Hyperdimension Neptunia Third Sister: Darkness

by Somedudeonline

WARNING: This a direct sequel to 'Light', read that first if you don't want to be confused. After having died, Bios is reborn with the energy of Despair running through her, now the opposite of a Goddess. In spite of what fate demands of her, she gathers a group of vigilantes to save Lowee from a sinister group of organisations known as, SCJP

25. Chapter 20: The Desert's Treasure

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Third Sister; Darkness

Chapter 20

The Desert's Treasure

I wake up, hearing the clicking of a computer keyboard.
My rest wasn't so bad, this bed is overly comfortable. I get myself out of the sheets, only to find the sheets slowly levitating back to its original spot. When I get out of the bed, it made itself. Even magic isn't so convenient, so I stared at it for a while. I need to get a bit more awake. I look over to Evo and ask her, "How does that bed do that?"
"Nanomachines, son!", then she turns to me with her revolver chair and says, "Oh, you're awake."

You answered before even knowing it was me that said anything…?
"To actually answer your question, a few nanomachines do indeed to the cleaning, but it is mostly a sophisticates magnet and use of static electricity…Um…I suppose explaining what all the atoms do would be a bit much sooo.", before she could say more, I told her to stop, "Nevermind that…What time is it?"

"Hmh…Well, it is 8:47 AM. You slept for about six hours.", she informed me.
"It somehow feels like I slept for longer.", I mention.
"Well, I did pick the best materials to create a bed for amazing sleep. No back-pain and six hours of sleep should feel close to eight for a normal person.", she tells me.
Looking around, I now see a bunch of humanoid drones walking around carrying equipment and doing household chores.
"Eying my bots, huh? Aren't they amazing?! I do turn them off at night, usually people hack droids at night and I am often too busy doing my important work to counter hack them. Some do work without any network, but they make a lot of noise, which I hate at night.", she tells me.

"Cool…", I say casually.
"Hm…Not a very excited answer. Do you not desire being free from chores?", she asks.
I don't even remember doing them… "Um… I think I could do them quickly…?", I say.
"That implies you have others do your chores or whatever house you live in is a mess.", she says.
I guess it is a little bit of both? Our base requires little in chores since it isn't really a house or home. But if something needed to be done, someone else would usually do it…

"How is that machine you were working on. Did you finish it?", I ask her.
She looks over to 3090X. Her right cheek is puffed as she says, "Mmmm….It needs a few more hours I am afraid. If I want to help you outside, it would have to be with the old RT 2080X model. That one uses a full A.I program alongside minor remote control, but its power isn't far less than 3080X, it can still do 4K damage.", she says.
"I see.", I respond. I should head out soon.

"Before you leave, would you like to answer my question?", Evo asks.
Right. She asked if she could join my team.
"May I be one of the Phantom Crusaders?", she asks me.
"Hm. Basically, I'd have to ask my friends as well, but if you help me out in this event, I don't think I'd have to convince them. I can at least make a mask for you.", I tell her.
"That works for me!", she says, twiddling around looking pleased.

I use Shadow Create to make a crow's mask for her and throw it her way.
"Oh…I wondered how these worked…They are magical, aren't they?", she asks.
"Yes. I don't really know why I can even make them, but after obtaining the first mask and uh…Let's just say I turned into a dark being, I gained the power to make them with the upgrade to my original ability to make weapons.", I tell her.
As she observes the mask, letting it hang from her fingers, she goes, "Oh…I see. Yeah, that is fascinating. Unfortunately, magical items are hard to really unpack. Joining a Lowee organization did help me find ways to research magic using science and combing tech with magic, but it is still a mysterious field, even for those better at it than me.", she tells me.

"Well, do as you please with it. If you join, I will grant you a code name.", I say before walking away. She stops me, asking, "But can you even trust me with something like this?"
"Well, I know where you live now. And you went out of your way to do so much for me, I doubt you have any ill will towards us.", I respond.
"I see. That's fine then. To make sure you are not disappointed in trusting me, I should tell you. One friend of yours is here. The Silicon Knight, I believe.", she tells me.
"Sili-san is here? Not Acclaim?", I ask her.

"I kept close eyes on the event. Your friend split off chasing Lastation's monster over to here, though when he reached the desert, I lost track of him. Dragon and Claimer are heading to Planeptune, and I believe your tiny mage is heading with another group for the desert right now.", she updates me on my friends, even showing me footage of their participation.
"With another group…? What is happening?", I ask her.
"You should be pleased to know the Leanbox's monster is no more, alas, the treasure was stolen by Justit Info BV.", she tells me.
"At least we have two monsters here. If we meet up with the right people, the other two treasures can be ours for sure.", I tell her.

"Yup… There is one more request.", she says, perhaps realizing she's asking quite a lot.
"May I take a look at your Treasure? I know you have the one from Lowee.", she asks.
"Any reason?", I ask her.
"I wish to analyze it. Wouldn't it be better to have some idea what they are?", Evo asks.
I look at her unconvinced, she says, "Come oooooon…I will only scan it for a few minutes and give it back to you."
She pleads some more. I sigh and throw it at her. Excited, she raises it up. She puts it inside a scanner. And just like that, she gives it back to me.

"Oh…I can't wait the go through this data! Um…Sorry. You can go if you like. I have been keeping you for too long, haven't I? Sorry.", she says going through many emotions.
"No worries. Now I better hurry, Silicon may be in a bad situation like I was.", I say before taking my leave. An elevator gets me back up.
The morning sun hurts my eyes. I walk out the temple ruins with a hand over my head. After walking over to the first sand-dune, I heard the sound of someone struggling.
I side hopped as a mole-like monster tangled up in string is smashed into the ground next to me.

I feel elevated knowing a friend is possibly here. Sili-san kind of jumps before falling on the side of the Sand-dune, and now he's going down. I back off a bit to give him space. The mole-thing tried to squirm away, but was destroyed after Sili-san sluggishly walked up to it before stabbing it with his sword. Leaning on his sword, he looks at me and says, "Leader?! Is that you?!"
"Sili-san! You're okay!", I shout back.
"Oh man, am I glad to see you. I have been looking all over hoping you're around…Man, the desert is hot.", he says.

"Did you get any rest?", I ask him. Looking all over him, I notice a few wounds and burn marks.
"I did sleep a bit at night and took another nap earlier. I am hurt more than tired.", he says.
He tells me the story of how he used his string to stay behind Lastation's monster. It went all the way to this desert by itself, and no matter how many obstacles Sili-can crashed through, he held on with sheer willpower. But even he had his limit, and that was when he reached this desert.
"I see…That is why your face looks crushed too…", I point out.

He tries to act tough as he stands on his two legs again.
"Yeah. But, you know. I figured as long as I knew where it would stay, I could keep following it. We can kill it later.", he says.
"Well. I am happy to have you on the hunt.", I tell him, which seemed to cheer him up.
His smile immediately turned into a war face, I already sensed something, but turning around, I see a mecha had landed. Sili-san took a stance with his sword, but I held my hand out to stop him.

"Don't worry. This one is with us.", I say. Its design looked overly similar to 3080X, but it has a blue cape.
"Is this the RT 2080X?", I ask the machine.
"Correct. This unit is going to accompany you for this hunt.", it spoke in a deep voice.
"So, can you introduce him to me?", Sili-san asks.
"Oh, that's not actually a guy. This is a machine made by who is controlling it. She's actually a rather young woman, she just likes to roleplay as the machines she controls.", I tell him.
"Hehe…I apologize for my habit.", she said in her normal way of speaking, but her voice doesn't change, making it sound weirder.

"She said she wanted to join the Phantom Crusaders.", I tell him.
"Huh?! How the heck did that happen? And you said yes?!", he asks me.
"For now, we are going to work together on this mission. The final decision we'll make after.", I tell him.
2080X bows and says, "It is a pleasure to work with you."
Sili-san looked weary when 2080X approached him, but lowers his guard when it spoke, "Your wounds are close to fatal. Allow me to apply basic healing."

"You can heal?", I ask Evo.
"Well, I do have a quick healing skill, but it is a temporary heal. I have this syringe which will boost your health, it will take five minutes and is quite costly. Alternatively, I use a syringe that gives you regen magically, but that one won't heal you to full in time.
We wait a bit for Sili-san to feel better. Once his legs were fine, we headed out into the desert at large. With three of us, monsters stand no chance. Even Sili-san can easily deal with them. most try to ram into us, and he just catches them in a web of strings, smashes them into each other, or lets me cut them up real quick.

The real pain are those centipedes. Sili-san can defend us from lightning with string, and 2080X has fire resistance, so it can block some fire balls. But the centipedes can move out of the way of some of our attacks and hide underground. 2080X and myself spent some time riding on one as we stab our blades into it until it dies, once it slid over the ground, it disappears in data. Sili-san manages to kill one by cutting its head off using "String Cutter!" And a third one is split in half…By none of us. Who did that?

As is see the monster blast apart in two halve, a familiar swordswoman lands down. I see, it was an attack she simply called 'Twain'. I recognize this woman as Falcom.
I wave at her, "Oi! Falcom! Long time no see!"
"Well, if it isn't Bios. I finally found you.", Falcom says. Now that she's walking over us, we can see her better. The sun cast some shadows on her face for some odd reason.

"Hm…Did you two meet in Planeptune or something?", Sili-san asked me.
"Yeah. I ran into her and told her Planeptune's monster may come back.", I answer.
"I thought I'd regret it, but it did indeed flew back. But why was it a jet?", Falcom asks me.
That's fair, she would have no way of knowing it transformed.
"Now that I think about it, I haven't told Sili-san about anything that happened beforehand. Allow me to tell you…"
I shared everything I have experienced so far. Falcom was the most surprised about me teaming up with Broccoli.

"I see…So in hindsight, I should've just come with.", she says.
"Yes, that would've been nice.", I tell her.
"So Leanbox's monster has been destroyed by Theresa. Heh, way to go girl.", Sili-san looks like a proud dad as he says that.
"We also can be certain all monsters have a transformation phase near death.", Falcom mentions.
"Meaning we haven't seen what the Mole is fully capable of.", I say.
"I'd still argue your friend's info is highly viable. Ice attacks may be super effective.", Falcom comments.

"I don't have any units strong enough that can survive an encounter and actively use ice magic or attacks. They would die beforehand.", Evo tries to explain why she doesn't have the solution ready right off the bat.
"It is fine. With the damage it has taken, We can damage it a lot and I can take it out after transforming.", I tell her.
"And this is your new friend, you said? Hi, I am Falcom, nice to meet you.", I tell her.
"Oh, I know! Adventurer extraordinaire! I am quite excited to see you in action up close!", Evo says excitingly, the deep voice coming out of the mecha taking us aback.
"No no, I am just an adventurer….", Falcom says, looking embarrassed, but pleased.

The three of them did most of the conversing. With Falcom in our party, treading this desert had become trivial. Even with Centipedes showing up, me and Falcom have enough strength to split them apart with our sword swings, the combat A.I of 2080X and Sili-san have the agility to stay out of trouble. Evo not only can warn us of dangers and use a radar, but she actually has other drones out to kill monsters and look for the Mole.

One of them is walking next to us now.
"I call this unit the RT 3070X. It is pretty capable as a combat unit and has similar anti-hacking countermeasures as well. I can track every one of them and see what they see. They are capable of spotting things no organic being can see. They are also capable of fire, ice and lightning magic.", she explains to us.
It look like a large four legged wolf with multiple features of other animals, it is chimera-like. Its tail was a snake, and had two heads to the side, one being a lion and the other being a bird. It is capable of sprouting wings, and can increase the size of and extend some body parts.

They are roaming all over the desert now. Some adventurers attack them by mistake, but Evo can easily recall them.
When some desert birds flew towards us, she said we should just relax and let the 3070X unit do its work. It runs into the sand-storm, unbothered. As a bird attempted to escape into the air, its tail came to life as a snake, extending out and biting it, immediately electrocuting it with its fangs. It shoots flames from outs mouths, but the birds weren't affected by it, so instead the lion opened its mouth and shoots magical ice at them for good damage.

It clasped its heads and tail right back. The tail looking small again, and the heads barely visible.
"I think it would look too monstrous if it was always walking with multiple heads. Never mind the speed that would be reduced. He only had them out in small for a bit to show it off to you guys.", Evo tells us.
"It is pretty neat. It's kind of creepy how there are many walking around though. I can understand why adventurers attack them.", Sili-san says.
"You were about to attack 2080X too.", I mention.

"Nothing wrong. Most machines out here tend to be hostile. Only the ones that talk quickly may get a pass, I have noticed.", Evo says.
"There are many humanoid robots who are practically like people after all.", Falcom comments.
"Yeah, no one wants to accidentally hurt them. Though it is hard to punish someone by law to attack a robot-person.", Evo says.

After about half an hour of walking, Falcom says, "We've entered this part of the desert, huh? Hey guys, there is a dangerous enemy type here. I fought it once alone and it took me a while to kill it."
"You're talking about the Pyrasphinx, yes? According to my data, there are two types. If you see a pyramid, it's most likely a monster in disguise. They can appear from under the ground. Be careful of the pyramids upside down, they are the stronger variant.", Evo adds.
"The ones in the sky? Hm…I tried getting to one, but you need to fly to get there.", Falcom says.
"Yes, they rarely activate, but the percentage of them attacking someone below is not zero.", Evo warns.

"But guys, isn't there a pyramid right next to us?", Sili-san asks.
We turn to our right. Oh wow, I thought it looked nice and kind of gravitated before it.
"I wasn't even looking.", Evo says.
"I was so caught up in talking with you guys I forgot about it.", Falcom says.
Some adventurers we are. It activates, of course. The pyramid slightly changes shape, the front opening a port a where a cat-like head exits out of.

It looks as is described. A sphinx with a pyramid for its main body. Its tail also ended in a two-spiked spear. Its eyes were red crystals, and its headpiece also had red crystals protruding out of it. Its claws are red crystals as well.
"Get moving! It always starts with a long leap!", Falcom shouts. After one roar, the Pyrasphinx does a jump, I thought it was too fast even for me to see. It just disappeared, but that seemed to be a trick of light magic. It can't hit us when using light magic, but it passes by us.

"From behind!", Falcom shouts as we spread out. I used Light Step to get away, Sili-san and 2080X barely dodge a swipe from its claws as it turned visible behind us.
2080X came next to me, Evo telling me some things about it, "It never uses its paws to simply move, it only attacks with them, makes a speedy leap, or turns around when finishing its leap. Don't go too far, or it will spam the leap. It doesn't always choose to go invisible when it leaps and can combine multiple leaps. It resists fire magic and uses light magic. But do not worry, your Light attacks will damage it just fine."

I hear Falcom tell Sili-san, "When fighting these, I usually just wear it down with combo moves because it sits still quite often and uses magic frequently when you are close and next to it. Do not stay under it for more than five seconds, it will microwave you with light magic."
With that information, the fight officially starts. The Pyrasphinx leaps over to Sili-san, Falcom moves away and Sili-san just dodge rolls out of the way before it could ram into him. It immediately turned itself around with one claw in the sands to get in front of Sili-san, this time trying to swipe its claw against him.

Sili-san attempts to stop its paw with string, and did slow it down, but the string just couldn't handle its giant size, so Sili-san gets knocked over close to Falcom. She pulls him back up before the Pyrasphinx shoots two beams out of its eyes at them. They easily dodge it, however.
It shoots two beams over to us as well, but it's just too slow to be a threat, what is a problem is its swift combo where it leaps over to us, we were just too far away for it not to spam the attack. I guess the whole party needs to be close for it to stop.

Either way, both me and 2080X split off and get into the air before it could crush it, only slamming a pillar of sand into the air with its strike. I shoot a medium sized blade of light into the pyramid part, annoying the monster a little. It was looking at me first, but then 2080X spins around with its blade, scratching the monster from below whilst going up, leaving dust behind. Until 2080X reaches its face, that is when it stabbed its blade into its eye, no, the eye was only slightly damaged, it shoots a beam out of it to push 2080X back a little.

Luckily, 2080X has high magic defense and can fly out of the beam. It immediately got away as the monster stands on its hind legs and claps its claws together, barely missing the machine. 2080X flies around to its left, having charged its hyper cannon, he shoots a burst of light into its face doing decent damage. The Pyrasphinx twists its ankles to thrust its tail spear over to 2080X quickly, it was fortunately dodged at the nick of time. 2080X flies under the tail and low to the ground, after curving around the monster, it fires off an array of missiles, the pyrasphinx sweeping its left claw through them and hitting 2080X, even if not at full strength, it knocks the droid into a sand dune. The missiles damaged its hand and it look slightly crumbled, but I guess the monster thought it a worthy risk.

Sili-san had catapulted Falcom over to it, she slashes it from above and only gets shaken off by it opening doors in the pyramid and blasting beams out of it, forcing Falcom to get back down. In the meantime, I jump over to it and blast it with a fully charged, "UnionStar Light Slash!", almost knocking the Pyrasphinx over, alas, it manages to stand and quickly knocks me away with a jab of its tail.

It disappears in another leap, I shout to Sili-san, "He's coming for you!"
Sili-can uses his string launch himself our way, getting closer to us with the pyrasphinx unable to make any move as he reappeared, aside from doing another leap consecutively. Since it didn't disappear this time, Falcom rushes in to attempt a parry against its large paw, except, knowing that she's underpowered, she hops back at the last second so the claw barely misses her whilst she can cut off a finger instead.

"Magic Sword Sorcarion!", Falcom shouts as she shoots these crystals at the monster to do magical damage against it when they blow up into a pillar of light. The Pyrasphinx reacts by opening more gates in its pyramids, flinging these large spears at us at rapid succession. Some of them were fired at 2080X far to the right of it, but at least 2080X stood up and flew out of the way. I easily cut through the spears, only Falcom had some difficulty with them, but in her case, Sili-San shows up and stops the spears with his threads, intending to use them against the Pyrasphinx.

With his devious smile, Sili-san returned them to sender doing okay damage, it shoots most of the returning spears down with beam out of its eyes. We stay close to it as discussed, but now it activates some kind of magical circle into the sky, darkening it. From there, it rains light beams down onto us. Sili-san protects the party to an extend with light absorbing silk, 2080X flies around them, and I simply dance over the sands whilst reflecting the beams back against the pyrasphinx.

Our fight continues on for a few dozen seconds until it decides to just…Fly up? He inverts himself, the pyramid's tip aimed at us.
"He will fire a beam of light at us from the pyramid.", Evo warns us.
"There is almost no way to dodge it, so brace yourself.", Falcom says.
"Falcom, we can hold it back.", I tell her. She nods, we both take our stances.
The Pyrasphinx spins around, its rotation increasing until it fires a spiraling beam at us.
"Couple Exe Drive Skill! Illumination Cross Slash!", we shout, countering the beam with our combines attacks of "Light Slash" and "Photon Slash"

It pushes the beam back quite far, although our cross slash gets taken over in the end, the beam itself has weakened. Sili-san protects us with a veil of silicon, but this beam was too strong, so only half of it gets blocked. We all get hit by about ten percent of its strength, meaning its damage is only kind of hurtful.
The Pyrasphinx gets back down, showering us with sand.

Sili-san flings Falcom into the air with his string. Falcom dodges the eye beams by doing twirls to her right in mid-air, at the same time, I use reflect to send 2080X into the right eye. Falcom cuts the left eye with a spin slash whilst 2080X is shot with his blade forward, stabbing into the right eye. Even without its eyes, it can see us, but it is unable to shoot beams. Falcom and 2080X each take a side and do constant small damage to the pyramid's sides by slashing into it.

Orbs are shot out of the pyramid's gates and spread out into tiny projectiles homing in on both of them. 2080X flies around the side and blasts it a few time with a Hyper Cannon. Falcom jumps far away and takes some distance. She had ordered us, "Hold him off!"
To make sure it wouldn't jump at her. me and Sili-san dance under its paws, Sili-san slowing them down with string and myself blasting it a few times with CombinationStar Light Slash. 2080X flies around and barrages it with cannons whilst avoiding spear attacks or orbs.
When Falcom screams that she's ready, Sili-san holds the entire thing down in string, me and 2080X helping by holding down a paw or two.

"EXE Drive Skill! Shortened version! Moon Dragon Sword!", Falcom shouts as she shoots a beam of energy out of her sword thrust, the blue beam piercing through the pyramid.
"The core is broken!", Falcom shouts. We back away, which ends up being a wild decision. The Pyrasphinxs turns red and is partially on fire, with a few explosion coming out of its body. In a rage, it shoots itself over to Falcom.
"Photon Slash!", she shouts her finisher move of her EXE Drive Sill, jumping towards the charging Pyrasphinx and cutting it in half at the right time.

Falcom lands as the Pyrasphinx' two halves drop and explode.
"It either dies immediately after the core breaks, or get into a rampage where it does one desperate attack that can insta-kill, in return , its toughness is gone.", Falcom explains as we walk over to her.
"You've certainly fought one before, huh?", Silicon asks.
"Yeah. I'm not sure if it is worth trying to kill it any other way,", Falcom says.
"Every pyramid has a core unit, it is like the pyramid shell of these monsters have some kind of designed tech base in them. However, I have inconclusive data as to why it was born with an energy core to use its strength, other monsters can do the same as it without a core.", Evo tells us.

While the three of them converse about our battle, I went ahead. They continue talking whilst following me. We walked for another five minutes. We hear Evo telling us, "My 3070X units have found something. One kilometer from our location."
"Can it be the mole?", I ask her.
"I am certain of it.", Evo replies. We all know what to do. We sprint full speed ahead.
We find a site where all the dog machines are digging into the sand and spraying ice inside.

"What is going on?", Falcom alongside Sili-san look weirded out.
"It is weak to ice as far as I have gathered, so it will probably go up if enough of the underground grows too cold for it.", so 2080X replies.
"Does that even work?", Falcom asks.
"What kind of wacky science did you learn?!", Sili-san asks.
But low and behold, the Mole digs himself up and shows himself.
"Ah. It worked.", Falcom says.
"You've got to be kidding me.", Sili-san comments.
"I will have you know, I studied molentoligy.", Evo tells them.
"THAT'S NOT EVEN A THING!", Sili-san shouts back.

"Get in battle positions! Prevent him from escaping at all costs!", I command.
Everyone goes go in battle positions, but Falcom asks, "Shouldn't you transform?"
"I'll leave that for the thunderbird, he is the biggest threat. I don't have enough share energy for both.", I tell her.
The Mole starts out by shooting a bunch of missiles and rocket propelled drills at us, I expect Sili-san to catch them all, but as he does that, the mole immediately retreats underground, although I should mention I sensed something shot into the mole.
It must've remembered Sili-san's tactics.

"Rest assured, I shot a tracking device into it, we can follow it even underground.", Evo tells us.
"Tell me where it will dig itself out.", Sili-san says.
We wait in anticipation, once Evo tells us where it has stopped, Sili-san runs right after this flat surface of sand and pins a net of string into it. The Mole tries to dig out, but is now trapped in this net instead. Having prepared for it, I shoot it with "UnionStar Light Slash" alongside 2080X' hyper cannon, with Falcom jumpin in front of it right after shouting, "Demon Flame Cut!", stabbing it with red energy a bunch of times. The Mole retreats back into the sand.

We thought we could keep doing this tactic, but it simply concocts a flaming pillar from underground, burning the net. Even if it was an oiled up net, it would not matter, the mole waited so it could safely raise itself out of the hole it already dug. The Mole first shoots a bunch of drill rockets from its left arm to reach 2080X, who was flying over him whilst blasting him with the regular arm cannon. 2080X manages to dodge them with minimal effort.

In the meantime, Falcom tried to get close, but jumped away and backed off later, for The Mole shoots new drill rockets, this time they are heated up beyond the limit.
"Watch out, get ready to evade, his next attack is fast and wide!", Sili-san shouted.
I see, this is the shotgun type attack he warned us about. The small oil droplets get burned up and shoot out of this drill together with molten metal, they could do massive damage and spread out real quick with each shot. 2080X barely avoided it, and only because he was high up. Falcom got the side of one of her boots burned off, but otherwise only has a burn mark for damage, good thing she jumped in time.

I can easily avoid it with Light Step and Sili-san already was prepared to move away.
"Magic Sword Sorcarion!", Falcom shouts, swinging her sword three times to shoot a bunch of crystals from her sword, only to miss due to the Mole digging back into the sand. Suddenly, a bunch of oil geysers shoot out from below us. We're surrounded by the spouting of oil, then the mole got into the air and we see all the oil explode in drops around us. I Thought it would be a good idea to get high into the air with Light Step, unfortunately, I was the only one quick enough to react.

Everyone else figured out its next move too late. Combined with gas that it shot beneath itself, it created a flaming explosion combined with the oil. It turned into a giant flaming ball of disaster that send all the of them flying everywhere. My heart stopped for a second, but I can see them barely move. They may get incapacitated however. I should be grateful they are strong and one is a robot.

I am not safe either, the Mole gets inside the sand and shoots itself out at high speed, yet I can predict his movement and use explosion to get out of the way. Once more I use explosion with my other limbs to get away from it trying to dive into me.
It goes down into the sand again, I thought to use an axe instead. I figure it would come back up to me, so I spun around and smashed it with my explosive axe as it flies into me. I successfully knocked him down, albeit, he gets underground again. Honestly, my arms feel numb afterwards. His strength exceeds me.

I drop down, feeling more weary than before. I put my axe back and charged my sword with light as he gets out of the sand and almost turned into a drill. Thinking I can take it, I jump at him with my sword overflowing with light. Clashing against it, I feel I had a chance to push him back, but in the end, I am flung over the sky as he goes through me. The friction from our clash is burning up the oil sprayed over me before. I go down and look at the Mole with a pained expression. He shoots his flamethrowers over me, setting me on fire with the oil now burning me. I feel a slight pain, I imagine it would be awful if I weren't undead.

Still, the damage is a lot, and I get on one knee. It gets closer to me and is about to get a big hit in.
"Double Explosion.", I heard before The Mole is flung back by a giant explosion magically summoned in front of it.
I am more than glad to see Theresa teleport in front of me and adding another attack onto it shouting, "Holy Light Beam!", pushing it further back with a beam of light.

The Mole was about to go all out with its flame throwers and a multitude of other fire attacks simultaneously, only for a bunch of magical wind spheres to push the flames back and then the monster itself as they cumulate into a wind storm, it all come from this one magical girl looking woman as she jumped past me and shouted, "Malicious Heaven!"
"Sforzanda!", I hear from behind me, and the same person shouting it is playing music…Wait, it is summoning magic? Oh, The Mole is getting hurt by some purple magical implosion.

Now Rhe Mole can't seem to use its ranged attacks anymore.
"Its skills are sealed, go for it! Cave!", I hear. Skill seal won't last long with this guy, I think. Either way, Cave moved in and swipes at it with her scissor sword. Although, she doesn't have the strength to get past its defensive use of its drill claws, it can't hit her either, even if it looks like claw swipes and thrusts touch her.
"Healing Song!", I hear as music is healing my wounds instantly. I feel great again.

"Chaos Rebirth!", I hear elsewhere. I look over to where Sili-San has been awoken from his knocked out status.
Before I knew it, another song is sung by a blue haired girl behind me as she is jamming on a guitar. I can feel my strength increasing.
Now I see Cave Suddenly being able to clash against the Mole's drills without being nudged back anymore.
"Seraphic Heal!", I hear from a mage who moved closer to Theresa. I myself run over to her to ask her a question.

In the meantime, Falcom got healed by the blue haired mage and knocks over a claw that almost hit Cave whilst she was pushing up against another claw. While the two jump around and perform a diverse set of actions, I ask Theresa, "Where did you get these allies?"
"Are you alright Leader? You seemed pretty hurt…", Theresa asks me.
"I'm all healed up. Worst case scenario, I'd have to transform. I suppose we have no time to talk for now.", I reply.
Theresa looks at me with a look of confidence that I rarely see in her.

That alone gives me the courage to trust these three new people.
I see The Mole switch to its flamethrowers, forcing Falcom and Cave to split off.
"It's an honor to be with you again, Cave!", Falcom shouts.
"The feeling is mutual.", Cave calmly says as she moved back a little. Sili-san said The Mole never aimed its two flamethrowers in separate directions, but now it actually did use each flame thrower in the opposite direction to try and hit the two.

"Full Burst option!", Cave shouts, trying to shoot it with a green beam coming out of her hand and five metal drone-like things.
Yet again, The Mole hides inside the sand. 2080X flies over us warning, "Cave, it is heading for your location."
Without skipping a beat, Cave responds, "Leave it to me." And a second later, she hops to the side a little, despite being so close to the Mole, it went past her, but not without the monster getting sliced multiple times by her blade.

I'm not sure if that is why, but the mole didn't get as high and isn't moving as well as before, so Falcom just jumps at it and shouts, "Photon Blade!", before smacking it onto the ground.
The Mole screeches, once again shooting a lot of oil Geysers into the air. Before it gets a chance to do anything this time, 2080X barrages it with missiles whilst flying onto it with a Hyper cannon, eventually doing a suicide dive into the mole to stop it from attacking. Eventually, the mole drills through 2080X, tearing it apart and throwing it into a sand dune in pieces.

"I'm sorry.", the guitar girl behind me looks saddened as she speaks, "I didn't heal it in time.
"It is an impossibility of reality to revive a machine with magic if it is torn into too many pieces.", the blue mage mentions.
"Don't worry, it is a remote controlled unit. We just have to be more careful now, either way, he bought us mere seconds, its next attack will be devastating once it sets these oil spouts aflame.", I reply.

Sili-San jumps into action, shouting, "Theresa! The mole is weak to ice!"
"Got it! Ice Coffin!", Theresa immediately responds and puts extra SP into her spell to create a large wave of icicles that temporarily trap the mole. The mole may be weak to ice, but its internals are likely filled with flame, it will eventually melt the ice. However, there is still a chance to stop it.
"Shiver Beam" and "Heavenly Sound!" the two blue haired girls shout, creating a combination attack of light and lightning to stun the Mole.

To our luck, the geysers calmed down and retreated into the earth, the mole missing its opportunity to attack with them, although, it still shoots over a spiraling flame our way.
"Conflagration Dust!", The blue mage shouts before summing a large cross wall of fire that takes in the flame of the mole, asking Theresa, "Assistant, do sync with me."
"Morph the flames into wind…Element take over. Flame return to oxygen. Wind overtake Flame.", Theresa chants as the two turn the combined flames into a wind blast that slams The Mole back, on the other hand, the concentration of oxygen must've been so much, it combusts back into flame, which The Mole resists. It shoots itself forward at high speed turning itself into a speedy flame drill. Theresa Teleports out of its way with a short teleport.

I step in front of it more confident. I am not alone, Falcom had already moved close to me.
"UnionStar Light Slash!"
"Photon Blade!"
The two of us hold it back, and finally overtake it thanks to Cave shooting it from above with her beams. The Mole is hurled back. We dodge its many projectiles and fight it whilst I sense Sili-san moving next to Theresa and talking to her about some kind of plan. I am too occupied to hear what.

The Mole's first arm is blocked by Cave, than its second arm is blocked by Falcom.
"UnionStar Light Slash!", I shout, knocking it over as its face drill lacks any strength to go up against me.
"EXE Drive Skill! Extinction Meteor!", Theresa shouts, mercilessly throwing her most powerful attack right off the bat. Four elements damage it until they combine together with a pillaring beam of light from below that all turned into a black void that summons a meteorite, smashing into it, doing major damage.

As I have known from my fight against the Thunder Bird, this major damage is only taking a small percentage from this monster. The Mole just gets back up and roars. Now floating streams of oil materializes around us, surrounding us.
"Leave this to me…Element overwrite. Ice to Flame, all liquid shall be solid!", Theresa's chant turned the oil to ice. When did she learn such overpowerd magic?
"Good going assistant.", the blue mage commends her.

She raises her want, swirling it around with dark magic. The frozen streams explode, the explosions magically turn the ice into darkness magic, but only partially. The unturned Ice is shot into the Mole for good damage whilst the parts turned into darkness materializes above the Mole raining down on it doing lesser damage, however, with the large concentration of ice summoned here, it takes a chunk of the Mole health.

Thanks to the Guitar girl's magical song, our overall ability has increased, with speed and strength Cave, Falcom and myself overwhelm the Mole whilst Theresa and the blue haired mage barraged it with spells. The blue haired mage didn't have as many ice spells as Theresa, but with it being weak to ice, even weaker spells hurt it quite a lot over time. In between, the occasional EXE Drive attack weakens this monster considerably.

"Lion! I am ready!", Sili-san shouts after half an hour of fighting.
Theresa nods and shouts, "Ice Wall Spread, Multiple Ice Tower!" From below her generated a huge blue magical circle, encircling us were six large magical circles, which I think she had been busy making before-hand.
From the circles shot out these tall towers of ice, with a bunch of string coming off of them, or rather, were made to be raised with them to set up this ultimate unexpecting net.

Sili-San jumps next to me and says, "Quick, Leader, our combination attack can stop it from getting wide and escaping." I get it, our EXE Drive attack will stop it from escaping the net that just captured it. The Ice pillars are there because there is barely any string to attach here, all the crystal towers or spread out ruins lie elsewhere.
"Let's do it!", I tell him.
"Couple EXE Drive Skill!", we both shout.

Using Light Step on his strings, I am bouncing around at hyper sonic speeds almost vanishing to the naked eye. I cut through the Mole many times and add in a few strong Light Slashes in between, the light spread into the string enchanting them with light itself. All threads turn into light until Sili-San can finally weave them into millions of blades cutting into the Mole as he puppeteers the light until they eventually vanish. Their speed had transcended dimensions and appeared again to cut the mole a thousand times leaving a thousand streaks behind. Now they teleported inside the mole, Sili-San uses the string to squeeze its insides before flinging The Mole over him.

Now I stand next to it and we thrust both of our swords forward as they rupture in light shouting, "FusionComet Illumination Stinger!", before we send the Mole flying.
With our EXE Drive attack over, The Mole can move again and quickly sped itself over towards Sili-san without giving him any time to react. It flames should render his string useless, yet, Sili-san steps forward. I saw fear in his face, yet he did not back down.
"Red String!", he shouts, pulling out red strings that did not burn away, he manages to cut some of its metal before wrapping the strings around its drills and pulling it apart. The moment the Mole stopped, Sili-san covered his blade in pure crimson with his threads, smacking the mole ten meters away from us.

He kneels afterwards, breathing heavily.
"Angel Con Brio!", Guitar girl shouts, healing all of us at once. Sili-san gets back up, looking no worse than before the battle started.
"Are you alright? What was that move?", I ask him.
"Mmm… I needed more strength, so I used HP together with SP to create these powerful Threads. When it is just a few strings, the HP is worth the risk, but that red sword costs quite a bit.", Sili-san says.
"I can't say you shouldn't use it. We are all pretty risky in the end. But be careful, we normally don't have two healers after all.", I say.

"So, what you're saying is, this is the perfect time to spam them.", Sili-san says with a smile, it feels more like he's cheering himself up.
I couldn't help but smile and respond, "I suppose so."
"Hey, I am okay with covering for you, but if you down yourself you may cause problems for the healers.", Falcom says after she walks next to us.
Cave appears besides us too and says, "Risky tactics are fine with more healers around, but be mindful of their time and SP."
"Don't worry, I got it.", Sili-san replies.
"I can keep healing! Don't worry too much!", the guitar girl reinsures us.

"I do not mean to interrupt…But he is transforming.", Cave says. We all look to where she's gazing. The Mole is shedding its metal, even its skin. Out of its collar, its head jumps out with a bunch of ball-shaped body parts following it. It turned into this caterpillar type monster made of steel and fur. It jumps over the sun, darkening all of our stunned selves. Then he lands into the sands and digs deep down.
"I think this desert actually puts him at more of an advantage than before.", Sili-san says.

I agree with him. We watch this bizarre looking monster jump in and out of sand at high speeds. We have a much shorter timeframe to hit it. It doesn't need to stay up to attack. Not only can he launchs multiple arrays of missiles into the sky with each jump, every single body part has its own function it seems. It may no longer be weak to ice, for I sense more than one type of air exuding from each body type. It may be able to do every elemental attack.

Sili-san can stop the rockets and fling them back at the monster, this time it seems to have lost its intelligence and is doing attacks automatically, so it keeps firing missiles. Cave easily dodges them, even uses them as footholds to leap past the monster as it gets out of the sand, cutting it each time.
Theresa and the blue haired mage easily do damage to it with simple combo moves. But its attacks are no less devastating, a sudden lightning bolt occasionally hits one of us with almost no way to dodge it. The only ones who dodged it are me and Cave, and that is with much trouble.

It sometimes unleashes this surge of fire, even if it doesn't burn us much, it creates a heatwave that does damage on its own and wears us down. It sometimes creates ice from under one of its body parts as it flies over us. the next time it jumps out of the sand, he does it next to the ice it created to shoot a beam against it, it reflects off the ice and rains light against us, although I can defend the party from that despite the difficulty. It is of no surprise it also summons tornadoes which turns into sand-storms and even has an attack that can create these dark orbs of gravity that flattens whatever they touch. They are slower but stay on the field for a while.

Alongside its body are countless drills that fire off mini-flaming tornadoes or just blast off as projectiles. The monster can appear right besides us to try and bite one of us, and with its speed, it's a genuine threat. Even attacking it doesn't stop it, like it is an unmovable train. Hitting its body parts is risky, too, Falcom hits one but it ends up spinning around before detonating, the body part taking no damage from its own explosion but hurting the attacker a lot. Few more failed attempts later, I noticed a pattern.

"It switches its body parts every time it goes into the sands. The one that explodes has fewer drills, and said drills retract when you attack.", I point out. With that in mind, we got a great strategy of slowing it down using string, then attacking the elemental body parts with the opposing magic which those body parts seemed to be weak to. My UnionStar Light Slash against the black part, Ice Coffin against the flaming one, Time to Kill against the blue, Heavenly Sound against the green one, Mechanical Paradox against the white one, and Malicious Heaven against the yellow one. Falcom would attack the non-elemental ones except if it's too risky, then she would uses her one ranged attack.

Sometimes it creates these large quicksand pits around us, we had almost fallen in a few times, usually they affected the mages the most, us who are on the move usually get away from it in time. Theresa can teleport, and Sili-san keeps the blue haired girls out of the sinking holes. We couldn't see its final attack coming. Sand suddenly circles around Sili-san, then, a tail wraps around him.

He ends up being trapped by the worm-like tail of the caterpillar. We didn't see a tail at all at first, he must've grown one in the midst of battle. Sili-san was not only immobile, but now we couldn't do large attacks without damaging him. If this is a desperation move, it might be pretty low on HP, we just have to keep up attacking it with smaller moves. The color of its body parts are fading, and with that, their special attacks have stopped. It became a war of attrition. We take turns between the three to protect the guitar girl from rockets by shooting them down, whilst the other two run past the monster to attack it, albeit, taking a hit in return.

I constantly aim for the tail body part until its light faded and released Sili-san. He was already hurt quite a bit and got inflicted with every status ailment in existence.
"Just heal Skill Seal, we can kill it right after.", he says.
Cave throws me a recovery item.
"If it's Skill Seal, we have plenty in case 5PB. misses her skill seal attack and hits an ally.", Cave says calmly before jumping away from more incoming missiles.
They are well prepared, huh? I give the item to Sili-san.

"Alright…", Sili-san says.
With the monster weakened, he throws out all of his strings and catches it in mid-air shouting, "Red String!"
He looks back at us and screams, "I've caught it! Now use the strongest EXE Drive Skill!"
It's hard to determine what the top four EXE Drive Skill attack are, in the end, we start with Cave, then we let Falcom do hers, then we let Theresa do hers a second time, and finally, I finish him off with my FusionStar Light Slash Exe Drive Skill variant.

We see its body parts and its head bouncing around.
"This sensation…It has not perished yet.", Cave says. It unloads a bunch of different projectiles, turning this location into a bullet hell. Theresa and the blue haired mage cover themselves in a barrier, the guitar girl who is apparently called 5PB. gets protected by Falcom and Sili-san. Cave and myself can avoid the bullets well enough, Falcom taking the most damage here. The sands shift our positions, we are unable to move out of it.

This is its, a desperation EXE Drive. We can barely move, so the one movement has to kill each body type, I imagine it being a suicide attack, so it will kill us if we fail.
Out of the sands jumps each body part. Cave easily dances around it and cuts it to pieces. Falcom jumps over it and tears it in half with a majestic drop cut.
Theresa teleports and blows a body piece up. The blue haired mage stops it with dark magic and compresses the body part into the void.
5PB. used an SP skill she called, "Plasma Oven!", summoning an actual large oven she smacks it in and turns it into goo. Sili-san uses Red String Cutter, slicing that Body Part in half.
I of course use Light Step and blast the body part coming for me with light.

After all have been cut, the head pops out, ready to explode. I don't give it the chance. With Reflection Blade, I step through the head at high speed, cutting it clean in half.
Sighs of relief fill the air. The treasure dropping down onto us. I grab it, but I sense something microscopic in the wind flying way faster than any organism should. It flew right into the treasure before I put it in the inventory. Everyone was celebrating and talking loudly to each other, but I am examining the palm of my hand. I put it in my inventory before anyone could just grab it…But what was that?

"Hey Leader! …Leader?", Sili-san tries to get me in the mood the celebrate, but slows down and puts his hand on my shoulder as he looks over me worried, Theresa had moved close to me at the same time.
"Can we see the treasure? Hm? Is something wrong?", she was smiling at first, but now also looks curious into my eyes. The other people gathered around. I materialized the treasure out of my inventory.
"Does anyone have any way to look for microscopic things?", I ask.
"What an odd question.", Cave says calmly.

"Is there something wrong with it?", Falcom asks.
"I just sensed something flying through the wind.", I say.
"You are capable of sensing things?", Cave asks.
"Hn, Leader can sense things in the wind!", Theresa states with pride.
"I do have the tools on me to check. I could provide an investigation if you so desire.", the blue haired girl tells me.

"Who the heck are you guys, anyway?!", Sili-san shouts.
Cave introduces herself and her friends. I had heard of her before and know 5PB. from some live footage whenever the TV was on, but wasn't sure it was her. Falcom knows them as well, so that makes it easier for us to get along. I let them talk to each other, Falcom telling them about the ninja war we were a part of. In the meantime, MAGES. pulls out a whole scientific table. Theresa makes sure no sand blows in our direction with wind magic.

"Hm…It is a peculiar case, I find no organism or abnormality in this sacred treasure…But I have spotted a mark. I would not doubt tampering done by the most sinful…", she says.
"Anything you can do about it?", I ask her.
"I can only microwave it and perhaps eliminate a potential intrusive existence.", she says.
What is it with weird microwaves today? Whatever. "Do it.", I say.
We microwave a gem. I have no idea if that is a good idea, but I suppose if the gem is destroyed it will still achieve my goal of keeping it away from Justit.

After the microwaving is done, MAGES. hands the gem to me.
"It is of no certainty that we have cleansed the gem of impurity, however, I can guarantee its arcane power has not faded. Keep it close.", MAGES. tells me.
I put it back in my inventory. Now that were are caught up, our big adventure in the desert shall near its end as we head over to the final monster, the Thunderbird.

To Be Continued…