If he had to describe hell, Kizuna would probably describe something similar to what he's seeing right now.

All of his allies have fallen beside him, he can't even tell if most of them are alive. Kizuna himself barely has any strength to keep his body up.

And in front of him, the unbeatable enemy.

"Do you give up now? I merely ask you to surrender your world to me. I promise nothing bad is going to happen."

That enemy was a goddess that went by the name of Thanatos.

If nothing else, Kizuna had to give her two things. She was the strongest being Kizuna knew, and her beauty accompanied her strength. Even with two enormous machine-looking arms, she was still one of the most beautiful women Kizuna had even seen.

But now was not the time to admire her.

For one reason or the other, Thanatos had suddenly appeared and claimed she was taking over both worlds that had participated in the AU war. Thanatos easily beat everyone who tried to resist her.

"I… won't, give up."

"… Then sleep, for now."

At that moment, the world was painted in white.

And then, Kizuna opened his eyes and jumped out of the bed.

"Waaa! Ha, ha… huh?"

"! You almost scared me for a second, but you seem to be doing fine, Kizuna."

The one who was beside Kizuna while he was sleeping was none other than his mother, Nayuta.

"Kaa-san… I just had a strange dream. Everyone was…"

"Oh, that was no dream. But it happened a while ago though."

Kizuna was surprised at first, but the idea of it not being a dream was starting to settle in his mind. That's because Nayuta wasn't in her usual appearance, but rather in her younger form, the one she got when she gained the powers of a god near the end of the AU war.

There were mere hours from the moment Nayuta was defeated to Thanatos' appearance. A new enemy had appeared as soon as the AU war ended. Nayuta, who had acquired the powers of a god, was a tough opponent to beat, but Thanatos was on a completely different level.

"T-then, what happened? What about everyone else?"

"Calm down. I'll tell you everything, but first you should lay down."

Following his mother's orders, Kizuna laid himself on the bed while he listened to her explanation.

Nayuta told Kizuna that she was able to come back from the time she was defeated during the AU war, but just in time to see Thanatos take over both worlds. After Kizuna was defeated, some still tried to oppose Thanatos, but to no avail.

From what Nayuta could tell, Thanatos didn't plan to kill anyone and restored what she had destroyed, but Nayuta wouldn't wait to see what Thanatos had planned, so she took a few things and ran away.

"What I took was the Vatlantis Imperial Battleship, which is where we are right now, and a small team of people from both worlds, which are now the crew maintaining this ship. It was a bit hard for everyone to get along at first, but it turned out alright."

"What about the people you couldn't bring along?"

"They are in the worlds Thanatos took over. Before I left, I saw that everyone seemed to be fine, so you shouldn't worry about them. There's also a few other things, but I'll save that for later."

There was a lot to take in, but Kizuna was surprisingly calm. Maybe it's because it was still hard to believe all that. In any case, being calm was important right now.

"Rest a bit more. I'll come back in a little while to take you to everyone else. Now that you've woken up, we can get to work."

There was an unknown guest in the Vatlantis Imperial Battleship.

It was unknown what action one would take should they notice him, after all, though he had a handsome face with blond hair and blue eyes, he also had a sick-looking appearance at the same time.

His face would make one think he had a slight cold or something, but, other than that, nothing else stood out. His clothes looked like something any man would wear and he hid his presence at such a level people passed right by him and didn't notice anything.

He just continued hidden and commented to himself.

"Come on, little god, take me to her."

The man continued biding his time.

After about half an hour, Nayuta took Kizuna to the ship's command room, where everyone had gathered.

On the way, Kizuna saw quite a few people and Nayuta told him that she was able to bring about 500 or so people to this ship without being noticed. Kizuna asked how she was able to do that, but Nayuta avoided answering.

As soon as the door opened, everyone inside looked Kizuna's way. Even though it didn't felt like it had been long since he had last seen them, Kizuna saw some faces he wanted to see as soon as possible.

"""Kizuna!"""

"T-thank goodness."

"Heh, I knew he'd wake up soon."

[But you were worried the most, weren't you, Reiri?]

"Everyone…"

The people in that room were Nayuta's daughter and Kizuna's older sister, Reiri, and her friend, Kei. Not to mention Kizuna's companions from Amaterasu, Aine, Hayuru and Yurishia. Sylvia wasn't there, so Nayuta probably hadn't been able to bring her along.

There was also Aine's younger sister, Grace. She had been an enemy for most of the AU war, but joined Kizuna near the end. It was because Grace had allied with them that the war was able to end in a fairly peaceful way.

As a side note, there was also something that happened at the end of the AU war, so Kizuna got unexpectedly close to the younger sister. So much so Grace even calls Kizuna "nii-sama" now.

"Excuse me from getting in everyone's way, but I think we should start talking as soon as possible."

Everyone in that room knew the importance of those words, so they calmed themselves and listened to Nayuta.

"Well then, I've already told this to everyone, but I'll say it again. Although Thanatos did attack us, she didn't kill anyone as far as I know, so I'm a bit hesitant to say she's an enemy. However, she does have both worlds captive, so we need to find a way to free them from her."

"But we know very well we can't win in a fight, so what's you plan?"

Reiri simply stated a fact. Both worlds had fought Thanatos and lost, so there was no way they could win now.

"About that, I-!"

Then, the battleship shook as if it had suddenly stopped. Nayuta said "it must be her" and asked Kizuna to accompany her.

They walked to the ship's deck. Then, in front of the ship, they saw Thanatos. Or maybe it was just a projection of her image, since she was about as big as the ship and semi-transparent.

"I knew you'd be able to find us sooner or later. Let me say this first, we just want to talk."

"Good. I never intended to kill any of you anyway, so let's talk."

Even though Kizuna was just standing beside Nayuta, he was the most nervous one there. It might have been just an impression, but Kizuna thought Thanatos looked at him for a second. Maybe she remembered him from that time?

"I'll be honest from the beginning, can you let the worlds you captured go? I can't see why you'd want them and we'd appreciate our homes back."

"Just as I expected, this is what you wanted. I can't free them as I'm not really holding them captive, and I do have a purpose for them. What I can do is allow every one of you to go back there. I promise that, once I'm done with both of them, I'll let both worlds go. I just want your people's help and I'm sure I'll reach my objective faster with your help."

Thanatos said, clearly to Nayuta. However, her eyes were moving around, as if looking for something.

Thanatos felt something like a murderous intent coming from the ship. It wouldn't be surprising that someone there would want revenge against her, but it strangely seemed to come only from one person, and that same person seemed to be hiding his presence.

"Well, that we can't do. You're not telling us what you want, so we can't compromise with you. But, if you told us what your objective is, we might be able to reach an agreement."

"My objective… that's… something a little personal, so I'd rather not voice it out. I'm sure you can understand. In any case, if you're not coming back, then I'll at least escort you someplace safe. … Yes, that girl should enjoy your company. However, know that I have given you a second chance and that I will not show mercy if you show up again or try to oppose me."

Thanatos then disappeared, and the ship started moving again. It seems like Thanatos was forcibly moving the ship. Is this her idea of escorting?

Nayuta and Kizuna entered the ship. Once inside, they closed all entrances and exits and warned everyone of what was about to happen. And just as they feared, the ship started moving between worlds.

"What's going on?!"

"Thanatos is throwing us to some other world. Luckily, this was kinda part of my plan, so it should be fine."

"Kinda?!"

Their luck hadn't abandoned them though, as they were somehow able to arrive safely at some world. Then again, Thanatos did say she was going to escort them. Hopefully no one had a heart attack during the trip.

Kizuna and Nayuta then went back to the command room. Nayuta told Kizuna to try to calm everyone down while she looked through a few things.

While Kizuna was trying to calm himself and everyone else, he noticed that Nayuta had something like a roll of papyrus and seemed to be reading it, but decided it wasn't the best time to ask about it.

After a little bit, Nayuta took over for Kizuna and said.

"This actually could work out. Everyone, come here, I'm going to talk about the plan now."

Everyone in the command room directed their attention towards Nayuta. She then said.

"To be honest, the plan in very simple. We're going to meet other gods and either ask them to help us or try to find a possible weakness on Thanatos. If neither of those work, then… I don't know."

"… This plan isn't any good!" a unified voice was heard from the command room.

"What the hell was that? That woman is crazy! Ahh! I was so close… but it doesn't seem like it was a complete loss."

The hidden man said to himself as he got ready to leave the ship.

"Ok, I'll start with the appetizers then."

Nayuta was somehow able to convince Reiri and the others to give her plan a try. She said "you seem to have become quite skilled with women, my son, so go meet the goddess that lives in this world" and then made Kizuna go.

Aine, Grace, Yurishia and Hayuru were also send to accompany Kizuna. Although no one planned to fight, they were all wearing their pilot suits.

Nayuta also gave them a map that would lead them to the goddess she talked about. When asked about how she got that map, Nayuta avoided answering. One thing Kizuna found strange was that the map seemed to be made of papyrus.

Since Nayuta had kicked them out anyway, they decided to follow the map. It seemed like there wasn't a big distance between them and the goddess Nayuta talked about, and sure enough, they did find her not long after leaving.

"? I believe I was the only one left in this world, so where did you all come from?"

That goddess had messy blond hair and wore a revealing Chinese styled dress. She also had a petite body, but unexpected big breasts, which looked too big for that body size. They had been told by Nayuta that the goddess' name was Hokuto.

If he had to guess based on appearance alone, Kizuna would say she's about the same age as Aine and the others, but, considering she is a goddess, that might not be the case.

"A-are you Hokuto? We have something we'd like to ask of you."

"Hum? Wait, I think I've seen you five somewhere. Maybe in the worlds Thanatos just got? If that's the case, how did you all get out? Ah, don't worry, I'm not going to call her to pick you all up or anything. Actually, I appreciate the company."

Hokuto then got on the same level as Kizuna. Well, that wasn't completely right, since she was smaller than him. Is she really a goddess? Kizuna couldn't see her as anything other than a girl his own age.

Although he already knew she was a goddess, Kizuna was having trouble believing that. Both Nayuta and Thanatos didn't hide their power, but he couldn't tell the difference from Hokuto to any normal girl.

"Yes, we are from those worlds. We were able to escape and we want to free our worlds, so we'd like to ask for help for that."

"Ah, so that's it. Still didn't answer how, but ok. I don't think you'll need any help. Before you start thinking badly of her, what Thanatos wants is-! Gah!"

Before anyone could notice, there was an arm going through Hokuto's chest. Howvever, there was no blood and there was something like a "ball of light" being held by the hand connected to that arm.

Behind Hokuto was the mysterious man that was hiding on the Vatlantis Imperial battleship, though no one there knew that.

"Hey there people. Nothing to see here, so I recommend going home now."

"Gaa! Aaa!"

The man said as his arm continued impaling Hokuto. As mentioned before, there was no blood, but Hokuto seemed to be genuinely in pain.

Hokuto tried to resist, but the man did something which seemed to cause her even more pain. Hokuto had been trying to reach the man behind her, but soon could do nothing but scream.

Kizuna and the girls should have left that place immediately. Although they didn't know anything about Hokuto, this man was someone able to hold back a god. They should run away.

That's what they should have done, but Kizuna couldn't do that. It was like Eros' core inside him was telling Kizuna "don't let him. Stop that man" so Kizuna's mind didn't even think about running away.

"Damn it! Eros!"

"Eros?"

Following after Kizuna, the others also equipped their Heart Hybrid Gear.

"! Zeros!"

"Koros!"

"Cross!"

"Neros!"

While everyone looked ready for a fight, no one wanted to try the opponent's strength. At least, that was the case with the girls.

Kizuna acted before thinking. He rushed towards the man and punched him in the face. Surprisingly, Kizuna felt a pretty solid hit. Is this man not that strong?

The man was separated from Hokuto. She didn't look hurt, but she seemed to have trouble breathing and looked like she was about to lose consciousness.

"Aa- guun."

"I-it's alright now. No one is going to hurt you anymore."

Kizuna wasn't sure about what to say, that's why he tried to assure Hokuto before she lost consciousness in his arms.

Kizuna handed Hokuto to Aine and told them to go. Something in his chest told him that his best chance against this was man right now, that it would be too late after this.

"Take her to the ship. I'll hold this guy."

"But, Kizuna-!"

And then, the man got up. He looked at Kizuna and said.

"It's fine. I'll let you all off for today as a favor to an old friend, and it's not like I can fight right now, so it's best for me as well."

The man took a few steps back into the shadows and said "see you again soon, Eros" and then disappeared into thin air.

Everyone finally released the air they had been holding onto ever since the man appeared. As they headed back to the ship, taking Hokuto along, everyone had one thing in their minds.

What just happened and who was that man?