Chapter 21
It all began one night in the spring of 1870. Mary Magdalene was in a library at the Order of Magdalene, reading a book while everything around her was quiet. Suddenly, a demon with horns walked into the library and went through one of the book sections until he reached the Holy Woman. Mary Magdalene looked at the demon, but to his surprise, she was not afraid of him one bit. "You're Mary Magdalene, the Holy Woman, am I right?" The demon asked. "Yes I am, and I assume you came here for me." Mary Magdalene said surprisingly calm. "How do you know my purpose for being here?" The demon asked as he was surprised that she wasn't frightened by his presence. Mary Magdalene got out of her chair, went towards the demon and began to touch his face. "I have been waiting for you, Chrono!" She revealed in a happy tone. "You were?" The demon asked since he was confused that she knew his name. "Yes, the time has come Chrono!" She answered. "What do you mean?" Chrono confusedly asked. Just then the Militia along with the minister, rushed into the library to slay the demon that intended to take her. Mary Magdalene was standing in front of Chrono when the minister came towards the demon and pulled out a sword. "Step away from the Holy Woman! No one is allowed to touch her! Let alone a demon!" The young blond minister demanded angrily. "He will strike diagonally over his head in 6.2 seconds. 0.05 seconds after that, make a straight line from your left side. There won't be any obstacles. Please fly with all of your might." Mary Magdalene instructed Chrono. "This is a prediction! So she sees the future!" Chrono thought to himself out of surprise. "If you do that, you will be able to escape without hurting anybody!" Mary Magdalene assured Chrono. "Here he comes!" The Holy Woman warned Chrono as the minister charged towards him. Just as the young minister charged his sword towards him, Chrono quickly grabbed Mary Magdalene, flew through out of the window and disappeared into the night sky. "Outside! They won't turn around." One Militia nun said to the headmaster. "We can't, it's too late!" The head minister said. "Reinforce the barrier, don't let them escape!" The head minister commanded. "Bring a horse! This is an emergency situation! The Holy Woman has been kidnapped!" The young blond haired minister announced as he put his sword back into its holster. "What do you intend to do with her, you fiend?" The young man asked himself as he was referring to Chrono. "Hurry up Ewan!" One of the Militia agents called out to him. Meanwhile, the demon took the Holy Woman to a nearby lake where he then let go of her once they had landed. "So, you can see the future?" Chrono asked in a surprised tone. "Yes, isn't that why you came to take me with you?" Mary Magdalene asked. "But I still don't understand. Why did you willingly choose to come with me?" Chrono asked still very confused by her behavior. "As you should know, I have powers bestowed to me by God that let me see the future. Ever since I was little, I had foretelling dreams and you were in them!" Mary Magdalene explained. Chrono was looking at her, trying to come to terms on what she just said. "So if you have powers that let you see the future, does this mean you know the reason why I took you?" Chrono curiously asked. "Yes. You took me because Aion needs me in order to find the head of Pandemonium." She confirmed. "Even knowing this, you were still willing to come with me?" Chrono asked in disbelief. "I believe that destiny cannot be changed and I wanted to get to know you before my destiny happens!" Mary said unusually calm. At that moment, Aion appeared and congratulated Chrono in completing his task. "Well, I see you came through this time Chrono! I'm impressed!" Aion said while looking at Mary. "It's time for us to go! Everyone is waiting for us!" Aion said and teleported them to an abandoned Inn, in a desert just on the outskirts of a small town in Texas. The other Sinners were inside the Inn waiting for their return. They walked in and one of the Sinners, the scientist Shader, cheerfully greeted Mary. "Yes! The Holy Maiden is finally here!" Mary was surprised at the scientist's hyperactive behavior. "Well, now that we have the Holy Woman in our grasp, we shall tomorrow morning begin our search for Pandemonium's head!" Aion declared to everyone. "Yes! I can't wait for us to find the head of Pandemonium! With it being found, that means we can finally start executing our dream!" Shader said enthusiastically as she could not stop her overbearing excitement. "Don't get too excited Shader, there is a lot of things to prepare once Pandemonium's head has been found." Aion reminded her. "But of course! I can assure you that everything will go according to plan once we have finally found the head!" Shader assured him. "Chrono, since the Holy Woman is probably feeling exhausted, why don't you take her to a room where she can sleep for the night?!" Aion commanded Chrono. "Sure Aion, whatever you say!" Chrono said and took Mary Magdalene to a room at the end of the hallway. It looked like he was bothered by something. Mary felt that Chrono had conflicting thoughts but did not want to question him about it. "Well, here we are Mary. This is the room where you will be sleeping in for the night." Chrono said and Mary walked into the room towards the bed. "Are you sure you'll be alright Chrono?" Mary asked. "Yes, of course! Why?" Chrono confusedly asked. "Because I can tell something is bothering you." Mary Magdalene answered. "What do you mean?" Chrono asked. "It's nothing! Good night Chrono!" Mary said and closed her eyes as she began to fall asleep. "There's something strange about this woman. How could she be so willing to let me take her out of the Order without being scared? Surely an ordinary human would be terrified at the thought of being kidnapped by a demon." Chrono thought to himself as he could not understand Mary Magdalene's reaction towards him. The next morning, Mary woke up and found Chrono standing right beside her bed. "Good morning Mary Magdalene!" Chrono said. "Good morning Chrono!" Mary responded while being surprised to see him. "Did you sleep well?" Chrono asked politely. "Yes, I did!" Mary Magdalene answered and then yawned. She stood up and they both went to meet the others. As they entered the main room, Mary stopped by Shader to greet her. "Good morning Shader!" Mary said politely. "Oh, Good morning Mary! How are you doing?" Shader responded in a startled tone. Mary then spotted Shader making some kind of unique necklace that resembled a watch. "What's that?" Mary asked Shader curiously. "It's called a seal watch. It allows the demon to form a contract with a human in case that the demon loses its horns. The contract lets the demon live since a demon will die without its horns. As long as the human lives, the demon can use its own powers, but if the human dies, the demon will still live but it will not be able to use its own powers. What the human contractor does is that it lets the demon to take their life force and seal it into the watch which will allow the demon to activate its powers. However the side effects are that it has an effect on the human's life span. The more the demon uses its powers, the shorter the life span the human will have and the weaker it will become. Once a contract has been made, the human's life span will be drastically shortened and it cannot be broken or changed!" Shader explained to her. "Why did you make something like that?" Mary asked Shader. "Why are you so surprised? I am a scientist after all and I love to experiment with different things!" Shader said. Suddenly, Aion appeared and looked around the room to see if everyone was present. "Good morning my fellow Sinners! Since the Holy Woman is now finally with us, Genai, Viede, Chrono and I will be heading off to the Grand Canyon immediately to retrieve the head of Pandemonium." Aion began explaining the plan. "What are we two to do in the meantime?" Rizel asked. "You and Shader will return back to Eden to prepare the container for Pandemonium's head." Aion explained their role to Rizel. "Alright, now that everything has been planned out, let's start making our move to the Grand Canyon!" Aion announced to the rest of the Sinners and they all made their way out of the Inn, with the exception of Shader and Rizel. Aion had decided that they will be traveling by horse to the Grand Canyon in the Northwestern area of Arizona. It was a more practical traveling option for searching Pandemonium's head than it would be if they teleported to that place. They needed to make sure that they weren't missing any turns or directions. It took the Sinners about a week to reach the Grand Canyon since they had to make many stops along the way for the horses and themselves to rest. After a week of traveling it was dusk when the Sinners had finally managed to reach the Grand Canyon. "Here we are, the Grand Canyon! As you all know, we lost the head of Pandemonium somewhere around this place when we fought those Pursuers. It's been six months now." Aion turned his head around towards his fellow Sinners as he reminded them about their reason for being there. "That kind of stuff really pisses you off, doesn't it?" Genai asked. "We demons can't detect the location to where the head is at." Viede stated. "Isn't that why I was brought here?" Mary Magdalene asked Chrono as she was sitting on his horse behind him. "Yes, you can search for it. From a far away past to a far away distant location, to the words of the dead. The Holy Maiden whose eyes can see everything. You can find it!" Chrono answered. "Alright, the time has come for the Holy Woman to use her powers to detect the head's location. But first, we will need to go down towards the canyon in order for her to do so." Aion explained and they all started to make their way to the lower area of the canyon as their horses began to run. It has been six months since the Sinners have been on the surface of the earth. However, fights against the Pursuers were waiting for them day after day and the Sinners dream of freedom was still very far away. Once the Sinners have reached the lower area of the Grand Canyon, they all got off of their horses. "Alright Magdalene, now that we are down here, it is time for you to use your powers to detect the head's location!" Aion commanded her and the Holy Woman walked slightly ahead of the Sinners. She then kneeled down and clasped her hands together as if she was praying. Just then, a huge source of powerful energy was emitted from Mary Magdalene's body across the canyon which surprised Genai and Viede. "I guess the risk of having her with us is worth it." Viede commented. "It wasn't a mistake to kidnap her, don't you think?" Genai said as he grinned sinisterly. "The Magdalene Order had a reason for protecting her. This power of hers surpasses that of a human." Aion explained to Genai and Viede while Mary Magdalene was still in the process of detecting the location of Pandemonium's head. A few moments later, she finally was able to pinpoint its exact location. Once she was done detecting the location, the powerful energy across the canyon significantly wavered and it eventually disappeared. "Just a little more! There's a tiny bit of movement fifty miles downstream." Mary revealed in an exhaustive tone. "The area has been narrowed to 1/100 in just three days. That discovery is only a step away. Let's go!" Aion demanded as he was holding the map. "Aion." Chrono said and walked towards the Holy Woman. "Well Chrono, what is it?" Aion asked. "We got to let Mary Magdalene rest first. Can't you see she's exhausted?" Chrono advised as he was tending to her. "Don't say such a foolish thing! Beat her until she wakes up!" Genai advised Chrono in an impatient, cross tone. "She just detected everything in an area of 100 miles. Of course she would be exhausted!" Chrono defended her as he shouted at Genai. "We just have to go south along the river. In that case, it seems we'll manage the rest on our own. We'll leave her to you Chrono." Aion said as the three Sinners climbed back on their horses. "Sure Aion, no problem!" Chrono answered. "Good! After all, you're the one who suggested it, so make sure that you look after her properly. We'll be back by tomorrow." Aion told Chrono as he turned his head towards him and bid him a farewell. After Chrono watched Aion, Genai and Viede leave for the downstream area of the canyon, he then turned his attention towards Mary who had already fallen asleep due to exhaustion. He walked towards the Holy Woman to keep an eye out for her. "Uh, did everybody went ahead?" Mary asked Chrono as she woke up tiredly after an hour had passed. "Yes, they can't search from the sky, so it's going to take them a while. It's okay, just keep resting for now." Chrono told her. "I'm sorry. I'll do that." Mary Magdalene apologetically said and went back to sleep with Chrono looking at her. "What an enigmatic woman. From the time we met, she hasn't been nervous at all. It's as if there is no meaning to the difference between humans and demons." Chrono thought to himself as he began to gaze at the night sky.
The next morning, Chrono woke up slowly and was holding his hand above his head due to the sun rays flashing into his face. Just then, he turned around and saw that Mary Magdalene wasn't on her sleeping blanket. "Magdalene, where are you?" Chrono shouted out as he was worried that he might have lost her. "I'm here Chrono!" Mary called out back which quickly caught Chrono's attention. He walked towards the big rock that was in the front of the stream, as he could tell that Mary had answered from there. "Are you alright, Magdalene?" Chrono asked as soon as he reached the rock. "Yes, I'm completely fine." Mary said assuredly as she turned herself around and faced Chrono. He was surprised to see her in the stream dressed in her under clothing. "Good morning Chrono!" Mary greeted him cheerfully. "Good morning." Chrono answered shyly and Mary turned around with her back facing Chrono. "I just finished bathing. Too bad!" Mary said in a playfully disappointed tone. "What do you mean by too bad? Anyways, what are you doing?" Chrono asked as he cringed with what she just said. "I'm doing laundry. These clothes are the only ones I have." Mary revealed while she was washing her clothes. "What is laundry?" Chrono asked as he never heard of the term or concept before, much to Magdalene's surprise. Mary then turned around and walked towards Chrono. "Can you excuse me for a moment?" Mary politely asked and began to take some of Chrono's clothing off. "Wait, what are you doing?" Chrono asked in a surprised tone as his clothing began to rip. "It's alright Chrono, just take it off!" Mary said and continued disrobing him. Suddenly, they both fell into the water which caused a huge splash. A few minutes later, Chrono and Mary got out of the water. She decided to sow Chrono's wet shirt which he protested against but did not succeed. While Mary was sowing, Chrono was sitting next to her, looking at her with an annoyed look on his face. "I already said, I don't really care." Chrono protested. "No, I won't let it be so worn out!" Mary said and continued sowing his shirt. "You'll never be popular with women, no matter how wonderful you are!" Mary Magdalene teased and began to chuckle while Chrono was clearly not amused with the situation. "My, he's getting embarrassed." Mary said to herself as she chuckled at Chrono's cringing expression. "Don't get carried away!" Chrono finally snapped. "Until the search is over, I cannot harm you. Those were Aion's orders." Chrono said to her in an agitated tone. "Yes, but understand the situation a little." Mary said as she began to walk towards Chrono and touched his face. "Once that time comes, you will have to kill me. You do know that, don't you?" Mary revealed to him. "I am Aion's sword. If those are his orders, I will have to obey them." Chrono said as he pushed Mary's hand away from his face. "Is that what your role is?" Mary asked. "Tell me Mary Magdalene, why did you choose to come with me?" Chrono asked curiously. "Because I saw that you didn't want to hurt anybody. You are swaying between your duty and yourself." Mary answered and Chrono looked at her with a surprised expression on his face. "I can see that there is goodness in you. That is why I came here." Mary revealed as she turned towards Chrono and placed down her sowing needle. "Here! It's finished!" Mary said cheerfully as she gave Chrono his sowed shirt. "She's an intriguing woman. But those words violently permeated my heart. She saw through everything." Chrono thought to himself and smelled his sowed shirt. "Smells like a sunny place!" He said to himself as he liked the smell of the shirt. "I'm a sword. A sword can't hesitate about the way it lives." Chrono thought to himself again. "What's wrong Chrono? Don't you like how I sowed your shirt?" Mary asked as she realized that he was lost in thought. "Yes, I do!" Chrono abruptly answered. "I'm glad that you do!" Mary said gratefully. Just then, Chrono and Mary heard some horses running towards their direction and they both turned around to see who it was. "It looks like they came back." Chrono stated as they saw that the three Sinners were riding their horses back towards them. This implied that they had succeeded in finding Pandemonium's head. Once the three Sinners climbed off of their horses, Aion walked towards Chrono as he was holding something in his hand. "So, how did the search go?" Chrono asked. "It went great Chrono. We've finally found it! Pandemonium's head! We met again after six months." Aion said triumphantly as he was holding the horned head strapped onto black belts. "So, now that the head of Pandemonium has finally been found, does this mean that it's now time for us to go back to Eden?" Chrono asked. "But of course, that's what I said before we left for our excursion, right?" Aion reminded Chrono. "Yes, I suppose." Chrono said. "Very well then, let's be heading back to Eden. Shader and Rizel are waiting for us there!" Aion announced and all four of the Sinners had teleported back to Eden along with Mary Magdalene whom Chrono was carrying.
"What I saw when I dived into Chrono's soul was a reminiscence of a distant past. His meeting with Mary Magdalene, the Holy Woman, and their exploration trip which resulted in finding Pandemonium's head. Now that they have accomplished their goal, what was going to happen next?" Rosette asked herself as she reflected the events that she gathered through Chrono's past history with Mary Magdalene. At Eden, the head of Pandemonium was placed onto a straight stool like altar inside a giant jar tube that was connected to the wall in the lab room. For the past two months, Aion and Chrono had been visiting Shader on a daily basis to ask her on Pandemonium's condition. "So, how is her condition?" Aion asked Shader. "She's doing well! The search for her memory area is 30% from completion. The information on the structure of the essential central controller is just a step away." Shader explained. "Even if it's a terminal, it's still part of Pandemonium. If we're able to investigate her memories, we could also find her weakness." Aion said as he was looking at the head while having his hand touching the tube. "By the way, what about Magdalene? Was she able to help you?" Chrono asked Shader. "Oh, she's been such a great help! I can't complain about having such a reliable assistant, can I?" Shader overly enthusiastically said. "She's got good intuition and learns the things I teach her quickly, even though our technology is like gibberish." Shader explained as she remembered fondly on how quickly Mary was able to pick up on the Sinners ridiculously advanced technology. "Could that phenomenon be another one of her abilities? If that's the case, then I guess it was worthwhile to bring her along." Chrono said to himself. "My, to think you have an interest in someone. Who could that person be, I wonder?" Shader asked as she abruptly approached Chrono. "What?" Chrono confusedly asked and began to blush. "Come on, what's with the blushing face? You're quite a ruffian, aren't you? It's impossible to control you!" Aion joked as he walked towards Chrono and placed his hand on his shoulder with an amused grin on his face. "Not really." Chrono said in an annoyed tone while he pushed Aion's hand away from his shoulder and began to walk his way out of the lab room. "Hahahaha, you're just a guy who doesn't understand jokes." Aion chuckled with amusement while he saw Chrono walking out of the room. "That's not it Aion. Chrono has changed a lot since two months ago. It's all thanks to Magdalene!" Shader said as she noticed that Chrono's bond with Mary Magdalene was getting stronger and stronger by the day. "It's been two months since Magdalene came with us." Chrono thought to himself as he walked outside and found Mary Magdalene hanging up the clothes who then looked at him with a smile on her face. "She's not afraid of demons and because of that we accepted her immediately. Shader, Viede, even Genai and Rizel. It was as if things had been like that since the beginning. The days went by, days that were meant to have been happy, perhaps." Chrono thought to himself as he remembered the positive impact that Magdalene had on the Sinners. Whether it was helping Shader with recovering the head's condition, Viede reading books with her on demon biology or with Genai and Rizel simply enjoying her company. It was as if the Sinners had become one big unified family. Three days later at dusk, Aion had informed Chrono and the three other Sinners that the head of Pandemonium had almost succeeded in recovering its memories which then caused them to all run towards the lab room. "Did you manage to complete it Shader?" Viede curiously asked once they abruptly walked into the room. "Yes, it's done! The data retrieval of the memory zone is 99% complete. All that's left is to analyze the data." Shader revealed in an excited tone as she showed them the head of Pandemonium with Mary Magdalene standing on the left side from the scientist. "Well done Shader. You sure worked very hard." Aion congratulated her. "To be honest, if I had been alone, I wouldn't even have gotten halfway yet. It's all thanks to Mary Magdalene." Shader modestly explained as she placed her hand on Mary's shoulder while praising her for her huge help. "Alright, let's celebrate in advance, shall we?!" Aion excitedly offered as he pulled out two bottles from behind his back. One was a beer bottle while the other one was a whiskey bottle. "Oh, you're so clever Lord Aion! All our troubles were worthwhile!" Rizel commented excitedly. "Rizel, you didn't do anything, did you?" Genai sneakily asked her as he realized that out of all the Sinners, Rizel didn't really contribute much in regards to the head of Pandemonium. "Shut up Genai!" Rizel snapped at him. "Just to let you all know, dinner is ready now! And considering that this is a special occasion, why not have the drinks with the meal?!" Mary Magdalene said to the Sinners and they all then walked out of the lab room and into the dining room. The food was already placed onto the table which consisted of roast beef, potatoes and corn. Once the Sinners had all gathered around the table in their seats and once all of their glasses had been filled with beer, Aion stood up and raised his glass. "Let's have a toast my fellow Sinners, for our freedom and future!" Aion proposed and all the other Sinners have then raised their glasses and gave each other a toast. The dinner celebration was an extremely joyous event as Shader got overly excited about the whole celebration. She began to yell enthusiastically while Genai laughed at her insanely energetic behavior. After Mary Magdalene took a sip from her glass, she glanced from behind and saw both Aion and Chrono outside sitting on the panels at the edge of Eden. There, the two brothers toasted each other and took a sip from their glasses. "Good job Chrono!" Aion congratulated him. "No, really. I didn't do anything." Chrono modestly denied his role. "Be happy. Eight months ago, we were able to escape to the earth's surface thanks to you. You opened up the bloody path to escape. And I'm grateful for that, killer of one hundred demons." Aion said while praising Chrono's contribution to his goals. Chrono then recalled the time when the Pursuers had attacked them on Eden after which they had escaped to the earth's surface. "How impertinent! For how long are the Pursuers going to keep coming?" Viede asked as he realized that the shell of Eden's shield cover was cracked by the Pursuers who had flown towards it in large numbers. "This is bad! We're falling!" Viede alarmingly said as he saw that Eden's shield cover was cracked. "Put it on level two! The second wave is coming!" Viede demanded as he predicted that the second Pursuer attack would be even stronger. "No, don't. The shell will not resist." Shader begged as she knew that the shell cover would not last any longer as the crack grew bigger. A few minutes later, the crack on the shell shield began to break from one side which allowed the Pursuers to storm an all attack against the Sinners. "Oh my God, what a number of them!" Chrono said to himself in a shocked tone as he couldn't believe the number of Pursuers attacking them. "Don't be concerned about the lower ranked ones. We only need to kill the one hundred high ranked ones!" Aion commanded as he knew that killing off the higher ranked Pursuers would weaken them all. "Chrono, the 13th layer has been invaded. They are about seventy of them. Go!" Rizel told Chrono as she was contacting him through one of her spiders while checking what layers of Eden had been invaded by the Pursuers. "What did you say? That's where the uninjured ones are." Chrono asked as he realized that the 13th layer was where the uninjured Pursuers were at. Chrono flew towards the 13th layer section and by the time he reached there, he saw that the Pursuers had brutally murdered all of the Sinners who were at the 13th layer area of the floating fortress. While Chrono saw the bloody corpses lying all over the layer, he all of a sudden turned around and saw a strong wind energy coming towards Eden. "Gaaaaahhhh!" Chrono yelled in agony as he realized that the powerful energy was so strong to the point that it would very easily kill a demon in a short period of time. Chrono saw that this powerful wind was the Pursuers doing as he saw the one hundred highest ranked Pursuers in front of him. All around himself, he saw that an overwhelming amount of Sinners were being killed off by the incredibly strong wind energy as they were no match to its effect. Chrono then saw one young Sinner who was on the panel and flew over and picked the Sinner up. While he was carrying the young Sinner into his arms, he saw its body crumbling and decaying into pieces much like how all the other Sinners had eventually become. The one hundred Pursuers positioned their sword like arms as they were preparing themselves to attack while Chrono continued to see the poor Sinners body decay even more until its body had finally crumbled away. Sad and angry by the fact that so many Sinners including the younger ones were killed off by the wind, Chrono yelled fiercely and angrily. He then charged towards the one hundred Pursuers and mercilessly slaughtered them in brutal ways. He murdered them by decapitating some of them, cutting some of the other ones in half, and impaling the rest. An hour later, after all the killings were stopped, Aion and the rest of the Sinners flew down from Eden and onto a cliff where they saw Chrono standing among a ground filled with the Pursuers bloody corpses with some of them even having their skeletal bones revealed. Aion looked at the view with huge satisfaction on his face as he realized that Chrono had followed his order while he was wiping the blood on his face.
"The memory is still impressed in my eyes. That was a good sight." Aion said with nostalgic pleasure. "So many have died. We were the only six Sinners who survived." Chrono stated as he remembered the attack as if it was only yesterday. "A crowd was sacrificed so we could be standing above this world." Aion explained emotionlessly. "When I think about it, I get the bad feeling that this is a horrible lie. Everything, even my own choices." Chrono said to him with much doubt. "Forget about it. Thinking is not your role. The edge of your blade will become blunt. We have to keep moving forward, that's our duty as the ones who survived. That's the only thing that matters." Aion told him monotonously. "Isn't it our duty to give something back to them?" Chrono demandingly asked. "The dead don't have any demands. Pity is the ego of the living beings." Aion explained in an impatient, somewhat irked tone. Mary Magdalene overheard their conversation as she was outside standing not far from them. She was able to sympathize with what Chrono was saying since she deep down knew about his conflicted side. Suddenly, Mary Magdalene sensed something dangerous which then caused her to turn around and see what the danger was. "Something is coming!" Mary shouted alarmingly which caught both Aion and Chrono's attention. A sharp curved blade abruptly moved toward Genai and cut out his eyes and left arm off. He was screaming in agony as a huge amount of blood came out and he then fell down onto the ground. Viede and Rizel transformed into their demon forms and went over to Genai to see what happened to him. "Oh my God, Genai!" Rizel said in a shocked tone once she saw what happened to him while Viede rushed to use his powers to attack the threat that was occurring. The curved blade then moved towards Rizel and cut off both of her legs and she too fell down to the ground as she was screaming in agony. "Oh no, Rizel, Genai!" Shader said in shock as she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Aion and Chrono came back inside in their demon forms and saw the assault that just happened with a surprised and shocked look on their faces. They both realized that all of this was the head of Pandemonium's doing as her voice began to mildly roar since her awakening was starting to take root and the wooden floor in the dining room began to break. "That's impossible. Pandemonium's head can't be in that condition!" Chrono said to himself in disbelief as they all looked at the head in the dining room who was attached to its spine as well as to its spider like sharp legs. Viede rushed towards the awakened head of Pandemonium and summoned a shield in the shape of a bee hive from his fist, hoping it would prevent future attacks from the head. Unfortunately, Viede's shield attack didn't work as the dining room area exploded into shambles along with some of the areas underneath the panels. The head of Pandemonium was now standing on top of a cylinder like step ground with Shader, Viede, Aion and Chrono looking at the extensive damage of Eden around them while also looking at the head. The head of Pandemonium started to regenerate itself by mildly roaring again as its jaw began to grow. "Gaaaaahhhhh!" Viede screamed as the sound had a piercing effect on both of his horns and his body. "What is this? My horns! My body! It's as if were being paralyzed." Shader said in a crying tone as she felt the same effect that Viede felt. "It's using the torn off body parts to regenerate. Damn it, by a mere terminal." Aion said angrily since he saw that the head of Pandemonium was being regenerated as her arms, neck and breasts began to form. Just then, Mary stretched out her arm towards Pandemonium's head. She opened her mouth while Pandemonium's voice began to pour into Magdalene's mouth. "I can't believe it. Her voice is pouring in." Chrono said to himself as he witnessed what Mary was trying to do. However, the voice that poured into her mouth began to overwhelm her as the power of Pandemonium's voice became too strong for her to handle it. After she passed out, Chrono abruptly rushed toward Pandemonium and grabbed her by the neck while Aion attacked her from the back with his elbow. "Chrono, there is still time to defeat her! Don't hesitate, do it now!" Aion commanded him. Chrono ripped Pandemonium's head off from its forming body while Aion then ripped off the arms and chest area that was forming. Pandemonium's head had fell onto the floor which meant that Pandemonium had finally been defeated for the time being. Several minutes later, Shader and Viede got themselves up from the damaged ground and walked around to see if Aion, Chrono and Mary were anywhere in sight. "Hahaha, we did it Chrono!" Aion chuckled as he was relieved that they had succeeded with defeating Pandemonium. "Yeah, but Pandemonium's memory zone is completely gone now." Chrono said in disappointment. "I guess we're back at our previous starting point. Well, I'll think of something later." Aion remarked in a somewhat disappointed tone as he realized that they were back where they started from. Shader and Viede spotted the trio sitting on top of the ruble that was caused by Pandemonium's attack and saw that Mary Magdalene was unconscious. "Are you three alright?" Shader asked as she and Viede ran towards them. "Sorry, please lend me your hand, will you? I can't move." Chrono pleadingly asked as he offered his hand to Shader. "But of course Chrono! You don't even have to ask for such a request!" Shader answered and she lifted Chrono and Mary Magdalene up while Viede helped Aion get up as he was just as tired as Chrono was.