Temporal Anomaly

by sexulpenut

In which Oma Zi-O, after being erased from history, finds himself in the world of Midgard during the era of the Intoners and everything changes from there.

9. Uprooted Pestilence

In a small room located in one of the many towers in the Cathedral City, with only a bed, a little chair, the iron door that was closed tightly, a single window located so far up your average person could not see the sky from below cut into the stone wall, two Ones faced each other.

The two figures were nearly identical save for their clothes and figure. To the left, One stood with her slight curves and fairly simple outfit while, to the right, the other One stood flat as a board with a more extravagant outfit. A cape graced his shoulders and wrapped around his neck with a fancy golden pattern on the inside, and what appeared to be a bodysuit clung tight to his body, covering every inch of his body save for his head and white boots that flared out around his thighs. Their identical red eyes connected to each other, the pair on the left sparkling with relief and peace that hadn't been seen in a long time and the pair on the right filled with confusion, yet their faces are identical masks devoid of outward emotion.

"So that's how it is?" The male One spoke slowly as if still processing the words that just stopped ringing across the stone.

"I'm almost as surprised as you are. I never expected a man like that to walk into our lives and send it into a spiral so quickly. Although, I do need to see if he can really live up to those boasts of his."

"I do hope so. I don't think I've ever seen you this… untroubled before," Both of them shared a soft smile with each other.

"There is something peaceful about plans crumbling around you when someone else is there to shoulder the burden and pick up the pieces with you. No more worrying about my sisters so much, no more helping them all manage their kingdoms and the people they watch over, and maybe a little less keeping them from killing each other. I daresay our new king can handle all of that himself."

"And no more killing Zero," Male One agreed with no shortage of relief, "I always dreaded the day I would have to finish her. Especially since it meant…" Their faces fell back into the stony masks.

"No more worrying about that now either. In fact, it might be more prudent to worry about how my sisters will take your reveal. I dread hearing what Five has to say about the entire situation."

"Then it would be best not to keep them waiting, right?"

---

'...Honestly, I have no idea what else I was expecting, considering just whom I'm dealing with.'

Back in the throne room of the cathedral, these were the thoughts running through the second eldest Intoner as the other Intoners all looked at One and her twin with an entire rainbow of expressions splashed across each face.

Five had a knowing half grin and eyes that flashed with snark of the lewdest fashion, Four looked almost offended while she suspiciously eyed the disturbingly familiar looking stranger, Three had a slight bit of interest in her eyes… when they weren't blinking sleepily and ready to return to slumber land, Two had a big, happy grin on her face and swept her azure-coded gaze side to side from each identical face to the other as if trying to spot the non-existent differences, and Zero had her own trademark look of disinterest slightly undercut by an uncomfortable grimace that had formed from the implications of this new addition's very existence. Even Sougo's own typical amused grin was absent, instead favoring a more analytical, borderline expressionless stare, all of which made the twins' forced masks look so alien in front of the display of visible emotions, but there was an undeniable look of dread in One's eyes as if she was waiting for a hammer to drop.

After almost a full minute of heavy silence, it was, of course, Zero herself that took the swing.

"Your Disciple is a twin you made? You made a fucking twin from your own ribcage to deal with all of that?" The eldest Intoner's accusatory words brought a grimace to One's face.

"I was the only one without a Disciple, Zero. What would you have me do, considering the fact that I was never granted one of my own?"

"She's right, Zero," Five chimed in before the white-haired woman could retort, "I don't know how you managed it, but if I didn't have someone ready to ravage me whenever I needed it, I just know I would have murdered one of you and taken your Disciple for myself. You should really have an open mind about this kind of thing."

"They're both right," Two added when Zero opened her mouth again, making the gruff woman groan and roll her eyes, " Oh, don't be like that! Without someone there to help you along, life isn't really worth going through, struggles and all!"

"Oh, spare me the sentimental bullshit," The eldest Intoner sneered, making her blue-haired younger sister pout, "First I have to deal with having five extra as all hell sisters who all clearly need to learn the meaning of professional help to stop being such screwballs—,

"I resent that remark!" Four protested with true indignation.

"El burro hablando de orejas…" Three muttered.

"—and now there's a brother in the mix that I didn't even know about? One, who from the looks of it, couldn't tell his own toes from each other without his narcissistic as fuck creator telling him the difference. Ugh, why can't life give me one thing to deal with at a time?"

"...Are my toes really that different from each other?" Male One asked while looking at his feet, causing his twin to sign and pinch the bridge of her nose in embarrassment.

"For the love of all that is still holy in this world, please stop giving her material to work with. This she-devil is volatile and spiteful enough as it is. In fact, I don't know why you didn't just go through with killing them anyways since you hate them so much."

A strange look flashed in Zero's eyes - Guilt? Shame? Pity? Who could tell? - "I was doing what I had to do, One," She answered in a whisper with a bit less venom before steeling herself once again, her voice and stare turning towards the more severe at the pale-blonde Intoner, "If you were so worried about them, then why didn't you protect them from me yourself, clearly knowing that I was coming after them one by one? Or did you want them to die?"

"...I was fully prepared to do what I had to do," One retorted firmly but shot a guilty look towards her sisters, all of whom stared wide-eyed back at her as she continued on, "We both know all of us dying was the only way to stop the Flower from fulfilling its purpose. It was a hard decision, but—"

"Wait!" Four interrupted, "You wanted us to die?! And you knew about the… whatever the Flower truly is and never told us?! Zero trying to kill us all is one thing, but you actually letting her?! We're your little sisters, and you didn't trust us even a little bit?" Her last words full of hurt cracked as a small tear rolled down her cheek.

One took a deep breath before answering, knowing this was going to be a long and painful talk; a talk she never expected to have but nonetheless was one she had to get through, for better or for worse.

"Please understand that this was not an easy decision to make in the end, no matter how necessary of a choice it was," The second oldest of the sisters began lowly and slowly, "It was what was best for everyone, Four. For this entire world. If we—"

"If we what?! No! Nothing you can say could possibly make up for lying to us, betraying us, leaving us out of the loop when we could have helped, or betraying us, your family, your flesh and blood. If Sougo never came into our lives, then—"

"You would have just gotten in the way," The second eldest Intoner's voice was cool and almost cold but it easily cut through her sisters words and turned the anger into shock, "None of you were in your right minds to help me until Sougo came along, showed you the light, and brought you all back to your proper senses. Hell, Zero would have done the world a good service in the state you were all in and the horrific actions you've all performed out of my sight."

Four visibly gulped.

"...You know about it then?"

One let out a humorless chuckle.

"Naturally. Or did you really think Gabreialla would fail to inform me of the fact that you willingly and gleefully massacred those fleeing elves for your own enjoyment? Must I also remind you that you were more than nearly mad from holding back your lusts, and you were holding yourself up so high that no horse could seat you. Meanwhile, Five was happily drowning in her own world of lusts and greeds and letting everything and anything in-between suffer for it if it meant she could indulge her bottomless, selfish appetite, Three was so lost in her madness that she wouldn't have even heard me if I asked, dragging down the denizens she swore to protect with her just to fulfill her twisted curiosities, and Two…" Her monologuing paused as red and blue eyes shared a sad, knowing glance, "Two was far too gone into the depths of hopelessness to even be considered a living person after what happened in the Underground Lair with the orphans."

For a moment, everyone was quiet and shocked while Four stared down at the floor where her teardrops fell.

Then suddenly, the brown-haired woman let out a heavy sigh, wiped her tears away, and straightened her back. In a matter of seconds, the sadness was replaced by a righteous anger with her arms trembling beneath her small breasts from how hard they were clenching.

"Fuck you, One!"

" Excuse me?"

"You heard me! Why didn't you even try to set us straight! Why did you think it was fine to leave us alone on our own to rule while you stayed up here all alone pretending like you were the only one who knew how to research and care for the lands? Why didn't you at least try to let us help ease the burden?" One opened her mouth, but Four was in her face before she could speak, roughly grabbing her shirt and pulling her close with pure fire and brimstone in her glare, "If it was so important and we were all too far gone to be worth saving, then why didn't you just kill us and get it over with?"

"Do you really think I'm that much of a monster?" Genuine hurt filled One's eyes, "How was I supposed to kill my own sisters after everything we went through? How was I supposed to watch the light die in your eyes after seeing them sparkle so much? All I could do was hope Zero could do her job or try to find another solution before she recovered. I did my best to find any way—"

"I, I, I," Four mocked, barely hiding the malice and pain in her voice as she let go of her sister, "You are so selfish! Do you know how much I worried about you working yourself to the bone? How much we all worried about you? But you are so up your own arse that you thought we would never notice that you were being crushed by the weight, and we never thought we should try to help because you would just dance around everything. And you never told us we had a brother that you made! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! " Her cursing was punctuated by heavy stomps that she topped off with a mighty huff and turned her head to the side before anyone could see th.

For a moment, a heavy silence fell over everyone, broken only when One spoke with nothing but heartbreak and sorrow in her voice.

"Four… No, all of you… I wish things could have been different. I know it was probably too much of a burden to shoulder alone, but I never wanted you to know the inevitably awaiting us. Maybe with your help we could have found a new solution together, but it felt like such an impossibility from everything I read and saw the hold the Flower had over you all already. We were destined to die, and destiny never waits. However, there is no excuse for me not helping you. I watched each of my dear sisters succumb to their minds and vices while I stayed back in my cathedral and watched. I expect more from you than I should have after all of the time we held each other up."

She sighed and let her gaze run over each of her sisters, "Three, I saw your empathy slip from an early age and saw your obsession with dolls and the living form. If I had acted earlier, then you might not have become the monster I let you be. Five, I saw your avarice and carelessness from an early age and only encouraged it. I have always wondered if I told you no and kept you from feeding those habits, then would you have turned into the same greedy woman I know today… maybe I never should have let myself sleep peacefully knowing you had no interest in obtaining any self-control for when it truly mattered. Two, I know this might be hard to hear, but I was always happy that you were with Cent. I only wish I knew of his idea to use the power of the Song to empower others before you made that most grievous of mistakes of following through with it. Out of us all, you were the only one I could save from the Flower's grip at that stage of our lives."

Finally, her gaze fell upon Four whose emerald eyes flashed toward her crimson eyes for just a moment before flicking away again, "And Four… I never should have let you face the elves alone, not as you were and how poorly you were coping with your personal demons. With more guidance, I am sure you would have made the right decision, and if I had only loved you more…" One's eyes fell to the ground, "Well, Sougo has proven that you might have been more secure in yourself and would have let yourself be happy rather than chase some far-fetched ideal. I hope you can all forgive me."

"Of course we can forgive you!" Five insisted with all of her heart, hurrying towards her sister to pull her into a big warm hug, shocking the latter at the sudden, heartfelt contact, "We can't fault you for doing what you had to nor can we fault you for not helping us. You never had to be the savior in our lives, One, you only had to be by our side, and you never strayed from it. Even in the very end."

"She's right, you know. Why would you ever think we would hate you?" Two rushed forward to join the hug from the other side, almost smothering and crushing the older but shorter woman in her earnestness, "If it wasn't for Sougo rescuing me, then… I can't be mad when I know what had to be done. None of this changes who you are, and none of it matters, not anymore," She gave One a quick peck on one slightly glistening cheek, "We can be sisters again now that everything is set to be right."

"Two…" The second eldest Intoner whispered with love filling her crimson eyes, but that love was changed to surprise when she felt another pair of arms gently, almost lazily wrap around her and Five's shoulders and a head rest on her shoulder.

"Plans are hard and shatter like glass. Blood is thick and flows like a river. Eres amado sin importar cuánto te rompas, y siempre estaremos listos para recoger los pedazos. No one's plans would survive a meeting with our king."

Four glanced at the display of love with a pained expression in her eyes, a window to the cracks forming in her soul, and opened her mouth to speak, but a clearly amused Zero spoke up, making her huff with annoyance before glancing away again to hide another flow of tears.

"And it was a stupid plan to begin with. What was your plan if I killed you, or if you killed me and Mikhail, or, hell, if you only killed Mikhail? What then? For as smart as you are you really didn't think that through."

"I thought it through more than you did with yours. I kept my failsafe a secret until he was needed, and I made sure he knew never to miss," The male twin's eyes darted to the ground, and he shuffled awkwardly until the second oldest sister of the group smoothly slipped out of the group hug she was in the center of and moved on closer to her creation, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I am just glad you don't have to see him as your instrument of destruction now that another path is open to us."

"How could he even kill me, he would have to be—"

"A dragonbone sword straight through the heart," Male One answered quietly as if he was reciting a mantra, his hand almost reverently touching the hilt, "I've been practicing with this sword in my room every day," His eyes raised up once more to meet not with any of the Intoners but with Gabriella, "It was made with a fang knocked right out of her mouth, and I've never let it leave my side."

"The newest born of you speaks the truth," The ground almost rumbled from Gabriella's chuckle, "Even in my death I would have helped bring down the great slaughterer of her family. Poetic is it not?"

"Looks like it," Zero almost squeaked through a bone-dry throat, her face slightly turning deathly pale as if truly contemplating her death for the first time, "It seems I may have underestimated you."

"...Well, we all know life loves to throw in all kinds of complications at this point, don't we? It's how we met in the first place after all," Sougo spoke up suddenly, snapping the tension in the air by letting out a chuckle while his eyes flicked towards Four's slight huff for a moment, "I for one am glad to have you as another Disciple for my reign. It evens up the numbers quite nicely at least. Although, I don't recall hearing your name."

One guiltily lowered her eyes to the floor as an uncomfortable look crossed the male One's face.

"I don't have one," He answered in an almost sheepish fashion, "But I never really needed one because—"

"That won't do!" Two immediately interrupted him, making him jolt when she suddenly jumped and leaned all too closely into his personal space, "We can't just call you the twin or brother all the time!"

"How about Énais?" Five immediately offered, earning a surprised look from almost everyone, "What? I can be good with names."

"Unus?" Two added with glee as if playing a game as she wrapped an arm around her brother's stiffened shoulders.

"No," Three slowly shook her head, "One is already One and I don't want another One… What about Meliz?"

"No, we're not calling him that," Four scoffed, finally breaking her silence, "You guys need to be more creative like me. Let's call him…" The twin-tailed Intoner trailed off and gulped with nervousness.

"...You don't have anything, do you?" Zero deadpanned accusingly, and Four immediately gave her an exaggerated pout, crossed her arms, and slightly stomped one foot.

"I do! It just kind of slipped my mind for a moment! Raphael! That's what I was going to say!"

"Shouldn't you let him decide?" Sougo stated before looking towards the stunned male twin, who seemed more than a little overwhelmed with all this attention thrown his way.

"They all seem nice, but none of them really feel…. right," He admitted, making Four nearly gasp out loud, as if he was personally offending her.

"Perhaps let me add my own suggestion then," The overlord paused for a moment like he was waiting for just the right time to say it, "Bantokei."

Immediately, the male One's face lit up at the one word.

"I like it!" His beaming smile was enough to make even Four let a smile play at her lips, then he turned towards his twin, "Although, I would still love it if you call me brother sometimes."

"Of course," One couldn't stop a slight blush from growing on her cheeks, "And I think Bantokei is a very fitting name."

"Yes, a clock…" Three hummed out loud, "Ticking down until the time has bloomed como una flor en primavera. And like a flower, isn't it time we prune one?" She turned towards Sougo with a yawn, "I haven't had time for a nap today, given what's to come."

"How exactly do you plan on doing that, Sougo?" Two asked, her kind eyes filled with curious concern, "The seeds must have done something by now."

"No doubt the seeds have already taken root in that other world," He agreed, "That should mean if we summon it here—"

"Summon it here?!" The blue-haired woman stared incredulously at the brown haired king, "After all of the effort we went through to get rid of it, you want to bring it back?"

"It would be weaker, given it now has no host to properly channel its full power," Sougo defended himself, but his lover had no intention of stopping.

"How much weaker? Do you even know? What are you thinking putting the realm you just took over in jeopardy as your first act as its king? I didn't give up Cent just to let you—"

" Let me?" Sougo's voice was filled with a low fire that made her pause. Despite that, she evenly met his burning gaze with a defiant stare of her own, "It seems you are starting to misunderstand your place, Two. You control me as much as I control you, so you have no say over my actions. I will not stand idly by while you believe that you can say whatever you want about me with no consequence."

"And what have I said that is false? Just because it's not what you want to hear?" Two retorted, earning a surprised squeak from Four, "It is rash decision making like this that no doubt led to your first ruleship being over a wasteland, and it is my duty as an Intoner who protects these lands and as one who stands by your side to keep you from taking such ridiculous actions," The Demon King could only grimace at the truth in her words, "Do not forget that you promised to keep Cent and my orphans alive, to give this world and its people a real chance at a new future when you destroy the Flower. How do you expect to make good on your promise if you don't know how dangerous it is?!"

Sougo's brown eyes squinted, as if he was re-examining something before him, "I wonder, Two, do you speak as someone who cares or someone who hates me for my actions?" He asked, making those bright blue eyes widen for a moment before setting back into a glare.

"What does it matter? This isn't about me or my issues because I'm not the kind of person to be petty or shallow enough to let them get in the way of doing what is right." She explicitly ignored the low whistling from Zero and the light, almost awkward cough of Five, "My only concern is the recklessness of someone I was starting to think was actually wise."

Two then stepped forward into her king's space, making a point to directly look him in the eye.

"You said you actually want to be a good king this time around, didn't you? Prove it here and now."

For a moment, the man continued to glare down at her relentless stare, then he closed his eyes with a long-suffering sigh.

"I understand your concerns, Two, but I do not appreciate your tone."

"Get used to it," Zero butted in, walking over to her younger sister to stand by her side, "You might have been able to force people to do what you want in your last world, but we aren't going to keep our voices to ourselves because it hurts your fragile sense of entitlement."

"That might be reaching a little, sis…" Two muttered.

Once again, Sougo closed his eyes before rubbing the bridge of his nose. The annoyed action made the Intoners balk ever so slightly, but their worries were cut through by a laugh.

"I apologize," He dropped his hand to give each and every one of the women a smile, "I have been so focused on the final hurdle that I was slipping too far into old habits. Of course I would rather you be comfortable using whatever profanity filled tone you wish for, and I do see the value in Two's words. Perhaps it is best to face the Watchers head on in their own domain rather than risk mine. At the very least, it will put the fear of their new god into them when they helplessly fall."

"Really?" The blue-haired Intoner looked shocked, as if she never expected her issues to be heard and acknowledged, "Maybe I was too quick to judge you so badly then..."

"I doubt it," The overlord snorted while waving his hand, summoning a golden portal, "You just taught me yet another lesson. It appears that this world is just full of those. As for the Flower itself, I think it might be best to go after it alone. As Two said, we don't know how powerful it is, and, if I do fall, then the portal would disappear and lock you inside."

"One man is not an army, nor is two or three," Three piped up, yawning a little, "I do not feel right letting mi luz guía enter hell without his rainbow behind him."

"We were supposed to die anyways," One pointed out, taking the spot near Sougo and the looming presence of the glowing portal, "If we fail, then there are gears in place to turn and make sure everything continues to run in our absence… for better or worse."

"I couldn't bear to let the children know I didn't do everything I could to save them," Two added with a slightly guilty look towards her king.

"And I'm with Three. I need to make sure my delicious king makes it back alive," Five's words earned an eye roll from Four, "After all that you've made me experience with you in my life, how can I expect anything from what happens next if you're not there anymore?"

"Unlike my glutton of a sister, I just want to cut that stupid plant to size for…" Her emerald eyes looked at One for a moment before flicking back to Sougo, "For trying to tear my family apart and using me to threaten this world I've dedicated my life to preserving."

Then, everyone's eyes fell upon the still quiet Zero.

"...What? Do I really have to join into this stupid ass declaration of our motivations?" The silent yet expecting stares from the group gave her answer, "Fine! I want to join you because I want to see the damn thing wither beneath my very eyes after everything it and its worthless creators did to me."

"It seems I shouldn't have worried," Sougo let his gaze run over every set of eyes burning with fire, "Even if it's originally a dimension of my own creation, I do not know what lays past this golden portal, not any more," He paused and sighed, "so I want you to all stay here instead. My powers should provide a buffer of protection around the portal, but I doubt it will help much against any physical attacks that might come your way. If things truly went south in there, then you would all be in danger since the portal will close when I fall. And I need someone guarding the portal from this end that I can truly trust. It is better I keep it open while I'm in there, and I don't know what could wander in or out."

"What?! None of us are waiting back here," Zero narrowed her eyes dangerously at her king before turning towards Mikhail, "I'm sure even he can handle a task that simple."

"Ohhhh, but I wanted to go tooooo," The white dragon whined, earning a little smack from the older dragon beside him.

"I could probably stay behind as well," Gabriella offered, "I'm worried this youngling might just wander off if he gets too bored."

"I will not!" Mikhail snorted with derision at her joke, "I'm not a kid anymore!"

"I'll believe it when I see it," Gabriella and Zero answered in unison, and Five couldn't stop a snort of her own.

"I don't see there being better protectors than two dragons," The Demon King mused, "But if the portal did close without warning, and you were killed—"

"I know what to do," Gabriella affirmed with a deadly seriousness, "I willingly put myself into that demonic form in order to execute One's plans."

" Exactly." The Cathedral City's previous ruler stated firmly, before turning fully towards Sougo, "If the Flower's plans for this world's destruction is to be prevented, then we must—"

"No," Sougo's voice was cold and uncompromising, to the point of cutting One and everyone else off before they could say anything else, "I understand how you feel, but you will not be coming with me. Two was more right than she thought, in more ways than one. After all, we do not know how much power the Flower may have over you and your actions at this point even if you are no longer its host, especially with all of its pieces now one again. With how much it managed to influence you all prior to my arrival, it is better that I do not put you or the world in any more danger… You deserve it and so does this world deserve you and the guidance you can give it. If I do die, then the Flower, and hopefully the Watchers, will be sealed.

The Demon King affixed each and every burning stare with a resolute glare of his own until all but Zero and One's wavered, "I do understand how you feel, but I have seen the light snuffed out of enough eyes with that same rebellious luster to let it happen in someone I actually respect… not again. Trust me once more to deliver you from this plague or die trying, and rest easy knowing that I will not fault you if you move on after."

All of the Intoners answered by letting out angered cries.

"Like hell we could!" Four and Five cried in unison, the blonde's hands reaching for her spear while the twin-tailed Intoner's bladed gloves clicked together menacingly.

"Do you really think I could find anyone that makes me as happy as you? As complete as you make me?!" Five asked, clearly heartbroken at the very idea.

"What she said!" Four agreed, furious and woeful at her king's words, "And now you just want to throw your life away and tell us to move on?!"

"I would hope that you would have a little more faith in me."

"And how are we supposed to when you sound like a man that's going to his grave when it doesn't need to be so?" Two added with genuine worry and terror in her voice at the possibility.

"You have yet to truly gain my trust in the first place, and yet you choose to make such a damning choice?" One warned, though the alarm in her tone of voice was all too clear for the group to take note of, "You promised me and my sisters the future by your own hands. Are you truly the kind of man to take such a reckless course of action even if it means breaking the vow you just made? When you yourself have stated to not be one to go back on the oaths he has sworn by?"

But all of their outrage stopped when Zero stepped forward.

To everyone's surprise she tightly hugged their king close and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss. Then, after only a few wet smacks, she pulled away, holding his cheeks in her rough and coarse palms in order to properly look him eye to eye as she flatly stated this statement:

"If you don't return to us and fulfill your promises, I will leap through that portal before it closes and fucking kill you myself."

He looked deep into her eyes before raising them up and giving every Intoner one last look over, a genuine smile playing on his lips. Instead of saying the things that so openly ran through his eyes, he gave Zero one last peck on the forehead, slipped out of her arms, and disappeared into the portal.

"...You better keep your promise, asshole."

---

The bright golden light lasted only a single blinding moment before giving way to darkness. Sougo blinked his eyes clear, but the darkness remained as if the sun itself was so covered in clouds that almost no light could seep through.

When he raised his eyes to the sky, he found that wasn't quite the case.

Yes, the sky was a thick, overcast gray with clouds that swirled inwards towards a single point like a still hurricane, but it was that single point that blocked out the sun for the overlord and left him in a deep shadow. Looming so high above him that he had to almost bend backwards to see it was a giant pink flower, about as big as a two story building from his world if not far bigger, that looked just like the one from Zero's eye. It rested on a long, twisted stalk made of a mass of thorny vines each wider than two men abreast that coiled together with a few thinner offshoots along the way that almost made it look like a giant tree. On each offshoot bloomed a mass of different colored flowers: yellow near the bottom, green on the next layer, followed by purple, blue, red, then a thick canopy of every single one in a beautiful bouquet before one final layer of pink.

However, that was far from the extent of the plant's growth. What was once a replica of a thriving Tokyo had become a rubble filled waste overgrown with vines and thorns. Thick vines, even thicker than those making up the stalk, burrowed through the ground like the great roots of a majestic tree and were covered in loose bone, metal car parts, and shattered glass where they weren't bursting from asphalt, as if many unlucky denizens were impaled by the still growing plant. The buildings themselves had thinner vines wrapped around them like strange appendages, some crushing or toppling the buildings like the hands of a tantruming toddler, and even more miniscule tendrils crawled up every vertical surface like a thick network of veins.

As Sougo observed, he could almost see the wickedly sharp thorns rise and fall as if the plant below was breathing… or beating like an inhuman heart. His dark brown eyes rose once more to the swaying flowers, his mind just then registering the lack of a breeze to make them move, and his hands lowered to his belt. However, before he could activate it, the main flower tilted downwards until the dark stigma and stamen were pointed towards him like alien eyes, and a voice filled the air that made his skin crawl.

"Welcome, Sougo Tokiwa, or should I say the Greatest and Kindest Demon King of Time."

The voice was loud yet ethereal, but that wasn't what chilled the man to the bone. It sounded like six voices all vying for their chance to speak as if someone hadn't quite merged them together correctly; the voices of every Intoner. One word would come from three of the women at once in a perfect, eerie harmony, then the next few would come from Four's mouth, another from One's, and then all six would finish in perfect harmony. It was almost impossible to decipher the tone behind the words, but the aforementioned Demon King knew it looked down on him just like he looked down on them before.

"Well met… What should I call you? Watcher? Flower? The scourge I must erase?" Despite his better judgement, he took a few steps forward, not daring to let the oversized plant perceive even a shred of weakness in him.

" Flower. No need to muddy things with unneeded titles. But I see you are not here to talk. However, there is no need for violence. If you simply remember the offer from before—"

"The world is already mine, Flower, and I will die before I give it back. I will extend my own deal to you: bring your flower down for a quick death, or I will have to tear you apart vine by vine with my bare hands."

"Foolish mortal. Then march straight towards your demise."

All around Sougo, vines began to shift and fill the world with the sound of something sharp scraping against rock. In mere moments, the rubble was swarming with movement as it was pushed away to reveal even more thorny, green tendrils as if an entire jungle was just lying in wait to rear up at the man. All around him the vines reared like snakes, each tipped like spears all waiting to impale him in a hundred ways, but the Demon King could only smirk.

"The only thing foolish is assuming that I am merely mortal."

Then, he slammed down each foot until they were shoulder-length apart, shaking the world and cracking the ground beneath them, and crossed his forearms in front of him. The very air became thick and fiery as if the energy around him was building into a storm that made the small rocks begin to drift in the air around him while that slight, sinister smile turned into a wicked grin. The thick, suffocating power snapped when he pulled his arms back to his side and let out a mighty roar that made the world itself explode. A golden wind burst from his body that tore the vines around him into a puree that quickly became ashes while the ground beneath him cracked into a small crater. Images of gears and golden bands formed beneath his feet to create a fiery clock that was quickly overtaken by the same symbols on his mask and a single single hand of a clock that split into two with one more mighty shake. From the symbol, great red rifts began to break outwards, splitting the very ground beneath it into a giant, cracked crater that seemed to glow with the heat of the earth's core itself, and the two hands spread apart once more to match the hands on his helm and caused the rifts to shoot out gouts of flame that rose high enough in the sky to make a few of the flowers wither from the heat.

When the flames died down, rivers of magma flowed in from the direction of every hour of the clock to pool beneath Ohma Zi-O's feet. With brown eyes burning almost as much as the red reflection over them, he looked straight at the massive Flower and swept his hands over his belt.

"Henshin!"

The belt began to glow like molten gold, and the magma began to shift. The burning red cracks filled with gold as well that made the great symbol glow bright while huge, swirling bands of gold came down to surround the Demon King.

"The Hallowed Hour!"

The bands began to shift faster. Chunks of the ground exploded into the air in glowing red masses. Each chunk touched down on a vine, filling the air with a squeal as if air was escaping the wounded plant or it was letting out an agonized, alien scream.

"The Greatest! Most Righteous! Most Prominent! Most Powerful! King of All That Is!!"

The rings condensed into a whirling, gold cocoon for a few moments before exploding outwards in a flare of burning gold and bolts of golden lightning. When the dust settled, all that was left was a single man standing within a ruined crater. His head raised back up to show that his eyes were still a shiny, spaceless black, but, in an instant, they flared red as a glowing, gold and black aura wreathed him like a fire.

"Ohma Zi-O!"

Then, with one more primal cry of power, the aura exploded outwards with enough force to make the mighty stalk bend backwards.

"Rejoice! Reaching beyond space and time, reigning over the past and future: the Ultimate Ruler of Time! My name is Ohma Zi-O! You are now within the moment of your history's final chapter and within the next chapter of mine!"

Ohma Zi-O was certain that he could see the flowers rattle and the vines shiver with anxiousness, and, just above the echo of his decree, there was the sound of faint song. But it was too late for songs. He boldly strode from the golden light of his portal as his arms began to glow with even more golden fire. He boldly strode right into a wall that was the same song he heard when he entered the world. It stabbed at his ears and pushed at his limbs, but he barely slowed, wouldn't slow.

Even as it tried to dig into his mind, the overlord knew it wouldn't give up until he rendered every inch of it into ash.

---

"I cannot help but think we shouldn't have just let him leave, not on his own at the very least," Three muttered to herself drowsily as the other Intoners buzzed with worry. She rubbed her temples and sighed before closing her eyes in deep thought.

"Do you think we should go in anyways?" Five asked her purple-haired sister and kept glancing at the golden portal, "Do you think he would get mad at us if we walked in and the Flower was destroyed? What if he needs our help?"

"I don't know," Three admitted with a yawn, "I don't want to doubt mi rey, but I can't help but worry. If he slips even once in this situation… would incurring his wrath be worth losing his trust?"

A few feet from them Two and Four paced back and forth in worry as the twin-tailed woman kept throwing scathing glances and words her older sister's way.

"You just had to convince him to do it alone, huh? You just had to question him at the worst possible time, when everything we know is at stake, huh?!" Four hissed, making the former Ruler of the Sea Country flinch at the sheer amount of venom contained in each word, "What did you think would happen, guilt tripping him to the point that he went on to do something this insane?!"

"I just wanted to hold him to his word, so that he doesn't repeat what he did in his old world and leave the people under him in ruin again," Two sadly confessed, the distressed way she answered her younger sister's question all but saying she agreed with the recklessness of their king's course of action, "I didn't know he would reach that conclusion and try to handle things all by himself! How could I have known he would go about this without us there?"

"When will you learn to actually think about what you say and do? You can't just run around doing whatever you want trying to make things better and keep breaking things!" Through her watery eyes, the brown-haired Intoner nearly missed the tears forming in Two's eyes, but it was hard to miss her light sob, "Oh, stop it! You can't just think that crying and whining every time you make a fucking mistake—"

"Four!" One snapped making her whirl around, "I know you're worried, but—"

"But what? But what?! We're just leaving Sougo out there to possibly die, and it's all Two's fault!"

"I'm sorry," Two whimpered out, lips quivering miserably, "Please, Four, I'm just as torn up about this as you."

"Are you? Don't act like we haven't noticed how bitter and resentful you are to him after the deal you two made!" Four screamed, "We know for a damn fact that you still haven't forgiven him for making you end your relationship with Cent to make sure he kept your colossal screw up undone! You probably want him to die so you can go back to—"

SMACK!

Four was cut off when, out of nowhere, One jerked her around and slapped her. The sharp sound echoed through the hall and washed away all of the conversation. For a moment, everyone could only stare at their second eldest sister with her hand still raised in the air and their second youngest sister gingerly touching her now stinging and pink cheek with a look of pure shock on her face.

"Stop it, Four," One's voice was low and foreboding, nearly crossing over into a cold growl, "I know you're upset, but that gives you no right to berate your sister, not like this. You are way out of line."

"What did you…" The twin-tailed woman lightly muttered as her mind rushed to catch up.

"Something I should have done a long time ago. I thought you were starting to come down off of your high horse, but it seems I still need to take up the task of knocking you off of it. You need to get over yourself. I know today is a lot to take in, I even understand why you were mad at me, but can't you see how Two is feeling? Or are you still too narrow minded to actually look around you? Even if she wanted to hurt Sougo, you know she would never want to lead someone to their death."

Four slowly looked back to truly see those tear-filled azure orbs before turning back to those fiery, crimson eyes. She fought to make out some words, but could only force out a few broken sounds. Then, her own emerald eyes fell to the ground in shame.

"I'm sorry, Two," She murmured dejectedly and jerked back in surprise when two arms wrapped around her back and a head with short, blue hair rested against her back.

"It's okay," Two whispered and slightly hiccuped, "We're all having a bit of a bad time right now."

"But… what about Sougo? Is it really okay to just stay here as he fights?" Four asked, earning a scoff from her pale-blonde sister.

"Do you really think we could just leave him there? I don't know how he managed to make you all obey his every word so well, but I for one am not going to obey him, not at this time," Moving closer to her brunette sister, One this time laid her hand firmly on Four's shoulder, completely reassuring and steadying, "Even if he doesn't need our help, we should be there for the end of that infestation in our lives… even if it would mean our deaths. Rest assured we will not let our king fight alone, not against something this personal to us."

"You mean it?"

"Of course," After giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze, One turned to the rest, "And that goes for the rest of you as well. Are you really going to just stand by and let him fight without us?"

"I guess not," Three answered with an almost casual shrug, but Five answered with a loud laugh and smacked her purple-haired sister's back.

"Leave it to One to make the hard decisions!" She grinned obnoxiously as the purplette pushed her hand away and slightly glowered at her.

"Five, remind me to make sure you make more hard decisions from now on," The second eldest Intoner sighed before letting her gaze rest on her only older sister's pensive face.

Without a word, she walked over to her thinking sister, leaving Four and Two alone. After a moment, the brunette Intoner pulled out of the hug making Two's eyes fall and water a little once more. However, it was only a moment later when her chin was pulled upwards and her eyes filled with the sight of white silk and green embroidery. While her sister fumbled a little at wiping her eyes, a small, comforting smile took her face once more.

"You shouldn't let any of our people see you like this after this situation is dealt with. No ruler of any of these lands should look so fragile towards her subjects after all," Four mumbled out her excuse.

"You know, I could do it myself," The former ruler of the Deserts giggled, making her sister huff, "You have a funny way of apologizing."

While Four rolled her eyes and lightly blushed, One approached Zero, who had her arms crossed, head down, and eyes closed in deep thought.

"What's on your mind, Zero? Its unlike you to be thinking before you act in this kind of situation," Her voice was tinted ever so slightly by worry.

"Is the sight of me like this that out of character for you?" The eldest Intoner complained, opening one pink eye to look at her shortest sister in annoyance.

"You talk as if it isn't, given your history."

At that, Zero gave a sardonic smirk, "Fair enough there, I guess."

"So… what are you thinking about?"

"Sougo," One raised a curious eyebrow, beckoning Zero to elebroate, "To be honest… I'm worried. From what he told me a while back, he knows of the Song from our memories and heard it when we fought as I strengthened myself, but he has never truly faced it."

"So he has never actually experienced the full effects of it despite interacting with you all for as long as he did," One noted grimly, something mirrored by Zero, "Even for me, it is a very blank spot in the threat the Flower possesses as it is the source of the Song we were able to wield and use to overthrow the previous lords of these lands. I know our new king is very confident, but perhaps he is still being too foolhardy."

"I'm sure he knows the risk," Zero scoffed, "He's just too stupid to care. However, if he can't withstand the power of the Song, then what can we do. We might still have some of our power, but the Flower has retained the bulk of it. Two and Four have certain gifts from our king, but I am uncertain if either one of them can actually help us with this problem. We need a countermeasure of some sort of way to silence noise. Do you—"

"No," The second eldest Intoner sadly shook her head, "I was never able to make any headway into something like that. But that does beg the question: if we can't silence it, then how can we cut off its magical power? I think I remember something in my books about some fabled potions and artifacts—"

"We don't have the fucking time for that," The eldest Intoner sighed and rubbed her temples, "Maybe… Maybe we just have to power through."

"What is a song but vibrations in the air?" Three spoke up while instantly standing straight the moment that idea took root in her mind, a sudden fervor in her eyes, "Our Intoner modes… we empowered ourselves through the Song, but what if we could still do that? Songs are magic! They have the power to shift the hearts of millions without any physical effects! If we can just sing, then maybe we will have just enough magic left to compete with it through its connection to us! At least for a time!"

"But will just any song do?" Five asked, excitement and hope slipping into her voice, "I mean, we always sang the same ones in the first place."

"Three has a point," One's eyes lit up, "The magic could have been stored in the songs themselves to some extent, so maybe we can find another."

"No," Zero's eyes fell to the floor as an echo of pain flashed in her eyes, "At least, not quite. I think there is still a bit of power flickering inside, a connection the Flower could never take back because it refused to let me go until Sougo ripped the damn thing out through force," She paused and looked up at her sisters with hesitation, "There is one good memory still in my mind… one that I always go back to. I swear if any of you fucking laugh at me…"

"We don't have time to laugh at you Zero, nor do we have time for long winded stories," One warned, earning a scoff from her older sister, "In case you have forgotten, our king is in the middle of engaging with our personal demon in the flesh that'll send this world straight into oblivion if it is not stopped now.

"Far be it for me to have a heart to heart with my dearest sisters," The eldest of the Intoners nearly sneered before giving her solution, "It's just a song I go back to that gave me hope and something to hold onto. It was of a woman pledging her allegiance to a kingslayer that would be her guiding light and save her."

"Oh! I know that song!" Four gasped, the sincere look of familiarity in her green eyes throwing off Zero far more than she cared to admit, so she hid it with a dose of sarcasm.

"Oh, ha ha, because it's like real life, right?"

"No, she's right," Two insisted for her sister, "I think we all remember that song because our parents sung it to us from those memories the Flower created. You know, when mom and-"

"Don't you say it!" Zero snapped harshly, not wanting to be reminded of that woman from her old life, "If we all know it, then that just means I must be right. When we get to the other side, no matter what awaits us, we should just start singing before the Song can take hold, and hope it works. If we're too late, then we can at least finish the job he started."

"Agreed," One nodded, "We have to make sure the Flower's influence is erased from this world, no matter what it takes. And because of that, Bankotei will be staying behind along with Mikhail and Gabriella," One gave her newly named twin, who had been silently at One's side the entire time since Sougo's departure, a slightly threatening glare before he could protest, "I want you in a safe place in case the worst comes to pass. I dare say my plans relied on you too much to put you in danger, but we will still need you and the other two to be prepared to handle things if the Flower is able to breach this world from where it is and we are unable to prevent its invasion."

"I know," Bankotei muttered with a disappointed look in his eyes and a sigh, "I was just hoping…"

" Later," The second eldest Intoner promised, "We have all of the time in the world now. But at the moment, you need to get to a safer place, one where Gabriella and Mikhael can also take shelter if all goes wrong on our end."

"Yeah, you can count on us to take care of things!" Mikhail stated, with Gabriella nodding in agreement.

"Naturally. We'll end things once and for all if you guys fall to that abomination. Won't we Bankotei?"

"Alright," He steeled himself and nodded, "Just… come back safe."

Before she could answer he gave her a quick hug that made her eyes go wide. For a moment, she just stood stock-still, but it wasn't long before she was squeezing him tight. Four huffed hard at the sight with jealousy burning in her eyes, Two and Five smiled and giggled happily at the sight, and Three and Zero looked indifferent, if not mildly impaitent in the case of the white-haired Intoner.

"Can we hurry this the fuck up," Zero grumbled, "You're supposed to say your goodbyes first, not after the rousing speech. Now I'm all fired up for nothing."

"Oh, stop being a killjoy," Five scolded, "If you don't let yourself feel things then you become just like One."

One sighed and gently pushed her brother away who reluctantly started out of the room.

"Maybe we should just get this over with before I actually crack a smile for once. God forbid I show emotion without it being a scene."

"Finally!" Zero complained as each one of the Intoners joined her in spot in front of the golden portal, "This get this fucking show on the road, shall we?"

One by one, the Intoners entered with Zero and One leading the line without hesitation. Four slipped inside next, pushing past Two with a huff followed by the frowning and determined blue-haired Intoner. Five paused at the entrance when she noticed Three slowly shuffling towards the portal with only a bit more speed than normal.

"Come on, slowpoke," She lightly tittered and turned back to take hold of her sister's pale hand, "You're not going to be last this time!"

"Wha— Hold on—" The purplette tried to protest, but Five easily pulled her forward and pushed her into the portal.

"There we go!" She turned towards the dragons, "Take care of the place while we're gone!"

With that, the blonde woman stepped through the golden portal.

A minute ticked by with only the sounds of the dragons coming to a rest in front of the portal to break it.

Gabriella stretched with her head rising from her paws as if she was getting ready to fly away, but her eyes never left her younger peer's position. At her side, Mikhail sat on his haunches and lowered his head as far as it could go, as if he was closely inspecting the glowing portal.

"...Are you just going to sit there staring at the portal the whole time like an idiot or are you going to actually follow me to Bankotei's current location so we can follow through with our instructions? You know, the ones that involve making sure the world doesn't go straight to hell?"

"...They're taking a while," The younger dragon said with a bit of worry in his voice.

"It's been a literal minute, Mikhail," Gabriella's eyes rolled with annoyance.

"Yeah! But you haven't seen Sougo fight before. He can pull out so many things that he should be able to destroy that Flower in seconds with their help!"

"Hmmmph, you underestimate what the Flower can do."

"What do you know about it? It's just a plant, right?"

"I'm starting to see why Zero treats you like a kid," The older dragon swept her tail to gently smack him from behind, "Why would they raise such a fuss over a flower if it was just a plant? You need to learn to think a little."

"I guess," He sulked and smacked Gabriella back a little harder, "How long do you think they'll take?"

"I have no idea, but it surely won't be in a few minutes. You need to learn the meaning of patience."

A few more minutes passed in silence before the white dragon spoke once more.

"...Did you know that Zero wanted me to kill her?"

The purple dragon paused, taking a moment to find the right words to properly answer the younger dragon's question.

"One figured the plan out herself, yes," Gabriella's voice was uncharacteristically gentle, "You know she didn't have a choice, right?"

"Yeah," Mikhail slightly whined, "But I wish it didn't have to be me… or Bankotei…"

A large purple tail gently curled around him.

"I know, and it's hard. All of us only had one choice, even if we wished there was more. But look at it this way: Zero trusted you enough to not only make sure her death was swift but to kill me and One if it came down to it. It's not much comfort, I know, but—"

"Zero trusted me?" Mikhail perked his head up, "After everything? Even after meeting Sougo?"

"Of course," Gabriella chuckled deeply, "She might not show it, but I remember how she looked at Michael. She looks at you the same way."

"Then I really hope she comes back," The young dragon wiggled with happiness while setting his eyes on the portal again, "Maybe in a few more minutes before we leave?"

"Mikhail…" The purple dragon groaned and smacked him again.

---

All six Intoners stepped out of the bright light one after another, all of them pausing and looking around in wonder and horror.

They saw the swirling clouds, ruined world filled with root-like vines, and the vein-like tendrils coating some of the flat surfaces, showing that not all was like when Sougo had entered.

"...If this is but a preview of what is to come if the Flower gets its way, I cannot help but dread the full show if it ever escapes from this place," Five commented all too lightly, an obvious attempt to mask the trepidation in her voice that was shared by her sisters.

"An el horror show to be exact," Three quietly corrected as she scanned the new world they just entered, unblinking and wide-eyed towards the ravaged city before the group, "Truly, our creator is a force of nature to fear."

"And given the less than ideal state of affairs this place is in, it shouldn't be too far from our current position, along with Sougo." Four observed grimly, "Now the question is just how do we pinpoint its exact location…"

"You do not have to look too far, my child."

The chorus of voices - their voices - sent shivers down each Intoner's spine.

Turning their heads towards the direction the "voice" addressed them from with much apprehension in their hearts, the group bore witness to an all-too-familiar pink eye staring back at them from the dark skies and scattered clouds above. The halo of clouds and glowing aura backing the pink petals as their only source of light seemed to make the dastardly plant look like a winged angel of death, all but confirming what One and Zero believed about the Intoners' very existence in the world.

"Mira al sol. Who knew it was that easy?" Three tilted her head.

"You," Zero spat out the word like it was poison on her tongue, glowering with pink orbs filled to the brim with fury as she glared daggers at the abomination that brought her back to life against her wishes and cursed her with a second life in a damned world simply to do its perverse bidding and wipe out humanity, "So we unfortunately meet again. Looks like you've managed to sprout into a tower of filth that should have been ripped from the root as a little, shitty, pink bulb!"

"I-Is that what has been inside of all of us since the beginning?" Two questioned, unable to avert her fearful stare from the unholy figure, "Our power to use the Song… the same Song that twisted the children and soldiers back then… it came from THIS thing all along?!"

"Is that truly how one should address their creator? How sad, comparable to a parent having their own child simply viewing them as a progenitor…"

"Or a puppeteer when their puppets have had their strings cut off," One rebuked with no shortage of scorn and a red stare burning with contempt and downright hatred for the Flower, "Too late for any expectations of leniency from us, not after everything you have done to us and the people we govern since our creation. Are you ready to meet your end?"

"You mean as the demon king is currently attempting to do?"

The Flower bent downwards like a great neck craning to look at a tall figure clad in black and gold armor that rested on his knees.

The vines that were strangling the buildings and resting atop the landscape had shifted to turn towards him and slowly slither across the rubble-strewn ground with the low, almost whispery, rasp of stone skidding against stone. However, around his still form, a small wall of thorny vines had twisted like the start of a torturous cocoon, and more of the small, veiny tendrils had begun to spread over his thighs. Their eyes went wide with quiet shock at the sight of their king sitting defeated on the ground with Four's and Three's eyes watering up at the sight. Ever so faintly above the tinny humming of the portal they could hear the all too familiar tune of the Song in all of its six parts sung in all of their voices at once, like six angels of death singing in perfect harmony.

"Are we too late?" One asked grimly, "Was the demon king felled already?"

"We don't know that!" Zero snapped, "He wouldn't abandon us so easily until death itself came dragging him kicking and screaming!"

"Would he?" The voice sounded like it came from Four and Two at once, but a shift in the humongous Flower was enough to prove who the culprit was, "You talk of a conqueror who threw all of his friends away and destroyed his world. Even now he sees his perfect future, and do you know who is in it? Ghosts of his past that so easily hold him in place… and none of you. Would you truly die for a man who thinks not of you in his most pristine fantasy?"

"I would die AGAIN just to put an end to your words, you ungodly snake!" Zero roared and began to step forward with her sword held in her grip dangerously, shouldering herself from One's grasp when her sister tried to stop her, "I don't need a king to give my life for when a parasitic piece of shit like you needs to be pruned!"

"But you do not have the strength, and your precious savior is gone. Do the smart thing and abandon him. Step through that portal—"

"You're scared!" Five's amused whoop echoed in the still air, and she began to step forward as well, "You know you can't stop us or else you would have killed us by now."

"Five, Zero, we could be underestimating this monstrosity," One eyed the vines all around, waiting for something to move, "Don't get overconfident like Sougo!"

"I think they're right," Three agreed and shuffled forward with her scissors clicking threateningly, "All we need to do is recortar las vides."

"You live only thanks to your king's protection. If you stray past the light—"

"As if I would listen to a fucking oversized plant," Zero growled and took one big step past the glowing aura.

Almost immediately, her mind felt like it would be torn apart. The song was loud, ear-splittingly loud, and every single not stabbed into her mind like a well placed blade. In seconds, she could hardly feel her body, as if it was just some suit around her mind that faintly raised its hands to block its ears. Yet that didn't stop the song. The song penetrated everything, even her flesh and bone, it shook her, it made the ground feel like it was trembling beneath her feet, and there was no way she could stop it. Just like Sougo, the words formed hooks that dug deep into her mind to grab onto the eldest Intoner's memories, dredging the pain out one by one.

Brief glimpses of lucidity flitted through her mind, but they were just as hellish. She relived each memory for a moment, feeling it, tasting it, and even thinking every thought that passed through her mind.

With every memory, a strange, numb calm blanketed her mind and body like something was dragging her into the freezing depths of sleep. A part of her knew to fight it, a part that was drowned out in the hellish memory and buried in the constantly shifting images. The cold even called out to her with a calming voice, no… multiple calming voices. Her sisters were sweetly calling out to her, as was Sougo and her mom without the constant hate and malice she remembered.

Sougo…

A brief instant of his body still being consumed by the vines filled her eyes, but it too was gone. Zero searched and searched for the memories of him to find them sunk into the cold depths, everything sunk into the cold depths.

Slowly, she was sinking through the chill with a slight, lively warmth filling her toes. For some reason, the warmth scared her and made her scramble for something, anything that could be a rock in the blank expanse of her mind. Then she saw it.

A glimmering memory still radiating gold. Like a beacon she tried to swim towards it, nearing close enough to hear a melody play beneath the six part song. It clashed with the calm, orchestral melody as its own fervent tone, a splash of energy amidst the stillness.

Almost immediately, Zero began to sing with all of her heart and soul, as if she was belting out the lyrics towards Sougo himself.

A glowing light seemed to spread throughout her mind, bringing back the painful memories surrounding her, but at least it was better than the biting cold and toyingly happy warmth. Yet, that glow was quickly assaulted once more by the Flower's song, pushing it down like a gilded cage to crush her once more. She sang harder and harder to no avail until a new voice joined her lonely choir.

One by one, the golden power spread, bringing back the pain and heartbreak that filled her years of life. That pain made her singing falter ever so slightly. Was she really fighting to live in a world of pain and death?

Then, her first memory of Sougo surfaced followed by their meeting with Five, their meeting with Four, and finally their silly little contest. In those few memories, Zero felt hope and happiness like never before, so her song began to burn even brighter.

With one last push, the darkness was gone, her body stilled, and the world came back into focus.

The Song was still there but smothered beneath their own beautiful harmony. Behind her, her sisters were singing with their eyes closed and beads of sweat dripping down their brow from the effort and power flowing forth.

Four had her head bowed and clawed gauntlets pressed together like she was praying.

Three was bending backwards with her arms hanging down and head facing the sky as if she was rejoicing.

One had her hands resting on the hilt of her chakram plunged into the rock like a statue of a man preparing for war.

Five had her hands outstretched towards the sky with her face also facing it, praising the very sun itself or welcoming whatever could fall from above.

Lastly, Two stood with her clasped hands over her heart and head bowed in a far more loving prayer than Four's.

Zero turned back to the Flower to see it beginning to shake like a strong wind was buffeting it, like their song was becoming a tornado to tear it apart petal by petal. She could have almost laughed as a fire burned in her stomach, laughed at the absolute folly the Flower had facing them, but, instead, she jerked her own sword straight at the center of that mass of black in the middle, closed her eyes, and imagined the power of their song shooting from her blade to smite it down.

To her surprise, there wasn't darkness when she closed her eyes, rather she saw a network of glowing power coursing all around. A dark black miasma covered everything that was cut through by ribbons of purple, yellow, red, blue, and green, each coming from her sisters as they snaked their power through the oppressiveness of the song. Just past the miasma was a huge column of power that almost radiated decay that was vaguely in the shape of a gigantic woman shaking just like the huge stalk of the Flower with glowing, multicolored eyes that bored into them above a mouth that leaked more poisoned darkness.

On instinct, the eldest Intoner changed her pitch and tone to find that her own pink aura moved and cut through the Song around her. Without another word, all of their power started towards the huge woman.

"How are you doing this?! You do not have the power!"

None of them answered the question they barely heard. Each one was focused on their connection to the darkness and following it until they hit the gaping maw. The instant their colors swirled and slammed into the thick wall of miasma billowing around the teeth, the song faltered. That one, shuddering mistake drove them to push harder and harder, singing until their throats were beginning to burn and crackle. Tears of exertion began to stream down Zero's face as they slowly pierced through the mouth and down into the Flower's very throat, digging towards what they knew to be six vocal cords grouped around in six separate colors. When they made it halfway there, their progress slowed while they fought against the iron will of the scourge on their lives, the evil thing not letting itself lose without burning every last bit of its energy.

Then, they felt a golden pulse wash through the thinning miasma surrounding them all, blowing it away like a great wind that came from their kneeling king.

The pulses came faster the more the nefarious Song quieted, becoming a heavy beat in tune with their song. Faintly, as if from a dream, they heard the male part of the song filter in from Sougo's voice, a part full of threats and confidence perfect for their Demon King.

With that last push of inspiration and power, the Intoners finally pushed through the last barrier, turning the Song around them into a broken, out of tune mess.

One's power was the first to wrap around her red vocal cord, making her voice from the Flower quiver then strain the same way the muscle strained as she pulled it out. There was one last desperate bid to keep it inside before it was torn out and One's fake voice was silenced.

Next, Four tore her voice out, then Two, then Five, turning the harmony into a strange mess of just Three and Zero that only knew two parts of the Song. By then, the miasma had cleared almost all the way and only rested against the Flower's throat, but neither Zero nor Three stopped.

In tandem, purple wrapped around purple and pink around pink before pulling, ripping the last two muscles away and dragging them back to their bodies.

Zero felt something tingle deep inside when the muscle was gone, as if something familiar was filling her body once more. It wasn't something she thought much about because, when their song cut off one by one and the pulsing beat from their king lessened as well, there was only silence, sweet, victorious silence. Her eyes opened to find the flower had risen to its full height once more while its flower turned up to kiss the sky as if it was just any other plant. One by one, the Intoners straightened themselves back up and blinked back into existence while smiles of various types and degrees began to stretch across their faces.

"Did… Did we do it?" Four asked breathelessly, taking a tentative step past the glowing aura of the portal where her smile widened into an almost manic grin, "I think we defeated it… together."

One crept past the aura herself, her eyes narrowed and chakram still at the ready while she looked at the still, pink head ringed by the halo of the sun. Slight shafts of light that finally peeked past the plant dappled her pale skin, as if an eclipse was beginning to end. Her smile was probably the most calculated and subdued, as if she wasn't quite ready to let out big sighs of relief and joyous laughs like her sisters. Even Three and Zero were letting their guard down, giving her quick looks but not stopping her or losing their grins while she crept ever closer to their seemingly defeated foe. Her ears picked up no sounds other than their rejoicing and Sougo's slight, restful breathing, not even a gust of wind or the rustling of stone. The Song was gone and, along with it, all other signs of life besides the dangerous greenery across the ruined cityscape. It was only when she began to approach one root-like vine that Five glanced over at her with a faltering smile and concern in her eyes.

"One?" Her still happy voice couldn't belie the the doubt in it, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

The second eldest Intoner didn't quite hear her over the pounding of her heart in her own ears. Her hand crept closer and closer without feeling a thing. It didn't seem to be throbbing anymore nor did there seem to be anything flowing within like before.

Yet… something still felt off.

Perhaps the vines looked too green or perhaps there was still a chill in the dead air, but she had to at least check. The instant her fingers came close enough to graze the thick surface, One finally felt it: a faint tingle. There, deep within the vine was the barest trickle of nectar and faintest of movement in its fibers, a sign of life.

She jumped away from the plant like lightning had struck at her feet, making her family whirl around in surprise. Her mouth had just enough time to open while their face had just enough time to twist into a look of abject horror before the worst sound they had ever heard pierced the air.

The sound was like a discordant mix of a baby's shrill scream, a woman's despaired death knell, and the ear-splitting cry of a wounded bird all in one. It was shrill, loud, and pierced into their ears like knives, making them all cover their ears and wince. As they shook from the pain of the anguished screech, the plant began to shake, slowly at first before becoming a violent whipping that made every vine begin to twist like snakes or throb like they were about to explode.

Beneath that horrendous sound, the world filled with an almost cataclysmic cacophony of rumbling stones, rustling leaves, and the intense creaking of an ancient tree being felled over and over. All of it ended with a loud, hissing voice that sounded just like the shrill, piercing scream mixed with the scraping of stone against stone while the flower snapped down as if to look at them.

"You! After all I gave you! After all I promised! You couldn't just leave me to live where I can hurt naught but the fake creations your king has created? You couldn't just let me live in this purgatory, content with the destruction of a miniature world? You! I will weed you out of my existence! And I will find my way into your world to slaughter every last one of you like I originally planned!"

Before any of the Intoners could respond, the ground began to rumble with the intensity of a small earthquake. The women found themselves stumbling while the dark, rough stone beneath their feet cracked and shifted like giant plates, and the entire landscape began to swell and fall like a choppy sea. The immense sound of grating and stone and the very crust of the earth breaking away was cut through by the sound of the few still standing structures crumbling into clouds of dust or shearing in half from the ground giving way. In a matter of moments, the entire cityscape had changed into a ruinous landscape that looked like a massive explosion of magic had torn everything asunder and rendered it an ashy grey. Then, from beneath the still billowing clouds of grey within the cracks, more thick vines pressed to the surface, but those weren't quite covered in thorns. Instead, big clumps of thorny tendrils rested upon it like dangerous balls that pulsed like a beating heart and fed into the plant by two tendrils attached to the surface. After a few minutes, the rumbling completely stopped until the world was still once more, and wherever the Intoners looked, those strange balls pulsed, as if an army of beating hearts had suddenly surrounded them.

"If you will not do as I say, then I have no choice. Behold! A truly glorious and obedient creation! An army made of my own flesh and blood! An army to rend you, your false king, and your world asunder!"

All at once, the balls began to change. The thorny tendrils within began to twist, pull, and push, creating a shrill sound of thorn against thorns as the masses began to take shape. They became oblong before straightening up into a tall, formless shape, but, after some more twisting and moving, each took a vaguely humanoid silhouette. The tendrils then seemed to tighten and create definition like fingers, muscles, and even some crude facial features until they were unmistakably human, albeit with pointed growths along their body like armor and huge, wicked claws on their toes and fingers.

Each blank face slowly turned towards them, pinning them down with an empty stare that somehow chilled them to the six sisters to their very core. Mechanically and wordlessly, every single one first pulled their left foot sharply up then their right to tear their feet from the vine, and every vicious step filled the air with a sickening, wet tearing sound and a geyser of dark green, almost black, ichor from each wound. There was even the cloying scent of freshly cut grass that hit their noses with such an intensity that each Intoner nearly stumbled back, but, just beneath, was the unmistakable stench of decay. It took a moment for the Intoners to ready their weapons, and that moment was almost too long.

As soon as the plant-men were freed and baptized in their own thick blood, they darted forward faster than any human, or even animal, could.

Five had just enough time to raise her spear up for a thorny beast to run straight into the blade, its body not stopping even as brackish, dark green ichor freely flowed from the wound. While it continued to stumble forward, its huge clawed hands swept forward over and over, and the thorns made it just close enough to almost scratch her face before the energy finally seemed to leave its body. Then, the blond Intoner finally snapped herself from her stupor to tear her blade through its torso and almost bisect it before swinging it around to savagely take another creation's head off.

Her sisters weren't faring much better in their attempt to hold their position. Zero and One fought nearly back to back and chopped limps off and bodies in half with well practiced slices, but they had to constantly dance around the claws that swiped at their sides with each swing. Even the two well practiced fighters were finding themselves pressed to not get wounded in the sudden mob, their clothes quickly becoming torn, small cuts appearing on their exposed skin, and that dark ichor splattering their white clothes with the stench of decay. Yet, the ferocity in their defense only seemed to grow with every splatter of blood while the lust for battle in their eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Two was somehow managing to hold them all off in a ring around her on her own. Every bit of her strength went into each huge swing, easily cutting through three or four at once while knocking their claws and hands back with some punches, kicks, and the flat of her blade. Even then, a few light cuts sent blood flowing down her arm and legs while a single fragment of a thorn was snapped off in her thigh, not that it slowed her down one bit.

Three and Four fought back to back with similar yet very different approaches. The purple-haired Intoner was as quick as a snack with her scissors and cut every single thorn and limb that came within reach and rapidly cut individual stalks from their body when she attacked. Each stalk she sheared open, especially around the neck, seemed to cut their movement and viciousness in half with none surviving more than three quick snips. It wasn't the most efficient way of clearing them out, but it made Four's approach seem absolutely frivolous and allowed her to fight as unrestricted and ferociously as she was.

The twin-tailed Intoner held nothing back with her claws and fists. It was almost like she was more of a rabid animal than a proclaimed goddess with how she rapidly struck out in a frenzy and reduced their tendrils to a mince, all while she had a large, almost feral grin on her face and lightly giggled throughout the whole deadly affair. Any thorny claws that came within reach met her own metal claws, getting sheared away without so much as a fight.

Soon, they were all nearly drenched in the brackish blood and no closer to thinning the herd, even as the bodies piled up. Slowly but surely, the mass of creatures pushed them back step by step towards the Flower, like they were pushing them towards their own execution. Around the flower, the vines collected and reared up, ready to rend them asunder. Each sister could feel the cold sense of dread that came with inevitable death, and they all knew there was no way out.

Unless…

"SOUGO!" Zero threw her head back towards the still kneeling and covered man, "Get the fuck up!"

"We need you!" Five yelped when a claw nicked her palm, with her retaliating with a merciless haymaker for the perpetrator that had her fist sunk a few inches deep in its face.

"I don't think he can! I think we need to free him from the Flower's grasp first!" One called to her sisters, as she held up her chakram to block yet another claw, "He still sounds like he's asleep so it might not have just been the Song!"

"Go towards that thing?!" The eldest Intoner glanced back at the vines waiting for them, "Are you fucking crazy?!"

"Do you want to die?!"

"Stop being a coward, Zero!" The two eldest sisters snapped their tense glare towards Four who still had a big - disturbingly big - smile on her face despite the long cut along her shoulder, "We can just tear through these inhuman vermin like it's nothing!"

"Yeah! We need to work towards each other and fight towards him, no matter what!" Two agreed and started to limp through the crowd that she steadily mowed down, working towards One and Zero.

"If we should die, our light must remain!" Three called with a nod, joining with Four to also carve a path towards their older sisters.

"Fucking fine!" Zero groaned even as a tingle of pride and joy filled her heart, "But that bastard better not expect me to save him like a damsel in distress ever again!" Then, beneath her breath, "Fucking making me worry, you piece of shit excuse of a king."

With renewed vigor, the sisters stopped fighting the flow and worked with it, never stopping their slaughter along the way. The immense pressure of the crowd lessened more and more as each of them reached the main group and focused on their own side of the circle, finally giving themselves some breathing room from the cuts.

However, Zero stayed at the very head of the circle with fire and bloodlust in her eyes, her vision tunneled at the damn cocoon holding their Demon King and salvation hostage. With every plant she cut down, two more took its place, forming a thick wall between her and her king. Like an adventurer hacking through dense jungle, she worked through the thorny tide and ignored the cuts building up on her arms. The eldest Intoner had to keep moving forward no matter what, had to reach the stupid fucking man that so easily fell for the Flower's trap, but the plants wouldn't let up. No matter how many she destroyed, the wall wouldn't move, trapping her as some plants began to close in on Sougo himself.

In one last desperate plea, Zero shouted above the din of metal thwacking and shearing through plants.

"SOUGO! Get the fuck up!—"

---

"—We need you!"

In the dark, empty space of his mind, the female figure with pale skin, dark brown hair tied in a diamond pattern close to her scalp to keep the hair from her eyes, and a resting bitch-face stopped speaking. She looked around with an annoyed grimace before sighing and looking back down at him.

"It is so noisy outside is it not?" Sougo barely looked at her, still rubbing his arms that were chained in darkness not minutes ago.

"It is, but what else do you expect from a group known as Intoners? All they do is bicker, fight, and try to kill each other all while singing to get their way," He dropped his hands and smirked at the fake Time Jacker, "But you did create them after all, so you should know far better than me."

"I would not make light of me Sougo Tokiwa," Ora frowned and started to stalk around him, "Their song may have freed part of your mind, but you are still in a deep sleep. For all of your power, you are so easy to contain in your own mind. You struggle like a rat in a trap against my power holding you down."

"For a world-ending weapon created by the gods themselves, losing to six women you yourself created doesn't give you room to gloat."

"And why not? Your survival depends on you accepting my influence. Without me, you will die too. Without me, you will never have power ag—"

The avatar's words were cut off when a pure white blade of energy pierced her chest. Sougo watched her cough up blood with no emotion, his eyes following her down when the blade disappeared and sent her falling to the floor. As the life faded from Ora's eyes, he sadly shook his head in a way that was incredibly forced and fake.

"You know, Flower, it's funny in a gallows sort of way how many people, mortal or otherwise, willingly choose to underestimate me, even when knowing just who I am and what I have done. Deciding to just talk instead of going for the kill as if time itself isn't my domain is perhaps the biggest folly there is. However, I am not above admitting to the fact that you are the first to come this close to actually stopping me. After what you have shown me today, I have much to think about again. But you should have killed me when you had the chance. A being as short-sighted as you is a fool to think I would join you, let alone stay trapped in your weak…" His words trailed off when he saw her cold, dead eyes, "You never give yourself enough time to finish what you start, right Tsukuyomi?"

Above the lifeless corpse, Tsukuyomi stood in the same beautiful, white dress that he always remembered her in from his younger self's memories. The Demon King's gaze softened when he looked at her, remembering all of those old memories once again and all of the regret from a lifetime that wasn't his.

"There is no time to regret, Sougo," She replied with her own sad smile, "You have a world to decide a future for and six people you still have a chance to save."

Before he had a chance to open his mouth to reply, the long dead Kamen Rider thrust her hand out and sent him flying back with a wave of energy.

---

Ohma Zi-O snapped back into his mind with a jolt. For a second, he felt like he was once again beneath the pressure of the chains in his mind, but the sharp thorns digging into his armor brought him back to reality.

A thick cocoon of vines had surrounded him like a grassy tomb, the smell of sweet smelling grass mixed with the overwhelming stench of decay to almost burn his nose, and the air was full of the sounds of battle in the still empty air.

"It seems that I have allowed this farce to drag on far too long..."

Black and gold began to smoke out of the overlord's body, the atmosphere itself around him seeming to react and bend to his very will.

" ...Allow me to rectify that mistake immediately!"

There was a brief moment where the smoke began to waver like heat warping the air, then every single bit of it seemed to suck back into his body. The very next instant, his powerful cry echoed across the landscape followed by an earth shattering boom. A gold and black aura exploded from his body like a forcefield, obliterating the vines in a chunk spray of dark green ichor and thorns.

When the rain stopped falling, Ohma Zi-O once more stood straight and tall, his red visor facing the pink flower with an unwavering stare as that golden, fiery aura wreathed him once more.

The plant army turned his way for just a moment while barely slowing their assault, and relief filled the faces of the six Intoners.

"Sougo!" Zero had to force anger into her voice, the butt of her blade smashing the head of an dangerously close foe, "What the hell were you doing making us wait?! We actually thought you were totally submerged by that the Flower!"

"And what are you doing disobeying my orders?"

That retort was enough to make real anger flash in all of their eyes.

"Listen here mother—"

"Can you put aside—"

"No! Now is not—"

"I will not stand by and—!"

"Did you actually expect—"

"I am your lover, not—"

Each one of the sisters started, but a healthy chuckle while Sougo raised one armored hand was enough to cut them off.

"I'm glad I found six women as spirited as you. You have done very well in my absence, even if you stand bloodied and tired. Not many that aren't Kamen Riders would stand against a might such as the Flower's army. So what say you each wield a Rider's power and cull this plague upon the earth? I alone cannot weed this Flower if an army of thorns are pricking in my side."

"The power of riders?" One frowned in confusion, before nimbly dodging a deadly swipe to the head, "Do you mean those watches Four and Two told me about?"

"No, this time I simply offer each of you a weapon but not the armor it comes with. It is to give you all a taste of the power the Kamen Rider possesses, but more than enough to finish this."

"I accept!" Four blurted out with her grin widening even more that could barely be seen beneath the spray from a spresh spurt of ichor.

"As if I could say no to that!" Zero let a small, grim smirk play on her face before ducking beneath an outstretched claw.

"We all accept!" One grunted urgently, barely knocking back one of the plants before shearing it in two, "Just hurry up and give us the weapons!"

"Of course."

Without another word, the overlord raised his hand, and a bright, red light began to burn in his palm.

Out of the void of time and space itself, six, dark red symbols blazed to life above the heads of each of the Intoners and let out a pulse of energy that caused the enemies around them to be sent flying away or be obliterated entirely. Those that flew away crashed in mid-air with the others, and their thorns tore each other apart and twisted them around each other like grotesque pretzels in a spray of more ichor.

Finally, the Intoners found themselves receiving a break from the seemingly endless onslaught as the rest of the Flower's army simply stood in place and watched this new development with the caution of a wary predator.

"Nunca dejas de sorprenderme, mi rey demonio," Three breathed out as she pushed away her long, sweaty, and bloodied hair to get a better look at the sight directly above her, deep purple eyes staring in childlike astonishment at the otherworldly symbol.

Directly above her head blazed a symbol reminiscent of three balls of lightning swirling like in a vortex, if lightning balls were blocky with incredibly short tails. In fact, every Intoner looked up with a similar expression of wonder, curiosity, or excitement.

Pink eyes glimmered with a deadly thrill at a symbol that looked like a pair of horns curved like a very, very squat S that had a smaller pair of horns sitting in the curve with what could have been the shape of a lance cutting between them in a strange crest.

Red eyes were slightly narrowed in intrigue at what looked to be water or wind swirling in a slightly check mark-shaped arc with the blade of a sword protruding from the swirling air or water to overlap the other end of the arc.

Blue eyes sparkled with glee as they reflected two shapes reminiscent of demon wings that nearly formed a circle with their shape and nestled the symbol of crescent moon facing upwards within the space where the tops of the wings nearly touched.

Emerald eyes glimmered with unbridled excitement and fascination while dark metal claws reached up in the air as if to grab a symbol that looked vaguely like a face with a snake motif.

Yellow eyes were wide with surprise and growing hunger as what appeared to be a peach cut through with battle designs floated above them, making them shine with a passionate, red glint.

Then, all at once, the symbols floated down into their hands, instantly transforming at the moment of contact.

In Zero's unarmed hand appeared a white shield shaped almost like wings and topped by two golden arrows making a V.

In One's hand appeared a very ancient looking sword with a mostly golden blade and red hilt, covered in intricate designs and symbols that were truly from a world and era beyond the one she knew.

Two found a rather simple saber appearing in her's that had a blue hilt and a fancy, crescent blade functioning as a hand guard.

Instead of an outright weapon, Three found a black cithara with the red face of a demon near the bottom resting atop her scissors, making her hastily stow them away to lightly tap the red strings.

Into Four's gauntleted hands appeared two tessen made of sharp blades that were red and black near the top with black and blue along the base with two yellow eyes, although the one in her left hand was duller than the vibrant fan in her right.

Five held tight to a strange, truly futuristic red bow with blue blades along the front that had a plunger-like system where the arrow was supposed to be knocked, making her curiously throw her spear on her back and inspect it closer.

In fact, all of the Intoners found themselves holding their new weapons closer, stroking them, or giving them a few test swings as if entranced.

Three plucked one string back, and a bolt of light shot from the instrument to sear a hole through an entire line of plants while Five did the same with her bow, her own magically appearing arrow streaking out to pierce a few more. Two and One both struck out at some of the dead plants by their feet while waiting for the thorny wall to close in once more to slice the rest down with both of their swords. Four lightly danced around while giggling as if pretending to be some happy, prancing princess, and fire danced around her in streaks from the fans. All the while, Zero stared down at her shield and continued to stroke and whisper something beneath her breath.

It was then that the thorny wave of the Flower swept in once more.

Unlike last time, the Intoners had almost no trouble with the huge crowd. Their bloodied and dirty bodies had no trouble finding the energy to fight back with all of their strength.

The former ruler of the Land of Mountains immediately jumped into the middle of a throng and whirled, lighting up every pile of thorns around her that then quickly burned into ash, her lethal dance of fire and steel easily obliterating all in her way with grace and viciousness of equal measure, and making the brunette look like less of the goddess humans viewed her as and more of an elegant reaper of death and destruction.

The former rulers of the Land of Seas and Forests respectively easily fired into the crowd with all of the speed they could muster, and the former even darted into the crowd to cut a few down with her blades at the same time she fired deep into their bellies. However, it was the last three that really made a huge show.

Two readied her swords in front of her while a glowing purple light surrounded the smaller saber and a blue light coated her larger sword. For anyone else, holding the lopsided weight may have been hard, but the bluenette made it look easy as she drew them inwards as if crossing her arms. A set of glowing wings made of strips of light grew from her back with the right wing glowing blue and the left wing glowing purple just like her weapons. Then, the two toned glow enveloped her entire body, reaching its peak just a moment before she struck.

One moment, she was standing before the wall and the next she was halfway through the wave. Only when she began to slice her way through the crowd did the huge swath of plants behind her finally slide in half and spurt their thick ichor, like her strike had a delay.

However, it was to the sky that those formless faces looked when One rose above with pink-red butterfly wings made of energy sprouting from her back. It was an elegant and graceful sight, as if the short woman truly was a magnificent butterfly, then the illusion was cut short.

From her sides, eight crimson spider legs sprouted that were almost twice as long as she was tall, like an alien's dangerous and spindly grasp. Those wicked looking legs immediately began to slash at the air to send a barrage of golden bolts and rays down into the watching army that diced them into a million tiny pieces. Then, when the ground was a scored waste pooling with that dark green, brackish blood, the pale-blonde Intoner flipped around and swung her chakram and new sword at the same time, shooting a pink and red X of energy that cut another swathe down.

Zero held the vermin back with one hand while holding the shield to her chest and squeezing her eyes tight with concentration.

Just as the plant army began to overwhelm her, a few glowing feathers fell from the sky, and the wind began to blow.

Those pink eyes snapped open with the biggest, smuggest smirk imaginable before she swept her shield arm to the side, making a huge gust sweep in from behind to lift the plants in front of her off their feet and away from her. Like a conductor, she moved her shield and sword around to direct the mass of plants caught in the wind right into the path of another shower of white and pink slashes.

In a matter of moments, the feather-filled wind sorted the rest of the army into segments perfectly shaped for her sisters to strike them all down like lambs to the slaughter.

Five and Three mowed down line after line as if they were a firing squad finishing off guilty prisoners, huge bundles were set up for One and Two to shear through head on and airborne, and Four got to deftly twirl in cyclones of thorns while the wind made her fire flare to the very heavens and burn them all down to cinders.

Zi-O watched it all with a wide smile hidden by his black and gold helm before turning towards the Flower once more. The giant plant shook like it was beneath a great gust despite no feathers swirling around it, every single flower on its pseudo-branches shaking like so many little leaves. Even the pink petals were curling inwards as if they were beginning to brown.

"It's terrifying, isn't it?" He swept his hands towards the carnage before pressing both buttons on his belt, "A single hint of my power and nothing you could possibly do can stop them. However, you face not just a hint but the full brunt of my power, and I am no longer in a playful mood."

"The end is nigh!"

At the belt's announcement, the golden aura burst around Ohma Zi-O once more as he held his hands out and began to levitate almost like an angel rising from the depths of Hell itself.

"You do not know of the forces that you struggle against, Ohma Zi-O!" There was complete desperation in the Flower's shrill voice as it watched the ascent, "Killing me stops nothing! Soon, you will face the wrath of the true gods of this world!"

" Ohma Zi-O: Hissatsu-Geki!"

Without a word, Ohma Zi-O's burning form came to a stop in front of the giant, pink flower, and the cape-like clock-hands on his back swung out to create wings with another small explosion. There was nothing anyone could do to stop him from readying his legs for a kick and flying forward with one last guttural yell.

His glowing foot connected in a flash of golden light. A huge wave of gold and black washed over the landscape, blowing everyone back ever so slightly, bringing ruins crumbling down, and sending the small pebbles flying through the air. It blinded everyone for just a moment, as if a sun itself had appeared where the Flower's head once was. Then, in a flash, the glow was gone, replaced by a seared hole right in the middle of the Flower with Ohma Zi-O still posed in front of it.

A moment later, glowing gold and shadowy black cracks began to spread across the petals like cracking glass and down the great stalk, making every inch glow. With every second, that glow pulsed stronger and stronger like the power was reaching a critical point and, by the time half of the stalk was covered, the light exploded like a sun again. That time, chunks of green vines, shattered thorns, and shreds of pink, yellow, red, green, blue, and purple showered the landscape, burning up just before reaching the ground.

All that was left when the glow faded once more was the lower of half the plant as it slumped back lifelessly.

As soon as Ohma Zi-O touched down once more all of the greenery began to shrivel and turn a withered brown. However, as the plant quickly died, the ground beneath them opened in a rift that showed a vast network of now rotting vines supporting all of the stone.

That same vast network is where everyone began to tumble, yelling out in surprise and slight pain as they fell. Large stones followed them all down with a deadly rumble, but no one could stop. They were all helpless as they fell towards the sea of still sharp thorns with a great weight ready to crush them.

Zero opened her mouth to call a name, only for her words to be cut off by a great, golden light.

---

Sougo's eyes snapped wide open in the middle of the throne room of the Cathedral with all of the Intoners groggily getting up beside him. For a moment, they could only look around and sleepily blink as if they just woke up from a long nap.

"What happened back there anyways?" Three groggily asked while rubbing her eyes awake, yawning, looking around at the spacious, empty room, and mentally noting that Gabriella and the others must be still in their hidden space and awaiting their return, "I thought we were dead for sure this time around…"

"It seems the absence of the Flower threw the stream of time off enough that I could snap the created world away," Sougo dusted himself off as he climbed to his feet, "And now every trace of it is gone."

"Not quite," Zero grumbled and glanced around at her sisters rising from the ground, "Not that it's the worst thing in the world. What I'm really wondering is what took you so long."

"I underestimated the power of the Song," He admitted with a sigh, "Then it trapped me in a world that was perfect in every way in my mind. That is a trap too powerful for even the greatest mind."

"...And we weren't there?" Five's quiet but audible query made it out more as a statement than a question, one the Demon King slowly nodded to, the bits and pieces of the illusion he was trapped in coming to the forefront of his memory.

"No, none of you were. It was the world that my younger self probably made when he turned his back on my future. There was no desolation, no corrupted king, no ruined world, and I was happier than I ever was on my throne, no matter how false it proved to be at the end of the day."

"You make it sound like you would have rather stayed," One sighed disappointedly, but, before she could continue, the lanky young looking man shook his head.

"Of course not. Why would I want that paradise when I can make my own…" He hesitated and looked across the growing curiosity on each face, "With all of you. That fantasy made me realize one very important thing: the simple life isn't made for old man Sougo, and that made everything feel so cheap and fake. There was no excitement and no one like you worth devoting my time to. In all of my years as a ruler, I only ever had concubines to fulfill my fantasies in the past, but now, I would much rather rule and make a real future in this reality with my queens by my side for as long as time itself allows it."

For a second, all six faces stared at him in blank surprise while his words processed through each Intoner's mind, then Four began to sputter loudly and turned her head, breaking the silence even as a blush filled her cheeks.

"You can't just call us your queens, you know? We aren't even married!"

"Four's right," Five frowned a little herself, hands on hips and chin turned up and away, although she couldn't keep her eyes from turning his way to reveal a look full of wanting, "I will not be deprived of my perfect, lavish ceremony and oh-so-rich cake with ten, no, twenty layers and overstuffed buffet!"

"And we never made that kind of promise," Two slightly grumbled and shook her head with her arms crossed, "Although, after what you did…"

"Come on, Sougo," Zero groaned even as happiness and excitement sparkled ever so slightly in her eyes, hiding it with her usual expression of vigor and spite, "Even the stupidest man on Midgard would no better than to say that without so much as a ring or a yes to his own damn proposal."

"Then why don't I rectify that?"

With a sly grin and flick of his hand, Sougo made a silver ring encrusted with small yellow diamonds along the top that glimmered like gold and intricate waves carved into the band in black appear between his fingers. Five couldn't keep an uncharacteristically shy blush from blossoming on her face when it was offered to her, and her golden eyes shined with so much excitement, "You may be the youngest and most unpredictable, Five, but you have shown me a way of looking at life that paints everything in so much wonder. Yet, you have never stopped trying to prepare yourself for my rule nor stopped trying to be better than you were before. Will you stand by my side as my queen until the day my reign falls?"

For a moment, the youngest Intoner could only stand there speechless, but then a squeal of pure happiness almost tore from her lips.

"Yes! Yes! And a thousand times yes!" She pulled the ring from his hand and slipped it perfectly onto her finger, admiring it from every angle in the sun with a massive smile on her face, "Oh! To think that one little ring could make my heart pound so hard in my chest or one man could make me feel so, so—!" Instead of finishing, she simply pulled Sougo into a tight hug and gave him a big kiss.

As soon as he was able to pull from her arms and turn towards Four, there was another ring in his hand. That one was a much simpler golden band with a single emerald resting in its setting so perfectly that the head just barely rose above it and a fairly simple, black carving of mountains along the side. The cut was just as simple while the gem itself was rather small, but it reflected so brightly in Four's teary and awed eyes.

"Four, you have never once stopped trying to be that perfect vision you always saw yourself as, and I find myself surprised to see not the empty girl who slaughtered the elves but a woman who very much feels like the prim and proper queen anyone would want to have the unmatched honor of being ruled by. Since you have been by my side, it has been easy to—"

Sougo's words were cut off when she grabbed her ring from his hand and pulled him into her own tight hug, burying her furiously blushing face and tears of joy in his lanky chest. She didn't even need to see to slip the ring on the right finger, the gesture so rigorously practiced that it was almost like breathing, and she never once tried to look at it. Instead, she just silently hugged her new fiancé while trying to find the words to express every intense feeling that swirled around inside. In the end, only two words slipped out:

"I do."

After that, she slowly let go to properly gather herself and let him turn towards Three with another ring in his hand. It was a little more ornate than Four's but only in the sense that it had two smaller jewels next to the main one and intricate vines carved in black in the gold. The three glittering amethyst gems made her eyes widen, her mouth open ever so slightly in shock and wonder, and an uncharacteristic look of genuine and overwhelmed gratefulness glittered in her eyes. Sougo opened his mouth as if to start another long speech but stopped when he saw the slight pain behind the happiness.

"It's alright, Three," He gently grabbed her hand and slipped the ring on himself, making her look up at him in surprise to find an uncharacteristic look of empathy in his eyes, "No matter your sins, I still wish for you to stand by my side as my queen, even if it means shouldering those very same sins with you the whole way through."

"I would rather be lying down the whole time," The purplette intoned with so much seriousness that all of her sisters began to stare, but Three's strange giggle just made them all shake their heads at her joke, "Por siempre y un día o hasta que se apaguen nuestras luces, seré tu reina."

With one last giggle that sounded almost girly, the young-looking man let go of her hand so she could gently stroke the ring and turned towards Two. When he saw her face, there was the unmistakable look of a mask of happiness above one of sadness that he had seen more than a few times before. He hesitated for just a moment before pulling out another silver ring, one with etches of desert flowers in black along the side and two rows of beautiful sapphires inset on the top with a pair of jewels in the middle that had a silver symbol of infinity connecting them.

"I know I can never replace Cent in your heart nor make up for how we met in the first place, but you are the heart of your family. Without your love and care, I have no doubt that they would not be quite as close as they are now. Will you stand by my side as a queen and perhaps give me a second chance?"

Those azure eyes stared back into his brown pair flickering with emotions. There was that same sadness, then hesitance and doubt, even a brief flash of pain before settling on a tentative look of acceptance accentuated by a sweet and loving smile.

"Of course, Sougo," She took the ring from his hand and slipped it on as a slight wistfulness took over, "How can I not, after you've given us all our future back?"

"Perhaps," The Demon King found the word feeling strange on his tongue when he turned towards a very expecting One, "One… well, of you I daresay I know the least, but I have seen more than enough of your strength and commitment to know that there are few I would rather have at my side. Will you help me fulfill the promises I made to you and your sisters?"

With that, he pulled another golden ring from nothing into his hand. The band was inset with black designs that looked vaguely like two praying angels, and a simple ruby sat in the middle of where their halos combined into one. The second eldest Intoner delicately took the ring from his hands and studied it, rolling it over and over in her palm. Then she looked up at him with an expression unreadable even to him and a tone even more so.

"If someone had told me just the other day that some man would come into my life and propose to me not even a day later… well, I have heard crazier. If you had told me that same man would rid this vile blight from the world and save my family, then I would have had the messenger executed for being insane. Yet, here I have a ring in my hand and an unshackled world above me… and I don't wish to rule it alone," She slipped the ring on and gave her new fiancé a look that was more easily readable, if slightly teasing, "But I will still hold you to your promise, Sougo Tokiwa, until the end of time itself."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

The man finally turned towards the eldest Intoner with a rather ornate ring in hand. It too was silver with black etchings along the side of thorns and leaves, but the top was what really made Zero's eyes go wide. Instead of a jewel set inside, the top was fashioned into a little flower with leaves topped with pink morganite and a little pink morganite gem where the pestils would be. Her stony gaze only remained stone a while longer before it softened and grew a slight yet undeniably happy smile, and a great blush turned her pale cheeks red.

"Zero, you, of all of the Intoners, have been by—"

"How many times am I going to have to repeat myself? Cut the sentimental bullshit," She cut him off, trying to mumble grumpily, but the words were far too tinged with happiness to sound anything short of wistful and loving, "You might need to woo the others, but I know enough about you that your crappy charms won't work," Despite that, her smile grew wider and unrestrained despite her sisters' happy gazes, and she quickly took the ring and held it to the light, "Hmmph, if you think it's a ring that will win me over, then think again. But, yes… I will be your demon queen. Just don't expect me to be a damn housewife no matter how many kids we have!"

---

From the doorway into the throne room, a strange, black-haired woman peeped from behind a door. Her pigtails hanged down while a single gloved finger kept her silver glasses in check, but none of the happy Intoners noticed her gray eyes watching as Zero slipped on the ring.

As soon as the ring was on, a big smile stretched across her face from behind the door, followed by a barely restrained giggle. Then, in the very next instant, her head was gone and only a light thudding sound took its place. If not for the noise of the six sisters and Sougo talking, then they might have heard as the well-dressed woman hurried up the stone stairs with a big briefcase in hand or even the light muttering and giggling beneath her breath.

"I must tell the others about this! What a ripple effect the Anomaly had on this world's possibilities! A new singularity, the Flower rendered useless and completely out of commission, the Intoners actually working together, ending up safe and sound in the process…!"

The woman stopped, taking a moment to look up at nothing in particular as a truly surprised yet amused expression stretched across her face.

"…a fairytale kind of happy ending… who would have thought that one of these timelines could have it?"

Her muttering carried on well past when she slipped out the heavy door and shut it as gently as she could, but that soft, resounding thud made red eyes flick up and made a slight frown form on One's face. However, she brushed it off and turned back towards an elated Five that was trying to show off every minute detail of her ring.

Translations:

Bankotei: the Sixth Clock

El burro hablando de orejas = The donkey speaking about ears

Eres amado sin importar cuánto te rompas, y siempre estaremos listos para recoger los pedazos = You are loved no matter how much you break, and we will always be ready to pick up the pieces.

Mira al sol = Look at the sun

Nunca dejas de sorprenderme, mi rey demonio = You never cease to amaze, my demon king

Por siempre y un día o hasta que se apaguen nuestras luces, seré tu reina = Forever and a day or until our lights go out, I will be your queen

Well, Act I is officially finished and thus begins a few chapters of intermission.

A few things to note along with translations: Ora was the form the Flower took in Sougo's mind, the song the Intoners sing is Kingslayer by BMTH ft Baby Metal but I cannot actually add the lyrics, and the exact weapons each Intoner had were

Zero: Kamen Rider Femme's Wingshield

One: Kamen Rider Sabela's Eneiken Noroshi

Two: Kamen Rider Kivala's Kiva-la Saber

Three: Kamen Rider Shuki's Ongekigen Kitara

Four: Kamen Rider Jeanne's Lovekov Kujaku Genome

Five: Kamen Rider Marika's Genesis Bow Sonic Arrow