Glamorously dressed

by moonfiretiarasoulaction

When Akko and her friends meet the veterans of the war against the life fibers a new threat develops in an unexpected way. This crossover started with the humble aim to see the characters from these two franchises interact, but a year later I developed a long-term storyline in which ambitions and ideals clash to pave a new path for humanity. Go ahead! Future! (Will update monthly)

25. Chapter 25

Author's notes:

This is it for Glamorously Dressed, apart from the Hibike Euphonium tie-in and the epilogue chapter 26 which I will now start working on. I will try to publish chapter 26 on the 15th of June, but it will probably end up taking me two months again.
After that, I'm going to take my time editing, adding, and changing some things for an improved version of Glamorously Dressed which I will then publish on AOOO. But that will take several months if not a year.
I want to improve the Kill La Kill portions of the story, add more scenes involving the LWA main characters, develop REX better and improve some plot points. I also want to improve the battle scenes. There's one thing I learned when you're writing about characters who have special powers: things are definitely easier when you develop a system beforehand. Even if every character doesn't have a special power of their own - especially then - you need to lay down some ground rules about the powers a character can wield depending on their level of strength and their technical proficiency. I gravely underestimated that and I want to implement that in the improved version of Glamorously Dressed so that the action scenes become more satisfying. And I want to bring the word count of the first twelve chapters up to the average of the later twelve.

I hope you enjoy Glamorously Dressed to the end and I hope I can write a satisfying epilogue.

Stay safe and sound in 2021.

---

Samuel Barber - Agnus Dei

watch?v=FOwRW8ee4S8

---

Kinue Kinagase looked left and right at the small groups of other visitors in the recently opened Ophiocodyceps Manbavariensis Remembrance Hall.
The brunette slowly walked up to the ten-meters wide and high convex-shaped granite mushroom in the middle of the large hall.

The floor of the hall was paved with a rich-veined black marble, representing the mycelium from which the mushroom had sprouted.
Much smaller mushrooms were spread all over the floor, intended for people to sit on. But many people kneeled before the giant mushroom or lay spread out on the floor, alone or in groups.

Varnished wooden branches jutted out of the floor at about a meter distance from the walls - along the length of which, wooden statues of children, adults, and elderly people were lined up - and into the navels of these statues. The statues were imagined as a representation of the fufian race being borne from their Mother as Kinue had been.

With a calm step, Kinue walked past the other visitors in the reverential silence that hung around the large hall.
When she arrived at the base of the great white granite Ophiocodyceps Manbavariensis fruiting body she got to her knees and leaned into its gradual curve with the right side of her body, as others were doing.

With her eyes closed the Great Unifier nestled herself against the giant statue.

'Mother,' She prayed. 'I miss you so much every day. I wish I could sleep in your warm embrace again as I did back when I had the body of a child.

Being elevated so high above your other children feels lonely at times.
I want to protect them and care for them in your stead. But I have been learning that your children perhaps need to be left in charge of their own destiny from here on out…'

---

While the Great Unifier contemplated the passing of the creature that had made the fufian revolution possible, Tsumugu and Aikuro watched dozens of people clean the seats and test the audio equipment of the Omnimagi Stadium from out of the large window of the apartment they shared with Kinue.

"Everyone is looking forward to the event this evening," Tsumugu observed with a frown as he sipped his coffee. "I wish I could feel as carefree about it as them."

"It would help if Kinue wasn't so secretive about the Universal Mobility Project," Aikuro commented. "I get that she wants this to be a grand reveal, but not being allowed to know her plans makes me nervous."

"Chariot du Nord telling us not to be afraid and swearing everything will be perfectly safe when we implored her to let loose any information she could, only made me worry more," His brawny tanned lover with the red mohawk nodded. "If only we had a way around the security spells she and Ms. Meridies cast around their laboratory."

"Yes. Sadly Nonon told us that Shizuku and the others can't be reached at Luna Negra right now. But even if we had Shizuku with us, we'd still need Hõka's help to break into their computers and he won't help us with that."

"He might," Tsumugu replied mysteriously.

Akuro frowned in intrigue as his lover showed him the text he had received on his cellphone ten minutes earlier.

"Interesting," The cool handsome scientist with the pale blue hair smirked. "Then let us hope we get lucky twice before this evening."

---

'Seeing so many of us visiting here to thank you for the gift of our rebirth makes me so happy," Kinue reflected in prayer. 'I hope we can convince those who so violently reject that gift to lay down their arms and give this unexpected reality a chance.
Tonight, perhaps, might be the chance for that.

How I wish you were still with us to witness your children receive your last gift to them.
It will be so beautiful...'

---

In the department of internal security's former command center at Amaterasu Tower in Dinas Affaraon - which Colonel Yasmine Bennouna and General Léa Charpentier had turned into REX's base of operations - the two women watched the advance of the New SDD in Torngarsuk Tower on a large wall-screen.

"I would still have preferred to be field commander instead of Colonel Accola," Yasmine stated with crossed arms while her eyes wandered over the REX technicians who manned the keyboards and screens at the walls and islands in the large command center. "But I trust in your judgment as usual."

"We successfully reorganized the outer defensive walls in case of a new attack," The French-born Volch'ya Logovo teacher with the long yellow hair next to her replied with an uncharacteristic frown at the battle on the screen before them. "Our commanding officers in the outer defensive wall towers are ready for anything.
Ally is the most capable Colonel I have next to you, and I need you here to keep me cautious."

"You're worrying me," Yasmine said while watching the REX squadrons in the hallways of Torngarsuk Tower defiantly defend their positions against the relentless attacks of the New SDD battalions. "If I am to keep you cautious I need you to smugly relish the plan you concocted in order to defeat our opponents. That's how we work."

"I might act with more bravado again if Yana gets back to me on the malfunction in the command control room of Torngarsuk Tower that allowed the New SDD access there. And I am still nervous about the reason why Annissa Quasim left field command to Captain Chuktiu and hasn't been seen on camera since then," Lea told her Morrocan-born friend with the black ponytail on the left side of her head. "Trust me, Yasmine. I need you here with me."

---

'From the beginning, I wanted to use your gift with the intent to help the people who inhabit this world to a greater understanding of one another,' Kinue continued her prayer. 'Now, I have the opportunity to do this for every creature in our galaxy. Those who were once lost to us will again interact with us and each other through your gift and the magic of Yggdrasil…'

---

Standing near a small church in a pastoral scene with an uninhabited village nearby and a picturesque view over empty meadows after a rain shower, Yitte, Tine, Heather, and Diana took turns hugging Akko and Bohdana and tried to comfort them to the best of their ability.

The two young women took the occasion - after having been stationed in the peaceful and as of yet uninvaded scene - to allow themselves time to quietly grieve over Isabelle and Nela's deaths, of which they had learned from Mary before their blue-haired friend passed out in her future mother's arms.

---

Mary herself was at that moment being watched over by both Emma and Andrew, who sat close by the bed she was resting on in her room in the Arc-en-ciel holding each other's hand as they guarded their future daughter.

At the same time, Scarlett Lilly was sitting by the bed of Anais Bergér in the girl's apartment in a hallway at the other end of the Arc-en-ciel's living quarters.
After having found what looked like the insensible body of the short blonde tomboy in the scene they had been fighting in she brought the young woman she had found to Anais's room in the Arc-en-ciel.

The tall Venetian blonde Brit hoped as fervently as Emma and Andrew that the young women lying in the beds they were keeping watch over would soon regain their full strength.
Both of the recuperating exhausted young witches they were caring for were entirely unaware that the other had found her way into the Arc-en-ciel and was resting at less distance from her mortal enemy than during the inhuman struggle they barely survived.

---

'Oh, Mother!' The Great Unifier concluded her private musings. 'May all the creatures in this great Milky Way be able to find a greater understanding and compassion for one another. It is perhaps strange to hope that science and magic will accomplish this, but I truly believe that we can make it so. Once we find this peace and mutual affection I am sure that after what your children will achieve tonight harmony will spread throughout the universe.'

---

Among the green hills near Skudeneshammer, a deafening silence reigned after the carnage which followed the opening act of the Iron Hammer Metal Festival.
Thousands had been slain for the sake of cruelly upholding a principle. For the promise made to appease the Chaos God Ehichapu.

A tall and stout teenage girl with long blonde hair who had been hiding underneath the corpses of her friends tried desperately not to breath, not to weep, not to make a sound.
To her horror she was teleported to the hilltop where the cute slender girl with the long black pixie bob haircut who had slaughtered all of the other festival-goers stood and grinned at her.

Trembling in fear, Thora looked up at her executioner.
The history student was randomly reminded of the death of Princess Maeve, who lived at the court of the medieval Kingdom of Connacht at the start of the Irish expansion.

After a diplomatic incident, Princess Maeve and Princess Tallulah were brought before the King and Queen who proclaimed while glaring at the beautiful kneeling slender teenage girls that the person responsible for the situation would be put to death.

Maeve shivered pitifully as in a fever. With tears in her fearful and plaintive eyes, the cowardly and spoiled Princess who wore her long curly pale-auburn hair in a very loose fishtail braid muttered in a tremulous and faint voice "Please… I did not cause the accident."

Princess Talullah saw how her cousin couldn't stop trembling. The brave teen with the long flowing black hair took pity on the creature to her right and looked up confidently into the Queen's eyes, saying: "I am the one who caused the accident."

When the other nobles saw how Princess Maeve didn't speak up when Princess Talullah sacrificed herself to save the girl's worthless life they lost all pity for the generally despised girl who was poisoned and thrown in a ditch not much later.

Thora remembered seeing a picture from 2005 of a confidently smiling handsome young woman with long black hair in a blue jacket and brown trousers by the name of Isla Rosach in front of a university building.
Witches recently shared that Isla's soul was transported into Princess Maeve's body upon her death.

After Maeve's demise her loyal maid Rory - a cute slender teenage girl with long black hair that was kept in a crown braid - helped Isla undress and wash for the Royal banquet that evening.

Before she confidently strode toward the banquet, Isla remembered seeing Talullah bravely waiting in her cell for her execution without so much as a single tear rolling from her eyes and swore to get her out.

"Stupid Maeve," The handsome black-haired young architect smiled in the dead Princess's body. "Talullah and Rory are the only people who ever cared about you."

Thora learned that Maeve's murderers were executed and Isla eventually managed to become Queen of Connacht. But that didn't help her now.

"Please…" The beautiful stout Swede begged the girl in the dark-blue witches' tunic with a quivering lip while sobbing out loud, hoping desperately that allowing the apparent heartless witch she was kneeling for complete access to her emotions would move her to pity. "Please don't."

"Poor pitiful child," Smilla Møller's pitch-black eyes smiled as she reached out and lifted the face of the terrified taller girl up by the chin. "Of course I will."

With a quick swing of her silk blade, the slender Dane sliced her helpless victim in two at the waist.

Standing on top of a hill and gazing out over a valley which were both spread all over with the corpses of Svealand metal fans whose blonde, silver, and white hair shone in the sun, Smilla took a moment to enjoy the carnage she had indulged in.

"I wonder how Myriam is doing?" The cute girl with the long black pixie bob haircut wondered out loud.

---

Five and a half years ago. Tokyo, Japan.

Filiz's voice:
'Cowardice is the alpha and the omega of mankind's destiny. The beginning of its dominance and the end of its existence. All that man is, was, and will become is linked to this vice.'

This was what I pondered in frustration while sitting on one of two beige armchairs that had been placed side by side in my hotel suite with a low hexagonal glass table in between them at my request.

To my right was a wall-wide window that looked out over Minato ward.
The walls were clothed in beautiful shiny varnished oak panels and the floor was covered with a floor-wide white carpet.

The source of my frustration was the transmission of the European Judo championship which I had decided to watch in order to kill time.
Two tall tomboyish young women in the over 78-kilo weight class were engaged in one of the most boring fights I ever laid my eyes on.

The handsome Brit with the black bob on the left of the television screen built into the wall before me earlier pulled her French opponent in the blue gi along with her before throwing the blonde bobbed young woman with an ashi-guruma and was awarded a yuko for it and a waza-ari for the more successful chokehold she performed on her adversary on the ground.

As they got up again the two robust young women walked up to each other and grabbed one another at the shoulders.

The Brit pushed down on the shoulders of the blonde, causing her opponent's knees to bend and pushing her upper body down to the level of her own stomach.
The attractive French judoka in the blue gi exerted every muscle in her trembling legs, torso, and arms while looking up with a frustrated and humiliated expression into the cold brown eyes of her completely erect black-haired adversary.

It was so easy to see the self-satisfaction in the Brit's hard glare as her opponent proved unable to fight back against her superior strength.
A self-satisfaction that spoke about her annoying lack of ambition.

She ended up winning the match easily and out of boredom I opened my laptop and did some administration for REX.

By the time I finished my work two tall young amazons with high ponytails bowed and approached each other to start the fight for the gold medal in the over 78 kilo weight class.

The blonde Dutch girl grabbed the arm sleeves of the Italian judoka and tried to pull the beautiful blackette towards her, but the black-haired girl who earlier defeated that annoying Brit didn't move an inch.
The Italian easily pulled her desperately struggling pretty blonde opponent along with her by the arm sleeves, causing their ponytails to bob up and down, and threw her dutch challenger over her hip.

It only got the Italian a waza-ari, but when they landed on the floor she went for a well-executed kesa-gatame.
While her Dutch opponent landed on her back the Italian leaned on the right side of her body over the young woman's upper torso and hugged her arms around the blonde's neck and right arm in a tight lock.

The blonde struggled to free herself as the referee started the count. However, the handsome blackette who was calmly looking down on her balanced herself by leaning on her bent right leg and stretching her left leg which reinforced her clamp-like hold.

With perfect control, the young woman with the black ponytail dominated her outclassed beautiful blonde opponent and was awarded a second waza-ari and thus won the fight with ipon.

I noticed that the defective way in which the Italian threw the Dutch judoka was very unlike how she fought in her previous matches.
The blackette obviously knew that the other girl excelled at grappling technique and wanted to give her a fighting chance. Nevertheless, she made sure to quickly defeat the inferior blonde without humiliating her.
What a difference with the other fight I gave my full attention to earlier.

I heard my visitor announce herself and eagerly got up to open my hotel suite door.
Halting my advance for a moment I wiped some cookie crumbs from my black trousers and straightened out the white woolen sweater I was wearing before I proceeded to grab the handle to the beige wooden door.

As always, Valentina carried the smell of glamour and accomplishment with her wherever she went.

I wished I could smell anything while I closed the door and she walked straight towards the high rectangular black wooden table in the middle of the apartment's dining room where she placed a square package in a white plastic bag.
I can count the days that I was ill in my life on one hand, but I had a very persistent cold at that time.

"Sestrukha!" I greeted my handsome Russian friend with the wavy blonde bob as she turned to me. "Welcome to Tokyo."

"How about that?!" Valentina exclaimed as we hugged. "You get more buff every time I see you. I try to keep up with the training schedule you advised me to follow, but I fear I cannot shake my addiction to sweets."

"Speaking of sweets, that package you placed on the table looks suspiciously like a cake-box from Simeon's," I grinned as I took the thick crimson coat Valentina was wearing and hung it into the beige wooden wardrobe closet next to the entrance door.

She stood before me dressed in a grey knitted sweater and brown trousers and observed me with a smile.

"How naughty of you, Sestrukha," I teased. "after I told you not to get me anything."

"Well, we have more than one thing to celebrate this evening, Filiz Osdemir," Valentina chuckled.

"I concede," I shrugged while I walked over to a cupboard/refrigerator, took out some plates and cutlery, and handed Valentina a sharp knife to cut the cake with.

My friend and business partner took the beautiful decorated pink-and-orange cake box out of the plastic bag and opened it.

"How gorgeous, yeah!" I exclaimed at the sight of the delicious buttercream cake which was decorated with pink and white whipped cream roses and a marzipan number 13. "Thank you so much for this, Sestrukha. I always loved Simeon's cakes."

Valentina turned her eyes on me for a moment while she was cutting the cake and smiled.

"There is something different about you," She observed.

"Is it my sexy husky voice?" I asked while scraping my sore throat and tilting my head.

"Very funny. If I must put a name on it, you somehow seem happier than you usually are. Not that you aren't generally content and lively."

I felt myself blush and grinned at the reason.

"Well, I think I may have fallen in love, yeah," I confessed.

Valentina looked at me as if I had said I grew a tail. I took my cell phone and showed her a picture of Nela one of my attendants secretly took of her some time after our fight.

"A girl?" Valentina smiled while she placed a piece of cake on each of our plates and stored the rest of the cake in the refrigerator. "I suppose you are at the age to develop such feelings."

"Her name is Nela Novotna. I fought her in Czechia a few months ago. She's sharp. Insightful. Like you are. And she's rather cute, don't you think?"

"She's a very handsome girl," Valentina agreed. "But she seems like she'd be a handful. Which is probably why you like her."

"Hahaha!" I laughed. "Yes. She's a prideful thing."

After I took the bottle of champagne from the fridge and some glasses we walked into what was supposed to be the bedroom of the suite and sat down with our cake and drinks on the table in between us.

"To tell you the truth, I always expected you to be more like me when it came to these things," Valentina remarked while we watched two male judokas wrestle on the television.

"What? You mean sleeping around with whoever pleases me?"

"How crude," My friend smirked. "I didn't think you would be the type to fall in love."

"I just turned thirteen. A lot of things may change," I said. "I have lots of plans for the future and I want to know whether I am judging Nela correctly, so I have a few people observing and protecting her for me until I feel REX is strong enough to need less of my attention."

I saw how Valentina gave up on resisting the cake and picked up her plate.

"I am capable of very strong affection, Valentina, yeah. I harbor very strong affection for you. But ultimately life makes us all tools of each other.
There is nothing more important to me than REX, to which I consider myself and everyone else a pawn.
The infatuation I now feel for Nela Novotna may develop into something stronger. But she too must always come second to REX.
On that note: Is there any news from Yana on the uniform?"

"It appears still to be in the dormant state it reverted to last year," Valentina stated while eating her cake. "Our scientific research team has not been able to discover much more for the time being, but one of the witches in the team has developed the theory that the uniform may not actually be an intelligent lifeform as we have been thinking."

"Interesting. Let her research this theory and continue the investigation towards the existence of other such uniforms. There have to be more than two of them."

I picked up my own plate and started to eat my piece of cake. Simeon's cakes are the best in the world. So sweet and fluffy. The best treat I can think of. Thank you for that time, my dear Valentina, yeah.

"A strange urban legend came to my attention some time ago," My valued friend spoke up while leaning back in her seat.

"Oh?"

"There are rumors that many of Japan's yakuza families have been united into one large group over the past two years, though the police struggles to find proof for this."

I frowned amusedly at Valentina since we both knew that I had been uniting these yakuza groups under the banner of REX.

"It seems this process started when a little girl broke into the house of a Tokyo oyabun and murdered him and his household after enduring a lengthy torture," She continued in an insinuating tone of voice.

"Hahaha…" I chuckled in embarrassment like only Valentina could make me feel. "Such an amusing tale. I cannot imagine how an elementary school student would take over a yakuza family."

"If REX is most important to you, you are most important to REX," My better half preached without taking her eyes off the television screen. "I need you to promise me that you will not undertake any more actions that might endanger your safety."

"I know, Sestrukha. I will be good from now on. I promise," I smiled while eating my cake.

"If you ever feel bored just get someone from REX to bring you to the laboratory and ask Yana to wear the uniform and fight you.
In a few more years you'll be able to apply for education at Volch'ya Logovo. I only wonder what we'll do to keep you entertained afterward, however.
I fear nothing in this world comes close to the satisfaction of learning how to use magic."

"I don't worry about that, yeah," I grinned. "By the time I will finish magic school REX will finally be ready for its war against the Russian government.
… I do sometimes wish I could attend magic school already though."

"I know," Valentina smiled at me. "But the Witches' Council is extremely strict about the age requirements I'm afraid.
With the staff of Volch'ya Logovo Lyceum increasingly being indoctrinated with the tenets of REX, I have no doubt I can get you in even if by some miracle you fail the tests. But there is no way Headmistress Sarangerel Galtmaa will dare to sneak a thirteen-year-old into school."

"You have done an amazing job at Volch'ya Logovo, my dear Valentina. Within three years the school is practically owned by REX."

"I must share much of your praise with Professor Charpentier. Once I was able to bring her into the fold her tremendous influence among the other teachers worked wonders in spreading our ideology among the staff and students. That is not to say there are no disappointments," My regal friend with the wavy blonde bob scowled.

"Ah yes," I giggled. "You told me about that Dolgorukova girl who started school this year. I still don't understand why she gets on your nerves so."

"The frustration that spoiled Princess causes me is an acquired taste, Sestrukha," Valentina sighed with a roll of her eyes.

"It's starting," I said when I saw the logo in the right corner of the television screen change into a small golden arc.

The screen turned dark and to the far right of it, a golden sun slowly started to shine brighter and brighter over a blue map of Japan.
As the sun grew brighter it moved in a large arc from the right to the left of the screen over a blue map of The Russian Federation until it came to a halt right over the middle of the map, shining on both nations at once.
As the map of the two countries disappeared into the background the large golden letters GAC appeared superimposed on the screen while a bright tune played.

Abruptly the image on the television screen changed and the camera zoomed in over rows of applauding people who were lined up in front of a stage in a large television studio.

In front of the draped stage a young Russian man with short wavy light-brown hair in a light-green tuxedo and a young Japanese woman with long black hair in a beautiful flowing burgundy gala dress stood side by side waiting for the applause to die out.

Valentina skillfully opened our bottle of champagne and poured us each a glass.

"Good evening!" The male presenter said in beautiful Russian while his words were translated in Japanese at the bottom of the screen. "And welcome to the launch ceremony of the Golden Arc Channel."

"We have an informative and entertaining evening planned for you!" His Japanese colleague added while her words were being translated into Russian text. "During the first half of the show, you will learn all about the programming schedule we have prepared for our beloved viewers in the coming weeks."

"And to spice things up in between this presentation we will enjoy the music and stage performance of St. Petersburg's colorful band Little Big who are getting ready behind the curtains!" The Russian presenter stated with a wide movement of his arms to the red curtains behind him and his colleague as they moved apart.

"Happy birthday, Filiz Osdemir," My loyal friend toasted me as we clinked our glasses. "Congratulations on becoming a major opinion-maker at the age of thirteen."

"Likewise, my dear Valentina," I grinned. "Let us enjoy this new road we are setting out on together. To REX!"

---

In the ladies' room of a Swedish high school three last year students were occupied in conversation over a picture one of them was showing the others on her smartphone.

"I'm telling you: it's her!" The tallest of them, a fashionable girl whose dark-blonde hair fell straight down to right underneath her jawline and who was wearing an expensive black blouse with blue trousers and pearl earrings agitatedly exclaimed while pointing at the screen of her device.

"How would Myriam even have gotten into a magic school?" Her friend with the light-orange braided pigtails who wore an orange shirt over white trousers said to the fashionista with the hard face. "I thought the police found her and shot her?"

"That was just some stupid gossip story, Roisin. I can't believe you actually believed that!"

"Oh God, Freja! You're right. She really does look like her!" The beautiful girl with the long blonde hair next to them exclaimed as her eyes widened in horror at the internet article displayed on the screen of her friend's smartphone with a picture of several Luna Nova students in the town square of Blytonbury.

Petronella vividly remembered what their old classmate Myriam had done two years ago during school lunch. The traumatic experience had been burned into the gentle blonde's memory. As was the smell of the hamburgers they were served that day. She hadn't been able to eat the things since then.

It had been an ordinary day. Petronella had sat to the left of Freja at the corner of their table. Myriam had sat at the opposite corner with her friend Finley to the left of the tall ladylike girl with the long black hair.

Finley and Myriam had been inseparable since middle school.
Finley was also the school idol. A cool tall tomboy with short blonde hair, she excelled at sports and acted like a knight in shining armor to the other girls.
Freja and Petronella were always a little jealous of Myriam for being so close to their idol, Finley.

That day they had just been talking and joking back and forth, mainly Freja and Finley.
Myriam had been engaged in calmly pre-slicing her hamburger in cubes while the others talked.

Then, without warning, the blackette switched the way she held her sharp meat knife into a dagger-grip and plunged the tool into the throat of the blonde tomboy she had been friends with for years.

Petronella remembered how Myriam just sat there on the other side of the table and ate her meal while humming.
Finley didn't move. The knife was lodged in her throat and the point came out through the back of her neck while blood sprayed out of the wound.

The entire dining hall was quiet except for Myriam's humming and the few last seconds of Finley's life in which the blonde tomboy made a faint choking sound.
After the first shock, the teachers cautiously brought Petronella, Freja, and the other kids near Myriam to safety while they alerted the emergency services.

Myriam somehow escaped after her arrest, but the other students weren't told about that initially. It was only later that Petronella and Freja discovered the horrible truth.

"I won't stand for this!" Freja proclaimed with a vicious smirk on her face. "That monster thinks she escaped justice, but we know where she is now!"

"You're right! We have to warn the police!" Roisin agreed with her fashionable blonde friend. "That magical police force will surely arrest her if they find out what Myriam's done!"

"We have to take revenge for Finley's sake!" Petronella exclaimed in turn, fired on by the other two in spite of feeling faint because of the sudden memory.

"Let's go to the Headmaster's office!" Freja stated. "We'll get that bitch thrown in jail for the rest of her… haaaaaaaaghhh!"

Roisin's complexion grew pale as a sheet when she saw two giant blades cut through the door of the cubicle behind Freja and slash through the tall blonde's upper body.
The always proactive friend she looked up to so much coughed up blood over the ripped-up black blouse the blonde wore on her horribly pierced belly.
The next moment one of the blades that stuck through the middle of Roisin's friend slashed upward and the other downwards, nimbly slicing Freja's corpse in two.

The last sensation Roisin was aware of was Petronella grabbing her by the left hand and pulling her out of the ladies' room.

Petronella's mind simply worked on auto-pilot, running toward the schoolyard through the hallways.
After she got out of the ladies's room the gentle girl with the long blonde hair realized that there was no more weight attached to Roisin's hand, so she quickly let go.

Trying to ignore the sounds of carnage and the screams of the other students behind her who also started to run towards the schoolyard, Petronella instinctively knew what was chasing her and ran for her life to escape the horror her mind had struggled to comprehend for the past two years.

Faster! Faster! As far as her poor trembling legs could take her. All the while forcing herself not to look back under any circumstances!

---

"We asked Mary Twycross and Lady Satsuki and they agreed that after almost dying two times you did more than enough for the fight against REX, Anais," Amelie Bergér told the young woman who was lying in her daughter's bed wearing a salmon pink nightgown.

"I'll remind you again that I didn't almost die, Maman,' The short athletic girl with the short blonde bob stated with crossed arms. "It was a tough battle and I passed out at the end of it, but I beat my opponent soundly and teleported him into the magiconstruct prison. I did not nearly die."

"Yes, dear," Amelie Bergér nodded with an indulgent grin.

"Your Maman and I are happy that we get to spend some more time with you after you fought so bravely," The husband of the stout silverette with the long ponytail and the small rectangular glasses said while sitting next to her with his hands on his thighs. "Is that so wrong?"

"N… No," The girl who looked exactly like his daughter stammered in reply at the short but muscular man with the long wavy blonde hair.

"Lady Satsuki is right: After such a heroic fight you should allow your body to rest. Your friend, Mary Twycross, also had her body tasked severely after fighting that Filiz and she is staying in the Arc-en-ciel after waking up in order to allow herself proper recuperation."

"Mary Twycross is not my friend, Papa," The look-alike of his daughter growled the real Anais Bergér's feelings on the matter to Maurice Hottinguer.

"Be that as it may, you will agree with me that a soldier needs to be at full strength before they can properly serve on the battlefield?" Maurice grinned while he sat up and crossed his arms.

"Yes…" The girl in the bed grumbled while looking at the wall screen above the chest of drawers against the wall to her right.

"I'm sorry, Chou-Chou. I can't hear you," Maurice teased the girl he assumed to be his daughter with relish.

"I said I agree," The young woman growled like a cat as she looked the man in the eyes.

"Good," Amelie Bergér smiled at her husband and the girl in the bed.

"So Mary and Lady Satsuki are both aboard the Arc-en-ciel?" The girl asked with a strange glint in her eyes.

"Yes. council member Donahue replaced Lady Satsuki in the maze," Amelie Bergér replied.

"Hmm. I wonder why they switched places."

"Might be because you and your friends are doing so great in the maze," Amelie told the girl with the short blonde bob in the salmon pink nightgown. "I do fear REX is far from beaten, since everyone still seems on edge. But I hear the nine new witches managed to imprison quite a number of REX soldiers. And thanks to Mary their leadership took quite the beating."

"Hmmm… I hope there will still be a fight going on by the time I'm back to a hundred percent," The young woman who looked exactly like Anais Bergér grumbled.

"Don't worry yourself about that," Amelie scolded. "Jessica and Christophe have been asking when they can see you.
I'll get you something to eat - because you barely had lunch - and bring them with me."

"Wait… How many people do you have lined up to bring me sick visits?" The young woman pretending to be her daughter asked with a suspicious glare while reading Amelie's mind beforehand.

"Well, obviously all of your friends, your brother, your boyfriend, and your nieces and nephews want to see you after they heard you came back from the battlefield unconscious," Amelie said while standing at the door. "What would you like to eat?"

"Crépe…" The girl in the bed sighed.

---

"Please…" Petronella begged the tall and stout elegant young woman with the long black hair and the braid on the left side of her face who was staring at her like a wolf at a sheep.

The schoolyard was littered with the dead. The head of a big muscular boy a year below the gentle blonde girl fell on top of the bloody bisected corpse of a music teacher with glasses who wore her long blonde hair in a bun.
Then, the four parts into which Myriam had sliced his body with the two long silk blades she had in each hand when he tried to sneak up on her from behind fell in a heap beside the monstrous girl.

"Pl… Pl… Please…" Petronella sobbed while edging backward.

She knew there was no escape. Her eyes wandered over the horribly mutilated corpses of her classmates who were spread all over the schoolyard which bordered on Lobhdain Street. Spread amidst them were the bodies of the other students and teachers. Myriam had chased a bunch of them to the schoolyard. The rest had come running into the yard to see what was going on.

Looking towards Lobhdain Street the people driving in their cars and the passers-by didn't notice anything was wrong. Petronella guessed that Myriam was using magic to that effect.

"I missed you girls so much," Myriam said with glee in her voice as she slowly advanced on the trembling and sobbing slender blonde who hugged herself in terror. "I couldn't see any of you for two whole years. So when Filiz said she would allow me to indulge in my every fantasy I knew what I wanted to do first of all."

Petronella's pleading eyes looked towards the cute girl with the long black pixie-cut hairdo in the light-blue witches' tunic who had teleported into the playground about a minute ago and observed everything from a distance.

"Please…" The beautiful blonde begged. "Please save… me."

"It's time to join your friends in the Allform!" Myriam laughed as she brandished her silk blades.

With a scream fit for the damned Petronella turned around and ran, knowing full well that fight nor flee would help her.
To her shock her legs were sliced from under her. The girl's upper body landed on the floor with a terrified expression on her face before Myriam chopped her head off.

"That was nice," Myriam sighed as she cleaned both of her weapons with a spell and pocketed them.

"So here you were?" Smilla said while stepping over the bloody corpses that lay spread around the schoolyard. "I wondered where you went off to after we finished the first town we landed in."

"Yes. I apologize for going off on my own, but I really wanted to have this place to myself," Myriam giggled.

"Geez. You could have just told me," Her friend rolled her eyes. "I would have left you as you liked."

Myriam looked around at the carnage she had wrought for a minute or two and sighed.

"I had so much fun here," She smiled. "I spent so much time denying my true self and then I was on the run. Filiz Osdemir recognized the kind of person I was and helped me to find my path in life."

Smilla curiously observed the taller girl.

"An instrument of destruction needs to be employed that way, Smilla!" Myriam exclaimed with a proud grin as she placed her hands on her hips. "Let us proceed to use our talent and inclination to the benefit of our beloved leader!"

"Now I'm following!" Smilla cheered while she pulled her silk blade and swung it high. "Let's get back to work! It's time to teach the people of this town the true meaning of funeral mass!"

---

Constanze carefully watched the leyline exit in a man-made cave located at the top of a mountain that formed the highest peak among the two mountain ranges around the wide canyon where her friends were at that moment fighting REX soldiers.

Instead of guarding the leyline entrance of the scene, Ryuko and Uzu had opted to be proactive and welcome the enemy at the leyline exit from the scene that gave way to the one Constanze and her friends held.
REX had pushed through when they did enter their designated scene, but Ryuko's team managed to keep them contained in the canyon even if they were engaged in brutal fighting.

They had left fused Constanze in charge of guarding the exit.

Fused with Shirõ Iori, the diminutive German witch had found an entertaining and fascinating passtime during her watch by synergizing their knowledge in their respective fields.
By the time she was alerted to the leyline exit opening to a new visitor Constanze had created about twenty-four little robots about the size of a hand from hemp, flax, wool, linnen, and magic.

The short young witch with the long black ponytail got up and prepared to use a teleportation spell on the newcomer.
Her palm-sized friends where prancing around at her feet, against the walls of the cave, and on the ceiling.

In the bright green light of the leyline exit a slender girl a little taller than Constanze appeared.

"Oh my!" The cheerful individual gushed. "I had expected finding my target would be a hassle in this magical maze! Just imagine my chagrin when I realized in what situation I found myself after entering the main leyline entrance to Luna Negra!"

The girl wore her hair in two long drill-like pigtails and held a beautiful parasol in her right hand that matched the fushia-and-white pattern of her baggy sleeveless T-shirt and wide palazzo pants.

Constanze could tell she was capable of generating a huge amount of magical energy.

"So this is a fortunate meeting, Luna Nova girl. I hope you can be my guide in this place, because I sorely need one. And if you have any problem with that prospect…" The girl whose name Constanze knew from Shirõ Iori to be Nui Harime grinned. "Well, I can be very convincing."

---

At the same time, in the wide canyon outside, fused Hannah and fused Nonon were flying close to the edge of the cleft's west wall, dodging the blue energy orbs fused Ifunanya Obesere launched at them.

#I didn't want to believe Mary when she said this woman was nearly on par with Diana as a witch!# Hannah England exclaimed while warding off a heat-bubble her pursuer tried to cast over her. #But it's starting to seem like she was sugarcoating things!#

#Good!# Fused Nonon transmitted back. #I thought we were the only ones scared out of our minds!#

The two witches flew underneath an overhanging rock that was shattered by one of Ifunanya's attacks and quickly teleported several dozens of meters behind her.
To their fright a clone of the REX soldier appeared before each of them.

Hannah quickly cast a protection spell to ward off Ifunanya's attempt to teleport them and Nonon drew her silk blade to block the attack of the other clone.

#Hannah! Your friend, Chloe de La Fontaine, tells me there are Ariola Crystals forming inside of us!# The pinkette, who was wearing the light-blue SDD uniform, called out to her companion as they desperately defended against the swordsmanship of Ifunanya's clones.

Hannah checked the fused body of her friend and sensed that Ifunanya's third clone was floating behind them and was targeting them with crystallization spells.

#Great catch, Chloe!# The redhead transmitted while casting a series of protection spells.

#Darned! My protection spells aren't working! And I can't annul or disintegrate the spell she used!# Hannah cried out in despair as she sensed the crystals forming in her body while dodging blue energy orbs from two of Ifunanya's clones. #I hope Mr. Sanageyama and Miss Matoi defeat that Siberian guy and those other REX soldiers quickly, because we urgently need help!#

"The four of you are so weak it's insulting!" Ifunanya exclaimed while merging the two clones that were fighting Hannah fused with Frank. "I should have had the others deal with you!"

The Russian woman of Nigerian descent in the dark-blue REX uniform created a miniature electrical storm around Hannah and Frank and blasted their fused form down into the canyon with an orange energy orb.

To her surprise, Nonon cast a sonic spell that made the Ariola Crystals disappear in her body and that of her companion.

"Don't look down on us!" The pinkette exclaimed in Chloe de La Fontaine's voice. "I won't lose to someone who is on par with Diana Cavendish!"

Hannah quickly teleported to her friend's side and warded off Ifunanya's attack with her sillk blade before teleporting the two of them toward Uzu Sanageyama a nanosecond before the dimensional containment spell their opponent was casting on them took effect.

The two saw Uzu Sanageyama in a light-blue suit fight a gigantic Mongolian man with intense golden eyes and a black mustache and goatee in a dark-blue witches's uniform over the middle of the wide canyon.

#Monkey! We have to work together against these two!# Nonon told her friend who was casting a large glowing green energy shield in front of him in order to defend against the giant red energy spear his opponent had launched toward him.

#I'd like to believe working together would make a difference, Nonon! But I've got enough trouble with this guy without having to take on his friend too.#

#Where is that older friend of theirs?# Ifunanya asked the large burly Buryat REX soldier while launching several high-pressure bombs at Hannah and Nonon.

#I already teleported him to the magiconstruct prison,# The Buryat REX soldier replied with a grin.

Ifunanya watched the man clash his silk blade against Uzu's and smirked.

#Congratulations, Colonel Mergen. Let's finish these three. I can sense that our soldiers are experiencing difficulties in their battle against Ms. Matoi#

Ifunanya created a glowing red orb in each hand and sent them flying towards Nonon and Hannah. The two young women, floating side by side about twenty meters before her stretched their arms out before them.

It was then that Ifunanya realized that she hadn't been paying attention.

The purple droplets the tall black woman's opponents had been creating all around her became visible and heated up thousands of degrees in less than a second.
The woman with the shoulder-length black cornrows cast a few quick spells, but the liquid in the droplets reacted with the heat and the air, creating an explosion that resounded all though the canyon.

Mergen created a shockwave that blasted Uzu into the west wall of the canyon and cast a heat bubble around the area where the green-haired man landed, ready to intervene if Ifunanya's adversaries tried to teleport her away.

Meanwhile Hannah and Nonon sensed that their attack had little effect on the woman while staring at the cloud of dust before them.

#We have to think of something fast,# Hannah said as she blasted a shockwave into the cloud.

Ifunanya appeared behind her and shot a blast of blue energy at the redhead which she barely stopped with a translucent shield while Nonon engaged the woman with her silk blade.
But at that moment a clone of the woman with the long black cornrows appeared next to Hannah and teleported the surprised witch to a magiconstruct prison.

"Two down, three more to go! Hahaha!" Ifunanya laughed as the two clones merged and parried an attack from her frustrated pink-haired adversary.

"We are not done for yet!" Nonon told the taller woman while blocking her attempt to cast a heating bubble around her and launching ten blue energy darts at her from about ten meters distance before Ifunanya closed the gap and forced the pinkette to block a downward slice with her silk blade.

"Look at you," The REX Colonel coldly stated. "It's always the same with your kind! Too lazy or inadequate to do what you have to, you waste your anger on those superior to you!"

Uzu's clones, who had teleported to two different locations after being hit by Mergen's shockwave, each sent a purple energy blast at the giant Mongolian man that shot him out of the sky.

Right at that moment, he, Ifunanya, and Nonon sensed a massive amount of magical energy build-up from the south.

"Looks like it's time to swallow down that pride of yours," Nonon grinned at Ifunanya while returning her energy blasts. "I think our Greenskeeper is coming."

From the huge explosion in the south of the canyon a form flew in at lightning speed

Colonel Mergen launched a miniature red giant star at Uzu, which the green-haired man was able to stop in mid-air and send at Ifunanya.
The woman quickly cast a spell to absorb the power of the object, and while Nonon took the opportunity to join Uzu in attacking Colonel Mergen with their silk blades Ryuko appeared before Ifunanya in the same light-blue SDD uniform her pink-haired friend was wearing.

"Just as it has always been, from the time when I realized how helpless and incompetent my fellow students in Nigeria were to the time I heroically compensated for the weak and lazy coworkers at my part-time job at university in Moscow, I have to show everyone how useless they are if they can't work like I do," Ifunanya grinned at the blackette.

"That sounds like some really harsh judgment, Lady," Ryuko smiled, floating before the REX Colonel with her arms akimbo. "Maybe you should be a little more considerate of the people you work with who can't keep up with you? Seems like a bad attitude for a leader to look down on those who are slower or less capable."

"Don't worry about my attitude as a leader," Ifunanya grinned. "If there are a hundred slackers among us, leaders like me will make sure REX triumphs over its enemies.
Even over the great Ryuko Matoi."

Ryuko, aware of every detail in her surroundings, sensed how Uzu fought Colonel Mergen with his silk blade while Nonon fired an unrelenting series of magical attacks at the giant which he expertly annulled and repelled

"I hear you think highly of me at least!" The blackette exclaimed as Ifunanya came at her and their silk blades clashed.

The REX Colonel created a bright white star above her and cast a thousand little dimensional anchors around her and Ryuko before slipping backward through them.

"I think highly of your reputation at least!" She exclaimed from twenty meters distance as the star expanded among the anchors with Ryuko locked in between them.

Uzu cast a sensory disruption spell on Colonel Mergen, forcing himself to believe that Ryuko would overcome her opponent while Nonon had photon blasts rain down on the giant.

Ifunanya watched Ryuko disappear in the brightness of the white star, but knew that her attempt to knock her adversary out had failed when she sensed that the Japanese created a wormhole that was sucking up her attack.

"That had me worried for a moment!" Ryuko smiled when she could freely move again. #But Mary's clones put me through some quite intense offensive magic training.
And even after largely neglecting their heritage post-graduation these Cavendish girls we are fused aren't half-bad. Isn't that right, Uzu?!#

#Merril and Maril are aces!# The blackette's boyfriend replied while driving his opponent into the east wall of the canyon with his ever more vigorous silk blade attacks.

"Then perhaps something more down to earth might do the trick!" Ifunanya exclaimed.

Ryuko watched the woman bring her right arm to her left shoulder with a sweeping motion as she flew higher in the air. The next moment, Ifunanya threw a billion particles of dust her way.
In an instant the particles grew in size until an entire mount of earth brought the blackette down into the bottom of the canyon with a pressure several thousand times the weight of the sand that fell on her.

Nonon was watchful of the situation while casting a long spell Chloe had made her aware of and gazing at Uzu who was bombarding his giant Mongolian adversary with the black mustache and goatee with miniature stars.

Ifunanya swooped down toward the mound of earth she had buried Ryuko in and blasted a rat of light two meters in diameter toward her adversary while holding her silk blade over her head, ready to strike.

"My turn!" Ryuko yelled while shooting up from the ground and clashing her silk blade against the taller woman's weapon.

Immediately a series of bright green orbs appeared high above them and careened towards her opponent, forcing the woman to split off a clone that blasted the orbs into nothingness while Ryuko smashed the other Ifunanya into the west wall of the canyon.

The clone of the Nigerian-born Russian desperately attacked Ryuko with her silk blade while Nonon finished her incantation, creating a bubble around Colonel Mergen that contained a nova eruption.
The giant became enveloped in a flash of white light that quickly faded away to reveal him knocked out on the floor of the canyon.
Uzu quickly teleported the REX Colonel to the magiconstruct prison in the cave where he and his companions had left Constanze.

Right at that moment, however, Ifunanya's first clone flew out of the crater Ryuko had blasted her in and teleported Uzu and Nonon into the magiconstruct prison her team had erected near the south end of the canyon.

"Just like the slackers they are, they think all the work is done after they finish one chore!" Ifunanya gloated, her first clone launching a volley of blue energy orbs towards Ryuko.

The woman's second clone teleported to a distance, from where she tried to cast a heat bubble around her sole remaining adversary.

"Seriously, what is your problem with people who don't work as hard as you?!" Ryuko yelped while annulling the heat bubble and dodging the other attacks.

"Why would anyone not have a problem with slackers and incompetents?!" Ifunanya exclaimed. "Back when I was in high school in Nigeria we had a bunch of those kinds of students. Always leaving the brunt of class assignments and work for school activities to me and the others who put in a decent amount of work.
One of them even had the gall to try and run for class president, whining that the school's student administration was inefficient and that we should work together across the boundaries of classes and school staff to improve organization! I worked together with the rest of my hardworking classmates to turn public opinion against him so that he quit!"

Ryuko flew high above the canyon and created a bright white star, which she sent flying toward Ifunanya 1 at the speed of sound before teleporting toward Ifunanya 2 and engaging her in a lightning quick silk blade duel.

"I can hear you're a real piece of work!" The blackette glared as their blades clashed and Ifunanya 1 annulled the miniature star before bombarding her opponent with photon blasts.

"I am, am I?!" Ifunanya spat back. "At least I don't try to get out of working hard with some nonsense about efficiency and excuses like complementing each other instead of competing!
Me and my friends made sure to show Abaeze and his lazy friends our proud grins everytime teachers complimented the rest of us on our hard work!
In the end those worthless girls and boys had to admit my superiority! They ended up organizing a collection to help me go to University in Moscow!"

'They went to that trouble to get rid of her!' Ryuko realized, continuing her savage silk blade duel while exchanging photon blasts with the second Ifunanya.

"But when I started my part-time job in Moscow I was only confronted with more laziness and incompetence!" Ifunanya continued her rant. "I worked in that place for a year under a management that enabled the incompetence of a handful of idlers and a girl with a past in psychiatric institutions.
It's only right that the disabled shouldn't leech off society, but if they can't do an honest day's work they are less than useless!
Sensitive to stress? Puh! I can't abide by the nonsense of such incomprehensible people!"

"You are seriously missing out if you can't appreciate the worth of incomprehensible people!" Ryuko exclaimed while teleporting to a distance from her opponent.
"For one thing, they can come up with some really out there ideas for attacks! Thanks for this, Mary!"

The two Ifunanya clones looked around them and realized that each of them was enveloped in a dodecahedron of which the corners approached them at a dazzling speed. Before the tall woman with the long black cornrows knew it her clones were forcibly fused together and she found herself unable to split off any more clones.

"People who claim to work hard should actually work instead of minding what other people do or don't do,"Ryuko grinned at her adversary. "Everyone would get more work done if they'd mind their own business."

"You…." Ifunanya seethed. "I'll show you that you can't get by with trickery!"

Ryuko braced herself against the force of her furious enemy's attack, but she was still forced back as Ifunanya came at her and found herself struggling to defend against the onslaught of the REX Colonel's silk blade.

"A hard-working person always finds a way!" The woman exclaimed. "Even in my part-time job, eventually we got a new manager after that incompetent idiot left.
The new manager realized like I did that his predecessor had allowed a few bad seeds in a hamburger restaurant with an ever growing clientele to spoil the entire place!"

"Doesn't the fact that your customer base was growing prove everyone was doing a great job?" Ryuko teased as she and her opponent teleported around each other at the speed of light while clashing blades and casting heat bubble spells and energy orb attacks at one another.

"The new manager and I devised a plan to turn my coworkers against the slackers. We underlined every compliment we got from customers and continually pushed it into their faces that we were doing some of their work for them," Ifunanya grinned. "The new manager, at the same time, increased our tasks. I inspired my hard working coworkers to say the extra work was no problem to us, further highlighting the incompetence of our lazy colleagues.
They hated us for it, of course, but they couldn't do anything about it. Two of them even broke down in tears and started shouting in frustration during the job. Pathetic!"

"For crying out loud!" Ryuko exclaimed. "That was just a hamburger joint! Who knows what you and your REX buddies would do to the world if you'd actually succeed in undoing the fufian revolution?!"

"In the end they all got fired!" Ifunanya gloated. "After I joined REX, during a holiday from my magical education at Volch'ya Logovo lyceum, I saw Fanya again. She became a homeless person. A fitting fate for someone who can't put in the same work as others!"

"Well… I think I heard about enough from this horrible person," Ryuko said.

Ifunanya suddenly felt nervous, because the blackette's voice didn't come from the person she was slicing her silk blade into. That person disappeared before the blade cut through her.
What was also strange was that the Nigerian-born Russian sensed Mergen being right behind her. She could also sense Uzu and Nonon.

"It's an old trick. But it still works," Ryuko smiled into Ifunanya's face when the woman turned around.

'Ryuko and Uzu must have worked together to create a time-ancho…'

The energy of the nova Uzu and Nonon blasted at them knocked out both Ifunanya and Mergen, enabling their adversaries to teleport them to the magiconstruct prison near Constanze.

---

When after finding REX's magiconstruct prison and freeing their friends, fused Ryuko, Uzu, and Nonon arrived in the cave where they had left Constanze with fused Mitsuzõ Soroi and Hannah behind them, they walked into quite the unexpected sight.

"Will you stop playing around and return me to normal?! I have a very important mission here!"

Ryuko saw Constanze sitting on the cave floor studying the left hand of what seemed like a robotic Nui Harime.
Other robotic body parts of the former Grand Couturier were strewn about all over the floor with tubes and wires sticking out of them.
The young woman's head was lying at about a meter distance from the unconcerned Constanze with the blackette's palm-sized robots curiously staring at it, alternatingly chewing the diminutive German witch out and coaxing her.

"So, Nui," Ryuko crossed her arms and addressed the startled head with the two long blonde pigtails. "I doubt my guess concerning the rock you crawled from under deviates much from the truth. What the heck are you doing here?"

"I… I'm not Nui!" The young woman's head muttered while Constanze looked up at her friends and continued to tamper with the hand of the assassin she had her miniature robots eliminate. "My name is Nue… Kinue…"

Mitsuzõ Soroi hemmed and stepped forward until he stood on a line with Ryuko, looking down on Nue's head.

"As part of her sadly fruitless attempts to revive your late father the Great Unifier successfully recreated the genetic make-up of Nui Harime. She felt that the girl had been dealt an unfair lot in life and created a clone of her which she provided with a loving and positive environment. The Miss Harime you see before you is a happier person whose personality wasn't forced into a questionable mold by her creator."

"But you are still an assassin for your creator, aren't you?" Ryuko smirked.

Nue couldn't return the blackette's stare for a moment.

"Kinue allowed me to join in the magic lessons she received and had me follow martial arts lessons. She said it would come in handy to have me around for special assignments," The young woman mumbled.

"And how did you feel about that?" Ryuko frowned.

"I was hardly in a position to protest, was I?" Nue's head resentfully reacted. "Kinue knew how I felt, however. She told me she wasn't the kind of person to employ personal assassins and didn't foresee any reason to. But here I am, hunting down Filiz Osdemir for her."

"She didn't have to send you to do that," Ryuko said. "We are all here in the hopes of taking Filiz prisoner."

She returned the blonde's frank gaze and pondered for a minute.

#Surely you don't plan on…?" Uzu began as he sensed the emotions of his beloved.

"You spent much time with Kinue Kinagase? What can you tell us about the Universal Mobility Project?" Ryuko asked.

"I don't know anything about the Omnimagi Projects!" Nue stated. "Kinue, Chariot du Nord, and Croix Meridies are highly secretive about them. I only know that it should have the fufian race reach for the stars and that Kinue considers retiring from public life after that."

"She does?" Uzu asked with a frown.

"She told me she had a series of talks with her family and Chariot and Croix which had her thinking that she might have taken too much control over the evolution of the fufian race," Nue told the green-haired martial artist.

Uzu and Ryuko shared a look.

"I think we should take you to Karabo Mahlangu and Sis after all," The blackette with the red streak in her hair blankly stated.

"Do… we have to?" Nue asked with a worried expression in her voice. "Does that mean you'll turn me whole again?"

Constanze tilted her head at Ryuko, who returned the gaze of the German witch with an amused chuckle.

"We'll see," She teased their prisoner.

---

Fused Sola Hofdisdottir frantically flew on her broom among the countless clouds ahead of her, pursued by two REX soldiers whom she had recognized as Ava Ashburn and Balela Matamba.

She hurriedly sent a variety of orange energy orbs toward the short Australian with the curly red ponytail and the muscular Congolese with the short-shaved blue hair while dodging the energy spears and blue fireballs they fired at her.

#Sola's flying away from us rather fast, isn't she, Balela?# Fused Ava chuckled.

#Yes. Our tiny upperclassman must be scared or something. I wonder why.#

Ava created a bolt of lightning among the clouds their prey was flying through, but Sola was able to use a protection spell just in time.

#Maybe it's time to stop playing around,# The Australian witch grinned at her friend.

#Just what I was thinking,# Fused Balela agreed and scowled at their prey before flying towards Sola at an immense speed.

Feeling the approach of the younger witch, Sola flew left and right while heating up the air around her in her attempts to dissuade her pursuer from attacking.

The short redhead teleported several hundred meters to the east of their location in the nebulous scene and fired hundreds of photon torpedoes at her attackers, who instantly appeared on either side of her with huge grins on their faces.

Then, both of the second-year Luna Nova students were teleported to a magiconstruct prison cell.

Amanda O'Neill appeared before her sighing girlfriend.

#That was amazing, Sola,# The American laughed while cuddling the shorter girl as they floated in the air. #I didn't know you could move like that.#

#You taught me well,# Sola giggled before they kissed.

#But we can't afford to rest on our laurels,# Her girlfriend with the wavy pink bob and the bright green eyes stated while cautiously looking around. #Ah… We're in a right mess in this scene, alright. These two idiots were easy enough to trick, but those REX soldiers are something else. I hope we can find their magiconstruct prison and get Blair and Norah out of there.#

The two young women flew down to the wide and hundreds of kilometers long multi-span continuous tied-arch bridge that formed the only large solid-mass object in the scene that was otherwise only filled with uncountable clouds.

#I wish we could sense Wangari or Joanna, or even any of the REX soldiers,# Sola said while looking around.

#I wish we could sense the REX soldiers most of all,# Amanda - who was standing to her right - replied while glaring at the clouds. The magic that messes up magical energy readings may have seemed like a good idea to Emma's ancestors and their allies, but it's just as dangerous to us as it is to our adversaries.#

#It's only a problem because we chose to fly towards the leyline exit from the next scene and meet REX halfway though,# Sola argued while looking up at her lover.
#They did tell us to guard the leyline entrance to the previous scene.#

#Yes. I can't believe Wangari and Joanna managed to talk us into that,# Her pink-haired girlfriend in the light-blue uniform muttered through her teeth with her arms crossed. #Can't trust investigative journalists to sit on their asses.#

Sola chuckled while looking at the American's sour expression, but a strange sensation suddenly made her turn to her left and look up.

#What was that?# Amanda sharply reacted while standing ready for combat. #Did you sense something through the static?#

#No…# Sola nervously replied while looking around. #Nothing like that. It was more like… a reflex of sorts.#

The two young women tuned their senses to anything they might pick up while standing closer together. Amanda grew increasingly restless while sensing how on edge her girlfriend was.

#It's like an instinct…# Sola muttered. #I only became aware because I wasn't controlling my emotions. I… I know she's stalking us. I don't know why.#

#Who is… It's her, isn't it?# Amanda asked with sudden fright before she took control of her emotions. #Block what you're feeling, Sola. We can't allow Filiz of all people access to our minds or we are as good as dead. We have to take the initiative quickly.#

Sola looked around at her girlfriend with realization on her face as she saw Amanda cast numerous reality-probing spells that launched above and below them in the form of dark-blue lights.

#You don't understand,# She said. #It's not Filiz. It's…#

A sudden shockwave sent Amanda sliding hundreds of meters down the bridge while Sola flew up high.

"Can you imagine my luck?!" An amused booming voice called out to the American as she instantly got to her feet. "When I started to hear the rumor you people spread that one of yours took Filiz out I thought for sure it was just some psychological warfare you guys were trying out…!"

Amanda saw the large brawny shape of her and Sola's old nemesis slowly approach in the distance.

"I have been so indoctrinated by fear that I couldn't imagine anyone able to defeat that bitch!" Sophia Demertzis exclaimed. "But gradually I wanted to believe, and I started to realize that you actually got quite a few powerful witches on your team that could take her out if they worked together! And then I remembered they told us you got those people from Japan... ! Surely they got some battle experience that our Filiz could learn a few things from!"

Amanda glared at the muscular Greek with the three silver braided pigtails on either side of her head and cast several protective spells around herself.

"And now I find my two precious playthings right in this very scene!" Sophia grinned broadly. "I know you girls were aching to have some fun with me! Isn't that right, Sola?!"

The short redhead with the hairdo in the shape of an onion quickly teleported to a place on the bridge several meters behind Sophia and launched a series of orange energy orbs that collided with the fireballs that came flying towards her from the sky.

Sophia herself stood in a wide stance with bent knees and elbows, grinning at Amanda.

"Here I come, sweethearts!"

Amanda braced herself but was unprepared for the speed with which her opponent instantly appeared before her and punched her in the stomach.
The pinkette flew back several meters again, but teleported behind her adversary and kicked her in the back of the head.

Sola came to her aid by teleporting to the right of Sophia and blasting a blue energy orb directly at her while heating up the air around the large Greek witch hundreds of thousand degrees.

Their muscular nemesis teleported to about fifteen meters above them and launched a miniature white dwarf star at Sola and Amanda which exploded on the surface of the bridge just after they teleported to safety.

Appearing on either side of Sophia the two young witches caught their adversary in a huge electromagnetic pulse.
The spells Sophia had cast around herself protected her well, however.
The large witch in the dark-blue REX tunic sent a miniature white dwarf star toward either of her opponents that instantly collided with the magical barrier around them and enveloped them in explosions of intense white light.

Sophia immediately teleported behind Amanda and exchanged kicks and punches with her at the speed of light while they heated up the air around each other.

Suddenly a barrage of blue energy orbs was unleashed onto Sola from time portals Sophia had created earlier.
The redhead teleported from left to right in her frantic attempts to dodge the projectiles.

Amanda received a powerful punch to the left shoulder and blasted her grinning opponent down and through the bridge with a shockwave before helping her girlfriend with her predicament.
After having dissolved all of Sophia's energy orbs the two Luna Nova witches cautiously landed on the seemingly endless bridge over the void.

#She's really strong,# Amanda shared with the short Icelandic witch to her left as they observed their enemy.

#I can't believe she can hold her own against you in magic,# Sola replied.

"Surprised, sweethearts?!" Sophia yelled while grabbing hold of her silk blade. "I would stab that filthy bitch in the back if I had the chance and knew I'd get away with it, but those magical boot camp trainings she developed for us were remarkably effective. I made sure to apply myself, and look to what effect!"

Amanda and Sola nervously pulled their silk blades, ready to continue the battle.

"Are you happy now, Filiz?!" Their adversary shouted in a frustrated outcry. "I'm fighting an uphill battle against one of the nine new witches and her girlfriend!
You forced us all into this absurd pointless adventure of yours, but after this battle, I won't ever let you call me a coward again, you bitch!"

"Why don't you just surrender, if that's the way you feel?!" Amanda tried.

Sophia's brutish scowl slowly changed into a grin as her eyes landed on the pinkette.

"Hahaha… Hahahahahahaha…! Haaahahahahahahahaha!" The large witch with the three silver pigtails on either side of her head laughed cruelly. "Surrender. That's a good one! Hahahahahahaha! Haha… Hahaha."

Sola gritted her teeth as Sophia's eyes flitted from her to Amanda.

"Now where would be the fun in that, my sweethearts?!" Her Greek nemesis grinned. "Truth be told, I may hate Filiz and the way she enslaved me… but if there is anything I hate more it's the prospect of living in a world where I would be forced to treat the Sola's and Dusana's of this planet as human beings!
So, let's keep at it. Your deaths, or mine!"

The brawny silverette shot forward in a flash and clashed blades with Amanda while a shockwave she had created sent Sola flying over the length of the bridge.

The short redhead teleported behind her opponent, but Sophia teleported twenty meters higher and cast a barrage of photon torpedoes at Sola and Amanda.

Sophia's adversaries created about eighty clones around her who prepared to cast the dimensional containment spell on her, but the silverette threw her silk blade at one of the clones and flew out of the trap at the speed of light as the clone teleported to a safe distance.
She saw Sola and Amanda gather their clones into their bodies again and teleported to their side for an attack with her silk blade.

Amanda swung her blade forward to intercept the attack on her girlfriend and Sola moved to slice at her nemesis, but Sophia teleported behind Amanda to try another attack.

During the battle, all three of them continued to envelop each other in heat bubbles and teleported on all sides of one another.
Around and around the three teleported at a superhuman speed, trying to cut into each other and dodging each other's attacks.

Sophia launched a miniature white dwarf star at a short distance that impacted point blank with Sola and provided the struggling REX soldier some respite from having to defend against Amanda's girlfriend while fighting the pinkette.

Amanda shot her opponent down with a powerful shockwave during the milli-second she was engaged in her attack against Sola and cast several healing spells over her girlfriend while Sophia crashed through the surface of the seemingly endless bridge over the void below.

#Are you alright?# The American asked her friend.

#Yes. Thank you, Amanda. But we need to watch out! Here she comes again!#

Amanda launched a series of blue energy orbs at Sophia who flew at them from below, but the large Greek teleported and attacked her with her silk blade.

Sophia narrowly avoided an attack from Sola who swung her silk blade at the young woman's left shoulder.
She teleported again only to have a miniature white dwarf star launched at her by Amanda and upon impact teleported among the clouds where her magical energy would be hidden by interference to avoid detection by her foes.

#Darn! That bitch is cunning. Be prepared for anything, Sola!# Amanda warned while she and her lover floated back-to-back while scanning the surrounding sky.

The two witches in the light-blue tunics cast several yellow reality probes towards the clouds around them which slowly dissolved.

#There's energy build-up right there!# Sola pointed to their right.

Right at that moment, a miniature main-sequence star flew at them at lightspeed.

Sola and Amanda evaded the collision so that the projectile crashed into the mountain flank where the bridge over the void ended far behind them.

Another such projectile unexpectedly appeared from out of a time-pocket and collided with Amanda, giving Sophia the occasion to cast a powerful shockwave towards her distracted girlfriend.
Sola was smashed into the large mountain flank where the leyline exit to the scene they were in was located.

"Gotcha!" Sophia yelled while flying straight for her prey.

The brute with the three silver pigtails on either side of her head was about to slice her silk blade into Sola's body, but the diminutive Icelander launched a series of blue energy orbs at the witch that forced her to break off her attack.
Sophia also had to deal with Amanda, who came at her with her silk blade.

Sola slowly crawled out of the giant crater in the mountain flank her impact had created.
A blow like that couldn't do anything to harm her fufian body, but it did aggravate the wear of the exhausting twenty-minute battle on her body.
Exhaustion which she could have alleviated with some healing spells if the similarly exhausted and desperate Sophia didn't assault her with another miniature white dwarf star that blasted her back into the mountain flank.

Amanda reacted by blasting Sophia into the mountain with a barrage of blue energy orbs and flew towards her lover.
The pinkette held Sola into her arms and cast healing spells over her, but was smashed into the ground by a physical attack from Sophia.

The large Greek started pounding into Amanda, who hit her fists with the force of a nuclear explosion into her bigger adversary.

Suddenly Sophia teleported about twenty meters into the sky and launched another miniature white dwarf at Amanda.
The pinkette launched the same attack back and the two projectiles exploded in a huge blast.

Amanda teleported towards Sola again, but Sophia launched another miniature white dwarf at her which felled the American.

"Here we are…" An exhausted Sophia breathed as she landed near her equally worn-out opponent. "I can't believe I managed to defeat the two of you, but this means I live to see how this war ends."

Sola lifted herself up on her arms to see the muscular Luna Nova witch take her silk blade in hand and raise it up.

"If it's any comfort to you, I'll see to it that your little friend gets to scream out loud one last time before she dies," Sophia grinned at Amanda.

"Haaaaaaa!"

With her silk blade in both hands, Sola hurled herself forward in a blind rage. Amanda saw her girlfriend's body hit her would-be executioner in the back and push through like a stone against a billowing cloth.

Sophia gasped in shock as her diminutive nemesis and her silk blade pierced through her chest and landed on the ground several meters further.

"Haaaa! Haaaa!" The Greek witch gasped in a fury while clutching the wound next to her heart and trying every healing spell she could think of. "Damn you! Damn you, Filiz! You bitch! It hurts! You fucking bitch! Why did you have these weapons developed?!"

The REX soldier saw Sola prepare for another attack and launched a barrage of blue energy orbs to pound Amanda and her girlfriend down with the last of her strength.

"Haaaa! If this is how you want it, then let the three of us die together!" She exclaimed while raising her silk blade high and jumping towards Amanda.

An explosion of enormous power blasted the witch against the edge of the mountain where she lay near-motionless and moaning in pain.

Sola saw two feet in buckled brown boots step towards her from her reclined position. Several healing spells were cast over her.

"Tha… Thank you," She started as she slowly got up.

She saw the person in the light-blue uniform walk towards Amanda and provide her the same treatment.
As their savior turned her eyes upon her she recognized Dusana Bolibrucha.

Sola sensed that Dusana was trying to tell her something and allowed the Czech entrance to her mind.

#Don't tell anyone about this,# The pale brunette said while she walked over to Sophia.

Sola saw Amanda crawling onto her hands and feet and teleported to her side to help her girlfriend stand up.

"Did… Did you beat her…?" Amanda muttered.

"Yes…" Sola answered absently. She saw Dusana alter her thin and tall body into the more curvaceous one of an African girl a few centimeters shorter with a long black braided ponytail and a friendly face with dark-blue eyes. Dusana's tunic was changed into a dark-blue one with REX emblems.

Amanda looked up and saw her savior stand over Sophia's shivering body.
The Greek lay on her stomach with her face turned towards Sola and her lover. They could see the whites of her eyes.

"I created this spell especially for you," The young woman Amanda with a shock recognized as a REX soldier said while she stretched out her arm towards Sophia.

A white-and-teal flash shot into the body of the prostate bully which made her stretch her head up in pain.

"What are you doing to her?" Amanda asked while leaning on Sola.

Dusana slowly turned her eyes on the American.

"This one and I have some unfinished business. It's no worry of yours. Let's just say that I will be serving justice for the sake of several people in the next few hours.
Hours that will seem like years to her."

"Whatever justice you think to serve, it isn't up to you!" Amanda exclaimed while standing on her own two feet. "Surrender and let us teleport the two of you to our magiconstruct prison. The UN and the Witches' Council will judge whatever crimes Sophia might have committed."

The pink-haired tomboy saw her savior chuckle quietly while the unconscious Sophia grimaced horribly.

"Do you hear what I say?!" She yelled. "Stop what you are doing!"

#Do you have any requests, Sola?# Dusana telepathically asked without reacting to the pinkette's demands. #She will experience anything I put into her mind.#

"Step away from that girl and surrender!" Amanda repeated while ineffectual trying to teleport Sophia to her side.

Behind her she sensed Wangari fly down and land.

#Hey guys! What's going on here?!" The clearly battle-worn Kenyan witch with the big orange hairdo asked in confusion at the scene before her.
To her shock, the REX soldier her friends were looking at shrunk her shivering victim's body down to Sola's size while keeping her unconsciously weeping face intact.

#Help us, Wangari!# Amanda turned to her friend. #We have to stop her from whatever she's doing to Sophia.#

"Get away from that witch!" Wangari warned Dusana while she and Amanda tried to penetrate the magical barrier the Czech had created around her and her victim in order to teleport Sophia to safety.

"The three of you better hurry through the leyline entrance back to the previous scene," The black girl in the REX uniform smirked while watching the effects of her life rewind/repeat/remake spell on Sophia's facial expressions. "My people defeated your friends and conquered this entire scene. There are other REX soldiers heading here to capture the leyline entrance as we speak."

#She's right!# Sola alerted her friends who started to launch fireballs and blue energy orbs at Dusana's magical barrier. #We have to get to the previous scene to help the others protect its leyline exit or it will also be overrun by REX!#

The Icelandic witch's girlfriend turned her troubled green eyes on her and frowned with inner conflict, but Sola returned Amanda's gaze with a resolute expression.

"I may not be a match for you ordinarily," The African REX soldier Wangari saw standing over her obviously suffering schoolmate warned. "But the three of you are drained by the battles you fought and I am full of energy. Trust me: The best you can do is leave this scene and help your friends.
You quite literally won't do any good by trying to stop me."

The Kenyan exchanged a look with Sola and Amanda, who turned her eyes on their opponents and gritted her teeth.

#She's right,# Wangari stated with effort. #We could be attacked any minute by the other REX soldiers. If these two have some feud going on we won't be able to do anything about it right now. We vowed to help protect Luna Negra. That's our first priority.#

Amanda sighed and nodded her head.

"Listen…" The American tried while she and her two friends agreed to teleport to the scene's leyline exit "I don't know what happened between the two of you… I don't know who Sophia hurt in the past. I do know that she is a terrible human being and that she needs to be taught to change her ways. But whatever you are doing to her right now won't make you any better than her."

Dusana turned her eyes on Amanda and glared at the pinkette.

"That's fine," She bitterly articulated. "People like me were lucky to become as good as everyone else thanks to the fufian revolution.
If being better than others makes you treat them the way her kind does, I hope I will be permitted to continue being as good as most people."

---

Fused Lieutenant Amelia Martin cautiously led the retreat of her squadron of 30 backward through the ground floor gate that sealed Torngarsuk Tower off from the curtain wall which joined it to the next tower in the defensive wall around the Dinas Affaraon keep: Khonvoum Tower.
They were under heavy fire from their fufian SDD enemies and had to be watchful to intercept SDD troopers who tried to teleport through the gate.

#Sergeant Agyapong! Guide everyone through the crack between the two double doors and stand guard on the other side along the height of it!# The cute elegant Englishwoman told her second-in-command. #I will keep the SDD at a distance and join you last!#

#Yes, Lieutenant Martin!# Fused Sarah Agyapong replied while firing blue energy orbs at their advancing opponents before the athletic Ghanese who had bound her frilly black hair in a dot on the back of her head ordered the fused REX witches of squadron 25 to continue their retreat through the gate in an orderly fashion.

Amelia sensed her fellow REX soldiers slip through the gate behind her one by one and provide her cover fire while she desperately defended the gate from the sixty SDD witches at about fifteen meters from her who - protected by a strong magical barrier like she was and returning her fire - constantly tried to teleport through her defenses.

#We are safe, Lieutenant!# Sergeant Agyapong at last called out to her. #You can join us now!#

Sarah's commanding officer cautiously flew backward through the crack between the two meters-high doors that formed the gate to Torngarsuk Tower at the speed of light and aided her soldiers in warding off their enemies while the huge and heavy greenish-grey gate closed shut.

With a sigh of relief Amelia landed amidst the other soldiers of wings 4 and 5 in the gigantic hallway that led all the way to Khonvoum Tower kilometers behind them.

In the walls on either side of the wide hallway were doors that led to technical facilities which operated the defensive weapons built into the outside walls of the inner defensive curtain around the Dinas Affaraon keep.

#Well done, Lieutenant Martin,# Colonel Ally Accola congratulated the Brit with the long curly blonde hair. #Thanks to you and your squadron we were able to successfully retreat while having suffered a minimum loss of troops after our defeat. General Charpentier was right to promote you.#

#Thank you, Colonel,# Amelia bowed seriously before the tall handsome German witch with the long black bob.

Her commander allowed her eyes to wander over the hundreds of fused REX soldiers grouped together in their respective squadrons and standing ready for further orders.

#Squadrons 23, 24, and 25 did very well, stalling the SDD's advance for as long as possible. Now we can start to organize our counter-attack.#

Amelia watched how large green and minotaur trolls carried the magical cannons for the bombardment of the besieging SDD army from the other end of the huge hallway and deposited them in front of the soldiers in wings 4 and 5 who were lined up before the gate to Torngarsuk Tower.

She had worked hard in the past weeks, throwing herself in harm's way if she thought she would be able to help the army with her actions.
The blonde Brit who had been so desperate for revenge over the death of her parents little more than a month ago learned to employ herself completely for the goal of fighting the Fufian Emperium and its alien tyrant.

Even Yasmine Bennouna was able to recognize Amelia's dedication and confided in her that she supported Lea's decision to promote her troublesome Volch'ya Logovo student.

After learning to thoroughly control her feelings and cutting the emotional cords that bound her to the memories of discovering what happened to her parents when she was a child and feverishly trying to find the person responsible, Amelia felt satisfied with the focus and calm that had become a constant in her life for the past weeks.
She had only one goal now: To help her friends and free the human race from slavery.

Colonel Accola stopped Amelia's musings by providing her with the spells REX's scientific department had developed in order to aid the counter-offensive.
The blonde thanked her commanding officer and prepared to relay the information to the soldiers under her command.

Just then the gate to Torngarsuk Tower slowly opened.
The fused witches in wings 4 and 5 mentally prepared for battle in an instant. Such was the discipline under Ally Accola's command.

#Everyone! Control your emotions and focus on my orders!
Squadrons 16 and 17: Attack the places in the frame around the gate which I am now transmitting an image to you and destroy the gemstone charms that allow information processing from the control rooms of Torngarsuk and Khonvoum Towers!
Squadrons 18, 19, 20, and 21: Push the double doors closed with pressure spells!
Squadrons 22 and 23: Aim the cannons at the gap between the double doors and fire when breached!
Squadrons 24 and 25: Protect your fellow soldiers from attack!#

The double doors of the huge gate to Tornarsuk Tower hadn't opened very wide yet and it seemed to have taken the SDD soldiers by surprise too.

The pressure spells of squadrons 18, 19; 20, and 21 seemed to keep the gate from opening further, and Squadrons 16 and 17 were slowly destroying the control charms in the walls.

Amelia's squadron was successfully casting protective spells against the attacks the SDD was firing through the gap in the gate.

But something was amiss. Amelia had the feeling that the SDD was about to try and breach the gate.

#Squadron 25! Be ready to fly into the gap and confront the enemy head-on!# She ordered her soldiers.

And there they were. A group of twenty-five fused fufian SDD troopers teleported through the gap.

#Advance!# Amelia exclaimed.

In less than a second her soldiers engaged the intruders with their silk blades

Amelia was able to push back a tall witch with long braided silver hair who was caught off-guard by her advance.
A Chinese witch with short pink hair engaged her, but Amelia was able to slice into the girl's shoulder, forcing her to retreat.

The beautiful Brit with the long curly blonde hair saw her team was successful in keeping the attackers at bay.
The gemstone charms seemed to be destroyed and squadrons 18 to 21 were about to shut the gate closed.

Then Amelia saw two fused male REX soldiers with dark-brown hair retreating from the confrontation with an SDD witch at the top of the gap.

A short cute witch with fluffy golden hair down to her lower back flew towards the slender cute SDD witch with the long black pigtails who was causing them so much trouble, but got her left arms sliced off and was about to get killed.

If that SDD trooper was able to create an opportunity, even for a second, her friends would be able to fly through the gate in less than a second. Even if the gate was nearly closed again the danger was too great.

Amelia immediately flew up to the cute short blackette and clashed her blade with the girl so that her soldier could retreat.

"You're brave" The SDD witch chuckled as her bright red eyes gazed into Amelia's orange eyes. "But I am going to have to push through."

"I'm afraid that won't happen," Amelia countered with a determined scowl while she swung her silk blade towards her adversary's right side.

"So much bluster," The blackette smiled while she blocked the attack. "I rather like your resolve. But you know you are too weak to stop me. I can see it in your eyes."

"The gate is almost closed," Amelia said, fighting her adversary's mind-control spell. "I only need to hold you back for a moment more."

"But you know you already lost," Her cute slender opponent with the long black pigtails smirked. "The inner conflict you cultivated for so long didn't make you strong.
It made you weak."

With a shock, Amelia felt the girl's silk blade slice her torso open lengthwise.
The fatal wound caused her to fall down as blood rushed through it and left her body.

While she fell down the blonde Brit saw her second-in-command rush to confront her cruel murderer and succeed in pushing her back before the gate closed.

'Mother… Father… I am about to join you,' The young witch thought to herself as her body hit the floor.

Two witches from REX's medical division rushed to her side and tried spells to stop the bleeding in the hope that they might save her life that way.

Alas, that she would die because of the weapon her own people created so that their soldiers would be enabled to kill an otherwise immortal fufian being.

'Yasmine… Lea… I hope I didn't disappoint you… I'm sorry I didn't realize how you both cared for me.
Geordy… Tiffany… I'm sorry for deserting you. Please take care of my little brother, Tiffany... Please protect him in my..."

As the life flowed from her, Amelia sensed a spell working itself out. A memory that had been bound deep within her pushed its way forward through her mind.

---

"Gordy… Guh! Help!" Amelia hears her mother say while her field of vision is bordered by long lifeless pale blonde curls that slowly flutter down a millimeter per second.

The Brit sees blood being coughed up from below her field of vision. Beyond the blonde curls that are fluttering down, she sees a breath-takingly beautiful young woman with a bright kind face and long shiny straight black hair in a green short skirt with white stripes and a matching top who is kneeling next to her little brother.

Geordy seems a little over five years old. Amelia realizes she's watching a memory from the time her parents died.

The young woman is their guardian: Tiffany Edwards.

Amelia remembers that there used to be an intense rivalry between her mother, Sienna Martin, and Tiffany.

Before her mother married her father she was a beautiful actress. People called her the White Lily.
When the some years younger Tiffany Edwards started her career both young women quickly found themselves vying for the same roles.
Sienna was a tall and stately woman with a reserved nature. Her beautiful black-haired rival had a cute face and an outgoing and outwardly modest personality.

The entertainment world called the competition between the two stunning actresses the War of the Lilies.
This war was fought more bitterly as it continued and Tiffany used cruel methods in order to turn public opinion against Sienna.

It was around this time that John Martin fell in love with Sienna. But from the beginning, he made it clear to the young woman that he would not interfere with her professional life. Rather he urged her to give up working and marry him.

The Black Lily caused the White Lily to lose more and more important movie roles to her and cunningly destroyed the career of her victim.
Tiffany's cruel persecution of her proud and stately rival culminated when she urged another actor to drug Sienna and rape her in a motel.

Sienna couldn't handle the event and slipped into a deep depression. After a failed suicide attempt the actress was taken into a psychiatric hospital.
The war of the lilies had ended with the Black Lily mercilessly tearing into her fellow flower of the stage and gleefully destroying the White Lily's mind.

Content that his fiancee would now only be his, John visited Sienna in hospital and brought her to his home where he married her.
But that would not be the end of the war of the lilies.

While Sienna gave birth to Amelia and years later to Geordy the cruel cute black-haired beauty who had ripped apart her professional life and her sanity used her charms and cunning to approach the blonde's husband.
As time went by Sienna realized that Tiffany had become John's mistress. And she knew what happened between mistresses and wives in the Martin family.

During a bright summer day, John, little Amelia, and her five-year-old brother Geordy were walking in the immense park around the Martin Estate with their timid mother.
John received a message on his cellphone and went back to the house, telling his family to enjoy the picnic they were having.

While Amelia wandered off in her pretty pink dress, Sienna and little Geordy slowly walked towards some shrubs.
The boy was wearing short brown trousers and a light-blue T-shirt. His mother wore a knee-length white skirt and a short orange top with a white shawl around it.

Suddenly Sienna saw Tiffany approach from behind a tree, wearing a short green-and-white striped skirt and a matching top that left her belly bare just like Sienna's.

Geordy - who had met Tiffany on several occasions and loved her dearly - ran up to the beautiful young woman with the kind face and the long black hair.

"Geordy!" Tiffany exclaimed as she played with the boy. "How nice to see you here."

"What… What are you doing here?" Sienna asked with an unsteady voice and bowed head.

"Why, my dear loving John invited me, of course," Her cruel tormentor smiled.

Tiffany saw the pair of pears the young woman with the long curly blonde hair was holding in her hands.

"Geordy. Why don't you go and get us a knife from the baskets over there, so that we can slice these pears?" The blackette asked.

The eager boy quickly went on his way.

"I came to tell you that my sweet John made me his personal secretary last year," Tiffany gloated to her rival.

"I… I already know that," Sienna muttered sadly.

"Of course…" Tiffany smiled. "But did you also know that thanks to him I now own almost equal shares to him in the company?"

Sienna raised her eyes up at the slightly shorter woman in fear.

"N… No… John…" She muttered.

Tiffany slowly and seductively walked closer to the stately lady with the long blonde curls and stood behind her on her right side.

"How does it feel to have always been too weak to fight back against me?" The cute black-haired young woman whispered with a snicker. "There was never any war between us. I've just been slowly devouring you bite… by… bite."

Meanwhile, Amelia comes back from her stroll and sits behind a bush on a slightly lower level than the part of the garden where Tiffany and her mother stand. The girl sees the wind rustle the women's beautiful light summer clothing.

"I know that you replaced me in John's heart a long time ago. So, please Tiffany," Sienna sobs while her destroyer stands behind her. "When you marry John, please be kind to Amelia and Geordy. Please don't hurt them."

"My God. You are so pathetic and weak. It's disgusting," Tiffany giggles.

To Amelia's shock, the cute black-haired beauty in the green-and-white short skirt and top turns her mother's face toward her by pulling on the blonde's right arm with her left hand and punches into her bare belly.

Sienna doubles over and gasps in pain while dropping the pears in her hands, needing her cruel rival to hold her in order to keep from falling to her knees.

The stately blonde tries to grab her attacker's arms in defense but after a short struggle between the two young women barely worth the name the shorter black-haired beauty easily overpowers her victim in the knee-length white dress and the short orange top and grips Sienna's pale wrist firmly in her right hand.

"You are so weak that I can do anything to you that I want," Tiffany giggles. "But where's the fun in that? We've been playing that game for years now. Isn't that right, you miserable child?"

The blackette hears Geordy return with the knife she asked for.

"I gained new ambitions since I stole your husband from you," She smiles cutely while taking the knife from her victim's son.

With her mother's back towards her, Amelia watches how Tiffany cleanly slices Sienna's throat with the knife.
After that, Amelia sees her mother fall backward in slow motion while her mother's murderer kneels next to her little brother.

From her point of view her mother's long pretty blonde curls fill the left, right, and undersides of her vision, slowly fluttering down after her mother's body lands in the grass.

Tiffany grabs the horrified Geordy's head in her hands and forces him to look at his dying mother.

"Look, Geordy," She says in a sweet gentle voice while Amelia watches the beautiful young woman with the long flowing black hair and the kind youthful smile look at her dying blonde victim with intrigue in her shiny diamond-black eyes. "Look. Isn't it a wonderful sight? You did that."

"Geordy… Please… Guh… Help…" Amelia hears her mother gasp while she sees blood spouting up from the long lifelessly pale blonde curls that are still fluttering down to the right and left side of her field of vision.

"Thank you for the knife, dear Geordy," Tiffany cutely smiles while she and the boy are transfixed by the spectacle in front of them.

"Geordy… Amelia… Guh…!"Sienna gasps weakly

Amelia still sees her mother's pretty blonde curls flutter down slowly to the left and right of her while the young woman spits up new blood.

"The War of the Lilies has finally come to an end, little boy," Tiffany gently says while Amelia remains as if frozen, staring at her mother's pale blonde curls which slowly flutter down as she dies." But don't worry. The medicine I spiked the lemonade the maid brought you with will make sure you forget all about this."

The last thing Amelia sees before she dies is the image of a black lily growing high through the holes in the flowers of a diseased and rotting white lily.

---

"I was the one who foolishly introduced Tiffany Edwards to Amelia's father during a party," Yasmine told Lea after they learned of the troublesome girl's demise.

The two women sat in front of the observation screens in the department of internal security's former command center at Amaterasu Tower with controlled emotions.

"I can only guess how much this has been weighing on you when you only tell me now," Lea spoke. "I think the best way you can honor Amelia is by not blaming yourself anymore. Even if you didn't introduce them, it seems obvious that Tiffany Edwards would have found a way to destroy the Martin family."

"And destroy them she did," Yasmine sighed. "The maids found John's dead body next to that of his wife. He must have killed himself when he found her. The children were found playing in the mansion with Tiffany. The woman managed to make herself guardian of Amelia and her brother since they had no immediate relatives left.
And with that position, her knowledge of John Martin's company, and her position as his personal secretary she slowly gained majority shares in the company and became heir to what remains of the riches of the once so powerful house of Martin."

---

Satsuki Kiriyuin looked to her right as the sliding door to the white, silver, and azure command center of the Arc-en-ciel opened to allow an excited Akko Kagari and Diana Cavendish entrance.

The two witches saw the younger sister of ShelteR Inc.'s main shareholder and CEO and her best friend Nonon Jakuzure stand beside her in the company of Satsuki's butler; Mr. Soroi, Ryuko's boyfriend; Uzu, and a young woman with two long blonde pigtails whom Diana recognized from the documentary about the life fibers that had been broadcast to the world months earlier.

Behind that group the two witches saw their own friends standing together: Dusana Bolibrucha was talking with Aduna Abdellahi, Sheryl Wright, Tarsha Montour, and Uaterereta Wankendankuru. Hannah and Frank with Constanze, Lotte, Barbara, and Jasminka. And Wangari, Sola, and Amanda were in conversation with Heather Powell, Bohdana Smola, Valeriana Möller, Tine Randrup, Yitte Fisker... and Sucy.

Akko's eyes widened as they landed on the Filipino witch. She already was displeased with the request she and her girlfriend had received to come to the Arc-en-ciel, but finally meeting up with her old roommate after all she had secretly been a part of didn't help.

#Please control yourself,# Diana soothed her by grabbing the brunette's left hand and squeezing it softly. #Remember: Sucy believed she was doing good. And she has done a lot of good.#

Akko looked to her left and saw Diana smile encouragingly. The Japanese witch breathed in with her eyes closed.
With a nod at her girlfriend the two walked resolutely towards Sucy while Satsuki looked from them to Judith who sat at the Arc-en-ciel's controls talking to Mirtel and Ghaliba.

"You..." Akko glared at her friend with the shoulder-length mauve hair who had been dressed in the same light-blue witches' tunic reminiscent of the SDD uniforms which they were all wearing.

"Hello, Akko. Hello Diana. I missed you dearly. I am very happy to see you again," Sucy greeted with a warm smile that somehow managed to have Akko relinquish control of her emotions and threateningly loom over the Filipino witch with tears in her eyes and balled fists.

"You…!"

"I have taken a long time to seriously consider what I have done and though I accept that I was an accomplice to serious crimes for which I will accept fair judgment and punishment I would do it all again and again and again. I have no regrets," Sucy quickly interjected in a determined monotone.

"Why didn't you send a clone to study at Luna Nova?!" Her friend demanded while Diana stood by and caressed Akko's shoulders.

The Brit turned as pale as Sucy, who was lost for words for about half a minute.

"I… I can't believe I never thought of doing that," Sucy gasped. "I still have to do my entire third year over."

No regrets, huh?" Akko looked at her friend from out of the corner of her eye. "If you had come back to school with us instead of getting involved in all that fufian revolution nonsense we'd still be in the same class. Idiot."

"Idiot?!" Sucy growled while glaring at the brunette with her one visible eye. "Do you have any idea of the workload I had for the past year?"

"Ugh… Okay. I'm sorry for calling you an idiot," Akko sighed when she received the vision Sucy transmitted to her of her experiences while working for Kinue Kinagase. "But we really…"

Content to sense that her friends were finally able to have an open discussion about the past year Diana walked over to Satsuki, who was still in discussion with Ryuko, Nonon, and Nue.

"Excuse me, Lady Satsuki?" She addressed the tall woman with the long straight black hair and the stern face. "Why were we called back to the Arc-en-ciel? REX is still dangerous and they have been able to gather their troops closer and closer to the last scenes toward the Luna Negra dimension."

"I am aware that REX is far from beaten," Satsuki agreed with a concerned expression. "But only a few hours separate us from the announced start of the Universal Mobility Project. I have decided to switch places with Council Member Donahue, who is currently fused with Ms. Mahlangu so that I may lead the mission while your friend Mary takes further rest. We need our strongest people at their best for our last chance at preventing the horrible future that girl comes from."

"But I thought we would only fly to Nova Pangea right before the event starts?" Diana frowned. "Why the change?"

"I kind of understand her concern, Sis," Ryuko spoke up. "You and Mary already sent those three witches to hunt for Filiz clones around the world. That leaves Ira, Mako, Rei, and their group with two soldiers less in their team."

"Misses Zupan, Mariani, and Moller were picked by Miss Twycross for the job of seeking out Filiz's mass murderers. Ira's team is more than strong enough to hold their own in the maze without them," Satsuki replied. "We are only taking the members of the nine new witches with us and the other people gathered here.
If REX insists on pushing forward to Luna Negra Magical Academy they will find a determined force of the world's most powerful witches and a well-trained group of Luna Negra third-year students and Luna Nova second-year students in their way."

"But you're still not telling us why we need to leave so early!" Akko demanded with her arms crossed and Sucy, Barbara, and Lotte next to her.

Satsuki observed the brunette and heaved a deep sigh.

"If you didn't interrupt me I would have explained the situation already, Miss Kagari," She replied with her hands neatly folded before the buckle of the belt that held up the trousers of her light-blue uniform.

"Ah… I'm sorry for so boisterously interrupting you," Akko grinned sheepishly.

"Not at all, Miss Kagari. By all means, be yourself," Satsuki smiled gently.

"As to the reason for our early departure…" The blackette continued. "With the information which we gained from the two friends you sadly lost on the battlefield and from our new ally Nue, Mary and I haven't been able to find a better lead on what Filiz's plans are than we had before. The only thing we are quite certain about is that those plans involve the Universal Mobility Project.

But we did learn something immediately useful from your brave friend Isabelle Hochedé: A weapon to disrupt the Omnimagi magic that Kinue almost certainly will use for the Universal Mobility Project. It is for the sake of collecting that weapon and planning how to use it that we are leaving for Japan before we go to Nova Pangea."

"I apologize if this sounds like criticism," Hannah said while stepping forward with Frank holding her hand. "But what you're saying doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence as to our chances of putting a stop to Filiz's plans."

"I don't mind," Satsuki replied. "I wholeheartedly share your concern. But we find ourselves in this situation and we are going to have to take every asset we have and turn it into victory. According to Miss Twycross, the main cannon of this ship can generate an amount of magical energy comparable to the energy release of several supernovas."

"Ôrale! This beautiful ship packs quite the punch, you see?" Judith Luna Herrera grinned while turning around in the revolving chair behind the Arc-en-ciel's navigational control panel. "So don't go worrying just yet, girls! Mary isn't the only one here who is planning on taking down Filiz with a vengeance!"

"And she came pretty close to doing that, just a few hours ago," Ghaliba added with a bright smile.

"That's right," Mirtel agreed while her girlfriend encircled her waist from behind. "It's not like we're in dire straits. Rather, we are close to success."

"Well… It really doesn't matter what our prospects are," Akko stated grimly. "All I know is that I won't allow Filiz to have her way anymore."

"And we'll help you stop her, Akko," Lotte stated firmly with Sucy and Barbara next to her." I know we'll succeed."

"I think our new friends are right," Amanda grinned as she, Constanze, and Jasminka approached the group. "Nobody knew how things would turn out when we joined the SDD and flew to Japan to fight Oku, but we managed to defeat that monster after all. Mary still believes we can defeat Filiz and so do I."

"I like that confidence," Ryuko laughed.

"We have a new weapon. We have the nine new witches. We have a starship from the future with a huge cannon. We have a super witch. We have a brilliant strategist and her friends who are used to fighting larger-than-life threats," The blackette with the red streak in her hair listed while looking at her sister and friends. "And if all goes well we might even get Kinue Kinagase to see reason. I like our odds."

"Good," Uzu commented with an affectionate smirk at his girlfriend. "Now you delivered your pep talks to each other let's waste no more time and fly back to the lab. It's time to save the lives of billions."

---

A huge scythe swooped down amidst a field of light poles, cutting down hundreds of the thin illuminating stalks and extinguishing their gentle shine forever.

Meifa leaned her razor-sharp tool against the ground for a moment and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
The giant woman with the long black hair wiped some glitter from her black and blue robe with the pattern of purple diamonds. Then she turned her gaze at the futuristic tower in the distance that was surrounded by a wide desert on the other side of the river that bordered the field of light poles and ran along a village of toadstools to the left of the woman's vision.

"It seems strange to say," A voice behind Meifa sounded. "But you look worried."

Meifa turned around to face the young woman with the long wavy black hair in the yellow, orange, and fiery red dress who stood at the edge of the field and leaned against a spiked tree that was slowly melting from her closeness.

"Why would it be strange to say that I worry?" She asked her visitor.

"Well, aren't you the Allform? Oku smirked. "It's a strange thing to see the Allform worry about something."

"All of us are the Allform," Meifa smiled.

"How expertly you dodge the question," Her prisoner giggled while a little blonde girl and a little black boy came running towards her until she stooped to lift both toddlers up in her arms.

"I didn't dodge the question," Meifa said. "I only replied with an answer you didn't expect. We are the Allform. But just because we are the Allform doesn't mean we know what we are planning."

"Ah… I see," Oku stated while Efu and Eri played with her hair. "Well, whatever you are planning I am hopeful that REX has a trick up its sleeve and will win the day.
We must remain optimistic, because the future looks bleak for us if they are defeated."

Meifa observed the three Chaos Gods with an indulgent smile.

The green sun high above was raining gentle glittery dust over the scene and in spite of the portentous battle coming up, the giant woman was feeling quite light-hearted.

"You only feel that way because you are such a greedy bunch," She said as she turned from her visitors to the tower in the desert.

"Humans used to say you cannot please everyone. That may be true due to stubborn natures and limitations of power and knowledge.
You can create a situation wherein everybody can be happy, however."

The Aspect of the Allform turned her eyes on Oku again.

"You don't need as much nourishment as you crave.

There are people who enjoy being frightened. Others observe regular fasting for a variety of purposes.
Others still enjoy practicing martial arts for their amusement and train their bodies.
Fufians still carry microorganisms inside themselves which decompose physical matter. Fufians still die when reaching old age...

Even when the fufian race lives in peace and brings a conclusive end to poverty and hunger, individuals will always be suffering on a minute scale. But the billions who undergo this minute suffering will provide the four of you abundant sustenance.
You will only have to relinquish your desire to affect the lives of the creatures who live in this world."

Oku narrowed her eyes at her guard, but Meifa was aware that her words were not lost on the creature.

"Who knows… Maybe someday you will turn that desire around into wanting to interact positively with the creatures whom you feed on," She smiled before turning back to her former employment.

The giant woman once more raised her scythe and swung it down towards the field of skyscrapers at her feet.

---

In the giant horsetail forest where fused Ira Gamagoori and his companions had fled for shelter, huge stalks fell down in swathes over their heads as the REX soldiers who were hunting them launched attack after attack.

#It seems they found us,# The three meters tall tanned hulk told fused Mako Mankanshoku, Moira Duncan, and Rei Hoomaru.

#That means we'll have to go on the offensive for real,# Rei replied while another attack from their enemies brought down more stalks of giant horsetail several meters behind them. #The roots of the plants are still disturbing their ability to read our magical energy. But if we use invisibility magic they might be able to track us.#

#Our task was to take out as many of them as we could, using guerrilla tactics,# fused Mako said. #Shouldn't we head back to the previous scene if we are in danger of being captured ourselves?#

#I am aware of the danger we're in,# Her fiance said, looking down at his beloved while she stood near his left leg clothed in a light-blue witches' tunic and pointy hat. #But I want to capture their commander before we retreat.
They were able to bring together a lot of their soldiers in this scene. I think we might have underestimated how well organized REX is.
If we can take out that guy with the shoulder-length black hair and the mustache we might disrupt that organization before we fight them with our friends in the previous scene.#

#So far they haven't found the leyline entrance to the previous scene yet. But they are searching the area around the mountain and the valley, so it won't take them long,# Moira Duncan said. #With most of their soldiers occupied over there this might be our best shot at trying to surprise their commander while he and his squadron are hunting us. If Mr. Gamagoori will take the lead. I have a plan that could help us pull it off.#

#Alright. We're listening,# Rei said with a tinge of frustration in her voice. #But could you stop caressing your fused body?#

Moira stopped the hands she had placed on her left breast and her right arm and looked at the woman with the light-purple ringlets in mock surprise.

#I'm only fondling my girlfriend," The tall Scot with the fashionable black pompadour hairdo smiled.

Then she quietly muttered: "I didn't know you were that embarrassed that you'd telepathically complain to our friends, you naughty girl." While Ira and Mako sweat-dropped as they observed the interaction.

#Listen up then!# Moira cheerfully ordered. #Here's my plan.#

---

Dacio Sousa watched the hundreds of fused REX soldiers and trolls he had managed to bring together in the scene with the oversized garden busy searching for the leyline entrance to the next scene among the huge ditch to his far left.

#It shouldn't take long now,# His Ukrainian lover, Olek Timoshenko, stated while launching more energy-disks at the giant horsetail forest where the witches who had given them a rough time when they entered the scene were hiding. #Florian's team will find the exit for sure.#

#Yes. I know,# Dacio said with a satisfied smile at the younger man. #And if we can trust the plans our leader provided me with we should be able to enter the actual Luna Negra dimension if we conquer the next scene and then one more.#

The two men continued to launch more energy disks into the forest towards the areas where they read magical energy fluctuations that might indicate the presence of their prey, raising their arms forward while creating the fierce revolving objects.

#Valentina would be proud to see our success amidst the adversity we have encountered,# Dacio said with a focused look. #I still can't believe we lost such a great mind in a banal car accident. That girl died much too young. And we could have used her wisdom during this war.#

#I'm sure she would be more than satisfied with what how you and Ms. Charpentier steered REX through these dangerous times under our leader's direction after having made us so mighty,# Olek smiled adoringly at his lover.

#Careful…# Dacio warned with a suspicious frown as his hands stopped conjuring up energy disks and remained raised above the ground. #Something's happening.#

The two men launched a few light-blue glowing reality probes that dissolved into the air and scanned their surroundings.

#It's a teleportation spell!# Olek exclaimed. #Watch out!#

Before the eyes of his second-in-command, Dacio Soussa suddenly vanished.

---

The huge muscular man with the shoulder-length black hair and the thin mustache found himself brought into a magically created hollow which fused Moira and Rei Hoomaru were maintaining by means of a powerful gravity spell.

The two women stood on opposite sides of the ellipse-shaped hollow, bright yellow magical energy flowing from their hands.
Ira and Mako stood in the middle of the hollow opposite the man they had tried to teleport into their magiconstruct prison.

#Well, we didn't think that was gonna work anyway!# Ira Gamagoori exclaimed. #So now it's wearing him or taking him down!#

At once, the fused Japanese giant launched about eight miniature white dwarf stars at his prisoner while his fiance, who was fused with Shizuku, cast a spell over Dacio to keep him from teleporting.

The REX commander moved at superhuman speed, flying straight for his attackers and around Ira, whom he attacked with his silk blade.
Ira drew his own weapon and hacked into the blade of his opponent in defense as the two goliaths engaged each other.

Dacio wasn't built quite as hulky as Ira, but the man's powerful frame wasn't any less imposing.

Mako tried to come to the aid of her lover by launching more miniature white dwarf stars at Dacio, but the man Ira was fighting eluded her attacks by swift teleportation or counterspells.

#This guy is something else!# Ira transmitted to the chubby brunette and his two other fused companions. #Don't come too close, Mako. He's fast and agile.#

#Ira Gamagoori!# Dacio grinned while he and his opponent clashed blades as they teleported around the hollow at the speed of light. #I have been hoping to meet you in battle! This is a nice ambush you caught me in, but I will not let my fellow REX members down!#

#Make good use of your numerical advantage, you two!# Moira Duncan warned Mako and Ira. #You can be certain his troops are scanning the scene for him and it is no laughing matter to interrupt the reality of this dimension. We won't be able to keep this up for too long.#

The tall black-haired tomboy watched Mako and Ira trying to outpace their opponent by teleporting and assaulting him one by one.
She and Rei strained their power against the magical energy of the thousands of witch essences that maintained the Luna Negra maze.
The magical energy of the two fused women flowed through their fingers towards each other as it interrupted the reality of the mountain they were in.

Dacio landed in a kneeling position on the floor of the hollow while Ira and Mako landed ten meters opposite him. Each had their swords drawn and took a few minutes to rest from the intense lightspeed battle in which they engaged one another with silk blades and magical attacks.

#From the looks of it, we're finally starting to wear him down, Mako darling,# Ira told the short brunette next to him. #I'll try to keep him fully occupied from here on. Try to look for an opportunity and strike hard.#

#You can count on your loving Mako,# His beloved cheerfully replied with her smiling eyes focused on their prey.

"I guess you think you almost got me, don't you?" Dacio Sousa grinned as he raised himself up again and took a wide battle stance.

Fused Mako and Shizuku suddenly became aware of a strange magical energy reading coming from Dacio and braced herself.

"I admire how well the four of you work together. This is one of the most exciting battles of my life and if I had been fused with almost anyone else you might have gained victory over me," The Venezuelan slowly spoke while his thin mustache curled up with glee. "What a pity for you that I am fused with my very own sister."

---

Olek Timoshenko was floating in meditation high over the forest of giant horsetail where his lover and commander had disappeared barely a quarter of an hour before.
A burly male REX soldier with a big brown hairdo came flying towards him.

#We found the leyline exit, Colonel Timoshenko!# The man informed the stout Ukranian with the spiky silver hair.

#Good,# Olek replied without opening his eyes. #I want the entire army to assemble there. Send Captain Altendorf here with a squadron. I may need them when I find Nest General Sousa.#

#Yes, Colonel,# The man saluted. #I will send them immediately.#

#There's no hurry. Relay the order to assemble at the leyline exit first,# Olek said while a smile appeared around his lips. #I haven't found him yet.
Besides… I think his kidnappers may be the ones who are really in trouble.#

---

Carolina Sousa wasn't allowed to go to Russia with her parents and brother when they emigrated from Venezuela. Her parents considered her too young to adapt to a different culture and they wanted to build their business in their new home country before they had the girl join them.

The beautiful ten-year-old girl with the long shiny black hair was brought to a friend of the family in Bolivia whom she had known from a young age and loved very much.
After her parents left for Russia, however, the man's behavior became increasingly erratic.
He finally revealed that he hated Carolina's father because the girl's mother had left her then-boyfriend for him.

The man started weeping and grabbed a large knife which he put to Carolina's throat.
But the stoical girl stared at the devastated man with her cold black eyes and told him to go ahead and kill her.

He never did, although the same scene occurred multiple times while she grew up in his care.
Her guardian would just end up turning coward, dropping to the floor, and sobbing out loud while the unmoved Carolina held him in her arms.

From then on Carolina worked hard.
Her guardian was a poor man and she had no social standing, but she managed to get into the most elite schools based on her grades and thanks to her wit.
This is how she got into Pachamama Magical Academy as the granddaughter of a witch.

Pachamama managed to stay solvent by merging with an elite high school for boys, so the school was co-ed for the standard academic portions of the girl's curriculum.

Over the summer of her first year at magic school, Carolina, who was a dorm student, was challenged by a shy but sporty girl with long unkempt blonde hair.

Anke was the star of the athletics club. A cute and active girl who was a hopeless romantic.
There was a boy in the second year she was very interested in, but he was very dedicated to Carolina and bedazzled by her long straight-flowing black hair and cheerful outgoing behavior.
Anke wanted Carolina to let him down hard and point him in her direction.

The two female rivals appeared at the track court in their shirts and shorts with a bunch of dorm students of the magic academy cheering for either one.
At the signal to start both girls started running at top speed, both taking the challenge very seriously. But it quickly became clear that Anke didn't stand a chance.

Many of the spectators marveled at the cool masculine charm of Carolina while she easily outran the girl with the long blonde hair and untidy bangs who gasped and panted as she pushed her body to its limit.

Anke wept bitterly as she slowly caught her breath, hiccuping while being comforted by a friend.

Carolina walked up to the overwhelmed girl and told her she wasn't interested in the boy Anke loved.
The imperturbable blackette said that she was satisfied Anke gave it her all and promised to tell her beloved there was someone who loved him dearly.

In the locker room afterward, the girls watched Carolina dry herself off after showering. They admired her muscular body, hard biceps, and pronounced brachialis and triceps.
A girl with a long light-brown ponytail commented how Carolina trained harder than any boy or girl in the athletics club or the martial arts club.
The other girls talked about how the boys loved her because she was always talkative and cheerful among them. The girls felt special because Carolina only showed her cold stoical side to her fellow magic students.

There was one girl who envied Carolina more than any other.
Charlize was the sad daughter of a rich French immigrant family. She was a beautiful girl with an imperious expression and long wavy silver hair, but she always looked sad.

There was a boy at school who was engaged to Charlize.
It was a political union, but the silverette really loved her fiancee. He didn't really care about her, however, and that was a source of much pain to the girl.

One day, Charlize was sitting in the garden around school weeping bitterly over her lot and Carolina saw her sitting as she walked around.
The blackette smiled brightly when she realized how miserable Charlize was and marveled how happy the sight made her.
From then on she dedicated herself to cultivating that misery.

Sometime later Charlize was one day sitting at dinner in the school's dining hall. She sadly reflected on how Carolina was actively making everyone hate her and had even managed to turn Charlize's fiancee against her.
The silverette knew that Carolina was slowly murdering her. She lamented that there was nobody at school who was on her side and that they were right to love Carolina who always smiled so brightly.

A few days before that day the girls in Carolina and Charlize's class were present when one of their teachers made a wondrous discovery. It seemed that Carolina's magical energy was permanently in the Omns wavelength of the spectrum.
The rare deep black noble metal can actually grow when brought into contact with gold or silver, which it consumes by burning these other metals up.

But the fact that Carolina's magical energy was permanently in the Omns wavelength signified that it was directly linked to the Allform.
This had never happened before and it meant that Carolina had the potential to become a witch like no other.

One time during a visit to the city Carolina and Charlize were both kidnapped. They were kept in a rundown house where one of the two kidnappers would regularly beat them.

To Charlize's surprise, Carolina protected her. Challenging the huge muscular man and taking most of the beatings.
This went on until the girl with the long straight black hair pulled the toilet out of the floor and smashed the man down with it.
In a fury she kept beating her assailant with the toilet, breaking the bones in his body and beating him into a bloodied corpse.

When Carolina was brought to Russia by her parents after graduation from magic school she immediately identified with the philosophy of REX. She felt that she was more worthy than people who wouldn't be able to survive what she did.

From then on brother and sister made up for the time they spent apart and rose through the ranks of the organization.

---

Too late to react, Ira realized that fused Dacio was creating a miniature intermediate-mass black hole in his left hand.
The immensely powerful magical projectile hit the blonde giant head-on and felled him immediately.

Mako hurried to the side of her lover but was hit by a similar projectile.

At that moment Olek managed to find his commander and together with the squadron he had called to his aid they teleported fused Dacio and Carolina out of the hollow which fused Moira and Rei were creating in the scene's large mountain.

#We have to get out of here this instant!# The latter exclaimed.

#Yes!# Moira nodded. #We're in bad shape. There's a good chance they found the leyline entrance by now. Let's try to leave the scene through the leyline exit to the next scene. We can figure out how to join the others from there.#

The two fused women managed to teleport themselves and their two unconscious friends out of the hollow just in time before their enemies tried to take them captive.
But those enemies were now enabled to cross into the previous scene unhindered and had brought a large portion of their army one step closer to the Luna Negra dimension.

---

A year and three months ago. Tokyo, Japan.

Filiz's voice:
A blue ceramic half-full cup of tea and a matching saucer rested on the small round mahogany table to my left with a still sufficiently filled teapot from the same material.

As I had turned to my left in my revolving desk chair, the desk at which I studied for school and worked through my administration for REX and Blue Skies was positioned to my right.
On it was placed my silver open laptop, a stack of correspondence from REX shadows, and a fist-sized copper-colored magical incinerator.

The handy incinerator had been a gift of Valentina's. It and a regular supply of enchanted paper which rendered the words written on it legible only to the writer and the addressee served to ensure a safely secret correspondence between me and my highly motivated personal spies in REX.

The voices of the crowd gathered in the streets of Tokyo floated up through the open window of my brightly lit room in Yamazaki Tower, even though I was on the forty-fifth floor.
The masses who had for a seemingly inexplicable reason ventured out in the streets at 2 o'clock weren't indulging in mad cheering, however.
The noise I heard from them was more akin to the awed whispers appropriate to the occasion.
Because they too were aware that our world had just changed irrevocably.

The person I was calling on my cell phone picked up and greeted me with the same glee in her voice as that with which I greeted her.

"Good evening, My dear Valentina. May I inquire as to where you find yourself on this momentous occasion?"

"Hello Sestrukha," My beloved friend's clear imperious voice answered me. "I was just attending a Blue Skies meeting by proxy while at the gym when I and my fellow health enthusiasts noticed an interesting development on the screens that hang from the ceiling."

"Yes," I grinned while watching the television screen against the wall in front of me that I had initially turned onto a music channel to hear some songs while I worked. "You were working on getting me into Volch'ya Logovo lyceum, but in light of what just happened I think it will be much more interesting to make the acquaintance of these two."

"Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish," Valentina informed me. "The latter I already told you about. About the first, I heard that she was a bumbling idiot with delusions of grandeur. Apparently, those weren't delusions."

"Indeed. I think we should take a special interest in this countryman of mine who just managed to do the impossible. Because I do believe that is the fabled Yggdrasil I see being created on my television screen, yeah?"

"It certainly is, Sestrukha," My friend replied. "From now on, witches will be able to use magic freely wherever they are. The magic I used was largely dependent on my magic wand before, but I can feel it vigorously coursing through my own body as we speak. I will take action immediately to accelerate the purge of our magic schools."

"Good. We should also encourage the study of offensive magic and strategic skills in them.
If the magical community is going to become a global player, which is only logical hereafter, we need our members to be ready for opposition from those quarters," I added.

"Agreed. I will put our inner circle in the magical community to work immediately on organizing our response to the new situation."

"Let's also use our appropriate pawns in the magical community and the political world to influence how this situation evolves.
We need decisions to be taken to our benefit. I will put my contacts to work."

"I will do the same," Valentina replied. "And I will see what strings I can pull to get you into Luna Nova.
Should I select someone to join you there? It stands to reason that they will have many new applicants next year and will search for extra staff.
Dacio's sister might get a position…"

"How considerate of you, my dear Valentina. But I wish to embark on this adventure by myself for now. Thank you for the offer."

"I completely understand, Sestrukha," I hear my friend chuckle. "How I envy you to start your magical education under these circumstances.
But I am reminded of what you told me so many years ago when we first met. Thanks to you this fascinating new world will be far more challenging than it would have been if the future only depended on the witches' council.

Let us meet next week so we can discuss the matter in more detail and appropriately celebrate the future."

"I continue to please you to my delight, Nee-san," I chuckled. "I look forward to our meeting. Enjoy the rest of your workout and the work ahead of you."

"You too, Sestrukha."

I placed my cell phone on my desk and watched how Akko was throwing a blushing Diana up and catching her in her arms with a mad laugh.

My room - in which only a desk lamp was lit - glowed as if illuminated by floodlights through the light emanating from me as I raised my cup of tea to the two amazing girls on my television screen.

"My greetings to you, Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish. I thank you for making this world a far more fascinating place than anyone ever imagined it could become. I am sure we will become dear friends.

And I am eager to see you at Luna Nova, my dear Nela," I blushed gleefully. "Sorry for having been so swamped with work.
I wished to fight you again sooner. But I know we will meet at Luna Nova. I know you are also thinking about me this very moment.
And I know that together we will set the magical community ablaze, yeah."

---

"That is how I experienced the rebirth of Yggdrasil before I was forced to have Mary kill my dear Valentina in order to save my own life," Filiz Osdemir told her audience of five while standing before the television set in Anais Berger's room in the Arc-en-ciel in the shape of Anais herself. "You see, I needed someone with a sufficient amount of magical energy to take my place and I had no time to think. Valentina sadly was the first person who came to mind."

The Japanese witch turned around to face Anais's mother and father, the girl's brother and sister, and the blonde tomboy's boyfriend. Each of them sat in chairs around their daughter's bed in the same insensible state.

"In this new reality I contacted Dacio and Lea and a similar conversation occurred. But I enjoy the original memory more, yeah," Filiz smiled at them with regret.

"I am well aware of the fact that if you were able to converse with me you would ask me why I am standing here mourning my friends when I am the one responsible for their deaths. You would, without question, ask me why I would sacrifice the three people I love most in this world in my quest to fight Kinue Kinagase?

The answer is quite simple, good people: Fighting our Great Unifier is a twofold goal of mine. For one thing, I hope to turn back the clock in some measure if I win and go back to slowly conquering the world with REX.
The other reason I am so set on fighting Kinue is the utter challenge of it.

All of my life I have been confronted with what the spoiled strong pointlessly and self-congratulatorily like to call harshness of the world.
This world isn't harsh. It is only harsh for the weak. It always pampered the strong.

How insignificant is the physically, intellectually, and emotionally able person who looks down on those who beg for help because they cannot do what he or she can do?
How pointless the lives of those who talk condescendingly about the people who are left behind in society, yeah?

In nature as in society, the strong only pick on the very weakest.
They hunt them and bully them. They prey upon their lack of power and take pleasure in the blood and tears they draw from those they know will never be able to be a challenge to them.
They will never dare to do the same to those directly below them unless pressed into it. They are too frightened of the opposition. Too frightened to lose power.

In nature as in society, the strong are only as powerful as those directly below them allow them to be.
And they are only strong because nature gifted them with the insight to know that they should gather power for themselves and the ability to do so more effectively than others.

That is why predators and bullies are so utterly boring: while they act as larger-than-life threats to their prey, they do nothing but fawn over one another in order to protect their position in society.
Whoever thinks our civilization exists to protect the weak is deluded. Our civilization exists to protect the strong from each other.

This is why I have always hunted the strong.
Why should I waste myself on the very weakest? They are beneath me. They are boring. They pose no challenge.

I want to find an opponent who will fight me without reserve. Someone who devotes their life to my destruction, yeah.
Someone who can make me bleed. Someone who can make me weep. Someone who will only fight the most powerful.
I will fight that person to the death. I will merge my essence with them in a divine struggle for victory.

That is why, since I learned of her existence, I have been obsessed with fighting Kinue and nobody understood this desire as well as Valentina, Nela, and Isabelle.

Those self-indulging people I mentioned like to shut weaker people who complain to them up by mentioning the "sacrifices" they made in their lives.
My loved ones are the sacrifices I made to end Kinue's reign and hopefully turn this world into a paradise of true competition one day," Filiz concluded as she turned back to the television screen before her where the Japanese Emperor began his introductory speech.

The REX leader disguised as Anais Berger stood with folded arms watching how the man told his subjects that Kinue had his blessing and the mandate of the Japanese diet while appealing to them for lending the Great Unifier the application of their magical energy towards a common goal.

'The moment for which everyone in REX worked so hard is nearly at hand,' Filiz pondered. 'I wonder whether we will truly be able to pull it off. But I better try to escape this ship now or all will have been for naught.'

The second she was about to turn around Filiz sensed an amount of magical energy behind her on a scale which she had only experienced twice before in her life from close by.

Instantly quelling the apprehension in her heart the blackette stopped her movement and grinned at the image reflected in the television screen before her.

#Welcome to my humble abode,# She breezily joked to her visitor. #I was wondering what kept you so long.#

---

In the large beige-and-tan starboard hangar of the Arc-en-ciel, which was for the occasion transformed into a concert stage, Satsuki Kiryuin stood before the assembled members of the Kitauji High School Concert Band.

Grouped by section the girls and boys stood lined up before the tall black-haired commander of the Arc-en-ciel's crew, listening to their final instructions.
Their temporary band director, Nonon, stood a little ahead of them and listened to her lover with the same seriousness.

Having practiced and learned during every free hour of their high school education in order to perfect their performance individually and collectivelyn the young musicians had no idea that they would one day be employed as a weapon to ward of the apocalypse.

Kumiko Oumae turned her eyes on her friend Reina Kousaka, who stood next to the band president and trumpet section leader, Yuuko Yoshikawa.
Both girls were completely focused on what the radiant woman to whom their savior had introduced them a few hours ago had to say.

The time they had spent in hiding while under the misunderstanding that Japan was being taken over by aliens of some sort was terrifying. Kumiko and her friends cried tears of relief when Nonon Jakuzure found them and explained to them what had really been going on.
But the truth was more frightening and confusing than their earlier misconception in many ways, and an enormous responsibility now rested on their shoulders.

The tall Japanese with the lightly curled shoulder-length auburn hair looked down at her friend Midori.
The short blonde with the messy short hairdo was visibly shivering.
Midori was usually able to keep her nerves in check, but when she experienced real pressure it was obvious that she couldn't deal with the stress at all.

Kumiko placed a gentle hand on the right shoulder of the contrabass player, making the girl turn her head and look up at her with moist eyes.

"It'll be alright, Midori," Kumiko's boisterous friend, Hazuki, winked at the short blonde. "We studied and Practised Gloriosa more intensely than any other piece we ever performed."

Kumiko smiled back at the slightly shorter girl with the short light-brown hair.

"Hazuki is right," She added. "We can do this."

"Shhh…"

The trio heard the band's vice-president, Natsuki Nakagawa, hush them while the tall and muscular bass section leader, Takuya Gotou, showed them a stern look.
The tall girl who had her long auburn hair in a high ponytail and the bespectacled boy with the short messy dark-brown hair immediately turned their gazes forward again, confident that the girls understood the importance of their function.

To the far right of the bass section, Mizore Yoroizuka, a tall and slender girl with long dark-blue hair, stood at the head of the double reeds section.
Glancing to her left, Mizore saw a girl with a dark-brown bob and a taller girl with shoulder-length black hair in a high ponytail standing at the head of the flute section.

#I love you. You will be amazing,# The double reeds section leader told her girlfriend.

A bright smile appeared on the lips of the blackette with the ponytail who stood next to the flute section leader.

#Thank you for your confidence,# Nozomi Kasaki told her girlfriend. #I know you will also be amazing, as always.#

When they learned of the fufian revolution Nozomi was eager to join the new race with her girlfriend.
She never believed in the self-indulgent lie which writers and movie directors liked to spread that shyness was part of who a shy person was and that it was important to stay that way.
Nozomi always wanted to help Mizore get over her timidity and she grabbed the promise of the fufian revolution with both hands.
Writers were idiots as far as the blackette was concerned. If anything, she loved her girlfriend even more now she was so much more confident and outgoing.

In the trombone section, Shuuichi Tsukamoto listened closely to Satsuki Kiryuin's orders.
The young man was nervous about having to sing the Gregorian chant at the start of Gloriosa together with the other boys in the band and wondered whether he shouldn't have become fufian like Takuya Gotou to ensure his composure during the performance.

The trombone section leader, Keina Iwata, who was standing a little to his right, however, had insisted that he remained human with her so that they would better represent the spirit of the symphony they were about to perform.

Shuuichi saw the tall blackette with the short twintails turn her shiny red eyes on him and smile encouragingly.
The boy with the short light-brown hair bemoaned his lot for a while after he had come to terms with the fact that Kumiko didn't return his feelings, but since Keina started to show such an obvious interest in him he felt blessed by cupid.

"I want to emphasize again how dangerous your position will be," Satsuki Kiryuin warned the boys and girls from Kitauji High with a frightening voice and penetrating eyes. "We do not know what measures the enemy might to stop you from playing. You might be killed instantly. You might be taken hostage and tortured.
These are dangers which you should not be subjected to. It is my responsibility to keep you safe from them. But it is your decision to protect yourself by becoming fufian or not."

The blackette looked at the young people in front of her and then shared a look with Nonon.

Reina looked over her shoulder at Kumiko who returned her firm nod. Then the blackette addressed Nonon and Satsuki.

"Gloriosa is a symphonic poem dedicated to the struggle for survival minorities face every day. We applaud those among us who chose to become fufian, but the rest of us choose to remain human for now because we believe we can better embody the spirit of the work that way."

"Or that is what the president of Kitauji High school Wind Ensemble would say," Yuuko added with some annoyance at her friend's presumptuousness.

"But I would still like to change my mind and become fufian!" Midori suddenly exclaimed to everyone's surprise.

The short blonde hadn't expected to be so affected by the stress of what they were about to partake in. She agreed to remain fufian with Hazuki, Kumiko, Natsuki, and Reina. But the moment to perform as Satsuki's weapon against the Universal Mobility Project came upon them and she realized she wouldn't be able to handle the pressure.
Struggling to express her feelings against the expectations of her friends her inner turmoil erupted dramatically and clumsily.

"It is too late for a change of mind now," Natsuki coldly and breezily reprimanded the contrabass player. "And you might have said so in a normal way if this is what you really wanted, Midori."

#Natsuki thinks she is handling this in a mature way, but the inability to empathize with people who are weaker than you are is a perfect example of immaturity,# Nozomi sadly transmitted to her girlfriend Mizore.

"There really is no problem here," Nonon gently assured the girls and boys she would direct in a short while. "We still have sufficient time to have everyone who is having second thoughts undergo the transformation. We can help any of you to become fufian during your performance if you feel frightened at that time. It really is no problem."

"In that case, you can step forward, Midori," Yuuko said. "Anybody else who changed their minds about staying human please step forward too so Ms. Jakuzure can help you."

Satsuki at that moment approached the nine new witches and their new friends, who had been talking to Uzu. Her trusted Lieutenant turned to her as she came closer.

"You can count on me to protect them," The green-haired man said with a glance at the group assembled in front of the performance stage behind her.

"Thank you, Uzu," Satsuki smiled. "I know they and the Arc-en-ciel will be safe in your hands.

"And ours!" The blackette heard from farther in the hangar.

She and Uzu turned around to see the robot modes of Yuuki, Chujitsuna, Hogo-sha, Furyu, Kanshinin, and Kyohaku walk up to them with Ryuko.

"We are honored by the chance at being bodyguards for such great musicians," Furyu said.

"That's right," Kanshihin agreed with the pink-and-white robot. "We heard these kids practice and, wow! We were blown away!"

"I would give my life to protect fellow musicians with such soul to them," Yuuki added. "Leave them to us without worry, Lady Satsuki."

"I will, Yuuki," Satsuki smiled with warmth. "Thank you."

"Mirtel and Judith say we are floating at a hundred meters from Nova Pangea, Sis," Ryuko warned the black-haired CEO of ShelteR Inc. "Mary is up and on her way here with Ghaliba."

"Good. Then we are nearly ready for the fight to protect the future of us all.
As we agreed earlier, Judith and Mirtel will be in command of the Arc-en-ciel. Joanna and Mr. Soroi will see to the wellbeing of its passengers.
Uzu will fuse with Dusana and protect the Kitauji Concert Band together with Yuuki, Chujitsuna, Hogo-sha, Furyu, Kanshinin, and Kyohaku while Nonon will conduct their performance while fused with Sola."

The stern eyes of Satsuki Kiryuin wandered over the young witches in front of her as she spoke.

"Akko will fuse with Bohdana, Diana with Heather, Amanda with Aduna, Jasminka with Valeriana, Barbara with Tine, Lotte with Yitte, Hannah with Tarsha, Constance with Sheryl, Sucy with Uatereta. I, lastly, will fuse with Ghaliba and my sister with Nue while Mary will lead us all into battle.

Are there any questions left?" The blackette asked while on the large screen opposite the concert stage in the beige-and-tan hangar the image switched from the Japanese Emperor to the brightly lit stage of the Omnimagi Stadium.

"Yes," Wangari Maina asked with eagerness in her voice. "When do you want me to teleport into the stadium and search for your friends?"

Satsuki sensed that Mary and Ghaliba were entering the hangar behind her. She watched the large screen where Kinue Kinagase walked onto the stage of the Omnimagi Stadium under loud applause with Croix Meridies and Chariot du Nord behind her.
She, Ryuko, Uzu and the witches assembled in front of them watched how the Great Unifier stood with her hands folded in front of her belly and waited for the people in the stadium to stop cheering for her.

With mixed feelings, Diana and Akko saw how their former teachers patiently waited for their friend to introduce them.

"Chariot…" Akko muttered while Ghaliba approached Satsuki and Mary walked up to her. "Please know what you are doing."

"We'll appeal to them when we teleport onto the stage," Her blue-haired friend said. "Don't worry, Akko. I'm confident that we can get them to see reason."

"Thank you so much for your love!" The Great Unifier began her speech, transmitting it to everyone in the world who was willing to accept her telepathic message as her first words were drowned out by a second peal of deafening and heartfelt applause.

#It is wonderful to see you all again in this beautiful stadium and know that so, so many of you are watching this transmission. Humans as well as fufians.#

Satsuki looked over to Wangari and showed the girl a determined nod.

"Now," She said, milliseconds before the daring reporter teleported to the scene of her assignment.

---

#I have heard the stories of so many of you! Stories of pain and suffering turned into triumph and happiness!# Kinue Kinagase spoke and transmitted at the same time while she looked out over the hundreds of people seated in the stadium around her who were watching her and the huge screen overhead that showed what everyone around the world was watching on their screens great and small. #Each day more and more choose to join the fufian race and learn how the decision enriches their lives.

But there are still many of you who choose to remain human for a variety of reasons. It does not matter,# The Great Unifier smiled gently at the cameras that projected her image on the screen overhead. #We have more than enough Ophiocodyceps Manbavariensis mycelium spores and can preserve them for generations to come.

I understand that there are people who are suspicious, frightened, or angered by the fufian revolution. I am not going to belittle or criticize the reasons why you choose to remain human. I am not going to try and talk into you or try to convince you and I trust the fufians you encounter in your daily lives will not try to convince you in any kind of aggressive way.

It saddens me to think that there are those among you whose lives would be so enriched by what they fear. But I believe that you will all see that there is nothing to dread about the fufian revolution or your fufian family, friends, and colleagues. I also believe that in time the benefits of joining the fufian race will become clear to you without any insistent preaching. On that day I foresee that your loved ones will awaken to your emotions inside themselves and smile to see that things which were difficult for some of you before will be as easy as they are to them.
That will be a wonderful day for you all.

What I cannot but argue against, however, are those of you who try to fight the fufian revolution.
I know that you are watching me now, Filiz Osdemir. I know that many who are members of the organization called REX are watching this transmission with hostile feelings.
I think I understand the reasons why you oppose this new world I helped create.
You believe the fufian revolution means an end to progress. An end to the motivations that used to make people exert themselves in order to improve.
Let me be very clear about this: WE WILL CHALLENGE OURSELVES LIKE NEVER BEFORE!#

A tremendous cheering arose from the audience in the Omnimagi Stadium as Kinue Kinagase raised the pointer finger of her right hand to the sky above to underline her statement.

#I have called the attention of the world towards me today for exactly that reason!# The brunette in the white lab coat who was still continuously clouded in shadow said. #Members of REX, after today you will realize that you no longer have any reason to take up arms.
Just because all fufians are about equally capable in any field does not mean there will be no more occasion for friendly competition. On the contrary: competition will be more challenging, Competition will be more rewarding too, because nobody will experience as crushing a defeat as was possible in competitions between people with as wild a variety of abilities as existed between humans in the past.

If it is this past of inequality that you wish to return to, I must sadly conclude that we must remain opponents. That world doesn't exist anymore and for good reasons.
But if you think objectively about it, inequality isn't necessary. Neither in nature or in society.
And you will find that any desire you may have for inequality to exist in society is not a desire the satisfaction of which is essential for your well-being or happiness.
This is why I ask you to renounce your desire to reintroduce inequality in society. Please, end your opposition to the fufian revolution.#

---

While Kinue Kinagase was speechifying, an invisible and cloaked Wangari Maina cautiously teleported toward the woman's apartment in the Omnimagi Stadium.
From her position at the door to the apartment, the Kenyan witch with the big orange hairdo sensed the forms of the exact three men she had come for in the living quarters.
With a satisfied smile, Wangari knocked on the door and waited.

"You're here?" Tsumugu said as he opened the door to her. "Then let's go to the laboratory immediately. There's not a moment to waste."

"I'll take you there," Wangari smiled. "But aren't you going to invite me in first?"

The large brawny man with the red mohawk who occupied the door-opening sighed peevishly and moved aside for her.

"Look, when my sister ends her speech Croix Meridies and Chariot du Nord will start the spell," He said. "We have to find out what they are planning before that happens."

Stepping through the doorway Wangari saw Hoka Inumuta standing next to Aikurõ Mikisugi. Both men had been looking out of the window at the stage where Kinue was standing, but they turned around to face their visitor.

"Right. You and I should fuse to make this go as fast as possible," Wangari said while pointing her finger at Hoka.

"Let's do it then," The bespectacled man with the ice-blue hair who was wearing a teal business suit nodded firmly while extending his arm towards the witch.

Wangari similarly extended her arm while long threads appeared from either of them which pulled their bodies together and merged them into Hoka's form.

"Let's go," The fused I.T. specialist told Aikuro and Tsumugu while teleporting them to Croix and Chariot's laboratory with him.

---

"But I know that you have one more grievance against the fufian revolution," Kinue continued her speech on the stage of the Omnimagi Stadium. "And it is a grievance that I have come to realize is both justified and directed at me personally.

Satsuki Kiryuin as well as my brother and his beloved Aikuro have gone to great lengths in order to make me see how harmful my position as the instigator of the fufian revolution is on the democratic institutions of our nations in the long run.
I have been obstinate for a long time, but in the end, I had to admit that their reasoning is sound.
I know that you also strongly object to the "tyrannical power" which I have been wielding, members of REX. That is why I hang my head in a declaration of guilt and I promise you that today will mark the end of my position at the forefront of the fufian revolution.
No longer will I appeal to the governments or the people of earth to help me carry out my vision. No longer will I plot to have that vision carried out by illegal means.
After we perform the spell for the Universal Mobility Project together I will step down as Great Unifier of the people of earth and leave the fufian race to decide its own future."

---

The nine new witches, Satsuki Kiryuin and her friends, and the members of the Kitauji High School Concert Band saw Kinue walk closer to the center of the stage and beckon Croix and Chariot behind her to come a little closer.

"This is our cue, everyone!" Satsuki announced as she and Ghaliba grabbed one another's hands. "Let us fuse and go down there to try and stop whatever Kinue and Filiz are about to do.

At her sign, every one of the nine new witches as well as Ryuko, Uzu, and Nonon joined hands and fused with their partners.

Kumiko, Reina, Natsuki, Yuuko, Mizore, Nozomi, and their friends shaded their eyes from the blinding light radiating from the group.

---

#But let us now proceed to the reason I have called your attention to me,# Kinue continued her address.

#It was in this very place that four and a half million years ago, hundreds of years of evolution and self-domestication resulted in an early hominid group, called Ardipithecus Ramidus. These ancestors of all later archaic humans lived here in a peaceful society. Evidence suggests that they managed to interact without antagonism between individuals or groups. Being relatively distant from any natural predators the group of proto-humans living in this paradise was able to grow ever larger in numbers.

But if the peaceful nature of their society wasn't exceptional enough, evidence has come forth that points to the amazing magical talent of these creatures.
It was their ability to generate such huge amounts of magical energy which drew the attention of the African dragons living in this area. Never before had dragons come into contact with creatures who had such great magical potential.
My fellow scientists and witches estimate that every one of these proto-humans was able to generate a larger amount of magical energy than most fufian witches.

As they observed their peculiar pets the dragons living in this area occupied themselves with teaching the proto-humans under their care how to channel their magic as far as mutual communication skills allowed.
Lacking in intelligence, the hominids under their care had - as can be expected - very little understanding of their magical ability.
The most practical application of their magic came in the form of storing it in a huge construct that took the appearance of something very basic to the hominid's understanding of the world: A tree.

This group of proto-humans, it seems, were the ones who created our very own Yggdrasil, which is why the rejuvenated sacred tree is located above this position.# Kinue smiled.

#Yggdrasil was then even more impressive than it is now, however. Its branches grew into the very depths of space and linked our earth with every planet in the universe.
But as the Ardipithecus Ramidus spread across the horn of Africa they started to come into contact with other groups of apes and early hominids. More aggressive than them, the gentle hominids had no way of dealing with their new neighbors.
The interactions with other apes and their increasing numbers caused several groups to split off from the main group. As the main group of Ardipithecus Ramidus slowly became extinct, the new groups adapted to the aggressive territoriality of their neighbors. They fought their aggressors and spread over their lands.

The dragons decided to keep guarding these new groups of hominids, though the amount of magical energy they were able to generate was significantly less than the Ardipithecus Ramidus.
The new groups were no longer able to sustain the branches of Yggdrasil that had grown into the universe, but what was worse: The aggression that had become part of their nature and lives infected these faraway branches with noir fuel spirit.
These two evolutions caused the branches to be altered and break loose from Yggdrasil and in time the remains of these branches became a magical life form that drifted through the universe and evolved on its own.

Today,# Kinue smiled. #We are going to work together to recreate the magic that linked our world to every other, millions of years ago.#

Under loud applause, Croix Meridies and Chariot du Nord walked up to the center of the stage.

Fused Mary, Satsuki, Ryuko, and the nine new witches teleported to strategic places around the stadium.

Satsuki and Ryuko teleported all the spectators out of the stadium and back to their homes before the nine new witches launched several reality-probing spells all over the place, checking for Filiz or anything out of the ordinary. Then they constructed a powerful magical barrier around the stadium.

Mary appeared before Kinue - who was walking off stage - struggling internally with the dreadful feeling that she wasn't picking up on something very important.

"Please stop the Omnimagi spell, Ms. Kinue," The bluette addressed the brunette in the white lab coat urgently.

#Continue as if nothing happened,# Kinue told a hesitant Croix and Chariot. #I'll talk things over with them.#

"Did you deal with Filiz as you said you would?" The Great Unifier asked Mary while Akko and Diana approached their former teachers.

#Please don't interrupt them, girls,# Kinue told the witches while teleporting them towards her. #You can discuss your reservations about this event with me.#

"I fought her and managed to mortally wound her, but she got away before I was able to finish her off," Mary said. "Which means that if she manages to create her armor she will attack here. We have no time for this event. We have to work together if we want to stand a chance of defeating Filiz."

Croix and Chariot stood together, unsure of whether to proceed. But they decided to go ahead as Kinue said and addressed the people around the world who were watching the broadcast nonetheless.

#Welcome to the second ever Omnimagi event!# Chariot cheerfully announced.

---

In the laboratory where the two witches prepared the Universal mobility Project with their employer, Hoka typed his commands into the keyboard of Croix's computer while Tsumugu and Aikuro stood behind him.

"That's it," Aikuro gasped. "You're in."

"The file should be easy to find," His lover commented. "But it's probably coded."

"And you think that'll stop me?" Hoka Inumuta smirked as he entered a sequence of commands.

As the main file concerning the Universal Mobility Project came on screen the three men hurriedly read all that it contained.
It didn't take long for the blood to curdle in their veins.

"This… This is…" Aikuro gasped in horror.

"Chariot! Kinue!" Tsumugu exclaimed. "You maniacs!"

"I'll teleport us into the stadium right away!" Hoka said while performing the action.

---

#We are going to pretend that we are fishing with large mesh-type fishing nets!# Chariot said as she sensed the magic of all the fufians around the world come together. #The entire universe will be the sea we are fishing in!#

"Please, Ms. Kinue. Ask Professors Croix and Chariot to end the spell!" Diana fervently asked the brunette. "Filiz may attack at any moment. We have no idea what she has planned!"

At that moment, Hoka, Aikuro, and Tsumugu appeared on the stage and walked over to the gathering of Mary, Kinue, Satsuki, Ryuko, Akko, and Diana.

"What did you do?!" A furious Tsumugu demanded of his sister. "How could you think this was a good idea?! Stop them immediately!"

---

In the hangar of the Arc-en-ciel, Nonon Jakuzure moved her baton, directing the members of the Kitauji High School Concert Band to start the performance of the symphonic poem Gloriosa.

watch?v=9JDv5LCf5lo

---

#Now that we have spread our nets, we are going to haul them in all at a time!# Chariot continued addressing her global audience. #I want you all to imagine your nets at the edges of the universe!#

"Calm down, Tsu. There is no reason to worry" Kinue serenely told her brother. "The life fibers will be completely under our control."

That was the moment Mary realized she and her friends were under a powerful mind-control spell which she quickly disintegrated.

"Life fibers?!" Fused Ryuko exclaimed.

#Now, let's all haul our catches in!# Croix told the people of earth.

"That's right!" Hoka told Satsuki "They are fishing for all of the original life fibers in the universe with the aim of fashioning them into a road-complex that will link earth to all other planets as it was millions of years ago."

---

In the hangar of the Arc-en-ciel, the boys of the Kitauji Concert Band chanted the hymn extract from the start of Gloriosa's first movement: "O gloriosa Domina excelsa super sidera que te creavit provide lactasti sacro ubere."

And while original life fiber cocoons appeared in the sky all around the world, the control of the fufian population over the spell they had been using together was broken by the sound Keina Iwata and her trombone section produced.

---

Mary tried to contact the Arc-en-ciel so she could tell Nonon to immediately stop the performance, but she quickly realized that someone was blocking her transmission.

Akko and Diana saw their blue-haired friend and Kinue being teleported back in time.

#We have to stop them from performing and get the life fiber cocoons back under control of the spell!# Ryuko exclaimed.

At that moment large magitronic pixel needles launched themselves from the Perfect Fusion factories all over the world.
Around the globe, people looked up into the sky and saw the immobile life fiber cocoons which floated in the atmosphere being pierced and threaded by the pixel needles.

To everyone's horror, Filiz appeared amidst the seats in the center of the Omnimagi Stadium, casting a spell that compromised the structural integrity of the magical barrier around the stadium.
The Japanese witch lifted her arms up as the pixel needles from around the world descended upon her and enveloped her in a huge swirl of red threads that wrapped itself around and around her and obscured her from view.

Kinue and Mary teleported themselves back to the present, but realized they were too late.

#We'll follow the plan!# Mary told her friends.

The nine new witches, meanwhile, bombarded Filiz with miniature supermassive black holes as more and more life fiber threads wrapped themselves around the witch in a glowing red swirl. But the magical energy generated by the conversion of the hundreds of original life fiber cocoons protected Filiz from the attacks of her enemies.

Mary teleported the Omnimagi Stadium and the Arc-en-ciel into the middle of the Microscopium Void and fused with Kinue, Satsuki, Ryuko, Croix, Chariot, Tsumugu, Aikuro, and Hoka.
As planned, Judith separated the domestic quarters of the Arc-en-ciel, allowing fused Mary to teleport it back to earth with her.

With the battle stage free from innocent bystanders Akko and her friends watched the glowing red swirl around Filiz emit a blinding light before it dissolved.
In its place Filiz stood exactly as they had seen her in the memories Mary had shared with them:

The blackette's shoulder-length hair flowed from under a golden helmet with devil horns.
Her entire body was covered in golden armor with batlike wings sprouting from her shoulder pads and four large rubies adorning her stomach armor plate.
Over the golden armor, Filiz wore a silver bra with a collar, silver panties, and silver stockings with a garter belt.
And over her hands and feet, she wore platinum-colored gloves and court shoes.

The fused nine new witches who had her surrounded braced themselves while staring at the smile their immeasurably powerful adversary showed through her flexible platinum-colored mask.

While her enemies prepared to attack, Filiz coughed up and arched her neck forward like a dragon breathing fire.
From her mouth, the miniature unicorn form of Ehichapu was propelled into the sky where Filiz made the Chaos God explode.

Then she turned her blood-chilling grin on Diana.

"Excuse me this little aside," She gleefully apologized. "I had to make sure there are no others here for you to fight or oppose, for you see: I... am a jealous God."

---

"Power up the cannon!" Judith told Mirtel in the Arc-en-ciel's command center as they saw the nine new witches gather their energy to cast the improved dimensional containment spell.

The ten giant arms of the ship moved apart while magical energy shot from each of them towards the mouth of the cannon in the middle where it was focused for the attack.

#Don't worry about what's going on down there,# Nonon transmitted to the concerned members of the Kitauji Concert band. #We'll continue to perform the entire symphony as planned. Mary said we might have an influence on Filiz's capacity to use the full power of the armor she's wearing, so we might still be of use to our friends below.#

---

In the middle of Omnimagi Stadium an unconcerned Filiz found herself anchored in all dimensions as the nine new witches cast their spell, and looked up at the spaceship high above her as it blasted her with an amount of magical energy that could erase an entire cluster of galaxies from existence.

---

While the energy produced by the blast dissipated, even the clarinets performing divided their attention between their music sheets and the screen in front of them to see how Filiz was affected by it.

Their disappointment was great upon seeing that the young woman was still standing in the exact same position without so much as a scratch on her armor.

---

"Surely you did not expect that to cause me any distress?" Filiz asked the fused nine new witches, an ominously glowing red orb appearing in her left hand.

"I do applaud your effort," She continued. "After all: You are confronting a living God, which is exactly what I have been aiming to do. "However, I have plotted a feat which I am grateful to experience the success of so I could gain enough power to become a match for that living God."

Filiz combed her right hand through her hair and pulled out several strands which she forged into a silk blade.

---

"Power up the cannon!" Judith told Mirtel. "We have to strike before she does!"

---

Filiz amusedly observed the green diamond shape the nine new witches created around her, twirling the scimitar in her right hand like a baton while the spell they were casting bombarded her with weak nuclear force.

Then, as the blast from the Arc-en-ciel's cannon hit her, the black-haired Goddess moved in a flash. With a blast from the red orb in her left hand, she shot Akko out of the sky while piercing Amanda's chest with her silk blade. Jasminka suffered a similar fate while Lotte and Barbara were felled by another blast from the red orb.

Diana attacked Filiz with her silk blade but found her body overpowered by electromagnetic energy and fell among the seats of the Omnimagi Stadium while her enemy blasted Constanze and Hannah down. Lastly, the monstrously powerful witch stabbed a gasping Sucy through the back.

Finally, all of her opponents incapacitated, Filiz discarded her weapons.
The blackette took hold of a green plastic chair in the middle of the stadium and brought it with her as she slowly ascended the stage.
Arriving there she opened the folding chair and placed it in the middle of the stage.

"And now we wait for Mary and Kinue to return," She smiled while sitting down and folding her arms. "I hope they come back soon. It feels quite anticlimactic to have created this elaborate plot so I could sufficiently empower myself when the person I did it all for leaves me standing at the altar on my own, yeah."

---

In the hangar of the Arc-en-ciel, fused Uzu and Soroi watched the screen in front of them with bated breath. Yuuki, Chujitsuna, Hogo-sha, Furyu, Kanshinin, and Kyohaku, who were spread out around the concert stage in the hangar watched the events unfold with equal investment.

The nine new witches lay motionless among the upturned chairs in the middle of the stadium and in the stands.
It was obvious that they were alive, but none of them seemed capable of continuing the battle.

"Stay down and heal your wounds," Uzu whispered while Kanshinin softly whined behind him. "Kinue will be back soon. You don't have to fight Filiz if you don't need to defend anyone."

Aware of everything her friends were seeing on the screen, Nonon watched the horrified faces of her presently unoccupied band members.

Among them, Nozomi Kasaki began her ryuteki flute solo. Equally anxious for the fate of the nine new witches as her friends, the young woman with the high black ponytail attempted to send her support for them down to the Omnimagi Stadium in her music.

#Sensei?# Mizore Yoroizuka appealed to Nonon as she sensed the feelings of her girlfriend.

#What is it?# Nonon asked.

#You said earlier that our music might compromise Filiz's ability to use her armor,# The tall slender girl with the long dark-blue hair spoke. #I noticed that the magical attacks from the Arc-en-ciel's cannon don't seem to have much of an effect on her. But could we not magically enhance our music and use the cannon to attack Filiz with it?#

Nonon watched the bluette with a surprised expression and observed how Nozomi glanced at her girlfriend.

#Thank you for that idea, Miss Yoroizuka,# She said. #Let me quickly contact my friends so they can ask Judith and Mirtel to make the necessary preparations.#

---

Sucy felt her entire body ache as she moved her legs. The wound in her back had luckily missed her spine, but until Mary and Kinue came back it would remain a permanent and very painful wound.

#Are you alright?# The Filipino witch asked Jasminka, whom she saw suffering the same fate.

Among the bleachers on the opposite side of the stadium, the obese Russian with the mauve pigtails moaned quietly in some sort of response.

#I am definitely not alright," The girl replied. #But thanks for asking#

"Argh…" Amanda whined. #She had us in the first half. That's for sure. I don't think I can use my left arm. Is everyone alive?#

#I'm here,# Constanze said while helping her pink-haired friend get to her feet.

Barbara and Lotte similarly tended to each other's wounds to the best of their ability.

Among the stands opposite Omnimagi Stadium's stage Akko also slowly got to her feet.
Struggling to raise herself up while gripping the back end of the seat in front of her the brunette smiled to see Diana help Hannah to her feet somewhere to her right.

#It seems we are all still in working order!# She transmitted to her friends in a cheerful voice upon taking control of her emotions. #Let's prepare to entertain our underclassman for a little while longer, shall we?#

Every one of the Japanese witch's friends got onto their feet and teleported to her side, regarding Filiz who still sat down on the stage with grim expressions.

"Now why would you do something so reckless?" The leader of REX asked in a chuckle as she saw the group huddle together. "Doesn't it make sense that after your literally crippling defeat your chances of beating me are even lower than before? I am just sitting here without threatening anyone. Why don't you just relax with me and wait for your friends to return?"

"Is this the same Filiz I am hearing?!" Fused Akko and Bohdana jested. "Are you actually turning down a fight? Even if we are unable to seriously threaten you I would expect Filiz Osdemir to tie one arm behind her back and take us on for what we are worth!"

Filiz observed the brunette with a tilted head and burst out in a loud peal of laughter.

"Are you plotting something, Messiah? Or are you only trying to motivate your friends?"

"We don't need any motivation to take you on, Sunshine!" Amanda taunted Filiz while Constanze created a long metal glove that covered the pinkette's entire right arm and rendered her back control over the limb. "We are all too happy to tenderize you while we wait for our friends to come back and kick your ass!"

"And we'll gladly do what we can to avenge Nela and Isabelle," Uaterereta said through Sucy's lips.

Next to the mauve-haired Filipino, Hannah and Jasminka stood with equally determined expressions while Diana, Barbara, and Lotte gathered behind Akko, Constanze and Amanda.

Their adversary chuckled at the sight, but suppressed a tinge of irritation at the mention of Nela and Isabelle.

"Alright then," Filiz smiled while standing up. "I'll tie a hand behind my back in order to oblige you. It won't do you any good though. And I won't hold back anymore."

---

In the command center of the Arc-en-ciel, Judith and Mirtel typed the last commands into their keyboards to effect the alterations necessary to carry out Mizore's idea.

"Looks like they are about to go at it again," Mirtel alerted her friend.

Judith quickly looked up at the screen in front of her.

"Then let's see if we can be of greater assistance to them this time," The Mexican said. "Power up the cannon!"

"Roger!" Her Estonian friend exclaimed with vigor.

As the ten arms of the Arc-en-ciel focused the magical energy generated by the ship into its main cannon, Judith caused the magically enhanced soundwave created by the members of the Kitauji Concert Band to descend straight toward Filiz.

---

The attack didn't do much to damage the super-witch, but it surprised her enough for the nine new witches to launch an attack of concentrated strong nuclear force at her.

In an attempt to escape the counter-attack of their adversary the nine witches teleported around the stadium and traveled moments into the future, preparing to gather themselves for a new attack.

Filiz, however, made short work of them. She blasted Sucy, Diana, Barbara, Hannah, Amanda Jasminka, and Constanze with concentrated bursts of electromagnetic energy. Then she turned her attention on Akko, who had tried to stab her with her silk blade.

Regarding the brunette with an expressionless face, Filiz raised her own silk blade while blasting her opponent and brought it down instantly.

Akko screamed out all the pain in her soul as she was cleaved nearly from top to bottom by the sword which sliced into her left shoulder and down to the ankle of her left foot.

"Akko!" Diana screamed in horror.

Filiz turned to look at the platinum-blonde witch, who stretched both of her arms out in front of her and focused her magical energy in a powerful attack. The beam hit Filiz without doing any damage and the blackette launched a miniature supermassive black hole at her opponent that felled the Brit instantly.

To Filiz's surprise all of the chairs and equipment in the Omnimagi Stadium collided with her as the fairies inside of them obeyed Lotte's appeal.

The blackette simply evaporated them and used a surge of electromagnetic energy to incapacitate the Fin who fell down near her half-unconscious lover.

A blast to her right hit the armored witch and she drew her blade to ward off the attacks of a painfully grimacing Akko, who teleported around her at the speed of light while slashing down without much of a plan.

A blast of electromagnetic energy sent the brunette flying toward Omnimagi Stadium's stage, which exploded from the impact.

Filiz slowly approached Akko, smiling at the attempts of the moaning and horribly maimed young woman to stand up on her right foot.

"This has always been something I marveled at," The black-haired Goddess said. "Why do weak people try to fight back? I have seen it so many times. Even if you give up on a battle you realized you cannot win, you still take up arms against another opponent or try to achieve a lesser goal."

Akko used her magic to sprout a new left leg and arm and gripped her silk blade in both hands as Filiz stood still right before her, the intense pain she was suffering from the deep cut into the left side of her body obvious in the expression of her face.

"Because life forces us and tricks us," The Messiah of magic replied in a strained voice. "Chariot once said I didn't believe in miracles but I did in myself. That's false. The reason I kept struggling to get accepted by Luna Nova and struggled to pass my exams was the crippling fear of the black hole I would sink into if I truly failed. The reason I was able to stay positive after every defeat was because every time I did fail, life held a carrot before my eyes in the form of an unexpected victory.

Weak people don't fight because of some quality everyone can easily admire. They keep fighting because each time they try to give up life hauls them back onto their feet and drags them forward."

"So you are saying weak people are too weak to give up fighting?"

Akko looked into the eyes of the young woman she once believed to be an adoring friend.

"That's exactly right," She whined in pain while a glint shone in her crimson eyes.

"Then allow me to be a compassionate God and put you out of your misery," Filiz smiled.

As the blackette raised her silk blade, a new soundwave fired by the Arc-en-ciel hit her, allowing Akko time to teleport to safety.

The brunette went back in time and attacked Filiz when she walked up to Akko after the brunette crashed into the stage, but her opponent turned around and sliced Akko's belly open.

The Messiah of magic howled in pain and clumsily brought her sword down.

"You must have noticed by now that I severed the link between your emotions and your magical energy," Filiz said as she pointed at Akko's head and created a shockwave that sent her opponent flying into what was left of the bleachers behind her.
"Without the power of being a "Heart" are you even fit to be one of the nine new witches?"

"Ak...ko…" Diana gasped as she slowly regained consciousness and weakly lifted her left arm before Filiz blasted her with a miniature white dwarf star.

Akko teleported behind Filiz and tried to create a blue energy orb but found her power lacking and dropped onto her knees from exhaustion.

At that moment Amanda hurled herself straight towards Filiz with her silk blade in her hand, but the Japanese witch teleported the American on a straight collision course with Barbara who was trying to wake up her lover.

Judith furiously launched another soundwave at Fiiz, which the Japanese witch froze in mid-air by raising her left hand towards the Arc-en-ciel.

"After all, if your emotions don't power your magical energy they are just emotions. And in ordinary humans being emotional isn't a strength but a weakness, because it prevents you from thinking clearly and makes you behave like a neurotic," Filiz said as she loomed over her opponent while swinging her sword to the right. "What use are emotions anyway in a civilized world?"

A sharp pain in her chest made the young woman gasp and look down to find a pure black sword piercing her body.

"Emotions inspire, you monster," Emma Thomas said behind Filiz's ear while the silver breastplate of the Goddess's armor dissolved into nothingness and the Luna Negra student teleported the Hunger into Akko's right hand.

Filiz looked ahead and saw Gwendoline Meyers stand hand in hand with Abril Saez near the rubble that was left of the stage as the Messiah of magic pierced her left leg and dissolved her leg armor.
She quickly teleported to safety, but found her right leg pierced by the Hunger as Diana held the black sword.

As their enemy fell to her knees Barbara and Lotte took the Hunger and dissolved the armor around Filiz's right arm.
Then Jasminka did the same with her left arm. Amanda divested the leader of REX of the armor around her left thigh and Constanze of that around her right thigh

While Filiz leaned on her hands and feet Sucy used the Hunger to disintegrate the armor around her lower body.
The Japanese witch raised her head to see Mary approach her and take the hunger in her hands. Without hesitation the bluette stabbed Filiz through the head, destroying her helmet and mask.

Lying on the ground an exhausted Filiz heard Mary address her as the performance of the Kitauji High School Concert Band came to an end.
Kinue and the Survival Club witches meanwhile healed the wounds of the nine new witches.

"After Kinue and I fused we went to Dinas Affaraon to end the fighting there. The nine new witches were asked to keep you busy in the interim. We quickly took every member of REX in the dimension captive in magiconstruct prisons. After that, we went to Luna Negra to do the same. That is where we found Abril and Gwendoline who went there to present my mother with this fearful weapon to fight you with," Mary said while cautiously regarding the Hunger in her right hand.

"I can't say it didn't come at the right time. Because I didn't really have a plan on how to get the armor off you even if Kinue and I did manage to defeat you."

"REX has been defeated and so have you," Fused Emma said as she stood by her daughter.

"Well done, love. You saved the future," The blackette smiled at her future daughter while laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Yes. Well done, Mary. It worked exactly as we hoped it would," Filiz quietly spoke from her recumbent position.

Too fast for Mary to react, the Hunger was caught from out of her grasp and shot up into the sky, cleaving into an unseen object before falling down in the middle of Omnimagi Stadium where Kinue grabbed it firmly.

Before the eyes of the Great Unifier Filiz recreated the armor she had worn with her skin and stood up.

Kinue quickly teleported the Arc-en-ciel back to earth and all of her friends to her side as she sensed the form of future Filiz similarly recreating the armor she had just used the Hunger to divest herself from.

"It seems my future version always sought for a way to internalize the powers the life fiber armor granted her," Filiz told Mary with a victorious grin, her new armor omitting its platinum mask. "After you tried to sense her emotions and went back in time she realized that the SDD had played its last card.

She found her way into Dinas Affaraon and sought Emma and Diana, but found that they had taken their own lives."

"No…" Mary gasped with tears in her eyes.

"Don't be sad, yeah," Filiz shook her head compassionately. "Because my future version turned back time, so they are alive again in the future and probably happier.."

Taking control of her emotions, Mary saw an armored forty-something version of Filiz appear next to the present-day version.

"Realizing that your mother must have sent you back in time to destroy me before I gained my armor I traveled in pursuit of you. I had a clone of mine observe your actions without interfering...much," The Filiz from Mary's time smiled. But I got an idea of my own.
I already came to the conclusion that there wasn't anybody left who could be a worthy opponent to me in our time and I already worked out my guilty pleasure of taking on the strongest beings in the universe on my own. So I decided to return to my original hobby horse: REX.

I tried to go back in time with the aim of preventing Kinue's rebirth but found myself being prevented from doing so by the Allform. So I did the next best thing and returned to the time after I defeated her. Taking a less active role for myself I helped Valentina to fight the SDD and the nine new witches.

After a long war, REX managed to drive the SDD's coalition from the earth and establish a global government based on our ideals while your parents and the SDD lead the coalition against them from their bases on the planets of their allies.

Finally, we managed to make our dream a reality: A world ruled by open competition and self-improvement. A world where people strive to climb over their superiors in their aim to constantly improve. A world where the strong improve themselves by attempting to take down those who are stronger."

Mary observed her two mortal enemies, pondering something deeply as they talked.

"And what about those who are too weak to improve themselves?" Ryuko asked future Filiz. "What about those who are too weak to put up a fight against their superiors?"

The two Filiz's snickered for a second and shared a look.

"Who cares about them, yeah?" Present-day Filiz smiled.

"There aren't any humans in the future where REX wins anyway. Everyone turned fufian for the war effort," Future Filiz replied dryly. "But if there still were people in the future who were significantly weaker than others I expect they would die by the roadside after exhausting their abilities to provide for themselves."

"To call you cold and unfeeling is the ultimate understatement," Abril Saez said. "The world you and your friends created sounds like a true hell."

"Hmm…" Future Filiz reacted uncaringly. "Eventually I started to ponder that I had one challenge left: The Allform prevented me from undoing Kinue's rebirth, so I and the other members of REX would never be able to go back to the time when the earth was still populated by humans. Which is what we really desire.
My clone in this time found a possible solution for that, however," The woman smirked while her eyes wandered over to the Hunger, which Kinue firmly clasped in her hands.

"A weapon forged by the Aspects of the Allform to be wielded by an army they created to wage war upon one another might be exactly what I need to make Meifa oblige me.
The plan to use the weapon in order to destroy our armor so that we could internalize it was an idea of my brilliant younger self," The woman smiled.

"So you see, Mary," The leader of REX said while tilting her head. "This will be the final battle between two refugees from our time. Except that while I have many friends back in our time, you will always be alone. Hasn't that always be your prime weakness? Always being an outsider?"

"I don't care if I am weak," Mary answers. "If weakness and loneliness were my fate, that is who I am. At least I can believe in the fact that I lived my life with good intentions. But I will never lose to someone who only believes in people who think exactly the same as they do. I will never allow the many to crush the will of an individual to live!"

"What a feisty exchange between you two future girls," Present-day Filiz said with a roll of her eyes. "Nobody cares. Let's get to the good part, yeah."

Diana saw the two Filiz's extend their hands to each other and realized what they were planning.

"They're going to fuse!" The platinum-blonde witch exclaimed. "Quick everyone, grab each other's hands!"

Kinue and the Survival Club witches quickly joined hands with the members of the former Nudist Beach Coalition and the nine new witches while The two Filiz's were slowly fused together in a blinding flash of light.

Akko grabbed Diana's hand as the last one in the link but two, observing how the Brit held out her hand to Mary and her fused parents.

"Come here, love!" Emma told her future daughter who stared at the fusion of her enemies. "Forget what she said! You are not an outsider and you are not meant to do this on your own! Join your dad and me and we'll defeat them once and for all!"

Mary turned around and looked at her mother and father with a sad smile on her face.

"Mum. Dad. I'm sorry, but I finally realized what your plan was all along. I finally realized what I've been searching for since I came here."

"Mary…" Andrew said through Emma's lips. "Listen to your mother. We love you so much. Please fuse with us quickly."

"I know, Dad. I know you both love me and I love both of you very much. I've been so happy seeing you flirt and cuddle. Please continue to make each other happy and take care of me. I"ll take care of this."

Emma stretched her arm out as she saw her daughter turn around and grab the outline of her adversaries' joined hands. Too slow to pull her daughter back she and Andrew saw the young woman disappear into the blinding light produced by the fusion of present-day and future Filiz.

Diana quickly grabbed hold of Emma's hand and pulled her friends into their own fusion.

As the two fusions destroyed the Omnimagi Stadium two figures slowly appeared in the Microscopium Void.

A smile slowly curled the ends of Filiz's lips up as she saw who floated before her in full Junketsu uniform.

#How interesting, yeah.# The fused REX leader quipped. #I never had the chance to fight you, Lady Satsuki. I hope you will please me before I grab the Hunger from out of your hands.#

#I have learned a lot about modesty these past two years,# Fused Satsuki dryly retorted. #A virtue that seems unknown to you. I have no idea how you hope to fight me when I hold this weapon.#

The blackette made a cutting motion to her right with the Hunger, slashing the void for light years ahead.

#But you are welcome to try while I end your threat for good.#

While both fused women attempted to prevent each other's creation in the past with their unimaginable powers, Filiz flew to a distance and bombarded Satsuki with supermassive black holes.

Her opponent moved quickly and disintegrated each of the projectiles by slicing at them with the Hunger.

Pointing the fearful sword at her adversary Satsuki fired several black beams at Filiz which the leader of REX dodged by teleporting to the other side of ShelteR Inc's CEO.

Satsuki realized that the ominous black energy beams posed a threat to other worlds if they didn't dissipate in time and fllew deeper into the Microscopium Void where Filiz followed her.

During their flight, Filiz stretched the tip of her left wing to wrap around the Hunger.

Satsuki immediately turned around and cut the extension before flying towards her opponent and slashing at her.
Filiz quickly teleported out of harm's way and caught Satsuki in the middle of a series of supernovas which she created around her opponent.

The fusion of the nine new witches and their friends immediately teleported out of the bombardment and cut down as she appeared before Filiz.
Her adversary quickly teleported several light years away and created an explosion around Satsuki with the force of a galaxy cluster.

#It is curious how I am starting to lose my taste for this!# Filiz informed her opponent #I suppose combat becomes less rewarding the more powerful you become!#

She was caught by surprise when Satsuki again appeared before her and tried to stab her with the Hunger. Instead, however, the fusion of the nine new witches used the divine weapon to shoot another of the fearful black beams from it.

Filiz created a gap in her body to let the beam pass and grabbed Satsuki's hands, wrestling her for the weapon.

Satsuki managed to swipe at her opponent with the weapon, forcing Filiz to let go.

As the leader of REX teleported to a distance Satsuki immediately pursued her, but was hit in the back by an explosion with the power of a supercluster.

The moment of inattention helped Filiz to launch another bombardment of supermassive black holes at her adversary.

#I almost feel sorry for you, yeah,# The black-haired Goddess chuckled. #But our fight is almost over.#

Satsuki again teleported out of the bombardment and appeared before Filiz.
Upon finding herself attacked again Filiz teleported away as before, only to find Satsuki right in front of her.

Before Satsuki was able to act, her opponent blasted her with a mighty burst of electromagnetic energy.

The fusion of the nine new witches was warped backward with tremendous force, but quickly teleported towards her opponent, who launched an attack of concentrated weak nuclear force at her.

Satsuki teleported to a safe distance from her adversary and tried to formulate a new plan. She realized that she was relying on the Hunger for her attacks too much.

#You are disappointing me, Satsuki Kyruin!# Filiz addressed the woman while floating at a safe distance from her. #Where is your fire? Where is your hatred? If I could have had Nela as my opponent I would have had an adversary with passion. I would have looked into the eyes of someone who wanted to beat me with all of her heart.#

Unaffected by the seeming taunt, Satsuki decided on her plan and prepared to carry it out, until she properly looked at Filiz's face and found herself shocked at what she saw.

#Even my dear Isabelle whom I caused so much pain would fight me with such vigor,# Filiz complained while tears of blood slowly slid down from her eyes. #I miss them...#

Fused Satsuki didn't believe her eyes and ears.

#I miss you, Isabelle. My dear Nela. My beloved Valentina. I'm so sorry for getting you killed to save myself. My dear friends. I'm so sorry for the pain I caused you. You were so loyal to me. Even Sophia, who hated me for humiliating her day after day, kept following my lead.#

Satsuki held the Hunger firmly in her right hand, ready to strike during Filiz's strange crisis, but feeling unable to do so.

#What have I done?# Filiz wept. #I killed so many people. I destroyed so many lives. From my own poor sister over the girls I killed during the summer when Kinue was reborn up to the destruction of the SDD's coalition. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You were right Nela. Isabelle. You were right. I went too far. I should have stopped myself.
My dear Valentina. I'm so sorry for what I inspired you to do. I miss all of you so much.#

Shocked by the sudden outburst of honest grief and regret in the ever-unfeeling Filiz, fused Satsuki observed how her opponent started to sing the spell she and Mary had written down in the Amtide months ago. The Hunger slowly vibrated in her hand without her being aware.

#I miss your voice. I miss your smile. I miss you. I need you here.
Please, bring me back who was taken from me.
I need her to be safe and without fear.
I wish I was with you now. I miss you. I need you here.

I could live without a friend. No one but you around me.
I see no reason why you'd want to be without me.
Because no matter how fierce our anger each is the center of the other's heart.
And no matter where you are we will never truly be apart.#

Without warning the Hunger shot out of fused Satsuki's hand and flew straight into fused Filiz's body.

Fused Satsuki tried to use a tremendous gravity pull to get the weapon back, but saw it become absorbed into the body of her opponent.
Fused Filiz watched how the Hunger merged within her and looked up into fused Satsuki's eyes.

#I see,# The woman stammered as her body started to radiate immense energy. #I see. I see. I finally understood. That is why it sought me out.#

And with a flash everything became black.

---

End credits: Misia - Ai no katachi

watch?v=g-UHaMXRVhw

---

And so, Filiz's journey came to an end.
Having lived her life with the belief that might makes right, the woman who incorporated that philosophy more than anyone else reached true divinity only when Mary, who had devoted her life to making Filiz see the importance of empathy, managed to introduce the overflowing emotions she had made her own into her friend's heart and reached true divinity with her.

And in reaching true divinity I took within me the souls of all the people who were harmed in the process, finally fulfilling the true goal of us all.

Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."

"Because I am born from the intent to show kindness."