New Power...


Haruki: " we're done for!"

All the enemy LBXs focused their attacks on them, but it was suddenly when a certain LBX descended from the sky and blocked off their attacks. Much to Hikaru and Haruki's surprise, it was Arata's Achilles.

Arata: " I'm not letting you harm my friends!"

His overload was activated as he rushed forward, his lance aiming for the first LBX in front of him and it pierced through it.

Another LBX jumped from behind him, holding up its giant arm. Achilles shot its beams at it, creating holes on its frame.

Another LBX on a blue riding armor was about to pierce through Trivhine and Val Diver which couldn't move away.

Arata: " no you won't!"

Achilles stood in front of them, and the riding armor's spear pierced through its core box, destroying it in front of his friends.

Haruki: " Arata!"

Haruki: " Achilles was... That simply!"

Sakuya: " just... How strong are they!"

In his control pod, Arata took off his goggles as the screen around him became red. He clenched his hands around them, gritting his teeth in frustration.

Arata: " Achilles..."

Muraku: " Arata is down!"

Mikhail: " worry about yourself first!"

He was trying to thrust Magna Orthus. Muraku jumped back to dodge only to be hit by Vanessa's energy blasts, causing Magna Orthus to lose balance and fall down.

Muraku: " she got my joints!"

Kazu: " someone head to help them!"

Ran: " I will make you pay for what you've done to my cousin!"

Minerva charged away to help Muraku and the others, but was blocked by a huge riding armor.

As the LBX brought the lance down, aiming to pierce through the pink LBX, it quickly toppled backwards, dodging the weapon.

Ami: " they're many, and strong! We won't finish them in time!"

Kagetora: " how much is left out there?"

Takeru: " I confirmed around 45 LBXs are still standing there!"

Suzune: " we've only taken half of them!"

Kagetora: " Suzune watch out!"

He ran to protect his teammate as a DC Offencer launched its blasts at her.

Momona: " don't harm my teammates!"

" Set up! Z Lance!"

Her weapons formed a lance with a blue energy blade.

Momona: " eat this!"

She dashed forward, slashing at that DC Offencer multiple time.

Suzune: " are you alright! You lost your arm!"

Kagetora: " even with one arm I still can fight!"

Muraku was pushed back as all he could do was to defend himself using his shield.

Muraku: " Mekhail... Vanessa..."

Taking a closer look at how everyone else were struggling with their own battles, he bit his lip and clenched his hands tightly on the controllers.

Muraku: " if I just was a little bit stronger... Then, Mikhail and Vanessa... Arata and everyone here..."

His shield was tossed away and he was left defenseless. He tried to attack but his sword was tossed as well by Mikhail's. He closed his eyes tightly in frustration.

Muraku: ' I've failed you all...'

It was when a strong light overwhelmed his control pod. A blue owl symbol manifested on his CCM's screen. The screens of his pod as well shone in bright blue.

" Houjou Muraku, is there someone you wish to be stronger for their sake?"

His eyes widened by a fraction before they flicked at the Gunther and Glerior in front of him, at his friends fighting, at the leftover pieces of Arata's Achilles. He frowned at all of that.

Muraku: " right! I have to be strong for all those who believe in me, who trust me! I want to be stronger for all of my friends!"

Without speaking further, he pressed the 'yes ' button.

" Chosen one who chose to fight, you shall receive great power. Please use it wisely."

As Glerior was about to thrust his sword into Magna Orthus, the LBX managed to jump back in time, landing just beside his sword and grabbing it.

Magna Orthus: " you've been always giving all you have for others' sake. Now let me do my best for you, Muraku-san."

He held up his sword that glimmered for a second.

Muraku: " Magna Orthus..."

Both Gunther and Glerior rushed for the attack. Magna Orthus slid down past them and stood up, using the chance to attack them from behind, slashing at their torsos.

Magna Orthus: " Muraku-san!"

Muraku: " alright! Hissatsu Function!"

" Attack Function: Catastrophe Drive!"

All the LBX's boosters were activated as he charged forward, cloned to three and they brought down their swords on the LBXs, causing a great eruption that made both of Glerior and Gunther break over.

In their pods, a short electric shock ran through the whole pod before both Mikhail and Vanessa fainted.

Muraku: " let's assist the others!"

Magna Orthus: " Roger!"

Gregory : " Muraku managed to get through! We have to do the same as well!"

" Roger that! Hissatsu Function!"

" Death Scythe Hurricane!"

" Black Storm!"

" Hyper energy bomb!"

" Souken Rangeki!"

" Humura Kuzushi Kiwami!"

" Cosmo Slash!"

" Grace Missiles!"

The attacks fused together and broke over a row of the enemies LBXs.

Ami: " still not enough!"

Hiro: " they're coming!"

" Omega Explosion !"

" Dragon Infirno!"

" Midnight Katana!"

Zenon, Twilight and Fenrir came just in time to offer their help.

Kazu: "you're late!"

Kirito: " you should be thankful we came!"

Jin: " we have to finish the rest of the LBXs before the time is up if we want to delete the Virus from them."

Sendou: " alright! One more round of Hissatsus!"

" Hissatsu Function!"...


Their pods were prayed open and they quickly hopped out.

Muraku hurriedly ran through the halls, looking around the other pods that had opened as well until he found them. It seems they had just regained conscious.

Vanessa: " my head hurts..."

Mikhail : " where are we?"

Muraku: " Mikhail! Vanessa!"

Vanessa: " Muraku !"

Mikhail: " what happened? Isn't this the control pod room?"

He looked around, perplexed about his surrounding.

Vanessa: " when did we?"

She wasn't any better.

Muraku: " I will explain everything later."

He said helping both of them getting off the control pods.

A whole lot of students had been murmuring about what was wrong and why they were there as well.

Mikhail : " what happened here?"

Muraku: " a long story."

Kazu: " we barely managed to defeat all of them in the end. Almost when the time is up."

Evangeline: " if we didn't, most likely their LBXs will stay there and they will be locked in their control pods."

Kagetora: " how did they get past the security anyway?!"

Touko: " I'm sure someone hacked the system to allow them to get through."

Evangeline : " which means they're being used as well..."

Momona: " where are Takeru and Sakuya? I thought they would be waiting for us."

Suzune: " they have to retrieve everyone's LBXs."

Once Haruki was sure everyone else were fine, he spoke.

Haruki: " for now, lets head back to the dorms. I'm sure everyone of them needs to rest."

He said facing the once brainwashed students...


Kiyoka ended the call before turning to the crimson head next to her.

Kiyoka: " don't worry, they're with Onii-chan and the others. They're on their way back."

Kageto let out a sigh of relief.

Kageto: " I was worried when I couldn't find them anywhere."

Kiyoka sighed.

Kiyoka: " it can't be helped."

Kageto: " do you know what's happening here, Kiyoka?"

Kiyoka: " I have a little bit more information than you, still, I'm clueless to what's really happening out there."

Kageto: " will the New Second World be saved this time?"

He thought back to the time the first Second World collapsed. It was a painful sight for all of the students. He snapped when Kiyoka placed a hand on his shoulder.

Kiyoka: " don't worry, Onii-chan and the others are here for that purpose."

Her words managed to get the boy to smile softly...


Mano: " you could have analyzed those data there, so why bothering to come back?"

She asked the blond who took her seat and started looking through the files they got from the scanning of D Ezeldee.

Kirito: " I worry about the security in the school, that's why I decided to analyze them in Eclipse."

Yagami: " anyway, what did you find out so far?"

Kirito sighed.

Kirito : " you can look at it yourself."

Yagami looked at the monitor and his eyes widened.

Yagami: " this is..."

Kirito: " we have to inform the others about it."...


Duck Manor...

Takeru: " I'm sorry, Arata-kun..."

He said giving the red head a white box with Achilles Deed's pieces.

Sakuya: " only Dot Phoenix pieces were somehow intact."

Arata took the box and looked down at what was left of his LBX, frustration and sorrow fighting on his face with the former triumphing.

Arata: " guess it means I wasn't strong enough."

Ami: " even with the power up of Kirito's Vaccine..."

Arata: " and I don't even have Dot-Blastriser..."

Hiro: " I'm sorry..."

Arata: " no, Hiro-san, it's not your fault that the World Savers stole it."

Sendou: " with that, Arata won't be able to join us during the next fight."

The male clenched his hands on the box.

Haruki: " Val Diver and Trivhine as well, they were badly damaged, they won't be able to fight."

Suzune: " same here."

Takeru : " Gregory-senpai and Momona are the only ones whose LBXs didn't get very damaged."

Momona: " I'm ready for round two!"

She said all excited and punching the air ahead of her.

Kagetora: " calm down, it's not like you're heading out right away."

He couldn't help a small smile at her excitement though.

Arata: " wait? Where's Muraku?"

Pandora: " he needs to explain a few things to his friends."

Jin: " everyone. We have a call from eclipse."

He said holding up his CCM.

Ami: " I'm sure it's Kirito."

Everyone gathered then around Jin...


Vanessa : " really! I don't remember any of that!"

Currently they changed to their dorms outfit as they gathered in the dinning hall. Since it was late, no one were there, so Muraku could talk freely about what happened.

Magna Orthus: " of course you won't, you were brainwashed."

He made both Vanessa and Mikhail jolt back for a second.

Mikhail : " I still didn't get to this talking LBX thing."

Vanessa: " it still startles me."

Muraku: " anyway, you should be fine now since the virus supposedly deleted."

Kageto: " but there are still more players with infected LBXs. Wouldn't the same thing happen again?"

Muraku: " mostly..."

Vanessa: " Muraku ! Let us lend you a hand!"

Mikhail : " we want to help. Now that we know of everything, we can't stand still, especially that we were victims."

Muraku inspected their eyes carefully and finally managed a soft smile.

Muraku: " I understand, and I'm thankful. But your LBXs are in a pretty bad shape."

Vanessa: " but..."

Magna Orthus: " I will be protecting Muraku-san, don't worry about him."

Mikhail gave the robot a scanning glance, still wondering if he should trust it.

Kageto: " fine with me."

Mikhail : " Kageto!"

Kageto: " there is a limit to what a mechanic can make with the resources he has. The same here, there is a limit to how much an LBX can fight. If those infected LBXs have no limit to their HP and EXP, then, you won't be able to stand a chance."

Mikhail and Vanessa looked down, but they snapped as Muraku placed his hands on their shoulders.

Muraku: " don't worry, I will protect our Second World, our school, our LBX, on your behalf as well."

The duo managed a smile at him.

Vanessa: " alright, we're depending on you, captain."

Mikhail : " we will leave it to you then."

Muraku nodded...


Kirito: " after going through the data for multiple times, I confirmed it. D Ezeldee had the L Virus installed in its main system."

Jin: " main system?"

Evangeline: " all the LBXs we fought had the virus installed in the memory card, while it's launched and manipulated by the CCM. This one is different. It doesn't need a CCM to work. It's more like an AI, set to be activated at a certain time."

Jin: " so the L Virus was installed in D Ezeldee since Seredy was in control?"

Kirito : " before even the new version of L Virus spread. More like the virus in D Ezeldee is a prototype."

Touko: " then it means this Seredy had been in contact with the developer of the L Virus."

Sakuya: " you said it was an AI? Did you know what's it's purpose?"

Arata: " can you know that?"

Takeru: " if you read the AI's algorithms, you will understand for what thing they were developed. That's if we speak about simple AIs."

Kirito: " which is the case here. This AI has one task to fullfil... Copying all the Data stored in the Grand Master."

Sakuya: " all of them?"

Touko: " but why?"

Kirito: " I don't know as well."

" Then allow me to explain."

Another video call appeared at both Jin and Kirito's ends, on the screen, a familiar old man appeared.

Arata: " it's you!"

Old man: " glad to see you too."

Sendou: " you know something about what's happening, right?"

Old man: " right."

Touko: " then do explain!"

Old man: " you remember about the project Evolution, right?"

Ran: " Project Evolution?"

Evangeline: " basically the whole plan of the main villain, claiming that it will be helping humans to evolve."

Old man: " in order to do that, what do you think he needs to determine what is needed and not?"

Kirito: " of course data."

Old man: " correct."

Arata: " what does it have to do with the Second World?"

Sakuya: " the Second World featured the war that many countries took place in. If anything, it can be the most important resource for him."

Takeru: " with all those data about fights, weapons, strategies..."

Old man: " true. At first, before Arata and the others defeated Seredy, Leviathan had the first L Virus Ever installed within his LBX, so he can copy and send all of the data to him. But since Seredy was defeated, and the second world was destroyed, he had to resort to another solution."

Kirito: " installing a virus in the New Grand Master so that he can gather data from the new Second World instead. After all, they almost continued with the same system as before, with the same imaginary war between countries."

Old man: " now Leviathan assumed that he gathered enough data, so he tried to recover them using D Ezeldee."

Sakuya: " but, why did it appear lately? Why not before?"

Takeru: " it was locked."

Everyone looked back at him.

Takeru: " all the LBXs of the World Savers had been disposed of, along D Ezeldee. There is no way it could have escaped the container in that shape, until someone opened it."

Haruki: " right, michanics usually use the broken parts of LBXs disposed of."

Hikaru: " so when someone opened the container, D Ezeldee came out and headed to the lost Area, then we stopped it."

Old man: " and that's when rampaging started. Instead of using a broken LBX, he decided to use other ones to get to the lost area. But you were trying to stop them."

Kagetora: " why didn't use our LBXs from the start?"

Old man: " to not attract attention. It was supposed to be a secret mission for Leviathan. But suddenly D Ezeldee started acting strangely, revealing itself."

Evangeline : " in order to get this."

She said holding a white strider armored LBX.

Jin: " Eva, that's..."

Evangeline : " the LBX D Ezeldee was after. I figured I may be able to find out something from borrowing it."

Kirito shifted his attention to the old man then.

Kirito: " old man, if we delete the virus in the Grand Master, Leviathan should be cut off it right? He won't be able to manipulate the Second World again."

The old man nodded.

Old man: " for that reason, I have a very special vaccine program for you."

He said and a whole bunch of codes appeared on Kirito's screen.

Old man: " I had someone work hard to create this vaccine. It's based on Kirito's, but more complete and can work on computers as well. "

Arata: " someone?"

Old man: " you will eventually meet him. Anyway, maybe I've forgot to tell you this before, but it wasn't just Minerva who chose players to help her out. Be ready to meet talking LBXs working for the enemy. Beware, and until we meet again, chosen players."

His glasses sparkled a little at that.

Sendou: " wait!"

But the video call ended.

Hiro : " talking LBXs of the enemy..."

Minerva: " this sounds bad."...


He finally came to the top of the hill, under the bright night sky, he smirked. His lolly pop was stuck to his mouth. His hand reached to it and held it up at the sky.

" Heh. It won't take so long until this world evolves to a better one. Right..."

The LBX on his shoulder had its eyes glimmering for a second.

" Leviathan will rule the world."...


Next Day...

Jin: " you will be going down there in person!?"

He asked the blond with a surprised look. Kirito merely nodded as he was typing something away on his tablette.

Kirito: " there are those gondola things, right. I will use one of them and head to the Grand Master. If there is another attack, all of you will have to fight them off."

Haruki: " but, with our number..."

Kirito: " I trust they can handle it. I will be taking Fenrir with me."

Evangeline: " be careful."

Kirito : " I will. We will head there early, so when the Second World activates, we will be right near the Lost Area."

Hiro: " we will catch up with you as soon as the second world activates."

Kirito nodded as he walked down the hallway.

Arata: " how does he know the way again?"

Twilight: " that's Kirito, he surely got to the system and memorized the map."

Jin: " Arata, you should go back with everyone. You can't fight this time."

Arata, Haruki, Hikaru, Kagetora and Suzune exchanged nods.

Kagetora: " Jin-san, we want to follow the battle on the observation room."

Jin had an eyebrow raised at that sudden statement.

Hikaru: " even if we can't fight..."

Vanessa: " we want to see what's happening down there!"

He looked at their faces one after the other before nodding.

Jin: " very well then."

Kageto: " I will be helping you with my craft carrier."

Muraku: " Kageto?"

Sakuya: " I asked him to do that. I have to finish something very important. So I won't be able to help you."

Arata: " just, what could be so important?"

Sakuya: " you will have to wait to know."

Muraku: " we have to get ready as well."

Momona: " we need our LBXs to be in their best shape before the fight."

They all nodded before they left to tune their units...


Author Note: I'm really sorry for the late update, I had troubles with the laptop. anyway, enjoy the two chapters guys OwO