Chapter/Tale 7: Fractured Conflicts End: Act 6

Author's Note Intro:

Sorry for the wait, everyone! Since it's been a few months, I'll make this short- PLEASE read the notes at the end of the chapter before you move on and go back to doing… whatever it was you were doing. It's very crucial; everything you need to know will be at the end of this chapter. That's all, so please jump in.

Knaiva's POV: The End is only the Beginning

"…And as you can see, that's exactly what took place up until now," Spectra has reached the end of her story, beguiling and worrying the citizens listening. "If it wasn't for Taranza here and his friends, I wouldn't be here right now."

"So that's what happened… holy crap…!" One bystander commented, distraught.

"Dark Matter? That sure makes a hell a lot more sense considering what happened those years…"

"Still, who would've ever imagined those same entities would strike back at us again?"

"Dunno about any of ya, but I'd call that a bloody miracle that we were kept in the dark about this."

"Well, when you put it that way…"

"It doesn't matter, her cronies tried to put our asses in a snow grave earlier! Why should we believe her?"

"Yeah, not to mention the poor girls who were brutally beaten as well by their hands as well as the ones who've just bested them in battle a while ago! I doubt they'd side with the Queen after that!"

That last comment stirred some collective agreements, and understandably, the reactions were as expected. The visible images of distrust and uncertainty were drawn upon everybody's faces, and murmurs were beginning to escalate. I could take note of the queen's calm yet worried tone of expression upon the crowd's reaction.

Meanwhile, the party who were with Taranza came over to our side. Glancing around at the crowd, Kirby let out an uncertain sigh. "I guess that's to be expected."

"Good luck trying to win everyone over at this point," Marx commented. "Whatever chance of doing so has just been shattered thanks to those three trigger happy stooges."

"Don't be so negative, Marx," refuted Magolor. "You do have a point, but perhaps we could shift things to her favor now that we know she's not our enemy?"

"Well, just leave that to me," declared Kazela confidently, leaving us confused and possibly in expectation of her next beguiling move, lancing towards the Zenoxia Warriors. "They may not want to listen to her, but they certainly will once I step in."

"Hold on for a moment," Bandana Dee demanded. "Just what do you plan on doing exactly?"

The young princess lets out an innocent smile. "You'll see."

The three elite warriors noticed Kazela near them, only one of them recognizing her at once. It wasn't long before everyone started to notice her conversing with the elites. "What the-? It's you…" Celsius recalled, fuming in embarrassment from earlier events.

"Are you familiar with this young girl, Celsius?" Teyren nudged.

"She's more like a parasite that travels with those diseases over there," Celsius answers.

"You wanna say that again, sugartits?!" Marx shouted in the background.

"Hiya, Godbeast. It's been a while," Kazela giggled with a cheeky and smug smile. "Mind if I give you a hand?"

Celsius blushingly frowned, shielding her chest from her. "What, so you can fondle and humiliate me even more like last time? Do you have to touch every pair you see?"

"Yeah, only because I want to have a curvy figure of my own when I'm older and get a boyfriend as well. Research purposes if you will. But that aside, your actions have made the denizens lose their hope in your queen, and they're thinking that she can't be trusted. You three don't want that, do you?" Kazela responded, her voice echoing a sense of power for some reason. "I'm sure you had reasons for your actions, but did you not consider the consequences they were going to imprint in the end?"

"Did you not consider how ridiculous this is, us having this conversation with a little girl like you?" Celsius shook her head. "Talk about degrading. Come on, you guys. Say something."

"Of course," Rushguarde chimed in. "It is degrading, indeed… especially if a young lady such as yourself would inform us of our shortcomings. And for that, no amount of apologies would ever make it up for what we've done. I'm truly sorry."

The crowd sweatdropped and gasped, unsure of how to process this sudden reaction from the accused.

"Seriously, Alzen?! What happened to the balls you had earlier?! Did you seriously cut them off or what?!" Celsius growled, sweatdropping all the while.

"Guess there's no point in keeping this act up for any longer," The chancellor at once joined Rushguarde in the apology. "I can't ask for your forgiveness, but I also do apologize as well."

"What the hell, Teyren?!"

"Silence, Celsius!" Teyren demanded. "It takes a real man to admit when he's wrong. After all, I knew there was a major possibility that we would not be able to hide the truth from the people at some mark though this plan. If anyone were to discover this before we could completely abolish the problem too early, that would spell disaster. Did you really think that we could keep this secret forever, Celsius? That was something that would be discovered eventually, even if the Star Allies didn't interfere."

"…what? O-of course I-I knew that! It's just that I didn't expect things to turn out like this, in the most humiliating way possible, to boot! Otherwise, I would've yielded! But not to a little girl like her and her band of psycho allies!"

"Well, that's not untrue…" Marx admitted, sweatdropping. "For some of us, that is."

"You might as well grow a pair and give up, Celsius," They demanded of her. "You only making her Highness look worse than she already is; I doubt they'll believe us anymore."

"What do you mean? They'll believe you, chancellor!" Kazela declared. "Just tell them that an even deadlier disaster caused by Dark Matter is approaching."

This caught everyone's attention, reigniting the trauma that they've dealt with ever since the incident that jumpstarted this whole mess.

"W-what the-?! How… how are you aware of this?!" Celsius demanded, taken aback along with the others.

"It's like Teyren said, the truth was going to be discovered eventually. By the way, for us, we just put two and two together to make four. We don't have all the details, but you were trying to prevent this deadlier disaster from rising, aren't you?" Kazela deducted. "Or is it just an excuse for hurting others for the sake of it?"

The crowd was taken aback by the genius of that little girl, now glaring at the three individuals in question, awaiting an answer. Even Queen Spectralinae was surprised but kept her calm air still.

Celsius could only stutter and fumble over her words before she could force a complete sentence out of herself. "You… how did you…?! Just who are you to figure that out?!"

Teyren and Rushguarde, although had the same reaction, also kept a calm composure, putting the pieces together as for her identity.

"What an amazing deduction, young lady," Teyren confessed. "And you've hit all the marks as well. I may come off a bit imposing, but your presence seems to resemble that of the Queen and current Regal Princess of Crystal Star- would it be that you're connected to them somehow?"

"Even better," Kazela giggled. "I am connected to them- by blood, that is, so your suspicions are confirmed!"

"SAY WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!" The bystanders went wild with beguilement.

"OH DAMN!"

"BUT DIDN'T SHE WENT MISSING SOME YEARS AGO?!"

"AND DOESN'T SHE LOOK DIFFERENT THAN WHAT THE PHOTOS SHOWED BEFORE?! I MEAN, HER KIND ARE SOMETHING LIKE A HUMAN, BUT STILL-!"

"WHO CARES?! SHE'S ALIVE, THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS!"

"EH?! YOU'RE THE LOST PRINCESS OF CRYSTAL STAR?!" Celsius gasped, fuming with shock and embarrassment. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?! I HAD MY BOOBS GROPED BY A LITTLE GIRL WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE THE PRINCESS'S YOUNGER SISTER THIS WHOLE TIME?! KILL ME NOW!"

"No need to get excited everyone. Long story short, I survived, lost my memories and was rescued by Big Bro Kirby! Ask anyone in the group later about it, because if you believe who I really am, then surely you won't mind if I ask you to hear out Queen Spectralinae, won't you?" Kazela pleaded innocently to the crowd. "Ignore what her servants did, focus on why they did it in the first place. After all, don't you want to know what this impending danger is?"

"…well, that's… um," Some in the crowd hesitate to respond.

"I believe you might get yourselves in trouble if you don't learn how you should respond to this threat that's running amok," Kazela reasoned. "Trust me, that's the last thing the queen would want, which is why they were doing everything in the power to make sure that didn't happen. And of course, she would definitely had done something if it wasn't for the "illness" she's having right now."

"What?! An illness?! You're kidding!"

"More interested now?" Kazela questions the masses before her, then points straight at Queen Spectralinae. "Unfortunately, I only have the edges of the paper on this situation, so won't you guys hear her out a little bit more? Please?"

The princess gazed at the audience with innocent, adorable eyes, somehow managing to win over an entire crowd at once. "Aw, I want to say no, but those eyes! It's like she's staring right through my tainted, very "cultured" soul!"

"Same here! After all, it's Kailaine's little sister who's vouching for her Highness; I mean, if it's coming from her, then that's more than enough reason to take the queen's word, don't ya think?!"

"Yeah, I agree!"

"Aw, thank you, sweetheart," Spectralinae expressed her gratitude towards the young princess. Her reply was with two fingers.

The main cast were puzzled and baffled at the sudden turn of events that was switched over by Kazela alone. Can you imagine a stubborn and doubtful crowd suddenly becomes receptive at the show and whim of a young girl? I doubt it, but I'm one to talk.

"Oh, so that's what she was up to," Kirby said. "She used her title as princess to win over their trust to hand over to the queen."

"Damn, for a shorty like her, she sure is clever in that sense," Dedede commented. "She'll grow up to be one hell of a woman, that's without a doubt."

"Agreed," The others replied.

"That said," Gryll paves the road back into the original topic. "I'm more curious about the "storm that is approaching" very soon, y'know; I mean the threat that she speaks of. Mind telling us what that's all about?"

At that, the crowd gave up their liveliness in order to give the queen their now undivided attention. The queen softly smiles, perhaps in relief, before she speaks. "Ah, that's right. I do owe you all an explanation for all of that. Do you all recall the Everlasting Hail incident, everyone?"

The crowd responded with a yes.

"In that case, allow me to explain. It was a few years after we had evacuated all of the children in the world whereas the rest of you adults and elderly remained. I can assure you that your children are safe on the neighboring planets; I'm sure the Star Allies could confirm with you on that should they recognize them. Speaking of them, the real reason why we were able to move back onto the surface was because there was footage of at least five of them crossing the cold terrain with no problems whatsoever. If it wasn't for them, none of this would be possible."

The crowd glanced at us with sighs of relief, perhaps hopeful that they might be able to see their children again, maybe all grown up. They quieted down for that moment to continue listening to the queen.

"With that, we also made plans to also undo the eternal winter curse caused by the collapse of the Clockwork Star, a countermeasure known as the Re: Genesis Project- the very same project originally in development at the Factory. It was going well… until some unexpected circumstances took place."

"Unexpected circumstances? Is it something to do with this threat you were talking about?"

The queen nods. "That's right. After some time, we discovered an anomaly during the project's construction, and initially, we had no idea what it was supposed to be or how it came to be. What we did know, however, is that in time, it would eventually pose itself to be a major threat to the entire planet as a whole. I'm not aware of all the details, but it did attempt to cause a massacre before. Do you all recall the reason for the manhunt, everyone?"

The crowd quickly answered, already knowing the answer to that question. "Of course, wasn't it because of the Elejewel being stolen by four of the Star Allies, specifically the psychos of the group?"

"Once again, that's not untrue," Marx admitted, receiving a smack upside the head by Magolor. "Bro, what the freak, man?"

"That's correct. However, the ironic part is that their actions have actually saved our lives. One of them swallowed the jewel, knowing that unstable energy was about to release a dangerous energy that would slaughter those within range first and then make its way to corrupt the rest of the world as well," Queen Spectralinae admitted, then points to Gooey as she said this.

"In his case, you may have thought of him as a brainless fool for doing such a thing if I never mentioned this before. Regardless, I'm a bit short on details, but this boy managed to stop the anomaly's advances by absorbing the unstable energy within himself when he swallowed the jewel. Whether it was instinct or just for the sake of it, the fact is that he managed to save our lives with that single act of recklessness, stopping the anomaly in its tracks."

The crowd was astonished and flabbergasted, glancing at the blue-haired boy, who didn't mind the stares since he was asking someone what time it was, regardless of the public clock in sight.

"Hold on, everyone. There's still more to this," announced the queen. "Although he managed to perform such a feat, it seems that wasn't enough to subdue this anomaly. And to make matters worse for the global bounty hunt for the jewel, we've discovered that it was a major key in fully putting down this unknown threat. I imagine you all can piece things together from here on out."

"Oh shit…" Marx muttered. "We screwed up. Like, really bad." The crowd also came to terms with that conclusion as worry and dread eventually started to arise.

"That being said, however," continued the queen. "During the chase after these four, we have managed to perfect a solution to stopping this anomaly through the use of the Re: Genesis Project and speaking of which… we haven't displayed this to the public yet, but I suppose this time is as good as any. Teyren, would you?" She gestures over to the chancellor to make a specific action, which he hesitates at first, but eventually submits to her request.

"A-as you wish, your highness," Teyren complies, pushing a button in his hand that triggered the mechanism of something. A loud rumbling shook the ground everyone stood at, possibly causing some to almost lose their balance.

"Whoa, what's going on?!" I shouted, quickly being pulled in by Marxanae, who cuddles me against her chest.

"It's fine, sweetie. Big sis is here," She replies.

"That's not what I meant. Over there at the center!" I pointed, turning red at the same time.

Just as I pointed, in the center of the square where we just fought earlier, the vortex began to open up and swirl outwards, giving rise to a strange contraption. A sizeable, mercury-silver beacon with four arcs holding a massive prism in a set point in midair and vacant orb and a large square base with one side occupied with a panel of buttons. This sight marveled the masses present to see this in person today.

"Spectra, is that…?" Taranza asked her.

"That's right," announced the queen. "This contraption of a beacon is the "Re: Genesis Project" that we kept talking about. It may not look like much, but that's because we have yet to implement its full potential since we didn't have the Void Jewel with us back then. But now that we're at this point, I doubt there's any need for you all to worry about the anomaly anymore. Using this will allow us to permanently vanquish the anomaly as well as undo the undying winter that plagued this planet for years for good."

At this, the crowd echoed a hopeful tone at this promise. "You mean, we can finally see the end of this hellish winter?! God isn't dead after all! He was waiting for the right time!"

"At last, I can finally see my daughter again!" A woman cried tears of joy.

"I wonder how my son's doing. I sure hope I haven't aged enough for him not to recognize me!" Another man sighed in relief in sight of the future.

"My boy better be winning these past long years, if you know what I mean." Yet another man boasted. "He takes after me, y'know."

"Well, wouldja look at that? Looks like there's still hope after all for this rundown planet." I'd recognize that voice anywhere. It was Luke, accompanied by Feena and the rest of the crew that were still onboard the Starshine as well as the other six elemental princesses.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay, everyone!" Feena lunges at me with a hug. "I almost thought you weren't going to make it after that battle!"

"We're glad that you two are okay as well," Gryll smiled. "I'm just glad to have at least lived to tell the tale, honestly."

"Same goes for me as well," added Pandora.

"And it seems that all of this conflict this planet has gone through will be resolved in a matter of moments as well," Vanja announced. "Seems that I was getting worried for nothing, I suppose- hm?"

It seems that Vanja took notice of Pandora as she mentioned that sentence, observing the Zero Knight's presence and presentation as well.

"Something wrong?" Pandora asked, ironically doing the same as Vanja.

"Ah, you must be Pandora, are you not?" The dragon princess complimented. "Little Knaiva here was talking nonstop about you as well as the other two with you out of concern. Normally you'd be our enemy, but this kid here vouched for you every moment he had. Also, you have a lovely pair as well."

"Oh, stop it, you," Pandora blushed, cross her hands over her racks as to where her heart should be, I think. "I'm not that lovely compared to you, yet you consider me a friend than an enemy. Besides, I think your pairs are much more refined than mine."

"Bullshit," Both Marxanae and Gryll coughed. "You're sexy and you know it, girl!"

"I mean, this is the first I've heard that from someone who's supposed to be my enemy!" The Zero Knight stuttered frantically. "Technically, I have no desire to fight any of you, but I can't exactly disobey my master…!"

"Well, let's just leave it at the fact that it was Knaiva who vouched for you," Vanja drops down to my level and elegantly presses her lips against my right cheek. "Isn't he just a sweetheart? Makes you wanna eat him up! Well, I can't eat him because I'm already planning to have my darling Magolor eat me after I've allowed him to ascend bases." The dragon princess started drooling when she mentioned Magolor as well as straining herself with a nosebleed; her drool was like a stream of water that ended up drenching her attire although it didn't bother her.

"Vanja, no! Bad Vanja!" Merina covered Vanja's mouth forcefully, using her powers to dry her up. "Aren't you supposed to be maintaining an image?! Only do that when you actually manage to get Magolor in the same bed as you-!"

"Hey! Not in front of our baby boy, you indecent woman!" Marxanae cuts her off, covering my ears with her hands.

"Okay… whatever," Merina sweatdropped.

"Man, no wonder us men of culture can't find ourselves a girl nowadays," sighed Marx. "That little boy is hogging them all! It's true what they say- you get no maidens! Absolutely none!"

"Right…" Magolor deadpanned. "So, if we're done talking about the not-so-distant future already, how about we make that promise a reality right now?"

The rest of crowd quickly agreed to the notion that Magolor made, eagerly looking towards her highness for the climax of this disaster to end. Taranza pats her head to show her his support. The crowd awes upon seeing this.

"Well, I suppose it was foolish, resorting to that tactic when things could've been avoided had we mentioned this earlier," sighed Teyren.

"It appears we were worried for nothing, it seems," Rushguarde commented as well. "Looks like the result was in our favor after all. That'll be the last time that "thing" ever comes back…"

"Hmm? What do you mean by that, Alzen?" Celsius asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," He replied quickly, seemingly to avoid something. "It won't matter once her Highness personally resets this planet's curse in a little bit."

"You don't say…" The godbeast tilted her head, unsure of what to make out of his statement.

The queen then made her way to the center of the square when the Re: Genesis Project was, accompanied by Taranza. The contraption emitted strange techno sounds similar to what I've heard back in the Factory's Abyss.

"Everything is already prepared, your highness," Teyren spoke. "You should be able to take it from here." The three of them stood from a distance from the center of the square as he said this sentence.

"Thank you, chancellor," Spectra smiled. "Okay, everyone. In just a moment, with just one push of a button, this damned devil's curse will be rid from this planet at last. All I need now to full accomplish this task is the Void Jewel. Gooey, was it? Could you- uh, er…?"

We all glanced at Gooey instantly, who was staring right into space and not paying any attention to his surroundings, seeing him drool a waterfall without so much of a care in the world. The crowd gave him dirty looks. All it took to snap him back to reality was a slap from Marx.

"Eh, what's going on? Why are you guys staring at me? What time is it? Why can't I feel my butt cheeks right now?"

"As if you had any to begin with," Marx groaned, forcefully shoving him straight to the center where the contraption was. "Look, give her the Void Jewel or I'm gonna yank your pancreas out along with it!"

"Okay, okay! Fine, Marx!" Gooey huffed, still complying by jamming his whole hand inside his stomach and pulling out the Void Jewel, still unfazed by his own blood gushing out of him. It eventually regenerated itself. He then handed it over to Spectra before going back to his original spot.

"Thank you, sweetheart," Spectra smiled again. "Now then, let's put an end to this curse, shall we?"

"YEAH!" The crowd cheered, watching intensely as the Queen inserted the Void Jewel into the machine which triggered the startup process, causing the orb in the center to gradually levitate in midair. A cylinder of energy rings began to envelope the orb that now contains the jewel in order to trigger its power. The masses awed at this marvelment.

"Well, guess that's that then, huh?" Marx shrugged.

"Sure is, Marx," said Kazela. "It's really pretty. If only big sis was here to see this… wait a minute! Big sis isn't here yet!"

Her sentence sparked a reminder in the Star Allies. "Oh crap, come to think of it, neither Susie, Espera or Niva have returned from the factory yet… did something happen?" Kirby questioned.

"It could be the case," Karly answered. "I've actually called each one of them a couple of times, but none of them picked up at all."

"Maybe the reception down there at the factory is just really shitty, y'know," Aege suggested. "I mean, if that's the case, then who knows? They could be actually on their way here right now."

"EVERYONE! STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" A voice loudly boomed throughout the square, causing everyone to wander their heads around to locate the source.

"What the hell was that?!" Celsius shouted.

"Talk about perfect timing, Aege," Knuckle Joe pointed. "There they are right now!"

Turning to where Knuckle Joe was pointing, everyone who was present at the square took notice of four individuals in the direction where we originally entered the square from, and they were charging at this location with full speed, as if they were running from something.

"Espera?! Niva?! Susie?! Kaila?!" We (those who know them) shouted.

"TARANZA!" Kailaine shouted, skidding in her tracks to avoid crashing along with everyone else. "GET THE QUEEN AWAY FROM THE MACHINE RIGHT NOW! SHE'S IN DANGER!"

Taranza was baffled by that request; the contraption eventually began to emit a massive radiant light of energy.

"Why?! What are you guys on about?! This whole thing is about to be resolved right now!" Taranza protested, along with most of the crowd. It would seem reasonable to protest when the end of a nightmare is right at your fingertips. The energy activating the machine was getting even more stronger and stronger with every passing second that there is, almost as if it was about to explode.

However, there was someone who agreed with her. The person we'd least expected to.

"No…! Could it be?!" It was Rushguarde of everyone who agreed, probably for a different reason. Either way, he rushed to both the queen and Taranza at once. "Both of you! Back away from the machine at once!"

"Huh?!" They both replied, clueless about the machine suddenly going haywire behind them as traces of unstable energy began seeping out from within the machine itself, causing the square to rumble significantly and the denizens to panic.

"Oh crap!" Dedede shouted. "The beacon! It's gonna explode! We're not gonna make it out in one piece at this rate!"

The machine rumbled, it quaked, thunder spewed forth, its power was rising uncontrollably to break its limiter, to destroy all within its possible vicinity! The intense humming grew only louder and louder and louder and louder, until it was seconds away to explode. Then… it did…

…

Or so it should've, because when the machine was about to unleash its true potential, all of a sudden… poof! The machine suddenly cools down without so much of a warning as if it was just messing with us. We were all stunned in place, wondering just what the heck had happened.

"Eh? It… it didn't do anything…" Magolor spoke up, still wary.

"Huh…" Teyren rubbed his chin. "Did we… did we miss a part when creating this? It wasn't supposed to settle down before it activated."

"Man, guess it was a total bust after all," Celsius booed. "Maybe we did end up skipping a part. Well, I'm sure it can be solved with a quick fix, y'know? Don't you agree, your highness… your highness?"

The tone Celsius made with that last bit was enough to warrant dread from everybody as we glanced in the queen's direction, who was gasping more heavily than anyone else in the square. Suddenly, everything clicked to me.

"Spectra… are you okay?" Taranza worriedly asked, reaching out to her with his hand, only for her to slap it away.

"No… stay away from me!" Spectralinae suddenly shouted. "Urk…! I don't feel so… ack!"

"Spectra…?"

Spectralinae choked and coughed on her words before she ended up vomiting without warning. And the thing that clicked for me was WHAT she vomited. Blood. Black Blood.

Except it was full of UNSTABLE DARK AURA.

"Your Highness!" Teyren and Celsius cried out. The crowd gasped and shrieked upon seeing this horrid sight. "What's going on?! Stay with us, your highness!"

"Could this be the illness she's been suffering with this entire time?!" Someone in the crowd reminded everyone.

"Holy crap! I didn't think it was severely terminal at all!"

"It must've been a side effect of being possessed by Dark Matter, possibly accelerating her diseases' growth!" Another speculated.

"But it doesn't seem like anything Dark Matter would put out of anyone's body! It has to be something else, but what?!"

Espera and the three others rushed over to our side during the commotion. "Everyone! What the hell happened?!"

"Long story short: the machine backfired and now the queen's vomiting black blood after she activated it." Marx summarized, only making their facial expressions filled with dread.

"SHE activated the machine?!" Niva shouted.

"Yeah… what's the problem- wait," Marx double took the situation only to put the pieces to together. "Was she not supposed to do that? What'll happen if she's the one who did it?"

Unfortunately, we were about to find out. The commotion quickly directed itself to Spectralinae, who was crouching in severe turmoil, squealing in pain. She screamed for everyone to get away from her, seemingly as if she was warning everyone so that they don't get infected. Everyone was confused, unsure of how to respond to this predicament.

Then, it started. Something resembling a needle of some sort pierced through from within her body, throwing everyone off guard.

"Spectra?!" Everyone gasped.

"Uh oh." Marx winced.

"N-no…! This… can't be… happening…!" Spectra shakily quivered in her voice.

Another needle forced its way out of her body, and a third and fourth eventually followed suit, clearly showing that those needles were made out of energy.

"UH OH." I slowly gasped.

It wasn't long before there were more of those needles impaling her body from every area as aura began to gather to the queen, and not just any aura. It was dark aura that was filling her very essence.

"N-no…!" Susie quivered, dropping to her knees. "We're too late! We're dead! It won!"

"What did, Susie?!" Kirby shook her relentlessly. "Answer us!"

"This whole madness… the very trouble we went through…" answered Rushguarde surprisingly, drenched in trauma. "Everything that's led up to this point… "IT" planned everything! EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENED WAS ALL PART OF THE WILL'S PLAN! IT GOT HER HIGHNESS!"

"WHAT?!" We all shouted.

The mass energy gathering was enough to cause an even more severe rumbling from the square when geysers of black aura started to sprout wildly from the ground like a volcano as well as dark lightning bolts striking the ground in unison.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

We all lost our balance with the last rumble and suffered injuries from the lighting that strikes from above.

Lying on the ground, I noticed Taranza desperately reaching out for Spectra as he was also injured but he ignored his wounds to squirm his way over to the queen, even if it was gonna kill him.

"SPECTRA!" He desperately screamed, stretching his hand out.

"TARANZA!" The queen howled as the needles began to self-destruct to devour her in darkness once again.

The next thing we all knew, the needles of darkness exploded, devouring the victim it possessed, causing a massive blinding blast that stretched and covered everything and everyone within its range.

But I did her a voice, one that makes my very being tremble out of genuine fear before I could regain my senses. It seems… the real battle was just beginning…

THE WILL IS INEVITABLE. YOUR FATE IS SEALED, SINFUL HUMANS.

"Keh… damn it…!" And just like that, everything went black.

Now Saving… Save Complete!

To be continued…

End of Fractured Conflicts Act 6 Part 5!

Next Chapter: Diamond & Rebirth?

Author's Note Summary:

I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I? First of all, I apologize for the delay over what I promised, everyone. Turns out keeping promises are a lot harder when you have unforeseen circumstances at your doorstep. For starters, I got writer's block as usual, but there are a lot of reasons for that as well. First of all, I've turned 20 on the first Friday of August, so I got a bit gloomy about it. Secondly, I moved to another city at least a couple minutes more from my old home for various reasons. Third, I had to prepare and do some crap in order to enter a program in college, which is painfully tedious. Fourth, I got into a game called Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, one of the best action-rpg games I've ever played along with Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, and you should check it out too (you'll find some of the game's soundtracks scattered throughout previous chapters as well). And while I'm at it, I'm totally gonna get Splatoon 3 so hopefully we may cross paths soon if possible. With that, what are your thoughts on Sonic Frontiers right now? I think it may be the turning point the series need if done right. That also goes for Star Ocean: THE DIVINE FORCE and Valkyrie Elysium. Hopefully, things go well for them.

Okay, sorry about that. Let me finish this. On that note, matters I did at home are now going to be in-person events, which I'm not excited about, but I know I'll end up sucking it up and deal with it, so I'm making preps at the moment. With that concerning college, I'm actually starting in the month of October, so I have one more month of freedom before I officially start. To be honest, not being able to get a job during that time was more to me a slap across the face, harder than the one Rock got from Smith. That being said, I'll be honest and say that I did get lazy; got a new TV with a whole channel for anime on Pluto TV and old Nickelodeon game shows that I used to watch Like Guts and Legends of the Hidden Temple, so I was all over that. On a side note, because of the all-day anime channel, I just got into Bleach while rewatching Hunter X Hunter again on the same channel, so there's that. Also, I had to go out a lot for various reasons, that I can't get into. Ironically though, the final reason is because I had to attend to another death in the family not too long ago; that was very unpleasant, so I'd rather not delve into that any further than necessary. Either way, that brings up another matter.

It's about the pacing of chapter releases. Obviously, they're pretty inconsistent compared to what I promised last chapter. And a reviewer has brought that to light- not that I wasn't aware of it, but it didn't struck as hard as it did in the past. And you know what? That really is a problem and it's a problem I should fix. In any case, I'm really sorry that I sorta got your hopes up with the release date. As stated before, keeping promises are a lot harder when unexpected things stand in your way. Most of it are unexpected while some is just me having writer's block and being a bit "lazy" about it. Either way, I have to make it up to you guys, so that's where I need your opinion.

You see, the next chapter will be the endgame of every arc, so I actually do need a few months for that or the entire month of September to get at least 50-75% of content in because I'll start college again in October, and I think I'll only be able to write during the breaks I get in the program. With that, you all have an idea of the range for the next chapter's release. That being said, however, how I paced everything so far has become quite the problem now.

What I'm trying to say is, how exactly should I do the next chapter? Should I:

A) Keep everything in one whole chapter instead of splitting them into sections

OR

B) Upload parts of the story in segments like I did for Fractured Conflicts, except make them a bit shorter?

Whatever you decide, I can't guarantee weekly updates, but I could possibly limit releases to about a month or possibly even a few weeks should I spike adrenaline into my veins whenever I'm not occupied (games, anime and sleep and other stuff and whatever else) to get at least a few pages in and start pumping like Keiichiro to fill in that special gymnastics application. Just don't raise your expectations too high since that's a big IF on my part (not the Webtoon IF, btw). However, should I exceed the promised deadline I announced, I'll at least post a notice chapter about my progress and circumstances. But just to save you all some time, make sure to CHECK MY PROFILE FOR UPDATES OFTEN should you not hear from me in a while or just leave something in my PMs or reviews. A pretty fair or decent exchange, don't you think? Well, all that's left is to hear what you think.

Once again, I'm terribly sorry. I know this was supposed to be a short chapter, but even I ended up making it unnecessarily long in the end, which is something I should work on. However, as stated before, for the next chapter, I do need the amount of time I didn't update to get at least halfway into the next chapter, because the next chapter is basically the climax of the arc now, so may the sky daddy forgive me for what I'm about to do next chapter. Also, the title will either be changed to Tales of Crystallia or be added to the current one depending on your preference, so let me know that as well. With that, I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite the long wait. Let me know your thoughts in your reviews as well as some advice for improvement as well, cuz I apparently need a lot of that too. It won't be long before this story gets Xenogears complicated or to the point where you may be convinced that I'm smoking the same weed that Nomura uses when he made Kingdom Hearts lore the way it is right now. At least not yet, since there's plenty more of that for me to smoke with. (Not that I actually smoke, y'know.)

Oh, one more thing. For Fractured Conflicts, would you all like the chapter parts combined into one or leave it as it is? Let me know that as well.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time!