shaped knives. "If words could hurt, your little speech could count as free healthcare!"

He tossed the knives at Silas' leg, and the latter gritted his teeth, stomping on the ground to generate his signature valley of spikes. To his surprise, the Ravener leapt up, perched on top of a spike as if it didn't hurt him. Still, he didn't let up, making another tall rock and holding it above his head. "You think? I'm always trying to speak softly and sweetly, you know?" he said, holding onto the rock tightly as cracks began forming. "You should try it - in case you ever have to eat your words!"

The rock shattered into shards, most of which flew in the Ravener's direction. Seeing this, the killer jumped up once more and spun around with knives in hand, parrying the rock fragments out of the air before landing. Then, he began his pursuit, jumping left and right from spike to spike, closing in on Silas. "It'll take more than sticks and stones to break these bones!"

Once he was directly above Silas, he spun around in midair, surrounding himself in darkness before plunging down onto him. Silas remained on the ground, summoning rocks to clamp his feet to his position as his body glowed a bright yellow. He extended his palm, the gauntlet on his left hand growing into a baseball mitt as he caught the attack and met it head-on, the Ravener's offence caught in a struggle against Silas' defence. Meanwhile, his other hand was clenched tightly, burning with a crimson flame.

He clenched his teeth as he struggled against the attack - what the Ravener lacked in strength, he made up for in persistence. Suddenly, he got an idea. Pumping Natura into his hand, he sacrificed his giant mitt in a burst of flame, the rocks around his legs vanishing as well before he leapt up, punching the Ravener with his flaming fist and watching him land on the ground. He smiled proudly, watching him rise to his feet in a single bound. "Had enough, spree killer?"

"Incidentally, yes." the Ravener stood up, dusting off his clothes. "I was told to cover for Galileo and look for the Red Joker. The first one's been done, and you're not the Joker, so spending any more time on a losing battle is a waste."

"Hold on, you're dangerous!" Silas shook an indignant fist. "I can't just let you go!"

"Don't care!" the Ravener adjusted his hat before waving a hand at him. "Aren't you worried about your buddies? Who knows what could happen when Galileo catches up to them? Wait, since he's a ranged attacker, I guess he wouldn't even have to do that!"

"...damn it!" Silas clenched his fist, remembering their shields were likely still down. They were just as helpless as the people they were here to protect right now. He looked at the Ravener, then at the exit Grant had taken, and quickly ran towards the latter, desperately hoping his allies were still safe.

.........

"There you are, my little rats..."

With that, a chain of explosions, toppling down one building and reducing it to rubble. Inside it were the injured, trapped residents of that building - not Azurine or Jude, however. As Grant walked up to the people inside, he held a white flame in his hand and a small container holding a shot of pure alcohol. He knelt down in front of them, looking at them with a look of complete calm.

"Tell me, have any of you seen who I'm looking for?"

At that, he would describe what Azurine, Jude and Inigo looked like. The result was typically negative, at which point he would toss the alcohol into the debris and light it on fire as the glass shattered. Then, he would move onto the next house, letting it spread, and the process would rinse and repeat itself.

Jude and Azurine were, naturally, in hiding, as they had been since they heard the first explosion. Both feared for their lives, but as they heard other people dying as well, they couldn't help but feel the sting of guilt in their hearts, too.

"Jude? Got any more of those crystals?" Azurine asked quietly, standing next to him in the middle of an alleyway and looking up at him.

"Azurine, you know we can't show ourselves." Jude frowned, shaking his head. "One explosion, and we're dead, remember?"

"But I can't just stand here and let all those people die for us." Azurine looked down, her eyes beginning to water. "It's just not right, Jude."

"You're right...but what can we even do?" Jude admitted. "We can try and dodge his attacks, but we know we won't last forever."

"We don't have to last forever. We just have to last as long as it takes for Silas to get here." she pointed out, taking a deep breath. "But the longer we wait, the more people die. We can do something about that, so why shouldn't we?"

"...I have two crystals left." Jude said, pulling one out of his pocket and handing it to Azurine, who quickly pocketed it. "Both of them are water-type. If you really think the two of us can hold him off, then...let's get to it."

Azurine nodded, and the two of them emerged from the alley they were hiding in. Jude took the first move, holding out his crystal as it glowed, generating a rapid stream of water at him, soaking him once again. He immediately looked up from the people he was interrogating and saw the duo standing before him. At that, he shook his head.

"So, you finally offer yourselves up?"

"No. We're here to stop you." Azurine said, summoning her gun and looking dead into his eyes. Grant scoffed at that and prepared to snap his fingers before she shot him once again. Jude summoned his staff, raising it to the sky and unleashing a bright light, like a camera flash, momentarily stunning him enough for Azurine to charge up and fire a blast of lightning at him.

Grant tried to snap his fingers once more, but at that, Jude unleashed a swirling chromatic aberration in the air between the two of them, dazing Grant momentarily while Azurine continued to load her gun into him. Grant watched them closely as they fought on, noticing the desire to protect, the desperate plea to remain alive. A snarl escaped him as he rose his hand once more only for the back of his head to be struck by...a rock. Just a small pebble. And yet, it pissed him off so much.

"WHAT?" he yelled, turning around to see his assailant. And there, he saw Silas running up to the scene. Damn that Ravener, he thought, failing to get the task done. But at least he was hunting down Inigo, probably, which was a plus. He raised his hand to cast another spell, but all of a sudden, he felt his vision being overcome with a deep darkness, assaulting him from all sides. From the outside, everyone saw what had happened - from above, an enormous, demonic-looking goat had fallen down, engulfing Grant entirely. They had all seen this attack before, so they looked around, and eventually they spotted Iago standing on top of a building in the distance, bowing dramatically.

Once the attack was done, Grant just stood there blankly, instantly putting the dots together. He knew what the Devil's Spawn's magic looked like. He knew exactly who the Spawn was in league with. The Red Joker had this waiting in the wings the entire time. And now, Grant was standing there, out of contingencies and almost out of shield, and the Joker didn't even have to physically appear. There was no winning this game anymore. Perhaps there never had been in the first place. And he didn't even feel like playing anymore.

He reached into his pocket, hesitantly pulling out a silver crystal, and looked back at the heroes, teeth clenched and breath wavering, as though he was near the point of tears. Everyone looked at him, Iago impatiently tapping his foot on the roof he was on, and it was clear they were expecting him to do something so they could react accordingly. He swallowed the lump in his throat, holding the crystal in front of him.

"Take me...to Modum." he murmured despondently, and in a flash of silver light, the white-flame menace was gone.

https://youtu.be/GHiTkGaBmSM

The Spectrums looked up at Iago, who jumped down from the roof and looked at the three of them, a proud smile on his face and his arms spread out as usual. The trio gathered around him, eyeing him closely, curiously, and Jude was the first to return the smile.

"Waiting until the last moment to come out, eh?" he began. "How very Iago of you."

"Haha! Indeed, indeed." Iago took another bow. "I only spotted Galileo recently, but you were all so focused on your performances, you didn't even pay any attention to the man behind the curtain!"

"Well...the help is appreciated." Azurine said, putting her hands on her hips. "And, at least you didn't kill him..."

"Yeah, now that you bring that up, that's kinda uncharacteristic of you." Silas raised an eyebrow. "You just let him get away..."

"It's not that I lacked the desire to see his head rolling." Iago shook his head, shrugging. "But Inigo gave me very specific instructions."

"Inigo, huh?" Azurine looked up to the sky, calling back to Inigo's specific warning not to let Iago in on the plan and narrowing her eyes in confusion. "...what'd he say?"

"I was instructed to come here after you and help defeat Galileo, which I have done most auspiciously." Iago explained, before huffing in annoyance. "But in the interests of the four people he wished to protect, he told me he would hand me over to Libera if I dared to kill the man! And I am not a fan of Libera."

Iago sighed once again, placing a hand on his forehead. "He told me that I should let him go, for he wished for you lot to see for yourselves what happens when a member of Libera is defeated - for it will be helpful to plan against in the future." he hummed. "Additionally, he told me to stay my hand until the fool was rampaging - but I can see you had that under cover."

"Well, I'm told I'm an expert at pissing people off, so..." Silas chuckled quietly, before clearing his throat. "...so, Grant went to...Modum, right? That's what he said, I think..."

"That must be where their secret base is!" Azurine exclaimed. "Let's tell Inigo the good news once I'm done chewing him out!"

"Even if it isn't their base, if Grant went there, we're bound to find something." Jude hummed. "Oh, but it's so far...we'd have to take so many trains..."

"We'll just have to put that on the agenda. Make a note of it, Azurine." Silas said, and as the short redhead nodded, he continued to talk. "But in the meantime, we're going to need to do a little cleaning up. Help some civilians, put out some fires, fight off the rest of Grant's men if he hasn't already ordered a retreat. Plus, there's that spree killer..."

"True...Grant did leave a big mess behind." Azurine frowned, looking up at Iago. "It's up to us to clean up after him. Are you with us, Iago?"

"Well, it certainly seems like fun." Iago replied, giving a smile that was subtly but noticeably wicked. Realising this, Silas, Azurine and Jude each shared a knowing glance, realising one of them would have to wrangle him. If Inigo could leash him like this, maybe they could, too. "But don't the two of you need to rest up, first?"

"He's right." Silas nodded before Azurine could speak up in protest. "Let's hang around for the time being. And don't worry, we'll be back in action in no time flat."

"Okay..." Azurine murmured semi-sulkingly. And at that, all four of them remained in place, allowing for Azurine and Jude's shields to heal up, the smouldering rubble in the distance a reminder of the extraordinary events that had taken place this morning. And they felt hopeful for what this meant for Ruben moving forward. Hopefully, just hopefully, this was the start of a new dawn.