'So she did have one more card up her sleeve.' Somehow Signum wasn't surprised although she was a little bothered that her earlier assessment of Olivie turned out different than expected. Even as open and honest as she is, she's still capable of concealing certain aspects of her power from the enemy until it's too late. Then again, that's basic common sense when it came to battle.

No use complaining about it. All she could do was weather the Kaiser's storm with what strength she had left. Right now, her defensive fields were lowered thanks to sacrificing a part of her armour earlier to create the opening. She had no more cartridges on her and even if she did, she wouldn't be able to use them right away until Laevatein had a chance to recover from the stress of their earlier technique.

But the last thing the Knight of the Sword had been expecting was Olivie asking for forgiveness. "My apologies. This result was due to my lack of training."

"... what?"

"I wanted to have a fair battle," explained Olivie. "Unfortunately, when your last attack broke your my shield, the Saint's Armour naturally activated in response to my heightened emotional state."

"I see. That's quite considerate of you to explain yourself but that's not necessary right now." She slowly got into position.

"But-"

"That's enough. I appreciate that you have attempted to carry out this trial fairly. But make no mistake..." Signum pointed her blade at the Kaiser. "Even with your Saint's Armour protecting you, I will show you beyond a reasonable doubt that we are not the ruthless Knights that you believe us to be."

"That won't be necessary. As far as I'm concerned, this trial has concluded," said Olivie calmly before turning towards the observation window and waving a free hand. "We're done in here!"

"That's… it?" She was quite stunned by her opponent's change in attitude to the point where she didn't even notice the chamber doors opening. "The rules said the trial would end when someone is incapacitated or surrenders."

"That's true. Hmmmm…" It then came to the young woman. "Since I'm not in the habit of beating on someone who's clearly in a weakened state, I surrender."

For some reason, that got under Signum's nerves. "Don't mock me! Are you even taking me seriously?"

"So you really prefer to be beaten into a pulp?" asked the puzzled Kaiser.

"No, she doesn't!" shouted a flustered Hayate as she managed to make her way over with everyone else. "Signum, if she's okay with stopping things here, then let it go!"

"But… it just feels like this didn't end properly," said the Knight of the Sword quietly before turning back to the other woman. "How is it that you were able to find what you were looking for?"

"During your last technique, I sensed your emotions. Love for your Master, anger at my accusations and regret for the lives that were taken to fuel the Book. That is proof enough for me to conclude that the killing machines I saw on that day no longer exist. And you have fulfilled your objective as well which was to prove that you are not the cold Knights who have spilled blood in the name of their Master." The Kaiser paused for a moment. "I wonder if this will be good enough for those restless spirits. If they see that you're trying to live your lives by a proper code of chivalry and make up for the crimes of old, perhaps they can rest in peace."

"Signum, if you're finished, then can you come back with me to the control room so I can properly check you over for injuries?" asked Shamal.

"Yes, of course." Before she could be led away, she turned back to Olivie. "If possible, I would like a rematch so that a proper conclusion can be reached. I have something that I want to try against that Saint's Armour of yours."

Vita put it together. "You can't mean… Agito?"

"Yes. I would like to put my Unisoned form to the limit. That is, if you have no objections."

"You have a Unison Device too? I haven't seen one of those in years. If time permits, I would be happy to fight you again." Olivie had to admit that it would be interesting to throw down with a fighter using one of those devices.

"You don't seem mad at her anymore, Mom. Are you now friends with her?" asked Touma while Shamal led Signum away with Vita following.

"I wouldn't say we're friends now but if anything, I understand her and her comrades a bit better. Maybe in the future, I wouldn't mind having those Knights as friends." She then shot the boy a bright smile. "But right now, you're the best friend that I want by my side."

He liked hearing that. And more importantly, he liked seeing how that smile she had on her face was directed at him and only for him. But…

"If anything, I guess we can call her Vivio's biological mom?"

What if her real child took away that attention he was getting?

A concerned look settled upon the Kaiser's fair features as she noticed her adopted son looking a little distracted. "Touma, what's wrong?"

"Nothing…! Just thinking of stuff."

"You shouldn't hide what's bothering you, young man. Otherwise, Nanoha-chan here would blast you until you started talking about your feelings properly," said Hayate in a teasing manner.

This earned a twitch from Olivie. "Excuse me?"

"Geh…!" Why did Hayate-chan have to say that? And in front of the Sankt Kaiser of all people!

The sudden awkward gesture from Nanoha immediately drew Olivie's attention towards her. "From the way you're reacting, you must be this… Nanatoka!"

"It's Nanoha!"

"Whatever. The point is you can't always force someone to talk about their feelings. Sometimes there are personal things that they can't share. Maybe he has one of those… manly issues that can only be talked about between men." She paused for a moment before noticing a young man in a green suit next to Carim who was furiously taking notes. "You there… you can talk manly issues with my son, can't you?"

"I… guess?" Yuuno was getting rather confused at all this.

She smiled in approval. "Good, then that's settled."

Touma decided that he better step in and set things straight. "Mom, it's not that sort of stuff that's bugging me!"

"Then what is it, sweetie?"

"Well… apparently, I have a sister since they said stuff about you being her biological mom."

"… … SAY WHAT?"

Carim put away her writing momentarily to clear up this new misunderstanding. "It's a bit more complicated than that."

"How so?" asked Olivie who was now paying full attention. "Is she something like a doppelganger?"

The way the Kaiser said that last word had Carim slightly on edge. Belkan myths often painted doppelgangers in a poor light, seen as harbingers of ill fortune and representatives of the forces of evil. Superstition had a place among the Royal Family once. And she wasn't sure if Olivie was among those who placed a high value on those things.

Well, best to go with a truth she could understand. "Not precisely. The story begins with a blood sample that was obtained by a mad scientist over ten years ago after stealing a shroud that we had guarded in our church."

"A shroud…?" She wasn't sure what the Church Director meant until a thought finally came to mind. 'Ingvalt's old cape?'

"It was your only personal belonging that had been recovered after the war next to your journals," explained the Saint Church director. "And the shroud played a part in his plan to conquer this world."

"So he wanted to conquer the world with a bloody cloth?" For some reason, Touma had the image of a man clad in a white lab coat and brandishing the shroud with blood like an all powerful super weapon.

"Er… that's not quite it," confessed Hayate. "That man was involved in an illegal project that focused on creating copies of people."

"And what he wanted was to create a copy of someone from the Kaiser's bloodline since at the time; there were no known living members of the Royal Family. In this case, he created Vivio who's essentially a genetic copy of Her Majesty here," continued Carim.

"A copy of me?" The concept seemed rather out of this world to Olivie but then again, she had been thrown nearly a century forward in time so who was she to judge? But there was still something she was missing.

While there was no doubt that the Saint Kings were powerful living warriors, she was certain that this world had more than enough competent mages to stop a renegade Kaiser. So what was the last factor? What other reason would there be a need for a Kaiser to help in world domination?

Then it hit her. "The Saint's Cradle…?"

The Saint Church Director nodded. "That's right. He had managed to locate that Lost Logia and needed a key to activate it."

"Then… instead of properly seeing the Cradle's destruction to the end, I…" A sense of horror grew inside the young woman's heart.

"Um, if I may ask… what was your last memory about the Cradle?" asked Yuuno with his curiosity now at its peak.

"The Cradle didn't include a proper self-destruct mechanism since it was a warship that predated Belka. The only thing we could do was to steer it towards a natural phenomenon in space where it could stay lost forever. Something like a black hole," said Olivie as she remembered what she had planned on that day before her sudden trip through time. "My father had managed to program a random course that couldn't be overridden until the ship got to its destination but he succumbed to his injuries that he got from the insurgency of the Radicals. I had planned to reach the Cradle and ensure that the ship would stay lost but things… went rather differently. And because I wasn't strong enough, someone else suffered as the Cradle's Key."

"You are not to blame, Your Majesty. At the time, we didn't realize the child's true identity until after the Cradle began its ascension. It is we who bears the responsibility of making up for our negligence," said Carim.

"What is she like? This Vivio girl?" asked the Kaiser.

"She's a good girl although it takes her a while to eat all of her vegetables at dinner time," replied Nanoha. Yes, Vivio may have managed to accept green peppers as part of her diet but she's still a bit picky about eating other vegetables like broccoli and brussel sprouts.

"Is she cared for? Is she happy and safe?"

Yuuno nodded. "Yes she is. Nanoha-san here is the girl's adopted mother."

The sudden revelation caused most of Olivie's attention to focus right on the Ace of Aces. "You?"

"Yes. Do you have a problem with me continuing to care for Vivio?" She had to admit that the moment when she learned the true identity of that woman, the thought of her child leaving her to live with her true biological parent passed through her mind. And it scared her a bit.

"No. Because I wasn't there for her… because I couldn't save her from the fate of being the Cradle's Key, I don't have the right to make those kinds of choices," replied Olivie quietly.

"Even though it's beyond dispute that you share the same blood as her?" pressed Carim.

"If she doesn't want anything to do with me, I can accept that. But before I can step out quietly, I want to make sure she will be properly looked after. Who's in charge of her security?"

It was a bit surprising to see her change from a self-hatred emotional state to a commanding presence. Then again, this is the Kaiser herself. And plus the fact that she's now a parent meant she had to continue projecting that sense of confidence properly in front of her son.

"Uh, I don't think we have a full security detail in place but if I were to guess, it would be Nanoha-san who looks after that," said Subaru.

"So you're saying that Ms. Nanoka here is capable of protecting the child?"

"It's Nanoha, Your Majesty," corrected Carim. "And she is one of the strongest mages on this world."

"Is that so?" After some thought, Olivie glanced at the Ace of Aces. "I'm going to put that to the test. Start warming up."

"… … Eh?"

Vivio has probably seen these sights dozens and dozens of times every time she took the public transit system to travel between school and her mama's workplace. The sights of the landmarks that gave the regions of Mid-Childa their unique charm along with the two moons in the sky never ceased to amaze her.

"Now approaching Central Zone One Station."

The announcement from the train's speakers caught Otto's attention. "Our stop is coming soon, Your Majesty."

"I know. And stop calling me that!"

Once the two made it to their stop, their next destination was to the TSAB Mid-Childan Main Office to meet up with Nanoha, which was only a brief walk from the train station. The time was about right for her to finish up with her classes for the day. But when they reached the designated meeting spot, Nanoha wasn't there. "Perhaps her classes are taking a bit longer than expected?"

"Can you use telepathy to get to her?"

Otto mildly noted that the young lady's vocabulary has been improving. As expected from a student going through the magic curriculum at St. Hilde Academy. "She may be in the middle of something. Let's speak with the receptionist to see if they can track her down."

"Okay!"

A few moments later, they were at the front desk while the receptionist checked for the current location of Ms. Takamachi. "Let's see… Captain Takamachi is currently at Combat Training Simulator B."

"Did she change her classroom location?" asked Otto.

"Actually, no. From what I remember, her class finished a bit earlier than usual. I saw some of her students pass by here on their way to the showers about twenty to thirty minutes ago."

"So, she probably is helping evaluate someone's combat performance and simply forgot the time?" That made sense since as far as the Number knew, the Captain had a bit of a bad habit getting so involved in her work that she loses track of time.

"Most likely. I can't say for sure."

"Thank you for your help!" chirped Vivio before she followed her escort to the Combat Training Simulator.

'Hmmm… she's pretty good.' It was the only thought Olivie had while moving around the arena to stay one step ahead of the barrage of projectiles fired from her opponent. She wondered if all practitioners of this Mid-Childan magic style were capable of this type of flexibility.

She also noted how those gold floating… thingies seemed to add to the number of shots that were released by that Nanoha (yes, she got that silly name right!). With those around, it meant that her offensive and defensive abilities were enhanced. Getting in wasn't going to be easy.

And speaking of getting in, her earlier theory of her opponent not being very proficient in close quarters combat was somewhat disproven. That woman used a combination of shielding spells and binds whenever Olivie closed the gap so that she could maintain the distance that she wanted in order to make the most out of her shooting spells. It didn't take long for the Kaiser to realize that controlling combat space was the idea behind Nanoha's style.

She had spaced herself carefully in order to be in an ideal position to respond to or punish any entry angle or attack used by Olivie. By shutting down the Kaiser's offensive options and thinking several steps ahead, she can control the flow of the fight. Her knowledge of Olivie's style (probably picked up from her observing the earlier battle with Signum) also played a factor in her zoning strategy.

Of course, the effectiveness of such a strategy depended on how well Nanoha could predict Olivie's moves. The thought of using some other attacks to bait her opponent crossed the Captain's mind but in the end, she decided to stick with her cautious approach. After all, she didn't know the full extent of Olivie's moves and as she was apparently a seasoned warrior who has full mastery over her style, Nanoha knew that this would be far different compared to fighting Vivio in her Kaiser form on the Cradle.

A telepathic call from the Kaiser interrupted her train of thought. "A quick question, Ms. Nanoha…"

'S-she got my name right!' A part of her wanted to cry tears of joy that an opponent actually managed to get her name right fairly quickly instead of over several battles like with Vita-chan. "Er, yes… Olivie-san?"

"Would you terribly mind if I put an end to this?" The sudden question was accompanied by a sudden spike in power from the Kaiser's side along with her rainbow aura coming out in full force.

'So she's done playing around?' Obviously, Nanoha had recognized that Olivie took her time in order to study and understand her opponent's style before beginning her counterattack. She still had a few aces to play but whether her opponent would allow her to use them is another story. So her best shot… was to hit her before she got a chance to pull off whatever she's doing. Without wasting a moment, she had Raising Heart load up whatever remaining cartridges that were left in her magazine while the Blaster Bits flew back to her to reinforce the shot. "Blaster Three…!"

"Die du die Ewigkeit durchstreifst, in unserer Seele schlummernde Kraft, Kraft aus der Grenzenlosigkeit, komm und richte!" The rainbow aura that surrounded her body slowly shrunk before a fairly lengthy strand made out of her magical energy formed around her right gauntlet which held on to one end. "Prismatische Stränge..."

"DIIIVINNNE BUSTAAAHHH!" The powered up magical shot left the tip of Raising Heart just as Olivie pulled back the strand and swung it forward while the rainbow magical aura extended in both length and width so that it would clash with Nanoha's attack.

"Seelenspiegelung!"

"Keh…!" Sweat rolled down Yuuno's face as he kept up his energy to maintain the simulator's shielding but the last shockwave of those two spells hitting each other taxed his shields quite a fair bit.

"She can't be…?" Hayate couldn't believe her eyes at the sight as the rainbow strands bent backwards so it could catch the magical energy fired by her friend. "She's catching the Divine Buster?"

"No… she's reflecting it!" Subaru saw Nanoha hustle to get out of the way after seeing her own Divine Buster coming back at her.

"Ah, there's everybody!" They all turned towards the source of the young girl's voice which came from the entrance into the control room from the outside. While her butler escort greeted Carim with a proper bow, the small girl came up to Hayate, who had not been expecting Vivio here. "Where's mama?"

Touma was the first to answer, while noting how much that little girl looked like his own mother. "To put it simply… my mom's totally kicking your mom's butt."

"TOUMA!"

While Nanoha barely got out of the way of that last attack, she noted that the technique Olivie used was similar to what Vivio did on the Cradle. During their battle, her daughter often created magical projections and orbs out of her own aura before firing them at her. Olivie here was on a whole new level.

The Kaiser's aura manipulation ability allowed her to summon forth that strand that acted as a powerful reflective shield to send Divine Buster right back at her. Who knew what else she could do with it?

"Come forth, my elementals! Kugelblitz and Umpflüger!"

'She can summon too?' While that thought ran through her head, two magical elementals formed right behind the Kaiser. One had a red face appearing inside white magical energy while a brown looking apparition that appeared to be made out of roots and surrounded with green energy made up the other form. With a single gesture, the two of them charged at Nanoha mercilessly.

"Axel Shooter!" She countered with a barrage of magical shots but her opponent moved, using the rainbow strand as a whip to bat the shots away, sending several of them back at the Blaster Bits and forcing them to dissipate into thin air. As the two elementals approached, Raising Heart went into action, automatically activating a Round Shield.

They slammed hard into it, pushing her a great distance towards one end of the arena before coming to a halt and fading away from the field. From what Nanoha could tell, they only had a limited amount of magical energy and once that ran out, they vanished into nothing.

But that didn't seem to bother Olivie at all. "Flügellähmung."

Red binds shot out from the ground, wrapping themselves around the white clad woman before she was forced to land. Once her feet touched the ground, the pink energy wings around her shoes vanished, a sign that her flying spell had been forcefully deactivated. While Nanoha tried to think of a counter, she saw Olivie ahead, using both hands to raise her rainbow strand which had straightened out and extended itself in length like a sword.

She could think of counters later. Right now, she just had to survive this attack. "Multiple Defenser!"

As the multiple shields took their place, the Kaiser swung down with all her might. "Explodierande Diamantfaust!"