Written by: Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

Edward got to his feet slowly after resurrecting, rubbing his head and grunting. “I cannot wait until I can fully heal these irritating wounds.”
Zesrial was about to respond when “I will tell you what is irritating.” A pillar of emerald green light appeared, and the Nekolich entered the realm. “What is irritating is when I tell two of my knights that one of them needs to die six times and when that knight is about to succeed the other knight gives her life for him.”
“They called me a shiny lightning dil…” Zesrial could not finish the last word.
Stu would not let her, “I know what they called you,” he replied. “My problem is not the fact that you retaliated. My problem is the fact that you died, willingly.”
Edward looked at Zesrial because he could not find a lie in Stu’s words, “but I watched the Hero of Purple kill you, you struggled.”
“Zesrial, you are not unlike the rest my undead. You have what I call a Deathperk,” Stu began his explanation. “A Deathperk is an ability trigged just before, during, or after death. Everyones Deathperk is unique and has no duplicate. Yours triggers immediately before you would die. At that moment you are granted the choice, live or die. Look at me.” Zesrial did, and Stu stared into her eyes, “I gave you the ability to CHOOSE!” he shouted only the last word, “but you already knew that, didn’t you. Didn’t you?”
Zesrial stared back into the Nekolich’s eyes, “Yes,” she knew she had no real excuse.
“Why?” Stu questioned. “You could have easily returned to your blade form and let Edward die twice in a row. Why did you choose to die?”
Zesrial thought for a moment, “I was angry and forgot about the mission, but I just wanted to know what it felt like. I wanted to know what Edward was going through,” she looked at him and smiled. Edward did not smile back.
Stu sighed, “this is what I get for making Heaven a Underrealm. You know what I have to do now, right?”
Zesrial nodded, “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me,” Stu turned to Edward and looked him in the eyes.
“Sorry Edward,” said Zesrial.
“Sorry for wha…” Edward watched as the Nekolich broke through his chest and grabbed his heart.
“You still need to die one more time for this to work,” Stu said before ripping Edward’s still beating heart from his chest. “You may have this back when your job here is done,” he said as he left the realm, still holding Edward’s heart in his right hand.
Edward fell into Zesrial’s arms, clenching his chest. Then and there he died for the sixth time, and his Deathperk returned to him.
* *
“Heroes of Rainbow! Come on down,” Klim Gymei beckoned. “Yeah, that’s right. I am talking to you Brett of the Red. You too; Henry of the Blue, Hensil of the Green, and Jain of the Yellow.” Klim called them forth from the announcer’s cage, “Join your fellow Heroes; Terial of the Purple and Q of the Orange now that they are finally done playing with each other.”
“Too bad the debris censored it, I wanted to watch,” Brett muttered to himself.
“Me too,” Hensil replied softly as she smiled flirtingly at Brett. Brett took a step back in startlement, and she winked at him.
The Heroes of Rainbow gathered in the center of the Orange’s infamous Blood Dome. The doors closed behind them,”hey, what’s the big Idea here!” Brett shouted.
“I am not sorry,” Klim replied with a grin. “Before I would let you all leave here, so friendly and cooperative like, I would have you all fight one another. I’m talking a barehanded good old fashion brawl. It’s a new policy, so drop all your weapons and,” he smiled as he held his mic down to his lips from above, “let’s get ready to Rumble!”
Red was the first to step forward, he walked towards Green. Orange and Purple looked at each other, grinned, and charged at each other, their fists clenched for impact. Blue and Yellow did not move, they only watched. Green vaulted onto Red, held on, spun around him, and threw him to the ground without so much as a running start. “It looks like they each found their match,” said Blue. Yellow looked at Blue and thought for a moment, then she noticed he was watching Orange and Purple fight. She turned to watch as well. “Both so eager to fight, smiles on your faces as you shake off each other’s onslaughts,” said Blue with a smile. Then he turned to Red and Green and laughed.
“Looks like she’s got him pinned,” said Yellow as she watched Green and Red fight.
“No,” replied Blue. “He is allowing her to pin him, he does not seem to know how to react to her comment of interest in him from earlier.”
“I don’t know,” Yellow argued.
Red stared at the sky and thought, “a Red thinking, Ha. So why am I thinking?” He looked at her, the Green that pinned her. “Hensil,” he thought to himself, “You’re why I’m thinking. I’ve never been knocked on my ass so easily,” he became angry and began to get up.
Green still held on to Red, trying to resume her pin on him but, “such strength, I cannot hold him,” she thought to herself. With one try he picked her up, pulled her off of himself, and dropped her. Green fell on her ass, eyes widened and cheeks red, she knew not how to handle any of what just happened.
“I’ve never been knocked on my ass so easily before by any color other than my own,” he said so she could hear him.
Green looked up to find Red’s hand outstretched towards her, but he could not look at her. She smiled, his cheeks were glowing too. He helped her up and they looked at each other, “I…” Before Green could speak her words, Red had his lips on hers.
Blue threw his fist at the air and shouted, “Yeah, way to go, Buddy!” Red held his middle finger up at Blue as he continued to kiss Green. “He handled that better than I thought he would,” Blue laughed and looked to Yellow who was amazed by the strength of Red. “Don’t ever underestimate the Red.”
“So why aren’t we fighting?” Yellow asked Blue.
“Does it have to be a physical fight?” Blue asked Yellow in reply.
Yellow raised an eyebrow, “I’m afraid I’d be no match for the wit of a Scholar of the Blue.”
“I am afraid I’d be no match for the strength of a Knight of the Yellow,” Blue replied. They walked towards each other slowly, one step at a time.
Klim hung his head over the edge of the gate around the platform he stood on. He watched as the Hero of Yellow was almost too weak to stand and the Hero of Blue could not think of anything to say. Klim’s jaw dropped. Blue and Yellow blushed at each other and Klim put his palm to his face. “Just kiss already!” Klim shouted in irritation.
Orange and Purple stopped fighting, “wanna kiss too?” Purple asked Orange.
“I don’t know. Everyone else is doing it,” he replied. “I feel weird doing it now.”
Purple put her hands on Oranges face and turned it to hers, “come here,” she pulled him in and they kissed.
Klim wiped a tear from his eye and smiled, “I love my new Job.” With that, Klim pulled a lever and his platform rose to the roof as the main door opened for the Heroes of Rainbow to leave at their leisure.
Suddenly the hiss of a great cat echoed into the Blood Dome from beyond the doorway, “Firha!” Hensil shouted as she ran from Brett. Brett followed and the other’s followed him, grabbing their previously dropped gear.
“What is it Hensil?” Brett ran out the door and looked for her, then he saw her. Standing before her and her Great Green Lepeord was a monster on two legs. They other’s caught up quickly and immediately stepped back.
The monster roared with the force of a hurricane and stomped its foot to the ground creating a tremor. Hensil’s Great Green Lepeord, Firha, was not backing down. Nothing would take her Hensil away, least of all this monstrosity.
* *
Zesrial could hear Ilean’s rawr from the mountaintop, “did you have to send Ilean?” she asked Edward.
“If they cannot make it past her to reach us they are unworthy of their titles,” Hell replied.
“What happened to you, Edward?” Zesrial flew to him and looked him in the eyes concerningly.
Hell wrapped his hand around Zesrial’s neck and squeezed. “When the Nekolich took my heart he took Edward, you find no sympathy in a Hell without him.” He attempted to break her neck. Zesrial looked down and gently pried Hell’s hand from her neck. She looked away from him. “So you can choose,” He said to her.
“I’ll signal Ilean to lead them here,” Zesrial said before disappearing on a bolt of her lightning. “The sooner we get this over with the soon I get my Fox back,” she said to herself as a tear fell and it began to rain all across Rainbow.