Chapter 3
No Place Like Cyber Space
"Ouroboros, charge!", Noah roared. "Right!", Mio, Eunie, Taion, Lanz and Sena replied. The six valiantly leapt forward, clearly aiming to defend Colony 4. Lanz was the first to attack, slicing up one of the robotic soldiers with his greatsword, followed by Sena smashing another into the ground with her hammer. The robotic soldiers, not to be outdone by any means, unleashed an onslaught of dark red lasers which Noah expertly parried with his sword, followed by Mio deftly slashing and slicing the robots with her chakrams, aided by Eunie firing elemental lasers from her rod as valuable fire support. Right as one of the robots was about to do her in for good, Taion had his flying origami form an impregnable barrier around her, with the barrier itself then morphing into a white paper tornado that effortlessly tore apart the robots. "Thanks, Taion. Needed that.", Eunie said. The red portal suddenly glitched out even more, with a young girl with pink hair and pink eyes wearing black and dark red armour holding a more reasonably-sized greatsword rushed through. She was subsequently followed by a man with messy black hair and grey eyes wearing a black suit and a bird mask on his face, a black cartoon cat with blue eyes and white paws wearing a yellow neckerchief, a black hedgehog with with tanned arms and legs and a tanned muzzle with red eyes and red patches on his black quills wearing a pair of white gloves with golden rings and white shoes with a red trim and finally a woman with blonde hair tied into a bun with a small tuft spiking out and green eyes wearing a blue dress with white armour covering it holding a golden sword. Alphen reached for a sword of flame on his back, wielding it alongside the silver sword he was already wielding. "Now!", Noah thought, unleashing a blue wave of energy that decimated the last of the robotic soldiers as the red portal disappeared. "Is that all of them?!", the black hedgehog asked aggressively. "I think so, Shadow.", the cat said.
Putting both of his swords on his back, Alphen then turned his attention to the new arrivals. "Well then, who are you?", he asked. "I'm glad you asked. My name is Akira Kurusu, leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.", the man wearing the bird mask said with a deep and confident voice. Indicating the cartoon cat next to him, he said, "This is my pet cat Morgana.". "I'm not a cat! How many times must I tell you before you understand?!", Morgana responded angrily. "But you look just like one.", Eunie said. Looking at the black hedgehog, Akira gestured at him to introduce himself. "I'm Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog.", the black hedgehog said very aggressively. "Now, now, Shadow, no need to get unnecessarily aggressive when introducing yourself.", the blonde woman said. "I'm Lapis of the Kingdom of Brodia. Nice to meet you.", the pink-haired girl said. "Which leaves just me, then. Well then, my name is Artoria Pendragon.", the blonde-haired woman said. Looking around at the desert outside of the colony, Morgana asked, "Where are we, anyway?". "Ah, about that. Welcome to Colony 4, a desert colony in the Fornis Region.", Ethel replied. "Doesn't look very homely.", Shadow observed. "That's my fault. I failed to kill an enemy of mine, so they demoted my colony from Silver to Dirt. I don't regret sparing him though; his Ferronis had broken down and I felt that it wouldn't be right to kill him.", Ethel explained. "By the way, why did those robot soldiers come through anyway?", Taion asked. "Well, we had arrived on this strange island and saw these strange robot things. The island itself was this expanse of green with these incredibly ancient ruins- anyway, we saw these robots coming at us only for them to then disappear into this dark red and glitchy portal. We decided to give chase.", Artoria said. "So that's why they appeared in this world, huh?", Alphen said.
Meanwhile, in a vast expanse of ice and snow, a party of five warped in. Leading them was a man with dark brown hair with red eyes wearing a black hooded jacket, long black trousers and grey boots holding a katana. Accompanying him were a girl with hazel brown hair and purple eyes wearing a long black jacket with a red hood, a black shirt cut to expose her midriff, a black miniskirt and black boots with long black stockings; another girl with short purple hair and turquoise eyes wearing a black sailor outfit, black stockings, black shoes and a dark red hoodie; a burly man with light-brown hair and hazel eyes wearing a black armoured chassis and black trousers alongside black boots; and finally a considerably shorter boy with green hair and green eyes wearing a black shirt, a white tie, a grey vest, black shorts and black shoes with short black socks alongside a black hoodie. "Wait, this is where Hieno Mountain is, right?", the brown-haired girl asked. "It has to be.", the dark brown-haired man said. Suddenly, the five came across a petite girl with short light brown hair and blue eyes wearing a white hat, a white dress, a white choker with a blue jewel around her neck and blue shoes. "Who are you?", the dark brown-haired man asked. "I could say the same to you.", the light brown-haired girl asked cooly. "Anyway, my name is Yuito Sumeragi.", the dark brown-haired man said. "My name is Hanabi Ichijo.", the hazel-haired girl said energetically. "I-I'm Tsugumi Nazar.", the purple-haired girl said. "My name's Gemma Garrison.", the burly light brown-haired man said. "My name's Luka Travers.", the green-haired boy said. "My name is Blanc. I'm the leader of Lowee.", the girl with short light brown hair said.
Before they could talk further, yet another dark red portal appeared. "Damn Incursions!", Blanc shouted. Out of the portal came a man with dark brown hair and brown eyes with a shaggy beard (albeit neatly groomed into two ends) wearing a suit of dark green and grey armour and holding a longsword in his right hand and a shield. "And who the Hell are you?", Blanc asked. "My name is- well, my name was Blackwall. I am Thom Rainier of the Empire of Orlais, but you can just call me Blackwall if you want.", the man said. Just as suddenly as Blackwall's arrival was the arrival of yet another- a young woman with jaw length black hair and golden brown eyes wearing a blue hooded cloak with a blue dress underneath alongside a pair of blue stockings and black boots as well as brown fingerless gloves. "And who are you, child?", Blackwall asked the girl. "My name is Rinwell. I'm a member of the resistance group known as the Silver Swords. And I'm 18, thank you very much!", the girl said. After a short awkward pause, Rinwell asked, "So, what brings you to Cyslodia?". "Rinwell, we're looking for a place known as Hieno Mountain. It's the location for this cult that worships the Moon called Togetsu. Do you know where it is?", Hanabi asked. "Oh, you mean the strange mountain that arrived outside of Cysloden, right?", Rinwell replied. "Wait, what do you mean?", Yuito asked. "Well, ever since the Convergence, several worlds were beginning to merge, but this is a false reality. Since Cyber Space was used as the cradle for the fused world, the fusion is notably quite…unstable. Not only that but the Chaos Emeralds also disappeared from the "real" world and retreated into Cyber Space for some reason even I don't know. Of course, some locations have fused together in ways that make sense, but otherwise there are notable geographical anomalies.", Rinwell explained. "And these anomalies are like…?", Blackwall asked. "Well, take this country, Cyslodia for example. There are indeed very logical fusions here, like Valak Mountain, Hebra Mountain and this Hieno Mountain you're searching for. But there are also places like IceCap that was originally from the floating Angel Island alongside parts of Tantal. And don't get me started on the Gerudo Highlands. It's almost like someone is actively trying to fuse all the worlds together into one so they can properly rule it and destroying them in the process.", Rinwell continued.
Before Rinwell could continue talking, however, another dark portal appeared. "Again?! Fucking again?!", Blanc shouted, clearly exasperated. Out of this portal, though, came a man with bushy brown hair and dark brown eyes wearing a red shirt and black trousers with dark silver boots and a tattered white cape. Following him was a young girl with long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes wearing a white shirt and a green plaid skirt and a yellow jumper over the shirt with brown shoes and long black socks. She was holding two ninja swords, one slightly smaller than the other. "So who are you, then?", Hanabi asked. "My name's Clive Rosfield of the Grand Duchy of Rosaria. Nice to meet you.", the brown-haired man said. "Any my name's Asuka. I'm a student of Hanzo National Academy.", the girl next to him said. Soon after Clive and Asuka introduced themselves, the group was suddenly teleported to Colony 4. "Seems the Space Bridge worked.", Ethel said. Looking around, Rinwell noticed Alphen, quickly rushing to him. The two tenderly embraced. "Know each other?", Shadow curtly asked. "Do we know each other? We were on a mission to dismantle the Renan Empire.", Alphen explained. "Indeed, the reason we were separated was due to these strange dimensional storms no thanks to the unstable world fusion.", Rinwell said. "Now I think about it, I did notice some geographical anomalies. I knew that something was wrong and that the world we were in was unnatural.", Taion chimed in. "And you kept it from us because-?", Lanz asked. "Well, I didn't say because I didn't know what was causing these dimensional anomalies. Now I'm certain that the unstable fusion was the cause of these strange anomalies like Gerudo Desert in the Fornis Region and Green Hill Zone in the Aetia Region.", Taion explained.
All of a sudden, the now larger group then found themselves in Garreg Mach Monastery. "Wait, so Space Bridge technology is also present in Fodlan? If so, then that's a certain miracle.", Luka said. "Anyway, Taion, there's something I need to explain to you about the fusion. Yes, it's true that there are geographical anomalies and that the fusion is stressing Cyber Space to the brink of collapse, but you're wrong about how the fusion happened specifically.", Rinwell said. "What are you talking about? What am I wrong about?", Taion asked. "Well, come with me and I'll explain.", Rinwell said. As the two walked off, Tsugumi promptly made her way to the monastery's audience chamber. There, she saw a woman with long mint green hair and matching mint green eyes wearing a long white dress with an opening in the chest to show off her cleavage. Curtseying, Tsugumi said, "Your Majesty Queen Rhea.". Rhea calmly walked over to Tsugumi and gently ruffled her hair. "So, did you notice something about Blanc and the Ouroboros?", she asked with a deep and sultry voice. "I did, Your Majesty. I noticed something dark within them. Something…sinister. No, maybe sinister's not quite the right word, but still something quite dark and vile, something crimson and blood red within their very souls, as if they committed a very grave sin. Something that is beyond all hope of redemption.", Tsugumi replied. "Still, to think that they can freeze worlds in time and prevent seconds, minutes and hours from flowing, let alone days, is quite terrifying.", Rhea said. Before they could talk further, a young girl with white hair tied up in a braided pigtail on her left side and golden eyes wearing a pink qipao and dark plum stockings rushed in. "Why are you in such a hurry, Framme?", Rhea asked the girl. "I-I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but Garreg Mach is under attack by these strange otherworldly automatons!", Framme said. "This is a serious matter indeed.", Rhea said.
Rushing out into the garden, Yuito grabbed a glimpse at Chrom, Sumia, a black man with spiky blonde hair that was strangely spiking backwards holding a mighty silver axe and wearing a leather outfit consisting of a leather breastplate, a pair of black trousers, brown gloves and brown boots; a woman with long red hair (as in waist length) and red eyes wearing a suit of white armour with red designs, white gauntlets and long red boots holding a naginata; a man with short spiky brown hair and brown eyes wearing blue samurai armour holding a katana; a man with shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes wearing white and red samurai armour wielding a white and golden katana pulsating with lightning and a man with considerably neater brown hair and brown eyes wearing a suit of gilded knight armour wielding another lance. "Seems we've got out work cut out for us, huh, Captain?", Sumia said to Chrom. "Still though, we will win this. I'm sure of that.", Chrom said. Turning to face the red-haired woman, Chrom said, "What do you make of it, Cordelia?". "Well, Captain,", Cordelia said, "it seems like we're looking at a giant metal crayfish with strangely flexible spines and tendrils like those you'd see on a squid. It also seems to be emitting a purple stream of energy.". Turning to the short spiky brown-haired man, Chrom said, "Don't try to make this a competition, Lon'qu. We don't need to overexert ourselves before searching for the Chaos Emeralds to get ourselves out of Cyber Space.". "Don't you worry, Captain. I'll simply defeat the foes in front of us and move on, no competition required.", Lon'qu replied. Now facing the black man with the spiky blonde hair, Chrom asked, "You think we can get enough experience from that thing to Class Change to Tier 2, Vaike?". "Well, Chrom, if there's anything the Vaike knows, it's that he's able to reach Tier 3! It's all a matter of power.", Vaike replied. Looking at the brown-haired man in the white and red samurai armour, Sumia said, "It's good you're able to help us, Ryoma. But isn't Hoshido left undefended because of this?". "Never you mind. Hoshido has excellent protection anyway in my brother Takumi and my sister Hinoka. I am confident that they can protect alongside their retainers and mine.", Ryoma replied. Approaching the knight in golden armour, Sumia said, "So, Valbar, do you know of the plan?". "We defeat this squid and whatever else comes to defend Garreg Mach.", Valbar replied.
As the plan to defend Garreg Mach from the Starfall Islands' invading Guardians progressed, Rinwell and Taion entered an unused classroom and sat down.
The story continues in the next chapter.
