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

26. Chapter 21: Four Treasures Obtained

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Third Sister; Darkness

Chapter 21

Four Treasures Obtained.

We walk further South, as we go up and down a few sand dunes, a canine-looking machine runs down our way. The newcomers become weary of it, but Sili-San, Falcom, and myself assure them it is on our side. The 3070X unit stops in front of us.
"Speaking devices activated.", it said.
We hear Evo's real voice as she speaks, "My bad, my bad. I lost that last fight, huh?"
"That…I was not expecting such a high pitched voice. My apologies.", Cave replies.

"Oooh…A fine instrument of science indeed. I can sense great care was put into this Cerberus.", MAGES. comments.
"So, will you join up with a new unit?", Sili-san asks her.
"Unfortunately, fixing 3080X will require new material and I plan to abandon this lab, so that is something I will not start. 2080X is easy to produce, but even then, I wouldn't be able to join in time. 3090X should be finished by the time you reach the Thunderbird. As for this model you're talking to, I must return it back to base. The other models are actively being hunted, and even I am unable to detect by what.", Evo explains.

"You don't just have drones lying around?", Sili-san asks.
"You see, flying drones too high might activate the strong variant of the Pyrasphinx. And any on the ground seem to get interference with footage lately um…I can't track you guys either anymore besides by looking at the news. I deduce it is Justit messing with other camera drones, even tiny ones. So I will be watching the news for you until I've booted up my latest model.", Evo explains.

"Thanks for your work, Evo. I hope to see you soon.", I reply.
"Oh, no need to thank me. I am just doing as I please. Well then, good luck!", she replies and makes the dog bow before sprinting away.
"Is this another member of the Phantom Crusaders?", Cave asks, sounding inquisitive.
"I don't know her.", Theresa replies to her.
"I've met her recently. She's been hunting those anti-goddess weapons. She destroyed the unit that attacked me.", I tell them.

We continued walking, coming across more structures of crystal and ruin. We shared information on the evil droids, I only told them minimal information on Evo, not even telling them her name. Only to Theresa and Sili-san do I talk about her name and status as a most likely new member.
The heat is really getting to us, but Cave and 5PB. share water with us.

"I am amazed. How are you so well prepared? According to Theresa, you rushed towards the desert with no plan.", I mention.
"The Master Chief was very considerate and loaded our vehicle with large quantities of water.", Cave tells me.
"Master Chief…? I heard he is a legendary figure in Leanbox, but don't know much about him.", I say.
"He is THE legendary figure! Admired by both men and Goddess alike! Even I am a big fan!", Sili-san tells me.

"Were you from Leanbox?", I ask him.
"I lived there a long time ago, so yeah. The games made about him are genuine master pieces, even a casual like me knows.", Sili-san says enthusiastically.
I see.
"Indeed. I have high respect for the chief, even though he mostly retired from battle and is primarily doing command and information gathering.", Cave informs us.

We've run into a more undulating part of the deserts with many crystal towers, pyramids and various ancient temples large and small. Most enemies are a joke to this party, with the addition of magic and everything being weak to ice, we had nothing to worry about. Even when the occasional Pyrasphinx shows up, we have an easy way of dealing with it now.

Cave baits its first attack and easily dodges it. Theresa immediately freezes the front paws with a powered up "Ice Coffin" Sili-San uses his strings to tie up the paws behind its back with Falcom making sure it doesn't break out by slamming the feet down.
MAGES. damages the pyramid shell, specifically to stop its counter attacks. 5PB. uses her skill seal attack to prevent it from using magic, she also powers us up of course. Then, I charged two blades of light and fused them together. "FusionStar Light Beam" is what I use to penetrate its pyramid shell and destroy the core inside.

The only limit we had was our SP. Fortunately, there is plenty of time monsters don't attack us. We had ample moments to rest and plenty of water to drink. Sometime later, I noticed too little too late that the surface before us wasn't stable. Everyone walked further in and my voice did not come from my mouth until we were falling through the collapsing sand in front of a large temple.
We get up, rubbing the spots we fell on.
"Where the heck are we?!", Sili-San complains.
"It would seem an abandoned basement?", Cave asks.
"Hm…Most temples have underground areas. There may be treasure here, or a lot of traps, usually both.", Falcom says.

"Eitherway, we have little time to spent here. Let us find an exit.", Cave says.
Observing my surroundings, a lot of this underground room has been mixed with an actual cave. There is a large hole in one wall that reveals an expanding wide foggy cavern with water beneath.
This Cave might've spawned here with the desert. I see crystals in the distance, so I think I'm right. Either way, we navigate our way over this temple ruins with enormous open rooms.

Traps aside, we ran into a new threat. Two cobras with red crystal ears, crystal fangs, and they are wrapped around a red gem half the size of their own large bodies. They repeatedly throw the gem a little into the air before catching it back.
Not giving them a chance to attack, myself and Theresa launch the first offensive.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!" "Holy Light Beam!" these two attacks got repelled back to us, I Light Stepped away whereas Theresa teleported at the last millisecond.

"Time To Kill." "Mechancal Paradox" "Heavenly Sound" "Ice Coffin" We thought the gems only reflected light, but it seems to reflect magic in general. Luckily we only got the sides of our legs and arms hit at worst.
Falcom rushes in on one, but it shields itself with its gem, then blasts her back with a beam of pure magic. Sili-San attempts to snatch the gems out of their grasp, but even though one was in the middle of throwing its gem, Their bodies latches onto the gem like it was an extension of their own, the gem shines once and hits Sili-san with lightning damage.

Cave leaps forward, dodging a beam from one of the gems and capable of hitting one of the cobra, but then the other cobra hurled the Gem into the air and a flash blinds the party. I can still sense things in the wind, Cave gets wrapped up by one of the snakes and bitten in the shoulder. I use Light Step to knock the head back. I manage to free Cave, but immediately have to get behind the cobras as it unleashes four trails of flying venom from its crystal teeth.

I circle around the snakes back to the party. Cave has been poisoned. We have healing magic, but nothing to cure the poison. We struggle with these snakes, if any of us gets poisoned, MAGES. and 5PB. would have to heal us constantly. Falcom has one healing spell, too but that would still mean we put more pressure onto us.
Then suddenly, a tornado of magical wind is summoned on one of the snakes.
"Okay…Great Tornado!", Theresa shouts as she lifts the two cobras into the air.
"They don't reflect wind magic. It's not dense enough to be repelled by the crystal.", Theresa says.

With some hope now, we counterstrike. "Malicious Heaven!", Cave's physical wind attack sends them into the sky once more, I speed past one to cut its head off, the other gets sliced by Sili-san's, "String Cutter!"
We group up together. We can't tell if the poison will run out on its own or if we need to rest.
"Those cobras can show up above ground, although it is rare. I've been avoiding them whenever I explore underground areas in this location where they are more likely to spawn. Otherwise I would've known their skills. I'm sorry.", Falcom says.
"Don't worry. We'll just have to find an antidote or resting place.", Cave replies, perfectly masking her uncomfortable state.

As we go our way up, we run into more of these enemies, but now that we know how they work, they don't put up much of a fight. It is when we find a stair case to another unstable set of sand that we reach outside. We just make the sand fall from a distance and we're set. However, once we get above ground, we noticed we are before two pyramids. Fighting two Pyrasphinxes at the same time will result in us unable to do the winning strategy. Now here they activate at the same time ready to fight us.

We split up into two groups. We first got a bit chaotic when they did their initial charge attack, but after Cave uses her EXE Drive Skill, "Black Label", to hit both targets at once, we organized and use two separate tactics. Cave handles the one on the right, constantly staying close to its belly so it is likely to do its one-hit kill attack that she knows how to perfectly dodge. Falcom prepares the make a hole through its pyramid and hit its core with an EXE Drive attack.

I bait the other sphinx, constantly zooming around it with Light Steps whilst doing minor blows against its paws. Theresa and Mages. do a bunch of combo attacks preparing for their own EXE Drive Skill. From time to time, Theresa hits both monsters with Ice Coffin. Malicious Heaven can Skill seal one Pyrasphinx whilst 5PB. uses her skill seal attack on the other. 5PB. and Sili-san mostly stand back. Sili-san can rebound the spear attack and 5PB. does the song power up and heals Cave from the poison damage she is taking over time.

Falcom finally kills off the one on the right, and our two mages heavily damage the one on the left. I finish it off with a FusionStar Light Slash. This is the first time we killed one of them without damaging the core. Now something bizarre is happening. The pyramid is spinning around as it rises off of the disappearing Pyrasphinx. It shines a light absorbing it into it. Before any of us realizes it, we are on top of the same pyramid, now upside down and above the clouds.

The inside of the pyramid has become see-through for us and visually turned into cyberspace. The floors especially became a translucent light blue.
"What the fuuu…I mean. Well. At least this is cool. What…", Sili-san is clearly astonished.
He's not alone, all of us are looking around bewildered. Theresa stops to look outside and is gaping with wonder. Even MAGES. and Cave look flustered. I look below us and point to a spinning mechanical orb that glows blue, "Is that the core?"

Falcom looks with me and says, "I suppose so. I have seen the core before, but it didn't look as…Energetic as this."
"Perhaps this is the core's true purpose?", Cave questions.
"Huuuuhhhhh….This height is a little scary.", 5PB. says, shaking while holding onto Cave.
Now that I think about it, outside of Cave and MAGES., she usually backs away from the party.
"Well, this solves one mystery. The upside down flying pyramids must've been Pyrasphinxes as well.", I mention.

"Oh…But doesn't that mean this will turn into the stronger variant?", Falcom asks.
"Oh my goddess, we are never save!", Sili-san whines.
"I would worry not. I haven't noticed a single reverse pyramid floating this high. I assume this becomes one of those monsters after a given time.", Cave says.
"As an expert on the arcane and mad science, I can tell from its structure and magical writing that once we procure something of importance this will slowly descent close to the overworld.", MAGES. says.

We look around, feeling pretty excited. It's also a good place for a break. I walk all the way to the top. Even I feel pretty relaxed with the beautiful view below us. I look forward and see a large treasure chest accompanied by two dozens of small ones. I called everyone up here and we excitingly open them up.
"I see, these tough enemies gives us something nice if we beat them fair and square.", Falcom says.
"It would make sense to hunt them with the proper party.", Cave agrees.

"Look guys! We found a bunch of status effect restoring items!", Sili-san shouted.
With that, we finally cured Cave of her poison status.
"Hm…Sp Chargers get!", Theresa says happily. She should, we were running low. We'll be perfectly prepared for our final fight.
We take a deep breath. We look at each other. We wait a little. Once we mutually feel ready, we open the big chest, knowing it would mean the end of this break.

"Wow…A bunch of defensive equipment and weapons!", 5PB. says looking in on it.
I don't need anything. But Falcom found a sword to her liking. Cave didn't mind taking one of the weapons. Theresa and MAGES. were the most delighted to get new staffs. I can't make a new staff that buffs magic damage, so it is a nice upgrade for Theresa. It looks like a marble staff with a bunch of writings on it at first, but the text glows and the orb on top emits this digital effect. Now the pyramid slowly drops.
"We'll still be in the air by the end of it. We should make preparations for a save drop.", Cave tells us. we all nod of course.

Theresa can teleport us down with a group teleport. And that was that. This is a moment to look back to, it's one of the reasons why I wouldn't mind becoming an adventurer full-time.
It doesn't take us long to reach the fog wall, we were already nearby.
"So…Do we wait for that bird to come out?", Falcom asks.
"No. I can open it.", I say.
I reach out my hand…Just a bit of share energy. I feel the power symbols in my eyes glow for a second. Now the mist dissipates.

"No mortal could ever hope to dispel this mist of mystery.", MAGES. says.
"Yes…These are made to work with share energy. I don't understand why.", I tell them.
"The true origins of the Golden Towers and these after affects remain a mystery. The Golden towers were written in legend, but not this.", Cave mentions.
Putting it like that, maybe I have to research the book of true history once more.

We enter in. The area looks like another ancient civilization, but with oriental architecture instead. There were a few tori gates, the one we go through being broken, usually meaning a bad omen. Alongside some mostly intact shrines were a lot of bells and rope.
"I know this spawned in with the desert. But I just can't find any reason why this location is mixed in with the desert.", Falcom says.
"Must be uncanny to one well-traveled. We found an ancient ruin that looked not from Leanbox at all.", Cave says.
"The Mole came from an oil field, but its territory was a city build around water instead.", Sili-san says.

"And Lowee had a large urban city as the monster's domain…Not even the monsters fit.", I say.
"You're right. Why is the technologically enhanced bird not in the modern city field you mentioned?", Falcom says.
"And the turtle's location had nothing to do with water despite it being a creature of the sea.", Cave says.
"I heard Lowee's monster was a mammal that would fit here instead.", I say.
"Why is everything so out of order?", Sili-san asks.

Well, time for speculation is over. The Thunder bird descends from the sky, bringing purple lightning with him. We get ready to fight.
The Thunderbird wastes no time and transforms right away, turning into what looks like a futuristic jet plane with purple lights and plasma tubes whilst lightning is constantly discharging from it. I told everyone about this form before, but they still look stunned at it.
"Allow me to go all out from the get go as well… White Frozen Sweetch processor unit. Set!", I say. A pillar of light goes over to me as I transform into HDD.

I slowly get to the same elevation as the bird whilst the party talks behind me.
"She really can transform…", 5PB. says.
"You have witnessed this form, right, Falcom?", Cave asks.
"Yes. But…It was a different form back then.", Falcom says, she somehow sounds like there is a weight put on her, actually, aside from my team members, they all talk like that.
"Leader changes forms often. Is that odd?", Theresa asks.
"Like, Goddesses have different processor units, right?", Sili-san says.

"Yes, but they only change naturally after some change in share energy or by something special. Usually they only have different processors made by their research team.", Cave says.
"It is indeed a rarity for Goddesses to change forms a lot of times. Unless there is ample time between each form?", Mages. says.
"…Leader can change forms all of a sudden.", Sili-san mentions.
I ignore them, the Thunderbird will move at any moment.

Within one movement, the Thunderbird accelerates, a light passing me as it disappears in light speed. But even that is something I can follow. It appears behind me, I already get away with Light Step before it could even take action, it ends up firing this huge purple beam of energy at nothing. I had gotten behind it and push it down with a "UnionStar Light Slash", using my stronger SP move from the beginning knowing it won't let me get such an easy hit in twice.

Cave shoots it with her Options shouting, "Full Burst Option!" combined with Theresa and MAGES. hitting it with large explosions of light and darkness respectively whilst surrounded by magical circles. Now it turned into lightning and seemingly teleported behind Theresa and Mages. Theresa uses short teleportation to move out of the way, but MAGES. would take the full hit of another large beam. Even if she guarded with a barrier, it breaks and damages her.

Whilst 5PB. heals Mages., the Thunder bird gets in the air and shoots a large wide array of lighting, but it is stopped by Sili-san's wire threads. Falcom, who had rubber equipment with her, jumps on top of the wire and bounces off of it reaching the thunderbird and directly hits it as hard as she can with her new sword. The bird is flung back, but it had metal parts moving like limbs to helps keep its elevation and recover its momentum. It skirts around, vanishing in and out of the lightning as it flies over us, forcing lightning to strike and shooting rockets into the air to barrage the party.

Sili-san protects the stationary members with wire whilst Cave dodges the projectiles and fires off pixelated rounds back into the air at the Thunder Bird, even if they miss. I myself have trouble keeping up. We are at the same speed. I can't hit it, but none of its lightning and lasers can touch me either. Seeing this stalemate may take a turn for the worse, I am going to try out this new magic I had been working on with Theresa. I shoot a bit of ice magic into the sky. After one light shone, it disappeared. That is supposed to happen, whether or not I get the desired results, we'll have to see.

It finally stopped moving all over the place, but only for a second. It shines in four colors, blue, red, green and yellow. Suddenly, it split into four echoes of each color it shone. At high speed, they are trying to ram into me. I could dodge them all, including the main unit, but then the four echoes come in at me all at once crashing into each other creating an explosion that emits a shockwave making my flight difficult, I am unable to dodge the main unit that rams into me right after dealing plenty of damage.

"Seraphic Healing!", I am instantly healed of any damage by MAGES., so I get to moving right away.
The Thunderbird splits up again, the four echoes encircle us in the air whilst the main unit flies even higher up.
Each of them shoot a beam reflecting their color, it was half the size of the main unit's large beam. The main unit is raining lightning down at us simultaneously.

We focus hard on defense, even I can't touch it, having to dodge 1200 lightning bolts. Sili-san has his threads ready, but he can't do anything about the four beams being fired every five seconds. Falcom tries to knock the beams back with her Photon Sword, taking little damage herself. 5PB. and Mages. Hit the echoes, but they aren't alive, so they only knock their beams in a different direction and do no damage. Theresa can counter one beam with her own, and I can reflect a few beams with my hands, but it hurts me this time, they aren't pure light after all.

Eventually, the ships all fly into the main unit, a light orb expanding into a spread that rains down plasma droplets of every color. I grabbed a shield out of inventory to block them. Sili-san tries his best to create a shield of threads defending himself and 5PB., but gets hurt by the plasma leaking through. Theresa and MAGES. used their barriers. Falcom gets hit directly and is hurt badly. After the rain is done, the thunderbird instantly zoomed over to me with a beam ready to be fired.

I return my shield to the inventory and used reflection on my blade so I could split its beam with mirror blade, however, the sheer force of its beam is pushing me close to the ground, it may even just blow up on top of me. Sili-san, grabs me out of the beam with his string, whilst Theresa and MAGES. shoot a beam of light and darkness at it doing great damage. Cave had dodged most of the rain somehow and shot a bunch of fireballs into it right after it was blown back by the two magical beams. It teleports behind Cave and tries to shoot a beam into her, but she dodges it even though it looks like it hit her side. She could not strike back, unfortunately, it's just too fast.

I take a look at the situation. 5PB. heals all of us with Healing Song, but it isn't enough to fully recover Falcom. Sili-san could catch it in his threads and we could wail on it. We need his threads to reach the sky, somehow. Or we need to bird to get lower. The problem is when it splits up, those echoes cannot be damaged and only move when hit by magic as far as I have noticed.

We are in a bad situation, but then, the monster gets enveloped in missile fire. Above us, we see a machine fly down on it. The bird could for some reason not fly away and slowly inched towards it before getting punched hard into a temple.
A mecha lands next to us, with the person in it looking like an entity of smoke.
"Another Phantom Crusaders member?", Cave asks.
"I can't see her. Who?", Theresa asks.
"Wait. That must be…", before Sili-san finishes his sentence, I say, "Evo."

"Hey hey, I know we haven't decided on a codename yet, but don't shout my name!", she talks back. She shows off her new mecha, calling it, "Anyway, I have completed the RT 3090X, what do you think?"
"For starters, the open cockpit may leave you open for attacks.", Cave mentions.
The machine had a very egg-like body shape, but other than that, every body part of it was thick, yet flexible. It seems everything can kind of rotate, allowing for a diverse range of motion. She shows off its movements and how much she can't fall off of it.

"This design utilizes an advanced Magnet utility that would normally kill computers but makes me perfectly flexible here. Everybody part's muscle is combines with these magnets for advanced movement. It's also how I pulled that bird in.", she tells us.
"That is genius, I shall make note of that in my headspace, oh bender of science.", MAGES. says.
"Yeah, I don't want to ruin anything, but the bird is back and about to shoot a laser.", Sili-san says.
"The news was recording this, the device is broken however. I still have seen enough of its moves. Leave this to me!", Evo says.

Her mecha lets its fist spins as steam comes out of the machine whirling with the heat and plasma energy emitted out of the holes around its fist.
"Fatal Fist!", she shouts as she throws her punch against the incoming purple beam, cancelling the beam out with a spiraling beam of her own.
"Hey, you seem pretty beat up. Let me heal you.", Evo says before shooting a needle into Falcom that recovers her HP without any pain. Falcom thanks her and moves into position with Cave.
She holds her hand out and unleashes a wave of magnetism to pull the bird in, it resists, but that only results in it staying suspended in the air. It can fire off rockets and lightning back towards Evo, which actually approach faster.

I use Light Step to move beyond the rockets and the bird, simultaneously, Mages. and Theresa cast a double explosion that sends the bird back flying.
Evo can't hold onto magnetism and counter-attack as the same time, she chooses to unload her arsenal of weaponry. Mortars, bombs, grenades, rockets, flamethrowers of which their flames fuse with her solid rounds as they go off like fireworks into the sky. The burning sky is barely avoided by the bird, it recently avoids a light slash from me, only to get hit by an incoming attack from Falcom after she was kicked off by Cave.

"Demon Fang Cut!" Falcom shout thrusting her blade into it multiple times before blowing it back, immediately following that up with, "Magic Sword Socarian!", the magical crystals exploding into the lightning bird.
Falcom is shot down by lightning after, but Cave catches her in mid-air, and I bet she can be healed again. I go flying towards the bird, but as I try to cut it, it separates into five echoes. There is no main unit, only a fifth purple echo. The five echoes first target a random five people to teleport behind, so it can ram them at high speed.

Theresa dodges with Teleport, I dodge one with Light Step, Sili-san ends up getting hit, Cave dodges it barely, but Falcom was too close to her and got hit instead, Evo got hit by one, but her machine's defenses are great. Afterwards, their speed made them turn into colorful blurs and streaks as they move around ramming through us, albeit, these attacks don't really hurt. I occasionally got hit and felt they didn't hurt too much. Eventually, four echoes appear directly above ground, diving straight down onto the party, each causing a perfectly angled explosion in four corners. The explosions get larger and hit Evo, 5PB. and MAGES. Theresa manages to run in the middle with Sili-san helping Falcom get to the middle. Cave almost got hit but ran away in time.

Above us appeared the purple echo who rained such insane lightning down at us, it was impossible to dodge by anyone. Sili-san protects the party with wire, but I take the full hit. It is fortunate getting healed isn't much of an issue, both MAGES. and Evo use their healing skills on me to bring me back to full, but the exhaustion remains. Well, I am not even close to being done. If it keeps doing attack like that, we'll be in danger. I really need Evo to pull it towards the ground with magnetism so that Sili-san can string it up, we'd be able to attack it constantly.

I look at Evo, I can't make out her eyes, but I can tell she looked into mine when she nodded. She pulled the bird in, I prepared to knock it down onto the ground, but to my surprise, it performs metamorphoses. It can not only simply transform back and forth, but also temporarily become a hybrid, negating the magnetism and dodging me by flying up with the flap of its wings. It generates an electric field with its wings, countering any magnets used against it.

In this form he may be slower, but his movements are more smooth, he also is able to whirl up a storming tornado way larger than before. Theresa tries countering the storm tornado, but her Great Tornado was a fourth its size. We are getting pulled in and some of us are hit by lightning bolts.
"It's two elements, I can't overtake.", Theresa tells MAGES.
"I am from Leanbox. We have a tradition of dealing with the worst hurricanes.", Cave says.
Falcom, who is holding onto her blade stabbed in the ground asks, "So you have a countermeasure?"

"Yes. I am going to shoot it.", Cave's response solicitated a, "huh?!", from everyone, even the ones who were desperately holding onto the ground eye her with confusion.
"Exe Drive Skill, Black Label!" Cave shouts, entering the tornado. She's willing to be heavily damaged, in return, she rotates in the opposite direction and pokes many holes into the tornado. When her attack picks up, she eventually absorbs the tornado into her final attack as she aims it up to the bird this time, the two flaming beams shot by her wasps turned into lightning tornadoes, even so, the bird gently flies over them, using its wings to gain air-time.

Cave falls back down, almost falling over. Falcom heals her this time.
The bird does the lightning teleportation technique to appear behind Theresa, she moves out of the way of its kick with a short teleportation, it quickly zooms over to MAGES. who couldn't avoid its speedy kick and had to guard herself with her staff, she ends up being knocked over. The odds stacked against her, Theresa was met with the bird flying her way to do another lightning kick, yet she dodges it with a proper roll. As expected of someone I threw at Light Speed multiple times, she, and Sili-san too for that matter, can follow its movement better than everyone else.

But we can't predict the future, even though I sensed its weird movement with Wind Sense, I did not foresee it morphing back to its jet form and using its jet engine as a beam attack against Theresa as it flies away, she drops on the ground in pain.
"Tear!", Falcom heals MAGES. who in return brings life back to Theresa with "Chaos Rebirth!"
The bird is flying right for me, it splits up in five echoes again. Each take a turn to launch itself at me at high speed, I can dodge them, even when they get past me and leave a burst behind that summons a magical attack my way, I can dodge each move and lightning bolt.

But when they came back and combined together, their momentum just fusing together to ram at a speed beyond my own, it sends me flying into a temple.
Not willing to concede, I place my hand on the floor and use reflection to shoot myself back at it at light speed, then I strike it with my blade brimming with light. I see it flip over into the air before recovering again.
All of us are getting tired. We can't keep up with its movements, especially now that magnets won't affect him either.

But finally, my spell pays off. I see the first snowflake fall.
Theresa holds out her hand to let one snowflake dance in her palm.
"Is this…?", she mumbles to herself, looking at the sky with starry eyes. When was it? That cloudy skies meant hope? The others just looked confused as snow falls, even when there is a desert all around us.
Sili-san began to raise the corners of his lips. "I see! We can win now!"

As snowfall drops down onto us, the snowbird is flying straight at me. I just look at it, feeling somewhat relieved. I smack it with a shockwave from the wind, it misses me due to that. It turns around and tries to hit me with a beam, but I hit it again from above through controlling the snow itself.
"What is happening?", Cave asks.
"I see! Suno can control snow!" , Falcom says, remembering our fight.

I had made a weather altering spell with Theresa. Finally all elements have been gathered, a magical circle of blue hangs over us for a few minutes, but the large set of clouds bringing snow with them lasts for an hour, normally. I needed a snowstorm, so this will last half an hour once it picks up in speed. With my current level of control, none of my party members are effected. A strong snow air cut would be too slow, but I don't need it anymore. I turn the snow around me into light and fling them as small, yet dense blades of light at the lightning bird.

As it is busy trying to avoid them, I predict its movement and fly towards it before blasting it with Light magic enhanced by snow shouting, "UnionStar Helios Slash!" This massive attack of light sends it packing. It fires a beam back at me, but with the amount of Light I can instantly gather with this snow makes a perfect shield. It had thought to generate enough heat to melt the snow around it, but it was meaningless to me, I have turned the snow into light as I condense them into waves that spiral around the jet as it attempts to escape my waves.

Eventually, it splits into five again, except this time, I cannot only dodge every single one of them, I also end up blocking a tackle from its last attack by creating a wall of light that slowed it down enough for me to move out of the way. I see Evo raise her hand. I fused her spinning fist with light, when the Thunder bird shoots its beam from above, Evo launches a spiraling beam of light back at it shouting, "Judgement Fist!", easily overtaking its beams and flinging the thunderbird backwards upon contact.

The Thunderbird splits up into different forms again, its main unit flying above us whilst four echoes try to shoot the party below with beams, only this time I can move them away easily with Light magic, so they are no threat. Eventually, they shoot out of my grasp and towards the main unit. I stop the snow storm, even if more snow pours in, it is stopped and placed in empty spots or combined, I turn them into tiny blades to counter the rain of plasma. Adding onto that, Cave, Evo, Theressa and MAGES. fire back at it with magic and projectiles of their own.

After that struggle, I am able to surround the Thunderbird with light, almost wrapping it in, but it turned into a bird and barely escaped, it somehow becomes too slippery to catch, it can also blow wind away before it is turned to light. It figured it may blow my snowstorm away with another giant tornado filled with lightning. But my control over snow has been raised to the max. From above, I go into the tornado with light already following me from my blade. Each individual snowflake fuses with the winds whilst I let a second sword absorb its lightning.

Turning all snow into light, I overtake this tornado and curve it back towards the Thunderbird dealing good damage to it. It escapes by turning into five echoes, but even so, it cannot hit me again. knowing it, it quickly returned to its corporeal form. It flies around, looking for a way to get to my friends, but each time, snow is turned into a wall of light where it tries to fly, letting met get close to it.

Above us is a thick layer of snow as if it were a ceiling. It must know that it can pass through snow easily as long as it hadn't turned into light. Desperate to escape me, it charges up its engines to boost into the sky, but at that moment, I had turned the ceiling into light. It violently bounces off the light ceiling. The ceiling get torn into pieces, but that is caused by me as I plan to use the light ceiling to turn it into a rainstorm of light that eventually knock it down.

With it getting slow enough, Theresa and MAGES. do a combination attack.
"Couple Exe Drive Skill!" The two of them shoot a beam of light and darkness that fuse together as they explode into the monster, they called this, "Nebula Beam!"
They cross their staffs as light and dark flames combine into bright orange ones as magical circles and rings fly around them.
"Galaxy Elemental Spatial Murder!", they shout. What kind of insane crude name is that?!

Light and Darkness blows up into flame that swallows the bird as it's beginning to spiral. The two finally shoot an orb of white into it that creates a nuclear explosion.
To our surprise, the bird didn't die from this.
"Mages….You added the murder part…But we haven't killed a single thing with this attack.", Theresa says.
"The Murder part implies that it may be a murder on some part of its body. Worry not, fledgling, the damage will take its toll.", Mages. replies with a cool pose.

I kinda think you're just dumb.
The bird flies towards me, charging up its electricity and plasma to do a full powered volt tackle. It may have been more powerful than even a FusionStar Light Slash, but with this much snow, it won't overpower me. I fly straight down at it whilst gathering light and snow into my blade. The white and purple lights expand as we clash, I can't quite hurt the bird, but it isn't pushing me back either. Our clash ends with us pushed to the side.

Now it does another new attack. The upper body of the bird pops out of the back of the jet, it then roared which stuns all of us. The next moment, it traps up in this orb of lightning as it roars without stop. I…I can't move. What is this…? All the lightning is numbing me. I slowly go down as I can't even manage my flight. It doesn't hurt me at all, but I can't move. I look at the others. They do whine in pain, but I don't see any wounds.

This must be a desperation attack at low health, it's mean to trap us and kill us slowly.
No one can move, even though Evo came with a machine that resisted electricity, it can't move anything, she is even hit through the invisible energy barrier she had put around her cockpit. I materialize the lightning absorbing sword, this does stop the lightning. The heat of the lightning sphere melts all the snow that touches it.

I try to fly towards the bird, but it can just stop roaring for a bit to shoot a beam at me, even with my sword, the lightning is too overwhelming to make any wild movement, I might just get hit in the back or side. So I take the hit of the beam and figure to hit it with a ranged attack. "White Lightning!", I fuse the absorbed lightning with my other sword turned to light. But it would seem the roaring isn't to power up the lightning sphere, but to create a barrier that stops attacks. It may do a little damage still, but I can't damage it enough to make it stop.

Darn it…I can't hold on my longer, my left arm is getting numb.
I slowly get closer to the ground. I can only think to live out this attack. Everyone else may get knocked out, but I will win the war of attrition and fight it alone later.
"Yo. Need a hand?!", I hear a voice from the distance.
In the next second, Acclaim dives in from above, he shouts, "EXE Drive Skill, Infinite Slash!" The electricity is getting blocked by something whilst Acclaim surges through the orb, cutting the Thunderbird many times in quick succession.

"Tornado Sword!", within his attack he changes his sword into a rainbow one as he does one uppercut before throwing it down at the thunderbird, removing the orb and dealing plenty of damage. He lands, and with a snap of his fingers, a thousand visible cuts appear in the air that damage the bird. Falcom, Cave, MAGES. and 5PB. look at him with wide open eyes.
"That's Noire's technique.", Falcom says.
"How is it possible for him to know such a skill?", Cave asks.

The thunderbird tries to escape before we can fully move, but it is knocked back by a surprise attack from Dragonette's, "Arashi Daigeki" The Thunderbird fall down in front of Acclaim, Dragonette landing next to it.
"As we discussed.", Acclaim says.
"Let's go!", Dragonette replies with a smile.
"Couple EXE Drive Skill!", they both shout.
They're not using our bars. They haven't partied up with us, allowing themselves to use their own first! Acclaim must've thought of that…Or maybe not…Hm.

They probably had some plan before going in here regardless.
They both throw Naginatas at the bird spun by wind magic turning into buzz saws of wind. The two attacks go through the bird many times, knocking it all over the place, with Acclaim and Dragonette punching it with Tornado Armor applied to them into another naginata or towards each other's fist like a pin-pong ball. At some point the two closed in on it and are beating on it from opposite side, their punches digging into the bird at rapid speed. Both kick the bird away with a spin kick.

Dragonette controls both wind saucers and flings them into the bird from opposing sides, their clash creating a tornado that sends the bird flying upwards, with Acclaim immediately having used Light Step to get above the bird, knocking it back down with a CombinationStar Light Slash. With the bird on the ground, the two took some distance.
"Ultra Kill…", Acclaim says as his right hand is spinning like a drill with flames around it, thrusters activate from his back and he leaves a trail of blazing light from under his feet.

Dragonette's fist is flowing with wind, winds behind her swirl around about to burst behind her as she says, "Ultra Violence…" The two launch themselves off towards the bird. Getting in between their arms, they both shout, "Combustion Lariat!" After having the bird between their right arms, they do a quick movement into a pose in front of it, Dragonette lowering herself with the right leg stretched and her left hand on the ground her being almost on top of it, Acclaim does a more composed pose, but still a cool one. The bird just explodes behind them.

The Thunderbird roars as it gets back into the air.
"Claimer! Sili-San! String him up!", I order as I fly far above the Thunderbird.
Evo had flown near the bird already, her jet engines are just below the speed of sound as well. She misses her punch, her magnetism not working. Although, she definitely planned to barely miss, the bird not needing to move away from her, she was able to do a secret special attack coming from the mecha's back as it unloads an array of special bombs.
"Supersonic Tactical Nuke!", Evo shouts, the bombs synced with one of her fuel sources, a great explosion is the result with her vanishing for she moved back to the ground at Mach 3.

Acclaim sent himself into the air, shooting out string he connects with Sili-san below, the two of them entangling the ship. Acclaim stays in the air with some kind of jet-pack thrust out of his back, probably something he copied. The two hold onto the threads as hard as they could. The plane struggles, but it's getting overwhelmed by Theresa's and MAGES.'s constant barrage of summoned icicles above it. Cave shoots it with Full Burst Option, Evo bombards it with her explosive rounds, 5PB. attacks it with magic she makes through her guitar. All the while I collect all the snow summoned within the clouds directly above me.

I am going to finish it with this one final attack. Eventually, the whole sky turns white as the clouds transform with magic. It all gets absorbed in my two swords fused together. At high speed, I go down on the entangled Thunderbird, I shout, "ShootingStar Helios Burst!" With my incoming swing of this blade, it turns into a burst of light large enough to overtake this entire area and a bit of the sea in the distance. The thunderbird disintegrates almost instantly.
When the light finally fades, I hover down breathing heavily. This form uses up so much share energy it even causes me to use more SP than I need.

I revert back. I think I need a few hours before I can transform again. I drop on my knees. But I am not happy. I sense Evo is not in her cockpit. Everyone is too hyped to notice, they all cheer at the monster gone. They come to me, worried, but smiling regardless.
"We…We're not…We're not save yet!", When I finally am able to say that, they turn around to see the treasure about to be snatched by some guy in a mechanical suit.
Sili-san and Acclaim tried to snatch it back with string, but the string gets burned by magenta flames that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

The guy in the suit isn't too far, everyone gets ready to take their weapon back out and fight, but immediately halt when hearing, "I would not fight if I were you…Unless you don't care about what happens to this shrimp."
"Evo…", once I said her name, everyone looked at the cockpit and back at the guy with the suit. Now a woman with fox ears and nine-tails stands next to him, holding Evo up with her left arm and pointing her sharp claws at her throat.

I finally feel strength returning to me as I slowly get up. We look stunned at the two villains standing on top of a large black blown up of a temple.
"You…You are Dream, aren't you?!", Dragonette's angry question gets the non-Phantom Crusaders shocked. They only know her as a young idol with fox ears and a single tail.
Before us stands a woman who looks around thirty with nine tails.
"My my…To be recognized in this form…You speak with such vitriol, yet I don't even know you…Or do I…?", she gives an evil smile at the end of her sentence.

"You are the reason the Ninja War happened!", Dragonette shouts, this conversation even more so gets everyone not part of my team twisted.
Except for Falcom of course, she already knew and speaks up, "The Ninja War happened because of you corrupting the Master of Ninja, Tenchu. You work for Justit Info, but I still don't understand why someone as famous as you would resort to crime!"
Falcom didn't just ask a question, that sentence gave a bit more context for the others to understand.

"Um…", 5PB. shyly tries to inject herself in this conversation, then she says, "I have collaborated with Miss Dream…And uh…Yeah, she looked different then, too, but I found it weird. Because, as far as I know, she has been in this industry years before me. She wasn't as popular when we collabed…"
"And that all changed…", my sentence is finished by Evo who used to work for SCJP, "four to five years ago…"
She gives us a soft laugh, she then look at her ally and nods to him. Signaling him to leave most likely, he flew away.

"I am impressed with your knowledge. And this group is quite problematic for me. Let me clear up one misunderstanding. I do not WORK for Justit Info BV…I AM Justit Info BV. I am the CEO. Of course, the CEO was different five years ago, but he was an unknowing puppet. Whilst he thought we only brought the real news, we slipped in misinformation or classified information in the background. SCJP were separate organizations with good intentions, all bought out by Avenir with people like me already planted to take over.", Dream tells us.

She looks over at 5PB. and says, "As for my age…Well…I was a normal girl. The spirit of the nine tails has fused with my soul, saving the age of my young self in time to transform to, with my true form showing my real age. But I won't age further, for my compatibility with this being was perfect, our personality and logical thinking matched 100%. Even if my former personality was different, it was destiny to turn into who I am even without the spirit."
"I will return her to you…But I want the treasure you have taken from Lowee. Hand it over, and I will give her to you save and sound.", she tells us.

We all give her grimy looks.
"Oh please, I am only trading her for ONE treasure knowing you have two, I doubt that is so unreasonable.", she says.
I hear everyone agreeing that we should give the treasure to her. I will do so, but I also know, this isn't the only treasure I have lost.
"Throw her at me at the same time as I throw it at you.", I say as I bring out the treasure.
"Fair is fair. I agree to this deal.", she replies. We look at each other, make some fake outs with our hands. Then I throw the treasure in sync with her throwing Evo to us.

I thought of catching the Treasure and Evo in mid-air with Light Step, but the moment I bent my knees, I see her aim the palm of her hand at Evo while staring at me with malicious intent. When I straightened my back, she stopped showing hostility.
We catch Evo and bring her to her mecha, in the meantime, Dream is fascinated with the treasure she has caught.
"Even if you have that one, we will come back and collect all of them!", Dragonette shouted.

"Wrong…", I said, looking down. She looks too happy. She planned something.
My fears are confirmed when she looks at me with curiosity.
"The truth is…You already stole the Mole's treasure, didn't you?", I spoke.
"Oh my…I do indeed have it on hand.", Dream says, pulling out a second treasure.
"What? But that's impossible! It was within her inventory!", Sili-san shouts.
I look in my inventory and pull out a rock and say, "As I thought…"

"You see, We have devolved this microscopic machine that can dig inside and hide into everything. It even is able to store about five items. Of course we can only manually put it in its inventory, but what matters is that yours truly has given it a ninja scroll.", Dream tell us.
"You bitch! How dare you use our scrolls!", Dragonette once again shouts in rage.
"I see, you really are a ninja…Maybe even a princess?", Dream speaks in a taunting matter, looking at Dragonette with evil eyes.

"Alas, I had very little left. But I thought this was the perfect usage. With the scroll, I could teleport any living thing. Machines can be energized with life energy and be considered life, as such, I was able to switch the machine with the treasure it was inside of and swap it with a rock.", Dream explains.
Some throw insults at her, some discuss the situation with each other. But silence falls in the end as we stare each other down.
"You don't think we're letting you get away, right?", Sili-san asks.

"That's right. The deal is over, and we can fight you now that your hostage is gone!", Falcom says, pulling out her sword. Everyone is raring to go, actually. Even more so than me.
"I see…Well, I have little intention in letting you run amok with my secrets!", Dream says. She spreads out her nine-tails, the tips and her eyes glowing an eerie magenta color as everything darkens around her. One flame appears after another until every tip of her tail has been set aflame, then she whips her tails forward shouting, "Spirit Fire!"
The nine flames she shoots out are small, so we thought it but a basic beginner attack.

We spread out, those like me who used a movement technique to gain a lot of distance didn't have to dodge the flames, but those that do have to actively elude it are surprised when it blows up when contacting with anything, almost knocking them down. 5PB. was directly hit. MAGES. had a barrier, so she took less damage. 5PB. was actually down, so Mages. spares some SP to use "Chaos Rebirth" to bring her back up.

The fires that missed curved back to home in on people like me. As I am trying to flee from it, I sense Eva's mecha jumping through the flame that was shot at her. Her Mecha must have resistance to fire. She tries to punch Dream, but she easily ducks under the fist and gracefully dances around the machine. Evo drops a bunch of bombs around her that would ideally catch Dream within the explosion, but not only does Dream escape, the flame emitted from the grenade is put out. Evo shoots a bunch of solid rounds, anti-tank shells and rockets, but just by looking at them with glowing eyes, they catch fire and explode in mid-air.

The next thing Evo did was generating electricity between her hands, zapping Dream with it, all she could do was curl her tails around herself to shield her, but it hurts her regardless.
For a few seconds, she frowned. Evo speeds herself up with her jet engines, Dream putting in quite an effort to dodge her machine's fluent movements as she twists and turns its hips to do kicks, but it feels like Dream is gliding around the kinetic energy put out by Evo's attack, dancing around her like a leave before gaining distance.

"Your machine is impressive…But you are quite the nuisance.", Dream says after jumping away from her. She spreads out her tails, her lowest right tail flares up, the tip glowing purple. A purple flame ignites from it as she says, "First Flame…Ichi Fokusu Fiya!" Afterwards, she opened her mouth wide enough to make it look like her jaw dislocated before she spat light purple fire out of her mouth, overwhelming Eva, but not doing much in damage. When she stopped, she just gave her a smile. Evo was prepared to move forward, but unexpectedly, she is sent ablaze.

I notice Dream's eyes glowing a magenta color and figure she can set things aflame with her eyes alone, even if they are behind a barrier. I see her ear twitch as I Light Stepped towards her, she holds her right hand out and shouts, "Fokusu Fiya!" I shield myself as a magenta flame from her hand pushes me back onto the ground doing okay damage to me. I see she can shoot flames magically, not just from her mouth, it was a trick. Even so, I easily move around her with Light Step, she may have avoided my first sword slash, but I easily trip her over with a low sweep before kicking her up in the sky. With no way to counter, I jumped above her and knocked her into the lower ground where the rest of the party was. She dodges a beam from Cave and hops around bursts of magic cast by Theresa and MAGES.

Then, Falcom appears close to her, ready to strike her, Dream barely avoids it, in fact, instead of dancing around the kinetic energy Falcom's swing unleashes a heavy wind that blew Dream back a bit, allowing Falcom to kick her away in the gut. I jump after her, ready to pin her down. Cave, Sili-San, Dragonette and Acclaim following me with Theresa and Mages. ready to cast their spells. But then, she spreads her tails, and alongside the first tail emitting a light purple flame, the tail right next to it now has its tip glows light purple too.

"Second Flame.", she says. In an instant, she disappeared within flames that disparages in the air with the words, "Niterepouto Moegara" The next second, she appeared behind Theresa out of flames that just showed up from thin air.
It was a teleportation. She gained the power to teleport. Theresa, of course, can do so as well. Theresa does a short teleport behind Dream, causing Dream to miss her flaming claw swipe. But it seems Dream isn't limited with her teleportation unlike Theresa, for she teleports away the moment Theresa tries to counter-attack with Holy Light Beam, missing her entirely.

She reappears elsewhere, I can predict where she will teleport and already headed over, but just too late to hit her, I see my sword cut the left-over flames instead. I use Light Step to follow her, which even then, she manages to just avoid before teleporting away again. Still, we are a group, and we work together. Sili-san and Acclaim have already set up a catapult with strings flinging many projectiles at her whilst pretty well hidden, it was when she get hit by them that she burned the string with her eyes.

At that moment, Dragonette send Dream flying by ramming into her like a drill of wind, however, once she follows it up with an air slash, Dream teleports again. The second she reappeared, she says, "Spirit Fire!", shooting nine magenta flames at us again. Before we even have to deal with them, Cave runs past them without them blowing up at all, surprising even Dream as she approaches swiftly. I think Cave also boosted her agility with some type of skill. All of us are dealing with the fire attacks while Cave's blade is making shallow cuts in Dream, only missing her enough to not deal any real damage to her.

Dream had a look of fear for the first time, finally deciding to teleport.
"Malicious Heaven!", Cave had predicted it and used her wind attack aimed at Dream as she had teleported in the air to avoid all of us, instead, a tornado knocks her over. She drops to the ground and is hit by light magic from MAGES. and entombed by ice magic when Theresa shouts, "Ice Coffin!" We thought we had her, but she smiles again, as the ice around slowly melts. "Silly girl.", she says, a huge flame coming forth from her, it all disappearing within a few seconds.

"Ice attacks have no effect on her.", Evo says out loud.
"You people are so troublesome. I'm fragile, unlike those monsters you just fought. Don't you know to go easy on a lady?", she mocks us.
We point our weapons at her. Now she spreads out her tails again and says, "I see…I suppose I am in company of other ladies…Well then…Third Flame.", now a third tail is glowing light purple from the tip, three flames shoot out as she says, "Sanchie."

She just teleports again. I was thinking she'd do something new. She first appears behind 5PB., knowing she wouldn't be able to dodge. She gets knocked out by multiple flaming attacks before we could get to her. She teleports next to Falcom, forcing her in defensive positions whilst setting the incoming Dragonette aflame with her eyes. Without even looking, she teleports away as Cave tried to approach her, she sends nine fireballs Cave's way, but knowing Cave would dodge them, she simply blew them up to create a temporary wall of fire to stop Cave's movement. She knew exactly how to align them so Cave wouldn't squeeze through a gap or easily walk around.

Acclaim used Stealth Speed to sneak behind her, but she teleports like she knew he was coming, then she finds the hidden Sili-San who she throws against Acclaim and sets ablaze with "Fokusu Fiya!" She teleports away from MAGES. and Theresa's explosion magics, appearing behind them and aiming a palm at each of them. With another round of Fokusu Fire, she catches them in her flamethrowers. Their barriers are protecting them this time. But then she looks at MAGES. with her eyes to set her on fire. If she goes down, we lose a reviver.

Knowing this, Theresa teleports behind Dream.
"Again. But little girl…", Dream says before teleporting behind her and stating, "Your spell has a cooldown, doesn't it? Is it wise to challenge me?" She swipes her claw at Theresa, but she already made a teleportation circle where she came from, and prepared multiple lightning circles.
"Tenchi Raigeki!", Theresa shouts, shocking Dream who could not teleport away in time.
After she's done shouting, I jump in at her shooting a small Light Slash at her.

She teleports away, of course, I know exactly where she ends up and follow her. Her flaming claw clashes with my sword of light. After a bit of pushing, her flames were getting overtaken by light, I see her hand burning instead. She holds her hand in pain as she jumps back, then she teleports again when I tried to leap into her doing another swing.
She called Theresa a little girl even though she shouldn't be able to make out her identity. And she seemingly sees everything coming. This third flame must be a sixth sense
"How annoying…Do you also have a sixth sense? …I can't have that.", Dream says.

Her frown reverses as she states, "Fourth Flame!", expanding her tails once more. I tried to go in and stop her, but a ring of fire stops me before it pillars upwards to the sky and beyond. All she said was, "Shiwana" I think of hitting it with my sword, I sense some others reaching the flaming pillar, but Dream warns, "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Whoever attacks it may free their friend, but will get insta-knocked out. That includes the person inside, if she were to attack the flame pillar, it would knock her out or kill her."

But the fact she only does it once means there is a limit. I sense her fourth tail is still flaming. Normally the tails being aflame means she's actively using that ability, but otherwise, the tips of the activated tails only glow purple.
"Guys, I am reading her energies. She's increasing in heat throughout the battle and it accelerates the more moves she does and damage she takes. If she reaches the ninth-tail, I imagine she'll unleash a devastating attack.", Evo says.

Falcom is helping MAGES. up. "Are you okay? Can you recover 5PB.?", she asks.
"The power of the gods have run out from within me.", MAGES. says.
That's right, most of us have spent our SP fighting the Thunderbird. We already used our SP chargers before that fight even happened. The only two people left at full strength are…
Acclaim and Dragonette walk up front.
"Leave her to us.", Dragonette says.
"It is by my estimate that we are the ones most capable of handling her. Besides the brilliantly put together mecha, of course.", Acclaim says.

"If you think so, than be my guest.", Dream says before launching nine flames again.
This time, they are stopped by howling winds shot by Dragonette. Acclaim Runs around the exploding nine flames with Light Step, forcing Dream into another Teleport, she stays in the air this time. Acclaim shoots missiles and cannon balls at her, which she can explode with her eyes, I suppose it is a cover to be able to reach her with Light Step without her setting him on fire. She teleports away, onto land once more, only to get cut my air slashes from Dragonette.

"Tailwind!", Dragonette sets up a tail wind that should slow Dream and speed up the party.
"Set up whatever wind you like. It won't put out my fire…", Dream says before shouting, "Fokusu Fiya!", shooting it from her mouth, except Dragonette just takes the hit. Her naginata absorbing a large portion of the damage. Using the captured flame element, she sends herself flying with an explosion towards a dumbstruck Dream, with one thrust, she made Dream crash into a wall, though, the flames that come from her thrust didn't hurt Dream at all, surely, the physical force itself must've done something.

From the hole in the wall, Dream teleports in front of Dragonette ready to thrust her claws into her, only to immediately move away to avoid being hit by the medium sized Light Slash Acclaim fired off from above. She appears behind him, spreads out her tails to stick their points all against him. "Death Flame.", she says before a Magenta flame fills the sky. Acclaim is not down yet, but I can see it hurt him greatly as he falls down. In the meantime, Evo has appeared behind Dream with her speedy thrusters.

But as is usual, Dream teleports away from her fist, this time, Evo is tracking her with calculations and radars. Dream appeared on the ground this time, where Cave was quick to chase her around, she had no issue weaving and dancing around her sword, though Cave came close to hitting her. But then, Acclaim came for her with Light, and she was quick to Teleport back into the air, where Evo had prepared to zap her with lightning successfully. Evo chases after her, missing her punch as Dream teleports away, but she quickly shoots a spiraling first beam behind herself.

Dream was nearly hit, she pushed her back down to have the beam barely pass over her. She does get hit by multiple weaker shots from the party before landing. She did a few mid-air back rolls before she got on her feet, then she spread out her tails again.
"Fifth Flame!", she says with another tail lighting up. "Gotadayou!", she says.
As everyone runs her way, she creates on large purple ball of fire that she slowly shoots at the party. Everyone stood still ready to dodge it, but it moved bewilderingly slow.

They run around it or fly over it, now the fire ball changed course to the rest. Dream teleports across the party dodging their many attacks until they had no room to run from this otherwise slow moving ball. Once touched, the ball sets them aflame and does an insane amount of damage.
"Expand.", Dream says, the ball spreads out into a few dozen quick flaming balls that home in on people.

"Tear!", while everyone is dodging fire balls, Falcom attempts to heal herself.
Dream is just floating up with flames surrounding her.
"Witness my power. I can make flames with mass and make it float. I can make myself float as well! Watch this!", she says as she makes multiple flaming balls.
"Eternal flame Parade!", she shouts, sending flaming balls at the party that, while not moving fast, stay on the field indefinitely.

Even so, Evo's mecha is immune to flames and can fly. She gets close to Dream, causing Dream to fly away from her. Evo shoots her in the back with lead and rockets.
"Foolish child…", Dream says with a smile, she looks at the projectiles to set them ablaze, but will soon realize it was a distraction. Evo flew besides her, ready to punch her with the spiral beam attack. She knocks Dream towards Acclaim who had fully charged up his sword with light.

"UnionStar Light Slash!", Acclaim shouts, that is when Dream teleports away from large slash that overtakes the sky. Why did she not teleport earlier?
What's stranger is that she teleported close to enemies without attacking them. She can sense them, so why that decision. She barely dodges an uppercut from Falcom who had laid low to sneak up on her, maybe not knowing of her sixth sense.
Either way, Falcom manages to cut her cheek, despite one of the flaming balls reaching her.

Set ablaze, Falcom stands before Dream whose prior raging face turns into snickering.
"That is what you deserve, did you really think it was a good idea to attack me with all this fire?", she said, only to be surprised Falcom perseveres.
Falcom was not only faster, determined to hit Dream, she unleashes her final SP skill, "Demon Flame Cut!", stabbing Dream a few times within a single instant, than smacking her through a wall with a final thrust.

Falcom gets down on one knee holding herself up with her blade, she's close to being incapacitated.
Dream gets back up, she looks wounded now. But then, she spreads her tails.
"Sixth Flame. Suzaku no Mutsu Hono, Saisei.", she says. Flames are healing the cut on her cheek.
"An Idol like me must not sustain wounds.", she says. Evo spends no time and charges at her.
"Fokusu Fiya!", Dream uses that and a bunch of other fire attacks, but it just doesn't stop Evo.
"Shiwana!", she lets go of my entrapment to trap Evo in a pillar of flame. Even with her resistance to fire, I bet these flames would be able to knock her out.

Evo is smart, so she isn't going to try and break out.
I take no time and immediately get close to Dream with Light Step, attempting to cut her with my blade bustling with light. She teleports away, and does so again when it is Acclaim trying to catch her. She seems to be waiting out for her seventh flame to come around, perhaps hoping one of the floating fire balls will get us.

However, she somehow didn't see Dragonette waiting for her to get close. The instant she teleported next to Dragonetta, she gets hit by a spin slash from her as Dragonette shouts, "Did you forget about me?!"
Dream is knocked over and looks at Dragonette with wide open eyes. Dream teleports out of the way of a thrown Naginata, but the moment she appeared again, she gets pummeled by Dragonette's many punches. Dream can't dance around her, the winds are completely in Dragonette's control.

Eventually, Dream curls her tails around Dragonette and burns her into a dark color shouting, "Death Flame!"
"Regular ninja techniques shouldn't allow you to hide from me.", Dream says as Dragonette is about to drop on the ground.
Dragonette gave one rough but confident smile as she says, "You sense us through body heat, right? Hehe…Cheap trick.", before dropping on the ground. She's still breathing and her eyes are open.
"Little girls should know when to go to sleep.", Dream says, about to finish Dragonette off, only to be forced into evasive maneuvers by both our mages and Acclaim.

I see. I noticed Dragonette's body heat was lower. She was using winds to hide her body heat, maybe even freezing herself with cold wind.
Now that I get that, I should stop using Light magic that may increase my body temperature, as most light is pretty warm. My body is dead, so it should not have a heat signature. Dream is mostly busy dealing with Acclaim and Dragonette, of which the latter got healed by Acclaim copying Evo's healing needle. When she was the furthest from them, I snuck up behind her and slash her with my sword, knocking her into Dragonette who kicked her into the sky. Acclaim intended to finish her with Light Slash, but she teleports elsewhere.

On top of a tori gate she sat, seemingly disrespectful. He tails bounced on and off the top of the gate, she looks at us saying, "Is this really necessary? This will end up with the treasures being handed over to Avenir anyway. Don't you realize? And the world missing an idol like me would be just disastrous.", Dream says.
"Bargaining now, are we? Whatever happens, we plan to win! Hot or cute girls are not going to persuade me! I have a younger sister!", Sili-san says, trying to sound cool.
Dream sneered at him and says, "Oh, I see, you prefer your little sister."

One awkward pause with Sili-san replying confused, "Huh?", later.
"He raised his little sister mostly by himself so he isn't easily seduced by woman, is what he meant, I think.", Dragonette gives him a nice save.
"Wow, never expected you to be so understanding.", Sili-san replies.
"I always give my friends a chance to clarify.", Dragonette says.
"Anyway, if you propose we let you go so you let us live in peace after succeeding in whatever plan, we would like to refuse.", Cave says.

"Miss Dream, an Idol can't be perfect off the stage, but we should still be someone people can love. I won't let you get away with this!", 5PB. tells her.
"Ah…When did you wake up? …Naturally recovering in the middle of battle? But you are out of SP and health…All of you are going to prepare your next attack to finish me before I fully regenerate, I see…I see…Well then, suit yourselves.", she talks whilst getting up on her feet. Her tails spread, a new one flaring up with the words, "Seventh Flame!

"Nana Hi no Kuukan", she says, our entire area being surrounded by a dome of flames. Inside we are sweating from the heat.
"No more tricks of hiding body heat. No more Skills. Your fate has been sealed.", she tells us before jumping down.
She's right, I can feel we are locked out of using our skills. Even so, I see Evo has been released from her flame prison. Dream should be capable of using SP, but can't use her other tail techniques.

"Spirit fire!", she shouts, shooting another nine fire balls our way. This time, Evo charges through knowing it does no damage to her.
Dream's smirk twitches for a split second, she jumps over a downwards punch, her hand on the arm, she sits atop Evo with her tails curled. "Death Flame", she says, burning Evo till she's down. We know we can't bring back people now, so all of us charged in to save her.

Sili-san pulled Dream towards him with string before it was burned down, still having momentum, Dream was falling towards Sili-san as he thrusts his sword. In a flowing motion, Dream pushes the flat side of the blade so the sword passes her side.
She raises her other hand, a twitch of the fingers sets it ablaze with magenta flames. But instead of thrusting it into Sili-san, she throws her hand back to block a sword slash from Falcom. Cave ran to her left and tries to cut her, so Dream retreats back having to dodge both Falcom and Caves slashes.

Cave manages to make Dream jump further away with a shot from her hands, that is when Acclaim came in to attempt a strike. Dream stops his strike with one set of claws and tries hurting him with the other set of claws, but Acclaim copies her claws and mirrors her instead, even if it hurts him due to lacking fire resistance, he was able to hold on to headbutt Dream. Dream looks ticked off and immediately makes the party run shooting nine fire balls at them.

She immediately had to jump, Mages and Theresa can still fire non-SP consuming magic at her. With her agility, she runs towards the two evading the barrage of magical spells. Before she could do anything, I run between them and clash with her claws. We dance back and forth, but our agility is equal. Even if she uses fire magic, I can dodge that and get to her. My explosion magic doesn't cost SP and allows me to do a sudden motion to knock her back with a slash.

I see her pupils move to the corner of her eyes. She's eying 5PB.
"A good person behind the scenes, huh? You think Idols have to put up with being good on AND off stage?", Dream murmurs. She runs over to 5PB. with an evil grin shouting, "We'll see what your fans think once I scar your face!"
5PB. was too weak to even move. All of us are fearing the worst. I can's quite get to her in time, as I see Dream about to thrust her flaming claws into her.

To my surprise, Falcom shows up from behind 5PB.
Dream was shocked of course, but everyone else got no less mortified.
"Thank you for that last exploding flame!", Falcom says before smashing Dream with her blade, pushing through her claws.
Dream hits her with fire spells and flaming eyes, but Falcom marches through, slashing her once more.

Once Dream backs off, Falcom began to slow down, the wounds taking its toll.
Still looking panicked, Dream turns around to see me about to jump onto her.
She curls her tails around me and shouts, "Death Fire!", setting me ablaze. It certainly hurts, and I can feel my body is getting damaged badly. But I grit my teeth and pulled my arms back a little further to motivate me in finishing this strike. Her eyes even wider, Dream gaps as I push through and hit her with a clean vertical cut.

"How could you…". Dream says, shooting more fire at me, but I only reply, "You will never understand, how much our determination can push through any pain!"
I run through more flames, Dream barely avoiding it. I duck under one flaming claw and have her dodge a low sweep by jumping over it, but that was just a set up to knock her back with a spin-slash.

Dream composes herself and says, "It may be so…But my wounds heal, and yours do not."
She's not wrong, she is gaining new wounds and we may do more damage than she's regenerating, a few past inflicted wounds on her have disappeared regardless, like the thrust attack Falcom did into her gut a while ago.
"Without SP, you can't finish me.", she says. It was then that she suddenly got hit by a beam.
"Where did that come from?!", Sili-san shouts.
It somehow looked familiar but…

From the air, a hole is made through the dome as Dream gets hit by a Fuuton Spell.
Then she barely dodges spikes of earth shooting from below her, which was a feint for the real attack, as Marvelous digs from under her and kicks her into some rubble.
"You guys, need some help?", Kagura was on top of a temple leaning on one of her knees, looking at us with a playful expression. Her newly black poncho waving in the wind.
Marvelous herself has a white robe for this desert trip.

"Marvy? Then…Are Broccoli and Cyberconnect…?", Falcom struggles to speak, so Marvelous quicky tells her, "The other two are waiting outside.
"Insolent Ninja. What difference will you make!", Dream shouts, but even with her sixth Sense, Kagura manages to sneak up behind her.
"Shut it old bag!", Kagura shouts knocking dream towards Marvelous. Marvelous attempts to get a hit in, but Dream regains her sense of evasion. The two rush in on her as Kagura shouts, "You have a lot of nerve to speak to us after what you did!".
"Yeah! We haven't forgiven you for the Ninja War!", Marvelous adds.

The two of them overwhelm Dream and push her away from us.
"How unfortunate. I had hoped my opponents would run out of SP.", Dream states after reaching the roof of a temple.
"Going up so high to look down on us won't help you, you know?", Kagura mocks her.
"Aren't you running out of HP as well?", Dragonette asks Dream with an equally smug face.
Dream glares at Dragonette unamused.
"I see.", she replies, her tone more sinister.

"The ending will come…". Dream says before spreading her tails.
"Eight Flame.", saying this makes the flame dome disappear.
"Happo Bakemono.", she shouts as her flames turn into a giant dense flaming fox with eight tails.
"Did she just activate her stand or what?!", Sili-san shouts.
This purple flaming fox is of a size larger than any of the monsters we fought, a true giant.
We also now know her tails activating cost her no SP, because she must've run out otherwise.

Either way, our attacks have no effect on it as it just runs through and slams us across the field. I try to hit it with my sword of light not using much SP, but I got sealed by her fourth flame again. Marvelous thinks to dig under the monster and gets next to Dream again, followed by Kagura and Dragonette. But the ninjas got surprised when she smirks and responds, "My lovely ninja are so easy to trick." Then she swaps herself with the giant fox. Dragonette gets hit the hardest by its flames whilst Marvelous and Kagura manages to at least slightly mess with its shape.

"Even our flame control has no effect?", Kagura asks.
"Kagura, we should use our Flames!", Marvelous tells her, but immediately the giant fox switches places again, the others thought to attack Dream whilst she teleported between them. She preferred the ninja she is able to contest with than the many fighters below, the large flaming fox knocking them all away.
"I won't let you use any flame powers.", Dream says, looking at the two with her eyes to burn them.
"This may not kill anything above level 10, but it will stop you in place.", Dream says.

She senses Theressa above her from the rear after using a teleportation magic, now she shoots a beam down at her shouting, "Holy Light Beam!"
Dream teleports behind her shouting, "Nice attempt, but you can only teleport once. I thought you smarter than make yourself vulnerable in the air!" Then, she ends up clawing at wind, for Theresa teleported again. She used a large magical circle to teleport, still having her short distance teleport free which she then uses to blast Dream onto the ground with light. Dream made the giant fox jump up to Theresa, but Theresa ends up teleporting back to a magical circle she had prepared.

Dream is looking far more roughed up than one would expect.
Acclaim stops a punch from the giant flaming fox with a fist of light, causing it to bounce back. Then, with a Light Slash, he cuts the flaming fox in two. The party comes together. My flame prison is gone too for some reason. We look around, Dream has been teleporting all over the place, but her SP is so low that she can't use a powerful enough ranged attack.

Then she stops in front of us.
"It is done…Your fates are sealed. Nine Tails, Nine Flames.", she says spreading her tails, all of them glowing and flaming.
"EXE Drive Skill. Kyuubi Yakedo.", she shouts. Under us appears a purple magical circle that is on fire. In the meantime, she creates a new giant flaming fox with nine tails and more detailed armor around its main body.

It spins in the air before launching itself at us. It goes through us, then in the air as it spins and turns into a yin-yang sign of flames. Finally it comes down at us and makes purple fires rise into the sky.
Sili-San had us up in string beforehand, and so did Acclaim for some reason. Evo gave me and Theresa some kind of needle.
Falcom, Cave, 5PB., Mages., Dragonette, Marvelous and although reluctant, even Kagura, all of them covered me and Theresa.

The flames do not fade. Dream's smile returns, satisfied with the thought of our defeat.
"I warned you…This is why I don't understand heroes. Why fight? Death is such an avoidable thing."
Her happiness fades however, when Theresa and myself walk from the flames.
"Impossible. If someone survives the initial hit, the flames should keep on burning until they lose consciousness.", Dream says.
"Yeah, I figured it wasn't a normal EXE Drive Skill.", I said.
"Everyone is out because of you…Prepare yourself.", Theresa says, sounding angry, as is rare for her.

"No…What did you do?", she asks us.
"Sili-san used his threads to link us together. Everyone gave their HP to us, with Marvelous and Kagura giving us their flames temporarily to avoid entrapment.", I tell her.
I look straight at her eyes and say, "You see, I figured it out…You are weak to light, aren't you?"
"Our ultimate EXE Drive will put you down.", Theresa says.
"Couple EXE Drive Skill!", the both of us shout.

First, I let my blade flare up with light whilst Theresa enchants my sword with every other element combining them together into one colorful sword of multiple lights as I run forward and drive my blade into Dream as it explodes like firework. Then, Theresa throws her staff in the air making it explodes, raining down elemental attacks continuously whilst I knock Dream into said elements with my lit up fists until eventually smashing her far away.

I use Light Step, and Theresa teleports behind Dream as she was still soaring, then we hold the palms of our right hands close to each other to create a spinning orb of light that we then thrust into Dream shouting, "Luminous Infinity Sphere!", blasting her into some rubble. I recreate my sword and enchant it with light, amplified by Theresa's magic. I throw down my blade shouting, "UnionComet Luminous Slash!" The light of my blade shooting into her creates a pillar of exploding light.

She was underneath some rubble. I doubt she's combat available at this point, even if she survived. I sense Cyberconnect2 and Broccoli rushing over here.
"Wow?! What happened here?!", Cyberconnect2 shouts with her eyes wide open.
"Everyone became grilled chicken, nyu.", Broccoli says unenthusiastically.
Defeating her means the flame is gone now. I think Evo may be conscious. Cybberconnect2 and Broccoli could do some healing. But it takes a while to get everyone restored. Theresa explains to them what happened.

I am weary. I can sense Dream moving her fingers. She finally gets out of the rubble. In pain and out of breath.
"You brats…You brought me to the brink…", she says. Half dead, our party stares her down.
I am ready to slice her, but she spreads her tails once more.
"Zero Flames….", she says, the flames on her tails extinguished.
"Reigen.", she says before vanishing in thin air. I tried getting to her and cutting her, but I miss.

I don't sense her anymore…But…I hear something! I look over and see footsteps in the sand.
She hasn't teleported! I move over to where the footsteps were, but I think she dodged me. I see more footsteps. Everyone else is trying to get to her, but in the end, we can't track her anymore.
"Damn it…After her!", Kagura shouts, but I tell everyone, "No, don't bother."
Kagura looks at me annoyed, but is calmed down by Marvelous.

"Leader, why not?", Theresa asks.
"Doesn't she have the two treasures?", Dragonette asks me.
"Listen. When she said the treasures would be given to Avenir soon…I've had it in mind. Who's to say she didn't already used the ninja scrolls to get them back to her master?"
Everyone is deep in thought now. Marvelous brings up, "There were a few scrolls missing."
"We only know of her using one to steal mine. But if she had multiple, it wouldn't be crazy to think she used it.", I tell them.

"But when did she-", Sili-san tries to ask me a question, but then Cyberconnect2 says, "She wasn't moving immediately after turning invisible!"
She's right, she should've been with her feet in the sand earlier if she only attempted to escape.
While applying care to others, Evo says, "Now I know who took down my 3070X units. She must've burned them up to gain the ability of her tails."
"Then she used this same technique to turn into a ghost undetected by anything.", Evo says, looking at her reflection.

"That's how she snagged you away without me sensing her in the wind.", I say.
"She didn't just turn invisible. She became a spirit in and of itself.", Cave says.
"I suspect she is only capable of doing so once.", Acclaim comments.
"So the treasures are already…", Cave can barely say it.
"Yeah…Avenir has them.", I tell them.

Whilst everyone is contemplating their next action, Evo is tapping away at the computer inside her machine.
"I see!", she shouts, getting everyone's attention, "The treasures have an unique signature. I made a radar when Leader showed me her treasure. They are all located…In the middle?"
"Wait! Isn't that where the Gamindustri Graveyard used to be?!", Marvelous points out.
Theresa looks at me and asks, "Leader. What is the Gamindustri Graveyard?", she asks me.
"As far as I have been informed, a place where the Deity of Sin thrives. A place of pure evil. But it sank after the Goddesses defeated her.", I say.

"Land has been made in that location taking its place after some time. But who would put a base in there?", Marvelous says.
Falcom grunts as she gets back up, "Obviously…Because it is a good hiding spot."
"So the enemy abuses our former ultimate enemy, it is like poetry…", MAGES. says.
"We…We can all agree that they are evil and we must stop them…Right?", 5PB. says.

"The Phantom Crusaders are going, obviously.", I say.
"Hm…This does seem like a mission for ninja, right, Kagura.", Marvelous says.
Kagura shrugs and says, "Ugh…Oh well, do as you please. I came to have a bit of fun, I can't hunt monsters, so I may as well join."
"No objection from me either. We came here to fight them in the first place.", Cave says.
"If they are friends with that woman who hurt my friends, I have no issue fighting.", Cyberconnect2 says.
"Guess I am joining too, nyu.", Broccoli votes in.
"Well, that is that. Our next fight will be against the one holding all treasures.", Falcom says.

Falcom proceeds to hype the party up. With our fists raised in the air, we go back into the desert once more to head to our next destination. The center of Gamindustri.

To Be Continued…