New computer, new Office. First time using Word 2010. Noticed the space missing problem when transferring 2010 to 2007. Fixed some of it… maybe missing some… so… well, bear with me.

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It seems as if the entire Dorssia was emptied into the Moon. Hundreds of Walkits, swarmed by layers upon layers of thousands upon thousands of Waffes that blanket the entire space like a silvery cloud, hundreds of Ideals and Kirschbaum… And this hasn't included the forces acquisitioned from the Arus Arsenal… as well as the reinforcements from the Magius army itself.

The Moon Colony has been largely taken over, its populace subjugated if not drafted forcibly to join the fleet, and now the colony's infrastructure were used for military purposes, as the command and control base for this operation. In fact, it was said that the Fuhrer himself is in the moon base.

X-Ein looked at all this assembled military firepower in awe from the window of a Walkit he boarded upon. The entire military might of the world assembled in one place is a sight that none has ever seen before and likely will ever be seen again. This is probably enough firepower to decimate every capital city on earth 10 times over. All this firepower… all directed to fight a small makeshift nation established by a bunch of children.

Excessive?

X-Ein would disagree. Of course he would. These children had access to a set of the most powerful weapon ever made in the world, piloted by an army of immortals that cannot be killed using conventional combat strategy.

However, in a true stoicism of proud Dorssian elite, X-Ein would rather die first before admitting defeat. He had already developed some ideas on how to fight these immortals, ranging from total incineration to spacing them out. But truth be told, he's not sure if it's enough… For now, what he can do is make sure that everything is combat ready. Everything and everyone.

He looked back and saw Q-Vier, smiling manically. He always smiles like that when he knew there will be some bloodletting. In a sense, that is just so like him. No problem here. As long as X-Eins stays the hell out of his way, and Q-Vier directed his crosshair at the enemy, then all is good.

But… as of right now, if there's anything eerie and completely out of place… that would be H-Neun. His gaze turned to the blonde haired Dorssian soldier resting his back on the wall, all calm and quiet, not uttering a word, seemingly concentrating, meditating for the battle ahead.

X-Ein had known H-Neun for years, and last he checked, H-Neun and the concept of calm and quiet don't mix. Usually, H-Neun would always be chattier right on the eve of a great battle, annoying the hell out of everyone with his motor-mouth. But… ever since he returned from that manor after taking his place to deliver that report to Cain, H-Neun has been… strange. Alienated from everyone. Normally, this would be a welcome change for X-Ein who often berated the carefree Karlstein at least 3 times a day for his lack of discipline.

But suddenly, X-Ein realized, nothing is louder than H-Neun's uncharacteristic silence. "H-Neun?"

H-Neun shrugged and looked solemnly at X-Ein, not uttering a word.

"Are you okay?"

H-Neun blinked. He shrugged and replied in an extremely polite tone. "I thank you for your concern. But other than a slight nose problem, I'm perfectly healthy."

Ouch. Dude. Bad. Really bad. That is so not me.

X-Ein was stupefied as his jaw hung. What… was that? Did that wisecracking H-Neun who was known to daringly speak dirty languages in a very free and casual tone against even a superior officer had just spoke in an incredibly rigid and polite manner!? Did the sky fell on his head or something? "Are you sure?"

'H-Neun' frowned. Prue inwardly rubbed his chin. 'What's his problem? I answered him politely, no?'

Buddy, polite and 'me' don't mix.

Prue began to grow somewhat nervous under X-Ein's inquisitive gaze. That and this nagging noise at the back of his head is really grating on his nerves. "Bathroom." H-Neun stood up and quickly left the utterly confused and suspicious X-Ein behind. X-Eins continue to look at H-Neun's back, rapidly diminishing and finally vanished as he entered the toilet.

Inside the toilet, Prue looked at the mirror as he mentally saw the reflection of H-Neun smiling smugly back at him.

Thank you. The look on X-Ein's face when you scare the begeesus out of him. That was priceless. The H-Neun in the mirror laughed his brains out.

The Prue possessed H-Neun however, was not. "Shut up, Human! Do not test my patience!"

Hey come on. I'm just giving you some tips on how to be more… me. If the idea is to walk in my shoes… you really need to take it a little easier.

"Do not think, for a second, that I cannot just erase your existence completely from my mind, human!"

Then why don't you do so? H-Neun smirked as he challenged the Magius… knowing that Prue will not go through with it. That's right. Contrary to what other Magius think, even contrasting H-Neun's own expectation of the terrible fate he will suffer, he is, quite in fact, still alive and intact inside his own body. His mind trapped inside the prison of his own shell, his will taking a back seat as he watched a show… a puppet show, where Prue, the puppeteer, is making a poor, poor attempt on playing the puppet that is his body. H-Neun quickly grew accustomed to this back seat situation and relaxed, as if he's having a long overdue vacation. But Prue's terrible attempt on being him is devastating his well established image of the self proclaimed Don Juan of Dorssia.

"Don't test me, human." Prue hissed dangerously. In truth, is not that Prue can't absorb H-Neun completely… he just doesn't want to. For him… for a Magius of his caliber, a compatible body which he can use properly doesn't grow on trees. When a Pure Magius hijack someone, they don't just take their flesh, they also took in their memories, their personalities. The vessel's whole lifetime experience all crammed into one's mind in an instant, fusing, combining, blending with pre-existing personality. While that allows them to perfectly assume the identity of their vessel, they also risk losing their original identity. That's why lesser Magius usually have exacting specification as to what kind of vessel they prefer. The more similar they are in nature with the host, the safer the transference will be.

Superior Elder Magius like the members of the Covenant of Seven Rainbows such as his sister and himself however, possess enough strength of will to overwhelm the thoughts and personality of lesser species. The problem is, Prue had lost some of his greater strength. 20 years ago when he and his sister returned to that abominable blue planet, her sister's Valvrave smashed into a Dyson Sphere, causing massive damage to her atmospheric reentry shielding system. He then used himself as a shield… but at a cost. He was forcibly ejected out of his severely damaged Valvrave due to a malfunction before it catastrophically exploded. He was ejected while they're still piercing through the atmosphere and for a 3 long and torturous minutes… he was burned alive by the air friction. All of his runes were nearly spent, and he was closer than any Magius has ever been to death. He didn't even have power left to take a human body… nor would he dare. As he was then, even if he had found a compatible body, his personality would be torn away, and his existence would've vanished into his vessel's torrent of emotions and memories.

Thus… it was an incredible stroke of good fortune then, that the first person who found him… was the vessel of his long time comrade, Attlach the Spider queen. She was in a different body then. A female body. Until, roughly 10 years later, he took in a new body, Cain. And for all those long years, Attlach nursed him. Help him recover some bits of his strength, allowing him to return some of his former glory. Now, he's much stronger than he was 20 years ago… but not strong enough to try to overtake this body by force… this person… H-Neun. Attlach wasn't kidding when he said this body was unsuitable, the two of them were complete opposite down to the very foundations of their personality! Any attempt to forcibly integrate this conflicting personality will probably result in their mutual obliteration, they will be left a gibbering wreck. Hence why Prue merely partially took over H-Neun's body. Besides, he only wanted to 'borrow' his body. Borrow as in he will return it when it has served his purposes.

Suddenly, cutting Prue/H-Neun from their internal musings, the alarm blared, and soon the toilet door was banged from outside. It was X-Eins. "H-Neun? Hurry up and finish up. We're being called to our stations."

"A moment!" Prue/H-Neun replied.

Tell him a joke. Spout some trivia bullshit, that's what I usually do. It lightens the mood, getting everyone to let loose a little, providing the calm before the shit-storm.

Such concept was quite alien to Prue. "I don't. Know. Any. Jokes."

That is just so sa~ad. H-Neun mourned for Prue's lack of sense of humor. Let the old pro tell you one.

When H-Neun walked out of the toilet, he was welcomed by the still suspicious X-Ein. X-Ein looked at H-Neun's flat expression, completely out of his character.

"Hurry up." X-Ein noted. "It seems they've detected an incoming large object coming our way. It could be a module!"

H-Neun flatly nodded. But Prue suddenly felt a nudge coming from H-Neun. Grunting inwardly, Prue-H-Neun muttered. "X."

X-Ein paused as he looked back at H-Neun. H-Neun would often affectionally call him with just one part of his name, minus the number, whenever he wishes to tell a dirty joke.

"…sorry about the whole vomit thing." H-Neun continued. "I'll introduce you to some nice girls to bang when this is over. Deal?"

And X-Ein analyzed…

The dirty joke was H-neun allover…

The flat zombie-like tone and expression… definitely scream: not H-Neun.

Hence why, instead of calming down, X-Ein was somewhat freaked out as his eyes twitched in complete suspicion. "…s…sure…"

The bespectacled Dorssian rushed away, knowing the incoming enemy cannot wait for the matter of his friend's horrid change of personality to be sorted out. He'll just hope it will not interfere with the coming conflict.

"…well… it worked…" Prue tilted his head. "Right?"

H-Neun slapped his face knowing full well just how much work he'll have to make to restore his image if he ever returned to his original body. Kiddo… you really need to get a life.

Chapter 8:

Battle Assault: Moon

As soon as the fleet detected an incoming huge object, the whole fleet roars to life both inside and out. Manned and unmanned Waffes flies to formation as the larger Ideal power all their weapons. Some Kirschbaum turned to their flight mode as they move into position. Walkits turned around, arranging all their forward firing guns to the front. Arus carriers stayed at the back, unleashing swarms of Splicers. Everyone concentrated their formation around the Moon Colony, as if knowing that this would be the enemy's main target.

As soon as all the units moved into position, the composition of the army soon became clear: the mostly human Dorssia and requisitioned Arus forces at the front, and the Magius forces, and thus the overall command and control of this operation, is situated at the rear line. The distinction became clear with the Magius Force having more Magius Teched ships and machines in their fleet, seeing only Magius can use such rune based technology. All in all… the human Dorssia-Arus fleet outnumbers the Magius Fleet 5 to 1… but no one dares to turn their guns at the Magius at their backs, knowing even with that odd, they're still outmatched. The difference in firepower was quite obvious.

H-Neun, X-Ein and Q-Vier had launched out inside their Kirschbaum, escorted by a swarm of their personal Waffes for support and recharge. Of greater interest, while X-Ein and Q-Vier used a normal human use Kirschbaum, H-Neun's were customized with Magius tech, complete with sense nerve and hard-light propulsion system. Another distinguishing feature is that Prue/H-neun's Kirschbaum is armed with a foldable Chain Sword hosted on its back. Naturally, only a Magius with access to runes can use Mag technology.

"H-Neun?" X-Ein blinked. "Where did you get that?"

"A gift from Cain." Prue answered short.

At this point, X-Ein was more suspicious than confused.

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And speaking of Cain…

The door slid open as Cain entered the bridge. "Colonel Cain Dressel reporting for duty, Commander." Cain saluted at the Fleet Commander.

The Fleet Commander, in turn, also saluted the one eyed colonel. "Welcome, Colonel. It's an honor to have you with us."

"The Fuhrer ordered me here."

"A fact which I'm grateful. You've faced these things before and survived. Out of everyone, you have the most field experience to deal with these things. I will be counting on your wise councils, Colonel."

Cain nodded. "I shall do my very best commander." Cain immediately took his seat next to the Fleet Commander as they oversee the holographic projection of the battlefield shown in the center of the large bridge.

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Meanwhile, the tension runs high as the fleet awaited the coming of the enemy with fingers on their triggers, ready to press. The Radar officer looked at the chart depicting the space. A giant dot suddenly appeared on their sensor perimeter. As soon as it did, the command bridge grew tense. "Sir, motion sensor is detecting a massive object is approaching us. 1 minute until visual contact."

"All ships! All fleets! Ready your weapon!" The Fleet Commander of the entire armada spoke. "Upon confirmed visual contact, fire at will!"

It was then, just moments before the battle, a window screen popped out of the console of every unit in the fleet as a fleet wide broadcast was sent out. On the screen was Amadeus standing on a podium as he looked on at the gathered soldiers before him. "I know we're but moments away from a great battle. So I'll be brief." He started.

Every Dorssian soldiers listened intently to their Fuhrer. They were encouraged when they heard that the Fuhrer himself had decided to grace them with his actual presence, personally overseeing the battle from the windows of the Moon Base. That being said, they were expected to do their best now that the Fuhrer's eyes are upon them.

"Make no mistake people. These things we're about to fight are counted as some of the most powerful beings in the world."

As it is, the speech is also being broadcasted live to every media in the world. The Magius intended to show the progress of this battle to everyone in a show of terror tactics, just like the massacre of the Arus allied fleet.

"They will look like children, they will act and quack like one… but make no mistake… they are anything but. They are monsters."

Somewhere in deep space, aboard an Arus flagship, the scarred but alive albeit roughened Jeffry, president of Arus watched the speech grudgingly. "Let's see how good you are when you're fighting your own kind."

"You will show them no mercy. Take no prisoners. For they will do the same to you. No retreat! No surrender!"

Atop the podium, Mirko/Amadeus ended his short and spirited speech promptly as he raised his fist to the sky. "For the glory of our nation! BLITZENDEGEN!"

"BLITZENDEGEN!" Every soldier in the Dorssian fleet responded in a thunderous roar.

The IFF officer reported: "3 seconds to visual contact…"

The whole fleet held their breath…

"2…"

They waited… sweaty fingers on the trigger… throats dried out… eyes bulging on their targeting scopes…

"1… contact."

And out from the shadows of the darkness of space, it appeared. Module 77, with its orange glowing dome, flew in at breakneck speed straight into the welcoming fleet. High Powered Propulsion Thrusters from several salvaged rockets were welded to the rear part of the module, providing the thrust.

For a moment, every ship commander wondered what were these kids thinking, charging straight from the front like that. But, that thought perished as soon as the first gunner remembered their duty and pressed the trigger. The first shot was fired and soon, all other cruisers followed suit and opened fire at the module. Thousands upon thousands of energy beams rained down upon the module, battering its outer structure to oblivion, and as soon as the outer defenses were taken down, its insides joined in oblivion. Within minutes, the dome was turned into a beehive. And yet it still kept going forward without any sign of stopping.

Kirschbaum, Ideals and Waffes all converged upon the module to concentrate their fire, pouring more and more projectiles upon the module. And still it won't stop. Finally, the Carriers moved forward, charging their heavy beam cannon. Moments later, dozens of massive pillars of beam streams burst out from the cannon barrel and punctured the module at multiple points, causing catastrophic damage. Now, the module visibly slows down.

Cain saw this from the bridge… and he frowned in suspicion.

Another dozen carriers charged and fired their heavy beam cannon, and after the second salvo, the module is barely standing. Heck, it doesn't even resemble a module anymore. The fleet stopped shooting and just watched as the remains of the Module just drift forward through sheer momentum… and nothing more. And finally… with one last spark, it exploded full force.

The fleet stand down, all looked bewilderedly at the floating debris, leftovers of the once gigantic module… confused at that… anti-climatic conclusion.

"…is that it?" The Fleet Commander blinked in confusion… until suddenly…

The Radar Officer screeched. "Detecting MULTIPLE objects heading our way!"

And suddenly, as if dropping a veil of darkness, another module 77, intact and unscathed appeared right out of the thin air, right next to the debris of the first. The group of Ideal and Kirschbaum contemplated to open fire… until another module appeared literally right in front of their nose and pulverized an entire pack.

The Fleet watched in horror as another Module appeared… and then another… and another, and another… their radar picked up no less than 30 Modules, all registered as Module 77, all materialized right out of thin air, rushing straight at them at break neck speed, smashing the vanguard Kirschbaum, Ideals and Waffes caught up in its path. Many tried to dodge, many more were caught in between the incoming objects. The gigantic module also easily smashed apart Walkits and Cruisers who didn't have time to move away to a safe distance.

A quick scan shows that there are massive signs of life in all the Modules. Signing all of them were boarded, all of them emanates the same signatures with that of the original module 77.

Even the most inept of all commanders would realize it is a trap. The Fleet Commander looked at all these modules appearing one after another. "What is this? How did they do that?"

"I suppose this is their doing…" Cain's eye widened. "…more importantly, they've integrated our stealth technology!?"

Meanwhile, the 30 or so charging Modules continue to wreak havoc upon the fleet, plowing through the assembled ship, using their bulk to smash away through its formation, sending the enemy fleet into momentary disarray. Unable to tell which of the gigantic dome is the real one, they have no choice but to stop them all one by one.

"Concentrate your fire! Destroy them all!" The Fleet Commander immediately took control of the situation. In no time flat, the Fleet had regained their bearings and quickly rearranged their formations as they organized a counterattack. "FIRE!" Several ships picked their target and concentrate their firepower on one of the incoming hulking modules. But then again, the Modules were gargantuan object, vastly dwarfing all ships. It'll take a lot of firepower to bring one down. Walkit's city decimating arsenal might as well throw pebble against a tidal wave.

However, the concentrated firepower from the Fleet began to stop some of the modules in their tracks. What's more, they quickly learn not to deal with a module head on. "AIM AT THE THRUSTERS! THE THRUSTERS!" The Kirschbaum Squadron commanders roared. They flew their unit to the rear part of the module and fired at the welded thrusters. Once the thrusters were destroyed, the module's pace slowed to a snail's pace before it finally grinded to a halt.

Steadily, one by one, the other module also received the same treatment. There are some resistances of course. The Modules' defense mechanism activates, its CIWS shooting down all who tried to do the module harm, but really, they are nothing more but a mild nuisance. Within minutes, the Modules were neutralized one after another and the Fleet merely suffered a moderately low damage.

The Fleet Commander looked at Cain in confusion, asking him to advise him an answer. "What is this? What are they up to?"

"I… know not." Cain's eye narrowed in analysis. He understands the use of multiple Modules to mask the original one, hiding a tree inside a forest. However… the trajectories of these Modules were linear and simple. "This is… so unlike L-Elf's style…"

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Meanwhile, as this happened, the New 06 simply watched this chaos of her making from the darkness. Seeing that she had tweaked with their thermal scanners and all, making them believe that all the modules are inhabited, the Dorssian forces will understand that their sensor are useless. When they ground another Module to a halt… and they'll have to do the confirmation the old fashioned way, by boarding the Modules directly and report on sight…

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As expected, as soon as the modules are stopped, the fleet began sending in infantry teams to explore the modules, boarding them. An Ideal detached its drill unit and let it loose into the Module, drilling a way in for the ground infantry to infiltrate.

The Waffes also poured into the module, searching for their target. To their surprise… they found nothing. The Module was empty. Empty as in there's not a soul to be found in there. Even the CIWS barrage from earlier was commande VIA autopilot. "I don't understand…" The Waffe pilot reported through his com. "There's nothing here." So they reported.

Other modules were also breached and explored, and they all reported more or less the same results. The subordinates reported to their superior officers, the superior officers reported to their commanders, and so on and so forth. The Modules are empty. In fact, none of them are the Module they're looking for. They were all old abandoned modules that had been externally refurbished to LOOK like Module 77.

"Where did they get something like this?" The Fleet Commander pondered.

"There are a lot of derelict Dyson Spheres out there in space. They must've found one and disassemble them. And then, using autopilot they direct it on a collision course…" Cain frowned, still trying to figure out the 'why' of this seemingly futile maneuver. While he still wondered about the enemy plan… his eye suddenly caught a peculiar sight…

There are only five modules left still moving forward despite the massive damage it has amassed. Two modules fly around the one in the middle, shielding the one module. The other two had been reduced to wreckage, but they continue to drift around the center unit like an impromptu shield. This five module flotilla had managed to pierce deepest into the armada's lines in such way, heading steadily towards the moon…

"Commander…!" Cain squint his one eye. "Look at those five modules!" The radar officer hastily zoom the screen on that five peculiar modules. Cain quickly pointed out the obvious: "Those five are flying in formation! All four shielding the one in the middle! THAT is the original Module 77!"

The Fleet Commander quickly jumped to action. "All ships! Target is the center module! Stop it on its tracks and prepare to board and exterminate!"

"NO, wait!" Cain interjected. The commander looked questioningly at Cain. Cain frowned in deep thought. More and more he dislike where this is going. The trajectory of this particular module… and all other modules… they're too lateral and obvious. They weren't aimed at the command and control center at the moon. Instead they were directed towards the densest concentration of units. They were sent to be destroyed. Did they intend to crash as many units with the Module's bulk? "Contact the rear fleet… tell them to fire every Heavy Rune Cannon at their disposal to instantly destroy all five module simultaneously. Have the Kirschbaum destroy its thrusters! Do NOT let them come any closer to the rear line!"

"Very good sir." The Fleet Commander quickly do so.

The rear fleet, the Magius fleet received the instruction and followed it to the latter. At least a dozen Mag Carriers charged their Heavy Rune canon, preparing for a simultaneous barrage. "Ready to fire in 3… 2… 1…"

"FIRE ALL!"

With a thunderous roar, a rain of gigantic pillars of rune zoomed across the space, all heading straight at the five modules. The wreckages of the two were obliterated instantly, the other two relatively intact ones managed to absorb several blows before they too were torn apart, and finally, with its escorts brought down, the remaining blast rained down upon the last Module unimpeded, causing massive damage. Moments later, the last module finally exploded, leaving nothing but wreckages, covered in smokes of explosion…

…or so they thought…

Amidst the smokes, some glimmers of light can be seen… before countless strands of beam blast sprayed out to every direction.

"What the…"

At least a dozen Mag Walkits suffered catastrophic damage when this sudden rain of lasers filled them full of holes, slicing them to bits. Countless Waffes, dozens of Ideals and Kirschbaum caught by the spray were ripped apart by strands of laser, each significantly smaller then the heavy rune cannon blast, but no less potent and thus all the more destructive because of it.

The black space was instantly covered in numerous multitudes of explosions and multitudes of unit dots of the rear units disappeared from the radar.

"Wh… What happened?" The Fleet Commander balked.

Cain narrowed his eye at the spot where that 'attack' came from and spotted something on the wreckages of the last module. Soon, other ships and other commanders noticed the object as well.

It's an orb. A golden colored orb, glowing and brimming with energy…

"That thing… that's the thing that shot us?"

"No…" Cain frowned. "…it didn't shot us…"

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Meanwhile… inside the hidden unit 06…

Akira noted the progress inside her cockpit filled with circular keyboards and holographic screens. Her sensors and radars caught everything that is occurring, no one say something in the fleet without her hearing about it. So far, there's a lot of chatter of panic, a lot of transmission of orders and instructions… and from what she gathered… it looks like most of the front line are in fact… human. Just like A-Drei and Haruto predicted, the Magius are using normal humans as cannon fodder at the front line while they keep to the safety in the rear. They even use their own isolated and well protected communication network with different encryption. This one, she had a bit of a difficulty to follow and monitor…

"I see." A-Drei's voice replied. "That's unfortunate."

What. You. Do. Now? Akira watched as the conversation between the commanders and chief officers of their army played out in front of her.

"We're running out of time, Tokishima Haruto. I suggest we have Renbokuji Akira shut them down now, before they realized what we're doing!"

"Fine… But we're not in position yet…" Haruto replied.

"Oi, Satomi! Can't this bucket fly any faster!?" Takahi grunted.

"Any faster and they'll detect us!" Satomi replied. "Akira, you're alright? You're okay?"

"Cut the chatter!" A-Drei barked. "Inuzuka Aina! Begin the attack! Distract them! Buy us time!"

"Got it."

A-Drei also looked at Akira and gave her the order: "Renbokuji Akira… shut them down. Now."

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And then… much to the shock of the onlookers, the sphere began to crumble… no… it began to open up.

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Flashback:

"Gentleman… after spending no small amount of time in Earth's history of warfare… I had an epiphany." Pino announced to the engineering team just before they intend to modify 05's shield. "Hard and rigid is yesterday's news. Soft and small is the way forward." And so she says as everyone watched dumbly at 05's clear fossil shield being grounded to dust… literally.

A-Drei however, couldn't care less about such details. "Hard, soft, it doesn't matter. There's still the problem with the Valvraves heat limit…"

"I got just the thing."Pino explained. "All Valvrave is being retrofitted with a universal heat transfer system. As you fight, you'll accumulate heat. Once you gun reach a certain level of heat, the systems will automatically warn you of impending heat. To prevent thermal damage, the system will automatically jam the gun. Press the button, and all that heat that your unit had gathered will be transferred into this one rod. These rods are your ammunition. One rod can handle 200 normal shots from the new Selkis handgun before they overheated and they had to be replaced. That number will change depending on the weapon you're using. Horus can handle 400 rounds, but with its rate of fire through the roof, it will chew down your ammo supplies REALLY fast. Anubis and Sekhmeth took an entire rod for one shot. One magazine holds 4 rods. Once a rod has been used up..."

"We have to eject the spent thermal rod, replace it with a new one?" Aina guessed.

"Just ejecting?" Pino mischievously smirked. "I don't know. I'm thinking something a li~ittle more offensive..."

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The countless golden hexagonal pieces of the golden barrier shifted away, as new 05 Hiuchiba Mk. II finally made itself known, standing tall stop the wreckage of another faux Module 77. Gone were the giant shields on both of its shoulders. Instead, large shoulder mounted equipments were attached on both shoulders, each supported a pair of pods that resemble gigantic sarcophagi bearing the face of a scarab with sense nerve visor, each sarcophagi is unleashing a swarm of countless hundreds of diminutive Scarab-like drones, each of its shells are a small plate of hexagonal Clear Fossil shield, emitting a one directional but dense hexagonal shaped barrier made of yellow Clear Fossil Particles. Each scarab can only emanate a hexagonal particle barrier big enough to cover 2x2 square meter area… not much when it is supposed to shield a twenty meter tall giant robot… but put a few hundreds of such barriers together within layers upon layers of protection, rings within rings of defenses… and you really have something. Of greater interest, is that some parts of the main Valvrave body was also armored with 'bandages' of azure blue clear fossil spiraling around the arm sleeves and parts of the main body as well as the legs.

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"That's… unit 05? What have they done to it?"

"They've modified it… obviously…" Cain stated the obvious before noting the most important mater. "The question is… what can it do now?"

"Let's not wait to find out." The Fleet commander quickly issued an order. "All ships! FIRE AT THAT VALVRAVE!"

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Without further ado, every ship, Waffes, Ideals and Kirschbaum fired their weapon. Detecting incoming attack, the Shield Scarabs buzzed around unit 05, the hexagonal pieces folded back in, protecting the main unit by creating a protective wall, blocking all attack. Missiles, lasers, even a ship main cannon seemingly have no effect on the barrier, it was completely impregnable.

The Fleet Commander didn't lose his cool, having been informed of 05's capability beforehand. "Right… Unit 05… out of all Valvrave it possessed the strongest defensive capabilities. But while defending, it cannot attack back…" But he also analyzed what he sees before him. "Originally, the report stated that unit 05 can only handle attack from one direction… I suppose, judging from what I've seen, they already fixed that issue."

Indeed, unlike the previous one directional shield, 05's Scarab Shield now provides a 360 degree of flexible protection. An absolute defense that cannot be broken through from any direction.

Cain kept his silence, neither denying nor supporting this explanation. That particle shielding… there must be more to it…

"But those defenses are not finite and there are limits to what it can handle. Ready the Heavy Rune Cannon again! We're going to punch through that defense."

One of the carriers began charging its heavy Rune Cannon again, aiming it at the gold sphere that is 05. "Charging Complete!" The gunner reported. "Heavy Rune Cannon… FIRE!"

Once again, a single gigantic beam of Rune blast pierced through space and headed straight at the sphere.

Upon impact, the anti-fortress rune beam clashed with the spherical barrier, grinding the shield, intending to plow through it. To the surprise of the onlookers, instead of an instant destruction, there's actually a long and intense struggle between the unstoppable energy stream and the immovable shield that blocked it. The struggle was ended when the carrier that fired the blast can no longer maintain the stream of energy and the blast died down before the unscathed barrier.

To everyone's shocked disbelief, the barrier still stands, but it glows bright, brimming with coruscating energy, green rune energy identical with that of the Rune Blast. Everyone mistook it for an overheated surface of a shield…

Until a moment later, that overheated surface of a shield suddenly unleashed another shower of energy streams right back at the opposing forces, the reflected energy from the carrier's heavy rune cannon, spraying back to its senders in an onslaught of multitudes of scattered energy strands, obliterating another group of ships and mechs caught in the shower.

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The fleet commander gasped in realization and horror. "That thing… it can reflect Rune Beam Blast!?"

"In addition to being nigh impregnable to all known conventional weaponry…" Cain swallowed a gulp in a rare display of nervousness. 'Pino… I get it that you care for these children… but I had a feeling you overdid it this time.'

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Meanwhile, upon seeing the consequences of firing at the reflective barrier, the army immediately stopped firing almost immediately to reassess their situation.

The rear flank is mostly composed of Magius forces. That is to say most of their weaponries are rune based. And seeing that rune weapons will be reflected, everyone was caught in a momentary impasse, pondering on how to respond to this situation. And in that momentary pause, the barrier scarab dispersed revealing the Azure Valvrave once again, and this time, it brought its offensive weaponries to bear. A pair of weapons in fact. One in each hand. If previously the Blue Valvrave uses something that resembles a pair of arm mounted crossbows, 05's Mk. II new tools of the trade are a pair of hand carried Rifles with sense nerve for scope and hardlight ammunition.

Awkwardly, the rifle gave a feeling like that of a scorpion. The front supported two short pincers; each supported a gun barrel in the center of the maw. In-between the twin linked gun barrel, is the 'head' with the sense nerve targeting system, and just above it is the 'sting' of the scorpion, a rather long barreled spike launcher. The name Selkis-Arm Bolter Cannon were emblazoned on the body.

Inside her new 05, the Amon-Ra, Inuzuka, wearing a specialized helmet smirked. "Party Time." Her eyeball looked to every direction in her specialized visor, locking on to multiple targets all at once.

At last, the New Jior forces return fire in the earnest marked with how the Amon-Ra took aim and both guns fired multiple times in rapid succession. Each shot from the pincer mounted gun barrel is a burst of three HardLight Bolt rounds, with the twin barrel it makes a six shot burst. An Ideal was punctured head to arms and several Waffes were skewered. Seeing that, the Magius forces came to their senses and began shooting back.

But every time they shot rune beams at the barrier, it was reflected back. The Clear Fossil particles dispersed to form the barrier are like billions upon billions of reflective mirrors. 05's new shield is composed of thousands upon thousands of Barrier Scarabs that constantly move in circles, orbiting the Amon Ra at the center. This creates a spiraling and ever-flowing barrier that causes most of the enemy attacks to be deflected instead of merely blocked head on. What's more, as the scarab moves, their Rune reflecting shield also left behind a trail of gold solid afterglow ribbons, creating another layer of defense.

When an energy beam blast hits it, what follows was an effect similar to that of a greenhouse effect. Some of the beam was trapped within a mirror-house-like effect of the Clear Fossil particle matrix. And as the Scarab barrier rotates, thus carrying away the captured energy, a new batch of Scarab barriers flowed in and the process repeats. A single molecular barrier could only shave around 2-3% of the beam's energy, but the Amon-Ra had countless more layers from where that came from. The process repeat itself over and over with every layer of particle barrier that the energy beam penetrates until it was completely neutralized and all that energy trapped and stored within the barrier matrix. The same process that dispersed the beam merely works in reverse when all that locked up energy were sent back to its shooter or just sprayed back in a random shower.

With this type of flexible shielding, the Amon-Ra' defensive system became more complex and more difficult to manage. The pilot needs to properly handle the shield so as to allow some opening for the Valvrave itself to fire, but also leave very little gap to be exploited by a sharpshooting opponent. Inuzuka controls the offensive system, while Aina, in cyber space, managed the fleet of scarab legions like managing a symphony orchestra, making sure nothing goes through without her knowing about it. It is a very fluid defensive system that makes full use of Aina's exceptional spatial awareness. True enough, they pour thousands of bullets and missiles, shooting god knows how many times from every angle… but nothing escapes Aina's attention… and the barrier, as well as the Amon-Ra, remained inviolate.

"Contact the frontline, tell those idiots to pour lead on that SOB…!"

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Cain was not the only one who was surprised. Prue, upon seeing that Clear Fossil Particle Mirror shield immediately recognized her sister's hand in its making. "That… doesn't make sense… that's impossible!"

What do you mean it doesn't make sense? H-Neun chimed in inside Prue's head.

"My sister is the master of manipulating Clear Fossil just like you humans possess some masters of metal works in sword making… To utilize Clear Fossil Particles in such a way as to create a Rune mirror barrier is her expertise but… how can she provide such knowledge to humans!?"

Frankly… I'm more upset as to why those kids always get the cool stuff. H-Neun doesn't sound too upset about it though…

"H-Neun!" X-Ein blared through the com. "The rear line needs help!"

"I know!" Prue/H-Neun roared. "All squadron follow me!" The three Kirschbaum piloted by the Karsteins quickly transformed to their flight mode and flew towards the rear line, intending to give aid to take down that Fortress of a Valvrave.

However… the frontlines suddenly realized they have their own problem.

Namely: the new 06 Mk. II new features.

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"Okay. These are 06's new familiars." Pino addressed a cardbox wearing Akira and Shoko, who forced her to stay by way of handcuffing Akira's hand with hers. "Akira-chan… this is Gretel." Pino pointed at a large and sleek unit standing in the hangar. Shoko was quite impressed, Akira was hardly so. "And this is Hansel. Say hallo." The thing is, Pino pointed… at what appears to be a small disc embedded on a briefcase.

Shoko and Akira looked at both the giant Gretel… and the tiny weenie Hansel. "I… don't get it." Shoko spoke bluntly for both herself and Akira.

Pino shook her head. "Well… this is how it goes. This familiar, the hardware is Gretel…" Pino gestured the giant unit at her back. "…the Software is Hansel." Pino gestured the disc.

Shoko, the non techie, blinked dumbly. "…I still don't get it." Akira was caught between trying to listen intently and desperately trying to escape.

"Well… I don't really understand either. It seems you humans had learned this… cyber-warfare and all and I adapted to it. Technically, Gretel is a mobile quantum supercomputer with enough processing power to hack the planet. Its framework houses a network of servers, big enough processing power to maintain an enormous personal cyberspace within its own body, allowing it to receive, process, alter, block, and then release information from every corner of known network throughout the world in real time, providing enough processing capability to store every data in the world 5 times over. It also possessed a very powerful signal broadcasting system. More powerful than anything ever made by men." Pino explained. "When attached to 06, it will amplify its hacking capability, allowing the unit to remotely hack any computer with radio wave capability or internet connectivity, from anywhere."

Shoko stare dumbly, not understanding a word except the fact they sound incredible. But Akira clearly understands the power that is now at her fingertips. She texted Shoko so as to speak on her behalf. Shoko read it, and became even more confused. "Urmm… Akira asked, and I don't really understand… Some systems require on site hacking… she said."

"That's where Hansel came to play." Pino looked at the cardbox that is Akira as she shrugged at the disc. "Hansel is technically a cyberspace familiar, an adaptive Semi Hacking AI Virus, semi as in it's not entirely autonomous, you still have to control him remotely. The AI is designed to do two things: to hack and break through any kind of firewall ever designed by men, and once it's in, it became your cyber avatar in the system. You noticed that in earlier version, you need to get a close contact with your target in order to hack them. With Hansel and Gretel, you don't have to. It's kinda inspired by this Wi-Fi fed you guys are so crazy about. Basically… if anything can emit or receive a signal, any kind of signal be it radio waves from a handphone or quantum encryption… Hansel, broadcasted by Gretel, can hack it. And once it does, it can enter any system you wish. And then using Gretel, you can operate on any Hansel hacked system as if you were there yourself." Pino shrugged as she chuckled and shook her head. "To be honest with you, I don't understand a damn thing about this computer thingamajig either."

"How come you don't understand, you designed it!" Shoko argued in disbelief.

"This is hardly my area of expertise. I develop the weapons doesn't mean I know how to fire them! Well, MOST of them…" Pino laughed sheepishly. "The thing is… in order for Hansel to hack into any signal, it will require an algorithm. A firewall breaking Algorithm that must be manually written and prepared by the pilot and embedded on Hansel. Really, Hansel is just the carrier virus. A very powerful carrier virus to bypass any form of cyberware defenses and feed the content you prepared to the system. As to what exactly the virus will do… it will be all up to you, Akira-chan. Ultimately… I can safely say… this thing… this system lives and dies by the skills of its user. You're up for it?"

Shoko smirked. If that's true, than this system will live on for a very long time. She didn't know any other hacker better than Akira. She received a text from Akira. "She says… let's do it."

"Yeah… just one last thing…"

"?"

"The name."

"What?"

"The name of this pack." Pino scratched her hair. "I named Haruto's the Full Beast pack… I named Inuzuka's Amon-Ra, the Pantheon Pack… this one… I don't know… Candy-House pack?"

"Candy house? Why Candy House?"

"Sounds a lot cooler to me rather than Horror House pack…"

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06 Mk. II… now known as Malefic, AKA Candy-House, has become less of a robot, more of a Satellite. A gigantic add on was attached to its back, the new familiar for 06, Gretel. It was enormous, vastly larger than unit 06 itself. But it's also lean, sleek, and thin, thus giving out a sense of delicacy and fragileness. The Gretel familiar is like a cross between a stealth bomber and a military satellite. Granted, the Malefic's new familiar look more like a satellite rather than a plane. It has three pairs of jointed wings, vertically stacked in three rows. The uppermost and lowest pair are identical long sleek pods protruding backwards attached on a movable joints. The center wing is the largest pair and unlike the other two back swept pair, it's in a forward swept wing configuration.

The 06 is attached on the center, where she's encircled by a ring protruding out of the center wing. And then there's this long protrusion, longer than even the wide wingspan that extended downward, covering and armoring Malefic's lower half all the way up to her waist. It also has this long blade that curved like scythe on the end of the protrusion.

All of the Neon Green sense nerve attached to various parts of the familiar is glowing brightly as it broadcasted the Hacking AI Virus, Hansel. The Virus that has been inputted with Akira's Firewall breaking algorithm, and now it's being broadcasted full force by Gretel.

At that time, Akira finally flicked the switch… and Hansel, already been spread to over 80% of the entire frontline units via their OWN communication signals went into action by shutting down every system in every ships and units that has been infected by it. They can't even move much less pulling the trigger unless she says so.

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Prue/H-Neun's Kirschbaum just stopped on him. "X-Ein? Q-Vier? What happened?"

"My Kirschbaum malfunctioned!" X-Ein tried to move the controller and still the Kirschbaum didn't move a limb. It's the same story occurring allover the fleet.

"The hell!?" The pilot of a Waffe roared in anger as the monitor on his console start showing: AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs over and over and over… Every single ship and machine units that has been communicating with Dorssian communication network have all been completely taken over by a certain red haired hacker shut in.

In short… the Magius Rear line won't be getting any help from the front line anytime soon.

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Cain quickly realized the reason for the front line's lack of action upon the Commander's orders. "So that's it then…!" Cain grunted. "Those faux modules are dirty bombs! They contain computer virus that infected the whole army!"

"Sir?" The Fleet Commander looked at Cain.

Cain grinned sinisterly. "This must be the work of that purple Valvrave, unit 06…" So that's their game. They sent the faux modules on collision course for the sole purpose so that they will be stopped. With it being rigged in such a way that even their scanner for live signs were unable to tell the difference, the New Jiorians know full well that the Dorssian Forces will have to board the ship, spent some time checking, reporting it via their communication systems… and then the damage was done. "Shut down all coms with the front line! Switch the frequency! That's how the virus has been spreading from unit to unit! It was embedded on the signals we used to communicate with one another! They're using our own communication against us! Cut all coms now!"

"A virus that can infect and spread VIA our quantum crypto wave? Is that even possible?"

"Ask that to the Alien." Cain smiled nervously. 'Pino~o… you finally outdid yourself… Lieselotte would be brimming in envy if she saw this…'

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The Fleet Commander quickly ordered to cut all forms of communications with the infected front line. That managed to halt the spread of the Hansel virus, and kept the rear forces safe from its predation. But at this point, with no way to communicate to the front line without being infected by the computer virus, the rear force… the Magius rear fleets are on their own now.

Still, even without the help of the front line, the rear Magius Fleet still represents a significant amount of firepower… But it was futile. So far, the Amon-Ra is effectively an impregnable fortress. No matter how much firepower they poured in, the Amon-Ra was able to suck it all up while she can safely shoot back. Even worse when Rune Weaponry was involved. The shield scarab legions will absorb it, and then reflect it right back at its source with compound interest.

But as Inuzuka shot down another Waffe, she realized she needed a different weapon, given the situation. Her fingers quickly browse through 05's set of weapons. She stopped as she saw and selected the one she's looking for.

The Amon-Ra also sports a new pair of very thick back skirt armor pods. It folded forward, turning into side skirts composed of four pods on each side. One pod fanned out, and it turned into something like a robotic falcon drone, the casket lid turned into bird-like wings and the main body's falcon head host a sense nerve visor. The Falcon detached from the side skirt and attached itself atop the rifle, its falcon head rest atop the spike launcher, becoming a targeting sensor. Its wings folded forward and four of its 'feathers' extended out, turning into gun barrels as they wrapped around the handgun. The transformation is complete.

The Amon-Ra aimed the new Horus Quad Cannon, the four gun barrels start pumping back and forth at top speed before the hardlight shells start pouring out upon the enemy, punching holes on their armor, making Swiss cheeses out any target that fell on its crosshairs. A whole group of waffes had been treated as such, and many more are to follow. With a mechanical finger remained pressed on the trigger, the quad cannon continue to barrage the area with hardlight bullets while the other rifle keep firing bursts of shots, scoring victim after victim bringing down multitudes of enemy units with impunity. There seem to be no end to its stock of ammunition...

Just then, a Kirschbaum braved through the hail of bullets and charged straight towards the Amon-Ra. Seeing the new situation, the other rifle was pulled back, and Inuzuka picked a different weapon from the side skirt. The word Sekhmet Rocket arbalest blazed on the screen as another Casket unraveled into what looked like a small but robust robotic lioness with two pairs of micro-missile launchers for shoulders and rear waist. The back of the casket extended until it was twice as long, becoming an exhaust barrel, and the 'head' opened up, serving as the main barrel for the bazooka. The legs partially folded in. The Amon-Ra planted her second rifle into an open holster beneath the bazooka main barrel, and then she wielded the massive bazooka one hand, over her shoulder.

The Kirschbaum pilot paled upon seeing the sudden appearance of the heavy weapon. "Oh come on!" Having second thoughts, the Kirschbaum retreated, but the Amon-Ra opened fire anyway, sending a salvo of homing mini rockets from its side launchers that left trails of blue Solid Afterglow in its wake as it slither across the black space before they rain down upon the Kirschbaum's defenses. To finish it up, the main cannon also fired an unguided but armor piercing missile that planted deep into its armors before the subsequent explosion tear the unit apart. But the Kirschbaum still hasn't come down and is still combat capable. Recovering, the severely damaged but unbowed large mech charged at the Ra again.

Meanwhile, all this Hard light bullets being sprayed naturally generated a lot of heat for the Amon-Ra. Rather than panicking, Aina smirked upon seeing the heat counter on her Valvrave is reaching critical level. She pressed a few buttons… "Transferring heat…" The accumulated heat from the unit's operation were gathered into the scorpion rifle's tail spike launcher, heating the spike to a dangerous orange white hot glow. Upon seeing the charging Kirschbaum, Aina merely grinned. "Here. Catch." By catch, she aimed the spike launcher protruding on the Horus Quad Cannon at the Kisrchbaum and eject/shot the superheated spike. The beeping spike embedded itself on the Kisrchbaum's torso, but not causing that serious of damage…

…that is until the beeping on the spike stopped, and the heat spike transferred all the collected heat straight into the Kirschbaum, literally boiling it inside out, instantly turning the Kirschbaum's upper portion into a molten slag. At the same time, Inuzuka grinned as the heat counter of her Valvrave and weapon went down from 97 to 63. Good. That means she can wreak more havoc for a couple more minutes…

Meanwhile, as the Amon-Ra continue to do what she does best, the units at the front line, already under Malefic's complete control, quickly began to take active role. Well, at least, the unmanned unit does. All unmanned Waffes and some unmanned Ideals turned around and start attacking the Magius forces, giving some help for the outnumbered Amon-Ra.

Soon, the rear line can no longer focus on just the Blue Valvrave as the hijacked front line units start opening fire at them as well. At the same time, Akira also took remote control of the manned units.

The pilots of the manned unit gulped in fear when their mechs suddenly came online on its own and began moving without their command. But then, to their surprise, their units actually moved away from the battle. Akira had scanned the whole army, and she quickly separates which one is controlled by Magius and which one is controlled by humans. As told by Haruto, she is to keep the humans out of harm's way.

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That being said, X-Ein and Q-vier's Kirschbaum began to move and drift away from Prue-H-Neun's unit. Prue was enraged. "Don't you dare underestimate me…!" Prue growled and roared. Suddenly, his Kirschbaum glowed bluish white, and rune figures start appearing on the surface. The Green Sense Nerve turned blue white as well. Using sheer rune force, Prue wrestled the control for his mech, purging it from Hansel's infection. Soon, his Mag-Kirschbaum is his to command once again. "X-Ein, Q-Vier! Are you alright!?"

"H-Neun?" X-Eins blinked. "How…"

"Some modifications we made." H-Neun answered short. He quickly caught up to the drifting Kirschbaums and grabbed their arms. Prue grunted, and soon, similar rune symbols also appeared on X-Eins and Q-Vier's Kirschbaum.

"WOW! H-NEUN YER AWESOME! WAHAHAHAHA!" Q-Vier became more excited as he regained control of his Kirschbaum again.

X-Eins, on the other hand, became even more suspicious. "H-Neun…? How did you…"

"Like I said… some modification has been made." Prue/H-Neun replied. "We need to join up with the rear line. Tell them to shut down the communication, they're using a Rune Based Virus to infect our signal. Let's go!" And soon, Prue/H-Neun quickly led the other two Kirshcbaum past the other disabled units floating helplessly in space. However, at this point… X-Ein's suspicion had turned into certainty… a fact that he must kept hidden… for now.

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Meanwhile, the still impregnable one robot fortress Amon-Ra continues to stand her ground at the front, drawing fire from the whole bulk of the rear line while battering the enemy forces. Half of his accompanying unmanned units had been wiped out, but Aina pay no heed. Many ships and units, now more eager to bring this seemingly indestructible foe down, left their post and converge at the lone enemy to mass their fire.

Inuzuka began to feel the pressure as well… though not enough to make her panic. After all… she should've brought enough time by now…

While the Magius forces are now concentrating to deal with the attack from the front, many ships left their rear guard. Thus its defenses became paper thin…

A barrage of red and yellow rune lasers suddenly pierced a Mag Walkit right from the stern. A sudden attack coming from behind.

"A warship just appeared right at our 6!" The radar officer reported.

"What is that… ship!?" The Fleet Commander gasped.

A new single ship suddenly appeared right behind the Magius forces. First glance, it resembled a Walkit… but no. It was three times bigger and significantly faster for something of its size. Colored in a black and Magenta scheme, the wing is wider, and armed with more weapons and beam cannon turrets. And unlike the Walkit Biplane configuration, the ship has three vertically stacked wings; with the middle wing is the widest and longest, resembling an outstretched bird wing. All heavily armored and armed with all sorts of weapons. Strips of launching pads akin to carriers stretched out from the back of the wing, giving a feather like image to the central wing as well as adding to the length of the wingspan. It also use HardLight Propulsions, just like the Valvraves, with neon green sense nerve 'feathers' and protrusion in various parts.

The center main hull is longer and heavily armored; it extends backwards away from the forward born main wings which host its weaponry. Its main bridge is situated at the back, circled by lines and lines of broadside weaponry, a configuration similar to that of the Walkit it was based upon. The frontal prow of the ship protruded slightly out at the front, with its frontal bow parted like a raven's beak, and a massive cannon barrel can be seen inside the maw. What's more, its seams are brimming, glowing with red and gold energy. The name of the ship N.J.S.S. Valravn can be seen emblazoned on the forward hull.

The barrage of the Rune blast came from an array of twelve three-barreled cannon turrets attached at the upper deck of the center section just in front of the command bridge at the rear, stacked in groups of four turrets, mounted on a mobile base, threading across three circular tracks that runs horizontally across the whole upper deck (which means it has 4 cannon turrets per track), allowing a very versatile aiming. Another four pair of such cannons are attached in the same configuration on two tracks to its underside. Outwardly, they resemble the cannon turrets of the earth battleships of old, with its long protruding barrels.

The ship zoomed towards the rearmost part of the Magius forces at incredible speed. Its Hardlight thruster gave the ship enormous propulsion, allowing it to move faster than normal ships. As it make its way around the Magius undisturbed as if in no man's land, all of its main cannons fired again and again, unleashing streams after streams of lasers towards the exposed rear area of the ships that fell on its crosshairs.

With their rear defenses being drawn to deal with the Amon-Ra one mech assault from the front, the Magius forces were ill prepared to suddenly stop this top of the line battleship wrecking all sorts of havoc to their now thinly protected rear flank. The Valravn swept down into the magius fleet's unprotected rear. Catching the enemy fleet unaware and unprepared, her Captain ordered a full bombardment with the Valravn's entire arsenal. "Concentrate your fire, target their reactors!" Streams of laser from the battleship's main turret weapons were accompanied by batteries of beam cannons and onslaughts of armor piercing missiles.

A carrier was riddled with holes when the laser barrage tear through its armor like it was inexistent, stab through its boosters, straight into the very heart of every spaceship: its core reactor. Torn literally to shreds, the reactor suffered an instant meltdown before a cataclysmic explosion brought down the entire ship. A Walkit's thrusters were obliterated by the beam cannons, only to be finished off by a rain of missiles that demolish it inside out when the missile slink past the breaches. Ship after ship were brought down easily as the Valravn moved at break neck speed, relentlessly sending barrage after barrage before the enemy recovers, causing catastrophic damage to the rear fleet at a very rapid pace.

One by one, the unprepared ships fell victim to this sudden attack and within moments, already dozens of ships and carriers had their thruster engines obliterated by this barrage. Several Mag Ideals and Mag Kirschbaums quickly moved to intercept. The Kirschbaums fired their main chest mounted cannon straight at the Valravn's forward bow.

But then, the Valravn revealed another surprise…

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"Well… I think we all agree that what the Valvraves needed the most is some heavy support to help them even the odds against heavy space cruisers…" So Pino said as she watched the vid depicting how her Valvraves struggled under the overwhelming firepower of Dorssian spaceships. "Nimbleness and speed can only help us so far… We need... something with heavy armor protection to soak up firepowers that Valvraves can't handle… and they have to be able to dish out just as much damage in return…"

Everyone get the message. The Valvrave needs their own Space Cruiser for in field combat support. "We can use the Magius tech from the remains of the carrier." Kibukawa noted. "Others… the Dyson Sphere have all the resources we need to complete it. But…" Kibukawa chuckled seeing the insane spec of the new ship. The amount of resources they'll be pouring into this monster of a ship… they'll have to dismantle all the salvaged Magius ship to complete this. Luckily, with all the construction equipment left behind during the construction of this Dyson Sphere, the modification can be done at speed.

"Who's going to captain this new ship?" Haruto pondered.

Suddenly, a voice joined the conversation. "I'm sorry? May I interrupt?"

Everyone looked at the new speaker.

"I overheard what you're saying… about this ship and all… and that role… soaking up firepowers that Valvraves cannot… if you don't mind… may I have the honor to take that role?"

Haruto's eyes widened. Pino tilted her head. "What's in it for you?"

"…chance to make amends… I suppose?" The man replied with somber tone. "…I want… to be able to protect people I'm supposed to protect. Stand my ground against everything, take on that which… she cannot."

Haruto sighed. It all comes back to her in the end. He looked at Pino and then to the prospective captain. "It's not that simple."

"The amount of Magius technology we'll be concentrating into this thing… we're practically turning this ship into the largest Valvrave in existence. And while we can offset the massive Rune energy requirement using the Brain farm Reactor and some of the Mirror Rave Engines… it still need an actual Novus Magius to control it properly. We thought of giving captaincy to Haruto seeing he's the strongest Novus Magius so far… But then again he had the dual responsibility to fight at the front… If you want to be the captain… you realize you have to go all the way?"

"If that's the way it is, then all the more reason… I insist we go all the way." Satomi became more determined. "My sister… had become a Novus Magius, and, god willing, if nothing weird happened to her, she will live forever. If that's the case… I will protect her forever. One way, or another." And before Haruto can protest, Satomi glared at him. "…and I'm sorry Haruto… this time… it's my turn to say: you really have no say about this."

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Satomi Renbokuji, now also a Novus Magius and the Captain of the modified Potemkin, newly rechristened as Valravn, roared his orders. "Cut the thrusters and activate the CF (Clear Fossil) Field!"

To their shock, the blast was deflected away upon impact when a red colored spherical barrier suddenly appeared and shielded the whole battleship.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me…" The pilot of the Kirschbaum twitched in disbelief. That's the same defensive system used by modules to protect them against asteroid impacts… only, this one is also reinforced with Clear Fossil particles.

Upon registering the first return fire, the Valravn finally stopped moving, but they haven't stopped firing at any target within reach. There seems to be some kind of activity around the spaces of its stacked wings. Hatches opened up as launchpads and electromagnetic catapults extended out. "Deploy the Kagerous!" From the space in-between the three stacked wings of the Valravn, Kagerou units launched out in waves from the backward stretching launching pads. 20 Kagerous flew out, all armed with the previous equipment of the original Valvraves. Each with differing colors to represent the weapon loadouts. Seven red ones bear the weapon loadout of the unit 01 Hito, five green Kagerous bearing the loadout of 04-Hinowa, four units bear the weapons of 03-Hikaminari, and the last four were colored blue, bearing the giant yellow shield of 05-Hiuchiba and its bolt phalanx.

Caught unprepared, the approaching Ideal was barraged by a rain of yellow hardlight blast from the Yellow Kagerous' Chain Saucer handheld blasters. The Kirschbaum pilot balked in surprise when suddenly a green colored Kagerou, bearing Carmilla weapon loadout is right in front of his nose. The kagerou slammed its spindle knuckle at its head, grinding it apart. It flew away, allowing the blue and red Kagerous to open fire and finish the job with a hailstorm of red and blue hard light projectiles. Worsening the matter, now that the Kagerous had been launched, the Valravn also continued its blitz attack, supporting the Kagerous with salvoes of missiles and beam cannon fire.

"Holy smokes!" The Dorssian pilots gasped when they saw the Kagerous in action. One Kagerou flew circles around an Ideal before barraging its head with a hail of bullets from its volc arms.

"Mass produced Valvraves!?" As if the first five Valvraves weren't bad enough… a Blue Kagerou blocked a Walkit main cannon blast while a yellow Kagerou bombard it with Chain Saucer cannon and its Armstrong blasters.

What's worse, when a Waffe managed to fire a rocket that scored a direct hit at one of the Kagerous, a green barrier lit up and protected the Kagerou. The unit was disoriented but otherwise unharmed as it resumed combat soon after. All other Kagerous seem to also sport the same kind of barrier, invisible until the moment of impact. "Whoah… those kids aren't messin' around… the mass produced Valvraves are covered by some kind of protective shield!"

Overcoming the shock, the Magius forces began to return fire in the earnest, and the space was soon filled with traded shots of beam projectiles, hail of bullets of every caliber, volleys of missiles, and ultimately, multitudes and multitudes of explosions in every size and intensity. They quickly made an even greater mess of the rear flank. Their mirror Rave engine granted these mass produced Valvraves a significantly higher performance over the Kirschbaum. Though they are more lightly armored, they make it up by having some extra protective shield in addition to being faster and more nimble. The Kirschbaum on the other hand, are relatively slower and less maneuverable when they're in Annihilation mode. Then again, they're tougher, and packs more wallop.

This allows the Kagerou to outmaneuver the more heavily armored and thus slower Kirschbaum. Worse for the enemy, the 20 Kagerous had been trained to fight as a unit. The Pilots of the Kagerou quickly move into formation. "Red 5 at 7!" A Red Kagerou launched a missile mounted on his wide wings. "Green 3 at 5!" A Green kagerou sent a spindle knuckle that tore an Ideal in half.

"Blue 6, I've locked on!" A blue kagerou piloted by Nao had locked on to targets and she quickly pressed the trigger and her bolt phalanx fired several volley of shots, accurately destroying a group of waffes. "Got you!" But she quickly withdraws her joy as she blocked an incoming attack with her shield. "This is squadron leader, evasive maneuver, engage all hostile! Keep it together!"

Blue Kagerous will shield the other units, soaking up enemy fire as well as returning fire, while the yellow units provide long range support heavy fire. Red and Green Kagerous are main fighters, with Green pay closer attention to hit and run close combat, going after the enemies' jugulars and the Red crack open enemy's defenses. The combination quickly overwhelmed the Magius units. Thanks to the element of surprise, the Magius fleet was unprepared by this sudden attack from their rear, and Valravn, along with its Kagerou complement units managed to take great strides deep into enemy line, causing massive damage.

Upon seeing the ambush units at the rear have finally arrived, Inuzuka smiled in relief. They were just in time really, there's hardly any unmanned unit left to help her soak the firepower. With the first half of her task is done, the Amon-Ra finally took to the offensive. Shredding another Ideal, the Amon-Ra took flight, leaving a trail of crumbling blue hardlight from her boosters as her rifles spray bullets to every direction, leading what's left of the unmanned units commandeered by the Malefic. A Kirschbaum fired at the Amon-Ra, but the Scarab barrier protected the Amon-Ra, and worse, the swarm blinded the pilot's vision. When the swarm dispersed, the pilot suddenly came face to face with Amon-Ra's Quad Cannon up close and personal. The subsequent storm of hardlight bullets tore the bigger robot in half.

However, some of the Magius forces quickly recovered from the initial shock and began to counter attack in an orderly fashion. "Weapons free! Weapons free!" "Break formation and engage!" The Waffes quickly formed their defensive walls, blocking the artillery barrage from the Hikaminari Kagerous. The Ideal unleashed the electromagnetic boomerangs, missiles, and beam cannon fire at the Kagerous, while the Kirschbaum sent salvoes of energy blast in conjunction with the Ideal's own firepower. Likewise, several Walkits also began to return fire at the Valravn. Soon, the effectiveness of the Valravn and the Kagerous surprise attack began to wane. "All squadron leaders. Engage! Engage!" In an orderly fashion, the Magius fleet began to push the New Jior army back.

The pilots of the Kagerous tried their damndest to remember their training, to keep their level head at any situation and fired at every enemy they see. It wasn't hard. With the amount of enemy they're facing it's just the matter of point and shoot. But it was also chaos. Enemy units flying in every direction, shots fired everywhere, flashes of explosions… And upon realizing their surprise attacks had lost its effectiveness, the superior number of the enemy forces began to push them back, even with the help from the Valravn fire support. Here saw the great difference between the two forces. The Magius were composed of battle hardened veterans who had seen it all, done it all. Whereas the New Jior forces, specifically the pilots of the Kagerous are still beginners – thanks to L-Elf's early breakdown, their training was left incomplete. Fear and doubt had started to worm its way to the hearts of these amateur pilots, faltering their assault. A Green Kagerou was caught off guard when a Kirschbaum grabbed one of its leg and pulled it down. Its pilot, Lily, shrieked in horror as the Kirschbaum charged its chest cannon, ready to fire right at her face…

A giant three pronged shuriken suddenly zoomed in and bisected the Kirschbaum in half. The shuriken flew back and returned to the shoulder of its owner: the new and improved Valvrave 04, Carmilla Mk. 2.

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On the day just before the battle…

Saki wanted to take one more look at her partner… but then she found there was already someone inside…

She peeked into the cockpit… and found a shivering Takahi all curled up inside. "Ninomiya? You okay?"

"R… Rukino… Saki…" Judging by the way she stuttered, it was obvious she wasn't okay. "I… I…"

Saki chuckled. Getting cold feet just a day before a great battle. "Relax. As long as you can pilot as well as you do in the last few days, you'll do just fine."

So says the Veteran who had jumped straight into the fire and survived. But… Takahi had never done this before. She's about to enter into real live combat for the first time. And not just any combat. It'll be them against the whole army! She could die any second! And now she's but a breath away from a great battle, and suddenly she realized the scale of what she just jumped into. Suddenly she lost her nerve. Takahi tried hard to keep herself from shivering in fright… but she failed miserably. Saki looked on with sympathy for her. Takahi miserably turned to Saki. "H… How did you do it? How did you know you'll survive the battles you went into?"

Saki stated the facts. "I don't." Saki took a seat on the railings of the cockpit. "I first jumped into battle under the beliefs that I'm a superhuman. Unbeatable and unstoppable. My first battle… and I nearly died, as you yourself can testify. After that… well… what's to tell? I'm a survivor. I fight to survive, to stay alive. That's a fact." Saki growled. "When I was cornered and near death, my brain told me that I'm going to die. My heart… told my brain to shut the fuck up and then told me to stay alive. That's why I often fight with this…" Saki pointed at her heart. "…rather than this." She pointed her head.

"What are you trying to say? That I should just trust my gut rather than my head?"

"If you have to." Saki smiled. "As long as you never give in to fear, a way will open up. On stage, a true professional actress doesn't think on what she must do. She feels what she must do with her heart. That's why, if there's an unexpected situation, a professional must never end the show for any reason. They have to adapt and continue on till the end. The show's not over as long as the actress is still breathing."

"Spoken from the lips of a true professional idol." Takahi grumbled. Her grudging respect to Rukino Saki only grew day by day.

"Ex." Saki grinned. "If you feel the need a way to know how to stay alive… obviously I can't tell you how. It'll be all up to you… but… my advice: find yourself a reason. A reason to stay alive. And you hold on to that reason and it'll keep you on the right track."

"Reason to stay alive huh…" Takahi chuckled. Suddenly, she realized… throughout this conversation, she had calmed down considerably. Her trembling stopped, her nervousness was gone. But as she enjoy her new clarity of mind, she also realized she doesn't have any strong motivation to stay alive in the face of a mortal battle. In her pondering she accidentally blurted out an obvious question to Saki. "What are yours? Blaargh! Arh! Forget I ask that. That one is self-explanatory!" Of course. Haruto. She's madly in love with him, the poor girl. "And to think he nearly kissed me once…"

"What?" Saki blinked.

Takahi looked at Saki… must she tell her? "Actually…" Guess she should tell her. She did try to calm her nerves. And she succeeded, somewhat. "About Haruto… he… tried to woe me a while back… he even tried to kiss me…"

"Oh." Saki blinked as she smiled nervously.

"Something for you to watch out for. That guy has a bit of a pervert streak…"

Saki nodded sheepishly. She's talking about THAT time… She too decided… maybe it's time she let her know. After all, she needs to clear her future husband's name… "Actua~ally… about that…"

Once the explanation was given…

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At the Bridge of the Valravn, Satomi was overseeing the progress of the battle when Saki decided to pay a visit to the bridge. Satomi looked at her in disapproval and shock. "What are you doing here!? You should be in the hospital! If anything happens to you, Tokishima will have my head!" A-Drei who's also abroad the Valravn looked in disapproval at the pregnant mother.

"I hate staying in that ward not knowing anything." Saki defiantly replied. "My friends are fighting out there. Plus, I'm still a bit worried about Takahi."

Satomi grunted. A screen slide open showing the new Carmilla in battle.

It has become more feminine than ever. The spindle knuckle has been moved to its reinforced elbow. Her forearms had been lengthened with reinforced gloves, with lithe fingers which has green clear fossil shells for fingernails to produce hard afterglows. On its shoulders, in place of the usual hard points to house the usual pair of spindle knuckles, a pair of enlarged spaulder to house a pair of massive new weapon, twice larger than the normal spindle knuckle, the Nacha Familiar which now doubles a pair of three pronged massive shuriken. And Carmilla Mk. II has one such Shuriken on each shoulder. The multi leg propulsion system has been thoroughly transformed. It still possesses three pairs of extra legs, but said legs had been lengthened and less bulky, with more joints for increased flexibility, making it look less like a human leg, more like that of a spider's. The upper joint of the Multi Leg propulsion has also been reinforced with spiky knee guard pods, its spikes made of clear fossil. Also, there's a slight change in positioning, with the middle extra pair of legs being placed a level higher than the other two pairs. Finally, decorating its arm sleeves and the edges of her armor, are green transparent web like decorations. Similar addition was found on the collar, shoulder rimming and knee guards.

Its coloration was the reversed black and green color, denoting the fact it was piloted not by its original pilot. Inside the cockpit, a fuming Takahi grasped her controllers tight. The spindle knuckles on both elbows start spinning and with a roar from Takahi, Carmilla throws them both into the battlefield. Takahi's finger furiously rolled the controllers', remotely controlling the spinning buzzsaw-like projectiles. The smaller spindle knuckles easily tore through small units like the Waffes and can even do respectable damage to an Ideal. When a Kirshcbaum tried to catch one of the spindle knuckle, the blade spin faster and faster… grinding through its energy shield… But the Kirschbaum's thick fingers won and caught the buzzsaw in its hand… the pilot smugly smiled at the green Valvrave so far ahead as he showcased the caught spindle knuckle in its hand.

One of Carmilla's multi leg propulsion take a kick… a halo of green hardlight later, and the Carmilla is suddenly right in front of the Kisrchabum's nose. "I'll take that back if you don't mind!" Takahi roared. Carmilla swing her claws at the Kirschbaum's arm, releasing condensed solid afterglow wire from its transparent green finger nails. Said arm was cut to pieces, and the spindle knuckle was retrieved.

"You bitch!" The magius pilot roared as he charged his main chest cannon to fire at the Carmilla at point blank range. But when the shot was fired, the Kirshcbaum shoot nothing but empty space. While the pilot still wondering where she went, Carmilla's hardlight covered talons suddenly went through the Kirschbaum's head, piercing it with many solid light blades before Carmilla snapped them away from her fingers. The embedded hardlight talons exploded soon after, destroying the Kirschbaum inside out.

Just then, a Walkit start to open fire at Carmilla. Takahi glared defiantly at the Walkit bombarding her. The Spindle knuckle flew back to their owner, ripping another tally on its way back. "Lilly! Eri! COVER ME! I'm GONNA TEAR THAT SHIP A NEW ONE!" She roared.

"Yes, Ma'am!" Lily pilot the green Kagerou and Eri finds the blue one is more comfortable to her style. And just as well. With 05's old loadout, her Kagerou can now take a lot of punishment, all the better to protect her mistress Takahi… who seems to be somewhat… pissed off?

Carmilla launched the spindle knuckles ahead of her and let them ran rampant across the enemy ranks to clear her path to the main target while she used her claws to rip apart any mech foolish enough to engage her in close combat. Her hardlight enhanced arm talons rip through a Mag waffe's CF shield like wet tissue, grabbing the main unit before she tossed it right into a path of one of her buzzing spindle knuckles to be torn apart by its blades. And then finally, she's in range of the Walkit who's been harassing her. She grabbed the enormous Nacha Drone shuriken, her familiar, and charged it with runes. The three scimitars protruding out of the Shuriken glowed green and generated an enlarged solid hardlight blades. With an angry screech, she threw the green glowing shuriken at the warship.

The Shuriken easily tore through the battleship armor… but that's not the end of it. With her thought, Takahi ordered the shuriken to wreak havoc on the ship's insides. The Crew of the Walkit gasped and screamed when a rampaging buzzsaw the size of a tank angrily tore through the insides of their ship, cabin by cabin, causing catastrophic damage, tearing the ship apart inside out. Even worse, the three arms also sent out a shower of laser strings every now and then as it spins, causing explosions to erupt in various parts of the ship. And one by one, the ship's systems went into total failure. It wasn't long until the Walkit finally shut down completely and went offline, all of it weapons silenced, the ship reduced to a giant hunk of junk floating in space. When Takahi finally ordered the familiar to cut itself out, it do so by slicing its way out right through the Walkit's bridge. When the shuriken returned back to Carmilla's shoulder, the critically damaged Walkit exploded.

And still Takahi is on the hunt for fresh new preys. She resorted to hurl Carmilla straight towards a pack of Mag Waffe walls, tearing through them like wolf among sheep.

"Wow… Ninomiya-sama!" Eri nervously gulped as she watched Carmilla tore a Waffe in two with her claws. "Why are you so… angry?"

"In a matter of speaking…!" Takahi hissed angrily. She noticed a group of Waffes and Ideals are coming her way, raining fire upon her. "I'M ON FIRE!" Carmilla turned around, showing its Multi Leg Propulsion equipped rear at the incoming enemy squad. And then the clear fossil spikes on the multi legs knee guards glows green as it gather energy at the tip of the spikes… before they shot out a shower of countless razor sharp solid hardlight strings that slash and shred everything caught in its path. When Carmilla turned around again, the incoming Waffes and Ideals had been reduced to dice cuts before they exploded. And then Carmilla jumped away again, searching for the next prey…

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With Carmilla on a rampage, the tide once again turned in their favor. Saki saw the way Carmilla entered the battlefield and tore enemy after enemy apart. No hesitation, exactly as she trained her pilot. "I was worried for a second there… but it looks like my worry was unfounded."

Seeing this… berserk Ninomiya Takahi being so enraged that she doesn't have time to be afraid… A-Drei had to ask the one person he thought largely responsible for this. "Rukino Saki… what did you tell her that she become… like that?"

"Nothing." Saki replied. "We just made a promise. That's all."

"A promise… of what?"

"Well… a full course dinner."

"Full course dinner." Satomi repeated in bewilderment. "So… the knuckle sandwich she planted on your eye was just, what, an appetizer?"

Saki grinned wide and laughed, ignoring the fact that one of her eyes was blackened and bruised with an imprint of Takahi's fist. "Well, now at least she had a reason to come back alive. She owes me a beating of a lifetime."

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With two (three, if you include the indirectly involved Malefic) Valvraves upgraded to obscene levels wreaking as much chaos and destruction on the battlefield, supported by their lesser mass produced variants and a frighteningly powerful battleship to back them up, the Magius fleet found themselves almost hard pressed to handle all this numerically inferior but extremely destructive opponents, seeing that most of their reluctant allies are pretty much incapacitated.

The Fleet Commander tried his best to maintain his calm when another report came in of an entire squadron being wiped out wholesale by one blue Valvrave. "Come on… we know these Valvraves has a weakness do they not?" He quickly snapped his finger. "Heat! They can't withstand heat! By now they should've amassed a huge amount of heat already! Send in the special squad!"

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The special squad in question is composed of a squadron of reinforced black waffes, the Waffe Gigants, but its shield bear a unique equipment in form of spikes, superheated until it glows orange. And with it, the Gigants charged into the battlefield, searching for their first target.

That happens to be a lone Red Kagerou busily firing to every direction with its volc arms rifle, unaware of the incoming danger until the Gigants are right on top of him. The Kagerou turned to see these black Waffes with spiky shield charging straight at them, spikes pointing forward. "EAT LASER!" The Red Kagerou fired rapidly at the shield bearing waffe, but it was futile. The shield is just too thick and specialized to handle that kind of assault. The Gigant finally rammed the Kagerou, pushing it backward. But then, another of such waffe slammed it from behind, and then another pair simultaneously pressed the Kagerou from both sides. The Kagerou was pinned by walls of overheating spikes. The Pilot gasped upon seeing warning signals appearing allover his screen. His heat gauge immediately skyrockets to its limits. "Waitwaiwaiwaiwaitt! Wait!" The pilot screamed vainly as his kagerou overheated within seconds.

The 4 Gigants parted away at the now disabled and utterly helpless Kagerou. The pilot struggled to move the Kagerou to no effect. As an offshoot of the Valvraves, the Kagerou also suffered the same flaw. Overheating issue. Unfortunately, unlike their more powerful and unique counterparts, the Kagerou have no in-built universal heat transfer system. Noticing the Kagerou has been neutralized; the Gigants opened up their shield and bring out their weapons. The pilot squealed upon seeing the Waffe's weapons are but moments away from firing.

Suddenly, a stream of blue hardlight blast punctured two Waffes just before their weapons fired. The other two Waffe turned to where the shot came from, but they too were immediately sniped by the Amon-Ra, who had replaced its Sekhmet with a different weapon pack: the Anubis Anti Material Lancer rifle. The sniper was massive. The base body looked like a jackal's head, with scythes of sense nerve protruding from beneath its barrel, and a massive pair of sense nerve at the base, protruding upright like a Jackal's ears. Like many weapons in Amon-Ra' Pantheon pack, it's wielded with one hand. "Pilot! You're okay!?" Inuzuka roared through the com.

"I'm okay! But my kagerou's roasted! Literally!"

"Stay put!" Inuzuka quickly instructed two Kagerous to look after the disabled Kagerou while he made the call. "Satomi! It's starting to get hotter here! Bring them out! Now!" As she said so, more and more of the Gigants are coming their way.

"Give me a minute…" Satomi contacted the hangar. "Kibukawa-Sensei!"

"The familiars have been fitted and ready to go!" Kibukawa laughed.

"Launch them now!" A-drei roared.

The hangars of the Valravn opened up again, and out from them were dozens upon dozens of raven-like unmanned drone planes. They slither past the chaotic battlefield, homing in on the Kagerous fighting it out on the battlefield. Many of them carry payloads of missiles with eerie glowing blue warheads. The raven drone automatically spreads to every direction across the battlefield. The overheated kagerou saw an incoming raven and the pilot smirked.

The magius forces noted the presence of this new unit. "What are those?" In particular, they also became wary of the missiles the ravens were carrying.

As expected, the Impact boosters unleashed their payloads of missiles. But the bizarre thing is, the drones weren't aiming at the enemy, the missiles were launched towards the Kagerous and Valvraves. In fact, every one of the raven drone launched their payload to every area. Upon explosion, the missiles unleashed a cloud of glowing blue particles over a large area. The mist engulfed everyone, including the magius fleet.

00000000000000

"You turned those cooling agents into aerosol form?"

"Yep."

"And you load them into pressurized missile warhead."

"Yep."

"That way you can rapidly deliver them to units in need. And seeing the aerosol will spread everywhere, it can cover large swathes of area, cooling multiple units all at once, but it also thin its cooling effect well enough that it won't freeze us. That's good thinking."

"Yep!"

"Except..." A catch. A-drei always have a catch. "Did it ever occur to you that this type of configuration meant that it can also be intercepted midway? And with such wide area of saturation, won't it also benefit the enemy? Remember, we're fighting Magius who also use Valvrave tech."

"Truth be told, this cooling agent came from them." The technician replied. "And we have quite a limited amount of it, since we don't know how to manufacture more of this stuff."

"Their technology to deal with overheat is more superior to ours." Another technician lamented.

A-drei was about make a retort… When his mind suddenly embraced an idea. "Actually… I think that might work in our benefit this time."

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The Kagerous and Valvrave, most of which had overheated, thus nearing the end of its operational heat limit, when bathed in the mist, it rapidly cools them down, allowing them to return back to near full operational capability, with no side effect whatsoever.

As for the magius forces with their 'superior' rune chilling capability, there's no overheating problem to offset the cold and the mist literally froze both their system and their units. Some of the Kirschbaums' and Ideals' joints froze, slowing them down significantly, and in the worst case, the smaller units like the Waffes were completely frozen solid. The same thing happened to the Magius spaceships and carriers. Their hardlight thrusters freeze up, they're nearly dead in the air.

Some of the impact boosters also landed on some of the Kagerous, attaching themselves to one of their arms, and then it transformed into a giant oversized fist. And then, just like that, the Impact Boosters quickly absorbed the heat from the overheating Kagerou, channeling it to a piece of its tail wing. The Kagerou's heat gauge descended from 55 to 12 as the Impact booster detached the now red hot tail piece, and its fist is now glowing red hot. "In! Your! Face!" One of the Kagerou closed his distance with a half frozen Ideal, bringing down its giant burning red hot fist right to his face. Upon impact, the Kagerou's accumulated heat was transferred to the Kirschbaum, and its head and upper turned into a splatter of red hot molten slag.

"We ain't out of the woodwork yet!" Inuzuka roared. The battle became somewhat complicated for the New Jior forces when the Black Gigant Waffes came into play. Now in addition to dodging death spitted by the other normal units, they need to keep their distance from these new kinds of Waffes as well. The Amon-Ra launched another spent spike at a Gigant that tried to ram against her shield. Thankfully, the output of the upgraded Valvrave was more than enough to keep the Gigants away. "Keep those black Waffes at a distance! No matter what!"

"Roger!" Even crippled by the freeze, the enemy's forces are still dangerous foe to be reckoned with. What's more, the frost won't last long. They need to cause as much damage as possible before the ice thaws. And so all kagerous redoubled their effort and some take the time to return to Valravn for some maintenance and reload.

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The appearance of this new drone support unit does not escape Cain's attention. "Oh… dear… so that's how it is… these children… quite impressive." Quite unlike the distressed Fleet Commander, if anything else, Cain was more awed than shocked.

"W… What?"

"They realized this might become a battle of attrition, and so they already prepared a way to cool down in the middle of a battle." Cain nodded several times. With the appearance of the Impact Boosters, the Valvrave's heat problem was mitigated… somewhat. In particular, he was quite impressed with the way they use the cooling agents to flash-freezes his fleet in such a way, using Magius own superior cooling system against them. 'Very… Very creative.'

Meanwhile, a com suddenly entered. "Who is that? I told you to cut all communications!" The Fleet Commander growled.

"It's encrypted channel on new frequency sir!"

"Put them through." Cain nodded.

A window appeared, revealing… "H-Neun!" Cain blinked in pleasant surprise.

"Cain! My unit can still move. I've also been gathering some additional forces with me…" Prue's Kirschbaum is now leading another 6 Kirschbaum and 7 Ideals, some carrying a fleet of unmanned Waffes and Gigants, all of which he had 'healed' and 'immunized' from the Hansel Virus. "Just hold on, we can still reach you!"

Cain immediately roared. "No! Don't come here! Not yet!"

"Sir?" The Fleet Commander looked questioningly at Cain.

"No. this is exactly what those kids wanted!" Cain grinned. "Get to their Module, H-Neun! We take that and this is all over."

"Where's the module?"

Cain triumphantly pointed at the obvious: "The Moon! The far dark Side of the Moon! That's where the Module went! That's where it hid!"

"They must've hid the module there when they sent that armada of faux dirty module fleet at us! That's why we can't locate them because our radio transmission can't get there!" The enlightened Fleet Commander followed. "Go, H-Neun! Take the module and this is all over!"

Prue/H-Neun looked at Cain, as if asking him to confirm it. Cain nodded, giving him a go ahead. "Alright." H-Neun nodded. "Men, to the dark side of the Moon!"

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But all this chatter does not went unnoticed by Akira. "A-A-A-Drei! They found out!"

Aboard the Valravn, A-Drei was also quick to act. "Second team go, go, go!"

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From the ruins of the halted faux Modules, ten Kagerous suddenly emerged just as H-Neun's raid team pass them by. Led by Jin, his red Kagerou bear an enormous Heavy Rune Machine Cannon, along with the other nine Kagerous rushed at the enemy from every direction, shooting every weapon they have, ambushing Prue's team. "Okay, guys! Bring them down!" H-Neun's raid team were suddenly entered a gauntlet of bullets and missiles from every direction as the second Kagerou team descended upon them. Two Reds and one Green Kagerou even opted to physically bulrush a Kirschbaum, slamming at the giant mech, grabbing and restraining his limbs as the Kagerous hack at it with their sickles and even point blank vulkan fire, tearing the unit apart. Jin's Kagerou fired its heavy Rune Autocannon as it descend, launching a barrage of large caliber hardlight projectiles the size of a man's head. He cheered when an Ideal was shredded along with several Waffes. "YEAH!"

Prue growled upon seeing this sudden ambush. If he was not on the receiving end, he might actually praise whoever comes up with this maneuver. But that praise was shelved as he noted the appearance of these Kagerous. "Damn humans! Attacking me with bootleg copies of my own Valvrave!?"

"H-Neun!" A transmission from X-Eins.

"What!?"

"Cain-sama had told us to get to the module, did he not!? Let's leave this to them, we go straight to the Module!"

Prue grunted. He loathes escaping from an unfinished battle, but as of this moment, his priority is to get his sister back… safe and unharmed. He was once again reminded that many of the Magius who is part of this fleet… are traitors as well. Either that or they're just following orders without knowing that they are raising their sword against their one true ruler. That's why he's been picking only humans to come with him. The less Magius to know what he's up to, the less chance that he will be disturbed by some assassin out for her sister's runes.

Plus… these humans aren't that incompetent after all. This X-Ein is also quite useful, so far. "Fine. Let's go X!"

"Right. Q-Vier!" X-Ein roared over the com. "Come on!"

"Hoee?" Q-Vier loathes leaving such a fun bloodbath behind, but orders are orders… "Awww… and it was just getting fun!"

Three Kirschbaum broke away from the brawl. Jin noticed it and tried to stop them, but another Kirschbaum suddenly charged at him, preventing him from taking a clear shot. Worse, another Kirschbaum that had lost its right arm and an Ideal leading a fleet of 4 Waffes and 3 Gigants followed, and he was too preoccupied to stop them. "Ah, fuck!" He had no choice but to turn his attention at this brawl. But he didn't forget to warn the incoming threat. "Ah, Houston!? The party's coming to you! We're quite hip deep here!"

"Roger that." A-Drei nodded. "Contact the module! Tell them they got incoming!"

The three Kirschbaum quickly left the battlefield behind and move across the surface of the moon, heading towards the far dark side of the moon that weren't visible from earth.

"We're nearing the far side!" The Kirschbaum, the Ideal and the Waffes hastened ahead of H-Neun's Karstein team and in their haste flew higher from the moon surface.

"Wait! Don't get too high up-"

Before Prue finished his words, a massive barrage of gold colored pillars of lightning rained down upon the over-eager Dorssian units, coming straight from where their destination should be. In an instant, the Ideals and Waffes were torn apart and vaporized to shreds by that cascading storm of lightning. X-Eins also noted that the struck units also channeled bolts of lightning to other nearby units in close proximity in a chain lightning reaction that compounded the damage. All fried in a single salvo. H-Neun and co halted their pace and stared wide eyed at what remains of their supposed escort, singed black and smoking, with electricity jumping up and down its remains. "W…What was that?"

"My sensor detected a huge power surge mili-seconds before that blast." X-Ein calculated the telemetry and direction of the shot. "It's… coming from the surface of the Moon… I think they placed some kind of ground to air artillery emplacements…"

"Fly low! Fly low! Keep to the ground as close as possible!" The three Kirschbaum quickly close their distance to the ground as they continue their flight towards their destination.

But then, as they get closer, X-Ein detected incoming objects heading their way. "Wait! Hold up!"

The three Kirschbaum stopped and landed on the moon, hiding behind some of the moon craters' shadow.

"What is it?" H-Neun asked.

"I don't know… but it's pretty big. Probably drones… and it's heading our way." X-ein narrowed his eyes. 'What are these things?' Guess they'll find out soon enough. The objects are closing in on them… and suddenly, his console behaves strangely. The holographic interface of his Kirschbaum start going on and off, as if there's some kind of electrical interference. "Hey what gives?"

"Mine's going weird too…" Prue/H-Neun lightly tapped his computer several times. The strange electrical interference continues, but not enough to really disturb the Kisrchbaum systems completely…

"Visual contact in 3… 2… 1…!" The three Kisrchbaum readied their weapons… and then it appeared: a pair of… giant mechanical arms. It floated across the moon surface heading straight towards them.

Prue/H-neun, X-Ein and Q-Vier just stare at the flying arms… "Drones." Q-Vier pointed the obvious.

Floating before them are a pair massive and disembodied mechanical arms. It has a rather boxy and rigid structure, heavily armored and colored in Golden orange with black stripes. The fist was… huge. Oversized even. Like a Titan's fist. Its fingers, thick and armored, had its finger tips made of the transparent yellow clear fossil. There are also what looked like dark grey bolt like decoration screwed into the knuckles of each finger, and a big one on the arms.

Suddenly, from the spaces in-between the bolt knuckles of each Titan-fist, three head like sensors with sense nerve visors popped out. The six heads of two arms swivel around, checking the surrounding… And soon all their visors landed on them.

Silence for a few seconds… and the Titan-Slayer-fists suddenly opened up, each revealing an open hand with a massive clear fossil barreled cannon right at the center of the palm and the sound of electricity charging up.

"Oh... Crap." X-Eins cursed.

And that's not all. Each of the thick clear fossil fingertips of the said hand opened up, each one of them turned into small fingers for a smaller hand. And like the larger main hand counterpart, it also hosts smaller cannon on the palm of each hand. Making a grand total of 6 guns per hand, all charged up!

Uh… make that fivefold crap. H-Neun chimed inwardly. …or is it six fold?

"INCOMING!" Prue/H-Neun roared and the three Kirschbaum immediately turn tail and run as soon as the two floating arms start firing. The main Plasma Caster cannon on the main palm shoots out balls of condensed plasma and lightning, while the smaller palm cannons on the finger hands shoots out streams of smaller lightning lasers. The two floating hands quickly gave chase and continue to barrage the intruders with their thunderous arsenal with shot after shot.

The Kirschbaums flew away, dodging forks of lightning streams and spheres of plasma shot by these two arms by a hairbreadth. As long as they avoid direct hit from the lightning lasers, they'll be fine. But what they didn't expect was that plasma spheres also shots out forks of electricity if they get too close. To make things worse, these arms maneuver really fast for something of its size. Even faster and more agile than the Kirschbaum, enabling them to outpace the larger and heavier mechs, even outmaneuvering them. X-Ein had just dodged a hand shooting from behind him when that same hand suddenly flanked him from the left and fired another barrage. The forks of lightning barely grazed his unit as he slammed his controller to the side. "WHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Q-Vier barely managed to dodge the spheres of plasma from the main cannons. Prue/H-neun growled as it also took every bit of his maneuvering skills to survive the onslaught of thunderbolts. If even one hits them, the resultant chain reaction will take them all out. But at this rate, with this kind of rate of fire poured unto them, it's only a matter of time.

Suddenly though… just when the three think this is it… The barrage stopped. Prue/H-Neun and the other two Karstein boys immediately stopped when they noticed the lightning barrage had suddenly ceased. The flying fists had also stopped chasing them, folded its weapons in before they flew back to its source, seemingly satisfied having scared the attackers away. "Well that confirms it then." Prue/H-Neun groaned. Judging by the way those hands reacted; they're protecting something mighty important at the dark side of the moon. "The Module 77 is on the dark side of the moon."

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Meanwhile, the main battle happening between the New Jior Vs the Magius force had yet to show the clear winner…

The Kagerous, aided with a fleet of Impact Boosters had caused massive damage to the Magius fleet, but soon, the freezing had thawed and the fleet returned back to full effective mobility. Once again, they returned fire.

Barraging a Kirschbaum to oblivion while sniping several Gigants with one shot, the Amon-Ra finally managed to make contact with the Carmilla.

On her way to rendezvous with the Amon-Ra, one of Carmilla's multiple legs ejected a small spherical mine - and at the same time her heat gauge decreased from 87 to 30. The mine momentarily exploded, unleashing smaller pods that quickly embedded themselves on the surrounding debris. Once they do, each pods launched a single near invisible strand of very fine monofilament clear fossil wires that had been superheated by Carmilla's accumulated heat, creating a web of razor sharp and superheated net trap. The chasers were caught unaware until the net is right in front of them, and by then they were instantly sliced to dices.

"How are you doing?" Using the scythes on the Anubis sniper rifle, Amon-Ra hooked an Ideal and slammed it down to the ground before the Horus Quad cannon rip it apart.

"Still alive…" Takahi replied. She managed to catch a Gigant by the head before she start spinning it around and then toss it to an Ideal charging right at her. "Still… they should be running out of bad guys by now right?"

"Ahahahaha…" Inuzuka chuckled. But she understands. It felt like they've fought for hours instead of minutes, taken down so many enemy units until they've lost count… even their Valvraves now run slick with oil from severed exhaust vents and scratched paints…

Carmilla and Amon Ra landed and stand back to back, surrounded by a multitudes of leftovers from the countless hundreds of enemies they've taken out.

And yet… it looks like the enemy's number doesn't seem to be decreasing anyhow…

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"What do we do? Whatdowedo?" Q-Vier chirped excitedly.

X-Ein noted. "That… those arms… they were most definitely belonged to unit 03."

"03… the yellow one." Prue/H-Neun concluded.

"Way I see it, all Valvraves were upgraded, allowing them to do what they do best even better. 03 were armed for extreme combat. Be it on the extreme range, or extreme melee, he's the heavy hitter. Dishing out big damage… but all that firepower sacrificed its defensive capabilities. With those armed to nails floating hands, he can shoot at extreme range from any direction. Not to maintain that Chain Lightning effect. The main unit must've remote controlled those hands from a distance." X-Ein continues his deduction. "But… there are limits to its range. There must be a certain distance where the main unit can no longer remotely control those arms."

"How do you know that?"

"We're still alive." X-Ein concluded simply. Why else would those arms stopped chasing them midway when they were but a breath away from destroying them?

"So… how are we going to do this?"

"We split up. We'll approach it from multiple directions, I doubt those hands can cover every direction."

"Okay." Prue/H-Neun nodded in approval. Yes. Prue was never much for thinking things through, X-Ein's analytical skill is definitely very useful to his goals in the long run. Which means he needed to keep him alive for as long as possible. "In that case I'll take the front. X, take the left flank. Q, take the right."

"The front? He'll slaughter you again!" X-Ein gaped.

"My Mag-Kirschbaum is tougher. It can handle a few more hits than yours. I'll go first and draw in all of its firepower, meanwhile, you two flank him from both sides." Prue/H-Neun explained.

X-Ein blinked in amazement. He clearly he didn't expect this. "Alright. Alright. We'll do it your way. And H-Neun…"

"Yeah?"

X-Ein struggled to get the word out… "Be careful."

"Yeah." Prue/H-Neun nodded. The Mag Kirschbaum floated up, transformed into its flight mode and rushed straight back in. X-Ein's eyes frowned in deep thought. That's definitely not H-Neun… but… "Q-Vier. Let's go. As he says, you take to the right, I'll take to the left."

Thus, their Kirschbaum also transformed into its fighter mode and they split up to opposite directions, encircling the moon from different direction.

Meanwhile, up front was Prue/H-Neun.

Thanks. H-Neun started.

"For what?" Prue replied.

For giving X-Ein and Q-Vier the less risky job.

"I don't send my subordinates to do things I wouldn't do myself." Prue quickly cut to the chase. "Anyway… listen up. I'm going to use some of my powers… Now, whenever I do this… it's hell for the bodies I'm using. Quite frankly, I don't even know what it'll do to you, so bear with me!"

H-Neun simply rolled his eyes. Just then, their radar detected incoming objects. The disembodied arms are back. "Here we go!" Prue/H-Neun roared. H-Neun's teeth suddenly grew fangs and his eyes glows blue. Sparks of blue Runes appeared on the seams of the Kirschbaum. Seeing the Kirschbaum, the Titan Slayer arms deployed all of its hands and fired a barrage of lightning. Knowing he can't dodge it forever, Prue/H-Neun decided to just forgo dodging and tank it up. The white blue runes suddenly formed massive shards of Hard Light Crystal armor that covered the mech, becoming an extra layer of defense. The lightning barrage only managed to chip a bit of the blue white crystalline armor. The Kirschbaum continues to dash towards their destination, ignoring the intense barrage.

Suddenly, his radar detected another pair of incoming objects.

Are those…?

"What else!?" Prue stated the obvious. One can't protect a whole Module with just a pair of floating lightning spitting arms!

As expected, another pair of the exact same mechanical arms appeared and joined the first two, barraging this intruder mercilessly with rain of lightning and plasma. And yet, Prue's Rune Enforced Kisrchbaum continue to brave through the thunderstorm, its crystal armor became progressively deteriorated the closer he gets to the main target though.

And finally, he saw it in the distance… a glimpse of a yellow giant robot, standing on the moon's surface.

"Okay… that's… unit 03…" Prue/H-Neun grunted as he struggled to endure this merciless barrage. He looked up… and lo and behold… there's that accursed Module 77. Where her sister is undoubtedly being held.

But then, 03 raised his arms, and he had another pair of those giant arm things pointed at the incoming Kirschbaum. The main cannon began to charge, and the smaller hands on the fingers also opened up, its small cannon barrels also starting to light up. Electricity coursed through the seams of the mechanical hands… building up energy…

"That's right… keep your attention fixed on me…"

But to Prue/H-Neun's horror, 03 suddenly aimed both fully charged hand cannons to his flanks… right towards the flanking H-Neun and Q-Vier, both are just seconds away from entering the thunderous Valvrave's firing range.

"X-EINS! Q-VIER! INCOMING!" Prue/H-Neun roared a warning through the com.

03 fired both cannons, sending a giant stream of yellow plasma laser energy coursing with electricity to both sides. X-Eins had just registered a glimpse of the yellow giant when the blast is right up his nose. Q-Vier managed a quick "Hoe?" when the energy stream was just inches away from him.

Fortunately, X-Eins and Q-Vier's well-honed reflexes saved them. Slamming their controllers to the side at the last second, they managed to dodge lethal damage by a hairbreadth, but the cannon blast took out one of X-Eins' Kirschbaum's arms and legs, and both of Q-Vier's Unit's legs were vaporized. Nevertheless, both units were critically damaged as they were pulled down by Moon's gravity and violently crash landed on the surface, just a few short kilometers from 03.

Prue/H-Neun roared in anger and pushed his unit even faster, quickly closing the distance between them. He's in shooting range, and he tried to shoot… but then… the trigger was pressed… but the gun won't fire. And then he began to notice… the electrical interference that has been making their controls a bit buggy grew worse as they approached the Valvrave. And now that he made visual contact, the electrical disturbance reached its peak: his targeting system went haywire. He can still fly, he can still move… but his sensors, targeting systems, even guidance unit are going nuts. "T… This is…?"

The same thing is also happening to X-Eins and Q-Vier's Kirschbaums. X-Ein quickly recognizes these symptoms. "These are… EMP field!?" X-Ein glared at 03's figure. Only now he noticed that eerie electrical waves are coruscating from the bolts that are protruding from 03's various body parts. Modern Dorssian units have been shielded with EMPs so their electronic equipment won't go dead in an instant… but the shielding can only protect them against so much… "Electricity… right here in open airless space!? How is that even possible!?"

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Yusuke rigorously studied all these new features installed on each and every Valvrave. Many of these technologies were beyond them, and yet, it was buildable by current human technology. Pino had made sure of it. "Amazing… with all these new features… we'll be invincible!"

"I won't be relying too much on that if I were you." A-Drei sternly noted.

"Eh? Why?"

"Let's not forget one thing: Pino is a Magius." A-Drei looked at the new 03 before him and despite the new features that made this technological titan stronger than ever, he was not impressed. "We're fighting against Magius. They will undoubtedly bring their own technology to bear."

"That being said…" Haruto followed. "You're saying that the Magius might have their own way to counter these upgrades?"

"It seems ridiculous that a race that had conquered their known universe would create a technology that they cannot counter."

"Well… in this case… that might not be too much of an issue." Pino suddenly chimed in as she popped out of 03's chest. "As you recall, until 20 years ago, I was venturing deep space with my brother. I went into a bunch of systems, a bunch of planets. Many of which has their own civilization. Most of these techs are something I recently invented by studying them. They're all my original designs, so there's no way the Council knew anything about it."

"Eh?" Haruto and Yusuke clearly did not expect this. "There were other life-forms out there?"

"Sure, loads." Pino grinned. "There's this alien who had this collective swarm intelligence, a race of alien that can only exist in cyberspace, then there's a race who can clone themselves, and then there's an Alien made entirely of electricity and so on and so forth." Pino listed but a few of uncountable many. "But… in the end… all these are just tools." She kindly and gently looked at the amazed Yusuke. "In the end… it's all up to the one using those techs. And then there's the one thing that matters most."

Haruto, A-Drei and Yusuke listened intently at Pino…

The fairy queen jerked her thumb at the new unit 03: "The most important matter: What are you going to call this guy?"

Haruto and A-Drei fell down on their heads. Yusuke roared: "Without a doubt: Blitzstein!"

"NO!" Raizo, inside 03's cockpit roared. "NOBU THUNDER KNUCKLER! HANDS DOWN!"

"No, no, no! 03 was based on that 100 armed 50 headed giant on your myth so… Magnetonchires?" Pino also chimed in.

And as the three idiots start arguing amongst themselves, A-Drei dragged himself away from all this stupidity. "That's it. I'm leaving. There's just too much stupid in this room."

"Ahahahaha…" Haruto chortled nervously as he crawled away from the 'warzone'.

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The new 03, Behemoth (a name brutally chosen by a fed up A-Drei) now redirected its massive fingers at the incoming Kisrchbaum. The arms on its knees also opened up. All cannon barrels briefly charged before unleashing a rain of lightning lasers at the charging Kirschbaum, adding to the overwhelming rain of lightning from the four arms.

That was just a little bit too much firepower for Prue to handle. Within seconds, the additional barrage flayed the crystalline armor off the Kirschbaum's frame, and then the real unit received the electric beating in full. Prue switched to defense as he lit up his energy barrier, but the lightning blasts didn't just damage his unit… each shot also unleashed additional waves of EMP that fried his systems. Within moments, all of his arsenal suffered catastrophic malfunction, and Prue's battered Kirschbaum finally crashed landed right at Behemoth's feet.

Prue saw a monstrosity of a machine standing before him. The four giant mechanical hand familiars that had brought him to his knees flew around and then landed on the giant Valvrave's shoulders, reattaching themselves back to Behemoth's shoulders, two on each… So unless he miscount, Prue counted the yellow valvrave had 16 of these arm things embedded on his body like pieces of armor, each arm is at least four times bigger than the Valvrave's actual arms. The ones on each shoulder, that's 4 pieces.

Another two pairs were attached just above its actual arms with one was attached to his upper forearms like armguards, open palm facing outward, and another pair, facing inward, attached to just above its fists, making a pair of oversized knuckles. Both arms are also connected to one another end on end by the stumps.

Another two pairs are attached to its massive booster equipped backpack in a similar configuration with the one on his arms.

The last two pairs are attached to his legs, with one pair bolted to its knees, with its open palms facing forward, and the last pair was simply bolted to underneath his feet.

Prue/H-neun coughed and gasped. Using all that runes in an incompatible body… it really drains the hell out of him. His Kirschbaum is as good as useless… for now. Its armor nearly melted to a single glob, one of his arm was even melted to a slag. He owe this state to the fact that he forcibly infused it with huge amounts of runes beyond what the frame can handle and thanks to this… monstrosity of a machine standing before him, barraging it with lightning. "F… Finish it then…" Prue declared on open channel.

Yusuke and Raizo looked at each other inside the Behemoth. Raizo snorted and wouldn't want to miss this chance to gloat. "Heh. Not so tough anymore, aren't you Mr. Dorssia-I'm-so-strong-I-can-crush-you-without-breaking-a-sweat!?"

Prue gritted his teeth in anger. If only he had access to his full power… if only he wasn't injured 20 years ago…

Yusuke canned the insults and spoke in a calmer tone. "Do you see this? Magius? We're finally fighting at your level. This… is the strength of humans."

Prue growled. "The strength… of humans…!?" The Wolf Knight's words were boiling with anger and rage. "Your civilization was built on stolen knowledge. Nothing you create belongs to you! Even the technology that birthed the power of the Valvraves you are using belongs to us."

"Yes. You're right. This was given to us. Lord knows we don't deserve it… we didn't choose to be given this power, and it was given to us anyway, and we decided to use it." Yusuke replied. "But we make that decision as humans. Just as we make the decision to defy you."

"And we will win!" Raizo followed suit.

"Winning?" Suddenly X-Eins entered the conversation. "What do you know of winning?"

"What do you know, Mr. I'm-on-my-knees?" Raizo challenged back.

X-Ein chuckled. "In Dorssian army, there's no defeat… only degrees of victory!" He contacted a few people…

And suddenly, Behemoth's radars roared. They got incoming… from everywhere.

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"Where are they going?" The Amon-Ra and the Carmilla is already ear deep in enemy debris and ready to increase the pile higher when they notice huge portions of the enemy suddenly move away from the battlefield, circling the moon, heading to its far side. "Uhh… guys… I think our secret's out!?" Inuzuka reported.

"NO!" Satomi cried in horror. The Valravn frantically make a sharp turn. Its armored hull smash apart a Walkit in the process as all of its main cannons fired upon the enemy units trying to leave the present battlefield, destroying as many of them as possible before they get to the their destination behind the moon. But to no avail, there was just too many. And the remainder of the fleet soon concentrated their fire on the Valravn to keep it from interfering.

Worsening the matter, the Kagerous began to take actual damage. A blue Kagerou was barraging a waffe when an Ideal fired a shot, and it managed to pierce through the Kagerou's shoulder, much to the surprise of its pilot. The barrier that has been protecting the Blue Kagerou was spent. "So that's how it is!" The Ideal pilot smirked in triumph. "Guys, their protective shields are not infinite! Keep pounding and it'll run out eventually!" The news brought the much needed spirit to the initially beleaguered Magius fleet. They began to intensify their attack, and soon, bit by bit, the Kagerous were pushed back. The ambush team from earlier were also forced to rejoin the first team to survive.

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"Sheesh… so you guys still have this much back up with you…" Raizo groaned.

"The thing about Dorssian elite... We don't watch other people's back. We watch our own!" X-Eins revealed his secret ace, an entire pack of unmanned Gigants with heat shields were deployed right out from its back.

The Gigants swarmed towards the Behemoth. But the Behemoth merely shot a single salvo from his fingers and the electricity jumped in-between the units in a chain reaction, destroying them all. But amidst the smokes of the explosion, X-Eins' disoriented Kirschbaum charged straight at the front. The Kirschbaum grappled Behemoth's chest with its one arm. The Behemoth struggled to push the white robot away even as electricity coruscates all over the Kirschbaum's frame. X-Eins struggled to maintain the grip on the Valvrave while his consoles explode one after another. "Grrhh! GET HIM! Q-VIER! H-NEUN!"

"Go close combat!" Prue is still trying to reboot his Kirschbaum, so Q-Vier took the initiative. "Hyahooo! Break him to pieces!" Q-Vier's Kirschbaum arm flipped open, revealing a giant drill. Conventionally used as some kind of breaching torpedo, but Q-Vier decided to use it for melee anyway. He went after the Behemoth's back, drill first…

…until suddenly a Valvrave head just popped out of Behemoth's backpack, glaring at him. "Hoe?" Suddenly, the backpack revealed itself to be in fact the upper half of another valvrave attached to the Behemoth's back. The 2 pairs of Titan Slayer Arms that were embedded on Behemoth's back were attached to the manipulator arms, in this case, it is the fully functioning arms of the rear mounted Valvrave. The extra pair of arms began to move and its massive Titan arms opened up and caught the Kirschbaum's arm by the drill, its fingers literally stopped the drill from spinning. "HEE~ERE'S THUNDEEERR!" Raizo roared spiritedly. The other giant hand also opened up and caught the other Kirschbaum arm that soon came swinging. Both Q-Vier's Kirschbaum arms are now locked in Rear Behemoth's Titan hands. But the Behemoth further showcased its strength as its fingers began to crush both of the Kisrchbaum arms.

"Let's see if you can handle this!" Suddenly Prue managed to reboot the Kirschbaum and closed the distance between them. "I'll rip you in half!" Prue's Kirshcbaum pulled out the chain sword with its remaining un-melted arm and swing it at Behemoth's waist. He sliced it off in a single stroke.

"WHEEE! CUT HIM TO PIECES!" Q-Vier cheered as his chest cannon suddenly charged up and fired at point blank straight into Behemoth's back. The blast went through his shattered frontal chest… nearly hitting X-Eins.

All three suddenly realized… something's off.

Prue looked back at the disembodied Behemoth… when he cut it to two; he felt no resistance at all. And then there's the fact that Q-Vier just shot his chest to pieces… wait… pieces!? He looked at the pieces… they're all… cut clean? Since when an energy blaster that supposed to melt or vaporize their targets create such clean cut?

The answer immediately came when the cut clean chest pieces literally flew back and reconnected itself with the severed stump of the lower half. Moments later, a proper chest was reformed, unscathed and intact.

The Valvrave can't be turned to pieces; it was already in pieces from the beginning. Its entire body was composed of separate pieces magnetically connected and locked with one another with built in stumps to form the Valvrave itself. H-Neun didn't cut him apart, the unit simply retracted its joints and detached its body parts at the moment before contact with weapon and then momentarily reconnected the separated limbs together into one mech again when the danger passed. Yusuke grinned like crazy inside his 03. "Welcome to Physics 101, Electromagnetic!"

Yusuke growled as the frontal Behemoth quickly pried X-Eins' severely damaged Kirschbaum off him. The rear Behemoth, piloted by Raizo, still had this boy psychopath to deal with.

Q-Vier laughed madly as his arm mounted drill began to roar again, as the maniacal boy trying his damndest to tear a robot that is already in pieces to even smaller pieces. But the Rear Behemoth's Titan Arms locked the drill tight.

Raizo grunted and he roared. "I HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!" While the frontal Titan fists finally clenched down and crushed q-Vier's Kirschbaum arms. At the same time, the fingers of the elbow mounted rear Titan fist armguards opened up and deployed its finger hand cannons. All 10 fingers aimed at Q-Vier's Kirschbaum's outstretched arms and opened fire, obliterating both of them into stumps.

As if that weren't enough, the Rear Behemoth retracted his giant fist, the rear giant fist opened up, its palm cannon shifted into boosters. "Elbow rocket! Engage!" The rear fist blasters ignited a burst of solid afterglow, propelling the frontal fist forward. A moment before impact, a section of the frontal fist suddenly extended forward in a piston-like motion, adding to its destructive power. Not only the rocket propelled piston punch cratered Q-vier's chest cannon, it also rip and pulverize his unit's entire upper half from its lower half, sending what remained a great distance away.

Seeing two of his 'subordinates' brutally beaten down, Prue/H-Neun roared and charged at the Behemoth. He tried to shoot, but with his targeting system jammed, he'll have to do it point blank. His half melted fist swing forward, but the front Behemoth punch it away in a roundhouse swing as the Rear Behemoth gave a follow up elbow strike that shattered Prue/H-Neun's right arm and shoulder.

"WROAAAAARGHH!" Roaring, Prue/H-Neun used his remaining left arm, the sword arm to attack. Using the momentum from the Rear Behemoth's elbow strike and launched a counter roundhouse swing. The blade swing straight at the Rear Behemoth's chest, just under its neck, at blinding speed.

Yusuke and Raizo barely able to 'dodge' the slash by separating their uppermost half that are both of the front and Rear Behemoth heads, from their chest. Prue/H-Neun was waiting just for this and charged his chest cannon to fire at the separated upper head. He just knew their cockpit must be in one of those heads. He'll just gonna blow them BOTH to hell. "Let's see you dodge this!"

Prue's guess was on the money. Yusuke and Raizo paled as they saw the Kirschbaum's chest cannon pointed at them lit up…

But at the last second, a single EMP surge messed up Prue's Kisrchbaum one time too many, and the cannon malfunctioned. Instead of an energy stream, the cannon only managed to cough out small sparks of energy… before the whole unit collapsed on itself, and Prue's console blew up. "What!?"

The two heads reattached themselves to the body. "THUNDER CRUSHER!" Wasting no time, an angry Yusuke and Raizo roared and brought all four main arms' Titan Slayer fists forward from four directions, crushing and pulverizing Prue's Kirschbaum upper half to a compressed wreck.

"H-NEUN!" X-Ein screeched in horror upon witnessing the brutality.

"I… I'm okay…" Prue/H-Neun gasped. He managed to generate a solid hardlight barrier to protect himself just before the walls of his cockpit collapsed and crush him to a pulp.

When the crushed Kirschbaum fell, all three severely damaged Kirschbaum is completely out for the count. But, Yusuke and Raizo didn't relax yet. While the three Karstein boys didn't do any damage, they had managed to do one thing. They've bought time and distract them from preventing a bigger problem. Reinforcements have arrived and they've surrounded the Module.

Behemoth floated up, leaving behind the three brutalized kirschbaums on the moon surface. "Okaa~ay…" Yusuke whistled nervously, seeing just how many Ideals, Gigants, Waffes, and Kirschbaum were sent to beat them down. Not to mention all the Walkits and Carriers floating around them. Even worse, they've surrounded the Module.

"Attention, citizen of New Jiors! We have surrounded your precious Module!" The besieging fleet commander roared on open channel.

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The Valravn immediately ceased fire once Satomi heard this news. The screen opened up, revealing the situation where their module is now surrounded by at least a thousand guns pointing at it.

"Surrender now! Or you'll be picking what's left of your home with a vacuum cleaner!"

The Amon-Ra and Carmilla also stopped fighting to look at the situation.

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However, instead of stopping, the Behemoth brought its entire arsenal out: every fingers on every Titan Slayer arms opened up, its lightning cannons charged, every single one of the plasma casters flipped open, every weapon mounted on Behemoth is ready to fire.

"I wouldn't if I were you." X-eins warned the two Pilots on open channel, using what's left of his communication system. "If you fire… All that powerful weapon of yours will destroy your precious module as well!"

Indeed, with the way the enemy units clumped together so close to the module, the chain lightning reaction of this many lightning cannon shot simultaneously will tear the module apart as well.

Yusuke and Raizo looked at each other... Before they grinned wide like crazy and roared at the top of their lungs: "THAT'S NOT EVEN OUR MODULE YOU DUMBASSES!"

"…What?" All three downed Dorssian gaped.

With that said, Yusuke and Raizo fired every weapon they have to every direction with reckless abandon. To the assembled Magius army, it's like watching a sun exploded right in their face: blinding brightness that precedes a devastating thunderstorm. 2 of every 3 units were struck by the raining forks of lightning, and each unit struck by the lightning shot out another wave of lightning that branch out to at least another half a dozen unit, and so on and so forth in a rippling chain reaction. In this thunder storm every unit was struck by lightning at least 3 times. The plasma spheres from the plasma casters also plows through their ranks, tearing through all enemies caught in its path as well as sending arcs of lightning to units too close to the sphere.

When it was done and the last target has been claimed by the thunder, the void of space became very quiet... And very dark. Hundreds of offline magius units, floating lifelessly, their insides fried, their outsides charred ash black with electricity still jumping here and fro their limbs...

There was almost nothing left standing of the module. Like the many floating and lifeless Magius Dorssian forces littering the space around it, the module was now a devastated wreck. And then the holographic camouflage vanished, and then the faux module was revealed for what it is. A fake.

The Behemoth floated helplessly in space, all of its exhaust vents are burning red, fuming. The heat gauge also stands at an excess of 178 over 100. Their new Valvrave has a devastating punch, but they also accumulate heat comparatively fast.

And then, dropping down her own holographic camo, the Malefic suddenly zoomed down towards the downed Behemoth. Her Gretel had changed shape, the downward protrusion now flipped upward, becoming an elongated forward hull of a plane and the Malefic ejected. The wings extended out its many boosters and the Gretel transformed from a satellite into a sleek jet fighter and the Malefic mounted the jet familiar like riding a flying motorbike. The Behemoth quickly latched his feet atop the speeding jet's upper wing as the Gretel quickly took the two Valvraves away, leaving the stumped enemy survivors in her dust.

"Thank you Akira-chan!" Yusuke gasped.

"Report. To. A-drei. Show's. Over. Time run out." Akira stuttered.

Prue/H-Neun boils in anger as he had to watch the two Valvraves escapes before his very nose. He immediately contacted Cain. "CAIN!"

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The Command Center at the fleet flagship was still in chaos. Not only the Valvrave army resume their rampage, they were still wondering what could've wiped out 1/3rd of their entire fleet within moments when Prue's transmission came in, explaining what had happened.

"It's not the module… they anticipated that we will go after their Achilles heel but… what is this…?" Cain's frustration does not come from how these children made a fool out of him so many times… It's more like his frustration on trying to figure out what exactly these kids are trying to do. He could not create any proper counter strategy if he cannot see their end game. 'Even with all their Valvraves powered up to such levels… how would they expect to win with these odds against them?'

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Meanwhile, Malefic had brought the Behemoth back into the fray, though the yellow Valvrave still overheated. "We need to cool ourselves first!" Raizo grunted. "Could somebody hurry up and send some of that cooling agent!?"

"No… wait…" Yusuke had a better idea. "Akira-chan! Remember that trick we used during our first run?"

Akira frowned… and then she remembered. She nodded and the Malefic changed course… and headed straight at a Walkit that has been harassing a squad of Kagerous, protecting a few Kagerous who had been severely damaged during the fight.

"What… is that?" The crew of the ship dumbly looked on as a giant robotic witch riding a jet propelled broomstick is carrying an angry steaming robot towards them.

"Bombs! Away!" Unable to resist, Akira couldn't help not to actually scream the words at the top of her lungs. The Malefic Gretel makes a sharp turn, and at the same time, the Behemoth unlatched himself from the jet's passenger spot, and the momentum toss the overheating Valvrave straight into the Walkit's hangar.

Yusuke and Raizo actually had enough control to change the pose of their yellow Valvrave's descent. "DOUBLE THUNDER RIDER KIIIICK!" The Yellow Valvrave actually stretched out a leg in a heroic flying kick style similar to that of the rider hero in the films and violently crash-landed inside the hangar, leg first, mowing down everything caught in its foot. At the same time, it also causes some rupture to the veins of the Magius ship's cooling agent, spraying it allover the place. The Malefic had already left the scene and Akira took the liberty of squeezing off a few shots at the enemy with her hull mounted cannon, destroying several targets before her ship's stealth camo once again removed her from sight.

Moments later, the Space Cruiser's bridge began to register multiple critical damages occurring one after another in a very rapid succession. The yellow Valvrave is tearing the ship apart inside out. This was also coupled with an increasingly worsening electrical interference that grew worse and worse as the ship's system shut down one after another. Soon, a series of explosions ravaged the Walkit from inside, and with another thunderous explosion the Behemoth finally smashed its way out of the Walkit's upper hull, its fully chilled body is dripping with the cooling agent from the Walkit.

The ship's crew looked in horror at this monstrosity of a machine appearing right in front of their faces.

"KORAAAA!" Yusuke and Raizo roared and the Valvrave start running towards the Bridge, seemingly intending to body slam into the bridge, much to the crew's fright. But it didn't. Instead, with a burst from its rear thrusters, it jumped over the Bridge and land on the ship's stern.

"What is he-?" The captain's comment was cut short when the whole crew felt a violent jerk. The Behemoth literally grab hold of the Walkit's stern with its giant hands. And then the smaller finger hands opened up… yellow hardlight spiked out of the arm cannons into giant energy drills, and the fingers sank into the Walkit's stern. And all other finger palm cannons from other attached Titan Slayer fists opened up before letting loose massive burst of yellow energy that gave the yellow Valvrave more and more power… until it literally moved the gigantic warship with sheer brute force by the tail… and it seems it's going to swing the whole battleship as if it was a giant hammer.

"That's… That's impossible!" The Walkit's captain realized what's happening. "He's going to… holy… he's going to toss us! Break free! Break free! USE ALL THRUSTERS!" But the Behemoth had done quite a number on the said ship, and all of its boosters had malfunctioned. The damage was made worse by the Behemoth's continual spread of its EMP field. The ship's crew watched helplessly as the yellow Valvrave began to slowly and surely move the Space Cruiser in a roundhouse swing with the mech as the central axis. Finally, as the momentum built, the Behemoth had brought the whole ship in full swing, finishing multiple circular rotations, flailing the helpless space cruiser like a giant space ship sized hammer, pulverizing a few Ideals and Kirschbaum caught in its path before the Valvrave finally let go and hurled the giant ship into a violent spiraling collision course.

The wide eyed and jaw hung captains of the three Walkit and two carriers had just registered the scene of a Valvrave having just hammer-thrown a giant space cruiser when they realized that said space cruiser is being sent straight at them. A Walkit was smashed through by the impromptu flying hammer, followed swiftly by a Carrier's upper deck when the wreckage of the Walkit crash landed right on top of it, with enough force to brutally bend, but not break, the whole carrier. The hammer-thrown Walkit haven't finished its trip yet as it bounced off the surface of the ruined carrier and hit the second carrier right in the middle, embedding itself into it and violently pushed the said carrier back until it smashed through the other two Walkit escorts. All six heavily wrecked ships exploded soon after.

With that said and done and the whole Magius fleet was momentarily paralyzed in disbelief and horror, Yusuke and Raizo quickly tend to the more grievous matter, the downed Kagerou. The duo arrived in time, with the Kagerou is on its last leg. Yusuke and Yamada quickly get to work.

When Pino modified 03, she noted that, when Hikaminari was fixing a unit, there are parts that the arms just can't reach. The manipulator arms of the old Armstrong gun just aren't flexible enough. What's more, when 03 is fixing an ally, it leaves itself vulnerable to incoming attack without being able to defend or shoot back. Now…

A set of three Titan Slayer familiars on Behemoth's shoulders and elbow detached themselves. The Titan hands opened up, their fingers turned into the smaller hands before said fingers detached themselves from the main arm, floating and spreading out as the small hands on each detached fingers began their delicate work, fixing the critically damaged Kagerou at multiple spots all at once. Small manipulator cables extended out from the tiny fingertips and slunk deep into the damaged parts of the Kagerou. Meanwhile, the now fingerless main Titan arms are free to stand guard and protect the damaged Kagerou, using their boxy clear fossil composite armored frame as shield. The main Valvrave also stand guard, defending the repair procedure with its array of guns, creating a safe perimeter, keeping the enemy at bay with its array of lightning cannons.

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In the Moonbase, Amadeus silently glared as he watched how the battle had been proceeding against them. The difference in quality is surprisingly overwhelming. And he noticed how poorly the Magius forces are faring against a bunch of children. A bunch of CHILDREN! Forget the fact they had access to some of the most powerful ever made by any race, they're still only children, they should've been wet behind their ears. And yet, here they are, losing this badly against them. Amadeus sighed as he watched a Walkit was destroyed by a combination of Carmilla and her pack of Kagerous right in front of his eyes.

"M… My Fuhrer…?" One of his aide timidly stuttered. "S… Should… I prepare the shuttle?" the aide whimpered when he saw how the Amon-Ra reflected another rune blast.

"The Shuttle? For what?"

"Shouldn't we… retreat for now…? Re-gather our strength-"

And for that cowardly council, the Fuhrer awarded the aide with a bullet to his head. "Flee? What foolishness is that? Anybody else want to tell me to retreat?"

None of his aide dare to say another word.

"There's no reason for me to flee." Amadeus calmly stated. "We still outnumber them. We'll just throw wave after wave of attack at their ranks, which will tire them out. After all, they're just kids." He looked at the guards and said: "Though do in fact please prepare the shuttle. Once our army tore those pathetic toys to shreds, I will have to prepare a speech to the world on the hour."

The Guards nodded and left.

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True enough; things began to take the turn for the worse for the New Jior forces. Most of the Impact Booster drones had all been used up and/or destroyed. Pretty soon, almost all of the Kagerous have also used up the last of their energy, and the finite barriers that protected them are no more. Casualties began to mount. A Yellow Kagerou continue to fire when a group of Gigants rammed him, heating him up before a Kirschbaum shot at it with its chest cannon, vaporizing the cockpit and its pilot as he screams for his mother and mercy. "Shit! Shi-" The Green Kagerou's pilot curses was soon ceased when a salvo of missiles rain down upon her and the explosion tear the Kagerou apart. A red Kagerou suffered critical damage on its wings and flew out of control, but the Pilot screamed in defiance and managed to direct his unit to crash right into the bridge of a carrier in a glorious explosion.

Akira grunted as her Malefic took some fire and she was forced to drop down her stealth bubble. She quickly redirected her flight towards the Valravn, barely managing to stop next to it, preventing a crash. In fact, all the other remaining Kagerous also converged upon the Valravn soon after, followed quickly by the Amon-Ra, Carmilla and Behemoth. The New Jior forces were now cornered and they had no choice but to bunker down and defend in what seems to be their desperate last stand.

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At this point, the Fleet Commander smugly noted. "Well… they were amazing kids… to be able to hold out so long, destroying so many of our forces. Tip my hat for them for this accomplishment… but I guess this is the end."

Somehow, Cain doesn't share this sentiment.

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Back in the Moonbase, one of Amadeus' guards had returned. Amadeus looked at the Guard. "Well?"

"The ship is waiting for you at the hangar, My Fuhrer."

"Well then, I suppose I should leave now, there's nothing left to see. Tell Cain to report to me immediately when the last of the Valvraves had been turned to space dust."

"Yes sir." The Guard nodded.

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Outside, another Red Kagerou was blasted to bits. The New Jior's arsenal is swiftly running dry. "Oh… crap… if this is the end of it… well… at least we go down fighting." Jin snarled.

"This is really something… to be able to do this much… even someone like me." Nao Ota also smiled.

"Any regrets, Takahi?" Saki even contacted Takahi.

"My only regret is I didn't get to beat the crap out of you." Takahi growled. Carmilla tossed her last Heat Web mine.

"CAN THE FATALISTIC TALKS YOU IDIOTS!" Inuzuka's roar resounded allover the com. "Just hold on a little bit longer! We gotta give Haruto more time!" So she said, but even her sturdy Valvrave is reaching her heat limit as well…

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Amadeus was being led into his private shuttle by his guards, and he immediately took a seat specially prepared for him. But the ship had yet to leave. "Well then, what are you waiting for?"

The Guard nodded… before he grabbed his rifle and immediately opened fire at all of Amadeus' guards. Killing most of them. The last two managed to escape the onslaught and ran out of the shuttle, screaming for help… when they were gunned down as well.

The Guard pointed his gun at the nonchalant Amadeus. "What is this?"

The Guard didn't say anything, but soon, other soldiers, all dressed up as Dorssian soldiers also entered. But seeing that the guns were pointed at him instead of the traitor gave Amadeus instant clarification on whose side they served. "…I see…" That clarification was further confirmed when another person entered. And it was none other than Kriemhild. "Traitor." Amadeus snorted at the Guard who betrayed him. "…or are you?" His eyes rolled.

The Guard sighed and put away the gun. He reached out to a spinning chair just in front of Amadeus, and turned it around, revealing his unconscious body. The Guard put his sidearm in his hand and took a bite. Haruto's eyes sprang open as the Guard fell down. Before the guard regained consciousness, Haruto put the sidearm to use and shot him in the head for good measure. He pointed the gun at Amadeus. "Amadeus K. Dorssia. Or should I call you… Mirko, familiar of Attlach?"

"Tokishima Haruto." Mirko smirked. "First of the half breeds."

Haruto couldn't care less of that derogatory calling. "Call your men. Tell them to stop."

Amadeus chuckled before he burst out laughing sinisterly. "What makes you think that pointing that toy at me will stop our army from slaughtering your precious friends?"

"Self preservation. There's so few of you left… I prefer not to commit too much of a racial genocide at this point. At least I don't want to do that to Pino."

"Genocide?" Mirko chuckled. "What on earth are you talking about? In nary an hour, your pathetic army will be butchered down to the last man!"

"And your race is about a few minutes away from a systematic slaughter in a new age of holocaust." Haruto was undeterred.

Mirko was undeterred. "I suggest, you use that gun to kill yourself. Shoot yourself in the head enough times, and the runes will be spent and you might die with some dignity, half breed."

Seeing Amadeus was undeterred, Haruto merely sighed. "Oh well." He motioned Kriemhild to do her work. She handcuffed Amadeus's hands and for good measure, put a strap on his mouth.

"And what exactly do you wish to accomplish, Tokishima Haruto?" Amadeus mumbled beneath the mouth strap.

"What?" Haruto sighed as he holstered the sidearm. "I suppose… Chaos is the word."

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A few days before the battle…

Kriemhild, Haruto, A-Drei and the rest of the Valvrave pilots (including Akira via teleconference) finalized their plan for tomorrow's battle.

"This plan to disable most of the forces with 06's new virus… you… realized we can't hold them back indefinitely? Even with the flash freeze bomb, and the multitudes of traps and decoys you set up… it will not be enough." Kriemhild continued. "You wish to fight the Magius-Dorssian-Arus army, and while I see here… that with the amount of firepower you have amassed, you clearly could contend with any super power nation… the fact remains: the enemy outnumbers you. Their firepower, combined with the amount they can dish out and take… you will all go to certain death."

"Actually…" Haruto was somewhat hesitant… until A-Drei took over. "We already know about that. And in truth we have a plan to deal with it!"

"Oh?" This is the first time Kriemhild heard of this. "And what is the plan?"

"You know what Amadeus are, right?" Seeing Kriemhild nodded, A-Drei get straight to the point. "Now, we know for a fact that Amadeus is an agent of the council. And he also answers to them. That being said, there's also a strong possibility that he will be there personally to oversee the proceedings of the battle, seeing that most of the forces are comprised of Dorssian soldiers. He will personally be there both to bolster their spirits and as an apparent hostage in case some of the Dorssian soldiers had funny ideas. Most of the soldiers fighting tomorrow will be humans. Dorssian soldiers who had no idea as to what Amadeus really are."

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"That's your plan?" Amadeus quickly understood upon seeing Kriemhild and her men prepared a set of cameras for a live broadcast.

"We'll see how loyal your men are when they see what kind of monster you are."

"Hahahahahaha!" Amadeus snarled. "Look who's talking, boy! Go ahead! Kill me! I'll regenerate for everyone to see! Are you ready to face what comes after?"

000000000000000

"That does sound like a solid and doable plan… why did you not bring it up?" Kriemhild looked in confusion to the two main strategists.

"…Kriemhild-san… Mirko didn't just possess some body." Haruto sounded his dilemma. "It was different with Saki who was 'just' a rising pop star idol, sorry Saki." Haruto quickly nodded to Saki who doesn't mind. "The problem is… when the Dorssian forces realized they've been duped, they will most certainly start attacking every Magius unit in sight. It'll be chaos."

"And more importantly… there's no way they'll stop once they're finished with the Magius." A-Drei followed. "Our battle tomorrow will undoubtedly cause immense amount of damage to our forces. The combined might of Dorssia and New Jior can probably defeat the Magius, but after that… the Valvraves will be left in a defenseless state where they can no longer continue fighting… the Dorssians will not miss the chance to take us out along with the Magius. Hence why this plan isn't exactly viable."

"I see…" Kriemhild nodded. "If that's the case… I may have something you need to make that plan viable."

Haruto and A-Drei's eyes rolled.

A while later…

The New JIOR was thrown into shock when Kriemhild, at Pino's constant insistence, finally revealed the presence of a certain VVIP for everyone.

"The… The E-Emperor of Dorssia?" Ryuuji gaped as he looked at this elderly man draped in regal robe being escorted out of the ruins of the Walkit. But none take this harder than a shocked A-Drei. But he didn't say a word, he merely glared at his estranged father with all the suppressed anger he can spare.

"Prime Minister Ryuuji." The Emperor nodded. "It's been a while."

"Y… yes… but… why… how…? I thought you were dead!"

"Please forgive Kriemhild's duplicity." The Emperor nodded. "She wants to first ascertain if we can trust you."

Haruto somewhat understand the emperor's predicament and his need for secrecy. He survived the revolution, imprisoned for 12 years, and then his entire family member was slaughtered, and then there's another member of his family who's actually a Magius… "The Emperor? That's your idea, Kriemhild-san?"

"In the last 12 years, we've been watching." Kriemhild explained. "When Amadeus started his revolution, he had the support of the people. He took Lieselotte and the Royal Family hostage, preventing the Imperial loyalist to act against him, while he rooted them out slowly, and exterminate them bit by bit, while trying to make his own circle of loyalists. But… so far… based on what I see… as time passes, his policies continue to make more enemies than friends."

"And we've been rebuilding from that amassed enemies ever since then, strengthening ourselves, we grew in secret, right underneath Amadeus' nose." The Emperor followed. "Our strength and numbers today are quite nothing compared to that time. What's more, we've infiltrated deep, circles upon circles… our men are hidden everywhere. Waiting for the right time to strike hard and fast."

"Question." Yusuke suddenly raised his hand. "If you guys imperialist forces are so… strong… what exactly are you guys waiting for? Why wait until now to… to… bring the big bad? Why not do it earlier?"

"Excellent question." A-Drei grunted.

Kriemhild answered. "People had a taste of Amadeus' rule and found it wanting. They came to wish the return of the old rule of the Dorssian royalty. And the only thing stopping the country from breaking into a total anarchy and revolution so far was the fact that Amadeus had held the royal family hostage… but… then… at the start of this whole Magius ordeal, he went ahead and killed everyone… killed his living shields… replacing it with alien guns pointed on everyone's heads. Coercing their loyalty." The Emperor explained. "Now… the royalists seemingly had no choice but to follow Amadeus totalitarian rule because they don't know that I'm still alive. This alliance with the Magius… his rule of terror by massacre… the whole country is ready to explode in total revolution… if they weren't so scared of the Magius forces he's using."

At this, A-Drei couldn't take it anymore and laughed sarcastically. "So you want to use the Novus Magius to deal with that part." A-Drei snarled. "Oh this is rich. This is really, really rich. So you come groveling to us, begging on your knees for our help because you lost in popularity during the last uprising… and now you want to use the Novus Magius to replace one dictatorship with another. What makes you any different with Amadeus!?" A-Drei turned to Haruto. "We don't need this, Tokishima Haruto. If you follow his games, everyone will think you're falling under Dorssia's thumb! You'll eventually be subverted as a puppet under their rule."

"Of course not." The Emperor interjected. "We won't ask your aid for free. We're prepared to give whatever you wish… we could also endorse New Jior in the international forum-"

"An endorsement from a dethroned Emperor? What worth is there in that?" A-Drei retorted back. "You're the lesser of two evils. That is the only reason your people want you back!"

And this is truly surprising. Of all the people that may resist the Emperor's proposal, A-Drei was the last person they expected to do so. Everyone's eyes turned to the two arguing parties.

"You are a citizen of Dorssia. Do you not want to see its glory restored?"

"What glory is there in a country built by oppression through force? Are you still clinging to the ideas of the old monarchy with you as the ruler? Are you really that senile, you old fool? Do you really think the people will welcome you with open arms just like that!?"

"Let them see me alive, and then we'll see where their loyalty truly lies." The Emperor smirked.

"You're just preparing a stage for the second Red Thursday!"

"Dorssia Imperial line had stood by popular support of the people for nearly a thousand years!"

"The Dorssian Imperial Line is DEAD!" A-Drei roared in finality.

This roar silenced the elderly emperor.

"Your empire lies in ruin. Your people are poor and impoverished… you think your return to the throne will change that?" A-Drei glared. "A thousand years of prosperity… and Amadeus undo it in a single day, and you think you can return it back to the way it once was? You're old. Sickly. You don't have enough years in you to repair the damage he's done, and all your families are…" A-Drei paused for a moment… and then he glared at his father. "…they're dead. Every last one of them. There's no one left to continue your name after you die… So tell me… how… are you going to do this?"

The Emperor didn't answer. As he sorrowfully looked upon his estranged, angry son, his elderly visage seems to grow older by a decade or more in mere moments. "I believe… I offered my help to Mr. Tokishima." The Elderly Emperor looked at Haruto. "Let him decide what to make of my offer."

The two Dorssian finally glared at one another… A-Drei also sighed and he motioned to Haruto, handing him the decision.

Haruto entered a deep thought… and then he looked at the other Novus Magius one by one. Yusuke seem indifferent, Raizo clearly disliked the idea of working for Dorssia, Takahi was a bit at loss, Inuzuka doesn't seem to be quite sure on what to make this situation… Saki… she gave him a look. It seems she… and instinctively others, opted to let him make the decision. He thought long and hard… until he finally landed on a conclusion: "I'll do it."

"I… what?" A-Drei and everyone looked in horror at Haruto. "Tokishima Haruto? Have you not been listening? He's using you-"

"Leave politics out of this." Haruto snapped. "I don't know anything about politics. Honestly, even if I did… I don't care. In fact I don't care about what becomes of Dorssia at all." He glared at the Emperor. "This much you should know: Dorssia has taken from us. You killed many of our friends. Destroyed our homes. If anything else, what we have… is enough reason to unleash our wrath on your country and burn it down to ashes. That, for us, would not be hardship." Raizo cracked his knuckles in support of this. "But that… would only restart a cycle of violence with your country getting back on us and then we get back on you… Personally, I'm not a big fan of revenge."

"…what do you want?"

Haruto glared at Kriemhild. "When you invade our Dyson Sphere, you took all our families. Some of them who we managed to rescue told us of the concentration camps where they were left to suffer and die." Haruto narrowed his eyes to make his point. "Return them. Return them all without exception. If they're already dead, return their bodies."

"Of course. You have our word. We will return all your family safely." The Emperor nodded.

"Alright then." And so the Emperor and the First of the Novus Magius shake hands. "Let's… recap our plan one more time, just to be sure."

00000000000000

Amadeus paled upon seeing the emperor walked in from the cockpit. With him, are father daughter Shashinami Ryuuji and Shoko.

Haruto picked up his com and muttered. "I've secured Amadeus. You can start now."

0000000

"Finally!" Inuzuka punched her fist. "About damn time! Everyone protect Akira! No matter what!"

And then suddenly, the cornered New Jior forces changed formation just as they fight with renewed fervor. The remaining Kagerous back away, forming a close knit circular formation around the Malefic at the center. The Amon-Ra ordered all of her barrier scarab drones to create layers upon layers of defenses, the thickest they can make for the Malefic. Carmilla and Behemoth also gathered around the Purple Valvrave's flanks, the Valravn moved its gigantic bulk to cover the rear. Everyone protects Akira, for her work must go undisturbed.

Akira understands and the Malefic once again transformed into its satellite form. The four backward facing sleek pods opened up, revealing four mechanical rods. Each mechanical rod extended to 5 times its length, and then they opened up, fanning out into what looked like one quarter of a gigantic parabolic antenna even larger than the Gretel's massive size, with Malefic and Gretel's main body at the center.

Inside the cockpit, Akira's computer buzzing with activity as streams after streams of data entered her system by the gigs. The servers inside the Gretel roared as its chilling system went full force to cool the heating up machines. She typed furiously, deciphering encryptions and broadcast the signals, full force.

0000000

At the same time, the infiltration team led by Haruto dragged the captured Fuhrer of Dorssia out of his shuttle, outside, Amadeus' loyalist soldiers had surrounded the shuttle… but when they saw their Fuhrer all tied and gagged, they hastily brought their weapon down. They were even more surprised when the Emperor himself is there. "Okay… okay! Put the gun down! Put the gun down!" The squadron leader hastily ordered.

"Open the hangar gates!" Haruto ordered as he threateningly cocked the gun at Amadeus.

They hastily do so. Three Walkits already waiting outside along with a single carrier floated in…

As soon as the ships docked and the door is closed, what poured out of them was… Jior soldiers and all the inhabitants of Module 77, most, if not all, are armed to teeth. They quickly disarmed the helpless Dorssian soldiers as they joined Haruto's team.

Using the salvaged Walkits and Carrier, the infiltration team that is Haruto and Kriemhild's team as well as the ground infantry forces flew ahead of the mech squadron, secretly joining and mingling with the gathering of Magius-Dorssia-Arus units a day earlier, hiding in plain sight, waiting for their chance. The rest is all up to Amadeus' own arrogant hubris and the Valvrave's own endurance. A very risky gamble… which they've won with their capture of the Dorssia supreme ruler.

They quickly set up a crude podium right there in the hangar, and Amadeus, his form tied and chained takes center stage. The camera was set and rolling…

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Until a moment ago, the people of the world had been gluing their eyes to their monitor, watching this battle unfolding, expecting to see the New Jior forces' inevitable demise… Suddenly, every media which currently shows the progression of this battle went static… and then a moment later, everyone can see a podium with a symbol of Dorssia, Jior… and this flag of a three legged crow of the New Jior behind it at the background. And the image of Amadeus strapped at the center stage. All this are shown in every corner of the world connected to the media. Switching to other channels will simply lead back to this feed. In fact… even turning the TV off is prohibited. Not that anyone would want to turn their TV off even if they wanted to. Akira used the Gretel's full power to literally hacked the planet, using Gretel's broadcasting strength to forcibly broadcast their own show to the world.

"What is this?" An Ideal pilot gaped.

"Hey… isn't that!?"

"The Fuhrer!? He's been captured!?"

The battle began to grind to halt and the number of shots being fired lessened greatly.

And then, one by one, people ascended to the podium. The first is the former Prime Minister of Jior, Shashinami Ryuuji. Following behind him tiptoed, is his now infamous daughter, Shashinami Shoko. Shoko stand on the podium and his father, symbolically and meaningfully, stand behind her. Somewhat far behind as to take the background stage.

"Heya everyone! Did you miss me?" Shoko started with a big smile and a wink.

The whole world sweat dropped. But they really should be getting used to Shoko's outrageous ridiculousness by now…

But what happened next… will go down in history as a whole new level of outrageous.

"Relax. Today, I don't think I'll be doing much of a talking. But we do have a special guest. Please, give your warmest welcome…"

And rising to the podium taking the stage, to the disbelief of every wide eyed Dorssian soldier fighting on the moon and standing by in their posts or crawling in their hideouts down on Earth, the Emperor of Dorssia himself, alive and breathing.

"Your majesty!" "The Emperor! He's still alive!" "Wait… he's with the New Jiorians?"

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"Greetings, citizen of Dorssia." The Emperor started. "I imagine you've been hearing a lot of rumors about me. And I imagine quite a few of them depicts that I'm dead. Let me put those rumors to rest. I'm here. Alive and well."

"Today… I address you not as an emperor… but as a fellow human being. Oh… and in case some of you are wondering…" The Emperor took a small knife and makes a small cut on the palm of his hand. He then showed it to the camera, for everyone in the world to see. "There we go. See here? I bleed, and it will continue to bleed. It will not disappear anytime soon." The Emperor has been told of a simple test to show if you're a human or not. Put a bullet in one's mouth and then see if he spit it out a moment later, or, more gently, put a cut on a finger and let it bleed and then see if it closes a moment later. And as everyone can clearly see through the crystal clear High Definition screen, the blood continues to flow from the Emperor's open palm. He's definitely human. "Today… I stand before you now to give truth to a lie."

At this, the Emperor gestured at the tied and gagged Amadeus.

"Behold Amadeus K. Dorssia. The Fuhrer of Dorssia for the last 12 years. His most recent undertaking, as you all had known… was this so called Alliance with the Magius. An Alliance that he claimed will bring prosperity and bright future for all." The Emperor continued. "You've all been fed a great lie." The Emperor looked at Haruto. "Mr. Tokishima. If you please. Put him to the test."

And as Kriemhild caught everything on a camera that broadcasted the event live, Haruto put Amadeus to the test.

He put a bullet in his head. After the blood was cleaned, Haruto showed the hole to the camera… to the world.

As expected, Amadeus failed the test as soon as his forehead regenerates and the bullet popped out when the flesh re-knit itself.

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X-Ein's jaw was wide open.

Prue/H-Neun merely growled.

And Q-Vier, who just woke up with the worst headache he felt in years… couldn't care less.

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The other human Dorssia soldier also gaped in disbelief. Their Fuhrer… is a MAGIUS!? The Dorssian forces in space stare wide eyed at the screen, ignoring the ferocious battle that are raging around them. Even if their unit can move, the pilots are too shocked to even react or do anything.

The whole world watched…

…And they're still having a hard time believing it.

"Seriously!?" "Did you see how his head…" "Wait… if the Dorssian Fuhrer is a Magius… then… who can we trust!?" Akira watched in triumph as the WIRED net, finally reconnected, was absolutely buzzing with all this chaos and confusion. But the worst had yet to come.

Haruto's infiltration unit was split in two. The first team, Haruto and Kriemhild were tasked to capture the Fuhrer. The second team, the smaller one, was tasked to do a job which was based on Pino's hunch.

As if on cue, Haruto's phone com rang furiously. "Tokishima here."

"Tokishima-san…"

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It was Burnett. The second infiltration team. "Did you find it?"

"Yes." The man's face was as pale as death. "And I thought their brain farm reactor was bad…"

"Put it on the screen."

"Are you sure? If the world sees this…!"

"Do it."

Burnett reluctantly did so. The Screen quickly split in two. The left was the failed 'execution' of Amadeus… but the right half of the screen…

Burnett's camera is currently broadcasting an image of countless capsules which glows bright green on its seams. Hundreds, thousands, arrayed together… all bear the insignia of the council. But of greater importance, was what's inside those capsules.

"Is that… people!?"

It was Pino's hunch just moments before the operation when they saw what becomes of the moon. The Magius-Dorssia forces took over the Moon. But to power so many Rune Based weaponry would require a huge amount of runes. That being said, the Moon's a few million plus population may present a viable rune source. But harvesting so many humans is not a simple matter that it can be done so quickly. So they must have some on site rune harvesting equipment delivered to the moon. And that means huge level of runes, higher than anything else.

And as expected, guided by Pino who followed the largest concentration of Runes she can sense, they found large container ships docked deep beneath the inner area of the moon, numbering in hundreds, each containing thousands of 'passengers', all hooked up to the Rune Harvesting machine, slowly being killed as their memories and thoughts are sucked out.

"This is Alan Burnett reporting to you live from Moonbase, and I am currently with the New Jior Infiltration unit, second team." Burnett tried his best to keep his tone at a professional level. He almost failed. "We're inside what appears to be a ship. One of hundreds more docked in Moonbase inner sanctum. As to what I'm seeing here… I… it looks like they put the captured inhabitants of the Moon Colony into some kind of machine… that drain something out of them. I'm not sure of what I'm seeing, but I see that they are monitoring the victims' vitals… and they're dropping. Whatever they're doing to these people… it's killing them."

"WTF!?" "THOSE MAGIUS BASTARDS!" "THEY SUCKED THEIR BLOOD OUT!?" And the net was soon filled with countless angry roar from the whole world who just watched Burnett's findings. "THOSE MAGIUS NEED A BOOMSTICK UP THEIR ASSES!" "A STAKE AND A TORCH DOWN THESE BLOOD SUCKING SPACE VAMPIRES' CHESTS!" "A GOOD MAN EATING ALIEN IS A DEAD MAN EATING ALIEN!"

On the background was Pino with a fretting Rion trying her best not to faint or/and vomit, as the Magius Queen is interacting with the console. "W… What is this…!? Are they… dead?"

"No." Pino interfaced with the console by sending jolts of energy to the console while the monitor showed her what she needs to see. Vital signs, heart rate, respiration, pulse… and from that she can quickly say: "But they are dying. They're having their runes sucked out. We have to stop the machine and get them out!"

"Okay! Let's unplug this thing-!"

"WAIT!" Pino screeched. "They're all on life support. Pulling them out needs a proper procedure. If we just drag them out, they'll die!" At the warning, the soldiers stopped and kept their distance. Pino send in a few more jolts, and the computer went crazy with streams of encryptions coursing through the monitor. Moments later, the encryption stopped, and the capsules stopped glowing. The humming sound of the energy build up died down. "There we go. The rune extraction is stopped. But… I suggest we kept them here for now until we can figure out a way to reverse their condition safely. Haruto you hear me? Precious cargo safe and secure."

0000000

"Roger that Pino." Haruto nodded. And then he looked at the camera. "See that?" He bellowed. Not just to the stupefied Amadeus loyalist soldiers, but also to the world at large. "That… is a sneak peek. A preview of what becomes of us all if we accept the Council's rule! There's no bright future for us, under their rule, puppets and livestock animals are all that you'll become!" He looked at the Emperor to give him the time and space.

Realizing he had the time, the Emperor initially fell silent. His brows knitted, eyes closed… as if trying to find the right word to say… or trying to find the resolution to speak the word. He then remembered his latest argument with A-Drei… and then, as he finally opened his eyes, he knew what to say.

First, he addressed the shocked and horrified Amadeus' loyalists. "I understand." He started. "I understand your shock. Your confusion. Your horror. Those emotions also grasped this old wrinkled heart of mine." The Emperor took a deep breath and start speaking as he looked at the bound and bloodied creature that was once Amadeus. "I once met the man I know as Amadeus decades ago. He was young, spirited, a man with ambition and visions of the future. Like many of you… I too was lulled by his ideals and I thought that was the best for Dorssia. I even decided to make him a member of my family. And then… when he took over the country… a part of me still believes that what he does… is for the betterment of Dorssia. Thinking that… it made the deaths of all my family and my own imprisonment somewhat bearable… Though it seems… in the last 12 years… my beliefs were not vindicated."

0000000

Aboard the Valravn, Satomi and A-Drei looked on at the monitor broadcasting the emperor's speech. A-Drei in particular, had this heated look in his eyes. 'Old man… what are you playing at now?'

0000000

"Things… had all gone so wrong now. We know something was wrong… terribly wrong with all this. And yet… We all did nothing. And I understand why. You're afraid. Who wouldn't be? Aliens, Magius, and all that is so far beyond our understanding. They corrupt our reason and twisted our morality. We decided to bow down in silent obedience in order to face the security of familiar constancy of your normal everyday life. I myself, of all people, merely stand by and watch as innocent blood was spilled. What we saw in that video just now? It didn't just happen in a day." The Emperor sighed with a heavy heart. "For years, leaders of the world had given tributes of humans for the council to drain. All so that they just stay away from our rule, so that they will not interfere. We don't want them to meddle in human affairs, so we sacrifice a tithe of our own people so that they will remain in the shadows. You see? Even the most powerful men in the world are also enslaved by fear."

Haruto narrowed his eyes in understanding. He was like that once… governed by fear. When he first became a Novus Magius, a part of him wanted to go back. He was afraid of his new condition because he wanted to go back to that idyllic peaceful life with Shoko. But now, he accepted his condition and he even revealed everything to Shoko and to his friends… now, he stood ready before the world, showing them for what he really is.

"I turned a blind eye of this evil that has been growing right under my very bosom and in doing so; I've helped foster the seeds that eventually led to this. In that respect… I suddenly came to a realization… that I do not deserve to rule anymore than Amadeus." The Emperor closed his eyes as he entered into silence. Apparently he's gathering the courage and resolution needed to say what he has to say. When he opened his eyes again, he stated: "Today… I stand before you now… to announce the dissolution of the Dorssia Empire."

Everyone's jaw was hung in shock. Everyone. Even the Emperor's personal guard, including Kriemhild. Clearly they did NOT see that one coming.

0000000

A-Drei was practically stupefied stiff on the spot as he stared wide eyed in disbelief at the screen that broadcasted what his father had just declared to the whole world.

0000000

"Y… Your Highness… you…" Ryuuji tried to say something, but the Emperor raise his open palm before Ryuuji as he kindly looked at Shoko and her father.

"No, Ryuuji. This is for the best. Dorssia has become a breeding ground of injustice and cruelty to the innocent. The time has changed, and it is no longer time for one family to hold absolute control of a powerful public institution called a Nation." He looked then to Haruto. "Queen Pino's predicament is a very good example as to what happens when a singular ruler lost control of its people. It reminded me of the one true fact about governance of nation:" The Emperor now look at the confused Shoko. "Ms. Shashinami do you know what composed a country?" The Emperor immediately followed: "Its people, Ms. Shashinami. A country is neither its government nor its leaders, it is its people. As long as there's one man of Dorssia still stands who uphold the spirit of the nation, the country will never fall." The Emperor now turned to Haruto. "Mr. Tokishima… I understand you and your friends had suffered the most under Dorssian rule. But right now… I ask you to trust us. I ask you now… to trust in the honor of men of Dorssia."

Haruto was somewhat startled. Trust them? Trust the people who had taken so much from them? It's precisely because he didn't trust them that he arranged this plan to bring the Emperor to the stage… but the Emperor suddenly dismantled his own Kingdom like that… that seems to be exactly opposite of his reason to allow this to happen… But as he gazed upon that ancient wizened eye, he felt his own stubbornness and distrust began to waver. Enough that he held his earpiece and ordered: "Akira… let them go."

Akira, somewhat reluctantly, pressed a few buttons… and the Hansel virus went offline.

The paralyzed Dorssia army suddenly found they have control of their units back. Everyone can suddenly move again. This is it then. The larger Dorssian portion of the fleet that has been sealed away up until now has finally been unleashed from their predicament. Though they had yet to take any action, the fate of this battle is now hung on their decision.

And then, once again the Emperor looked towards the camera, towards the millions of citizens of Dorssia gawping at their TV, to the billions of the world's populace. "I now say this to you all, not as an Emperor… but as a man. As a man I asked you… to look into your heart and ask this. Fight now for what you believe in. Not in what other people tell you to believe, but fight for what your heart knows to be right."

And thus how the Emperor ended his speech.

Silence.

The battlefield in space suddenly became incredibly still. Not one unit made a move. Even the sound of the ongoing ferocious battle in the rear line seems sounded like a distant echo of thunder.

The Dorssian units looked at each other, everyone seems to be asking each other if they know what to do only to be answered with the same question via their confused gaze. But… as the shock and confusion began to wane and the soldiers calmer state of mind began to rethink everything… they looked at each other again… and this time, their look is asking their fellow 'former' Dorssian citizen if they ended with the same conclusion. Everyone pretty much came up with the same answer, in the end. Smiling to each other through the com, the Dorssian soldiers yelled as one:

"FOR THE EMPEROR!"

And with that one roar, the Dorssian fleet finally joined the battle. Their target: the Magius force. Also following them is the requisitioned human controlled ARUS fleet, its soldiers all hungry for revenge on the Magius.

At the same time, the trapped New Jior forces are reeling. Another Kagerou was shot down. Worse, the Valvrave is reaching their limits as well. Amon-ra's Quad cannon suddenly stopped firing. Its system automatically locked the gun seeing the heat state is reaching its limit… and Inuzuka had run out of heat spikes to dispense. "Oh, shit… I'm out of ammo!"

In a terrible timing, a Mag-Kirschbaum suddenly fill Inuzuka's screen, its chest cannon is but a moment away from firing a blast. "Gah!"

Until suddenly, another Kirschbaum smashed against the said Mag Kirschbaum. "What the!?" The Magius pilot gasped. "What are you doing!?"

"Oh shut up, you monster! GET THEM!" Another Kirschbaum also rammed at the Mag Kisrchbaum, restraining it by the arms before the two captor Kirshcbaums start firing its finger cannons at the captive.

Missiles start flying around and beam cannons start roaring again. The Dorssian forces start opening fire at the Magius forces. Akira, as requested by A-Drei, fed them data which allows them to identify which units are piloted by Magius and which aren't, thus preventing friendly fire. Ideals clashing with their Magius counterparts as swarms of Waffes opened fire at a Mag-Walkit. An entire Carrier even go on a kamikaze maneuver and rammed its armored hull at a Mag Walkit as a squad of Kirschbaum atop it jumped and latched on the Mag Walkit's hull and start opening fire at its CF composite armor at point blank range. Walkits even trade fire with a Mag carrier at very close range, its double stacked wings grinded through its armor, causing some breaches that send the crews screaming out of the airhole. An Ideal has been reduced to a ball of fire when its pilot decided to perform one last act of defiance by flying his unit straight into a carrier's bridge. Even a squadron of Splicers also went head to head with a batch of Mag Waffe. Technology wise, the Magius fleet is indeed far superior, and so the numerically superior Dorssia-ARUS fleet resolved to use reckless macho parley and suicidal kamikaze tactics to pierce through that defense of technology. But things aren't exactly that simple. Akira's data also revealed the fact that even amongst their ranks, there also humans possessed by Magius. And so while engaging a fierce combat against confirmed Magius units, some units are also having a hard time engaging with Magius sleeper units that went into action when the hell break loose.

0000000

Meanwhile… back to the far side of the Moon…

X-Eins, a human, had also received the data from unit-06. However, unlike the other soldiers, X-Eins is hardly surprised by the revelation, seeing he already knew one is right next to him. That's why, as he managed to pry open the nearly welded shut cockpit hatch of H-neun's Mag-Kirschbaum, the first thing he did was pointing a gun at Prue/H-neun.

Prue however, was hardly surprised by this. "So. What are you going to do now?"

"That depends." A somewhat conflicted X-Eins kept pointing his gun at Prue/H-Neun. "What are you going to do?"

0000000

With the fresh reinforcements giving them some much needed help, the reeling New Jior forces get their second wind, and the Kagerous redoubled their effort. Though most of the main combat Valvraves are still overheating, they've run out of coolants and their heat transfer system is spent…

"HEY GUYS!" Suddenly they heard Raizo's roar all over the com. Takahi, Inuzuka, and Akira looked at the com, there it was Raizo at the screen.

"Raizo what-!?"

"Look up!" Everyone looked up and took a gasp of shock. The Behemoth is floating down at them, dragging another helpless and banged up Mag Walkit behind him by the stern. "Shower time!"

The Behemoth grabbed hold of the Walkit before it swings its fist up fast and hard, smashing through its armor, puncturing it. Soon, luminescent blue liquid sprayed out from the breach all over the overheating Valvraves, rapidly cooling them all down, bringing them back to their full strength.

"Okay!" Inuzuka laughed. The Amon-Ra rearmed her second rifle to the Horus Configuration. "This is it guys! The last push! Let's kick all their assess!"

And now the Valvraves took the active role and went into the offense. With the aid of the Dorssian-Arus forces, now it is the Magius forces who are being pushed back. Amon-ra landed right in front of the Walkit's bridge before she filled it full of hardlight bullets and then she jumped away, flying past two giant shurikens and two buzzsaw Spindler Knuckler discs ran rampant amidst the field of Waffes, tearing their formation apart just as the Carmilla suddenly hopped in and caught one of the Nacha shuriken and throw it again to another unit. A Kirschbaum tried to stop it, but it was caught by the leg by a giant yellow arm, and another Kirshcbaum was grabbed by the face. The Behemoth spins several times, swinging the two caught Kirschbaums along before he tossed both of them through a carrier. Malefic flew beneath the ship as the Gretel's forward Scythe cannon fired several times before her wings unleashed a swarm of bat like missiles that leaves trails of purple solid afterglow. When the missiles explode, unleashing shrapnel of purple hardlight bolts to every direction, to the enemy's horror, the solid afterglow trails of the Bat missile also exploded, releasing a few extra batches of shrapnel, destroying swathes of Waffes and even tearing apart some Ideals. The Kagerous also throw everything they got, unleashing every payload they can muster.

0000000

Not long after, Pino finally arrived together with a very pale Nanami and Burnnet's crew as they rejoined Haruto's team. There, Pino saw that, at this point, the Magius fleet's defeat seems certain. As Haruto stated earlier, the Magius are being slaughtered left and right, receiving onslaught from both sides, it's only a matter of time before the Magius forces had to surrender lest they will be wiped out. "Well… that went quite well."

Haruto looked sadly at Pino. Her ever present smile was nowhere to be found as the Magius Queen is watching her own people being butchered before her very eyes. "Pino…"

"Yes?"

"If you don't want to watch…"

Pino breaks into a sad smile. "Thank you for your concerns Haruto… but no. I want to watch. I HAVE to watch." Pino looked back at the screen. "These are my people. And for all intents and purposes, I have failed them. Their sin… is mine as well. Watching their demise… It is my duty to see this through to the end." That's when Pino suddenly noticed a peculiar sight.

It was Amadeus… and it seems he had been released from his restraints… only to be speared on both sides of his stomach, nailing him to the wall as his chest being gunned down in anger by his own former royal guards, who were enraged beyond measure upon knowing the fate of their Fuhrer. "You damn monster! Impersonating our Fuhrer! JUST DIE YOU…!" Yet, no matter how many times they shredded his body, to their horror, the creature that was once their Fuhrer kept regenerating and he can even still find it in him to laugh, despite coughing blood. "Hehehe…" Only his spear wounds remained unhealed, seeing the spears were kept inside him.

His sinister laugh merely enraged the Dorssian guards even further, and while they're still pondering on a more painful and crueler mischief to be done on the impostor, Pino came floating in, startling them. The Dorssian soldiers part way, allowing the fairy like alien queen to float through them and came face to face before one of her renegade kind. "What a pitiful state, Mirko."

With the gloves off, Mirko saw little need to hide his identity. "You traitor King… you betrayed your people!"

"Technically speaking, you and the Council betrayed me first." Pino retorted. "You twisted my orders of co-existence with humans into that of outright slavery. And when I tried to tell you otherwise you tried to kill me… Now I'm helping them to break free of you… the process of which will include the genocide of probably of our entire population. So yeah. In the nutshell… I really am betraying you."

Mirko growled. "Why? Why are you doing this for them!? Thousands of species in this universe worthier than this one race and yet you gave them everything and chose them over us?"

Pino shook her head. "You've lived with them for centuries and you still refuse to acknowledge their worth beyond that of domesticated livestock that you fattened to be devoured. What use is there trying to explain something to someone too blind to see?"

Mirko gawked, but he grunted in deviance. He still can't seem to accept Pino's logic. Seeing this, Haruto couldn't help but feel sad at this situation. Why can't her people understand what she's trying to do? "Mirko." Haruto started. "Please… don't get the wrong idea. We have no intention whatsoever to commit genocide against your people. Let me ask you… why do you think humanity can't be more than what we are now today?"

"What?"

"Sure. From your point of view we're primitives. Our achievements laughable, our mortal lifespan a glaring flaw… even our civilization was something you helped elevated. But let me ask you something… were you not just like us when your race were young?"

"You dare question me!?"

"It's a fair question… no?" Haruto shrugged. "Nobody was born so powerful right from the start. Everyone has a beginning and end at some point. I don't know about the end… but even you have a beginning. So tell me… what were you like at your beginning? Were we so different then?"

Mirko growled angrily at Haruto, but then he smugly smirked. "Yes. We're very different." But Mirko's slight delay before answering gave Haruto the true answer.

"In some trifling respect, you're just like Attlach." Pino shook her head. "Your pride made idiots out of the both of you."

"We're still primitive now… but what's to say what will happen in a hundred years from now? Two hundreds, three hundreds, a thousand?" Haruto's eyes gleamed with determination. "For hundreds of years, you've raised us… made decisions for us that ensure our survival… that's a fact that humanity will always be grateful. But what you are doing right now is limiting our growth. You're imposing your own limit at us, your inability to see what we can become beyond what you decided for us. But Magius are Magius. Humans are humans. We decide our own limit, our own future. That… is why we are defying you."

Mirko snorted at Haruto's short speech. "Say whatever you like. You lower lifeforms still have no future."

"What?"

A terrible smirk made its way to Mirko's visage. "Did you really think we didn't know this might happen? Your race is anything but trustworthy and you think we didn't suspect, for a second, that you will betray us first chance you get?"

0000000

"Well… what do you know?" Cain smirked as he watched from afar how the Magius forces are being battered from every direction.

"Can't say I'm surprised." The Fleet Commander, a Magius himself, merely smirked. "Humans… anything but trustworthy."

Cain and the Fleet Commander, never were part of the main Magius force from the start, but they were, quite in fact, watching and commanding this battle from afar via telepresence, all from the bridge of the Magius reinforcement fleet's flagship: a gigantic magenta colored warship, decked with sense nerve wings and all sorts of alien weaponry. An elegantly shaped and sleek alien Magius warship, an old relic of their Magius civilization that, until a moment ago, lying still in wait and camouflaged together with its accompanying fleet of warships, waiting until the Allied forces and the main Magius fleet had obliterated one another enough for them to now deliver the final blow.

0000000

Outside, the battle rages on, with the Dorssia-Arus-New-Jior allied forces relentlessly pressed their advantage, cornering the reeling Magius fleet, pushing them back with every enemy unit they gunned down. Nevertheless, the Magius also showed their tenacity and holding fast with everything they got, trading fire, matching the opposition's forces spaceship to spaceship and mech to mech.

It was in the midst of this intense standoff Akira detected something is approaching from deep space, coming up right behind them, rapidly closing the distance. No one seems to notice, they were all too busy fighting for their lives. Only Akira noticed, seeing her main duty is to watch the sensors, and her sensors are the best there is. So she quickly relayed the information to all Valvraves and immediately dialed the commander in chief.

0000000

Haruto received the message from Akira.

Detecting enemy reinforcements coming out of stealth. Heading towards us from the rear flank, ETA 10 minutes to weapons contact.

"How big?"

Akira looked at this giant blot on her radar approaching the battlefield from behind, unnoticed by everyone but her, and gulped. There are easily three times the numbers of the Magius fleet they're engaging right now. She merely wrote just one word:

Huge.

Haruto looked at Pino with a darkened look. Seeing the gloom expression, Mirko's smirk grew wider. "Well?" He gloated in triumph. "If you want to surrender, now is the time. At this point, probably only most of you will die!"

Haruto looked at Mirko, giving him one last anguished look… but finally, with a heavy heart, he averted his sorrowful gaze away and took his leave. He pressed his earpiece and instructed: "Prep my Valvrave."

Mirko snarled again. "Even with one additional Valvrave, it'll do you no good! There's nothing you can do, boy!"

"You…"Shoko solemnly started. "You really don't get it do you?"

"?"

0000000

Haruto quickly made his way towards one of the New-Jior Walkit's hangar, there, the new Valvrave stand ready, waiting for him. They kept it away from the main battle, waiting for this particular occasion.

0000000

"Out of every one of us, Haruto is the one who is most conflicted with this battle." Shoko glared angrily at Amadeus. "His favorite mantra is… let's all be halfsies and found a way to be happy together. He truly believed… in the idea of co-existence between your race and ours. The world is big enough for everyone. That's what he believed. That's why the idea of performing this… holocaust on your kind tortures him so."

"Holocaust?" Mirko/Amadeus looked ludicrously at Shoko and Pino. "What can one Valvrave do against…" But as his eye turned to Pino's darkened look… his smug look turned to horror. "No… Queen Pino… what… what have you done!?"

0000000

Inside the cockpit of the new Valvrave, Haruto is now wearing a new specialized suit specifically designed for his personal use, his left arm is more armored, with multiple equipments strapped to its armor, creating an odd asymmetrical look. He turned on the system one by one. Just as Pino had said, she had modified the Valvrave allowing him to use it without Pino inside.

But… that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The Valvrave lit up, all its systems coming online, all of its neon green sense nerve shines…

The hangar door reopened and the Walkit also opened its catapult.

"Tokishima Haruto… Valvrave…" Haruto grunted. "Launching!"

As soon as he said that, a stream of red light shot out of the Moonbase.

Like a shooting star, it zoomed across the battlefield, zigzagging through obstacles, not firing a shot amidst the storm of beam cannon fire and missiles. Not a single shot hit him, and none can hit him even if one tried. But everyone, friend and foe, sees it… though no one can do anything about it, it was moving so fast, the Magius didn't even have a chance to get a lock or pull the trigger.

"He's here!" Yusuke cheered.

"About damn time!" Raizo cheered.

"You sure made us wait, Tokishima!" Satomi grunted, but he smiled nonetheless.

"Goodness gracious!" Takahi laughed.

Akira smirked as the dot that is Haruto's Valvrave rapidly move across the battlefield at blinding speed.

Saki smiled seeing the red light that is Haruto grew smaller and smaller as it flew farther and deeper into the dark of space, heading straight towards multitudes of green lights that grow increasingly larger as they nearing the battlefield, getting ready to do their share of slaughter. "Go get them tiger."

The red light attracted everyone, and as they saw where the red light headed… everyone who is NOT a Magius gaped in shock and horror. "W… What…!?" "There's… more…" "Oh you've gotta be kidding me…" Their hard-pressed Allied Fleet is already halfway from being destroyed trying to bring down the remainders of the current existing magius forces, and now the enemy are about to get another huge dose of reinforcements!?

0000000

Well, for the incoming Magius reinforcement… that was the plan… until Cain and the Fleet Commander noticed a single Valvrave is coming towards them at frightening speed, zooming past a field of debris.

"Oh, the last Valvrave is finally out, yes?" The Fleet Commander glanced at the radar.

"Unit 01." Cain tensed a bit. "Now, be careful with it. This is the one unit we don't want to damage… too much."

"I understand… Lord Attlach." The Fleet commander nodded. "Still… she's moving quite fast… isn't she?"

"Our sensor indicated that unit 01 is moving three times the speed of its previously recorded maximum speed." One of the support Officers reported. "It looks like… just like the rest of the Valvraves it has also been upgraded!"

"How long till visual contact?"

"That would be… eta… now."

On cue, the red glow finally appeared on their screen, crisscrossing at frightening speed, leaving a long trail red solid afterglow behind it. It grew bigger and bigger as the distance between them closed. And then, suddenly, it stopped right in front of the fleet.

The reinforcement fleet also momentarily slowed down the speed of their approach to observe the last but not the least of the Valvraves.

The Valvrave (AN: from this point onward, the name Valvrave will now specifically refer to Haruto's unit) stood ready. It has been completely upgraded from bottom to top, and visual wise, the form resemble a Samurai all the more. In addition to the massive featherlike exhaust vent docked on its back, two more of such exhaust vents had been attached to each of its shoulder armor, making a grand total of three exhaust vents. Various part of the Valvrave has been given new armors, such as the new overlapping shoulder armor that extended down beneath the spaulders, and the knee guards that extend down the leg.

Its sense nerve wings had been replaced with a new set. Now back mounted, it's extremely huge. Oversized even. As a start, the wing attachment is based on a pair of massive and high powered booster packs, each almost as tall as the Valvrave itself. Each booster pack mounted a Rune cannon, with a twin clear fossil chainsaw bayonet attached. Colored in the black and red of the Valvrave, each booster pack support 3 enormous 'petals' of reinforced Neon Green Sense Nerve wings on opposite sides, mounted on a flexible frames.

At the center rear waist beneath the central exhaust vent, a single solitary Sense Nerve petal extended out. Other than hosting the oversized booster wings, the rear waist also hosted another pair of manipulator arms, each carries a sheath for the Valvrave's new Katanas, the Z-Muramasas. And each sheath also had an under slung attachment that houses a new Volc Arm Assault rifle, said rifle now come built in with a giant folded sickle, the new Baiken Blades, with the sickle blade's length is almost half as long as the katana atop it.

Of interest, is a huge three legged Crow mech that flew in and landed gracefully atop the Valvrave's left upper shoulder vent armor, perching silently, as if waiting for its master to act. Unlike the impact boosters, the raven mech looks more like a raven shaped Valvrave rather than a drone, and it is much larger. Its wings, currently folded in, has a pairs of oversized appendages on each wing, presumably boosters, each appendage was crowned with green sense nerve. The head, designed to look like the bird it was modeled after, complete with fully functioning eyeball optics, was crowned with an even more elaborate sense nerve crown, and so is its awkward shaped tail. It has 7 'feathers' which more like extended elongated appendages, two on each outermost side bear such elaborate crowns. Of greater interest, was this… peculiarly long protrusion extending from the back of the raven near the base of the wing… they look like a sheath for a long samurai sword. A pair of them, quite in fact, given that there are two sheaths that can be seen. The only thing strange is that the samurai blades don't seem to have any visible handles. Like all familiars, the Yashagarasu, the familiar of 01, is colored in reverse color scheme to that of its host unit.

One Valvrave… stood alone against a whole fleet of warships and all of its firepower.

But… none of them took the first shot. The Magius fleet was still wondering on what sort of ace in the hole this one Valvrave have, and Haruto… well… he never was the type to shoot first either. That was never his intention.

"What are you thinking Cain?" The Fleet Commander pondered. "The Harakiri blade?"

"Harakiri blade requires a long preparation. If that was his plan, he would not stand there in front of a hundred guns waiting to vaporize him, no. This is something else." Cain calmly analyzed the situation and opposition. That peculiar raven familiar in particular, troubles him. And that twin sheath like protrusion on its back… "Hail him."

"Right." The Fleet commander gestured the com's officer to do so immediately. And then, just for the heck of it… "Broadcast on all channels all frequencies. This ought to be amusing."

Soon, Haruto received an incoming transmission on open channel. He connected it, and soon, his face and that of his caller was shown on the console screen of all combat units in the battlefield. Upon seeing this, the raging battle over the moon halted momentarily and cannon fire began to die down.

Haruto looked at the other person on the screen. An elderly man with beards and all the decorated apparels of a seasoned commander. He blurted out the question: "Are you… the one they call Cain Dressel?"

The Fleet commander jerked. He glanced at Cain, as if asking if he knew this boy. Cain looked at Haruto and he shook his head, not recognizing him. "No. But I am the fleet commander of this army. Why do you need him, may I ask?"

"I see." Haruto shrugged. "It's nothing. It's just… I've spoken with a lot Dorssian in the last few days… and they all said that Cain is the last person they want to face. So… seeing he seem to get everyone scared shitless, I was under the impression that a man like that would be in command of an operation this big."

The Fleet Commander snorted. 'In a matter of speaking, the boy's not wrong…' He momentarily glanced at Cain, who merely smirked meaningfully. Attlach/Cain has a habit of wanting to always remain in the background, away from the spotlight. That's why he rejected a seat at the council. This factor made him even less predictable, he said. The council distrust him, but they cannot afford not to ask for council from one of the oldest Magius in the universe. And the commander respects that. "Well, he's indisposed at the moment. And not that it's relevant. I am the Fleet Commander, and thus I have the highest authority to decide the course of this battle. And I believe… you had not introduced yourself, young man."

"My sincerest apologies." Haruto nodded. "I'm Tokishima Haruto. Commander in Chief of the New Jior Defense Force. Like you, I too am the most senior officer in our army, the very highest. Just second in authority beneath one."

"How can I help you Mr. Tokishima?"

"By talking like civilized species that we are." Said Haruto. "I believe Earth… and the world in general… is big enough place for our two species to live side by side in a peaceful coexistence. There's much our two species can share. You need us, just as much as we need you."

The Fleet Commander snarled. "Coexistence, kid? Then what do you call our lives up until you and that girlfriend of yours exposed the council and everything? What you just did to Amadeus? Is that not a step away from peaceful coexistence?"

"The Peaceful coexistence in your mind is outright slavery." Haruto replied. "You raised us. You elevated us. Just like how parents raised their children. But children don't stay children forever. We've grown up. We can't stay in our cradle forever, and it's time we stand up on our two feet. And we can't do that as long as you keep molly coddling us as you are now. We need to be free. Free of your shackles, so that we can be our own race, standing next to you, shoulder to shoulder as equals. That's all we wanted. That's all we asked." Haruto then moved the Valvrave's left open palm forward in a gesture of peace offering. "What happened today is just… tragic and unnecessary. We don't have to fight one another. And I have no intention to kill an entire race. So please… if you say you have the power to decide the course of this battle… then I say we end this destructive conflict. Here. Now. Before it gets any worse!"

"…well, wow. That is one helluva of a speech kid, I'll give you that." The Fleet Commander sarcastically clapped his hands. "But you know what I think? Nature has a natural order. You've heard of this, No? The Food Chain theory. Grass is eaten by cattle, and then the cattle are eaten by human. The peak of the Food chain. Let's say, suddenly, the cattle will evolve and wanted to stand equal, shoulder to shoulder with man. Would that not upset the balance of the ecosystem? Your ecosystem?" Haruto didn't answer. But that was the Fleet Commander's answer. "See? You can't accept it, right? You need your cattle to stay subservient because you need them to survive. It's just the same with us. We can't afford you to be free. We just can't. Why? Because that's just the natural order of things between us. You feed on your cattle, we feed on you. We've simply… replaced humans at the top of the food chain." The Commander smugly smiled at Haruto, much to the anger of other non-Magius audience.

Haruto was unfazed. "But you're missing another piece of the cycle, commander." Haruto had a feeling this negotiation is about to go downhill. Fast. "Humans die naturally. And when we die, our body was absorbed to the earth. We became nutrients that nourish the grass that the cattle eat. That too, is the natural order of things. So you see? We ate cattle… but eventually they'll eat us too. We need them just as much as they needed us. So let me ask you. When was the last time you immortals did any of the dying part? Oh, involuntary death by being vaporized to the last molecule doesn't count."

And the commander laughed heartily. "Geeze, Kiddo, you really know how to talk the talk. Not bad for a half breed. But as it stands… our immortality isn't something we can say no to… and the fact we're far superior then you humans is also an unchangeable fact. So all I can say is… your race is just shit out of luck kiddo."

"Is that your final word?" Haruto's eyes rest down beneath the shades of his bangs.

"Would you like to hear my final word?" The Commander smirked as he announced. "All fleet, advance, full speed ahead! Prepare to fire at will. I think we're about done here."

Haruto sighed. That's it then. Negotiation is over. The Valvrave's hand dropped down. "Very well. Tell your council… that I'm willing to negotiate surrender." His tone was flat and blunt. As Haruto said this, the Yashagarasu Familiar finally began to move and attached itself on the Valvrave left arm.

The audience growled angrily at Haruto's statement. "What!?" "TRAITOR!" COWARD!" "NO BALLS SISSY!" The wings folded forward, the two pair of sharp appendages on the wing joined together into knuckles and extended forward into four clawed fingers, forming a massive clawed hand atop the smaller one, with jagged Clear Fossil blades on each fingers.

But Haruto wasn't finished. And before the commander can respond, he promptly continued. "Tell them… if the Council 101 is willing to dismantle all of their military arms around the world and promptly withdraw their hold on all of Earth's political bodies… swearing an oath that they will never again try to influence the matters of humanity… then I will try my very best… to convince human nations from the world over in the international forum… NOT to butcher every last one of you." The rear third leg flipped forward while its two legs encircled the arm, locking the familiar to the Valvrave.

The commander looked at Haruto's inapprehensive gaze. "That being said… you pissed off the entire world with all your massacres and human feeding frenzy and countless other crimes against humanity you've committed over the centuries… you've pissed off every single one of them but good… so what I'm trying to say is… no promises." The third leg bent up, becoming a proportionally large sized thumb for the giant four clawed fingers. The thumb however, is also a bit different with the other four fingers in that, instead of talon, it hosts a three barreled Rune Gatling gun.

Seeing that puny Gatling gun, the Commander snorted. "If you want to make a threat kid, I suggest you start by getting yourself a bigger gun."

To signify this, the Heavy rune cannons from 4 Carriers began to hum, gathering power. All cannons are aimed at the Valvrave. By then, the robotic Raven's tail detached from the scabbard and transformed into a second smaller buckler gauntlet for the right arm. What's more, the tail unit's side 'feathers' extended out to form a pair of extra fore-arms sandwiching the center unit. The center five 'feathers' extended out, wrapping around the main hand to create a slightly bigger hand. This gave the Valvrave's right arm a rather odd configuration, with one larger arm; and two arms (1 Secondary Right arm and 1 Tertiary Left Arm) sandwiching the slightly bigger main arm in the middle.

At that point, the charging was complete, all four ships opened fire at the one lone Valvrave simultaneously.

The rune blast is right in front of Valvrave's nose. And yet, its only response is to stretch out its wide wings and fold it forward as to wrap the Valvrave in its embrace, welcoming the blast without moving away from where it's been floating. Moments before impact, the Clear fossil hardplates on each segment of the sense nerve petals opened up, revealing a circular red gem.

And then, as if drawn by some unseen force, the Rune blast was literally sucked into the pod. A massive runic circle appeared before each gem, and the whole Rune blast from 4 ships were sucked into it till there's nothing left. And when it is done, the three massive exhaust vents on Valvrave back and shoulders were glowing green, completely filled with Rune energy to the brim. Inside the cockpit's console, three bars were filled.

And then silence. All opposing forces just stare dumbfounded at the scene. All that destructive rune beam disappeared in an instant as if nothing ever happened.

"Tokishima Haruto, how'd it go?" A-Drei asked.

Haruto did a quick check on his systems. "It worked perfectly. All readings are normal. I have enough for three charges from the energy I just collected."

"Then, fire at will. Aim at the center of the formation for maximum damage."

And whilst the enemy armada is still questioning what just happened, the Yashagarasu talon completed its final transformation. The raven head spin around 180 degrees, while the two long scabbard attachments at its back folded forward. The scabbard and the raven head met, and the head slides in-between the base of the two sheathed blade. Connected and locked, the Raven's head became the blade's armguard. And then a sword handle extended out at the back of the raven's head. Soon it became obvious that this is a formation of a massive third sword, apart from the sheathed ones on the Valvrave's waist.

Haruto closed his eyes, reaffirming his resolve to complete what he's about to do.

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Pino had just finished explaining the new capabilities of Haruto's Valvrave… including a little extra something she added into it. That something that she found and excavated from the ruins of the Dyson sphere before she re-forged it for Haruto's personal use and Haruto was horrified.

"No… this… this is too much! That's too much! Pino… this thing… you turned mode 666 into a… a monster!"

"You disapprove?"

"Very." Haruto answered. "This is wrong. I don't want to slaughter and terrorize your people, I want them to compromise and cooperate! So humans and Magius can live together! Isn't that what you created us for, to be a bridge between our species!? This thing is in direct opposition to everything you stand for!"

"And you… are the physical incarnation of everything I hope for." Pino smiled with pride at Haruto, like a mother watching a favored son. "The fact that you refuse is precisely the reason why I entrust it to you. True wisdom… is not about knowing when you're supposed to use a weapon… it is knowing when not to."

Haruto looked at this… Valvrave… Pino's Valvrave now modified to be HIS Valvrave… and it's now less of a combat robot… more like next generation weapon of mass destruction. As a person… he would sooner destroy it before he uses it. But… then he remembered the battle that is coming… the impossible odd they're about to face and then what comes after… and he realized… he needed it. But still… "This is… too much power for one man to wield."

"What are you suggesting then?"

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Haruto opened his eyes, and understand. He's ready. He will do it. He's committed.

Haruto opened up a throttle and pressed his thumb on the fingerprint scanner. A tiny needle stings his thumb a bit to gain the DNA clarification needed to activate the weapon. The permission was given. A second button was unlocked on the said controller, and this one… Haruto can't activate. "This is Tokishima Haruto, requesting permission to deploy the Beast mode." He contacted the only authority in New Jior that is higher than him.

Shoko can hear Haruto calling him in her earpiece… a sign she too had been shown what the new Valvrave can do. It was so powerful, so terrifying that even Haruto who is usually so unflinching in the matters pertaining to the Valvraves couldn't even trust himself the trigger of this doomsday weapon. She remembered what happened when Haruto test fired this new weapon on its first target… what it did to it… she couldn't even bear the thought of its effects when shot in actual war… and yet… she's being asked by Haruto to pull the trigger.

"But… we'll be firing this at your own people! Are you sure you're okay with this?" Shoko distressfully looked at Pino.

Pino closed her eyes. "I think… that the reason of my people's general lack of apathy to you mortals was simply the fact that they are immortals. They've forgotten what it's like to fear an end. This weapon… will bring that fear of death back to them again. And then… maybe… after being reminded that they too can die… they'll be more willing to understand humanity's plight a little better."

Shoko looked at Pino. "Why… did you give this to Haruto?"

"Haruto's favorite mantra. Let's all be halfsies." Pino explained her reasons to a gawking Amadeus and Shoko. "Tokishima Haruto… has not only become the embodiment of my hope, he also became the physical incarnation of his own principles. He's the first of Novus Magius. Half human, half Magius… beings who lived in both worlds." Pino stated firmly with a proud smile. "I know no other person more deserving of the power I've given him. The fact that… he asked me to shares the authorization of this weapon's trigger to you was more than enough proof of that."

"But still…"

"They say the best weapon in the world… is one you never had to fire. I agree." Pino gently caress Shoko's cheek. "But in the case that weapon had to be fired… it is imperative that the weapon need only to be fired once so that it will prevent the weapon from being fired ever again."

"Fired only once." Shoko repeated. "So it will never have to be fired again. Right?" Shoko looked at Pino, who gave her an encouraging look. She nodded. She understand what she had to do. She took a deep breath, calm her mind… making sure she really do what she wanted to do. "This is Prime Minister Shashinami Shoko." Shoko replied through her earpiece. "Beast mode approved. I say again, Beast Mode approved. Password for Voice Recognition: I Hate Secrets." (Haruto: "Oh, sorry…")

Upon registering Shoko's voice sounding the appropriate vocal passwords and detecting her brain wave is within the required perimeter to show she is not under duress, the authorization system on the Valvrave confirmed the authorization. And the last button began to beep as the sign the lock has been removed. Haruto pressed it in full. One bar depleted rapidly on console as the Valvrave automatically entered the 666 mode and the heat gauge filled rapidly as the said bar was emptied.

The main enlarged right hand grasped the blade's handle. As soon as it did, the casing on the left elbow opened up, revealing a Mirror rave engine. As soon as the blade began to slide out of the scabbard, massive amount of runes, the runes it had absorbed from the rune blast earlier, flowed out of the Rave Engine, infused into the blade, dyeing it blood red. The giant Rune exhaust vents on his shoulder stopped glowing as all the runes saturating it were sucked out.

The third sword is a katana, just like the Z-Muramasas, but it's longer and thicker, more akin to a Nodachi. What's more, said nodachi is actually composed of two identical blades arranged together in a parallel on a single base. The blades glowed deep blood red, and the hamon of the katana were shaped like flowers, roses to be exact.

Cain's eye widened in horror as he stared unblinking at that blade. "…Queen Pino… have we angered you so much that you abandoned reason and embraced madness?"

On the far side of the Moon…

X-Eins had just managed to get Prue/H-Neun out of the cockpit when Prue jerked up, sensing a feeling he hadn't felt since forever. He fully recognized this feeling, knowing its horrifying origin. When he started this battle to reclaim back his beloved sister, he was under the belief that her sister was being coerced into helping the Jiorians. However… he knew his sister better than anyone, and he knew for a fact that… no matter what form of coercion imposed upon her, she will never, EVER, gave something as dangerous as THAT to anyone but herself. And now like Attlach, he began to question the sanity of his sister. "…Sis… what have you done?"

"Hm?" X-Eins, unlike Prue, cannot sense what's wrong… but call it a gut instinct, his soldier side sense a disaster in the making. "What is this… dreadful feeling?"

"What? What is that?" In the Moon base, the Emperor wondered out loud.

Mirko/Amadeus stated. "That… is our Queen, handing a doomsday weapon trigger to a baby."

The Valvrave had to grasp the sword with both hands and began charging the new and improved Harakiri blade. Unlike the usual gold and red colored energy, somehow, infected by the deep dark red color of the blade, the rune energy that amassed is that of a black and red mixture. It was massive, and it was an energy unlike anything ever existed; it even bends the dark space around it. And all that energy, all that power, the dark and red rune energy is now focused and condensed in the spaces in-between the two parallel dark red blood blades. Droplet beads of black and red energy are forming around the two blades.

"That…" Cain stated. "…Is the most feared weapon in the entire Magius Race…"

"The Blade of the Beast…" Mirko collapsed in despair. "The Raven King's symbol of power…"

"La Rosa Nero (The Black Rose)." Pino smiled at the new appearance her old forked sword had taken.

The Valvrave raised his sword over his head, the blade is trembling, the whole unit is trembling as if trying to keep this massive burgeoning power in check. Even Haruto is having a hard time to keep his main target in his crosshairs. The thought to give his enemies for one more chance for them to talk this out did cross his mind… but really… it's already far too late for that. If he didn't unleash this power somewhere, all this energy will explode on his face. The Dark energy from in-between the blades then rise up to form a single sphere of dark and red energy floating right at the tip of the twin blade. With a roar that no one but the pilot can hear, the Valvrave swing his blade down.

The condensed energy was unleashed and they break apart into countless rapidly spinning gigantic Black and Red Crescent blades that sprayed forward in sharp rampaging zigzagging trajectory. The crescent blade also left behind a trail of jet black solid afterglow, darker than even the dark empty space, as if all light vanished into it.

But the effect was even more frightening when the crescent blades actually hit their targets. A single crescent blade can cleanly slice through multiple ships all at once without stopping or losing momentum. And Haruto had sent out hordes of such rampaging black blades, tearing apart many, many more. And that was the least of it. The jet black solid afterglow trail left behind by the blades breaks apart… leaving behind trails of countless black droplets of singularity that generate its own massive gravitational pull… it's like a mini black hole that sucks everything into it. Any ship that has been cut were pulled into them, flayed piece by piece at an increasing rate until the target imploded momentarily as the singularity suck them in. Hundreds of smaller Waffe units were instantly pulled and swallowed before crushed by the trail of black hole droplets. A few dozen Ideals and Kisrchbaum caught in the path were instantly pulverized. But when some of the rampaging blackhole blades reached its maximum distance and exploded… that… is when the true nightmare begins.

Upon ignition, the blade unleashed a gigantic black hole, whose gravitational power is not only worlds apart from the blade's black afterglow trail, it also amplifies the pull of the other singularity droplets. One by one or simultaneously, the blades ignited, releasing black-holes after black-holes that blooms and expand allover the area. The space was filled with holes of darkness and the reinforcements were soon in chaos, not counting the massive destruction that followed as ship after ship was mercilessly swallowed into the singularity and crushed. They can no longer maintain formation as the commanders had also lost control of their ship since the emerging singularity's gravitational force toss and turn their vessels around like leaf in a hurricane, and in some unfortunate case, ships caught in conflicting singularity was torn apart.

"LEAVE THE PERIMETER NOW! FULL THRUSTERS! GIVE IT EVERYTHING WE GOT!" Cain screeched in a rarely displayed panic. Even the massive alien flagship using all of its thrusters could barely pull away from the gravitational pull. But not before one third of the ship was pulled off into the suddenly emerged black hole, and most of its armors and sense nerves were flayed off. The same thing is happening to other ships that are mostly outside the ground zero of the attack. They managed to escape by sheer luck, but they did not escape unscathed.

Eventually, the storm of black holes began to die down… and after swallowing a few more hapless ships and mech units… it was over.

In a single swing of the Valvrave's sword, the Magius reinforcements had lost more than half of its standing forces, and the rest was severely damaged. Most if not all their fighter units and mechs are destroyed, swallowed, or torn apart by the multitude of black holes. The flagship is already halfway to complete obliteration. All of its occupants are terrified out of their wits.

The world looked in horror at the destruction caused by that one Valvrave.

And to that, Haruto only says: "Okay. Now… is that 'gun' big enough for you?"

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An hour later, every Magius forces retreated without another shot being fired… pausing only to collect their survivors…

And by the end of that one long day, the Moon is now the dominion of New-JIOR and her Valvraves.

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There we go. The current lineup of names is:

Valvrave 01 – Valvrave – Full Beast Pack: Vampire and originally, he was supposed to be yatagrasu… he still are. But… somewhere along the line, I suddenly realized I've accidentally made him to resemble something else. But… it's horrible. There's nothing unique about this guy other than added firepower. So an Upgrade is coming. Codename: Apocalypse Pack – It's not as horrifying as it sound. Trust me.

Valvrave 02 – No name yet, but as I said: based on Werewolf and Crusader. Design in my head is ready, easy as pie. It will appear soon.

Valvrave 03 – No official name yet. Behemoth is still a tentative name. The Frankenstein theme still persists with his whole body made of pieces thing. I chose Frankenstein because 1: it follows the horror creature theme, and two, Frankenstein was born out of lightning. It fits. Technically, it's an extreme offense for artillery or melee, but a bit lacking in defense area. And I think you guys can see the reference of Pacific Rim written allover it… :)

Valvrave 03 Reverse –The Jekyll and Hyde concept didn't work. I changed it. Titanomachy Pack: the Titan Slayer arms. This one went through the most development hell, changing theme and design many times. From Thor, to Jormungandr, Tank, Train (yes, I was that desperate)… none of these concepts survive till the end. Instead, he's now based on Hecatonchires, the one hundred armed giant with fifty heads from roman mythology. If you count carefully, this one really does have a hundred arms and fifty heads. Thanks for all those readers who had given me so many ideas to make this thing. As you can see, some of them were used now.

And believe it or not… I'm not finished tinkering with this guy.

Valvrave 04 – Carmilla, obviously. Carmilla is also a name for a female character of a horror novel of the same name. In this novel, Carmilla is a vampire woman. Really fits. This one comes out easy. Doesn't really need much change, but I'm trying to combine the elements of Dainslev (Cain's Valvrave) into the unit in order to make some form of connection between the two. The reason… is quite obvious I think. Saki is the Spider Queen, and Cain/Attlach is the Spider Queen as well. I made this relationship when I remembered, during the trailer for the second season, there's a scene featuring Saki, in a pilot suit, meeting face to face with Cain for some reason. A scene that never showed up in the anime for some reason. What's more, Dainslev and Carmilla share a theme: both have multiple limbs and all spidery with the extra arms and legs.

Valvrave 05 – Amon-Ra – Pantheon Pack. Amon-Ra the Egyptian Chief God of the Sun. I chose Egyptian because it will fit the horror theme: mummies. Also, I chose scarab because 05 is a long range bot, with arrow like weapons – in this fic it used to be anyway. In the Greek myth, the god of the Sun, Apollo, is also a god of Archery, as the rays of the sun are said to be his arrows. And over the years archery had evolved into firearms. In Egyptian myth, Kephri, a Scarab, is a sun god who rolls the sun. Some of the God names that made it into the Pantheon pack are related to the sun in some way.

The Pantheon pack is the name to its current configuration. Selkis, the scorpion god that heals poison and stings – Three round burst rifle, Horus, the eagle headed god of Sun – fully automatic Quad cannon, Anubis, jackal headed god of death – anti materiel sniper rifle, Sekhmeth, lioness headed goddess of war, with a sun on her head – rocket launcher with micro missile sprayer.

Valvrave 06 – Malefic. Latin for Witch. Seriously… how many horror stories has witch figure in it? The Candy House pack, Hansel, Gretel… self explanatory. And the Gretel familiar jet is like the witch's broom stick crossed with a scythe, a satellite, and a stealth bomber. Hansel… is something like the Love Machine in the Summer Wars movie. A semi autonomous hacking AI.

Valvrave 07 – still in development phase. Saw the new 07 from the Undertaker… I still don't know what it can do.