To the readers of my other fic… plz understand that sometimes, I really can't control which story I get the inspiration to continue. Even when I do get the flash of bright inspiration, there's no guarantee it'll fit to that fic. Right now, it's this fic that has been getting some of the best ideas… so… This one will continue for now. Some writers found their ideas by being completely still and quiet. I find myself getting new ideas when I write. But whether or whether not those ideas can work or not is a different issue entirely. Sometimes ideas that might not work for this story but it work for the other.

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A few more hours before the operation begins…

Kon was making her preparation on an apparatus on her table inside an isolated chamber. Then she left said device to start working on a chemistry table. She mixed one substance with another in a test tube… she rocked the toxic green content several times while eying it meticulously behind her glasses…

And then she went and drank it.

At first, nothing seem to happen… but then she tensed up. Her eyes bulged, her veins erupted over her skin as turned to neon green color, her fingers went into spasms before it crushed the test tube involuntrar. Her whole body went into a series of convulsion… but then she immediately calmed down as the reaction ceased. She took a deep breath… recompose herself… and then she continued to the next mixture.

She repeated this process several times, drinking different mix each time. Each time, the accompanying reaction grew increasingly violent. The last one she mixed, it resulted in a uniquely amber colored substance. She eyed it several times, not quite sure what she gets… but she drinks it anyway. The reaction this time was so severe she fell on her knees. Even after she finally recovered and got back on her feet, she's still panting and was visibly drained. That was when she noticed Red watching apprehensively from the other side of the glass room.

She put on the apparatus, a gas mask, before she walked out of her chamber. "Okay. I'm ready. (koff)"

"No matter how many times I've seen it, I still don't like it." Red frowned. "Especially, today. That mixture you drink last. What was that?"

"Something new. (koff) Untested. (Koff)"

"…isn't that a bit…" Red paused. Not sure if he wants to complete the sentence seeing the resolve in her eyes. "…just… be careful, okay?" Red gently caressed Kon's cheek.

"Is it done?" Kon still remove the hand from said cheek. She's not in the mood for compassion.

"They're rebuilding the Primate Engine to your exact specifications. It should be done in an hour. Anything else you need?"

"Yes. (Koff) I want a new code name. (koff) Something that really differentiates me from my sister. (koff)"

"Your sister did share your codename…"

"That codename now belongs to Aoi. (koff) She earned it, it's hers. (Koff) I want a new one."

"Roger that. What's your fancy?"

Kon looked around for a moment, then she took note of the color of that last mix she drank… "Amber. I'll take Amber."

Amber. A derivative of yellow.

Red nodded in approval. "Amber it is then."

Chapter 19

Hunter and Hunted: Part 2

Citizens of Dyson Sphere!

The time has come!

Too long have you suffered under the oppressions of Arus! But no more!

Cain raised an amused eyebrow as he listened to this hilarity. "Can someone please send for Otamaya Yusuke and Yamada Raizo, please? I imagine they'll find this most entertaining."

From the ashes of destruction, we have arisen once again! Risen to lead you all to a bright new future!

Ashra in her Kagerou blinked. "Hoo… very clever." And she understands enough to ignore this bullcrap and see the bigger picture.

The enemy will try to stop us, but they will fail! They will fall! For we have the power! The strength! The will to prevail all adversities!

"What kind of shit is this?" the newly christened Mrs Amber was sitting in the cockpit of her Faux Valvrave and she tilted her head.

The Freedom and prosperity is our prize No sacrifice is too great for the glory of-!

Haruto didn't bother listening to the rest of the farce. He sat meditating in his Valvrave, regulating the flow of energy (Runes) inside his body. Separation is key, he remembered what Ashra taught her. Compartmentalize one's mind into visible structure, and then, segregate them based on the urgency of the memory. Runes which is immediately usable is categorized as Rune Bank C. Reserves are then used the moment C ran out, that is Rune Bank B. And then finally, the most critical, the most UNUSABLE memories (only in absolute emergency) that is Rune Bank A.

By the way, he also shut down all external mikes, so he really didn't hear a single syllable of Renbokuji's speech. But then the communicator in his console starts beeping. "Yes?"

"Sorry to interrupt your meditation, Master. But the invasion is ready to begin." An overtly sagely tone voiced from the com.

"…oi. Malcolm-san. What's with the Master thing? And knock it off with that tone!"

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" And Malcolm the pervert driver reverted back to his usual laidback tone.

"You do understand I'm not doing this just to look cool or something!?"

"Don't sweat it, Little Boss. Dorssia and Arus pilots did something similar from time to time. Pre battle meditation, hypnotic prep and so on and so forth… to numb the jitters before some major battle. It's pretty common."

"Hm." Haruto smiled. He does feel calmer than he should be. And that is a good thing. Because he had to. Everyone is quite nervous and they had reason to be, and so they had to look to their leaders and champions to pluck up the courage they need. But, if he had to name one person who seems to be even more nervous than everyone…

"Alright! Bring this one to the… erhh… to the…"

"3rd boat magazine."

"Yes, the 3rd ship's magazine." Spike seems to have lost some of his now famous confidence and larger than life charisma, replaced by sudden bouts of nervousness. Requiring Miranda to stand by his side to help him managing his new position as an actual officer of the Resistance Militia. It seems to scare him.

Haruto chuckled. Well, considering he was the one responsible for this predicament he suffered, he need to help him a bit.

"You're doing quite well, you know." Haruto said as soon as he was close enough to Spike to tap his shoulder.

"The last time I get this nervous, I was about to attend my first prom dance at highschool. Couldn't dance a step."

"Last time I remembered, you step on my foot three times during the prom dance and we're still dating the next day." Miranda commented as she kept her eye on her documents.

Spike glared at his old love and then to Haruto. "Why are you doing this to me, my man!? I still had a heart attack when you said I'm supposed to lead the campaign!"

Haruto chuckled. "By the way… you haven't answered my question."

"Yeah? Whassat?"

"Why did you two broke up?"

"I…" Spike gaped. Miranda stopped reading for once, but then she starts to walk off – but she remain in earshot.

"…come on. You owe me."

Spike bit his lips. "…she…" Spike steals a glance at Miranda. "…she thinks I should run… for the Office."

Haruto raised an eyebrow. "…seriously?"

"You would've done great." Miranda can't stand it anymore and cracked. Her firm professional tone of a mature woman she had used broke away. Now she's like a teenage girl pouting to her boyfriend. "You could've done more than just sports… I mean… you're over 35 now… your prime time as a sportsman will soon pass, but you still have so much more…!"

"Honey, that's not what I want to hear. I mean… come on, be rational." Spike grunted. "I go through my highschool on my sports scholarship. I wouldn't go far into the academics if it weren't for your help! Me, a Prime Minister? You've gotta be drunk!" Spike looked to Haruto hopefully. "Come on Haruto, My Man. You tell her!"

Miranda frowned and shook her head.

"I think that's the BEST idea I've heard ALL day." Haruto replied calmly.

Both the frown and the smile turned upside down in that instant.

"Et tu, Haruto!?"

"Spike, I've been watching you since the day we met in that stadium." Haruto smiled as he gives out his very honest and sincere opinion. The first he let out in a long while as the Tokishima Haruto of old. "You're just like Shouko. A natural leader. People follow you not because they have to. But because they want to. Hell, if I don't have prior commitments, even I want to! The ability to inspire people like that through sheer charisma, especially now in these dire times. That's not something academics can teach you."

Spike stood speechless whilst Miranda's expression brightened to a state hitherto unseen in years.

Haruto kept his voice down, but he can also feel some unwanted attention from less than savory characters around here. This is not a good place to talk about this sort of thing. "We'll table this conversation for another time."

The Valvrave is currently on standby next to a carrier on dry dock. For this operation, the two Primate Engines were being moved out of the Jormungandr train. After all, it'll be a full on, all out frontal assault, and the module they're targeting cannot be accessed from the Mechanical Line. So the train is out.

Or… at least that's how it's going to be on paper.

But behind the scenes, preparation is continually being made.

"So… I'm taking Delphi and Yashagarasu with me?" Marie asked. "You're sure you're okay with that?"

"I think that's for the best." Haruto nodded. "Blackrose is but a giant sword without Shoko. Plus, it's not like Delphi can't contact me."

"For want of better term, I have installed a copy of myself inside the Original Unit 01. As such, I can still conduct my duties as a Combat Support AI for the Valvrave. However, my main core is still that of the Yashagarasu. If it's destroyed, all my copies will cease to function as well." Delphi quipped. "So… try not to get too reckless."

Haruto whispered on Marie's ears. "At some point, you'll have to take my place when they need help. The Dorssians will also follow your lead. Counting on you, Marie."

Marie nodded. "Okay. I'll do my best."

And it was around that time that Renbokuji's long winded speech ended…

and so let it be said: Let the reclamation begins!

"Okay. That's the end of that. Time to go."

The glassed sand of the desolate beach cracked as hydraulic shutters opened up around the artificial cliff areas, revealing docks. Out from the gaping hole, a fleet of three carriers of mismatched size and make sailed out. Externally, it was as if there's no indication that the ships are manned. In truth, the ship was loaded with so many men to the point of over capacity, not discounting the equipment and munitions… until there were barely any space left and the crew was almost pressed against each other in dank and cramped sweat flooded rooms. Two of the Carriers had the Valvrave and Kagerou standing guard on its decks.

This situation is unfortunate, but necessary. As mentioned before, the entire upper crust of the Module is still an irradiated wasteland. It's not radiation per se, but the lingering heat from Haruto's supernova is still hot enough to roast unprotected men alive. The exception being the Valvrave pilots and their Primate Engines. Hence, they all now must cross the boiling sea towards the entrance to the intended Module in this jampacked fashion. But no one complained. Rather, the situation is far too tense for them to complain about anything. They will soon enter a war.

The carriers sailed through the gate leading to the tunnel towards the neighboring module. The module they're about to attack. This is the unique condition that Module 217 share with its neighboring modules. Other modules connect one another through giant tunnels that can be passed via cars or planes. But in the case of Module 217 with its unique situation, their tunnels were inevitably filled with water. Using a system of dams and blockades, the water flow can be regulated so as to not flood the other side. The system also allowed the water temperature to be regulated, so that when it flowed to the other side, the boiling water had long since cooled off, as do the atmosphere, something Haruto noted.

"Okay. I think the temperature is cooling off."

At that cue, the three carriers burst into activity. The flat empty platform opened up, and the carrier's superstructure rose to the surface. Its crew jumped out of its hold to do their job in a hurry, before the gate to the other side is opened. Once the first crack of light erupted from the other side, the surface crew had already returned back to the hold. "All hands! Prepare to board your hydrofoils!" At the Captain's quarter, Helena sounded the command. "Battle stations!"

And thus the operation begins.

Once the three carriers sprang out of the entrance of the module, their hull doors opened into ramps, and out came a fleet of hydrofoils. The shores were just a few kilometers ahead, and the Hydrofoils dropped into the sea. As soon as the smaller boats touched water, the boosters light up, and immediately the hydrofoils charged across water, their hull lifted up the waterline. Trails of water formed as dozens of hydrofoils zoomed towards the shore.

"This is gonna be okay ri~iiiight… AAAAAAAAHHH!" As soon as Spike said that, the first shell from the opposing side had landed. Before long, multiple flashes of fire erupted from the shore, and the incoming hydrofoils were soon peppered with all manner of projectiles: missiles, shells, machine gun fire, even laser blast. Within the first minute, a hydrofoil was torn in half by a laser blast. Another was shot down when a missile landed right on is Bridge. The Hyrdofoils continues to zoomed forwards amidst a series of water spouts dotting the turbulent sea.

"OPEN FIRE!" Helena roared allover the coms.

The Hydrofoils activated their CIWS and start firing to the sky, shooting down any missiles that came close. At the front, a turret pop out and its twin linked assault cannons began to open fire in rapid successions. Explosions bloomed on the beach, followed swiftly by a return fire of the entrenched coastal artillery. And then, out from the sand, more than a dozen Bremens had walked into positions; its rail guns began charging.

"Ohh… that doesn't look good…!" Spike gulped.

But then, two massive shadows zoomed overhead, and Spike's smile formed.

The Valvrave and the Kagerou zoomed ahead of the charging fleet in a burst of dark crimson and neon green Solid Afterglow. The coastal defense immediately focused on them, as do the Bremens. But it didn't last long.

The ten fingers on the Valvrave's wing mounted power claws lit up, as do the five fingers on Kagerou's Yashagarasu claw. With a pulse of a thought, the two Valvraves sent out the Resistance first major opening fire in this all out skirmish.

An onslaught of fifteen massive rune lasers simultaneously shot out. The impact immediately destroyed the Bremens before they could fire, and then the beams sweep across the beach, wiping out the rest of the coastal defenses, each pillar of energy left a trail of explosion and superheated earth wherever they thread. The many turrets and coastal defenses passed by it were instantly vaporized or melted to a slag. In a blink of an eye, the opposing coast was swallowed by a firestorm, leaving only smoking desolation and glassed sands. A solid ground for the invasion force to land.

The militia cheered seeing the destruction. The rain of fire directed towards them was also almost reduced to almost null with only a single salvo. But now the gauntlet is officially thrown. The hornet's nest has been officially poked.

The sky was soon swarming with multitudes of drones of varying sizes: Dvergrs, Hunters, and some Bremens took flight or land on the ground deploying its lesser units to add to the number. But Haruto also noticed a more immediate danger somewhere naked human eye can't see.

"Marie, tackle the air! Helena-san, deploy the Kirschbaum!"

"Eh? I thought we're…" Helena didn't have time to protest, the Valvrave dived down straight into the ocean. The next second, a series of lasers blazing around from the bottom. One massive pillar of sea water erupted, and half melted fragments of Fisherman Hunter sprang out from the pillar.

Down below, scores of the underwater variant of the Hunter were approaching the coming Resistance fleet silently… but then the Valvrave came charging down, and soon they quickly shifted their attention and swarmed the winged Valvrave, who immediately unleashed a wave of 10 Rune lasers from his power claws and swept them around, destroying entire schools of Fisherman Hunters wholesale. At the same time, his primary normal arms also charged energy at the palm of its hands before launching spherical bullets of red energy, Rune Bullets, adding to the destruction. If they try to ram him, the solid Sphere Barrier he generated stopped them flat, shooting gallery for his lasers or his Rune blades and katanas. The fact that the Valvrave is the ultimate threat seem to have been hammered into the mechanical logic of the droids, so the Fisherman Hunters ignored everything, including the encroaching invasion up above, to focus their attack on the Primate Engine – which is exactly what Haruto wanted.

And so the Hydrofoils sally forth almost undisturbed… except for the unnervingly turbulent seas and occasional pillars of water and laser blasting about. What's more, looming in the blackening sky was the swarm of aerial droids, and only one Super-robot to defend against it. To make things worse, there in the beaches several new Bremens are moving into position to replace the destroyed coastal defenses. Helena immediately understood the urgency. "THIS IS THE CAPTAIN SPEAKING! HANGAR! HOW MANY KIRSCHBAUMS ARE READY?"

K-Zwei looked at his colleagues at this surprise change in their timetable. "We only got 3 ready… the other 3 is just-"

"DEPLOY THEM! NOW!"

Well, they did prepare as fast as they can in the almost certain event that the nice clean timetable went out of the window, but apparently they weren't fast enough. "Geez… these amateurs… B-Funf! Continue working on those remaining Kirschbaums! The rest of you, let's show these newbs how it's done! BLITZENDEGEN!"

Up in the sky, Marie faced a battle no less fierce than the one underwater. She charged the massive Blackrose, enveloping it in green sharp energy, revolving into a powerful Rune Blade. She swung the blade around, tearing out swathes of the enemy from the sky whilst her Yashagarasu claw let loose a volley from its twin Volc Arm rifles, guided by Delphi, resulting in an unusually accurate shots even when its wielder are swinging her great blade around in a riotous maneuvers. She had learned many skills of Rune Manipulation from Haruto – they even managed to create new ones. She cannot learn them all, but together, they have matured many WIP skills to usable state. Chief among them, was this one neat skill.

At one point, Marie saw herself being surrounded by a hail of incoming enemy fire. There was just one area of the blanketing projectiles that are open, but its closing fast, and she need to get there before it was shut. Haruto developed this after his experience with the battle against Ariel. Insofar, the techniques they've developed is about massing energy into one single point and one purpose. For melee, for projectile, for defense, so forth. This one was the exact opposite. It's not exactly something new. Ashra had taught them something similar, but her technique focused mostly on accommodating the Valvrave's capability to replicate the techniques of its pilot. But this one is the opposite: instead of having the Valvrave replicate and amplify the Rune ability used by the pilot, this one is a rune ability to amplify the performance of the Mecha itself. The pilot must first build up the energy and store it, holding it in, and when needed, the Pilot immediately expel the stored runes in one instant unto the Rave Engine. Fed in such a large dose of Runes in one instant, the Primate Engine will pushed itself way past its limits. Done properly, the Valvrave performance will be amplified more than three times its original spec.

The Third Technique: Overcharge.

The Kagerou start generating a red hue of overheating, coupled with green rune particles dispersed across its body. And in an instant, she burst forth at incredible speed, leaving a trail of the Kagerou's afterimages. A haze of heat left behind when the Kagerou momentarily burst past its limits. From Marie's point of view, it's like the world slowed down. One bullet was inches away from reaching the Kagerou's optic, but it seem like it just stopped, and the humanoid mech easily dodged it, along with the rest of the incoming bullets. Of course it's not the world had actually slowed down, it was simply that her Kagerou had become incredibly fast so that the pilots can even see bullets in flight.

However, mass production model like Kagerou cannot handle the stress for that kind of performance. At least, not for long. And if they overcharge too much energy, they can cause irreparable damage to the unit. Furthermore, this technique only works for small brief moment of time. A few seconds at a time. It can only be activated in a short dash over short distances, because once the energy is used up, the mech, or rather, the pilot had to recharge the energy again. But when this technique is active, one second feels like ten.

When the converging projectiles exploded at the epicenter, the Kagerou had long since removed herself from ground zero and out of everyone's view. Even the droids were having trouble tracking the enemy that suddenly disappeared from their sight. The only things they see are the red hot after images of the missing Kagerou. The heat haze effect left behind by the overcharged Kagerou's made a mess on their sensors, leaving them easy picking for Marie when she threw several fully charged Rune Bullets up their behind. Has she told anyone this Overcharge was her favorite skill?

Barely Marie had the time to revel in the joy of her victory, her sensor detected a massive energy reading. She dodged away on instinct, and by blind luck, managed to avoid an attack that pierced through the sky. Her radar immediately alerted her of a large object heading their way, with size that completely dwarfed even the massive Bremen. She looked around and caught sight of this yet again new enemy.

At first glance it looked like a giant yellow bird, with a really vast wing span. The wings' design was reminiscent of an actual bird, with pinions extending outward across the wing. Interestingly, it was not actual bird feathers that extended out, rather, each wing had 3 Hunters with its forward portion partially docked on built in ports along the wingspan, their rear legs jutting out of the port, forming the wing's pinions. That's a grand total of six Hunters attached to its wings, each was embedded to a pair of turret protruding from above and beneath the wings. The turret protruding beneath the wings was armed with a twin linked air to ground autocannon, whilst the turret protruding above the wing was armed with missile launchers. The arsenal operated by the embedded Hunters merely compliments the grand centerpiece. Right inbetween the two massive wings, protruding forward from its main heavily armored central fuselage, is that giant 12 foot caliber Rail Gun, the same Rail gun attached on the Bremen that can snipe Valvrave from space, but now mounted on a truly flying fortress of a platform. The Grimm Drone archive acknowledged it as the Sister Goose. The Aerial Superiority focused enhancement for the Hunters, just like the Fisherman for the naval combat and the Bearskin for land warfare. A sky fortress that can carry six Hunters embedded on its wings to control and dominate the combat theatre in air and ground.

And there are three of such gunship. "…Don't these guys get the concept of OVERKILL!?"

Once again, her sensors alerted her of another energy build up. True enough, she can see the three Goose gunships began to charge their main cannon, with electricity coruscate unto the barrel of the rail gun. "Overcharge!" The Kagerou turned red hot again just as the Sister Geese finished charging and opened fire. Even in the time dilated world of the Overcharge, the electromagnetically launched 12 feet projectile still came at her, REAL fast. The Kagerou can barely dodge it, the shells scraped her chest armor. She survived. The Kagerou quickly charged a single dense Rune Bullet and quickly throw it full force against one of the Goose. The energy projectile streak quickly across the battlefield, quickly reaching its target before they finished recharging… but then, still a distance away from impact, the projectile splash and disperse harmlessly against an emergent dome of near visible energy field. "What?"

Microwave Beam Dispersal field. The same shielding they used on the Goldilocks. She had seen it from the data transferred from the Behemoth's archive. "Well, shit." There's an answer to that: that is, full on melee. But… if she do that, the coming fleet will have no air defense, and the Valvrave is still bogged down underwater by dozens of Fisherman Hunters.

"Hey, lassie!" Help came when finally the Resistance fleet finally brought out their air support. Between the fleet of Waffes, hijacked ramshackle Ideals, and swarms of stolen Splicers, the centerpieces are three Kirschbaums, custom painted with black color with colored red stripes. They start opening fire by firing all their finger beam cannons, coupled with a salvo of missiles. The opening volley wiped out a whole slew of droids from the sky and drew a great deal of pressure away from the Kagerou. When the enemy returned fire, the Waffe had already locked their shields together and formed their signature wall formation, blocking the attack whilst dishing out their own damage. "Go, lassie! Go!" K-Zwei roared on the com.

Marie nodded once and the Kagerou boosted full speed towards the three Geese approaching. Detecting the hostility, the sky fortresses opened fire with their entire arsenal. The sky was soon filled with a series of explosions. Not enough to be threat for Kagerou, but there's enough firepower being thrown out to harry her towards the true threat, the massive rail cannons waiting to blast. But Marie is making good progress.

As she flew on, she took a glimpse and down there, the first hydrofoils had successfully landed on the beach. Good.

The Hydrofoil immediately transformed upon landing. The fins and the jet propulsion receded and two pairs of tank tracks opened up in its place. The Hydrofoil boat turned into a tank as they deployed the men inside to secure this new beachhead. But as this happened, the bullets kept raining, and the militia began catching shots. If not for their heavy armor, they would've been the first casualties. Manpower is a precious thing in this battle, more precious than hardware, in some case. Thusly, Haruto and Helena trained the Militia for a defensive fight. The Militia soldiers that walked out of the boat were wearing thick armor whose weight they've been trained to carry. With full face helmet for good measure. Discounting the slapdash ramshackle nature of the armored attire, they looked like fully armored riot police. They also carry ballistic shield on their backs for good measure, strong enough to stop anti personal ordinances, as well as carrying whatever firearms they were given, shotgun, assault rifle, even Bazooka. When they first trained with this excessively defensive gear, they moaned of the weight and the ridiculousness of it all. At the end of that day, the survivors will be grateful forever. The Armored militia brought out their shields and pushed ahead, enduring some shots whilst their friends followed closely behind them, returning shots whenever possible. The Hydrofoil-turned-Am-Tank opened fire, destroying some of the sentries, but then a whole swarm of Aelves poured out in a counter charge, prompting a return fire from the opposing side.

As the beach was soon marred by the crisscrossing projectiles of the two side trading fire, the Kagerou concentrate on her prey. She's getting closer and closer to one of this massive aircraft easily dwarfing her size, despite being peppered by its many anti aircraft weaponry. "Now… how am I gonna do this? I mean… I know I said I'm gonna melee this thing down… but now that I look at this thing… it's ridiculously huge, isn't it?"

"If the idea is to prevent it falling on top of our allies, I suggest we target its main reactor."

"How are we going to do that? And why would I want to do that?"

"The Sister Goose draws power from the Six Hunter units embedded on its wings so that its main reactor can be used to power the Microwave Barrier. Destroy more than half of the Hunters, and the Goose will be forced to draw power from its main reactor. However, that will also deploy its exhaust vents, which in turn exposed the main reactor, leaving it vulnerable." Delphi described this by pointing out said weakness from the Sister Goose Blueprint. "Destroying the reactor will cause an explosion, powerful enough to completely destroy the unit, leaving only small debris behind."

"We'll do that then!"

The Kagerou boosted towards her first prey. The Sister Goose opened fire with everything they got, but with her Overcharge dashes, the Kagerou easily avoid all incoming attacks, closing the distance at a very rapid pace. Before long, the Kagerou made contact with the Goose's microwave barrier, and as expected, she pierced through easily. However, now her beam attacks are silenced, and Marie also took note of her temperature steadily increasing. Even worse for her, she can no longer use her Rune shield, because they would just get dispersed in the EM field. Well, at least she can still use her Overcharge. "Okay, destroying wing embedded Hunters!" Drawing the massive Blackrose, the Kagerou charged towards the first target. The blade went through the thick armor and pierced something inside. A series of internal explosion occurred from within, and the Hunter's thrusters no longer lit up and began to belch out black smoke. That's one down.

Noticing the threat, automated Sentry defenses pop out from the Goose' surface and opened fire at the Kagerou, in conjunction with its missiles. Marie dodged the incoming bullets the best she could and slashed the missiles down once she's in range. Using her favorite Overcharge to the fullest, the Kagerou darted across the surface of the Goose, slashing and hacking the giant bird of a ship piecemeal. Before long, Kagerou stabbed into another Hunter, this time she had to stab twice, the first time wasn't enough. The turrets intensify their firepower, and the other Geese too began to pour in their own guns as they approached the one invested by a pesky Primate engine, never mind the collateral damage caused by friendly crossfire. "Guh!" With this intensive rain of shells and missiles, it's getting more and more difficult for the Kagerou to destroy the required quota of Hunters. Already her Kagerou suffered several grazing shots, with her Overcharge slowly losing its edge on the account of the sheer volume of projectiles blanketing her space, limiting her room to maneuver. And when she's locked in place, her temperature continue to rise, not to mention frequent use of Overcharge also shaved away at her heat gauge. But even in that situation, Marie somehow managed to barely stab into her third Hunter. One more to go, but then the Kagerou took a slip of dodging straight into a missile. The explosion nearly knocked her off the ship, her own rune armor barely holding. The Kagerou had to plant her Blackrose to stop herself from falling off the ship. But now she's left dangling on it, with the exhaust of the last Hunter is right next to her. "…uhh… do we have any weapon we can use?"

"Displaying weapon option." Using the Forgefist, she did manage to recreate the whole Vurutoga weapon set…

"…Volc Arms is right out… Z-katana is useless… Sickle's too small… so…" Thinking quickly, Marie pulled out the Kusarigama and threw it straight into the Hunter's exhaust.

Seconds later, they can hear the sound of something breaking and snapping. Soon, the jet engine stopped burning and began to cough, belching black smoke. The Sister Goose began to lose power and altitude. Its light shuts down… before they momentarily turned back on as its hull once again thrums with power. The main generator is now diverted to keep this aerial colossus afloat. On its lower hull, a massive exhaust vent opened up, and from its rather narrow opening, Marie saw a clear glimpse of a massive reactor… with a familiar yellow and black symbol.

"Wait, this thing is nuclear!?" Before she can process this further, one of the Sister Geese still afloat finally managed to land a good shot at her, knocking her off the crippled Goose. As if ignoring this plight, Marie looked up at the Goose she crippled. Screw the exhaust vent, they opened up the whole bay door of that aircraft, with the main reactor in full view. It's as if they're not trying to protect their main reactor, they're treating it like it's a… "They're gonna drop it…"

Acting quicker than her senses, Marie poured every bit of Rune she can muster into a single largest, most powerful Rune Energy Bullet she had ever generated and fired it towards the exposed target, hoping beyond hope she made the right decision.

The massive projectile engulfed the Nuclear reactor, and the next instant, a blinding explosion erupted. It instantly engulfed the Goose, and the shockwave pushed the Kagerou down a step, and it even permeates all the way to the ground. Those without sure footing were knocked flat to the ground.

Soon, it passed, but the residue and the still very much fresh experience of the nuclear event lingers, giving birth to horror.

Marie swallowed a gulp. "Nuclear bomb?"

Delphi replied. "This is a modification that did not exist in the original blueprint. They jury rig the Nuclear Fusion reactor of the Goose into a bomb, set it on a dead man's switch. Damage them enough… and they'll drop it. You've made the right decision by shooting it full power from afar. I've measured at least 4 Kiloton explosion – estimated blast radius 6 miles. Enough to completely vaporize a Valvrave if one caught in the center of the blast. The Rune Explosion managed to neutralizes any residual radiation – and you managed to inflict the right amount of damage, so there will be no fallout. If we didn't destroy the whole thing in a single strike or stab it, the explosion could wipe out the entire region."

"Dear God…" Marie looked at the remaining Sister Geese with renewed sense of horror. She nearly died just to take down one. There are two more like that!?

And then, she felt… a pulse.

Down below, things steadily began to turn badly for the Militia. Sure, more hydrofoils made it safely to the beach, deploying more manpower to the field. But the enemy isn't slacking out. They're droids after all. When Spike landed on the beach with his trusty new Gatling Gun, the Militia had begun to lose heart.

"We'll never make it! There's too many!"

"Come on, we just got here!" Spike shook his head.

"DO NOT GIVE IN TO FEAR!" Just then, a loud voice rose up from a newly arrived boat just next to Spike's. It was Barton, and by gum, the chaplain didn't bring a weapon, yet he waved around his bible while screaming his sermon even as bullets zoomed mere millimeters away from his head. "DO NOT GIVE IN TO FEAR O' CHILDREN OF MAN! TIS' BUT FAITHLESS METAL THAT STANDS IN OUR WAY! COLD DEAD MACHINES FROM HELL NARY ANY WARMTH OF A SOUL!"

"Somebody get that old fool down!" One of the militia gulped in horror. The rest was stuck between confused and awed.

"LET THEM SAY: WE HAVE NO SOUL AND THUS WE HAVE NO FEAR! I SAY TO YOU NOW! WOE TO THOSE WHO HAD NO LIFE TO GIVE CAME JUDGMENT DAY! AND IT HAS COME! IT IS HERE! BY FIRE AND STEEL, THE BLESSED CLEANSING FLAME HAD COME UPON THIS DAMNED WORLD. THE METAL SHALL REMAIN AMONG THE CINDERS AND ASHES, BUT WE CHILDREN OF MEN SHALL ASCEND FROM THEIR ASHEN ORIGIN TO THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THE PROMISED LAND!"

As if on cue, the surface of the ocean bulged and turned rapidly red. Barton screamed at the top of his lung, stretching up his arms and puffed his chest, presenting a target to the bullets zipping just inches away from said target. "REJOICE, MEN! BE AFRAID, METAL! THE FIERY MESSENGER OF THE LORD ON HIGH IS HE~ERE!"

With a thunderous roar, the bulge burst as the Valvrave surged out of the ocean, wings outstretched and his two katanas in hand, slick with oil and particles of runes. By some startling coincidence (or providence) the Valvrave emerged right behind where Barton stood, and with his arms outstretched in parallel with the Valvrave's wing span, it's like an angry angel burst out behind the half mad Chaplain just as he finished his sermon.

Completely unaware of both the sermon Barton expounded in his name and the godly timing he made, the Valvrave went straight towards the two giant birds in the sky.

"Haruto! You have to-!"

"I know. I saw." That was Haruto's short answer. "OVERCHARGE!"

The Valvrave instantly turned red, and in an instant, he turned into a blur, leaving crimson flash behind. As mentioned before, the Overcharge is a very machine stressing technique. Mass production model like Kagerou can only use it in short burst of several seconds… but what of an original Unit?

The second Sister Goose suddenly had a trail of red light zigzagging allover the craft. First its main rail cannon were sliced off, followed by all the missile launchers and the underslung cannons. Finally, a series of 6 crisscrossing zigzags zoomed on its wings, and when the Valvrave reappeared, the massive gunship had registered all 6 of its embedded Hunters destroyed. The Valvrave quickly zoomed beneath the Goose, and, not to bothering to wait until the Goose opened its hatch, he already charged a massive super dense Rune Bullet, many times bigger than the one Marie created. He shot the bullet just as the hatch began to open… the massive bullet bashed against the underside of the Goose in an impact so powerful, it pushed the whole craft upward by a few hundred meters… that is until the superheated bullet explodes and melt through its armor and consumed the reactor. The reactor also ignited… but such was the heat and strength of the bullet, it consumed even the explosion. The Goose was completely vaporized in the sky, not a single debris remained to fall to earth.

The whole thing took only 60 seconds.

"Whoa." Marie didn't know what else to say. But she had seen the power of Valvrave at daily basis by now. So, there's not much surprise for her here.

But as for the soldier's on the ground… They've heard the power of the Valvrave. But many of them had only heard of it. Here they are now, starved for hope and one breath away from death, and suddenly such overwhelming power the likes of which is beyond human comprehension was shown before their very eyes in all its glory.

Suddenly, Barton's rambling sound less insane and more like a divine revelation from on high. Almost literally. "FORWARD SONS OF MAN! THE LORD'S ANGEL IS WITH US!" And he rushed in suicidal abandon towards the rain of fire, not a single bullet fired by the supposedly deathly accurate droids even grazed him. The half sane zeal that fueled the chaplain became contagious, and almost everyone followed with life disregarding recklessness.

"Okay, let's make sure that half sane guy survive the day!" Spike can only shrug before he too joined the charge.

Seeing the clearly suicidal rush, Haruto quickly contacted the Kagerou. "Marie, I'll deal with the rest! Support the ground troops!"

Marie turned down and saw the situation develop as such. Even as the infantry units from both sides fiercely trade shots with one another, as the militia went ahead in that massed charge, in-between them, tank units like Dvergr, Gun-Hound tanks and Feline rolled down as the Jack followed behind them, and there's not enough Am-Tank yet to counter the enemy's heavy unit. Faith restored to suicidal frenzy will not stop cannonfire.

A volley of green laser dropped from the sky and slashed an entire row of droid tanks to oblivion. The Kagerou had just swooped in and sent a sweeping green beam from her power claw, tearing through the enemy line of armored units from the flanks. The militia cheered as the table turned at last. More and more militia now braved themselves to an open charge, with the Kagerou followed overhead, and the Valvrave now began eying the last Sister Goose.

This time though, this Sister Goose did not wait for dismantlement, instead, it detached its 6 Hunters, whereupon they immediately assume their fighter form and charged the Valvrave en-masse. "Yeah, like that'll make any difference." But then, he noticed more things that are different with these Hunters. They're faster, harder to hit, reacted even quicker than before, and- BANG!

A missile landed squarely on his face. They seem to shoot more accurately as well.

"Interesting." Delphi stated through a transmission. "Tokishima Haruto, there's a drastic improvement of the Hunter's performance compared to the average. Their speed, precision, and maneuverability increased by 200%. I did not detect any modification to their hardware. The upgrade is on their combat software."

Haruto frowned as he deduced the culprit. "…the Goose?"

"I suspect as much. The original design of the Sister Goose does indicate it still possess plenty vacant space. Perhaps the idea was that it would use that space as a transport for other land units. But apparently, they've modified that too. I suspect it house a Supercomputer and additional servers, wirelessly linked to these hunters to boost up their individual combat performance. Perhaps it was inspired by our Wolf Pack system."

"Indeed?" The Valvrave dodged a few more incoming attacks before he launched a small but fast rune bullet. The rune bullet collided with an invisible Microwave barrier of the Goose and dispersed. "Yeah… I suspect as much."

"A different setting than the previous. It now focused its main reactor on maintaining the barrier and the Super Computer enhancements to its fighters. It can no longer use its Rail Gun, though."

"…Doesn't make things any easier to deal with… yeah?"

"War isn't supposed to be easy."

"You don't need to reply to that."

As this happen, another missile hit the Valvrave's head, and thus the pilot is officially pissed off.

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"Are you sure about this?" Yusuke asked again.

"Even if you're to depart now, Otamaya Yusuke, you would not make it. Your friend is moving in a very quick pace, it even caught ME by surprise." For one thing… Cain really didn't need to lie about this one. "Perhaps we should be grateful the timing was so synchronized it's practically heaven-sent."

Yusuke simply nodded, albeit slightly unconvinced. Cain's logic is sound… and the knowledge that their leader is indeed still alive as he deduced, and even kicking ass and taking names, does alleviate a lot of his anxiety.

"Personally, I believe staying the course is the right thing to do at the moment. And we're still helping Tokishima Haruto in our own way."

"How are we helping aniki when we are half a world away again?" Raizo asked.

"Six Sense." Cain patiently explained.

Yusuke and Raizo frowned. They've been hearing that name a lot since they found out they're fighting Regnant Internationals.

"The Six Sense is Regnant International most elite fighting squad. And as the name implies, there are 6 of them, including their leader, Red."

"Let us assume for a moment, as there are 6 known original Valvraves in the world… in the worst case scenario where they did manage to steal all of the secrets, the enemy may have six fakes, per member of the Sense. Tokishima Haruto strategy is a major undertaking. One that is big enough, that our enemies would be fools of elephantine proportion if they did not commit at LEAST one of the fake units to counter such a threat. Maybe they can even commit more than one, considering just how big of a threat the original unit had become." Cain continued. "If we can draw away at least one of the possible six threats away from Tokishima Haruto, then I'd say that's already a big help."

"The gamble is… IF she will go after us, even in the light of these… recent events." Yusuke looked at their handiwork.

"Indeed." Cain can only nod. "But… as I have mentioned, this recent event REALLY came as a surprise to everyone. Considering the timeframe, I doubt our prey had the time to mobilize in response. If I know our enemy's leader well, in which I do, she would've been told to stay."

"Which is why we're making sure we get her attention… like this."

"Just so. Ah… I believe we're approaching the limit. We're starting the operation gentleman. Radio silence is now in effect." The chatter stopped.

Two convoys with heavy Dorssian escort are now heading to two separate directions. One containing Dainslev, the other the Behemoth. As is the trick, the original units were split into pieces to conceal themselves. But once they've reached a certain distance, they stopped, the convoy set up shop, and the cargo began bleeding their energy signature – essentially a beacon bright enough for anyone with a rune scanner to spot from a mile away. Here's the story they're playing in this theater: the original units were damaged during a recent battle. By some luck, they were found by some Dorssian resistance who then rescued them; provide them a place to stay as they repair the damage.

That is the story they're 'broadcasting' for everyone to see. Here's hoping they will attract the 'right' audience.

Sure enough…

"…now what do we have here…?"

She looked at the monitor. Yesterday, she was still eying her next prey… today she was supposed to go on the attack… but then… firstly, her target disappeared, and now… this. The Rune Scanner in the Module she was monitoring picked up two energy signatures, not big, it's like something leaking. But yet, these energy scales were unlike anything she had ever seen. They've been getting these kinds of off the chart readings pretty often these days. Original Valvrave units had been rampaging allover the place, leaving behind lingering energy with distinct signature wherever they went. She had heard the report so often, she had come to recognize these signs by heart.

"Interesting…" Well… she knew about that ridiculous speech. She didn't need to reaffirm it with her superiors to know countermeasures are being taken. MAJOR countermeasures… but… she received no order to return to base. Ergo: she's not needed. And her standing order stands. Hunt down any threatening Resistance and destroy them, one by one. In so far, she's been doing just that… no problem… and then… this. "So… what to do… no, not that's not the right question… the question is…" She looked at these two giant blips of energy signature. "Which… one… should… I… choose… Eee nie… mea~niee… mi~ny… mo." Her finger landed on the largest blip. "That one it is."

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A Hunter took a wrong turn and suddenly the crimson hued Valvrave came crashing down from above with a cross slash. As the eviscerated drone fell to earth in pieces, the other drones closed in to open fire, but Haruto immediately dodged whilst sending out a rune bullet that clip one of the hunter's wings.

"This is annoying…" By his count, that's the third Enhanced Hunter he cut down today. One Sister Goose can only enhance 6 Hunters at max, but every time he took down one enhanced Hunter, another Hunter became enhanced. And there are still dozens of Hunters to spare up here. 'At this rate, we're not going anywhere.' Haruto began to think. "I can't use any rune weaponry because of that Microwave barrier. Without any long range attack, I only got melee. I can do the job, but the explosion would…" The Goose is flying quite low to the ground now. Quite close to the Militia land forces. Suddenly, Haruto embraced an insane idea. An idea that would probably make even L-Elf scratches his head in disbelief. "Delphi… what was the range of the explosion again?"

"Blast Radius is 6 miles."

"And what is the distance between that Goose to the ground?"

"3 miles."

"…"

And so… suddenly… Haruto changed his strategy. A Hunter came closing in, and he stabbed it… but instead of pulling the sword out, he let stuck, while he also grab hold of him in place. He then channeled rune unto said captured unit until it began to burn and half melted. Then he carried the molten dripping carcass around like a shield. Or so everyone thinks. More and more Hunters came around. One got close, and Haruto eviscerate him with his power claw… and then he grabbed it, melt it again, and then jam it together into the first one. And then another came in range, repeat. Capture, melt, pile, capture, melt, pile… and so on, so forth. Suddenly, everyone in the battlefield began to notice this… towering pile of fused molten droids gaining height at an incredible rate. Haruto even began to actively hunt down more and more raw material for his… construction. Molten droid after molten droid were added, fused tight by the sheer heat of the Valvrave's very own hands. Once it reached a certain height, the Valvrave began to shape the tip of this pillar of melted junk. He did this by melting the very top of the pile and reshaped the molten mass like clay into a sharp point. When he was done, everyone's jaw was agape.

"Ooohhh… Pino would laugh her ass off if she sees this." Marie scratched her not so itching head.

"W… Huh…?" Spike who just caught the frothing Barton was on the verge of letting him ago, so shocked he was.

"…oooh…! Oooh!" Barton, who finally sees what Haruto built, fell on his knees in worship.

"…O~okay…!?" In the cockpit of his Kirschbaum, K-Zwei rubbed his one eye to make sure he wasn't imagining things.

A stake. Haruto captured and melted some few dozen Hunter droids and then fused them together into a massive pillar made from slapdashed molten droid. Then, he shaped the tip into a sharp point, creating a mishappen Stake. With its 'material' still twitching impotently here and there, this stuff of nightmares is about 300 meters long. A 300 meters long stake made of several dozen droids melted and welded together. He even stabbed in several electric poles at its center to serve as the core. "Not sure how long this thing will last, but…" The Valvrave grabbed this massive stake and began to push it off the ground. The sheer weight of the object caused some of its not properly welded components to fall off. But before long, the gigantic stake is now in the air and with this grizzly bizarre and oversized weapon in hand, the Valvrave began its approach on the last Goose.

Dragging this starship sized projectile, the Valvrave began to pick up speed. Finally identifying the danger it was in, the last Sister Goose opened fire with everything it's got, but to no avail. The shots flake off some bits and pieces of the giant stake, but not enough to dull its destructive potential. What's more, Haruto had a mind to coat and strengthen this horrifying construct even more with some Hardlight Reinforcements. Haruto poured every bit of Runes he can spare and maxed out his throttle until his boosters overheated as he kept pushing this massive thing. Once he reached lethal speed, the Valvrave finally hurled the mishappen javelin towards the Goose. The solid projectile, hurled at inhuman strength, broke through several sound barriers and easily plows through the swarm of droids trying to stop it and went past the Goose's virtually inexistent anti beam barrier. But the Goose had a mind to concentrate its fire to redirect the blast…

…until the Valvrave came charging back in and slammed/pushed the butt of his horrid javelin, further increasing its momentum. With sudden spurt of speed, the Valvrave-propelled-stake finally pierced the Goose armor. But it only pushed through the first layer of armor, owing to the poor sharpness of the lance. The Goose was nevertheless skewered, and with the full power of a Valvrave propelling it, the whole thing was pushed upward, higher and higher to the sky.

Delphi seems to finally understand what Haruto was up to and he began to count: "3.5 miles from the ground."

The Valvrave poured everything into his boosters and he kept pushing. The tip of the lance sank deeper, another layer of armor was pierced, and the much feared nuclear reactor turned bomb is just two layers away. Something Delphi also keep track of.

"4.3 miles from the ground."

The impaled Goose kept getting pushed. It tried to open fire at the stake, chipping pieces of it, but to no avail.

"5.1 miles from the ground."

In desperation, the Goose ordered any drones in range to come to its rescue, opening fire at the stake impaling it and the Valvrave that was trying to drive it into its heart. One shot blasted the Valvrave off the stake, and the weight came crashing down.

"3.7 miles from the ground."

"BASTARD!" The Valvrave unleashed a wave of lasers and destroyed all approaching drones before hastily returning back to do the task he set to do.

"4 miles from the ground."

"Grrhh… I have to start over again!?" The Valvrave pushed again. Frustration caused the pressure to be a tad harder than he intends to. It gained him lost elevation… but it also cracked one more layer of protection to the reactor.

"4.7 miles from the ground." And then Delphi also noticed something else. "Warning: terminal radiation signature detected. Meltdown imminent."

"OH COME ON!" Alas, it seems the Goose didn't care that its nuclear heart is on the verge of exploding. It send more drones than the previous to disturb the Valvrave…

"5 Miles from the ground. Meltdown in T-minus 60 seconds."

"Oh no, no, no!" The Drones are closing it… they're going to ram him! One Hunter opened up its pincer and was ready to ram the defenseless Valvrave…

-until a Kirschbaum came crashing in and punched the Hunter out of the way. At its helm, K-Zwei shouted. "OFFENSIVE MANEUVERS! GIVE THE VALVRAVE SOME COVER! BLITZENDEGEN!"

"5.5 miles from the ground. Meltdown in T-minus 40 seconds."

"BLITZENDEGEN!" Five Kirschbaums answered the call and joined the fight. All Dorssian superbot had finally joined the fight. Their opening salvo immediately wiped out all the enemy units hounding the Valvrave. More are coming, but now the 6 Kirschbaums set a cordon around the Valvarve. Any Drone even look at the Valvrave wrong get blasted to pieces.

The stake continue to push the Goose upward, and now the Goose itself opened fire, as well as allocating more drones even as its super computer overheated and began to explode by the burden. "COME ON YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"5.7 miles from the ground. Meltdown in T-minus 20 seconds."

"Just a little bit further…" Then a Hunter suddenly went past the Kirschbaum defensive line and slammed itself against a weak point on the stake. The Stake made a terrible creaking sound, and everyone watched in horror as the pillar began to bend in a broken angle. And worse, the Goose is starting to descend again.

"5.4 miles from the ground. Meltdown in T-minus 10 seconds."

"…" 10 seconds. Haruto's mind seem to go blank. 9 seconds. Point in fact… he had enough. The Valvrave pushed ahead with overcharge, and in a flash, he cut the half broken stake right at its fractured point. 8 seconds. He gathered all the Runes to his right arm and then he circle back towards the bottom of the broken stake. The massive amount of runes condensed on said fist, creating a Hardlight construct of a Valvrave's enlarged fist covering his whole arm. 7 seconds. The Goose opened fire at the charging Valvarve, bullets pinging off its armor, but hardly managed to even slow him down. 6 seconds. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!" The Valvrave brought his fist forward. 5 seconds.

A red halo expanded right where the fist connected…

4 seconds

And then, cracks began to appear. Cracks revealing red glowing energy overflowing within. The cracks quickly expanded upward across the stake towards the Goose… as it collapsed on itself. The Energy surging inside was too much for such a slapdash construct… but the stake had done its job.

3 seconds

Haruto's punch with such a sudden explosive force had further drove the stake deeper in until it penetrate that one last armor plating, and impaled the nuclear heart… and pushed it out of the Goose until its heart burst out of its back, impaled on the stake.

2 seconds…

And the energy surge finally reached it.

1 se-

"6.3 miles from the ground. MELTDOWN."

And finally, the full force explosion. The upper part of the goose where the epicenter occurred was vaporized instantly. The bird like airship curved in an impossible angle before the light consumed it whole.

Not even the mighty Valvrave could remain stoic when blasted by the shockwave of such explosion at such a close range. The Primate Engine was knocked back before it spiral out of control like a kite cut from its strings. Also, perhaps thanks to Goose' own massive size, a good part of the explosion was blocked by the gunship's vast body, weakening the blast that reached those below, namely the soldiers. The Kirschbaum were almost as close as the Valvrave to the explosion, the shockwave still rattled them, but thankfully, their mech is sturdier, and despite the turbulence, the elite Dorssian pilots remain in control. Amidst the blinding light of explosion, K-Zwei saw the Valvrave's silhouette falling out of control. Assuming its fighter mode, said Kirschbaum immediately push towards the falling mech and gave it a slight nudge, allowing him to fix its position and catch the primate engine in his arms.

"Pull yourself together, Commander!"

K-Zwei's shout managed to wake up Haruto who was pretty close to unconscious with all the Gs he received. The Valvrave quickly fixed its form before properly flew away from the blast together with its Kirschbaum rescuer.

When they saw the form of their champion descend from the subsiding destruction, the militia exploded in frenzied cheers. They shouted, punched to sky, never mind the bullets still streaming allover the sky.

However, Marie in her Kagerou noticed something the militia didn't. The Valvrave… is smoking. Its heat vents are lit in that distinct signs of the unit overheating. The Primate engine floated away from the ground and towards the sea, to the concern of the onlookers.

The Valvrave temperature is at 80. He needs to cool down. The fight with the Sister Geese took out a lot more out of him than he had expected. Haruto made one last call. "Spike, Marie… guys… I need to take a break. I leave the rest to you."

Spike nodded. "Take as long as you like, my man. You've done plenty."

"Leave it to us." Marie nodded.

"Counting on you." Giving one last look at the Kirschbaums, the Valvrave took a dive straight into the bottom of the artificial ocean.

The Militia was initially disheartened when they saw their champion fell to the sea. Seeing their downed look, Spike groaned. He wrestled a mike from a nearby com's officer and set it to open channel and barked: "PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER YOU IDIOTS!"

Even through the sound of gunfire and explosions, the sharp ring of the speaker forced to belch out that loud bark still stings. But it gets the desired effect. Everyone now pays attention. "He's going FULL throttle for DAYS. Now he took a five minute breather and you WHINE like whipped dog!? Have you guys had been so accustomed of being fed you forgot what it's like to stand up and fight like a MAN!?" To make his point, Spike spotted a Dvergr rolled towards them. He plucked a grenade from a soldier and rushed ahead. The Dvergr deployed itself and displayed its chest mounted Gatling cannon. But just before it spins, Spike pulled the pin, dropped the grenade and then…

WHAM!

He kicked the grenade so hard, the projectile flew towards the target like a cannonfire. The grenade accurately fell right into one the barrels before disappearing into the gearworks.

Spike quickly run and duck for cover. The Dvergr's Gatling gun whirred and was about to discharge. A second later, the spherical mech exploded inside out.

"Aa~ahh… It's been a while since I last do that. The 'Tank' still got it, boys and girls!"

Helena blinked in amazement. She saw that scene from the bridge from nearby vidcam, and she's still having a hard time believing something like a human (non super human) took down a Dvergr with a hand thrown grenade is actually doable. Suddenly, Haruto's proposal that this man took the lead sound less insane.

"WE'RE TAKING OUR HOME BACK OR WHAT!?" Spike roared.

"OOOHHHH!" A great cry resounded allover the beach. The galvanized Militia rushed forward with renewed zeal, unleashing their own firepower against the enemy before them. Their brief despair suddenly roused into full fury by this one exemplary deed, inspiring them to do better. A soldier rushed forward using his half battered shield to soak up all the firepower thrown from an Aelf until he closed the distance and he knocked the droid to the ground and blasts its head off with point blank fire. A militia had used up his magazine to take down as many droids as he can, the next Aelf in range get wacked in the face with his empty rifle. And this continues until he salvaged a fully loaded rifle from a dead comrade. A group of three militia worked together piercing the lines of the Aelves, until they came face to face with a Bremen, attempting to squash them underfoot… then a Kirschbaum, piloted by K-Zwei, came down and punched it by the face until it was smashed to the ground, flattening whole horde of Aelves with its mass. An Am-Tank steamrolled whole horde of Aelves but it was sniped down by a Bremen. The quadruped droid was immediately stomped underfoot by a Kirschbaum, who then opened fire to other droids with its finger cannons. The beach was soon filled with that sort of reckless bravery and it made all the difference. And yet another flock is coming towards them from the sky, ready to overwhelm all… but the final blow came when the Kagerou descended and bring out her assembled Vurutoga. She charged the large weapon briefly before she fired a massive rune laser straight towards the swarm. Those not vaporized outright by the main blast were melted just by grazing with it. But then Marie swings the laser blast sideways, wiping out whole swaths of the flock right out of the sky.

That just leaves the leftovers on the beach. More and more hydrofoils arrived, strengthening the resistance position at the beach with more men. It won't be long before the beach is taken.

Watching all this from his monitors, Haruto nodded. Well, the time's now. And quietly, silently, the Valvrave activates and quietly flew away from the battlefield.

Haruto wasn't the only who watched how the battle progress though…

00000000000000

Red watched something similar from his own monitor. Only, he was reasonably more anxious. "You know… my Bram Stoker is hazy… but shouldn't vampire get killed by a stake… instead of the other way around?"

"Vampires are inspired by that Dracula guy… that Vlad the Impaler. They say he impaled thousands of Turks on stakes." Mrs. Amber remarked in annoyance. She covered her face in her gas mask again while she's at it. (Kosssff) "I don't give a fuck. (Koff) I'll impale him a thousand times if I have to. (koff)"

"Oh, right."

"Is it done, My love?" another woman's voice sounded.

"Oh yeah… it's done. It'll soon be your turn, babe."

"But I detect… a great amount of anxiety."

"It's the manner in which it was 'done' that scares the shit out of me." Red looked back at the recording of Valvrave's combat. "This is the third time I watched this guy fights. The first time… went kinda exactly as I expected. Some kid got himself a fancy super power and start throwing it around… but then… with each subsequent battle his skill growth was exponential. At the second battle… the battle with Aoi… he had begun to refine those powers. He began to understand his limits. What he can and cannot do. And now this… latest video… I mean… Holy shit…"

"…shall we… amend the plan? It's not too late for that."

"…no. We stick with the plan. If nothing else… we need to hedge this in case things went FUBAR."

00000000000000

Malcolm waited calmly in the driver seat of the train, reading some porn and listening to his favorite music. He was having a good time… until he heard that familiar grumbling sound of an approaching Primate Engine. "Aahh… He's here."

He put away his magazine and earphones before he looked up to see the familiar neon green Sense Nerve crown design looming down at him.

"Time to go."

Once the cargo is loaded, the Jormundgandr lit up to life and departed.

All this did not escape the eyes of certain interested parties. "And away they go."

00000000000000

On the other side of the sphere…

In the middle of a forest, an unassuming Dorssian encampment stood. What makes this different than one average encampment is that it is centered around a yellow Valvrave lying in pieces, covered in shrouds.

And indeed, the Behemoth is in pieces. His body parts scattered across the encampment, and they are hidden in tents to enhance the illusion that he was under repair. The largest of the tents contain his torso and its two heads, where the pilots reside.

Raizo and Yusuke is still waiting in their cockpit. They're killing time in their own way. In the case of Raizo, he's eating his power bar ration. "Aniki must've started fighting by now."

"Most likely." In the case of Yusuke, he ran diagnostics of the Behemoth for the… nth time, maybe.

"Welp, if he can survive getting hit by a 12 feet bullet, he can survive anything." Raizo was distinctly less nervous than he began this operation.

"We don't know that for sure."

"Hey, don't jinx it for me man!" Raizo burst out, sending crumbs of the wafer to Yusuke's side.

"H… hey! I'm trying to concentrate here!" In contrast, Yusuke seem to be more nervous. Something Raizo noticed.

"You alright? You look kinda pale."

"I… uhh… it's the wait. The wait's killing me."

"Umm… (munch) I know what you mean." Raizo chuckled. "Waiting on the edge of battle. Sometimes it give you jitters. Well, in my case, I eat. Want one?"

"Not sure I had a stomach for it."

"I thought you'd be used to it by now. You got that veteran Magius war hero inside you now, yeah?"

"Yeah. Jeay also get the jitters while waiting. But… he enjoyed it, and so he let it happen. I don't enjoy it." Yusuke shrugged. "But he calms it down by doing routines. Running diagnostics and perimeter check and so on. Been doing that so many times already, nothing ha… wait… hulo?"

"What is it?"

"I just checked the perimeter… some of the Dorssians are… not on their post."

"What are they doing?"

"…I'll go check this out. You keep watch, yeah?"

"Leave it to me."

When Yusuke arrived at the designated post, he found the post is indeed empty. Now he'll just need to find the missing men… This module serve as a giant greenhouse, there's a lot of vegetation around. Manmade forest dotted the place, a lot places for people to hide. Luckily, they left trails, which he can easily follow. Jeay's skills told him these trails are very sloppy… very unlike the discipline of the Dorssian military. That being said, Dorssian discipline had no tolerance for men leaving their posts without warning or leave like this. The trail leads him into a patch of vegetation with a series of thick trees. Slowly, Yusuke entered the forest and his pace slowed to crawl. His sharper senses began to catch and thus pinpoint the location of the missing men… except that was not the only thing he discovered.

Yusuke crawled and gawked at the sight.

There were the missing men… pants down… and a half naked girl inbetween them.

It happens. A logic tell him that. Men in stress over a coming life and death situation, their survival instinct and thus their libido went through the roof. And then some unattended girls who just looking for extra pocket money in the middle of-

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" The Yusuke part of himself immediately quashed off Jeay side's attempt to logically process the travesty before him. The boy Yusuke just… screamed.

The men jumped before they looked in horror at Yusuke's furious glare. "Geeze… kid, what are you tryin to do? Give us a heart attack!?"

"What… the HELL… ARE YOU… DOING!?" Yusuke roared as he thundered forth towards the group. "You left your post… for THIS!?" His temper flared, his control over his Magius powers loosened a bit. Yusuke briefly turned into his Magius self, with cracks on his lower jaw and gold crackling eye, as well as his prominent fangs. The beastly visage immediately gets everyone's blood chilled to the bone, and they just dumbly froze as Yusuke went past them straight towards the half naked girl.

Yusuke grabbed one of the discarded clothing and tried to put it over her… but then he get an unexpected response.

The girl slapped her.

"Mind your own business!"

She took the clothes and ran off, leaving a dumbfounded Yusuke and the Dorssian troopers.

…something like this happens often in battlefield. Girls who chose to sold their 'services' to the soldiers in the battlefield. It is a place where soldiers might get killed at any time. In fear of death, their survival instinct pushed their libido up, thus providing a healthy market for these kinds of services. The girls get paid for this, naturally. And oft times, they did this certainly not because they enjoy such a thing, but they do need to feed themselves somehow…

And thus Jeay's experience completed its dissemination of understanding to a much calmer Yusuke. But that doesn't mean he can just accept this. "…honestly I expected more of Dorssian discipline."

"Tch… and it was such a good find too…"

"Shut up." Yusuke growled. "…it's not like I don't understand the sentiment. But you idiots left your post completely unguarded."

"Well… we all want to have some fun-"

"That's what I meant when I said I expected more of Dorssian discipline. You guys were so horny, you don't have a mind to at least left someone to stand watch!?" Yusuke raised an eyebrow. "If I'm a Dorssian commander, I could have you all executed for this kind of blunder."

"Well you're not, kiddo!" One of the troopers growled. "And last I checked, you guys had gone and dissolve our nation! There's no Dorssia anymore is there?"

Yusuke looked at the trooper and scoffed. "…I didn't like you guys. I still don't. Hell, up until a few months ago, of all the nations that tried to kill us, we hate Dorssia the most. In the moon I've killed more Dorssian (mostly possessed) than I could count. But… as crazy as it sounds, despite all the bad blood we've accumulated… we still managed to have a modicum of grudging respect for you guys. I've been hearing words now that New JIOR army had begun adopting Dorssian military style. Some differences here and there… but… of all the armies of the super power nations that have tried to destroy us, we deemed Dorssian' discipline and straight forward approach to be the best… Despite the brutality and cunning we can still see some form of… honor in it. And we prefer that over Arus' backstabbing tricks and JIOR's… well…practically lack of… any form of decent military really…" Yusuke looked at the troopers who snickered. "Point is… Dorssia's gone. It's army… in tatters. But… the spirit's still there. It's still in here… and here." Yusuke pointed at their chest and his chest. "If you really care… if you still care… this… is all that's left of it. Don't defile it."

The troopers attitudes had long since changed around the New Jior adopting Dorssian military style. It's spirit, as Yusuke so eloquently put.

Seeing the change in behavior, Yusuke felt there's nothing more to say but: "…return to your post soldier. I'll… clean up here."

"Blitzendegen."

And the troopers left the scene of crime, leaving Yusuke alone.

Some distance away…

Yusuke's face was locked in the screen of the high tech binocular, detailing all manner of info from his eye color to his favorite food. The built in long range microphone captured every word, which all in all confirmed his identity… in case his partial transformation into his Magius form isn't clue enough.

"…target locked." She removed her binocular from her eyes and departed…

…so quickly she put it away, she didn't realize that Yusuke had looked her way at the last moment.

00000000000000

Renbokuji Jr. looked on confidently at the tunnel lights flashing as his train zoomed through the tunnel unimpeded.

"We're still following the Jormundgandr's signals. He's definitely heading towards Module 010."

"Then continue to follow him. Don't you dare lose him but don't let him see you."

The reporting officer had his own doubts about this. Truth be told he didn't even know about this unexpected event until today… and now… suddenly he heard the Jormungandr went AWOL and this guy told him to follow him in a spare mag train he never knew existed.

He quietly concluded: something else is happening here. Way bigger than his paygrade. So he just… overloaded his confusion and just do as he's told. Which at the moment, is to continuously report to this… self absorbed guy… about the progress of the train they're supposed to follow… except he doesn't even seem to care much about it?

The officer's train of thought wasn't that far off on the reality. Apart from making sure his pursuit remains as stealthy as possible… Renbokuji Jr. didn't seem to bother to think about anything else. He was already so absorbed in his own world of thought, daydreaming of future glories and plans he would enact in his impending triumph.

The massive mag train just pushed through the tunnel as uncaring as the one in charge of it all…

Minutes after the train left, a distorted air formed a shape as it moved before decloaking the Jormungandr, eyeballing the quickly disappearing mag train.

"They're smart enough to build that without me noticing… and yet they missed us." Haruto scratched his not so itching head. "Let's go. How long the fake signals gonna last?"

"Probably… 10… yeah, 10 (hick) hundred years… (hick!)… or until you blow it up… (Hicks) as usual." Tessa half drunkenly gave a rough estimate. "You're sure this is a good idea?"

"Even if I didn't do this, he'd still do it anyway, and it'll end up worse."

"That's not what I meant." Tessa jerked her bottle… to Brian and Kato who were tied and gagged to the chair. "You think it's a good idea to keep them alive? Why not just kill them? You know they'll rat us out first chance they get."

Haruto had been wondering about that himself… he could do that… and permanently remove this threat that is hounding his back… but… a small voice from his figurative back loudly cautioned him from taking a life so easily. "Let's just lock them up in a room and throw away the key."

"Bob! Bob." Bob easily lifted the two over the top of his head and carry them out of everyone's sight and mind.

"By the way, Little Boss… what happened if there's an army waiting at this tunnel?"

"Well… if that's the case, than those guys up ahead will soak it up first. But if they can't… they'll most likely turn tail and run, at which point, you will have to ride on their coattails and beat it also. I'll go forth on my own."

That's when Malcolm blinked in confusion as he turned to the little boss. "…why your own, little boss? Why… the rush? I thought you said we had to take it slow?"

"…I'm sorry Malcolm-san. But… this is kind of personal for me." Haruto looked nervously at Malcolm. "…you guys need to take it slow… but I can't. I'm… I'm on a time limit."

"…" Malcolm's expression instantly lightened and he made a relax gesture with his hand. "Whelp. We all have our little problems."

"Thank you."

Malcolm merely smiled. "Anyway… it looks like we won't be turning back after all."

"Oh?"

Malcolm turned his war face on. "We're almost there, and I see no enemy as far as my eye can see. I used to teach Dorssian how to do ambushes, and if there's no enemy here… then there won't be. I'd imagine they've concentrated their forces on the module itself."

"Or so it would seem." Haruto also began to frown. "…where's the train?"

"A few clicks ahead of us." Malcolm had slowed down the Jormungandr to a crawl.

"Park the train somewhere just a little out of sight, but keep the engine warm. I'll go ahead alone."

"Roger that, little boss."

A few minutes later, the Jormungandr had parked and the Valvrave floated out of its hatch and flew ahead. It was moving at incredibly slow pace, barely faster than a truck because it did so in a very low power setting. So much so that its sense nerves had its bright glow reduced to a dim lighting, with only a soft hum to signify its running engine and its legs barely floated above the uneven floor. You can't hear it coming unless you're standing right in front of it. It's slow, but the Valvrave can now make its stealthy approach up until Haruto can see the shape of the massive train even without him enhancing his eyesight.

"…hmmm…" Now he needs to step out of the Valvrave and continue on foot.

Funny thing is, as Haruto slowly approached the train, his senses, dialed to eleven, didn't detect any human presence at all. The train was completely deserted. "…didn't post any guards or patrols… either they were in such a hurry they didn't bring enough men… or they really didn't expect anyone to come straggling from behind…"

Haruto sneak slowly past the unoccupied train. It was easy to pick up their trail. They left all manner of noises. Haruto simply followed it up the tunnels until finally he caught up to Renbokuji's group. He can hear Renbokuji Jr. complaining about how dirty these tunnels are from a mile away. But he chose to keep his presence unknown for now. He simply let them lead the way. Renbokuji Jr. was so wrapped in his own little machinations – or so desperate to get out of the mechanical line, he didn't even bother to double check for the train he was supposed to follow.

"B… But sir, all due respect, don't you think it's a bit odd? The signal of the Jormungandr disappeared as soon as they reached here. We're here… but we didn't see any sign of them?"

"They must've hid the train somewhere. If I recall correctly, Tokishima Haruto had somehow bestowed it with an optical camouflage technology, did he not?"

"Why would he hide from us?"

"Why should I care? Ah, let's just make haste. This place stinks! I had no idea it was this bad!"

The officer gaped seeing his superior just brush off his question for something so trivial.

"…how the bloody hell someone so idiotic can gave birth to you two, Satomi-san, Akira-chan…?" Haruto resist the urge to slap himself in the head.

Still, the idiot served his purpose. For all his flaws, Renbokuji the Jr. was formerly a high ranking minister of the cabinet. That gave him insight and access to things normal people wouldn't know… such as this secret entrance to an emergency access tunnel, reserved for high ranking officials that he's about to use. "Let's see… the password is…" Haruto watched, with enhanced vision, as the man punched in the password. The door was opened, and the team ran in before it shuts off. Haruto waited a bit before he too come down and punched the same password. The doorway was opened, revealing a long corridor he can't see its end, yet. But he can see the infiltrators far ahead, with Renbokuji leading them.

But as he maintain his vigil of the group of fools, Haruto suddenly realized he knew next to nothing on what Renbokuji Jr. had in mind. He brought such a small force, even in the assumption that he believed the Valvrave's firepower can cover the need for manpower… isn't this a bit too… careless?

Just then, his heightened ears caught heard of one of the soldiers voicing his concerns.

"With all due respect sir? Where are we headed and why do we need to go there?"

"That's a need to know basis soldier, and you don't need to know! Now shut up and keep watch on that case!"

…case. Haruto's mind as a military commander raced ahead of his shock. They had many code names to it. The Case. The Box. The Switch. Small teams. Secret entrance… Renbokuji's incessant need to get to the one place only idiot would want to go…

"…why didn't I notice this earlier!? That fucking idiot. No. I'm the fucking idiot."

He spoke that last one a little too loud.

"Who's there!?"

Haruto wasted no time. Before the soldiers even finished training their rifles at where his voice had come out, he was no longer there.

"Ack… gaacchk!"

When the soldiers came to, they suddenly noticed the person they're supposed to be guarding is in terrible peril. When they turned around they saw Renbokuji Jr. being held by the neck by a very angry Haruto until his legs flailing off the floor.

"I know you're an idiot." Haruto spoke calmly, ignoring at least a dozen rifles being aimed at him. "…I didn't think you're this much of an idiot."

"C… Commander… p… please let him go!"

"Commander? So you're calling me that? And yet you followed this idiot's orders?" Haruto glared them down.

"We… we… urrh…"

Haruto sighed. Rank and file soldiers… they don't know anything, they just follow orders. There's only one person here knows the truth and Haruto had no patience to hear his words.

Haruto dragged the squirming and wide eyed Renbokuji Jr. and took a bite on his neck.

A second later, Haruto fall limp and Mr. Renbokuji jr. landed firmly on his two feet… but he looked different. His eyes, once glazed in fantasy was now focused and firmly on reality. "Alright." Haruto's voice flowed out. "This should do."

"S… Sir?" The soldiers were still confused.

The jacked Mr. Renbokuji Jr. looked down at his unconscious body. He knelt down and pressed a few buttons on his arm communicator. "Malcolm, this is Haruto. I've… 'rendezvoused' with Renbokuji's team. Move in and secure the Mag Train. There's a cache of inert but armed nuclear warhead on board. Find it, secure it."

"Roger that, Little Boss." The man's voice replied from Haruto's communicator.

When Mr. Renbokuji rose up, the soldier's pale faces welcomed him.

"S-s-s-s-sir? What is going on!? D-d-d-did you say… NUCLEAR warheads!?"

"Like I said… you guys followed this idiot's orders and you know nothing!?" Renbokuji barked as he pointed at himself.

The soldiers are a mixture of confused and scared. They still had yet to understand what is going on before them. In one instant, Renbokuji the Jr. turned from a delusional and bumbling fool that he was… into this charismatic and assertive leader – almost akin to his father. Almost like he got a new spine injection.

Haruto sighed, he picked his soulless body and put over his shoulder. Even Renbokuji's frail body turned superhuman when injected with his mind. "Look. Even if you guys haven't been told anything… I trust none of you enjoy the idea of nuclear weapons. Right now, your train is carrying 9 Nuclear warheads. Thankfully, all of them are inert. They require activation codes that are stored with a vault accessible only by Prime Minister Shashinami Ryuuji or Vice Minister Renbokuji Kitami, using their DNA as a biometric key. Which means… I can open it too."

"B… but… 9 nuclear warheads… what exactly are you going to do with that-?"

"I don't know… and I don't care. That's not what I'm here for."

"Eh… Uhh?"

Haruto sighed. "Whatever the case… 9 nuclear warheads is no laughing matter. Send several people back to the train to guard it. The crew of Jormungandr has also been alerted. They will help you. Now go. The rest of you come with me!'

They're still having a hard time understanding what happened, but this firm and clear direction is a breath of fresh air after all the confusion. "Sir, yes sir."

So, 4 people were sent back to where they came, the rest followed the Jacked Renbokuji Jr. to wherever this new (and improved) man will take them.

"Um… sir?"

"Yes?"

"S… Should we take that from you? It looks really heavy." The officer was pointing at Haruto's body sloughed on Renbokuji's shoulder.

"It is heavy." Renbokuji stated. "Which is why it is better that I carry it. You can't fight with this bothering you. Concentrate soldier. We're in dangerous grounds."

"A… Ah… Y. yes sir! Yes. Thank you sir!"

As mentioned before: a new spine injection. Who is this and what happened to the previous Renbokuji? They couldn't care less of the answer.

Haruto Renbokuji led the team towards the door. It quickly reads his DNA and the door slid open to an elevator. The elevator requires thumb print to operate and it only leads up to one floor. The secret door behind the bookshelves opened and there they arrive at the prime minister's personal office. "Go watch the door."

"Sir." The soldiers quickly manned the door, whilst Haruto went straight to the Prime Minister's desk. It even still had Shashinami Ryuuji's name on it. He took a seat and searched the memory banks. Renbokuji's bank. He pulled out a weirdly shaped key given to Renbokuji by Kitami. On the table, he saw a keyhole matching the weird shape of this key. "…" With a click, the lock was opened, and then a part of the desk slide opens revealing a monitor folding up, complete with its keyboard. The computer was activated automatically, but it immediately requested a password. Somehow, amongst Renbokuji's memory bank, the password was also there. Thinking about it now, Kitami must've given all this to his inept son, fully knowing Haruto would make better use of it. "If you had even half of your father's wisdom…"

He punched in the password… and somewhat amused of Kitami's choice before pressing enter. The computer immediately lit up, revealing all sorts of files. "Okay… now… let's see… there's that Nuclear Activation code… don't need it, don't care… budget planning… construction…" Haruto paused for a moment. This is where Renbokuji Jr. memory banks stops being helpful. Kitami didn't mention anything about the VVV project to his son. Firstly because he wouldn't understand it, and secondly, he (Kitami) is not that dumb. "…"

Haruto took his body and bit it. The next instant, Renbokuji Jr. fell limp and Haruto's back in his own self plus all the knowledge he can get from Renbokuji's memory bank. The man is still unconscious, and Haruto hastily cuff him before he wakes up.

"But mama, I don't wanna go to school today…?" he mumbled incoherently.

"Wait is he… sleeping…!?" Haruto blinked in confusion. Nevertheless, he gently removed Renbokuji from his seat and took over. "Now… let's see… I'm running a highly illegal human experimentation lab, and I want to keep it hidden. So… where would I hide it?" That's when Haruto caught something interesting.

WV Castle: LOS. Says the icon.

WV… VVV…?

Point and double click.

World Vania Castle: Lords of Sunlight.

"…never take Kitami-san as a man who liked stuff like this…" Besides, a game inside a Prime Minister's computer?! The screen goes blank and lo and behold… a game actually started. "Wait a minute, seriously?!" Haruto immediately opted to quit… but something about this game feels off…

And then the opening cg played out – a cheesy 1970 narrations:

Once upon time, the Queen of the Immortals came from the stars upon the world of mortal men. She looked upon their wretched short life of the earth and took pity.

She began teaching men of the wonders of civilization, elevating them into an age of illumination and advancement, all in the hope that one day, they will be worthy to join her as her kin.

Then one day, the immortal Queen returned back to the stars, leaving behind her servants to continue her work. To her mortal progeny she promised that when she returns, the gift of immortality will be granted at last.

Centuries past. It is supposed to be a slow but sure path to elevation, but with the Queen absent, the hearts of men grew impatient. They looked upon the immortal beings that had been their guide and teacher with envious and suspicious eyes.

Taking what they've learned from their immortal masters, the mortals rose up in revolt against their betters. Against all odds, one by one, the immortals were felled by their mortal progeny, who had numbers at their side.

This treachery they committed in the hopes of grasping the secrets of immortality. Too late they realized, that it is a secret that only the immortals can grant when they are still willing. One grasped forcibly only grants them endless torment in darkness.

A darkness that plunged the world into terror and desolation.

In this world of darkness, the Star Queen returns. Taking plight once more to the woes of men, she granted the suffering mortal the gift she had promised. The droplets of her eternal blood. But now, no longer it was granted freely, only the most worthy are capable of taking it.

Only he that will be the one hope that remains to shield the world of men from darkness' blight. One small soul that has been granted the power of light.

The Lord of Sunlight.

That opening CG… there's something about it… is weird. The starting events were retelling the story of Pino… but the rest… is a bit… off.

The game is a 3rd person action rpg, with the player taking control of a vampire flying around at the flick of the controlling mouse, sucking human blood from victims skittering about in a graveyard. "…" There are a lot of pixilated people running around at snail's pace and the vampire will run around at the speed of mouse movements to suck in their blood. "…" Haruto start playing and he captured and suck the first human blood… and as soon as the vampire finished sucking the first victim, a video played out… and this time… it's not some cheesy video game cg.

Subject: Curtis Stahl.

Sentence: Death.

Experiment begins at 10:00 hours.

Subject was injected with a dose of the V-mutagen

The live cam showed the subject, Curtis Stahl, was injected with the injection on his neck… and within seconds, he immediately bloated and exploded in a gory mess, spraying the shocked scientist and the camera with blood and viscera.

"…!?" Haruto recognized that symptom. The guy was injected with the substance that transforms humans into Novus Magius. His body can't take it, then that happens.

Haruto looked at the other pixilated victims… so these are all reports. This game was a camouflage for the data archive of the VVV project. He immediately inserted a data disk and begins the file transfer of all related data – this game included. Terrabytes of data were copied, and it will take some time before he can finish.

So while he waited, he'll just play the game. He clicked (bit) on the next file (victim)…

Subject: Clayton Cavarez

Rank: Alpha team, Navy seal

Status: Active

Subject had passed multiple rigorous testing. Beyond a shadow of doubt, subject is at peak physical capability by human standards.

The idea of this experiment is based on the previous failure, where the Test Subject was unable to handle the strength of the V Mutagen. Therefore, the substance will now be administered at small doses. The theory is that for the human body to slowly adapt to the substance until there are no rejections.

Day 1:

The solution has been diluted to 0,01% density of the first dose. Additional dosages will be administered at set interval.

At the first testing, the soldier received a small injection… at first it looked as if nothing happened. In fact, subject did not show any changes…

Clayton's picture showed a man in his late twenties, at peak physical capability and prime health. Fit and vigorous.

Day 3:

The second testing, the dosage of the mutagen has been increased to 0.05% density.

Nothing happened yet. But after this second dosage, subject showed an increase in appetite as well as body temperature in the following days.

Day 7:

Third testing… the subject had shown a notable increase in body mass. Subject display superior muscle tensile, speed and reaction time markedly improved, stamina and strength similarly enhanced. Subject had been noted to have increases its calorie intake by almost twice his original diet. Subject remained in peak physical form, but there's a marginal increase in muscle mass. Dosage is now increased again to 0.1% density…

Day 9:

Subject's body had shown remarkable increase in physical capability. But on the side note, his calorie intake continues to increase at a commensurate rate. Subject now require an increase of 300% on the calorie intake.

Clayton's subsequent picture showed his body seems buffed and put in incredible amount of muscle. Significantly so, at least in comparison to his first picture. In fact, at this point he was taller than normal human.

Day 12:

Subject began showing erratic behavior as well as eating disorder. Subject became noticeably aggressive and violent prone. Suspend all future injection procedure until further notice.

Day 17:

Subject continues to show an increasingly unstable and violent behavior. His eating disorder had begun to take for the worse. We're now up to 500% calorie intake, and yet subject's muscle mass showed no sign of stopping its growth. Venturing to the bizarre, visually, subject seem became increasingly emancipated regardless of how much he eats, but his physical strength increase abnormally. Subject had begun gorging food with his hands, all cooking utensils were destroyed at every attempt of use.

Clayton's figure now seems to have taken a drastic change for the worse compared to the previous. He was skinny, gaunt, but his stomach swelled unhealthily. His hairs had mostly fell off, his eyes sunken, and they are feral and manic. His teeth turned to misshapen fangs, and his nails lengthened to claws. He was on restraint in this picture. Drooling and screaming even as his wrist and ankles bites against the cuffs until it bleeds.

Day 20:

Subject's psychological stability maintained its deterioration trend. Aggression, sexual disorder, and violent behavior increased exponentially. Eating disorder had increased to a rate that is unsustainable and counter-productive. Last night, a nurse was captured and raped to death before she was ripped in half… and then consumed. Subject is now permanently sedated and is now placed under strict lockdown.

Day 27:

At 19:20 hours, Subject broke out of confinement. Sedation was no longer effective. Subject rampaged through the lab, killing at least 24 soldiers sent to stop him. All this in only 5 minutes. Subject finally expire at 19:35. Subsequent autopsy revealed his body had killed itself by autophagy.

Post mortem, Clayton looked like a dried up mummy. And he had shrunk so much, like a mishappen baby that is more skeleton than flesh. And that skeleton was deformed… it doesn't looked like a human's skeleton anymore.

Haruto clasped his mouth. These are just the first crude attempt. The victim he bit in the game had this number on its head: 02-CC. The one before was 00-CS. The other people in the game had something similar. Some are even grouped together. Haruto continued to check. The next file he opened was depicting a batch of subjects.

Subject 0245 - 0300

Subjects were chosen for a mass test. The goal is to compare the effects of the V-Mutagen from person to person. Following the example of subject 02-CC, the subjects came from military background and were at peak physical condition.

Day 25 of the test:

Of the original batch of 55 test subjects, only 6 survived. All those 49 failures, many of them showed the same symptoms: increased intake in calories as a way for the body to feed the drastic transformation process that occurred after the administration of the V Mutagen. And then followed by an increasingly unstable metabolism that disrupts vital organ functions and bran chemistry, resulting in a drastic change in emotional and psychological stability. A theory arise from a Dr. Tokishima Shoichi that human body cannot handle the mutagenic power of the V Mutagen. Prof. Doyle dismiss the theory for lack of empirical proof.

Day 32 of the test:

The last six was given their injection after testing indicated no problem… so far… if one ignores the instances of people gone missing in the last one week after the last injection.

The video showed six people being tied to the table as the injection was given to them. Once that was done, they start screaming and howling in pain. Their body twisting and contorting… suddenly, one of them broke free of his harness and start by ripping the doctor's arm off its socket. A soldier discharged his gun at the berserk super soldier but he grabbed him and ripped his head off with his bite. Soon, the other test subjects also went berserk, broke free, and start killing… and then eating everything in sight. The cameraman turned away and tried to run, but he was apparently yanked and his camera fell off, depicting his final fate: dragged screaming into the midst of ravenous but insane test subjects, and then ripped apart limb by limb and cannibalized while he was still screaming in pain. When that was done, when the monsters can no longer found anything else to kill and eat, they fell on each other. And the video cuts off when a test subject bit another's head off and spit it unto the camera.

At this, Haruto took a moment to stop. In part to understand what he learned, and another to wash this atrocity off his head – as best as he could. But one thin was clear: all the test subjects… they all go crazy with hunger. Just like he was, only a lot worse. "…Pino… did you know about this?"

"Not until it was too late. At first, I provided them with the formula for the V mutagen, but then they shut me out, thinking they got everything they needed. I imagine, after all those failures, they finally realized the formula isn't that simple… and they need help." Pino mourned. "…if only they trust me a little bit more… I could've told them ways to prevent this… mess."

"But you did eventually took part of the experiment, did you?"

"Yes. After that last failure, they fired the previous head of the project, a Professor Doyle Ghastmond. After which, they promoted his assistant, your father. He was the one who proposed to let me into the project in the first place."

Haruto dared himself to continue. In the game, the change of leadership is marked by the changing of stage. Haruto left behind the victim plagued graveyard into a gothic castle. The Vampire entered the castle, welcomed by a book. When he interacted with it, it revealed a diary written by Renbokuji Kitami himself.

Journal entry 1:

Prof. Ghastmond left the compound today. A pity. He may be a bit stubborn but I sure could use his brain, but it couldn't be helped. Tokishima Shoichi took his place, and he wasted no time in pointing out the misunderstandings that had plagued the first experiments. According to him, Ghastmond misunderstood the problem: Rather than the compatibility or rejection by biology, physiology, or even genealogy, it's a matter of… energy. The V Mutagen was a super science beyond human limits of understanding, but it was made from earth substances. Uncommon, and rare ingredients, but terrestrial in nature. By all accounts, there should be little to no rejection by human body.

The problem, he theorized, was the need for enough energy to accommodate the extreme changes affected by the Mutagen. And the amount needed was… insane. In fact, mathematically, for their bodies to fully accommodate the transformation affected by the V Mutagen, an adult humans needs to consume the caloric equivalent to the energy produced… by a nuclear reactor – per day. And when they failed to get that… survival instincts took over and all that cannibalistic mess happened. So he postulates that before they can begin to think of finding humans that can receive the V Mutagen, they must first found an energy source not only powerful enough to feed these changes, but also clean enough that human can survive imbibing it… not to mention the puzzle of how humans can withstand such vast amounts of energy to begin with. And that, everyone immediately admit, is beyond human capability.

Journal Entry 2:

On his insistence, we finally brought in the source of the V mutagen formula. An Alien. The sentient extraterrestrial energy lifeform, a pure Magius who call itself: Pino. It hacked into our system to learn our progress and our failures… It immediately rebuked us for excluding her from these experiments, saying had they asked her, she could've prevented all these losses. It doesn't feel pity or sorrow over all these deaths… just… an annoyance at us for wasting so much precious resources that could've been used more fruitfully. She doesn't care about human lives, just the wasteful progress. Should I be worried about this?

Journal Entry 3:

With Pino on board, it began by immediately addressing every mistake Ghastmond had made in his early failures. It expounded and confirmed Tokishima's theory of lack of energy for the V Mutagen triggered human's body reconstruction. The Magius then introduced us to this new energy it says are the answer to all our problems. It called the energy as Runes. And according to it, all Magius technology is essentially centered on the use of this energy.

And thus began a new experiment with this new type of energy and it was astounding to say the least. One small speck of rune had enough power to light this entire facility for a week! What's more, it showed it was incredibly adaptable and malleable for all sorts of uses. One experiment infused a minuscule amount of rune into a… power bar. One of the staff ate it a week ago… and he hadn't had the need to eat anything else since. The Magius even claimed that this unbelievably versatile energy is renewable! Why, human has it. Every living creature has it. We only need to know how to perceive it and then procure it.

This is way too good to be true.

Journal Entry 4:

I'm… not sure anymore. As in… I'm not sure if this Pino is a genius… or an absolute moron. It doesn't seem to understand a single thing about human. Not just emotionally but physically as well. It literally asks why do human had to take a dump and take a piss. All this while designing a miniaturized nuclear reactor the size of a belt-buckle but ten times more powerful than any human contemporaries.

But I digress… to the aliens we are the aliens. They are as unfamiliar to our life as we are unfamiliar to them. It suggested we try to create a mechanical replica of human. Basically, an android, but it must replicate all human bodily functions. That means digestion, respirations, muscle contraction, etc2… hence its crap dumping question. The cost to create one droid alone was astronomical… about as much as an entire module. Jeffrey had to be forced to sign the checkbook.

The next video showed the android… and the overexcited Pino nonchalantly just dump a crapload amount of Runes into its system to the horror of the scientist. The droid is lit up bright green…

Haruto didn't need to guess what happened next. A next gen android worth an entire module… and she blew it up like that. "What is this talk about wasting resources… you wasted the most out of everyone!?"

"I just wanna know how much an artificial human body can take… so I dump just as much as needed to power a Valvrave… didn't expect it to blow up like that. Luckily I told everyone to leave the area first." Pino cheerfully replied: "Maa… at least the sacrifices made that day enabled me to make all the advancements you're enjoying today. Inuzuka-kun's Osiris was based on this research you know? So all's well ends well."

"Tell that to the taxpayers whose money you've blown up in smoke."

"What's tax?"

"Never mind…"

Journal Entry 5:

Jeffrey actually had a nervous breakdown when we told him the droid blew up not just itself… but almost half the lab. Thankfully, Pino declare that it was regretful of what happened. But first: it has gathered valuable data. And secondly, as a way to make up for damage it had caused, it finally revealed to us the alien vessel which it used to get to earth. That turned Jeffrey's frown upside down in an instant.

Unfortunately, the vessel, which it called Valvrave, was in pieces. But it declared our current technology should be able to fix most of it. And, apparently there are two units. It let us do whatever we want with one, but it won't let us touch the other. It said it belonged to its brother.

Now this strikes me as a surprise. It… no… 'she' had a brother. I didn't see the alien to understand the concept of family.

Journal Entry 6:

Well, apart from the droid fiasco, things finally began to take a turn to something that makes more sense. Humans can't handle the energy of runes… so let's just build a machine that can. We're using bits and pieces of the original units to create these super robots… never mind that each of these machines cost as much as an entire armada. Each one of them had the potential to wipe out one anyway.

What an idiot I am to think it would be that simple…

Journal Entry 7:

I've discovered a few things that made my skin crawl. Remember what I said about Runes being an energy source too good to be true? Remember that guy who was 10 years younger and no longer hungry? Found him this morning having given a gun a blowjob. In his last will he said he's been having nightmares, memories of people who had lived hundreds of years ago until he's not sure which is which and decided to just fuck it all.

When we asked the alien about it, she told us the truth: this is what Rune is. Memories. Particles that composed information, yielding enormous amount of energy, but drained from the minds and thought of living creatures. Dear God…

Suddenly, I thought back to all those people we've sacrificed to the Council 101. Suddenly it all became clear to us. What exactly those monsters are doing to them… oh God… what have I done?

Journal Entry 8:

had a fight with Ryuuji and Jeffrey this morning. I told them… I told them that we need to stop this madness. Told them that Pino needs to be told about the fact council 101 still exist, and that we're sending tributes of men to them. Men to have their… Runes… their memories, drained out of their heads.

They disagreed. In fact… in fact they planned on letting Ivanovich W. Dorssia in to this… VVV plan. This insane plan to overthrow the alien taskmasters. And apparently… the super human project never did stop either… rather it escalated. I read Shoichi's proposal. That thing about giving birth to artificially altered children to make the human needed to be super soldiers…

The only thing stopping me from killing that demon was the realization they've already start recruiting the mothers for the job… and the only wise thing for me to do… is to minimize the damage that will be caused by this. But this… this is the last straw. I saw Ryuuji's wife's name along with Tokishima's wife on the list of baby donors. Ryuuji and I disagreed on a lot of things, but I didn't think he'd gone this far.

Journal Entry 9:

I tendered my resignation of my position as Vice Minister this morning… but I was given a week to… put my affairs in place. So… now… what I do from here… I don't do it for Jior, or the world, or any fucks living in it. From here on out… I do this for myself and mine. The world can burn for all I care.

Haruto stopped there. Kitami's journal had also ended there – presumably, along with his direct involvement with the project. But he saw traces of what he did: putting his son's wife on the baby donor's list. Paid the right people to keep tabs on the Valvrave construction project and then he can insert his preferences when the time is right. Hikaminari and Hiasobi were the fruits of this interference. Two of five most powerful weapons in the universe, his gifts to his grandchildren.

The download had long since ended… but Haruto continued reading report after report, diaries, clippings, logs… a whole archive of trivia and notes that tells stories of the people working on this project. Putting these disparate pieces together, the full story emerges… and from there he sees the pattern. It started as something seemingly noble. The elevation of human race. To make them greater. Cure all ills, end all suffering… and then… come the compromises… the obsession… the greed… all the clichés that turned it into the atrocity that it is. And then finally… his patience spent.

CRASH!

The sound caused Renbokuji Jr. to jump awake to see a fuming Haruto, his fist planted deep into a smashed up computer.

"Wh… Wha… what? What is going on… why am I here, who are you, whoamI?" The man was still half asleep.

Haruto didn't care. He simply took the disk drive and hid it before Renbokuji notice it.

Renbokuji's eyes are now focused and his mind awake. "What… wait… now I remember… YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!? YOU SHOULD BE FIGHTING OUT THERE!?"

"I could ask you the same." Haruto coldly walked away from the table.

"Shut up! You may have fooled everybody, you don't fool me! You wanted to hog all the glory, didn't you!? Well, not this time! This time I had the upper hand!" Renbokuji quickly took his seat on the now vacant desk, and was eager to do his master stroke… until he realized this fist shaped hole on the smoking and thereby useless PC. "W… wha…"

"It's of no use to anyone. And I got what I came for."

"You… do you know what's in that PC you nincompoop!?"

"Yes." Haruto remained unmoved.

"You have no idea what you just carelessly thrown away! Our hope to-"

"…and what was the plan? Blew up this module with… the same weapon that killed your son?"

"I… what!?" All the sudden, Haruto came face to face with a fretting Renbokuji. "M… My son… my son is dead because you rob him of his due!"

"His due of immortality and being superhuman? No need to fret about that, he was already one of us when it happens."

"Wh… what!?"

"In case it hadn't become obvious. We're not completely immortal. Super strength? Eternal youth? Yeah. He got all that and even gave me a run for my money. But there's a catch. There's always a catch. I tried to show that to everyone. The downside. The terrible price to be paid for this. For a while, it worked. Everyone had second thoughts. Not quite sure if this thing worth the price… But your son? He saw the price tag… and he embraced it. But he didn't do it for you. He did it for everyone – especially those who had paid. He already proven himself a hundred times the man you ever were. That's the only reason I chose not to just suck the inside of your head clean. Because I still believe the father of a man I respect can't be that bad."

"…" for the first in a long time, Renbokuji Jr. was stunned in silence.

"Now get up! We're done here, and we're going home. BOYS! You hear me? We're getting out of here!"

No response…

"Soldier?!" Haruto asked again.

No response.

Haruto rushed to the door where the soldiers standing guard… they're still standing guard… but they're stiff. Their eyes… dead. They've died standing still.

"Shit… All teams, all teams, do you read!? We've been compromised! They found us! Get ready to depart! Do you read!?"

Haruto had no time to confirm if they hear him. He grabbed Renbokuji by the arm. "Come on, we have to go!" But as he took his first step he looked at the window… and saw it.

The next second, the bullet landed squarely inbetween his eyes, knocking him down.

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" Renbokuji had to squeal in terror when he saw Haruto fell with a thud and a cratered head.

Some distance beyond the bullet hole on the window…

"Headshot confirmed. (Koff)" Amber spoke through her breathing mask. The sniper scope showed the sight of Renbokuji fretting over Haruto's body. "Now normally this would constitute as a clean kill… (koff) except these guys don't die that easily, do they? (koff)" True enough, Haruto's body had begun to stir again. Amber reloaded.

"But you did shoot the bullet?"

"Should I shoot the other one? (koff)"

"No. We didn't get paid for him."

"Okay. (koff)" Kon looked back at the scope… and… is it just her… or did she just saw Haruto looking at her? '…no freakin way… I'm 500 meters away! There's no friggin way…'

But then she noticed Haruto punched through the concrete wall and pulled out a steel pipe from the water main.

"…wha…!?" then she saw what he's about to do with it. And then she knew. "Oh fuck, he saw me."

Haruto hurled the pipe through the broken window towards her with pinpoint accuracy and unbelievable strength. The 500 meter distance was instantly covered, and Kon barely had enough time to get away. She managed to dodge the projectile, but it totaled her rifle. She was that close of becoming a human shish kebab by the eye socket.

Meanwhile, Haruto had already spit out the bullet that had eviscerated his head. The bullet is not the hardened type to pierce armor… it's the hollow point fragmentation bullet. The bullet shattered on impact and its shrapnel shred the insides of his head upon penetration… Which is why what he spit out isn't a complete bullet, but pieces of it. But they're a pain to regenerate.

"Come on. Let's get you out of here." Haruto grabbed Renbokuji and dragged him back to where they came from. The door is now being banged from the other side. When the army of droids finally burst through, Haruto was long gone, but he left a farewell present:

A miniaturized and improved version of the bomb Haruto made of runes.

The government office exploded inside out, consumed by a firestorm. Red raised an eyebrow at the conflagration. "Amber, please tell me you're okay."

"I'm fine. (koff) Just pissed. (Koff)"

"Get to your unit and stand by. I'll take it from here." Red start interfacing with his computer, issuing orders and moving pieces across the board.

The once inert and quiet module suddenly burst into activity. Legions of droids appeared out of nowhere and marched towards their designated objectives. Several Sister Geese even unveiled their camouflage, unleashing their fleet of fighters to surround the building.

Meanwhile, Haruto and Renbokuji finally rendezvoused with the earlier team which had joined together with Malcolm's team. The Jormundgandr had also been attached to the Mag Train. "Time to get out of here."

"You betcha, Little Boss! But I see a lot of enemy tincans comin' our way from every direction! I don't know where they came from and there they are!"

"I'll deal with that." Haruto hand Renbokuji over to Malcolm. The man still looks confused and disoriented. Haruto grabbed him by the collar and shook him up with some parting words: "Your son was only a Novus Magius for a few months. He piloted a Valvrave for only half a day. But he saved thousands of lives in the end. Including mine. If you're his father, I dare you to do better." Then he shoved the stunned man to Malcolm before he ran towards his prepared Valvrave.

But before Haruto can get into the cockpit, a massive pillar energy blasted the Valvrave off the ground. Haruto turned to see its source being the smoking barrel of a Bremen, one of a whole herd of Bremens that came stomping towards them… from both sides of the tunnel.

"Oh shit… now what!?" Malcolm gulped.

"Malcolm-san, get the hell out of here. I'll open a path." Haruto cracked his knuckles.

"What? Open a path how!?"

"Delphi, initiate auto repair."

"Auto repair initiated. Estimated time of completion: 3 minutes."

Haruto roared and charged ahead of the train, clocking 200 km/hour in a heartbeat. The Droids opened fire with everything they got, concentrating their fire on the minuscule target… but the target was too small, too fast… and too tough. Outrunning a series of destruction behind his back, Haruto plowed through entire rows of Aelf droids until the swarm seemingly overwhelmed him. But then the pile exploded in a fiery blast, and the Novus Magius leapt out of the fire, hurling himself towards the Bremen who shot the Valvrave.

The tiny flaming human projectile went through its head and instantly pierced out of the Bremen's back. Haruto took the time to rip out its giant gun with his bare hands before he hurled it towards another Bremen, skewering through its chest. As for the swarms of smaller droids down below, Haruto brought a small ball of fire and shot it to t ground. The resulting shockwave of fire rippled across the ground and wiped out entire hordes, opening a path. "GO!"

The train, now towed by the Jormungandr, immediately sped through the opening, steamrolling through the hordes of Aelves and the Bremen Carcasses, as well as leaving Haruto behind as he fought off more and more Droids. But they're not worried. It's Haruto. He's made to survive suicide missions. More importantly, experience shows the droids place a premium on the first of Novus Magius – almost to the exclusion of everything else.

…except this time… it didn't.

The train left, but to their shock, the droids are chasing them. Some of the Bremens still standing switched to flight mode and chased the train, to everyone's shock.

"What!?" Haruto gawked. Even the small fry droids are leaving him, chasing the train on foot. To make matters even worse and confusing, several Hunters blurred over head, completely ignoring the downed Valvrave. "…!?"

Malcolm paled when he saw his radar and noticed a LOT of hostiles coming towards them. "…Ohh… no… Houston we have a problem. Everyone man your gun station, we have incoming!"

Haruto watched helplessly from the distance. "…they're chasing after the train?" Haruto need to chase them. They won't last long at this point. But… how was he supposed to do this? Run after them…? Without Valvrave he can't fly…

…or can he?

Hails and hails of projectiles began to rain down upon the train. The armor of the train was thankfully thick, but it wasn't long before the amassed firepower began to flay it bit by bit. The gunners were hard pressed to hold the droids at bay. The gigantic bremens and dvergrs opened fire, and the Hunters releasing missiles that rain down upon the train. Smokes rose up and explosions erupted as several shots began to penetrate the armor. And then, just when things couldn't get worse… "INCOMING!" Malcolm watched in horror as a few Hunters appeared right in front of the train and heading towards them in a collision course. "Oh shiiT!"

Suddenly, a burst of light shot ahead of the train and headbutt – yes, HEADBUTT - the fighter to oblivion.

"W… Huh?"

Once the light subsides, Malcolm saw Haruto ahead of them… flying… and glowing, enveloped by fiery light. Although he seems a bit unsteady in the air… "Go!"

At this point Malcolm really shouldn't be surprised of whatever Superman thing Haruto can do. The train pushed forward and Haruto turned into a streak of fiery comet, unleashing rune blast from his hands, destroying any and all droids coming their way, lessening the assault on the train, but the enemy is not letting up. "I don't get it. I thought they were after the vampire boy and his big mech! Why does it go after us!?" Brian screamed in his panic.

"Well… we do carry a whole payload of nukes…" Renbokuji answered. "But it's unarmed and… and we didn't manage to get the activation code."

Meanwhile, Haruto was also wondering the same thing: What could they possibly want from that train bad enough to ignore the Valvrave? "…wait…" Haruto stopped blasting the droids for once. In his haste to help his friends, he left the Valvrave behind in self repair… That's what they're after. "Delphi! You read me!? How's the repair!?"

"I'm almost done."

"? Almost done? Are you sure? Aren't there any stragglers?"

"None that I can detect within 5 mile radius."

Haruto blinked. 'Now that's weird.' "Maintain total lockdown, but as soon as you finished repair, assume direct control and come to me immediately. Home in to my energy signature." Maybe he's just overthinking it. Still, this unconventional strategy screams human control. 'Still… human response means that they indeed are expecting me.'

"Malcolm-san… get the train out of here." Haruto suddenly turned around.

"W… Wait! Where are you going!?" Renbokuji asked.

"Gonna give them a distraction the likes of which they can't ignore." 'I hope.' Haruto waited until the train passed before he landed. As expected, the droids immediately swarmed at him, but a majority is still following the train. That's when he began gathering energy to himself to dangerous proportions. "Cut off all the connectors to this module! Separate it from the rest!" Haruto shouted one last time before the train disappeared. He looked at the swarm of droids purposefully encircling him right in the optics. "…I know you're watching. Whoever's controlling this army… I'm pretty sure you're nearby. Probably on this module… You're intentionally ignoring me are you? Alright then. Let's see you ignore this."

Haruto began gathering energy unto himself… first, a destructive force equivalent to a tomahawk… more and more… next the power of Scud… more and more… Hiroshima or several Hiroshima… the sound of the concentrated rune reached a fever pitch… pretty sure he already surpassed that Gigaton Nuclear bomb at this point…

Then, as expected, the droids finally sensed the threat and stop chasing the train and left en masse, heading straight towards the energy source.

The drones quickly swarmed the energy build up that is Haruto… but they can't do anything. The boy is now radiating so much energy and heat, droids that get too close instantly shortcircuit before they melted. So they're just stuck there, circling the boy impotently at the periphery of this energy field.

Haruto laughed seeing this behavior. "I knew it." And then, a hatch opened, shedding a stream of light from the surface. The droids parted ways and opened a path for Haruto to pass.

"So… you're inviting me up."

Up above…

"What's this? (Koff) isn't this a tad too early? (Koff)"

"I had to improvise. The kid's radiating energy equivalent to thirty Hiroshima down there. If he continues, he'll blew up this module."

"Personally speaking, I think it's just an eventuality. (koff)"

"Perhaps. But I'd rather it happen on our terms."

Amber and Red's conversation was cut short when the ground rumbles. Both knew what it meant. The hatch lit up brightly and an eruption of fiery energy burst forth. And from the conflagration, the revived Valvrave flew out, brimming with fiery energy, like a demonic angel straight out of a literal pit of hell.

The Valvrave surveyed its surrounding. He was expecting an army of droids welcoming him… but he found no such thing. But… perhaps that is to be expected. After everything he pulled out to get himself invited into this eventuality, his welcoming committee should be set to match.

And true enough…

The gunship descended from the sky and instantly transformed into the Valvrave 01 copy: the Hellsing.

"You want me. Here I am." The Valvrave raised his arms.

"Indeed, here you are."

"How much did they pay you for my head?"

"…you're not thinking of offering me a double, do you?"

"I wish I was that rich. No. Just wondering… if it has been worth it." Haruto frowned. "Isn't that how it works? You're a mercenary. Cost and profit."

Red snorted. "Well… I suppose that's what it'll look like to most people. But… I can tell you one thing. Even when they say we get to keep this kickass robots… we're already in the red here."

"And you'd still continue." Haruto frowned. "So I take it this is personal."

Even though they're inside their 22 meter robot, a veteran like Red can see the calmness of his opponent. Just this and he realized the truth. Both sides wanted this eventuality to happen. "Hey, tell me something."

"Hm?"

"That day when we first met… if my girls had attacked you… would you have fought us?"

"…I believe that's what we call self defense."

"Even if your self defense ended up destroying the whole module we were in?"

"…if we had fought that day… aye… you might have forced me bad enough to go berserk… and yes, the module would've paid for it." Haruto calmly calculate his loss and gain. "I might even pay dearly for it… but… at that cost… I could've destroyed or severely damaged 4 important lynchpins to our opponent's army."

"!" Red's eyes widened.

"I had the intel. They told me those Faux Valvrave you're using are essentially relay stations to expand the control of these droid army. The droids were a huge threat because of the people in control of them. I took all four of you guys out… those droids are not so huge of a problem anymore."

"You've seen what they can do to people's brain. Didn't it ever occur it won't mean much? We're 'just' mercenaries, you know. Who knows, they might've… had a copy of us somewhere in their archives."

"All this time I spent here… fighting… doing what I was designed to do, what I was bred to do… more and more I came to understand." Haruto looked at his hand. Some time ago, these were the hands of a wimp. Now… the sheer amount of power his fingertips command had been a revelation to him. He balled his fist. "Kitami-san was right. This power is already well above and beyond any normal human… but… it's not infallible. I've met… plenty of examples… of human potential capable of rivaling this monster. But machines? How far can they go I wonder?" Haruto shook his head. "And you. Say what you will, but if you truly believe the machines can do better… you wouldn't be here in person to face me personally… if nothing else, only humans can get the monster hunting job done right."

Red had no rebuke for that. Part of the reason his clients trusted these soulless metallic machines is because they feel human element is a vulnerability they must expel against the superhuman monsters. Funny thing is… it seems the monsters they're fighting had more faith in humanity than the humans themselves. "Aha… ahahaha… You're funny kid. Almost makes me wanna spare you…"

"OI!"

That shout momentarily distracted the Valvrave and in that moment, he let out the slightest opening…

The Hellsing pulled out one of its gun and fired three stakes.

CLANG! CLANG! CLAANG!

In an instant, the Valvrave had pulled out his katana and cut all three projectiles midair without flinching.

Red's eyes widened. Just that alone and he knew it. The Valvrave came here missing its primary power claw and his massive blade, but it's far from helpless. This opponent is dimensions apart from the Big yellow muscle bot. The Hellsing pulled out the second gun and point both at Haruto.

"I did say almost." Red immediately apologized profusely, but he didn't let down his aim.

"Huh?" Haruto tilted his head. "Aaah… I take it your other friend will also join us? Or are you more of the one on one type?"

"We don't get paid to play fair. Amber?"

The earth next to the Hellsing crumbled down. A swarm of mechanical serpents overflowed from the opening and from the mass of coiling serpents, a massive spiraling pillar suddenly erupted. The pillar then unravel into 8 sets of thick tentacle attached to the unit at its center. Another faux Valvrave, one that Haruto had never seen before… or had he?

The overall design reminded him of the Ariel… in fact, it was practically identical, with the same Sense Nerve crown pattern that copied Carmilla, but it does have a different color scheme. It was darker orange and more brownish colored compared to the Ariel's deep and light ocean blue. And the equipment has been completely changed. The previous version reminded him of a fish… this one reminded him of a snake. The roller skate equipments are largely gone. The same could be said to the chem gloves and the shotgun cannon. Instead, it dual wields a pair shotel – a wickedly curved blade she currently held crossing her chest. Multitude of semi transparent tubes containing a myriad of neon yellowish green substances can be seen attached to various parts of the Faux Valvrave form. In fact, a great number of them extended down both sides of the Valvrave's face, framing it like hairlocks. But more interestingly was the equipment attached to the back of her head like a massive oversized pony tail. 8 thick mechanical tentacles sprayed out as the thick hair of the Valvrave and spiral around the main body, holding it aloft. Each tentacle ends in a serpentine head whose open mandible mouth sprouted out a flock of the tubes. The 8 tentacle hair extended down past the height of the Faux Valvrave, suspending the Valvrave off the ground, thus giving the impression as if the more petite Valvrave is taller than the Hellsing.

Haruto noted the strange similarity with a previous encounter. "So the girl from before made it? A… Mrs. Blue… was it?"

"Not really." Red frowned. "I mean… this was Mrs. Blue… but not anymore."

All the sudden, the new Faux Valvrave hailed the Valvrave. Haruto pick it up and saw the face of a beautiful blue haired girl, but she covered her mouth in a gas mask. She immediately took it off and glared at him with all the bloodthirst she can muster. "Recognize this face?" She spat.

"Should I?" But Haruto somehow can see where this is going.

"This is the face you've taken away from my sister. You owe me blood, monster!"

Haruto nodded, expecting as much. "Your sister tried to kill my friends. Tried to kill innocent people. If I let her be, I'd be out for yours right now. You two choose a very dangerous way of life. But this is part of the job, isn't it?"

"Indeed. And so is payback. This Rapunzel will see to that!" Kon hissed as he put back her mask back on and cut off the transmission with that one last threat.

The second Faux Carmilla, Rapunzel, sense nerve flashed purple in activation, and her tentacle hair spring up, closing the gap around the main body and formed the massive spiraling pillar. The pillar whirred and quickly drilled deep into the ground.

"…!" The Valvrave bring out the two katanas. But just then, he distinctly hears a series of gunshots… As soon as his focus returned back to Hellsing, at least a dozen stakes is heading his way. Haruto had enough time to take a single breath… and then:

Third Tech: Overcharge.

As the battle truly begins, Rune coursed throughout the Valvrave, and the world slowed to a halt. The stakes that were meters away from hitting home seemingly stopped midair.

Fourth Tech: Rune Blade

The edges of the two katanas burst with energy, leaving a beautiful trail of solid red hardlight as they were swung, cutting down the bullets one after another in a beautiful series of continuous arcs of glowing light, leaving trails of sparkling particles. Red only saw this arcs of energy rings that cut down all his stakes and a glimmer of the Valvrave's form. He saw the Valvrave took one step forward… and then…

And then at least 3 sound barriers broke.

To outside viewer, it was as if the Valvrave vanished from their sight at the exact same time the bullets were cut to pieces. The shredded bullets had yet to hit the ground when the Hellsing found the Valvrave had just 'teleported' right in front of his nose, swinging one katana in a downward arc.

"HOLY SHI~" Thankfully, Red's arm moved faster than his mouth, the Hellsing raised both guns and used its reinforced barrels as a shield to block the slash. The sheer force of the impact pushed the Hellsing several hundred meters backward, but the blade was halted. The Hellsing's monitor was filled with the close up view of Valvrave's glowing blade. So Red got a good look of how that Rune Blade is also cycling and thus it was in the process of sawing through his twin guns. Between that and the insane power output the original unit can use, it would cut through his weapons in no time flat.

That is… if this swarm of serpentine drones didn't suddenly shot out from the ground and coiled themselves around his guns, reinforcing his defenses as well as wrapping around the Valvrave's flaming blade, stopping its descent, if momentarily. It did give enough time for the Hellsing to jump away and transform into his gunship form and flew to the sky. The bundle of serpentine drones that wrapped the Valvrave's blade immediately lit up before the blade easily cuts through them. But no sooner than that was done, the earth erupted allover him, innumerable number of serpentine droids shot out and attempted to swarm him.

First Tech: Rune Barrier.

The spherical barrier erected just as the mechanical vipers jumped forth towards the Valvrave and their open mouths hit the barrier flat, their fangs barely penetrate the defensive energy shield. But then Haruto watched in surprise as the open jaws of the Viper drones began to spin around furiously on its neck… the serpents are boring their way through his barrier. Why, one actually managed to get through ahead of the pack and fell on his shoulder. As soon as that happen, the Serpent wasted no time and bite his shoulder, and in half a second, bore through his armor and slink in. Within half a second, the Valvrave reported multiple critical malfunction on said area as the invasive foreign object wreck all manner of havoc. He had about a few seconds.

He immediately activated the Overcharge as soon as the barrier collapsed. Once again the world halted just as the barrier shattered and the serpents rain down and the Valvrave ascended to the sky, and the serpents only managed to sank their teeth upon one another. And then, to this little foreign object that caused in so much harm… in so little time, Haruto merely channeled more runes unto the infected area, and the sheer temperature of the energy did the rest. A second later, the red hot melted sludge of the serpent dripped out of the hole it bore through. Still, that is some snake.

The Valvrave quickly activated all its thrusters in a semi permanent state to stay in the air for the foreseeable future. The earth cracked here and there, and swarms upon swarms of mechanical serpents drilled their way out and covered the ground. The Valvrave now must actively avoid the ground which now turned into a literal nest of mechanical vipers. The Hellsing immediately welcomes him with a barrage of all four of its precision guns. The Valvrave tried to use the same tactic as before to block them all… but this time, there are twice as many projectiles. Even with overcharge and two swords, there are just too many. But Haruto's wing mounted power claws sprang into action as well.

Second Tech: Rune Bullets.

Multiple rune bullets flew out of the claws and shot down the stakes that managed to get through, as well as the CIWS variable Vulcan to help finish off the last of the barrage. With another Overcharge the Valvrave burst through the shards of stakes and closed the distance to the Hellsing. If it was not in its gunship form, he couldn't have dodged the 'teleport' assault. The lunge brought the Valvrave too close to the ground, and the earth collapsed as another swarm of snakes erupted towards the Valvrave's foot, who were seconds away from touching that particular patch of ground, but immediately canceled that intent. The Valvrave flew away, but the thousands of snakes piled on top of each other and formed a tidal wave of mechanical serpents that covered his view. The Valvrave's power claw flicked and unleashed a wave of flame, burning the serpents to crisps before their weight collapsed on themselves and fell to pieces around the Valvrave… It's a rain of serpents – some are still wriggling amidst the roasted ones. Haruto remembered what just one did, so he immediately sliced as many as he could before it reached him. But then, amidst the crumbling roasted mechanical serpents, something shot through the carcass with speed and precision unlike the rest. Haruto briefly caught a glimpse of a rocket propelled mechanical serpent, fangs whirring, shattering several sound barrier as it pierced through the sky like an arrow. The Valvrave was too busy slicing the snakes, but he immediately activated overcharge and boosted away. He was fast enough to prevent the snake projectile from hitting his chest, but it managed to struck his leg. And as expected, it immediately drilled through his leg, at a rate even faster than the smaller contemporaries. That thing is already halfway through his knee! This one seem to concern itself less on wreaking havoc on his insides and more on trying to drill its way straight to his cockpit. Haruto didn't even have time to melt it as before.

"Jettison the left leg!" The left leg was detached off its joints just as the snake burst through the thigh and jumped towards his chest, its mouth open wide… and the Vakvrave shoved a Katana through it, eviscerating it mid flight. The leg fell to the ground, straight into the pile of serpents, who immediately consumed it to the bone in seconds. Haruto watched this with widened eyes. "Well, okay." He was immediately reminded: only one of his two current foes is here to try and capture him. The other one would sooner kill him than capture him. He glanced around and sure enough, there she was: amidst the pile of 'carnivorous' serpents, stood their queen. The Rapunzel's upper half hang outside the mass of snakes, in her hands she hold the weapon responsible for the loss of his one leg. The two curved shotels she carried earlier has been attached together end on end, creating a massive bow, with which she shot that Serpentine arrow. Haruto wasted no time and shot a rune laser straight at her. But the serpents enveloped her and shielded their master from a direct hit, at least for a while. The laser took only seconds to melt through the obstacle, but by then, Rapunzel's serpent hair had enclosed the main body and it drilled down again into the swarm of snakes, just as the laser burst through. The attack struck nothing but a pile of snakes. At the same time, the Hellsing came charging in, firing a barrage. The Valvrave noticed the incoming stakes from a mile away, and swiped the laser to the side, wiping out the bullets midair as well as trying to slice through the Hellsing. The gunship narrowly dodged the attack whilst unleashing a volley of missiles. The Valvrave merely swipe his blade the Gouketsu, unleashing a mass of hard light that shatters into small shrapnels that sprayed over a wide area. The missiles were wiped out before it could even get close.

Red watched this in awe. He glanced to a certain direction… up in the sky… there's the Valvrave looming menacingly overhead. Missing a leg and yet it did nothing to diminish this power brimming over every inch of his regal frame. His ridiculous number of zeroes his paycheck sports suddenly made a lot more sense.

Seeing it in the vids is one thing, seeing it in person… no… to have it being used against him head on like this is a completely different story. A bone chilling story. Technique usage, precision, timing, efficiency… the skill required to pull this out… this is not the skill Tokishima Haruto had when he first come here. He started off precisely like how the reports had said about him. An inexperienced monster recklessly showcasing his powers and hope it solved the problem… but now… he had learned. The weeks he spent fighting, killing, absorbing knowledge… and most importantly, directly felt experience he personally gained from the use of his powers in actual combat situation… it had reforged him from mindless monster into a battle tested superweapon. The yellow one he faced before is like the bouncer at the door, but this… this is the Prince of the Vampires. 'That's the problem with this prolonged battle… the enemy got ample opportunity to improve himself… but…'

"Red."

The Hellsing's movements slowed for a bit. The transmission he had been waiting for finally arrived.

"How are you doing?"

"Getting my ass kicked. You?"

"I've just arrived at the location. Preparing to make contact now. But before that…"

"Yes?"

"Violet just reported in…"

"What?"

"I'm compromised' she said. She seems pretty upset. Bu~ut she told me not to worry."

"Define compromised."

"Rather than she came to them, they come to her, she said."

Red blinked. Well… that's fortuitous. He focused so much on this operation he kinda neglected to check the others. But Green was doing such a good job he felt little reason to worry… until now. "Which one came?"

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Violet watched the screen in disbelief.

She was about to set out, but then, lo, her prey came to her instead.

The reassembled Behemoth landed right in front of her doorstep – almost literally, followed by an entire entourage of Kirchbaums and Ideals in the sky.

"Well, well…"

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Red raised an eyebrow. "…well, well… that's that then. All members of Six Senses are now engaged."

"Shall I… disengage?" The first lady spoke.

"…if you disengage now, all of this has been for nothing."

"Then, Red, reiterate your orders. The Six Sense stands ready."

Even as he was engaging the deadliest enemy in his life, Red showed his disposition as the leader of the elites by maintaining his calm. Four screens, each with different color representing their codenames.

"Amber and I will continue to engage Target Alpha."

"Of course we will. (koff)" Amber replied with a growl.

"Verdant, monitor the situation, but spare an eye on Violet. Keep me informed on any developments."

"You got it."

"Violet, if you can hear me… listen. You're on your 'own'. But if you feel it's too much for you, disengage. And don't you argue back on me with this. We've lost one of the Six already, I'm not interested in losing another."

"Understood."

"And Grey…"

The woman, Grey, the lady that first contacted Red since the beginning stands ready.

"Engage."

"I shall."

'All the time he spent building up his power… also mean …we also got plenty of time to prepare…' Red smirked. Now with that out of the way, he can concentrate on the enemy ahead… the deadliest, most powerful of them all.

The Valvrave flared with power as her rose up with his wings flapped open. His neon green sense nerve began to glowers with fiery aura… the air was distorted by the heat… he's already at the early stages of his meltdown already.

The Hellsing and Rapunzel charged forth…

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