Symphogear XD Unlimited: Free the Hearts and Dreams with a Song

by Coral the Leviathan

A new threat has arrived, one stronger than the Noise. With the new threat, a new group comes along to help. However... "We don't trust authorities." Symphogear's song and Phantom Thieves' Persona. Two groups on different sides, with different powers, but with the same sense of justice. It's showtime!

25. The Final Battle and Epilogue

Finally... After all this time of waiting... FINALLYYYYYYYY~~~! I have this final chapter up! You all must be wondering what took me so long...

For one thing, it was the combat portion of the chapter. That is, the second half. Thankfully, a good friend of mine helped me out with this one after things have calmed down on their end. ... No, it is not Sophia.

As for the other thing that took me, aside from distractions from gaming and anime and manga... Listen and be amazed, readers~! For I have a writer's contract on NovelStar~! Yes, you all heard right; you are looking at a bonafide novelist writing original stories! I currently have two stories up now on their app, under the pen name Coral Levia (not different from my fanfiction name, I know), one of them is complete free to read at the moment, and the other has 4 free-to-read chapters while the rest you need to pay using the in-app currency, which is given out daily or you can purchase in the app.

That being said, I may be a little busy working on my originals, especially to hit my monthly goals, so sorry if the updates from this point forward in my other stories will take forever, guys. I especially need to make enough if I want my parents to acknowledge me as a person and a writer, not as a tool who is to listen to their every demand...

Well, I made you all wait long enough. Onwards to the chapter!

---

After sending the calling card in form of a live, holographic video, the Phantom Theives and Gear Users all rushed back to the tower rooftop to steal back the stolen wishes and face Picora. Upon arriving, the girls were surprised to see how huge the solidified wishes were, and the whole group were even more baffled when they fought against the mastermind of the whole situation. They were even more speechless when his Shadow arrived, not only revealing that he was not Picora's Shadow, but also merging with the guy and taking away Lioness's Seidr. Even more so, he swallowed the piece whole, and turned into a new form of monster.

"Hahahahahaha!"

"What the effing hell is going on here?! I thought that Shadow was Picora's, but there was another Shadow of the guy in the real body?!" Skull shouted.

"He can't be the Trickster of this world. Only they have the ability to wield multiple Personas, or even have multiple Shadows. So how...?" Pixie wondered.

'Picora' looked down at the group from his spot. "I truly must thank you fools for riling up this poor soul as you did~" he spoke. "You truly helped me in doing the one thing I had been trying to succeed in for centuries~!"

"'Centuries'? You mean you're truly not Picora's Shadow?!" Maria asked.

"Indeed I am not. And I truly must say, out of all hosts I had gone to, to think this one-track-minded fool was the perfect vessel for me. I am quite surprised myself, honestly."

"What do you mean?" Chris questioned.

"Exactly... as he meant it," Guren spoke, as she got back up with Queen's help. "You may have Picora's face, but you're really Seidr, aren't you?"

That claim shocked most of the people in the area.

"What are you talking about? Seidr is just an instrumental relic, isn't it?" Panther asked.

Despite the question, clapping was heard from above. "Bravo! As expected of the girl who was my user. Well... part of me, that is," 'Picora'- no, Seidr confirmed, increasing their surprise and bafflement.

"Wait, you're that relic?! How?!" Skull gasped.

"Surely you didn't think all relics were inanimate objects with no will. I thought the girl and that little alchemist on your side had told you before you had gone and infiltrated this tower."

That left the group even more speechless. How did he know what occurred before they started their infiltration?

Noticing their expressions, Seidr then said, "Oh? Are you wondering how I could possibly have known of whatever conversation you all had before you began your little adventure? Have you already forgotten that a part of me was with one of you for a while? As the girl said; my real body is the relic, and I've been hearing everything you lot were saying the whole time."

"So you already knew of everything?!" Tsubasa gasped in shock.

"Since she obtained a part of me as her's. Before that... That took quite a while to process through."

"What do you mean 'that took a while to process'?" Joker asked.

"Exactly as I meant it. After all, I had to go through the girl's memories to know who my user was. When I did, it answered several questions I had. 'Who are you thieves?' 'Where did you come from?' 'How do you have your powers?' 'How do you know about the Shadows when no one else should?' That last one was especially important, for the previous hosts I was passed on to all assumed them to be Noise. Even this one assumed them to be such at first."

"'Previous hosts'?" Noir repeated.

It didn't take long for Guren to realize what he meant. "Back when I first touched the relic, I was in a void, speaking to someone, something, that looked like me. That was you?!" she questioned.

"Correct again, girl," Seidr confirmed. "You see, all these years as I was being passed down to different users, I had granted their deepest and greatest wishes. In return, they slowly gave up their every being to me. However, at the last minute, just as I was about to take over their body, they'd freak out and reject me then. After all time I had helped them to reach their goal, those pitiful humans dare refuse to give anything in return. Don't they know that with great power comes great responsibility? That every favor must be returned? And yet, every time I come close to my goal, they start losing their minds, and killed themselves before I could take over their bodies. Be it before I take over their body or while I'm in the process of such. Some even just wrote me off as a ghost, a demon, or even a mysterious Noise that was haunting them before they offed themselves."

Hearing that baffled the group even more.

"You mean... the reason for their deaths... They were all caused by you?!" Kong questioned.

"How hurtful. I wasn't the cause of it; they did themselves in. Though I admit, there were some that did die when I tried to take control over them, and I never knew why. That is... Until the girl took hold of me, and I peeked into her memories for information on your thieves. And my, did I get more than I asked~"

"Meaning?" Shirabe asked.

"Every time I attempt to take over my host's body, I was met with some kind of resistance. Ones that I had easily obliterated. It couldn't be their soul, not when I was slowly absorbing them into my body before I began the fusion. And yet, just as I came this close to taking over, I was pushed out, my vessels all flailed about and turned into black, bloody messes. I was being thoroughly delicate with the process, too. But after seeing your memories, I realized what the problem was; the constant resistance that I had been obliterating were my host's Shadows. A soul and a Shadow are not one and the same, as I had learned from your memories. As such it would've been a problem if I had attempted my fusion with this vessel only for the end result to be the same as the previous times. Even if this vessel was smarter than those before him, conjured up a formula that made the fusion between Shadows and Alca-Noise possible, preventing the carbonization from killing them off, and even managed to fuse himself with my body and the Faust Robe, not even his skills can save his own Shadow from dying, especially not in such a short amount of time. It was when I saw another scene in your memories that a solution came to the problem. Why not just remove the Shadow from the real body? If the real person can meet their own Shadow, if you thieves can call upon your own Shadows you call 'Personas', then this split should be possible. Even more so as I watch my minions below take the wishes out of the pitiful humans down below, an act that should've only been possible if they were to take it from the people's Shadows."

"That's really messed up, in more ways than one!" Skull shouted.

"What he said- death!" Kirika agreed.

"It matters not what you humans think. For now, since this is my first time achieving a living body, let's have some fun." Seidr raised a hand, and flames gathered in his palm.

"Hold it!" came Shadow Picora's distorted voice, bringing all attention to him, as he unsteadily rose to his feet. "This is far from what we agreed on! You said you would help me get my revenge and peace! I never agreed to letting you take over my body!"

"On the contrary, you did~ Back when we first met, back when you freed me from my prison, and requested that I help you achieve those goals, you said you would do anything if it meant getting what you want. Well, you can't say I didn't even try to help you achieve these things. Although, I can help you find your peace~" With his free hand, Seidr snapped his fingers, and a familiar alchemy circle appeared under Shadow Picora, followed by familiar chains that bound the guy, as well as pinned him down.

"What?! What the hell are you doing?!" he questioned, as he was suddenly sent away.

"I can't kill you, but I can still keep you alive in some way. After all, I don't want this body that I worked hard to get to die out on me~ And as for you people..." Seidr turned back to the thieves group and tossed down a large fireball at them.

"Look out!" Panther called, as she and Joker summoned their Personas, the latter summoning Cerberus, and blocked the attack. In doing so, however, as Seidr's body also contained Alca-Noise parts, carbonization once again spread on the two thieves' bodies.

"Gah/Guh!" both grunted, as they fell to the floor.

"Joker! Panther!" Hibiki cried in worry.

"We-... We'll be fine... You need to stop him!" Panther assured.

The group nodded at this and, with Guren changing back into Lioness, rushed straight into another battle.

"I can't believe that relic was really alive this whole time, though!" Kong exclaimed as they ran. "Lioness, you never noticed?!"

"How the hell could I?! All I knew about that thing was what was written in the reports Elfnein found!" she exclaimed, taking out her sniper rifle and firing some shots at the foe.

"Not like it's her fault. Living relics are way too rare, and even so, we never could've guessed that guy is part of it," Chris explained, firing off her 'Billion Maiden'.

"We can complain about it later. Right now, we have a battle to win!" Tsubasa said, unleashing her 'Blue Flash'.

The trio of attacks struck Seidr, but failed to do much damage to him.

"You girls are no threat to me!" he exclaimed, summoning many icicles before him, and fired them all at the group.

"Move it!" At Kong's shout, everyone managed to avoid the attack.

"How about this- death?!" Kirika shouted, tossing blades of her scythes at Seidr in a 'Kill Juliet' with Shirabe following up with her 'Alpha Style: 100 Samsara'. Like with the previous three attacks, the blades all hit, but they failed to do much to the enemy. "No way- death!"

"Hah! You're going to have to do better than that!" Seidr exclaimed, as he retaliated by unleashing a devastating Electric Skill on them.

"Damn it! This guy is even tougher than Picora!" Skull stated, as they avoided the bolts of lightning as fast as they could. Even though he and Kong may be at least resistant to shock, the skill was also infused with carbonization, thus making it more dangerous than normal Electric Skills, as proven by Joker and Panther.

"You can say that again," Kanade agreed, as the attack came to a stop.

"And with that guy absorbing Lioness's relic, even if I do summon a holographic piano, it won't do much still, no thanks to its effects," Oracle reminded.

"We can't just be sitting ducks! Do something!" Chris exclaimed.

Seidr let out a laugh. "It's pointless to do anything to me. You mortals are now in my domain!" He then unleashed a powerful wind skill that pushed the thieves back away from him, with the Phantom Thieves especially affected by the carbonization mixed in the attack.

"Guys!" Panther called, as she and Joker regrouped with them.

"I'll heal you guys up now!" he said, summoning Fortuna to heal the group up, starting with his fellow status healers.

Meanwhile, Lioness and the Gear Thieves got back up and glared at their foe, the former especially in Rage Mode thanks to Leo's skill.

"Damn, this guy's really getting on my nerves. Then again, it could be my rage talking," the thief growled.

"We need to cover Joker and the others and find a weak point," Tsubasa spoke.

"I'll stay back and protect them," Maria volunteered.

"Us, too- death!" Kirika said, gesturing to herself, Shirabe, and Serena.

"And me. I can even provide some backup," Chris added.

"I'll help out, too!" Oracle called.

"Sounds good to me. Let's go!" At Kanade's shout, the girls broke off into two teams and got to work on their parts.

As they got to work on their parts, Oracle did everything in her and her Persona's power to find a weak point on Seidr, protect her weakened allies from any oncoming attacks, and even keep their health in check from the carbonization. As she did her part, she noticed something odd.

"Huh? What the?!" she gasped through everyone's comms.

"What's wrong, Oracle?" Queen asked, recovered from the status effect.

"More Shadows are coming!" Everyone was shocked to hear those words.

"Backup?!" Lioness gasped.

"That can't be right! Usually the grunts wouldn't get involved in a boss fight!" Kong stated.

"Oh no... Here they come!" At her words, those protecting the still-carbonized thieves brought their guard up, prepared for the worse, especially upon seeing a small group of Shadows approach the area.

"Your highness! We came as quickly as we could!" one of the lookouts exclaimed.

"We will assist you however you wish, your highness!" another one of the lookouts said.

"No need for assistance," Seidr denied. "Instead, have you brought more of those?"

"The wishes? Yes, of course." As the second Shadow answered that, they all brought out a number of familiar jewels they had collected.

"Those are-!" Hibiki gasped.

"Wishes!" Mona identified.

"Very good! Am I to assume this is from all the remaining population?" Seidr then asked.

"Well, no, your highness. After that little stunt the thieves pulled we-"

Before the Shadow could finish his sentence, an alchemy circle appeared under him, and he exploded in a burst of flames, to many's bafflement.

"I believe I never gave an order for you to stop in the first place. After seeing me in all my glory, you dare question if I can handle my own? Besides, if you truly do want to help me, you know what you should be doing."

"Yes, sire!" the Shadows all saluted.

"Good. Now leave the goods, and gather more." At Seidr's order, they all left the solidified wishes behind, and left. As soon as they were gone, the wishes floated up and merged with the gigantic one above them.

"Wait, wait, wait! Even after that calling card, you're still collecting wishes?! How?!" Skull gasped.

The relic in human body gave him a bland look at the question. "Perhaps it is because, unlike the Kings in your world, I am not stealing the Wishes through that little gadget you all have. Or had it never occurred to you how I am able to collect these wonderful things in the first place, or even how I had collected so much in such a short amount of time?" At those words, the thieves especially widened their eyes in realization.

"Now that he mentioned it..." Fox spoke.

"Back in our world, the Kings used Emma to take away people's wishes," Noir recalled.

"But Emma doesn't exist in this world, and yet the Shadows are still able to steal other people's wishes," Sophie added.

"I assumed it was because of the erosion between the Metaverse and the real world but... Are you saying it was something else entirely?!" Pixie questioned.

"Well, I can see how you're the adult of this group," Seidr said. "But yes. You see, before this fusion happened, I had been wandering around town, going to places many people gather, and gave them a little performance, just as many of my previous hosts had for theirs. And quite like how the Kings had done to the pitiful victims of your world, any who became captivated by my performance had their wishes taken away, stored inside my body."

"Bad enough you're taking over someone's body, but you're even stealing people's wishes to make them follow you? What for?!" Lioness demanded.

"Oh, it seems you've mistaken. I am not looking for followers; I am looking for complete control! Ever since my host had accepted my appearance, given me form using my own powers, distorted reality to make cognition a new reality, I had been steadily and discreetly taking away many wishes and gaining more power! At least, that was my initial plan, had the wishes not turn back into that fog when I claimed them. It is here I thank you once more, girl, for you had given me many solutions to my many problems."

That shocked the group. "Are you saying you already knew we would be sending the calling card?!" Panther asked.

"Going by the information given to me, of course I had! Thanks to you thieves sending that card, that message, you once again gave the wishes their form. And now, with the Faust Robe and the Alca-Noise merged in my body... I can have the ultimate power!" Seidr leapt up to the large jewel of wishes and latched onto it.

"What's he doing?!" Serena gasped.

The thieves especially had a bad feeling and a bad de ja vu of what was going to happen. "Don't tell me..." Mona spoke.

As Seidr held on to the solidified wishes with his tentacles, the white limbs all started to have glowing pink veins climbed up to the head. Soon enough, the jewel was also starting to glow, and was slowly getting sucked into him. As Seidr was absorbing the wishes, his whole body then glowed, to the point that he became a bright flash of light, prompting the others to cover their eyes once more.

Once the light died down, the thieves were all shocked to see what had become of Seidr.

"What the hell...?" Chris breathed out.

"What just... happened...?" Miku also breathed out.

His current form was quite similar to the previous form. Out of sitting position, Seidr now stood tall, the tendrils were dropped out from the armored torso, revealing them to actually be attached to the legs. Parts of the armored torso split apart, revealing them to be arms with purple hands, and a white cape fluttered behind him. Where Seidr once was, an odd covering of sort was there instead, and a menacing face formed just below it. Not only that, the large wish that was once above them was gone.

"The wishes!" Shirabe gasped.

"What happened to them?!" Serena asked.

"Huh?! No way... This can't be right!" Oracle exclaimed.

"Oracle? What's wrong?" Joker asked.

"This reading... The wishes are all inside him!" Those words caught the others off guard.

"The wishes are... inside of that thing?!" Kanade repeated.

A demonic laugh was heard from Seidr. "Hahaha! Magnificent! I've never felt power this grand in centuries~! This strength is more than I could ever ask for! I feel like god!"

"Damn it! It's Christmas Eve all over again!" Skull exclaimed.

"This does feel like that situation," Fox agreed.

Those statements made the Gear Thieves turn to the Phantom Thieves in confusion. "What's Christmas got to do with this situation- death?" Kirika asked.

"Christmas Eve was when the erosion happened in our world," Queen answered, now surprising the girls.

"For real?!" Kanade questioned.

"Lousy way of spending the day, ain't it?" Kong stated.

Seidr looked down at the group. "It seems I truly am quite lucky that you thieves came here by accident that day. Had you not appeared when you did, I may never see this day," he said, much to their surprise.

"Hang on. You mean you brought us here?!" Panther asked.

"Not on purpose, I assure you. As I said, it was an accident. You thieves were only brought here by chance, a chance that was practically fated to happen. If it weren't for you, I would never have thought I could use the peons' wishes like this. And now, to thank you for assisting me in my ambition, I will grant you all a swift death!"

"You're out of your mind, if you think we'll accept that!" Lioness shouted.

"Lioness is right! We're here to get the wishes back, and that's exactly what we'll do!" Pixie exclaimed.

"All the wishes you've absorbed..."

"We will take them back!" Joker and Hibiki vowed.

Seidr let out what sounded like a screech, as all of his tentacles rushed at the thieves. The group split themselves in twos, each consisting of a Phantom Thief and Gear User pairing, minus Lioness and Sophie, both who teamed up with each other, and rushed back at the tendrils. As they neared, the Gear Users blocked the tendrils however they could, and their thief partner stood behind them, summoning their Personas to unleash their signature Elemental Skills at the enemy.

Seidr only laughed as the skills made contact. "Are these supposed to hurt me? I barely feel a thing!" From the corner of his eyes, he noticed Lioness and Sophie rushing towards him, avoiding the tentacles heading their way. "I feel even more insulted. Begone!"

As he directed all his tendrils to the pair of thieves, Sophie rose her free hand to her digital mask. "Come now!" Her pseudo-Persona appeared before them and unleashed a powerful light, one that seemingly caused most of the limbs to shy away. One tendril, furthest from the rest, wasn't as affected by the light, and continued on to its target. Lioness noticed the limb coming and grabbed Sophie, jumping and climbing up the tentacle to reach the source. As she ran, she was careful not to have Sophie touch their footing, so as to avoid her getting carbonated.

"Get off me!" Seidr shouted, shaking the limb to get the girls to fall off.

It worked, for the most part, until Lioness managed to get Sophie on her back and jabbed her rapier into the limb and hung on. As she touched the tendril, however, she held back a wince, as she felt carbonization slowly crawl up to her body.

"Lioness! Your hand!" Sophie noticed.

"I know!" Lioness hissed, enduring the pain.

'Shit... Of all times my Rage had to wear off...' she thought. 'But even so... I can't give in!'

"I'll hang tight here. Shoot him!" she told the living AI thief.

"Right!" Sophie took out her blasters and started firing at Seidr, sadly not doing much damage at all.

While the ammo did no damage to the living relic, it combined with the other thieves' skills still annoyed him.

"Know your place!" he exclaimed, extending the tendril the pair were on, and slamming it and the two down to the ground.

"Gah!" Lioness and Sophie screamed, the former especially in pain from the combination of the slam and the spreading of the carbonization.

"Lioness/Sophie!" Hibiki and Joker cried in worry.

Seidr scoffed at the thieves' condition. "Down like a bug you are. It seems those people in your memories were right about you in that aspect," he mocked.

"Leave our friends alone!" Queen shouted, driving over to her downed friend with Tsubasa behind her.

Seidr glanced at them and simply raised an arm. The hand glowed, prompting the ground below them to do the same. Lioness weakly got up and noticed this action.

"Get out of there!" she warned in a strained voice.

Unfortunately, her warning came a little too late, as Seidr slammed his hand down and caused the ground to explode in a flash of light.

"Look out, Queen!" Tsubasa exclaimed, using her Armed Gear to create a large sword on the ground, one that managed to carry Johanna upwards when the ground below bursted upon their enemy's command.

If it was possible, Seidr smirked right then, as he then willed his tentacles to strike the airborne duo, as they let out pained screams.

"Queen/Tsubasa!" Kong and Kanade both called.

"Not good. We have to get them out of there and heal them up!" Maria called.

"Noir! Pixie! Joker!" Fox called.

"Understood!" Noir responded, as she, Pixie, Joker, and their Gear User partners rushed to aid their allies, especially the carbonized thieves.

"You won't have your way," Seidr said, unleashing another dose of his Almighty Skill at the healers.

"No you don't!" Chris shouted, as she and Maria got in front of the blast and conjured up their Reflector and energy shield, respectively, blocking the attack as best as they could.

"Hurry up and go!" Maria urged Hibiki and the thieves.

"Right!" the brawler responded, as they continued to their comrades.

"We need to back them up!" Skull said to the others, whom nodded in agreement.

Back with Lioness and Sophie, the latter slowly recovered from the crash, and looked to the former in worry. "Lioness! Are you okay?"

"Obviously not..." came a pained response.

Sophie looked down at herself and noticed she didn't get carbonized during the crash. It didn't take long for her to realize how the effect spread so much on her ally and friend. "Sorry... Because you had to protect me you..."

"Don't worry about it," Lioness said. "It was better then the both of us getting carbonized... Besides... What are friends for...?"

Sophie was silent for a moment, when their figures were suddenly covered by a shadow. She looked up and saw Seidr looking down on them, ignoring the skills and attacks he was getting struck with. "Then I shall return the debt." As the thief in white said that, she leapt at the giant enemy, yo-yos in hand.

"You think you are enough to take me on, little girl? No... You're no ordinary girl," Seidr spoke.

"No. I'm Sophie, a good friend to the people." At that intro, Sophie summoned her pseudo-Persona and had it shoot more Bless Skill beams at the living relic. The beams all hit, but failed to do much damage to the enemy. If anything, he simply scoffed.

"Hmph. Don't make me laugh." Seidr then raised his arm and slammed it down on the girl.

Before he made contact, Hibiki rushed in and blocked the slam.

"Hibiki!" Sophie gasped.

"I won't let you hurt them!" the brawler Gungnir exclaimed.

While she held the guy back, Joker joined his fellow thieves, as he knelt down by Lioness's side. "Come, Fortuna!" With the summon of his Persona, he relieved the girl of the carbonization, much to her joy as she took in a relaxed breath.

"Thanks..." she gasped out, in which Joker nodded to. "And Queen and Tsubasa?"

"Covered," he answered, turning to where the two were.

Sophie and Lioness followed his line of sight and saw Haru and Pixie healing the pair up, especially Queen from the effect. A cry was then heard, and the trio of thieves looked to see Hibiki flying straight at them. With no time to react, the girl crashed into the trio.

"Ouch... Sorry. He took me by surprise," Hibiki apologized.

"It's fine," Joker assured.

As Lioness looked up, enduring the additional pain from the crash, she saw more tentacles heading their way. "In front!" At her warning, Joker, Hibiki, and Sophie looked back up to see the limbs heading their way, until they got blasted away by missiles, courtesy of Chris and Noir.

"Take this!" the Ichaival User yelled, continuing the onslaught.

"Pixie! Maria! Go!" Noir called.

The called pair charged at their opponent, who sent more of his tentacles their way. Maria slid to a stop as she summoned out multiple copies of her Armed Gear and merged them all into one large energy sword via her 'Aloof Knight'. Once the blade was formed, she lowered down at Seidr. As for Pixie, she summoned Cordelia out momentarily, having the latter use a Wind Skill to momentarily boost her running speed. She then jumped off the ground and spun with her scythe out, cutting past some of the tentacles, and continuing on to the main source. Both blade and energy blade struck their target, the former leaving a cut on his leg, and the latter causing an explosion of light upon impact. As Pixie slammed her scythe down blade-first on the ground and landed on the shaft, she looked back at Seidr, wondering if they got him.

As the smoke cleared, unfortunately, as it turned out, the pair of attacks did nothing to the enemy, as he simply dusted his shoulders. "I admit. That one had a bit of oomph into it."

"Not even that worked?!" Maria gasped.

Cracking his shoulders, he then said, "Allow me to return such an attack." The moment he said that, everyone had their guard up. Next they knew a large white ball of energy started forming above him, one that sent bad feelings to every thief.

"Maria! Chris! Use your shields!" Pixie warned.

"Too late." At those words, Seidr fired multiple beams from the sphere across the entire area, unleashing a devastating Almighty Skill. Everyone did their best to avoid the attack, but got hit hard in one way or another.

"YOU GUYS!" Oracle cried out.

Once the attack was over, everyone was on the ground, weakened, and half the group covered in carbon. Oracle was terrified at the sight, for this foe was on a whole new level compared to the ones the Phantom Thieves had dealt with. Heck, Seidr seemed stronger than that god that tried to take over their world.

Said living relic let out a triumphant laugh at the sight of the downed thieves. "Hahaha! Truly, this power is a bliss! Complete control over humanity, incomprehensible strength, dominance over foolish rebels... I have truly become god!"

Snapped out of her stupor, Oracle tapped away inside of her Persona, trying to get a read on the others. "Guys! Guys! Is everyone okay?! Please respond!" she cried out.

A few souls woke from her cry.

"S-... Somewhat..." Miku groaned.

Serena widened her eyes upon seeing the Phantom Thieves' condition. "The Phantom Thieves... They're not okay...!" she managed to say.

"They're all... carbonized..." Shirabe breathed out, looking at Panther in worry.

Seidr glanced down at the awaken Gear Users. "Hm? Seems there's still a few survivors. Well, not that it matters." He then turned to the thieves closest to him, those being Joker and Hibiki, the former covered in carbon, but still quite alive. "If I recall, you two are the leaders of this joint group. How did the phrase go again? 'Take the head, and the whole body follows'? Either way, it's been fun. I thank you for allowing me to test my powers onto you. But now, it is time to end this!" Upon his declaration, he raised a fist and threw it down at the pair. Rather than hitting flesh, or what was left of it at least, his fist made contact with a familiar green forcefield.

"You leave my friends alone!" Oracle shouted, she who initiated her Persona's Final Guard skill to protect them.

Despite the guard, Seidr wasn't deterred. "I remember you cannot use that consistently. All you did was delay the inevitable. I shall deal with you... after these two." Raising another fist, he threw it down to his intended targets.

Miku glanced to where the living relic was and was horrified with what he was going to do. "HIBIKI/STOP!" she and Oracle cried out.

His fist hit... but it didn't strike flesh. Instead, a shadow suddenly stood in the way and blocked the attack.

"Keep your hands... away from our leader..." Lioness said, struggling to block Seidr's punch with her rapier, especially with the carbonization effect on her.

"Lioness..." Chris weakly gasped.

Even Seidr was intrigued by this. "Oh? I'm impressed. So you can move despite the pain you're going through. However..." He suddenly grabbed the girl in one of his tentacles, wrapping the limb tightly around her, and causing the carbonization to spread even more, as Lioness clenched her teeth and held back screams in pain. "All you did was send yourself to a swifter end!"

"Lioness-san!" Serena cried out.

"Hey! Let my cousin go!" Oracle shouted, as she flew her Persona over to the guy.

Seidr ignored the hacker, knowing very well that she couldn't do anything to him, especially as she was not suited for combat, and focused on the weakened thief in his hand. "I truly must say, though, out of all my previous hosts, though you are not truly considered as one, you were the most interesting. I may have gotten my hands on the perfect vessel, but to think the one perfectly compatible to me was from another world. Had this gone differently, we could've ruled all worlds. Such a shame that it is not meant to be."

Lioness weakly glared at Seidr. "Shut... up..." she spoke. "You think... after all the damages you've done to us... all the wishes you consumed and will consume... makes you god...? If so... Then you're just another distorted enemy." She clenched her teeth in pain as she felt the tendril tighten around her, causing the carbonization to spread further.

The rest of the group regained their consciousness and were terrified with what they were seeing. "Lioness!" Queen wheezed out.

"Noir! Heal!" Kong called to the ailment healer closest to him.

Sadly, the girl shook her head. "I can't... I'm all out..."

"I'd watch that mouth if I were you. I was planning to be merciful and save you, the person who helped me achieve this form, for last. Then again, I recall from your memories, like this vessel, you also lost someone important to you, did you not? Perhaps I shall instead send you to see your loved ones, if you wish it so," Seidr said.

"If I'm going to die... it will be because I died fighting... Because I died living a successful life..." Lioness spoke. "I'm not going to die... Just because I want to see the people I lost... And I'm definitely not going to die... if it means letting a bastard like you do as you please!"

"'Letting a bastard like me', you say? This 'bastard' is on the level of god! You and your friends can never harm me. You are all on deathbed! You have lost!"

A smirk formed on Lioness's face. "You say... You saw into my memories, didn't you...? Don't you know what happened... the last time we Phantom Thieves faced god? He was nothing but a coward... who tried to wipe out humanity because he couldn't control them. He was strong... but that didn't stop us. Just like we did to him... we will beat you, and free everyone from your control!"

"Lioness..." Hibiki breathed out.

"Big talk from someone who is slowly dying from the carbonization. All I need to do is drop you, and your life will come to an end," Seidr said.

"Yeah... Maybe it will. But if you think that equates to your certain victory, you're more delusional than I thought! So long as at least one of us still lives... so long as we still have the will to fight... you will never win... and we will save all worlds!"

Striken by Lioness's words, the rest of the thieves all struggled to stand back up, with the phantoms doing their best to endure the carbonization.

Seidr saw this and was least amused. "So you claim... Then die for your ideals!" He raised the tendril up and slammed it down.

"GUREN!" Oracle cried out.

Lioness wasn't worried. In fact, she was strangely calm. "Silentio perire Seidr zizzl~" As soon as she uttered out that chant, the tentacle suddenly ceased its fall, stopping just centimeters off the ground, much to many's bafflement.

"He stopped...?" Maria asked.

Kanade realized something off about their enemy and called, "Hey, look!"

If it was possible, Seidr had a pained expression on his face, as he rose a hand up to his head and started groaning. "Wha-... What's... this...?" More groans were being heard from him, and something inside of him started to glow. As he continued to groan, the glow went down his body, to his leg, to one of the tendrils, and made its way straight for Guren. The girl noticed this and, sensing something familiar about the glow, rose her free arm, summoning her rapier to it, and stabbed the glow. Upon doing so, the glow suddenly got brighter, and Seidr let out a scream.

"Whoa! What's that light?!" Mona gasped.

Oracle took a look into her scanners and couldn't believe what she was seeing from it. "This is... No way! For real?!"

"What is it... Oracle?" Panther asked.

"These signatures... These charts! They have to be!"

"Oracle?" Shirabe called.

"What's going on- death?" Kirika questioned.

As if to answer the question, the sound of a keyboard being played was heard, followed by a cut, and another scream. "GAH!"

The light died down, and Lioness stood tall... in her Symphogear attire. Lying by her was a piece of Seidr's tentacle, and the live relic took a knee, for one of his legs bled out some dark energy.

"Lioness's Gear Form!" Miku gasped out.

"But... how...?" Fox breathed out.

He wasn't the only one who wanted to know. "How... How can you take on that form again?!" Seidr demanded.

"You said it yourself; I'm the one perfectly compatible to you," Guren said in an 'as-a-matter-of-factly' tone.

She then brought her keyboard in front of her and played some notes. As she played, the Phantom and Gear Thieves all started to glow, and the injuries they sustained were healing up. Not only that, but the carbonization on the foreign group was dissipating away as well.

"This is..." Tsubasa trailed off.

"My body feels light," Pixie spoke.

"Hell yeah! Time for some payback!" Skull cheered.

"Well said, Skull!" Oracle agreed.

Seidr turned to the recovered group in shock. "Don't... Don't screw with me! Even if you have retrieved but a small piece of me, it is but a small piece! Against this godly power I possess, that trinket is nothing but!"

"Is that so? Then you should have no problem if we see what this little trinket can really do against you!" Lioness exclaimed.

"Once again, to save our worlds and free the people's wishes!" Hibiki shouted.

"We will defeat you!" Joker declared.

Those words served to piss Seidr off even more. "You damn thieves... DO NOT LOOK DOWN ON ME!" he roared, with his tentacles lashing out.

Lioness managed to jump back and avoid the tendrils. "That's our line to you, you overgrown object!" She then began to play her keyboard relic, nullifying the extra defense Seidr had on him, and thus allowing the Symphogear Users and Phantom Thieves to do damage to him.

Seidr grunted, feeling weakened by the piano playing, but endured and unleashed his many tentacles at the group. The Phantom Thieves jumped back and kept their distance, decided to instead just fire their long-range weapons at the enemy, while the Gear Users handled him in close combat.

The battle was long and hard. Though the Gear Users were able to do some damage against Seidr this time, overall, there didn't seem to be much change in the flow of battle, other than pissing the living relic off.

"This isn't working!" Panther growled, running out of ammo. "Our attacks are still not getting through!"

"And anything we do up close, we only get carbonized!" Noir added.

Kong looked to Lioness, who backed off from an attack on her. "Hey, I don't suppose you can give us some support like you are with the Symphogear user! At least give us some sort of Symphogear upgrade so we can be in the spotlight instead of only you!" he demanded.

"Hey, do I look like I can just pull a relic out of my back pocket and give it to you guys?!" Lioness snapped back at him. "Deal with it however you can!"

"Dude, that's cold!" Skull grimaced.

"Actually, there might be a way to help them out," Elfnein's voice suddenly came over the coms in their ears, making the others jump in surprise.

"Elfnein?!" Oracle gasped.

"You hear us now?! Good! We finally came through!" Sakuya cheered.

"It seems Seidr was also messing up with the communication the whole time, until Lioness got her part back," Genjuro assumed.

"Okay, and what was Elfnein talking about earlier? There's a way Lioness can help us out, too?" Queen asked.

"I've done some analysis with Lavenza on the Seidr, and I believe we've found something out," Elfnein answered. "The specialty behind that relic is it's connection with the Metaverse, and it's ability to alter that power and unify it into other beings, like Alchemy and even other relics. The Shadows with Alchemy & Alca-Noise, the Symphogear gaining power to fight Shadows, Alca-Gear Shadows, and even Seidr's fusion with Picora's Shadow and the wishes are all originated from the relic's power."

"Can you just skip to the moment you can make your point?!" Lioness demanded.

"Wait a second!" Kong gasped, his otaku mind in full force right now. "I think I get where she is going!"

"You do?" Fox questioned.

"Our Showtime Duets, the Symphogear & Personas, the Seidr and its power... If you're able to empower the Symphogear with the ability to fight Shadows, then there's no way you can't unify their Symphogear into us!"

He was met with looks of incredulous as Mona questioned, "Wait, is that even possible?!"

"I really cannot compute your logic, Kong..." Sophie stated.

"Kong is correct," Elfnein spoke up. "The girls already gained an upgrade to their Symphogear, gaining the attire of the Phantom Thief they were close to. Ergo, by utilizing Seidr's Metaverse alteration abilities, as well as the bond you share with the Symphogear Users, you should be able to create a reverse link from the relics of each girl to the Phantom Thieves, giving them upgrades from them!"

"You mean, we get to wear armor like what they wear?" Pixie asked.

"Not sure if us guys would look good in that," Skull mentioned, already imagining them in the girls' attire.

"Not to that extension, but you might be able to alter your weapons and utilize techniques similar to their attacks," Elfnein answered.

"It's worth a shot," Joker decided, turning to Lioness. "You think you can pull it off?"

"Just because it is possible doesn't mean I know immediately how to do it!" Lioness argued, but sighed. "Oh, alright. I'll try something. Better hope we don't die trying!"

"Girls, did you get that?!" Genjuro called out to the Symphogear users in battle.

"Yes, Master!" Hibiki answered.

"It's a risk, but one that'll pay off if it works," Maria stated.

"We're just gonna have to trust Lioness," Tsubasa told the others. "Everyone, regroup back to the Phantom Thieves!" They avoided some lashes from Seidr, and retreated to the others' side, circling around Lioness as she readied her keytar.

"Whatever you have planned, it won't work!" Seidr boomed. "I will crush all of you, here and now, and eliminate any trace of the Phantom Thieves with it!" It bound its tentacles together, spiraling into one large one, before glowing and becoming a massive tentacle, one large enough to crash down upon all of them.

"Hurry up!" Chris shouted.

"We're counting on you, Lioness!" Queen told her.

'Sure, no pressure, guys!' Lioness mentally argued, before closing her eyes. 'I need to concentrate. My connection with Seidr, the fusion of it and my Persona powers, as well as...'

She thought through the moments since they arrived in this world. From the first time they fought alongside the girls, to meeting them as civilians, to fighting each other, before deciding to unite together. Guren knew she was less than kind to them, only because she thought they would get killed under their watch against a foe that was their problem. All the while, everyone else was developing their bonds further and further with each girl, to the point they were able to unleash the Showtime Duets. They were not afraid of allowing them into the battle, only because they knew it was both of their fights. She could punch herself for what she did before she finally accepted them, but now was not the time. She had to think of one thing; the journey to how they became a team, and how she learned to have them part of the fight, and seeing the bond each of them had for one another. The girls gained the power of the Phantom Thieves, so it was only right they share the power of their Symphogear with her friends.

Her body glowed a neon purple color as Seidr's tentacle fell closer towards them. Her keytar was held in front of her, before transforming into two sets of arched keyboards. At the same time, the mane of her mask became flames, but didn't disappear, as the arms of Alanna appeared with her arms, becoming a second pair of hands that held position on the upper keyboard, while she had her own hands on the lower one. She opened her eyes, and started to play.

(Insert: Last Surprise Remix by Lyn Inaizumi)

Her first notes suddenly unleashed burst of energy that formed into a barrier, blocking against Seidr's attack, causing his tentacle to recoil. "What?!" He growled, looking down at the circular barrier, seeing Lioness glare at him, but her thoughts on her friends as she played.

As her friends all seemed stunned at her unleashed power, the girls' Armed Gear started to glow, as did the melee weapons of the Phantom Thieves, with the exceptation of Joker, whose dagger and gun were both glowing.

---

In headquarters, everyone was observing the energy waves being shown on the charts on their screens.

"The Symphogear are reacting to Lioness's Seidr's energy!" Aoi called out.

"Synchronicity has been initiated! The Aufwachen waves from each Symphogear are connecting to the Phantom Thieves!" Sakuya followed.

"Her Seidr's power is working," Elfnein said with a smile.

"The power of the Symphogear and Persona have one common power; the power to dig into their true selves, and gain the strength to rebel." Lavenza stated, smiling, "Their bonds are the wings of rebellion, and Lioness has helped them awaken to the ultimate power of the Symphogear, granting them infinite power."

---

Back on the battlefield, each of the Symphogear's weapons suddenly glowed and shot energy towards their Phantom Thief partners' weapons, making them glow and suddenly transform into new weapons.

Joker's weapons suddenly turned into gauntlets, with the left having a hidden blade on it, while the right had a gun barrel sticking out of it. Mona's cutlass became a pair of curved dagger floating in the air on either side of him. Skull's mace became a thick-shafted club, with the head looking like a mirror crystal ball. Panther's whip became a chain whip, ending with a buzzsaw blade at the end. Kong's quarterstaff became a double-end scythe, which detached down the middle to dual-wield. Pixie's scythe had transformed into a long-barreled rifle with the scythe blade attached like a stand at the end of it. Fox's katana became a long-bladed naginata, which he held in both hands. Queen's tekko were now attached with curved blades on the outer sides of her arms, and looked like they could fold in or outwards. Noir's axe still had the head, but the upper half of the shaft had become bladed and segmented into small parts to become like a whip-sword.

"Damn! This is badass!" Skull stated, looking at his new weapon.

"Seriously cool!" Kong exclaimed, looking to each scythe blade.

"I can't wait to use this!" Noir stated.

"Wow! Very impressive, all of you," Sophie stated, looking at each of their weapons in awe.

"It's like our weapons became part of your weapons, making them totally different," Maria stated.

"So cool- death~!" Kirika stated, her eyes sparkling.

"If you are done gawking, guys, I think you should get to work!" Lioness shouted.

Joker nodded in agreement, crossing his arms in front of him, the hidden blade in his left gauntlet extending out. "It's showtime!" The Phantom Thieves and Symphogear charged forward as they took on Seidr once more, with the Symphogear Users singing Lioness's song.

"No matter what you try, it's pointless against an omnipotent being like me!" Seidr roared, returning his tentacle to his normal assortment, and shooting them at the group.

Panther was up first to show her skills with her weapon as Shirabe used 'Delta Style: Charming Axel Killer' to slice up a tentacle, while the piece narrowly hit Panther, had she not used her weapon, which spun to create a gust to carry her up by the chain, making her fly.

"Time to buzz and burn!" she called out, causing the blades of the buzzsaw to burn up, and become a spinning wheel of flames, doing a forward somersault to bring the flaming buzzsaw down onto the remain of the tentacle, cutting it into two halves. This was 'Alpha Style: Blazing Taboo Saw'.

"Impressive, Panther," Shirabe stated as they fell together.

"I didn't even known I had that in me. This weapon rocks!" Panther exclaimed.

"How dare you!" Seidr shouted, sending another tendril towards the pair. However, with a pair of quick slices, its route got cut off into several pieces thanks to the arrival of Kong and Kirika's scythes.

"Keep your hands off them- death!" Kirika barked, unleashing Kill Juliet at the monster.

"Don't you know an upgrade to a heroes arsenal mid-battle spells doom for the enemy?!" Kong asked, detaching his weapon into twin scythes. "Read a manga or watch an anime, and you'll know what I mean!" He got in close behind the boomeranging blades of Kirika, pulling back his weapons, which electrified and created auras that doubled the length of the blades, before cross-slashing them, creating an X of electricity on Seidr's body, causing him to roar in pain. This was his 'Voltage Cross: King Kong'.

"GAAAAAAHH!" Seidr cried out in agony. "How are you able to do so much damage?! This is impossible!"

"Nothing's impossible!" Kanade's voice called out, as she and Fox raced along the path, crossing one another, before the Symphogear wielder threw her lance forward, unleashing 'STARDUST-FOTON', multiplying the weapon and striking the side of Seidr with all.

"Your arrogance in believing you could not be brought down will be your undoing!" Fox called out, twirling the naginata above his head, creating an icy storm that transformed into several icy replications of his own weapon. He then whipped his weapon forward, and his icy creations shot all about Seidr's body, creating icy stalagmites to form upon each impact. This was Fox's 'ICE SCULPTURE-COMET'.

"Almost like frozen flowers blossoming to show some form of beauty from this repulsive monster," Fox stated, stabbing his weapon on the ground, and framing his fingers to examine his attack.

"Jeez, you won't stop, will ya?" Kanade questioned him.

"Back off, all of you!" Seidr roared, generating energy with a pair of tendrils, before releasing it as a shockwave that blasted back the three parties that were near it. What it wasn't prepared for, however, was three other pairs who were setting themselves up for a long-ranged attack.

From behind, Serena and Mona were in the air, getting higher ground above the enemy.

"You had this coming a mile away!" Mona scoffed, using winds to circle the curved daggers around him.

"You underestimated how strong we really are as a team!" Serena shouted, before unleashing 'XANA TEARS', sending her weapon flying high above before falling down like a meteor towards Seidr.

"The end!" Mona declared, whipping his arms forward, sending the blades spinning like drills, a gale encasing them like flames of a comet, as they shot towards the same target. This was 'CAIT SITH SILVER'. The two attacks collided with Seidr, creating an explosion.

"Why you…!" He growled, looking up to see the two, only to catch another pair directly on the ground beneath them; Skull and Miku.

"I'm charged and ready, Skull!" Miku called out, the armor on her knee plates folding out to create a ring around her, glowing brightly.

"This guy's gonna regret ever bringing us into the picture!" Skull stated, his mace pulled back like a baseball player, the mirror ball on the tip electrified to the max, "After all, he has twice the shit to deal with us all together!"

While Miku unleashed 'Shooting Star', sending a beam of energy, Skull summoned a ball of electricity, before swinging his mace, amplifying the ball with all the charged energy he gathered, and sending it like a sparking comet, keeping alongside Miku's attack. This was his 'Bolt Light'.

Both attack struck Seidr so hard, it fell backwards in agony, collapsing to the ground. It tried to rise back up with its tendrils, but quickly saw two more charging up for an attack; Chris and Pixie.

"We're not gonna let you recover any time soon!" Chris shouted with a grin, her gun transformed into a large crossbow-like sniper rifle, her eye looking through the scope.

"Not until you spit out all the wishes you swallowed, and begone like the virus you are!" Pixie declared with a smirk, the muzzle of her gun folding out forward, and her scythe head turning into two blades on each side. They started to rotate quickly around the muzzle as it charged up Bless and Wind energy.

The two unleashed their powerful blasts from their weapons; Chris's 'RED HOT BLAZE', and Pixie's 'SONNET DEATH'. Both attacks hit their target, causing him to roar in pain as he was consumed in a smoke cloud made by them.

"ENOUGH!" Seidr shouted, as he rose up again, stretching his tentacles out, spinning about as he created many beams from each one, scatter-shooting at everyone from a distance, causing the three pairs that had just attacked to scatter and avoid the attacks that came at them.

Chris set up her reflectors to block the attacks that came at them. She struggled to endure all the shots that hit her and Pixie, but was saved with a secondary energy shield, created by Maria.

"We have your back!" the Airgetlam User told the two.

"Thanks!" the Ichaival User replied.

"We appreciate the save!" Pixie added. She then noticed someone missing and asked, "Where's Noir?"

Chris saw where the missing thief was and gasped, "Wait, what is she doing?!"

Noir was running into the battlefield, blocking all lasers alone. How? By using her weapon like a whip propeller, spinning it by the end of the handle, and creating an energy barrier herself, before she got in close, in the blind spot of Seidr's attack.

"That's enough out of you!" she shouted, retracting her weapon to its standard axe form, before leaping up and immediately making it go into its whip form again, this time ballet spinning like a top, unleashing Psychokinetic slashes continuously from the blade of her axe, continuously striking Seidr. This was her 'HEAVEN GRACE'.

The attack was enough to make the monster falter, growling in pain as he shouted, "Why won't you just fall down and die like the pests you are?!" He turned a pair of his tentacles over to Noir and tried to strike her. However, a pair of slashes came out of nowhere and sliced them up.

Tsubasa and Queen, the former with her blades folded outwards in a reverse grip, stood on either side of the rescued.

"We don't just fall because you want us to!" Tsubasa retorted. "We have our own lives that we want to keep!"

"And we refuse to turn away while you tyrannize, manipulate, and deceive everyone with what you have done!" Queen followed. "As long as we have the will to fight, we won't let your injustice prevail!"

"Then prevail over this!" Seidr barked, sneaking his remaining tentacles from above, and unleashing beams of dark energy down at the three girls. Noir leapt away in time, while it almost looked like the other two might've been hit by the attack. Seidr laughed, only to look up and see they had leapt incredibly high, thanks to flames and Nuclear energy from Tsubasa and Queen, respectively.

Tsubasa sent her katana down, transforming it into the giant blade to perform 'Heaven's Wrath', while Queen had her twin blades rotate around and fold directly in front of her fists, like forming a broadsword from her two blades. They then transformed, doubling in size, as she dove down, encased in a stream of Nuclear energy, like a comet. This was her 'Atomic Blade's Justice'.

The two giant blades slashed down all the tentacles of Seidr, leaving him without any limbs, and in agony. The others watched him writhe around in agony, before he regained himself, a death glare in his eyes. "I will not fall like this! I have not waited this long just for a bunch of rebels to take me down like this! You will all suffer at my wrath!" He leapt high into the air, before using his bottom half, creating a tip as he was creating a large spark of energy.

"Careful guys! He's charging up for something massive!" Oracle cried out in warning.

"I got it!" Lioness shouted, about to stop playing and pull out her sniper rifle.

"No, keep playing!" Noir called back, stopping her.

"We already have two idiots who are on the case as we speak," Chris pointed out.

Lioness looked up, and was stunned. The pair in question were literally rising to the occasion, one of them using the rocket boosters from her gauntlet, while the other used his grappling hook to be pulled from behind.

"Get him, Joker!"

"Hibiki, go!"

Skull and Miku shouted together, as they saw their dearest friends and leaders get closer to the enemy.

"You will not stop my victory!" Seidr roared. "I will destroy you before you even get close!" He prematurely fired off his attack, which aimed at the two.

Lioness quickly got back to work with her playing, as Hibiki roared her lungs out and punched right into the beam.

"The quickest way to him..." Hibiki started.

"-is a straight path forward!" Joker finished. "Arsene!" He summoned out his main Persona, who shot up towards Hibiki, before diving right into her. She then became encased in the Curse energy, Arsene's wings sprouting from her back, as she roared even harder, before blasting right through Seidr's attack, punching him straight in the gut.

Seidr gagged, before feeling seven painful shot. Joker used the momentum of Hibiki's trajectory to rise high up, firing his gauntlet gun as he rose, going in a straight line up Seidr. Then, at the peak of his arc, he switched to his dagger gauntlet, which extended out the blade, imbued with Curse energy, before bringing it down, and slashing a straight line down Seidr's body, along each of the bullet marks he made. The connected bullets and slash mark created a gush of dark energy that caused Seidr pain beyond belief. Hibiki and Joker fell together as they left behind Joker's move, 'Joker-Hibiki Style: Seven Deadly Sins'.

They landed on the ground right in front of their friends as moments later, Seidr hit the ground hard, creating a dust cloud as he did so. All that could be heard is the aftermath of the hard landing, Seidr's grunts to try and rise up again, and the song that Lioness continued playing.

"I am... so close…" Seidr grimaced. "The power… melding reality with the Metaverse… I could be the ruler of both… the dreams that could be mine to control… I could control the masses, use their rage and vengeance to make myself omnipotent! I could be a god!"

"A god who steals the dreams of others, and forces their hearts to bend to your will is no god I would ever want to have around!" Hibiki retorted. "Our hearts and our dreams are not going to be sealed away by you. We will free the hearts and dreams with a song!"

"Those dreams you stole, we will take them back!" Joker finished. "Lioness, wanna help us finish the request?!"

"I'd thought you'd never ask!" the Symphogear User Phantom Thief answered, as she and Alanna's arms struch the keys, as she poured her heart into the final chorus, now along singing to it, emanating an energy that formed above her team. At that increase of power, the Symphogear User's bodies, as well as the Phantom Thieves's weapons, all glowed brightly, and their energy shot out, converging together onto Lioness's energy, before shooting onto Joker and Hibiki.

The gauntlet Gungnir user raised her left fist which transformed drastically, becoming larger and larger, until it became a massive fist. At the same time, Joker smashed his two gauntlets together, which converged onto his right hand and grew just as large as Hibiki's, only this time, morphing into a large pistol. Hibiki took the pistol, and Joker leapt up to grasp ahold of the trigger. The two glared at Seidr, who was unable to avoid the attack with how weakened he was.

"Checkmate," Joker finished, before pulling the trigger, unleashing their final technique, 'Last Surprise'. They fired an energy bullet that went straight through Seidr's head. With one final gag, his eyes went blank, his body becoming lifeless, and fell to the ground. Within moments, the body started to vanish, as the jewels that Seidr took started to rise up and float away, returning back to their rightful owners.

"Whew... We finally beat him..." Skull sighed in relief.

"The wishes..." Shirabe spoke, watching as the gems all flew away.

"Don't worry. They're going back to their rightful place," Sophie assured.

"That's great to hear," Serena sighed.

Tsubasa noticed something forming from the ground before them and was on guard. "Hey! Something else is coming!"

At those words, though exhausted, everyone else was put on guard. They may be tired from all that fighting, but if Seidr still has another trick up his sleeve...

"Don't worry. These signals aren't hostile," Oracle informed.

Just as she said that, a pair of figures appeared, both lying on the floor, though one of them was more bound to it than just lying.

"How... could I have lost...? After everything..." Seidr questioned, incredibly weakened from the beat-down delivered by the Symphogear Users and the Phantom Thieves. "All I wanted... was to be on the same level... as them..."

This caught their attention. "'Them'?" Maria repeated.

Seidr could only scoff. "You wouldn't understand... Not when you're living in this time... You wouldn't understand... how much a mortal want to be on the same level as God..."

Those words surprised the group. "You were a person?" Miku asked.

"I was... One of God's first creation of humanity... Unlike many mortals who were created at the time, I was the only one aware of how we came to be... And like any child would for their parent, I wanted to stand alongside God... But, I knew that as a mortal, such a thing was never possible, otherwise, I would've already be by their side... So I studied, I experimented, I came up with many means to see how one can stand on the same level as them... Eventually, I achieved eternal life... Though not in the way I had envisioned it..."

"You put your soul in an instrument. Made it into a relic..." Lioness realized.

"Instruments... And merged them all into one," he corrected. "Due to the state I was in, I couldn't do anything... I was devastated... Thought all my efforts to be close to God had gone to waste... Until my first victim came... Showed me I could still achieve the impossible... Even revealed to me another possibility to being God..."

"Which led to the death of numerous musicians..." Noir summarized.

"I have found the one solution to my eternal problem... A way to be on par with God at last... Only for it to be for naught..."

No one knew what to say to him. How could they, after hearing his reason for power this whole time? They were furious at him for what he did, but after hearing his story, they were also sad. Well... Almost all of them.

"And you think that's reason enough for what you've done?" Lioness questioned. "I'm sure you were desperate, that you wanted to do anything to be with the person you wanted to be with. But you think that's reason enough for this?! You killed numerous musicians, numerous innocent people who had dreams, who just want to play music. You toyed with their feelings, stole other people's wishes, even forced the Metaverse from our world to this one, nearly destroying both worlds! After all that, you think you're forgiven just because it's for a reason as sad as that?!"

"Lioness-" Hibiki was about to say something, but was stopped by Oracle, who rejoined the group after the battle was over, and knew where her cousin was leading this to.

"Throughout your time being with another person, throughout your time traveling around as an instrument, playing some tunes for many people, did you feel nothing at all? Are you really telling me, after all your time living as a relic, you've felt nothing at all, aside from your wish to be with God?"

Seidr was silent at that demand, as he thought back to his previous set of victims. Or rather, the time he spent with them. The many times they performed various songs to others, practicing the songs they played, even the maintenance they'd done on him. He even thought back to their memories before meeting him, recalling how much they loved music, as well as their reason for playing it, especially Lioness's. Calmly thinking back on it... A small smile had formed on his face. "I suppose... This is a good time to start over..." he spoke. "I'm clearly not going to die at any time soon, if I will ever at this point... and I see now... I cannot be God... But at the very least... I can still watch over this world or any world in place of my parents..." As he said this, his body glowed. The light then separated itself from the body and reformed, revealing it to be Picora's half of Seidr.

Lioness approached the broken relic and picked it up. "We can't always be with the people we love... But at the very least, we can be someone they can be proud of."

Queen placed a hand on her shoulder, knowing full well that the girl was speaking from experience. She who longed to be with her parents back when she was a child, only to then decide to be someone she knew they could be proud of.

A groan was then heard, and the group looked to see the alchemy circle binding Shadow Picora down dissipating away, and the guy was absorbed back into his body. Once back in, the alchemist weakly got back up.

"I... am not done... yet..." he breathed out.

"Seriously man?! After everything, you still want a go?!" Skull questioned.

"I did not make it this far... just to be some puppet... and not see my ambition come to fruition!" Before he could raise to his feet, however, he suddenly started coughing up blood, much to their worry.

"Whoa! Are you okay?!" Kong asked, only for the guy to cough up more blood.

"What's happening to him?!" Fox questioned.

Oracle brought up a screen with her Persona's ability and checked the guy. Her eyes widened behind her mask at what she was seeing. "It's the Faust Robe in him! And the Alca-Noise Crystals! Seidr may have left his body, but they didn't. And because of them..."

"He's dying..." Mona summed up, as the rest were just as shocked with the results.

None were more baffled at this than the dying man himself, he who was devastated with what was becoming of him. "No... I can't die here... I still haven't... Vanessa..."

"Vanessa-san wouldn't want this!" Hibiki shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. "She wanted to become human again... To live a normal life again... To do anything she could to be with the people who cares about her, just as much as she cares about them. She would never want you to go down this road to the end."

"And how would you know...? You were the one who-"

"Hibiki did not kill Vanessa!" Maria yelled. "What you saw back there? It wasn't how Vanessa had died!"

"That's right. Although Tachibana did struck her fist in through her, she did it out of her request, not to kill her as an enemy!" Tsubasa exclaimed.

"Back then, Vanessa-san did not have an ounce of humanity left in her. An enemy we faced killed her, and revived her as a monster," Shirabe followed.

"That's right- death! And after that, she and the rest of Noble Red gave their lives to ensure we would return to Earth- death!" Kirika added on.

"It's true. I saw when Shem-Ha took control of me. You may never believe this, but Hibiki and the others are innocent!" Miku vouched.

Picora couldn't believe a word they say, and was about to call out on it when... "It's true..." a voice echoed in the area, and everyone saw what seemed like a ghost appearing before him. Just the fact that it did shook two certain girls.

"Whoa!" Chris gasped. "I-Is that a... A-a-a..."

"G-G-Ghost!" Queen cried out, as the pair hid behind Maria and Kong, respectively.

"W-Wait a second!" Maria called to the pair. "Queen, I understand, but Chris, doesn't she look familiar to you?"

Picora certainly recognized this ghost. How could he not? This ghost was the person who was his everything. "Va-... Vanessa...?"

"Picora... This has to stop," Vanessa told him.

"Why...? Everything I did... it was all for you..."

"I know... But this? This is not the actions of the man I love... The man I love would never drown himself into this. Not when he did everything he could for my happiness."

"But... They hurt you... They were responsible for-"

"-For my death? Regardless if they did or not, I would never want you to suffer like this, no matter the reason."

"Vanessa..."

The ghost approached him and knelt down to the alchemist's side. "I may have been alone all that time since the incident, but I had friends who stayed by me. Like you, they became important people in my life. And like how you did to me, I want you to be an important part of their lives."

Picora was silent right then, as Vanessa placed a hand on his cheek. Strangely enough, even though she was a ghost, he could feel a hint of warmth from the hand, one that caused a small smile to naturally form on his face. "I suppose... this is something I should've done from the start..." he breathed. "I'm so sorry... I had left you alone all this time..."

A gentle smile formed on Vanessa's face. "Apology accepted. I'll be waiting for you..." With that, much to everyone's shock, the ghost gave him a small kiss on the lips, and faded away.

"I'm coming... my love..." was all Picora said, as he slowly closed his eyes and went limp.

Seeing him like that, Hibiki, Skull, Noir, and Miku were about to rush to his aide, when Lioness raised an arm to stop them.

"Lioness?" Sophie spoke, confused with the action.

"We best leave him be," the thief said, much to majority's shock.

"You want us to abandon him?!" Serena questioned.

"No. She's saying we should let him be at peace now," Joker corrected, understanding her action.

"It may be harsh to say, but they're right," Tsubasa said in understanding.

"Even if we do bring him back, there's no guarantee that we can save him, with the Faust Robe forcibly fused in him, and the Alca-Noise crystals as well..." Maria pointed out.

It was silent then, as everyone realized there really was nothing they could do for the alchemist. Just then, the ground started to shake, alarming the group.

"What's going on, now- death?!" Kirika gasped.

"The fusion between the Metaverse and reality is starting to come undone," Mona answered. "We have to get out of here, or who knows what will happen if we linger here any longer." Just as he said that, parts of the tower started to break and fall off.

"Sounds good to me," Kanade said upon seeing that, and they all started to run down the tower.

---

As soon as they got out, the whole world was back to normal. Not a single sign of Shadow or Alca-Noise was present, and the people were going on with their normal lives as usual. More than that, though...

"Huh? What are we doing here?" Hibiki asked.

"Weren't we... running from something?" Miku wondered.

"I... think so?" Shirabe wanted to say, but wasn't sure exactly.

"Does anyone else feel tired? Like we just finished some big battle?" Chris then questioned.

"Now that you mentioned it..." Tsubasa spoke, feeling quite sore for some reason.

"Huh? Wait a sec. Why are Serena and Kanade here- death?!" Kirika gasped, just now realizing a certain pair of otherworlders amongst them.

"'Why' you say... I came here to visit," Kanade answered.

"Me too. At least... I'm pretty sure I was..." Serena said.

"This is strange... Why don't we remember anything?" Maria wondered.

Hibiki then looked down and noticed what seemed to be a clarinet on the floor. "Who dropped this clarinet?" she wondered out loud, picking up the very instrument.

"Huh? A clarinet?" Serena repeated.

"What kind of idiot would drop that of all things?" Chris questioned. When she and the others got a closer look at it, though, they couldn't help but feel something off about it. "Huh?"

"For some reason... Does it look familiar to anyone else?" Shirabe asked.

"It kind of does. But why?" Tsubasa wondered.

---

It wasn't just them, for back in the control room, Genjuro and the others also felt like something was off.

"Hang on... What were we doing?" the commander questioned.

"Were we working?" Aoi spoke.

"I... think so?" Ogawa answered, though quite unsure.

Elfnein was just as confused as them. For one thing, she felt quite mentally drained. For another... she could've sworn they were missing someone amongst them.

---

At the same time, elsewhere, a certain group of teenagers stood on an island, in front of a research facility.

"Man... That was some run..." Ryuji sighed in exhaustion, only to realize something. "Wait a sec... Run?"

"Were we... running from something?" Ann wondered.

"That couldn't be. The wishes may have been returned, but Jails don't disappear," Morgana said.

Zenkichi turned to them in confusion. "Huh? 'Disappear'? 'Run'? What are you guys talking?"

"Zenkichi. We weren't running from anything, were we?" Haru asked him.

"Not that I know of."

"That's weird..." Makoto spoke, holding her head. "I could've sworn we were doing something earlier. Something involving Phantom Thieves, but... not in regards to this Jail..."

"You too?" Haneru asked.

"How peculiar... I feel the same," Yusuke said.

"Did we all hit our heads or something when we were getting out of this Jail?" Futaba asked, also feeling the same.

Ren turned to Guren and noticed something in her hand. "What's that you're holding, Guren?"

This brought everyone's attention to the girl, even the person herself, as she looked down at her hand. "Huh? The hell is this?" she questioned.

A beep was heard from Ren's phone, and the guy took it out, revealing Sophie on there. "May I?" the AI asked. Guren held up the item to her, allowing the girl to analyze the object. "It appears to be a mouthpiece of a clarinet."

"A clarinet? But you don't play clarinets," Makoto said to Guren.

"More like 'why do you even have that in your hand'?" Haneru questioned.

"The hell should I know? Although..." Guren trailed off there, finding something familiar about the thing.

Ryuji let out a yawn, breaking the ice. "I don't know about you guys, but I think it's finally catching up to me..." he said in a tired tone.

"Now that you mentioned it, it's morning now. No wonder I'm so beat..." Ann pointed out.

"Speaking of, how'd it go back there anyhow?" Zenkichi asked, remembering why they were there in the first place. "Who was the King? Was it really a local? Anything on Madicce?"

"Zen...kichi... We can tell you later... but for now... firstly... sleeeeep..." Futaba spoke, suddenly feeling tired, as she started tilting to the side, had her cousin not caught her.

"Whoa, Futaba!" Guren gasped.

Zenkichi was taken aback by the action. "Oh! Sounds like you guys had a real time in there. Wait here. I'll check out the route to the RV."

"You okay going alone?" Ren asked.

"You guys already pulled your own weight and then some. At least lemme help out now," the guy reasoned, as he took his leave.

While he went to check how the people were reacting, the group spoke about the source of their exhaustion, but Guren only stared at the clarinet mouthpiece in her hand. For some reason, there was something about it that felt... special. As though it was not just any mouthpiece. Why that was, she could not really say. But there was just something about it...

---

A few days later, back at SONG Headquarters, Hibiki and the rest of the Symphogear Girls stood in the control center.

"You called for us, Master?" the brawler Gungnir User asked.

"I did. I wanted to speak to you girls about the instrument Hibiki-kun brought a few days back," he confirmed.

"The clarinet? What about it?" Miku asked.

"It turns out, it wasn't just any normal clarinet, but a relic," Elfnein explained.

"Huh? Really- death?" Kirika gasped.

"Yes. To be exact, it's called the Seidr. Unlike most relics, this one can change its shape depending on the person who uses it. Not only that, but it's also supposedly the cause of many mysterious deaths involving famous musicians."

"Wait, seriously?! What's something like that doing out on the streets?!" Chris questioned.

"Better yet, how do you know if that was that relic?" Maria asked.

"Because apparently we already found out about it," Ogawa replied then.

"We did? What do you mean?" Shirabe asked.

"You all are aware of how we seemed to have missed memories of what happened some days back, correct?" Genjuro spoke, in which they all nodded to. "Apparently, and thankfully, we kept records of what went on the past few days, even though the videos of those days seemed to have been erased somehow. And according to the records, we had help from a group of thieves from another world regarding this incident."

"Thieves?" Tsubasa repeated in shock.

"Color me baffled as well when I read this. Even more so, apparently we got hacked by these thieves." That certainly surprised them even more.

"Huh?! We got hacked in?!" Chris gasped.

"If they hacked in, then they must've been enemies. Why did we team up with them?" Maria asked.

"Apparently, it was because of these," Ogawa responded, pulling up images on the big screens.

"Those are?" Tsubasa asked.

"Let's see... fairies, devils, housemaids, warriors, knights... Whoa, there's a bunch of them!" Hibiki listed off.

"Apparently these are classified as Shadows, a new kind of enemy in which we needed their help to defeat. In return for their assistance, we would help them get back home," Ogawa explained.

"For real?" Chris asked, in which the guy nodded to in response.

"Wait. Then what does that have to do with the relic?" Maria brought back up.

"According to our records, its powers revolve around the same place these 'Shadows' come from," Elfnein answered then. "Likewise, the group of thieves we teamed up with got their powers from there as well. Furthermore, it was only from their powers that the Shadows were defeated, as well as one other source that we could not seem to identify."

"They got their powers from the same place as these 'Shadows', and they're our allies?" Tsubasa questioned.

"They must be good people then," Hibiki assumed.

"How are you so sure?" Shirabe asked.

"Because if they're the only ones who can hurt the Shadows, and they teamed up with us to beat the Shadows, then they must be good."

"What a simple answer..." Chris sighed.

"But also Hibiki-like," Miku added.

"She might not be wrong, though," Genjuro said. "From what we've read in the records, you got along well with each member enough to perform combination attacks with them."

"For real- death?!" Kirika gasped. "So that's why!"

"Hm? 'Why' what?" Chris asked.

"When we got back the other day, I found this amazing thing in my room- death! A signed autograph from K.S. Rouge's owner, Kreuz Shinsuke!"

Hearing that shocked most of the girls. "You mean the fashion designer?" Maria asked.

"Yes- death~"

"Now that you mentioned it, in my room I found this amazing sketch of myself and Kanade," Tsubasa recalled. "It looked recent, but we couldn't have asked anyone from either of our worlds to do it."

"On the couch in our living room, we found cat hair," Hibiki added. "Our dorm don't allow pets, but we must've made a special exception."

"Sneaking in an injured cat sounds more like your cup of tea," Chris stated.

"Even I wouldn't do that! Miku, tell her!"

Rather than agreeing with the brawler Gear User, Miku only looked away from Hibiki.

"Miku!"

"The other day after Serena went back to her world, she came back and asked about this white rabbit backpack," Maria added on.

"A white rabbit backpack?" Shirabe repeated.

"Yeah. And a really cute one at that. Serena didn't remember getting it, but apparently Mom told her she got the backpack from this world. Serena rarely asks for anything outside of simply spending time with me, and even if it was as a present for her, I wouldn't buy something that adorable. ... Well, if it was as a Birthday or Christmas present, then I would, but it's still summer time."

"So in other words... the thieves we teamed up with are all good people?" Chris questioned.

"It's possible that the world they come from have the opposite meaning of justice and injustice," Genjuro stated. "Whichever the case is, it seems that after resolving the Shadow incident, not only has the relic Hibiki-kun brought back become inactive, but all memories regarding the incident in the past few days, as well as videos of the incident, have been wiped out. How we still maintained the records of the incident is something we don't understand. However, they will serve as a reminder, that even a world's greatest thieves can be our greatest allies in times of need."

"Thieves... I wonder if we'll ever see them again," Hibiki said.