"The wind is made of haunting souls, that moan and groan, in whistles and whispers.

This ghostly choir chills the breeze, and orchestrates a rise of goosebumps on my skin."

-Richelle E. Goodrich

━━━━━━━━┓ ? ┏━━━━━━━━

"Master... Would you like me to play the correct background music?"

"Classics?"

"I have something better, Master...derived on the rating that you provided. It's a girlfriend ASMR"

"Then, no thanks."

"Affirmative."

Hayst... I would personally prefer anything if it's from the composer Johann Strauss II at this point... but that AI maiden's Algorithm does not work that way, how unfortunate... but before thinking about that, I must first deal with the situation at hand.

Celes, seated on her seat, grasped that this little showdown that is about to spark would be detrimental for the audience. And so out of her sheer boldness of not fearing to be the firstly-made publicized Herrscher, which she already is, she summoned her sacred sword, and out of it, radiated this purple light, forming this tangible purple glass that engulfed the entire coliseum to serve as Aegis, shielding the entire populace from thinkable harms. I have to thank her later for the initiative, moreover, it's not that I doubt her ability. but it better be strong enough to withstand any possible impact...Yet, she was not alone on the endeavor to protect the witnesses.

"Men! Safeguard the people!" commanded the elite armies, to their appointed men.

"Yes, sir!"

The armies' mages, positioned on the furthest and atop of the venue's attic, also initiatively formed this individual but smaller elemental shields made from their own paradigms. They then positioned it in a way that made us look like animals in a gigantic dome aquarium for vain entertainment, where none can come in and get out.

Well, the aegis is backed up so it looks more established now... That should set the environment enough.

"Let me make the first move! Waltz! Dance of the winds!" The old patriarch standing afar, in a martial art stance, spearheads the primary incursion of the battle.

"Stance number One... Gryphon Embodiment. " He exclaimed rather calmly, while his white long hair starts to rise up as if he's in a super Saiyan mode or something, together with his purple robe whose sudden upward flow, altogether glyphs this sudden emergence of power.

Then, out of the eventually-slowly-darkening, blue virtual skies which are but a fragment of the patriarch's self-made realm came this giant rift mid-air, slowly opening like an eerily white portal and inside was a magical circle of silver...

As the rift opens, it gushed forth this violent winds, in response to the old man's call for his paradigm... Then, another mythical creature of renown appears, which is a coalition of two highly-revered earth-based animals. A silver-scaled beast with a tail, back legs, and body of a lion, whilst also having a head, front legs and broad wings of a majestic eagle... but this time, it's colored silver, its scales like unblemished crystal glasses, and its eyes were the same color of usual fiery flames. It's Griffin but revamped and improvised.

"Long time no see Gryphon! I appreciate seeing you today... Care to help me in this little dance? This old pile of bones sure can use a helping hand."

It then flapped its wings mightily while roaring with the sound of an Eagle but with a powerful voice of a lion, causing the winds to grow even more ecstatic, leaving his feathers all around, but as if the creature was but virtual, the feathers, the moment it touches the floor evaporates to become one with the wind.

And then, like a little puff of smoke, the creature curled, metamorphosing, into an orb of concentrated wind dashing towards the old man which was directly below him, which I perceive to be that embodiment that he said earlier.

"Weeewww... It's been a long time that I can be in this form again."

This compressed orb of wind then concentrated around him and turned to this pressurized transparent charisma enshrouding the outline of his body...

And just by having that silver-scaled creature embody him, he now even radiates a stellar combat proficiency even just by standing, and I know for sure, that it's not before long that I'll have to embrace a dangerous pack of jolts.

"It's a pain to say all of that long line of chants and the plead for power isn't it? I always have the feeling that I'll be killed right before I can do anything." The old patriarch, in the midst of his transformation, exclaims.

"Y-yes, and aside from being disadvantageous, it's very cringy... but why do it?"

"Oy oy, if I won't then neither will anything respond... Listen, Lacrimosa's chosen one, Paradigms are like thinking and intellectual concepts. They're designed to be called..."

Eh? Doesn't look that way to me... at least.

"Well, we are not here for a little lesson-letting aren't we? Let's dance."

Suddenly, there's four of him, as if having himself cloned in that split nanosecond... One in each direction, while all of them had their palms facing my way. "Waltz. Stance number Two. Four-directional Planetary winds!"

Then, out from their palms, tornadoes begin to form that could have had easily destroyed the venue if not because of the aegis's established presence...

"You better not die away!"

Oh, certainly I can't...

As the vast bombardment of violent-looking tornadoes is coming, using the audience's deceits, hatred, and narcissism, which of course are coming from the nobles themselves, I defended, forming four big shields invincible to their ignorant eyes. And fortunately for me, their evil intents which are continuously gushing forth this dark charisma are not even that fragile, which is to my advantage.

The strong four winds from the clones and the patriarch himself hit the shields, but the defense was too much. Well, it's not my fault why it's like this... I never could have imagined that these great bleak emotions surround the crowd, which I can use as I wish... The barbarous tornadoes dispersed, unable to inflict even the slightest dents to the shield.

"The patriarch's attack did not work?" The supporting crowd earlier began to be silent seeing that an attack as big as that was not able to get into me, which is a bit comprehensible. In their perspectives, without being able to see what I used as a means of defense, it looked like I stopped the winds without even doing anything...

"Oy oy... And now they're assuming that my basic and most mediocre waltz will work..." The patriarch exclaimed countering the disappointment that the crowd has for him.

"So, the first ten stances are still weak as ever huh..." he added, examining his palm...

"Moreover... Was that, 'Requiem Aranea' just now? How nostalgic seeing it. So my hunch was spot on eh... That your Lacrimosa's Vessel in your little warfare."

"Yes, and I can't remember telling you that your introspection earlier was wrong either... But, just to ask you, what's your relationship with that Goddess...?"

"A former, but a sophisticated friend, actually."

"Why former? "

"For some reason, that she alone can explain... Hayst this has grown very tiring. Maintaining this realm while everyone else is here is even becoming a pain. I want to sleep. Having an old body really does get to me."

"The patriarch? Where's his former self!!!!!!!? Surely, he does not move like this!"

"Why is he only using his wind paradigm?"

"This is not so like him."

The crowd started to exclaim as if they're seeing a different patriarch from their acquainted one. They were even so proud of him earlier.

"Oy oy... some people just can't understand the essence of age and sleep deprivation."

"Ahahahahaha..." I laughed sardonically, now that I just realized... that all that I fought so far... were all half-assed mediocres...

But, come on, old man...I think you're just being purely slothful at this point...