Jubilee Mold's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Jubilee Mold knelt in the sand, her green fingers spreading spores across the dunes. The Scoopsu-Gari Desert stretched endlessly before her, its sweet vanilla surface still pure and untainted. She grinned, watching dark red veins creep through the pale grains where her touch had been. Soon this entire wasteland would belong to Rum'chata, and the last Soda Pop Samurai Elders would have nowhere left to hide. She pulled a thick tome from her pack and laid it flat on the corrupted sand. Green Sleeves had once been a sage book, protected and holy. Now fungal veins pulsed across its cover, and the gold letters seemed to sink into the leather. She opened it to a marked page. The ritual would speed up the taint, pushing Red Rum corruption deeper into the desert. Her leafy fingers traced the words as she read them aloud. Dark energy gathered around the book, humming and hot. The sand beneath it turned from pale vanilla to deep crimson. Cracks spread outward in every direction. She closed the book and stood, watching the taint race across the dunes like spilled syrup. The Elders would feel this. They would know their safe ground was disappearing. And when they had nowhere left to run, Rum'chata would crush them. She reached into her pack again and pulled out a spyglass made of hardened Red Rum demon energy. A demon eye sat where the lens should be, blinking slowly as she raised it. Through the spyglass, the desert appeared in sharp red and black. She scanned the horizon, searching for movement. The Soda Pop Samurai Elders were out there somewhere, hiding in their safe places. She needed to find them before they could organize a defense. The demon eye in the spyglass twitched and focused on a distant shimmer. Jubilee smiled. They would try to stop her work, but it was already too late. The corruption was spreading faster than they could run. She lowered the spyglass and turned toward her base. The Sinister Confectionery Hideout rose from a distant dune, dark and sharp against the vanilla sky. Its candy-coated walls gleamed red in the light, and paper screens covered the windows. From there, she would plan each strike against the Elders. From there, she would watch them fall one by one. Jubilee tucked Green Sleeves under her arm and started walking. The Red Rum taint followed her footsteps, staining the sand with every step. Rum'chata's will was becoming real, and nothing could stop it now.