Clash of the Elements Summary

by mewmaster93

A summary of all the events in the series ordered chronologically from Part 1 all the way to the most recent story arc. Made to help people interested catch up in the lore without having to read the very old stuff that's...not so good grammar-wise. And maybe if interested, help them focus on what they want to read specifically. Warning: Will include many ideas from multiple series.

28. Part 6: The Black Scaled Sinner

Two thousand years ago, when Sancturia first arrived over the Earth...

Auris is quiet, and in a state of uneasy. The man who would one day become Gravitus, Damascus, looms behind her, offering his condolences for the suffering she has endured lately.

But Auris remains resolute, needing to lead her people forward, but thanking Damascus for his concern.

Yet behind her back, Damascus curses his position in life. Even with the Ten Sages dead, still he feels he's being held back...

The world around him freezes completely, and through a portal in time someone with familiar features but an unfamiliar, hostile attitude emerges.

Addressing Damascus as a familiar face, the boy comes bearing words of encouragement, demanding that Damascus break free from his chains of solitude and claim what he knows he deserves.

The boy's words are powerful and intoxicating. Though Damascus tries to cling to his good nature and loyalty, it only takes a few of the boy's sentence to make Damascus take the last step towards betrayal...

Damascus pieces together that the boy is not from this time, but IS from this Earth. He wonders what the boy could want with him, especially given he'll die in a few decades.

The boy lifts out a strange stone that causes Damascus' aging to stop, then states how in exchange for this gift, he wants Damascus to do something for him...Meet up with Justek Arcavira.

Damascus obliges, but is curious as to the boy's plans, as this clearly breaks time travel rules by interfering with history.

It does not too much though, as the boy is merely changing the cause of Damascus' ascent, not the effect.

Though, its more appropriate to call Damascus by his new name...Gravitus.

The boy then introduces themselves as the Phoenix of Destruction, before retreating into their portal to the present day, where Gravitus has lost to Kairi and the Neo Drive.

Now, they are positive that two of the seals have been undone. To undo the final one, they will have to confront their loathsome copy...

Meanwhile, a few days following the defeat of Gravitus, Mew and Kairi are just hanging out at his place.

Kairi's absorbed into a book but takes the occasional peek at what Mew's doing with interest.

Mew teases her over it until she gives up her reading to play a video game with him...only to get her butt kicked.

Kairi then grumbles about wanting to do something else besides sit around and go on the occasional hike.

Mew figures they can flip on the TV and find somewhere to go from there. First they happen upon the news, with the country's Secretary of Defense Judas Jeremiah making a speech about the recent storms and the falling satellite.

Kairi's just glad Gravitus didn't expose their city with his anger, while Mew looks at Judas Jeremiah and feels uneasy.

They keep flipping through the channels until Kairi shows interest in the Space Needle in Seattle. Mew decides to take her there for lunch, but says she has to pay because he's low on dough.

They sneak on over there and head into the restaurant. Kairi's super nervous around strangers and nearly freaks out when the server takes their order.

Once they make their order Kairi realizes that her currency is perfectly fine here and gets REALLY mad upon realizing how much Gravitus was ripping off Earth culture.

Mew's amused it took her this long to figure it out.

He then goes on to describe how he loves sitting here and looking out at all the beauty Earth has to offer. He loves this planet and would do everything he can to keep it safe.

As he continues to look out the window, however, he's disturbed by a familiar presence...A person floats outside, smirking, raising his hand to launch a fireball at the space needle.

Mew ducks to save Kairi but the Space Needle's top is blown up, and everyone inside perishes.

Mew quickly scrambles to hold the debris up before it kills more civilians, his heart racing in as much of a panicked manner as the people around him.

He quickly speaks with the unnerved Kairi to get her focused on helping the people evacuate, as the mystery boy on fire is now attacking the city directly.

Kairi compares the boy to the "Riku" Mew mentioned before, but Mew doesn't think they're the same person even if it has been two years.

Once Kairi dons a mask to cover her identity, she goes off to help the people while Mew confronts the mysterious boy.

The boy is happy he came to join them, stating how they know each other. But Mew does not remember this person, even if there's a faint feeling of familiarity to them.

The boy starts exuding dark fire and grins, telling Mew to refer to them as the Phoenix of Destruction...

Mew clashes with the Phoenix while doing his damnedest to keep the fleeing humans from getting hurt in the process.

But the Phoenix's relentless, ravenous manner of attack tears apart the landscape and turns the city of Seattle into a warzone.

Mew's elements are either beaten back or swallowed up by the Phoenix to heal him, forcing Mew to shift into Light Form just to start making him flinch.

The Phoenix stamps out Mew's light with relentless hate, taunting him and targeting the people just to get Mew mad and reveal his TRUE rage.

"D." starts getting into the mix, his presence here on top of the Phoenix's familiarity causing Mew to start strainfully remember things he doesn't recognize.

Eventually, as the city is left broiling over with flames, the building's consumed with ash, the Phoenix stands triumphant over Mew and nearly kills him to prove he's not fucking around.

Mew gets away at the last moment and wonders who this guy even is. "D.", having awaited this prime opportunity for so long, unleashes the sealed away memories Mew had buried in his subconscious.

Mew is forced to recall the events surrounding Mr. Reality and in doing so, recognizes the Phoenix as he truly is...Alex Whiter.

But the Phoenix states how that boy is dead, having finally succumbed to the abhorrent nature of mankind that gave birth to his trauma and weaponized him in the first place.

Mew can't believe that Alex would ever go this far, even upon hearing all his hate spew forth.

The Phoenix tells him how much he loathes not just humanity, but all life in existence. To him, there's nothing separating humanity from all other life when they're boiled down to the soul.

Peace is impossible and never existed to begin with. Its a delusion crafted by god to deceive the masses, and the Phoenix plans to burn down his religion of lies and turn the universe to ash.

Mew grits his teeth, with "D." expecting him to embrace anger so they can slaughter Alex together.

But Mew refuses to go along with "D." and his hate. He looks Alex in the eyes and tells him how he can't forgive him for what he's done, but he refuses to accept the person he's become as being the real him and plans to beat some sense back into his skull.

He forces "D." to work with him and goes into Dark Form.

The Phoenix laughs, stating how he can't get how Mew could love humanity when the two of them are living proof of their legacy of endless mistakes.

But Mew refuses to let all of mankind pay for the mistakes of a few guilty men.

The Phoenix wonders where he got his stubbornness from, and Mew laughs, knowing that it must have been from him.

The Phoenix grins, stating how little he's changed in three years.

Mew agrees, but makes it clear that one thing that has changed is how much stronger he is, and how he'll use that strength with no restraint at all.

The Phoenix hoped he would...

As the battle between them escalates, Kairi has finished evacuating the last few people she could out of Seattle.

Sensing that Mew has had to resort to Dark Form though, she hurries to his side.

Mew and the Phoenix's duel devastates the city, with Mew putting much of his energy into restraining the Phoenix's overwhelming destructive force from spreading across the world.

The Phoenix calls Mew out for defending humanity when they've done nothing for him. But to Mew its never been about that. He believes in the good that humanity is capable of, and that even Alex has to admit to that.

But the Phoenix scowls that their "good" has merely created more bad. The convenience of technology keeps destroying the planet just to buy them a few seconds of luxury, just to name an example.

So what if they make mistakes though? That's what makes them human.

Yet the Phoenix boils down humanity to the purest essence and calls them savages.

Mew refuses to let that be the justification for Alex slaughtering them like animals, then pounds him into the dirt.

The Phoenix retaliates by mentioning this drivel has been repeated so many times its almost nauseating, because they're just words without meaning.

He says Mew's shielding himself from the very real possibility that all it'd take is one bad day to turn him into a Phoenix of Destruction too.

When the Phoenix takes advantage of Mew's pause, Kairi steps in and smashes him in the face with her staff.

Mew may be glad to see her but also wishes she had just stuck this battle out. Kairi can't let him do this fight on his own even if it is personal and tries to force herself into the fray.

When the Phoenix emerges from the rubble, he starts to recognize Kairi as "that bitch's little sister". Kairi freezes up, nearly allowing the Phoenix to cut her down before Mew beats him two miles into the ground.

Mew then tries to get Kairi to retreat only for to insist she help him. Mew knows she won't give up willingly so disarms her with a compliment and then flings her elsewhere with a dark rift.

The Phoenix then erupts from the ground laughing at how Mew has found his own muse that'll betray him. Mew doesn't know what the hell he is talking about.

The Phoenix decides its time to end this and reaches towards his pocket. Mew then remembers the Gaia Temporis and uses a dark rift to reach for it.

They both grapple with each other in the frozen time until Mew wails the every living shit out of the Phoenix, the ripples resounding into the nearby lake once time resumes and the remains of Seattle come crashing down.

Yet even still, the Phoenix is a monster who cannot die. It drains its surroundings to heal itself and then basks in Mew's inability to stop him.

The Phoenix then devastates the landscape to hold Mew back while it rises out of the planet's atmosphere to begin charging a fire beam that will wipe out the planet.

Meanwhile, in another part of the universe, Riku is busy with E. Gadd discussing a tablet they managed to piece together from the ruins of the Origin Temple.

Only Riku can understand what it means. Its communicating a warning about a sealed black scaled beast that once fought the original Elemental Overlord. Said beast is a danger to the entire universe, but is locked behind three seals.

One seal relates to the Planetary Aurians, the second seal relates to one who touches the prison and then sacrifices their hand. The third, however, relates to a mighty clash between flame and darkness.

Riku knows nothing about the first two but recognizes that if Alex Whiter was wanting to accomplish the third seal, he'd target Mew...

Hastily realizing that his brother's in danger, Riku begs E. Gadd to open the Stargadd for him to return to Earth.

Back on Earth, Kairi emerges from the rift atop a snowy mountain, angry at Mew. She's stunned by a sudden shockwave of power coming from a red star in the sky.

Knowing that it'll threaten the entire world if not stopped, Kairi flies back as fast as she can with her Angel Drive to help Mew, whether he likes it or not.

Mew, meanwhile, recognizes that he cannot chase after Alex in time and starts cupping his hands together, pouring black flames into a single counterattack with the whole world at stake.

The two's beams clash and ripple across the planet. Mew holds his ground as hard as he can to prevent any shockwaves from causing irreversible damage to the Earth.

Alex's hate vs. Mew's unrelenting hope. Both equal in measure, but one is purer than the other. It is Mew's hope that gives him the strength to press forward, matching Alex's advances pulse for pulse.

Even if Alex's rage is infinite, then his hope will be infinite too.

And since there's nothing that can surpass infinity, the two's beams merge together and proceed to fizzle out.

The planet is safe...from its immediate destruction.

Up in Sancturia, both Auris and Gabriel recognize the collision of power as a sign that the third and final seal has been unlocked, and that "he" shall return at last.

Mew collapses, falling into Kairi's arms upon her return.

Yet seeing as the Phoenix still stands, the planet is still under threat of annihilation.

But at that moment, a bolt of light and darkness combined speeds through the sky towards space, confronting the Phoenix during his moment of elation.

It is none other than Riku, who stabs the Phoenix through the chest and drags him back down to the surface, pinning him on his supposed death bed.

However, before he can manage to make the Phoenix pay for all the blood he's spilled, Mew stops him. Its a surprise to Mew to see Riku after two years but he welcomes him like they haven't been away from each other that long.

As crazy as it sounds, Mew asks him not to kill Alex, cause he has a few major questions for him.

Riku complies, cause he realizes there's some questions to ask him too.

The Phoenix falls unconscious, with Riku picking him up, while Kairi carries Mew back. They hurry up out of there before any government military comes in to waste their time, and head back home.

However, there was no avoiding the fact that their battle got the attention of Judas Jeremiah, AKA Prometheus, the one responsible for Alex's trauma.

With his best experiment having returned, Prometheus orders his workers to prepare the "Divine Tragedy" for battle...

Back at the house though, everyone's settling down for a moment. Mew's washing his face while Riku's watching over Alex and Kairi, well...She's trying to come to terms with just how not normal her life is going to be from now on.

Cause of how scared she is of the destruction she saw, she mistakenly calls Riku "Mew". The two talk for a bit afterwards, with Kairi surprised by how well-mannered Riku is given he came from Mew.

Riku describes how he came to know about the Phoenix of Destruction, and how his goals relate to a monster named "Justek Arcavira", whom was described in the tablet he read as being the "end of days".

Riku then asks Kairi if Mew had any weird reactions to Alex being around. Kairi remembers Mew suddenly realizing he was a clone, to which Riku takes to mean that Mew has his memories back finally.

Before they get too deep into that conversation though a red light flashes outside. Riku senses fire, and Kairi worries Justek has arrived already.

Mew emerges from the bathroom and makes a run for it outside to see what's up.

A powerful voice demands the Phoenix of Destruction to come and show themselves. Now the mountain range is on fire and the culprit appears to be a towering, muscular man with scars aplenty and scarlet hair.

Beside him is a person in a white shroud and mask, their true gender unknown.

Mew steps on up to the intruders and is more pissed at the flaming guy for ruining his perfectly good garden. He's ready to fight them when Riku restrains him, then demands to know their names.

The flaming guy is Solaris, the shrouded person is Lunis. Neither have a presence that can be detected, but its clear they are very powerful.

Solaris makes it clear he's not here to fight wimps and demands the Phoenix of Destruction.

Riku, however, pieces together that the two are connected to Justek in some way. Turns out the two are his kids.

But they won't be seeing Justek, cause Solaris is enough to kill them all at once.

Riku calmly remarks how the Phoenix isn't here right now, and Solaris believes it, getting angry at Lunis for thinking the Phoenix would be at some rundown shack.

While they're squabbling Mew restrains them in diamond ropes, though Solaris easily breaks out by flexing his muscles.

A fight seems inevitable until Lunis reminds Solaris that they have a mission to uphold if they couldn't find the Phoenix of Destruction.

Solaris groans, then tells Lunis to go on ahead while he goes to meet some "old friends".

Once they leave, Mew's all ready to go save the world with Kairi and Riku. Kairi's just done with this already.

Riku flinches and turns to find Alex standing on the porch, all healed up.

He laughs at them wanting to save the world, especially when they could barely stop him.

From Alex's talk, Mew pieces together that him and Gravitus were working together to free Justek and his kids.

Alex doesn't call it "teamwork" but rather they used each other well enough...And not like Mew is blameless either, as he helped break all three seals.

But Mew refuses to accept the blame since it all went to Alex's plan.

Kairi wonders how the Phoenix can act this way, to which the Phoenix says that its because it so easy...After all, it took a few words to create Gravitus.

Kairi becomes enrages and nearly throws herself as the Phoenix to kill him, because HE is responsible for what Gravitus did.

And that was exactly the point. To hurt HER people.

Mew restrains Kairi and then yells at Alex to stop this, but the Phoenix denies the name Alex for good.

Mew doesn't believe that for a second, claiming the Phoenix is lying to himself.

The Phoenix goes silent, then decides he's wasted enough time here and tries to use the Gaia Temporis to leave.

However, Riku had snatched it up while he was unconscious and points it at the Phoenix, threatening to basically reduce him to chronic ash.

But it doesn't work, because as the Phoenix remarks, the stone won't do anything to harm its precious one.

The Phoenix then recalls the stone and leaves for good.

Riku curses failing twice now, as its left the world's fate in the hands of three very dangerous individuals.

Riku then tells Mew bluntly that Kairi needs to go home, she's not ready for this.

Mew agrees, but won't do it. Kairi's more than capable and they need all the help they can get.

Riku chooses to trust his judgment for now.

Mew doesn't know where they'll go next. Dreadfully, Kairi thinks she knows...Given Solaris' connection to the past, its obvious he's on a warpath to Sancturia.

Mew agrees, and decides they need to hurry up and get there as soon as possible. Along the way, he'll explain to a puzzled Riku what's up with Sancturia.

Once its clear what Mew's been up to, Riku sort of recognizes the name Gravitus belonging to a figure he fought a few months back.

But more importantly, he's curious about the woman Mew calls the wife of the Elemental Overlord.

Kairi's lagging behind due to her worries and just her slower flight speed in general. Since they have no choice but to adhere to her pace for now, Mew decides to chat with Riku about his specific beef with Alex.

Riku had murmured something about the Marvel Universe when he held the Gaia Temporis.

Riku reveals he learned that the Phoenix of Destruciton destroyed the Marvel Universe from Thanos. Mew is shocked to hear that name said so casually and wonders if that guy's word can even be trusted.

The three of them then wander upon another city being burned, with a trail of destruction cleanly leading upwards to the North.

Solaris' presence is enough to set the surface world on fire, so the trio have to take a detour to quickly help any civilians still around evacuate.

Once Mew lands first and helps a couple kids out, he's suddenly ambushed by a black clad beast resembling a wolf.

Standing near it made his stomach curl much like how he felt around Auris' scar.

Kairi and Riku join up soon after, where they are then ambushed by snake-like creatures and bipedal giants, all of them cloaked the same as the wolf.

The trio draw their weapons but Kairi is the only one having any luck dealing with the beasts. Riku and Mew's elements in particular have no effect.

Nevertheless raw physical force is enough to cut them down, and as the scuffle continues Mew figures they can split up and try to save more people.

Riku takes up that duty, ferrying the remaining people out via a large metal board.

Mew and Kairi eventually deal with the strange creatures and push forward to the North, where they find Solaris taking a break and watching a grand scuffle going on in a larger part of the city.

Mew can sense Alex is involved in something going on over there but first he wants to deal with Solaris.

Solaris has no time for weaklings and tells them to shoo.

Kairi can't let him get away with killing her mother, which shocks Solaris, who can't believe that she's the daughter of THAT traitor.

Though given the two have gotten past his father's creations, he's willing to treat them a little more highly than before.

Not enough to give them the time of day. He's saving his energy for the Phoenix of Destruction. Instead, he pulls out a strange orb and uses it to summon something to deal with them while he goes to chase after the Phoenix.

What emerges from the portal is a beast from another fictional world, the Corrosive Hannibal, which is known as an Aragami.

Learning that video game worlds are real blows Kairi's mind...Until Mew reminds her of some of the aliens they ran into at Neptune's casino.

Solaris casually blocks the Hannibal's charge with one hand then feeds it a vial of the Anti-Genesis Theorem so it can actually put up a fight against the two.

He then scrams, while the beast mutates a little and targets Mew and Kairi.

While they contended with the Aragami, Riku speeds off after Solaris to hold him back. But the confrontation only lasts a little while before Riku's intercepted by another familiar face...Joe Dark.

Except now Joe Dark appears to be controlled, and does not fight with his usual rage towards the Whiters.

Mew briefs Kairi on what Aragamis are like then draws his sword for battle. He warns Kairi not to use their stronger forms so they can have the element of surprise against their opponents later. Besides, he feels confident they can win like this.

Mew getting directly near the beast weakens him though, so he guides Kairi to its weak points so they can become unbound and allow them to deliver greater damage.

Midway through the fight the beast mutates further, growing wings and taking flight against a military patrol sent out to dispatch it.

Mew manages to save the passengers in two of the copters but the first one falls into the Aragami's appetite.

Mew then gets serious and tells Kairi to wrap his body in aura so he can not worry about the Anti-Genesis Theorem.

With their combined efforts Mew pummels the Aragami to death, where it dissolves into vapor soon after.

Mew catches his breath and now notices that Alex has already gone off elsewhere.

They move to catch up with Riku, who relays the news that Joe Dark is involved as well. They decide to talk about it more on their way to Sancturia.

What they fail to notice, however, is the charred remains of a titanic machine in the city...

The story behind that requires going back a few minutes, when the Phoenix had first arrived in this city, drawn away from killing Mew for reasons he cannot explain.

Upon arriving in this city, however, he is ambushed by a titanic eight-legged machine with a blasphemous sleight against God built near the front.

Piloting this machine is Prometheus, the man whom the Phoenix despises most of all.

Prometheus is happy to see his rebellious "son" again, even if he's making a laughable attempt at playing God.

The two exchange insults at one another before Prometheus decides to treat this as seriously as he needs to...Alex, the Phoenix of Destruction, it doesn't matter what he changes his name to. He belongs to Prometheus, and he's going to be reclaimed now.

The Phoenix laughs at this man pretending to have good intentions behind that sick head of his, but Prometheus retaliates with all the good he's done in his position.

He may have manipulated the law, but did so to keep humanity from self-destructing under the weight of their own technological advances.

The Phoenix can only wonder where experimenting and torturing orphans fights into his altruism.

Prometheus tries to weave it as necessary to make use of the trash that society has chosen to abandon, and that its not HIS fault they never rose above their ranks.

But Alex DID, and that's proven to be his greatest success.

Once he reclaims Alex's body, he plans to use the secrets of bonding human and Saiyan DNA to help humanity take the next step towards reclaiming their world from the gods.

The Phoenix believes his words are more toxic waste than the worthless kids he killed.

Yet to Prometheus, his voice is the voice of the people and reason.

The Phoenix calls him insane, which given its being said by him, Prometheus takes it as a compliment, only for the Phoenix to note that he's VERY sane.

Prometheus reveals his newest creation, Divine Tragedy Apocrypha, was born of his collaboration with Alpha across worlds. Built from the parts of Duon and Galleom and infused with the Anti-Genesis Theorem, its perfectly designed to capture Alex and subdue him.

The Phoenix takes this as a humorous challenge and begins combating the machine, their battle tearing up what little remains of the city.

Prometheus pushes his mech to 200 percent power and then smites the Phoenix with a pitch black lightning arrow called "Calamitous Fall", believing that it'd be enough to put his foe down.

But the Phoenix rises from the smoldering crater laughing his head off. He's become so strong and unhinged at this point that the Anti-Genesis Theorem really doesn't faze him that much anymore.

He then rips the mech apart in one fell swoop to demonstrate how far beneath him Prometheus is now.

The man survives though, pulling himself from the wreckage with the determination that he can still win.

The Phoenix stands and watches with interest as Prometheus rips off his shirt and reveals that he's infused himself with Namekian muscle tissue and the Androids' Infinite Energy Generators. And on top of that, he can also achieve Super Saiyan 3, boasting that he could even push beyond that into 4 or Blue.

...The Phoenix proceeds to cave his chest in with one punch and rip out his still beating heart.

Prometheus can only laugh, as even in death, he feels comfort knowing he succeeded in creating the bane of the gods.

Except it won't end at the gods...the Phoenix states how he plans to burn everything.

Even knowing this, Prometheus dies smiling, calling himself the Deliverer of Mankind's First and Last Flames...

The Phoenix absorbs the blood off Prometheus' bleeding corpses and calls that a fun distraction, then takes out the Gaia Temporis, prepared to ambush Solaris at Sancturia...

Back with the trio, Mew gives Kairi a briefer on Joe Dark. Kairi can't believe someone from this planet would focus on his grudge rather than save it.

Riku doesn't think that's what is going on, as Joe Dark is clearly being controlled.

Mew notices the state of the world but is glad to see the people still fighting to save it, using that to inspire Kairi that her own people will be just fine.

Riku and Mew then comment on being unable to sense Solaris and Lunis' powers. Mew hates to say it in front of Kairi, but believes that the two have God Ki.

Eventually they come across Sancturia being under attack by multiple more of those beasts from before. The moment they reach the city Kairi drops in and runs straight for her mom's place, bashing down the beasts in her path.

Mew and Riku split up to cover more ground and secure the safety of the city. Mew teaches some of the Aurians along the way how to combat their enemies, while Riku is disturbed by the state of the city, and his powerlessness to stop it.

Mew and Riku meet up at Auris' place eventually and Riku gets his first introduction to her. Mew's a little upset she didn't tell them this was coming, but remarks how it wouldn't have changed anything.

Mew and Riku then follow Kairi's trail to the Pyramid, where Solaris is currently giving Gabriel a thrashing. If Kairi didn't step in, Solaris would've cut him down.

Mew recognizes that Gabriel struggled only because of his stomach wound still being partially open. He then draws his own sword ready to confront Solaris.

Solaris is tired of the wimps being drawn to him and demands his father provide some back-up to get them off his back.

Joe Dark emerges from a dark rift and hands Solaris another one of those strange orbs. He then tackles Gabriel, knocks him out, and runs off with him, leading Kairi out of the Pyramid.

Mew and Riku draw their attention to Solaris, who crushes the orb to summon another entity from another world...Metal Face, the evisceration Mechon.

Metal Face seems to recognize Riku somehow despite the two not having met. Solaris boosts his power with the Anti-Genesis Theorem, then prepares to head to the top of the Pyramid so he can cause enough havoc to draw out the Phoenix of Destruction.

Mew and Riku prepare to confront Metal Face, a barrier dropping down to constrain their battle.

Mew and Riku divide up to tackle the Mechon in their own ways, with Riku swapping between Light and Dark form while Mew sticks to Light Form in time.

The Anti-Genesis Theorem doesn't seem to weaken elements as much when applied in the manner it has on these people from other worlds.

Eventually Mew and Riku get their act together and start working as a team, delivering a fatal strike down Metal Face's center with both their blades.

The mechanical body may have crashed down, but its pilot emerges transformed into a hideous demonic form via the Theorem.

He tries to attempt one final attack only for Mew and Riku to simultaneously cut him down the center again, albeit Mew got to him first.

Tired of these distracts, Mew and Riku rush to the top of the Pyramid to confront Solaris, who stands before the vacant Neo Drive chamber.

Mew attacks first and Solaris casually deflects his projectile, REALLY getting infuriated that maggots keep getting attracted to him.

Solaris escapes and cages the Pyramid in his sun flames. Riku prepares to activate one of his other forms to get through...

On the ground level, Kairi pursues Joe Dark in her Angel Drive, managing to grab the boy's attention enough to face him head-to-head.

The confrontation lasts only a short while though, as Joe Dark starts grabbing his head and muttering the name "Whiter".

As Solaris plans to burn Sancturia to ash, the Phoenix of Destruction appears behind him, answering his call for violence.

Yet the Phoenix has no fear of Solaris' strength. And to really rub it in he remarks on the name of his own sword...Gekimatsu, the Sun-Rending Crimson Blade...And how he doesn't plan on using it, needing only his hands to cull this "god" off the mortal plain.

Mew and Riku are forced to watch the two berserkers go at each other with Sancturia's safety on the line. Riku wants to use this chance to observe what the Phoenix is capable of since, should Solaris fail to kill him, Riku will have to.

Solaris boasts incredibly earth-trembling power but as much as he tries to lash out and strike the Phoenix he can't manage to land a single hit while the Phoenix toys with him like a rag doll.

Motivated by a desire to not fail his father, Solaris pushes his flame's limits further and starts sounding a little heroic, bizarrely enough. Though perhaps that's just because of how far Alex has fallen...

Yet to his bitter end he cannot do it. The Phoenix mocks him with copies and then uses his deadly flames to bind him in Tungsten, with the intent to choke him out like he easily could to any other god.

Solaris melts through but is winded. Pushed to the brink of death, Solaris seems prepared to unleash a deadly technique upon the planet in order to kill Alex.

But he's stopped by the voice of Lunis, who tells him he's run out of time and needs to return to the meeting place where father is.

Solaris is pissed he has to be a coward but doesn't want to disappoint father further and turns tail to run. The Phoenix doesn't hesitate to pursue and beat on him some more.

Solaris keeps fending him off and in doing so loses concentration on the flames holding Mew and Riku back.

Riku immediately pursues the two but is sealed off when an ice barrier surroundings the atmosphere of the entire planet, summoned forth by Lunis, who issues a warning to the three left behind.

They are forced to deal with them now. They have set up a tunnel on the opposite side of the planet to allow them to get to the moon. But if they do not make it within three hours, the planet will collide with the barrier and be destroyed.

Riku tightens his fists, angered that Alex has gotten away yet again...

Riku returns to Mew and the two discuss the aftermath of Solaris' attack. Its lucky for them he bailed with Alex in tow, so at least the planet is marginally safer at the moment.

Mew wants to take a moment to check around the city and help repairs while Riku plans to go to Auris' house ahead of him so they can discuss their plans.

Mew winds up finding Kairi by the Pyramid, learning that not only has Joe Dark escaped, but Lunis kidnapped Gabriel and she doesn't know why.

In fact she's tired of not knowing anything and being swept up in this madness. She questions her worthiness of the Neo Drive, stating how she's just a normal girl all things considered.

Mew agrees this is way out of her league and would understand her wanting to stay home where its safe...But also states that he doesn't feel confident being able to stop Justek unless she's there to help.

But if after this Kairi wants to stop fighting that'd be totally understandable, so long as the two of them can remain friends.

Kairi smiles a bit and is amazed that Mew can keep giving speeches like that to cheer her up.

The two then settle on going to Auris to maybe find out more about Justek and his two kids.

Meanwhile, however, Riku has gotten to her first and needless to say he's not there for a friendly chat.

Once Riku realizes he's the only one here he guilts Auris with the number of lives that have been lost today. Auris knows the answer, but to Riku even one was too many.

Auris tries to relieve his stress by offering a smoke but Riku smacks it out of her hand, calling out her callous regard for human lives.

Auris states how people die all the time and as much as Riku wants to believe this could've been prevented, its not that simple in the slighest.

Every alteration Riku tries to claim would've happened if Mew had been forewarned is shot down by Auris.

Riku calls her sick in the head, while Auris retorts that he's only saying that through sheltered eyes, and that he knows NOTHING about how clairvoyance works.

Every major decision that is made, so long as there's even a brief flicker of doubt in question, will lead to the timeline being split.

So even IF she had said something, with as much doubt would be in her mind at the time, there'd still be a timeline where she didn't say anything.

Riku thinks that's bullshit, and Auris jokes around with him about the manner of her powers.

But she then quickly gets right up in his face and tells him bluntly that he cannot even comprehend how many years of history her eyes have watched unfold. Every time the timeline splits, she's forced to watch more and more years go by in the blink of an eye.

So if Riku wants to claim he's better with foreknowledge than her, fine. But Link's impaled corpse would care to disagree.

Riku snaps and grabs her by the neck, slamming her against the nearby wall.

Auris' response to this pain is dull and unsurprised.

Riku claims to have made peace with his mistakes, while she's relishing in her own. But Auris laughs, stating how Riku's not told Mew anything about what he's done, in fear that Mew will judge him harshly for it.

She then dares Riku to try and kill her, knowing full well he's not capable of it.

Riku's tempted to do so, cause in his eyes she's just as responsible for death as the Phoenix of Destruction AND Justek.

Auris thinks his "justice" is blind, and very similar to what Alex Whiter has chosen.

Riku's about to crush her neck when he's smacked down by Kairi, who appears surprised to learn that Riku's not being controlled like Joe Dark was...

Mew then comes rushing in wondering what the HELL's going on here.

Auris tries to brush this matter off but Riku has none of that, and tells Kairi that her mother is clairvoyant.

Mew gets upset at Riku for blurting that out, while Kairi has to process this information on top of everything else she learned today.

Before this can escalate into a fight between Kairi and Riku, Mew steps between them and reminds them that they got to save their energy for Justek.

Kairi's pissed but holds off for now.

Auris then sits down and decides to tell them about Justek without hesitation.

Mew holds Riku back, saying they'll need to talk later.

Auris describes Justek as the Elemental Overlord's former friend, until his heart became twisted and he became the enemy of the ten elemental tribes.

He led an army of Vortexians, the beasts that the three of them have fought so far. Each is powered by the Anti-Genesis Theorem that stirs in Justek's body.

Solaris and Lunis aren't actually related to Justek by blood. They are Prime Deities, the apex of what they represent. Essentially, the god of gods for the sun AND the moon.

Auris had a hand in raising them when they were younger, which was a complicated measure given her marriage to the Elemental Overlord.

Justek has many powers at his disposal, but his most dangerous is the ability to perceive the flaws in the universe and manipulate them.

Stuff like vortexes, black holes, worm holes, and even the dark rifts Mew and Joe Dark have utilized aren't nature parts of the universe.

Justek's ability to manipulate these flaws is how he was able to pull the Corrosive Hannibal and Metal Face from other timelines. And by perceiving the flaws in a person's mind, Justek can control them, much like he did Joe Dark. But he can only do this to one person at a time.

Though Auris can't tell why Justek has controlled Joe Dark or kidnapped Gabriel, she is sure of one thing...That once more, Justek desires the end of everything.

He's the most dangerous foe the three will have faced, but fortunately the two-thousand years of him being a cage will have dulled his monstrous power somewhat.

For now though they should worry about Lunis.

Mew's ready to kick Justek's ass but good and rallies Kairi to head out. He then stays back a bit though to confront Riku on what he did to Auris.

Riku tries to justify himself and call out Mew for liking a pretty face, but Mew gets serious and tells Riku off for not hearing Auris out and just going straight into kill mode.

Hearing his brother be so critical of him causes Riku to apologize for letting his emotions get the better of him.

But Mew wants him to apologize to Kairi, not to him or Auris.

Riku then heads out, while Mew sticks behind for a moment to look at the down-trodden Auris, who wonders if Mew hates her now.

Mew doesn't answer and tells her goodbye for now.

Auris then sinks into the couch, staring at her hollow whiskey bottle before throwing it against the wall.

Mew tries to catch up with Kairi and see how she's holding up. She's pissed at everyone, but tosses her anger at Mew for knowing about this and not saying anything.

Mew didn't think he had the right to tell her in place of her mother. But now that that's out of the bag, Mew REALLY doesn't think she should be coming along.

Kairi just wants to get out of here because she can't be near her mother and Gabriel needs her help.

Riku approaches soon after but Kairi wants HIM to stay behind.

Mew can't allow that since, again, they need all the help they can get.

For now, Riku keeps his distance. Mew determines that their destination is on the other side of the world. Kairi suggests changing forms to hurry things up but Mew doesn't think she needs to waste her energy like that.

He has her hop onto his back and then drops of Sancturia, sprinting along the ocean's surface as fast as he can.

Riku, meanwhile, sticks to the skies to deal with any rogue Vortexians that may try to ambush them.

Mew swerves around the undersea Vortexians and detours to deal with a giant Kraken one that attempts to drown Hawaii.

After some brief time of running and flying the three make it to the South Pole and fly up towards the tunnel to the moon.

However, the way is sealed off by a barrier summoned forth by Lunis, who appears before them, questioning the three on why they fight.

Riku turns that question back on them, but they give no answer if Riku's not willing to do so himself.

Unsatisfied, Lunis activates another one of those orbs to summon a create from another planet. This time is the DNA Pokemon, Deoxys.

Curiously, it doesn't start off with the power of the Anti-Genesis Theorem and attacks them normally.

Its easy for the trio to beat it around a bit without transforming, so that's when a surprise occurs. A Mega Stone, laced with the Anti-Geneis Theorem, descends into Deoxys' grasp.

It transforms into Mega Deoxys and gets a powerful stat boost, on top of every few seconds having all its stats boosted one step further.

The three transform but Deoxys is able to keep pace and eventually, threatens to cause them trouble.

Riku then realizes he has no choice but to go into Chaos Form, using its power to quickly target Deoxys' core and damage it to the point it reverts back to normal.

Riku refuses to kill the creature though, demanding that Lunis tell Justek to send it back, which Justek seems to be willingly to comply with.

In the aftermath the barrier goes down and Mew gets hyped by Riku's new form, wishing to know how to achieve it.

But Riku chuckles, believing its not something Mew can manage on his own.

Kairi focuses them on getting to the moon, and as they make their travels up there Mew wonders how he can help Kairi and Riku get along again. Not only that, he's worried about Alex's whereabouts.

Once they arrive on the moon Mew announces his plans to split off from the group for now.

Kairi and Riku have their objections, especially when it becomes painfully clear that Mew's going to pursue the Phoenix of Destruction.

Mew makes claims about how they don't need him to beat Lunis and this is probably the best chance he has of catching up to Alex before his trail goes cold.

Kairi doesn't want to be left behind with Riku, but Mew wants her to because she can keep him from getting into trouble. He even advises her to whack him on the head if he does anything out of line again.

With Riku, however, the two whisper a conversation about Mew's boundless faith that there's still any good to salvage in Alex.

Mew wants to try just one more time to talk to him, and hopes Riku can respect that.

Riku nods, and willingly lets him depart for space.

Forcing Kairi and Riku to wander to the palace on the moon on their own. They don't talk even upon arriving at the palace.

Lunis appears again, but this time Riku has a different questions for them...About why they've allowed such a long deadline to get here.

He suspects Justek had given Lunis a shorter time limit beforehand but they chose to disobey.

Lunis doesn't answer honestly, clearly, and proceeds to summon up one last threat tailor made for Riku in particular.

From the depths of oblivion emerge two threats that the universe hasn't experienced in a long time...The titanic Heartless known as Darkside, and the equally titanic Nobody Twilight Thorn.

Riku can TELL these monsters shouldn't be here anymore, at all. The Anti-Genesis Theorem drops, and the two creatures smoosh their hands against it together.

This results in an unholy reunion between the two titans, as their bodies swirl and mix into their original given body...

The forebearers of flesh, and the canvas upon which human-kind was first forge from their tributes to God...These gruesome flesh beasts are known as the Ancestral Mold: The Formless.

Utilizing its malleable existence, the creatures screeches and lashes out in incredible pain against its foes. Unable to be cut, bludgeoned or stabbed, Riku and Kairi are forced to work together to come up with a solution to best it.

Riku determines how the creature has a limited amount of mass it can manipulate and has Kairi trap the whole thing in an aura cage.

Kairi tries to crush the beast whole but its struggle makes that difficult. Riku then draws his blade and stabs it into the sphere, siphoning out the light and in turn, forcing the size of the sphere to lessen and crush the Formless into nothingness.

Riku then tries to thank Kairi, but she doesn't want to hear it. The doors to the palace creak open, and the two of them head inside to finally confront Lunis.

Before they can do that, however, Riku doesn't want there to be any tension between him and Kairi in the coming battle.

He attempts to go for a sincere apology to make up for what he's done. He admits to having let Auris push his buttons too much, and he had no right to hurt her knowing she was Kairi's mother.

Kairi accepts the apology but only after punching him square in the face and dropping him to the floor.

Riku doesn't think that's all she has to say, but Kairi can recognize they don't have time to focus on this. She doesn't even expect Riku to understand what it feels like to feel betrayed by family, yet still love them so much.

Riku isn't good at talking things out and admits that he can only listen to what she has to say.

Kairi does think he's good at that, and that despite his different experiences in life he doesn't seem like a bad soul...Which honestly makes Alex being an asshole all the more baffling.

The two press on to Lunis' throne room. Lunis is feeling empty, sitting in this palace. Father told them it belongs to them, but they can't call it home. Home is still out there somewhere, but at the same time is not.

Lunis mourns the time they've lost, but Kairi has no sympathy for their plight.

Lunis agrees its pointless to try and meet eye-to-eye and turns to Riku, expecting an answer from him about why he fights.

Riku again reverses the question, believing that the answer Lunis is searching for hasn't been found.

Lunis claims to be fighting to fulfill father's wishes, but Riku says that's not what THEY want.

Lunis tries to divert the topic by stating Riku is scared to fight them.

Riku draws his sword and prepares to fight. Lunis draws a pair of knives and speeds at them ready to battle.

Calling themselves the "White Shroud", Lunis begins dancing around the battlefield with the full intent to kill them both with their sharp reflexes.

Even with Riku's Light Form and Kairi's Angel Drive, they aren't able to match Lunis' speed and reflexes.

Riku quickly picks up however that Lunis is pulling some deception with a form of shadow clones, the reference making Kairi groan.

Riku manages to single out the real Lunis for a bit and engages them, hoping to break their mask and finally see the doubt plastered clearly on their face.

For a brief second Riku shifts into Chaos Form and blitzes Lunis' mask with the hardest punch he can muster. The mask shatters, revealing to them the Lunar Deity's true face...is that of a young woman.

Finally forced to confront them with her true eyes, Lunis remarks on despising Riku.

Now that Riku can see her face, he's certain of one thing...She doesn't have her own reason to fight.

She could've easily taken any of them by surprise while they were dealing with the Vortexians or Solaris but didn't.

The mask she wore was to hide the shame she felt in doing what her father requested.

Lunis doesn't think Riku's assessment is at all accurate. Riku disagrees, having done something similar himself. Retreating his emotions behind a mask, forcing himself to adhere to duty over personal pleasure.

He thinks him and her aren't that different, and she doesn't like hearing that at all.

Riku refuses to fight her knowing she's not wanting to be here, and when he turns his back Lunis tries to cut him from behind.

Kairi blocks the attack and invokes the Rite of Singularity on Lunis, getting pissed at Riku for being a chauvinistic dumbass NOW of all times.

Riku apologizes and hopes Kairi can handle Lunis on his own.

Kairi says she's sick of Whiters already and then repels Lunis, prepared to kick her ass anyways for kidnapping Gabriel.

Lunis discards her cloak and reveals a sleek kunoichi bodysuit underneath, then charges at Kairi to begin round two.

Lunis starts upping the amount of clones she's using and uses them to cover a lot of ground and make it difficult for Kairi to mount a proper counterattack.

Lunis is glad the daughter of Lady Auris isn't a pushover, but tells her she has no hope of winning on her own, continuing to prod Riku into coming back into the fray.

But Riku holds back, while Kairi grits her teeth and bashes Lunis for trying to underestimate her.

Kairi can't figure out the trick behind the clones and resorts to using some trickery instead to ensure she hits Lunis.

Filling the chandelier in the room with light, Kairi makes it drop to the ground, creating a massive light bomb that blows up in Lunis' face and sends her hurtling into the throne.

Lunis still stands after that, albeit for a moment, collapsing on one knee and coughing up a bit of blood.

Kairi advances, preparing to beat the location of Gabriel out of Lunis' mouth.

Lunis remarks how he's not here, as she had delivered her to father beforehand.

She then slips into a rift that opens behind her, declaring how they'll need to follow Mew and the Phoenix of Destruction to find where father's gone.

Lunis vows that this isn't the end between her and Riku, however.

Kairi takes a breather and then walks over to Riku, bonking him on the head for turning to jelly in the presence of a pretty face.

Riku insists that's not what happened, which sounds a bit more sincere coming from him, though Kairi refuses to believe it still.

They leave the palace and find the ice around the Earth is gone now. Riku tries one last time to send Kairi home while she has a chance, but Kairi's too into this battle to back down now.

The two of them depart the moon, following Mew's faint trail of energy to hopefully catch up with him soon enough...

Meanwhile, Mew has caught up with Alex in the depths of space, who has been blocked off by a barrier of sorts. Trying as they might to put their efforts into getting through, they cannot damage it or warp past it.

So in the meantime Mew tries to chat it up with Alex, hoping to get through to the real him.

He's surprised to learn that the Phoenix of Destruction wants to kill Justek, given it sounded like he needed him to bring about the end of everything.

But the Phoenix remarks how everything includes the person who instigated destruction. Its only fair after all.

Mew groans at how one-note Alex sounds nowadays, wondering how three years changed him from a hobo to a destroyed or worlds.

The Phoenix thinks that kind of title is too meager, thinking of his destruction more highly than say, that which Galactus committed.

The subject of Marvel causes Mew to recall what Riku said, and wonders if what he heard was true.

The Phoenix DID destroy Marvel, but also didn't. There's nothing worth answering about that.

Mew doesn't believe Alex would've ever gone that far, even now. Even if Alex vows to burn every bond that matters, he can't get rid of their bond, and he'll do what he can to bring Alex back from what he's forced himself to become.

But to the Phoenix, its not a matter of him forcing himself to become this. The universe made him this way by CHOICE.

The Phoenix relates the story of his suffering again to Mew, but this time goes further, bringing up his time with Shina Aurora (though not referring to her by name), albeit in his own, twisted view of events.

All those events did was show the Phoenix that the universe is corrupted and needs to be deleted entirely. There's no saving it.

What Mew takes away from the story though is that Alex genuinely loved "that girl"...and probably still does, even now.

The Phoenix tries to twist his memories to make it seem like Shina really did betray him in the end, but Mew doesn't believe it.

That's when the Phoenix reveals the girl's name as Shina Aurora, proceeding to mock Mew for falling for her little sister, no doubt so he can suffer the same heartache he did.

Mew DEFINITLEY doesn't believe Shina betrayed Alex now.

The Phoenix applauds him being so naive even after all this time. He may think he can see the best in others, but its a folly to expect that to always work.

Mew says at the very least he knows Alex is lying to himself, because ultimately Mew came from him.

The Phoenix then grabs Mew and slams him against the barrier, yelling at him for trying so hard to fix him when its not necessary, as Mew IS the better person Alex could never have hoped to be. And ever since he realized this, Alex has been jealous of him.

There's a calm between the two before the Phoenix pulls away, remarking yet again that Alex Whiter is dead, and he's what rose from the ashes.

Mew finally tells him he's full of shit and doesn't let him respond as he confronts every reason why he knows this to be true.

He's had plenty of chances to kill or burn the past but he refuses to every time. All that his actions have accomplished is the same thing Alex Whiter always resorts to when things don't his way...He's running away, only this time, dragging down the rest of the universe along with him.

The Phoenix demands he shut up, but Mew reminds him how he's never been alone and that there are people who miss him.

The Phoenix exclaims how they'd all betray him. Mew disagrees with his opinion, as the fact he couldn't even make a good enough lie to implicate Shina proves that not even he buys his own bullshit.

The Phoenix backs off, believing this to be a waste of time now...

Soon after Riku and Kairi pop in, revealing that they defeated Lunis.

Before the matter of the Phoenix's presence can be addressed, the barrier stirs, with the voice of Justek introducing themselves to the group.

They reveal that only two of them will be allowed to pass through to have the honor of meeting them at the moment, those two being Mew and Kairi.

If Riku and the Phoenix want to advance, they have to best the opponent Justek has set up for them on the nearby Planet Venus.

Riku and the Phoenix agree without hesitation, and head to the planet.

Justek then opens the way for Mew and Kairi, telling them they'll find him somewhere close to the sun.

With both team's separated, it comes down to a hope that they don't succumb to Justek's trickery...

To no surprise, the opponent awaiting Riku and the Phoenix is none other than Joe Dark, whose glare towards Whiter has not dulled even under Justek's control.

Riku decides to hold some of his power back at first to keep the element of surprise against the Phoenix. He participates in the battle between old foes, albeit not as prominently as he probably should be.

Despite Joe Dark's past with his family, Riku doesn't want to kill him, and a couple times has to prevent the Phoenix from getting away with doing the act himself.

The Phoenix taunts Joe Dark for being outdated trash at this point, relishing in the pain it brings to his face as they tear each other apart.

The Phoenix finds it very funny how Joe Dark was right about them the whole time and didn't even understand how or why.

He rubs in everything bad that's ever happened to Joe Dark, including revealing that Joe Dark was the intended recipient of the Elemental Overlord's powers, not him.

Joe Dark gets so mad hearing him speak at this point that he actually manages to break free of Justek's control and goes into the Dark King state, intent to kill him once and for all.

Riku goes into Chaos Form to weather the storm as the two's battle escalate to planet rending proportions.

The two become a maelstrom of hate and violence where it becomes impossible for Riku to pick out who is who.

Through blood, venom and carnage, the two warriors eventually end their feud the same way it always goes, with Alex Whiter standing triumphant.

His form looks monstrous when the battle is over, and it becomes clear to Riku that the Phoenix cannot achieve his strongest form right now.

Riku steps in to keep Joe Dark from dying, then prepares to kill the Phoenix of Destruction.

The Phoenix laughs and grabs the Gaia Temporis to disappear, saying he has better things to take care of.

Riku clenches his fists and flies immediately after him, while a groggy Joe Dark struggles to stand up following his beating...

Meanwhile Mew and Kairi make it to the Sun eventually, where they find Justek must have had Solaris turn down the heat so they could approach the white, bulbous ship floating around it.

They land and make their way inside, instantly greeted by Justek's voice. This time he welcomes him to his "Ark of Nothing", and regretfully informs them that he plans to split them up again.

Kairi will go through a door to his left while Mew will enter the door straight ahead. Kairi notes the obvious trap but Mew goes along with it, figuring it'd be pointless to argue this given if Justek wanted them dead earlier, he would've done it easily.

The two give each other some good luck talk and then split, with the focus centering on Kairi's leg of the journey.

She climbs this strange, almost living, breathing ship until she winds up in a room at the edge of the ship's western side.

And there she finds the last person she would have expected to be here...Gravitus.

As he greets her fondly Kairi slams down the Neo Drive and charges in to kill him again. But before her strike lands she's blocked by Gabriel, who is under Justek's control.

How Gravitus survived goes unanswered for now, instead Kairi wonders WHY he is here.

Gravitus states how the Ark is connected to all in the past who were fated to meet here again in some form and decide the future of the entire universe. Gravitus is here, however, because his interests align with Justek's, as they have for two-thousand years now.

Kairi calls his peace a lie this entire time.

Gravitus says nothing about his beliefs have been a lie, he's simply just managed to incorporate Justek into his goals quiet perfectly.

He then goes on to describe the further extent to which Auris has lied about things, which makes sense given she was the survivor of the war between the Elemental Overlord and Dark King, thus allowing her to write history as she wished.

Calling Justek the end of the everything is just one of her biased observations.

Kairi doesn't believe him, which makes Gravitus question why they are even having this talk.

Gravitus says everything he's done is still working towards peace, even when he gave Solaris and Lunis directions to Sancturia.

Kairi is horrified that Gravitus sold out his people to Justek, but Gravitus spins that to his favor to prove his point from before...How his people needed his guidance to be strong, as the way they are now made them unfit to combat even a small battalion of Vortexians.

What would Kairi do if a bigger armada attacked the planet? Just continue to sit at Mew's home?

She must never stop fighting, or peace cannot be in her grasp at all. He will claim the Neo Drive this time for sure, and activates the Space Drive to begin their rematch with Gabriel acting as his shield.

Kairi tries to work out a way to get around Gabriel to hurt Gravitus, but fails at every turn due to hesitation.

Gravitus says she might as well kill Gabriel, given he's already been prepared to die for so long now.

Kairi refuses to kill him, because he's been more of a father to her than a bastard like him ever has.

She then uses the Neo Drive to summon the power of Gabriel's Drive and, carefully splitting a sword around Gabriel's neck, managing to converge them back together and impale Gravitus through his neck.

His head rolls off to the ground, with Gravitus in disbelief that he lost again.

Gabriel's broken off of Justek's control from the shock and Kairi carries him on her shoulder. She gives Gravitus one last pitiful look and lets him know that he can just rot.

Gravitus lectures her on her way out, telling her that she'll never get what she wants if she refuses to compromise.

Kairi doesn't care for his words, as she has bigger fish to fry.

When she's gone, Gravitus puts his head back on and chuckles, feeling a faint sense of pride in Kairi's conviction. He then forces himself up, realizing he still has something he needs to do...

Meanwhile Mew gets lost in a maze for a bit, eventually managing to brute force the answer and arrive at some sort of massive arena.

Four extra powerful Vortexians emerge, taking on the form of Mew, Riku, Alex and Joe Dark. Mew gets swarmed by them for a bit but is eventually bailed up by an unexpected face...Mr. Reality.

After three years the two have finally reunited, and Mew apologizes for forgetting his promise for so long.

Mr. Reality believes his amnesia excuse, with anyone else it would've come off as a lie.

But now Mew has to know what the HELL he's doing here. Mr. Reality takes him to his resting place within the Ark to better explain himself.

The two catch up a bit, with Mr. Reality detailing his time back home and his brief travels with Joe Dark. When they get closer to the present though, Mr. Reality explains the bridge between meeting Riku and arriving here.

He wound up on some random asteroid trying to find Joe Dark after he ran off in a huff. There he ran into Justek, and the two of them had a polite conversation.

Mr. Reality was a little weary, but at the same time the man's presence is so comforting he didn't bring himself to say anything.

The conversation led towards Justek wanting Mr. Reality's help to solve a problem of his, and showed him a tablet with a language Mr. Reality couldn't read.

If Mr. Reality could manage to figure the problem out, Justek sincerely offered the ability to remove the parasites from his head.

In a moment of weakness from being tired of these powers and the parasites in his head, Mr. Reality went along with Justek's wishes just so he could have a chance to go back to his family again.

But Mr. Reality doesn't know what exactly he even DID to help Justek. It certainly wasn't build this ship, someone else made it up, apparently.

The fact that Justek has been so kind to Mr. Reality and all does cause Mew to have to re-evaluate his opinion on the guy.

Now he wants to go meet with Justek directly and have a chat with him. Mr. Reality tells Mew to take the stairs at the other end of the arena and if he keeps going, he should run into Justek eventually.

Before he goes though, Mew renews his promise with Mr. Reality, and tells them as soon as Justek is dealt with they'll fix his parasite problem.

Mr. Reality calls Mew one of a kind and sees him run off.

Not soon after, Kairi comes running into the area with Gabriel on her shoulder. Freaking out at the sight of an alien, she's only calmed when Mr. Reality relates his relationship with Mew.

Kairi pauses in disbelief for a moment, but then decides that if this alien is telling the truth then she can safely drop Gabriel off with him while she catches up with Mew.

But as she runs off, she winds up taking a completely different route from him...

Not long beforehand, Riku has charged straight after the Phoenix of Destruction and wound up at the Ark behind everyone else.

Easily dismantling the maze set in his path, he eventually catches up to his target.

Riku and the Phoenix confront each other, the Phoenix caring very little about the annoying persistence of a third-rate piece of trash spawned from a second-rate copy.

Riku refuses to let the Phoenix spit in his brother's face any longer. He's a murderer without any sense of remorse and he NEEDS to be stopped.

The Phoenix knows he can't commit to killing him, knowing Mew will hate him for doing so.

Riku doesn't care if he's hated for this, he HAS to do the right thing before the Phoenix gets away with the destruction of the universe.

Fewer words are spared between the two before Riku goes into Chaos Form and determines what he must do.

The two clash within the confines of this room, proving to be equals in strength. But what gives the Phoenix an advantage over Riku is the Gaia Temporis.

Riku tries to account for its presence but all it takes is one second of its use for the Phoenix to gain the upper hand.

However, he's bailed out by the sudden arrival of Kairi. She activates her Angel Drive and smacks the Gaia Temporis out of the Phoenix's hand.

Her and Riku team up to keep the Phoenix from getting away. The Phoenix goes crazy and starts lashing his power out in waves across the battlefield, trying to separate the two so he can go after Kairi.

But Riku's prevented from killing him off, as Kairi wants to force the answers out of him regarding where Shina is.

Its fortunate that the Ark is not built normally, so the Phoenix cannot pull his usual bullshit of healing up. Riku and Kairi combine their powers to constrain him, then drag him along in hopes of catching up to Mew.

On the way, however, they feel a horrifying power rocking the entire Ark, and hurry their pace to get to the other side of the Ark.

A little time back, Mew has made it all the way to the end of the Ark. Steeling his resolve, he knows he's going to be faced with a terrifying strength, just from the brief pulses he can feel coming down below.

But he has to do this alone, otherwise he won't get a chance to speak with Justek.

However, upon arriving at the final room he failed to realize one factor...Solaris and Lunis are still active, and the two ambush him in tandem.

Mew repels them and retreats to the two. Seeing the two siblings side-by-side, he recognizes they're resolved to stop him from reaching their father.

Even if he's alone, he's confident he can beat them both and press onward.

The two siblings bicker for a bit about how to deal with Mew, which causes him to laugh a little. He finds it a shame they're following their father's orders, if it wasn't for that maybe they could be friends.

But he ain't here to discuss what-ifs, and draws his sword to go into Light Form. The two attacks him on both sides and Mew manages to hold them off long enough to pull away and mount a counterattack.

Solaris' power takes full advantage of the confusion Lunis' dance of knives and clones inflicts upon Mew.

Mew manages to piece together the weakness of Lunis' clones, in that they don't cast as thick a shadow as the real deal.

Once he figured that out he manages to tag Lunis with a few solid hits and throw off her game enough. Then, he manages to get a few more hits on Solaris for good measure.

The two then strike Mew with their combination attack, Dominant Eclipse, forcing him against the wall with most of his body singed over.

Though the duo deities are confident in their victory, Mew still has Dark Form up his sleeve and busts it out, regretting that they could not have a more fun duel.

Lunis freezes up due to recognizing "D.'s" power and that allows Mew to take her out in one more punch, though he only knocks her unconscious.

This pisses Solaris off and he ascends into a blue-flamed form, complete with more draconic elements to his body.

This gives him the power to match Mew's Dark Form for a time, though Mew's trickery still allows him to stand and inflict damage to the sun god.

Even when Solaris creates and traps Mew in a Hypernova, Mew manages to prevail simply because despite the two fighting for reasonably good purposes from their perspective, Mew has a stronger bond with more people.

With just that little extra bit of toughness, he smashes Solaris atop the head to fell him unconscious.

Mew then drops out of Dark Form on one knee and catches his breath. He's weakened, but not out, and knows he can't just wait for the others to show up now.

He can sense that Justek is waiting for him, and drags himself onto the platform before him to meet him.

Mew descends into a wide-open arena overlooking the sun. Standing at the opposite end is the man he's been seeking this whole day...Justek Arcavira.

And he is surprised to see just what the man looks like. He looks old and very tired, with his armor being rusted and drained of color.

Justek greets him politely and reads Mew's gaze as expecting to have been greeted by a monster. Justek assures him not to remove that preconception, then asks for his name, even if he already knows it.

Mew introduces himself, and Justek refers to himself as the Betrayer. Then, he glares angrily past Mew's skin towards "D."

The two have a history, as Mew suspected, with "D." claiming he's the most important person in Justek's life.

Justek, however, thinks its not important to explain. Mew and Justek hit it off a bit being bothered by that parasite.

Justek then shifts to topic to ask what Mew defines evil as. Mew thinks in simple terms that you're evil if you hurt innocent people, and Justek agrees with that logic stating how it makes himself evil through and through.

Mew can't understand what it means for him to be the end of everything and how some of the stuff he's done to accomplish that end makes no sense so far.

Yet Justek says how misdirection is important for his goals and ultimately despite being pulled away from the others, Mew arrived here first.

Mew doesn't believe in destiny usually, but this time...He feels like he had to be here.

Justek smiles, calling it meaningless nostalgia, then draws a staff rather similar in shape to Kairi's. He then opens a light rift so Mew can replenish his energy, apologizing for how his children acted.

Mew takes the energy and then goes into Light Form. Justek knew there was no other way this could have gone down, but has no guilt as he prepares to fight.

Mew gets a taste of what Justek is capable of, as the man shows incredible reflexes and trickery through the use of his rifts.

Mew tries to keep pace with Justek's powers but only manages to land a couple scratches with what he's using now.

Mew shifts into Dark Form and manages to land a staggering blow to Justek when he flinches.

Justek then smiles, stating how if he wishes to be a monster, then let THEM be monsters.

He snaps his staff in half and starts transforming, his skin bulging outward, consumed by the emergence of scales and raw flesh. He grows into a titanic, bipedal dragon wielding two blue-flaming broadswords forged from the halves of his staff.

Mew trembles but grins wider, continuing to fight against Justek's overwhelming might.

Justek is a little more unhinged but blames it on this form, as it makes him want to inflict pain on others.

Mew starts believing he can't beat Justek on his own but will give a damn good effort anyways.

But as he plans to force his beaten body forward, he's suddenly paralyzed, and "D." laughs in his face gleefully.

This is the moment he's been waiting for. Mew was so content to believe the two of them were working together that he let his guard down and ultimately invited "D." into his mind more and more.

Now, "D." is gladly content to possess him fully, as he's longed for for so damn long.

Mew's body becomes consumed with black goop that spews from his veins, twisting his shape into a more demonic form fitting "D.'s" liking.

And now, he poises himself to kill Justek, and finish what he started long ago.

For Justek, "D." is responsible for the day that everything changed for him. The day "D." arrived in his life, it was to cause death and destruction among his entire race, including his parents.

That event led to "D.s" destruction at the hands of Lunis and Solaris' prior incarnations, and also why "D." himself is now a parasitic spirit.

Yet, after all this time for recalling what this demon did to him, Justek does not resort to rage to try and get under the demon's skin.

"D." plans to make him scream before he dies, to owe up for not finishing his race off two-thousand years ago.

Justek remains stone-faced as he clashes with this terrible monstrosity merged of demon and the reflection of his former friend.

"D." even tries to exploit that connection to twist Mew's body while in control of it, hoping it makes Justek hesitate. Yet Justek does not still his blades, and burns away at "D." with his massive flaming swords.

As Justek holds out here, he hopes that Mew can fight the demon off from the inside.

And indeed, though the pitch black darkness of "D." is enveloping Mew's consciousness, Mew stands tall and goes Light Form inside of his mind to still put up the best fight he can.

"D." is REALLY annoyed that he still has to suffer his resistance but is confident that he can flush him out for good.

"D." taunts Mew over how try as he might, he cannot fully suppress his emotions. His memories store all emotions away, providing infinite resources for "D." to feast upon.

And though Mew never got angry, he was depressed over being alone. "D." feasted upon that gleefully, allowing him to continue to survive.

"D." tries to consume Mew in the abyss, only to be struck by a fiery blast. Mew has been saved by...Alex Whiter?!

Or rather, its a mental representation of him from three years ago, implanted in there when Alex had erased Mew's memories.

"D." is so unbelievably done with these people's interference and goes berserk, ready to end their mental existences no matter what form they take.

However, since this is Mew's mind, he can control a few things still, and manages to concentrate hard enough to make this Alex go into his Phoenix Form.

Now, finally, these two brothers are fighting side by side against the darkness.

"D." tries to shred Mew's memories to pieces to weaken him, but cannot cause any lasting harm. His resolve stays strong enough and with Alex by his side, they managed to strike "D." with a Twin Overlord Fist.

The physical "D." on the outside is torn off of Mew's skin, allowing Justek to pin him to his blades thanks to the blue flames he had prepared for him long ago.

"D." screams about being the angel of mercy who was offering them a better death than what lies beyond the "poison" that cursed this universe.

Justek doesn't care to hear what he has to say now, and coldly tells him off while shoving him into a prison of eternal light, where he will burn and suffer until he no longer can scream.

With "D." gone, there's no reason for Alex to exist in Mew's head. Mew wishes they could talk longer, but as this Alex remarks he's not even an accurate representation of the real deal.

However, he does have one thing he wishes to impart onto Mew...

Let him die.

On the outside, even with "D." ripped from his body, Mew still stands against Justek.

Justek has nothing but respect for his defiance and laments having to take him off the stage. Returning to his normal form, he knocks Mew over a gentle brush of his staff.

Mew falls into Kairi's arms, as she joins the battlefield with Riku and the tied up Alex.

Finally, everyone has gathered at the promised place. He fires a swift beam to slice off the Phoenix's bindings so he can properly join the fight.

The Phoenix is ready to kill Justek, but first, Justek wishes to set the stage proper for the final battle for the universe.

He departs through a rift and reappears closer to the sun. He takes out a black orb of energy and throws it into the sun, then returns to the arena, as the sun collapses into a massive black hole.

Not just that, he claims that every single sun and star in the universe has become a black hole too, thanks to Mr. Reality's aid.

This is exactly the kind of backdrop the Phoenix of Destruction wanted. Stating he has no further use for Justek, he marches forth to kill him.

Funny enough, Justek thinks the same of the Phoenix, but chooses not to move, believing he'll beat him without leaving this spot.

Riku tries to move in to keep the Phoenix from doing anything, but then Justek surprises the group by invoking the Rite of Singularity on Alex.

Kairi even notes he shouldn't be able to because its an Aurian technique. Justek laments how little Kairi actually knows thanks to her mother's secrecy.

Mew tries to call Alex back, saying he can't win. Yet the Phoenix shuts him up, and continues to march towards death...Either his own, or Justek's.

Justek raises his staff, and tasks the Phoenix of Destruction to meet his demise.

With effortless moves and taunts, Justek continues to wear away at the Phoenix's body and his patience. Countering every move he tries to make, the Phoenix gets angrier and angrier.

Yet Justek does not care. He refuses to bow to a monster who believes he deserves to deliver death, yet cannot bring himself to accept it upon himself.

Justek starts getting serious, battering the Phoenix's body with otherworldly orbs and throwing his staff through a multitude of rifts to whack the Phoenix across the arena.

When the Phoenix starts showing fatigue in all but his rage, Justek begins lecturing him thoroughly.

Deconstructing his actions as little more than thievery and entitlement, he laughs at his pitiful, unjustified rage and pities how he sincerely believed that he'd be successful in anything without doing much to deserve it.

And now he's abandoned any hope of survival by casting aside those who would see him saved, and spitting in those who sacrificed their lives just so he could rob their power.

The Phoenix starts babbling about needing to kill the "witch", to which Justek breaks his rant to laugh at him for his hunt.

Despite the "witch's" claims to power, there were limits to what she could do. And Justek filled in those gaps, admitting to being the one who first plunged Shina Aurora's blade into his body.

The Phoenix breaks character at that moment, returning to the likeliness of Alex Whiter somehow even ANGRIER than before.

Alex tears the glove off his hand and screams his enemy's name to the heavens. Consumed by vitriol along with the flames of the souls inside him, Alex lunges forward and grabs Justek by the neck, pinning him to the floor ready to reduce all to ash.

Riku hastily calls to Kairi to defend them before its too late, and she piles aura after aura on top of the three of them. Riku has to join in too, but even then...Is it even enough?

Alex Whiter smashes Justek with his greatest Blazing Overlord Fist, filling the arena with its flames.

Its a longer period of silence than anyone can stomach. When it passes, its not certain who is even alive beyond Riku, Kairi and Mew, and even they aren't certain how they stand.

Yet from the ashes, Alex cobbles towards them, mummified from being in close proximity to his own flames.

And a moment after, he's impaled through the gut by Justek's staff, as at the last possible second Justek used some deception with his rifts to slip away unharmed.

He can only admit to the fact that Alex managed to make him move.

Mew begs Justek not to kill Alex, saying he's suffered enough.

Justek would have honored Mew's request any other day...But its not his face that Alex has spit in with his actions, but that of Sarajin, his old friend.

Justek silences Alex with a bombardment of otherworldly orbs, having no hesitation to then glare at the trio and demand his next opponent.

Only Riku has the strength and courage to press forward at this point, now feeling confident he understands just what Justek's secret is...

He knew how things were going to play out this whole time...because he's clairvoyant, like Auris.

The hints were easily pieced together throughout this day, though Riku suspects that was on purpose.

Justek does not deny these claims, but wonders what Riku will do with this knowledge.

Riku decides he can't hold back and goes straight into his strongest form: Genesis Form.

With its power, he plans to finish Justek before his insane plans can come to fruition.

And sure enough, Genesis Form keeps Justek on the edge, with Riku landing hit after hit with him unable to mount a defense in return.

Justek is the one who has to be tricky in order to freely slip into a rift, giving him enough time to transform and tackle Riku on more equal grounds.

As they continue their duel, Justek inquires Riku on whether or not he's figured out his plan. Riku does not care to learn, but Justek tells him anyways.

He speaks of the "higher-ups" and their hold upon all worlds, and how callously they eliminate worlds and even entire timelines should things not go their way.

Justek's plans revolve around exploiting their weakness though. As their nature is intrinsically connected to the universe, his multitude of black holes helping to create a massive paradox that weakens the "higher-ups" enough for him to kill.

The cost will be a couple trillion lives though, but such a number is small compared to what heartless carnage Justek has witnessed.

Riku says there is no proof of Justek's claims and even if there were, the lives he's taking to accomplish his goals is unforgivable.

But Justek tells him that what is HIS proof that he is wrong. He laughs at Riku, saying his blade is not strong enough to do any meaningful harm upon him.

And that ultimately, he has no answer to the 塗igher-ups assuming he'd even survive him to begin with.

Justek can win because he can make sacrifices and choose to fight monsters by being a monster. But Riku cannot even admit to having a monster inside of him.

Riku chooses to show Justek just how far he's willing to go and pushed Genesis Form to full power, transforming into a being of bright golden flame.

Mew panics, as Riku's not realizing he's burning through energy at a rapid pace.

Justek calls this form not a monster, but a god...Riku starts burns his scales and flesh just by being there, and victory seems all but certain.

Yet Justek says how like a god, he is fallible and blind. And not long after, Riku loses Genesis Form and falls to the ground, completely drained.

Justek stands over him, lecturing him on his folly for pursuing power without trying to understand it. Ultimately, pride is the monster inside of Riku, and consumed him just as he consumed his power with ravenous intent.

This time Justek intends there to be a cost to Riku's pride, and cleanly slices off his right arm on top of hurtling him back to Mew and Kairi.

Without wasting a breath, Justek then confronts Kairi, stating how she's the last one standing.

She tries to activate the Neo Drive in fear, but it does not respond to her will.

And, just to rub salt in the wound, Gravitus appears once again, chiding Justek for wasting his time on this unworthy child.

Kairi wants him to go away, but Gravitus cares not for her screams anymore. He focuses entirely on Justek, speaking with him as though they are equals.

Justek figured he'd arrive eventually, and Gravitus says how he was not going to miss the end of the 塗igher-ups

Gravitus has given up on the idea of claiming the Neo Drive from Kairi, but shall ensure that if he cannot use its power, then no one will.

He begins to raise his hand prepared to crush her...Only for Justek to then summon a black hole to cut his hand off.

Gravitus grimaces, then laughs. Kairi is confused, as it appears as though Gravitus just tried to kill Justek.

Gravitus had hid his thoughts all this time to counter Justek's clairvoyance. He then tries to use his other hand to crush Justek's heart, only to lose it to a black hole too.

Justek always knew what Gravitus' intentions were even if he never spoke them. Gravitus, so committed to his facade of peace, was going to kill Justek too to secure it.

Gravitus, however, knew he was a pawn this entire time but nevertheless went along with Justek's goals to use HIM in turn. Once he got the Neo Drive, however, he would've broken Justek's cage and killed him with raw power.

His plan here was something he hadn't wanted to try, but knew he had no choice now.

Justek knew hubris would be his end, as when he targeted Auris so much, he had incurred a wrath from Justek so grand that it would never be stopped.

Gravitus suspected that Justek never had betrayed the original Elemental Overlord the entire time, but hearing that confirmed it to him.

However, even if he perishes here, the Neo Drive will finish him. As his robotic body is pulled into a larger black hole, he calls out to his daughter one last time.

Telling her that they share the same blood, which means she has HIS stubbornness, and a fire in her soul. And with it, she shall burn Justek apart.

He vanishes, never to be seen again this time.

Kairi finally pushes herself up, fighting the fear that shakes her at the knees, and shouts that she won't back down even if it means she'll die.

With a powerful roar she activates the Neo Drive and slams into Justek, attacking him ferociously with a variety of empowered Drives.

Even Justek cannot mount enough of a defense against all the options she's throwing at him. But he too, starts acting more ferocious with his attacks, sweeping large chunks of the arena in violent explosions.

He tries to target Mew and Riku to push Kairi into certain spots to get hit.

Mew and Riku are so weak they can hardly move, even to talk to each other. Riku awakens eventually, the first thing he remarks upon being how Justek was right about him...

All he ever did was seek 菟ower so he could pursue 屠ustice He was arrogant, and no better than Alex Whiter ended up being.

Everything he's done has led to failure after failure, and it almost got the only family he's got killed.

But Mew shuts him up, saying how he doesn't care if Riku's failed a few times.

Riku doesn't want his sympathy, as he recognizes that they're barely a family to begin with. Mew doesn't think the lack of time spent together matters. So long as they think their bond is real, then it is!

The fact Riku kept going after failing so much makes Mew prouder than he dares to admit.

While they have this moment, Mew admits the real reason he created Riku...It was to fill in a sense of loneliness, and also cause he had given up himself.

He tossed Riku out into space just to quickly try and fix his mistakes, and is sorry.

Even if they've only known each other a day up until now, they can change that easily.

Riku wonders if they'll even get that chance now.

Mew's refusing to give up, trying his hardest to push himself back up, even as every muscle breaks and aches.

Riku comes up with an idea, but its a costly one...He thinks that, given his body was created out of elemental energy, Mew should be able to absorb him to regain his strength.

Mew accepts without hesitation, much to Riku's disbelief. Mew has faith that even if he takes Riku inside of himself, Riku will come back later, especially since he made a promise for them to get through this mess together.

Mew touches Riku, and the two begin to glow...

Meanwhile, Kairi's almost down for the count, her body battered and blood coming out her mouth. Justek is satisfied, even going so far to say that she came the closest to stopping him.

But as he prepares to land the final blow, a figure with silver hair blocks his sword with one hand.

Justek laughs, wondering if he's been visited by Mew or Riku.

This figure thinks fusing both their names would be silly, and goes for a different name...He figures he can be referred to as...The Phoenix of Hope.

Justek smiles and pulls his blade back, finding it incredible to believe that he'd reach this possibility.

The Phoenix of Hope draws two blades and goes into his own Chaos Form, ready to deliver a hope so bright not even a black hole can snuff it out.

And Justek prepares to duel him to the death, to create his own vision of hope.

As the two begin their final duel, Justek recalls the events that led to this day. His first meeting with the Elemental Overlord when they were young boys, journeying forward into their adult years, and then finally to the day they were forced to confront one another.

Justek smiles at the Phoenix of Hope, believing he's seeing a sort of reflection of Sarajin's dreams.

But he cannot hope to be dissuaded by nostalgia at this juncture. He asks Hope if he knows what he must do to stop the 塗igher-ups

He does not at the moment, but knows there's no point in stopping a threat if requires sacrifice.

Justek refuses to bend to his strength or his resolve, and using his own determination to fuel his stand, the mighty dragon summons every manner of flaw in the universe he can to trap the Phoenix of Hope.

Then he slashes through the rifts vigorously with his Savage Vortex Breaker. Though the Phoenix is gravely wounded, he still leaps from the destruction ready to fly at Justek and strike him down.

Justek matches his resilience, the two clashing blades so powerfully that it flushes the arena with light.

In the aftermath, Mew emerges from the smoke shocked that he's no longer that 撤hoenix of Hope entity.

And even more shocking, Riku's back too, albeit without his arm still. The two don't get any time to speculate the how or why before noticing that Justek still stands too, though that final clash destroyed his swords and made him fall on one knee.

Mew is pissed he can't just accept defeat now, to which Justek says how much like them, he too is fighting fueled by sheer determination.

He rises to his feet and asks once more for an answer to his question.

The one who answers...is a very pissed off Joe Dark, emerging into the arena in his Dark King form to deliver all his remaining darkness into one attack upon Justek.

Justek goes down, but then rises back up, laughing at his pitiful rage.

Joe Dark pulls out his dagger and is ready to keep moving forward as long as it means killing him.

He leaps at Justek only to get pushed back, caught on a pillow of aura thanks to Kairi's aid.

She's pissed she got forgotten in that scuffle earlier but focuses the remainder of her strength on finishing Justek off.

The four gather, with Joe Dark temporarily forgoing his grudge as Justek pissed him off much more.

Justek has no choice but to respect Mew's resolve to keep fighting even without an answer to supply, and chooses to stand as the Ebony Scarred Betrayer to face him one final time for the fate of the universe.

Everyone tosses the last bit of power they got into trying to make Justek go down. Justek himself attacks with more brutality than before, forced to resorted to his claws and girth to knock them away.

To truly end this tireless battle, however, Riku, Joe Dark and Kairi pour their energy into Mew so he can create one final orb that represents all their souls.

He charges through Justek's final attacks and slams the orb into the scar on his chest.

Justek recalls one last memory with Sarajin, and upon that moment cannot deny that he sees Mew as Sarajin's reincarnation.

Justek grins, seeing the reflections of Sarajin, the Dark King and Auris supporting Mew from behind as he presses onward towards the future they shall create.

And thus, Justek chooses to yield, slamming into the edge of his arena and finally putting a dent in it.

Justek stands for one last remark...That he is proud of the children of sin, and thanks them as he falls upon his stomach at long last.

The battle is over, but still, his black holes remain. The universe trembles uncontrollably, and it seems like it might still be the end after all...

Yet Mew chooses to remain strong, as a white light flushes forth from the black hole in front of them, consuming them entirely...

Mew hears the voice of someone that seems familiar, thanking him for cleaning up another of his messes. He tells him to keep up the good work and also...to tell Auris sorry for having to be gone a little longer.

Mew awakens, seemingly back on Earth alongside Kairi and Riku. But Joe Dark's nowhere to be found, neither is Justek, and neither is a single black hole.

In fact the world feels pretty much back to normal, which is eerie all things considered.

After waking everyone up and getting over some initial confusion, Mew decides they should go back home and check the news for answers.

What they find there is rather shocking. History's been rewritten slightly. Now a random fire is responsible for some damage in Seattle, and also for the death of Judas Jeremiah.

Otherwise the city is just fine, with no reports on Vortexians, Solaris, or the ice barrier over the planet.

THEY remember what happened and Riku's without an arm still so like, it obviously happened.

The only thing Mew can consider is that Mr. Reality was involved somehow...In the sense that Justek set up a reset button for when he lost.

Riku doesn't agree, but Mew just doesn't know what else makes any sense besides that.

Ultimately they come to realize that there was a lot about Justek's motivations they never learned about. From what Mew can tell, however, is that perhaps he was looking for a worthy successor to his old friend's will.

Kairi then freaks out upon realizing she left Gabriel on the Ark, and rushes to Sancturia in hopes that she might find him there.

She says goodbye to Mew, warning that she might be gone a bit, for reasons Mew can understand why.

Even with Justek gone, his defeat left a lot of questions unanswered, especially about the nature of the 塗igher-ups

For now, Mew wants to take a rest cause he's too tired to do anything. But when that's over with, he has a few things he wants to get done.

First off is finding Joe Dark and hopefully ending the grudge between them at long last, especially since Alex is dead.

Riku figured he'd try that and at this point realizes he can't do much to stop him.

Mew also wants to fulfill his promise to Mr. Reality, and maybe while he's at it try to find Solaris and Lunis to deal with the aftermath of them losing their father.

For now though, Riku heads in to rest. Mew follows, but only after making a gravestone to honor Alex's memories outside their home.

Meanwhile, Kairi finds that Gabriel is safe and sound back home, and so is her mother.

However, now that Alex is gone and Justek has revealed a rather worrisome bit of news...Kairi confronts her mother, demanding to know the true story of what happened to Shina.

And Auris does not hesitate to explain.

As this all unfolds, Justek's broken body lies on the moon above Earth, watched over by one Joe Dark...

Joe Dark is infuriated that Justek killed Whiter instead of him and plans to destroy him completely.

Justek notes however the lack of urgency in his actions, wondering if there's something else he wants out of him. He remarks how he only has so little time left, so if Joe Dark wants to talk, he needs to hurry.

Justek says he truly knows Joe Dark more than he knows himself, going on to mock him for serving so many masters just in pursuit of vengeance only to have wasted nearly half his young life for nothing.

Justek says how he had more justification for killing Alex Whiter than Joe Dark EVER did, which REALLY pisses him off.

Joe Dark mentions how he lost his entire FAMILY, and that pain can't possibly compare to what Justek suffered at Alex's hand.

But Justek knows the truth...the one who killed his family was indeed Alex Whiter, but he was merely a pawn used by Prometheus.

Alex was a victim of circumstances then, but when he robbed the sanctuary of Justek's friend's resting place and used his powers to spread violence...That was his own choosing.

This argument matters little to Justek though, he poses a particular question to Joe Dark...Just what was his endgame with vengeance here?

Joe Dark answers he needed revenge, but Justek wants to know what he planned to do after.

Justek knows all he wants is a family again, and then laughs.

All this time, without even realizing it, his subconscious memories were guiding him back to his true family.

For Joe Dark...is none other than the brother of Alex Whiter.

Joe Dark tries to deny his truth, but his mind starts to unravel, making him remember the vaguest recollection of his connection to Alex.

Justek laughs at this broken man without a purpose, wishing he could live to see the kind of future this sort of man could possibly build.

Justek closes his eyes and accepts Joe Dark's final judgment upon him. In his last moments, he recalls an important conversation he had with Sarajin...And his regret that he never told him he loved him.

He regrets leaving his loving children to fend for themselves.

He regrets not respecting Auris' will of heart in being loyal to Sarajin to the very end.

He thanks Sarajin for being his friend, through thick and thin, even when he betrayed everyone else, he could never have betrayed him.

One last time, he opens his eyes and sees darkness. Finally, without clairvoyance to curse him, he is blind, just as he always should have been.

Joe Dark obliterates him down to the atom and then collapses upon his knees, letting out an agonizing wail as he realizes just how alone he truly is...

Part 6 END