Okay, here's Chapter 95. Not much to say here, other than the obvious: we're getting closer and closer to the grand finale.

Let's have some tissues ready by then.

Anyway, let's answer some reviews:

1) Nobody245: They're gonna be something, that's for sure.

2) Mysterious Mr M: Interesting you bring up dealing with them...

3) Observant Guest: And here's the climax!

4) deeznutthebest: Wait until the ending of the story, you'll be left even more sour. :)

And now, to the chapter!

Episode 95: The Prototype and the Upgrade! So long, Purecoln!

The Primordials and Loud Sisters stood in a garden near the Citadel, finishing the last touches of the tombstones of Lori, Leni, Lana, and Lola, placing a few flowers before noticing another tombstone nearby.

Lily's tombstone.

"You know, now that we know that Lily's technically not..." Lucy sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Forget what I was gonna say, I just realized it'd be a big headache to try explain it."

"I accompanied Lisa to her trial over at Planet Akashic, even fused with her to try get to it."

"Really? Wow, first Ronnie Anne, and now Stella," Luan sighed. "I don't have a joke about it, I'm just surprised that out of all of us, the first one to fuse with a non-Loud would be her."

"That's besides the point," Lynn turned to Stella. "Why did you add a tombstone for Lisa?"

Stella lowered her head. "I went back to try see if Lisa needed anything... and when I did, I saw her fall straight into the gears that made planet function."

The Sisters' eyes widened, and their rage surged as Stella continued:

"And the one who dropped her straight into them... was Lincoln."

Carol sighed wearily. "As if he hadn't done enough already."

Stella raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? What did he do?"

"I've done nothing wrong!"

That statement did little to save Fakecoln from Lincoln and Lily's combined attack, which sent him straight into the invisible wall surrounding the void.

Because that obviously existed.

"Everything I've done, every plan I've conceived, every action, every decision, every sacrifice! It was all made to create a perfect world fit for an Avatar!" Fakecoln snapped as he stood up and dusted himself. "The original reality was flawed, so it had to be destroyed! The reality before that was a mess, so it had to be erased!"

"Oh, I assure you, the Primordial Reality is very much still a thing," Lily replied with a little smile. "After all, if it really was erased, the Primordials wouldn't have appeared and sent your plan on a downward spiral, would they?"

"You know what I mean!"

"No, Pseudo-Lincoln, we don't know what you mean," Lincoln stated sternly. "My Sisters didn't know what you mean. The Proto-Sisters certainly didn't know what you mean. Even Sincoln, your counterpart and the one person who probably has the best chance of understanding, didn't know what you mean."

"We both know the last one doesn't count!" Fakecoln snapped. "He can't see beyond what he wants to see, nor believe what he doesn't want to believe! He can't see anything for what it is! Even if you were to tell him that he couldn't argue about, it'd just go in one ear and out the other!"

"Hmm, when you put it like that, you do bring up some good points," Lily folded her arms. "Now, my counterargument: that description fits you just as much Sincoln!"

Fakecoln raised his arm and a row of Orange crystals sprouted near Lily, almost impaling her before she moved out of the way.

"Silence, Lute! If your rotten existence hadn't corrupted the Sisters, none of this would've happened!" Fakecoln narrowed his eyes. "Your machinations are still felt over even eons later, and you can't even be bothered to own up to them!"

Fakecoln launched another crystal, intending to impale her. However, Lincoln instantly swapped places with her, and the crystal shattered to pieces as soon as it poked him.

Fakecoln looked surprised, but Lincoln didn't bother waiting before he spoke:

"I know you don't know, but every word and action you just did destroys your argument: Calling her "Lute?" I hate to break it to you but she's Neo-Lily, with a little side of Proto-Lily, Xeno-Lily, and Primordial-Lily to complete her synthesis."

Lincoln folded his arms. "A synthesis brought forth by your own hand."

Fakecoln gritted his teeth. "You really think blaming me will-"

"You forcefully merged Proto-Lily and Xeno-Lily together to convince everyone into thinking a certain way so it would easier time to manipulate them into following your game."

Tired of Lincoln's words, Fakecoln sent a row of stalactites at Lily, but Lincoln simply swiped his hand to send it elsewhere.

From there, everything Fakecoln pulled, Lincoln had a way to counter:

Nanomachines out of thin air? A flick sent them crumbling.

A large ocean of corpses emerged from the surrounding dimensions and tried to punch him like a Pseudo-Gashadokuro? Lincoln poked the beast and purified it, sending its bodies to their afterlife for good measure.

Orange flames blinking to life and intending to consume him? He simply blew hard enough to dispel them.

Trapping him in a cage of concentrated time? He simple opened the cage like a door, walked out, then slammed it hard enough to shatter it to pieces.

Increasing the non-existent gravity to squash him? Lincoln barely even felt the change.

Lincoln then overpowered gravity itself and flipped Fakecoln's, causing him to drop to the ground.

"Now, as I was saying," Lincoln said nonchalantly. "Secondly, by trying to kill Lily, all you do is set everything up for her to become a Lute stronger than the current one."

Then he glanced at Lily. "Please don't take that to heart, I'm just speculating: don't get yourself killed just to see if I'm right."

"Trust me, I'd never."

"Why!?" Fakecoln muttered as he tried to stand up. "After everything I did for you, why would you stab me in the back like this!?"

"After everything you did for me? You trapped me in a crystal, with a not quite coma by the way, while surrounded by chains that only my sisters and I could break, all while you casually reset reality over and over again because you had some nitpicks?"

Fakecoln managed to get on his knees, chipping his teeth as he hissed:

"That wasn't my intention at all! I was making the world better, and fixing any mistakes that made it as wrong as the original reality!"

And then lavender vines sprouted around Fakecoln, pulling him to the ground.

"Hate to break it to you, pal," Lily interjected, her arm extended forward. "But there's a big difference between "fixing a mistake" and "sending everything back to square one."

"And how would you know about that!? How would a mere Matriarch know about that?!" Fakecoln snarled. "For eons, you and the sisters have done nothing but make things wrong, leaving me to fix your mistakes! Every time you ruined something, or messed up, or "accidentally" steered something the wrong way, I alone was the one who could fix your mess!"

"And by that same token," Lincoln glared at Fakecoln. "For eons, I've had to step in and make sure things didn't get worse than they already were."

Fakecoln's eyes widened. "What?"

"Either as a yellow square, or the conscience of a girl named Claire, or even an alleged Lovechild between me and my female counterpart, I was always around," Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "Watching as I had to step in to ensure you wouldn't use yet another petty excuse to reset reality."

Fakecoln kept gritting his teeth, shattering them in sheer rage.

"For eons, I wanted to believe that you had your heart in the right place. And that whole time I was blind to the sad, harsh reality. That even with a heart in the right place, your mind made it impossible for you to ever be satisfied."

Now utterly furious, Fakecoln gained a rainbow aura as the screams of the Lovechildren were heard, soon followed by their respective energies flying to and being absorbed by Fakecoln.

This allowed him to not only break free from the vines, but also punch Lincoln hard enough to send him sliding next to Lily, though in terms of damage, it was still very neligible.

"What just happened?!" Lily exclaimed.

"He did the one thing that would forever make him the same as Sincoln," Lincoln stated, dusting himself. "He absorbed the Lovechildren back into his being. After giving them life to try steer the sisters on the right path, he took back their existence just to get his footing back-"

"Stop making it seem like I'm the bad guy!" Fakecoln yelled. "So what if I absorbed their beings?! So what if the Lovechildren ceased to exist?! They had a role, and they tried their best, even if they failed just like their mothers before them! It was inevitable!"

Lily clenched her fist, but before she could move, Lincoln spoke:

"Lily, go back to Royal Woods."

"What?! No way, I'm gonna fight with you!"

"Lily, you went to a reality before the original one to find people who could release me from my eons-long prison," Lincoln flashed a smile and thumbs up. "You and the sisters already did your part. It's time I do mine."

"Nonsense!" Fakecoln exclaimed. "It's time for her and the sisters to pay for ruining a perfect world!"

Fakecoln shot a rainbow clusterfuck of attacks at Lily, but Lincoln casually swatted it away, giving her enough time to use Omnipresence to get out of there.

Once that was done, only the Lincolns remained.

"Why?"

Lincoln remained silent.

"Why would you sacrifice so much for people who don't care about you?" Fakecoln raised an eyebrow. "People who would throw you under the bus to save themselves? That would use you as a scapegoat to try avoid the blame themselves?"

"Hmph, people who throw me under the bus? People who use me as a scapegoat?" Lincoln folded his arms. "And what exactly did you do?"

"I put you on a crystal outside of the new reality because it was the only way I could think to save you from those corrupted sisters of yours!" Fakecoln replied, seemingly sincere. "If you were subjected to their corrupting antics-"

Lincoln cracked his knuckles, startling Fakecoln as orange energy emanated from his palms.

"See, I want to believe you. I really do."

The energy began morphing.

"But after seeing everything and being made aware of what was going on, thanks to a certain little mask no less, I know the real reason you did it."

The energy began to take a blade-like shape as Fakecoln slowly but surely furrowed his brow.

"You didn't take over my spot as God to make the world a better place for my eventual return. In fact, you never planned to bring me back."

Once the energy finished morphing into a blade form, Lincoln grabbed the handle and swung it once.

"You took my role so you could use this reality to vent your frustrations on my sisters. You took it so you could use it as a playground to appease your desire to make everyone pay for how Proto-Lincoln was treated, while only every so often doing your job so you can say you are doing your duty!"

Fakecoln shivered, his expression frozen in an outraged scowl as Lincoln aimed the blade at him.

"Take a good look at this, Pseudo-Lincoln. This, is a Loud Slayer. A weapon made from the blood of a Loud, with enough power to slay the otherwise highly-durable Loud family."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "And in this case, put an end to your tyrannical rule of the new reality."

"What a... b-bluff," Fakecoln stammered. "The Loud Slayer can't kill a Lincoln... I-It can only slay Louds beneath a Lincoln..."

"That was the original idea. The prototype," Lincoln smiled. "You really think the new version wouldn't upgraded affect a Lincoln as well?"

His rage reaching a fever pitch, an orange halo with all the Caste symbols formed behind Fakecoln, his sclera turning pitch black as he proclaimed:

"Enough! I've been nothing but a saint to you, but my patience has wore thin! I refuse to be belittled by an ungrateful jerk who refuses to see the good I've done for this world!"

His fingers turning into claws, Fakecoln lunged straight towards Lincoln, who readied his Loud Slayer as he replied:

"Just as how I refuse to waste my time fighting you."

And then, once he was close enough, Lincoln swung the blade once.

In the blink of an eye, Fakecoln stopped moving. His entire body floating in mid-air as the halo cracked, then shattered as a large wound opened in his torso.

Soon after, the wound spread, and once it covered his entire body, Fakecoln himself was shattered, his pieces dissipating into energy as Lincoln dematerialized the Loud Slayer, and looked at the fleeting energy.

"Wherever you go now, I hope you can rest in peace... Purecoln."

And with that said, Lincoln used Omnipresence, leaving the void between worlds that was his prison for eons.