Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to

Idea Factory and Compile Heart

Chapter 24: The Final Hour! Part 2: I am. . .

Uni's P.O.V.

I stood there, frozen. My gaze locked onto the area that Garland just stood, a hand raised towards him "N-No. . . It can't. . ."

"You bitch!" Underling yells "You're going to pay!" She runs at Arfoire, raising her pipe "Hyaaah!" She swung down only to have it deflected "What!?"

"Begone. . ." Arfoire throws a punch into Underling's stomach, launching her. . . Wait, did I just here something pop?

"Andrew!" Sage Heart yells. I looked to see Andrew blast forward, his arm cannon glowing.

"Ah. . . The traitorous GPU. . ." Arfoire smiles.

"Take this you son of a bitch!" Andrew says, throwing his arm cannon hand forward.

Arfoire just stands there, smiling. Right when Andrew's arm cannon was about to hit her, she puts a hand up and stops it in its tracks.

"Huh? What the hell!?" Andrew looks shocked.

"Andrew! Get away from her now!" Xelor beeps erratically.

"Too late. . ." Arfoire says. She started to squeeze the arm cannon, an alarm going off from Xelor. An explosion followed a few seconds after, engulfing the two in a cloud of dust.

"ANDREW! GARLAND!" Sage Heart runs in, Rakari raised and ready to strike. Just as he was there, Andrew was thrown at him through the cloud. He didn't have enough time to react and both of them collided with each other, rolling on the ground, their forms deactivating. They were knocked out.

"Heheheheh. . . Too easy. . ." She cocks her head to the side, looking at the CPUs and Makers "Now. . . Who shall I kill first?" She grins, swaying back and forth as she started walking towards them.

Falcom, Sabrina, Raitou, and Tokomi went in front of the CPUs and their sister.

"I will not allow you to hurt them!" Falcom declares, raising Dragon Slayer, her main weapon.

Raitou brings out her gunblade "We will stop you here" Sabrina nods in agreement.

Tokomi had her turret raised, a look of pure anger on her face "I'm gonna blast you into oblivion for this!"

Arfoire looks at them unimpressed, then sighs "You are really annoying. . . You know that? Well, more for me to kill I guess" She says, shrugging lazily.

This didn't sit well with Tokomi. A bright light engulfed her, transforming into her Sherman form "Like hell I will!" After that statement, her engine fired up and she charges towards Arfoire.

"T-Tokomi, fall back now! We need to stick together for this!" Raitou orders her comrade. But it all fell on deft ears.

"Raaaah!" Tokomi fires off at Arfoire that exploded. She presses onward till she felt herself stop abruptly "Huh? Did I get caught on something?"

"Tokomi! Retreat, retreat!" Sabrina calls out.

Tokomi heard them finally. She turns her turret around to look at them till she felt something in front of her, holding her there "Eh?" She lowers her gaze to see Arfoire with her hand raised and planted on the front of her hull "EH!?"

Arfoire lowers her head and grins "This should be fun. . ." She mutters these words and magenta lines start to trace along the surface of Tokomi.

"Wh-What?" Tokomi was panicking at this moment, not only at how Arfoire stopped her there, but the glowing lines.

Arfoire felt the lines finish tracing over Tokomi and laughs "Now. . . Disappear into nothing. . ." She removes her hand and Tokomi's form explodes into pieces.

"TOKOMI!" Raitou yells out "Sabrina!" The two run forward with their weapons drawn and ready. They both stop a bit away from her and began firing off rounds from there gun(blade)s. They made their shots count as they fired upon Arfoire, hitting her. They both stopped their attack to let weapons cool down a bit "Did we get her?" Raitou asks, spinning her gunblade in her grip.

Sabrina looks to where Arfoire was to find her still standing. Her eyes widen "How. . .? How is she still standing after that. . .?"

"Hah. . . You want to know why I'm still standing?" Arfoire says, looking at the two general smiling "Isn't it obvious?"

"Huh?" Raitou raises an eyebrow at this.

"It's simple. . . Isn't it?" Arfoire throws her arms out, her smile becoming jagged "My will to see this world crumble is strong enough for me to keep going. And adding on to finally getting. . ." She turns around to where Garland laid. . . motionless "Him out of the way, I have never felt this type of energy! I feel I can kill you all and make this world MINE!" Arfoire's hand glows scarlet and two beam shoot out and hit Raitou and Sabrina in the chest, knocking them back and unconscious.

At this point, I was shaking from pure fright and anger. Fright being that she took out half of our group without batting an eye. The anger. . . Was her not only stabbing Garland in the back, but also getting her high off of that. I felt my outstretched hand shake then ball into a fist.

"Uni. . ." Noire says, summoning her rapier. I looks at her sister shocked.

"N-Noire!? You can't fight right now! You just came back!" I tells her, only to have her place her hand on my shoulder.

"We'll be fine Uni. We will avenge Garland" Noire tells me smiling.

"Yeah! We're going to kick Arfy's butt for Garly's sake!" Neptune cheers, summoning her weapon along with Blanc and Vert.

"I'm going to kick her ass!

"I shall help you with that!" Falcom calls from her position in front of them.

"Heheheheh. . ." Arfoire shakes her head "Ah hahahahaha! I would love to see you try!" She then looks at the group and remembers what she did from earlier "Hmm. . . I have a better idea. But first, I need a volunteer. . ." Her hand glows magenta "How about. . . You. . . Little Miss Girlfriend. . ." With this, I fly forward just like Garland did and into her open hand "Since I couldn't wring his neck. . . I felt I should do at least do it to the one closest to him. . . To make up for it" Her grip around my neck tightens.

"Nnnng. . ." I struggled against her hold. H-How can she have so much strength!?

"Uni!" Nepgear calls out.

"You let go of Uni right now!" Noire demanded, raising her weapon.

"Oh?" Arfoire looks at my sister with a teasing grin "And what are you going to do about it?"

[Play: Sen no Kiseki II: Blue Destination]

"If you. . . Don't. . . I'm going. . ." A voice says. . . W-Wait. . . It can't be "To make sure. . . You never see the light of day. . . Again"

"No way!?" Neptune exclaims.

"It. . . It can't be. He. . .He got impaled!" Blanc exclaims.

Arfoire's face turned from the teasing grin to a unreadable one. She turns us to where Garland was laying to see him using his rifle as a crutch as he held his wound. Wait, is that. . . Fire around his hand? "How are you still standing from my attack. . .? You should be. . ." As she was saying that. . . Garland's rifle made contact to her face!? She drops me from the impact, stumbling back and away from me.

Garland retracted his arm, wincing "Grr. . ." He placed a hand on his stomach "I can't die yet. . ." He breathes in, slowly walking forward "I still have a mission to do. . ." He walks in between Arfoire and I, getting into a fighting position "My Soldier's Ethos and my feelings for everyone. . . Will give me the strength to defeat you. . . ARFOIRE!"

Author's Notes

"Hiii everyone. . ." Plutia waves "Looks like the true final battle. . . Is upon us. . ."

Yes, and I am here to tell everyone that the next chapter will be the true second to last chapter. I promise. The final battle against two beings putting everything on the line. Will Arfoire's will for destruction overcome Garland's will as a Soldier, or will Garland's will as a soldier be enough to defeat Arfoire and save everyone?

"Well everyone, there will only be one way to find out!" Neptune says.

"We will see you all in the second to last chapter! Take care for now!" the three of us say in unison.