All rights are reserved to their respective owners. I own nothing in this piece of fiction except my FCs and the story itself.


"I hope the others are alright..." Compa spoke, her worried expression only increasing with the adjacent thunder and lightning that raged around Nepgear's party.

The party reached the bottom of the staircase, into the Gamindustri Graveyard proper.

Although several members left the party already, the safer route ensured that none of the non-flying (or remotely rational) members ended up hurting themselves.

The feeling that the Nurse-In-Training experienced was mirrored throughout most of the group, with more compassionate members such as Kallen and Nepgear herself sharing similar facial expressions.

Yet others felt differently about the situation.

"Nebula and Gris are most likely fine. Even if they ran into CFW Judge of all people, they should at least be able to hold her off." IF had a more realistic outlook, but it wasn't necessarily the brightest.

"What about AL?" Nisa asked the Guild Agent.

"He should be okay, too. He's one of the few humans in the party that can fly, anyway." IF reminded the heroine, who nodded in remembrance.

"Right. But what about Rom and Ram?" Kallen nervously inquired. "Shouldn't we be looking for them before finding your sisters?" The nun suggested to the group at large.

"Domio went after them, but it'd be irresponsible to let a child watch over two children by himself." Uni pointed out the flaw in leaving the cards as they were dealt.

"Mina did entrust us with the twins, so it's only right to find all three of them." The heroine vied for the moral decision as well.

"Who knows what they might run into if we leave them alone for too long?" Nisa asked.

"Alright. Let's find them, everyone." Nepgear nodded with refurnished determination.

The journey through the graveyard began for Nepgear's party, with the characters steadily walking through the junkyard of the obsolete.

"So it was three years the CPUs spent inside this place." The otherworldly nun commented, looking around at the dark scenery.

"It must have been so lonely..." Kallen muttered, not being able to imagine the solitary state the goddesses had to endure.

"It didn't feel like three years from my perspective." Nepgear chimed in.

"Wait, you were here with them?" The nun turned to the Planeptunian CPU Candidate.

"I went with them to fight against ASIC's leader, CFW Magic." The goddess revealed before the nun became shocked at the revelation.

"It's true. Compa and I had to free her after those three years passed." IF confirmed, with the nun turning to her with equivalent surprise.

"But how did she defeat you? It must have been a tough fight for everyone involved, no?" The sister was baffled at how five goddesses were felled by one person.

"Her power was terrifying, I'm still unnerved by how she managed to cut down at the other goddesses... My sister... Then myself."

The memories flashed before the purple CPU Candidate, how the merciless leader of the Arfoire Syndicate of International Crime disposed of the goddesses of Gamindustri without difficulty.

"Well, that won't happen again," Uni interjected, causing both Kallen and Nepgear to turn to her.

"We're all here to support you Nepgear. So get any of those memories holding you back out of your head." The Lastationite CPU Candidate spoke up.

"With all of us, there's no way we can lose again." The brunette Guild Agent ruled out the possibility of failure.

"So let's find Rom and Ram, and then head back to where that scary robot was!" Compa jubilantly cheered.

"The only question left is where they even fell off to..." Gust made a thoughtful face, reminiscing on their double freefall into the fields of junk.

"I can survey the area with my broom and return with a location of the twins." MAGES. offered, summoning her broom in the process.

"Oh, I'll go with you!" 5pb. volunteered. "Singing a song might help them recognize us from mid-air." She gave her reasons.

"Shouldn't we stick together, though?" The brunette alchemist weighed in. "In a place like this, getting separated could be game over." A salient point.

"You should've told that to the other half of the party that already high-tailed it to the jaws of peril." Uni rolled her eyes.

"R-Right..." An awkward smile appeared on Nepgear's face at the reason they were looking for the twins in the first place.

"Then I alone will go. To minimize the number of people leaving the party, and to quickly return with the location of the twins and my pupil." The Mad Magician decided.

"You all can carry on in the meantime." MAGES. stated.

"Won't you lose our position while looking for theirs?" 5pb. inquired.

"The bird's eye view I have will allow me to easily track you all down after I find them, so do not worry." The blue-haired magician responded.

She quickly hopped onto her broom, before the object slowly levitated from off the ground until she was a comfortable distance from the floor.

WHOOSH...!

"Be quick! The sooner you get back, the sooner we can find them!" IF told the mage before she nodded while taking to the skies.

Seeing the Mad Magician's form slowly disappear in the air, the party continued their path to find the twins.

"I still can't believe they just jumped off a cliffside like that. Like seriously?!" The event still flabbergasted the gun-toting CPU Candidate.

"They can fly?" The nun tried justifying why the twins would do something like that.

"I just think Neb-Neb's impulsiveness is starting to rub off on them." Compa voiced her hypothesis.

"Either way, we should just find them before anything bad happens to them." IF guided the party away from speculation and back to the task at hand.


"So you've been to Celestia?" Neptune stared with sparkles in her eyes at the revelation that Nebula dropped on the CPU's heads.

"Mhm. What, you guys haven't been?" The GPU raised a curious brow at the pudding goddess herself.

"No! We didn't even know that was a place you could go to!" Noire justified their ignorance, her fascination written all over her face.

"And here I thought the CPUs would know a thing or two about it." Gris shrugged, not expecting much from the goddesses and still being underwhelmed.

"Hey, we were trapped for three years so it's not like we had any time to research the subject or anything!" The CPU of Lastation huffed, defending her ignorance.

"That is true." A small nod from the meme lord took the words of the twin-tailed goddess for face value.

"So what is it like up there?" Blanc wa the next to ask a question, her features remaining neutral as she turned to the blue GPU.

"Lots of floating islands, solidified share crystals sticking out of the ground, enough share energy to stay in HDD indefinitely..."

"Wait, what was that last part?" Blanc, who had been listening intently wanted to make sure she heard the lattermost observation correctly.

"Indefinite HDD? Yeah, you can stay in HDD practically forever from the number of shares I felt through the heavenly realm of Celestia." Nebula explained his point to the kuudere CPU.

"It sounds very convenient if that's the case. Were you the only being within Celestia at the time?" Vert brought up another good question.

"Nope. I met another goddess there, who aided in sealing the goddess ASIC's trying to revive currently." Nebula expanded the lore with another revelation.

"What?!" The CPUs were taken aback by the information distributed by the GPU.

"So there are goddesses in other realms..." Blanc summarized, the range of their perspective widening further upon the new piece of information.

"And even they know about the threat ASIC poses in Gamindustri..." Noire muttered, keeping the severity of the threat that the syndicate possessed.

"That just means our time in the spotlight is long overdue!" Neptune came to the simplest conclusion the quickest, remaining bright in the process.

"You can say that again." Gris agreed. "My back's getting sore carrying everyone." He stretched with a light pop to prove his backhanded compliment.

"Har har." Nebula let out a dry laugh. "Keep that same energy when CFW Magic shows up." Nebula gave a side glance at the edgy GPU.

The utterance of that name caused the CPUs to jar, alert at the mere mention of the leader of ASIC's name.

"Where!?" The four goddesses quickly swiveled, before realizing that it was only a name call, rather than a call out from the blue "deity."

"What was that all about?" Gris held back the urge to snort upon seeing them spin around like tops at the mere mention of the scythe-wielding woman.

"Good heavens! Do you not know what we had to go through because of that woman?" Vert gave the edge lord a disturbed look.

"That bitch warrants that kind of response when she cut us down in one fell swoop." Blanc's less composed self slowly peeked out of her calm shell, for the sole purpose of how fearsome CFW Magic could be.00000

"Doesn't seem that way to me." Uncaring of the pink-haired linchpin, the assassin brushed off the leader's notoriety.

"How can you even say something like that? What could you do if she managed to keep us trapped here for so long?" Noire grew annoyed at Gris's blatant disregard to someone like CFW Magic.

"Mr. Edgy Mc Edgerson's gonna end up biting more than he can chew at this rate," Neptune commented with slightly widened eyes at how someone she didn't know existed until fifteen minutes ago acted as if he was touted.

"Hardly. I know what I'm dealing with, unlike you four when you waltzed in this place thinking it would be an in-and-out situation." Gris let a small smile out at his chances of victory.

"Hey!" Neptune's face suddenly became gobsmacked at the label of their first mission to the Gamindustri Graveyard. The other CPUs felt a pang of disdain for how the GPU was downplaying their efforts.

"And Neptune, I'd rather my personality be as sharp as my skills that my brain be as smooth as the pudding you eat."

"Now that's just uncalled for!" A tick mark made its way to the purple-haired CPU of Planeptune, who had now received several jabs from the black-clad GPU at this point.

"Hey, be nice. These are the CPUs, remember?" Nebula stepped in to prevent any more verbal Nep abuse.

"They're sure living up to the expectations..." The manslayer sarcastically complimented.

"We were better when we flew in this place!" Noire spoke up, her cheeks starting to become slightly red with embarrassment.

"So you're even worse now that when CFW Magic handed your ass to you on a platter?" Gris looked back at the Lastationite CPU.

An irritated huff escaped the twin-tailed goddess as she folded her arms.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing this guy fail all of a sudden." Blanc voiced, with Vert giving her opinion on the matter.

"It is a rather intriguing prospect, I will admit," Vert admitted to her flat divine peer, who nodded at the sight.

"Great, now you have the CPUs wishing for your downfall." Nebula grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Hate never comes from above, Noobula." Gris retorted, causing another set of huffs from Noire and Neptune. "Just look at Accelerator." The albino assassin pointed his thumb at the esper.

"Fuck you." The curt and direct response from the vector manipulator did all but prove his point.

"See?" A faint smile appeared on his face, as the meme lord looked up in exasperation.

"This is why you have no friends..." Shaking his head, Nebula sighed.

Noire's huffing ceased upon the tidbit, replaced by a thoughtful glance at the edge lord. However, this did not go unnoticed by the local pudding consumer.

"Are you thinking about easing up on him because you're both loners, Noire?" A snide, almost troll-like expression replaced the pouting look Neptune had moments ago.

"N-No I'm not! Be quiet, Neptune!" Red covered the tsundere goddess' face as she hotly denied the claim.

"Piss off, Neptune!" A deep scowl appeared on Gris' features, growing disgruntled by the pudding goddess.

"Wow, this is gonna be interesting." Nebula chuckled to himself, seeing that Neptune managed to give herself some berth in the conversational arena.

The group continued walking as Noire and Gris continued to squawk about, with a mischievous face radiating off the CPU of Planeptune.


"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!"

SWING!-

BZZT!...

CFW Judgement heaved his halberd before dragging it forward, the wind pressure creating a powerful dome of pressure as the edge of the polearm crackled with neon blue energy.

"JUMP!" Ram shouted, feeling the powerful winds from the gigantic weapon incoming.

HOP!-

SWOOSH!

CFW Judgement's slash barely missed the trio, a growl of frustration escaping his metallic mouth before he returned to his neutral stance with his targets continuing to flee.

"How long have we been running...?" Rom asked, her legs burning from the marathon that the most abrasive member of the Four Felons had them participating in.

"Dunno," Ram answered honestly. "Do you, Domio?" She turned to the youth, who responded in turn.

"Can't be that long, although it feels like forever with this guy on our tail!" Turning back, the Loweean warlock saw an overhead slash in the making, CFW Judgement's hull creaking at the motion.

"SCATTER!" Screeched the magical teen, before the three darted in different directions.

DASH!...

DASH!...

Ram jumped to the right, with Ram scooting to the left.

SKID!

While Domio decelerated.

"WORTHLESS MAGGOT!"

SWING!

The electrified halberd was brought down, the reflection of the blade seen in Domio's eyes as it neared closer.

CRASH!

THOOM!...

"Domio!" The twist shouted in concern, fearing that their friend had been crushed under the devastating pressure of CFW Judgement's power.

From the pile of smoke, Domio slid from underneath the hulking robot, mostly unscathed.

"That was close...!" Preventing himself from stuttering for that would let Judgement know he was afraid, the boy stood up to face his opponent.

CFW Judgement turned slowly to face his remaining target, having lost sight of the CPU Candidate thanks to Domio's risky maneuver.

"LUCKY BRAT. YOU WON'T BE SO LUCKY NEXT TIME...!"

MAGIC CIRCLE!

FREEZE!

Summoning his magical properties, the warlock encased himself in a chunk of ice dense and large enough to encapsulate his entire body.

SHINE!

ABSORB...!

The ice glowed before thawing out, revealing the warlock standing with closed eyes.

"Huh? Why's he just standing there?" Ram whispered.

She hid behind a pile of junk that covered enough of her body so that she went unseen by the guardian of the graveyard.

"I dunno Rom, but we should transform and help him," Rom responded, huddling beside her.

"Have you seen how strong that thing is?! I wanna see Domio wear it down before we finish it off." The pink CPU Candidate told her sister.

"But what if he gets hurt?" The blue twin fretted over the possibility.

"Then we transform and beat him up, of course!" Ram gave Rom a thumbs up.

"ARE YOU KIDDING Me? YOU WENT TO FUCKING SLEEP!" CFW Judgement seethed, seeing the standing warlock motionless, eyes closed and body releasing any tension.

"I'LL CUT YOU IN TWO!"

BOOST!

Moving quickly to the Loweean, the Felon reeled his halberd with killing intent as he prepared to slice at the teenager's neck.

SWING!-

BZZZT!

With a diagonal slice, CFW Judgement let another crackling attack loose with his polearm closing in on the unaware youth.

DROP!-

FREEZE!

Getting low, the son of the meme lord pulled his legs up to allow himself to fall before using his hands to keep himself off the ground. After that, he froze his legs with icy boots that coated his feet several times over.

WHO-

BAMF!

Right when the halberd would have ripped into his flesh, Domio had already ducked under the attack, before kicking out his legs in a handstand-like position.

"SHIT!"

The robot's balance was compromised by the hit, leading the towering mechanical menace to wobble from the hit that Domio landed on his weapon.

PUSH!

FLIP-FLIP-FLIP!

THUD!...

ドドドド!...

Pushing his body into the air, Domio did a triple somersault before landing on his feet. Opening his eyes, the glowing blue orbs made their comeback before settling into an icy cyan hue.

"I have to buy them enough time..." Talking to himself, the warlock then took out a book from his inventory.

HOVER...!

His grimoire, courtesy of MAGES. now floated beside him through unknown means while letting tiny ice crystals glimmer around it.

"Let's dance!" Getting into a battle stance, the young warlock soon felt SP concentrating on his hands.

FREEZE!...

His arms grew frozen in ice to create his gauntlets, the spellbook glowing in correlation.

"Woah..." Gripping his fists, the teenager made the silent connection that his grimoire had auto-casting as a feature.

"I'LL CUT OFF A LEG FOR THAT!"

BOOST!

Regaining his balance, CFW Judgement threatened the young mage before boosting ahead, quickly closing in on Domio.

SLIDE!...

Kicking off the ground, the pubescent warlock accelerated with strides of his ice path making himself a harder target to lock onto from the get-go.

Digging again in his inventory, the magic user fished out his rune before pointing it in CFW Judgement's general vicinity.

"Blizzaga Burst!"

ICE BEAM!

"Waugh!"

STUMBLE!...

The rune's engravings glowed before a large beam of ice magic projected from the rock with severe recoil. Domio himself was pushed from the unexpected kick the small rock had within it, inexperienced with such magical relics.

CRASH!

"ARGH!" The guardian was hit flat in the chest by the icy SP Skill, his body shuddering from the impact's ferocity.

"It staggered! Alright, let's go!" A small smile crept on the warlock's face as he continued to skate on the ice that he created under his soles, while CFW Judgement felt his system temperature drop like a stone.

"GRRR!... THE ONLY COLD THING HERE WILL BE YOUR MUTILATED CORPSE!"

THRUST!

After recovering from the blast of cold, the guardian made a straight line to where Domio was progressing toward, in an attempt to cut him off from his path.

REEL!

All while swinging his hefty halberd, aiming to cleave the youth in twain.

SKID!-

HANDSTAND!-

CRASH!

Arching his back as he leaned, Domio soon shifted his weight onto his hand as he clutched the rune with the other before using his icy boots to align them in a parallel manner that resulted in a spontaneous parry from the Loweean.

"FUCKING BRAT!"

FLIP!

KICK!-

TWIRL!

Flicking his gauntlet's wrist, the boy flipped himself back up before giving himself enough torque to spin around whilst skating and stomp off of the ground with a powerful jump.

SHINE!

WHAM!-

"BLARGH!" The Felon guffawed from stinging pain radiating from his facial sensors.

The gauntlet that housed the rune glowed brightly, increasing the density of the ice that Domio had made before clocking the giant robot in the face.

CFW Judgement was sent flying from the blitzing attack, his hull shaking in the wind from the velocity he traveled.

DRAG!...

"GRRRRR!..."

Sticking his halberd into the ground, he managed to stop himself, vitriol echoing from his spot with a hand cradling his dented faceplate.

"Anytime now, you two!"

FREEZE!-

SOAR!...

Domio yelled to the twin goddesses of Lowee, before flying into the air with his wings.

"R-Right! Let's do this, Rom!" Ram, after watching Domio hold his felt conviction rise from within her childish heart.

"Ready when you are, sis!" Rom nodded, a glint of determination within her eyes as she answered her younger sister.

"Access!"

TRANSFORM!

TRANSFORM!

Both twins shouted the command for their Hard Drive Divinity to activate accordingly. White pillars of light rose from their centers before expanding to engulf their bodies.

As the light subsided, White Sister Rom and White Sister Ram entered the heat of battle.

"Follow my lead, Rom!"

SUMMON!...

WOOSH!

Ram shouted, before summoning her processors to fly to the location of CFW Judgement.

SUMMON!...

SOAR!

Rom wordlessly nodded before summoning her own floating wings to fly alongside her sister.

Elsewhere, the Felon shook off the sweltering pain before swiveling his head in a furious attempt to find where the warlock had run off to.

"SHOW YOURSELF, YOU PEST! I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR A COWARD!" The robot screamed, his voice echoing throughout the area.

GRIP...!

When no one answered him, CFW Judgement tightened his grip on his halberd with a loud clench.

"I SAID SHOW YOURSELF!"

SWING!-

CLEAVE!

RUMBLE...!

Sweeping his halberd, the wind pressure managed to slice several junk pile hills in half, the ground rumbling from the force generated by the hulking mass of technological rage.

"We're right here!" Ram shouted from above, causing the robotic menace to turn his head up to the red skies.

"WHAT?!"

"Ice Coffin!" Rom pointed her staff, before bringing forth an SP Skill from her magical arsenal to assault the startled Felon.

FLASH FREEZE!

CFW Judgement's weapon arm immediately found itself coated in ice with his halberd's shaft caught within the layer of ice that the blue goddess' spell successfully trapped.

"Tch...! DAMN BRAT!"

PULL...!

CLING...!

The death robot attempted to use his other arm to free his weapon, yet the resilience of Rom's attack was higher than he assumed when his fingers pulled to no avail.

...CRACKLE!

Charging his free hand with electricity, the blue neon glow radiated before he raised his hands to the sky, calling forth a strong lightning bolt to descend from the skies.

"Not so fast!" Ram shouted as she closed the gap between herself and the robot before holding her staff, and pointing it out to the Felon.

"E-Force Blizzard!" Point blank, the pink goddess took advantage of the distracted guardian of the Gamindustri Graveyard.

FREEZE!...

Judge's entire body covered itself in ice, immobilizing him completely in seconds.

"Get out of the way, Ram! The thunderbolt's going to hit you if you stay there!" Her older sister shouted, remembering what that wind-up meant for Domio when the robot used it on him.

"Huh?-"

LIGHTNING!

Ram's attention went to her sister's words before the streak of lightning fell from the heavens, causing the girl to look up at it, registering the powerful strike of energy falling to her location.

ZOOM!-

BOOM!

Using her processors, she managed to pull her body out of the immediate vicinity before the lightning strike collided with Judge's frozen body.

SHATTER!

With the added effect of breaking the confines of the ice he was within, due to the natural resistance to lightning's properties through its insulation.

THUNDER...!

"That was close..." Ram spoke to herself, breathing lightly from the rush she felt after barely avoiding the direct attack. "Thanks, Rom!" She shouted to her sister, who looked at her younger sister and smiled.

"Anytime, Ram!" Rom smiled, happy to see her twin safe for the moment.

"GRAH!" CFW Judgement, on the other hand, was livid at the fact that he'd been briefly incapacitated.

"MEASLY GODDESSES! COME DOWN HERE, AND FACE ME LIKE A WARRIOR!" He bellowed, growing ever more irritated at the approach his victims took to their downfall.

"Nuh-uh! Your breath smells like an oil rig!" Ram shouted from the sky.

"SAY THAT TO MY FACE YOU STINKING BRAT!"

CRACKLE!...

CLENCH!-

Screaming in a vitriolic rage, the towering robot clenched his fist once as lightning danced around his hand.

LIGHTNING!

"Gaah!" The twins shouted in shocked fright.

They were much closer to the clouds, making the trip to their position from the attack's coordinates within the clouds that much shorter.

Which boded incredibly unfortunate for the twins of Lowee.

SMASH!

Yet when the twins expected to feel a coursing sensation of jolting pain, instead they were met with the sounds of fracturing ice.

Slightly above them, their forms were cast under a shadow with a figure floating over them, almost in a protective manner.

SMOKE...!

"T-Tch...! Don't just float there... In the middle of a fight!" Fighting the urge to stutter from pain rather than trauma, Domio managed to chide the CPU Candidates while floating in front of them, his back smoking from tanking a powerful bolt of lightning.

"Domio!" The two girls shouted in concern.

"I'll manage!" Turning his back to them, the boy soon floated to a space between the sisters, appearing shaken up by the sudden shock although his words didn't reflect it.

"HAHAHA! FINALLY CRAWLED OUT OF YOUR HOLE? I'LL MAKE SURE THE NEXT HIDING PLACE WILL BE YOUR GRAVE!" CFW Judgement mocked the boy's lingering absence.

"Verdammter rost-eimer." (Fucking rust bucket.) The youth cursed under his breath, yet the enhanced hearing from Rom and Ram picked up on the curse, causing the former to sweat nervously and the latter to let a barely noticeable smile appear on her lips from the insult.

"Artic Bolt!"

FREEZE!-

SKID!...

CFW Judgement felt his body yank itself backward with some ice present on it, the medium instantly appearing after the words left the mouth of the warlock, with the rune in hand as he outstretched it.

"If we want to defeat this dolt, then we need to overwhelm him with enough spells to bury him in a frozen grave." Domio surmised, after seeing that both his and the twin's spells were effective in staggering/immobilizing Judgement.

"But what if he breaks out with his lightning?" Rom made a salient point with her observation.

"We'll break him into a million pieces before he can even consider thawing himself." Domio clenches his free gauntlet for a visual gesture.

"But how will we get enough power to do that?" Ram rose her brow at the warlock.

"Just trust me." Staring at the pink CPU Candidate, his irises briefly flashed a kaleidoscope of colors before returning to their icy blue.

"Ok." The pink twin nodded, having little reason to contest her warlock friend after what happened with Warechu.

"We'll do our best." Rom nodded in tune with her sister, before looking down at the robotic guardian.

"STILL FLOATING!? FINE!" CFW Judgement reached his wit's end with the trio remaining in the air instead of descending to their doom.

STATIC...

STATIC...

STATIC...!

"THEN I'LL BRING ALL OF YOU DOWN!"

Blue lightning coursed around his body, momentarily bursting into existence while dancing around his hull before disappearing.

DISCHARGE!

T-T-TREMOR!

Intense streaks of lightning populated the space around CFW Judgement as the ground below violently ruptured from the immense energy the systems generated within the robot's core.

SHINE!

His body was enveloped in a blue light, condensing around his hull amidst the tremors caused by his energetic release.

SHRINK!

That went for his body, the bulky visage of the guardian compacting itself with the sound of metallic shifting and crunching rapidly repeating through the bright metamorphosis.

...BZZT.

BZZ-ZZT...!

The previously several-meter-tall CFW Judgement was no bigger than two hundred and fifty centimeters tall, with its body significantly leaner and lighter than its previous state.

Lightning adorned his streamlined. borderline anthropomorphic state with his face and accents retaining their intimidating appearance, with his halberd minimizing somewhat to appear oversized yet wieldable from a practical perspective.

"I told them to make me get bigger! Those incompetent numbskulls!" Still screaming, his voice got quieter due to his voice modules being decreased for the sake of a smaller frame.

TWIRL!...

CLENCH!

"Fuck. Even in this puny body, I can still crush your bones into dust!" Slightly bending forward, he looked up before twirling and clenching his polearm.

T-T-THRUST!

Boosting off of the ground, greenish-cyan concentrated flames blasted from the soles of his feet before he skyrocketed.

P-P-PHASE!

"He can fly?!" Domio guffawed at the shocking sight, and even more at the velocity as Judgement briefly exited and re-entered the teen's line of sight.

REAPPEAR!...

"Die!" CFW Judgement roared, his cyan eyes glowing bright with bloodlust.

SLASH!

"KYAAAAA!" Rom screeched, receiving a nasty slash on her arm before was sent flying from the hit.

"Rom!" Domio and Ram shouted, their faces aghast, before seething fury was focused on the compacted guardian.

SWING!

They rushed the robot before CFW Judgement twisted his torso to swing the weapon at the other twin with extreme prejudice.

THWACK!

Ram barely had enough time to use her staff as a manner of blocking, still feeling the impact of the blow as the robot remained on her weapon.

"Icy Fractals!"

SHARDS!

Domio wordlessly took the robot's diverted attention as an opportunity to attack him, by deconstructing his gauntlet and sending high-speed projectiles at his unguarded side.

CLING-CLANG-CLANG-CLING...!

Yet the spiky shards shattered on the hull, harmlessly bouncing off of the body of the smaller CFW Judgement to the warlock's horror.

BZZZZZZZZZT!

"GYAAAAAAH!" Ram screamed, the Felon transferring his energy into the weapon, using Ram's staff as a conductor to electrocute the pink-haired goddess as she screamed in agony.

"Those are the screams I want to hear!" Sounding relatively happy for the first time, the robot relished in the suffering of his enemies.

"YOU BASTARD!" Pointing his other fist, the rune glowed, the fist shining with enhanced SP.

"Subzero Smasher!"

GROW!

VOOM!

His fist immediately quintupled in size before launching off of his hand, leaving his rune behind as the attack rushed for the Gamindustri Guardian.

SWIPE!

"Aaaaah!"

SLICE...

...CLEAVE!

Spiking Ram into the ground with his halberd, he maintained eye contact with the plummeting child and reeled his halberd before slicing the giant fist with a delayed bifurcation.

"And now you..."

...FREEZE!

CFW Judgement pointed the glowing halberd at the teenager, who started to sweat before refreezing his hands into his ice gauntlets.

"Doppelgänger!"

FREEZE-

SPLIT!

Shouting the spell, the boy encased himself in ice before splitting off his body, creating a flying since clone.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Laughing, CFW Judgement couldn't believe his eyes. "This is amazing, I can kill him twice now!"

SWING...!

LIGHTNING!

Wielding his polearm, lightning struck the edge, giving it an electrifying affinity.

ELECTRIC SLASH!

'...!'

A blitzing crescent of aquamarine energy shimmered to the two individuals as Domio felt the extreme energy that the move possessed.

DROP!-

FLY!-

The clone descended near the ground, whereas the warlock shot into the air, approaching the layer of red clouds.

The crescent sped into the distance before gradually fading away harmlessly, albeit static permeated its flight path.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

BOOST!-

SHOCKWAVE!...

A powerful reverberation of wind expanded from beneath the flying robot, which closed in with the full intent of marauding the teenage magic user.

SOAR!...

The doppelgänger soon ascended, attempting to chase down the robot as he closed in on the flying teenager.

"Blizzaga..."

SHINE!...

MAGIC CIRCLE!

Pointing his hand down at the robot, Domio shouted the wind up to his spell. a magic circle running down his forearm before stopping just outside his clutching hand, the rune in his grasp.

"Not this time!"

VANISH!

CFW Judgement picked up on the spell, before disappearing on the teen as his vision could no longer pick up on the robotic menace.

"...!"

Domio's irises briefly flashed, witnessing a vision of his Freezing Foresight.

CFW Judgement had teleported behind him from sheer speed before sinking the business end of his halberd into his head, causing a grievous skull-crushing injury that could have very well ended his life.

Snapping back to reality, the teenager spun one hundred and eighty degrees before pointing the rune to the position where Judgement was in his foresight.

APPEAR!

"Now perish!"

"BURST!"

ICE BLAST!-

The Graveyard Guardian materialized before the child, with his halberd in an overhand swing with the weapon sparking as it descended on what he thought to be an unsuspecting Domio.

Yet the boy countered with a close-range blast, the traditional beam being pumped with much more energy to challenge the deceptively powerful robot.

This caused it to mimic the shape of an inflating blast, rather than a concentrated beam.

SHRED!...

"How the hell?!" Domio's sweat continued to drip from his temples with the robot cutting through his magic, the blade remaining forebodingly sharp despite drowning in ice.

"I won't stop until you're ripped to shreds!" CFW Judgement bellowed, continuing to ignore the freezing effect of the spell.

The glowing halberd edged closer and closer to Domio, his foresight resembling a wary premonition as the electrifying discharge grew dangerously close to his face.

HEADBUTT!

"Bwah!" CFW Judgement guttered, the ice clone passing through the Blizzaga Burst unaffected before slamming its spiky head into the face of the Felon.

PUNCH-KICK-HOOK-CROSS!
PUNCH-KICK-HOOK-CROSS!
PUNCH-KICK-HOOK-CROSS!
PUNCH-KICK-HOOK-CROSS!

Flurries of combos assaulted the robot after staggering him with the surprise headbutt, causing CFW Judgement to further convulse through the string of attacks that the doppelgänger threw.

ENGULF!

This gave Domio enough time to stabilize the SP Skill, reverting it into a beam of sub-zero temperature that drowned the Felon in freezing magic.

ABSORB!-

BLAST!

Domio's doppelgänger flew into him before his icy composition absorbed itself into the warlock, refunding him the majority of his expended mana.

After that, he poured the new pool of mana into the attack, augmenting its output and quickly intensifying the magnitude of his skill.

The recoill from the magic spell pushed the child from the skies, as he plummeted to the junk piles that littered the ground at breakneck speeds. A low whistle was audible from quite a distance as the warlock neared the ground.

CRASH!...

"Ghk!..."

The Loweean teenager's body impacted with the ground before sliding several feet, scrambling to his own as the ice mage stumbled to his feet.

"Oww..." A familiar voice groaned as Rom stood while holding her bleeding arm through her gloved hand. Crimson leaked through her fingers with the dull pain lingering throughout the wound.

"Rom!" Domio scrambled to the blue-haired goddess, who perched upon someone calling her name.

"Domio... It hurts..." She sniffled, her features cringing from the constant pain she experienced.

"Crap! Uh... Can't you use a healing spell?" he tried to advise the child to deal with her battle injury, looking around to see if CFW Judgement would return during this interaction.

"I'll try." The blue-haired goddess nodded before sticking out her wand.

HEAL!...

The green magical energy surrounded her body, before the wound that she sustained from CFW Judgement closed with haste, leaving a dark line across her skin with blood covering the former wound.

"It hurts less. Phew..." Rom sighed, the burning sensation of damage dissipating after the healing spell took effect.

"Good. Now we have to find your sister." Referencing Ram, Domio looked around to locate the presence of the pink CPU Candidate of Lowee.

SMASH!...

RUMBLE...!

"GAH!"

Rubble slowly lifted off the ground from the impact before the Loweean goddess' voice could be heard as it fell back to the ground with an ominous implication.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if someone else found her first.

"Scheiße- Judgement! We have to go help her!"

SKATE!-

HOVER!...

Cursing in the native tongue, the warlock moved as fast as he could, with White Sister Rom quickly hovering beside him.

Meanwhile...

CRASH!...

Ram twirled into a junk pile, which caused it to explode from the force that the goddess collided with.

Sticking her hand out, she pulled her scratched-up body from the hill of garbage that she found herself in moments before, her expression being that of pain and annoyance.

A tear welled in the corner of her eye as she tried her best not to sniffle before the robotic monster that caused her to be in such a state.

"That dummy's way too strong! I thought this would've been easy..." She grumbled, before picking up her staff and facing the approaching CFW Judgement.

DASH!

DASH!

DASH!

"Then you have no business fighting one of the strongest warriors in Gamindustri!" The sleek yet deadly robot roared, bouncing from pile to pile with blinding speed, the steps reverberating with the collapse of nearby hills and mountains of junk.

DASH!

DASH!

DASH!

The pink CPU Candidate of Lowee looked around with haste to locate the origin of CFW Judgement's voice, and ultimately his position, yet only the destruction of mountains was audible to her as she slowly gained beads of sweat on her face.

COLLAPSE!

COLLAPSE!

COLLAPSE!

Structures began collapsing around her vicinity, indicating that Judgement was going about the route of disorienting the CPU Candidate with a multitude of hills and mountains collapsing at an incredibly concerning rate.

Ram's eyes darted, yet the lack of a sighting, or even a silhouette of CFW Judgement to lock onto was terrifying the girl with the destruction that was unfolding around her, knowing that she'd be next in a brief moment.

ZOOM!

"You're DOOMED!"

SWING!

CFW Judgement catapulted off of the last remaining hill before beelining straight for the pink CPU Candidate with psychotic determination to rid the Gamindustri Graveyard of her presence.

"There you are!" Ram snapped in the direction of the robot before sticking out her staff, a bright aura radiating from her feet as she prepared a spell for the opponent.

"E-Force Blizzard!"

FREEZE!

Shouting the name of her SP Skill, the ice quickly formed over CFW Judgement's body, encasing most of his full in sub-zero temperatures within a few moments due to the potency of a CPU's magic.

BZZZT!

Sticking out his hand, it sparked with electricity.

LIGHTNING!-

SHATTER!

Before summoning a bolt of aquamarine lightning to hit himself out of the ice prison that temporarily incapacitated him, resuming his approach with unyielding persistence.

"Huh? No way!" Ram guffawed at how easily CFW Judgement could escape such an attack without even trying.

"Was that supposed to be an attack?!"

Upon the twin, he raised his halberd overhead. His shadow was cast over the pink-haired CPU Candidate as her eyes shrunk from the proximity of the dangerous foe who was more than ready to turn her into mince meat.

"PATHETIC!"

SLICE!-

His blue polearm cleaved through the air with unbridled fury behind it, Ram still in abject shock from such a weapon with the amount of killing intent behind said medium fast approaching.

CLANG!

Quickly gripping her staff, Ram positioned her weapon horizontally before her feet were buried into the ground. The blow was barely blocked by the CPU Candidate even with both hands assisting the staff.

DODGE!-

SMASH!...

White Sister Ram wisely took action after the halberd bounced off her staff by pulling her feet out of the floor right before another overhead sent shards of dirt and stone flying.

"Ice Coffin!"

Pointing the staff at the robot, Ram attempted to freeze him with another SP Skill.

SMACK!

"My staff!" The juvenile mage cried out in horror.

"Annoying brat!"

CFW Judgement would not tolerate being entrapped in ice once again. Therefore he made it his mission to swing his blade in a manner that would disarm the CPU Candidate in one fell swoop.

DINK!

The staff stabbed itself into the ground after skating, tumbling quite a distance from the pink goddess with no nearby hills to stop its flight, thanks to Judgement's last stunt.

Ram was both unarmed and unprepared to deal with Judge in a one-versus-one scenario with the smaller yet still very menacing robot glaring at her a couple meters away.

"Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no way to fight. I'll enjoy brandishing your mutilated corpse to your sister!" CFW Judgement's voice showed a hint of impending satisfaction for the first time since his arrival as Ram stood there, at a loss for words at the brutality of his statement.

"G-Get away from me, you psycho." Ram showed signs of a faltering spirit in the face of what could very well be considered unwinnable odds.

"HAHAHA! Like you have ANY authority in this situation, maggot!" CFW Judgement laughed at the paltry attempt of bravery from the pink CPU Candidate.

"Remind me the name of the useless CPU you share your soon-to-be spilled blood with!" He continued, responsive to the bravado that the younger twin of Lowee desperately tried to show.

"Don't you talk about Blanc like that, you big dummy!" Ram regained some of her nerves when her sister was mentioned in that much of a negative light.

"Or what?!"

"I'll...!" She seethed before slowly feeling the hopelessness of the situation.

"You'll die!"

FWOOOSH!

Deciding the time for taunting the wimpy CPU Candidate, CFW Judgement gripped his halberd with both hands before letting the thrusters below his feet fire at maximum output.

BLAST!

"GYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Maniacally, he cackled while closing in on the pink CPU Candidate with the full intention of murdering her.

SLAM!-

THOOM!

"?!" Ram's eyes blinked owlishly at the sudden interruption of what would've been premature game over. One moment, CFW Judgement was getting ready to execute her, and the next he was suddenly out of sight.

The dust puffed around the last known location of the Felon, causing the girl to cough profusely from the dusty saturation.

"How dare you steal my kill! I worked my ass off for it!" CFW Judgement screamed within the clouds.

"That's just not my problem~." Singing in a mocking tone, the new voice was certainly aggressive and very unfamiliar to the CPU Candidate.

"GYAAAARGH!-"

CRUNCH!

A sickening crunch was heard with the cries of Judgement being cut off by the sound of compressing metal.

Yellow dots glowed through the dust, visible to Ram as she spotted the eyes of the person who managed to defeat someone like CFW Judgement, in a single strike no less.

WHOOSH!...

The dust scattered with haste from a pulse of energy that spread from the clouded figure, completely disposing of the low-lying puffs that diluted the vicinity of the battle for the two remaining individuals.

Raven black hair that flowed, venomous yellow irises that focused, and an imposing physique that stood in the place of a fallen CFW Judgement.

RUSTLE...!

An armored black trench coat that faded into red at the ends, with a chain necklace jingling in the wind over his maroon undervest. Chains around his forearms and shins could be seen, yet his skin showed no markings of pain.

The rings on his wrists glowed with power, although the energy that gave off was anything but friendly...

Combat boots shifted in the direction of Ram as he faced her head-on, with the defeated robot's head compressed to the size of a crushed soda can.

"Twenty seconds and I already run into a helpless child." A low chuckle escaped the lips of the standoffish newcomer.

"Thanks for saving me... But who the heck are you?!" The pink CPU Candidate gave the man his kudos but was still wary of his surprise existence.

"No prob. But you really shouldn't be thanking me." A small smile formed on his face.

"Um... Why?" A drawn-out 'why' escaped Ram's lips as she soon started to sweat under the implications of the man's response to her gratitude.

"That's simple. It's because I wouldn't use the word 'save'. I believe the words you're looking for are 'under new management'."

ゴゴゴゴ!

FEAR ENERGY!

All of the colors on Ram's person paled into a pasty white, her blood running cold at the pulse of fear energy that her body was forced to be subjugated under.

It didn't help that the man gained a shadowy visage on his face with a sinister grin, his yellow irises glowing with power and ill intention.

"And to make it worse, you're a CPU! They make them younger and younger these days." He mocked the puny stature of the CPU Candidate of Lowee.

The pink goddess would've retorted if the aura she was subjected to wasn't overwhelming her thoughts with fear.

"Since I wanna get a decent warmup..." Stretching his neck, he disappeared.

PAT...!

FEAR!-!-!

"?!" The hairs on Ram's neck rose, feeling a terrifying amount of ill will from her flank.

"I'll give you one second."

GRIP!...

The vice grip that Ram felt on her shoulder snapped her out of her fearsome stupor before she twisted her head to face the bladder-leaking threat.

"MOVE."

"K-KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Ram sprinted as fast as her little feet could carry her, screaming at the top of her lungs with tears threatening to fall from the horrifying man laughed at the show of cowardice that he managed to force the CPU Candidate into.

"Run, Forrest, run! HAHAHAHA!" A rambunctious laugh echoed with Ram high-tailing it away from the malignant entity.

"Let's see how much fear I can milk from this little shit before I execute her." He whispered to himself before walking at a steady pace, not unlike a certain supervillain whose name rhymed with tombstone.

A few feet ahead of the pursuer, the pink CPU Candidate's feet kicked the dirt with all their might, her mind in such a desperate state to flee that she forgot she could fly in her HDD.

This worked out in the man's favor, who strolled at a pace that seemed far too slow yet maintained a grin spread with jubilee alongside crazed eyes.

Warmth could be felt on Ram's face as the waterworks silently flowed down her cheeks, while her breathing hitched as she ran with all her might to prevent the cold-blooded monster in human form from closing the gap.

There were no places to hide, and she couldn't keep running lest she exhausted herself. Turning her head, she tried to gauge how far the man was from her location.

"Better move faster, or else you'll end up on the side of a milk carton." He poked, closer than before while wiping under his nose.

... Wait, closer?!

But he was walking!

"This is bad!" Ram muttered under her breath, the fear she felt radiating off of her from her pursuer's perspective.

ABSORB!...

"Mmmm... Fear of the unknown is a classic. Run faster, ya little shit!" He taunted after consuming the delectable fright that the CPU Candidate exuded.

"You- Ghk!" Ram felt as if she wanted to call him a stupid dummy, yet her voice clamped down by the amount of terror her body shuddered with.

As she ran, her thoughts slowly returned to her, with the CPU Candidate's mind starting to function under th mental duress of the fear energy it was subjected to.

If she wanted to live, she needed to find her staff. It was the only wa she'd be able to cast spells that were powerful enough to beat that scary dummy.

Making a sharp turn, the CPU Candidate used the opportunity to see just how much room separated her and the raven-headed psychopath.

"Are you slowing down on purpose? Rather young for suicidal thoughts but I'll humor you." The man joked about the murder/assisted suicide of his victim.

"WHAT!?" Ram squawked, at both the distance and the quote.

"Oh my, oh my, I have found you, neppa~"

His voice echoed, singing in a terrible yet somehow catchy tone.

"Don't you run from me, lil' neppa~"

The entity's voice encroached on the CPU Candidate as she made a mad dash to where her staff landed.

"You are not fast enough~"

The proximity of his singing approached with bone-chilling efficiency.

"You are not brave enough~"

Her staff appeared in the distance, Ram putting all of her effort into rushing toward the weapon as the singing became faint in her mind.

"You are out of luck~"

Just as she was about to grab the staff, her fingers brushed against the pole of her magical weapon.

"Now it's time for you to die very rough!"

THUD!

"Uff!" Yet she hit the dirt instead, Ram's staff out of her grasp with her face kissing the floor.

Looking up, she pushed herself off the ground before gazing ahead.

The staff was gone.

"It was right here! How did it-" Ram scampered the floor with her eyes in a desperate attempt to find her weapon.

"Looking for this?" A goading remark was sent to the goddess before the yellow-eyed man rattled the staff in his grip. Standing right next to her, his presence was anything but salvatory.

Ram's eyes shrunk in horror at her weapon in the hands of the last person she'd ever want to have possession of.

"Here ya GO!"

SMACK-

SHATTER!

Reeling his hand back, the man swung the staff with enough force to cause the weapon to smash itself into pieces on the junior goddess' cranium with blood and shards exploding from the point of contact.

Her eyes went blank from the severe blow to her skull, leaving her completely open to the will of the entity.

"Don't pass out on me yet, kid! WE HAVEN'T EVEN BROKEN ANY BONES YET!" A twisted smile etched itself onto the face of the man before he cocked back his foot.

BAM!

"Guoh!-"

Ram felt an impossibly tremendous pressure aimed at her gut, the pupils returning as white outlines from the searing pain with reflex tears flying from her tear ducts. The spit and blood that she lurched splattered on the ground before her body hurtled through the air.

"She didn't die from that? This will be fun...!"

BURST!-

-ZOOM!

A cocky snigger showed itself before the malevolent entity coated himself in fear energy, rushing ahead with a single bound.

Tearing through the sky, Ram's petite frame glided across the wind at breakneck speeds.

Her face slowly winced, the pain finally registering from unimaginably torturous to debilitating.

Approaching the ground with intense velocity, she braced for impact...

Nearby...

Domio and Ram were closing in on the last place they heard the sounds of battle.

"Where is she...?" Rom's voice wavered with concern for her sister. Her brows knitted with a frown as she floated at a speed that kept up with Domio's skating.

"We can't be far. I don't want to think about what CFW Judgment's doing to her the longer we take." The warlock kept up the pace with the two ice users making their way to the pink CPU Candidate.

...ZOOM!

"Who's that approaching us?" Rom narrowed her eyes, trying to discern just who was nearing their location.

"It's..." The eyes of the Loweean teenager squinted at the object flying toward them.

Glowing processors...

Pink hair...

Wait...!

"RAM!" Both Loweaan denizens shouted with Rom covering her mouth in panic as Domio crouched.

LEAP!

A frightened expression overtook the teenager's face, soaring into the sky with his arms open.

"I'll catch you, Ram!" Domio shouted, his ascent slowing to a halt with his body lingering in the air.

Ram's dangling body rapidly closed the gap with her form inches away from the teenager's safe grasp, yet fate would not be so kind to either of them.

CHILL!

SLAM!-

"?!-" The last thing Domio expected was for his Cold Sense to ring off before catching Ram, throwing him off for a split second that was taken advantage of by a hand wrapping itself around the warlock's face.

VOOM!

The boy was sent into the distance with a sonic boom, leaving Ram to descend at dangerous speeds.

"DOMIO! RAM!" The blue-haired Loweean CPU Candidate looked between the two's perilous situations.

She had to choose quickly or both would suffer.

Domio had disappeared in a terrifying shockwave, whereas Ram could still be seen ripping through the sky.

"I have to help my sister!... Then we can help Domio!"

FLY!

Therefore, the more resourceful option was to help her sister, to which Rom made way without pause.

CATCH!

"Gotcha!"

Making her way to the tumbling sibling, Rom grabbed her out of the sky before landing with haste to check the condition of her twin.

Ram's body was battered, with some especially nasty marks on her tummy and head. Despite being transformed, someone was still able to deal with such grievous attacks on Rom's younger sister.

"Sis! What happened to you?!" Ram was appalled by the current picture of her sister, bloodied and beaten.

"R-Rom?... My head..." She cringed in agony, her brain swimming in pain from the head-rattling strike.

"I'll Heal You..."

SHINE!...

Using her staff, she channeled her SP to create a ring of effect around her sister with her wounds glowing in reaction.

HEAL...!

Most of her minor injuries, and some of her more severe wounds managed to be sealed, yet the most grievous remained although at a less serious state.

Ram's breathing returned to a relatively stable rate before her eyes blinked and slowly opened, focusing on the image of her sister.

She wrapped her sister tightly, to which the blue-haired goddess returned almost immediately.

"It hurts, Rom!" The pink-haired goddess whimpered, clinging on to the only person of familiarity nearby. "I was so scared!" She sniffled, the usually outgoing sibling reduced to a sobbing wreck after getting wrecked.

"I'm right here, Ram." She continued to embrace her sister, letting her cry into her shoulder. "We can make it through this... Together!" She gave some words of encouragement in her usual meek tone.

"Really...?" As much as the younger CPU Candidate twin wanted to believe her words, something about that man was unnerving beyond comprehension.

THOOM!

A loud crash caused both CPU Candidates to jolt before they turned their heads to the origin.

"That's Domio!" Rom remembered the last time she saw the warlock before drawing a grim conclusion.

"Then that dummy that beat me is with him! He'll die if we don't get there...!" Ram drew the only conclusion that made sense after barely recovering from the splitting head trauma she sustained.

"C'mon, sis!..." The blue-haired CPU Candidate started to ascend after giving herself some space from her sister.

"But he broke my staff!" Ram blurted, looking at her empty hands.

"Urk...!" Rom was at a loss of words with the revelation of her sister's broken weapon.

"Pick up something around here, then... The longer we wait, the less time that Domio has!" Rom didn't want to leave someone who didn't even have divinity against someone who could leave a goddess like Ram in such a state.

"But this is all junk, Rom! Who would leave something valuable in this landfill?" Looking around, the pink CPU Candidate only saw trash and discarded items that piled up.

"Remember that saying we read in one of Blanc's books? 'One man's trash is another man's treasure?'. Maybe that could work for us too." The quieter sister reminded her sibling.

Ram remained silent for a brief moment before flying near a pile.

DIG...!

DIG...!

DIG...!

Her little hands rummaged and threw out junk at speeds that would give even the fastest moles a run for their money. Several pieces of junk flew out of the large pike, from broken consoles to useless weapons.

"Too janky." Ram threw the staff away.

"Too slow." She threw it, as it slowly floated in the air.

"Too weak." That particular weapon was so fragile that it broke after leaving the goddess' hands.

"Not enough INT." The rod went in the opposite direction Ram chucked it.

The pink goddess was getting frustrated, with time being of the essence and the graveyard shafting her time and time again with items that could barely be sold at a garage sale, let alone useful enough to fight against someone like him.

"Wait!" The pink goddess stopped herself from throwing the next item she found.

It was three red down arrows stacked on top of each other, with the light grey rod being imprinted by several glowing minus signs and with a spiraling carving that turned out to be one lengthy arrow that spiraled downward and ended at the pommel, being a pointed tip of sorts as the arrow jutted off the rod.

"That's a pretty cool staff, Ram," Rom commented on its appearance.

"Let's just hope it works as well as it looks. We can't waste any more time!" Ram told her sister before rising into the sky to join her twin.

Both CPU Candidates nodded before shooting off into the place where the sound originated.

In the jaws of peril...

"ACK!..." Domio guttered, his face shoved into a mountain, spider cracks forming around his head.

"Who the hell do you think you are, trying to play hero!?" The man barked, his fingers digging into the warlock's head.

"What did... You do to Ram!" The Loweean teenager seethed, his eye glaring daggers into the entity.

"I'M ASKING THE QUESTIONS, YOU FUCKING SMOOTH BRAIN!" The ire of the man skyrocketed before he took action.

CRASH!

"Argh!"

Driving his palm into the boy's face, Domio's body slammed right through the stone, destroying the wall outright.

THUD!...

A rough landing on the ground made the youth's body tumble before he pulled himself to a knee.

"Mutterficker..." The mage cursed on his tongue before looking up at the man descending into the new area he was sent to.

"Yes, I engage in sexual intercourse with your mother. How did you know?" A small smile returned to his features whereas a deep frown and furrowed brows replaced Domio's.

"Shut the fuck up! You're just like that blonde hündin! Both of you are insufferable!" Domio referred to the VPU that Nebula, AL, and Gris fought in the Leanboxian wilderness.

"I don't know too many blondies, kid. Most of the ones I know don't have any brains, so maybe you can tell me how stupid she is, and maybe I'll tell you if I know her or not." The man replied.

"You both even feel the same. That repugnant energy you possess that strikes fear into the hearts of men! Even GPUs and CPUs cower before it!" He referenced the run-in with the elder VPU after the goddess was defeated.

"You must be referring to me."

DESCEND...!

The clouds parted before a pillar of light shined. Said light then dimmed to an inverse of its natural counterpart being a translucent pillar of black energy that ebbed with fear energy.

The heart-stopping feeling of fear energy washed over the warlock, who had to use every morsel of will to prevent himself from blacking out like he did the last time his unprepared mind faced such paralyzing fear.

Even the antagonizing man started to sweat under the pressure of the second entity's arrival.

"Citadel." The man grumbled.

"It seems that you've already begun your mission, Xero." Citadel folded his arms, giving his brother a dull glare.

"You came just in time to see me lacerate a child."

SUMMON!

ドドドド !...

Sticking out his hand, a harrowing sword appeared in Xero's hand before gripping the handle and lowering it to his side.

"Shall we count this as the first kill?" Taking out a notepad, the professional harbinger of omens started to write something in it.

FEAR AURA!

The atmosphere became saturated with fear energy, Citadel's pressure dying down to be overtaken by Xero's unrestrained ill intent spreading from the generation of his abhorrent aura made manifest.

"As if this brat could survive. I give him a minute at best."

GLEAN!...

Pointing his blade, the eye on it started to move sporadically, the fear energy manipulating its mannerisms, and by extension its power.

Domio used his might to stand against the torrent of fear, narrowing his eyes despite the convulsive shuddering of his body.

"If I want to survive... I can't afford to falter...!" Shakily putting his fists up, he clenched his fingers as tightly as possible.

"Then allow me to savor your desperate struggle for your pitiful life!" Xero cackled before rushing ahead, a wide smile that reeked of bloodlust and torment.


A/N:

Chapter complete!

Hope you all enjoyed reading this latest installment of ON:IM!

Looks like the VPUs have finally made their appearance! How will Domio hold his own in the face of such terrifying power?! Only time will tell in the next chapters of Omnidimension Neptunia!

If you have any critiques, suggestions, or even just compliments don't be afraid to leave them in the comment section.

With that, I hope you have a great day/night!

Read and Review!

Arrivederci.