The clashing of giant blades echoed throughout the Ford Vale as the lead fighters of two nations fought one another in their giant mechs. In the light of the giant crystal castle of Cephiro and its glowing golden barrier, Rayearth and FTO dueled fiercely. Sparks flew everywhere as a flaming magic sword struck against a futuristic plasma wrist blade, sending out sparks hotter than molten steel. Sometimes the combatants would fly away from one another, firing out their ranged attacks to try and score a lucky hit. But whether it was FTO's Auto Shield or Hikaru's barrier, it kept most of their ranged attacks ineffective.

From some ways away, Umi and Fuu watched as the battle raged on. They would have participated themselves, if their Mashins weren't busy holding up their defeated foe. Inside his broken down GTO, Geo was gritting his teeth, as he helplessly watched Eagle fight Hikaru, neither side not giving an inch.

"Flame Arrow!" Hikaru yelled, slashing her sword forward.

As the spell and her flaming wind cutter mixed, a blue flaming dragon was sent at Eagle. Instead of running away from it or trying to block it, Eagle instead flew straight into the flames. Though the Auto Shield took the full brunt of the attack, the exposure was kept to a minimum as he flew through the flames at high speeds. Bringing his sword forward, Eagle aimed for Hikaru's clavicle, but Hikaru quickly rocketed up with Rayearth's boosters, causing Eagle to miss.

"This is getting us nowhere…" Eagle muttered to himself, keeping the speakers off. "Hate to do this, but it is time to break out the heavy weaponry."

Flipping up three safety switches in his cockpit, Eagle prepared to fully utilize the upgrades done to FTO. First the cone shaped shoulders of the mech spread open before splitting up like flowers. Next, two green bands around its left forearm extended outwards, before its three-fingered hand was retracted inside the arm.

"Firing the rockets!" Eagle yelled before pressing a button.

Two large swarms of yellow glowing rockets launched out from both of Eagle's shoulders, flying to the sides of the white mech at first. Having taken enough space to turn around, the rockets then locked onto Rayearth's heat signature. As the rockets headed towards her, Hikaru tried flying away from them, but the rockets kept following her. The rockets gained on her quickly, leaving her no time to charge up Rayearth's boosters. Unable to shake off the rockets, she knew she had to destroy them.

"Ruby Lightning!" Hikaru yelled, thrusting her hands forward before swinging around.

A large red orb appeared in her hands before bursting out as a cone of ruby red lightning. With the sideways motion, the destructive spell swept over the swarm of rockets, causing them to explode in a wave of bright flashes.

"You're several times stronger than when I last fought you," Eagle admitted regretfully, while aiming at Hikaru.

As Hikaru had been flying away from the rockets, Eagle had been charging up the cannon FTO's left arm had transformed into. Almost fully charged, the front of the turbine-like cannon glowed bright blue, as it locked onto the crimson red target.

"I had reserved the Mini-Ragna Cannon for Commander Hotaru instead of you, but you leave me no choice…" Eagle said pensively, feeding all the mental energy into the weapon.

Just as Eagle was about to fire his mech's latest weapon, the light around the Sanctuary grew dimmer. The golden barrier around the giant castle disappeared top down, with each of its golden bands fading away one at a time. With the barrier fully gone, it left the castle undefended and open for attack.

"The barrier is going away on its own?" Eagle gasped, unable to believe his eyes, causing him to hesitate. "…Maybe it is a trap, or they are bringing something else out of it?"

Noticing this, Hikaru turned to the Sanctuary, bringing her hands to her face, "Oh no!"

"Wh-What's happening!?" Umi yelled out fearfully, as the barrier disappeared.

"Mr. Clef must have run out of magic to maintain the barrier!" Fuu

Hearing the genuine reactions of the two Magic Knights, Geo was also amazed by this stroke of luck. But as he saw Eagle just floating in the air motionlessly, he hurriedly opened the coms between the O-series mechs.

"What are you doing Eagle!" he yelled at his commander. "Hurry up and get in there!"

Remembering he had no time to be hesitating, Eagle redirected the energy from Mini-Ragna Cannon into his engines. In a blink of an eye, the FTO flew across the valley up to the oval entrance of Sanctuary's middle tower. With FTO's acceleration and braking having been improved, he only had a split second to react before crashing into a crystal wall. While the entrance was gigantic, it only led to a giant entry hall. The way further into the giant crystal castle was nowhere near large enough for a mech or a Mashin.

Why is the castle so big if there is no way for the Mashin to move around it freely? Perhaps I overestimated their need for storing mechs inside this building.

With Hikaru hot on his trail, Eagle had FTO crouch down before opening the diamond-shaped panel on the chest of FTO and jumping out of the cockpit. Using the shock absorbers on his metallic boots, he landed softly despite the twenty-meter drop. Knowing time was of the essence, he started running for it, heading first up the stairs into a brightly lit crystal corridor before picking a direction.

This is all going far too well, but it is not like I was planning on getting things done right away. This castle is massive and finding the Proof of the Pillar is going to take a while. I might as well use the computer I have on me to locate it, but first I need to find a place to scan the castle in peace. And I have just the place in mind for it…

After running down the corridors for a while, Eagle came to a fork in the road. Before he could pick a path, two figures cut him off from the paths ahead. One of them was a tall, blonde, muscular man who looked even stronger than Geo, wearing a blue suit of armor. The other Eagle recognized all too well.

"Lantis…" Eagle gasped, facing his old friend. "And you are?"

"I am Lafarga, Captain of the Royal Guard," the man introduced himself. "And I believe you are Eagle Vision of Autozam."

"Nice to meet you," Eagle smiled warmly.

"Eagle, you know you cannot defeat me in hand-to-hand combat. Please surrender and we will take you in without hurting you," Lantis spoke in an advisory tone.

Hearing the offer, Eagle couldn't help but smirk, but knew he couldn't believe things to be this easy, "I refuse."

The dark-haired swordsman in black armor pulled out his magic sword, projecting its bright white energy blade. The swordsman in blue armor blocking the other way, unsheathed a large curved blade. Placing his right arm on his side, Eagle activated his mechanical gauntlet, projecting a blue plasma sword above his wrist. While he wasn't confident in being able to defeat Lantis or Lafarga in single combat, he had plenty of tricks prepared up his sleeve. But before any of them could take the first move, they all heard running steps from behind them.

Turning around, Eagle saw Hikaru rushing over to him, before raising her sword, flanking him from all three directions. With his escape route gone, his only option was to go for the weakest link in the formation. But as sharp as Eagle was, he was unable to tell which of the three he should go for. And there was another problem; the Sanctuary's strongest still wasn't present.

"I see you have me surrounded, but tell me. Where is Commander Hotaru?" Eagle asked, keeping his guard up.

"Commander?" Lafarga tilted his head.

"We aren't sure where Hotaru is," Hikaru answered honestly, keeping her sword lined up with Eagle, "but he was the one who figured to let you in, to be captured."

Without further questions, Eagle turned off his plasma blade, before raising his hands, "So, he figured a way to capture me without even having to show up. Please, make sure to give me and Geo a comfortable cell."

How peculiar… You surprise me yet again, Commander Hotaru. Not only do you have me exactly where you want me, but I am also right where I want to be. Maybe I am just overthinking this, but I hope to meet with you soon.

After saying his goodbyes to Stella and taking off from the top of the Sanctuary's middle tower, Hotaru had been surprised by his own velocity. He had already figured his spells became a little over three times stronger with each evolution his armor went through. However, combining the boosts given to Silver Speed and Aluminum Flight, increased his flying speed well beyond tripling.

Flying at hypersonic speeds, he quickly left behind Cephiro's mountainous remains. Whether it was due to his speed or the world around him crumbling to pieces, the world looked a lot smaller than when he had traveled with Hoggar. Braking just in time before leaving Cephiro's atmosphere, Hotaru looked below him, at the dark swirling void below Cephiro.

The parts that had crumbled away from the planet had left behind a plane of dark clouds which covered up the remains of the planet. The clouds were almost pitch black with some dimly flashing blotches of purple shining through them, signifying lightning strikes if Hotaru had to take a guess. Beyond this barrier of darkness, laid his destination; the underside of Cephiro; the realm governed by Debonair. A world which brought back bitter memories for Hotaru.

"I cannot believe it took the sacrifice of Alcyone's life for them to figure to look into this place…" Hotaru muttered to himself. "But not this time!"

Diving down, Hotaru flew against the clouds at full speed. But as he reached the cloud cover, it felt like he had dived down into pitch tar. The cloud cover refused to give way, repelling him like a wall made out of rubber. As he tried pushing forward, the clouds shone purple under him. He only had a split second to fly away, before a mountain sized purple spark of lightning erupted from the cloud cover.

Gritting his teeth as his heart pounded quickly, Hotaru stroked his forehead, "How did those girls get through this… Think, think, think…"

Trying to remember the final episode of the series, Hotaru closed his eyes, and tried to think past the scene of Alcyone's death. He remembered Debonair being defeated by the combined form of the Magic Knight's Mashin, with the assistance of the other nations. But the first time they faced her was in their individual mechs. Which meant the answer must have been something conventional.

Aiming his hand downwards, Hotaru uttered with a stern voice, "Uranium Cannon!"

A bright burst of lime-green energy flashed over the dark void, accompanied by a loud explosion. The concentrated nuclear explosion created a small hole in the barrier of clouds, with bright light shining out of it. However, it quickly closed shut as the tunnel going through the clouds collapsed.

"Not powerful enough…" Hotaru clicked his tongue, before taking a wide stance. "Titanium Power!"

Activating all of his buffing spells, his body and armor quickly expanded and grew to titanic proportions. His strength grew immensely and his body felt tougher and more mobile than normal. He felt light on his armored feet but also like standing on a steady surface while hovering in the air. With nothing around to compare his size to, it was hard to get a sense of scale, but he felt slightly larger than before.

He was about to pull out his Titan Slicer and try to blow the clouds away with his oversized wind cutter, until a thought occurred to him.

If the spells of the Magic Knights become more powerful when inside the Mashins, would the same apply to Uranium Cannon and Titanium power? I am not inside a magical mech god, but it is worth a shot I guess.

"Uranium Cannon!"

Concentrating as much energy into the palm of his hand as possible, Hotaru formed a large sphere of energy the size of a bull elephant. As the lime-green ball reached its limit, it exploded with immense power, pressure, sound, light, heat, and radiation. With the entirety of the megaton explosion concentrated into a thirty-degree cone, it burst through the cloud barrier. The thick dark gasses were dispersed in a wide area, letting an opposite facing cone of light shine through the hole.

Smirking at his handiwork, Hotaru spoke to himself, "Romeo, if you can hear me; queue 'I need a Hero'."

Expecting his shadow to respond in the back of his mind, Hotaru was only met with silence. While the chance of his shadow starting to play music was a slim one, it would have been fun to have background music.

While his plan had succeeded and the hole created by his empowered spell was large enough for his giant form, it was quickly starting to close again. As such, Hotaru wasted no time before plunging into the tunnel. Even with his speed, the trip through the cloud cover took a while, as he faced the blinding light at the other end. As the tunnel began to close, Hotaru shrunk down to normal size, while his lime-green aura flared. Though he was alone, he could swear he could hear music in his head while diving to the depths of hell in to save Alcyone.

Standing at the entrance of a humongous five-spired obsidian tower, located at the very top of the middle tower, four figures gazed into the distance. Towering over the others, Debonair stood in the middle, with her daughters Nova and Luna standing on her right and left sides. Hanging below her neck like a pendant, Alcyone was encased inside a light purple, stretched out. hexagonal crystal, that hugged her body like a glass coffin.

They had just heard a loud explosion that sounded after a large torrent of energy, bursting through the clouds above. With a hole ruptured in the sky, they all gazed into it sharply, seeing a lime-green glowing dot emerge from it. Though miniscule while compared to the purple lightning bolts flashing around them, following its flight was like watching a storm approaching.

"Hotaru!" Alcyone gasped, feeling his approach in her blood.

"That royal bastard really showed up!" Nova gritted her teeth while clenching her fist.

"What should we do, mother?" Luna asked, seeing how calm Debonair was being.

"Kukukuku…" Debonair chuckled cruelly. "Go and prepare Regalia and Saquada. I have prepared some new friends for you two to play with. But first, let's give him a warm welcome."

With a wave of her clawed, pale blue hand, Debonair called out her armies. From the jagged and porous cliffs around the tower as well as from inside the tower itself, flew and crawled forth a giant swarm of monsters. Hundreds of flying insectoid monsters with several pairs of clawed limbs blackened the sky like swarms of locusts. The ground was slowly being covered up by an equal number of bipedal, crab-like monsters that marched forth at a steady pace.

Seeing her armies approach their guest, Debonair couldn't help but grin maliciously, "You may have betrayed me Romeo, but it was you who told me to prepare such a large number of monsters! Now, get ready to be consumed by them! Ah-hah-hahahahahahhaa!"

Listening to Debonair's laughter, Alcyone used what little space she had inside the crystal, to bring her hands together.

"Please Hotaru… stay safe," she spoke in a silent prayer.

Flying towards the giant castle in the distance, Hotaru could see the view ahead turn increasingly brownish-red. Seeing a swarm of lime-eyed cycloptic insects staring in his direction, Hotaru was taken-aback by their numbers at first. While he could avoid the monsters with his speed, their sheer numbers could make it difficult for him to get out of here with Alcyone. He was about to extend his arm forth for Uranium Cannon, until an idea occurred to him.

"…Titanium Power," Hotaru grinned, before growing to giant size.

Accelerating to full speed, Hotaru flew forwards without slowing or hesitating, right through the swarm face first. Towering over them and outweighing them ten thousand to one, the flying monsters were crushed against his face and armor like bugs on a windshield. The sound of dozens of monsters going splat every second echoed throughout the skies like the drums of war. The splattered monsters painted the silver and gold of the Double Armor with their blood, before their remains faded away.

In order to maximize the number of enemies he was taking out; Hotaru made several turns throughout the swarm. As he mowed down the giant insectoids like a rocket-powered combine harvester, the monsters soon started flying away from him. Instead of chasing after them, Hotaru started flying towards the tower again.

As he flew closer, he saw that the ground below was covered in even more monsters. At first, he figured he could just ignore the earthbound crabs, until the rust-red ground started glowing purple. With their blue cycloptic eyes glowing with dark energy, the crabs started firing up towards him in waves. As purple spheres of energy flew past his ears and struck his armor, Hotaru found himself, at most, annoyed by the monsters. But with their ranged attacks, they too could prove difficult later, as a stray shot could hurt Alcyone.

Slowing down his flying speed, Hotaru spread his arms and legs wide, before yelling out, "Neptunium Barrage!"

The lime-green orbs throughout his Double Armor began to glow brightly, before firing off several spheres of energy similar to his Uranium Cannon. Aimed downwards, these spheres rained on the ground, each of them causing a relatively small but powerful explosion upon impact. Flying over the hordes of enemies, the crab-like monsters were blown away by the carpet-bombing, as Neptunium Barrage reshaped the landscape.

Seeing the trail of death and destruction he was leaving behind, Hotaru couldn't hold back, as he began to chuckle. A wide sadistic grin spread over his face, as the true significance of his new spells finally started to dawn on him.

I finally have them! I finally have my own ranged attacks! I can fire off pew-pews for days! I see anything I dislike; I just BLOW IT AWAY! This is the dream of every shounen-fan ever! And with my buffing spells, I am invincible!

As Hotaru began to laugh loudly, he was interrupted by a loud buzzing sound. Before he could see what it was, a blindingly bright red light shone right into his face, causing him to lose sight for a moment. But in addition to blinding him, Hotaru could feel an almost paralyzing sensation take over his body. As he kept his eyes closed so as not to be blinded, he could feel the breeze against his face change directions. Opening his eyes again, he noticed his body was quickly shrinking down and plummeting, as his magical powers stopped working.

Falling to the ground like a rock with no idea what had happened, Hotaru instinctively tried reactivating Tungsten Defense. Seeing the orbs on his gauntlets begin to shine white, Hotaru could confirm that the spell had indeed worked. But before he could activate another spell, he felt a powerful blow against his back, which accelerated him towards the ground.

Hitting the black stony ground below, his super dense and durable body sunk into it, creating a deep hole. Despite the massive fall, Hotaru's body was barely hurt, the whiplash he had experienced from the blow having hurt more than the fall. Quickly activating Steel Strength and Silver Speed, he broke up the stone around him and got up onto his feet, before jumping out of the person-shaped hole. Once free, he looked around, seeing the full extent of the welcoming party Debonair had prepared him.

In addition to the swarms of crab- and insect-like monsters he had already been killing, he was surrounded by seven unique figures. Two of them were the tall, black, and imposing figures of the evil Mashins, Regalia and Saquada, who stood in front of him as if guarding the obsidian tower. Before them and surrounding Hotaru, were five monsters, two of which he recognized.

"So, we finally meet! The one who Hikaru is always thinking of!" Nova stared down on him from Regalia.

"Always thinking?" Hotaru grimaced. "Please tell me she doesn't have a crush on me in addition to Lantis and Eagle! That girl really needs someone closer to her age…"

Maybe in another time or place?

"Well, she won't have to worry about you much longer," Luna chuckled from inside Saquada, its fishtail and tentacle-hair swaying rhythmically. "In exchange for ruining my act last time, we shall give you the final performance of your life!"

In a dramatic fashion, Luna began swaying her body around, introducing the monsters, "Let me present to you, Alba!"

A large, red monster with a single green eye roared. Its appearance resembled that of an armored warrior in an asymmetrical and spiky armor. Its head was small with a large red horn that was five times taller than its head. Extending out one of its red spikes from its shoulder, it grabbed hold of it before pulling off its left pauldron, which transformed into an axe.

"Seville!"

A human-sized blue monster with an orange eye rumbled quietly, standing before him with its arms crossed. It looked like a tailed warrior in symmetrical blue armor with wide double-layered shoulder pads and a helmet with devil horns. Spreading its arms to the side, it revealed two cavities in its chest before protruding long sharp claws from its wrists.

Hotaru had vague memories of these two monsters, remembering that they had been able to push Hikaru and Lantis to their limits. Which meant the remaining monsters were just as powerful.

"Polaris!"

A tall purple monster about twice the height of Alba looked down at him, screeching quietly. I had a four-legged, spider-like lower body and a hunched over, crab-like upper body, with all of it covered in hard and jagged carapace. Two of its legs were blue and the other two red, and its large crab-like pincers each had a red and blue claw. At the center of its bulky upper body, it had a large yellow eye.

"Brougham!"

The largest of the monsters was a ginormous, eight-legged yellow monster. It looked like a bloated tick that was about three times as tall as Polaris. Its center body looked like a shield with black markings and on its small head at the front of its body, it had a small purple eye. Deep trills echoed from within its body, as its mandibles rubbed against each other.

"Deville!"

A black armored monster, somewhere between the sizes of Alba and Seville, stood quietly off to the side. Its armored body looked like a collection of screaming faces, with black tentacles emerging from its gaps. The humanoid monster stared Hotaru down with its orange eye, which was on the opposite side of the face as compared to Seville's.

Staring at the new monsters, Hotaru could only imagine what each of them were capable of doing. At least one of them had been responsible for the red light that had shone in his face earlier. This meant he had to be careful when approaching each of them, or he would lose to his overconfidence.

"Now I just feel bad," Hotaru said with a smirk. "You prepared all this for me, but I didn't bring you anything…"

Mid sentence, Hotaru pulled out his shield from his right gauntlet and his large golden blade from his left shoulder. Brandishing the two large weapons, Hotaru chose his first target.

"…but devastation and defeat!" Hotaru yelled, before charging at Seville.

Running at full speed towards the smallest of the monsters, Hotaru swung his heavy giant sword in a large arch. But before he could even get within five meters of the monster, he felt his body slow down. As if repelled by some invisible force, the paladin saw as the claws of the purple monster, Polaris, glowed blue.

Pushed aside by a powerful magnetic field, Hotaru instead changed directions towards Deville. Repelled forth by Polaris, Hotaru shot forward like a metal slug from a railgun, preparing to smash the black monster. But before he could bring his golden blade down, a yellow wall got in his way, as Brougham blocked his attack with its massive body. There was a loud clang as his sword, and body, struck the yellow monster's carapace, before being thrown off.

"Titanium Power!" Hotaru yelled mid-flight.

Using his flight to perform a backflip while growing, Hotaru stomped down on Alba, before standing up. He was about to pull out his titan slicer, when he heard a familiar buzzing sound. Looking into its direction, he was blinded once more by the red light, before his body shrunk back down. Before he could come to, his body was bound by dark tentacles that wrapped around his neck, arms, waist, and legs. Looking down, Hotaru could see the tentacles emerge from a large shadow on the ground.

"…And Escalade!" Luna finished her introductions.

Looking back at Luna, Hotaru saw a green insectoid monster with a ginormous red eye flying next to her. It had a large head with a sharp proboscis, a wasp-like body, six long green legs with hooked feet, and dragonfly-like wings that beat a thousand times a minute. Listening to the buzz of its wings, Hotaru could immediately recognize the source of his blight.

"Now I know which bug I should squish first…" Hotaru grumbled, before Regalia began to glow brightly.

Snapping her fingers, Nova transferred herself, her sister, her foe, and the monsters into another dimension. Their surroundings grew ever darker momentarily, before a world of crimson clouds and skies appeared before them. The ground was darker and rockier than before, with a more solid ground.

As the world around him changed, Hotaru could feel his magical powers get cut in half. Bound up, surrounded by enemies of all shapes and sizes, the reality of his situation began to dawn on Hotaru.

"Deville! Polaris! Hold him in place!" Nova yelled, before bringing her hands together.

Seeing Regalia charging up an energy beam and Saquada preparing high-pressure water beams, Hotaru activated his spells again. He was going to pull free from Deville's tentacles with Steel Strength, but as soon as the spells activated, he could feel a magnetic field pull him down against the ground. Polaris's claws were glowing red and blue respectively, and with Hotaru's magic cut in half, he wasn't able to move his legs at all. In addition, the other monsters were also preparing their attacks. Alba was charging up energy into its arm that had transformed into a cannon. Seville gathered blue and red energy into the cavities on its chest. Escalade's ginormous red eye was beginning to glow menacingly, preparing to dispel his magic once more. While Brougham wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, it seemed to stay wary in case Hotaru tried something.

Unable to do anything, Hotaru gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, preparing for the onslaught. With Escalade's light paving way, several energy attacks in every color of the rainbow struck Hotaru from all directions. Before the attacks could hit, Deville withdrew its tentacles from Hotaru at the last second. The barrage of attacks lasted for several seconds, destroying the ground around him. The pain of the constant explosions, energy beams, and water jets was intense and excruciating, but to Hotaru's surprise, not unbearable.

The magnetic field is still holding me still, which means my magic works, which means Tungsten Defense is still keeping me alive! But why didn't the red light cause me to lose my spells? Unless…

As the barrage of attacks still continued, Hotaru kept his eyes closed, while dispelling Steel Strength. Even when keeping his other spells active, he could feel the magnetic field's hold on him disappear. Staying calm despite the pain of the attacks and putting his faith into his Double Armor, Hotaru continued figuring things out.

Steel is the only one of my metals that is ferromagnetic, so as long as I keep it off, Polaris cannot affect me. As for Escalade, this is probably going to be painful…

Waiting till the barrage of attacks started to slow down, Hotaru opened his eyes. Seeing the red light shine upon him, a familiar paralyzing feeling took him over, before a shot from Alba's arm cannon sent him flying. Tumbling back like a rag doll, Hotaru quickly closed his eyes and activated Tungsten Defense, coming to a stop.

So, I just need to kill that flying snot-goblin with my eyes closed and no Steel Strength. Perfect!

Activating Silver Speed, Hotaru pulled out his rapiers from the orbs on his tassets, before charging forth blindly. Following the buzzing sound of Escalade, Hotaru ran with his arms spread wide to his sides, using his rapiers to judge the distance from other objects. Polaris's claws glowed red, trying to pull the paladin towards it, but was unable to pull in the quickly moving target.

Seville and Alba jumped in the way of Hotaru, striking down with their axe and wrist swords. But their attacks only bounced off of the quickly moving warrior, before the blind paladin's rapiers struck their chests. Due to the initial impact, the two monsters were knocked aside by Hotaru's momentum.

Despite his powers being halved, Hotaru was still stronger than before his evolution, making him confident in his blind charge. Hearing the sound of Escalade's buzzing wings getting closer, Hotaru summoned his spear from his left gauntlet. Throwing the spear in the direction of the sound, Hotaru's heart sank as he heard a familiar clanging sound.

Before his spear was able to connect with the green flying monster, the ginormous yellow tick got in his way, blocking the spear. Judging by the proximity of the sound of his spear hitting Brougham and quickly glancing forward to make sure, Hotaru jumped on top of the yellow tick's head. Running up the yellow monster's large, backwards slanting body, he followed the sound of Escalade's buzzing, as it flew away from him. Jumping off of Brougham like its body was a springboard, Hotaru prepared to grab the green insect with his bare hands.

"Enough of this!" Nova yelled, before punching Hotaru mid-air.

Receiving Regalia's right hook straight into his abdomen, Hotaru gasped in pain before being punched away over a hundred meters. Crashlanding and skipping several times despite Tungsten Defense being active, Hotaru eventually came to a halt. As he did, he could feel his body be bound to the ground once more, by Deville's tentacles. Having recovered from their injuries, Alba and Seville walked over to Hotaru, before starting to stomp down on him.

"Ah-hah-haa! Do you see how hopelessly outmatched you are!" Nova yelled out while laughing. "Mother designed our new friends specifically to defeat Romeo! You may be slightly stronger, but it is not enough! You can struggle all you want, but eventually we will crack you open!"

As Nova pointed Regalia's hands towards Hotaru, Alba and Seville instinctively knew to get out of the way. A large orb of red energy appeared between the black and red evil Mashin's hands, before throwing its entire body forward.

"Ruby Lightning!"

The red orb burst open as a cone of ruby red lightning, before striking Hotaru directly. There was a bright crimson explosion, as the rocky ground around the bound paladin was reduced to a crater. While Alba and Seville were blown away by the explosion, their injuries were quickly healed by their regeneration. As the light and dust of the explosion faded away, all that remained in the crater was a pile of rubble.

Nova looked at her results smugly, until the pile of rubble began to move, causing her pointy ears to perk up. As the loose pieces of stone moved aside, they could see the unsullied form of a silver and gold Escudo armor emerge from underneath them. While seeing that their foe was still alive was unnerving to Nova and Luna, it was what they heard that made their skin crawl.

"…H-Hehehehehe-hahahaha-ha-AHAHAHAHAHA!" Hotaru laughed like a maniac, while standing up, before yelling. "SUBARASHĪ!" I'm having so much fun!"

"IDIOT!" Luna yelled out, seeing the outrageous man spreading his arms. "Do you not realize the situation you are in!"

"YES! Yes, I do!" Hotaru yelled, smiling widely and yelling dementedly. "I am all alone, fighting against hordes of monsters! I have an arsenal of various weapons and powerful spells at my disposal that I am allowed to use to my heart's content! My foes are so tough that I can beat them over and over again and so innumerous that I cannot possibly miss! Not a single human being is here to see or judge my actions or be appalled by them! There is no reason to wear any masks nor are there any foes that I have to show even a shred of remorse before slaughtering!"

Opening his lime-green eyes and staring at the buffet that awaited him, Hotaru grinned unashamedly, "THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR!"

Sitting on the fence on whether they should fear or worry for their foe, the scales were quickly tipped for the shadows and monsters. A bright, lime-green light began to shine from the crater, which forced the monsters around him to close their eyes. With his armor glowing bright, Hotaru could feel yet another surge in his powers, as Double Armor transformed yet again.

While the changes were subtle, Hotaru could feel them better than see them. He felt as a layer of chainmail spread throughout the underside of his armor, adding another layer of defense. A series of golden, wedge-shaped knuckle spikes appeared on his armored gloves that reached the round gems on the backs of his hands. His pointy sabatons with several layers of armor, were split at the front, as small, golden, ornate claws appeared around the boot tip. Three, around four inch long, downwards pointing spikes protruded from the backs of each of his calves. The edges of his double-layered, armored pauldrons curled up and became pointier. The twisting golden ornaments that ran across his chest plate and abdomen, rearranged and bundled together, before forming a demonic face.

But the most obvious change that drew the attention of everyone was the helmet that formed around Hotaru's head. It resembled a silver Corinthian helmet with a more open face and several embellishments. Two armored bands surrounded the back and sides of the head, giving it extra protection. The brow and cheek guards were covered in golden vine-like ornaments. From the sides of the head, behind the ears, protruded two short, backwards facing, golden horns.

A small lime-green orb appeared on the forehead of the helmet and medium sized ones on the shin guards of the greaves. With the total of the lime-green orbs now at seventeen, Hotaru tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck.

"Don't just STAND there!" Nova yelled and pointed with her finger, commanding the monsters. "Attack him!"

Hearing the command, Alba and Seville charged forth towards Hotaru again with their melee weapons. Polaris and Deville used their powers and tentacles to restrain the warrior again, holding him in place. Brougham and Escalade stayed behind, with the former using their bulk to protect its masters, while Escalade prepared to shine its light onto its foe. Even the foot soldier monsters all piled in on them, not caring about order or being obliterated. With the monsters all charging in, Nova and Luna prepared to cast their spells.

"Ruby Lightning!"

"Water Dragon!"

Seeing his enemies approaching and that he only had split seconds to react, Hotaru took a step forward. Using his strength, speed, and mass, he pulled Deville out of the shadows on the ground as he walked forth. Despite feeling the magnetic forces of Polaris, his body moved smoothly as he charged up a ball of lime-green energy in his hand. As Alba and Seville got close enough and Escalade was about to fire, Hotaru clenched his fist around the ball of energy.

"Fist full of neutrons!" He yelled with a smile.

Throwing his fist forward, his knuckle spikes blasted through Alba's chest armor, as Hotaru punched through its torso. The red monster let out a pained roar, almost collapsing on top of Hotaru. Seville tried to attack Hotaru square in the face, but its wrist sword snapped as it connected with the helmet's cheek armor. It was at this moment that Escalade red light shone upon the center of the battlefield, bathing everything in the crimson light. But with Alba in front of Hotaru, covering his entire view, the paladin simply opened his hand on the other side of the monster, releasing his prepared spell.

"Uranium Cannon!"

The red light was almost instantly drowned out by the lime-green cone of energy that erupted from Alba's back. The concentrated explosion not only evaporated the green monster in an instant, but took out several of the flying monsters with it. The number of casualties rose, as the red and blue spells prepared by the two shadows were mostly dispersed by the nuclear blast. The clash of three spells took out a large number of the crab-like monsters, as the magical energies blew out in a large shockwave.

With the explosion over with, Hotaru waved his right arm to the side, throwing Alba to the left of him. The red warrior monster flew over twenty meters away, tumbling on the ground, before Hotaru turned towards Seville. The blue horned monster looked at him with its single orange eye, before bringing its arms up into to air. The cavities on its chest glowed bright white as it charged in energy, before firing red and blue beams out of its chest.

The beams immediately wrapped around each other, before spiraling towards Hotaru and striking the paladin dead-on. A bright explosion filled Hotaru's field of view, as the double helix beam drilled against his armor. But even as the swirl of red and blue sped up and intensified, Hotaru simply walked towards the beam and its source.

By the time Seville tired itself out and stopped firing, Hotaru was standing right in front of the horned monster. Before it could react, Hotaru thrusted his hands into the monster's chest cavities, stabbing his fingers deep inside its blue shell. Grabbing tightly hold of its insides, there was a sound of wet squelching and cracking as he tore the monster in half with his bare hands. But even as he was splitting it down vertically, Seville's body parts were trying to reconnect themselves.

Spreading his arms as wide as he could, Hotaru yelled, "Neptunium Barrage!"

Firing two energy blasts from his shoulders, he incinerated the remains of the blue monster, blowing away its remains. As the smoke cleared, he saw yellow and blue beams heading his way, as Nova and Luna fired their unique magic. Summoning his shield, Hotaru blocked the water jets and energy beams that slowly pushed him back against the ground. As he was slowly sliding down the battlefield, he felt something crawling down his back. Turning around, he saw Deville trying to slide its tentacles inside its armor, while staying hidden inside the shadows on the ground.

Waiting until Nova's and Luna's attack was over, he stowed away his shield before grabbing hold of the tentacles with both hands. He pulled the shadowy monster out of the ground in one go, before flinging it against the regenerating Alba. As the two monsters collided together, Hotaru pointed his hand towards them.

"Uranium Cannon."

The cone of energy evaporated Deville and severely damaged Alba's armored up body. After blowing away the two monsters, Hotaru started walking forward, his movements still being weighed down. Sensing the magnetic field still on him, Hotaru turned his gaze to Polaris, whose claws were glowing red and blue. As he started to head towards the magnetic monster, the remaining, smaller crab-like monster rushed in his way, as if trying to protect their larger cousin.

"I admire your bravery," Hotaru smirked, before reaching for his orbs, "and I reward you with a quick death."

Placing his hands on his left shoulder orb, Hotaru was about to pull out his shield, when his hand brushed against his chest orb. As if hearing the call of his weapon, he got the sensation that his Titan Slicer wanted to come out and play. Extending out his arms, Hotaru pulled out two giant swords. In his right hand he wielded his heavy, golden blade with sharp angles and a bulky handguard. In his left, he wielded an even longer, curved, two-toned single-edge blade with a claw-shaped handguard. Seeing his Titan Slicer matching his regular size, Hotaru brandished the first and last weapons given to him by Double Armor.

With heavy yet quick steps, he moved through the army of crab monsters, swinging the two greatswords that were each almost as long as he was. His golden sword crushed and shattered its way through the enemy carapaces, leaving his foes a splattered mess. His sleeker blade on the other hand sliced through the crabs cleanly, its enormous blade cutting them in twain without effort. Sometimes he would swing both swords at once at the same enemy, sending them flying while cutting them in half.

Compared to when he started out with his executioner's axe or originally received his golden greatsword, the sensation was completely different. His attacks were no longer slow and forced, and he was no longer being pulled along by his weapons. His strength made the heavy swords feel light as batons and there was no strain on his wrists. His mass kept him anchored to the ground, allowing him perfect leverage when swinging his weapons to his heart's content. And his speed made sure no enemy was safe from his wrath.

Seeing Hotaru bursting the monsters like they were grapes on his way to Polaris, Luna began to sing, desperate to put a stop to him. But despite her singing almost forcing Nova into a trance, Hotaru didn't slow down, for he was already listening to his own tune in his head.

Gotta run, gotta run 'til I fall~! Gotta keep on feeding the crave! Gotta build, gotta build up my wall~! Gonna keep on digging my grave! Gotta fight, gotta fight 'til I bleed~! Gotta keep my head screwed on tight! Gotta stay, gotta stay in the lead~! Gotta make sure I win this fight!

Reaching the large purple crab like monster, its claws began to glow blue, as Polaris tried to repel Hotaru away from it. With each step taken closer to the monster, Hotaru felt the magnetic field getting stronger. Digging his feet into the ground while singing in his head, he continued making his way forward. At first he thought he was going to make it, until Polaris itself began to get pushed back by its own magnetic field. The monster's clawed feet scraped against the rocky wall at the same pace as Hotaru was getting nearer.

Before his foe could get the idea to flee from him, Hotaru raised his swords up in the air, while singing, "…It's okay if I'm a bit unstable~! But I've been doing just fine on my own! I don't care if I am in denial~! It's a mild syndrome!"

Bringing his swords down with full force, Hotaru launched two large wind-cutters at Polaris. The bright white blades of air flew past the purple monster, severing its crab-like arms. With the claws losing the source of their power, the magnetic field disappeared, allowing for Hotaru to accelerate to full speed. Charging right at the disarmed monster, Hotaru began to slice and hack at the purple monster with ferocious enthusiasm.

"Gotta deal, gotta deal with the pain~! Gotta put up with all the lies! Gotta break, gotta break off the chain~! Gotta silence all of the cries!" Hotaru continued singing while tearing into Polaris with his swords. "Gonna lose, gonna lose my own head~! Gonna finally run out of luck! Gonna fall, gonna fall 'til I'm dead~! And frankly, I don't give a—!"

*SMASH*

Before Hotaru could finish the verse, Nova threw Brougham on top of him, flattening what remained of Polaris. But despite the interruption, Hotaru slowly lifted the giant yellow tick off of him, before throwing them aside. With Polaris still squirming underneath him, Hotaru stabbed his swords into its remains, causing the magnetic monster to explode before dissipating.

Turning his attention to Brougham that had just managed to roll back onto its eight feet, Hotaru reached for his right shoulder. Pulling out his large, two-handed morning star, Hotaru ran towards the largest of the monsters, before bringing his mace down. Bashing the monster's small head and shield-like thorax dozens of times per second, the monster's body rang like a gong.

"The more I try~! The less I'm free!" he yelled off the top of his lungs, over the sound of clanging. "The more I fail~! The more I hate THEE!"

While the tick-like monster was screeching in pain from the thrashing he was giving it, its hard carapace refused to buckle. Eventually, the long shaft of the morning star started to bend, before snapping, the weapon reverting into particles of light.

As the particles returned to his right shoulder, Hotaru gritted his teeth, "Alright… You want to be difficult, so be it. Titanium Power!"

Activating all of his buffing spells at once, Hotaru grew to larger proportions than ever before. Even though Brougham was large as a dinosaur, it may as well have been just a large hedgehog next to the paladin. Even Regalia and Saquada, both of which stood head and shoulders taller than other Mashins, found themselves towered over in the same manner.

As direct impacts were no use, Hotaru reached down, picking up Brougham and bringing it close to his face, "Welcome to the hydraulic press channel."

Placing his hands on the sides of the monster's large torso, Hotaru slowly pushed them together. The shield-like carapace resisted for a while, until it began to bend, buckle, and eventually crack. The screeches and screams of Brougham echoed throughout the crimson dimension, as its innards were squeezed out from its mouth. But before the monster could suffer too greatly, its body burst open in a splash of purple blood that coated Hotaru's hands, before fading away.

Turning towards the two evil Mashins who now seemed to him as no more than misbehaving kids, Hotaru could sense the fear of their pilots. Just as he was about to approach them, he heard quiet clanging from below him.

Looking down, he could see the red warrior monster, Alba, striking at his foot with its axe. Even though the green-eyed warrior didn't even reach his ankle, it was still trying to attack him. Whether this was due to a sense of duty, honor, or it just didn't know any better, the regenerating menace refused to give up in defeating him. Once it became obvious it couldn't damage Hotaru with its axe, it converted its left arm into an arm cannon with a double bayonet attachment. Firing its purple energy attack at him at full charge, Hotaru could feel a slight itch from it.

"How dare you still be alive?" Hotaru asked in a tired voice, before pointing his palm towards the ground next to him. "Uranium Cannon. Uranium Cannon! URANIUM CANNON!"

Firing three oversized nuclear bursts at the red warrior, the first one was able to completely evaporate the monster and create a huge crater on the ground. The second shot expanded the crater and made it deeper, blowing hundreds of tons of debris into the air. The third and final nuclear strike punctured a hole through the world below him, causing the crater to turn into a hole into the void below the ground. As the ground beneath Hotaru crumbled away, he simply stayed afloat atop the void, before hovering over to Nova and Luna.

As Hotaru approached the two shadows, the two of them couldn't help but tremble, feeling their options running low. With nothing left to do, Luna charged up a barrage of seven oversized spheres of water above her Mashin. She then summoned her trident, pointing it at Hotaru, before firing everything she had.

"Water Dragon!"

With seven ginormous water jets and a triple corkscrew Water Dragon flying his way, Hotaru pulled his right fist back, before punching at the oncoming deluge at full force. As his fist connected with Luna's attacks at hypersonic speeds, there was a loud bang as the water was dispersed in an instant. Displaced water displaced more water around it, causing the water jets to curve around Hotaru's fist. With the silver and gold titan standing before them unharmed, the two shadows were even more unnerved.

"Hieeeee! Stay away from us!" Luna shrieked, taking a step back with Saquada.

"Calm down, Luna!" Nova scolded her older sister. "We still have a chance at defeating him!"

"And what makes you so confident?" the lime-eyed titan gazed down at Regalia, through the gaps in his helmet. "I haven't even had to crack out my new spell and the army of thousands is already down to two."

Summoning her energy swords, Nova took a dual wielding fighting stance, "As long as you stay within this dimension, your magic powers are halved! That gives us the advantage!"

Hotaru smiled, so faintly it couldn't be seen through his helmet, "And you believe that is enough?"

Before Nova could respond back, Hotaru quickly reached for his right shoulder with his left hand, pulling out a giant version of his two-handed morning star. Swinging his arm in the opposite direction, Nova only had a moment to bring up one of her swords, before the morning star smashed through it. Without slowing down, the enormous spiky mace struck Regalia's left arm and side like a runaway bullet-train. Knocked off her feet by the impact, Nova only had time to gasp in pain before Regalia was sent flying sideways, and impacted a rocky hill.

Seeing Regalia get sent flying, Luna covered her mouth, screaming into her hands frightenedly. Before she could ask if Nova was alright, the dimension around them began to shift. The crimson skies returned back to being black with a tint of blue and the black ground regained its granite-like hue. In the distance, Luna and Hotaru could see a familiar obsidian tower that stood as the lone marker of civilization. Their return to Cephiro's underside signified that Nova had lost consciousness from the impact, leaving Luna as the only one left to fight off against their invader.

As the magic halving effects of Nova's dimension dissipated, Luna watched her foe grow larger once more. Expecting Hotaru to grow twice as tall, she was surprised when his height only increased by around a quarter. While the size increase wasn't dramatic, it only proved to her how little their efforts to weaken him had mattered in the end.

Stowing his morning star away, Hotaru gazed down into Saquada's blank white eyes, "Run…"

With her lip quivering for a moment, the siren eventually screamed, turned tail, and flew off in her Mashin. At first Hotaru watched her flying towards the tower, until eventually she turned to the right, running into the wastelands instead. While her fear of Hotaru was apparent, Luna seemed even more scared of disappointing her adoptive mother.

With no more obstacles in his way, Hotaru rose off the ground, before flying to the enemy stronghold as quickly as was feasible.

Although the architecture of Debonair's tower was simpler than that of the Sanctuary, it didn't mean it was easy to navigate. Although all the corridors were made for large monsters, Hotaru still had to shrink back to normal to explore them. Trying to find his way in the alien structure, he started getting impatient and worried. It took Hotaru a moment to remember how the Magic Knights had managed to confront Debonair.

He remembered that there was a Mashin sized opening at the top of the tower, similar to the Sanctuary, through which Hikaru and others had flown in. Knowing he could be running out of time until Debonair decided to do something unsavory to Alcyone, Hotaru activated Titanium Power.

Without any regard to the architecture, he flew upwards, smashing his way through what felt like three dozen floors. All the floors looked the same, with minimal signs of life or being lived in, bar a few loose feathers and chunks of ice. Eventually Hotaru's helmet burst through the purple floor of a large, open room, one where even his gigantic form could move in freely. It was a room he was well familiar with, its purple curtains and giant hourglass giving him an odd sense of nostalgia. But he had no time for reminiscing, for he was finally face to face with the main villain.

"So, you actually made it this far," Debonair squinted her eyes annoyedly, looking down on him. "I do not know if I should be angry or impressed."

While Hotaru wasn't surprised to find Debonair standing in the middle of the main room, he wasn't expecting her to be towering over him. Although Hotaru stood over twice the height of a regular Mashin now, he held no candle to the queen of monsters, whose headdress scraped the ceiling. The blue-skinned alien-like monster woman stared down at him like he was a walking ken-doll, only reaching below her knee. Being aware of Debonair's tricks and techniques, Hotaru at first thought she was just projecting a larger image of herself. But no matter how closely he looked, he couldn't find even a hint of transparency on Debonair's visage.

"I expected more from my daughters and monsters," Debonair admitted begrudgingly, almost digging her nails into her wrist, "but I suppose this will give me the opportunity to slay you myself, oh Prince of Many Names."

Getting over Debonair's apparent height, Hotaru could sense the dark and foreboding power radiating from her. He could tell Debonair was more powerful than he was, no questions about it, but by how much he didn't know. It was hard for him to grasp the true difference in their power, for he was still getting used to his latest power boost. Whether he was in mortal peril or if he could defeat her with his perseverance, one thing was for sure. This would be an uphill struggle.

I received a new spell when my armor evolved, but I don't know if it will be powerful enough to take Debonair out. It sounds powerful, but putting all my hopes on it without even knowing what it does is a fool's errand.

As Hotaru was worrying about defeating his nemesis, he heard something, "Hotaru! Get out of here!"

Looking in the direction of the voice, Hotaru could barely spot something glinting around Debonair's neck. A golden chain hung around Debonair's pencil neck, with a light purple, long, hexagonal crystal dangling from it, with a humanoid figure inside it. Looking more closely, Hotaru could see Alcyone trapped inside the tight confides of it.

Reminded of his purpose here, he pushed aside his fear and spoke adamantly, "Let's cut to the chase. If you release Alcyone, I promise this will be a far less painful experience to the both of us."

"Hotaru, no!" Alcyone, objected, but was cut off by Debonair's laugher.

"Muhah-hahahahahaha… Aah-hah-hahahahaha!" Debonair laughed in a shrill and sadistic voice. "Oh… I am almost tempted to let you have her! Nothing like someone to love to poison the well of Cephiro's last source of hope!"

"Cephiro's last…" Alcyone's eyes widened, before she turned to Hotaru. "What does she mean?"

"She is talking out of her ass!" Hotaru said in an aggressive manner, pulling out giant versions of his dual rapiers. "Cephiro has plenty of hope left!"

"Ah-hah-hah-hah-haa! So cute how confident you are, Prince of Cephiro!" Debonair raised the back of her hand against her cheek. "You are the only person in Cephiro worthy of becoming the next Pillar! And yet you have chosen this foolish woman over this tragic little world! I thought that I would have to struggle to see this world come to an end, but now it will fall all on its own! Aah-hah-hahahahaha!"

Hearing this, Alcyone's heart sank. Had Hotaru truly been accepted as the next Pillar? Had he thrown away such an opportunity just for her, dooming the planet? She wanted to fall down onto her knees, but there was no room for it. Instead, she desperately pressed her body against the cold surface of her crystal coffin, staring down at Hotaru in despair.

"Is what she says true, Hotaru…?" Alcyone asked, tears in her eyes. "Is… Is Cephiro doomed because of me?"

Seeing Alcyone's tears, Hotaru was about to correct her, when a thought occurred to him, "…Yes, it is true. Because of my actions and choices, Cephiro is unfortunately doomed. With nothing left to do, may I please have the woman I love back? I wish to hold her until our final moments, for that is all I truly care about at this point."

Hearing the tired and weary voice of the heir to the Pillar, Debonair chuckled victoriously and embraced the negative emotions pouring out of Alcyone's heart. She had been worried when it turned out that both Romeo and Hotaru knew about a timeline where she had been defeated. To have almost lost to the demon she once called her eldest son had infuriated her, but his better half had come to her rescue. Choosing the life of his woman over the world, just like his father, had all but guaranteed her victory, and he had done so while fully aware of it. As Cephiro's time was limited, she was almost tempted to follow through with this as a sign of gratitude. But as she was about to deny his request out of pure cruelty, she noticed something as she gazed into the man's heart. Whether Romeo or the Son of the Pillar, she had never before been able to see clearly into their hearts, but now she could see glimpses of his true thoughts.

"You… You LIE!" Debonair shrieked, her snakelike pupils gleaming from the depths of her blue eyes. "You know of another! You spoke of another pillar candidate! And they are… there are two of them!?"

"...Seems I've taken off too many masks," Hotaru clicked his tongue annoyedly. "Oh well, worth a shot!"

Seeing Debonair raising her clawed hands, Hotaru charged forward at top speed, his rapiers pointed directly at his target's vitals. A fraction of a second before his swords pierced Debonair's heart and throat, a dark barrier blocked his blades. Pushing against the barrier with all his might, Hotaru could feel its dark powers trying to repel him back like the clouds above had. But seeing the way Alcyone looked at him inside her crystal prison, through the barrier, Hotaru knew he couldn't give up so easily. He kept pushing against the barrier, until he saw his lover's eyes widen.

"Hotaru, look out!"

Before he could react, a massive beam of dark energy struck him in the back. Black lightning with dark red edges surged through Hotaru's body, making all of his reinforced nerve-endings scream in agony. Despite trying his best to grit his teeth and resist the pain, Hotaru lost his grip on his rapiers, before being flung back by the barrier.

There was a loud crash as the armored titan was thrown through the obsidian tower's walls, only coming to a stop when outside. Hotaru quickly gathered his thoughts before instantly flying back inside. Once back in the large purple room, Hotaru spotted several large, dark, crackling spheres floating in the air. With his rapiers still laying on the floor, Hotaru was about to pull out his shield and spear, when a thought occurred to him.

These attacks… they do not care for my defenses! If I get hit it doesn't matter what weapon I use, so…

As several of the floating spheres fired in his direction, Hotaru focused on avoiding the beams with his speed. While shrinking down in size would have made him even more evasive, he didn't want to risk being incinerated without Tungsten Defense. Ever since his last evolution, he had managed to break many of the rules of his equipment he thought had been carved in stone. However, he didn't believe he could combine Tungsten Defense and Aluminum Flight without growing giant.

As if to prove his concerns valid, the dark beams left behind clean holes in the walls upon impact. With the room quickly turning into Swiss-cheese, Hotaru knew he had to come up with a plan quickly, and return fire.

"Neptunium Barrage!"

Firing off lime-green blasts at the floating orbs haphazardly, Hotaru figured he could confuse Debonair by making her focus on too many things at once. In addition, with his spell adding to the damage done to the room, he was waiting for the roof to collapse on them. With debris falling on top of them, Hotaru would quickly grab Alcyone and fly away.

"You think I will fall for such an obvious ploy!" Debonair interrupted his trail of thought. "Perish!"

Having read the paladin's thoughts and flight patterns, Debonair summoned a massive sphere of dark energy around him, trapping him in place. Hotaru felt the darkness around him trying to simultaneously crush and tear him apart, as if a maelstrom of gravity. Before he could try and break out, the dozens upon dozens of dark spheres around him fired their beams directly at him.

"AAAAAAARRRRGGHHH!" Hotaru screamed, being bombarded from all directions.

"HOTARUUU!" Alcyone yelled in tears, before begging. "Please! Stop hurting him! I'll do anything if you spare him!"

"Kukuku! What a noble gesture," Debonair chuckled while staring down at her brooch. "But unfortunately, you have nothing I would want! Aah-hah-ahahahahaha!"

As the number and size of the beams on Hotaru kept increasing, Alcyone could tell the pain he felt did too. She felt so helpless watching Debonair tear the man she loved to pieces, wishing there was something she could do. The crystal prison prevented her use of magic, nor did she have any weapons on her. She wanted to offer her medicine and drugs to Hotaru, just so that they would have even the slightest chance to escape, or at least null the pain. But as Hotaru's situation seemed to only grow worse, Alcyone knew there was only one thing to do.

"Hotaru, please! Save yourself and leave me here!" Alcyone yelled, begging for him to let her go. "I will be fine! I promise you!"

"Nnngh… NO!" Hotaru forced out of his mouth, as the pain was only getting worse. "I refuse to leave you! I didn't come all this way… just to turn my back and abandon you! I am here… to save you… and that is what I will do! RrrrrrrAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH!"

Pushing his speed and strength to its limits, Hotaru's lime-green aura began to glow brightly. The aura pushed back the darkness around him ever so slightly, preventing the beams from hitting him. Flying up with all his might, he managed to break out of the vortex of pure malevolent energies, before reaching the ceiling.

"I will not let you die again!" Hotaru yelled, gathering his powers. "Plutonium Ar—!"

Just as Hotaru was about to activate his latest spell to try and wipe Debonair off the face of Cephiro, a sense of dread overtook him. His insides felt like they were about to bulge out and blow, as the magical energies inside of him accumulated. It was like he was trying to push a weather balloon through a garden hose, as the nuclear spell tried to find a way out of him. It was only at the very last moments that he managed to cancel out the spell and cause the uproar inside of him to dissipate.

Is… Is this a self-destruct spell?!

Before Hotaru could fully comprehend the implications behind this, he was struck back by a barrage of dark beams. Over sixty shots over the course of a second knocked him back to the corner of the room, the pain causing his brain to short out for a moment. Due to the damage done to the room, several tons of debris fell on top of him, adding insult to injury.

"Hha-aaah-ahahahahaa! What's the matter? Where did all your gusto disappear, oh Man of Many Names?" Debonair asked, ridiculing the would-be hero.

Before Hotaru could answer, Debonair extended her hand towards him, summoning an orb of pink crackling energy into it. The orb flared out of her hand as a pink flame with a dark aura, striking the paladin directly. The force of the attack drove Hotaru into the ground, while the heat and energy of the attack scorched him up. The pink flames burnt his skin like acid through his armor, causing him to wail in pain. But despite the attack, despite his spell turning out to be a dud, Hotaru knew he couldn't give up.

Forcing himself up, Hotaru spat out debris before gritting his teeth, "How are you this powerful…?"

"Muhuahahahahaa! I was born out of the fear of every citizen of Cephiro, when the previous Pillar, Princess Emeraude died! Their fears, hatred, despair, suffering, and anxiety, I will put an end to it all! I am the answer to their prayers!" Debonair rambled victoriously. "As long as the people of Cephiro keep fearing me, I will grow stronger! Despite my failure at the castle and Romeo's foolish betrayal, I succeeded in what I sought out to do! To sow as much terror into the hearts of the people as possible!"

While Hotaru had asked his question in order to get Debonair monologuing, so that he could think of a plan, the last part caught his attention.

Oh, right… the people. They shouldn't be scared! We won! They won! Romeo is dead and… and I'm the only one who knows about that. What did Romeo do back at the Sanctuary!? Idiot, you should have calmed down the populace before rushing in!

"Now, be a dear, and perish," Debonair chuckled, firing another pink bolt of fire at Hotaru. "If you give up now, I promise to kill your beloved quickly afterwards. Then you may both join your parents in the afterlife!"

"Hotaru!" Alcyone screamed, seeing him engulfed by another sea of magenta flames.

Conjuring his Titanium Slicer from his chest orb, Hotaru held his sword and swung it in a wide arc, blowing away the flames. Panting heavily, Hotaru glared at the towering monstrous woman with his lime-green eyes, without a shred of willingness to back down.

"You must be… As dumb as Romeo said you were," Hotaru panted in a voice full of bile, gripping his sword, "if you think that I would ever give up! No matter who stands in my way! No matter what the world throws at me!"

While staring Debonair down, Hotaru raised his sword, pouring all of his heart into it, causing both the blade and the warrior to glow brightly

"…I will continue fighting, with all my heart! Keep going forward, with all my will! And I will never, ever give up! Until tomorrow, gets, BETTER!"

With all his force, fortitude, and fury, Hotaru brought down his sword, cleaving the air before him. In the blink of an eye, the tip of his curved blade sent forth a massive, shining blade of air, at hypersonic speeds. The blade flew past Debonair's cheek and across the room, reaching the back wall before she had time to put up a barrier. At first, a slice of the enormous purple back wall fell down, followed by a cut of Debonair's cape and shoulder pad. Finally, Debonair's right arm was cleanly severed at its upper arm, causing it to fall the ground, before the pain finally reached Debonair's brain.

"BWAAAaaarrghhiiiiieEEEYYY!" Debonair screamed in pain, the stump of her arm dripping blue blood.

Seeing Debonair screaming in agony, Hotaru couldn't help but smile for having returned the favor from the earlier. While he should have been celebrating his first successful hit on the she beast, another sound caught his attention.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" a high-pitched scream echoed in the room.

Looking up, Hotaru could see Alcyone holding onto her right arm, while writhing in pain inside her crystal prison. At first Hotaru worried he had struck her as well, until noticing that there was no damage on the crystal.

"Alcyone! What's wrong!?" Hotaru yelled worriedly, before hearing laughter.

Standing up straight, her headdress scraping the top of the room, Debonair smiled sadistically while letting go of her cut off arm. As she stood perfectly still, dark blue strands of blood and sinew formed between the stub of her arm and the remains of her limb on the ground. In mere moments, these strands pulled her arm back up, before reattaching it, not leaving even a tear in her black dress sleeve.

"Muhah-hahahahahaha…" Debonair laughed from her gut. "Have you not figured it out yet? Did you really think that I placed her inside this crystal just for fashion?"

Straightening the fingers of her reattached arm, Debonair dug her long, sharp, purple nails into her left clavicle. While this seemed to hurt the towering monster who gritted her teeth, it was Alcyone who screamed in pain, holding her left shoulder.

"STOP IT THIS INSTANT!" Hotaru yelled, spitting as he bared his teeth in anger.

"What was it that you said earlier?" Debonair asked in a soft and condescending voice. "You promise this will be a 'far less painful experience' to us? Well, I don't really mind. Go ahead and hurt me as much as you want, for it is Alcyone who will suffer the most~."

With Debonair taunting him, Hotaru could only seethe and tremble with anger. While Debonair hurting Alcyone in this manner was unforgivable, he couldn't deny the effectiveness and foresight of her machinations. The monsters she had prepared had been perfectly designed to take down Romeo, and the crystal was perfectly able to abuse his love for Alcyone. Gnashing his teeth together and gripping his fists, Hotaru eventually sheathed away his Titan Slicer.

"Oh?" Debonair smiled amusedly, bearing her sharp teeth. "You resign yourself to your fate so as not to hurt your beloved? How noble of you~. And here I thought you didn't know when to give up."

"Please… Hotaru…" Alcyone gasped in pain, feeling absolute worse for the position she was putting him in. "Just leave me and live a happy life!"

Standing his ground, Hotaru called to the crystal around Debonair's neck, "A wise man once said…!"

"Hmmm?" Debonair raised her eyebrow. "What's this now?"

While trying to peer into Hotaru's heart once again, Debonair could only see a mass of writhing darkness that obscured her view.

Hearing Hotaru's words, Alcyone eventually nodded, "…'Pain is temporary, and then you move on'…"

"Nani?" Debonair twitched, staring down at the sorceress.

Reaching for his left shoulder, Hotaru pulled out a giant version of his already huge golden blade. Staring Debonair with a murderous intent, Hotaru twisted the sword's handle, causing its edge to split vertically. From within the blade, small, quickly rotating blades were exposed that silently rotated around at high speeds. Without wasting another moment, Hotaru took off at Debonair's face at full speed.

Unaware of what the paladin was planning, Debonair panicked and extended her hand, trying to cast a barrier. She figured Hotaru was going to try and hurt her regardless of Alcyone and prepared herself for any possible pain he might inflict on him. But just as Debonair could see the crazed look in Hotaru's eyes right before he impacted the barrier, her foe dived down.

Taking an extreme nose dive, Hotaru flew down along the barrier towards the floor, before reaching the bottom edge of the barrier. Making another sharp turn, Hotaru flew behind the barrier, between Debonair's legs, and up her skirt…

A sensation of absolute dread took over the towering monster and her prisoner, as the moment of realization struck them. Debonair only felt a slight breeze and a quick brush of cold metal against her bony inner thighs, before an indescribable pain shot through her.

"HHHOOOOOOAAAAARGGGGGHHHHHHHEEEEAAAAAAIIIIooorrrrrggghh!" she screamed at the ceiling until her mouth began to foam.

From her nether regions, to her abdomen, to her intestines, to her stomach, to her diaphragm, everything felt like it was on fire, as a large metal object tore its way through her forcefully. Alcyone, who shared every painful sensation with her captor, was close to passing out from the mixture of violent emotions running through her mind. Eventually the brutal and mechanical grinding and thrusting sensation reached Debonair's throat, causing the back of her neck to bulge out. A fountain of dark blue blood and gore erupted from her torn upper back, as a golden chainsword ripped its way through.

Forcing his way out from Debonair's depths, Hotaru's sword cut the golden chain running around her neck. Making his way back into the world outside, Hotaru could hear two shrill and ear-splitting voices screaming in pain, as well as the sound of something cracking. Despite being overcome by pain, Alcyone saw as the crystal coffin around her sparked and cracked, as it was overloaded by the pain. Seeing her prison begin to fall, she pushed against its sides through the pain with all her might, until eventually, the crystal shattered to hundreds of shards.

As she began to fall freely and was about to try and activate her levitation spell, a massive, metallic hand caught her. Hotaru wrapped his hand around her quickly, before pressing Alcyone against his chest protectively. With the sorceress secured, Hotaru took off as quickly as he could.

Despite still being in horrible pain and in the middle of regenerating, Debonair sent forth an onslaught of dark red energy beams. Seeing the rays catch up to him, Hotaru worried the beams might harm Alcyone if they hit him. He deactivated Titanium Power and activated Silver Speed and Aluminum flight instead, shrinking down to regular size. Holding onto Alcyone tightly, Hotaru ducked and weaved between the attacks as he tried to fly out of the fortress through its main corridor.

Staring behind at the attacks that followed them, Alcyone screamed directions, "Left! Right! Up! Left!"

Listening to Alcyone's instructions, Hotaru made it outside without being hit. Knowing Debonair could still be on their tail, Hotaru didn't slow down but continued flying across the barren wasteland. With the dark enemy fortress getting left behind, Alcyone's eyes grew moist as she embraced her savior tightly and lovingly.

While they held each other, Alcyone yelled while crying, "Oh you absolute dickhead! You have any idea how much that hurt!?"

"I'm sorry but it was the only thing I could come up with at the time!" Hotaru apologized, hugging her tightly. "You can chew me out when we get home!"

As they made their way to the part of Cephiro's underside where Hotaru had first entered, Hotaru activated Titanium Power again. Preparing to blow a hole through the cloud cover, Hotaru froze in place.

"Why did we stop?" Alcyone asked worriedly, huddled underneath Hotaru's neck armor.

"…I spotted something on our way here."

After capturing Commander Eagle Vision and his Second-in-Command Geo Metro, Cephiro's defenders had imprisoned them in a jail cell located in Sanctuary's northern tower. With their enemy locked away, the Magic Knights had joined Clef, Ferio, Presea and the others in the throne room to discuss their next move. Clef and Hikaru had explained to others how they had received a message from Hotaru that had allowed them to capture Eagle without issue. The topics had ranged between Hotaru's whereabouts, Alcyone leaving Sanctuary, and what to do with their new prisoners.

While locking them away and waiting for things to blow over would have been an option, Autozam's battleship, NSX, was still parked outside. Further confusion was brought forth by Clef's and Lantis's discovery that the Proof of the Pillar's chamber had been breached, but nothing had been taken out. Being an eyewitness, Hikaru had explained to have seen Hotaru near the explosion that blew a hole in the side of the tower, where the antechamber was.

But without any concrete answers as to what had been going on, the dozen or so people at the throne room had begun to speculate. Around thirty minutes later, there was a knock at the door, before the throne room doors were kicked open. At first, they didn't quite recognize who the intruder was, as their face was mostly covered by a helmet. Furthermore, their body was obscured by a black and white bundle they were carrying in their arms, as well as a black object they were carrying on their left shoulder. But as they spotted his silver and gold armor with lime-green orbs, there was only one who would fit that description.

"Tadaima~!" Hotaru announced himself sing-song, before stepping in. "So this is where you all were hiding?"

"Hotaru!" many voices rang out in surprise, delight, and excitement.

Rushing over to greet him, Hikaru yelled out, "And Alcyone too! …Are you alright?"

As everyone gathered around closer, they could see that Hotaru was in fact holding the raven-haired sorceress in his arms. She was wrapped in her large white cape while cradled in a princess carry, with her long hair obscuring most of her features. One could mistake her for a lifeless body, if it weren't for her subtle fidgeting.

Rolling over onto her side in Hotaru's arms, Alcyone smiled awkwardly, "Yes, I am fine now…. Hotaru, you can put me down."

After letting the sorceress in black leotard and white cape down gently, Hotaru blushed slightly as Alcyone still held onto him for support. While the others smiled seeing the couple together again, the truth behind Alcyone's lean was something neither of them wanted to mention.

"We are so glad you are all back!" Umi yelled happily.

Sierra rushed next to the two of them. "Are you alright? Where have you been?"

"T-That's a long story…" Alcyone answered, both ashamed and embarrassed by her situation, before spotting someone new. "Uh… who are you?"

With Alcyone pointing it out, Hotaru was also surprised to see a green-haired peri among their group. The winged woman with talons for hands and feet stood out prominently, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see her kind in the world of Cephiro. However, from her luxurious outfit and the red gems on it, Hotaru quickly figured out who this was.

"You must be Terra, Fuu's shadow, correct?" Hotaru asked.

Terra nodded, curtsying politely, "That is right. I am… sorry for acting so hostilely last time we met, Mr. Hotaru. I am happy to see that you and Ms. Alcyone are safe and sound."

"Clef told us that you had left Sanctuary," Presea spoke out, getting close enough to grab Alcyone's hand. "If it was because something we said or because we've treated you badly, I am so sorry for the trouble we've caused."

Seeing the genuine concern in her former rival's eyes, Alcyone could barely meet her gaze, "No, the one who has caused trouble is me… I'm so sorry for making you all worry, but right now, I really need some rest…"

"We understand," Clef spoke out magnanimously, quieting down everyone else's fawning over her. "Make sure to rest up well, I am sure you have had a few rough days."

Feeling a pang of nostalgia strike her, Alcyone curtsied carefully, "Thank you, Master Mage Clef…"

Giving her old teacher a warm smile, Alcyone turned around, before leaving the throne room. As she walked away, everyone could see her taking each step gingerly. Even with her cape obscuring her back, they could tell that Alcyone's hips were close to giving up. There was an awkward moment of silence, as no one dared comment on this, before Alcyone was out of the earshot.

Leaning over to Hotaru, Caldina asked impishly, "So… did ya two finally 'do it'?"

Hearing the question, Hotaru's jaw dropped, "Uuuuhhh…"

[Scenario 1]

"Yes, yes we did," Hotaru nodded while smiling confidently, before hearing teleportation sound behind him.

*CLANG*

"You asshole!" Alcyone yelled angrily, holding her large Escudo bident-staff like a mace.

[Scenario 2]

"…No, we did not," Hotaru answered honestly.

"Then why is she walkin' in such a funny manner?" Caldina tilted her head confused.

"Uuuuhhh…"

[Scenario 3]

"…No comment," Hotaru answered dryly.

As others smiled awkwardly, Lantis spoke out firmly, "Hotaru, what are you carrying over your shoulder?"

As everyone turned to look at the black shape laying on top of Hotaru's left pauldron, they could see it start wriggling from side to side. As it did, they could spot a glimpse of pink swaying behind Hotaru's back. Grabbing hold of the black, rubbery hands around his prisoner, Hotaru picked her up before throwing her onto the throne room floor.

"N-Nova!?" Hikaru and Terra gasped in amazement.

The pink-haired elf was wriggling and shaking on the throne room's red carpet, her arms, ankles, thighs, and waist bound. An additional black rubbery band had been bound around her head, gagging the extremely upset shadow. While they couldn't understand Nova's words through the gag, the furious look in her eyes told them everything they needed to know.

"Uhh… Boss, you care to explain this one?" Ferio asked, pointing at the girl he had never seen before.

"Look it's not what you think," Hotaru sighed exasperatedly, stroking his facial guard. "I fought Nova and Luna on my way to save Alcyone, and managed to knock her out. So, we figured to bring her over as she was still unconscious on our way back."

"Saved her from what?" Clef asked in a worried tone.

"Debonair. Long story," Hotaru sighed, also feeling the accumulated fatigue of the day getting to him. "I faced Debonair's armies alone, kicked some ass, got my ass kicked in return, wouldn't recommend anyone else tries it."

"Then why did you go alone?" Fuu asked with her hands on her hips, seemingly angry and worried at the same time. "We could have helped you in saving Ms. Alcyone!"

"…My heart told me to do it alone," Hotaru answered vaguely, not regretting his decision. "A lot of things have happened to me today."

"That explains your armor evolving," Presea said analytically, staring at her masterwork more closely. "So, this is its final form then?"

"Could be," Hotaru answered, looking at it closely now that he had the chance. "Though I feel like there is something missing…"

"I guess we need to find a cell for her too…" Lafarga spoke out, keeping an eye on the still struggling Nova. "Speaking of which, we managed to capture Eagle according to your instructions. What do you plan on doing with him?"

Having all but forgotten about Eagle, Hotaru sighed tiredly again, covering his eyes, "Tell him I will meet up with him tomorrow for a chat. Keep a close eye on him until then, he can be crafty. As for Nova, let Hikaru and Terra worry about her."

Seeing Hotaru turning on the spot and taking his leave, Umi rushed over before grabbing hold of him, "Wait a minute! You said you saw Luna, didn't you?"

"What about her?" Hotaru rolled his eyes, trying to not hurt Umi while still moving forward

"Luna has captured Ascot! Did you see him?" Umi asked worriedly, gripping his armored arm tightly.

Freezing on the spot, Hotaru turned to look at Umi, "She did WHAT!?"

After leaving the throne room, Alcyone had hobbled her way to her and Hotaru's apartment, until she had reached the first set of stairs. With her body still aching from Hotaru's assault on Debonair, she conceded and instead teleported back to the apartment. While she wasn't expecting her home to be in tip top shape after all that had happened, she wasn't prepared for total destruction.

Their once proud and luxurious four-room apartment looked like a warzone, full of crystal debris, burn marks, and remnants of half melted ice. All but one of the walls of their and nearby apartments were smashed to pieces and the floor was covered in holes left behind by monstrous footsteps. The one wall that was still standing was covered in ice, blocking the door to the master bedroom. Their kitchen had lost its walls and two counters, but most of the appliances seemed to be intact. The bathroom and guest room had been completely blasted away, with a gaping hole to the outside world.

Seeing the devastation that had taken place while she was away, Alcyone all but forgot about her arching innards. Her attempt at leaving her life behind for Stella to take care of had all come crashing down along with the ceiling. All that she and Hotaru had achieved together to make their lives better, had been destroyed. As a cold breeze from the direction of the toilet blew over her, she couldn't help but be reminded that her crystal prison was where she belonged.

Overcome by the sheer volume of it all, she wept into her hands, "This is all my fault… Why do I always ruin everything?"

"Don't you dare blame yourself for this."

Jumping from surprise, Alcyone turned around quickly, finding Hotaru standing behind her. He had reduced his armor back into a pair of gauntlets, and was standing before her in her singed tunic and pants. There was a stern look on his face which at first she found threatening, as he walked over to her. But as Hotaru pulled her into his embrace, she finally took the moment to calm down to listen to his words.

"This was my fault," Hotaru admitted, pressing his face against Alcyone's shoulder. "It was my actions that led to the creation of Terra and the other shadows, and my desires that led to the creation of Romeo. And when all of my blunders endangered the lives of those who I loved the most, I was unable to do anything about it because of my self-pity…"

Listening to Hotaru's words and trying to understand what he meant, Alcyone wrapped her arms around him, while stroking his head. She had no idea what Hotaru had been through after she left or how her leaving had affected him. But knowing he had followed her into the wastelands and even risked his life fighting Debonair, it must have been bad to get him into this state. But what she did know is that he underestimated her involvement in all this.

"You only acted in the manner you did because of me," Alcyone spoke softly, pulling back slightly, to look Hotaru in the eyes. "Had it not been for how I lived my life, your actions wouldn't have held such significance. In the end, I am not sure if I will ever be free of the sins of my past, and for that reason…"

Alcyone's line of thought was completely interrupted, as she felt Hotaru grab the back of her head. The pain she had shared with Debonair flared up again, as her body tensed up, causing multiple shivers to run up her spine. But despite letting out a weird series of voices, Alcyone couldn't pry her eyes away from Hotaru's fiery gaze.

"Enough worrying about the past! I don't care what obstacles your past sins may throw at us, for I will not let them stand in our way!" Hotaru declared adamantly, refusing to lose Alcyone again. "You may have killed your family and apparently I did the same! But regardless of the monster it makes of me, I am willing to overlook that!"

Overwhelmed by Hotaru's passionate words, Alcyone trembled in his grip, before leaning against his shoulder in turn. Even as Hotaru started stroking her head and long hair, she couldn't help but sob quietly against his neck. For while Hotaru was willing to forgive her, he had been misinformed.

"That's… That's not what happened," Alcyone sniffed, before drying her tears. "I didn't kill my family…"

Hotaru's eyes widened from confusion, but so as not to betray his word, he held Alcyone firmly in his arms, "Then please, tell me the truth. For I promise you, I will love you regardless."

Nodding quietly, Alcyone tried to speak clearly, "It all started… fifteen years ago…"

Zagato had just captured Emeraude and prepared to defend the castle, or so I thought. Having been infatuated with him for decades and thinking he wanted to rule Cephiro, I was elated by the implications of this. I rushed back home to tell my parents and siblings of what was going on. I told them that Zagato was planning a coup and if I could make a good impression on him, Zagato would make me his queen.

Hearing that our noble family could soon be ruling all of Cephiro, my parents and siblings jumped at joy. Never before in my life had my brothers and sisters shown me such levels of support and compassion. They spent almost every gold coin they had for amassing an army and used every servant and connection at their disposal, to drum up more support for Zagato. Through their influence half of the noble families of Cephiro joined in an alliance in favor of and under the rule of Zagato.

The remaining nobles weren't so keen on betraying Princess Emeraude, so they amassed their own armies to fight back. Almost every member of every noble family of Cephiro, of three generations, became a figurehead in the army. This included my nieces and nephews, who were less than thirty years old at the time.

As the wars raged on, I was always in the front-lines with my siblings, mowing down enemies with my spells and sword. As battles heated up, so did our strategies and atrocities that we needed to win. But as I kept relentlessly fighting against the loyalists for the sake of my dreams, I failed to see the losses mounting on our side. After ten years of warfare, I received an invite from my mother, one that I could not refuse. My father had died of old age and I was invited to the funeral.

When I arrived, there were no other guests. None of my siblings were there, only me and my mother. I asked my mother where my siblings and their children were. She told me they were all already waiting for my father, who had died of grief after losing so many of his children.

"In the end… I watched my weary old mother… take her own life with a dagger, there and then," Alcyone sobbed against Hotaru's chest, crying her eyes out. "I watched her kill herself… without shedding a single tear for her! At her final breath… she called me a failure of a daughter!"

Standing frozen in place, Hotaru stared into the darkness of Cephiro through the hole in their apartment. He was overwhelmed by Alcyone's tale of events he had never before known of. While he had promised he would love Alcyone despite her past, he almost couldn't believe his own ears. He had seen and heard a lot during the wildest years of his lives, but this level of mental trauma was something even he wasn't prepared for.

I'd rather fight against Debonair's horde of monsters again than Alcyone personal demons… But, nevertheless…

Gently and slowly, he placed his right hand onto her right shoulder, pulling her closer. Wrapping his left arm around her waist, between her back and cape, he held his weeping sorceress securely in his arms. Waiting patiently for Alcyone to stop crying, Hotaru stroked the back of her head, listening to her pour her heart out.

"So you see…" Alcyone sniffed, trying to regain at least some level of dignity, "I didn't kill my family. I destroyed it! It and every other major family on Cephiro! If anybody else was still left alive, who knew what I've done, I would be branded as the biggest monster in Cephiro's history!"

"…You'd be surprised how stiff that competition is…" Hotaru snarked quietly, staring at himself in an imaginary mirror.

Ignoring Hotaru's quiet words, Alcyone pulled away from his embrace slightly, so as to look him in the eye, "And you… do you really find it in your heart to love a wretched woman like myself? Because even if you do, I do not deserve the love of someone like you…"

"Well, if indirectly killing your parents makes you a wretch, then so am I," Hotaru gave a weak smile, embracing Alcyone firmly. "I killed my father and assisted in my mother's self-orchestrated suicide."

Blinking slowly in confusion, Alcyone was taken aback by Hotaru's confession, "What… why?"

"Oh, you weren't told by Debonair?" Hotaru blinked back in confusion, before hurriedly explaining. "This body that I was reborn in belonged to Aston, a secret love-child of Princess Emeraude and Zagato. So technically I killed my own parents, without even knowing it, but…"

Before he could explain further, Alcyone buried her face into Hotaru's chest. The once Zagato obsessed sorceress let out a muffled, animalistic cry filled with all of her jumbled emotions. The implications of Hotaru's current body overflowed her with frustration, shame, sadness, and happiness. An emotional deluge she was too tired to deal with assaulted her mind. But after calming down a bit, Alcyone pulled away from Hotaru's chest, before looking at his face.

"…It explains so much," Alcyone admitted with a nearly furious expression.

"What does?" Hotaru asked worriedly.

"Since the day we met I've wondered; why do you look so familiar!" Alcyone yelled, hugging him tightly against her firm body. "When you're stern or angry, you resemble Zagato! And when you smile or are sad, you remind me of Emeraude! It is so obvious now but I had no chance of ever guessing correctly!"

Pressing her face against Hotaru's chest again, Alcyone let out another frustrated cry, before yelling into the air, "To Hell with you Zagato! Your perfect precious son is mine and he is a far better lover than you ever would have been!"

Hearing Alcyone scream this out so loudly, Hotaru couldn't help but blush at the intent behind these words.

She seems to be in a better mood now, so I don't mind. But yelling at her dead boss she had sex with his kid? That is an off-color power move no matter the world or context. Man I love this woman… which is why I cannot keep up the charade any longer.

Stroking Alcyone's cheek, Hotaru spoke softly while looking into her eye, "I am glad you think so highly of me, but I must burst your bubble. I have given you a majorly flawed impression of myself."

"What do you mean?" Alcyone asked, worried her heart couldn't take another emotional rollercoaster.

"I am not some… perfect boyfriend, benevolent saint, or Prince Charming," Hotaru spat the words out, disgusted in himself. "I only tried to give that impression so that I could compete with Zagato. Because if you knew who I was and what I had done, I doubt you would have given me the time of day."

Placing her hand on Hotaru' cheek in return, Alcyone shook his head, "I know you lied to me, but I also realize you never meant to hurt me with those lies. Even if you have done bad things in the past, you have been nothing but wonderful to me and have done more for my sake than I ever deserved…"

Seeing her words didn't convince Hotaru, Alcyone smiled at him sympathetically, "…But if you really need to get something off your chest, I will listen."

Sighing deeply, Hotaru loosened his hold Alcyone, in case she wanted to back off, "The truth is that… The reason you see me as too good for you, is because I have already made every possible mistake in the book. In my previous life, I must have had… at least a dozen lovers."

Seeing Alcyone raise one of her thin eyebrows, Hotaru quickly corrected himself, "Not all at once! But… some of them simultaneously, as I paid no heed to their true feelings. I… never gave any of them the love and respect that they deserved. I would always find a woman who I thought of as attractive, whisper sweet nothings to their ears, and quickly woo them. But when in a relationship, I would always consider them more as a possession than a person."

Although hearing Hotaru speak of his old flings hurt and offended Alcyone as a woman, she couldn't blame him. While his past seemed mired, it was a short cry of the sullied mess of her own past.

"Each of my relationships ended in one of three ways. They would get tired of me being a lazy good-for-nothing, I would grow too abusive and they would dump me, or I would get bored, find someone else, and cheat on them," Hotaru confessed, unable to look Alcyone in the eye. "With each failed romance I would take notes and try again later, older and wiser, but never feeling guilty. It was only when I found you that I tried to change. To be someone better. Someone a woman like you deserved."

"…I guess we both have our sins," Alcyone smiled sadly at the irony of it all. "But do you really, honestly believe that I am a woman deserving of such love? You may have lied, cheated and been a jerk, but at least you do not have the blood of children on your hands…"

Seeing Alcyone's expression turn glum again, Hotaru shrugged, "I don't want to sound callous, but when you sign up to try and usurp the ruling government, you must be ready to sully your hands and pay with your life."

"But they died for nothing!" Alcyone rebutted, almost offended by Hotaru's comment. "They all signed their lives away, for a cause that I by all intents and purposes made up! Without me they would still all be happy and alive! Without my selfish desire to try and rule Cephiro, so much pain and death would never have taken place…"

"It is not like anyone corrected your or their mistakes," Hotaru pointed out, staying firm in his stance. "While you were spreading misinformation without even knowing about it, it was they who stayed silent. And as for those who decided to follow along, well… If they saw fit to turn on someone like Princess Emeraude, I cannot see them having been good people. And if I were thrust into the same situation… I would have done the exact same thing you did."

Staring at Hotaru intently, Alcyone was trying her best to understand Hotaru's point of view. While him indirectly calling her family bad people seemed purposeful, she couldn't deny it. The apple didn't fall far from the tree, and her siblings undoubtedly had their own skeletons in their closet. While she no longer held a grudge towards Master Mage Clef for keeping her in the dark, she was certain her master felt the same shame in his heart. Now that she saw Hotaru in a new light, the idea he would have made the same mistakes as she did, didn't seem that farfetched.

Reaching underneath Alcyone's chin, Hotaru lifted her face and looked deep into her eyes, "As for your earlier question, I do. I honestly believe you are deserving of all the love and effort I can muster. Because you are a woman who loves with all your heart. You went above and beyond and sacrificed everything for the man you loved, to make both his and your dream come reality. And I'll be frank, that is the kind of woman that I want more than any other."

"…But what if you get bored of me as well?" Alcyone asked, no longer shying away from his gaze. "What makes you sure you won't just betray and leave me too?"

Hotaru smiled slowly, amused by the question, "Because, for the first time in my life, I don't want to get bored of you. I want to love you and to be with you, if not forever, then for as long as we possibly can. Whether it is but a few more days or half a millenium, I want us to be together and find happiness, support, and comfort in each other's company. Neither of us may be perfect, but I don't want us to be separated, ever again!"

Listening to Hotaru's simplistic yet heartfelt reasoning, a wry snuck up on Alcyone's red lips, "…I guess we deserve each other after all."

Having opened up to one another, their past sins no longer weighed on their consciousnesses. Not when alone, for they knew neither of them could judge the other. And with nothing holding them back anymore, Hotaru and Alcyone leaned in close, kissing for the first time in what felt like forever. While both of them still had a lot of questions to ask the other, it could wait. The world around them may have been a mess, but all they cared about was the person next to them.

But even still, as a cold breeze blew through the hole in the wall and against their necks, they both took a good long look at the state of their home. Not wanting to stare at the ruins of their past failures, Hotaru led Alcyone over to the frozen bedroom door. Using Steel Strength, he cracked the door open, revealing the only intact room in their apartment, which still radiated a familiar comfort. Closing the door and isolating themselves from the outside world, they finally felt right at home.

"It seems our love nest is back to being a single bedroom and a kitchen," Alcyone chuckled while laying down on the bed, remembering their time in Mokona's shelter.

"It was a temporary set up anyway," Hotaru pointed out, wrapping his arms around her. "The next one we will build ourselves."

"Do you believe Cephiro will still be around by then?" Alcyone asked worriedly, nuzzling into his neck.

"I promise," Hotaru smiled confidently, pulling the blanket over them both. "For heart that believes becomes power in Cephiro, and there are a lot of powerful hearts on our side."

Pressing their bodies together, Hotaru and Alcyone left behind the stress of the past and future ordeals. Even if the world were to turn against them or grumbled away from underneath them, they knew for certain they would have each other. All that mattered to them at the moment, was that which was located within the four walls of their bedroom. But as they peacefully drift off to sleep, they couldn't shake the feeling that they had forgotten something.

Author's Afterword: Well… that was heavy, gruesome, somewhat depressing, crude, and at times kinda slapsticky. Nevertheless, I really hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter. This is probably the longest chapter that I will write that will not be split into two parts. But there is a good reason for that.

This "chapter" has been on my mind long before I started writing Saving the Villainess. In fact, a lot of the scenes in this chapter are the first ones I ever pictured in my mind upon my rewatch of MKR last year. It was those ideas that guided the events that have happened in the story so far. Hotaru's motto of heart, will, and tomorrow, was for his confrontation with Debonair. Alcyone leaving Hotaru for the sake of this reunion. The reason Hotaru started from the bottom was for him to work his way up, to be powerful enough to take on Debonair and live to tell the tale. (As well as Hotaru's dragonslayer having a chainsaw function...)

Now despite the gore and copious amounts of battle scenes, what I think the heaviest blow for the readers will be is Alcyone's backstory. I have fleshed out the characters' backgrounds since the beginning, making sure to add some interesting tidbits for the fans. For Alcyone, I've foreshadowed her past before, but considering how dramatic she was being about it all, I needed her guilt to stem from something major. After writing it down, I realize that for some of you, I may have gone too dark or too harsh on her.

Next time, things are going to a bit more lighthearted, as we begin to wrap up season 2 of Saving the Villainess.

As always, reviews and speculations are welcomed and appreciated. My thanks go to our recurring anonymous Guest for your review on the last chapter!