Lorraine knew that the Ancients merely fuse with Giygas and add to his strength when they die. She wouldn't want that any more than we do.

She must have found some way to get the dead ancients to fuse with her instead. She's trying to become as powerful as Giygas himself.

Ninten appeared in front of the Shard of Ceres to see a field of dead starmen with arrows sticking through their heads. Starman corpses smelled different than humans, but the tangy scent of starman death was a sickly sweet one that nearly made Ninten gag.

"Psych," Claus said. "Looks like someone got here before we did."

"Archers, no less," Poo said, kneeling down and examining one of the starman corpses. "I don't see any missed arrows. Someone must have gathered up the stray arrows, meaning that they probably shot these starmen a while ago."

"Either that or the archer who did this never misses a shot," came a voice from behind Ninten.

"Diana," Claus said, not even bothering to turn around. "You always seem to show up at the most random times."

Ninten turned around to see Diana smiling. She carried the same strong jawline and wiry frame as Minerva, yet the twinkle in her eye shone brighter than her sister's expression ever had.

"Ah," Poo said. "I don't believe we've ever met. You're somewhat of a legend here on Ceres, though."

"It's why I don't show my face more often. Not that I can blame Ceres for wanting me dead after I killed thousands for a cult."

Poo nodded. No time to gawk, Ninten supposed.

"Kumatora went into the Shard after the seal broke," Diana said. "Told me something about finding her mother. I think that some of the starmen got in."

Kumatora… Ninten thought with a sigh of relief. I guess that starman didn't kill her after all.

Thinking of Kumatora reminded Ninten of Darius. He teleported himself away individually instead of following Poo's group as they fled from Lucas, Ninten assumed. What was he doing now?

"Well, good thing that they can't teleport directly into the Shard," Claus said. "We can just guard the entrance, right?"

"Right," Diana said. After a moment, her eyes narrowed. "I sense another wave. I assume that you can all handle yourselves?"

"We wouldn't have come here otherwise," Poo said.

Diana nocked an arrow, holding it by her ear. Ninten didn't know how she managed to hold the arrow steady; he remembered trying to learn archery a couple years ago and his arm got exhausted if he tried to hold the arrow nocked for more than a moment.

Diana loosed the arrow. It soared through the air, towards an empty tree.

An army of starman appeared while the arrow was in mid-flight. The arrow punched through one of the starmen's heads.

"Let's go," Diana said. "They'll fire lasers from afar, so either shoot back or move in."

Ninten nodded and exchanged a glance with Claus.

"Shall we charge in for old times' sakes?" Ninten asked.

"That sounds like a plan for me," Claus said, unsheathing his sword.

Jeff watched Tracy's and Venus' lifeless bodies on the table-screen in front of him. It took him a couple seconds to realize that his hands were clenched into fists. Ana stood and raised her axe, prepared to meet Lucas' charge.

"Divine Rulers," Jeff said. "This is what happens when you challenge a psionic savant, Ana."

Immediately, Jeff issued a mental command for the screen not to send those particular words to Ana.

"The girl has some fight left in her," Lorraine said, walking over and examining the table. "That's what happens when you're not afraid to defy the odds. I wouldn't be surprised if she came out on top."

Then you must be insane.

"Remember, I can hear your thoughts," Lorraine said with a smile.

Jeff blushed. Lorraine's smile only widened.

"Don't worry about it," Lorraine said. "I'm not one to judge you for thoughts that pop up into your mind. We can only control so much, after all."

"But I thought if we were passionate enough, we could control anything we wanted," Jeff said.

"Good. I like your way of thinking."

Jeff looked back at the screen to see Ana swinging her axe at Lucas. She held up better than he expected for someone on her final reserves of strength. He looked back at Lorraine to see the pink-haired woman's brow knotted and her eyes narrowed. She whispered something to herself that Jeff couldn't pick up.

"Oh," Lorraine said, her face softening after a moment. "Why was she trying so hard to hide from me?"

"I wasn't," came a voice that Jeff recognized. "I just didn't want the starmen to find me."

Kumatora walked up to Lorraine and hugged the older woman.

"It's nice to see you, mom," Kumatora said. "I just regained most of my memories recently."

"That's… wonderful," Lorraine said. Jeff caught an uncertain look on her face.

"And Jeff!" Kumatora said, directing her warm gaze over in his direction. "I'm glad that we get the chance to see each other again. What are you looking at?" Kumatora walked over to the screen where Ana was battling Lucas. "Oh."

"I'm trying to give her advice, but what can I do when she's fighting a savant?" Jeff asked.

"Tell her to run?"

"Already tried that."

Kumatora frowned, taking a closer look at Ana on the screen.

"Psych, she's angry. I didn't think that she was the type." Kumatora paused. "Is that Ness' sister dead on the ground over there?"

"Uh… yeah." Jeff grimaced.

"Well, I can't blame her for wanting to fight Lucas after he killed a 13 year old girl." Kumatora turned towards Lorraine. "Mom, there are starmen storming through the entrance to the Shard after Jeff broke the seal. Would you mind dealing with them?"

"I was just about to," Lorraine said. She hesitated for a moment before turning back to Kumatora. "Yes, that seems like the wise choice. Teleport."

Jeff could see Lorraine vanishing out of the corner of his eye. A gust of wind blew past, making a rippling sound as it sent Jeff's clothes flapping. He kept an eye on the edge of the building to make sure that he wouldn't fall off.

"The wind's strong here with nothing else to block it, huh?" Kumatora said, scanning the landscape. "Psych. My mother did quite the job of recreating Faldin."

"Faldin?"

"A planet where the Osohe lived. This is Ralthevar, city of stained glass."

And Faldin is now called Ceres, I think. Full circle.

"I can see how the city got its title," Jeff said, watching the screen as Lucas dodged one of Ana's attacks. "Why did your appearance throw your mother off her game like that? I could tell that she wasn't comfortable around you."

"Because I was trying to make her uneasy," Kumatora said, her smile turning icy. "Her actions didn't make sense to me back when I lived here, and it still doesn't make sense now, but…" Kumatora shook her head. "I'm starting to put the pieces together. I do know that she is not our friend."

"Doesn't surprise me," Jeff said. "Something about her just gave me the wrong vibe."

"I thought that you didn't trust vibes and instincts."

"Not alone, I don't. I assume that you have good reason for distrusting your own mother, meaning that we should probably figure out something now before she gets back." Jeff turned away from the screen. "If you're right and she doesn't want to help us, this could be bigger than Ana's quarrel with Lucas. Let's address this quickly so I can try to think of some way to help Ana."

Kumatora glanced at the screen, her gaze lingering for a few moments before she eventually tore it away and looked back at Jeff.

"Glad to see that you're on board," Kumatora said. "But we should try to save Ana now. Every life matters. My mother even preached that sentiment, although I don't know if she ever truly believed it."

"But if we're still here looking at these screens when Lorraine comes back from defeating the starmen…"

"Who said anything about staying here? I have a way to keep you in contact with these screens remotely. Are you ready to leave?"

"I guess-"

"Teleport!" Kumatora said, interrupting Jeff.

The world faded around Jeff in a flash of light. The next second, he heard the sounds of bushes rustling and birds chirping. He looked around to see that he stood in a dense forest outside the boundaries of the city Ralthevar. With the trees overhead, he couldn't even see the massive city with its stained glass towers. A songbird chirped on a nearby tree, and Kumatora started along a shaded path.

"This way," Kumatora said. "I guess my teleport missed the mark by a hair."

After following Kumatora for less than a minute, Jeff emerged from the forest to spot a pond that radiated a golden light that engulfed all of the nearby trees in a sea of yellow. It wasn't bright enough to hurt his eyes, but it glowed with enough intensity to emit a mystical aura. A massive elk with giant antlers drank from the golden water in the pond before walking off, not appearing to notice Jeff or Kumatora.

"Gawk later," Kumatora said. "Here, put this on."

Kumatora held out a lens in front of Jeff, but he couldn't force himself to look away from the golden pond. Birds colored in all different shades of the rainbow emerged from the trees, singing different tunes that compounded with each other to form one, complete song. A school of sliver fish with sparkling scales swam close to the surface of the pond before diving deep underneath. Divine Rulers, how far down did that pond go?

"Jeff!"

"Uh… Sorry." Jeff took the lens from Kumatora, holding it up for inspection.

"This is the Franklin Badge," Kumatora said. "Not the original kind that the Osohe used, but the transparency gives it more functionality. It will let you see just like those screens back on top of the building where my mother took you. Use it to find Ana again."

"Why is it called a badge if it's just a lens?" Jeff said, putting it over the right part of his glasses.

"It's an archaic name. It can reflect light-based attacks as well, and my dad upgraded it to take light energy and use it for clairvoyance. Go ahead and imagine Ana."

Jeff closed his eyes and focused on Ana's muscular build and stoic posture. Upon opening them, he once again saw the torn streets of Ceres through the lens that Kumatora had given him. Ana continued to fight Lucas, and she still stood despite the time that had lapsed while she fought an almost godlike being.

"Now," Kumatora said. "We brainstorm ways to kill a savant."

"I think that's all of them," Claus said.

Ninten sighed in relief. His legs ached after darting around and stabbing starmen for what felt like hours.

"Would have been so much easier with one of the Osohe knives," Ninten said. "You insert one of those in and they just fall to pieces."

Claus grunted.

"I know," Claus said. "I killed quite a number of starmen with Amourus before you fused it into the Sword of Kings and Mary stole it."

"It's funny, looking back," Ninten said, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. "We used to see starmen as such a threat. Now, they're just roadblocks in our path. We could have died here today, but given what else we've faced…"

"Yeah, these starmen seem like a bunch of pushovers," Claus said. His nose wrinkled. "Still doesn't make them pleasant to kill, though."

"Wasn't too bad during the fight," Ninten said. "But after…"

Ninten looked around at the couple dozen or so starmen lying at their feet. Each one gave off the same sickly sweet stench that Ninten was starting to become accustomed to. His heart stopped pounding in his chest, adrenaline stopped commanding him to run and stab, and Ninten realized that he felt exhausted.

"Let's head back to the Shard," Claus said. "Who knows if a third wave might come in?"

"We might not be that helpful," Ninten said with a grin. "In the time that it took us to kill a squad, Diana and Poo mauled the rest of the army. Poo can use PK attacks to hit a lot of starmen at once, and… Well, Diana's just Diana."

"She could probably take the entire starman force out on her own if they came at her one by one," Claus said. "But they'll probably want to know that we're safe."

"True." Ninten's legs burned as he took a step forward. "Let's go, then."

Ninten looked back at the Shard of Ceres in the distance. In chasing down small group after small group of starmen to kill, they had wandered quite a distance away from the purple building that loomed overhead. At least it would provide plenty of time to cool down so that Ninten's muscles wouldn't tighten up after exerting himself.

A moment later, Ninten detected a psionic aura behind him. When an aura just appeared like that, it usually meant that a psion teleported in. Ninten whirled around to see Mary levitating inches off the ground. The handle of the Sword of Kings stuck out from her chest while most of the blade jutted out behind her back. Ninten spotted the Sound Stone inside of the hilt.

"Claus," Mary said. "It's been quite some time, hasn't it?"

Claus? Since when had Mary known Claus? Ninten looked over at his friend, who didn't look any less confused.

"Still don't recognize me?" Mary said. "You humans. Always blinded by what you think you see."

"Fassad," Claus said. "I could never forget that smile of yours. Someone needs to knock a few of your teeth out."

"Ah, but these aren't my teeth." Mary laughed. "You actually did me a service by freeing Lucas from my control. This body suits me far better than a child's."

"You managed to gain control of Mary's body?" Claus said. "How?"

"You combined three knives containing three spirits to create the Sword of Kings," Fassad said. "My spirit was in one of those knives, remember? So now it's inside this body, alongside the other two spirits and that dysfunctional starman."

"And they let you be in charge?" Ninten said.

"I struck a deal with Gigyas," Mary said. "He let me control the body if I agreed to kill Ceresian psions for him. It turns out that Mary was resisting his will enough that it was easier for him to let someone else take the reins. Now isn't that just sweet? I get to profit off of her hard work!"

"So my mother's in there too," Claus said, his voice so soft that Ninten hardly heard it. "She's still alive, in a way."

"Yes she is, but I doubt that she wants to see you," Mary said, smiling in Fassad-like fashion once more. "Still, Claus, you spat in my face by freeing your brother from my control. Nobody does that and gets away with it. The fact that I'm supposed to kill psions anyway is just another nice bonus."

"Well," Ninten said, summoning a sword made of green ectoplasm. "It looks like just killing starmen was too much to ask for."

Ana swung her axe at Lucas, forcing him to parry with his stained glass sword. Ana's axe locked with his blade for a moment, and Ana pushed Lucas back with all of her strength.

Ana knew that Lucas was faster than her, Lucas was more precise than her, and that Lucas had a more refined killer instinct than her. But if she could turn this into a test of brute force, she might stand a chance.

Lucas staggered backwards, his sword falling away from his hands. The stained glass blade clattered to the ground, and Ana expected it to shatter like actual glass would. Instead, it vanished a moment later.

Lucas could summon psionically enhanced blades and armor whenever he wanted to, and he could dismiss them in a similar manner. Ana remembered Lucas back on Vulcan dismissing his blade and then summoning it in another position so quickly that her eyes couldn't follow it.

Ana lunged at Lucas, and he barely managed to summon his sword in time to block her attack.

What used to be effortless for him now took a considerable amount of time.

"You're a dead woman walking," Lucas said, his voice still monotone. "Without psionics, you don't stand a chance."

"Well, it doesn't really look like you have psionics either," Ana said, swinging at Lucas again. "At least, not psionics that will help you."

Lucas growled, parrying Ana's attack and lashing out with his right leg. His foot slammed into her ankle, nearly tripping her. Ana staggered backwards but brought her axe down on Lucas with enough momentum to prompt a step backwards. Lucas and Ana stood outside of each other's weapon ranges, staring each other down.

"If you were on top of your game, you would have pulled some crazy trick with your sword," Ana said. "I remember your sword vanishing and appearing a moment later as a lance inside of your opponent's chest. But I bet that you can't do that anymore, can you?"

"Shut up!" Lucas' face flushed red with rage.

Ana laughed. Finally, Lucas sounded like something other than a robot.

"You little…" Lucas' face returned to neutral. "This is about them, isn't it? Your two friends that I killed."

"And Ness."

Lucas' face twitched. Ana wouldn't have even noticed it in someone else's expression, but with Lucas looking so devoid of emotion, she wondered if even hearing Ness' name set off something deep within him.

"It's for him that I say this." Lucas pointed his sword at Ana. "Go. I'll spare your life. Maybe that will calm the voices in my head."

Oh Lucas, Ana thought. You really shouldn't have just told me why I need to keep fighting. If I die, will the voices scream louder the next time you kill somebody?

Ana raised her axe in reply to Lucas' blade.

If so, I'll gladly die. My life means nothing.

Ana lunged forward at Lucas. The two fought in an extended duel, with both sides able to take multiple hits and walk away without a scratch. Ana still didn't manage to hit Lucas even once, but at least she put enough pressure on him that any hits he landed on her merely left minor wounds. Ana knew that she was toying with death itself; a direct hit from Lucas would probably kill her and she didn't have the psionic energy to heal up even if she could delay the damage by slowing her metabolism.

For the first time in years, Ana didn't think about the danger. She didn't let her constant worries weigh her down. So even though she exhausted reserves of strength that she didn't even know she had, Ana still felt more alert and alive than she could remember previously.

I'm turning into General Kim, Ana told herself. I'm becoming someone who fights and kills with glee.

Ana would accept that, if she could fight and kill Lucas before dying in this war elsewhere.

Ana began to tire while Lucas kept up his same pace of battle, but her strength didn't decline as quickly as she expected. She still managed to put more brute force behind her swings than most soldiers could manage on one of their good days. Lucas continued with his same fighting style, parrying light attacks and running circles around Ana while trying to nick her with his blade. He probably figured that after enough time and with her body littered with small wounds, Ana would eventually give out. He was probably right.

Ana didn't care. She roared and smiled. She took in the world with wide eyes as she swung her axe around. Psych it, she was standing up to a psionic savant, a being so powerful that it could ravage entire cities, and she wasn't even dead yet. How many people could claim to keep Lucas distracted for even a few minutes?

Besides, Ana thought, If I keep him busy here, I make sure he's not hurting anyone else.

Ana could content herself with the knowledge that delaying Lucas here probably saved several lives that he would have taken instead with this time. Stalling her own death here was the most that she would ever do for the universe, so she had better psyching do it well.

"Ana!" came a voice in her mind. "It's me, Jeff. I'm here in the Shard of Ceres with Kumatora. We're trying to think of a way to help you beat Lucas."

Jeff? In the Shard of Ceres? Well, he did say that he had visited before, and with that shroud of mystery surrounding that structure… Who knew what sorts of powers the Shard granted access to? Maybe it allowed for long range telepathy. Considering that a powerful psion could probably send a telepathic message across several miles, Ana suspected that the Shard could handle such a task with ease.

"Well," Ana thought, trying to send a message back to Jeff. "Do you have any ideas?"

The thought almost cost Ana her life; she barely raised her axe in time to swat Lucas' sword out of its intended path so that it wouldn't stab her in the chest.

"Oops," Ana said out loud.

Ana spent the next few moments following Lucas' movements. It wouldn't do to have her die right before Jeff granted her the key to victory.

"Nothing yet," said the voice in her head. "Can you distract him by talking about Ness?"

"Should have thought of that one myself," Ana sent back.

"Lucas," Ana said. "You've killed thousands of people, right? Why does Ness still refuse to get out of your head?"

Lucas faltered for a moment. He shot Ana a wary look.

"Don't attack," Jeff transmitted. "It will give him an excuse to dismiss your words."

Lucas lunged forward, slashing at Ana more quickly than she could keep track of. Ana managed to dodge most of the attacks, but one grazed by her stomach, drawing blood. Ana counted herself lucky.

"You remember me because of Ness," Ana said. "Did you know that the girl you just killed was his sister?"

Lucas' eyes widened.

"His… sister? You mean…"

"Yes. Ness would be bawling in his grave if he could see you right now."

Lucas' mouth tightened, stepping in for another round of attacks.

"My father, Dr. Andonuts, unlocked the way to create a savant of Lucas' type," Jeff transmitted. "One that could only summon a sword and armor. Minerva stole his research and used it to turn Lucas into the monster in front of you."

Fascinating, but Ana didn't know what that had to do with defeating Lucas. Maybe she should let Jeff work this one out on his own.

"Her name was Tracy," Ana said. "They loved each other as siblings. They spent time together, forging memories that should have lasted a lifetime." Ana shoved a finger at Lucas. "Memories that you took away from them."

"Siblings…" Lucas lashed out, almost cutting Ana's finger off. "Siblings exist to create pain for the others. Ness was older, thus he was bigger and stronger. Even though he treated me like a friend, he probably hurt Tracy more than she would ever admit." Lucas' eyes blazed with anger. "He was probably just like Claus."

"You know that's a lie," Ana said. "Ness would never hurt anyone."

Lucas' eyes flashed with guilt. He squeezed his eyes shut for a full second before opening them again. Ana's mind leapt to collect all of the implications from Lucas' minor breakdown. He had faltered before, but something about Ana's words caused him to suffer in a visible way. Why would Ness not hurting anyone cause him so much grief?

Wait a second.

Ana's heart skipped a beat.

No psyching way.

"When you killed Ness," Ana said. "He didn't even try to fight you, did he? He just begged for you to stop while you ran your sword through his heart."

Looking into Lucas' haunted eyes, Ana knew that she had hit the mark.

That's so like him, Ana thought. Not even fighting when backed into a corner. It's so stupid… but it's also the smartest thing he could have done. Lucas doesn't remember the thousands of other people he killed, but the image of Ness not even fighting back as he faces certain death still scars Lucas.

It made sense. A thousand people was just a number. A statistic. After a while, their screams started to blend together. The warm spray of blood grew familiar. The human brain grew bored of repetition.

But Ness standing strong, refusing to fight even as Lucas killed him, smiling as he died… that would stay in Lucas' heart forever.

"No," Lucas said. "You will not remind me. I will make the voices go away. Master Giygas gave me the power of gods!"

Lucas screamed as he charged forward, but his attacks were wild and unchained rather than calculated. Instead of trying to tire Ana out like before, he hacked at the same places on her body: her head, her chest, and her legs. He wound up each attack before swinging, giving Ana plenty of time to block.

"Just die already!" Lucas shouted. "You weren't supposed to survive this long!"

"That's good!" Jeff transmitted. "Now if we find a weakness, we have a better chance of using it to our advantage."

If we find a weakness? Oh boy. Still, the fury in Lucas' gaze was enough of an incentive to care about defying death for just a little longer. Ana wanted to see how much she could push his buttons.

"I was thinking," Jeff transmitted. "What if my father put a safety switch on his creation? A hidden weakness to a savant, if you will."

"I'm pretty sure someone would have figured it out before now," Ana sent back.

"Seriously. I know that my father wouldn't give a savant free reign. I bet he installed some sort of easy way to deactivate a savant."

"Well, wouldn't that be nice?" Ana sent, blocking another round of Lucas' attacks. "If it were that easy, I'd feel terrible about all of the deaths Lucas caused already."

"His fault, not ours," Jeff transmitted. "Okay, maybe the switch isn't easy, but I think it's still there if you really know what to look for."

But Ana didn't know what to look for.

"I'm sorry that I can't think of more," Jeff transmitted. "Try to think like a scientist would. What's the purpose of everything that makes Lucas a savant? Could anything that doesn't quite fit be hiding a hidden feature? Maybe you'll come up with something that I didn't."

A hidden feature? Something that didn't quite fit? Everything about Lucas' psionic savantism made sense. His sword helped him kill, his armor helped him stay alive, and his logical mind allowed him to win fights before they started. The kid was psyching invincible!

The colors on Lucas' sword brightened as he tried to slice Ana's head off for what felt like the hundreth time. Ana parried the attack as an afterthought. Such a beautiful sword…

Then something occurred to her.

"Lucas' blade," Ana sent. It's so psyching pretty. "Why?"

"Well, it lit up when he pierced Venus' armor," Jeff transmitted.

"But it's not like the color itself is giving the sword power," Ana thought. "It could still be a plain sword that does stupid amounts of damage and breaks through seemingly invincible armor when it wants to."

"Maybe he wants to distract his opponents?"

Distract his opponents with color rather than using an actual psionic enchantment on his sword that would send disruptive telepathic messages? Ana didn't think so.

"That's what doesn't fit," Ana thought. "It doesn't make sense that his sword is so shiny and pretty."

Ana beamed as she blocked Lucas' next attack. Maybe she was finally getting somewhere!

"…So now what?" Ana sent.

"Um…"

"Seriously, Jeff? You don't have any ideas?"

"I'm thinking! Maybe…"

Ana tried to push the battle fatigue back even further in her mind but found that she could hardly move her arms. All of the exhaustion that she should have suffered from pushing her body past its normal limits fell on her in that one moment. Lucas' next attack nearly swatted the axe out of her hands. Psych, she needed to come up with something quickly.

"A savant still has a bit of a cognitive spirit, right?" Jeff transmitted. "It's more than their brain chemistry that changes. You can't just completely block out emotions and morals like that. Even Mary got angry and tried to justify herself."

"So?" Ana sent. Lucas' next attack sliced part of her arm open. Her aura didn't even manage to seal the wound completely, which meant that she couldn't afford to take even minor wounds.

"That means part of his cognitive essence is trapped away somewhere," Jeff transmitted. "The part with creativity and love. Where do you think it could be?"

Ana looked at Lucas' stained glass sword yet another time before stepping backwards to dodge his next attack. Could it honestly be…?

In that moment, everything clicked together. When Lucas was recovering, Diana Carpainter told them that he couldn't summon his sword or armor if he wanted to turn back into a normal person. The act of using psionics didn't push Lucas closer to becoming a savant; summoning the sword and armor tore parts of his psionic spirit away from his body. The Sanctuaries hastened Lucas' recovery because they revitalized weary sprits, not because they prevented the use of psionics.

Lucas was so soulless because Minerva's Carpainter brainwashing had trapped his soul inside the blade itself.

"So how do I free that part of his sprit?" Ana transmitted. "How do I give him his emotions back?"

After asking the question, Ana realized that she already knew the answer.

Ana roared, raising her axe above her head. Lucas managed to slice open part of her thigh, but Ana hardly felt the pain. Ana brought the axe down with all of her might. Lucas casually raised his sword to parry, and Ana could tell that he wanted to fend off Ana's attack as quickly as possible so that he could go back to attacking. She could use his haste to her advantage.

Ana altered the direction of her axe at the last second, hitting the tip of Lucas' sword instead of a part near the middle. The sword spun out of Lucas' hands, clattering on the ground nearby. Ana looked at Lucas' shocked expression for a second before diving for the sword. Lucas strained his face and Ana could tell that he was trying to deactivate his sword so that he could summon it back in his hand. However, he couldn't act quickly enough in his addled state.

Ana picked Lucas' stained glass sword up off the ground and drove it straight into his chest.

For a moment, the world fell still.

"Ana." Lucas stumbled forward and fell to his hands and knees. "Thank... you."

So if you didn't catch that, all the good parts of Lucas' soul were stored in his sword all along, and Ana gave him the rest of his spirit back by driving the sword into Lucas' body. But remember that Lucas still has a lot of baggage to deal with...

And we still have another crazy savant to deal with (Mary). Man, I'll say it was really tricky to wrap up everything up about all the different characters. And trust me, we have more for characters like Monotoli and the real Mary.

Amourus: One of the three knives of power that contains Hinawa's spirit and hides trails created when PSI is used. The knives of power, including Amourus, kill starmen quite quickly. By stabbing a starman with the knives, a human soul is inserted into the starman's body and causes the starman to malfunction. Called the knife of love, and comes from the Latin "Am" and French "Amour" for love.

Phonus: Knife of sound, derived from the Latin "Phon" for sound. Fassad's soul is stuck in here, and he used it to control Lucas back on Vulcan. Now his spirit is in the Sword of Kings, which is in Mary's Body.

Fassad: Bears a grudge against Claus, who along with Diana freed Lucas from his grasp in Vulcan back in the previous fic. Now he's in control of a powerful savant and is a meanie :( Previously, he was one of the Magypsies created by Lorraine of the Osohe, and survived having his needle pulled because his spirit was stuck in the knife Phonus.

Review Response: Guest: Well, even Lucas himself probably agrees with you that he doesn't deserve to live, and that's one way of thinking about it. But the person killing all those people is less Lucas and more of a weapon that other people turned him into. The "real" Lucas supposedly wouldn't kill those people, or at least that's what the story is going for. But yeah, it's definitely a tricky situation. :(