Hello again.

Second of the last five if things go according to plan. Also, since there are new characters introduced in this chapter, the gallery of this story has been updated. Find the link in my profile.

Let's go on with the show. See you again in the afterword.


[X][X][X]


Two nights had passed after the day Ryu's team came back from their trip to Laguz. So far, nothing significant has happened. Elder's Darker remnants still remained, roaming the land and aggressively attacking any creatures on sight. But now Ryu's team was a fully operational ARKS squad instead of a bunch of stranded operatives, so they could swiftly move from one place to another by utilizing the Gate Ship, slaying Darkers whenever they were spotted by the surveillance system of Laguz, which still remained invisible, hovering in low orbit altitude above Nazarick.

Right now was lunch time, and the whole team of six was having their meal in the restaurant section of Shining Golden Pavilion.

"Anybody got any idea how long we'll remain like this?"

Rose spoke out of the blue, asking a question.

"As long as necessary"

Ryu replied with a straight tone as he continued eating.

"Yeah, I know that. But I have no idea what kind of thing must happen for this to end. I just mean that I merely want to know what to look out for, okay?"

"Well..."

Ryu folded his arms and leaned to his seat. He first glanced around to make sure no strangers were close enough to overhear what he would say next, and then he spoke.

"I'm pretty sure at least something will happen once my ARKS reaches this planet"

"Yeah, good point. Xiera has sent them calibration data, so it will eventually happen. Just a matter of when"

Rose spoke, agreeing with Ryu. But then Guardian spoke out.

"We must be wary of your universe's Dark Falz Double, though. They will be drawn by instinct to Ainz, now that Elder is within him"

"Is Double overwhelmingly strong?"

Ryu asked the question. His ARKS had encountered Dark Falz Double once shortly after the defeat of Dark Falz Loser, but he had never seen them personally. His brother, Yukasa, had seen them. But he and everybody around him at that time had quickly retreated after a brief skirmish because they had already been exhausted after defeating Loser. In other words, there wasn't enough information yet about Double in Ryu's ARKS.

"They are playful like children, and that makes them unpredictable. They have the ability to devour everything, including other Dark Falz. Now the thing here is, if the power of all known Dark Falz are within a suitable vessel, Profound Darkness will be resurrected, and that's bad news for the entire universe"

"Suitable vessel?"

"I don't know what exactly the criteria is, but so far in my knowledge, known suitable vessels within ARKS are Matoi and... me"

Everyone else besides Guardian had their eyes going wide within an instant. Rose was the one who immediately spoke.

"But you have all of them within you, right? Why aren't you-?"

"To make it short, I'm safe because the ones inside me are just a fragment of each, mainly their will. Anyway, let's leave it at that because it's not our concern right now. The last thing anybody wants is two Profound Darkness roaming about"

"Wait a second... Two...?"

Hikaru narrowed her eyes as she asked the question. Rose glanced at Hikaru for a second, then back at Guardian before speaking in disbelief.

"You don't say...?"

"Yeah, in my universe Profound Darkness is already at large, in the form of a woman named Shiva. ARKS is already having their hands full holding her off, so in accordance to what I said before, my main objective now is to prevent the rise of a second Profound Darkness"

Everyone else was speechless after hearing Guardian's words. Ryu himself didn't know how he should feel, now knowing that the other ARKS was actually struggling despite the bright and cheery atmosphere he had seen back in Laguz.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner, Guardian? Don't tell me that you were intending to bear the burden by yourself?"

Alice asked, her face looking clearly concerned. Guardian reacted awkwardly, averting her eyes from Alice while at a loss for words.

"Umm... I..."

Beep! Beep!

Quite conveniently for Guardian, a transmission notification went in right at this time, and she immediately answered it. Alice rolled her eyes and sighed seeing this.

"Yes, Xiera? ...Uh-huh... What? Okay, we'll be there soon"

Guardian ended her communication link and looked at Ryu with a dead serious face before speaking.

"We need to go back to Laguz, pronto"

"What?"

Ryu immediately looked at the food on the table. His meal was still largely unfinished, but now he had to leave. He immediately waved for a waiter, who immediately approached.

"We have to leave now, so please pack these up to go"

"Certainly, sir"

Ryu then looked at the others of his team. Some of them tilted their head at what Ryu had just done. Ryu immediately spoke in response to their confused looks.

"What? I have a principle not to waste food, alright?"

Their confusion was understandable, though. There had never been occasions where Ryu was interrupted in the middle of a meal, so nobody other than Hikaru knew this side of his.

The waiter swiftly did his job, and Ryu got his food packed within a minute. He immediately put the packed food behind his coat and silently transferred it into his photon inventory.

"Heh, alright. Let's go then"

Guardian stood up, followed by everyone else still sitting. The entire group then went to Ryu's room where a teleportation beacon had been placed and used it to instantly teleport back to the Gate Ship on standby, which soon flew straight towards Laguz.

Because Laguz was pretty close to the spot where the Gate Ship had been hovering on standby, they arrived within less than three minutes and went to the bridge immediately. Upon entering the bridge, Ryu saw that Xiera was alone like usual, with nobody else accompanying her.

"What's exactly happening?"

Guardian asked as she hastily approached Xiera. The latter immediately put up a large screen display above her head, which showed nothing but empty outer space. However, upon closer inspection it was quite clear that there were a number of lights flashing randomly over an area.

"Something's happening behind this particular dimensional rift, and this rift is the one which leads to the dimension of the other ARKS! Something's coming in!"

Ryu's eyes went wide and he looked at Hikaru, who did the same. The ARKS Fleet from their dimension was finally coming after so long. He would soon be one step closer to home, and he felt very hopeful hearing what he had just heard.

Seconds later, a brighter flash happened at the rift and something came out from it. Within a couple seconds, Ryu could recognize that it was a Team Ship, the ship type which was several times bigger than a Gate Ship and could comfortably house tens of people within.

Ryu's face, and everybody else's, turned grim upon realizing that something was off with the Team Ship. It was partially burning and visibly damaged.

Not wasting any time, Xiera's hands fiddled with her interface, and then she immediately spoke.

"Attention! A Team Ship in distress is approaching! Rescue squad sortie immediately!"

Before anyone could wonder further on what the cause could have been, more flashes of light occured at the rift behind the Team Ship, and what came out next was a swarm of things Ryu had no idea about.

"Oh, no... Double's Darkers!"

Xiera exclaimed, and then she immediately fiddled her interface again before speaking.

"Emergency! A Team Ship is being pursued by Darkers of Dark Falz Double! AIS Vega squad, assist immediately!"

Right after Xiera spoke, Guardian turned around and dashed towards the exit. The others were about to follow her, but she stopped and spoke while looking at them with narrowed eyes and raised eyebrows.

"None of you have ever used AIS Vega. Stay here!"

Without giving a chance to reply, Guardian disappeared into the teleporter. The others glanced at each other, silently agreeing with her words after briefly thinking about it. Meanwhile, Xiera fiddled with her interface again and spoke once more.

"Attention, unidentified Team Ship! This is Xiera of Ship 005: Laguz! We are sending reinforcements your way, so please close your distance to us and hang in there for just a minute!"

There was no immediate response, but after a couple seconds someone from the other side finally answered.

"R-Roger! We're heading your way!"

The voice was feminine, but Ryu's eyes went wide with his mouth agape because he recognized the voice. There was no mistake for sure. It was...

"Yamino-chan!"

Hikaru exclaimed, and all the others around her turned their head to her. Ryu was the only one who kept his head straight because indeed, that voice belonged to none other than Yamino Seika, the mysterious fully synthetic android who had been taken in as a family member by Yukasa and Hikaru for some reason he didn't know. Yamino had proclaimed himself to be their brother, but Ryu remained skeptical to this day, not considering Yamino to be another brother of his.

"Wait a second! Did I just hear... Hikaru-aneki!?"

A male voice spoke from the other side, and once again Ryu recognized the voice. This time, he was the one exclaiming.

"Yukasa! It's you!?"

There was a brief silence before the other side suddenly screamed in delight.

"Wooogh! It's Ryu-aniki! He lives! He really lives!"

"Aniki! I'm coming for you! No! We're coming for you!"

Ryu couldn't help smiling widely after knowing that Yukasa and Yamino were coming for him. But the delight didn't last long because part of the Darker Swarm, ones which looked like cubes with arms and legs, caught up with the Team Ship and latched on to one of its engines.

Boom!

All the latching Darkers exploded, blowing up the engine with them. The face of everybody in the bridge turned grim within an instant seeing the Team Ship which was now crippled very badly with the rest of the Darker Swarm catching up to it.

"No...!"

Ryu put both hands over his head as he saw the horror. Meanwhile, Xiera shouted.

"Guardian! Hurry!"

Whoosh!

A winged figure passed by just outside the bridge at incredible speed towards the Team Ship. It was Guardian's Dark Blast Loser form, and behind her there was a squadron of mecha suits following. Ryu could recognize the mecha suits as ARKS Interception Silhouette, abbreviated as AIS. AIS, being a 10-meter tall mecha suit armed to the teeth, was one of ARKS' most powerful weapons against Darkers, but also the most vulnerable because it was prone to Darker infection. The AIS squadron passing by was slightly different from the AIS Ryu remembered, having wing-like attachments on their shoulders and ankles. Those could be the so-called AIS Vega.

"How many people are in there!?"

Xiera hastily asked the question, seemingly panicking.

"There are... four of us!"

Yamino answered from the other side. Xiera made a slight nod and spoke again.

"Alright, listen up! Someone's coming for you in about ten seconds and she definitely will look strange in your eyes! But please believe me that she's your ally!"

"Huh? O-Okay!"

The next ten seconds felt like forever with Ryu and everybody around him watching the large screen in silence, not being able to do anything other than hoping that Guardian would make it in time. Ryu was barely holding his anxiety, constantly tapping his shoes to the floor and gritting his teeth with his eyes fixated on the screen.

"Uhh... Xiera..."

Yamino spoke through the transmission, sounding confused.

"Yes?"

"When you said that she looked strange in our eyes... you meant that Falz Angel coming to us over there?"

"Yes! No time to explain, so please trust us and let her help you!"

"Alright! We'll be in your care!"

The large screen above Xiera then showed Guardian shooting out homing projectiles at the pursuing Darker swarm, along with larger projectiles which made a big explosion upon contact. Many Darkers were killed, and the swarm briefly dispersed. But it soon converged again and advanced forward, resuming their pursuit.

Guardian then cupped her wings forward, shooting out a giant laser which she swept through the swarm, disintegrating a large portion. However, more Darkers warped in seemingly endlessly through the rift, rebuilding the swarm.

Guardian turned around from the swarm and flew straight towards the back of the crippled, barely running Team Ship. Upon contact, the Team Ship gained speed towards where the AIS Vega squadron was lined up on standby.

"Is Guardian pushing the ship?"

Rose asked the question while her eyes were still fixated at the large screen.

"Looks like it"

Alice spoke out the answer. Her teeth were gritting and her hands were clenched into fists, clearly showing how tense she felt right now seeing this.

As the Team Ship came closer to the AIS Vega squadron, the latter began shooting out a barrage of missiles towards the swarm in pursuit. A series of explosions occurred at a distance all over the swarm, but the swarm itself countered with a barrage of dark energy bolts. At this point, the Team Ship had already passed the squadron, so they quickly repositioned themselves to form a cover for the Team Ship and raised blue energy shields with their right arms.

To Ryu's amazement, the energy shields absorbed the entirety of the barrage harmlessly, leaving no damage on the squadron. The energy shields turned yellow in the process with more energy rings added around them, and right after the barrage was over the entire squadron channeled energy from the shields into their left arms and shot big energy bolts towards the swarm.

Massive explosions occurred all over the swarm like a series of fireworks, killing a large portion of the swarm once again. Not giving any chance, the squadron pulled out the large rifle which had been hanging behind their backs. Ryu was familiar with the rifle weapon because the regular AIS he had experience in using was also equipped with the same rifle.

The squadron aimed their rifles forward, and one second later they all shot big blue lasers, sweeping the swarm off down to the last Darker. Everyone in the bridge other than Xiera stood still and speechless with the spectacle they had just witnessed.

As the squadron put away their laser rifles, there were no more Darkers coming out of the rift, and the rift itself seemed to have calmed down.

"Good work, everyone! The Team Ship is now safe! You can return!"

After Xiera spoke, the squadron turned back and returned to Laguz. Xiera briefly fiddled with her interface and spoke again.

"Good work, Guardian! Escort the newcomers to the bridge as soon as you can, with their consent!"

After speaking, Xiera turned her seat around facing everyone else.

"And done! Crisis averted!"

Xiera spoke in delight, and at the same time Ryu felt really weak in his legs, now that the tension was gone.

"Ha... haha..."

Ryu dropped down into a sitting position on the ground, feeling overwhelmed by all sorts of emotions he had had during the event. He glanced at the bridge entrance, which he knew would soon reveal the person he had been missing for a long time.

Psshh...

A couple minutes later, the bridge entrance opened, revealing Guardian along with Matoi and four other people behind; Yukasa Seika, Yamino Seika, and two people wearing full face masks. As Guardian and Matoi walked in, the other two stood still and speechless. Ryu knew exactly what would happen next, so he stood straight with his arms open, facing Yukasa.

Without any words spoken, Yukasa charged straight at Ryu and hugged him.

"Aniki! I'm so glad you live!"

"Ha, no way I would die just like that. I can never leave a clingy guy like you on your own"

"Heh, damn straight!"

Yukasa released his hug, and then Ryu did a fist bump with him, both smiling with their eyes slightly narrowed. And then...

Pomf!

Yukasa smacked Hikaru on the head, making a fluffy sound as his fist made contact with her fluffy hat.

"Ow...!"

"Aneki, you dummy! Couldn't you have been a little more patient!?"

Hikaru, averting her eyes while looking as if she was playing dumb, replied with a flat tone of speech.

"No"

Yukasa facepalmed in response, while Yamino right behind him laughed.

"Teeheehee, that's Hikaru-aneki for you! Anyway, I'm glad to see you alive and well, Ryu-aniki"

"Ehh... yeah. I got quite lucky down there. But by the way, why are there only you two in the Team Ship?"

Yukasa was the one who immediately answered Ryu's question.

"At first we wanted to bring the entire team, but something bad happened and they all had to stay behind helping the fleet"

As Yukasa spoke, his face turned dead serious.

"Huh? What bad thing?"

Ryu asked the question, even though he already could guess the answer.

"Dark Falz Double is coming this way. They seemed to be highly motivated, so the higher ups immediately concluded that they have to be stopped whatever their motive is. The entire fleet is now trying to hold them off, but it's probably just a question of 'when' until they make their way here. We came here in advance to gather information"

"I see. We actually have been expecting Double to come. Though by the way... who are those two?"

Ryu looked at the two masked people behind Yukasa. Both of them were quite clearly girls, and Ryu actually could guess who one of them was because he recognized the clothing and the hat, but as for the other, he had no idea.

"Eh, well..."

Yukasa seemed to be hesitating while Guardian and Matoi looked at each other, seemingly laughing in secret. Yukasa looked at them and asked a question.

"Here should be safe, right?"

Guardian and Matoi nodded, and then Yukasa spoke to the two masked people.

"Alright, you can take off the mask"

The two people raised their hand towards their mask and took them off. As Ryu had thought, one of them was Melrondia, while the other...

"Matoi?"

Even though her clothing was completely different from what Ryu remembered, there was no mistake this time that the other person was Matoi, or to be exact, his universe's Matoi.

"Ryu-san... Hikaru-san... I'm so glad to see you again"

Matoi spoke with a mellow smile as Ryu stood there feeling confused.

"Y-Yeah, I'm glad to see you too, but why are you here? I mean, both of you"

Clap!

Xiera suddenly made a loud clap with her hands, prompting everyone else in the bridge to look at her.

"Alright! I know everybody has questions now, but this bridge is now too cramped for that! Go to a conference room and answer all questions there, okay?"

Everybody agreed with Xiera, and so about five minutes later they were all seated around a conference table in a separate room from the bridge. What caught Ryu's attention the most was the fact that the two incarnations of Matoi sat side by side, making a pretty strange sight to behold. Thankfully, their clothings for now were different so there should be no trouble telling them apart.

Hmm... maybe if the need comes, I'll address my universe's Matoi with her name like usual, while for the other I'll address her as Guardian Matoi.

Ryu thought to himself, addressing the issue of having two Matoi in the same room. Meanwhile, Yukasa cleared his throat and began speaking.

"So, firstly, can anyone fill me in on why there's another Laguz and another Matoi here?"

Yukasa spoke with his arms folded on the table. His eyes scanned over other people in the room. Ryu was the one who immediately spoke to answer.

"To put it in short, parallel dimension"

"Hmm, yeah. It should've been obvious. Me dummy. Where are the other ships, though?"

Guardian's face turned serious with her eyes narrowed and eyebrows raised.

"They are now scattered, operating independently"

"Hmm... I suppose something bad has happened on your side, hasn't it?"

Yukasa stared at Guardian inquisitively. It was a little hard to read his expression because the right half of his face was covered by his mask, which was by default quite intimidating.

"Yes, but please don't inquire further. We need to focus on the more important matter at hand"

"If you say so"

Yukasa leaned back on his seat. Meanwhile, Ryu raised his hand with the intention to ask a question immediately after.

"There was an interruption back then, so I want to ask this again. Why are you two here, Matoi and Melro- Melphonseana?"

Melrondia was slightly startled hearing Ryu's question. She then immediately spoke with one hand over her chest.

"I-I just had a feeling... that maybe Master Gettemhart... I mean, Dark Falz Elder might be here somewhere. I know, as an ARKS, that he is my enemy. But if there's a possibility, I want to have a word with him!"

Hearing Melrondia's determined speech, Ryu became clueless whether he should tell her about Elder's current state. But for the time being, he decided to not speak about it.

Ryu then looked at Matoi, prompting her to speak her reason for coming. She noticed, and so she began speaking.

"I was just worried about you. Your body was never found, so Yukasa-san and Yamino-san scrambled all over the place looking for any clues they could find from the remains of Ur. I later heard from them that Hikaru-san jumped at the chance the moment they found a clue, giving hope that you really have made it"

Pomf!

Yukasa gave Hikaru a smack on the head again, while the latter just played dumb like before. After a little giggle, Matoi resumed speaking.

"So, when I heard that Yamino-san and Yukasa-san were going here, I decided to come along because I want to see the truth of their... our hope with my own eyes"

Matoi then looked at Guardian Matoi with an awkward facial expression.

"I have never expected that there's another me here, though... I'm now not sure whether I should be here or not..."

Guardian Matoi looked back and giggled before speaking in response.

"Yeah, it feels strange that there are two of me now, but please don't worry about it. In fact, when I learned about the existence of another ARKS along with their version of myself, I wondered if I would ever meet the other me. Now you're here right at my side, and I can't help feeling happy about it"

Guardian Matoi smiled warmly as she spoke, and Matoi smiled back.

"Moreover, I'm glad to see you looking really cute in the outfit I lent you, rather than that really old one"

"H-Huh?"

Matoi blushed as she heard the remarks of Guardian Matoi. Hearing that, Ryu couldn't help fully agreeing. Matoi looked a lot more cute than he remembered, wearing the white jacket with red accents, black shorts and thigh-high stockings with yellow accents, and white shoes with pink accents. She now looked a lot more like a normal girl, and that had its own charm.

Guardian immediately spoke, adding her own remark.

"Still, having multiples of a person will confuse people, so I suggest that you don't walk around in public too much. I mean, both you and Melrondia"

Both Matoi and Melrondia nodded, agreeing with Guardian. Although, the latter seemed a bit reluctant. Nevertheless, Ryu spoke again to resume the conference, looking at Yukasa.

"By the way, why did you bring an entire Team Ship here?"

"Gate Ships don't have enough integrity to achieve the numbers presented in the calibration data, so Yamino had the idea of applying that to our Team Ship instead. The sudden Dark Falz Double movement made us hastily warp here with incomplete calibration, though. Compounded with the Darker pursuit, we arrived with the ship on fire as you have seen"

Right after Yukasa finished speaking his explanation, Guardian rolled her eyes up and spoke with a visibly upset tone.

"Xiera..."

And then Xiera's voice was heard through some unseen transmission.

"I'm sorry! I didn't put the Gate Ship technology difference into account!"

There was a silence in the room for a couple seconds before Yukasa broke the silence.

"Well, that being settled, anyone willing to fill us in on everything happening before we came?"

"Well, this will be quite a long story..."

Ryu spoke, leaning back to his seat and folding his arms. Indeed, telling everything from the beginning would take quite long...


[X][X][X]


Ainz, currently in disguise as Momon of Darkness, was traversing through the streets of E-Rantel along with Narberal in her Nabe identity, going with the story of having just returned from a job in the Baharuth Empire. He felt really anxious, because by doing this he was essentially telling his secret to the freeloader inside.

"So the warrior I dueled with was you all along, huh? How interesting!"

As expected, Elder made a remark from inside. Knowing that Elder could make a projection of himself to interact with other people outside, Ainz was carrying a great risk of Elder randomly projecting himself and shouting the secret out to the public. Ainz had prepared a cover story just in case, but he would definitely prefer not to use it.

"You better don't leak this fact to anyone, or I shall make you regret it"

"Ha! As if I'd get anything out of doing that anyway!"

Despite Elder's words, Ainz didn't feel relieved at all. After all, the one inside him was a Dark Falz, an evil entity. Elder could very possibly be lying, and therefore Ainz would never let his guard down.

Later, Ainz entered the Adventurer's Guild nonchalantly with Nabe following right behind. His main goal was merely to show all the people there that Momon was now back in town, and thus the goal was already achieved just by entering.

Ainz walked straight to the job board and stopped there, then he put up a thinking posture for slightly less than 30 seconds to give out the vibe of looking for a new job to do. In truth, Ainz currently had no interest in taking a new job with all things that had happened, and he probably wouldn't for a while.

Ainz then walked towards the nearest receptionist staff and immediately spoke without giving a chance for the other to greet him.

"I will be resting for a while. If something urgent comes up, find me at Shining Golden Pavilion"

"U-Understood, Momon-san!"

The staff lady bowed as she spoke. Ainz paid no heed and turned around, walking out of the guild building. The two of them then walked towards the Shining Golden Pavilion, with Ainz hoping that he would encounter the ARKS team there. It was not crucial, though. So there would be no actual loss for them not being there.

Ainz and Narberal were halfway through their walk when the latter narrowed her eyes glancing in a direction. Ainz himself knew what the sudden behaviour was about because he noticed it too, thanks to some anti-stealth countermeasures he had prepared just in case. Therefore, he spoke to Narberal in a low voice without stopping his walk.

"Someone's stalking us"

Narberal then replied, also in low voice and without turning her head.

"Indeed, Momon-san. Shall I do something about it?"

"No need. I know that guy. Let him think that we don't notice"

"U-Understood, Momon-san"

Indeed, Ainz knew very well that the one stalking them was Janus. He along with Rigrit and Tsar have been running an investigation on the possible existence of Players, so it was natural to suspect that Darkness, a fairly new Adventurer team which had jumped through the ranks abnormally quickly, could possibly be Players.

Ugh... at this rate donning the Momon mantle myself is becoming very dangerous. Maybe I should delegate Pandora's Actor to take the role from now on, or outright eliminate Darkness altogether. But that would be a waste...

Ainz and Narberal kept walking straight until they arrived at Shining Golden Pavilion. Janus seemed to have left a couple minutes before, but Ainz had no idea if that had been a good sign or not.

They later arrived back in their rented room, noticing along the way that none of the ARKS team were home. For all Ainz knew, they could be either somewhere in the wilderness exterminating Darkers or back at Laguz for one reason or another.

Ainz then sat down on the bed and spoke to Narberal.

"Nabe, listen up"

"Yes, Momon-san!"

Narberal stood straight facing Ainz as she spoke. Ainz then folded his arms and began speaking.

"For the time being, we shall take no Adventurer jobs. Your task is to remain here as the contact person for Ryu's team, should they need it"

"As you wish, Momon-san"

"I shall leave for now. If the guild brings urgent news, your first priority is to inform me. In the case you are unable to contact me for some reason, I shall leave it to your discretion in handling the news"

"Understood, Momon-san"

"Very well..."

Ainz nodded as he spoke, then he put the Momon disguise off, returning into his true self.

[Greater Teleportation]

Ainz returned to the vicinity of Nazarick using his teleportation spell. As he hovered high above, overlooking Nazarick below, he looked straight at the sky. There was nothing but clear blue sky in his sight, but he knew that Laguz should still be there somewhere.

Fantasy world of swords and magic below, spacefarer world of spaceships and guns above... The contrast was so large that everything feels surreal...

After the brief musing, Ainz went down to Nazarick. He still had to prepare his defenses further, in anticipation of Dark Falz Double's imminent arrival in case Guardian's warning was true.


[X][X][X]


"...And that's the gist of it"

Ryu took a deep breath after he finished his speech. He had no idea how long had passed after the retelling of his story from the beginning. One thing for sure, he could use a cool drink right now.

"Quite an adventure you've had, Aniki"

Yukasa commented while still leaning on his seat with his arms folded. Meanwhile, Yamino scratched his head just a moment before speaking.

"What could've been the odds of two ARKS operatives from different dimensions meeting right there on that planet? I wanna say that everything could've been some sort of divine intervention. Teeheehee!"

Ryu shook his lowered head with one hand hanging over his forehead.

"You and your weird theory again..."

"Uh, umm..."

Melrondia spoke with one hand raised. She immediately resumed after getting everyone else's attention.

"So... Dark Falz Elder is no more...?"

In response to that, Guardian spoke to Melrondia.

"As clueless as I am whether this is a good thing or not... Yes, indeed. Ainz Ooal Gown has defeated Elder and absorbed his powers for himself"

Hearing Guardian's words, Melrondia went silent. She lowered her head, and her facial expression looked visibly sad.

"Master Gettemhart..."

"But Ainz told me that Elder left some last words, seemingly for you"

Melrondia immediately looked at Guardian with her eyes going wide.

"What is it? Do you know it? What did he say?"

"A moment..."

Guardian took a deep breath, and then she spoke with her eyes straight at Melrondia.

"If you are a part of ARKS, cast aside your resignations! Free yourself from the past! Grasp the future with your own hands! You've seen where obsessions with the past can lead, so don't make the same mistakes I did... Dia!"

Melrondia gasped as Guardian spoke the last part. Meanwhile, Ryu felt a little confused because Elder's actual last words wasn't that long.

Did she add things to sound more impactful, or... was it the Gettemhart inside her?

After briefly pondering, Ryu decided not to speak about it. After all, the message Guardian recited just now seemed to be effective, seeing Melrondia's reaction.

"Ah... Master Gettemhart... You're right... Thank you... I shall go on living, no longer as Melphonseana, but as myself... I am Melrondia, and I won't borrow my late sister's name any longer..."

Melrondia leaked some tears as she spoke, but she was smiling. Everybody else just smiled without saying a word.


[X][X][X]


"Good grief, having to say that again...!"

Gettemhart spoke from the inside of Guardian, after reciting his last words to this universe's Melrondia way back then. Guardian, feeling grateful, spoke to him with her mind.

"Thank you, Gettemhart. I appreciate that"

"Tch...!"

Gettemhart's response was short, and Guardian could hear all other mind-squatters inside her laughing in their own way. Paying no more heed to them, Guardian spoke again while looking straight, addressing the imminent speech to everyone in general.

"Now that we know about Double making their way here, we have to make a defensive plan. Their ultimate goal is to resurrect Profound Darkness, and that is achieved by lumping all Dark Falz powers into one suitable host. Judging from the information I have about the other universe, I'm confident that Double is missing only one piece, and that is the Elder inside Ainz Ooal Gown. By all means, we have to prevent them from encountering each other"

Right at this point, Rose raised her hand and asked.

"Ainz is very strong, right? Why should we prevent them from encountering? We could just let them fight and maybe Ainz could defeat Double and save us the trouble"

Guardian leaned forward with her eyes narrowed as she began speaking in response.

"You have seen what happened when Ainz won against Elder. Now, what if by a billion-to-one chance Ainz himself is also a suitable host for Profound Darkness?"

Some gasps could be heard from a number of people in the room, and they looked at each other briefly. Guardian then spoke again, her eyes glancing at the Seika siblings.

"This is not something I should really say, but now that our universes are connected I suppose there's no more reason for keeping this from you..."

Guardian took a deep breath as all others stared at her with worried facial expressions of varying degrees.

"...Ryu, Hikaru, Yukasa, Yamino. At least one, if not all of you, is a suitable host as well..."

The four Seika siblings showed a visibly surprised reaction. Yamino was the one who then spoke first in response.

"No way it would be me, right? As much as I hate to admit it, I'm zero percent organic. No way a bunch of metal parts bolted together can become a host of an eldritch abomination... right?"

Guardian then folded her arms as she replied to Yamino.

"You may have a point. In any case, my confidence on this fact is the highest on the one whom Persona had the face of when he showed it"

"Huh? Me?"

Yukasa spoke in reaction to Guardian's words. She remembered her talk with Ryu once, from which she got the information that the other universe's Persona was Yukasa.

"With how the circumstances are going now, I'll just dump everything. Persona of your universe is you. To be exact, you from a future where... Matoi dies"

"H-Huh...?"

The Matoi from Ryu's universe, whom Guardian decided to address as Past Matoi for the time being, showed a very visible surprised reaction upon hearing the last part of Guardian's words. To calm her down, Matoi moved her seat closer to Past Matoi and comforted her by giving a light hug.

"I would tell you more about it if there was more time, but for now we have to concentrate on this Dark Falz Double matter. My point is, be careful not to end up being used as Profound Darkness host in one way or another"

"Ah, I see. Got it"

Yukasa nodded as he spoke, showing that he understood the message.

"Now... what we need to do is..."

Guardian went into a deep thinking posture. This urgent situation was expected, but she had not really expected it to develop this way within such a short time period. One thing was certain though, that a catastrophic battle was imminent and would affect the entire planet down below.


[X][X][X]


Afterword:

The pieces are in place, and the endgame of the whole story will soon begin. Some people might not make it to the end...

In any case, see you again in two weeks.