“Yes Abue, I′ll be back home in a few hours” my abuela called me as I entered the mall, I had some things to do before going back home and unfortunately I had forgotten to tell my abuela about it, but I had a plan “Yeah I'm sorry, buuuutttt I will get you and my little brothers some bread from the bakery” she changed her tune really quick, she asked me for a lot of sweet bread “yeap will… do…” as I made my way to the store I needed to go, but I stopped when I saw all of my friends walking out of the movies, they told me that they would be studying for the tests when I asked them to hang out earlier “Te hablo despues abue” I said into the phone and hanged up “hey guys, what′s up?” I walked to my friends, trying not to sound angry. “Oh, hi Niko,” Higen said with a smile on his face. Ozie tried to make some hand movements to make him stop, but he didn’t catch up Donna smiled nervously, and Carter smirked, “Don’t, hi Niko me, you all said you were going to study, so what gives?” I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for an answer. “… well, the thing is, Nikky dude, Donna, why don’t you say it?” “Well… we were going to study, but we got sidetracked, right Ozie?” Ozwald looked at her and then back at me, and I knew where this was going.

  “Right, right, and am… then-” I uncrossed my arms, annoyed at them not telling it like it was.“You four went on a double date, and you didn’t want the fifth wheel to be in the middle!” Three of them whistled to not saying it out loud, “Higen, is this true?” Higen′s lip quivered for a second before saying “we just thought… it was a good time to go out only us… I′m really sorry Niko” and normally I would have taken that smile and said “Oh amigos, it′s fine! If you want a fun date that’s okay” but what′s annoying me is that instead they lie about it, I took a big breath of air “thanks Higen for been honest, and before you start smiling, yes, you are still in troubles” he lowered his head like a golden retrieved that just been told “you are a bad boy!” I turned around and walked off. “Wait, Niko, we are-” “no, you all wanted a date day, you can have it… I would walk out of the mall, but I still need to get some things, so go do couple things and give me some time to process.”

  I walked away form them, they have been acting more coupleish lately, I think it started a few days ago, everything was normal, we had went out like we usually do, it was when I noticed that they all had matching jewlery, donna and Ozie had silver earings, while Higen and Carter had matching silver rings, they told me they had got them form a cart in the mall, at first I tought noting of it, but after that, they started to hang out less and less with me, and the few times I have seen them all they can talk about are their significant others, and when I managed to get all of them to hang out they just ignored me to the point of not even notice when I was gone form the hang out, I try to not give it much tough, I mean, I tought that was normal but now, I′m not too sure; my phone rang and when I looked at the screen it showed a titan near by, “okay Niko” I told myself as I walked to the location “they were dumbasses but this is slightly more important” I waited for a moment outside of the laberinth for everyone else to show up five minutes tuned to ten, ten to fifteen, I pulled my phone out and called Ozie “…we are sorry the number-” I cut the call and try Higen “we are sorry the-” “… I swear to god!” “We are sorry-” “We are-”

  I consider smashing my phone on the ground but I need it for now, and if I found out that they are not here for a dumb reason I will murder them, I entered the labyrinth it took the form of a land made of candy, I passed near a big chocolate heart with the words I LOVE YOU!” which I promptly power washed with my mirror out of shear rage “I am having a day!” I said and concentrated on finding the titan, the water rippled and showed me the way, in the center of a plaza made of cotton candy was what appeared to be a girl, pail gray skin dressed like a witch she pointed at a person and it turned them into a gingerbread man, her mouth opened into a dreadfully big maw, I moved the mirror in front of me and use it to shoot water from it, hitting the titan in her hand I made a small bubble to keep the person safe, maybe Tartaro′s can turn them back to normal, she did not appreciate me taking her food form her.

  The titan pounced on me and, using her arms, pinned me down to the ground. “Hey! Let g,o you grime reject!!!” I tried to kick her off me but she was stronger than she looked my mirror landed a few feet away from me I tried to move it but it was slow I needed to free one of my hands to move it more smoothly, the titan tried to bite my head and neck, I could hear the rumbling of her empty stomach, she didn’t try to turn me into candy maybe she was too blinded by rage by my actions and just wanted to eat me as is, I moved my head from side to side, she managed to sink her teeth in my shoulder but instead of hurting a few barriers broke “guy… I could use a hand!!!” I kept fighting until I was out of barriers, before she could bite me for real she held her stomach and let go of my arms, I took the chance and kicked her off me, I moved my mirror and ready a shoot but when I looked back she was gone, the labyrinth crumbled, I walked and picked up the gingerbread man and was face to face with the after team “Mr. Cruz, are you hurt? Where is everyone else? Is that a cookie?” the leader of the team asked I was annoyed, bruised and cut “only my pride, I hope fighting Otis or a calamity, no it′s a person that was turned into a treat can anyone help him?”

  “… I am sorry… you fore were WHAT?!?” a few minutes after the after team left with the cookie man the rest of the team appeared they appeared with greens on their faces with a random girl next to them she was wearing the same earrings they had, “like we said Niko, we felt so bad for not include you that we wanted to help” the girl waved at me “Hi I′m Hanna, nice to met you Niko” I was dumbfounded, for a second I forgot how to speak English, so I stood there with my mouth wide open “see, I told you he would like her!” Donna said and high-fived Ozie, “he is so impressed he can't talk.” “Whatever, I think Evelin was better, but she was busy,” Carter said. “I′m with Marten, she is also a musician…” sick, this situation is sickening, something very wrong is happening.

  “Okay, no.” “What do you mean, no?” Higen asked, “No to whatever this is.” Hanna looked hurt by my comment, “Look, I'm sorry Hanna, you are really cute and all, and I'm sure you are cool, but something wrong is going on here!” Hanna took a step back, and the rest of the group glared at me. “How can you say that?” Donna asked, “Donna, I don’t want a relationship, let alone one with someone I don’t kno…” I put one and one tougher at the part that made the least amount of sense, as one of them was holding his head confused and with a few strands of blood coming from his nose, “Hig… why are you pushing this on me?” everyone turned to look at him, his eyes moved quickly as if looking for the right thing to say, “I… you see having someone is-" “NO! what you are trying to do is the same thing that happened to you in your home, Hig, how can you back them up?”

  He held his head as if the conflicting emotions were about to explode in his head. His ring cracked and looked back at me, “Niko… huh? You are right!” “Big Guy, come on, you know it's for the better if he has someone, remember?” he showed his earrings. “If we have this, we don’t need anything else,e he smiled and hugged Ozie, “you know I like it when you say things like that… which is going to be hard for me to do THIS!” Higen lifted Ozie and throwed him to Donna and Carter, he closed the distance and ran next to me “Come on you were right this is wrong, like siren kind of wrong!” we started to run from our friends once our of sight I dragged Higen to a clothing store and we did the one thing that we bouth agreed is the sfates place to have a combersation, he closed the racks of clothing on a circular rack and we took cover “I think we are on the clear” “I haven’t hid here in a long while, anyway, what the hell is going on?” he tought for a moment and took the ring off “Ozwald give me this ring a week ago, I tought it was a nice gift but when I put it on, it was like I couldn’t think straight” “right, I remember he told me he got it from here, can I see the ring?” he handed it over, I summoned my mirror and placed it on it, it started to spin and in the reflection I saw a cart with people around it “Okay I got the location… OH no!” from the cracks red tendrils like insect legs came out and the ring started to move, Higen crush It under his palm "a lesser Titan"

  “wow… this is my first zombie apocalypse scenario,” Niko said while touching what was left of the lesser Titan, “this is a concerning situation, as the last time this happened we had Ozie on our side” I let the pieces of the ring fall to the ground and put on my gloves, “right so how did Ozie break the control of the Titan?” “am… well… he used a divine word and he did something shocking to snap out of it” Niko nodded and snapped his fingers “Well can you do something shocking to wake him and the others up?” my face felt hot and I stumble for a moment with my words “wh… while I can kiss Ozwlad to brake a curse I will not kiss Marten!!! I have standards… and I can't kiss Donna I heard is against some kind of code of brotherhood” Niko thought for a moment as I steadied myself “I managed to bring you back by catching you in a contradiction but we could try to take their jewelry off and see if that helps them… also we need to get out of this clothing rack my legs are starting to cramp” I nodded and help him out, Niko showed me where the cart was located, we moved slowly and carefully as more and more people wearing rings and earrings were walking in the same direction.

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  We took cover behind a big plant pot when we were closer to the cart “Hey Niko I have a question, last time you used your mirror this way you used a lot of power, are you going to be okay?” he gave me a thumbs up and smiled “no worries, last time, we were far from the place I was looking for, but now, we are really close so I was easier to pinpoint… I′m sorry you are stuck with me tho…” I was confused. “What do you mean?” I kept an eye out to see if I could see our friends as he answered “Hig… I′m just the support, I can barely do damage if the others appear I don’t think I can help you much” “Niko, come on, as a knight I know firsthand that the most valuable thing in a combat is the help only you can give, I mean before you I had to switch between weapons to figure out which was more effective, you are awesome” I clapped him on the shoulder to reassure him, he smiled and blushed “I am kind of awesome, alright, let's stop this apocalypse now!”

  I nodded as we ran into the cart, instead of crashing we went through it and into the Titan′s layberinth, this time it took the fomr of a big garden, bright red and white roses adorned the bushes, a few busts depicting a twisted being like a member of a royal family, Niko was soon next to me mirror in hand “well this is bad first I went to the land of candy and now I′m at wonderland, all right give me a moment and I′ll get the path” Niko looked in his mirror until a sting of cyan light formed “it′s close, I can also sence the guys next to the Titan” I nodded and picked a branch to form a plan “right, Niko here is the thing” I made some drawins “I will handel, Marten and Donna since they can rush you down quickly and painfully” “you don’t need to remaind me, Carter always beats me every time when we train” “okay, I need you to keep Ozwald busy” he started to think “I have a question about divine words, so if I understand correctly Ozwald has to talk to use them, right?” I stood up and left the branch on the floor. “That is correct, for the words to take effect, a sorcerer must be able to talk.” Niko nodded, “I have a plan, not the best, but I think I know how to handle Ozie.”

  With a strategy made, I summoned a combat staff from my gloves. “You have non-lethal weapons?” Niko asked me “I don’t want to harm Donna and Marten, I keep a few of these for training” We kept moving guided by the light of Niko′s mirror, Noko opened his eyes and pushed me back as a swarm of the lesser Titans appeared “I′ll keep them at bay, see if you can figure out more about our enemy” I order him, I spun the staff in my hands to keep the swarm broke apart, making sure that I squashed any Titan that I could lesser Titans are not that difficult to deal with, they don’t possess cores or a space of their own, in general, they are a by-product of a proper titan, a few stung me but didn’t even manage to break a barrier “Hig kill the bigger one!” Niko yelled, I brought the staff down on a big cloud of Titans, and with a crack all of them dropped dead to the ground “This is worst than I thought” Niko said as he kneeled to look at the now dead Titans “They work as bees, they will defend the queen until the end, and right now, our friends are the same, we will need to incapacitate them if we want a chance to kill the Titan”

  We resumed our run through the labyrinth with the new information that we would have to fight our friends no matter what, this became more difficult but we must succeed if we wanted to free them, we arrived at a castle courtyard where we found the titan and our friends, the Titan had a semi-humanoid form, the torso of a woman but the lower half resembled a malformed rotten heart, she was carrying a scepter on her hands giving it the experience of a queen, we watched as she took one of the lesser titans and twisted it into a pair of rings, “don’t know about you Hig but I am tired of Titans today what's our plan?” “Keep Ozwald busy while I take out Donna and Marten, ready?” he nodded, and then we ran at our friends. “Higen, you are back! Look, I got you a new ring. Please put it on.” Ozwald had his staff in hand and showed me a new silver ring. He seemed more unhinged and shaken than other times. “Ozwald, that’s a monster. Take your earrings off!” Ozwald looked hurt, he sniffed for a second and looked at Niko with hate in his eyes “You… you HOMEWREKER!!!”

  “Wow, what the hell did I do?” Ozwald ground his teeth. “Oh, don’t act like you didn’t want him! You′ve been ogling him since forever!” Niko looked at me and then back at Ozwald, “I don’t do that! Higen tells him I don’t do that!!!” I cleared my thoughts “Ozwald he does not have any type of lustful desire for me you are been silly” Marten smirked “I don’t know Ozie you know I always see them hanging out without you” Donna helped him fan the flames of jealousy more “didn’t he stayed over at his house a few times, and I mean no shay but how knows what they were doing” I pointed at her “hey! Is not like that, his abuela invited me to play loteria!!!” “HOMERUN!” Ozwald yelled as a burst of force sent Niko flying backward, “I′ll come back for you Big Guy, I just have to deal with him” Ozwald said as he passed me, I couldn’t help it I blushed a little, this is the first time I saw him jealous it was kind of cute, I shook my head, I need to concentrate.

  I lifted the mirror to block Ozwald′s attempts to bash my head in “Ozwald, wake up, I don’t want Higen!” the staff made a clacking nose as it collided against my mirror “yeah and I was born yesterday right?” he jumped back and took some air to use his divine words again “BU-” I lifted my mirror and trapped his head in a water bubble “oh no you won′t!” despite the new lack of air Ozwald keept trying to strike me with his staff, he managed to land a few hits on me and I saw him flinch, Ozwald would never hurt me or any of us, not unless Allure was controlling him maybe, I could gamble on that, I dropped the bubble and let my mirror fell to the ground, he gasped for air and pointed at me with his staff, “wh… why did you-” I opened my arms “I wont fight you, Ozie, we′ve been friends since you arrived we have gone everywhere you and me, I tell you my problems and you tell me yours… if those earrings or HIg are worth killing me for, then do it” his hands shaken “bu… bur… pick up your mirror and fight!” I shook my head “nah, you have to chose me or the earrings” he was confiused and in pain, just like with Higen his nose started to bleed.

  “br…BRA… BRAKE!!!” Ozie yelled, and I waited for the effect to take effect. I was not super sure if I was the target of the word, but when I heard the crushing sound and didn’t feel pain, I looked at Ozie. The earring shattered, and the pieces fell to the ground. He let go of the staff and rushed to hug me. “I′m sorry… I did have control I didn’t mean to hurt you Niko” I returned the hug, “I know, I′m happy you are back, when this is over want to hang out?” he nodded “I think I have ignored you a lot lately, let's save Higen and the others and show that queen bee to the guillotine!” he picked up his staff, I picked my mirror up and we returned to the courtroom as we did Ozie told me “say Niko I been thinking, what if you try to take down the Titan?” “Ozie, come on, how would I-“ he pointed to his staff “You shoot, I′ll take care of the rest.”

  When we returned Higen had Carter in a headlock while keeping Donna at bay with his staff, he added more pressure on his grip and Carter passed out he let him fall to the ground as Donna roared and kicked him to another room “TRAP!” the ground shook and reformed into a hand that keeps Donna in place she tried to break free but the grasp was too strong the queen moved her Septer and released a cloud of lesser titans our way “don’t be nervous Niko” Ozie said, “but we will die if we fail!” I told him “We are not come on!” okay as they say I'm my worst critic first her weak spot where her torso and hips meet, I lifted the mirror and Ozwald pointed at me with his staff “PRESSURE!” a circle of letters appeared before me I gattered water in the surface of the mirror and pointed carefully as the swarm of bugs was coming I let the shoot go, it went through the circle of letters, gathered for a second and then it shoots with high intensity, it cut through the insects and through the Titani moved the shoot to cut her through the middle and I was amazed that it cut not only her but also the wall behind.

  All the rings and earrings crumbled. I high-fived Ozie. “That was cool, Ozie, thank you for the enhancement,” he scratched his cheek. “Actually, Niko, I can't enhance water,” I opened my mouth and pointed at him. “What?!?” “Yeah, this was all you, buddy.” I laughed a little, “I hate when the power was within me all the time, I guess I am super cool.” “Am… guys, why am I on a stone hand? And why is Carter drooling on the ground?” Ozwald dropped the hand and we explained what happened she was horrified when we got to the part of Hanna “Niko…” she pouted and hugged me “I know Donna, you would never do that otherwise” Carter eventually woke up and Higen returned too they apologized one more time as we returned the core to the after team “hey did you manage to save the cookie man?” “Yeah, he is currently at the hospital, Mr. Crus.” “Hey Niko, do you want to hang out? Dinner is on us,” Higen said, but I shook my head, “Would love to but…” I checked my phone for the twenty-seven messages I had. “I need to get home and bring bread… why don’t you all come? You guys know my Abuela loves you.”