While Taeyeon and Tiffany were taking actions against the divinity, Sunny and Mage 01 were having their last stand. The final battle between the greatest minds of the century was about to occur. For a long time, it had seemed that Mage 01 was the only human to develop telepathic abilities. Which is why he was named Mage 01, for he was the new breed of mage, but he never imagined within his lifetime that he would meet another like him. Sunny, on the other hand, was born with a brilliant mind, with a father who was just as much as a lie detector as she was and a mother who was also intellectually gifted, it was no surprise to see Sunny’s mind evolve. It was arguable to suggest her abilities were awakened much earlier by Taeyeon’s presence, but even without Taeyeon, Sunny would have one day awakened this gift and eventually she would have clashed with Mage 01. But that time was now. It was to truly the time to test who had the strongest mind of this era.

Mage 01 had infiltrated Sunny’s mind with ease. Extreme ease. If he was being honest, he expected her to shut him out or at least put up a fight, but it seemed like he had overestimated her abilities. He found her mind palace, at least that’s what he believed it to be. He entered the gilded, majestic palace and saw Sunny by herself sitting atop the tallest throne within the building. Mage 01 turned in confusion, examining every square inch his eyes could see in search for the other three Sunnys, Willpower, Memory and Emotion. Her willpower, memory and emotion doppelgangers were nowhere to be seen. “Confused? I don’t have to read your mind to know you are. It’s written all over your face.” Sunny smiled.

“Where are they? You can’t hide them forever. Eventually, I’ll find your willpower, crush it beneath my feet and take control of your inferior mind.” Mage 01 scoffed.

“You know, Mage 01, I thought of something before coming here tonight. Something that stirred my curiosity, do you know what it was?” Sunny asked.

“Probably something pointless, no doubt.” Mage 01 snickered.

“We have mastered our minds, we control them better than anyone else can. So, why not change it? Reform the mind to fit our needs and then it hit me, we have only scratched the surface of our abilities.” Sunny explained.

“What are you on about?” Mage 01 questioned with concern.

“Hmm, how do I explain this to your inferior mind. Let’s see, imagine our minds are like computers, we’ve learned to type, click, select, basically the fundamentals of our capabilities. However, much like a computer, our mind can be modified, tuned, reprogramed to fit exactly what we wish it to be. Take this, for example, this ‘mind palace’ is merely a façade to lure you to me. Because you’re so used to the concept of a mind palace housing, protecting the three components of the mind, you went here without even considering it to be a fake.”

“So, what if it’s just a façade? I’ll find the real one…”

“Ugh, you’re not getting it.” Sunny shook her head with disappointment. “You’re so obsessed with wanting to beat me at mind games, but you don’t even bother to learn the rules. You don’t realize just how special the powers you possess are. Instead of obsessing over being a magician, you should embrace the powers you were given. This is a façade, yes, but you will never find the ‘real’ palace because there is no real palace anymore.”

“… I don’t understand…” It was painful for Mage 01 to admit but had had no choice but to confess his confusion.

“There is no mind palace here, Mage 01, I deleted it from my mind. My willpower, memory and emotions are out there.” Sunny pointed to the entrance of the fake palace, which merely leads to an endless length of white floor converging with a white horizon and sky. “They’re out there, wandering aimlessly. I thought about it, people like us, are the only ones who really know about the mind palace and we know that this is where Willpower, Memor, and Emotion stay. But because we know this, having a palace is just a giant sign saying ‘here they are!! If you want to control this mind, go here now!!’ So, I decided to take the palace out of the mind and now my three components will be impossible for you to find. Which means controlling my mind is impossible.” Sunny smiled.

“What? You… you can’t just change the rules like that!! How could you have even known to do this!? You must be bluffing, lying, stalling me so that I won’t find your real palace before your friends banish the divinity. Well, you’ll be glad to know that divinity won’t be going anywhere unless a wish is made. None of you, even with your combined strength are strong enough to send the divinity back. You would need to have all the king artifacts to even stand a chance.” Mage 01 scoffed.

“You can search out there in the deepest, brightest patch of the white lining of my mind, but you’ll never find a palace, trust me.” Sunny laughed. “But, like you said, there is a divinity out there that needs to be stopped, so we should make this quick.” Sunny leaped off her throne and launched herself towards Mage 01. In an instant, they had shifted minds.

Sunny was now within Mage 01’s head and the palace that he owned was extremely obvious to her. “Ahh, you see, now that I’m in your mind I know to go to the gigantic palace. You see how counterproductive to use the mind palace to protect your main components? Might as well put up a huge neon sign that says, ‘control room here!’” Before Mage 01 could stop Sunny, she had already flown off towards his palace. And yes, within the mind she can fly endlessly, possibilities are infinite within the mind after all. Mage 01 chose to teleport himself to the palace to beat Sunny to his Willpower. He was successful in intercepting Sunny, but she was dangerously close to his key components. “You want to take control of my mind, you’ll have to get past me first.” He stated. “I have all the power here, in fact…” Mage 01 waved his hands in Sunny’s direction and her ability to fly was stripped from her. “I command that you cannot fly. You’ve made a grave mistake entering here, this is my domain!” Mage 01 chuckled.

“Not bad, but you need to think ahead.” Mage 01 turned around to see Sunny, the real Sunny had already reached his Willpower and was now right behind his throne. “But how?”

“You think I didn’t know you would teleport to catch up with me? That was far too predictable, so I duplicated my image, made you believe you stopped me when actually I snuck past you and made my way up here.” Sunny explained. Mage 01’s anger was brewing. He was tired of Sunny’s games, most of all, he was tired of losing to her. A crackle of yellow lightning was forming around him; the anger could not be contained any longer and he unleashed his fury through the yellow bolts of electricity. Sunny quickly stepped in front of his three key mind components and shielded them from the blast. “Are you insane? You could’ve destroyed one of your own mind mechanisms!” Sunny yelled.

“I rather destroy my own mind than let a weakling like you take hold!” Once more, Mage 01 unleashed his bottled rage straight for the three components without a shred of hesitation.

“Yep, he’s definitely insane.” Sunny grabbed the three Mage 01 figures and rushed them away from the immediate danger. “Lend your mind to me.” Sunny demanded from Mage 01’s Willpower.

“Like I would ever do something like that, no, most definitely not.” Willpower responded.

“Look over there,” Sunny pointed towards the crashing mind palace, it wouldn’t be long before Mage 01 was finished destroying it for fun. “If you want that maniac destroying you, his own mind, then fine. Don’t lend me your mind, but if you want him to stop, you’re going to need my help. Emotion has engulfed his mind, you’re not the ruler any more, the only way to stop this is to give you back the highest throne. You need priority to calm his mind, Willpower, I can help you do that.” Sunny explained.

“I can do that on my own, I don’t need your help.”

“Ugh screw this.” Sunny grabbed Willpower’s head forcefully and had now taken control over him. It wasn’t the same as Yoona’s case though, this time she had stolen the control and as a result, Mage 01 had gone blank. He would have no recollection of the following events that would occur within his mind. Sunny had returned to the palace where Mage 01 stood perfectly still in the middle of all destruction. He waved his hand, commanding more electricity to surge through his fingertips like before, but nothing happened. The frustration grew, and his hand gestures became more violent, but it was useless his power was gone because he was no longer the master of his own thoughts. “Is this what you wanted? To see me powerless?” Mage 01 hung his head in shame, he was bested and there was nothing he could do to change that.

“No, I tried to get your cooperation, I tried to help you, but you wouldn’t cooperate. This had to be done, to save you from yourself.” Sunny stated.

“What are you going to do now? Erase my memory? Torture me with my darkest emotions? Or just control me forever?” Mage 01 questioned.

“The first one,” Sunny answered.
“Erase my memory? You truly are a cruel lady.” He scoffed.

“Well, I’ll be more specific. I’m not going to erase all of your memory, just the parts that understand how to use your powers.” Sunny explained.

“Wha… what? No… NO!! NO!!! you can’t! this power is rightfully mine!!!!” Mage 01 screamed in heart-wrenching pain.

“You’re too obsessed with power, so this is the punishment you will receive for that. Honestly, I had hoped, like King you could be turned for the better. I thought when I showed you that our potential has still yet to be unlocked, that you would look to me for guidance to that greater strength. But you’re far too stubborn, wanting to be the greatest purely on your own natural born talent. I could change your obsession with my power, but that would be inhumane, tinkering with another person’s emotions is the line I shall not cross. It would almost be like enslaving you to do what I want. Free will is what makes us individuals and you chose this, you chose your pointless strive for self-taught strength rather than accepting help from me. I can’t change who you are and how you choose to learn about your powers, but I certainly can’t allow you to keep this power. Your intentions are always for your own personal gain, even if it’s at other people’s expense, so I can’t let you keep them.” Sunny flew towards Mage 01’s Memory figure and held her hand against his forehead. “From this day on, you will be a normal human being. You will remember everything. You will remember that you had powers and that you chose against my help, but you will never remember how to use your abilities.”

“NO!! PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU, DON’T DO THIS!!! MY POWERS ARE ALL I HAVE, THEY MAKE ME WHO I AM. THEY DEFINE ME!!”

“No Mage 01, your actions define you and in your hand, these abilities are a liability. Sorry, but I have to do this.” Seconds later, Mage 01 had reawakened at the feet of the divinity.

Everything seemed normal as if not a single thing had changed, but he soon realized when he lifted his hands in the air, that his powers were truly gone. He slammed his fists, followed by his head firmly to the ground in rage. “This… can’t be…” In desperation, Mage 01 looked up towards the divinity and begged for his powers. “DIVINITY! I WISH FOR THE POWERS TO BE A…” But before he could finish, Yoona knocked him out with a swift karate chop to the back of the head.

“Whoa, he almost screwed as all.” Yoona sighed.

“What do you mean? Even without him in the picture, we’re still pretty screwed.” Seohyun said pointing at the colossal being waiting for a wish.

“If none of you desire a blessing from me, I will take my revenge upon this world for locking me up in that ethereal realm.” The divinity began to walk, destroying half the museum just so he could move.

“Hey! Wait! Why do you even grant