Samurai SEED

by AJ-Writer

Kira's a lowly ramen bar waiter in wartorn world. Thrust into an age of warriors where legends are made, Kira don a mask and found he's fighting not only against his enemies but also his very own demons. New chapter is up! PLEASE, PLEASE Read and Review!

65. Dance of Shadow and Light Part 5

Kira - Noir & Kage

Lacus - Hikari

Athrun - Rosso

Chapter 65

The Dance of Shadow and Light – Part 5:

Hero and Villain

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Aprillus and Februarius are quite far apart. Even with the fastest ship, it'll take 5 continuous days of travel. For some Februarians, this didn't really matter much. For the rest of the Empire, it is a journey one took sparingly, but willingly. After all, Februarius is a famous place for the idle rich to have the time of their lives. A fantasy island where one's wildest dreams are reality. If there's one party who will never suffer this, it's one of the largest institutions in the whole of the Empire. All citizen of Zaft, commoner or noble, fell under the spiritual ministration of the Church. In layman's term, it is a very powerful organization which can influence at the very least, 10 out of 11 Zaft continents. In all 10 continents: Januarius, Marcus, Aprillus, Maius, Julius, Augustus, Septembrus, Oktobris, Novembrius, and Decembrus. Cathedrals, chapels, churches, all iconography of the Church of Fire can be found prominently in any of these ten continents. Only in Februarius, the continent of Wizards and Witches, the Church influence are noticeable vacant. A point of constant consternation for the more zealous sect of the Church, especially in the heart of this Religion.

The Grand Basilica of Aprillus. The central place of worship of the divine White Emperor as the one and only God of all creation. Thousands of the most faithful flocked into its hallowed halls daily. They say, when it was decided that Aprillus will now become the Capital Continent of Zaft, when the first stone to the Crimson Emperor's Imperial Palace was placed, the first stone that would become the Basilica was placed at the same time. Both were massive mega projects that demand no small amount of resources, both covered area so vast, they redrew the map, yet both mega structures were thousands of miles apart, many deemed doing both projects simultaneously was a logistical impossibility. That both massive constructions were successfully finished at almost the exact same time was considered the miraculous grace of the God Emperor, blessing both institutions.

And when it was first built the Basilica was truly gargantuan. And they simply add to it as the years went on. As Aprillus grew, so to the Basilica. Castle after castle, Pope after Pope, when the entire continent of Aprillus had been turned into one massive megapolis, an entire land the size of a small town surrounding the Basilica was walled off. The hallowed seat of the Church became a small nation unto its own within the largest city in the world. A fortress of Faith, they would call it, supported by its own army: the Cardinal Guards. Men of faith trained and entrusted with the protection of the holy city and the pope, all 10,000 strong. A Bastion of righteousness standing bulwark in the most corrupt city in the Empire. They say this defensive measure is necessary. In the filthy amoral pit that is Aprillus, the wall protects the last few decent soul in that continent.

But if you ask a Judge?

Well, they make their walls as high as they can to make it harder for people to see… that the so called Holy men inside is just as bad as the rest.

"I can't believe it." A large hunchbacked friar, face covered in bandages shrugged as he walked across the white pavement of the Holy City. "That Djinn really can do whatever I wish for."

"It will take some time before they notice your disappearance. Between that, and the five day travel time between Februarius and Aprillus. We have the advantage. But this advantage won't last." A crimson hooded priest replied. Then he noticed his young Acolyte was staring unblinking at the sight before him. "You okay, little brother?"

"Just… I've never seen anything like it." Just a while ago, the Acolyte always thought Februarius was the most fantastical island in the whole world. Oh, the naivety of a youth.

The Basilica. A mountain of a building made entirely out of pure white alabaster stones. Hundreds of statues of saints and holy men decorated every inch of the wall. Carved in the segments inbetween its ornate pillars, relief depicting notable scenes from the bible, historical events, or mythical stories. The colored windows depicted the image of Angels. More angelic statues, each as big as a house stood sentinel in various landmarks of the city. At the center of this magnificent complex, was the edifice that is the centerpiece. A giant basilica at the center, encircled by five equally massive towers in a pentagram formation, each with hue that corresponds to the five elements: red for fire, blue for water, green for wood, yellow for earth, and grey for steel. Each structure is breathtaking in its splendor.

It is… the most magnificent structure the Acolyte had ever seen his whole life.

"Enjoy the awe, but try not to let it overwhelm you." The Friar tapped the Acolyte's shoulder. "Remember, we're here for a mission. That being said… I know how you feel."

The Acolyte looked at Friar, even through the bandages, he can see his eyes.

"…when I first came to Aprillus, I too was… quickly awed by the splendor. The Magnificence. But trust me: you see what's behind all this glamour… the awe won't last."

The Friar's voice was heavy with grief. He looked at the Acolyte's bright expression with such… sorrowful eyes. As if he saw in the child's own innocent brightness something he lost long ago.

"Come on. Let's get this over with. As we planned."

The odd trio joined the flock of other men of the cloth and was quick to disappear into the crowd. "So… run that by me again. Where do you need to go, Friar?"

"The Basilica is composed of 6 major segments. The central building, that is the Basilica Prima. It's the main office of the Holy See as well as the main Church. Long story short, the Pope lived there, as is the entire administration. It is encircled by five towers, each corresponds to an element, each served a purpose, designed so that this Fortress of Faith can be self sufficient within these walls. The Tower of Water is the medical center and apothecary. Tower of Wood is the farm, granary, and the kitchen. Tower of Earth is the seminary… as in the training facility and lodging for priests and clergymen. But it extended deeper downward into the underground. The Necropolis is there. Tower of Fire is armory, the forge, and the barracks. For the Cardinal Guards. Nuff said. We steer clear from this one. The one I need to go, is the Tower of Steel: the Treasury."

"Then, this is where we part ways. Good luck to us both, Friar."

"You too, Priest. And you acolyte."

The priest and acolyte part way and left the friar. "Come on." They headed towards opposite directions.

Tower of Earth…

As soon as the Red Priest and the Acolyte entered there, many Priests and Acolytes part ways, none dare to make eye contact, particularly towards the Red Priest.

"I get the feeling my disguise draw quite a bit of attention…" Not to mention his conical head garb covered his face completely, adding to the ominous atmosphere.

"You're wearing the garb of Red. You're a High Priest. Yes, they'll pay attention to you at first… but only to make sure they don't get in your way."

A whisper in the Priest' ears explained. And true enough, once everyone noticed he was heading towards the Necropolis, everyone turned the other way. The entrance is an express elevator… but… it's heavily guarded. As expected. "Alright. I see 4 armed guards."

"Readying distraction."

Somewhere in the massive pantry of the Tower of Wood…

The baker had just finished kneading the dough and put it in the storage to allow to it rest. When he closed the storage door, out of the shadow a black cloaked figure popped out and poured something into the dough.

Minutes later…

The alarm bell sounded when a gargantuan dough, as in… big enough to collapse that entire section of the Tower of Wood erupted and threaten to overwhelm the entire area, sending its occupants running. Armed guards were called off to control the situation. And seeing the dough is already big enough to collapsed a section of Basilica Prima itself, and still it kept getting bigger, they need a lot of guards. All available Cardinal Guards were immediately summoned to contain this… anomaly.

"I just poured my whole supply of Super Yeast on a month's worth of bread dough. That should cause more than enough panic. But in case it isn't…"

At first, a gigantic dough surging across the courtyard was enough to cause a good portion of the Guards to be drawn to the spectacle. 2 out of 4 guards left their post… The Cardinal Guards attempt to contain the situation, using flaming halberds to harry the out of control dough. But then, one of them poked the dough and…

YHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! SUVENNYYAHAHHAHHA WAGAGAINGAA AUTSDGCFUYDFVLIEUYGIUOJGHBSOI1110101011-error-11-2389u3049rufhoiudejbUBHSOGBUOGS

Is that a sound? A scream? A yell? A cry!? It was ungodly, undecipherable, untypable chaos of a voice… roaring loudly out of the poked hole, causing a mental image of a hundred nuclear bombs going off all at once. Everyone who heard it instantly covered their ears, some, even the stoic Cardinal Guards, ran in opposite direction, imagining blood pouring out their offended ears. "WHAT IS THAT!?" "THE WORLD IS ENDING!" "THE SKY IS FALLING!" "GOD HELP US!" "LORD HAVE MERCY!" "THE DEVIL IS SCREAMING!" "SATAN HATH COMETH!"

At that point, the crisis level shot through the roof, and everyone was called to contain the situation. "That worked like a charm, but… what is that noise?"

"A little something I took from Lacus before we parted. It's an Echo Seed."

"I know what that is." Fayt groaned as he tried to allay this horrifying discomfort. "She can record a sound, put it in a container and release it when necessary. But what in God's name did she recorded!?"

"…"

Flashback, back in the forest… before Helena joined…

"Just curious, Noir, you're an incredible polymath: you can cook, you can teach math and science, you can hunt down criminals… but…" Lacus smiled innocently. "Is there anything you can't do?"

"…Just one." Noir easily answered. "I can't… for the life of me… sing."

Lacus twitched. "…seriously? You sang London bridge is falling down!"

"Horribly! You heard how broken my voice was? I was tone deaf. Plus… Now that I got my pipes back, believe me, it'll be exponentially worse. Lord Yuki tried to teach me, but… as far as instruments go, I'm just average… and when it comes to singing, we stopped on minute one. Then he concluded that singing is the one thing I can never do even if my life depends on it."

"That's horrible!" Lacus puffed her cheek. Then she made a ball out of fluffy matter. "Noir-kyun! Try sing!"

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"No! I'm serious! And I'm curious!" Lacus pouted. "I am Lacus from the House of Clyne! We are Logia of Sound and Music! I wrote my first Symphony Orchestra using animal sound when I was 5! If I can teach a Parrot how to sing God Save the Emperor, surely I can teach you a thing or two! Who knows? What would you do if you do find yourself in a situation where your life really depends on it?"

"Good point, but… don't say I didn't warn you!"

"Just sing. I'm gonna record this for posterity so that I can study it later." Lacus opened the ball with a huff.

Noir sighed, took a deep breath… and sing.

Lacus would found out later that Noir misquote. Ray Yuki didn't say he can never sing. The Knightmaster actually said: he must neversing. EVER. Normal people with normal hearing like Ray Yuki would only groan in discomfort. And even HE can't stand to hear Noir's singing for a minute. But a Clyne? With their super sensitive ears that can even hear a single leaf fall in the middle of a forest? What came out of Noir's lips, she testified, was a sound so horrifyingly fatal, so inimical to sanity and an antithesis to all things that is good and decent in this sane world of music and sound. Within the first lethal micro-decibel of the first devastating syllable, her instinct of self preservation shot up way past the zenith, overwhelming her pacifistic sensibility and even her fondness of the masked man who let loose such a nightmare inducing and soul shattering voice. All that was left… was the overriding imperative of self preservation at all cost, in both physical and mental sense. And that means stopping the source of the life threatening danger by any means necessary, including bashing his head with a baseball bat out of hammer space when barely a syllable just came out.

WHACK!

"Eh? …Noir kyun? NOIR-KYUN!? Why is your head bleeding? Why am I holding a baseball bat… KYAAA! W… WHAT HAVE I DONE?" She only came to her senses after the deed.

Noir's singing voice had been classified as Class-S contraband item. And the fallout of this innocent incident proved that. No animals dared to come close to their shack for a week, and the Forest threatened to kick them both out if that God forsaken voice ever so much as to whistle again within their borders. They're only convinced once Noir took an Oath in Deep Magic.

For reasons beyond her comprehension though, she later asked to be chained to her seat so that she can record the full song later in an extra thick Echo Seed, and Noir asked for a copy – also out of genuine curiosity. She'll wonder for the rest of her life why she even bothered.

Flashback ended.

"Sorry. It's classified." Noir replied as he dug himself a hole of shame. Once unleashed from its container, it will continue to play until it ran its course. The S-Class contraband song will end in 5 terribly long minutes, the panic will linger much longer, to say nothing of the long term mental and physical damage to sanity and eardrums, and of course… the permanent psychological trauma. Let's not forget about that.

LALAKJSGIUYHGWAKJHL ALAAAAAAYAYAYHAY YAAAAAAJHGBYHGUYIJA AAALLL AALLLAAAA AAAAAA AAAAAA AAAA AAA!)!)!)!()!1010 10-!

"I could've sworn that sounded like someone's singing…" What's more, Fayt felt the voice sound strangely familiar…

"Well, at least it's working…" Aching eardrum notwithstanding, now they have free reign of the entrance. But…

"What… is this?"

"What?"

The cage door to the elevator was locked in a thick padlock. And instead of a keyhole, there's a dial. But… "This… this combination lock… I didn't recall they install something like this in my time!" There's no number in it. Instead, it's filled with some kind of Hieroglyphic… "I've never seen anything like it." Then the whispers came again.

"Let me see… hm… I see… They're using the ancient Templar Cipher."

"Ancient Templar Cipher?"

"You know the cross symbol of the ancient Templar Knights? You take that cross symbol, split it into 26 separate shapes, each correlate to one letter of the Alphabet, and you get the Templar Cipher. It's the same Cipher they used to make note of their banking accounts. We need to figure out the password to get in."

"Okay… I can pretty much translate this now… but what could the password be?"

"Give me a sec." The Whisper ceased and then… "I'm going to mention a few words, try it."

"On it!"

Eden, Michael, Seraphim, Throne, Samael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Azrael, Shemyaza?

"…No dice?"

"…Nephilim?"

Click.

"That worked!"

The cage bars slide open and now the elevator is ready for use. "What's a Nephilim?"

"An old biblical legend. They say when the First Angels fell from the Heavens, they took human brides and sired the half human half Angel hybrid: The Nephilim. And they say they were super human because of the Angel blood. And this is a super soldier program made by the Church? A bit on the nose, I say."

When they entered the lift, again more problem. "Oh my word… they have so many levels!" the Acolyte gaped. "Which level?"

"I'm not sure… but I know for a fact that lv. 16 is Necropolis. But the facility is hidden much deeper than that…"

"How many floors are on those buttons?"

"From 1 to 16!" The Acolyte found it incredulous. "This place really is big!"

"…calm down… remember, we're hunting a rogue faction of the Church. They're parasite of the main organization, but they are of the same source, same principles." And then silence for a good long while. The Priest and Acolyte waited patiently as they pretend to guard the entrance. Once again, the Whispers imparted more of his wisdom. "Try press… third, eighth, and fifteenth floor, in that order."

They did as they're told and the High priest start pressing the buttons as instructed. "Why am I pressing it in this order?"

"…in the time before the Templar, the High Priest entered the original temple of Solomon, the First Temple created for the worship of the Old One, by stopping and praying on the Third, Eighth, and Fifteenth steps of the temple main stairway into the main entrance. They adapted that, I imagine."

True enough, once the Priest punched in those floors, a loud a series of mechanism clicked and slide, and the elevator now descended, albeit slowly, to an underground floor far deeper than even the Necropolis. It'll take them a while. The place is deep, and the elevator is slow. But this is just fine for the Priest and the Acolyte. Now they have time to chat. "Detailed layout of the Basilica, Ancient Templar Cipher, the old entrance ritual for the Original temple… how did you know all this?"

"Operation Whiteout taught us much."

That again. Fayt had been hearing that a lot lately. The adults. When they talk about the church and the Judges, they all say Operation Whiteout, but only the name and no more… And they all had a grimace on their faces, especially Rowena Ravenclaw. "…hey, Noir… what's Operation Whiteout?"

"…"

For a bit, the Judge didn't answer. But then they heard a sigh.

"Operation Whiteout is… a large scale undercover operation that began 12 years ago and ended just recently. As the time stamp might tip you off, it started long before I joined. Some long forgotten Judge suspected that the Church had been engaging in some unsavory behaviors. At first we thought it was a case of fund embezzlement done by a small number of corrupt priests. But there had been victims. A lot of victims. And… we didn't found out about this until much later. Because, even when we try to question the victims, the general consensus being they prefer to stay quiet. There was a lot of pressure… from the church, even from their friends and neighbors. And so began the long investigation, and the circle sent in undercover agents to infiltrate several communities. But then… as the details poured in, we began to realize it was more than just a few bad apples. It goes all the way up to the very top of Holy See."

"Seriously?"

"At first, we thought it was just about them trying to hide the fact that the inviolable church had more than just a few bad apples. But then, the pressure began to mount on us too. Some of the Circle's undercover agents were discovered, their family compromised, and they were ostracized. Rather than being discouraged, the Circle began to realize this extreme reaction meant they were trying to hide something even worse. So we doubled down, the whole Circle in every continent focused on this operation. And that was just the least of the setbacks. The worst of it… was when Lord Ray Yuki, the one who spearheaded the whole operation, had to depart to Junius, and returned half the man he was. The investigation virtually grounded to a halt… and then there were… other 'disturbances'… unique circumstances that made the Church unassailable. At least for the moment."

Fayt would learn later that these disturbances were the case of the New Tenryuubito, the case that gave birth to Noir.

"But with new challenges, came new blood. Those who were eager to continue where their predecessors had left off. And they did just that. Sleepless nights in the library, research after research, breaking codes, ancient traditions… the Church is a very ritualistic institution, and they used that to hide a lot of dirt. And… that was the payload of all payload of dirt. I'm talking… countless numbers of false accusations of heresy to kill and rob people blind, child abduction, corruption, assassinations, defamation, selling public assets, bribes, drugs, prostitution. They're basically a massive organized crime syndicate which used church as cover. Every evil known to men, you name it, they did it. Just one problem… we couldn't prove any of it. They were too good to leave behind evidences, too powerful even for us to pierce."

"And then one day, roughly one and a half year ago, improper as it may… we had a miracle. One informant from the inside promised to give us all the proof we need. He claimed, using his inside knowledge, that he had assembled a folder, a Ledger. One that can bring down the whole institution. All he asked in return, was protection. We knew we had to take the risk and we don't have long. The Church had eyes and ears everywhere. It took us a full year to prepare for his relocation. When the time comes however… someone leaked the plan, and the people we assigned to protect him was compromised. But we decided to take the risk and continue anyway. We assigned a newly inducted and thus little known Judge trainee for escort. He had one job: Secure and escort this Priest and the Ledger he claimed he possesses, at all cost, to the exclusion of everything else. Just one problem… he's… was… a Church kid."

"It was his first field mission. He was naïve then. So very naïve… he didn't have any idea just how… corrupt the church could be. And the Priest was understandably paranoid. Like, very. He trusts no one. That Priest… was the priest assigned to the one and only church ever built in Februarius. Remember? Rowena said his daughter used to like to go there, didn't she?"

"It was that church…"

"…you were told that the Church was destroyed in a fire. Well… it was fire… but not an accident. They sent assassins – arsonist to be exact, to kill the Priest. And get this… they blew up the church… while it was fully loaded with people while the priest was serving right in the middle of a mass. The young field Judge managed to get the Priest out but… Well…" Noir sighed. "You've read the bloody obituaries. Count how many men, woman and children burned to death. And in case you're wondering… they're using the same concoction they've been using to terror bomb Februarius."

"That's how you knew it was the Church…"

"In any rate… they've failed. The Priest survived albeit crippled, the ledger was damaged… but that is enough. We have all the proof we need. And because of this latest misdeed, one of their most faithful defender was torn down… and reborn as one of the worst enemies the Church will ever have. Even better, the tragedy united the entire Circle, old and new. And we came down upon them with a vengeance. The final phase of Operation Whiteout was a purge. Using the Ledger we acquired from the priest, we identified the crucial cogs and brains of the organization. And after that, collaborating with various branches of Zaft military, we launched simultaneous surgical strikes all across the 10 continents. At least 896 corrupt men of cloth were arrested for various crimes, a full quarter of those were killed – executed in gallows or killed in action when resisting arrest, especially here in Aprillus."

"…damn. And to think, I used to want to know what's in the church." Fayt groaned. "…more amazing still… how is it that the Church is still around after an incident that big?"

"The Church is a VERY huge organization. Those 800 plus may seem like a lot, but they were still just a small percentage of the entire structure. Also, it only happens in the most remote borders of the Empire. The Basilica itself remains untouched, although we suspect it was because they're so damn good at tying up their loose ends. Fact is some few genuinely honest souls in the institution did rose up and performed their own purging. The Ledgers were opened for public, inquisitorial investigations were upheld by third parties. The clean up afterward was quite an ordeal."

"And… why didn't such an event cause an even bigger uproar? I mean… the mob outside didn't seem all to aware?"

"Well… several reasons. Chief among them is because the Church is a VERY old, very powerful institution. Took out a chunk of it, and there's still enough support that it won't go down in a day, even with an accident that big. Also… we prefer to not cause riot in the streets, so the Judges had to grudgingly took active steps to mitigate the damage, with only certain people in certain circles, like Balthazar and Godric, would knew the full extent of the crisis. It does however… send a shock throughout the system. A lot of factions that had been hidden in bureaucracy was exposed, a lot of corruptions were flushed out. This… illegal Project… is one of them."

"So… from your perspective, this is actually a mop up of Whiteout."

"Precisely. Although… I had to admit, this really is one big mess that slipped through our nets."

Allelujah groaned. "We're almost here, Ju… I mean, Friar."

"Right. From this point on, we're both on our own. Break silence only when you have recovered the asset. Good luck. Friar out."

The elevator finally stopped, and the door opened. The High Priest and the Acolyte held their breath…

0000000

"And there they go."

"Yeah."

"Will they be alright, master?"

"As long as they stick with the plan. And as long we didn't lax managing things on our end."

"Once the wish has been granted, my magic are quite infallible, master!"

"Sorry, I say we, when I'm talking about me. After all, it's my wish."

"Ahaha… Master, you're so negative! Your wish was the most complex and detailed, but that's because you took into account of every possibility. You're far cry different than any other master I've ever had who never think things through."

"What about your last one… Ashem?"

The Djinn opened his mouth… and paused. He finally swept his hair and revealed his face… the same face a certain human have. "How did you know?"

Noir chuckled. "I didn't. But before I went to your restaurant, I was quite sure that lamp was empty. I opened it, so I know. And after your restaurant, there's you. When I did my research regarding the Reingraze case, I found out that up until 2 years ago, Ashem Kaddam didn't exist. The Kaddams have no children, they were barren. But my best guess was adopted illegal alien, not a Djinn."

Ashem laughed. "My 'Parents' that you saw were my previous master. They found my lamp, quite by accident. The elderly couple was servants of Lady Catherine by then. And truth be known, they're quite content. They have no wants, even though I said I can give them their youths back or even heal their sterility… but all they ask of me… was that I accompany them as their son until the end of their days. And so… I become… what you see me as." The Djinn assumed the appearance of the tanned but blonde manservant that Noir knew before.

"…and Catherine? Did she know?"

"Of course she did. Our feelings were genuine, I know at least that much. The Kaddams, realizing the truth of it, used their second wish to transfer my third and last wish to lady Catherine… so that she can use it to… turn me into human and thus set me free, if she so wished. Of course, she was still working on Reingraze faults at that time, so she had no time for romance. But… once she was finished… or so she promised…"

"…instead she used it to…" So… Ashem really did kill Catherine.

"Yes. She knew I'll never be able to do it willingly." Ashem smiled sorrowfully. "Djinns CAN kill. That's the truth of it. But… humans can do that on their own just fine, so we encouraged them not to waste their wish on such a thing."

"Yeah. But Lady Catherine's death saved a lot of life. We made sure of that."

"Of which I will always be grateful, to you, Master Noir." Ashem smiled. "If it weren't for you picking up that case on my behalf, my beloved would've died in vain."

"But now… you're shackled to another master… me. You've left your prison and now you put yourself in jail again!"

"The Kaddams' first wish is still in effect. I will become their son for as long as either of them lived. But I'm a Djinn, I will live forever. When they eventually passed away, I'll just go back into that prison again. Now with this… I know I can give these wishes to someone who deserved it."

"…not like this." Noir growled. He took his lamp and start rubbing it.

"What are you doing!?"

"Djinn… this is my second wish: I wish you to… have the right to choose to be free whenever you wish as soon as you've fulfilled my third wish."

And just like that, Ashem was left completely jawdropped with his freedom was more than secured as soon as that wish came out of his master's mouth. "You do realize you just… threw away your second wish!?"

"Did I? That doesn't sound like it to me. Now I really can't go back on my words, like so many that may have promised you the same before and failed to deliver… for whatever reasons."

Ashem was left completely aghast. What's more, this is no ordinary wish for freedom his master just gave him. Not only he made it bound to the completion of his third wish, he also made it so that he, the Djinn, had the right to choose to be free whenever he wishes to be free. This is true freedom. And to think he thought of giving this man a great gift to repay his kindness… instead, he gave him an even better one! "Why?"

"Have you ever heard of Diderot's Cloak?"

"Umm…"

"Diderot was a humble man who had no wants in his life. One day he was given a wonderful expensive cloak, but he didn't have any expensive clothing that matched it. So he bought some. But then his expensive clothing didn't match his house and his furniture, so he bought them all as well. He ended penniless and in debt. The more you have… the more you want. You've heard of it before?"

"We Djinns knew that better than anyone, trust me. But there are always exceptions. And you, master, you just proven yourself to be one those very rare exceptions."

"…I've seen too many people… who have everything… and they still want more. I've seen how they ended up. I don't think I want to be that kind of people."

"But… don't you ever want something? Something more for yourself?"

"I used to have nothing. Absolutely… nothing." Noir shrugged. "Then one day… suddenly I have this. This… job, this… family. Any other person would be long dead by now. So… you see… I already have more than I deserve."

"…" Ashem suddenly understood something. Whoever the Judge was before he dons this mask, he was in such a poor state of powerlessness… and through miraculous circumstances, here he stand: A man of such stature and power, his mere words commanded the respect of lords and the ears of Queens and Kings. An almost unbelievable change of fortune, a reversal so drastic, even the Judge in question is still in half denial. And because of that, or perhaps the other way around, the Judge never lost sight of who he was: one of the weak and powerless. And thus the sinister Reaper Judge, whose cruelty and malice was feared by the rich and the corrupt, is also the one with the most compassion for the weak and helpless.

Diderot lost his humility because of an expensive cloak… and this Judge… did he fear he will lose his compassion if he had too much fortune? Ashem smiled. "This will seem strange, coming from a Djinn… but… I think that way thinking… that overly selfless mentality of yours is a bit… wrong?"

"…huh? Look who's talking!"

"Yes, master, look at me indeed. I've granted more wishes than I care to count for thousands of years. In every occasion, more times than not, they invariably do more harm than good. Most often to the one who wished it! I had this guy one time he asked: I want to be buried in unimaginable wealth! Right here! Right now! And he was crushed to death by an invisible mountain of money I had to conjure right on the spot. Another guy wished for: Unlimited Power at my fingertips! After just about a quadrillion megavolt of power, only his finger tips remained."

"Moral of the story, your power is dangerously literal and I had to be careful with what I wish for?"

Ashem laughed. "Na~ah. You of all people don't need that advice. But I did try to understand that. The science of the wishes gone wrong. Why do they always backfire so spectacularly? Is it bad for people to actually get what they want, or is it simply they don't know what they want? And then I understand: A Djinn's power to grant wishes is a trap in itself. We gave them what they want in an instant, without effort. And those who earned power this way will have no respect for it." Ashem smiled kindly. "Master, I don't know what hellish life you once had, before you became a Judge. All the hardship you've endured, what pain you suffered… and suddenly, you wield all this power that your office grant you, the privilege of your wisdom and intelligence. We both know, you've more than earned it, you deserve it… and yet you seem to always feel… a deep sense of guilt that prevent you to even enjoy them, knowing there are so many more out there who is less fortunate than you. And that's why you never dared to wish more for yourself. Somehow… deep inside your heart… you felt you haven't earned this. Master… please forgive my insolence for saying so, but… don't you think that's a bit unfair?"

"Huh?"

"It was the random vicissitudes of fate that allowed you, of all people, to gain my lamp, while I was absent in it. The Kaddams' first wish allowed me some leeway, and more importantly, it gave me a choice. I can choose to stay out of that prison, keep working with the Kaddams until they passed away, by then I'll return to my lamp, wait for a couple more hundred years, and perhaps someone else had already gotten hand to it, and we're back to your regularly scheduled show of people got screwed by getting exactly what they wished for. Or… I can at last, for the first time in perhaps the history of all Djinns… give power to someone who truly deserve it." Ashem smiled. "You are the Master I chose. I put my faith in you. Like so many others who followed you this far: the children of the Orphanage, the Gryffindors, the Hufflepuffs, the Ravenclaws, that Paladin, the Dwarves, the Treants, even Unicorn and Bicorn, House Elves, and the Elves themselves… and of course… Lady Lacus… they all believed in you. They all put their faith in you! Would you not be doing them all a grave injustice… if you put so little faith in yourself?"

Noir felt like his jaw hung in speechlessness. It was one those rare times in his life when he's confronted by a question he may never have the answer for. Like a child who had just been scolded and now realized that he had done something wrong. "…Sorry."

Ashem smiled. "Just know, that we all here, and we want to help you. In fact, Master, if I may be so bold… Don't you think you need one person to be on standby in THIS location?"

"…as a matter of fact, indeed we do."

"I'll do it. And this doesn't count on the wishes. I'll do it, because I want to help."

Noir nodded. "…okay. Thank you."

0000000

"…faith, huh?" He whispered…

The Friar shrugged apologetically… and with none the wiser, picked up a book and start reading.

0000000

Allelujah may have said he didn't remember much of what happened in his early childhood… but he remembered the day he entered this place just fine. Before he was the successful test-type Allelujah, he was E-0057. What his name was before they gave him that dispassionate codename, he no longer remembers. But he was one of a great number of children brought to this Hell hole in chains.

And that was the start of their days in Hell. Torture after torture that ran its course from sun up to sun down. Physical and mental abuse that pushed them way past human decency. Sleepless nights felt with screams and howls and cries, children crying for help to soulless people who turned a deaf ear to their woes. Not a day goes by where his body was not wrecked with horrible pain which will only get worse by the next day.

"Who says you can't come home…" Allelujah swallowed a gulp as he walked towards the still familiar pure white hallway. It was a disguise of course. A pure white lie to cover the horror within. The Guards, a white hooded man noticed their coming and nodded in acknowledgement before they opened the door for the High Priest and his Acolyte to enter.

The door was shut as soon as they passed through it, and the two walked into an array of hallways. Dirty, unkempt, broken… and smeared with a lot of dried up bloodstain. "…"

"Okay… Where to?"

"…this place… changed a bit…"

"When was the last time you were here?"

"I can't remember."

"How can you not remember, you said this is where you come from!?"

"It's not the kind of memory you would want in your head for long." Allelujah sighed. "…let's just walk. It'll come back to me."

And they walk. In a sense, that day Fayt would got a tour of what men, at the zenith of insanity and lunacy of every denomination, can do to their fellow men all in the name of… progress.

The place consists of plenty of separate cubicles and cages. Many of them were now empty but every opening is enclosed behind iron bars, to prevent everything within from getting out.

"It used to be a lot more crowded back in my day…" Then again, in his day, when these cages were filled with screaming children, Allelujah did remember that every passing day, their number was greatly reduced. They brought in scores of new children every now and then, God knows how or from where, but they die faster than their number adds up.

Still… they noticed some of these cages are still occupied…

"What the hell are they doing to them?"

A sickly child was strapped to the table, flocked by a group of hooded men in white cloaks. Ignoring the child's obvious distress, they injected some kind of liquid deep into his thin arm… then he start screaming, so much so it hurts just looking at him. And yet, the heartless bastards around him pay no heed, instead they kept taking notes of the child's woes.

"…we have to save him-"

"No." Allelujah held Fayt back.

The screams went on and on for a while… until it was stopped short when the child suddenly exploded into a mass of chaotic bones and gore.

"HO-"

Allelujah clasped his hand around Fayt's mouth before he screamed out loud. Thankfully no one heard him.

"Another failure. Alas. God did not choose this one." "A pity." "Let us pray, may Angels took this one to the sight of the Almighty." "His sacrifice will ensure our success."

"What. The. Hell?" Fayt whispered every word.

"…they injected the solution into his bone marrow. Forcing them to grow exponentially. If the body can't take it… that happened… but if he can…"

"WE HAD ONE!" A cheer exploded on another cage. Everyone's attention turned to the commotion.

In another cage, a child that has been given the same ministration did not explode into a bony mess… instead, his body grew significantly taller… but… he is but a child… and so they were left with this… horrid thing with the face of a child but a body… almost as tall as a teenager.

"The first process is always bone reinforcements. After that, they move on to muscular enhancement. After that, they had us eat. Not as fun as you think: we have to eat grotesque amount of high carb food to supply nutrients to fuel our unnatural muscle growth. After that, eye surgery, improving our eyesight, and then finally, spine and nerve enhancement, to quicken our reflexes. All this was done when you're still a child. Because adult's body cannot tolerate these extreme changes. Children, on the other hand, they still grow, and thus far more susceptible to change. Each and every one comes with permanent and damaging side effects that makes you unable to function properly in human society… each and every one had an increasingly larger chance to kill you rather than make you superhuman."

"Dear God… and they're doing this to children…" Did these demons really have done this? In the name of God or whatshit!?

"Come on. We're here to stop this." Allelujah tucked the shaken Fayt away from this horrid sight.

"How?"

"There are two things we must do. First, we rescue their test subjects. The children they kidnapped. Second, we have to destroy the laboratory: the production facility for the potions they're using to perform their enhancements."

"Which one should we do first?"

"…the kids. Let's start with them."

"Point the way."

"O High Priest!"

The two stopped when they realized that call is addressed them. The High Priest slowly turned to the caller. It was one of the Scientist standing near the successful test subject.

"Yes?"

"High Priest! What a fortunate occasion this is. We have another child, blessed by the Almighty to join his ranks!"

"So I see."

"Will you… grace us with your benediction, your grace? Surely this God touched child deserves the blessing from the High Priest in this joyous occasion?"

"…indeed." Exchanging looks with his Acolyte to stay calm, the two slowly approached the operation table. Allelujah looked at the poor boy strapped to his table… it reminded him when he was in that same position, long ago. Well… luckily he remembered the horseshit that came out of the High Priest that presided over HIS benediction. "In nomine Impera, Et Fili, Et Ignis Sancti… (In the name of the Emperor, the Son, and the Holy Fire)…"

Then he babbled in a Latin churchy sermon for a good while, as the other so called pious scientists prayed with him. And finally, "Amen."

"Amen." They all chorused. And the scientist starts moving the successful test subject.

"You're going to put him back to his cell now? To rest for a day before his muscular enhancements?"

"What? Oh no, your grace. Yes, we'll let him rest for a bit… an hour or two… then we'll move straight to phase three."

"Oh? That seems much… faster than the last report I read."

"Indeed. Surely tis' a blessing from on high that our work here had seen so many significant breakthrough! We've made great progress in the speed of our production rate, God be praised."

'…progress? Production rate?' "How many have you made?"

"Oh? Did you not receive the report, your grace?"

"I came here for an inspection, my child… now I realize it is right that I do so, for this inspection was based on what I now realize to be an outdated report. The Author clearly had been lagging behind. God forgive whoever wrote it."

"You are merciful indeed, your grace."

"And I would be honored… if you would give me a direct update."

"The honor is mine, your grace. Please, follow me."

"…how far along is the development? How many exactly have you made?"

"Quite a few. As you well know, based on the study of the first Twelve, we've made various improvements on the subsequent batches. Some may complain about mobilization, but recently we let loose the most promising Test Type of the first Twelve for a field mission just a few days ago. The result was quite promising."

"The First twelve." Allelujah nodded. The Scientist unknowingly was talking about him, one of the first 12 Paladins in question. "Okay. Now… tell me about those subsequent batches? How far along have you gotten?"

"At least a hundred have completed up to the muscle enhancements, and another, as you have just witnessed, are already on the way. For the moment, the first batch is undergoing the third regiment… And speak of the Devil…" the Scientist directed them to what looked like a mess hall. Rows of table with taller than normal children seated on it, and they're… being strapped to the chair with chains. A long tube was strapped to their mouth from above, and something was being pumped straight down their mouth.

At this, Alleujah frowned. The Third Regiment, in his memory, was eating. The would be Paladins who had their bones and muscle growth enhanced will underwent a forced feeding regiment, where they were given grotesque amount of food to fuel the massive changes to their body. But in his time… even though it was unpleasant, they at least gave him a knife and a fork to eat with human decency. But… this? They're force feeding them like poultry!? "…what did you fed them?"

"Some high nutritional sludge. Can you believe we used to give them knife and fork? But then, some of the children had the tendency… to refuse God's grace."

"Refuse how?"

"Why, children, your grace. At first, it was mild: they hide it in their mouth, vomit it later, even food fights… oh, that one was messy. And then it gets worse, every week or so, an orderly or two get stabbed with a knife or fork. So, now, we've decided that using this method is more efficient."

"I can't imagine the children being comfortable about this?"

"Does it matter?"

Allelujah managed to discreetly stop Fayt just before he lunged in fury. "What I meant was… what's to stop them from tearing themselves free once this unpleasant process is complete?"

"Oh! Not to worry, your grace. We mixed some mild sedative into the food. It makes them compliant. Which is of course important, because after this feeding time, we need to have them rigorously exercise all these calories as to develop their muscles."

"Hm. I see." He glanced to Fayt to calm down. Now is not the time. "If I recall, the previous process took quite a while. A full year just to complete Stage two. Another two years to complete stage three. Now you're saying you can do it faster. What changed?"

"Quite a bit. Efficiency, improved enhancement process… but perhaps the biggest, most significant changes are marked improvements of the formula itself. Ever since we moved our lab off site, we've been getting better, more stable potions."

"Off site?" Allelujah could not help himself.

"Yes. We no longer made them here. The Lab had been turned into armory now. But, for some reason, ever since the chemical Lab was moved to a different location, the formula is getting more stable."

"Interesting. When was this change of location made?"

"Do you not know, your grace?"

"Excuse me, this is my inspection. My question. What do you know?"

"I don't know, your grace. I did ask, but they told me I don't need to know."

"Mm. Good answer. Remember, we each have our part to play in His grand design. Blessed is the ignorant mind too small for doubt."

"Amen, your grace."

"Amen." Allelujah inwardly sighed in relief as he managed to recover with some sermon. The shock when he discovered the all important lab had been moved off site broke his cover just a bit. Well… at least for now… he only needs to concentrate on one priority target: the kids. "Now, let's continue the tour, shall we?"

He'll leave locating the relocated Lab to the other guy.

0000000

"…" The friar kept reading book after book in silence. By now, the rampaging dough outside should've stopped growing, the horrid vice stopped singing, but no one had returned yet. Before he knew it, suddenly, he found himself… no longer alone.

"Pardon me?" The Friar looked down, there's a priest down there. "Can I help you?" he asked. The Friar didn't answer. "Do forgive me, I was just making my rounds." The Priest greeted, and the Friar returned it, again in silence.

The Priest tilted his head at the Friar's constant silence. The Friar's face and his visible one arm were heavily bandaged. "May I know who you are, brother?"

The Friar made multiple gestures with his one hand. And the Priest' eyes widened in realization. "Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa! I see you have taken an oath of Silent Penitence. Mea Culpa, I did not know." He bowed his head deeply in apology. "It's just… there's a giant dough that was trying to smother the Basilica Prima, and then that Satan's Scream from Hell erupted… We sounded the evacuation a while ago, and I'm just checking? Why do you not leave, Father?"

The Friar made a few more firm hand signals. And he showcased his… 'deformity' for good measure, namely the fact he only had one arm left. He's telling the Priest he didn't have long to live, and little left to lose. Die now, die later, they all go to the same place eventually.

"…truly. We are all bound to His house eventually." The Priest humbly bowed. "And you already lost your arm to the ravages of your past sin. Forgive this young fool's misunderstanding to a penitent soul's resolve, Father."

The silent Friar nodded and then he went back to reading. But then he noticed… he earned the priest undivided attention. He tilted his head. He asked if he needed something else?

"If I may be so insolent, Father… I would like to accompany you."

The Friar merely shrugged and gave his silent consent with a nod.

0000000

"Tell me again, brother. You said you have improved the formula. How did it affect the survival rate of the test subjects?"

"I'd say… immensely. Compared to our previous test, even ones that managed to create the First Twelve, the successful rate had been improved… to about 30%."

"…that's all?" Make no mistake, 30% is massive improvements… considering the previous odd range well below 1%. That still means 7 out of 10 kids died.

"I'm afraid so, Father. However, recently we've acquired some interesting new formula from the lab. They say it's yet a vastly improved formula. And we have to admit, it really is."

"How improved are we talking about here?"

"Originally, we need separate potions for separate organs. Now we only need one potion for everything. It's very radical… it's… it's lightyears ahead of anything we've ever made."

"I'd like to see it."

"This way, your grace."

The Scientist led to an isolated wing of the facility. The Mixing Chamber. It's awfully cold in this section. In one special cubicle, there stood a glass case with a syringe hanged within. Inside the syringe is this translucent blue liquid. Shining. Brimming with power.

"They sent only one?"

"Actually, they've sent a total of seven vials." The Scientist replied. "We tested the first one… it was so incredibly strong. It… blew up an entire wing."

"…what?"

"It's… the new serum is extremely powerful. We realized immediately we can't test it on raw test subjects… un-augmented children… So we tried on five of the existing First Twelve, slowly… dosage by dosage… Four of them didn't make it."

Allelujah stopped. "You've… lost… four of the First Twelve?"

"Yes. Their sacrifice will be remembered."

This time, Fayt quickly noticed it was Allelujah who is on the verge of exploding. Those First Twelve weren't just any test subject; they were his brothers in arms.

"You speak of five test subjects. Four died, where's the fifth?"

"Ah, her!" The Scientist giddily replied. "She's our most promising prospect yet. No rejection, the serum bonded with her augmented physics like a glove!"

"She?" For the first time, Allelujah's voice breaks. "Where is she?"

"Right now, she's in a special isolated chamber, right over there." The Scientist pointed towards this one cubicle. Completely isolated and chained. The window and doors were welded shut. But there is one thing that really drew Allelujah's attention, namely, the constant light glowing from within, flickering ceaselessly across the seams of the isolated cubicle. "She's been getting the full dosage… we almost thought she won't make it… but…"

"…how long has she been in there?"

"We injected her final dose this morning. She's been at it for a week."

"…" Allelujah frowned. "I imagine the rest of the Twelve are… where they've always been? In the Cryo chambers?"

"But of course. Do you wish to go there next, your-"

"No. Let them sleep for now. Let me inspect the remaining test subjects."

"At once!"

As they made their way towards the cells, Fayt quietly whispered to Allelujah: "Don't you want to free them? They're your friends too right?"

"Problem is… I'm not sure if they're in the right state of mind. We rescue the kids first. Then we'll think of how to deal with my Paladin brethrens afterwards."

"Okay."

0000000

The Friar gave a few hand signals that says:

What the fuck man?

Well, that's what anyone would say when they found themselves being arrested by a pair of mean looking cardinal guards.

"I know every friar in this Basilica. I'm good like that. And I've never, ever seen you." So the Priest said as he smirked smugly. "Take him. I imagine he can somehow explain that dough and that howl."

The Cardinal Guards dragged the intruder away from the library.

Before long, they throw the friar into the cell, and there he will languish until they brought the Inquisition in. Then they'll see if he can still keep his whole oath of silence bravado.

0000000

Fayt frowned as he saw all these children crawling in cages. Hundreds of them still look normal, thank God… but on the other cages… the damage has been done. Some were deformed, mutated when they couldn't take the changes forcibly inflicted upon them. Worse for them, they survived the change, and now was left with a body deformed, they barely classify as human children. The Scientists bragged he can get them from everywhere. Pluck them off the streets, grab them from their families… Fayt couldn't care less anymore, and neither did Allelujah. Their patience are finally spent.

"Is this all of them?" He asked.

"Yes. Including the newest batch."

"Good." He gave Fayt the briefest of glances, and Allelujah pulled out his spear.

Before the Scientist even understand what's what, he was already swatted off the ground until he struck the prison bars head first, shocking its occupants. The Wardens in charge immediately reacted, but they just can't react fast enough to stop the Paladin in disguise slammed the first warden's head through the wall and kicked the other until he struck the ceiling and cracked his skull. The last Warden realized he stood no chance and start running to sound the alarm. He didn't get far when the Paladin hurled his spear and nailed him to the floor through his mouth.

Far from being terrified, the children within the cages actually cheered. That speaks volumes to the character of these wardens. They would've continued to cheer but then, their would-be liberators placed a finger over their lips, and the noise died down immediately.

"Alright. Let's do this." Fayt infused his sword with his destruction and made a short work of the cell door locks. One by one, the cages were opened, and they all poured out. Allelujah instructed some of the biggest of children to help the mutated ones, particularly those who were so deformed they couldn't move on their own.

Once all the children are freed, they all looked in wonder at their rescuer. How will they get out of here?

"Alright. One second." Allelujah whispered. "Friar? Do you read? Asset secured. Do you read…? Friar?"

0000000

If the Friar heard, he did not answer. Suddenly, his prison cell opened up, and an Inquisitor came. Without another word spoken, he merely declared. "Take him to my chambers."

The Cardinal Guards and the Inquisitor brought the convict to a small room. The Friar was roughly pushed inside. And then, the Inquisitor ordered the Guards: "Leave us. I need solitude."

The Guards obeyed, they left the Inqusitor alone with his suspect, and then shut the door. They can hear he locked the door from the inside.

And within that soundproof torture chamber…

"I'd say that worked beautifully… master." So says Ashem in his Inquisitor disguise.

The friar strangely still replied with hand signals. Allelujah had contacted him. Asset secured. Let's move on to the next phase of the plan.

"But of course."

0000000

Allelujah was immediately contacted by Ashem. "Master Allelujah, we are ready. Please begin."

Allelujah took off his disguise and spread out the red cloth on the wall… the insides of the red garment shimmered strangely. "Alright… Fayt, show them."

Fayt demonstrate this by walking towards the draped cloth… and then he walked INTO the cloth and vanished. The children gasped in shock at first, but then Fayt pop his head back out and grinned. "Come on!"

Allelujah encouraged them with a look, and the first child timidly dragged himself towards the strangely shimmering fabrics and after closing his eye for some additional courage, jumped into it.

The next thing he knew, he popped out in the Interrogation chamber where Fayt stood next to a kind faced Inquisitor welcomed him. "Welcome."

He looked back and noticed he just popped out of this… this strange thing that was dressed as a Friar… an empty suit of armor?

"Now, before you leave, I need you to dress for the occasion." The child at first wrinkled in distrust when the Inquisitor pointed at the open maw of an iron maiden. But Fayt gave him an encouragement and the kind inquisitor took his hand and led him into the frightening device. His hand barely touched the spike, it vanished, the same way Fayt had vanished. The next thing they knew, they popped out at a wardrobe in the Tower of Earth's changing room. In there, they can get enough clothing for all the escapees, dress them up as Acolytes and hide themselves by mingling amongst the similarly dressed crowd.

Fayt directed the children one by one through the portals. Ashem directed them to the changing room in the Earth Tower and help them change into their acolyte disguises while assembling them all in that one location before they move on to the final phase later. Just as planned. Once enough children are dressed, some helped in the evacuation process.

Before long, almost half of the children had been evacuated out the prison in this manner, with none the wiser.

Allelujah watched the evacuation went on without a hitch, but his mind is decidedly elsewhere. Fayt popped back in from the portal to check the situation on this end. There's still quite a few left.

"…Fayt?"

"Yeah?"

"Watch over on this end. There's something I need to do. I won't be long."

"Okay… but hurry up, okay? I'm a bit concerned that I haven't seen Noir for a while now…"

0000000

The library is now completely deserted…

Safe one panicking soul…

This soul is ransacking the library, checking book after book, frantically searching for a specific title and haphazardly threw away any book that does not match what he's looking for without a hint of respect…

"Looking for this?"

The Priest gasped when he saw this dark cloaked figure looming several levels overhead. But more shocking still… is what he held in his hand.

A book. THE book.

"You…! Wh…?"

"I've already found the book I'm looking for within the first five minutes. But I decided to stick around, rattling the cages… because I knew the real culprit would get nervous… and they would try to hide something from me. I'm the bait… and you just bite it hook, line, and sinker." Noir eyes shined coldly beneath the crevice of his cracked mask.

The Priest gawked for a bit before reasserting himself. In fact, in no time flat, his panicked expression immediately switched to genuine relief.

"I made all the fuss about how this being church work… but… the way you killed that High Priest… that's a Magic Curse. Also, the Paladin Project requires all manner of magic potions, so whoever did this, even though they do this under the banner of the Church… must be remarkably skilled in the magical arts. Besides… only Wizards would bother reading THIS book."

The Priest, even though he had been caught red handed, still deigned to smirk. "That doesn't mean anything. For all we know, you could've just brought your own copy into this sacred library-"

"Then you don't mind if I just burn this thing? Just so you know, I'm quite certain this might just be the last copy in existence." Noir immediately brought the book perilously close to a burning brazier, and the response was immediate.

"STOP!"

"Aha…" Noir smirked sadistically behind his mask. "So… you're a wizard… and more than that you know what's really in this book. Quite a feat."

"…sigh… why am I not surprised that you knew?"

"Time. Give me an hour, I'm good. Give me a day, I'm great. But I've had weeks. I'm unstoppable. And I've had plenty of help. The kind of help that is well outside your ability."

The Mage-Priest twitched at the blatant condescension. "…so… you, a muggle, understand its secrets? Even if you knew, you could never put it to good use!"

"Good use… like… using it to create Super Soldiers? Or… better yet… turning yourself into one?"

The Priest's eyes widened even further. A Judge's deductive ability is as frightening as ever.

"Did you forget? Before you guys went rogue, Paladin Project is still state secret. And there's no secret that can be kept from us. But even before you broke off the band, the reports stated that the augmentation process is notoriously unstable with very low survival rate. The mixture of various magical potions inside one body creates an explosive magical chain reaction you've never been able to control. And then one day… you found this…" Noir showed the book in his hand. "This was it, wasn't it? This was the key you needed to stabilize the process. Hidden within the pages of this book. You broke the code, but only a bit of it. Perhaps… you once had a copy, but it was incomplete. But that was enough to get you going. You thought you're missing something so you've been looking for other copies. This book I'm holding had a lot of missing pages, even some of its letters faded. That's what the bombings about. The children were just bonus. You were looking for a complete copy."

"Well… well… Judge Noir… as frightening as the legend says." The Priest grinned. "What? You're not the only one who loved doing research." The accused took a more relaxed state. "Of course there wasn't much to go around. Whoever being tasked to sweep up your tracks done a really good job at it… or you're just that good. But after I learned what happened with Ganterhall, I'm starting to understand why it was so hard to discover anything about you."

"Anyone with half a brain would figure that out sooner or later."

"Ah… and we both know that there's just too many people out there who never even used what little brain they have, right?" The Mage Priest smirked sinisterly. "…pedigree… bloodline… that's all they bleat about. That's all everyone cares about. Every day I looked at all those airheads… their minds… so vacant, barely used. Why can't they just… think for one second. Like… like the fact you somehow managed to get your hands on a Djinn to construct a network of portals to infiltrate the Holy City."

Noir perked in seeming interest. Did the Priest just…

0000000 Let's Rewind back a bit…

"Djinn… I wish… for you to create a network of interconnected Portals in various locations in a place which I will now describe to you." Noir reiterated his extremely detailed request. "One portal will be here in this sealed off room. This portal will connect to another portal you will erect in the Tower of Earth's changing room. Right here. That way we can get our disguises. The next portal you will erect inside this Titanbane armor, this portal will directly connect to… another portal which you will create on… whatever garment Allelujah will wear later. The next portal will be in the Kitchen in the Tower of Wood, the Interrogation Room in the Tower of Fire, the Library in the Tower of Steel, and the Tower of Water's apothecary, and some others. Here are their exact locations."

This is, as Ashem had expected, is the most detailed request he had ever gotten from any master. It's not whimsical or vague, it's tactical. The placements of these portals are strategic, surgical, and its purposes are very well thought out. He gets the idea, he said, from a certain sickly little girl who can go anywhere with her portals.

And the amazing thing is: This is just one wish. The very definition of wishing exactly what he needed when he needed it: a way to move from point A to B, C, D, and so forth in a blink of an eye.

0000000

Noir had used these portals to access some chemicals in the Tower of Water's Apothecary, with which he then created his Super Yeast, which he then used, via the portal in the Tower of Wood Kitchen, specifically the granary, to be poured into the Church's supply of dough, causing the monster dough incident.

"Aha… hit the mark didn't I? I was born in Februarius, I was raised with all kinds of far-fetched fairy tales that is the day to day reality of that continent. Deducing how you managed to do all this is hardly a difficult leapt: amazing as you are, you're clearly not a wizard. To create something this complex, you will need a phenomenal cosmic power no human or elf had access to. And there's your luck, and knack, of earning favor from powerful beings. So let me give a word to the wise. Djinn's magics are all powerful, but they are also all kinds of noisy. He can make anything you wish come true, but… the more complicated the wishes, the grander the magic, the more conspicuous it becomes. The minute you make your wish, the magic he expended can be felt all over the continent by those who know where to look."

Noir lowered his hand. With just that statement, suddenly he realized he's not facing an average idiot. "Interesting."

The Priest smiled in triumph. An acknowledgement from the greatest of all Judges is a victory all by itself. The Priest sighed. "Let's talk shall we? I've always wanted to talk with you, face to face. We have time. The idiots out there still haven't figured out anything. I doubt they will."

"…you're a Februarian… yet… how did you end up a Priest?"

"Come on. Don't bore me, Judge. Asking question you know the answer to. Once you're off Februarius, anyone can buy whatever truth they like!"

"Truly. Let me rephrase that question. Not how… Why?"

"And why not?" The Priest chuckled as he began to climb the stairs calmly. "Church is just like any other institution. It doesn't really matter. As tediously bureaucratic and hypocritical as the rest. I could've brought my skills to anyone. But for the moment, the Church is the only one who continues this work, and with enough finance to fund it. Its organization is massive enough that leeching even a fraction off the top still provides me with the resources I need."

"To do what, exactly? The Church and the Empire had given up on the Super Soldier project." Noir turned an eye at the Priest. "…and you don't strike me… as someone who gives a shit about this nation."

"What makes you say that?"

"The bill." Noir groaned. "The First Twelve sink enough credit to keep a continent fed for a year. And then at some point which I assume is when you came along, the cost increases sevenfold, and you wondered why the Nobles pulled back their funding."

"…and yet they did invest in the first place." The Priest laughed as he climbed closer and closer to Noir's location. "The greedy fools who had everything: money, power, status… and then what is the next step? They want to be Gods."

"And now who's being boring? Aprillus is my playground, don't bother me with things I already know and answer the damn question. What the fuck do you want from all this?"

"Right. Mea Culpa." A conversation between two intellectuals of equal caliber should not be marred with nonsense. "Alright. Alright, let us speak plainly." The Priest is just one floor below Noir now. "In Februarius, they called you, muggle. It means, non magical people… and I further deduce… you obviously have no magical ancestry. The Mages consider themselves their own species: magic or no magic. As far as being snobs, you'll be surprised to find there isn't much difference. Some are quite obsessed in maintaining blood purity, enough that they would shamelessly inbred themselves."

"Yaa~awn."

"Now… let's see if you've heard this one: Squib." The Priest nodded when Noir's eyes sparked in interest. "Squib, is a muggle born from a wizard family. They have magical ancestry… but they didn't inherit even a single drop of magical talent. Squib is an embarrassment to any magical family, even normal ones. Imagine if one came from a renowned bloodline. Who cares if the Squib is a once in a century genius? You get disavowed, all records of your existence wiped."

"If you're a Squib, then how did you… oh… of course. You've applied some of the results of the Paladin project unto yourself."

"Unstable, inefficient, and a far cry from the real thing." The Priest unfurled his glove, revealing an intricate runic circle tattooed on his palm. Then he showed a fireball dancing in the palm of his hand. "Like a lesser light of a moth to the full sun. But for the moment, it serves my purposes."

"Is that what this is all about? Family Grudge?"

"Please. I know you understand it as well as I do. I care little of who I was. My family? Idiots every single one of them. It was a mystery how I can even be remotely related to those plebs and their pure blood mania. I have no magical talents, so what? Just look at what my genius can do: I turned a squib into a magic user that can blew people apart from miles away! I had something better! However… we lived… in a narrow minded society who valued such petty things. And I'm never one to give up."

"…is using children as guinea pigs your idea of never giving up?"

"You're missing the point. I thought you of all people would understand."

"That again. What do you mean by that?"

"What exactly is your bloodline limit?"

"…that's classified."

"Classified… or… could it be that you never have it in the first place?" Noir didn't say anything, but the Priest knew he was right. "I was only tracking your exploits in Aprillus. That was all I could trace of you. You were never directly involved, you simply provide Intel and insight. To the Knightmaster, to the other apparatus of the law that cared to listen, then to your hound, Rosso. That was brilliant. No one can get to you, because you were never there. Elegant! But… it also began to make me wonder: is it by choice or by necessity? I had my suspicion. Then I observe you for bit in Februarius, then I was sure. You're an Advanced through and through, but… you don't have any bloodline limit. Virtually a death sentence in our society, no matter how huge your IQ is. But did you just give up to your fate, or did you use your other god given gift to carve yourself an existence?"

"I had help." Noir replied. "I had lots of help. Without them, even with all my wits, I might have died in a gutter a long time ago. At the very least, I didn't carve that existence by bombing cities to kidnap children for guinea pigs."

"Are you sure? I've studied your exploits very thoroughly. I know your methods. You side with the Angels but you're not one of them. And speaking of bombings, I count 20 bombings in Februarius. Which I find odd." The Priest grinned. "Because I'm quite sure I've only ordered 15 bombings."

"…"

"…you were so desperate to keep me away… those bombings… you found other copies of that same book… and you used your own bombings to destroy them. Very thorough. When you said that book in your hand is the last copy in existence, you mean it, and I sincerely believe you. That brutal efficiency, I must say, I'm impressed. And that never happened."

And now, the Priest and the Judge are on the same floor, facing each other on equal ground.

"So… here we are. Face to face." The Priest smiled. "Are you going to burn that book or are you just going to-"

Noir tossed the book straight into the brazier and it was instantly reduced to ashes. The Priests didn't even flinch and that speaks volumes to Noir. "…so… you've mastered it to such extent."

"Not really… because I've just realized… that you too… have a 'copy' of your own. A perfect one, at that."

Noir's eyes widened. His quick mind had already thought way ahead. And so is this… Priest.

"You know what I loved of all this? The constant intellectual treadmill we've been through. You; chasing my back, me; trying to outrun you. Now here we are, neck and neck… and the game is almost over. Fun as it was, you're now really are getting in my way."

"Thank you."

"Wasn't a compliment."

"It kinda is, coming from you."

"Well, I suppose it is." The Priest smirked. "Well… you've been landing me quite a few telling blows, I'll give you that. The Britannians, Februarius, Akhoni… now my book too… You've hurt me, and believe me, I'm bleeding. You pulled no punches against me… and I respect that. So… let me deliver some of my own." The Priest hold nothing back, everything he said was based on the understanding that his shadowy counterpart knew almost as much as him. "To stop me, we both know that there are two places you have to destroy. I'll just assume you already know where to find them. But I suspect you did get help. Allelujah was it? He was always the easy one to read." The Priest began to move forward step by step.

"How did you keep him on the leash?" Whether, or whether not he noticed it, Noir also began to close in.

"Hope. I shined a little hope in his eyes."

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Allelujah knew he shouldn't left Fayt alone when the operation was far from over, but there's actually someone else he needed to rescue. There's only one 'she' amongst the first dozen. The First Dozen may or may not mean anything to him, but he swore he would never leave her behind, no matter what.

Ever since that Scientist told him that she is undergoing that same Hell the second time, it took every ounce of Allelujah's self restraint to not break cover. But now that he has taken a good look at the situation, then the time for subtlety and subterfuge has passed.

"RAAAAHH!" Allelujah went on an all out rampage, swatting any hostile forces that stands in his way towards that one isolated chamber, destroying everything else in the process for good measure. Once the last of the guards were taken care of, Allelujah beheld the chamber. He caressed the sealed door gently. "Marie?" He's not sure if she can hear him, but… now that they are this close, suddenly, he just knew… there she is…

"Hold on. I'll get you out of here." He used his spear and stabbed the sealed door at its seams. It stabbed through, exposing a crack, and he immediately winched it open. The sealed door was snapped open, and for a moment, the burst of bright light from within blinded Allelujah. But then, as his eyes adjusted, he saw a familiar figure. A girl.

"…Marie!" Allelujah smiled.

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"…and we all know what hope can do." The Priest chuckled. "It will blind you to despair."

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Allelujah was sent flying across the hall, smashing through several pillars as he went before landing on an empty cage. He managed to reorient and landed on his two feet, but he was left thoroughly shocked. "Wh… Marie?" an imprint of a fist can be seen on his chest plate.

The naked white haired girl stepped out the once light filled chamber. Her eyes shined gold, her silver white hair flared with power.

Allleujah recognized that face… but what is this… chilling coldness from that expressionless face? "Marie? Marie, it's me! It's Allelujah! Don't you recognize me?"

"…" The girl looked at him… and her cold eyes didn't even move in recognition.

"SOMA!" One of the Fallen High priest choked. "Soma Peries! Allelujah Haptism has turned away from the Light! He's a traitor! Being him down!"

The Girl, Soma Peries' golden eyes shined with pure bloodlust, and in an instant, she turned into a blur and closed the distance between them. Allelujah blocked a crimson sword made of pure energy erupting from her bare hands that was aimed at his throat. "Marie!? What's wrong!? It's ME!" SLAM! Instead, Soma Peries punched him to the ground so hard, his head cratered the floor and shook the whole place in a small quake. "M… Marie…"

But no matter how loudly Allelujah called, the girl, Marie… Soma Peries showed not one jot of recognition or ounce of mercy. She looked down at him coldly and balled her fist, and an enormous amount of bright crimson and orange particles converged upon her being, and within moments, she was covered in an ornate full body knight armor colored entirely in crimson, her long silver hair extended down the crevice of the headpiece. Similar to Allleujah, it has angelic theme with various parts featuring angelic wings. But if Allelujah's was modeled after a ram, hers are modeled after a Dragon, with a single golden horn protruding out of her draconic forehead. Her rear cloak split into two and ended in ragged and torn down tips, vaguely resembling dragon wings.

"…M… Marie…"

She raised an open palm and more of the energy particles converged on top it, forming the shape of a weapon before solidifying. A lance with bladed edges, with a mysterious crimson feathers floating around it. She held the massive weapon with one hand in a reverse grip, with the intention to stab him through with it. "M… Ma…" Ignoring the plea, Soma mercilessly brought the lance down.

CRASH!

When the lance fell down, a small explosion erupted, showing just how much power she put into a simple stab aimed to kill.

"Fuck this…"

Soma perked when she heard that voice… from behind her. Without further ado, she swung her weapon horizontally and bisected… the after image of Allelujah in two.

"Get a grip, Allelujah, that bitch ain't Marie anymore!" She tilted to the side and beheld the orange Paladin, smugly standing on top of her outstretched lance, unharmed and defiantly holstering his spear on his shoulder… wait… is that really him? 'Allelujah' had switched the bang of his hair, and now it closed his left eye and revealed his right gold eye, also shining brightly, similar to hers. And what's with that… sadistic grin?

"You ain't gonna be able to do this. Leave it to me!" Hallelujah snarled. Even his way of talking changed!

With one last smirk, the Paladin turned into a blur of orange flash. The Crimson Paladin responded with a stab… but again, all she struck is an afterimage. But her eyes quickly traced the Speedster Paladin's movement to the left and her free left arm generated a set of smaller lances made of pure energy which she immediately launched as projectiles. The projectiles hit nothing but air, and the next thing she noticed, his spear was inches away from the slit towards her eye.

This time, it's Hallelujah's turn to strike an after image. What's more, this after image left behind presents in form of a multitude of crimson feathers… which quickly turned into an array of energy swords all hurled towards him at point blank. They landed on empty ground, as the target was no longer there. For the next few blurring seconds, no one can see anything. Both combatants moved so fast, leaving only blurry afterimages and flashes of red and orange, the sound of their weapons clashing echoed, the shockwaves caused by their glancing impacts shook the ground with every occurrence.

And then finally, everything in vicinity was blown away by the shockwave that erupted when Hallelujah's spear and Soma's lance collided head on against one another at full force. The underground facility, especially around the epicenter of the impact, cracked under the pressure. The cages around them were blown away by the shockwave at such lethal speed, the high priest from earlier were torn apart when these impromptu projectiles struck him.

Meanwhile, with both fighters were unable to dominate one another, the shockwave's feedback finally struck them full force, and both Paladins were thrown back at opposite directions. Hallelujah smashed through several empty cages, and Soma was cratered through a wall. They quickly get back up, showing no sign that either of them were fazed by their predicament.

"Well… well… as expected of the so called strongest of the Twelve, right Allelujah?"

"H… Hallelujah… stop this! T… That's Marie!"

"So what!? She's trying to kill us! If I left you be, you'll just gonna twiddle your thumbs and let her tear you apart!"

"No… No… please… let me talk to her…! Please…!"

Hallelujah spat to the cracked floor as he watched the soulless Soma Peries moved towards him with outstretched lance on one hand and an array of energy swords at her back, every step she take was filled to the brim with pure hostility. In fact, she outstretched her other arm and pulled out another Lance from thin air. "Forget it partner. Just look at her. Look at her eyes. She's not someone you save; she's someone you have to put down."

"No…"

Soma attacked first by launching her energy swords at Hallelujah, who blocked each and every one easily, but they were only a decoy. When Hallelujah swatted the last sword away, the silver haired Paladin brought forth her twin lance in a double pronged stab. Hallelujah blocked the attack but he was immediately thrown across the room for his effort. He barely landed when a barrage of energy swords rain down upon him. Hallelujah managed to avoid critical damage and settle for scratches and nicks, but Soma had already thrown one of her lances straight at him. He can't dodge the whirling projectile heading straight to his heart, so Hallelujah dropped his spear and caught the spear to stop it… only to find he barely can. Not only that it was thrown with a force equivalent to a cannonfire, the lance spins like a drill! Reacting quickly in the brief milliseconds he can afford, Hallelujah opted instead to redirect the lance away from his chest up to just above his shoulder. It 'only' scratched his cheek and eviscerated his shoulder armor, but when he let go the lance at the last moment, it still carry enough momentum to go on and pulverized an entire pillar behind him.

This hammered the fact quite clearly to Hallelujah. "She's much stronger than us. Faster too. And they also dialed her already abominable magical power to eleven. I don't know what the fuck they've done to her mind, but at this rate, she'll kill us both before you bring her back to her senses."

Allelujah didn't respond.

Before the Paladin can do anything else, already the enemy prepares to lunge in for attack…

…until a blue energy blast struck her and sent her flying another way.

"Huh?" Hallelujah looked at the source from that blast came from… and jaw dropped.

It was Fayt… brimming with his signature destructive blue energy allover his body…

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"Human emotion. My favorite weapon of choice."

"Good thing we Judges are taught how to control them then."

"And you do it well… or at least, well enough to not get in the way of your work. But… has anyone ever told you, you wear your emotions on your sleeves?"

"Only two or three times a week nowadays." Mostly by either an empathic two horned bicorn or an overly perceptive pink haired princess.

"…was it worth it?" The Priest asked… in a surprisingly warm and friendly manner. "Everything you've done? Everything you've sacrificed… did you think it was worth it? Keeping things as they are just so that people like the assholes working in the Necropolis Lab can better themselves, no matter the cost? I mean… help me here, why did you do this?"

"Considering everything… I sincerely doubt you'll understand."

"Try me?"

"No, don't get me wrong. I acknowledge you. We both stood on equal grounds but we're on the opposite ends of the board. And I didn't get you. What makes you think you'll get me? And let's be honest, I don't think either of us cares."

"True. But… it does feel lonely at the top. Don't you think?"

"Please tell me you're not gonna try to bribe me."

"The thought crossed my mind, but with it comes an epiphany. It just occurred to me right now what's missing." The Priest chuckled. "Whatever you think of my morality, believe me that when I'm tasked to something, I do everything I can to make it work. And right now, my work, is this Paladin project, and I do want to see it succeed, if nothing else, for my personal gratification. Every time I tried to make a super soldier, I can improve the body… but the mind… they just couldn't take it. It went berserk: the mental image of their own body could not cope with the drastic changes of their physical body. That's why no adult subjects had survived thus far. But when I tried to do with kids, it kinda worked, but it's chaotic. Their mind wasn't mature enough to understand the power they were granted with. I need… a child… with a mind vastly advanced beyond the limits of its frail physical body. An Adult in a child body. Someone… just like you."

Noir didn't say a word in reply, at first. But then: "…you ever… saw paintings in the museum?"

"Never give art much of a thought, why?"

"…I'm not much of a painter myself… but… I saw this painting once, ones made by an abstract artist, one for the historical record. One artwork struck me as interesting: they paint adults as people with adult faces and adult body… but they draw children with adult faces and children's body." Noir sighed. "When I asked… they told me… we lived in a society where children are expected to grow up quickly. A child's 'childhood' ended the moment they learn how to walk on two legs and when they've learned to understand conversations."

"Your point?"

"I'm not an anomaly. I'm a normalty who just happened to be slightly ahead of the curve."

"…and I thought pleas of self preservation are above you."

"You're missing the point." Noir shook his head. "From one scientific mind to another: Your conclusion is premature. There are many more people like me out there, which is my way of saying the variables of the new factor you just discovered is far bigger than you presume. If you think you can deal with the chaos resulted from that many variables just because you have what you think you have, think again. Because if I have learned anything… Chaos… it's not something you can be rid off. Predict it, try to quantify it, to control it, minimize it perhaps. But… Chaos is a constant certainty."

0000000

"In case you haven't noticed, you two are bringing the whole place down!" Fayt growled as he gestured at this crumbling facility. "I know that's the whole idea eventually, but the evacuation isn't finished yet!"

"Brat! Get the fuck away from here! She's out of your league!"

But alas, by then, Soma already glared towards a gulping Fayt with full animosity. She swung her lance, generating several feathers, which quickly transformed into 7 or so energy swords that bolted towards him. Fayt unleashed a wave of energy blades to meet the attack, but it only managed to disintegrate 4 of them, and the remaining three that struck him was more than enough to lacerate him and sent him flying until he smashed the wall head first.

Fayt whimpered just a bit to nurse his wounds and his bleeding temple before slumping down unconscious.

Soma may want to finish the job, but before she can lunge in, a roaring Hallelujah charged her down full force. Howling half mad, Hallelujah slashed and thrust at Soma wildly, cleaving parts of her armor. One stab even snapped the facemask off her helmet. But every time he tore a piece of her armor apart, they also quickly reformed themselves… except one: the part where Fayt had struck her, namely the side stomach. For some reason, that part did not regenerate, halted by residual blue flaming energy simmering around the damage. And that's where Hallelujah concentrated his attacks.

With this new vulnerability, Soma was briefly overwhelmed. When she tried to stop the attack on that open spot, Hallelujah struck her on other areas with his speed. Already Soma was smacked across the hallway in this manner. This is a high level, high speed combat, a single belated response will cost her life. And it was all she could do to parry his rapid attacks. Until…

Hallelujah brought down one last swing towards that open crevice and found his attack was halted. Soma caught the spear midswing and she won't let go, no matter how hard Hallelujah yanked. She glared at a shocked Hallelujah and roared. She lifted the Paladin by the spear and tossed him through a wall with such force, he smashed clean through said wall on impact.

Hallelujah smashed through the wall, struck a massive tube and he fell rolling onto a clean white floor amidst a cascade of rubbles. As he picked himself up, he looked at this floor… and he recognized this room.

Capsule I to XII. 5 of them now lay empty. One of them once belonged to him. 7 of them are still vacated by their respective occupants, frozen in time by chilly mist within that obscured their form to barely visible silhouettes.

This is where he was born. But his less than gentle entry had… cracked most of these capsules. The cold mist began to hiss out. Hallelujah used his spear as a support to get back up with his whole body hurting allover. "…this is… bad…" In so many ways…

A thud warned Hallelujah that Soma just jumped into the room. She had generated another massive lance in her hand. Her ravaged armor had also regenerated, except that exposed crevice on her side.

With trembling arms and deviant eyes, Hallelujah brandished what's left of his two pronged spear. Soma pointed her lance at his heart with full blown murderous intent.

Cra-

The two Paladins froze at that sound. They dreadfully turned towards the glass tubes…

Crack… CRACK!…

The occupants inside those tubes thawed very quickly now that the freezing mist that sealed them diminished. And seeing the vulnerability of their cages, they start punching their way out.

CRACK… CRAAASHH!

One after another, three glass tubes shattered and their occupants broke free. All three are naked… and all three are furious.

Hallelujah spit, but Allelujah recognized them all."Leonard, Hixar, Grave…"

A young boy with blonde hair, Leonard, shook his head while holding it, as if he was in immense pain. Hixar, a pale skinned teen with light blonde hair was hyperventilating, breathing in as much air as he can, as if he had not breathed properly for a long time. And lastly, Grave, a man with long black hair, he's the most stoic of the three but it was obvious he was in similar distress.

Allelujah couldn't blame them. The First Twelve had known only endless days of pain and suffering. Some were ravaged with a torturous agony they carry even into their icy slumber that corroded their sanity and their soul. Whenever they were thawed out, it was always for more testing after testing, experiment after experiment, madness followed with more madness. They grew increasingly psychotic with every time they were set free – even when that was done one at a time, their awakening were always accompanied by violent outburst, and casualties mounted. Their only value now was the fact they are the Project's most valuable guinea pigs. Ones that had survived everything the Scientists put in them, and they become stronger. Much, much stronger, far beyond mortal limits. But they've learned the lesson too late, they should've faked their sanity and compliance, like he did.

"My friends… I'm sorry…" Allelujah sobbed. "Can it, Allelujah. You didn't carve them open and turned them into freaks."

The three reawakened Paladins were lost and confused. They're not even sure if they're alive or not. All they feel at this moment… is pain. Ceaseless, endless pain on every inch of their being. And pain soon give way… to unbridled rage that knows neither rime nor reason. The three looked at the two with the psychotic bloodlust of rabid animals, with the power that defies reason flowing in their veins.

"Oh, fuck."

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!"

The three maddened Super Knights lunged at them with enough force, the mere shockwave of the collision shattered the entire section of the reinforced chamber as the other two knights on the receiving end were thrown through it. Soma and Hallelujah stabbed their weapons to the ground to stop their respective momentums.

Their maddened colleagues walked out of the rubble, ready to inflict their pain against the rest of the world. Hixar plucked an iron bar the length of a sword for his use. Leonard, the youngest and smallest, ripped out an entire column many times his size and use it as a massive bludgeoning staff like it was made of feathers. Grave gripped his head even tighter… and through means unknown levitated several pieces of the largest rubbles to the air. Point in fact, he himself is floating.

They are all like them. Super Soldiers. Holy Knights. Paladins. Enhanced through foul craft they all claimed to be holy powers to become something less than human. Hallelujah wouldn't want to face any one of them solo, and now all three of them are here. Hallelujah glanced briefly at Soma… and she swatted him aside with her lance for his trouble. In her eyes, these three new hostile targets are no different than the one she's been facing: enemies that must be eliminated.

And if that means she must now endure the concentrated wrath of all three insane super soldiers all by herself, then so be it!

Grave screeched, and the rubbles he lifted bolted towards Soma, who quickly shot some of them down with her own energy swords. One particularly huge rubble pushed past the rest, surviving Soma's barrage and headed straight towards her. Soma responded by throwing her Lance and destroyed the oversized projectile to rubble. But then, amidst all the falling rubble, one white figure moved through it, undisturbed by the chaos, and he purposefully stood right in the way of the incoming lance. In fact, all the rubble seems to avoid hitting him, even bending away from him at impossible angle. He raised his sword like a rapier before him. Some of the smallest pebbles swirled around the iron rod as more and more gathered around it. He pulled his rod, now a concentrated mass of whirling pebble. When Soma's energy lance is just a millisecond away from hitting him, Hixar thrust his rod at the incoming attack, shooting out a super condensed rock projectile that instantly eviscerated the Magic constructed energy lance.

Soma's eyes widened in surprise for the first time throughout the battle. The super dense projectile is heading straight towards her at speed far surpassing even her own. And at that size and mass, it won't end with just a missing limb or two, it'll pulverize her outright if she try to block it. She jumped to the side and missed the projectile by millimeters, but the gravity of the super dense projectile almost pulled her towards it, rendering her off balance. Before she can recover, she just noticed Leonardo is right behind her, and he swung his pillar straight at her face. She didn't have the chance to block much less dodge. The Crimson Paladin was hurled across the room until she struck the wall and violently tore through it.

When the Paladin rose up again, her helmet was all but destroyed. Maybe the damage was too severe, or because the girl herself is still holding on to her profusely bleeding head, the helmet did not regenerate. "Uhh… Urgh…" For the first time ever, the girl finally voiced some form of response. Her golden eyes began to lose its glow… "…what… is going on?" But then, the three hostile Paladins approached, their bloodlust barely died down. Seeing the hostility, the golden glow in Soma's eyes returned, and so is her emotionless silence. Her lance reappeared in her hand. And this time, considering the enemy, she instead generated a Kite shield. Leonard swung his pillar with all his might, but Soma easily blocked the heavy attack with one hand and parried it to the side. Hixar jumped in and launched a flurry of stabs, but Soma replied with her own flurry of stabs using the lance, blocking all attacks, even overwhelming Hixar back. Grave fired a series of pebbles like bullets, but this time, Soma creatively used her energy swords as mobile shields, blocking all the pebbles and subsequent attacks from Hixar, she jumped up and mercilessly kicked the boy down to the ground. When he landed Leonardo tried to attack her again with his pillar, but she blocked the attack easily and countered with a stab that pushed him back, and Hixar was already on her tail at eyeblinding speed only for Soma to shove a point blank magical blast right to his face.

A battle between two opposing Paladins were destructive enough, double the participant, amplified with insanity and unrestrained ruthlessness, and the resulting devastation is exponentially worse. Both physically… and magically. Ashem was the first to notice all this overpowered magic are being thrown around recklessly, it began to disturb the stability of the portals. Thankfully, by then the evacuation of the children, especially those with disabilities had already been completed, leaving the able bodied children. The Djinn in disguise decided to personally check the situation and when he arrived at the lab and witnessed the situation as such, he decided he must hasten it. "Kids! Let's speed it up! Come on!"

"The blue haired kid and Allelujah isn't back yet!"

"Dully noted. I'll look for them, now go!" So he said but… how exactly is he supposed to intervene in this? He didn't remember humans to be this destructive some few hundred years ago…

While Ashem is still figuring out what to do, he noticed a blue haired boy lying unconscious on the floor around the edge of the chaotic battle. "Fayt!" He helped him up, but the boy's injuries are severe. He'll need medical care. "Fayt! Fayt!" Ashem shook him several times, and the boy regained consciousness, but he's weak.

"Evacuation… the kids…?" He asked weakly.

"Almost finished. Waiting on you and… well…"

"No… we won't make it."

"Come on, don't give up now!"

"What I meant is… we have to somehow find a way to put down those psychos! Otherwise, they'll follow us to hell and back!"

"I can help you… but only if my master wished it so. That's the problem with being Djinns."

"…right…" Fayt sighed. Their situation is bleak enough as is, and with these injuries, he suddenly became a burden. Just as he began to regret his decision to jump in earlier, he remembered something he learned in the lab. "Ashem… take me to the mixing chamber."

In the brief trip it took for Ashem and Fayt to the said room, the latter already told the former what he learned and what he intend to do. And Ashem easily surmise that as: "Are you insane or stupid? Injecting yourself with that super soldier serum, even if they said they have perfected it, look at what it did to those other Paladins!"

"…look at what they did, and tell me you have any other idea to get out of this." Fayt pushed Ashem away and lumbered towards that last syringe. "If I don't make it out of this… tell Noir I'm sorry… and tell Sophie, I have no regrets."

"Oh, you stupid little boy…" But Ashem can do nothing and watched helplessly as Fayt shattered the case, plucked the syringe and injected it into his neck, pumping in every bit of it into his being.

The effect… was immediate. And so is the pain. Blue energy surged across his bulging veins, his eyes glowed eerily blue. He can feel energy burning all the way to his tiniest blood vessel, the insides of his bones is on fire, his muscles spasms, and he can hear his heartbeat beating hundreds of times per minute… Fayt screamed as pure power burst through every pore of his being. And Ashem can only watch all this in horror.

As this happened, in another pile of rubble, Hallelujah twitched awake, nursing a headache from hell. "Oww… that bitch…"

"Hallelujah…"

"Not now, Allelujah!"

"No. Listen. You're right. I wasn't thinking straight. And I'm not helping Marie this way."

"Allelujah? You're saying…"

"Let me help. Remember our original bloodline limit? Remember why they focused on enhancing our speed more than anything else?"

"Well… well… alright then." Hallelujah grinned. He rummaged his hair and then he had all the bangs swept back, revealing his heterochromatic silver and gold eyes. "Let's show them what true Super Soldiers is all about."

Meanwhile, the three on one brawl between Soma and the Paladins showed no sign of any quick ending. Soma trapped Hixar's thrust beneath her armpit, put it on an arm choke and disarmed him before throwing him at Leonard. The diminutive boy made a move of trying to swat the impromptu projectile… but he changed his mind at the last moment, dodged instead, and hurled his pillar at the Soma. She replied by throwing her own Lance at it and it easily carved right through it, missing Leonard by the inches. Before Soma can continue, a shadow looms from behind and when she turned, Grave had telekinetically dropped the entire ceiling on top of her. A cascade of rubble and concrete fell… followed by a down surge of skulls, skeletons, and half decomposed corpses. The secret Lab had been so torn down, the destruction finally reached the Necropolis atop it.

The unexpected extra of the collapsing ceiling shocked Soma, if only slightly. But it did trap her one leg beneath a pile of rubble. But before she can break free, Hixar is already in front of her, somehow, he had acquired a proper sword amidst all this mess. If he was but a normal knight, he would pose little threat to her, even with her trapped leg. But with his Paladin enhancements… He raised his sword, rubbles concentrated on it, forming a great sword, and he raised it over his head. Then he mercilessly brought it down with all the force of a falling mountain…

CLANG!

…which was stopped by an intruding two pronged spear… wielded by a hind legged creature, wearing the same armor a certain Paladin wear. His upper half is lean and muscular, and it was humanoid, but its leg is the hind leg of a goat, and covered in familiar dark green fur. The same fur grew heavily around the upper shoulder, neck, and the head of a humanoid goat like creature with a pair of spiraling horns extended out the sides of his crown. Even with additional beast like features, Hallelujah's face is still recognizable amidst all the beastly hair.

As a mythical class Zoan: Satyr, Allelujah/Hallelujah had no more need of strength enhancement, hence they focused on his speed.

Soma looked at the horrifying man beast… and yet… not for a moment she felt the need for hostility… not like before… Instead, a name shot up to her violence addled mind… "…Allelujah?"

The manbeast that is Allelujah shot her a look replete with warmth and joy. "…Marie…!"

Soma twitched again, and her eyes shined with bloodlust once more… She shoved his lance straight at that thing… the massive lance missed him by the inches and knocked back Hixar before his sword could skewer the back of a very distracted Allelujah.

Allelujah looked briefly at a struggling Hixar then back to the still murderous, but now very confused Soma. "Marie…"

"Oi! Allelujah!"

"I know." When Allelujah said I know… he was referring that he knew Leonard had just acquired a proper sledgehammer and swung it in a roundhouse arc straight to his head from his blind side, and the hammer is now inches away from his neck.

Response: tilt neck, drop down whole upper body by doing a perfect leg split. Let the Hammer pass by overhead and catch it at the maximum swing, and punch him in the crotch as he comes for effective neutralization.

Allelujah come up with that plan in less than 0.5 seconds.

Hallelujah put them into practice within 0.01 second after it was conceived.

CRUNCH!

"NORRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!" Leonard's eyes turned into a teacup and his mouth let loose a heart wrenching squeal. Super Soldier or not, insane or not, getting punched in that region hurts. Especially when the puncher is a Zoan.

As Leonard continued to squeal and roll away holding his crotch, Hixar and Grave attacked. Hixar came charging in with a flurry of thrusts at blinding speed and Grave telekinetically hurled a particularly large and sharp rubble, aimed at both him and Soma.

Response: kick Soma out of the way, so that she can destroy that rubble with her lance, then use the momentum from kicking Soma to spin jump forward in a drilling motion headfirst, use his swirling horns to parry Hixar's sword thrusts and close the distance between them, and then perform a midjump split kick, one aimed at Hixar's head, the other at Grave's stomach. And don't forget to apologize to Soma afterwards. And to Hixar. And Grave… come to think of it we owe apology to Leo-

By the time Allelujah contemplated that, Hixar had already been thrown across the room with an imprint of the goat hoof on his face and Grave is holding on to his stomach, vomiting. Hallelujah growled. "I'm not apologizing, you twats!"

Soma glared uneasily at the Zoan Paladin as she nursed her pained side stomach. She just destroyed the rubble Grave thrown at her, but… the way that Allelujah moved… What precision! What grace and skill!? Has he been holding back? She began to feel the anger of her injured pride…

Then Allelujah turned to her and flashed his warmest smile.

And suddenly, for some reason, all her anger evaporated. "…"

"Marie…" Allelujah took another step, and Soma pointed her lance… but she could not bring out that ruthless bloodlust from earlier. "Marie. That's your name. Marie Parfacy! Remember? I don't know what those bastards did to you, but you know me!"

Every time Allelujah called her by that name, Marie, Soma Periez kept losing her desire to fight. And now her head is beginning to ache again, and it has nothing to do with her head injury.

"…Marie…" Allelujah dared himself to get closer and closer… Soma even began to lower her lance…

BTOOOM!

Another explosion, the biggest one yet, tore through the wall right inbetween the two. From amidst the smoke and rubble… blue energy burst forth…

Fayt's eyes glowed brightly, his hair flared wildly, his whole body is enveloped with a much denser form of his signature blue energy… and it was significantly more destructive… Allelujah and Soma watched in horror as anything merely grazed by the flaring energy were disintegrated down to its atoms. And as he roared, the oblivion spreads in a surge across the already devastated room.

"Oh… Fayt… what have you done?"

0000000

"Chaos is a certainty… well… that is an interesting argument in itself."

"Yes. I suppose the time for talk is over."

"Neither of us is going to stop. It's not in our character." The Priest tilted his head. "Still… I do have a great respect for you and your skills. And in honor of that, I will offer you a boon. Stop chasing me, here and now, and I will let you free. Continue… and I will bring down destruction upon you and all you hold dear."

"Brother, if I had a nickel for every time I hear that same horseshit…"

"Yeah. It's worth a try." The Priest smirked. "But then again, this is you. And this is me. Neither of us… is in the business of delivering empty threats."

Noir's one visible eye narrowed in realization. "…what have you done?"

The Priest narrowed his eyes in similar fashion. "Before I'm a Priest, I'm also a biologist. And to understand how to improve human body, I learned all kinds of tricks from various branches of knowledge. One particular method caught my eye. Not for any particular reason, but because I've seen a real life example so close at hand."

Noir didn't say anything, but already his mind began to think.

"So many dangerous diseases and poison in this world. You never know when one is holding little Peppita or Roger, and a mysterious ailment ravages their bodies."

Try as he might, the murderous hatred Noir had been suppressing boiled in full froth in his one eye.

"Cheer up. I haven't been able to do anything to them. So far."

"That statement implied you had tried."

"So I did. But my target isn't them. It's the one who had been protecting them. Protecting you, as well."

And in that instant, Noir went from raging hatred… to outright murderous bloodlust. If he can kill this priest with a look, he will.

"She was the most fascinating test subject by far. Did you know she already had immunities to several hundred poison and diseases in her body? I've tried some of the milder and subtler ones, none take. Then I dared myself to try some of the more extreme ones, and she gobbled them up like fine wine. But… I wonder… how many poison she can ingest… how many diseases she can become immune to… before she become a disease herself?"

At this point, Noir refused to dignify that question with any response. He was already far too angry for that. And then… he swallowed it all. All the anger, all the murderous hate that clouded his sound judgment. Remember his training: Suppress your emotion. Don't let your heart control your mind. Find your center, and then focus.

Try as he might, Noir never felt so much hate and bloodlust for someone, even after he suppressed as much as he can, what's left still come out in one furious statement: "…I will kill you. Even if it kills me. Even if it takes a whole lifetime. Be sure of that. I will kill you."

"Now, now… if you're gonna go that far, then at least I should have had the same opportunity." The Priest suddenly generated a fireball and quickly launched it at Noir.

Noir pulled a certain book, opened a certain page, and put it before him as a shield against the incoming projectile.

The massive fireball was sucked into the pages of the book.

And suddenly, they can hear a distant explosion from somewhere outside.

The book summarily caught on fire and as Noir dropped it, it turned to ash before it even hit the floor.

"Interesting… you turned the book into a portal, I'm fairly curious to find out just how many portals you've asked the Djinn to make."

"This one's special. Made it just for you."

"Oh?"

"You're a Squib turned Mage, but you are also a priest. Surely you know Basilica Protocols. When a disaster occurred in the caliber of what transpired today, all Arch Cardinals must immediately convene in one location."

The Priest face turned ghastly pale, finally realizing what that explosion meant. "You're completely insane!"

"So says the guy who just BOMBED the Pope's Sleeping chamber."

"How exactly do you expect to get away with all this? You're gonna answer to your boss-"

"I don't. You do. What was it you said? Djinn's magics are all-powerful but they are also all kinds of noisy? Did you really think a place as 'sacred' and secure as the Basilica wouldn't have dedicated Magic Sensors? Of course they've noticed some large scale magic is happening, but they have no idea what kind of magic it is… or who did it… until now."

As if coinciding with Noir's statement, the Priest can already hear the sound of iron boots trampling the stairways. The Cardinal Guards.

"I don't know how many Cardinal Guards you have under your pocket. But I don't imagine most of them would react kindly to someone with a trace of magical energy in their veins. Especially, to one that matched the magic that just desecrated the private chambers of His Holiness."

The Priest shot Noir a very murderous smirk – a mixture of respect and hate. They are two intellectual warriors from the same weight division, of course their blows are going to hurt.

"Be seeing you…" Noir gave a light salute and shrunk into his cloak… before he vanished without a trace.

The Priest chuckled, despite his soon to be critical predicament. "I see… one portal here, one portal there… of course he'd have a Master Portal… a Nexus Portal inside his own cloak." The Cardinal Guards are getting nearer, he can almost see their pointy heads and their angry faces. There's no way he can stay in the Basilica anymore, and his Necropolis Lab has most likely been destroyed. Worse, the Judge just framed him for this chaotic mess he created. "Well played, Judge… Well played indeed." There's only one place left for him to go.

0000000

As the Priest had deduced, the portal inside Noir's cloak is the Master Portal. While the rest of the portals Ashem had made are paired, this is the one portal that would allow him free access to any portal he needs to go. And right now, he went to the portal that he knew is currently located in the secret lab. Namely, Allelujah's cloak. When he walked out of it, he was welcomed by a very horrified Ashem who clearly had no idea what to do with this situation.

A situation best described as:

An absolute chaos.

Allelujah… or at least, a half goat like creature with Allelujah's face is jumping around, carrying a white haired girl on his shoulder. That white haired girl is angrily beating him in protest of her treatment, although she also used a giant lance to block attacks coming their way from this child who are swinging a pillar ten times his size. Then there's this black haired man and the blond haired man harrying off attack from the centerpiece of this pandemonium.

"…what have they done to Fayt?"

Fayt roared as wave after wave of destruction continues to cascade from his entire being, bolts of energy blasting randomly to every direction, not recognizing friend or foe. Everyone in the room, bar the newcomers, had been jumping here and fro, trying their damndest to survive this now very hazardous battlezone.

"He did it to himself." Ashem explained. "They had one last dose of the so called Super Soldier serum… The situation was desperate, Hallelujah, or Allelujah… was on the verge of defeat, or so it seems… so young Fayt took it… and survived, physically, that is."

Noir frowned in thought as he rubbed his temple. When he said Chaos is a certainty, he certainly didn't expect this. "How goes the evacuation?"

"All the children are ready and waiting."

"Then go. I've used the Special Portal, the clock cannot be reset. Security will be paper thin, but that won't last."

"I understand. But what about them?" As Ashem remarked, Fayt swung his sword and unleashed a tirade of furious energy blades, tearing through the compound into further oblivion as the enraged Paladins retaliate with no small amount of devastation in exchange.

"There's only one place that can resolve this." Noir turned to Ashem. "Go. Make the arrangements."

"Yes, Master." Ashem nodded and rushed towards Allelujah's cloak. Once he popped out of Noir's Titanbane armor, he also pulled out Allelujah's red cloak with him. Then he watched as the Titanbane armor shrank and vanished into itself. Noir pulled it to him through his master portal, no doubt. Ashem offered his master a quick prayer for success, and then he turned to the Iron Maiden.

Once he walked through it, he arrived at the changing room, where all the children from the lab had changed to Acolyte disguises. They will easily mingle with the crowd in this place. "Alright. Time to go. Quick march now!"

As promised, the security was paper thin, although the situation is very chaotic. Forget the rampaging dough incident, a smoke is rising up from a hole in the Basilica Prima. From the way everyone is shouting, it seems some lunatic just blew up the Pope's private chambers! No one was hurt, thank the Emperor, but still… it's the freakin' Pope!

Well, this is Aprillus, bombings or attempted murder of important personage happened at least twice a year. Nevertheless, it gave Ashem, who lead a large group of young Acolytes, the perfect excuse for the guards, easily granting him permission to leave the grounds of the Holy City with his precious younglings.

"Where are we going?" Once they're a couple of blocks away from the Basilica gates, one of the children finally found the courage to ask.

"To the one place the people of the Church will never follow."

0000000

Now… what to do?

Noir asked himself as his Titanbane enveloped him. Allelujah is jumping around carrying that girl on his shoulder. The girl clearly protested her current circumstances but made no genuine effort to break free. In fact, she's helping him, however reluctantly, to parry attacks from the hammer swinging boy. In short: minimal concern.

The problem is Fayt. The Super Soldier serum boosted his destructive power far beyond what his sanity can handle. If the idea is to bring him to his senses, he'll need help. And that means…

Leonard ran out of patience and hurled his hammer at Allelujah, just as he landed. It's a direct hit…

…until Noir jumped in and caught the hammer with his one remaining hand. The ground beneath his feet cracked at the pressure and Noir grunted. He can actually felt that, even with his amplified strength.

"My lord Judge!" Allelujah gasped.

"Allelujah… you have a lot of explaining to do." Noir crushed the hammer in his hand. "But that's for later."

"I… I'm truly sorry!"

"I'm guessing, other than Fayt, these four other people, including the one on your shoulder, are all your fellow Paladins." Before Noir can finish, Leonard came charging as a swirling vortex of rocks. Noir calmly took aim… and punched the vortex right at the eye of the storm at full force, punching through the weak spot and hit Leonard squarely in the face.

The child Paladin was knocked unconscious just like that.

"That's one down. But we need more." Noir looked at Allelujah. "Put her down for cryin out loud. We need her help."

"Easy for you to say!" Hallelujah took over for the moment and roared rudely. "She's been trying to kill us for the last couple of minutes!"

Noir raised an eyebrow at this sudden change of personality, but he soon paid it no heed. He'd seen weirder. "Put. Her. down." His mood is foul enough as is, his words were laced with no small amount of murderous intent. Though it was not directed to anyone, it was thick enough that even Hallelujah dare not refuse.

Hallelujah had no choice but to finally let Soma down. To her credit, Soma didn't immediately jump in for the kill at the opportunity, but stand down to analyze the situation. Namely, how Noir, the guy who just put down a Paladin with one shot, is glaring at her with such dark intensity, she was forced not to make a move.

"You have a choice, Lady Paladin." Noir stated. "You can keep trying to kill us, and you will probably succeed… and I assure you, soon after, Fayt will disintegrate you before you can savor the victory. Or… you can help us, help your colleagues over there to deal with the larger threat at the moment. Once that threat is pacified, then, and only then, we can go back to killing each other. What say you!?"

"…" Soma didn't reply, but she took a glance at Allelujah, who immediately pleaded once again: "Marie… please… help us!"

Between that, and the Judge's dark murderous fury seeping from his one eye, Soma Periez made her choice.

With a battle cry, she brandished her lance and jumped towards the super charged Fayt. She also generated a shield to protect herself against Fayt's disintegration aura. Hixar and Grave took note that the Lady Paladin is on their side for once, and concentrated their effort at the blue haired boy.

Allelujah smiled in relief but then he turned to the Judge questioningly. "You… do have a plan to stop him… right?"

"We have some time to kill. We need to make Fayt expend his super boosted energy. And we have to survive the process for quite a while… so we need more."

"More?"

"How many Paladins have they made? Is this all of them?"

"There were 12 of us. 4 died. Subtract the ones already awake – myself included…" Allelujah didn't get to finish, the Judge had already rushed towards the Cryo Chamber. When he gave chase he can already hear the sound of glass breaking from within and knew what it meant.

By the time Allelujah arrived, he watched in horror as Noir is using a stone basin to shatter the last glass canister, and the naked figure within rapidly woke up to full consciousness, if only maddened by confusion and pain.

"What have you done!?"

"I've told you. We need more." Noir flatly stated as he dropped the now shattered object in his hands to join looked the other rubble around the room.

The last three Paladins are waking up, and just like the previous three, they too are in great agony, bewilderment, and rage. "And what makes you think these three will help us?"

"Baser instincts of self preservation will always home in to the biggest threat in vicinity." Noir promptly punched the entire wall down, revealing the sight of the roaring energized Fayt disintegrating everything in vicinity for the viewing pleasure of the last three Paladins.

As expected, like sharks who smelled blood on water, the fearful but feral Super Knights burst out towards the blue haired boy. One unleashed a wave of fire and ice all at once, another sent forth a shockwave of slicing energy, some grabbed objects and used them unerringly as projectiles … Fayt half sane response to this new threat is the same with everything else: destroy them all! Fayt swiped his arm, generating multiple spheres of unstable energy which promptly detonates, unleashing a shockwave that disintegrate all incoming attacks. The flaring energy around Fayt subside a bit, and Soma used that chance to hurl her lance at him. The Lance was corroded, but enough of it went through and scratched Fayt's shoulder. For the first time, the inviolable Destruction incarnate drew blood.

In that instant, every Paladin in the field, as if abiding to some form of unspoken agreement, simultaneously unleashed whatever enhancements they've been given and concentrated them all at that one target. At this point, insane as he was, even Fayt began to feel the threat. In his fury, he unleashed a massive all around burst of destruction, disintegrating all attacks coming at him. The Paladins also sensed the incoming danger and cleared the way, but Fayt slammed the ground, and the shockwave from the impact knocked them all to the air, rendering them helplessly trapped. And in that state, the Paladins watched in horror as Fayt suddenly burst out a pair of burning Angelic wings from his back, the petals spread from them summoned an array of energy spheres, all of them gathering power to dangerous levels. When he batted his wings forward, the spheres shot towards the Paladins in a salvo of destructive barrage. All were engulfed in an onslaught of explosions.

The Lab has been irreparably damaged by now. There's nothing left but ruin and carnage. The devastation had destroyed a critical number of pillars, what's left can no longer support the weight of the landmass above. The rumblings of the collapsing structure grew increasingly severe. Within minutes, this whole place will be buried under tons of dirt, leaving no trace whatsoever.

Yet Fayt paid no heed to any of this. Heaving and panting heavily, his eyes still shined brightly blue in uncontrollable power that is coursing through his veins, although it was so much less than when he began. "…haa… haa… haa…" In fact… the power seems to corrode him as much as it corrode his surroundings. It took everything he's got just to stay upright…

STOMP, STOMP…

His senses are in chaos… his head is spinning… his eyes blurry… his ears ringing… every inch of his skin stinging numb…

STOMP! STOMP!

But he did notice this incoming one armed Dark Knight running towards him with seemingly hostile intentions. His aggression flared, his disintegrating aura rose up to the fore once more… but…

The Dark Knight charged through it, even though his body began to flake away rapidly as their distance shrink… albeit not rapidly enough. He raised his fist, already on its way to oblivion, but still raring to punch. Fayt raised his own fist for the inevitable showdown.

When the two fists met, a small shockwave erupted, and the Knight's arm, already cracking and disintegrating, shattered upon impact…

But then, the Knight's chest suddenly erupted and split open, and a pale faced and black cloaked figure jumped towards him:

"FAYT! WAKE UP!"

And Noir's face mask slammed against Fayt's head in a loud gut wrenching impact.

Noir's already damaged mask cracked even further and blood spurted out of Fayt's forehead.

In that moment of lucid pain, sanity returned to Fayt's eyes at last. The first thing his sane mind can comprehend was the weight of Noir's body thrown with enough momentum to smash them both to the ground.

There he lay with an aching throb on his head, and his whole body felt like they're on fire… and his little big brother Noir, definitely worse for wear heaving and panting on his chest.

"F… Fayt… you… back to your senses yet…?"

"Noir… nii… YEEEEEEOUCHH!" Fayt screamed in pain. What the hell!? Forget his head, his whole body hurts! "W… What the hell have I been…"

"Good. If you had died, Lacus and Sophie will kill me." Noir deigned a small chuckle before he forced himself to get back up, followed slowly by Fayt.

Fayt grunted in seething pain, but now he's sane enough to saw all this destruction around him, all of them bear the residual blue energy, a signature of his handiwork. "I… did this?"

"The Leingods… if the legends were true, the Leingods were descended from a warrior bloodline that had been genetically altered by the Old Ones. That is to say, just like those Paladins, you too were a product of artificial enhancements, albeit performed by science far more refined and infinitely more advanced than any mortal contemporaries. That's the only possible explanation as to how you could've survived the serum in such a haphazardly reckless administration… to say nothing of your explosive rampage."

"Oh… little big brother… I'm so sorry!"

"I've heard enough apologies for one day! We need to get out of here, this place is going down! ALLELUJAH!" Noir's shout was replied by an explosion of dust and rock.

Allelujah, brutally bruised and battered, missing a horn but still maintaining his half Zoan form, pushed the rubble out of the way, revealing that he's holding Soma and the child Leonard in his arms, having shielded them from the worst of the damage. But they're both still unconscious.

"You good?"

"I'll manage!" He replied, panting as he did.

But then, the ruin and devastation around them began to rumble on different spots. One by one, the other Paladins rose up… everyone was worse for wear, everyone was severely injured… alas… everyone is still very much alive and half mad. To make matters worse, even Fayt can feel the roiling energy inside him began to nibble at his sanity again. One of his eyes is starting to glow violently. Unfortunately, their violent recovery also heralded the final phase of oblivion, the final pillars that held the crumbling lab together shattered one after another, the ceilings collapsed here and there.

"Time to go!"

"Go where? How!?"

0000000 Let's Rewind back a bit…

Around the time Ashem was about to finalize Noir's first wish, the Judge double checked the Portal Network one last time, including the Nexus Portal inside his Judge's Distortion Cloak. Layering the portal beneath the Distortion Spell of the cloak rendered this master portal virtually undetectable, something the Djinn praised as ingenious. But then, as the final checkup is near, Noir finally realized one other major problem.

"…hey, Djinn… this thing you're about to do… it'll be pretty large scale yeah?"

"Indeed."

"Which means… once you actually do this… to put it bluntly, people can see it from miles away, yeah?"

"Having second thoughts, master? It's not too late!"

"No. Personally, it doesn't matter if they can trace it, considering I also want the whole network to collapse as soon as the operation is over. I'm more concerned about our way out. The Network is one thing, but our exit portal must be untraceable."

Noir think carefully… long and hard… and then he snapped. "Djinn… can you connect this network… with another portal that already existed?"

"Which one?"

"The Februarius Embassy! I don't know how that place work, but there is some kind of teleportation in that place!"

The Djinn jolted in excitement. "That's right! There is a large scale teleportation circle around that building. I can override the connection from that place to your Nexus Portal easily enough! They won't be able to trace that one as soon as the network collapsed! Master, you're a genius!"

0000000

Of course, in the perfect scenario, Noir would've just teleported all the children and all parties to the operation straight to the Embassy using the Nexus Portal in his Distortion cloak. By simply linking the network to the teleportation portal of the Februarius Embassy, Ashem need not to expend another drop of his easily traceable mana, and the children would've been transported straight to the snowy plains of Februarius safely.

However… as is his style of hedging his bets, his Master, with commendable foresight, had predicted the scenario where that will not be possible. Hence, the specially crafted portal which caused the aforementioned incident with the Pope's sleeping chamber, which provided the perfect distraction, clearing the coast for them to take the long way round: they'll just have to walk all the way to the Februarius Embassy on foot.

Thankfully, an Inquisitor leading an army of young acolytes into an inconspicuous wooden shed is not at all weird.

Lord knows the people of Aprillus are used to far worse.

Ashem stopped briefly in front of the doors of the Embassy and sensed the magic in the air. Unlike Februarius, the Ether in Aprillus is significantly thinner, so he needs to put in the extra effort.

Muttering spells under his breath, he sensed the connection to the Nexus Portal had yet to be made. Around this time, Noir and the Paladins are still holding out against Fayt. He cannot tarry. These children must already be in Februarius by the time Master Noir made the connection!

"Let's go! Quickly now!" Ashem harried the children into the Embassy and closed the door. He clapped his hands, and once the door is reopened, the children scrambled out into the snowy plains of Februarius.

They were confused at first, but the sentiment quickly abated. They're free. Free from that hellish place, at last!

"YEAAAAAAAHH!" "WE'RE FRE~E!"

They all cheered and shouted, no longer caring who else might hear it. Ashem shared their joy, but the mission is not yet over. Not until everyone return home safely. "Master? Do you hear me?" He magically contacted his master through the Nexus Portal. "The Evacuation is a success! All asset secured in Februarius!"

Noir heard it and smiled, despite his grim mood. Half a victory is still a victory. "Alright. Connect the Nexus Portal with the Embassy! Prepare to collapse the Network as soon as we get through!"

"At once!"

Allelujah, carrying his luggage scampered to Noir's side as the lab went through its final phase of destruction. The Paladins, namely the remaining five, rose up to their feet, bloodlust still muddling their eyes.

"Go. GO!" Fayt went through first towards Noir. He disappeared down his black cloak. Allelujah shrunk first into his human form and quickly throw in Leonard, then Soma. On the other side in Februarius, Fayt popped out of the Embassy door first. Then he helped pulled out Leonard, followed swiftly by Soma.

Ashem knew the time is nigh.

When it's Allelujah's turn, the five Paladins roared angrily and start rushing towards them, some on all fours, all unwilling to let their last prey to just disappear, leaving them behind in this oblivion.

However, fortunately for them, Noir had no intention on leaving anyone behind.

When Allelujah disappeared into Noir's cloak, the Palladins are already right in front of Noir's face.

He grabbed the Titanbane at the last second and positioned himself carefully just as their attacks reached him.

And they all vanished into nothingness.

Then, and only then, did what little remained of the infernal laboratory finally collapsed as tons and tons of earth and ancient remains buried everything in darkness.

In Februarius…

Allelujah just had enough time to get out of the way when five roaring mad Super Knights were hurled out of the Embassy door. Noir followed suit, his cloak had earned even more rag and tear. "COLLAPSE THE NETWORK!"

Ashem snapped his finger, and just like that, the portals, all portals that had played their role in this operation were consigned to their well earned oblivion. The network was no more.

They barely had time to recover, roars and yells erupted from the Paladins. The Children squirmed in terror, sensing the blatant hostility from these feral warriors. Fayt and Allelujah readied themselves for another fight, but they didn't even had enough strength to stand much less fight!

The Five Paladins howled and charged towards the children in an insane fury…

Until Noir stand before them and shouted:

SLEEP!

At least… in everyone's mind, that's what he said. But the words that came out of his lips… it doesn't sound like any language they've ever heard. But upon hearing that command, the Paladins murderous eyes turned blank and they all dropped down face first to the snowy dirt like puppets whose strings had been cut.

And then… at long last… blessed silence.

Noir's heavy breathing can be heard, Allelujah heaved and gasped, hardly believing what they've just done… and Fayt, whose unnatural breathing is still erratic, denoting the fact he's far from his best.

Ashem on the other hand… was aghast in shock at what his master just did. The words he said… the language he used… "Master… that Language! You… Is that… is that what I think it is!?"

Noir looked at his Djinn knowingly. "…yes."

Ashem's shock turned to horror. "…by Solomon's mercy… Master… what have you done!?"

"ARGH!" Before anyone had time to calm down, Fayt's breathing worsened until finally he collapsed, by which then he began to convulse and scream in obvious pain.

"Oh no…" Allelujah gaped. "The Serum! It's running wild inside him! He's losing control!" "He's gonna pop!" Hallelujah added.

Already Noir can see that telltale blue energy began to trickle around Fayt's body. Veins popping out across his skin, glowing with blue streams of energy. His torso bulged several times, bubbling towards the inevitable final destruction. "…not on my life, you're not!" Noir quickly rushed to Fayt and pinned him to the ground, both hands pressed against his chest… and then he began to chant.

In the name of the Deep Magic I command thee. Be still. Quell your rage and slumber O child of Destruction. Flow as I prithee, and be at peace at my command! My life is my tribute, let him be spared!

Again, that language. Ashem watched and listened in horror. "Master! Stop! Don't use that language anymore!"

In the name of the Deep Magic I command thee! Be still! Quell your rage and slumber O child of Destruction. Flow as I prithee, and be at peace at my command! My life is my tribute, let him be spared!

Noir kept repeating that sentence, in that language, over and over, for Lord knows how long… and against all odds, Fayt's convulsion began to subside. And finally, after one last utterance, Fayt gasped one final time… and settle into a peaceful rest as the pain clearly subsided…

Conversely, and just as Ashem had feared, Noir gasped once in relief… before he vomited blood into the white snow. And not just once or twice, Noir gasped and retched in pain before collapsing on his back, choking several times before his head slumped down lifelessly.

"Noir?" Allelujah gawked. "NOIR!"

At that moment, everyone heard the galloping sound of an incoming horse. Everyone was on the edge… until the lone horse itself came to view… except this was no ordinary horse. It is a Jet Black horse with billowing black mane and two curveous horns sprouted out of his forehead.

The Bicorn wasted no time. "I HEARD IT! WE CAN ALL HEAR IT ALL THE WAY TO ALPHEIM! THAT LANGUAGE!"He telepathically roared in anger and panic. "WHO!?"

"LORD BICORN!" Ashem the Djinn replied. He weakly pointed down… to one of the two bodies lying on the snowy ground.

The Bicorn recognized the Djinn… and suddenly, he realized his greatest fear has come true. With great reluctance and with knowing trepidation, he looked down and gasped in recognition…

Why does it have to be him…?

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