Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Chapter 93

"Where..." A soft, female voice breathed out. "Am I?" The area was white and swirly though she noticed that there was a black splotch in the distance that was growing larger.

"Hey, Nepsy." Someone answered her and she blinked as a woman with long, blue hair, purple eyes and a rather... Sad expression stood over her, but upside down. "You're dead."

"Dead?" Neptune breathed out slowly. "Huh? Kur...Ome? What?"

Kurome disappeared before appearing sideways and some distance away. "The other you," her voice had an echo to it that Neptune couldn't place, "stabbed you with a sword that was designed for killing Divine Beings. You died."

"I... Died..." She sighed and closed her eyes. "Sorry, Histy, Nepgear... Chrome..."

"Okay, I lied." Kurome smirked as Neptune suddenly snapped her eyes open and Kurome disappeared before appearing at Neptune's feet. "You're not quite dead yet, but you're rapidly approaching death's door." She pointed at the black splotch, which was growing even bigger. "As soon as you sink through that, you're dead forever."

"Death's not so scary." Neptune said softly as she felt herself being pulled towards it. "I've been dead before."

"Anyway, those foolish CPU Candidates, the ones from Lowee..." Kurome muttered as she appeared above Neptune in a position that let Neptune see up her skirt. "They're using as many healing spells on your body to keep it alive, but it doesn't matter." Kurome stopped and raised an eyebrow as Neptune was focused on her skirt. "Here." She stood up and hiked up her skirt, revealing that she was wearing deep blue panties. "Satisfied?"

"Yes." Neptune giggled. "At least now I can die knowing what kind of panties spirits wear."

"Idiot, you're only mostly dead." Kurome let go of her skirt, reached forward and flicked Neptune on the forehead. "I can send you back." Neptune gave her a confused look and she sighed. "The sword, Gehaburn, is designed to automatically kill divine beings, but this one was designed with Voids in mind, not Hearts."

"So that's why I'm still not completely dead?" Neptune asked and Kurome nodded. "Um... I don't have any coins."

Kurome gave Neptune a confused look and tilted her head. "Huh?"

"Or do I need tokens?" Neptune asked and looked around. "Is there a token dispenser around here?"

Kurome face-palmed as she realized what Neptune was talking about. "This isn't one of those "insert coins to continue" screens, you moron!" Neptune giggled and stuck her tongue out. "Listen, you have a choice." Neptune tilted her head as Kurome smiled at her. "You can fall into the darkness and disappear from the world forever and who knows what the other you will do to poor little Gearsy..."

"Or?"

"Or I help you and you return to the land of the living." Kurome gave Neptune a cool smile as the other CPU stared at her.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Alright," Purple Nightmare growled, "I'll..."

"ROCKET PUNCH!" Darkness Sister Purple yelled out as the large clawed hands that hovered just off her hips suddenly roared to life and launched themselves at Purple Nightmare, who used her bottom tentacle limbs to block the left one while her top tentacle limbs to try and catch the right one. The instant that her limbs touched the hands, they exploded, sending Purple Nightmare flying backwards with a grunt of pain.

"Our turn." Darkness Sister Blue said as she and her twin flew above Purple Nightmare. "Diamond..." Several crystals of ice formed around her.

"FALL!" Darkness Sister Pink cried out as the winds picked up and launched the large ice crystals at Purple Nightmare.

"You're getting too big for your panties!" Purple Nightmare roared as several swords formed around her and launched themselves at the ice shards, blasting through them and to the twins, who countered with lightning that blasted all of the blades, causing them to explode. Grimacing, the Nightmare CPU looked at her damaged mechanical arms and realized they still had some use as she swung them around and stretched them up at the twins. "I'll smash your skulls in."

"I think not." Chrome Heart said from right behind Purple Nightmare, who's eyes widened from how close Chrome Heart was. Turning her head slowly, she got a mace to the face, sending her spinning through the air until she crashed on the ground. "That felt *SO* good!"

"Don't think..." Purple Nightmare growled as she got to her feet, her tentacle limbs sparking as she glared up at the four CPUs. "That you can win this fight!" She held her sword straight up and clouds formed over-head. Her body started to glow and her eyes became dark purple as the clouds split apart and a beam of light erupted from the sword. "BLAST EVERYTHING TO DUST!"

Seeing the large pillar of energy coming their way, Chrome Heart knew that she could avoid it easily, but with Neptune and other innocent people behind them, they had to stop the attack. "Anyone got anything?"

Darkness Sister Pink's heart on her tail suddenly glowed and she smiled as an idea came to her. "Super Pink Heart BLOCK!"

Everyone gawked as a large, pink heart appeared, covering the entire area and blocking the falling energy pillar.

"...Ram..." Chrome Heart looked at the CPU Candidate who had the glowing tail. "...Did you just summon a three hundred foot wide pink heart to block an attack?" Ram nodded and the older CPU just shook her head. "Who in their right minds would summon a giant pink heart for anything?" Seeing the Candidate pout, Chrome smiled at her. "So long as it works, it doesn't matter if it's silly looking or stupid."

"Right!" Darkness Sister Pink smiled brightly.

Chrome Heart turned back to the Heart, which started to crack under the pressure from the attack. "Seriously?"

"I won't be stopped by a silly little shield like this!" Purple Nightmare screamed out as her attack shattered through the barrier. "DAMMIT!" She screamed as she saw that her attack's energy had run out.

"Do you really think you can beat us by screaming your failures out?" Chrome Heart asked as Darkness Sister Purple and Darkness Sister Blue zipped forward. "Kids..." She sighed.

"Lightning..." Darkness Sister Blue began as her hands crackled with power.

"ROCKET!" Darkness Sister Purple yelled as she fired two new Rocket Punches at Purple Nightmare, which got surrounded by lightning magic. A wall of inter-locked swords formed in front of the attack, stopping it, though the explosion did send shrapnel flying everywhere.

Purple Nightmare glared at everyone before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. "Fine, I guess I need to step up my game, huh?" Her body and eyes both glowed and everyone watched as her metal tentacle limbs recovered fully.

"Seriously!?" Darkness Sister Blue gaped. "How did she do that?" That almost reminded her what White Void had done to her to avoid any serious injuries when Purple Heart had fought the dead Void back in Lowee.

She mentally shivered at the thought of Purple Nightmare doing something similar to her or anyone else there, since such a thing was so painful it wasn't fun to remember.

"It's easy to do." Chrome Heart told her. "If we get out of this, I'll explain how. Right now, we need to stop her."

"Right!" The CPU Candidates all nodded.

Purple Nightmare's tentacle limbs curved back so that the heads were near her head. "Outnumbered, outgunned..." She suddenly broke into a wide grin while giggling hysterically. "But not for long."

Clapping her hands together, Darkness Sister Blue charged her magic up as lightning crashed into her combined hands. "Chrome!"

"Right!" Chrome Heart nodded as her wings glowed and she rushed forward and passed right under Rom, who let loose two arcing bolts of lightning straight down at that moment. The bolts connected with Chrome Heart's staff and, much to most people's surprise, instead of frying the CPU, the power condensed onto her mace and crackled around the CPU as she flew in. Her cerulean eyes seemed to crackle with power as she swung at Purple Nightmare, who dodged backwards. Chrome Heart simply rushed forward and swung her mace up, only to find that this time her arms were caught by wires from the lower right tentacle limb.

"What?" Purple Nightmare asked as she swung that arm upwards, dragging Chrome Heart into the air before swinging it down so hard that Chrome Heart was slammed into a crater. "You think I can't adapt to what your strategies?" Holding Gehaburn parallel to the ground, she charged up power in it. "Goodbye, you old hag!" She swung the blade forward, sending an arc of energy at Chrome Heart.

Chrome Heart almost laughed in amusement as she saw a pink heart form in front of the attack, stopping it cold. "Not sure about the outfits or tails, but I'll take what you can do anytime, Ram." A blade of wind cut through where the wires were that were holding her arms, releasing her.

"You three can attack all out," Darkness Sister Pink winked as her tail glowed, "leave defense and support to me, okay?"

Chrome Heart smirked at that as she floated up. "I certainly won't say no to that." The sensation of being in HDD and fighting, while she had gotten a small taste of it back in Eden, it was something that she had almost forgotten about in all the years since she had lost her nation. "If we had been closer all those years ago, would this world had sank into despair like it has?"

Purple Nightmare narrowed her eyes, before moving her tentacle limbs back in an arc as the heads opened up, revealing the laser cannons. "I always was better at long range." She snapped her fingers and the sky suddenly became darkened by thousands upon thousands of swords. "Sword..." Purple Nightmare raised her left hand up while her right hand held onto Gehaburn. "STORM!" She yelled and dropped her hand as swords launched themselves at the group from all angles.

Darkness Sister Pink's tail glowed as a large pink heart formed above them to block the ones coming from above. "I can't create another barrier if I have to stop this many!"

Chrome Heart filled the air with razor wires as she flexed her right hand. "That's fine! I'll get the ones on our sides! Rom!"

"Right!" Darkness Sister Blue nodded and created pillars of ice around them to intercept any blades that got through.

Darkness Sister Purple turned to look at Purple Nightmare and gasped as one of the tentacle limbs heads was inches from her face. Before she could react, it clamped down on her head. "MMMMPH!"

"What the?" Chrome Heart and Darkness Sister Blue both looked to see what happened, only to find themselves caught just like Darkness Sister Purple was. Purple Nightmare flew towards Darkness Sister Pink, who could only stare in horror as the last tentacle limb's head opened up and clamped down on her head like it did the others.

Purple Nightmare started to laugh as she snapped her fingers and the swords stopped falling. "Now, let's see..." She grinned as she looked at the four struggling CPUs while they tried to get free from their predicament. "Eenie meenie miney... Oh hell, who am I kidding?" She asked rhetorically and looked at Darkness Sister Purple. "You were able to transform, Nepgear. I'll miss your sexy body, cute moans and squeals and how you taste when I make you cum from me eating you out, but I have to kill you now." Darkness Sister Purple started screaming a muffled scream as the laser cannon that was right in front of her started to build up power. "Don't worry, it only hurts for a brief moment before your face, brains and head explode. Then you won't feel anything anymore."

Purple Nightmare clapped her hands together. "Well, that's enough of me being nice." Her eyes started to sparkle as she grinned. "Goodbye, Nepgear."

There was a hum of power as the laser continued to build up power.

"Bang." Purple Nightmare whispered.

A laser ripped through the air, bisecting the tentacle arm right behind the head and causing the laser blast to miss as the tentacle seemingly jerked upwards in pain and fired into the sky.

"WHAT?!" Purple Nightmare screamed in shock. There were more jerks from her tentacle arms as she heard the rending of metal. Looking around, she stared in shock as that blue ninja that got away saved Darkness Sister Pink while a tall woman with twin-tails and a scythe while wearing a very skimpy bikini cut Chrome Heart free and a blonde with gigantic boobs used some sort of clawed gauntlet to free Darkness Sister Blue. When a CPU with a long, inter-linked tail suddenly appeared near where Darkness Sister Purple was and freed her from the head, Purple Nightmare figured it all out. "Well, shit, all my knights are failures, huh?"

"That's right." The blonde glared at her. "By the way, thanks for filling the sky full of swords, we never would have figured out where you were if you didn't do that."

Chrome Heart stared at the CPU in front of her. With the red hair and the eye-patch, she knew who it had to be, but the fact that the physical change was so... Radical made her not want to believe it. "...Filyn, is that you?"

The redhead smirked at her. "What's the matter, Chrome? Shocked that your little sister could grow up so much?"

Chrome Heart just shook her head slowly and let out a soft laugh. "No, but I didn't expect you to change just as much as Neptune does." She looked at the blonde and tapped her chin. "That must be Peashy, so... That's Uni?" She asked while pointing to the CPU with the long tail.

"Yes." The redhead told her. "Oh, my name's Vermilion Heart, just so you know. For some reason both Peashy and Uni are Darkness Sisters."

"Ah," Chrome Heart nodded. "Lots of rituals that need to be done after this so they can all become fully realized CPUs." That is, if they managed to get through all of this. "And what's with those outfits?" She gave her sister an annoyed look. "Seriously, every single one of you is showing more skin than pole dancers."

Vermilion Heart gave Chrome Heart a curious look. "...You'll need to tell me about those sometime."

"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up as he finished getting Darkness Sister Pink out of the metal head she was trapped in. "Everyone's free."

"Good." Darkness Sister Black spoke up. "Let's take care of this CPU then."

Purple Nightmare looked around and grimaced. 'Four was bad enough, but now there's seven of them and that ninja?' She was looking left and right as she was seemingly surrounded by the CPUs on all sides.

"Do you really think you can win now?" Chrome Heart asked Purple Nightmare. "And don't think you'll get another chance to heal your damaged limbs like before."

Purple Nightmare cursed under her breath. Even if she had Gehaburn, she knew the best she could do would be to kill one of them before being killed herself. 'I need a distraction.'

(-)

"So what's your decision, Nepsy?" Kurome smiled at her. "Going to die or go back?"

"Can I ask you something first?" Neptune looked at her curiously and Kurome nodded. "You said that the sword that stabbed me was supposed to kill CPUs, but I'm not completely dead, so why not?"

Kurome chuckled at that question. "Ah, well, I never had the original sword in my hands, it was just a legend in our world. Apparently the Deity of Sin kept coming back and that sword was used to kill her more than once in the past. Anyway, I didn't know how it worked, so I just figured it dealt near lethal damage to Divine Beings like us or the Deity of Sin and cut us off from our shares so we couldn't recover."

"That makes sense." Neptune muttered.

"So when I made it for this world, I just created it with that idea in mind." Kurome smiled at her. "Except, of course, instead of Shares, I had it cut off Fearicite energy. That answer your question?" Neptune nodded. "Any other questions?"

"...How come you didn't bring yourself back to life?" Neptune asked and Kurome sighed.

"Oh, believe me, I tried." Kurome told her. "But nope, can't do it. I can bring OTHERS back to life, but I'm stuck here. Kind of sucks, you know?" She shrugged and disappeared, reappearing some distance away, upside down and facing away from Neptune. "So then, answer my question then, Nepsy. Do you want to die or will you have me help you return to the land of the living?"

Neptune closed her eyes and her shoulders slumped. "I want to go back, but I know what will happen if I say yes." She opened her eyes and glared at Kurome. "If I say yes, you'll give me something that'll turn me into a monster and then I'll be forced to kill everyone."

Kurome chuckled softly. "Can't fool you, huh?" She disappeared and reappeared right in front of Neptune. "It doesn't matter though." She wrapped her arms around Neptune and kissed the purple-haired CPU right on the lips, much to Neptune's shock. "Sorry," Kurome whispered as she broke the kiss and let go, "been wanting to do that for some time. But the truth is, Nepsy..." She put her hand on Neptune's chest and Neptune stared in horror as a red glow emanated from Kurome's hand and into Neptune's chest. "It didn't matter if you said yes or no..." Kurome had a sad look on her face as she looked at Neptune. "The question is, how much pain will you be in when you get back to your broken body."

With a push, Kurome sent Neptune back the way she had come and far away from the dark ink. "When people say don't go for the light, ignore them, that's where your body is after all."

Neptune could barely hear Kurome as the red glow engulfed her spirit, causing her to cry out in pain.

As Neptune disappeared back to her body, Kurome slowly let out a smile. "Now we'll see something really interesting." She chuckled as she disappeared from the area.

(-)

MAGES. was the first to realize something was wrong. Mina was quick to catch on they could feel Neptune's life signs recovering. "Something's wrong." Mina muttered, "this feels..."

"Yeah, it's like..."

They both felt Neptune's body throb with power before an explosion of energy sent the two of them and Cave flying away and into nearby walls.

With a red glow covering her body and streams of energy coming off of her body, Neptune jerked upwards, as though she was pulled up by some invisible force. Flexing her fingers, she opened her eyes, which were glowing red before letting out a horrifying scream.

Said scream stopped everyone in their tracks as they turned to look at Neptune, most everyone in horror.

"Wh...What's going on?" Chrome Heart asked as she looked at Neptune in dread and dismay. 'Please, please, please... Don't be what I think this is...'

Purple Nightmare smirked as she realized this was the distraction she needed. "Not exactly what I had in mind, but this works too."

A pillar of black energy engulfed Neptune and Chrome Heart felt her heart sink into a pit of blackness. "No..." She whimpered as she saw Neptune transform.

While she was, physically, the same as Purple Heart, there was none of the warmth, kindness or hope that was associated with her. Her eyes were glowing red and, to Chrome Heart's absolute despair, there was a hole in her chest, above her breasts.

The corrupted Purple Heart pulled out a katana from somewhere, took a stance and let out a primal scream of rage and pain from within.

"Who's first to die?" The corrupted CPU growled in a deep, cold, and almost bestial voice.

To be continued...

Oh hey, Neptune, you're... Kind of alive? At least she didn't accept the deal willingly.

Damn you, Kurome!