DISCONTINUED

Chapter 45

 The path led them to the outside of a giant church, with a moat surrounding it just like the castle before. A man stood right by the lowered drawbridge, facing away from him. He looked similar to Rise, except he wore a bright blue sweater vest over a lighter shirt. A strap seemed to wind its way around his torso, possibly holding up a drum or something similar.

"Ah! That's him!" Spain cried out, pointing at the man. The man turned, looking at them just as disinterestedly as Rise had. Russia gave a small start, instantly recognizing the man.

"Estonia..." He said quietly.

"Haa! I was right!" Prussia said, triumphant. "Praise me!" This earned him a glare from some of the nations nearby.

"How do you live with that?" England asked, glancing over at Germany. The German just looked absolutely fed up with his older brother, something that seemed to happen a lot.

"Same way you do with America." He replied.

"Touche." England said back.

"I am the Top of the Wheel of Fortune, the tenth arcana." The man said, making both of them turn back to him. "This will be your second test of your Judgement. You may not pass until you prove yourself worthy." He pulled two drumsticks from his pocket, holding them at ready above the drum strapped to his chest.

"Yea, yea!" America said, already swinging his bat out. "Tell us something we don't know!" Top just spun one of the drumsticks before bringing it down upon his drum, hard. The sound was incredibly loud, maybe not as loud as Rise's bell, but loud enough to cause the entire ground to shake and even crack. One crack ran right through the middle of the group, which prompted all of them to jump to either side.

"Looks like he uses his instrument to cause earthquakes..." England muttered. "Maybe...China!" The Chinese man turned, clearly confused. "When I say go, you use your own earth attack! If we can overpower his own, the others might be able to get close enough!"

"Got it!" China yelled back. He began running forwards, dragging his wok across the ground as he ran closer to Top. As soon as the nation was close enough, he dug the wok deeper into the ground, pulling up and bringing up bits and pieces of rock along with it. Top got an entire face-full of it, before getting trapped by large slabs of the ground coming up and encasing him, courtesy of England's magic.

The others moved in right after that, hitting the arcana with everything they had. Eventually, as the earth spell faded, Top backed away, wiping away some blood from his chin. He didn't say a word as his eyes traveled over the group. And a second later, he fled, just like Rise did.

"Grah! Why won't enemies just stay and die!?" Prussia demanded, crossing his arms and pouting.

"..Hmm, speaking of, it's been awhile since we've seen that World fellow." England pointed out. "I wonder if he finally took a hint and buzzed off." China suddenly gave a start, as if he had realized something.

"China?" Japan asked, noticing this.

"What? Oh, it's nothing." China hastily said. "Nothing..." Japan clearly wasn't convinced, and it was only after a few seconds of awkward silence before either one of them spoke.

"If you have something you don't want to tell the others, I will not pry." Japan finally said, much to China's relief.

"Thank you." The older nation said. The group all took a collective few steps forward, looking up in amazement at the huge cathedral standing in front of them.

"So, this is the place?" Spain asked, his eyes darting to each of the windows in turn.

"A church..." Canada said, breathless. "What sort of person would have this as their domain I wonder."

"It could be quite a number of people." Austria pointed out.

"I have a feeling I know what arcana persona is in there." France said, narrowing his eyes rather worriedly. "We need to watch ourselves carefully with this one, especially on holy ground." The group began walking towards the building. But before they began walking in, they noticed there was a path leading around to the back of the church. Taking the small detour, they walked around the building only to see a small graveyard.

"This one only reads 'XII'." France said, bending down to read the closest tombstone. China moved a bit away at it, holding his head with one hand.

"Looking at this makes me feel dizzy...not sure why." He mumbled.

"What about this one?" England asked, walking to another one. "This only has 'IX' written on it." Japan did the same as China, moving away from that one tombstone in particular.

"I feel...uneasy..." He said quietly. "Can we please go?"

"Interesting." Russia said, bending down to the one next it. "All that's on here is 'XVIII'."

"I have a feeling I know what that means..." France said, motioning to the other two gravestones as well. "But I would rather not think about that." There was still one grave left, one that wasn't marked with flowers like the rest.

"This one has 'VIII' on it." Austria read.

"I wonder why this one is not decorated like the rest." Russia noticed.

"Maybe they're not dead yet." Prussia suggested, shrugging slightly. This earned him a sharp slap in the back of the head from his younger brother, along with a "Prussia!" yell from Germany too. "What! It's a possibility!"

There was nothing else to see there. Just four tombstones, possibly set up by someone to mourn...whoever those four were. So the group turned and began heading back towards the entrance of the church.

Right to yet another lord.

Short chapter, yes. But hey, at least I'm updating. Next chapter will be much longer, I pinky swear on it.

Anywho! See you all next chapter!