This chapter is originally 60,000 words long. Dear God. Sixty Thousand… I literally thought my brain will go haywire, writing a chapter this long…

With that said, I split it into two pieces, because I feel your pain readers. Believe me. I do. The first is uploaded now. The next will be uploaded as soon as I finish editing the grammar because writing a good story and writing a good grammar are two different things for me, apparently.

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Today's the day.

The big day. Thinking back, after everything he's done, it's a miracle he managed to survive this long to get to this day. He should be happy… but instead he had to endure this skull splitting headache which was made worse with the sound of bell tolling in the distance.

"Haruto?"

"…?" Haruto looked to the side and noticed a breathtaking sight.

The lady was adorned in the most magnificent of wedding dress, albeit one that revealed a lot of her skin. The overall white of her wedding gown had a tint of green in its glow, with silk white and emerald green flowers decorating around her chest area that greatly emphasized her half exposed bosom. The frontal part of her long skirt was split open down the middle, revealing an elegant, but very short, mini skirt that barely covered lower waist – short enough that one can, if they tried hard enough, see a glimpse of her pure white swimsuit panties whilst her beautiful legs in full show, covered in tight white stocking all the way to the middle of her thigh, ending with white garter belt that disappeared beneath her mini skirt. Similar flowers also lined her embroidered skirt, with gold strings resembling a weavework of spider webs wrapped around the form fitting dress, with smaller patches of flower decorated the points around where the strings intersect. Her long raven black hair was tied to one side in an asymmetrical pony tail, bound by a hair band sporting an array of flowers that crowned her bride's veil, its transparent cloth covered only a part of her radiant face and it extend way past her hair until it swept the floor. Her arms are covered in white long skin tight embroidered glove that reached just below her bare shoulders before it was crowned with flowers and more of that spider web like ornaments, one arm is holding to her bouquet of green and red flowers, the other slung around his arm.

The beautiful scene threw away all manner of discomfort in his head, and his eyes seem to clear up for a moment. It was then he realized he was also wearing a white tuxedo of the groom to match his bride. "…Saki?"

"What's wrong dear? You look confused for a second there." Saki smiled sweetly.

Right, if she knows half the things he did at yesterday's stag party… "I… Sorry… I had a bit of brain fog." With a bride whose dress code seems more devilishly sexy at his arm, anyone would be. "W… What day is it?"

"What do you mean? Today's the day!"

"The day…" Haruto's brow rose slightly and his eyes widened in realization. "Uh… the day… the day! Yes! It's the day."

"Darling." Saki tightened her hold on Haruto's arm. "How much did you drink last night?" For a second, Saki thought her husband's hangover was so bad, he didn't even know what planet he was in.

"Aaahhh…" Haruto wasn't sure how to answer.

"Haruto-kun!" Saki pouted. "This is our once in a lifetime moment, please don't embarrass us?"

Haruto straightened himself up. "When the bride is this beautiful, I'm not sure I won't. I just… who designed that dress?"

"Takahi."

"…are you sure she's not pranking you? You're practically bursting out a dress too tight for your own good, and it looked less like wedding dress, more like… half naked swimsuit…"

"I admit… this is a bit more revealing than I imagined… but…" Saki blushed cutely. "I got all nervous and I finally did ask her opinion… Today's the day and I… I want everything to be perfect." She looked even more flustered than ever. "Don't you… like it?"

"…I… I think it suits you. You look really beautiful."

Saki blushed again and tightened her grip on Haruto. "Baka."

"And you love this baka." The couple smiled and turned to face one another. Haruto caressed his wife's radiant face before he brought it closer and their lips were about to touch…

"Uhh, guys…!"

Haruto blinked and looked around… there's Yusuke, Raizo, Kyuuma, Aina, Takahi, Akira all dressed up as groomsmen and bridesmaid. "Shouldn't you be doing that later in the altar?" Takahi glared most apprehensively.

"Oh… right." The couple smiled sheepishly. "I was… having a bit of a daydream."

"Given how much he drank in last night's Stag Party, I'm not surprised." Kyuuma still had the bills. Raizo had the photos. Yusuke had the videos.

Saki gave his husband the glare. "You are going to tell me everything about this, first thing tomorrow."

"Well come on, the ceremony won't run itself!" Takahi scoffed as she clapped.

Several children in frilly white dress ran up and filled the sides as they threw flower petals on the path the couple will take. The two walked calmly, but as Haruto walked through the girls, he noticed Alice among them throwing flowers for her parents; he's still missing someone though. "Where's our son?"

"Son? What son?"

Haruto instantly looked at Saki at that weird question. But then, her mischievous smile welcomed him. "Are you still daydreaming? He's right behind us, dummy!"

Haruto glanced over his shoulder… and there he is. A small boy, dressed in a tuxedo tailored to his diminutive size. He inherited his father's hair style and face, but sports her mother's raven black hair color as well as her purple eyes. He smiled back as he cutely struggled to lift his mother's bride's veil.

"Ah." The lingering fume of alcohol that fueled his hangover vanished immediately. The last thing he wanted was to make a fool of himself and his wife in front of their son. "Sorry. You're right. My brain is a bit… off… maybe I should get a doctor later."

"Better yet, don't ever let Raizo plan you stag party. Now come on."

And the family walked past the church door to their destiny…

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Red woke up bathed in his sweat. The stench of burnt meat permeates the air. He was pretty sure it was the smell of his meat. "Great… I'll never be able to eat steak the same way again." Well, his smart mouth still works. He can hear himself talking just fine… no wait… this ringing muffled it.

He must've fainted in his cockpit. For how long, he did not know, because now, his com is being hounded with screams and shout from Verdant and Amber. With trembling fingers, he flicked the com back on. "V… Verdant?"

"Red! Thank God! Are you okay?"

"I… I think I'm fine." He looked around as his blurry sight finally adjusted itself. "How long was I out?"

"About 5 minutes. (koff)" Amber's reply followed.

Red gets back up to a proper sitting position. He had fainted slumped down, face flat on the monitor. His spine creaked, his neck cracked… all very painfully. He's not eager to find out just how much damage he had suffered. His body had taken a beating of a lifetime, from both his own machine… and his opponent's.

Speaking of which…

"I'm still alive… We are all still alive." Red sighed. "…which means… did it worked?"

"It worked. It worked alright." Verdant was relieved… in more ways than one.

There, situated at the center on what is still an infernal wasteland… was the Valvrave.

It's currently curled down on its knees, lifeless and inert: head hung low, the sense nerve on both its crown and its wings no longer shines, its arms slumped to the side, his katana had fallen from its limp fingers and embedded itself deep into the ground, as deep as it can get before its once flaming edge burnt out. In fact, every part of his body that was smoldering five minutes ago had died out, hissing smoke like a burnt out torch. His wings hung powerlessly on his back, splayed motionless on the ground.

It's hard to believe, but moments ago, this now lifeless super weapon is firing a particle beam with output enough to rival at least a nuclear blast. In fact, he was but one push away from vaporizing Hellsing outright… until, finally…

Hellsing and Rapunzel approached the now inert Valvrave, warily.

"He really… didn't notice us, anymore?" Amber asked.

"Nope. Brainwave activity is as low as it can get, he's comatose." Verdant proudly stated.

"…"

"Amber… no, Kon… I know you disapprove." Red's tone was firm and brooked no back talks. "But I'm not risking our lives in a fistfight with Mr. Nuclear Meltdown."

It all began with that one bullet that Amber planted on Haruto's head the first time. It was imperative that one shot found its mark, nullified lethal damage irrelevant. Haruto did spit the bullet pieces as expected, but he did not; cannot; spit out the fleet of nanomachine that the bullet shell contained. It is a special type of nanomachine derived from the Secondwind Nanofleet technology, specifically modified by their resident tech expert and medic, Verdant.

The Nanofleet she designed was specially programmed to do one thing. Haruto did not escape the bullet unscathed, a piece of his brain was missing… and unbeknownst to him, it stays missing. They fully expected that the Magius would regenerate, and it was in that moment, as the Brain is being reconstructed piece by piece, that the special Nano fleet would integrate themselves in the reconstruction process, forming a component, a signal receiver that quickly integrate itself unto the newly reconstructed brain. This component simulates all the functions of a brain as it connected to the brain stem, sending signals into the nervous system that fooled the host' immune system that it was not a foreign object, so the victim was completely oblivious to the inflicted deformity.

This was, unfortunately, the easy part of the operation. The next part was most demanding. They have to exhaust him. Drain him of his fuel, his rune. This is not at all complicated, but VERY taxing, to say the least. Between the fact that Haruto actually managed to create a system of Rune donors to regularly stockpile fuel, his greatly refined skill in using said fuel for combat… and the severely underestimated sheer power he wields… even Red had doubt they were able to survive this.

But in the end… they did it. They managed to exhaust him, somewhat, enough for Verdant to finally activate the true power of her Faux Valvrave, the Aurora.

The Aurora is a satellite based Valvrave designed after Unit 06, the Malefic. Unlike the Malefic whose Satellite form was a separate secondary unit to the primary, Aurora, for some reason, was designed to be an integral part of the massive satellite itself. It still has the upper body of a Valvrave from waist up, with massive sense nerve petal instead of actual arms. Her lower part was attached to a massive orbital satellite array shaped as a dome like skirt that was massive enough to make the Valvrave upper body look minuscule in comparison. The dome skirt surface sports multiple rings that serve as platform from several weapons it sports: an array of blaster cannons and missile pods for defensive purposes. Hidden underneath the skirt is series of a sense nerve panels arrayed like an aurora formation. And at the center of this array, is what looked like a massive cannon.

It is currently stationed right above Module 010, overseeing the battle high above at low orbit, camouflaged within layers after layers of stealth protection – otherwise the Valravn and the accompanying fleet of Battlecruisers would've obliterated a target as big as her in a heartbeat. Apart from her satellite laser cannon specially designed for space to ground bombardment, Aurora is probably the only Faux Valvrave in the entire set with the weakest offensive options, and yet its role is probably the most important of them all. All Faux Valvrave are largely inferior to the original units. Therefore, to even the odds somewhat, Aurore's massive form was filled with scores of redundant servers whose primary function is to support the other Faux Valvrave units, boosting up their processing speed and throughput to rival that of the original without severely endangering the pilot. With the exception of that one idiot of a pilot with a deathwish who decided his Primate Engine wasn't suicidal enough.

However, just for this mission, Aurore had turned off all those support systems, even her Laser cannon. Instead, the fleet of Mother Gooses that remain on standby in the sky took up that role. Aurore was tasked on using the one system it had been specifically designed to maintain:

The Morpheus System.

"The system is up and running at full power. He's having a nice dream now." Inside the cockpit of the Aurore, is a girl in green skin tight suit. Her features and appearance was all but buried beneath the mountain of hardware and equipment surrounding her workspace. Even her face was covered in a headgear. Unlike the other cockpits of the other Valvraves, hers were designed to look like a cradle, allowing her to lay on her back relaxingly even as she worked.

"I glanced at the report…" Amber grudgingly growled. "Seriously, dreams?"

"Oh yes, it's essential. Because we want to put his brain in a state of perpetual rest. No matter how much they try to sleep, they'll always snap back awake, because they WANT to stay awake. Staying still, after all, is the hardest thing for a human to do. Most people think the best way to keep them asleep is to make them don't want to wake up. There's truth in that, but it's tricky. It's not enough to use anti depressant or dopamine to give him a nice dream. That's where Morpheus system is superior to simple chemically induced dream. It creates a dream by directly feeding a two way electromagnetic pulses connection straight into his brain that affect his subconscious, thereby fooling his brain, telling it the dream is real. It also sends electromagnetic signals across his nervous system to make it feel real. His sense of touch, smell, sight, even taste and sound. All of it was just signals sent to his brain from the receiver. Even if he were to, say, pinch himself in the cheek, he would still feel the pain and so he will think it as a reality."

"So… an augmented virtual reality straight to his brain." Amber surmised.

"Precisely."

"Won't he notice something weird? I mean… if you make his dream-life too good to be true, won't that just freaks him out?"

"And that my dear Amber, is the beauty of Morpheus. The reason why we had to go through the trouble of planting nano-constructed receiver in his brain is because, the receiver is also made of Rune based Tech. It took parts of the victim's own memory in a two way interaction system to construct the scenario of the dream based on facts from the target's very own life experiences, with all the good and bad that comes with it, making it more believable to the subject itself." It was then Verdant paused with uncertainty.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just… this is the first time I actually did this on a nonhuman." Verdant frowned. "Uhh… it's just… well… earlier you asked me to boost the signal… Well, I did it… but… I did so way past the limits that I would consider normal. This much electromagnetic pulse on normal human brain would've fried it to a mush. But, as you say this is not human… and yes, his brain can physically take the load… but there's actually another reason why it's not advisable to boost the signal that high."

"And that being…?"

"A dream is a tricky thing, greatly affected by brain chemistry and emotions. Delicate application of enzyme and dopamine and so forth… but… The problem with this system is, when the target dreams, I had little control on what kind of dream he's having. It is a complicated blend between intangible factor like his memories, psychological profile, emotional stability, and thoughts, as well as his physical brainwaves and chemistry. If the electromagnetic signals alter the brain chemistry too much… all the aforementioned psychological factors will also be similarly affected. Good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. And ultimately, the scenario created by Morpheus may result in something… rather bizarre."

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The door to the church opened wide… and inside, waited the pastor, the audience…

And of course… his second Bride stood there waiting by the pedestal, dressed in pure white wedding gown, decorated with red roses. Her wedding dress is no less breath taking than Saki's, though it showed less skin. But parts of her form fitting dress are transparent, giving a peek at the creamy skin beneath. Ribbons and feathers seem to be the theme here as they can be seen decorating her skin tight sleeves, stockings, and the ample bosom part of her dress. The embroideries that wrapped said sleeves also designed to form angelic wings, as does the one adorning her skirt. Red roses and feathers crowned the bride's auburn short hair, topping the bride's veil that also extend down her back all the way to the floor. The bangs that framed her face were tied with ribbons that sport red roses, further enhancing the beauty of the bride.

Shasinami Shoko's radiant smile still managed to outshine all that. "Took you long enough, dummy."

Haruto momentarily twitched.

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The Valvrave twitched once, much to the mercenaries' brief horror.

They pointed every weapon they had at the Primate Engine, anticipating even the slightest spark. The Valvrave twitched no more… but the Faux Valvraves were far from relaxed.

"Bizarre…" Red commented under his breath. "You're saying the dream created can be so unbelievable… he might wake up?"

"The way the Morpheus works… is by putting a human mind in a state of… mild denial. As you know, there are times, when human faced with great distress, when faced with something they cannot comprehend to the point of complete mental breakdown, they try to rationalize it. They entered a state of delusion, creating their own stories that normalize the absurdity in a way that suits their preferred reality. Morpheus simulate this… but in a more benign and subtle manner, by feeding him facts and experience that induced his mind to delude itself, creating believable back stories that allow him to accept any form of abnormality he may perceive in that story. That being said… there's a limit on how believable the Morpheus can make it to be."

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His mind was immediately filled with memories of time past.

After the war had ended, it's not like peace was restored immediately. There were a lot of issues. A lot of problems. And Shoko, being the Prime Minister, had to bear the brunt of it. Even though he now had a wife and child, Haruto still wished to stand by his childhood friend's side, to help her as much as he could. And so, as he retired from active duty, Haruto would, whenever he had time to spare – and with Saki's approval, come to her side. But as they spend more time together, feelings they had long decided to bury began to resurface again. They tried to stop it and lay down the law… but eventually, one night, in an alcohol inebriated delirium, they went into a hotel… and… He didn't remember how many times they did it in their first night. Shoko simply tell him later that she did recall telling the receptionist to give them extension… at least 5 times.

And from there, it was all but a downward spiral of lust and madness neither side tried too hard on ending. They told themselves they had to stop. It's not right… but one look of each other and they lost all control. They do it many times. Anytime, anywhere. At one time, she hid under her table in the office while giving him a blowjob. Another time he ran across her just as she walked out of the bathroom, and the next thing he knew he had raped her for hours until she begged him for more. They had dinner and it ended with her screaming like a pig with him going at it from her back. Haruto knew his affection to Shoko was artificial… but after everything they went through, how much of it is really artificial at this point?

Inevitably though, the shame and horror of what he's done is becoming too much for his conscience. He finally decided to screw it. He went home to confess to his fiancée of his infidelity and accept her judgment. And what did he found?

He found Shoko had the same idea. And she already beat him to it. And his fiancée? She had a VERY different idea on how to solve the problem. This much is apparent, considering the fact he found Saki and Shoko in each other's arms, their clothes discarded allover the place, leaving them stark steaming naked and sweating, their ample breasts squeezing against one another's nipple to nipple as they're making out in their bed, lips glued and tongue slobbering each other's mouth so passionately.

"Uh… uhh… Saki… Shoko…"

"Ah… Haruto…" Saki stopped kissing and smirked sultrily.

"Ahaha… welcome home…" Shoko licked her lips.

"Uhh… umm… what…"

"Well, you've been cheating on me… so I thought I'll just cheat you the right back." To make her point Saki gave Shoko another deep kiss. Haruto gulped when he noticed how Shoko shuddered in erotic delight. He had to swallow a gulp, not so discreetly, unfortunately. And they noticed that.

"O… okay… I'll… I'll leave you two… to it…"

Stuck between confused and aroused, Haruto turned around… probably thinking he should dip his head into ice cold water filled bathtub or something…

Until four arms grabbed him and yanked him in. Moments later, pieces of his torn clothes start getting thrown out. His screams were immediately cut off as soon as the door was sealed shut. And no one came out for several nights.

He woke up one morning, finally sane, naked, exhausted, with two loves of his life in each of his arms. Later, Saki made her point very clear. She knew about what Haruto went through, and about that affection planted into his brain. Between this and the childhood friend thing, is pretty much the only reason she tolerate this. But if he cheats on her again… she will make him pay.

Considering she made this point while placing Carmilla's buzzsaw Spindle Knuckle whirring right in front of his face… and his groin… Haruto made his solemn (blood) oath then and there to never do it again.

Not with anyone else, at least.

And they quickly agreed to this double marriage thing, which lead them to this point.

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"But we fully expected that to happen too." Red cannot stress this enough: they're fighting super soldier Alien Hybrid Vampire. "We know we would be pushing this as far as it can get, which is also why we needed you, Amber." Red explained. "You're not a sniper. And in all honesty, you're not exactly explosive expert. But you ARE the bio chemical expert. And not just on explosives and pathogens. But also psychotropic hallucinogen and nerve agents. We needed you to sedate him. To make him more docile and pliable to suggestion, easier for him to accept the… somewhat unrealistic dream we put him through."

Amber scoffed. She had thought a far more insidious bioweapon to mete out to avenge her sister: flesh eating ebola pathogen, slow acting cancer inducing agent, pain amplifying paralytic, hallucinogen that use the victims' biochemistry to perpetually induce them to see their worst nightmares for eternity… all shot down, especially that last one, all in favor of this non lethal sedation strategy.

Nevertheless, she still agreed to go on with the plan, and those 100,000 plus serpent drone seeding the ground were filled to the brim with her strongest Rune derived psychotropic hallucinogen toxin. All can either be absorbed via skin contact… or, in this case, vaporized to the air and took in through the lungs as the victim breathes them in.

Every terrestrial vehicle in existence that was designed to be piloted by man has that thing: ventilation. Even when men entered the space age and unmanned mechanized units began to take majority, such feature remains a staple. When in space, manned mechanized units had internal oxygen tank so that the pilot can breathe in the vacuum of space where there's no oxygen. But… what if the unit is on the ground, within the planet's atmosphere? For efficiency's sake and to conserve oxygen, it has became the standard, be it Arus, Dorssia or Jior, that once a manned mechanized unit enter the atmosphere and detected oxygen in the air, it will immediately switch from its inbuilt oxygen tank to taking in oxygen from the open air itself – whilst simultaneously replenishing their internal oxygen supply. Inevitably, this holds true even to Valvrave.

Throughout the battle, as the Valvrave burns everything around him, including the serpents; he had also vaporized the toxin within each and every one, and thus its fume permeates to the air within the module. This, he breathes in through his air intake, whilst Hellsing had switched to his internal oxygen tank prior to the battle. And to help, Amber also gave Red the antidote.

Of course, oft times, the ventilation on cutting edge mechanized units also came equipped with sensors. As soon as these sensors detected something hazardous in the air, the ventilation will close in immediately and the system automatically switched in to internal oxygen supply. The Valvrave should have had that feature – for all its safety violations - if not for the fact the Six Sense had already hacked it… when they shot the Valvrave down in the Mechanical Tunnel with the same specially crafted Nanofleet packed shell that hacked the Valvrave's system so subtly even Delphi didn't notice; it made sure his ventilation sensor did not pick up the Toxin that had polluted the air, so it just suck it all in and feed it straight into the pilot.

And because they were made with very simple over the counter medicine, there's no chance of rejection. Amber would know. She drank it herself. And this is the part that made Amber a class above her sister. Amber had a habit of tasting and drinking her own poisons so she developed immunity to then, with which she can either: develop antidote out of them… or made them worse with the other muck she had already digested throughout her whole career of creating toxins. Basically, she used her own body as a toxin mixing chamber. A dangerous practices only someone of her skill AND constitution can manage.

And that is how one turns a rampaging Valvarve dishing out enough firepower to level a city… to kneeling dead silent like a statue with its pilot comatose in la la land.

"Well… we got target Alpha… alive… and now what?" Amber asked.

Chapter 21:

Hunter and Hunted: Finale (Part 1)

When one looked at the Dyson Sphere from orbit, it's not possible to see the fierce battle that rages down below. That doesn't mean the crew of JSDF space fleet were unaware that it is happening. And they've been doing everything in their power to find out exactly what's going on. For now, the 12 ships of the fleet had just finished creating a ring formation that encircles the Dyson Sphere.

The Malefic, in her Gretel satellite configuration, are nesting calmly next to the Valravn.

Akira watched as their fleet of battlecruisers moved into their respective positions. It's a bit difficult, bridging a network between three different digital encryptions: Arus, Dorssia, and Alien Magius. A task infinitely more difficult with all the jamming and chaos happening down there. For mere mortals, this is impossible. But Akira is no mere mortals. "Securing connection… adjusting frequency… establishing battlefield uplink… complete."

With one press of an Enter, the Malefic's cockpit was suddenly filled with dozens of video feed from various sources, from Security Cameras to ATM, and even phone cameras. She immediately transferred all this to the Valravn, straight to the bridge where some very concerned parties had been dying to know what's happening down there.

Shashinami Ryuji, Ivanovich W. Dorssia and Pino. Three heads of states of three different nations, each with their own personal stake in the events that are transpiring in the planet below.

As soon as the holographic image of multiple vidcams appeared before him, Ivanovich W. Dorssia quickly scanned all those videos, coldly watching the progression of the campaign, trying to see which way the wind turns.

Ryuuji was the Prime Minister of Jior and this Dyson Sphere was once his country. And the video displayed how the once peaceful planet was now ravaged by the flames of war. Little wonder that he was overwhelmed with sorrow and horror, almost to the point of tears.

And Pino? She immediately focused on the location of her children. She singled out the video and audio feed from their cameras. Watching Behemoth had just begun slugging out with his copycat, the Valvrave going on a rampage in an infernal wasteland against his copycat and another one of Carmilla's copycat… and finally, Marie fighting in an one on one match with… wait… what is that? It looked like Amon Ra 05's copycat, for sure… but what's with that… Katana? Why does it look so… familiar?

She should be focusing on everyone, but against her better judgment, she gave that duel her undivided attention.

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Three weeks ago…

Arus army of PMCs had just begun solidifying their position in their takeover of the Dyson Sphere. Around this time, the infiltration unit from New JIOR had just returned from their mission and brought with them the spoils: the stolen Valvrave technology. When they begun the construction of the Faux Valvraves, comes also the question of who would pilot them; as it goes hand in hand with how they will be constructed. Arus Central Command came with an almost unanimous decision. A decision not many of the hired guns agree to.

Miss Blue (Aoi) had just finished double checking her cybernetics and she's on the way to enter the Ariel when she encountered Grey waiting for her with her smile.

"Grey! I'll be off now."

The lady that is Grey is a very beautiful grey haired woman, well endowed and a perfect proportion to her figure, dressed formally in a traditional blue hued Japanese kimono with butterfly decoration. A katana and a Wakizashi rest firmly on her obi. Her grey sightless eye can be seen beneath the shades of her hair. She's easily in her later twenties and noticeably taller than the much younger Aoi. "You be careful, Blue." She gently caressed Aoi's face, untroubled by her inability to see. "How I wish I can join you immediately."

Blue smiled sweetly. "They say your Valvrave was a bitch to build. Those so called eggheads can't seem to get it right to your specifications."

"I am a demanding mistress." Grey chuckled.

Despite the chuckle, Aoi noticed the frown in her beautiful face. "Red tells me… you don't like this contract?"

"Most annoying of this intuition…I cannot, for the life of me, prove if these feelings are justified, not until it's too late."

"And yet Red follows that nose of yours each and every time. And it always pays."

"And yet this time… he chose to ignore it. Despite my strong urging him not to."

"You know him the longest. What do you think his reasons to ignore you this time?"

"I wish… I know."

"Don't know or won't tell?"

It was not Blue who responded. She turned to see whilst Grey remained still.

Standing on the other side of the bridge was a group of fully armed men. They have uniform equipment, with everyone carrying primarily assault rifles and accompanying sidearms, and uniform insignia: that of a red cross with black and white outline on black Kevlar armor. Everyone also wear the same headgear: a full face helmet with a T-visor, reminiscent to a medieval knight helmet. But it also supports modern equipments, such as built in communicator, laser pointer, and night vision goggles. The one leading them stood out from the rest. He's the only one not wearing a helmet, instead he put on sunglasses before his scarred face. And he did not carry assault rifle, but he does carry a pair of sidearms on his belt.

Blue went on a defensive stance, but Grey took the liberty standing a few steps ahead of the younger girl, covering her. The newcomer's hostility was quite apparent, but Grey maintained his calm even then. "Mr. Jason, how may I help you?"

"You can help me… by trying to explain why the most powerful weapons in the world were given over so exclusively to your group?"

"Because building an entire set of Valvrave is clearly a costly investment, and our record speaks for itself. We the Six Sense of the Regnant International had been deemed the best to most efficiently use these weapons of war in the coming battle ahead. The Central Command approve of it."

"Almost unanimously, barely any consideration at all, I hear."

Grey merely smirked. "If you have any complaint on the matter, then perhaps you should take it to them personally?"

Jason angrily glared at Grey's unflinching expression, snarling his alcohol fumed breath against her cheek. He scoffed. "Yeah. I've heard about you girls. Regnant International. The top most powerful PMC on the market… consist entirely of girls? And then you… the Six Sense, the cream of the crop of the lot. How did you get to this position? Did they keep count on how many times you fuck with your boss?"

Blue frowned in anger, but Grey was undaunted. In fact, she merely smiled back. "And you Mr. Jason, is the director of the Black Knight PMC. I had the pleasure with working with some of your… associates." Grey merely walked around as she took a glance at the 'knights' standing by behind. "Very… 'helpful'… in getting in the way and causing a lot of mess with their… zeal. For a PMC that claimed to be descended from the noble Knights Templar of old… you certainly not doing their legacy justice."

"And what do you know of nobility!?" Jason growled. "You don't even understand what this fight is all about! We're fighting against Monsters who's trying to supplant humanity! And you? You're just fighting for what? Profit?"

"Personally I believe something as tangible as profit is a much more reasonable reason than the fate of humanity." Grey smiled. "At least we know when we actually HAD to stop shedding blood." She already positioned herself back to her original position, with her back turned to Jason in seeming contempt. And unbeknownst to everyone but Blue, she placed her hand on her katana.

"…much must be sacrificed for the sake of humanity's future!"

"Funny you never did any of the sacrificing." Blue sneered. "You just strap some locals with a bombjacket and watch everyone go boom except you. Very noble."

"Was I talking to you!?"

Blue merely chuckled, but Jason took it as a grave insult and he reached for his gun…

Click. SLASH. SLINK.

In that instant, Grey had just sheathed her katana back.

When Jason pulled his gun out, he pulled a gun handle with a cleanly sliced stump. He looked dumbly on his useless sidearm; the sliced half is still in its holster. The other Black Knights immediately trained their guns at Grey, but she remained, as ever, undaunted by the slightest. The only thing stopping them from firing was Jason raising his hands, telling them not to.

"As we've established, if you have any complaints regarding this matter, you are free to take it up to Central Command." Grey merely placed her hand on her katana, but the threat she posed was as palpable as having her blade pressed against their throats.

Jason merely scoffed and walked away as he discarded his useless weapons whilst his men trained down their weapons before they followed their leader and leave en masse.

As soon as they're gone, Kon finally made her presence known from the darkness of Ariel's shadow. She was about to open fire at that prick before Grey stands in her line of fire, thus she finally put away her toxic dart sniper gun, seeing it was no longer needed. She was the exact twin of her sister, a fact people cannot see on the account of the gas mask covering her mouth.

"Sis!" Aoi chirped happily. And Grey acknowledged her presence with a nod.

"You shouldn't have stopped me. (Koff)"

"If you've done that, it would mean extra paper work for me. Please don't give a blind woman more work than she already have."

Another interesting point about Regnant International. If one wishes to submit a contract, one had to send it in Braille. All paperwork and report are all written in Braille. Why? Because their chief accountant, liaison, chief of administration AKA the only person in the team who bothered with paperwork… can only 'read' Braille.

Aoi quickly moved and gave her twin a hug. That seems to be the surefire way to cool her sister's temper. "Don't worry Sis. Grey's watching over me."

Kon glanced at Grey and nodded. "Thank you. (Koff)"

"You're welcome."

"Sis, are you sure you want to do this? (koff)" Kon pushed Aoi back to give her the look.

"Sis, I'll be fine." Aoi was all sunshine and smiles while her sister remains bleak.

"Your first solo op and you're riding inside one of these… things. (koff)" Kon looked uneasily at Ariel's looming figure. "Didn't Red's machine nearly killed him during that ghastly test run? (koff)"

"He already regained consciousness this afternoon. And I insist that he must stay in bed all day while Verdant look after him." Grey can most certainly understand Kon's fear of these machines, but Red had assured her this thing with his machine was a one of a kind, onetime thing.

"All day? Then why did I saw him a few minutes ago running around in the kitchen with a beer-oh." Blue realized too late she shouldn't have said that.

"Thank you for informing me, I shall take necessary actions immediately." Grey is smiling, but the vein popping on her temple isn't.

"Aoi… (Kossfff…)" Kon removed her mask to address her sister directly. "Please… be careful."

"Sis. I'll be fine. You've trained me, remember? I can do this!"

Aoi gave her sister one last smile before she boarded her Ariel. The Sense nerve light up neon purple and the Ariel rose up. It gave one last look at Kon and Grey before she dashed away to her mission. Kon still looked at the spot where the Primate Engine's back last seen a long after the mech disappeared.

"She'll be fine. You did train her, and she is a good student." Grey gently put her arms to Kon's shoulder and let her tuck her head on her shoulder. "Besides, Red chose her assignment very carefully. She's to oversee logistics and transportation in the Mechanical line. Important, but far away from the worst of the combat. If you're worried about the communication, worry not for long. Once Verdant's Aurore is online, we will be able to keep watch over each other's location, at all time. If she were ever in trouble, he… we will all be at her side in a heartbeat."

Kon's worry was alleviated somewhat. Then she glanced to Grey's almost stone cold calm expression. Grey's ever gentle smile hardly twitched throughout the earlier scuffle; while by comparison, Kon's nerves were practically shot. Her sister did always say she was too quick on the trigger. If she didn't know better, she'd think Grey was completely devoid of emotion. "Nothing fazes you, does it?"

Grey merely laughed as she gave Kon a motherly pat.

Present time…

If Kon asked her that question right now, she can tell her this: she's definitely fazed.

When they brought Blue back in that charred state, Grey was awash with remorse. Red of course, told her it was not her fault. The New Jior Novus Magius attacked much faster than they had anticipated. Half the things they had planned to fortify their positions in New Jior weren't even build yet. Aurore had just taken to the orbit when the New Jior Space fleet took control of space. She was rendered effectively impotent; unable to do anything but hide from Malefic's watchful eyes, otherwise the New Jior fleet will obliterate her in a heartbeat. End result: Blue was forced to fight that disastrous battle with what is easily the most powerful being on the planet, all alone. As a testament to how well they've trained her, she managed to hold out VERY well… but the enemy's power was literally out of this world.

With that in mind, Grey had entered this mission with all the grimness of a woman scorned.

Her part in the scenario that Red had crafted is just one: Hold the ground. Assuming Haruto's allies eventually realized what he was up to, it's not impossible for them to quickly try to help, maybe to affect a rescue of sorts. She was to keep them busy, survive anything they'll throw at her, defeat them if she can.

With that being said, Grey had intended to approach this assignment methodically. But when she gets the report of enemy composition – post Valvrave leaving the party… she realized:

She could've butchered them all instantly without breaking a sweat.

Something about a one sided massacre never sits right with her. This compounded her gut feeling that fueled her unease about this contract. "Well… If I am going to kill them all eventually, might just as well make this something worthwhile."

Hence why she spared those first two Kirschbaums. Red always said if we're going to do a job one knows its ending is one won't like, there two ways to approach it: one, finish it quickly and walk it off or, failing that, at least find a way to enjoy it. That's why she decided to settle this the old fashioned way. One on one, winner takes all. Even if it's her whim, let it be said the enemy had actually fought her to the best of their abilities, with no regrets.

She certainly did not expect her whim would actually result in THIS.

Delphi Kagerou fired his Volc arms in conjunction with his Variable Vulcan. A hailstorm of bullets that the Cinderella had to block and dodge while she's on constant move. That is until the CIWS stopped firing and blow out air. Out of ammo. Cinderella finally had some leeway as she blocked the last of the bullets with her broken and fractured blade.

Around that time though, half of her pumpkin shield has been shot off, around 30% of her hydraulic muscles are torn, and her second to last blade just shattered. Which means her next blade is her last.

Delphi also needed to reassess the situation again. His Variable Vulcan is out of ammo, the Volc Arms use runes to fire solid energy projectiles, but he already assessed that the rate of fire of just a single pair of twin linked assault rifle isn't enough to penetrate Cinderella's rock solid defense.

"Long range intercession is no longer applicable. Switching focus to close combat."

The Kagerou hold the Blackrose with both hands.

"Hmm…" Grey took note and she too had Cinderella held her sword in two hands.

Now they're like two swordsmen in a kendo match.

The Cinderella charged first in a blur, but to Delphi, she moved in slow motion.

Calculating arm movement, velocity, force, blade trajectory, even muscle traction and finger pressure, all in a matter of microseconds, Delphi immediately deduced she's targeting his wrist.

He blocked it and immediately charged straight towards her, blade first.

Delphi maybe a super AI based on a super soldier, but Grey is the master swordwoman. Blind she may be, she knew the basic of Kendo by heart. Even inside a 22 meter mecha, she can easily deduce the blade is aiming at her throat just by the sound of the Kagerou's wrist joints grinding.

Cinderella jumped back and the two pronged blade was inches away from her throat. The blade is chasing her, but she twisted her katana and again, she aimed at the wrist. It worked. The blade stopped going forward and the Kagerou receded. As soon as he did, the Cinderella had charged back in with an overhead slash. Delphi immediately countered with quick pinpoint thrust that repelled her blade and knocked the whole Cinderella off balance. But Cinderella used the force of the recoil into a super fast roundhouse slash aimed at Delphi's legs. This Delphi avoid by jumping a vast distance backwards. But as he did, he opened fire, not at the Cinderella itself, but rather at her shields.

"URGH!"

"Heh?" Marie blinked. The open channels between the two Primate Engines are still very much online… and just now it broadcasted Grey's grunting in pain. "We… didn't hurt her, did we?"

"Perhaps we did… just not directly."

"What?"

Suddenly Delphi inputted a maneuver and Marie semi consciously followed it. It is a quick, very fast stab straight to her throat. Marie remembered she had tried this before and it failed as Cinderella blocked it.

This time, it actually went through her cordon and the tip managed to go deep enough to crack Cinderella's faceplate. But it will not go further as the Cinderella had already extend the distance between them. It became apparent to her that the Faux Valvrave's reacted much slower than when they first started.

"Confirmed."

"Confirmed what?" Marie blinked.

"Those shields aren't just shields and counterweight." Delphi explained. "Most likely they are sonar sensors and perhaps motion sensors as well. She claimed she was blind. So she perceives the world around her in a different way. If she was a foot soldier out in the open, her sense of hearing or touch would serve her well… but she's inside a Primate Engine. A 22 meter machine. There has to be an external echo locator, thermal sensor, and/or motion detectors that fed her the data she needs to mimic her extrasensory capabilities. Those shields are it. Perhaps circuits of sense nerve interwoven inbetween the shield palettes, gathering vast amounts of environmental data. I detect a massive decrease in the Cinderella's reaction time and response with each radar shield we disabled. Just now, we've destroyed more than half of her shields. Her speed and reaction is down by more than 40%."

"Is that… so… so she's really… blind and deaf and numb too…?" When Delphi put it that way, that's when Marie realized the truth. They took the toughest of all Valvrave and they remade it into something so fragile, it's like glass. But that Glass has an edge so sharp it can penetrate any defenses, all by virtue of the skill of its pilot alone.

"I suggest we continue this maneuver, concentrate our attack on her shields-"

"…No."

"…what?"

"Delphi… I'm rescinding your control. Return full control back to me and concentrate back to support."

"…" Delphi didn't say anything for a while…

"Delphi!"

"I'm programmed to obey… but I must also warn you: what you're asking is illogical. Her combat capability had been much reduced, but her parameters still overwhelm yours by far!"

"I don't care. Give me back full control!"

"You have control."

The Kagerou jerked, and one can even hear her power hums down. The green circuitry from the Yashagarasu receded back to where they came from. The grip on the Blackrose also faltered a bit. The Kagerou became less… rigid, and his joints start to sway unstably, something Grey noticed.

"Ahh… interesting… I sensed you took back control from the machine… did… what happened before was beyond your control?" Grey asked.

"…to my shame… it wasn't." Marie grunted.

The two machines stared down one another for quite a while. Neither are making a move, and so for a good long while afterwards there was no sound.

Naturally, after hours of hearing the echoes of their clash, this eerie silence drew in curious onlookers. But K-Zwei had crawled back to the said battlefield after his disgraceful retreat and he had watched the battle unfold ever since Yashagarasu took control of Kagerou up until now, when he gave up control back to its pilot. So he simply told his curious teammates that all is well, so far, and the fight is still ongoing. But he did not lend aid. There was no place for him in this duel.

"I have forced you to make an unpleasant decision, haven't I?" Grey spoke through the speaker. "But I must persist. This is a battle neither of us can afford to lose. For me… this is my chance of redemption. Our comrade fell by the hand of your leader, and by my failure of foresight. For you… you are the champion of your people. Their lives, their survival are now bound to the result of this battle."

Marie bit her lips.

"No one will think less of you to use every resource at your disposal to grasp victory. Even if it means to surrender your will to the machine, the burden I forced you to carry made mine looked like a joke. Know that I won't think less of you even if you gained victory this way."

Marie looked angrily at her own reflection in the window depicting Cinderella on the other side. "But I know I will."

K-Zwei blinked, and Grey herself twitched.

"By my count, you're down to your last sword, no? Get a resupply. I'll wait." Marie groaned.

Grey can't hold herself anymore and laughed sweetly. And then, the Cinderella did something unexpected: she opened her cockpit hatch and the pilot actually climbed out before removing her helmet.

By the same token, Marie felt she needed to do the same and hastily climb out of Kagerou for a good chance to see who she's been fighting face to face.

She's probably the most beautiful woman Marie had ever lay eyes upon.

With a smile that would melt armies of lovesick men, her face is easily a few grades higher than Saki's actress level natural beauty, and her voluptuous figure outclassed even Takahi who often took pride of her asset. Her hair is smooth dark grey hair, tied stylishly to a bun with a butterfly pin behind her head. Her slightly messy bangs over her head only slightly shadowed her blank grey eyes, crowning her graceful beautiful visage perfectly. Apart from her head, she's wearing a grey customized version of a Valvrave pilot suit. Interestingly, the armor on her right hand has been modified to resemble futuristic samurai armor. And holstered on her belt is an external cybernetic harness with a manipulator arm holding a sheathed katana and its accompanying wakizashi.

"…you have been fighting… a poor facsimile of this." Grey pulled out a weapon from her hilt. It is a katana… a perfect normal sized copy of the Katana the Cinderella had been holding. Except… Marie can immediately tell. The only thing the supersized copy had that overwhelmed the original is its size.

As if to match the beauty of its wielder, the blade was singularly the most amazing and the most beautiful blade Marie had ever lay her eyes on. The steel had a strong bluish black steel color with not a single blemish across its length. The butterfly pattern on the hamon of the katana shone like aurora gleaming within the blade, just as depicted by its supersized copies. Except comparing them side by side like this is like comparing a Grand artist's masterwork to a kindergarten finger painting. The butterfly on the original had depth its copy lacked. It was like the butterfly itself was alive and fluttering. Its edge glows pure white, with chilling cold blue light shining across its edges like shining flowers for the butterfly to land upon.

"…I'm not sure I…"

"Think it like this." Grey explained. "An upscaled super 3D printer. There's a scanner in my cockpit that scan my blade and then the 3D Printer will create an 'exact' replica." Grey made the quotation mark on the word Exact.

In a heartbeat, Marie flatly stated her verdict: "Fire those blasphemous idiots." The greatest katana the world has ever seen, and they made cheap disposable copies that were so bad, it's practically a cardinal sin. "Fire, as in the firing squad."

"I see we agree on something." Grey chuckled. "I keep telling them, pushing them to do better… and as a result of my insistence, my Valvrave was among the last to enter battle. I'd like to point out the fact because of the time spent in my unit, other unit also entered into service a little too late. And because of that… the person I've sworn to protect paid the price."

Marie guessed where this is going at last. "You think this is about pride?"

"…I understand that I really must revise my assessment of you. But my opinion still stands. The lives of your people-"

"I KNOW!" Marie roared as she punched her cockpit hatch in anger. "What I wanted is stupid and selfish and illogical! Hundreds of them and one me! But… but…If I win like that… if I start acting like the machines we've been fighting, if I start making decisions without pride or honor, what's the point of winning!? How am I supposed to look at myself in the mirror tomorrow if I discarded what makes me human!?"

Grey's lips was hung open for a full second in awe at that outburst, but then she hardened herself as she spoke cruel words: "But you are NOT human. You are… Novus Magius. An Alien hybrid super soldier."

"Yes. Yes we are. Half human. Half Magius. We are an existence living inbetween the two worlds, to become a bridge between them. We're not only embodying the worst… we're supposed to also represent the best of both races." Marie tightened her knuckles. "So I'm doing this. As both… As a human… And as a Magius." To depict this duality, green particles trickled around her small frame. "If you want to repair and resupply then go ahead. I'm not going anywhere either. You've lost half of your radar shields… and you're down to your last sword too right?"

Grey was absolutely speechless. She didn't remember reading anything like this in the Psychological Profile of any of her primary targets. Come to think of it, she didn't remember this one's name even come up as part of the main target. What a find! Did her fellows didn't even realize what they have in their midst? "In your defense, I've done my fair share of damage, I'm sure. The machine's eye won't grow back will it? Or is there some kind of alien tech I don't know? That being said… your instrument is most impressive. I know a good sword when I hear it clash against my blade. Whoever made it deserves the highest of praise."

Marie chuckled as she took a glance at the unblemished Blackrose. "You'll be shocked to know who it belonged to."

"Thrill me, if you be so kind?"

"This dai katana, the Blackrose… is the staff of office of Pino, the Raven king of the Magius herself. And… to be absolutely technical… she used to be… Muramasa Sengo, if you can believe it."

Marie blinked when she noticed the sudden silence. "Hello? Ahh… is everything alright?"

"…M… Muramasa Sengo…?" That's when Marie noticed how wide Grey's eyes gotten. "I trust you did not mock me? THE Muramasa Sengo?"

"…yes. THAT Muramasa Sengo, THAT legendary swordsmith. She also forged Haruto's twin Katana, Gouketsu (Blood Clot) and Futouchi (Boiling Blood)."

"…" Grey did not say anything, but she looked really shocked. So shocked, she wasn't even sure if she's sane or not. Until… "…fate."

"What?"

"This is truly… the vicissitudes of fate." It was then Marie finally noticed new expression cracking allover Grey's stonecold face. A smile. But it was a new kind of smile… a smile so carefree, so rive with emotion, it was an almost insane, manic smile. "The one contract I had most strongly against on taking… and now this made me question the whole thing… the irony of this… Aha… ahaha… what a fortuitous fate this is…" She turned to Marie. "What is your name again, my honored foe?"

"Marie… Nobi."

"Marie Nobi-dono… I… I have really done you… a great disservice… I have insulted you… belittle you… offended you… with my ignorance… my arrogance. Please forgive me." She bent her head down as low as it can get. "Allow me to… reintroduce myself. This blade… has no name. But it is the last and greatest of masterpieces, an heirloom that has been passed down through the ages in my family."

"Your family?"

"Ummei." Grey introduced herself in her name. "My real name… is Ummei Masamune. The last descendant… of Goro Nyudo Masamune."

0000000

"WHA~AAAAAAAAA~A~!?"

The Valravn's crew went into panic when the Dreadnought briefly fell from its orbit when a massive power surge exploded from within and caused a temporary blackout. The cause being because the legendary Demon Swordsmith that resides in its main power core just had what is probably the closest thing she can get to a heart attack of the century.

0000000

Somehow… Marie can just about imagine the look on Pino's face at this revelation. "…Oookay…" So… a Muramasa blade is once again fighting against a Masamune blade. Call her weird, but for the moment Marie did not see how this is such a big deal for her foe. Even weirder… her zeal to keep on fighting did not decrease either. If anything it felt like it's growing.

Grey suddenly grabbed a communicator and spoke a few words into it.

A few moments later, Delphi came with a startling report. "The droid army… they're… retreating."

"What?"

"Well, not exactly in full retreat, they just widen their distance. Enough that the Resistance is no longer in their firing range." Delphi's logical circuits were confused. "I don't understand. This doesn't make sense."

"Sometimes… some things don't have to make sense." Marie looked at Grey's smiling visage. "…my offer still stands you know? You could… resupply first. Or we could fight on foot. That seems to be more agreeable for you."

"No. If I have to wait the time it took for resupply, I don't think my sanity can handle it." Grey jovially stated. "Besides… this seems to be fair… for us both. Your machine is broken allover. It is damaged, I know I landed a few good solid slash into it, and yet it still stands, and your sword is practically indestructible. My machine suffered less damage in comparison, but it is partially crippled. And we both know about the state of my weapon. And… much as I enjoy your idea of fighting on foot… I dare say the fight will not last long."

"I projected actual hand to hand fight will end in less than 30 seconds." Delphi added.

"This IS fair. You, a fairly skilled warrior with a considerable talent, in a superior machine. Me, at the zenith of my might, in an inferior machine." Grey says no more and jumped down her cockpit. The Cinderella hums again with power.

Marie also says no more and jumped back in. The Kagerou grasped the Blackrose with both hands a little tighter. Grey's right. Marie had just discovered her particular skill with the sword. She wasn't being idle when Delphi took partial control; she was watching. Comparing. Learning. What mistake she had made, and how Delphi fixed her stances. Now, she ordered Delphi to cut off support, it's down to herself. The Kagerou stance in holding the Blackrose was significantly improved compared to how she first started. Something Grey noticed.

When Kagerou charged, she charged with all the force of a falling mountain and the speed of a thunderbolt. In just half a second, the Blackrose was slashed towards her wrist, then a slash to her shoulder and finally a stab to her throat. Cinderella blocked each and every one perfectly, but she was pushed back.

Grey's grin couldn't get any wider. There it is. She had improved immensely compared to how she started, but… The impurity, the imperfection, the lack of finesse… they all come back, proof that man is back in charge and the machine no longer had any say… because more importantly… the ferocity is back. The ferocity that no soulless machine can ever replicate. The ferocity that Marie channeled unto each and every one of her swing, the ferocity that sends this chill down her spine… it's all coming back… amplified hundredfold.

"Nothing fazes you, does it?"

If Kon asked her that question right now, she can tell her this: she's definitely fazed.

She should feel bad. She should feel remorseful. This is an important mission she should take seriously as penance for her mishap! She should be focusing on making sure this mission isn't compromised by her personal feelings…

She certainly did not expect her whim would actually result in THIS.

But there it is. That joyful smile plastered on her beautiful face.

Masamune and Muramasa blades clashed once more, grinding in sparks against each other, lighting up their wielders' mechanical face up close. If only they can replicate the expressions of their pilots, they would depict… two smiling faces.

She had no idea… she would be having. THIS. MUCH. FUN!

00000000000000

The Arus scientists that worked on the creation of the Faux Valvrave were no ordinary scientists. A good portion of their ranks were ARUS scientists who originally worked with the VVV projects before. They were the best and brightest of their generations. Pilots of New Jior by and large insulted their capability based on how badly the copies were made, but perhaps that is an unfair assessment. Each and every one of the Valvrave is the pinnacle of scientific endeavor beyond the scope of human understanding. Every Primate Engine in the VVV project was handcrafted personally by Pino, first as edifices to her friends of the Covenant of Seven Rainbows… and then as true super weapons to aid her children in the fight against the whole world… which is another way of saying it is a penultimate concentration of knowledge and personal inventive genius of the Raven King. Even to the Magius who were most familiar with the technology, the 6 Primate Engines of the VVV project is about as baroque as they get.

Which means; for the human scientists, even with the help of Blueprints, even with the localized components; looking at the designs and structure of the Valvraves made the scientist feels like cavemen being asked to invent a modern day laptop. So the fact that they were able to create something, even with all the flaws and limits, out of a source so incomprehensibly alien is already a miracle of science in itself. Red's Hellsing from 01 Hito, Grey's Cinderella from 05 Hiuchiba, the twins Blue and Amber's Ariels and Rapunzel from 04 Hinowa, Verdant's Aurora from 06 Hiasobi, and then there's Violet's Alice from 03 Hikaminari.

Alice, designed as conceptual copy of unit 03 Hikaminari, AKA Behemoth. There's just… one problem. All Valvraves were designed to be modular. Which means, when necessary, they can switch out body parts on the fly. The Behemoth took that concept to its absolute extremes. When the scientist studied the stolen blueprints of Behemoth, they were at loss on how one took a Primate Engine… and then chop it into 50 separate body pieces – Forgefists not included – and it still remain fully functional. Each of this body pieces had electromagnetic nodes in them, each powerful enough to maintain a unified cohesion at the molecular level. Something only a machine with the virtually unlimited supply of energy from Rave Engine can perform. And speaking of power supply, the scientists were absolutely baffled at the energy output that Behemoth can pull out. They know the Behemoth had been designed for use of two pilots… but they had no idea how something as simple as adding an additional pilot… would allow the Behemoth to, at times, produce energy output more than 100 times of its theoretical value. How something can generate that much output without destroying itself was just one of the many mysteries that baffled the scientists, with their human lifetime is far from enough time to answer these questions, while the Central Command demanded them to create a working machine in less than 2 weeks. So they did what they have been forced to do many times: they compromise.

The Faux Valvrave Alice was composed of two primary components: Alice, which is its primary inner core, and then there's the 12 accompanying companions that will form its armor. Originally, the scientist had opted to load the unit with as much firepower and munitions as they can, and pack it inside a top of the line armor that won't be out of place in a battlecruiser. The end result would look something like the over the top Goldilocks, if only significantly smaller in size. In fact, Goldilocks was designed after the subsequently rejected proposal. Rejected… by Violet, who took one look at the proposed end result… and she, like many of the Six Sense, found it wanting. She gave the scientist her list of modifications, a memo about 2 meters long. Her concept: the exact opposite of one man army. A small army composed a one man. Also… apart from all these major modifications, Violet also demanded one, very major, very controversial feature. The scientists had, in what's left of their good conscience, refused these requests outright, but Central Command pressed them to agree. And so Violet got her wish.

And on the trivial side note, the complexity of the modification also result in it having to use the stock head model design of the Malefic, one that posses the least intricate sense nerve crown design.

"WATCH OUT!" The Behemoth raised his arms a tad too late, Alice fist went through his guard and upper cut him to the sky.

The Behemoth flew several hundred meters off the ground before they crash landed into a bushel of trees. When they get back up, Alice is charging towards them again. The Behemoth (Raizo) was about to open fire with his lightning cannon, but faltered at the last second when he remembered it was useless. Alice closed the distance in an instant, and the Behemoth welcomed her with a punch. But Alice expertly caught the punch and trap the arm with one hand, and almost simultaneously, sent a haymaker straight to Behemoth's torso, the impact fell right beneath their armpit. This sent a shock all the way to the cockpit, rattling its two pilots. Raizo recovered quickly and used their rear arms into action. He tried to bring down a double hammer fist, but the Mad Hatter on Alice's back jumped out of the perch, and grabbed both arms, disorienting the body and the double punch missed horribly. Not missing a beat, Alice's knee surged forward and slammed against the frontal head, pushing the whole thing to the ground. Before Behemoth can even get up, Alice stomped his head with his left foot, which still has the tank threads from the Caterpillar. It whirred before Alice pressed them against the Behemoth's face, grinding it.

Thankfully, around this time, Yusuke recovered from the earlier shock and engaged the Behemoth's unique feature. The giant separated into pieces and dispersed allover the area. The air around Alice was soon covered in whirring body parts. "Let's try THIS!" The Behemoth suddenly formed a part of his body, a shoulder and an arm that sent a haymaker on Alice's head. She managed to block it, but then a leg formed behind her back and hurled itself on her thigh. Mad Hatter jumped down and blocked the kick. And at the same time, Behemoth's three remaining fists formed mid air and they simultaneously charged at Alice from three different directions. But then… the Laser Cutter from the Dodo Knee, the Flamingo Buster Rifle swiveled, both opened fire simultaneously, shooting down the first two, and the cable linked Chainsaw blade from the Lizard waist armor sprang to life and blocked the last fist. And to cap it off, the Mad Hatter unleashed a salvo of missile to every direction, blasting all the swirling pieces in a wide area of effect explosion. These four events happened simultaneously and in an instant.

As far as brute strength and speed goes, Alice and Behemoth actually stand toe to toe… Actually, thanks to the little dose of Quickening that Yusuke had put, theirs are far superior. But as they quickly learned, brute strength is only as effective as the skill of one who uses it. The pilot of Alice was obviously a much more trained combatants compared to brawler that is Raizo and Yusuke. The most annoying thing about the Faux Valvrave Alice is that though it may be composed of 'only' 13 pieces, but each and every one of those pieces seems to move with the will of its own. With two pilots, scientific minded Yusuke and the combative Raizo were able to do 2 or 3 things simultaneously. As for Alice, not only that she may have eyes at the back of her head, she also had a few more extra pair on her shoulders, her knees, probably her toe too, for good measure. She had no blind spot and nothing can seem to catch her by surprise. What's more, apart from her incredibly fast reaction time, her response is composed of 4 to 5 things simultaneously happening at the same time. Individually, they don't do much damage… but put them together, and it was more than enough to overwhelm even the Heavy Hitter Behemoth.

The Behemoth pieces immediately converged back to full form, worse for wear and battered here and there. In fact, that explosion just now had damaged some of the magnetic joints on his body. Yusuke quickly look towards fixing them, but still. "This is bad. I don't know what kind of person the pilot here or how she's doing this… its like every part of her body had its own mind… she keeps out-thinking us 3 to 4 steps ahead… at this rate…"

Raizo growled once… and then… "…hey, Yusuke… lend me an ear."

"Hm? You got a plan?"

The Behemoth remains still for a good long while whilst the Alice is slowly approaching him. It seems the long silence was attributed to a discussion happening in the cockpit… and then…

The Behemoth suddenly twitched back to life, signing that a decision has been made. Alice stopped moving and waited, wondering what the hulking Valvrave will do. The Behemoth simply balled the fingers of his Titan Fist into a… well, a fist… and then…

All his verniers bursting, the Behemoth charged in full frontal assault. Alice immediately readied herself. It was a simple straight punch she can see from a mile away. She caught it skillfully, and all the sudden, the Behemoth's knee came crashing. This she avoids with a side step, but then the two rear fist came crashing in a twin hammer fist. The Mad Hatter jumped in to wrestle… only to notice something completely different. Earlier, the Mad Hatter managed to knock the Behemoth down a notch… this time, the hammer fist was so overwhelmingly powerful that Mad Hatter felt like it was trying to stop a meteor. In fact, the Hatter only dared to land so much as a finger to that attack for him to realize the predicament and jump back to its perch immediately. Following, Alice also retreated back, opting to dodge the attack rather than block it. She'll soon see why she made the right decision.

The hammer fist hit nothing but air and the ground beneath it. But as soon as that fist made contact…

The entire forest region capsized.

Violet stared wide eyed from her cockpit as she observed the damage of the Behemoth's attack. His figure was shrouded in the towering cloud of explosion, but it stood at the epicenter of a giant crater that had snapped the ground plate as big as a city block to pieces. In fact, the damage had pierced the earth so deep, it reached the inner mechanical plate of the module beneath the dirt.

The green neon crown of the Behemoth shone through the smoke. When the Behemoth walked out of the dust, it was then Violet noticed what's different. Behemoth had covered his four fists and legs with so much rune, they're glowing bright yellow. What's more, the stance he took was different. Before, he looked like a tactical combat machine fine tuned to deal with the situation at hand. Now… he behaved like an angry brawler trying to pick a fight. His thrusters lit up once more … and the giant Mech came charging in right from the front towards her again. Identical with the previous attempt, even down to the trajectory and velocity.

Which also means, at its current course, the Behemoth will walk straight into the preset minefield the Cheshire Cat had set up when Alice dodge the first attack. As expected, the Behemoth was immediately consumed by the conflagration of the mine explosions. But then… the Behemoth just keep charging through it. Alice immediately opened fire: the Flamingo Buster Rifle, the missile from Mad Hatter, Flamethrower from the Caterpillar, and the laser cutter from the Dodo… and the Behemoth just… power through them all. In fact, he didn't even try to dismember himself as he usually would, he just pushed forward at reckless full speed and took whatever hit him head on. He took damage yes. Glancing and pretty severe ones, yes… but he just keep. On. Going. This caught Violet off guard, and Alice didn't have time to react until Behemoth was in range. But then the Turtle swivel forward and erected its shield barrier made of multitudes of hexagonal energy barriers. Behemoth didn't care and just sent his fastest, strongest, rune concentrated straight punch up front.

SLAM!

Fully half of the energy barriers shattered at the first punch. The turtle shield's capacitors exploded due to the overwhelming burden of the impact. And while Alice is still riled at the damage of a single punch, the next 3 punches came falling with no pause. The next punch shattered the shield, the remaining two, she had to dodge, but the last punch grazed a bit of her right foot. A quarter of said foot disintegrated. But as Alice dodged, the rest of her body parts also opened fire at the grounded Behemoth. Missiles, flame stream, blaster fire, and even bombs rained down upon the Behemoth. But the yellow Valvrave didn't seem to care. Not even when a shot from the Flamingo blaster actually destroyed one of his rear arms. In fact, it immediately kept charging forward towards her in another booster propelled charge. His plan of attack, once again, is that devastating but simplistic concentrated Iron Skinned punches.

A mindless berserker fighting style. It had discarded its methodical and almost elegant fighting style and resort to a simplistic, almost mindlessly beastlike brute force approach. Ignore everyone and everything, and just concentrate on the main target in almost single minded focus. Even if Violet can see it coming, stopping it is a different story entirely. And she remembered.

Behemoth was originally a single seater, but the circumstances of its combat history certainly are unique. It is one of the first two units that were piloted by two incredibly different pilots. Violet remembered reading the psychological profile of the two Sakimori students that piloted it, and they were like night and day. Otamaya Yusuke was your typical nerdy techno geek. A complete pushover in battle, but his knowledge in Valvrave technology is second only to the aliens that made them. This skill and predilection became invaluable, and it almost make sense that he was entrusted with a Valvrave capable of maintenance and field repair, as he was the one responsible in keeping the New Jior super machines in tip top condition. In stark opposite side of that spectrum is Yamada Raizo. Kicked out of three different schools in multiple violent incidents where the police had been involved. The fact he was accepted into Sakimori was simply because he was part of the VVV project to begin with. His school grades showed no redeeming qualities at all apart from his higher than average physical capabilities. In summary: textbook muscle headed idiot.

In truth, that was the exact word his instructor Jeay said about him.

"I had to admit it. And you should too, Yamada Raizo." Jeay said this one day. "You are an imbecile. Textbook Muscle Headed Idiot."

"Nanni!? You wanna pick a fight old man!?"

1 minute of beatdown later, Jeay continued his explanation to a swollen faced and barely conscious Raizo. "…personally, I believe that's your ace in the hole."

"Bhy ashwe in the bwhole?" Raizo sputtered through his swollen lips.

"We already had enough thinkers in our army. Your leader, your partner, Cain, the Dorssian tacticians. Having too many brains is as bad as not having any. But even that had its uses." Jeay smirked. "You're bad at thinking. This much is obvious. So don't do it. Don't think. Just feel it and then just do it. If it's you, stupid as you are… no… it is precisely because you're as stupid as you are… this will be perfect for you."

And that is what Raizo had actually suggested to Yusuke.

"Just switch. If we can't outthink her, then we won't think at all. Just… PUNCH HER!" Raizo balled his fist. "Just punch and punch and punch and punch her with everything we got until she's down and out!"

Yusuke had been so driven to the corner that he even felt Raizo's brainless idea is probably the smartest idea he heard so far. And so, they switched.

Nowadays, it was easy to forget that Behemoth, AKA unit 03 Hikaminari, was originally designed with 'extreme offense is the best defense' in mind. The role that it was supposed to fulfill was that of mobile artillery to give either long range or close range offensive support to the other Valvraves. But the field repair function was something recently added into its repertoire, taking into account of the technical minded Yusuke piloting it. And for a good long while, owing to the asymmetrical battles the Valvraves had been facing where they are almost always being overwhelmed or outnumbered, Behemoth embraced it's the primary role as the field maintenance specialist, its original potential was buried as the necessities of war demands it. This is further reflected in how it is normally piloted: with Yusuke taking main control, and in retrospect, Raizo's offensive ability became a background support.

But now… that role was reversed… or rather, quite in fact, Behemoth finally dropped the façade of the constructive delicate giant and reverted back to its original purpose: a savagely offensive oriented war machine. Raizo took the helm and Yusuke was relegated to the support role. Raizo will focus everything, like, EVERYTHING… on just attack. He concentrated all his runes on Iron Skin not for protection but to enhance his brute strength to its absolute zenith. And for that same reason, evasive dismemberment was deactivated. He won't even think on what's next. Just smash everything in sight to pieces! These are the main precepts of a natural born Berserker. Meanwhile, Yusuke will take a step back and focus on support – specifically constant repair job, making sure Raizo can keep doing what he does best, come hell or high water. For example, just now, Yusuke had just reconstructed Behemoth's destroyed arm.

With that done, the Behemoth charged again. Violet responded, or rather this time, the chainsaw Lizard at her waist responded by launching the grinding chainsaw towards the incoming Valvrave, but Behemoth merely caught the chainsaw and crushed it in his palm and he quickly closed the distance. The moment she saw Behemoth big angry fist one inch away from pulverizing her face, Violet realized, there's only one way out of this:

"SPLIT UP!"

The Alice split up into 13 separate pieces and the Behemoth hit nothing but air. At that instant, the Behemoth reacted by popping open its entire 96 Forgefists arms and opened fire with every lighting cannon and plasma caster it got to every directions. Most of them missed, but a few managed to land a few grazing shots at the escaping mini droids. But still… that didn't stop them from disappearing from view, again.

"Now what?" Yusuke asked.

"We hunt them all down. One by one if we have to."

"No. No we can't."

"Why? Even when they are put together they can't beat us, much less when they're in individual parts!"

"I know. Your approach is good, problem is, it also took a lot out of us. We're out of Nanos and materials to keep up with the damage we're taking in."

"Recommendation?"

"One shot. We have to end this in one shot."

"One shot… eh? I can do that." And Raizo know just where to hit.

The Alice mini mechs now prowled the complex once more in stealth. Except, now there are less place to hide. Behemoth's rampage had changed the landscape, capsized a portion of the module, leveled several buildings, and even burnt out several patches of the forests. The smaller droids, those with low profile form like the rabbit, the caterpillar, the lizard, they can hide around just fine… but for something like the Jack of Hearts and the Queen, it took some effort.

But as the Minimechs are skulking about looking for an opening, that's when they noticed a new addition to the scenery.

Suddenly, the sky was filled with at least a dozen of this disembodied giant arms flying around high up in the sky. On each of these arms, three heads swiveled about scanning the area. It wasn't hard to understand what's happening.

The role of hunter and hunted had just been reversed.

And this situation is a far cry different than before. The enemy now knows what they're looking for and there were over 40 pair of eyes looking for them from high up in the sky.

The Flamingo tried to open fire to one of them. The blast grazed a portion of a Forgefist, ripping up two of 5 fingers. But in response, at least 4 Forgefists reacted and returned fire together with the damaged one, launching a salvo of thunderstorm. The Flamingo barely survived that, but three out of five of those forgefists are now hunting the poor bird. The rest returned back to patrol.

The Rabbit Knight watched this and understood. Attack one, and the rest will home in… but… she noted how out of five, three chased the Flamingo, but two stayed. It wasn't trying to destroy each and every one of her body parts, it was looking for something. One specific target.

"…which one though?"

As the Rabbit Knight took a small step, a rock cluttered down… and just her luck, one arm noticed that.

"FOUND HER!" Yusuke zoomed in on the Rabbit Knight's image for good measure until they can see her bunny ears flipped up.

"HERE WE GO!"

The Rabbit Knight perked when she heard the sound of destruction coming her way at a very rapid pace. She quickly jumped away and started running… until a rain of lightning fell right in front of her path. She turned away, another rain of lightning. Everywhere she turned, it was raining lightning. She's being boxed inside a cage of thunder, a sustained suppression fire from at least 8 Forgefists. When she looked around looking for hope from her other minimechs, she only saw them being harried away out of their hiding place with a salvo of lightning from other Fists. And she saw a trail of destruction coming her way, no doubt that gigantic brute is probably stomping his way through all obstacles to get to her. The core unit inside Alice.

But he made a mistake. He's boxing her in a cage of lightning. And they all remembered what she can do with lightning. The Rabbit Knight purposefully plunged her shield arm into the lightning cage and absorbed as much electricity as she could into her system. Her capacitors are soon screaming overload but she didn't care. She's about to give that brute the biggest shock of his life.

When the last explosion is but one breath away from reaching her, she lifted her sword in its gun mode, overcharged way past capacity and aimed right where the Behemoth's chest would be…

And the first that burst out of the last obstacle is… an arm paired with a Scarab Shield.

The Rabbit Knight reacted on reflex and opened fire. That's when she realized her mistake. The overpowered shot destroyed her gun, and the projectile punctured the arm and the shield, stopped it dead on its tracks… but when it explodes, the Rabbit Knight realized she just shot an arm and a shield… and that's all she shot down. Nothing else attached to said arm.

As she's still processing this, body pieces already flew out of the crevices of the cracks of the capsized ground behind the Rabbit Knight and formed the Behemoth, sans an arm, all of its Forgefists had been stripped off his now relatively skinny body safe one on his right arm, glowing with all the runes Raizo can jampack into it.

When the Rabbit Knight turned around, the fist is already in a straight collision course to her torso, at such speed, all she can see was this giant streak of yellow flash. Even if her shield wasn't busted, she wouldn't have the time to block this, much less dodge it.

The fist connected… with the Mad Hatter's torso who jumped in on the last second to protect the Rabbit Knight.

The sheer force of the punch capsized its chest, a pillar of energy burst through the Mad Hatter's back and struck Alice's chest in full. The two humanoid mech were thrown a few kilometers meters backward with their bodies horribly bent out of shape, with an imprint of the Behemoth's fist plastered on the Mad Hatter's chest.

"BOOYA!" Raizo roared in triumph. "Rule of a Thumb when you're outnumbered: always go for the leader!" Raizo raised his hand hoping for a high five with his partner… instead, he noticed how Yusuke's face had gone deathly pale.

His eyes dawned with a horrified epiphany. Yusuke first noticed this when he realized the Flamingo was… trying to run away after being counter attacked. It was trying to… survive. And now THIS? One mech just sacrificed itself to protect the others? This is something a simple AI would never do.

"What's wrong?" Raizo asked.

"…I just realized… I… I… why didn't I realize this earlier…" The Behemoth quickly chased the two mechs they've punched across the field in a horrified pace. "Remember when I said how the Alice seems able to react faster like… like parts of her body had minds of their own?"

"Yeah…?" The Behemoth loomed over the crater where the Mad Hatter and Alice are piled atop another; the Mad Hatter's chests are horribly crushed and the Rabbit Knight was caved in beneath the Hatter.

"Looks like I was right on the money…" Yusuke gulped as the Behemoth carefully, very gently began to peel away at the crushed armor plates of the Mad Hatter to see the truth with his own eyes. "That's because… each and every one of the mechs… DOES have a mind of its own… in literal sense."

Raizo caught on. "…you mean they're piloted?" But he remained incredulous. "All 13!? But… that's crazy. I mean, you do notice those mini mechs are really… well… mini! With all the gears and equipment, not to mention the fuel and their own reactors… the cockpits had to be really small!"

"Very small. A grown person could barely fit in there."

"Exactly. And… to man a mech that small you either had to be just a brain or-" Raizo's face gone equally pale when he came up with the same realization as his partner.

Yusuke gulped as the Behemoth peeled away the last layer of the armor shielding the cockpit…

"…or a child soldier."

… a child, no older than a 12 year old, lying lifeless inside the shattered cockpit, marred in a pool of his own blood.

A feature Violet asked that even the Scientists balked against… were individual cockpit for children to fit into.

"…oh my god… what have I done?" Raizo gawked. Rule no 1 of being a delinquent: you don't hit a child!

They heard a pair of thuds… and the Behemoth noticed the Queen just landed behind them atop her Griffon King. Embedded on her axe are the three Forgefists that had been chasing the Flamingo a minute ago. Even if they can't see the face of the pilot they can tell she's… angry. Just another proof there's no cyber brain in there, but a very angry pilot.

"…uhh… Look… there's a way." Yusuke gulped. "There's still a way. We can… we can avoid the cockpit, we can just tear apart her arms."

"We can do that… wait… is it just me… or does she seem bigger than normal?"

Now that they noticed it, the Queen is unique. When united with Alice, it formed a distinctly oversized right arm. And in her humanoid form, even if she's not atop a mechanical Griffon she was actually… bigger than Alice. Taller at least. She little resemble a Valvrave, with mannequin limbs… but she was relatively heavily armored, and when she's astride her massive Gryphon mount, she's actually quite big – only slightly smaller than the Behemoth.

The Queen swished her axe and threw away the carcasses of the three Forgefists. And then… something began to trickle out of the rims of her armor.

Something VERY familiar.

"Wait… isn't that…!?" Yusuke could scarcely believe his eyes.

Green and purple particles of light began to flow out of her exhaust vents, a dark green purple thick bile soon also pour out of her every crevice, seeping through every joints. They drenched both the Queen and her mount, dripping into a pool of thick mucous liquid that constantly emanates the distinct dark green and purple light particles. The Griffon's talons sank into the earth as it cracks with overflowing energy. The Queen astride her Griffon mount were soon swallowed by this sickening bile, enveloping her form, enlarging her, creating a silhouette of something monstrous. And then the Queen's crown receded, replaced by a new… Neon Green Sense Nerve crown.

All Faux Valvrave Sense Nerve had neon purple crown… but this one is… neon Green… not to mention this otherworldly phenomena not possible with human science… which means… it's using… true Rune from a proper source…

"…there's a… Magius in there?"

In the cockpit of the Queen, Violet's eyes glowed ferociously green and purple to match her fury. And though her face is shrouded in darkness, a menacing and unhealthy looking blackened purple rash emerged allover her face as it glows fluorescent purple in the shadows. Between this and the fact the energy she emanates had taken a different color than usual denote her status as an Elder of her kind. Her fanged teeth gritted so tight in anger until her gum bleeds, but then they instantly recovered.

JABBERWOCKY MODE: ENGAGED.

The bile had monstrously merged the two mechs into a single draconic centauroid monstrosity. Aspects of the two original mechs can still be seen, with the Queen's neon green sense nerve crown still perched atop her head and the Griffon's wings are still protruding out, as is other mechanical parts such as the boosters that are the Griffon's rear legs and all… but most of them were drowned in the corruption of the tendrils composed of this pure dark purple bile. The Queen's lower half seem to have been fused shut with the Griffon King mount, which was also similarly mutated into a monstrosity more biologic than machine, with its forward claws malformed into an oversized arms with elongated talons. The Griffon's mechanical avian head, similarly consumed by the corruption, transformed into a hideous blackened avian monstrosity with a nonsensically elongated neck, roaring its displeasure with an open maw riddled with twirling fangs. The Jabberwocky Queen spins her axe several times before slamming it on the ground. The bile spout out of the cracked ground, enveloped the axe and turned it into a mutated oversized scythe.

In the face of this monstrosity Yusuke and Raizo had this thought in their minds… "…we're fucked."

00000000000000

When it was quite clear that New Jior will be fighting ARUS, two out of three heads of states had given their strict warning.

"Anderson loves being the media darling." Ryuuji said this in a briefing just before Haruto send A-Drei, X-Eins, Yusuke and Raizo's team into the Sphere. Akira was watching through the CCTV as Ryuuji continued: "He will do everything in his power to either: paint himself the hero… or the victim. He's done this many times."

"In fact… he might just be the expert." Ivan followed. "When we… 'served' the council 101, Anderson was entrusted in the duty of information control. To make sure nothing about the Council's intervention enters into mainstream media. And in some way, he succeeded. Reports and sightings of aliens and ghosts and whatnot were downplayed down into just rumors and old wives tale. Misdirection, doctored evidence, censure… this was right up his alley."

"And what do you propose that we do? Uhh… don't rock the boat?" Haruto asked.

Ryuuji laughed bitterly. "At this point, Haruto, I think Anderson will try his very best to force you to rock the boat. I mean… sending black ops to topple nations is not exactly something he never do… but after I saw that incident the other day, when he send those inciters to cause so much destruction… at that scale… This was… brazen. Too brazen, even for him."

"He ordered his captain to open fire at civilians. I don't think brazen is the word I'd choose to describe it." Haruto grunted.

"He's done far worse." Ivan replied flat. "I would know. What Ryuuji meant, was Anderson used to be much subtler and more cunning in doing it. We think…" Ivan scoffed. "We think that accident when the council attacked him full force had knocked some screw loose or something."

That meeting ended there, with a bitter chuckle all around. But Akira's mission was quite cut and dried. Haruto didn't say anything about the public image of his conduct in the battlefield, but the last thing everybody wants is for the NJSDF to take the crap for war crimes that was committed by the other side.

The task was somewhat difficult when she found all the jamming that occurred planetwide, then she found out about what they've done with the WIRED. And now she can finally, truly, go to work.

And the first bad news that she had to immediately manage is…

The CCTV video of Behemoth performed its Jibaku on the Goldilocks.

"This… is not bad actually." Burnett, as the media representative in the advisory capacity commented. "I mean… if one look at the whole picture, we can see the Yellow Valvrave was trying to defend itself. Furthermore, it was trying to stop the big bad mech from blowing a hole in the planet with that oversized gun. But… you might wanna be careful because there are plenty of good materials for ARUS Spin team to twist. Cast in the wrong light, they could make it look like the Behemoth was out of control."

"Considering the pilots, it's not exactly hard to imagine." Rasa, Ashra's Magius subordinate, chortled. She helped trained one of them, she would know. No one else laughed obviously.

Still… despite Burnett's caution, what comes next made the aforementioned video looked like a prank.

A cellphone video of Haruto going supernova incinerating hundreds of resistance fighters, including the cameraman.

And it's almost entirely their fault. Emphasis on the entirely.

Ryuuji was speechless and Ivan gulped when they saw the footage. "If the media saw this…"

The stiff faced Dorssian lady with the mole… what was her name, Kriemhild? gave Akira the Dorsian Standard Operation Procedure on information censorship. Akira glanced through it, and after bypassing the assassination and kidnapping procedures… chief among the things she need to do was to not only clean sweep the mainstream Web content, but also the Dark Web, because nowadays that's where some of the most sensitive stuff disappeared into before they resurface in the most inopportune moment.

Thankfully, they have yet to see anything worse than that… so far. But these two accidents happening simultaneously, Elder Magius awakening one after another… in a very explosive manner. When they demand answer from Pino:

"This is something… even I have never experienced before! Magius didn't become an Elder in a couple months! We're talking gradual process that should've taken centuries of growth and experience through various events in that long life, not instantly exploding in the middle of a life and death battlefield with audiences!"

And just so be clear: Pino was very upset about this as well. These two premature awakening events once again expounded the fact that her children, the Novus Magius, had been tampered with an accelerated growth. That this would result in something so explosive was probably a little miscalculation on the perpetrator's part. Just another thing they're going to hold Tokishima Shoichi accountable for.

With that said, when Haruto finally managed to restore some semblance of communication from down below, the first thing Pino requested of her was to have Haruto's biometrics constantly monitored. Any sign of he's about to sneeze out so much as a missile's worth of explosion, they have to know.

To that effect, Akira had requested Haruto's permission for her to hack his combat suit so that she can monitor his condition. Permission granted, the result was promising to say the least. Over the course of the last week, Haruto had done more than sneezed. But Pino was mighty impressed, dare she say proud even, as the data also showed that Haruto can put a hankie on his sneezes. He may be in an accelerated growth, but fortunately, he was also in an accelerated learning course. It was remarkable that Haruto had pushed out the energy of a nuclear reactor at one point and he's still very much in control.

But now… Akira's getting the weirdest reading she ever had.

A minute ago, Haruto was on fire. Figuratively and literally. Body temperature at an insane 900 degrees Celcius, heart rate at an excess of 500 bpm. And this happened while he's having the equivalent of 30G slamming every inch of his skin.

And he went from that… to… 350 degree celcius, and decreasing, and his heartrate is now… 0.5 bpm. That's one heartbeat per two minutes. He went from an active volcano to a lobotomized comatose. All this in less than a minute.

That's the very definition of something's wrong.

She checked all the vid cams and cctv depicting the Valvrave in the last couple of hours until now, all of them depict he's still fighting that one sided one on two fight… and that's he's still doing it right now. "Someone… hacked the camera… and tried to lie to me. TO ME." And Akira gets to work.

And the fact that 15 minutes later she's still working proves that her cyber adversary was quite good. Over the course of 15 minutes, Akira was given every hacker challenge in the book: layers of firewall, fake servers and ghost IPs, E-bombs, even a self made digital virus boobytraps. That last one was the clincher for her. She's engaged in a cyber warfare against another Hacker. Probably another Black Hat, just like her.

0000000

Verdant had two identities. During the day, she's Sara Szhenbein, a famous neuro surgeon at only 16 years old of great skill and talent, but constantly frustrated and underpaid, thanks to that stupid sexist ceiling in a hospital whose largely male occupants are still trapped in 16tH century dogma. To make ends meet, at night she's secretly Verde101, the (in)famous E-Gamer and a White Hat of reputable history. She made a professional job catching game cheaters and hackers.

The double life served her well and paid her expenses… until one day she founds out the hospital she's working with had actually been lying to their patients in an insurance swindle. Being the responsible whistleblower that she is, she hacked the general hospital health insurance security with her cellphone. Unfortunately, this also exposed her identity as Verde101 – someone in the virtual world and nursing a grudge apparently recognized her hacking style. They exposed her, and before long she was under siege, being attacked by every hacker and foul player she had ever taken down. It got so bad, even her real life profession took a hit, and she lost her license.

Until finally, she snapped, and she turned to the Black, for good, before going on a roaring rampage of cyber revenge. She stole a measly 0.5 dollar of E-money from each and every one of those vengeful hackers who attacked her… a full half a billion accounts of them – do the math. Then she shut down the entire northern coast electric grid with a laptop, around the place where some of that half a billion account reside causing a total system shutdown and data loss. That's when she get her Black hat – because she also ignore billions of others who suffered because of the shutdown. Finally, justice of sort got to her when she attempted a fire sale on Dorssia's infrastructure, and their hit squad got her before she succeeded.

She was taken in and officially, Dorssia only had one punishment for the crime of hacking their cyber system with a warehouse PC. Sara Szhenbein was executed by the firing squad when she was 18. But in reality, she was carried into Dorssia science division. Lord knows what they did to her, but when Red finally rescued her, well… let's just say she was more than happy to give the Six Sense their resident Cyber Warfare expert and Physician as a bonus.

So… as their Cyber Warfare expert, it was her job to inform her teammates when she noticed several of her monitors start blinking red before exploding in a smoke. "Uh oh… Red, we got a problem."

"What now?"

"I've been compromised. One of my alarms just went out, she's tracking me."

The Regnant International immediately recalled another name in the list of New Jior pilots. 'She' could only refer to Renbokuji Akira, the prodigal 16 year old computer genius that had hacked Jior national grading system at 7 – becoming the youngest Black Hat in the history, and then went on to design the WIRED at 9, and now the primary pilot of unit 06 Malefic. In the grapevine, she had gone White since, but Verdant had suspicion that she never took off the Black either.

"How did she found out so fast?" Amber frowned. "Did she crack through the fake image you've played? (koff)"

"Nein. The doctored video is still playing. Even if she hacked the CCTV, she should still be seeing an active Droid Deathmatch." Verdant frowned. "Unless… unless she was monitoring Target Alpha's vitals from the beginning."

"How… how did Target Alpha communicate the data of his vitals to unit 06 if we're jamming all signals? (koff)"

"Doesn't matter. We need to move him out of here." Red jerked his thumb at the inert Valvrave.

"Yeah, well, how!? (koff)" Amber growled.

The Valvrave had stopped rampaging, yes… but right now, their thermostats measured a surface temperature of over 2,000 degrees and the whole module, burned to a wasteland, sports pretty much similar temperatures. The only reason Red and Amber did not burn or seemingly unaffected was because they're inside the Faux Valvraves. If they try to bring an airplane over it to carry him up, the radiating heat will incinerate the harness first, and then it'll bore a hole through the ship's underside. Carrying him by hand using the Faux Valvraves was also out, because it's a long and the heat will jammed their systems before they even made it out of the Module. They have to cool him down, and they cannot wait.

"Verdant, don't we have your cryolaser? (koff)"

"I thought Red told me not to do it again? The last time I did it, they nearly caught up with me! I can't move anywhere at the moment, remember?"

"Well we need to find a way to cool him down, FAST." Red gave a look to Amber.

"What are you looking at me for? (koff)"

"Last time I checked you're the chemical expert!"

Amber growled. "You do remember I want to kill him!?" But she only mop for a full second before the answer came. "I'm going to the weather system. (koff) Verdant, hack it for me. (Koff) Get it ready to make it rain on my mark. (Koff) Just a drizzle, but focus the rain on target Alpha."

"You got it."

Rapunzel took flight to the ceiling of the Module's dome. The Faux Valvrave stuck up there for quite a while… And then, rain start pouring in a specific region around where the Valvrave was inert. A light drizzle. But… this was no ordinary rain. The fire start getting put down at a very quick rate, considering it's just a drizzle. But the Valvrave is still burning.

Red looked at several droplets in his palm. The water is not clear water… something is mixed in it.

"It's a mixture of… huntite, hydromagnesite, aluminium hydroxide, and magnesium hydroxide. (koff) It's the thing they used on Flame Retardant to deal with Forest Fires. (Koff)" Amber explained. "And I told Verdant to start the rain in low intensity first. (Koff) If she just dumped the whole flood, the Steam Explosion will destroy everything in 60 mile radius… except him and us. (koff)" The only thing Amber will give the Arus Engineer credit for, was that the Ariels had been made tough enough to survive deep sea exploration. That's the reason why her sister can survive multiple steam explosions from when she faced the blazing Valvrave in depths of the sea. That's also the reason why, based on that experience, Red had Hellsing and Rapunzel armor modded to an improved specifications to counteract such event.

Red raised an eyebrow. "That's all?"

"What do you expect? Sand and boron? (Koff) He's not a nuclear reactor. (koff) I don't even know what the chemical structure of this Rune thing. (koff) Thankfully our Dosimeters only measured that the highest number is… 3 Roentgen. (Koff) That thing is acting like a radioactive material… minus the radioactive property. (Koff) How the bloody hell was that even possible!? (koff)"

"Okay… I get that much, but this is gonna take a while… Verdant, how long can you hold her off!?"

"In the time we spent giving him a light shower, she just took out like a DOZEN firewalls! She's already demolished HALF of my countermeasures and my servers are overloaded on maintaining Morpheus!" Verdant wondered.

"Everybody, don't fall apart yet." Red immediately mediates. "Verdant… let's say… you dump the whole thing… drenched him with every bit of water you got…"

"The thermal explosion-"

"As I understand it this module is empty anyway and we can just fly out of the blast radius. Now… Say you do that… will it lower his heat? And how much?"

"From the data we've gained from the Ariels' fight we know water can cool him down. (Koff) But… I don't know how much, and no, Red… it's not going to work. (koff)" Amber explained. "My sister's Ariel was hit by multiple 2-3 megaton Thermal explosions when she dumped a SEA's worth of water on top of that thing. (koff) It reduced his temperature yes, but how long did that buy her? (koff) 10-15 minutes at most, and even that only delay the inevitable. (Koff)"

"Say, what if we dump all the air out of the module, the heat won't radiate anywhere!" Verdant suggested.

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea. (Koff) Let's space out all the tranquilizer and sedative we've painstakingly laced to the air. (Koff) The same drugs that are keeping a walking nuclear reactor docile and pacified. (Koff) Why don't we just wake him up again and ask him nicely to move to a supermax prison facility to be experimented upon and dissected, because it was so~o easy putting him to sleep the first time! (Koff)"

"And heat can still radiate through vacuum via infrared. In fact, remove the air, and you actually remove the only thing shielding us from being torched by the heat radiation." Red further added.

"Hey, I'm a gamer, doctor, and hacker. I'm not a rocket scientist!"

"Need some help?"

That voice came not from any of the Six Sense but from the open channel com. Red immediately recognized that voice: "Esperanza? Is that you?"

"Look up."

They look up and lo, a Walkitt with a black custom paint job with red stripes just came in from the Module internal entrance. The ship also bears a different symbol instead of the Regnant International RI. It is a symbol of Dorssian flag… with a giant White Cross strapped atop it. It's another PMC, the X-ssia. It is a PMC filled with Dorssian deserters. Their leader is Esperanza 13. Her name in Dorssia was E-Dreizehn. When she finally deserted, she took that name and reversed it as a form of spite… and rumor has it, she also stole a Walkitt that had belonged to the Dorssian royal family, full of supplies and munitions, and now it serve as her primary base of operation for her small army of fellow deserters turned mercenaries/pirates. When Dorssia was at the height of their power they hate her and her group almost as much as they hate ARUS. Dorssia managed to push ARUS around, but her? Even when they rip one arm and took one eye from her, all they managed in doing was piss her off.

"Ezpe, what are you doing here!? I thought I said-"

"I know, I know. You and your girls liked to be the Lone Wolves and all. But firstly, Central Command was monitoring your progress and wondered why you just sit there twiddling your thumb… and secondly, it seems to me like you need some help." Ezperanza is a beautiful Caucasian woman in her twenties with one eye in her natural green, the other is mechanical prosthetic yellow eye with a crosshair for a cornea, and an old scar stretched down her cheek from said eye. A black captain's hat rests on her head, matching the customized black colored Dorssian attire which was rather loose and open, particularly around her exposed cleavage. She paired this untraditional Dorssian attire with a short mini skirt and a belt sporting a jewel studded cutlass and several handguns of different make and type. Her distinctly silver hair was long enough to almost touch the floor and it splits down the middle to two streams of brilliant silver hair which is then braided near the tip, where the silver color ended in dark singed hue. Her pale white bionic arm holds her smoking pipe as she took a deep inhale before she quickly added. "And I'm here to give it."

"For a fee, naturally." Red groaned.

"80:20, my way."

"60:40, my way. Take it or leave it."

"Cheapskate."

"How exactly are you going to help? And do hurry up, we're on a clock here!"

Ezperanza chortled and sent down her instructions. Her Walkitt deployed scores of special unmanned Waffe with modified shields. "Dorssia originally developed these with Microwave emitters. We've modified it with a Liquid Nitrogen Heat Exchanger plates usually used to cool down fissioning Nuclear core. In the event of a Meltdown."

The Waffe slowly began to circle around the Valvrave's kneeling form, cooling shield plates up and ready.

"How much Liquid Nitrogen did you carry? (Koff)"

"Kon? Is that you? Dear heavens my dear, you're a spitting image of your sist-"

"HOW MUCH!?" She's not in the mood for that joke.

"60,000 metric tons in reserve. Enough to freeze Chernobyl twice over."

"You're not dealing with a Nuclear Reactor, Ezpe." Red sighed. "You're trying to cool down a small star on the verge of going supernova."

As Red said this, the 6 Waffes encircling the Valvrave began to malfunction, combust inside out, before finally exploding. This happened in less than two minutes. They haven't even entered within 50 feet of the overheating Valvrave.

Ezperanza's one eye twitched. "Okay… in which case we will do this in cycles. One minute per group of six and then switch. And Red… given the circumstances, my cost had just gone up: 60:40, my way. Final offer."

"Deal. Up yours, bitch."

"Fuck you and go to hell."

Despite the insult laden banter, there was no enmity. Sure, long ago Red had offered Ezperanza a place as one of the Six Sense but they had a disagreement over the matter on who's in charge and other matters. Ultimately she declined with the finger, but no love lost. Unless their contract stipulated otherwise, X-ssia and RI are on a cordially, professionally, friendly terms. The same, however, could not be said with the other groups…

"We also need a way to stop a Hacker breaking down our Cyber Defenses."

"The Central Command has been made aware of that too. They've sent… uhh… countermeasures."

"Judging by your tone, I'm not sure I'm gonna like what they had in mind."

0000000

Akira immediately noticed an incoming swarm of fast moving ships erupting from the module and headed straight towards her. 2 dozen Splicers with a special payload strapped to their hull is hurling towards her at breakneck speed.

And as she noticed it, of course the crew of the Valravn noticed this too. "ALL GUNS OPEN FIRE! SHOOT THEM DOWN!"

The Valravn opened fire with every weapon they have, shooting down a great number of the Splicers. But they are very agile, and their movements are incredibly unpredictable, showing that at least some of them were manned. And they're heading, at full speed, towards the Malefic Gretel satellite.

Kriemhild recognized this as a suicide collision course a little too late.

"ALLAH AKH~" One ship managed to get through and slammed itself against the Valravn's energy shield, right in front of the Malefic. And its special payload ignited in a 3 megaton nuclear explosion. The explosion engulfed the shield and nothing seemingly get through, the blast didn't get anywhere near the Valravn. But it was dangerously close to the Malefic who was stationed at the very edge of that shield. As a result, when the blast subsided, a part of the Malefic's Gretel satellite panel was singed.

"Oh my god." Ivan gawked. "…suicide runs. Each one of those Splicers are armed with nuclear warheads!?"

"And they're manned with suicidal lunatics so that their trajectories are less predictable. How's our shield!?" Kriemhild roared.

"The shield's holding." The officer answered. "…but they're not targeting us, they're targeting the Malefic! She's taken damage, she's way too close to the edge of our shield!"

"Renbokuji Akira, you MUST return back to Valravn's hangar immediately! They're going after you!"

CAN'T. She replied.

"This is an order, soldier!"

HARUTO IN TROUBLE! NEED MY HELP! MUST HELP! CANNOT GO BACK IN!

"What is she talking about?" Kriemhild quickly looked at the video feed. "Show me every live feed on 01!" Her orders were displayed before her and she skimmed each and every one… and that's when she noticed… some of these are actually… altered videos of Valvrave's past fights. They simply spliced the image of his enemy with the Faux Valvraves and then cleverly put them together into one movie. "This is fake. These feeds are all fakes!" Her mind raced quickly and took immediate action: "This is Major Kriemhild speaking…

all pilots, battle station. This is not a drill! Battle stations. We have incomings!"

Jin threw away his water canteen at the announcement. "GEAR UP EVERYONE! WE GOT WORK TO DO!"

The Valravn deployed no less than 6 Kagerou led by a Kakaiju.

"The enemy is targeting the Malefic. As of right now, she cannot move away from her current location and the enemy will be coming towards her using Suicide Run tactics, and they'll be carrying Tactical nukes. Under no circumstances can they be allowed to come close."

"Obviously." The Kakaiju is armed with a heavy assault machine gun. One Kagerou in Hikaminari and one Kagerou with Hiuchiba, both were sent to hold the ground together with the Malefic while the remaining 4 joined Kakaiju on the active defense. Right on cue, a dozen of those suicide fighters are coming from one side, another dozen from the other. "Suppress them! Don't let them get anywhere close!"

Kriemhild also took the time to warn the other ships of her findings: "All ships: please be advised, incoming suicide fighters carrying tactical nukes inbound."

The other starships encircling the Dyson Sphere also went full alert.

0000000

"Which reminds me, Ezpe… if you're here…"

"Before we take this conversation any further-" Ezperanza suddenly growled: "-Where's my girlfriend!?"

"I was just about to check on her." And of course she's referring to the primary source of dispute between RI and X-ssia. And in Ezpe's defense, Red should've checked up on her first thing after he pacified the Valvrave. In his defense, he was unconscious and had a lot second degree burn to nurse. "Let me get to her real quick…"

Ezperanza waited giddily in her seat as she was connected to the network. She was about ready to drop in the surprise with a smile that was about to tear her face…

"-AHAAHAHAHAAHAAA!"

Red and Ezpe froze. Both think they get the wrong channel… but there's no mistaking that was Grey's voice… that ever cool, ever calm and mature Grey, first lady of the Six Sense… laughing out loud like a sugar high child in a candy store. They looked at each other through the screen, noting the identical idiotic dumb look on their respective empty expressions, and then ceremoniously cleaned up their ears to unplug whatever devilry that had caused them to hear that optical illusion.

"…Red… what have you done to my girl?" Ezpe twitched as she hissed very dangerously.

"…no more than usual, I can promise you that." The shock in Red's tone was so blatant, there was no second guessing how caught off guard he was.

Red double checked the frequency channel twice just to make sure and then reconnected. And sure enough…

00000000000000

"AHAHA! AHAHAAHAHAHAA! AHAHAHAHA!" Grey was completely ignorant of the fact that Red was contacting her on open channel and everything she's saying are now in full broadcast to at least 2 pairs of disbelieving ears. She had long since stopped caring what she might say to whom might hear.

CLANG! CLASH!

In fact, at this point, she had stopped caring about everything.

CLASH!

She was too enraptured in this great excitement she's having. Her blade had been marred by a great number of chips by now. Fractured and broken, it would've shattered a long time ago against the opponent's vastly superior sword were it not for Grey's skill with it.

CLANG! CLANG!

On the other side, Kagerou had been marred with so much damage and slash marks, her crumbling exterior looked so fragile that one may suspect that were it to stop moving right now, it would immediately crumble down to dust. The pilot, Marie, was on fire. Not in the literal but more of the figurative sense.

CLANG! CLASH!

Before, she was still trying to remember every bit of tactics and maneuvers that Delphi had created and integrated it to her own amateurish fighting style, improving it by leaps and bounds… but now… now she didn't even know what planet she was on. Her eyes had long since become devoid of any conscious thoughts save the light of her very own life burning.

CLANG! CLASH! CLANG! CLAAANG!

The sound of their swords clashing had been echoing across the battlefield for over a hundred times by now, some of the resistance fighters in the beach finally came along to see what's the fuss is all about. Spike was the first on the scene… "W… What… is…"

Kagerou pushed forward as she unleashed a tirade of slashes which the Cinderella parried as she backed away. But then, on one last slash, Cinderella didn't block but instead dodged while she herself got into a stable footing and she sheathed her Masamune blade for her signature Battoujutsu. But Kagerou didn't stumble. She did not put too much force into it and did not lose her balance, therefore she was prepared to immediately take evasive action. Cinderella's quickdraw counter strike was avoided, but that was the start of her own tirade of slashes, which now the Kagerou had to defend. Kagerou used both hands to hold her massive blade to block Cinderella's attacks. Like her opponent, Kagerou also slowly backed away step by step, maintaining her balance with minimal movements as she carefully weathered her attacks, waiting for her chance. That chance came when Cinderella brought down an overhead slash and Kagerou managed to block and parried it to the side. The Kagerou immediately followed it with a horizontal slash to Cinderella's neck, which she avoided with a simple duck – but it missed her Radome head by the inches. In that ducking position, she had resheathed her katana and unleashed another slash, but Kagerou took a prepared one step back and dodged the slash by a millimeter, whereupon she immediately retaliate with an overhead downward stab. Cinderella slide backward and the blade stabbed the ground. Kagerou quickly followed up with a powerful upward slash that send slabs of earth towards the retreating Cinderella, but she easily slashed each and every piece of rock, butshe remained prepared, because Kagerou came charging through the sliced rocks with her blade swinging.

"This… this… is…"

"Beautiful." Spike turned and saw K-Zwei also standing still, watching the battle unfold outside the cockpit of his Kirschbaum. In fact, the one eyed man was so absorbed in watching the fight, he didn't notice Spike's presence until now. "Don't you think?"

"…" Spike had no words to refute that. Even a non swordsman person like Spike can still think the clash between these two mechs to be beautiful. If anything, it looked less like a deathmatch, more like a well rehearsed ballet between two dance partners. One swings a long black and red sword, leaving a trail of rose petals. The other left behind a trail of fluttering blue butterflies. Give them a better background, say, a verdant garden, and what a picturesque sight of a deathmatch it would be. "…I was… looking for Haruto but…"

"He left." K-Zwei wasted no breath as he turned back to watch that magnificent battle. "Because he's currently doing what must be done."

"…I see." Somehow, Spike had always known that to be the case, so he was far from angry. He sat calmly on the ground, never mind the two clashing mech in the foreground. "If only Haruto was here, this fight might be over by now…" He joked.

"Even if he was here… I doubt she would give this up to anyone… in fact… if he knew the truth, he would never interfere."

"Hoo… these two had a history? Bad blood, God forbid?"

"Nothing so petty. It's a lot deeper than either you or I can imagine."

The sound of metal clashing metal began to decrease in frequency, both mechs had since changed defensive tactics with greater focus on avoiding instead of blocking attacks. For Cinderella this choice was obvious. Her Faux Masamune can't take much more. One more strike and the sword will break, and she will be left defenseless. For Kagerou, the choice is just as obvious, but for rather different circumstances. Blackrose is a much bigger, much heavier weapon. To swing it around requires a lot of movements. And those movements will leave her open to attack. Her Kagerou is one strike away from oblivion. Of course, unlike the much more fragile Cinderella she could've opted to use Blackrose to defend herself, but defending will get her nowhere and rob her of any option to attack. What's more, with her skills, Cinderella will have little trouble striking through any opening she might have. So, rather than defending, better she dodges attacks and waited for an opening.

Both mechs stood teetering on the edge, with only their swords as their lifeline. One strike. They only need to land one last strike to end this fight. After exchanging another blow that hit nothing but air, they finally stopped and stood still, facing each other. Kagerou placed her Blackrose in a powerful raised stance over her head, Cinderella menacingly readied her Masamune at her side.

Inside their cockpits both warriors were panting. Grey in particular had this ecstatic expression transfixed on her face. "I haven't had this much fun since… well… I can't remember."

"Well… I'm happy you're having fun… but I don't think we can go on much further, can't we?"

"Ah, true. But you're enjoying this too aren't you? You felt like you've been half asleep all your life and now suddenly you just realized what being alive means."

Marie snorted in-between pants. "I'm not sure if I enjoy this or not…" She looked at her own trembling hands and this heartbeat thumping in her ears. "…but… I can't help but to agree with you about the 'alive' thing."

Grey chuckled. That was when she began notice a few things… namely this beeping sound of her coms. She didn't answer it. She's not sure she wants Red to see her at her current state. But still… her time is up. "A pity this moment cannot last forever."

Marie understood. This fight need to end. Her unit can't take much more of this. She quickly racked her brains on how to win… and there's only one vulnerability Cinderella had.

Kagerou lowered her stance and grasped the Blackrose firmly to the side.

She practically telegraphed her intent to Grey, but she doesn't care. "I see… you wish to end this in one final blow. I concur." Cinderella put her blade back in its sheath…

The two mechs remained in that position for a while… the next move will be crucial… it will be instantaneous. The two mechs had not exchanged blows nor spoken any word for only 10 seconds after all their clashes… and the silence was louder than even the winds blowing.

Spike and K-Zwei gulped as they watched in silence.

Marie gripped her controllers and took a deep breath…

Grey's smile briefly vanished into a focused frown…

"…I hate to break this, but we have new intrusions."

Marie blinked. It took a full few seconds before she picked up that Delphi just warned her about something. "…r… run that by me again?"

"And we are being lazed." Delphi added.

Lazed. The slang word for being… Laser Targeted.

A missile came straight towards Kagerou's back… and she instantly turned around for the Yashagarasu to shot it right out of the sky.

To her credit, Cinderella didn't just jump in and strike at the wide opening. Then again, she already noticed the rude intruders as well. "…some people just don't understand boundaries." Her ecstatic smile gone… there's only an irritated frown now. Normally she was very calm and wouldn't be offended by something like this… but she was having so much fun…

"What!?" K-Zwei gawked. "No… No, no, no, NO!" K-Zwei didn't look back as he quickly rushed back to his Kirschbaum.

Spike also blinked wide awake. "Who…" The man glanced around and when he looked up… "Wait a minute… isn't that…!?"

A set of three giant lances came charging in at break neck speed towards the Kagerou. All three missed as the Kagerou had moved away to a safe distance, but the impact force cratered the ground where she had been standing.

When the dust settles, three new mechs entered the scene.

Marie's eyes blinked several times. She recognized those mechs. Haruto brought incomplete pieces of them a while ago from his train robberies.

Now that the finished version stood before her, she gotta admit… it's bigger than she expected. Even taller than the hunched Kirschbaum. They looked like giant knights with boxy mechanical armor. The thick and large chest armor encapsulated a head that was made to look like a roman legion helmet, sporting a distinct triangular neon blue optic at the center of the face to serve as its one eye. On the back of the torso are multiple high output thrusters. Smaller output thrusters were also attached to small pauldrons attached on a swivel mount on the shoulder armor. There's no skirt armor, but the waist and legs are similarly heavily armored, and there are tank threads folded up behind their legs. Finally, for the weapons, the mech carry giant lances on their right – which is a whirring borer drill, superheated until they are glowing red hot, its armguard sports several exhaust vents, not dissimilar with an engine exhaust. Their left arm is a massive kite shield. There are slits on said shield, loaded with four missiles. One of which had been used to shoot her earlier. And there are three turrets attached on its torso, each sporting Gatling guns, one on the left side of his chest, and two are situated at the back to guard the rear.

"…Hrrrrmmmph…" Marie was pissed. Firstly because she was still in the state of full on combustion when these jokers showed up. Secondly of course because these jokers showed up and killed the mood.

"So they've competed Albion, at long last." Grey groaned. "Though that doesn't change the fact you gentlemen of the Black Knights really have no manners."

Jason and his Black Knights finally walked out of their hiding spot. And they were on foot, but they glared, seemingly fearlessly, at the two giants looming above them. But that's probably because there are three more giants bigger than the first two are ready and waiting. "Well it can't be helped ladies." Jason smirked.

"Friends of yours?" Marie asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." Grey's contempt was quite clear.

"Central Command gave the order. I think they've ran out of patience watching you two dancing around instead of doing your job."

"…thank you for reminding me why I hate this contract." Grey's displeasure couldn't be more blatant as she rested the sheathed blade at her side. Her mood to fight was gone. And to think she was having so much fun just a minute ago and the sweet experience is officially soured.

"Did you seriously think…" Kagerou took a step forward as Marie growled. "…that these pieces of junk can stop me!? The way I am right now!?"

Grey knew that to be true. If the Albions had showed up at the very start, then perhaps they might have had a chance with that Marie Nobi. But this Marie Nobi? After everything she put her through, everything she threw at her… and everything she threw back at her…?

"I doubt they could." Jason easily admitted. "I mean… just three against a super mech that destroyed armies? We're not that stupid." He fiddled with his phone before he pressed the button and showed an array of holographic screens. "But… I wonder, can you do it with the situation like so?"

At first, Marie didn't quite get it. The images she saw are the monitor displays of a scene. She then noticed the targeting reticules and the measurements, and thus she deduced these are life feed from the optics of someone… or something in the sky. And then, she noticed what these monitors had in their crosshairs. The resistance soldiers still trapped in the beach.

Marie looked up and to her horror, she finally noticed what many did not. There, up in the sky, with only Marie's enhanced eyesight can barely make out their silhouette, concealed by optical camouflage was another set of 12 Albions, floating near soundlessly in the sky. They're pointing their weapon, the lance, which had opened up down the middle into rail cannons, and they were aiming them at the Resistance soldiers.

"You seem like a smart girl. You understand the situation quite well, yeah?"

Marie gritted her teeth. "You wretch!"

"Whoa, whoa… come on now. Don't be so scary." Jason showed a walkie talkie in a threatening manner.

"…what do you want?"

"First, how bout if you get out of that big mean machine first and let me get a good look at you?"

Marie had no choice. However, she cleverly placed Delphi in sleep mode before she opened the cockpit and walked out with her hands above her head. She can see the man's smug smile of triumph from here. But left with little choice, she jumped down and walked towards the Black Knight mercenaries.

"Okay that's close enough." Jason motioned her to stop. As she did so, the man pushed up his sunglasses to get a better look at her. He was looking both at her and the screen on his phone. He raised an eyebrow. "Who the heck are you supposed to be?"

"…what?"

"They issued bounties on each and every pilot of the original Valvraves. The highest being that Haruto punk, at 10 million. Next are the pilots of the other Valvraves at 2 million. The lowest being the other brats of other Sakimori school. They only pay 100k for each."

Marie raised an eyebrow.

Jason looked at the primate engine that Marie had been using. Looking at it closer, he finally noticed it's not even the original unit. It was one of the mass produced model, sporting similar equipment with the original. "What are you?"

"If I tell you I'm a stowaway, would you believe me?"

"BWAHAAHAHAHAA-!" Everyone jerked when they heard someone burst out laughing. It was a woman's laughter, and Marie kept her lips shut the whole time. Jason remembered there's only one other woman in this group. He looked in disbelief at Cinderella's still form.

Inside the cockpit, a blushing Grey is doing everything in her power to keep her emotions in check, such as clasping her lips with both hands to prevent any more outbursts. She's failing as she can't help herself. After everything she went through, all the fun she had because of this… the ludicrousness of this situation is just too much for her.

Jason grunted. Is the girl making fun of him? The memory of how strong Grey is with her sword is still fresh in his memories. That this girl, a girl that didn't even show in Central Command's list of priority target, had actually fought that Grey to a standstill? So… is Grey actually really weak, or is she really that strong? Well, there's one way to find out.

Jason pulled his gun and shot Marie in the head.

Grey stopped blushing when she realized what just happened. The wide smile that graced her face was gone entirely.

Jason didn't seem to care as he approached the spot where Marie's body lay. He looked down and saw the bloody red hole on her forehead. He even poked at the hole several times. Her eyes were glazed dead. Then he shot her again twice in the chest for good measure. That's about as dead as it can get.

"Well, that wasn't so hard." The man snorted to his fellow mercenaries, and then he noticed the Cinderella standing at the distance, staring at them. Her hand dangerously rested on her scabbard. "What are you looking at?" He snorted. Unlike Aoi's friendly barb, this was meant to be an insult.

"…looking for reasons to not kill you where you stand." If they could make Grey any angrier than they already have, she might just stop looking.

"Get over it. The bounty said dead or alive."

Jason had just walked a few steps away… when Marie suddenly burst out with fangs protruded out of her roaring mouth. With her inhuman strength, she ripped out the armor that covered Jason's neck and before he can even react, said fangs already pierced his neck.

His eyes went blank in an instant and Marie fall unconscious face down to the ground. The other Black Knights had yet to comprehend the whole scene… before, in one breath, 'Jason' bring out his two guns and opened fire, killing them all in a heartbeat.

"Huh?" Grey heard and sense all that, but being unable to really see, she doesn't exactly comprehend why Jason would open fire with such ferocity against his own men.

'Jason' wasted little time to think. He grabbed his walkie talkie. "This is Jason Standheim, Director of Black Knight PMC, Operator code: 2347865, stand down Albions! STAND DOWN and decloak! That's an order!"

But in the milliseconds it took for 'Jason' to spit out that order, Marie quickly found out jacking Jason's body may not be a good idea after all.

For one thing… she finally found out this guy is an absolute asshole, considering the first rush of memory she get from his mind is the fun he's having torturing a suspected Magius so very slowly to death. And that he was planning to do the same to her, to toy with her, and still would've ordered the Albions to kill all the resistance anyway once he had his fun. And apart from that, he's also absolutely useless. Because he actually believed that blathering his name and his identification code will give him any authority at all over the Albions.

From his memory, he was under the belief that… Albions are actually just another Droid programmed to be loyal to him. The one who said that to him was a dyed in the wool liar so obvious even Marie can see through it… and yet the idiot deluded himself into thinking he was too important to the cause for his employer to lie to him.

But Marie knew a few things he didn't. The fact that Albion was meant to be piloted by a Cybernetically interfaced human, not just some cloned brain pod. Even if they were brainwashed to obey the command of their boss, Jason is NOT that boss.

And now, she's paying the consequences of his idiocy.

Even after 'Jason' bleated his name and his id code, the Albions didn't stand down. Just the opposite, Delphi reported they start powering up their main guns. On second thought, maybe she's the idiot. Yeah. Idiot for thinking the enemy did not anticipate something like this. They know what they're fighting, you idiot! When you know your enemy had the ability to hijack and become another person, of course they would've made countermeasures! One of them being, an order to open fire immediately the moment they confirmed that 'Jason' has been hijacked. And how did they notice he had been hijacked? They had armed the Albions with Rune Scanner, apparently.

Rune energy detected. Subject Jason Standheim has been hijacked. His authority is hereby terminated, and all units will now exterminate with extreme prejudice.

The Albions suddenly dropped their camouflage… and their fully charged rail cannons are about ready to discharge…

"No… NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

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Violet was one of the earliest members of the Six Sense, and together with Red and Grey, was also its original founding members, the only original ones still alive at this point throughout their career. In fact… she's actually the oldest member of the Six Sense… at several hundred years old… at least. If one asks, she can easily claim she was there when Pino exiled Lieselotte. Something her 20 year old body will not show.

And her original name was actually Vvio'lahlniaa Nyarh'ktyrala Mua'ad'dbhn.

"Vua… Vea… vaaana… Vaa… huh…?"

"Stop. Just… stop. For the love of all that is good, spare me the indignity… please… just… no more." So she said after seeing how much her future boss/lover struggled to say her alien name only to come nowhere near close. "If we translate that to your language… it says: Violet, teacher of Boys."

"Violet… okay then. Violet it is. Nice to meet you, Violet."

Now, as that conversation had insinuated, Red was fully aware she was an alien. In fact, after hearing the translation of her name, it is what inspires him to codename the members of the Six Sense with color codenames. Publicly, it is to keep the identity of the top aces of Regnant International a secret. But it also meant to protect her, more than anyone, because she can say for certain that of all members of the Six Sense, she's the only who are using her original name.

Red and Grey both helped kept her identity a secret, and she will be forever grateful. But of course, she also had to be smart: limited public appearance, don't just go on sucking people's rune (at least not in public and only under Red' permission), and don't go on using her elder Magius power recklessly…

Still, the question remains… what compels a centuries old elder Magius to lower herself to work under humans? The arrogant pricks of her fellow Magius brethren might ask that.

She always had only one reason. That reason is now lying half squashed inside a cockpit of the Mad Hatter.

That same reason is why right now, she's breaking one of the aforementioned taboos in a half sane roaring rampage of rage.

The other mini Mechs of the Alice fleet swarmed around their fallen friends. And, as Yusuke and Raizo had suspected… all of them were piloted by children. Mostly around 10-14 years old. "Is he…?" The Cheshire cat pilot looked in horror at the way the Mad hatter's chest plate was bent in.

"He's alive…" Marching Hare pilot was checking the pilot's pulse. "But barely. He needs medical attention ASAP."

"Can we get him out first!?"

"We need heavy equipment. Hey, Knave! A little help here!"

And while these children were trying to do what they can to help their comrade out of the rubble, the other looked on an unnatural object in the sky.

An orb of purple corona encircling pure void of darkness at its core, akin to a blackhole, is floating right in the middle of the ruined warzone. The children can only tell that this thing was created by Violet, and it had sucked in Behemoth and the Queen of Hearts into it. It is a scenery sane man will have a hard time understanding, even more so if they know what it was.

And speaking of sanity, both Yusuke and Raizo are now questioning whether they've gone insane… or the world has. A moment ago, they were still fighting in the forest around, with the sky above their heads and the ground beneath them. Now, the ground is rolling and twisting from above, raining pieces of themselves like daggers to the great endless void beyond, the forest had erupted and multiplies like a kaleidoscopic nightmare that folded in and out of itself all around them, and they're not even sure where the sky is ever since they get slammed into it when gravity changes direction at least 3 times. And this happened 12 seconds later, a full 30 seconds after the spiraling forest swallowed them and spit them out after digesting them for three days over the course of minus 3 milliseconds, before and after the Queen hooked them with her scythe, dragged them face first across the desserts of Sahara before the Gryphon punched them to the top of Everest and then dumping them back to the ground that opened up to drop the sky that flanked them from the sides like waterfall that are flowing upside down and sideways, with a couple of buildings disintegrating and reintegrating along the way, capsizing them as the land shattered like glass.

If you're confused by this description, don't worry, because you're supposed to be.

Somehow, the moment the Jabberwock Queen took the field, the world as mere mortals understand it was gone. Nothing seems to make sense. The sky spirals around, multiplying and folding on itself as they stream like rivers bending around the world that are shattered into buildings blocks, detaching and reattaching like gigantic Lego pieces. Any one of these process will crush them. When they try to shoot something, they were struck by the same attack that they will make 3 seconds later, and the damage timestamp reported it happened 5 hours ago. When they tried to punch one of those reality blocks, the punch get swallowed in a void, and a hundred of those punches erupted from thin air and battered them down head to toe. Somehow, the very reality itself was twisted.

The only thing that seem unaffected by this insanity, is the Queen herself and of course, the Behemoth themselves.

"Which one is this?" Yusuke asked beneath his breath.

"What?"

"…when a Magius became an Elder, they develop secondary powers, unique to each subspecies of Magius." Valvire develop Prominence, Arrachabus develop Genesis, Volfrans develop Quickening. "So which one is this?" And what kind of power would allow someone to warp reality into LEGO blocks!?

They didn't have time to answer that question when the Queen suddenly came swooping down and slice her scythe down. It hooked and carried them to the sky before she hurled them away until they struck face flat into the surface of the sky, as it shattered like mirror into a million of shards that fell upon them… and to top it off, the ground pressed down like waterfall and falling mountain from all sides. The Behemoth fell unto a block of reality, battered and bent. Both pilots were rendered unconscious by the shock of the impact.

The Behemoth remained still as the Jabberwock Queen approached, the gryphon claws stretched ready to rip its prey apart…

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Meanwhile, out in space…

Jin didn't remember ARUS Splicers can be this annoying to shoot down. They move faster, and less predictable than he remembered. Krimhild did say they're piloted!? And the chatter he's been listening in the open channel are mostly half sane people screaming that this was for their god, or Allah, or Yahwe… or whatever… all of this they declare at the moments of their blazes of glory. "What the hell are we fighting here? Did Arus recruit these psychos?"

"No. We've never heard Arus recruit this kind of people into their army." Kriemhild frowned.

"So… this isn't Arus?"

"Those things flying at us are top of the line Splicer fighters and all of them are armed with Tactical Nuclear Warheads. Only Arus can squander this much resources for this kind of tactic. Hard it is to believe, but I think they were that desperate to gather more men, they actually recruit these kinds of people." Kriemhilde followed. "And they decided not to remote control the airplane because they don't want to risk Malefic hacked their signal and take control of them."

"What is this, did they all had suicide pacts? Where did they find these people!?"

"They've taken liberty to paint their Splicers in some custom color. We recognize the patterns on some of these colors… they correspond to the colors often used by some very well known terrorist groups. Religious extremist. Ku Klux Hate Groups. Neo Nazi… it's like a convention of lunatics."

"Oh great. Now I feel less sorry shooting these fuckers down."

Insofar, fleets of Splicers had been coming in wave after wave. They managed to hold them back, reducing them to gigantic bright fireworks in the distance. The problem is, those fireworks are getting steadily closer. At first, Jin's team of 7 can handle it just fine, but then they just keep sending more and more from every direction. It got so bad that they had no choice but send a second squad of 7, led by Rasa in a Hiuchiba Kagerou with two shields and its bolt phalanx. And with her aid, the fleet of Splicers is now kept at bay.

…until three Albions showed up to join the fray.

In space, the Albion attached their massive kiteshield at their back and it transformed, split open into a pair of wings and a rocket booster for space combat. Their lance opened up into rail cannon and they start opening fire along with a salvo of missiles from their shield wings.

The Albion caught the New Jior by surprise, the opening salvo of rail cannons shot down a Kagerou in an instant. "Motherfucker!" Jin quickly returned fire, shooting down some of the missiles. But the Albion is really heavily armored in addition of being really fast. They plow through the rain of bullets and projectiles like it was nothing, flying at incredible speed through a field of debris. They only dodge the bigger ones and plowed through the smaller ones, their armor was thick enough to endure the colliding debris.

One managed to charge and even tanked through Jin's barrage to get up close. Jin used his Heavy Machine Gun as a shield when the Albion stabbed through with its borer lance, shredding the weapon to pieces. But the Kakaiju quickly pulled out his V-Swordkill and generate two Hard Afterglow beam blades. He tried to slice through the lance, but to his surprise, the beam didn't penetrate to deep, only causing a superheated shallow cut on the weapon. "What the…!" The Albion quickly retaliates and thrust his lance at the Kakaiju's torso. Kakaiju managed to dodge the stab, but the heavy mech swung the lance sideways. Using his forward thrusters at the last second, the Kakaiju managed to dodge the swing, but the pilot get a close up view of the whirring superheated grinder of the Albion's lance scratching his chest plate. When he retaliates with a stab to the Albion's open torso, the beam dispersed upon impact with the silver colored chestplate. It was then Jin began to realize these unique silver colorations lining up the Albion's most heavily armored parts are more than decoration. "…it's some kind of special coating that refracts rune energy… huh?"

The Albion tried to stab him again, but this time, it lunged too far and too deep, revealing an opening to Jin. It has a good solid defense on the front and side… but the back was wide open because of the boosters – the Shield wing grant some measure of protection though. Its lower legs and waist are heavily armored as well… but… they left the armpit wide open.

Kakaiju bob and weave a few more slices and stabs until the Albion made that mistake again and left that opening. With a boost, the Kakaiju quickly closed the distance to his prey whilst his lance arm is still outstretched before he jammed the Rune Beam saber straight into the armpit. The Blade burst out on the other side, piercing the armor from inside out and most likely incinerated the cockpit… or not. The Albion still managed to struggle a bit, Kakaiju simply snapped his solid afterglow blade and left it jammed there before he generate a new one. He yanked the Albion's head to stretch out its neck before he jammed the new blade in there and keep it there until the mech stopped squirming. Because of course, its joints are still vulnerable, as usual.

The other Kagerou is having a bit more difficulty against the Albions, they suffered the same issue they had, with their beam projectiles were dispersed by the silver coatings. "AIM AT THE ARMPITS AND THE JOINTS! WAIT UNTIL THEY FINISHED ATTACKING AND THEN AIM AT THE ARMPITS!" The data was immediately updated into the Wolf Pack and immediately the Kagerou fared much better against this new adversary. But Jin immediately realized the bigger issue.

While the Kagerou team was kept busy by the Albions, 3 dozen suicide fighters are coming from every direction at full suicidal speed. "Oh no, no, no, no!" The Kakaiju wanted to fire, but all he got left are the V-Swordkill handgun mode. Tried as he might, the rate of fire was far from enough from stopping that many suicide bombers. Even with Valravn's fire support, they managed to miss three.

Three massive nuclear explosions enveloped the frontal part of the Valravn and the Malefic.

"NO!" Jin cried out…

But then… as the explosion subsided, they found the Valravn is still intact, its rune shield barely holding… and more importantly, the Malefic is still standing… albeit damaged here and there. "Wha…?"

"We moved the Valravn and placed the Malefic even deeper into the range of our shields." Kriemhild explained. "Still… that blast just corroded our shield even more. We can't take hits like that too often. Renbokuji Akira, how far along are you!?"

Akira didn't answer. But Kriemhild heard the sound of her constant typing and the lights of the Malefic Sense Nerve array still glow as brightly as ever. She was in the midst of something so critical; she did not have the time to respond to even a simple question.

Akira was so focused on her cyberwarfare duty, she barely realized she was being targeted by packs of half sane suicidal lunatics piloting nuclear armed suicide star fighters. The cyber attacks meant to stop her from getting through began to escalate as the countermeasures sent her way grew increasingly brutal. Not as benign as simply sending her E-bombs or junk data or fake access point to slow down her processing speed or lead her astray, now she keep finding malicious traps filled with a myriad of computer viruses, each and every one can destroy her system if left unchecked, each and every one is as different as the other as they are masterfully crafted. Worm tape virus that pretend to be easily erased only to return in concert with a time delayed Trojan, coupled with a simultaneous direct assault with multiple Polymorphic virus bombs. Akira was forced to operate 10 computers with all her ten fingers to keep up. Out of these 10, fully 3 had been completely overloaded, destroyed by virus, and even crashed.

Whoever is attacking her was getting desperate on trying to keep her from getting in. Then again, she had also been on the offensive. She had sent multiple iterations of his Cyber familiar, Hansel, out into the opponent's personal cyberspace multiple times, each with a different package of her handmade firewall penetration software. Insofar, none succeeded but with each attempt, she managed to pierce ever deeper into the system. In return, the ferocity of the opponent's countermeasure increases. Another one of her ten computers finally exploded. A virus just went past her cordon and infected the system beyond repair.

On the other side, Verdant's situation is far from ideal. Akira had been sending wave after wave of this firewall breaking AI, each a battering ram that slam against her firewall and pushed her servers to its limits. "I knew it, she's still in the black!" She laughed nervously as she continuously rewriting the firewall as quickly they are being torn apart. Her cockpit was filled the smell of melting cables and even several of her cooling tower had been hacked to malfunction.

The cyber battle between Akira and Verdant was less obvious to ignorant bystanders, but by no means it was less devastating than the real life battle actually happening outside. If one were to visualize their situation, one can imagine Verdant as the queen of a castle of thorns whose walls are currently being eaten voraciously by at least 6 Hansels that are Akira's soldiers, in which she just sent another wave from her remaining 6 out of 10 barracks. All the while, the two sides constantly bombard one another with barrages of virus packages that whittle down each other's defenses.

The thing is, up until now Akira didn't really have a clear picture of what exactly her opponent did to Haruto. And as another one of her PC explodes in her face, that question became more pressing, because she's running out of time and options. At this rate, all her PCs will blow up by the time she punches through this stupidly thick firewall.

Or perhaps she needs an alternate approach?

For one brief minute, the attack on Verdant's firewalls lessened. And that got Verdant really worried. Her concern was vindicated when no less than a few seconds later, her cooling towers are stopping one after another. Suddenly, the temperature of her super computer skyrockets. "…mein gott… that naughty, clever, son of a…"

Verdant's virtual castle was still under attack by three squads of Hansels, but the remaining two had disappeared from view, using the distraction to nibble away at the firewall protecting her cooling system and once they're in, they began shutting down the flow of coolant to the overheating machine. The defenses cannot hold without it and it began to collapse under its own sheer heat. Verdant watched helplessly as her cooling towers are being shut down one after another, faster than she can do anything to counteract this. The monitor on her headgear is turning red giving one warning after another as her computers reached critical thermal runway. "Not on my watch you're not!"

She typed furiously at her computer for one last spurt before the circuits melt. When she pressed enter, she just uploaded a massive booby trap straight into a cooling tower system, just as Akira hacked it down. As it was sent in right at the last second, Akira didn't notice it right before it's too late. The moment the cooling tower was shut down, the virus bomb acted on dead man's switch and exploded allover her system, causing a spreading system crash. "No, no, NOO!" Akira yanked several cables manually, shutting down the PCs to contain the damage. Alas, of the remaining 5 PCs, only 2 left remained intact. Both sides stopped briefly at that point to take measure of the damage.

Verdant looked at her workspace and gulped. When she started, she had 20 cooling tower fully online to maintain the temperature of her computers and servers. In her cyber fight with Akira, she had damaged a full 12 of these to the point they've become completely inoperable. Riddled with viruses, remotely overheated until its circuits fried, etc, etc. Normally, the remaining 8 should be more than enough for her to continue working… if not for the fact 7 out of those 8 are already running in full power for the sake of maintaining Morpheus. And considering the kind of damage Akira had caused, that one cooling tower will not be enough if she attacked again.

She watched at her monitor in silence, hoping beyond hope that last Virus Bomb had fully destroyed her opponent's capacity to attack back…

Her hope was dashed when that last cooling tower suddenly stopped working before smoke hissed out. Then, her computer warned her of intrusions. Not as severe as usual, considering on the other side, Akira can't do much with 'just' two PCs… Bu~ut… the defender was also spent. Akira can come at her with half a PC and there's still nothing Verdant can do to stop it. Her walls are crumbling and pretty soon the Hansels can just waltz in and eat all her candies like it was a no man's land. "Re~ed!" She moaned.

Red immediately knew what that wail of misery meant. Alas, down here, they were nowhere near done! What's worse, the Valvrave just burned down Ezperanza's third set of six hapless Waffes that got too close trying to cool him down. The good news is they did so at 20 feet distance from the Valvrave, which means it's working and he's cooling down. The bad news is, it's not happening fast enough. Worse, the fire retardant drizzle stopped, signing Verdant's defeat. And the worst part is, all of this may ended up in vain if… when the raging fire god wakes up… when Morpheus get shut down.

Akira's Hansel finally managed to punch through the last layer of the crumbing firewall and can now start wrecking all manner of havoc, unlocking and draining vast amounts of data and info. It wasn't long before she noticed the 7 redundant Cooling towers, and how it was all focused on maintaining this one big system.

"Morpheus?-"

CRASH!

Akira had just finished reading that when a massive shock rattled the whole cockpit.

Outside, Jin watched in horror as the overwhelmed Kagerou defenders was unable to stop an Albion to physically push through the Valravn shield. The battleship cannonfire managed to tore the unit in half, but they can't stop it from hurling its lance towards the Malefic where it punctured into its chest, VERY near the cockpit. In fact… it managed to tear a hole on said cockpit.

The first that was spaced out were the snacks Akira had gorged herself with, then the PCs, the hard disks, the whole set of computers… anything not bolted down were sucked out of space. Unfortunately, that also includes the pilot. Which is not exactly a problem, Akira does wear her pilot suit…

…she just forgot to put her helmet on.

She'd probably argue to the less than pleased Kriemhild – do you have any idea how hot it is inside the cockpit with that many PCs!? But for now, Akira didn't have time to think that far… if she makes it that far. She was shot out of the cockpit in less than a second.

With so many debris flying out of the Malefic's breached cockpit, no one noticed a slightly emaciated purple suited ginger spiraling out of control into the darkness. But everyone immediately noticed when the Neon Green Sense nerve shut down and the black armor parts turned white in heartbeat.

Jin immediately beheaded an Albion that was barring his way and flew as quickly as he can towards the damaged part of the Valvrave. But fast as he was, it still took 30 seconds at best to cover the distance.

Which means, by the time Jin start looking for survivor, that survivor had long asphyxiated as all her oxygen had been expelled out of her lungs within the first 15 seconds due to the decompression.

Akira trashed around in absolute horror as the world around her spin uncontrollably, her eyes bulged like they were trying to burst through her pupils as the veins reddened. 10 seconds after the air left her lungs, she's still clawing her throat as no air seems to flow in there and her skin seem to bulge and swell. The moisture on her nose, throat, and facial skin immediately evaporated and they quickly suffered from frostbite. At the same time, she also felt like her skin is being seared by the artificial sun of the Dyson Sphere. The light starting to fade from her eyes as her skin turn blue, soon she can't even see the darkness of space. At this point, she finally stopped struggling and lay still… her face frozen in pain, she's bodily dead… but her brain still function and her heart still… beats… slowly… 90 seconds later and still no rescue, her blood starting to boil and her heart began to burn, as is her veins… human should be dead by now…

…except she's not dead. She won't die. CAN'T die. No release… just… pain. Endlessly in pain. Any conscious thought that vanished before returned into this world of pain. She wanted to scream, but in space, no one will hear her scream. She wanted to move, but her body was frozen over…

'H… h… help… Sho… Shoko-chan… he…. He…lp… o… onii… chan…'

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The Behemoth suddenly twitched and the Queen stopped her approach.

The Behemoth rose up, struggling as it did so, what's with all the bents and cracks covering his body.

"What the hell…?"

Golden and yellow energy began to trickle as dark parts of the mech turned golden. The neon green sense nerve also began to shift to gold… the cracks that littered his whole body began to burst with energy from within. Electricity builds up in his fingers.

"You tried that once before and it didn't end well for y-" That's when she noticed this lightning is colored in a unique purple and gold coloration…

The Behemoth suddenly… 'roared.'

And when he did, he unleashed a full blast of this purple lightning to every direction from every part of its body, specifically his rave engine… and unlike before, the warped reality was no longer able to distort it in anyway… in fact, it bleeds and cracks wherever the purple lightning bolt struck them.

"WHA-" the sheer pulse from the shockwave smashed the Queen off the sky and sent her spiraling out of control, right in the mercy of the incoming thunderstorm. In fact, some of these unique lightning struck her Griffon mount and it tore him apart. She fell on top of a reality block, only to be immediately blasted by another volley of lightning barrage. The sky shattered to a million pieces as pillars of these lightning punctured them. The Queen quickly separated from the Griffon as it took the full brunt of the attack. Thankfully, the Griffon is the only mini mech not piloted, but it still horrifying to watch it getting vaporized by the coruscating thunderbolts. This, to her horror, was just the opening salvo.

The Behemoth briefly stopped roaring as he lumber down in big heavy steps. This purple thunderstorm still surrounds him, covering him in like a cloak of lightning. He gathered a mass of lightning in one hand, then the other… and he build them up to a critical level… before he put them both together and pushed forth a massive pillar of lightning to the sky, along with a barrage of thunderstorm to go with it… and it literally punched a hole through reality itself.

Outside, the child soldiers jumped back in shock when some of those purple lightning bolts erupted out of the Void sphere. Thankfully, none of them were hurt. But they watched in horror as massive pillar of lightning just erupted at the top of void sphere, burst through the module's ceiling, streamed high up into the void of space before exploding, unleashing a massive super storm that unleashed shockwaves after shockwaves of lightning allover the place… And such was its strength it affected several continents worth of area, wreaking destruction and havoc to whatever caught in its rampage. A fleet of about 4 dozen of Splicer Suicide Bombers and 10 Albions were just about to depart to land the final blow on the New Jior fleet when the super storm wiped them out in a heartbeat. One base where entire armadas of ARUS carriers and ships were currently docked was immediately turned to a devastated scrap yard when the thunderstorm passed them. A Magius Battlecruiser was struck by several strands of the lightning and a part of their ship was torn apart. Thankfully it didn't sink the ship, but it certainly terrified its crews like nothing can. In fact, the Kagerou team who was just one breath away from being overwhelmed was also knocked allover by the sheer shockwave, never mind the fact it destroyed all Splicers and Albions instantly and yet mysteriously only deal minor damage to the Kagerous. Several areas in the nearby vicinity suffered massive blackouts while other places overloaded until they explode in a fiery mess.

This super storm, thankfully, lasted only for 10 seconds.

After 10 seconds, the Behemoth just suddenly ceased his actions and flung his arms down, slumping down like a lifeless machine. There's still plenty of that weird electricity jumping around haphazardly allover the place. At first, it didn't seem to have any apparent effect on the machine and its occupants, but then… one bolt… by providence or coincidence, directly hit the cockpit and the two unconscious pilots within get the shock of the century.

"AAAAAAAAAHH!"

"WAAAARGGHHHH!"

Their skeletons briefly showed as they were electrocuted all the way to the bone in a very rude wake up call, but that make sure they are very much up, sober and alert.

"W… What? What just happened?" Yusuke's electrified hair stand on end.

Raizo was holding his chest, and he can actually hear it thumping really loud. "Who… Who's been tap dancing on my chest!?"

As the pilots recovered from the shock, the Behemoth's appearance reverted back to its normal state. Its earlier phenomenon that had affected its appearance disappeared without a trace. But the mark it left behind was plain to see. For one thing, Yusuke noticed, somehow, the Queen had lost her Griffon mount. Now she's on foot. And more importantly, the insane twisted world they were trapped in had somehow been… damaged. Residues of the mysterious purple lightning can be seen flickering about the damaged areas, which are essentially these myriads of gaping hole into the infinite beyond, marring this kaleidoscopic insanity into a kaleidoscopic Swiss cheese.

Violet was still nursing the most terrifying fright in her long life, and this twisted reality she reigned over has been scarred and brutalized by means beyond even her understanding. She can feel it. That thing… that did this…? It was neither of those two pilots. And she knew for certain an elder Volfrans Magius can't do anything like this. "W… what… what the hell did you put inside that thing!?"

"Huh?" Yusuke and Raizo frowned in confusion. Their first audio contact with the enemy and this is what she asked? "What do you mean what did we put in this thing?"

'They don't know?' Violet grunted. '…I don't have much time. I had to put an end to this quickly!' She can't risk that 'thing' showing up again.

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The Behemoth's freak thunderstorm lasted only for a full 10 seconds…

But its effect was far reaching and the damage it inflicted will not be forgotten or ignored. When half a planet can see thunderstorm cover its entire surface, suffice to say, it will draw attention. Too much attention.

"W… what the hell was that!?"

"I don't… know…"

"Soldier, that thing just unleashed a thunderstorm that destroyed at least 3 of our bases in ten seconds, damaging lord knows what else. I need more than just 'I don't know'!"

"W… We detected the power surge… we… we can track it back to where it happened."

"Do it. How many Albions we have completed in our hangar?"

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And to think, a few minutes ago, Verdant thought the worse was over when she noticed how Akira had finally stopped attacking her system and she actually had the chance to start undoing the damage she inflicted on her.

Then that 10 second freak thunderstorm happened.

Her Aurore's system crashed for a full 10 seconds. That includes their entire communication uplink… and Morpheus. Took her a minute to work her magic and restore the system and the Morpheus. For that amount of time, she had lost all contact with her friends down below, and for that amount of time, the signal sent to Tokishima Haruto brain had ceased.

She anxiously type furiously into the system, hoping when the communication restored she will not be welcomed with the sight of the charred remains of her comrades burnt to ash.

When the screen revealed Red's face she jumped in cheers. "RED! Red, oh thank God, you're alright!?"

"Yeah. What about you? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I just restored the system… and Amber?"

"I'm here. (Koff)" Amber replied. "X-ssia's Walkit fell briefly off the sky, but she's okay too now. (koff)"

"Red, Amber… what about him? What about HIM!?"

"Chill, chill, Verdant. Chill. He's still asleep." Red smile allayed her fears. "We're still watching over him right now. And he's cooling down. It won't be long now!"

"Okay… okay…" Verdant breathes a little easier…

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Haruto woke up in his bed, feeling strangely refreshed. Just now… he had… the strangest of dreams… flickers of images of that battle years ago in Dyson Sphere. He remembers he saw thunderstorm in the sky… but then… what else happened? He couldn't remember…

He tried to get up, but then found his chest pressed down. He looked down and smiled. Saki and Shoko sleeping naked and peacefully in each of his arms. "Oh… right…"

Once the vow is said and the wedding settled, his two new wives just can't wait for their honeymoon to start already. They start making out with each other within 5 minutes after the limo start moving. When Haruto tried to remind them that even though it's an unmanned automated limo, some people might peek from outside. For his trouble, they assaulted him and double raped him throughout the journey from church to hotel. And don't get him started on what follows once they arrived at their hotel half naked and their clothes torn.

Gently shifting to move his arms away from their bodies, Haruto get up from bed and let his brides slept. He walked towards the mirror where the sun shine. He looked at his own reflection in the window glass sheen…

"What are you doing?" A reflection of Saki in her pilot suit asked.

"Huh?" A startled Haruto blinked in shock as he took a few terrified steps back. "Wh… Huh?"

"Darling?"

Haruto jerked and turned. Saki just woke up as she cleaned her sleepy eyes. "What are you doing?" She asked with a sleepy sweet voice. And not to mention she's still in her birthday suit, clothed only in a blanket that still showed a lot of her skin.

"…ah… nothing… nothing." Haruto smiled. He had an urge to jump back, but a voice in the back of his head said enough is enough. "…let me make some breakfast okay?"

Haruto went to the kitchen and grab a few eggs, scallions, salt, pepper and some milk. In a blink of an eye, three perfect omelets are ready. He placed them on the table, along wth their respective glasses of milk and then he thought of calling his wives down. But when he get near their room, he heard chortling, moaning and some disgusting sound he knew all too well. "…maybe I'll come back later."

He decided to take his omelet and eat it at the terrace as he watched the sun rise. Eating his perfectly cooked omelet with the gentle breeze blowing against his face, and the warm sunlight on his face…

…and the stink of hundreds of scorched human flesh as they were burned alive.

CRASH! TINKLE!

Haruto gawked in horror as he watched at his trembling hand and the broken plate and the ruined omelet on the floor.

"Haruto!?" Saki and Shoko came running to find their husband in a state of shock and horror. Once they saw his trembling hands and that broken plate, they knew nothing is well. They raced towards him, Shoko took his hand while Saki caressed his face.

"Haruto?" Shoko asked. "Are you alright?"

"…" Haruto clasped his face, sweat had coated his temple. "I… I…"

"Haruto? What's wrong?" Saki asked with a concerned look.

"…I just… I just remembered something unpleasant." Now that he noticed it, tears are streaming down his eyes.

"Haruto…!" Shoko quickly caressed his cheek.

"…" Saki looked on with a distinctly firm look. "…you're still remembering it."

"I know… I…" Haruto swipe the tears off his face. "…it's… been several years. I'll be fine." Haruto faked a smile, and he immediately walked away before that façade crumble.

In his room, Haruto opened a wardrobe to grab some clothes… but he also found something else.

His suit. His pilot suit. Still fresh with all the wear and tear that had accumulated after all his years in combat. And so what? His fighting days are over. It's over, he won't have to fight anymore. But then, as he sifted through his old wardrobe, something else made his heart skipped a beat.

Another pilot suit. But it's not his.

The green and black palette notified him that it was Saki's.

Unlike him, hers were… spotless… or is it? There are some wear and tear. Its barely visible, but there it was. Saki had gone through the same mud and blood he did. Wait, why would her suit be in HIS wardrobe…?

"Haruto?"

Haruto turned again and saw Shoko at the door. She had put on a shirt at least, thank the lord. "Yes?"

"Are you really okay?" Shoko asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "You know, Kibukawa-sensei opened up therapy sessions for soldiers with PTSD. Maybe you should try it?"

Haruto nodded. "…I'm fine really." That's when Shoko finally closed the distance and gave him a kiss. Then she tucked her forehead to his. "We can get through this. I know we can. I will help you. Saki will to."

"Thank you."

"Now, let's get changed." Shoko smiled. "We need to pick up the kids at school, remember?"

"Yeah."

Shoko left and Haruto turned back to his wardrobe and grabbed a comfy looking clothes. His pilot suit is a relic now, to be forgotten in the happy days ahead.

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To be concluded…