DISCONTINUED

Chapter 35

"...And, so, basically, that's what's happened to us so far." Germany finished as the group headed into another rather narrow canyon. Prussia nodded, folding his arms. He stayed strangely silent for a bit before looking back up and noticing someone in front of them. 

"There he is!!" He yelled, suddenly running ahead of the others. "That's who I was tailing!" By the time the others tried to get a closer look, the figure seemed to disappeared. But they at least got a somewhat good look at whoever it was. And Prussia was right about him being eerily familiar

"You're right, he does look familiar." Russia said. Prussia drew his sword, pointing it towards the figure.

"Come on, after him! CHARGE!" He yelled. America let out a huff, folding his arms.

"Who made him in charge of the party?" He asked. 

"The fact that he has a lead, that's what." Germany threw over his shoulder, shaking his head. Prussia had begun running forwards, but was stopped by a loud roar from overhead. The same creature from before had suddenly flown down to them, its jaws open in a screech.

"Scheisse!! You again!!" Prussia said, skidding to a halt. The creature let loose another screech. "Didn't get enough of my awesome last time?! I'll make sure you choke on the taste!" It whipped its tail around, nearly hitting Prussia in the side. He lept aside, swinging his sword.

"Come on, he can't do it on his own." Germany said, pulling his whip out. The others pulled out their weapons as well as the creature began flapping its large wings violently. The wind it created was intense, nearly knocking them off their feet. Just as they regained their balance, the monster let out a roar, a sword's point spearing it in the chest.

"West! Or someone!" Prussia yelled from behind. "Go get'em!" There were two people who even responded to this. Canada and Germany. Germany charged at the monster, whipping his weapon around the creature's neck and chest as well. Canada sent a huge flurry of ice spikes towards the monster. The creature let out one final roar before falling to the ground, limp.

"Kesesese!! Take that you overgrown snake with wings!!" Prussia taunted, pulling his sword out only to plunge it back into the snake again.

"Actually it's refered to as--" England began, looking rather annoyed. But he was cut off by Prussia.

"Don't care! Let's keep going!!" The former nation began heading back after the figure they saw before. England let out an annoyed sigh, but followed the others as they continued onwards.

They reached what looked like a large castle in no time, with the person standing by the moat. He had his back turned to them. hands behind his back. He was short, incredibly short. He also didn't look older than 16. He wore a white undershirt covered by a red vest and brown pants. His hair was slightly ruffled, as if someone had messed it around.

"Gotcha now, punk!!" Prussia called as they neared the person. "No where else to run!!"

"Good." The person said, turning to face them. He had narrowed blue eyes, as if he was bored with them already. 

"Latvia??" Russia said in surprise, recognizing the young man. 

"Ooh, that's why he was so familiar!" Prussia said, throwing the russian a side-long glance quickly. "He's one of that trio you used to abuse!" Russia rubbed the back of his head, looking away and at the ground.

".....I wouldn't call it 'abuse'." He said. The person took a step forwards, not even acknowledging this small exchange

"I am the Rise of the Wheel of Fortune, the tenth Arcana." He said simply, his gaze traveling over each of them. "This will be your first test of your Judgement. You may not pass until you prove yourself worthy."

"I figured one of these things would try to do a 'worthy' test." England hissed, raising his wand slightly. "Be prepared!" Rise didn't do a thing, except pull out a small bell. He rang it once. And the sound that emitted from the small thing was the loudest thing any of them had ever heard. It was so bad, almost all of them had to cover their ears to prevent any serious damage. As soon as their weapons were lowered ever so slightly, Rise sent a large shower of ice shards towards them.

Russia had activated his own power, making a large wall of even larger ice spikes between them and Rise. The ringing had stopped, thankfully. 

"We better have a plan for defeating this guy, otherwise we're all dead." America said, the first one to recover from the first attack. England pulled his spellbook out, flipping through it.

"There should be a way for me to block out that ringing magically, but I think the side-effect will be we can't communicate with each other." He said. "Would you all be willing to take that risk?" The group glanced around at each other before nodding. England returned the nod and stopped on a page. "Right. Russia, when I signal for you to do so, let this barrier down. We just will have to avoid his ice attacks, alright?" Russia, who hadn't been looking over at them and instead trying to keep the wall of ice up and stable, gave a noise that sounded close enough to a "yes". England quickly cast the spell, robbing nearly all of them from their hearing. He then gave a thumbs up to Russia, who let down the barrier.

Rise had rung his bell again. While they couldn't hear it, they could feel the vibrations in the ground. As soon as he realized his bell wouldn't work, the Arcana seemed to think desperately of what to do. That's when they attacked.

England shot several spells at him, keeping him distracted while Russia and Canada both shot ice shards at him. Japan and France were next, hitting RIse with their combined swords at the same time. Germany tripped him up, just as Prussia jumped overhead in a downwards strike. Rise had managed to get Germany's whip off of him and rolled out of the way of Prussia's attack. He had stopped attacking all together, holding his arm while panting heavily. England quickly undid the spell, just as Rise turned and ran away.

"Hey, come back here!!" Prussia yelled after him, sheathing his sword. He looked just about ready to run after Rise himself.

"Prussia, leave him be." Germany advised. "I believe we have bigger matters on our hands." The group, also putting their weapons away, began walking towards the moat. They looked up, right at the grand castle before them. Its towers reached towards the sky, glinting in the Wasteland's harsh sunlight. A moat did seperate the actual building and their side, but a large, polished drawbridge would most likely drop down to grant them access.

"A prisoner must be here." Canada noted. "But whoever rules here looks like they want a lot of protection." 

"Or Reve did some redecorating to keep us out." France added. It seemed to be the latter, especially if you take into consideration the "trouble" they're caused Reve as of late.

"Do you think this could be Italy's?" Germany asked, almost sounding hopeful.

"Not likely." England replied. "To protect the host he would have used more protection then just a moat." 

"But how do we get inside?" Russia said, pointing up to the drawbridge. "I do not think any of us could reach that bridge."

FInally you have arrived; I have been expecting you. A voice from behind them said. The entire group seemed to all turn sharply. Just in time to see a man standing behind them, a hand on his hip and a smile on his face.

I decided to leave it off here. Enjoy speculating who that is in the comments

Also, how the heck did this get over 1k reads? I honestly just did this just...because. I only really started rapid fire updating this because I got a Chromebook and it got so much more easier to update this at least. And look at this story now. Not only my longest, but also my most popular story (excluding my Randomness book of course)

I honestly have no idea how this became as popular as it is. 

But thank you all I suppose! 

And I'll see you all again in the next chapter! See you all then!