"I am Lauden Rex. The Wizard of Punishment." – Lauden Rex

Lauden Rex

In the Auroris Mines, Swick, Jonny Man and his wife, Melora were at the entrance to Auroris Cavern. They had retrieved the Auroris Crystals stolen from Kun Zhen's home cavern. They did not notice that Team Phoenix had gathered and were hiding around the cavern.

"I am glad that the Pyritor is no longer a threat to us and the Emperor," Jonny Man said.

"Wait, that rock creature is in those mines?" Swick asked.

"Yes, but it's stuck there forever. Thanks to the Emperor's curse, it will not come out and interfere with his plans," Melora answered.

"Well, I don't want to provoke that creature," Swick blurted out.

"Of course not, you dolt!" Melora scolded. "Nobody likes the Pyritor!"

Rong Chun took out her bow and her Negashade went inside the slug tube. She pulled the string, pulling the slug tube backwards. Then, she released it, sending her Negashade flying towards them. It reached velocity and used Shadowblak to created a thick black fog around the Underlords. Hai Chang then slung his Hexlet. Once it collided with them, it used HyJinx and a string of bad luck was on them now.

"Now!" Kun Zhen yelled and everyone jumped out of their hiding places. They aimed at the Underlords and the Stone Warriors.

"Those intruders again!" Melora shouted angrily. She tried to shoot a slug but her rifle blaster broke. So she took out another gun blaster but it fell apart. She decided to march towards them but tripped over a rock and fell hard.

"Stone Warriors!" she yelled. The eyes of the lifeless automatons glowed red and they came to life. "Attack them!" The Stone Warriors marched towards Team Phoenix.

"What are those?" Khai questioned.

"Those are Stone Warriors," Suxiong Jian answered.

"Soulless automatons created by the Emperor to conquer The Eastern Caverns," Zhong Fen added.

"And their slugs are different," Yu Juan said and fired an Armashelt. It broke its head and the Stone Warrior fell down.

"Aim for their heads!" Kun Zhen told them and slung her Knighton. It performed Lancesoar and fired lances that pierced through some of the Stone Warriors.

"Just attack them!" Yong Gang suggested and shot his Firenzar. It slammed onto two automatons, destroying them.

Team Phoenix shot out their powerful slugs. Feeling the effects had worn off, Jonny Man took out his rifle blaster and aimed at Khai.

"Foolish child," he chuckled evilly and fired a Hop Rock.

Khai saw the slug coming towards her. She quickly dodged it and hid behind a rock. Jonny Man spotted her and aimed at the rock. Khai pulled out her slingshot and pulled Flare backwards. She released her and Flare was heading towards the Underlord. Jonny Man shot his Hop Rock again, but Flare easily defeated it by lighting it up. Flare advanced towards him and slammed onto his chest with full force! He was pushed backwards and hit his back onto the rocky wall.

"Another Infurnus?!" Melora was shocked to see it.

"I got them!" Swick said and fired a Hop Rock at them. However, due to his bad aiming, it hit a Stone Warrior instead, destroying it.

"Swick, you dolt!" Melora yelped.

Elsu and Eara noticed that Jonny Man was recovering from Flare's attack. "Celous! Azura! Use Air Slash!" they commanded as they pointed at Jonny Man.

The wings of Celous and Azura glowed light blue. They flapped their wings, releasing multiple light blue glowing saw disc-like energy blades from them at their opponent. Jonny Man used his muscles to protect himself. The attack had slowed him down.

"Swick! Stop them!" he yelled.

"I'm on it!" Swick replied and slung a Geoshard towards the twins. Before it could reach velocity, Suxiong Jian came in and knocked it away with his blaster. The Geoshard transformed and headed towards Melora. It hit the patch of ground in front of her, and surrounded her with crystals. She pulled out an annoyed look.

"Stone Warriors! Shoot the intruders!" Jonny Man commanded his army of automatons. The Stone Warriors shot the corrupted slugs. Team Phoenix speedily avoided the slugs and hid behind a few rocks.

"We are surrounded!" Zhong Fen informed.

"We have to find a way to take all of them down!" Amada said.

"I have an idea! But you all need to cover me!" Khai told them. She took out Razor, her Thresher slug.

"What are you doing?" Rong Chun questioned.

"You have to trust me!" she replied.

More corrupted slugs were fired by the Stone Warriors. Wei Cheng, Yu Juan, Yong Gang, Zhong Fen and Suxiong Jian slung their slugs to counter their attacks. Khai loaded Razor onto the rubber band of her slingshot, and fired him. Once he transformed into a tiger-shark hybrid creature, Khai put down her slingshot, raised and moved her arms. Her Thresher moved with her arms. With the Stone Warriors distracted by the heroes, Razor sawed off their heads with ease. Team Phoenix and the Underlords were startled by the fact that Khai knew Slug Fu!

"Retrieve the crystals!" Wei Cheng told them.

Team Phoenix ran towards a truck load of crystals. Hai Chang shot his Hypnogrif and it released Vertigoad onto Jonny Man. Overwhelmed by vertigo and warped perspective, he could not see or shoot. Dong Song slung his Frostcrawler and froze him with Deepfreeze. Melora, not willing to let the heroes win, shot a Hop Rock towards them. Swick also tried to stop them and slung his Grenuke towards them at the same time. Their slug clashed onto each other, missing their targets.

When Team Phoenix gathered around the truck, all of the sudden, Shadow Clans appeared to bring them away. Melora fired an Armashelt towards them but it was too late – the Shadow Clans had teleported them away.

Melora blasted the crystals to escape. "Swick! You stupid little good for nothing!" she scolded Swick as she marched towards him angrily. "Your clumsiness always bring doom to us! What a weakling you are!" She pushed him down to the ground forcefully.

Swick felt sad after Melora scolded him. When Jonny Man and Melora left, Swick clutched his hands into fists, showing that he was angry at Melora for calling him weak.

Suddenly, Swick heard a man's voice from behind. He turned around and saw the man standing behind. He was wearing a long black cloak with blood red linings. Underneath the cloak was a long sleeved suit, a pair of trousers and long boots. They were both black and with blood red linings. A brooch that symbolized the Emperor was worn on the cloak.

"Joon?" Swick asked in surprise. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be helping with your master?"

"I was helping my master, Swick," Joon answered. "I heard that Melora has scolded you about how weak you are."

"Hey! I am not weak!" Swick snapped.

Joon chuckled. "I have something for you," he told him.

"What is it?" Swick asked. Joon gave a small black box to him. "What's inside of it?"

"Open it and see," Joon said.

Swick opened the small black box and inside was a ruby gemstone that looked like a demon's eye. Its colour was crimson mixed with purple and black.

"Why do you give this ruby to me, Joon?" he questioned.

"The ruby can make you stronger," Joon explained.

"Like what?" Swick was about to ask to him but Joon suddenly vanished, much to his surprise.

Later, Swick was in Shirengenoi Cavern. He was wearing the ruby gemstone around his neck as a necklace. Swick met up with Melora. "Melora... I am sorry... for my failure of not stopping Team Phoenix just now," he apologized to her.

"Hmph. I'll give you one more chance but you must not fail me again. If you do, you will be fired because you are still weak," Melora said and then walked away.

Her attitude made Swick's anger to grow high, which caused the ruby to react by his anger and absorb it. Somewhere in Shirengenoi Cavern, Joon was hiding in the shadows. He saw Swick was getting very angry towards Melora, and he knew that the ruby would do something on Swick.

In the afternoon, Swick was patrolling around the Shirengenoi Cavern. Swick was still furious at Melora for calling him weak. He wished to be the strongest Underlord in The Eastern Caverns. Suddenly, he felt something strange within him like he was feeling sick. He was unaware that the ruby was absorbing all of his anger and it emitted a dark red glow.

Then, Jonny Man appeared and came up to Swick. He noticed Swick's expression. "Swick, are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, Jonny," Swick quickly replied.

"We are going to Kagayaku Cavern to pick up the supplies for the other Underlords," Jonny Man told him. Swick nodded, understood his statement. Jonny Man, Melora and Swick headed to Kagayaku Cavern and rode on a train with the supplies.

What they did not know was that Team Phoenix was hiding in some of the boxes, ready to ambush. They felt the train moving. The lid of a small box creaked open, and Flare came out of it. She hopped around until she found Jonny Man.

"Huh?" Jonny Man was shocked to see Flare. She went to him and blew a raspberry.

"Why you little-!" he scowled and began to chase her. Flare hopped back towards the boxes. When Flare stopped moving, he attempted to catch her. However, he felt suspicious as she was smirking.

"Hey," Yong Gang said casually as he had his blaster aimed at Jonny Man. The other members in Team Phoenix were doing the same thing. They already had came out of their hiding spots. They shot out all of their slugs, knocking Jonny Man unconscious and wrapped him up with the web of a few Arachnet slugs.

Swick heard the shots fired and decided to check it out. He went to the back where the cargo was stored. He gasped when he saw his friend Jonny was tied up and out cold. "Jonny! Jonny Boy!" he tried to wake him up while slapping his face, but it was not working.

A blaster being activated was heard from behind. "I'm sorry, he's already out cold," Yu Juan told him as she aimed at Swick.

"Who are you?" Swick asked as he turned his head to face her. He saw the entire Team Phoenix, aiming their blasters at him. "Oh, it's you guys again," he scowled. "Thanks to all of you, I am almost fired!"

"We are just doing our jobs. Borrowing all of these... stuffs," she said and smirked mischievously.

"You all are stealing them!" he yelled furiously.

"Eh, wrong! You Underlords stole them first!" she corrected.

"You all stole from those innocent people and took them for granted!" Zhong Fen added.

"So we stole them back for those innocent people," Yong Gang said.

"Hmm... sounds like Robin Hood," Khai blurted out.

"Uh... who is Robin Hood exactly?" Kun Zhen wondered.

"Uhm, he's a man who steals from the rich and gives to the poor," Khai explained.

"Thief! He is a thief!" Swick yelped.

"Shut it!" Yu Juan told him and punched him. She also kicked his crotch, causing Swick to become immobile as he fell down. "What a loser," she snickered.

When she turned back to Team Phoenix, they were gathered by a group of Shadow Clans. Swick tried to shoot them with his blaster, but Flare came up to his shoe and lit up a small flame. As the shoe began to burn, Swick felt the unbearable heat and shrieked loudly. That caught the attention of Yu Juan. She kicked his blaster off his grasp and stepped onto his face with force, making him dizzy.

"Yu Juan, why must you be so rough?" Kun Zhen asked concernedly.

"What? He's a bad guy!" Yu Juan protested.

At the same time, footsteps could be heard, coming from outside the cargo room. The door slid open, and Melora came in. "WHAT?!" she yelped as she saw Team Phoenix and the Shadow Clans.

"Goodbye!" Yu Juan replied teasingly as she waved her hand. A second or two later, the heroes, along with all of the supplies, disappeared in a black flash.

"Ugh... what...? The supplies!" Jonny Man was shocked to see them disappear after he woke up.

"What happened, dear?" Melora asked.

"Well, an Infurnus brought me here and they knocked me out cold!" he explained.

Melora turned to the dazed Swick. "What... happened...?" he questioned.

She furiously grabbed the dazed Swick by the collar and shook him. "You good for nothing Flopper!" she scolded him. "I have given you one chance. One chance! And you let them get away with all of the supplies! And now we are heading to Peach Blossom Spring Cavern without them! The Emperor and the Dai-Fu will not be happy, and we could all get fired – or worse!"

"But wait! My dear, we can report to the Emperor about the little girl who has an Infurnus and who knows Slug Fu!" Jonny Man reminded.

Melora stopped and thought about it. "Wait... yeah! We can tell him about the girl as an excuse for our failures, and he will spare us all!" she smiled.

"Well, except for Swick," he corrected.

"Yes, except for the worthless scum Swick," she spat out of disgust and threw Swick down. "Get ready to land. We must report to the Emperor immediately." She and Jonny Man left, leaving Swick in the cargo room alone. Swick slammed his fists on the floor in rage.

It was night in Peach Blossom Spring Cavern. The Dragon Train had arrived and the Underlords were disappointed at the lost of the supplies. Swick, Jonny Man and Melora were sent into The Imperial Palace, where they would face the Emperor and the Dai-Fu.

"How could you three lose all of the supplies to Team Phoenix?" Dai-Fu asked angrily. "This is not the standard work ethic we have required from the Underlords."

"Forgive me, Lady Dai-Fu, but there is one member in Team Phoenix who really put us in difficulty," Jonny Man apologized.

"An eleven years old girl, who wields a scarlet-coloured Infurnus and knows Slug Fu," Melora added.

"What? Another Infurnus? And knows Slug Fu?" the Emperor was interested. "Hmm... could she be the Phoenix like the Prophecy has been told?"

"We don't know for sure, but she could be the one," Melora answered.

"Hmm... I will send my daughters to check on her. You three are all forgiven," the Emperor responded.

"Your Majesty, Swick was the one who ruined our plans," Melora told him.

"Then perhaps we should fire him?" Dai-Fu questioned the Emperor.

"Hmmm... it will do. You are fired!" the Emperor told Swick as he pointed at him.

"What?! That is not fair!" Swick protested and stormed out of the palace. He became angrier at himself and Melora.

I am so weak. I'm as weak as a twig! He thought to himself repeatedly.

Suddenly, he felt pain inside him, causing him to fall to his knees. The ruby around his neck absorbed all of his anger and glowed in dark red. Then, Melora appeared and found Swick. She growled in anger and walked towards him about to scold or mock him or being so weak. She suddenly stopped her tracks when she noticed a dark aura surrounding Swick's body. Before she could react, Swick whirled around his head towards Melora and to her horror, she saw Swick's eyes were crimson!

Then, a massive shockwave was produced from Swick, causing Melora to push back in full force. Her back collided with a tree. Melora shook her head to get rid of the headache and looked at Swick. Horrified, she watched Swick's transformation.

Swick's skinny body became muscular and he grew tall. He was now a handsome adult man in his 40s. His short brown hair transformed into a thick, knee-length black hair. His fair skin became extremely pale and his green eyes became crimson. His Underlord uniform changed and replaced into a formal outfit. He wore a white ruffled shirt with long sleeves that reached his wrists, a dark violet vest underneath his ruffled shirt, a long scarlet coat, black dress pants, and dark gray boots. There was a ruby brooch on the center of his ruffled shirt's collar that shaped like a furious beast.

As his transformation was completed, Swick looked totally different and evil.

Melora stood up to her feet and was terrified to see Swick's sudden transformation. Swick gave Melora a death glare with his new crimson eyes, which made her frighten and freeze on her place. He then created a dark energy ball in his right hand palm and blasted it towards Melora!

Before Melora could escape, she was struck by the dark energy ball and she fell onto the ground motionless. Swick walked towards the motionless body of Melora and smirked evilly as he found that she's... dead.

Soon, Jonny Man and the other few Underlords appeared in the scene. They saw Swick and the motionless Melora on the ground. Jonny Man was horrified when he saw his wife lying on the ground.

"I hate to inform you this, sir. She's dead," Swick informed Jonny Man in a dark and unfamiliar tone, which made Jonny Man even more horrified.

Blinded by rage, Jonny Man aimed his blaster at him. The other few Underlords followed his action. However, they were unaware that he was Swick in his new form.

"What happened to my beloved wife, you fool?" Jonny Man demanded.

"Oh, nothing, except that I was the one who killed her," Swick replied and gave Jonny Man an evil smirk.

Jonny Man let out a furious scream and shot his Hop Rock at Swick. The rest of the Underlords followed by shooting their slugs. However, when the slugs approached him, his eyes glowed crimson, which stopped the slugs midair! Jonny Man and the Underlords were extremely shocked as they could not believe what they see. Then, Swick slightly waved his left hand, causing the slugs to turn around to face their owners and went against them as they attacked their owners.

"How dare you fire your slugs at me?" Swick said angrily, which freak out the Underlords and cowardly ran away, leaving Jonny Man behind.

Jonny Man now felt scared of him. "Who... who are you?" he asked.

"I am Lauden Rex. The Wizard of Punishment," he introduced himself and then used telekinesis on Jonny Man. The strong force lifted him up in the air and was choking him.

"Now you listen here. You and your Underlords are now working with me. If you refuse... you will meet your end just like what I did to your beloved wife," Lauden said to Jonny Man coldly.

"O... Okay..." Jonny Man choked, accepting the deal.

Within the shadows, Joon saw everything, including Swick's dark transformation and the death of Melora. He quickly disappeared and reappeared in The Imperial Palace.

"Master, the Ruby of Dark Sorcery Transformation has worked! Swick is now Lauden Rex - The Wizard of Punishment. And he had killed Melora," Joon informed the Emperor.

"Good~ Now I shall hire him to make the Underlords do my thing," the Emperor smiled evilly.

It was nighttime too in the Cavern of the Last East. Khai was at Master Wu's hut, reading her favourite story book. Fairy and the rest of her slugs were playing around. Master Wu came in and saw her reading a book.

"What are you doing, Khai?" he asked her.

"I am reading my favourite story book when I was little," she replied.

"What is it about?" he questioned.

"It's about the Guardians of Harmony," she answered.

Then, Dong Song appeared. "Dinner is ready," he informed.

Team Phoenix, Khai and Master Wu were having dinner now. Their slugs were having dinner too. Fairy, on the other hand, ate cherries since it was her favourite berry. During dinner, nine silhouette of young women were hidden in the shadows. They were spying on them, particular on Khai.

"I think it's her..." the first silhouette told the other silhouettes.

"So, she has an Infurnus... How interesting," the second silhouette blurted out.

"Father would be so pleased about this," the third silhouette said.

"But... is she the Phoenix?" the fourth silhouette questioned.

"...I think not." the fifth silhouette responded.

"What do you mean?" the sixth silhouette asked.

"Well... I sense a strong energy coming from her. But the energy is different," The seventh answered.

"So... she isn't the Phoenix?" the eighth silhouette guessed.

"Hmm... I think we will find out soon. And if we do... we will report this to our father," the ninth silhouette responded.

Back to Team Phoenix, after dinner, Kun Zhen was thinking about Swick. She was worried about him and wondered how he was. Though, she knew he would be fired of being an Underlord due to his clumsiness. Khai came up to her and tapped her right shoulder a few times to get her attention.

Kun Zhen turned to Khai. "What's wrong, Kun Zhen?" Khai asked.

"Well... I was... a little worried... about Swick..." Kun Zhen answered.

"Oh, why?" Khai curiously asked. That was when Kun Zhen's face went slightly red.

"Oh~ Are you in love with him?" Khai questioned teasingly.

"H-Huh?! No! I-I'm not in love with him!" Kun Zhen defended and her face got redder. Khai giggled at her.

Suddenly, they heard Dong Song's voice calling to other members of Team Phoenix. They gathered around.

"I have news about a new Underlord. His name is Lauden Rex, known as The Wizard of Punishment. He is known to have... murdered Melora..." Dong Song informed, shocking everyone. "The Underlords are now working for him, or they will face the same fate as Melora."

After Dong Song told them about the news, Khai was in Master Wu's hut, feeling a bit shocked after learning the death of Melora. Though, Dong Song was even more shocked when he heard about her death and realized that Lauden Rex was the one who killed her.

Khai decided to sleep to forget about it. She went to her bed and fell asleep instantly. Fairy jumped onto her bed and slept too. Her slugs went to their respective slug tubes and fell asleep.

Kagayaku means "sparkle" in Japanese.