Tatsuya opened his eyes to see a sky full of gray clouds, the color green replacing the blue bright atmosphere. As he got up, the damaged sidewalk felt light. Tatsuya looked around and all he saw were buildings in ruin. Fire and smoke were omnipresent, and no signs of humans were seen. Tatsuya stumbled as he tried to walk, he realized he wasn't in his Procul mode. He calmly closed his eyes and relaxed every joint, every muscle, and cleared his mind. Tatsuya only focused on a young woman named Akio Fudo. Bit by bit, his black shirt and white pants changed into a black jacket left unzipped, a white shirt, and black pants. The sleeves of his jacket were rolled up to expose his wrists and armor cuffs. After his attire changed, he moved forward towards a corner on the desolated street. Everything was the same across the entire city. Behind him, smoke started to gather in one place. Tatsuya felt the wind started to get more violent. He looked behind, and on the destroyed road was Kazios.
"I would think twice before hitting me. Of course, I'm an illusion, everything here is an illusion of the past. I've lived through this and it was like this 30 years ago." Kazios said in a distorted voice.
"This was the world 30 years ago, how?" Tatsuya asked as he observed the entire city anew.
"There are things you can't know yet, but I'll assure you, at this point in time, he doesn't exist," Kazios said.
"And I thought he was old, I saw the skill he had. To me, it seemed like it took him longer than 20 years to master all those moves," Tatsuya said in relief.
"Well, I guess I better grant your wish." Kazios sighed.
"Grant my wish? Aren't you a lot meaner, like 'I'll kill you!' mean." Tatsuya mimicked Kazios as he asked.
"Hey! That's low, I'm not entirely about killing. I have regrets and feelings. I also am doing this out of obligation. You were a good opponent although it had to end quickly. Yeah, that's right, Mm-hmm." Kazios nodded as he assured himself.
"I'm getting the feeling that you're making an excuse." Tatsuya sighed.
"Anyways, what do you want to show me?" he asked Kazios.
"The death of the Arbitrators, you wanted to know, right?" Kazios asked.
"Yeah, but I'm not so mad about it now, plus you're acting nicer." Tatsuya smiled.
"What about Aloysius?' Kazios asked.
"I'll kill him," Tatsuya said as he quickly put on a death stare.
"Let's just get back on track and witness the death of the so-called 'legendary' Arbitrators," Kazios said.
"Well that was mean," Tatsuya thought as they walked through the town.
"You see that rock in the sky?" Kazios asked Tatsuya as he pointed at the sky.
"Yeah, what about it?" Tatsuya replied.
"That's where the Arbitrators live, they live in the sky, each one with their own pillar," Kazios explained.
"Now come on, we're going to miss the event," Kazios said as he pulled Tatsuya by his shirt.
Kazios snapped his fingers as soon as they got under the rock. The location and their surroundings took a transition from green and ruined, to dark and cold. Where they stood was inside the tower of the Arbitrators, they were up in the sky.
As they accustomed to the sudden change of areas, footsteps started to echo in the empty tower. Kazios went into camouflage while Tatsuya hid in the dark. The incoming people were the Arbitrators who were conversing about something.
"That mischievous person should've thought twice before setting that bomb of anomalies." Master Biblia brooded.
"I agree, the amount of destruction that occurred wiped out the entire population, although the Trinity Seven are deceased, I feel a weird disturbance that makes me scratch my head." Master Liber commented.
"Now, now, we should get to reflecting and planning. It was our fault that this happened, so we need to reverse its effect." Aetheria Akasha said.
"But how?" Aries Cardia asked.
"I have no ideas either," Maris Stella added.
Kazios, in camouflage, walked carefully towards Tatsuya, who was lurking in the dark.
"Be quiet, we don't want them to hear us, or else the dream will fall apart," Kazios whispered into Tatsuya's ear.
Tatsuya nodded as he retreated slowly against the walls of the tower.
"For a start then, we need to investigate the source. More precisely, where the explosion came from." Akasha said.
The others nodded as they agreed with the leader of the Arbitrators. But soon, there was another trouble heading their way. Stepping on outlined circles, the Arbitrators stood up while Akasha sat down on a golden chair sculpted with lions and had a red cushion. The ground began to shake greater than an earthquake. Then the outlined circles started to rise up more. The, now pillars, stopped at a high altitude within the tower. As the Arbitrators started to ready themselves to converse, footsteps were heard across the walls. Akasha immediately got up, fully alerted. All other Arbitrators stood on alert as well as the footsteps got louder.
"Intruder, show yourself and explain how you found our headquarters," Arkasha yelled.
The intruder showed himself via his jacket and pants, which were glowing with tech lines of blue. Across his face was what appeared to be a VR headset. It was thin and covered the young man's nose and forehead. What was visible of his face was his dark brown hair, his mouth, and chin. The VR headset had lines of purple that lighted up across the exterior.
"What should I do with them?" He asked aloud.
A voice spoke through the headset.
"Kill them, Michael, they'll refuse if we offered our help anyways."
Michael nodded and twisted, turned, and pressed things in the air. The Arbitrators were confused, as well as Tatsuya. But Michael wasn't blind, in his headset, he could options, buttons, and adjustment settings. He could do many things that could affect him or his surroundings. As Michael went through his abilities and attacks, he found one that could give him the least guilt, "Erase Avatar/Being". Michael selected the option, down below was the options given, "Select Targets" and "Exit". Pressing "Select Targets", he then looked towards the Arbitrators, who were standing on their own pillars.
"Select eight targets in the current view," Michael said.
The headset did as he told it to and selected the eight Arbitrators.
"Execute 'Erase' now," Michael said.
What happened was extremely cruel in one's eyes. All the Arbitrators felt pain internally. It was their organs, slowly decaying as they also shrivel. Master Biblia fell down to his knees as he grasped his shirt tightly. Master Liber fell down as well as she looked at her hands with skin growing old. Akasha didn't feel anything as she witnessed the other Arbitrators suffer. Suddenly, she felt a spike of pain throughout her body. Akash immediately coughed up gallons of blood that splattered all over her chair. Each time she resisted only made the blood loss bigger. She started to become weak, her entire body turning into a color of light purple.
"W-why are y-you doing thi-is?" Akasha managed to ask.
"We don't need you or the others in this world. You messed up your chance to save the world, and you failed." Michael answered with a disgusted expression. He shortly left the tower from above as the Arbitrators turn to bones and ashes.
"They're out of our way now, what now?" Michael asked on the rooftop as he gazed down at the abyss.
"Return, you've done your job, the rest will be planned once you get here," the person said through his headset.
"Tell Dimitrios that we plan to have him go on another assassination, Toshi, I'm detecting a hostile life form that's roaming around," Michael said.
"We'll remind him so come here quick," Toshi said.
Michael nodded as he reached for his "watch" on his wrist. He pressed and pulled on a trigger and his headset turned into a pair of white headphones around his neck. The wind blew across his face, showing the attraction of his hair and nomad eyes. Raising his left hand, Michael stared at his hand until it slowly turned to blue graph lines. Hs hand reverted to normal as Michael jumped off the tower. Tatsuya and Kazios got out of their camouflage, Tatsuya seemed as if he was going to vomit. Kazios walked near the edge of the tower.
"This is all I can show you, for now, I'll see you around, thank me, I kept him away," Kazios said as he dove down.
The pieces of the world before, started to crumble, crushing into dust. Tatsuya's dream of the past was over as he woke up on a cold mountain.