Super Robot Wars U: Deluxe Edition Final Chapter True, a super robot wars fanfic

Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a long time coming, but it's finally here! The True Ending for SUPER ROBOT WARS U: DELUXE EDITION! Is Metatron really the true villain? Or is it the Outer Gods? And just what is the true nature of the cosmos? Find out today! This one's even longer than Final Chapter (Normal) so make sure you have a lot of time to spare!

Final Chapter (If/True) - Awakening

The return of the Shin Getter team was, while a cause for great excitement, also a puzzling one for DREAM. They were sure that they had seen Ryoma, Hayato and Benkei perish. How they had survived, and exactly what the fight they were involved in since their disappearance entailed, was a question that was on everyone's minds as they returned to the Chouginga Dai-Gurren's hangar to prepare for the final showdown with Metatron...or perhaps with the Outer Gods.

"So, after you used that Giga Drill attack to destroy the Death Spiral Machine," Murrue inquired as she, Yurika, the Shin Dragon team and Michiru stood in a circle around the three Getter pilots; "You were warped to Outside?"

"Yep," Ryoma answered. "From there, we began battling horrors unlike anything we had ever seen. Even the Invaders were tame-looking compared to the freaks that are lurking out there even now."

"Most people would go mad just by looking at 'em," Benkei added.

"What's worse," Hayato said, "it seems like they're constantly trying to break into other realities. No doubt that their goal is Eden Vital, considering that one of Atik Yomin's generals was really working for them."

"The Outer Gods," Gai said, shuddering at the thought. "An enemy even greater than Atik Yomin. Do you think they have more agents that just Michael?"

"Their armies seem to be without limit," Ryoma said with a confident grin; "Our comrades are fighting 'em right now so you guys don't have to."

"Comrades?" Yurika said; "Who would these comrades be?"

"Other Getter Teams, right?" a voice came from nearby. They turned and saw Musashi standing there, his face beaming. "I'll bet there's more than just one Getter Emperor!"

"Musashi!" the three Getter pilots exclaimed in unison. They ran over to greet their old friend with a mix of both manly embraces and hearty slaps on the back and head.

"It really is you!" Ryoma said with great elation.

"Now you owe US an explanation!" Benkei said, turning to Murrue.

"We passed through Hell to get here after we beat the Anti-Spiral," the captain of the Archangel said. "And so the Flame of Hope joined up with us."

"I guess that explains why all of the Devilmen that died in our fight against Cadney and the Demon Busters are with us," Hayato said thoughtfully. "Well..."

"Hey," Kei interrupted; "Does this mean once we stop Metatron, you guys will have to go back?"

The three pilots of Shin Getter looked at each other and nodded.

"I'm afraid so, Kei," Benkei said; "It's the ultimate destiny for every incarnation of us." Kei started to tear up and rushed into her adoptive father's arms. Michiru could only lower her head.

"A life of endless battle," she said; "You're really going to go back to that?"

"We know it's to protect you all," Ryoma answered; "so we don't mind. And it's kinda fun to fight alongside other versions of ourselves. The stories they told us when we had time to relax would take years to retell!"

Michiru's face lit up as the implications of this dawned on her.

"Wait a second," she exclaimed; "If all of them are all versions of you three, then..."

"The Getter Team from the Celestial Calendar is there too," Hayato said. "They said that they still think about you a lot, Michiru."

Tears of joy began to flow down the cheeks of the Saotome Institute's last survivor as she imagined the smiling faces of the Getter Team she had know for so long.

"Thank you, Hayato," she said. "Truly...thank you..."

There was enough time for one last round of repairs and resupply – and Neo Granlif certainly needed them after using one hundred percent of its output. As Janus and Tara watched the workers on the Chouginga Dai-Gurren work on repairing their machine, they heard someone coming. They turned to see Akira Fudo approaching them.

"Hey, Two-Face," Fudo said with a toothy grin; "Hey, Tara."

"Hey, Fudo," Janus said.

"You know I realized something a little while ago," Fudo said. "There's a chance we'll meet someone in your family."

"I really hope we don't," the half-Outside young man replied; "But I have a bad feeling that we will."

"Man, all this time we were gunning for Atik Yomin," the Devilman said, looking up at Neo Granlif; "when they were trying to protect us from the real enemy."

"Atik Yomin is still our enemy," a voice came from behind them. They turned and saw Lucifer standing there, albeit in his more human form.

"Ryo!" Fudo exclaimed, using the name the angel had taken in his time as a mortal.

"We still have to stop Metatron from completing his final ritual," Lucifer said, "especially if it turns out to be the very manner in which at least one of the Outer Gods enters Eden Vital."

"What do you mean?" Tara exclaimed. "You're saying Metatron's been controlled by them too?!"

"Not exactly," the angel replied; "But I believe the one who is now guiding Metatron's actions is the Outer Gods' unwitting pawn...in what fashion, I cannot say for sure."

"But if the Outer Gods are so powerful," Fudo asked; "why do they need assistance from the inside to break through? Deathless Amon, Muge Zolbados and the Invaders got in by themselves."

"I don't know either," Lucifer said, shaking his head; "I suspect Michael might have known, but he is no more."

"Even if we did stop the Outer Gods' plans by beating Michael," Tara said; "Metatron still wants to force everything to exist as one entity."

"Yeah," Janus said with a nod. "We have to make him see what he's doing is a huge mistake."

"You mean...to redeem him?!" Fudo exclaimed. "You really think you can talk him down?"

"We have to try," Janus answered. "We promised Iophiel that we would save the man she loves from making the worst mistake anyone could possibly make. And if we stop him from accidentally allowing those Outer Gods to break through, then all the better!"

At this, Lucifer started to snicker.

"What's so funny, Ryo?!" the Devilman exclaimed as the angel's laugh got louder and heartier. "You're mocking their resolve?!"

"Not at all," Lucifer replied as he composed himself. "It's just that I had never imagined my gamble would bring such incredible results! I can't help but laugh at how well things have turned out!"

"What do you mean?" Janus asked. "Is this related to my nature as an 'unforeseeable factor' or something?"

"Think of it this way," the angel explained; "Atik Yomin and the Outer Gods have placed bets on an unthinkably vast number of coin flips. In most cases, the coin lands heads or tails."

"But after you introduced Janus to the game," Tara exclaimed as she got the analogy; "The coin's been landing on its edge!"

"Repeatedly, my dear," Lucifer said with a smile.

"Well, it hasn't been all me," Janus said modestly; "It's been everyone in DREAM who makes these miracles happen."

"All it takes is one person's actions," Tara said, embracing the young man and resting her head against his, "to start a revolution." Janus blushed.

"But without you," her beloved replied, "I may not have had the will to do it." Just then, a voice addressed everyone on the loudspeaker:

"Attention, all hands," Taiga's voice called out, "We will now be traveling to the center of Eden Vital! All hands, to battle stations! I repeat, we will now be traveling to the center of Eden Vital! All hands, to battle stations!"

"Guess we'd better get going," Fudo said. "See you guys on the battlefield." With that, he extended his wings and took off. Janus and Tara nodded to each other and rushed into Neo Granlif as a Threshold opened in its leg.

"The final game is about to start," Lucifer mused as he resumed his true form; "Will the coin land on its edge one more time, or will DREAM's luck finally run out?"

DREAM's ships reappeared in an incalculably vast space that could only be surmised to be the very center of Eden Vital. Its appearance seemed to change from moment to moment - it would be like the inside of a hollow tree at one moment, the innards of a colossal fleshy organism the next, and a crystalline starscape with floating platforms after that. But one thing was constant in this chaotic realm - the form of Metatron hovering over what appeared to be a gigantic blue Threshold, his arms raised up and out as if greeting something from above.

But unlike the others, the blue Threshold here had a clearly defined border - it was made of some eldritch metal, and shaped almost like a compass. Golden and green energy seeped out of the portal, and was being drawn into Metatron's wings of light as he uttered words in a language that was not native to any world.

So, that's the Prime Crossgate, Bian thought as he looked down at the massive Threshold. I never imagined I'd see it myself, even though my research and experiments continually supported its existence.

"Metatroooon!" Janus roared as loud as he could, hoping to get his doppelganger's attention and to break his concentration.

"Jaan!" Iophiel cried out.

"Big brother!" Rei called out, the lingering memories of Metatron's younger sister flaring up within her.

The three cries did their job - Metatron's wings suddenly dimmed as the flow of gold and green energy came to a halt. He lowered his arms and chuckled a bit as DREAM quickly surrounded him, though made no immediate moves to attack. Even to the very end, they were hoping that they could reason with the head of Atik Yomin.

"I have to say, I'm impressed with you lot," Metatron said frankly; "Another few moments and tzimtzum would have begun with no way to stop it. Even when my generals went to all that trouble to stall you, you still managed to reach me."

He turned around and looked up at Zig.

"Iophiel...I'm glad you came," the angel said in a tone that was sincere, yet insincere; "At least I will see your face before the end."

"Then it's not too late...please, Jaan, forget about the ritual!" Iophiel cried back in desperate hope. "If it's completed, something horrible will break into Eden Vital...the greatest of all Devourers!"

"Oh, him?" Metatron said; "He is no more. Only Euzeth Gozzo exists now."

With those words, the angel's appearance changed somewhat – while he had been naked before, now he wore the same attire that Philemon Zifell had been wearing when he had hijacked Atzilut Guneden, though light wings still extended from his back.

"Euzeth Gozzo?!" Suzaku exclaimed; "Didn't we beat you before?!"

"You merely defeated one of our many lesser selves," Euzeth replied; "You might say that we are The Euzeth Gozzo...the collective essence of Euzeth Gozzo that transcends all timelines and dimensions. We must thank you for allowing us to reach this moment in the otherwise timeless span of existence."

"You were hiding inside Metatron this whole time, weren't you?" Janus said angrily. "You're the one who had him come up with this crazy scheme!"

"More precisely, the Euzeth Gozzo of his native dimension was," the wicked scientist said. "At the moment of his death, the Euzeth of Jaan Shaddai's dimension broke off a fragment of his soul and implanted it into him. From there, he was able to, over countless eons, able to change his view of life to suit our own, and to drive him deeper into despair. The moment that foolish boy reached his lowest point, the Euzeth within him began to guide his actions more directly."

"I knew it," Iophiel said, clenching her fists; "In my heart I knew it, but my mind refused to accept it."

"And when he obtained the power of Nyog'Sothep for himself," the wicked scientist continued, "he called our other selves here. That is why we are The Euzeth Gozzo now."

Kinda of like Dr. Hell as the Great Emperor of Darkness, Kouji thought.

"And this time," The Euzeth Gozzo said, "we will NOT make the mistake the one from the Celestial Calendar made! We shall become one with the Great God right now, and make you all our servants!"

With that, Euzeth began to chant...but the language was completely different from the one Metatron had been using. It was a guttural, rough tongue that seemed like it wasn't meant to be uttered by anything remotely human, while the one Metatron had been using moments ago had an ethereal, almost soothing quality to it that made it seem otherworldly without being utterly alien.

"I don't know what he's saying," Puru muttered, "but it's really creepy."

However, the language was one Janus, Tara, Iophiel, Haruhi and Lucifer all recognized.

It's the same one as back then, Janus thought.

The language used to summon those black abominations to Jan's world, Tara thought, recalling Janus' memory of that day, over ten thousand of his years ago.

He's actually doing it, Haruhi thought; That crazed man is really going to bring THEM through, and he clearly doesn't realize it!

"Stop, you fool!" Lucifer cried. "You have no idea what you're doing!"

But The Euzeth Gozzo paid no heed, and continued chanting. Forced to act, the former High Seraph summoned up a storm of energy crosses and sent them at the angel...only for them to be parried by something – angels that looked just like Nadija.

"Papa! Big brother!" one of the Nadija copies called out.

"We'll protect you!" a second said.

"Hurry up so everyone can be happy!" a third cried as more gathered around, forming a sort of protective barrier around the chanting Euzeth.

"What...are those?!" CC Sayaka exclaimed.

"They look just like...Nadija," Ohgi said. "Metatron's little sister." As he said this, Euzeth ceased chanting as the Prime Crossgate began to pulse and waver, the energy forming the Threshold itself tossing like a stormy sea even as more gold and green energy began to stream out.

"The Final Guardians," The Euzeth said; "Did you really think we were going to leave ourselves completely unprotected?"

"Euzeth!" Iophiel cried; "Where's the real Nadija?! Where's my beloved's little sister?!"

"His little sister?" Euzeth chuckled; "Fear not. She is with the Great God now, as are all the souls who had been resting here in Heaven."

"That explains why Heaven was so empty," Akira muttered.

"But why did they call you Papa?" Alia asked. At this, The Euzeth grinned wickedly.

"Ah, that's right," the multitude of scientists said in one voice; "Jaan Shaddai Luckfield was not the son of Brooklyn Luckfield...but OUR son! The son of Euzeth Gozzo!"

The stream of energy particles gradually started to include black and purple ones in its mix.

"He killed his own father without realizing it," the power-mad scientists laughed; "yet allowing him to remain alive, all for this moment!"

The Euzeth opened his arms and grinned ecstatically.

"We have been kept waiting long enough!" he cackled as his form began to turn a blinding white; "Behold, the advent of the GREAT GOD'S NEW WILL!" With that, his body began to grow at speeds millions of times greater than light.

In a matter of moments, something new loomed over DREAM - a white, gold and silver clockwork monstrosity trillions of light-years across. Extending from its central body were four perfectly symmetrical figures of aged, limbless men with ornate crowns on their heads and great trumpets sticking out of their mouths; Each one sat on a gyroscope of sorts, which was attached to the central body via great golden tubes; The central body itself was a great glass sphere with folded wings inside, spinning like a fan, while its upper body vaguely resembled a four-winged being with a golden halo, flanked by two child-like trumpeting cherubs. In the center of it all was another gyroscope filled with all sorts of weird golden and silver tubing, all growing out of Metatron's back and limbs.

"Is that...the Great God?" Shinji gasped.

"No...the Great God has no material shape," Kaworu replied, equally awe-struck. "This is..."

"YES, THIS IS IT!" the new entity cackled; NOW I TRULY AM ONE WITH THE GREAT GOD! I AM THAT WHICH CONTROLS FATE, TIME AND SPACE! I AM THE SUPREME BEING...THE ATIK YOMIN!"

Iophiel dropped to her knees – they were too late.

"BE AT EASE." The Atik Yomin boomed, its voice a chorus of trillions; "ONCE WE ARE FINISHED CHANGING REALITY, YOU SHALL BE FREE FROM...FROM..."

Suddenly, the godly entity's form began to crack, and an wave of some unknown force burst from it. Within moments of being hit by this wave, Puru and Puru Two began screaming in terror and helplessly clawing at their own faces as if to rip out their eyes, while Kamille, Haman, Beecha and Elle quickly curled up into fetal positions and mumbled nonsense to themselves, all color drained from their faces at the sheer terror.

"That thing...it's..." "The black pit..." "I...I can't move." "The eyes in darkness..." "Is this...what it truly means to be...afraid?" "We're done for..." "The nameless cylinder..." "It's all over now..." "Ah-ha-ha..." "It's in my head..." "The windowless solids with five dimensions..." "Make it stop..." "The original, the eternal, the undying..."

Even the hardier Newtypes and other mentally sensitive individuals like Char, Akira, Amuro, Judau and Roux could only gaze unblinking in horror at what was about to happen, trying their hardest not to cry out as their minds were assaulted with visions of unspeakable horrors.

"WH...WHAT'S THIS?!" the voices of The Euzeth Gozzo cried; "WE...WE CAN'T...WE CAN'T CON...AAAAAAAAGH!"

Those horrific visions became reality as The Atik Yomin's form began to twist, warp and blacken. The cracks in its mechanical form began to sprout black tumor-like organic growths all over, which in turn sprouted eyes, mouths, tentacles, claws, wings and every other imaginable orifice or appendage, plus a few that were beyond imagination until now. The black tumors and growths began to cover Nyog'Sothep like an out-of-control cancer, engulfing it in flesh that seethed, roiled and gurgled like the ocean in a hurricane.

It was then that those who lacked the sensitivity of psychics or Newtypes were overcome with the blackest of terrors. Only the most stalwart, resolute and unflinching DREAMers could look upon this horror while retaining any degree of composure – and even then it took all of their will to do so. Even Tara violently removed her seat belt, scrambled behind Janus and clung to his legs while sobbing uncontrollably.

The Nadija lookalikes, meanwhile, began their own disturbing transformations – many of them split open from the back, others opened their mouths impossibly wide as something lurched out, and still others had their flesh peel away as if they were bananas being opened by an unseen hand to reveal what was within. And what appeared from within was almost as horrible as what Nyog'Sothep had become – monstrous, vaguely humanoid blobs of pulsating and throbbing black matter with a variable number of eyes, tentacles, claws, wings and mouths.

However, they all had two things in common aside from their horrible forms: they had at least part of Nadija's face sticking out somewhere on their bodies, and they all carried strange bone flutes or drums with heads that were made of the skin of unknown creatures – a few even had both. Each of these monstrous things began to play a horrific melody or drum an unholy rhythm as soon as its transformation was complete. Before long, the eldritch abomination that The Atik Yomin had become begin to writhe and shudder along with the melody.

But then, all at once, they stopped. For a few moments, there was only utter silence...then, and a single voice pierced the silent space.

"At last," it cackled; "After vignitillions of eons, my Lord has finally, COMPLETELY broken through, to feast upon this ripe cosmos!"

From amid the swarm of monstrous flute players came an angel that DREAM recognized.

"Michael?!" Simon exclaimed. "Didn't we just kill you?! Again?!"

"What an arrogant fool Euzeth was!" the angel said, arms raised in exaltation of Nyog'Sothep's loathsome new form; "To think, he actually believed me when I said that he could CONTROL the Great God!"

"...First, how the hell are you alive?" Ryoma said angrily; "Second, what do you mean 'he actually believed you'?"

"I shall answer you, man of Getter," Michael replied; "First – I told you before that life and death are meaningless, thanks to my Master. He can simply will me back to the state called 'life' as many times as He requires it. However, I no longer have a need for this useless form!"

Michael raised his arms, and his body was instantly ruptured, popping like a balloon. In its place was an entity that seemed to be made of visible sound waves – an array of bouncing coiled strings that looked vaguely humanoid.

"Ah, much better," the angel-turned-living-sound-wave said, his voice now sounding like a din of flutes being played completely at random, yet also speaking coherently. "I almost forgot how wonderful being free of flesh is!"

Brother, Lucifer thought. Is that what you've really been all this time?

"Allow me to re-introduce myself," the sound entity said; "I am Tru'nembra, master flutist of the Outer Gods. I myself am an Outer God, though not of the same caliber as my Master."

So, not all the Outer Gods are all-powerful, Haruhi thought.

"To answer your second question," Tru'nembra continued, "the idea that any entity can control the Great God is ludicrous beyond all bounds! No one can control the primordial chaos itself!"

This was news even to Iophiel...but not to Lelouch, Nunnally, Suzaku and Kallen.

"The Great God...isn't the entity inside the Prime Crossgate?" she said.

"What lies at Eden Vital's heart," Tru'nembra explained haughtily, "is nothing more than the core essence of this Tree, which is one of an infinite number. If you call that the Great God, then my Master is something beyond even that!"

So Arma wasn't seeing things, J thought. When we were blown outside reality after the Z-Master's destruction, he told me that he saw not one tree, but an endless sea of them.

He then turned toward Nyog'Sothep and raised its arms in exaltation again.

"Is He not glorious?" the eldritch being said ecstatically; "Born directly from the TRUE Great God...He is that which feeds upon the cosmos once it reaches peak ripeness! He is the greatest of all things save His progenitor...He is the Magnum Innominandum, the Ruling Darkness...He is..."

"NYOG'SOTHEP!"

The name sent a new wave of terror through Iophiel, who had thus far been able to keep her fear in check in the face of this ultimate horror. The flute players and drummers, however, began to play again, causing Tru'nembra's master to start swaying and flowing.

"It...can't be," she muttered; "This the entity that tried to break through in Zyflud's time..."

"So, that's our enemy's leader," Ryoma said. "The ruler of those horrors the Getter armada has been fighting."

"It's odd," Amuro said, having finally shaken off his terror; "I'm actually not sensing any high-level mental activity coming from it. An entity of this kind of power should be giving off an unthinkably vast psychic pressure."

"No, it's not a pushing pressure..." Char said; "But a pulling. It's like that thing is trying to pull my very thoughts out of my head..."

"Nyog'Sothep is a pure being," Tru'nembra continued; "Untainted by notions of reason or sanity...for He devours everything, even thought. He is simple, living only to consume that which His progenitor, the source of all things, dreams up."

"Dreams up?" Guy exclaimed. "Are you saying..."

"Euzeth did understand one thing," Tru'nembra piped wickedly; "All that is, was and might have been are nothing more than the fleeting, momentary dream of the blind and idiotic Great God...all save my Lord, the Outer Gods that my Master rules, and Their descendants."

"So, the Great God..." Daisuke said in horror.

"...Is an Outer God?!" Viral cried.

"And we're..." Volfogg said.

"His dream..." Kallen groaned.

"Indeed," Tru'nembra answered as he sensed DREAM's collective despair. "That is the ultimate truth of the cosmos. You and everything you consider to be 'real' are just dream stuff that the Great God has made, without even realizing it, during His eternal slumber."

He turned toward Neo Granlif, and his gaze seemed to be locked on to Janus, in spite of having no eyes.

"...Well, not all of it."

Janus grimaced as Getter Emperor also turned toward Neo Granlif.

"You, boy, are Nyog'Sothep's true grandchild," Tru'nembra continued, "That means you are partially real, even though you were born within the Great God's dream."

Janus looked down at Tara, who was still quivering with fear.

"You are a scion of the greatest beings in existence - Your grandfather, the Ruling Darkness Nyog'Sothep," the former angel gurgled; "the Black Goat of the Woods Shub-Niggurath...the Harbinger Ghroth...the Green Flame Tulzscha...the Render of the Veils Daoloth...the Patient One Yibb-Tstll... the Many-Faced Messenger Nyarlathotep..."

He then paused before speaking the final name.

"And your father, the One-in-All And All-in-One Yog-Sothoth, who knows the Great God's dream from beginning to end."

"So, I'm the grandkid of an Outer God?" Janus said.

"Correct," Tru'nembra answered; "The ones I spoke of just now are your true kin - not these transient, feeble beings, born of the Great God's passing dream...and now, the time has come for this dream to end!"

As if that were a cue, Nyog'Sothep shot out dozens of tentacles of slimy, cancerous darkness from its central mass. These tentacles slithered into the Prime Crossgate, and then began to swell and bulge slightly, as if something was being sucked through them.

"It's...eating Eden Vital's heart..." Iophiel gasped. "It's..."

Almost everyone in DREAM was overwhelmed with a deep, abject despair as they had never felt before. Their instincts were telling them that this was an enemy that was beyond them...that for everything they had accomplished, it was meaningless in the face of Nyog'Sothep's unfathomable power. Even the Getter Team, wielding the power of Getter Emperor, found themselves unable to act.

Those who could move any part of their bodies were able to notice a disturbing change in the space around them – it seemed to be rotting and crumpling like paper set aflame, the quantum foam breaking down in the form of tiny black and rainbow bubbles.

"Nyog'Sothep..." Nia muttered; "By consuming Eden Vital's core, it's causing spacetime itself to decay..."

Tru'nembra piped with glee, then turned back toward his mindless master.

"That's right, my Lord...eat!" he said; "Eat this dream that the Great God has prepared for Your pleasure! And once You have finished feasting on this cosmos, Your grandchild shall be free of his fixed shape, and shall live with his true family as an existence beyond mortal fancy and mathematics alike...a being that is truly REAL!"

But suddenly, a blast of rainbow energy incinerated several of the tentacles, causing the monster to flinch and let out a low, gurgling growl from its uncountable maws. Everyone turned and saw Neo Granlif with its chest open, having fired off a small shot of Gran Nova Fire.

"Even if everything else IS just the Great God's dream," the pilot of Neo Granlif said; "I happen to LIKE IT!" Janus shifted to his recently-awakened Outside form, and made Neo Granlif radiate energy that suddenly shook DREAM out of their panicked and terrified state.

"Oh, how adorable," Tru'nembra piped in amusment; "They think they're seriously a threat to You. Master, perhaps you should deal with these rebellious little morsels first. We can't have them annoying you like that."

Nyog'Sothep gurgled and sputtered for a moment, then suddenly expanded and stretched its form out like an amoeba, enveloping all of DREAM at once with its form, and then pulled them into itself.

After that instant, only Zig and his family were left – nothing else remained of the heroes who had overcome incalculable odds and fought their way to the center of all creation...

Tara had never imagined, even in her worst nightmares, that she would be experiencing that torture again. As Nyog'Sothep slowly pulled her body into itself, it was inflicting all of the injuries she had suffered at Seele's hands at three years old all over again even as various mouths were singing the song that had driven her crazy:

Käse, Käse, wo ist die Käse?

Käse, Käse, will ich hin!

"Stop...stop iiiiit..." she moaned as the song continued, often changing keys mid-verse as the singing mouths kept changing into other mouths – some lamprey-like, others gnashing jaws akin to a hyena's, and still others sounded like the buzzing drone of insects. But they all sang the same tune.

Bitte nach Käse

Schnell nach Käse

Zug nach Käse

"No...more..." Tara sobbed. She suddenly screamed as hot spikes were driven through her palms and feet again.

Käse, Käse

Ich will Käse

Zug nach Käse

Käse, Käse,

Zug nach Käse

Tara tried to plead more, but she could only burble and babble incoherently as she writhed in was worse, she couldn't even retreat into her pleasant memories – Nyog'Sothep was stripping them away.

Käse, Käse, wo ist die Käse ?

Käse, Käse...

As Tara felt her mind slipping, she thought she heard another voice singing in the distance, getting louder and louder, starting to overpower the hideous, torturous din. It was a female voice, sweet and melodious – even better than Mylene Jenius or Lacus Clyne.

I'm completely losing it, she thought. I'm starting to imagine that someone's coming to rescue me...and that song...have I heard it before?

But the new voice kept getting louder, and after what seemed like an eternity, the singing of Nyog'Sothep's mouths ceased and changed to a hideous screaming that the new singer was still overpowering.

Suddenly, Tara felt all of her agony stop at once. For a moment, she assumed she was finally dead...but then realized that she wasn't, especially once she found herself able to move, and to remember things again.

Then, she felt a presence...or rather, two presences. She looked around and saw - or at least it was interpreted as sight – two blurry shapes, both humanoid, and one almost twice as tall as the other. And then, one of them projected waves and vibrations that Tara interpreted as sound...

"Hello again, Zyflud," the waves said – the voice was elfin and relaxing, almost like birdsong. Tara sensed they were emanating from the smaller figure, and focused on trying to perceive the entities more clearly. After a few moments, the figures became sharper and better-defined.

The taller figure was heavily cloaked in a pale gray robe, with a cloth of the same hue veiling its face. Meanwhile, a strip of a material that was not quite leather, not quite parchment and not quite paper coiled around it like a serpent. The only exposed flesh, if one could call it that, were two gaunt clawed hands, their hue not quite yellow, not quite green, and not quite brown, and a human-like mouth.

The other figure was that of a small teenage girl, probably no more than fourteen or fifteen years old, with just barely budding breasts. Her hair, which was just neck-length and with two locks styled almost like she had cat ears, was a deep purple-red, while the irises of her large eyes were differently colored – one slowly shifting between different shades of blue, and the other changing between various green hues. She was dressed in attire similar to Iophiel's priestess outfit save the headband – red, black and white being the dominant colors, and delicate white lace on the sleeves and collar.

In the moments before these entities had appeared, Tara had all but accepted her fate, and now she couldn't help but wonder what Nyog'Sothep was doing, showing her this...or if this was a hallucination as her body, mind and soul were being completely broken down.

"Who are you, and why did you call me Zyflud?!" Tara asked, projecting her question in the form of both sound and thought. But after a moment, she realized who the girl was as more memories began to return.

"Wait," she then exclaimed; "You're 'She Who Sings The Myth', aren't you? You're the one who taught Zyflud the Hymn of the Sabbath Light!"

"Is that what her descendants call it?" the girl said with a giggle. "But yes, I am the one. You can just call me Singer."

"Why did you help me, Singer?" Tara asked; "Nyog'Sothep has already won...it's over."

"Is it?" Singer asked back.

"Nyog'Sothep has already consumed me and my friends," Tara said; "and it's only a matter of time before he consumes Eden Vital."

"Then there's still time," the girl answered; "The coin is still in the air."

"Tell me what I'm supposed to do!" Tara cried, hope starting to come back, though she dared not cling to it too tightly lest it slip out of her grasp again.

"Ask yourself that," the veiled figure said, his voice an ominous and grim monotone; "and the answer will become clear."

"What do you mean by that?" Tara cried; "Stop speaking in riddles!"

"He meant exactly what he said," the girl replied with a giggle. "Come on, think. I know you can figure it out." With a sigh, Tara turned her attention away from the two entities, closing her eyes and focusing inward to contemplate the meaning of those words.

"Ask...myself..." she muttered. She repeated those words to himself over and over even as she dug through her memories in hopes of finding a solution.

An eternity seemed to pass before Singer looked up at the veiled figure, who turned to look down at her.

"It seems this one will need a little help," she said without sound. The veiled figure nodded and took a sphere of obscurely iridescent metal from his cloak. But before it could do anything with the metallic sphere, Tara's eyes flashed open as the answer came to her.

"Ask...myself,"she said as she recalled what Boss and the two Kojis had done in the battle against the Great Emperor of Darkness; "Or rather...ask...my SELVES!"

With those words, Tara's body blazed a brilliant white as she extended ten pairs of light wings. She felt triumphant, godlike surges of deadly sweetness flow over her, the flapping of great wings and the chirping and murmuring of objects unknown to any reality resounded. She glanced all around her, and saw that the darkness had given way to countless Threshold-like gateways, all of them showing her an image of something...

Another version of herself.

Some of them were moments of the life she had lived, others were versions of her living in completely different worlds, and still others were versions of her that resembled nothing she had ever seen. But Tara knew that they were all equally herself...and that she could draw upon their strength thanks to the power of shinka that Iophiel had awakened in her and the others.

She closed her eyes and focused on projecting her pleas to her other selves. Meanwhile, Singer looked back at her veiled companion and smiled.

"I guess she didn't need help after all," she said.

This was Emperor Lelouch's moment of greatest triumph. The entire world was forced to bend the knee to him. No nation could challenge his power, and neither could DREAM, the paramilitary force he had helped form.

He had Tara Zifell to thank for that latter victory. It was the XEM-00 Lifthrasir that proved to be the base for the mass-production XEM series. These machines, spearheading the Emperor's armies, laid waste to DREAM in an epic showdown when they had attempted to stage one last assault on the flying fortress Damocles, which he had seized from his brother Schneizel in an earlier battle. With deadly efficiency, she and her fellow XEM series pilots had laid low DREAM's Super Robots – Mazinger Z, Combattler V, Getter Robo G, Dancougar, and even Great Mazinger – and then captured them.

Meanwhile, the most important members of the Black Knights – Kallen, Ohgi, Tohdoh, Tamaki and Kaguya were also on display, tied to posts on a vehicle just ahead of Lelouch's. Finally, the Emperor's own little sister, Princess Nunnally, was chained at the bottom of a staircase attached to her brother's float.

It wasn't long ago that she had called them all her friends...and she had willingly betrayed them, all for the sake of her Emperor. Now they were being displayed as war trophies, to show the Earth Sphere that no one could challenge Lelouch's dominance.

But Tara knew something only the most trusted members of her liege's inner circle knew - that his conquest of the world, and his subjugation of it as the worst tyrant in history, was part of a far more noble plan.

Suddenly, the parade stopped as someone appeared in their path – Zero. The crowd, which had been silent as the world's greatest tyrant paraded through the streets, let out a collective gasp. A pair of Vincent Wards, unaware of what was meant to happen, took aim and fired on the masked hero. But he managed to deftly avoid the shots with seemingly impossible agility.

Only those Lelouch and those in his inner circle knew who was behind the mask – Suzaku Kururugi, the Knight of Zero, who was supposed to have perished in the battle where Lelouch seized the Damocles.

As he drew closer, Jeremiah Gottwald rushed between them.

"Stop! I'll take him on!" he cried as he readied an orange arm blade. He charged forward, only for Suzaku to jump onto his shoulder and launch himself further, using the sakuradite-powered cyborg as a springboard.

But this too was part of the plan, so Tara made no moves to stop the masked hero.

Suzaku landed on the platform where Lelouch was. As part of the act, the Emperor pulled out a pistol, which the Knight of Zero promptly knocked out of his hand. He then readied a rather elaborate-looking sword with a purple blade, and proceeded to plunge it into Lelouch's gut, through a gap in his rib cage and out the other side.

For a moment, killer and victim remained still, though Tara was sure Lelouch was whispering some final words to his best friend. Then, Suzaku dramatically yanked out the blade, causing the the dying Emperor to tumble forward once, then slide down the staircase on his back, leaving a trail of blood in his wake, stopping just in front of Nunnally. Tara saw the crippled girl grasp her brother's hand, and after seeming to reach an epiphany of sorts, saw her cry.

But those cries were quickly drowned out by cheers and chaos – the most monstrous dictator in history had just been slain by the masked savior, Zero. As this fact sunk in, Tara felt a great relief, but also a great sadness – no one, save for a small few, would know the truth behind the tyrant's death.

All of the things Lelouch had done as Emperor had one purpose: to focus all of the world's hatred on himself. His death, he assumed, would cause all of the hatred to disappear.

"Now, the world can focus on the future," Tara murmured as Lifthrasir swooped down to pick up her liege's corpse...only for a strange hole to appear in the platform, right below the corpse. The dead Emperor's body fell in and was swallowed by an endless darkness.

"Big brother!" Nunnally cried as she reached into the hole, only to be grabbed by the arm by the still-masked Suzaku - he had been ordered to rescue Nunnally once Lelouch was confirmed to be dead.

"Tara, forget about Lelouch," Suzaku said over his communicator. "Just get out of here!"

"Not until I figure out what the hell this hole is!" she replied. Suzaku nodded, lifted Nunnally into his arms, and carried her off. As Tara turned to examine the hole, she heard a voice...a voice very much like her own.

The future that Lelouch gave everything to create will never come to be, the voice said, Unless you lend me your strength.

"Who are you?!" Lifthrasir's pilot exclaimed, not realizing where the voice was coming from at first.

To make a long story short, the voice replied, I'm another you. Right now, I'm going to challenge a horrible entity that is eating away at the heart of all that exists, which is causing the fabric of realities bound by the four dimensions of space and time to decay.

Tara looked at the hole where Lelouch had fallen.

"So, if I lend you my strength," Tara replied mentally, realizing that the voice was speaking to her from no place sound could reach; "the decay will stop?"

That's my hope, the other Tara replied. But I can't guarantee that I'll win. But I CAN guarantee that the decay will consume everything if I sit here and do nothing.

"All right," Tara said with a sigh. "I'll believe in you, then." With that, Tara closed her eyes and focused her mind on projecting her will to her distant other self...

Somewhere in the vicinity of Jupiter, an angel was fighting alongside a giant god in a useless war. The giant god had already destroyed entire fleets and even a few planets with its power, and the fallout had even consumed the enemy's home-world and the Earth itself.

The Buff Clan, a race of aliens who somehow looked exactly like humans, was waging war against the Solo Ship and its guardian, Ideon, a gigantic machine formed from three separate vehicles. Its white head with two antennae, red-orange body and blocky, almost toy-like appearance belied its unbelievable power. Its power source, the mysterious Ide, seemed to have infinite power. Manned by a small crew, the machine had repelled the Buff Clan time and again. Now, the Buff Clan seemed to have developed a weapon that would exceed Ideon's might, and they had it pointed at the Solo Ship and Ideon.

Thankfully, Ideon also had a partner, a comparatively small machine called Lifthrasir, which could attack foes too swift for the larger mecha to target. But Lifthrasir's pilot, a scarred veteran named Tera Jifell, had given up at this point. She had lost so much in this war – her fiancee, her family, most of her friends, and even an eye...and the only thing she had gained was an understanding of the Ide.

"Damn you, Ide!" Tera snarled as she slammed her controls; "Is this really how you operate, making species it deems unfit to live destroy each other?!"

The scarred veteran looked out her cockpit screen and saw Ideon struggling to take on a number of the Buff Clan's Heavy Mobile Mecha, peppering them with missiles. As she saw how vulnerable Ideon was, a dark thought crossed her mind.

"Ideon...you're the cause of all this!" she said, chuckling madly as she trained her rifles' sights on the godly machine; "That's it...I'll destroy you, and bring this stupid war to an end!" With her focus entirely on Ideon, she didn't notice strange holes forming in the void of space, some of them pulling Buff Clan soldiers.

But before she could pull the trigger, a voice called out to her in her mind.

Stop! You mustn't!

Tera stopped and looked around.

The Ide is part of something greater, the voice said; and that greater force is under threat.

"Who are you?!" the scarred pilot cried, looking around to find the source of the voice; "Are you with the Buff Clan?! Or is this another trick of the Ide?! Why do you sound like me?!"

My name is Tara Zifell, the voice answered; And I'm another version of you. I'm contacting you because a crisis even greater than the one you're facing now is looming.

Tera looked around and noticed the holes forming in the fabric of space.

You see the decay, don't you? Tara said; That's because a being of terrifying scale is consuming the heart of all that exists.

"Good!" Tera retorted; "The cosmos will be better without Ideon, or..."

I see, Tara interrupted. You've lost everything to this war. I understand what that's like.

Tera chuckled. It was strange – the only person who seemed to truly understand her was not even in the same universe as her.

But there's still hope, Tara then said. Look toward your ship.

Tera did so, and saw a beam of light shooting straight out of the top of the vessel, and somehow, Lifthrasir's pilot seemed to realize what it was.

"Karala's baby...Messiah..." she murmured. Somehow, seeing this gave Tera much needed calm.

He'll be the one to lead us, she thought. To a new world, where we can all start again.

With that, Tera closed her eyes as she allowed her power to flow to her other self, even as Ideon smashed through the enemy's flag ship. Moments later, the Buff Clan's weapon, a massive particle cannon, fired, striking Ideon at essentially point-blank range. The colossal beam destroyed her, the giant god, and the Solo Ship...and in response, the Ide was invoked, consuming every intelligent being in her universe...

Tara Amakuni, a young woman with long purple hair, blue eyes and large round glasses, was not like most girl otakus. She wasn't into romance manga or anything like that - she loved mecha.

She devoured mecha manga, mecha anime, mecha models, and everything involving giant robots with a fanatical zeal exceeding even many young men. She had even cosplayed as many well-known female mecha pilots.

But the one mecha anime she loved above all others was Gekiganger III, along with its sequel Gekiganger V. It was the show that had gotten her into the genre when she was young. She had designated Ken Tenku as her husbando, and spurned the attentions of all the other male mecha otakus who had tried pitifully to woo her – after all, her not-so-perfect figure made her seem to be in their reach.

And today, she had arrived at her favorite manga shop to purchase the figure that would be the crown jewel of her collection – the Spirit of Chogokin Gekiganger V model. But there was one thing stopping her.

"Ungh...I can't reach it," she groaned as she looked up at the box a few feet out of her reach. "And it looks like the last one, too."

Tara looked around and saw some chairs arranged around a table, likely for playing some children's card games. After making sure no one else was around, she grabbed the chair, placed it in front of the shelf and climbed up on it. But even with the added boost from the chair, the box containing the prize she so dearly wanted was just barely out of reach. But by standing on the balls of her feet, Tara felt like she could just barely...

"Can I help you with something, miss?"

The voice from behind startled Tara, causing her to lose her balance and fall backward. But before she hit the ground, she felt someone catch her, though her savior couldn't quite bear her weight, and ended up falling backward as well.

Tara stood up and turned to see who had caught her, and nearly fell over again.

It was a rather handsome young man with black hair streaked with magenta, green eyes, and a slender figure. He also had thin glasses, and wore an apron and name-tag that showed he was a store employee, though she had never seen him before. His eyes gave him a somewhat foreign appearance.

"Are you all right, miss?" the young man asked. "That was quite a fall."

Immediately, Tara's heart began to race. Not only was this boy handsome, but he was considerate too...she had landed on top of him, yet he was more concerned for HER.

"Please don't do something like that again," he then said; "You would have hurt yourself badly if I hadn't caught you."

"S-sorry," Tara replied, blushing nervously. The employee glanced up at the shelf, and didn't see her entire body trembling with excitement.

"You wanted the Spirit of Chogokin Gekiganger V figure?" he said; "I'll get it for you. Stay here while I get a ladder." With that, he turned away and walked back down the aisle.

Is this...love? Tara thought. Have I finally met a man as dashing as my darling Ken Tenku?! Moments later, the young man returned with the ladder and used it to climb up and retrieve the figure.

No, Tara thought, trying to shake away her budding feelings as the employee climbed down with the box under one arm; No man could ever be my Ken's equal!

"I don't think I've ever seen a girl into Gekiganger," the young man said as he handed her the box; "It's kind of refreshing."

A few minutes ago, Tara would have taken the box without a second thought and raced to the nearest registers to pay for it...but now her heart was telling her to linger - not only was this boy handsome and considerate, but had the same interests as her!

"Thank you," the girl said, glancing at the young man's nametag; "Um...Jan?"

"Jan Usagibo," the young man replied. "My pals call me 'Janus'."

"I'm...uh...Tara Amakuni," Tara replied, hugging the box with the figure against her chest. Pressing it against herself in the presence of this dreamy figure suddenly made Tara self-conscious – she was on the pudgier side, though most of her girth had allocated itself to her breasts and hips in puberty. Because of this, her classmates had called her 'fat', 'tubby' and other such insults to her weight for as long as she could remember. For her, Gekiganger and anime in general was an escape from that.

She was so self-conscious that she didn't realize that Janus was now starting to get nervous himself.

"Y-you wanna hang out in a bit?" Janus then asked. "My shift is just about over." Tara's eyes lit up.

"S-s-s-sure!" she said, trying her hardest to contain her excitement. Janus smiled awkwardly and turned to walk away. Tara's gaze happened to drop to the floor, and saw something that hadn't been there before – a gaping, completely black hole edged with strange bubbles.

"Usagibo-kun!" Tara cried, reaching for Janus and dropping the box as he was about to inadvertently step into the hole. She managed to grab him by the shirt and pulled him backward, away from the hole.

As Tara fell backward, her glasses came off; meanwhile, Janus reflexively twisted his body so that he landed face first.

Right into her cleavage, with his hands on her breasts.

As Tara looked at him, she realized that had she seen this sort of thing happen in too many romantic comedies – the boy would accidentally grope his ultimate love interest's chest as they fell, and the girl would slap him and call him a pervert.

Instead, her body tingled – a handsome, considerate boy who liked Gekiganger was actually touching her breasts and burying his face in her chest!

Janus, on the other hand, reacted exactly as one might expect a normal boy to.

"Oh gosh, I didn't mean to touch you there!" he cried as he scrambled off her as clambered to his feet. "I'm so sorry!"

"I-i-it's fine," Tara replied before looking down at the hole that had almost devoured this boy who had appeared in her life and awakened feelings she only had for a fictional character up until now. Even the figure that she had come here for was the furthest thing from her mind. It was even the furthest thing from her physically now – it had fallen into the hole, no doubt swallowed by the void beyond.

"Any idea of what it is?" she then asked. "Other than it's a hole of some kind?"

"No idea," Janus replied; "But it looks like it's getting bigger. Should we call the police?"

"I think we ought to call the SDF or even the government," the girl said, shaking her head. "This is definitely something the cops can't handle."

This is something no one in your world is capable of handling, a voice sounded in Tara's head.

"Who said that?!" Tara exclaimed, looking around to see who else was there.

"I didn't hear anything," Janus said. Just then, the voice sounded in Tara's head again, and this time, the girl was sure that it sounded exactly like her own:

It's a hole in the fabric of spacetime, the voice said; As we speak, your reality and countless others are decaying.

Realizing that the voice was only in her head, Tara closed her eyes and tried to focus on the voice. Janus nervously decided to go clock out for the day so he could get himself and Tara away from this hole as soon as possible.

"Who are you?" Tara asked using her thoughts. "You sound just like me."

That's because I'm another version of you, the voice replied. I'm at the center of all existence, gathering strength from all of the different versions of myself in the infinite cosmos, in order to save everything from a monster that's going to devour everything.

"Are you going to fight with a giant robot?" Tara asked, somewhat excited by this strange event.

The most awesome giant robot ever, the other Tara said; The best part is that my co-pilot is another version of the boy you just met.

"I'll definitely help you, then!" Tara replied excitedly. With those words, the girl started to feel energy being pulled from her, though she knew that it was going to the version of her that was fighting to save all existence. Still, her legs began to quake as they struggled to keep standing, and she felt her head swim. S

After several seconds, the draining sensation stopped, but Tara couldn't stay standing. Thankfully, Janus had just returned to see her slump to the ground, and start to fall toward the still-growing hole in spacetime.

"Amakuni-chan!" he cried, rushing over and grabbing her by the shirt and yanking her back.

"So...dizzy..." Tara mumbled as Janus helped her to her feet.

"C'mon," he said as he helped this girl who had fallen into his life walk. "I'll get you home."

Tara hadn't even begun to imagine exactly what lives her other selves were living, yet now she had linked to them all, if only momentarily. She had glimpsed their triumphs, their tragedies, their hopes – their entire lives, but even those short glimpses came as a tsunami into her mind. It seemed to be a miracle that she was able to take it all in.

But the moment that Tara's awareness snapped back to her self at the center of all creation, a power beyond anything she had felt before surged through her - the energy latent in the feelings, thoughts and memories of her infinite selves began to course through her very cells, while a hundred new senses suddenly awakened within her, sending a tidal wave of new information into her mind. Yet in the midst of all this, Tara knew one thing for sure.

"I did it...Singer..." Tara said, her words seeming to repeat and echo countless times. She looked down at the two figures, and saw that there was more to them now. She could see the small girl, but she also saw an older version with gentle, motherly features. The veiled figure, however, was something distinctly more horrible in appearance - a massive, shapeless congeries of slowly whirling spheres emitting countless different colors, all connected by rootlets and with numerous hanging tentacles.

But Tara was not afraid, for she knew who they really were.

"You speak as an individual, yet have the voice of a multitude," Singer said. "You have indeed done it. You have reached a state that puts you on equal footing with the Outer Gods."

"Shinka beyond shinka," Lifthrasir's pilot thought out loud.

"Never before has any four-dimensional being, let alone a human, opened the Ultimate Gate without assistance," Singer continued; "and only one such being readily embraced the reality of their infinite other selves before."

"To protect the people and worlds I care about," Tara said with a nod; "There's nothing I won't do. But if you hadn't saved me, I would never have realized this ability."

"Then, will you do us a favor in return?" Singer then asked.

"Let me guess – help you rescue your son, Janus?" Tara replied with a smile as she took wing. "I was already planning on doing just that. Come on." This seemed to surprise Singer.

"How did you know we were his parents?" Singer inquired. "I gave you no hint to it whatsoever."

"Your eyes and hair made me suspect as much," the replied, "but seeing you as I am now confirmed it for me. As for your veiled friend, let's just say that the best parents tend to stick together when it comes to their children."

As she flew off, Janus' mother turned to her son's father.

"It seems there was more than one unforeseeable factor," she said.

The veiled figure smiled as it disappeared...

Janus wasn't sure where he was, or what he had become. His body seemed to move on its own and it made disgusting slurping noises as it wiggled, and as he walked, it sounded like he was wading in gelatin. He was glad that he couldn't see anything, for the young man didn't want to see what he had become.

Suddenly, he saw a figure appear in the darkness – Singer. With the appearance of this entity, Janus had gained a point of reference – he was clearly much taller than her.

"Hello, rex sacrocum," Singer said sweetly as she looked up at him. "We've been looking for you."

"I guess you're the welcoming committee," Janus sighed as he projected his thoughts to the entity. "Here to induct me into the hallowed pantheon of reality-consuming Outer Gods." In response, the girl sent waves back.

"If that's your choice," the girl said, "you can go ahead and discard your humanity. I won't stop you."

"You're saying I have a choice?" Janus asked.

"You're the unforeseeable factor," the girl replied. "You've always have a choice." A spark of hope flickered to life momentarily in Janus' soul, but petered out as he remembered the grimness of the situation.

"But Nyog'Sothep already won," he said. "He devoured me and all of my friends...and it's only a matter of time before he consumes Eden Vital completely...and when that happens, I'll become just like him."

"Funny, I just had a conversation like this with someone you know," Singer said. "But she didn't give up, and now look at her." Janus looked over and gasped as something else entered his vision: Tara, shining a vivid white with dozens of rainbow light wings that seemed to extend forever. Indeed, her shine was so great that it overwhelmed the darkness around them, allowing her to see Janus.

He had become something indeed horrible to behold – his gray, gelatinous, vaguely egg-shaped body was larger than a house, covered in bluish-purple rings and seemed to be made of bunches of squirming ropes. Extending from it were dozens of spider-like legs that were tipped with monstrous feet resembling pig's heads, and fifty or sixty eyes were scattered all over his bloated body, while fifteen mouths at the end of tentacles as thick as stovepipes writhed and twitched, opening and closing as they dripped an ichor as rank as a hundred open graves. And at the very top of it, Janus' head poked out.

Every pupil on Janus' abomination body widened when he beheld the love of his life hovering there, even lovelier than he could imagine her being – a contrast to his terrifying monstrous form.

"Ta...ra..." he gurgled.

"Hiya," Tara said as she approached him. She was unafraid of her beloved's abominable shape, for her eyes, awakened to dimensions beyond mortal comprehension, also saw the human form she was familiar with mixed in with the eldritch horror.

"This...isn't a hallucination, is it?" Janus said as she drew closer, flying up to where his human head was.

"It depends on your perspective," Tara replied gently. "Let me help you broaden it, love."

"D-don't!" Janus cried, terrified for his beloved's safety; "I might..." But he was interrupted as Tara locked lips with him.

"I told you," she said soundlessly, projecting her thoughts directly into his mind; "I love you, tentacles and all."

And as Tara locked lips with Janus' human face, the same overwhelming sensations that had flowed over her flowed over him as she coaxed him into the realm of infinite gateways that she had accessed with her own will. Within moments of entering, Janus' hideous shape burned away, leaving his more human-like Outside form in its place. But at the same time, he realized that she was gone again.

Of course, that concern quickly fell by the wayside when he saw what was in each of the infinite gateways: other versions of himself.

Call to your other selves, he heard Tara say in his mind. We need their help if we're going to stop Nyog'Sothep.

Trusting the love of his life, Janus closed his eyes and extended his awareness into each of the infinite portals...

Twenty years. That was how long Janus had been fighting the demons as a member of the Devilman Army.

For that score of years, he had clung to the memory of a single person – the love of his life, Tara Zifell. She alone had understood that he was still human inside when he transformed, and had hid him from the authorities up to the very end. Everyone else in his life had turned on the two of them, especially after Ryo Asuka appeared on television and falsely revealed Akira Fudo to be a demon, rather than a Devilman.

He could still recall, in agonizing detail, the moment his beloved Tara had been killed – their two families surrounding her, wielding various sharp and blunt implements as weapons. He remembered their eyes gleaming with the same malice that the demons he had been fighting had in their eyes. He watched them dismember her and burn her body with savage abandon before turning on him. Left with no choice, Janus had to kill everyone he once loved in order to save his own life, and ensure that Tara's sacrifice wasn't in vain.

It was in the moments following that tragedy that Akira Fudo himself came into his life, and he equally recalled how Fudo had cried for him, even as he pressed the lifeless head of his own beloved – his dearest Miki - against his chest.

Janus got up that morning and stared at his reflection in a large plate of reflective glass. His demonic body, towering almost ten feet tall, was white, with blue and black streaks on his arms and chest; he had broad shoulders, slightly over-sized hands, and wide single-toed hooves, like a horse; his head seemed to have a crown of golden, hemispherical knobs adorning it; and his face was covered what appeared to be black wrap-around sunglasses, with the lens stretching almost all the way down to the chin. Meanwhile, two fins protruded just behind his arms, with three small turret-like holes atop each, and insectoid wings grew out of his back. For the past twenty years, this had been his true face. He had almost forgotten what he had looked like as a human.

But today, he knew, was the day that the Devilmen would challenge the source of all of their misery – the demon lord and fallen angel Satan. It turned out that he had planted the seeds of fear and madness that had destroyed this world.

But as he turned away from the mirror, Janus heard the sound of glass breaking. When he turned back around, he saw that the glass had dropped to the ground and shattered. In the place it had been hanging, there was now a strange hole with a border suggesting that the very space it occupied was rotting and crumpling like paper set aflame. Beyond the hole was an endless darkness.

As he stared at the hole, a voice resounded in his head.

Hey...is this a bad time?

The voice sounded so remarkably like it did twenty years ago. However, he quickly realized that the voice was only in his mind – some sort of telepathy, the mental speech that many Devilmen like Bonds of Hinduism employed.

"Who are you?" Janus demanded; "Why do you sound like me?!"

I'm you...another you, the voice replied. I need you to help me with something before you leave for battle. You're off to fight the demons, aren't you?

"What?" Janus growled. "Make it quick."

You probably see a weird hole in front of you, the other Janus asked, just kind of hanging in midair?

"It's on the wall," the Devilman replied, "but yeah, I do. Get to the point!"

That hole appeared because spacetime itself is decaying, the other Janus explained; and it's decaying because a monster far more terrible than any demon - even Zenon or Satan himself - is devouring the heart of all existence. I need you to lend me your strength to stop it.

"What good will it do?!" Janus retorted; "I have nothing left to protect!"

"In the world I come from," the other Janus said, "humans didn't completely succumb to their fear...some did survive. In fact, humans, demons and Devilmen are all working to live in peace...Akira Fudo and Miki Makimura are there too! Don't you think Tara would have wanted a world like that?"

Janus scowled, but knew his other self was right – Tara had mused many a time about such a world.

"Fine," Janus said as he closed his eyes. "I'll lend you my power. But you'd better protect that world!"

I'll protect that world...and all others, the other Janus said as he began to draw power from the Devilman, causing him to feel a sensation of something being pulled from it.

After a few seconds, the sensation faded, and the voice had broken contact. No sooner did this happen than did Akira Fudo appear at the entrance to his cave.

"Hey, Janus," the leader of the Devilman Army said; "It's time."

"Gotcha," Janus said as he turned and headed for the cave entrance. He did not know whether his other self would succeed in his battle, but he knew that he would probably nor survive the battle to come...

The next Noriko Takaya - there was no greater honor at Okinawa High School for Girls than to be referred to than that. Yet, it was the title that transfer student Janiya Olends had earned in her time there.

A sullen girl with dark hair with a streak of magenta, Janiya gave off an air of cold aloofness to most people. Under the tutelage of Coach Kazumi Ohta, she became a pilot of incredible skill, easily worthy of being Ohta's partner inside the legendary Gunbuster...and Coach was the only person she could open up to. She even started calling her 'big sis' in spite of the rather large age difference.

But taking Takaya's place in the cockpit was the last thing Janiya wanted. She was happy playing second fiddle to the legendary duo - the girl knew that well enough that Noriko and her Coach had a bond she could never hope to replace. Still, with no close friends, no living relatives, no such meaningful connections with people beyond Coach Ohta, she had nothing to leave behind. Those connections had all been killed from the attacks by the STMC, or "Space Terrible Monster Crowd", as the aliens that Coach and Takaya had fought in that battle fifteen years ago were called.

Janiya was going to pilot a machine to serve as Gunbuster's primary partner - a white machine called Granlif. It lacked the overwhelming power of Takaya and Ohta's machine, but it was plenty capable of holding its own against almost any number of STMC on its own, as its test pilots had done in the Battle of Phobos twenty-eight months ago.

Or was it centuries ago? Janiya wasn't sure anymore. Time dilation could, and did, completely destroy any sense of time one had. Relatively speaking though, it only took a day for her and Coach to reach the Galactic Core Assault Fleet via warp, with Granlif clinging on to Buster Machine #3 – the Black Hole Bomb – the whole way.

The heart of this weapon was the planet Jupiter, compressed to 1/30,000 of its original size. If it worked correctly, it would destroy the STMC once and for all. But it would also kill the galaxy itself as a side effect, as the supermassive black hole near the center would be pulled in as well.

"But mankind must survive, at any cost."

Those were Coach Ohta's words as she and Janiya had ridden the gondola up to the space station back in the Earth Sphere. And just a few minutes remained until that would happen. In spite of all the damage the aliens had done, the Black Hole Bomb was still operational, as were Gunbuster and Granlif.

"You did great out there, Janiya!" Noriko said cheerfully as Buster Machine #3 continued to move into position.

"Thank you...Takaya..." Janiya panted, her chest still heaving from the strain of non-stop combat. The STMC had been silent for the past several minutes, not making any moves...but up until this moment, Granlif, Gunbuster, and the rest of the Galactic Core Assault Fleet had been fighting frantically and desperately to protect the Black Hole Bomb.

"I told you, you can call me Noriko!" the main pilot of Gunbuster said. "No need to be so formal with me!" Janiya smiled – Coach's 'little sis' was more than she had ever imagined her being. She turned to the countdown clock showing how long before the Black Hole Bomb would go off.

10 seconds.

It's almost over, Janiya thought.

To Janiya's shock, the bomb didn't detonate. It remained still.

"What's wrong?" Granlif's pilot exclaimed, a twinge of despair gnawing away at her mind. "The bomb's not detonating!"

"According to the Eltreum, only 98% of the slave generators are activating," Kazumi replied grimly. The gnawing sense of despair turned to a complete devouring as Janiya slumped back in her harness.

"Then it can't reach critical mass," the girl sighed. "So much for a miracle."

Of course, Noriko Takaya wasn't about to give up. She glanced over at the 'big sis' on her screen, and they smiled at each other, as if they both knew exactly what needed to be done.

"A miracle will happen!" the redhead proclaimed; "We'll make it happen!" With those words, Gunbuster suddenly started flying towards the Black Hole Bomb.

"Noriko?! Coach?!" Janiya gasped. "What are you doing?!"

"Gunbuster has a large degeneracy reactor as well," Noriko answered bravely; "If we go in and detonate it, we can start the implosion process!" Janiya gasped – that was suicide!

"We have two degeneracy reactors, actually," Kazumi said in an affectionately scolding tone to her "little sister"; "As long as we have at least one, the two of us can make it back to Earth." With that, she looked back at her student, and saluted her.

"Janiya!" her Coach said; "We're leaving things in your hands!" Before Janiya could call back, Gunbuster severed its communications link to Granlif...and to its pilot, it seemed that her Coach had severed all connection to her.

"Olends, be careful!" the Eltreum's captain called out to Janiya. "Holes in spacetime seem to be forming! It could be a new tactic by the STMC!"

As the girl reached out in vain toward the receding Gunbuster, she heard a voice in her mind:

Let them go, the voice said; This is something only Noriko and your Coach can do. Besides, there's something only YOU can do right now. It belonged to a young man, yet somehow it seemed almost like hers.

"Who's there?" Janiya exclaimed, looking around. "Are you with the Fleet?!"

The STMC aren't the greatest threat to the Earth right now, the voice replied; Those holes are.

Realizing that the voice was one only in her mind, she nonetheless decided to talk back to it, as it seemed to be coming from a space beyond the reality she knew, and there was no malice in it.

"Just who are you?" the girl asked.

I'm you...sort of, the voice answered awkwardly. My name is Janus. I'm from a different universe, and I'm talking to you from the very center of the infinite realities. As we speak, an even greater enemy is consuming the heart of all realities - and I need your strength to help fight it.

Janiya almost couldn't comprehend it – an enemy more dangerous than the STMC...an enemy that required a bomb made from Jupiter itself to defeat?

"But the space monsters," she replied; "I have to..."

If you don't help me, Janus replied, crying out in a plea more than a threat, there won't BE an Earth for Noriko and Coach to return to – those holes will corrode your reality and every other one as well! Please! It'll only take a moment!

Janiya looked out – the space monsters were starting to move again. But there was time yet before they'd be on top of her and the Fleet – eight minutes or so.

"All right," Granlif's pilot said; "You have eight minutes."

"Thank you," Janus replied. "I'll be done in eight seconds."

Janiya gasped as she felt something tugging on her in a manner she couldn't fully comprehend. But it only lasted for eight seconds – just as her other self had promised. And as if on cue, she got a message from the Eltreum.

"Gravitation degeneration detected...it's Gunbuster," the ship's crewman said, a message for the whole fleet; "Third-stage degeneration has begun." Janiya looked over at Buster Machine #3 – glowing lines forming hexagons had appeared all over it.

And as she beheld the sight of the Black Hole Bomb finally activating, a flood of tears began to pour from her eyes.

"All units, retreat," the order came from the Eltreum's captain. "Prepare to warp."

"Roger," Janiya said tonelessly as she turned Granlif around and prepared for the journey home, finally coming to grips with the fact that it was over, but that she would never see her beloved Coach again...

"Giddyap, horsey!"

Those gleeful words came from a little girl, about three years old, with long hair the color of ripe grapes and sapphire-blue eyes. Nearby, a boy of equal age with green eyes and short black hair streaked with purple watched from the side of a nearby hill as the girl clung to her father's shirt like reins. The man had black hair with a streak of reddish-purple, heavy five o'clock shadow, and differently colored eyes – one green and one blue.

"Neeeeeigh!" the father cried playfully, mimicking a horse before starting to trot forward on his hands and knees while his daughter giggled and laughed as she was bounced. The sun was starting to drop below the horizon, painting the sweeping grassy plain beautiful shades of red and orange, as well as a simple, two-story wooden house in an old Japanese style, one of several in the small village.

"Faster, horsey! Faster!" the girl squealed, and her father complied, and his trot turned into a semi-gallop, as far as he could on his hands and knees.

"Jaaaanus!" a voice called from the house; "Kiiiids! It's almost time for dinner!" The owner of the voice poked her head out of the sliding door – a woman with long purple hair and gentle blue eyes – and repeated the call.

"Okay, Tara!" the father called back before gently coaxing his daughter off of his back and plopping her on the ground next to her brother and walking them both toward the house.

Janus and Tara had settled down to start a family several years after Atik Yomin's final defeat. Like every Zifell woman, Tara gave birth to a pair of fraternal twins within a few years of being married - but unlike most of the Zifell clan, she insisted on raising them in a Japanese home, just as she had been; and as Duchess of New Albany, her family had little will to stop her.

"You two go wash up, now," the father said to his children as they reached the entrance.

"Okaaaay, daddy," the two children groaned before walking into the house, a pout on their small faces as their mother watched them go by.

"They really love horsey rides, don't they?" Tara said with a giggle.

"That they do," Janus replied. "But it's really exhausting."

"This coming from a man who withstood the energy of an entire multiverse flowing through him?" his wife replied with a laugh. Janus laughed as well – the jab was all in good humor.

"You know," Janus said after a moment; "I think it's six years to the day when we came back from defeating Atik Yomin. Man, how time flies."

"I know - it feels like a lifetime ago," Tara said with a sigh as she listened to the sound of running water coming from the nearby washroom. "I wonder how everyone else is doing. I've been so busy with work that I haven't been able to keep in touch."

Suddenly, the sound of metal and porcelain shattering, followed by the sound of running water getting louder burst out. This was quickly followed by their son and daughter burst out of the bathroom, looks of panic on their faces.

"Mommy! Daddy!" their son said. "Come quick!"

"Something really scary made the bathtub fall and go bye-bye!" their daughter said. The two parents looked at each other and then walked toward the bathroom together while their children stayed behind them, trembling in fear. With a feeling of strange dread, the couple opened the door.

The bathtub was indeed gone, and its place was a great hole that seemed to hover a few inches off the ground while tilted upward, and an edge that seemed to consist of constantly popping bubbles. Beyond the hole, which was slowly growing larger and larger was a strange orange and black void.

"What is it, Mommy?" their daughter asked nervously.

"I...don't know," Tara said for a moment before her motherly instincts kicked in. "But it's not safe. We have to get out, now."

Janus, meanwhile, stopped as he heard a voice in his mind.

Please...lend me your strength, the voice said. To Janus' astonishment, he recognized the voice: it was his own, only a few years younger. Somehow, he was being contacted by another version of himself!

Why do you need it? Janus asked. Right now, it looks like there's a hole in spacetime in my bathroom, and it's still growing!

That's why I need your help, the other Janus said. Our grandfather, Nyog'Sothep, is trying to consume Eden Vital! It's causing the fabric of every spacetime to decay!

"Jan!" Tara cried. "This is no time to be standing around! We have to get out!"

All right, Janus said; I'll do it...for Tara and the kids.

"Janus!" Tara screeched, shaking her husband. Suddenly, she and her children were blown back as her husband's body changed – his body turned white, and twelve bubble-wings grew from his back. His body seemed to flicker and writhe, as if parts of him were shifting between different dimensions. Finally, a third eye with an iris that shimmered like a luminous rainbow pool formed on his forehead. The bubble-wings began to sparkle as the man channeled energy to his other self.

Thank you, the other Janus said. I've received your power. I promise I'll protect your happiness. With that, the voice went silent.

"J-J-Ja...nus?" Tara stammered, holding her children in a protective embrace.

"Daddy...is that...you?" their daughter whimpered.

"Yeah, it's me," he said, turning to face his family and shifting back to his human form. "Someone out there is working on fixing this weird hole, but they needed my help." Janus and Tara's children looked at each other in confusion, but their mother seemed to understand.

"How about we eat dinner outside tonight?" she suggested, trying her best to get her offspring's minds off the strange event that had just transpired; "It's nice and warm!"

"Yay!" their children cheered.

Like Tara did, Janus felt the energy and consciousness from his infinite other selves flow into him. He had seen himself living so many lives – fighting alongside comrades whose names engraved themselves into his memory...comrades like Setsuna F. Seiei, Heero Yuy, Banjou Haran, Noriko Takaya, Maito Shinpuji, Spike Spiegel, and even a young man with a horrible sense of direction named Masaki Endoh. As a result, he was overcome with the same truly limitless power that had surged through Tara, though his form did not noticeably change – it only began to shine with a greater light than before.

Then, he looked down on Singer, and instantly realized who she really was.

"Mom..." he whimpered as he floated down to greet and embrace her. Singer, who now appeared in her motherly form, opened her arms to embrace her son.

"My baby...my precious baby..." Singer said, starting to tear up as well as she hugged her child. "Watching you for over 10,000 years and trying to restrain myself from helping you was so, so hard...I'm so sorry!"

"I forgive you," Janus replied before they finally broke off from their embrace before turning back to Tara.

"Did my mom teach you how to do that?" he asked his beloved; "To enter that place with all the Thresholds?"

"All we did," Singer answered after composing herself, "was drop a little hint. She figured the rest out on her own."

"We?" Janus exclaimed. As if on cue, Janus' father appeared, both as the veiled figure and as the vast congeries of spheres...and instantly, the young man realized what this being was.

"You must be my dad, Yog-Sothoth...or rather, Umr At'Tawil," the Outer God's child said. "Thank you for saving Tara." He then turned and clasped Tara's hands with his own, but didn't look away from his eldritch father.

"I'm not completely sure you understand how I feel," he continued, "but she means everything to me, no matter what world we exist in." The veiled figure smirked, and the spheres shuddered a little in reply.

"Now that you're together again," Singer said; "I can give one last thing you'll need to challenge Nyog'Sothep." With that, she began to sing an extremely familiar melody...but unlike before, knowledge of the proper way to sing it somehow passed into the couple's minds, and also awakened a memory within Janus.

"The Hymn of the Sabbath Light," Janus exclaimed; "You sung it to me as a lullaby when I was little...that means you're..."

"Go," his mother said, "and write a new myth for me to sing. Your father and I will always be watching you." With that, Yog-Sothoth and Singer faded away, leaving the couple alone with each other. For a moment, they said nothing but kept holding hands, their foreheads touching as they focused on something.

After a few moments, Neo Granlif materialized from the darkness, shining like a star.

"Hey, Jan," Tara said suddenly as they let go and walked over to their machine; "when we have kids, I've got the perfect names for them."

"If they're the ones I'm thinking of," Janus replied, glancing over as he stepped inside, "I can think of a few better ones."

"Really?" his co-pilot said with a hint of sarcasm as she followed him in. As they took their places in the cockpit, their mech started up, and the floating head of Xengar and hologram of Xemmey both appeared.

"Welcome back," Xemmey said, as if she had never been gone. "

"We can think about it later," Tara interrupted. "For now, let's rescue everyone else...and I know just who to start with." With that, Neo Granlif's eyes flashed as hundreds of light wings burst from its body as it took off...

While Iophiel had managed to avoid getting caught in Nyog'Sothep's mass thanks to her constantly singing the Hymn of the Sabbath Light, she knew it was only a matter of time before her voice would give out and then the Outer God would engulf her too. Before that happened, she had to find someone.

As she rounded what passed for a corner, the priestess saw what seemed to be her objective – Metatron, his head and torso poking out of a tangle of black fleshy ropes, tumors and blades, while his limbs were bound to the surface.

"Jaan? Jaan, is that you?!" Iophiel cried. The moment she stopped singing, her feet slowly began to sink into the Outer God's fleshy protoplasm.

"Tahra!" the bound angel exclaimed when he saw the priestess. Iophiel struggled to get closer, but managed to jump out of Nyog'Sothep's flesh to grab on to Metatron in an embrace.

"Oh, Jaan!" Iophiel wailed as tears started to drip down her face. The leader of Atik Yomin grimaced as tears began to flow down his face as well.

"Oh, love, I've been such a fool," he sobbed. "I had placed so much trust in Michael, to the point where I turned on everyone who saw through his deception...even you!"

"Jaan..." Iophiel murmured.

"And because of my actions," Metatron continued as Nyog'Sothep's flesh started to cover them more and more, "none of us will be getting what we want. The infinite realities we spent countless eons protecting will be sucked dry by Nyog'Sothep, and then decay and crumble to dust."

The angel then bowed his head and smiled weakly.

"To be devoured by the greatest of all Devourers is a fitting punishment for a monster like me," he then said. "At least I get to be with you again in the end...although I probably don't deserve even that."

"No more, Jaan," the priestess whimpered as she pulled herself closer to her beloved. "Just let me stay with you until the end."

Suddenly, they heard two voices singing...faintly at first, but it quickly grew louder. The fleshy form of Nyog'Sothep twitched and writhed in what seemed like pain as the music increased in volume, and started to withdraw.

"The Hymn?" Iophiel murmured as the source of the melody drew even closer. "But it couldn't be..."

Out of the darkness came Neo Granlif, broadcasting the Hymn of the Sabbath of Light from its speakers – and with Janus and Tara on vocals, no less, singing better than even she ever had – and as if they were singing as a chorus of trillions. The light they were giving off, combined with the music, was enough to free Iophiel from Nyog'Sothep's grip. After landing, the white robot reached down and gently scooped the priestess up with its right hand.

"Hiya, big sis," Tara said, intentionally suppressing most of her voices. "Glad we made it in time."

"Y-you..." Iophiel stammered in awe; "H-how did you...your voices...your bodies..."

"It was just a matter of broadening our perspective," Janus said with a proud smirk. "Really, REALLY broadening it."

Metatron chuckled and sighed when he heard this.

"So, you've found THAT place then," he said. "And used it to bring out the full potential of shinka...and by doing so, you have reached a level of spiritual evolution beyond even my own. No doubt you can see my beloved and I as we were at every moment of our lives."

"Yeah, it's a little weird," Janus replied awkwardly. "I'm not completely used to it yet, so I try to focus on how people are in the present."

"Regardless," Metatron continued, "you most likely have the power to challenge Nyog'Sothep now. But to even be able to damage him, you'll need to deal with me. I'm the thing keeping his material form stable...his anchor to four-dimensional space."

Tara and Janus looked at each other. Neo Granlif then reached and carefully grabbed the leader of Atik Yomin with its left hand, its fingers digging into Nyog'Sothep's flesh while leaving the angel's head exposed.

"To think it would end like this," the angel chuckled as he closed his eyes and waited for the white machine to crush him.

But instead of crushing him, Neo Granlif began to pull.

"What are you doing?" Metatron said, confused as to what was going on. He looked at the white mech's hand and saw the Outer God's protoplasmic form begin to slowly engulf it.

"What does...it look like?" Janus grunted as he struggled to overpower his grandfather's hungering grasp. Tara was straining too, pulling on a control lever that allowed her to help Janus use his machine's limbs.

"No!" Metatron cried. "Kill me! Destroy me, body and soul! It's what I deserve!" Iophiel gasped, and shook her head frantically.

"We made a promise...to save you," Tara said as she kept straining; "no matter...what!"

"Stop!" the angel wailed as Nyog'Sothep's pull got stronger; "You'll get devoured too!"

"What part of...'no matter what'...don't you...under...stand?!" Janus grunted as he redoubled his efforts. Seeing that their chance to save her beloved was slipping away, Iophiel began to sing the Hymn, although her voice was still raspy from singing it for so long earlier. But as the words and energy waves emanated from her, the Outer God's grip began to weaken again...enough that Neo Granlif started to gain headway against Nyog'Sothep's grip.

"That's it!" Tara grunted excitedly; "Just...a little...moooore!" Several tendon-like rootlets snapped as Neo Granlif continued to pull.

"Sorry...gramps..." Janus said as he prepared for one last big effort; "but...this one's..."

"NOT ON THE MENU!"

As he let out that cry, the white mech completely tore the leader of Atik Yomin from his bonds, sending black-purple ichor spewing everywhere, causing the Outer God let out a wail of agony as its flesh began to disperse, forming into a shadowy mist. Neo Granlif then opened its left hand and held it palm up while touching its right hand, allowing the angel to stand up. He gazed up at the white machine, dumbfounded. Iophiel, however, was beside herself with joy.

"You saved me..." he said, still not fully able to believe what had just happened; "After all the misery I caused...after all the lives my plans swallowed..."

"Nothing is completely unforgivable, if you truly wish to atone," Tara replied with the sureness of a math teacher telling her students that one plus one equaled two.

"How could ANYONE make up for the crimes I committed?!" Metatron exclaimed, amazed at how seemingly forgiving these two were being; "Death is..."

"Death?!" Tara suddenly shouted; "Death's too good for you! In fact, it would have been giving you EXACTLY what you wanted!" The leader of Atik Yomin tried to retort, but found himself unable to. The power of the girl's voice almost compelled him to think about it. Then, as something dawned on him, he gazed down at his hands.

"You're right," Metatron said as he clenched his fists. "All of my scheming...all of my planning...it was, at least in part, to end my own existence. I was so tired of living...and of trying and failing to change people for the better."

"Tell us," Tara said; "how many worlds did you try to change people for the better before you gave up?"

"10,892,419,035,027,916,573,133,700,184,015,910,200," the angel replied; "I could be off by a few million."

"Wow, he kept count," Xemmey quipped.

"And how many worlds did you manipulate mankind into destroying itself?" Janus then asked.

"15,789,235,146,129,916,892,444,321,845,626,900,012," Metatron answered quickly. "Again, I could be off by a few million."

"And he kept count on that as well," Xengar fumed.

"Then that'll be your punishment," Janus said with a smirk. "We sentence you to live, and to use that life to make sure that people don't destroy themselves. Once your number of good faith attempts to save a universe's humankind from self-destruction equals the number of worlds where you caused mankind to destroy itself, you will be forgiven."

"And no matter how many times you fail," Tara added, "you can't give up...and you can't back out by getting yourself killed."

Metatron sighed and bowed his head.

"Very well," the leader of Atik Yomin said; "I accept your punishment." As if she had been waiting for those words, Iophiel rushed to her beloved and embraced him as hard as she could.

"Oh, Jaan!" she sobbed. "I'm so...so..."

Suddenly, the misty form of Nyog'Sothep regained its fleshy state and started to grab at Neo Granlif with tendrils and tentacles. Thinking quickly, Tara willed a Threshold to form on Granlif's hand, dropping Iophiel and Metatron into their cockpit before retreating upwards and blasting the attacking appendages with a Visor Beam.

"No!" the priestess cried. "I though his form was too unstable to remain material?!"

"He must have found a new anchor," Metatron said, "and I think I know who. Follow my directions – it should take you straight to him." Tara and Janus looked at each other and nodded before taking off...

After a time that was both an eternity and an instant later, Neo Granlif arrived at where Metatron had directed them. And below them was a sea of men, some with masks and some without, that Tara recognized from some of her other selves' memories.

"Euzeth Gozzo...they're all Euzeth Gozzo," she gasped. The countless Euzeths looked up almost simultaneously, and then began to cry out in a clamor.

"Help me!" "Please don't leave me here!" "Don't leave me to be consumed like this!" "This shouldn't happen to an Ultraman!" "It cannot end this way!" "Heeeelp!" "I don't want to disappear!" "

"Look at 'em all," Janus said. "They all seem to be anchoring my grandpa to Eden Vital."

"And they're all so desperate to be saved," Metatron said, "that they're fighting over it." Indeed, the Euzeths were all trying to push down the other versions of themselves in an attempt to get Neo Granlif's attention.

"They seemed so unified in their purpose before," Iophiel said, shaking her head solemnly. "But now that they're about to lose it all, they've turned on each other."

"Just goes to show what a scumbag he is, no matter what world he's from," Janus chuckled. "I'd say they're getting exactly what they deserve."

However, Tara did not seem to be quite of the same mind.

"Jan, if it's all right with you," she said; "there IS one particular Euzeth I'd like to save."

Janus and the others turned toward her.

"Really?" Janus exclaimed, a look of bewilderment on her face. "You think that there's a good Euzeth in there somewhere?"

"Jan, you told me it was okay for me to be a little selfish when you stopped me from destroying myself to revive our Earths," his beloved replied. "Please, indulge me just this once."

Janus sighed – he knew that he couldn't turn Tara down, and so did she. What was more, he had already guessed which one she had in mind, as did Iophiel.

"Can you figure out where he is?" he asked. "We can't spend too long searching, or else Nyog'Sothep will completely consume Eden Vital." Tara closed her eyes even as she expanded her other awakened senses as wide as possible. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and pointed to one of the Euzeths - a heavily wrinkled but still vigorous man with a short hooked nose, long and wild gray hair out of the back of his head, a bald scalp and golden-yellow eyes that would have looked predatory if he didn't look so sullen and resigned to his fate. Indeed, he seemed to be on the verge of falling unconscious.

"That one," she said. Tara made Neo Granlif descend toward the fleshy sea while Janus and Iophiel began to sing the Hymn of the Sabbath Light, causing the form of Nyog'Sothep to again destabilize. As it did with Iophiel, it scooped the particular Euzeth up with its hand and out of the fleshy muck – this time with the ease of one dipping their hand into a pool of water. But as it started to rise back up, another version of the wicked scientist grabbed on to one of Neo Granlif's fingers and then clambered up onto its palm...and it was one that Iophiel and Metatron recognized.

"...Him!" Metatron growled. "That's the Euzeth who triggered the destruction of our original universe!" Janus nodded and used Neo Granlif's free hand to carefully grab the unwanted Euzeth's cloak between its fingers and lifted it up.

"Go ahead," Janus said. "Let your old man have it." Metatron smirked unnervingly – he had never dreamed that he would get the chance to give his old man a proper tongue-lashing.

"Hello again, father," the angel said. "It's been eons since we got to talk like this. So, how does it feel to see all of your plans come to naught, and to know that YOU were manipulated when you believed yourself to be the puppet-master?!"

"We are all puppets, son!" the Arubbothian scientist replied angrily. "Dream stuff made by the Great God to dance, and then to feed his wretched child without ever knowing the truth! I was going to free us from all that...and I still can!"

"Wait," Tara exclaimed, "so you KNEW you were going to summon Nyog'Sothep?!"

"Indeed," Euzeth laughed. "Because while Nyog'Sothep may eat this cosmos, it cannot digest everything. Whatever dream stuff it cannot digest, it excretes as waste products."

"So your goal to take over all of existence," Janus' copilot exclaimed, appalled by the idea, "was to become Nyog'Sothep's..." The girl felt her stomach heave at the very idea.

"Which the Great God will then consume," Euzeth proclaimed, "for it is blind and completely idiotic, and it is in an idiot's nature to devour such things! Once within the Great God itself, it will be child's play to take control of such a mindless entity!"

"You don't have any clue of just how powerful the Outer Gods are, do you?" Metatron jeered. "Have you already forgotten that your infinite other selves are being used by Nyog'Sothep to anchor himself to Eden Vital?"

"I don't need them!" the Arubbothian scientist proclaimed. "I am a genius, the Great God is a blind idiot! Even the other Euzeths couldn't come up with a plan as brilliant as mine! They don't deserve to share the glory I shall obtain!"

Suddenly, the unconscious Euzeth - or rather, Philemon Zifell - spoke up as he sat up.

"Just give it up already," he said sourly. "This is this price of our hubris...for believing ourselves able to exceed that which created us, and for crushing others' happiness for the sake of that unattainable goal."

"Grandpa!" Tara exclaimed, overjoyed to see her grandfather awake, and sensing that he regretted his misdeeds.

"But your dear Sophia," the other Euzeth said, "it is because of the Great God's unthinkingly capricious nature that she caught that disease and died for reasons beyond your knowledge and control! If we were the Great God, at the very least, we..."

"What's all this 'we' business all of a sudden?" Metatron interrupted. "You said you didn't need your other selves just a moment ago."

Euzeth looked back and forth and stuttered as he tried to reply.

"Okay, I think we've chit-chatted long enough," Janus said before the Arubbothian scientist could answer. "We've gotta clean up the mess you made by letting Nyog'Sothep in. Besides, I think my grip is slipping."

Realizing what was about to happen, Euzeth suddenly clasped his hands together and frantically started trying to bow.

"Please, forgive me!" he wailed. "I'll...I'll give up on my ambitions! Just don't drop me back in that accursed muck! Don't let Nyog'Sothep devour me!"

"You had no qualms about betraying even other versions of yourself," Iophiel said grimly. "We cannot trust that you will make any effort to atone."

"And I thought you wanted to be devoured?" Philemon added in a mocking tone. "Well, you can feel free to try...but you'll have to achieve your goal before my granddaughter defeats Nyog'Sothep." Tara grinned.

"No! No!" Euzeth pleaded. But Janus released his grip on Euzeth's cloak, causing the wicked scientist to plummet back into the fleshy muck of Nyog'Sothep's form – or rather, numerous tendrils and rootlets reached up to grab him as he fell, then pulled him in.

"Feel better?" Janus asked Metatron.

"Much," the angel replied.

"Good," Janus then said as he opened a Threshold to let Philemon inside; "Then let's get everyone else out. They've been kept waiting way too long as it is."

"I believe it best that you split up into Granlif Yggdrasil and Lifthrasir Titania again," Xemmey suggested. "Tara's little indulgence may have cost us too much time for us to go together."

"Good plan, Xemmey," Tara said with a nod. "Jan, you take the ones from your world, and I'll free the ones from mine."

"Got it," Janus said as Neo Granlif opened up to let Lifthrasir Titania out, then refolded into Granlif Yggdrasil. "See you outside!" With that, the two robots took off into the darkness...

Back in the Universal Century's Earth Sphere, the world watched as the effects of Nyog'Sothep consuming Eden Vital's core took hold. Great holes in spacetime were forming as the fabric of their universe slowly decayed. In Kamina City, Rossiu was monitoring the situation along with Kinon and the rest of his staff. Nearby, Psycho Jenny and some of Maou Dante's most trusted aides watched as well. There were also a few Devilmen amid the governor's own staff – part of his Devilman Integration Plan.

"And no one has any idea what's causing these holes in spacetime to appear?!" the governor exclaimed.

"None, Governor," one of the operations crew said. "It might be an attack by Atik Yomin."

"Does that mean Simon and the others actually lost?" another said anxiously.

"That's stupid!" one of the Devilman operators said. "There's no way DREAM would lose! Not after they beat the Anti-Spirals right before our eyes!" Other members of the crew cheered in agreement. However, one of the crew members immediately called out over the cheering.

"Sir, we've got a new visual from one of the Colonial Republic's monitor stations!" the operator said; "Putting it onscreen now!" A moment later, a huge picture of a particularly large section of decayed spacetime appeared – and in it was a vast darkness...a darkness deeper than the blackness of space itself.

"What in the world...is that?!" Rossiu exclaimed as he shuddered.

"I'll bet anything that it's the cause of the strange holes," Kinon said, adjusting her glasses as she tried to force down her fear.

"N-no readings on any of their scans except visual," another Devilman operator said; "It seems to be absorbing every type of wave they've sent at it."

"It's like every cell in my body is screaming 'danger, predator'..." Rossiu mumbled.

"That thing cannot be completely perceived by creatures whose senses are limited solely to the four dimensions of space and time," Psycho Jenny suddenly said; "And I believe we should be thankful for that."

"What do you mean, Psycho Jenny?" Kinon asked.

"If we truly could grasp what that darkness is," the psychic demon said; "we would all go stark-raving mad. However..."

"However?" Rossiu asked.

"I believe DREAM and Lord Dante are fighting that thing as we speak," Jenny reassured them; "Therefore, we must not succumb to our fear, and do whatever we can to support them, just as you did against the Anti-Spirals...and against us."

"Yes," Kinon said with a nod. "yes, we should." Rossiu looked back up at the monitor and clenched his fists.

Simon, he thought, trying to project his thoughts into the void in his own limited way; Team Dai-Gurren...Akira Fudo...Janus Olendra...all of you...don't give up! We're all waiting for you to come home!

In the Celestial Calendar universe, a similar situation was unfolding, and representatives from the various powers in that Earth Sphere, including the surviving Jovians and the reformed Vega Empire, met in a remote conference to discuss what to do about it.

"This is what our monitor stations near Mars spotted a few hours ago," Zuril said, sending images of a gigantic hole of decay in spacetime, showing the same darkness that those in the Universal Century had seen beyond it.

"What do you think it is, Zuril?" Supreme Councilman Amalfi asked. "Have you been able to scan it at all in other wavelengths?"

"That darkness defies all of our attempts to comprehend it beyond mere sight, Councilman," the scientist replied; "But at the same time, it fills me with a horrible dread, and I can't help but recall stories that my old grandmother told me back on Zuri when I was a child."

"You think there is a connection between it and the holes that have been appearing?" Kaguya, representing the UFN, asked.

"There is no doubt of that in my mind," Zuril said; "But I am also quite sure that DREAM is contending with this darkness as we speak. I doubt anyone, let alone the ones who saved us all from outside threats and from ourselves, would allow such a menace to threaten us."

"Quite so," Joseph Copeland said; "But is there anything we can do?"

"It might be something entirely outside our ability to even comprehend," Kaguya said, "let alone combat; Our best hope is to pray for DREAM's success, just as they did against those bizarre 'Anti-Spirals' that appeared not long ago..."

Unfortunately, it seemed DREAM had finally gotten in over its head. Not that Kouji, Team Dai-Gurren or the Getter Emperor team cared.

"GETTER BEEEEEEEEEEEAM!" Ryoma roared as Getter Emperor blasted Nyog'Sothep's flesh back, trying his best to keep it from consuming the rest of the group.

"BREAST FIREEEEEEEEE!" Kouji cried as Mazinger ZERO unleashed a gout of Photon Power-charged flame from its chest to incinerate the Outer God's mucky form as it tried to eat away at them. Chouginga Gurren Lagann was doing the same with its beams, but the Outer God's flesh was nothing if not persistent, and they could only delay what seemed to be inevitable.

The rest of DREAM, however, appeared to have accepted their fate.

"What are you guys doing?!" Simon cried as the planet-sized mecha blasted yet more approaching flesh. "You just gonna sit there and let this thing devour you?! We've gotten out of tight spots before! We just need to hold on like we always do!"

"Let's be realistic here for once," Judau said. "We're done for this time."

"Everything we ever knew was just the Great God's dream, anyway," Chibodee added. "Hell, we were probably just created to be Nyog'Sothep's food and entertainment."

"Just a meal and a show," Dorango said with a sigh.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we're just words on a page," Nuke said; "Our story being written by some hack for the Outer Gods' entertainment."

"Well, if all of our experiences were just a story, it certainly was quite an epic," Argo said with a chuckle. "A shame that this is how it ends."

"Yeah, talk about a diabolus ex machina," George said.

"What's dat mean?" Boz asked.

"Its literal meaning is 'devil in the machine'," Miku chimed in. "It's when a malevolent force appears out of nowhere and ruins everything the protagonists have worked for."

"One last bit of learning before we all disappear, eh?" Bright chuckled. After that, DREAM went quiet, save for the desperate and gradually weakening cries of Simon, Ryoma and Kouji as they continued to fight against Nyog'Sothep's approaching flesh.

But suddenly, Kouji stopped, his ears perked as he heard a faint singing in the distance...and he almost couldn't believe who it sounded like as it rapidly drew closer.

"Hey, that voice..." he said; "It sounds like..."

Then, the fleshy, mucky walls of the Outer God began to retreat as the source of the singing became apparent, even releasing their hold on the rest of the mechs and ships.

Granlif Yggdrasil.

"Janus?!" they all exclaimed.

"Hey, guys!" the white mech's pilot said. "Sorry I took so long."

"That's Granlif Yggdrasil," Hayato said; "did Neo Granlif split apart?"

"It was necessary to save all of you in time," another voice came from within the white robot.

"Metatron?!" Viral exclaimed. "What's the big idea, Olendra?!"

"Don't you get it?" Leeron explained, having quickly realized what this meant; "He's on our side now, silly!"

"I don't expect your forgiveness, DREAMers," the leader of Atik Yomin said humbly; "But I have accepted the burden of working for it...and I'll help you defeat Nyog'Sothep as well, if you'll have me."

Every one of the now-free DREAMers looked at each other.

"Metatron's telling the truth," Janus assured them; "He promised that once this is over, he'll go back to trying to keep people from destroying each other rather than encouraging it."

"What if we don't want you helping us?" Kamina shouted angrily; "You and that Euzeth Gozzo character are the reason that this Nyog'Sothep freak is..."

"Frankly, we may need all the firepower we can get," Bright interrupted; "Having another of Atik Yomin's High Seraphs on our side would certainly be helpful. Besides, the fact that he caused all this is all the more reason he should be helping us."

"Makes sense," Simon said. "Welcome aboard."

"Thank you," Metatron replied humbly.

"Just one question, Janus," Kittan asked; "How in the world did you get like that? The power you're giving off is insane...you even learned that Hymn of the Sabbath Light!"

"Well for one thing, I broadened my perspective...a lot," Granlif's pilot said; "Let me help you guys with that...that is, if you're willing. It'll definitely give us the power we need to beat Nyog'Sothep, but I don't want to force anyone to do anything they don't want to."

It didn't take long for DREAM to make their decision.

"If it'll help us protect our worlds, then we'll do it," Domon said. "Show us the way!" The rest of the group all gave their agreement as well.

Janus nodded, and then caused the white mech to shine even more brilliantly as it forced open the gate leading to the realm of infinite Thresholds...

Elsewhere in Nyog'Sothep's mass, Lifthrasir Titania had appeared in a similarly spectacular fashion, using the Hymn of the Sabbath Light to force away the Outer God's corrosive flesh, releasing her Celestial Calendar friends from their own bondage and previously imminent demise.

"Hi, guys!" Tara said proudly; "Betcha didn't know I could sing, did you?"

"Yeah," Kira said, elated to be free from Nyog'Sothep's grip. "I hate to say it, but it even puts Lacus and Iophiel to shame!"

"Even if your voice was like a dying cat," Lacus said, "it would still seem heavenly, considering that it saved us from ultimate dissolution."

"Such is the power of the Hymn," another voice said through Lifthrasir's speakers...one that the DREAMers present also recognized.

"Euzeth Gozzo?!" Nunnally exclaimed.

"No, you're Philemon Zifell," Misato said. "Kiel Lorenz's old friend...and Tara's grandfather."

"Grandpa?!" Paul and Alia exclaimed.

"Hello, Paul," Philemon said when he heard the voices of his other grandchildren; "Hello, Alia. I see you've regained your original selves...that's very good."

"Care to explain why you let that snake into your cockpit, Tara?!" Kallen demanded. "He's responsible for so much misery - especially your own!"

"Because he genuinely regrets what he's done," Tara replied; "Besides, he's my grandpa - I couldn't just leave him to be devoured by Nyog'Sothep! He wasn't like the other Euzeths!"

"Aye," Gill said; "I'm glad ya did. I'd like to have words with 'im before this is over."

"Gilbert," Philemon said humbly, "I must say you and Haruhi have raised a splendid daughter, in spite of everything I made you do to her." Gill smirked and leaned back a bit against the wall where he was standing.

"Just one question, though," Daisuke said; "How did you gain this extraordinary power? It's like shinka, but..."

"You didn't bargain with HIM, did you, Tara?" Haruhi asked with equal parts worry and anger.

"With who?" Athrun asked. "With an Outer God?" Haruhi was silent for a moment, then began to speak darkly.

"...'And while there are those who have dared to seek glimpses beyond the Ultimate Gate,'" Haruhi said ominously, "...'and to accept HIM as a Guide, they would have been more prudent to avoid commerce with HIM; for it is written in the Book of Thoth how terrible is the price of a single glimpse...'"

"Ah, so you have read that grimoire too," Philemon interrupted. "It seems the one of whom you speak is the father of Tara's beloved."

"You mean that being 'One-in-All and All-in-One Yog-Sothoth'?" Koji asked. "Janus' dad?"

"Don't worry, guys," Tara reassured them; "He's on our side. Besides, I didn't even need his help...awakening my shinka powerwas all I really needed to open the Ultimate Gate." The rest of the group nodded, almost unable to believe what they were hearing.

"And now that I've seen what lies beyond it, I can be your Guide," she continued. "And with the power granted by crossing through it and accepting the reality beyond, we'll have the best shot at beating Nyog'Sothep and saving everything!"

She paused to let her words sink in.

"But I don't want to force you," Tara then said. "If you're afraid, I won't hold it against you – what lies beyond the Ultimate Gate is pretty mind-blowing. But if you want to advance, just say the word."

Everyone else present looked at each other.

"We will advance," Lelouch said. "And accept you as our Guide."

"For the sake of all we hold dear," Daisuke added.

Tara smiled and nodded as her mech began to shine even more brilliantly as it forced open the gate leading to the realm of infinite Thresholds...

Zig and his family could only watch helplessly as Nyog'Sothep sucked and slurped at the core of Eden Vital, its tendrils and tentacles inserted into the Prime Crossgate like straws. Meanwhile, Tru'nembra and most of the other drummers and flutists played the unholy melody and rhythm that they had been playing for the Outer God back in the void beyond all realities where they lived.

The caelceti couldn't do anything because a large number of corrupted Final Guardians were binding them in place, using a somewhat different tune to keep the space whales from fleeing.

"Struggle all you like," Tru'nembra said even as he continued his piping and drumming; "But it won't help...once my Master has finished His feast, He will dine upon you for dessert. It has been many an eon since He tasted caelceti flesh."

Suddenly, the lord of the Outer Gods started to writhe more violently as he made all sorts of hideous groans, shrieks, roars, gurgles and screeches. But all of them seemed to indicate that it was in some sort of pain, even as it continued to relentlessly drain the core of the Sephiroth of its energy. The musicians stopped playing, unsure of what to make of this strange development.

"Is this feast not to Your liking?" Tru'nembra asked, not immediately comprehending what was going on with his master. "Is it too overripe? Not ripe enough?"

But Nyog'Sothep continued to writhe, wobble and burble violently, and its cries of agony grew more intense...and more coherent – though only to those who understood it, for it was in the blasphemous Aklo tongue that only creatures of Outside had the mindset to comprehend fully. And the mindless ruler of the Outer Gods kept repeating one word.

'Pain', Tru'nembra thought; My Master...why is He saying 'pain'?! Is He the one in pain...that feeling only four-dimensional creatures are supposed to feel?!

As the master flutist of the Outer Gods struggled to come to terms with the idea that his master was actually capable of suffering, a section of Nyog'Sothep's mass began to visibly swell and bloat...and not in the way any of the Outside entities present were used to. Then, beams of rainbow light started to peek out of cracks in the Outer God's mass.

After a few moments, the bloated section finally burst like a balloon, violently spewing black muck and glittering particles of cosmic dust everywhere. Nyog'Sothep groaned in a manner that indicated some sort of relief as its form nebulously pulled itself back together. But there was no relief for the Outer God's minions...

For it was DREAM that had burst out of their master's body. Each of the pilots and ship crewmen were overflowing with the strength of their other selves, though they didn't change much, save for a new blazing light in their eyes. The only difference in their machines was that instead of Mazinkaiser and Mazinger ZERO, Shin Mazinkaiser was there, as was Hyper Boss Borot ZX.

"No!" Tru'nembra cried in a sound like that of a broken tuba; "No, that's not possible! You're nothing but dream stuff! Something like you shouldn't be able to escape from my Master's body after being consumed!"

"It's probably the first time he ate beings who have passed through the Ultimate Gate," Haruhi said. "Especially this many."

"Guess we were a little too spicy for Nyog'Sothep," Uber-Koji chuckled confidently. "We gave him heartburn!"

"Impossible!" the master flutist cried, now sounding like a cracked recorder-flute; "There's no way to open it without a Silver Key...unless..." If he had eyes, they would have been utterly bloodshot with rage as the realization dawned on him.

"Unless HE helped you!"

"Who's he talking about?" Shinji asked.

"Janus' dad," Tara answered. "It also turns out that his mom is actually 'She Who Sings The Myth', or at least one of her infinite other selves."

"Actually, Tara opened the Ultimate Gate pretty much by herself," Janus added. "Then she helped me open it, and then we split up to help you guys." Tara blushed with embarrassment at being lauded so.

"But there's a bit of irony here too," Guy added. "By taking up a material form to feed, Nyog'Sothep made itself vulnerable to harm."

"Even with the power granted by accepting the reality within the Gate," Tru'nembra ranted, his voice now sounded like a cacophony of bagpipes and accordions; "You can't reasonably hope to destroy Nyog'Sothep! You're insane to challenge Him!"

"...'Reasonably'?" Lelouch said with a laugh. "'Insane'? You would use such words?"

"We thought giving up reason and sanity was the key to grasping the truth," Tetsuya jeered.

"You said it, not us," Fudo taunted.

"On the other hand," Amuro added, "we came this far because we kept doing things that other people said were crazy."

"I guess we're all just a bunch of lunatics!" Domon said. The DREAMers broke out into laughter as Tru'nembra fumed with unbridled rage.

"YOU ARE NOTHING BUT DREAM STUFF!" Tru'nembra yelled, his voice like a chaotic orchestra; "YOU ARE ILLUSION! EMPHEMERAL! TEMPORARY! FLEETING! MERE PUPPETS ON A STAGE! MERE WORDS IN A STORY! YOUR EXISTENCE IS MEANINGLESS, SAVE TO FEED MY MASTER! YOU ARE BUT..."

"Oh, just SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!" Janus yelled back, cutting the Outer God off. "So what if we're just the Great God's dream, or puppets on a stage, or even just words in a story?! That's not how we've lived our lives, and we have no intention of changing that! Whatever happens to us from now on, we'll face it as we always have, even if we know it's far beyond our control!"

"Amen, brother!" Goldymarg cheered.

"The one thing we won't accept is just having our existence ended," Tara then said as Lifthrasir Titania pointed dramatically at the two Outer Gods and their minions. "Not without a fight!"

"Simon - this space is very similar to the Super Spiral Space where the Anti-Spiral's world was," Lordgenome chimed in; "Furthermore, thanks to passing through the 'Ultimate Gate' and achieving true shinka, we should be able to use the full extent of our powers here. Focus your wills, and let the energy from your infinite other selves grant you the power you need to fight back against Nyog'Sothep."

"All right, then!" Simon cried. "Let's do it, guys!"

With a heroic roar, Simon made Chouginga Gurren Lagann absorb a massive amount of Sephirotic energy, allowing it to ascend to the form it had taken in the final battle against the Anti-Spiral...

"TENGEN TOPPA...GURRENNNN LAGANN!"

The rest of DREAM did the same, causing their machines to grow even larger as well, though they did not have the same demonic appearance they had during that battle. Indeed, they all soon achieved a size on the same magnitude as Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann had been, although Nyog'Sothep still towered over them.

"Tara, let's combine too!" Janus said.

"Right!" Tara replied.

Granlif Yggdrasil began to shine brilliantly as its body began to change - its limbs and chest began to open up, and its head folded back, making space for something else. Lifthrasir Titania's limbs suddenly detached and flew into Granlif's opened-up limbs, while its head and torso flew up toward the opening in its chest. The body of Granlif closed up, but remained somewhat larger due to the newly added parts within. Lifthrasir's head and torso attached to the gap in Granlif's body, while its head folded over it, until it looked like a mix of the two robots' heads.

With that, the couple began their heroic creed.

"When dreams take wing in the face of a hostile universe…"

"Our battle cry will shatter all foes and light the way to the future!"

"We are the guardian…infinite colossus…"

"SHINREI GATTAI...NEOOOOO GRANLIF!"

"This is it, everyone!" Lelouch called out. "This may be the final battle of our war, but it's just the opening act for our future!"

"Let's show Nyog'Sothep that this story isn't going to end on HIS terms!" Ryoma shouted. But as DREAM cheered, they found that their voices weren't the only ones.

They were soon awestruck by a new sight - hundreds upon hundreds of blue and green planets appeared out of nowhere, drawn toward the massive form of Nyog'Sothep through the various holes in spacetime. Oddly, they seemed to be on the same scale as DREAM.

"Those planets," Murrue gasped as she also witnessed this phenomenon; "They all look like...Earth!"

The crew of the ships stared dumbfounded at the sight of the hundreds upon hundreds of Earths appearing in rapid-fire succession... never in their wildest dreams had they ever thought something like this was possible. But then, one of the Battle 7's bridge crew was brought back to attention by a series of beeps coming from her console.

"Captain, I'm receiving hundreds of signals matching those of our ships," the crew-woman exclaimed; "And they're all coming from those duplicate Earths!"

Indeed, approaching from the different Earths were thousands of battleships, many of which looked eerily familiar - the Archangel, the Eternal, Nadesico, Ra Cailum and even Chouginga Dai Gurren. But there were also countless ships that they momentarily didn't recognize – until they realized something:

"Those battleships...our other selves fought along them before," Bright gasped. "But how did they get here?!"

"It seems those two called us," the voice of they knew sounded over DREAM's communicators. "And we passed through the gaps in spacetime that had appeared in our worlds."

"Another Lordgenome?!" Simon exclaimed, shocked to hear the Spiral King's voice coming from an outside communication source. "But aren't you..."

"It's kinda complicated," said another familiar voice, coming from the pilot of a pink Evangelion; "By the time we got done explaining, everything would be swallowed up by that strange darkness...and there's no way we're letting that happen...not after you went through so much to defeat the Anti-Spirals!"

"Mari?! You're alive?!" Yoko cried. "But...how?"

"To put the cause of this situation in as simple terms as possible," came a fourth familiar voice; "The decay of the infinite realities has caused all of these Earths from parallel timelines to appear together."

"...Ruri?!"

The Nadesico's viewscreen was quickly taken by the image of a somewhat older Ruri, with longer pigtails and a captain's uniform similar to Yurika's own.

"Hello, Yurika," the alternate Ruri said in a cordial tone; "It's nice to see that you avoided that fate in another timeline. Do you like this version of the Nadesico?"

"Save the talk for another time," came the voice of Suzaku, originating from the Lancelot Albion; "If this thing isn't defeated somehow, all of our struggles will have been for naught." But when the image of the voice's owner appeared on-screen, it wasn't what they expected...it was someone wearing the mask and garb of Zero.

"Suzaku?! Why are you..." Lelouch gasped.

"Hear us, children of all the Earth Spheres!" an alternate Char Aznable called out from what looked like the Hyaku Shiki.

"Our worlds are in danger of total dissolution and collapse...but we still have a chance!" an alternate Lacus proclaimed from within her own Eternal. "Those who cannot fight, but still wish to live rather than be swallowed by this all-consuming darkness...let your hopes and dreams take wing, and send them to the guardian leading us in the battle against this monstrosity!"

"And those who can fight," came the voice of GGG's own Taiga Koutaro; "Face forward, and give every last drop of power you've got to keep this darkness from winning!"

DREAM watched as countless mecha flew up to help out, and some caught snippets of their new allies' battle cries:

"Gundam 00 QAN[T]...Setsuna F. Seiei...entering combat to seize tomorrow!"

"Fiends from beyond time and space! You shall taste the power of Daitarn 3, as it borrows the power of the Sun!"

"Wing Zero Custom...commencing final mission..."

"Let's do this, big sis! With the power of Gunbuster!"

"Dann of Thursday! Let's protect the world Elena loved!"

"Big O! Time for one last...SHOW TIME!"

"Let's go, Zambot 3! For the future!"

"Voltron! Time for one last showdown!"

"We won't need the Double X's Twin Satellite Cannon to beat these jokers...right, Para?"

"Shinn Asuka, Destiny Gundam...launching to secure the future!"

As the hundreds of parallel DREAMs and other similar groups let out their battle cries, the hundreds of Earths began to shine with a brilliant light, which streamed into the awakened DREAM's machines.

The final battle was on as Nyog'Sothep let out a cacophony of hideous noises as Tru'nembra and the other musicians prepared to meet DREAM head-on, even as the countless battleships and mechas reinforcing them unleashed their full arsenals on the godly entity and its minions.

Infinitely far away from the battle, yet incredibly close to it, a great golden entity watched as DREAM made its final stand against the ruler of the Outer Gods and his minions. Standing near him were Singer and Umr At'Tawil.

"So, they're really doing it," the male voice of the golden entity said; "They're actually fighting him...and they've even brought their allies from other worlds to join them."

"What do you think of this child, Most Ancient One?" the female voice asked. The veiled figure simply smirked, and that was all the answer they needed – he was more than pleased.

"A little pure, honest love was just the ticket," Singer said, "to help him retain his humanity. That love is something not even the blind idiot god can destroy - the kind of love that inscribes itself into the very face of eternity. Kind of like the one you two share."

The golden entity said nothing.

"So," the male voice asked the veiled Outer God; "What made you go along with the fallen angel's plan? Why go against your family?"

"Why else?" the Most Ancient One said; "Curiosity."

As the battle wore on, Metatron managed to reach Zig and his family, and got to work eliminating the corrupted Final Guardians that were binding the caelceti.

"Damn Nyog'Sothep!" he grunted; "Even if I made these in the depths of my despair, I won't forgive him for twisting them!" But suddenly, one of them latched on to him, and he was forced to stare into the abomination's dead eyes...at which point it assaulted his mind with a vision that disturbed him to his very core:

It was of Nadija, stark naked, gazing at him seductively and beckoning him to come closer. But looming behind her, and connected to her by a pulsating, vein and tumor-dotted tube was a massively pregnant, headless beast with no less than sixteen cloven hooves, scores of tentacles, rows of teeth, spawning pods and twisted, disgustingly sexual orifices, all vomiting up black ichor and foul hoofed beasts that vaguely resembled monstrous walking trees with mouths and eyes. And many of those mouths were whispering four words...

"Come here, big brother..."

Metatron let out muffled cries of terror and rage as he struggled to break free, but more Final Guardians latched on to him, and the words in his vision got louder and more insistent.

Just as the leader of Atik Yomin felt he was about to give in to the twisted desires that were filling him, he heard a familiar cry as a colossal blade slashed through them with two great swipes, one just barely missing Metatron's head and the other barely scratching the soles of his feet. The feeling of rock on the blade made him realize who it likely was.

"Masa...kado?" he muttered as he turned to see if it was indeed the stone swordsman that had saved him.

But something quite different was in his place: a well-armored mecha with a very thick design. Its body was still made of rock, but they now resembled uncut gems. Its shoulders and upper body area were colored like milky cloud diamonds, ruby red drills stored on the backpack, jet-black legs, cinnabar-red crystalline spikes on its shoulders and legs, and sapphire accents on its arms and legs. Its forehead was adorned with a single large red crystal horn that glinted in the light emitted by the caelceti.

"You saved me," the leader of Atik Yomin said. "Thank you."

"I only did so because my charge wished it," Masakado replied coldly. "I have not yet forgiven you for the things you have done. Come, help us free these caelceti from their bonds." Metatron nodded and glanced over to see Iophiel sighing with relief before going to help her guardian with freeing Zig and his family.

"I'm so twisted," the angel muttered as he tried to forget the visions of his own sister trying to seduce him with the help of an Outer God. "But no more. If there's no way to save you from this horror, Nadija...I'll put you to your long-awaited rest once more..."

The first to close in on Nyog'Sothep was Basara Nekki, who was accompanied by the rest of Fire Bomber, as well as Gamlin, Max, Milia and the Protodevlin.

"C'mon, everyone! The future needs our song!" Mylene cried.

"There's no way in hell we're gonna let this thing end our music!" Ray said. Veffidas agreed by striking her snare drums.

"Indeed!" Milia said. "The melody that guides the cosmos shall not be silenced!"

"Our burning passion and iron will shall ensure that all creation remains alive with music!" Max said.

"HEY, NYOG'SOTHEP!" Basara cried, somehow inspired by Max's words. "LISTEN TO MY NEW SONG!" With that, the rock star began to play something new...something more bold, more intense and empowering than any song that he had ever played before. It was a song whose title Janus had suggested so long ago...

Hagane no Passion.

"Such an invigorating melody," Gamlin muttered as he found himself banging his head to the music; "To think that he'd been saving this for last!" Indeed, when combined with Basara's innate Anima Spiritia, this song served to fire up all of the DREAMs involved in this clash beyond all clashes to even greater heights, while some of the tumorous flesh on the entity that would consume all began to burst, spewing ichor everywhere.

In response, Nyog'Sothep let out an unearthly moan and sent out a swarm of black attack drones vaguely similar to Nightingale's Funnels, except with jaundice-yellow eyes and slobbering toothy maws. While these made a beeline for Basara's red Valkyrie, the rock star easily avoided their eye beams they fired without missing a beat.

As Basara continued to play, Kira and Athrun closed in to attack the Outer God.

"Go for it, Kira!" Mirallia cried out.

"Our future...now's the time for you to seize it for us!" Sai added.

"Do it, Zala! You too, Yamato!" Yzak called out as he slashed through one of the flutists that was moving to attack him.

"No," Kira said as he prepared to fire off everything in the Strike Freedom's arsenal; "We'll seize it together!"

"Yeah!" Athrun said as he did the same; "The future of all that exists and is yet to exist...we'll take hold of it as one humanity - Naturals, Coordinators, Newtypes, Devilmen and demons all!"

With a heroic cry, the two Gundams let fly every projectile they could muster. At the same time, the Archangel fired off its Lohengrins, striking Nyog'Sothep with force beyond reckoning. This served to destabilize its form further. In response, the enraged Outer God sent out more attack drones to blast the mobile suits and ship. While Kira and Athrun were able to dodge their beams, the Archangel was struck several times, although it held together well enough.

As the two Gundams flew off to help with fighting the grunts, the Astray Red Dragon and Astray Blue Frame D closed in.

"Looks like once we beat this guy, my contract will be complete," Gai said as he dodged past a Final Guardian and slashed it with one of his blade DRAGOONs. "I almost can't believe it's happening."

"Yeah," Lowe said as he cut through an Einherjar of the Astray Noir. "What do you plan to do next, Gai?"

"As much as I'd like to say 'I'm going to quit being a mercenary forever'," the Combat Coordinator replied, "I suspect there will still be a demand for Serpent Tail's services for a long time."

"You're probably right," the pilot of the Astray Red Dragon said with a sigh; "In fact, I just thought of something the Junk Guild would need you for."

"We can talk about it after we've secured our future," Gai replied.

Lowe nodded and grinned as he charged in, Astray Red Dragon's Caletvwchs crackling with energy. Meanwhile, Gai sent out all ten of his machine's DRAGOONs. Two of them, which assumed shapes resembling paper airplanes, began firing powerful beam shots at Nyog'Sothep while the Combat Coordinator grabbed the two largest ones to use as swords. The other four followed along closely.

"Hachi, disable the limiters on the Caletvwchs!" Lowe said to his AI companion. "We've got a future to seize, and they're a small price to pay!" The quantum computer complied, and the the dragon-shaped manipulators began to crackle even more. All three of the manipulators let fly a massive beam blast that smashed through Nyog'Sothep's form, but caused them to short out.

"Now, let's finish this with style, Gai!" the Junker then called out as his machine pulled out the Gerbera Straight. The two Astray mobile suits then unleashed a rapid sequence of slashes, each machine taking a turn slicing through their enemy, with the Blue Frame swapping DRAGOONs with each strike. Finally, Gai and Lowe rushed at and past each other with one last slash. Nyog'Sothep let out a moaning roar as its wounds spewed out yet more black ichor that formed into twisted eldritch abominations and attack drones, forcing the two Gundams to back off.

Next to approach was Masakado.

"Look! Is that Masakado?!" Shinobu exclaimed as Final Dancougar looked up at the colossus, having just dispatched a pair of Nyog'Sothep's drum players.

I've seen that machine before, Tetsuya thought; or was that another me?

"The Thrudgelmir..." Kyosuke gasped; "Masakado's custom Grungust Type III..."

"I AM WODAN...WODAN YMIR ZONVOLT," Masakado yelled, bellowing his true name; "THE SWORD OF THE SABBATH MAIDEN!" As he did so, some of the spikes on Thrudgelmir's left shoulder popped off, whirled several times and formed into the hilt and handle for a sword, which the rocky mecha then grasped with both hands. This caused the handle to sprout an incredibly long energy blade – one very similar to the one Neo Granlif made when it used its Saint Inferno...only this one was easily trillions of lightyears long. The drills on its back began to spin wildly, causing the mech to start moving forward.

"EXOGENESIS ZANKANTOU..." the masked swordsman roared; "HOSHINAGI NO TACHI!"

The rocky Super Robot accelerated rapidly, rocketing forward. As it neared its maximum velocity, Sanger's disfigured brother let out one last cry:

"CHEEEEESTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAUGH!"

Thrudgelmir itself seemed to echo this as it swung the unbelievably long energy blade, its visage suddenly turning savage and feral as it let out a howling roar as it swung the blade. The resulting strike seemed to cleave straight through Nyog'Sothep, causing the fabric of spacetime in the realm to quake, and unleash a cracking noise like ten billion simultaneous peals of thunder.

"There is nothing my Zankantou cannot cut!" Masakado declared as the attack appeared to have bisected the Outer God. But it reached out with black tendrils to pull itself together.

"But it seems slicing it in half is not enough," he muttered as he withdrew, using his blade to block attacks from the attack drones. Moments later, the Brave Corps moved in to attack next.

"Listen up, Brave Corps," Taiga said. "This is your final mission...defeat Nyog'Sothep, and grab hold of tomorrow!"

"Understood!" Guy, Mamoru and the various Super AI machines replied as they charged in. The Dragon Brothers and Sisters had performed Symmetrical Docking while Mic Sounders XIII had shifted to his Boom Robo form.

"This being...it surely is a monster beyond all previous reckoning," J said as King J-Der joined them.

"Perhaps this is what the Zonderians were truly afraid of," GenRyuJin said.

"It doesn't stand a chance against us!" GouRyuJin laughed.

"That's right," Guy said, "as long as we hold strong and belive in the oath sworn through courage, we will not fail!" Genesic GaoGaiGar let out a lion roar of its own in agreement.

"Commence all-out attack!" Big Volfogg called out. "4000 MAGNUM!" As he fired off a staggering amount of bullets, GenRyuJin and GouRyuJin prepared to unleash their ultimate attack.

"THE FREEZING SLEET! THE ROARING LIGHTNING!"

"THE HOWLING GALE! THE SCORCHING FLAMES!"

A dragon head formed of each respective element formed on the arms of the combined Dragon Brothers.

"MAXIMUM TOU LONG!" they roared as the elemental dragons rushed at Nyog'Sothep, digging deeply into its body.

"HIKARI TO YAMI NO MAI!" TenRyuJin cried, firing a torrent of missiles from its missile launchers that struck the Outer God and scattered countless reflective shards. They immediately followed up with a barrage of lasers, peppering the godly entity with an all-range attack that the mindless entity couldn't keep up with.

Finally, it was Guy's turn. Inside Chouginga Gurren Lagann, the two podiums that GGG had used to activate its ultimate weapon appeared.

"Miss Swan!" Taiga called out to the blonde woman as he yanked a green brooch off of his neck and used for Genesic's ultimate attack; "The keys that the Chairwoman of the UFN gave us!"

"Yes, sir!" Swan replied, pulling a similar red brooch off her own neck and approaching the other. The two brooches opened up and extended some odd material that arranged them into intricately designed keys.

"For victory and mankind, by the oath sworn through courage!" the two cried out in unison, raising the keys over their heads before dramatically inserting them into the slots.

"GOLDION CRUSHER - OPERATION..."

In perfect sync, the two turned the keys, as if starting the ignition on something.

"APPROVED!" Taiga cried as the tops of the podiums spun, the ink forming into the two Japanese characters for the word "victory".

"THIS IS THE KEY TO VICTORY!" the man then screamed.

"SYSTEM CHAAAAAAAANGE!" Goldymarg cried as he shifted to his Marg Hand form.

"CRUSHER CONNECTO!" Guy roared as the Marg Hand connected to Genesic's arm and then grabbed the shaft of the Crusher; "GOLDION...CRUSHEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!"

Immediately the hyper-charged G-Stone began funneling energy into the massive hammer, causing the hammer head to start expanding, its parts connected by a box-shaped mass of golden energy that began to grow rapidly...and soon exceeded even its usual maximum, growing to the size of The Atik Yomin before it had been swallowed up by Nyog'Sothep.

"HEY, GUY - LET'S BREAK STUFF!" Goldymarg cheered excitedly as his face appeared again on the hammer's handle.

"YEAH!" Guy replied with equal fervor. With that, Genesic GaoGaiGar prepared to bring down the hammer on the entity that would consume all creation.

"OUTER GOD NYOG'SOTHEP," the leader of the Brave Corps screamed; "HIKARI NI NAAAAAARREEEEE!"

Nyog'Sothep screeched as the hammer of golden light came down on it. The impact caused a huge ripple to course through the fabric of the dimension's spacetime...yet when the light faded, the godly entity was still there, but it was clearly starting to look worse for wear – bits and pieces of its mass were floating freely, and its regeneration was clearly slower than normal.

"To survive an attack like that," the Boazanian noble said; "How could something like this exist?!"

"We gave up on trying to make sense of this stuff a long time ago, Heinel," Daijourou said. "But I suppose we're fighting on a level beyond the conception of most people..."

"In this space," Kosuke said, "it seems that infinity itself is a measurable quantity."

"We can debate it later," Hiyoshi said.

"My brother is right," Kenichi said as he pulled out Voltes' sword; "What's important is that we defeat Nyog'Sothep before it consumes everything...TENKUU KEN!" A bolt of cosmic lightning appeared from out of nowhere and struck the sword, charging Voltes with vast power.

"CHOUDENJI...TATSUMAKIIIIII!" Hyoma cried as Combattler unleashed a pink tornado of Super Electromagnetic energy that caught Nyog'Sothep and started to swirl part of its semi-fluid mass around.

"CHOUDENJI...BAAAAAALL!" Kenichi yelled as Voltes sent the sphere flying, striking the devourer of multiverses and paralyzing it to the spot. Meanwhile, Combattler raised its arms and began to spin.

"CHOUDENJI SPIIIIIIIIIIN!" Hyoma then cried as Combattler whizzed off to strike the paralyzed Outer God. Meanwhile, Voltes and Godor charged forward as well, their blades crackling with power.

"TENKUU KEN..." the leader of the Voltes team called out as the Choudenji robot and protector deity of Boazan leaped up; "V NO J..."

The brothers' mechs came down and slashed, creating a pulsing V with their blades without interfering with each other

"...FINAL SPINNING SLAAAASH!" Hyoma roared as Combattler V pierced Nyog'Sothep, causing a gigantic explosion. The three mechs landed on a crystal platform and posed dramatically, even though they all sensed that their foe was far from defeated.

But Nyog'Sothep wouldn't get to rest for a moment, as the Shuffle Alliance closed in to attack the godly entity themselves while the Choudenji mechs and Boazanian war god withdrew.

"You feel that?" Sai Saichi said, glancing at the back of his hand as the Ace of Clubs crest began to pulse. "Our Shuffle Crests are crying out! We've gotta defeat this thing, no matter what!"

"Not that I needed reminding," Chibodee said, his Queen of Spades crest glowing as well.

"The future of all that is and will be is on the line," George added as his Jack of Diamonds crest shone brightly.

"And it's up to us, as DREAMers, to secure it for all," Argo said, his Black Joker crest throbbing.

"Ready, guys?" Domon cried as he held up his King of Hearts crest. "This is the Shuffle Alliance's final battle!" With that, the five Shuffle Alliance members charged in. But they were soon joined by three other mobile fighters.

"Allenby! Rain! Master!" the King of Hearts exclaimed.

"You're not doing this without us!" Allenby said excitedly.

"We may not be members of the Shuffle Alliance, but we're DREAMers too!" Rain added. Master Asia simply nodded and grunted, but that was all Domon needed. With that, all eight Gundams began to glow gold, and quickly formed up.

"Our spirits are aflame," they chanted in unison; "if we feel the fire, then there is nothing we cannot defeat!"

They raised their clenched fists together, the backs of their hands shining brilliantly.

"THESE HANDS OF OURS ARE BURNING RED! THEIR LOUD ROAR TELLS US TO GRASP TOMORROW!"

A powerful energy sphere that far exceeded the might of the original attack formed before them.

"ERUPTING! FINAL SHUFFLE...DOUMEI KEEEEEEEN!"

The energy sphere blasted forward with incredible speed, striking the monstrosity dead-on and causing a noticeable chunk of its mass to burst and spew more of its foul-smelling ichor. This allowed the Wunder and the Evangelions to move in for their own attack.

"All right, Eva pilots of Class 2-A, let's take attendance," Misato barked.

"Do we have to do this every time?" Super Unit 01's pilot groaned.

"Hopefully this is for the last time," Asuka said. "Once this is over, I hope we can get on with our lives."

"Kensuke Aida and Unit 04?" Misato said.

"Present and accounted for!" Kensuke cheered.

"Rei Ayanami and Unit 00!"

"Here," Rei said quietly.

"Hikari Horaki and Unit Heurtebize!"

"Present!" Hikari chirped.

"Shinji Ikari and Super Unit 01!"

"Heeeere," Shinji grumbled.

"Asuka Langley Soryu and Super Unit 02!"

"Here," Asuka said, shaking her head at how ridiculous this still was even as she was going along with it.

"Toji Suzuhara and Unit 03!"

"Let's get on with it already," Toji said. Misato grinned.

"Okay, class," she said. "Today's assignment is to seize the future for everything in existence by defeating this thing! I'll provide you with any help you need!"

"Yes, ma'am!" all of the Eva pilots said in unison with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Without wasting any more time, the Wunder opened fire on Nyog'Sothep, keeping it pinned to the spot.

"Shinji, you and I will take point as usual!" she ordered. "The favorite and Aida will be attacking from the rear! Hikari, Suzuhara...follow our lead!"

"Understood," Rei said.

"Let's do it, you guys!" Kensuke said. With that, Asuka summoned the Spear of Cassius and rushed in. With a loud cry, Shinji unsheathed Unit 01's blade and charged in as well, even as it pulled out a sub-machine gun of its own. After switching the sword to its weaker hand, the purple giant began firing a hail of bullets. Meanwhile, Rei took aim with her sniper rifle while Kensuke readied his positron rifle.

"Man," Hikari grumbled. "I'm class rep..."

"Don't try t' fix what ain't broke, Hikari," Toji sighed. Heurtebize and Unit 03 whipped out machine guns and opened fire and began to close in slowly.

Both Unit 00's and Unit 01's shots struck their mark, pinning down the godly entity. Unit 02 used the opening to jam the Spear of Cassius into its body, stabbed several times, then jumped away as Hikari threw her own spear, while Toji fired off another positron rifle shot. Rei and Kensuke then followed up with another pair of their own sniper rifle shots, sending the Outer God reeling. Finally, Unit 01 leaped high into the air with sword keened to slash through its foe.

"Go away, and let us live our lives!" Shinji cried as he brought down the blade, slashing a deep gouge in Nyog'Sothep. The massive entity let out a wail of rage and pain and lashed out with black tendrils that the boy tried to block with his Eva's AT Field as he withdrew, only to be ensnared by them.

Thankfully, Great Zeorymer was nearby to rescue him – the combined Hakkeshu robot slashed through the tendrils with Rose C'est La Vie's beam swords.

"Thanks, Masato!" Shinji said as he flew away to help deal with some twisted Final Guardians that were attacking the Wunder.

"This is it, you two," Miku said as Great Zeorymer turned to face Nyog'Sothep. "Are you ready?"

"We really have no choice," Yuratei replied; "It's either fight back or be consumed."

"Masaki Kihara made Zeorymer as a tool to dominate all things," Masato Akitsu said; "But we'll use to protect them and their future!"

MEI...OOOOHHHHH...

Just as it always did, Kihara's ultimate creation touched the two orbs together, creating a titanic explosion that seemed to consume Nyog'Sothep. But when the light faded, the godly entity was still there. It let out a hideous moan as it fired off more attack drones that rushed at Great Zeorymer as well as the Nadesico, which was closing in along with Aestivalis protectors.

"It's almost over, everyone!" Yurika said; "Just hang in there for a bit longer!" As she said this, the enemy's attack drones launched a massive assault, pounding the ship repeatedly and causing the people on board to almost fall down.

"Status report!" the captain said as she regained her balance.

"That last attack knocked out the Phase Transition Cannon," Ruri said after a quick check. "It's completely unusable."

"No problem," Yurika said confidently as she turned to the screen. "We don't need it to secure our future...right, my darling Akito?"

"I guess so, sure," Akito replied awkwardly.

"Come on, Akito!" Jiro said; "Put some spirit into it! We're up against an enemy beyond anything Gekiganger ever fought! Even the prehistoric civilization from the movie was nothing compared to this!"

"Yeah!" Hikaru cheered.

"Same old Yamada," Izumi chuckled. "Guess he's got..."

"Zip it, Izumi," Ryoko said before her fellow Aestivalis pilot could finish her joke. "Let's just finish this guy off so we can all go home!" With that, all of the Aestivalis charged up their Distortion Fields and rushed forward as one.

"DYNAMIC..." Jiro and Hikaru called out. "FINAL GEKIGAN...SPECIAAAAAL!" The five Aestivalis simultaneously rocketed forward, blasting through Nyog'Sothep, dealing tremendous damage. Meanwhile, the Nadesico moved into position to finish the job.

"Ruri, raise the Gravity Blast's output to maximum!" Yurika ordered.

"Yes ma'am," the ship's engineer replied; "Charge will be completed in...wow, it's charged already."

"I suppose we should have expected as much," Minato giggled.

"Who cares?!" Yurika said, filled with the passion of Gekiganger. "Let's seize our future!"

"Ready to fire, captain," Ruri said. Yurika took a deep breath before giving the order.

"ONE SHOT KILL! ULTIMATE GRAVITY BLAST, FIRE!"

The Nadesico belched out a titanic blast of gravitational energy, striking Nyog'Sothep with the force of a quadrillion collapsing black holes. But the entity simply flowed back into its normal shape.

As the ship turned to face down other foes, W-0 and the Black Knights, with Nunnally and Suzaku close at hand, approached the almighty entity.

"So, this thing's really the ruler of the infinite cosmos?" Yukiya said as he dodged a claw attack from one of Nyog'Sothep's twisted flutist before blasting it apart with a rifle shot.

"Like I'd accept something like this as my ruler," Ayano said, "even if my entire purpose in life was to be its food."

"I'm sure that goes for everyone here," Ryou chuckled.

"We won't become its meal, nor will anything else," Hyuga said as he readied the Alexander Liberte's blade.

"W-0, this is our final mission!" Leila ordered. "Protect our tomorrows, and the tomorrows of all things!"

"Understood!" the rest of the Wyvern Squad replied as they moved into attack positions. Ryou moved in and chopped at Nyog'Sothep with his Knightmare's ax, while Hyuga and Ayano slashed at it with their swords. Meanwhile, Leila, Yukiya and thousands of Alexander drones hung back, firing off countless bullets charged with Sephirotic energy that peppered the godly entity.

Nyog'Sothep moaned and sent a number of twisted Final Guardians at them, forcing them to back off. However, their place was soon taken by the Ikaruga and the Black Knights.

"It's almost over," Kallen said. "We just need to beat this thing, and then..."

"And then our true battle begins, Kallen," Zero said.

"What do you mean?" the Black Knights' ace exclaimed. "This IS our final enemy, isn't it?"

"Zero is right," Suzaku said. "Destroying it won't make the world's ills disappear. This is a battle for survival, not ideals."

"We have to make sure our worlds do not succumb to man's worst impulses once this is over," Nunnally said. "That will be our job as Black Knights...no, as DREAMers!" Kallen, motivated by Nunnally's words, spurred the Guren SEITEN forward, firing off bursts of Radiant Wave energy from her mech's claw. Suzaku followed suit, firing off shots from his VARIS rifle, and Nunnally charged up a powerful energy sphere in the Code Geass' hand as she closed in. Lelouch, meanwhile, hung back and fired off a liquid crystal, then fired his machine's main cannon, scattering beams that destroyed the incoming foes that were trying to get in the way.

"You who others call the Ruling Darkness," the prince said as both he and the Ikaruga charged their main cannons for a powerful shot, "we won't let you take our future from us!"

"You said it, Zero!" Masato Shikubu's voice came over his communicator. Lelouch turned and saw Final Dancougar hovering next to the ship.

"You can count on us to help you with that!" Ryo said eagerly.

"Shinobu, let's hit that foe with a blast of our own!" Sara said.

"A Final Dankuuhou seems to be in order," Alan suggested. "With all of the power of Instinct we can muster!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Shinobu said as the Black Wing's head split open, revealing a charging energy ball. Lelouch grinned and turned his attention back to Nyog'Sothep, which was getting slashed at repeatedly by the three other Knightmares.

"Ohgi," he ordered, "fire on my mark!"

"FINAL DANKUUHOU," Shinobu bellowed as the energy ball Final Dancougar was charging reached its full size; "YAATE YARUZE!"

"Fire!" Lelouch cried. The Shinkiro and the ship fired off their blasts at the same time as the Super Robot unleashed a massive energy blast. The three other Knightmares quickly dodged out of the way, allowing the blasts to strike their target directly, sending it reeling. It let out an unearthly moan and sent out several golden tendrils to try and seize its foes – only for them to be slashed apart by several of DREAM's Gundams from the Universal Century – the Hi-Nu, Zeta and ZZ, with the Ra Cailum close at hand.

"We've got this thing on the ropes, Commander Ray!" Judau said excitedly. "It's definitely getting weaker!"

"We can't let up," Kamille said. "Everyone's futures are riding on this fight!"

"Indeed...mankind is on the verge of a tomorrow unlike any other," Amuro said. "We can't let this thing steal it from us! Please, lend me your power, you two!"

"You got it!" Judau said, focusing his will into the ZZ's biosensor. Kamille did the same, and both Gundams were soon surrounded in pink auras. Meanwhile, the Ra Cailum moved closer to Hi-Nu Gundam, and released the Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher into its hands. Nyog'Sothep, sensing this, turned its attention to the three Newtypes and sent a wave of attack drones after them.

But they didn't get far, as many of them were quickly shot down by a barrage of micro missiles and Funnel Missiles, some of which then veered toward the godly entity that had released the drones. More beams quickly followed, blasting the rest to cosmic dust.

"I'll help too!" Hathaway said as the Xi Gundam swooped by. "Let 'em have it, you guys!"

"Show them the strength of Gundam, you three!" Char said. "The symbol of mankind's potential!" Invigorated by Char's words, Judau and Amuro let out heroic cries as they charged up their machine's ultimate blasts. Meanwhile, Kamille readied his machine's own powerful beam gun.

The strength of the Newtypes' will caused a green and pink aura to surround them, and it flared out behind them, forming into the shape of a mobile suit...the original RX-78 Gundam, with the three actual Gundams forming the tip of its beam rifle.

Amuro, Judau and Kamille fired off their three beams simultaneously, and the blasts began to arc and orbit one another as green particles began to spark off them. Nyog'Sothep tried to repel the blast with a wave of black tendrils, but they were incinerated by the three Gundams' combined attack, which pounded the godly entity, and left a deep hole in it.

But before it could counterattack, Nyog'Sothep was interrupted by an attack from above – a massive rainbow beam saber blade sliced through it.

"The Turn A is a Gundam too!" Loran shouted. "And as one of the Moonrace, I want to see where mankind will go as well!" He let out a cry and slashed sideways, seeming to cut straight through the middle of Nyog'Sothep. But it managed to pull itself together with more black tendrils.

"Such determination to complete its objective," Akira Hibiki muttered as he closed in next after Loran and the other Gundam pilots withdrew. "I suppose we should expected as much from the so-called Ruling Darkness."

Nyog'Sothep turned toward the ancient Super Robot and let out a wail that the last descendant of Mu felt not just in his ears, but in his mind...

"I hear you, people of Mu," he muttered as he recognized the language being screamed and moaned in his mind. "I hear your desire to be one with everything...but not like this! I will protect the world you struggled against Mycenae and Atik Yomin to keep safe...and all other worlds too!"

"GOD VOIIIIIICE!" Akira then bellowed, his voice dropping a few octaves as energy started crackling all over Raideen.

Even if this kills me, the descendant of Mu thought as he summoned up every ounce of will he could muster, I will use all of Raideen's power to stop this thing! Finally, he bellowed as loudly and heroically as he could...

"GOD….RA-MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

Raideen let out three waves of golden circles as well as the sound of pure destructive power...the God Voice. But even the vast amounts of Sephirotic energy infusing the area couldn't keep the psychic backlash from piercing his body on the cellular level, gradually shredding his outfit at the same time. Finally, Akira coughed up blood as the attack ended, and felt himself black out. Raideen itself suddenly went limp, its own form taxed by the power of the hyper-charged God Voice.

But the attack struck Nyog'Sothep and disrupted its massive form further, causing it to to shudder and waver as it let out a cry of pain and rage. It lashed out at the immobile Raideen with more black tendrils, only for them to be shredded once again – this time by a barrage of spinning blades.

"Hey, Hibiki!" Fudo called out as he, Dante and an army of demons and Devilmen approached. "You okay in there?!"

"I sense he is unconscious," Dante said, "but alive."

"Somebody get him and Raideen to safety!" Fudo called out. Several demons and Devilmen complied, moving the Mu-forged mecha to the relative safety of Agira's back. The massive Devilman then turned and flew off toward the Nadesico. With their companion's safety assured, the leaders of the Demon Tribe and Devilman Army turned back toward Nyog'Sothep.

"Now, let us continue his work," the demon lord said to the remaining demons and Devilmen. "We have managed to regain our lost humanity after millions of years, and have found new partners to live with us!"

"A new dawn is coming, for both of our peoples," Fudo said; "The people of the Gold Moon and Silver Moon!"

"The true world that we call 'hope' lies beyond this battle!" Lucifer proclaimed. "And only these Outer Gods, who dare call themselves the masters of all things, stand in our way!"

"But there's no way in Hell or Heaven that we'll let them take our world from us," he snarled excitedly; "Am I right?!"

The collective of monstrous but valorous individuals let out a howling cheer.

"So, let's do it!" Fudo roared as he turned to face their mutual enemy; "Hit this thing with all you've got, and seize tomorrow with whatever you can!" With that, the combined forces of the Demon Tribe and Devilman Army, collectively over a hundred thousand strong, went on a vicious attack, swarming Nyog'Sothep like a hive of killer bees and using whatever weapons their forms had given them to pierce, slash, smash, burn and inflict any other sort of injury imaginable. The godly entity wailed and moaned in rage as it grabbed some of its attackers with black tendrils and pulled them into itself, only to get zapped by a combined energy blast from Dante, Lucifer and Fudo.

The sacrifices of some of these demons were not lost on Simon and the Dai-Gurren Brigade, who were closing in with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann...but they also recognized that those sacrifices were not in vain.

"Nyog'Sothep is getting weak," Viral said. "I bet we can finish off here and now!"

"Got it!" Simon said. "Everyone, let's hit it with all we've got!"

With a surge of will from everyone in Team Dai-Gurren, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's green flame aura turned into a sea of flaming blue energy which began to grow at speeds far exceeding that of light. In a matter of seconds, a giant made entirely of the blue energy, save for a red energy cape and pair of sunglasses made of the same red power, loomed over the others – only Nyog'Sothep exceeded it in size, and even then it was only by about a quarter of the energy giant's height.

Thus was formed, for a second time, the pinnacle of Simon's might - SUPER Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Without wasting any more time, the energy giant cast off its cloak and raised its arm high.

"TAKE THIS...FINISHING BLOW!"

In an instant, a drill of a size that defied measurement burst from its hand – even its target was smaller than it now.

"CHOU...TENGEN TOPPAAAAAA!"

"GIGA..."

The drill began to spin.

"DRILL..."

The giant's feet began to shoot off energy in order to rocket forward.

"BREAAAAAAAAAAAAK!"

Nyog'Sothep, still reeling from the rest of DREAM's blows, couldn't put up a barrier in time to stop Simon's ultimate drill. The attack bored straight through the core, and Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann burst out the other side. It retracted the drill and dramatically pulled in its cape as an explosion equal to a trillion Big Bangs seemed to consume Nyog'Sothep.

And when the godly entity reappeared, it was clearly looking to be in bad shape...there was a massive gap in its form that was struggling to pull itself back together.

"Damn it," Dayakka grunted. "It even survived that!"

"Then leave it to us!" Uber-Koji said as Shin Mazinkaiser, Grendizer, Mazin Emperor G, Getter Emperor and Shin Dragon closed in.

"Hey, you guys!" he said; "Let's teach this thing the true power of so-called 'dream stuff'!"

"Indeed, Getter Team 550-988-653-914UC...," the voice of a different Ryoma said. The five machines turned around and saw an assembly of Getter Robos and Getter-like vessels assembled behind them. The voice, it seemed, had come from one of the other Getter Emperors.

"Is that...the Getter Armada?!" Kei exclaimed. "There's so many Getter Robos!"

"Nice of you to show up, Supreme Commander," Ryoma quipped. "Then again, this guy is our enemy's leader."

"We came because you wished for us to lend you our strength," the Supreme Commander replied. "So, we shall." With that, the countless Getters opened fire, smashing Nyog'Sothep with a torrent of Getter Beams.

"Nice!" Uber-Koji cheered. "Now, let's finish this guy!"

With that, the five mechs lined up to prepare to unleash a gargantuan team-up attack.

"GETTER BEEEEEAM!" the three Shin Dragon pilots roared as the city-sized mech fired a massive blast of Getter Rays.

"THUNDERBOLT BREAKER!" Tetsuya roared as Mazin Emperor G launched a bolt of cosmic lightning from its finger at the Outer God.

"INFERNO BLASTER!" Uber-Koji shouted as Shin Mazinkaiser unleashed a massive blast of heat and Photon Power from its chest.

"SPACE THUNDER!" Daisuke bellowed as Grendizer's horns shot off a gigantic bolt of cosmic lightning as well.

"GETTER...BEEEEEEEEEEAM!" Ryoma roared as Getter Emperor fired a colossal energy blast from its navel.

As the five energy blasts coursed toward the heavily-damaged Outer God, a billion of Nyog'Sothep's flutists rushed into its path to try and divert it, only to be incinerated by its power.

"Master!" Tru'nembra cried as he frantically tried to stop the attack, blaring every instrument he could to try and repel the attack. But even the Outer God couldn't hope to repel it.

"THIS IS THE END FOR YOU, OUTER GODS!" Uber-Koji shouted as their attack passed straight through Tru'nembra and struck Nyog'Sothep. "FINAL DYNAMIC SPECIAL...INFINITE EDITION!"

The blast exploded with the force of more supernovas than there were stars in a single universe's sky, and seemed to blast the Outer God apart. Indeed, the material form of Nyog'Sothep was completely gone.

"Did we do it?" Tetsuya said, panting heavily.

"No," Iophiel said. "We have only destroyed his material form." Indeed, the Outer God itself was still present – it had merely reverted to its form as a nebulous darkness...or at least, it seemed to be that way.

The assembled heroes saw a black, brown and rainbow-colored mass pulsing in the center of the dark cloud...and it still had a single tendril connected to the Prime Crossgate. But it was quickly hidden as Nyog'Sothep's flesh began to reconstitute and pull its various chunks together yet again.

"Damn it!" Ryoma cried. "That should have been it!"

But just when it seemed things couldn't get any worse, a familiar laugh began to pour out of Nyog'Sothep's various maws.

"No!" Iophiel cried. "It can't be!"

"The Euzeth Gozzo...they're still in there?!" Michiru exclaimed.

NOT QUITE, FOOLISH MORTAL, the voice replied. I AM EUZETH GOZZO OF ARUBBOTH. THANKS TO YOU, I HAVE FINALLY GAINED CONTROL OVER NYOG'SOTHEP!

"That's right," Tara said, "Nyog'Sothep was able to keep his material form because he had an anchor to our realities."

I TOLD YOU, Euzeth of Arubboth said; I AM A GENIUS! I AM THE ONE WHO SHALL DETERMINE THE FATE OF ALL THINGS! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

But even as Euzeth was gloating, Janus heard Zig making sounds – and this time he could understand them.

"Zig says that Nyog'Sothep's regeneration is slower than it was before," he said. "If we strike him now, we can completely break its hold on Eden Vital's core."

"I concur," Paul said with a nod. "But we'll need to give it everything we've got. One hundred percent."

"No, one thousand percent!" Alia said with a surprisingly enthusiastic cheer. Tara smiled at her cousins' willingness to go completely all out, but at the same time, she didn't appear to be satisfied with their answer.

"That's still not gonna be enough," she said.

"Then how much?" Paul asked.

"How about..." she said with a grin; "INFINITY PERCENT?!"

"I'm afraid that's still not enough," Metatron said unexpectedly. They poked their heads in from the sides of the screen showing Paul and Alia's images.

"Iophiel! Metatron!" Tara exclaimed.

"We need INFINITY PLUS INFINITY PERCENT!" the angel cried heroically. Iophiel smiled as her heart swelled with joy and her back sprouted wings of light. Her beloved was finally back to his old self, and she had finally regained all her power.

"What are you two doing in Alatreox's cockpit?!" Janus exclaimed.

"Paul and Alia wouldn't be able to handle the energy we need for this," Iophiel said. "But my beloved and I can."

"Though Euzeth used me," the leader of Atik Yomin said, "I must still correct the mistake of letting this abomination in!"

As Mimir Alatreox flew toward Neo Granlif, its body began to fold in the same manner as it did before, with the TZUM that served as its power source quickly accommodated for some of the more unusual changes. By the time it reached Janus and Tara's mech, the transformation was complete.

Neo Granlif reached out and gripped the transformed mech, and then opened up its chest to reveal the Exogenesis Cannon, which immediately began to charge up, creating a sphere of myriad colors.

TZIM/TZUM system Synchro level OVER activated; All enumerations, simultaneous activation...Exogenesis Engine, Infinite Overdrive activated...

"Quark-gluon plasma field generation complete!" Xengar bellowed. "Exogenesis Blade output limiter removed!"

But instead of firing the blast, the white machine pressed Mimir Alatreox against its chest with both hands, the prongs somehow fitting neatly in Alatreox's body. The sword handle began to absorb the colossal energy inside the sphere of quark-gluon plasma - and as the energy flowed through their machine, it in turn, flowed through Paul and Alia. The two youngsters grimaced as the godly power filled every cell in their bodies, causing their eyes to turn blue-on-blue again. After several seconds, their bodies turned a brilliant white, and numerous pairs of rainbow light wings sprouted from their shoulders, while their eyes shone a lustrous gold.

"Hang in there, all!" Janus cried. "There's still one more part to this attack!"

As Neo Granlif continued to charge up its Exogenesis Zankantou, the bodies of Zig and his children began to glow with a new multicolored light, which channeled itself into the almighty blade. This energy merged into the sword, causing it to grow larger and larger. Somewhere along the line, the blade split into two halves, but they began to spiral around each other, forming a beautiful double helix. Inside Neo Granlif's cockpit, the two pilots, their bodies blazing with energy and sporting countless light wings, saw a glowing blade form where their hands were clasped.

"The energy flow is too much for Neo Granlif to handle!" Xemmey called out; "Neo Granlif's structural integrity is rapidly being compromised!"

"You have to end this now!" Xengar grunted.

In desperation, Nyog'Sothep's anchor tried to stop the attack with a wave of golden tendrils, and managed to wrap them around Neo Granlif's arms, preventing them from pulling out the handle.

"No! Not now!" Paul cried as both Mimir Alatreox and Neo Granlif's bodies started to crackle, sizzle and sputter as the limitless energy of their final attack started to overwhelm their physical structure. The pilots themselves also seemed to be struggling to hold together, as they all started bleeding rainbow blood, their veins slowly starting to burst.

Suddenly, it stopped, and retracted not just its tendrils, but all of the faces on its body. After several moments, something else extruded from the form of Nyog'Sothep's core – the fully body of a girl that Janus, Tara, Metatron and Iophiel recognized.

"Nadija?" the angel gasped.

I'm...doing all I can, Nadija said, her voice clearly reflecting the immense exertion of her will; to suppress...Euzeth's will...

As she said this, the many faces of the different Euzeth Gozzos peeked out of Nyog'Sothep's remaining mass and started screaming silently.

Do...it, Nadija grunted; Before everything...is gone...I...

But before she could finish her plea, Nadija's form was absorbed back into the Outer God's body. Metatron clenched his teeth as he felt tears flow down his face...his sister was gone now.

"This is all we can do for her now," Iophiel said, clasping her beloved's hand. The angel wiped the tears from his eyes.

"FINAL BLOW..." the six roared in unison as they raised the blade over Neo Granlif's head. "...INFINITY PLUS INFINITY PERCENT...EXOGENESIS...ZANKANTOU!"

With one great swing, the double-helix blade streaked towards Nyog'Sothep's anchor even as Neo Granlif's body began to fall apart.

"GEKIRIIIIIIN..."

Paul and Alia strained with all their might to hold themselves together...

"...DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Nyog'Sothep raised more black tendrils to try and block the attack, but to no avail - the hopes and dreams of every single soul in the infinite realities was beyond anything anyone could hope to block. The Outer God's anchor, and the man who claimed to have gained control over him, exploded dramatically, all of the energy it hadn't fully consumed being expelled at once...

Somewhere in the depths of the ultimate void, a darkly shining chaotic mass roiled and bubbled. All around it were countless more flutists and drummers like those that had accompanied Nyog'Sothep. But as they played, the chaotic mass muttered and burbled all sorts of blasphemies and wicked chants completely at random.

But suddenly, the chaotic mass paused in its muttering litany...and seemed to let out a sigh of contentment...

When the light faded after Janus and Tara's final attack, DREAM noticed that their allies had disappeared. The hundreds of alternate Earths were gone, as were the countless parallel DREAMs. All that remained were those who had awakened to true shinka and the allies that had come with them.

But Neo Granlif was in a shambles - one of its arms had again been broken, and the rest of its body was falling to pieces as well.

"Janus! Tara!" Paul called out. "You okay in there?"

"Somehow, yeah," Tara replied as she sat up, her head having slammed into her control console.

"Is it...over?" Simon panted. "Did we do it this time?" The answer seemed to come as the group saw that the nebulous darkness that had been there moments ago become visible again.

"Nyog'Sothep...is still there..." Haruhi gasped.

"Geez, is there ANY way to beat an Outer God?!" Uber-Boss yelled as he slammed on his controls.

"No, Euzeth Gozzo, who served as Nyog'Sothep's anchor to our realities, is gone," Iophiel said; "and Nyog'Sothep's spiritual presence is incredibly weak compared to what it was before."

"That last attack must have not just attacked him physically," Metatron added; "but on a spiritual and even conceptual level as well."

Suddenly, a familiar-looking entity appeared, and even without any face, DREAM could see that it was incredibly angry.

"Tru'nembra!" Metatron exclaimed.

"Curse you, you craven clumps of dream stuff," the entity said, its voice sounding like a din of every ear-grating instrument imaginable; "You've shattered my glorious Master! It will take uncounted eons for the damage you've inflicted on him to heal to the point where he can feast again!"

"Then we won!" TenRyuJin cheered. "C'est magnifique!"

"Good," Daisuke said; "The universes in other Trees won't have to worry about getting devoured out of nowhere for a while."

But then the entity of visible sound started to chuckle.

"That may be," the Outer God said, "but your universes shall perish soon anyway!"

DREAM let out a collective gasp. They looked around and noticed that the holes in spacetime were still present, and still growing larger.

"That's right!" Tru'nembra said, piping triumphantly; "My Master had already consumed enough energy from your Tree's core to seal your fate! It may not have been enough to sate Him, but He will have the satisfaction of watching your pitiful end! Victory is still ours!"

With that, Nyog'Sothep and Tru'nembra disappeared, fading away as if they were mist exposed to the morning sun, leaving DREAM to their fate.

"Damn it all!" Lelouch snarled. "Isn't there something we can do?"

But DREAM didn't have to rack their brains for long - Zig and his mate suddenly turned to their offspring, and they exchanged a few cries and nuzzles before parting. The two caelceti then flew toward the Prime Crossgate, and then began to circle each other and sing a tune that only Janus had heard...the melody that Shem had played on the flute when he was trapped inside King Shitoel. As they did this, the energy particles expelled from Nyog'Sothep's body began to gravitate to the two caelceti.

"In-bloody-credible," Gill said, watching in awe as the space whales began to circle each other faster and faster and in tighter and tighter circles, until finally their forms seemed to meld together. In a burst of light, they disappeared...leaving something else in its place – a shimmering, vaguely acorn-shaped mass of golden and rainbow energy the size of the Moon. The sphere hovered in place for several moments, then dropped into the Prime Crossgate.

"They sacrificed themselves to make a new core," Kei said sadly.

"No, I think this is a natural part of the caelceti life cycle," Metatron said. "Zig seemed to know exactly what to do...as if it was all instinctive." This statement seemed to make a light bulb go on in Gill's head.

"Could it be..." he said as the realization struck him.

"What, dear?" Haruhi asked.

"Could it be that caelceti pairs r' the seeds fer new multiverses?!" the scientist exclaimed. "Yes, that's it!"

"If only I could have discovered this in my own lifetime," Bian Zoldark chuckled. "To think that all existence is born from a seed created from the dreams of an entity that isn't even aware it is dreaming."

"That's all well and good," Ruri said grimly, "but the decay isn't stopping. The Sephiroth is still dying...and once it goes, so do we, and everything else in this cosmos."

"Well, if the core is a seed," Mamoru suggested, "we gotta make it sprout!"

"Good idea, Mamoru!" Guy said proudly. "But how do we start the process? I guess we could give it energy."

"Zig and his mate used all of the energy that Nyog'Sothep hadn't completely absorbed just to form a new core," Iophiel said. "We don't have much to spare."

"Then we'll give you what we've got!" Uber-Koji said. "Since we're all borrowing strength from our other selves and all. I'm sure they'd be fine with us using it to sprout this new seed."

"How much do we need?" Bright asked.

"Ummmmm...I dunno," Janus said awkwardly. "Kinda hard to give an exact amount, since we're dealing with multiples of infinity here."

"Multiples of infinity," Elzam mused as he prepared to channel all the energy he could. "What a crazy cosmos we live in."

"Tara," Xemmey said, "Xengar and I can monitor the rate of decay. If our hypothesis is correct, then a cessation in the spacetime holes' expansion should indicate that the Tree's condition has stabilized. When it has ceased, we shall "

"Good idea," Janus said. "Okay everyone, let's focus your energy toward the Prime Crossgate! Let the seed know of the worlds we want to save, contradictions and all!"

"I suggest those among us who have a bond of affection with another link up in any way they can," Lordgenome chimed in. "If we wish to convey emotions, that will certainly help.

Metatron nodded, and took Iophiel's hand, while the couples piloting different machines linked hands. Some of the pilots used instant transport of some kind to take their beloved's hands - Akito managed to Boson Jump into the Nadesico's bridge so he could hold Yurika's hand, while Simon warped to Nia's side using Perceptual Teleportation.

"Life and death; joy and sadness; male and female; light and shadow; change and stability; they're all opposites!" Tara continued, grasping Janus' hands; "But without their opposites, those things have no meaning. The seed has to understand that!"

"If our death instinct is the desire to cease existing, as individuals or at all," Janus then declared; "Then we'll show it our desire of live as individuals, and to find balance in worlds of extremes...OUR LIFE INSTINCT!"

With that, all of the people inside the ships and mechs in DREAM began to shine, as did the demons, Devilmen, Angel children as well as Lucifer, Iophiel and even Metatron. Their forms then began to extrude gold and green vine-like tendrils – complete with tiny shining leaves - that gently curled and dipped into the Prime Crossgate. The blue veil that concealed what was beyond it began to glow green and gold as well.

As they did, the growth of the holes in spacetime started to slow down. But it didn't take long for DREAM to show signs of fatigue. Any remaining sense of time seemed to lose all meaning, so all-consuming was their focus on making the new core of the Sephirot sprout.

"The rate of decay has decreased by 57.3 percent, and is still dropping," Xengar said hopefully. "Keep going!" Just then, Shin Mazinkaiser split into Mazinkaiser and Mazinger ZERO again, and Hyper Boss Borot ZX returned to its form as Super Boss Borot. Meanwhile, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann had reverted back to the Chouginga Dai-Gurren.

"It's funny..." Char murmured. "I can't feel...my other selves anymore."

Incredible, Iophiel thought even as she channeled energy, ; the others are giving so much energy that they're regressing spiritually.

"Spacetime decay rate has decreased by 98.7 percent," Xemmey said. "Just a little more!"

"One more push!" Tara cried. Everyone in DREAM let out a heroic cry as the vines coming out of them flashed more brightly.

"Spacetime decay has ceased!" Xengar proclaimed after several seconds of this final energy surge. As the heroes stopped channeling energy, the couples let go of each others' hands, and the gold and green vines that were growing out of them disappeared in puffs of cosmic particles.

"We...did it," Simon panted. "Great job...everyone."

"Not quite," Hayato said; "We may have stabilized the new core, but we can't let this existing decay remain. "

"Hayato is right," Iophiel said grimly. "The seed may have sprouted, but it will take uncounted eons before it can fully take on its role as the new core...and who knows if your realities can remain intact until then?"

"Then we'll just channel more energy!" Kouji said. "We'll accelerate its growth!"

"You guys don't have the power to do that now," Janus said. "But I think Neo Granlif still does."

"Hold on a second!" Judau cried. "You guys are planning on sacrificing yourselves, aren't you? This is...what, the second time that you've tried it?"

"We'll assist you," Metatron said as he once again took Iophiel by the hand. But Janus and Tara looked at each other and sighed. The damaged Neo Granlif raised its still-working arm as the portal generator sputtered to life.

"Everyone," Tara said; "Thank you for helping us get this far. But we won't be able to do what we're about to do if you're all still here...so..."

With that, a gigantic rainbow Threshold opened up, which then commenced to start pulling everyone in save for Neo Granlif, Metatron and Iophiel – even Zig's children couldn't resist the pull.

"Tara, wait!" Alia cried as Mimir Alatreox tried to fight the pull of the gaping portal. But in a matter of moments, they were all sucked into the Threshold. With that, the damaged robot turned to the Prime Crossgate.

"So, what's our plan?" the reformed leader of Atik Yomin asked. Neo Granlif's two pilots looked at each other, then at their AI companions.

"Xemmey, Xengar, you have any ideas?" Janus asked. The two AI closed their eyes as they began calculating possible plans. It didn't take them long to come up with one.

"The course of action with the best chance of success will involve making the Exogenesis Engine overload and then push it into the seed. The moment it's safely planted, we'll eject the cockpit back into the Prime Crossgate."

"Sounds simple enough," Janus said. "But what if the Engine goes off before we can get clear?"

"Leave that to us," Metatron said, with Iophiel nodding. "We'll follow you in – and then once it's been overloaded, you eject toward us, and we'll shield the cockpit from the explosion if necessary."

"But if you guys take the brunt of the blast," Tara gasped, "you'll..."

"It's possible that we'll both be torn apart," Iophiel said. "But at least you two will be saved." Lifthrasir's pilot grimaced, but accepted the priestess' resolve.

"All right...let's do this," the girl said. With that, the damaged robot and two angels entered the Prime Crossgate...

In the space beyond the Prime Crossgate, there was only a white void that seemed to extend in every direction forever. Thankfully, the four quickly spotted the core that Zig and his mate had given up their existence to make. Just as they had hoped, a glowing emerald-green sprout ten miles high was poking out of the golden and rainbow seed, but it showed no signs of growing further.

"Well, this is it," Janus said as Neo Granlif and the two angels approached the new core of Eden Vital. "Let's get everything set up before we do this. We have just one chance."

"Optimal escape trajectory calculated," Xemmey said after a few seconds. "Preparing to initiate Exogenesis Engine overload."

"Ready, Jan?" Tara asked. "This is definitely our last hurdle before we can finally go home." Janus nodded. A Threshold large enough for Neo Granlif to fit its hand opened, allowing it to carefully scoop out the Exogenesis Engine.

"Sorry, Neo Granlif!" the girl then said as she and Janus focused their wills on forcing as much of their remaining energy into the Exogenesis Engine as possible. The heart-like machine started to pump and beat like a real living heart, while the robot it was powering began to spark and heat up as the reverse flow of energy started to tax its already damaged body even further.

But several minutes of this passed, and the two AIs noticed that their partners looked ready to black out from the effort...

"Stop!" Xengar called out. "Before you kill yourselves!" The two young adults stopped, and stated panting and wheezing heavily from the strain.

"I...don't understand..." Janus gasped as he struggled to breathe. "Why is...it still not...going critical?"

"I can feel it," Tara said, her chest heaving; "Just a little more would have done the trick. If only we could get a little more energy..."

As if those words were a prayer for aid, a number of blue, flame-like objects appeared and began to circle around them..

"Looks like we've got one last job to do," one of them said as it changed into a familiar form. "Can't have you dying when we can do our part too."

"Mu!" Janus exclaimed. "And you guys! I thought we sent you away!"

"Figured we'd give you a hand making that thing go off," Kamina said. "It's the least we can do."

"But if you do that, you might never be able to reincarnate!" Iophiel gasped; " And if that happens, everyone you ever knew will forget you!"

"If anything, I should be the one making that sacrifice!" Metatron said.

"I'm afraid we cannot allow that, Metatron," Jeremiah said haughtily. "YOU have a sentence to be carried out." The leader of Atik Yomin grimaced, but relented.

"Guess this is really goodbye, then," Janus said with a forlorn sigh.

"For now, anyway," Musashi quipped. "Maybe our souls won't be destroyed, and we can see each other again in some other lifetime."

"Yeah," Kittan added. "Let's hope that happens."

"I'm just glad we were able to see our friends and loved ones one last time before the end," Lalah said. "But now it's time we were on our way."

The first to change back to his soul form was Kamina, and he flew into the damaged cockpit of Neo Granlif. However, it wasn't a complete transformation – the two could still make out faded images of the people they had once been.

"Take care!" he said. "And tell Simon and Nia that I wish 'em the best!" With that, he flew back out,and into the Exogenesis Engine, which started to beat a little more frantically.

"Same here," Kittan said as he did the same. "Give my love to Yoko too, okay?" He followed Kamina into the machine

"Please watch over Amuro and Char for me," Lalah said with a smile; "And make sure they don't start fighting again." With that, she entered the Exogenesis Engine.

"I shall entrust that you will protect the world that Marianne's children worked so hard to make," Jeremiah said. "Make sure that my loyalty was not given to them in vain." Tara nodded, and with that the cyborg left and dove into Neo Granlif's engine.

"Tell Kei and the others that Musashi wishes 'em luck in the future," the Getter pilot said before passing into the unstable Exogenesis Engine as well. Next to approach were Bian, Elzam, Kyosuke and Excellen. However, the ones who had once been demons now looked human again.

"You two have truly inherited the will of the Steel Dragons," the pilot of the Aussenseiter said before turning to the children of his former comrades. "And so did you two, in the end."

"It's a shame I won't be able to see the worlds your efforts are bringing about," Bian said; "Take care of them, and treasure your friends." Janus nodded. With that, Bian's soul seemed to turn to Elzam's.

"Come, my friend," he said, placing a hand on Elzam's shoulder. "Cattleya is waiting for you."

"Of course," Elzam replied as he and Bian flew into Neo Granlif's engine.

"You did a pretty good job there, kiddos," Excellen said. "Big Sis Excellen is so proud of you!" Her image gave a thumbs-up gesture. Kyosuke just gave a snappy salute and drifted out of the cockpit.

"Thanks, I guess," Tara said, blushing a bit.

"You got yourself a real keeper, Tara," Excellen said, leaning in. "Don't let him go, no matter what!" Tara smiled, but then saw Kyosuke's soul poke his head back in.

"Let's go, Excellen!" he shouted, annoyed at Excellen's dallying; "I'd really like to be reincarnated in the same world as you once this is over, so move it!"

"Coming, honeybuuuuunch!" Excellen chirped as she followed her beloved out of Neo Granlif's cockpit and into the doorway that led to the Great God's location.

"Auntie..." Iophiel murmured as the DREAMers who had perished in the battle against the Anti-Spiral came next.

"Not much we can really say, is there?" Four said. "Please tell Kamille and Fa that I wish them the best." With that, she departed to play her part in making the Exogenesis Engine explode.

"Same goes for Akito and Captain Misumaru," Jiro said as he floated near them. "And you two. Shame I won't be around for the weddings."

"I'll make sure the wedding band plays Aquamarine's theme when I walk down the aisle," Tara said.

"Whoa, slow down there, Bridezilla!" Janus exclaimed. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves! We still have to get home!" Tara leered at Janus, causing Jiro to laugh heartily as he flew into the Engine, while Master Asia's soul came to say his goodbye.

"You two are quite the power couple," the old martial artist said with a hearty chuckle of his own. "Thank you for being there for Domon, and for helping me see the error of my ways before the end. Take care of yourselves, and the Earth I loved."

"Hey, can we do that before you go?" Janus asked. "Just once?"

"Do what?" Tara asked. However, Master Asia simply sighed before taking a deep breath.

"Answer me, Janus!" he bellowed as he punched dramatically but without the intention to hit; "…THE SCHOOL OF THE UNDEFEATED OF THE EAST!"

"…THE WINDS OF THE KING!" Janus replied just as loudly. The two exchanged a wild flurry of strikes, though Janus wouldn't have been able to catch Master Asia's strikes even if the old martial artist had chosen to fully manifest his material form.

…ZENSHIN!"

"…KEIRETSU!"

"…TEMPAH KYORAN!" the two said in sync as they bumped fists. "LOOK, THE EAST IS BURNING RED!" Master Asia laughed heartily again, and gave Janus a quick bow before departing.

Gill and Haruhi approached their daughter and her co-pilot next, keeping their bodies fully manifested this time.

"Tara," Haruhi said with a great deal of sadness. "It's time for us to go too."

The girl had known this was coming since she had laid eyes on them again in Hell, but her heart still hurt all the same now that the final goodbye had come.

"Mom...Dad..." she whimpered as she got up and embraced them both.

"Oh, how I wish we could stay," Gill said, squeezing his daughter.

"But you can't," Tara replied. "You'd just get in the way of the next generation, right? That's what Paul said you told him and Alia."

"Aye, that I did," Tara's father replied before turning to Janus.

"Janus m'boy, I'm leaving m' precious Galloway girl in yer hands. You make her the happiest lass in all the infinite cosmos, ya hear?"

"Loud and clear, Gill!" Janus replied, saluting him even as he tried to hold back his own sadness. With that, the husband and wife turned to each other.

"Well...shall we be off, m'dear?" Gill said.

"Can't hold back the next generation," Haruhi said. With that, the two reverted to their soul forms and floated into the Exogenesis Engine. Finally it was Philemon Zifell's turn.

"Tara," the old man said, "I've wanted to apologize for everything I put you and your family through. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but..."

"It's all right, Grandpa," Tara said, shaking her head. "I forgive you...and thank you." Philemon smiled, turned and flew into the Exogenesis Engine. As soon as he entered, alarms started going off inside Neo Granlif's cockpit...the core had achieved overload.

And then, to their shock, the cockpit was immediately ejected.

"Xemmey?! What's the big idea?!" Tara exclaimed as the cockpit sailed towards the Prime Crossgate. As it flew, she and Janus watched as Neo Granlif jammed the out-of-control Exogenesis Engine into the massive seed just seconds before the energy started spilling out.

"Xengar and I need to remain here to focus the energy properly," the AI said as Neo Granlif strained to keep its berserk power source in place. "Otherwise, the seed may not receive a sufficient amount."

"Take care of yourselves," Xengar said as his image started to distort and warp, before finally winking out as the energy from the engine started to erupt completely out, consuming the mighty robot in a wall of rapidly approaching energy.

But just before it could reach the cockpit, Metatron and Iophiel flew into the path of the blast, raising barriers of concentric hexagons and braced themselves against it, even as they were also pushed through the Prime Crossgate...

The crews of DREAM's various ships awoke from a daze. The last thing they remembered was Neo Granlif raising its hand and opening a massive Threshold that pulled most of them in. Now the ships and the robots, along with the Angel children and Zig's offspring were floating back in what felt like "normal" space.

"Huh? Where are we?" Yurika exclaimed as she came around. "Ruri, get us a location!" The silver-haired girl shook off her daze and typed in several commands before breathing a sigh of relief.

"Good news, Captain," Ruri answered with a little smile. "It looks like we've returned to the vicinity of Jupiter...everything appears to be roughly as we left it. Temporal displacement is roughly three-and-a-half hours from our first departure to go after Nia."

"And there appear to be no signs of any spacetime decay," Minato said.

"So we did it?!" Akito exclaimed, his eyes wide with excitement. "We actually got through all that?!"

"Woo-hoo! Yeah!" Sai whooped, leaping from his seat with joy. The rest of DREAM all began to cheer and celebrate as well, victory obtained at long last.

"Finally!" Leeron said with a big sigh; "I actually thought for a bit that we weren't gonna make it home."

"I hate to spoil the mood...but we're missing some of our fellows," Ruri said in her usual monotone whenever something was wrong.

"Yeah!" Koji said, looking around and noticing that two of their mechs were not present; "Where's Getter Emperor? And where's Neo Granlif? And Mimir Alatreox?"

"No way...they're still back in Eden Vital?" Simon gasped.

"Damn it!" Domon cried, slamming his fist against the side of his cockpit; "Of all the people that we had to lose..."

"Ryoma, Hayato and Benkei still have their own battles to fight," Go suddenly explained calmly; "That is what Shin Dragon says. As for Janus and Tara..." As he said this, Shin Dragon turned its main head toward the Angel children and the caelceti.

"We'll find 'em and bring 'em back to Earth!" Sasch said, making a snappy salute. With that, the children – save Kaworu - and the space whales entered rainbow Thresholds generated by the latter.

"Meanwhile, let's return to Earth ourselves," the remaining Angel child said. "Hopefully, we can greet our friends when they safely arrive."

When Janus and Tara came around, they found themselves in a space very different from the space surrounding the Prime Crossgate. It was somewhat dark, though a band of red shone on the horizon, shrouding the landscape in a lovely twilight that seemed to be neither clearly dusk nor clearly dawn. The ground was covered with thick, lush grass covered in dew and interspersed with a variety of trees – some in full bloom, others fruiting, and still others doing both at the same time. The only noises that could be heard were the chirping of songbirds and the sound of a creek flowing by. Nearby was an incredibly huge tree with thick branches and dotted with every fruit imaginable.

As they unsteadily got to their feet and climbed out of Neo Granlif's ejected cockpit, they saw Metatron and Iophiel also coming to their senses. However, Atik Yomin's last survivor had changed – he no longer glowed white, nor did he have rainbow light wings. Instead, he now looked almost exactly like Janus, save for the lack of a reddish-purple streak in his hair and his two eye colors being reversed. He was also wearing what seemed to be a somewhat worn pilot's uniform bearing the insignia of the long-gone Colonial Republic of Zohar.

"You guys okay?" Tara asked as she helped Iophiel stand up. "You guys nearly died protecting us!"

"I think so," Metatron said, groaning and rubbing the back of his head.

"Hey," Janus said with a smile as he helped his former nemesis to his feet. "You really do look a lot like me. We could practically be twins!"

"I...do?" Janus' almost-twin said as he turned toward his beloved. She appeared the same way she had been before regaining the full use of her abilities.

"Yes," Iophiel replied. "I think we look the way we do now because our powers are gone...Jaan."

"So, we're mortal again..." Jaan said. "I guess we finally burned that power out when we protected Neo Granlif's cockpit from the Exogenesis Engine's explosion...Tahra." The priestess who had once been Iophiel smiled and embraced her beloved, who kissed her back deeply.

"Aw, they remind me of us," Tara cooed. Janus grinned awkwardly, then looked around.

"So, what is this place?" he asked; "It's pretty nice." Jaan and Tahra looked around as well.

"I think that this...is the House of the World," Tahra said.

"What house?" Tara exclaimed. "I see a big tree, not a house." At this point, the sun touched the horizon, and the massive tree disappeared, though something else appeared in its place – a lovely, if simple hut constructed of long straight logs and woven with tree branches dotted with fruits and flowers. It had four wooden doors, one on each of its four walls. Soft golden light could be seen peeking through minute gaps in the walls and roof.

Then, stars appeared in the sky – except they were not stars, but souls that flickered and twinkled like them. They descended in an orderly fashion and began to orbit the hut as if trying to find a way in. For a moment, there was only silence as the souls floating in the sky ceased moving. Then, the four doors on the House of the World opened, revealing a glorious light within, and the souls started streaming in.

"This must be the realm within Eden Vital's core," Tahra said; "And the House is where all of the souls go when it's time to be reincarnated."

"Looks like we did it," Janus said. "Everything's going to be fine now." Just then, the echoing voice of Koji suddenly came from every direction at once.

Heeeey!

"...Did you hear that?" Jaan exclaimed, "That sounded like the Koji Kabuto of the Celestial Calendar." Soon, more voices rang out throughout Eden Vital.

You two lovebirds get back here right now, or I'll never forgive you!

Please come home, Jan...

Lelouch vi Britannia commands you...return to us safely!

Come back to us...we miss you...

Get your ass back here right now, Two-Face! You AND your girl!

It's too soon for you two to be gone...something wonderful is starting!

"They're callin' ya back," another voice, this one much clearer, came from nearby. The two looked up and saw three apparitions hovering before them.

"Hey, you guys are..." Tara gasped, momentarily forgetting about how their fun had been interrupted before it could even begin.

"The Gekiganger pilots?!" Janus and Tara exclaimed in unison as they recognized the forms of Ken Tenku, Joe Umitsubame, and Daichi Akira.

"We were, anyway," Joe said. "Now the heart of the Sephirot is borrowing our forms and memories to talk to you directly."

"So...thanks a load, you two," Daichi said. You followed the ideals that we held in life to the very end, and saved every sentient being in the multiverse."

"Perhaps humankind can evolve into a better version of itself without interference from outside forces," Ken concluded.

"Hey, we couldn't have done it without Xengar and Xemmey," Tara sighed, hanging her head, not seeing that the Gekiganger pilots had disappeared and replaced with something new. "But they..."

"Don't worry about them. They're fine," one voice, a male, said.

"It'll take a lot more than that to bring down Sanger Zonvolt," said another man. The two pilots looked back up and saw some apparitions of two men and two women, whose faces they recognized from past dreams.

"Hey, you're..." Granlif's pilot exclaimed.

"Ryusei Date, SRX pilot!" said one of the men, a brown-haired man in a pilot suit. "And these three are..."

"Mama! Papa!" Tahra cried, racing over to the brown-haired man, who was standing next to a petite woman with purple hair, also wearing a pilot suit.

"Mom! Dad!" Jaan said ecstatically as he ran to the blond man and a blue-haired woman, all in pilot suits as well.

"It's wonderful to see you both again," the blue-haired woman said.

"Yes, very," the petite woman said.

"You're Latooni Date," Tara said, pointing to the small purple-haired woman. "And you two are Brooklyn and Kusuha Luckfield!"

"Please, call me Bullet," Brooklyn said. "And thank you for helping our children."

"Now we can finally return to the source without regrets and be reincarnated," Bullet said. "Isn't that right, Sanger and Calvina?" Just then, two more images appeared - this time ones resembling Xengar and Xemmey, only they wore pilot suits much like those of the other apparitions.

"Xengar? Xemmey?" Janus gasped.

"Yes...though I do wish we could spend a little more time with these two," the image of Sanger said.

"You remember the tale of Yggdrasil and the end of the world, right, Tara?" the image of Calvina said; "When the flames of Ragnarok and the cold of Fimbulvetr consumes everything else, Lif and Lifthrasir, the last two surviving humans would take shelter within Yggdrasil; they would survive to populate a new world risen from the ashes of the old."

Tara remembered the painting that Charles had liked. To think that it would suddenly become relevant again.

"Through your actions you have, in your own way, made the legend a reality," Sanger continued. "While evil has not departed from your worlds, they are truly free to decide their own fate."

"It was a honor fighting alongside you," Calvina concluded. "Now, go live in the peaceful worlds you fought so hard to forge!"

"Wait! Don't go yet!" Tahra and Jaan cried simultaneously as the apparitions disappeared.

"I'm sorry," Tara said, hanging her head in shame. "We should have said something." Jaan and Tahra looked at each other, then back at Tara.

"It's fine..." the priestess said with a sad smile. "A long goodbye probably would have hurt more."

"Say, how the hell are we supposed to get home? Neo Granlif's toast!" Janus exclaimed. As in answer, rainbow Thresholds opened, and out poured Zig's children, who immediately began to circle them. Two of them then gently floated to the ground, and presented their tails, which would allow the four saviors to climb on one of each. Meanwhile, the Angel children ran over to Tahra and Jaan, some embracing them both and others jumping up and down happily.

"Well, that's convenient," Tara said with a giggle. "Glad they could come back and get us."

"You two coming?" Janus called to the former leaders of Atik Yomin. Jaan and Tahra looked at each other, but shook their heads.

"We'll stay here," the priestess said. "Without our powers, we can't exactly move from universe to universe anymore. But maybe if we help guide the souls who come to the House of the World for reincarnation, there's a chance we can ensure they'll remember how to avoid causing the destruction of their worlds."

"That's a great idea!" Jaan said as he hoisted Rami onto his shoulders. "Plus, I think we can make a good home for ourselves and these little ones here. Plenty of food and water."

"Take care of yourselves," Tahra replied. "And perhaps we'll see you again when your times come...though I pray it won't be for many, many years." The two pilots of Neo Granlif smiled and got up onto the largest caelceti, who rose up alongside its siblings and flew back into the rainbow Threshold.

After what seemed like the longest of eternities and the briefest of moments, Zig's children reappeared in Earth's atmosphere, near where Janus and Tara's friends were gathered.

"Hey! They made it!" Chibodee called out, noticing them as he flew around in Gundam Maxter. The various mechs and ships gathered around the approaching , all elated to see their friends safe and sound.

"We thought we'd never see you again!" "We missed ya!" "Welcome back, you two!" "Don't scare us like that again!" "Yeah!" "Wooo!"

"It's good to be back," Tara sighed contentedly.

"Man, I am SO done with fighting!" Kouji said with a long yawn, stretching out as much as Mazinger Z's cockpit would allow; "I'm ready to take a nice, relaxing vacation!"

"We may have defeated both Atik Yomin and Nyog'Sothep and brought peace to our worlds," Tara then said. "But our battles aren't over yet - not by a long shot."

"What d'ya mean?" Toji exclaimed. "We stopped all da bad guys, right? Our worlds are gonna be peaceful from now on, ain't dey?"

"We gotta make sure that our worlds STAY peaceful, right?!" Janus said. "It's probably gonna be our toughest challenge yet."

"But I know we can do it," Tara said, "no matter how long it takes!"

Back in Janus' Earth Sphere, the world was ecstatic. The threat of total annihilation had been overcome, and hope was gushing from every corner – from human, demon and Devilman. But even as they celebrated their victory alongside the rest of the Earth Sphere's residents, DREAM knew that this was also the end of their time together.

"We really have to close the Thresholds for good?" Shinji whined. "It's not fair!"

"It's for the best," Zero said. "Until the day comes when we can truly overcome the death instinct, we probably should stay in our own worlds and do everything we can do to ensure that this hard-earned peace lasts. More importantly, we can't let the power to travel between realities fall into the wrong hands."

"I agree. It would be far too easy to abuse," Bright added.

"So I guess this is goodbye, then," Judau sighed.

"Hey, it's not like we're gonna forget each other, right?" Tamaki said, giving Judau a hearty slap on the back.

"No way! I'll never forget you guys!" Sai Saici cheered. "Not in a bazillion years!"

"Besides, we'll all see each other again in Eden Vital one day," Nunnally added, her smile full of hope. "And who knows? Maybe next time around we can all live in the same world together."

One by one, the team from Tara's world said their goodbyes to the ones from Janus' world and filed onto the Nadesico, Archangel and Eternal. Some were tearful, some were humorous, and some were last intense displays of manliness. Finally, only Tara and Janus were left, while the rest of the crew from the latter's world made their way back to their own homes.

"So, Jan," Tara asked. "What's it gonna be? I'm fine with whatever world you want - all that matters is that we stay together."

"Come on, you two! Get a move on!" Hikaru yelled over the Nadesico's loudspeaker. "The portal's gonna close any minute now!"

Janus thought hard, but then smiled.

"I say we oughtaaaaa..."

And in that moment, new worlds were born...

Mankind's final destruction had been averted, and the two worlds, separate once again, knew relative peace and tranquility. But as Janus had said, DREAM's battles were far from over. There was much to be done to maintain the new order they struggled so valiantly to create, to ensure that their sacrifices would not have been made in vain.

Of course, the ills that mankind suffers from - greed, lust for power, prejudice and the like - are still present. But at the same time, man's noblest qualities - kindness, mercy, acceptance and the like - remain present as well. It's now up to DREAM to determine how best to foster these latter ideals. And after seeing what they went through, I can understand why Iophiel placed her trust in them.

But if they can do it, why can't those in other worlds?

As an Elder God, I can freely move in the space between worlds. From there, I can see countless other realities, and I can look inside them. I see your world - a world that lacks any manifestations of the Sephirotic powers, a world still waiting for saviors. Even so, the potential is there...it is still asleep in your kind, but someday it will awaken. It must, for all of our sakes.

Though most of you reading this probably lack the power to directly oppose those who would further the death instinct, there are surely ways for you to embody what DREAM stood for.

What are they, you ask?

That is an answer you must find out on your own. I am, after all, but an observer and a recorder. I cannot tell you what to do...that would go against everything DREAM fought for.

I am She Who Sings The Myth. This tale, which I gathered as fragments from the Great God's never-ending dream, was written down and edited by this young man I chose at random. He and I are no prophets, merely two of the many mouthpieces of the Great God's unknowable will, which all beings are a part of.

Still, he and I would appreciate your input. Have we given DREAM the tale they deserve? Did we touch on everything that needed to be touched on? Is there some missing piece of the tale you wanted to hear? If so, perhaps one day I'll dig into the collective unconscious and use the author to record those memories.

Until then, the author and I are grateful for your readership over the past four or so years, as is DREAM, whose stories are surely even now a part of your great, all-encompassing mythology.

And that's pretty much it. Story's over. I'll probably go ahead with a proper Epilogue and Expansion Scenarios, but for now, this fic shall be marked as Complete. It's been a real blast to write, especially this last chapter, which clocked in at and around 36,000 words in the file I uploaded! Until next time, mecha fans!