Michael charged, pressing so much axis energy into his legs that he could hear the audible crack of his knees.
Neveah followed close behind, lifting her body into the air with a crimson barrier.
Gabriel hurled his trident with an ocean of might.
But sure enough.
Everything froze.
Including the three of them.
Then Leander sighed.
"You still don't get it."
He lifted his hand.
Snap!
With the click of his fingers, Michael's jaw snapped, falling limply as his jaw simply hung from a couple bloodied strands of flesh...
He tried to speak, only to realize that Leander had simply rendered his voice useless...
He frantically turned his head, his eyes locking with Neveah as hers went wide.
Then it vanished... A wave of blood splattering from her face as her singular eye ripped and deconstructed before Michael.
Her vision was now completely gone.
Gabriel frozen with his arms in front of his face further back, strained his face with the bracing of the inevetible.
However, it was his legs that shattered below him, snapping in unnatural ways.
"This is not a fight you can win like this... In fact, I couldn't even tell you how only the three of you could defeat me."
Leander vanished after the last word left his mouth, a powerful force emerging from behind Michael.
With the strike of Leander's hand, Michael was sent flying into one of the several golden pillars forming a circle around the throne room.
A shattering crash resounded through the castle as Michael felt every bone in his back shatter.
He tried to scream as he watched Leander emerge from a golden light behind Neveah, but the art of time rendered them completely powerless.
Then just before Leander could kill Neveah where she stood...
He laughed.
Turning his head towards the shadowy hallway... His smile widened.
A silhouette emerged, carrying the shadow of an instrument in his hands.
Michael's eyes widened as Griffin of House Harpy happily stepped into the throne room.
"This is certainly a poor matchup..." Griffin said giddily, looking up at Leander's tall and powerful figure.
"I do not know you..." Leander declared with amusement.
He turned his gaze towards the three members of Unity who had somehow already lost before the battle had even begun...
...
Leander had been quite disappointed, seeing the people he had such high hopes for fail when the time demanded victory.
However, fate had showed its irrelevancy once again... As a singular Bard wore a grin before the lesser god of time.
Leander was no fool.
He could sense the powerful drive radiating from the Bard's body.
Then a flash of gold began to shine within his golden lute.
Leander almost boomed with laughter, nearly euphoric in this unrealized change in the course of this battle.
A golden rapier appeared in the hands of Griffin.
"YES!" Leander boomed with excitement as several more golden flashes appeared behind the Bard.
It was a childish feeling.
However, being tied down by his own element for so long... Leander felt like his neurons had spiked every single time someone had broken the laws of time and went against the script.
It was pure joy.
And now it had played against him, making him even more estatic.
Because by some unknown factor...
The bard before him... Was not affected by Leander's time manipulation.
Griffin grinned.
"I did not sacrifice my very being so you three could simply lose..." He said with trembling in his own ecstatic voice.
Gabriel groaned as time released him, looking at Griffin with awe as he tried to force his body to somehow stand.
Leander did feel shame in beating them so cruelly... But it was mercy compared to what their future enemies would do to them. So when the hourglass had shifted before Leander... Showing a possible future in which they overcome this unbelievably certain defeat...
He smiled with sinister...
"Griffin is it?" Leander asked, opening several rotating discs of golden energy behind him.
"Indeed, Leander of House Orion... You may call me Griffin of House Harpy... The greatest Bard to ever live... The musician who will play the strings of Eternity for as long as I live."
"You cannot possibly face me in battle..." Leander chuckled, glancing at the pathetic excuses for his students.
"I know... That's what makes this encounter so damn fun!" Griffin responded, with trembling hands as the golden orbs of light behind him began to shift into ethereal yet tangible objects.
Then the bard turned towards each of his allies.
"Get the hell up bastards... It is your job to protect your supports! This is not a battle I can overcome by myself! And... YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THAT UNITY DOES NOT STAND FOR THE EFFORTS OF A SINGLE MAN!"
Then... As if his words had somehow changed the very battlefield itself.
A powerful force lit up Leander's senses from behind.
He turned almost sluggishly... As if the being had moved too fast for Leander to comprehend.
Michael grinned, slashing a frozen scythe straight at Leander's throat.
'Why always the throat!?' Leander thought, lifting his arm up in the nick of time and blocking the scythe engraved with several strange markings.
Then as if on queue... Neveah's greatsword appeared in the corner of Leander's eyes.
Then... As he tried to dodge the improbable attack...
A string of music began to radiate throughout the arena.
An orchestra of countless spells had been performed by the bard... As thousands of instruments came to life around him.
Leander's smile widened.
He could not block all three of the attacks...
As Gabriel... Riding a vortex of water, even with his shattered legs... Had overcome adversity with just the words of this boy Leander had never even heard of before...
The trident pierced Leander's knee.
The fight was not over though, as this only meant that Leander could go all out.
Thousands of flashes of pure gold lit up the entire kingdom... And countless rotating circles of golden energy began to fire in all directions, ricocheting off of every physical object, some even breaking through solid gold in order to kill Unity.
Michael dodged left, although his bones were shattered. Leander could see it.
Ice reinforcing his body... Essentially taking the place of his bones.
'Impressive...' Leander thought, ducking underneath the greatsword once again.
But much to his surprise.
The rapier skewered his abdomen...
The bard was fighting alongside them!
"WONDERFUL!" Leander boomed.
"BEHOLD UNITY! THE TRINITY ART OF THE SON OF ORION!"
But this battle had no conclusion. So if Leander wished it.
It could last for Eternity...