The first thing Exodus tries to do as the battle began is immediately run off to the side of the battlefield and run up a cliff to avoid the rest of the opposing army.

"Wha? He's getting away!" Rex yells.

Zeke gets down into a running position. "We have to go after him."

Rex looks over at Zeke as if he's lost his mind. "We can't run up a wall like that."

"Sure you can. All you have to do is concentrate." With that Zeke runs right for the cliff and begins to scale the cliff in a half running half climbing sort of way.

Nia just stares at this in awe. "That can't be normal."

"Welp. Only one way to find out." Rex begins to run towards the cliff and does what Zeke in doing albeit at a slower rate.

As Zeke and Rex are scaling the cliffside some of the flying Ardainian titan ships unload their guns onto Exodus who simply dodges all the attacks.

"Those weapons are far too slow to get me." Exodus sends a beam of light from his sword and destroys one of the ships. After killing two more ships Zeke and Rex make it to the top of the cliff where they pull out their weapons into attack formation.

"Why did you come up here?" Rex asks confused by Exodus' actions.

Exodus closes his eyes and chuckles darkly before reopening his eyes. "I didn't want anyone to interfere with our battle." Exodus then gets into position to attack. "Now you will both die by my hand."

With that Exodus charges right at Rex and lunges at Rex's head but Rex barely moves his head out of the way in time and gets his cheek grazed by the attack. 'He's fast!'

Exodus then tries to slash to the right from his current position to try another blow at Rex's head only for Rex to drop to the floor to avoid the attack entirely and have Zeke jump above Rex to slash downwards on Exodus. When Exodus sees this attack he immediately jumps back a bit then lunges his sword right towards Zeke but the lunge is pushed to the side as Rex slashes the sword off path towards the right. Since Rex was this close Exodus kicks Rex in the chest sending him flying back only to be caught by Zeke and placed down from mid air.

Rex finds something very off about the way Exodus is fighting. "Why are you only using one weapon?"

Exodus chuckles at this. "Because I only need one weapon to kill you two."

With that Exodus then has his blade sway back and forth in his hand as he slowly walks towards Rex and Zeke. As he keeps walking his blade starts to become brighter and brighter. Suddenly the blade explodes in brightness which temporarily dazes the two drivers and Exodus slashes Rex and Zeke in one fell swoop across the chest leaving the two damaged. Exodus then tries to go for multiple thrusts at Rex but by then the two drivers have already jumped back from the first hit and were mostly recovered by then.

For the first time in the fight Rex initiates the fight and begins to slash wildly at Exodus who blocks most of the hits but is grazed by a few of the hits. Zeke suddenly shouts at Rex "Chum get out of the way!" to which Rex immediately jumps off to the right and Zeke unleashes his eye on Exodus which begins to massively drain Exodus' ether before Exodus charges a strike and slashes Zeke from over head to which Zeke blocks. This however stops Zeke's concentration on his eye and the eye stops absorbing Exouds' ether.

'Shit. That drained a fourth of my ether, I can't be hit by that any more.' Exodus begins his assault of slashes down on Zeke from mid air and as Zeke continues to block the attacks the ground beneath him begins to crack from the sheer force of the blows from above him. As the strikes continue Exodus begins fueling ether into his strikes and light begins to encapsulate the blade making the attacks grow even more powerful. Rex comes charging from behind and sends a burst of water at Exodus from behind but Exodus senses this and jumps over the attack but notices by letting up on his assault that Zeke thrusts his sword upwards with Electricity pouring out of it.

"Dynamic Spark Sword!" Zeke hits Exodus dead center in the chest sending Exodus flying upwards. Nia then shoots water ether right at Exodus' while he's going up but Exodus dodges and lands off to the side.

'I cannot get hit by that water no matter what.' Exodus then forms an idea. Exodus holds his sword in his left hand and charges towards Rex again. 'If I can take Rex out then this fight will all go down hill for them.' As Exodus is raising his left arm to strike, Rex begins to raise his arm to defend. 'All according to plan.' Exodus side steps the attack and grabs Rex's blade with his right hand to prevent Rex from moving and in one swift motion Exodus cuts Rex's arm off.

The pain Rex feels in unfathomable as he looks over to his severed arm. Nia however is quick on her feet and attaches a strand of water to Rex's severed arm and forces it to spasm which cuts deep into Exodus' right hand splitting Exodus' hand down the middle to the wrist. Feeling this Exodus throws the arm away as far as he can while also making sure to disintegrate the arm with a beam of light. The attack however does not destroy Nia's sword and Nia has to pick to either heal Rex or go for her sword. Nia decides to begin healing Rex. This leaves Zeke completely exposed as he now has to fight Exodus one-on-one.

"You bastard! You will pay for that." Zeke then begins to strike at Exodus with all his might and Exodus begins to crumple from the force of the attacks.

'Dammit. If it weren't for that freak destroying my hand I would be able to parry these attacks. I need to think of something fast.' Exodus jumps back and begins unleashing slashes of light at Zeke as quickly as he can. As the slashes fly towards Zeke; Zeke turns his eye back on and absorbs all the attacks along with even more of Exodus' ether.

As Nia heals Rex's arm she comes to a terrifying discovery. When she healed the stump instead of growing a new arm it simply stopped the bleeding and left the stump as is. 'Oh crap this can't be happening.' Once Rex feels better he gets up and walks towards where Nia's sword is. Nia grabs Rex by the shoulder and looks downwards. "Wait a minute Rex. You can't fight anymore."

Rex also looks down as well. "But if I don't keep fighting then Zeke will fight Exodus all alone."

"That doesn't matter right now. You can't fight with one arm Rex."

Rex then turns around and looks at Nia softly. "I know you're worried about me, but as long as their is breath in my body and as long as my friends are in trouble I must keep fighting on no matter what." Rex then runs for the blade and picks the blade up in his left hand and charges back at Exodus.

As Morag stands at the top of the castle and looks out on to the battle field below things begin to get pretty bad. Just moments ago the blade army has began to infiltrate the city with some relatively moderate numbers still in place. A guard comes through the door behind her and gives a report. "Your Majesty, the blade army has broken through the front gates and are beginning to invade the city."

Morag sadly looks out over the city and for a second her hands clench in anger. Despite that Morag responds in a calm voice. "I can see that."

"We are also hearing reports that the city is currently only fifty percent evacuated." The guard continues.

'That is far too few people.' Morag thinks to herself. "I'm going out."

The guard is stunned by this choice. "B-but your Majesty we can't let you go out in the middle of a war."

"There are still far too many people in the city. I can't afford to let their blood flow in these streets."

Suddenly a more harmonic voice is heard entering the room. "Then how about you let me handle this."

Hearing his voice Morag instantly turns around with a slightly irritated look. "What are you doing here Mikhail?"

Mikhail does a dramatic bow to Morag. "To help the lovely Empress of course."

"And why would I request the aid of you exactly?" Morag sneers.

Mikhail turns uncharacteristically serious. "Because one of my old friends used to live here. He loved this place more than anything and he would've done anything to protect it. He went out of his way to help protect my old homeland of Torna when it was in danger a very long time ago and I intend to do the same thing for him now and make sure nothing happens to these citizens." Mikhail then goes back to being playful. "You can see this as a way to pay off some of my criminal charges."

Morag narrows her eyes at Mikhail and studies him to make sure he is telling the truth. "Alright, I can see you're being honest. I shall allow you to aid in evacuating the city. If you can succeed in evacuating the entire city with zero citizen casualties then you can see your criminal charges as repaid."

Mikhail bows his head slightly in thanks before flashing Morag a smirk. "Also if I succeed in this task you have to give me a hug. Deal? Deal. Okay see you later!" With that Mikhail runs out the door before Morag can object.

'Damn him. I knew I couldn't take him seriously.' With that Morag turns back around and continues to watch the carnage unfold in the city.

As Mikhail is running out of the castle he spots a certain tiger near the entrance. "Yo Dromarch come with me."

Dromarch turns his head and looks at Mikhail in surprise. "Mikhail? What are you doi-"

Mikhail runs past Dromarch. "No time to explain follow me."

Dromarch is completely baffled by this and at first shifts back and forth on his paws in contemplation on whether or not to follow Mikhail. Dromarch decides to go against his judgements and follows after Mikhail.

As Mikhail runs through the streets he turns around and sees that Dromarch had decided to follow him. "Ah glad to see that you came."

"It was more on impulse than anything. What are you doing Mikhail?"

Mikhail flashes the big cat a grin. "I'm protecting the citizens of Alba Cavanich. It's a good thing you followed. Having a healer close by will help keep casualties to a minimum."

Dromarch takes a moment to digest the words Mikhail had just spoken and comes to a conclusion. "Are you perhaps paying off a debt to her Majesty?"

Mikhail quickly responds with "yeah that's part of the reason."

"Then I shall provide you with some assistance in the evacuation."

"Thanks buddy. Although I do wonder how you're going to fight. I mean it's not like you can hold your rings in your paws and I'd imagine that using your head severely limits your motions." Mikhail points out.

"Have you just assumed I've done nothing over these past five years?"

Right before Mikhail can respond they make it to the gates where they see dozens of blades pouring in. As Mikhail looks at the internal defenses he notices that there is one less group protecting the inner city. "Morag must've recalled one of the divisions back to help evacuate the people faster." Mikhail gives a sigh out of dread. "Looks like I really got my work cut out for me." Mikhail then grabs the fans off his back and brings them into an attacking stance. Before he heads into the fray Mikhail looks back at Dromarch. "If you don't mind me asking could you stay here and heal all the wounded people?"

"Those were my intentions." Dromarch responds as two streams of water ether begin to materialize out of Dromarchs sides and grab the twin rings off his back.

"So that was what you learned huh? You're one clever cat I'll give you that." Mikhail says surprised while giving a little shrug. Mikhail then looks back forward and focus' on the gate that is currently opened as blades keep pouring in every minute. "I think I'll start with that." Mikhail raises the fans above his head and takes in a deep breath. "Crow Beat." Suddenly Mikhail rises into the air and the wind pressure from the attack slams the gates shut which crushes some blades between the gates that were trying to get into the city. Mikhail looks at his handy work and begins to release a dark sticky adhesive with his dark ether all over the gates of the city which completely seals the door shut. "That should keep the gates shut for a while." Mikhail then looks at the remaining blades that got through the gates. "Care to dance?"

Zeke drops to the ground and yells in pain after Exodus managed to slash right at Zeke's eyes which blinds Zeke. "Looks like that eye is no longer functional. I believe this is checkmate." Right as Exodus is about to strike down on Zeke and finish him off Rex comes out of nowhere and defends the block with his blade. "Oh so the worm still moves? Your resilient I'll give you that."

Rex then starts shouting out commands to everyone present. "Pandoria you need to get Zeke away from the battle. Nia you need to heal Zeke's eyes ASAP."

Pandoria nods. "Right." She then proceeds to drag Zeke a bit farther away from the battle.

Nia follows close behind and has water ether form on her palms as she places her palms on Zeke's slashed eyes and within a moment Zeke's eyes are fully healed. "Your eyes are healed but you'll 'ave to give your eyes a moment to readjust."

Zeke opens his eyes and everything is all blurry and he can't make out anything. "That bloody bastard got me good." Zeke remarks defeated.

After hearing a response showing that Zeke was alright Nia went back into the fight with Rex against Exodus.

"So it would appear that you can't fix what no longer exists I see? That is very convenient." Exodus then goes for another slash at Rex who blocks the attack and gets rewarded with a smack to the head with Exodus' broken hand which sends a shock through Rex's body. Before Exodus can capitalize on the opening Nia sends a torrent of water at Exodus which hits right on the gaping wound that is still present on his hand.

"Looks like your arrogance has just caught up with you." Nia smirks.

Without hesitation Exodus chops his arm off with his sword without a second thought. 'I couldn't let that spread.'

Nia, Rex, and off in the distance Pandoria all look on in shock at Exodus' action. Zeke didn't see any of it due to still trying to recover.

Upon close inspection Rex and Nia both find something very off about Exodus.

Rex notices that there is no blood coming out of the joint and only ether particles. 'How? He was bleeding the last time we fought. Why is he not bleeding from such an attack?'

Nia thinks back to their previous fight as well. 'Why didn't he freeze the wound like last time? That would've made more sense to do in this situation.'

Pandoria thinks about this situation as well. 'Exodus hasn't healed any of his wounds since this fight began. Why doesn't he heal his wounds?'

Before anyone can come to a conclusion Exodus decides that this fight has dragged on long enough. "You shall bear witness to my ultimate technique." Exodus then points his sword downwards and drops his sword. As the sword makes contact with the ground the sword disappears into the ground and at first nothing happens. Suddenly there is a glowing yellow crack in the sky right above Exodus. The crack gets bigger and bigger and starts webbing outwards as well. Suddenly the cracks shatter to reveal two large white doors appearing in the sky each one being about twenty feet tall and eight feet wide. The framing of the doors is decorated with jewels that give the doors a shimmer to them. Exodus then speaks in a calm and quiet voice. "Gate of Heaven".

The doors begin to creak open very slowly at first and everyone is on their toes in anticipation for whats about to happen. By this point Zeke has gained enough of his eyesight back to somewhat make out what is happening right now. Suddenly the doors burst open and a massive beam of light is shot out of it.

While Morag continues to watch the battle in the city below she is suddenly blind sided by a massive bright light. Out of confusion Morag opens her window and looks out to the side to see a giant door floating above a cliff. "What is happening over there?"

Down on the ground as Mikhail continues to fight off the rouge blades he is also blinded by a bright light in the sky and looks up momentarily to see two giant doors floating in the sky. "That Exodus guy sure is full of surprises."

While Dromarch is healing up some of the soldiers on the ground he feels a bright light flash behind him and turns his head for a moment out of curiosity. When he sees the two giant doors in the sky only one thought goes through his mind. 'My lady... I hope you're not the one on the receiving end of that attack.'

As Tora continues to work on various experiments in the lab Poppi reads off some statistics that just came in. "Masterpon, large spike in ether readings just occurred."

Tora looks up from his tinkering and looks at Poppi curiously. "What element and how far away?"

"Element: Light. Destination: Right outside city."

"Sound like friend Rex-Rex and Zeke's fight." Tora thinks quietly to himself. 'Friends better be safe.'

None of them could escape the blast in time. The best that could be done was for the blades to set up barriers around themselves and their drivers before the blast struck. Nia made sure to add a layer of healing ether inside hers and Rex's barriers so they could absorb as much of the blast as possible. Rex and Nia came out of the attack relatively fine but still felt their ether drop from the blast. Zeke and Pandoria were less fortunate as Pandoria's barrier wasn't as strong as Nia's. This left the two with some major burns on their bodies but the two were still standing after the attack. The vegetation around them was vaporized by the attack and the rocks were left pitch black.

"What the hell was that?!" Rex exclaims in pure shock.

"This is my ultimate technique, one where me and my blade become one and unleash the power that is laid dormant. In a sense it's the sign of my blade evolving. I have dubbed this technique as 'Blade Shift'."

"Blade Shift?" Zeke asks tiredly.

Now that the gates were fully open everyone could see inside the gate and see a realm of golden sky with clouds whirling in the distance that seemed to circle around the center where the gate was positioned. It seemed to only have sky as there was nothing else behind the gate. Suddenly an array of beams shoot out of the gates at the small group. These beams not being nearly as big as the first but still a major threat. As everyone dodges Nia pours healing ether and covers it on Zeke and Pandoria to help them recover from the burns they suffered from the first blast. Seeing as Exodus wasn't doing anything Rex charges Exodus and tries to slash at him. When Exodus sees this coming he jumps up and enters the gate above as it quickly closes shut and disappears.

"Dammit he got away!" Rex yells in frustration.

Suddenly the gate appears behind Zeke and the gate opens to shoot another barrage of beams of light. Zeke sees this out of the corner of his eye and blocks the beams with his blade and tries to attack the gate only for the gate to disappear again.

"I can't believe Exodus would stoop to such lengths as hit and run tactics." Nia remarks.

The gate appears right next to Nia and Exodus has his hand outstretched ready to drag Nia into the gates. As Exodus outstretches his hand to grab her Nia thinks quick on her feet and forms some water ether on the back of her neck that is beneath her hair.

Rex being unaware of this yells "Nia look out!"

Right as Exodus grabs the back of Nia's neck the water ether shoots up Exodus' hand and enters any small cuts that are along his remaining arm. Do to this sudden turn of events Exodus immediately sends a beam of light from within his gate to chop off his other remaining arm. "Damn you bitch!" Exodus then sends another of the massive beams of light out of the gate right towards Nia. Because of how close Nia is to the gate she barely has enough time to erect a barrier and is fried by the blast leaving her charred black but still breathing. Due to the severity of her injuries Nia passes out. Because Exodus has been focusing on Nia he fails to realize that Zeke is coming down from behind him with the electricity on his blade making his blade appear about five times longer than it actually was.

"Ultimate Lightning Fury Slash MAX!" with one fell swoop Zeke comes crashing down on the gates from behind with so much force that the gate begins to heavily crack from the attack. To make his attack even stronger Zeke cranks the absorption on his eye to their absolute limits and the ether starts to rapidly drain from the gate and is on the verge of breaking when Exodus disappears once more.

Rex looks over too Nia in pure shock and dread. Nia has been injured heavily from the attack to the point where she passed out from the damage before she had the chance to heal up her injuries. Due to this course of events if Rex doesn't do something soon or if Exodus tries for another attack Nia will die from her injuries. Normally Rex would feel sadness and begin to cry at this point. However to his surprise that was not what he felt in that instance. What he felt was much more dark and cold. Rex felt pure hatred towards Exodus. With hollow eyes and a blank expression Rex slowly lifts Nia's blade in his hand and water ether begins to form on the blade. This normally wouldn't be possible with Nia passed out, but Rex felt so much hatred towards Exodus in that moment that Rex subconsciously forced some of Nia's ether out of her body to coat the blade. Just as Exodus appears with his gate right behind Rex and begins to charge another of the large beams of light Rex turns around and slashes the gates in one fell swoop.

What happened next was completely unexpected. Unlike all the other water based attacks that had hyper regeneration, this attack had the exact opposite effect. The gates immediately began melting beneath the ether that the gates were struck with and Exodus fell out of his gate onto the ground and looked up as his gate disintegrated before his very eyes. Once the gate was completely gone his sword returned to his side but immediately shattered upon reforming. Ether particles began to slowly float off of Exodus. "Looks like I've failed you father."

At those words Zeke, Pandoria, and Rex all look horrified at Exodus' words. "What do you mean by father?" Rex asks darkly.

'Exodus' slowly turns his head towards Rex and gives Rex a soft smile. "You thought I was the real Exodus? Ha! I'm honored that you mistook me for my father but I can assure you that I am not the real Exodus."

Zeke pushes further. "If you're not the real Exodus then where is the real one?"

'Exodus' looks up at the sky. "Father is out getting the real prize he's after. We were just a ploy; a distraction for all of you so he could achieve his goal. I am thankful that father gave me such an important role as to pose as him so that you're group would be forced to split up. He will be very pleased with my performance in the dissection of Rex and the murder of that traitor." 'Exodus' closes his eyes and smiles. "Did you not find it odd that I couldn't use any of my rings or how I had no flesh, or couldn't heal seemingly minor wounds?"

Rex grits his teeth and takes his blade and points it right at 'Exodus'' throat. "I'll kill him I swear it. I will kill Exodus for hurting those precious to me, dragging civilians into this conflict, and throwing the lives of his 'children' away as if they were nothing but pawns. A man like that has NO PLACE IN THIS WORLD!" Rex's hand begins to shake as his blade lowers closer to 'Exodus' throat. Before he can stab 'Exodus' Zeke grabs his hand and stops Rex from completing the action.

"That's enough Rex. He's already going to die. No need to butcher this fool."

Rex looks up at Zeke with hollow eyes once more. "But he hurt Nia. I'm supposed to protect her. He must die." As Rex continues to try to lower his blade Zeke tightens his grip on Rex's hand.

Zeke narrows his eyes at Rex. "I said don't do it! Don't stoop to their level." Zeke sharply argues.

"But... I want to do it." Rex says in an ominous voice.

"If you do this you will lose apart of your humanity. Do you want to go to such lengths just to quell your own pain?!" Zeke yells at Rex trying to get through to him.

"If it means protecting Nia then I'll throw away ALL MY HUMANIT-" Before Rex can finish his sentence Zeke smacks Rex in the head full force with the blunt end of his sword knocking Rex out instantly.

'Exodus' looks up at the exchange and smiles at seeing Rex get knocked out. "Couldn't handle seeing your friend like that?"

Zeke looks at 'Exodus' in disgust. "He was not in the right state of mind. He needs to cool down and maybe he'll be better by the time he wakes. Exodus is one evil bastard I'll have to admit."

"Then it would seem that in the end I failed to completely break Rex. Although I did at least leave him nearly broken. I would've succeeded if it weren't for you being here."

"Then it looks like I'll have no choice but to make sure that never happens."

"You... can... tr..." With that 'Exodus' completely fades away leaving an exhausted Zeke and Pandoria and an incapacitated Rex and Nia. Zeke falls to one knee and Pandoria quickly runs to his side to help him up. "My prince, are you ok?"

Zeke looks over to Pandoria exhausted. "I'll be fine. But those two won't." Zeke looks over to Rex and Nia. Zeke then tries to walk on his own and places his blade back on his back. He then walks over to Rex's incapacitated body and slings him over his shoulder with one arm and carries Rex's blade in his other arm. Zeke then looks over to Pandoria and asks her. "Can you carry Nia?"

Pandoria nods. "I can."

Right before Pandoria picks Nia up Zeke cautions. "Be sure to be extra careful with her. She's damaged pretty badly."

Pandoria nods her head again. "I know." Pandoria then slowly lifts Nia up and carries her piggyback style. "We need to get back to the castle where it's safe."

Zeke nods his head in agreement. "We need to get back as quickly as possible." Zeke begins running towards the edge of the cliff to see whats going on down below. What he sees before him is that there is still a decent amount of blades left and the gates seem to be coated in a strange black liquid. 'Must be Mikhail's doing.' "Looks like we'll have to jump on the walls. Pandy will you be able to make the jump? I'm confident in making the jump but I'm not as sure about you."

Pandoria looks at Zeke a little peeved. "Of course I can make it. Just watch." With that Pandoria runs at full speed towards the cliff and jumps off towards the walls of Alba Cavanich. When Pandoria jumps she manages to barely make it on the wall. A few of the guards manning the walls look shocked at seeing the sudden appearance of Pandoria but quickly brush it off and continue to unload on the enemies below.

Seeing Pandoria already across Zeke follows suit and jumps for the wall as well and makes it over. Zeke then proceeds to jump from the walls to the roofs of the buildings with Pandoria close behind him. As the duo run across the buildings they see Mikhail still fighting in the front of the city and they see Dromarch off to the side healing a few injured soldiers. "Looks like this battle should be over soon." Zeke remarks.

Once the duo get close enough to the castle the two of them jump back on the ground and run into the entrance. Upon their arrival several guards come and surround the two with looks of concern. "Sir Zeke what happened?!"

"No time to explain our friend Nia is doing pretty bad right now. She needs medical attention immediately!" Zeke shouts out to the crowd.

A few of the guards straighten up. "Right this way! We'll take a look at those two." A few of the guards run off in a direction and Zeke and Pandoria follow close behind. After riding a few elevators and making several tuns throughout the castle the group finds themselves in a clinical area. "You can leave Sir Rex here to be checked up. However it appears that we'll have to take Lady Nia to the Intensive Care Unit." The guard responds.

Zeke drops Rex on a nearby bed and places his blade at Rex's bedside while Pandoria follows a few of the guards to drop Nia off in the ICU with Zeke trailing not so far behind afterwards. As they reach the ICU several doctors begin analyzing Nia's body and a few of the guards escort Zeke and Pandoria out of the room so the doctors can get to work. After being escorted out of the room Zeke immediately asks one of the guards: "Where is Morag?"

The guard looks downcast sadly and doesn't say anything for a moment. "She left."

Zeke has a look of shock on his face. "What do you mean she left?! Where did she go off to?"

"Her Majesty left for the Leftharian Archipelago about twenty minutes ago via the teleporters along with a dozen of her best guards." The guard solemnly replied. "For what reason I am not sure but whatever it was for she looked dead serious."

Remembering what 'Exodus' said to Zeke earlier sends a chill down his spine. 'Dammit, she's going after the real Exodus. She can't fight him on her own, he's gotten too strong.' Zeke looks over to Pandoria. "We need to get Morag back before something bad happens to her."

Pandoria looks a bit concerned with her driver. "But my prince, you only have about a third of your ether left are you sure about this?"

Zeke sighs before giving Pandoria a firm look. "We won't be fighting him, we only need to retrieve Morag and leave alright?"

Pandoria looks at Zeke for a moment and lowers her head slightly. "If we can avoid this fight then alright."

With that the two make their way towards the teleporters where they see Tora with Poppi pacing back and forth. "Tora? What are you doing here?"

Tora looks up to see a somewhat battered Zeke and Pandoria walking up to them. "Tora try to convince friend Morag that fighting Exodus on own is suicide. Friend Morag did not listen to Tora and went anyways."

"Tora come with us to retrieve Morag before something bad happens to her."

Tora thinks about it momentarily. "Alright Tora go with friend Zeke." Tora turns over to Poppi. "Poppi activate QTπ mode."

"Roger Roger Masterpon." Poppi then begins to transform while Tora looks back a Zeke with a question. "What happen to friends Rex-Rex and Nia?"

Zeke not wanting to tell Tora how bad things really were decided to be vague about their situation for now. "The fight we had took a lot out of them so they're both recovering at the moment."

Tora could tell that Zeke was holding back something but decided not to push for now. Once Poppi was done transforming she struck a dramatic pose. "Ta da! Poppi QTπ mode activated."

Zeke looks towards the portal and begins walking towards it. "Then let's get going."

"Alright, let Tora set coordinates and we go save Morag." Tora pulls up a small screen on the side and begins typing furiously on the keyboard to get the coordinates for the teleporter that was shipped to the Leftharian Archipelago and then turns the teleporter on. "Let get going."

Without saying another word Zeke runs through the teleporter with everyone following suit.

As Morag made her way from the teleporter with her elite guard behind her she gave out orders to all of them. "Evacuate the people as quickly as possible. Don't let anyone be harmed by this attack. Do I make myself clear?"

The elite guards nod at Morag's orders and the guards begin to go to each of the houses and begin knocking on the doors to get the people out as quickly as possible. Morag makes her way to the entrance to the Spirit Crucible Elypse and can sense a powerful ether signature slowly making its way back to the surface. Morag begins to pull out both Brighid and Aegeon's blades and begins to focus into performing dual wielding. After another minute of waiting the real Exodus emerges from the Spirit Crucible Elypse with a light grin on his face. "So lovely of you to wait for my return 'your majesty'." Exodus sarcastically remarks.

"Exodus. What you were doing in Mor Ardain was just a ploy wasn't it?"

"That is correct. That army is only there to cause as much havoc as possible. I suppose that my doppelgänger did more damage than I had hoped for seeing as no one else is hear to help you." Exodus lips curl up even further into a grotesque smile. "This will be your grave Morag. I look forward to finally killing the Empress."

Morag looks over at Exodus' hand and notices a fourth ring in place. 'What will be your new power Exodus?' Morag then looks Exodus right in the eyes. "I don't plan on falling here today."

"Then show me the power of humanity." Exodus summons two battle axes to each hand and eighteen lances ready to be fired behind him all in various elements. "And I shall show you the power of Blades."

'So his current maximum number of weapons is now twenty I see.' Morag thinks to herself. Morag then sprints at Exodus and tries to slash at Exodus but right as Morag begins running at him Exodus begins firing his lances at Morag in volleys forcing Morag to immediately take the defensive instead as she parry's each of the lances away as quickly as possible. While Morag is being distracted Exodus teleports behind Morag and sends a strong kick to Morag's side sending Morag flying into the air. Morag however manages to land properly and charge in for another attack and manages to slash Exodus' leg before having to defend against a turret of fists being sent her way from Exodus who was using twenty knuckle claws and punching Morag with all of them at the same time. The pressure from the attacks is so immense that Morag buckles from the pressure and is forced onto one knee from the attacks. Morag manages to push all the claws away for an instant and slashes Exodus in the stomach and pumps blue hot flames into the wound causing Exodus to wince a little from the pain. Exodus kicks Morag back again and this time Exodus cracks his neck.

"Even under this kind of pressure you still manage to survive albeit barely. Keep pushing me further and I may need to get serious."

'He wasn't serious already?! I was barely able to block most of those attacks and he was barely even trying. This very well may be my final battle.' However Morag feels no sadness nor fear of death. 'If it means protecting the people of Leftharia then I shall gladly lay down my life.' "Exodus, may I make one request of you?"

Exodus sneers at the Empress but decides to humor her. "I would never respect the wishes of any human... however I must admit that you have a sliver of my respect from the battles you have given me so I shall listen."

Morag looks at Exodus calmly. "If you win this fight against me, you must promise not to target the people of these islands afterwards."

Exodus mulls it over in his mind for a moment before responding. "If you give me a good fight then I shall respect your final wishes."

Morag feels a slight relief at those words. "Thank you. In that case I shall defeat you here and now." Morag begins dispelling water and fire ether from her two blades into the atmosphere creating a large cloud of steam to shroud the battlefield.

"Going for this old trick I see." Before Morag can call out the name of the technique Exodus summons twenty wind ether cannons and shoots them in all directions and immediately blows all the steam away.

Before he can say anything he feels a blade piercing through him from the back and looks down to see Morag's katana buried hilt deep into his flesh from his back. With all of Morag's might she drags the blade all the way down and nearly bisects Exodus from the attack. "Do not underestimate me."

"GAAAAAAHHHHH!" Exodus screams in pain at having been split nearly completely down the middle. Exodus calls five of his weapons back to act as stitching to mend his body back together and too slowly heal the damage that has just been done to him. "Alright now I'm pissed." Exodus manifests two hammers in each hand and the other thirteen weapons behind him turn into bitballs which Exodus procceeds to the hit at full force with his hammers causing each of the bit balls to travel at speeds to quickly for Morag to move so Brighid and Aegeon both create barriers around Morag to block the projectiles. The barriers hold for the first few bit balls but after the fifth one the barriers shatter and Morag has to try her best to deflect the remaining bit balls. Morag gets hit by three of the bit balls. One in the left shoulder one in the right side of her ribs and the last at her left thigh. All the bone shatters in all three places and Morag is wounded badly. Normally this would be enough to beat any normal driver, but due to Morag having such an in depth knowledge of ether control she is able to send ether to the joints that were hit and is able to still move them despite the condition they are in.

Exodus teleports behind Morag with two swords raised above his head and slashes down on her. Morag blocks the two attacks but is surprised when Exodus lets go of the swords and reaches behind him to grab another set of swords to slash downwards a second time. Morag buckles under this second slash but right as Exodus drops the second set of swords and reaches behind him for a third set of swords Morag stabs her whip swords into Exodus' stomach and activates whip mode and spews flames inside Exodus sending him back a few feet in recoil. The attack nearly bisects him again although this time it is from the side instead of down. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT AGAIN!" Exodus sends five more of his weapons to act as stitching for him to hold him together and he begins to heal that wound as well.

Exodus now looks even more pissed at Morag. "I'll admit you're pushing me further than I thought you would. For that I will let you be the first person to see the extent of my new power." Morag begins to sweat. "Come my children, free yourselves from your master and be free!" Exodus' fourth ring glows brightly and Brighid and Aegeon begin to fidget and convulse violently.

Morag looks behind her and sees her blades drop to their knees. "Brighid, Aegeon what's wrong?" She tries to get close to her blades but they push her away.

"S-stay back you Majesty. I c-can barely c-control myself." Brighid rasps through harsh breaths.

"Your Majesty, h-he's done s-something to us." Aegeon bites out.

Morag can feel their ether lines cutting off from her. Morag then turns around and grits her teeth at Exodus. "What did you DO TO THEM?!"

Exodus chuckles at that question as if Morag said something funny. "Don't you get it? I'm freeing them of their connection to you. You no longer control them."

"Your Majesty, h-he's lying. He didn't c-cut our bonds. He's c-controling us!" Brighid yells at Morag.

"Your Majesty, y-you must subdue us." Aegeon tells Morag.

Without a second thought Morag swiftly dashes towards her blades and with the blunt end of her weapons whacks them on the back of their necks causing the two blades to pass out. Morag can feel their ether slowly coming back to her but it's faint due to the two blades not being conscious.

"I'm surprised you acted so quickly. Most humans would try some crap like 'no I'll never fight you' to their blades. Your conviction is much stronger than I gave it credit for." Exodus comments.

"They know I meant no ill intent with what I did. They would've done the same thing to me if they were in my shoes." Morag simply replies.

The first bisection has fully healed by this point and Exodus unsummons his stitching weapons. "I can tell you don't have much left in the tank 'your majesty' so I think I'm going to finish this fight." Exodus summons fifteen of his weapons and forms them all into one humongous battle axe that is spewing all the elements out of it. This battle axe is far larger than Exodus' entire body. Morag wonders how Exodus is even able to carry such a large weapon. "I shall honor your request regardless."

Morag knows there is no way she's going to survive this next attack. Yet despite that Morag puts on one of her very rare smiles across her face. 'A death befitting of an Empress. Died defending her people to the bitter end. I have no regrets for what I've done. I leave my dream to my people. That one day they may live together in harmony and everyone may find peace. A legacy I am proud to have left behind.' Morag raises her blades up and pumps the very last of her ether into her two weapons along with Brighid and Aegeon's ether as well. Morag is barely conscious from how much of her ether she is pouring into this final attack and she can feel her eyes blurring. 'Tears huh? I guess... even I am afraid of death... after all...' Morag charges at Exodus with everything she has left in one final swoop for the hope of humanity to defeat its greatest threat.

Exodus speaks with no malice whatsoever in his voice as Morag charges head on at him. "Farewell Morag. Empress of Elysium. And the only human I've ever come to respect."

One moment Morag sees the blur of Exodus raising his axe up for a strike. The next moment all Morag sees is white.

to be continued...

Authors Notes: Dang this chapter had a lot of emotional beats. What will become of Rex, Nia, and Morag? How will Elysium react to what happened to its leader? Can Exodus ever truly be stopped? This chapter is by far my longest chapter to date and I am quite proud of how it came out. Let me know what you all though of this chapter in the reviews and any speculation you may have to what will happen next. With all of that being said this is Exile Mansion signing off.