"Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must, therefore, accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces."

-Sigmund Freud

━━━━━━━━┓ ? ┏━━━━━━━━

With the audience now gone in both sight and in presence, for reasons that Jaiden trusts to be of Celes' doing, three remained in the vast coliseum, with two of which are in a detriment and one left to die being caught up in the ruckus, hopefully... The despicable King in his cage, the Patriarch, and the Feudal Overlord himself, so to say...

"This, that I'm about to show you is indeed the true waltz of a revered Patriarch... Waltz! Stance number 999... Paradigm Shift! Illusory Valhalla!"

The old patriarch snapping out from being marveled by Jaiden's Paradigm Shift whilst taking on a different martial art stance, also declared his own, keeping the oath that he would respond fully, likewise to his duel sparring partner. From the first waltz of the mediocre and rather slothful winds, to now... an unprecedented incursion, jumping the Waltz count directly by a total of 997.

And now, he stands, radiating this unrivaled melee combat energy, and a significant amount of magical pressure, even driving Jaiden's aura, a little less dark.

Moreover, unlike the young misanthropic lad, he was not taking any deformation to become something anew, however, Paradigm Shifts are defined to be not an offspring of such mundanity and his declaration for one falls on the same category.

"I surely wish to explain to you what my Paradigm Shift does, although it's nothing of note like yours, but it's a pain... so I'm just gonna proceed, while you acquaint yourself with the fundamentals." The Patriarch exclaimed in full confidence, now that he had pronounced his last resort, probably the strongest in his arsenal of skills.

"Y-yeah... You should probably do, just that." Replied the recently-metamorphosed feudal overlord bearing the pang that his Paradigm Shift Usage Violation is still giving him...

"Azazel... Play anything for me." Pleaded the youngster to the Autonomous Maiden, but this time 'only', he must not afford to be picky. Anything will do if it can somehow distract him from the continuous painful barrage.

"Affirmative, Master... Scanning mp3 files... Mp3 files found... Playing recommended... 'Mind Games, by Sickick'."

"Alas, here I am again with your weird auto-recommendation...H-hayst, whatever... I'll just have some of your algorithms changed later..." He self-rumbled, in a way that his voice can't even be heard externally.

"As you wish, Master... I pray to Lady Lacrimosa, your wellness whilst maintaining this form..."

"Seriously?" He thought, as the notion of worshipping that figure, is rather nonchalant...

(...)

Illusory Valhalla, the Paradigm Shift that Jaiden is still yet to fully know. Otherwise known as the Final Waltz is not to be taken for granted. It's a martial art stance that will open the very impeccable gates of your mind, one that you don't want to be laid publicized to just anyone. Horrible memories that you want to forget, of embarrassment that you have had laid aside, and of your greatest secrets... Nothing will remain hidden, as it will provide an implausible closure between the user and its opponent. And, such an invasion to privacy is not where it ends...

Unlike Jaiden's which lets him take an inhumane form, with inhumane capabilities, this shift is an 'Area of Effect' that can be used either on an individual or on a crowd, making it perfect for one on one duels and within any scenario on the battlefields. And peculiarly, it's a Paradigm Shift designed to alter the natural law that maintains the division of reality and illusions...

'Reality', being, defined as the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary... will never remain the same, not as long as this shift is in operation, as Illusions will find themselves meddling with reality...literally.

"Let the mind game, begin!"

With all of his strength, and speed highly comparable to that of the sounds, the Patriarch drove upfront towards Jaiden with his straightened palm, and the young Herrscher, not willing to dodge to conserve physical strength, made a dark glossy shield through his right Crossange Arsenal... A shield that not only knows defense but now also knows to resort to the offense, gushing forth these large chains clanking nonresonantly to hold the patriarch down, even filling up the coliseum... but failed, as the Patriarch's speed is above precedented...

"Oy oy! Where are you looking at?"

Surprisingly, the Patriarch was on the back of Jaiden, whispering right into his ear, calmly and with a rather, confident look of a biased positive outcome of the duel, while his right palm, being positioned on Jaiden's head and the other, poking his cheek as if he's ready to pop his whole head up, but that was not the plan and not how his Paradigm Shift works... He moved closer in range for a very special reason...

"I must say... It's very commendable that I am likely to pull up a slight effort to defeat you... After all, your hero, archpriest, king, and his three million armies did not even spell the slightest of challenge... but am I looking rather satirical to you? poking my cheek, sneaking on me and all." Jaiden, with his black scleral eyes, tilted his head a little to stare towards the Patriarch on his back.

"Oy oy, It's rather weird being complemented by someone who just arrived. Ahahahaha... But, I'll have you know, that there's no way I'm mocking someone who has his Caliber from that Goddess. This is a part of an integral process. Von Voyage..."

And then, from his palm, a magical circle of violet, the same color of his robe, appeared. He then made a portion of that summoned circle make physical contact with Jaiden's head, and from that point, a black cube emerged, as if it was a memoir extracted from the memories of the specified target...

Old Patriarch Durandal then seized the cube extracted out from Jaiden's mind, saying...

"I've won."

"Hmmm... Let me try a new skill to reverse the tables then... Skillset, number 20: The Emperor." Exclaimed Jaiden who found the hasty proclamation of a victor rather whimsical, calling a skillset enlisted within Pandora.exe's display overlay in his field of vision.

The eclipse, right in the top of the coliseum, reacted to the call and suddenly as if it's fastly pouring its darkness from its very own shadows, a gigantic magical circle formed atop, covering the entirety of the coliseum, and possibly including all of the corners of the same personal realm.

Seven tall Undead Angels arrayed in dark hoods, with jet black wings and hair as white as snow which seemed less majestic to the lad himself, appeared. They were the seven ancient Necromancers, the first to ever emerge as connoisseurs on the fields who were executed by the ancient neanderthals of the same realm for the fear of their power. They then hovered themselves in the magic circle with trumpets of bones on their hands... The seven blew their instruments in 3-second intervals and in a clockwise manner... Then the magical circle, as if it's becoming ready to unleash grand magic or some sort begins to showcase this phosphorescence, and then... the seven did not further delay the call of their emperor.

"HOI! Somebody bring me out!!!!!" King Aurelius shouted as loud as he could, but there was no one to listen. He fell inside his cage, fainting just by once again beholding the visage, but this time, even worse.

The seventh then blows his trumpet, and from the magical circle, appeared a monstrous head of an infamous dragon... One of the two most mythical creatures who has been long gone from the current era and the Patriarch recognized it well... Its head was on par with the coliseum's size, gargantuan eyes like the sun itself, and scales, made of black impenetrable glasses, enshrouded by these shades of dark unquenchable flames of whose body, still inside the circle, remains a mystery as if it were to opt-out completely, it would not fit, even on the old patriarch's vast realm space...

"THE SEVEN ANCIENT NECROMANCERS, AND NOW, T-THAT DRAGON... G-GOMORRAH!... SUMMONS CALLING OUT ANOTHER SUMMON!? WHERE DID YOU GET THAT POWER? LACRIMOSA DOES NOT POSSES SOMETHING SUCH AS THIS!... ARE YOU REALLY NEW HERE?" Words like that came out from the patriarch's pursed lips, seeing the skillset 'The Emperor' on display (Of which Jaiden really know nothing about.... "7 Ancient Necromancers? Gomorrah? Isn't that a desolate ancient city?')

"Oy vey, Are you sure about that? Well, while I don't know the answer to that either, if whether that Goddess has powers hidden such as this all along... All I can say is... You better survive, Patriarch Sir. I did not agree to such a duel if your Stance number 999 will be countered just like that."

"He... Hehehe. Hehehehe... From being complimented, to now being lectured, all from the same youth... Surely, I won't fall that easy Feudal Overlord 'soon-to-be', and my Paradigm Shift is far from being countered. As dealt I will go all out... and now that I have this, victory is still on my favor." He added while holding out to the dark cube that he, himself extracted from Jaiden's head... but now, with less elevated confidence in his face when compared before, and what replaced it was this hysterical expression coalesced with nervousness and excitement...

"That's good to hear, Sir."