At Private Phoru Academy, their talents would be:

Elsword - Ultimate Lucky Student

Aisha - Ultimate Genius

Rena - Ultimate Archer

Raven - Ultimate Swordsman

Eve - Ultimate Nasod

Chung - Ultimate Prince

Ara - Ultimate Martial Artist

Elesis - Ultimate Tactician

Add - Ultimate Mechanical Engineer

Ciel - Ultimate Chef

Lu - Ultimate Brawler

Rose - Ultimate Soldier

Ain - Ultimate Zealot

Solace - Ultimate Meteorologist

Denif - Ultimate Sailor

Ebalon - Ultimate Astrologist

Ventus - Ultimate Tattoo Artist

The apparent mastermind behind the killing games this time is none other than William Phoru.

The first trial happened shortly, and Ciel was the first to die. It turns out Ain didn’t really like demons.

Ain’s Execution is called “Ishmael’s Cruel Thesis”, which had the goddess come down from the heavens itself just to tell off Ain and smash him with a giant fist.

Devastated, Lu attacked the headmaster, though it turned out the little phoru became much stronger than usual. Lu quickly followed Ciel.

The second trial had Eve torn to bits by Add. He didn’t seem that remorseful, now that he finally had Eve’s core.

Add’s Execution is called “Flowers for Nasods”, being dropped off in a junkyard full of old nasods that began to awaken one by one. He tried his best to fight back the machines, but they overpowered him soon enough in vengeance for their queen.

Denif and Ebalon were found dead, though it became evident that Rose murdered them because she wanted to go back to her princess.

Rose’s Execution is called “Rose and Juliet”, being able to escape execution and back to her universe. However, she found her kingdom in flames, with her princess already dead. Overcome with despair, she took a gun and shot herself.

The remaining 9 didn’t really want to kill each other, so William Phoru had to give them a motive. The thing most closest to you would disappear if a murder didn’t happen soon - and the next day, Solace was found dead. Worried for her brother, Elesis felt like she had to do something to protect him.

Elesis’ trial is called “Revolutionary Girl Elesis”, dueling faceless opponents until she thought she finally reached the end. Her final opponent was William Phoru himself, killing her instantly.

At this point they would figure out there is a traitor among them, salvaged from Eve’s backup data they soon realized they had all their memories wiped and they weren’t ultimates at all. Being the odd one out of the group, and the only El Master left, they figured the mastermind of the whole thing was Ventus. It was a prank by Phoru who wasn’t nearly as strong without Ventus’ help and the people who died were actually doing fine. The Elgang weren’t amused and beat both of them up.

The Elgang weren’t really the type to speak to each other. The only sounds that interrupted silence at lunch were Elsword sharpening Conwell, or Ara swishing her tails, or the occasional deranged laughter from Elesis and Add. Otherwise, it was pretty peaceful between them, at least until lunch was over.

A loud clanging was heard as Lu stood up abruptly, wiping the plates off the table with her claws. “Alright Ciel, this lunch was awful! I need to make up for it by killing some things– come on!”

And the long haired assassin was dragged by Lu without struggle.

“Kuku, I needed to tear something apart today!” Add said as the louder Elgang members got up to follow the duo. Chung and Rose followed with guns in hand, and Ain and Rena went last with Eve, who seemed the most eager to destroy something.

They were on their way to a local dungeon– at least, before they were stopped by a very grumpy-looking Dimension Witch.

“… Are you forgetting something?!”

With no reply from the Elgang, Aisha continued, louder this time. “The table that Ciel generously made for you all, which you trashed and left behind!?”

“Get outta the way!” Lu spat. “If you don’t move–”

smack.

And Lu was down on the floor, a rod shaped bruise on her face. Ciel looked down at her but didn’t really move to do anything.

Add was next. “Quit messing around–”

smack. smack.

He was a bit taller, so one blow to the knees brought him down for another blow to the face. He was on the ground, writhing in pain, while Aisha glowered at the others. “Anyone else?”

Arme Thaumaturgy tries to avoid referring to the Elgang by any name unless he absolutely has to. When he does, it’s usually by some general descriptor (“human”), or his old nicknames for them.

Erbluhen Emotion still refers them with his own nicknames for them, but in a more affectionate way instead of a demeaning way. He refers to the rest of the Elgang by first name, rarely.

“What a cute kitty…! What a sweet kitty!”

Aisha has her hands completely full with a black fluffy cat, running her hands through its fur as she gave it words of praise. The cat purred loudly in response, endearing Aisha even more. She brought it closer to her chest to cuddle.

“Oh, you’re the cutest thing in the world–”

Interrupted by the feeling of hands wrapping around her waist, she tried to turn her head to see who she was going to tell off today. She was met with long black hair instead, and a fox hairpin, telling her everything she needed to know. “Ara?”

“S-Sorry, Aisha! You were just being so cute, so I had to…” her sentence trailed off as she started playing with Aisha’s hair. “What do you have there?”

Ara turned Aisha to face her, so that the cat was caught between their chests. “It’s a long story, but… It’s one of my new pet kittens!”  

She raised the cat for Ara to have a better view. “Isn’t it cute?”

Ain froze when he heard weak cries coming from the edge of his hearing.  At the corner of his eye was a kitten, bleeding from what looked like a severe injury from a demon or perhaps from a nasty human.  Its unsteady breaths told him it didn’t have much of a chance, earning it some pity from the angel.

Lifting his weapon, he looked at the kitten with no emotions.  It tried to stand up, but cried and laid down again.  It couldn’t walk or stand up.  There was nothing more he could do beyond sparing it more pain.

He swung the weapon down when a pair of purple blurs spurred out of nowhere and flung themselves across, pinning down his weapon to the ground with a thud.  Ain looked up to see a pair of murderous magenta eyes glaring at him.

“It has no chance,” Ain said as an explanation.  “You’re wasting energy trying to save it.”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” Add snapped at him and picked up the suffering feline to cradle in his arms, kissing its head.

There was a loud sigh from Ain as he watched the scientist hold the injured kitten and talked to it in a hushed voice like he wasn’t there.

Months after, Ain sat up startled at the sound of a loud meow.  Jumping from a high shelf, the cat leaped to his table, where the angel was in the middle of reading to have the animal greet him.  It walked over to him with a prosthetic limb gleaming under the lamp light.

“And you said it had no chance,” Add said with a smirk.

Add was always taller than Chung, but now he was at least half a foot taller than him, with muscles that gleamed with sweat under the sun when he wiped his brow after finishing the last car.  His defined chest peeked through a shirt soaked from soapy water, arms flexed to show more when he waved at the last customer driving off.  They were on break, but Chung couldn’t concentrate.

“Um, you ok?”

Startled by Add’s voice, Chung shook his head to snap out of it, but it was no use.  Embarrassed to look at Add, the blonde was afraid to open his mouth to speak up his mind.

“You’ve been staring at me…” Add mumbled, “What’s up with you today?”

“Nothing,” Chung said too quickly.

Elesis was quite proud of herself if she was being honest.  It wasn’t possible without a little bit of help of course – after all, those two were stupidly stubborn and it would have been foolish to hope that one could trick them into such an obvious trap if it weren’t for Rena.  She couldn’t believe how simple it was to get Chung and her brother into the closet.  All it took was Rena to give them The Glare to go grab supplies from the closet to clean the kitchen and the rest was history.

She and Rena were leaning against the closet door with amused expressions when she heard whispers from the other side.  This was what they were waiting for!  The way the boys mingled and were always chatting to each other was more than enough evidence that they had something going on.  Five minutes have passed since those two were stuck in the closet.  Placing her head to the side against the door, Elesis heard bodies shuffling.

“It’s hot in here…” Elsword whined, “Why don’t they have coolers?”

“Dunno,” Chung mumbled.  If he had dog ears, they probably would have drooped from the tone of his voice.  “How long are they keeping us here?”

“You’re not leaving until you confess!”  Elesis reminded them.

“Confess?” Elsword sounded confused.

“You’re straight to the point,” Rena looked at Elesis with wide eyes.

“Can’t have any misunderstandings,” Elesis winked at her, but quieted down when she heard the boys talking again.

“A confession…” Chung paused before saying to Elsword, “I think it’s confusing trying to fight demons when we’re always yelling out our attacks.  Wouldn’t it be smarter to save our energy and just attack?”

“Really?  I think it’s cool,” Elsword scoffed at the suggestion.  “Are you just saying that because you’re always yelling?”

“It’s not yelling!” Chung argued, “That’s just the way I talk.”

“Maybe you need to drink more if you’re always complaining about having a sore throat.”

“Maybe you’re right.”