Blair's team made their way deep through the forest. The Ram Village team was completely unaware of the happenings at the Temple. They currently had no idea that their crew and the Eclipse Ark were clashing in the temple. As it turns out, the area near Ram Village had terrible reception. The group was just watching as Blair took down the large creature they came to find, like it was second nature. "There."
"...Whoa." Rebecca blinked a few times. Blair took it down without any trouble! They didn't even need to, or had the chance to help!
"She did that all without her powers, too..." Kleene pointed out. The creature was several times Blair's size, but she was capable of defeating and killing it instantly.
"It's not that hard." Blair said while dragging the creature along. This was the one thing her shift into a Therion did allow her to do. "Big creatures like this have a wide range. It's like when we fought the Crimson Dragon. If you're faster, you can use your size and speed to overwhelm it. Go for the legs."
"Go for the legs, huh?" Rebecca repeated, shifting her weight a bit.
"The legs are any creature's strongest and weakest point. You should know that." Blair said while walking past Rebecca. "Which reminds me. What's the point in wearing heels if you're gonna throw them off to fight?"
"I asked this too." Happy spoke up.
"I still like wearing them!" Rebecca huffed.
"Come on, guys." Cynthia tried to get everyone's attention. "We have to head back and cook this bad boy, right?"
"How do you intend to cook it...?" Laguna questioned. Blair clearly knew something that they didn't.
"Don't worry, I got it covered." Blair said with another smile that surprised everyone.
"Did we even need to come?" Rebecca also asked. Blair handled the whole thing by herself!
"Yeah. Now that this guy is dead, there are going to be others attacking us in revenge." Blair replied, leaving this information out until the last second. "So I need you guys to fend them off for me while I carry it."
"Why is that?" Pino asked calmly, while the others wore comical expressions of shock.
"Well, normally I'd kill the thing, and have others in the village carry it for me while I fended the creatures off. But that'll gall to you guys now." Blair said casually.
"You could've told us this first!" Rebecca exclaimed.
"The people of the village really depend on you, don't they?" Kleene asked, hands behind her back. "I think that's nice."
"Mmm..." Blair nodded slowly. "I really thought I'd lost everything two years ago. But it's here..." She trailed off while they walked. She was thinking...
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Ano was scared stiff at the sudden appearance of Marshall on the ship. "H-How did you...!?" That was the first thing he wanted to ask. He made sure the Eclipse Ark had fantastic security, but this stranger was standing here despite all of that!
"Oh, of course that's the first question you ask." Marshall shrugged. "You should've seen us coming, right? Yeah, we get that all the time. But it's hard to see us coming when we're already here."
"W-What...?" Ano didn't understand at first. But numerous things Marshall just told him didn't sound good. "We...? Already here...!?" And then it clicked. This was a trap! Ano immediately whipped around to his communication, but before he had the chance... "Gu-!"
Marshall gripped Ano by the back of his shirt, throwing him back to the floor. "Oh no, you don't want to do that. I'll actually have to kill you if you call for help. We don't have the time to waste either."
Ano hit the ground hard, grunting from Marshall's strength. He looked up at the towering man in front of him and grit his teeth. "I don't know who you are, but you're not going to walk in on this ship and act like you own it! Code 005 - Copy!" In a flash of light, he accessed the data of Arsenal and donned the outfit. Hoping to catch Marshall off guard, he burst from his position from the ground with flames igniting around his fist. "Heat Upper!" He slammed his blazing fist into Marshall's chin, causing the man to fly back and crash into the nearest wall. "Don't underestimate me!"
There was a cloud of dust around Marshall, who remained still after that impact. Ano had the false sense of security that he managed to one hit KO the trespasser, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Marshall stood back up, rubbing his chin and taking note of the bruise on his chin. He scoffed. "Is that your best?" Marshall said while drawing his sword. He didn't even look down, but he smashed several snakes attempting to bite down on his ankles.
"...Shit..." Ano cursed under his breath. "This suit has really bad ether economy. Dancing around this guy isn't going to do anything..." Fighting wasn't his strong suit either, so Ano pushed off and reared his arm back. "Mortar Crash!" He slammed his palm into Marshall's chest, where a massive explosion took place. He was damaging the ship a little bit, but it had to be done to fight back against this intruder.
Before the smoke of the explosion could even clear, Marshall latch onto Ano's arm, grinning despite the burns and bruises on his body. "I told ya to play nice! But you didn't listen!" Marshall used his free hand to slash Ano with his blade, completely shattering the copied Arsenal armor, and knocking Ano into an opposing wall. The hacker was defeated in a single shot from Marshall's overwhelming might. "...Shit, I was supposed to have him tell me where the Shard was here. Ah well, I can find it on my own." Shrugging, Marshall just left Ano on the ground and proceeded deeper into the ship.
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Percival lifted her hand up, commanding multiple vines to rise up in front of her. With a flick of her wrist, these vines then came crashing down towards Weisz with the intention of crushing him. "I'm not gonna hold back anymore."
"Neither am I!" Weisz said while evading the vines. He quickly realized that Percival wasn't really trying to attack him, but more like keep him at bay. This was a sudden shift in her tactics compared to a few moments ago.
"Ano knows how bad your suit's ether economy is. I dunno why I was actually trying to fight you, when I just have to stall you out. Once you run out of Ether, I can kick you in the head, knock you out, and call it a day." Percival still sounded lazy, but her voice also had a firmness to it as well. She was committing to this idea.
"You know, for someone so lazy, you're actually pretty sharp!" Weisz was glad he had his helmet, because the last thing he wanted was for his opponent to see how much he was sweating.
"Being lazy is all about doing the least amount of work possible." And being efficient at that. Percival was feeling proud of herself for her plan. She was succeeding at keeping Weisz at bay, too. All she had to do was keep this up for a few minutes and she'd win!
Weisz wasn't going to make it so easy for her! He was maneuvering through the vines while waiting for an opening, and he spotted one! He quickly pointed one hand forward. "Vice Cannon!" A beam of ether slipped through the openings of the assault of vines, striking Percival in the shoulder as a result!
"Ow!" Percival hissed, not having expected Weisz to nail that shot! She instinctively gripped her shoulder, hissing from the pain. She took her eyes off Weisz for a second, which gave him another opening.
Weisz spun around through the vines, wings appearing on the back of his shoulders. "Wing Blade!" With his momentum and speed, he slammed right into Percival's chest for a direct hit, knocking her back and sending her rolling across the ground.
"Agh...!" Percival coughed, landing on her stomach after such a heavy blow. Weisz wasn't going to give her any time to breathe and planned on going for a finishing blow! But Percival dug her hands into the dirt, and when he got close... "Ivy Cudgel!" She whipped her arm forward, pulling out a thick vine from the ground in the process. This thick vine slammed into Weisz's body, colliding against his armor and sent him flying back! The right half of his Arsenal armor was shattered from the hit, while the rest of it took heavy damage.
"Damn!" Weisz cursed, really feeling the impact of that one. "You're one tough lady...!"
"Yeah, well..." Percival was going to try and say more, but...she was finding it really hard to stand up. That Wing Blade really messed her up.
Weisz, however, was the one still standing. He was panting heavily, but it was clear that at this rate, he would be the winner of this encounter. "I think you should give up now. I don't really want to fight or hurt you, but you're not giving me much of a choice here, you know."
"No way..." Percival shook her head, doing her best to force herself onto her feet, despite her stance. "My captain entrusted me with a job. I'm not just gonna roll over and quit because it got hard. I'm lazy, but I'm sure as hell not a quitter." She kept that Ivy Cudgel in her hand, glaring at Weisz. "If you want me to stop, you're gonna have to make me."
Weisz had to respect her tenacity. If the situation was reversed, he'd be doing his hardest for his captain and his crew. "Fine. Out of respect, I'll give you a proper defeat..." The two rushed at each other to finish this bout once and for all, and just before they were about to swing, it happened. Mysterious soldiers jumped at them from behind, so they turned and struck them down instead. The instant they turned around, they saw they were surrounded by a number of Galactic Fleet soldiers. "What the!?"
"Who are these guys...!?" Percival and Weisz were suddenly standing back to back with each other.
"We are the Galactic Fleet!" One of the soldiers said.
"We're here for the Black Moon Shard!" Another one exclaimed.
"Galactic Fleet...?" Percival titled her head. "You got any idea who these clowns are?"
"The Galactic Fleet...?" It took Weisz a second to recall where he heard that name. And then it hit him: this was the group that attacked Blue Garden! They already had two of the Black Moon Star Shards, and they were here on Mercurius as well!? But for how long!? "What the hell!? This is bad! Hermit! Hermit, can you hear me!"
"Ano!" Percival decided to do the same thing, but there was no response on either end. "He's not responding!"
"Neither is Hermit! Shit!" Weisz cursed. This was a trap!
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"Weisz? Shiki? Geno? Blair?" Hermit was trying to get in contact with the others, but for some reason, their communication line wasn't working.
"What's going on?" Sister asked with a bit of an irritated expression.
Hermit didn't look back at Sister, she was too focused on trying to work on something. "The comm lines are jammed for some reason! I can't detect where the interfere is coming from." But there was something even more pressing. An alarm started to blare out from the ship, and it was a terrifying one. "Oh no..."
"You're kidding me..." Sister didn't like where this was going. "A Chronophage is approaching Mercurius!? Why now!?" The Chronophage radar was blaring loudly. Estimated time until arrival: 70 minutes.
"This is bad. We can't contact the others and tell them!" Hermit scowled. At this point, she was hoping Mercurius had some sort of Chronophage alarm like everywhere else did. "Oh! Wait..." Hermit did realize there WAS a way to contact the others! That device Geno left her should do the trick. She was about to reach for it when...
"A Chronophage...yes, we knew about that. But that will be the least of your problems right now." That voice belonged to Hubert Ozwell, who casually approached the two androids while adjusting his glasses.
"What the hell!? How'd you get here!?" Sister pointed at Hubert, immediately entering a battle stance along with Hermit.
"Our ship's security should've caught you." Hermit stated.
"A trifle to get through." Hubert replied calmly. "What you've failed to realize, is that your ship hasn't been able to detect us this whole time. Do you think I just came out of the blue? No. We've been waiting for the other two shards of the Black Moon to arrive here, on this final planet."
"So this was a trap!?" Sister grunted.
"Had you arrived here first, there would be no trap to be sprung. But we've been here and waiting for a while now." Hubert said as his runeblade appeared in his hand. "But luckily for us, you and the Eclipse Ark arrived within an hour of each other. This gives us plenty of time to obtain the Shards you have and take the one on Mercurius before the Chronophage arrives. So, I will ask just this one: hand the shard over, or you will face the consequences."
.
.
Shiki rushed to the lowest floor of the Temple of the Ancients. That's where he saw Casey with his back turned, staring at the final known shard of the Black Moon Star. "Casey!" Shiki called out to Casey, only to immediately be pushed back by a barrier. "Huh?"
"Not that I don't have faith in my crew, but I had a feeling you'd make it down here. I wouldn't be able to make a clean getaway as long as you exist." Casey said while slowly turning around to face Shiki. "A Galactica."
"What do you need the Shard for, Casey?" Shiki had to ask.
"To get back what I lost." Casey said calmly. "Mother can bring back my planet that was lost to time. All I have to do is collect the Black Moon Star so it can lead me to Mother. My crew have been very helpful. I wouldn't have made it this far without them, and they're continuing to help me even knowing this is a purely selfish request. They're good friends."
"...We don't have to fight." Shiki realized this. "We want to use the Black Moon...well, we just want to stop it from being used in general, by bad people like Ziggy. If you lend us your power, we can..."
"...I don't care about this war you have going on with Ziggy and his androids." Casey said coldly. "The only thing that matters to me is my planet. I've already committed to doing whatever I need to in order to bring it back. Even if that means fighting the spawn of the Demon King. There won't be anything that stops me from saving the people I've lost! You're fighting your battle, so keep me out of it. I just want your Shard, and we can go our separate ways."
Shiki clenched his hand into a fist. Casey had no intentions of working with him. He punched the barrier with a gravity infused fist and shattered it. "We have to work together, Casey! There's another group out there collecting the Black Moon Star Shard! They tore through a planet's defense gate and even terrorized Blue Garden to get it!"
"So you worry they'll come for us at that point? Then we'll take care of it." Casey turned to Shiki and thrust his arm out, sending a burst of gravity in Shiki's direction. Shiki crossed his arms and slid back from the impact. "We knew there was no getting off of this planet without a fight. Luckily, you were the first ones to arrive. So after we defeat the Eden's Zero, we'll have three shards in our grasp. That's more than enough to deal with this third party. We don't need your help!" And then Casey swiped his hand to the side, sending a burst of lightning towards Shiki.
Shiki grit his teeth. Looks like Casey already had a plan on how to defend himself, so fighting was just the only option. With his gravity, he shifted to the side, and then fell forward with a fist drawn back. "I don't want to do this, but you're leaving me no choice! Gravity Fist!"
"Gravity God's Heavy Smash!" With ether copied from G, Casey allowed gravity to swirl around his fist, and he clashed with Shiki's own. A shockwave boomed out, nearly shaking the temple to its core. The two slid back from the impact. "Get out of my way, Demon King! Go back to your battle against Ziggy and leave the Black Moon to my crew!" His motives were true and honest, but...
"I can't do that. If the Galactic Fleet attacks you...they'll have three shards." Shiki couldn't accept that. The Galactic Fleet, from what he heard, was already more than willing to do plenty of heinous crimes and actions to get what they wanted.
"Don't try to be a hero." Casey snarled. Before he could attack again, the Black Moon Star shard behind him vanished. "What!?"
"Huh!?" Shiki gasped.
Alexei Alexandrite's slow footsteps from a dark corner of the basement echoed. In his hand, the Black Moon Star shard Casey and Shiki were fighting over. "That makes three. And with the captains of the Eden's Zero and Eclipse Ark right here before me...soon, the Black Moon Star will be recompleted."