Chapter 15- Final Preparations

November 3, 2056

Kuroba opened her eyes as the morning light crept in from the window behind her. Grimacing at her sleep ending prematurely, she sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. After that, she looked around to see where she was. This wasn't her bedroom. What was she doing here? The sounds of gentle breathing reached her ears, so she turned to see its source, which was a familiar brunette sleeping peacefully under the black and gray blanket.

Then like a switch flipped on, the memory of what transpired the night before returned, her face becoming a bright scarlet. She had just slept in the same bed with the boy she loved and her rival. Now Kuroba had to get a little bold in order to compete with Fuko, but the Black King was slightly held back by some ounce of shame. She couldn't believe she actually went through with something so embarrassing. Well, it's not like Marth was the type of person to do unspeakable things to her, he was way too honorable for that. Still, that didn't change the fact that she still slept with him even though they weren't in a relationship. Not to mention that it just felt so right to share a bed with him. She felt warm, safe, protected, a feeling that she hadn't felt in a long time. Not since the day that person betrayed her.

By the way, where was her protégé? He wasn't anywhere in the bedroom. Curious, Kuroba carefully climbed out of bed, trying not to disturb Fuko's rest. She then went over to the door to leave, only to find it locked. At first, she panicked, worried that she was trapped somewhere, possibly by the Darkfallen. However, the door was actually locked on her side and there were no wards behind it.

Okay, that was a close one. That should mean that Marth hadn't gone out that way. It would be stupid of him to lock himself out of his own room after all. So then where was he? She began scanning the room for clues. To no surprise, the demon prince had wide selection of video games that he played on the odd occasion, plus a vast array of books. Some of them were even about the history of Eternus or about the old gods, but there was a concealment enchantment on them to keep unwanted eyes from seeing them.

As she was putting some of the books up, she noticed a strange inscription in the back of the bookshelf. It was a rune, one that looked strangely familiar. Curious, she placed her hand on it, causing it to glow with purple light.

"Ngh," Fuko grimaced as the light flooded the room, waking her up as a result. "What's going on? Some of us are trying to sleep here."

Kuroba didn't even mutter a reply as she sensed a surge of magic power. She had felt this type of magic before. She knew exactly where Marth was.

As if to confirm her hunch, a large purple magic circle appeared in the center of the room. It was a teleportation circle!

"What the?" Fuko said in confusion. "Where's Marth?"

"Isn't it obvious? He's gone to Eternus. He used this warp circle to get there."

"I see. I didn't know he had one in his own bedroom. We always just used the one in Kazuto's place to get to Eternus. But why did Marth go there now?"

She had an inkling as to why, possibly the same one that Fuko was thinking right now. Without hesitation, Kuroba trotted over to the center of the magic circle, which began reacting to her presence, its power resonating to transport her to the place it was connected to. To her mild irritation, Fuko quickly got out of bed, not really caring that her sleepwear was a mess (how the heck did that happen) and got into the circle as well.

Once they were both in, their bodies were overwhelmed with a feeling of weightlessness and bright light flooded their vision. Mere seconds later, they found themselves inside a stone castle. It was big, yet seemingly devoid of life. The furniture and decorations looked ornate but not too expensive. A fine red carpet was draped over the floor and stairs. Torches of crimson fire lit up the place, but it still had an eerie aura about it. Hanging from the pillars were purple banners with a crimson spear at the center. This was Dun Scaith, home to the immortal warrior, Scathach.

"No matter how many times I come here, it still makes me feel uneasy," Fuko muttered with a tremble, an unnatural chill causing her to shiver.

"Tell me about it," Kuroba agreed, feeling that same sense of unease. "But it makes sense. This is the lair of the deadliest woman to exist."

It made sense that Rias didn't want Marth and Kisara to grow up here. Sure Dun Scaith was isolated from the rest of Eternus, but this was no place to raise children. Plus, there were things you could only get from living in civilization. Heck, Kuroba might not have even met Marth had he lived here instead of Tokyo.

Having a hunch on where the demon prince was, The Black King trotted down one of the hallways, which Fuko close behind. They soon entered a large open corridor with no ceiling, revealing the ethereal blue sky of Eternus. There were many training dummies, all of various sizes to accommodate certain battles. For instance, there was a fifteen-foot dummy that resembled a bear to simulate battles with upper class Lemures. It even had a few special attacks that could cause injuries if you weren't careful. Scathach did not pull any punches with her training regiments. She wanted all of the Harbingers to know what kind of conflicts they would get into if they continued down this path.

In case it wasn't obvious, the Harbingers was name of the team that Kuroba and the others were a part of. It was the same name that Marth used for his guild back in Aincrad and what Zane's strike force was called back in the War of Light and Shadow. Naturally, Marth is the leader of this incarnation of the Harbingers with Kazuto serving as the vice commander.

Of course, there was also the matter of the Black Legion, Nega Nebulus, which Kuroba is the leader of. In order to keep things simple, she and Marth had straightened out the details of how to organize both teams. When it comes to matters in the real world, like going on missions in Eternus, they were the Harbingers and Marth was the leader. If an incident involved the Accelerated World, then Kuroba would be the leader and they went by their Legion name instead. The transition between the two names could be confusing at times, as well as the change of leadership. Kuroba even said she was fine with changing the Black Legion's name to "Harbingers" to make things simpler, but Marth refused, saying that he was fine with "Nega Nebulus". Plus, if they changed the name to Harbingers, everyone would turn to him as the leader in Brain Burst instead of Kuroba, the actual Legion Master. He may not care about the Accelerated World, but he didn't want to dishonor the Black King's history in that world. Kuroba knew how that place worked more than he did, so it makes sense that she would be the leader in situations in that world.

Given their low numbers, which was ten if you counted Cynthia and Yuna, there wasn't really much of a hierarchy, but that was likely to change once they locate the rest of the Harbingers. Speaking of which, progress in that area is still moving pretty slow, but from what Agil said, he's got a lead on Klein's location and is planning on making contact with the samurai this evening. Still no word on Nautilus and the others though.

Anyway, the girls weren't alone in the training yard as there were two others fighting each other in the center of the clearing. With his familiar dual swords and ash-gray coat, Marth was easy to identify, but the second figure was more surprising. Dressed in her combat dress, it was none other than the demon spider Cynthia. But what was she doing here in Dun Scaith? Last Kuroba recalled, she was supposed to be in Celestine looking into the whereabouts of the divine weapons.

Whatever the reason for her sudden arrival didn't matter as this was a rare treat to see. She has heard stories of the demon spider's strength but has yet to see in her in action, at least in this era as Cynthia had left before Kuroba was even cleared to leave the hospital. There was no way she was going to interrupt this fight just to satisfy her curiosity.

There weren't any visible injuries on either opponent, but given their body language, it was clear that they've been at this for a while. Marth was obviously fighting with his dual swords, while occasionally firing off a spell or two. Just seeing him fight made Kuroba's heart skip a beat. His movements just came off so well, rarely ever showing an opening. It was no wonder he won her heart, even if he was unaware of it.

In contrast, Cynthia preferred to keep her distance from her master, trying to use her hair-line threads to trap him, or at the very least slow him down. Even Marth had trouble when it came to escaping her webs. Cynthia was the type of fighter who toyed with her opponents, waiting for the perfect chance to strike, usually when they found themselves completely immobilized. Once they were caught, she would unleash her deadly venom, bringing them a very painful death.

From what Marth has told her, Cynthia had actually found a way to change the properties of her poison so it could have a variety of effects. If she wanted to question someone without fear of them killing themselves, she would administer a numbing poison that rendered them unable to move. If that wasn't working, then she'll switch to using a venom that made even breathing painful to do, with it getting worse by the second. As if to add to her sadism, none of her poisons could be cured by antidotes or magic. In order to rid yourself of her poison, you had to get the antivenom from Cynthia herself, and she oh so loved using it to toy with her victims as she watches them in their agony.

"And people call me a monster," Kuroba thought to herself as she watched her protégé cut through the spider familiar's threads with his swords. "Marth isn't afraid to weaponize even his most loyal supporter. But then again, he did 'create' her during a war."

Marth was trying to close the distance when suddenly several purple magic circles appeared before him. Immediately after, multiple spears of purple poison fired at him. This was another one of Cynthia's abilities. As a child of Shadira, the Spider Queen, she was capable of using a type of magic not available to mortals. Poison magic. Just like her venomous bite, this magic had a variety of effects, but with the addition of having a variety of different attacks which not only dealt damage but also inflicted her targets with a dangerous poison. This was her secondary way of attacking if her threads weren't enough, but that still wasn't all she was capable of if Kuroba remembered right from her life as Celine.

"Not bad, Cynthia," the demon prince said with a smirk, looking impressed. "But that's still not enough." Purple lightning enveloped his body and he dashed back with a sudden burst of speed, evading the poison spears which harmlessly slammed into a wall.

"Aw, and here I thought I had this time, Master," the spider replied with wry grin. "But I would've been disappointed otherwise. Still, I have no intention of losing this fight."

"Good. Now show me what you've got!"

"With pleasure!" Cynthia quickly said a quiet incantation, causing more magic circles to appear around her master. Instead of spears shooting out, they fired a volley of poison blasts. This particular spell was called Dark Bullet. The rate of firing was very impressive, reaching a speed that even Kuroba wondered if she could successfully evade. However, Marth showed that it was possible as he was able to evade every single blast, despite more following with each failed attack. Although, part of why he was able to do this was by using his wind barriers to defend while using his lightning magic to increase his movement speed, not to mention his incredible reaction time which only Kirito could rival (at least among the ranks of the Harbingers). Another thing to consider is that in terms of attack strength, Dark Bullet was fairly weak, but it was good for chip damage, and it could be chained into a mass onslaught as seen right now.

Either through evading or cutting the projectiles down with his swords, Marth again began closing the distance between him and his familiar. Cynthia looked visibly frustrated that her tactics weren't working. He was nearly there, just three feet to go. Kuroba and Fuko watched with bated breath as he activated one of the advanced techniques of his Dual Blades style, the sixteen combination Myriad Heaven. However, they then noticed the smirk on the familiar's face.

Right before the first slash of the sword skill landed, Cynthia materialized a large scythe from behind her. The wooden handle was an ebony black, the curved blade a wicked purple, looking almost like a tooth of sorts. It was well made, practically radiating with a dark power. The blade was created from a fang of her late mother, which Zane had retrieved to turn into a weapon, while the handle was made of stained ruby oak, the only wood capable of not rotting from poison, not matter how potent it was. Much like Cynthia herself, it had a poisonous bite where even the tiniest scratch could prove deadly, as even in death, the fang of Shadira continued to secret its potent venom. Fittingly, its name was the Venom Battlescythe, and if it wasn't obvious by now, it was in fact a divine weapon.

Cynthia only brought this bad boy out when things were really not in her favor. Given that her opponent is her own master, who was an exceptionally powerful demon, she couldn't afford to hold back any longer. This weapon had essentially become a part of her once she became Marth/Zane's familiar as he had it made it especially for her, which was why she could still summon it despite the seven millennia that had passed since she had last wielded it.

With masterful skill, she managed to parry and evade most of Myriad Heaven's attacks. All the while, she patiently waited for an opening, one that all four that were present knew about. That opening soon came after the fifteenth slash, where Marth was forced to do a dramatic pause before beginning the sixteenth slash with Solaris. Like a viper, Cynthia moved to strike, putting all her strength into this final attack. She stopped dead short of pricking her master's neck with the tip of her blade.

"I win, Master," she said as she smiled with pride.

"Are you sure about that?" Marth questioned with a sly grin.

All the girls gasped as they suddenly noticed that Solaris was hovering just above Cynthia's shoulder, the blade turned in a diagonal angle. If the attack had continued, it might have been an otherwise fatal blow.

Interestingly, the spider familiar let out a laugh, not at all sounding disappointed. "As expected from my master," Cynthia mused as the two withdrew their weapons. "It seems I'm still not quite at the level to exploit your openings. Regardless, thank you for the match."

The demon prince simply smiled as he dismissed his projections. Once his hands were free, he ran his fingers through her beautiful silver hair, much to the familiar's pleasure. "Anytime. Take pride in this battle. This is first time you've tied with me in a duel. Perhaps you'll even win our next bout."

As if she was a child about to get a new toy, Cynthia's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really? If that happens, will you give me a reward? Anything I want?"

"Sure. I don't see a problem with that," Marth said lightly, laughing at her enthusiasm.

Kuroba pretty much froze at that, panic surging through her heart. It couldn't be, could it? Did Cynthia also have feelings for Marth? Given her attitude and the nature of her question regarding her reward, it certainly gave that implication. From what her protégé has said, relationships between masters and familiars tended to vary. Some familiars were treated as nothing more than tools, or even worse, as sexual dolls. It was honestly disgusting to hear of such behavior. Naturally there were also those like Marth and Kisara, who treated their familiars like family and trusted partners.

"Please tell me we don't have another rival?" Kuroba grimaced as she returned to reality.

Fuko simply giggled at her displeasure. "I wouldn't think too deeply about that. Cynthia simply sees Marth as her father, so I doubt she means anything sexual in terms of her reward."

Well, that was comforting, somewhat. She was already in an uphill battle against the brunette. Having to also compete with Marth's own familiar for his affection would have made victory all the more difficult.

The female duo then made their way over to the master and familiar, praising them for such an intense battle. Naturally, both Marth and Cynthia were surprised to see that they were not alone.

"Kuroba? Fuko? When did you get here?" he questioned.

"You were gone when I woke up, so I tried looking for you," Kuroba answered. "Fuko and I ended up finding a teleportation circle in your room and next thing we knew, we were here."

Marth scratched his cheek sheepishly, a bit uncharacteristic for him. "Oh. I guess I should have left a note or something before I left. I use that circle as a shortcut to Dun Scaith so I don't have to keep going to Kazuto's place. I had contacted Cynthia to return home last night, and she just got back about thirty minutes ago. Rather than rest, she asked me for a duel and I accepted because I figured I wouldn't have much of a chance to train today."

"Rather unusual for you to pull Cynthia out of a mission," Fuko commented, knowing his mentality. "Did something happen yesterday to warrant this?"

"Yeah." Marth's tone suddenly became more serious. "When we were at the store with Yuniko, I ran into this girl, Elie MacDowell, the new transfer student. Well, she gave off this unusual presence. It was graceful as a fairy yet menacing as a demon. I've never felt a presence like that before."

Both fairies couldn't help but gasp at the news. Kuroba knew who this Elie was as she shared a few classes with her at Umesato. She too had noticed the unnatural air about her and had meant to talk to the others about it, but once the incident with Scarlet Rain happened, it completely slipped her mind. How embarrassing.

Knowing the implications of this, she asked in a grave tone, "Is she a Darkfallen?"

"No, I don't think so. She didn't give off an ill intent as far as I could tell. Not to mention that I think I've heard her name before. Anyway, she wanted to talk to me about something, so I've agreed to meet her tomorrow since we'll be too busy dealing with Chrome Disaster today."

"Is that wise?" Fuko spoke up, her voice etched in concern. "She could be trying to lure you into a trap. Maybe I should go with you, just in case."

"There is no need to worry, Fuko," Cynthia said calmly. "I will be with my master for that meeting. If this is indeed a trap, then I will punish them severely for their treachery. In fact, I might even try to work up an appetite before we attend."

The way she said that with that wicked smile sent a chill down Kuroba's spine. Unlike Yuna, Cynthia did need to eat in order to survive. When on missions, she would usually nourish herself by hunting Lemures, but there were cases where she gobbled up people, but only on Marth's orders, and even that was only when he was truly pissed off. Still, this meeting with Elie was definitely the reason why the silver-haired familiar had returned early. If she was with Marth, then Kuroba wouldn't have to worry about his safety, but she still wished she could go too. She has no choice but to trust that the boy she loved knew what he was doing.

Given that it was getting later in the morning, they all decided that they should return back to Tokyo. Once they had returned to Marth's bedroom, Kuroba noticed as Cynthia began to shrink down, sprout more legs and six more additional red eyes. In just a few seconds, the familiar had transformed into a little house spider, perched on her master's shoulder. Just like her hair, her spider body was a deep gray with some red borders decorating it. Honestly, she looked kind of cute like this.

"Is there a reason why she did that?" Kuroba questioned. All familiars have two forms, a human form and a true form, the latter being what they were originally. Some familiars, like Yuna, could only fight in their human forms as their true forms were not suited for combat. Cynthia was not like that as she was perfectly capable of fighting in either form. In fact, she could even alter the size of her spider form, with her able to enlarge it up to twelve feet. However, she always prefers fighting in her human form as she considers it a gift from her beloved master.

"It's just a precaution," Marth explained calmly as he gently rubbed the tiny head of the gray spider with his finger. "If Yuniko wasn't staying with us, then Cynthia wouldn't need to hide her human form, and I'd rather she not see her in her human form. Luckily, there's no need for the Red King to know of her existence, anyway, and I can just say Cynthia's my pet spider if Yuniko ever spots her."

That was a good point. Scarlet Rain was only here so she could get Ashen Wolf and Purple Flare's help with eliminating the fifth Chrome Disaster, who had possessed the Prominence member, Cherry Rook. There was no need for her to know of Cynthia's existence. Once the Armor of Catastrophe was dealt with, they'd be going their separate ways with the Red King, until Kuroba's desire to reach level 10 would cause them to inevitably clash.

But is reaching level 10 really what she wanted anymore? The mere consideration of such a topic would have been unthinkable for her two years ago. Her obsession with reaching level 10 led her to taking this blood-soaked path, with the first step being the decapitation of Red Rider. But after meeting Marth and regaining some of the memories of her life as Celine, she found herself feeling not as determined to become the maximum level as before. Perhaps it was because she knew of Marth's own plans, preparations for an all-out war against the Darkfallen. Honestly, reaching level 10 felt so childish now when compared to fighting against her crush's sworn enemies.

Make no mistake. Kuroba still very much wanted to learn the secrets of Brain Burst. She hasn't come this far only to back out now. However, now she had something more to fight for than just her selfish desires, or rather someone. Her eyes glanced over at the demon prince, whose appearance had reverted back to his regular sleep attire while Cynthia hid inside his long ebon hair. She watched as he gathered a change of clothes before preparing to head for the shower to wash off the sweat he got from his bout with his familiar.

Fuko suddenly nudged her shoulder. "Think we should join him?"

The Black King instantly felt the heat rise in her face while her heart pounded against her chest. It took every ounce of willpower she had not to throw herself at Marth when she saw him shirtless last night. If she saw him naked, oh God she was overheating just from the thought of it, there's no way she could keep her hands to herself. Damn those hormones, but it definitely showed that she really had it bad for the prince of darkness. She's heard the term "devilish charm" and Marth was the perfect description of it. It wasn't just his demon presence that he was hated by his classmates, but his good looks too, which just showed how jealous humans can get.

"Not funny," Kuroba replied after regaining her composure. "Anyway, we should get dressed. We've got a long day."


The school day just flew by for the Black King. Next thing she knew, she was heading back to her apartment, mostly to pick up some clothes for her to wear tomorrow. After some consideration, she had decided to spend two more nights over at the Umbris apartment. Cynthia was actually the one to suggest this as she accurately predicted Fuko to do the same. It would seem even the dreaded Spider of Despair knew about their competition, even though she was hardly around.

Anyway, Kuroba arrived at her apartment with no issue. It was devoid of life, as usual. Ever since that incident two years ago, her family wanted nothing to do with her and essentially kicked her out of the house. They were paying for this apartment, though only because the court forced them to, not out of the goodness of their hearts or some parental obligation. However, those payments will stop once she graduated high school, meaning that she'll be on her own when that happens.

There was no way she could maintain a place like this by herself, not to mention the emptiness here made her feel very lonely. Perhaps she should consider asking any of the other Harbingers if she could stay with them. She didn't want to tell them about her situation, especially Marth, as it would cause unnecessary worry. However, there was no way to keep this a secret from her friends forever.

"Maybe I should tell them after we take care of Chrome Disaster," Kuroba pondered as she packed an overnight bag with her basic necessities. "I won't tell them everything, just enough for them to understand. I don't want them to try to track down her to get revenge for me, especially Marth. I don't want him anywhere near her."

It took her only five minutes to pack so she was out the door in no time flat. She soon made her way back to Marth's apartment, where she found the other members of Nega Nebulus waiting for her. Yuniko, Kisara and Shino were playing a multiplayer game in the living room while on the coach, with Yuna sitting right next to her mistress. Asuna and Takumu was doing some homework via their Neurolinkers, no surprise there, while Marth was reading a physical book by the table. Kazuto, Medusa and Fuko were there too, also reading.

"Sorry for keeping you all waiting," Kuroba said as she set her bag down by the hall.

"It's alright," Kazuto replied, not even looking up. "We're just waiting for the signal from Yuniko before we dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field."

"I see." She made her way over to the table, standing right behind the boy she loved and glanced over at the book he was reading. It was about the gods, the ones that existed back in the Age of Chaos. The chapter Marth was on was about a sun goddess who could supposedly head shot a rabbit with an arrow from three hundred meters away. While that was pretty impressive for any archer to do, it pretty much paled before the real power of her bow, which supposedly had the power to decimate entire armies. The gods were not ones to be trifled with. Hard to believe that she and the original Harbingers actually managed to defeat one, the God of Destruction himself.

Kuroba's eyes narrowed as she saw something odd. It was a picture of the sun goddess, Solus. She had short aqua blue hair and eyes the color of aquamarines, her battledress in matching blue and white. However, her face looked familiar. It couldn't be. Now that she thought about, the stories of the goddess's archery skills reminded her a lot about a certain sniper.

As if reading her mind, Marth said, "Yep, Sinon's the reincarnation of Solus, another member of the original Harbingers. According to Mom, she disappeared searching for me after Zeta was defeated, only to never return."

The way he said that so calmly just baffled her. The fact that they had not one, but two goddesses in their forces was huge. She almost felt pity for the Darkfallen, almost.

"Did you from the start?"

"No, we only found out after I dealt with Takumu. Mom had her suspicions as to who Sinon was, but it wasn't until she accidently tapped into her divine power during a mission that she was sure."

"What happened?"

"Sinon, Kisara and Yuna were doing a monster extermination job up in Celestine, a relatively simple one at that. They were just fighting a few intermediate-class Lemures. However, once they finished, this master-class Lemure suddenly showed up. Not even I can fight one of those off by myself. Anyway, they were trying to retreat but they couldn't shake it off their trail. Eventually they had no choice but to try to fight it, but not before sending a distress call to us. By the time we got there, both Kisara and Sinon were badly injured and Yuna was unconscious. But then something most unexpected happened. Right when the beast was about to finish my sister off, Sinon began glowing with this ethereal blue light and she fired this arrow of light. It hit the Lemure right in the chest, dazing it long enough for us to finish it off. Needless to say though, all three of them had to spend the next few days in recovery"

"Wow. I'm glad they're all okay. Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

Marth suddenly scratched his cheek sheepishly. "I…uh…forgot. I was too busy looking after Kisara that it completely slipped my mind. Sorry."

Kuroba couldn't help but laugh at that. She found his sister complex really adorable. Their sibling bond made her feel envious, longing for a time that didn't really exist for her. Oh well. At least now she had people who did care about her. If only Marth didn't forget about her confession to him, otherwise they might be more than friends right now.

Sometimes, when she closes her eyes, she finds herself in a gray castle. Sometimes she's sparring with swordsman clad in a coat that resembled ash. Other times, she and that swordsman were chatting away, smiles on both their faces, seemingly oblivious to the raging war outside the castle walls. Seeing those moments always brought joy to her heart. They were moments of a time forgotten by this realm, a time where the entire world burned in the flames of war.

She closed her eyes again, hoping to return to that castle, the castle in her lost memories. As expected, when she opened her eyes, she found herself within the walls of Balduq, the fortress of her beloved. Calmly, she strolled down the gray halls before finding herself in a small outdoor courtyard with decorative chairs and tables scattered about in an organized manner. Apparently, Zane had put this area in at his sister's request as she felt that even the Harbingers needed a place to relax. Lucia even managed to convince him to add in a hot spring, with gender split rooms of course.

Gentle sunlight descended from the open roof, the blue sky clear of any clouds. Hard to believe that this peaceful vision came from a time of war and strife. Sometimes, Kuroba found herself feeling afraid of remembering her past life. What if remembering it all will bring back old wounds, leave her traumatized? Back at the hospital, when she was in that coma, she had a dream of a scarred battlefield, littered with countless corpses of Lemures. She remembered seeing a young man with ebon black hair and bloodred eyes fighting a bitter struggle with an older man with white hair and garbed in black armor. She remembered the terror she felt when a black miasma overtook the young man, his hair turning a pale silver and his eyes a menacing yellow. She remembered the raw fury he fought with his dual swords of black. She remembered…weeping next to him as his fatal wounds claimed him, with her stubbornly begging him to hold on.

That…was the time she witnessed Zane Umbris, the boy she loved as Celine and still loved as Kuroba, die fighting the one you could call his nemesis, a man who had set out to destroy the Umbris family. She had learned of Zane's disappearance and arrived on that bloody plain too late. Had she gotten there faster, had she not left his side when he needed her the most, he would not have died that day.

"At least, that's what I like to tell myself."

Kuroba perked up. She was not alone here. Gathered around a table by a garden of black and purple flowers were two teenage girls, looking about her age. The first girl had platinum-blonde hair and beautiful silver eyes. She was wearing a beautiful sterling silver battledress that augmented her features, but without sacrificing practicality, silver gloves and heeled boots. The second girl had long, messy purple hair held up by a red bandana and lovely ruby red eyes. She wore a purple battledress with a matching color chest plate and red accents, the outfit cutting to expose her slender legs, purple gloves and heeled boots. They looked…familiar.

"What are you just standing around for? Come on over and join us!" the purple-haired girl cried out with a goofy grin on her face, waving her hand like crazy. There was a regal white and blue tea set on the table, with tea pot on a silver magic circle to keep its contents warm.

Completely confused as to what was going on, Kuroba just stood there, stunned. This has never happened before when she let herself stroll down memory lane. Did she fall asleep or something? How was this possible?

The silver-clad girl merely giggled as she smiled, likely knowing what was going on through her head right now. "Don't think about it too hard. We're all basically the same person, the same soul, but we're simply just memories of what we used to be. We only exist within your subconscious."

"I…see." She didn't sense any ill intent from these girls, so she slowly began to make her way over to them. "So that must mean you're Celine, my first life. I didn't think this was possible."

"Normally, it's not, but we're not exactly a normal girl are we. One could say that this became possible thanks to a certain program."

Kuroba let out a gasp. Could that be true? Was Brain Burst the reason Celine and the other girl were able to manifest in her mind? Brain Burst was designed to scan the subconscious of a Burst Linker, using their mental scars and traumas to create their duel avatars. Given how this feature somehow manages to make lost memories of previous lives return, seeing past incarnations within one's own mind wasn't too much of a stretch.

"Oh yeah," the purple-haired girl realized as Kuroba sat in the chair next to her. "This is probably your first time seeing me. My name's Yuuki Konno. In terms of incarnations, I actually predate you. It's nice to finally meet you, Kuroba."

The Black King let out a sudden gasp as she heard the girl's introduction. "Yuuki Konno?! The Absolute Sword of the Harbingers?! So I was you all along?"

"Yup. Unfortunately, I lost my life during the Demon War, which is why you now exist. Thanks for looking after Marth for me. He tends to get into trouble when I'm not around."

"I don't know," Celine said with a mischievous smirk. "I seem to recall you attracts lots of trouble to him whenever you were with him."

Yuuki nearly choked as she was drinking her tea. Thankfully after a fit of coughs, she managed to get her breath back. "Oh…yeah. Marth's had to bail me out a ton in Aincrad since I kept running headfirst into danger without ever listening to people, especially him."

Kuroba couldn't help but laugh at her previous self. "Sounds like you were quite the handful for him. I only hope I don't end up following your example."

"Please don't," Celine replied, her tone sounding like a mother reprimanding her child. "As a princess, you should maintain some level of dignity and self-control. I can only imagine how negatively Mother would react if she saw Yuuki's behavior."

She was obviously talking about Anthiese, the Queen of the Fairies. According to Rias, she did in fact survive the War of Light and Shadow. She's been the ruler of Arun, the fairy realm, for past seven thousand years, the longest ruling monarch in history.

"Anyway," Kuroba spoke up as she helped herself to some tea. This was all technically a dream of sorts, so drinking anything in here won't really satisfy her physically, but she felt that she should be courteous to her previous lives. "So what brings you two here? Why wait until now to show yourselves?"

"Well, for starters, there's a serious mental block on your—or rather our—memories," Yuuki answered. "It's a huge pain in the ass to circumvent. Celine and I have been trying to break through ever since you became a Burst Linker so we could help you, but it took us this long just to make a tiny opening in the seal."

"Which has allowed some of my memories to return," Kuroba finished. "I understand. I wonder if Marth and the others are going through this."

"Hard to say," Celine said. "I can't really see Zane being so direct. He'll probably only interfere if he feels he has to."

"Sounds like something Marth would do, so I'll take you at your word." The girls all laughed at that. "Anyway. That dream I had. It's got me worried. Is there something wrong with Marth?"

Both Celine and Yuuki fell silent, their lips pursed together. This all but confirmed her suspicions. There was indeed something wrong with the boy she loved.

"It's…complicated," the original fairy princess spoke up slowly. "There's this…power…hidden within him that shouldn't exist. A terrible darkness that will destroy everything it touches."

"What?!"

"Both Celine and I have seen Marth use it, usually when he's trying to save someone's life. Every single time he uses it though, he has to fight to stay in control, and it only gets harder with each use. Eventually, he'll reach the point of no return and he'll lose himself to that power."

"No," Kuroba said in disbelief, all her energy sapped from her. "What is this power? Why does he even have it if it's so dangerous?"

Celine hesitated for a moment before answering. "It was forced upon him when he lived as Zane. When he was a child, his own father forced Sinestra to break the taboo and make Zane her seventh champion. The seventh demon lord. The Wrath Lord."

"Wrath…Lord…" Kuroba knew that the demon lords were named after the deadly sins, but there were curiously only six of them. It always perplexed her to think that a goddess like Sinestra would just skip one of the sins and not take a seventh champion.

The scenery started to get blurry. She was returning to reality. No, not yet. She still has more questions she needed answering.

As if to reassure her, Celine cupped her hand into her own. "Don't worry. You'll find out more soon. Farewell for now, Kuroba. Until we meet again."

"We're here if you need us, but if it's questions about the past, we're not gonna have much luck with answering since even we don't fully remember since we're on the opposite side of the seal. Sorry in advance. Anyway, see you later!"

Before Kuroba could even muster a response, her vision faded to black. The next thing she knew, she could hear someone calling out her name. Groggily, she opened her eyes and sat up. She was back in the dining room in Marth's apartment. So then, was that all just a dream?

"Sleep well, Kuroba?"

She turned her head to the side to see that Marth was sitting next to her. He was no longer reading and had his gaze locked onto her. He looked a little concerned.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she asked, "How long was I out?"

"Just half an hour. I was gonna carry you to my bedroom so you could rest there, but you looked so peaceful there I couldn't bring myself to disturb you."

That made Kuroba blush. Being in Marth's arms and carried to his bed. She quickly had to dismiss the thought before more dirty ideas popped into her head.

"Aw, maybe I should take notes," Fuko said teasingly with her usual smile, sitting on the opposite side of the Black King.

"Whatever. Anyway, if you've woken me, does that mean…"

Marth nodded in confirmation. "Yes. Yuniko has a lead on Chrome Disaster's location. We're preparing to set out now."

So it was finally time. The battle to eliminate the fifth Chrome Disaster has now begun. Still, Kuroba couldn't help but feel this strange sense of anxiety. Maybe it had to do with that dream of meeting her past lives, or maybe it was something else. Regardless, she felt like something bad was about to happen.

She could only hope that Nega Nebulus was strong enough to overcome it.

To be continued


Okay, so the Unlimited Neutral Field isn't happening until the next chapter. I did intend for them to dive there in this chapter, but I ended up overwriting the scenes in the real world. Oh well. At least I got to show off more of Cynthia's abilities. Fun fact, I actually got the idea for her from Kumoko, the main character from So I'm A Spider, So What. But to clarify, it's more just the concept I took from Kumoko rather than make a straight copy. Cynthia is way more serious than Kumoko and a lot more sadistic. That sadistic side will indeed be showing up more in later chapters, so she'll definitely be living up to her nickname of "Spider of Despair". Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. See you guys next time!