Oka, we continue the zombie apocalypse on Royal Woods as the divine Loud Family try to fight back against Lucy's counterpart, and stop her and the Gashadokuro from destroying the heavens.
Was that description a bit too epic for this arc? Maybe, but I don't care, I like it. XD
Also, just to bring some promotion to it, "Chains of Reality: Omakes" is going to feature an omake based on a what-if about the arc, for the most part. Think of it like a "Bad End" sort of story.
But first, let's answer some reviews:
1) Nobody245: Someone's making her pissed, alright.
2) TheCartoonist294:
* I'm glad I answered your question effectively.
* Well, assuming things were going the same, and things out here in real life were mostly the same as well... we might've been either at the Proto-Lisa or Proto-Lynn arc by now. That's just an estimate, of course.
* Thanks. :)
3) Observant Guest:
* Dang, well, at least you're enjoying the show, right?
* Yeah... assuming she appears again after this arc...
* By redheaded trio, you mean Liam, Rusty, and Zach, right? 'Cause we already got another trio in Chandler, Penelope, and Cristina here. XD But still, I do agree with you.
* Ah, I see. Good to know.
* Well, they're both technically in an entertainment business, and they're like light and day in terms of personalities. It was only natural that their opposite natures would attract each other.
* Nice choice of music.
* A Carol-Paige team up is coming. But is a Carol-Paige fusion coming?
* Yeah, now that you mention it, maybe I should do something with that relationship...
* This version of Lemy is calmer alright, but also deadlier.
* Yeah, I don't remember when Liberty was thought up, but I feel like she was abandoned after Linka was introduced.
* Never trust a devil who makes deals.
* If he survives the arc.
* Your impressions are correct, my friend.
* I wonder if both of those forms will also share the fact they were underutilized and almost useless in the end? XD
4) ChernoMan:
* Huh, I guess it is kinda weird that I switch focus on a non-Lucy caste character, right?
* And try to somehow help in dealing with the apocalypse, that too.
* I don't expect you to feel pity for them.
* Lacy is a Lincoln-Lynn lovechild, and Lizy is a Lincoln-Lana lovechild.
* Lemy's really one of the only dudes around; Everybody else is either female, an animal, genderless, or some kind of abomination.
* And yet she's nowhere near as bad as her sister...
* Yeah, I think Rita and Lynn Sr. would've been more effective if I had done something with them before this arc. I know! How about a ten-chapter long arc of the Loud parents bonding with their children?
* I think it has been three, yes.
* Well, Sam's been kind of a bad role model since they were kids...
* It can also help make chapters even longer, and we're already in the super chapters side of things. I'm not saying your idea is bad, in fact, I wholeheartedly agree with it, and will try to incorporate it in the future, but right now, I don't have the luxury of going back and rewriting everything just to make things more emotional.
* You talk about Lincoln getting involved like it meant things are going to be good...
* This chapter isn't the finale, but it sure dang has the length of one.
And now, to the chapter!
Episode 38: Anger That Surpasses the Boundaries of Life and Death! Proto-Luan's Tent Reveals Some Uncomfortable Past Events?!
Back where we left off, Lucy, having been turned into a revenant thanks to her anger, rushed straight for her counterpart and headbutted her in the stomach, all while the prototype just laughed at this action.
"Do you really think just because your anger literally brought you back to life, that it'll be enough to beat me?!" Proto-Lucy exclaimed, flashing a confident smirk. "I'm a God, Ariel! And you're nothing more than an idiotic demigod who bit more than she can chew!"
Lucy backed away a little and tried to push her counterpart, but they clashed hands and entered a struggle instead.
"Don't you get it? No matter what you do now, the gashadokuro will rise, and the heavens will be torn asunder!" the prototype proclaimed with a proudful tone. "And once the afterlife itself joins the battlefield, this apocalypse will be complete! The dead will live again, and they shall raze this unjust, corrupted world!"
"You're wrong! I'll find a way to undo the gashadokuro! I'll find a way to end this apocalypse once and for all!" Lucy hissed, gritting her teeth as her aura grew more volatile. "And even if it's the last thing I do, I'll make sure you die in the process!"
Lucy headbutted her counterpart and sent her flying to some rubble, but soon after, the prototype stood up and chuckled, "How can you kill something that's already dead, Lucille?"
Lucy's aura intensified as she exclaimed:
"I'll find a way!"
Meanwhile, with Leni...
The teenager sent one of the Mortician Club members flying away while some beauty pageant girls hid behind her. And as soon as the member left the scene, Leni sensed Lucy's anger and looked to her direction.
"Hmm, this anger," the fashionista said to herself. "I haven't sensed something like this since, like, Lynn used her bersoreker form for the first time..."
"Thank you, miss!"
Leni looked down and saw the beauty pageant girls smiling at her. "Thanks for saving us!"
Leni smiled and brushed one of their heads. "It's my pleasure, um... what's your name?"
The girl whose hair Leni was brushing spoke first, "I'm Chinah!"
She then pointed at the girls near her. "And these girls are Claudette, and Jackie!"
"Jakie, Claudette, and Chinah... those are, like, some pretty cute names," Leni loweed her eyelids and crouched down. "But regardless, I totes need to ask you what happened."
"W-Well, we were walking to a beauty pageant, when those gross monsters popped out of the ground and cornered us!" Chinah answered, and Claudette and Jackie nodded in agreement. "We tried to call for help, but nobody came until you did!"
Leni raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you just freeze them with your ice breath or something?"
The girls exchanged confused looks until a voice said:
"They don't know what you're talking about."
Leni stood up and turned around to see none other than Lindsey Sweetwater nearby, ready to use her yo-yo.
"I didn't think I'd see you again so soon, Leni Loud," Lindsey stated, narrowing her eyes.
"Same thing to you, Lindsey Sweetwater," Leni replied, folding her arms behind her back. "Anyway, what do you, like, mean by saying these girls don't know what I'm talking about?"
"Chinah, Jackie, and Claudette have been trained their entire lives to win beauty pageants, and not a single time have they trained for battle," Lindsey explained, with the girls nodding in agreement. "And I'd know better than anybody else, because I've seen them in nearly every beauty pageant I've been at!"
Leni turned to the trio. "Is that true?"
"Well, we don't know what you're talking about, does that count?" Claudette inquired.
Leni closed her eyes and scratched her chin as she thought:
"Dang it, I knew some people in the new reality could have no idea how to fight, but I never, like, thought they wouldn't know about their abilities at all! Whatever the organization's plans are, I sure hope fixing this ignorance is a top priority!"
Then, she opened her eyes and sternly told the trio, "Go back home, girls. Things are totes going to get worse from here."
The trio exchanged looks and promptly ran away, leaving Leni and Lindsey alone.
"I know what you're going to say, but I'm not going to run back home like a scared little kid!" Lindsey stated as she raised her yo-yo. "I'm going to defend Royal Woods with all my power!"
"Well, I, like, hope you have more than the average member of Lola's caste, at least," Leni sighed. "Do whatever you want. But if anything happens to you, or things go horribly wrong, don't come crying to me, or your Father, or anybody else."
Leni walked past Lindsey, and as she did, she sternly said:
"Everybody's putting so much effort into defending the city, the last thing anybody needs is a girl crying after stubbing her toe."
Leni flew away afterwards, and Lindsey glanced at her yo-yo before she clutched it, and ran off to protect the city.
Meanwhile, with the fight against Proto-Lynn...
Lynn took a couple of deep breaths before she turned to look at the horizon, sensing the intense aura of hatred bathing Lucy. And while she did this, Chandler tried to hold back Proto-Lynn.
"That's an aura of hatred unlike any I've seen before," Proto-Lynn remarked before she teleported to Lynn's side. "Should I assume this aura belongs to a certain someone?"
"It must be Lucy..." Lynn remarked, causing Proto-Lynn to fold her arms and smugly smile. "I can't think of anybody else who could hide such overwhelming rage."
Proto-Lynn couldn't help but wonder if Margo was looking at the horizon with a disapproving look.
"Hey, remember what I told you at the beach?" Chandler asked, getting the brunette's attention. "How people tend to project their unlikable sides on to other people?"
Lynn nodded.
"Imagine that this "Rage-fueled Lucy" or whatever is like your dark side," Chandler folded his arms. "What are you going to do about it?"
"The answer to that should be very clear, child," Proto-Lynn scoffed, getting the duo's attention. "Camael can't do anything about it: As soon as Ariel turned into a revenant-"
Then, the jock clenched her fists with determination and proclaimed, "I'm going to calm her down, one way or another!"
"Wait, what?!" was all Proto-Lynn could say before Lynn ran away using her super speed.
Proto-Lynn clenched her fist and gritted her teeth as the redhead smiled, folded his arms, and said, "I bet you were expecting her to just give up right then and there, didn't you?"
The prototype jock charged a fireball and shot it at Chandler, who whistled and jumped on a cloud moments before the fireball hit him. One fiery explosion later, Chandler waved goodbye to Proto-Lynn and flew away, leaving the proto-jock to take some deep breaths and sit down.
"Whatever, as long as Lucy keeps her part of the deal, I don't care what happens," the prototype thought about it and raised an eyebrow. "That being said, would she throw away that promise as soon as she realized she wasn't getting enough bodies for the gashadokuro?"
Proto-Lynn thought about it some more, but eventually shrugged it off, having no time for something so... disturbing.
Proto-Luan's Circus Tent...
The team of Sam, Maggie, and the Spokes brothers crashed through the tent and landed right next to Polly and Tabby, who backed away as they saw the team coming.
"Polly!" Rusty exclaimed as he ran up to and hugged the girl. "Oh, I'm glad you're okay!"
"I'm happy to see you're fine too, Rusty," Polly replied, patting the boy's back.
"I knew it'd work!" Tabby chirped. "Although, I didn't expect you to bring more people too..."
"The boys came along with us, since they were looking for you too," Maggie explained. "We came here as soon as we heard your call for help; What's wrong?"
"Um, look around you?" Polly suggested. "I'm sure one look at this place will tell you exactly what's wrong."
The team obliged and looked around, with the bizarre status of the place immediately getting their attention:
The walls seemed to be made out of some rotten wood, with comedy and tragedy masks stuck in them, with glowing eyes that avoided contact with the team. There were also clocks floating around the place, constantly ticking as their levers moved forward and backwards at random.
One thing was very clear, though: The longer the team looked at the place, the more shivers were sent down their spines.
"Okay, yeah, this entire place just feels wrong," Maggie said.
"Yeah, it's definitely a good thing we got here in time," Sam remarked before she turned to Tabby. "Let's get out of here before anything happens-"
"Wait, we can't leave yet!" Tabby replied. "Yes, I called you because we needed help to escape, but all four of us need help: Me, Polly, Haiku, and Giggles!"
"Then where the heck are the last two?" Sam asked while she looked around. "I don't see them anywhere!"
Tabby and Polly pointed up, and everybody looked up to see a pair of tents, with Haiku and Giggles' screams coming out of them.
"Okay, fine, I see where they are," Sam shook her head and folded her arms. "But I can only create one board with my swag energy, so we'll have to-"
Suddenly, Clyde and Ronnie Anne crashed through the wall and landed nearby the team, with Clyde using his jet shoes for a safer landing.
"Alright, this is the place where the screaming came from," Clyde remarked as Ronnie Anne stood up.
Once Ronnie dusted herself, she turned to the duo and waved hello. "Hi Rock-O! Skate-O!"
Polly waved back, and Tabby slowly put her hand down as Sam and Maggie threw glares at the tomboy's direction.
"Who are these kids?" Maggie asked, raising an eyebrow as Clyde and Ronnie Anne walked towards them.
"The tomboy with the ponytail is Ronnie Anne, a former bully who moved out of Royal Woods a year or so ago, and who recently decided to come back," Sam explained to her sister before she turned to look at Clyde. "I have no idea who's the other one, though."
"I'm Clyde, Lincoln's friend!" the boy angrily said, earning a confused look from Sam. "I was with him when you pushed us away from going to your school's music room with you and Luna!"
"I push away a lot of people who have even the slightest chance of getting between me and Luna," Sam folded her arms. "I'm gonna need you to be more specific."
"Ugh, whatever, that doesn't matter!" Ronnie Anne stated. "We came here because we heard somebody calling for help!"
"Oh really? You heard Tabby's call for help and decided to come?" Sam chuckled. "Good, no really, I find that totally believable! In fact, is there anybody else who'd like to join the club!?"
Just then, Liam and Hattie crashed through the tent and landed next to Ronnie Anne and Clyde, prompting a groan from Sam. "Why did I have to talk?"
Hattie promptly separated from Liam, ran up to Tabby, and bowed down as she said, "Love of Family, your humble servant Hattie has come for your aid!"
And then Sam grabbed Hattie's shirt and lifted her up. "Yeah, listen, Maggie and I already came here to rescue Tabby, so you can just bugger off and let us do our work!"
"Do you really think I'm going to give up that easily?!" Hattie snapped. "When I joined Lincolnism, I swore-"
"I don't care about you and your beliefs!" Sam growled before she spun the girl around. "We got enough people here, so like I said, bugger off!"
"Sam, wait, we could use this to our advantage!" Tabby exclaimed as she snatched Hattie away from the rocker. "I mean sure, Hattie can be quite annoying, but the more people we get, the easier it'll be to rescue Haiku and Giggles!"
Maggie and Sam silently exchanged looks.
"The one we we should try to rescue first is Haiku, though," Polly Pain stated as she glanced at Haiku's tent. "The longer she stays inside that torture simulation, the more likely her caste's ability will activate!"
"The one about turning pain into something more enjoyable, right?" Tabby asked. "I didn't even think about that."
"Alright then, in that case, Tabby, Liam, Hattie, and Ronnie Anne will go look for Giggles, while Polly, the brothers, and I will go look for Haiku," Clyde said, only coming to a stop when he turned to Sam and Maggie. "I don't know what you two could do, honestly-"
"We're taking Tabby with us, grabbing her girlfriend along for a ride, and getting the hell out of here!" Maggie sternly stated as she walked up to Tabby and grabbed her hand. "And the faster we leave, the better!"
"Maggie, wait!" Tabby exclaimed as she tried to stand in place. "We can't leave without Haiku and Giggles!"
"We can't stay here either, Tabby!" Maggie argued in return.
"We don't have to stay here!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, getting the duo's attention. "As soon as we break Goth-O and Clown-O's friends out of their prisons, we'll leave faster than the audience in one of Tabby's earlier concerts!"
"Hey, that only happened one time!" Sam snapped.
Maggie narrowed her eyes and turned to her sister. "Tabby, do you really trust this brat? I mean, I understand if you trust the nerd, he seems pretty reliable-"
"People tend to say I give off a trustworthy vibe," Clyde boasted as he adjusted his glasses.
"But if I remember correctly, this girl used to be one of the toughest bullies in all of Royal Woods, and there's nothing to suggest she's changed since then," Maggie folded her arms. "Can you really say you trust her?"
Tabby glanced at Ronnie Anne, who looked away with a concerned tone, then to Polly, who nodded with a reassuring smile. Tabby returned the smile, turned back to Maggie, and stated:
"I trust her."
Maggie and Sam's eyes widened, while Ronnie Anne looked at the younger rockstar as she explained herself:
"Yes, I know Ronnie Anne has a bad reputation for being a bully, and you know what, I believed that at first. But as I hung out with her, and I got to see her with my own eyes, I realized, she's not a bully. Not anymore, at least."
Tabby turned to Ronnie Anne and smiled. "She's just a girl who's trying to move on from her past image. She's just trying to help now."
Ronnie Anne and Tabby exchanged smiles while Maggie rubbed her forehead with a slight hint of frustration.
"Well, I guess there's no helping it; if you say you trust her, we'll have to deal with it," Maggie folded her arms. "As for what we'll do, I'll go with Tabby's team to check on the Giggles girl, while Sam will go with the nerd's team to check the Haiku girl."
"What?! No fair!" Sam whined. "Why do I have to go with the nerd!?"
"It'll be a chance for you to apologize for your behavior to him earlier," Maggie sternly stated as she folded her arms. "There's so many people you've been rude to that you haven't apologized for, and it's time you change that!"
Sam narrowed her eyes. "But Dad said-!"
"Dad's not here anymore, Sam! And you know why?! Because he did the exact same thing as you, and it sent him flying right out of the picture!" Maggie snapped, narrowing her eyes. "Now woman up, accept you did something wrong, and go with that boy and apologize for what happened!"
With that said, Maggie went to the rest of Giggles Team, who were getting ready to head to the tent.
Ronnie Anne pointed forward. "Alright, Tabby, lead the way!"
Just then, Clyde snickered, earning an annoyed look from the tomboy. "What's so funny, Nerd-O?"
Clyde smiled. "You called Tabby by her actual name."
Ronnie Anne flinched as the team's eyes looked straight at her. "That's just 'cause I can't think of a nickname for her at the moment!"
"It's alright, Ronnie Anne, I don't find it that bothersome anymore," Tabby answered. "And besides, we don't have time to waste: Follow me!"
And so, Haiku Team and Giggles team separated and headed straight for the girls' tents.
Meanwhile, with Lincoln and Penelope...
The snow-haired boy and redheaded girl helped some civillians get out of the street: Lincoln providing them a way home, while Penelope took care of the zombies surrounding them.
"Be careful for the zombies with a diamond caste mark!" Lincoln told Penelope. "They'll reflect your attacks back at you!"
"And how do you even know that!?" Penelope snapped.
"I saw one of those zombies reflecting Lynn's fireball right back at her!" Lincoln answered, focusing solely on the civillians. "Trust me, seeing it happen with your own eyes isn't worth it!"
Penelope rolled her eyes and promptly turned the floor icy, causing the zombies to slip and slide as Penelope morphed the floor into a loop, with it circling and sending the zombies sliding off into the distance.
And just in time for Lincoln to take care of the last civillian, too.
"Okay, that's the last of them," the boy turned to the redhead as she turned the floor back to normal. "You know, when we were paired up as everybody split, I didn't think we would be able to work together efficiently, but we've managed to work just fine so far-"
"Remind me again why are we doing this?" Penelope sternly asked. "I mean, I know that as a god or whatever you are, you "work in mysterious ways," but it couldn't hurt to try explain yourself, right?"
"Penelope, I don't expect you to understand, but just as there are many people who can protect themselves in Royal Woods, there's just as many people who are completely defenseless," Lincoln responded as he walked up to Penelope and put a hand on her shoulder. "And if we don't help them, they're going to be killed by the zombies, or something even worse!"
An image of Calliope's demise flashed in Penelope's mind, which made her pause for a moment, lower her head, and say:
"Defenseless, huh?"
Hearing a tone of pity in the redhead's voice, Lincoln helped the last kid get up before he looked at Penelope with a raised eyebrow. This made the redhead look elsewhere and point out:
"Even so, there's only so much people we can help, you know?"
"You have a point there."
Lincoln and Penelope turned around to see none other than a faint image of Sincoln leaning against a tree, arms folded behind his back and a smug smile plastered across his face.
"However, you have to keep in mind how Junior tends to act," he said. "One minute, he'll do selfish things to get to what he wants, and the next he'll do everything he can to help everybody, or fix his mistakes. He's a paradox like that."
Penelope rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know, but still-"
"Wait a minute," Lincoln turned to the redhead. "You can see him?!"
Penelope and Sincoln looked at the boy with confusion as he glanced between them.
"Of course she can see me," Sincoln finally answered. "Is there any reason she shouldn't?"
"But-"
"Lincoln, there's another version of you standing out in the open. It's kinda hard to miss," the redhead answered. "Although, if it makes you feel a little better, I can't believe what I'm seeing either."
Lincoln shook off the shock, and glared at his counterpart. "What are you doing here, Sincoln?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to make sure you don't stray too far from what you should be focusing on, Junior," Sincoln answered as he walked to his counterpart. "Granted, the fact you've been doing that for a while now might imply I'm not doing a good job at it-"
Suddenly, Lincoln slapped Sincoln's arm away and glared at him as he hissed:
"Don't try to do anything funny to me, Sincoln! I kicked your butt once, and I can kick it again!"
"How, if I may ask?" Sincoln scoffed smugly. "I'm only a fragment of your mind at this moment, Junior. I have no physical body for you to attack."
And then a large crystal shard phased through the mad god and continued flying until it crashed on a zombie's head, with the evil Lincoln left unharmed.
A fact that greatly upset the one who shot the shard, Penelope. "Well dang it, he really can't be hit."
"Okay, if you're finished trying to fight an impossible battle, then I need to tell you something," Sincoln said as he dusted himself. "Your friends are in desperate need of your help, and if you don't help them, who knows what'll happen to them?"
"My friends... you mean Clyde and Ronnie Anne?" Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "What are you going to do to them?"
"Me? I'm not going to do anything to them; Luan, however, might have some sick ideas for her enjoyment," Sincoln folded his arms. "And if you don't want to see them as mentally broken individuals, I suggest you head to their location right now."
"How? I don't even know where they are!" Lincoln answered.
"By using the divine technique only known by divine entities, of course," Sincoln shrugged. "The technique simply known as omnipresence."
Lincoln raised an eyebrow and Penelope said: "Don't trust him, Lincoln! He might be trying to pull a trick... on yourself... man, this is so confusing!"
"I know you won't believe my words, so the only thing left to do is witness it yourself," Sincoln touched his forehead with his index and middle finger. "Do as I'm doing right now, and think, "To the place where I'm needed the most."
Lincoln folded his arms, unsure of whether to trust his counterpart or not.
"Fine, don't do it if you want," Sincoln shrugged. "But, it's entirely up to you whether your sisters get help or not. And if they even survive their encounters with their counterparts."
The suggestion that his sisters would be in danger seemed enough to convince Lincoln, as he immediately put his index and middle finger on his forehead and thought:
"To the place where I'm needed the most."
Not even a second later, Lincoln teleported out of the place, leaving Penelope alone with Sincoln, who said:
"I'll give your kind a five out of ten, your mother has a much better body than you."
Sincoln teleported away, and Penelope rubbed her forehead and took a deep breath. "What the heck just happened?"
Meanwhile, with Lisa, Lily, and Lynn Sr...
Lisa and Lily continued to fly in search for Lucy, with their "Father" Lynn Sr. still tagging along, though he seemed more worried than before.
It probably had to do with the fact Lisa seemed to have her eyes glued to the Ars Loudia.
"This tome is quite extraordinary! Not only does it have pages about corruption, but also of historical counterparts of our sisters!" Lisa chirped as she and Lily focused on the book. "It seems that among Lynn's counterparts there are Joan of Arc, Napoleon, and-"
"Girls, I know you're probably curious about a lot of things, but could you please focus on finding Lucy?" Lynn Sr. asked.
Lisa, however, failed to listen as she then added, "Huh, one of Luan's counterparts was Dante Alighieri? I guess there's a reason his, or in this case "her" work was called The Divine Comedy-"
"Please listen to me!" the man exclaimed. "I need to give Lucy this weapon right now!"
"Now that you mention it again, how's this "Loud Slayer" weapon you and mother unit created supposed to help?" Lisa inquired as she changed her focus to the road. "Just because it's made of progenitor blood doesn't mean it guarantees victory against the progenitors, right?"
"No, but the weapons have a special property that allows them to transform into one of the thousand divine weapons you and your sisters used to own, which could potentially help a lot, but still wouldn't guarantee a victory," Lynn Sr. explained.
And it wasn't long before he noticed the toddlers looking at him with confused looks. "Listen, I know what I'm saying only brings up more questions, but we don't have the time to answer everything! I need you to focus on finding Lucy!"
"Well, okay then," Lisa rolled her eyes and turned her focus back to the road. "Hey, maybe we could ask Leni for help?"
"I guess that's an option," Lynn Sr. raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"
The genius girl pointed forward. "'Cause she's heading straight for us!"
The girls flew up and Lynn Sr. narrowly dodged a monstrous Mortician Club Member, who screamed as they were sent flying straight into a building, with Leni in hot pursuit.
Once the monstrous member crashed on the wall, Leni kicked them and sent them through the building, then plummeted them to the ground with a kick, with the resulting smoke cloud glowing as the member turned back to normal.
Leni landed nearby soon after, then raised her arms and spread them wide, dispersing the smoke cloud to reveal the club member was none other than the female member with buck teeth, who panicked and fled as soon as she saw the teenager.
"And there goes another one of the Mortician Club members," Leni remarked as she dusted herself. "That should make about three, right? Only one or two more left, since Lucy and Haiku are already taken care of."
"Leni!"
The teenager turned around and saw the toddlers and the man approaching her.
"Well, if it isn't Lisa, Lily, and "Dad," she greeted, putting air quotes on the last one. "What, like, brings you here to meet me?"
"Nothing in particular, really," Lisa answered. "Lily and I were flying around, trying to find Lucy for Dad, and we just so happened to spot you on the distance, so we decided to check if you needed assistance."
"Well, as you can clearly see, I totes got everything under control, so you don't need to worry about anything," Leni turned to the man. "What about you, Dad? What are you doing here?"
The man glanced at the weapon, then back at Leni, and paused before he showed the weapon to the girl, "I'm here to deliver this Loud Slayer weapon to Lucy."
Leni eyed the weapon and raised an eyebrow. "And, like, what exactly is this supposed to be?"
"Apparently, according to father unit's description, it's a weapon made with prototypical blood or something, which is supposed to morph into one of the weapons our counterparts held as soon as it's touched by one of our sisters," Lisa explained, with Lily nodding in agreement. "And for some reason, he needs to give this specific weapon to Lucy."
"Well, if that's the case, there's only one thing to do," Leni turned her attention to her scientist sister. "Lisa, put your index and middle finger on your forehead and, like, mentally ask to look for Lucy's location."
Normally, this would be the part where Lisa would either question what were Leni's intentions, or debunk the idea that doing as she said would provide any results with some logical reasoning.
However, the scientist had an entirely different response:
"Is that one of my divine powers?!"
Leni smiled. "Try it out and tell me yourself."
The scientist exchanged a witty laugh with Lily, then did as instructed. She put her index and middle fingers on her forehead and mentally asked:
"Where's Lucy's location?!"
Immediately, Lisa found herself right above Royal Woods, even above the night dome that was covering the city, as she now had the ability to see the entire city at once. However, this ability was limited this time, as it immediately took her to Lucy's location at the city square...
Where the scientist got to see Lucy exhausted, and her revenant form for a split second before she turned back to her base form, which now looked the same as back when she was alive.
She also saw Luan, still in her half-angel form, running up to Lucy's side while Proto-Lucy approached them, not looking that badly bruised.
And at that point, the vision ended.
"Lucy's at the city square, with Luan and prototype Lucy!" Lisa told the team. "Lucy and Luan look exhausted, while prototype Lucy looks like she's ready to kill them!"
"Then we don't have time to waste!" Lynn Sr. stated. "Leni, we'll leave you to your devices! We gotta go help Lucy!"
Leni waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Yeah, I know."
So the trio got ready to leave, but just as Lynn Sr. grabbed Lisa's hand and she flew slightly up, Leni remarked:
"Before you leave, can I give you a little request? As soon as you encounter something that's far beyond your level... run. And don't even think about looking back, just run as fast as you can."
"Why the ominous warning, older sister unit?" Lisa inquired.
"Lisa, you may have finally unlocked some of your caste's powers, and Lily has a mecha that can help her in a fight, but that doesn't change the fact everybody else has far more experience dealing with the bizarre things going in the city," Leni smiled with a slight concern. "And besides, if I don't tell you to be careful, how can I trust your curiosity to not overtake your common sense?"
Although slightly offended by her older sister's remarks, and also mildly surprised that Leni said such remarks in the first place, Lisa shrugged it off and flew along with Lynn Sr. and Lily to Lucy's location, with Leni waving goodbye as they flew away.
Back at Proto-Luan's circus, Giggles' tent...
Giggles team, consisting of Maggie, Ronnie Anne, Tabby, and Hattie and Liam, looked around the tent keeping Giggles prisoner: It looked just as bizarre as the rest of the circus tent, with the only difference being Giggles' held by chains in the middle of the room.
"Okay, everybody, this is some kind of circus tent designed to mentally torment whoever enters it," Maggie answered as she took a look around. "I suggest we stay on-guard as we search for these "Haiku" and "Giggles" girls."
The goth turned to Tabby and narrowed her eyes. "That is, unless somebody wants to admit that leaving this accursed place would be a better idea!"
"I said it once and I'll say it again, we're not leaving without Haiku and Giggles!" Tabby snapped at her older sister. "Especially because, if we don't get her or Giggles out soon, there's the chance that they..."
Tabby's glare turned into a concerned frown as she lowered her head, prompting Maggie to ask, with a concerned tone, "They what?"
Polly looked elsewhere and answered, "They'll wind up being corrupted."
Just as the team's eyes widened and realized what that meant, everybody turned their focus towards the tortured Giggles, who remained silent as the whole place started to glitch, until eventually each team member found themselves in a peculiar situation.
Although, bizarrely enough, Maggie and Ronnie Anne were in the same room: A recreation of Luan's high school.
"What is this place?" Ronnie Anne asked as she took a look around. "I mean, it looks like a school, but I've never seen one of these before..."
Maggie clutched her chest and took several deep breaths, which caught Ronnie Anne's attention. "Um, is something wrong?"
Then, in the distance, a shadowy sillouethe of Luan appeared, sending shivers down Maggie's spine, and confusing Ronnie Anne.
"Hey, isn't that Joke-O's image?" the tomboy asked. "What's she doing-"
And then Maggie screamed and ran away, with Ronnie Anne and the shadowy figure chasing her afterwards, a fact that caught Ronnie Anne's attention.
"Joke-O's shadow image is chasing after the girl too?" she thought as she glanced at the shadowy Luan. "Why would it do tha-"
Suddenly, both Ronnie Anne and Maggie slipped on banana peels, the latter screaming while the former tried to use the peels as skates to get closer to Maggie... at least, until they both reached some stairs and were sent flying from the top.
While Ronnie Anne just hit the floor face-first, however, Maggie screamed again as an audible *CRACK* was heard, followed by the girl sliding off on something that looked like oil.
Hearing the girl's screams, Ronnie Anne stood up, slid on the oil and followed her until she crashed on top of a bunch of feathers, with another *CRACK* being heard.
Ronnie crashed on the pile of feathers, and this caused them to fly away and reveal Maggie inside: Covered in feathers and oil, with both her leg and her arm broken.
Then, as if to, the shadow Luan appeared, grew much bigger, and laughed like a maniac as she split into several more shadow people, who joined in the laughter as Maggie covered her face with her good arm and cried.
"Now I get it: This whole thing is just a nightmare this girl's having, about some prank Joke-O did to her a long time ago," Ronnie Anne folded her arms and gritted her teeth. "To think Joke-O would be capable of doing such things..."
Ronnie Anne turned around and faced the mob of laughing shadows, with Luan's shadow standing out rather blatantly across the crowd. And with the laughter quickly getting on her nerves, the tomboy stood up and exclaimed:
"Stand back!"
Ronnie Anne swung her lighting blade at the shadowy Luan, cutting her in half. However, this didn't stop the shadowy figure from laughing maniacally as the world slowly broke and then shattered into pieces, returning the duo back to reality.
Just in time for Ronnie Anne and Giggles to exchange angry looks.
"Were you the one who created that Joke-O illusion, Clown-O?!" the tomboy snapped at the clown girl, who continued to look at her with a bloodshot glare. "What kind of sick joke was that!?"
"H-Huh?" Maggie asked as she realized she was back in reality. "The... the nightmare's over?"
Maggie looked around until she spotted Ronnie Anne. "D-Did you do something about it?"
"The illusion? Well, I cut the shadowy Joke-O in half, and that somehow caused the whole thing to shatter," Ronnie Anne explained. "That wasn't even my intention, I was hoping that cutting shadow Joke-O would make her and the other shadows stop laughing."
And then Tabby, Hattie, and Liam returned to the spot as Giggles growled:
"She never stopped..."
But she was ignored, and Ronnie Anne promptly ran to the team and helped them get up. "Are you guys okay? Where did you go?"
"Well, I wound up in one of Dad's final concerts, but luckily when things got too loud, I covered my ears and the... whatever it was ended," Tabby answered. "But how did you guys get out of your stuff, whatever that was?"
"I slashed the shadowy Joke-O in half, and that somehow got rid of it," Ronnie Anne explained, then glared at Giggles. "And I get the feeling Clown-O over there is just as angry about it as I am."
This prompted Giggles to repeat:
"She never stopped... she never stopped... she never stopped..."
With a cracking sound, Giggles' eyes opened wide and she unleashed a pillar of light as she yelled:
"She never stopped laughing!"
Meanwhile, with Haiku Team...
They weren't doing much better; They also got stuck in some illusions, nightmares, or whatever it is they were put in, and in this case, Clyde and Sam got placed in the same nightmare:
A massive, blank room with like a million of Lunas, each periodically aiming a weapon at their heads and pulling the trigger, ending their lives, only to come back to life soon after.
"Sam, what's up with this place?!" Clyde asked as he tried to look away from the Lunas.
"Its my nightmare; The fate of many Lunas across the universe," Sam answered while she covered her ears and tried to look away. "For every dimension where Luna and I get together, or whee we're happy, there's another one where either my counterpart's action, or the pressure of that world, drives that world's Luna to-"
*BANG*
"End it all..."
"So that's why you're so obsessively protective to Luna," Clyde frowned and brushed Sam's hair with sympathy. "You don't want this world's Luna to suffer the same fate as these other Lunas?"
Sam sadly nodded, and as if by some miracle, the Lunas stopped shooting their own brains out, allowing the duo to take a bit of a breather. So, Clyde sat next to Sam as she explained:
"So, yeah, I've had this nightmare constantly, and I've been trying to keep Luna happy in order to avoid it from turning into a reality."
"But if that's the case, why would you force her to be your girlfriend, and keep her leashed up with that weird energy of yours?" Clyde asked, earning an exasperated look from the rocker. "In my opinion, that doesn't sound like something that would make her happy-"
"Didn't you just see the massacre just now!? Anybody would be driven to do anything in order to not experience that nightmare again!" Sam snapped. "Sometimes, I would even resort to getting drunk, just for a chance to get the nightmare out of my head!"
Clyde gasped. "You resort to underage drinking!"
"It's more like I buy a soda at that guy Flip's store, and get drunk off that," Sam scratched the back of her head. "I don't know what he puts in that drink, but it's apparently legal, I take it whenever I can."
Clyde took a deep breath. "I guess I can see your point."
A pregnant silence developed between the duo...
"H-Hey... I'm sorry for the way I acted towards you and and Luna's brother a couple weeks ago, alright?" Sam spoke. "It's just that, ever since I had this "Luna-kills-herself" nightmare, I just can't trust anybody that could potentially ruin Luna's day with their bad luck!"
Clyde snickered. "I guess Lincoln's legendary bad luck is well known in your school?"
"My school? Try all of Royal Woods!" Sam answered sternly. "Whenever I hear about this Lincoln guy, it's either about his bad luck, or something so disturbing, I don't even want to talk about it!"
"It's okay, I'm not going to force you to tell me about it," Clyde sighed. "But, you know, you'll have to apologize to him too, right?"
"I know... I just don't know if he'll really accept or understand my point of view," Sam sighed. "I mean, I suddenly had this dream where a person I didn't know was so important to me, wound up dying because of something I did, and ever since then, I've tried my hardest to prevent that nightmare from happening again. Who would ever understand that?"
Clyde reached for his pocket, and took out a picture of him, Penelope, and Calliope, all sharing a hug and smiling wide like a family. After looking at the picture for a while, the boy said stood up and said:
"I would."
Then he slowly turned around, and as soon as he saw a familiar face glaring at him-that being Haiku's face-he calmly saved the picture, paused...
Then aimed his arm cannon and the face and shot it, immediately shattering the nightmare and returning the duo to reality, where Haiku shivered in her spot and covered her face as she screamed in pain.
Sam looked at the agonizing poet, then turned back to Clyde and said, "How did you-"
"I had a feeling I was being watched, and Haiku has always been one of the more jealous girls I've seen," Clyde answered, looking strictly and sternly at Haiku as he turned his arm cannon back into an arm. "I just didn't think she'd drag someone else into the mix as well."
Haiku took a couple breaths, parted her fingers to reveal her bloodshot eye, then giggled as she asked, "You... remember?"
"Now there, don't jump into conclusions, I'm not suggesting that I share my memories with my counterpart," Clyde clarified, waving his hand in a dismissive manner. "I'm just saying that I remember how you tended to be very jealous, even before we found out about the whole "old reality" thing."
Clyde folded his arms and shook his head. "Of the dates, you were always the most disapproving when you saw me with Penelope, and believe it or not: Putting me in the same nightmare as someone who's desperately trying to make sure their love interest survives, is a little on the nose."
Sam's eyes widened after hearing how Clyde described her, though her attention was soon caught when Haiku suddenly asked:
"Why did you stop?"
Clyde and Sam raised an eyebrow, and the girl explained:
"Why would you only shoot me once? Do you not hate me? Do you not love me? Whatever you feel... you should be hurting me..."
"What are you talking about, Haiku? Hurting you won't get-" Clyde said, only to realize what was going on soon after. "Wait, don't tell me it's starting to act up?!"
"What's starting to act up?!" Sam asked.
"The Lucy caste's passive ability!"
The duo turned around and saw Polly Pain and the Spokes brothers running up to them.
"Where did you guys go?" Sam inquired.
"A nightmare of sorts, involving Lynn and Margo, but that doesn't matter!" Polly looked at Haiku as she explained, "Haiku right now is being affected by the Lucy caste's passive ability: After a while, every single time she gets hurt, her body makes that pain pleasurable!"
Clyde's eyes widened. "And since this place is supposed to be a place of constant torture-"
"Not only would the ability activate, but it would overload due to how much pain she's suffering at the moment!" Sam interjected, backing away as Haiku uncovered her face and giggled some more. "She's probably on so much pain-pleasure, she's gone insane!"
Polly clenched her fists and looked back at the girl. "Haiku, listen to me! We're going to get you out of there, just hold on a little longer!"
"Help me? Free me? Don't lie to yourself, Polly, I was a lost cause from the start... in fact, we were all a lost cause from the start..." Haiku lowered her head and laughed wildly. "As soon as the lord and savior decided he wanted to play with everyone's feelings, he made us the four loves so we'd be blamed for his actions! So everybody would think we were the puppetmasters, pulling their heats' strings, while it was Lincoln who pulled everybody's strings! And as he pulls the strings, he forces everyone to commit horrors that nobody wishes to commit, and those that do wish to commit them are hopeless to do it on their own volition!"
"Crap, she's really gone insane; She's ranting on about Lincoln again!" Polly frowned. "Even if we get her out of here, it might take a while for her to go back to normal."
Haiku laughed some more, then suddenly stopped, and looked at Clyde, who took a step back as the girl spoke:
"Clyde... you still wonder what happened that day, don't you?"
The boy raised an eyebrow, and next thing he and the team knew, they were transported to another illusion, this one resembling... Penelope's house.
"This is the place, isn't it?" Haiku asked as she suddenly fell and hit the floor, with no reaction whatsoever. "The place where your nightmare began."
And then something else materialized: Calliope, who was reading a mountain of mail. Hate mail, to be exact.
"Calliope?!" Clyde gasped, only to angrily snap at the goth, "How do you know about this, Haiku!? I never told you anything about this!"
Haiku stood up and dusted herself as she replied, with an unfaltering smile. "You don't have to."
Then, Haiku created a scythe out of her soul energy, and walked towards Calliope, who could only turn around and look at the girl with shock as she raised her weapon and said:
"I was already there."
One swing later, and Calliope was nowhere to be seen. The only thing left of her were the blood stains that splashed Clyde's clothes, the walls, and Haiku's own clothes.
She then turned to Clyde and sporting a look befitting of one of those Japanese horror ghost girls, she smiled wide and confessed:
"I was always there."
Haiku snapped her fingers and ended the illusion, turning everything back to nomral as Clyde put two and two together.
"Haiku... you... you did it, didn't you?" he asked, his pupils shrinking as he stammered, "Y-You... killed Calliope?"
Haiku closed her eyes and giggled.
"Clyde... I wish I could ask for forgiveness... but the truth is..."
Haiku lifted her head and opened her eyes, crying tears of blood as she said:
"Even Lincoln won't forgive me for what I've done."
An intense light burst from Haiku's position, causing a pillar of light to emerge and send Clyde and the rest of the team flying into the walls. And the light only intensified as it engulfed the room, and caused it to explode, sending everybody flying off to the ground.
Clyde managed to regain his footing with his jet shoes, and he helped the rest of the team land safely as well.
And then another explosion happened, this time with the Giggles team falling and crashing on the ground, getting Haiku team's attention.
The first to react was Sam, who ran up to Maggie-whose arm and leg were healed, not to mention she was no longer covered in feathers-who she helped stand up while the gothic teenager cried.
"Maggie, calm down, it's all over now!" Sam told her sister, trying to calm her down. "You don't have to cry anymore-!"
"She's hunting me down! She wants to break me and do things to me for her own entertainment!" Maggie cried, clutching her sister's shoulders. "I don't want to be her friend anymore! I don't wanna be her plaything!"
"I know you don't, sis, but everything's fine now! The nightmare's over!" Sam said as she caressed Maggie's cheek. "Now, look at me in the eyes, and take a couple deep breaths."
Maggie obliged and took a couple of deep breaths as Sam gave her a reassuring look, and brushed her hair as gently as possible. And once she calmed down a bit, Maggie hugged Sam's chest and cried some more.
"There, there, let it all out," Sam patted Maggie's back. "Now, tell me, what happened?"
"I relived the day of the prank... where she broke my arm and leg and laughed about it..." Maggie answered, her voice muffled by Sam's chest. "And it would've continued if it wasn't for the ponytail girl..."
Sam's eyes widened and she turned to Ronnie Anne as she asked, "Are you talking about Ronnie Anne?"
"Yes..." Maggie sniffed and separated from Sam. "While I was crying and being laughed, she literally shattered the nightmare and defended me from the one who forced me to go through with it..."
Sam glanced at Maggie, then turned back to the tomboy on the ground. She smiled, and said:
"Well, if she did that... then maybe she's not so bad after all."
"Dang it, not you too!" Clyde exclaimed as he ran to Ronnie Anne's side and helped her get up. "Are you okay?!"
"Yeah, believe it or not, I've had worse falls in my life," Ronnie Anne said as she dusted herself. "However, we weren't able to get Clown-O to come out of her prison. If anything, it seems that we ticked her off."
"Well, we didn't have much success either," "In fact, I wound up discovering something that greatly upsets me."
Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"
"...The killer of my and Penelope's daughter, Calliope," Clyde looked elsewhere and folded his arms. "It's Haiku."
Ronnie Anne's eyes widened, but before she could try to deny the fact, a maniacal laughter was heard in the distance. And as soon as both teams looked up, they saw why:
Haiku and Giggles were floating, both surrounded by a pink aura, and with a giant creature right behind them:
Haiku had a giant nurse-like entity, with a humanoid torso and upper half, while the lower half was made of tentacles, each ending in some object used during medical operations. The nurse also had a plague doctor's mask covering her face.
Giggles had some sort of clown made out of balloons and balls, with several mouths spread across its bodies, some smiling, some frowning, all laughing with a demonic voice.
And finally, both their birthmarks had changed: Rather than a skull and a flower with a spades symbol, they now had a shattered heart split in half, with the spades nowhere to be seen.
"It's too late, they've been corrupted!" Polly exclaimed as she stood up and looked at her friends. "They're no longer the Love of Romance and Love of Friendship! They're..."
Polly looked at Haiku, who giggled like a mad woman while the nurse entity sharped one of her tentacle-tools: A knife.
"The Lust for Affection..."
Then she turned to Giggles, who clenched her fists and gritted her teeth.
"And the Lust for Revenge!"
Giggles then raised her arms and yelled "Luan" at the top of her lungs, with her clown companion roaring with its dozens of mouths in response. They both then got in the "Cannonball" position and started bouncing towards Luan's location, leaving craters and destroyed building on their way. And when the teams tried to run after her, Haiku blocked their path with her entity's tentacle-tools.
"Come on, girl, this isn't the time to be a pain in our butts!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed as she and Clyde glared at the girl, with Clyde looking particularly furious at her. "We're already dealing with a lot of nonsense, we don't need you to add yourself to the-!"
Suddenly, Clyde activated the Savinoken and screamed as he flew towards Haiku, leaving behind a confused Ronnie Anne. His screams only stopped when his fist and Haiku's elbow clashed.
And then, their looks met: Haiku's being filled with excitement, while Clyde's was filled with fury.
Finally, back with the Battle with Proto-Lucy...
The prototype shook her head and laughed as Luan helped Lucy stood up.
"Well, look at that, Ariel, you hit me with all the anger you could gather, and in the end it failed to put a scratch on me," the prototype shrugged and smiled. "Then again, I wasn't expecting much: The fires that fueled your anger were the fires of a depressed second-rate writer. That barely will leave a sting."
"Then what about the fire of a sore loser!?"
Proto-Lucy raised an eyebrow, and next thing she knew, the prototype was hit by a fireball that sent her flying off a dozen feet, and left one of her cheeks charred.
Soon after, the one responsible for the fireball revealed themselves to be Lynn, who jumped out of the shadows and landed right next to the goth and comedian.
"Sorry that I took so long to show up!" Lynn told the duo. "It's a little hard to shoot fireballs when my hands are a little messed up, hehe!"
Luan and Lucy, however, were not in the mood for jokes.
"What the heck happened to you, Lynn?!" Lucy exclaimed as she ran to her sister's side, and looked at her hands. "Why do your hands look like they touched the sun itself?!"
"Well, I guess you could say they kinda did touch it," Lynn somberly answered. "My counterpart grabbed my hands and used her fire abilities to burn them. Now, it's kinda hard for me to shoot fireballs from them."
"What about your other techniques?" Luan asked with a concerned tone.
"Firebreathing leaves my throat sore, I haven't mastered super speed yet, and the bersoreker form has never really helped me all that much," the jock confessed, taking a deep breath as she added, "Honestly, there's not much else I can do."
"So, you've been reduced to the levels of the people you considered inferior?"
The team turned around and saw Proto-Lucy grab and tear off her charred skin, revealing a bony spot where her cheek used to be.
"You know, I'll admit, I expected you to shove your nose up my business, Camael," Proto-Lucy answered, seemingly unaffected by the tear. "Considering I got Lynn to work with me, it was only a matter of time before her daughter decided to join the party."
The prototype sighed with melancholy. "But, the fact another pest joins the crowd only further aggravates me."
The team narrowed their eyes in exasperation.
"If I can be honest, once everything was said and done, I was hoping that I could meet my brother one-on-one," Proto-Lucy remarked with a forlorn tone as she touched the cheek she still had intact. "It's not fair that Lola and Lana get to meet him first. After all, out of all of us, I was the one he liked the most. But oh well, I can't go against Lori and Leni's plans."
Proto-Lucy looked elsewhere and scratched the side of her head. "At least, not without them killing me for it."
"Even if he was here, the Lincoln you're looking for isn't here!" Lynn stated. "Our Lincoln is not your Lincoln!"
"My oh my, you certainly earned
And almost as if on cue, Lincoln appeared nearby the team's spot, his index and middle fingers still on his forehead.
"Huh, the city square?" Lincoln remarked as he took a look around and lowered his fingers. "That's weird, I thought this was going to send me to Clyde's location. After all, it's supposed to take me wherever I'm most needed."
"Lincoln!" the trio exclaimed, slightly concerned, yet slightly relieved too.
The boy turned to the girls and waved his hand. "Hi girls, what's up?"
And then he noticed how they looked. "Wait, what happened to you?!"
"Well, look who we have here..."
The boy turned around again and saw Proto-Lucy, with a pair of giant shadowy arms emerging from her back as she said, with a malicious smirk:
"Nice to see you again, brother..."
Next Chapter Preview...
"Hello... the name is Haiku..."
Lincoln looked at Proto-Lucy as the girl with giant shadowy arms looked like she was about to lunge at him.
"I feel... Relieved..."
Then, the scene cut to show Penelope talking with someone on the phone, before the other end showed Carlota blocking an axe from the Purple Champion.
"Like the weight on my shoulders... Was gone..."
Carlota and Claire were shown exchanging thumbs up, before the scene cut back to Penelope, who was approached by Lindsey and Chandler on the latter's cloud.
"But now... But now..."
Lindsey whined about something, and then she and the boy left, before it showed Lindsey jumping off the cloud and using
"I need a new pain... I need a new feeling... I need a new..."
Then, a cut showed Haiku being punched in the face by Clyde, only to slowly turn back as the narration said, with a sly tone:
"Punishment!"
Suddenly, Haiku appeared calm as she said something which enraged Clyde, causing him to snap at her.
"So, Clyde... Everyone... Torture me to your leisure!"
Haiku covered both herself and the boy in a shield made of black energy, and then the scene cut to show Lori arguing with her inner head.
"Make me feel the shame! The guilt! The regret of killing your lovechild!"
And then the scene changed to show the Lovechild team and biker trio arriving at the organization, with Lupa and Lacy engaging in a fight with Flip's machine.
"Give it to me! Just give it to me! Just fucking give it to me!"
Haiku's narration devolved into demented cackle as several scenes were shown in quick succession: Lupa and Lacy with glowing eyes, Carol and Paige glaring defiantly at Renee, a stylized version of Lincoln grabbing himself by his hand and slowly tearing himself in two, and finally Proto-Lucy looking like she was having a meltdown.
The cackling continued until a voice similar to Lincoln's took over the narration, which was kinda necessary at that point as the scene changed to show the stylized Lincoln fully splitting in two, with both halves turning into Lincolns.
"Next time on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."
Luan was shown facing off against the corrupted Giggles, until she surrounded the city with a yellow hue, with almost everybody being frozen by the act.
"Lincoln's Patience Wears Thin! The Lovechildren Attack?! The Night Dome Falls, the Sunlight Returns!"
Proto-Luna was seen looking shocked as Proto-Luan summoned a building and threw it at her, while Luna's eyes were shown turning purple with star-shaped pupils as she prepared to swing her sword down.
"Don't miss it!"
The last scene showed Lincoln turning around to see Sincoln standing nearby, sporting his usual smug grin.