The world was spinning for a while.

But when Marie finally came too, she noticed it was the sound of her heart, beating… she cater around a few hundred mile a minute, thumping so loud, it knock her out of stupor. That and this headache splitting her temple…

The first thing she asked to no one in particular was…

"…how did I get here, again?"

The situation: everything's on fire. A blasted wasteland of destruction and ruination as far as the eye can see. A battlefield.

She's still in the cockpit of her Kagerou, so she couldn't feel the radiating heat, but she's sweating like mad. Around less than half of her monitors are in static, so apparently half her camera was gone but she can still see forward… and saw her. Rising from the rubble and finished recollecting herself to return her gaze…

"Oh… right." Like a rush of cold splash of water down her face… every event that led down to this moment came flooding in.

The Kagerou, now missing an eye to a terrible slash to her face, is still standing as the Sense nerve lit up once again. "Now I remember." Its power hums forth once again as the Primate Engine took her stance. Bending his knee, she placed the Blackrose Nodachi back into its twin pronged sheath held in her left hand until that tell tale click. The Kagerou curled down, lowering her chest as low as she could to the ground, both legs curled by the knee at an angle. Its waist twisted until her chest face to the side to add momentum for this crucial backswing. Through it all, the lesser Valvrave never removed her sight from the enemy. This is not surrender… her hand is still on the handle of the katana in preparation to unsheathe it again to strike the enemy as she charged forth in one fluid motion. The Kagerou is curled up to gather strength, winding up before it unleashed that one stroke to end it all.

Her adversary looked at her, acknowledging what she's about to do with a nod. She too readied her weapon: a katana which, in contrast to Blackrose Red glow, is crystalline blue. It looked like a traditional katana, but supersized to proportionally match its massive wielder. On her side, she also bear a proper katana sheath supported by a manipulator arm. And like her, she also sheathed back her weapon into the sheath… before she too bend her knees and curled down in preparation, twisting the waist until its chest face to the side, katana's handle in hand, ready to whip, mirroring her opponent.

Silence.

The two suddenly entered their own world, not caring on anything happened around them… not even caring of another battle occurring elsewhere…

Stillness…

They didn't even seem to hear anything… until… one small tiny ember floated in right in-between them, right in their field of vision…

…the ember breaks…

The stillness breaks, and all hell was loosed… everything was a blur, everything was unclear, immaterial, unseen, reality bends, the two titans immaterialized from this world into their own, though it lasted in just a fraction of an instant. Accompanied by the sharp ringing of steel… echoing mightily across the distance… they reappeared unto the world…

Stillness once again…

The Kagerou is now standing where the enemy had stood, and vice versa, with their backs facing each other. In the time it took for a second to pass, they had switched places... and their form has changed.

They started, locked in a state of ones who were about to initiate the move, facing each other face to face, and now, it ended, as it must, into the ones who had completed it with their backs showing against each other, Blades outstretched out of their respective sheaths. In the space between seconds, the stroke has been unleashed…

The ground cracks, a halo of cloud had erupted to mark the spot where the two titans had clashed… its center points the occurrence right in the middle of the two titans…

Everything was still… for but a moment.

And suddenly Nature realized the laws of nature must be obeyed and followed swiftly by a shockwave that dispersed the cloud and blew away the fire from the surroundings in a powerful wind and a late coming sonic boom that shattered every window and even leveled any flimsy buildings caught in the shockwave…

And through it all, the two Primate Engines stood statuesque, their final stance unaffected by the phenomenon they've caused and was worthy of immortalization in paintings or statues. Two warriors who had unleashed the mighty stroke of fate.

No outside onlookers would know the victor of this clash but the participants of the dance…

Chapter 18

Hunter and the Hunted

Part 1

Roughly 72 hours ago…

It's been roughly a week since Haruto and Marie settled in the Resistance Base of Module 217. And in that one week, Haruto had made good of his promise, single handedly launching raid after raid upon multiple Arus bases across the Dyson Sphere VIA the Mechanical Line. Supply run. Base takedown. Rescue operation. Hit and run. Smash and grab. And… everyone's personal favorite: Train Robbery. The Valvrave would sortie almost 4 to 5 times a day, completing mission after mission as determined by Miranda.

From time to time, Marie too would sortie on her Kagerou. At first she would do it together with Haruto, but after a first few extremely successful days, Haruto was confident enough to let her go solo. Marie was quite adept in performing the missions, enjoying no small amount of success in the process. Naturally of course, Haruto always gets the bigger prey. But, one kinda digress. The point is: the loot that was gained from these raids are just as important as the objectives.

The resistance of module 217 enjoyed a complete turnaround with bounty brought in by the raids. A week ago, they've expended ammunitions, fighting each other over scraps of food, they get plenty of guns, but not enough people or ammo to use them, and men dying left and right out of hunger and sickness. Now, for the first time ever, food is no longer rationed. They got more ammunitions than they know what to do with. Soldiers actually had to draw straws on who gets the gun. And patients with life expectancy of less than a week are now up and about thanks to the influx of the newly rescued medics and the much needed supplies.

In summary, in just one week, the Resistance Forces is back on its feet and then some. Words of their success spreads. That and the fact that a Valvrave had made its nest there serves as a strong impetus, a beacon that draws in other isolated resistance cells who had been in hiding up until that point. Its military strength swelled, and Helena, who initially was worried about manpower, was now swamped with so many new recruits she had to actually run a selection test. Thankfully, she also received aid from Malcolm, a fellow ex-military resistance leader from another module, who also happens to be a former military, specializing in guerilla warfare.

"The little man had helped us in our hour of need, yes? It seems only proper that we return the favor, no?"

Apparently, Haruto had found them when he went into that one solo op for the first time. According to him, they were… performing a marathon across the mechanical line on a mission…

Flashback:

Malcolm and his men were running across the less than stellar route of the Mechanical line, carrying enough explosives to blow up several blocks of houses. The idea was to infiltrate an Arus base from underneath its foundations and blow it up to hell… That mission was a failure because they ended up with a complication: on the said base, they found a large group of civilians being harried to god knows where. Changes were made, and instead of blowing the base off the map, they blew up the transport and rescued some, but not all, of the civilians. And now they were on the run for their lives… that is, until…

"HOLD!" Malcolm raised his hand and the men stopped. His ears caught the faint roaring sound, the kind of which he had never heard before… then he saw a gleam of neon green from the other end of the tunnel…

The Valvrave flew overhead the escapees, the Valvrave and the Soldier managed to lock eyes for the briefest instant.

The gust from the Valvrave's passing initially sent the men into a mild panic, but when they saw their leader stand calm and undaunted, they also calmed down. The Valvrave had flown past them, but he realized he had an unexpected meeting. And so, he stopped and turned around before flying back towards the group of men at a much slower pace. The Valvrave landed and knelt in front of the men. Malcolm burst through his group and came to the fore of the pack, meeting the giant face to face.

The cockpit of the Valvrave opened up, and out came Tokishima Haruto in all his grim glory. No one spoke, and Malcolm didn't say anything, at first…

"Are you part of the resistance?" Haruto started.

Malcolm blinked at first, but immediately replied. "Yes. Yes, we are." But then he stuttered. "I mean… we used to be… but… uh… We've lost contact with the main base… We've been surviving down here, scavenging and stuff."

Haruto raised an eyebrow. "Those looked like civilians you brought with you."

"Aye. Indeed. We were rescuing them."

"Are you now?" Haruto jumped down and in a blink of an eye, is already right in front of Malcolm.

"umm…"

"This is going to hurt just a bit." And in a single breath, Haruto grabbed Malcolm's arm and took a bite. The tanned man squealed in shock, and his men raised their rifle. But Haruto only bit him for a second and took just one gulp before he let go.

"Hey, what gives, man!?" Malcolm grunted.

Haruto took a moment to analyze what he learned from the Rune he absorbed. He raised his eyebrows upon learning this one interesting resume. "You're Malcolm Jatange, former Tank commander of Dorssian military. Stationed in Africa for 5 years until you were dishonorably Discharged, but then found employment in Arus as a tank instructor, lasted a full 6 then got kicked out again… and now you're in Jior as yet again Tank instructor…?" With that one bite, Haruto had gotten most of the important data about the Guirella Fighter and tank commander. Apart from the interesting resume, he also gained understanding of what Malcolm intends to do, and what he ended up doing instead.

Malcolm's eyes widened. So the rumors are true. The New Jior super soldiers have arrived… and they are… Vampires!? "That one bite told you all that!?" Nevertheless he signaled his men to lower their weapons. "Couldn't you at least warn me?"

"I'm sorry. But… you looked a little too much like an Arus soldier…" Malcolm is wearing Arus standard gear… old habit from when he was enlisted and for the lack of choice. "I needed to be sure you are who you say you are…" Haruto nodded. "Plus… with that kind of resume… if you had to explain everything it'll take too long."

"Indeed. We were infiltrating Arus facility, little man. Which is why the disguise is necessary."

"I understand… you planned to bomb them, but …you ended up rescuing these people instead… but you didn't get all of them?"

"There were too many to rescue, little man. We just don't have the firepower…"

"Well…" Haruto shrugged at the Valvrave waiting on his back. "You do now."

And thus, the escapee made a change of direction. Instead of retreating, they now charged back into the installation. When they get there, the Base had been alerted of their earlier break in and thus they are in full alert and the guards were tripled… which immediately went down to almost nothing when the Valvrave decided to come down and say hi. Almost the entirety of the base resources were redirected to fend off the overwhelming attacker, Malcolm and his men can now have a free reign of the place with almost little to no difficulty. If before they only managed to rescue a small portion of the civilians, now they managed to rescue all of them… well, almost all of them. In the time it took when Malcolm met Haruto and return here, a good portion had been shipped off somewhere else. Still, there are enough of the rescued civilians that Malcolm was having trouble finding a suitable transport.

When he was looking for Haruto to ask his opinion…

"What… the…"

The base has been almost completely leveled. And the Valvrave just stood sentinel next to the communication tower, with a desolate burning wasteland at the background, its pilot even had the luxury of actually stepping out of the cockpit and playing with a nearby Arus military computer.

Malcolm approached the boy. "What are you doin' man?"

"Hacking into Arus secure network." Haruto made a halfhearted motion with his hand, and the Valvrave automatically moved on its own and pulled out the needle part of the Mirage Channel before he stabbed said needle into the com's tower. Neon green circuitry coursed through the tower into the said computer. Once that happened, the monitor before Haruto went haywire with flowing encryption and occasional flying rainbow unicorns… "We needed communication reestablished. Arus had been piggy backing WIRED network… I think it's time we returned the favor… that and… I really wanna know what they were doing with the civilians." Haruto looked sadly at Malcolm. "…we didn't make it in time did we?"

Malcolm also sorrowfully shook his head. "No. I'm afraid we did not, Little Man."

"Maybe. But more importantly, they purged the database. We don't know where they're taking them, they've taken great pains to make sure of that."

"That is too bad, Little Man. But… we did save quite a few. It's good enough, yeah?"

"But I'm detecting an issue?"

"Well… we just don't know how we can bring them away without proper transport. But perhaps that was not necessary? You did bring down the house, little man."

"Oh no. We definitely had to leave this place." To make his point, Haruto motioned his hand again and the Valvrave pulled out the Needle from the com tower and knelt down with its cockpit sprang open, ready to receive its pilot. "I took down this enemy base, but it's not defensible. They'll come back. Probably twice the number. If that doesn't work, they'll come back again with more, and so on. No. We'll take a stand eventually but now is not the time. For now, we have to survive and rebuild."

Malcolm understands the truth of it. "We need transport, Little Man. I don't think your superbot can take in so many of us, yes?"

"No, it can't." The Valvrave is back online with Haruto at the helm. "But I did find something quite interesting when I was hacking into their system."

Namely, a civilian cargo train in the maintenance depo. And it's full of provision and food.

"Well, this module was the food processing facility…"

"That's good. Where we're going, they'll need every scrap of food we can gather. There're a lot of hungry mouths to feed."

"It'll be a nice welcoming present, yes? All aboard people! We are leaving!"

Their departure couldn't be more rushed. The first of the civilian had barely managed to settle into the cargo hold, Malcolm witnessed Haruto's prediction coming true. An army of droids, twice the number that had come before, came pouring in. Haruto volunteered to stay behind to hold them off as the train was made ready to leave. Malcolm reluctantly had to order the train to go and leave Haruto behind. Since the last thing he saw of the Valvrave was its image being swarmed by at least a million droids, he thought he'll never see him again…

Imagine his surprise when midway through the trip, the Valvrave suddenly caught up to them with only a few scratches on its smoking paintjob. "We're not going to return there any time soon, I'm afraid."

"That's just fine, little man. As you say, we have to survive first." Malcolm laughed jovially.

Thing is, they departed in such a hurry, they forgot to check why the train was in maintenance to begin with.

Its brake was broken.

And the rest is a history that repeats.

Flashback Ends…

"Well, we apologize for the very rough landing." Malcolm bent his head down.

Helena nodded, affirming the story. "But what's with that mark?" She pointed at a small scar that Haruto had etched unto Malcolm's forearm, just slightly above the spot where Haruto had bit him. It looked like the symbol that often appeared in the hemoglobin of a human jacked by Novus Magius. Their symbol.

"Ah, this? Well… apparently…"

"Ehh… Marie! Alice! Look here!" Haruto called the two once he had etched that mark on Malcolm as well as Spike. He showcased the mark on both Malcolm's and Spike's arm to the two. "This mark means I've fed on them. So, you need to be careful not to feed on them too, okay?"

"…? Why the need for such a thing?" Helena frowned in suspicion.

Of course, the reason is because of Haruto's infection. Pino has been infected because she had been in close contact with him. And they've established that this virus… any virus really, will spread if the infected and the healthy ate from the same 'bowl'. Like Haruto, Marie is also a Magius born from Pino. Unlike Haruto, it was clear that she was a Magius that was born before Haruto's time… before the infection of the virus began to spread. All things considered, she may well be the only 'healthy' Magius from the Sakimori school. And that, in accordance to Haruto's hunch, could mean something in the long run. And therefore, he must keep it that way.

Alice was a completely different story, but it's much simpler. Though he claimed she was his 'daughter'; technically speaking, she's a Harvester. A magius lifeform created by his wife for the sole purpose of gathering Runes for its creator. That and the fact her method of harvesting includes raping her victims to near death, Haruto wasn't sure she can control her impulses if she fed on anyone other than her father.

Unfortunately and naturally, neither of these explanations was provided to anyone else but Haruto and those closest to him. As for the one he marked, he only said: "Feeding 'our' appetite is no laughing matter. This mark is to show you've already fed me, so you should be wary. It also to remind me to not overfed on a single donor." The rather vague explanation leads to many speculations and wild guessing, none of which came even close to the truth. 'The Vampire boy hoarded the best for himself' 'He marked them so he can fatten them up.' 'They're his personal property, serve him long enough and he'll turn them into vampires one day!' 'That mark will allow him to watch over their every action!'

And so on, and so forth.

In practice, Haruto always fed after every mission and he do so by occasionally switching between Spike and Malcolm. Both Donors kept a tally on the number of times they had provided their runes for Haruto.

"How does it feel?" Helena asked.

"What?"

"When he fed on you, how does it feel?"

"He already told us what he was doing." Malcolm shrugged. "He told us that he was drinking in bits and pieces of our memory. He cautioned that if he do this too often, we might start losing our memories. So he warned us to tell him if we start forgetting things and sort."

Helena's brows furrowed. "And that doesn't frighten you?"

"To be fair, Blondie, it's more exhilarating than terrifying." Malcolm grinned. "…Though he does say something weird like… 'Please stop thinking about banging all sorts of girls when I feed of you.' Stuff like that."

Helena glared, this time truly towards the African man who had the gall to think something so perverted when a vampire is drinking his blood. But if she read why Malcolm was kicked out of the first two military institutions, she may not be so surprised. Two things: Fast Cars and Pretty Chicks.

"What? A man gotta have his hobbies, Blondie!" Malcolm grinned meaningfully at Helena, which she replied with a deathglare.

00000000000000

"Tahn… tan… tanatatan…"

His body is pressing down against hers. The moan escaped her lips every time her waist buckled under his thrust in a barely controlled tune. Her hip had long since gave out, her thigh stretched open held helplessly in place by his firm hand, opening her wide open as he hammered that rod deep into her insides rapidly, shaking her whole body, her stiff breast juggling furiously with each motion.

"tan, tan… tan… Ahh… Ahnn…"

She can hear the disgusting splurting sound of his rod unloading inside her, the splurging liquid excreted by her lower half. So much fluid came out, it splattered allover her already fluid covered body, some of the hot fluid even splattered on her face, stringing over her empty eyes and her drooling lips. In fact, every inch of her skin had been drenched in this thick hot juice…

"tahn… tahn… t… tahn… aaah… oh.. Ahnn…"

His teeth gnashed tight into her bloody neck, pinning her in place as her breasts squeezed under his chest. Her eyes might as well be empty… she had been murmuring to the tune of that innocent childish song she once sang… a stark contrast with the beastly nature of this atrocity happening to her. Her lips sing it… but it has long since been intermingled with her indecent moan… her mind had long since forgotten the meaning of that tune. Or why she sang it in the first place…

"Ta… tahn… taah… ah…mmmhmm…"

Suddenly he tears away from her bloody neck and his bloody lips found hers again. The kiss was not passionate. Their tongues are gargling entwining with each other inside their connected mouths; exchanging saliva was its sole purpose as his manhood burst with his scorching hot thick fluid inside her womb. Nevertheless, it didn't stop her from clawing the back of his head to deepen the kiss, hoping some small measure of passion can be felt…

except she, Rukino Saki, didn't even remember anymore what passion means…

The song was the last remnants of what she was before this. Before what she had become now.

She doesn't know how long this has been going on. She lost her mind to the pleasure so many times, she only began to question such issues in one time she was sane enough to realize she's being raped. Back then, after she made that silent vow to stay at his side come hell or high water, her resolve was immediately tested. It was when she realized there will be no intimacy between lovers here… she's being violated by a rabid animal. The first time she realized this, the first time the pleasure became torture, when resolve turn to disgust, she tried to resist. She struck and pushed as he held her waist, screamed and cried as he thrust so violently into her, trashed around and kicked as he poured into her, clawed and even bite…

Bite… the bite…

It always ends with the bite.

It's always the same. He would force himself on her to unbearable point, until her womb spasm and erupted in unwanted pleasure, as his white fluid overflowed the seams of her womanhood… and then he would bite her. His teeth sank deep into her neck, piercing multitudes of veins and blood spurt out.

And then it was gone: the pain, the horror, the disgust, the rationality, the pride, the dignity… all gone. What was left in its wake was the pleasure. The overwhelming ecstasy that robs her of all forms of higher thoughts… the portion that separates men from animals. Rukino Saki was destroyed, and all that's left of her was a babbling foaming lifeform… no… even that was polite… she was less than even that. She was just an organ, an extension of her mate, a piece of meat whose purpose is to mate.

And after that, she lost it. She didn't remember, she didn't even know what she was doing… what her body did as her mind died. How much time transpire, whatever on earth he's doing to her… whatever on earth she's doing to him… none of it registers… did she really did that or did she not… she couldn't remember… it was like a dream… until the next time she wakes up to find it was not a dream, and it was not over.

And he had been doing this to her for… wait… how long have they-'AH!" She just realized his hands are holding her arms tight, her body pinned beneath his while his waist is thrusting in and out of her lower entrance in blurring speed. She can't move, she can't do anything. He just shoved his thick hard rod into her womb violently, sliding in and out of the slit of her still tight womanhood so roughly. And she's erupting. Ever so rapidly. She came, and came, and came… her body spasms several times in a series of climaxes. "Ahh… Haruto… wait… AaaHH… Har… Ahhh…" She squealed and moaned as drool trickled out of her agape lips. To make things worse, he suddenly, and violently bites the nipple on one of her breasts, keeping it from moving whilst simultaneously pinning her tight on the ground, suckling her nipple in the process. "Y… you're tearing me apart… it's so hot… aaahhh… aahh…" His rod was that big, they pressed against the fleshy folds of her womb, stabbing until its tip reached the chamber… they're clenched so tight, it's like her womb had fused with his rod. Her insides felt like they're being pulled every time his waist shook back, and then shoved back into her belly every time he slammed it in. When he yanked again, her insides were pulled, and then he slammed it in, her other inner organs felt like they hammered her lungs. She vomited… something… she didn't remember or care anymore… "My insides… my insides… you're messing my insides…!" words escape her foaming and vomit covered lips… Now she began to understand why people making love was said to have become one with one another.

But this is not love making isn't it? There's no passion here… just lust. This is not what she wanted out of him… this is not the man she had loved…

She tried… of course. She tried, when despair had set in, when she realized brute force will never give her freedom - no… she had long since realized her freedom is long gone, so she tried to at least alleviate this horror. She remembered the time when Haruto was able to control himself with her song as guidance… and she tried just that… through her slobbering lips the song flowed in familiar but broken sorrowful tone, her tearful eyes begging for him to stop… to no avail. Even though her voice rises above the grunts and moans, nothing seem to register in her beastly lover's senses.

And then the bite. Always, the bite. And the song's tune changed in shrieks of madness…

When she woke up, they've changed position again. Now her back was pressed hard against the floor, her stretched legs were bent upward, pushed down from above until her thighs were pressed against her breast, his hands held on to the underside of her thigh and kept her squeezed down, all the while as he hammered her stretched open slit with his rod. "Aahn! Ahnn Haruto… stop! Ahn…! You're driving… Ahn! me crazy! Stop! AAHN!" His weight caused the rod to pierce even deeper into her, and the doubled sensation she's been feeling were jackhammered into her head. When he came, she squealed as the mass of white fluid exploded from her stuffed slit and sprayed allover the seams of the connected limbs, more juice unto her body covered in slime from head to toe, but she's burning, the heat of his liquid unloaded into her is roasting her inside out, her womb felt like they're melting. "WAAAAAGHHH!" this was as excruciating as it is rapturous. The polarizing sensations are tearing her soul apart, and in a small show of survival instinct, she struggled to get his rod out of her… but there's also the conflict of her primal instinct of wanting to enjoy more of that pleasure. Her arms broke loose and tried to claw her way to survival, but her legs sling tight behind his waist keeping his corruption to her soul to continue flowing into her womb. When she realized why she can't let go, she realized she had lost control of her own body and her own desires. If she think about it now, that was probably it. That was the moment the Rukino Saki as she knew herself was broken completely.

Her senses are still in overdrive, her body felt so sensitive, she can even feel everything… she can feel her body temperature still peaking, she can feel her insides squirting her juice… she can even feel his rod jerking inside her, filling her womb with that hot thick liquid… and more importantly, she can feel every bit of euphoria from this activity…

And in that state of hypersensitivity, she can feel he pulled back his waist, his rod grinded the flabs of her inner muscle on its way out… but then he stopped.

"Eh…?"

He stopped… with His… thing… is still inside her. "…wait… you're not planning to stop?"

His answer came in one straight merciless stab into her womb. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!"

And he's not even warming up, he's hammering into her again just as violently as he had started. His waist turned into a blur, sliding in and out rapidly. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHH! AAAAHHH! AAAHHHHH!" The Euphoria hadn't disappeared and now she was bombarded again with more stimulation from her insides. It felt so good it hurts!

"Wait! STOP! I JUST CAME! I JUST CAME! IF YOU KEEP DOING IT TO ME LIKE THIS, I'M GONAA… A… AAAAAARGGHHH!" Now she's genuinely trying to get away from this monster, but the subsequent orgasms exploding inside her robbed her muscle of any strength. That and Haruto is holding her legs as he make sure everything he let out, he let it out inside her. "Ss… Stop… Stopp… MWAAAHH!" Her insides contracted explosively, even more so when he still keep doing it, even as they're still in release. She's not allowed to calm her nerves, its pleasure piled atop another pleasure, force fed from her hypersensitive lower orifice.

Then the bite come, and all was lost.

This happened again and again and again… the repeated cycle of forced pleasure, pain, broken mind and insanity without rest… and then return to sanity only to do it again… it was too much on her soul. Occasionally, her song will trickle out, but by then, it lost its meaning and purpose, reduced to just some instinctive mumblings inbetween the moans and the shrieks. A noise without soul or passion…

She barely came to terms to the climax, his arms coiled around her thighs as she began to feel his waist moved faster and harder into her again. 'Wa… wait… Didn't he just came… "AAAHH!" Point in fact, his manhood hadn't stop coming yet, and already he's furiously stabbing into her womb again, already filled to the brim with their mixed essence overflowing out of her womanhood. She didn't have time to think. The pleasure hit her head like a hammer. Her eyes rolled up her eyelids, her mind is turning white again… "Aahh… ahh… Haruto… haruto… haruto… you're tearing me apart…" But even though her voice sounded her denial, her body reacted in thirst. She looked down to see the splattering mess he made on her with every thrust in between her bouncing breasts… then that view was blocked when she noticed his face is right on top of hers and then their lips met and his tongue burst through.

Somehow she can still feel his hand grasping tightly at her breast. And then he's pouring into her. He's pouring himself into her. He's inserting a part of himself into her. His saliva flooded down her throat. He's pouring more and more of himself into her. She… she want more. It's not enough! She wants more of him in her! Suddenly her arms just coiled behind his back and she pressed her face into his, her lips hungrily devouring his as their tongue slurping inside. At some point she suddenly realized his waist wasn't the only one moving. Her waist also rocked desperately up and down his wet slick and erect manhood, her back arching to help the momentum of her hip, her legs tightened behind his rocking buttocks. When they climaxed for the… how many times now-"BWAAAAHHH!" Their lips parted in a trail of saliva and web of intermingled fluid when their entwined bodies jerked in a literal explosion of climax. Again.

Massive amount of fluid poured down the floor, her whole body, twitching and in shock, was covered in the fluid they've excreted, her once well groomed hair is in disarray and felt sticky because of the same fluid slathered allover it… by all accounts she should, at the very least, feel disgusted…

Except she didn't even have time to comprehend that fact. Already she can feel this thing grinding out of her insides… her belly is still spasming in release… her mind is still numb by intoxication of the climax…

So… so good… so…

BITE.

And when she thought nothing could get worse… it did. All the pleasure he's force feeding straight into her every synapses, she completely forgot about the bite. The moment his fangs came piercing through her neck… every pleasure and pain she tasted multiplied several fold… She could feel her nervous system burnt out of overstimulation… her eyes rolled up…

She couldn't think of what she was supposed to do anymore…

It's always ends with the bite…

00000000000000

Haruto's eyes sprang open in shock. "…" It's that thing again. That vision.

When Haruto first regained his sanity after he raped Saki, he woke up not consciously remembering anything of the deed. He only managed to deduce the heinous nature he inflicted on her based on what she had become when he first found her. But then, from time to time he was occasionally plagued with these visions, waking dreams of what happened. To make things worse, sometimes he wasn't seeing it from his point of view… he was seeing it from hers. How she feels about the whole thing… and what she feels… the pleasure, the pain… the insanity…

It went on and on for quite a while, playing havoc on his rationality and libido, more often than not he even began to question if he'll go mad. If Saki weren't there to 'curb' it, Haruto shuddered to think of what he'll do.

See, THIS is why he asked Malcolm to stop thinking about girls every time he fed on him. His rune… that is to say, his memory… had this… for the lack of better term… taste of perversion because of his perverted thoughts. And that act like some kind of catalyst that brought about Haruto's own less than stellar sex life slash his most shameful memories to the fore.

"…hello!? Haruto my man! You hear me?"

Haruto shook his head to clear it off those images. "I hear you, Spike. Sorry, I kinda drifted off for a bit." Currently, he's inside the cockpit of his Valvrave. "Is it ready?"

"As ready as it'll ever be."

Before the communication was restored (somewhat) the Resistance of Module 217 was able to listen to a lot of mechanical chatter happening allover the place. From listening and studying the pattern to these chatters, they noticed that there are other pockets of resistance still fighting in every region of the Dyson Sphere. They've learned to filter and translate these chatters to reliably identify and pinpoint pockets of resistance that are still fighting. Problem is, they don't always get a clear picture of what kind of resistance they'll find. It's like a jack in a box. And even if they do get a clear picture, they can't help.

When the Valvrave finally arrived, now they can begin to actually help. But then, apart from the still shaky trust issues between the Resistance and the Valvrave pilot, as described before, the result has been positive. They managed to gather as many survivors as they could, consolidate the disparate fighting force into one unified front. But… Haruto can only go so far. They identified at least 12 calls for help every day… and there's only one him. Two, if one count Marie, and they're still falling behind. It was depressing every time they identified the chatter that indicates the resistance they're supposed to rescue didn't make it. Or that some of the people they managed to rescue were less than grateful because some of their loved ones didn't make it on account of the Valvrave just couldn't get to them in time.

For the last one week since his arrival, Haruto had conducted raid after raid with only the Valvrave to take him where he needs to go… which is everywhere. With a max speed of Mach 6, the Primate Engine can actually go to the other side of the planet in just a few minutes. But it's a big planet. With the artificial sun is 'only' the size of Pluto (in comparison to the original Sol), the resulting Dyson Sphere is still a planetoid two times bigger than Earth.

Flying all across a planet that big is… even if it's not a hassle; it took up quite a bit of fuel. Especially if the endeavor involved an alien super robot fueled by memories. Even with the Valvrave, the super soldier one man army that is Haruto can only go so far and reach so many places before logistical supplies became an issue. So transportation is one of the things that needs to be addressed. And the best most efficient way of travel is the geothermal powered Maglev Train, drawing power from the artificial sun that energized the Sphere. Unfortunately, most of the Maglev Train they had was destroyed or damaged beyond repair. So Haruto's raids, more often than not also premeditated on finding spare parts to fix… scratch that, they almost had to literally build a train from ground up using components from other train the Novus Magius had brought back from their raids. The train Malcolm had brought with him was completely wrecked during their first attempt on train robbery using said train. Subsequent attempt of the train robbery hijinks didn't end up so well… at least on the robbed train.

The new train they've built is part cargo train, part fortress, part listening outpost, all built on a mobile platform. Its construction is still slapdash and messy, but compared to what they have a few weeks ago… this is a major improvements. The train is composed of five cars.

The first car is the locomotive obviously. Apart from the main engine, it also serves as the primary hangar, where the Valvrave are kept and he can just immediately sortie from the car's roof hatch. It also doubles as a training hall.

The second car is the storage for supplies and munitions. It is also a warehouse and service depo for all the hardware used by the crew.

At the center are the living quarters for the crew, the mess hall, and the main command center, where officers can talk and develop plans.

The fourth car, apart from it housing the coms tower needed to maintain communication with the home base, also house the medical center for the sick and injured. There's still much empty unused space here, but they will decide its use as the situation develops.

And finally, the last car, is almost identical with the first one. It houses a backup engine, and another hangar to house the Kagerou, with the same ease of deployment design with the roof hatch.

And every car is armed to the teeth with turrets of quad cannon and missile launchers.

All in all, a mobile command center to serve as forward base of operation to deploy and support the Valvrave, to listen and responds to call for aid quicker and deliver the Valvrave to where it's needed more efficiently as far as fuel consumption go. With communication reestablished, for the first time ever, they can finally engage in some semblance of organized long range operation.

It's bitter work and it took them quite a while, but after a week, the last component needed to complete their new mode of transportation is finally installed.

That oh so precious and all important brakes.

"Did you double check the brakes!?" Haruto groaned.

"And triple checked it. So make that penta-checked." Spike answered.

"You're sure?" Haruto spoke… in the name of everyone who nearly died because of the faulty inferior brakes of all the trains they've rode on insofar. Which includes Spike, Malcolm and pretty much every member of militia.

"Yeah. Best brake we can get from all the train we busted…" Spike motioned at a graveyard of blasted trains behind them.

"Alright…" Haruto mentally prayed to every deity he can think of. Their first mission and the virgin departure of their new War Train, christened the Jormungandr. "And… how's the crew?"

"Well, Little Boss, Blondie is moving in the supplies." From the cockpit, Malcolm answered. He already changed Haruto's nickname again. "And the crews are now boarding!"

Outside, 'Blondie' Helena is overseeing the crew moving supplies into the cargo hold. "Hurry it up, people. We're moving out in t-minus 10 minutes!"

Most of the time, whenever Haruto brought back some survivors, they were only raw recruits that Helena and Malcolm must first train to be adequate fighting force. But occasionally, Haruto came across several interesting find. Many of them are now part of the crew. And to make a point, almost every one of them had become Haruto's donor.

"Time to bring the blessing of the Angel to the unbelievers, hallelujah!" An old middle aged man with greyed hair that looked like a pastor shouted to the bible in his hand. The Novus Magius mark was carved, by his request, on his forehead.

That's Barton Benedict. A pastor Haruto rescued from a module he raided on the second day. It was a metropolitan area, and this pastor was leading a small group of convent turned militia in a losing fight, garrisoning a small chapel in the city. They were down to their last leg with him shouting his prayers in front a storm of bullets until Haruto went down from the sky to save the day. Maybe it has something to do with the fact the Valvrave had wings on his back… or the pastor was a semi stable person to begin with… he came to think of the Valvrave as some kind of Angel… and Haruto was its Avatar. In fact, he would often find the pastor praying on his Valvrave before every mission.

This issue aside, he makes one hell of an inspirational chaplain. That small convent he led managed to keep on fighting for 2 weeks. 2 weeks, maintaining a high morale against an impossible 100 to 1 odd.

"Whatever man… (hic)… now get in there! (hic)" A tanned, beautiful and buxom but very drunk African American woman in her 40s swaggered forth. In one hand, her mechanical cybernetic hand, she's holding a shotgun, on her back she's carrying a bag filled with rolls of bandages, medkits and all kinds of medical necessities, and on the other hand, normal petite woman hand, a half empty bottle of bourbon.

And then there's Tessa Meredith. Found and rescued on the 4th day, the communication officer identifies a siege occurring in an abandoned brewery. When he gets there, he was initially shocked. He found human dead bodies being hanged at the front entrance to what is, of all things, a makeshift clinic. It was established by this gun totting, booze loving doctor for the sick and injured found in those territories. The opening salvo of Arus attacks are bombings with biological weapon. Before they bring down their human soldiers, they naturally clean them out. But they still left behind some residual biological compounds. And not all people died instantly by the virus, but they still get sick from time to time. And Tessa is working around the clock to treat these people. Those dead bodies? Well… some survivors are assholes, so she had to make an example out of them.

But believe or not, this gunslinging woman is easily the best doctor in the house… so long as she's properly inebriated in alcohol. Point in fact, she seem to work better – and shoot better - when she's seeing double! According to her story, she lost her license because she wasn't drunk enough…?

One may question how she can make it like that, but she does have an assistant to look after her back. Her longest patient, a man known only as Bob. A hulking Caucasian man bigger than even Spike with incredible appetite and an incredible strength to match. How incredible? Well, enough to make even Haruto think twice before challenging him to an arm wrestling match. There's just one problem: apparently he was born with half his brain to be slightly defective which caused his mental faculty to deteriorate as he age. Tessa only managed to stabilize him when he's in his 30s, but by then 'Bob' was the only word he can say, and his behavior is that of a child. But he's not stupid. Far from it. He communicates by body language and the tone of how he say Bob. There are two things he treasure the most: Tessa and his pet rabbit, Mr. Puddy.

"Bob! Bob, Bob!" Bob gently helped Tessa when the weight of her bag almost made her want to cue over on her bag. Point in fact, Bob is also carrying a bag twice as large, carrying other medical supplies on his back, while his other hand is carrying a crate, plastered with all sorts of hazard symbol on it. Hint: there's a 50 calibre gun barrel protruding out of crate. Despite his defects, believe or not, he hold the post as the chief technician of the group. He was a savant genius that can assemble and disassemble any type of machinery with ease. One example of his genius; he was the one who made Tessa's mechanical prosthetic arm, from scratch. Give him a piece of broken equipment and in a few minutes or hours, he'll timidly return it fixed as good as new. If he's not with Tessa, he can often be found wandering quietly with Mr. Puddy on his shoulder in the engine room, performing maintenance. The other engine crew had taken to the habit of making sure he works in peace. He also personally performs the maintenance of Tessa's weaponry, and only hers, out of his love for her, but he refused to use one himself. He was an absolute pacifist and a kind soul who gets easily flustered with violence – unless he was absolutely provoked. Taking a natural liking to his peaceful nature, Haruto etched his mark on him, but never really fed on him out of pity. What's more… he seems to get along well with the infantile Alice.

"Will you fucks just shut up and get on!" And then finally, there's Yagumo Kato. "And get that stupid fat ass off the road, some of us need the space, lardhead!"

From day one, Haruto made it clear he wants his own independent team. Free from chain of command. But… apart from Helena, the upper echelons of the Resistance doesn't want such a rogue element in what they perceive to be their war. So they insist on some of their own to be the 'liaison' between this independent unit with the main base. Two people in particular, there's Bryan Cussack the ex lawyer and then there's Kato Yagumo. The former, everyone already dislike… the latter elevated that dislike to the next level.

Take all the flaws that came from the first three members of Haruto's team (perversion, slight mental instability, and alcoholic) and then add in drug addiction for good measure with none of their redeeming qualities aside from the fact he was apparently one hell of a guerilla fighter - when he wants to be. An Asian descent like Haruto, but taller in build and gaunt. His hair was brown and messy. His very presence seems to exude unpleasantness, and he made it very easy for everyone to dislike him, even Helena was absolutely against of this man becoming their 'liaison'. Reading his files later, Haruto can easily surmise why. What little he can glean on: former Jior black op, serving the dirty side of military for a lot of years, dishonorably discharged, and afterwards a long list of convictions on his less than stellar attempt on civilian life. Apart from that, apparently a lot of his personal info was redacted. By the Jior government, on the courtesy of his… 'Exemplary Service Rendered to the Nation'. A proof that Shashinami Ryuuji's reign was far from innocent.

"What's the matter, bitch? Afraid I'll interrupt some fun time with your man?"

That was the first sentence he uttered as a way of introducing himself to the team when Helena protested at the very mention of his existence. He never participated in any training Helena devised, opting instead to waste away eating and drinking in a small corner he made for himself while making rude comments on the side, grating everyone's morale. One time, Haruto returned from a raid to learn about a riot occurring in the medical ward. When he gets there, he was introduced to what Bob was like when he was absolutely enraged. As mentioned before, Bob the gentle giant was a pacifist; he would immediately cower under the smallest intimidation, so averse he was of violence he won't even defend himself even if he was abused. Very little can set him off, but when he does, it took a combined effort of Spike, Malcolm and Haruto together before the rampaging giant of a man can be stopped. When Bob calmed down somewhat, they quickly deduce the full story from the scene of the crime. Bob's target of fury was Kato, who got away with only a broken arm, and the cause of that fury was Tessa, lying unconscious on the floor with a blackened eye, a missing tooth, and her clothes half undone.

Apart from the bodily injuries, the good doctor was mostly unharmed. Kato was put in a brig, to the utter dislike of everyone who thinks he deserved worse. And yet, to everyone disbelief, that same guy was appointed their liaison to the Resistance HQ!?

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill him right now." Haruto demanded.

The most insane part of his involvement was the fact that it was Renbokuji Kitami who proposed this insanity. Not the Jr, the SENIOR. But under that threat, Kitami only handed Haruto a device. A detonator. "We surgically planted a bomb, somewhere in his body. Even I don't know where, only that it's lethal wherever it exploded from. I'm handing you the detonator. Press it whenever you feel like it, but let me tell you something. This man is a… 'rare talent'… just like the rest of your chosen crew. Granted, he's an acquired taste. So it may take you a good while."

On the account of his desperate need for able crew, Haruto agrees, but he kept the unlikable man on a short leash.

Peeep!

Kato's abuse on Bob came to a screeching halt when that sound filled the hall. He looked angrily at Haruto holding the detonator, his finger readily on the trigger menacingly. "Knock that off and get in." Haruto told him short.

Grunting, the gaunt man silently obeyed and walked into the train, carrying his belongings, a small black bag, whatever on earth it contains, the only clue they had is that some of its sharp content poked out of the punctured holes. God help them.

"I sooo~o wanted to come with you, my man." Spike who looked at this scene only shook his head. With all this colorful characters, Haruto's gonna get his hands full.

"We both know that's not going to work. They need you here." Haruto smiled. And they both know why.

With an influx of people Haruto had caused, it was inevitable that problems began to arise with the explosive increase in the module's population. With Haruto preoccupied with his raids, and Helena more of the military type, Miranda, the only one who understand the need of good leadership more than anyone, was on the verge of being overwhelmed completely… if Spike had not stepped in and helped her maintain order by bashings heads together or knock some sense into everyone with his 'thinking fists'.

Haruto may be the one gathering and uniting the people, but it was Spike that kept them united. "You need to stay here and keep everyone safe. Besides… I think it's a good chance for you to work with Miranda again. You still miss him terribly. I know." Haruto tapped his head. Just a few things he learned after feeding from Spike enough times.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Spike, blushing red, clamped Haruto's mouth shut before more poison can come out. "Besides, she doesn't share the sentiment!"

"You sure?" Haruto muffled.

"Bahahahaha! Maybe we should take the big man with us after all, Little Boss." Malcolm added with a grin. "Didn't they say absence make heart grow fonder, yes?"

Haruto couldn't agree more to that statement. The war barely started for a week and the urge to forget everything and see his pregnant wife again was so unbearable. But Haruto steeled himself. He's doing this for her. He kept telling that to himself at least a hundred times a day. "Spike, I want you to come with and join the fun, but we all have our jobs. This is mine. That is yours." Haruto motioned his chin to a group of people who just… out of wazoo, start trading insults with one another and was about to jump into a brawl.

Spike sighed exasperated and pulled back. He gave Haruto one last smile before he walked off to do his job. "Alright you hotheaded simpletons! Back off, I'm not kidding!" And when that fails, he invites them to think things through with his fists.

As Haruto and Malcolm took the side seat to enjoy the scenery of name calling and ass kicking, Helena came with a report. "Commander Tokishima, all crew are present and accounted for. We're ready to depart any minute."

"Then let's go!"

Today's mission was everyone's personal favorite: Train Robbery. Only this time, unlike the previous disastrous results, they'll be doing it properly with the proper equipment. The Jormungandr began to build up energy as it was done warming up. Its grav pads are lighting up with electricity and the five car train began to float up.

ATTENTION: THE TRAIN WILL DEPART SOON. ALL PASSENGERS PLEASE STEP BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE.

The hangar crew and technician watched with pride as the symbol of their counter attack against the invaders finally took flight. "Wartrain Jormungandr! DEPART!" With one last blast of shockwave, the Mag Train departed full speed into the mechanical line.

Amidst the cheers and clapping of the crew, Kitami watched calmly as the train departs.

"The transponder's working." His son motioned at the detector in his hand.

"For now." Kitami replied calmly.

"There's no way he'll figure it out."

Kitami only chuckled in reply.

Barely a few clicks away from their departure point…

"Say, Little Boss. What exactly is that thing you spent all day installing on the train yesterday?" Malcolm asked as he kept his hands on the wheel.

"Oh! That! Yeah. I almost forgot." Haruto moved to the computer interface on his gauntlet and tapped a few buttons. "Just a little something I add to make our lives a little easier."

Once he pressed Enter:

STEALTH ENGAGED.

The Jormungandr immediately vanished under a bubble of invisibility. Haruto had to sacrifice his Mirage Channel to jury rig its stealth function unto the train, but it's worth it.

True enough…

"SHIT!" The Renbokuji junior angrily hurled his useless detector when the Jormungandr transponder vanished from the radar within seconds of departure. And Kitami merely laughed.

Back on the Jormungandr…

Malcolm also laughed heartily as he gave Haruto a high five over the job well done on this VERY useful feature.

"Never took you for an able technician sir." Helena raised an eyebrow in shock and suspicion. This kind of advanced modification is not something you can get from junior high electronics subject…

"A while back, I indiscriminately ate a lot of people, Helena-san." Haruto stated simply, much to Helena's visible discomfort. "You'll be surprised on how much knowledge I've assimilated in this tiny head of mine." So he said before Haruto left the unnerved instructor behind.

Indeed, that was only part of the reason Haruto possessed the technical knowhow. Among the many people he had fed so far, quite a few of them possess basic to advanced understanding on engineering and mechanics. Although Haruto had since made it part of his own skill set, his abilities in this department still pales in comparison to pure technophile like Yusuke. Modifying Mirage Channel's stealth capability unto a train falls well outside his ability, if not for the secret help from above.

The communication has been reestablished using the Emergency Governmental Channel, so the Jormungandr crew can still communicate with their home base. What Haruto chose not to tell them, was the fact said Emergency Channel had also been secretly hacked by Akira, who then bridged a direct line between him to the Valravn high above, from which he gained the needed technical blueprint and knowledge from Pino to enact the major modification… among other things.

"We're beginning the operation now…" Haruto whispered the report to the holographic image of Pino appearing on his interface. "Still no word from the second team?"

"No. And this worries me." Pino frowned. "If you know about this channel, there's no way Attlach hadn't figured it out too. If they don't say anything, I suspect it's because he chose not to. They're ghost until he chose to surface."

And why would he do that? Haruto's already regretting his decision on bringing the wily commander here. Now he can only trust Yusuke and Raizo to recover from this. "Keep me posted, Haruto out."

00000000000000

Cain made it a personal business that when it comes to war, he hold on to one simple philosophy. Knowledge is power. Make sure you know more than your adversary. Gather Intel ceaselessly, take everything, leave as little as possible to the opposition. It serves him well, so far.

The Dainslev was abuzz with chatters from the enemy network. All of them scream of enemy attacks. Their attacks. Or so it seems. Over the course of one week, their strike teams, spearheaded by the two original units had inflicted far more damage to the enemy than the resistance could've done in months. They've leveled bases after bases, destroying and pillaging every warehouses and depos, and they've made the mechanical line a very UNSAFE place to be if you're an Arus supply convoy.

Amidst all the chatter of condemnation, reports and mechanical transmission which pertains their own effort, Cain can easily identify some of these which he knew was not done by their team. Filtering out the useless religious rhetoric mixed in though, he found this telling reference to a demon of fire and ashes.

There's only one Valvrave in the world he knew could elicit that sobriquet.

Judging by the way that title being shouted out, Cain can pretty much deduce that against all odd, indeed, Haruto is doing very well despite his separation. Analyzing the noise of Valvrave sightings, he can begin to at least map Valvrave's path of carnage. He found the Valvrave sighting was spread out over an area instead of forming a path. Thusly, Cain easily conclude that Haruto wasn't trying to recklessly fight his way back to this group, instead, he had managed to establish a secure foothold. 'Very good. He's playing the long game… but… given the frequency of his attacks, he's obviously rushing… I suppose, given the circumstances it can't be helped… but I had to applaud that his motivation didn't blind his strategic acumen. That being said… if he already established a base… he must've already prepared a way to communicate… he found a way? Normal communication wouldn't work… so… the only available communication option to him would be…'

Beep! Beep!

"Ah." Cain compartmentalizes that piece of information away as he received this call. "Yes?"

"We found them." It was Yamada Raizo.

"Very good."

"But you might wanna hurry the hell up here."

"Oh, can you not handle it?"

"Well… I think those fuckers made a mistake with the Intel."

"Mistake?"

"They said this base we're attacking was occupied by automatons, yeah?" Raizo gritted his teeth. "By their words, this place was taken over by an army of Arus droids, resistance fell and whatnot, no survivors… right!?"

Cain can somehow see where this is going…

"Well, IT'S NOT! THOSE LYING SONS OF BITCHES LIED!"

"Obviously. And… uhh… why does this require my help? Are you not the more humanitarian? Surely with understanding and compassion…"

"It's not that simple." This time it was the calmer Yusuke. "…they are 100% Dorssian. And apparently, they still absolutely hate us."

The Behemoth is currently wrestling with a pair of murderous raging Kirschbaum, with a dozen, all manned, Waffes at the background raining fire on them. They can deal with them easily, but the sentiment of not wanting to needlessly kill potential ally was clearly one sided in this brawl.

"Ooohh… I can certainly see the dilemma." Certainly understandable. The full collapse of the Dorssian Empire began as soon as they start picking a fight with Sakimori Super Soldiers. Discounting the alien possession and whatnot, there's still a substantial amount of Dorssian forces in this territory, left behind after the invasion of Module 77. Previously, even being left so far away from their home, these detachments still receive aid and supplies from home. Once Dorssia collapsed though, they were completely cut off from their home. They can only survive by pillaging from resources of their occupied territories. That was months ago. These men were definitely starving, desperate, and very likely angry that the indirect culprit of their woes suddenly just pop out before them. "Right. I'm on my way. ETA… 5 minutes."

Cain cut of the transmission and laughed to no one in particular. "Ahaha… these humans… they're making it all too easy."

Naturally, he will keep the knowledge of Haruto's effort to himself. He'll just bury these findings amidst the noise of other attacks… while keeping constant tabs of his progress, of course. If in the end he senses something to not his liking, he can just inform his findings to curry favor, or… if in the end, most likely by Otamaya Yusuke, they discovered it anyway… he can just pretend he didn't know. But, even if in the end they did find out that he hid that fact, it is of no consequence. It's not like he had never been caught red handed once or twice and survived the repercussions.

But until that time, it is perhaps more prudent that he used this advantage as much as he could. Utilizing all these extra pawns at his disposal was much easier when the status of their leader is still unconfirmed. And he can accomplish his mission much easier working together with these pawns rather than against them.

Better to know more than your opposition.

00000000000000

A military 7 car Maglev Train is cruising across the Mechanical line, delivering its cargo at incredible speed, its driver just lazily read a porn book while the forward locomotive is on autopilot.

Unbeknownst to everyone, the invisible Jormugandr had swiftly followed them from behind and caught up to them. Still maintaining its perfect camouflage, the one of a kind stealth train floated above its prey, the humming sound of its engine was masked by the noise from its prey's engines.

An additional note on the Jormungandr design: situated on the undercarriage of the second and fourth car, is a set of high powered grappling claws. With it, the idea is the Jormungandr will latch unto its prey while its crew be about their business. It's a very difficult maneuver to pull off, and only a highly skilled pilot like Malcolm can pull it off so far.

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANKK!

Four grappling claws crashed into the sides of Mag Train it latches on. As another gimmick, the hook that was used to clench the train was repurposed from the Needle section of the Mirage Channel. So the moment they pierced through the train circuitry, the train system is now hacked to not notice the intrusion and shut down all automated emergency alarm and any defense sentries it might have.

Unfortunately, the noise caused by the latching was anything but subtle. And it's not like people won't notice when a giant mechanical claw from their worst nightmare suddenly physically burst through the wall right in the middle of lunch or knock them off their beds.

"Alright. We got 15 minutes before the silent alarm is triggered." Haruto lead a team of 20 well armed Militia, waiting inside the belly of Jormungandr's central car. They're all standing atop a series of hatches on the floor. "Everybody knows what to do, everybody remembers their training. Now let's hop to it." For this operation, the Valvrave can't do much, they must be done manually, on foot.

Helena, in her enclosed combat gear, nodded to Haruto's distinctive form. He was the only one who still uses a Valvrave pilot suit for this operation, thus marking him a stand out red amidst the black colored militia. "We're ready." The fact he's carrying the biggest gun there is also helped.

"Malcolm-san, open the hatch!"

"Hatch open! Good luck, Little Boss!"

The hatch was opened, revealing the ceiling of the train. Everyone jumped with the attached cable and landed with a thud on the roof. They detached their cable, activate their magnetic boots and secure the perimeter while everybody else landed. Haruto landed last without the need of the safety cable, and yet he stood more firmly on the moving train's roof than the others who had to instinctively hunch themselves.

The moment Haruto landed though, the operation had begun. With practiced ease, the militia uniformly moved across the surface of the train and went straight to the designated target. The Maintenance Hatch of the train. Each car had one, and they must be breached at the same time, so the 21 men team split into groups of three. The ease and speed in which they located their objective belie the training they've endured up until that point studying train wreckages and running marathons across the base. Those who had reached their hatch immediately planted explosives on its edges and waited until the rest reached their objectives. It would be a simultaneous intrusion to maximize the element of surprise. Haruto alone went to the front of the train and reach his door. He was about to plant his explosives when a slight complication occurred.

The last team didn't make it to their door in time. Before they can reach it, the hatch opened and an Aelf peeked out. The shock was total on both sides, and for a moment the militia didn't know what to do. The Aelf droid knew EXACTLY what it had to do. "INTRUDER ALERT!" It immediately opened fire. The Militia took a bullet on his shoulder before his friend managed to plant one squarely on the droid's head.

The failure was noticed by all teams, particularly Haruto. He immediately decided: "Begin operation now!" He didn't bother setting up charges, he simply tear the hatch open with brute force. Other teams set up their charges to blast the hatch open before they quickly jumped in as well. From there, the order is simple: drop a smoke grenade, jump in and shoot anyone who tries to shoot them. Mostly it only comprised of droids, so they can shoot them down with impunity. Haruto also jumped in with his team and was welcomed by an incoming fire by some droids. The Novus Magius returned fire without a fuss and clear out the room before his team can descend. "You two, help the others! Clear the room!"

For a good long 5 minutes, the train was abuzz with the sound of rifle discharging, with some occasional explosions, and some screams of pain inbetween. For Helena this feels like back in her academy days with the training simulator. The droids were little challenge to her expert marksmanship. There's just like… a LOT of them. She took down six in rapid succession, but lo, another dozen came charging in and she ran out of clip. She took cover just before a hail of bullets kept her there. She reloaded, but there's almost no window for her to return fire, and they're closing in.

BAM! One droid was torn to shreds. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAMBAMBAMBAM! The rest followed suit with the subsequent roar of gunfire. She looked back and saw the smoking barrel of an oversized gun.

M90 Typhoon heavy machine gun. The product of a long forgotten blinkered gun maniac who tried to create a fusion of shotgun, machine gun, and sniper rifle into one. Needless to say, he succeeded in creating a gun so spectacularly unwieldy as it is deadly. The sheer weight of the weapon is already something, it's recoil could tore a man's arm off, so usually, they were mounted on a fixed base on a vehicle like a panzer or a tank.

Haruto is using it as easily as a soldier would use an assault rifle.

Actually, it would appear he's having an easier time because even with such a massive force, the rifle barely budged, the barrel's aim hardly changed owing to the wielder's firm grip. When another baker pop out to replace the shredded dozen, Haruto cocked the underslung missile launcher and fired. The resulting explosion blasted the newcomers cleanly across the room as half melted slags. "I'm going to the front car! Team 1 with me!"

"R… Roger! Team 2 with me!" Helena choked a bit before she regained her bearings as a military professional.

Haruto lead his two men team to the front locomotive, his two subordinates followed closely behind. Taking out wave after wave of droids. Thing is, in the first five minutes of endless droid smashing, Haruto already ran out his explosives, run through his ammunition until he's down to his last clip.

But then… maybe it's the repetitive sound of his overheating rifle sending out lead after lead… or the mundane cyclic almost rhythmic pattern of fingers pressing the rifle triggers in controlled burst… or the monotone scene of monotone droid being brought down one after another so easily… or the sound of the ticking seconds of his watch that seem taking so long to ring between seconds…

…is it just him, or is everything seem to be going… too slow?

"…" Haruto realized he should be feeling a sense of urgency and duty, what he's doing will keep the other team alive but… against his better judgment, he also start feeling boredom. Like playing a first person shooter game he had played over and over. And boredom soon turned into impatience.

Subconsciously, Haruto began to quicken his frequency of fire. The silent gap inbetween bursts of fire began to shrink. More droids are falling at a faster rate… few even had the chance to lift their gun to fire… but to Haruto… they don't seem to. Break. Fast. Enough.

When the telltale clicking sound of empty magazine reached his ears and no more bullets came out, Haruto merely tilted his head. More are pouring in. hundreds now to replenish the dozens he destroyed. He just dropped his empty rifle to the ground. But not in fear.

…he just realized, in this situation, fear is already beneath him.

The Aelf had just started opening fire and the first bullet had just flown and almost reach Haruto's forehead when his one red eye flared.

In less than 10 seconds, Haruto was already on the other side of the car, crushing the head of the last droid standing with his bare hands, and hundreds of the droids were left as wreckages in his wake. Not a single bullet could touch him or even scratch him. Haruto looked at his hands, look at what he had become.

"…this… this is what my father turned me into…?" The power of the sun at his fingertips, indefatigable strength coursing through every fiber of his being, immortality, eternal youth… "…at the cost of other people's lives." Haruto's awe immediately turned into disgust once he remembered the foundation of this absolute power.

This disgust proves to be a saving grace for Haruto, somewhat. Unknown to everyone, even Haruto himself, he was on the verge of becoming drunk with this power. Once that happened, it's not impossible that Haruto might become exactly what Renbokuji Kitami had feared he would be. A superior being devoid of humanity.

But Haruto's very own nature gave birth to this disgust… and in this instance that disgust snapped him back to rationality, reminding him that he's not here to go on a rampage, but on a mission. That epiphany also made him realized he was being watched. He looked back and saw his two subordinates looking at him, wide eyed and slack jawed. He tried to chuckle to melt the tension. "Uhh… okay… you know what? Why don't you guys clean up here, and I'll-"

A door opened, and a man walked in.

A man. Not a machine. A man.

With a bomb vest.

"FOR GOD!" He screamed that word when he looked at the militia and was about to rush towards the caught off guard militia..

…before Haruto tackled him down and the explosion sets off right beneath his chest.

The shockwave of the explosion shook the whole train. Helena frowned a bit at the unfamiliar sound of the explosion… but to note, they've been firing rifles, lobbing grenades from time to time, and the enemy launched rockets at them occasionally. This is a sturdy train and it can take a lot of fire in its cars, so she wasn't really worried… but she does make an inward note to hurry the hell up with her job and go check up on the situation immediately. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" she tossed in a grenade, and the droids noticed it rolling on their feet a little too late.

The rain of lead ceased after the explosion. She carefully peeked out before she jumped out and check the surroundings. No more droids came out. "…this is Team 2. Car 2 is clear. All team check in!"

"Team 3, car 3 clear!"

"Team 4, car 4 clear!"

"Team 5, car 5 clear!"

"Team 6, car 6 clear!"

"Team seven, encountering heavy resistance! Hell! There are humans here!"

"Team Five and Six, go and assist team Seven. Attempt capture of the personnel if possible! Team 3 and 4 secure the perimeter!" Helena is still missing one team… "Team 1! Report!" Static. "Team 1! REPORT!" Still static. The one team that's supposed to be without problem, and they didn't get any report. "Team 2 stay here and secure perimeter! I'm going in."

"Ma'am!" Her team nodded and Helena march on alone.

When Helena pushed through to the first car, she was welcomed by a sight of carnage… the entire hall was charred ash black… and She found this crater right in the middle of the torn floor. Haruto's subordinates were nearby in a rather bewildered state, their rifles barely discharged anything before the red Super Soldier wiped out all opposition. One was trying to calm the other who looked shaken. "What happened?"

"Suicide bomber."

"Suici-?" Helena frowned. "…and… Haruto?"

"…he… he saved us."

"He just took the blast point blank and then he walked away like it was nothing… even asked if we're okay… he asked if we're okay… even with his fucking ribcage protruding out of his cratered chest."

"Secure this train, soldier." She relegates a duty to said militia. "I'll go in alone." She had a feeling her men won't have the stomach to see what follows ahead.

"He's not human." They said. "He's definitely not human."

Helena simply nodded off the warning and proceeded forward regardless. That's when she noticed the trail of dead bodies, and noticed some of them looked like they had been drained dry. Those who do had only bite marks on their necks. "Dear God…" The trail ended on the door leading to the driver's seat. The commander's room. She took a deep breath to steel her resolve and then opened the door.

Haruto lay lifeless on the floor, and the commander is sitting calmly on his chair tapping the computer completely heedless of the situation.

"What the…" Even Helena had a hard time digesting this scene. It gets even worse when the elderly commander turned around his seat and welcomes her… in Haruto's voice.

"Ah, welcome, Helena-san. Don't mind the mess, please come in."

"H… Huh!?" Helena blinked several times, her brain is on the verge of shortcircuiting.

"Oh right… you've never seen me hijacked someone." And the commander in Haruto's voice continue on like nothing's wrong. "I had no choice. He biometrically locked the system. If I kill him, the system won't open."

"Hi… Hijack?" Slowly, but surely, Helena's mind began to catch up. She pointed her rifle at him.

"Right." Haruto decided to show than tell. He first cuffed himself to his seat and then grabbed his own body before he took a bite. Moments later, the bewildered commander found himself cuffed to his seat, and the last thing he remembered was this teenage vampire in power armor took a bite at his jugular. "What the… what the hell have you done to me!?"

"That's a good question." Helena still kept her rifle trained, except it's now warily trained at Haruto who just got up. "What the hell was that?"

"That is the innate ability of all Magius." Haruto stated. "Magius had the ability to hijack a person. Not just absorb their thoughts and memories, we can also transfer our consciousness into the body, assuming his identity and memories. We literally became THAT person." Haruto explained. "That's what makes them so dangerous, because you can never know if anyone around you has been hijacked."

Helena began to catch on… "So you're saying… you have their powers too?"

"Yes. That's the idea. Fight fire with fire. That's what we were designed to be: Half human… half Magius. All their power, none of their weakness."

"Monster…"

"?" Haruto looked at the train commander. His face was pale, eyes wide with horror.

"He was right! You're all monsters!"

"He?" Helena frowned.

"…you've had contact with Jeffrey Anderson." Haruto glared. "I saw. In your memories. You're Major Jon Bragworth, an officer of the Arus military. You talked with President Jeffrey Anderson about 2 weeks ago. He was issuing you an order. Mostly about us." Haruto looked at Helena's questioning gaze. "Which confirms it then. Jeffrey Anderson personally lead this army. I still don't know where he is specifically, but now we know for sure that it was Jeffrey Anderson, the President of Arus."

Jon looked in horror at Haruto. What he said was something he never told anyone, that phonecall he received from the president was classified top secret, and yet this… monster just took it all in with a bite.

"And the order… was to shoot yourself in the head if you ever encounter us in close combat. You question that order. Which is why you emptied your clip uselessly on me." Haruto showed the useless empty handgun he took from Jon, and the flattened pellets of bullets that collided uselessly against his ironskin. "He told you to save one bullet for yourself didn't he?"

"Yes." Jon gritted his teeth. "Told me to shoot myself in the head. Didn't know why. I knew now." He looked on at Haruto with anger. "You're a monster! Freak of nature!"

"Monster. Freak of Nature." Haruto's eyes were no longer moved when that verdict is leveled against him. He already accepted what he is a long time ago. "If this is the old me, I'd try to politely convince you that I didn't choose to be born a weapon of mass destruction. But at this point I'm quite sick of this kind of repartee."

"God will smite you demon! The time of reckoning is here!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Haruto had seen enough of this man just by taking that small bite.

Helena however, was a bit more taken back. That doesn't sound like your normal angry retort. Her confusion was clearly shown on her face.

"You have a look in your face saying, is he sane?"

Helena turned to Haruto, the only one who didn't seem shocked. "In the last one week, I've encountered plenty of human soldiers. Most of them had similar mindset with this one. Zealots and religious fanatics. The sort of people who would do anything in the name of their religious faith, even dying."

"But… why? Why this kind of people?"

"It makes perfect sense. You… did you remember back then, when we went public and reveal the existence of Magius to the whole world?" Haruto took a step back to allow Helena to examine the specimen before them. Said specimen merely glared back at them with pure hatred in his eyes. "Pino… mentioned how some of her emissaries arrived first before her. Medieval humans then worship them as Gods and all…"

"LIES! YOU FORKED TONGUE DEVIL IT'S A LIE! LIEE!" The man screamed and wailed.

Helena is starting to see the pattern here.

"Now imagine how that feels to humans. Religion is the worshipping of Gods… if you're a lapsed follower or the more rational ones, and then you found out the God you worship this whole time is an alien from outer space. How does that make you feel?" Haruto didn't wait for an answer. "Now imagine if you're him. Imagine… if you're a radical religious fanatic. Your whole life is only focused on the faith that you believe, your very sanity itself is defined by the words of the Divine. And then someday, someone… no… the very God you worship suddenly came and stated: sorry, we're just space Aliens saying hi. What does that do to you? Psychologically?"

"DEMON! YOU'RE DEMON! YOU'VE TAINTED ME! O LORD FORGIVE YOUR ACOLYTE FOR BEING SO WEAK! DEMON! DEMOONN!" The commander is screaming and frothing now. His wrist is bleeding in his struggle to break free.

Helena was nowhere near as fanatical as this madman before them, but even she was overwhelmed by the sheer epiphany of the chaos. Religion. Science. Faith. Technology. Everything humanity had accomplished, everything they believe in… were suddenly put into question. Any sane man who tried to think about the sheer complication that arises from this for prolonged period might just as well lose their sanity…

"In his eyes… I'm the physical personification of every blasphemy imaginable to his deity. Now they hate me just as much as they hate their God for creating me."

"They butchered my people!" Helena had long since turned her rifle away from Haruto to this madman. "MILLIONS OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS! If they hate YOU so much, why not just go after YOU? What point does this genocide have!?"

"I've told you about how Magius can seamlessly mingle with the populace, yes? Here's the rub: how do you sort out the clean ones from the hijacked? They'd rather kill everyone and let God sort them out."

"Just for that they…" Helena gritted his teeth. "For your fucking deity!"

"BLASPHEMY! BLASPHEMY!"

"Name me any atrocity humans had not committed in the name of their God." Haruto cut the shouting match short. "The Crusade. Taiping Rebellion. The Witch Hunt. The Spanish Inquisition. This is no different. You see Genocide… to their eyes, this is their Holy war. Their Jihad. The modern day Crusade. This. This is the kind of men Anderson gathered to his side, apart from those mercenaries. The sort of people who will stop at nothing to make sure every last one of my kind is destroyed, no matter the cost."

Haruto glared down at Jon. He took the pistol that so failed the train commander and took a magazine from his pocket. He reloaded the gun with a full magazine. "I've jacked you. In your mind, I've corrupted your very soul, yes? Fine." And then, Haruto undo the cuff on his chair… and handed him his gun. Jon took the gun with trembling fingers, and then, to his shock, Haruto grabbed his gun holding hands and placed the barrel right between his eyes, point blank. "Go ahead. Pull the trigger. Absolve yourself of your… sins. Let me see if your faith will be rewarded."

Jon was confused at first… but then the fire of determination lit up again in his eyes and he pressed said gun to the demon's head. "God give me strength!"

BANG!

Helena jumped a bit when the weapon discharged… and then…

"…and that's all the strength of your 'God' amounts to." Haruto was unharmed safe for a small etch on his forehead where the flattened bullet had landed. Said etch also quickly disappeared before the spent shell even hit the floor.

Jon was speechless in his seat. Haruto turned away and leave. "Fight it or accept it… we both know how it's going to end."

Helena, who was shocked and stupefied at the sideline suddenly regained her senses and followed Haruto. Jon looked at the gun in his hand…

"You're sure it's okay to leave him alone?"

"He knows nothing, and the system was purged of its origin point, as usual. But we do have its destination."

BANG!

They hear a gunshot then a silent thud. Neither he nor Helena was hurt. So Haruto continued on. "He's just a pitiable scapegoat."

"What?"

"You should notice it by now." Haruto looked at Helena. "Why the complete disregard of civilian lives? Why kill so many people just to pick a fight with us? Do they not fear the international backlash over the crimes of humanity being committed here? They wouldn't dare to do all that… if they had not prepared… a proper scapegoat." Haruto frowned. "Mercenaries and Religious radical fanatics are just one facet. There's also War Criminals, Eco Terrorist, Deathrow inmates, and etc. If shit hits the fan and everything fell apart, they can just shift the blame to these disposable pawns. On worst case scenario, they have an easy and perfect alibi."

"Easy?"

Haruto groaned: "Entire armies of elite Arus soldiers were mass possessed by Magius to commit massive atrocity against mankind… that sort of thing."

Helena blinked in realization. That's right… Haruto mentioned earlier the difficulty of sorting out the possessed from the innocent… But… apart from that, there may also be liars and schemers who made use of the situation and commit these atrocities for personal gain and then blame it on the alien. She began to understand now why Arus army can be so brutal so easily. At the end of it they can just wash their hands clean… "…but why…? Why this excess? Why would he go this far…?"

'…when immortality and eternal youth is the ultimate prize, wouldn't you?' Haruto refrained to say such a thing out loud. Instead, he said: "Guess that's just how much he hates us. Hate my kind. And Magius as well."

Helena frowned in deep thought. All these deaths and destruction… it was all just to get to him? She looked at Haruto. A spark of anger welled up in her heart. If only he never came here - NO! She snapped out of that poisonous thought almost in an instant. If those sons of bitches decide to utilize this much excessive force, that is their choice. Haruto wasn't the one coming here bombarding entire cities with virus bombs, slaughtering millions of people to target the possible small percentage of its people. Right now, what is needed here is not disharmony, but unity in the face of the greater evil: a mad man unhesitatingly slaughtering entire cities. The blaming game can wait until the dust settles.

As Haruto and Helena retraced back to the former's path of carnage, they ran across the Militia squads. They seem looked a bit nauseated seeing this many dead human bodies piled up across the corridor.

"They still need more training."

"They're not soldiers!"

"Neither was I." Nowadays, Haruto could hardly believe he used to vomit from just seeing other people's blood. Now he began to learn to enjoy the taste, or at least, numb himself from the unpleasant flavor of blood. "But we're fighting against those who will not hesitate to blow themselves up to bring down their enemies. They had to stop hesitating or they, and their loved ones, will pay the price."

'Neither was I? What does he mean by that?' Helena blinked. But nevertheless, Helena saw the truth of what Haruto said.

Even with all the training she grinded into them, they still lack the experience to NOT hesitate when pulling the trigger. Especially when they found some human enemy mixed in. Come to think of it this is really the first time they encountered actual human enemies. These militias were originally civilians. Killing is not something they're used to do. When faced with a complicated concept of taking a human life, it is only human that they hesitate. And perhaps, that's what gave rise to the subsequent situation.

"GAAAH!" Helena had just entered the room when she found this scene. An Arus human soldier holding one of her men in a chokehold and held him at gunpoint. He's using him as a shield, and the rest of her team don't know how to deal with the situation. That's probably how the Arus Soldier managed to went through them so easily. But Helena was different.

"Put him down!" Helena kept her rifle up.

"You put your gun down! Or I'll kill him! I'll kill him!" On cue, Haruto came barging in with a kick. Like Helena he wasted no time and pointed his massive rifle at the hostage taker.

"You have no chance! Let him go!" Haruto flanked him. And now he had two rifles to cover from two different directions. He furiously changed his point of view between Haruto's gun and Helena's, not wanting either to take a chance.

Haruto frowned and concentrate. He gently placed the man's rocking head on his crosshair, preparing to take the risky shot…

Suddenly, a knife slink past the man's guard from behind, and before he knew it, the knife stabbed into his throat, severing his vocal cord. The Arus soldier fell down on his knees with blood trickling out off his stabbed throat. Somehow, the stab was not lethal, as he still managed to stagger a bit and turn around one last time to see the one who did this. A black clothed Militia who opened his helmet to reveal a gaunt tall man with unkempt brown hair.

Haruto lowered his rifle when he saw Kato's familiar face… but what happened next really shocked everyone. Kato took the knife he used to slit the man's throat… and as the blood burst out of the said throat, he stab the knife again furiously, repeatedly, on the shocked Arus soldier in a wild lashing. Carve his eyes, stab his chest, sliced his face, cut off his ear… every part his knive can reach… until blood splattered all over his face. And the man… he was… smiling in ecstatic joy as he bathed in every droplet of blood bursting out of the poor soldier. And if his vocal cord wasn't slit, the soldier would be screaming in agony… but his expression showed he felt every stab all the way to the end.

When the soldier finally died in a pool of his own blood, none of the militia had the stomach to look safe Haruto and Helena.

"The fuck was that for?" Haruto asked.

"Guns are too quick." He snickered as he licked the blood from the knife. "…there's no fun in it, at all." When Kato sheath the knife back to its sheath, his psychotic smile also faded, reverting back to his usual cold and lazy expression.

None of them were amused. Haruto wrinkled in disgust. "And you people call me a monster."

Apart from that one sour note, the hijacking went without a hitch and in less than 10 minutes, the train and its cargo of hardware and weapons are now theirs. The Militia climbed back up the Jormungandr's open hatch to finalize the completion of the mission. "Now, one last trick." Haruto looked up. "Bob?"

"Bob! Bob!" The hulking man poked his head out of the Jormungandr's hatch with a smile. "Bob! Bob! Bob!" He happily showcased something over his head. It looked like a… Small UAV drone with a jet on one hand and a remote controller on the other.

"What is that thing?"

"I had Bob put it together. Lower it carefully Bob!"

Bob lowered the drone to Haruto's welcoming hand and then he get to work. Haruto attached a device and something else on the head of the drone. Helena recognized it immediately. "Isn't that this train's transponder?"

"Yep."

Putting two and two together, Helena raised an eyebrow. "Where do you learn all this? No, wait, you suck it out of someone else's head, didn't you?"

"Nope. Learnt it from a movie." Haruto turned on the drone and programmed its destination whilst the jet burst out in flames, ready to launch. "Malcolm-san! Prepare to lower the speed of the train on my mark!" Above, Bob delicately and half dumbly played around with his radio control, adjusting the speed and thrust power of the drone so that its speed matches that of the train.

After a while…! "Mark!" Haruto gave the signal, the whole train slowed down whilst the drone launched away, carrying the transponder and the special package by Haruto straight towards its intended destination.

"Bob, bob!" Bob sadly waved his latest creation good bye.

Arus just had an entire train robbed out right under her nose, and with the transponder trick, it'll took them a while to notice it. From their command center, it looked as if nothing is wrong, what's with the transponder is still giving out the signal denoting the supposed location of their moving train, travelling at the same speed as the train itself. The Drones stationed to patrol the mechanical line also wouldn't notice a thing. They care little of the size and shape of the object crossing on their watch, so long as it's giving them the right signal. Which is why they didn't give the drone flying overhead a second look, seeing it's still sending the right transponder signal for the train scheduled to pass there.

The same however, could not be said to the base that was supposed to receive the train. Instead of the scheduled 7 car train, a lone puny drone arrived at their doorstep. "Uh… huh?" the officer deigned to scratch his not so itchy head… until he noticed a peculiar canister Haruto had also installed into the body of the Drone. The overseeing senior officer noted the Canister is glowing dangerously bright… "INCOMING!"

Too little too late. An explosion equivalent to several tons of TNT engulfed the station, and obliterated the foundation for the base above them. About a quarter of the base collapsed when its foundations were torn off from beneath it.

All this is happening before Red's eyes. Red, who had just arrived with Hellsing for a routine maintenance and refuel, now had to watch the base crumble before him. Somehow, he just knew that the only part of this scene that wasn't planned was the fact he was there to witness its aftermath. The man frowned in the cockpit. "…somebody's been very busy…"

00000000000000

"Moreee… Ahn… more… Ahnn… fuck me moreee…"

She couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth.

"Feel so good! Aaahnnn! Cum! Cum! I love cum! AaaHH!"

He's holding her cum covered body tight, his arms slung in from behind, grabbing her breasts, squeezing her nipples, holding her tight in place as he rammed his rod deep into her swollen womb.

"Cum in me! Pour it all inside me! Ahhhnn…!"

Her belly felt like they've been stretched past its limit, its content rocking violently, each movement squeezed her bowels, which in turn apply pressure on her lungs. He already filled her with so much fluid, it felt like she was pregnant… Her womb is so overstuffed its content is overflowing out of her seams, and still he kept grinding in and out of her, pouring his load into her entrance even when its excess spill out.

"AAAHNN! Haruto's cumming in me…! CUMming in mee! So full! SO full!"

He's behind her now, still ramming that inhumanly indefatigable manhood into her supposedly already ruined womanhood. They should've been ruined by now, his monstrous lover had already see to it violated for… days… That's right… they're not counting hours or minutes… but days. She know this for certain because she was counting the time she spent being lucid whenever she woke from the madness, and if she were to sum the accumulated time all together, they easily went past two days. And if she were able to somehow add that with the time she spent in raving lunacy and lust…

"Feel so good! So good! More… moreee!"

Again… by all accounts… after cycle after cycle of madness and sanity she had endured for so long, her body should've been broken beyond repair by now. But during those episodes in which she regained some semblance of her sanity, she would notice her breasts remained as stiff and aroused as when she first started. Her genitalia remained as tight as before. Every inch of her skin has been covered with both dried and wet love juice but her body temperature maintained a constant heat of arousal, some of her sweat had apparently turned to steam, but her pores kept pouring. Her heart had been beating a mile a minute for… days… the blood pressure should've ruptured her veins and blew up said heart… Judging by the amount of liquid pooling beneath them, they should've excreted enough bodily fluid to dehydrate two copulating teens into a pair of dried up husks… In summary, they should've died in several dozen ways due to their unnatural sexual activity…

"Oohhh… Haruto… your dick filkh is pouring inside me… aaaahhhh! Feel so good… so good…"

except they aren't dead.

"My stomach is messed up… you're messing up my insides… your cum is pouring… pouring… POURING…!"

They remained as aroused as they first started. The ecstasy didn't wane… their stamina remained. Her lucidity remained. Even her muscle ache disappear as quickly as they appeared…

And it occurred to her. They're superhuman. They're not human anymore, every time their bodies were injured or degraded, their healing factor will reset them back to the way they were before the damage. They'll never get tired, never loosen, their bodies will remain in constant state of peak sexual performance.

"AAHNNN! Your penis, AHHNN! Tearing me apart… AHHNN! everything fucked up inside me! AHHNHAAAHH! INsIDE MEE!"

did she just thought: peak sexual performance…?

"AAAHNN! YOUR DICK IS TEARING MY INSIDES….! AHAH! AAHHH! FUCK ME HARDER!"

Yep. She just thought that even after being continuously raped for days. She hadn't eaten or drank anything but the thick juice splattered allover their body, and apparently, that's all the sustenance she needs. She didn't feel hungry or thirsty… no… she just can't feel anything else. Just pleasure, ecstasy… and little else.

"AAAHHHNN! AAHHNN! I'M COMING AGAIN! AAAHANN! AAAHN! HARUTOOO…! YOUR FILKH IS COMING AGAIN! AAAAAAAAAHHH"

Her body's okay… her mind… was a different story entirely.

"I'M MELTING! MELTING! AAHHH! AAHNNN! SO HOT! AAHH! AH! AHHH! CUM IN ME! CUM! CUM! CUMM! AAAAHHHH!"

Some time ago, she was still resisting. She was still disgusted. She was still against the idea, even regretting the decision of ever came anywhere near this monster. Screaming and begging for someone to rescue her…

"Ahnn! AAAAHHNN!" Her breasts were pressed against the steel wall, her nipples smothered each time Haruto slammed his waist unto her buttocks. "So deep…! So deep…! AAHNN! Haruto…!"

That… that felt like another life.

The part where their genitalia connected had long since been drowned in their mixed juice. The reflective surface of the steel wall… depicting a lustful whore, covered in fluid, screaming and begging her rapist for more. In fact, she took an active role as well. He's taking her from behind, so the only thing she can do is to present her waist up for him to fuck her furiously. Not enough. She took one of his arms and had him squeeze her erect nipple. Not enough. He then changed position, lifting one leg up until it's slung over his shoulder, twisting her body so that he can fuck her from the sides. And then, holding her waist he rammed her even deeper until she can feel the tip is piercing into her womb, grinding her insides … But it's still not enough…

The bite. That's it. "Bite me… Haruto bite me… please…!" Saki perhaps meant the bite to came on her neck, as usual… but… seeing her two mounds bouncing furiously gave the insane mate different ideas…

He bit her by the breast instead. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!NN" Saki's eyes rolled upward in madness. Her tongue lolled out as saliva and foam spewed out of her gaping screaming mouth."AHHAHHN! AHAAHNNN! INCREDIBLE! IT FEyT SO GOOD! SO GOOD!" Her body jerked and tensed as pleasure surged through her body, locked in place by that vicious bite by her monstrous lover. She can actually see his fanged teeth sank deep into her flesh and blood were bursting out of the wound. Her breast yanked and stretched to limit, almost like he was going to tear said organ off her chest… but between the convulsing pain and ravaging pleasure… something else happened.

Her heart beats ever faster, and it's like several muscles across her body was stretched and convulsing. If Haruto weren't biting her breast so tightly and locked her in this position as he fucked her, she would trash around and screaming, making weird erotic shapes with her body. But the last shreds of her sanity noticed a few things… apart from her rising temperature, her veins bulged unnaturally, her breasts began to swell and stiffen, its muscles, if there ever was one in there, contracted and toughen. Her neck felt like she was being choked and for a bit she couldn't breathe… she thought she was going to vomit as something swelled there, but then they slink back in, but never reaching her stomach. She wasn't quite aware what happened to her womb on the account of the mess already happening there, but she can feel something is… whatever's happening to the rest of her body is definitely happening there as well… and amidst the disgusting squelch and the screams, she can also hear parts of her bones creaking, snapping, and cracking, with some fangs extended down her own set of teeth. She could've sworn her body is making some weird poses, even bulging unnaturally here and there… but then, her eyes turned green and a spidery mark from where Haruto first bit her by the neck grew larger like some kind of infection.

It all happened simultaneously… or gradually… she couldn't remember anymore on the account of another dose of climax…

"Cumming…. I'm CUMMING!"

SPLRT!

Suddenly, her reflection on the steel was marred by a new type of fluid. "Ehh?"

Her breasts. White liquid poured out of her erect nipples. "Ehhh…?" Milk? Mother milk?

It squirts out of her breast, one nipple spurt it out to the wall, the other poured into her mad lover's mouth, and he hungrily drank it.

And suddenly, it got worse. His temperature was hot before… but now… they skyrocketed even more. His manhood that was somewhat limp inside her suddenly swelled and hardened like steel… a red hot oversized steel pierced deep into her, its size stretched her crevice too limits… pressing tightly against her insides… worse, His pace increased to brutal speed, and suddenly the frequency and volume of his orgasm also increases. He grasped her body tightly, not letting her go as his waist rocked furiously… while pouring his juice into her womb at… dangerous frequency. She's not kidding, if before it took minutes inbetween each climax, now it only took his manhood tens of seconds before he poured into her, again… and again! Wait… he's not pausing or stopping… it's a freeflow! "AAAHHHNN! AHAHHNN! HA… HARUTO…! HARUTO! YOU KEEP COMING! COMING! STOP! STOOPP! STO-AAHHAA!" Her insides, her rocking womb were already filled to the brim by his fluid, they swelled stiff like she was pregnant… but he kept pouring into her… his manhood swelled so much, it's clogging the only way for the fluid can get out, barely anything can come out… it hurts. Her stomach was stretched so much it felt like they were about to burst… And more than anything… the heat. Haruto wasn't the only one whose body temperature skyrocketed, her own temperature is not far behind. "AhAgh! AAAAAAAHHH!"

Her body went into another convulsion. Her insides felt like they were melting, literally merging with his manhood so deep inside her. She can't move away, no matter how much she trash around and writhes, it's like every vein in her body is on fire. Her temperature suddenly jumped up so high, the sweat out of her pores began to instantly evaporates. As this happen, veins bulged out of her skin, bulbous growth erupted and sank back in right beneath her skin allover her body, her figure contorted and twisted… her stretched stomach began to convulse… something is spasming, bulging inside out… And yet… what is this? Her body is tearing itself apart… and they still can't stop fucking each other. Even as her body contorted abnormally, her womanhood is still excreting, and now, her breast nipples are squirting milk like crazy. Unintelligible screams of pain howled from her gaping frothing mouth. Her womanhood, already burning with the lavalike fluid her mate is pouring into her is now in a state of perpetual endless orgasm… and coupled with that, her breasts tensed even more as her nipples too began to squirt… and like her lover, it's not stopping. It's like the multitudes of eruption she had endured for several days was just a joke. One nipple, Haruto enclosed inside his mouth as he desperately gulp down every last drop, the other is spraying allover their body, and together with a flood of sweat they're pouring out of their pores, they evaporate, including her… supposedly… breast milk…

Saki took a whiff of the vapor from her breast milk, mixed with the vapor of her own sweat…

'…it smells so fragr-*'

That was the last sane thought running through her mind. Her body writhes and spasm in shock for the third and final time. It felt like a thunderbolt coursed through her every nervous system, overcharging it, making it hypersensitive… but she can no longer feel anything she touch, no longer can taste anything, no longer smell anything, her ears gone deaf, even her rolled eyes turned blank…

Her sweat… no… it's not sweat anymore… but the thick smell… she doesn't know how it smell, only that it made her feel euphoric… and lustful. So lustful she couldn't think of anything else but to revert to her basic instinct… basic animal instinct… to mate. To breed. It's pheromone. Somehow, her sweat glands had transformed into an organ that excrete pheromone. Humans don't have pheromones, and they lacked the receptors to perceive it. And now… she's not human anymore.

And not just her sweat glands. Her mammary organs also changed. Her breast nipples now still produce milk, but somehow… this milk is chockfull of concentrated nutrients that are easily absorbed by their body. Just by drinking this milk was enough to sustain them, rendering their need for conventional food and drink redundant. The same, apparently, can also be said to their semen and vaginal fluid. That's how they were able to keep doing this for days…

This was never just some violent sex or mating…

This was an evolutionary process. She was being forcefed by her mate with a cornucopia of substances which her magius body absorbed and then used to trigger a transformation. But transforming took a lot of energy. Energy which her future husband provided with all the sex – nay – a massive exchange of fluid they're engage in… and among the things her body had evolved in, was a more efficient bodily system of absorbing nutrients from her mate. Her swollen womb bulged and convulsed at the zenith of its most extreme deformity… before they revert back into her shapely figure. Her swollen belly literally deflated before her very eyes, coupled with this ominous gulping sound coupled with the rhythmic convulsion in his stomach… like it was actively sucking every last drop inside… As every drop entered her system, the nutrients absorbed fed her mutations, her body growing out new organs or changed existing ones…

And then it wants more. Her body wants more…

Because they are not done. They are FAR from done.

Every senses send only one overwhelming command in her mind.

Mate. MATE! MATE! MATE! MAAATE!

The smell of her sweat overwhelmed all her other senses… Her body, burning hot, trashed around, screaming and howling in agony and ecstasy that overload her senses beyond anything a human can handle, and in desperation, she start clawing her head, tearing patches of her own hair as she shook her head in sheer madness.

But then her lover slammed her arms and nailed them to the floor… she could her bones breaking. She didn't have the time to feel the pain because her mate crushed her lips under his, his tongue burst through and a flood of saliva poured in, mingling with her own inside her mouth. And all the sudden, she felt numb. The pain didn't even had time to register, she watched the bone sprouting out of her torn skin, but she felt no pain… the only thing she can feel was this ecstasy of his manhood stabbing in her most sensitive insides. And then this perpetual climax… where they cummed in each other without end… filling her womb until they were so swollen again and was on the verge of bursting open in a viscera… if she had sanity left, she would watch in bewilderment as her belly made this rhythmic pumping motion. The sound of liquid being sucked in was so loud, they would frown if they still sane enough to care. And they shrank back to its beautiful proportion whilst actively pumping in every last drop of her lover's essence, milking in even more than he already let out.

She thought her stamina was all but gone but now, they're bursting out of her every muscle. Her waist is actively moving, together with his pumping hip. Her body temperature is still skyrocketing, but she doesn't seem to care. What's more… remember all those injuries? The vicious breast bite, the hair pulling, the broken bone… by the time her womb returned back to normal state, those crippling wounds were gone. Her supple curvaceous body was restored to its unblemished state… with her sexual appetite not even close to being sated.

The next thing she knew she charged down her rapist, pushing his back down on the floor. His manhood was pulled out of her overstuffed womb for the first time in days, and its content spilling. Their scorching hot temperature cause them to begin to evaporate… and she suck in all in through her nose like it was her fresh breath of air in ages. Sultrily licking her lips, she crawled lusciously towards him, with her maddeningly fragrant and sweating body on top of his, not to stop him, but to do it some more. Her stiff and plump breasts, its erect nipples leaking that potent nutritional fluid, caress his chest and nipples, their sweat turned to vapor and it shut down all higher function of their brain but increases their libido to inhuman levels…

Her reddened lips is forming a mad smile before sealing his lips in a lustful kiss, her tongue wrestling with his as saliva pours in as her hand clawed his mate's hair so viciously until scalps of it were ripped, before they regrow almost instantly… And this hot liquid that pours down his throat is, like everything else from her body, had also mutated into something else. The moment the congealed liquid mixed in their mouths, her senses became blurry and heightened at the same time. Her whole body responded and turned into one huge hypersensitive sexual organ. Everything either of them do to each other cause her to spasm with pleasure.

Her sweat now contains pheromone that will overwhelm their mind with the desire to mate with opposite sex to the exclusion of all else, even her saliva is now an almost narcotic aphrodisiac that will keep their libido high… their superhuman metabolism will keep up with this inhumanity, her breast milk and their love fluid… is the fuel that will keep this debauchery to go on… and on… the final convulsion… she jerked back from her lover as her movement momentarily ceased. Her body erotically writhes as the final mutation was ended with the spider web like scars shining on her neck, her green luminescent eye shining ravenously beneath the bangs of her hair, and fangs grow down behind her luscious flustered salivating lips… her body had completed its change into this… abomination. A beautiful creature of pure carnal lust whose every bodily function was geared for one specific purpose: to mate like an animal she is.

Her womanhood is already dripping, but before more can pour out, Saki had slammed her pouring crevice into his member, instantly causing it to pierce all the way to her insides as the juice splattered out of the seams. And they came… in copious amount… all drank dry by her ravenous inhuman womb. "AAHHAh! AZHHHAAH! AAHHAHHAHAH! AAHHNNN!" Now their waists are moving actively against each other. She came from her womanhood. Her lips devoured his and their tongues lolled inside, saliva spilling the seams of their interlocked lips as her waist moved up and down the length of her lover's rod, its ecstasy magnified, its pain numbed. He came from his manhood. He squeezed her breast as his hip arched upward to stab his rod deeper and deeper inside her. Her nipples poured out their load whilst more of their sweat pour out, turning into more pheromone vapor that drove everyone into sexual frenzy in a vicious cycle. Sweat glisten her perfect body as she moves in sensual rhythm, its vapor blanking his mind amplifying her beauty in the eyes of her mate. Her womb is drinking every drop he poured inside her even as it too excreted its juice, every drop erupted insider her, every drop drank in. Again, and again… and again… until the whole room was choked by it, and their conjoined figure obscured by the rising steam and vapor, with only shrieks and screams to tell the tale…

00000000000000

Haruto snapped awake again from that horror. "Oh dear god, not you too."

"What?" Spike looked to the boy next to him.

Spike was taking a bite of his club sandwich with one hand, while Haruto was taking a bite out of the other hand.

Apparently, while he was feeding off Spike, Haruto blacked out a bit, absorbing some more memories… and apparently it got mixed with Spike's first night with Miranda… which again… incites another erotic memory, witnessing a not so enjoyable flashback about her wife's transformation from vampire to some kind of sexual demoness. Now he understands that it was that moment when her wife's transformation into an elder Magius was finalized. But when they asked Pino on why in the name of all that is good and decent on this universe, did an elder magius of this subspecies is also the most biologically and erotically perverse creature in the world, she nonchalantly replied: "Don't you like it?" That sent the two running away in horror with very red faces.

It wasn't until much later before they finally get an actual technical answer from an unexpected source as to why these perversions were necessary…

"Well, it's a form of evolutionary path Arachabus took when we first came to this world." So says Attlach, the progenitor of that particular subspecies of Magius, and therefore, the ultimate expert. "Arachabus Magius are the nurturer caste of our species. It is our duty to harvest runes in which we then use it to feed our young. We're essentially farmers… or I guess I could say breeders. When we took human bodies that duty didn't change, but we were bogged down by the evolutionary inefficiencies that came with your species' bodily functions. Biting our victim is one efficient way but it drew too much attention and it was frowned upon. It was an eventuality we began to adapt, to develop alternate methods, and evolve the base genepool of ourselves and our host, making it more efficient in its given task."

"By making it the most perverted creature imaginable?"

"We don't even understand the concept of perversion. Nor do we understand why procreation is such a taboo behavior. You humans even labeled us… Succu… inccu… something… we're not particularly fond of that to be honest. Mating is a normal part of lifecycle of any living creature. A necessary activity to prolong a species, nothing more nothing less. We just decided to make it more efficient." Cain explained. "Personally, I think our method is more humane than those hideous brain pods you've seen before. Unlike those machines, we made sure our 'donor' actually survived the harvesting process so that we can harvest some more in the long run. And we do found out that when they do enjoy the process, they produced higher quality runes than if we forcibly suck them out. I do like to point out that when we finally evolve and grew out these organs, our productivity was increased by over 300 percent."

See… unlike the mirthful Pino, Haruto couldn't find any trace of joke or mischief in Cain's flat and almost machinelike explanation. So… they have to accept that these features were made out of sheer practicality rather than some twisted personal taste. Thankfully, as expected of these practical reasons, they found out later these 'features' had been so carefully crafted and fine tuned over the course of centuries of evolutionary development, why, with training, they can even control them like it was another limb and it won't disturb their daily life.

Their sex life though…

But he digresses.

"…I told Malcolm not to think about girls… please… stop thinking about your ex girlfriend, yeah?"

"I am not thinking about her!" Spike blushed furiously… but he froze when he noticed the person in question just pass by in the distance.

"…you love her. You're still hopelessly in love with her. You don't need to admit it, I know."

"You vampires and your damn mind reading. That's severe intrusion on my privacy you know that?"

"For the record, I'M NOT enjoying the experience. Maybe it's time I stop taking from you. The memories I get from you is getting dangerously personal." The two sighed. "Still, having said that… can I ask you a personal question?"

"Depends on the question…?"

"…why did you two broke up?"

"Of all the question…" Spike scratched his head. "…mind if I ask, why you ask?"

"I just remembered Shoko was sulking and crying for a week when the news broke up in the Sports tabloid." Haruto sighed and take a long look into the past. "…trying to cheer her up was a nightmare. Having this rare chance of meeting the one who indirectly caused it, I think I deserve to know why I had to suffer through all that."

Spike chuckled. "Okay… but to be fair… it is a very personal question… so I'd like you to humor me. If I'm to answer this question, I want you to answer one of mine as well."

"That's fair. Shoot."

"…the way you talk about this… Shoko… I can see she meant a lot to you. More so than just a childhood sweetheart. And I can tell the feeling was mutual." Haruto immediately nodded upon hearing that. "So… all due respect to the winner… but I had to ask… at the end of the day… why Rukino Saki?"

"Ah." Haruto nodded calmly. "I see… that's a two part answer for one question. The first one was easy… second was… a bit more complex."

"I got all day."

"The first part… the easy one: my relationship with Shoko."

"That's easy?"

"Yes. Very. And… to be fair, I think at the root of it, you played a part of it." Spike's mouth hung open. "…Shoko… was very upset about you breaking up with Miranda because… she saw a similarity between her relationship with me… and your relationship with Miranda. The circumstances were very similar. It was allover the tabloid, Miranda Kelley was the up and coming politician, rising through the ranks, and you, the top running Football player, the rising local star going international. You two couldn't be more different… but there you were. Together for a photo in every tabloid and showering each other affection in Youtube." Haruto chuckled. "Shoko never once doubted that one day… she will give her shot at taking her father's mantle in the rising political stage. For as long as I know her, she prepared all her life to fill that shoe. She studied, trained… and she had a knack for it, and she could probably be a good leader… actually, events of late had already proven that."

Spike nodded in approval. Everybody already knows about that disastrous but awe inspiring broadcast of a girl who commanded an army of titans with nothing but sheer guts. If that's not leadership, no one knows what is.

"In contrast… I was just… me. Just some average run on the mill guy you can find anywhere. Excluding the super soldier part. The only thing special about me, at least in my opinion, was that she picked me, of all people." Haruto smiled. 'Of course there's also the part where I got a hypnotic suggestion to be fond of her, but that's besides the point.' "Continuing the analogy, she considers your relationship to be a prototype model of what her relationship with me would be like in the future. So… you can understand why she was so upset when you showed her how that kind of relationship MIGHT NOT work out."

"Hold on, are you blaming it all on me!? That's not fair!"

"To be fair, she was only 12 when she came up with the idea." Haruto snickered, and Spike sulked slightly. "…and until recently, I was about to confess to her when this whole hell break loose. But then… this super soldier card was the one life handed to us. And… at first, I tried to pretend that nothing's changed. That we can somehow make it work… but again, life keep handing us shitty cards… And eventually, after everything was laid bare, we both realized… it's just not going to work. If before there may be a perfect chemistry between us… now… with things the way they are… if we force this… it won't do either of us any good. It will just break us. So we agreed to put an end to it ourselves. Our physical relationship… if there ever was one… is over. And it does us good. Now that we're no longer bound by our attachment to one another, we each can now grow on our own, as individuals. Making our own identity instead of relying on one another to craft one. And we're both better for it."

Spike looked on in awe at the smaller boy next to him and smiled in admiration. "So… neither of you regret this?"

"A lot of hypothetical arguments arose when we first decided to end it for good. Chief among then… was what would've happened if the confession did happen, Dorssia never invaded and this whole super soldier crap never happened." Haruto nodded. "And indeed, it would've ended up exactly as one might expect: Shoko and I would've been married, she would be a rising politician, and I will be there to support her the best I can for the rest of my life until we're both old and grey. We would've been very happy… and that was IT. But no more. Looking back to that guy… and the guy I am now… I realized… If I had stayed with Shoko, I would never become what I am now. And… I was never a very ambitious person, everybody knows this, and I still think I am that kind of person… but I'm not the same boy I was when I started this journey. And… bloody has it been, messed as it was… and though it's far from over… I do like the person I have become now. I wouldn't trade that for anything, even if I could go back. And I know Shoko think the same, regarding to herself. She would never become the leader that she is today is she's stuck with me."

Spike nodded in understanding. They're already at peace that they will not be entwined in romantic sense, but their bond is actually stronger. Because the resulting individuals that was born from this separation was a more mature, and greater character than the sum of its parts, and thus the relationship between two had progressed beyond simple romance into an unbreakable trust. "And… what about part 2?"

Part 2… obviously it's about Saki…

Like he could tell him after… THAT

"…to be continued."

"W… Hey!?"

"Excuse me! You haven't exactly answered my question, and I think I've answered more than enough for a day!?"

"Aaahh… that's true…" Spike nervously smiled. "Well, it's a long story…"

"I got all day."

"…no you don't." Spike happily pointed a finger, lo and behold, Miranda is coming their way. As was his MO, Spike was already gone by the time she arrived before Haruto.

Miranda looked incredibly perplexed, but at the same time she sighed in exasperation. "…Commander… I…"

"One of these days, I promise I'll pin him down on the ground before he can escape."

Miranda's usually stiff expression almost cracked at that statement.

"And …if it's any consolation… I've just decided to stop feeding from him." Haruto smiled, and already he can see her expression brightened.

"Is it already that dangerous…?"

"No. But I do make it a personal discipline to know when I had to stop. And it's getting way too uncomfortable… for the both of us." Haruto smirked uneasily… and to Miranda, his snarl bore similarity with how Spike would usually smile. And not just the smile, as has been observed earlier during their 'meal' session, Haruto also began to mimic some of Spike's habits and demeanor. If none were the wiser, they can easily be mistaken for a rather bizarre pairing of older and younger brothers. "Anyway… can I help you?"

"Uh, yes. It's that last train you've captured. We… I don't know, that big man, what was his name… Bob? Well… we encountered a bit of a problem."

"Hmm…"

As Miranda led Haruto to the scene she explained: "We discovered a large number of machineries in that train. Normally we just break them apart for spare parts for our own armor… but… something seems to be a bit different with this one. We tried to break it apart, but Bob got upset for some reason."

"And what does Tessa-sensei says?"

"Well, Tessa only said to let him, but… he's not doing anything he just… watches." Miranda tilted her head. "But Tessa also said Bob wants you."

When they get there, they found Bob looking at these machineries littering the ground. A group of scrappers with their dismantling tool just stood there confused. The large man won't let them do their work, but he's not doing anything either.

"Bob? Tessa-sensei?" When Haruto came, Bob perked.

"Ah, Haruto! Good timing. Can you help, Bob seem really need your help."

"What is it Bob?"

"BOB! BOB! BOB BOB BOOBB!" he kept pointing at the mass of machines. A pile of engines and parts piled up in disorderly fashion. That's all everyone see.

"You have any idea what he's talking about?" Miranda was somewhat confused.

"Bob's a savant… his brain don't work the same way like the rest of us." Haruto frowned and try to see what Bob see. "He sees parts… and separate components… like a jigsaw puzzle. He can see the whole picture just by looking at a single piece… He saw something in this pile… and… he saw a picture of… something. If we try to tear it apart, we ruin the picture."

"What picture did he see in this mess?"

"Good question." Haruto climbed to the part and start picking up objects. Bob observe as Haruto pick one object after another… but he said nothing, until Haruto pick one large part and he called out: "BOB!"

He saw Bob nodded excitingly and he place it away from the rest. He picked another piece, and Bob cried: "Bob Bob!" and he made a grimace. Wrong piece.

Haruto immediately get the game. He started picking out parts from the pile, and every time he get the right one, Bob will call him on it. Part after part, and soon, Haruto began to amass a large pile of object. Some of these parts were really huge, and it took a combined Haruto and Bob's superhuman strengths to lift it delicately in ways a crane could not. "…what the heck is all this, Bob?"

"Bob! Bob! Booob! BOB!" Bob pointed at the Valvrave and then to the pile.

"…" Haruto nodded. The picture he saw is really big, which is why he needs Valvrave's help to assemble it. "Kelley-san, please call in Marie, and tell her to bring the Forge Fists. We had a rather big jigsaw puzzle to assemble."

Soon, the two primate engines began assembling the jigsaw under Bob's supervision. Using the simple trial and error process, they put the parts together until they formed the picture Bob see in his mind. The scrappers were pretty confused at first and help the best they could… but then…

Bob looked again… and suddenly his face made a very upset expression. And he stopped.

"Okay… and this part goes… Bob?" Marie looked at the huge man. He stopped giving instructions… "Bob? Hello? Did I do something wrong?"

"No you didn't." Haruto knew the answer right away. Bob saw the picture… but perhaps it was a vague picture. A very accurate but vague… he didn't know what he was building up until this point… and now that he does, he dislike what he saw, so he stopped. Because now, Haruto, as do everyone, also see the full picture.

The parts that Bob had him assembled had formed… unmistakably, a torso, a shoulder, and an arm. A mechanical giant easily rivaling the Valvarves. A Primate Engine. "We're creating a giant mecha. A weapon of war. Bob hates weapons. If he had known this was a war mech he wouldn't do it." Haruto motioned Tessa to carry the very upset Bob away. "It's okay Bob. You've done more than enough."

"Hoo…" Marie looked at the half assembled mech on the floor. The model looked unlike anything they've ever seen before. It's predominantly white, bulkier than Valvrave because of its armor, but significantly thinner than Dorssian's Kirschbaum. It has the signature of Arus efficiency in design. Like that old American top of the line fighter jet… what was it called? F-22 raptor? And they enlarged and transformed it into humanoid form. And they even include some design features from tanks? But… what is it? Something about its aesthetics that doesn't seem to be Arus style. A pity it was incomplete but…

Two giant robots had already pushed the resistance this far. One more shouldn't hurt.

That's what clearly ran across everyone's head. "I think Bob has already plucked out everything from this train." Meanwhile, Haruto had transmitted the whole construction process to Pino. "What do you think Pino?"

"Well… I was pretty insulted with the way they perverted my Valvrave… but this time I AM impressed. Not a single scrap of Valvrave tech in here… but it is 10 generation ahead of any combat mech ever developed by mankind, excluding Valvrave. Nothing like Kagerou which copied Valvrave, this is a fully original human made Primate Engine."

"Valvrave does play a part. They've studied Valvrave from cranial compartment to heel strut. Learned how to create manmade Valvrave… and the VVV project lasted 20 years. And this is Jeffrey. This is Arus. Plenty scientists to gain plenty inspirations and new ideas from your designs. Not copying, but to come up with something truly revolutionary. Give an R&D that much time and unlimited funds, I would be surprised if it didn't push human technology forward by at least 100 years."

"And they chose not to tell me. Just like they chose not to tell me about Project Grimm." Pino chuckled bitterly. "The creator in me just couldn't help to be both tickled pink and green eyed by this. New technology, new discovery, new techniques… all these new information for me to feed on, I'd say this is first class dish fit for royalty. But… these things… I imagine they were created to kill you off once you're finished with us."

"Can't have an army of super soldier running rampant in the new world order."

Meanwhile, the resident mechanic confidently stated. "We're missing a few limbs… and of course, the weapons are not there but I think we can build it with some extra parts… and the leg… and of course, there's no weapon here. We did amass quite a stockpile of parts. Or… you might raid another train."

"I'd say I got lucky." Haruto replied, move away from his link with Pino for a moment. "I can try… but… can we use this?"

"We might… sir… here's something rather weird." The technician showed his point of interest. "This unit DOES have a cockpit. So it's not a drone… but… I don't see a controller. Not even a window screen or whatever… Instead we have all these cables and ports… and… judging by the length of the cable… I think it's supposed to be connected to cockpit controller systems."

"Hmmm…" Haruto frowned. "Pino… what do you think?"

"…that's not a power cable. It's a two way electrical transmission unit…" Pino snapped in realization. "…those are nerve cables. They were designed to be connected directly to human nervous system. Theoretically they'll be able to control this mech by thought… But there's no dampener, no suppressor… of course it makes the transmission significantly faster… but how are they planning on protecting the pilot from the electrical surge?"

"…they don't." Having seen the extent of bio-cybernetics hybrid he'd seen so far (brain controlled drone) Haruto imagine the pilot would have some cybernetic grafting. Maybe the dampener was built in into the implants? "I don't think we'll find any control system. Can you try jury rig the controller from the Ideal or Kirschbaum?" He asked the engineers.

"Even if we could, we'll still need an operating system compatible with the unit."

"Programming…" He looked at Pino, who shook her head. This is more of Akira's forte… but…

"Too complex. OS file too big to be downloaded through this link. Can write the OS. Need to actually be there for install."

And Haruto knows that's not exactly doable at this time. "Very well… We'll raid other trains. We'll see what else we can find. Try to put together what you could." The engineers' face brightened. The prospect of finally getting their hands on some giant bot for their own use is as exciting as it could be.

Haruto said this so very easily, but deep in his head, he also calculated the risk. Either he's giving them something to help the fight… or something powerful enough for them to stab him in the back later on. Which is why he also uploaded as much data as he could to Pino for her to analyze. "In any rate… I imagine they would know about the theft by now. I may not be so lucky next time."

"And… let's say you finished it… who's gonna use it?" The Engineer asked.

Haruto didn't answer. He simply looked up towards the command bridge. He can see the Renbokujis looking down with calculating eyes at his latest loot.

00000000000000

Aoi Yoshihito.

Alias: Lady Cyan, Miss Blue, Miss Thraxx, Dirty Mary, Lady Boom

Expertise: Explosive and Chemical Warfare

Wanted for suspected 12 bio terrorism on 8 countries

Known civilian career: Lead Vocalist for the Blue Ring band.

…now that last part was the most recent addition to this character's profile. And to say it confounded all Dorssian Analyst anywhere would be an understatement.

Were we THAT stupid that we MISSED THIS!? They asked themselves.

The answer is…

0000000

"WAAAA!" The nurse who just went into a certain medical ward ran away in terror, thinking she just saw a ghost.

She ran past Red who had just arrived after that disastrous maintenance run. The man took it in his stride, as if knowing the cause.

He entered the room, and there, she waited.

"…when we were young… we would often fool around with how we looked so much alike… even though we behave so differently. Sometimes… we would use that to our benefit as well. When I stole make up from the mall, it was she who lied to the cops, pretending she was me and that she was at home nursing our mom all day, confusing the hell out everybody. When our fucking dad beat her so badly that she was unable to attend to an important chemistry exam, I pretended to be her, took her place and get her an A plus. We thought it was fun. So… we keep at it. We improve on it. We learn about each other… we dressed the same, we acted identical, we lived in each other's life, we were almost one person. We even fell in love with the same guy… and we didn't mind. We shared him, and he didn't have a clue, not even until she broke up with him for some stupid typical shit. That's when I noticed something funny… people mistook me for my sister more often than the opposite." She snorted. "They know her more than they know me. She likes to be the center of attention, she likes to be seen, to socialize, to make friends… And me? I was a loner. I stayed in the lab like a good little nerd while she would party. Mom even said I had dad's violent streak. So I tried to be like her… and I was successful… too successful."

"I don't resent the fact people like my sis more… but I do want to be me. Then… certain people took notice of my… unusual talent… I left to join the army… and she… suitably, aspire to be an idol. I thought to myself… hey… finally. Something just for each of us. I became a nameless black op international bio terrorist… she became a world renowned idol… our two professions couldn't be more different… people dismiss it to be something too stupid to be true. No one… Not even Dorssian intelligence can connect my dear sister, the famous lead idol, with the nameless, ruthless cold blooded bio terrorist who creates dirty bombs for a living. People only knew Aoi Yoshihito, the lead singer, the idol… and I… her twin… was forgotten. It's like I don't even exist."

There, sitting next to the disfigured Miss Blue on life support was another girl… identical in every way with her twin sister, at least before this happened.

"Living in obscurity suits me just fine. Dorssians are too much of an asshole. I will not put them above taking my sister hostage just to get to me. But… praise heavens, they never make the connection. She knew what I did, of course. She disapproved, obviously. Not for what I did to other people… but of the danger to myself. She tried to understand me, of course. Understand my work… so she picked up a few things from me. Tried to study chemistry… pick up martial arts and squeezed off a few in the shooting range… I even took her to my workshop, gave her some homemade cosmetics… taught her a few things about explosives and we always had fun detonating junks, creating a colorful mess in the chemistry lab with my chemical bombs… But I told her to stay away. Stay far away from my life. Told her to erase me from the family registry. It took her much persuasion before she finally agreed. But then… then… that damn accident happened. Some of her teammates… they thought it would be funny to insert a living octopus inside her meal. It would be fun, they said. Life octopus is a delicacy, they said. And they were laughing when she start to choke. They aren't laughing anymore, are they!?"

Her fingers gripped tight. But she looked lovingly at Red with warm gratitude in her eyes.

"…it took my entire life savings to outfit her with the latest enhancement to save her life… using some of my own concoction to counter the poison… but it… ruined her. Her vocal chords… were irreparably damaged by the poison. She's alive… and we do have some high grade audio prosthetic so that she speak like normal… but she can't sing. She can't be an idol anymore. It… it destroyed her. Singing was her life. Her greatest joy. I… tried to comfort her the only way I know how… I trained her, give her new outlet to vent that rage, made her stronger, tougher, smarter, faster… I made sure no one will ever be able to hurt her again… If once I tried to be like her… now she tried her best to be like me… and… just like me… she was successful…" She looked at her sister's disfigured form… "…too successful."

Kon Yoshihito, twin sister of Aoi Yoshihito and the REAL Miss Blue got up from her seat. She wiped away the tears from her eyes, and sheer cold fury shines. "You're going to tell me who did this."

"I will. But not before I tell you that we have a plan."

Kon grumbled. Knowing Red, his plan usually took a while to prepare… "When will you begin your plan?"

"As soon as the rest of the Six Sense is assembled." Before she can say anything, Red followed: "…and we're just waiting on you." To emphasize this, another woman appeared at the door and gave her a reassuring smile.

Kon paused for a moment, and then she calmed down considerably before taking the air of a professional bio bomb expert. Lady Boom, Dirty Mary, Lady Thraxx, the real Miss Blue. "Alright. Shoot."

00000000000000

There are still many pockets of resistance in this module.

Despite Arus efforts, many actually survived their assault and rise up to fight back, with surprising competence to boot. In fact, if it weren't for their overwhelming number of anti Magius droids, it is highly unlikely Arus could withstand the onslaught of resistance attacks as long as they did.

After all, they were interfering in what is essentially still an active warzone between two major factions: Jior and Dorssia. Neither of which had yet to run out of steam when they come in. But… here's the problem. The biggest problem. These two factions were fighting each other before… and they're still fighting each other even now! Even when facing the greater evil that is Arus, they still couldn't find it in themselves to make peace and compromise. Little wonder why Arus was able to overwhelm them so quickly. By the time someone had enough sense to tell everybody else to get it together, Arus momentum was unstoppable, and now it's every man for themselves.

Then New Jior came along… and the situation became even more chaotic. By some pure coincidence, the New Jior insertion team, unintentionally split into two, both encounter resistance that was once part of the Jior faction. That made the integration relatively easy. The students of the Sakimori kids were mostly welcomed back as a long lost and much awaited powerful ally, never mind the vampire super soldier bit. But this does not solve the fundamental issue.

An issue unintentionally exuberated by the sheer might of the Valvraves. Before the New Jior arrived, the Resistance factions were in desperate times, and desperate measures need to be taken. Desperate enough for them to easily accept aid from an army of Space Vampire Super soldiers with their alien superbots… but not desperate enough to consider allying with their former hated enemies, it seems. Not that they didn't consider it, and given time, they might eventually decide to do just that… but when the New Jior arrived so quickly, the situation became less desperate, and that idea was stamped as unnecessary. From day one, the Jior resistance faction made it clear that they still hate the Dorssian to the bone, and if the Arus can just do away with them first, or that if the Valvraves would just wipe them out along with the enemy, that would be even better.

It's a sentiment that New Jior did not share. Against all odds, the New Jior was far more tolerant to the idea of joining hands with what was once their greatest enemy. With a leader whose philosophy in life is: 'let's all be halfsies' of course they are. What's more, it's more tactical, given the present circumstances, to make friends rather than enemies, even if those friends were former enemies. It just put them in disbelief that at THIS point, some people can still be THIS narrow minded.

"This is as ridiculous at it is unethical!" Yusuke protested loudly to the sound only screen. "You LIED to us. You told us there's no ally here, but there IS!"

"Dorssia is not our ally! Hell, you can even consider some of them practically droids! It should be no brainer for you guys!" The guy on the other side actually had the nerve to sound so cheerful about it.

"Thing is, we DO have a brain. And no, we DON'T consider these flesh and blood humans as droids." The once meek nerdy boy can now growl so murderously, the voice on the other side choked.

The triumphant Behemoth stood cross armed amidst a field of crumpled or sliced off Kirschbaum, Ideals, and Waffe. Their pilots, banged up and dizzy, but alive enough to stood befuddled atop their ruined mechs, wondering, among other things, on how the hell they survived. Then they saw the Dainslev floating calmly behind the bulkier mech with their greatest commander in its hand, and little is left to wonder.

"W… Why do you care? The Dorssian are your enemies too, aren't they?"

"Didn't you read the news? They were our enemies. Now their nation's dissolved, their home country occupied by aliens, their tyrannical leader is dead, their emperor is in our custody, and their soldiers are fighting on our side right now! Those who are here is fighting AGAINST Arus, same as you! Why can't you just fight together!?"

"Well, they sure as hell don't share that sentiment when they attacked you without warning, do they?"

"We don't give a damn about that!" Raizo followed in, even angrier than Yusuke. "You lied to us! We're all supposed to be working together, not stab one another in the back! One more bad intel like this again, and we'll turn our guns at YOU guys! Understand!?"

The transmission was cut from the other side at that juncture. Yusuke scratched his not so itching head in frustration. "Geez, I can't believe these people!"

"…" Raizo sighed, but that was only half the problem. Down there, the surviving Dorssian pilots looked up to the yellow Valvrave with hate. By the way, the whole conversation was being broadcasted full blast for everyone to hear. So now, everyone knows that the Valvrave wasn't coming there to destroy everything… but then again, the Dorssian did open fire first.

"You know, this whole mess wouldn't have happened if you hotheads would just stop and listen to us for one second! I thought you Dorssians were renowned for your cool headedness and discipline."

"Valid point." Cain followed. "I saw the records, you opened fire at the Behemoth as they approach, no warning, no offer or parley… I don't recall Dorssian military is about shoot first, ask questions later." 'At least, not unless when it's absolutely necessary…'

"Shut the fuck up!" A pilot shouted, startling even Cain. If X-Eins was here, he would've shot the disrespectful soldier in the head. "You've been attacking us day in day out, do you really think just because you spare us now then we can just let that go? A few days back you wiped out our entire supply caravan!"

"Attacking you day in day out? A few days back?" Yusuke and Raizo looked at each other, both trying to remember if they had attacked something they shouldn't have… but… "Oi, buddy! This is the first time we actually meet you guys!" Raizo rebuked.

"Yeah, nice joke! Then I suppose a ghost came blasting into our base a few days ago, huh?" The pilot growled back. "We saw the data! A larger than average Valvrave with the ability to split into segments! Exactly like yours!"

"A… Haa?" Raizo scratched his head, and Yusuke frowned. That's the exact description of their Valvrave… "Wait… could it be…"

"Yes. I suppose that is to be expected." Cain caught on and nodded. "The Faux Valvrave you fought the other day, the Hellsing, was a copycat of unit 01… that being said… it stood to reason there should be a copycat of your unit 03 somewhere."

Yusuke and Raizo's eyes widened. But of course. They've been attacking bases left and right… it's actually odd they haven't run into another one those fake Valvrave until now. "Alright then. Nee… guys… can you give us the data about that Valvrave that's been attacking you?"

"HU~UH!? Why the fuck would we want to do that?"

"Well, because we're gonna help you take care of that copycat Valvrave problem. It just so happen, we were also hunting the same prey too. A~nd it's better to work together than against each other in these circumstances."

"I think you all should understand by that recent conversation, our side had given up more than just some new mechs." Cain suddenly interjected.

"Cain… Dressel…" more than a few heads turn up when the living legend of Dorssia talks.

"As you have heard, this one came here by a bad intel provided by some unscrupulous resistance cell. They will be dealt with sooner or later." Point in fact, a few days from now, said resistance cell would be wiped out completely, having alienated the one thing that had kept them alive this long. "Given the way the communication ended as such, we have perhaps irreparably damaged our connection with that particular cell. And you're aware for whose sake have we actually gone so far?"

"Uhh…"

"The only reason we had that liberty is because of our military might. We can easily create or sever relationships with any other resistance cell in this module. And let's be honest, we have our own mission, and it's much easier if we just ignore you guys and concentrate on that."

"Like hell we wi-mmph!" Raizo was about to protest, but Yusuke clamped his mouth shut. Let Cain do the bluffing here.

"That being said… you elites of Dorssia should understand how inefficient that would be, yes? What's more, let's be pragmatic here. The only reason Arus was able to get this far is because you won't stand together to fight a common foe."

"You're asking us to surrender to Jior!?"

"Surrender or working together, whatever the terminology, decide for yourselves what's best to be done in this situation?"

"Don't think we can just let go!" One of the Dorssian pilots growled. "After all our brethren you've massacred now you're gonna help us!? Ri~ight!"

"Oh no. No. NO! You don't get to throw that shit card at us." This time, Raizo growled, and Yusuke no longer stopped him. "Some of us actually had our friends killed by you Dorssians! I lost my friends, Yusuke watched his best friends get blasted by cannon, an asshole from your army turned at least a dozen of my friends into orphans by killing their parents right in front of them. So don't give us that boo-hoo-you-killed-my-kin-crap!"

"We're all soldiers!" Yusuke followed. The warrior side of Jeay took in for a moment. "We're all warriors. We all know the risk when we took this job. And the job of warriors is to die. Not to die uselessly, but to die for something! All those kin of yours who had died in battle, all of ours who had died, everyone else who had died from the beginning to this point… we… I cannot speak for all of them, but I had to believe it was not a wasted death. They all died… for something. Believing in something. Sure, call it unfair. You can die, but we can't. But think about it for a second. If your loved ones die, when you die, you'll be with them. But when our loved ones die…" Yusuke's face made a grimace, his firm tune made a sorrowful drop. "…we can't join them even if we want to. We had to live with it… forever." But then he shook his head. "We can go about this cycle of vengeance back and forth uselessly as the enemy barreling down on us, and you all die uselessly… or we can man up, remember our pride and oath we took as warriors, honor those who had fallen to move on to win the day!"

The Dorssians had their jaw agape. Yusuke's speech was surprisingly moving… and its tone is strangely similar to Dorssia's ancient military doctrine that emphasis the honor and pride of the warrior caste. Jeay was an ancient Dorssian warlord who had lived through the old days of the Dorssian imperial dynasty, and Yusuke drew on that experience. Regimes may change, but some of these ancient doctrines remained ingrained in the psyche of modern Dorssian military, so there's no way it didn't have an effect. And as Cain recall, Dorssian army may be stubborn, but he didn't remember them be so stubborn to the point of stupidity… And he was right.

"Okay." The last resistant Dorssian officer finally nodded. "Okay… we'll do what we can, but don't expect much. You've crumpled all our combat units, we got nothing to fight them with!"

"Well…" Yusuke reverted back to his nerdy side as he looked at all these ransacked Kirschbaum and Ideal… and the Behemoth let loose all the fingers of his titan fists. At incredible speed, the fingers dismantle and reconstruct the damaged mech on the ground. "Hrrmmm… I'm running low… ah…" He ordered the fingers to salvage other units that are beyond repair and use them as raw material. The Dorssian pilots stared slack jawed in disbelief as one by one, their broken and damaged mechs were brought back to full recovery. "I suppose it's a good thing I've uploaded Dorssian blueprints into my database. Ma-a, anyway… we've fixed all your combat units… even repair some of the long standing damage, you can give it a try if you want. They'll function at 100% guaranteed!" the Behemoth gave a thumb up.

Cain nodded. Their next target is set.

Time to go Valvrave hunting.

00000000000000

The same issue that plagued one team also plagued the other.

Except if Yusuke's group had the aid of Dorssia's top legendary hero to ease the integration, Haruto had no such luxury.

By now, everyone in the Resistance Cell of Module 217 already knows one fact: their greatest ace, Tokishima Haruto, and the leaders of the Resistance Cell, with the exception of Miranda, DID NOT get along, AT ALL. And oh how this mutual feeling is so filled with passion.

If the leaders of the Resistance can do this war without Haruto, they would gladly do so, but they can't. And daily, with every raid Haruto conducted, the more they felt the need to do away with him, but at the same time, the bigger the reason they can't. At the present, over 70% of manpower in this resistance Cell was composed of those who had been personally rescued by Haruto. They're here to follow Haruto, not the Resistance Leaders.

Similarly, Haruto also felt like he wished he was everywhere but here. A few things kept him here, such as the friends he made, and the many people who looked up to him for hope. If he leave, they WILL follow him to the jaws of hell, if he told them to. And given the fact that he is also the primary alpha target of the most ruthless army on this planet, that final destination seems more likely.

And herein lays the lynchpin of both sides' issue: Haruto's own popularity.

When Haruto first arrived, the few remaining survivors of the Resistance Cell's original members still had a hard time tolerating his presence, given the way he arrived and all. But as time went by, that hatred had begun to mellow, as silently spearheaded by Helena, the one who had the most reason to hate Haruto, but; strangely enough; she's also the one who worked closer with him than anyone else. This, coupled with the rich spoils Haruto procured such as ample food and medical supplies turned a significant part of this anger into at the very worst, grudging gratitude.

And then there were those that Haruto personally rescued during his one week campaign of raids. Those who he brought back to safety; they did not see him as a monster, but as a savior. This goes double when Haruto occasionally managed to rescue someone's relatives or acquaintances. Even when the news of how their savior was a cold uncaring inhuman who had announced he care little for the lives of others, they dismiss such verbal statement by pointing out Haruto's own actions, which speaks louder than any verbal statement: It was he who fought the evil invader that is Arus to rescue them. He who goes to face danger every day to bring them all these necessities that kept them alive. He who risked his life to rescue their kin. That he cares little of the significance of his action merely boosted his popularity amongst the populace of Module 217.

To both sides… this popularity was unwelcome.

To some of the Leaders of the Resistance, they saw Haruto's effort as a challenge to their authority. Everything he did, in their eyes, was a deliberate and calculated action he took to eventually usurp the nation they were trying to rebuild eventually.

To his credit, Haruto honestly wasn't trying to curry favor with anyone. At least, not on purpose. He did what he did, at least in his opinion, simply because it's the right thing to do. And from a logical standpoint, he'd stood more chance accomplishing his mission together WITH the resistance cell rather than against. And to be fair… he doesn't care about them. Call him cruel or heartless, but Haruto felt no obligation or any kinship with those he rescued. At all. His every thought and will is singularly focused on this mission to rescue the fate of his wife and child. If rescuing all these people can make this goal realized earlier why, so much the better. No more. No less.

However, this popularity would later be challenged when, at one point during the one week Haruto finds out, via Akira's hacking, that Miranda has been coerced by the echelons of the resistance to purposefully ignore distress signals that they identified to be hailing from Dorssia. An action Haruto publicly condemned as immoral and unethical. Ignoring protest or rebuke, Haruto went on various solo operation, answering these ignored calls for help. As soon as the first Dorssian survivors reached the shelters of the module 217 resistance cell however, tensions began to rise, with Jior and Dorssia's enmity still fresh in everyone's mind, the two warring factions were ready and willing to continue their feud even now… if Haruto did not interfere with an iron fist. Both sides stand down under this threat, and tried, ever so slowly, to build up some form of compromise, with their trust, gratitude, and no small amount of fear in Haruto as bedrock. But this type of reign of terror from the greater evil did not fully mend the rift, it merely cover it up. Everything looks fine on the surface but beneath it, resentment and anger began to fester.

Noticing this, Renbokuji Jr. feed this friction until it became a subtle division, and the rift it created visibly segregates the Cell into two factions: one faction comprised of those who sided with the Resistance leaders comprised most of the oldguards of the resistance and some new recruits who joined not because they disagree with Haruto, they simply disagree with the company he kept around him. They hate Dorssia more than they are grateful to Haruto.

The other faction comprised of all Dorssian survivors and all those who put their faith in Haruto. At the moment, obviously, Haruto's faction is easily the larger and stronger of the two. Dorssians unanimously followed Haruto without, to their surprise, much complaint. In fact, they kinda enjoy the experience. Haruto's command style strangely resembles Dorssia military discipline, with his humanitarian stamp plastered on it, and for these survivors, his rigor made them felt almost at home. Unlike survivors of Jior, there are no civilians amongst Dorssian's, all of them are most definitely professional combatants, and battle tested at that. With this in mind, Dorssian survivors are a premium, with many would most likely die fighting than hide. But those who survived this long after everything thrown at them are most definitely the toughest or the smartest soldiers Dorssian military can offer. Helena-san had done a remarkable job in training the militia, but one Dorssian veteran easily worth 10 hastily trained militias. And that is why, whilst Dorssian survivors are a minority, their combat potential more than easily outweigh their small number. Plus, the resistance had a surplus of Dorssian tech, but not many can use them properly. They're just useless junk without anyone with the proper knowhow. The Dorssian survivors can provide that knowhow which would've made the Resistance Cell's military potential even stronger…

At least… in theory. Because in practice, they weren't even allowed anywhere near the armory.

And then… there's the other half of Haruto's supporters. As mentioned earlier, this group put their faith in Haruto. Literally. With Chaplain Barton at its head, an unsettling cult of sorts began to form amongst the populace, centered around the worshipping of Haruto and the Valvrave as a messianic figure of sorts. They didn't do so openly, but Haruto would notice the way they stare at him with longing eyes and even made gestures at his presence. Haruto had verbally and openly rebuked Barton to keep this movement under control. "We're fighting an army of religious fanatics. The worst idea is to fight one religious extremist with another!" If this belief is not kept in check, Haruto reasoned, Arus could use this as another excuse for their brutality: that they are there to suppress an uprising of an evil cult or some sorts. This can draw in international attention and escalate the problem beyond what even the New Jior can handle. Barton meekly agreed to this, and encouraged his followers to keep their faith subtle. He also postulates in his sermons that Haruto was not the God, merely its emissary. A subtle compromise, but it'll do for now. Nevertheless, Haruto noticed the number of people praying to his Valvrave is increasing day by day…

Still, despite all these inherent problems plaguing its foundations, it was beyond the shadow of doubt that this Resistance Cell is strong and growing into a powerful contender in this chaotic war. This has been mentioned before, one way or the other, the word spread, and soon, Haruto didn't even need to come to rescue people, people actually began to come to them, in droves! In desperate need of hope, or out of desire for survival, these people came to them in their own ways: with hijacked transport, or transport they already own, or even on foot! Feeding them was not an issue, but pretty soon, that one module was no longer enough to house the burgeoning population. It's past time for them to expand.

And for this kind of major endeavor, no matter how much they hate one another, the two representatives of the two major faction of this cell MUST meet one another, disgusted face to disgusted face.

"The time has come!" Renbokuji Jr. started in a grand gesture.

Haruto didn't like this already.

"Gentlemen. Over the course of this good one week, we have amassed a substantial amount of asset and military might. The time has come at last to deliver the blow that will send a shockwave throughout the nation!" The man stood tall in front of a war map, whipping around a pointing stick.

In that room, the division of this Resistance Cell can clearly be seen: Haruto stood on one side, with his Jormungandr team represented by Malcolm, and a couple of senior Dorssian officers. On the other side was Renbokuji Sr. and several officers of the resistance. Trapped and confused in the middle is Miranda, Helena, and a rather out of place Spike.

Haruto looked around and saw Renbokuji Kitami at the background, calmly sipping his tea, completely ignoring his son. Once again, he plans to just completely ignore this idiocy.

"Our next target, is here." The man proudly smacked his stick on a single point.

Module 010.

Silence. The officers of the Militia didn't say a word, the Dorssian Senior officer didn't even move a muscle in response. Mr. Renbokuji was stuck frozen in his grand posture in bewildered silence. Apparently, he was expecting a reaction or some kind. But the room just froze.

"Interesting." Haruto decided to break the awkward ice. "…and why that module, may I ask?"

"Why, my good commander, this module is of the highest strategic import. It is the first module that was attacked, a center of our government." Renbokuji Jr. continued. "When the enemy first attacked, they immediately crippled various facility, severing the top of the chain of command. I think we need to reestablish the chain of leadership, with which we can begin marshalling various others resistance cell in this Dyson Sphere into one truly unified front, with which we can then drive Arus back." Renbokuji declared this smugly with pride.

In response, the Dorssian officers in the room unanimously sighed in exasperation. "And this is why we managed to defeat these idiots the first time." A Dorssian officer muttered not so subtly under his breath. "How the heck this imbecile survives this long?" others muttered.

"What was that?" Renbokuji snapped- "Silence." Haruto put everyone in their place with a hiss.

Everyone kept their tongue.

Haruto grimly glared across the table. "What's in module 010?"

"I… beg your pardon?"

"What is in that module that is SO important… that you would have our whole army to march HALFWAY across the planet to secure?"

"Wh… no… I… I did not say the whole army, no, no, no…" Renbokuji Jr. snickered. "I was referring to your team, Commander. An elite team of experts can do far more than a massive unwieldy army! You can-"

"Did you not hear me!?" Haruto cuts him off there. "What strategic use does this module have that is so important, that you would risk the utter destruction of our entire standing forces for this module above all others?"

"I… it's… uh…" Renbokuji Jr. starts losing his cool. "W… Wait… A… As I was saying… I… I didn't say anything about… the whole forces-"

"The Valvrave is NOT designed to take and hold objectives, Mr. Renbokuji. We are designed to strike down critical target. HIT and RUN. In fact in the situation when the enemy threatens to recapture an objective, our options are to blow it all up to hell, denying the enemy the asset. If you want to take and hold a module THAT far away; that DEEP into enemy territory, you need to bring about SIGNIFICANT amount of manpower to hold the objective! Bringing everyone to that location consumes a large amount of supplies, defending it even more so! Probably every scrap we have right now is not gonna cut it – but it might just make it, but we'll be left with NOTHING! So I'll ask again, ONE. LAST. TIME." Haruto glared. "WHAT. IS. IN. THAT. MODULE!?"

Renbokuji Jr. was speechless. The answer to that question is… nothing. Nothing really. Module 010 is a governmental sector of the Sphere. The presidential mansion, so to speak. The center of bureaucracy where the country was run. Arguably, there are some things there of note, such as its planetwide communication array and small cache of governmental arsenal, but all of that were practically useless and of little worth. The real reason he was trying to push this plan was so that he can send the Valvrave and its pilot, along with all those elements who supported them, as far away as possible, possibly into harm's way. If he succeeds, that's just fine, because Renbokuji Jr. also played a part by proposing it, if he fails, well so much the better… but perhaps this plan is not very well thought as he think…

"…so… I take it from this silence… is that you don't actually know what's in there?"

Haruto's accusation knocks him out of his stupor. The man was thinking so hard, he didn't realized the dead pan expression stuck on his face for good long while, much to the snickers of the Dorssian officers.

"Well that's just fine." Haruto sighed. "Because I DO know what's in there."

"I… Eh… whuh?" Renbokuji was mixed between shocked and confused.

Haruto produced a portable pc and placed it at the center of the table. Once the switch was on, a holographic depiction of the Dyson Sphere emerged. Pictured on the surface of the hologram sphere are lines and dots, mapping every raid Haruto had committed over the course of the week. The military minds in the room were quick to see a pattern in the jumbled and seemingly random attack path.

"As you all know, over the source of the week, I've attacked several convoys and several trains in the mechanical line. Not only to acquire their cargo, but also to analyze the pattern of their army movements." Haruto continued. "In sum total, I've attacked 12 separate trains. From the pattern of the route these 12 trains took, it is quite safe to assume… that not long after they confirmed that New Jior army has arrived, Arus droid army is in full retreat." To depict this, arrows popped out to depict army movements. And they all depict that Arus droid armies are indeed pulling back bit by bit from the front. "Of course, this is all just a rough estimate. Whenever I attacked the train, unfortunately, they wiped their hard drive clean of its point of origin. And when I fed on the crew, they knew nothing. They only know of the cargo they carry, and how many stops they're making." Everyone still feel queasy every time they're reminded that Haruto is a vampire. "But… the system DO at the very least, reveal its itinerary of where it headed. It was coded, and the crew didn't know how to break it, but, they are using a pretty old Arus coding, which our friends from Dorssia here-" Haruto shrugged at the smirking Dorssian veterans. "-had long since cracked. So we can create a rough estimate… which, after that last car we've hijacked, we can now safely elevate to a well educated guess with a good probability."

Haruto typed in an algorithm prepared by Delphi into the holographic depiction. And then all the arrows on the surface extended and converged on one location.

"Based on the calculation of the train pattern… Delphi estimated a 97% possibility… that this is, IN FACT, Arus MAIN headquarter."

And it is module 010.

"AHA!" Renbokuji shouted in triumph. "I KNEW IT!"

'Not.' Everyone refrained from speaking it out loud.

"Which is why we're most DEFINITELY NOT gonna go there." Haruto immediately stated.

"Erhh… why?"

At this point, everyone, everyone gave Renbokuji Jr. an exasperated stare.

"Because that's pretty much where they concentrated all their forces, and not even I can go in there and hope to survive, considering everything they've thrown at us so far." Everyone was quite amazed that Haruto can still so patiently explained something so useless as common sense. "What I'm saying is that… it's not like we're not gonna GO there, eventually… but we are FAR from ready to get there."

Miranda finally asked. "Then… what is your next objective, commander?"

"My next objective… is somewhere much closer to our home." Haruto tapped a few buttons on the keyboard and the dyson sphere spin away from Module 010 back to their own homefront. "A while back, you people told me that you were in command of 6 modules. I think it's time we return this Resistance cell back to its former glory, yes?"

Now this comment immediately gained support not only from Miranda, but also some parts of the oldguards of the Resistance.

"From way I see it, these 6 adjacent modules are indeed positioned well and of great strategic value: 215 is farming module, 210 is a factory outlet to produce machines, 213 is housing unit. It got everything you need to establish a strong foundation for bigger more effective operation in the near future."

"I see…"

"We are strong enough for that now." Haruto continued. "Helena-san had trained the militia day and night. We've accumulated enough supplies, manpower, ample arms, and munitions… It's past time."

This idea is easily accepted by everyone on the board. In fact, for the first time on the meeting, Renbokuji Kitami finally paid attention.

"Interesting." When Kitami spoke, everyone went quiet. "So, this will be the first major operation. The first large scale counter offensive against Arus. That is interesting. However, as has been mentioned before… an operation of this sort requires leadership-"

"That won't be me." Haruto answered with a smile.

Kitami blinked and smirked. 'Already prepared aren't you boy?' "I see… so…"

"The Valvrave is not good for this kind of operation. We are always the Vanguard. The tip of the spear to carve open the path for those that will come after. So… we'll deal with the opening salvo but after that, we'll return back to the rear. After that, I'll leave the rest to you. But, nevertheless, if to alleviate your suspicion, I can relinquish my leadership rights of this battle for one condition…"

"Yes?"

Haruto glanced at the Dorssian officers. "Give them access to the Dorssian arsenal you've stockpiled."

"Absolutely n"

"How did Arus beat you the first time?" Haruto slammed the table. "In terms of quantity and quality, you guys had Arus beat. But they still won. Do you know why? Because you won't stand together! Don't tell me after having your ass kicked so badly you still won't learn this harsh lesson!? If we're going to do this, we need every gun we can spare. Every. Single. One. I've taught you guys how to use Waffes and Ideals, but those half a dozen Kirschbaum that just sit there uselessly in the warehouse… those are Kirschbaum for goodness sake! Kirschbaum! Apart from the Valvrave, those are the next best thing… provided you know how to use them. Do ANY of you know how to use them!?"

"Typical of Dorssian tech: they pack a whallop, but also notoriously difficult to control." A senior Dorssian officer proudly sums up the characteristics of Drossian ingenuity.

"And what are the chances that if we give them access to these big guns, they won't turn it against US!?"

"Much less… compared to the chances of me overstretch myself and went supernova."

Everyone was chilled to the bone when they were reminded why they had been living down here for the past one week. Haruto's Supernova didn't just scorch their sandy beach into glassed graveyard, the residual heat from the blast still remained, irradiating the surface with temperature high enough to roast an unprotected man alive. And the heat doesn't seem to be going down anytime soon, rendering the beach above an infernal scorching wasteland unfit for habitation for the foreseeable long term future.

"I'd like to add the chances will be even less… with me and the Valvrave taking a rear line. If any of them had any funny ideas, they'll found me at their back with a frown and a very big blade."

"I see." Kitami nodded. "Very well, the Dorssian will now be allowed access to the equipment we have in store."

The corner of Dorssian officers' lips visibly lifted…

"But if you will not lead… do you have someone in mind to fill the post?"

"I do actually." Haruto just nonchalantly pointed a finger to: "I nominate Spike Springfield."

And the ground shattered when Spike's jaw hit the floor. Everyone also jaw dropped, even Kitami. Though the latter immediately recovered. "And… uh… what is the qualification of your nominee?"

"Spike is the proper middle man. He's been helping Miranda san over the course of the week, maintaining order and discipline between the many disparate elements in this group. Everybody knows him, and everybody respects him. If it weren't for him, I think we'll be dealing with riots at daily basis instead of getting anywhere." By now, the only one who had not picked their jaw and composure up is Spike.

"Aaahh… that is true…" Kitami rubbed his forehead. "I definitely acknowledged Mr. Springfield contribution to the cause, but I'm afraid I cannot support this choice. Mr. Springfield has no experience in military action, even if you count the time when he lead his own guerilla resistance, the scale of what we're about to do is far too different. It may be too big of a leap for Mr. Springfield. And too risky."

Haruto nodded calmly as his suggestion was immediately shot down. But he doesn't look disappointed, at all. "Very well. I withdraw my nomination. Do you have anyone in mind, Mr. Renbokuji?"

Eventually, the meeting voted Helena Ironside as the overall military leader of the coming operation. And Spike was also officially recognized as a junior officer of the resistance, with a squad of his own. The plan was finalized in a short order, but before the meeting closed down, Haruto had one last weird contribution…

"Ahh… one last thing…" Haruto raised a finger and everybody paused mid movement. "I think… it'll be a good idea if we transmit some kind of a… speech. A manifesto of sorts, through all frequency… some time before the operation begin, preferably."

"Why on earth would we do that?"

"It's just… it came to my attention that the number of people that actually come here personally is increasing. And the chatter we get from that emergency channel indicates that we may not be the only one who managed to connect to that channel. Others are out there. Listening. Watching. Waiting to see which way the wind turns. If we can somehow connect to these disparate groups… to send them a message that we do have the ability to beat back Arus… they would come and join us."

The Dorssian officers noticed something's off, but they kept their silence.

"A message eh?" Renbokuji Jr.'s eyes glinted with excitement. "Well… if you ask such a thing… then I can probably write something up…"

"Please do." Haruto took the trouble of actually bowing.

And the meeting was adjourned on that weird note.

"Umm… sir? May I ask why?" Once they're out of earshot, the senior Dorssian officer asked the question his peers had been meaning to ask. Even if Haruto had not adopted Dorssian military leadership style, he doesn't seem to be the type who enjoyed such a frivolous fanfare.

Haruto stopped and looked at the veteran Dorssian. He's in his late thirties, with sleeked back jet black hair and missing an eye, with a three vicious scar ran over it behind an eyepatch. "You're… K-Zwei, yes?"

"Sir." K-Zwei saluted by reflex when his name was addressed. An ingrained Dorssian discipline.

"One thing I didn't tell those people in there… is that if even I can already deduce their main HQ's location, it's safe to assume the enemy had already come to the same conclusion."

"I'm still following…" K-Zwei nodded off…

"How do you think they'll feel when, in the midst of that revelation, that I knew the location of their main base… and then suddenly, some idiot start broadcasting some frivolous speech about reclaiming glory and all that, indicative of a large scale operation?"

Zwei twitched… "…they would obviously assume it was a distraction. And… And…" Suddenly, the picture became clear, and the next statement had double meaning in his tongue. "…surely… there won't be someone idiot enough to… make use of this now… will there?" he smirked.

"Fortunately… idiots of this kind really do exist." Haruto pressed a button on his wristguard and they can hear voices from his arm device. Renbokuji the Jr.'s voice.

"Did he take me for that much of a fool? Asking a speech right before an operation like this? It was clear as day what he was trying to do. He was going to make a big show of this invasion to distract Arus army, using our army as bait. And then, he'll go around behind our back to score the big goal! And I know just where he's aiming at. That module which he claimed to be the HQ. Hah! We'll see who takes the glory out of this field."

K-Zwei shook his head. It doesn't take a genius to know what's going to happen next. "Well, I know he's an imbecile… but I didn't think he was that much…" K-Zwei stopped as another epiphany bloomed. He looked at Haruto's flat expression… and it occurred. He had thought Haruto's goal was to further undermine the inept leadership of this resistance… but no. That wasn't all… "…you… you wanted this to happen. You… WERE targeting Module 010 all along! You wanted to go there… and now… now you have HIM giving you the perfect excuse to do so!"

"Whatever on earth you're talking about?" Haruto's words were emotionless and flat. "I'm not going to attack anyone… just to rescue some idiots… and who knows what else might happen?" And Haruto walks away in silence, with only the admiring gaze of the Dorssian officers following his departure.

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And that's the end of Part 1.