Disclaimer: I don't own Cross Ange or any of its characters and original plot, excluding the original characters I created for this story. Cross Ange and all its rights belong to King Records (Japan), Sentai Filmworks (USA), and Sunrise/ Bandai Namco Entertainment (Japan). This fanfiction is meant for entertainment only and not for profit. This story contains heavy language, blood and violence, and mild sexual themes not for audiences under 16-18 years old.

CHAPTER 38: KICKOFF

The night has come for the Misurugi Empire and the Dawn Pillar even if the damages done by the battle made by those foul DRAGON machines and the Para-mail would be questioned later by the people…those who might as well be alive since Rush's boys may have killed a large number. Even if Ange managed to escape when he killed and plucked out her maid and lover before resurrecting them to be Aya's dinner, at least Tanya and Irma managed to recover Vilkiss now returned to Aura's chamber with the other Ragna-mail. "Commence purge of Ragna-mail connector," Embryo ordered, smacking his hand against the bare rear of the insolent soldier on his lap, his spanking and the cries of pain from Salia filled the air of the castle's library, with a single light shining above their heads. The Mana window beside him which he is focusing on shows the inside of Aura's chamber where the six Ragna-Mails including Vilkiss stood around their posts, the ground under their feet glows a blinding sigil of orange light that fills the entire chamber. "Deploy the pressure hold. Dracunium reactor engage. Connect the D-Brane resonator. Set supply to full power." Outside, the Dawn Pillar released particles of matching energy and light from Aura and spread over the night sky.

"Preparations are now complete. But..." Embryo paused to smack Salia's rear once again, "Let me guess why you let Ange escape, Salia; jealousy?" Salia gritted her teeth in worry although another spank forced her to gasp and angrily looked up at him.

"Why do you need her for? I've been loyal to you! I've fought and done everything for, but it's always about her…." Salia gripped her hands on his right pant leg when she immediately added what she kept to herself until now. "I even prove I'm a better mistress than Rin!"

SMACK!

Salia almost screamed at the strongest spank she received when she warily glanced only to gasp at such fury she has never on Embryo's face when he glared down at her, his green eyes glows brighter till his pupils are hidden, and his veins are glowing all over his skin even under his clothes. The Ripper! Salia and the others have seen when he would become his terrifying self the first time they met when he saved them from Arzenal.

"Rin is not my mistress…Rin's my wife!" Embryo scolded without care that he is scaring Salia due to his anger for her words involving Rin. How dare she spied on his and Rush's meeting last night. A quick peek at her memories helped Embryo see that she was outside his office doors and listening to his story, something that would make him want to punish her more for receiving knowledge he doesn't want her or anyone else to know, but she looked away from more of their meeting until she peeked back to see what happened before Embryo helped Rush slept for that night. The fact that Salia luckily didn't hear more of their conversation, which is unnecessary for her, managed to slowly calm him down and reverted from his Ripper state.

"My new world will be for strong, smart, capable humans. That is why I chose you, your friends, Ange, and your allies in the Haven. Not for abusive tormentors I dare created." Embryo revealed as he stood and drop Salia on the floor, looking at her fear-stricken face with glowing eyes narrowed in indignation. "Ange will return to kill me, and I shall do the same. Salia, if you truly are a good, smart, and strong girl, then you know what you must do?"

Making sure not to upset Master Embryo any longer than she did, Salia hurriedly stand and wore back her panties and tights. "Yes, my master. I will recapture Ange." Salia saluted, gritting her teeth in anger and pain for both this punishment and what she heard before she left him to himself in the library.

"Honestly…" Sitting back on his seat with his leg resting on his other and ignoring Salia walking away from him and heading outside from behind him, Embryo rests a hand on his face to feel nothing but irritation for today. 'I'd care less that Ange escaped, possibly broken-minded by now…but did her lover and maid had to stress me further with their unnecessary stunts?'

… "You will never…get your hands on my friends!" The second he watched the monkey ripping his vest open and foolishly reveal the bomb strapped to his body and counting down quickly, it only took a second for Embryo to swiftly sprint in inhuman speed and grabbed his opponent the moment the bomb reached zero to detonate, unable to release a scream when the explosion took both men through the colossal burst of thick flames and smoke that would've destroyed the entire cliff with them inside.

However… that's what everyone would've expected.

Ignoring the blazing heat around them from the rings of flames crackling the destroyed but standing plaza and the smoke slowly thinning out and rising to the sky, Embryo grunted his pain and hurriedly use his powers to restore his limbs and parts of his body that disintegrated from the blast, only taking a few seconds of agonizing pain to regenerate his arms and legs through the tattered and bloodied remains of his suit before he quickly climbs off the disgusting body underneath him and fall to sit on the almost broken ground, glaring his vehemence at the monkey before him. Through the slowly thinning smoke of the fire, Embryo can see that this 'Tusk's' entire body has been burnt, battered, and even torn with missing parts of his entire self from the blast, finding it problematic to recognize him beyond recognition in a gruesome sight hard enough to describe his new appearance. Most importantly, Embryo sensed this one's soul is gone…not for long.

"…You impudent miscreant." Embryo panted as he sluggishly climbs on his bare feet, massaging his hands on his resurrected arms to not be like Alektra and walking closer to his opponent's body as the smoke dimmed but remain from the fire slowly extinguished itself. Kneeling closer to grab what was left of the ape's head off the floor, the presence that just appeared behind him caught Embryo's attention to drop him back on the cracked floor and turned to see the clone he managed to conjure before the explosion happened, dressed in his current Ripper clothes, and his right arm curled around the body of Ange's maid hanging beside his side. Like the monkey, the maid is also burned and battered but only her legs are torn out of her joints hidden by her tattered skirt, and her soul is gone.

'This better not change the story's rating.' Embryo mentally scoffed.

"I shall return to the Palace and resurrect them as our son's dinner. Surely, he'll give some to our daughter for her medicine." Embryo informed his clone, as if he is another person or a reflection, after grabbing the dead monkey by his bleeding and hole-covered throat with one hand and raising him off the ground to drag him away once Embryo's clone silently handed the maid's body to his true self with his other hand. When he did, Embryo looked up and see his clone's face. Unlike before, his Ripper clone is now wearing a golden half-opera mask that covered the right side of his face and his nose with his nose holes nearly visible, but his right eye is visible through the eyehole.

'That does look good on me…you're right.' Embryo raised an eyebrow with curiosity shifting to fascination.

Teleporting away from the destroyed plaza to the Palace's dungeon basement, making sure none of his soldiers especially Salia will find him covered in blood and holes in his suit, Embryo wasted no time to throw the two corpses inside one of the opened cells, like the ragdolls they are. With a snap of his fingers, Embryo first watch the corpses' bodies rejuvenated with colour and their missing limbs restored with their clothes fixed in a second, looking as if they were never exploded, to begin with before he glances down and grimace his anger at his tattered suit. At least his book, cooking notebook, and childhood journal aren't damaged, so that's reassuring. He can fix his clothes before he'll checks up on Rush and his children.

"Enjoy coming back to life." Embryo scorned as he walked away from the cell to head upstairs. "…Because both your true deaths will be your last dinner." …

The last thing he remembered was giving Ange the timing and opportunity to escape and distract Embryo with his bomb, and now he felt himself both heavy and light. It may not be to Ange's liking as even he thinks he would've died from his suicidal stunt, but anything is better than allowing the enemy to get her. But even when his mind blanked from the explosion, he did feel the hellishly excruciating pain from the blast. Inside out, Tusk felt he was pierced and whipped by flames all over him and he find it hard to breathe, his heart exploding out of his chest like he ate another bomb until he knows he suffocated and burned to death. But it doesn't matter what happens to him. Heaven, Hell, or that place where hearts go when the body dies from Rush and Ammo's favourite video game. He will rest wherever he'll ends up if it means keeping Ange safe. And yet, why is he now more tired than usual? I thought he would feel light in his body and soul if he dies.

Somehow, Tusk strangely had the willpower to weakly flicker his eyes multiple times, painfully clearing the blurriness of his vision until the first thing he sees is, not just the dim brown brick walls flickering with the candle lights, but a girl's face looming inches above his face, that is not Ange's, for Tusk to wildly climb on his butt and back away with a startled cry, not expecting to wake up by a familiar face that also collected his shock.

"Wha!? Wait…Momoka?" Tusk panted.

"Oh, good! Sir Tusk!" Momoka sighed her relief shifted into worry. "I don't know what happened! I thought I died from fighting that brute to save Lady Angelise."

"Y-yeah. Me too…" Tusk nodded his puzzlement, seeing Momoka blink her eyes in shock at his words. "At least I got Ange away where she will be safe. But I still don't understand how we're both alive after getting blown up!"

"Ah!" Momoka gasped as if she realized something. "Could it be that Embryo resurrected us, the same as he did to Lord Julio to torture him to death and repeat for a week while you and Lady Angelise went to the DRAGON's world?" 'Embryo did what?' Tusk blinked his eyes at her in disbelief. Resurrected Ange's brother to torture and repeat? So, he's alive right now? Tusk has so many questions but no time to ask for answers when the two heard loud churning noises of metal rising beside them and turn for Momoka to gasp her horror at seeing the person entering the cell and leaving the door open, but Tusk cannot help but wonder in the confusion of this visitor. 'A kid?' Tusk looked at the albino boy around ten years old or younger in purple clothing, glowing red eyes soured in stoic displeasure in his frown, and his right gloved hand holding a rapier his size. Could he be…Embryo's son, Aya?

"Be careful, Sir Tusk!" Momoka hurriedly pulls Tusk to his feet, startling the brunette with the maid's fear of the boy. "That's Embryo's son…he and his family are cannibals, and he and his sister tortured Lord Julio by eating bits of him before I helped him and Riza escape!"

"Cannibals!?" Tusk screamed in horror, shifting his attention between Momoka and Aya looking at their reactions with a bored scowl, inducing their fear as if his revealed secret is a normal thing to him. Does this mean Embryo is also a cannibal!?

"That brute Embryo revealed to me and milady that his late wife and children are full cannibals while he is a half cannibal!" Momoka admitted as the two stared in widened eyes at Aya who narrowed his eyes in annoyance and kicked his feet to sprint to either of them, forcing Tusk and Momoka to hurriedly leap away and narrowly escape from getting sliced by Aya's rapier before his attention focused on Tusk.

Cursing that he resurrected without any of his weapons, the best he could do in this situation is dodge wherever Aya's rapier would hit but the downside to him is that the younger boy's speed is just like Momoka when she was in Embryo's control; faster than the eye could blink, and forcefully spills Tusk's blood at where it could hit in either of the taller boy's arms or legs. Tusk grimaced and hopped backwards after Aya sliced a horizontal scar across his left arm, attracting the younger boy as Tusk watched in dread of Aya raising his arm holding his rapier closer to his face and, to Tusk's fright to shudder his body, fearlessly and boldly lick Tusk's blood off his blade, almost re-enacting Embryo attempting to eat Julio's right eye the first time he was in his Ripper disguise.

'Embryo, why are you and your family, scary cannibals!?' Tusk wished the enemy is here to complain to him.

"L-Leave Sir Tusk alone!" Momoka hurriedly conjure a pyramid-shaped Mana forcefield all over Tusk when Aya was about to resume the unfair fight, collecting Tusk's relief to sigh while Aya snarl his anger at the terrified maid but both Tusk and Momoka couldn't do anything when Aya's body vanished in the air like Embryo, alarming Tusk and Momoka who quickly dismiss the forcefield of the other. It was when she felt a tingling sensation behind her neck of a presence that forced her to whirl only to be flown towards Tusk's direction by a small, booted foot kicking her in the face by the boy who reappeared in a second.

"Momoka!" Tusk quickly catch Momoka's body and kneel to place her on the ground, seeing a stream of blood out of Momoka's mouth when Aya kicked her in the cheek, both hurriedly look at Aya landing gracefully on the floor and proceed to walk towards them, the tip of his rapier scratching on the ground to release sparks of light and heat from the friction and the sight of Aya's stoic face glaring such vehemence alarmed such dangerous level for Tusk and Momoka to scream of going to get killed by the enemy's cannibalistic son. But when he walks halfway, Aya stopped when he, Tusk, and Momoka notice something small was thrown inside the cell from the opened cell outside and landed perfectly between their path, with Aya staring at it the confusion being a circular device that Tusk knows too well.

'That's…' Instead of revealing it, Tusk hurriedly block the lower halves of his and Momoka's faces with his hands, forcing a muffled gasp from the maid just as the three watch the device opening the four-part slit on top of the device and instantly release thin smoke out and fill the opened cell in seconds, with Tusk and Momoka holding their breaths as the former witness Aya trying to swat the smoke from his face with his free hand and take a few steps back yet his body immediately wobble and his eyes quickly blinked multiple times before Tusk witness Aya's body leaned forward and fall to land his body on the ground, dropping his rapier beside him. "That is the Haven's sleeping gas," Tusk told himself once he hurriedly pulls Momoka onto her feet and remove his hand to let her shield her breathing with her hands before the two hurriedly ran out of the cell as the sleeping gas quickly evaporated into the air and immediately bumped into someone.

"Tusk! Momoka!" That voice! Tusk and Momoka looked up and their shock immediately transitioned into the happiness of seeing him again. "Rush/ Sir Rush!"

"Let's not waste time asking what happened to me. Let's get out of here and leave this dead nation." Rush informed with a stern glower as the cell they ran out from had someone running in and out of there with his arms holding Aya's body, seeing Rush's companion be a white-haired man with blue eyes and rich, green clothing. Nodding their agreement, Tusk, Momoka, Rush, and his companion ran out of the basement and, without being caught by Embryo and any of his allies, left the Imperial Palace to run to the side of the woods that will secretly take them through the city.

"Daigorou, make sure Aya is placed somewhere safe and hide before he wakes up," Rush told his friend holding Aya's body but before he was about to lead Tusk and Momoka out, the latter two witnessed Daigorou quickly pull and turn Rush around and boldly kiss him against his lips with his gloved hand holding the back of Rush's head, shocking Tusk and Momoka gawking their astonishment with the latter hiding her blushing face with her hands.

"…Make sure you'll be safe, Rushian." Daigorou sternly promised after breaking from their kiss with the same hand cupping Rush's bandaged cheek, seeing his good eye blinking in surprise from the kiss but quickly nodded his acceptance with a smile, receiving a soft but sad smile from his kisser and ex as well. Slowly removing his hand from Rush's face, Daigorou hurriedly turns and ran back to the palace while Rush, Tusk, and Momoka hurriedly ran through the forest with both sides not wasting time looking back.

"Rush, why didn't you date your ex instead of Embryo?" Tusk faintly joked with a chuckle although his response is an angry warning from his friend and leader. "Shut the fuck up, Tusk!"

Inside the Aurora with Vivian, Salamandinay, Naga, and Kaname join them alongside their spy Riza Randog or Lizardia and, to everyone's shock, Julio whom Embryo resurrected but painfully damaged in body and spirit mostly blind by his gouged eyes, all left Mary and Nonna cry for Marika's death when Lizardia managed to regain a bit of her strength to reveal her knowledge of Embryo's plans. The sight of their ally and spy lying on a hospital stretcher and her hands being held by Sir Moon and Ange's brother confirmed Salamandinay's thoughts and collected her pity, feeling nothing but worry and rage for what tortures she was forced upon by their enemy. "With both the Ragna-mail as control devices and Aura's power, Embryo plans to fuse the two worlds into a single planet…" Lizardia quietly revealed but is forced to stop when she starts coughing which worries the two boys holding her hands.

"Riza! / Lizardia!" Julio and Moon gasped as Maggie rests a hand on both Lizardia and Julio. "She's too weak, and Ange's brother needs his eyes treated. They need rest." Maggie informed before taking the two to Aurora's infirmary, leaving the others to group in one of the hallways.

"This sounds too good to be a lie." Red Death mused, unaware or ignoring the looks Naga and Kaname gave him and his other male friends such as the masked weapon specialist they know him as the one who almost killed Lizardia in Ange's failed hanging. However, the one they were mostly peeking on seems to be taken by the pink-haired young woman Ersha whom Miss Vivian told them about her friends in the False Earth, just by seeing her holding his large left hand with both her hands.

"What will happen if Embryo's plan works?" Cynical asked Salamandinay.

"If the two worlds were combined, all living things will be destroyed," she answered. "We must act... please, Commander. On behalf of my people, I would like to request an alliance with the Norma and the Haven." The sudden request startled Hilda but caught Vivian, Moon, Ammo, and their friends' hopes as they listen to Salamandinay resuming. "We need more than the Ryuu-shin-ki. We saw and believed that it would be difficult to break through their defences. I trust you all have the same issue?"

"You got a point. Even with the extra numbers, we won't last five minutes with the Ragna-mail on our own…." Hilda pondered, thinking about this decision before she got her answer. "Okay, we're in. But first, we're waiting for Ange to come back, with or without Rush. We'll call our friends G. H. O. S. T if they found anything..."

"Oh, so they haven't returned, are they?" A male voice asked as they turned to see a green-haired woman wearing a white and purple uniform had suddenly appeared, but her brown eyes are blank and strangely crying while her skin is glowing her veins the same colour as Mana. Just from the sight of her, Jasmine's dog Vulcan readied and growled at her arrival. "What a shame. I would be worried for their welfare if I were any of you."

"Miss Inspector?" Vivian asked.

"It isn't her," Salamandinay revealed as everyone watch the possessed-looking woman raise a hand and a Mana window materialized beside her to show a familiar face revealing himself. "Embryo!"

"That is Embryo!" Jasmine raised off her seat as her dog leapt for this Inspector who swiftly swing her right arm and swatted him away to release a painful whine. "Vulcan!"

"What's your deal, Inspector?" Hilda aims for her firearm, but Salamandinay holds her back with her sheathed sword. "Be careful. He made her his puppet." Salamadinay warned.

"I was checking if everything is set for you to try and kill me, as you all wanted." Embryo mused with a cruel smirk.

"So, you are prepared to die then? I had an inkling you must be going after Ange as a suitor to be your wife than your killer."

"I don't want to hear THAT from you, DRAGON princess." Embryo scoffed in a disgusted glower that replaced his repulsive smirk. That sudden response may have startled Salamadinay as she presumed her words are what Embryo was planning with Ange.

"What did you do to Rush?" Cynical demanded in anger shared by Apache.

"Nothing. I left him asleep since he does look exhausted last night before he'll go as we both promised to fight each other as his duty everyone put expectations on him, for being the Human Killer." Embryo confessed with a shake of his head.

"You mustn't be impatient for your death. We will visit you soon to collect your head. Sir Ammo? Can you and your friends cover your ears?" No sooner than they followed, Salamandinay raised her hand beside her mouth and roared towards Embryo's marionette, breaking the Mana screen and his hold on this Inspector when the light returned to her eyes before she collapsed on the deck.

"Well, Commander. He is determined for us to kill him no matter how it makes him look. Do you believe we are capable of distracting him long enough to look for Ange and Sir Rush before he does?" The expression on Hilda's face showed she realized it as well. "Ange and your friends will return. I know."

"Really? What makes you the expert?" Hilda argued, seeing Salamandinay smiling at her.

"Because…she is my friend." That answer surprised Hilda with a gasp.

Embryo immediately set the phone down and sighed his frustration. "That woman. She's so uncivilized," Embryo pulled out his book and read his book. He wasn't surprised that the DRAGON princess and her two aides are joining Ange's group to kill him to stop his plans, but she had to sour his mood with her mere words. As he read, he checked the time with a Mana screen while another window joined to show footage of his Pyrethroids circling over the Misurugi Empire for surveillance of their citizens' reaction. Nothing but fear like the rats they are when he secretly made them attack Rush's boys after they nearly protected Ange and her soon-to-be-dead maid, the latter and Ange's lover should already be dead by now, but he did think of resurrecting them to break their minds and kill Ange for him.

'No…' Embryo mentally shook his head. That would make their final battle unfair and although it is rare for him, he must have good sport…something that would make him out of character. If Embryo must guess, even if he was asleep earlier, Rush would've figured out that he asked Aya to eat at Ange's allies and will try to save those two.

"If he does, he better make sure Aya is unharmed." Embryo hoped as he turned his head by the door opening and closing to see Chris, with her hairstyle changed to have her hair braided over her shoulders in pigtails and held by two matching red barrettes, and Keren pushing a trolley with the top being covered by the stainless cloche. "What is it, Chris?" Embryo asked.

"I've finished my patrol, and everything is set. As you said, everyone around Misurugi is scared rats scurrying for what happened earlier." Chris notified as she and Keren walked closer to him and the table, collecting his bemusement of the trolley before Chris reached her hand to the top of the cloche. "Also…Khalifa made this for you." Lifting the cloche, Embryo wasn't expecting to see Khalifa sitting on the tray and about to place a chocolate chip on top of the delicious-looking treat, Chris said she made it for him, only to stop when she realized her cover is blown and seeing her father staring back at her in puzzlement, with Chris watching in confusion and Keren remains to be the mindless slave she is. Slowly reaching for the chocolate chip that she was about to place on the treat closer to her mouth and eating it instead, Khalifa raised her arms and presented her dish to Embryo. A big-footed glass bowl filled with chocolate mousse served with whipped cream made in a spiral and both the chocolate and cream is sprinkled inside and out with chocolate chips. Beside the spoon for the delicacy and in front of the bowl is a card read:

'Per favore, riposati presto'

"I made you something, Padre." Khalifa presented with a nervous frown, seeing her father's dumbfounded expression shift into a happy smile and immediately calm his earlier indignation when he first grabs the dish and spoon to place them in front of him on the table before he carefully plucks his daughter off the tray and put him on his lap. This is just like when Khalifa made him a wonderful birthday years before her and their family's initial death. Come to think of it…it was yesterday. Other than that, Aya and Khalifa still cared for their father's welfare the same as he does for them.

"Oh, thank you, Khalifa! I was looking for you while waiting for Aya to finish his dinner. He should've prepared something for you as your medicine and snack." Embryo acknowledged, grabbing a spoon, and scooping the first piece of her dish before taking his bite, smiling at the delicious chocolate and whipped cream for his sweet tooth. Glancing at his daughter watching him happily eat her food, Embryo scooped another spoon and hover it closer to Khalifa to try, watching her take a bite and vibrate on his lap and legs in delight.

"I did it!" Khalifa cheered and raised her fisted arms, pleasing Embryo to chuckle although the two heard a moan from the side when they and Chris see Keren starting to wobble backwards with her hands recklessly grasping her head, her groans growing louder until she nearly fell on the floor and scream her agony. 'What's happening with her?' Chris wondered in suspicion as she, Embryo, and his kid watch Keren panting once she stopped screaming and hastily raised her head showing her eyes are no longer clouded and bulging wide in pain and anger even when Khalifa point a finger at her. "The hippo woke up." Khalifa's taunt made Chris snigger her amusement and Keren grit her teeth in fury at her words.

"…You…" Keren groaned, taking a few steps closer to Embryo and Khalifa, alarming the former to gently tighten his grip on his daughter when the three watched Keren twitching her right hand's fingers into a fist and swiftly throw her arm aiming for either Embryo or Khalifa, shocking and angering Chris who would've stopped her in time. "I KILL YOU!"

The second Chris tried to pull out her sidearm when Keren almost punched any of them…she watches in horror at Keren herself receiving a strong punch that shockingly burst and broke her entire head into pieces with her now headless body flew and landed farther from them, blood heavily spilling from the disconnected throat the second her head shattered, and her body laid lifeless again. As for Embryo who stood from his seat, Chris hastily turns to see him panting harshly in such rage from his glowing veins and eyes, with Khalifa looking at him without fear of her father's reaction when he punched Keren away from them.

"Don't…ever…think…of doing that again…you filthy dog!" Embryo panted through his shark-like teeth that changed whenever he is in this Ripper state, trailing his glowing eyes at Khalifa craning her neck and looking up at him with collected innocence despite witnessing his punch, startling Embryo who quickly dimmed his glowing veins until it is gone from his skin and his free hand palmed on his face in shame. "…I'm sorry, Khalifa. You must've been terrified." Embryo apologized.

"I'm good, Padre." Khalifa shook her head, her reassuring smile faltered in a soft but angry sneer at Keren's body. "But that hippo ruined my plan to make you feel better. Just like her Madre." Embryo slowly lowered his hand off his face with a sad frown, relieved that his daughter still loves him to care for his welfare but dare remember their family's murderer before he turned to Chris shifting her attention between Keren's body and Embryo looking at her.

"Chris. Wait for me to finish my treat before I'll resurrect this wench. Then, inform Salia, Irma and Tanya for you all to be on standby. Please be free to punish her body to your heart's content until I'm done." Embryo ordered, seeing Chris initially blinking her eyes in surprise at the order although she immediately smile a cruel smirk.

"Sure, Embryo." Chris happily bowed her delight as she watched Embryo returning to his seat with Khalifa on his lap and both returned to their treat before Chris walked closer to the side of Keren's headless body. 'That's what you get for being you, you brainless bitch.' Chris chuckled with her booted foot raised over the body and instantly stomped on her chest multiple times, hoping to smash her heart until Embryo will bring her back and hopefully make her a mindless slave again.

As she laughs at her sadistic happiness and punishes Keren, although she was hoping to hear her cry and scream for all the pain that she gave her back in Arzenal like the others, Chris remembered the time she, Salia, Irma, Tanya, and this bitch got into Ange's old house and decided to help Embryo as his Diamond Rose Knights.

… Chris, Irma, Tanya, and Keren looked around the most spacious and fanciest living room they ended up in, after the last thing they remembered either being taken away by those weird devices while Chris remembered dying and abandoned before being resurrected by a man in blonde hair and green suit and dimly glowing eyes. As Chris, Irma, and Tanya wondered in disbelief, Keren was furious when she kept complaining about what happened at Arzenal, even by blaming everything as Hilda's fault simply for being Captain instead of her. As far as Chris is annoyed with her usual banter, the only thing she could agree on is that it is Hilda's fault with the same going for Rosalie for leaving her to death.

Before they could be an argument with the three surviving members of Third Squad, the four heard the door beside them opening and see the arrival of the man Chris remembered the one who brought her back to life, accompanied by not only the two children, a boy and girl, and Salia dressed in a simple white nightgown with the latter noticing the four's appearance to collect her surprise when she ran away from their saviour and head to Chris's side.

"Salia! / Chris!" Salia and Chris greeted each other, the former looked like she is going to cry her relief at seeing her again, at least she still cares for her.

"You're here too? But how?" Irma asked with surprise shared by Tanya while Keren focused her attention on not the ex-Captain of First Squad but rather the man who brought them here and instead answer her question instead with a warm smile on his handsome face.

"I brought you five here in the Misurugi Empire to save you from your initial deaths in Arzenal, as the humans are persistent to kill you all. I also intend to ask for your cooperation for my project." Behind his legs, his albino son and dark-skinned, glowing blue-haired and black and green-eyed daughter peeked and the five of them in calm but curious expressions even when the man gently rests his hands on their hands. "Ah, apologies. I almost forgot to introduce myself; my name is Embryo, and these are my son and daughter Aya and Khalifa."

"Ah? You have a weird name and children." Keren immediately remarked what instantly alarmed Salia, Chris, Irma, and Tanya in shock and anger for her callousness reaction while Embryo glanced at her with a suspicious sneer when Keren walked away from her comrades and stood in front of the family of three to seductively grin at the father. "But you do look handsome. Can I repay your kindness to rescue me? You must be good in bed…"

"K-Keren! What are you doing!?" Irma gasped, attracting Keren to look away from Embryo kneeling to his children's level when Aya tugged his suit to sign something to him after pointing at Keren when the girls argued with one of them. "Are you trying to flirt with a married man!?"

"Yeah! Didn't you try to rape Moon back at Arzenal?" Chris agreed as Keren looked away with a scoff for remembering that snake tamer.

"It's not my fault that freak couldn't let me give him a good time, just because he's scared of everything."

"You're so disgusting, Keren!" Salia shuddered in anger. "Moon is our friend, and you want to take advantage of his innocence and fear to satisfy your pleasure!" Unaware of the girls, Embryo conjured a Mana screen to inspect two Mana profiles after Aya told him something although he did look up in surprise and anger when he heard Keren speaking ill of Moon.

"What you did nearly killed us when we were sent to fight the DRAGONs!" Tanya reminded as Keren snarled her teeth baring wide in indignation.

"Shut up! I don't care if what I did got you guys killed! Can't someone like me want to try what's it like to be with a man!?" Keren complained, taking note of the others staring at her in shock and fury even when she heartlessly added with a furious wave of her hand. "Besides, even if he's a married man and a father, I don't see his wife anyway! I'm not surprised if she's dead, and born like a freak if their little girl looks like her, the same for their son!"

The second she finished and ignore the horrified snarls from the four girls but she was confused at seeing them looking away from her to whatever was behind and above her in dread, the instant tight grip of a strong hand grabbing behind her throat and raised her off her feet forced strangled screams from Keren's mouth as she tried to grab and pull the hand strangling her throat out but she was horrified that it is too strong and fear she will immediately die…just as the fiery and excruciating burning and electrocuting sensations clashing and swarming inside her system and soul forced the loudest scream she ever howled, unable to see her eyes welling tears and her skin glowing her veins with green light.

"What's happening!?" Irma and Tanya gasped as they, Salia, and Chris watch in horror at Embryo strangling Keren and raising her off the floor from behind to torment her to make her cry and unexpectedly glow her veins, with Embryo also glowing his veins and his eyes as well, staring at the back of her head with a furious sneer while Aya and Khalifa are surprisingly collected with a scowl on their faces.

"…I was wondering about you when my children pointed out something that caught my attention, and I am disgusted and furious about your confession for your attempt to ravage one of my dear friend's important allies…but I found something interesting about YOU…" Embryo hissed when his teeth immediately changed from human to shark-like teeth in fury, tightening his grip to hear more choked screams from his victims when his voice suddenly deepened into a demonic-like growl that terrified Salia, Chris, Irma, and Tanya to scream even when they hear what they weren't expecting from their saviour and Keren's tormentor yelling in rage.

"YOU'RE THE OFFSPRING OF MY FAMILY'S MURDERERS!"

Before anyone including Embryo could say something other than hearing Keren screaming louder after his grip tightened to almost crushed her throat, he and his two children immediately vanished in a blink of an eye, leaving the almost traumatized group of four girls to pant and try to relax for what just happened. As they spend the day sightseeing and relaxing for the first time in forever in Ange's old palace, no surprise since she is the ex-princess, Salia couldn't help but wonder what happened to Embryo and Keren. As she suspected from being told about the murderous Ripper in Ange's execution from Alektra, Salia can guess it was Embryo that night by the glowing veins and eyes, and shark-like teeth.

After Tanya made them dinner before they retired for the night, Salia and Chris, the former asked the latter who immediately accept to follow her out of her curiosity as well, sneaked around the palace to search for them with no such luck until they head downstairs to the basement, surprisingly found to be a dungeon, with the two hearing harsh crunching noises and blade slashing.

"Never thought Ange's family tortures people too," Chris whispered to Salia when they walked further inside the basement and follow the noises growing louder until they found the cell where the noises are louder… only to almost scream their aghast at what is happening inside there.

"Aya, Khalifa, how does this brat taste?" Embryo asked once he finished splitting Keren's bloodied body hanging against the brick wall with her arms spread outstretched in front of him with his right hand holding a red dagger with the golden hoop hanging around his wrist, her blood stained on his clothed body with the white dress shirt rolled past his elbows, green pants, and shoes, and splatter more on his face when his attention shifted from Keren's body to Aya and Khalifa also covered with tints of blood and sitting on the floor and against the wall beside his right as they, increasing Salia and Chris's horror, are nonchalantly eating what they can see is Keren's body pieces with Aya eating the lungs and Khalifa is slowly eating the heart.

Their answer to their father's question was Aya signing his fingers after lowering his 'food' and Khalifa shaking her head in disgust. "Disgusting, Padre. The heart and soul inside tastes terrible."

"No surprise. She abused her fellow Arzenal members and girls and even dared try to ravage Moon…the same as what her filthy mother did to me after she killed your mother and baby sister. Even as she was sent to Arzenal as a newborn, she unknowingly bears the blood of her disgusting parents' who tried to kill us simply because of their revenge for Rin." Embryo scoffed after sneering back at Keren's mutilated body as Salia and Chris silently watched although they froze at his words.

Keren's parents tried to kill Embryo's family before? And all of this because they hate his wife named Rin? Are they as foul as the other humans who despise Norma?

"…Salia, Chris." Salia and Chris shuddered and squeaked their fear when they heard Embryo calling their names and hurriedly peeked back at the cell to see Embryo looking at them with a faintly sad scowl over his right shoulder with Aya and Khalifa also noticing them when they turned their heads to the exit. Scrambling to their feet, Salia and Chris hurriedly stood in front of Embryo when he exited the cell with Aya and Khalifa following them and stood behind their feet when Salia try to apologize. "W-W-We're sorry, Embryo! We didn't mean to spy! We're just curious about what happened to you and Keren…"

"No, I'm the one who should apologize, for showing you all a disgusting sight." Salia and Chris flinched for not expecting Embryo to apologize to THEM when they look up and see Embryo faintly looking away with sorrow. "Unlike my wife and two of our three children who are full cannibals, with me trying to be a semi-cannibal out of curiosity, my Ripper state is unstable to reduce my sanity whenever I use it, ever since I could remember, which I try not to use it often. I supposed you think I'm disgusting myself, as I would think I am…"

"No!" Salia interrupted with such shock and anger in her face and voice, startling Chris, Embryo, and his children when they listened to Salia's objection. "Even if what you did is inhuman…I can see that Jill…no Alektra's wrong about you! You're nothing like she said! If you were the enemy, you would have left us dead like the humans who tried to kill us and our friends at Arzenal, and even not care for your children! But you didn't; You saved us and want us to help you as proof that we are important! I don't care if I'll die but I'll do anything to make sure I'll be useful to you!"

"Salia…" Embryo muttered; his dimly glowing eyes blinked in astonishment before he had them close with a smile showing his relief and happiness. "Thank you for your kind words. I look forward to your cooperation." Surprisingly, Salia saw something that made her shocked as well but unable to hide the blush on her face. Even if he may have blood from Keren's corpse…that smile made Embryo more handsome than he is, to her…

"You seriously want to wait for Ange? What the hell, Hilda? Isn't the world ending?" Rosalie asked the second Hilda returned to their shared bedroom from the mess hall with her drink in hand. No sign of anything with Ange, Rush, and G. H. O. S. T. Hilda thought she could rest a bit to think but Rosalie makes it difficult with her decision. Either that or she is still pissed about the battle earlier that cost Marika's life.

"That's the point. I need to think." Hilda responded with a sigh.

"All you ever think about is Ange!" Rosalie noticed as her words prompted Hilda to blush her surprise and a tint of anger.

"What? You expect to stop this without her and Vilkiss, even with Haven and the DRAGONs' help? Didn't we have our ass kicked by Chris earlier?" Hilda exclaimed as the memory of earlier angered Rosalie to kick the room's small sink.

We're going to fight with the DRAGONs, all right. I'll do whatever I can to kill Chris." Rosalie decided, surprising Hilda with her choices. "I got to do it, for Marika."

"Rosalie…" Hilda muttered, seeing tears welling off Rosalie's eyes when she tries to wipe them off with her fist but continues to cry, feeling Hilda now sitting beside her and resting Rosalie's head on her shoulder for comfort. "Oh, Hilda…I'm so lost. Why do you think this had to happen in the end? It's all right if you don't explain it to me, okay? Because I don't think I could understand…Chris was my friend."

"Heard from the girls that Chris shot Vilkiss down and killed one of the recruits. Luckily Ange got away but still no sign of Rush." Jasmine informed Jill in her office, the ex-Commander sitting on her seat with her legs raised on the table, both ignore Vulcan lying its head on Jasmine's lap on the couch. "Embryo got some talented lackeys; I'd tell you that. Including their captain."

"What are you getting at?" Jill asked.

"Nothing. But maybe if you were a little bit nicer to Salia, she would've still been on our side by now." Jasmine noted as she and Vulcan prepared to leave although they stopped after the door opened itself for Jasmine to look back at Jill, expressing a mixture of disappointment and pity. "…I wish I could say you should also prioritize Rush's life than sacrifice him for your revenge. But I don't know what you both would think." Jill ignored Jasmine and Vulcan leaving her office to her privacy, finding her blood boiling in mixed feelings of frustration and anger when she remembered a memory that flashed inside her mind.

… "Are you sure you'll be all right, being this Human Killer?" Alektra curiously asked the young boy nearly covered in bandages and sitting beside her on the hospital bed she was asked by both the Haven's founder and Jasmine to stay put while she will recover and waited for her new prosthetic. Hopefully, the others won't figure out what happened to her especially when she and Libertus's surviving members managed to escape from the humans and were rescued by their saviours of the Haven nation. Initially looking at his bandaged hands, the twelve-year-old boy who stopped the Ancient Humans and the Haven-humans from fighting each other for presuming the latter side will torture them, simply by almost killing them and declaring himself the current Human Killer, looked back at her with a frown no longer bearing innocence for his age.

"I was rescued by the original, who agreed with me about how pathetic humans with Mana are," Rush answered with a bored scowl. "Even before that, I find them boring and useless just for showing off their ego and smirking down on others without doing anything productive by themselves. Just the sight of Mana humans crying and screaming with their pants wet with piss by almost killing them will make me feel better."

Alektra couldn't help but chuckle and cracked the first smile she can muster after her terrible ordeal with this kid. He reminds her of Tusk, only vulgar due to his age. "That sounds so descriptive but satisfying to hear from you," Alektra remarked.

"What, it's true! They're such boring losers!" Rush complained with a furious point, making Alektra's chuckle grow into a short laugh, slowly cheering her up until she noticed Rush staring at the stump of her right arm with a sad frown.

"Alektra? I know we just met, and made a secret union between Norma and the Haven, even if I was only here for five days…but I want to avenge you for what this Embryo did to you and your people." Alektra gasped her surprise as she watches Rush raise his left arm and lift his pinkie out, instead of his right hand. "If that fucker thinks of hurting you and our people, he must answer to me! And I'll be ready to even die until I'll kill him! I swear, as the Human Killer!"

"Rush…" Alektra muttered her surprise, not expecting a human boy to swear his promise of revenge for her but the confidence and determination on his half-bandaged face could make her release tears with a sad smile as she slowly raises her good arm and curl her pinkie with Rush's. "…I swear."

Both heard the door softly knocking behind Rush who hurriedly pulled away from Alektra when the door was opened and revealed to them a familiar girl with dark purple hair tied in pigtails and a brunette boy who is almost injured. "Salia…Tusk…" Alektra choked, feeling tears welling up in her purple eyes.

"Mistress Alektra!" Salia cried and ran to Rush's side of the bed in tears, trying to climb and almost injured herself to get to her mistress if not for Rush slowly leaping off the bed and carefully grabbing Salia to place her on the bed, initially scaring Salia of the bandaged boy before she quickly hugs her mistress in tears with only her good arm around the small back, ignoring Rush and Tusk watching the sad reunion with the latter shifting his frightened expression at the other boy a few times.

"Don't worry, Miss Alektra. I promise I'll get revenge for you, okay!"

Sometime after escaping Misurugi, the sky darkened with grey clouds for the rain to come, Ange almost passed out when she managed to watch the Glider land on top of the sands of a beach and the click caught her to see she is now free from the handcuff that undone itself off her wrist. Too tired from screaming her agony for what happened earlier, Ange weakly looks around and gasp her bewilderment and sorrow at finding herself on a massive island with a mountain that nearly filled the entire land covered with jungle. "This place…This is Tusk's islands." Ange sluggishly climbed off the Glider and wandered through one of the paths that Ange could remember that will take her to Tusk's cave, where he saved and let her stay for almost a week to fix Vilkiss when she crashed.

During the sad trip, Ange can remember what has happened here. Trying to kill Tusk multiple times for assuming he was a pervert, when he sucked the poison out of her leg by the snakebite, repairing Vilkiss, and when she fought a Schooner DRAGON. When she manages to spot and arrive at it and look inside Tusk's cave, it was dark and empty without even a tint of light inside, further making her heart weigh harder in sorrow.

As she weakly stepped inside, Ange heard something fall and looked down to kneel at the sight of Tusk's ring necklace that she must've accidentally dropped. When she sluggishly falls to her knees and almost picks it up, she stopped from seeing how Tusk's ring is still coated with blood, automatically igniting the memories of both Momoka and Tusk inside her mind.

'Momoka...Tusk,' Ange thought in sorrow. 'No matter where, Tusk would always find me. And anywhere I go, Momoka always makes any place feels like home…but now…' Ange clutched the blood-stained ring to her heart and wept even when she purposely descends her body on the wooden floor. The sound of something small landing beside her head and a faint blur of colour on the floor beside her when she was nearly blinded by her tears startled Ange when she spots a notebook laid in front of her face with the only word written Diary at the front cover shown in her vision. Curious, Ange sluggishly climb back on her feet with a quick change from Salia's uniform into one of Tusk's white shirts big enough to nearly reach past her knees and lit an oil lamp when the rainy night nearly became too dark for the cave, starting to read the book from the beginning.

Some of us managed to survive but Mom and Dad are gone. Libertus failed. Alektra lost her arm and can't pilot Villkiss anymore. Making a fight with Embryo was a stupid idea. Destroy the world…yeah, right.

"Oh, Tusk." Ange sobbed.

Libertus and our surviving people were rescued by humans who fled from their society and promised to hide us and keep us safe. Some of our clan didn't believe them, but a kid older than me in bandages tried to kill us and yelled at us for being big brats with such words no kid should've ever said, especially when he wished he'll destroy the world as the Human Killer. That both scared but also amazed everyone. But I find him scary.

"Rush…" Ange muttered, recalling Jill's story of the Haven and Libertus's first meeting.

Rush and some of the Haven came by the islands for both the Para-mail pieces washed up on the islands and to check if I'm okay. They would often ask me to stay with them at the Haven, but I refused. I'm too scared to see Alektra after I ran away. Plus, she might be too busy looking for a new pilot for Vilkiss to even care.

"You should've stayed with them, Tusk…but I'm glad you saved me here," Ange told herself with a sad smile.

Rush visited again just to spend time after saving some families from losing their Norma daughters and sisters. I'm happy that he always has time to visit and not make me go crazy from loneliness. But sometimes I'm afraid that he is planning to flirt with me, but he kept reassuring me I'm not 'handsome' for him and that he sees me as a little brother. I find that reassuring, relieved, and a bit offended, but I don't mind. I hope there's some guy who'll see him more than a murderer and is willing to love him.

Ange chuckled her amusement, although she immediately scowls her sorrow for this part. "…Rush forced our enemy your parents died for to love him…" A flip of a page and Ange found an entry that looks recent.

Mom. Dad. I found her. A girl named Ange washed up on the beach with Villkiss. She's kind of violent and doesn't listen to anybody but…. She just has this light about her. A ray of hope from the outside. Mom…Dad… I finally found her, and I'll protect her. It's a mission only I can complete.

Raising her hand holding Tusk's ring necklace, Ange clenches her fingers around it. "You did…you always kept me safe… But I…I couldn't save you back…Don't leave me…Tusk…" she whispered as the tears began to fall once more. Ange looked up and saw the holster of the discarded uniform has a revolver closer to her. Grabbing it and checking that it only has one bullet, that's all she needs. "I won't…I can't…," Ange shakily pressed the barrel against the bottom of her chin and almost pull the trigger when the memories of everything, in the beginning, came back to her, making her decision difficult until she collapsed on the floor and cry her sorrow for everything through the raining night that felt as if even the heavens are crying with here for earlier.

Adjusting to ease the pain of her butt from the spanking, Salia sat on her bed and hugged her legs with her head resting on her knees, inside her bedroom. Even if Ange assumed that they won't find out, Salia is no fool that Embryo would've figured it out and punished her. Who knows if he is lying like the rest? He did say that Ange is only a tool to him to pilot Vilkiss, just like how Alektra wanted her too, and nothing more, nothing less than a doll. But what else is he hiding from her? It's just like Arzenal again; Salia is nothing more than a doll belonging in the trash once her usefulness is wasted without the thanks she deserved.

"Every one of you…are dirty liars." Salia hissed, rising off the bed, and loomed in front of the mannequin holding her Pretty Salia costume.

Grabbing her knife from its holster, Salia angrily stabbed her dress over and over, shredding it in pieces onto her feet until it looks unrecognizable by the time, she finished venting her anger at everything that happened to her. "You and the Haven better be prepared, Ange. Because I'll kill you and your friends to show him that I'm stronger…and he will love me." Salia vowed, raising her dagger in front of her face to see her reflection.

'Even making him forget of his dead wife and Rush…' The mention of the latter reminded her of what she spied on Embryo and Rush's meeting and that made her furious.

Hyacinth scowled her melancholy as she watched the rain growing harder through the entire Enderant Union through the window of her husband's office, waiting for him to do something he strangely didn't tell her before he could get to his last meeting with that foul superior of his. Even if it's been a few days after Arzenal was destroyed, she knew that she must do something to further help Rush ever since he almost drowned to death by Embryo and even before Ange, Tusk, Vivian, Ammo, and Moon returned from the DRAGON's world.

The day those five did return to their world, Hyacinth proposed returning to the Enderant Union to help give intel on Irijah and Embryo's plan through him without her oblivious husband realizing his reunited wife is secretly manipulating him to learn useful information. Unfortunately, nothing happened but to Hyacinth, at least she can see that her husband is still the same loving man she remembered and married. When she returned home with Rush taking her back, Irijah wasted no second to run out of his office and embraced her with tears in his eyes, overwhelmed and happy to see his living wife again. And then they spend the days together as if Hyacinth was Azalea again, but the main difference is that they don't have their only son with them. The only thing that convinced Hyacinth that Irijah is sincere is the times when he would keep apologizing to her for being responsible for their baby's death, even bowing on the floor with his head on his hands for her response.

"Irijah…" Hyacinth muttered as she heard the doors opening behind her and see who but Irijah walking in with a hopeful smile, alarming Hyacinth to hurriedly smile back and pretend to be her past self again. "My love. Where have you been? You're going to miss your meeting with Master Embryo."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I…I thought I should return something that belongs to you." Irijah prayed with a nervous smile, collecting Hyacinth's confusion as she watched her husband raise his hands and, with the Light of Mana, summon a large object with both hands and not what Hyacinth was expecting her innocent husband to be seen holding her chainsaw she kept it alongside her other stuff from the Haven. The second he held her chainsaw, Irijah immediately gasped his shock and fall onto the floor due to the heavy weapon he wasn't expecting to be holding.

Hyacinth gasped at seeing her husband fall but was surprisingly asked to not move from her husband when Irijah hurriedly climb onto his feet and gripped the chainsaw's handles. But in the process, he accidentally switched the weapon on for the blade to start whirling its teeth in a deafening noise, frightening Irijah to scream his fear while Hyacinth worriedly attempts to calm the situation in surprise at the sudden sight of her accident-prone husband caused. "Irijah!"

"I'm sorry, Azalea! I didn't mean to switch on your deadly weapon! It was an accident!" Irijah apologized his tears on his hands and knees the second Hyacinth managed to switch off her chainsaw and pull it away from him, with the blonde and blue-haired woman waving one hand to comfort him while her other hand holds her deactivated chainsaw.

"I-it's all right, Irijah. But why would you hand me back my chainsaw? I thought I do not need it now that I've returned to our land?" Hyacinth questioned with a curious scowl as Irijah quickly rise from his position and quickly get on his feet with a nervous smile.

"Ah…I remembered seeing a picture of you and your allies killing G. H. O. S. T after the Ripper's surprising appearance in the Norma princess's execution, from Master Embryo through the Human Killer's evidence." Irijah explained, seeing Azalea blinking her beautiful blue eyes nearly reclaiming the light he remembered she had. "I was terrified when I saw you wield your weapon and the anger in your face, as you've changed during the ten years of your disappearance. Of course, I'm the one to blame for it…however, even if you returned home, Azalea, I cannot keep the Haven out of you. So, I hope that you'll continue to protect yourself and others with what you experienced in the Haven and be more than the strong and caring Azalea – or Hyacinth – I married."

"Irijah…" Hyacinth muttered in shock. She wasn't expecting her husband, whom she knows as cowardly, meek, and optimistically kind inside out, to accept her Haven self. He wasn't even like this when they were forced to lose their late son ten years ago.

"Ah. I'm sorry, Azalea. I mustn't delay my presence at Master Embryo's meeting. If you like, you can wait for me in the dining room before I'll inform you on how we can get to the new world." Irijah hurriedly walked past his wife and towards his desk, about to sit on his seat when he notices Azalea is now sitting on the couch closer to the desk, her gloved hands still holding her weapon.

"…No. I wish to accompany you. A good change of pace than before our separation." Azalea shook her head and affirmed, startling Irijah for her decision but paid no mind to any worry when he smiled his happiness. Even if it's been ten years and trained to fight through amnesia in a dangerous nation by the Human Killer, Azalea or Hyacinth is still the wife he remembered, grew up with, and loved.

Inside the infirmary, Maggie listened to her patient answering the questions she was given while on the other bed across hers, Emma Bronson was busy swiping her Mana screen for information as if despite the proof beside her, she cannot believe it was the truth. She did try to contact her father but no such luck on her end. "My people's voice interferes with the flow of Mana inside every user, which is why they are dependant on the Norma to fight my people for years." Lizardia finished answering the last question Maggie gave her. Sitting on the stool against the wall and at the foot of Lizardia's bed, the small gauze and bandages concealed his permanently gouged eyes, former Holy Misurugi Emperor Julio listened with his mouth opened to gasp his surprise.

"Is that why the Norma were sent to Arzenal, and fight them? Because we will end up mad if we fight them ourselves?" Julio exclaimed. 'I thought Mother and Father protected Angelise just to save her from being sent to her death…'

"That sounds absurd! Do you expect us to believe everything you just said!" Emma demanded.

"I'd say she herself is proof of it all. And we were informed that Embryo killed Ange's brother in the attack but here he is in front of our eyes…at least without his eyes." Maggie mused with a nod at the patients behind her.

"I don't blame you for not believing it," Lizardia said. "Due to the Norma's ability to break Mana, the False Human's society sees this as a risk to their so-called peace, so they were cast as outcasts, the second Embryo programmed you to discriminate against them with such derogatoriness when you were born. But through the Haven humans, it's possible to break that discrimination."

"Stop it! You're saying as if we're nothing but puppets! It's not true!" Emma yelled yet her Mana window instantly shattered like fragile glass the second before both Bronson and Julio started howling in pain that alarmed Maggie who jumped off her seat and Lizardia of seeing those two's skins glowing their veins with Mana the second the Mana screen broke.

"Inspector/ Julio!" Maggie and Lizardia cried.

"What's happening!?" Moon gasped when he, his snakes, Cynical, Ersha, Vivian, Jasmine, and Vulcan suddenly witness Red Death, Apache, and Ammo fall on the deck while gasping and crying their pain, their faces and skin especially when Red Death's helmet came off when he fell earlier had their veins surprisingly glowing like Mana and Apache's Mana screen glitched and shattered before disappearing as if a Norma touched it for the three young men to howl their agony with Ammo's eyes shedding tears.

"What the hell is going on?" Hilda asked when she and Rosalie ran out of the hallway from their bedroom and notice their plight in surprise as Hilda ran to kneel and grab Apache off the ground when he continues to gasp and cry his pain.

"We don't know! We were discussing on Ange's location when they suddenly acted like this!" Ersha informed with her arms around Red Death's neck while Cynical quickly pull Ammo against her when everyone can hear buzzing noise coming from the grown Norma, alerting Cynical to hurriedly fish her hand on one of her pockets and pull out her transmitter and switch in on.

"Miss Cynical!" A voice that is not Doctor Voroton or Charlie gasped through the other line, alarming the others by hearing painful screams increasing from the background. "Some of the Haven inside and outside the Haven reported of all our Mana users suddenly had their Mana broken and almost dying from the strange symptoms they're feeling right now! We also spotted that the same is happening to everyone on the mainland through our surveillance sensors!"

"What?" Cynical asked in surprise shared by everyone. Every Mana user? Does Embryo have something to do with this for his plans…Cynical immediately thought of a few people she could think of when she heard the mainland being mentioned which collected her shock.

"I want all our Gliders to head to the mainland and gather our allies who are still there! Hyacinth, Misty, Seri Ranka, G. H. O. S. T, and Rush must be taken out of there before anything else could happen over there! Have Bonne Clyde and another hand over Misty and Seri Ranka's Para-mails to them! They need to survive from the merger!" Cynical ordered.

Embryo had checked that the entire world has immediately gone hectic by the citizens reacting in aghast and start howling their agony like animals the second they nearly killed themselves of the sudden lack of their Light of Mana, due to both the merger using all of Aura's powers, and his power to collect and absorb the Mana out of his creations through him once every single drop has been taken. Not that they matter since they are going to die either way. Sooner or later, all that's left is to wait for the final battle with Arzenal and the Haven and both sides will be ready. But before that could happen, there is one last thing to do. Arriving at the Escarpment to make a message to the world leaders for a final meeting, it took a few seconds for them to appear and take their seats. "Where is the Human Killer?" the Galia Emperor asked as Embryo stood against the side of the table beside his chair to read his book, his back facing the other rulers.

"The Human Killer is currently busy, so I decided to accept his absence. I'm sure this pleases all of you." Embryo answered.

"Oh, yes, of course," the Marmeria General Secretary nodded with a proud smile of relief on his moustached face. "That boy is nothing but a killing machine with his presence unneeded so it shall be a peaceful last meeting."

'Lies.' Embryo felt a nerve striking his temple for the irony, making sure the others won't know when they listened to the Rosenblum King informing. "It seems that the death and rebirth have come underway, Master Embryo. If that is the case, how would you like us to proceed to the new world?"

"If we take too long to leave, we would be lost in the space-time fusion, do we not?" The Velda Queen exclaimed.

"I don't recall taking you all with me." The sounds of their horrified gasps may have been a bit pleasing but not as much as their reaction to the truth. "The new world will be populated by the strong, intelligent and capable humanity the Haven and my soldiers represent. That doesn't concern you all. You must atone for not only creating the chaos you people rot in this world but also for the disgusting behaviour towards the Norma, Human Killer and his people."

"W…what…" President Irijah shook his head in fear.

"How dare you betray us like this!" The Galia Emperor demanded when he stood off his seat.

"I knew it! You care more for those Norma trashes, the filthy boy, and his savage nation, than your loyal subjects!" the Marmerian General Secretary barked with a finger pointing at Embryo flipping a page of his book. But the second he raged…almost everyone witnessed in the horror of the fat secretary's body immediately bursting and exploding into a massive blast from his blood that splattered the ground and luckily didn't hit Master Embryo when his body pieces immediately vanished in a flash of colours, as if the secretary had a bomb that detonated inside him.

Everyone would have screamed and demanded what happened to him when the rulers of Rosenblum, Galia, Enderant Union, and Velda suddenly gasped and whined from the sudden sensation of being strangled when they nearly fell on their seats or the ground from feeling their bodies pushing them down like boulders attempting to crush them like ants.

"If you keep calling the Haven such disgusting words…then your reaction to the truth of your 'worst nightmare' will be satisfying." A familiar demonic voice chuckled from where Embryo stood, alarming the now four rulers to hastily glared at the back of their creator who finished reading and stashed his book inside his suit, his neck and hand strangely glowing the Light of Mana in his veins before he looked over his shoulder to reveal his marked face, his widened, glowing eyes hiding his iris, and his mouth bared such terrifying yet familiar-looking sharpened teeth in a displeased snarl.

No…The four rulers tensed in fear…they know too well of those features but not in their creator.

"Y-Y-Y-Y-ou're the Ripper, all this time!? T-Then the Human Killer…!?" The Rosenblum King panted through the heavy punishment Embryo gave them, but he couldn't finish his scream when he is the second to blow up out of nowhere by Embryo's power before his blood and body pieces also disappear like the late Secretary, forcing President Irijah to scream through his struggled breathing.

"Like all the lies Rush kept from the world and you to protect his people, even your former people, he gladly omits my other self from you all and replaced me with an innocently foolish lamb to take my place." Embryo calmly explained while climbing on the table to walk to the other side, not caring about both revealing himself as the monster they thought who was murdered for justice and killing two of them without even using his hand, now three when he snapped his fingers at the Galia Emperor's direction for him to also blow up like the other two before Embryo stood in front of the Velda Queen and President Irijah gawking their fear at their monstrous creator's grim sneer looking down on them.

"…You two are the only people who cared for Rush, with your son serving as a secret soldier alongside his love while your wife is a powerful chainsaw woman. Perhaps, for Rush's wish, I SHOULD give you both a light treatment than those other dullards."

Not expecting what happened the second she notices the lights strangely burnt out, Sylvia screamed and fell to the floor after her hover chair strangely fell and became inactive, at the same time her body felt heavy and in such pain by her glowing veins and blazing sensation burning inside her to make her cry and howl her pain. "W-What is happening!?" Sylvia coughed and panted when she raised her hand and tried to call the Light of Mana only, to her dumbfounded horror, her Mana appears to not work no matter how many times she calls.

"Someone, anyone!" Sylvia's painful cries called through the darkened halls. "This is First Imperial Princess...no... T-This is Empress Sylvia I! I-I command someone to come rescue me!" Unaware to Sylvia, someone was at the other side of the hallway behind her and heard her command, but he is both busy and not caring about her life to even help.

The second he woke up and witness the person who dared took him away when he fell unconscious in the dungeon running through the castle with him in his arms, seeing it is Father Rush's best friend and ex Daigorou who is also affected by Father's curse for being his creation, Aya didn't hesitate to jump off of his kidnapper's arms and surprise him by his wakeup before he ends up getting mauled alive by the cannibalistic son on the floor, staining both the attacker and the carpeted floor under them with the growing pool of crimson blood after Aya took a large part of one side of this servant's jugular before he finished when he stood on his feet with a furious sneer, walking away and left his alternative meal on the floor. Did Father Rush have something to do with this? Aya wondered. It can't be…he was sleeping when Father visited him, and his sister sleeping and asked him to devour Ange's lover and maid. Whatever the reason, surely it makes no difference.

The world is ending.

Rush, Tusk, and Momoka had barely hidden from the other Mana humans and got to one of the locations that will take them to the harbour undetected when the sound of Momoka screaming her pain from behind shuddered the two men and whirl to see the maid fallen on her knees and grasping her hands on her clothed chest, her skin again glowed her veins with Mana and her brown eyes released tears from the pain she must be feeling inside and out of here. "N-Not again! I-I-It burns! S-Sir Tusk! Sir Rush! P-Please make the pain stop!" Momoka harshly panted and cried as Tusk hurriedly kneel on her level while Rush heard more screams of pain coming from the other citizens to see them also falling on their knees or bodies on the ground, even children are affected to loudly cry their agony.

"Holy shit…" Rush blinked his good eye. Is this what happens when Mana humans are under Em's control? He did think of why he is the only Mana human unaffected…it must have been what happened last night. 'I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.' Rush wonders when he and Tusk hurriedly pull Momoka onto their feet as she is forced to be tortured like the rest.

"H-Hey!" The three heard one of the citizens calling in their direction and looked up to see the person who spot them pointing her vein-glowing finger at Rush, her face broke in aghast and agony. "T-That's the Human Killer, and the maid of that filthy Norma princess!" To Rush's annoyance, the others immediately heard the shout and notice them as well.

"Y-You're right!"

"What are they doing here!?"

"T-That bastard has something to do with this!"

"G-Get out of here, you demon!"

Suddenly, more screams of agony filled the air that alarmed Rush, Tusk, and Momoka as they looked through the source and managed to see disembodied body pieces rocketing out of the ground and growing closer until five blurs of colours zoomed out of the mob and skated in front of them before they whirled and stopped to stand between Rush's group and the citizens immediately grew horrified of seeing the newcomers in front of them and the flesh. "Commander Rush! Tusk! Momoka!"

"G. H. O. S. T!" Tusk and Momoka greeted with happiness, even if the latter and the other suffering Mana humans somehow notice that the excruciating torture has begun to fade alongside the glow of their veins.

"W-W-Why are THEY alive!?" One of the citizens gasped in horror.

"I thought the Human Killer killed them!"

"Are they fake!?"

"I knew it! He IS their leader!" A gunshot immediately blows through the head and brains of the obnoxious woman yelling her rage, forcing more screams from the other humans when they first witness the unfortunate woman's death before they glared at the Human Killer scowling his irritation after pulling the trigger of his gun. Even Tusk, Momoka, and G. H. O. S. T stared at their leader and friend in horror at the reaction.

"Can any of you SHUT THE FUCK UP!?" Rush yelled, turning his attention from the terrified citizens to his allies in front of him. "Kids. The way to the harbour is behind us so boys, pull out the smoke bombs!"

"Y-Yes, Commander!" Kiyoshi hurriedly nod as upon command he, Raven, Trigger, and Robin pulled out a pair of their smoke bombs on their hands and swiftly throw them in front of their feet, creating a colossal wall of thick smoke the frightened citizen knew too well that they will die if they get close, forcing them to run away and scream for their lives without realizing that the people they believed who are responsible for everything have escaped behind the deadly smoke barricade.

…

"G. H. O. S. T! Return to Hades and tell Voroton and Yumi to pull out all our riders! Momoka, Tusk, and I will head to where Tusk had put Ange into safety." Rush ordered once the extended group has arrived at the Misurugi harbour that is fortunately empty and abandoned by anyone that could've to spot them. Even better, the Haven's secret supply of Gliders and trailers are happened to be untouched with plenty of fuel for Tusk to get to his island while G. H. O. S. T will get to Hades through their coordinated beacon.

"P-please be careful, everyone." Momoka worriedly assured her friends after her body isn't in pain from earlier and her voice is strong again.

"Don't worry, Momoka. We're only going to be in Hades." Kiyoshi assured with his hands grasping Momoka's shoulders to comfort her as, unexpectedly, Momoka quickly pecks a soft kiss on Kiyoshi's cheek to surprise him with blushing cheeks which grew when Momoka smiled at him with happy tears before she hurriedly got inside the trailer connected to the Glider Tusk and Rush will use to get to Ange's location. To Kiyoshi's embarrassment, he had to see his friends, Tusk, and Commander Rush grinning their satisfaction until he hurriedly gets on the other Glider he'll take his friends to Hades.

Once everything is set, two Gliders rocket out of the harbour and soar over the dark ocean before parting ways into their paths. 'Hang on, Ange.' Tusk prayed as he gunned the Glider's engine. 'I'll be with you soon!'

After she realize that she slept the whole day by the time she woke up to see not only the rain had stopped but the sky is a bright orange for the night to come, Ange couldn't feel herself wanting to sleep for another lonely night, finding it too painful than being in Arzenal, so she grabbed the bedsheet from the bed and left the cave to walk through the jungle, again sparking more of her memories of her time with Tusk until she arrived at the beach where she and Tusk helped fix Vilkiss but found the trailer for his Glider parked at the dock, where Ange sat and watch the sunset before her. 'I'm such a joke… I can't even die by myself.' Ange mentally sighed when she looks up from sulking her sorrow. "It's so pretty," she said aloud with a sad smile.

"They're not as pretty as you," Ange remembered Tusk once told her the night they were attacked by a DRAGON,

"Idiot, why would you care about me?" Ange let a few tears out when she again remembers Tusk, bandaged by her in the DRAGON's world, smiling at her. "Come on. I'm the Knight of Ange."

"And that was enough for you? Your mission cost you everything. What did you hope to gain?" Ange asked herself as if he is with her, staring at the sunset with tears falling off her face.

"I'm gonna come back to you. I promise."

"If I can't see you anymore…it's all for nothing." Ange felt herself starting to break down after watching the waves crashing over the seas, finding herself smiling for some reason before she rests her head on her knees to cry. "Oh, Tusk...I love you. If I knew this would happen, we would've gone all the way." As she continues to cry, she didn't notice the presence slowly looming behind her.

"You mean it?" A familiar voice asked and felt his hands on her shoulders collected Ange's shock to gasp and raised her head when she felt being hugged from behind and the voice sighed his sadness and happiness. "Ange. I'd promised I come back for you."

"No...no way." Ange turned to look at who but Tusk hugging her, expressing nothing but dismay, and hope on her face. "Is that really you?" Tusk nodded and gently pull them up to their feet, yet Ange immediately turn and slap him in the cheek, shocking Tusk in pain.

"You're not here! You're dead! I saw you and Momoka get blown up! You're just another one of Embryo's illusions to take me back to him! Get away from me!" Ange cried.

"No! I swear I'm not! I thought I died to keep you safe, but I was brought back to life just to almost got eaten by Embryo's son! At least I got away but still, that was terrifying to imagine being eaten by a scary kid!" Ange listened to the Tusk imposter pleading his innocence as she took note of the fear in his face and voice when he revealed Embryo resurrecting him and Aya almost eating him. Ange blinked her watery eyes with a gasp…. Tusk is never a liar, and from everything she learned, there's no doubt that's how he was brought back to life without a single burnt mark or holes. Even with the dried cuts on his arms possibly by a small and thin blade, she can guess whose sword is that can prove his innocence.

"So…it is you? You're alive…" Ange asked, seeing Tusk nodding with fear and tears. This is Tusk…he is alive. Without letting him speak, Ange suddenly lunged and pushed themselves to fall on the trailer's roof with Ange straddling his waist and impatiently pulling his shirt off him before she removed Tusk's white shirt from her.

"A-Ange?!" Tuks gulped at both Ange sitting on top of him and trying to strip themselves, blushing at her beautiful naked body on top of him but Ange stopped him from speaking more by bending down and kissing his lips.

"Please…shut up….and let's do it." Ange tearfully begged and mingled herself on top of him, and in an instant, Tusk knew what he must do to help Ange recover.

Through the night, Ange and Tusk lost themselves with their touches and kisses all over their body, filling the beautiful, starry night air shining the full moon alongside the cool breeze softly blowing their skin and the trees towering over them, with their voices blending their pleasure for their real first time in forever. 'It's so different…' Ange thought as she could only give her soft voice of pleasure to Tusk as he somehow gives her his all, wrapping her arms around his neck. 'It's painful…I know it would be like this pain if others like me experience it…but if it's with him; I'm all right with that.' When seeing Tusk leaning his head closer to hers, Ange gently pulls his head closer with her hands on his face and gives each other their passionate kiss before they resume their love, caring less if they could do it all day. Even if the world is ending…this is how they should be together.

Once for sure, they have tired themselves, taking in their first experience inside their bodies, Ange and Tusk laid on the blanket on the trailer and gaze at the night sky and allowed the breeze to cool them down from their troubles. "It's so pretty," Ange noted with happiness.

"Yeah. I think it's more beautiful than before." Tusk nodded his agreement.

"You know, I tried to kill myself," Ange admitted, noticing Tusk looking at her in surprise as Ange raised her elbow and turned towards him. "But I'm glad I didn't. No one should go through life alone. We need people to fight with to protect and love."

"You read my diary?" Tusk asked with a smile, seeing Ange nervously nodding her response.

"Tusk? Did I do good?"

"Oh yeah. If it's with you, that's all I need." Tusk closed his eyes and sighed his bliss.

"You big dummy. It's only the beginning." Ange chuckled from her smile as the two sat and looked up from noticing the light above them and see the sun of a dawn rising over the island's sole mountain and the sky, the light of day vanquishing the dim darkness of the night before. "You know; Embryo said he wanted all of us to destroy the world and rebuild it to be like the Haven. But I refuse. Because I love this world. It can be a mistake by their screwups, but it's also beautiful. I'll always love this world even through all that happened with us."

"Yeah…No matter what happens, Ange. I'll always be by your side, forever," Tusk promised, holding Ange's hand with his and collecting Ange's happiness to smile at her determination.

"Then let's go save this world together. I don't want Momoka's sacrifice to be in vain." Ange declared although she noticed confusion in Tusk's reaction surprise when he mentioned Momoka. When they returned to the cave, Ange wasn't expecting to see what Tusk may have forgotten.

"Good morning. Allow me to present today's breakfast. We have smoked mullet, and mushroom potage, and Sir Rush's requested dish is wild boar with crimson glory vine sauce." Momoka happily greeted them as at the side of the table, Rush busily ate his breakfast when he pulled the fork out of his mouth and pointed and the pot boiling on the stove.

"I think they should have the potage. It's been simmering for - like what - 12 whole hours?"

"12 hours?" Tusk blushed, trying to ignore Rush grinning his seductive smirk when he finished his meal and stood off his seat. "Not even I thought of screwing that long. You sly dog."

"Wait, Momoka and Rush are here too?" Ange asked with a finger pointing at Momoka and Rush when the former pulled a frying pan out of her shirt, revealing the bullet stuck underneath the bottom of the skillet.

"It's thanks to my lucky frying pan," Momoka admitted with a smile when Ange initially snickered before she heartfully laughs and ran towards Momoka and Rush who climbed off his seat and threw her arms around both, startling the latter but he kindly returns the hug.

"Momoka, you're the best head maid ever! And you're the best friend ever, Rush!" Ange admitted with tears of joy.

"Oh wow! Thank you, Princess!" Momoka thanked with tears as well.

"You could've called me a fake big brother. But thanks." Rush joked, hearing Ange laugh although the three heard Momoka gasp her surprise which alarmed Ange to break their hug and they and Tusk turned to see the apprehension on her face. "Oh! For some reason…I can't use my Mana anymore."

Ange and Tusk blinked their eyes in surprise while Rush narrowed his good eye with a soft sneer, but the four heard thunders rumbling in the distance and outside the beach. After a quick run there and the four spots the sky immediately turned dark in an eery colour with countless lightning from the inside of the hurricane forming where the mainland should be. "What was that?" Momoka gasped.

"Embryo's plan to destroy and rebuild this world, it's starting," Ange answered with a scowl, alarming Rush, Tusk, and Momoka who looked at the anger and determination on her face facing the hurricane. Following Tusk to a different cave closer to his camp, after he changed into the black and red tactical suit of the Ancient Humans while he gave Ange a dark pink flight suit belonging to his late mother to wear, Ange and Rush watch Tusk and Momoka helped the former push the second cave's large pair of doors where inside is a matching dark pink Arquebus. "Is that…" Rush wanted to ask.

"My mother's machine. Let's head back to Aurora, but we need Vilkiss first." Tusk said.

"Don't worry, I got it," Ange replied as the three watched Ange kiss her mother's ring and turned to lift her hand when the jewel of her ring began to shine with its light. "Come to me, Villkiss!" A flash of glowing blue light materialized in front of the four with Tusk backing away in surprise at seeing Vilkiss initially glowing blue when it appeared out of nowhere in its Flight Mode before the light faded to be in its original white and blue colours.

"Let's go!" Ange told Tusk, Momoka, and Rush who nodded their agreement with a confident smile. It's now or never!