Cain rolled his eyes as he watched Pino gave her rarely undivided focus in trying to finish as much of the still incomplete Valvrave as possible. Its wings had been reconstructed yet again, now it's big enough that it's even taller than the Valvrave itself. If the Valvarve was to walk on its two feet on the ground, the seemingly overcompensated wings would've swept the ground in the process. Which is why they were now designed to fold in into a smaller, more compact form, when they're not in use. "My, my, my, Pino. I can understand if previously you're so hellbent on fighting your own kind, but now we're going so far to fight humans… If I didn't know better, I'd say you're taking it personal."

"Actually, I do take it personal." Pino glared. "You were right, Attlach. I trusted the humans too much and so I helped them crack the code… but it seems I have underestimated them greatly. I underestimated their resourcefulness. One human in particular. I will not make that mistake again." But then, the Magius queen noticed she had said something she probably she shouldn't have in front of that human's own son. "Ah… Haruto… I'm sorry. I…"

"What was he like?" Haruto suddenly started. "What was my father like?"

Pino blinked. "Don't you know your own father?"

"…"

"Pino, I think you really should exercise some kind of moderation on this issue." Cain rolled his eyes.

"Eh?" Pino blinked innocently.

"Haruto, please excuse Pino's bluntness. Magius has not the concept of parents. We have no idea-"

"Even before my memory was so messed up… even before the scientist tinkered with my brain, I know." Haruto murmured cut Cain's apology midsentence. The tone was flat and melancholic, showing he didn't seem to take offense with Pino's lack of subtlety. "I mean… I know that I don't know. I don't remember. All I remember of him was a face and a name. But I don't remember him laughing. I don't remember him yelling. Or screaming. All I remember of him was… was that he was never there. I remember he was always away on a job. And that's all I remember of him."

Pino frowned in a newfound epiphany. "…what I can say is… the initial impression I had of your father was that… he was a very… dedicated man. In the lab he was the first to come and the last to leave, if he leaves at all. But…"

"Dedication can be easily mistaken with obsession, My King." Attlach followed.

"No. There's a fine line of difference between both." Pino sighed. "When we first started, the dedication was sincere. But when he volunteered his own son as a test subject though… and when Haruto actually died because of it…"

"I had to ask… what exactly did you do to bring Tokishima Haruto back to life?" Cain asked. "Forgive me for being blunt. But given the circumstances, I'd say we all had the right to know."

"In all honesty, all I did was becoming the battery for his resurrection." Pino frowned. "I merely poured no small amount of runes into the system, reinvigorating Haruto's vitals as he was being revived… but… as far as his biology goes…"

"But there must be something…" Cain wanted to insist but Pino stopped him by raising her hand in front of his face.

"Attlach, who's lacking delicacy now?" Pino suddenly retorted. She nudged her chin at a visibly disconcerted Haruto.

Cain cleared his throat in understanding and rests his case.

Haruto frowned in deep thought as he looked at his hands. Did his father planned this? Making him a living weapon all the way down to the last molecule of his being… What was he thinking? To make his own son to be the deadliest weapon imaginable…

"You're not him." Pino stated, as if reading Haruto's thoughts. "The biggest mistake about children, is that they had to repent their parents' mistakes. And an even bigger mistake, is that if their parent being evil that would automatically pre-destined their children to follow their folly as well. Nothing can be further from the truth. There's no such thing as bad children. Only bad parenting. You're not gonna be like him, Haruto. You're not. I know you too well." Pino smiled in encouragement.

Haruto was somewhat taken back… but that stone cold gloomy face finally break away into a relieved smile for the first time in what seem like a long while. "Thank you."

Pino smiled. "Speaking of family… I think you should speak with yours." She poked her finger downwards.

Haruto looked down… and lo and behold… there's Saki, and Alice down there.

Just before he rushed down, Haruto glance one last short look to Pino, who instead gave him the glare, as if saying: Just go already!

The boy departed, leaving Pino and Attlach alone. The two Magius watched from the distance as Haruto ran and meet his family.

Flashback end.

Chapter 15:

Touchdown

Earlier that day, whilst Akira had just begun to crack the code of the Droids, the Valravn and its fleet is enduring the worst that the ARUS can throw at them. And that's because Haruto had a plan.

"Take out 3 out of all the Valvravn's available fuel reserves. Be ready to jettison them on my mark!" Haruto was no longer in the Valravn's bridge, he's in the hangar, supervising the placement of the Valvrave, Dainslev, and a contingent of 13 Kagerous onto drop pods. "Will these things survive the blast?"

"Built to survive atmospheric reentry. Dyson sphere has no actual atmosphere, so there won't be any corrosion, and it should withstand mere cosmetic detonation." Cain watched as his Dainslev enclosed within a pod disguised as debris. "Those giant tank droids on the surface though… those animal musicians and their mighty instrument of destruction… they are a cause for concern, I think."

"Akira said she's getting close to cracking the code. Akira?"

Getting there. Yusuke give good hint. Can take control of the Bremen. Take control of the defense. Need a few more minutes. WIRED. IS. MINE!

"Huh?" Is she pissed about something?

The Valravn shook again. That barrage from the enemy's ships was getting worse, and their shields grew increasingly thin. That's just perfect. "Akira, whatever you do, don't forget we need to give them the illusion that the Valravn has been damaged severely."

Solid Afterglow decoy shaped and ready.

And this is why the Malefic is the Valvrave of misdirection and illusion. Having more sense nerve than any other Valvrave allowed her to alter her solid afterglows in many ways that no other Valvrave can't, such as creating a very realistic Holographic projection with mass and even heat signatures identical to the real thing. That's how they were able to create the illusion of multiple Module 77s back during their assault on the Moon. Of course there are limits like needing an actual physical mass object of more or less equal size as the foundation for the illusion. But, it's done its job most of the time.

"Alright then. Now we only wait for the codes…"

But the situation grew increasingly worse by the minute. Down there, the Behemoth is getting pushed back even with Akira's aid whittling down the gigantic Vavrave knockoff with her artificial weather disasters. And up there, the Arus fleet had maximized their use of the element of surprise. But between the shock and the amount of firepower thrown at them, the fleet suffered massive damage during the initial exchange, though no ship is lost yet and their capacity to counter attack was hardly diminished. In short it was not a big enough issue for them to fret about it. The major problem is their commander's orders.

They're supposed to be… losing.

In theory it wasn't supposed to be that hard. The major edge of their victory in the previous engagement, the Kagerous and the Valvraves, can't be deployed at the moment. With the first conventional infiltration attempt a total failure, now they're about to try a second method of infiltration, namely, by launching their Mechanized army directly into the Module, inside drop pods, disguised as falling debris. 13 valvrave units (11 Kagerous + 2 Originals) available to the Valravn are now being made ready to do so in the hangars of the Valravn, the remaining 7, led by Jin in his Kakaiju, were launched out to intercept the fleet, coupled with every other drones and other units they have available.

Problem is, the enemy knew they have more than 7. The fleet had brought 39 Kagerous + 1 Kakaiju + 4 original Units in their hangars. 2 Kagerous were destroyed during the initial skirmish when they recover X-Eins. They know the Valravn launched 18+1 Kagerou Units and two Valvraves in yesterday's battle for the Dyson's sphere airspace – all of them survived albeit scathed. After that, they've only been sending out a patrol team of 7 at the most. Which means, luckily enough, the enemy had yet to have a good count on how many exactly the NJSDF have at their disposal. They can just send another 10 into the fray, and the enemy will still be none the wiser.

The biggest issue though, is that they're supposed to be losing to throw the enemy off guard, but they've dominated so spectacularly in their previous engagements, the enemy would be anything but suspicious if they didn't at least did the same this time around.

"O~kay, maybe we shouldn't lose too badly." Haruto was forced to amend his plan in the face of this fact. "But give them the illusion that they managed to take a big bite out of us before we pay them back in kind. Start shooting until the last possible limit of tolerance."

Haruto's orders saw to it that the New Jior fleet didn't engage most of its more destructive weapons during the initial period of the attack. They unleashed their smaller fighters and unmanned drones, yes, shoot off a couple of desperate shots, yes. But they've only activated the barest minimum of arsenal just to weather incoming attack, trusting in their heavy armor to endure the worst of the damage. Their clearly halfhearted response as if saying: "Oh gee, so you've caught us with our pants down. Wow. Congrats. We're so scared. Come, throw everything you got at us, see if we care." Adding fuel to the already burning house of pride, the JSDF fleet purposefully spread their fleets apart, making it easy for isolating single targets. To the small fraction of human element within the enemy fleet, all this gives of the impression of arrogance on the part of the opposing fleet. So naturally, the human enemies are all around pissed off and their rate of fire simply escalates with each passing moment of indifference.

One of the Magius' alien ships began launching a barrage of their signature curving homing laser artillery just as the last bit of their supposedly vast energy barrier was finally spent, and their fragile conical hourglass main hull began to take real damage. The intricate green sense nerve helix spiral lattice that encased its spade like main body shattered ever so easily under the onslaught, and still it launched volley after volley of lasers to the enemy. One stream of laser instantly took out three cruisers in its trajectory. The other capital ships too began to return fire more whole heartedly as soon as the first layer of their armor began to take damage. The enemy's ambushing fleet is many times their number, but the ambushed' sheer firepower tips the scale against them in a heartbeat, utterly nullifying the advantage they had gained from the now impotent element of surprise.

And then, suddenly, a bright glow erupted from below. The Module in which the battle between Behemoth and Goldilocks had reached its zenith was suddenly engulfed in light. When the light died down, so did the assault on their fleet momentarily halted.

"What…?" Haruto sensed something. An enormous feeling that crept through the length of his spine. "What is this?"

"Tis' an awakening…" Attlach's eyes glowered with excitement. "The birthcry of a true Elder Magius."

Not known to all crew at the time, it is also the final death rattle of the Behemoth's gargantuan adversary. The enemy drone fleet that has been harassing the fleet suddenly went completely still and motionless. The Bremen drones patrolling the surface of the Module's shell fell lifelessly on their knees. Accompanying this event, the coms officers in every ship within the NJSDF fleet were bombarded with an onslaught of chatter and noise from the now unblocked communication network. "Hey… the communication line… we're back on air!"

Cain also realized this current development. "Tokishima Haruto! The time is nigh! The return of our communication network can only mean one thing: the Queen of the Swarm within this sector has been defeated. But it won't be long before another Queen arrives to resume control. We must move quickly now!"

Haruto nodded. "Alright! EVERYONE, TO YOUR STATIONS!"

The activity that has been filling the hangar suddenly doubled in intensity as mechanics start running around at an increased pace. Either to do last minute resupply or to clear the way, whilst pilots start running towards their units. The atmosphere became so intense; no one noticed a figure, or two, walking around unnoticed towards an unused Kagerou.

As Haruto settled inside the Valvrave, his coms flared to life, with Pino appearing in the screen. "Haruto."

"Pino. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine." Pino smiled kindly. "Look. Regardless of what will happen to me… you have to find your father, okay? He's probably the only one in the world who can save your son."

"And save you too." Haruto glared to stress his point. "I won't let you just die like that. Saki was right. My father and mother gave birth to me, but you too played a part in shaping me into what I am now. You're my Mother too, and thus the Grandmother of my son. I'm going to find my father, and he's going to undo what he did to you. To all of you. I promise."

"Haruto…"

"Tokishima Haruto, we're 90 seconds away from deployment!" Cain warned through the coms.

"Roger that." Haruto looked back at his other Mother. "I'll be going now."

"Wait, before you go, I have something for you. When the jamming went down, our communications are back online, and we've managed to reestablish a link back home, to Luna Moon Base. A lot of information and data packages just flooded in. Among them, was this vid mail sent through priority channel. It's from Shoko… addressed to you. I'm uploading it to you now."

As the data trickled in megabyte by megabyte, Haruto can feel his Valvrave began to move into position. It wasn't that big and the download was pretty fast. Haruto decided to open it now while waiting for the deployment. As the video played out, he was welcomed by a grim faced Shoko.

"Haruto, if you get this message, then I hoped it reached you in time and in most acceptable circumstances. There's no subtle ways to put this, so I'll be blunt: Saki collapsed."

Haruto's heart stopped right then and there.

"Don't panic. Don't fret. She's fine. We rushed her to the hospital and managed to stabilize her. Fact is, before I recorded this message, an army of nurses and doctors had to struggle to strap her to bed. We managed to do so only after she hurled half of them across the room. Which is another way of saying, her physical state is very healthy. I just had a chat with her to make sure she's okay and to know what happened. Point in fact, she told me NOT to tell you, but… Given the fact she did had a panic attack, I really had to tell you." Shoko glared through the screen. "The reason being, she was looking for her daughter, and she couldn't find her anywhere. Haruto, Alice's missing."

"W… What?"

"After that we searched everywhere in her stead. Even used the Rune Scanners to sweep the whole city again and again. Haruto, she's nowhere to be found in the moon. Also, she's not the only one missing. I couldn't find Marie anywhere either. They've both disappeared… as soon as the fleet departs."

Haruto's mind raced quicker than his heart rate. Before the vid mail ended, Haruto hastily contacted Pino while he still can. "Pino! We have an emergency! Contact the fleet, tell them to look for two stowaways-" Unfortunately, before Haruto can get to the specifics, the communication line became disrupted again. "SHIT!"

00000000000000

Around the same time, down below…

"That's another Queen!" A-Drei and X-Eins easily surmised. "We have to warn them!" X-Eins reached out for his communicator when he realized it's not an option. "Oh no…"

The Red Gunship zoomed across the charred battlefield and went straight towards the Behemoth and the husk that was the Goldilocks. Yusuke and Raizo gaped as the Gunship did a flyby overhead. Their communications are also disrupted. "Another one?"

"At least this one is a hell lot smaller than the Goldilocks!" Raizo defiantly growled. The Behemoth looked up to beheld the enemy. "A Gunship? They sent a gunship at us?"

"That's a Queen! Don't underestimate it!"

Inside the incoming Queen, its com screen showcased the pilot the state of the Goldilocks and the Behemoth. "So that's what the fuss is all about. Sheesh." The pilot sighed.

And without warning, as the crimson gunship did a quick flyby, all four turrets on its underside take aim and opened fire. The Behemoth immediately moved to cover the human infantry on the ground with its bulk. A barrage of solid ammunition landed allover its massive figure.

"? He didn't try to dodge?" The Gunship turned around seemingly for another go.

"Like I'll let you do that!" The Behemoth's remaining weapon is but a single Titan fist on his right arm. But its salvo of attacks still unleashed a dense rain of lightning and plasma sphere. And yet, to their disbelief, the Red machine danced beautifully in the sky and dodged every last one of them at paper thin margin. "Are you kidding me!?"

And then, to further the surprise, the Red Gunship suddenly twisted at an impossible angle as it turned around to a screeching halt right on top of the Behemoth. But when it turned around to face the yellow valvrave, it is no longer a gunship. Its underside opened up, revealing a humanoid torso, black in coloration to contrast the initial dominant red. The boosters at its rear swivel to the backside of the black torso, becoming the mech's backpack mounted thrusters. The spot where the rear pair of the underside guns lay extended out before flipped to the sides, forming shoulders, mounted with cannons, from which beneath them a pair of arms extended out. The upper carapace of the front of the gunship detached becoming a wide berthed rear skirt armor, while its lower half quickly folded and split into a pair of legs, its knees supporting the second set of what used to be the gunship's frontal underside guns. The transformation was finalized when a head popped out of the fully formed shoulders and torso.

Yusuke and Raizo gawked at its appearance.

Size wise, this new Queen Mech is barely larger than a normal sized Valvrave. Unlike the previously overcompensated Goldilocks, this thing looked closer to the original. Point in fact, apart from its transformation capabilities, color, and arsenal, it looked a LOT like Haruto's Valvrave. But somehow… it felt like somebody has taken the liberty of completely customizing it from top to bottom, making it more… tactical and less elegant, but efficient. Something L-Elf would've liked, quite in fact. Its body is noticeably bulkier by virtue of its added pads of segmented reactive armor, but it was done selectively so as to not hinder its mobility and its transformation capability but still maximize protection. Unlike the Goldilocks with its overwhelming assortment of arsenal, this unit seems to be minimally equipped. Apart from the usual CIWS Variable Vulcan, the only set of weapons it carries are the four cannons on four points of its body. And its head… it was a startling twin of Haruto's Valvrave, except that they have all but stripped it clean of its elegance. No more sense nerve crowns, the spot where its two eye-like optics used to lay had been replaced with built in heavy duty targeting scopes and tactical sensor cameras, creating a bizarre compound eyes visage. And now, its targeting lenses are moving back and forth, zooming in and out of its prey.

In the cockpit of the Faux Valvrave, the com screen zoomed in and gave the pilot full view of the Behemoth's state, in particular, who's standing beneath it. "Ah… now I see." The Red Faux Valvrave landed right in front of the vigilant Behemoth. And then… to the bewilderment of everyone, it starts talking… in full surround sound stereo speaker.

"Yo." A jovial male voice sounded.

Yusuke and Raizo blinked. Did the robot just said… Yo?

"Yes. You." The Faux Valvrave even took the liberty of waving his hand at the still bewildered Behemoth.

"Should we respond in kind?" Yusuke don't even know what to think.

"It's good courtesy…" Raizo shrugged and he turned on the speaker as well. "Umm… yeah?"

"What's the name?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your unit. What's it called?"

"You want our names?"

"I already know who you are. And personally I don't give a damn. We're about to kick each other's ass. But it'll be hard to communicate if we don't establish SOME form of identification."

Far in the distance, the speaker delivered conversation can be heard all the way to X-Eins and A-Drei's unbelieving ears. "…the fuck…?" and they thought Raizo's idiocy was one of a kind.

Raizo and Yusuke looked at each other in aghast. Yusuke answered the question just the same. "We're called Behemoth."

"Behemoth?" The Faux Valvrave tilted his head. "What kind of name is that?"

"We didn't pick it!" Raizo barked back. "It's that Cyclops idea…!"

"…Cyclops eh? Which one of the Cyclops gave you the name? Brontes? Steropes? Arges?"

"…uh… what?" Yusuke and Raizo became even more confused than ever. The confusion was so evident, the Behemoth actually hung dumbly in response. The pilot of the Faux Valvrave merely laughed.

"Hah! Sorry. Bit of a Mythological enthusiast here. And I heard you Magius were the original source of our planet's myths and gods and demons and all… But you guys are more into horror story types, aren't ya?" The Faux Valvrave finally began to move into its combat state as all its servo motors began to power up, something the Pilots of the behemoth noticed. Its arms moved towards the shoulder mounted cannons. Detecting the approach, the cannons also began to shift its shape, folding out triggers and handles for the Mech's hands to grasp. When the Faux Valvrave yanked the weapons at the ready, all its exhaust vents burst out smoke as its power core reached its maximum combat capacity output.

"This thing used to be called… Red Hoodie or something. But that was before I had my way with her." The Faux Valvrave introduced itself at last. "Now I just took to call him… Hellsing."

"Hell…sing…?" Now that Yusuke notice it, there are names embedded on each weapon. The two held by hand bear Morris and Harker, whilst the ones on the legs were Holmwood and Seward.

"By the way… before we start trying to kill each other… you might wanna move a little far away from those girls?" And to make his point, the Hellsing actually flew away from the Behemoth Wreckage, away from Akari and Aila.

"…" Yusuke and Raizo looked at each other. "Well?"

"He's a weirdo, but he's not wrong… if he's willing let's do what he says." Yusuke nodded

"You three gonna be okay!?" Raizo gave one last glance. Akari gave him a thumb up as Aila wrapped her sister and dragged her as far away as possible.

"Okay. Let's go." The Behemoth walked away from the spot, as in, literally walking away. Their wings were busted after the last fight. Something everyone would notice, especially their enemy.

"Now… let the fun BEGINS!" As soon as the Behemoth reached the perceived safe distance, the Hellsing immediately started by opened fire with one of its twin guns. BANG! The Behemoth was caught completely off guard and a shot landed squarely on their shoulder for their folly.

"The heck!?" Yusuke monitor showed that not only the giant Stake like bullet pierce deep into their armor, their drill tip also continues to spin and grind even deeper into their insides, furthering the damage. Worsening it, the stakes superheated, so it plays havoc on their temperature sensitive super robot. Before the stake can sank in completely, Yusuke immediately grabbed and yanked it out. Analyzing the path the grinder stakes revealed they were set to literally drill their way to their cockpits. "That is… sadistic."

"God damn you!" Raizo returned fire. But as soon as a volley of lightning were launched form their finger tips, the Hellsing's boots ejected a massive pressure of air, enough to grant it a slight elevation, like a hovercraft. And by the time the lightning landed, the target had already boosted miles away from where it stood a second ago. "Wha…"

BANG!

Another shot punctured their leg. "SON OF A BITCH!" Raizo angrily fired again and again. The already severely damaged Behemoth only had one Titan Fist left and barely functioning Sense Nerve wing on their backs. Still, that's enough firepower to take out a small army or a Hunter drone… but as they come to realize, the enemy is not exactly an army or a drone. The Hellsing literally danced amidst the rain of lightning and plasma spheres, fluidly transforming between mech mode and gunship mode to do so. Yusuke gawked at its mobility. Its similarity with Haruto's Valvrave is more than just skin deep. "Raizo! Don't waste your shots! If that thing really is copied from the Valvrave, we won't be able to match its mobility!"

Point in fact, the Hellsing began boosting here and there in a maniacal vector thrusting maneuver. And through it all, it kept firing shot after shot after shot… and very few of them actually missed. After the third stake he pulled out, Yusuke decided enough is enough. As soon as another stake was launched, Yusuke quickly calculated its trajectory. His vastly enhanced mental capacity allowed him to do so at terrific speed, accurately and efficiently detaching only the correct body parts to avoid a direct hit. The stake went past the severed components without a hitch.

"Oh?" Hellsing stopped firing for once. "Oh… so that's how it works! I thought it was weird, with your body is in pieces and all… Ah… now I see… You guys are Frankensteins!" The Hellsing loosed a couple more shots at the Behemoth, all of it the yellow giant avoided by allowing the projectiles to pass through his detached body pieces harmlessly. "Yep. Definitely Frankenstein!"

"Hit him in Melee, Raizo!"

"WITH PLEASURE!" And Raizo happily pushed the throttle to the max. The Behemoth charged whilst the Hellsing is still busy loosing seemingly futile shots, they failed to notice one minor detail:

The Hellsing had only been using one gun so far.

As soon as he loosed one more shot, he immediately raised the other gun, took aim and fire almost immediately. The first stake missed as the Behemoth's body parts break apart… but the second stake that followed immediately after nailed one of the detached components mid air. "WHAT!?"

"Gotcha!" The Gunslinger Valvrave immediately unleashed a full tirade of stakes with its twin precision rifles. The Behemoth was soon riddled with half a dozen stakes drilling into its frame and some parts of their bodies also went missing, forcing Yusuke to make do with the components they have. The rate of fire was so intense, the pilots didn't even have time to pull out the embedded stakes. Even worse, their temperature is climbing at brutal rate. Forget charging forward, pretty soon they can't even stand. After the twelfth stake was embedded on their throat, the Behemoth fell on its knees. It tried to raise its hand one more time, but the Hellsing shot it down, nailing it to the ground.

Even Raizo had to admit they lost this fight. Big time. "If only we weren't damaged this bad!"

Yusuke didn't think so. 'Not sure if it'll make any difference… whoever's at the helm of that thing is no joke… he's probably on par with L-Elf!'

"Hmmm…" The Hellsing tilted his head. He's just one head shot short from victory. The stakes are drilling their way into the cockpit of Behemoth and they're moments away from breach… until he suddenly decided to turn them off.

"W… What?" Yusuke blinked. He spared them?

"…This… this is nah… just… nah." The Hellsing shook his head.

Suddenly, the sky brightens. Everyone looked up and their eyes widened in horror.

The source of this light is a giant fireball in the sky… coming from Valravn's wreckage as it exploded in space.

"N… No…"

00000000000000

Despite the setbacks, the plan worked like clockwork. It went to full motion as soon as the Hellsing arrived, and the enemy fleet began firing back, and this time, the defenders is far more prepared. The Valravn took forward position and swallowed the brunt of the assault, and the decoy worked like magic, perfectly simulating severe damage and all.

A carrier charging its mega particle cannon was perfect for the job. The Valravn purposefully moved forward right into its firing trajectory. "Prepare to eject the fuel tanks on my mark." Pino assume command of the Valravn while she too starts searching the ship and the whole fleet for these so called stowaways. Within seconds, she accessed every security camera in every capital ship, including the Valravn… no out of place character appeared yet. Haruto was only saying stowaways, he wasn't being specific over exactly who. Pino then start checking the recordings of the CCTvs… as she wind back to just before the fleet's departure, she saw it. Saw them. "Mari… and… Saki? No… that's… Alice!?" Now she gets a good grasp of the identity, now it's just the matter of tracking their present location…

Alas, when she finally did find their current location, the timing couldn't be worse…

"They've just finished charging their cannon! They're about to fire!" The crew alerted in barely concealed panic.

"Oh no, no, no…" Pino felt like she's being pulled in every direction all at once. But she had no time to be confused. "Open the hangar bay and eject the fuel tank, then launch the drop pods, in 3… 2… 1…!"

The Arus carrier opened fire, and at the same time, without any the wiser, the Valravn immediately opened its hangar and launched its tanks of fuel out into space. And many things occurred simultaneously. The beam pierced the fuel tank almost as soon as it cleared out of the hangar. The resulting explosion engulfed the Valravn, causing some REAL damage apart from the illusion of the ship being ripped apart by it. Which is the exact time for the Drop pods to be launched out of the hangar, straight through a mass of flames, encapsulated by it, the junk covered drop pods were disguised as a rain of flaming debris raining down from an exploding Valravn, straight towards the Module.

At the same time, the fleet immediately retaliated in a display of 'anger', unleashing their full firepower at last. The ambushing enemy fleet was instantly annihilated.

Down below, in the module…

"N… No…" Yusuke and Raizo stared in disbelief as the Valravn was swallowed by flame, its debris raining down upon their module.

The Hellsing looked up and saw the same thing. But his reaction was less vivid. "Huh." He looked back at his query, and it was easy to say his opponent has lost their bite.

"RED! RED! Are you there?" Suddenly the pilot's com buzzed."Now's your chance! Capture the yellow Valvrave and the pilots as well!"

But rather than complying with that order, the Hellsing remained still, as if assessing the situation. He looked up and saw those 'debris' falling fast. "I'm not paid enough for this shit." And with that, the Hellsing suddenly jumped and transformed into his gunship mode. It made a quick dash towards the wreckage of the Goldilocks and without pausing, unleashed a barrage from its four precision cannons, as well as a salvo of missiles. In an instant, the already crumbling wreckage was reduced to nothing but blasted ruin. And that was all it did. Without another look behind, the gunship zoomed back towards the entrance and left the module, ignoring the angry roar of the command in the pilot's ears.

"What the HELL are you doing?"

"Heh." The pilot showed little to no remorse in his transgression. Then again, he did turn around one last time and opened fire at the gate leading to the now hijacked module, completely sealing - but not cutting off - the passage between said Module with the rest of the Dyson sphere before finally leaving for good.

Meanwhile, back into space…

The 'burning debris' AKA disguised drop pods containing an army of Valvraves are falling steadily towards the module unimpeded. But inside the cockpits of one particular Valvrave, someone is not particularly happy that his plan is working like clockwork. "Alice… and Marie… What… why…!?" He began typing furiously as he scratched his hair, trying to figure out where those two might be hiding… and then… he noticed it.

…they're sending in 13 Valvraves, so that's 13 debris that will crash unto the Module.

His radar counts… 14.

Haruto immediately activated all his sensors and scanned all the falling drop pods… and then he saw it. 13 drop pods falling in accordance to the set trajectory… one… drifted off course. The garbage that disguises it is also falling apart too rapidly owing to poor welding. Probably something cobbled up in haste. A haste of someone trying to do something too quickly. "Oh no… no, no, no…"

True enough…

"Oh… shit… Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! What was I thinking!?" Marie looked on in panic as the hijacked drop pod she commandeered are drifting further and further away from the rest. Alice was holding to dear life on the chair of the stowaway, screaming for her mother and father. "MAMA! PAPAAA!"

Cain also noticed the one extra drop pod drifting off course. "What? Who is that idiot?"

"Cain! That's Marie and Alice!" Haruto roared over the com.

"One of your unchanged Kin? And the Stray Harvester?" Cain growled. "They're drifting off course, and they're falling towards a module whose defenses are still active! They will be shot down!"

"I know! We have to save them-"

"No! Forget it Tokishima Haruto! They're lost! We cannot compromise our whole mission just for one Novus Sapien and one stray! See reason!"

Haruto grunted, took a deep breath, and made his decision. "I see clearly enough. Cain, lead the rest down."

"What!?" Before Cain can say anything else, he can already see Haruto's pod breaking even faster.

The Valvrave activated and began clawing its way out of its own drop pods. The pod was ripped inside out as his power claws pried it open. His wing mounted claws tore through the final shell and parted it away. His wings finally expanded as its six massive sense nerve feathers folded out, forming its magnificent neon green wings that blow away the remaining debris. Ablaze from head to toe, the Valvrave boosted towards the deviating drop pod.

"Fool." Cain resorted to just ignore him. "Continue with the mission everyone."

Struggling against the gravity of the Dyson Sphere's star core pulling him down, the Valvrave made his way towards the drop pod, inch by burning inch. But they're all falling too fast, too quickly entering into the wrong module. The Valvrave nevertheless managed to finally grab the pod. Its system quickly established connection with the unit inside the pod. "MARIE! ALICE!"

"H… Haruto!?"

"PAPA!"

"WHAT IN HEAVENS NAME ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE!?"

Alas, before Haruto can get the answer, the falling drop pod finally entered the atmosphere of the neighboring module, whose defense network is still active and immediately locked on to target, recognizing incoming intruder. Within seconds, the Bremens on the module's surface roused into wakefulness, its cannons trained towards the target and fired without ado.

Haruto noticed the incoming projectile just in time and the Valvrave barely able to raise his hand to welcome the faster than sound bullet. A little too late, perhaps.

The explosion erupted and the falling 'debris' was knocked even further off course now. It strayed towards another module far, far away from the targeted module.

Meanwhile, discounting the two that strayed, the remaining 12 fell down straight and true towards the targeted Module as planned. One by one, the burning objects pierced through the shell of the Module – in a much more controlled and more precise manner then the deviated ones. Some even purposefully smashed through the no longer active Bremen, and still managed to punch through the protective shell. The air was momentarily sucked out of the breach before the automated system immediately sealed them shut. One by one, the flaming drop pods fell into the field of ash and cinder, forming one crater after another with their explosive landing.

From each of these flaming craters, giants walked out of the rubble, shedding away the burning wreckage that had encapsulated them. 11 of them were colored in black, some bits of white, coupled by a myriad of individual colors, and one stood out from the rest colored in white and gold. To further note, the white resemble the Behemoth even more in that unlike the rest, this one was crowned with neon green sense nerve, though the design is considerably less bulky and more refined… and inhumanly elegant. Inhuman, for it is matrimony of beauty and efficiency beyond the realm of human creation. What's more, while the rest of the Kagerous are walking about with their feet touching the ground, the Dainsrave aloofly floated a few inches above it.

A-Drei and X-Eins led the resistance fighters out of the Connector Bridge as they watched the Primate Engines climbed out of their landing crater and assemble across the plain. The Dyson Sphere fighters stared wide eyed as their module now host to an army of mechanical titans that has fallen from the stars. The army of New Jior has arrived at last.

The Kagerous marched towards the collapsed Behemoth to try provide what help they could, but the Dainsrave completely ignored them all. He keeps looking up, just as Cain himself also looked up. The trails of their descent are still visible even now. 12 perfect trails straight down, 2 deviated off course. "…"

00000000000000

Flashback…

Saki stoically stood as she watched her husband coming towards her to say his goodbyes. How she wished she can go with him, to fight at his side, and, at the worst, die beside him. But, she had greater concern growing in her womb right now. What's more, Haruto is going to war for this child's sake, as was his duty as a father. As a mother, it is her duty to do her part, even it means staying here and kiss her husband goodbye.

On the other hand, Alice was her mother's daughter, but she was clearly still unwilling to let her father go. Why, it was only a few weeks ago she found she had a father, and they barely had time to know each other. And now her father must depart again!? She was already on the verge of tears. She doesn't want her recently discovered father to go.

Even Haruto was somewhat unnerved seeing two identical faces with contrasting expression welcomed him. With Saki it was easy. She said little. She'd rather let her kiss do the talking. But when they parted, not a tear was shed. "Go. And come back, you hear? And do try to come back before our boy was born. It won't be funny if you miss another childbirth."

"Boy?"

"IR scan confirmed it."

"…I'll come back… and see if I've figured out a name by then."

And then he turned to Alice, already the tears flowing down her eyes. "Papa…"

"Alice…" Haruto took a deep breath. "Look… I'm so sorry. But… you have to understand. Papa… Papa doesn't want to leave either. But Papa's leaving for Mama's sake."

"But why?" Her sob is just miserable to hear. "Alice don't understand! Alice just found Papa… Papa leaving for Mama? Is something wrong with Mama?"

"In… a way." Haruto caressed his 'daughter'. "Mama… is… ill. Do you know what ill means, Alice?" Fortunately, she does understand as she nods. "Good. And Papa needs to go out there, looking for doctors to cure Mama. Do… Do you understand Alice? Papa wishes nothing more than to stay here with you and Mama, but… Papa… Papa has to go."

"And let Alice go with you! I'll help you find that d… d… doctor! Alice love mama! Alice want Mama to stop being ill too!"

"NO. You cannot!" Haruto glared, and Alice was somewhat frightened at his father's firm glare. "Alice… Papa needs you to stay here with Mama, ok? I need you to protect her. Do you understand?"

"P… P… Prot… What? Papa, Alice doesn't understand!" She still hasn't learned that word.

And that's exactly why Haruto refused to take Alice along. Clearly, her study under Saki was far from finished. "Sigh. Look. Just stay at your mother's side. Okay? Please. Just do this for papa, and papa will be happy. When papa is happy, papa can bring the doctor back to heal mama. Okay?"

Alice pouted. She clearly still has her protest about this.

"Alice." Saki encouraged her. "Alice. Say yes. Say yes to Papa."

Alice looked at her mother's firm gaze, and then to her papa's and she finally squeaked a quiet: "…yes."

"Good girl." Haruto patted Alice's hair. She seems to like it almost as much as her mother's cheek caress.

And then, all the sudden, Ashra came to them. "Tokishima Haruto and Saki, a slice of your time?"

"Yes?" The Tokishima husband and wife answered.

"About the provision for the Magius and the blablabla wash wish wush wesh wosh…

Alice didn't get the rest. Whatever they were talking about, it was too heavy for her. For that brief instant, her parent's attention was drawn away from her. She initially thought to wait it out… but the conversation seem to stretch very loo~ong… her mind and her attention began to wander allover the place.

This wonderland (AKA the War Factory Hangar) is completely different than the one her mother had shown her before (AKA the city streets). But there are a lot of things moving here (depleted uranium shell assembly line). A lot of things shining (soldering gears on the Valvrave sized sickles and Z-swords) and blinking (nuclear fuel cells for warheads). Her only complaint is the thick piercing scent of steel and gunpowder heavy in the air, but boy do they all look so very interesting…

…until she saw a girl sneaking about as if playing hide and seek.

And that automatically qualifies her as the most interesting thing she had ever seen in a while. And then, like any children, her interest was completely piqued and she knew she had to know more about this interesting thing. Unintentionally ignored by her parents, she just do what any children do: she just wandered off.

"I see. Alright then, I'll look into it ASAP." Haruto has just about concluded his affairs. He spared one last glance to Saki who merely gave him one last nod before he walked out of her sight. Once that was said and done, Saki turned to look for Alice, only to find she's no longer where she left her. "Alice…?"

Alice was utterly entranced in wonder of this creature… this… what did Mama call it? Girl… scurrying amidst all this moving stuff. The way she sneak past people without them noticing, even crawling to avoid those so called camera on the ceilings… it was very amusing to watch. Instinctively, Alice began mimicking this girl. To her credit she did so with such finesse she replicated her success perfectly.

And then she saw the girl approached a box. She looked around before she opened it, removed some of its content, and crept inside. "Waai!" Could it be that inside the box is another interesting wonderland!? Without a second thought she rushed towards the box and flipped it open. "WONDERLAND!"

"AAAAAAAAAAGH!" naturally, scaring the begeesus out of the hiding Marie Nobi. "What the… Saki? What…?" But then, she notice that empty innocent gaze and she knew. "Alice? Alice what are you doing?"

"Is this another wonderland?"

"Huh?" Marie had no idea what the what anymore. "Ok. Look. Uhh… this is not what you think! You better close that lid again before anyone sees this!"

But instead of complying, Alice excitedly climbed into the box and joined Marie to dive into the cargo. "W… What…. What… oi!" The box was suddenly cramped with two stowaways stuffed inside, much to the first stowaway's discomfort. "Wait! Wait! What are you! Get out! Find your own box. No. I mean… get back to Saki!"

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WAAAIII!"

Unfortunately before Marie can somehow solve this situation, a giant mechanical hand suddenly plunged in. It grabbed the lid and before Marie or Alice can comprehend it, closed the overstuffed box. Another hand instantly bolted the lid shut in a heartbeat, sealing their way out shut. Another manipulator arm grabbed the box and placed it in a pile. Before long, another box was placed on top of it, and another, and another, and finally, the whole pile was sent into the Valravn's cargo.

0000000

What IS she?

That is the question that has been haunting her ever since that accident with those 15 Arus soldiers.

By Pino's own admission, Haruto and Shoko were the first generation of their kind. Everything done to the next generation of Novus Sapien was based on the research that went into their creation. Haruto was the first to be bitten by the Valvrave, becoming the first of the Novus Magius… and then followed suit Saki, Yusuke, Raizo, Akira, Aina, and then Satomi, Takahi, and Kyuuma. Shoko refused and stayed human. And this is the clincher, she had never been bitten by a Valvrave, and thus she stayed human. And even after she got bitten by another Novus Magius, unlike the depiction in popular vampire culture movies, in the end, she didn't turn into another Novus Magius. Only a Valvrave, a true original Valvrave with its injection system and a true rune engine can turn a Novus Sapien into Magius.

…and Marie distinctly remembered she had never step foot inside any one of them.

She was never that much of a fighter. That much she knows. And yet… she just survived getting shot right between her eyes. Something she knew only a Novus Magius could do. A fully awakened one. "So how can I be…" The more she thought about it, the more confused she became. It's nothing but a series of unanswerable questions circling in her head. Small wonder then that she concluded that she'll go crazy if she didn't get any answer soon.

Upon hearing another expedition is on the way and Haruto and Pino will be participating in it, she knew she had to join them, no matter what she had to do. Why can't she just ask nicely? Well, because Haruto had grown increasingly more protective and militant over time, chances are, he will no longer let sentimentality guide his brain to just let an inexperienced civilian like her to just tag along for fun.

No way around it, she had to sneak her way in.

But then an overly curious Saki clone had to find her and the rest is history.

It took no small amount of time and effort for Marie, aided with some trashing and screaming by an officially terrified Alice, to finally smash their way out of the box, but by the time she did so, the preparation for the second infiltration operation is already well on the way. She can feel the ship shook violently several times and the battle raging outside. She didn't get most of the details, but she do understand that they're going to launch drop pods containing Kagerous and Valvraves, disguised as debris. And one of that debris happens to be Haruto's Valvrave. The Valvrave which is Pino's favorite dwelling place. She knew right away she had to take part in that operation.

"Hora, Alice. Get up. We have to go." But, the Alice that popped out of the box and the Alice that barged into it was a different girl. Somewhat. She was still happy halfway through the trip, but during the remaining half, she was a wreck, and wouldn't stop crying for her mama and papa. Fortunately, she wasn't trapped in a box alone. Stuck for days together inside an undersized closed space had forged some kind of a… bond between them. She'll listen and trust her. At least. "Come on. Come with me, we're gonna go see your papa okay?"

"PAPA!" The crying girl cheered up almost immediately. With a much calmer Alice in tow, it was simple matter for Marie to sneak into the hangar and stole a pilot suit. Somehow, she managed to convince one of the pit crew to prepare another drop pod and a Kagerou for her use. But she came a little late, most of the others had already completed their preparations, and the time is running short. Her pit crew didn't have time to properly prepare her pod like the rest.

This, coupled with her general lack of understanding in using a Kagerou resulted in a disastrous landing process.

"Oh… shit… Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! What was I thinking!?" She remembered screaming her own stupidity out loud whilst Alice is crying out loud: "MAMAAA! PAPAAAA!" the debris covering her drop pods is flayed apart faster than she had predicted. And the heat shield isn't protecting her properly. Her cockpit is… burning!

"MARIE! ALICE!"

"H… Haruto!?"

"PAPA!"

"WHAT IN HEAVENS NAME ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE!?"

But before she can answer, the impact came, her whole world suddenly spins violently and blackness followed.

The Valvrave and the hijacked Kagerou was completely disoriented by the impact and their initially controlled descent turned into a chaotic downward spin. As they entered the atmosphere of the artificial planet, the two entangled unit began to burn, and like a flaming arrow, it scorched through the dark space into the other side of the sphere with such uncontrollable speed. Fortunately, it's a speed far in excess to what even the Bremen can track. Unfortunately, it was a hazardous speed in which its two unconscious pilots cannot manage. The intertwined Primate Engines finally pierced through the shell at terrific speed and straight inside the module. Welcoming the falling object in this module is, unfortunately, not an open field for farming and agriculture… but a concrete jungle of a skyscraping metropolis city. First to suffer the falling object's descent was a skyscraping office tower. The crash landing meteor snapped the whole building in half, and further altered its landing towards a massive sport stadium right at the heart of the city. It smashed through its walls and it finally crash landed right in the middle of the sports field.

"And… that's how we ended up here… I guess." Haruto had just finished explaining the circumstances of their fall to Marie and Alice, both of which had regained consciousness some few minutes ago. "Now, my turn to ask… what on earth are you two doing here!?"

Both girls didn't answer, at first. Both look guilty, but while Alice is sweating buckets and tears, Marie was more composed about her guilt. Nevertheless, Alice answered first. "Papa… Alice… Alice is… sorry… Alice saw interesting girl doing the crawlies and the sneakies… it was very interesting! And then there's the wonderland in a box… not so wondrous in the end… Papa… Alice is sorry…" And she's crying now.

Haruto eyebrows raised in confusion, but also understanding. Alice lacked the mental strength to comprehend what she just did, so she's essentially innocent. As for Marie though… "I… I need to know."

"Know… know what?"

Marie decided she better show rather than tell. She took sharp debris and immediately plunged it in her palm, piercing through her skin. And then as he showed her bleeding palm to a wide eyed Haruto, she also showed how the wound immediately reknit itself and the blood dried out leaving a flawless hand. Tell tale sign of a Novus Magius.

"Y… You?" Haruto gawked as his mind raced to calculate the earth shattering revelation he just witnessed. "…when?"

"That's the clincher. I don't know." Marie shrugged. "By our reckoning, you were the first to be turned. The rest soon followed. I ran the count over and over in my head. You know as well as I do I've never been inside a Valvrave before. All things considered… it must've happened to me long before we discovered the Valvrave. I must've been inside an original unit at some point…"

"…must've…?"

"I don't remember the experience." Marie ruffled her hair in frustration. "Now that I've come to realize it, I don't have any other memories before my days in Sakimori high."

Come to think of it, neither did Haruto… or anyone for that matter. Haruto and Shoko remembered the first time they met with Marie. She was quiet shy girl who didn't seem to talk very much, but she was mature and wise well beyond her perceived age. Always keeping to herself, though. They spent their days in Sakimori together until the Valvrave incident, and after which, Haruto kept access to original units close to his chest. Of all people, Marie was the last person he could think of would try to sneak up into the cockpit. If there's a remiss, there's only one who could've known this: "…Pino. She might know."

"Is she here?" Marie asked. "Is she in the Valvrave? I need to talk to her."

"…Marie…" Haruto sighed. "…she's not here. She's in the Valravn." Haruto slowly break it out to her. "After we found out what my father did to my body, we thought it's best that she and I had to have as limited contact as possible. Hence, she's been taking up residence in the Valravn's mirror rave engine ever since."

"Wh…aat…" Despite the halfhearted tone, Haruto can tell Marie was quite devastated by the revelation.

Haruto do sympathize, but then he noticed movements. Mechanical footsteps coming their way. "Droids. Obviously we attracted too much attention." He looked at the two rubbles that are their super mech units. Marie brought with her a standard Kagerou armed with the full set of the Hito Pattern equipment, and some packs of Impact Boosters attached to both of her arms. The damage is rather cosmetic, except perhaps her left wing. For the Valvrave, the most severe damage was to his left wing's power claw, the part that took the brunt of the projectile that struck them off the sky. The Valvrave massive wings are cracked and shattered here and there… it's hard to say just how busted he is without a proper diagnosis… but this much he can say… both Primate Engines just won't start after that fiery landing. They're currently overheated in the extreme, unless he can cool them down somehow, all three are sitting ducks right here in the shadows of a pair of overheated hunk of steel only good for cover.

"Marie! Take Alice and run for cover!" Meanwhile, Haruto rushed towards the cockpit, which unpacked the whole commando equipment he brought along. The Novus Magius pilot suit was designed for extreme rigor, to balance the superhuman wearer inside. Between the bleeding edge micro servo hydraulic muscle suits, its advanced various life support systems that allow its wearer to survive weeks in the field, and its cutting edge targeting system and combat interface, it served both as space suit… and a veritable field combat armored suit. (AN: Now that I think about it, if anybody would put in a little effort in the designs of a Valvrave pilot suit armor, adding more intricate details and all, I think they would end up resembling something from the Spartan's Halo Mjolnir armor) As they were designed to be soldiers, it stood to reason there are hardpoints for them to carry infantry weapons when the need arise.

A shotgun, an assault rifle, 5 spare magazines for each weapon, a sidearm with 3 clips, 3 grenades, and a combat knife. That should be enough… but for how long? Haruto has no time to calculate it in his head, for it must now remember everything L-elf taught him in man to man combat. Ignoring the increasingly louder sound of steel steps of the approaching droid army, Haruto quickly checked the clip, load it, undo the safety, and with an almost instinctive reflex, quickly opened fire without checking.

He doesn't have to. The first bullets that flew out of the muzzle of his rifle ripped an Aelf's head. One of dozens coming his way, followed by dozens more behind them. A fierce firefight immediately followed. The Aelfs returned fire, identifying Tokishima Haruto as the primary target. Individually, they were outmatched. Despite his seemingly frail built, Haruto was a tank, with layered defenses. First was the energy barrier, a built in feature of his suit, and then there's the armor of the actual pilot suit itself – made from platings found on battleships, and finally, the rune barrier that Haruto had set up himself. It took an Aelf's concentrated barrage of bullets to punch through the first layer of defense. But… there were just… so many of them. He took out a squad, but more and more poured in. Before long, Haruto was forced to take cover behind the mounds of wrecked bodies of the fallen droids. It is fortunate they were all focused on him, but it wasn't long until they noticed other Novus Magius taking refuge in a Kagerou, and they start firing towards them as well. "AAARGH!" Haruto plucked a grenade and toss them all at the pack. The resulting explosion almost wiped them out, leaving just a few left, easily taken care of with a few well placed shot.

That was the first wave… and another is coming. Bigger than the first, too big for one Haruto to deal with them all. Haruto looked back at where Marie and Alice stood. He could easily turn her into a fighting force if he let her feed some of his rune pertaining combat experience… but is that a good idea? "…Marie… take cover in the Kagerou with Alice. Tell me when the heat has cooled down."

"O… Okay." Marie grabbed Alice and do as told.

The steel steps of the implacable droid army approaches, Haruto didn't have time to check their well being. He fired to every direction, fiercely defending their location like a vicious alpha defending his territory and his kin. With doubled desperation, the number of droid casualties also more than doubled. Desperation and annoyance of a super soldier combined into one lethal cocktail, becoming enough of a threat that the droid began sending a distress call. If Akira was there, she can translate the binaric dna encryption code roughly as: Bring out the big guns.

Suddenly, Haruto saw the sky darken as a mass of shadow fell upon them all. He looked up and saw the Bremen, in its flight configuration flying overhead in a fly by, opened up its cargo bay and dropped several pods into the field. The pods opened up and deployed more regiments of the Aelves, and this time, they have the specialized Clothed Aelves to lead them. Under the guidance of the commando variants, the rest of the Aelves grew increasingly tougher to beat. They even began taking cover and fired from under it, harassing the obviously outnumbered Magius whilst the tougher commando unit closed their distance. One even managed to close in on Haruto's position face to face. This Aelf in particular was geared with heavy armor platings thick enough to survive even Haruto's point blank shotgun blast and a heavy close combat weapon in form of a grinder hammer. But perhaps it didn't factor just how powerful a Magius really is in close combat. Haruto caught the swung hammer, his armored diamond hard fingers literally jammed the grinder's gears before he crushed it like a crumpled rag. The heavily armored Aelf was immediately torn apart like a tinfoil before Haruto continued his barrage. Wave after wave of droid kept coming, now they're being replenished faster than the Magius can kill them. It doesn't help that his ammunition supply grew increasingly thin. Their only hope now lies in the two still overheating Super robots at their back, but at this rate, the droid army would've overwhelmed them long before the Valvrave cooled. The two New Jiorians, and one Stray, are now counting their life expectancy by the minutes... until suddenly…

"SURPRISE MOTHER FUCKER!" A salvo of missiles suddenly rain down upon the droids, wiping out most of the droids in an eyeblink. More incoming waves, but more missiles arrived, wiping them out wholesale. The leftovers were immediately gunned by a barrage of bullets coming from a massive gatling gun wielded by a man wearing a cobbled together combat armor obviously too small for his well built size. But more importantly, he didn't come alone. His colleagues, some of them carrying a smoking bazooka on their back, also added their own firepower into the fray, providing the much needed succor for the beleaguered pilots. With help in sight, Haruto tactically decided he no longer need to think about conserving ammo. As soon as his shotgun choked out its last slug, Haruto grabbed his side arm and opened fire with it, even throwing out the last of his grenades to take the last batch of droids.

When the situation finally abated once more, the two group of combatants finally had a chance to take stock of each other.

"Well I'll be dog dipped." The rescuer started first, the big man with the gatling gun laughed. "That you, Tokishima Haruto?"

Haruto frowned. "Do I know you?" Something about his voice does sound familiar…

"Well… I don't expect you would." The man smiled. "But if you recall, we talked once before. Back when that Senator whatsisname were promotin' you as the bigshot hero. If I recall correctly, I invited you to come and see our match. Remember?"

Haruto briefly ruffled his hair to recollect his memories, back when he was with senator Figaro… and he remembered. "Wait… now I remember! That American Football team on the phone… that WAS you?"

"Haha! Oh hell yeah baby! He remembered us." The man laughed yet again. "The name's Spike 'The Tank' Springfield! Of the Dyson's Wreckers!" The man sprayed his hands to his comrade in arms in introduction.

"Of the what…?" Marie tilted her head.

"Dyson's Wreckers, running football Inter-Sphere (AN: basically means interplanetary) champions in the last three years. Spike 'The Tank' here is their ace lineman. Forward tackle. One of the best linemen to graduate from the Interplanetary Westcoast Notredame in our Sphere. Maybe ever. Pro in five years, fastest ever in modern history." Haruto recited flatly.

"What the, you're a football fan too?" Marie looked in disbelief at Haruto. For obvious reasons, in her mind the word Tokishima Haruto (human and not) and American Football don't mix.

"Not me." Haruto scratched his hair. "But Shoko is." Now that Haruto noticed it, every one of Spike's men had similar muscular built with Spike, and he does recognize them: they're all his teammates, specifically fellow linemen from Wreckers. That one week marathon of all the Dyson's Wreckers game and documentaries Shoko forced him to watch with her was a nightmare he still sometimes relive in his sleep. Thusly, their names had long since been literally carved into the very core of his being thanks to the constant nightmare of his whimpy old human self being on the receiving end of some of the violent things they're capable of: The Ram. The Truck. The Grinder. The Cruncher. All sorts of nicknames befitting their record in breaking jaws, shattering bones, a little crushing crotches on the side, and all around other forms of bodily harm that naturally result in lots screams of pain and profanity.

"That is… so~o like our Prime Minister." Now that image, Marie had fewer problems to get behind.

"WAHAHAHA!" Spike laughed nonetheless. "Be that as it may, I'm so glad you finally decided to come and visit… though one can wish it had happened in a better circumstance." Spike offered his hand, and Haruto happily gave him the handshake.

"That makes the both of us."

"Excuse me, I hate to break up the bro-mance, but did any of you realize what just happened?" Suddenly another militia, considerably thinner than the other body-builded linebackers, had to break the moment. "In case you haven't noticed, there's a GIANT hole on the wall over there! It won't be long before those droids come pouring in."

Haruto and Marie exchanged guilty looks. Everybody knows who made that hole. "Sorry about that."

"Don't sweat it, brother. Bryan, take it easy will ya?" Spike glared the thin man down. "Now… Haruto! You came crashing down… I'm gonna guess, by the state of your robot there, that something went wrong with the touchdown. Something that wasn't part of your plan. But… where are the others? I mean… the two of you can't be all you sent right?"

"There were more. We sent down the whole pack. There were… 14 of us…" Haruto explained. "Something went awry with our drop pods. So we went off course, separated from the rest, and we landed here by accident, and made that." He jerked his thumb at that big gap.

"Ah. So we get 2 out of 14." Spike smiled optimistically nonetheless. "Well, better than nothing."

"Better than nothing!? We only get two out of 14 and there are thousands of them out there! Also I'd like to point out the fact that these two seem to be a complete wreck! It's a useless scrap now!"

"Bryan! Shut up!" Spike growled the militia down. "Please forgive Bryan. He was a… top dog lawyer – or so he says, with a stick up his ass. Still having a hard time understanding the world's changed." Spike threw another disgusted look at the smug milita. The two seem to have a history. "Still, Bryan's right about one thing. That hole you carve out there. Don't mean to guilt trip you further, that's not just some wall, they're our first, and indeed our best line of defense in this place. This here is module 325, it's a business area. As you can see, there are lots of buildings from which we can hide and fight. That's how we survived against the machines, it's how we've been holding out long and hard against them. This here, this stadium, it's where the Wreckers made our stand. We've been bunkering in this place for weeks now, along with a lot of other resistance force lucky enough to get here. This place was defensible… until now."

"I understand. Do you have any other place where you can evacuate to?"

"We've sent out some scouts. We've made plans to move to another more defensible location, been gathering and scavenging supplies but… we just don't have enough yet."

"I don't think you guys had the time now." Haruto looked at the hole in the wall. His enhanced eyes can already see the droids are gathering in strength again. "They're coming back. In numbers greater than before. This place won't last long."

"You know, I would feel a lot better if these super robots you bring can serve us more than just bulwarks."

"It can do a lot more than that… They're damaged yes, but based from what I can tell, they're still functional. They're a lot tougher than they look. The problem is heat. It burned during our crash landing. They're overheated and we need some way to cool them down quickly. If we can lower their temperature enough maybe I can get it to run again. And then… well…"

"Touchdown baby. I like it." Spike nodded as he frowned in thought. "Right… The stadium has sprinkler system, which we use to water the grass on the field. Patrick! You're good at that, see if you can get it to work!" One of Spike's teammate nodded and rushed away to do his job.

"You need to hurry up with the evacuation. And oh…" Haruto noticed Alice peeking from behind the massive form of the Valvrave. "If it's not too much trouble can you take my… friend and daughter with you?"

"Daughter?" Spike's eyes widened in disbelief upon noticing the Saki clone. "Isn't she supposed to be your girlfriend?"

"Actually, Saki's officially my wife now, and believe it or not, this here is our daughter. Her name's is Alice, she's fully grown, an exact copy of my wife, but she had the mentality of a five year old. It's complicated, to explain will take too long, but I need you to take her with you. I'll stand my ground here and hold back those droids for as long as I can while you and your people evacuate."

"Much appreciated, brother. Guys you heard him! We're moving out soon. Tell the others. I'm staying here and help you defend this spot. Jack, Kirby, Tannis, you three take your teams and fortify this location with me and Haruto."

Whilst Spike manages his team, Haruto had to try to convince her daughter to part with him… again. "Alice… look. I know you don't want to go, but hear me out okay? This place is about to become REALLY dangerous. And I don't want anything bad happen to you, so you need to go with these people… with Auntie Marie… and wait until I come and find you, okay?"

"But Papa… if this place is about to go bad… what about you?"

Haruto glanced for a moment to Marie who nodded. "I'll look after Alice." She had to do at least that much, after her blunder that caused all this.

"Papa's going to stay here and protect you."

"Pro… Prot…"

"Pro-tect." Haruto worded it per syllable. "Protect. It means to make sure nothing bad happen to someone else. That someone is you. Because, papa don't want anything bad happen to you, Alice."

"Pro-tect…" Alice sobbed still. "But… if that's the case, let Alice stay! Alice wants to protect Papa too!"

"Papa knows you want to do that. You are your mother's daughter. But… not yet. Protecting you is papa's job. Okay? So for now, please just… go. I will come find you when this is over, I promise."

"Ng… Ng…" She pouted. Point in fact, she's crying. "Papa… are you… angry with Alice because Alice didn't listen to you the first time?" She kept crying without stopping. "Do you hate Alice because Alice didn't do as Papa says?"

'What did Saki says… oh yeah… she likes being caressed in a biblical sense…? But in my case…' Haruto pat the top of Alice's head. She calmed down considerably. "Yes, Alice. I was angry because you didn't listen. But… Papa will never hate you. You have to leave now, because bad things will happen, and Papa doesn't want those bad things to happen to you. That means Papa will always love you. But now you must leave." Haruto sighed, they're running out of time. "I promise I'll come back and see you. But you have to promise me you will do as I say from now on, please?"

"…okay. Okay. Alice promise."

"Pinky promise." Haruto showed his pinky.

"Pinky promise!" Alice happily hooked her pinky to her father's.

Haruto turned to Spike, who had just finished organizing their defenses. "Well we're as ready as we can be." The linemen throw a short wave radio to Haruto. "It's the only communication system that works. Others are just… jammed and useless." As for Haruto's 'daughter'. "Bryan. You take her and keep her safe."

Bryan took the assignment with a rather half hearted enthusiasm, something Haruto didn't fail to notice. "Anything happens to her, you answer to me!" The father glared.

"And me." Spike added.

That's the threat of two fully armed soldiers, each clearly vastly stronger than the scrawnier soldier. Bryan grudgingly approved and escort Marie, who dragged the somewhat reluctant but nonetheless obedient Alice away from the field of killing. And just in time too.

The droids are just a few steps away from the gap. The first wave of many.

"How long it'll take before those sprinklers start working?" Haruto asked.

"Shouldn't be too long. We should be able to hold them back long enough."

"Okay. Fire at will!" Haruto opened fire immediately as soon as the first droid step through the gap.

"RIGHTO! GAME TIME, BABY! WRECK 'EM BOYS! WHOO!" And the bullets start flying in a deadly crossfire.

Before long, the gap was choked with piles of broken droids. But these were just cannon fodder… or even smokescreen to hide the real danger. Amidst the roaring sound of gunfire, Haruto hear a distinct sound whip crack. "What-?" Just as he wondered what it was, a trail of smoke in a straight line erupted from the mass of squirming droids. The next second one of the defenders of the stadium fell down, missing a head.

"JACK!" A devastated Spike roared. "GRAAAAHH! DIE YOU MOTHER FUCKEERSS!" In response, Spike intensified his barrage upon the droids. Haruto on the other hand momentarily cease fire to take stock of the situation at hand. "Sniper. We got a sniper! Take cover!" Most of the defenders immediately take cover upon hearing the order, but Spike is still outraged at his teammate's death and kept pouring his load upon the enemy. Haruto had no choice but to rush him down to the ground. And just in time because he heard that whip crack again, and a trail of smoke went through where Spike's head had been. "Stay down." Haruto alone stood up while the rest took cover. As expected, every droid concentrated their firepower on him, quickly draining Haruto's triple layered shielding, but not quickly enough. Another whip crack, and Haruto braced himself. The bullet went through the energy barrier, pierced through his armor plating, but barely made it past his rune layer and only succeeded in nudging his skin. But that was more than enough for Haruto. In the milliseconds it took for the bullet to went through his barriers, Haruto's superhuman reflexes had already traced the trajectory of the bullet right back to its shooter. When the bullet nudged his skin, he already opened fire right back at the sniper. A salvo of three shots punched through the Sniper Aelf head off right through its sniper scope.

The defenders barely had time to awe at such feat, the mounting pile of obliterated droid that had began to seal the gap was suddenly smashed asunder. A massive white spherical object just rolled through the droids into flattened junks. Haruto recognized the thing all at once. It's a Dvergr. When one compared a Valvrave to that little ball of terror, they looked like an oversized soccer ball. For humans… it's like an oversized tank had just rolled in. The ball opened up into its spherical humanoid mode, its chest mounted Gatling cannon began spinning. "EVERYBODY DUCK!" If even Haruto himself said so, the rest must comply.

A hail of bullets cut through allover the stadium, devastating everything swept up in its path. The defenders curled in their spot, holding to their heads, plugging their ears as a stream of roaring bullets sliced overhead. While the defenders are suppressed under their cover, the droid army marched forth unabated.

"Heads up guys! They're coming in for the touchdown!" Spike roared.

"How much longer before that sprinkler!?" Haruto asked back.

"PATRICK!? YOU HEARD THE MAN!?"

"Give me another three minutes!"

"THREE MINUTES!? WE'LL BE DEAD IN ONE!"

Haruto racked his brains out. Those Dvergr can handle bullets from a Valvrave rifle, their infantry assault rifle like tossing peas at a rock. Is there no other weapon that he can… He looked at the downed Kagerou and Valvrave. All their vents are still burning, bodies cracking head to toe… but some of their weapons are still intact.

"Hold on." Haruto quickly crawled and squirmed as fast as he can towards Marie's Kagerou as he maintain his cover beneath hailstorm of bullets. That Kagerou has been geared with Hito pattern equipment. Apart from its head crest and its two impact booster loadout, it is the spitting image of Haruto's original Valvrave. Now if he remembers correctly, there should be that one piece of equipment he can use in this situation.

Spike and his team are virtually pinned in their location. The Dvergr concentrated its fire upon their location, completely ignoring the other defenders. That give them chance to open fire at the 'dwarf', but the small mech's thick armor was impervious to their small arms fire, achieving nothing but scratch on its white paintjob. And to make it worse… it called in some more friends. Two more of the Dvergr just rolled in and quickly deployed into their robot mode. They're about to add their firepower to the first one. Their barricade is barely holding on to the firepower of one Dvergr as is. When their Gatling cannons start spinning, Spike braced himself for the worst…

…until a giant red hot kodachi literally flew over their heads and instantly bisect the first Dvergr in two right on its waist.

"What the… what?" It's like even the droids stopped to comprehend what just happened. Spike popped his head out of cover to look at the kodachi, and then they looked back to where it came from.

Now, if Spike can trust his eyes, the way Haruto's body positioned indicated he was the one responsible for hurling that 18 feet long short blade… with his bare hands. Haruto rushed forward, jumping over the cover and grabbed the kodachi. With a grunt which quickly turned into a roar, Haruto confirmed Spike's deduction by lifting the kodachi over his head and start swinging the blade around. The Aelves are cut down by the dozen. The Dvergr start opening fire, but Haruto cut/smash the first one, embedding the Valvrave size kodachi to its head. The other Dvergr is already opening fire, plowing through Haruto's layered defenses at a far faster rate. When Haruto tried to swing his kodachi again, it was stuck there. The Dvergr ripped through the energy barriers in seconds, its bullets start ripping through his armor. His rune barrier cracked. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!" Exerting his strength, Haruto lifted the Kodachi AND the stuck Dvergr overhead before he slammed them both on top of the last Dvergr. But not before the Dvergr loosed one last shot that struck Haruto clean by the chest, throwing him off a few dozens of feet back.

"HARUTO!" Spike shrieked. He jumped over cover while loosing some of his own shots while rushing towards the downed pilot. The rest of the Wreckers finally jumped out of cover and fired as well. Without the Dvergrs, their firepower can cause more bite on the enemy's ranks.

"Ouch…" Somehow, his pilot armor barely survived the ordeal intact. He can feel his ribs cracked and some of his spines snapped, but they've already began to heal when he get back up, much to the amazement of the defenders.

"Holy shit man." Spike clearly saw the giant head sized bullet struck the seemingly thin boy right on the chest. A bullet that size would've pulverized a car and yet… "You… ever interested in playing Pro Football when this is over?"

"No. I will most likely be banned by the Inter-sphere Sports Committee. We were doped from birth. And this is the type of dope that will never wear off." Haruto smiled painfully at Spike. "Besides… I'm not much of a football kinda guy. No offense."

"None taken." Spike brandished his heavy machine gun and kept firing. More droids are coming. "PATRICK! WHERE. IS. THAT. GOD. DAMN. SPRINKLERS!?"

"One more minute! I HATE THESE MADE-IN-T-COUNTRY SHIT COMPONENTS!"

"SHIT!" They barely been able to finish this wave, to make things worse, another wave is coming, even bigger than the first two combined and worse, apart from the numbers, they brought more Dvergs rolling amidst them. "Okay… now what? We won't last a minute against that!"

Haruto looked around for options. The Dvergr he cut in half the first time… its Gatling cannon is still loaded… they just need to be powered. "Okay. Let's try this." Gathering runes in one hand, Haruto touched the bisected Dvergr. Its servo began to spin, and the Gatling cannon whirred again. With a flex of his thin muscles, the Super Soldier lifted the obviously, ridiculously, oversized weapon over his head. Another jolt of rune, and the weapon start firing. The kickback of a weapon ten times bigger than the wielder's size should've knocked him over, but his feet remained firmly planted to the ground.

With an oversized weapon at the defender's side, the number of fallen droids increased tenfold. The Dvergrs start returning fire, but when they opened up, they're vulnerable. Haruto used the salvaged Dvergr gun to take them out one by one while the rest of the Miltia focused on the smaller ones. But in what seem to be a recurring trend, for every one droid they took out, ten more took its place.

"Where the hell did all these things came from!?" An incredulous Spike had to ask. "Patrick, if those sprinklers aren't up right the fuck now, I'm gonna have you keelhauled." Spike is just about out of patience.

"And… it's on! It's on! Rain's coming!"

Several hidden plates beneath the layer of dirt and grass slid up all across the field. A few of them popped out neatly close to the overheating mechs. They start to spin, and before long droplets of cold water sprayed allover the field. Those that touched the Primate Engines immediately vaporized thanks to their overwhelming heat… but it does the job. The Valvraves began to cool and Haruto can sense its reactors are beginning to build up again. Albeit not as fast as he would've liked. "We have to hold out for a little longer! The Valvrave's are cooling down!"

"OKAY! COME ON BABIES! THIS IS OVERTIME! BURN THE TIME, AND IT'S GAME SET MATCH!"

The Wreckers are pouring everything they got now. And it was well they do so. As if sensing the power build up within the giants, the droids increased their fervor in their push to prevent the reawakening. More and more Dvergrs are pouring in, as well as more specialized Aelves. The Wreckers were forced to pull back from their no longer defensible position. They all converged into the shadows of the powering up Valvraves. "Come on… come on!" Haruto grew somewhat impatient now. The Valvrave sense nerve crown began to flash green several times, and everyone can now actually hear the sound of energy build up. "COME ON!" Haruto roared… and his Valvrave finally lit up like Christmas tree as its energy reactor reached critical mass and its vents cooled. "YES!" Haruto quickly rushed into the cockpit of his Valvrave.

Once inside, the Novus Magius commander quickly start rebooting up the system, inwardly begging beyond hope the crash land didn't damage his Valvrave beyond simple repair. "Come on, come on…" But Haruto's hope was answered. The Valvrave began to stir back to life. Its massive oversized wings folded in into its compact mode. It lost one of the power claws on its wings, but it didn't seem to hinder it by the least. Fortunately, it didn't lose any more of its important arsenals, its Z-Muramasa blades is still intact for a start. Its Yasha Garasu claws also began to clench up.

But before anyone can cheer, a massive shadow suddenly darkened the droid littered ground they're standing on. Everyone looked up. "Oh… shit…" Haruto and Spike echoed. A Bremen flew overhead before landing at the back. Its four wings turned into legs for its quadruped mode. It dropped the Gunhound tank, which deployed its Feline Missile Launcher hovercraft, which then launched the Rooster drone ship out… and then, the Jack is now free to bring out the big ass Jenny Gauss Cannon.

And because the enemy just loves overkill…

Two more are coming down and did the same.

Haruto looked at his own unit and realized the Bremen will bombard them long before his Valvrave can get back up. "…DELPHI!"

The Yashagrasu power claw twitched. And then, with several mechanical hisses, it detached itself from the Valvrave's arm, reattached with the separated part and reassumes its Raven Valvrave form.

"DELPHI! Jack the Hito Kagerou! Use it to buy us time. Protect the Wreckers."

"If I have to." The Raven answered… with a strangely familiar voice. The Yashagarasu flew towards the downed Hito Kagerou. His sense nerve briefly scanned the also crashed Primate Engine. As a fact; it was in a much more pristine condition than its original counterpart. All its missing is a pilot. The Yashagarasu then moved in for a merge. As if sensing a superior unit, the two Impact Boosters detached themselves to make way for their tech sire. The Impact Booster ravens reattached themselves to the Kagerou's shoulder whilst the Yashagarasu took their place… and more. The Sense nerve crown of the Yashagarasu lit up, and the Hito Kagerou's sense nerve also lit up. In its cockpit, its interface monitor activated on its own.

STRATEGIC COMBAT A.I. DELPHI. ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL… OVERRIDE COMPLETE.

ANALYZING ARSENAL… COMPLETE. BEGIN OFFENSIVE OPERATION.

The Hito Yasha Kagerou stood up and stand before the still awed and shocked Wreckers. The power Claw suddenly flipped open a pair of twin Volc Arm rifles and immediately opened fire. In an instant, the barrage of large caliber hardlight bullets instantly wiped out the Aelves all the way through the entrance. The Kagerou… or rather, the Delphi's accuracy seems to be wickedly spot on. The bullets actually punch through the mass of drones, peppering the Bremen's right at their optics, halting their attempt to lock on their targets. But… there were just… so many of them.

But one Dvergr managed to roll past the overwhelmed Hito and slink past its feet… until a foot stomp on it and stopped the ball on its track. The Dvergr's optics looked up, and the towering, and fully online Valvrave looked down, its pilot is pissed and ready to fuck all.

To reiterate: sizewise, the Dvergr is, to a Valvrave… what a soccer ball is to a human.

The dented Dvergr flew out of the stadium with an imprint of a leg on its shell. It struck a Bremen just before it finished charging its gauss gun, knocking it off course, causing it to collide with an adjacent Bremen. The last remaining Bremen had just finished charging its rail cannon… when a stream of red laser lanced out and instantly pierce through its head, reducing it to a holed molten slag.

Spike and his Wreckers looked up with a smile big enough to almost split their faces in two. The Hito moved aside to allow the real star of the show to step forth. Its one remaining wing-mounted power claw is still smoking when the Valvrave slide the massive serrated katana, the Gyouketsu, out of the sheath it bears. Brandishing the Katana in one hand. The Valvrave still hasn't moved from its current spot. Inside, Haruto grunted as he began to understand the complications of operating a Valvrave in space and on the ground.

Designed as the most powerful weapon platform in the world, the Valvrave was meant to fight in any situation, including planetside. Dyson sphere is effectively a planet, and every planet has gravity. A single module has artificial gravity during emergency, but that's nothing compared to the actual gravity of the star beating at the core of this manmade planet. And this gravity affects everything. The controls are heavier; Haruto can actually hear the contours of the Valvrave metal endo skeleton straining under its own weight, the screams of servo motors exerting extra force to compensate this new major factor affecting the Valvrave's performance. Not only he need to apply more force than he usually would while fighting in zero G space, fighting in gravity used up Runes at a faster rate. So, now he also needs to compensate the fact that its reaction time will also be a slight bit slower than before.

Red energy briefly coruscated inbetween the power claw fingers as it crackled into critical mass before five streams of red laser beams shot out of each finger, fanning out before the Valvrave, carving the ground with trails of burning flame. The hundreds of overwhelming droid army were literally wiped out of the face of the earth in seconds as five streams of laser of pure destruction cut a swath through them like scythe slicing through wheat. The two Bremen had just got on their feet when the Valvlrave fired another shot, this time a concentrated laser that liquefied the first Bremen, and then it swept through the field, wiping out entire armies in a trail of explosions, before it finally sliced the second Bremen in molten half.

"WHOOOHOOO! AND THAT'S WHAT I CALL FIREPOWER! BABY! WHOOO!" Spike and his wreckers cheered. But they haven't seen anything yet.

Delphi's sensors detected multiple objects coming towards them. The Hito looked up and true enough, another fleet of Bremens came, and this time they're also accompanied by Hunters. The fleet maintained its altitude with no sign of coming down, but it's going for a bomb run. So it's not going to drop reinforcement.

"It's a bomb run." Haruto easily concluded. "Delphi, protect the Wreckers. Shoot them down!" The Valvrave finally began to move forward, adjusting its aim to the skies. The Bremens opened its cargo hold and dropped its payload. But the Valvrave's response was immediate and direct. The Power claw fired all five rune lasers up to the skies, the Hito also fired his dual Volc Arms as well as the Volc Arm the Hito carried, three assault rifle barraging the skies. Caught in the crisscrossing network of lasers and hardlight ammunitions, the bombs were wiped out before they even pick up speed. What's more, the drones were completely caught unaware, and the barrage of lasers swept across them, slicing them apart. All three Bremens were destroyed; four of out seven Hunters were torn apart. The remaining three quickly assess the situation and descend down to the ground. As they landed, the Hunters transformed to their humanoid mech mode, standing alongside an army of Aelves and Dvergrs.

All these lasers are building up heat allover again. But Haruto had learned an old trick from Pino on another way to disperse all these heat. The Aelves swarmed by their thousands now, a critical mass number a single Valvrave would have issue to deal with. The caverns of his rune reactor opened slightly, and he placed the Gyouketsu into it. "Transferring heat…" The heat gauge dropped from 87 to 23. When he was done, the Gyouketsu was lit from tip to base, a blazing sword wreathed with jumping flames. "EVERYBODY TAKE COVER! DELPHI! LOOK AFTER THEM!"

The Wreckers immediately huddled to Spike; whilst the Hito knelt down to hunker down over them, using its own bulk to give them cover against whatever comes next.

Without further ado, Haruto stabbed the flaming blade to the ground. And in an instant, a shockwave of fire erupted. A ring of infernal wall expands outward with the Valvrave at its epicenter, scorching everything swallowed up in its path. Every Aelf drone in vicinity was instantly incinerated where they stand, engulfed in a sea of fire that left nothing but misshapen charred steel. The Kagerou Hito remained a bulwark, standing strong untouched by this sea of flame, with the human survivors safely waited in its massive clutches. Of the enemy, only the larger bot like the Hunter and the Dvergr managed to survive. But even that was just small solace because now, the Valvrave plows through the fiery ocean towards them even as the sea of fire burns everything to ashes. Leaving the fiery Gyouketsu where it had been planted, he pulled the second Z-Muramasa, the Futouchi. The flame leapt into the blade and immediately lit it up, its arching slash left a trail of flickering flame in the air.

What happened next, the Wreckers were in the wrong position to see clearly. In the midst of leaping flames, the Valvrave was an unstoppable force. While other lesser machines burnt and buckled, there was something about the way the flames leap and flicker in such chemistry with the Valvrave's every move, it's almost supernatural. Every spark of flame, every infernal spire was his army that goes to war with him at his command, reinforcing his attacks to unfathomable levels. The ignited Futouchi cut and burns any armor it struck with such ease, the targets might as well be naked. The first slice instantly bisect a Dvergr in half from head to crotch, the second Dvergr opened fire, but only managed a couple of shots out before the Valvrave closed the distance and the Futouchi sliced it clean, leaving its bisected remains to burn to a molten slag. A Dvergr turned into its spherical mode to reinforce its defenses, the Valvrave respond with a barrage of its variable CIWS vulcans. The flame superheated every bullet that escape the muzzle and they tore the Dvergr apart in a single volley. A CIWS barrage to take down infantry and lesser enemy. A CIWS BARRAGE! The remaining Dvergrs charged forth together, their intelligent AI calculated that five to one is a good odd for a chance of victory. But the Valvrave's might went beyond any calculation. Moving at speed faster than their optics can follow, the flaming blade made a wide circular blazing arch that welcomed 5 leaping Dwarves, and 10 burnt and torn scrap metals fell into the sea of fire to burn. Now, there are only three Hunters left. If there's human in there, they'd know better to surrender. But machines were none the wiser.

The first of the last Machines charged forth, its weapons, a pair of gun with axe bayonets brandished, but it only get as far as one step ahead before the Z-Muramasa was thrown to its chest, nailing the bot squirming to the ground. The second Hunter charged together with the third, but all the sudden, the Valvrave already closed distance to one of them. His massive wing power claw came falling down like an avalanche of razors, and the Hunter's form instantly reduced to ribbons of shredded metal, drowned in fire. Seeing two of its kind destroyed in seconds, the last Hunter standing's AI quickly calculate that close combat is not an option. It start opening fire, but the Valvrave respond by throwing the largest piece of what's left of the second Hunter at the third, knocking it down to the floor to be seared. But as it try to get back up, it saw the Valvrave had leapt up to the air on a trails of fire coming from its folded wings turned jetpacks. He landed right on top of it, foot first. And then his power claw did the rest with crisscrossing lasers. Finally, the Valvrave stood up, left the wreckage of the third Hunter and went towards the first. The first hunter that is still online and kicking, albeit with a blade embedded on its vacant heart. When he picked up his sword, the Hunter is still squirming. A violent yank that rips its torso brutally apart made sure the squirming stopped.

And then… it was… over. Forget another wave, there's literally no droid left standing within a hundred miles of the scene. The flame died down to embers, and the Valvrave triumphant stood atop ash black ground filled with charred and molten scrap metal. "Okay… I think it's all clear now."

The Hito Kagerou stood up, revealing the Wreckers are still alive and cheering under his bosom. They paused for a moment to digest what they saw before them. They just got attacked by more droids than they could count, dozens of Dvergrs, Bremens, and even Hunters! And in seconds after the Valvrave joined the fray… after Tokishima Haruto get in the fight… they didn't just survive, he literally steamrolled them back. Weeks of fighting an unwinnable war of attrition against indefatigable machine, and suddenly, they had a chance. They can win.

"MAN! HARUTO! YOU KICK ASS BABY! WHOOO!" Spike punched his fist to the Valvrave. The Wreckers finally get it. When they only get 2 out of 14, they're not shit out of luck… they got the best of the bunch.

The Valvrave walked back and grabbed the Gyouketsu out of the ground before returning it back to its sheath. And then the mech knelt, allowing its pilot to climb down safely. And Wreckers eagerly rushed towards their savior.

"Everybody okay? Everybody accounted for?"

"Yes." Spike grinned. "Except Jack. Everyone's alive and ready for another kickoff."

The Wreckers allowed a moment to mourn their loss. Haruto know exactly how they feel. "I'm so sorry. I brought all this upon you all."

"Don't say that, my man. You saved us today. Saved all of us. And I for one will never forget that." Spike gave Haruto a friendly knock with his knuckle.

"Let's go see to the evacuation." Haruto nevertheless took one worried glance to the sun above. The artificial sun… "…" Then he looked back the Valvrave. "…Delphi. Sentry mode… and activate the Mirage Channel, I want a full camouflage of this entire area."

"Understood." The Yashagarasu Hito nodded. It turned to the Valvrave, their sense nerve blinked to each other, as if communicating. And then, a piece of the Valvrave snapped off, one of its two subordinate Familiars, the two tailed black Cat of Mirage Channel. The black cat quickly split. The head turned into a small mice like object, while the rest of the body split into a bat like drone that soar high to the sky, stretching its wings. The sky momentarily skewed, and then nothing. But to the cameras optics and every sensor above, it was as if nothing happened.

"Okay… that should buy us some time. Let's go get these people to safety."

00000000000000

Once the newly arrived New Jior Valvraves had settled on the module they landed on, the resistance led by A-Drei and X-Eins immediately rendezvous with the new arrivals. They first came to Cain immediately explaining what they could of the situation he had arrived in. To his credit, Cain handled each and every issue presented before him with the cold calculating stoicism he was famous for. But his foremost interest was the report that came from his fellow Magius.

Unlike A-Drei or X-Eins, Ashra didn't say a word. All she did was merely point a finger to what she knew to be Cain's primary interest.

Cain approached the base of the kneeling and charred Behemoth. There, standing firmly on the ash black epicenter, was its pilots. Though only one piqued his interest.

"Somebody grab some pieces of the frigate we use to come here. I can use them as raw material to fix the behemoth, as well as some from what's left of the Goldilocks."

"Can you do that?"

"If you think about it, the nanofabricator in the Forgefist is no different than the Second Wind Nanomachine system on these Faux Valvraves. Point in fact, ours are far more advanced. I just need to reconfigure the system to absorb and reconstruct the materials into appropriate components." As he said this, Yusuke had already begun managing the Behemoth's one remaining Forgefist. Its fingers detached and start moving around the wreckage of the Goldilocks, deconstructing its pieces at a molecular level, harvesting its raw material… and using said material, he literally reconstructed another Forge Fist right there on the spot. He already constructed three additional units in this manner, and already the repairs are proceeding at blistering pace, if not hassled by the raw material issue.

Everyone from New Jior was hardly surprised at this point. Day and night, Yusuke spent his every waking hour studying the Valvraves inside and out. As a par for course, he already memorized the blueprints of every Valvrave in New Jior, including their respective Familiars, all in his head. And that was just the starters. His understanding of its technological use already surpassed even his mentor, Kibukawa, Yusuke Otamaya is… was the ultimate authority in Valvrave technology.

But now… now he's more than that.

"Yes?" Yusuke can feel Cain's interested stare boring through his back.

"Yusuke Otamaya… or… is it Jeay…?" Cain asked.

Yusuke turned and looked back at Cain in the eye.

Cain's eye widened in awe. "…no. You are neither." He approached Yusuke with marvel gleaming through his expression. Even Raizo was somewhat unnerved, but not so with Yusuke, whose eyes remained unflinching. Ashra identified that as Jeay's fearless gaze. "…you are not an Native Eldar Magius… nor are you a mere Awakened Novus Magius… no… you are… something… more. You… you are… Beautiful."

Even Yusuke's eyes twitched. "…eh?"

Cain merely chuckled. And then he suddenly changed the topic. "…What's the status of your Behemoth?"

"…the repairs are underway. Give me 30 minutes." Yusuke glanced back and saw some of the Kagerous dragged pieces of the frigate behind, fresh raw material for him to use to repair his Valvrave. "In the mean time, you better figure out a way for us to transport all this to the next module."

"Already on it. You just concentrate on the repair of that precious unit."

"Wait… Where's Haruto-aniki?" Raizo asked. But Cain completely ignored him. "Hey, I'm talking to you! Where's Haruto-aniki!?" Raizo even yanked the colonel back.

"You saw what happened." Cain answered flatly.

"The question is… what caused it?" Yusuke asked.

"The stupidest of reasons: Sentiments." Cain merely scoffed as he unlatched Raizo's arm easily.

"But Aniki… he can survive that right?"

"If he cannot, then he's not worthy of leading you all to the future."

'The future?' Yusuke frowned at the word.

But Cain was not interested in elaborating further and merely walked away. His face showed nothing but immense delight. 'Such power…! Such perfection…! Did Pino foresee this? But no… not quite yet… but I see it now. The next step of our evolution. The future of which two worlds truly become one… towards ascendancy!'

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Bryan Cussack was, and in his opinion, still, the Top Dog lawyer this side of the system. With the right amount of moola, he can whitewash even the worst of crooks, with a really nice settlement to go with it. He prided himself on his ability to sweet-talk even the most stubborn Judge. His choice of words can make or break his clients.

…but today he's not facing a hard ass Judge…

He's facing a very pissed bioengineered Super Human Weapon who's choking him a few feet off the ground.

"I gave you one job. JUST ONE FUCKING JOB!" An unsympathetic Spike grunted in the background. "And you botched it."

"Look… wh… what do you expect me to do? A bunch of them droids just start smashing through the walls- wha… what do you expect me to do!? The basement's overrun!"

"At the very least…" Haruto hissed dangerously. "Anything but leaving two unarmed and utterly defenseless girls alone at the mercy of those machines." His fingers are pressing firmly on Bryan's neck. One more push and he'll snap his neck. "The only reason you're still alive is because we haven't found their bodies. Which means they might still be alive, and you're gonna help me find them."

"Like hell I will-"

And for that answer Haruto slammed Bryan one time against the steel wall. "Either you help me, or I'll feast on the insides of your head." He displayed his fangs for good measure. "Though I'm not quite sure what knowledge could be useful in that empty brain of yours."

"I'm coming with you." Spike brandished his heavy weapon.

"No. You stay here and oversee the evacuation."

"We've drilled this eventuality many times. They can do this without me. You on the other hand, will need every pair of eyes you can get."

"Alright." Then Haruto turned to his arm com: "Delphi, set a perimeter around this area. Anybody so much as to point a peashooter at this place, blast them."

"Understood."

He turned back to Bryan. "Now you'll take us back to the place where you left my friend and daughter."

With a very angry super human father and a heavily armed bone breaker at his back, the so called Top Dog lawyer had no choice but to comply. To make things worse, now he's denied even his weapon.

"You hardly use 'em properly when you do have one. Haruto will put it to better use." Spike tossed the rifle to Haruto. He broke his during the first skirmish.

"Let's go. Lead the way, Mr. Cussack."

Brian led them to the basement, walking over piles and piles of wrecked droids… and a great number of dead human resistance. Unlike a certain one other they can name, these brave souls all stand their ground to the end. Some of the Aelves are clothed with what appear to be subterranean equipment, which explain how they managed to get past the rampage of two giant robots. "…they must've dug underground and were trying to hit us from our backs."

"If it weren't for these guys, things would've gotten a lot worse." Spike took a moment to pay his respects for the fallen.

Haruto looked around. His human eyes won't do much penetrating this mess. 'Alright. Let's see if putting up with Rasa's rattling paid off.' He stopped moving for a moment to concentrate. His super senses went full throttle, he can hear… and see… human hearts beat, pumping blood into their every vein, even through the rubbles blocking conventional eyesight. To signify this, Haruto's eyes turned fluorescent red as it glowed even in the dark.

"That is so cool." Spike whistled.

Haruto immediately scanned the ruins. Against all odds, he found a group of heartbeats still buried beneath a pile of lifeless metal. Apparently, the battle in the basement was also mixed with some cave in. "Help me out. We have a few survivors buried down there."

"Holy molly. Should've brought more people here. Gonna take days to dig them out!"

"No need." Red veins of energy erupted amidst Haruto's muscle strands. With a huff, Haruto lifted chunks after chunks of broken machines. Within minutes, the survivors were found, still clinging to each other, and seem ready to die any moment… until the rescue arrived.

"Heya there!" Spike grinned wide as he offered his helping hand. From the look on the survivors' face, they didn't even think they'll live to see another person. As Spike helped them up, he asked. "Think that supervision can find the others?"

"Already on it." Needless to say, that's exactly what Haruto's doing. Regrettably… "I'll do what I can but… there aren't many people down here so lucky."

"Oh damn. Let's just save who we can." Spike also tried cheer up the glum Haruto. "And who knows? Maybe one of them is your daughter and friend!"

With Haruto's strength, he tore through the pile with speed, finding a few more groups of survivors, which include several refugees and a couple of resistance who made their stand when the bots broke in and survive through it. Some, they managed to rescue long before they were in any danger. Others, even with Haruto's super strength speeding the process, they still didn't make it in time. But from the gathered information from the survivors, the story of what happened down here grew increasingly clear. The Droid army drilled through the ground and flanked the defenders from an unexpected angle. Many of the resistance and the refugees that were here during the initial wave didn't make it. When the second wave arrived, the resistance finally realized what's happening and retaliate in force… but the place was all but overrun when the cave in happened. Calculating the timing, the cave in happened just as Haruto went on a rampage with his Valvrave. Fortunately the cave in changed the battle in favor of the resistance, but the enemy droids just keep on coming… until suddenly, they just… stopped. Something, or someone is holding them back. Haruto had his suspicion on what did so, until one of the last survivor, thankfully, had the information they want.

"Yes. We saw those two. They fell straight into that hole when the driller bots first came through." One of the surviving resistance fighters reported as he pointed a very huge hole right in the middle of that room. Haruto wasted no time and jumped down. It's a rather long drop. The hole was a lightless darkness… but to Haruto super boosted sense, it felt like broad daylight. His eyes quickly scanned through the tunnel from where he's standing all the way to the end… until he found them. "Oh no…"

Haruto pushed his super enhanced muscle to its inhuman limit. He ran so fast, he almost broke the sound barrier, but in his still human horror, he felt he wasn't running fast enough. But when he smashed a droid milliseconds away from vivisecting Marie with a chainsaw, he realized he barely made it after all.

"H… Haruto!"

"HRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!" A berserk Haruto rip every droid in his sight to pieces. He even forgets he actually had a fully loaded gun in his hand. When the last droid is scrapped, Haruto regain his senses again to realize there's only Marie in sight. "Marie? Where's-"

"I'll say this one, Haruto…" Marie was still somewhat out of breath. "She's definitely your daughter. She's just like you when she's angry."

"What do you-" Haruto's answer came when he upper halves of at least a dozen Aelves was tossed out of the darkness. They looked like they were ripped apart by a beast. Haruto had a very bad feeling about this. "Marie… what happened?"

"Well… you said it yourself… Alice had the mentality of a five year old. A five year old who had absolutely no sense of danger or self. Stick her on a battlefield for the VERY first time, and she think she's in the playground… until a stray bullet ruins the day."

"…she got shot!?" Suddenly, Haruto can easily understand what happened here.

"What do you expect? It's a warzone! …and you still remember what you were like when you got shot for the first time, right?" Marie groaned as her bruises began to regenerate slowly. "You better get there… I think she's about to run out of things to tear apart."

Haruto rushed down the hole and true enough, there he saw her. She was on all four, with her fanged teeth gritted and bared wide, and a very feral beastly eyes. A part of her waist was missing, courtesy of that stray large caliber bullet, and from the breach were these mass of green runes flaring out, trying to keep the pieces of her body together. And she was on a rampage, tearing apart machine after machine with her bare hands and sometimes her own teeth. Saki said that Alice became a nymphomaniac because she copied her mother's response for rune gathering. But what she couldn't possibly know, is that Alice's response upon receiving harm took straight from her father. She looked exactly like Haruto went he went on a killing spree on Potemkin. The difference this time, is that while Haruto was able to recover by feeding on living breathing humans that are his victim and rune sustenance, his daughter's victims are an army of lifeless machines, which has none such 'feature'. 'Which is exactly the whole idea of using Grim Drones against Magius.'

When the last droid fell, his daughter is anything but calmed down. She still snarled and growled, looking left and right, searching for anyone, anything to sate this indescribably bad feeling she had. Her animal instinct had completely taken over even Saki's teachings and what little rationality she had. Her fury blinded eyes finally landed on the nearest lifeforce mass, and her first response is to lunge at it with snapping jaw. The jaw found its mark, and she viciously bites and drank whatever came out. When her tongue tasted the first drop of that substance, the pain immediately lessened to a great degree, and she immediately wanted more and more. By the time the pain had all but subsided, it was as if a veil had been lifted up from her eyes… and she saw what… or rather who exactly she's been biting.

"P…Papa?" With her mouth still stuffed on Haruto's mangled arm, her voice is somewhat muffled.

"A… Alice…" Haruto's face smiled at her, despite the fact it was splattered with bloody droplets. His bloody droplets. Alice still didn't understand what just happened right after that abominable pain, nor did she understand why her teeth sank into his papa's flesh. It felt right… but it also felt wrong. In many ways. "Alice…? Could you… could you let go now?"

"Y… Yes, Papa." Alice finally let go. There's still some of her father's blood trailing through her lips and teeth. They taste… delicious… even better than that burger her Mama gave her.

Meanwhile, Haruto's mangled arm had since regenerated in an instant. "Alice? Alice! Are you okay?"

"Uh… Papa…!" Alice immediately stopped licking the leftovers. "Pa… Papa… It… hurts…"

"I know." Getting shot at is an acquired taste. Even when one had an immortal body that can spit the bullet out in an instant. It's not the kind of experience one can forget even after the wound was gone.

"It really… really… hurts!" She starts crying now. "Is this because… Alice didn't obey Papa…!?" The wound on her waist had disappeared, but the memory she had when the bullet rip through her waist is still there. To Alice, she equates all kinds of pain as punishment she gets from her parents when she misbehaves. In this instance… it's not exactly wrong. But then again, Haruto was the idiot who entrusted his daughter to an untrustworthy stranger to begin with…

"This is why Papa doesn't want Alice to come here in the first place." Haruto immediately pat Alice to soothe her pain. "Papa didn't want Alice to feel that kind of pain."

"Papa… Alice is sorry… Alice is… sob…"

"Shush." Haruto immediately pulled the girl to an embrace. "There, there…" It was then Haruto also began to notice something weird… "Umm… Alice?" She pushed her back from the embrace just a bit so that he can get a better look at her. Is it just him… or did Alice just… shrank? No… She didn't just… shrank… she's… de-aged. Originally she was an exact replica of Saki's 15 to 16 year old… now she looked like 14 years old. Hence, Saki's clothes are now too big for her.

Haruto don't know whether to call this alarming or convenient. One thing for sure… this is neither the time nor the place to address this. "Okay. Alice, first… promise me… from here on out, you're going to listen to everything Papa says."

Alice nodded her head up and down furiously. Anything to never feel that sensation again.

"Good girl. Second, in case I'm not around, you listen to Aunt Marie. You know Aunt Marie, yeah?"

Again Alice nodded.

"Alright. Now let's go." To make up for his blunder, Haruto allowed her now much smaller daughter to sit on his shoulders. When they finally encountered Marie again, she was as surprised as Haruto. Now she's the same height with Alice. Together the three made their climb out of the hole. Most of the humans were as confused as they are when they saw how Alice shrunk, and even more unnerved over the mangled state of Haruto's pilot suit. But Haruto has no time for pleasantries. "Spike, blow up that hole. They're not using that entrance again."

"Right you are, brother! Grenades!" Spike unpinned two grenades before tossing them down into the abyss. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" A second later, the explosions had sealed the hole shut.

Haruto nodded in approval. "Delphi, what's the situation outside?"

"Insofar, no more droids are coming. But with the amount of noise you guys are making, I'd say you had less than half an hour at best."

Marie found the AI's voice strangely familiar.

"Alright. Spike, where's the location for the evacuation?"

"…hmm… Haruto, my man… I think we need to talk about this a bit more."

"?"

Spike brought Haruto to the locker room, which apparently had been repurposed to serve as a meeting room of sorts where most of the 'officers' of the resistance in this module convene.

"We've said this before Spike. That plan is suicide!"

"It was." Spike smiled wide. "But now we got him." He jerked his thumb to Haruto. "With his superbots, we can make it."

"Uhh… excuse me?" Haruto nervously raised his hand. "I still don't know what you guys are up to?"

"We've been planning not just to relocate… we're planning on actually leaving this whole module."

Haruto rolled his eyes. "Guys, if you're planning on actually leaving the module, first you need a starship… in which case I'd say no. Those Bremens will probably shoot you down within minutes you enter space, even with my escort."

"Brother, you nearly died just to get inside here! I wouldn't ask something like that." Spike grinned. "No. let me explain."

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"As I understand it, within the heart of any large scale construction, there exists what we call the primary fault line. You would know it as the Mechanical Line."

"Mechanical Line?" Raizo asked.

"During the early stages of a large scale construction like Dyson Sphere, it is necessary to move large amounts of logistics: building materials and personnel, all across different building sites." Cain patiently explained. "But during its early stages, transportation line between modules had yet to be fully established. Hence, before any module is constructed, it is imperative that a mechanical line was built first beneath it, to serve as its primary foundation. From there, the construction of a Module began, layer after layer, block by block. Now, let's imagine this mechanical line as the beating heart of a human body that is a module, it pump blood through veins, creating a network of interconnected passageways. As I understand it, you've entered one of those veins before."

The explanation was so simple, even Raizo gets it. The Maintenance shaft he entered. "But… well… I've been there… so did they…" He was referring to the Resistance militia. "Why won't they, the enemy, they can just… I don't know, seal it or blow it up to cut off all access? They did place a lot of droids down there."

"Ah-ah, you forget what I've said, Yamada Raizo." Cain smiled calmly. "The Mechanical Line is the foundation of any Module. To compromise it is to compromise the integrity of the Dyson Sphere itself. They can try to seal it… stuff it full of troops… maybe even booby trapped it chockfull of mines… but they will never do anything to compromise its integrity."

Meanwhile, X-Eins and A-Drei who watched the briefing form the sidelines blinked in amazement. Ever since his encounter with Yusuke, Cain seem to be acting with a newfound enthusiasm and relish they haven't seen since… since he discovered the talent that is L-Elf.

"I think I get it. That's our way around here without being noticed… not even by Rune Scanners?"

"Rune Scanner is a Radiation based scanner. It worked by bombarding the area with a saturation of a special harmless wave of radiation. And like any radiation, it can be blocked by using insulated areas. The Mechanical Line is buried deep enough underground, it's also lined with enough shielding, because it is also sometimes used to transport hazardous materials, like radioactive isotope. It was thick enough that the scanners of the Rune Scanner won't penetrate."

"They can put Rune Scanner in the tunnel, can they?"

"I believe they already did, but the many layers of insulators on the tunnel will scramble the signal from the Scanner. The wave from the scanner will bounce allover the place, rendering it effective on very short range. We can avoid detection if we're careful."

"So… we can get from one module to another using these mechanical lines?"

"Understandably, it won't be simple."

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"Mechanical Line was designed to primarily transport material, and the tunnel is virtually unpassable on foot. They had to use a large scale maglev hover train to move things around. We've managed to secure one, and been gathering supplies as we fix it. We've been planning to use it to move out of this module. We knew for certain there are other resistance forces out there, but we're too disjointed and separated by vast distances to be able to mount any significant resistance…"

"Still…" Haruto frowned. "Such passageway… you can bet your ass the enemy knows about it too… and they'll throw everything they got to defend it."

"That's it. That's the nail in the head, brother. The Maglev Hover Train was designed to help with constructions, so it's a tough nut to crack. We've weaponized it to a land battleship… trained on how to use it… but we are outnumbered a thousand to one, and in that confined spaces, we're sitting ducks. The sheer number of drones will crack us open before we get a First Down."

"We used Sonar scanner to count the number of hostiles… our first count was… somewhere around a quarter million or so?" One of the officers reported.

Haruto twitched at this lunacy. "250,000 drones!? And you're expecting me to kill them all?"

"No. We… We kinda hoped you can at least protect the Train as we made our way across. Most of them are rather small… cannon fodder long ears. The Train can plow through them. But… the big ones…"

"You've done this before?"

"We tested it. We sent in a single car, remote controlled. It managed to get to a fair amount of distance before the big ones came in and then it all get shot to hell."

"There's another way." Haruto immediately raised a finger. "We kill the Queen."

"The… Queen?"

Apparently the Resistance didn't know about the Queen system of this Mechanical swarm. "That's how we managed to slink past their defenses the first time. There's a… Queen. The High brain that controls all these drones. It's like a Hive, the Swarm answers to the Queen. We kill it, the drones will malfunction. Then we can get by easily." Haruto immediately continued: "The problem is… as we discovered, there's more than one queen. When one Queen fell, the command protocol of the Drones did shut down momentarily, but after which another Queen will immediately took over. To win, we have to destroy all the queens. Luckily for us… there can't be more than a handful of those Queens."

The officers nodded. Now they began to see a clearer picture on how to win this war. "So… we have to find the Queen of the Swarm in this module… and then those swarm on the tunnel will be rendered useless!"

"I don't think that's an option."

Suddenly, a digital voice chimed into the meeting, startling the officers. Haruto recognized it immediately as he held up his arm console. "Delphi? Why do you think so?"

Delphi appeared on Haruto's arm console as a voice only holographic projection. "Based on the intel gathered from Renbokuji Akira's finding, the Queens utilized WIRED as the channel in which they propagated their command and control over the Drone swarm. That's to say, the range of control of the Queen is actually quite vast, encompassing the entire Sphere."

"So what you're saying is that destroying a single Queen is useless. It'll do nothing to stop the drones?"

"Not so. The Grimm Drones are bleeding edge AI technology which require vast amount of data to be transferred between servers. Based on the data I've accumulated, a Queen Unit is indeed necessary to maintain army cohesion. I have performed a benchmark test on the drone performance pre and post the destruction of one Queen Unit. The result indicates a noteworthy decrease in the enemy's performance after the destruction of a Queen."

"So destroying all the Queens will indeed disable the drones… and win this war?"

"An obvious conclusion."

"But you just said it's not an option?"

"Elaboration: the plan to terminate the Queen in order to cripple enemy drones in this sector is not exactly a feasible plan… due to the absence of Queen in this sector. Analyzing the attack pattern on the drone army on the previous encounter, I project 95% chance of the Queen is not present in this module. As mentioned before, Queen utilize WIRED to expand its controls, therefore, the Queen is not limited to stay in one place in order to propagate its control over the Drone swarm."

"So what you're saying… is that the Queen is not on this module… but she can be anywhere in the whole sphere…"

"…and there can be more than one." If they didn't know this is an AI, they can imagine the person sneering.

"…so… we really have no way of leaving this module after all?"

"Negative. There's a way, Spike Springfield. A forced breakthrough using industrial grade construction hover train such as the one you have secured, escorted by a Valvrave might just be able to break through."

"W… Wait a minute; you're saying my plan might work?" Spike gawked.

"But didn't you just say it's not an option?" Haruto asked.

"What is not an option is the plan to destroy the Queen before marching through the mechanical line. That plan was not feasible because there's a 95% possibility that the Queen wasn't even here. But the plan to punch through the Mechanical Line with the Hover Train with Valvrave escort does have a 37% chance of success. It's well within the acceptable margin of a feasible plan."

"Why didn't you tell us that in the first place?"

"You didn't ask."

Everyone tripped face down. "O… Okay… so at least we know my plan is not as impossible as everyone thought. What say you all if we just get to it ASAP?"

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"First, there's about the procuring the Hover Train itself. This… I believe, our new allies can redress."

"Well… that's exactly how we managed to get here indeed." Alia explained. "But… back then we utilize the gap caused when you guys came charging. But… now that they're back… I'm pretty sure the security will be more than doubled."

"Well sneaking past those droids is not exactly an issue." X-Eins had studied the specs of these industrial grade train. With the armor that thick, these things are practically indestructible – that is if they're only dealing with the Dwarves and the Elves. "I think Magius can sneak past them undetected as well… But the problem is… if we carry the Valvrave along. Carrying one or two is one thing, but a whole dozen of them? Not to mention we have two high performance original units. There are more than enough runes in them for the Rune Scanners to detect their energy signature, and then they'll bring the bigger guns, and then there will be trouble."

"Pop Quiz. How would you reduce the rune signature of the Valvrave… without reducing them?" Cain suddenly asked with a smile.

"We split them apart." Before X-Eins can think, Yusuke entered the discussion. "All Valvraves and Kagerous had modular limbs – especially the Behemoth. The Rune level of a single Valvrave is high… but split them to multiple pieces and spread them thin… then maybe…"

"Correct, Yusuke Otamaya." Cain nodded. "How long would it take for you to dismantle all our Kagerous?"

"The Behemoth had almost finished repairs. But… it still going to take a while."

"But we've already shut down the Rune Scanner in this module. So for the moment at least, enemy will be blind to us." Ashra stated.

"Then I suggest we get started."

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Spike led Haruto on a trip to the nearby junkyard, where he revealed this massive hole – big enough for the Valvrave to actually go down there. "Usually the machine dumped compacted metal scrap OR junks too big to be pressed down here, where they were to be recycled." Spike, inside Haruto's cockpit, explained. "But the recycler's been broken for years. And when we went down there to scavenge something of use, we found this… derelict hover train. It's damaged and broken… but not unfixable. We've been working on it for months. Breaking down robots we managed to destroy and used their parts to fix her up. Over there." He pointed at a giant hole that was jammed by junks. Humans can slink past the seams of the junk just fine, but, a Valvrave… will have to cut its way in first.

The Valvrave flicked a finger, momentarily charged it up and use a single laser to cut through the blocking debris. The sliced off obstacles fell with a deafening clanging sound. "Subtle. Very subtle. I'm sure no one hears that." Delphi had to rub it in, much to the occupants' annoyance. After a short trip, the Valvrave finally arrived to its destination, the station where the Hover Train was located. At first, the arrival of this giant robot startled the guards posted there, but when they saw Spike hastily climbed out of the Valvrave's cockpit and smile, the guards immediately calmed down.

Haruto nearly fell on his back as his head bent up to the limit, trying to make out the sheer size of it all: the hover train and the station. The vehicle itself is easily three times taller than even his Valvrave. It's three cars long, including the main locomotive. They call it a train, but they don't run on wheels or tracks. Instead, the train had these maglev pods scattered allover the surface, lighting up with electricity jolting between the pads to the ground, keeping the whole vehicle aloft atop a superconductive field. Its more like a low altitude spaceship than a train. "How did you guys ever managed to hide something this big?"

"The same way we managed to refurbish it without anyone noticing: good, honest, patient effort. We kept it where we found it until we're ready to move it." Spike grinned. "We found this derelict thing when we were scavenging for supplies. We've been refurbishing it to working condition. Built to withstand deep ground operation, it's virtually indestructible."

"Not against cannon blast."

"That's where you come in, my man."

"Let me help." To the surprise of many, Marie suddenly joined in on the conversation as she contacted Haruto's Valvrave VIA her Kagerou. "A single Valvrave can't defend a train this big."

"That's a feasible option. With two Primate Engines, the chance of survival increase from 0.5% to 2.5%."

"…wait… what?" Haruto looked incredulously at Delphi. "2.5% chance of survival!? What are you talking about!? Didn't you say the plan was feasible!? With 37% chance of success!?"

"The plan does have a 37% chance of success. But with only a single Valvrave protecting it… your chance of surviving it is only 0.5%. 2.5% if Marie Nobi partakes in the operation."

"…" Sta~are…

"Ne… Haruto…" Marie can't hold it anymore. "This has been bugging me for a while… but… this AI… Delphi, you call him? Is it just me… or does he sounds a lot like…"

"L-Elf. Yeah. He is." Haruto confessed flatly. "Because Delphi is L-Elf. Or to be precise… a copy of his consciousness. Yashagarasu isn't just a normal familiar unit. Inside it is the mainframe core of an experimental Tactical AI. Pino had always been interested in human psyche, especially those so called 'Geniuses', wondering what made them tick. So…" This was when Pino called in L-Elf when she explained what Yashagarasu really is. A mainframe to what is essentially the most complex AI system in the world, with a copy of L-Elf's mind as a template… with some alteration of Pino's own designs.

"And L-Elf was okay with this?"

"He encouraged it. Remember, this was L-Elf before his breakdown. He understands its practical purposes, in case he was disabled, a backup is always a good idea, so back then he allowed Pino to make a copy of his consciousness."

"If this was supposed to be his 'backup', it's so much the worse."

"Pino didn't try to create an exact copy, but an artificial personality based on the original one, with all his mental capacity. So understandably… there will be bugs and gaps…" Haruto groaned. "It still needs a lot of work. But given the odds, we need all the edge we can get."

"No protest there." Marie nodded.

Spike began overseeing the evacuation. The survivors and the resistance lined up and slowly began to descend into the station, immediately joined by a pair of 22 meter tall mechanical giants. The Kagerou Hito is now piloted manually by Marie, and the Yashagarasu returned to Haruto's Valvrave… and one small change…

"Marie Nobi had brought one Forge Fist with her. I've taken the liberty of using it to fix the damaged Wing Power Claw. That should increase your survivability by 0,5%."

"…you know, L-Elf never calculate the odds. It's do or do not."

"My human template lacks the mechanical precision I'm capable of as a cybernetic program to produce his findings in exact quantitative form. But… if he could, AND if he's programmed to do so, he'd spare no effort to explain them to you. And… I'm also programmed to warn you… your rune level-"

"I'll manage." Haruto gritted his teeth.

"All aboard!" Spike already announced. The last of the refugees and the resistance now lined up to board into the train. Some spare a moment to look at the two giants looming overhead. The two mechanical giants they're entrusting with their lives to safeguard their trip.

The Valvrave stand guard and keep watch, but the Hito was ordered by the former to climb in the forward car's storage compartment, the most heavily armored part of the car. As the train began to lit up and hums with power, Haruto took his last chance to contact Marie.

"Marie. Alice. You two okay in front?"

"We're okay here." Marie nodded.

"Papa! Alice will be a good girl and listen to Aunt Marie!" Alice cheerfully declared before she giggled sweetly as Marie gave her a pat on her head. "Yosh, yosh. Good girl."

"Good. Remember, the Furutoga is a heavy weapon set. In space, no gravity, the weight won't bother you. But in here, it could affect your aim. So always direct your shot 1 cm above the reticule to offset the gravity. And with its spread, don't try to target a single unit, target the area, the Furutoga's rate of fire will spread the bullets and do the rest. Line the crosshairs. Squeeze the trigger. Don't pull."

"You can count on me."

And the communication was cut there. But Haruto would be lying if he said he wasn't worried.

"The chance of her survival-"

"I don't want to hear it. That's my friend and daughter there. Monitor her conditions. If she's even ten steps away from Hell's gate I want you to warn me. I'll drag her out of there myself."

"Understood." Suddenly, Haruto's console starts blaring warning signs. "Tokishima Haruto, I'm detecting multiple hostiles converging on our location. They've detected the Hover Train's power signature. They'll be here before the resistance finished boarding."

"Not if I have anything to say about it. SPIKE! You need to hurry up! They're coming!" The Valvrave stepped forth.

"SON OF A… OKAY PEOPLE! MOVE IT! DOUBLE TIME!" Spike shouted to the crowd, which quickly went into momentary panic before everyone desperately tried to board the train ahead of everyone else. Spike and his teammates were hard pressed to maintain order.

"They're coming from the same way you came in!"

The Valvrave immediately retrace his steps and sure enough, a swarm of Aelves poured in from the entrance, crawling allover the place like a swarm of ants spilling out of their nest. Haruto roared as he locked on as many as he can. All 15 power claw fingers lit and unleashed a barrage of lasers, cutting a swath of destruction, intense enough to hold the swarm at bay. But… there were… so many of them. Too many for 15 fingers of death to take out.

Haruto gritted his teeth… as he then remembered his final training session with Ashra.

0000000

Haruto displayed his final complete mastery of Ashra's signature technique by launching a barrage of lasers from all his five fingers to take out 5 erratically moving targets at the same time. But then, Jeay and Rasa launched more and more projectiles. Haruto had to use all ten fingers, and he easily shot them all down until the two ran out of ammunition.

As was her style, if the stern Magius was impressed, she did a very good job of not showing it. She merely nodded flatly.

"What's next?" Haruto asked.

"Next?" Ashra raised an eyebrow. "There's no next. The training is over. You've already mastered my best technique, and the basic tenets of manipulating rune. There's nothing left for me to teach you."

"Uh… eh?"

"Don't be so spoiled. It's time for you to step out on your own, Tokishima Haruto. To me, the laser technique is the pinnacle of my achievement. But, if what you say is true of the merit of learning things the slow and hard way, then perhaps there's more for you to discover."

Haruto winced back. In her own way, Ashra has acknowledged Haruto as a fully mature Magius, ready to set out on his own. She had laid down a foundation. Now he must find his own style. "I understand."

Ashra merely nodded and was about to leave for good… but before she do so, she decided to give her apprentice one last advice: "Rune is, by far, the most versatile energy substance in the universe. It can take on any form: gas, liquid, or even solid. That is to say, the only limit of its use is your imagination. But think about this: when you already have a powerful offensive tool, sometimes it is wise to… take a step back and look at the technique on another angle. And something new might appear from there."

"Something new…"

0000000

Lasers. Just point and shoot. Is that all it can be?

"Delphi, hold them off for a few seconds."

The Yashagarasu detached and began firing at the swarm for all the good twin Volc Arms rifle is doing them against thousands and thousands of droids. The L-Elf cyber clone also took control of the Valvrave's wing claws to barrage the droids with lasers. Meanwhile, the Valvrave clenched its fingers together as runes began to build on its finger tip. Strands of rune lasers interconnected his ten fingers, like strings forming a tight knit pattern. "Okay… let's see you guys like this. DELPHI, GET BACK!"

The Raven quickly flew behind its master as Haruto launched a single mass of runes that immediately spreads into multiple smaller strands of lasers. The lasers crisscrossed, creating a net of intricate pattern. What's more, the laser sticks to the tunnel surface, forming an advancing wave of laser net that reduce everything it passes into dice cuts. And there it stays: a literal wall of laser web.

"Not bad, Tokishima Haruto. This display of ability had updated your skill level. You now have 4.5% chance of survival."

Haruto sighed in exasperation. Just add this to the pile of complaints he had to file to Pino about the AI. If he survives.

The Droids initially throw themselves with abandon against the laser wall… before they finally realized it's not a good idea and they stopped. For a moment. And they waited, much to Haruto's relief. "Well… that worked quite well." Until suddenly, like a spent light bulb, the laser net flickered and disappeared.

"Oh…" And the Valvrave immediately went back to blasting. "It needs a lot of work. Like you. SPIKE! YOU BETTER GET READY TO MOVE!"

"Haruto, my man! We got a problem!"

"WHAT?"

"They're breaching in from this side!" Spike shouted into his com as opened fire to the roof, where the Aelves had begun pouring in through the maintenance hatch.

"Have you finished boarding?"

"Most of us, yeah."

"Then go, go, go! I'll catch up!"

With the droids start falling from the sky, Spike had no choice but to agree. "GET IN! GET IN! EVERYONE! DANNY! ROLL OUT! WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE!"

The train start moving as Spike and his teams board it as they maintain fire. The Drones were already start marching towards them while returning fire by the dozens, soon to be hundred. Spike barely missed a shot before the doors finally closed and the train departed the overrun station. The driver immediately pushed the throttle to the max, and in a blink of an eye, the maglev train dashed out of view at hundreds of miles per hour, breaking the sound barrier upon launch and blasting away the droids with the shockwave of its departure. No sooner than that happened, the droids were immediately wiped out by a wave of lasers from the recently arrived Valvrave. But more and more kept pouring in. "Delphi, we have to blow this place up."

"This place should withstand a 10 megaton nuclear blast."

"That's comforting." Once again, the Valvrave began to generate another mass of runes from its main fingers, shaping it into something different. At first, the lasers erupted from each finger were concentrated into a single point. Just a single point. Haruto took the time of actually concentrating. He really needs to get this right. After a while, the converged energy finally coalesced into a small revolving sphere of runes. "Okay… that's it…"

"Tokishima Haruto, this is not the proper time to experiment on something new!"

"This isn't exactly new, there's precedence when I blew off my arm…" During training, Haruto blew up his arm so many times because he compressed his runes too much or because he made the rune armor to thick… or too fragile. It'll be stupid if he didn't learn something from it. Meanwhile, Delphi managed the wing power claws to continue their barrage to every direction, buying some time for Haruto to finish his experiment.

The Valvrave poured more energy into the sphere… and then it enlarged… but it also grew somewhat unstable. Rampant energy began to burst out of torn seams of the bubble that kept all that volatile energy condensed in that sphere. That's when Haruto knew his work is done. "Okay." He added one last layer of protection… and then he let it go. The ball of unstable energy sphere just float there, constantly revolving… and grew increasingly unstable by the second as more energy leaking out. It's a time bomb.

Meanwhile, the drones are pouring in by the hundreds now. But they completely ignored the rune energy sphere floating in the air. "Okay, time to go. Where's the train!?"

"Travelling stably at 550 km/hour ahead of us. I'm putting all energy on thrusters and put it on semi-automatic mode. With that, we should catch up in 10 minutes – assuming nothing bars our way."

The Valvrave floated into the tunnel and his wings unfurled its petals and the energy began to build allover its body. Once it reached its peak, the Valvrave immediately zoomed into the tunnel with the kickback blast away hundreds of the droids behind him.

At the same time, the energy sphere Haruto left behind finally reached its critical point as the energy contained within its small form had breached one layer of shielding too many… the unstable energy collapsed on itself.

The explosion shook the whole module. The drones were still pouring into the hatches when the metallic ground instantly glow red before it erupted in fiery explosion that pierced all the way to the sky. The drones weren't just melted, they were instantly vaporized. It was such force that the ground above the ground zero explosion was cracked, and the buildings atop it collapsed and swallowed into the crevices if not outright crumbled.

The Valvrave also felt the explosion. And Haruto was glad the train had left ahead of him. As fast as he was, Haruto can actually see the fiery wave of explosion is rushing right behind him. The good news is, blast walls of the mechanical line tunnel holds. The bad news is, it means the entirety of the blast is funneled into this narrow hole. The flares are even reaching for his legs. He's not gonna make it. The explosion is just too fast.

"Activate Impact Hoppers!"

Of the new familiar set Haruto had brought, one of them was a familiar dedicated to his wife's Valvrave. The engineering boys took to call it the Impact Hoppers. It took the appearance of a black and green mechanical spider, with eight spidery legs. Upon activation, it crawled out from its perching spot across the Valvrave's body. Midway, it split on its midsections into two separate but identical halves, each with two pairs of skittering legs. Each crawled to the sole of the Valvrave's foot and immediately attached themselves there. The main body 'shoed' the Valvrave's foot, and two legs folded to become a forward sole; the other pair become a rear forked heel. It add the Valvrave's height by at least a meter. It's a miniaturized version of Carmilla's Multi Leg Propulsion system. And its effect is immediate.

"Activating additional boosters."

The Impact Hopper briefly gathered energy before unleashing a burst of propelling energy that left a halo around its wake. The Valvrave's speed instantly magnified to the point its figure blurred to a red flash of light, and even Haruto's back was hard pressed against his seat as he felt as if a wall is pressing him from the front. He just got a taste, a small taste, of what driving his wife's Valvrave feels like. "HOOOOLYYY SHIIIIT!" Several sound barriers were immediately broken and the wave of explosions were left far, far behind.

But then after a minute of super high speed that felt like one hour in a pressing machine, the Valvrave finally stopped. And yet Haruto can still see that light closing in fast from behind him. "Delphi, what-?"

"We're overheated." The monitor showed they're at max 100 of 100.

"Reactivate the boosters! I don't care if we're overheated-"

"This isn't about your willpower. The heat is compromising fuselage integrity. Continuing as you are, we'll reach the train as a molten slag."

"The explosion is-"

"Not a concern anymore."

When Haruto looked back, the explosion is right in front of his face. Their flares are just centimeters away… before they finally died down and receded back with their momentum finally spent. The flames had reduced it to just cinders, leaving a trail of charred earth behind it.

But more importantly to Haruto, the Mechanical Line holds. The Module is not in danger of collapsing. Haruto allowed himself a sigh of relief. 'Thank God I didn't miscalculate the strength of that bomb…'

"The power of a 10 megaton nuclear bomb is something that is beyond your capability at your current power level, Tokishima Haruto. Point in fact, this explosive power is only possible because it was concentrated within this confined space."

"…did Pino install a Mind Reader on you or something?"

"Your display of relief made your line of thought obviously simple to deduce, Tokishima Haruto. It doesn't take a genius of my human template to figure that out."

"I'm so going to hand you over to Pino so that she can remodel that personality of yours." Haruto groaned.

"If you don't like my personality, why did you approve using the subject L-Elf as my human template?"

"Lord knows." Haruto groaned. "Is the train alright?"

"The shieldings on the mechanical line are interfering with my sensors. I can still pick up their trail, but it's getting increasingly harder to do so. Fortunately, this mechanical Line is a straight line so far. If we cooled down and then reignite our boosters, and with the aid of the Impact Hopper, we should be able to make visual contact in ETA 5 minutes and 23 seconds."

"How long does it take for us to cool down?"

"I've already began the cooling down process when we stopped. ETA to operable temperature, 1 minute and 45 seconds." True enough, Haruto can see his heat gauge began to drop… albeit in a seemingly very slow pace. "In the mean time, may I suggest you began thinking of a more efficient use of your dwindling rune level?"

"What do you mean?"

"Throughout this latest skirmish, you have shown remarkable alternative use of your rune abilities beyond the laser technique. But neither the laser wall nor the bomb is efficient use of your powers. The former even less so than the latter. Then again, you were hard pressed by the situation at hand, which is not exactly a conducive environment for creativity. But now that we have a moment for yourselves… I suggest you refine those techniques or figure out a new one that is actually useful."

"…" Haruto just stare blankly…

"…what?"

"So you CAN be not so annoying when you want to."

"I do not comprehend."

"Good for you." And so, as he while away the time, Haruto decided to cross his legs in a meditation stance and took a deep breath and closed his eyes, just like how Ashra taught him.

00000000000000

"What happened up there?" Yusuke finally can't stand it anymore and asked Cain. "Haruto was supposed to be here as well. What happened? Why did he gone off course?"

Cain knew it's best to tell them now rather than later. "Truth be told, it seems we have a… unexpected stowaway."

"Hostile intruder?"

"No. An unchanged Kin of his, named Marie Nobi… and the adopted Harvester."

Yusuke was as confused as he can get. "And what are they doing here?"

"I can have a wild guess for that stray harvester, but as for Marie Nobi… As her classmate I'm hoping you can give me some insight about it."

"Well that's a problem. In class she was always the quiet one. The closest to her is… Haruto and Shoko. But I can tell you this… she's not the type of girl who would do something like this just for the heck of it. There must be a reason!"

"I see…" From just those few words, Cain gained some insight on what had transpired… 'But… not enough. I'm missing something…'

"Wait a second! There's something else!" Raizo suddenly jumped in. "Haruto aniki! What about him?"

Cain's thoughtful expression calmly turned to a confident smile. "I… wouldn't worry about him. More than any of you, Tokishima Haruto had progressed down the path much further. Biologically, and mentally, he's already a fully mature Eldar Magius. He can take care of himself." Cain nodded. "Point in fact, I'd say he'd fare a lot better than you are in the foreseeable future." He glanced at Raizo in particular. "From what I see… the both you had just awakened to your secondary nature of a Volfrans Magius. And this is a problem, because you guys are utilizing such enormous power with a discipline of a drunk five year old."

"What? Now listen, we destroyed the enemy with it, and the module is still standing!"

"Yes. But you also make sure nothing will grow here for the next… 2 to 3 centuries or so." Cain jerked his thumb at the charred wasteland that is the Behemoth's handiwork.

"WHAT!?" As a co-owner of this particular farm, Akari was understandably distressed.

"The problem is the accelerated aging that Pino spoke of had made your Magius nature grew up too fast." Cain frowned. "Normal Magius maturity life cycle would usually develop their secondary trait in… 4 to 5 centuries – At which point a Magius knew well enough to control their powers while not under the mercy of their temper tantrum. You guys are doing it in… 4 to 5 months? And you guys are like… what? 16? 17?"

"Says the guy who brought up an army of child soldiers." Raizo argued as he motioned the Karstein boys.

"Guilty as charged, they are child soldiers. But that's the point. They were specially trained from childhood to be soldiers. To know no fear. To feel little to no emotion. Forged in special military bootcamp to turn them into the ultimate killing machine. Where did you guys trained again? In a school lab? In a gym? In a… farm?" Cain glared at Yusuke, Raizo and a frowning Akari in turn. "Ashra had taught you as much as she was able in this limited time… but your training is not complete. Of course, they say experience is the best teacher, but at this rate, the tuition for this 'learning on the job' method will be the very thing you boys wish to prevent."

Yusuke and Raizo were stumped in that instant by the epiphany of Cain's words, now fully realizing the issue. It had been a near thing with the Goldilocks. The fight between the two Valvraves had spent no small amount of runes from either side. Both sides were spent. That's the only reason their Jibaku attack 'only' caused this much damage. Had their rune levels were at its peak…

Seeing their stunted silence, Cain realized the children now realized that they are indeed, still only children… who just got away from playing with a loaded gun. And children must be taught the dangers of such activity. "Volfrans magius secondary trait. The Quickening. Now if we are to put it roughly… it makes anything to explode several magnitudes louder and stronger than normal. But that's not what it was, right Yusuke Otamaya?"

"No, it wasn't." Yusuke nodded. "Quickening only brings out what really was there to full potential. Things go boom because they just can't stomach it."

"Precisely. So… what does that mean?"

"…we need a tougher machine?"

"You already have a Valvrave, an original unit. That's about the toughest as it can get in this universe." Cain motioned the Behemoth which, despite everything that has happened to it, is still in one piece… until one of the Titan Fist rips its arm off. The same thing that happened to all Kagerous. They're being dismantled limb by limb, and the resistance, under instructions from X-Eins and A-Drei, disguised each limb inside special containers.

"…you mean it's… measurable?" Yusuke finally picked on. "Quickening draws out the full potential of an energy source, but… there are limits to that potential? And because there are limits… it's measurable. And because it's measurable… it's controllable."

"Full points, Yusuke Otamaya. Yes. That is precisely my point. Now, how to control them. That's the issue here." By this point, Yusuke and Raizo had stopped whatever it is they're doing and pay full attention to Cain. "Seeing that you're human, control of your emotion is key. Learning from the example of your fallen friend, Renbokuji Satomi, emotion can either make or break your powers."

Unlike the other two awakened Novus Magius, the still unawakened Akari didn't listen much more beyond that. Yeah, sure. Logic wise, Cain Dressel, or Attlach, or whatever the hell his name is, he IS one of the oldest Magius alive. If one equate age with knowledge, and in Magius case knowledge equates powers, literally, then Cain is easily one of the most powerful Magius they have. What's more, he spent centuries living as a human. He understands the intricacies between Human and Magius biological connection better than anyone, even more so than Pino. And his human body was said to be some big shot hero of Dorssia. Oh, and he's also L-elf's teacher. L-Elf. That super soldier who was likened to a one man army, and this guy is his MENTOR.

But after that little brief speech of how he trained the Karstein boys, she's more concerned than impressed. She'd imagine Yusuke and Raizo were hardly impressed as well, but pragmatism won out over their own personal preferences, hence they listened. But Akari simply uninterested. Using the care of her Hikaminari Kagerou as an excuse, she left immediately. As luck would have it, X-Eins were managing the dismantlement of her Kagerou.

That's when Akari noticed it. Whilst keeping one eye on the pad controlling the Forge Fist dismantling her Kagerou, he glanced every now and then towards Cain's figure. His brows knitted, and his cheek was strained. If he wasn't such a stoic person, Akari imagined he's puffing his cheek. A mirthful smile found itself unto her lips. "Hey."

"! Yes?" He kept his voice level, but she can tell she caught him off guard.

"That one goes the other way." Akari pointed on the right arm X-Eins seem have difficulty in detaching. For a moment, he was so flustered, he didn't seem to know what exactly she's talking about.

Akari chuckled giddily. Then she took the Pad from X-Eins and tapped a few times on the surface. Receiving the new instructions, the Fist's fingers successfully detached said arm. Akari gave him a smile. "That's how it's done."

"Ah. I see. Thank you, Lady."

"It's Akari." Akari returned the pad to X-Eins. "I never was much of a lady."

"Hm." X-Eins immediately returned back to the pad. As if trying to ignore her.

Too little too late for that. "What was he like? As a teacher, that Cain fellow?"

"COLONEL Cain." X-Eins gave her a look. "…and if you want to know what he's like as a teacher, he's right there right now, teaching. I've seen people kill for the honor."

Akari immediately amend herself. "Right. Colonel Cain. From what I hear, he's quite the Hero. But, believe it or not, I'm more interested in what he taught you."

"…" X-Eins kept his attention to the pad. Akari began to doubt she'll get some response until suddenly. "He… mentored us all. We were… trained in the Karstein academy. In there… he taught us to always be self sufficient. Independent. No one is our ally, no one is going to help us, not even our teammates. We're… alone."

Akari expression just went blank with dislike. "That sounds a very harsh battlefield."

"But he was right. Don't ask other people to watch your back, he always said. You have to watch your own."

"I don't know about that. As far as I know, humans have yet to grow another pair of eyes at the back of their heads. Watching our own backs without someone else's help would be… difficult I think."

"…?"

"Or you can carry around a rearview mirror so that you can always look at your back… but isn't that a little too impractical?"

"…are you… trying to make fun of Colonel?" Somehow though, he can imagine H-Neun laughing in the background if he had listened to this. That's the only reason he didn't explode in fury as he usually would.

"No. I'm making fun of you. Oh, that one goes over here." This time, X-Eins had difficulty disassembling her Kagerou's legs.

00000000000000

The Grav Train was speeding through the mechanical line without any obstacles. The explosion caused by Haruto a little a while ago did surprise them, but by that point, they've made enough distance the explosion won't reach. But as the resistance finally reached a certain distance, they slowed down.

The Kagerou Hito at the front car immediately steadied herself. The giant mech curled inside the storage compartment of the front car, ready to spring out when needed… hopefully there will be no need.

"Alright. From here on out, we have to take it slow." At the driver car, Spike spoke to the radio, where Marie was listening. "From what we learned, sonar indicated this section had over 20,000 of those pointy eared tincans.

"Won't they see us coming?"

"I think they're programmed to ignore grav trains. After all, that's how they've been moving troops and other heavy equipments. But… if a Grav Train began behaving beyond ordinary… like… moving faster than allowed like we're trying to run away or…"

Marie frowned. "How do you know so much about this?"

"They were trying to kill us for months. We have to learn how to fight them. There are those long ears in this tunnel that has been geared with special sensors that can also detect radio signals and loud sounds…"

"Loud sounds? Aren't this train pretty loud?"

"The train was driven by drones. This train was also driven by drones before we made it crash. But now, we manually control this thing. And there's possible human error, the machines will focus on that. Machines don't make many mistakes like grazing the floor or the ceiling…"

"I see… okay. Alice, you have to be quiet. Don't make a sound. Can you do that?"

"Hai! Hai!"

"Quiet! From here on out, we have to go radio silence."

The electromagnetic pod that was glowing brightly now began to dim and darken, signifying its lowering output. Consequently, the mag train's altitude also decreases. The train is now floating dangerously close to the surface of the tunnel, which was covered with multitudes of jutting spires of machinery as it moves slowly… very slowly.

"Easy… does… the trick… easy… does… the… trick…"

And then, they see them. Striding across the tunnel surface, a whole swarm of Aelves. Hundreds. Thousands. They practically blanketed the whole way forward. There's no way around them. Everyone literally held their breath as the train moved straight towards the swarm. And then, slowly, the swarm part ways to make way for the train to pass. So far, so good…

The train moved slowly until they finally right in the heart of the swarm. Their way back was closed once they passed as the swarm moved back in. "Slowly… slowly… slowly… slo-"

SCRRAAAAAATCHH!

One of the pods was a tad too low and struck a jutting spire. In an instant, thousands of Aelves turned their eyes towards the train with suspicion. In an instant, a trillion possibilities were made in their interconnected cybernetic mind, all of which was deleted by the millions in a series of trial and error process that last in less than a second, producing one conclusion:

Intruder alert.

"RUUUUUUUNN!"

The Grav Train immediately throttled to full speed. In an instant, hundreds of Aelves were left a flattened wreck. But thousands more poured in to bar their way. The gigantic and virtually indestructible train can plow through them without problem, but there are thousands of them. And now thousands more are pouring in – some even managed to latch on their train and start crawling allover their speeding vehicle. They have no choice but to fight their way through it. "ALRIGHT! EVERYBODY TO YOUR STATIONS!" Originally, the Train was mounted with construction equipments such as Cranes, soldering manipulator arms, and etc. But the resistance had managed to replace some of them with gun turrets from salvaged wrecks. "FIREE!"

The gun turrets start firing to every direction, destroying as many drones as possible.

"Let me help!" Marie offered. But Spike immediately rejected the offer.

"NO! You're our trump card! Save it for later!"

And indeed, even the scrap made heavy weapons put together by the resistance seems more than enough to weather the Aelves… at the very least, it's enough to hold the small fries back at a distance. The sheer durability of their speeding train will do the job for the droids at the front, no matter how many hurling themselves unto the runaway train's path. But that was just the weaker 'naked' variant. The clothed, smarter variant knew well enough to steer clear from the charging train, and they start firing from the distance, and more importantly, they start bringing out proper reinforcements.

Far up front, on other parts of the tunnel, several Dvergrs popped out of the tunnels, answering the call. They quickly zoomed through the Aelf invested tunnels and headed straight towards this intruder. Fortunately, their coming is not unanticipated.

"Motion sensor detected HUGE objects coming our way." Spike talked to the coms. "Okay, lassie. Your turn's up!"

"Alice, hold on. This is gonna get bumpy!" Marie swallowed a gulp.

"Hai!"

The hatch to the front car's storage compartment opened up and the Kagerou Hito sprang out with its giant rifle and start firing as soon as the first Dvergr rear its head. Green rune bullets the size of a man's head sprayed out of the barrel, peppering everything landed on its crosshairs full of holes.

"Concentrate on the big ones, lassie. Leave the smaller ones to us!"

But then, amidst the battle, Marie suddenly noticed something else. Namely, the familiarity of it all: the recoil of the Vurutoga, the aligning of the crosshairs, even the proper tendency to NOT hold the trigger for far too long in order to retain accuracy – firing short burst to maintain the balance between accuracy and the rate of fire is key. 'W… where did I learn all this?' Marie's mind had no recollection whatsoever of ever attending any one of L-Elf or A-Drei's classes… but… her body remembers. This is the muscle memory of someone who had utilized a tool so many times that it's virtually the extension of oneself. 'But… when…? How?' Indeed, alone it maybe, Kagerou's resistance are surprisingly efficient, and as expected, reaped a remarkably high tally of victims. The bullet spread are focused and directed, with little to no miss. Entire squadrons of Dvergr were severely damaged by the first volley, and the second immediately finished them off. She even take potshots using the Variable Vulcan to distract the enemy into her line of fire.

Spike whistled in awe. "Wow. The lassie ain't half bad…" As mentioned before, when they only get 2 out of 14, they weren't shit out of luck. They get the best two of the bunch.

More Dvergr are pouring in to replace the fallen ones. But they've recognized an abnormally powerful Mass Production Model Kagerou mounting a surprisingly tough defense. Several Dvergr managed to get through the barrage. But Marie remained calm and maintained fire. The first Dvergr was ripped to shreds. The second one approaches, but Marie horizontally swing the whole Vurutoga like a giant blade, using its bayonets to bisect the spherical droid in half. The last one approach before Marie can recover from her swing, but she calmly transferred her accumulated heat to the Impact Booster and welcomed the charging Dvergr with a well timed punch that sent it flying as a molten mass. Marie had calmly, and expertly, took down three charging Dvergr without a scratch and was even ready to deal with more. And she didn't even bat an eye. Her skill level is already well above and beyond first time users.

'There's… no mistaking it this time… I've been inside a Valvrave before. And not just once or twice…' As her composure builds, so does her confidence. Her rate of fire increases, so do the number of casualties. If before one or two Dvergr managed to slip through, now not one of them managed to get as far as 10 feet from the train, not even when they charge in by the dozen.

But now that the enemy realizes their current threat response is not enough to suppress the surprisingly high level of resistance, and so they decided to bring out bigger guns. The Dvergr sent a signal for more reinforcements. And this time, some distance behind the train, the swarm parted to make way for several Hunters popping out of the intersections from other tunnels to join the chase on this tunnel. And unlike the Dvergr, they're fast enough that they were able to catch up the speeding train from behind with ease.

"Umm, lassie… we got a problem! We have some of those Fighter jets coming at us from behind!"

"Agh!" Marie immediately redirected her fire to the rear. But the Hunter is much more nimble than the Dvergrs. Marie had a hard time landing a clear shot, not to mention the angle in which she's firing. Worse, the fighters also began to return fire. Several of the Train's turrets were destroyed, to the misfortune of the people inside. The explosion reached the ammo belt, triggering a premature explosion. Several of the occupants were killed by the ricocheting bullets. "Shit! Activate bulkheads! Keep the refugees in the container area away from armory! Seal us in!" Spike roared from his gunner seat even as stray bullets are flying over his head.

Inside the train, the non combatant refugees are curling down in fear. They can't see it, but the quaking horrors of battle out there reached them just the same.

Meanwhile, as Marie concentrate fire on the rear, the forward interceptors can now closed in. Several Dvergrs managed to close in and rammed themselves against the Kagerou. Marie roared as she start bashing left and right, ripping the Dvergr apart with her two claws. But with the support fire from the Kagerou being cut off, the Hunter fighters can now close in. One of them plow through the futile fire from the train's turret into point blank range before turning into its humanoid form. "Oh no…" It raised its axe, ready to hack into them, and there's nothing they can do about it.

A signature laser beam suddenly shot through the Hunter from the back. Suddenly, a rain of smaller lasers rain down from behind, and the swarm of Aelves were immediately wiped out by the hundreds. Bursting out of the wall of explosions was the Valvrave charging at full speed, unleashing wave after wave of laser barrage that wiped out the drones in full swing.

"YES!" No one was happier than Spike as he punched his fists to the sky. "YES!"

"Sorry I'm late!" As soon as he cooled down, Haruto maxed out his throttle. The Impact Hoppers pushed his Valvrave's integrity to the limits, he could even hear its joints groaning under the strain. But he's awfully glad he did. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" the wing mounted power claws charged and fired their lasers. But unlike the usual lasers, this one had its output and shape modified. Instead of firing a thick stream of energy, it only fired a burst of energy as thin as a thread. Instead of firing a single stream, it was split into innumerable number of laser strands per finger. Barely strong enough to scratch the armor plating of the heavy duty train, but more than enough to rip apart the lightly armored Aelves. With hundreds of strands of beams spraying out of the Valvrave, thousands of Aelves were wiped out in a blink of an eye, but the damage on the tunnel was virtually cosmetic. This is the answer Haruto come up with after that long patient meditation during the cooldown period.

The Hunter immediately turned their attention to the more major threat. In response, Haruto immediately brought out the Blackrose. The Hunter brought up its axe guns just as the giant two pronged blade landed. It managed to barely block the overhead slash. But just as it struggled to push it back, Haruto had taken action. Ashra's laser beam attack is incredibly effective and efficient in piercing through solid fortifications. It is both its strength and its weakness. One mishit and he might destroy the train. So, he had altered it into that spray laser attack… vastly weaker, but more effective against large mass of enemies… but what if he still need piercing power in this danger close situation? This is his solution. The Yashagarsu powerclaw charged in energy before firing a laser… but the laser stopped midway at a short distance, and even solidified into a sharp form. A beam saber.

The concept had existed in Jin's Kakaiju's V-Swordkill equipment – the beam sword of its kind. But… what need of Haruto of a technological tool to do what he can do with nothing but his mind and imagination? The Valvrave swipe the Blackrose to the side to break open the Hunter's guard. Before it can react, the Valvrave smashed his laser blade straight to its chest. Leaving the Hunter's molten carcasses behind, Haruto quickly chased after the speeding train. Its surface was covered by swarms of drones. 'Okay… carefully now…' The Valvrave fired a pinpoint spray of lasers across the surface of the Train. It destroyed most of the drones but left nothing but scratches on the train.

"Whoo! Haruto, my man! You've saved us!"

"Wait. Where's Marie-? Huh?"

Haruto's question was answered when he witness an unbelievable sight.

The Hito Kagerou stabbed a Dvergr down with her Vurutoga. And then, relying on her two fists, she punched every Dvergr in range. Capturing one Dvergr in her grasp, she momentarily used the hapless drone as bashing instrument before she hurled it accurately into a mass of Dvergr just as it explode. It didn't damage any of the enemy per se, but it blinded their sensors. The Hito immediately grabbed her Vurutoga and opened fire, completely wiping them all out in a single volley. Apart from the scratched paintjob, her Kagerou was virtually unharmed.

"W… what?" Haruto blinked.

"Based on the newest data, I assess her combat skills is probably on par with you."

"That lassie of yours is amazing… that… is until we got our butt stabbed from behind."

"Marie, are you alright!?"

"I'm fine." Marie answered back. "But there's a lot of them!"

Haruto decided to reserve his questions for later. "Marie… take care of the front. I'll handle the rear."

"Got it!"

"We still got a long ways to go, ladies and gentlemen." Spike tightened his grip on his gun control. "So keep your eyes peeled."

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This was an epiphany I gained from the previous chapters. It would be very interesting if each of the Valvarve's super attack is to be based on some form of ritual suicide. The Valvrave already have the Harakiri. The Behemoth gets the Jibaku. I'm looking for inputs for the remaining units – bar the Carmilla – because we already know her super move and its non negotiable. She's probably intended to be Kamikaze. Just need to figure out how it's going to work for the rest.

Any ideas?