As the Black Knights went to secure the Sakuradite Gateway, Clef's Archwizard came up front and slammed his staff onto the ground, creating a light-blue ring that spread out from where the Knightmare is standing. The moment the blue ring went past the Gateway, it started activating itself as it swirled around in a blue-lighting spiral. As the spirals converge, it created a huge, wide screen that filled up the Gateway. Just like that, the Sakuradite Gateway opened up a portal leading to the New World of Cephiro and directly to its Crystal Castle up ahead.
When the Cephirian Knightmares formed up a defensive line formation in warding off the encroaching Britannian Knightmares, Kallen's Black Knight squad was dispatched to help the Cephirian Calvary unit to free the prisoners.
"Topaz, help out Kallen free the prisoners and send them back to the New World!" Ferio ordered as he drove his Green Ranger Knightmare next to the Gateway.
After the Britannians regained their morale, right after they recovered an unconscious Guilford, the Glaston Knights rallied their surviving forces and made their attempt to retake the Bureau. Unfortunately, by the time Glaston Knights arrived, they got intercepted by the Black Crusader, the Lancelot Blitz, Dancing Siren, Monolith, and the Green Ranger, piloted by Lantis, Lafarga, Caldina, Ascot, and Ferio.
As Ferio's Green Ranger drew out his sword, he struck at Claudio's Gloucester up front first before retorting against the Glaston Knight.
"You're not getting anywhere near our people ever again!" Ferio snarled as he traded more sword strikes against Claudio's Gloucester. With every strike that the Green Ranger is making, Claudio struggled to hold the Gloucester's Jousting Lance just to keep his guard up against the Cephirian Prince.
"You're pushing your luck, Ferio!" Claudio hissed as he made a thrust with his lance only for the Green Ranger to jump over him and landed right behind his Knightmare. "Very soon, the Knights of the Round will arrive along with their reinforcements!"
"Knights of the Round?" Ferio exclaimed, as he blocked an oncoming, horizontal whack from the Gloucester's Lance with his sword.
"You heard me!" Claudio continued. "They happened to be the 12th strongest warriors in the Britannian Empire, unlike us Glaston Knights!"
While Ferio and Claudio continued their fight with each other in Knightmare combat, the Lancelot Blitz slammed his Lighting MVS towards the ground and launched a vertical, electrical arc heading straight for Alfred's Gloucester. In a panic, Alfred barely had time to steer his Knightmare away from the destructive arc, when it grazed his land spinner and exploded behind him. In his efforts to return fire, Alfred fired a barrage of Staffen Missiles at the Lancelot Blitz only for Lafarga to activate his blue core luminous tower shield to ward it all off. In addition, Alfred hurled his Jousting Lance at Lafarga. After a split second, the Lancelot Blitz steered to his side and evaded the oncoming lance before engaging Alfred's Gloucester up close and person. When the Lancelot Blitz swung his MVS at Alfred's Gloucester, the Glaston Knight steered backwards and drew out his MVS. By the time Alfred slammed his MVS onto the Lancelot's MVS, Lafarga's Knightmare landed a strong kick to knock the enemy Gloucester away from him.
The moment the other three Glaston Knights engaged the Black Crusader and the Dancing Siren, they were met by a barrage of missiles and rockets shooting out from Ascot's Monolith. Without Guilford to tell them what to do, they ran behind cover.
"You can run, Glaston Knights!" Ascot jeered from inside his Knightmare. "But you can't hide!"
Just when they're about to open fire at the three Cephirian Knightmares, the Glaston Knights get intercepted by three of Ascot's pet beasts. The next thing they knew, two out of the three Glaston Knights engaged Griffore and Insectoid, trading fists with MVS's as if they're in a street brawl.
"UGH!" Edgar grunted in frustration as he held up his MVS, defending his Gloucester against the relentless anthro griffin. "Get out of my way, monster!"
As Griffore threw a punch at the MVS' blade, Edgar swung his MVS at the giant griffin, humanoid creature only to dodge it and jump backwards several times before striking at the Glaston Knight again.
For David, his fight against Ascot's pets wasn't much better either. Insectoid was delivering all sorts of rapid strikes at David's Gloucester so fast, that he was unable to make any good counter-attacks. Without any other options, David drove his Knightmare backwards while shooting out Staffen Missiles and his Assault Rifle at the huge, dark-blue anthromorphic beast.
As for Bart, who was the 5th Glaston Knight, he moved in to help out David only to get intercepted with the Monolith as it grabbed his Gloucester's Jousting Lance with one of its Radium Claws. In retaliation, Bart drew out a MVS and swung it at the Monolith, in an attempt to make the grey Knightmare let go off his Lance. The Monolith barley had enough time to lean back as the MVS' blade nearly hit him in the neck. Ascot jumped away from the enemy Gloucester and unleashed a volley of missiles at Bart's Knightmare. At the same time, Bart steered his Knightmare back as he evaded the enemy missiles heading straight for him while they exploded on the ground several inches behind him.
Realizing that the Glaston Knights needed backup against the Cephirian Warriors, several Sutherland and Gloucester Squads disengaged their fight at the Sakuradite Gateway before engaging the five Cephirian Knightmares.
At the prison areas, the Cephirian warriors dismounted from their horses and drew out their weapons before hacking away the locks used to seal their people in their designated cells. For the Black Knights and Kallen, they got out of their Knightmares, drew out their Assault Rifles and gave out suppressing fire to keep the Prison Security teams at bay. In the ensuring gunfight taking place in the prison hallways, the Cephirian Warriors and Topaz were able to escort their people out of the area and redirected them to the gateway leading back to Cephiro. Along the way, some of the captives were thanking Kallen and Topaz for their heroic efforts.
"Come on guys! Get to the portal!" Topaz ordered his fellow Cephirians after he opened up their prison cells.
When a group of Britannian soldiers spotted Topaz in the hallway, the commander threw out a smoke bomb at their feet. The moment the bomb exploded, it unleashed a huge, billowing white smoke, in which blinded the soldiers' vision. Before they knew it, the soldiers were being hacked and stabbed by Topaz with his spear. Just when Topaz gained the upper hand, Viletta Nu appeared right behind him and delivered a strong kick in the back.
"ARGH!" Topaz screeched as he hit the floor onto his stomach.
Just when Topaz got back up on his feet, he sees the Knight of Britannia appear before him, even more angrier than before.
"Hello, Cephirian Commander!" Viletta snarled as she drew out her sword. "Remember me?!"
"YOU!" Topaz hissed. "You're that crazy baroness from before, weren't you?! When did you get here?"
"I've been in this place more than once!" Viletta continued sternly. "Don't even think you and the Magic Knights are going to get away with this! I already made contact outside of Area 11. As soon as the Knights of the Round show up in Area 11, you and the rest of the Cephirian scum won't escape from us this time! Lady Hikaru, isn't it?! You were helping her out in Area 11, aren't you?!"
"How did you...?" Topaz gasped, realizing the identity of his inspired heroine has been exposed.
"If you hand over Hikaru right now, I won't kill you!" Viletta sneered.
"I may have underestimated you the last time, but things are going to be different right now!" Topaz said, glaring at the Britannian Baroness as he threw away his spear and drew out his sword. "Besides, I'll never turn Lady Hikaru over to you; not for a million years!"
"Then, maybe I'll have to beat some sense into your thick-headed skull to spill the beans! Come on, Cephirian!" Viletta hissed as she readied her sword for a duel against Topaz. "Let's dance!"
Without further a due, Topaz charged forward and raised his sword up high as he engaged the baroness head on. At the same time, Viletta lunged at the Cephirian Commander, clashing blades at each other vigorously.
While the Cephirians and Black Knights continued to engage the Britannians, as well as helping free the captured natives of the New World, Hikaru rallied around the Magic Knights before confronting Princess Cornelia at Ares Villa on top of the Government Bureau. When the Rune God Knightmares made their ascension towards the top floor of the Government Bureau, they were met by several electric, hadron beams coming from Cornelia's Gloucester's Beam Rifle. Cornelia stationed her Gloucester at the edge of the top floor before looking down to where the ground floor was at before concentrating her fire on the Magic Knights' Knightmares.
Upon seeing the Cornelia's electrical beams heading in their way, the Magic Knights veered their Rune Gods both left and right in hopes of evading them while continuing to ascend all the way to the top of the Bureau. Despite missing her targets in a few attempts, the Viceroy of Area 11 couldn't help but laugh her head off as she is hoping to end their fight with her for good.
"Enjoying the light show, Magic Knight Elevens!" Cornelia shouted as she made an evil, witch-like cackle while continuing to bear down on Rayearth, Selece, and Windam with her Beam Rifle. "I'll vaporize all of you in an instant! PREPARE TO BE ANNIHILATED!"
"That woman is so full of it!" Umi muttered in annoyance as she launched her first spell at the Viceroy.
"WATER DRAGON!"
As the blue serpent flew straight out of Selece's hand, it zoomed straight at Cornelia's Gloucester. The moment she sees Umi's magic heading straight towards her, Cornelia smirked while steering her Knightmare out of Umi's line of fire. In just 250 meters away from her position, Cornelia aimed her beam rifle at Selece's dragon wings. Before Umi could see what was going on, she was met with 2 direct shots coming from Cornelia's Hadron Beam Rifle. As the beams punctured Selece's wings, Umi screamed in pain and suddenly loses her flight pattern, making the Knight of Water fall straight down.
"MS. UMI!" Fuu cried as she casted another "Wings of Protection" spell to block the beams aimed down on her and Hikaru. "Keep going Ms. Hikaru. I'll get Ms. Umi back!"
Without saying another word, Fuu descended towards a falling Umi and grabbed her with her Wings of Admonishment spell, preventing the Knight of Water from plummeting to the ground.
As for Hikaru, she activated her Electrical barrier shield before seeing Cornelia fire another shot at her with the Hadron Beam Rifle. The moment the Hadron beam struck at Hikaru's shield, she could feel herself being pushed downwards than upwards.
After seeing the Knight of Water plummet straight down from her ascension, Cornelia grinned as she remembered the data that Lloyd and Cecil gave to her earlier. Since she learned that Selece's weakness is the lack of strength that makes up for agility. Using it to her advantage, Cornelia takes her chance of damaging Selece's wings to decrease the Knight of Water's speed and velocity.
"Hikaru, you are mine at last!" Cornelia cackled as she continued to bear down on the Knight of Fire with her beam rifle.
After shielding herself against Cornelia' beam firings for 5 more times, Hikaru slowly ascended 100 meters closer to Cornelia, used her sword-arm, and fired a torrent of red-white flames coming from her Escudo broadsword, aiming directly at Cornelia's Gloucester.
As Cornelia immediately moved backwards, with the torrent missing her by a inch away from her Gloucester's tungsten armor, Rayearth Alpha finally reached to the top of the Bureau and landed on both of her feet onto the floor of Ares Villa. Just like that Cornelia's Knightmare is standing in front of the Red Rune God with Ares Villa in between them. After making several huffs, Hikaru glared at Cornelia in a face-off between both female warriors fighting for the countries that they both cared about. Before Hikaru could make another move on the Viceroy, Cornelia started gloating at the Flame Knight once more before aiming the Beam Rifle at her.
"Welcome to the Government Bureau of Britannia, Hikaru Shidou! Your luck will be your last here!"
"This is your last chance to surrender, Princess Cornelia!" Hikaru snarled as she aimed her sword at Cornelia's Gloucester. "Your Knight is defeated, your Bureau is surrounded, and your grip over all of Area 11 will come to an end!"
"I didn't really think you had it in you; not after when I first met you seven years ago," Cornelia retorted. "But no matter, if you really are a hero in the New World like what they all said, then perhaps I should be a hero too in Britannia!"
"Really?!" Hikaru sneered, taunting the Viceroy while her Rune God and Cornelia's Gloucester circled around with their eyes locked on one another.
"Since you kidnapped my sister at Mt. Fuji, this maybe my chance to prove my heroism!" Cornelia said, gritting her teeth vengefully. "I'll still defeat you by any means necessary. Also, I hope your friends are watching too, because I'll let everyone in the New World know that you are a total joke; a witch for whom her recklessness and stubbornness knows no bounds! Now then, it's time for your swarede. Care for a dance?!"
"Like you're real scary!" Hikaru hissed as she readied herself, preparing to engage Cornelia in a fighting kendo, stance. "Bring it on, Princess Cornelia li Britannia!"
Just like that, Cornelia tossed her beam rifle away and drew out her Gloucester's MVS. Unlike Guilford's, Cornelia's MVS illuminated in a purple-fiery aura. As Cornerlia held her MVS up high above her head, holding with with both of her Gloucester's hands, Hikaru's sword lit up with white flames coming out of its blades. Without holding anything back, the Magic Knight and the Viceroy charged at each other, clashing blades at each other with sparks of purple and red flames spewing out. As they kept their swords up high, Cornelia swiped her MVS across Rayearth's torso only for him to jump up high above her a few feet before landing on the ground once again. At the same time, Rayearth slammed his sword right on top of the Gloucester's head only to block it with Cornelia's MVS. While struggling to keep their blades up to their necks, Hikaru shoved Cornelia further as the Princess grunted in maintaining her guard. In her second move, Hikaru's first charged up in flames before throwing a fiery punch at the Gloucester.
"FLAME ARROW!"
Before Hikaru's fiery fist made contact, Cornelia smirked as she blocked it with the Gloucester's left hand. Even though her magic exploded onto the Knightmare's left hand, Hikaru's eyes widened with shock as her magic barely did any damage to the Knightmare at all. Instead, the flames dissipated from Hikaru's hand and at the same time, the Gloucester's hand was illuminating in purple glow. While still holding onto Hikaru's hand, Cornelia lifted the Gloucester's knee up to its chest and slammed its foot into Rayearth's torso, pushing Hikaru backwards.
"Nice try!" Cornelia gloated. "I already had help in tuning up my Knightmare thanks to my brother's best engineers. Your powers won't do that much damage on my Knightmare like last time. It's now equipped with an anti-magic tungsten plating. Not only it's meant to absorb any powers you throw at me, I can also do this too!"
Before Hikaru could understand what Cornelia is getting at with her new Knightmare upgrades, her Gloucester clenched its fist hurled the very same Hikaru's Flame Arrow back at her. The Flame Knight barely had enough time to raise her shield up only to get shoved backwards after her own medicine exploded upon impact when maintaining her guard. Just when Hikaru regained her ground, Cornelia fired her Knightmare's Slash Harkens at the Red Rune God, along with a barrage of missiles coming out from the Gloucester's shoulder pads. Hikaru swipe both of the Harkens away from her with her Broadsword before taking to the skies above Cornelia.
As the missiles closed in on her from behind, Hikaru let loose another torrent of red-flames in a horizontal arc, making them explode while in mid-air. When Rayearth landed on the ground again, Cornelia's Gloucester charged forward and made her attempt to lunge at Hikaru with her MVS. Hikaru makes an uppercut block with her sword. The moment Hikaru's blade clashed against Cornelia's MVS, the Princess swung the Gloucester's fist at her face only to dodge it by a mere inch from her head.
The moment Umi and Fuu appeared right behind Cornelia's Knightmare, after Fuu used her healing magic to regenerate Selece's damaged wings, they shot out their magic at her but not before Hikaru ordered them both to stop.
"Emerald Typhoon!"
"Sapphire Whirlwind!"
"UMI, FUU! WAIT!"
The moment Cornelia turned around to see the Blue and Green Rune Gods, she smirked underneath her breath. As soon as Rayearth jumped backwards away from Umi and Fuu's line of fire, both of their spells struck the Gloucester, leaving behind an explosion followed by a cloud of dust. At first, they thought they were able to bring Cornelia down at last. However, as the dust disappeared, Umi's and Fuu's eyes widened with horror after seeing that Cornelia's Gloucester didn't receive any dents. Instead, the Gloucester was glowing in a dark-blue and dark-green aura.
Before they knew what was happening, both Umi's and Fuu's spells started shooting back at them. The moment the spells struck at their Rune Gods, they both screamed in pain as they fell on their backs.
"What did she do?" Umi shrieked in confusion as she got up on her feet.
"Behold Magic Knight Elevens, witness the power of my Gloucester's Tungsten Mirror Coat Enhanced Armor!" Cornelia shouted in triumph. "Anything that shoots at my Knightmare will get pushed right back at its firer. Think of it like you're shooting at your reflection!"
"When an earth did they tuned-up your Knightmare like that?" Hikaru asked in horror.
"It was during the time I left Area 11 to run some errands with my collaborators back at Pendragon, Hikaru." Cornelia said briefly. "Not that it matters, all of your days are numbered, you and your friends. So, lets get this over with!"
In resuming her fight with the Magic Knights, Cornelia charged straight at the two Rune Gods as she drew out her second MVS. In just a split second, Umi and Fuu drew out their swords and stood their ground against the Cornelia's charging Gloucester. The moment all of their swords clashed into each other, Selece Omega and Windam Delta started skidding with their feet before they stopped a few feet backwards. Suddenly, without warning, the Gloucester's feet started letting out an electric whiplash that spook the Knights of Water and Wind in surprise. In an instance, two small beam cannons came out of both of the Gloucester's Knightmares and shot out 2 hadron beams at Umi and Fuu. Without giving it another thought, Selece and Windam flew up into the sky above Cornelia, barely evading both of its beams by an inch of their feet.
The moment Umi landed on her two feet, she and Selece charged first at Cornelia, giving the Princess several fencing thrusts with her Escudo rapier. At the same time, Cornelia aimed her lance at the Blue Rune God and jabbed it at Umi with all her might. In several flurry of jabs and thrusts, Umi and Cornelia were trading blocks with the tips of their close combat weapons.
After several minutes of jabbing and thrusting at each other, Fuu attempted to do an heroic intervention as she is getting ready to fire her Eagle Longbow at Cornelia's Gloucester. However, the moment Fuu shot her arrow at Cornelia, it only bounced off its Tungsten shoulder pad, leaving it behind a small harmless dent.
"IS THAT THE BEST YOU'VE GOT, ELEVEN?!" Cornelia roared in annoyance as she disengaged from her fight with Umi and fired another barrage of missiles at the Knight of Wind.
"WINGS OF PROTECTION!" Fuu shouted as she casted a wind barrier on herself. As the missiles exploded on Fuu's magical barrier, Cornelia appeared suddenly right in front of the Wind Knight, much to Fuu's shock.
Before Fuu had a chance to react, Cornelia's Gloucester rammed her Jousting Lance straight at her Rune God Knightmare and punctured Fuu's barrier, nearly hitting its spear tip at Windam's face before Fuu leaned her head to the right, dodging it by a mere inch.
Just when Cornelia is about to raising her Gloucester's MVS up high and attempt to make a second strike at Windam Delta, Rayearth charged at the Viceroy with another shield bash. Unlike last time, Cornelia's Gloucester held the shaft of its jousting Lance parallel to its side to reduce the impact from Rayearth's shield. The moment Cornelia felt the impact coming from Rayearth's shield, she shoved Rayearth backwards and slammed her MVS onto Hikaru's red shield. Before Cornelia could attack again, Hikaru slammed her sword on top of the Gloucester's shoulder pad and in one heavy attack, her blade cut off the shoulder pad, missing its arm by a mere inch. All at once, Hikaru struck the ground with her broadsword very close to where Cornelia's Gloucester is standing at, unleashing a red-torrent of flames at point-blank range. In an instant, Cornelia's Gloucester took the full brunt of Hikaru's attack and was sent plummeting to the ground several meters away from where Rayearth was standing. At the same time, Cornelia loses her grip on her Jousting Lance as it broke into a million pieces.
The moment Cornelia's Gloucester got up on her knees, the Princess noticed that blood came down from the side of her head and landed on the floor next to her feet inside the cockpit.
"AGH! My face. You damaged my beautiful face!" Cornelia shrieked as she touched her bleeding head wound with her left hand.
"Oh, please. You'll suffer more than that when I'm through with you! After all, I always despised your Royal Britannian pride, Cornelia!" Hikaru smirked as she regrouped with the other Magic Knights' Rune God Knightmares. "We could do this all night!"
"I'm just getting started!" Cornelia growled as she clenched her fists before regaining control of her Gloucester.
Enraged by such humiliation, Cornelia's Gloucester started powering up in a huge, purple glowing aura. Before Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu even realized what is going on, both of Cornelia's MVS' started increasing their blades a bit more longer, transforming the color from red to crystalized purple. After both of Cornelia's MVS' finished their expansion, she clamped them together, attaching their hilts to each other. As a result, Cornelia's weapon turned from two MVS' into one empowered dual-bladed MVS.
The moment Cornelia charged straight at Hikaru, she swung her dual-bladed MVS in a vertical windmill-like attack, nearly catching the Knight of Fire off guard. Although Hikaru was able to side-step away from the propeller-like attack, Cornelia isn't done yet as she raised her dual-bladed MVS up above her head and attempted to slam the Fire Knight on the head with it. Realizing how fast is Cornelia attacking right now, Hikaru struggled to counter-attacks against her dual-bladed weapon beyond her stamina.
Realizing that Cornelia is about to gain the upper hand as she was bearing down on Hikaru with her dual-bladed MVS, Umi and Fuu both charged with their swords at the ready. In one swift motion, Selece and Windam clashed their swords against Cornelia's Dual MVS, pushing her Knightmare away from Rayearth Alpha. While Hikaru makes several deep breathes after getting hammered by Cornelia's dual-bladed weapon, she looks up and sees both of her friends attack Cornelia from both left and right. At the same time, Cornelia dashed backwards while keeping her guard up against the Knights of Wind and Water.
Seizing the opportunity, Hikaru charged forwards once again as she moved towards Cornelia from behind Umi and Fuu. However, Cornelia smirked as she sees all three targets in her direct line of sight. The Viceroy flipped up a hidden switch inside her cockpit, revealing a small red button on the control panel. At the same time, a small, hidden Hadron cannon appeared below the her Gloucester's Torso. When the hidden cannon charged, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu all gasped in horror as they were met by Cornelia's surprise attack. Before any of the Magic Knights could react, Cornelia makes her move fist upon all three of them.
"GOTCHA!" Cornelia cackled as she pressed on the red button.
Just like that, all three Magic Knights were met with a full, powerful blast that came from the small Hadron cannon, which engulfed them in a huge red beam. Upon impact, the Magic Knights have all screamed in pain as they were sent flying all the way to the outer walls of Ares Villa. Behind them, the Hadron beam continued to shoot out towards the night sky before it disappeared. As Cornelia's Gloucester approached the Magic Knights, she sees all of their Rune God Knightmares collapse onto the ground in front of her, all battered, charred, and out cold.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cornelia laughed victoriously. "It's over Magic Knights! I win!"
After laughing for several minutes, one of the Rune Gods slowly got up to face Cornelia again, huffing and puffing as she felt bruises covering up her entire body. It was Hikaru Shidou and Rayearth.
"You may be strong, Cornelia." Hikaru gasped, feeling exhausted. "But we won't give up that easily. I've been through with this more than once."
"Are you kidding?!" Cornelia hissed as she aimed her Assault Rifle at Rayearth Alpha. "Why won't you die already?!"
"Because, we have all came a long way to save our former homeland." Hikaru continued as she struggled to stay on her feet, using her sword as leverage. "You can't always win, Cornelia. I already have people counting on me right now. If we were able to save Cephiro from people like you, we can still do the same for our fellow natives too. And our will is what makes us stronger than anything else."
Before Cornelia could say or do anything, she sees Umi and Fuu slowly get up too.
"We all made our promises with all the people that we love." Umi said as her Rune God started glowing in a blue aura. "You can't always have the entire world to yourself."
"Who else is relying on you to conquer Japan anyway, Ms. Cornelia?" Fuu sneered as her Rune God lit up in a bright, green aura. "We won't lose that easily, especially when facing a Knightmare that's just as deadly like yours and Mr. Suzaku's."
"We all have something that's worth fighting for; whether it is for your parents or our friends!" Hikaru shouted intensely. "We all still have one final trick on our sleeve so you better brace yourself, Viceroy!"
As all three of the Magic Knights and their Rune Gods stood up on their feet, they all vanished in a red, blue, and green flash. Before Cornelia even saw what was going on right now, all three Rune Gods have merged into one huge being, followed by a series of screeches and roars and engulfed in one huge pillar of light. As the light disappear, a huge Rune God appeared before Cornelia. Unlike the last time they fought with Debonair as one, the fused Rune God has replaced its Golden linings with Silver linings on top of its red pauldrons. It's wings are glowing in a red and green hue and its eyes have are glowing white. It's crescent shield became wider, turning its white edges to a darker color.
Upon seeing the three Rune God Knightmares merged into one, Cornelia couldn't help but feel nonchalant about its transforming appearance. Refusing to let the Magic Knights get the upper hand, Cornelia fired another Hadron beam from its small cannon at the merged Rune God Knightmare. However, just when Cornelia made a direct hit, the Rune God blocked the beam with its crescent shield and drew out its light force sword. As soon as Cornelia charged forward with her dual-bladed MVS, the Rune God struck first. With just one swing of its sword, the Rune God Knightmare cut off both of her Gloucester's hands, shattering the MVS simultaneously.
"What the?" Cornelia gasped in horror, realizing that she lost her grip on her MVS. "What kind of Knightmare is this?"
As Cornelia's Gloucester backs away from the Rune God, she fired another shot from her Hadron cannon only to get intercepted by the Rune God's ultimate power.
"SPIRAL BARRAGE!" All three Magic Knights shouted in unison as they unleashed their magic on Cornelia's Knightmare.
As the Rune God raised both of his hands at Cornelia's Gloucester, he summoned three star-like sigils in front of him, letting loose a barrage of multi-colored arrowheads in its wake. When the arrowheads struck all around Cornelia's Knightmare, the entire area was met with a mass rain of destruction that shook Ares Villa like an earthquake. The moment the arrowheads hit Cornelia's Gloucester, she was getting hammered all over, unable to return fire at the moment. Feeling outgunned by such a powerful, overwhelming attack, Cornelia struggled to steer her Knightmare behind cover, trying to aim her Hadron Cannon while on the move. However, before she had a chance to fire the Gloucester's cannon again for the third time, after the barrage has stop raining down destruction behind her, the Rune God appeared and with just one swift movement, his light force sword swung across and decapitated the gun off its torso, making it explode the moment it touched the ground.
In a split second, the Rune God reached his hand out at the face of Cornelia's Gloucester and crumpled it up with a very strong grip. In the next move, the Rune God delivered all sorts of physical blows at Cornelia's Knightmare, ranging from various punches and knee slams. At the same time, Cornelia was getting flung back and forth very violently inside her cockpit so much that she is unable to counterattack against the merged Rune God. Before she knew it, the Rune God grabbed Cornelia's Knightmare and hurled it straight into a nearby wall, slamming its back into it upside down. Upon impact, the Gloucester was battered so badly that it collapsed in a crippled state right on its side. As for Cornelia, she noticed that her energy filler has ran out. As a result, the mirror coating on her Gloucester was no longer in effect. Cornelia has faced a bone-crushing defeat against the full power of the Magic Knights of the New World.
The moment Cornelia got out of her Knightmare, she fell on her back beside her wrecked Knighmare while holding her injured arm up to her waist. As she looked up, Cornelia sees all three of the Magic Knights disembarked their merged Rune God.
"Zero! We have neutralized Princess Cornelia!" Hikaru spoke through her ear-bud.
"Good work! I'll be there to speak with her very soon!" Zero spoke from Hikaru's ear-bud.
"So Cornelia, do you have any other way living than rather picking fights with other natives?!" Hikaru asked the defeated Viceroy as disengaging her communication channel with Zero.
"It's not my place to say!" Cornelia said as she coughed up blood. "You might as well do your worse, Hikaru. Euphy is the only person I rather be fighting for than anything else. Judging from how far we've both came, I probably won't be seeing her again. I guess we're not so different are we?!"
"You may have caused a lot of trouble in front of my family. But I'm nothing like you. Besides, I'll let know something else too." Hikaru continued. "I have no intention of killing you, even though you tried to kill us."
"Why not?!" Cornelia exasperated.
"You're not the only princess that we faced in battle before, neither you would be the last, Ms. Cornelia." Fuu added in. "We faced others that are a lot more worse than you."
"Like who?" Cornelia asked desperately.
"Princess Emeraude! We'll explain later! But for now, Zero will be on his way to interrogate you!" Hikaru explained. "After I met Euphy and was able to get to know her a bit more before that incident at Mt. Fuji, I'd figured that just like what you said: We won't be any different from the Britannian Empire if we just let our revenge blind us all, would we?!"
"Then, what are you three going to do now?!" Cornelia asked, despite her believing that the Magic Knights would finish her off.
"We'll be leaving the Bureau once all of the Cephirians are safe and sound back in the world that they all came from." Hikaru concluded. "For now, you might as well think about resorting to diplomacy in the future."
After seeing the three Magic Knights went back inside their merged Rune God, Cornelia sees the Gawain appear before her as it descended from its flight. The moment Zero came out of the giant Knightmare, the Magic Knights flew away from Ares Villa and descended to the ground to help out their friends save as may Cephirians as they can.
Meanwhile, while the NSX continued to bombard the oncoming Britannian airships, another fleet lead by the Knights of the Round appeared from the battleship's rear. Up front, there was four strange Knightmares lurking in the darkness in front of three Britannian Dreadnoughts. One of them makes his announcement towards the allied ships of the New World.
"Attention all unauthorized vessels. This is Bismarck Waldstein, the Knight of one!" A deep voice spoke from one of the Knightmares. "We have blocked your escape routes. Surrender now or be neutralized!"
Inside the command bridge of the NSX, Zazu heard the deep voice out loud from the intercom. Panicking, the young mechanic struggled to make contact with Geo Metro, who is still aiding the Cephirians in covering their escape route to the portal.
"Geo, we've got trouble! Another fleet has appeared! What are your orders?! Geo answer me, we need orders!"
Despite Zazu's desperate plead for orders, he just realized that his commander isn't responding. Something isn't right.
"Guys, what's happening to the communication radio!" Zazu asked one of the Autozamian officers.
"Zazu, our communications are down. Someone has breached our ship and shut down our radio systems!" One of the officers reported in a frightened tone.
Before Zazu could say anymore, an explosion erupted from doors behind him. As the doors flung out, Prince Clovis appeared with an Assault Rifle in his hands. Behind him, a squad of 10 Britannian Marines appeared all armed to the teeth.
"FREEZE!" Clovis shouted at the top of his lungs.
Frightened and leaderless, Zazu and the rest of the Autozamian crew had all put their hands up, in fearing for their lives.
"I'm taking over this battleship." Clovis announced as he ordered his men to restrain Zazu and his fellow crewmen.
Back at the prison area, Topaz and Vileta are getting exhausted after fighting each other for more than 10 minutes. Before any of them could make another move against one another, Topaz's intercom started acting up.
"Commander, we've got all of our people out of the prison area. Rendezvous to our extraction point. We're getting out of here!" Ferio's voice spoke in Topaz's ear.
"Yes, your highness!" Topaz said as he tried to flee.
"I don't think so!" Viletta hissed as she pulled out a taser from underneath her tunic and fire it right behind Topaz's back.
The moment the tazer shots struck Topaz, he screamed as he collapsed onto the floor. As the Cephirian Commader started twitching while under shock, Viletta pinned him to the ground and hand-cuffed him.
"You're coming with us!"
As the Magic Knights arrived at the Sakuradite Gateway, they see that the Black Knights have done their job to aid the Cephirians. When the Black Knights were done, Kallen and her squad went back to the gateway to finish escorting their native allies there. However, just before Ferio is able to issue out orders to his surviving men, they see Zero's Gawain get shoved out of the Bureau by an huge orange, ball-like Robot. The moment Hikaru sees Zero's Gawain on sight, she immediately hears Zero's voice coming through her ear-bud.
"Lady Hikaru, I'm leaving all matters in your hands. Have Diethard and Tohdou resume their duties."
"What are you going to do?" Hikaru asked, feeling confused on where Zero/Lelouch is getting at.
"There is something more important that requires my attention elsewhere." Zero replied. "I won't respond to any further communications after that!"
"Zero, you can't be serious! You're not going to leave us here, are you?!" Hikaru said in shock.
"LADY HIKARU, the Bureau's defenses went back onlin-GYAAAHHHHH!" One of the Cephirian Soldiers screamed in terror before his channel went into static.
The moment the Bureau's defenses went back online, gun turrets started shooting down both the Black Knights and the Cephirian Army before them. While several Cephirian Knightmares raised their towers shields to defend themselves against the hail of bullets, the Black Knight Burais went into cover behind the wreckage.