Sword Art Kingdom III

by Jacob Pendra-Huth

After so many years of waiting, the next chapter of SAK, with the final battle awaiting the trio of Keyblade wielders, Sora, Asuna and Kirito. With swarms of enemies coming from all sides, the heroes must not only gather the Guardians of Light, but also the Lost Princesses of Hearts, all the while doing their best not to let the enemy win, in any world, in any dimension.

14. Symphoniae Aperta Manus! Singer Warriors

I am very sorry for the extremely long wait for this chapter. Let me explain myself this time.

Around late March, I was starting up a brand new job, and before that, I auditioned for a community play, and got a part in it. I worked five days a week in each one, and had no days off as I was at least doing practices at the play, or trying to learn my new job, until early May. I was exhausted as hell every time I got done with one, the other, and especially both, and wanted some me time to get myself rested up as much as I could, as I lacked a ton of sleep. So needless to say, I was glad when we did the show in early May, and now that we're done, I was able to gather myself up and finally focus on my story writing... Actually, no. I also was in the transition of moving my room to a different part of the house, and that took also a lot of my time, and I am still doing it, but I finally had time to completely finish this chapter.

I am very sorry for the long wait, everyone. I am not abandoning this or my Heart's Origin story. In fact, that should be done in the next couple weeks. I hope you enjoy this chapter, especially since it doesn't focus on Sora's team, but the other team, the Heart Sisters, instead. Read this story, as they set off into another new world, and one that I previously did a collaboration crossover with a dear friend of mine, Coral the Leviathan. Read and enjoy!

---

Heartiel

As the six heroes known as Team Keybladers were dealing with their own trials, both in Melromarc and the Battle Tower, another group was also dealing with their own mission. That group was the Heart Sisters.

Inside the training room of the Heartiel, Philia and Hinata were having battle training with one another, with Philia in her Soul Burst: Jade form, while Hinata had her Byakugan activated. She was parrying the blade of the lance and her kicks with her palms, retaliating with her combat training and magic. Tinker Bell, Samson, and Flair were watching on the sidelines.

"Fire-Lion Fist!" She shouted, punching a lion-head shaped fireball at Philia, who twirled her lance to parry the attack, holding it behind her back, before launching forward with a thrust. Hinata parried the lance to the side, before thrusting her palm forward at Philia's face. The treasure hunter instantly crouched her body to avoid the blow, unleashing a leg sweep that threw Hinata onto her back. The second she looked up, she saw Philia had the lance pointed at her face.

"And that's your head." Philia told her, smirking at the fallen kunoichi. Hinata looked startled, but sighed, admitting defeat.

"Pretty hard to believe you caught Hinata off-guard like that." Flair stated, approaching the two as Philia pulled Hinata to her feet, coming out of her Soul Burst.

"Heh! I knew it the moment she unleashed her Soul Burst." Samson chuckled.

"More likely her motivation has been boosted since reuniting with Sora." Tink chuckled.

Philia brushed the hair out of her face as she looked at her Keydagger. Since meeting her dear friends again, and meeting Kirito, Asuna and Yui, who were from the world she was apparently from, she felt a bigger drive to complete her mission, to seek out where Dr. Tenma's base was at. And with the word from the others that Tears had returned, this made their mission all the more important.

"I want to save the worlds that Dr. Tenma has taken, and stop whatever plan he has." Philia told them, "But I also want to help Sora and the others, and find my homeworld again, in order to reunite with my other self. There's so many thing I wish to do, and there's so much that NEEDS to be done. I need to be strong enough to do everything."

"Philia, you shouldn't pile so many things on your plate." Flair warned her, "You'll only stress yourself out and over-exert yourself if you do."

"Yeah. Try thinking like Sora." Tink told her, "He's so simple-minded, only thinking of what needs to be done in the present. At least, until he isn't thinking about anything else."

Hinata and Philia giggled at this statement, as the former stated, "That sounds like Naruto. It's no wonder he ended up sharing his soul with Sora."

"True. Sora's not one to worry about everything that needs to be done at once. We just need to take one step at a time." Philia stated, "Starting with finding clues on where Dr. Tenma's base is." The other girls nodded in agreement at this.

She placed her Keydagger away as she told the group, "We should head back onto the bridge to see if we're approaching the next world." She told them, and she led the group out of the training room, back onto the bridge of the Heartiel, ready to go.

---

(Insert 'OVER THE TOP' , Mikutan ver.)

One Dream One Wish

(In a dark environment, with a treasure chest in front, something glowing within it from the grooves. Flair & Samson appear first on one side during 'One Dream', followed by Hinata on the other side during 'One Wish')

If you want it, gotta go

Over The Top

(Philia approaches the chest from the center, producing her Keydagger, slamming the tip onto the top of the chest, unlocking it and opening it up, causing the environment to be blinded by the golden light.)

(Music intro)

(As streaks of color fly by through the golden light, the symbol of SAKIII appears, with the name 'Sword Art Kingdom III: Heart Sisters'. This is followed by the Heartiel Gummi Ship flying into the screen, shifting to the back-view of the ship as it flies through deep space, with multiple worlds beyond the horizon, before igniting its boosters, and flying towards the worlds.)

Settin' sail, and heading for the unknown

(In front of a light blue background with her name in bold lettering, Philia is throwing her dagger up before catching it and holding it in a pose. Shifts to a magenta background with Flair & Samson's names, as the former twirls a cap on her finger, before getting snatched and eaten by Samson.)

Cuttin' through the winds and waves as I go

(Shifts to a pale green background with Hinata's name, who holds her hands behind her back, as she smiles innocently as she looks from one side to the screen. Shifts to a yellow background with Tinker Bell's name, as she flies close to the screen, writing down on an unrolled scroll of paper, before raising her pen and winking at the screen.)

Gotta keep it up, never stopin', no

'Cause I'm aiming to get there first, yeah

(Mistress Gretinal's hologram appears on the bridge of the Heartiel, pointing the girls towards their destination. Tink dives into Philia's clothing as the trio touch the bubble that contains the Star Shard, which shines brightly, transporting them to the new world.)

It's all or nothing, no to worry

Do it later, right now I'm livin' free

(Images of characters from other worlds flash across the screen, like Lightning and Snow, Vaan, Balthier and Fran, E. Gadd and Palutena, shadowy images of characters of other worlds, ending with the six main series heroes, with Sora, Donald & Goofy appearing together.)

When your foes look like they will overwhelm you

It means your heart's saying 'This is what you can't do'

(Philia stands opposite side to PHox, who points his cleaver at Philia as he makes a malicious grin. She responds by looking at a Chain of Memories card containing the picture of Castle Oblivion, frustratingly looking at it before closing her eyes, as a shadowy image of a dark version of her appeared behind her.)

Despite all that, to run is not an option

(In Gretinal's study, the Keyblade Master stands at her desk, with her SeHa Girls assistance, and her students, standing on the sides in front of it.)

One step closer, feel the satisfaction

(In an underground facility in the Realm of Arrival, Astro Boy is in a sleep state as he is cocooned in a machine, before his eyes flash open.)

You think I'm rude? Here's my appreciation

(In the main lab of Dr. Tenma, the said doctor stands there, in front of the dark machine gathering Dark Data from all the worlds, with Maleficent, Pete, Tears, and four shadowy figures right behind them, with intimidating glowing eyes.)

When things are gettin' tough

Just gotta smile

(Swarms of Cyber Heartless stand on level upon levels of stone, glaring down at the Heart Sisters, with Philia's eyes shadowed, before she looked up with a grin. She, Flair and Hinata ready their weapons, before charging at the Heartless.)

If you are goin' on your way

And your looking for a fresh brand new day

Than, make sure your only thought you have is 'Yes I Can!'

(The trio of girls demonstrate their skills in combat, taking out the Heartless with their teamwork. This is followed by Samson grabbing Philia, and tossing her into the sky, who made her Keydagger shine as Tink worked together with her to perform a boosted Airstepping technique that shot her at a larger Cyber Heartless.)

As you're on your way, marked maps will be made

Yes! With every step that you will take

(Tears suddenly appeared, grinning eerily as she swung her claymore at Philia, who blocked with her Keydagger, but got sent crashing back down towards her friends. She grimaces as she struggles to get back up through the dust cloud. She suddenly saw a hand, and looked up to see Sora appear next to her. She blushed, but smiled as she took it, while the rest of Team Keybladers joined around the Heart Sisters, before charging forward at Tenma's leading enforcers.)

Just lookout all you've been through

Look ahead a new horizon in view

(Hinata, Donald and Asuna gang together as they fight hard against Widowmaker & Reaper, matching magic and melee with their firearms and combat equipment.)

Shining brightly, oh who knows what's waiting for you.

(Flair, Samson, Goofy and Kirito burst through their fight as they deal with their own fight against King Boo and Painwheel, their finishing attack creating a massive explosion of energy.)

'Dream livin'' that's the way make like a hurricane

(Philia, Sora and Yui fly right out of the smoke of the explosion, coming at Tears, who points her claymore at them as a dark meteor comes down towards them. Sora unleashes a Keyblade beam, Yui unleashes a cyclone with her tessen, and Philia enters Soul Burst: Sora, unleashing Ragnarok from her Kingdom Key Keyblade.)

Now! Gotta make your mark today

(The attacks collide as one against Tears dark meteor, creating a shockwave of light and darkness, as the scene fades into white.)

One Dream, One Wish

Your dreams don't run away

Go for the knock out

(In Saitama/SAO world, a somber Kotone Takemiya is walking along the street, carrying her school bag. She stops as a light hits her eyes, as she looks up to see the back of Philia, as the screen focuses on her. She turns and smiles back at the screen.)

Over the Top

(She jumps and lands between her friends, striking a pose with her Keydagger raised high, with Tink above her, and Team Keybladers and Gretinal standing behind them, and deep space in the background.)

---

It was only a few minutes after they sat down did the alert system activated on their ship. They had finally arrived at their destination. They looked out, and saw the world they were going to next. It seemed to be centralized on a city with a port that had a docked sub, a hill with a road that lead to ruins, and a ring of rainbow-misted music score, with a red, hexagonal pendant at the center of it.

"This is the next world on our journey, huh?" Tink noticed.

"Seems a bit bright and music-like." Samson scoffed, "Bet we'll be doing some Dance Stage here or something."

"Let's see what Mistress Gretinal has to say." Philia told the group, as she booted up the ship's communication crystal. Gretinal's holographic image appeared, looking at the girls.

"So you finally made it to the next world." She understood, "But before I get into it, I was quite curious."

"Curious about what?" Hinata asked.

Gretinal looked to Philia as she answered, "Your little reunion with Sora. I'm sure you have mixed feelings about reuniting with him and your other friends."

"I am." Philia admitted, "I'm happy I got to speak to them again. I'm sad that they still don't remember. I'm struggling on whether I should be ready to tell them the truth or not. I'm not sure what is the right thing, and hesitant on what happens when they do learn."

"Bonds like yours take time to reform again. You had dealt with many things that made you sever your bond with Sora and his friends for a long while." Gretinal told her, "You just have to start from zero once more, and reforge from there. I'm sure your's and their group will meet one another again, possibly in different worlds. And I bet you'll build up your connections to not just your old friends, but their new friends, as well. Then, when the time is right, I'm sure they'll remember who you are, Philia."

"Yeah…" Philia looked a bit satisfied with Gretinal's message to her, "Thank you, Mistress Gretinal."

"Happy to be a sage of advice." She answered.

"Hey, can we get back to this world?!" Samson barked.

"Samson, chill out!" Flair argued, worried he might offend Gretinal.

"No, it's alright." The Keyblade Master assured her, looking to the world, "It seems you ended up in the world known as 'Symphoniae Aperta Manus'."

"Sympho-what now?" Tink questioned, very confused.

"What language is that?" Hinata asked.

"It means 'Symphony of Open Hands'. It's a world where great warriors fight against all forms of monstrosities, the main of which being beasts called Noise."

"Noise?" Philia echoed.

"Yes. They are different from Heartless, but at the same time, quite similar in some ways." Gretinal explained, "However, there are those who are capable of fighting them, with powers that are unlike most. However, with the Heartless there, as well, I fear that things might be too overwhelming for them if left alone."

"Then that's where we come in!" Philia declared, "We'll protect this world, and these warriors who fight in it!"

"Good. I can already feel a presence of Dr. Tenma's forces here. Be careful."

"We will." Hinata assured her. The communication crystal turned off, and the three girls gathered around the Star Shard in the capsule, as Tink dove into Philia's clothing. They touched the capsule with their free hand, and the Star Shard shined. All of a sudden, there was bright light, and the three girls flew down to the surface of the world, guided by the Star Shard.

---

S.O.N.G HQ, Command Bridge

Alarms were blaring all throughout the submarine HQ. They were on high alert at this point, with the alarm indicating trouble was happening within the city. The main screen within the command bridge was displaying the map of the place, as two people were trying to pinpoint the location at their own stations. Both were young adults, a male with short, damp spike, brown hair, and a young lady with medium-length dark blue hair.

Standing in the back, in command of the group, was a burly man in a red button-downed shirt with his sleeves rolled up, a pink tie that he tucked the tip into his left breast pocket, light beige slacks, and black and blue athletic shoes. This man was Genjuro Kazanari.

"Noise are materializing!" The male announced.

"They're reappearing again?!" Genjuro grimaced, "Why are they returning, now?"

"Materialization point identified. Displaying coordinates." The woman analyzed, displaying the location on the map, which was along a road curving along a hill.

"It's within the city limits again." Genjuro understood, "Are those monsters also there?"

"Yes. We are getting energy readings of the unfamiliar monsters amongst the Noise!" The man stated, "Tachibana is near the location already. She's already moving to engage!"

"Prioritize evacuation first, then engage the enemy!" Genjuro ordered, "I'll order the others to join her at-."

"Sir!" The male suddenly stopped the commander, "I'm getting another unusual energy reading here! Something just appeared, and is moving towards the Noise and monsters!"

"What did you say?!" Genjuro questioned, looking to the screen, where three dots had suddenly appeared on screen. They zoomed in on the sight, revealing the running figures of the Heart Sisters.

---

On sight of where the commotion was at, Philia led the charge past the panicking people.

"Well, it didn't take long for us to find trouble!" Samson growled.

Philia stopped as she saw the Heartless, which were Neoshadows and Air Soldiers, along with monsters that they have never seen before. They had no normal faces, but instead some sort of green, graph-looking face. Their bodies were quite unusual, with blue ones that looked slug-like, to orange ones that had more humanoid appearances.

The Heart Sisters saw a couple people who were lagging behind from the crowd as one of the weird slug monsters suddenly caught up to them. They pounced down onto them, causing them to scream in terror. The moment they made contact with them, they suddenly turned into black ash, crumbling away on the ground. The girls could only look horrified at what they just witnessed.

"How horrible!" Hinata gasped, cupping her hands over her mouth.

"They turned to dust by the mere touch of them!" Flair whimpered.

Philia felt sick at the sight of what happened, but shook her head, slapping her cheeks to keep herself in check. "Let's just make sure that doesn't happen to us!" She told them, the trio bringing out their weapons to fight off the monsters.

They charged forward, with Hinata unleashing Blizzard Lion-Fist to knock back a couple of the new monsters. Philia and Flair charged forward, the former unleashing Rapid Bite, while the latter unleashed her Hairball technique. Both struck the monsters hard, until they were turned to black dust, just like what they did to the people. However, as they regained themselves from their attacks, they felt burns on their skin and hair, and winced in pain.

"Ow! What the crap?!" Samson snapped.

"What's with these burns?" Philia questioned, "We got them just from touching those monsters!"

"Guess we only get the minor version of what they did to those people." Flair understood, looking back at the pile of ashes that were once people before.

"Right. We gotta keep touching them to a minimum!" Philia understood, looking to Hinata, "Hit those monsters with long-ranged attacks! Flair, Samson, try to only fight Heartless!"

"You got it!" Hinata answered, raising her palms.

"I'll make this work!" Flair understood.

The trio continued their fighting, with Flair focusing on the Heartless, and Hinata focusing her magic attacks on the monsters. Philia went and took care as best as she could with all of them, using her skills and magic to take them on. The new monsters were different, with the blue slug ones body-slamming, to the humanoid ones shooting their noodle arms out like Dusk Nobodies. The monsters even acted similar to Nobodies, stretching their bodies out like needles and hurling themselves at the heroines. The way they fought, mixed with the Heartless, made it difficult for the trio, who sometimes had no choice but to physically strike at the new monsters, causing recoil burns.

A couple minutes later, and there were still an abundant of Heartless and the other monsters surrounding the trio, who had their backs to one another. Philia used her Curaga spell to heal the group, but they were still slightly worn, especially those who used a lot of magic energy.

"There's just no end them!" Flair exclaimed.

"If those monsters weren't so difficult to deal with, we'd be cleaning things up, right now." Philia muttered.

"We just gotta keep it up, and eliminate them all." Hinata told them.

As the trio were psyching themselves up to keep going, someone's voice suddenly rung through the air. A song was being sung.

"Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron…"

The trio looked around, then towards the downward direction of the hill. Someone had just leapt up into the air, their body shining as she was suddenly equipping herself into something new. When the light dissipated, she dove down at the nearest group of monsters, fist-first, creating an explosion of rubble, and making a few of the monsters vanish, and a couple Heartless flying. Surprised at the mysterious person's appearance, the Heart Sisters saw her rising to her feet again, looking back at them.

She was a mid-teen girl, physically fit, with light brown, ruffled mid-length hair, yellow eyes, and armor pieces on her head that looked like horns and headphones. She wore a skin-tight battle armor, which was a mixture of white, orange, yellow and black, displaying her petite figure and belly button. She had armor pieces on her hips, shoulder-blades, and on her back like a kimono ribbon. She had twin scarves going down from her shoulder blades like a cape, with armor pieces at the tips. She had armored boots, heavy-looking, gauntlet-like arm pieces, and gloves with armor pieces on her knuckles.

(Insert 'Seigi wo Shinjite, Nigirishimete' from Symphogear G)

"Are you three okay?" She called to them.

Surprised at her appearance for a moment, Philia recovered as she answered, "Y-Yeah!"

"Bet she's the cavalry around here." Samson assumed.

"She certainly displayed the strength to be one." Flair added.

"Mind helping us out here?" Hinata requested.

"That's what I'm here for!" The girl answered, glaring at the monsters about. Then out of nowhere, she began singing, all the while punching and kicking her opponents, turning the monsters into dust.

"She's singing while she's fighting?" Tink questioned, "What's up with that?"

"Let's figure it out later." Philia replied, readying herself, "We gotta finish things up!"

They continued the fight, which was far easier thanks to their new ally. This new girl was quite skilled in martial arts, with her primary skill in just punching. However, the thick gauntlets she was wearing seemed to amplify her punches, even springing out rocket for a flying punch through the swarm. She was definitely more capable against the new monsters than the Heartless, but the Heart Sisters had her back. All throughout that time, she really didn't stop singing, except for one time when Philia sliced an oncoming Heartless that tried to attack her. She thanked for the save, and continued the fight.

When the area was cleared of monsters and Heartless, the Heart Sisters gathered together once more, joined by their new ally, as they placed their weapons away.

"Nice going, girls!" Philia complimented the team.

"We couldn't have gotten through that easily without our new friend." Flair stated, looking to the armored girl, "Thanks."

"Not a problem. I'm surprised that you guys were able to fight." She stated, getting awkwardly close in Philia's face, "How were you able to fight back the Noise without getting carbonized? And without a Symphogear?!"

"Noise? Symphogear?" Philia questioned, taking a step back and looking to the pile of ashes, "So those were the Noise? And that's what they do to people?" She turned back to the new girl as she answered, "Truth be told, we're not sure. But it's not like touching those things didn't cause some burns to us."

"Wait, you were able to attack them just fine." Hinata noticed, "Is that because of that armor you're wearing?"

"Yeah. I can fight to protect others with this!" She stated, pumping a fist and grinning, before realizing something, and added, "Oh, right! I haven't even introduced myself yet. I'm Hibiki Tachibana. I'm sixteen years old!"

Philia looked surprised at her sudden introduction, not to mention saying her age. However, she regained her smile, and rose a hand to greet her as she replied, "Well, I'm Philia. I'm pretty sure I am eighteen years old."

Hibiki smiled and shook her hand, as her armor glowed suddenly, and it was replaced with something that was more civilian. She had a yellow overall-like dress over a blue and white striped short-sleeved shirt, and blue shorts. She wore orange and white shoes, and had a large blue bow attached to the front midriff area of her outer dress.

About a minute later, black Sudans arrived on the scene, the leading one coming to halt before those in the driver and passenger seats came out. One was a young man with short brown hair and eyes, wearing a black suit and tie.

The other was girl around Hibiki's age, with shoulder-length black hair, tied in the back by a white bow, and green eyes. She wore a white one-piece dress with laces, underneath a lavender sleeveless shirt, purple shorts with white frills at the legs, and orange flip-flops with white bows.

"Hibiki!" The girl cried out, running to her.

"Miku!" Hibiki greeted, "Got things taken care of here!"

"Come on, Hibiki. You ended up fighting before the others joined you." The girl named Miku scolded her.

"Sorry, sorry…" Hibiki apologized, but turned to the Heart Sisters as she pointed out, "But it was thanks to these guys that we ended up clearing the area of the Noise and the other monsters."

Miku looked to Philia and the others curiously, the treasure hunter waving at her as she greeted, "Nice to meet you. I'm Philia. These are my friends Flair, Samson, and Hinata." The two girls bowed to her in greeting.

"This is my best friend, Miku Kohinata." Hibiki introduced her.

"Hi…" Miku greeted cautiously, while a young man approached next to her.

"Hello there." The young man greeted the Heart Sisters, "I appreciate the assistance here, but the commander just called me. He's requesting that you come with us for interrogation."

"Interrogation?" Hinata asked.

"Um, guys?" Flair addressed the area around them. They suddenly noticed they were surrounded by people in black suits and glasses.

Philia looked a bit hesitant, but Hibiki stated, "Don't worry. Master is a really nice guy. You can meet him and my other friends at our HQ, too!"

"Hibiki…" Miku felt that her friend was taking things too carefree, especially with strangers like the girls.

"It's okay. We'll come." Philia assured her, "I get the feeling there's a lot each of us can learn from one another after what happened here."

"Thank you." The young man told her, "Also, this is only a precaution…" and in a few seconds, Philia, Flair and Hinata all found themselves in heavy mechanical handcuffs.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Samson demanded, waving his tentacle arms in rage.

Tink even came out and snapped, "You can't just bind my friend up like that!"

"Eh?! A fairy?!" Hibiki gasped.

"I'm a pixie!"

Philia saw the men in black were prepared to pull out firearms onto their group, and shouted, "Samson, Tink, stand down!" The two stopped acting aggressively, and continued, "We'll come in quietly. They are not bad people, so don't make it worse!"

"Right…" Tink understood, while Samson growled and inaudibly muttered his frustrations. With that settled, Hibiki, Miku, and the young man guided the girls to the Sudans, placing each of the three girls in each car; Hibiki with Philia and Tink, Miku with Hinata, and the young man with Flair and Samson. With that, they drove down the hill, back to their HQ.

---

It was probably a half hour of driving or more before the team finally made it to their destination. This was a bit of a relief to Philia, as Hibiki was spending a good portion of the time talking her ear off, speaking about how she couldn't wait to have her meet her friends and her master at HQ, the most prominent names being Tsubasa, Chris, and Genjuro. She also had so many questions about how Philia fought before, and while she was able to answer some things, she chose to explain the more important things at their HQ. Tinker Bell eventually came out and got angry for pestering Philia, which resulted in Hibiki insisting on asking about her, only to be told to shut up by the pixie.

When Philia and the other Heart Sisters stepped out of the black cars, they looked up at the sight of something insane. Their HQ was none other than a submarine, and an insanely high-tech one at that. Off in the distance, they could see power stations under construction, looking like trees with the multitude of branches going about.

"Incredible!" Flair gasped.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life!" Hinata stated.

"A submarine?!" Philia exclaimed, looking to Hibiki, "This thing's your base?!"

"Hm hmm! You impressed?" The girl responded with self-confidence.

"More like shocked." Philia corrected, looking all about it, then mentally adding, 'With this kind of high tech, it could rival the Gummi ship!'

"Hibiki, we need to get moving." The young man spoke up, taking the lead, "Genjuro is waiting for us."

"Coming!" Hibiki answered, waving Philia and the others along with her. Philia and Flair responded, with Hinata and Miku bringing up the rear.

"She seems nice, despite the situation you and your people put us in." The pale-eyed kunoichi told Miku.

"She's always like that." She answered, "Still, I'm surprised you guys are willingly coming along without any hostility."

"Well, Philia could tell you aren't villains, and you guys are just being cautious with us." Hinata pointed out, "As far as she is aware, you guys are not bad people." Miku was rather surprised in her faith towards the girl named Philia. Then again, it's not like she didn't understand that exact same feeling, as well.

"Still don't like my girl being cuffed like a criminal." Samson growled, crossing his tendrils.

They entered into the submarine HQ, and after a couple sets of hallways, the Heart Sisters were introduced to two more girls, waiting for their group.

One was a tall, slim girl, with indigo eyes and long blue hair that fell down her back, with the acceptation of one part she held in a side ponytail, which reached all the way down just above her left waist, fastened by a white hair clip. She wore a blue dress, with a dark blue piece over the other blue piece, held by a black strap wrapping around behind her neck, and a black miniskirt. She had white-strapped sandals, and an ornament on her right wrist.

The second girl was just shorter than Hibiki, but bustier than any of the other girls. She had purple eyes and long, pale lavender hair that split into two twin-tails, curling at the end, and held by pink scrunchies. She wore a sleeveless pink button-up shirt with frills, maroon shorts, black thigh-highs with garters and rose buttons on them, and maroon pumps.

"Tsubasa! Chris!" Hibiki greeted, running over to them, "We brought the girls who helped me out, as Master instructed."

"Honestly, idiot. You shouldn't act so carefree when bringing in people for interrogation!" The shorter girl scolded her.

"She's right. At least put on a bit of caution when dealing with people like them." The taller girl added.

"Eh? But they helped out a lot when fighting the Noise and those black monsters." Hibiki responded, seemingly confused by their hostility, "Besides, they came here without any issues. They seem fine to me." The two girls seemed dismayed at Hibiki's innocence towards potential threats.

She then turned to the Heart Sister and said, "These two were the friends I was talking about before. This is Tsubasa Kazanari, and Chris Yukine." She waved to the tall girl and short girl, respectively.

"Nice to meet you." Philia responded, bowing to her, "I know you have questions about us, but maybe we should go to your leader so we can get all introductions over and done with in one go."

"Yeah. Since we have experienced too many times where we reintroduce ourselves over and over to people in succession." Flair noted, with Hinata and Samson both nodding in agreement.

"Very well." Tsubasa agreed, looking a bit cautious at them, though a bit surprised at their manners, "It would save time for all of us. But be warned that if you try anything to harm us, we will respond with aggression."

"Fair enough." Philia answered, "We did come here for information, after all." With that, the group made their way to the bridge of the base.

When they arrived at the command bridge, they were introduced to something that looked like it came out of a high-tech movie. A massive screen, displaying multiple things of information on it, with smaller computers around the place, and a couple of characters, a man and a woman, both at two of the main computers. In front of the group was the muscular man that looked like he ran the place with an iron fist of sorts. Yet, Philia could tell this man was not a bad person in the slightest. She could see that his heart was just.

"You must be the group of girls who fought alongside Hibiki in the last fight." he greeted the Heart Sisters, "I thank you for your assistance in that ordeal. I am Genjuro Kazanari. I am the commander of the Squad of Nexus Guardians, or S.O.N.G."

"Nice to meet you. I am Philia." The lead treasure hunter introduced herself, "These are my friends, Flair, Samson, Hinata, and Tinker Bell." Each individual waved in greeting the commander, who was rather surprised at Samson and Tink's appearance, but decided to ignore it for the moment. "We came here because we needed to gather some information on what's going on in this city, in regards to the Heartless and those monsters you call Noise."

"Before we get into that, there are some questions I would like to ask." Genjuro responded, "For starters, where did your group come from?"

"Well…" Hinata murmured, while the team started to think of a way to explain themselves.

"We were able to detect a surge of energy before your group appeared on our scanners." The woman addressed them, "Based on the energy analysis, we were able tell you were teleported from a different location."

"What's more, you addressed the Noise in a way that suggest you are not familiar with them." Genjuro added, "That would be almost impossible for anyone not to know them. And yet, you seem to be familiar with the new monsters, which you called 'Heartless'."

The group looked to each other. They didn't expect them to catch on so quickly. They knew they teleported, and figured out they weren't familiar with the Noise, but were with Heartless. This limited their options on the story they needed to make up for them.

Philia sighed, before saying, "Might as well tell them the truth. At least for the most part."

"Philia!" Hinata exclaimed.

"What about world order?" Flair questioned, "We can't tell them that stuff!"

"Considering our situation, and who these people are, the truth is better than making something up." Philia answered, looking to her team, then to everyone else around them. Tsubasa was clearly giving a glare that said she wasn't gonna take lying nicely.

"What are you guys talking about?" Hibiki questioned.

Philia closed her eyes, before starting, "Our group is actually not from this world. We came here due to the Heartless's involvement in this world. Our job is to stop them, and stop anyone who are controlling them."

"So you are from a different world?!" Hibiki questioned in shock.

"But, you seem like normal girls to us." Miku noted.

"Oh, come on. How is having a monster for your hair and a fairy normal?" Chris questioned the two.

"It's 'pixie'!" Tink barked back, flying out of the pocket into Chris's face, "Not 'fairy'! Pixie!"

"Tink, calm down!" Philia cried out, "We're not here to be hostile!"

"I'm just tired of people calling me a fairy, that's all." Tink retorted, folding her arms and puffing her cheeks.

"Sorry about that." Miku apologized on Chris's behalf, "Please forgive Chris for the misunderstanding."

"Hey, how was I suppose to know she was a pixie?!" Chris argued.

Genjuro cleared his throat, silencing the group, before continuing, "So you came from another world, only to deal with the Heartless. Is that correct?"

"Yes." Philia answered, "But first, we would like to know how long they've been around?"

There was a brief pause, with Genjuro wondering if he should answer, before deciding, "About two weeks ago. These Heartless have started to come about since that time. Not only that, but a few days afterwards, the Noise started to appear again, as well."

"Right. Those other monsters." Hinata noted, thinking back on when they fought them, especially when she recalled how they turned a person into ashes, "Are they popular in your world?"

"They weren't suppose to be." Tsubasa answered, "Up until recently, the Noise were suppose to be sealed away in the Treasure of Babylonia. It was a rather shock to see them appear again. Not only that, but our attacks weren't as effective on the Heartless, making the battles even tougher. Even worse, there were some that interferes with the Aufwachen Waveform in our Symphogear."

"Symphogear?" Samson questioned, pointing a tendril towards Hibiki, "That crazy armor the blonde was wearing before?"

"Right. It's the only thing that can truly fight against the Noise." Genjuro answered, nodding to Tsubasa. She pulled out a pendant she had around her neck, which was a red crystal, "By linking itself to a user, they can unleash its power by making a specific waveform."

"In other words, we sing." Hibiki simplified, interrupting his explanation, "I still don't get it a whole lot, but we sing a song to it from our hearts, which allows us to use Symphogear."

"So that's why you sing while you fight?" Philia questioned.

"Mm-hm! That's how we fight!" Hibiki answered.

"There's a lot more to it than just that." Chris retorted, "But for a simple explanation, it's pretty close."

"But back to the Heartless." Tsubasa spoke up, "Do you have any ideas why or how they were able to summon the Noise back? As we said, they should be locked away."

"Well, it could be coincidence." Philia assumed, "Then again, it could be possible someone purposely released them."

"That would be impossible without the Solomon's Cane." Tsubasa noted.

"Not unless they use Corridors of Darkness." Hinata retorted.

The young man who came with them looked to the two girls, mentally noting, 'I just noticed, but the two sound awfully similar to one another. Hinata speaks like a soft-spoken version of Tsubasa.'

"Whatever the case may be, we need to learn where the Heartless came from, and why are the Noise reappearing once more." Genjuro stated, "Philia, Flair, Samson, Hinata, Tinker Bell. I would like to ask for your cooperation with S.O.N.G on this matter."

"So does that mean you trust them, Master?" Hibiki asked eagerly.

"Mm-hm. They have already proven themselves enough that they are trustworthy." Genjuro answered, smiling at them.

"That's great, but…" Philia started, raising her cuffed hands, "Trust goes both ways, right? Shouldn't that mean we get set free?" Genjuro understood that slight issue, and asked for the young man, whose name was Ogawa Shinji, to unshackle the girls, which he did so.

As the girls stretched their limbs, getting the feeling back in their wrists again, an alarm suddenly blaring, making the Heart Sisters jump. "What's that?!" Tink questioned.

"Confirming! We have Noise reappearing within the city!" The male at the computer announced, tapping away at the computer.

"We are also confirming the monsters known as Heartless appearing alongside them." The female followed up, "Triangulating coordinates."

"It's in a residential area on the outskirts." Genjuro noticed, turning to his trio of young ladies, "We'll send you there on a helicopter!"

"Roger that, Master!" Hibiki responded.

"Time to make up for not being at the last one!" Chris declared, rushing out of the command center, with Hibiki at her toes.

"Heart Sisters, let's do what we do best!" Philia told her team, before looking to Tsubasa, "We'll deal with the Heartless as best as we can. You can handle the Noise."

"Sounds like a plan." Tsubasa answered, "Follow me to the helipad!" She had the girls follow her out of the command center, leaving Genjuro, Ogawa, and Miku watching them leave.

"Please be safe, Hibiki…" Miku prayed, hoping for her return.

---

Moment's later, the two teams were flying over the city via helicopter, looking down at the area below.

"Just asking, but how did you guys avoid getting carbonized by the Noise?" Chris questioned the Heart Sisters.

"Probably because we aren't from this world, so the laws of how they affect us are different from normal people." Flair answered.

"That said, they do burn us when we make contact with them." Samson pointed out, "Bet that's just the minor version of what happens to you folks."

"And when they made contact with you, did they not carbonize, either?" Tsubasa questioned, "Usually, when a Noise carbonizes a victim, they too will also carbonize."

"That didn't seem to happen to the ones we fought." Hinata answered.

"Wait, don't you guys get burnt from contact with the Noise?" Philia pointed out, looking to Hibiki.

"Nope. Our Symphogear protects us from that effect." She answered.

"We are approaching the drop zone!" The pilot of the helicopter announced, alerting the team to prepare themselves, "Symphogear wielders, prepare yourselves for actions. I will drop down from a distance for the rest of you to arrive safely."

"You girls drop from here?!" Flair questioned the Symphogear girls, "Will you be okay?"

"We do this all the time. As long as we have our Symphogear on, we'll land fine." Chris assured them as Tsubasa opened up the door of the helicopter, the wind blowing inside.

"Be sure to join us once you land as soon as possible." Tsubasa ordered the girls.

"Not necessary. We'll jump with you." Philia replied, surprising the girls.

"Eh?! Do you have a way to land safely?!" Hibiki questioned.

"Don't underestimate the Heart Sisters." Hinata assured them, as Philia took point, and leapt out of the helicopter, with Flair & Hinata right behind them. The other girls were stunned for a second, before following them afterwards.

Philia produced her Keydagger, before drill-spinning her body into spreading her arms and legs out, slowing herself back to Hinata's position. "Let's go, Samson!" Flair shouted, curling her body into a ball and spinning.

"Hell yeah!" Samson roared, using his tendrils to unleash their Hairball technique, spinning like a wheel as they descended.

The other three girls were straight as an arrow as they joined the other girls, before Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris all chanted a song, respectively.

"Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron…"

"Imyuteus Ame no Habikiri tron…"

"Killter Ichaival tron…"

The three Symphogear user's bodies glowed brightly, surrounded by rings of energy as their clothes were replaced with new armor. While the Heart Sisters were familiar with Hibiki's armor, they were now introduced to Tsubasa and Chris's Symphogear.

Tsubasa's attire, much like Hibiki's, was skintight, with mixtures of blue, black and white, only exposing skin from her upper arms, shoulders, and upper thighs. She had armor pieces on her arms, like detached sleeves, going all the way up to her shoulders, and wide armored leggings going up to her thighs, with pointed wing-like armor pieces on the outer sides of her feet, along with a ribbon-shaped armor piece on her lower back. Her hair ornament holding her side-ponytail was now armored, and had new armored headpieces. In one hand, she had a katana.

Chris's attire was also a skintight armor, with mixtures of reds instead of blues or yellows like the other two girls, with similar areas of showing skin as Tsubasa, with the addition of the upper part of her chest, exposing cleavage. Like the others, her arms were armored, though her legs had less armor pieces, and she had a halo of armor around her waist, with a wider ribbon-shaped armor piece on her back. Her boots were like stilettos, and her headpiece was more like a half-helm than the other girls. In her hands, she had two guns.

(Insert 'Gekkō no Tsurugi' of Symphogear OST)

Flair & Samson took the lead as the spinning duo hit the ground, unfazed by the landing as they buzz-sawed their way through a swarm of Heartless and Noise. At the same time, Tinker Bell came out of Philia's pocket, and performed a wide spray of pixie dust onto the remaining duo of Heart Sisters, catching themselves a few feet off the ground before landing safely, with the Symphogear users landing right around them.

Flair came out of her Hairball technique, skidding to a halt as she summoned her hairpin rapier, and stabbed the Neoshadow Heartless in front of her, before slashing a couple of Noises on the sides of her. "Owowow!" Samson grimaced, his tendrils burnt in some parts, "Those Noises are a pain in the butt, among other things!"

"True." Philia agreed, switching her rapier to her other hand as she flapped her burnt hand, "It's a good thing these other girls can handle this."

Behind them, the rest of the girls went to work as Tsubasa sang, her katana transformed into a more mechanical version, and unleashed a wave of blue energy from her sword, her 'Blue Flash' technique, destroying a series of Noise, and sending Heartless flying upwards. Meanwhile, Chris transformed her guns into double twi-barrel gatlings over each arm, before taking aim at the Noise on the roofs of the buildings, along with the midair Heartless, prepping her 'BILLION MAIDEN'. She let loose her salvo of bullets, the bullets creating small explosions on impact of each of the opponents they struck.

Philia and Hinata were stunned at the crazy amount of power the two were unleashing, while Hibiki was using martial arts to punch and kick all the opponents near her, turning all Noise into black dust, while the Heartless were being sent flying. However, the damage they were dealing wasn't as effective on the Heartless as they were on the Noise.

"We'd better stop gawking, and get to work!" Tink told the two. The pair did as they were told, and shot towards the Heartless who were coming back again. Hinata unleashed tiger head-shaped Blizzard shots from her palms, sending them at a pair of Vermillion Samba, freezing them and destroying them. Philia made quick work with her Keydagger on Heartless she encountered, using Thundaga to clear out those near and above her, before unleashing Quick Throw Dagger Skill on a Neoshadow that got close to Hibiki, destroying it with her flown dagger before calling it back.

"Thanks!" Hibiki called out.

"Don't thank me yet." Philia responded, "We got more coming at us!" Hibiki noticed more Heartless and Noise approaching, with Philia and Samson doubling back to join with the others.

Tsubasa raised her sword high, and summoned a storm of energy swords, sending them raining down onto the enemies. This was her 'One Thousand Tears' technique. Practically all of the Heartless and Noise were struck by this attack. While the Heartless and some now-appearing Noise were able to get through it, they were introduced to more bullets from Chris's guns, eliminating the Noise and even taking down some of the weaker Heartless.

"Hinata!" Philia called out, prepping a Firaga spell.

"On it!" She followed, unleashing twin lion heads of flames from her palms, while Philia unleashed her attack at the same time. The fireballs merged together, and created an explosion that eliminated a plethora of Heartless, saved for a few Vermillion Samba.

"Flair! Samson!" Philia called out.

"We got it!" The two shouted simultaneously, making a leap, with Hibiki right behind them. She pulled parts of her gauntlets back, before they sprung back into place again, amplifying her punch as she and Flair struck her rapier, while Samson used his tendrils. Together, they eliminated the remaining Heartless.

"Easy-piesy." Chris stated, reverting her guns back to guns again.

"Especially when we're here to clean up the Heartless." Philia added.

"Careful. The battle is not over yet." Tsubasa warned the team, readying her katana as a new swarm of Noise was approaching. This included more Heartless…or at least, they thought was normal Heartless. The Heartless that now appeared had cybernetic implants on them, from the arms and claws on the Neoshadows, to the rings on the back of the Vermillion Sambas, to more muscular mechanical parts on the Talonclaw arms. It was clear to the Heart Sisters what they were.

"Cyber Heartless!" Tink exclaimed, diving back into Philia's pocket again.

"So they're here, too…" Hinata followed up, "That means…"

"Yeah." Philia replied, knowing that this could only mean that 'they' were involved.

Suddenly, the trio of Symphogear users's faces expressed pain as they nearly collapsed, drawing the attention of the Heart Sisters. "Not again…!" Chris grimaced, feeling weakened upon the presence of the Cyber Heartless.

"What's going on with you girls?!" Samson questioned.

"It's those Heartless with the mechanized parts." Tsubasa answered, holding herself up with her katana stabbed into the ground, "When they're around, they disrupt the Aufwachen Waveform in the vicinity, destabilizing the synchronization between us and our Symphogear."

"What?" Flair questioned, not getting anything she explained.

"We can't use our Symphogear as well as we can with them around!" Chris simplified.

"It…doesn't matter!" Hibiki retorted, trying to fight against her weakened state to continue fighting, "People are still in danger… That's why I have to keep fighting!"

"Idiot! We are not going through this again with you!" Chris barked at her.

"She's right. The last time you tried, you almost got hit by a fatal attack!" Tsubasa reminded.

"But…!" Hibiki looked desperate to try to continue the fight.

Just then, Philia placed a hand on the yellow-armored girl, who look to see the smile on her face. "Don't you worry. Dealing with these Heartless is our specialty." She assured her, with the others nodding in agreement behind her, "Just sit back, and let us deal with what you can't deal with."

Hibiki looked at her for a moment, feeling bad that she couldn't at least help a little bit, but she decided to give into the assistance and answered, "Okay. You got this!"

"Trust me. We know how to deal with this." Philia assured her, walking forward, placing her free hand on her heart, "Just as one person protected me so many times in the past, I'll use his soul to help you…"

She raised her Keydagger high as she shouted, "Soul Burst: Sora!" Her Keyblade glowed as from her own body, a silhouette of Sora a couple years back appeared, who twirled his Keyblade before resting it on his shoulder, before diving into her Keydagger. Her weapon shined as she held it out in front of her, as in a flash of familiar light, the weapon became Sora's Kingdom Key Keyblade. She grasped it in both hands as she took the fighter stance of Sora.

"And now Soul Armament!" Philia shouted, her clothing shining and transforming into Sora's Soul Armament attire. She now wore a red jumpsuit with puffy shorts and a zipper that ran down in front. Over it, she wore a black open-zipper jacket with white short sleeves and trimming, a blue belt with chains hanging off, and large yellow and black shoes with silver soles. She had white fingerless gloves with yellow and blue straps holding a silver circle plate on the back of each hand. Around her neck, she wore a silver crown necklace.

"Time to get serious!" Philia declared, charging at the Cyber Heartless, with Flair & Hinata racing right behind. The Symphogear Girls were pretty amazed at Philia's transformation, and watched as she begun slashing and comboing her attacks one after another, before unleashing a Ripple Drive that send the vicinity of enemies flying.

"Banshee!" Flair shouted, as she and Samson took on a moth girl-like form, flying through the enemies, making them fly from the damage they were dealt with. This was followed by Hinata unleashing her Thunder Twin-Lion Fist onto them, eliminating them on the spot.

"We're not through yet!" Philia shouted, charging forward as she used her Sliding Dash onto a Cyber Neoshadow, being deflected from a kick from a Talonclaw, before unleashing a Gravity Break, slamming her Keyblade onto the enemy, mixing it with a miniature Gravity spell, causing its feet to give way and hit the ground hard.

As Hinata enclosed enemies into her Vacuum Palm, and Flair and Samson topple through enemies with the Hairball, Philia continued her assault, unleashing combos as she did so, using Ripple Drive to channel her magic into unleashing a barrier wave around her that sent opponents flying, before using Strike Raid in an arc, knocking them out of existence.

"Just a few more!" Flair shouted, seeing the remaining Heartless, including some Vermillion Sambas.

"I won't even need to go Advance Burst on them." Philia stated, "Time to use my Finisher!"

She gathered up the last of her Soul Burst's energy, and charged at the remaining Heartless, before going into a Sonic Blade, piercing through the crowd of Heartless at blinding speeds, from all angles, gathering all of them closer to each other, before leaping high into the air, performing a backwards somersault, before pointing her Keyblade down at the crowd, and unleashing Ragnarok, sending a powerful light salvo down at the crowd, eliminating the last of the Cyber Heartless.

The Heart Sisters gathered together, polished off of all the Heartless, with Philia's Keyblade going back to normal. They looked to see that not only did Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris all regain their strength again, but they were racing towards them.

"That was so awesome!" Hibiki exclaimed, taking a leaping hug at Philia, nearly making the poor girl topple over.

"Ow! Easy, easy!" Philia shouted at her, though chuckling all the same.

"I was rather impressed by your skills, as well." Tsubasa stated, looking to their saviors, "You saved our lives when we couldn't fight. I regret not being helpful in that situation."

"Hey, it happens." Samson answered smugly.

"We're just glad we could help you out." Flair stated.

"By the way, what the heck was that power just now?" Chris asked Philia, "It's like when we put on our Symphogear."

"Oh, that's my Soul Burst." Philia answered, pulling Hibiki off of her, "I use the power of my friends to help me out in battle, using the souls they shared with me."

"The power of souls?" Hibiki questioned.

"Yes…" Philia touched her heart, closing her eyes as she smiled, "The bond that I share with them is unbreakable, and they give me strength when I need it. The one I was using before, and these close that represent my strong connection to him, is very precious to me. It lets me know he is always a part of me, even if he in a different world altogether."

"I…really don't get much of what you mean, but it sounds pretty cool." Hibiki stated, looking at her heart, "The power of those connected to use give you strength. I understand that feeling."

"So your friends are your power, then?" Hinata asked, quoting a quote Philia would say. Hibiki nodded happily in response to this, causing Tsubasa and Chris to grin at her.

"Your friends are your power~." A girl mimicked the words in a dramatized, mocking tone, causing the group to look around, "You really are still a bunch of sappy Light-wielding idiots if you keep spitting lines like that." Philia was the first to notice, looking up to see none other than Tears standing on top of one of the three-story buildings nearby, looking high and mighty as usual.

"Tears!" Philia barked, the Heart Sisters getting into battle positions.

"So the guys were right about her being back." Hinata muttered.

"Who is that?" Hibiki asked.

"I don't know, but she doesn't seem friends with these guys." Chris stated, readying her guns.

"You planning to reach an early grave, little girl?" Said a gruff male voice from the other side of the street, standing on one of the two-story buildings. He was a tall, muscular man, his face hidden with a black hood and a white, sinister-looking mask. He had on a black cloak, which the hood came from. He had thick leather plating and leggings that were all black, dark metal greaves with red energy glowing from within, metal gauntlets with taloned-fingers and spikes on the backs of each hand, a belt hanging diagonally around his waist, holding red cartridges of ammunition, and two advanced shotguns, carried in each hand.

"Reaper!" Flair gasped.

"He's here, too?!" Philia questioned.

"Long time, no see, little girls." Tears greeted the Heart Sisters, "You certainly look as annoying as ever. How dare you destroy so many of my daddy's Cyber Heartless. You even destroyed the new monsters we discovered that seem to be native to this world."

"So YOU were the one who brought out the Noise!" Tsubasa accused her.

"They gather up so much darkness, and cause so much negative emotions, how could I not?" Tears questioned, acting like it should've been obvious to use them.

"She really is showing a lot more emotion than the last time we saw her." Tinker Bell stated, poking out of Philia's pocket.

"Yeah. She's changed a lot since the last time." Philia agreed.

"Just stop this!" Hibiki called out to Tears, getting her attention, "Why are you doing this?! If you could just explain things, maybe we could work things out without all this needless destruction!"

"Wait, what?!" Tink questioned, the other Heart Sisters looking quite startled at her plea.

"Ha! Get a load of this girl!" Reaper laughed, "She thinks this is all needless destruction!"

"I agree." Tears chuckled, looking down at Hibiki with a smug demeanor, "You must be out of your mind for a light-wielder to barter with a dark-wielder like yours truly."

"Why you-!" Tsubasa growled, taking a high leap at Tears with her katana.

"Wait, stop!" Hibiki cried out, just as she neared the lavender-haired beauty. However, just as she got close, a shot came out of nowhere, striking Tsubasa in the gut, puncturing her skin. She gagged in pain as she recoiled backwards, falling back down to the ground.

"Senpai!" Chris cried out, as she raced towards her, while she crashed into the ground hard. Hibiki looked horrified, as did the Heart Sisters.

"She was shot?!" Hinata gasped.

"Where did it come from?!" Samson demanded, looking about.

"I have a feeling I know who might that belong to." Philia growled. The last time she saw Reaper, she was aware of his co-partner in crime; Widowmaker, a literal cold-blooded killer with sniping skills. They were quite the dangerous pair when they were with Tears back in their old world, when the Heart Sisters joined alongside a couple members of a group called Overwatch to obtain someone that was of great importance.

"I got you!" Hinata shouted, racing to Tsubasa's side, and using her healing magic to cure her of her wound. Meanwhile, the others heard Tears laughing, causing all of them to glare up at her.

"Is that a suitable answer for you, little brat?" She asked Hibiki, "See, my goal is simple; destroy the light, collect the darkness for my daddy. And right now, we are seeking a powerful source of darkness in this world. And it just so happens…" she raised a hand, producing an orb of darkness that had some sort of metallic fragments within, "…I discovered the fragments of armor that have been tainted by a great amount of darkness. As for its owner, well…I am pretty close to detecting where their soul fragments are at."

"What soul fragment are you talking about?!" Philia questioned angrily.

"Like I will tell you." Tears answered, "How about you all shut up and die, okay?" She snapped her finger, and a group of humanoid Noise appeared out in front of the group, causing them to prepare to fight them off.

"This'll be easy!" Samson growled.

"Oh, the fun is just beginning." Tears told them, raising a free hand, and causing dark streams to spew out of it, diving down to the Noise, enveloping them, "Get ready for my Dark Hybrid!" The darkness died down, revealing the Noise in a new shade of black, their 'faces' now having a yellow hue, like the Heartless's eyes. Their tendrils also duplicated into having six tentacle-like arms.

"The Noise transformed?!" Chris gasped, looking back.

"A Dark Hybrid. A being that is fused with the darkness of Heartless." Hinata explained, still healing Tsubasa's wounds, "You should help them out. I got it from here!"

"Sure." Chris answered, rising up and joining Philia, Flair, Samson, and a distraught Hibiki, as they geared up to fight the Dark Hybrids.

The team went to work against this new enemy, who were stronger than either Noise or Heartless. It unleashed the six tentacles like spears, curving at them and puncturing anything it made contact with, like the ground and walls, and even rockets shot by Chris. However, the girls were tough to endure the attacks, and quick enough to dodge it. However, the attacking part was a bit difficult, as they damaged the members of Heart Sisters when making contact, and the attacks from Chris & Hibiki were not as affective as they were on normal Noise.

---

Back in the main headquarters of S.O.N.G, everyone else was watching the battle against the Dark Hybrids. "The girls are struggling against the new Noise." The female noted.

"Is this what the power of darkness is capable of when merged with Noise?!" Genjuro questioned in shock.

"Don't give up! Hibiki! Everyone!" Miku cried out.

---

On the battlefield, Tsubasa was finally getting back up, thanks to Hinata. "Thank you, Hinata." Tsubasa told the pale-eyed girl.

"Not a problem." Hinata answered her, looking to see the others still fighting the Dark Hybrids, "Guys, finish them off, quick!"

"Right. The longer we keep up this fight, the more exhausted we'll get before we even deal with Tears." Philia understood, "Flair! Samson! Let's go!"

"Right!" The two shouted in unison, and they launched towards the Dark Hybrids, with Philia beside them.

Philia performed a backflip over Flair, her body glowing with magic energy, before her arms and legs were caught in Samson's tendrils, his mouth enlarged wide. He then pulled Philia into his mouth, closing his fangs as he swallowed her whole. Flair then leapt up, curling up into a ball, and doing a front roll in the air. "Flair…!" Flair started, aiming Samson's face at the Dark Hybrids.

"…Meteor!" She, Samson, and Philia shouted together, as Samson ejected Philia in a dark and fiery aura, slamming into the swarm of Dark Hybrids with an explosion, eliminating all of them. Philia rose to her feet, giving a thumbs up to Flair & Samson, who responded the same.

"What was that?!" Chris questioned, baffled at the attack, "Did that monster just eat Philia…then spit her out at the enemy?!"

"They combined their power together to take them out!" Hibiki noticed.

The two girls and parasite gathered together with the two Symphogear users as Philia answered, "That's our Team Attack. We combine our powers together so we can take out our target."

"You could've just done that from the start!" Chris argued.

"We didn't know it would be that difficult." Flair answered.

Just then, a round of applause could be heard from above, drawing their attention back to Tears on the roof. She was laughing as Reaper appeared at her side, followed by a grappling hook that came out from the opposite side to Reaper, bringing along the blue-skinned sniper, Widowmaker.

"Wow! It was so much fun to see you little light-wielders struggle so hard against such small Dark Hybrids." Tears cackled at their dispense, "I guess maybe this world's local monsters are rather useful to me, after all!"

"Even so, we were able to take care of them!" Philia retorted.

"Just stop this right now!" Hibiki ordered, "You already made it clear you don't want to talk, but no matter how many Noise, Heartless, or even those fusions you send at us. I will take them all out until you stop!"

"You are quite an 'idiot, aren't you?" Widowmaker asked.

"Don't you know that what we want can only be achieved through the chaos of the darkness?" Reaper questioned.

"Besides, I can send as many of my servants as I want to snuff out your lights, like so…" Tears raised her hand up high again, and a small spurt of darkness surged forward. This was followed by a large portal of darkness appearing in front of the group, followed by the appearance of a new monster.

It had the appearance of a Heartless, but it also had mechanical parts added to it, meaning it was a Cyber Heartless. It had the slight appearance of a spider, with six, very long and sharp metal legs, each three times taller than the heroines, and a body that seemed small in comparison to the legs. It was black, green and yellow, roundish, and with a stem-like neck that stretched up to reveal the single yellow eye and metallic bug fangs.

"I decided to give you a taste of one of Widowmaker's favorite Heartless we cybernetically enhanced." Tears smugly stated, looking to the said sniper, "I'm only doing this because you dealt a good shot to that foolish Light-wielder."

"Merci." Widowmaker answered, "I do like this one; the Cyber Arachnocturne."

The screech of the new Heartless caused the trio of Symphogear wielders to cripple to the floor. "Damn it, not again!" Chris growled, feeling the destabilization between herself and her Symphogear.

"Enjoy yourselves, peace-keepers!" Tears told them, "We still have much more to gather. And the first thing is getting the soul fragments we desire!" She laughed like a pompous princess as she turned and leapt off, with Reaper and Widowmaker in tow.

"Wait…!" Hibiki cried out, trying to find the strength to get back up and pursue, but her destabilization was making it too difficult to move. She was frustrated and depressed at how she was not able to stop them from doing all this.

"Hibiki, you and the others get out of here." Philia ordered, readying her weapon, "Let us, Heart Sisters, cover your retreat."

"But…" Hibiki started.

"You can't fight against Cyber Heartless! Don't try to be suicidal!" Philia argued, "Just do as I say!"

"Hibiki, Tsubasa, Chris. You must do as she says." Genjuro's voice suddenly came through the speakers in their ears, "We're currently trying to keep track of the three villains that have left the area. The three of you need to rest and recover while Philia and her team handle the Cyber Heartless. You should disengage your Symphogear in order to retreat."

"Understood." Tsubasa answered, standing on her feet, before her armor glowed, and she reverted back to her civilian clothes, "Chris, Hibiki, let's go!"

"I got it. I got it." Chris answered, reverting back to her own civilian attire, before looking to Hibiki, and seeing her looking down, saddened by all her failed attempts. "Come on, you idiot!" Chris shouted, racing to her side, "You'll only be in the way if you're here!"

Hibiki looked to her, then to the Heart Sisters, all of which were gathered to fight the Arachnocturne. "Okay…" she answered sadly, reverting back to her normal attire, before rising to her feet. With Chris pulling her along by the wrist, the two raced out of the area with Tsubasa, leaving the Heart Sisters to engage the Cyber Heartless.

The Heartless started by crawling towards them with its claws breaking the ground as it charged. The trio leapt out of the way to avoid the attack, before Hinata came around and unleashed her Thunder Lion-Fist onto it, trying to damage it. The attack didn't do so much, and neither did Philia's Firaga spell. The Arachnocturne turned to face Hintata, its eye looming down at her, before trying to trample and slice her with its claws. She barely dodged, but got cut in the shoulder as she did so while evading, only because of the guardrail right next to the sidewalk.

"Careful, guys!" Philia called out, "Ya gotta be wary of your surroundings! These streets make it difficult to dodge something this big!"

"But it also makes it easier to hit!" Samson barked as Flair shot forward, her rapier in hand, before unleashing several jabs at one of the legs, causing metallic clanging ring in the air.

"But it's too hard to do any damage." Flair noted.

"Not at the legs, but maybe at the head." Philia noted, looking at the head that was far above where they stood, "Airstepping, long-ranged attacks, and wall-running up to the rooftops. That's the best way to target it from that distance! Make it happen, Heart Sisters!"

"Right!" Hinata, Flair, and Samson responded as one, before making their move.

Philia ran up the wall, with Hinata using her ninja skills to run alongside her. They made their way to the rooftop and leapt off as one. The Heartless looked to see them arrived, but got distracted by Flair and Samson, who used his tendrils to grab ahold a couple of the legs, tugging on them as hard as it could to make it stumble a bit. Philia's Keydagger glowed while Hinata's gathered wind into her palms, before the two unleashed Rapid Bite Dagger Skill and Eight-Trigram Vacuum Palm at the face of the Heartless, which was very effect this time around.

The Arachnocturne recovered and shook off Samson's grip, before crawling towards the wall, before crawling right onto it, sticking onto the wall with its metal claws. It looked to the girls falling to the ground, before its pincers glowed, and it lunged at them with a snapping strike. The two girls managed to shift their bodies in the air to avoid getting hit by it, but the shockwave of the snap pushed the two girls away from it. Philia managed to recover and countered with her Dagger Throw Dagger Skill, striking it in the face, and making it screech.

The two girls landed on their feet on the ground, before dashing at the head of the monster, with Flair charging in from the other side, her rapier at hand. The trio of girls unleashed a combination of attacks together onto the head, causing it to retract it back to its body, reappearing on the underside of its body. In the place of the the neck, there seemed to be a metallic shell.

"It's head now on the underside!" Hinata noticed.

"Looks like it's showing us its defensive state." Flair assumed.

"Coward!" Samson roared.

The Heartless crawled along the wall, keeping its guard up as the others pursued, before stopping and tensing its legs, prepared to springboard off the wall. From the angle it held, it looked like the target was Flair and Samson. Hinata was the first to notice as she shouted, "Samson, guard up!"

Samson responded immediately by furling its tendrils around Flair, while she placed her hairpin rapier up in a guard. The Arachnocturne leapt off the building, shooting at her like a comet. The two endured, but were knocked over while on guard as it soared right over them, slamming into the building on the other side, breaking it apart and causing it to collapse.

"Are you okay?!" Philia shouted as she and Hinata raced to the two-in-one's side.

"I am, thanks to Samson and you guys." Flair answered.

"Look!" Samson pointed a free tendril at the Heartless, who was collapsed, but still in a defensive state. The legs were a bit spread out, and its head and neck were tucked underneath its shelled body, which was slightly cracked.

"Looks like it's been battered a bit from its own attack." Hinata noticed.

Philia looked at one of the legs, which was angled the highest above the body at an angle, and that gave her an idea. "Let's break it all the way!" She declared, racing to the one leg, leaping onto it. She used her magic on her feet to grind up the metallic leg, leaping off at the highest point, getting to a good height, and coming down onto the shell, slamming her Keydagger onto it. The result was it shattering, causing the Heartless to screech, before quickly recovering, and rising to its feet. The neck and head shifted from underneath to above once again.

"You did it, Philia!" Flair cheered.

"It's now easy to target again." Hinata stated gleefully.

"Yeah." The treasure huntress responded, digging into a pocket to pull out a charm, "And just for it targeting my friends, it's gonna have to deal with a little lunacy."

"Really?" Samson demanded, "You're bringing her onto the battlefield?"

"It's been a while, so she needs a little time to do some destruction." Philia answered, raising the charm up high, "Rerun Charm, Summon!" The charm shined, and it shot out a beam in front of her, hitting the ground. All of a sudden, a pitch-black hole appeared in the ground, and out popped a girl. This girl was far from a normal-looking character. She had empty black empty eye socket, sharp teeth, and medium-length orange hair hidden underneath a tall maroon top hat with a red piece near the rim. She wore an old-style one-piece dress that matched the color of her hat, a large red ribbon on her chest and white frills. Her dress reached the ankles of her feet, which were small and shoes. Her arms were stringy, metallic-looking, and had three red-pupil eyes sticking out down each of them. Her hands were large and white, and very much like Mickey Mouse's gloves.

"Heya Philly and Filia!" The girl greeted, "Did ya girls take a left at Albuquerque?"

"Glad to have you on the scene, Peacock!" Philia greeted, pointing to the Arachnocturne, "Wanna go squash this overgrown spider with me?"

The girl, Peacock, looked to the Cyber Heartless, before giving a toothy grin and answering, "Soitenly! I think it's time to paint the town red. Gang, let's go!" Out of the hole, there appeared a whole group of odd characters that joined the group; a living anvil with eyes, teeth, legs, and arms with boxing gloves, a ten-ton metal weight with a face, muscular arms and short legs, a small bomb with an 8 on the face with small arms and feet, and a far larger, obese-looking bomb that was designed like the smaller one.

"You know what to do, Philly." Peacock called out, before charging at the Cyber Heartless, pulling out revolver from nowhere and went to town, shooting up the Heartless as it shrieked and tried to trample her, only for her to avoid the legs by diving into a cartoon hole it created and popping out at a different angle.

"Okay, time to go. Andy!" Philia shouted, using her Keydagger to magically send the anvil guy into the air, as he folded up its arms and legs, before falling down onto the Heartless, smashing the top of the head. It shook it off, but saw Peacock laugh in a mocking matter, getting the attention on her.

"George!" Philia shouted, tossing the smaller bomb with her weapon. George lit itself, and blasting the Cyber Heartless as Andy the anvil produced legs to run from the scene. The bomb exploded, ending him, but for some reason, George reappeared out of thin air next to Philia and the others again.

"Lenny!" Philia next sent the fat bomb, whacking it over with her Keydagger like a baseball player, and it flew a short distance before landing in an area near Peacock and the Heartless. "And now, Tommy!" Philia send the ten-ton weight man via magic, sending him above the Heartless, before slamming it down onto its head. Philia kept up the momentum with Andy, Tommy and George as they bombed and slammed down onto the Heartless, while Peacock shot her pistol, slammed pies in its face, or tips her hat to reveal a bird character named Avery, who shot a shotgun. Eventually, Lenny blew up, causing a lot of damage in the vicinity.

"All together now!" Peacock shouted, cueing their final attack 'Murder-go-Round', as Philia and her gang gathered together, while Peacock produced a burlap sack, and through her cartoonish powers, managed to placed the giant Heartless into it. The team gathered around it as they stomped relentlessly onto it, before walking away as George continued to slam it with a baseball bat. Philia used her magic to light up a cigarette in Peacocks head, and she tossed it behind her, landing right on George, who blew up with tremendous force, leaving the two girls standing there with grins on their faces.

"Ha, what a sucker." Peacock scoffed, lighting up a cigar to smoke.

"Thanks for the assist." Philia thanked her, looking to see the Heartless rise up from the wreckage, "We did some major damage. Let us take care of the rest."

"Sure. I was just headin' back, anyway." Peacock pointed out, "Can't miss my favorite cartoon." She produced another black hole in the ground, and vanished.

"No matter how many times I see her, she annoys me." Samson growled.

"Oh, come on, Samson. She's a friend, like Squigly and Parasoul." Philia argued.

"Guys, I'm afraid we have more pressing matters to deal with." Hinata told the two, as the team readied to face the rising Arachnocturne.

It suddenly leapt up, and folded its legs into one another, forming a top-like stance, as its head and neck retreated to being underneath again. It then emanated a dark aura, while it sounded like a saw blade starting up as it started to spin about, coming toward the Heart Sisters. They ran away from it as fast as they could, trying to avoid getting hit by it. However, due to its size and speed of how it moved, it was able to hit each of them at least once, causing them pain.

"Ow…" Hinata grimaced, rising up after it sent her into a wall.

"This thing is pulling out its desperate moves." Philia grimaced, recovering herself and the others with a Curaga, recovering them of their injuries.

The Heartless eventually slowed down, and finally stopped, taking its legs out of its top form, and moving around in a dazed matter before collapsing in a similar matter to before. "Go, Philia!" Flair shouted, pointing to it, seeing the cracked shell on its body.

"I'm on it!" She answered, doing the same trick by running up to one raised leg, grinding up it, and slamming down on top of the shell breaking it and causing the Arachnocturne to rise up, as well as reveal its head again in targeting view.

"Girls, let's end this!" Philia shouted as she fell to the ground.

"Right!" The others responded, and Flair shot forward, leaping up into her Banshee technique, taking on the moth-girl form as she slammed straight through the Heartless. Hinata followed up with her Eight-Trigram Vacuum Palm, getting in close and hitting it with the Aero-elemented attack. Finally, Philia leapt forward, her Keydagger glowing as she unleashed her Mirage Fang Dagger Skill, unleashing a back to back slash with her weapon over and over again, until she landed on the ground again, her weapon to one side. With her final blow, the Arachnocturne finally collapsed, and disappeared into dark mist before their eyes, the heart floating into the sky from it as it vanished. They finally took it down.

They took a moment to collect themselves as they stared at the spot the Cyber Heartless vanished. Finally, there was a ring in their ear, and they just remembered they were still in contact with the members of S.O.N.G. "Good work, Heart Sisters." Genjuro congratulated them, "You were able to stop that Heartless before it caused too much damage."

"We're just doing our job, sir." Philia answered, but felt as appreciated by the compliment as did the others.

In a few seconds afterwards, they saw Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris race down the damaged street towards them, with Hibiki asking, "Are you okay?!"

"Yep. We're doing fine." Hinata answered, "Are you girls okay?"

"We're fine, but I wish we were more useful in this situation." Tsubasa grimaced.

"No kidding. Suddenly, those metal Heartless come about, and we couldn't do anything." Chris growled, "Not to mention we couldn't even stop those three from before."

Hibiki looked down, rather depressed, and it caught Flair's attention, as she asked, "Are you doing okay, Hibiki?"

"No." She answered, "I mean, not only were we not able to stop that Heartless with you guys, but I couldn't even get a chance to talk it out with Tears. She just didn't want to reason."

"Why are you so insistent on that?" Tink questioned, finally popping out to join the others, "That girl is absolutely evil! She's so obsessed with gathering darkness for her father, that she will not care for anything or anyone else. Talking it out with her won't do anything!"

"Tink, that's a little harsh, don't you think?" Philia questioned her pixie friend, "But she is right. Tears has been gathering allies in the past, as well as darkness to be used in her father's schemes."

"Speaking of which, what does she want to gather the darkness for?" Tsubasa asked, "And what is she trying to gather here? She said there was an armor and soul fragments she was searching for, but what are they?"

"The first question is a little complicated to answer, and one that I'm not too sure about to answer." Philia responded, "As for what she is gathering, if it is an armor and soul, maybe they both belong to one person. As for who, it has to be someone particularly evil. Got anyone who fits that description?"

"A couple, actually." Chris answered, looking down with a worried expression, "But if I had to guess…"

Just then, their coms activated, and Genjuro shouted, "Everyone, get back to S.O.N.G Headquarters! We have an intruder!"

The alert threw the team off-guard as Tsubasa demanded, "What did you say?!"

"We identified it as one of the people who you encountered!" Sakuya alerted, "It's the lavender-haired girl known as Tears!"

"Oh, no…" Hibiki said in a scared voice, fearing the lives of those at the headquarters.

"Why would she attack your headquarters?!" Samson demanded.

"Whatever the case, we have to get there, ASAP!" Chris shouted, as the girls saw the helicopter that dropped them off before reappear as it descended towards the nearest open area, and they made a break for it.

"Genjuro, sir. Where is she heading?!" Philia demanded, trying to figure out Tears's actions.

"We have a visual!" Aoi answered for him, "Based on directions…she's heading to the Detainment!"

"What did you say?!" Genjuro questioned, "I'm on my way!"

"Wait, don't go fighting her alone!" Philia shouted back, but there was no response.

"Detainment? Is that like your prison cells in your headquarters?!" Filia questioned Tsubasa, who nodded.

"But why is she heading there?!" Tink asked, "What's there?!"

"Not what. Who!" Tsubasa gasped.

"No… Maria! Kirika! Shirabe!" Hibiki exclaimed, "They're in trouble!"

The team got onto the helicopter as fast as they could, with Tsubasa shouting to the pilot, "Get us back to headquarters, stat!" The pilot got the aircraft into the sky, and they flew back to base, with the Symphogear trio in complete worry, as were the Heart Sisters. Who were these three individuals that Hibiki named? And what was Tears planning to do with them? And they feared greatly for everyone's lives in that submarine. They had to get some answers, and save lives.

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Next Time on Sword Art Kingdom III

Gathering Up to the Finé!