Joe Dark and Mew are spending their night attempting some brother bonding time. To Mew's surprise, Joe Dark's wanting to try out video games for a bit.
A knock's heard on the door and Mew goes to answer it, leaving Joe Dark to get the second controller.
Mew is greeted by a strange purple-haired girl outside, asking for Joe Dark.
Joe Dark returns and immediately slams the door shut, with Mew piecing together that he's hiding something. Joe Dark admits he may have neglected to mention where he'd been before.
Mew says they'll deal with that later and opens the door again. However, the girl, Alura, has floated up beside her father Dracula, with the house now surrounded by giant wolves and Grimmley leading the pack.
Dracula is glad to have finally locked down Joe Dark's location, stating how he was a fool to think he could escape once he became part of his clan.
Dracula had tasted his fear already and that was enough to find him again, no matter where he ran and hid. And along the way, they found many other worlds to feast upon, so Dracula offers his thanks for that much.
Mew senses this guy is bad news, recognizing that because of how scared Joe Dark is behaving. Joe Dark warns against fighting this guy, but Mew thinks THEY can beat him.
Mew then calls Dracula out for thinking they have them cornered, when instead he's got THEM right where he wants them.
Joe Dark gets mad at Mew for butting his head in where it doesn't belong, to which Mew states that he'd never abandon his family.
Joe Dark hearing that inspires him to at least try and defend himself against Dracula's hunt.
Grimmley commands the wolves to flood the two, quickly turning the area around the house into a tidal wave of fur and blood.
Mew and Joe Dark coordinate their efforts into cutting through the pack in order to find an opening for Mew to go after Dracula.
They try to keep the house intact but Joe Dark's more concerned about even a single wolf running loose upon the world proper.
Grimmley winds up commanding the wolves to split off anyways to do just that. Mew and Joe Dark are too pinned down to go after them. Fortunately, their savior arrives in the form of Lunis, who erects a silver barrier around the battleground to keep the wolves at bay.
She then starts speeding through the pack, slicing them up with her knives until she catches up with Mew.
After getting orders to fight, Lunis vows to protect this world in Riku's absence and helps Joe Dark with the wolves while Mew enters Light Form and flies right at Dracula.
Grimmley jumps in his path, clashing his knives with his katana while introducing himself as the Terror of War.
Mew's title of the Elemental Overlord is once again familiar to his foe, much to his annoyance. Grimmley states they know plenty about them as a group, especially their friends in the floating city...
Meanwhile in Sancturia, Kairi is awakened by the sound of noise outside her house. She rushes outside in her pajamas to the sight of a castle floating before the full moon, and an army of devilish gargoyles and wolves being led by the wormy man in a trenchcoat, Plagueis.
Plagueis is happy to be able to experiment on an Aurian finally and while Kairi draws her staff, a small number of wolves are sent to deal with her.
Gabriel intervenes, slicing them down with ease in one stroke of his katana. He then assures Kairi that they were alerted of these monster's presence.
Plagueis laughs at the idea of two people alone being enough to overwhelm the tidal wave of fear he'll send throughout Sancturia.
But at that very moment, their castle is blow to smithereens by a spaceship, which then proceeds to fly over the city and drop off four more Planetary Aurians as back-up: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Plagueis realizes he's dealing with the big leagues now and gets frustrated at their candor.
Back with Mew, he laughs at the idea of Sancturia being threatened, stating how they've signed their death warrant.
The two drop to the ground and prepare to engage, with Mew vowing to remind Grimmley of the power of the human spirit.
In Sancturia, Saturn divides their forces to handle the monsters rampaging throughout the city while her and Gabriel stay behind to combat Plagueis, the Terror of Pestilence.
Saturn knows his name and that of his three comrades, including the yet to be seen Terror of Decay and the Terror of Conquest.
However Plagueis notes that two of them are not here. One was blown up with the castle, which he's utterly PISSED about, while the other is dealing with a matter down south.
Gabriel suspects that's where Mew's energy must be coming from. Plagueis tells them not to waste their energy on worry, when he'll be extracting a banquet of fear from their hearts, in service to his master.
Mars and Jupiter meanwhile, go traveling around Sancturia as quick as they can to clean up the monsters before they get a chance to tear the sleeping Aurians from their houses.
Kairi, however, is having trouble keeping pace and has to resort to her Beast Tamer Drive to divide up the monsters properly.
Mew and Jupiter eventually meet up, much to her grief. Mars wishes she'd not be like this when they need to work together, and suggests they finally try and talk out some of the problems between them.
Jupiter's stubborn about not talking, insisting that if he wants to do so, then he'll first need to kill more monsters than her.
Back with Mew, he's locked in battle with Grimmley, whose years of experience on the battlefield allows him to slip his knives between Mew's cuts to draw blood.
Mew has trouble sensing his power, because it turns out Grimmley is a cyborg werewolf.
Grimmley was the first in a line of cybernetic enhanced soldiers meant to fuse, man, machine and beast. But his rebirth caused him to desire kill everyone in his path out of a lust for carnage. And he's LOVED every second of it.
Mew jokes around regarding his backstory, which only makes Grimmley laugh because he's killed many jokers like him in the past.
They continue their duel, with Grimmley recognizing his strength due to him lasting more than a minute against him.
Mew is surprised he's this strong, worrying about what it means for Dracula's own power.
Meanwhile Joe Dark and Lunis are getting close to cutting down the remainder of the wolf pack, the outside of Mew's house now looking devastating with corpses and blood stench.
However, it seems that despite being so close the numbers never drop. Joe Dark quickly recognizes this to be a result of Alura's illusions and yells at her, saying that she chose to be a monster after all.
Alura floats away from Dracula at his request to confront Joe Dark directly, saying she won't be deceived by him again.
Joe Dark had no control over leaving her behind, but knows Alura wouldn't believe him even if he said. Calling her a pain in the ass, he draws his dagger to defeat her and hopefully make her start thinking like a normal person.
Now with Lunis wide-open, Dracula calls forth the "fledgling sun" to deal with her. Solaris drops out of the sky and crashes close to Lunis, his sword already ignited in anger.
Mew finally gets how the hell Dracula knew where to find him and is just as disappointed in Solaris as Lunis is.
Back in Sancturia, a few Aurians have been rustled awake by the noise outside and go to find a towering mummy with black and copper bandages spreading miasma throughout the city.
One of the Aurians tried to attack the mummy, only for his legs to quickly age until they ultimately decay to nothingness in seconds.
And the other Aurians seem like they'll suffer the same fate, were it not for the timely intervention of a wall of gas produced by Venus.
Venus forces the miasma back and then drops down in front of the mummy's path, summoning a pair of giant gas fists and stating how she'll be his opponent.
After helping the other Aurians escape, Venus stands tall as a hero-in-training and intends to make her dead parents proud by beating this mummy monster.
The mummy matches Venus' attacks by controlling his miasma into different shapes. Their powers seem to be perfect matches for one another, but Venus still has to be careful not to get near the miasma given what happened to the poor boy's legs.
She tries to think back to Saturn's boring lectures about the many uses for gases and comes up with a fun idea. She clashes gas fists against miasma fists for a bit, but uses that as a chance to break off some of her gases and hang them above the mummy's head in the form of a cloud.
She then squeezes the cloud to create an acidic rain, which seems to be effective in weakening the mummy's defenses.
Venus winds up plenty of gas into one final punch to finish the monster off...Only for a scythe of miasma to rip through the center of the beast and slice the fist in half.
The remains of the mummy's bandages drape to the neck of human-like embodiment of the miasma like a cloak. Its terrifying shriek then leaves Venus frozen in fear, as the beast lashes its miasma out to finish her off.
At the last possible moment though, Auris leaps into the fray and shields Venus from the miasma.
Auris commends Venus' bravery and then confronts the mummy directly. The mummy moans about her immortality, to which Auris recognizes that the two of them both seem to be cursed the same.
Auris summons a dome of aura to keep the miasma monster contained, upon which the mummy instead directs its decay upon her.
Auris manages to feel what its like to age and feel the threat of death for the first time in millennium...How unfortunate for the mummy, as it awakens her dormant bloodlust.
She clashes with the elder of decay using quick strikes of her sword and shield, bouncing around the battlefield like a relentless warrior.
Being careful not to push herself too far though, so that her "curse" can restore her youth after exposure to the miasma.
The mummy attacks, managing to tear off her hand and even rot most of her face off. But Auris can only keep pushing forward, showing this monster the gap between their skills.
She uses the sweat on her arms and the spark from her sword grinding against her shield to ignite a flame that consumes the mummy's frail form.
Through this effort Auris divulges that the source of the miasma is a sarcophagus on the mummy's back, upon which she focuses her remaining efforts into stabbing the sarcophagus and obliterating it with the aura she packed into her blade.
Once that is broken, the miasma decays into nothingness, the beast letting out one final shriek.
Auris then dispels the barrier and goes to check on Venus, who is on her knees and trembling with fright.
And there, it becomes painfully obvious that something went wrong. Even just briefly flirting with the touch of decay, Venus has aged a couple years, meaning that by regaining her human form she had also regained her mortality...
Auris embraces Venus to help her calm down, wishing oh so much that she had arrived sooner...
The aftermath of that battle reaches Gabriel and Saturn while also pissing off Plagueis, who has now lost many of his master's best generals and resources to mere insects.
Seeing him fear for his life, Gabriel and Saturn offer to finish him off to spare him the agony, but of course he feels no need to kneel to such pitiful heroics.
Gabriel tries to strike him down but he slips away with surprising reflexes, for he as adaptable as the strongest of germs.
Meanwhile Kairi's helping Jupiter and Mars as best she can, baffled that the two are fighting for POINTS of all things.
Kairi ends up running into some of her fellow Aurians fighting each other, something they seem to be forced into by a beast that looks like a rubik's cube.
Kairi attacks it but the cube starts spinning its sides to make her body work against her. She quickly figures out that she has to attack without using her body, so goes for the Beast Tamer Drive to strike it down.
But then it breaks apart, creating a fourth-dimensional entity that starts digging deep into Kairi's mind and keeping her from believing anything makes sense.
She's bailed out by the real Shina using her Gunslinger Drive, with her being unaffected by the cube's tricks due to her experiences with similar methods in the past.
She then activates the Valkyrie Drive and Kairi goes into the Angel Drive to strike the entity down.
Kairi immediately gets angry at Shina for fighting when she's pregnant, but can't keep it up for long before the early mental damage makes her dizzy and faint in Shina's arms.
Kairi wants to keep fighting but Shina knows everyone else can handle the monster threat just fine now. Thus, she carries her back home to rest.
Back with Mew, he's managing to hold Grimmley off still, though the werewolf has now resorted to taunt him over holding back, believing he's got much bloodlust being held at bay.
Mew won't give in though, cause that's what makes him stronger than him.
Grimmley continues to be disappointed in humanity and resumes his offensive.
Joe Dark meanwhile is wrapped up in Alura's illusions and unable to find her. He tries to warn her that if he tried to hit her with all his might, she will die.
But Alura has confidence in this much, that Joe Dark will never find her.
For his boasts though, Joe Dark doesn't want to commit to hurting her. He knows he shouldn't give a damn about what happens to her, but perhaps the only way he can start saving himself is to save her...
Finally, Lunis and Solaris being their terrible duel against each other, detached from the rest of the fighting.
Solaris may be the stronger of the two, but Lunis is fighting with less doubt in her heart than him. He's letting his rage consume him, and his fear too.
He is sick of daddy's little girl trying to act superior to him.
But Lunis knows the truth, that father loved them both equally, and wanted them both to grow up to be happy even when he's gone.
Solaris can't admit to that truth because it does not match the rage he feels now. He starts exploding with rage, his inferno threatening to tear apart this entire mountain range with ease.
Lunis is forced to go in, enduring the flames long enough to suffocate him unconscious, as without oxygen, his flames are nothing.
And though she succeeds, it seems as though his rage transferred over to her, as now she's PISSED at Dracula for taking advantage of her brother's fears.
She emerges over the mountainside gaze white hot with rage at the King of Monsters. Her body, much like how Solaris' did against Mew so long ago, has changed. Giving her more of a kitsune like appearance, and turning her knives into sickles.
Without a shred of mercy she charges Dracula head-on and manages to slice through his neck, much to Grimmley's horror.
But it matters little to the lord of beasts, for he seals the wound up and licks his lips, hungering for the rage she has on display.
Back in Sancturia, Gabriel and Saturn continue their duel with the Terror of Pestilence, finding that he's far slipperier of a foe than they could have predicted.
Plagueis tries to slip away to infect the other Aurians and compensate for the failures of his monster army. Gabriel keeps pace and with Saturn's help, manages to force him to re-engage them for a bit.
Saturn then starts predicting all of his lines, shouting the last one out to really rub it in. When Plagueis calls her sick in the head, she replies that she's simply sick with JUSTICE.
Plagueis tires of these games and gets serious, quickly managing to expunge his needles from his gloves to throw Gabriel off, before stabbing him in the neck to give him a disease that suffocates his breathing.
Boasting over Gabriel's kneeling body, Plagueis proclaims he's figured them both out and finds proceeding with any further fighting pointless as they will both soon die.
He slips away, and though Saturn wants to focus on Gabriel's well-being he insists on leaving him behind for now to ensure the wormy man does not get away.
Saturn leaves a couple of her personal drones behind to monitor his health and then chases after Plagueis.
Plagueis begins an injection spree across Sancturia while singing about the joy he feels doing so. Saturn tries to kick him for being tone deaf but he slips away, annoyed by her persistence.
Saturn deploys more drones to help cure the others he's infected before managing to get an opening to deploy her Frost Suit over her body.
She finally stops him in place by freezing the ground he runs on, his slimy body unable to pick up any momentum.
She then brawls with Plagueis for a bit, unable to land a clean hit due to his cunning cowardice.
Plagueis manages to finally land a hit on her, however, when he tosses an Aurian at her to take advantage of her kindness by stabbing his needles through the Aurian to get to her.
Saturn is forced to use her suit to freeze over a deadly rash going up her hands, then summons the Thermal Suit to target the infected parts of her skin and sweat the germs right out.
She continues after Plagueis until he manages to get around her attacks and close in, stabbing his needles directly into her skull.
Saturn starts experiencing a nightmare about corpses rising from an azure, viral mass. The shape of the mass wraps around a planet, grows a mouth, and calls her "Mother".
The nightmare has left her frozen in place, with Plagueis ready to reap the rewards from her fear.
However, Saturn rises to kick the wormy man in the gut, saying he'll have to do better than that to throw her off her game.
But the nightmare gave Plagueis inspiration on how to beat her, and has already stabbed her suit directly to inject a techno-organic virus similar to the mass in Saturn's nightmare.
Saturn ejects the suit and has it self-destruct in a panic.
Plagueis laughs at little miss perfect, finding her kind to be the funniest to strike fear into, as when they break and writhe in agony, its beautiful.
But this girl is the funniest of all, as it painfully clear she's just playing superhero to hide from her fears, and that she's ultimately fated to die alone.
She slowly bursts into laughter, saying that she may be many things but alone isn't one of them.
And to reinforce that point, Mars and Jupiter join the fray, nearly decapitating the plague doctor and confirming to him that he is indeed the last monster in Sancturia.
Losing himself completely, Plagueis throws his all into ensuring Saturn dies stricken with the worst kinds of diseases. However, as he lunges forth, he's blocked by Gabriel, who has already been cured by Saturn's drones.
Gabriel then cuts him in half horizontally, snapping off his trenchcoat to reveal that their foe was nothing more than a giant, long tapeworm.
Saturn smashes his wriggling body with a giant flyswatter and congratulates everyone on their victory.
Jupiter's annoyed at Gabriel because he stole the last kill needed to break her tie with Mars. He doesn't understand what that even means.
Though Sancturia is safe, the Lord of Monsters still lives. Saturn doesn't like to admit it, but she's fine leaving that up to Mew and the others.
She lies down to catch her breath, and in her mind tells Mew not to screw this up since its his home after all...
As for Mew, he's still locked in battle with Grimmley while Lunis is madly slashing away at Dracula, their battle breaking apart the mountains around them and nearly endangering the house.
Mew wonders how he can keep wasting time fighting the werewolf when the others need him, but its difficult to force an opening with this guy.
Meanwhile Joe Dark continues to combat Alura's illusions, calling out to her to finally answer that question he asked of her before.
But she refuses, and Joe Dark notes her lack of conviction. Finally managing to sneak into the darkness to launch a surprise attack, he grabs her on the shoulder and confirms she is real.
Forced into a corner, Alura chooses to carry out her father's will to the last and her eyes begin to shift demonically, casting her ultimately technique known as Illusionary Mary.
Joe Dark, trapped within the cage of his mind's creation, is forced to relive the moment his family died over and over again.
But Alura is a witness to these events, and seeing how much Joe Dark has been hurt by the violence of humanity brings up feelings she doesn't at all understand.
Joe Dark walks up to her, telling her that all of humanity didn't cause this, just one very bad man.
Humanity can be flawed, but they aren't evil. He didn't believe that for a time but lately...one exceptional guy helped change his mind.
He tries to reach out and extend that missing generosity and understanding to Alura, but she promptly refuses him, failing to recognize what it means for someone to care for her.
She's scared, but Joe Dark thinks that's fine, as they can be scared together.
His comforting touch brings the illusion crashing down, upon which the real Joe Dark tells her she's not allowed to tell Mew any of this.
In that moment, however, Alura is punctured through the chest by blood thanks to her own father.
Grimmley is stunned, and in that moment Mew finishes him off. Grimmley curses his last fleeting moment of humanity before dying.
Mew quickly casts him aside and focuses on the atrocity Dracula has committed.
Dracula turns to him while grasping Lunis' face in his hand and mutters, "What is a daughter?"
In the end he never understood the concept of love or kindness. He believed Alura to be little more than his spawn born from the loins of a lustful witch, and treated her as a tool.
Cursing Alura's human weakness, Dracula continues to feast on Lunis' rage.
Joe Dark gently puts Alura down, and then loses himself completely in rage. Enveloped in a ferocious darkness, Joe Dark activates his Dark King form and prepares to kill Dracula for good.
He immediately starts throwing himself relentlessly against the Lord of Twilight, with Lunis taking shots at him whenever she can manage.
Mew's panicking over Joe Dark losing complete control of himself and tries to step in, going into Dark Form to land some solid hits on Dracula whenever Joe Dark's knocked away.
Dracula notes his lack of fear or rage and tries to remedy that by striking Mew violently. However, Mew keeps himself together by reminding himself of what's at stake, his lack of aggression seemingly hurting the monster.
But he has the other two nearby to feed off of, and so long as they're fighting fueled by rage Mew is never going to be able to win this fight.
So he tries to pull Lunis aside to calm her down first. Lunis wants to avenge what happened to Solaris, but as Mew reminds her she won't be doing that by attacking recklessly. Not to mention Solaris is still alive, so this isn't worth getting that angry over.
She snaps out of it a bit, finally recognizing her new form and being shocked by it.
Mew directs her at Dracula and the two of them attack him together, with her continuing the assault while Mew pulls Joe Dark away to talk him down.
He keeps shoving Mew aside and pushing forward, even with Mew mounting his best defenses.
Mew's forced to grab onto him tightly to keep him steady, and Joe Dark starts screeching violently like a banshee.
When it appears he won't stop, Mew positions himself in front of him and demands Joe Dark take all his anger out on him. Only on the condition that he finish Dracula off afterwards, otherwise he won't get breakfast tomorrow.
Joe Dark gathers his strength to strike Mew down, but can't do it. He mocks Mew's stupidity as he tearfully beats himself up for bringing death wherever he goes.
Mew points at Dracula, saying how HE's the killer here, not Joe Dark.
Joe Dark sees reason in his words and calms down enough. Him and Mew then team up against Dracula, making him feast upon their attacks lacking in hatred.
Dracula quickly begins to starve himself, desperately begging for his enemies to feed him.
His skin starts to writhe, and with a bellowing cry his jaw plummets to the ground and his body explodes with darkness.
He seems to perish in that moment, but it can never be that simple.
A tremor shakes the battlefield, as a pale-white hand crushes down part of the nearby mountain. And that hand is attached to a titanic slithering serpent with teeth aplenty and a mouth that stretches across its arms and hands as well as its eyeless face.
They have awakened the Leviathan of the Gluttonous Void, Ba'al Zebul, who now seeks to devour their whole world as an appetizer.
At this point Mew REALLY wishes Riku had chosen a better time to leave.
He opens his maw and begins sucking up the world. The three brace themselves trying to come up with a plan to counterattack.
Lunis bravely leaps forth, grabbing hold of Ba'al's head and dragging him right up to the moon with her dominion over it.
Mew and Joe Dark rip open a portal and follow suit, finding that Lunis has tired herself out dragging that demon here.
Mew and Joe Dark pick up the pace for her while she relaxes, as Ba'al rampages across the moon search for satisfaction to his endless hunger.
His power and charge is nigh unstoppable, and there's far too many close calls in preventing him from him sucking up parts of the Earth before him.
Eventually the demon is forced to disobey his purpose in order to deal with these pests holding him back. And once he starts focusing all his efforts on them its clear that even together, they cannot hope to beat back this Leviathan.
Joe Dark nearly perishes to a fatal rain of bony teeth, only for Mew to shove him out of the way and take the attack on himself.
Ba'al then swats his body away into Joe Dark's arms. Mew is still alive, but just barely holding on, and Joe Dark wonders yet again why he must continue to lose people close to him.
Begging God to just let him die once, when he finds his prayers unanswered, he looks inside of himself and realizes he can no longer let death happen around him again.
He rises before Ba'al, getting between him and the Earth, and channels all his energy into one final attack to destroy the demon for good.
Ba'al consumes everything that darkness meant to Joe Dark, calling it a pitiful nibble.
However, mere moments after saying that, Ba'al skin begins to smoke a fine bloody mist as he becomes inflicted with a terrible pain.
Joe Dark's final attack was done not with hatred, but a righteous desire to protect those close to him. And such beautiful love is poisonous to the devil, who becomes so consumed with fear that he finds himself to be the tastiest meal imaginable.
Ba'al consumes himself entirely somehow, ending his threat for good.
Joe Dark is so exhausted it takes a moment to even register this as a victory. And truly, could it really be called that? Sure, him, Mew and Lunis made it through this, but Alura...
Picking up Mew in his arms, Joe Dark ferries him and Lunis back to their home with the power of darkness.
Mew wakes up not long after, finding Joe Dark cradling Alura's corpse and being deadly quiet. Mew decides to give him space for now, finding out from Lunis that Joe Dark had managed to save the world.
But there's some scars that need to heal, not just in the land, but also among the survivors.
Solaris is still unconscious and Lunis is worried that Mew's going to punish him for going too far. Mew has no sweat on his back, thinking that its ok to let Solaris be given nobody innocent died because of him.
He's out for a bit though, so Mew decides to spend some time cleaning up the mountains while they still got the dark of night to hide him.
Eventually Solaris does wake up and is immediately set back on his vengeance quest.
Lunis finally has enough and just slaps him hard across the face, telling him to shut up and stop denying Mew's kindness.
Solaris is sick of her taking their side now that father's dead, thinking she doesn't care. But he cares too much, as he believes that their father died that HE was too weak.
And that's why he loathes Mew's pity, because he doesn't understand what its like to lose family.
...But Mew does. He lost Alex that same day, and felt the same powerlessness Solaris feels now back then.
Nearly dying to Justek taught Mew that he still has a ways to go, and Solaris should take his loss as a sign that he has a ways to go too.
Just because he's a god doesn't mean he's reached his limit. If he'd be willing to train to tap into his hidden power, he'd probably never feel weak again.
Solaris doesn't like the suggestion he's throwing out to have him live with them. Mew says he just has to live with his sister and if he HAPPENS to want to train while being here, whatever.
Solaris grumbles and finally relents on his vengeance for now.
Mew leaves the siblings be to check on Joe Dark. He finally stirs to life, murmuring how Alura didn't deserve this.
He believes there has to be a way to save her, but Mew lays it out straight but calmly that even if the likes of Saturn or Macros could save her body her soul is still lost.
He wants Joe Dark to rest easy at least with the satisfaction that he killed the one responsible.
Joe Dark gets a revelation from their talk about the soul. He places his hands over Alura's body and recalls how the old Dark King dragged his soul back with the power of darkness, and he now intends to do the same.
Mew can't stop him from pulling his insane stunt in time, and Joe Dark's consciousness is dragged away to somewhere a lot more...cold.
No, its foolish to call it cold. Because it would imply that there's feeling in this realm.
Deprived of sight and touch, Joe Dark floats in the endless abyss beyond the stars.
A voice trembles the universe, referring to him as the fledgling king.
Joe Dark refers to him as Satan, which makes the voice chuckle.
Calling the Prince of Lies little more than a tiny angel, he compares even the Elder Gods as worms nibbling on his bones.
A mere breath he exerts forces the lights of the million stars below to ignite, revealing his true form as the black skeleton of an unfathomable dragon, chained to the entire universe as the spine holding it together.
His inhospitable words nearly shred Joe Dark's soul down to the atom. His name the shriek of the infinite damned.
To keep Joe Dark from vanishing too soon, however, the dragon wishes to be referred to as Akumu Jigokuryu.
There can be no boast made in his presence that would provide anything more than a chuckle from him. First he demands Joe Dark acknowledge he's beneath him, then he'll listen.
Yet Joe Dark musters some courage to stand in defiance, earning some manner of Akumu's respect.
He knows what Joe Dark seeks...a sense of purpose through the soul of Alura he has captive.
Joe Dark wonders how he has the right, and Akumu laughs, mocking his own imprisonment and the little freedom it gives him.
The only company he's allowed these days are the souls that are harvested by his children, the Seven Deadly Sins, of whom Ba'al was merely one of them.
Joe Dark tries to hold Akumu accountable to which the dragon wonders how he would plan to do that.
Ultimately Akumu appreciates the souls given to him, as they help somewhat to alleviate the loneliness. But they are merely numbers in the end, which is why he values souls such as the original Dark King's the most.
He holds said soul before Joe Dark, reminding him of the bargain the Dark King had made to restore his life. Turns out the Dark King bartered his afterlife away for the chance to kill the Elemental Overlord for good.
As for Alura, she is by technicality Akumu's granddaughter. Joe Dark instead calls her his prisoner.
But its not imprisonment if the universe's laws decree this be her fate. However, as he has domain over her soul, he IS willing to bargain.
Joe Dark assumes this means him wanting his soul, but Akumu thinks NO ONE would want that, and even calls such bargains an amateur move.
And besides, taking someone's most valuable possession ensures they'll never return, and he likes repeat customers.
Joe Dark thinks he can get away with bargaining something as vague as his future, and though Akumu rejects that notion it does inspire him.
He wants Joe Dark's first born. Whether it be a son or daughter matters little, they shall be the heir to his power, and herald in an age of blood from the sinners that populate the Earth.
He wishes to spite his "skin" that governs the universe, and how that shall manifest shall be his and Joe Dark's mystery for god knows how long.
So he asks again if Joe Dark believes one soul is worth that gnawing agony.
Joe Dark notes the fatal flaw in Akumu's deal, in that he will not abandon his child. So even if they are corrupted, he will do everything he can to help them fight back. Thus, he accepts the damn deal.
Akumu finds him a little interesting for that, and looks forward to his struggle.
He sends him and Alura's soul back, though with one last chuckle at his expense...For he had snatched away Joe Dark's memories of the deal, to ensure it'll be done, and only then will he suffer the knowledge of it.
Joe Dark returns to Earth and ultimately his little stunt has worked. Alura is back to life, fully restored to her old self.
She's quickly confused that her father had killed her until Joe Dark tells her to forget about him, and that she's better off without him.
Alura wonders why Joe Dark did all this for him. Joe Dark says it was just the right thing to do.
Alura cries, but doesn't recognize the feeling and in fact hates it.
She doesn't know what to do now and neither does he. But they'll figure it out together...as friends.
Thus, with the battle long over, the two of them decide to sit back and watch the sun rise on a new day of peaceful times.
...Which lasts all of a few days, as it turns out perhaps there's such a thing as having too many people under one roof.
Solaris is breaking glass with his bare hands by accident, Alura is examining all the new things and accidentally spewing condiments everywhere, Joe Dark's bitching about a lack of meat, Lunis wants to read actual books, and Mew's being held responsible for all this madness.
When everyone keeps screaming his name he demands them SHUT UP while he just heads out to clear his head.
He winds up bowling over Saturn who was standing outside.
Mew's already got enough of a headache but somehow her presence might be a relief, as he's been wondering about Riku's status.
But she has no update so Mew basically tells her to buzz off.
Saturn clamps down on his shoulder and tells him to not be rude, then threatens to make him piss himself by hitting a pressure point unless he comes with her.
Venus needs his help, and as baffling as it is as to why, Saturn's got no other choice.
Mew can't pass up helping out someone who needs it and its a good excuse to get him away from the madness in his house.
Saturn takes him to her ship, specifically the guest quarters, giving an update to him regarding the monsters' attack on Sancturia to sort of lead in to what's going on with Venus.
Mew's worried that Venus is dead but Saturn can't believe he'd think someone would die on her watch. She just leads him to where she's staying so he can see for himself.
Peeking into her room tells Mew enough. She's looking a little older now, as a result of the brief contact with the mummy's miasma.
Saturn confirms she's only aged two years, making her 10, but that's still worrying given the affect its had on her mental state.
Mew's got to handle this cause he's the only person she trusts right now.
So Mew boldly walks in and eases Maria into wanting him to sit next to her and talk.
He tries to ask how she's doing to avoid getting right into the problem. When she finally responds, she asks if Mew likes getting older.
Mew words it in a way she'll understand without treating her like a baby. Ultimately Maria recognizes that when bodies age they eventually just...die.
And she's scared of dying.
Mew can only assure her that she's still got a LOOOOONG ways to go before worrying about that, and that right now she should think about what to do with that time.
She should try and do whatever her hearts desires...as long as she obeys the law.
After listing some fun examples Maria sounds excited, but wonders if Saturn would let her do any of those things.
So Mew just decides not to hold back and chooses to adopt Maria as his daughter.
Maria's delighted by the idea and starts calling him "Papa" right away, which ages Mew about a good ten years on the spot.
The newly adopted Maria Whiter is welcomed into the family with open arms and the two hug it out briefly.
Mew first needs to run this by Saturn, knowing she'll be mad. But first he wants to make sure there's nothing else Maria wants to talk about.
She mentions something about her body feeling weird, nearly pointing to the one part Mew is NOT AT ALL going to talk about.
He quickly runs out and demands Saturn get him in contact with Kairi, proceeding to drag her to the ship to give Maria...THE TALK.
Kairi can't believe SHE is the one who is being forced to do this, but realizes there's really no better options given their other options are Shina, Auris, and Saturn.
Mew owes Kairi big time for this and she heads inside, answering Maria's questions for about a solid hour before emerging feeling ready to die.
And during all that Maria started calling Kairi "Mama", which causes Mew to spill that he adopted Maria and she calls him "Papa".
Mew explains how much Maria needed him, but Kairi yells at him for acting first and thinking later. He knows nothing about taking care of a child. Feeding her, clothing her, keeping her healthy, all that crap.
But she can't deny the sincerity of his kindness and just lays off eventually, but only on the caveat that she help out raising her so he doesn't turn her into a delinquent by accident.
Mew chuckles and notes how its been a while since they hung out. Kairi laments how busy she's been and does hope to change that once things settle down for the two of them.
Mew and Kairi part ways for now, with Mew taking Maria back to his insane asylum he calls a home.
Fortunately the place is still intact, which is good because its about to get rowdier once he announces the new company staying here.
After introducing everyone to Maria, Joe Dark is the first to shout at Mew for putting more mouths to feed in this house.
Mew glares at him and says to get a job, then starts taking control of his house by demanding some new living arrangements.
But Lunis stops all that when she reminds Mew about how Riku's still not back yet.
Meanwhile, as all this has been going down, Riku has been at Macros' planet getting the work put on him to restore his arm.
When Saturn didn't have to go and deal with the monster attack, she's been helping to construct the new arm, while Macros works on ensuring that the elemental energy will reconnect properly once the process is done.
To pass the time and help Riku ease into being around him, Macros starts talking to him. He wants to discuss family, first off wondering what Riku feels is different between him and his brother.
It comes down to optimism and confidence, which Mew has tons to spare.
Though Macros was more curious about how their powers manifested, even if what he got is still a telling answer.
Macros understands feeling burdened by family sometimes. He, as a matter of fact, has six siblings. Four brothers, and two sisters.
He can't exactly call how long its been since he spoke with them, and does occasionally miss them.
Macros then refocuses on the task and hand and asks Riku to summon his sword, as he can sense he has the ability to do so.
Riku does, and Macros recognizes the design belonging to Dyntos, another creator and artist much like him.
Needless to say the creator-types in this universe tend to keep an eye on one another and there's a LOT of eyes on Macros for reasons he's happy to clarify.
Riku hopes he's not planning on them becoming friends over this, to which Macros says he doesn't need such things. But he does like people, and especially likes talking with Riku.
He can see right through his facade and tells him that he deserves love.
By the time Saturn returns its time to put Riku to sleep while they apply the new arm.
Riku awakens to a returned feeling where the stump once was. He's been given a robotic arm that's so sleek and smooth that if it was given a coat of skin it'd look just like his old arm.
Saturn's proud, obviously, and tries to show off all the cool alternate features. Macros, however, snags the remote from her grasp...along with the second remote she had hidden in her coat, ruining her day.
Riku's the happiest he's ever been, but there's still one thing that has to be done.
And both him and Macros come to an understanding of such without saying a word.
Macros draws his hand, gesturing towards himself.
Riku nods, and he respects Macros' request to fight.
What ensues is a brief but telling scuffle, as Riku throws every element he's got without any hiccups, while Macros endures through them up until Riku goes into Chaos Form.
There, Riku manages to nick Macros' lens, proving to the both of them that Riku has regained full control over his powers and has a better understanding of what he has to do moving forward.
Despite the tensions between them, Riku thanks Macros.
Macros calls it a pleasure, and says for Riku to call him if he ever needs a favor.
Riku, however, wants to call it in right away, stating its very important.
Cut to the present where Riku has returned home around the same time Mew's been introducing Maria to everyone.
He's got his new arm to show off, but also that he's cut his hair, symbolizing him trying to escape his brother's shadow.
Mew thinks both look cool and quickly invites Riku in, attempting to get his help in dividing up the rooms.
However, Riku doesn't plan on staying. He's going to move to the lunar palace on the moon with Lunis.
Solaris naturally objects and decides to go with them. One, to keep an eye on Riku, and two, to get some training in with him.
Mew looks at Riku and hopes he's certain about this decision.
Mew doesn't want to admit he'll miss him and instead hopes he doesn't be a stranger. Then with one quick pat on the shoulder, Mew sends him off.
Thus the trio of Riku, Lunis and Solaris head to the moon to adapt a new life in a new home.
Looking at his new arm, Riku vows not to waste this second chance at life, and do things right with the help of his friends and family.
Story 5 END.
