===CH 7===

Purify the dark CPU

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

"Skill"

Highlighted/other

Hyperdimension; Basilicom Living room

The vortex opens up and spits everyone out, causing them to land in a heap on the ground

"...Neptune" said Alex in a slow and threatening manner from the very bottom of the pile " I hope that this was an accident."

Everyone conscious quickly jumped off of Alex, leaving only the four unconscious Alphadimension CPUs on top of him.

Alex threw the four girls off of him with little effort and turned to the two Histoires.

"...We have found a theoretical way of returning our Dark CPUs to the way they were before the artificial Shares." said Alpha-Histoire, completely ignoring the scene that happened in front of her.

"The method we've come up is similar to what had been used to return our CPUs to their senses during the Kurome incident in Heart dimension. Back then Neptune, Noire, Blanc and Vert were under the effect of Kurome's delusionary powers, her powers were strong enough to make them attempt to kill their own Sisters. They were later pulled out of the whirlpool of delusion by having it purged out of them with Share energy." explained Hyper-Histoire

"So basically you're saying that we're supposed to supercharge them with regular Share energy until whatever produces the artificial Shares within them breaks and the corruptive share energy is wiped out." summarized Alex and paused. "Sounds like a horrible idea if it backfires. Worst case would be that the two energies mix and multiply their strength even further."

Alex spend some time considering their approach on the matter. "While I would gladly approach this matter the way I usually handle such things, I believe the 'screw that, kill them all' method is the wrong way this time... I could offer to provide my Shadow realm to try this. That way we could fight the resulting supercharged dark CPU in an controlled environment in which I set the rules."

"Shadow Realm? Is that a new skill you developed during my absence?" asked Alpha-Histoire

"Sorry, I forgot you weren't there when I developed it... I guess I start with a short recap of what happened during your absence." He sat down on the sofa together with the others. "A few years after your destruction, some of our scientists apparently blamed me and declared me a public test subject... I don't know the exact circumstances surrounding the experiments of our scientists, but as an end result I now have a Shadow Dragon inside me. According to eye witnesses I killed all of the scientists in a blood rush while being in a dragon human hybrid form."

Alpha-Histoire gasped in shock after hearing that but remained silent otherwise.

"The good thing about that whole dragon dilemma is that I now have two new transformations available. I call them Dragon Force and Dragon Force 2nd Stage. They are incredibly powerful on a physical level and offer an almost perfect defense, while I'm not transformed into that state I'm still able to summon the shadow flames for combat... but that wasn't the most shocking thing that happened." He paused for a dramatic effect.

Dread settles into those who don't know.

"I've been captured by the dark CPUs once and have been put through the assimilation process.-"

A flash of dark red light fills the room followed by 10 people hitting the floor and the sound of solid plasma grinding against something hard.

Alpha-Histoire has transformed into her SD form and swung her plasma short sword against Alex's neck, which is currently covered in pitch black scales.

"But it failed as the shadow dragon within me subdued the shadow demon since it is far more powerful than such a demon could ever hope to be... Downside is that I enter a state of madness whenever I'm about to die or killed. I've theorized that she would also die when I die so it prevents me from dying by resurrecting me from the shadows." he then took notice of the 10 unconscious CPUs on the ground "and I believe that everyone present would be grateful if you deactivated your Shadow Drive, while I am impressed that you can transform silently I'd say that no one else can do the same."

Alpha-Histoire warily pulls her sword away from his neck and reluctantly reverts her transformation while Alex casts a green magic circle beneath the CPUs to restore their neutralized Shares.

"That little incident just now aside... I'm still in the process of making her see the true hopelessness of her situation so that she will offer me her powers, or kill off her own consciousness so that only they are left. Either option is acceptable, but for the time being I'm immortal through regeneration I guess." he scratches the back of his head at that "I haven't figured that out entirely, but among the thing I've survived so far are multiple instances of decapitation, mutilation, being devoured, blown to pieces, vaporized and most recently thrown into a miniature black hole... And here I am, still kicking and as good as new."

Alpha-Histoire is still glaring daggers at Alex, but visibly lets a scan run over him to verify his claims

"There were a few close calls with the dark CPUs but it always ended in a draw, and I still have no leads on who's behind all this." finished Alex

"as much as I want to deny it, you are who you claim to be and what you said is no lie... How are the people in our nation doing?" warily asked Alpha-Histoire with less distrust

"They were doing fine... we had even reached an all time population record of over 200000, before the incident with the black hole and dark CPU." Alex looked away from her "right now there are only 6 people from Alphadimension confirmed to be alive. You, Me and the four dark CPUs. Everyone else is confirmed to be dead. Then there's still the one theorized to be behind all of this that could still be alive."

"...so we really lost in the end?"

"Yeah, we lost. But this doesn't have to be the end of us... We may have lost our dimension, but we can't allow them to face the same fate." he gestured over to the unconscious girls on the floor. "They still have something worth fighting for. And that something is being threatened by the monsters that escaped from our dimension. I won't let this world turn out the same way ours did, even if I have to slaughter every single one myself!"

"good luck with that!" spat dark Neptune from her bound position on the floor "You may be strong, but not even you can take down that kind of army by yourself-"

"Shut up already!" shouted Alex and knocked her out with a swift kick to the face that send her crashing into a wall

Later that day after everyone regained consciousness and recovered

They now stood on an open field with the four dark CPUs still trapped in Alex's binding spell

"How are we going to do this now?" asked Alex as he prepared his shadow realm technique

"I'm going to attempt to cut away the artificial Share energy from dark Neptune, I have a skill in my Next form that can do that." Explained Neptune

"Let's do this. Everyone that wants to enter with us, step up. I'm opening the gateway for just an instant."

Neptune and the other CPUs stepped up to Alex while the candidates stayed behind with the others.

Alex raised his right hand towards the sky and black mist like energy began trailing along it. "Enter, the Shadow Realm"

His voice sounded unnatural and echoed as he spoke. A flash of grey light purged all traces of color and sound from the world. The place where everyone else had gathered was now empty grayed out grass.

Alex lowered his arm again and turned to face the shocked group. "Welcome to the world in which I decide the rules."

"amazing" muttered Blanc when she and the others got over their initial shock

"While we still are in no rush, I can't keep this world up indefinitely the way it is right now."

"Right, let's do this quick!" Said Neptune with determination and transformed into her Next form

Dark Neptune meanwhile had her concern written onto her face but couldn't vocalize it due to a strap of Duct tape over her mouth.

Neptune meanwhile drew her sword and charged an insane amount of Share energy into it

Dark Neptune doubled her efforts in escaping by forcing herself to transform. The light prison cracked and visibly strained to contain the dark CPU but held firmly.

"I will now cut away all your ties to this corruptive artificial share energy, and purge it from your very soul. Dimensional Slice!" Neptune calmly called out and released her attack with enough force to make the world shudder.

Dark Neptune's Transformation wore off the instant Neptune's attack hit her and she released a mute scream in agony as the wave of concentrated share energy consumed her and dragged her along for hundreds of meters.

Wisps of golden energy where fading in her wake and a deep trench had been carved into the land all the way to the horizon.

Neptune's Transformation wore off and left her panting on the ground. "What... was that... just now?" she muttered as she inspected her hands "where did all... that power come from?"

"That was probably due to one of the rules I set for this world." Everyone was now focusing on Alex again "Even if you are all strong, you still aren't where I come from. That's why I made it so that everything that doesn't come from Alphadimension Natively will be adjusted to match standards."

"...How's that possible?" asked Vert eying the direction where Neptune purged all plant life as far as the eye could see

"I make the rules in here, Remember? as long as I can imagine it, it is possible in here..." He paused and recalled an old memory "Dark orange had the same ability. It was their trump card for many years before I found out that I could do the same. It almost became their downfall in the end after I traumatized her enough"

"The people in my nation eventually dubbed her ability 'Daydream'. She couldn't control it entirely, so I did my best to turn all her dreams into nightmares. But enough of that, we should check on dark Neptune."

Everyone was about to start walking into the direction of Neptune's attack but Alex stopped them. "I thought we were going to check on her?" asked Vert

"we are, but not like that" Alex said and summoned a fishing rod in his hands, swung it forward and let the coil unroll. Giving the fishing rod a tug to test if he hit, he began to roll it back in.

Nobody was capable of making a comment about Alex's methods when the bruised from of dark Neptune became visible again. Said dark CPU was still smoking and had most of her clothes torn, but the dirt she collected on her body on her way to them made up for a half way decent covering.

"Did it work?" asked Blanc

"Well, she's not dead" said Uzume pointing at her steadily rising chest.

A green magic circle appeared beneath both Neptunes and Alex stepped up to unhook the fishing rood from dark Neptune's ear

"It worked!" Alex sounded genuinely surprised.

The magic circles stayed active for a few minutes so that both targets could recover fully.

"Do you think you can purge another one of them?" Alex asked Hyperdimension Neptune

"One should be possible... maybe two, but that's my limit. I don't want to risk breaking my next form permanently."

"That's good." He walked up to the three remaining dark CPUs and roughly kicked dark Green onto the scorched earth.

Dark Green, while still angry at them for their treatment, was sweating in fear of the fate that was soon to befall her.

"You ready?" asked Alex and backed away with the others

A bright flash of light concealed Neptune from view before she spoke again. "I am."

Her long sword materialized again and got filled with an ridicules amount of share energy once more. "Dimensional Slice!"

The titanic wave of purple energy collided with the dark CPU and dragged her though the rocky ground.

Some golden particles were left in her wake together with an insanely deep trench in the terrain.

Neptune was on her knees and Alex summoned his fishing rod again.

20 more minutes passed within the shadow realm.

Dark Neptune, Dark Vert and Dark Blanc were successfully "treated" by Neptune but her energy wasn't sufficient to purge Dark Noire.

"I'm at... my limit" Neptune panted heavily

"You've done far better than I hoped. I'll take it from here." Alex spoke and silently entered HDD. "I think that I understood what exactly happens while you attack, using that knowledge I should be able to apply the same principle to one of my strongest spells."

A black aura covered Alex's body and slowly turned purple. "Please step back a few hundred meters, this will get a little messy."

They didn't waste any time to evacuate the immediate area, taking the unconscious Alphadimension CPUs with them, leaving Alex and Dark Noire alone.

"I'll apologize in advance." He raised his right hand slowly towards her general direction. "But this will kill you if I screw up."

Dark Noire was visibly panicking and pale from fear by now. And Alex's energy output was still rising.

"Art of destruction: Five Swirling Dragons of Destruction..."

The ground in a radius of 2 kilometers around Alex suddenly exploded with raw energy and five gigantic pillars formed around the edge topped with large roaring dragon heads on top.

All of the dragons release a mighty roar in perfect sync and began to dance around in the nearby area, tearing apart the ground in large chunks. Their dance of destruction lasts for about 2 minutes before the all rise back into the sky and release a beam attack right at dark Noire.

The entire area got consumed in the blinding light and reveals a slightly panting Alex standing next to an unconscious nude Alphadimension Noire. Golden particles were slowly rising from her body and gradually evaporating, getting neutralized by the Anti-Share energy leaking from Alex.

"Leave, Shadow Realm" spoke Alex quietly and color returned to the world

"Remind me to not ever let you close to Rom and Ram again." stated Blanc as she approached Alex and dragged her beaten Alphadimension counterpart behind her.

"Don't worry." Alex waved her off casually with a smirk. "I already taught them this spell and another."

"So that's where they learned that creepy spell from..." Blanc muttered with a twitch in her eye.

"Everyone take your respective counterpart and head back to the Planeptune Basilicom. I have something else to do first." Alex told the other and turned away from the group, facing the forest.

The others took their respective counterpart and departed for the Basilicom. Leaving Alex standing alone on the once battlefield.

"You can stop hiding now, I knew you were here from the beginning." Alex commanded and turned to face the slowly appearing form of Kurome behind him.

"So you knew I was here?" asked Kurome in a monotone voice with a smile.

"From the very moment I stepped foot into Zero Dimension. How could I ever forget your tainted energy..." A blue/purple ribbon appeared in Alex's hand trailing back to Kurome. "Kurome"

"So you know of me? I never saw me talking about me to you."

"I don't know this you, but I know the you from my dimension."